Chapter Summary: An alternate look into Season 2's episode "School Hard" with a Spuffy twist. When did their attraction really start? Drusilla seemed so knowledgeable about Spike being covered in the Slayer later on. In Chapter 2 we saw that she realized that the Sunnydale Slayer was meant for Spike to be with, but she tried to sabotage that meeting. Spike will see Angelus again for the first time in about 80 years. What will happen on Parent-Teacher Night? Will Spike be able to resist coming earlier than Saturday to see the Slayer again?

Author's Note: Not all dialogue is going to be exactly like the episode "School Hard" because I am tweaking it to fit the progression of this story. I combined two days into one for the library scenes for example. Also a decent portion of this chapter is going to include direct quotes from the episode. Credit to the great Joss Whedon and his writers for their words. Also a tinsy bit of blood play in this chapter.

Spike licked his lips for any trace of the precious blood he sampled from the Slayer. He knew any remnants of the alluring liquid were already gone, but he hoped that somehow he missed another droplet to be enjoyed later. Even the few small dribbles of the Slayer's life giving fire on his tongue earlier taunted him with the desire for more.

Spike flipped off the sarcophagus he was laying on. He hadn't returned to the factory yet. Instead he spent most of the night in a crypt thinking about the evening. The dawn was coming, and he needed to bring home someone for Dru to eat. So, he left his place of solitude to do his duty to Drusilla's care.

Drusilla twirled about the room in a fury. Spike wasn't back yet, and he never left her alone for this long. She knew he went out with another vampire to watch the Slayer tonight. She experienced the range of emotions Spike felt during the night, and they upset her. She was determined not to lose Spike's attentions by her side. Her "daddy" was no longer with them. Until she got Angelus back she would give Spike's just enough attention to keep him loyal and at her side.

Buffy stared at the ceiling of her bedroom. 'Why can't I get him out of my head?' She turned over in her bed for the hundredth time. The harder she tried to sleep and forget about the blonde vampire, the more she replayed those few moments with him.

Buffy unconsciously rubbed her tender ear lobe. She never would have guessed that such an innocent place would stir up so much feeling in her. She was confused why Spike bit her ear and not her neck. Her training told her that a vampire always went for the neck ... always for the kill.

'Except for Angel,' Buffy's thoughts reminded her. Therein lay the crux of the problem. Why was she lying awake thinking about Spike? Why wasn't she moping about Angel being a no show at the Bronze?

'If Spike has a soul, maybe Angel will know about him.' Buffy's naive mind focused on Spike's non-lethal bite instead of his threat to kill her. She wanted to believe he was a good vampire. Something deep inside of her told her that she didn't want to stake the vampire.

There was no end in sight for the wandering thoughts in Buffy's head. She fell asleep a few hours before dawn, but it was a restless sleep. The coming day was going to be a rough one. She simply had no idea how rough.

Spike carried the drunken teen into the factory. She had a bit of meat on her bones, and she wasn't hard to look at. 'Dru should like her. Hopefully she'll forget I'm late.'

Spike walked down a corridor to the room he shared with Dru. Although Drusilla wasn't the vampire to Sire him, he still felt an emotional link with the woman who chose him and nearly drained him. He was worried that she might know what he felt tonight at the Bronze.

Spike knew that Drusilla may not choose him as her Mate, but he knew how jealous she could be. He'd seen her rip apart a woman for giving him the once over in Prague. That was when all their real troubles began.

What was it about this family and their dealings mystical beings like gypsies and witches? First Angelus abandoned them after a run in with a band of gypsies. They were never given a reason for why Angelus left them so quickly. Later a clan of witches tired to burn Dru at the stake after she killed a coven member in Prague. So now he lived without the guidance of his Sire, and he had to deal with his Sire's crazy creation on his hands.

Spike poked hid head through the door of their room. His senses were alert, and he was careful to watch out for any sharp wooden objects headed his way. "Princess?" He stepped into the room slowly with the girl. "I've brought you a nice young morsel to eat, luv."

Dru glowered at Spike from a shadowed corner of the room. She wanted to run at him with her claws to tear him to shreds for his abandonment. In a moment of sanity, she decided to go for the more emotional approach that seemed to work with Spike.

Spike heard the whimpering cry as it began in the shadows. He quickly tied the teen to a hook in the ceiling before he started his search of the room. "Princess?" He vamped out to take advantage of his supernatural senses. "My ripe wicked plum?"

The whimpers grew louder, and Dru trembled as she emerged from the darkness. "Spike?" She uttered in mock weakness. "All gone, left his princess alone." She forced her lower lip to tremble, and she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hands. "So alone. So cold."

'Cor, but that one is a good bloody actress,' Spike thought. When he walked into the room he felt her anger and clarity. To see her now as sniveling and looney just irked him. He hated being a pawn in someone's game. He thought he was done being considered simple after that night in the alley. He bit back a sarcastic response and went along with Drusilla's ruse. "Don't be like that sweetness. I had to make sure to find just the right morsel for you to sink your fangs into."

"My Spike brought me a tender and pretty doll?" Dru giggled in a childlike fashion. She bounced on the balls of her feet and cooed in delight. "Nummy. I get to play with her?"

"Yes, you can play with her, but you have to eat her in the end." Spike wrapped his arm around Dru's waist, and he led her over to the dangling girl. "You need your strength, pet."

"But I'm not hungry, Spike." Drusilla ran a finger down Sheila's arm. "I miss Prague."

"You nearly died in Prague. Idiotic witches. This is the place for you. The Hellmouth will restore you to all that you once were." Chanting and moaning echoed down the halls of the factory. Spike growled and slammed the door shut. "Bloody idiots. All they do all day is chant out nonsensical words."

"You should go out with them, Spike. The boy doesn't trust you. They follow him." Drusilla snuggled against Spike's arm. "You'll need his support to take away the sunshine."

Spike continued to growl deep in his throat. He never stood much on rituals or magic. He steered clear of both of them as much as possible. The whole St. Vigeous mess stunk to high heaven, or the depths of hell, of a disaster waiting to happen. He was never one to be patient enough to wait for the timing of moon and star alignments. When he wanted to attack, he didn't want to have to wait. "Fine, I'll go make nice with the boy and his peons. I'll make with the dancing and chanting but you," He shoved Sheila into Dru's arms, "are going to eat."

Dru giggled at Spike's disappearing back. "Good little boy." She smirked, tilted Sheila's neck to the side and set about enjoying a little snack. The pixies told her that she needed to let this one live again. She'd seen a vision of this girl standing behind the Slayer in a darkened hallway sneaking up behind her. If Spike wouldn't take care of the Slayer, maybe this one could be of some help as one of their kind.

"Are you sure that his name was Spike?" Giles held a large tome in his hand. He flipped through each page slowly. "Perhaps he went by another name in time's past." He'd thumbed through tomes all afternoon after Buffy arrived to tell him about her encounter at the Bronze. He was getting frustrated at not being able to locate any information on the vampire.

"That's what he said." Buffy chopped cucumbers into slices with a curved machete. Only a few hours remained before the parents started showing up. She needed to get the vegetable trays finished. "He told me his name, said don't forget it, and that he would kill me on Saturday."

"It is most assuredly not a coincidence that this Saturday is also the Night of St. Vigeous." Giles thumbed through more pages. "I can't believe you are chopping vegetables instead of preparing for Saturday."

"I've already explained this to you, Giles." Buffy hastily hacked away at two more cucumbers. She added the slices to an already heaping tray. She looked out over the library table laden with cut up carrots, cucumbers, celery, cauliflower and broccoli. "Snyder is riding my backside, and I could get expelled if I don't pull this shindig off."

"Slayers do not usually attend public institutions." Giles lowered the book to look at Buffy. "The Council will understand if ..."

"My mother will so NOT understand, Giles," Buffy interrupted. "Snyder can't wait to tell my mother what a horrible student I am." She sighed. She wasn't going to back down. "So, unless you're willing to let me explain to my mother the real reasons why I miss classes, "pick" fights, always seem tired, and don't have time for homework then we do it my way."

Giles adjusted the glasses on his nose, raised the book to read it, and muttered something about rebellious teenagers who don't know what is good for them.

"What I don't understand is," Xander shaved the piece of wood he was holding into a nice pointy stake. "Why are we having to worry about Spike at all? Buffy could've staked him last night, but she just stood there."

Before Buffy was able to form a comment to her defense, Giles made a sound of discovery. "Oh here you are."

"There who is?" Jenny Calendar asked from where she was going over other documents in search of information on the Night of St. Vigeous.

"Our new friend Spike." Giles adjusted the book against the top of his thigh where it rested as he read through it. "He's known as William the Bloody." He scanned further down the page. "He earned his nickname by torturing his victims with railroad spikes."

"That doesn't sound good." Buffy made an ick face. 'So much for the good vampire theory.' She never researched Angel's past. So, she had no idea just how much she would have found horrifying about the atrocities Angelus committed over the years.

"Well he can't be any worse than any other creature you've faced." Giles chirped in. "You did defeat the Master, you know."

"Spike is worse." The library doors flopped closed again behind Angel. His supernatural hearing picked up most of the conversation on his way to the library. "One he starts something, he doesn't stop until everything in his path is dead." He stopped a few feet in front of Buffy. 'Just like I taught him.' He tried to push that thought from his mind.

Angel ignored Xander, as he was prone to do. "And he never breaks his promises. So if he said he'll kill you, he'll do it or die trying."

Buffy rested her weight back on her left leg. She twirled the machete in her hands. "He didn't exactly say I promise to kill you on Saturday."

"It sounded like a promise to me." Xander interjected. "Maybe you didn't hear him with all that bonding you two were doing?" He saw the way Buffy daydreamed when the new vampire's name was mentioned. He already had enough problems with Angel. He didn't want to add another vampire to the mix.

"Bonding?" Angel's eyes darkened. He found Spike's obsession with Dru irritating enough. He better not find out that Spike came to his town and started hitting on something else that belonged to Angel.

Buffy threw a heated look in Xander's direction. She turned back to Angel, avoiding answering the question. "We were at the Bronze yesterday. Thought you said you might show?"

Angel's lip quirked up on the left side. "You said you weren't sure if you were goin'?"

"I was being cool." Buffy rolled her eyes. Was he really that dense? "Come on. You've been dating for what, like, 200 years? You haven't learned what a girl means when she says maybe she'll show?"

No matter how many centuries he existed, Angel would never be able to figure out what women really meant with what they said. It was all so confusing to him. Why couldn't they just say what they meant directly? He tried a different tactic. "I didn't want to be there, if you weren't going to be. So, I took care of some other things."

"Oh," Buffy frowned. She wanted to throttle the big dark man. He could be so frustrating to her at times. The mixed signals he gave drove her around the bend. One moment he wanted her to be all confide in him and clingy Buffy, and the next it seemed that he avoided her.

"We do have slightly more urgent matters to discuss." Giles looked up from his book and drew everyone's attention away from Angel. "It says this Spike is only about a hundred and a half years old. He seems to be fairly well chronicled now that I've found him. I'm sure in that time you must have heard something about him Angel."

Everyone looked up when silence was the only thing that answered Giles' question. An annoyed Xander wouldn't let the chance at sarcasm pass him by. He made no attempt to hide how much he disliked Angel. "Okay, that's it. I'm putting a collar with a little bell on that guy."

Angel rested against a wall of lockers in one of the high school's hallways. He had to get out of that library before Giles asked him questions that he really didn't want to answer. This was a nightmare in the making. He had to keep Buffy away from Spike.

Angel reached out his supernatural senses through the familial bonds in search of his Childer, specifically William who now went by the moniker of Spike. If what Buffy and Xander said was true, his past was coming back to haunt him in a big way. He hoped Giles' research didn't reveal everything about Spike's true identity before Angel could take care of the situation.

Spike sat up in his bed, awakened from a dead sleep by a sensation he hadn't felt in many decades. "Sire," He muttered softly. He was sure that if he had a heart, it would be pounding out of his chest at the moment.

Spike slipped from the bed where Drusilla and her waiting to arise minion lay. He slid his legs back into his black denim jeans. It was still a couple hours until sunset, but he couldn't stay in bed any longer. His dream, and the thought that his Sire might be near, prompted him into action.

Spike gathered several vampires with him in the main hall. He had an idea where the Slayer would be tonight, and something told him that he'd see his Sire again too. He would have her blood tonight, one way or another. He needed to wait for the sun to set, and then he would be on his way with those minions he got to agree to go on his quest.

"Parents will start arriving in an hour now. The banners are in place. The lounge is comfy." Buffy was starting to feel a panic come over her. Slaying demons she could handle, her mother's disapproval she couldn't. "What am I forgetting?"

"Punch," Willow answered in the hopes of finding something for Buffy to do to get her mind off her nervousness.

"My fingers are cramping," Cordelia Chase complained to anyone who would listen. "How long have I been doing this?"

"Three minutes," Xander answered while he shaved another piece of wood into a proper stake. He was exasperated with the cheerleader.

"So, can I go now? She doesn't need this many stakes." Cordelia waved her hand out over the area of the table covered with stakes.

"I mean, if this guy Spike is as mean as you all said, it should be over pretty quickly." Cordelia blurted out without thought or care to those around her.

Buffy turned to Cordelia to stare at her. 'Is this girl for real?' Sometimes she wished that she'd let the vampires eat Cordelia. Their lives would be a lot less insulted. 'Maybe she'd give the vampire indigestion, and I wouldn't have to stake it.'

"We're still all rooting for you on Saturday, Buffy." Cordelia stared at the faces looking at her with disgust. "I'd be there myself if I didn't have a leg wax."

'Now. I must get out of here now before I kill her.' Buffy covered the trays with saran wrap. "You guys hold down the fort. I'm punchbound."

"I think your suggestion of running away this Saturday might have been a good one, Xander." Giles pinched his fingers together against his thumb. "Spike has fought two Slayers in the last century, and he's killed them both."

Parent's night was an emotional nightmare from the moment her mother walked in the door. Buffy managed to sequester her mother away with Willow on a tour of the high school in the hopes that she'd miss a confrontation with Principal Snyder.

Several hours went by, and she thought she had succeeded until Snyder caught Joyce Summers back by her daughter in the main gathering area. The two disappeared into the Principal's office for a while, and when her mother came back out she looked very unhappy.

"In the car ... now." Joyce Summers closed tightened lips to keep from saying anything in public to Buffy. She wasn't sure if she wanted to believe what Snyder said about her daughter or not. Right now she just wanted to get out of there and back home.

Buffy frowned. She headed out with her mother after a glance back to Willow. A smug Principal Snyder moved away from the females to turn off the lights in the upper part of the main hall. He felt that his duty was done for the day. If he was able to get the troublemaker Buffy Summers out of his hair, he'd be a happy man.

All at once, hell broke loose. The big window on the mid level of the sitting area burst into the building followed by growling and game faced vampires. Parents ran everywhere away from the window and flying glass.

As the glass settled on the ground a cocky Spike swaggered to the edge of the level. "What can I say?" He looked at Buffy, "I couldn't wait." He lunged for Buffy, but she sent him flying back into several other vampires by throwing a chair at him.

Buffy grabbed her mother's arm. "Follow me." She tugged her first in one direction and then another when a vampire blocked their way. She headed for another exit, but she had to turn towards a classroom when that exit was blocked as well. "Everybody this way. Come on! Come on!" She had to get as many people as safe as possible. If she wasn't worried about her mother, then she could deal with Spike.

"No one gets out, especially the girl." Spike grabbed a parent by the collar and drug the man along with him.

Giles, Jenny and Xander ran out of the library after they heard all the commotion. "What the hell?"

Buffy ran down the hall towards them. "It's Spike and his Army. Look out!" She yelled when a female vampire turned the corner headed right for them.

The trio ran back into the library and started to barricade the door up while Buffy dashed into a lab with her mother, Snyder and some other parents. Snyder and a parent barricaded the inside door of the lab with a tall filing case while two vampires beat on the door.

All of the lights went off in the building. A minion ran up to Spike who still held the teacher in his hand by the collar. "We cut the power. Nobody got out."

"She either went that way," The minion pointed to the right, "Or that way," he pointed to the left. "I saw two others."

Spike twisted around in a circle with the man in his grasp to glare at the minion. "You don't know?" He spat out angrily.

The minion looked at Spike fearfully. This blonde vampire frightened him. His luck to remain undusty held when Spike turned his attention back to his prisoner. "I'm a veal kind of guy." Spike slapped the man on the chest. "You're too old to eat."

The man seemed to relax, but his peace only lasted a moment because Spike twisted his neck until it snapped. "But not to kill." The man's body hit the floor in a heap. "I feel better." Spike smirked devilishly at the minion who still cowered in fear.

While in the library Giles sent Xander out for help, Buffy was dealing with an irate Principal Snyder and several scared parents.

"I didn't get a good look, but was there something wrong with their faces?" Joyce Summers questioned. There was something very odd about the whole situation.

"It's PCP. It's a gang on PCP. We have to get out of here." Snyder placed a stool under one of the windows.

"You can't go out there. They'll kill you." Buffy grabbed Snyder's arm to stop him. She knew what would happen if they opened a window to the outside.

"You don't tell me. I tell you," Snyder dictated to Buffy. He wasn't going to listen to this slip of a girl no matter who they suspected she was.

"They will kill everybody in this room if you open that window." Buffy pulled Synder off the stool. "Nobody goes out, nobody comes in until I say so. Do you hear me?" She stared him down.

"I'm the one that knows how to stop them," Buffy answered in confidence and seriousness.

"Buffy, are you crazy?" Joyce grabbed Buffy's arms to stop her from leaving. "I know you've been accused of fighting and other things, but those guys are serious." She was worried about her little girl getting hurt. "You can't go out there."

"I know, Mom." Buffy tried to reassure her mother that she knew what she was doing. "That's why I'm going up there." She directed her head up towards the ceiling tiles. She broke away from her mother to put a lab stool on one of the lab counters. She hopped up and pulled herself up into the ceiling. "Don't worry, Mom."

"Slayer?" Spike walked up and down the deserted and dark hallways with a purpose. He wanted to find that teasing little girl that haunted his dreams and thoughts the last day or two. The reminder of the taste of her blood called out to him to sample it again and again.

"Here, kitty, kitty," Spike singsonged as another vampire joined him in the hunt. He stopped in the middle of the hallway. "I find one of your friends first, I'm gonna suck'em dry, and use their bones to bash your head in." He knew that Slayers always had a weakness when it came to protecting others. If she wouldn't face him directly, he would find a way to bring her out of hiding.

Spike kicked one of the nearby lockers. Willow and Cordelia cowered in a utility closet near Spike's position. They practically clutched to each other with each sound that pronounced Spike was getting nearer to them. "Are you getting a word picture here?" Spike called out into the empty air. Just as he was about to kick in the utility closet door a minion got his attention.

"Spike! Listen!" Both heard the thuds and thumps of something or someone moving above them.

Spike grinned and continued his little singsong taunt, "Someone's in the ceiling." He followed the thuds around until they stopped, and he tried to focus on where she'd gone.

Buffy finally made it to the library, much to the surprise of Jenny and Giles. She made sure that Giles knew where her mother was, and she told him to get them to safety. Giles argued that he should be helping her, but Buffy was adamant that her mother be safe.

Knowing that Xander went to get Angel, calmed Buffy's nerves a little bit. At least she'd have another strong fighter on her side as soon as Angel could get here. She hopped back up into the ceiling and down into the hallway to take out the vampires outside of the library door and the science lab.

Just before Buffy took out the last vampire by the lab, Sheila showed up. She followed Buffy around to the other part of the hallway. She tried to attack Buffy, but she was less than successful. Both Sheila and the vampire guarding the other science lab door were dust at Buffy's feet within seconds.

Spike picked up Buffy's walk through the ceiling again. He and another female vampire started spearing thin pipes through the ceiling in an attempt to direct Buffy in a certain direction. They didn't realize that Buffy had already jumped down to kill the rest of the minions around the lab.

In the middle of their hole punching, Spike turned around to see Angelus in full game face with a human in his arms at the end of the hall. "Angelus!"

"Spike!" Angel had to play his cards right, or Spike would know right away that something was off about him. He hadn't stuck around after he was cursed. Darla sent him away from them right away. He hadn't wanted to leave, but he couldn't stay around them while they killed either. So, Spike probably didn't have any idea about his soul.

"I'll be damned!" Spike threw the pole off to the side. His demon delighted in knowing that his Sire was near. He hadn't been wrong earlier in the day. He really had felt his Sire's presence. He laughed while he strutted up the hall the rest of the way to hug his Sire hard.

"I taught you to always guard your perimeter." Angel tsked a couple times to keep up with the fa�ade. He tightened his grip around Xander's neck. "You should have someone out there."

"I did. What can I say, I'm surrounded by idiots." Spike retorted. 'I may be surrounded by idiots, but I'm not one of them.' He smelt something wrong with Angelus. For one thing he caught a faint whiff of the Slayer on him. That would have set him off enough, but he also felt something else radiate off his Sire. 'No way. It can't be.'

Angel watched Spike's every move carefully. So far it all seemed to be playing out how he'd hoped it would. He needed to lull Spike for a little bit longer before he could attack.

"Hm." Spike decided to test the waters further. "Come up against this Slayer yet?"

"She's cute." Angel played off like he didn't care about Buffy at all. "Not too bright, though. Gave the puppy-dog, "I'm all tortured" act." He laughed. "Keeps her off my back when I feed."

"People still fall for that Anne Rice routine? What a world!" Spike shook his head in curious glee. Something told him it wouldn't all just be an act right now for Angelus.

"I knew you were lying," Xander muttered with hardly a breath to spare in the chokehold that was being given to him. "Undead liar guy." His insult was flat, but he was ticked.

"Wanna bite before we kill her?" Angel turned Xander over. He held him up like a rag doll in his arms with Xander's neck bared.

"Haven't seen you in the killing fields for an age." Spike tilted his head to look at his Sire.

"No, you never were." Spike knew Angelus was full of it. He delighted too much in the torture and kill to just stop fighting. He would have heard if Angelus was up to old habits and tricks. He was a Master Vampire, and Master Vampires didn't just disappear without a trace even to the demon world or their Childer unless they were hiding something from them. "So why are you so scared of this Slayer?"

"Yeah." Spike decided to taunt Angelus a little bit. See if he could get him to give up his secrets by making him mad. "Time was you would have taken her in a heartbeat. Now look at you." He surmised that if Angelus was still who he thought he should be, Buffy would not be alive in the Hellmouth. "I mean this ... tortured thing is an act, right?" It was time to dig the proverbial stake in further. "You're not housebroken?"

"I saw her kill the Master." Angel started to back pedal. He worried that his ruse wasn't working as well as he'd hoped. "You think you can take her alone? Be my guest. I'll just feed and run." He shook Xander a bit.

"Don't be silly." Spike held up his hands in a surrender motion. "We're old friends. We'll do it together." He looked down at the boy's neck and back up at his Sire. "Let's drink to it. Together again."

They both leaned in towards Xander's neck simultaneously. Each of them watched the other, both of them tried not to let the other see they were watching them. Right before Spike's fangs hit Xander's neck Spike pulled back and punched Angelus solidly in the face.

Angel flew back, and he almost dropped Xander. He tried to shake off the effects of the punch. His Childe was as strong as he remembered, maybe stronger.

"You think you can fool me?" Spike was enraged. Several of the minions had gathered behind him during the conversation, but his focus remained on Angelus.

Angel watched Spike head down the hall and turn back to him about halfway down. 'This isn't good.'

"You were my Sire, man! You were my ... Yoda!" Almost everything Spike knew or learned about being a vampire, he learned from Angelus. Most of the lessons were learned through pain and torture, but he finally learned them. Spike both hated and loved Angelus at the same time. He was a Master Vampire long before any vampire of his years should have been. Yet he still never earned his Sire's complete approval. Now Angelus was acting like this?

Angel shrugged his shoulders. He watched Xander stand upright next to him. He hoped that the boy didn't fall over because they were going to have to make a quick getaway. "Things change."

"Not us! Not demons! Man, I can't believe this. You Uncle Tom." Spike accused Angelus. "Do you have any idea what your leaving did to Dru? What it did to me?"

Angel shrugged. "You don't know what I've gone through, and it was better that I left." He pushed Xander out the door for his own good.

"You're leaving could never be for Dru's own good, you selfish bastard!" Spike advanced on Angelus. "She almost died because you weren't there, and now she's both sick and as looney as a duck!"

"That's not my problem, Spike." Angel met Spike halfway between their previous positions. All of the minions looked on to see what the two Master Vampires would do. "I have what I want here and a cute little feisty blonde girlfriend to boot." He needed the edge of an off balanced Spike. He succeeded with his comment. "I don't need the baggage of the crazy bird."

"The Slayer? You're dating the Slayer?" Spike's eyes widened. His demon was getting more ticked off. It wanted the Slayer for himself. "You can't have her."

"Why?" Angel threw a punch at Spike that connected with his jaw. "Do you honestly think she would give you the time of day or night?" He spun a kick to Spike's head that Spike ducked.

Further angered, Spike lashed out at his Sire. "I'm the slayer of Slayers, mate." A right hook connected with his Sire's cheek to split it and draw blood. "She's mine." A left followed it across his Sire's jaw. "Mine to kill or mine to enjoy before I kill her."

"Never!" The two vampires locked themselves in a grapple, pulling at each other's coats.

The soft, but annoyed voice, of Buffy Summers called from the side hallway to the two blustering vampires. "Are you two through with the pissing contest? Because I really thought you came here to fight me, Spike."

Spike pushed his Sire back against the exit doors. He turned to the waiting minions, "Come on people. This is not a spectator sport. Get him." He sent them off after his Sire while he stepped down the hallway to face Buffy head on.

"Do we really need weapons for this?" Buffy nodded at the pipe in Spike's hand and the axe in hers.

"I just like them," Spike answered. He ran one hand down his chest to his waist. He dipped his fingers down farther to graze over his hidden cock. He gave it a caress it really didn't need since just the sight of this Slayer, and the scent of her blood in the air, made him very hard. "They make me feel all ... manly."

Both of them shared a look between them. There was an electricity that both of them felt as they each tossed their weapon to the side. Whether it was the thrill of the "dance" or something else, neither was sure at the moment. They moved closer to each other.

"The last Slayer I killed ... She begged for her life." Spike advanced even closer.

Buffy, with her hands behind her back, countered his moves in a wider circle around him. She lowered her eyes to stare at him in a more determined, but sultry manner. Something about this vampire made her all hot and bothered. His voice was pure sex and sin, and something inside of her craved it.

"You don't strike me as the begging kind." Spike looked at the ground for a moment. He looked back up into her face with a look of devilish curiosity. 'Perhaps she is, but another kind of begging.' He tried to shelve that thought away. It wasn't the time to entertain those kinds of thoughts.

"No," Spike laughed. "I messed up your doilies and stuff." He was now only a couple of steps away from Buffy. "But I just got so bored."

Buffy nearly shivered at Spike's closeness. She gulped hard to avoid showing more of a reaction to his nearness than she wanted to. 'Even in his vampire face, he looks sexy.' She mentally kicked herself for the thought and berated herself for having any thoughts of that nature about Spike.

"I'll tell you what." Spike broke Buffy from her mental reverie. "As a personal favor from me to you, I'll make it quick. It won't hurt a bit."

'Oh, cocky vampire I can deal with.' Buffy grinned maniacally. "No, Spike. It's gonna hurt a lot."

Buffy and Spike exchanged blows back and forth. One jumped and the other dove. Both of them countered and connected at various points of the fight. Adrenaline was flowing through Buffy, and the borrowed blood in Spike's system was pumping away madly in a rush of energy.

That all ended when Spike's fist buried into the wall after one of his punches missed Buffy. He kicked her away from him, pulled his hand out that was now embedded in a two by four, and hit Buffy upside the head with it. He tossed the piece of wood far away after it served its purpose to him. He wanted to fight her with his fists and fangs.

Buffy moaned as her body hit the floor with a hard thud. She tried to crab crawl away from Spike, but he was on her a few moments after she hit the floor. She fought to reach her stake. On the ground, with his body over hers, her position was compromised enough to keep her from kicking him away from her after he backed her against one of the steps to the next mid-level.

Spike ground his covered erection against Buffy's covered warmth. While his hands and body kept her pinned down, he inhaled deeply. "Such a sweet smelling, Slayer." He growled low in his throat that sounded more like a reaction of his desire and not of malice. "Vanilla and ..." He took in another deep breath, "Honeysuckle."

Buffy squirmed underneath Spike. She had to get free. She couldn't ignore the thoughts he was bringing forward with the touch of his body. She tried to close her legs to hide the damp wetness that seeped into her silk panties in reaction to his hardness rubbing against her. 'No, bad thoughts. No sexy thoughts about evil vampires who want to kill you.'

Spike licked up the side of Buffy's neck. "My own sweet little honey pot." His lust filled voice turned into a snarling growl as his tongue hit the tiny scars from when the Master bit Buffy. "He tasted you." He recognized the family trace, and it disgusted him that his great git of a grand Sire sampled his Slayer.

Buffy stiffened beneath Spike. His growl sounded much angrier now, and it vibrated through every fiber of her being. She felt his anger radiate from him onto her skin, heating it. At first she didn't fathom what Spike meant, but then she realized he must have found the Master's marks. "Upset that you weren't the first to get a little taste, Spikey?" She taunted.

Spike jerked up, turned Buffy's chin to face him squarely and glared at her. "You are mine, pet. Get that through your head, real quick." He scratched clawed fingers down the side of her scarred neck in jagged cuts until they bled freely.

Buffy bit her lower lip so hard that it drew blood in her effort not to cry out in pain from the slices Spike made in her neck. She fought once again to free herself only to be stopped when his cool tongue soothed the cuts with saliva mixed in his and her blood.

Spike cut his tongue on one of his fangs before he started to lick the blood from the Slayer's neck and seal the wounds. The Master laid no claim on Buffy, and the slices along with his blood to seal them would be enough to eradicate the previous marks. His blood in her body would also be the precursor to what was now a definite part of his plan while in Sunnydale.

"Stop ... Please ..." What previously would have sounded like demands now sounded like a soft form of pleading. Buffy's body betrayed her anger and disgust at being touched by the soulless creature. His tongue was stirring places in her loins that she did not know existed, and she felt even dirtier for enjoying the foreplay between them.

"You don't really want me to do that, pet." Spike nuzzled against the side of Buffy's neck. "I can smell your desire. You want me, and I will have my one good day. One way or another." He lowered his head back to her neck with his fangs extended. Just before they pierced Buffy's skin, Spike was knocked off of Buffy to the side.

Buffy and Spike both looked up to see Joyce Summers with an axe in her hand. She'd used the flat part of it to bash Spike in the back of the head.

"Get away from my daughter." Joyce barely repressed the fury she held over seeing her daughter on the floor with that creature on top of her.

Spike shook his head in an attempt to clear it. He looked from Buffy to the other woman, and he knew by scent that this woman was related to Buffy. He figured that she was probably Buffy's mother. "Women," He growled, jumped to his feet, and dashed away into the safety of the night. A somewhat laughing, "until we meet again," was called out over his shoulder as he disappeared from sight.

Joyce looked at Buffy, "Nobody lays a hand on my little girl." They both embraced each other tightly with tears in their eyes.

"So when you gave him my neck to chew on, why didn't you clock him before he had a chance to clock you?" Xander asked Angel. They were walking together along the side of the high school.

"I told you, I couldn't make the first move. I had to see if he was buying it." Angel responded evenly.

"And if he bit me? What then?" Xander still didn't like the direction the plan of Angel's had taken.

"We would have known he bought it," Angel said with a touch of sarcastic humor and walked away.

Xander stared after Angel. He had a few more questions. Something wasn't sitting well with him. There was something Angel wasn't telling them. "What's the deal with you being Spike's Sire? What's a Sire?"

Back at the factory at the dawn, Spike buried his face into Dru's shoulder. "The Slayer with family and friends. That sure as Hell wasn't in the brochure." He tried to make it seem that he was just upset about his failure to kill the Slayer. He was feeling a lot more than that. For one thing, he'd found his Sire again only to be refused by him because of some stupid soul. 'Bloody gypsies. It had to be them since that is when he left us.' He vowed to find a way to get his Sire back.

"You'll kill her next time, Spike. Then we'll have a nice celebration." Dru was secretly happy that Spike was so upset. 'Now maybe he will give his princess her proper attention and forget all about that nasty Slayer.' She wrinkled up her nose at Spike. "I can smell her on you."

"We fought hard pet. Of course you can smell her on me." Spike growled in anger. What did she expect he would smell like after fighting his way through his wanker of a Sire and the bloody Slayer? At least she hadn't said anything about smelling Angelus on him. He wasn't ready to deal with her ranting about that.

"He doesn't want to play." Dru pouted beside Spike. She wanted the boy to play with her.

"It figures." Spike stood back up straight. There was a time of reckoning at hand. "Well, I suppose I'd better go make nice." He walked over to the Anointed One, and he dropped down to one knee.

"I, um ..." Spike thought for a few moments about what to say. "I offer penance." He tried not to choke on the words as he spoke.

"Penance?" One of the minions who was with Spike at the school yelled, "You should lay down your life." He growled. "Our numbers are depleted. The Feast of St. Vigeous has been ruined by your impatience!" Now that he was back amongst the company of the Anointed One, he wasn't afraid of Spike.

"I was rash, and if I had to do it all over again ..." Spike pondered it for only a couple seconds before he started to laugh. "Who am I kidding? I would do it exactly the same." He jumped up from the ground, grabbed the boy and tossed him into a nearby cage after he fought through a couple stupid vampires that challenged him briefly.

"Only I'd do this first." Spike pulled hard on the chain hooked to the cage. He raised it higher and higher into the streams of sunlight coming in from the outside of the factory with the dawning day. "From now on," He yelled, "We'll have a little less ritual, and a little more fun around here." He pulled the last few tugs necessary to send the boy into the light who burst into flames.

The task finished, Spike and Dru walked away to their room for a bit of rest and celebration.

Two days after Parent-Teacher Night at the high school, Buffy lay in bed. She stared at the ceiling. It was Saturday, and the night was supposed to be the Feast of St. Vigeous. She walked through an early patrol, but nothing jumped out her in the literal or figurative sense.

"So much for the big bad of all vampire holidays." Buffy rolled her eyes at the air. "Why was Giles so worried about this? It's nothing."

Down on the street below, the glowing red ember at the end of a cigarette lit the night. "I wouldn't say that it was nothing, pet." He inhaled another deep breath of the nicotine. Although it had no true value to it, he found it a relaxing habit. He crushed the cigarette under a heavy boot to put it out.

"Old bat face and the bitch Darla are gone. Angelus has a bleeding soul, and Dru is looney." Spike grinned in delight. "With the Anointed One now a memory, that leaves me to be the Master."

Spike laughed at the irony of it all. He who hated ritual and ceremony was actually stronger because of one. "The Night of St. Vigeous passed on the infusion of our line, the strongest of the vampire clans. The next time we meet, no axe wielding mother will keep you from me. I will have my prize. I will have a piece of you, or I will have you."

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