He roused again when the phone had rung. It was the little Bit who had answered it, Spike wasn't sure what time it was, but it was dark.

  "Janice! Hi, don't tell me: you're going to be late." Spike heard Dawn say, and he groaned. Tired, he turned over and lay on his front, one arm slung over the back of his head, as if he could force the rest and block the sounds of everything else by sheer willpower and force. It almost felt like it worked, for there was a long pause before Dawn once again spoke.

  "Oh, no, that's okay. Don't worry about it." Dawn said, speaking over the phone. It was late, but her friend had called, and whatever she'd said had had Dawn assuring her that all was well. Spike wondered where Buffy was, he could only hear one presence in the house and that was Dawn: Small, shuffling, on the downstairs floor by the sounds of it.

  "Yeah, I'm fine. Buffy will be back soon anyhow so, I've only got the house to myself for, like, an hour." She giggled, talking to her friend over the phone, who wasn't going to make it after all. But Dawn had scarcely hung the phone up, before the doorknob rattled and it seemed, that she wasn't even going to get that one hour. Buffy must have come home sooner than she was expected, so Dawn huffed in irritation, going to the door to get it for her.

  Spike heard it all, like from a haze. He was so deprived of rest, he had tried to go back to resting even as the door was jarred. There was a loud SMASH as the door detonated inward! Wood and plaster exploded across the entryway and hit the ground as something lumbered in with heavy-sounding footfalls.

  Dawn yelped terrified, Spike started up, moving for the door as the noise downstairs progressed by leaps in the increment of seconds! Stumbling backward, tripping over the edge of the rug and backpedaling, until a slight body hit the couch and tumbled over it.

  "You're not the Slayer." A wicked voice had said and yet it kept going. Spike had made it to the stairs, not slowing, leaping the length of them and to the landing. Plaster, wood splinters, he heard the sound of Dawn and the invader. She scrambled backwards on her elbows, breath hitching.

  "But you'll do for a start." The voice went on. Dawn, screamed. Screamed from the top of her lungs as the invade roared and lunged for her! But not before he got there first. Spike! Black-clad and afraid out his mind for Dawn, he crashed into the thing from the side! Spike had rushing down as fast as his feet could carry him, black-clad and righteously furious, he had collided with the thing before even stopping to register what it was. All he had registered was Dawn, eyes wild, trapped between the couch and the coffee table.

  "You don't touch her." Spike snarled, his voice is pure venom, driving this thing as they crash hard into the wall, drywall caving as Spike drove the thing through it with a snarling growl. Foreign blood, the smell of the sea taking on ominous implications, as the thing's ridged, hard head became more and more hateful. Spike wrapped an arm around the thing, yanking it backward and the sight of it - green-skinned, needle-sharp teeth, black-eyed, monster of a creature - had not the appearance of anything resembling a man. Listless eyes were dead and soulless, fishy smell like that of rotten clams, dirty, yet simian-visaged for its gait and overall body shape, the smell of fish almost insufferable to the vampire, yet it was the actions of the thing that had been most disquieting to the man. It had tried to hurt Dawn.

  It made his teeth ache! Spike hammered the demon’s head into the wall, once, twice, then Spike yanked him back by the horns and he hurled him across the living room. The thing sailed through the air with all the grace of a brick, before it crashed onto the coffee table landing spine first, shattering it into kindling.

  "Spike!" Dawn shrieked Spike immediately pivoted, back to Dawn, body squared between her and the threat. When the thing didn't move, Spike dropped into a crouch in front of her, hands already checking her shoulders, her arms.

  "You hurt, Bit?" He asked her, eyes worried, tone quieter. Dawn shook her head frantically as tears streaked her face.

  "I-I couldn’t get away-" She fretted and Spike cut in, sharp but sturdy.

  "Hey. Hey. Look at me." He demanded, steady and protective. She did, and his voice lowered.

  "You did right. Screamed loud. Bought time. Proud of you, yeah?" He told her, brushing her hair back once to try and get her to calm, and Dawn's breath stuttered. Then a roar. That thing wasn't dead. It got up out the splinters, stood up snarling.

  "Vampire!" The thing had roared lifting a broken table leg like it was a dagger. But Spike had risen to his feet already, a switch flipping in his cold eyes, from calm to murderous instantly.

  "Nibblet. Stay. Behind me." He growled, feeling his bones shifting, his fangs dropping with a slick clack, his eyes cutting the dark like it was his kingdom. The monster lunged, Spike met it head-on! They collide in a brutal tangle of fists and snarls. The thing swung the broken table leg, Spike moving letting his instincts make his body move. Dodge. The wooden table leg lands in his shoulder rather than his heart! With a grunt Spike wrapped his hand around the broken table leg where it was lodged in his shoulder, ripped it out his flesh and out the demon's hands, swinging it up the monster's jaw like it was a club, making the hulking creature stagger back!

  "You protect the Slayer’s whelp?" The demon said in a guttural tongue, and Spike realised he understood the demon. Spike realised he'd been gripping his hand over his wound, let it drop, couldn't look weak. He rolled his shoulder once, ignoring the wet heat where the wood had punched through muscle. His body angled, instinctive, placing Dawn squarely behind him again without needing to look. Protect first. Kill second.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  "Whelp?" Spike echoed in disbelief, like he was tasting the word. He knew the monster's tongue, the monster just sneered, black eyes glittering.

  "She is nothing. Soft. Breakable. You would risk yourself for-" But Spike didn't care what the monster had to say. Spike moved, defending Dawn. The two warriors collided with a meaty thud, fists flying. The monster swings another shard of wood, knowing how to end Spike, but Spike ducked under it and drove a punch into the demon’s ribs, cracking bone! The demon growled and staggered, snapping his fangs, before it backhanded Spike and sent Spike flying into the dining room! He crashed through a chair. Hit the floor hard. Spike slammed into the dining table before he came to a stop, sending dishes crashing down, falling like stars before exploding around him.

  "That all you got?" Spike snarled, the demon rushed him again, grabbing Spike before he could recover around the waist and hurled him forcing Spike against hard, skidding across shattered plates and feeling those stars searing his shoulders and back. Spike was growling from the pain, the monster saw an opportunity and leapt after him. But Spike's blue eyes shot open and and his teeth grit, his arms momentarily useless, so he used his legs, he kicked straight up! Booting the monster right in the chest with both legs!

  Spike was breathing hard, trying to get to his feet before the monster could get his bearings back. The force of Spike's kick having sent the thing crashing backward out the kitchen again, furniture being shoved aside by the force of their battle. Bloody move. Fight. Get up!

  Spike was dazed, tried to get up and the world span. He found that the floor rushed up to meet him. He realised that he fell, before he managed to get up on one knee. Feeling vertigo, he shook his head. Got to get my bearings. Got to get to-

  Dawn screamed again-

  "Dawn!" Spike’s head snapped up at the sound! Still half blind from the daze of being knocked down as hard as he was, Spike moved. Something murderous flashed across his face! Even half blind, he surged forward and launched himself at the intruder with animal speed! Tackling the monster and driving him bodily through the archway. They slammed into furniture, glass raining down before Spike's vision finally clears. They smashed into the counters. Cabinets burst open. The demon grabbed the disorientated Spike by the throat and slammed him against the fridge, vampire face denting it. Spike bared his fangs, eyes blazing.

  "You picked the wrong bloody house!" Spike put his hands on either side of the monster's shoulders, and in a cockney punk move, Spike headbutts the monster with the ridged forehead! Ripping free and with a pivot, kicked the creature square in the chest. The demon staggered as it flew backward across the kitchen crashing into the back porch door, causing glass to shatter outward in a spray of shards. Spike walks up to the monster again for a moment seeming to gain the upper hand, before the powerful creature slinked past him! Spike's arms closed on air as the thing went charging toward the living room. Charging toward Dawn! Not while I'm breathing!

  Spike went over the island, over the wreckage of the furniture and into the path of the creature! Grabbing the monster by the horns, intercepting it as he was mid-stride, slamming the thing's face into the floor repeatedly with unbridled fury!

  "I said -!" There was a SLAM as Spike smashed the demon's face back into the floor!

  "- stay -"Another SLAM accentuated his words.

  "- away -" SLAM as each impact punctuating his fury and his protection over Dawn!

  "- from the Nibblet!" With a knee to the nose of the thing, the monster goes spiraling backwards out of Spike's hold. Spike's voice was a monstrous growl as he pushed the thing's face into the floor! A bestial rumble to his deep voice to contradict the cute nickname he spoke completely. He didn't let up. He followed, relentless, fists a blur, driving the monster step by step - strike by strike - across the kitchen. Punch, punch, kick, driving the creature backward step by brutal step. The foreign monster staggered under Spike's assault! Just. Go. DOWN!

  Spike raised one boot and kicks the demon, hard, square in the gut and the thing fell! Spike's kick sending him straight through the basement door, the monster toppled, hitting every step, landing with a massive SPLASH. crashing into the flooded basement below with a huge splash. Spike stalked to the top of the stairs, stopped only for a second,

  "Dawn." Spike's voice is strained, he looked back. Dawn was standing, frozen, shaking in the living room. Spike had done his best to sound softer, through fangs that had dropped down over his teeth and made his voice sound more like a feral wild thing than a man could.

  "Don't. move." He told her, voice firm. Protective.

  "I'll be right back. I promise." He said, then turned. He'd waited barely long enough to see Dawn nodding, hugging herself, but the man had work to do. Spike vaulted the railing and drops into the basement after the creature! Landing catlike in the ankle-deep water, feet not touching the stairs at all. Spike's jaw tightened, hands curled at his sides. Water sloshed around Spike's black boots as the demon leapt up and rose from out the flood snarling! It swiped for Spike, but the warrior lent back in time to void the attack, the next swipe he ducked, coming up from under the swipe with an uppercut! The beast reeled back with a pained growl and a snarl.

  "I told you you wouldn't touch her." Spike said, voice a deadly calm, to utterly contrast his searing eyes and the sharp rise and fall of his chest through that torn t-shirt. The demon's eyes darkened as it reached up, tearing a length of pipe from the basement ceiling! Water erupted downward in a violent spray, Spike raising his hand to not lose sight of the monster, as the thing swung the pipe on Spike! Don't die, can't die!

  "Oh, you’ve ... really done it now....!" Spike caught the pipe mid swing and hissed, muscles straining, back bending...! Got to protect Dawn!

  With a hiss Spike elbowed the thing. It shook its head and pushed on, Spike was pushed under the water! His knee coming out of the deepening water in the basement next, striking the monster in the ribs where Spike had struck it before, the thing's body forced to move from the pain of the blow. The demon stumbled - finally! Spike grabbed the pipe and brought it down across its back! Sending the monster face-first into the water. Spike met him with brutal efficiency! Elbow to the throat, kick to the knee, pipe crashing down over its head, and then again, and into his ribs, pipe again. He kept hitting it until the monster collapsed into the water with a huge splash. But Spike didn't stop.

  "You… don’t… threaten… kids… in… my… house!" He snarled, the man defending his home, his Bit. His each blow is fueled, furious. He brings the pipe down again. And again. Each blow heavy, precise, furious, Spike snarling with each blow. The thing was dead. It was face down in the water, and it hadn't moved. Spike gave it one final strike. The demon had remained collapsed then. He flung the pipe away with disgust. He'd eliminated the threat, he'd killed the thing that had invaded the home, he was a monster. But he was one that got rid of lesser monsters.