Love In Vein: Book Three - Final Chapters

23

“So how long has it been?” Buffy asked as she watched the streetlamps reflecting off the puddles on the gravel path.

“Since what?” Spike asked coyly.

“You know what.” She gave him a look that said she wasn’t going to play along and then looked at the headstones surrounding them. “How long since London?”

Spike pursed his lips thoughtfully and then shrugged. “Turn of the century, I suppose.”

“Wow, not long ago.”

“Nineteenth century into the twentieth.” Spike smirked at her as her green eyes went as wide as saucers.

“You’ve not been home in a century? Wait…how old are you?” She stopped dead and narrowed her eyes as she scrutinised him.

He threw his head back and laughed at the fact that she was only just asking him that.

“Mortal or demon?”

Buffy thought for a second. “Both.”

“William…William was born in eighteen-fifty-two. The other part of me, that happened in eighteen-eighty.”

He watched her as she wrinkled her nose up, clearly calculating how old he was.

“So, you turned at twenty-eight?”

“Yep.” Spike looked up at the grey sky towering above them as he thought about that. Buffy was barely knocking on the door of twenty, and he was twenty-eight. Not a bad age difference if he excluded the hundred-and-twenty odd years of being a vampire. He wondered what she’d look like at his age.

She’d still be beautiful.

She’d always be beautiful to him, as radiant as the day he first laid eyes on her.

Buffy frowned as he stared at her with a soft, docile expression on his face. She smiled shyly as he raised his blue eyes to meet hers and she felt the affection deep inside her.

“What was it like back then?” She took hold of his hand and began walking with him again, leading him along the path that wound through Highgate cemetery.

“This place wasn’t much different, a little less full maybe. The town was different, no cars, no planes, no buses and no tube. It was quieter, but more brutal at the same time.” Spike stared into the distance as he pictured what his home town used to be like and how badly it had treated him.

“Brutal?” Buffy asked softly, not knowing whether he wanted to talk about it or whether she should let it go.

“Did I ever tell you the reason I was turned?” Spike said it conversationally but it took a mountain of effort to get each word out into the open. He hadn’t spoken about the reason behind his becoming a vampire to anyone, not even Drusilla knew.

“No, but I’d like to hear.”

Leading her over to a bench, Spike waited for her to sit down before beginning to pace. He could see that she wanted him to sit beside her, but he needed to think and he did his best thinking when pacing like a wild animal.

It was the demon in him, always impatient and always champing at the bit to get going.

After a few minutes of silent pacing back and forth in front of her, he stopped dead and looked straight into her eyes.

“Cecily.” He said flatly and saw her eyes darken, a hint of jealousy tainting her feelings as she sat meekly with her hands in her lap. “I thought I was in love with her then, but when I look back now it couldn’t be love.”

“Why not?” Buffy asked and barely kept the bitterness from her voice.

Spike sat down beside her and took hold of her hand as he kept his eyes locked with hers. “Because it felt nothing like this, and this is love.”

Buffy cursed him for making all the anger she’d be feeling disintegrate into nothingness.

She smiled. “It is, and it’s never felt like this for me before either.”

Spike’s little smile became a smirk as he thought about what she’d said and how it meant that her feelings for Angel hadn’t been anywhere near what she felt for him.

“Like I said, I thought I loved her.”

“What happened?”

“She told me I was beneath her, that she could never love me. Mocked my poetry with the others, broke my heart.” He said it in a matter of fact way, his eyes fixed on a spot of gravel in front of his feet.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life so far, it’s that people are blind to others, they can’t see talent through their own jealousy and they can’t accept that another person has more heart than them. If you ask me, this girl wasn’t just blind to how wonderful you are, she was stupid too.” Buffy placed her hand over his where it was resting on his knee and looked at them. “I know better than anyone just how stupid people can be, how blind they are to me, and how they’d rather I didn’t exist. I’ve learnt to say that I don’t care what they think, I’m here to stay whether they like it or not, love me or leave me.”

“Love you.” Spike pressed a light kiss against her lips and smiled into her eyes. “Never leave you.”

Buffy smiled broadly and gave him a kiss as a reward for his sweetness. She hadn’t been lying when she’d said that her feelings for him were stronger than she’d ever felt for anyone. She loved him so deeply that sometimes it scared her. The after effects of his disappearance were frightening now that she looked back at them. She had been so willing to die, had laid down her arms and given in because she couldn’t face life without him.

Her whole world had fallen down around her because she didn’t have him by her side to give her a reason to keep going.

Time after time, she’d saved the world from destruction and the only thing she had to show for it was that the planet was still here and that she was still standing. No one noticed when she did a good job, and if she did a bad one there would be no one around to notice then either.

“Hey.” Spike caught her cheek and furrowed his brows with concern as she looked at him with a deep sadness in her eyes. “What’s wrong, baby?”

“Thinking about life, about how all this goes on because we fight so hard to stop the bad things from happening, but no one knows we’re doing it.”

“I don’t think they’d notice even if it did end, sweetheart.” He looked around him at the cemetery and smirked as she smiled slightly. “But I know what you mean and people do know we’re doing it. We know. Your friends know. The Council knows. Angel knows.”

“No, he doesn’t.”

His brows rose into a cocky look. “He doesn’t…well…”

“I was too busy. All this went a little Defcon Five while you were out of it and you were more important.”

“More important than telling Angel, or just more important?”

Buffy sighed down at her knees and then looked up at him through her eyelashes. “More important than saving the world.”

“Oh.” Spike felt a little taken aback by what she’d said. He’d noticed how she’d changed since he left her, could see in her eyes the toll the visions and the constant worry about him had taken on her, and he couldn’t fool himself into thinking that everything would be miraculously better now that he was getting back to normal. But to hear her say that she still didn’t care if the world ended, that none of it mattered if he wasn’t with her, that shook him to the core.

She had to go on living, that’s why he’d risked his life to get his soul, so one of them could go on living.

“And now?” He risked asking the question, hoping to hear that everything was different now that he was back with her.

“Now we save the world from the new big bad and walk off into the sunset.” She smiled at the horizon and then let her eyes slide to rest on Spike. “Now everything’s back to how it should be.”

Spike interlaced his fingers with hers and patted her hand lightly. Giving her a moment to finish thinking about whatever was on her mind, he let his eyes scan over the distance and then the clouds above them. There was no sign of the weather improving and he was almost thankful for that. He’d spent so long in hot countries and their constant heat and sunshine that he had actually missed the dismal weather that England so often suffered. He’d never thought he’d miss the rain and the wind, the freezing cold days in the middle of summer, but he had.

Sitting out in the cool, crisp air, under a sky that was constantly threatening rain, made him feel strangely at home.

Or was that being with Buffy again?

During his time apart from her, seconds had stretched into hours and days into years. He felt as though he’d not seen her in a century or more and now all he wanted to do was drink her in—her scent, her beauty, her sweet voice.

“Fucking hell!” Buffy shrieked as the skies opened and the rain began to pour down on them.

Spike scratched the last thing off his list and amended it to ‘her sometimes sweet voice’.

Grabbing her hand, he ran with her to the nearest crypt and kicked the door in. Once safely inside, he smiled as she huddled up to him, seeking warmth where there was none. All he could offer her was comfort.

A loud bang overhead in perfect timing with a flash of brilliant white light made the small girl in his arms jump and he held her tighter against him.

“It’s okay, baby, daddy will keep you safe.” He purred down at her as he smoothed down her drenched hair. He could hear the rain hammering down outside, could smell the earth as the force of the drops pelted the grass into mud.

Walking deeper into the crypt with her, he moved one of the high, ornate lids off of its sarcophagus and placed it on the floor, creating a bench that she could sit on. He sat her down on it and took his duster off, wrapping it tightly around her shoulders and making sure that she was snug before setting off to find something he could make a fire with.

Slipping into vampire guise, he used his heightened senses to search out a few rags and took some of the broken wood of the decayed coffin inside the sarcophagus.

Placing it down on the stone floor a few feet from his mate, he took his Zippo out and flicked it open, igniting it and setting fire to the collection of rags and wood.

Buffy smiled at him as he looked at her with a broad grin plastered on his face, evidently proud at what he’d achieved.

“So you can use that brain of yours when you want to.” She teased him as he came to sit next to her and then leant her head against his shoulder.

“Enough of your lip, missy.” Spike warned her as he wrapped his arm about her shoulders and drew her closer to him. He looked up at the ceiling of the crypt as another rumble of thunder echoed high above them.

Something told him this storm wasn’t going to pass over quickly.

Buffy closed her eyes as another bright flash illuminated the entire crypt and she hunched up as the thunder boomed overhead. She had never liked lightning storms and all she could think about was how exposed they were in the wide open of the cemetery. She tried to remember if she’d seen any tall trees nearby, or something that was taller than the building they were in.

Spike let his fingers gently stroke her shoulder and pressed a kiss to her hair. “Won’t let it get you.”

“Doesn’t mean it won’t try.” Buffy said as she stared at the broken windows, watching the rain as it poured down outside.

Her eyes moved to rest on the small fire Spike had made for her and she smiled at it as the flames danced merrily, seemingly oblivious of the storm outside.

“Think we need more firewood.” She went to stand but Spike put his hand on her shoulder and made her sit down again.

“I’ll go…you just entertain yourself with the fire.”

“Fire pretty.” Buffy smiled at it and then at him. She loved how pampered he made her feel. At first it had felt as though he was trying to make out that she was weak, that she couldn’t look after herself, but after a while she realised that he just cared about her and wanted to look after her. He knew that she could take care of herself, but he wanted to do his part too. She’d never felt so loved, and only her mother came close in the fussing stakes.

Her eyes followed him as he stalked around the crypt, intent on finding more things that would burn and keep the fire going for as long as the storm did. He seemed to be concentrating so hard on his task, his brows knit and his head bent downwards as he searched.

Cocking her head to one side, she smiled wide.

He was so cute.

When he returned to her with his arms full of bits of wood and other things she couldn’t quite make out, she gave him a proud smile and patted the spot next to her.

Spike sat down and placed the things he’d found on the floor beside him. They’d have to ration them in order to make them last, but he’d managed to find enough tinder to keep the fire going for a few hours.

Buffy pressed a long, wet kiss to his cheek and grinned as he pulled a face of disgust while wiping the drool off his face.

“My hero.” She wrapped her arms about his neck and continued to smile.

Spike brushed the hair from her face and looked deep into her eyes. “I’m trying to be.”

Buffy felt the light atmosphere dissipate, a heavier one full of mixed emotions following in its wake. She closed her eyes as she brought hers lips to meet his, kissing him slowly as she reaffirmed her feelings for him. Pulling back slightly, she smiled into his eyes.

“You’ll always be my champion.”

He couldn’t stop himself from averting his gaze, dropping it to rest on his lap and then looking up at her out the corner of his eye.

“You will.” Buffy said firmly and caught his cheek, making him face her and look her in the eye. “I love you, Spike. I know you’ll be there for me when I need you, when the time comes. You won’t fail me. I believe in you.”

Spike wondered if he was blushing because he certainly felt like he was. Catching hold of her, he pressed a long, deep kiss to her soft lips and felt warmth spreading inside him as she kissed him back.

The sounds of the storm faded into the background as she continued to kiss him, letting her tongue play against his and smiling when he laid her down, shifting her so they could lay comfortably together on the stone lid. Letting her hands run around the back of his neck as he kissed down hers, she looked at the marks she’d made on him back in Sunnydale and smiled wide.

He was hers, no doubt about that, and she wasn’t going to let anyone take him from her ever again. The next time he disappeared into a portal, she was damn well going to go with him.

Bringing his mouth back to hers, she deepened their kiss, losing herself in the feeling of him so close to her again. She’d missed the sweetness of his affection and the way he held her, missed how comforting his kiss could be, and how it could turn passionate in the blink of an eye.

She was never letting him out of her sight again. He was hers, and he was going to stay right by her side, right where she needed him.

Nothing was going to change that.

Nothing was going to make them part again.

Nothing.



24

Buffy gave the sky a sceptical look as she followed Spike out of the crypt, smoothing her shirt down as she went. She gave her mate a shy smile as he looked at her, his eyes still reflecting the intensity of the passion they’d shared. She watched him as he slipped the leather gun coat back on and tugged it straight.

“Home?” Spike asked her and she pulled a face that said she wouldn’t ever call the Council Headquarters home.

Looping her arm through his, Buffy started to walk casually through the graveyard with him and let her thoughts turn to Sunnydale.

“I wish we were home. Mom would love to know that you’re okay now. I spoke to her shortly after arriving and let her know that I was safe and I’d found you, but things have been so hectic since then that I haven’t had the time to check in with her again.” Buffy pouted slightly as she remembered the brief conversation she’d had with her mother a few weeks ago.

“Well, we’ll just have to make sure you get the time to call her later, catch up like. You can let her know my progress…and the other thing…” Spike paused for a second and then changed his mind. “Actually, I’d kinda like to let her know myself.”

Buffy smiled up at him. She’d overheard the conversation Spike had had with her mother about his future soul and it was only right that he told her himself. Her mother had been the one to suggest that his soul wouldn’t be forced on him, and she’d probably take great pride in being right about it.

She sighed as she tried to imagine what was happening back home right now.

She wanted to know everything that was going on. She couldn’t remember a time that she’d been away from her mother for this long and she was starting to miss her town. She missed knowing where everything was, missed her comfortable bed in her little room, missed the friends and family she’d left behind, and missed hanging out down the Bronze.

Everything seemed so different, and it felt like she’d reached the end of an era. Her friends were splitting further and further apart, with Willow and Tara setting up home in England so they could continue their studies, and Xander and Anya on the brink of marriage.

This was it, she guessed, everyone was growing up and there was no going back now. They all had their partners, and school was far behind them. There was no chance of Willow returning to UC Sunnydale, and she couldn’t see herself going back there. It really was the end of an era.

Even though she knew that her friends would always be with her, it didn’t stop her from missing her old life. On top of that, she really did miss her town.

Missed the cemeteries.

Missed the Hellmouth.

Everything here seemed so quiet.

There was nothing to kill.

She let out a muffled ‘ouch’ as she walked straight into something hard and hairy. Wrinkling her nose up as a stench worse than the smell of wet dog and sulphur combined assaulted her senses, Buffy opened her eyes to see just what she’d walked into.

She smiled awkwardly and started to back away as the centaur stared down at her. Her heartbeat rocketed as she bumped into something else and her hands groped blindly behind her, the feel of a shabby coat of hair making her stomach turn.

Furrowing her brows into a look that said ‘help’, Buffy met Spike’s eyes and hoped he’d come to her rescue quickly.

Spike launched himself at the centaur nearest to Buffy, knocking it backwards and away from her before it had a chance to make a move. Swinging his axe playfully, he advanced on the second centaur and kept tabs on his mate as she prepared herself for the fight.

“You alright?” He asked straight into her head and she nodded grimly.

“Will be once I have a shower to get this stink off me.” She responded and set her sights on the centaur that Spike had knocked away from her.

She knew the drill. Spike would go after one of the centaurs while she took on the other. If she looked like she was tiring at any point, he’d switch with her and leave her to finish off the one he’d already worked on. It didn’t bother her that he was stronger than her when he was wearing the ring, she was just grateful that there was someone to take over when she started to get worn down.

“Give him hell, baby.” Spike purred at her and she tightened her grip on the axe handle, her eyes fixed on the centaur that was staring right back at her.

Buffy couldn’t stop the sense of deja vu that had hit her the second she’d seen the centaur she’d walked into. She wondered why Spike hadn’t stopped her and why he hadn’t come to her rescue with her silently asking him to. She’d sensed that he was uneasy and without reaching out to him, she could tell that he still felt that way. Something about the centaurs was upsetting him and she wondered if it was because he’d seen them in her visions.

Even that made her feel on edge. She’d seen these beasts only two days ago in her visions, and now they were here. It could only mean one thing, the time between her premonitions and reality was getting shorter and shorter. The apocalypse was getting closer.

She gasped in pain as she got a hoof in the stomach as reward for not paying attention to the fight. Clutching her abdomen, she levelled the axe at the centaur’s waist and grimaced as the blade sliced deep into it. She rolled away from the beast as it reared up onto its hind legs and tried to trample her. Putting some distance between her and the centaur, she gave a quick look to her mate to see how well he was doing.

Spike grinned wickedly as he hacked into the hind leg of the centaur he was fighting. He didn’t stop as it cried out in pain; he just turned his attention to crippling its other rear leg.

The beast was far taller than him, it was far taller than most men, but no bigger than he’d remembered them being. As it stumbled and fell, Spike’s grin widened. He watched it floundering for a few seconds as it attempted to get back up on its feet and then decided to put it out of its misery.

Bringing the axe down hard, he instinctively closed his eyes until the blade hit something solid. He frowned as he opened his eyes and saw that he hadn’t hit the centaur, he’d just managed to bury his axe deep into the sodden grass.

He turned quickly, searching for his foe but instead finding Buffy with her axe held mid swing and a similarly confused look on her face.

The centaurs were gone.

Buffy’s eyes widened as a bright flash of light appeared next to Spike.

“Spike!” She yelled at him as something began to take shape.

“Bugger.” Spike said flatly as he found himself face to face with another angel.

Buffy recognised it instantly as the largest of the three angels she’d seen in her vision. A cold chill ran through her blood as it looked over at her and nodded slightly as if greeting her.

It recognised her?

How the hell was that possible?

Before she had a time to think of an answer to those questions, she was dragged out of her thoughts by the angel.

“The gluttonous, the wrathful, neither of them were a match for you.” It stared straight at Spike. “The violence is where you both belong. There we are a match for you, there… you are beneath us.”

Buffy felt the hurt flare up inside Spike as he heard those words, a painful reminder of the last time he was in London. She started towards him, wanting to reach him and comfort him even if it meant getting closer to the angel and danger.

“Stay.” The angel smirked at her as it raised its hand up quickly with its palm facing her.

Buffy looked stunned as her feet froze to the spot. Coldness seemed to creep into her bones, spreading through her until she couldn’t move at all.

“Kneel.” It gestured to Spike with its other hand, making a downward motion that Spike followed like a zombie.

The angel regarded them both for a moment and then looked down at Spike. It spread its wings to their full extent, their feathers turning from white to red to black and dripping blood.

Buffy watched helplessly as it knelt in front of Spike, the malicious grin still twisting its lips as it cocked its head to one side in an way that made her think of a bird of prey.

“This…” It moved its hand so it was hovering just a few inches from Spike’s chest. “This that you covet, this soul…” It curled its fingers so its hand was almost a talon and then rotated it slightly, mimicking twisting Spike’s chest but never touching him.

Desperately trying to move, Buffy felt almost overwhelmed by the pain and despair that Spike was feeling. She needed to get to him, needed to help him and protect him from the angel. She gritted her teeth and growled in the angel’s direction as it looked at her.

It rewarded her effort by twisting its hand a little more and causing Spike to scream in pain.

“This belongs to us. Soon we will bring you home.” It leaned in a little closer to Spike and changed its appearance so it seemed angelic again.

“He is home, you son of a…” Buffy frowned as the angel motioned at her again and she lost the ability to speak.

Spike screwed his eyes shut as the angel leaned in even closer, bringing its mouth to his ear.

It whispered, “They’re waiting for you. We’re all waiting…don’t keep us, William, not far to go now…don’t keep us.”

Buffy fell to the floor as it disappeared, leaving her free to move again. Stumbling to her feet, she ran straight to Spike where he was holding himself tightly and sobbing. She put her arms around him and held him, whispering soothing words as he muttered things to himself that she couldn’t quite make out.

“Come on, baby, come back to me.” Buffy whispered as she ran her fingers lightly over his hair.

She let go of him slightly as he gasped at air and she realised that he hadn’t been breathing. She didn’t hide her concern as he looked at her with a shaky smile on his face.

“Buffy?”

“Where did you go?” She continued to stroke his hair, smiling at him as he looked at her with a docile expression.

Spike tapped his temples with his fingertips, his brows knitting tightly as he stared at the wet grass in front of his knees. She could see he was building up to telling her, that he was struggling against the pain in his soul as he tried to get the words out.

“There…I went there.”

“Where?” She asked in a hushed tone, trying to coax the words out of him. His lack of breathing had led her to suspect that the angel had done something to him, that it had taken him somewhere just like the other angel had done to her.

“There.” He repeated as he began to rock back and forth. “Help me, Buffy…will you help me?”

She sighed and took hold of his hand, pressing a kiss to it and feeling it trembling in hers. “I’ll help you, but you need to tell me where you went.”

Spike took his hand away from hers and curled up, his arms wrapping protectively around himself.

“The place…” He tapped the side of his head again, his finger rapping against his temple in quick succession. “To the place where they all tell me to go, all the voices clamouring, pushing…”

“Where, Spike?”

“It hurts…please?” He gave her a sorrowful look and she closed her eyes briefly, regretting having to push him into answering her.

She needed to know.

“Tell me, and I’ll make it better, I promise.” She let her fingers lightly brush the tears off his cheeks and smiled at him.

She frowned as he extended a shaky hand towards her, his fingers stopping short of touching her face.

“Are you really here…are you, Buffy?”

She gave him a confused look and then nodded.

“I’ve missed you since you went.” He stared at the grass and Buffy got the feeling that he was slipping away from her again.

Where did she go? She didn’t go anywhere, if anything he’d gone somewhere.

Seeing that he wasn’t going to directly answer her question about where the voices wanted him to go, she decided to find out where she had apparently gone.

“Where did I go, baby?”

“I dreamed of killing you.” He looked at her out the corner of his eye and she swallowed noisily as she saw them flicker yellow. “I think they were dreams…visions…the voices…” He pressed the palms of his hands to his ears as he threw his head back and she reached out to him. “Make them stop.”

Seeing her chance, Buffy didn’t think twice about taking it. “Where do the voices want you to go, Spike?”

He didn’t answer her, he just started chuckling hysterically and it sent a chill up her spine.

She almost jumped as he snapped his head around and looked straight into her eyes.

“To hell.”

“What’s so funny…” She started but he laughed louder and she backed away from him slightly.

“I don’t need to go to hell, hell is coming to me…on fiery wings…” He grinned at her and Buffy’s eyes went as wide as saucers as she realised what he was saying.

He’d given her the piece of the puzzle she was searching for. He’d given her the key to understanding what was happening.

She shook her head, feeling completely mortified and not wanting to believe what he was saying.

Tears began to fill her eyes as she looked at him where he was sitting and laughing manically to himself as he stared at her.

They weren’t her visions—-he hadn’t seen the things she’d witnessed.

She’d seen the things he’d witnessed.

She’d seen the things he’d seen in hell.

Raising her hand up, she held it in front of her mouth as she felt the world drop away and her head spun.

“Oh God, Spike…what have you done?”



25

“Giles!” Buffy burst through the doors of the Council Headquarters, dragging a reluctant Spike along behind her by his hand. She didn’t slow down until she found the Watcher in the library.

Sitting Spike down by a large table, she gave him a look that warned him not to move and then approached Giles.

“Buffy, what is it?” Willow closed her book and looked up at her friend.

“Spike…” She said and everyone looked at him. “Giles, you mentioned that this Dante guy went wandering through hell.”

“Yes.” Giles climbed down the ladder, bringing several books with him and placing them down on the table next to Willow and Tara.

“In that case…I think I’ve found our Dante.” She looked from her friends to Spike, feeling slightly sorry for him as he curled up as small as possible on his chair.

“Spike?” Giles looked stunned. All this time they’d been trying to find out what was happening and all this time it had been right there in front of them.

“Turns out that it isn’t just his soul making him crazy…” She pulled the chair out that was beside Spike and sat down on it, taking hold of his hand and stroking the back of it as she looked at him. “We met another angel, it spoke to him and told him that it wasn’t long now and that he shouldn’t keep them waiting. I don’t think that the nightmares I’ve been having are mine, I think they’re his.”

Giles, Willow and Tara looked confused.

“Back in Sunnydale Spike taught me that if I concentrated on what he was seeing, I could see it too. I think that’s what has been happening. I’ve been seeing his visions…or whatever they are.” She explained and then looked to Giles, hoping he’d have a few suggestions of his own.

Giles took his glasses off and frowned for a moment before looking at her.

“It could be possible that Spike isn’t just experiencing these visions, he could be living them. There must be a reason he was chosen, and discovering that reason may give us more of an idea as to what we can do to stop Spike’s journey.”

“His soul.” Buffy whispered the words. “The angel said that his soul belonged to them.”

Willow gave Spike and Buffy a concerned look, and then glanced at Giles. She could see that Giles wasn’t very surprised by the news. Was it possible that Giles had known that Spike’s soul would be the catalyst and that he had just been trying to buy time with the research suggestion?

“How much longer before something happens, Giles?” It came out a little harder sounding than Buffy had expected it to, but she needed answers right now and something told her that he had them.

“Not long, I’m afraid. The angel he released was from the seventh circle.”

“Violence.” Buffy said in a distant tone. “It said we belonged there, that it could match us.”

“After the seventh circle there are only the last gates, circles eight and nine. Whatever guards these will be strong, even stronger than the angels that guarded the circle of violence.”

“The first angel we met was from gluttony, what circle is that?” Buffy asked and watched as Giles pulled the book towards him and flicked through it, searching for the circle the angel had been released from.

“Gluttony…gluttony…” He ran his finger down the list in front of him and paused as he found it. “Third.”

“Wrath?” She asked and his finger slid further down the page.

“Fifth.” Giles answered her.

Buffy frowned. “What happened to circles one, two, four and six? Surely they have guards…why weren’t they released?”

“Caelestis…” Spike muttered and everyone looked at him.

“What’s that, baby?” Buffy went to smooth his hair but he evaded her touch, giving her a frightened look. “I’m not going to hurt you…shh…”

She smiled as he let her run her fingers lightly over his hair and then sighed as he purred slightly and leaned into her touch. She hadn’t meant to be harsh with him earlier, or angry about what he’d been doing. Part of her knew it wasn’t his fault, but she couldn’t help feeling a little upset at him for not telling her. She hadn’t wanted to scare him, or send him back into his own little world like she had done, but she hadn’t been able to stop herself.

“Caelestis.” Spike repeated quietly and she sighed at him before looking to Giles for a translation.

“Um…er…” Giles stuttered as he tried to remember his old Latin classes. “Belonging to heaven…er…heavenly.”

“Heavenly?” Buffy looked confusedly at Spike. “As in good? They’re good?”

He nodded and she smiled slightly.

“So they haven’t gone evil…lets hope that those in circles eight and nine haven’t either.” Willow looked a little nervous as she thought about coming up against angels. She didn’t know whether she’d be able to fight them, especially when she knew they used to be good.

As Spike blinked slowly and looked as though he was struggling to keep his eyes open, Buffy looked at the clock above the fireplace.

She frowned as she saw it was nearing sunrise.

“He can’t fight it.” She said solemnly and watched as her mate slowly began to succumb to the lure of sleep. “I should get him back…”

“Buffy…I know how much you hate the idea of…” Giles started but she didn’t let him finish.

“I’ll chain him up.” She said reluctantly. “But I don’t think it will stop him. Besides, he’s not a danger to us right now.”


The intended continuation...

coming soon...

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