"What I don't understand is why they'd go after Buffy."

"Because, Giles, demons dig me. It's this whole weird slayer thing."

Spike scoffed, feeling somehow implicated.

"Mating demons generally go after their own kind." Giles replaced his glasses.

"Yeah," Spike said defiantly to Buffy, who was turning the pages of a big, dusty book, much like the one he had. They hadn't made eye contact all day. "Generally."

"Unless," Giles said, with 'onto something' face. "Unless there's not enough of their kind here."

"What, and I resemble their kind?" Buffy said. "I don't think so."

Dawn, head resting on a stack of books, snorted loudly in her sleep.

Giles continued, "Well, so far we know they've chosen you and two other demon females. No one else has been harmed that we know of."

"Maybe it's because you're strong," Anya told her. "They think you can take it."

"Oh, I don't think anyone could have taken--" Buffy stopped herself, everyone waiting. "It."

"Pretty gross, huh?" Willow asked.

"Ugh. It was... something I'd never like to describe," she said, glad for once that her little sister could sleep through anything.

Spike volunteered, "Right ugly bastard."

"Perhaps their women have been dying. And perhaps they're attracted to the Hellmouth because of the large selection of demon women."

"Hello?" Buffy raised her hand. "Not a demon!"

"Of course not, Buffy. I only meant that they must be attracted to this spot for a reason."

She closed the book, a big puff of dust rising. "None of these check out, Will."

"Not here either." Spike said.

"Well, at least we've got a heads up on all the other demons in town," Willow said, referring to her spell with Tara earlier that day.

"Yes, well done, Willow," Giles said. "Now, Buffy, I'm curious about the connection to the heat. You say it follows them, like a kind of mist?"

"Yeah. Kinda," was all she could bring herself to say.

"And you were rendered somehow helpless by this mist? The heat was too strong for you?"

"Uh-huh," she squeaked.

"I'll say," Spike said with a roguish grin. He just couldn't help himself.

"I wonder what properties it could have in order to do that...?"

"Slayer Kryptonite?" Xander pondered.

Buffy sighed. "Spike, tell them."

"Which part, love?"

"About what properties it had," she ground out without looking at the insolent vampire.

"Oh. Uh, some kind of pheromone. You know, to get the girl, uh... prepared."

Buffy covered her eyes.

"Oh... uh." Giles reddened. "I see."

Xander raised his eyebrows. "The heat makes you horny?"

Buffy groaned in embarrassment.

"Thank you, Xander, that's the exact thing no one needed spelled out," Giles said.

"A pheromone mist?" said Anya. "That sounds like a Zuxugna demon to me. But they're from the Xugnoic dimension. That's at least 700 gateways from here."

"Shug-no-wick? Is that the one without shrimp?" Tara asked.

"No. It's the one without pleasant-smelling air."

"Of course!" Everyone turned to Giles. "These... Zooshugnas--?" He grabbed a pen to write with.

"Yes -- but spelled with an X, not an SH," Anya said, looking over his shoulder.

"These Zuxugnas could have escaped from one of the portals that opened the instant before we defeated Glory," Giles announced.

"And somehow, only males escaped," offered Buffy.

"Which is why these... Meshuggenahs need women," Xander concluded. "I think I saw this movie!"

"'Attack of the 50 Foot Meshuggenah'?" Willow ventured.

"It's Zuxugna," Anya corrected. "And they don't have fifty feet, just two."

"Do they mate very often?" Giles asked the ex-demon.

"Actually, I think their mating season is once every hundred seventy years or so."

"Great, they're ugly and old." Buffy said.

"Then its not a wonder they're desperate, cast out of their own dimension," Giles surmised. "They're forced to mate with any female they feel can handle their... insemination."

"And that's why the rest of us are impervious to the heat," Willow chimed in. "Aside from it being, you know, hot."

"'Cept that even the demon girls can't take it," Spike said. "They're both in terrible shape."

"Well, Buffy, it seems you should stay out of its way."

"No, I shouldn't."

Giles frowned in question.

"I'm the perfect bait," she explained. "And they're easy to kill if you know how. If Spike comes with me, he can hang back if one attacks me, then get it while its... hot."

Spike was touched. She didn't hate him after all.

Anya happily supplied, "The only way to kill it is to chop off its--"

"Right," Giles said.

"Ouch," Xander said.

"Impossible when it's not mating season," she added.

Suddenly, Buffy felt a familiar twinge.

Spike's nostrils flared.

"It's close," they said in unison.

"How can you tell?" Willow asked.

Buffy gave her a look.

"Oh. You mean..." Willow got it.

"Wait, how did Spike know it was close?" Xander asked.

"Did, uh, did I say it was close? I meant--"

"Spike!" Buffy got up and hurried into the training room. He followed her obediently.

Anya whispered to Xander, "Vampire. You know." She discreetly pointed at her nose.

"Oh, now that's just creepy."

"Yeah," agreed Tara. "That really is."

Remembering Oz, Willow opted to keep her thoughts to herself.

* * *

"Spike?" Buffy turned to face him for the first time since the previous night.

"Love?" He stood back to see if he was going to be chastised.

"What you did... last night," she began. "It was really..." She started over. "As humiliated as I am about everything I did, you were really... decent."

He smiled.

"The thing is..." Another wave hit her. "You're gonna have to help me again."

"I know, love," he said as she wobbled into his arms. "I got you."

"I don't want to do this to you. I know how you feel about me, and--"

"Not another word, pet."

The back door of the training room blasted open and a thick, hot fog filled the room. A Zuxugna advanced toward Buffy. Spike let go of her and plucked a labrys off the wall.

Buffy backed up and glanced at Spike. If he could just make me come right now I could kick its ass...

The demon gurgled as its phallus grew.

"Oi! Shugna daddy!" Spike called to get its attention, then swiftly brought the labrys down.

As he watched it drop to the ground, he mused, "Not very smart, are they?"

"Mm mm," Buffy answered, squeezing her legs together.

Oh, right. Here we go again. "Come on, Slayer."

The fog dissipated, and the Scooby Gang were visible in the doorway.

"That was... ookie," Willow said, shoulders spasming.

"That was a Zuxugna," Anya confirmed.

"Well, it appears they are rather easy to kill," Giles said, stepping over the mess of dead demon. "Though not easy to look at. We're sure it's dead?"

"Yeah, mate. He'll dissolve in a minute or two." Spike was holding Buffy up. She had managed to worm her way inside his jacket, pressing herself against him intimately, a look of restrained ecstasy on her face.

Xander eyed them suspiciously. "Is that the Buffybot?"

"Xander!" Buffy realized what she was doing. "Oh." She pulled away from Spike, and almost fell forward.

"Don't mind her. It's the mist. It'll... wear off. Slayer!" Spike peeled her off of Xander.

"You need to get her out of here," Anya said, nose wrinkling. "Far away from Xander."

"Mmm..." Buffy's arm was draped over Willow's shoulder, forehead touching her cheek. She nuzzled into her friend's neck.

Tara spoke up. "Um... I vote against the wild orgy?"

"Second that," Spike said, gathering her in his arms. "C'mon, Slayer. Gonna get you home now."

Giles spat at Spike, "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm taking the lady home."

"Like hell you are!" He removed his glasses in one swift motion.

"What's the alternative, mate? You watch her writhe around like a bitch in heat 'til it's over?"

Giles looked vaguely shamed but held his ground. "I hardly think you should be in charge of this."

"Yeah," Xander agreed. "Shouldn't we just tie her up and leave her alone for a while?"

"You just try it," Buffy challenged.

"There is no way you are taking her--"

"Giles!" Buffy shouted, grasping Spike's leather sleeve. "Spike is taking me home. He knows what to do."

* * *

"Spike, you've gotta come over here. Just sit next to me? I promise I won't do anything bad."

"Only if you promise, pet."

As soon as he sat down on the bed, Buffy whipped off the comforter, revealing the silver vibrator inside of her. She went back to pumping it with one hand and massaging her clit with the other.

It was more than he could take. "Don't stop what you're doing. Be right back."

"Spike?"

"Yeah?"

"I know what you're gonna do in there. Why don't you do it here?"

"Buffy--"

"You're watching me do it. It's only fair."

He couldn't refuse a lady, could he? Masturbation play -- that's innocent enough, right?

With a lustful gaze, he began to unbuckle his belt. When he freed himself, Buffy's eyes widened.

"S'wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing. Bigger than I thought."

He smiled proudly, and took hold of his thick cock. Out of habit, he spit on his hand for lubrication.

Buffy pulled out her vibrator, leaving a trail of wet sticky liquid. "Gimme your hand."

He obeyed. With the vibrator and her hand, she slathered her come all over his palm, smiling coquettishly all the while.

"I've got enough for both of us," she said.

He could have shot his load right then. But dammit, he was going to make this moment last.

When she smeared the last of it on his mouth, he caught her finger between his teeth and sucked it in. His eyes rolled up and his inner poet rejoiced.

"Ambrosia," he declared.

"Come up here," she said, smiling sweetly.

Spike knelt beside her on the bed and tentatively began to stroke.

As Buffy watched him intently, touching herself, he took on a more steady pace.

He couldn't hold it much longer. With jagged breath, he said, "Buff-- Where--"

Understanding completely, Buffy flicked her fingers over her nipples and said, "Here."

"Gahh!" Spike shouted as he shot cold semen onto Buffy's nubile breasts.

Buffy rubbed it over herself, down her stomach, to her pussy and came, hard, squeezing her eyes shut.

Spike came down slowly, savoring the sensation.

Buffy opened her eyes as her breathing evened out. "Okay," she said with determination.

"Right," he said, getting up to buckle and close his jeans. "I'm gone."

"Wait," she said, grasping his arm. "Can you, um, maybe get me a towel? And some water?"

She wasn't asking him to leave? She wasn't too embarrassed to look at him?

"Sure thing, pet."