Unknown Factors (Book One)

Ch.86: Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream

  I don't know why I couldn't sleep, but I was still lying awake and staring at the staircase leading out of the basement. There were more than 20 girls upstairs now, and I had given up my room to give them more places to sleep and just migrated down to the basement with Spike. The blond was out like a light behind me, his arm draped over my side while his face was buried in my hair.

  I was comfortable and tired, but my mind just wouldn't shut up and let me sleep. Buffy and I alternated working- I'd work the days she was off and vice versa at the school, and that was thankfully helping to keep enough food in the house for the mass of people living here. Andrew was even pretty much living here, baking and cooking and acting like a weird mother hen. On my days off, I was also working in assisting in the girls' training. I had to go easy on them because of the sheer difference in power and skill, but they were learning.

  Kennedy was taking a sort of leadership role among the potentials, directing their non-combative training in the backyard. Xander was either at work or repairing something that got broken around the house, Anya was just doing her own thing, Willow was still up with the research or by Kennedy's side and helping out. Spike was still sparring with the girls to give them hands-on experience against a vampire....but they were still just teenagers and, again, learning.

  Sighing, my eyes wandered around the basement covered in training gear with targets pinned to the walls. War was on the horizon, and our only defense was a bunch of potential Slayers still learning to fight and four people that actually had some sort of power- two of which The First wanted for its own gain.

  Spike shifted in his sleep, tightening his grip on me while pulling me closer, and I set my hand on top of his. Rubbing my thumb over his knuckles, I chewed on the inside of my cheek. There were so many uncertainties and dangers around every corner, and the literal apocalypse was coming if we couldn't manage to stop it. It was like a nightmare except this was all too real and waking up wouldn't fix it.

  Taking in a deep breath, I slowly let it out while closing my eyes, attempting once more to sleep.

~

  Sweat was beginning to form on my brow as I was standing on my hands and staring at the floor. I hadn't done my own training in a while, and I could tell I was slipping with how I was losing control of my own physical form more and more often. I was trying to focus, but Spike and Anya were arguing after coming back from some errand that ended in a demon attack.

  "But you just let him go!" Anya had her arms crossed.

  "After saving your life." Spike sighed, having his hands on his hips.

  "For now. That was one of Dehofren's killers, Spike. He won't stop coming until he kills me!" The ex-demon waved her hands.

  "And yet here you are- walkin', talkin'....annoyin'."

  "But you fought like such a wimp-pire, what with the lifting and the running. Why not just kill him?!"

  "Anya, think." I could hear the irritation in the man's voice as footsteps were coming down the stairs. "I fight, demon boy gets lucky, I get knocked out, and you get killed. True?" There was a pause as if Anya was trying to think of something to say but was failing. "We both know the safest and sanest way of keeping you alive is by keeping you with me and away from danger." The human just scoffed and stormed up the stairs. "No need to thank me. I'm just the one who beat him off."

  I nearly fell on my face when I lost focus and snorted.

  "'Repelled him' perhaps would have been the better phrase. Demon."