Temptation

Dawn came slowly back to consciousness, gorgeous lassitude and contentment in every part of her body, feeling incredibly relaxed and well-loved. Who would have thought it? Sex with Spike as a vampire was just as amazing –if not more so!—as sex with Spike as a human. And either way, he was all hers, just as she was all his. Completely. Totally. Forever. Smiling, eyes still shut, she snuggled closer to him, wrapping arms and legs around his cool, perfect body, and whispered, “I love you.”

“Love you too, Bit,” he whispered back, intensity in every syllable. His cold hand possessively stroked her hair, and she purred, butting her head farther into his touch like a needy, affectionate kitten.

Her eyes shot open as she realized… Spike was supposed to be chained! How was he stroking her hair? Even as she shoved herself back and off of him, his fist tightened at the base of her skull with a grip like death. Human reflexes weren’t nearly fast enough to save her from the suddenness of his capture. Her mouth opened in a soundless O of terror, and she struggled futilely against him, striking with fists at his gorgeous face, his merciless blue eyes that were shading into gleaming predatory yellow even as his game face emerged.

She had been so stupid. And now she was so dead.

His lips curled into a demonic little smile, and he licked at his fangs, just a quick flicker of pink behind the deadly whiteness. “You fell off the tiger, luv. Gonna get bit now, yeah?” Effortlessly, he snagged her flailing arms by the wrists, trapping both in one strong hand and nearly crushing the delicate bones of her forearms. Bringing her throat to his mouth was just as easy.

She felt his cold lips brush along the straining line of her throat, just above her triphammer pulse, in a mockery of the tenderness they’d shared when he was human. A whine of utter animal terror vibrated inside her chest, and he chuckled against her skin, low and sinister. “Don’t take on so, luv,” he whispered against her flesh. “This’ll only hurt a mo’.”

He backed off for a split second, and then struck like a cobra, fangs tearing into her carotid. The last thing she heard was her own scream, bubbling through her blood as he devoured her.

* * *

Dawn jerked awake with a choked scream, propelling herself back and off of Spike’s body in complete horror. Her eyes were so wide that the whites were visible around the entire pale blue circle of her iris, and her mouth stretched into a grimace of revulsion and fear as she tripped, moving backwards, and fell to her rear on the concrete floor of the warehouse. There was blood on his mouth.

There was blood. On his mouth. Blood. Mouth. Blood….

Heart in her throat, tasting her pulse like something vile on her tongue, she stared at Spike, still supine on the pallet they had shared. Her hand flew to her throat, and her whole body sagged in relief when it came away clean. No bite. No blood. No dying.

But her dream had been right about one thing. He was free, every shackle unfastened and lying quietly useless on the floor. Slowly, she rose to her feet, not caring that she was naked and covered in dust and fear-sweat. Just as slowly, she backed farther away, trying to keep her eyes on him even as she desperately searched for something –anything!—with which to defend herself.

He didn't move, didn't stir, or say anything. He just stared at her, willing her to see the truth... to see him ... to see the steely control he'd exerted to keep from sinking his teeth in her and taking what demon in him wanted.

Dawn swallowed her heart back to where it belonged... mostly. Spike wasn't attacking, wasn't doing anything at all. Could she have been mistaken about the shackles? Let her nightmare follow her into the waking world? But... the blood. Where had that come from, if it wasn't from her?

No, the shackles really were loose. Spike was free to do... anything he wanted. Her voice trembling, she stated "You have blood on your mouth." There. Not accusing. Not exactly, anyway.

He shifted his naked limbs, but didn't get up off the pallet. "So do you," he answered eventually, his gaze clinging to the cherry stains on her bottom lip.

Reflexively, Dawn licked at her lips. Coppery, salty. She rubbed the back of her hand across her mouth, and held it up before her face, rather than taking her eyes off of Spike. Yes, there was red smeared across her hand. Still watching him, she brought her fingertips to her lips, and found a sore spot. Had he-- nipped her? Accidentally? Or... purposefully?

But no, they'd never kissed. She'd stayed away from his fangs the entire time she'd ridden him. Kept him prisoner. Chained. Why wasn't he chained now? She'd never get those back on him and live to tell the tale. And if he needed the chains for her to be safe... then what was the damned point, anyway?

Dawn tilted her head to the side, still watching him, watching her. "Okay, give me a minute. I have to figure this out."

He counted off sixty seconds. "Time's up." From her expression, time had passed too quickly. He sat up and started to pull his clothes on... anything to prevent himself from looking at her throat and being tempted to claim her fully. "There's nothing to figure out, Bit. Nothing's changed."

She replied with a hint of her former sass. "Except that you're somehow free, and there's blood on our mouths. And I don't know --can't remember-- how that happened." She watched him warily. He was between her and the bag she hoped she'd never have to open, the one with stakes in it. The Watcher's Friend, so to speak.

He sensed her indecision. It both angered him and made him proud. "You're still standing," he pointed out, his words edged with steel. He softened it, "but I won't be responsible for what happens if you don't put something on."

To hell with this, Dawn decided. He was either as completely hers as she was his, or she was going to die. Being a sissy girl about the whole thing was totally counter-productive. "Is that so," she asked, lips curving a bit. She licked at the sore spot on her lower lip again and came out of her partially-crouched position to stand, hipshot and naked. Keeping her eyes fixed on his, she raised her blood-smeared hand to her mouth, and licked at the drying stain on the back. Gross to her... but not to him. Not now.

Putting moisture back into the drying blood made its scent that much sharper, put him that much closer to the edge. If he lunged forward, snaked his hand out and tugged on her leg, she'd be on the ground, under him, pouring herself into his mouth....

That would be one moment in time. He wanted her forever. Body, soul, heart... no compulsion, just his. And he would have her just like that.

Without warning, he shot up and strode right in front of her, his jeans undone, his shirt still on the ground. She couldn't miss the raw hunger in his expression, before he swooped down, licked her hand the way she had, then took her mouth with his own. Lips fused together, he kissed her lower lip over and over, sucking it, before delving his tongue into her mouth and claiming it as his, claiming her as his.

She'd had time, then, to try to pull away. Dawn didn't. And when Spike kissed her, took her mouth with all the passion and emotion that he'd shown her before he was changed, again, she melted against him, arms, snaking around his waist and up his back as far as she could reach, clinging to him, and kissing him back with everything that was in her.

As savage as his kiss was, as possessively as he was running his hands over every part of her, molding her to him, pressing her soft skin into the rough material of his jeans, holding her so tight he could feel her straining to take each breath, she didn't fight him... didn't protest... didn't resist. In the end, that was what brought him to his senses.

He took a few steps and moved. When they came to a stop, her back was up against the wall, and he had her hands trapped high above her head. "Any other questions?"

A little bemused by the power of that kiss, and a lot relieved that her choice had been the right one, Dawn grinned up at him. "Only a few million, but they can wait. You just answered the most important one." She tipped her head up to meet his eyes more squarely, lips parted. "But I think I might be hard of hearing. Would you mind answering it again?"

"Long as you understood the important part," he rubbed his thumb over her lip that naturally would obsess him until it healed. "Mine." There was no question there as he lowered his head and kissed her again, with more control, but just as possessively.

Kissed breathless once again, Dawn took a deep breath before replying. "Yours," she agreed, "but that works both ways." She feathered kisses along his collarbones, and then bit, very lightly, at his neck. "Mine," she breathed out against his cool skin, and kissed where she had nipped.

"Do you know what that means?" He tipped her face up so she would look him in the eyes. "Means I won't allow anyone... not the school... not the bloody Watchers... and not even the Slayer to interfere."

"That was kind of what I had in mind," she told him, dropping a kiss on his knuckles. "Luckily for you, you have the perfect mate for low-profile, high-profit victimless crime." She tossed a wicked smile his way. "Just one thing –when it comes to Buffy, you're going to have to stand behind me. I mean that literally. Okay?"

He stared at her long and hard. "No. No way." His grip tightened on her shoulders. "If you don't want to stay and fight, we run. But I'm not hiding behind you. Don't ask me again, the answer will always be no."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "It's not hiding. Some potential enemies –okay, most potential enemies— you're better equipped to handle by far. That's common sense. I'll have your back, guaranteed. I don't think of that as hiding. It's just smart. Same deal when it comes to my sister, only in reverse. It's smarter my way, with her." She reached up to rest one hand on his, there on her shoulder. "Because if we don't play her right, she'll never leave us alone."

He smiled and brushed his mouth over her ear. "No." It would take time, but she'd learn he wasn't the agreeable professor anymore.

"Yes," she insisted, "because I don't want you killing my sister, and she won't give up. And I even more especially don't want her killing you. We have to get her on our side, and it's not going to be easy." She paused, nibbling at her lip. To tell him? Not to tell him? He didn't remember, she was pretty sure of that. Maybe just a hint. "She might be kinda jealous, actually. And that makes her, like, waay cranky."

He knew the history. "No right to be. If she..." he started again, "she never came for me after, did she? There was just the one phone call. She seemed nice enough, but we had anything like you and I have, she'd have come."

Another thought occurred to him, making his face grow hard. "Is the problem yours? It didn't seem to matter to you before...."

"Because she never treated you righ— Wait— phone call? What phone call? You mean to say she knew you were alive and never told us?" The sense of betrayal was staggering, but it only gave her more ammunition for her argument. "You're trying to use logic for when we have to deal with her. It's really not her strong suit, you know. She's all about the slay first, ask question, like, never."

"You didn't answer my question," he pointed out, moving away and scrubbing his face with his hands. "You're worried about what she'll think about you." That was something he couldn't do a damn thing about.

She followed him and grabbed his shoulder. She didn't have the strength to turn him around, but she gave it her best shot, and he humored her, turning with her grip. "I don't care what she thinks of me. For loving you?" She made a scoffing sound. "I only care what you think of me... but it would be nice if the love of my life and my sister wouldn’t try to kill each other when we meet up. And we're not going to be able to avoid her forever. She'll come... maybe not for years, if we're good and careful, but. She'll come."

He searched her face and found the truth in her eyes. She wouldn't leave him or be ashamed because of what her sister or anyone else thought. "There won't be any killing," he promised her. "I'll tell her the what's what. If she can't read the signs for herself, yeah?" He snaked his hand around her waist and held her to him. "Pretty hard to miss."

"Yeah." She laid her head against his chest, secure in his embrace, and for just a fleeting moment, missed the thud of his heartbeat beneath her cheek. "I love you, more than anything. If she won't see sense... when she finds us... then we'll disappear better. I'm never going to let anyone take you away from me, Spike."

* * *

Mr. Asher, stern-faced beneath the bandage covering the gash from his book, delivered when Spike had attacked him in his study, took a moment to meet the eyes of each Watcher Trainee, of each fully-fledged Watcher. “And there you have it,” he concluded grimly. “Dawn Summers went missing five days ago. We believe we have tracked her to the warehouse district, but gentlemen, make no mistake, we may not be dealing with that sweet, if misguided, girl any more. Remember that there were signs of a bloody struggle in the park near the illicit love-nest she shared with Spike, formerly one of the deadliest vampires in the world. Recall also that a car was stolen from the area that night. Most importantly, realize that Spike’s cards show a record of purchases of pig’s blood.”

Some of the Watcher Trainees paled at the implications. Asher nodded solemnly at them. “That is correct, gentleman. Ms. Summers… may have been turned. And as the Slayer’s little sister, she already possessed an extensive knowledge of Homo Sapiens Nosferatus. If she has become one… the only thing to do is put her out of her misery.”

He waited for stalwart nods from all of the lads. “Very well. You have all been equipped with trackers in your vampire hunting kits. Stay in contact, and respond immediately when called. Remember, this is a surveillance mission, and not yet a stalk and kill. We must have more information before we can act.”

As he watched them go, he fought the reprehensible desire to gnaw at his fingernails. Keeping the situation secret from Rupert Giles and Buffy Summers was wearing on his nerves. But he would much prefer to present them with a fait accompli than to appear to have been buffaloed, as he so truly had been.

* * *


Alec was ready to turn back and start a new sweep when he caught sight of long dark hair swinging behind a woman holding a grocery bag and walking very quickly. It was Dawn, it had to be. Who else would be walking around with groceries in this area of town?

If he got the credit for bringing her in, it would go a long way in pushing him ahead in the organization. And it would show his father. Oh yeah. Carefully, he followed her as she clung to the shadows. Taking her... taking her and not dusting her, would be a feat. He wasn't sure he'd be able to do that. His life came first, but he would try. Just as he started to reach for the stake in his pocket, she crossed the alley. The sun was going down, but if she'd been a vamp... she'd have been toast for sure.

Drawing a sigh of relief, he switched weapons and chased her down with a taser in hand. "Stop! Dawn... stop, it's Alec."

Son of a bitch he cursed under his breath and lengthened his strides when she didn't stop.

Dawn glanced over her shoulder at the sound of footfalls in the alley, and started to move faster upon seeing who it was. Alec was nice enough, when you were on his side... but who knew what he'd be like now? She was the evil fallen mistress of the demon undead, after all --and she liked it that way! "Kinda busy, Alec," she called, picking her feet up and putting them down even faster. Managing grappling hook and groceries both was difficult at the best of times, climbing up to the roof of their warehouse lair. Doing it while fleeing an overeager Watcher Trainee was not her idea of fun!

Still, she plucked the hook and rope, neatly coiled, from the top of the bag, and got ready to climb as fast as she could, once she lost the stupid idiot in the maze of alleyways here.

He cursed again, giving everything he had to catch up to her. She was already climbing when he jumped and wrapped his arms around her thighs, using his weight to bring her down. When they landed, his arms were scraped up but all he could think about was that his mouth was on her breast... that her leg was brushing against his groin as she started to struggle ... and that they were all alone.

"Stop," he snarled, catching her arms, and struggling to bring her under control. "Just want to talk..." Even if his body wanted something entirely different.

"Let go of me, Alec," she warned him, practically growling as she tried to break his hold. Damnit, she was much better at the evasive whirling style of fighting than this undignified... wrestling! And euwww, was that a hard-on? "Gross," she muttered, and tried to slam her thigh into his sac, despite the fact that she didn't have much leverage at the moment.

The insult made his temper shoot up. "Bitch," he grew rougher, using his much larger body to trap hers, then seeing she was going to get the upper hand, shoving the taser into her rib cage. "You want it?" he lifted his body slightly to make sure he didn't get himself. He was breathing hard as he stared down into her flushed face.

"You don't even come close to having what I want," she taunted, "little boy. And I do mean little...." she finished with a punch from her freed arm that nearly broke his nose. She drew breath and screamed for Spike.

He hit the button, but only for a few seconds... just enough to get her to shut the fuck up. "I'm taking you back," he said, deliberately rubbing himself over her as he started to get up.

The sound of his mate calling for him... screaming for him... the sight of her covered by another male's body... the smell of said male's aroused state.. blinded Spike to everything but the need to break the man. To make him disappear. To take his scent off Dawn.

Morphed, and snarling, he dragged Alec off her and sent the boy flying into the wall. A sickening sound announced the fact that bones had been broken.

It wasn't enough... the storm still raged within him. Reaching for him again, he hauled him up, deaf to his shouts, and slammed his fist in his face again, and again.

Dawn tried to call out, to stop Spike, but her body still jittered with electricity from the stun gun. When she finally got to her feet, she wobbled over to him and hung on his punching arm, calling desperately. "Spike! Stop, Spike... you have to stop."

He wanted to ignore her calls, he wanted to kick the boy to death... he literally shook as he stopped and dropped him on the ground. "He touched you. He hurt you and he touched you," Spike snarled, contemplating striking him again.

No one touched what was his. No one.

"I'm fine," she told him, holding on for balance as much as for comfort. "But you can't kill him." She firmed her jaw and moved between them, facing Spike. "You can't. I mean, you totally could, but you shouldn't." She cast an anxious look behind her at Alec. "He'll bring the others. We have to move now."

Looking down at her, he saw the plea in her gaze. A part of him knew this was a turning point. Things would never be the same if he did what his instincts called for. Giving a frustrated growl, he lifted Alec and hauled him inside the warehouse. He could hear her talking... asking him what he was doing... but it was taking all he had to listen to her in the first place, so he concentrated on getting Alec up the ladder and inside, and didn't say a word until he locked a metal bracelets around Alec's ankle, using the chains that had held him before.

When she came up behind him, he turned and pulled her into his arms, dragging her up hard against him. "Mine," he snarled, both for her benefit, and for his prisoner’s.

In case either one had a doubt, he openly groped her... daring either of them to protest.

"Mine," she returned, leaning into his touch, and gave him a fierce kiss of love and gratitude. "My hero," she smiled up at him.

He wasn't appeased... he had something to prove. He needed to remove Alec's scent from her, replace it with his. He didn't want her to remember how it felt for the boy to be on top of her, grinding... his imagination tortured him. What could have happened in the few minutes Alec was with her... it wasn't logical, but neither was his demon.

Sliding his hands up her thighs, he cupped her ass and lifted her up, forcing her to cradle his raging erection between her legs. She was his; this was reserved only for him.

Alec sat leaning against the wall, his eyes swollen almost shut. But he could see them, he saw the vampire's erection... he saw how she was riding it now... he could hear her breaths. And fuck... he was getting hard all over again.

Dawn whimpered at the touch of Spike between her legs, even through both sets of clothing, and tightened her legs around his hips, trying for closer, for more. Getting revved up on patrol or in a fight was nothing new to her after the last few months, but she'd never been in a position like this, desperately wanting to be made Spike's all over again, needing it. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling herself up to kiss him, to lick along his jaw, his neck.

Kisses be damned, he wanted to be inside her... so deep she'd never get him out. Snarling, he dropped her only long enough to tear her jeans apart and throw them to the ground.

Alec's heart beat faster. He wasn't afraid, not now... but the things Spike was doing to Dawn... the things he'd imagined doing to her but knew he'd never get away with. And here he was....

"Oh, God, yes, Spike, yes, yes," Dawn begged, totally unashamed. She could feel the completely soaked fabric of her panties against her hot, wet self, feel every tooth of Spike's zipper as he ground against her, as she flexed her legs around his waist. "Please," she moaned, arching her back for more pressure, hair sweeping the ground, knowing he would never drop her no matter how she writhed against him in her greed to have him inside her once more.

That sure as shit didn't sound like rape to Alec! He tried to make a fist inside his jeans, around himself, jerking and pulling at his own cock, breath coming faster as she leaned far back, so far he could see her flushed face, her closed eyes, her pleading lips. Lips he'd wanted around his own dick.

Spike couldn't take it for one minute longer. He unzipped and rubbed his engorged cock against her entrance. "I need to fuck you," he growled, reaching under her ass and curling his fingers around her wet panty and dragging it to the side.

"Holy fuck..." Alec was already coming... trying not to come... coming... He grit his teeth as he watched Spike push inside her, heard her cry... neither one gave the other any mercy. Fuck...

He made her take him all the way to his balls. If he could have gone further, he would have. With each thrust, he walked a step forward, until he had her back up against the wall and was mindlessly thrusting into her like a piston that wouldn't quit.

If fucking Spike when he had been chained was like riding a tiger, then this was like swimming with a starving shark. Dawn was dragged deeper and deeper into the dark currents, tossed like flotsam by the powerful surges of Spike in her and around her, her heels riding the small of his back, her thighs gripping his lean waist, his body slamming into her soaking core. Wordless screams were torn from her throat as she surrendered completely to him, spasms already rippling through her, tearing into her center like a tsunami, inexorable, irresistible. Her nails bit into his back, clawing furrows of flesh and blood as she came with a violence she never could have imagined.

Spike held nothing in reserve. He was slamming into her with all of his strength, fucking her, claiming her, marking her as his... and only his. With every drag of his cock inside her, he was blinded with love, with jealousy, with need, with obsession, with fire. He mauled her throat, scraping his teeth along her artery... fighting the need to puncture her skin... to take what was his.

He felt her shaking, trembling and squeezing around his cock... he slowed down. "You're my mate... say it... say it," he snarled, torturing both of them with his refusal to continue the pounding.

"Don't... stop... " she managed to get out, shakily, barely words at all, not understanding at first what he had said.

"Then say it... fucking say it," he growled, slamming her against the wall and stopping completely. His body screamed, his cock twitched inside her, needing release... "My mate... say it, say it... I need to hear it..." if he couldn't claim her blood, he would hear the words, her admission.

Alec groaned out loud. Watching them to the point where they both got off, then seeing them stop as suddenly got him so hot, he started to get hard again… Where was his damn camera phone....

"God, God, yes, yes... I am, I'm yours, I'm your mate.... Spike...." A groan, animal-like in its intensity, came from deep in her chest as she writhed, impaled, captive, totally possessed. "I'm yours... yours... your mate...."

Whatever dam had held him back burst. He had sense enough to slide his hand behind her back to cushion her each time he thrust into her, deeper than the last. "Mine... my mate," he growled, over and over, with every thrust, until their movement slowed down, and then he was whispering the words to her. "You're mine luv. Mine..."

Dawn hung limply in his arms, unable to unlock her legs or to let go, completely exhausted by the storm she'd just weathered, but she managed to dredge up the energy to turn her head just enough to kiss him softly on the cheek, a bare brush of lips as her breathing slowly calmed. "Always," she whispered, too weary for more.

Alec put his head down, feeling as spent as the couple. They'd come for him... anytime... as soon as he didn't check in, they'd use the tracking devices foisted on each trainee since the day Dawn disappeared. He just hoped he'd last until then.

(Thank you for all your prior comments, we've enjoyed them muchly. *Hugs*)