You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Just vanished. Xander was suddenly very calm and now more curious than anything<br />
else.<br />
He cocked his head toward Spike, whose expression he couldn't read. "You didn't<br />
kill me. All this time. Why? You could have ended this whole thing with a simple<br />
twist of my neck or just drained me completely. Could have gone back to the crazy<br />
vampire and been done with it all. Why, Spike?"<br />
Spike still sat on the ground. Legs bent up and outstretched arms resting lightly on<br />
his knees, looking the very definition of casual. His fingers were twitching, like<br />
they did just before he got into a fight with Angel. Xander had always thought that<br />
the twitching was anticipation, his hands getting ready to tighten into fists. But he<br />
realized at that moment that it was just the first and second fingers on the right hand<br />
that were moving. Spike wanted needed? a cigarette. The vampire was trying to<br />
calm his nerves. He was actually trying not to fight.<br />
Xander had never felt nervous around Spike. Except those first two times. The<br />
vampire had said several times that he wasn't going to kill Xander...yet. And finally<br />
the "yet" sunk in.<br />
"How long were you going to wait? To kill me?" The self-preservation that had<br />
shown itself a few minutes before suddenly left the building, and Xander stalked<br />
back out of the light to stand in front of Spike. For just a moment, their positions<br />
allowed Xander a modicum of authority. An ounce of…control that he didn't<br />
remember having before. Of course, that was just for moment. Then Spike stood up.<br />
Now, Xander may have an inch or so on the vampire, but Spike always seemed to<br />
loom over the human. It wasn't the height that made Xander feel so diminutive, it<br />
was the confidence, the cockiness, the coolness, the control that the vampire always<br />
seemed to have.<br />
"Startin' to feel nervous, little boy?" Xander hadn't seen that smug look directed at<br />
him for several months and it made him…nervous. Damn. "Are ya feeling the<br />
borrowed time you've been livin' on?"<br />
Both men quickly reached out to grab each other's arms. Xander wanted to see if he<br />
could get back some of that control he had just a second ago. But Spike was faster,
Change language