Love In Vein: Book Two - Chapter 24

Spike was looking increasingly bored the closer they got to the Magic Box. With Joyce out of the house for one day only, he’d been planning to spend it alone with Buffy. He hadn’t seen her all yesterday, she’d only spent a few moments with him on the couch before dozing off and he’d taken her upstairs to her room.

Where he’d watched her sleeping.

He’d lost track of how long he’d sat there by her bed, memorising every one of her nuances as she slept. She was more beautiful then than he’d ever seen her, so perfectly innocent and vulnerable while away in her dreams that he’d felt inclined to spend the entire night just watching over her and ensuring she was safe.

He knew it wasn’t the claim speaking either.

William was making more of an appearance as his time with Buffy drew on, and he was letting him. He no longer felt the need to revolt against his human side like he used to, and often found himself looking for it within him. Her reaction to his almost poetic words the other night had led to him seeking out the William within and spending most of yesterday evening writing poem after poem until his head ached.

Nothing ever came out the way he wanted it to.

And poetry seemed to be at the top of that list.

He’d wracked his brain on every single piece, searching for the right words but failing miserably each time.

There was a reason they called him William the Bloody.

And it still broke his heart.

A single piece of poetry had survived his frustrated outburst at the end of the night that had seen him tearing up his work in an all too familiar way, and he’d read it to her as she slept.

He swore she’d smiled.

Spike didn’t want to ask himself why he was willing to let William out more often. He had always felt the need to turn against his more human side and now he was beginning to feel more at peace with it than anything. When William came to the surface it was no longer a cause for alarm, he didn’t feel as though he was in danger of saying something that would make him appear more human.

At least not around Buffy.

Around her, he could be anyone he wanted to be and she just accepted it. He could say the poetic things he thought on seeing her out loud and she would smile shyly as though no other man had said such sweet things to her. He could act like the primal force within him wanted him to, could play rough with her and bite her, and she seemed to feed off it.

There was only one conclusion he could draw from seeing how she had accepted every side to him with equal affection.

She really did love him.

Like he really did love her.

When the claim had first come about and she’d rescued him, he’d told himself repeatedly that being in love with the Slayer was perverse. Yet, he’d fallen so fast for her, so hard that it had made his stomach flip each time she looked at him, as though he was dropping from a great height every time their eyes met. And part of him knew he’d always been in love with her, from the second they’d met.

Whoever said love at first sight didn’t exist was wrong. It existed, and it was potent stuff if it could make a vampire fall for the Slayer in a non-existent heartbeat.

He roused himself from his thoughts as they turned down Main Street. They were fast approaching the Magic Box and he had half a mind to clasp her hand tightly in his and tell her to forget the meeting and go home with him.

Glancing over at her, he found her watching him with an intrigued look on her face. He could sense the concern in her and flashed her a reassuring smile.

“Hey, heavy thoughts boy, what’s going on in that head of yours?” Buffy squeezed his hand a little and saw his smile widen.

“Nothing much, as usual…just drifting from thought to thought…mostly ending in ‘why?’” He waited for her to take the bait but she didn’t, she just looked at the Magic Box, heaved a sigh and then looked back into his eyes.

“Wish we could get out of this. I’ll try and make it quick, I don’t want to be here anymore than you do.” She stopped and smoothed the lapels of his long leather gun-coat before letting her fingers brush over his neck. “I had a whole evening of you and me planned. Relaxing together, planning to kill the Council…”

Spike grinned. “Sounded delightful, love.”

Buffy’s face erupted into a wide grin. “You would as well, wouldn’t you, plan to kill the Council with me just to make me feel better. Would you go through with it?”

He could see her curiosity had been piqued and smiled as he looked down at the marks on her neck, now visible to the world again, and then up into her eyes. Part of him knew she wasn’t being serious, she’d never let him kill a human, not even this Quentin bloke she’d been talking angry words about during most of their journey from her house to the Magic Box.

“Say the word, baby, I’d do anything you commanded.” He purred the words at her and watched a naughty smile replace her silly grin.

“I’ll hold you to that.” Buffy started walking towards the Magic Box and smiled as Spike just muttered something and then followed her.


Buffy glared at the little bell above to shop door as it announced their arrival. She’d only been here a handful of times and it was already starting to bug her. She wondered if there was any way to get Giles to remove it.

Something told her that he liked the bell and it would be staying.

Maybe she could start coming in the back entrance via the training room.

Walking down the two steps that led from the upper section of the Magic Box, down to where her friends had gathered around the round wooden table, Buffy began to wonder what they were going to be discussing. There didn’t seem much to discuss since the only new information they had gained from their meeting with the Council had shown that the First was invulnerable.

“Everyone here?” Buffy looked at Xander and Anya as they sat at the table and then glanced at Giles where he stood near the cash register. “No Willow…guess she still needs a little time.”

Spike gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze as he moved past her to sit on the stairs to the restricted section. Buffy smiled as he perched there--it had clearly become his favoured place to watch them all from.

There was something distant about it; it seemed to put him outside the group when he sat there--as though he was on the outside looking in.

“The Council aren’t with us.” Buffy announced and saw a frown settle on Xander’s face. “It seems what Giles and I did was unforgivable in their eyes…or at least Spike’s prediction of hoop jumping wasn’t far off.”

She glanced over her shoulder at him and found he was staring at her intently, it made her stomach flip to see him so attentive to her and made her realise that she was acting as the bridge between the group. Little by little, everyone was accepting Spike, and less and less, she had to work in order to get the team to mesh like she wanted it to. Right now, however, things weren’t as smooth as she would have liked. The outburst by Spike had set him back with Giles, but at the same time, Xander had shown more interest in letting Spike into the group.

One step forwards, two steps back.

Buffy sighed.

That was the story of her life.

“The Council did, however, inform us that the First is incorporeal.”

“Like a ghost? The ghost of evil past?” Xander raised his brows in interest as he looked at the ex-Watcher.

“More like a poltergeist kind of deal I’m suspecting.” Buffy offered and then looked back at Spike for his opinion.

Spike’s brows contracted into a look that could only be perceived as scepticism.

She tried to shrug it off as Giles continued.

“Yes, Xander. It’s come to light that the First is unable to physically touch something, it’s a ghost…of sorts…only it can appear in any shape it chooses, so long as that person has died.” Giles walked over to the table and looked over at Buffy.

“It appeared to Angel as me. This is what we need to be on guard against, it could come after any of us and try to turn us against each other.” She stated flatly as she looked around the group. “Or…it could look like Spike…or Angel.”

Spike raised his brows as all eyes were suddenly on him--if Buffy wanted to find a way to lower people’s trust in him, she’d hit the nail on the head.

He intimated that he was very much corporeal by grabbing hold of the railings and giving everyone a look that was full of ‘see’.

Buffy just smiled. “We know it’s you Spike…at least I know it’s you…this bond we share, if it wasn’t you I don’t think I’d feel this way inside.”

Spike narrowed his eyes and he cocked his head to one side as he looked at her. He loved hearing her admitting out loud that she liked the claim they had on each other.

“But it can’t hurt us, right?” Anya looked worried as she considered the possibilities. “I mean, I heard about the fight in Los Angeles, Buffy and Spike fought something in order to rescue Angel’s sorry behind.”

Spike smiled at Anya for saying such a thing about Angel and she found herself suddenly blushing with shyness.

“It uses Bringers and possibly other agents of evil to do its work. For all we know it could have a whole army of them, waiting to be unleashed on Sunnydale. But other than that, the First can’t hurt us.” Giles looked pleased until Xander started laughing.

It started as a quiet chuckle and everyone looked at him where he was looking down at the table. His low chuckle gradually became a deep laugh and Buffy found Spike standing beside her with an intense look on his face.

Xander stood slowly.

Spike and Buffy tensed as he raised his head.

Black swirled where Xander’s eyes used to be, his mouth twisted into a maniacal grin as he stood before them.

Buffy moved to race towards him but Spike caught hold of her wrist and held her back.

“Don’t.” Spike hissed and Xander’s head jerked to face them.

Even though Buffy couldn’t tell if Xander was looking at them from his eyes, she could feel the intensity of his gaze, like a darkness wrapping itself around her and closing in. She backed towards Spike in an effort to protect herself from the intensity of the negative emotions Xander was evoking in her but found she couldn’t escape.

Anya looked horrified as she stared wide-eyed at her boyfriend. She backed away until she was almost hiding in the corner by the bookshelf.

Buffy glanced at Giles where he had also backed away, leaving Spike and herself nearest to Xander.

“What’s wrong, Xander?” Buffy said calmly in an attempt to hide her nerves about what was happening and saw his head twitch as his grin grew wider.

His eyes fixed on her in an empty stare and she found herself thinking that it looked as though someone had poked his eyes out.

“I don’t think Xander’s home, love.” Spike said directly into her head and she grasped hold of his hand. “You can feel it, just as good as I can…you know what’s going on.”

“But the Council…they said it was incorporeal.”

“And it is…” Spike started but was cut off as his senses picked up on the growing anger emanating from Xander.

“Think you know…weaklings…sickening me…poisoning me…love…friendship…hope…all will be crushed. No soul for the soulless, no love for the lonely…no future perfect…death, I’ll bring you that gift on wings of blood and terror.”

Buffy didn’t like the sound of that. Her heart pounded harder against her chest as she tried to figure out what she could do. There had to be something she could do to save Xander from whatever fate the First had chosen for him.

“What is it you want?” Buffy asked shakily as she tried to look around for something, anything she could use to bring Xander back.

Only she didn’t know how to do that.

Panic was starting to consume her and the sense of fear she felt about losing her friend was overwhelming.

“Little girl lost.” Xander spat in her direction, his voice sounding distorted as he chuckled to himself. “And a vampire without a cause…” His gaze moved to rest on Giles. “A man without knowledge…” He turned to look at Anya. “And one stripped of my power.”

“What is it you want?” Buffy tried again and found his attention moving back to her.

“To show you something…this is just the start…all this, your world, so bright…so dead…so hopeless…” Xander moved across the room and tensed his jaw as he smashed open the case below the cash register. Reaching in, he took hold of one of the knives and stared at it appreciatively. “I’ll take it piece by piece, loved one by loved one, until you beg me to take you, too…”

Buffy struggled to break free from Spike’s grasp as she watched Xander grinning as he moved back towards the table. Her eyes widened in horror as she realised Spike wasn’t going to let her go to Xander, that he wouldn’t let her put herself at risk and there was nothing she could do but watch as her friend placed his hand down on the table and splayed his fingers out.

“No…” Buffy shook her head as tears welled up in her eyes. She wriggled as Spike grabbed hold of her shoulders and tried to restrain her. “No!”

Spike frowned in disgust as the knife cut through Xander’s little finger with a noise all too familiar to himself--the wet cracking of bone.

He looked around the room at the others. Anya had worked herself into hysterics and was sobbing in the corner, curled up and holding her knees. Giles was frozen to the spot with a look of horror on his face. And Buffy, she was frantically trying to hold on but he could feel the raw emotions ripping through her, paralysing her as she desperately tried to figure out what to do.

He couldn’t let her run to Xander like she wanted to.

He couldn’t let her risk her life when a safer answer would present itself.

He looked down at the ring on his finger and then at the knife in Xander’s hand.

He grinned.

Buffy felt her chest tighten as she screamed out to Xander, hoping he’d hear her and he’d be able to free himself from the grip of the First. As he cut into his ring finger, bile rose up in her throat and all she could do was stare blankly at the dismembered finger and the blood seeping from his hand.

Suddenly the world seemed silent.

No noise reached her ears.

Nothing made sense.

She just stared blankly at the scene in front of her as though she couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

Spike felt her slip away and didn’t wait any longer to make his move.

Letting go of her shoulders, he dashed towards Xander as he was about to chop his third finger off and punched him as hard as he could across the jaw.

Xander slumped into unconsciousness.

Buffy blinked and the whole world came rushing in again, sound crashing in around her as she looked down at her friend where he lay on the floor.

“Hospital.”

She found Spike in front of her, his hand on her shoulder again as he tried to shake some sense into her.

“We need to get him to the hospital, baby…come on…you in there?”

Giles roused himself and felt his resolve towards Spike ebb away as he watched him dealing with Buffy so affectionately.

“Pet, I know this is bad, but you’re in there, right? Don’t do this again.” Spike didn’t bother hiding the frantic note in his voice as he watched his mate staring blankly at the prone form of her friend.

Buffy gasped as she took in a deep lungful of air and came back to the world.

“Spike?” She blinked again and saw the relief in his eyes. She watched as Giles dashed to the phone and then her eyes came to rest on Anya.

She was moving slowly, tears streaking her face as she crawled on hands and knees towards her boyfriend.

Buffy’s heart went out to her and she impulsively flung her arms around Spike’s neck, holding him tightly as she cried against his throat.

Spike held her gently, feeling each sob rack her body and pressing little kisses to her neck and hair.

“It’s okay, baby, it’s over…” He purred gently into her ear and wrapped one hand around the back of her head, holding her to him as she continued to cry.

Buffy pulled back and wiped her eyes as she listened to Giles trying to get hold of an ambulance. She looked down at Xander where he lay unconscious but safe thanks to Spike, and then looked at Anya as she stroked his hair soothingly, tears flowing freely as she whispered words to him that Buffy couldn’t quite hear.

Looking up into Spike’s eyes, she felt the panic return. The First had threatened them, threatened her with a promise that it would take her loved ones person by person until she was alone. What it had done to Xander had just been a warning; it had wanted to prove that it could hurt her friends and that she was powerless to stop it.

She stared down at Xander with tears blurring her vision.

It would kill them all.

Would tear down her world, little by little.

Stripping her of the people she needed.

And the moment it took Spike.

Would be the moment she’d fall.

Burying herself in his arms, she listened to the sound of the ambulance’s sirens as it approached.

Spike was right; it was over.

For now.

Review This Story/Chapter!

It only takes a minute to send me feedback, but it makes my whole day. Simply fill in the form below: