Spike, formerly known as William the Bloody (like Angelus, he has no known surname). He lived during the Victorian late 19th Century and was a poet. Unfortunately, not a great one, and his poems were the source of ridicule for several of the shallow "upper-middle-class" types. In his mid 20's he was turned by Drusilla, childe of Angelus (see 'Fool for Love'). She and Spike were (are, and always shall be, to me) lovers. In fact the extent of their love for one another is unusual for demons, which leads to a demon calling them "tainted with humanity" in 'School Hard'. In his life, or should I say, undead existence, Spike has killed 2 Slayers (if it were up to me the number would go up to 3 pretty quickly!). The first was in China, during the Boxer rebellion, the second was Sophie Carstensen in the year 1940 (in my mind, the girl on the train in 1977 never existed - stupid Joss). Slayers are an obsession with Spike, which is probably why he is so mad for Buffy, because even though they are arch rivals, if someone's under your skin that much and you can't just break their neck, how are you supposed to feel? Anyway, I already mention how unhappy I am about this on the "Spuffy" page, so enough of the depressing stuff.

Besides Drusilla, in the old days he went around with Angelus and Darla. Darla and him don't appear to be particularly enemies or friends, but doubtless they did talk to each other ocassionally. Angelus, on the other hand, seems to be both an enemy and a friend. Eg. We see him threaten to kill Spike, insult him, and move in on Drusilla. However, we also Spike being friendly to who he thinks is Angelus (to begin with) in 'School Hard', and he seems to be pretty happy with Angelus losing his soul again. I think the main conflicts in their friendship are Drusilla, who they both have feelings for, and Angelus's dislike for Spike's recklessness. On the other hand, Spike and Angel (no 'us' mean's I'm referring to 'with-a-soul-Angel') clearly hate each other all the time. A good example of this might be the episode "Into the Dark" where Spike hires a professional to torture Angel for the Gem of Amara. Angel got his soul by killing a gypsy girl, and being cursed by her family to feel guilt. Notably, the first person he kills when he's Angelus again, is Jenny Calender, a descendant of the same gypsy line (and Giles' girlfriend).

These days Spike is still living in Sunnydale, his hair is a little messy, and he hasn't given up that annoying habit of helping the Scooby gang because he still loves Buffy. Dawn has a big crush on him, which isn't helped by him sweeping her off her feet and motorcycling away with her (not into the sunset though, obviously). He also has a chip in his head, which was put there by a secretive military group known as the "Initiative" who fought demons (and created frankenstein-esque demons of their own). The chip means he can't kill any living thing, which is unfortunate news for him because he needs blood to live. Now he has to buy it from butchers, like Angel does. The only thing keeping Spike from killing himself is the fact that he can still kill demons, and therefore still enjoy a little violence from time to time. Naturally, this is how he ended up fighting alongside the Scooby gang.