Patched
Chapter
3 of “The Evolution of Spike”
By Chani
“…just a few more steps, okay?”
Spike growled loudly. She was making him move again. She had interrupted his sleep and was now forcing him to walk. Stupid slayer.
Oh yeah, the slayer. She was taking him back to her place.
“…here while I open the door? It’ll only take…”
He found himself against something hard and cold, and grunted a protest at the fact that her arms were no longer around him. He wanted the warmth back. He needed it. Besides, he had no balance.
His hand reached out for her to help steady him, but he missed and grabbed air instead. The fact that he was falling backwards made him laugh. But when he hit the ground with a thud and his head bounced on the cement, it wasn’t nearly as amusing.
“…and then…shit!”
He felt her hands on him again. He had no desire to move, but she was yammering on about his head bleeding and told him he had to get up. It sounded like too much work, but when she mentioned something about a bed, he decided he’d make the effort. With a lot of help from her, he managed to get vertical again.
As he stepped inside, something rushed past his leg. He tried to follow it with his eyes, but it was too bloody fast.
“…out of the way! Go lay down and I’ll…”
Lying down sounded like a fabulous idea. But he had too many clothes on. He stumbled through the house and up the stairs stripping, with her following closely behind him muttering something about leaving his underwear on. Silly bint. She knew he didn’t wear underwear. She had found that out the night they were together.
“…guest room down the hall?”
He wasn’t sleeping in any stupid guest room. No way. After picking himself up from the floor a couple of times, he finally managed to find the bed. Her bed. He still couldn’t see so clearly, but he knew his other senses were just fine. Yanking back the covers, he fell into the bed and settled his head on one of the fluffy pillows. So much more comfortable than the crypt.
He closed his eyes for what seemed like just a few minutes, but he was too tense to sleep. His head kept spinning and he felt terrible. He tried to relax again, but he felt cold. And wet. He wanted Buffy. Besides, she needed to sleep too.
He called out to her, demanding that she come to him. Be with him. She didn’t answer him, but when he forced his eyes open again, he saw that she was already there...wearing some silky little short set. And she had her hands on him.
His eyes followed her arms down to her hands and he grinned, realizing the dampness was coming from a soft cloth she was using to clean him up. She was giving him a bloody sponge bath. Hell surely had frozen over. Maybe he didn’t need to sleep after all.
With a hungry growl, he reached for her and pulled on her until she sat next to him on the bed. While she fussed over him, he dropped his hand on one of her knees, then let it wander up her leg. He heard her pulse quicken in excitement, but then she leapt up. He heard her dart across the room, chattering the whole time about some nonsense he didn’t want to hear.
“…some water and then you can sleep. If not, you’ll feel like hell…”
Water. That wasn’t what he needed. It was something else. Something he hadn’t had in too long. And if he didn’t get it soon, he’d die. If only his brain weren’t so foggy, he’d remember it.
“...to put medicine on it...”
He felt her over him again, but his eyes weren’t cooperating with his wish to look at her. He wanted her to sit back down next to him again, or better yet, just get in bed with him. He would’ve told her so, too, if she had just shut up for two seconds.
“…may hurt ‘cause it’s open and…”
Words were coming out of her mouth like bullets out of a machine gun and he couldn’t grasp them all, but there was one word that seemed to capture his attention. Hurt. Especially since a split second after she said it he felt a foul burning sensation on his chest. Unaware of his body’s response, his face morphed and he howled in pain like a wounded animal.
He felt her jerk away from him again without a sound. After a few seconds, she started muttering something about a vampire. Like she was surprised. What kind of game was she playing? She knew what he was. Hell, she threw it in his face enough times.
That’s when he realized what he needed. Blood. It had been way too long since he had it and he was slowly but surely starving to death. But wasn’t that what he wanted? He had intentionally not fed. He wanted to die. Wanted the pain to go away. The horrible pain of having his heart ripped out and stomped into the ground. By her. But then again, she assumed he had no heart.
“…can’t believe I’m doing this,” she was saying. “Ow crap!”
That’s when he smelled it. Blood. Her blood. Within seconds he felt the droplets on his lips and he quickly licked them away. He wanted more. Needed more. He started to get angry at what appeared to be yet another tease from her. Would you offer a starving man only a crumb of bread? Knowing it wouldn’t be enough to save him, only to make him yearn for more? But then the unthinkable happened.
He felt her wrist against his mouth, urging him to take it. She softly whispered words of encouragement, telling him it was okay. Thank goodness the chip didn’t work with her. With only a second’s hesitation, he grabbed her wrist and sank his teeth into it, hoping he wasn’t too rough. He drank hungrily, holding onto her arm for dear life. His body was finally getting what it needed, and its desire to survive squashed any thoughts he had of dying.
When she plopped down on the bed next to him, he knew he had taken enough. He slowly withdrew his teeth from her, licking the stray drops of blood away.
“…better?”
He was still out of it, but he knew her voice was weak. Weaker than it should’ve been. He hadn’t taken much blood, he was sure of it. But he was better. Still tired. Still weak. But better. And finally having human blood right from the source, after two years of living out of blood bags, was quite a treat - a treat that he appreciated beyond words. Trying to form the words took more effort, but he managed to let her know he was okay now. He hoped. Now he just needed to sleep.
He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly, his face buried in her hair. Now he was content. This was how it was supposed to be. With that thought, he allowed his body to relax and he slowly drifted off to sleep. And he was doing something he hadn’t done since the last time he had made love to his slayer.
Smiling.