Quantum Xander II: In Wake of the Curse

Part 7

Xander pulled into his parking spot and turned off the engine. He really liked his new car; it was such an improvement over his Uncle Rory’s old wreck. He stepped out, retrieved the book and the bag of herbs and then locked the car. As he turned around, he let out a very unmanly shriek as Anya appeared right in front of him - demon face to the fore.

“Jesus Christ, An! What are you trying to do? Scare me to death?”

Anya laughed and reverted to her human guise. She shook her head fondly at the man she had almost married.

“No, if I were trying to do that, I would have succeeded by now. I just came to see how you are doing. So, how are you doing?”

“I’m fine. Really.”

“No you’re not. I know you, Xander; something is wrong. What is it?”

“I found out about you and Spike.”

“Oh. Are you angry? Because you have no reason to be. You left me, and Spike was just as sad as I was. It was comfort. And really none of your business, as I already said.”

“I’m not angry. Not at you, or Spike. I understand why, I just… well, I found out, and when I asked Willow if she had ever planned on telling me, she told me that they were keeping it from me on purpose. That they decided I was better off not knowing. I’m so tired of other people making my decisions, of not having control over my own life.”

“How did you find out, anyway?”

“Spike told me.”

“Xander, I think you should tell them what happened. If you want to keep your friends you have to be honest.”

“The way Willow was honest?”

“No. What she did was wrong. But keeping the truth from people won’t make your problems go away.”

“I know. I’m just not ready yet.”

“All right. But do it soon, okay? Maybe you could start with Spike. He’d be the easiest to talk to, and once that’s out of the way, you could find out if he’s interested in having orgasms with you. He’s very good.”

Anya nodded her head emphatically and Xander choked. Then he smiled at her.

“I don’t want to have orgasms with Spike. I just want to be friends. And no, before you say it, I don’t want to be orgasm-friends with him, either. He loves Buffy, and he’s not my Spike.”

“Well, okay. I’ll see you later, Xander. We’ll have lunch.”

Anya disappeared and Xander headed for the front of the building. He honestly missed Anya’s strange ways. For all her bluntness, she tried to be a good friend to him, even after he’d left her at the altar. Not many women would forgive a guy for that. Not many vengeance demons, either.

He made his way up to his apartment, still mulling over the strange conversation he had had with the woman at the bookstore and then the even stranger one with his ex. He wasn’t sure if he should talk to Spike. He wasn’t sure he could talk to him. Spike had enough problems right now; he didn’t need Xander adding to them.

As he walked inside, he smelled a familiar scent that prickled at the back of his mind. He followed it and found the vampire in the kitchen, a bloody knife in his hand, a few chopped vegetables in a bowl and a puddle of blood on the counter. He frowned at the scene. Spike spun around, pushing the bleeding digit into his mouth and smiling sheepishly at Xander.

“Sorry. Was going to surprise you with dinner, but I made a right mess in here.”

Xander smiled indulgently and went into the room. He pulled Spike’s finger from his mouth with a wet slurping sound and examined the wound. He had to stop himself forcefully from licking the tip where blood began to well up once again.

“Maybe you should go clean that out. I’ll tidy up in here.”

“Ta. Sorry ’bout the mess, pet.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll call for pizza, no biggie.”

Spike headed for the bathroom and Xander grabbed a roll of paper towels and the spray bottle of all-purpose cleaner. He looked at the puddle of crimson liquid on the counter and then decided ‘what the hell’. He was desperate, after all, and he ran his finger through the sticky mess and brought it to his lips.

He closed his eyes as the taste washed over him, taking him back in time to the first time he had drunk from his mate. His cock leapt to attention and his eyes snapped open. He quickly finished, swiped his fingers through the blood again and licked them clean before spraying down the counter and tossing out the vegetables. What the hell had Spike been thinking anyway? Who ate cucumbers and eggplant together?

Spike watched from his vantage point in the hallway. It had been a good plan on his part, clumsy kitchen accident. No fuss no muss. Xander got what he needed and Spike didn’t have to confess his crimes. He still felt bad about snooping, but knowing he could help Xander made it worth it. It gave his soul some peace. Unfortunately, the wall of pheromones that had hit him had left him rather in desperate need of a wank.

He waited until Xander had finished cleaning up the blood and throwing out his admittedly poor attempt at dinner - he could actually cook if he wanted to - before going back into the room. A quick glance down told him Xander was just as hard as he was. He smirked.

“So, pizza for dinner and then what?”

“Um, well, I suppose patrol and then home.”

“Right. Uh, want company? Been a few days since I whaled on anything. Could use a spot of violence.”

“Yeah, I’m sure Buffy won’t mind.”

Pizza was ordered and eaten, Spike dipping his crusts in his blood. They suited up and headed out into the night. The walk over was made in companionable silence, interrupted occasionally by easy banter. Xander thought that Spike might be starting to open up to him.

Buffy was surprised to see Spike at her door; since the night of the giant worm demon, he had kept a pretty low profile. She knew he was trying to give her time and space and she appreciated it. She knew that the Spike standing in front of her now was not the same man who had attacked her. He had changed - willingly, for her.

“Hey guys, come on in.”

They followed Buffy into the house and looked around at the grim faces of the other scoobies. Tara and Willow were curled up together on the end of the sofa; Willow was stroking her hand through Tara’s hair. Dawn was sitting in the chair by the far side of the room looking decidedly green.

“Hey, what’s up?”

Xander hadn’t seen the gang this down for some time. He wondered what in the hellmouth had happened this time.

“Dawn and Tara found a body.”

Buffy was in full-on slayer mode. She hated it when her vocation affected her sister’s life. It was just not fair as far as she was concerned; Dawn was just a kid, she shouldn’t have to deal with all of this.

“It was… flayed.”

Willow’s contribution to the conversation. As soon as the words left her mouth, Tara shuddered in her arms and she resumed soothing her. Xander looked at Spike and raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t look at me, pet. I’m strictly a fluids man, myself.”

“Ewww, and gross, Spike. I was simply wondering if you had any clues on what kind of demon eats skin.”

“Well, there’s Clem… ”

As the scoobies all stared in horror, Spike continued.

“…but he prefers the extra-crispy chicken variety. He wouldn’t eat a human if you paid him.”

Spike seemed to consider what he’d just said.

“Well, maybe if you paid him. But it’d have to be a bloody lot of money. You people aren’t as clean as you look, you know?”

The collected group of ‘eeww’ faces made Spike wonder if he’d said too much. Then Xander laughed, followed by Tara’s delicate giggle, finally followed by an unladylike snort from Dawn.

“What? S’bloody true! Humans are full of diseases, and you sweat, and your skin attracts dirt and…”

“Spike, I think they’re laughing at the irony of a vampire - a creature who haunts cemeteries and claws its way out of the grave lecturing about cleanliness.”

Buffy raised her eyebrow at him and then smiled as Spike realized she had a point. While he himself preferred to be clean, he had to admit that hygiene wasn’t your average vamp’s first priority. Or their tenth priority, to be honest.

“True enough. So, what’s the plan then? Books, or do we go hunt?”

“We hunt. They…”

Pointing at the girls.

“…do the book thing. Xander? You with us or staying to help with the research?”

It was a casual offer, but Xander could tell she wanted him to accompany her. He shrugged his shoulders and walked toward her and Spike.

“You know me, not so much with the book thing. Think I’ll accompany you guys, maybe I’ll get a chance to throw myself at something particularly nasty.”

The trio headed out into the darkened streets of Sunnydale while the three who were left behind hit the books and checked out the demons on-line. It was Dawn who finally found something.

“Look! Right here it says the demon Gnarl is a parasitic demon who paralyses his victim with a poison secreted through his fingernails - more like claws actually, and then cuts strips from their skin. Oh, yuck. He does this while they’re still alive.”

“B-but there was no skin? I didn’t see any skin.”

“You wouldn’t, he eats it. And furthermore, he drinks the blood, licks it up like a cat. There was no blood; this is our guy. Come on, we gotta find the others and tell them what we’ve found.”

It was several hours later when they all stomped wearily into the Summers’ house. They had found the demon; he had been hiding in a cave. Unfortunately, he was having dinner when they got there. It was too late to save the girl; she was already dead, but they killed the demon.

“I still don’t think that was very funny!”

Dawn - hands on her hips and a scowl on her face - stared at Xander and Spike. They grinned and shrugged their shoulders.

“Oh come on, you would have laughed if it happened to someone else.”

“But it didn’t, Xander. It happened to me, and you guys… posed me! Like I was a life-sized Barbie doll or something!”

Xander grinned. He couldn’t help it. Buffy was fighting the demon and he and Spike were guarding Dawn after she had gotten too close and the demon had scratched her. It was purely an accident that he realized she was moveable. It had been Spike’s idea to pose her like Buffy. Putting a stake in one of her hands, placing the other one on her hip and then moving her mouth into a scowl. It was funny. He had to play too.

“Well yeah, but at least I didn’t make you stick your tongue out and go cross-eyed.”

“Oi! You were the one who tried to make her look like some soddin’ B-movie vampire. Honestly, Xander, claw hands and a big show of teeth? I thought you were more familiar with us vamps than that.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Come on, blondie, let’s go home.”

“Right. Night all.”

Dawn watched as the two men left the house together, talking and laughing as they went.

“Is it just me, or does anyone else think Xander has a thing for Spike now?”

Dawn smirked as three women stood gaping at her. Oh yeah, she still had it. She smiled and headed up to bed.