Twining Vines (COMPLETE)

*~*Twining Vines*~* By Echidna

Part II - She
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Spike gasped for unneeded air as the monster tightened his grip around his neck.

“H—“ he tried to speak, but it was no use. His eyes widened as he saw the piece of wood in the demon’s hand. “I…” cough “I…”

“You want to say something before you’re dust, vampire?” the tall, slender monster asked.

The vampire nodded and felt the grip around his neck loosen just enough so he could get the words out.

“I told you… I’ll get you the money when I get it. I-“ he gasped as the sharp claws dug into the back of his scalp. “I had this egg deal going, but it fell through, but I’ll get you the-“

“ore ore excuses, you’re history.”

A painful groan escaped his parted lips as he wondered what an ungrateful way to go – at the hands of a class A bully. His eyes squeezed shut as he waited for the final blow, but it never came. Instead, he felt himself fall to the floor as he was released from the demon’s grasp. After a few seconds he was finally able to focused his eyesight; all he could see was the carcass of the monster at his feet - its neck clearly having been snapped, as its head slouched over its shoulders. Spike quickly looked around but found nothing. Whatever had saved him was gone, leaving only the clear scent of jasmine behind him. He tried to follow the trail, but it was no use as it mingled with all sorts of other aromas of the night. The vampire made a mental note to memorize that clear scent before it faded away completely.

His hand instinctively went for his throat, rubbing it as he made his way back home, his mind still tangled in the events of that night. Who had been his saviour? And why hadn’t he stuck around afterwards?

With a heavy hand, he pushed the wooden door open and immediately felt an intruder in his lair. He frowned as he noticed that he had only picked up on the trespasser as he passed the threshold to his own home. This was very strange. Vampires usually picked up intruders in their lairs a mile away. Ok, maybe not a mile away, but it was pretty close. Was he losing his touch?

“You’re not losing your touch, fang boy.” A female voice reassured him.

Spike immediately jumped up to attention, looking around in the dark corners of the crypt to find her, but he didn’t have to go to all of that trouble – there she sat, legs crossed over his sarcophagus. As he looked into her raven black eyes he immediately recognized them. They belonged to the woman that had laid beneath him the night before, at the Bronze, during the black out.

“Good memory.” She said with, what looked like… a smile? It was more of a smirk.

“Who are you? What are you doing here? What do you want?” His eyes dropped to the box of cookies she held in her hands. “And why are you eating my food?” he growled angrily.

“Help. Help…” she looked up as if trying to remember something and then added: “Help you and hungry.” She widened her eyes as she finished, taking a large bit off the cookie she held in her hand and munching on it as another one of those ‘smiles’ curled her pale lips.

“What?!” he asked confused, frowning and bringing his index finger and thumb to press over the bridge of his nose.

“The answers to your question, I believe.” She quipped, looking into the box. Finding it empty, she dropped it to the floor, jumped off the sarcophagus and started pacing around the room as she mumbled to herself. “Why do I always get the slow ones?”

“Hey, I heard that.” Spike protested, but all he got was a smirk as she continued analysing every crack in the walls with peculiar interest.

“You really should get these fixed. I can’t stand the cold.” She announced, as she shoved her hand into the front pockets of her worn out jeans. She wore a baggy, two sizes too big red shirt over scruffy blue denims. The colour of her shirt brought out the blood-shaded threads of her auburn hair. She had it caught up in a bundle on the back of her head, but the two strands of it that fell in loops on each side of her face, framing it, gave away its long length. She wasn’t very tall, maybe 5’2… 5’3? He couldn’t really tell as she walked around the crypt and, to be honest, he really didn’t care. All he wanted was for her to leave… Now!

“Ok! Backtrack a little here. Why are you here? Actually… no. Why aren’t I throwing you out of here?” Spike roared threateningly, but it seemed to have little, if any affect on her as she simply continued her private tour of his crypt.

“Because you can’t… And, even if you could, it wouldn’t be in your best interest.”

“And, pray do tell why is that?” he asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Why you can’t or why it’s not in your best interest?” Finally, she dignified him with a look.

Spike hissed as he narrowed his eyes, the anger building inside of him.

“You’re not a very pleasant person, are you?” she asked, narrowing her eyes in a mocking imitation.

“Will you just stop poncing around and tell me what the fuck you are doing here?” he bellowed, the anger spilling out.

“You know? You really should take some anger management classes. I hear they are very helpful.” The answer she got was an even deadlier look from the vampire. “Alright, alright, you’re no fun. I love doing the cryptic act on you guys.” She rolled her eyes and sighed, leaning into the sarcophagus and crossing her arms over her chest.

“I’m help. Basically, I was sent here to help you.” As he was about to interrupt her she quickly added shaking her head: “Sorry, can’t tell you who sent me.”

“And I’m supposed to accept this? Just like that?” he asked, waving his hands.

“Pretty much.” She shrugged her shoulders and gave him a silly smile.

“Well, missy, you can just go back to loonyvile. It was nice meeting you and all, but I’m kinda busy.” He started as he moved towards her and his hand came to encircle her forearm. “What the bloody fuc-?” he jumped back as he saw his hand go straight through her.

“Neat trick, huh?” she said with a smile as she waved her now semi-transparent hand in front of his face.

“What kind of ghost are you?” he asked.

“Not a ghost.” She answered truthfully as her lips pressed together in a tight smile. “And what I am is just way too complicated for you.” She added, moving away from him and shoving her hands back in her pockets.

“Look, I don’t like this one bit. You better-“ only then did the distinct scent of jasmine seep into his brain. “You? You were the one who saved me back there?”

“Dling, dling, dling, dling. You have just one tonight’s lucky prize.” She shouted over enthusiastically, waving her hands around.

“You helped me? You’re protecting me?”

“Oh. My. God! You catch on quickly, don’t ya?” she asked sarcastically.

“Why?” he asked confused sitting on the ophaophagus.

“My job.” She answered promptly. “Now, can we leave the chinwag for later? You’re girlfriend’s coming.” She announced.

“What girl-“ he was cut off by the distinct sound of a door being slammed open. “Slayer.” He immediately hopped off the tomb, leaning on it.

“Spike.” His name came out dryly as she cut the distance between them and came to stand in front of him. “What have you been doing?”

“Hello to you too, Slayer.” He said with half a smirk, his eyes drifting from the small form in front of him to the not much taller woman now standing behind her.

“What. Have. You. Been. Doing?” she said each word with more contempt that the last.

“I. Haven’t. Been. Doing. Anything.” He answered her as if he was talking with someone with hearing disability.

“Don’t play games.” She snapped.

Spike’s mind was trapped between her and the woman that now stood next to him, leaning on the sarcophagus, with her arms crossed over her chest, a smirk on her face as she analysed the blond girl that spat fire from her eyes.

“I’m not playing games. And I’m busy now.”

“Really? With what?” she spat the words out.

“What do you mean with what?” he asked confused, tilting his head towards the woman at his side.

Buffy frowned.

“What? What’s that thing?” she imitated his head tilting as it became more obvious.

A small laugh escaped the woman’s lips and she finally spoke, her eyes never leaving the woman in front of her:

“She can’t see me.” Noticing the vampire frown from the corner of her eye, she added: “And she can’t hear me either.” Then her gaze drifted from the petite blond to him and he felt a strange pang in his stomach as he stared into the purest black he had ever seen.

It took a while for his mind to register the voice that called his name.

“Spike, hello? Spike!”

“Hum… sorry Slayer… It’s just…” his gaze drifted back to Buffy to find her pissed.

“Spike, are you on something?” ‘Can vampire’s get high?’ she asked herself. She made a mental note to phone Gilnd and ask him about it.

“No.”

She shook her head and got back on the subject.

“Have you been doing magic?”

“What? No!” he replied promptly.

“Then why are you driving into Sunnydale’s welcoming sign and disappearing into thin air the next second?” She questioned annoyingly.

“Look, Slayer, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

She was about to say something, but decided best not to. She was too tired to fight, it was too late and she had an early shift the next day.

“Don’t try anything funny.” She said before she disappeared into the graveyard, slamming the door behind her.

“What was that all about?” it was more of a thought than an actual question.

“Don’t ask me.” The woman next to him shrugged walking over to the refrigerator and opening in.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”

“Looking for food. Don’t you have anything other that blood.” She asked, her eyes wandered through the content of the fridge.

“Yeah. I had cookies. But you ate them.”

“Cookies and blood, no chocolate, oh great…” she mumbled to herself as she paced around the room and finally flopped onto the wing chair, spreading her legs to their full length and crossing her fingers over her chest as her elbows remained positioned on each arm of the chair. “So…” she sighed.

“So…” the vampire mimicked with an annoyed look.

“What are we going to do about sleeping arrangements?” she asked as her eyes drifted from the walls up to the ceiling and her facial muscled contracted to make a disgusted cringe.

“Excuse me? Sleeping arrangements?” the vampire asked narrowing his eyes, leaning his head towards her as if he hadn’t heard her correctly.

“Yes. You do sleep, don’t you? I know I do and usually in a very, very comfortable bed. Unfortunately, it took one look at this place to realise I’m not getting that, am I? By the way, did you know that the downstairs is completely trashed? It looks like someone dropped a bomb in there.” She said as her eyes finally met his.

“Someone DID drop a bomb in there.” He replied annoyed.

“Ouch!” she made a painful face. “Who’d you piss off?” she paused for a split second, never even giving him a chance to answer, before another one of her smiles took over her lips. “Was it her?” she tilted her head towards the door. “Did you cheat on her? Or maybe she cheated on you… well, no… it wouldn’t make sense that you would destroy your own home… except if you found her with him, in your bed and the pain was so great that you just couldn’t take it anymore and decided to burn down all the memories you both had. Is that it? Or maybe-“

“You watch a lot of Mexican soap operas, don’t you?” the vampire interrupted with a grin as he saw the annoyance in her face.

“No, I don’t!” she immediately answered, but not very convincingly.

“You do. You’re the kind of person that watches those cheesy soap operas.”

“You’re one to talk, “Passion” addict.” She snorted back. It was her turn to grin.

“How did you-“

“The ten thousand tapes of the show you have back there were a dead give away.” She replied before he had a chance to ask. Suddenly, she jumped off the armchair and walked over to the sarcophagus. Her hands pressed on it testing its hard consistency. “Well, that’s it then. I get the armchair tonight. Tomorrow we get a bed for me.” She said matter-of-factly with a satisfied smile as if she had just figured out how to end the war in the middle east.

“What do you mean tonight? You’re staying?” the vampire asked in disbelief.

“Well… yeah. Gotta stay with you 24/7, till they say otherwise.” She explained pointing towards the ceiling.

“Who’s they?” he imitated her gesture as his index finger stuck out skywards.

“They. Just…” she hesitated. “They.” And with that, she gave him a quick shrug and walked towards the chair, throwing her entire weight and sprawling her tired body on it.

“You can’t just come into my house and…” his hands waved erratically, pointing to the area surrounding her. “And just lounge.”

“Goodnight, fangy.” She said as she curled up into a little ball.

“No, no goodnight and don’t call me that!!” the anger boiled up inside him.

She sighed, her head coming out of her cocoon to look at him with annoyance.

“Look, I saved your life… or unlife, right?” she asked and he nodded. “Now it’s time to return the favour. I’m staying, goodnight.” And her head was back in her cocoon.

“Hey, you can’t just st-“ he started to protest. Suddenly, her hand was raised in front of him even tough the rest of her body remained undisturbed, and his voice was gone. Spike’s eyes widened as he tried to speak but failed. As he came towards her, to try and grab her, he felt his face bump into an invisible barrier, much like the one’s he encountered when he tried to enter a household without being invited.

Spike gasped and panic took over. As if she had sensed his fear, she craned up her head and faced his wide eyes. Her hand came up again and in an instant the barrier was gone and his voice was restored.

“Just go to sleep, fang boy.” She said with a tired face and pleading eyes. “We can talk for as long as you want tomorrow.”

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“Hey, fang boy.” The voice was distant, but as his ear recognized it, a strange gut wrenching feeling ted ted to turn in his stomach. “Vampy…” She called out once more, this time he felt someone touching his arm, pushing him into awareness.

“Hum…” he mumbled turning away from the annoying voice.

“Hey… Rise and shine, we’ve got a lot of stuff to do today.” She insisted but got no result.

Annoyed, she decided to resort to more practical measures. Her small hands clasped the sheet that spread out under his sleeping form and, with one swift movement of her wrists, pulled it out from under him, successfully bringing him tumbling off the sarcophagus and onto the hard concrete floor.

“Hey!” he protested. “What was that-“ he stopped in mid sentence as he looked up and saw her.

There she was, standing in front of him, towering over him, her arms crossed over her chest as she incessantly tapped her foot on the floor.

“Oh, God… it wasn’t a dream.” He mumbled in disgust to himself.

“No, it wasn’t. Now get off your sorry ass. We have things to do.”

“What? You’re nuts. It’s not even sundown, yet. I’m sleeping.” And with that he snatched the sheet from her hands and rolled himself up with it as he threw himself on the sarcophagus.

“Oh, no you’re not.” She warned him.

“Watch me.” Was his short answer as he wrapped the sheet tighter around his form.

“You don’t get up this instant I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” he looked up at her with a daring gaze in his eyes.

Unexpectedly, the sheet twist around him, suffocating him to painful extent. The vampire was about to surrender when all of a sudden the woman standing next to him fell to the floor unconscious, the sheet falling limply in a similar way, releasing him from its grip.

Spike jumped up and came to kneel next to the woman.

“Oi… You ok?”

His hand came to rest on her neck as he asked himself why he was checking for a pulse if he didn’t even know what kind of creature she was. All he knew was that she wasn’t human. Sure enough, he failed to find one, even though she began to slowly move as consciousness returned. Eventually, she opened her eyelids to reveal her infamous raven coloured eyes.

“You ok?” he repeated the question and as she nodded he continued: “What just happened?”

She immediately jumped to her feet and tried to sound nonchalant as she spoke:

“Nothing. I probably didn’t get enough sleep in that ridiculous armchair of yours. We really need to get a bed, so we better just get going...”

Either she was a really bad liar or she was really, really nervous about what had just happen. Suddenly, realisation struck him and an annoying, overconfident grin took over his lips.

“You can’t hurt me, can you?”

“What are you talking about? Of course I can.” She failed miserably at her attempt to sound cool and calm.

“No, you can’t. That’s why to fainted.” His index finger came to point skywards as he continued: “They… won’t let you. You’re here to protect me.”

She was beginning to get really annoyed at that smug grin. All she could think about was wiping it from his lips by ripping them off. Oh, that was just the perfect picture in her head. She swallowed hard before speaking:

“Ok, so I can’t hurt you… but I can make your life very difficult.” She narrowed her eyes and twisted her mouth. Whirling her head as she turned on her heels, she headed for the door, opening it. Noticing the vampire wasn’t following, she quipped: “You’re just gonna stand there?”

Spike cleared his throat in a triumphant way and pointed towards the sunlight that cast down over her feet as she stood by the door.

“Sunlight…” his finger drifted back to himself. “Vampire. Bad combo.” Then he gave her a smirk.

“Ha, ha… You’re just hilarious.”

“I am, aren’t I? Come on, there is another way to get around town in the day time.” He said walking over to the trap door and slipping to the lower level of the crypt.

Moments later…

“Iuuuuu…” she protested, her face twisting in disgust as she lifted her foot to see something greasy and shiny dripping off it. “I just stepped in something extremely slimy and in such an advanced state of deterioration I can’t even tell if it was animal or vegetable derived.” She shook her foot and added to herself. “Maybe it’s both…” her eyes drifted off the walls of the large cylinder shaped corridor she had been travelling in for almost an hour. “Why couldn’t I get Drouglar demon, or even an Argentous one…? No! I had to get a vampire.” She gasped as she heard a strange sound coming from under her foot. “Uhhhh… Mushing! I just stepped on something that made a mushing sound. God, I hate vampires!” she breathed between clenched teeth.

“Will you just shut up and walk?”

“I’m in a sewer… tube… thing… T-this is just… ah.” Her hands came to cover her face as she took another step. “More slimy, mushy stuff. Why couldn’t I get a…” she paused as an image assaulted her mind. “Chaos demon?”

Spike stopped in his tracks, turning around to face her.

“What?” she asked with a grin that screamed in a taunting, childlike singsong ‘I know something you don’t know’. Suddenly, her face lit up as if something had just come to her; her grin turned into a full-blown smile accompanied by a loud laugh. “A Chaos demon? You got dumped for a Chaos demon?”

At the vampire’s frustrated expression a new wave of laughter took over her and she had to lean on one of the drain’s walls to keep from falling. When she looked back up at him, she chuckled back her laughs and tried to recompose herself, biting on her bottom lip to stop from cracking up once more.

“Sorry…” her fingers came to cover her mouth as it seemed impossible to contain her giggles. She stood up straight and pressed her hands over her shirt, pulling it down.

He gave her a forced smile and then immediately asked: “How’d you now?”

She just stood there and smiled almost shyly at him.

“How’d you know? You can read my mind? Why you little…” he started walking up to her, the anger boiling inside of him.

She immediately backed up, her hands coming up to keep the distance between them.

“Hey, hey…” she breathed less heavily as she saw him stop and wait for her explanation. “I can’t *read* minds. I-I get… flashes.” She tried to explain, but at his confused look she realised she would have to be a little more specific. “The pictures… in your head… when you think?” He nodded. “I can see them. That’s all. If you just think with words, concepts… you know, abstrthouthought?” Her index finger was now resting on her temple. “In my head…I don’t get a thing. But if you think with pics? About things that really got to you? Emotional stuff? Oh, that’s a whole new story. I get a Technicolor, wide screen action movie of it, only without the loud special sound effect. So, basically it’s a very good Charlie Chaplin sort of silent film.” From the look on his face. she realised she was rambling, as usual, and decided to get back on track: “It’s just the way it works.” She shrugged. “So basically, if you want to keep things private, lose the imagery on the thinking.” And with that she walked past the stunned vampire. Abruptly, she came to a halt. “Why is it that every time I say ‘don’t think in pictures’ all you guys can do is think in pictures.” An image appeared in her mind and her tone changed to utter disgust: “Oh, now that’s just nasty!” She turned to face him. “Could you please quit it? It’s not my fault that you have a very depraved and twisted sexual life.” She continued to walk on and suddenly another image flashed before her eyes. Instinctively, she pushed her eyelids closed, even though she knew it wouldn’t work to erase it. Coming to a full stop, she squealed without ever turning to face him. “Ok, now…? I’m scared for life! Will you just quit thinking, already? Grrrrr….”

She growled making her way through the slime and dirt, which all of a sudden didn’t look all that slimy and dirty if she compared them to the images that now rolled in her mind. Behind her, the vampire walked after her with a huge, satisfied grin plastered on his face.

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