Between the Realms (4 page)

Friggin Spike had caught up to me and nailed me with his heavy hand and then downed me with a full-body tackle.
 
And he wasted no time in trying to force-cuddle and kiss me in a pile of stinky mushrooms.

CHAPTER FOUR

I PUSHED AGAINST THE DEMON-Spike's shoulders with all of my might, shaking my head from side to side in an effort to avoid his kisses.
 
"Stop, Spike!" I yelled.
 
"I'm serious ... get off me!"
 
I wiggled my legs around, trying to get one of them in nut crushing position, but he was too fast for me, always adjusting to counter my moves.

He strained forward at the same time and pressed his lips to mine, completely ignoring my pleas.

I couldn't believe I was being kiss-attacked while my friends fought demons with axes and swords almost spitting distance from us.
 
I tried to argue with this idiot some more, but his mouth was in the way.
 
I was feeling trapped, and whimpered with the panic.
 
He was seriously trying to kiss me now and touching my body in places I wasn't comfortable with.
 
The situation went from crazy ridiculousness to feeling a lot too much like rape.
 
"Please ... not like this ... not like this, Spike," I begged.

He stopped in an instant, pulling his head up.
 
His eyes stared into mine as one of his hands came up and gently pushed the hair out of my face.
 
He was panting, his hot breath hitting me in the face.

I could smell him.
 
Not just his breath, but him,
Spike
.
 
It was normally a comforting thing, something that made me feel confident and cared about.
 
Now all it did was make me feel confused.
 
The fear that I was about to be forced into something I didn't want, wasn't ready for, probably would never be ready for, dissipated.

"Spike really does love you, Jayne," he said softly.
 
"That is from his heart.
 
He has never felt this way about anyone before."

I started to cry.
 
"Why are you telling me this?
 
Would you please just leave me alone?"
 
It hurt my feelings for some reason to know how Spike really felt about me, but that he wasn't really telling me himself.
 
Why hadn't he told me himself?

"I cannot leave you alone, Jayne.
 
And I cannot allow Spike to deny you his thoughts.
 
You have something very precious in front of you, and you are turning away from it.
 
Why would you do that?"
 
He burst out laughing, but I knew that was the pixie dust talking.
 
He was dead serious.

"Spike has a girlfriend.
 
Two of them, in fact.
 
He doesn't love me."

"No, he does not have two girlfriends.
 
He has many
friends
, but only one love.
 
That is you."

"He doesn't love Theresa and Felicia?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.
 
He sure had tried pretty hard to make me think they were all running around in the forest naked together or whatever.
 
And not just them, but other girls around the compound.

"No.
 
He cares for them as compatriots only."

"Then why did he have sex with them?
 
And all those other fae girls?"
 
I couldn't help it.
 
I had to know how a boy who supposedly loved me so much could roll around naked with someone else.

"He did not.
 
He has not been with anyone in that way since he was human.
 
He waits for you and you alone."
 
The demon stared at me with Spike's eyes, not a hint of a lie or deceit in there anywhere.

His words sunk in, making me feel both incredibly sad and also a tiny bit hopeful.
 
I didn't know which emotion was going to win out in the end, but either way, it seemed wrong to be picking Spike's brain when he wasn't really in it to protect himself or his secrets.
 
I took as deep a breath as I could with his weight on me to clear my weepiness away and said, "Whatever, demon.
 
Just let me go so I can go get rid of the rest of your kind."

"There will be more.
 
Why don't you just let them have what they want?
 
Then perhaps the fae will be left to survive."

"What exactly
do
they want?" I asked.

"The humans of course.
 
Full access to them and their glorious energy."

"And if the fae say no to that?"

"The fae will be extinguished.
 
There is no other way."

I wanted to say a lot of things to that, but on the off chance that this dickbag got loose, I didn't want to clue him in to our plans of possible portal opening.

"They'll never agree to that."

"Then let us use this moment, perhaps one of the last ones we will have in the Here and Now together, to revel in our love for one another."

"I don't love Spike like that," I said softly, feeling bad about it especially now that I knew how much he really cared about me.

"I think, if you search deeper, you might find that you are not being completely honest with yourself about that."

Something about his words rang true, and that freaked me out more than anything he'd said so far.

He dipped his head towards mine, coming for a kiss and probably more.
 
Knowing Spike really, truly loved me was a pretty strong aphrodisiac, even in the middle of all this craziness.
 
And he really was mostly Spike, even without Spike's soul being possessed.
 
His body and his brain were fully him.
 
I decided that my constant exposure to danger and ridiculousness had somehow caused me to be somewhat immune to common sense.
 
It was the only explanation for my failure to fight him off.

Our lips met and we kissed.
 
It was slow and easy, soft at first, and then more passionate.
 
It was strange, this extra energy that Spike had with the pixelation or the demon possession or maybe something else, I wasn't sure.
 
It was Spike and then it wasn't.
 
Knowing his secrets about me gave me a power over him I was afraid to admit I liked.
 
He was a gorgeous boy.
 
A man, really.
 
A talented musician and all-around good person.
 
And even after everything I'd put him through, he still loved me.
 
It was a potent combination of a lot of good things, and I needed good things right now.
 
Everything else was just too messed up in my life.
 
The need for fighting and defending our home faded out and was replaced momentarily by the heat coming from the need for something else.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him against me harder and deepening our kiss.
 
And I was just wondering how far I was willing to go with him, rolling around in the mushrooms on the edge of battle, when the choice was made for me.

The weight of Spike's body disappeared as he was hauled off of me by an unseen force.

My body went suddenly hot, not just with embarrassment, but also with the heat of Ben's element that was burning up the area around him.

"Get up," he said, his voice sounding dead.
 
Ben was talking to me.

CHAPTER FIVE

BEN PUT SPIKE IN A bubble of flames, making me scream with fear.
 
I scrambled to my feet, bits of fungus and dead leaves stuck to every part of me.
 
I didn't bother trying to do anything about it, too worried Spike was going to die a very painful death.
 
And all just because he loved me too much.

"Ben!
 
You're hurting him!
 
Stop!"
 
I rushed over to the flaming column, putting my hands out towards the demon-Spike, wishing I could reach through it and yank him out.

"No, I'm not," he said, sounding disgusted.
 
"Come on, I need your help."
 
He grabbed my hand and started dragging me away.

I tried to dig my heels in and get my arm back, but Ben's grip was too tight.
 
He pulled me through the leaves and dead tree parts like I was a rag doll.

"Wait
, Ben, he's going to burn up in there!" I begged.

Ben stopped all of a sudden, flinging my hand away from him like he couldn't stand to touch me anymore.
 
"Do you really think I'd do that?
 
Burn up your
lover?"

"He's not my lover," I said in a low tone, rubbing my sore wrist, angry at him for saying it and a little embarrassed that part of me wanted it to be true.
 
What's wrong with me?
 
Why do I fall for demon sweet-talking so easily?

"Well, you could have fooled me."
 
Ben turned towards the battle.
 
"Enough playing around in the woods with your friend.
 
We need to work together to send the demons back.
 
We've killed several, but some of them are too strong."
 
He walked away.

I ran to catch up to him.
 
"How?"
 
I didn't bother arguing with him about what I'd been doing or the fact that I'd been kidnapped out there.
 
He wasn't going to listen anyway, I could tell.

"We'll do it like we did at your mother's house."
 
He looked back over his shoulder at me.
 
"You remember how, I assume."

"Yes.
 
I do."
 
And I also recalled needing Ben to coach me through it.
 
Hopefully, he'd still be willing to do that so I wouldn't go blind with misguided power.
 
I stopped worrying about it as soon as we reached the edge of the fighting.
 
My mind quickly moved to the more immediate concern of how Ben and I were going to even start this process of cleaning house.
 
The bad guys were everywhere and mixed in with our people, making it hard to pick out who needed to be killed and who needed to be defended.

Groups of orcs and green elves were fighting in hand-to-hand combat.
 
The elves who were normally more proficient at longer ranges with their arrows had suffered; I counted five bodies on the ground in my immediate area.
 
I didn't recognize any of my friends among them, but it didn't make it any easier to see it.
 
My anger grew at the needless waste of life.

We reached the center of the worst part of fighting unhurt, shielded inside Ben's fire.
 
He stopped walking and stood with his hands out, waiting for me to take them.

I walked up so I could be directly in front of him, looking first at his face and then at his outstretched palms.
 
I worked first on reining in my anger and frustration, both with him and the horrible losses our people had already suffered while I was tied up with the demon-Spike, knowing that letting my emotions overcome me now could affect what I tried to do with the elements.

"Take my hands, Jayne.
 
We need to be linked."

I put my palms on his and waited for him to close his fingers over mine, expecting him to.

But he did nothing.
 
His fingers remained straight and seemingly uninterested in mine.

It made my heart squeeze painfully in my chest.
 
It felt like rejection to be remaining so un-linked when it would have been so easy for him to hold onto me.

"Close your eyes and visualize sending these demons back to where they came from.
 
Use your elements together.
 
Link them with mine.
 
Focus on who to keep with us.
 
We cannot send the wrong ones to the Underworld or they will be left there."

My gaze darted around me, taking in all the figures I saw there, fighting the good fight.
 
Ivar, Dardennes, Tim, Finn, several other green elves I didn't know by name but did by sight ... and Spike.
 
Demon or not, I wasn't ready for him to go back to the Underworld if there was a chance the real Spike would end up going too.
 
I nodded my head.
 
"I'm ready."

CHAPTER SIX

I CLOSED MY EYES AND envisioned the Earth element coming up from below my feet, running through the nearby ley lines to amplify its energy.
 
It filled me completely, making me feel whole in a way I never did without it.

Water was next, weaving in with The Green, bringing a roar of sheer power that filled my ears and made my heart soar along its waves.
 
There was nothing like being caught up in the elements like this; I felt immortal ... invincible.

A jolt came into my hands, bringing with it a swirling heat that crackled and growled with its intensity.
 
Ben was with me, bringing the strength of Fire and Wind to add to what I was already allowing to swirl around us like a tornado.
 
Darkness descended, tempered by the flames that licked at our bodies, casting shadows across my eyelids that looked like dancing phantoms.

I let my elements tangle together with Ben's, creating a spinning tunnel of earth-shattering forces that made the ground tremble beneath our feet.
 
Everything should have been drowned out, my eardrums overwhelmed by the peaks and waves of sound, but his voice came to me as a whisper, cutting through the angry rumbling growls of our energy-monster, so that eventually it was the only thing I could hear.