The glaze in Xander’s eyes was starting to bother him as he gently tugged on the human’s hands to make him stop.

The heady aroma of the human’s want was getting stronger, and Spike was ready to burst, but he wanted this to last. //And the ability to move would bloody help as well!//

The brunette leaned in to suck on his neck and ear as the blonde beneath him wiggled and squirmed. White-hot fire filled his vision as the chip fired. Damned sodding thing decided that he couldn’t even defend himself. He threw his head back and his face became a rictus of pain as emitted a low groan. This only encouraged his aggressor, who worked harder to unfasten the buttons on Spike’s jeans.

The buttons gave as his cock was pulled free of the fabric. Spike gasped as he felt eager fingers at work there. Unfortunately, his head throbbed unforgivingly and his panic was only fueled by the invasion. He tried to buck the human off of him, and this time the electrical current tearing through his brain nearly made him black out.

“Xan...der…” he whispered, knowing that to the drunk girls watching, this just looked like foreplay. The hand on his dick pumped harder, brutally. The human was occupied with coaxing the vampire’s pants lower. Spike raised his head again, trying to meet the boy’s eyes.

“Stop. You can’t decide you want me ... when you’re drunk or-- divided or anything else…” he moaned, caught by surprise by the sensations. “I’m not just here for your convenience. Want *all* of me, *all* the time or. Sod. Off.” Scratches across his chest as the boy teased him further, and attacked his neck with that skilled mouth.

“I mean …it.” He squirmed a bit, feeling uncomfortable and violated and completely out of control. Fear ratcheted up and his demon was clamoring wildly. The suction on his neck would have felt good if it was welcome, but he just felt pawed. Groped at. A hand came up and squeezed his nipple as he touched the boy’s shoulders, trying to push away. He was so tense that the chip interpreted everything he did as a threat. A tear coursed down his cheek. “Get the hell away from me!” he begged. His skin was crawling, he felt weak and exposed, and nothing he was saying was making any difference.

The human pressed against him became suffocating. Spike trembled with pain and humiliation. Suddenly the weight was gone, and Spike looked around to see where the whelp had run off to.

There he was.

Against the wall across the room.

With a bloodied forehead.

He hazily focused on the raving Slayer who stood over the human.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing? I mean, aside from the insanity of screwing Spike, you’re doing it against his will! Xander, do you know what that makes you? Sicker than him! You know? But I’m not going to sit back and watch my friend become a rapist or a vampire molester or whatever. Soulless evil things have a choice too!” Her rant would have sounded *so* much better if she wasn’t drunk. Nevertheless, the haunted look on the human’s face showed that she was reaching the boy.

Spike was shaking, and he couldn’t stop.

The witch approached him slowly, talking quietly to him.  “We’re gonna get you dressed, ok? Spike? Sorry we didn’t do anything sooner…we thought you were just necking, then I saw the blood--” she babbled as she pulled his pants up, face scrunching up when he flinched at first. “--I kind of sailed him across the room too hard though. You okay? Um…You didn’t do anything to deserve it, Spike. You’re still a good person…I mean, except for you not being human…and when you were evil…”

//You’d think something like this would scare someone sober// Spike flopped forward with her help as she cleaned his face. The chip had caused a nosebleed, and he felt like his eyes were going to fall out. He looked down at the marks left on him. Angry blotches and scratches covered his torso, and he didn’t even want to think about his neck.

Buffy was still yelling at Xander, who was now crying. She helped him up, smacked him across the back of the head, and sat him on the couch across from the vampire so she could tend to his head wound.

The redhead put a blanket around Spike and fed him some aspirin from her purse. The Slayer stood up and pointed to Xander.

“Wills, watch him. I’m going to go get something to sober us up.” With that, she swept out of the room.

“Why’d you do it, Xander? I mean, if you really are a lesbian, woo hoo! And liking Spike--okay, *weird and twisted* but we would have gotten over that. But couldn’t you hear him pleading?” Willow regarded her friend with disappointment and sadness.

`*^~--.;'.--~^*`*^~--.;'.--~^*`

“I—I’m sorry, Spike. I’m sorry, Willow.” He buried his face in his hands and sobbed. He looked at the traumatized vampire, who refused to meet his eyes. Xander couldn’t feel any worse, and guilt ate at him from all directions.

“Everything I’ve ever hated came out in me tonight. I don’t--” his voice broke and he cleared his throat. “I don’t know where that came from and I understand if you hate me.”

Buffy emerged from the kitchen with a tray filled with an assortment of cups and some bottles. She set it down and sat beside the vampire.

“I brought coffee and sobering drinks for everyone. Here.” She slipped a mug in Spike’s quivering hand and divvied out the beverages. “Are you okay?”

Xander could see the strain in her face--the urges to reassure her friend and to pound on the vampire were switched now and she didn’t know how to handle it. 

The blonde dropped his head and peered into his cup. He had a sullen air about him now, which was way better than the scared hollow look.   “Just couldn’t fight him off. The chip.” His voice was thick and grating with emotion as he grumbled and stared at the floating marshmallows.

“Well, I flunked out of ‘comfort the vampire’ class, so here goes.” She pulled a small paring knife that Xander hadn’t seen from the tray.

The vampire closed his eyes, expecting the worst. When nothing happened, he opened his eyes and she was rolling up her sleeve with a put out expression on her face.

“What--what are you doing?” Willow radiated alarm as she asked.

“What does it look like? I’m feeding him. I don’t hug vampires who tried to kill me--except for Angel…” She almost lost her train of thought there, but plunged ahead. “Anyway, I’m not going to let you cry on my shoulder, but since my friend decided to be the dumbest of the dumb and take advantage of you, the least I can do is make sure you heal--but don’t ever, ever bring this up to anyone outside this room or I’ll dust you.” She grimaced as she slid the blade across her skin, making a deep cut on her left forearm.

“Slayer--” The confused vampire looked shocked and startled.

Xander knew it had to be bad if Buffy was opening a vein for him.

“Just drink. I’ll tell you when to stop.” She was the sullen one now, glaring at Xander in a “see what I have to do because of you?” face.

He latched on, hesitantly lapping up the blood as it poured.

Buffy started in on a speech like nothing was happening as she sipped her coffee. “Don’t look at me like that, Willow. I haven’t lost my mind, it’s just that since my whole ordeal with Dracula, this seems *way* less gross. I guess I’ve grown a little. I figure it’ll sober me up anyway. And, Xander, it’s not like Giles wouldn’t disown you if he saw your paw marks all over Spike. The only reason why I’m not making you do this is because slayer blood heals faster and he needs to get back to normal fast.”

“Listen, Xander. Tell us about all this dysfunctional lunacy when you’re ready, but until then, hands off Spike. God! I can’t believe I even have to say it! And Spike? Don’t go all crazy on us…I expect you to be your normal, annoying self again. Xander’s grounded from you so you don’t have to worry about him doing this again--am I the only one here who feels like they’ve been dropped in Bizarro World?” 

Willow’s hand went up, Xander seconded, and the vampire sucking on her arm raised his hand and looked up at them. 

“Um, Buffy?” Willow asked. “Aren’t you giving him a lot of blood? I mean, you’re not letting him drain you--”

“It’s ok, Wills. I’ll stop him when I get light-headed. Slayer healing, remember? Plus, I came prepared!” She triumphantly held up a tall glass of milk. “Xan…what do you have to say for yourself?”

“No more drinking for me…I’m so sorry. I don’t know what got into me and it won’t happen again. I don’t know what to say, and I never meant to hurt you, Spike.” 

The vampire was getting a blissed-out look on his face as he fed, and he ignored the boy.

“I wouldn’t have magicked you into the wall so hard, but you really scared me, Xander!” Willow hugged her friend, then pulled back and slapped him on the back of the head. “And don’t ever take advantage of a helpless creature again, mister!”

Spike growled at being called helpless and Xander hung his head in shame as she scolded him.

`*^~--.;'.--~^*`*^~--.;'.--~^*`

“’kay, Spike, you can stop now…”

He pulled back and sat blinking for a few seconds. The circles under his eyes had vanished, and he was nowhere near as pale and miserable looking.

“Feel better?”

“Yeah. Just a little high, pet. Slayer blood--it packs a punch. Thank you…Buffy.” He slid his eyes to meet hers and an understanding passed between them. This was a giant “cheer up and get well” gesture, but their status as adversaries hadn’t changed. But he used her name for the first time, and that was something. The vampire was shocked –- amazed really –- that she’d let him feed from her. 

“None of that. We go back to hating each other. Deal?”

This felt like a good trip. Colors were brighter, the stolen blood shot through him and he could feel the headache fading. He could get over this.

“Already there, Slayer,” he said with a rueful smile. He showed her the friendly ease that he reserved for Clem.  The vamp downed his hot cocoa and grabbed a mug of coffee.

“See? Much better than a hug!” Willow piped up. She rubbed Xander’s back and sipped her coffee. “Tara and I will do a cleansing spell tomorrow--you know, bring good energy back? It is okay to tell her about this, right?”

Buffy’s face shadowed, then she decided. “Well, if Giles finds out, he’ll stake Spike and deport Xander, but everyone else needs to know. This shouldn’t be a big secret. And Spike’s actually been helpful the past few weeks. We can’t lock this away and pretend it didn’t happen.”

“I’m not going to do it again, guys. It was a mistake. I’m not trying to make excuses, because--hey, wrong here. But I honestly couldn’t see that he was having issues, and I wouldn’t have jumped him anyway if I wasn’t blitzed. In conclusion, I suck, I’m sorry, it won’t happen again. I’m not sexual predator guy now, just proving to be a scary drunk like my parents.”

“That’s right…you only do it when you’re under the influence. You couldn’t *possibly* be doing it because you want to. Berk!” The recovering vampire spat out the last word, and they sat miserably watching each other.

BLISS TOOK HOLD 15