“My Spike wants to play…” she smiled, purring when his teeth came over the mark that had first made her. He bit her hard, reaffirming that it was his claim now, and she slipped her legs around his waist, rubbing up erotically against him.

He gasped in response, pressing his growing erection between her thighs, reveling that she had the strength and desire to play with him like this again. “Oh, you’re a baaad girl,” he teased, pulling back to look into her dark, faux-innocent eyes.

“Daddy better punish me, then,” she joked back in a meek voice before leaning in to lick a line up his cheekbone to his ear. “Punish me good,” she whispered against him.

“Christ, Dru!” he gasped out as she ground against him again, fumbling desperately at his belt.

She giggled at his predicament until he finally freed himself and shoved her skirts aside, plunging home deep with in her. A delighted trilling sound emitted from her throat, and she threw her head back against the wall as he began to pump his cock in and out of her.

“That’s my naughty princess,” he moaned, burying his head in her shoulder as he began to move deeper and faster. God, it had been so long since he’d last had her. He knew he wasn’t going to last long, what with the state she’d gotten him in.

“Wicked, evil boy,” she agreed, nails clutched tight in the leather of his duster as she rode him as hard as she could. “Been saving that up for me all these weeks?” she teased him lightly, petting his hair lightly as he unfailingly found the pleasure spot deep within her and ground against it.

Spike practically sobbed in relief when her inner muscles clenched around him. Unable to hold out any longer, he exploded his pleasure into her cold body. “Dru…love you…” he gasped out raggedly, clutching her against him and showering her with kisses.

She purred in appreciation, catching his lips with hers and plundering them, her tongue delving deep inside his mouth to taste the rich blood that still lingered there.

With a moan against her lips, he hardened again inside her, but she pushed him away this time, rising up so that he fell free of her body. “Have to look in on our darling little girl,” she reminded him, straightening her skirts as she settled back onto her feet. With a coy smile, she gave his erection one last stroke before putting him back in his pants and zipping up. “And dirty, sneaky eyes are everywhere…” she added with a wink.

He looked down the hall at that and noticed for the first time the two fledglings standing there gawking. “Lookin’ at something?” he demanded with a snarl, vamping out.

The two quickly scrambled away to the sound of Drusilla’s delighted laughter. “So mean…”

“Just the way you like me,” he countered with a raised eyebrow, leaning in to kiss her again.

“Cruel, cruel Spike,” she agreed, grabbing hold of his hand and leading him down the rest of the hallway to their room with a laugh and a little pirouette. “It’s time my pet got his treat…” She opened the door to their room, and her eyes met with the golden ones of the vampiress chained to the bed for the first time.

Buffy rattled against the cuffs that held her, scrambling desperately to sate that hunger that felt as though it were burning her alive…or, undead, as the case may be. Drusilla’s presence provoked an angry snarl as the demon within raged wildly, thrashing about on the bed.

“She’s awake.” Spike’s voice was soft, somewhat surprised.

“Strong for one so young,” Drusilla agreed with a sigh of disappointment. Apparently they weren’t going to get a good eight hours of carnal wickedness in, after all. “She needs you, William,” she commented, her voice unusually serious and straightforward.

With a sigh, he brushed his lips across her brow. “What about you, my love?” he inquired.

The corner of her lips quirked. “Two innocent little girls waiting to wake up back out there…” she commented in a dreamy voice, tilting her head back in the direction of their audience chamber.

“…Who have sires…”

“…That I accidentally staked,” Dru concluded. “Oops. How very bad of me,” she said in the most falsely apologetic voice he’d ever heard.

A roar of laughter and he caught her up in a passionate embrace. “How I’ve missed you…” he whispered softly, his roughened accent falling away for one minute and more formal tones replacing it.

She smiled softly and stroked his cheek. “Give me the new puppies,” she encouraged, before clapping her hands together delightedly. “I take verrry good care of my pets…”

“That you do,” Spike agreed with a soft smile. “You’re sure you’re up to—”

She cut him off with a nibble to his lips. “Don’t worry about mommy,” she assured him. “Help your childe.”

He raised a scarred eyebrow. Dru wasn’t usually so generous as that. If he was having fun, she pretty much always wanted in on it, and he was happy to oblige her. It surprised him to learn that she took the sire/childe bond so seriously, although he didn’t know why it should. She had tried with him as best she could, even if she had had to resort to leaving him to Angelus’ not-so-tender mercies when she was at her worst.

That was half of what he loved about her. She never ceased to surprise, even after they’d spent an entire century together. “Enjoy yourself,” he responded, pressing an overly formal kiss to the back of her hand. Before leaning in for a second time and licking sensuously up the blue vein there, desire-darkened eyes looking up into hers the entire time.

Buffy, who’d settled down briefly from her struggles, began anew at that. Something deep inside her recognized the vampire who had made her, and a certain knowledge filled her that he – and only he – could satisfy all her needs. The conscious mind within her would have been able to provide how, but only need and want controlled her now, and she couldn’t make such rational distinctions. She growled and flashed her fangs, legs kicking against the mattress.

Drusilla chuckled. “Try not to let her hurt you,” she teased, patting Spike on the cheek before she left, closing the door behind her.

Spike turned to the golden beauty tied to the bed…and gasped. It wasn’t that he hadn’t found other vampires attractive in his one hundred seventeen years of unlife. Quite the contrary. But they’d all seemed like fun, quick diversions from Dru. Good for a hard poke and not much else. Never had any stirred his blood deeply in that way that Dru alone could…until now.

“’Morning, luv,” he commented casually, sitting down on the edge of the bed and sliding over to his latest creation.

“S-Sp…” She was having trouble forming words, the painful burning in her was so great.

“Hungry?”

She hadn’t quite realized that that was it until now. “Yes!” she hissed in triumph.

“Rose early,” he informed her, unfastening the manacles that bound her. “Would’ve got here quicker if I’d known—” He was cut off abruptly the instant he fully released her when she caught him roughly by the shoulders and tackled him back onto the bed. There was a brief moment of panic when he feared – completely irrationally – that she was still the slayer and about to stake him.

A purr of contentment rumbled through Buffy’s chest as she finally covered her sire’s body, rubbing against his hardness enticingly. Her eyes were drawn naturally to the pale column of his throat – the font that had given her life – and she leaned in to cover the silent pulse-point there with her mouth, just sucking lightly for now without piercing the skin.

A groan escaped his lips at the feel of his childe’s wanton thrusting. He allowed himself one brief moment to enjoy her writhing atop him, before he let out a deep growl and rolled them back over, situating himself firmly between her spread thighs.

Buffy whimpered in response. She wanted – needed – to taste him, yes, but her body seemed to want so much more right now, and it was impossible to remain clearheaded through the blinding blood lust. His hand caught one of her firm, round breasts and squeezed, making her pant with conflicting desires. The insides of her thighs were wet for him now, and if she didn’t…

With a triumphant roar, he vamped out, clawed fingers ripping at the fabric of her jeans and shredding it easily. She hissed it pleasure/pain when his violent actions nicked her sensitive inner thigh, causing a thin line of red blood to swell up there.

He’d yanked his jeans down to his knees now, and for an instant she got a good look at his hard, angry cock, still glistening from his mate’s juices. A brief protest stirred in the back of her mind at that, a greedy demon that wanted him to be hers and hers alone…

But then he was pressing the slick opening to her womb, coating himself with a mixture of his sire and childe’s juices. The combined smell alone had his balls clenching, and his had to squeeze his eyes shut tight to keep from coming right then.

Three deep breaths calmed him down, and he looked at her then, one hand reaching up to brush back her golden hair while the other continued to possessively claim her breast. “So beautiful,” he murmured, fingers trailing up to stroke the line of her brow ridge.

The touch sent sparks of pleasure through her, and she gasped as she realized the new erogenous zone. Her own hands quickly rose to his own masculine ridges, stroking him with her knuckles and savoring his heady moan. “I’m a fast learner,” she whimpered breathlessly when his forehead fell to rest against hers.

“Good to know,” he agreed with a toothy grin before capturing her mouth in a kiss.

Their lips met with a fiery intensity, tongues knicking on fangs and bodies grinding until they were both almost warm again from the power of the friction between them. Buffy tasted his rich blood mixing with her own sweet taste, and the combination had her rubbing her dripping slit against the hard head of his erection desperately.

God, she just couldn’t take this! She needed more. Now. All of him, inside her, and—

An ear-piercing scream shattered the silence of the warehouse as he thrust hard inside her, ripping her virgin barrier apart brutally.

Buffy clawed madly at him, nails shredding his shirt and leaving thin red cuts down the smooth alabaster of his chest. The pain was intense, and she cried out from it…but, at the same time, she craved it. The demon within her was screeching in delight at his violence. It didn’t matter whether she gave out or received pain – just that she felt it, that ultimate proof that she was still here, still alive…

“Fuck, you’re tight, Slayer,” Spike groaned against her throat, beginning to thrust in and out of her at a mildly frenzied pace. “Wet, li’l quim just waiting for your Spike…”

She sighed at that and rolled her hips against his. The pain was fast fading now, and the pleasure was rising. Or maybe the pain was giving her pleasure. Or both. It didn’t matter, though. All that mattered was that he was inside of her, and it was simply…wonderful…

“My Spike,” she repeated in a contented purr, “my sire…” One clawed hand caught the back of his neck, pulling his head down against her shoulder. Her tongue flicked out to taste his silent pulse-point before she struck hard, fangs burying deep inside him.

He collapsed against her in response, feeling her fangs tugging at his essence and letting his consciousness slide with the flow. She was still young – feeding for the first time – and he would give her whatever strength she needed in these first few shaky months. Because, having known her all of five minutes, he’d already gotten a pretty clear idea that this was a vampire he wanted to keep around…

Buffy felt him giving in to her, and the power that feeling gave her was intoxicating. Her demon senses felt his strength, and that he would give himself to her so completely… A little bit of her fell in love right there.

She rolled them over then, so that she could better feed, and began to experimentally move her hips, guiding him within her. His hands reached up to grasp her hips, and he helped her lead, showing her how to bring herself the most pleasure.

Her fangs pulled back from his neck, and her blood-soaked lips turned to his own as she felt a wave of something wonderful rising within her. He seemed to sense it as well, catching her up in his arms, rolling them over again…and right off the edge of the bed. But neither of them noticed as they landed together on the hard floor, still grinding together, limbs tangling, lips tasting, and claws caressing.

With a gasp and a little squeal, Buffy felt him strike something…deep, primal, buried so far inside her that she’d never even sensed its existence before. She let out a keening, guttural cry as the wild ecstasy overcame her, and suddenly it was as if she had awoken into a brighter, more real world. Colors were bolder, scents headier, tastes richer, touch so intense she could feel every ridge and vein of his cock sliding against her slick inner walls, time itself slowing down so that she could savor every second of watching his beautiful features as they twisted in agonized bliss above her.

And that was before the orgasm hit her. She couldn’t tell if she was blinded by a white light or fading into a black void. The loss of control was terrifying…and liberating all at once. For one moment, she was outside her body, in a place with no rules, no limits, and all she could feel besides the endless ecstasy was that Spike was there with her. And somehow that knowledge, that it was him with her, it was… It was simply more than she could handle.

Spike came down from his own high, his pleasure flooding into her womb, and collapsed against the tiny blonde beneath him. It took several deep, unnecessary breaths before he finally fully came back to himself and rose above her. “Buffy?” His vampiric features faded as he nuzzled her cheek.

“Huh?” Her eyes opened to the world she’d witnessed while he was inside of her. Everything still seemed rich, vibrant, vivid… Like she was finally seeing clearly.

“You need to eat, my pet,” he murmured into the golden pleats of her hair.

Her nostrils flared, and she detected that the wounds she’d left on his throat were still bleeding. “I thought I already did,” she teased, a twinkle in her eye before she leaned up to tenderly lick his wounds clean.

“Mmm…” He purred in response, squeezing his eyes shut tight in a contented manner. “Need to get in a quick hunt before dawn, or you’ll be rippin’ the walls apart by next sundown,” he clarified, reluctantly getting up and pulling out of her body.

She whimpered at the loss. And then her stomach growled.

“See?” he countered cockily. “Told ya so.”

Her eyes narrowed for a second as she rose on shaky legs. He’d given her one hell of a pounding for her first time, after all. “Arrogant prick,” she snorted under her breath, glancing down at her clothes to find them all but shredded apart. Little tracks of dried blood and the occasional bruise now marred her unnaturally pale skin. He’d left his marks upon her. The thought sent a quick jolt of warmth through her body that dispelled whatever anger she’d been feeling.

Spike’s own body had taken a beating as well, he noted with satisfaction. Shrugging off his duster, he removed the remains of his shirt, not even flinching when the fabric was pulled from the healing cuts on his torso. He tossed the garment aside and pulled two more of his vast collection of black shirts from the drawer. “Here.” He tossed the spare to Buffy. “Not that I don’t mind watchin’ you run around naked, but ‘s not the easiest way to attract prey.” He gave her a little wink.

The corner of her fanged mouth twitched upward for a second before she removed her ruined shirt and pulled his on, knotting up the excess fabric so that it was tight around her shapely body. He took the brief expression of humor as a good sign, as well as her irreverent comment earlier. The mortal fire tended to get buried deeply within newly turned vampires, giving in entirely to the demon. It could take decades for human quirks to emerge once more, and – as much as the demon hated to admit it – those sparks of humanity were what kept the strongest vampires alive. A little added advantage in the great struggle ahead…

“Think Dru owns exactly one pair of jeans,” he commented off-handedly, digging through his mate’s things haphazardly. “’m sure she won’t even notice you wearing them until we can nick you some new stuff.” He found a pair of whitewashed jeans with bellbottoms that really quite probably actually were from the sixties and gave those to Buffy as well, before redonning his black leather.

The entire time, the demon within Buffy watched him with fascination and a little bit of awe. Her instincts were giving her all sorts of signals: Sire, Master, powerful… And some scents provided her with more disappointing information: Mated, mate’s a Master, too powerful for me to challenge…dammit… And then there was what was seeming to be a perpetual constant: So hungry, need to feed, rip, shred, tear…kill…

A toothy grin and Spike opened the door. “Ready for the night, luv?”

Drusilla loved cool autumn nights when the moon was full and the wind blew the dead leaves down to the ground. Of course, tonight was hot, still, and there was no moon. But that didn’t keep her from dancing through the gravestones anyway, eyelids shut lightly as she allowed her other senses to navigate her through the cemetery.

She could sense the others behind her, the two pixies that had just arisen in their new mum’s arms and a third female that had helped her Spike in the raid that brought back the slayer. Now, Drusilla didn’t often trust other females. They had a foolish tendency to underestimate her – as well as Spike’s devotion to her – and ended up making very fatal challenges. 

Drusilla liked this Japanese female, Sayo, however. For one, she was already mated and had shown no interest whatsoever in making any silly moves on Spike, despite having worked closely with him. Secondly, she’d watched Spike and Drusilla’s take-over with amusement and even a little delight. That gave her just a bit of common sense in Dru’s mind. Although the younger vampiress obviously was under the impression that the newest mistress was a bit nuts. Dru could live with that. She was a bit nuts. Best to make sure Sayo never doubted that she was still dangerous, however.

And the two pixies were simply delightful. The pretty little one with hair like a warm winter fire had woken up and, within minutes, had plundered the mouth of her darker sister. Drusilla had clapped in delight and petted whatever naked flesh she could find as the redhead showed her early dominance. Such a vicious little hunter, too…

Drusilla’s latest pirouette came to a halt as she noticed the redhead’s ears perk up an instant before she darted into the blackness of the night. With a dizzy swirl of her neck, she gestured for Sayo to follow. The other female ground her teeth, but complied, taking a somewhat hesitant Cordelia along with her.

The two of them caught Willow just as the argument in the house they’d snuck upon reached its crescendo.

“Why are we—?” Cordelia began…and froze when a second voice added to the shouts.

“There’s nothing here,” Sayo instructed the two fledglings, pulling lightly at Willow’s arm. “We can’t get in without an invite, and—”

Willow snarled and snapped her fangs at her elder. “Don’t wanna listen to you,” she countered with an evil smirk, the deranged light in her eyes looking startlingly like Drusilla’s for an instant. “Wanna pet.”

Cordelia purred at that, sidling up against Willow. “You’ve wanted this one for so long, too,” she said to Willow sympathetically. “And so have I… We share him?”

Sayo frowned and let out an exasperated cry when the other two leapt out from the bushes and into the yard. Fortunately, the moonless night meant that they were still well-nigh invisible. But fledglings knew virtually nothing of concealment, and Sayo had been in Sunnydale long enough to know that the slayer’s friends patrolled this area, even if the girl herself was taken care of.

She moved to pull them back – a harsh taste of discipline was in order – but an icy, bony hand caught her arm. “Puppies and kittens never play nice for long,” Drusilla informed her, adding an insane little giggle just for the added chill it would put into the younger vampiress’ spine.

“They’ll get themselves dusted in less than a week this way,” Sayo hissed back. “Do you have any idea how many demon hunters there are in this town? And you and your mate can’t really afford to lose those loyal to you at this point.”

Drusilla recognized the veiled threat for what it was, but outwardly pretended she’d missed it. A little note was filed in the back of her mind, however, to keep alert around this one. “No dust,” she concluded, studying the portends that surrounded the crouching pair curiously. “Blood and pain and fire and… Well, maybe a little dust,” she conceded. “It does stain so…”

Sayo shivered and pulled back from her new mistress. That look in Drusilla’s eyes, like she knew something the rest of them couldn’t even begin to comprehend…

The sound of something breaking inside the house shattered the quiet of the night.

“I don’t have to put up with this!” a young man’s voice screamed. “Three of my best friends went missing last night! And do you even care?!” Another smash and a dark-haired teenager emerged, slamming the back door shut behind him.

“Ooh…pretty, indeed…” Drusilla looked him up and down appreciatively. “My little girls have good taste.”

Sayo fidgeted but made no comment. After all, prey was prey. Even if it was a bit dangerous…

Willow and Cordelia stepped from the shadows. “Xander?” Willow said in a deceptively meek voice.

Xander looked up in surprise from where he’d sat down on the back steps, head in his hands. He blinked in disbelief when he saw them, and then a wide smile lit up his face. “W-Willow? Cordelia? You guys are all right?” He got up and began walking towards them. “What about Buffy? How did you get out? I mean, the Brooding Wonder and I took out a few, but we barely made it out of that place without becoming din—”

And he froze in his tracks, abruptly realizing that the two of them both looked just a little too pale, and their faces were in shadow, and since when did Willow slink around like a dominatrix in heat? And, while he was at it, why was Cordy’s tongue slipping into Willow’s ear?

“Oh…shit!” Wide-eyed horror froze him in his tracks, and then he made the smartest move of his life: He ran.

Willow and Cordelia chased in hot pursuit, yellow eyes gleaming in the porch-light, but Xander only had a dozen feet to go, and they were all the way across the yard. Willow taloned hand reached out for the back of his shirt just as he ran through the threshold of the Harris house. The fabric ripped free into her hand, and her body bounced roughly off the barrier and stunning her. She fell back into an equally furious Cordelia’s arms.

Xander got one good look at his best friend and the girl he’d kinda never fully admitted he’d liked since eighth grade. And then he slammed the door on their demonic features, ignored his parents continued argument in the living room, and reached blindly for the phone. Must call Giles. No other coherent thought could form in his head at that moment.

“Got away, then,” Drusilla jutted out her lower lip sadly when the two young vampiresses returned to their elders’ company. She patted Cordelia comfortingly on the cheek and twined a lock of Willow’s hair between her fingers. “Such fire,” she commented absentmindedly, watching the red slide against her skin. “It will consume him quickly enough…”

“Uh…right,” Sayo said, picking up a wandering scent in the night air. “Now let’s go eat.”

It was a scene so common in Sunnydale that the populace knew it almost entirely by heart. A cliché, really. But there were always those who don’t listen to the warnings of those wiser. The young, mostly, who do the stupidest things in their acts of rebellion. Like, say, making out in one of Sunnydale’s cemeteries in the dead of night.

Now, Kathryn didn’t do things like this often. But how often did one of the Razorbacks’ receivers ask you out on a date? And Jason…Jason was just stupid enough that this was the sort of thing he did all the time.

“C’mon,” he taunted, pulling on her hand as they wound their way through the grave markers, “we’re almost there.”

Kathryn looked around anxiously, peering into the shadows in a vain search for the night’s secrets. She jerked at the slightest of noises, the crinkling of leaves, a rustle in the underbrush… “Did you hear something?” she asked, her voice a mere squeak.

“What?” Jason retorted. “Don’t tell me you’re chickening out?” He rolled his eyes and made a disgusted noise.

“N-No,” she managed to put on her best false smile. “Just wondering if it was someone we know.”

Jason grinned at that and pulled her around the corner, pressing her back against the Hoffman crypt. “The guys all know this is my spot,” he pretended to reassure her. But, truth be told, he didn’t really care. He leaned in to kiss her, smiling when she responded eagerly, resting her hands on his shoulders. He moved in closer, hands running up and down her back at first, then moving forward…finding a breast, squeezing it, fingers sneaking up her skirt and between her legs…

“What are you doing?” Kathryn broke away with a start, batting at his hands. “I—”

“Oh, c’mon,” he taunted, “you know you want it, baby. Just relax and—”

“No!” she exclaimed, outraged. She tried to break free, but he caught her wrist roughly and slammed her back into the stone.

“A little cock-tease?” he sneered. “Is that what you are? ‘Cause then I think I’m gonna hafta teach you a lesson about—”

“Pardon?”

The interjected comment made Jason jump nearly a foot.

“You done, then?” the figure from the shadows asked, the orange glow at the end of his cigarette lighting his face for an instant. “’Cause, frankly, your li’l speech was boring me to tears. And I’d like my taste sooner rather than later, if ‘s all the same to you.” With a confident swagger, Spike stepped from the darkness, grinding the butt of his fag under the toe of his boot.

Jason was a bit too flabbergasted to say anything. Kathryn hoped for a brief moment that this was the form of her salvation. “Help me!” she cried out, breaking free of Jason’s grasp and running over to the bleached blonde she’d never seen before. “H-He tried to…”

“Hey, look, buddy,” Jason said defensively. “You can have her. Just let me go first. After all, I got her out here, and—”

“Sorry,” Spike said with an over-dramatic sigh and a glance heavenwards at the idiocy of this pair. “I don’t fuck stupid,” he informed Jason with a nasty grin. And then his features shifted as he turned to the girl beside him. “I do eat stupid, however.”

She gasped in horror and then tried to cry out as he sunk his fangs into her throat, but his hand covered her mouth, silencing her.

Jason gaped in slack-jawed horror for a second, wet himself, and then made a run for it. He made it around the corner to the crypt before he yelped like a little girl at the…well, little girl before him. A brief panic attack hit him then, before he recognized the blonde from his remedial algebra class. “Y-You help people, right?” he gasped. “Th-There’s this guy, and…something’s wrong with his face!” he exclaimed hysterically. “He’s after me! You’ve gotta—!”

Buffy cut off his tirade by grabbing him about the neck and throwing him back against the stone wall with every ounce of her superhuman strength. “Y’know,” she commented, brushing her hair back from her face with her free hand, “I’m really tired of looking out for moronic asses like you. You wander about in cemeteries at night and then whine and beg for me to help you when you suffer the just consequences. Well, guess what?” She leaned in close, and he realized for the first time that her face was distorted in the same way that other creature’s had been. “I’m sick of saving your sorry lives…”

A strangled cry sounded throughout the cemetery as she bit in hard and rough, tearing at flesh and lapping up the fresh, warm blood that bubbled up from his veins. He tasted of pure, unadulterated fear, and it was intoxicating to her, delicious. Almost as delicious as tasting her sire…

“Think he’s dead, pet,” Spike commented wryly, watching her suck insistently at the rip in his throat even after the blood had long dried up.

With a shrug, she dropped the limp body and wiped her mouth clean. “How’d I do?” she inquired with a little smirk.

“Well, definite points for the menace,” he replied with a quirk of his lips. “’ll give you a ten for that. Bite… Well, a bit messy. Tend to lose some of the good stuff that way. Although with that one, had to have been a bitta fun, and that’s the whole point, right?”

She laughed a deep, rich laugh and sashayed over to him, slipping one arm around his waist as she leaned up to lick the blood from his lips. “Haven’t had this much fun in…ever,” she agreed with a flip of her hair.

He chuckled and caught her against him, tongue flicking out to clean her own face. “Sensin’ a bit of hostility, am I?” he commented casually.

Her demonic features retreated slightly at that for the first time – not all the way, but hazel shone through the gold of her irises, showing him the same lost little girl he’d battled to the death the night before.

“You don’t know what it was like,” she said, frowning and struggling for the ephemeral thoughts. He knew it was rough in these early days. The demon wanted pleasure and pain and blood, and reason came only in fleeting glimpses. “T-To have your life snatched out from you one day,” she was having trouble forming the words, but the feelings were practically overwhelming her, and that desire to tell her sire what he had done for her won out. “They told me I would die. Th-They took everything that made my life worth living and sent me out to die… Alone.” A little giggle, and she brought her hand up to cover her fanged mouth. “Guess I got the last laugh, huh?”

“Well, you did technically die last night,” he countered with an amused little grin.

“No,” she countered, nuzzling up against him and purring, “I was given my life back, the one they stole from me…” She nipped at his throat. “Have I thanked you for that yet properly?” she asked coyly with a flutter of her eyelashes.

“Can’t say as you have,” he agreed with a rumbling growl deep in his chest.

“Then…” she began seductively, leaning in closer as if to kiss him, “you’ll just hafta catch me to get it!” she exclaimed abruptly, leaping free of his arms, blowing him a kiss, and running away with a laugh.

He laughed as well and chased after her in hot pursuit. He was still faster than her, of course; she’d develop greater speed over time. But he enjoyed cutting her off, missing by mere inches, drawing out their play-hunt for as long as he could.

Buffy breathed in the scents of night and reveled in her renewed existence. All those years being turned had been her greatest fear, and now here she was racing through the midnight fields with eternity stretched out before her, a powerful and passionate immortal lover hot on her heels, cares and worries brushed aside… God, she’d been an idiot when she was a slayer. This was her life, her salvation, her—

“Angel.” She burst through the copse of trees and froze in a dead halt when she saw him, just standing there, waiting.

“I’d hoped, you know,” he commented casually, looking up at her with soulful brown eyes as he pulled the stake slowly from his pocket. “You were the best I’d ever seen, and if anyone could’ve made it…” He let the statement trail off.

An angry snarl escaped Buffy’s lips. “What?” she demanded sarcastically. “You’re gonna stake me? My big, hulking protector? Hypocritical much?”

He fixed her with a look. “You’re not Buffy,” he informed her matter-of-factly, taking a step closer…

And, at that moment, Spike burst through the bushes with a whoop. He caught one sight of his grandsire with the stake and his face hardened. Instantly, he was at Buffy’s side, pushing her back.

“We can take him!” she insisted angrily.

“Uh…no,” he informed her sarcastically, keeping his eyes on where Angel had frozen the entire time. “He’s two-hundred fifty. You’re…let’s see…one day. You cannot bloody well take him!”

“But you can,” Buffy purred against him, sidling up affectionately, mostly for Angel’s benefit. God, what had she ever seen in this hulking wimp? Her Spike was lean and hard and powerful and oh-so-beautiful in his savagery…

“You sired her?” Angel asked point blank. He could already smell the truth, of course. They were sire and childe, they’d killed already tonight, and they were apparently already lovers… That last fact really shouldn’t have felt so painful. After all, he knew that she wasn’t his Buffy, but still…

“Something you never had the courage to do,” Buffy snarled back, resting her head on Spike’s shoulder.

A bark of laughter escaped Spike at that. “She was your girl?” he realized, the irony of it all suddenly hitting him. “Or not, apparently,” he added nastily, “since I got her first…in every way…”

Angel’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t respond. He did begin to back away, however. He knew only too well that he couldn’t handle Spike alone, given his weak diet of pig and rat’s blood over the past century. “This isn’t over yet,” he informed them both before vanishing into the shadows.

Buffy blinked. “We’re just gonna let him go?” she asked incredulously.

Spike looked down into her golden eyes and felt a sort of panic rise up in him. She was weak still, and young and impulsive, and she’d been foolish enough to challenge one of the most powerful Master vampires alive. He was pretty sure he could’ve finished Angel off, but at the risk of this beautiful childe he was just beginning to know?

“For now,” he conceded, pulling her close and hoping she would listen to him. “Gotta make you strong again. You’re startin’ all over what with bein’ a vampire now, and I want you at my side if it ever becomes necessary to bring dear old Angelus down… Whattaya say, luv?”

She smiled up at him. “He and the others are going to try to spoil all our fun,” she warned.

“Nah,” he brushed her concerns aside, taking her hand and leading her back home, “we won’t let them crimp our style. Have a right fun party without ‘em.”

Buffy giggled and slid herself into the crook of his arm as they walked home together. “Promise?”

“Promise, luv, and I—”

“Never break a promise to a lady,” she finished for him.

“Smart girl. Fast learner,” he praised her.

“Wanna see what else I learned fast?” she asked coyly.

He chuckled. “When we get home. Right now, why don’t you tell all about those mates of yours? Don’t really fancy any surprises…” 

And, together, they vanished into the dark of night, only Spike aware of the silent observer in the shadows. A shake of his head, and then Angel vanished as well…