Buffy woke feeling better than she had in weeks. Despite her sore muscles and a slight ache in her joints, the relief of having deactivated the trigger more than outweighed that small remaining consequence of venturing into the Hellmouth the day before. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and snuggled back against Spike who was spooned against her, relishing how wonderful it felt to have him sleeping next to her again instead of in the chair in the corner.

Spike woke when Buffy moved. When she wiggled and pressed back into him, his cock took notice and began to stiffen. Spike pulled her hair back away from her neck and swirled his tongue on the sensitive spot just behind her ear lobe.

“Mmmmm,” Buffy moaned and pressed her ass even harder against his growing erection. Spike continued making small circles with his tongue on her neck as he sought out a breast with his hand. He teased it, just barely touching it, running a finger lightly around the areola before flicking ever so gently on her nipple, which hardened under his touch, causing Buffy to arch her back, pressing her breasts towards his hand and her ass even harder against his cock.

Spike trailed his hand down from her nipple, across her flat stomach to her mound. His hand moved slowly, barely touching her skin as it trailed icy-fire down one thigh and back up the other. She bent one knee, lifting her top leg to give him access to her throbbing pussy. Spike ran a finger over her mound so lightly that it did nothing more than barely tickle her dark curls.

Buffy moaned again, his teasing made her whole body ache in need of his touch, in need of him. Spike began softly nibbling on her neck with his blunt teeth as he continued to tease her mound with feather touches. He ran a finger around the wet opening of her channel, not entering her, just barely touching the sensitive skin outside, before trailing up to circle her clit. Never touching the sensitive nub, he circled it, teasing her and sending shivers of pleasure up and down her body.

“Spike . . .” she moaned and he continued with the torturous, barely there touches with his fingers and nibbles on her neck. “God, baby, please . . .” she begged him. He smiled against her neck, but didn’t change what he was doing as he continued running his fingers slowly up and down her thighs, through her curls, down to her ass and back up, across her wet opening and around her clit with a velvet touch. “Spike, please!”

“Please what?” he asked, his mouth still against her neck.

“More. Need more. Need you,” Buffy replied and Spike grinned against her skin.

“Who’s Big Bad?” he asked before sucking her earlobe into his mouth.

“You are,” Buffy acquiesced immediately.

“You sure?” he said as his fingers continued teasing her body.

“Yes! God, yes!” Buffy assured him.

Spike guided his cock down her ass, pausing only momentarily against her bung hole before continuing on and finally pressing the head lightly against her dripping slash. Spike moved his hand back and started circling her clit again and Buffy moaned from the exquisite torture he was inflicting on her. “Please . . .” she begged again.

Before she could say more, Spike thrust his hips forward, driving his cock into her heat while pressing down hard on her neglected clit with his fingers at the same time. Buffy screamed out as the flood that he had built up in her overflowed and she came immediately. She writhed against him, her back arched and her channel tightened fiercely around his rod as he began rubbing her clit hard with his fingers and fucking her throbbing cunt, taking her higher and higher until she was floating in clouds of pleasure. She wasn’t even aware of the screams that escaped her throat with every labored exhale as she tried to breathe, but Spike was, and it made him fuck her harder. God, he loved it when she screamed for him; when he knew that he’d taken her to that place where nothing else mattered but that feeling of total bliss.

As Buffy came down from the clouds, Spike slowed his rhythm, eased the pressure on her clit and went back to teasing touches before he pulled his cock out and took his hand away. Lifting her by the hips, Spike got Buffy up on all fours; knees and elbows. He pulled Buffy’s favorite vibrator out of the bedside drawer and handed it to her before squeezing some KY into his hand and covering his cock with it. Kneeling behind her, he swirled a lubed up finger around her ass, slipped it in and pulled it back out, covering her with the lube. When he pressed his cock against her ass and she moaned in anticipation, forcing herself to relax and let him in. As he entered her, she gasped, and pressed back against him to take him in completely. “God Buffy,” he moaned out as he entered her, his hands on her hips, holding her to him as he pressed in. When he was buried in her he stopped moving and Buffy turned the dial on the vibrator all the way up and slid it into her cunt.

They both gasped as the vibrator sent waves of pleasure out, engulfing them both with its magic. Spike began a slow fuck of her ass and Buffy matched his rhythm with the vibrator in her pussy. “Faster!” Buffy demanded of him and he obeyed. “Harder!” she said and he began slamming into her harder as she fucked herself with the vibrator, matching his speed and force.

Spike fucked her ass with fast, hard strokes; the vibrator in her pussy engulfing his cock in wave after wave of pleasure, just as it did her. “Jesus! Buffy, Christ! Yes! Fuck! God woman! Cum for me, Buffy! Scream for me!”

“Spike! Yes! Fuck me! Harder! More! Fuck me! Yes . . . yes . . .YESSSSS!” Buffy lost the ability to form words as the soul piercing scream of the orgasm that engulfed her escaped her mouth. Spike continued to thrust into her as she came, holding his own release until he was sure that she’d been taken as high as he could get her. When he felt her coming back down, he thrust into her one last time and spilled his cum deep in her with a lion’s roar that echoed off the walls of their room and seemed to vibrate the whole house.

Buffy held the vibrator deep inside her pussy until she felt Spike pull out, then she pulled it out and clicked it off before falling over onto her side and he tumbled down with her. “God, Spike, you are evil. Evil, evil, evil!” she said, turning over to face him as they sprawled on the bed.

“Vampire, remember?” he replied as he pulled her to him and kissed her. “And you love it.”

Pulling back to look into his eyes, Buffy said, “You know, I had my fingers crossed when I said you were Big Bad.” Amusement danced across her face as she struggled to contain a grin.

“You cheeky wench!” he yelled in mock anger as he pushed her onto her back and straddled her, tickling her sides with his hands. Buffy laughed and screamed and wriggled under him until she could barely breathe.

He paused momentarily to ask, “Who’s Big Bad?”

“I am!” she croaked out through her laughter.

Spike laughed. “Bloody right, you are,” he said as he leaned down and kissed her, covering her body with his. He reveled in the wonderful feeling of her hot body pressing against his, like the sun on a summer day, as they both drifted back to sleep.

 **~**

“Ahh, the gang’s all here, I see,” Buffy said as she and Spike descended the stairs a couple of hours later.

The others were waiting around the research area, the leather duffel that Robin Wood had left for Buffy sitting in the middle of the table, unopened.

“Just waitin’ on the birthday girl,” Faith said referring to the “present” that Robin had given to Buffy.

“Ok, well, your wait is over. Let’s see what goodies we have in here,” Buffy said as she stepped up to the table and pulled the duffel to her. Buffy opened it and pulled out a couple of stakes, a charm, a couple of bottles of holy water and some potions.

“Standard issue Slayer paraphernalia,” Xander commented.

“Yeah,” Buffy agreed. “Except for these.” She pulled out an old book and handed it to Willow and a heavy wooden box. Inside the box were things that looked like primitive metal sculptures.

“Shadow-casters,” Willow informed them, reading from the book. “You put them in motion, and they tell you a story. It says you can't just watch, you have to see.”

“What the bloody hell does that mean?” Spike asked suspiciously.

Xander backed up a step. “It's cryptic. I don't like it. Every time instructions get cryptic, someone gets hurt, usually me.”

“You can't just watch, you have to see? See what?” Buffy turned the sculptures over in her hand, before handing one to Faith to look at. “Do you see anything?”

“Uhhh, other than bad second grade art? No,” Faith responded.

“No, not ‘see’ like that!” Willow chastised them. “According to this, you put on those puppet guys on this turntable thing one by one. They cast shadows and the shadows tell the story.”

“What story? Is it a Grimm’s Fairy Tale? Because I love those.” Buffy commented.

“The story of the first Slayer,” Willow informed her as she read further in the book.

“Giles, what do you think?” Buffy looked at her Watcher for advice.

Giles took his glasses off and cleaned them with his handkerchief, buying time to think. Replacing them, he said, “Well, Buffy, I really don’t know. It has been passed down apparently for hundreds of years. Presumably, it is a weapon that belongs to you – perhaps something that you’ll need to defeat The First and the Turok-Han . . .” Giles paused and met her eyes before saying, “Since more traditional methods have been, well, less than successful, this may be our only option. We’ve gathered many of the Potentials at the Coven, but certainly not all of them, and we continue to get reports of their deaths . . .”

Buffy nodded. “Ok, let’s fire this sucker up and see what happens!”

Turning to Tara, Buffy said, “Could you take Annie upstairs while we do this?”

“Of course,” Tara agreed and went to get Annie from the training room where she had been playing.

“Perhaps Xander and I should help her with that . . .” Anya suggested, tugging on Xander’s arm, trying to get him to follow her away from the group.

“Ahn! I want to see this . . . it could be really cool!” Xander protested.

“It could be really deadly, too! You just said cryptic gets you hurt!” Anya pointed out.

“Ahn, we’ve got four body guards here!” Xander said, sweeping his arm out to indicate Willow, Buffy, Spike and Faith. “Plus, if something comes after us, we don’t have to out run it, we only have to outrun Giles . . .”

“Thank you very much!” Giles said crossly.

When Tara got Annie upstairs Buffy said, “Ok, let’s take this in the training room where we can get some dark and make some shadows . . . whoever wants to play, follow me. Maybe we should we have popcorn . . .”

Buffy picked up the box of shadow-casters and started for the training room. Willow followed her with the book and the rest of the gang trailed along behind them.

**~**

“First, there is the Earth,” Willow read from the book after they got the room set up to cast the shadows and Xander placed the shadow-caster that represented the Earth on the turntable. Suddenly, tribal drums started pounding.

“What's that sound?!” Anya asked, stepping back away from the group.

 

“OK, so far, so creepy,” Xander commented, looking around.

 

Willow continued. “Hmm. OK. Then, there came the demons. After demons, there came men. Men found a girl. And the men took the girl to fight the demons. They chained her to the Earth.”

With each different item that Willow read out, Xander added the appropriate shadow-caster to the turntable and with each addition a new sound filled the room. Screams and loud, rumbling growls joined the tribal drums and the turntable seemed to start moving all on its own, going in faster and faster circles until all the images became a blur. Suddenly, a bright portal opened up where the shadow-casters had been.

Willow continued. “And then . . . and . . . umm, I can't read this. Something about darkness.”

“What about darkness?” Buffy asked.

“It says you cannot be shown. You cannot just watch, but you must see. See for yourself, but only if you're willing to make the exchange,” Willow read from the book.

“But what does that mean?” Xander asked.

 

“It means I have to go in there,” Buffy responded.

“No, it doesn't! Where does it say that? It doesn't say that!” Willow said in a panic, looking to Giles and Spike for help.

“Over my dead body!” Spike spoke up for the first time. Buffy rolled her eyes and gave him a look like, “Duh! Undead! That’s not a problem,” but didn’t say anything.

Giles agreed. “Buffy, you don't even know what you're exchanging.”

“I think that's the point,” Buffy said.

“No. Buffy, we don't know where you're going or how we'll get you back,” Willow pointed out.

“Buffy, you can't!!” Spike grabbed her arm as she started to move towards the portal.

“How will we get you back?” Willow asked, clearly upset by the idea.

“Find a way,” Buffy said as she pulled away from Spike’s grasp and jumped into the portal.

"Bloody Hell!" Spike exclaimed as she disappeared and the portal closed behind her before he could follow.

“She's gone!! Again!!” Willow yelled. “Why does she keep doing that!?”

 

“What was that about an exchange?” Anya asked, stepping back further from the group, tugging on Xander’s arm to get him to move back with her.

Suddenly, the portal flashed again and there was a large growling demon in the spot where Buffy had disappeared.

“Ah, this must be the exchange student,” Xander said as he stepped in front of Anya and let her pull him back away from the creature. “I think it’s time for the body guards to earn their keep.”

Faith and Spike fought the demon for several minutes, but they were just barely holding their own; keeping it away from the exit and away from the others in the room. Finally, Spike yelled at Willow, “Can’t you put this bugger to sleep or somethin’, Red?!”

Willow held her hand out towards the demon. “Somnus!” she said and the demon dropped to the ground, unconscious.

“About bloody time!” Spike said, turning back to Willow. “Now, Get. Her. Back.”

“Xander! Don’t we still have some of Annie’s blood in the freezer?” Willow asked.

“Yeah, I think so. I’ll get it,” Xander said as he started for the door.

“And I’ll help him!” Anya said, following Xander out.

**~**

“Ok, when I pour the blood on the portal, you throw the demon back in. Buffy should come right back out,” Willow said to Spike after they’d gotten the vial of Annie’s blood defrosted.

“Right. Ready when you are,” Spike said as he hefted the large demon up onto his shoulder.

Willow poured the blood on the spot where the portal had been and a bright light flashed, opening the portal back up. “Now!” Willow yelled at Spike and he threw the demon into the portal with all his strength.

Another light flashed and suddenly someone tumbled out of the portal, rolled across the floor and hit the opposite wall.

“That’s not Buffy!” Spike looked accusingly at Willow. “Where the bloody hell is she?!”

“I’m right here!”

All eyes turned to the person that came out of the portal as she stood up and turned around. It was Buffy . . . but not. Her hair was as black as a raven, she had fangs, not as long as Spike’s, but definitely fangs, and her normally green eyes were now golden yellow. The only thing missing that would have made her look like a true vampire were the bumps on her forehead.

“Bloody hell!” Spike said as he approached her. “What the fuck happened?”

“I got a power boost,” she informed him. He looked at her quizzically; she sounded like Buffy, she smelled like Buffy she even sort of looked like Buffy in a goth-vampire sort of way.

“It’s me, Spike! I’m not gonna bite you!” she said to him when he hesitated. “Unless you want me to,” she added with a sly grin that showed her fangs even more.

“Wow, Buffy, that’s . . . well, that’s a new look for you,” Willow said, stepping closer.

“I like it!” Faith said as she moved in to get a better look.

Now everyone was gathered around her in a semi-circle, like she was an attraction at a circus sideshow. Buffy explained that the shadow men that had made the first Slayer offered her more power, power they said she’d need to defeat The First and the Turok-Han, and she had accepted it.

“Apparently, the first Slayer was made by infusing a human with demon power. The shadow men gave me some more of the mojo . . . power that I’ll need to defeat The First,” Buffy explained to them.

“So, you’re a vampire?” Willow asked, reaching out to touch Buffy’s arm.

“No, I just have more demon in me now than before. Heart’s still beating . . . still warm – see?” Buffy answered as she laid one hand on Spike’s arm and held her other arm out for Willow to touch.

“Can you make the fangies go up and down?” Xander asked, using his fingers to raise and lower his upper lip, simulating the lowering and retracting of fangs.

“Takes practice,” Spike offered. “What the hell was wrong with your hair?! They had to change that, too?”

Buffy shrugged. “Don’t know . . . I guess it’s a look.”

“Pffftt,” Spike snorted. “Bloody wankers!”

**~**

Everyone was gathered around the research table, putting the weapons, shadow casters and book back into the leather duffel and talking when Buffy looked up at the doorway. “Were we expecting Angel?” she asked the group.

Everyone looked towards the entrance. “Can I join the party? I come bearing gifts,” Angel said as he approached the group.

“Bloody hell! It’s not The First. Worse. It’s actually Angel,” Spike said to Buffy. Buffy rolled her eyes and stepped around the table towards Angel.

“What brings you here?” she asked.

“Buffy?!” Angel looked at her perplexed. “Spike! What the hell have you done to her?!”

“I didn’t do a bloody thing! And no one said you could come in, anyway!” Spike retorted.

Buffy gave Angel a brief summary of what happened before asking, “So, you got me a gift?”

“Yeah,” he said, as they all sat down at the table. Angel sat across from Buffy and Spike. Faith remained standing behind Angel and off to one side where she could watch him, while the others took the remaining places at the table.

Angel handed Buffy a folder. “Got some info on The First for you,” he explained.

“Thanks,” she said, handing it to Giles. “We’ll go through it, see if there’s anything new. Reliable source?”

“Not remotely,” he admitted.

 

“Well, any port in an apocalypse, right? I mean, look at me! Elvira, Mistress of the dark!”

 

“Yeah, it’s a look,” Angel said, his tone neutral. “I brought something else as well.”

Angel pulled out a silver amulet with a large, multi-faceted crystal at its center from his pocket and held it up to her.

“I can already tell you, I have nothing that goes with that,” Buffy joked.

 

“It’s not for you,” Angel smirked.

 

“Who then? Faith?” Buffy looked confused.

 

“I don’t know everything. It’s very powerful and probably very dangerous. It has a purifying power? Cleansing power? Possibly scrubbing bubbles. Anyway, it bestows strength to the right person who wears it,” Angel explained.

 

“And the right person is?” Buffy asked.

 

“Someone ensouled but stronger than human. A champion. As in me,” Angel concluded.

 

“PFFFTTT,” Spike snorted. “What the hell are you the champion of? Losin’ your bleedin’ soul? ‘Cause I have to say, you do have me beat on that one, mate.”

Buffy ignored Spike. “Then it is mine,” she told Angel.

Angel also ignored Spike and spoke to Buffy. “No. I don’t know nearly enough about this to risk you wearing it. Besides, you’ve got that real cool axe-thing going for you.”

“A girl can never have too many weapons. That’s my motto,” Buffy retorted.

“No, Buffy. The person wearing it has to be more than human. Slayer doesn’t qualify,” Angel defended before adding, "If you won't let me wear it, then give it to Spike."

“Slayer qualifies now! Or did you forget about my makeover?” Buffy held her hand out for the amulet. Angel sighed and dropped it into her palm.

“Perfect. Tomorrow, we finish this,” Buffy said as she held the amulet up and gazed into it.