Title: Past Glory Author: Sandy Rating: NC-17 Pairing: Spike/Buffy Spoilers: S5 up to Tough Love, AU after that although elements of S6 will appear throughout the story. Disclaimer: Alas, not mine, I just borrow them occasionally Feedback: Gives me the warm fuzzies A/N: For the purposes of this story, the Knights of Byzamtium, although suspecting that the Slayer is protecting the Key are not aware that Dawn is the Key. Chapter 20 "Spike!" Buffy screamed and twisting her body managed to throw her lover out of the way of the stake and onto the floor beside the bed. Her bound hands, however, did not allow her to roll completely clear and she cried out in pain as the stake slid along her back ripping a long gash in her skin before plunging into the mattress. Spike jumped to his feet in full vamp face ready to leap on their attacker, but halted at the smell of Buffy's blood. Looking down he saw a crimson stream running from her wound. "Oh, god, Buffy, you're hurt!" Immediately shifting back into human face, he grabbed the sheet up from the foot of the bed. Sitting down beside her, he pressed the sheet against the gash in an effort to staunch the flow of blood. "Spike, untie me," Buffy ordered through gritted teeth. Holding the sheet to her wound with one hand, he reached up with the other. With one tug the scarf fell away from her wrists. Buffy immediately sat up pulling the rest of the sheet around her body and glared at their stunned assailant. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Riley?" "Buffy, I'm sorry! I-I thought I was saving you," Riley answered defensively. "What was I to think, Buffy? I came into Spike's crypt, heard a scream and rushed down here to find you naked, tied up and his fangs in your throat. What was I to think?" "Well, first of all, you gonk, my fangs were *not* in her throat. And as for the scream, well I wouldn't expect *you* to recognize that sound comin' from Buffy. Or any other woman for that matter," Spike sneered. Riley was now well aware of what had actually been going on. He wouldn't have believed it, but the evidence before his eyes left him with no choice. "Spike," Buffy warned, "that's enough." Turning back to Riley she demanded, "You've explained why you tried to stake Spike. You haven't explained why you're here." "Captain Cardboard's explanation can wait, love. We need to get you patched up. I think the bleedin's just about stopped, thanks to your Slayer healing, but you still need a bandage." Riley fumbled in one of the oversized pockets of his jacket. "Here, Buffy, I have my field kit. Let me bandage you." "You'll not touch her!" Spike growled. "Give it to me." "Like hell, I will!" "Riley, give Spike the bandages. He'll take care of me." Riley stiffened but handed the package to a smirking Spike. Spike took the contents out and began cleaning the gash. She hissed and arched away from him when the disinfectant burned. "Sorry, love, but I got to make sure it's all cleaned properly. Don't want you gettin' septic. Fortunately soldier boy's aim is as good as ever. It's not too deep." "I wasn't aiming at her," Riley snarled. "If she hadn't rolled you out of the way, I wouldn't have missed my target." Buffy turned ice-cold eyes on her former boyfriend. "Then it's lucky for you that I *did* roll him out of the way." "Buffy, I don't understand this. How can you be with this thing?" Buffy closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. "If one more person calls my boyfriend a thing, I don't think I can be held responsible for their bloody nose." Spike smiled as he put the last piece of tape on the bandage and kissed her shoulder, "That's my girl." "Spike, get my clothes. Riley, turn your back so we can get dressed." "I'm not turning my back on him," Riley insisted. Spike stood up in all his nude glory and smirked. "Want a good look, do you?" Riley whipped around and ground out, "Hurry up and get dressed, Spike." Buffy just shook her head and said, "Behave, Spike." Spike smiled at Buffy and bent down to kiss her, "Anything you say, love." Walking around the end of the bed, he gathered up their clothes and returned to Buffy's side. After they finished dressing Buffy said, "Okay, Riley, you can turn around." When he had complied, she asked again, "Now why are you here? Not just here," she said gesturing around the chamber, "but in Sunnydale. I thought you were in Bolivia." "Belize. And I was until just recently. My unit has been tracking an extremely rare and dangerous demon called a Suvolte. Damned thing's tricky. We get a line on it and it gives us the slip. We finally tracked it here, to Sunnydale. And surprise, surprise," he added staring at Spike, "the trail ends here at Spike's crypt." "What? You think I had something to do with leadin' your demon to Sunnydale?" Spike asked in astonishment. "News flash, Sherlock, I haven't left Sunnydale except for a jaunt to the desert in over a year." "Yeah? And just what were you doing in the desert, Spike? Communing with the stars?" "No," Buffy answered coldly, "he was busy saving my little sister from Glory. You remember Glory, don't you, Riley? The hellgod that was tearing up Sunnydale last year? Seems she was after my little sister. Spike saved her." Riley stared at Buffy in shock. "Glory was a hellgod?" "Oh, that's right," Spike said innocently. "All that came out after you'd already scarpered off to Central America. Yeah, mate, the bitch was a hellgod. The Slayer could have probably used your help, but you'd already skipped town." "Buffy, I'm sorry, if I'd known..." "It's okay, Riley. I'm not sure you could've helped anyway." "But Spike did." "Yes, he did." "And so his reward is..." Riley glanced at the bed. "My relationship with Spike is really none of your business, Riley," Buffy told him firmly. "You wanna finish telling me about this demon you're chasing?" "Right." Gathering his thoughts, Riley went into briefing mode. "As I said, it's very rare, usually found in unpopulated areas of the rain forest. We've been trying to take out the few remaining individuals whenever we can. We've increased our patrols recently because our information states that it's breeding season." "You do love to interrupt a good shag, don't you, Finn?" "I know the death of hundreds or even thousands of people doesn't bother you, Spike, but it concerns us." Giving his attention back to Buffy he explained, "The adults are dangerous enough in their own right, but they're nothing compared to their newly hatched off- spring. If the eggs hatch near a populated area, it's disastrous. There have been reports of entire villages wiped out. Hatchlings are virtual eating machines. The good news is Suvoltes only breed about once every thirty years. The bad news is that's now." "And so you lot thought what?" Spike asked. "That it'd be a good idea to chase the damned things out of their usual nesting grounds and into Sunnydale?" "We didn't chase it here, Spike," Riley snapped angrily. "We followed it. For some reason this individual took it into its head to migrate. That's bad enough, seeing that it's left a trail of bodies from Belize to California. What's worse is we're pretty sure it's female and it's gravid." "Gravid?" Buffy asked sitting down on the side of the bed and straightening her back. Spike sat beside her and put his arm around her being careful not to touch her wound. Buffy leaned into him gratefully. "Pregnant," Riley said through gritted teeth. He hated seeing Spike acting so solicitously of Buffy. And he hated even more seeing Buffy allow it. "Why would this thing suddenly want to come here?" "Hellmouth, love. Demons do love a good hellmouth." "Yeah, you'd be the expert on that wouldn't you, Spike?" Buffy sighed. "Could we stick to the subject at hand and save the macho pissing contest for later? Is that why you think this Travolta demon came to Sunnydale? Because of the hellmouth?" "It's a Suvolte demon," Riley corrected just a little peevishly. Sometimes he thought Buffy misspoke words deliberately just to irritate people. "And no, I don't. We received word that a black- market arms dealer is interested in obtaining Suvolte eggs. And since the Suvolte came here, we believe that the dealer has somehow lured it here." "So, one of your Lady Dr. Frankenstein's minions behind this you think?" Riley glared at Spike again. "No. This has nothing to do with The Initiative. It was decommissioned by the government two years ago." "Oh, well, that's makes me feel better," Spike said with large innocent eyes, turning to look at Buffy. "Doesn't it make you feel better, Buffy, knowing that a bunch of mad scientists aren't still around hacking off demon body parts and buildin' a better demon?" "Too bad Dr. Walsh didn't hack off a few of your body parts when she had the chance, Spike," Riley spat out. "Okay, enough!" Buffy yelled jumping to her feet. She hissed as pain shot through her back. "If you two can't play nice, I'm going to tape both your mouths shut and make you write everything out." "Spike can write?" At Buffy's glare, he held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. That was the last shot. I don't have time for that anyway. Buffy, this is serious. We have to find that Suvolte before it lays its eggs and I need to find this arms dealer. Can you imagine the damage a terrorist could do with just one hatchling, let alone an entire brood?" "Yeah, okay. You said you tracked the demon here? To Spike's crypt?" Riley pulled a small scanner out of his pocket. "Its pheromone trail led here. Then I lost it." Turning it on, he made a pass with it. "The signature's faint, but it was here, in this crypt." "Not bloody likely," Spike protested. "There's only been one demon here, and you're lookin' at him." "The readings don't lie. It was here. Maybe we should look around, see if we can find anything." "Go ahead. But I'm tellin' you, it wasn't here." Riley followed the scanner's tracking out of the chamber and into the labyrinthine passages that led off from the rooms Spike used. Four chambers back, he suddenly stopped. "What were you saying about the demon never being here, Spike?" Stepping aside, he allowed room for Buffy and Spike to enter the chamber. There on the floor was a clutch of about a dozen large, grayish-brown eggs. tbc...