Title: Purr

Email: tirel@pcnuthut.com

Author: Velvet Crypt

Disclaimer: Joss is God. I own nothing.

Spoilers: AU. I have no idea what the hell this is. I’d say inspiration. But it’s total crap.

Summary: Spike gets in touch with his inner feline.

"And then he told me that he couldn't love me anymore!" The catlike creature sniffed and dropped her head into her hands.

Anyanka smiled wickedly. "I bet you wish something awful would happen to him, hmmm?" She suggested.

"Oh, no!" the girl sounded horrified. "I could never wish something like that on Rhreelis. Or even on that nasty Drusilla he's taken up with. He seems to love her so much." Her breath hiccupped. "Isn't that what love is? Giving up what you need for the happiness of the one you love?"

Anyanka snorted. "Not exactly, honey. But whatever turns your crank."

"I was thinking, though. If Drusilla's old lover had been everything she needed, she wouldn't have left him, right? And then Rhreelis would never have been attracted to her." She growled in her throat. "I wish her old lover could have been in touch with his inner cat. Then he'd know how to please Drusilla like Rhreelis can."

Anyanka laughed. "Done."

_______________________________

Spike woke to a strange feeling. It took him a moment, but then he realized that he couldn't get his eyes open. He began to panic, but something warm and wet and strangely comforting ran from his to his shoulder. Giving into the drowning need to sleep again, he didn’t' give it any more thought.

It was a surprise when he woke later in the week to a sliver of light. Confused, he tried to rub his eyes. As he did, he realized his arms weren't working right. Near to panicking again, an insistent weight shoved him against warmth and pressed something against his lips. Without knowing why, he began to drink. It wasn't blood, but it was warm and just what he needed. He fell asleep again.

Finally, his eyes could open all the way. He was mortified to find that his arms were paws, for that matter, so were his legs. He gleaned from the pile of bodies around him, and the larger body that they were all cuddled up to, that he wasn't a vampire anymore. He seemed to be a kitten. He tried talking, but his mouth wouldn't work right. All that came out was 'mew' and that was so insulting, he didn't try again.

Determined to discover what the hell had happened to him, he crawled out of the kitten pile and walked on unsteady legs to the edge of their 'bed'. It looked like the mother cat had made her nest for the kittens in an old blanket under some steps. He staggered on his four paws out from under the steps and into a tall patch of grass and weedy flowers. Crouching down in the green, he tried to remember what the hell he'd been doing before all of this happened.

He remembered going to visit his sire in LA. He never made it. The last thing he could clearly remember was driving the Desoto on the freeway. Then the disjointed memories of kitteness. He shook his head, trying to clear it.

"What the fuck!"

He twitched, but some internal warning system forced him to still. He watched a huge figure storm down the steps and reach under them. Terror
filled Spike's tiny body and he fought to remain motionless. The figure jerked out the mother cat, which responded with a frightened meow, and grasped her by the tail. Spike watched in horror as the figure swung his mother through the air and slammed her little head into the side of the house.

/Mama!/ Spike/kitten cried silently. He didn't know why watching this would affect him so strongly. He was a master vampire, not a bloody cat. But it did. He could feel a connection. And he could feel it cut off as his feline mother died. He continued to watch as the figure drug his brothers and sisters out from under the porch. The figure thrust them into a sack and then dumped them into a huge bucket.

Spike didn't understand what was going on until the figure turned the water spicket on and put the hose in the bucket. Spike wept internally as he felt the connections with each of his siblings crumble one by one as the kittens drowned.

"Dad? What are you doing?" A jolt went through Spike as he realized he knew that voice.

Xander had warily come out of the basement when he heard the loud thump. The idea that his dad was up and moving around this early didn't bode well for him. He regretted his curiosity the second his father grabbed him by the throat and slammed him up against the wall. Xander hung by his neck, turning purple.

"I thought I told you to get rid of that damn cat, boy!" his father growled.

"I thought I did." Xander gasped.

"Well, I always told you not to think, boy. And when I say 'get rid of it' I mean permanently!" His dad dropped him and gestured to the small body on the ground. "Like this."

Xander stared in shock at the tiny form. /Why did you come back, kitty?/ he mourned.

"Get rid of it. And get rid of its brats too." His dad gestured to the overflowing tub of water before stalking back into the house.

Xander hesitated for only a second. He reached in the tub and jerked the bag out. Frantically, he tore it open and spilled its contents onto the grass. Desperately searching for even one live kitten, he moaned when he realized he was too late. Tears began to fall, obscuring the tiny corpses.

"I'm so sorry, babies. So sorry. I couldn't save you. I'll make sure to bury you far away from him. Knowing him, he'd likely to dig you up again just to hurt me."

Xander sadly began placing the kittens back into the bag. With a shudder, he put the mother cat in on top of them and gently tied the bad. He'd just come back from the storage shed with a shovel when he heard a tiny 'mew'. He looked around frantically, hope rising in his chest.

Spike watched in sorrow as Xander searched for a living kitten. He wanted to crawl into the human's lap and share his pain. When Xander came back with the garden tool, he made his decision. He tried calling Xander's name, but all that came out was a little 'mew'. Still, the boy seemed to hear him, because he began searching his surroundings carefully.

Spike crawled out of the grass and stumbled onto the walkway.