With a Little Help

Chapter 11 - Burn

Spike took a deep breath, that was more of a stall than a necessity. Then the words came out of his mouth in a rush. “Mychipdoesnotworkanymore.”

Buffy listened to the words flying out of his mouth but didn’t understand one syllable, let alone one word had he said. “Huh? Emphasis on ‘Huh’?” Sorry, I didn’t bring my secret, vampire, decoding ring with me.”

“What? Are you deaf as well as daft, woman? I said the bloody chip stopped working. No more zap to the big bad’s noggin.”

Buffy opened her mouth to reply but closed it again as she seemed to reconsider. She stared at him intently before asking, “Does this have something to do with your black eye?”

Spike threw up his hands in frustration and started pacing back and forth in front of her. “I just told you that myp dop doesn’t work anymore, and you’re worried about my black and blue?”

In answer to his question, Buffy put her hands on her hips with a stubborn expression on her face and waited for him to answer her question first.

Knowing she wouldn’t budge, Spike rolled his eyes before beginning his explanation. “A human came calling at my crypt this afternoon and decided to knock me about. When I had had enough, I struck back and no zap.”

“Is he still alive?”

“Bumped and bruised but very much alive. All I did was put a little fear into the tosser before throwing him out of my crypt.” Spike halted his pacing in front of her. “Look, Slayer, I wanted to tell you myself before someone else did so I could explain first.”

Buffy watched the vampire squirm for a moment. Not to make Spike feel anymore uncomfortable than he already was, but to take in his body language. He wasn’t playing up the master vampire persona, no grrh or threatening like stuff. Interesting, but she had a few more questions for him. “Who is the who that would tell me first?”

When Spike didn’t answer her, she tried to think of any humans that would even know that Spike lived in that crypt and know that he couldn’t fight back against a human. “That black eye came from Riley, didn’t it?” The look on Spike’s face confirmed her deduction. “Spike, I didn’t tell him who I was out with, so how did he know?”

“I know you didn’t tell him, Slayer. Never thought you had.” Spike had no doubt that she wouldn’t broadcast that she had gone out with a vampire, especially this vampire. “Soldier boy must have found out some other way. He babbled some gibberish about reconnaissance and intel. Regardless of how he found out, he knew and came after me, thinking I was still defenseless. Hell, I didn’t even know that the chip no longer worked until I popped the pillock back.”

Watching Spike light a cigarette, Buffy was trying her best to absorb this new twist to her world. She needed time to think about Spike being able to feed again, or that he could even go back to trying to kill her. “Our three day truce is off if you kill or even feed off a human. Only butcher’s blood for you, bub, and don’t even bite the butcher.”

Taking her threat as a good sign, Spike smiled at Buffy’s joke. “Fair enough.”

“Meanwhile, I need time to think about this. Probably all three days.” Buffy started to walk away but turned back with one last question, “But why are you asking for the threes? s? Why not leave town so you could do as you want with no interference from a slayer? I know you could disappear in some corner of this planet, where I could never find you.”

“True, leaving Sunnyhell would be the easy way, and a year ago, I would gladly have gone back to my old, lethal ways.” Pausing, Spike decided to lay his cards out on the table. “Even tonight, I could have bagged my third slayer instead of telling you about the chip and then hit the highway, leg a g a trail of drained bodies behind me.” He took a draw off his fag. “But that’s the problem. I’ve found that it’s more of a challenge killing demons than stalking helpless humans.”

Spike stared down at the ground, kicking a rock with his boot, before looking back up into Buffy’s eyes. “But most of all, Slayer, I don’t think I want to go back to you and me doing the whole mortal enemy gig again. So there it is. I may be more dippy than Dru ever was on her worst day, but now that I have the choice given back to me and had time to think about it, I am choosing to continue helping you kill all those meanies that go bump in the night, instead of killing any more humans. I’ve made my decision and will stick to it. Now it’s your choice which way you want to take this next. Actually, the next three days are for you to make your choice
Wi
With that, Spike flicked his fag to the ground and walked off into the darkness, leaving a very shocked slayer with a dizzying amount to think about.

Buffy turned and started her walk home on auto-pilot. Before the last couple of weeks, she had never doubted her path, which was straight and clear. And part of the path was that if Spike were ever free of the chip, he would try to kill her again, or she would kill him. Now, her path seemed to have lead her to a fork in the road. One route was for her to do her duty without her heart interfering with her decisions while the other route was to follow her heart and her instincts to lay her trust in Spike keeping his demon under control.

*****

As the vampire and slayer left in different directions, Multok and Shel looked back and forth between, which was rather like watching a tennis match. They were trying to decide which person to follow. Multok finally decided that the vampire had made his choice was fine for the time being, but the slayer was more of a concern at the present. He wasn’t sure that a beginner should handle alone the conflicts that Buffy was feeling, so he decided that they should double team Buffy. Both Multok and Shel hurried after the slayer to whisper and help her with her decision.

*****

By 8:30 the next morning, Buffy, with the help of not one but two little voices in her head, had decided that sidn’idn’t need three days to make up her mind about Spike. Actually, she had found that the chowas was easier than she expected. After her AM class, which felt like it lasted for hours, Buffy headed for Spike’s crypt instead of the Magic Box. Giles would be ticked off with her for skipping her training, but he would just have to deal.

When Buffy slammed open the crypt’s door, she stood waiting for the snarky critique of her usual entrance. But instead, she was met by the strong smell of smoke. Not Spike’s usual cigarette smoke that she had come to expect and associate with the sexy vamp. This smoke smelled more like burning wood. Quickly glancing around the crypt, Buffy didn’t see Spike anywhere, but since his beloved, leather duster was lying across a sarcophagus, she could tell he was around. Maybe he was burning some of Harmony’s belongings down below. That would account for the smell, and now that she thought about it, she would enjoy lending a hand.

Buffy crossed the crypt assuming Spike was in the lower level. As she approached, she could see that the trap door was open, which was unusual in its self. Even more suspicious was that the ladder was gone. When she looked down through the hole to the lower level, she could see the ashes of the ladder on the floor below.

“Spike?” She called hopefully but her hopes swiftly fell when she saw the destruction of a fire and a big one from all appearances. Judging by what little she could see through the trap door, the whole room would have burned if the walls had not been made of rock. Yet what wigged her the most was that fire and vampires were so not mixy.

Buffy jumped down and frantically started searching for what she really didn’t want to find. Vampire dust among the remains of the bed. First she searched the room, all but the bed. It was still daylight, and since it was cooling down, she could tell that this fire had happened a couple of hours previously. So that didn’t leave much time between when she had left Spike at dawn and now. Accordingly, Buffy deduced that Spike had most likely been in the crypt, probably asleep in bed, when the fire occurred. With that horrible thought in mind, she braced herself to search what little was left of the bed. She wasn’t even sure if she could tell the vampire dust from the ashes of the bed, but if she found his dust, she would know Spike was gone for good. However, that voice in her head assured her that Spike was just too perverse to go out this way, to have faith. On the other hand, if she didn’t find his remains, she was going to kill him for scaring her so badly.

“If I had known you were going to come calling, Slayer, I would have tidied up.” Following his voice, Buffy whipped around, relief flooding through her at the sound of his voice, until she saw his appearance. Spike’s shirt and pants, or at least what were left of them were singed, with several, large holes burnt into the material through out. Buffy quickly crossed the room and started inspecting his condition through the singed openings. Then she stepped back and hit him through one of the holes in his t-shirt. “You nearly scared me to death.”

“Ow, you insane bint. I’ve had enough people trying to hurt me for the last two days.” Rubbing the spot on his chest that was still stinging, Spike gave the slayer a look that clearly questioned her sanity. “Besides, if I had known that scaring you was the way to take you out, don’t you think I would have done that when I first came to Sunnyhell and was trying to kill you.”

“Ha, ha.” Somewhat recovered from her shock, Buffy gestured toward the ashes of the bed. “What were you doing, smoking in bed?”

“Oh sure, Slayer. Like I would take a chance falling asleep with a burning object on flammable materials with flammable me lying there like a cherry on top. Don’t you recognize the damage o inc incinerating device when you are standing in it?”

“Oh, yeah. Sure I do.” Buffy attempted to fake her way through her lack of knowledge.

“It’s a bomb that is designed to burn everything around it, luv.”

“Thanks…but if it was under your bed that would mean someone meant to kill you.”

Spike strolled around, looking at the remains of his bedroom. “Looks like.”

“Well, Spike, I’m sure you’ve made loads of enemies over the years with your special brand of charm.”

Spike smirked at her. “Yeah, but I killed most of them. I don’t know of any in the area but Angelus, and he should be good and pissed over my betrayal over Acathla. But I take it that Peaches still has a grip on his slippery soul. Of course, there is my natural enemy.” He gave her a wicked grin. “You.”

“Me? Like I even knew what an incinerating device was. Besides your latest favor, the three day truce which I agreed to, is why I came to talk to you.”

“Made your decision already, pet?” Surprised, Spike tensed, not sure if he wanted to hear her decision. This day had had a very rocky start, and he wasn’t sure it was going to get any better or not.

“As I see it, now that you have returned to the vamp world of chipless, I have three options. First, I stake you. The pros of this option is it’s straight forward, easy on me, and poof everything is handled.” When Spike looked at her horrified, she gave him a little shrug. “Well, it is my job description, vampire SLAYER.”

Spike was trying to think fast. “I…huh…I have to disagree. Yeah…that’s not such a wise option, pet, especially since I am *extremely* allergic to pointy pieces of wood.” Spike gained confidence when she didn’t pulled a stake yet. “Stakes rank right up there with that nasty little glowing ball up in the pretty, blue sky.”

Buffy wanted to laugh but kept a straight face, wanting the cock-sure vamp to sweat some more. “Option two is that I let you leave town before I have to irritate one or more of your ‘allergies’. That way you don’t permanently stay in Sunnydale as dust to be swept and thrown away.”

Now, Spike thought, this was a scenario that I can work with. Spike gave the slayer a smile, with as much little boy charm he could put in it. “But you see, luv, I’m not going to give you an excuse to stake me. I plan on being an absolute angel. Cross my dead heart and hope to die. Ok, I am already dead, but I do prom”
”

Putting her hands on her hips and gazing at the vampire with obvious skepticism, Buffy sarcastically pointed out, “An angel? You’re more like a devil missing his horns.”

“Hey, now, I do too have a horn. A long, hard horn.” Spike raised his scarred eyebrow at her. “No, wait. I could be lying. I wouldn’t dream of stopping you if you want to check.”

Buffy crossed her arms this time and raised an eyebrow of her own, but the corners of her mouth were starting to curl up. “Do I need to go back over option one again?”

Spike raised both hands, palms toward her, and took a step back. “Ok, ok. Let’s not get hasty, luv. So what’s the third option?”

Buffy paused before answering, looking him eye to eye. “Simple, I trust you to not feed on humans.”

Spike couldn’t have been more shocked if Angel had told a bawdy joke, but he quickly recovered. “Uh? Oh, great idea. Bloody brilliant you are,” he said as he slowly walked towards her, a cocky grin spreading across his face. “But I think, just in case, you should keep a very close eye one me. In fact, I think it would be better if you keep your hands on me.” Spike pulled her up against him as he wrapped each of her arms around his waist. Buffy smiled at his forwardness as his lips descended on her own.

The bomb and fire was forgotten. The decimated bedroom surrounding them was forgotten. The chip that no longer worked was forgotten. Time was forgotten. Their kiss was soft but searching, fueled by a new, mutual agreement of trust between former foes.

Drawing their kiss deeper, Buffy brought her hands up and with one caressed the side of his face and with the other one she ran her fingers through his hair. Her boldness was fueled by the adrenalin, which was still in her system from her concern for his safety, and the relief of her decision to trust Spike to not feed instead of staking him.

Pulling back Buffy’s hands fell down to his chest. “Do you have any other clothes besides of these ventilated ones?” Buffy asked, as she hooked a finger in one of the t-shirt’s holes over his chest, caressing his skin.

“No, this was the best I could find, pet.” He motioned over to a destroyed dresser that was still smoking. “I’ll have to do a bit of shopping.”

“Oh, a good excuse to go clothes shopping…I can do it for you.” Buffy hopefully looked down towards his feet.
“Your boots weren’t damaged, were they?”

“Sorry, luv, no excuse to shop for shoes. My boots are right as rain, but I appreciate the offer. So if you would go and get me a t-shirt and jeans, there are some other details I need to take care of.”

Standing on tip toe, Buffy gave Spike a chaste kiss on the lips. “I’ll see you later.” As she left the crypt, Buffy distinctly had a bounce in her step, thinking about their kisses and what color would best go with his eyes. He didn’t say the t-shirt had to be black, did he?

When Buffy was safely gone, Spike sat down and rested against the wall. Emotions were flowing through his whole body at Mach 7. Ranging from shock and amazement to the euphoria that one gets in a dangerous situation and then makes it to safety. Hell, he had been in a dangerous situation. Since he told the slayer about the chip no longer working, she could have staked him, or at least tried, he thought with a smirk. But instead, she decided to trust him. That was what made his head spin, making him feel light headed. A slayer trusting a vampire that had killed two other slayers. The kiss they had just shared was amazing, and he did want more, but he was thankful to have some time to himselfime ime to thank his lucky stars and anyone else up in the heavens that helped this miracle happen. And most of all, he was thankful for the opportunity to prove himself to the slayer. He wasn’t just a monster on a leash any longer. Now he could show her that he was much, much more.

******

“Ok, let’s begin your session. Like, uh, tell me hou aru are feeling right now.” Harmony was sitting in a chair wearing a short skirt and matching jacket over a low cut blouse. She held a pen and a pad of paper to take notes. Her overall appearance was topped off by a pair of glasses perched on her nose, which she had to look over in order to read her own writing.

A couch was positioned in front of Harmony’s chair, providing her lover reclining on the couch, an excellent view up her tight skirt. Not to mention, her lack of underwear enhanced the view considerably, but he wasn’t looking. Instead her lover was lying stiffly on the couch, eyes fixed on the ceiling, with one of those eyes sporting a spectacular shiner. “How am I feeling? I’m feeling like I could rip the head off that bleach blonde bastard. That’s how I fucking feel.”

“Touchy, touchy.” Harmony flipped her hair over her shoulder. “So why are you so hostile?”

“Hostile? More like Hostile 17. I should have staked that mouthy blood sucker when we had him under lock and key.” His hands clinched and unclenched repeatedly at his sides. “I saw that asshole with Buffy last night. He came up behind her, and they weren’t just talking. He had his arms wrapped around her.”

“Ok, I get it already, Mr. Grumpy. How *else* do you feel?”

Ignoring the vampiress’ question, he ranted on. “That disgusting vampire was kissing Buffy on the neck, and *she let him.* He must have been using his thrall.”

Harmony rolled her eyes and gave a huge, dramatic sigh. “Spike thinks that a vampire who uses that thrall thingy to seduce a victim doesn’t have the “rocks” to be able to do the seduction on his own. So, if Buffy is doing the dirty with Spike, she is doing it of her own, free will. But anyway, that’s not what you were suppose to say. When I asked you how you felt, you were suppose to say that you were horny, and that you had been having fantasies about you banging me while I was bent over this chair.”

Finally, he looked over at Harmony. His eyes took some time to focus on her, but his anger still shone brightly.

Unexpectedly, he lunged off the couch, jerked Harmony out of her chair and pushed her down on the carpet to lie on her back.

She smiled up at him as he straightened up to unzipped his pants above her. “Ooo, I just love it when you are all forceful and stuff.”

However, that was all she was able to say before he was on her, spreading her legs. Without preamble, not bothering to even take off his pants, he rammed his cock into her cunt, up to the hilt in one forciful move.

“Oowww!” Harmony was surprised at his sudden aggressiveness. “Ow, that hurts….Ahhh, that hurts sooo good.”

Finally, her lover had found a release for his burning anger. With each thrust, he growled through clinched teeth, “Spike.Has.To.Be.Stopped.He.Has.To.Die.” He shot his seed on the last word and collapsed on Harmony.

As he lay heavily on her, his whole body limp, Harmony sld hid him sharply on the ass. “You fuck like a rabbit. In, out, in, out, done. As if! My patient better come up with more words to pound into his doctor to satisfy her. In fact, this session is going to cost you double and let me show you where to start payment.” Harmony pushed him by his shoulders down her body until his face was even with her mound. “Now, trust your doctor, and she’ll show you a much better way to use that filthy mouth of yours.”

*****

TBC (with some naughty Spuffy)