Distracted

by
Wildepet

Part One

Xander still couldn' t believe what he had done. Or hadn' t done, really. It had been an accident. He didn' t think that he would have staked Jesse. He might have been a vampire, but it had hardly been his fault, had it? After all, whatever the others said, he had still been Jesse. Not just Jesse' s dead body animated by a demon. He couldn`t bring himself to believe that. Although it would make it easier to deal with the guilt. He felt guilty for killing Jesse. Willow had said it wasn' t his fault. That Jesse had died before. Great. And he had sent his best friend to hell. It hurt. It just hurt so much.

The girls had talked him into going to the movies with them. He wasn' t really looking forward to it. But they said the distraction would be good for him. Distracting.

He jumped when the phone started to ring.

"Yes?"

It was Willow.

"No, no, it' s all right. No, I' m okay. Don' t worry about the Xandman." Right. No cinema tonight. Giles had scheduled another training session for Buffy for tonight. Something important. Damn it, everything was more important than he was apparently.

He hadn' t really wanted to go out, but now that Willow had cancelled their meeting, he was disappointed.

With a sigh he got up, grabbed a stake and his jacket and left.

He had no idea how he' d ended up at the cinema, of all places. Watching a movie he didn`t want to watch. The cinema was almost empty, and he was sitting on his own in the last row but one. Ten minutes into the film, somebody entered the cinema and sat down exactly behind him. Xander cast the newcomer a bemused look over his shoulder. Some bleach haired punk. Xander shrugged and concentrated on the screen again.

Suddenly he was seized by inhumanly strong hands and yanked back into the last row.

"What...?!" he managed before the stranger stuffed something into his mouth.

Fearfully he glanced up at his attacker and froze when he noticed the ridges and the fangs in the semi-darkness. Vampire. Shit. Fuck. He fumbled for his stake.

"Hush," the vampire whispered. "Don' t fight it."

Xander found the stake and thrust his into the vampire' s chest with all his might. The vampire howled in pain and wrenched the stake out of his hand.

"You know what I am, lad?" he asked surprised.

Xander glared at him and resumed his struggles.

"What a shame, such a brave little boy."

Xander spat out the handkerchief the vampire had stuffed into his mouth. "My name is Xander," he said angrily.

"Nice to meet you, Xander," the vampire replied with a leer. "How come you know about vampires, pet?"

"Shhhhh!" somebody hissed.

"Get off me!" Xander said.

"Keep the volume down, or I' ll kill every bloody human in the cinema, understand?"

"Otherwise you' ll just kill me?" Xander whispered back.
"Yep, the choice is all yours, luv."
"Gee, thanks."

Spike looked down at the writhing human underneath him. He was intrigued. He' d come to Sunnydale because he' d heard that his Sire was in town. He' d been trying to track him down for years. Dru was hurt and weak, she needed her Sire. She had absolutely refused to leave Prague, so he' d reluctantly left her behind in the care of a dozen minions.

He liked the Hellmouth. The people living on the Hellmouth were usually extraordinarily careless and unsuspecting. He' d never met anyone in Sunnydale who was aware of the existence of vampires and demons before. And this boy, not only did he know about vampires, he was even prepared to fight them.

"Answer my question, Xander," he said.

"One of them killed my best friend," Xander deadpanned. There was something in the boy' s voice that told him that he wasn' t telling the whole story.

"Now that' s quite ironic, isn' t it? That you as well will be killed by a vampire," Spike continued. "Or maybe I' ll turn you. Do you want to be a vampire, Xander?"

"No!" Xander cried.

Spike hastily covered the boy' s mouth with his hand.

"Shut the bloody hell up, will ya?"

Xander nodded slowly.

"Let' s take this someplace more private."

Changing back into his human visage, he yanked the boy to his feet and dragged him out of the cinema with him. Outside, the streets were surprisingly crowded.

"Not a word or there' ll be a massacre, got that? And don' t try to run, I' m faster than you," Spike hissed.

"Like anybody would try to help me, anyway," Xander replied with a shrug. Where are we going?"

"Any suggestions?" Spike asked.

"There' s a lovely dark alleyway right over there. Perfect for a kill," Xander said, his voice dripping with irony.

Boy, the lad had a dark sense of humour. And still, no fear.

"Right," Spike replied.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

Reluctantly Xander followed the vampire into the dark alley. He could only hope they would run into Buffy on patrol. He glanced at his watch. No such luck, as it seemed. It was too early for her to be on patrol.

"What' s up, boy?" the vampire asked. "Wanna know the time of your death?"

Xander blanched and for the first time realised that he was going to die. Now. And he didn' t want to die.

"Please," he whispered.

"What?" The vampire stopped. "I offered you a choice," he said. "Remember?"

"Yeah," Xander replied. "Great choice. Me or twenty innocent people."

The vampire laughed.

"I know what most people would have chosen, luv. But not you. Nah, you' re the noble white knight, willing to sacrifice yourself. Amazing, really. And who tells you I' m not going to go back and kill them all anyway?"

"I'm not stupid," Xander said. "I know that this isn' t going to keep you from killing anybody else."

The vampire pushed Xander back against a wall. He grunted when his head hit the wall hard.

"Damn," he cursed.

"Ooops," the vampire said with a sneer. "Sorry, did I hurt you?"

"Yes, you did, you goddamn freak," Xander yelled.

"I told you to shut the fuck up, didn`t I?"

"I' m going to die anyway, so why should I?" Xander replied disdainfully.

"I could make this a whole lot more painful for you," the vampire said.

"Why don`t you kill me already?" Xander asked.

"Patience, luv, patience. Maybe I won' t kill you at all."

"What?!" What the fuck was this idiot vamp going on about? Why didn' t he just snap his neck or something? No, he had to run into a vamp that wanted to talk.

The vampire smiled toothily.

God, this boy was fun to play with. Angelus had always wanted him to toy with the food first, but he' d usually preferred a quick kill. As long as it was all blood and gore he was perfectly happy.

"Relax, pet. If you' re a good boy, you never know, I might just decide to let you go," Spike whispered. He could see the wheels in the boy' s head turning.

"A... a good boy?" he finally stammered. "What do you mean?"

Spike claimed his lips in a bruising and brutal kiss. Shocked, the boy tried to break free again, but Spike had him securely pinned to the wall. He really loved being a vampire. When the boy stopped struggling, Spike darted his tongue into his mouth, exploring and claiming at the the same time. He wanted the boy. Xander. What kind of stupid name was that anyway? What the hell... They' d choose another name once...

"No, please, no," Xander moaned into the kiss, trying to move his head away.

Chuckling Spike broke the kiss. He could feel the boy' s erection throbbing against his thigh. Teenagers. So easily excited.

He couldn' t believe that he was hard. That his body was betraying him like this.

"Like it, pet?" the vampire drawled.

"No," Xander panted, trying to push the vampire back in vain. Great. Not only was he going to be killed, he was also going to be raped by some psycho queer vampire punk. On the bright side, he wasn' t going to die a virgin. And his body didn`t really seem to mind that...

"I am not gay," Xander stated firmly.

"Sure?" the vampire asked, releasing Xander' s wrists and letting his hands roam over the young man' s body.

Xander stood frozen for a couple of seconds, considering his options. He couldn' t really see a way out of this. If he dragged this out long enough, Buffy might eventually come to his rescue. But did he really want to drag this out?

He sucked in a deep breath when the vampire brushed his hand casually over his erection.

Spike smiled, satisfied. Very cute and damn responsive. Virgin, if he wasn' t mistaken. He had no intention of raping the boy. He preferred his partners willing. And he knew how to make them willing.

"Ah, perfect, pet, all hard for me, aren' t you?" he whispered seductively, continuing the light stroking of the boy' s erection. "Want me to continue?"

"No," Xander ground out, supressing a moan. "Please. Don' t..."

"Yeah, that' s it, luv. I like it when they beg... Makes me feel all... powerful," Spike drawled on.

Xander closed his eyes, desperately trying to block out the pleasant sensations the vampire was creating. But somehow his body had developed a life of its own as it seemed. He realised that he was actually leaning into the vampire' s touch and jerked back violently. His head hit the wall with a loud thud once more. He saw stars and his ears were ringing. No wait.

Confused, Xander blinked once, twice. The vampire had taken a step back from him and was cursing creatively into a cell phone.

"What the fuck are you talking about, Vince? I told you not to let her... Yeah, whatever... You are a bleedin' moron, you know that, don' t you? Stupid wanker... You better make sure she doesn' t try anything like that again until I' m back or I' ll demonstrate some lovely torture techniques I picked up from Angelus on you... You know, Vince, if you know how to do it, you can keep a vamp alive for months... Oh, I see, you' re getting the picture. Not as dumb as you seem, are you? Now get the hell back to her before..."

The vampire stared at the phone for a couple of seconds and Xander finally realised that if he wanted to get out of this alley alive, now would be the perfect opportunity.

He made it as far as the next trash can before the vampire tackled him down, sending him head first into said trash can.

"I' d love to play with you some more but unfortunately I have family business to attend to first," the vampire said, pinning him to the ground. Xander felt the vampire' s fangs graze over his jugular and futily struggled to push him off. He hissed in surprise when the vampire sank his fangs into the fleshy part of his shoulder instead. After a couple of seconds the vampire pulled back.

"I'll be back for you, pet," he whispered into Xander' s ear, sending shivers down his spine.

Then he jumped to his feet and disappeared into the darkness. Stunned, Xander remained lying on his back for a couple of minutes before it occurred to him that that was probably not the wisest thing to do. Rubbing his bitemark, he got up, cursing silently when his knees almost gave way because the stupid alley kept spinning around him. He certainly had a concussion. But on the bright side, he wasn' t dead. Yet.

Part Two

Well, well, well, Spike thought with an almost proud smile. If that wasn't his boy, dancing with the Slayer herself. Of course he'd have to kill her for touching what was his but he'd come back to Sunnydale to kill her anyway That was what he did, wasn't it? He'd faced four Slayers, and killed two, and he fully planned to add another to the list. Killing the Slayer was only one of many reasons why he'd returned. That was what had finally convinced Dru to leave Europe.

"Come, let me kill the Slayer for you, and we'll bathe in her blood."

On the Hellmouth, no less. No way he was going to leave her alone again after what had happened last time. His beautiful princess had almost taken a walk in the morning sun, singing about the stars and pretty boys or some such rot. Yeah, right, he admittedly had a pretty good idea what that had been about. Her mental state had become even less stable than usual and he really had to find Angelus soon. It had taken him much longer than he had expected to get back to Sunnyhell with her safely.

Drusilla was getting worse and she needed her Sire, his blood and his care

Spike was royally pissed off that he couldn't give her what she needed, he had been taking care of her for the last century but now he was at a loss. But he'd be damned if he'd let Angelus come between them again, even though he'd probably have to crawl back to him and beg him to save Dru. And he sure as hell hoped that the stuff he'd heard about their Sire through the demon grapevine wasn't true, because in that case Angelus would be less than happy to see them again.

He shook his head and turned his attention back to the boy, Xander. The other reason for his return to Sunnydale. The one he had not mentioned to Dru. But he knew that somehow she knew about him, anyway. She always knew. He looked good, better than last year. A little more mature, less stressed out. Happier; less willing to die. What a shame.

He'd stopped dancing and was chatting amiably with a cute redhead, who was apparently as hopelessly in love with him as he was with the Slayer if Spike wasn't mistaken. Maybe he could turn the girl, too. She'd make a nice plaything for his pet. Or he'd just kill her. Or even better, let him kill her. Best friends always made a perfect first meal. Right after family.

With a sigh he went over to the idiot he'd brought along to play with the Slayer. No use putting this off any longer.


"Go get something to eat," he muttered.

He had a part to play as well, so he moved over to the door to make his big entrance. Making sure that the Slayer was in earshot, he burst over to some people by the bar, shouting for someone to call the police. He watched her dart towards the exit out of the corner of his eye. There. Worked like a charm. Except, why did the stupid pillock run after her? Did he want to get killed? Shit. He flicked his cigarette to the ground angrily and stomped after them.

Outside the Slayer was majorly kicking arse. His boy and the redhead thankfully knew better than to interfere. Spike stepped back into the shadows to watch. The Slayer and the vamp he'd sent outside to grab a snack were putting up a good fight. The tosser was crying for help and the Slayer for a stake. Very entertaining that. He took another step back as the boy rushed past him, muttering under his breath.

Spike was tempted to go after him but a loud crash and a pained yelp from the Slayer distracted him. Fuck, that stupid bint wasn't going to let that dumbass kill her, was she? Nope, there she was, back on her feet and definitely not amused. And there was Xander again, throwing her a stake. He'd obviously done this before. The Slayer's little helper. Neat.

Ah, damn, now he'd missed the stupid look on the vamp's face just before he crumpled into dust. But the grin of smug satisfaction on the boy's face had been such a lovely sight. Time to introduce himself. He stepped forward, out of the shadows, slowly clapping his hands.

"Nice work, luv," he drawled, his eyes fixed on the Slayer.

All his other senses concentrated on Xander, wanting to know when the boy would recognize him. He almost staggered backwards when the wave of fear and excitement finally hit him. He looked over at the boy who was staring at him in disbelief. Their eyes met for the briefest of moments before Xander blushed and dropped his gaze to the ground.

"Who are you?" the Slayer asked.

Oh. My. God. This had to be a dream. A very, very bad dream. A nightmare. Cause no way that this was happening. Xander didn't think he'd ever been this scared in his life. Not even when that vampire - THAT vampire! - had sunk his teeth into his shoulder and he'd been convinced that he was going to die. He had almost succeeded in telling himself that the vampire had been a figment of his all-too-vivid imagination. Almost. If it hadn' t been for the scar. The faint, but still visible scar he always kept carefully hidden.

For some reason he had never told the others about his brush with death in the alley. Yeah, right. For some reason. Like he didn't know exactly why. Wait a minute? Had the guy just said that he was going to kill Buffy? Xander cursed inwardly, realizing that he really should have been paying attention. And now he was gone, just like that. Xander very slowly turned to face the others.

"He's gone," he said shakily. "That's good, isn' t?"

Spike couldn't stop grinning on his way back to the factory. The look on the Slayer's face when he'd told her he was going to kill her on Saturday. Priceless. And the boy. He obviously hadn't told his friends about their little encounter. He'd been afraid, very much so. He knew Spike had come back to claim his prize. Oh, and he would. Soon.

With a frustrated sigh Xander pushed the book Giles had given him aside and went over to Cordelia to help her with the stakes instead. He knew that he wouldn't find what they were looking for in that book because he'd already gone through it. That one, and the book Giles was leafing through and most of the other books on the table.

He'd looked then. Almost a year ago. And he hadn't found anything. Not a single clue. But he'd found other things. Things he'd rather not think about

"I'll be back for you, pet." That's what the mark on his shoulder screamed at him whenever he looked in the mirror. A promise. A claim.

"Spike," Giles' voice startled him out of his musings. "That's what the other vampire called him?"

Spike. What kind of stupid name was that, anyway?
"It's a bit unorthodox," Giles continued. Great. He'd unorthodoxically kill Buffy and then he'd come after Xander. Maybe they should just run away.

"So, this night of St. Vigeous deal," he said slowly. "If they're gonna attack in force, aren't we thinking vacation?"

Of course the others would have none of that "let's run away" idea. Instead Giles dug out some more books and continued his research. And look, there was Angel, doing that freaky vampire thing. Appearing out of nowhere, all dark and broody.

"He's worse." Huh? He knew that guy? Hey, that was good. Or not, considering that he'd just said that he wouldn't stop until everything in his path was pretty much dead.

"Hmm. So, he's thorough, goal-oriented," Xander mumbled.

He probably wouldn't do him the favour of forgetting about his promise, threat, whatever. Hang on a second, Angel knew that Spike guy. Angel. Angelus. He mentally slapped his forehead. He looked up, wondering how he could coax some more information out of Angel without being too obvious. But the vampire had already left.

"Okay, that's it. I'm puttin' a collar with a little bell on that guy," he cursed silently.

Fuck St. Vigeous. Spike wasn't good at the waiting game. He wanted the Slayer dead and he wanted the boy. Now. He'd been reluctant to leave Sunnydale without taking the boy with him last time. But Spike had also known that travelling with a fledgling vampire all the way to Europe and back was too great a responsibility. They were hard to control, needed a lot of attention. Much like Dru.

He'd actually wanted to wait until she was whole again before he took the boy, but seeing him again, and in the company of the Slayer of all people had stirred something in him. Something he'd not cared to analyse further, because broody self-analysis really wasn't his style. He preferred action. So Spike had mobilized a number of minions, taken them to the school grounds where the Slayer had last been spotted, and was now giving out orders.

"You two, guard the door. You, round the back. We'll go in through the window. Won't that be a lovely surprise?"

William the Bloody. Slayer of Slayers. Hooray. At least now he knew who would kill him. And wasn't that just the last thing he ever wanted to know. There was a commotion outside, and Xander followed Giles and Jenny into the hall where Buffy came running in their direction, shouting a warning.

"Spike and an army! Look out!" They ran back into the library and barricaded the doors. Shit. Shit, shit and had he already said shit?

"Where's the boy?" Spike asked. The minion he'd ordered to watch out for the Slayer's friends shrugged with an embarrassed grin.

"I d-don' t know."

"And the Slayer?"

"She either went that way," he replied slowly, pointing to the right. "Or that way," pointing to the left. "I saw two others."

"You don't know?" Spike growled and turned to the terrified man he was holding and pushed him away. He was surrounded by idiots, and he really needed to kill someone right now.

Xander felt like a traitor, a very cowardly traitor at that, leaving his friends behind, but Giles had insisted that he go to get Angel, and truth be told, there was nothing he'd rather do. Angel would know how to get rid of that Spike guy. Wouldn't he?

Angel realised his mistake the second he entered the school building, dragging Xander Harris with him. But it was too late to do anything about that, really, because Spike had already noticed him and was approaching him slowly with a calculating grin.

So he ignored the fact that presenting the boy to the other vampire as a snack to be shared basically equalled suicide. Spike had obviously marked him at some point, it was faint, but still, the boy reeked of his Childe.

He couldn't believe that he had never noticed before, but he hadn't seen Spike in almost a century, and he certainly had never been that up close and personal with the boy. And the fool had certainly not mentioned anything like, "Hey, look, some weirdo vampire has chewed on my neck and forgotten to kill me!".

If they survived this little encounter Xander was in for a very long lecture about vampires and fatal secrets. But what the hell, being the closest thing Spike had to a Sire, he just might get away with this harebrained scheme. Whatever had happened during the last century or so, he still had some authority over the other vampire. Not that Spike had ever cared to acknowledge that, even in his fledgling days.

Spike hugged his Sire warily. What was he up to? He had known something was wrong the second he sensed Angelus in the hall. He tensed when he realized that it was Xander Angelus was holding. The other vampire certainly must have noticed that he had marked the boy as his. Nevertheless he was offering the boy to him as a snack to be shared for old times' sake. Curious Spike decided to play along, just to see how far his Sire would take this little game.

"Come up against this Slayer yet?" he asked.

Xander knew that the two vampires were talking but he couldn't really hear anything because his heart was beating so loud. The thrumming in his ears was deafening. He was pretty sure he'd die of a heart attack any minute. If he didn't get killed by one of the vampires first. Which really wouldn't come as a surprise to him.

Suddenly there was yelling and he was roughly pushed aside. Dazed, it took him a couple of seconds to realize what was going on and scramble to his feet.

"You were my Sire, man! You were my... Yoda!" Spike yelled, enraged.

Xander slowly inched back towards the door, as Spike made his move to attack Angel. The older vampire gave a startled cry when Spike's fist connected with his jaw.

Damn, that Spike guy was fast, and strong, but then he already knew that. He'd stopped moving and watched the fighting vampires in awe. Angel snarled and lashed out, missing Spike's head and connecting with his shoulder instead. The blonde vampire staggered backwards before he recovered and more or less successfully blocked some kicks from Angel. Xander noticed more vampires coming into the hall out of the corner of his eye, and somewhere in the back of his mind he thought that he ought to get the hell out of here. But he didn't move.

Spike ducked another punch from Angelus and spun around to knock the other vampire out with a well-placed kick. He felt his boot connect with Angelus' skull, and his Sire went down. He had no intention of killing him, Dru needed him alive, more or less, after all. But he could cause him a little pain. And maybe a little more. A whispered "no" from the door stopped him dead in his tracks, though. He looked up, straight into Xander' eyes. Wide with terror and pleading. Such a pretty sight. One he hoped to see more often in future.

"Don't kill him," Xander whispered.

He half wanted to laugh. Begging for his soon-to-be Grandsire' s life. How poetic was that? From the corner of his eye he saw Angelus stir again, and much to his annoyance he heard the Slayer dusting some of his troops further back in the hallway.

"Run," Spike said.

Xander really didn't need any further encouragement. He turned around, pushed the door open and ran. Straight into a broad shouldered, game faced vamp.

"Ooops," he said, grinning goofily.

"Who have we here?" the vampire said confidently.

Xander took a step back, searching his pockets frantically for a weapon. Shit, he must have lost his stake when he'd been pushed aside by Angel. Or had that been Spike? Spike!

"S-spike won't like it if you kill me," he said slowly, praying it would work. The vampire hesitated. He reached up and carefully exposed the scar. See? All his." The minion flinched back.

"You're the boy," he said. Someone burst out of the door behind them, and they both spun around.

"Angel!"

"Let's get you out of here," Angel said, pushing the other vampire aside and grabbing Xander's arm. "It's not safe for you."

He pulled Xander with him, ignoring the fact that he was probably bruising his arm, making short work of the few minions they ran into without ever letting go of the boy.

"So, er, what's the deal with you being Spike's Sire?" Xander asked finally, just to say something. He yelped surprised when two strong hands grabbed his shoulders and he was roughly pushed against a tree.

"Hey!" he protested meekly. Angel ignored him and ripped his shirt open at the top.

"What the fuck...?"

He hissed when Angel ran a finger over his scar.

"Is there something you'd like to tell me?" the vampire asked, in a voice that made it clear that he wouldn't take no for an answer.

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