Nice Enough For A Piggyback Ride
By Calie
Author: Calie
Summary: An artifice demon takes away Spikes ability to drink blood.
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Remember each part is like an
episode. So this whole artifice
demon
thing is resolved in the end. But their is a twist in it you wont
realize
till its over.
Part 2
Spike tried again. It still didn't work.
Then again. It still didn't
work.
With an angry growl, he threw the cup across the room. "I can't drink
it," he
growled out.
"What?" Buffy asked amazed.
"The blood. I can't drink it," he explained in a strained voice.
"No, you can't drink blood FROM a human.
But you can drink it out of a
cup.
You've been doing it," Buffy told him decidedly.
"Well, I can't now!" he yelled. He was
frustrated. He was scared. This
was a
vampire's worse nightmare, besides being caught in the sun or with a
stake
sticking out your chest. But that was fast. This. This was slow. And
painful.
Almost as if you where be dusted a bit day by day.
"Okay, we need to just calm down," Willow spoke up.
"Calm down?!?! Are you bloody crazy!?!?!
I cannot feed. Which means I
will
die. It would be easier just to stake myself now!" he yelled at her.
Willow flamed with fury. "Don't yell at
me! I didn't do this! And if we
don't
calm down, then we can't figure out what the hell happened!" she
screamed.
When she was through she found herself taking deep breaths and her
throat
hurting.
"All right, since I think I am the expert
on demons here I'm going to
tell
you what I think the is. An artifice demon," Anya said to them. But She
didn't think; she knew. It had the little
bitch's trademark all over
it. And
the fact that Anya knew she was in town. She hadn't expected her to do
something this drastic.
"A what?" Xander asked, his face showing
his confusion. "This is
slacker boy
here. Not good with big fancy words."
"I have to agree with Xander there," Buffy spoke up.
Anya sighed. "An artifice demon goes around
playing tricks on humans
and
other demons. She has no favorite. She just cannot affect the demons of
the
same ranking position as her because they serve the same purpose, in a
sense.
Like me," Anya explained. But she could tell they still didn't fully
understand. "D'Hoffryn made me a demon, just like he made her an
artifice
demon. I took out vengeance on men with my powers, before I was a
demon.
Before she was turned into a demon, she used her powers for trickery.
Cruel
trickery. So D'Hoffryn offered her an eternity of playing tricks on
people."
"And this is her idea of a trick?" Spike asked incredulously.
"Pretty much. A cruel one. But she's a
demon. I always thought they
were
pretty amusing. But the little bitch always thought she was better then
me
creating chaos where she wanted to. Instead, I had to wait for some
human to
make a wish. And some weren't all that great. AND to top it off she
wasn't as
easy to get rid of. No, they didn't give her a stone that could get
destroyed
and take away her powers." Anya let out a huff. "Or at least that's my
opinion."
"How do you know it is her?" Giles questioned.
"Well, she would do something like this.
Not let him be able to feed,"
she
told them. Of course, they couldn't just take the over a 1,000 year old
demons word for it.
"Why Spike then? She would have nothing against Spike," Giles added.
Anya sighed angrily. "She is an artifice
demon. She has no use for
grudges.
She did it to him because she could. She could have done it to you,
Buffy,
Willow, or even Xander. She just happened to choose Spike. Most likely
because he caught her attention because of the fact that he is a
vampire that
just happens to be in the position of not being able to directly feed
off of
humans. If I was her, I would most likely have done it." And he calls
himself
a watcher. "And I know it was her because she paid me a little visit
the
other day. Babbling something about a great joke she played, and I
would love
it. But I better be sure to bring a broom and a dust pan with me."
Spike frowned at the thought. "So how do we reverse this?"
Anya sighed. "She is the only one that
can do it. Usually it involved
giving
her something. But there have been times when she was forced to when
another
strong being happened to know the person she tricked. Those were the
ones I
liked to see. She isn't very brave. She creates a mess and watches.
Doesn't
make her presence known to anyone. Then after it is through, she moves
on."
But Anya had a feeling that it would be easy to get her to change her
mind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One week later.
"Anya."
Anya spun at the familiar voice calling
her name. "I was wondering when
you
would show up to gloat."
"Like it?" Pauline asked excitedly.
"Not particularly," Anya responded dryly.
"Too bad. I do," Pauline sighed.
"So, then. What do you want?" Anya asked.
Pauline smiled. "Nothing. Just to watch," she said and disappeared.
"Wonderful," Anya said and coughed from
all the smoke left in Pauline's
wake.
Now how were they going to get through this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"But you said there is a way of getting
her to stop it," Spike argued.
Although he most likely didn't look much like he was arguing
considering the
weakness in his voice.
"There is. I just didn't think it would be this hard," Anya explained.
"How do we find her?" Buffy asked. This
whole situation was getting out
of
hand and she didn't like that.
"We don't. Whatever it is she wants, then
the opportunity will arise
for us
to give it to her." But that idea obviously didn't sit well with Spike.
"While I sit here and die!" he yelled loudly.
But it did nothing to
serve his
point because he began having a coughing fit soon after.
"I don't care what you say, Anya. Although
Spike isn't exactly my
favorite
person, this is ridiculous. I'm not going to let her do this. We are
going to
find her," Buffy stated with steel in her voice.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You know, Anya, I had thought about bringing
one of the objects back
from
one of your wishes," Pauline said as she appeared beyond Anya.
Anya turned around and found herself intrigued. "Which one?"
Pauline laughed. "The one you managed to drag over here instead of your
stone."
Anya frowned at the mention of her precious
item. But she pushed the
thought
away. "That was a great world," Anya agreed.
"I thought so myself. When you pulled that
little wish, believe me I
was a
little surprised when I woke up that day," Pauline said and laughed.
"That
wish would have worked as a great trick."
"Then why didn't you? It would have worked
just as well. Most likely a
better
trick worthy of an artifice demon don't you think?" Anya questioned
her.
"You may like to doubt me, Anya, but I
give thoughts to these things
and
decide how they would come out. That one, I think, could have ended
terribly.
Still a nice trick, though. I mean come on. You bring that girl back as
a
vampire. Even if they did send her back or stake her. That might get
someone
thinking. And what would you rather? The vampire or the human?"
Anya frowned. Pauline was right. It wouldn't
have worked at all. "But
that
couldn't have happened right now."
"What if the situation changed? It could
have," Pauline smiled. "You
still
don't know yet, do you?"
"No," Anya admitted and frowned.
"Well, Anya, I must be off. I you don't
then, this really wasn't even
worth
it," Pauline told her and disappeared.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Three days later.
"Spike?" Willow asked, coming in. It was
her turn to watch him while
the
others went out to try to clear up the problem with Spike.
"Spike!" she yelled. But there was no response.
A feeling of worry and
dread
came over her and she began to hyperventilate. She walked into Giles'
living
room but he wasn't in their.
"Spike!" she screamed. "Oh god." Willow
turned to walk to the back of
the
house but it didn't take long for her to find him. He was sprawled out
on the
hall floor. Willow ran up to him and she kneeled down next to him.
"Spike wake up," she told him and began
to shake him. He obviously
wasn't
dead or else he would be dust. But he was skinny. Too skinny. His eyes
looked
sunken in and he had lost the quirky look he usually had. Willow sat on
the
floor and pulled his head into her lap. She pulled her hand back and
slapped
him across the face. "Wake up!"
A small growl passed Spike's lips and his
vamp visage slipped into
place.
Willow didn't falter. He had been doing that a lot lately. Vamping out.
Probably the smell of blood that he couldn't
drink. A vampire hungry
was
bound to have little control. But he didn't move. His yellow eyes just
stared
into hers.
"They haven't found her yet, Spike," Willow told him softly.
"Obviously," he responded quietly.
Willow didn't let the comment bother her.
It was him. She wasn't sure
of what
to tell him. She couldn't reassure him that they would. Because he knew
the
truth. His eyes began to slowly close, and she began to cry silently.
She
brought one of her hands up to his face and slid it gently over his
head
above his eyes. His eyes opened and his yellow eyes flashed at her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That was the fourth time Pauline had visited
her. Pauline said the
answer to
solving it was easy. Anya recalled what the point of all this was and
tried
to draw a conclusion from that of what the answer was. It couldn't be
Spike.
He was in the position. Their had to be another way of solving it. And
the
only other person was-. Anya screamed. "I am so stupid!" she yelled and
bounded out the door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Willow wrapped both arms around Spike.
"Are you supposed to be this
cold?"
"I'm dying, Willow. People get cold when they die," he said softly.
A pained look came over Willow's face. She pulled him closer to her and
became aware of the slight shiver running
through his body. She winced.
This
wasn't Spike. He was tough and sarcastic. Not like this.
"Willow!" a voice yelled throughout the house.
"Anya?!?" Willow yelled.
Anya ran in the direction in which the
voice came but halted when she
found
Willow. "I didn't think this soon," she admitted. Pauline had taken
this one
to far. And Anya felt like she deserved the consequences. "Willow, you
can
help him."
"How?" Willow asked confused. "He's dying.
Probably the only thing I
could do
now is to stake him to quicken it along. And that I'm not going to do."
Willow said firmly. "Spike!" Willow screamed
when his eyes began to
close
again. "No!" she sobbed.
"Will you just let me die, Willow?" Spike
said. Somehow he managed to
sound
annoyed.
"No," she told him firmly.
"Then help him," Anya told her.
"How?" Willow asked and turned to her.
"You have powers, Willow, use them. Reach
out and pull on the artifice
demon." Anya directed her.
"I don't know how," Willow cried. "Why can't you? You know magic."
"I knew magic. My powers were taken with
the stone. You do know how.
Just
open yourself and find where the power holding over Spike is coming
from. And
when you find it pull on it."
Willow knew how to feel power. When she
did spells, she felt it. But
that was
when she did them. She never really tried opening herself up to the
power.
But their was a first time for everything.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pauline frowned. "Damn." Her girlie face
and blond hair faded away to
reveal
nasty green faced demon with thick blue veins running under her skin.
"And
here I was so close," she pouted and soon disappeared
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Willow jumped as the power was thrown back
at her. Here eyes opened and
a
mean looking green demon stood before her. Willow turned to Anya. "Is
that...?"
Anya nodded.
"Why did you pull me to this mortal realm?" Pauline asked angrily.
Anya rolled her eyes. Of course, she had
always been that dramatic
herself.
"Anya?" Willow asked worried.
"Hey, you did it, not me," Anya told her and backed up.
Willows eyes widened. She let go of Spike
and stood up shakily. She
stepped
over him to stand in-between him and the demon. "Because you pulled a
nasty
trick on Spike."
"That's what I do," the demon stated simply.
"Well, then undo it," Willow told her firmly.
The demon laughed. "Undo it?" she laughed again. "Why would I do that?"
"Because we need him," Willow told her.
This demon didn't seem to be in
a
reasoning mood, and Willow didn't see herself actually making the demon
fix
Spike.
"We need him," the demon sighed. "I don't
think so. I think some of
'we'
couldn't care less. I think you better come up with someone else who
actually
needs him. Because I really see no use in reversing this."
Willow frowned. "I need him."
The demon smirked. "Really?"
"Yes," Willow said decidedly.
Pauline sighed and let her demon visage
fade away, to reveal a human
face.
She shrugged her shoulder. "Okay." She waved a hand in the direction of
Spike
and disappeared.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I'm going now." Pauline said as she appeared in front of Anya.
"Good," Anya admitted.
"Hey, don't blame this on me," Pauline argued.
"I didn't think you would be so drastic.
I just asked for something
simple,"
Anya argued.
"I'm an artifice demon. What did you expect? I never saw you doing tiny
things. But anyway my debt to you is repaid,"
Pauline told her and
sighed.
"I still would have rather my necklace back," Anya told her.
"Well, I couldn't get it. It's hard to
do tricks like that. And even
more
hard when you lose it in another world that is now gone. Anyway from
what
I've seen it doesn't look like you should be that kind of demon
anymore.
You've got yourself a little boy toy and all," Pauline said and
laughed.
"Anya, the matchmaking demon." Pauline continued to laugh.
"Yea, well, you didn't do a too good job
of it," Anya retorted. Her? A
match
making demon? Ridiculous!
"Well, I don't make a habit of trying to
make a relationship out of
vampires
and humans. Besides when I arrived, it seemed to be working pretty
well,"
Pauline argued. She thought she had done a good job. She just helped.
It was
going to take them a while. "And anyway, you spent over a 1,000 years
granting wishes for women scorned by men. I don't think you are to much
of a
pro in the relationship department." Pauline smiled and disappeared.
Anya frowned. "Bitch."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~