Good Morning Kitties!May I just say:
Maudmac... competition with Lisa??? Heavens no! I like to think of myself as a recently co-existing cliffhangery goodness force with the likes of Lisa and Sassette (who I just had the extreme pleasure of reading and am a loyal fan!)
And the image of a bunch of Beckies in harnesses stunned the troll into silence...but not before this little ditty.....
The Morning Edition:
Chapter Eighty-One: The Good News is……
All right. I may be a demon…but even I know that these two BELONG together.
That’s why it pains me in the worst way to say it….
" Uhm …I don’t think you UNDERSTAND ME…." I say to the again weeping witch. (which even for my not-so-delicate vampire sensibilities…. is beginning to depress even me…)
" How many ways do you want to tell her she’s going to die, Spike?" Anya growls his way.
" That’s just it…SHE’S not going to die….THAT would be too easy….and nothing around here is EASY." And now old William is on a roll… " No…The vessel will be intact…leaving room for all sorts of chewy demon centers to move in…Remember Angelus? Take away some of the charm, and put his happy-go-lucky demon in a cute little Girl Scout outfit, and you’ll have Blondie here." I say.
" Spike…shut up." Buffy warns from across the room. She’s still far enough away for me to finish my little pep talk.
" I’m just saying…she loves you a right lot …..NOW…but two seconds as the EVIL undead and you’ll be looking for a priest….to throw in front of you…. while you try to run…." I say.
" You don’t know what you’re talking about." Red says my way…a little more warning than statement. She’s afraid…I can smell it on her. She’s afraid because I’m right.
" Okay… Have it your way…but when Blondie doesn’t turn into some cuddly, grass-eating, hedgehog demon…don’t say I didn’t warn you." I say reasonably.
Everyone else in the room has already written me off…
Except Tara. I know she’s listening to me from behind those hands.
She knows that I’m not lying…at least not this time….probably because I sound so apathetic. And that usually means I’d like to see whatever it is…. happen. That I’d get a thrill out of seeing a sweet, innocent girl turn into a bloodthirsty demon….in front of the woman she loves…
Usually…that would be better than a Friday on Passions for me …
Though this time my inner romantic would really like to see these two witches live happily ever after…I lace my next words with as much apathy as I can muster, and I send them at her.
" I don’t care one way or the other…YOU know that, Witchy-Poo, but I just thought I’d bring up the fact that a romantic girl like you might think you’re ready to DIE for love….but I know you didn’t figure to eat every living thing you love in your path for it as well…That’s not like you….."
" Spike…you aren’t helping." Dawn scolds. She sounds a little scared by my words, and I’m sort of …unhappy feeling about that. My gut kinda twists….
Tara looks up at me. Her face streaked with tears. She sniffs.
" No. He is….helping…." She says with more resolve than I’d heard from her in a while.
" Okay then…second point….how are we going to fix this?" Buffy asks. I can hear the worry in her voice already….that maybe there is no fix…no solution…..
Funny how being in the body of another person allows you certain insights into them.
I know what is going to happen before it does. I’m actually SO ready that I’ve already been hedging to the right for about a minute now.
" I know ….." Tara starts….
And then bolts for the door.
Everyone else is startled beyond immediate action, but I’m already moving to block her….
I see her hands raise in front of her…and feel the first threads of stupidity on my part as she shouts a word…not at me…but at the door behind me….
" Out!" In her desperation to flee…she has fallen to the basest form of her own power….
….And by gum…it works like a charm…a really big…really….forceful…charm…..
I am launched backwards…and through the doorway with her, just as she tries to push me out of the way….too late…
Wherever she is heading…I am a helpless hitchhiker…..
And she is most certainly headed …OUT.
" Tara!!!" I hear Willow’s frantic scream…what seems like a thousand years too late. It’s all happening so fast!
And then Blondie and I are tumbling on the hard-packed earth, and she is already finding her feet under her as I am just getting my bearings. I look up from my position of flat on my back. She is on one knee and pressing her palms out towards the house.
" Please protect them!" She calls out.
And I see Buffy and Willow …inside the house…Both running towards the door to stop Tara from leaving…and both are simultaneously launched back and away from the door as though hitting an invisible wall.
No…of course they can’t get out. They are PROTECTED.
Out of breath, and a little tortured around the edges…Blondie leans to help me to my feet.
" You shouldn’t have gotten in my way, Spike." She says sadly.
" I know that…NOW…" I groan, dusting off my pants. She is looking at the house where the Scooby gang is pounding against the open doorway…trying to find a chink in the protective wall… She turns away and takes only a second to find her resolve again.
" It’ll wear off in about an hour if you want to wait." She says to me..starting off into the bluish-tinted night.
I’m standing here…between a rock and a hard place…
I may be an apathetic demon with no social couth and a yellow streak a mile long running up my back…but I’m also a gentleman…. Besides my job right now…as a self-appointed Scooby is to protect this little wisp.
I run to catch up with her.
" Where are we headed?" I ask…falling into step with her.
" To kill Mother… get us all back to Sunnydale…..the REAL one…. so that I have a town to leave from…" She says stoically.
Daft witch….she’s not a demon YET…how does she figure on doing THAT??? Batting Mother to death with her eyelashes????
" Sounds easy enough." I lie, and light a fag.
Where are your manners, Spike?
I hold out the pack.
" Want one?" I ask. She gives me a look that sends me stuffing the pack away…and thanking the stars that I’m not a smoking pile of handsome vampire about three paces back.
TBC……
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"You're *NOT* the source of me." - Buffy
" I mock you with my monkey pants!" -Oz
Pure evil. Now I'm gonna spend all night wondering about this! I'm am SO confused right now trying to figure out what's going on that my head's about to explode!!!