AN: Written for the prompt Darkshines. Set in S6 after Wrecked.

You take only seconds to draw me in/

So be mine and your innocence I will consume/Dark shines/Bringing me down/Making my heart feel sore/Because it's good

The dreams start two days after Dawn breaks her arm.

Filmy images of Buffy dance before his eyes, her face a little fuller, her smile a whole lot brighter, and her eyes far more innocent than the ones he's grown accustomed to seeing.

The dreams always start the same. Spike, once again confident in his position as the biggest badass around, prowling through the crowds until he spots her.

Slayer.

Buffy.

She's dancing, always dancing. All hips and arms and head. The image spinning through his brain, a cursed and favorite memory.

But in his dreams, there is no music. No chatter, no clinking glasses. In his dreams there is only silence, and the thunder of a heartbeat (it's hers. It has to be, even if he can feel it echoing in his chest. Vampires don't dream of heartbeats). In his dreams, she turns, stares at him as intently as he stares at her, and a coy grin stretches her features.

And the dream changes.

Sometimes they're in the alley. She slams him against the chain link, blinks at him with those too innocent eyes, and drops to her knees. And somewhere between the scrape of her teeth, and her hair twisting in his fingers, he can still hear the pounding (hers, it's hers, it's hers).

Sometimes they're in an old warehouse, and when she snaps back into herself, they fight until her silly dress is hanging off of her in tatters. His fingers curl inside her and his tongue traces patterns on the hollow of her hips. And as she jerks against him, whimpering, the rhythm (it's in his head. All in his head) speeds up until it's deafening.

Sometimes he has her tied to his bed in the factory. Naked in chains as he sinks his teeth into every part of her. Until blood runs from her neck, her breasts, her hips, her thighs. He catches every last drop, drinks her in while she begs for more.

And sometimes they're in the church, her cross branding his skin as he fucks her hard into the alter, while the flames creep closer. Her fingernails carve sin into his back, and she moves in sharp contrast with her wide and shiny eyes. The church dreams are his favorite, because the roar of the flames drowns out the sound of (her, her, her) heartbeat.

The dreams always end the same. Buffy and Spike alone in a school hallway. They've been here before, but this time she's naked and he can see clearly every mark he's left on her body. She meets his gaze and everything goes dark until she's all he can see. She smiles at him and his (definitely not beating) heart swells in his chest.

"Just come with me. I promise it won't hurt."

When she opens her mouth to speak his heart explodes.

" No Spike. It's going to hurt a lot."