Vampire Blood
by Mihreia

Spike was taking his time in walking towards the crypt, where Xander 
said the missing vampire was at. He was sure the other two could 
easily handle one minion. And he had more important things on his 
mind at the moment. 

{Right. Like where the bloody hell Xander got green eyes all of a 
sudden.}

The easiest explanation would be possession, of course. Which was not 
that far fetched in Xander's case. The boy was a friggin' demon 
magnet after all. But Xander was still too much himself to be 
possessed. No self-respecting ghost or demon would fail to take the 
kid over completely. 

{Hell, it's not like Xapper's all that difficult to possess. It's 
been done twice already!}

Spike frowned in thought. The fact was that, save for the eyes, 
Xander was pretty much acting the same way he always did, when he was 
on an adrenaline high. A tad of silliness, a great deal of enjoyment, 
some healthy fear, and then there was always a bit of that dangerous 
hunter aspect coming to the fore. No, Xander wasn't any different 
than usual. 

Except that he didn't normally go around tasting blood off the 
ground. Spike smiled as he remembered the inward look on the kid's 
face as he absently licked his finger. The vampire doubted Xander 
knew that he did it at all.

{Cor! I wanted to take him right there.} But then the boy had looked 
so innocent with that puzzled look he threw at Alex, that it had 
seemed a shame to ruin his hunt. Still, if it hadn't been for the 
younger vampire's loud groaning, Spike would be shagging his Xanpet 
by now. 

The blonde couldn't decide if the interruption had been good or bad. 
Finally he settled on good. Xander would not have been amused with 
getting deflowered in a cemetery. 

{Sod it! 'E shouldn't 'ave licked the bleedin' vampire blood off 'is 
finger in the company of two horny vampires. That's just asking for 
trouble!}

The blonde stopped walking suddenly as an idea hit him.

{Wait a minute. Vampire blood!} 

Xander's eyes hadn't changed until after he had tasted Spike's blood. 
Vampire blood was a highly iffy substance to drink in large 
quantities. Even your average vampire minion knew that much. Had to 
be bloody ignorant not to, since a large infusion of vampire blood 
into a drained victim was the only way to create a childe.

The other uses of vampire blood were less known. You had to be a 
magic-user to know it all. Angelus had been pretty deep into that 
mojo, unlike Spike. 

{At least I know the basics, thanks to the great poof. The wanker 
probably wished 'e hadn't even taught me that much, when I nearly 
killed him to restore Dru with his blood.} Spike smiled evilly in 
fond remembrance. 

{That had been in the good old days before soddin' high and mighty 
Angelus returned and shagged my Dru out of her pretty little head. 
Before nancy-boy soldiers and their bleedin' chips.} 

The vampire scowled and made himself another promise to get rid of 
the bloody thing soon. But he had to deal with the current problem 
first.

{Anyway, speaking from personal experience, vampire blood gives all 
things magical quite an extra kick. Good thing few humans know about 
it, least of all the soddin' Watcher and the cute little puppy-eyed 
witches. I'd be an effin' pincushion in no time.} 

Spike reflected a minute on his increasingly low resistance to puppy-
dog eyes, and decided that he was doomed.

Lore had it that all sorts of neat stuff happened, when a normal 
healthy human drank little bits of vampire blood on occasion. The 
most convenient bit was of course that when a human drank from the 
same vampire all the time it slowly bred a dependency on the lucky 
would-be sire. 

The blonde vampire didn't know the exact details, because he had 
never seen it done firsthand, but he recalled that a human could even 
inherit some vampire traits after a year of sipping two or three 
times a week. Of course, nobody had a clue what happened beyond that, 
because vampires usually killed or turned a human before it got that 
far. Vampires were really not a patient bunch of demons.

{Drinking blood twice is hardly the same as a hundred and fifty 
times, mate.} Spike thought, chagrined that his idea didn't work out. 
Suddenly the vampire grinned. {Right. Trust the whelp to take it to 
extremes and bugger the system up royally.}

Fun aside, there was definitely something else playing here too. But 
then, this was the Hellmouth. There were few supernatural rules that 
couldn't be broken here. The only good thing was that so far the 
changes didn't seem to harm Xander any. 

The mortal seemed a bit more predatory, but that could only be a good 
thing in a town like Sunnyhell. Besides, Spike found it thrilling to 
see his normally sweet mortal lover on the hunt like this. And 
judging by the arousal wafting off Alex, the younger vampire didn't 
mind the change any. And that was without mentioning the odd licking 
of a bloody finger. 

{We'll be seeing more of that before the night is out, or my name 
isn't William the Bloody. Can't go around teasing a vampire without 
accepting the consequences, pet.} Spike thought with an evil grin.

And as the mortal himself didn't seem aware of anything odd happening 
at all, the vampires didn't see any problem with it. As long as 
Xander stayed himself, that was. Spike would just have to make sure 
to keep an eye on the mortal.

{Now let's see what my twins are doing to the vamp that ran away. 
Should be entertaining.}