"You wished it?" Spike questioned the bird in blue. "Any particular reason? You would, say, wish for something on the goddamn Hellmouth?!?!" His voice that started as a quite whisper ricocheted off the bookshelves by the time he was finished. "You soddin stupid humans. Jees, why can't you just resign yourselves to being food and stop trying to .... oh fuck it."

"Well. I am quite sure I didn't intend for this kind of thing to happen. All I wished for was that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale. How did I know what was gonna happen?"

"Hmm. Oh well. You could have thought things through a bit more? I don't know, realized that the damn Slayer is what stopped the Harvest from happening, and perhaps, oh I don't know, extrapolated what might occur should she not have been here?" Spike's voice dripped sarcasm and disdain for the seemingly ditzy cheerleader.

Giles had listened to the exchange with interest, learning more about both the situation and about William the Bloody himself. He frowned as the conversation degenerated into an insult fest on Spike's end. "Spike? I am quite sure that belittling Miss Chase is not the way to go about getting either one of you to the reality in which you belong. Wouldn't you agree?"

Spike looked up to the Watcher from his sprawl in the chair. "Yeah, mate. Whatever you say. This place is just plain hell. There aren't even enough snacks to be found. Aren't these vamps smart enough to know not to deplete their resources? Jesus. A bloke could starve to death!"

Giles nodded absently at Spike's observation. Mentally, he was pondering why Spike's accent seemed to change on a whim. One minute the cockney south London, next the cultured tones of an Oxford or Cambridge educated man. He'd have to look up Spike's history again, though he doesn't recall if there is any mention of the human Spike's life.

"I assume that we are off the menu, seeing as we are the only ones who can help you, right?" Cordelia asked with a hopeful smile. Spike grinned up at her.

"Yeah, pet. I can hold off. I mean, long as I aint' here verra much longer, ya savvy?"

"Huh?" Utter confusion on the brunette's pretty face.

"Never mind. I'll wait to eat you until we get home, k?"

"Good." She smiled in relief, then, "Huh? Wait." Giles rolled his eyes and grinned despite himself.

Xander and Willow had stalked their new prey to the high school. They knew the Watcher holed up here at night, strategising ways to defeat the Master. Xander grinned evilly when he remembered how often he had sat in that dusty, mouldy space researching the Master. He sighed in satisfaction. All that knowledge had made him and Willow the Master's favored children. He gave them things to play with and the benevolence of his own affection. It was more than Xander ever got in his human life. Plus hey? Mackin on the vamp Willow was damn tasty. She so often tasted like the blood of their latest prey. He shivered in ecstacy for a second.

"Oh, baby. I think we're here, Will. You ready to fetch your puppy?" He whispered softly into her ear and felt her answering shudder. She turned fully to him, grabbed him by the nape of his neck and opened her mouth onto his, kissing him deep. Her tongue finding every last nook and cranny of his mouth. "Yeah, baby. I wanna play. So tired of being bored, ya know?" She emphasized her desire with a thrust of her hips into his.

Xander lifted one corner of his mouth in an answering grin and cradled her hips in his. "Let's go get him. But remember, I want him first before you can have him, k?" He warded off her pouting protest. "Now, Wills, you already have one puppy don't you? Don't' want to make him jealous yet, do you? Now let me have the blonde one for just a mo, eh?"

The two former scoobies stalked their prey silently through the halls, coming at last to the library where they knew he would be. Peaking in the porthole windows on the door, they watched the scene before them. The new girl was interesting, wearing that bright teal blue dress. Xander let a subsonic growl of sexual desire. Oh, he wanted her. Something told him he had to have her. He would taste her blood and she would be sticky sweet, like blueberry pie and vanilla bean ice cream. Willow laid a hand on his arm, and he quieted. But not before Spike recognized their presence.

Spike turned his head to the door of the library. "Oh buggerin fuck, they're here, mates." He rose and motioned for Giles and Cordelia to move into the office.

Giles looked to the door and saw his beloved kids in the windows. He stood stock still for a second. He was always struck by their sheer audacious beauty. Perfect innocence corrupted perfectly to pure malevolence. He broke inside for them.

"Watcher!" Spike's voice snapped him to the present. "Take the chippy here, and go somewhere safe. Call up that vengeance demon or sommat, get me home, damn you. I'll fend off the childer here. The little bastards."

Xander and Willow entered the library finally. "Hello puppy. You're going to be mine when Xander is through with you. I can't wait to play with you, and you'll get to meet my other puppy too. But you already know him, I think." Willow stalked over to Spike, running her hand gently down his face, ghosting over the smooth ivory skin and black eyebrows. She leaned up to taste his lips, and when he reared back from her, she punched him in the face, breaking one of those impossibly high cheekbones.

"Careful, baby. He's mine first, remember?" Xander reminded here quickly. Then he walked over to Spike, biting his wrist and offering the blond vampire some of his blood. "Here. Something special to heal that right up, don't you think?" He forced Spike's closed lips to the wound, and smiled when he felt the resistance let up and Spike drank. "That's good, yeah?" He lifted the blond head up, staring deep into the azure eyes. He moved in and closed his lips over bloody ones. He tasted his own blood on those lips, a heady combination of himself and Spike. Xander shivered when he released the blond, then turned back to Willow. "Oh yeah, baby. I think I'm gonna enjoy him for a while before I let you have him." His fingers snaked down over Spike's jaw and around his throat. "Yeah. A long while."

Cordy watched as Xander tongued Spike in the library. Oh, ok. Totally inappropriate observation here, but hello? VampXander is damn hot! She found it hard to tear her gaze away from the scene before her. Hard until Giles caught her attention.

"I know. He's beautiful, isn't he? I remember when he was so innocent. He cried for days when he lost Jesse. So pure in his grief. Now? He'll kill you just as soon as kiss you, and make you like it just as much."

"That would be a lot of liking, and I think I'd meet my maker happily." Cordy stated calmly. "My Xander is beautiful too. Deadly? Only to my social standing, but not minding so much now. And he is - no was - a great kisser." She sighed aloud. "I wouldn't mind kissing him again, just once."

Giles laid a hand on her shoulder. "We'll get you back to your reality Cordelia. I promise." He turned to his bookshelves. "Now I know I saw a passage here somewhere about Vengeance Demons. Where is it?" He perused the titles while asking Cordelia about her encounter with the demon in question. "So, what did this demon of your reality look like?"

"Short, blond, purple and veiny." Cordy answered him automatically, struck by the sight outside the office. "Oh, and she wore this freaky pendant. I thought it was cool and wanted to borrow it, but she was pretty protective. That help?"

"Immensely, thank you." He found the book he was looking for and thumbed to the pages where he knew he would find mention of the demon. "So, um, Cordelia, do you remember this demon's name? Or anything else about her?" Silence. "Cordelia?" Silence again. He abruptly looked up into the office. She was gone.

He noticed her standing outside the office, just about the same time that Xander and Willow did. Giles rushed to her, but was too late. Xander pounced upon her, nuzzling her throat and shifting to his vampire features, knowing the watcher saw him. Giles closed his eyes in defeat, and Cordelia was dead less than a minute later. Xander grinned evilly and spoke to Giles. "Slowly, Rupert. It's how I'll take you, and when I think you've had enough, I keep you just a little longer, so you can watch everyone you care about die slowly. And in the end, Rupert?" he ghosted a palm over Giles' jaw, "in the end, you'll love me for it."

"Come on pup, we're going." Xander called to Spike, who looked over at Giles and nodded. Communicating so much in a simple movement of his head, Giles found himself trusting the blond vampire from another world. He went back into the office to call up the Vengeance demon who caused this havoc.

Spike followed Xander and Willow quietly. He wondered why Xander had kissed him. Well, not wondered why, to be honest, but thought about the kiss. Angelus was the only other male Spike had kissed in his entire existence. And the odd thing? Those kisses, while powerful and demonic and almost all a bloke could want in a kiss, paled in comparison from the simple meeting of lips between he and this young, beautiful vampire. He was thrown for a loop. It's the only reason he could think of as to why he was still silent. Contemplative even, and bollocks, gotta break out of this shite now, mate! He shook his head to clear it.

"I know. So much from so little, huh puppy?" No sooner had Spike shaken his head clear than that seductive smooth voice wormed its way into his ear. Made Spike shiver. "You think I don't know what you're thinking about, William the Bloody?" Xander smiled softly, reminiscent of his human visage. "I've been thinking about it too. And I don't like to think these kinds of thoughts anymore." The soft voice and soft smile turned harsh and deadly.

Xander traced his fingers up and down Spike's back, finally pinching the older vampire by the neck. "I'll make you scream in agony before I'm done with you, puppy. And it won't be the good kind." He looked pensive for a brief moment, wondering aloud, "I wonder what holy watercolors will look like painted on your flesh? Or if the sunlight through the waterglass bricks will dapple your skin with burns like the sun dapple lakes with diamonds at noon? Been a while since I've seen noon, so it may take a while for me to remember the effect correctly."

The thought of being painted in holy water or being tortured with the sun caused Spike's undead heart to almost beat again in anticipatory fear. Instead of giving the young vamp the satisfaction of seeing him squirm, Spike did the only thing he could think of. He bluffed. "Ahh, pet. You're just makin my day, there. Angelus was so much more inventive than you, I think, and he and I shared some agonizingly terrific moments torturing each other. The holy water paints? Been there, done it, got the soddin t-shirt. And it was like full body tatooing, and my Angelus was a consummate artist. The things he would do..." Spike shuddered visibly. "And you want to dapple my skin with light like Renoir? Sure pet, we could do that." Spike leaned in closer to the dark eyes, ghosting a smile across pouting lips, "But I really look forward to the finale. And I promise you boy, you'll love it."

Xander grinned at the mention of Angelus. "Ahh, good thing we're taking you to the factory then, eh Will? You'll see your beautiful Angelus there, I do believe." The evil that dripped from Xander's voice shook Spike to his core. What the bloomin fuck did he mean I'd be seein Angelus? He's long gone, turned into that poof Angel.

Willow finally chimed in at the mention of Angelus. "Don't talk about puppy, Xander. He's all alone and defenseless right now. I can't torture him from out here and you talking about him makes me.... wistful."

Spike barely bit back a groan, and at the stifled look on his face, Xander howled in laughter. How could these two newbies have had the stones to nab Angelus? Dammit. Angel. Two hundred and fifty years and he couldn't avoid these two. Granted, Xander would have been a deadly beautiful member of the Scourge, with his soft spoken voice and malicious intents. His ability and desire to seduce pleasure from exquisite pain alone would have earned him a place as favored Childe. The ecstacy on that bint's face as he drained her told Spike of this one's talent. Hmmm. Maybe that is why the Master likes him so much. So dark, calm, so devastatingly deadly.

"Well, Will, we're here."

"Spike."

"What?"

"My name is Spike. I haven't been William for a very long time, whelp. And remember, I am a hundred some odd years older than you, boy, so show some damn respect!" He cuffed the younger vampire, who simply looked at him from a tilted head. Dark eyes giving away nothing of his thoughts. The only indication Spike had of Xander's reaction was the cold ground meeting his face after the younger vampire punched him.

"That's not very respectful, you git!"

"Learn your place, puppy. You may be old, you may be legendary, but here? You're just another Aurelius reject, just like him." Xander stepped over Spike into the factory, then turned back to the huddled figure, "We are his favored now. And you are going to learn respect, William."

Bloody hell. Spike rose quietly, angrily, and followed the two young vampires inside.

Please feed the chicky!