“In my day, no self-respecting creature of the night went out on All Hallow's Eve. We left that to the posers, the blighters who had to dress up and try to be scary.” Buffy elbowed Spike in the ribs, resulting in a full-blown sparring match in the middle of the room, Willow, Gunn, Wesley, Eve, Fred, and Dawn looking on. Angel sat at his desk, frowning as one of their legs went flying through his desk. He sighed heavily. They hadn’t come all too much closer to finding a way to get Buffy and Spike corporeal again since they’d arrived. Willow had managed to find a way to inject things into their plane of existence, providing them with necessities, but when she tried yanking Buffy out, all that had happened was that she’d disappeared for a few hours, resulting in quite a lot of yelling and threats from Spike. Not too much fun.
It took a full minute of coughing from Angel before Spike and Buffy stopped, smiling and panting slightly, to pay attention to the green demon standing in the center of the room. “What did I miss?”
“Us. Waiting.”
“Oh, right. Sorry. So, uh, Angel, we just wanted to take a moment and emphasize how important this party really is to us.”
“I gotta say Lorne is right. We gotta show all the big bads that the new regime is here to stay, which, for the most part, boils down to image. And image-wise, if this party doesn't kick ass, we lose face.”
“Party? There’s a party? Can we have costumes? I can be a witch, ‘cause I wouldn’t even need a magic wand or anything. I could just have a little glimmer here, a sparkle there, because it’s not even really big magic. Little magic, very little magic.” Willow sounded so excited at the thought, she turned to look for Buffy’s input on her idea. To find her best friend making out in a corner with her bleached boyfriend. Okay then. She glanced at Dawn, sharing a roll of eyes with the teen.
Buffy pulled away, a little breathless, smiling sheepishly. “Well, Spike can be the Big Bad for Halloween, and I’ll be the Slayer. Not that that’s original anymore.” Whispered words in her ear made her giggle, much to the exasperation of the rest of the group, who were rapidly tiring of their constant displays of affection mixed with the frequent fight.
“OK, listen, I understand the whole "keeping up appearances" concept, but everyone coming to this thing is unrepentant, dyed-in-the-wool evil. We don't know how many of them are holding grudges against us or against each other. It's a perfect recipe for an out-of-control bloodbath.”
Spike grinned, “Sounds like fun.”
Harmony walked in, carrying a mug, “Here's your blood, bossy.” Ignoring his glare, she turned her too-bright smile on the blonds in the corner. More specifically, the tall smirking one. “Blondie Bear?”
While everyone expected some cutting remark from Buffy, what they got shocked them all, even Spike. The low growling at his side surprised him to the point where it might have jump-started his heart again. Everyone looked on in confusion as the face of the slayer twisted, taking on the bumpy countenance of a vampire. Her teeth had sharpened and elongated in fangs, but the final part was left to only the vampires to understand. Her growl was fierce, territorial, laced with a simple message, mine. Touch him and die. Harmony let out a single high-pitched squeak before hurrying back to her desk. As soon as she left, she complained, “I’m hungry,” reaching up to capture the line of his neck with her teeth. The moment she made contact, however, she drew away, her eyes wide with disbelief. “What’s wrong with me?”
She flattened herself against the wall, refusing to let anyone come into contact with her. “What’s happening to me?” She clutched at her chest, suddenly seeming as if she wanted to tear something out. “It hurts. It stings. Get it out!” The next moment she seemed all right again, albeit shaken, and clutched at Spike desperately.
“Maybe you should take her up for some rest. It will do her good, and the party should make her feel better.” Spike smiled at the quiet scientist, carefully leading Buffy away, followed closely by her sister and Willow.
Buffy admired herself in the mirror. Willow, in an attempt to make her feel better about her momentary fanginess, had magicked up a dress for her, and undertaken the time and effort it took to move the clothing into their dimension. The dress was black, flowing, and somehow revealing, despite its conservative cut. Spike would like it. Smoothing her hands down it’s front, she felt him behind her, despite his lack of reflection. “You’re beautiful.”
Smiling happily, her mind dampened the moment with a brief image of her and Spike, twin game faces on, and she couldn’t help but wonder if-
“Would you love me more if I was a vampire?”
He took her hands into his, looking into her eyes searching for her worry, “I love you Buffy. I love you for who you are, what you do, remember? It doesn’t matter to me if you’re human, a vamp, a demon. I’ll love you all the same.”
She sighed, leaning into his embrace. “It’s times like this that I wonder why everyone doesn’t love you.”
“Me too, pet. Me too.”
The dimly lit hall was filled with demons and humans of every shape and size. The spacious dance floor was populated only by a solitary vampire secretary and a slowly swaying pair. The couple was completely oblivious to everyone else, that they were dancing in an office run by her ex and his rival, that there was a group deciding whether it would be worth it to attack a Slayer with her friends nearby. Not that it mattered; they couldn’t touch her if they tried. Literally.
As the dance floor slowly began to fill, Buffy loosened his hold on her, whispering something or other about talking to Willow. Relaxed and content, Spike nodded, and made his way to the hors d’oeuvres table to wait. Harmony, noticing their momentary separation, took the initiative, “Come on, Spikey. Come dance with me.”
“You have got to be kidding.”
“Oh, come on!”
Unfortunately for Harmony, Buffy appeared again, the expression on her face enough to make anyone want to get to at least the other side of the room. Before any exchange could be made, Lorne came bouncing up. “What’s up kids? Tug o’ war again?” Addressing Spike and Buffy now, “Don’t you think the two of you could do with a little time apart? Mingle a little?” With this brief comment, he was off again, meeting yet another guest. The inseparable pair shrugged, and found new chatmates.
As Spike and Harmony made their way for the dance floor, Buffy found herself being drawn into a conversation with what she had to admit was an attractive male. The tinglies down her spine told her he was, in fact, a vampire, but hey, Spike was one too, wasn’t he?
She smiled at her new acquaintance, unaware, just yet, of the fiery dispute their ‘mingling’ would cause.
They were furious. The sight of that….vampire flirting with her vampire angered her to no end. And that he let her? She smiled brightly at the man standing in front of her, their conversation dull but her actions and expressions portrayed the exact opposite to everyone else. As she flirted lightly with the thrilled guest, she kept on eye on the swaying couple on the floor, both thanking and cursing the fact that they were non-corporeal. She was craving a serious staking.
He wished with all his unbeating heart he could touch someone. More specifically, he wished he wanted to hit that bastard flirting with his girl. He wanted to pound the guy’s face until there was nothing left to hit. Paying the barest amount of attention to the blonde he was ‘dancing’ with, both the man and the demon raged inside. He could take it no longer. Storming over to the laughing couple by the wall, he grabbed Buffy’s arm, pulling her away from the offending vamp. Once she was safely behind him, he growled, taking the much wanted swing at her new ‘friend.’ His fist made contact, and he continued to pummel the guy. Small, strong hands grabbed his arms, pulling him away. Game face on, he growled at the intruder, only to face the not so happy face of a little Slayer. Little strong slayer. "Spike, what do you think you're doing?"
"What does it look like? Beating on some bastard who has the nerve to-"
"What about you? What about your little secretary bitch Spike? Don't even think about accusing me of anything, look at the two of you, it’s disgusting!"
Before Spike could get a word in his own defense, Willow came running up. "We did it! We figured it out, I mean. The whole Buffy vampire thing. It's-"
A roar from the other side of the room interrupted her. A huge green monster growled menacingly at the shocked party-goers. Lorne's confused voice could be heard from the milieu, "It's me." The horrific version of Lorne rampaged his way around the room, ignoring Lorne's cries for it to stop. "Stop it! Stop killing! Listen to me! Me!" Instead, he knocked his little counterpart over, "Wow, I must really hate myself."
Buffy and Spike watched, helplessly, well, one helplessly, the other in quiet amusement as the hulking Lorne threw Angel across the room. "Nice one, big guy!....what?"
The elevator doors opened with an unnoticeable ding, to release Fred and Wesley, both looking a little tipsy, carrying what appeared to be a large gun. "It's here! It's manifested!" Taking careful aim, Fred shot the contraption at little Lorne's head, causing an exclamation from a certain secretary, "Oh, my God! They shot Lorney-tunes!"
"No. I'm okay. I'm just going to rest my eyes a little bit." The Pylean's eyelids drooped, closed, and his counterpart vanished in a puff of blue smoke, accompanied by loud snores.
Both Buffy and Willow had remained still during the whole fiasco, the situation only just settling in their minds.
"Whoa."
"-acting out on the emotional responses he has to the people around him," Wesley finished.
"Well now that that's all taken care of, we have a more pressing issue at hand," Willow stood, taking the floor, "We have to get Buffy and Spike back into this world as soon as possible."
"Other than obvious reasons, why?"
"Buffy's vampire problem? We figured it out down in the labs. When Spike used the amulet, it used his soul for power to close the hellmouth. Simple. But the amulet was only meant for one person, so when Buffy decided to stay with him, the amulet had two people attached to it. So technically, while they were in the amulet, wherever, they shared a body and soul. Spike's to be exact."
"So they’re intermingled."
"Basically. It explains Buffy's transformation, her complaint of a 'stinging', the desire for blood, which neither of them really need at the moment."
"So they share souls. Why the big rush to get them corporeal again? Again, other than the obvious," Angel interjected.
"As long as their souls are linked by the amulet, the transformations will keep on coming, more of them, and longer. Eventually, she will take on the physical form of the soul that mixes with hers. She will turn into a vampire. Permanently."