Chapter 37: Revenge
An obnoxious alarm sound started resonating in the room, and Spike woke up, startled, from a delicious dream in which he had finally managed to escape his bonds, only to find that his Slayer had come for him and cleared the way out. He struggled with the chains for a moment, knowing it was useless but unable to resist trying just the same. He stopped when the alarm stopped, mere seconds after it had started. What was going on out there? For a few minutes he listened intently, trying to discern sounds of fighting or agitation, but he didn’t hear anything recognizable. Nonetheless, a small smile started curling his lips. He couldn’t hear a thing, but he could feel his Slayer coming closer and closer. Then there was a gunshot, and he took an involuntary breath, hoping with his whole being that she wasn’t hurt. The door of his cell finally opened, and he knew then that it wasn’t just another dream, because he would never dream of the kid Slayer coming to his help. And coming past the kid, there she was… God, she was gorgeous.
He barely noticed the presence of the wanker, his whole attention now resting on his approaching Childe.
“’Knew you’d come, luv,” he said with a grin. “But it took you long enough.”
Ignoring the chains, she molded her body to his, and pressed burning kisses to his face, whispering that she was sorry. He was about to tell her it was OK, but her mouth finally covered his and there were more important things to do than talk. After these four nights that had seemed like an eternity, it was heaven to feel her hands slip under what remained of his shirt, to breathe in her scent, surrounded by his own coming from old leather, to hear her small moan, to taste her. It was heaven after the hell of separation, but it still wasn’t enough. She seemed to realize it as he did, because she broke the kiss and shifted to her demon visage as she bared her throat to him. He followed her lead thoughtlessly, but waited for her to be ready before he pierced her skin. They had done this so often, they knew each other so well, that it was easy to do it exactly together and make the sharing that much powerful.
If it had been heaven before, he didn’t know what it was now. After being denied blood for this long, to finally feed was of course incredibly good. But to feed from his Childe, Mate, and Slayer all at once made it so much more.
And, incredibly, not enough yet. He still wanted more. He needed more. Needed her as much as he needed blood. Feel her around him, feel her body shake in his embrace, over and over again, until they had made up for all this time spent apart. He tried to wrap his arms around her, only to be painfully reminded that he was still chained up, and groaned against her skin. Immediately, she stopped pulling on his blood, and he understood she must have thought she was taking too much. He managed to let go of her, giving a last lap at the fresh punctures, and his head came up to see hazel again eyes look at him worriedly.
“I’m fine,” he said with a reassuring smile. “Just a bit tied up at the moment. A little help, Slayer?”
At the look that crossed his face, he realized that, caught up in the moment as much as he had been, she had forgotten about the chains too. In a few seconds, she had liberated both his feet and arms, and he lost no time in holding her to him again, kissing her thoroughly, and…
“Sorry to interrupt but… how about we leave before they all come back to their senses?”
At the kid’s slightly shaky voice, both his and Buffy’s eyes shot open, as they remembered where exactly they were, and with whom. Regretfully, they broke the kiss and the embrace, sharing a smile that was an agreement that they would have time for more later, and took a few steps toward Manon and the still stunned wanker. There was some sort of relief in the kid’s smile, but it faded as Buffy said quietly:
“Manon, you go ahead and get out of here. We have some business to finish here first.”
As she said so, her eyes did not stray toward the man on the floor, but Manon’s did, and she shook her head as she stepped between him and the two vamps.
“You finish no one,” she said with a strange mix of determination and fear. “I’m not letting you kill anybody. We… You have Spike back, so let’s just go.”
Amused, Spike looked past her to the man who was slowly rising to his feet. The look on his face was priceless, as he realized that the only thing that separated him from two angry vampires was a kid.
“Kiddo, as much as I appreciate the help,” Spike said slowly, “you need to leave. Now.”
She flinched at the tone of his voice, but stood her ground when he took a step toward her.
“You have to kill me first.”
Spike shook his head at her stubbornness, and gave a look at Buffy, to find that she was rolling her eyes at the kid.
“Luv, would you take Manon out while I have a little… chat with our soldier boy friend?”
To his surprise, Buffy didn’t comply, and instead gave him a sulky look.
“Why can’t we do it together?” she protested.
There was no question of what ‘it’ was, and it certainly wasn’t a chat. And for the first time, Spike realized, he was seriously considering not only allowing Buffy to kill someone, but killing with her. There was just the slight problem of the Slayer between them and their prey. And the other problem that said prey was trying to escape.
They didn’t need to talk. In two steps, he had pulled Manon out of the way and was holding her securely but harmlessly while Buffy had jumped forward and pinned Riley to the wall, her forearm pressed under the man’s jaw.
“Buffy, you promised not to kill him!” Manon shrieked as she tried to free herself from Spike’s grip.
“And you believed me?” Buffy replied with a quiet laugh as she turned to look at the kid. “Who is stupid enough to believe a vampire’s word?”
Spike couldn’t help flinching at her words, and he felt as if she had just slapped him. So many things, he had promised her. Did that little sentence mean she had never truly taken his word seriously? His face must have given his thoughts away, because her eyes widened suddenly and she shook her head.
“I didn’t mean…” she started slowly.
“You promised not to kill that wanker?” he interrupted her.
“She promised not to kill anyone in here”, Manon interjected, still struggling.
With a soft sigh, he let go of the kid, and she stumbled, surprised at the unexpected release.
“You don’t expect me to hold that promise?” Buffy asked, incredulous.
“Do you expect me to hold mine?” he replied in a whisper.
“One has nothing to do with the other!”
He tilted his head just a little as he watched her. She wanted to kill the wanker for him, didn’t she? So why should he protest? It wasn’t like she had given her word to him, after all. And yet, he couldn’t stifle this feeling that, if he said nothing now, next time it might be a promise made to him that she wouldn’t respect.
“We are demons, Childe,” he said softly. “It doesn’t mean we have no honor.”
She shook her head and made as if to protest, but he continued:
“And just because you can’t kill him doesn’t mean he will walk away unpunished.”
She held his gaze for a few seconds, frowning deeply, and finally took a step away from Riley. Before the man even had the time to bring his hands up to his freed throat, Spike had stepped forward, taking Buffy’s place, his forearm pushing the wanker against he wall.
“I didn’t promise anything,” he told Riley as his hands tried to pushed his forearm away. “And I could kill you before the kid could even bat an eyelash.”
Breaking eye contact with the wanker, he briefly turned to Manon, and the look he gave her stopped her as she was coming forward.
“I’m not gonna kill you, though,” he said as he returned his full attention to Riley. “It’s no fun if it’s that quick. No, you are going to suffer. For a very, very long time.”
Slowly, he allowed his lips to curl up in a smirk, taking great delight in the fear that leaped tenfold in the human. As he locked his eyes to Riley’s, he let the demon take over in a way he rarely allowed. Fists and fangs, these were his weapons of choice. That didn’t mean, however, that he didn’t have any other weapon to use.
“You were curious about the thrall, weren’t you?” he asked pleasantly as Riley’s eyes started glazing over. “I’m sure this little experience will tell you all you need to know, and even more. Haven’t enthralled anyone in a while, but I reckon this particular trick can last a few months, at the minimum. Years, if your mind is too weak to fight back. But you must be wondering what kind of trick, so let me end the suspense. This is what is going to happen. Every night, when you close your eyes and try to fall asleep, you will dream of our sweet Buffy. You’re still in love with her, aren’t you? Yes, I thought so. And I bet you remember all of her soft curves, don’t you? And the feel of her skin? So silky. And her scent? Yes, I’m sure you remember how enticing her scent is. But she’s mine, you know. All mine. So when you dream of her, I’m afraid you will have to dream of me too. And of the things she and I do together. She was still a child when you had her. She has learned so many things since then, about giving pleasure as well as receiving it. Many things, some of them you probably would never have thought she would willingly do. So you will have to dream these things too. She is so beautiful when she comes. Not that you gave her many occasions to show you, but I suppose at least once or twice you saw that look of ecstasy on her face. Now, every night you will see it. Every night you will see her come with my name on her lips. I know it will be torture to dream of the woman you adore making love to someone you hate, but you know what? You will get off on it. Every night. Not only that, but even if you shag someone else, you will have to conjure our image to be able to perform. This is what you get for messing with my Slayer and me. But if I ever see you again, you will think this was nothing. And you will beg for death long before I am ready to give it to you.”
Slowly, Spike retracted his arm, and Riley blinked, freeing two tears as he glided down to the ground. He glanced at his Childe, and almost chuckled at the look of surprised awe on her features as she watched him. He caught her hand and brought it to his lips, brushing a soft kiss to her knuckles, and she smiled at him.
“Are you done?” an uncomfortable voice asked. “Can we go now?”
He turned to Manon, and found the kid’s face unnaturally pale. Without waiting for his answer, she literally fled the room, obviously to escape his gaze. As he followed, pulling Buffy after him, he wondered whether this small demonstration of what he was capable of would be enough to break the kid’s crush on him. That might be an unexpected perk of his little revenge.
As they walked away, stepping over slowly awakening soldiers, they could hear Riley behind them, but Spike couldn’t have said if what he was hearing was sobbing or laughter, nor did he care.