Love In Vein: Book Two - Chapter 12

Buffy closed her eyes, enjoying the streams of warm water washing over her face, cascading down her body. She heaved a long sigh as she thought about what she was about to do. Contacting the Council and convincing them to hand over information about the First and, hopefully, the prophecy it had been so interested in wasn't going to be easy. Earlier this year she had made it painfully clear to them that she had no intention of working for them, she had told the stuffy Watcher they had sent to work with her that she quit.

She could imagine just how difficult they were going to make things for her and then added a little to it just to be realistic.

Her dismissal of the Watcher, and the Council itself, was going to be a serious black mark against her now that she actually needed them. She wondered for a moment whether she could just go to England with Spike and sneak in the same way he had. They could go over the lower library in one night and, even if they were caught, the Council were no match for Spike or her.

Buffy sighed.

Unfortunately, it wasn't an option.

Time seemed to be fast becoming shorter. Her Slayer instincts told her they were rapidly approaching the moment when the First would make itself known again. Going to England with Spike would take too long, by the time they got back the First could have wreaked havoc upon Sunnydale.

She had to stay here where she was needed. Sending Spike alone wasn't an option. She trusted that he would get the job done but she needed him by her side in this fight. He was the pillar that she drew the most strength from, his constant presence beside her over the past few weeks had given her the courage to do what had been needed.

Now, in her hardest battle yet, she knew he couldn't be there for her.

If the Council saw him in town, he would be in trouble. If the Council saw him with her, or her friends, there was no way they would understand. The chance of getting information out of them would be gone and they would be forced to go into the fight against the First blind to its powers.

She gave a moments thought to sending him over to the Council headquarters while they were here in Sunnydale but quickly dismissed it. If something went wrong, Spike might prove handy.

Besides, being without him for days on end was not something she could handle right now.

She needed his comforting arms around her as she slept, needed the peace it had given her last night. In the few days she had been home, sleep had been more than elusive and Slayer induced nightmares were making themselves known more than ever. The visions she was having were distorted at best. Images of fights surfaced in amongst memories of happier times. She watched the school tumbling into ruins repeatedly and saw her friends fighting against faceless monsters.

Buffy shuddered as one image rang out clearly amongst the rest.

Spike.

His teeth extending, face shifting quickly into vampire guise and his claws sinking deep into her upper arms as he shouted soundless words that she was too dumbstruck to hear.

She closed her eyes and breathed out sharply as she remembered the sensation of his teeth ripping into her neck, his hands holding her so tight they had bruised her.

Opening her eyes, she forced herself to remember that some of her nightmares were just that, nightmares. Not all of them were visions of things that would come to pass. The chances were that most of the things she saw were just her fears playing out in her dreams.

She trusted Spike.

Implicitly.

She felt what he did on being allowed to feed from her. She knew he would never turn on her so viciously, as he had in her dream. He took too much pleasure from her offering her blood to him willingly to take it forcibly.

She trusted him.

She believed in him.

He had shown her just how different he was to other vampires, a unique one amongst his fellows that, around her, seemed more human than demon.

She just hoped that he would prove her faith in him right.

Leaning back against the tiled wall of the shower, she ran her hand over her face to clear the water from it and then twirled her hair around to squeeze some of water out of it. She sighed and looked down at her legs as she stepped out of the shower. She could still see the intricate scars that the vampires had left on her and it still made her blood run cold.

Spike's words to her last night ran around her head and she let the corners of her mouth twitch into a smile as she realised it was a perfect example of just how different he was to his kin.

She knew Spike was right about waiting for her to be ready, for her to be sure that she was as emotionally healed as possible. It had just caught her off guard how he'd admitted it wasn't his usual style and she had immediately wondered just how much he had changed for her over the past few weeks.

How much she had changed.

She slipped into her white bathrobe as she crossed the room.

Buffy looked at her reflection in the mirror as she dried her hair and her eyes fell to rest on the marks on her neck.

Clawing the wet hair away from her throat, she pulled her skin taut and frowned at the white scars that marred it. She felt her heart beating harder against her chest as she stared at them, remembering the sensations that had coursed through her as Spike had sunk his teeth into her and pulled on her blood.

She jumped as someone knocked on the door.

Hurriedly pulling her hair down to hide the marks on her neck, she stopped her hands and frowned as she realised what she was doing.

She was hiding her scars.

Why?

Buffy closed her eyes briefly as it dawned on her. The Council were coming. They were going to be keeping a close eye on her and if they saw the marks on her neck there were going to be questions, questions she didn't want to have to try and answer.

Staring at herself in the mirror again she cocked her head to one side, trying to discern if there were any visible changes in her that had come with the claim. She didn't know what she was looking for or why, but was glad when all she saw was herself.

Another knock at the door caused Buffy to frown. There was only one person who could make something as emotionless as knocking on a door sound impatient.

"It's not locked, Spike." She watched the door open out the corner of her eye and then stared at the mirror as his hands squeezed her waist.

Buffy knit her brows as the wet hair was again removed from her neck but this time by invisible hands. She could feel his fingers brushing against her flesh, causing a million sparks to race along her nerves, but couldn't see them in the reflection.

Swallowing noisily as her throat was finally free of every clinging strand of hair, Buffy found herself subconsciously tilting her head to one side and bracing herself for impact as she watched her bathrobe being pushed off her shoulder.

Every nerve in her body felt like it was on fire with anticipation. Her whole being burnt with desire and her heart was pounding louder than a tribal drum. She stared at her neck in the mirror as she felt his cool breath on it. Her own breathing hitched in her throat and she struggled to focus on the mirror.

As two small dots of red appeared on her reflected image, Buffy let her eyes widen and tensed up. She watched in half horror, half fascination as the marks appeared on her neck, mirroring his incisors perfectly.

Feeling the familiar sting as he made the first sharp pull on her blood, Buffy closed her eyes and focused on the overwhelming sensations of closeness and hunger that muddled inside her. Her fingers locked with his where his hands were holding her waist and she leaned her back into his chest.

She surrendered.

The feeling was too exquisite to ignore as it raced through her.

Passion, verging on obsession.

Lust, turning into love.

Desire, so strong, that she felt as though it was pulling her very soul from her body and her heart into her mouth.

In her delirium, she didn't realise that she was biting her lip, her own teeth drawing blood as Spike continued to feed from her.

Spike dug his fingers into her waist as he felt her body pressing against his, her heart beating so hard that he could feel it in his chest. He looked up at the mirror as he drank at a leisurely pace from her neck.

Her reflection took his breath away.

He could see his marks on her neck where his fangs still resided. Her bathrobe had slipped from her shoulders and was barely clinging onto the curve of her breasts. One small movement and it would slip and expose them to him. Her eyes were closed in pleasure as her mouth formed a perfect circle.

He froze.

His desire to drink from her neck disappeared.

The small bead of crimson that stained her lips seemed to call to him and he couldn't ignore it.

Spike turned her around slowly. Her eyes remained closed and she acted like a puppet under his command, her body lax and unsteady. Without his sturdy grip on her, she would have fallen to the floor in a heap.

Breathing in sharply through his nose he stared at her lower lip. The drop of blood she had drawn with her teeth had crept into every fine line on her lip until she looked as though she was wearing lipstick.

Dipping his head, he furrowed his brows as he took her lower lip into his mouth and sucked on it. He frowned as she moaned, wrapped her arms around his neck and forced her tongue into his mouth--heedless of the fact he was still in vampire guise.

Spike moaned a response and kissed her harder until he realised she'd cut her tongue on his incisors.

Buffy panted as she suddenly found her lips devoid of his. She frowned and then gagged as her mouth was filled with warm metallic tasting fluid. Swallowing it down, she grimaced and furrowed her brows.

It was disgusting.

She turned quickly to face the mirror and stuck her tongue out. There was a long cut along the side of it, no deeper than a scratch but it was bleeding profusely.

"Sorry." Spike said quietly and she quickly put her tongue away as she remembered she wasn't alone.

"It's not your fault…guess I was too caught up…forgot you were…" She looked over her shoulder and slowly turned to face him where he stood barely a few feet behind her.

Buffy went to pull her bathrobe up to cover her shoulders but found his hand stopping hers.

"Wait." He moved closer to her and dipped his head, licking the wound on her neck a few times and then drawing her bathrobe around her. "There."

She watched him shake his head and smiled as his face smoothed back into his human features.

Buffy raised her brows and poked her tongue out, causing her speech to become muffled. "Don't s'pose you can do sumfin bout dis?"

Spike shook his head with a smile. "Afraid not…have a feeling your Slayer healing will take care of that…I'd probably just make it worse with the teeth and all."

Buffy shrugged and gave him another smile. "Worth a try."

She looked down at her bathrobe, at her clothes and then up at Spike. He cocked his head to one side as he tried to figure out what she was hinting at.

Buffy sighed. "I need to get dressed."

"Don't let me stop you." Spike grinned.

Rolling her eyes, she pressed her hands against his chest and made him back towards the door.

Spike pouted as she opened it and gave him a look that said 'out'. "I see…use me to pleasure yourself and then push me out the door…"

Buffy rolled her eyes again. "Spike…I think you'll find you were pleasuring yourself as much as pleasuring me…now let me get changed."

"Nope." He folded his arms and gave her a stern look.

"Listen…quicker I get changed the quicker we get to Giles' and get this research over with."

"So get changed and let's get on with it." He leaned against the doorframe and motioned with his hand for her to hurry along.

Buffy sighed in resignation and grabbed her clothes. Turning her back on him, she opened her bathrobe and shimmied into her underwear before tugging her cream linen trousers on. She smiled to herself as she let the white bathrobe slip from her shoulders and reveal her bare back to him.

Spike furrowed his brows and growled. The temptation to run his finger down her spine and watch her shudder was almost too great to resist.

Slipping her white spaghetti strap top on she turned and gave him a wicked smile.

"Happy? Now can we get over to Giles'?" Buffy raised her brows at him as she walked towards him and almost laughed at the way he was staring blankly with his mouth hanging slightly open.

She tied her hair back into a ponytail and when she saw he wasn't going to respond she just took hold of his hand and started leading him down the stairs.

Her fingers ran over the fresh marks on her neck and a cold stab of fear hit her stomach.

Scars she could hide from the council.

New bite marks she couldn't.

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