Title: Once Were Warriors
Part: #2
Disclaimer: The Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters are the property of Joss Whedon (creator) FOX and Mutant Enemy. Please direct thanx for character development to them.
Rating: M
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“Buffy?” Spike said as he looked down at her beaten body. She couldn’t answer, she was exhausted. Buffy fell toward Spike who scooped the small vampire up in to his arms and quickly made his way out of the ally.
Spike pushed open his door and moved quickly to the bed in the other room. Since Spike knew he wasn’t going anywhere in a real hurry, he had swallowed his pride and his equally large ego, and took up residence in his sires old home, which had both a power and a fridge and a phone. Spike lay Buffy down gently and moved to the table on which his phone sat. He quickly sorted through the papers on the table, until he found the scrap of paper with Willows pager number on it. All the Scooby’s had pages now, well, all except for Spike, he never did like technology, and it disliked him back in turn. But he figured out how to send messages over the damn things never the less and with minutes of Spike sending the message and him hanging up the receiver his phone began to ring. His was quick to pick it up, so as not to disturb the unconscious Buffy.
“Willow” He answered.
“Yeah Spike, um I’m here, where are you?”
“Well pet, I got a lead on the slayers whereabouts and I’m just following it up now”
“Oh is it a good lead”
“Well if I knew that witch, would I be following it up?”
“Good point, I’d better let you get back to following. Plus I might be able to uncover something from my end”
“Fine, I gotta go”
“Alright cya, and good luck!”
“Yeah, you to witch”
Spike hung up and stared motionless at the phone trying to digest what had just happened.
“Who was that?” Buffy asked weakly from behind him, slouched in the arch, which separated the rooms.
“Slayer, um, well that was the witc… it was Willow!”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I had a lead on your whereabouts and that I was following it up” Spike said gently to her.
“You lied to her?”
“Yeah, you need some time…”
“Thank you” she said her eyes on the floor. Still weak, her legs gave way and she began to topple forward. Spike, with his inhuman speed, caught her limp body before it made contact with the ground. He swung her legs up and again carried her back to his bed.
“Now this time stay!” he commanded.
“But…”
“Stay, I’ll be right back,” Spike commanded again. He could tell that she wasn’t herself. She gave in to him too easily and with out the normal tooth and nail fight that he had to go through to get anything out of her. Spike got up and walked to the near by closet where there were still remnants of his sire, he pulled out a pair of jeans that Buffy had to have left at his place and he fetched one of his red button up shirts out of his draws, then returned to the slayer. The slayer, again she was gone.
“Bloody hell” Spike swore as he started to search his apartment for the way would slayer come vampire. He found her in his bathroom, staring blankly in to the mirror, the empty mirror. She raised her hand up an touched the vacant space where her reflection usually shone back at her, and tears again began flowing freely down her bloody, dirty cheeks. Spike had never seen the slayer cry, she was always so strong, for a while he though she was incapable of shedding even one solitary tear. He’d just been proven wrong. Twice. He didn’t know what to do, he wasn’t use to this, this was one of the few times he wished he had his sire here to advise him. He put the clothes down and started to move up behind her shaking form. Although Buffy couldn’t see him, she could feel him and was beginning to grow accustom to her new powers.
“She’s gone,” Buffy said quietly.
“Wha’?” Spike said placing a hand on her shoulder.
“She dead, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she’s dead”
“Come on now, its not like that slayer”
“DON’T CALL ME THAT,” Buffy hissed as she spun to face him with her tear filled eyes. “SHES DEAD, THE SLAYER IS DEAD AND NOW I’M JUST A PATHETIC THING, A MONSTER, A DEMON” she continued as she began to beat on Spike’s chest. “I’M EVIL, I’M EVIL… I’m evil,” she said fully breaking down.
“THAT”S NOT BLOODY TRUE” Spike yelled at her. Shocked at him raising his voice at her she stoped and there was silence. Spike grabbed Buffy just below her shoulders, hard enough to brose and shock her so her eyes met his. “That’s not true,” he said in a quieter voice, still holding her tight. “Do you know why vampires don’t turn slayers? Have you ever wondered why they kill girls and occasionally, if they live that long, women, when they would possibly make the strongest children ever to be? Do you know?” he asked. Buffy shock her head. “Well let me tell you. When a slayer is turned, her soul is anchored to her. The demon cant move in to her body, so she gets all of the powers and weaknesses associated with being a vampire, but she stays pure, her soul is intact she is not evil, in fact she is the complete opposite.” Buffy continued to stare up at him, in to his gentile human eyes, and her composure again crumbled. She broke down again, this time instead of hitting Spike’s chest; she buried her head in it and began to sob uncontrollably against him. He’d wanted to hold her for a very long time, but until now she was like sunlight to him, if he got to close, she burnt him. But this time was different, this time he put his strong arms around her, and she wasn’t disgusted by him and she didn’t pull away. She sunk in to him and let him be her strength. For the first time in a very long time, the slayer was able to show her vulnerability, and to Spike of all people. Who would have ever thought?
For a third time, Spike picked up the slayer and lay her down and she cried herself to sleep. The perfect opportunity for Spike to survey her wounds. The slayer died yes, but not without a fight. They had to chain her down, he knew this from her raw wrists and ankles. Even her slayer healing coupled with her new vampiric powers couldn’t disguise how badly savaged her body was. Spike did what he could, he cleaned her wounds and the dirt and blood off her face and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. Then he watched her sleep, and tried to decide what his next actions should be. Should he tell the watcher, or Joyce, or the witch or god even the poof. He didn’t know what to do or how to handle the situation. So he watched her sleep and tried to gather his thoughts but to no avail. It was quite some hours after that Buffy re-awoke.
“S-spike” she said quietly.
“Yeah pet, I’m here” Spike replied.
“I feel sick” Buffy stated.
“Sick to your stomach?”
“Yeah, I didn’t think vampires were mean to get sick”
“Your not sick luv”
“Right, tell that to my stomach”
“Your body is tell in you that you need to feed, is all”
“Will it feel this bad every time I get hungry?”
“No kitten, fledglings need something to prompt them in to feeding, some times they feel uneasy about it, even with out the soul”
“Oh”
“And there is a small problem”
“What?” Buffy asked doubled over in pain.
“Well tonight is blood bank night, I’ve got nothing for you to feed on till night fall and I can go out and get some blood”
“It’s alright, I can wait” Buffy said putting on a brave face.
“No you cant” Spike replied.
“No really I can”
“No luv, you misunderstand, the pain gets worse” Spike said getting up and taking off his shirt. He sat just in front of her and tilted his head to the side. “Here, feed”.
“Oh no there is no way, I’ll hurt you”
“And since when have you ever cared about me slayer?” Spike asked tilting his head upright again.
“That’s not fair, I care”
Silence
“I do, you helped me and thank you, I wouldn’t have lasted the night, they would have found me again”
“Well if you really do appreciate what I did; feed”
“But…”
“FEED” Spike yelled as he thrust her head roughly in to the nape of his neck and held it there. Finally the temptation grew a little too much for Buffy and she bit gently in to the soft flesh of his neck and began to feed. Spike was relieved, he though it would take more to push her in to feeding and in all honesty he didn’t want to hurt her. But if she refused, he would have made her one way or another. Buffy pushed Spike away and hid her face from him. “What’s the matter?” Spike asked as he reached up to pull her hand from her face.
“Don’t,” she said as he pulled her hand down with little resistance. He held her wrists and she winced in pain, but she still wouldn’t look at him. He held both of her wrists with one of his hands and used his free one to force Buffy to face him. “DON’T” She yelled, “don’t look at me”.
“Why?” Spike said as her gazed into her golden eyes.
“I look…”
“Beautiful” Spike stated. Buffy looked at him and he replaced his human features with his vampiric ridges. Spike let go of one of her wrists and it fell limply to her lap, he put the other hand on his face and let her trace his ridges as he put his hand up and did the same to her face.
“I’m not ugly?” She asked with her shaky voice.
“No luv, far from it. Don’t ever be embarrassed of what you are or what you look like, you look beautiful to me”
“You think I’m beautiful?”
“Well you haven’t got anything on my looks but you are certainly not ugly”. Buffy laughed and hit Spike playfully on the chest. “Now that’s a good sign”.
“Hum, I never thought I’d laugh again when I, you know, woke up” She said.
“And things have changed?” Spike asked.
“Yeah, life…”
“Unlife luv” Spike interrupted correcting her.
“Unlife might not be so bad after all”
“And why is that?”
“Well I still have you to beat up!” Buffy said smiling.
“Ha, don’t be so cocky slayer” Spike said looking down at her torn clothes. “Here” he said reaching over to the clothes he dug out for her and throwing them gently at her head.
“Gee thanks. God you know I was wondering were those were” Buffy said holding up the jeans.
“Go and have a shower and put those on you’ll be more comfortable” Spike said.
“Yes sir” Buffy said.
“Wha’ do you want me to strip you off and do it my self?”
“Not, I’m going” she said as she passed in to the bathroom and locked the door Spike lay back on the bed, he felt him self drifting to sleep, he’d been up all night and well in to the day and with the loss of blood, he wasn’t fairing well against the impending exhaustion. He let his eyes close and sleep claim him.
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Buffy let the hot water run over her, in to her open wounds with were healing now and at a rapid rate. Spike’s blood was powerful stuff and she felt it course through her veins. She let the events of the past two days start to sink in. She was a vampire. And since Spike found her, that didn’t make her feel so dirty and evil. Spike had made her feel safe and had taken care of her, much like Angel did to the human slayer. But this was different. Spike was different, he wasn’t repressed by guilt, but he wasn’t as evil and horrible and uncaring as she first believed. Spike cared, he truly did, and she felt like she belonged with him, with her own kind. She let those thoughts swim around in her head as she re-dresses in everything except the jeans, which hurt the cuts on her legs. Buffy walked out of the bathroom to find Spike asleep on the bed she woke up on. His human feature had again re-take his face. He was sexy she though as she made her way over to him and ran her finger tips down his smooth human face. Buffy slid in to the bed next to Spike and spooned herself against his cool body. Spike cracked open one of his eyes to be met with the back of the slayers golden hair. He looped one of his strong arms around and said softly “I hope your not planing on going anywhere”. Buffy wasn’t. She felt safe for the first time since Angelus’s return and she wasn’t going anywhere.