Shaking, gods above and beyond, he was tired. He staggered out of the cave, exhausted, triumphant, and evil once again. Seeing the man who tried to warn him off going into the cave, he grabbed the human and lowered his fangs to the man's neck. Just as his teeth pierced the man's skin, a piercing agony, so familiar and so hated, split his skull open. Screaming, he dropped the human and rounded on the demon that had followed him from the cave, "I thought you were going to remove the bloody chip, you stupid wanker." Spike yelled, holding his hands to his head, "What the fuck? Did you fuck up or something?"

"That was not what you wished for, Spike." The demon said, unperturbed, "You wished that you could be like you were before the Slayer. The love you bore for her has been removed. The chip in your head had nothing to do with that." Spike stared at the demon, feeling his world rock underneath him. Seeing red, he vamped out and lunged at the demon, only to be stopped by some sort of shield around the demon. "You have gotten your wish, William the Bloody. You shall get no more." The demon said and vanished. Spike stared at the spot where the demon had stood for a long moment. Leaning his head back, the sound tore itself out of his throat, a howl so wild and crazed it scared the villagers half a mile away.

Willow heard the sound of that yell from the cruising altitude of a 747, as the agony was enough to rip across several planes of the world. Wincing at the pain it caused, she traced the emotional residue down to Africa, to the small village where Spike was kneeling in the dirt. Pausing for a moment, she gathered the energy that Spike was using to project his pain and quickly spun it into a spell before the emotional reidue faded out. Between one moment and the next, she diappeared from her seat in the airplane and reappeared on the ground beside him. "You look like you could use some help, Spike." She said casually, dropping down on her haunches beside him.

Spike was bloody startled to see Willow appear out of thin air like that and masked it with a snarl, "If you want to help me, put a bloody stake in me."

Willow cocked her head to one side and asked playfully, "Now where would be the fun in that?" She ran her hand down the side of his face, stopping with her fingers on his lips, "You are such a potent source of energy for me," she purred. "All angry and upset. What's the matter, Spike? Did you find out that the puppy is still fixed from the trip to the vet?"

Looking at her with unmasked hate in his eyes, Spike growled, "If you just came here to taunt me, Red, go away. Or better yet, send Xander in. Preferably with an axe. Let him finish what I know he wants to do, the bloody wanker."

"Tsk, and here we thought you liked Xander." Willow shook her finger admonishingly at Spike.

"Oh please." Spike said sardonically. "I'd like to put my fist through his face. Then I'd like to eat him."

She reached over and cracked him with her palm across his face, "Be nice, Spike." She warned him. "Xander is not the one that you want to hurt. Tell me who it is that you want to hurt the most, Spike." Closing her eyes, she put one hand to his head, "And don't bother lying, I can always tell when you lie."

Spike felt the heat from Willow's slap on his face. The demon howled and twisted inside him, desperatly wanting to get out but he knew he couldn't attack Willow. "You will pay for that." He threatened. Willow just laughed at his empty threat and cocked her head to one side, waiting for the answer to her question. Spike sighed and hissed, "I want to kill the Slayer." He exploded verbally since he couldn't touch her physically, "I want to rip her still beating heart out of her chest and eat it for dinner! There, are you happy now?"

"So you don't love her anymore?" Willow asked, again running her fingers down the side of his face, tracing the handprint that she had left.

Spike shuddered at the thought, wondering if the witch would actually kill him for the answer that he was going to give her. "No."

A long moment passed between the two of them. Just as Spike was really beginning to think Willow was going to stake him after all, she smiled, a slow sexy smile, at him and said, "Good, Spike. That is what I wanted to hear you say." She knocked him back with her witch power and straddled him, holding his hands down with magic and her hands. Leaning over him so that her hair tickled his face, she was inches away from his ear when she whispered, "I can help you, Spike, but there is something that you have to do for me." Teasing him, she ran her tongue down the outside of his ear, down to the bite marks that Drucilla had left when she turned him. "I can get that chip out of your head." Willow said, rubbing her body up and down his, getting his full, complete, and undivided attention.

"What do I have to do?" He asked, anger warring with arousal.

Willow stared at him for half a second before pulling his head into her neck, "Turn me."

He looked at her, a panicked expression on his face, "You know that I can't."

"I will hold the chip immobile when you bite me, when you drain me." Willow promised him, "Turn me and the chip will go away for good and you will be your normal self again." He looked at her, saw the promise in her eyes, closed his own eyes and sank his teeth into her flesh. Hot human blood, gods how he missed the taste of that, splashed over his tongue. Greedily he drank, expecting to feel the pain from the chip at any second. When no pain came, he drank deeper and deeper, almost to deep before he ripped himself away from her. Opening the vein on his wrist, he held it to Willow's mouth, made her drink, made her his child.

She woke way sooner than he would have expected her to. He could feel her hunger pains through the bond they now shared and he found a human for her to drain. He watched her enviously as she drained the human, as she sucked him dry, as she lapped at the hot blood on her tongue. Looking up from her meal, Willow purred, "He tastes so good, Spike. Come and have a taste." Willingly, he sank to her side. She dragged him down into a kiss, letting him lap the blood out of her mouth before seperating and getting more blood to feed him with.

When they had drained the human, Spike fisted his hands in Willow's hair and yanked her head back, "Now, Red, you want to uphold your part of the bargain?"

Willow smiled at Spike and called on her magic, allowing her eyes to pool black, "It's done, Spike. You are free of the chip."

Spike vamped out and let Willow go. Smelling the humans in the air, he growled and ran after one of them. Reaching the woman's side, he ripped her off her feet and sank his fangs into her neck, sucking as hard as he could. The chip was gone, he was evil again, and he had a new child, one that looked to be as into him as he could loose himself in her. Things were definatly looking up.

Spike smiled as he recalled that memory and crushed out his cigarette. Looking at the bed that he and Buffy had spent countless hours in, Spike smiled and said, "I told you things were going to change, bitch. Only thing is, this time I have the witch on my side and I hate you more that I ever hated you before. Get ready, Slayer. Your worst nightmare is about to come true, starting with the little bit."

Anemone - Chapter 12 - Opening Moves