Chapter Summary: Starts off with a rewritten timeline with Drusilla and Spike at the factory researching a cure for the ailing vampiress. Dalton goes on a research quest, Spike tries to keep up appearances, and the Scoobies deal with the idea that their Watcher wasn't always so stuffy. Will Angel or Spike be the one to save Buffy from Eyghon? What other realizations will Buffy come to after seeing the "demon" side of Giles?

Author's Note: Some dialogue was taken from the episode "The Dark Age" and "What's My Line - Part 1". Also some of the dialogue in scenes from the episodes has been rewritten to fit the purpose of this story. Timelines have also been adjusted so certain things happen before others. Assume that other events from the episode "The Dark Age" like the fight in the library with Phillip, the appearance of Ethan originally in the library, etc all still happened as they did in the show unless you see it changed here in the story

Spike flipped through the worn pages of a leather bound book. 'I know the answer is in here.' He laid a couple loose manuscripts on the nightstand. Most of them made no sense to him at all.

Drusilla whimpered and bounced on the bed next to Spike. She shuffled a deck of tarot cards with fumbling fingertips. She turned the first card from the deck face up in front of her. "Naughty children."

Spike glanced sideways for a brief moment. Despite the references he used to search for Dru's cure, he never gave much credence to magic, gypsies, or fortunetellers. The cards occupied Drusilla for the moment. So, he was grateful for the break from keeping her entertained.

Drusilla carefully flipped another card over. She set it down next to the first. "The past comes back to haunt them." She cooed and giggled after she revealed a third card. "She will be marked for the kill."

"I'm not going to tell you." Dru motioned one finger back and forth. "It will make you cross, and I need your attention right now."

"If you say so, Dru." Spike slapped the book closed. The thud reverberated through the office they'd made into a bedroom. "I'm going to check on Dalton's progress."

"The little bookworm?" Drusilla frowned. "He dilly dallies. He doesn't want Princess better."

"Nonsense, pet," Spike's voice held a soothing quality to it. "The text is very old. These things take time." His cursory glance over the tome he'd left with Dalton had him puzzled as much as the bookworm. Even with his former Oxford training, the languages seemed all jumbled.

"Mummy thinks he needs more incentive." Dru gathered up her cards, slid off the bed, and stood next to Spike. She snuck her hand into the crook of his arm.

Spike, resigned that Dru was accompanying him, left their bedroom. Being the "Master" of Sunnydale had its advantages. He was given some privacy because the minions feared they'd be dusted if they intruded upon him. Likewise, no one dared to question his orders that the Slayer and her friends were off limits for snacking on.

Most of the minions, and other demons in Sunnydale, figured Spike merely wanted to kill the Slayer himself. Few knew the real reasons behind the order. Dalton was one of the few who surmised Spike's true reasons. Spike trusted the bookworm more than anyone else in the clan.

Spike liked Dalton. He reminded the Master Vampire of what he might have been like without Angelus' influence as a fledgling. Dalton shared Spike's secret love for books, languages and history. He rarely showed that side of himself to anyone, but Dalton walked into a room one day where Spike was relaxing with a book. His mind drifted down memory lane.

Spike lounged in an unused room of the factory. The minions tended to stay in larger groups near the main gathering area. He'd found this little nook of an office during his scavenger hunt of the factory. The little corner offered Spike privacy and a chance to relax without pretense. Dru drove him batty, the demon community bored him, and without a cure for Dru he had to avoid the Slayer except to ease the pain of separation.

Spike sighed in relief. For the last month he'd secluded himself away in the little underground nook of the factory whenever he needed peace and quiet. The minions weren't sure where he went, but they knew if the Master went down a particular hallway he wasn't to be disturbed. The main entrance wasn't noticeable to the naked eye.

Dalton groaned and panted in near exhaustion. He'd left the factory the night before, but the sun's morning rays had caught him before he was able to return. He had dove into the nearest manhole into Sunnydale's underground tunnel system. Thoroughly lost, he'd spent the whole day trying to find his way back to the factory.

Dalton felt the pull of his vampire's familial link. Although not sired by Spike, the Master Vampire had given him the protection of the Aurelian clan. Some of their blood flowed in his veins, and he felt the nearness of Spike. 'I must not be as far from the factory as I thought.' He pushed away some tree roots and squeezed through a small crack in the wall to get closer. He was surprised to see Spike sitting in a partially finished room reading a book. "Master?"

So engrossed in his book of poems, Spike failed to notice the presence of another vampire. He jumped out of the chair and fell on the floor at the sound of Dalton's voice. That was a costly mistake on his part with anyone else but Dalton. Dalton was one of the most non-violent vampire's he'd ever met. He wasn't able to prove it, but he was fairly certain that the vampire did not kill for his dinner.

"How are the translations coming along, Dalton?" Spike swaggered over to the long dining table in the middle of the main room when his mind found its way back to the present. He stood to one side of Dalton with a hand on the top of Dalton's chair.

Dru sat down at the opposite end of the table. She laid the previously flipped over cards in a pile to the left side of her.

"I'm not sure." Dalton sighed. He wished that he had more good news for the Master Vampire. Ever since he found Spike alone, the vampire had sought out a connection with him. Dalton wasn't used to anyone paying him any attention except in anger. Spike was actually interested in discussing literature and languages with him.

Spike picked up the old Latin reference book that Dalton was using to help with his translations. "Read it again," He encouraged.

Dalton read out loud the passage he'd been working on. "I'm not sure, but it could be deprimere ille bubula linter."

"Debase the beef ..." Spike searched through the book. "... Canoe?" He would have laughed if he didn't think it would hurt his image as the Master. Instead he dropped the book on the table, reared back, and punched Dalton in the face. "Why does that strike me as not right?"

Dalton groaned and sighed. He rubbed his head because it hit the chair when he was punched. He buried his nose back into the large tome in front of him with a frightened whimper.

"Give us some peace, would you? Can't you see I'm workin'?" Spike growled. He hadn't wanted her to follow him, and now she was bothering him on top of being unwanted.

Drusilla whined, and Spike rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry, kitten. It's just this manuscript. It's supposed to hold your cure, but it reads like gibberish." He slammed his fist on the table. "Even Dalton here, the big brain, can't make heads or tails of it."

Spike moved back over to Dalton. "All right, come on now. Enlighten me. What do you know?"

"Uh," Dalton started to stutter out, "Well, it looks like Latin, but its not. I'm not even sure it's a language."

"Then make it a language," Spike yelled right in Dalton's face. "Isn't that what a transcriber does?"

"Well, not exactly ..." Dalton yelped. He was lifted out of his chair and off the ground by Spike.

"I want the cure." Spike's eyes hoped Dalton understood his actions. He slammed the bookworm back into his chair after he kneed him in the gut.

"Master please understand! I'm trying." Dalton begged for leniency. The translation was giving him a headache that he didn't think vampires could get.

"I'd kill you, but then who would I have to translate the text?" Spike grabbed Dalton's hand. Several minions watched the exchange. He had to keep up the appearances of his bad boy image around the factory and in the sight of other demons. "Instead I'll start cutting off your fingers, knuckle by knuckle, each day until you get it right."

Dalton shook in fear. He wanted to believe that Spike was only putting up appearances, but the Master Vampire looked so angry and hostile to him. "But ... But I ..."

"Wait! He doesn't have the key." Dru held up one hand, and she pointed to the card on the table in front of her with the other. The image was of a cross that rested on a tomb. "One of the puzzle pieces is missing. Did someone eat it?"

Spike picked up the card and examined it. "Find out where the bloke who wrote all of this is buried. If it's here in Sunnydale take a couple of minions with you to search the tomb." He tossed the card at Dalton to catch it. "Search for a large cross or anything that resembles a code key or might be helpful."

"Yes, Master." Dalton scurried up from his seat. "It will be done." He rushed to his trunk in the sleeping area, opened the lid, and searched its contents for the right research materials. He sighed. This was going to take him a few days to sort out.

While Dalton spent the next few days buried in research surrounding the burial of DuLac, the Scoobies faced the realization that Giles had a checkered past. The foolish carelessness with which Giles practiced magic as a young adult resulted in the deaths of his friends in the past and the present. Now, the demon he originally summoned with others was back to seek its revenge.

Jenny Calendar, now possessed by the demon of Eyghon stood up, rolled her shoulders and grinned. "Three down, two to go. Be seein' ya." She jumped through the window of Giles' apartment out into the courtyard.

Giles, with his back against the wall, was oblivious to Buffy's question. "Jenny. Oh, God."

"Giles, how do we stop this?" Buffy wanted to shake Giles to get him to come back to her. His behavior and attitude scared her. She'd never seen him like this before.

"Talk to me!" Buffy paused only a moment to breathe before she continued, "Giles you're scaring me."

Giles finally looked Buffy in the eye. "I'm sorry." The hurt and pain in his voice was unhidden.

"Don't be sorry. Be Giles." Buffy never imagined that something could affect Giles so much that he'd lose it. He was always the steadfast rock of the group, their anchor. He always dished out the wisdom of his experience and training, even if she didn't want to hear it. "Come on, we fight monsters. This is what we do."

Giles looked away. His head hung down slightly. How could he tell the girl that he looked upon as a daughter that he was a murderer? What would she think of him then?

"They show up, they scare us, I beat 'em up, and they go away." Buffy nearly growled out her frustration. "This is no different." She was frightened.

"It is different, Buffy." Giles' face appeared to have aged 5-10 years in the last two days. He felt defeated and lost.

"Did you find anything?" Willow looked up from the area she was researching in as Xander emerged from Giles' office.

"The most meticulous banking and phone records known to man." Xander held a picture out to Willow. "I found this too."

Willow looked down at the picture in shock. She stared into the face of their tweed wearing and reserved librarian, but he was wearing a leather jacket and holding a guitar in his hands. "This is Giles?"

"I was 21," Giles began, "Studying history at Oxford, and of course the occult by night. I hated it. The tedious grind of study, and the overwhelming pressure of my destiny as a Watcher."

"I dropped out, and I went to London." Giles draped his arm over the back of the couch. He continued to tell Buffy the story that led him into dark magic and fear. "I fell in with the worst crowd that would have me."

"We practiced magics." Giles sighed. "It was only small stuff, for pleasure or gain. Then, Ethan and I discovered something ... bigger."

"Yes." Giles opened a decanter of alcohol on the table in front of him. "One of us would go into a deep sleep, and the others would summon him." He finished pouring himself a glass of liquor. "It was an extraordinary high." His face lit up for a moment from the good memories at the time. Just as quickly his face dropped into a stalwart frown. "God, we were fools."

"And you couldn't control it," Buffy stated more than questioned. She was beginning to see why Giles was so stiff about certain areas of her occult training. He truly knew the dangers of getting too close.

"One of us, Randall, he lost control." Giles' chest heaved up and down with the faster breaths he took. "Eyghon took him whole." He wanted to remain calm, but the memory of that night still haunted him. "We tried to exorcise the demon from Randall, but it killed him."

Buffy stared blankly at Giles. Bad voodoo and magic she was able to handle. Finding out that Giles was a part of a ritual that killed one of his friends made her shiver.

Buffy looked away. She held a hand to her forehead in contemplation. 'What do you say back to that?'

"We thought we were free of the demon after that, but now he's back." Giles was resolved that his fate was now sealed. He didn't want to leave Buffy without a guide, but he hoped the Council would send a replacement for him quickly after his death. "One by one, he will kill us all."

"Three down, two to go." Buffy got up off the couch. "Then, it's going after Ethan. I'd better beat it there."

"I'd better." The only way Buffy knew to save her Watcher was to kill the demon before it got to him. If she was able to contain it before it killed Ethan, Giles might be safe. "Giles, you're barely mobile, and speed is of the serious essence here." She tried to appeal to his sense of reason.

Giles sat back down. With a quiver in his voice he spoke, "I don't know how to stop it without killing Jenny."

"I've got the guys working on it." Buffy wanted to offer Giles some hope that Jenny wouldn't have to die. "I'll, um ... try to contain it until we figure something."

"Buffy," Giles called out to Buffy who had made her way to the door. She stopped and turned around to face him. "I'm sorry."

"I know." Buffy offered a half smile of assurance to the broken man before her. She walked out of the door and into the dark night.

"Ethan? Ethan!" Buffy stepped into Ethan Rayne's old costume shop. "Giles told me everything. Look, it's coming for you."

Buffy turned to face the shadowed man. Not for the first time did she wish that her "spidey" sense extended to evil humans and not just demons. "Don't worry. It's nothing personal. To protect Giles, I have to protect you."

"How does Ripper inspire such goodness?" Ethan would have found the whole situation much more amusing if he wasn't afraid for his miserable life. Chaos was one thing. Death by a demon of his past was another.

"Because he's Giles," Buffy walked towards the door. She stopped after she passed Ethan to look at him again.

"Hmmm. Lucky you." Buffy looked around the shop for any means to protect Ethan and contain Eyghon.

"Well, we can't run. Eyghon will find us." Ethan extended his arm forward at Buffy's face level. "This mark's like a homing beacon."

"Is there a way in through the back?" Buffy nodded her head in the direction of the back storage room.

"There's a back door. It's locked." Ethan twisted to glance into the back room. "I think it's solid."

"Oh, no, please." Ethan motioned for Buffy to lead the way as if he was doing the gentlemanly thing. He picked up a mannequin head from the counter and bashed it into the back of Buffy's head. "Ladies first."

"We have to figure out how to kill this thing, and we need to do it fast." Willow's frantic plea was as nervous as it was excited.

"Uh, hot lava," Xander offered the suggestion from his position on the other side of the table from Willow.

"That's for a heretic." Willow opened her eyes wider, and she gave Xander a look of frustration.

"Oh yeah." Xander half chuckled. "Yeah, yeah, okay." He started reading again. "Oo, oh. Bury a potato." He strained to read the fine print next to that line. "No, that's for warts. Who writes these things?" He slammed the book closed and tossed it onto the top of the pile nearest to him.

"I've got the solution right here." Cordelia beamed proudly. She sat at a separate table away from the other two with her own stack of books. "To kill a demon, cut off its head."

"Oh yeah, we'll find Miss Calendar. Then, we'll decapitate her." Xander snarked at Cordelia. "She'll be the first headless computer teacher. Do you think anybody will notice?"

"Do you know what you need besides a year's supply of acne cream?" Cordelia quipped sarcastically, "A brain."

"That's it." Xander slammed his hands down on the table, and he hopped up from his chair. "12 years of you and I'm snappin'!" He made crazy motions with his hands next to his head. "I don't care if you're a girl. I'm throwin' down. Come on!"

Cordelia stood up from her chair. She angrily waltzed over to Xander. "I've seen you in a fight, and don't think I can't take you."

"Give it your best shot." Xander threw back in Cordelia's face. The two of them stood toe to toe. Their faces were mere inches apart.

"Hey!" Willow was fed up. She'd had enough of their bickering for the night. "We don't have time for this." Her voice cracked slightly. "Our friends are in trouble. Now, we have to put our heads together and get them out of it!" She stomped her foot on the floor and angrily glared at Xander and Cordelia. "If you two aren't with me 110%, then get the hell out of my library." She forcefully gestured at the library's exit.

"We're sorry," Cordelia meekly offered an apology. 'Willow is scary when she gets mad.'

"Okay. Now, we've done the research." Willow nodded, straightened her sweater and sat back down. "We just have to figure out how to use it."

"Hey, why don't we find another dead body for the demon to jump into?" Xander perked up at having thought of a feasible idea to him.

Willow sighed. "Well, that won't kill the demon. It'll only give it a change of scenery." As if a light bulb just flickered inside her brain, Willow's eyes widened. "Oh. Oh!" She jumped up. "Oh, I've got it. I've got it!"

"She's good," Xander said before he and Cordelia ran out of the library after Willow.

Dru clapped her hands giddily. Her delight mirrored a young child, but the reason for her pleasure was anything but innocent. She danced with an invisible partner around the gathering area of the factory to music that only she heard.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive," Dru chanted. "Good little boys should never play in the devil's playground. They will get burnt."

Drusilla cooed and danced a little faster. "Little balls of sunshine shouldn't try to light up the dark." She wagged a finger back and forth in front of a minion.

"A light so bright can only burn a little while ..." Dru moved a candle centerpiece from the center of the table to the edge. She moved her hand over the lit candles. She wasn't close enough to burn her pale skin, but she felt the heat that radiated upwards from the flame. "... Before it is snuffed out for good." She quickly pinched her fingers together. The flame extinguished, she headed for her bedroom. "Goodbye, Sunshine."

"What fun?" Buffy pulled at the ropes that connected her hands together under the flat, padded table she was laying on.

"Your initiation." Ethan sat down at a smaller table next to Buffy. Various bottles and trays contained acid, antiseptic, inks, and other paraphernalia.

"You know what? I'm not really interested in joining your club." Buffy tried to keep her wits about her. Sarcasm and witty retorts were always her friends before. They helped to keep her calmer and more focused.

"Too late, I already voted you in." Ethan worked on several preparations for the ritual he needed to perform. "I hope you're not taking this personally Buffy."

Buffy struggled some, and she moaned. The position was very uncomfortable, and her head was cocked at a weird angle. She tried to watch what Ethan was doing to guess his intent. She was clueless about what he was doing.

"I actually kind of like you. It's just that I like myself a lot more." Ethan wasn't sure if he was simply being sarcastic or partially truthful. He admired the girl's fire. Even after the events of Halloween, she was still willing to protect him to save her Watcher. "If you think of this karmically, this is really big for your soul. Taking my place with the demon, giving so that others may live."

"I'm gonna kill you. Will that blow the whole karma thing?" Buffy retorted. 'Will this guy ever shut up? I think he likes to talk to her himself speak.'

"Sweet child." Ethan grinned. Oh yes, he admired her spunk. In other circumstances, he would have enjoyed sifting through the levels of her psyche to find her darkest parts to enhance them. "Now this may sting a little, but just at first." He stood up, picked up the caustic inking substance, and leaned over Buffy's prone form. "Don't worry. That'll go away once the searing pain kicks in." He leaned in closer to Buffy's ear. "You can go ahead and scream if you like."

Buffy closed her eyes tightly. 'Spike, help me. Please ... help me!' She thought to herself as the acidic ink burned and marked her skin.

Spike twitched again. 'The Slayer must be having an eventful patrol.' He was used to feeling the adrenaline rushes along with flashes of pain during Buffy's patrols now. At first he sought her out to be sure she was all right.

The bond Spike shared with Buffy was almost as confusing to him as it was to her. Without being fully mated, the bond lacked the strongest connections that would help him pinpoint thoughts as well as clear emotions. After a few rushes out of the factory and into the cemeteries, he learned that twinges of pain were common even on a slow night of patrol.

Spike felt another burst of pain filled adrenaline course through him. He vamped out and dropped the manuscript he was reading. Something was wrong. The Slayer wasn't simply in pain. She was afraid of whatever was hurting her.

Spike nearly knocked Drusilla to the ground in his mad dash out of the bedroom. He barely spared a glance in her direction while he continued on his way past her. He grabbed his duster, slipped it on while he moved, and disappeared into the night.

"Ethan, listen to me." Buffy's voice was strained. "This is a bad idea. You're dealing with something very dangerous."

"But it will get Eyghon off my scent." Ethan rolled up his sleeve. He picked up a jar of pure acid.

Buffy gasped. How much more pain would she have to endure? She tried to work her hands free of the ropes. She started rubbing the cords against a screw on the underside of the table.

"Relax." Ethan looked down at the bottle. This was going to hurt like hell, and he didn't relish the thought of doing it. "I've finished with you." He had no choice though. It was this pain or the pain of death. "This is for me." He groaned and screamed as the acid ate away at the tattoo on his flesh.

Giles felt disorientated. Flashes of Eyghon and past experiences flooded through his head until he dropped to the floor with an image of Buffy in his head. "Ethan. Oh no, Ethan." He scrambled up from the floor, threw open the door, and he hoped that Ethan would be predictable enough to have gone back to his costume shop.

"Well, I hate to mutilate and run, but ..." Ethan's taunting monologue was interrupted by a shadow at the front door of his shop. An eerie green light silhouetted the form even before the demon opened the door.

Buffy stared at the opening door. A dark form moved closer into the store, and she saw the demon-like face of Jenny Calendar. She frantically worked harder to cut the ropes with the screw.

Ethan froze next to the table, and a haunting male voice escaped from Jenny's lips, "It's your time." She stopped right in front of Ethan. The demon knew his face was the one it sought, but there was something else in the air. It sniffed the air, and its gaze leveled on Buffy.

After the demon threw Ethan off to the side, Buffy and the demon fought back and forth. Buffy pushed the table at Jenny only to be pinned back against the wall after a fight between them over it.

Giles ran into the shop. "Eyghon! Take me." He looked over at Buffy who was on the ground now. "Buffy, get out of here."

The possessed computer teacher threw Buffy away from Giles with magic. She grabbed onto the back of Giles neck and threw him to the ground. "I've been waiting a long time to do this."

Suddenly another dark form burst through the shop door. Angel pulled the possessed Jenny away from Giles. He tossed her towards the wall, twisted her back around and wrapped his hands around her throat.

Willow, Cordelia and Xander followed in right behind Angel. Willow helped Giles up off the floor.

"No, trust me Giles." Willow held the weakened man back. "This is going to work."

Angel tightened his grip on Jenny's neck. He choked and shook her hard. Two things happened at once and suddenly. First, Angel was thrown back into the wall gasping. Secondly, Jenny was thrown to the floor without the demon that resided in her before.

Everyone watched in stunned amazement as Angel's face distorted from vampire to Eyghon to human several times. Angel's body shook as if there was a great battle going on within his flesh. He slammed back and forth from the counter to the wall as the battle waged within. Finally Eyghon appeared to release Angel's body and trickle away into nothingness.

When Angel fell to the floor face first, Buffy just stared blankly at him. Willow and Cordelia rushed to his side to help him stand up.

'He didn't come,' Buffy thought to herself. 'He said he would take care of me, but he didn't come.' She nearly cried at the feeling of abandonment that she felt over Angel saving her instead of Spike.

Angel stared up at Buffy's blank eyes. Where was she? What was she thinking about? When Willow came to him with her idea of how to get rid of Eyghon, he'd readily agreed. Now, Buffy didn't even seem happy to see him save her life.

"You knew that if the demon was in trouble it would jump into the closest dead person?" Giles croaked out. He rocked Jenny in his arms in comfort.

Angel worked his way up off the floor with Willow and Cordelia's help. "I put it in danger."

"I've had a demon inside me for a couple hundred years." Angel stood up straight. His eyes never left Buffy's, even though she wasn't looking at him but through him. "He was just waiting for a good fight."

"I think that Ethan guy disappeared again." Xander looked around the shop for any sign of Ethan Rayne.

Buffy snapped into the present for a moment. "Darn. I really wanted to hit him until he bled."

"Well, at least it's over." Cordelia sighed. 'This is yet another reason why no one should have been in school on a Saturday. She wouldn't have been possessed if we weren't there.'

Angel visibly tensed. The Scoobies passed it off as something residual from his temporary possession. He felt the familiar signature of his family, one in particular. Spike was nearby. He scanned the shop with his eyes to locate the blonde bane of his existence. With a deviant grin, he stepped closer to Buffy and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.

Spike glared at the small group from outside the old costume shop. Buffy seemed safe for now, but he vowed to find out later what happened from her. He was about to step away, but he stopped when Angel moved closer to Buffy.

Still in shock from her ordeal, Buffy wasn't aware of how close Angel was to her. She was confused, angry, and scared all at the same time. So, she naturally leaned into the comfort of the embrace offered to her without even realizing it was Angel who held her.

Spike growled deep and low. His stomped steps to the shop's door stopped when Giles and Jenny headed for the door from the inside. He backtracked to tuck himself along the side of the building and out of view.

The anger Buffy felt through her bond with Spike added to her confused state until she realized that it was Angel who held her. She pushed herself away from Angel, but she tried to brush it off with her response, "I ... I need some time ... alone." She looked briefly at Angel before she left via a back door into an alley.

By the time Spike was certain the two adults were gone, Buffy was also absent from the shop. He followed the pull of the bond around the shop and into another alley. His gaze traveled back and forth across the alley, following Buffy while she paced.

Spike slowly inched closer to Buffy. "It felt like a normal up and down patrol to start with. Didn't know you needed saving at first."

"I tried to call out to you." Buffy's eyes filled with unshed tears. "Didn't you hear me?" She'd felt nearly as helpless as when the Master was prophesized to kill her.

"We haven't initiated and completed a full mating claim, pet." Spike rubbed his hands up Buffy's arms. Inside his demon was disgusted by the strength of Angelus' scent on Spike's intended mate.

"Why not?" Buffy snapped. The events of the day played at the forefront of her mind. If even "good" people like Giles were capable of such death and deceit, how could someone "evil" like Spike ever be expected to be "good". Was she being evil for letting Spike live? "Am I too white hat for you? Not dark enough to be worthy of your full attention?"

"Nothing of the sort, love." Spike pulled Buffy into his arms for a complete embrace. "I care for you just as you are." He slowly rocked Buffy from side to side while he spoke, "A full mating claim involves sex, and we haven't exactly had the chance to explore that avenue in complete privacy yet."

Buffy blushed in embarrassment. She looked into Spike's eyes. "Spike, how have you been feeding?" Buffy asked.

Spike stiffened. 'What does she know? If word has gotten out, I'm screwed.' He tried to hide his worry by using sarcasm. "Why do you want to know?"

"I'm the Slayer. That's why." Buffy pulled away from Spike. She felt like she was going to be sick. How many innocents had she killed because she hadn't staked Spike? "I can't allow you to kill," She stated adamantly even though her heart felt like it would break if she had to perform her duty.

"I'm no brown bagger, Slayer. I'm already going without sex. I need my violence and blood." Spike's defenses and ire grew. 'She doesn't know, but I can't exactly announce it in the middle of the alley.' He huffed. "You can't kill me anyways."

"I can so," Buffy angrily retorted. She whipped a stake out of her pants. She readied herself to launch her attack.

Spike circled around Buffy. Although Buffy countered and followed the movements, Spike lunged at the opportune moment and ensnared her. He pulled Buffy back against his chest tightly and whispered in her ear, "You're mine." He sank his fangs into Buffy's shoulder, and he slowly drank a couple mouthfuls.

Buffy's muscles were taunt, and her heart raced. She wondered why the alley didn't echo the loud thumps of her heartbeat. Her hand clutched the stake tighter. Even with his fangs in her neck, she felt safer than when she was in Angel's arms.

"Imagine the feelings you had after Halloween being multiplied one hundred fold," Spike continued to whisper huskily after he'd licked the puncture marks closed. "There'd be no relief for you, ever. The pain would twist in your gut like a knife buried deep."

Buffy gasped. 'Oh my gosh. What was I thinking?' She shook with fear. "I can't allow other people to die to save myself pain." She somehow choked out the words.

"The pain would be just as bad to me if I lost you." Spike peppered little kisses down Buffy's neck and back up to her ear. "So ask yourself if I would really do something that would take you away from me." His voice was so low that only Buffy was able to hear him.

Buffy felt cold and bereft when Spike's body disappeared from behind her. She turned around, but only the shadows stared back at her.

Two days later Spike kicked his feet up on the table in the main gathering area of the factory. He stiffened for a moment, before he tried to relax into a state of indifference. He never turned around to look at the new vampire who entered the room. "I wondered how long it would be before you paid us a visit, Peaches."

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