August 7, 2007 1:25 AM
The ground had been uneven, littered with rocks and twigs making the way difficult for them. It was inevitable that someone was going to get hurt eventually. Willow was following Giles and stepped on a stick that rolled under her making her fall and twist her ankle. The red head looked at her best friend apologetically but Buffy only nodded and returned to surveying the terrain while Giles and Xander tended to the Wicca. There was a ridge about a quarter mile away and making a decision she turned back to her friends.
“I’m going to go ahead to the ridge and see how much further it is. Call me if you need anything,” she told them and before they could protest her decision Buffy began the trek, the urgency to find her mate pushing her on. In the last few hours she had come to think of Spike as exactly that, her mate. A vampire term that she had always been to him but it was one she was now willing to adopt as her own. He was everything that it entailed to her, companion, friend, comrade and lover. He wasn’t her boyfriend, never had been. They were more than lovers or husband and wife, he wasn’t just her trusted ally in battle, and he was more than the keeper of all her secrets. Spike was everything to her, the beginning and end of her world and her very being.
Over the years they had invested trust, time, blood, and love into cultivating a relationship that was truly unique in the annals of time. A Slayer and a vampire, truly matched, making a life together. It was a life that appeared to be modeled after a human nuclear family but was actually based in the darkest corners of humanity. When you stripped everything away and they stood naked and connected by blood, the demons that existed between had made peace and developed a bond. A bond that if let come to its full power could rule the world with its force. Evil and goodness welded together as it was in the beginning. Balanced in it’s true form would give existence a Garden of Eden again. It was only in the struggle of one to rule the other that the world developed chaos.
This need to keep the balance pushed Buffy to fight exhaustion, her own need to cry in pain, and the need to protect her cubs to find him. The only one to whom she could truly give her love and body to. The only one who was worthy of her and the one that gave her the security to be who she truly was.
As she stood on the ridge looking out over the forest searching for the boulders that would mark the entrance to the Initiative she was the embodiment of the primitive Slayer. But it was the human in her that caused her to miss the prickles that signaled she was not alone. It was the cracking of a twig that made her turn her head to find herself staring down the barrel of a gun.
“So, the demon whore has come,” the man said. “Not the smartest move you ever made but it has definitely made my job easier. Start walking.”
Buffy gave him a look of disdain before going the way that he indicated. If he was alone then she would allow him to lead her to Spike and then he could be discarded. The entrance they had been seeking was only a few yards away and Buffy was ushered in as the Soldier quickly glanced around to see if they were being followed.
The hallways were like a maze as they descended deeper into the earth when they came to the end of a long corridor with a massive door to mark it. Buffy watched carefully as a card was run through the reader and a series of numbers punched in. She ran the numbers through her head until she felt confident they were stored in her memory.
Buffy found herself in what appeared to be a laboratory with a series of cells lining one wall. There was the sound of something repeatedly being thrown against a wall in the last unit. Fear clenched at her as she cautiously made her way along the row. There were small walls jutting out between them that kept her from seeing what was in the last one. As she came to it she peered around the corner and found herself looking at Spike. It was his body that was hitting the wall as he continued to crash against the door of his cell in an attempt to free himself.
The sight of her there only intensified his apparent rage and now not only his body but his fists beat against the partition that separated them. An unholy growl from the very depths of his being filled the air around her as his demon fought to get to her. A tear ran free down her cheek as she looked at him. In the time they had been separated he had apparently endured untold torture leaving his body as covered in pain as hers had been a short while before. His jeans hung in tattered rags from his hips, the only thing he now wore to conceal him from their view.
Unable to deny the call between them even now she approached the partition that separated them as his fury only seemed to increase the closer she came. In the yellow eyes she could still read the emotions that ripped through him, rage, hurt, pain and humiliation. The events of the past six months and the things he had gone through in the time since they had last touched had taken his spirit to the very brink of being broken. Spike was fighting not only his body but his very soul to stay intact as he threw himself at what held him prisoner but there was something else that wasn’t quite right in his behavior.
With only a quick glance she looked at the man who thought he held her prisoner, “What else have you done to him?”
“Just a little extra something to make him more aggressive plus the fact that he is probably feeling a little hungry from the lack of blood.”
“Why would you do that?”
The man laughed evilly, “Like I said running into you in the woods only made my job easier. See, if this helps you understand. We deactivated his chip.”
Tears flowed copiously down Buffy’s cheeks as she stepped closer to the cage that held her mate and placed one hand against it. At first he continued to throw himself against it but somehow her presence began to have a calming effect on him.
“You people are fools,” she whispered, “his chip hasn’t worked against me for almost six years now.”
“Well, it won’t matter anyway in a little while.”
“I’m sorry I’m not giving you the dramatic reaction that you were looking for, the tears as I beg for my life, because you just can’t comprehend something a million times more powerful than anything your pathetic group could ever hope to have.”
“What? An animal like him?”
She laughed low in her throat at his question. “I knew you wouldn’t understand. I’m talking about love. A love that is magical enough to take people who are so different and make them a family that is so strong that they are capable of saving the world over and over. Love so wondrous that it can take children not born of your body and make them so much a part of you that it is as if they are born from your very soul. And love that is so sacrificial that one mate would willingly give their life to ensure the safety and life of the other.”
“Your right I don’t understand the bullshit of freaks like you all. Move over there.”
Buffy moved further away from the keypad that would free Spike and waited patiently. Even Spike seemed to calm down with an air of anticipation surrounding him. The Soldier punched in a few numbers and then hurriedly began to back away toward the exit. As the partition began to slowly open Spike roared distracting the man as Buffy took the opportunity and kicked the gun from his hands.
“And you know what, asshole; I forgot to mention the love that is so strong that one mate will kill to ensure the safety of the other.”
Buffy held the struggling Soldier as Spike stepped from his cage and once he was free she pushed the man toward him.
“Eat, Spike, you need to eat something so you can start healing.”
“You can’t do this, bitch.” The coward in her arms argued.
Spike made eye contact with her then his eyes flickered over the meal she was offering and with almost a gentleness he took the man against him and Buffy also. His hands holding her waist as the Soldier fought to live between them.
“I think I can.” Buffy answered as Spike sank his fangs into his first living meal in years.
She laid her head against the Soldier’s back and her fingers moved through Spike’s hair as he fed slowly, relishing every drop of warm human blood that flowed down his throat.
“Whatever you need, Baby, I’ll get for you. However many you need.”
Spike opened his eyes to look at her as she smiled tremulously at him. His mind was still fuddled from the drugs they had given him. Emotions crashed through his system as he struggled to regain his sense of self. He knew, though, that this woman was his mate but something wasn’t right with it. He withdrew his fangs and stepped back as the Soldier fell to the floor between them. Neither paid him any mind as he weakly crawled away from them.
“Mine?” Spike asked.
“Yes, Baby, I’m yours.”
His fingers pushed back her hair looking for his mark and felt the warmth of her skin, the blood flowing in her veins and his hand moved to cover her breast feeling her heart beat beneath it. He gave her a quizzical look not understanding how she could be his and not be like him, an animal, and a beast that only deserved to live in the shadow of night.
Slowly, things began to right itself and the frustration and humiliation that he had endured began to take precedence. No matter what he had done, no matter how much he had tried it didn’t seem to matter because he was only reduced back to this. Mocked at, beaten and told he wasn’t worthy.
“I’m sorry, Buffy, I can’t…I can’t do it anymore.” Sobs ripped through him as he let go of everything that he had tried to become.
Her arms pulled him to her as she ran her hands through his hair and softly kissed his cheek. She knew that now without the chip he had choices. Choices that he hadn’t had in years and she knew that these few years with her couldn’t out weigh the years that he had ruled as a master vampire. If he had truly given up trying then he would return to the night, the one place he had felt confident. In this realization she made a decision because no matter where he was that was where she belonged.
“I can, Spike.”
Buffy stepped back from him and when she knew she had his attention she pulled her hair back and tilted her head offering him her throat.
“Are you sure?”
His fingers ran over the skin of her throat as the magnitude of her offer hit him.
“Yes.”
Spike looked into her eyes briefly and saw only love and total acceptance in their depths. Relief flooded him as he pulled her close to him enjoying the feel of her body next to his as if they were made to be one creature. He could be everything that his nature called for him to be and with her they could rule the night. His nightmares of spending centuries without her would never have to come true now.
A light kiss was placed against her lips before they laid a trail to her throat and as he bit into the softness of her skin he felt love overflowing his heart.
