Till the End of Time: Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten
“Won’t your boyfriend throw a tantrum if he finds you out here with me?” Spike asked an inquisitive Vicki.
Vicki grinned and shrugged, sitting on the porch swing and watching the platinum vampire with great interest. “He’s not interested in learning, but I am.”
“What’s his deal, anyway?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that holier-than-thou attitude he has. Okay, so you say he’s the Duke of Richmond - doesn’t he realize that won’t get him anywhere? Especially since he can’t exactly claim the title. Not unless he wanted to get staked or shut away and then dusted.”
“Henry’s lived a solitary life, he’s done well for himself and I think he thinks he’s…done.”
Spike quirked a brow. “Done?”
“Yeah, he doesn’t think he has to change. He’s lived for almost five hundred years, and he’s cultivated his self-esteem into being impenetrable, which half the time I’m sure is just pretense, and he doesn’t bother himself with a few basic emotions, or so he says.”
“So, he’s not only undead, but dead.”
Vicki smiled, “You have a way about you, Spike, don’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You see and hear things - the things people don’t want you to see, the things they don’t want you to hear. You get it even when they don’t think you do.”
“From the sound of it, you do too.”
“Yeah, but no one expects it from you, do they?”
He grinned at her, winking. “Don’t go thinking I’m some wonderful vamp now, luv. I’m a bad, rude man. I’ve seen and done a lot of things in my day - things that would probably upset Fitzroy’s delicate sensibilities.”
“And now you’re working with the Slayer. How does that happen?”
“Long twisted story. Even more twisted is a vampire that’s murdered Slayers falling for one.”
Vicki stared at him, mouth agape.
“Did I just upset your delicate sensibilities?” Spike asked, taking a drag of his cigarette and grinning at her.
She shook her head, “No, well-yeah. You killed Slayers?”
“Two to be exact. And I came here, to Sunnydale, to heal my Sire and to kill my third Slayer.”
“Buffy?”
“Buffy.”
“And instead you fell for her?”
“Don’t build it up as some kind of romantic ‘boy from the wrong side of the tracks falls for girl on right side of the tracks’. I’ve hurt her more than I care to recall.”
“What happened to make your relationship as it is now?”
“We don’t really have a relationship right now. We were together, but…” he shook his head.
“But?”
“She ended it cause she got it in her head she was usin’ me. Usin’ me to feel.”
“So she was dead too?”
Spike nodded, “Quite literally, actually. Up until a few months ago when Red resurrected her.”
Vicki sat back against the swing with a thud. “I’m so glad I’m already sitting.”
********
“So what exactly happened tonight?” Buffy asked Henry later when he joined her in the kitchen to get away from Xander and Willow. Any more time with them and he was sure poking and prodding was going to be next on their list of examinations.
“Vicki left me.”
Buffy stared at him. “Left you?”
“Left me. I woke up and she was gone. I paced and pounded on her door thinking she had just lost track of time and after a couple hours of going completely mad, I went to go find her.”
“No note then I take it.”
“No.”
“What’d ya do?”
Henry blinked, “What?”
“Henry in case you missed it, I’m a woman. And as a woman I’m betting you pissed her off, or hurt her. Maybe both. No offense, but no matter how long you’ve been around it doesn’t change the fact that you’re still a guy, and therefore a doofus.”
“Did you just call me a doofus?”
“I did. So what’d you do?”
Henry clenched his jaw and crossed his arms across his chest. This was guilt in stereo.
“Maybe I can help.”
“I went out to feed last night.”
Buffy stood straighter, “Henry before you go further let me take this moment to remind you of what I am and what I do.”
“Vampire Slayer, check,” Henry said, smirking. “I know, Buffy. I don’t kill. I drink. Trust me, the women are quite obliging. I’ve noticed a few bite marks on you - you can’t tell me that it’s not a pleasurable experience to be bitten.”
“I can and I will.”
“Then maybe they’re not doing it right,” Henry said flirtatiously, smiling broadly.
Buffy waved a finger at him, “There’s that charm. Flashing that smile with those dimples…You’re trouble.”
“How do you think I get free drinks?”
“And you don’t kill?”
“No, I don’t. And my uh, donors, are kind enough to offer seconds and thirds.”
“Are they your lovers?”
“Some are.”
“I don’t get it.”
“What’s not to get?”
“The women. They just let you use them as your own personal blood bag and pin cushion? Do they not have any self-respect?”
“They know what they’re getting into.”
“I’m starting see the problem now. What is between you and Vicki?”
“We’re friends,” he said on a sigh, “And if you ask me, therein lay the problem.”
“You want more,” Buffy stated.
“Yes.”
“And last night…? Sounded like something happened last night.”
“I didn’t sleep with that woman she saw me with.”
“Defensive?”
Henry didn’t answer, just looked away.
“Do you love her, Henry?”
“My feelings for Vicki are…I want her, I won’t deny that. I want her and I care for her a great deal. I couldn’t bear it if something happened to her and I stay by her side so that nothing will happen to her. I haven’t met a woman like her in over a lifetime.”
“But? I sense a ‘but’ after that very moving speech.”
“I…” he shook his head, “I need to feed.”
“Let me tell you something I’ve learned from experience. For one thing, it takes a lot of guts to admit you love someone, and secondly nothing hurts and destroys someone more than having the person they love betray them. I’ve had it done to me a lot and I’ve heard the excuses, all of them. It takes two to tango Henry.” Buffy paused, shook her head, and chuckled, “Sorry. Just had a moment where I realized that what I preach, I don’t practice. Anyway. How do you think she felt seeing you with that woman? Even if it was innocent, she doesn’t know that. If some of these women you ‘drink’ from are your lovers too, then how is Vicki expected to be able to distinguish one from the other? Does she even know about them?”
Henry sighed heavily and shook his head, shamed. “Not all of them.”
“Well…you’ve really dug yourself a hole then huh?”
“Seems like it.”
“I think you better figure out what you want, Henry. And when you do, you might want to clue Vicki in on it too.”
“This is why I’ve avoided such entanglements for so long. They’re so complicated,” Henry said on a heavy sigh, leaning against the kitchen counter.
“Well, she must be pretty special then to make you have changed your mind about being entangled.”
Henry smiled slowly, proudly, “What can I say? She’s a hell of a woman.”