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* * * *
Chapter Four
Escalate
* * * *
Buffy awoke to the sound of water
dripping from the faucet. With a slight groan she shifted underneath the
sheets and buried her face in her pillow, looking up when she noticed
something in the corner of her eye. There was a moth resting on her
pillow, its wings splaying when she shifted the pillow. Angel wasn’t
kidding, this room didn’t see much use. At least the sheets seemed to be
clean. Buffy watched the moth even though it wasn’t moving, caught in the
boredom one experiences after waking in the middle of the night.
The moth didn’t sit there the whole time. At one point two pale fingers
clamped its wings together and it died with a soft crunch.
Buffy shot into a sitting position. Spike was standing by the bed,
examining the dead moth he held between his fingers. Angel was sleeping in
the chair behind him, oblivious to the vampire’s entrance.
“God, he doesn’t know the first thing about housekeeping, does he?” Spike
scoffed, dropping the moth bits onto the floor. “I lived in a crypt and it
was better kept than this.” He met her eyes. “Never saw a moth fluttering
about in there, did you?”
The answer to that question was ‘no’, actually, but she wasn’t about to
dignify his question with a response. “You’re not him.”
“What, thought it’d be pookie bear wakin’ you up? Sleeps like the dead, he
does. Here, watch.” Spike stood at the side of the chair and leaned down
so that his head was level with Angel’s ear. “Oi, pea brain! Rise and
shine!” he shouted. Angel didn’t stir.
“You’re not Spike,” Buffy clarified through gritted teeth, pulling the
sheets closer to her body.
He smiled in amusement and stood up straight. “Okay, I’ll sing along with
that one. Say, you tryin’ to hide something there?” He pointed to the
sheets that she’d pulled up to her shoulders. “Nothing I haven’t seen,
love,” he added with a leer.
“You don’t seem as angry as you did last time,” she noticed. “Something
change?”
“You know, it’s funny. Here you are, sleeping with ol’ Angel wings in the
room with you and I don’t really seem to care.” He plopped down on the bed
next to her knees, casually placing a hand on her thigh. “Now why is that,
do you think?”
Buffy slapped his hand away from her and his cheerful demeanor melted
away. He placed his hand back on her thigh and slid it upward
possessively.
“Don’t want me to touch you? But I thought you missed me.”
“I miss Spike.”
“Funny, I thought that’s what you called me.” He placed both hands on
either side of her body and hovered over her, his eyes filled with anger
as his voice lowered. “We’ll see whose name you scream when I’m through
with you.”
Spike pulled on the collar of her t-shirt, exposing the bare skin of her
shoulder. Buffy took action and kicked him in the solar plexus, sending
him flying across the room. He laughed as she stood from the bed.
“Finally. I was wondering when you’d fight back.”
“What do you want?” she demanded as he pulled himself off the ground.
“I live in a world of pain, Slayer. It’s all I know. It’s what I breathe,
what keeps me going, and I beg for it to stop. Now that I’m here, what I
want is your pain.”
Spike’s leg swung through the air gracefully and collided with the side of
her face. Buffy glared at him and wiped a small trickle of blood from her
lower lip.
“Mmm,” he hummed disappointedly. “If only that were real pain.” He kicked
her in the side and she fell over the armrest of Angel’s chair and into
his lap. “Oh, now there’s a Kodak moment. Might think of putting that on
your Christmas cards.”
Buffy pushed out of the chair and backhanded him. Spike laughed between
her blows, the volume of his laughter escalating with every hit he took.
Finally he retaliated and swung at her face. Buffy dodged his punch and
sent another of her own his way, hitting him squarely on the nose.
“What are you?” she asked. “A ghost? A demon? Maybe an exotic blend of the
two?”
She blocked his next punch but he managed to pull her towards him with her
back against his chest, her arm curled painfully behind her. Spike wrapped
his other arm around her shoulders, pulling her tight against him.
“I’m all me, baby.”
He let loose a growl before plunging his fangs into her neck. Buffy awoke
with a start. Angel was sound asleep in the chair by her bed and she could
still hear the dripping faucet in the bathroom. She glanced at her pillow,
not surprised to see the moth perched near the corner. Buffy resentfully
flicked the surface of the pillow near the insect, careful not to damage
its wings. It flew off the pillow and circled the air before landing on
the tip of Angel’s nose. He swatted at it and it flew away, but it had
been there long enough to rouse the sleeping vampire. Angel set his eyes
on Buffy once he’d fully awaken.
“You’re awake.”
“Yeah.”
“Did you dream?”
Buffy swallowed before nodding.
“Are you…” Angel sat up in his seat and his brow furrowed in uncertainty.
“Is there anything you want me to do?”
Buffy slid from beneath the sheets and walked over to his chair,
surprising him when she leaned down and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Just promise me when you die that you won’t try to kill me in my dreams.”
“Okay, sure.”
“Don’t try to kill me before you die, either.”
Angel grinned. “I won’t.”
Buffy pulled back. “Thanks for staying with me.”
“You sure you’re okay?”
She bowed her head and heaved a sigh. “I think it was worse last time. I’m
not exactly calm and collected, but I think I’ll be okay.”
Angel rose from the chair and walked over to the window. “Is the moon out
tonight?”
“Barely,” she replied as he opened the blinds, the lights outside casting
shadows on his face. “Why?”
“I don’t know why I asked, really. Can’t even see the stars through the
city lights. Are you going to try and get more sleep?”
“It’s not something I planned on. I’m wide awake now, anyway.”
“You should be. You’ve been asleep for almost ten hours.”
“Ten hours?” she replied, her jaw dropping.
“I didn’t want to wake you, plus I kind of nodded of myself. Listen, I
thought we could talk. Catch up on things; maybe it’ll distract you.”
Spike’s demonic face leered at her from where Angel’s had been. Buffy
blinked and did a double take. Angel frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
Are you going to let him touch you? whispered a voice in her head,
echoing unnaturally. Buffy clamped her hand over her ears, her face
scrunched up as she tried to block out the sound.
“Buffy,” Angel called urgently, quickly closing the distance between them.
“What’s happening?”
See me everywhere, don’t you? You try to hide from me, but I’m always
with you. Even when you’re with him.
Buffy opened her eyes to see Spike’s blue eyes boring into hers.
Angel shook her shoulders gently. “What’s going on?”
She could barely hear him through the deafening silence that followed
Spike’s words. “It’s getting worse.”
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