Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me

Spike walked through the streets of Sunnydale, looking around in amusement. He’d expected hoards of little children running around high on sugar and kids Xander’s age doing stupid things with rotten eggs and soap. There was a reason vampires and other demons avoided Halloween; most of the people running around were too stupid to know they were looking at a real threat.

Tonight, though, tonight was different. At the very moment the sun had set he’d felt the wave of Chaos magic that swept over the city. There was a confusing mix of child-size demons and weird things running around. There were even a few cars tipped over and a fire was started in front of that terrible coffee place that Xander liked to buy from.

Spike grinned. “Well! This is just... neat!”

This was going to make taking care of Xander’s father even easier. In all this mess, no one would ever know if something took down the bastard on the streets or what. Although that wasn’t going to stop his plans. He was still going to make it look like the git got drunk on the way home from a job interview and went off the side of the road. This was just extra insurance in case the Watcher got too nosey.

Before he could collect the drunken old asshat, he figured he’d best check on Xander first. The lad had that twisted sort of luck and he was either in the middle of whatever magical was happening or was about to put himself in the middle to save a kitten in a tree or something. He loved Xander and knew that to a certain point he could take care of himself but he worried.

When he found him he couldn’t help but grin. First of all, his boy was dressed in the tightest, softest looking pair of jeans he’d ever seen. Add in the leather jacket and Spike wished he didn’t have plans for maiming and torturing for the evening.

His little friend was with him, the bitchy one, and she was dressed as Catwoman. He had to admit she made a gorgeous package herself. She was also wielding a whip pretty damn well and he felt really sorry for any boyfriend that missed her birthday.

Best of all was the sight of Angelus being berated by both teens. He was in front of them, shoulders hunched. Maybe the girl had used the whip on him already. He listened for a bit and was rewarded with hearing Xander calling the Brooding One a moron.

“Will you both shut the hell up?! It’s bad enough that we have to chase after My Pretty Princess, without you two bitching at each other. God! Men are such babies!” The girl actually stomped her foot. It was too funny.

Plus there was only one reason that would have Angelus looking drearier than usual and that was the Slayer. And since the girl, Cordelia, mentioned looking for a Princess, Spike guessed that somewhere or other the Slayer was easy pickings.

It would make his life so much simpler. Find the Slayer while she was weak, take her out of the picture. Unfortunately for him, he found himself disliking the idea. For one thing, he didn’t want Xander upset.

But the big thing was he wanted to meet her as an equal. The Chinese Slayer had been good, he’d been young and it had been an even fight.

The one in New York, she was a real treat. Full of anger and fury and righteousness, she had relentlessly hunted him as much as he had stalked her. Their dance had gone back and forth for weeks, with him taunting and the Slayer fighting back.

He wanted that with this Slayer too. While Buffy, stupid name for a slayer, was in many ways undisciplined and unorthodox from what he'd seen during the few encounters he’d had with her, she was more than a fair match for him. He’d almost had her that night at the school but her Mother had shown up, swinging that bloody axe.

Still, it would have been simple to take the axe away from the older woman and kill her with it. He didn’t because in a way he admired the woman; it took a lot of courage to slam someone like that.

No, while it would have been fun to hunt the Slayer, even find her and just play a bit, he had better game tonight. He watched as Xander and his group ran down one of the side streets. While he didn’t like Angel, he knew the brooding corpse would protect Xander. If he didn’t then the girl would probably take off his hide.

He quickly made his way through a few back yards and side streets, reaching Xander’s old house. It was dark, the only light shining through the windows was the blue light flickering from the television. The yard was overgrown and he wondered if the old bastard ever got off his ass to take care of it. Probably not.

He walked up to the front door, noticing a few beer bottles scattered in the grass. He snorted. Not only was no one going to miss Anthony Harris, hell, he was doing the world a favor by taking him out.

He knocked on the door but all he got in response was a “Go the fuck away!” He quickly picked the lock before letting go of his human mask. Harris was lying down on the couch and stank of old booze and body odor. He moved quietly behind him and quickly covered the human’s mouth with his hand.

“Trick or Treat.”

The human waste struggled and Spike pinched him on the neck. He quickly stilled, unconscious. Now all he had to do was get this sack of shit to the warehouse and all would be good.

Spike grinned to himself. He was going to have so much fun.

*****

Xander couldn’t help but laugh at Cordelia. She had a group of admirers hanging on her every word. The geeks were all drooling over the costume and the fact that she actually knew who Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt were. The jocks and band members were just drooling over her curves. Of course it helped that none of the other Cordettes were in attendance at the Halloween party at the Bronze. She had no competition and loved it.

He bought himself and Willow a coke at the bar and quickly made his way back to the table. He had to admit she looked good too; it was just disturbing to think about. He still couldn’t believe Buffy had just ditched her.

But no, after being attacked by a kid dressed as some sort of wookie thing, all Buffy wanted to do was get out of her evil princess dress and spend some time with Angel. It had taken the three of them nearly an hour to round up all the kids, who were frightened and confused, and get them home.

He’d invited Willow to come with them and he could tell she did only because she was feeling lost. She was currently sitting at a table looking all alone and self-conscious.

“Here we go, two cherry cokes, no sex jokes please.” She looked at him and blinked and he just grinned. He was getting too used to hanging out with Cordy and Spike; he was getting a dirty mind.

“Thanks, Xander.” She took the drink and started sipping. He did the same and then sighed. It would be fun to go dance but he didn’t think Willow was up to it and he didn’t want to leave her alone. It would also be fun to go and make fun of Cordelia’s groupies, but again…Willow.

“So, what do you want to do? Dance? Talk? Sit here and try not to stare at each other and be all awkward? Cause I’m telling you, these pants are too tight for me to sit down for long.”

There was silence for a while and he just sat there looking at the crowd, trying not to pressure her. It wasn’t too busy, which was surprising for Halloween. Then again, there were still a lot of people freaked out about the whole costume thing.

“You never did say what happened when you left Giles at that Ethan’s place.”

“I don’t know.”

“Huh? You were a ghost at the time, you could have hung out behind a wall or something. Although it would have been icky to get stuck in there when the spell was over.”

“Giles told me to go, so I did. He was all creepy and intense. I’ve never seen him like that.”

“Huh.” He had seen a glimpse of it. He was dying to get the full answer but he doubted Giles would just fess up. Unless he managed to get the older man drunk first; maybe Spike could buy him some scotch.

“Are you like, really happy, Xander?” Willow’s voice was quiet and he finally turned and really looked at her. Her hair was up and she was beautiful but looked so sad.

“Yes and no. I hate it that me coming out seems to have bothered you, Wills, but other than that, I’m pretty damn good. It’s like I’m finally figuring things out and, while it’s not all flowers and puppies, I’m good.”

“You know, I understand being lonely when Buffy and I needed time to deal but you didn’t have to go and hang all over Cordelia, of all people. And I thought you were gay now, so why are you all drooling anyway?”

Ouch. That hurt. Xander winced and then took a deep breath. “Okay, for one thing, Cordelia and I are just friends. We just started hanging out together because she needs someone to sharpen her claws on and I’m it. Plus it doesn’t matter to her if I’m gay and dating a serial killer as long as I don’t clash with her purse.”

He realized what he'd let slip and stuttered, “B-besides, I mean, you can’t expect me to sit in a corner all by myself just because I’m gay and you don’t like it. It’s not like Jesse is still around. So I’ve got Giles and I’ve got this warped Patsy and Edina thing going on with Cordy.”

And he had Spike, which filled up a hell of a lot of the holes in his life, some from Buffy and Willow but a lot that he hadn't even known about. Still, he didn’t want to shock her too badly. “I wanted to tell you earlier but you were always running away from me, or stuck to Buffy’s side. That day in the hall I was just so flustered and angry I opened my big mouth. I thought crap like that only happened on sitcoms. So, are you going to be okay with this?”

She looked down and then looked up and had tears in her eyes. “I don’t know. I mean, Buffy thinks you’re just experimenting or trying to just keep from being with me. It’s not, though, is it? I mean, I’ve been watching and you’ve been checking out guys, not girls.”

He blushed. It was true that he was looking at some of the other guys'…assets. That was okay, though; he could look, he just couldn’t touch. Not that he really wanted to touch anything that wasn’t attached to Spike. “Yeah, gay here. Really, really gay. Well, not the whole flaming thing with pink underwear and boas and Cher albums. But I do like my Oscar Meyer Wieners.”

Willow’s eyes opened wide and her mouth dropped. She took a deep breath and started giggling. He knew right then that they’d be okay.

Then he rewound what he'd just said in his head and listened again. Liking…wieners. His face grew hot and he just knew he was blushing. “Oh god!! That’s so much worse than the plumbing and vegetables! I really need to find a thesaurus for gay men or something.”

*****