Lucky Number

A/N. This three part story takes place during S5 after Riley has left. It's a stand alone PWP. Chapter 1 is PG, Chapter 2 is definitely R for sexual content. Chapter 3 is R (ish) but there's no sex. Nothing n/c or too graphic but spicier than my stories usually are.

Many thanks to mahaliem for her input. Reading her B/S stories inspired me to tackle the difficult task of letting Buffy and Spike do more than kiss in my fics. Sex and fights; the two trickiest things to write.

Lucky Number.

From out of the darkness a voice said, "Soind ind me again - how did we get into this mess?"

"Well -" said another voice, considering the question carefully.

A pause and then in unison, the first and second voices said, "It was _your_ fault!"

***

Buffy had spent the better part of an hour tracking the Forgath demon to its lair in the woods north of town. It hadn't been easy. The beast was big but it moved stealthily and she wasn't exactly trained in reading bent twigs or slightly crushed leaves, especially not in the dark. The full moon helped a little, but from what Giles had discovered, it was that same full moon that had triggered this demon's feeding frenzy.

The trail of dead woodland animals was easy to spot though. Wincing as she stepped over another mangled squirrel corpse, she emerged from the trees in front of a cave mouth that yawned wide and dark. Sort of the same view the squirrels had had as their last sight on earth, she mused.

Buffy would have put killing the demon low down on the scale of priorities if it hadn't been for the fact that its first victim was a toddler, happily playing in the park at the edge of the woods. The boy's mother had managed to make enough noise to scare it off and save the child, but she had received a slash from four inch talons that had almost severed her arm and put her into intensive care.

Shrugging slightly to dispell her unease, Buffy gripped her axe firmly and moved across the small clearing. Peering into the dim depths of the cave and wrinkling her nose at the musty dampness, she didn't notice the shadowy figure some yards behind her.

Once in the cave, Buffy slipped on a headlamp, cursing as the strap tangled in her hair. She needed it to see and keep her hands free for fighting but the whole spelunking look just wasn't her.

The first cave was empty but Buffy hadn't really expected it to be that easy. This demon liked rock around it, liked to crawl deep within the earth and sleep, after the kill lust had faded. Hopefully it would wake up to find itself dead. Buffy snickered to herself at that thought and made for the back of the cave. As she had expected, there was a tunnel leading downwards. The being eaten image just wasn't going away, she thought dolefully.

There were no side tunnels to complicate matters and Buffy began to move faster. Her boot slid on a patch of gravel, making a skittering noise, and she froze, listening to see if she had alerted the demon. She frowned. There was no movement in front of her but she could have sworn she heard a sound from behind. A boot thumping down on rock? She listened hard but the silence was complete, almost hurting her ears with its weight.

"Getting seriously creeped out now," she murmured to herself. Stepping carefully, she continued to follow the tunnel, moving cautiously around any blind bends. The tunnel began to open out and she found herself on the edge of a cavern. She groaned. The thin beam from her headlamp was lost in the large space but she could see a floor of boulders, uneven and impossible to navigate quickly, and several tunnels leading out of the cavern. Her task had just gone from simple to difficult. She stood still, chewing the inside of her cheek, and wondering if it wouldn't be simpler to go back to the first cave and wait for the demon to come back out. Of course, there might be more than one exit from the cave system. And it might be a long wait. She hated waiting.

Coming to a sudden decision, she climbed up onto the boulder in front of her and made for the first tunnel to her left. Scrambling over the scattered rocks wasn't easy and she was forced to slide the axe back into its holder on her back. It slipped around to her side and thumped her elbow with monotonous and irritating regularity and she fell into a rhythm of pushing it back after each movement. Twice she paused and spun around, a prickling down her spine warning her that she was being watched, but she couldn't see anything in the blackness. Forcing back unreasoning panic, she concentrated on keeping her footing.

It was a relief to be able to stand upright and walk, weapon in her hand again, but the tunnel petered out after a hundred feet, dead ending at a solid wall of rock. Buffy sighed, turned round and headed back to the cavern, slinging the axe on her back again. The second tunnel didn't even merit entering. It looked like a passage way from far off but when she got closer, she could see that it was no more than an alcove.

"Might have known it would be the third one," she thought, rotating aching shoulders. As soon as she began to walk along it she knew that she'd found the trail again. The small lump of bloody fur was as good as a glowing arrow. This tunnel was narrow, the roof just a few inches above her head, sometimes coming down so low that she had to stoop. It would be a bad place to fight in.

After walking for a minute or two she finally reached the lair. The demon lay curled up in a fetid nest of rags, dried blood crusted on its tusks and talons. Buffy wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Ugly bugger, isn't he?" commented a quiet voice at her shoulder. Buffy shrieked and whirled round, her axe slicing the air.

"Hey! Watch the coat!"

Buffy hissed with disgust as she saw who her companion was. Spike. Typical. Not content with following her and giving her the wiggins for the past hour, he was now spoiling her hunt. Huffily, she turned her back on one problem only to face a new one The The demon had been asleep but Buffy's scream had been enough to waken the dead and it was still very much alive. And angry.

"I've got your back, Slayer," said Spike sounding confident. Buffy's elbow shot back unerringly and landed in his stomach.

"Get that," she said through gritted teeth, "and get the hell out of my way."

In the small space the axe was less effective than she'd hoped but she managed to get in some good hits. The demon hadn't come close to touching her and it began to get desperate. Backing off into a corner it vanished behind a slab of rock that had masked another passageway. Buffy sighed with frustration and followed it. She had to drop to all fours and crawl after only a few yards which didn't improve her mood. The tunnel was wide enough but the roof was very low. The demon was about her size but it seemed to be much better at navigating in enclosed spaces and Buffy couldn't help wondering what was at the end of this rabbit hole.

A trickle of earth landed on her head and she glanced up sharply. The walls of the tunnel were trembling slightly. When she'd grasped the significance of that, so was Buffy. A native Californian, all her instincts were clamouring at her to get out but she couldn't. She heard a scrambling sound behind her and guessed that Spike had recovered enough to follow her. Great. She had frozen in place until the tremor had passed but Spike hadn't and he soon caught up to her, on her left side.

He had managed to crawl despite his duster, she noticed and he had a grin on his face as if this was the most fun he'd had in ages. She supposed vampires didn't mind small, dark, enclosed places. Shuddering, she dragged her mind off that thought. She wasn't a vampire and they bothered her more than she'd realised up till now.

"You O.K, Slayer? Look a bit pale."

"Do you mind? I'm tracking here!"

Spike glanced casually down the tunnel. "On your merry way then."

Buffy hesitated and then began to crawl forward. Spike matched her wriggle for wriggle and she stopped, turning her head and giving him an exasperated look. His face was so close that she could have counted his eyelashes if she'd wanted to. She didn't think she'd ever been this close to him, not since that spell of Willow's had turned them into a pair of besotted, wedding-planning lovers. His eyes held hers, a look of slightly puzzled enquiry in them, and str struggled with a sudden wave of lust inspired dizziness that made her head spin.

"I don't need you to follow me!" she said, trying to sound decisive. "In fact, if you don't get out of my way, I'll let the demon have you as its last meal. Am I getting through that thick skull yet?"

It came out harsher than she'd intended and she felt a tiny pang as she saw hurt flicker in his blue eyes. It was quickly swamped by anger and he said thinly, "Fine. Be seeing you around. I'll tell them where to look for your bones, shall I?"

With a flurry of leather and a scuff of his Docs, he managed to turn around so that he was facing back the way he'd come. In the process he brushed against her and her heart began to pound. She was wearing a thick sweater and jeans and his hand had barely trailed across her knee and breast but she had felt the touch of his fingers as clearly as if she'd been naked. Naked. With Spike touching her. These were not good thoughts to be having.

Spike flicked his coat out of the way and prepared to crawl off in a dignified snit. Suddenly he paused, his nostrils flaring. "Buffy," he began, "do you -"

He never finished his sentence. The demon reached safety and triggered the trap that was his last line of defence. Rock crashed down in front of them, barring the way forward. The reverberations, combined wihe ehe earlier tremor, brought the walls crashing in and Buffy and Spike were buried in rubble and earth.

TBC.