Chapter Nine

By the time they reached the Bronze, it was hopping.  Spike offered his arm and they moved through the crowd as one.  There bodies responded to each other, their movements synchronized.  She could feel the power and vitality flow from him.

This was a different Spike than the one she had first met or the one she'd spent the many hours of the last week in bed with.  This was the cocky self-assured vampire, that the other two had played at.  And, she wanted this one too.  This was not the blond vamp who had used his power to hide amongst the living, this was one from whom the use of power was familiar and who loved the limelight.

People parted before them.  They moved together through the crowd, unobstructed, but not unnoticed.  Titia felt and saw women react to him.  They did not even know to what they were responding.  Titia knew.  She could taste it.  The sea of coy looks put her on edge.

When she finally spotted the Scoobies at a far table, she took the lead.

Anya saw them first. "Your late.  While you were busy having orgasms, Xander nearly came to blows trying to keep your chairs."

"Sorry," Titia nodded her greeting and led Spike to the empty chairs between Buffy and a taller blonde she hadn't met yet.  She noticed Buffy's dark eyes on the vampire as they moved around the table.  Her eyebrows were raised, crinkling her brow as she watched Spike.

Titia was annoyed at being annoyed.  This is how she thought people should react to him.  Why are my hackles up?  Why do I feel the need to piss a circle around him to ward off competitors?  He agreed to join me.  Hell, we even screwed on it.  She forced herself to relax and ordered them beer.  She still couldn't sit.  She put her arm across Spike shoulders and spoke over him at the blonde girl beside Willow.

"Hello, I don't think we've met."  The girl shrunk back, as she offered her hand.

"Oh.  Sorry!"  Willow said, with wide eyes, "Titia, this is Tara Maclay, Tara this is Latitia Gordon.  She's a business acquaintance of Angel's.  She transports dangerous magical stuff."

Tara shook Titia's hand shyly, "Nice to meet you.  Ah um, have you known Spike for long?"

Titia looked down at the blond head that rested back against her arm.  He was watching the dance floor, seeming oblivious to their conversation and to Buffy's near blatant stare.  She knew he was taking in both.  "No, we've only recently met.  As Willow said, I know his grand-sire."  She directed the last more to Buffy, who had the decency to turn her attention more fully toward the dance floor.  She smiled, as she felt the shoulders under her arm tense as well.

Understanding met her in Tara's eyes, the girl's insight increased her building anxiety.  She turned the conversation, "How long have you two been seeing each other."  She forced a smile on her face and tried to appear interested.

Willow smiled and squeezed her girlfriend's hand.  "Nearly a year."

Tara nodded, reassured by Willow's touch, and re-addressed the previous topic.  "Angel is Spike's grand-sire?" She turned her large eyes on the vampire.  She seemed unnerved, as he turned his attention to her.  She raised her eyes back to Titia's. "Buffy's Angel?  They're the same blood."  She gave her girlfriend a worried glance.

Titia nodded not seeing what the girl was getting at, "Yes, Spike shares blood with Angel, Drusilla and Darla."

"And Darla was one of the Master's.  Will, wasn't there a prophecy regarding the Master' progeny and the coming apocalypse?  Aren't they supposed to bring it?"  Tara swallowed and looked around the table, avoiding Spike.

"Many things were predicted by Aurelius."  Titia looked down at her lover's questioning face. "Buffy's coming and his order are important roles in the war.  His vision was limited.  Buffy is alive and his children will have important roles on both sides.  I'm sure he is screaming where ever he is, because his children were stronger and more unpredictable than he could foresee."  Blinked blinked in surprise, as he became surreally clear to her for an instant.

She was getting a headache.  The driving beat and the din of voices that had energized her only days before now seemed oppressive.  She really wanted to have fun tonight, but her senses were being attacked from all sides.  Her hyper-awareness of Spike and his easy confidence made her edginess seem out of tune.  She drank her beer, knowing it wouldn't be enough to have an effect.

"Would you like to dance, love?" She started at his words; they were the first he'd spoken since they left the car.  She got up from the seat she hadn't realized she'd taken and allowed him to lead her to the dance floor.  They struck the same pose as they had only a few nights before, only this time it was she that entered it in a state of confusion.  It only increased when he pulled her into closer contact.  She wanted him.  She had him.  Why wasn't it enough?

He guided her around the floor.  His brow against hers, his eyes hooded.  She could feel him periodically breathing in her scent, analyzing it.  What was it telling him?  She was so overwhelmed, she could no longer differentiate any smell, except his.  She wanted to sink into him.  Wash everything else away.

He put his arm around her and led her away from the floor.  She wasn't ready.  She pulled away and meeting his hooded eyes.  She hitched her thumb toward the bathroom and left.

The packed girl's room did nothing to calm her nerves.  She looked at herself in the mirror.  Her hair was wild and her clothing was as she had put it on.  Nothing outwardly showed.  All the mess was internal.

She pulled the vial of vampnip out from under her shirt.  Unscrewing the top, she waved it under her nose, wishing it would work on her.  All she experienced was familiar spicy perfume with its hint of anise.  She put it away without using it and went back to the bar.

She headed to their table.  A presence drew her gaze to the dance floor.  Spike and Buffy, blurred in her vision, and then were before her in unnatural clarity.  Their movement was more animated as they talked than other couples.  Her head pounded as she stalked toward them, her body reacting on some urgent need that she couldn't control.

Titia's body shook with a jagged energy.  She ripped Spike from Buffy's arms, her mouth issuing an inhuman challenge to the girl's surprised face.  The vampire's eyes were wide, as she spun him and pushed him toward the door.