TITLE: Death Awaits You All!
SUMMARY: Lesse - Spike's vamped a bunny, aforementioned bunny has killed Riley, Buffy is upset - need I say more? Probably yes, but tough :)
FEEDBACK: It's every writer's bread and water...sorta
DISTRIBUTION: If you want it, please just ask :)
RATING: PG-16
DISCLAIMER: Ain't mine. Ain't fair. Ain't anything more to say.
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"Hey, Willow." Spike flashed her his most disarming smile. "Mind if Fang and I...?" He trailed off, letting the bunny peek over the rim of the pocket.
"Oh, come on in, both of you." Distracted, the red head gestured the pair in, scrolling through various descriptions of blood-sucking demons with only one long fang.
Pacing around the room, as if taking in all the surroundings, he enquired. "What are you up to, Willow?"
"I'm trying to find out what...killed Riley." There was a note of sadness in her voce and he briefly wondered if it was for the boy's death or for her friend's loss. "They say he was stabbed..." She looked up at the vampire. "I don't agree...it was too clean...do you know of any demons with one, blade-like, central fang?"
Spike shrugged, rubbing between Fang's ears, gazing down at the red head. He had watched her bloom over this last year, since he had arrived back in Sunnyhell and - despite that girlfriend - she was still as delectable as she had been the night he had come to her, after breaking out of the Initiative holding bay.
"Do you remember what we were doing this time, last year?" He murmured, sitting down behind her, his breath cool on her ear.
She stiffened and he could have sworn he heard her heart beat accelerate, her fingers freezing over the keyboard. "I...I remember, Spike." She replied, a distinct tremor in her voice.
Pulling her hair back from her flushed cheeks with one gentle hand, he moved his mouth closer to her. "I wasn't lying, you know, Willow. I would have turned you in a heartbeat."
"Then it's good for me that you can't bite." Moving to stand, she was halted by his arm around her waist, holding her firmly as he rose to stand flush against her back. "Spike. Let me go."
Spike chuckled softly. "You know that I'm not going to hurt you, Red." He murmured against her neck, feeling her tremble. "What have you got to be afraid of?"
"Spike, please."
"I get so lonely, Red." Brushing light lips along her bare shoulder, his voice sank to a husky whisper. "I wish I had someone as fiery as you to keep me company."
"Me?" She managed to squeak. "But I...I have T-Tara." Trying to pull away, she was only pulled harder against him.
One of his hands caressed her belly lightly, his voice growing hungry. "But does she have you? Is she the one that you really want, Willow?"
"She loves me." Willow whimpered, as he kissed her pulsepoint. Even if he couldn't hurt her, she didn't want to be pulled this close to him for anything. "And I love her!"
She managed one breathless shriek, as she was swung through the air, landing heavily on the bed, disorientated.
Struggling to sit up, she was startled to find herself tied down, several scarves used aptly, to hold her down. Her captor grinned down at her, stroking his bunny like a demented Bond villain.
"Spike, let me go!"
The vampire pouted at her. "You're so mean to me, Willow." He trailed his finger down the length of the rabbit's back. "I told you there was a choice last year. Do you remember?"
Willow froze. "You can stay dead...or I can bring you back - to be like me." Those words had haunted her for weeks, wondering what she would have said, if the choice had been hers. With the departure of Oz still heavy on her mind, she could have said anything.
"You can't bite me." She said defiantly, wriggling against her bonds, as he slowly sat down on the edge of the mattress, his attention seeming to focus more on Fang than her.
Flashing her a grin, he chuckled naughtily. "I might not be able to, pet." He replied airily. "But my new childe can."
"N-new childe?"
Lifting the rabbit, he sat it on her stomach. "Willow, meet Fang...or Cedric Guiness Boyd-Watts..." The rabbit inclined it's head. "I didn't choose his full name, I swear. I do have some limits."
"H-how could you turn it?" She blinked tears that were brimming in her eyes away, staring into the rabbit's red-pink eyes.
"It's amazing the pain you can stand when you're drunk out of your skull." He replied amiably.
"All because of Monty Python." The rabbit added, with a snuffle that seemed to be laughter.
Willow stared incredulously at the creature. "It spoke!" She gasped, dropping into Research mode. "H-how did you teach it to speak, Spike?"
"It's not to rabbit, Miss." The mini-vampire replied, in a distinctively upper-class British accent, sounding scarily like Giles. "It's the demon – me – inside the body. Watched a few old classic films to get the language. Damn teeth make it rather awkward."
Spike shrugged. "I tried to make him watch my Monty Python videos for a decent accent, but he refused."
"You're letting a vampire rabbit kill me?" She felt like laughing at the absurdity, but the reality was to painfully real for her.
Spike nodded brightly. "I warned you all at the Watcher's house." He reminded her, mussing her fiery hair. "But none of you listened to me, did you?"
"I thought you were joking." She winced as the rabbit shifted on her stomach. "Death awaits you all with big, nasty pointy teeth isn't really your average vampire threat."
"You said that?" The rabbit turned to his Sire quizzically. "I am absolutely astonished that you don't rule the world with wit and brains of that calibre."
"Oh, sod off." Spike glared at his childe, half-relieved to notice that Willow had a tiny smile on her face. He didn't like the idea of eternity without someone else to take the edge off the white demon's brainiac remarks. "Just get on with it."
"Yes, Oh Master." The rabbit sighed. "I beg your pardon, Miss." His front teeth elongated and widened, eyes turning gold.
Willow clenched her teeth, determined not to show fear, a gasp escaping her as she felt the fangs plunging into her throat, the rabbit's tiny tongue lapping the blood.
A cool hand tenderly caressed her cheek and she reluctantly opened her eyes to find Spike gazing down at her, eyes full of some strange emotion.
The pain faded slowly into dizzying blackness. She could feel her heartbeat slowing gradually, as her life seeped away.
Abruptly, she felt a wash of cool air across her neck, then Spike's lips replaced his childe's, tasting and taking the last of her blood, before raising his wrist to his mouth, tearing it with his fangs.
Trying to block the flow of the cool blood down her throat, Willow moaned weakly, thrashing feebly, as he held his bleeding wrist firmly to her mouth.
Drop by drop, it trickled down her throat until she started to drink willingly, her mouth latching hungrily onto his wrist.
"That's my girl." Cradling her head, Spike smiled grimly. He wasn't going to be alone for much longer.
~~~~~
"Any luck, Will...?" Buffy frowned, her blood-shot eyes flicking around the deserted room. "Will? Where are you?"
Willow's laptop was still connected to the net, figures and numbers scrolling incessantly down the screen, piles of open books littering the desk and floor.
Where ever she had gone, the red head had left fairly recently and – apparently – in a hurry, mid-research. It seemed likely that she had gone to Giles for a book or something.
Making her way to the phone, she picked up and dialled her former Watcher's number swiftly, drumming her fingers on her bedside desk impatiently.
"Hello?"
"Giles." Pulling the band from her hair, Buffy shook her hair loose, as she spoke. "Is Wills there? She was doing research, but shes not in our room."
"N-no." She could almost hear Giles frown. "I was hoping she would call. I-I managed to translate that passage of the prophesy and I was hoping she would take a look at it."
"Care to share?"
"Oh, yes." Rustling of paper rippled down the line. "Ah, here we are." He cleared his throat. "A time of darkness swallows the Chosen One in a thrall of despair, when the vampire that is not a vampire allies himself with the white demon...I'm not completely certain of the conclusion."
Buffy gave a mock-sigh of relief. "Phew, Giles." She remarked, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "For a moment there I thought you were going to say something bad was going to happen."
"Do you realise the implications of this prophesy?" Giles ignore the sarcasm with his usual deftness.
"That things are going to get worse for me? Yes. I had guessed that much. Gimme credit for something." She rubbed her forehead, then asked. "Do you have any clues what else the conclusion says?"
There was a comforting "Hmm…"
"Hmm?"
"I'm not entirely certain." Giles ruefully acknowledged. "There is some mention of the...ichor of the weeping tree and...er...the change to end all changes."
Buffy's eyes drifted to Willow's bed, where Mister Gordo sat, a small, silver cross dangling from his snout, his soft, little belly stained with – something. A something that also was spattered on the bedspread and floor.
"Giles?" Her voice trembled, as she moved across to the other bed, reaching out for her pig. "Ichor...what is ichor?"
The Watcher seemed to sense her consternation. "It is sometimes used to de-describe blood." A choking sob rang down the phone. "Buffy? What is it?"
"The ichor of the weeping tree." The blonde whispered painfully, hugging Mister Gordo to her chest. "It's Willow's blood. Something took Willow, Giles."
"Are-are you certain?"
"I...I don't know...there's blood...on the floor...her bed..."
"I'll be right over."
~~~~~
"Evenin', luv." Running his fingers down her cheek, Spike smiled as her hazy green eyes flicked open, slowly focusing on the blonde vampire beside her.
"S..Spike?" She sat up shakily, jarring pain tearing through her body, every bone and muscle aching agonisingly. "What have you done to me?"
Pressing a light kiss to her forehead, he smiled again, gently. "Stay calm, Wilow." He murmured, seeing the tears of pain and confusion in her dark eyes.
"It hurts." She gasped, pressing her eyes shut as he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. "It hurts so much."
"I know, Princess." Rocking her gently, he ran a hand soothingly over her tangled red hair. "I know. But it fades, soon enough. It will fade. It always hurts in the beginning."
"You did it...you made your choice." She whispered against his shoulder and he could feel her cool tears soaking through his shirt lightly. Whether they were from pain or something else, he couldn't tell.
"I couldn't have let a beauty like yours die, Willow." He answered honestly, drawing back, one arm still supporting her gently. "I swear I would never have killed you."
"But you did." There was no silent accusation in her voice, only neutral acknowledgement, her green eyes settling on her slim, white hands that lay motionless in her lap.
"You don't know what it can be like for a beautiful vampiress like yourself." He reassured her gently.
"But I do." Emerald green met ice blue, confusion filling the blonde vampire's eyes. "I knew this would happen. That She would become me some time."
The red head gave a silky chuckle, rubbing her cool hands together, as she looked around the crypt, a look of acceptance crossing her features.
"I've met me before." She finally said, shattering the silence, turning her attention back to her Sire. "A spell went wrong. I came from an alternate dimension or something. A dimension that the Slayer hadn't arrived in."
Spike frowned, trying to imagine what that world was like. Bloody fantastic probably.
"I was the Master's favourite childe." She gave him a smile, that could have been pride in her counterpart's standing. "Even Darla didn't come close to me...and that was before my witchiness came to light."
"When you say 'the Master'...which Master is that?"
The red head smiled wistfully. "The Slayer killed him in Sunnydale – he was Darla's Sire – your great-great Grandsire – Angel, that souled baby, he was my naughty little puppy." A wickedly sexy smile curved her lips. "We had chains and people...you could ride 'em like ponies." She confided in a hushed tone.
Spike stared at his childe in numb disbelief. So much for the theory that demons randomly entered their victims. This one had been waiting for Willow. The demon had experienced this world and was no newbie either. She was bloody amazing.
And something in her voice, her tone, reminded him fondly of his dark Princess who had loved him so completely not so long ago. Maybe this girl would be the one he would have for eternity.
"You're cuter than he was." Tracing the planes of his cheeks, the vampiress smiled.
"Than who? Angel?"
Rolling her eyes, the girl chuckled richly, her emerald eyes dancing. "He was a bad puppy." She tutted in disgust. "All sweet-smelling and pathetic. I mean the Master." She pulled a face. "He was powerful, but damn, he was ugly!"
Spike recalled the one time he had seen his great, great Grandsire – he was no oil-painting, that was for certain, his face contorting into a bat-like image. Disgusting really.
His train of thought abruptly came to a screeching halt as her mouth captured his for the first time, delicate fingers twisting into his hair making him gasp with pain and pleasure.
"Spike." His greatest creation to date whispered huskily. "I'm so hungry. Can we go eat?" Her eyes gleamed at him. "It'll be fun."
"There's something I have to do first, Princess." Jerking her head back, he grinned laviciously at her. But you know the drill, don't you, lover? I'm sure you know what to do."
Nodding, she let her beautiful demon ripple to the surface. "And after that." She murmured, drawing her nail down his cheek. "We go and get me something decent to wear."
"Anything you say, Princess." He kissed her fiercely, then released her. "And remember, we're friends with the Slayer." He added, as she pulled the door of the crypt open. "You're still alive, to her, luv." The girl nodded, her face shifting back to its normal planes. "And one more thing."
She looked over her shoulder.
"Don't have too much fun without me, pet. I get so jealous."
She smirked and dipped out into the darkness, leaving the vampire with a wide grin on his face and a sweet taste on his lips. "Thank you, Monty P!"
~~~~~
"Hey...Buffy."
The Slayer whirled around to find herself face-to-face with her missing friend, relief flooding her face. "Willow! Oh, thank God! I thought something had happened to you!" She hugged her tightly, as if she never wanted to lose her.
Willow smiled. "I'm fine." She replied quietly, dipping her hand into the capricious pocket of her skirt. "I...was with...Spike." She nodded, as if checking herself. "Yeah, I was with Spike."
"But you've been gone for days!"
The red head shrugged. "We were researching...stuff." She smiled again, offering the Slayer a folded piece of paper. "This is for the Watc...Giles. It's about the prophecy."
"You didn't tell me where you were." Buffy stated coolly, taking paper and slipping it in her pocket.
"No, I didn't." Willow agreed readily.
"Are you going to?"
One copper eyebrow rose slightly. "What are you? My mother?"
Buffy had the intelligence to look apologetic. "Sorry, Wills." She squeezed the red head's shoulder. "I guess I was just worried about you. All of us were."
"I know." Willow gave her best shy smile. "I was so busy...studying that I forgot to call. Or tell anyone."
The Slayer nodded. "You should get inside." She advised, glancing around. "There are Big Bad's all over the place tonight."
"I'll go then." The vampiress nodded, trying to hide her grin. "I need to find someone. Tara. I need to find Tara. Have you seen her?"
Buffy nodded with a grin, gave her friend’s demon-possessed body the directions and then wandered off to find creatures of the night, never realising she had just left the most dangerous one of them all.
~~~~~
Spike raised his eyes as the door of the crypt swung open, Willow sauntering in with a half-conscious Tara leaning heavily on her, blood oozing from a delicate wound in the blonde girl’s breast.
“Hey ho, daddy-oh.” Willow grinned, dropping her lover on the cold floor. “I brought you a snack…and who the hell is this?”
Hazel eyes gazed up at the red-haired demon, the hand that was stroking the bunny pausing mid-motion. “Well, well.” Riley grinned up at her. “If it ain’t my little sister.”
“So this is what you had to do, huh?” Green eyes flicked up to the blonde, who chuckled.
“Don’t worry, luv.” Stepping over, he enfolded her in a tight embrace, kissing her with a ferocity only vampires possessed. “I didn’t make him to be a boytoy. He’s a present for the Slayer.”
Her lower lip jutted out. “But I wanted…”
“I know, Princess.” Spike chucked her chin. “You get the kill. He just gets the big entrance and the heart-breaking-act again.” Brushing a lock of red back from her face, he smiled reassuringly. “Sound fair?”
“As long as Mister Watcher man has translated my little letter.” Willow smirked, pulling Spike’s mouth down to hers, leaning over the moaning figure of Tara.
“And as long as we’ve all had enough to eat.” Riley added, his eyes glinting gold.
Both Willow and Spike laughed. “Typical male fledgling.” The blonde shook his head, bending to grasp the semi-conscious girl at his feet, eyeing the open wound on her soft breast. “Wanna share, luv?”
Willow hoisted herself onto the sarcophagus. “Nah.” She replied, her legs drumming a rhythm on the hollow tomb. “I already ate.” She smiled contentedly as the three men in her life descended on the unfeeling body of Tara.
It somehow seemed fitting that she wasn’t the one to destroy what had been a perfectly innocent life.
Watching was fun.
But soon the real games would begin.
~~~~~
Rubbing his eyes wearily, Giles flipped open his dictionary, searching for the words on the page before him, the small quote written in archaic latin, drafted in Willow’s neat handwriting.
Gradually, the words started falling into a pattern, his translating of the nine words taking him less than an hour.
Writing down the translation, he frowned. It couldn’t be the meaning, could it? Unless Willow was playing some kind of strange joke.
A knock at the door distracted him.
“Willow?”
“Hey, Giles.” The red head smiled, gesturing to Spike and the rabbit in his arms. “Can we come in?”
“Of course.”
~~~~~
Pushing the door open, Buffy stopped short in horror, her face twisting in pain as she took in the scene before her.
Shakily making her way to the table, where Giles’ body was propped, his eyes glassy, she picked up the sheet of paper that was clutched between his stiff fingers.
Tears spilled down her cheeks as she read the words, her voice weakly demanding. “Who did this?”
“Um…that would be us.”
Whirling round, she stared – horrified – at her dead boyfriend, best friend, the blonde vampire and a gold-eyed rabbit, who winked wickedly up at her.
“Look, Slayer.” Spike grinned, holding up the bunny. “A demon rabbit. I think you owe me a drink.”
Grabbing a stake from her belt, the Slayer shook her head in disbelief. “I’ll kill you, if I have to.”
“No you won’t, Buffy.” Riley’s face filled with sadness. “I love you, you know.” His hazel eyes met hers. “You have to believe me.”
A choked sob rocked her body, her eyes pressed shut to fight the tears, but opened too late, fangs tearing into the soft flesh of her throat, a flash of red hair telling her who her killer was.
Leaving the Slayer and Watcher’s bodies crumpled on the floor, the four demons sauntered out of the house into the darkness, leaving the small scrap of paper as their only identities, the nine small words laughably prophetic.
“Death awaits you all with big nasty pointy teeth!”
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