Love In Vein: Book Three - Chapter 19

Buffy woke with a start, gasping in a lungful of air as she shot up into a sitting position. She stared wide-eyed at the wall directly in front of her and then realised that Spike wasn’t the only person in the room with her.

She took deep, steadying breaths as she fought to get her heart rate back under control and tried to smile at Willow and Tara.

“You okay?” Willow asked as she sat down on the bed beside her, her face a mask of concern. Her friend was covered in sweat, beads of it were running down her cheeks and peppering her forehead.

Buffy nodded. She couldn’t find her voice. The images of her vision were still too vivid to even consider trying to speak about them to someone. She looked over at Spike where he was still sleeping soundly next to her. His feelings were calm and she latched onto them, hoping that it would make hers follow suit.

She swallowed and looked back at her friend, finally finding her smile.

“Bad dream.” It felt wrong to make it out to be much less than it really was but she didn’t want Willow worrying about her unnecessarily. When she could bring herself to talk about it, she would, but until then, she wanted to bury her head in the sand and forget that it happened.

She hadn’t seen a river of tormented people, or the herds that the centaurs were prodding with their metal rods.

She wasn’t carried across to a haunted wood by two demonic angels while the third revelled in brutally abusing the people in the river.

A frown wrinkled her brow as she tried to remember what the angel had told her.

Dis.

Phlegethon.

Suicide.

She hoped Giles would know what it all meant.

“Giles told me you two were together again now, that he’d escaped and come to you.” Willow nodded toward Spike where he was still sleeping soundly and then gave Buffy another look of concern. She brushed her fingers across her friend’s forehead and furrowed her brows as she felt how cold she was. “I thought the dreams didn’t come when you were with Spike?”

“They don’t usually…it might have been triggered by something that my stupid brain made me imagine when Spike was staring in the mirror at the people tormenting him.” Buffy flinched internally and hoped that Willow wouldn’t pick up on what she’d said. She knew it was too much to wish for—her friend had always been the observant one.

“People?” Willow could see that Buffy hadn’t meant to say it and that she didn’t want to talk about it, but she had to question what she’d said.

“This goes no further than this room.” Buffy warned her and cursed herself for what she was about to do. She glanced at Spike and then at Willow. He wouldn’t mind her friend knowing. He’d always had a soft spot for her and she knew that Willow wouldn’t tell anyone.

She had to tell someone. She was bursting to get it off her chest.

“Not even Tara.” Buffy added, knowing that her friend was liable to discuss everything in bed with her lover.

Willow motioned a cross over her heart. “Promise.”

Buffy nodded. Willow’s promises were always kept and she had every confidence that this time wouldn’t be any different.

She shifted closer to her friend and glanced at Spike again before taking a deep breath.

“It’s about Spike.” She started, hoping that he wouldn’t wake up during her telling Willow about his soul. “He’s different now…and he’s paying a heavy price for it, but we’re making progress and he’s almost back to normal now.”

“What is it?” Willow leaned toward her, encouraging her friend to talk about Spike.

“He went and did something, something that he needed to do in order to save me at some point in the future and it’s all related to the visions I’ve been having. I just really need to tell someone…I have to get this off my chest no matter how angry he gets at me for telling someone that he has his…”

“Soul back?” Willow said with a knowing smile and Buffy’s face dropped.

She stared at her redheaded friend for a few seconds, letting it sink in.

“You knew?”

“Sumerian…he was talking about people and being punished for what he’d done, and then he mentioned that a soul is a curse and not a blessing.” Willow continued to smile reassuringly as she took hold of her friend’s hand. “But don’t worry, Tara and I won’t tell anyone, not even Spike has to know.”

“That was it wasn’t it, that moment in the cell where you gave Tara a look that said she shouldn’t have said what she had. That was because you knew about his soul and you didn’t want me to know. Why?”

“I thought it best that you found out from him, rather than hearing it from me. I thought that maybe it would upset you to not be able to see the change in him…I should have told you…”

“No…it’s fine, really. An angel told me. It knew that I needed to know in order to help Spike and apparently Spike had some divine assistance allotted to him by the big man upstairs and it came in the form of me being shown what Spike had done.” Buffy explained everything as short as possible. She’d already told Giles all the details once, and then Spike; she couldn’t face saying it all over again.

Especially when she had other things on her mind.

She stared unseeingly at the far wall and remembered everything that she’d seen in her vision tonight, and then thought about what Willow had said. She didn’t usually have visions when she slept in Spike’s arms.

Maybe it was just a bad dream.

But she would still tell Giles anyway, just in case it was something more and he could help her find the answers to the questions she had.

She looked over at the alarm clock beside the bed and realised that it was still early, barely past two in the afternoon.

“You wanna go see Giles? Spike will be out for a little longer and I’m sure he’ll find me as soon as he wakes up. Telepathy is back, along with the handy tracking feature the claim has built into it. I can tell where he is at all times.” Buffy grinned as she thought about how handy it really was. It was nice being able to keep tabs on her mate. It was comforting after the long months apart.

Willow nodded, smiling all the while and seeing in her friend’s eyes that she still needed constant contact with Spike. She couldn’t blame her for becoming like that. If she had been apart from Tara for that long and without knowing where she was, she would have felt the same way.

Buffy slipped out of bed and walked into the bathroom, leaving Willow in the bedroom with Spike. Jumping into the shower, she washed quickly, scrubbing away the sweat and the lingering feeling of her vision.

Wandering around the room as she listened to Buffy in the shower, Willow found her eyes were constantly drawn to Spike. He looked so different from the last time she’d seen him, his appearance now back to how it used to be, and it felt as though he’d never left.

Felt as though the long months of grieving her friend had gone through hadn’t happened, but they had.

She was curious to know where Spike had gone when he was pulled through the portal after the First, and she knew in time that all would be revealed, just like it always was. Looking down at his hands where they were resting on his chest, she noticed that the bandages on his fingers were gone now, along with the manacles that had been used to restrain him.

She also noticed that Buffy hadn’t given him the ring back yet.

Didn’t she trust him? Did she need to know more about where he’d been, or how stable he was before she gave it to him?

Willow’s thoughts were interrupted as Buffy walked out of the bathroom. She offered her a warm smile and received one in return.

“He’s looking good…” She started and then rolled her eyes as Buffy gasped playfully. “Not in that sense of the word. I’m still very much off men, even if they are as charming as your one.”

Buffy smiled and then looked down at her man where he was sleeping. She wondered if that’s what he was now—a man. To her he had always been a man with a demon inside him, not a demon in the shape of a man. There had always been something about Spike that made her believe that he could be good, and that he could be a man first and a vampire second if he wanted. He had always shown her such deep emotions and now she knew that they could only get deeper.

It made her wonder if he now loved her more than she loved him, if he had more feeling than her.

It wasn’t true, at least not when it came to her feelings for him, but she couldn’t help thinking it all the same.

Dressing in a pair of blue jeans and a little white cotton shirt, Buffy quickly tied her hair back into a ponytail and slipped her boots on. She sat down on the edge of the bed next to Spike and pressed a soft kiss to his temple.

“Sweet dreams.” She whispered and smiled as he twitched and made a little noise in his sleep.

Willow moved to the door as Buffy stood up and she held it open for her. Buffy closed the door behind her, noting how quiet it was in the corridor and on this level in general. She knew that the members of the Council weren’t willing to risk their necks by remaining near Spike when he was free to roam and had all moved off this floor.

Walking down the corridor with Willow beside her, Buffy let her thoughts and feelings remain with her mate and refused to think about what she had to tell Giles when they saw him.

Giles looked up as the door opened and gave Willow and Buffy a smile as they walked in. They both seemed so much older now, so much more grown up than their years. He was surprised by how easily they had settled into their new lives, one as the Slayer and mate of a vampire, the other as a powerful Wicca.

Tara offered them both wide smiles, not bothering to hide how happy she was to see them. She liked Giles, but there was only so many times that she could listen to him telling her the history of the Council.

Smiling at them both, Buffy held it there for a few seconds longer before it became too hard to keep doing it. She let her face fall and didn’t even attempt to stifle the yawn that escaped her.

Slumping down into a seat at the table, she propped her head up on her hand and looked around, hoping to find coffee somewhere in the room.

Giles noticed how tired she was and realised the Willow had clearly woken her from her rest, although it didn’t look as though she’d had much sleep.

The room was silent.

All eyes seem to fall on her, as though they were awaiting a command or something similar.

She closed her eyes briefly and then looked straight at Giles.

“I had a dream, possibly a vision, but I really hope it was just a bad dream.” Her eyes dropped to the table as everyone stared at her. She wished they wouldn’t. She didn’t like seeing their faces full of worry and she especially didn’t like their fear being directed at her.

From the way she was sitting, with her arm close about her and the other one supporting her head, and her eyes downcast, Giles could see that Buffy wasn’t joking when she said she hoped it was just a bad dream.

She hadn’t looked so shaken up in a week or so now and he’d thought her visions had left her for a while.

“What happened?” He said in a gentle, encouraging tone.

“I met three angels.” She started and ignored the way her friends stared at her as though she was a freak in a sideshow. “There was a gate tower. It was falling apart almost and was incredibly tall. Everywhere was black and ashes and fire. The angels led me into the city walls and there was a rundown village there.”

She realised that at the moment it didn’t sound too bad, but if they had seen it, if they had felt like she had, they wouldn’t be looking so complacent.

They wouldn’t be looking like she was telling them a bedtime story.

Buffy gave herself a moment before continuing. “They were herding people…there were centaurs there and they were herding people and torturing them. There was a river of people and the bigger of the angels began to slash at them, hurting them and making them bleed to create the water. One of the angels who carried me across the river called it something…”

“What?” Giles asked eagerly, intrigued as to what Buffy had witnessed.

She kept her eyes fixed on his. “Phlegethon.”

Buffy wasn’t surprised when Giles blanched slightly. She’d been suspecting for some time now that he was withholding something from her and it would be just typical that it would be something to do with the impending apocalypse.

“Tell me.” She said in a commanding tone.

Giles just stood up and ascended the steps to the upper level of books. He took the one in question down and brought it with him when he went back to the table. Placing it down in front of Buffy, he watched her face as she stared at the book.

She’d been expecting some ancient text or a scroll, but instead he’d placed this in front of her.

A story.

Willow looked as confused as she did. She might not have read the book in question, but she knew the title and she knew that it wasn’t the kind of book they usually found answers in.

Giles flicked through the book until he hit the seventh circle. Adjusting his glasses on his nose, he bent over the book and pointed at the diagram.

“The river Phlegethon, which was said to be made of boiling blood and contain the souls that had been condemned to circle seven-point-one, the circle of the violent against their neighbours.” He said in a matter of fact tone that had both Buffy and Willow looking incredulous.

“Are you joking? You’re kidding me, right? This can’t be true.” Buffy looked stunned as she stared at the diagram, seeing everything there that she’d witnessed in her vision. There was the black gate tower and the river, and the woods of suicide.

“But it’s a story.” Willow looked at Giles as though he was the one that had gone insane.

“Many believe that Dante had witnessed the things he wrote about in Inferno, that he had travelled through the underworld. He came out the other end a different man. It was around that time that there was an apocalypse that the Slayer in those days averted with some difficulty. The beast referred to in the Watchers books was apparently inhabiting a weak human vessel and was therefore unable to achieve its full power and strength. It was killed, the facts were written down and no one thought anything of it. They didn’t believe the beast would attempt to rise again.” Giles explained as best he could but he could see that Buffy needed more information in order to be convinced.

“What is this beast?” Buffy asked and could see straight away that Giles didn’t know. “It doesn’t matter, I’m sure it will make itself known soon enough.”

“Evening.” Spike greeted the room as he walked in through the doors, a smirk etched on his face.

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