Memory Redux

Chapter 12: That Funny Feeling

Taking his heartache and anger out on slimy bail jumpers helped somewhat, yet proved to be a superficial bandage at best. More like he was existing day to day better, if that made any sense. After all, he had years of dealing with the pain that came with loving Buffy, and he would deal again. However, this time seemed far worse because this time he had a glimpse of what heaven he could have had, but after Xander’s visit, his temporary bandage came off. With a bitter laugh and a dismissive shrug, he reminded himself that at least he had gotten that glimpse and that when she left him this go around, she was far away in a different town, and not a close temptation to both pleasure and inevitable pain.

As he walked down the stairs from his loft and then outside towards his car, he tried to focus his thoughts off of Beth and onto the bail jumper he was going to pick up that night. A good twenty feet from his car, Spike hit the remote’s button to open the car’s door locks. The remote key was a little modern day luxury that always brought a small smile to his face and made him wonder if such a device could be installed on the DeSoto. But of course, he never locked the DeSoto so he really had no need for an automatic lock, not something he particularly wanted to start doing after all the years he had his baby. He pulled open the door but never got the key into the ignition. Instead, his hand paused when the short hairs on the back of his neck stood up on end, telling him that something that went bump in the night was in the area.

Slowly getting back out of his car, Spike looked for whatever had made the mistake of getting too close to his home. As luck would have at it, the funeral home was hosting a large wake that night, which took up almost all the parking spaces and looked to be lasting for awhile more. Too many cars blocked his view from his parking spot, making it impossible to see whatever was there. So he walked the parking lot, checking every row but still came up with nothing. Eager to take what had become a challenge, Spike chuckled, “If the bugger wants to play hide, I’m happy to play seek.” Checking around one more time to make sure that the parking lot was completely empty of whatever was sending out signals, Spike shifted to his demonic face to heighten his senses and evened up the playing field. Extending his senses, the tingle was a little stronger, but he still wasn’t sure of the distance or location.

Turning in a full circle, scanning again, Spike ran through his head different possible creatures that could be out there. Whatever nasty that was giving him this feeling was undoubtedly supernatural, but Sacramento wasn’t exactly a demon Mecca. In fact, now that he thought about it, he rarely crossed paths with other demons anymore. Certainly not like Sunnydale where you couldn’t throw a rock without hitting one, and since demons usually steered clear of the country’s justice system, it wasn’t like any would be jumping bail so that he would have to chase them down.

As he walked around again, he finally discerned two things about the tingling. The tingling was coming from the cemetery, and it was closer than he originally thought. Taking precautions by stickio tho the shadows, Spike avoided the parking lot’s security lights. He made his way around to the side into the grave yard grounds as quickly as possible, letting the grass help muffle his steps and helping his effort to surprise whatever was out there.

Following his instincts, he angled to his left towards the edge of the cemetery, and was awarded when the tingling slightly increased. A row of thick, tall shrubs separated the edge of the cemetery from the street beyond, which was the same road that also passed the funeral ho Whe When he reached the barrier, Spike first paused to listen, but he only heard the usual sounds of the surrounding neighborhood. He let the rush that always came before a fight build before he lunged through the foliage…and nearly ran into a car. Confused at the absence of any demon, he looked up and down the street, but only saw more cars parked along the street. Spike assumed the cars were there because of the wake at the funeral home. As he stepped out into the street to continue the search, he idly wondered if the person who died had owned a car dealership or what? As he moved down the street, the tingling diminished. So he turned around, and as he walked in the other direction, the feeling grew but then lessened again.

Confused, Spike turned around and walked back to the place he entered the street and then further. And the same thing happened; the farther he walked, the feeling diminished. Letting out a frustrated growl, he headed back to the middle where he had originally made with the fangs trying to attack an empty street. One bright spot to his embarrassment was that the feeling was still the strongest in that small area. “Maybe the wanker is parking, snogging with a date.” He scanned the closest cars parked along the curb. “Or the prick could just want to toss off in the privacy of his own car.” Spike started to eagerly anticipate a right good surprise, which he hoped would make the wanker’s joy stick shrivel up so he could never yank on his pecker again. And since he assumed it was a demon, Spike could use his game face again. So bonus, he didn’t get to use his demon face much anymore.

Spike moved silently up to the closest cars, first look into a red Ford truck and then into a black Nissan Protégé, but found both were empty. He passed the point in the shrubs where he had jumped through to look into the car he almost dove into. Spike walked around to the driver’s side of the green Jeep and looked into the window. A blonde beauty waeepieeping in the seat, leaving the vampire to kick himself for not recognizing Beth’s Jeep before. But of course, Beth was the last person he expected to find snoozing down the street from his building, and to be honest, she was the last person he thought he would ever see again.

Realizing how soundly she was sleeping, he leaned over even with the window so he could gaze at her beautiful face. He reached out his hand to touch the window, wanting to touch her. Brushing away thoughts of why he shouldn’t get his hopes up from her presence, Spike focused his mind on the fact that he had felt her presence before finding her, as if she were still the slayer. In Sunnydale, they could always sense each other when near. One of the last times they were intimate, she sensed him standing behind a tree in the front yard of her house. But since knowing the slayer as the normal human Beth, that feeling of proximity had disappeared, leaving him to sense her just as any other human. He hadn’t felt her near the first time she had approached him in the music store. In fact, if she hadn’t spoken to him, he might not have noticed her at all as he usually ignored the humans around him. Even the last night he had seen Beth, when they had gone to the movie, while sitting next to her, she didn’t feel any different than any r hur human in the theatre. But tonight, he had felt her from the parking lot of his building. Not a far distance and not as strong as when she was the slayer, but enough to get his attention and lead him to her. The vampire didn’t know what the bloody hell was going on, but something had changed with her, only leaving with question instead of answers. Why he could feel her here? Why she was there at all? But none of the previous dilemmas which were the result of her past’s life memories surfacing, compared to his shock that followed her first words upon waking up.

Spike tried to decide on the best way to wake Beth up without scaring her half to death, and scaring her half out of her skin was really not good for a possible reunion.

However, Beth turned the table by startling Spike when she suddenly opened her eyes, quickly focusing on a pair of familiar, blue eyes gazing back at her. This jump started her brain enough to register that the blue eyes belonged to a very real, live William instead of him just starring in one of her dreams. Beth gave him a sleepy smile that kept growing into a grin. Swiftly rolling the Jeep’s window down, she reached out her hand to lay on his, which now lay on the edge of the car. “Hi. I could tell you were here.”

Spike loved the feel of her warm hand on his. Actually on any part of his body. He quickly picked her hand up and laced their fingers together, holding on in hopes of keeping the contact as long as possible, wanting to hold her forever and not let Beth leave him again. “Hey yourself, Kitten.”

She wanted to purr hearing the sound of his deep, sexy voice that she had missed so much. “This kitten didn’t plan on catnapping here, but I haven’t been sleeping much. See I’ve missed someone I haven’t seen in far too long. So me coming back, me parking, me sitting, and then me falling asleep.”

With the corners of his mouth starting to tilt up, Spike quirked an eyebrow at her in question. “And you ended up snoozing in your car here because…?”

“Because it looked like the comfy-est spot?” Beth gave a dramatic sigh. “Not buying it, are you? Ok, I parked here while I tried to get up the nerve to ring your door bell, so I could grovel at your feet for running away after that fight with those three jerks. But you know what?” She gave have him a wide, innocent smile. Just now, I woke up because I could feel that you were close by, and the little tingle felt so good.”

Spike already knew the answer to the question he was going to ask since it was the same feeling that led him to her, but he asked anyway just to make sure. “What do you mean by some feeling, love?”

“It’s hard to put into words. I started waking up because I kinda got this prickly feeling, and I just somehow knew it meant that you were close. Do you know what I mean or do I just sound lost in space?”

“I know exactly what you mean because that’s how I found you.” She had explained her feeling so casually like she didn’t realize she shouldn’t have such a “tingle” when he was near at all. Spike was positive that she hadn’t felt it when he had been around her two months ago, and he honestly didn’t have a clue why she did now. However in his opinion at the moment was that the tingles just didn’t matter moment. He would worry about these changes later because Beth came back to him and that was what mattered most. Pulling her hand up to his mouth, Spike kissed the tip of each finger before placing a lingering kiss on her palm.

Then she turned her hand over to grasp his fingers and brought his hand up to place it on the side of her face. Nuzzling into his palm, she closed her eyes, cherishing the feel of his touch on the sensitive skin on her face. When she felt William place his forehead against her own, Beth opened her eyes again. When she spoke, her voice was tentative and shaking with emotion. “I missed you.” She hadn’t been sure what his reaction would be until he pulled back, and Beth saw the joy in his eyes and his smile.

Spike’s world brightened at her words. After looking into her beloved face still cupped in his had, he leaned in through the window and gave Beth a light kiss on the lips. “I missed you, too.”

Keeping contact with his hand, she took a deep breath, dreading what she had to get off her chest. “You can’t believe how sor…”

With a light, chaste kiss, Spike stopped her apology. “No, love, that night I just forgot that you haven’t seen or dealt with such gutter dwellers. So don’t apologize for anything because it’s done and gone. But let me see if I can entice you to my flat.”

Nodding with a saucin, in, she rolled her window back up, opened the door and stepped out. Reaching up she put her hands on both on his shoulders to pull him down to her and pressed her lips to his. When she ran her tongue across his lips, she moaned as his mouth open, allowing her entrance. Their tongues danced as their arms rapped around each other, holding on tight as if the other would disappear. The kiss went on and only bly breaking from time to time for Beth to catch her breath.

When the kiss finally ended, Spike ran his knuckles down the side of her face. “Thank you for coming back, love.” He took her hand, and they starting walking towards his building.

“You wouldn’t believe how much I wanted to come back.” Beth admitted in a small voice.

As much as her words warmed his cold heart, when he felt her discomfort, Spike helped her out by changing the subject. “So I guess Harris told you about his little foray into skip chasing.”

“Huh? With an emphasis on ‘Huh’?”

Spike looked over her in surprise. “Harris didn’t tell you he was here three nights ago?”

Shaking her head, Beth’s voice sounded bewildered. “You mean Xander? My friend, Xander?”

“Yes, pet, the pillock himself. Brown hair, brown eyes, smart ass mouth that when he is not talking, he is eating…Xander Harris.”

“I don’t know what a pillock is, but I do recognize his description. And you’re saying he was here a few nights ago?”

“We’ve already done this bit, love.” Spike leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the tip of her nose. “Yes, Xander was here, and yes, this week. He just showed up one night on my door step, saying he was in town on business and thought he would drop by. When I told him that I was going out on a job, he asked to go with me. Surprisingly, he turned out to bhelphelp. Afterwards, we grabbed a couple of beers before he headed back to Sunnyhe…Sunnydale.” Spike luckily caught himself before he called the town his favorite nickname, Sunnyhell.

On the rest of the way to his flat, Beth prodded him for more details about Xander’s visit, especially enjoying the part where Xander had to search the putt-putt golf area. As they discussed that night, Spike was unfortunately reminded of what Xander had told him about another man trying to move in on Beth. Not that he blamed the tosser, but Spike’s jealousy had kicked in and his anger rose and rose as time passed.

Once in the loft, they stopped in the living room, and not being able to get enough of him, Beth turned to kiss William again. When their lips met, she could feel that something was wrong with him. She had no idea what made his attitude change so swiftly, but it did make her very nervous since she wanted to make everything right between them again.

Unsure what to do, she turned and walked further into the flat, wondering if she was rushing him too quickly. After all, she was the one that dropped in out of the blue. Even though she wanted to drag him to the bedroom and stay in bed with him all night, maybe he didn’t. Surely getting something to drink would be more casual, giving him more time to adjust, so Beth headed for the kitchen.

On the far range of her thoughts, Spike followed her and sat on one of the bar stools on the other side of the counter, enjoying just being able to watch her comfortably moving around his home again.

Upon entering, Beth opened one of the cabinets to grab out a mug and a glass and set both on the counter in front of Spike. As she opened the refrigerator, Spike watched smiling as she took stock of what he had to drink, appreciating the view of her ass that she presented him.

Her voice brought him out of his fantasies. “So let me catch you up on everybody in Sunnydale. First off, remember how I told you that Willow was joining a wiccan group at school? Well, she hated that silly group and said it was nothing but a social club. But one good thing came out of it. She did meet this other witch, Tara, and they have been practicing spells together. Willow has been so happy to have another witch to talk witchy stuff with.”

Feeling like he was dreaming, Spike sat at the counter, just enjoying listening to Beth talk about her friends until the nightmare started. He watched as she reached in the refrigerator and took out his pitcher of blood. He could feel his world shattering. Since Spike hadn’t been expecting Beth to show up, he hadn’t bothered moving the blood to the small refrigerator hidden in the library. And Spike had no idea what excuse he was going to give of why he kept blood in his the refrigerator. What was he going say?

TBC

Yes, it has been too long since I updated. Sorry! My only excuse is that I have also been working on the next two chapters of With A Little Help. So if you are a fan of that one, I hope to have the next chapter out soon. Thanks for your patience and you should see chapters soon.

MadRog
madrog@ev1.net
www.sunnydale-tales.com