Love In Vein: Book Three - Chapter 22

The next night Buffy was dying of boredom. Both her and Spike had been dragged into a meeting about god knows what and she was surrounded by at least two dozen over eager Watchers.

She stared hard at Lydia as she caught her watching Spike for what seemed like the millionth time. She was beginning to get more than a little irritated by the Watcher’s persistence and if things didn’t change soon, she was going to have to ensure in her own little way that Lydia learnt to keep her eyes off Spike. It would be a simple process really. Warn Lydia, Lydia ignores warning, punch Lydia.

Simple as that.

She smiled sinisterly at the Watcher and felt satisfied when she quickly averted her eyes.

Spike arched a brow at his mate. He was more than a little amused by how protective of him she was. He couldn’t blame her for acting the way she was, he’d be exactly the same if someone was showing interest in her.

His eyes moved to the door as it opened and a sandy haired boy walked in. There was something oddly familiar about him that Spike couldn’t quite place his finger on. Leaning sideways towards his mate, he whispered in her ear. “Who’s that?”

“Andrew.” Buffy whispered back out the corner of her mouth as she pretended to pay attention to the topic that Giles was droning on about. “He used to guard you. I meant to tell you he has a little crush on you.”

She giggled as Spike looked disturbed by the idea that a man who looked barely seventeen had a crush on him.

“Not like that, but it would be funny.” She smiled wide as he gave her an unimpressed look. She’d missed stirring trouble and scaring the hell out of him. “I think he idolises you or something like that. He got a little upset when I told him I was taking over feeding you and stuff.”

Spike’s eyes automatically dropped to her neck and he licked his lips. It had been a few days since he’d taken blood from her and he was starting to feel peckish again. Making a mental note to make a move on her later, he returned his attention to the boy.

Buffy had said she meant to tell him about Andrew and he got the feeling there were other things that she had neglected to mention to him.

She’d forgot to mention she could understand angels.

As the rest of the room stood and Buffy stood along with them, Spike followed her lead. He waited until they were out of earshot of the others and then caught her arm to stop her from walking.

“Something else you wanted to tell me?”

Buffy looked confused.

“How is it you knew what the angel was saying?” He cleared things up for her and saw her eyes widen marginally as she understood what he was asking.

“This.” She said simply and held up her arm, the silver and gold bracelet still firmly in place. “I told you I met an angel and it showed me what you did. It didn’t tell me why, it just told me that I needed to know in order to help you. It gave me this bit of bracelet that fitted perfectly with the part you gave to me and presto, I could understand it.”

Spike looked sceptical and then curious. Taking hold of her hand, he looked over the bracelet and then frowned as he recognised the symbols on it. He’d seen them so many times, on so many different things and every time he’d seen them it only meant bad things were going to happen.

Dropping her hand, he stepped backward and tensed his jaw as he looked at her.

“Spike? What’s wrong?” Buffy took a step towards him but he backed away, keeping the distance between them the same.

“That.” He pointed a shaky finger at it. “Them.”

Buffy watched in horror as he pressed his palm to his chest and screwed his face up in pain. She reached her hand out to him as he threw his head back and grasped his ears with both hands as he shouted at the ceiling.

“Leave me alone!”

She hurried to him as he collapsed to his knees, his hands still covering his ears as though he was trying to block out all sound and his eyes firmly shut.

“Make them go.” He whispered into his knees as she wrapped her arms around him, cradling him as he rocked back and forth.

Buffy looked up to see a hallway full of Watchers staring at them.

“Get the fuck out of my sight. Now!” She shouted at them and then turned her attention back to Spike as they hurried away. “They’re gone now.”

“Make them go. Close your eyes and make a wish.” His voice was hoarse as he pleaded with her, his eyes now roaming the corridor, and she frowned for a moment before doing as he’d asked.

Closing her eyes, she found that the hallway was still full of people, only this time they were the maimed and bloodied victims of her vampire mate. They were shadows of people, pale ghosts of the souls he’d murdered.

She swallowed hard as they edged towards her, whispering words that she couldn’t quite make out and reaching out to Spike with their skeletal hands.

She wrapped her arms tighter around Spike and held him firm. “I won’t let them take you. Tell me what’s wrong, tell me why you reacted like that to the bracelet.”

“Nothing good…nothing good comes of it. Seen it over and over and over…every time it ends the same. Every night you die.” Spike raised shaky fingers and stroked her cheek. “Don’t fade away, precious sunshine, don’t fade.”

Buffy took hold of his hand and squeezed it tightly.

“I’m right here. I’m right here, Spike. You’ll save me when the time comes. I believe in you.”

She smiled as he looked up at her, his eyelashes wet with tears. Running her fingers lightly over his hair, she watched him close his eyes and sigh.

“Let’s get you away from here, away from all these prying eyes.” She nodded at the hall surrounding them and caught him under the arm as she helped him to his feet.

Walking slowly down the corridor with him, she continually stroked his arm as he muttered quiet words about the people coming for him and the bad things he’d done. It had been a few days since she’d seen him like this and although she had known that the idea that he was quiet because he was cured was too good to hope for, she’d hoped it anyway.

Leading him into the lounge, she settled him down on the chair by the fireplace where she’d sat with him before and then sat down on the table in front of him.

“Shh, baby…everything’s okay.” She stroked his brow as he continued to mumble words at his surroundings and then curled up on the chair.

When the door opened, she wasn’t at all surprised to see Giles striding into the room. She stood quickly and moved to intercept him before he got a chance to get anywhere near Spike.

“Someone mentioned a disturbance.” Giles tried to see past her to Spike but she took hold of his arm and led him further away.

“We’re fine…he’s fine. He saw the bracelet and it upset him for some reason. I think it has something to do with the visions of me dying because he told me that whenever he sees it, it always ends the same way with me fading away.”

Giles looked down at the band of gold and silver circling her wrist and wondered if that was all Spike saw in it. There was something different about him recently.

“People come to him when he’s vulnerable like that. He’ll be back soon.”

“People?” Giles gave her a curious look and she avoided his eyes.

“Hmm?” Spike knit his brows as he looked at his new surroundings and then let his expression turn pensive as he looked down at his chest and tapped it. “Bloody soul. ‘Bout time this sodding thing was fixed already, don’t you think, Bu…” Spike looked over the back of his chair and noticed Giles. “Bugger.”

Buffy gave him an awkward little smile and then looked at Giles who was staring at Spike as though he’d seen a ghost.

“Fine.” Spike threw his arms in the air as he stood up. “Come on then old man, out with it. Lay it on me. Take the piss out of the vampire with a soul.”

Giles frowned. “Angel?”

Spike raised his eyes to heaven and clenched his jaw. “Bloody buggery fuck. You didn’t know, did you…well, that’s bloody marvellous.”

Buffy continued to look awkward.

Spike growled his frustration out at the ceiling.

Giles was silent for a few seconds and then let his eyes widen slightly as he stared at Spike. “You’re talking about you.”

Spike exchanged a look with Buffy that said Giles was losing his sharpness in his old age and she stifled a giggle. Moving across the room to him, Buffy slipped her fingers into his and chafed the back of his hand gently.

“So that makes five people that know.” She shrugged. “The rest of the world still doesn’t have a clue.”

“Five?” Spike frowned at her.

Buffy mentally cursed herself for speaking without thinking. “Me, you…Giles…Willow and Tara, but I didn’t tell them, you did.”

Spike looked more than confused at that. As far as he knew, he’d been out of it for a long time now and didn’t remember seeing Willow or Tara before last night.

“I did?”

“With your crazy Sumerian talk, down in the…” Buffy couldn’t bring herself to say the word basement. Everything bad that happened to Spike seemed to happen in basements.

“I get you.” He squeezed her hand slightly and then smiled at her. “I think I need to kill something.”

Giles looked a little edgy and moved further away from him.

“Something demonic.” Spike stated with a sigh and then tapped his chest again. “Human death isn’t good for the soul.”

Giles took a moment to find the right expression that would pass as being convinced, even when he wasn’t. It was taking his brain a little time to adjust to the fact that Spike had apparently got his soul back but already there were a million questions bubbling up inside of him.

Buffy rolled her eyes at him and then turned to face Spike. “You sure you want to go out after all that? You still look a little off, you feel a little off.”

“Feel better after a spot of violence…come on, love…you know you wanna fight.” He purred the last part at her and she smiled wide just like he knew she would.

“Okay, but you show one teeny tiny sign that you’re not one hundred percent okay and we’re coming back.” She waggled a warning finger at him and he stood mute like a naughty child being told off by the class teacher.

“Yes, ma’am.” He grinned and dragged her towards the door.

“Just don’t go killing angels tonight.” Buffy idly flicked the remark at him and noticed that Giles perked up. She could almost see the questions piling up in his head, could see his mouth getting ready to form the words, but she didn’t wait to hear them. Letting Spike drag her out of the room and down the corridor, she turned to see Giles standing in the doorway of the lounge, his hand raised in a manner that said they should wait a moment. She knew that if they did wait, Giles would be questioning them all night.

Grabbing two axes as they passed them, she tried to make it clear to Giles that his questions would be answered but they would have to wait until Spike had found his ‘spot of violence’.


Spike took a long, deep breath of fresh air as they stepped out into the cool of night. He couldn’t believe that it was summer. The weather had turned overcast and dreary, leaving cold nights in its wake.

Tugging on Buffy’s hand, he started down the street that led to the cemetery. It was a long walk, but it was better than having one of the Council’s drivers take them there and wait for them. Not only did it make him feel as though they were on a time limit, he got the feeling that it wasn’t the safest job for the person chosen to drive them. There was going to be violence tonight, he could almost smell it in the air, and the last thing Buffy needed was someone getting hurt or killed on her watch.

Buffy gave him a little smile as his eyes finally came to rest on her and she noticed that he was looking at the grazes on the side of her face. The long gash was healing well, and the smaller cuts were almost gone, but he still looked at them with the same weight of concern a normal person would give to a mortal wound.

“They’re fine…quit worrying about them.” She broke the silence and he smiled slightly before fixing his eyes back on the path ahead of them.

“Think Giles took it well.” Spike said quietly as he let his thoughts turn to his soul and how many people knew about it now. It wasn’t exactly the way he’d planned on the old Watcher finding out, but it was done now and there was nothing he could do to change it.

“Think Giles was stunned into silence and therefore had to take it well. He’s got questions…I can see them lurking in his eyes. The second we get back…”

“I’m going to bed and you’re fielding Giles questions.” Spike interjected with a smirk and she pushed him playfully.

“You’re not getting out of it that easily. You’ve still got to explain to him about the angel thing and the soul thing is your area of expertise too. If anything, I should go to bed, and you should be stuck with Giles and his billion questions.” Buffy mock pouted and then smiled when it worked and he caved.

“Fine…but we’re both doing it. If we’re going to be subjected to such a brutal torture, then I think both of us should participate.” Spike’s smirk became a wide grin when Buffy pouted for real. “Come on, love, it won’t be that bad. A few questions with very short answers and we’ll be in bed before you know it.”

“And you’ll be gone again.” Buffy let the words slip out and then pressed her hand to her mouth, looking apologetically at her mate.

He thought about what she’d said for a moment and wondered if she knew just how much truth there was in what she’d said.

“To sleep, perchance to dream.” He mused to himself and then smiled at her. “I’ll work on switching routines again, just don’t expect bloody miracles. Christ knows how I managed to stay awake everyday in Sunnyhell.”

“We did switch to nights towards the end.” She shrugged as she thought about the fact that he had still slept most days and they had patrolled most nights. Nothing had really changed. They had a big bad to face, patrol to do and not a clue as to what was really going to happen. The only thing that was different this time was the location.

For once, she wasn’t stuck on the Hellmouth.

Change was good.

Turning down another side road, Buffy found herself trying to piece together everything that had happened so far. Things had been so peaceful in Sunnydale, everything had seemed so quiet, even her patrols. Then Giles called her and the whole world was suddenly on the brink of destruction again, only now she didn’t know who she was fighting and everything new they found out only seemed to confuse things even more.

Progress seemed to have stopped and if anything, everything was going backwards. For each tiny step forwards they made in their research, three new things appeared to hinder them. She didn’t even know if she was coming or going anymore. There was only one thing in all of it that had remained clear to her and that was that she felt as though she was missing a piece of the puzzle, and if she found it then everything else would start to fall into place.

She needed a key, needed to know what was triggering these events and where it was all leading, and the key would give her that.

“Heavy thoughts.” Spike looked at her as she stared at the pavement below their feet with knitted brows and a pensive expression etched on her face.

“Huh?” Buffy raised her head up and looked confused for a moment before realising what he’d said. “Yeah…can’t stop myself thinking these days. Sometimes I wish I could just switch off, transport myself somewhere sunny with an ocean view and not have to think about what’s coming.”

“What’s coming?” Spike asked her.

“That’s just it, I don’t know and it’s driving me crazy.” She pulled a face that said that was most of the problem. “I wish I did know. Everything seems so confusing…”

“Always does, love.” Spike smiled at her and she smiled too, showing him that she knew what he was talking about. A few months ago, they’d been mortal enemies and now they were mated, claimed by each other and in love.

Everything seemed normal when she thought about that.

She still couldn’t get her head around it. In the end, she’d just accepted it and moved on with her life.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t do that with an apocalypse, she had to find out what the root of the problem was and find the answer or there wouldn’t be a life for her to move on with.

She just needed that one piece of the puzzle.

One tiny piece.

And she needed it soon.

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