Between the Realms Read Online Free Page A

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