Love In Vein: Book Two - Chapter 30

Buffy rubbed her eyes as she slowly woke. Blinking them open, she gave herself a moment to get her bearings. She was in the back of a car, the sun was rising outside the window and she could feel the early morning rays struggling to warm her skin.

Opening her eyes wide, she shuffled to the edge of the seat and leaned her elbows against the backs of the seats in front of her.

“How are my two favourite guy--oh!” Buffy looked from Giles to Spike and raised her brows as he growled quietly in his sleep and twitched. “Aww…”

“I would hardly call him cute.” Giles said in a tone that led Buffy to suspect that Spike had given him a hard time while she’d been sleeping.

“Come on, Giles, look at the way his hands twitch when he growls. He’s like a little puppy dog dreaming of chasing his tail.” She smiled from ear to ear as Giles rolled his eyes.

“A puppy dog that is more likely to be chasing someone else’s tail, not his own.” He answered in a matter of fact voice and Buffy shrugged.

“He always growls in his sleep, it doesn’t mean he’s dreaming about chasing people.” Buffy looked over at Spike and let her fingers idly play against his shoulder as he sniffed and growled quietly again.

“Mmm Buffy…” Spike murmured and Buffy’s eyes flew wide as she realised he might not be dreaming about chasing people but he was certainly dreaming about her in some fashion.

She nudged him and silently hoped it would stop whatever pleasant dream he was having, because judging by the way he’d said her name she figured it was as pleasant as dreams could get.

“You two get along well? How long has he been asleep?” Buffy inquired and turned her attention back to Giles, watching him as he concentrated on the road.

“He made a few…sardonic…remarks and then as soon as the sun rose, he fell asleep.” Giles looked amused as he glanced briefly at the sleeping vampire next to him--it had been almost fun countering every one of Spike’s comments about him, part of him had actually enjoyed the banter that filled the car.

It reminded him of old times, when he was Ripper and he worked with Ethan, among others.

“Guess he’s still trying to get over the whole call of sunrise thing. Some days he manages to stay awake…others, the poor guy just can’t help himself. Takes time to adjust, I suppose.” Buffy realised before the end of her sentence that she didn’t really sound like she was talking about the Spike that Giles knew. She was still trying to come to terms with being affectionate around her mate in front of her ex-Watcher and the small show of tenderness towards the vampire had just come out of nowhere.

Spike didn’t even seem that deadly to her anymore. She knew he was a killer, perfectly capable of tearing a human limb from limb with his bare hands, but he never showed that side to her. Since their bonding, he’d been loyal and truthful around her, he’d let out a side of him that she’d never thought could exist and she felt honoured that he let her see the real him.

The ‘him’ she was talking about when she’d said he was essentially still trying to get used to being in her world. She’d taken him out of his element, stolen him from the comforting night and place him into the harsh light of day and now she was watching him as he struggled to adapt to his new surroundings. He wasn’t made for sunshine, for meetings with the gang and group work. He was inherently a loner. But still, he had never seemed as comfortable around his vampire family as he was around his new one.

She was reminded again that he had taken such great steps to be with her, he had tried to go against his nature in order to win over her friends for her sake. Spike didn’t need to be nice to them; he didn’t care if they accepted him into the fold. All he cared about was herself and the fact she wanted her friends to accept him--it meant something to her and therefore he was willing to make the effort and go against his nature by working with humans.

She really had changed him.

Yet, he seemed exactly the same as he’d always done.

She didn’t see the times she’d watched him interacting with her friends as weird. It seemed as though it always should have been this way--Spike working alongside them for the greater good.

Buffy smiled as he snorted in his sleep again. Watching his profile, she traced the outline of it with her eyes, memorising the way the sun played on his features and the how beautiful he looked while sleeping.

He’d changed his whole world in order to be with her.

To be loved by her.

To be hers.

And she loved him intensely for it.


A warm feeling of affection and the sensation of fingers lightly caressing his cheek roused Spike. His lips curved into a sleepy smile as he rolled his head to lean into her touch and focused on how it felt to have her so loving towards him.

“Morning, baby.” Spike murmured and captured her hand with his own, bringing it to his lips so he could press a long kiss to it.

Buffy couldn’t help the wide smile that stretched across her face as a feeling of warmth spread through her.

“Morning, baby, to you, too.” She lightly kissed his temple and then moved out of his way as he stretched as best he could in the cramped confines of Giles’ car.

“We there yet?” Spike tried to force the tiredness from his body as he blinked sleepily.

“Just about.” Buffy replied as she watched the world going by outside the window and began wondering what they were going to find at the office--her mind brought up images that sent a chill running up her spine.

Spike patted her hand gently as he sensed the nerves building inside her. “Nothing to be scared about, love…I’m sure everything is fine.”

Buffy was so far into her own little world that for a moment she was taken aback by his knowing how exactly she felt. As his words gradually got through her tired brain, she nodded in agreement, even though she was still a bundle of nerves inside.

She didn’t know why she had felt the need to agree with his words. She knew he hadn’t been convinced by the tiny nod of her head and that he could still easily sense the feelings inside her. A part of her wanted to reassure him that she wasn’t only thinking of Angel and that made her want to squash the nerves inside her, but instead it only brought fresh ones--ones that were all about Spike.

The last time they had been here hadn’t ended in the greatest of ways. She had been forced to act like a bridge between the two vampires and even with her treading the fine line as best she could, things had still blown up in her face. Being back in LA was making the feeling in her stomach worsen and she was beginning to wish that they had decided to wait a while longer--to give Angel the chance to contact her so she didn’t have to do this, because bringing Spike back to a place full of bad memories could spell trouble.

And it wasn’t going to be with a lonely capital ‘T’, all the other letters would be right there with it.

Spike looked over his shoulder at her, his expression full of concern as she stared blankly at the road ahead of them. He could feel the muddled emotions swimming around inside her and they seemed to be calling his name. He couldn’t stop reaching out to her and sensing them, had to know what was happening in her head at every second as they approached Angel’s office.

It wasn’t petty jealousy this time.

Deep down inside he knew they weren’t going to find Angel there.

This time all he could feel was concern for his mate and he wanted to stroke her hair in an attempt to smooth her feelings. Bringing her to LA was probably a mistake. He should have left her back at Giles’ apartment and gone alone with her ex-Watcher to see what was going down in LA, but he knew if he had done that she would have been madder than hell at him.

It was probably best this way. She would be able to see for herself what was happening and they might be able to dig up some clues about the prophecy while they were here.

As the car pulled up outside the building, he felt Buffy’s nerves peak as her hand trembled slightly against his shoulder and he caught it tightly in his own.

“Things are fine, baby…we’ll go in, see what’s happening and I’m sure it will all be fine, just a big mistake.” Spike wanted to bite his tongue as the words poured out. He hated lying to Buffy.

“You don’t have to pretend, Spike. We both know something isn’t right, lets just hope it isn’t as bad as I think it is.” Buffy gave his hand a squeeze and then slipped from the car as Giles let her out.

Spike heaved a sigh.

This wasn’t going to be fun.

Not only did he hate seeing Buffy so upset about Angel and her friends, he hated being back at a building that seemed to give him nothing but grief.

Stepping out of the car, he moved around it to stand next to Buffy as she stared up at the façade of the offices.

Buffy gave herself a moment to gather her feelings and then looked directly at the large front doors.

“Giles, you take the upstairs rooms, see if anyone is there. Spike, check out the back and the…” Buffy swallowed hard and tried to force the word from her lips. Extending her senses, she locked onto Spike’s feelings and monitored them carefully as she continued. “…Basement. See if there are any clues there as to what we’re dealing with.”

Spike just nodded, his feelings kept under a tight yolk.

“I’ll check out the office.” She said with determination and waited for the others to disappear.

Giles headed straight into the building but Spike remained near her.

Placing his large hand gently on her shoulder, he watched her closely. “It will be fine, baby, even if I have to make it fine.”

Buffy placed her hand over his. “I know it will, Spike. First step is always the hardest, right?”

Spike thought about that in context to their situation. The first step had definitely been the hardest, the admittance of his feelings and what she meant to him had been a seriously difficult step and he’d almost tripped on it.

“Always.” Spike smiled through his worry and let his lips brush against hers briefly before heading towards the back of the building.

Buffy was alone.

A kiss still making her lips tingle and reminding her of the strength her mate gave to her, the support he continually offered.

She could do this.

Walking slowly up the steps, she pushed the front doors open and stepped in.


As she was rifling through the paperwork on Angel’s desk, Spike walked in from the back and she gave him a look that said she hadn’t found anything. He perched a cigarette on his lips and smiled wide.

“Find something?” Buffy asked as he moved around the table and leaned against the wall near where Giles was looking through the files.

“No sign of Angel, his cars gone.” Spike grinned, he couldn’t stop himself no matter how hard he tried.

“So what’s with the happy?” She gave him a confused look as she moved another set of papers into her ‘checked’ pile.

“My baby…purred like a pussycat for her daddy.” Spike continued to grin as he patted his pockets, searching for his lighter.

Buffy just gave him a roll of her eyes and carried on with her search for clues as to Angel’s whereabouts. She supposed she could take his car being gone as a good sign but at the same time, it could be a bad one. With or without a car, something terrible could have happened to him.

Spike frowned as he started pulling everything out of his pockets, his movements getting slightly frantic as he realised he couldn’t find his lighter. A flash of an image in his head placed it next to Buffy’s bed and he clenched his jaw.

As Spike growled, Buffy gave him a curious look. “Something wrong, baby?”

She’d felt the disappointment in him clearly alongside the frustration and she wanted to make it all go away as he stood there with an upset expression on his face.

“Bloody lighter.” Spike grumbled and then set about looking around the room, continuing his search for a light as Buffy continued her search for clues.

“Seems they’ve found something on Shanshu.” Giles raised his brows as he looked at the sheets of paper with scribbled notes on them and then picked up another with a series of equations. “And they appear to be fooling around with portals.”

“Portals?” Buffy had to admit she was curious now. She’d read a while back about portals to other dimensions and it was quite possible that the Shanshu prophecy could have been held somewhere off this world. Spike had mentioned a few things about Wolfram & Hart and using portals seemed to fit their modus operandi. She stared down at the blueprint of the Wolfram & Hart building that was spread across the desk in front of her. “Curiouser and curiouser.”

“It seems they knew the location of the prophecy scrolls, they had everything planned, the date on these notes is almost a week ago.”

“Angel called me to say he had a lead on the prophecy, something to do with a law firm, Wolfram & Hart.” Buffy said to Giles as her eyes followed Spike around the room, judging by the frustrated look on his face he really needed that cigarette and she wished she had a match so she could put him out of his misery.

Spike started pushing the papers on the table aside, searching for anything he could use to light a cigarette. He was starting to get so desperate he was considering taking the ring off and sticking his hand out into the sun.

He grinned as his eyes were arrested by a small book of matches. Picking it up, he tore one of the paper matches off the strip and struck it before bringing it up to the tip of his cigarette. Waving the match in the air in order to extinguish it, Spike sighed a breath of relief as the cigarette smoke burned his lungs and eased him.

Buffy caught hold of his hand as he went to pocket the matches. Holding it up in front of her, she plucked the book of matches from his fingers and stared at it.

“Buffy…” Giles held up a small pad with writing scribbled on it. “This was dated just two days ago, it mentions a dimensional portal and there are calculations, as though they were attempting to discover where there would be enough energy to open one.”

“Open one to where?” Buffy asked as she moved swiftly across the room with the book of matches still held firmly in her grasp.

“Pylea.” Giles stated and tried to read the scrawl. “It mentions not being able to use the original gateway, the bar is unstable. Maybe they mean its some kind of mystical energy bar, they need to find another.”

Buffy looked ready to agree to Giles’ theory until Spike pulled the matches from her hand and waved them in front of hers and Giles faces.

“Maybe they mean a sodding pub?” He dangled the matches and gave them both looks that said he couldn’t believe they’d managed to foil his best-laid plans in the past.

“What’s it say?” Buffy asked quickly to cover the silence and ease some of the embarrassment that Giles was clearly feeling.

Spike frowned down at the cover of the little book of matches and then looked at her.

“Caritas.”


Spike pushed the doors open and looked around the room, it was dank, dark and just a little on the Moulin Rouge side for him. He kept a close eye on Buffy as she walked past him and began looking around the bar, closely followed by Giles as he began to hunt for clues alongside her.

Spike froze.

A grin crept across his lips.

Why bother searching when you can just get all the answers in one go?

Leaning over the back of the bar, he hauled the young demon up by his collar and grinned at him.

“Morning, mate.” Spike sucked his cheeks in and gave him his best menacing look.

“M…M…” The small demon tried to get the words out but Spike didn’t have the patience.

“We’ll forgo the formalities. Looking for a vampire, wears lifts, brooding type, little too in love with hair gel?” He hauled the demon up so it was practically lying on the bar top.

“Ang…Angel?” The demon stuttered and Spike’s smile widened.

“That’ll be the poof, where is he?”

“He…”

“Wait…” Spike cut him off and looked over at Buffy. “Tell it to her, because I don’t rightly care.”

The young demon swallowed hard and then looked nervously at Buffy. “But she’s the Slayer.”

“I know that you nit. She’s my Slayer, so act all gentlemanly and you don’t get hurt.” Spike growled and slid into game face as he let go of the demons collar.

“O…O…okay.” He grabbed a half empty bottle of whisky off the counter and drank it down as quickly as he could before starting.

Spike raised his brows and gave him a little look that said he was impressed.

“A brown haired one…she was with the vampire, the light came and took her, left the others behind. They know the host, he helped them…showed them the way home.”

“Home? To Pylea?” Giles hazarded and the demon nodded.

Spike just sighed as he looked around the bar, letting his attention drift away from the conversation Buffy and Giles were having with the demon. He squinted as he looked into the unlit area by the stage, the seats were scattered all over the place and in the dim light, he swore he could see something of interest.

Moving away from the lit area by the bar, Spike wandered into the shadows. He slowly walked across the room and then crouched down by the spot that had caught his attention.

“This doesn’t look good.”

Running his fingers over the charred ground, Spike brought them up for inspection and frowned as he rubbed his fingertips together. The black dirt that was coating them smelt like burnt popcorn and he closed his eyes, almost feeling the remnant of energy that buzzed in this spot.

“Portal, bloody big one at that.” Spike said quietly as he heard the footsteps come to a halt beside him.

“This must be the one the demon was telling us about.” Giles said as he bent down next to Spike and mimicked his move, touching the burnt ground and then bringing his hand up to his face.

“Few days old by the feel of it, this thing used a lot of power. Whoever made it knew what they were doing.” Spike looked over at Giles and noticed the strange look in his eyes; it was either the dark and he was mistaken, or the ex-Watcher looked impressed with his knowledge of portals.

Spike looked over his shoulder at Buffy; she had the demon by the collar and was holding him tightly as she continued to question him. From the look on her face Spike could tell she wasn’t happy with the answers she was getting and he smiled at how alike they were when it came to their method of questioning--grab demon, haul demon onto bar, give demon best menacing look.

Looking back at Giles, he gestured toward the scar the portal had left. “So what else did the little fella say?”

“Nothing worth hearing.” Buffy said as she appeared behind them.

Spike stood up and turned to face her. He could hear in her voice that she was disappointed, but her emotions told her she was relieved--clearly, Angel was undead and well somewhere.

Buffy looked down at the burnt circle on the floor and then at Giles.

“I have to get back to the library to meet Willow, we’ll take Spike’s car back. See if you can dig up anything on Shanshu, this Pylea place or whatever crawled out of this portal. I’ll call later and we’ll do some more research.” She waited for Giles to nod in agreement with her request before she grabbed Spike’s hand and started for the door.

She was halfway down the block when she looked down at their joined hands. It hit her that Spike had entwined his fingers with hers and was holding her hand tightly.

She’d never figured him as the holding hands type really. All the times she’d seen him around, or fought him, he’d never once come across as the kind of guy who would enjoy the feeling of being so connected to someone else.

That’s what it felt like when his fingers were locked with hers, his palm pressing into her one so firmly. She felt like it was a point where they were really connected, this time physically rather than emotionally.

She realised it wasn’t something she’d really experienced before; Angel hadn’t been big on the handholding. Seeing her hand held tightly in that of the man she loved made a warmth spread through her, a sense of normality seeping into every inch of her.

This is what people in love did; they held hands, helped each other out and had each other’s backs, they looked after each other. In her and Spike’s case it was just a little more extreme--having your partners back meant ensuring the latest demon that was attacking you didn’t have that one good day it was looking for, helping each other out meant fighting beside one another for the good of mankind.

But the love was there, the comforting embrace in the night, the handholding and the tender kisses. It was all right there alongside the having each other’s back, taking care of each other, and protecting each other no matter how bad the odds were.

She would always be the Slayer, he’d always be a vampire, and things were never going to change.

She’d spent years looking for ‘normal’ and this year she’d given up, only to have it hit her in the face.

There was no such thing as ‘normal’--it didn’t exist. Normal was a fallacy, something people aspired to but knew they would never attain--it was held just out of reach so they would always strive to reach it even though they didn’t know what it was.

If they all kicked back and gave up, maybe they too would realise what she had.

Normal was what you made it.

This was her very own version of normal. She’d found it the moment she’d stopped looking for it, and so what if the one who gave it to her was a vampire?

This was her normal.

And it felt good.

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: