Love In Vein: Book Three - Chapter 21

Spike threw Buffy to the floor and covered her with his body, his hands covering his head as he listened to the beating of wings above them. For a moment he thought that it would pass them by, that it would leave them alone, but the next thing he knew he was being carried into the air, the angel’s claws piercing his sides.

Buffy rolled onto her back the second she felt the weight of Spike disappear. Her eyes widened in fear as she saw him vanishing into the dark expanse of sky above her. She scrambled to her feet immediately and searched the heavens for a sign of them.

She grimaced as something wet landed on her face and tentatively touching her fingertips to the damp spot on her cheek, she felt sick when she saw they were covered in blood.

Spike was bleeding.

She could feel the sharp stabs of pain in her sides as if they were alone and could almost taste the blood in her mouth.

Flashes of images from their mating came back to her and she was stunned to find herself licking the blood off her finger. Hastily shaking her hand away from her, she wiped the rest of the blood on her cheek onto the sleeve of her denim jacket.

She didn’t want to go there, didn’t want to think about why she still harboured a desire to taste his blood.

She wondered if this was how he felt, craving the sweetness and metal of blood.

Shaking those thoughts away, she focused her eyes on the sky again and tried to pinpoint Spike and the angel.

Spike landed a hard punch on the angel’s cheek and growled. “Stay in your own bloody world.”

It sneered at him and dug its claws in deeper, grinning as Spike flung his head back and let out an ungodly scream.

Spike gave himself a second to recover and then sneered right back at the angel. Drawing his arm back, he landed a solid punch on the angel’s cheek and smirked when it made a cracking noise.

The angel regarded him for a moment and then let go.

Spike’s smile turned into a look of fear as he realised that although he had succeeded in getting free of the angel, he hadn’t taken into account the fact that he was nearly a hundred foot from the ground.

He managed to turn in time to see the ground coming up at him fast and before he could let out the tiniest sound, it had knocked all the wind from him.

“Ow.” He groused and lay still for a few seconds as his body healed itself.

“Spike?”

He could hear her in the distance and she sounded like she’d felt the impact as keenly as he had.

A rush of wind and the sickening smell of sulphur told him that he had company and he pushed himself off he ground, slowly getting to his feet and trying to buy himself time to heal. He glanced down at the ring and smiled, silently thanking Buffy for choosing to give it back to him tonight.

Straightening up, he listened to his vertebrae cracking back into place as he stretched and then frowned at the angel where it stood just a few feet from him.

Buffy arrived in time to see Spike hit it hard across the face again. It didn’t seem to have much impact on the angel, it just closed its eyes briefly and then looked straight at Spike again as if it was challenging him to have another go.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to hit angels.” Buffy said as she eyed it cautiously. In its currently state, she couldn’t tell if it was one of the good ones or one of the bad ones.

It definitely wasn’t the one she had met the other night. This one was taller, thinner and wore a similar gladiatorial style garb as the demonic one.

It was also sneering wickedly at Spike.

“It isn’t an angel anymore.” Spike said as he wiped the corner of his mouth on the back of his fingers and stared at the blood for a few seconds before spitting the rest of it at the angel. “It’s a filthy soul sucking half breed.”

Buffy’s eyes widened as both the angel and Spike shifted into demonic form in such synchronisation that she couldn’t tell who had transfigured themselves first.

Spike hissed at the angel at the same time it hissed at him, both of them sneering and snarling as they faced off with each other. It was obvious that the angel was confused, it couldn’t understand how he wasn’t dead yet and he wasn’t about to let it know about the ring.

The angel hissed again.

Buffy set her jaw and frowned as she understood what it was saying. “You can’t have him. I won’t let you!”

Spike gave her a confused look and wondered if she’d gone crazy too now. Before he had a chance to figure out what was going on, Buffy had run towards the angel and thrown a punch at it, only to get herself thrown backwards twenty foot and into the solid stone wall of a tomb.

Growling threateningly, Spike gave the angel a look that could kill and launched himself at it. He tackled it to the ground and pinned it face down in the dirt.

“You don’t touch her.” He roared at the angel and grabbed hold of the base of its wings as it tried to hit him with them. He grinned maliciously as the angel screamed out in pain, a sound similar to the shrill cry of a bird of prey. “Don’t like a little payback do you?”

Spike tugged harder on the angel’s wings until they made a wet cracking noise and blood began to spill from the small tears in the flesh around them.

“See how well you fly without these.”

A loud piercing cry filled Spike’s ears and the next thing he knew he was being thrown away from the angel. Quickly getting to his feet, he threw aside the one wing he’d managed to pull off its back and wiped his blood soaked hands on his jeans.

Before he had time to look up, the angel was on him, its talons digging deep into his side and slashing at him. Spike wrestled with it, trying to hold its claws at arms length but failing dismally. The angel tore frantically at Spike’s clothing, ripping it to shreds as it attempted to do the same to his flesh. The fact that Spike was healing as quickly as he was being wounded seemed to drive the angel on and before long Spike began to wonder if either of them could take much more of it. Growling with effort, he managed to get hold of one of its arms again and got his legs up enough that he was able to kick it off him. He moved swiftly, getting to his feet immediately and running straight for the angel. Throwing himself at it, he knocked it to the ground and wrestled with it until he was on top. He flinched in pain as its one remaining wing hit him hard across the back and then roared down at it as he punched it.

Extending his claws, Spike set about getting a little revenge for the damage the angel had done to him but every time he went to swipe at the angel, its wing beat against him.

Enough was enough.

Flipping the angel over so it was face down again, Spike stood on its back and pulled hard on the wing, grunting with effort as he did so. He dug his claws in to give himself better grip and shut out the ear splitting cries of pain coming from the angel. He moved his grip to lower down the wing and pulled with all his might until he stumbled backwards, taking the offending thing with him.

Looking down at the tattered and bloodied wing in his hands, Spike frowned as a bright light filled the area around the angel.

He looked up at the sky above them and then down at it where it was curled up and bleeding.

“Guess him upstairs wants a word.” Spike smirked and waved the wing at it as if saying ‘goodbye’. “Wouldn’t want to be you, mate.”

He grinned as the angel was hit by a bright bolt of light and screamed as it turned into nothing more than a handful of glittery particles.

A low moan caught Spike’s attention and he rushed immediately to Buffy’s side.

Buffy pressed her hand lightly to the side of her head as she sat up. Her brain was throbbing hard against her skull and it felt as though it was going to split open any second now. She tried to focus on her mate as he approached, but her eyes refused to cooperate and he remained a fuzzy blur until he finally crouched down beside her.

“You alright, baby?” Spike eased her hand away from her forehead and frowned at the deep gashed that was darting across it.

He purred as he instinctively slipped into game face and licked the wound clean.

Buffy smiled and closed her eyes. It had been too long since she felt as though someone was looking out for her, looking after her.

It felt nice.

“What happened?” She whispered the words as though speaking them any louder would make her head finally split open.

Spike gently caressed her shoulder and gave her a little smile before looking over his shoulder at the spot where the particles were still slowly settling.

“Someone was a bad little angel and had to go explain itself.”

“How?” Buffy frowned and tried to stand but found Spike’s hands stopping her.

“Rest a minute, love…you feel like hell.” Spike looked concerned as he brushed the hair away from the cuts that littered the side of her face.

“Keep forgetting you can see through the charade.” Buffy smiled as wide as she could manage without hurting herself and put her hand on his shoulder. “Just help me up?”

“I’ll do better than that.” Spike smiled and scooped her up into his arms. “No way I’m letting you walk home after that nasty knock.”

Buffy didn’t bother protesting, she just wrapped her arms about his neck and let her good cheek rest against his shoulder as he carried her over to the place where the angel had been. She looked down at the twinkling dust on the floor and then up at Spike.

“How?” She asked again.

“Stole its wings, made it mortal…the big boss can’t punish an angel, but it can punish a mortal.” Spike explained and could see another question forming in her head. He beat her to it. “Demons aren’t its jurisdiction, they belong to various hell gods and devils. The angels you’re meeting belong in hell, they were put there…”

“To guard the circles. I know. I’ve seen them in my visions and Giles mentioned something about them. They keep the captives of hell where they belong and stop them from escaping, only the angels are escaping now.” Buffy gave him a serious look as she thought about the connotations of that. “What happens if they all escape? Surely then the captives will be able to escape too?”

“Don’t think all the angels have gone bad, love…don’t fret about it now, we’ll talk more about it later.” Spike started with her down the path that led back to the entrance of the cemetery. “Least there’s one less to worry about now.”

“Suppose.” Buffy didn’t sound convinced. She was sure that something was going on in hell and that was the reason she was having the visions and the reason that the angels were walking the earth.

She needed to find out what was going on, needed to know exactly what this meant and if anything like this had been documented in the past. Giles had mentioned that there had been a great apocalypse a long time ago and that the then Slayer had averted it. How great an apocalypse could it be? To have angels involved and the higher powers it had to mean that it was an apocalypse of biblical proportions.

An apocalypse like the Shanshu prophecy mentioned?

Was this all leading to the moment where they’d discover just who out of Spike and Angel was destined to achieve mortality?

Did she really want Spike to be mortal?

It wasn’t her decision to make, but something inside her revolted against the idea of her mate becoming human. Something told her that if that happened then the bond they shared would be lost and she didn’t think she could live with that. She liked the bond she felt with Spike, loved the abilities it gave them and the reassurance it gave her. She needed to be able to know that she was loved without having to ask, needed to feel the things he felt on looking at her and wanted him to know how he made her feel without her even having to say one word.

Life without the bond would be too hard to adjust to.

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, she found Spike watching her with a mixture of concern and curiosity and she smiled at him. If the time came then she wouldn’t try and influence his decision, she would just learn to live with whatever choice he made.

She’d always love him, no matter what he did.

Come hell or high water, she’d love him.

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