Part 11
He glared until Angel looked away. That glare held Dru, and Buffy, countless
betrayals and all the blood between them, bad and otherwise. It was a
different story when they got back to the shop. When they got back to the
shop, Xander wasn't there.
"He said he was going shopping!" The prom queen gave her chin a quick lift,
up and back, as if she still had long hair to fling about. She drummed her
perfect nails against the surface of the table and had the nerve to stare
down Spike while he was in game face. "Now, shoo, I have work to do."
"Spike, leave Cordelia alone." Angel emphasized his request by grabbing
Spike by the back of the collar of his tee shirt and forcibly escorting him
into the back of the store.
Neither his Sire nor the girl seemed at all concerned that Xander was late.
This was past the time he normally came in from work. Giles was mumbling
something about sixty pizzas. Angel's Watcher had barely glanced up from the
book he was reading when Angel had inquired about his newest minion. The
Brit hadn't calmed Spike in the least when he had replied, "I believe he is
still with Xander. They left some time ago." Spike's perfectly normal
reaction, wanting to interrogate the others about where Xander had gone and
when he would be back, was, for some unfathomable reason, pissing off Angel.
So now he and his poofed-up Sire were back to growling and pushing each
other around - there's progress. They had moved the shoving match out of
sight of the steady stream of humans who were out in the store's front room.
"Um...is...is t..this a bad time?" Tara stood hesitantly in the doorway of
the training room, her voice was even more quiet than usual. She looked
about to cry and both vampires took a tentative step in her direction.
Angel, of course, was instantly contrite and shifted to his human face.
Spike leveled a glowing glare at the witch and barked out through fangs,
"Where's Xander?"
"I j..just talked to him." The blond witch stepped forward and took Spike's
hand. "He should be back soon, he has a phone - do you want me to call him?"
"No." Spike shifted back out of game face. "What the hell is going on?"
Spike scowled toward the front room, indicating all the activity. Angel
looked nonplussed that this young woman seemed unconcerned by his snarling,
dangerous Childe.
Tara shrugged, "Xander set this up. Cordelia said she had no idea that he
knew how to get in touch with all these people." Tara stroked his arm and
added softly, but not softly enough to keep Angel from hearing, "We have got
to get you a phone. I'm sure Xander wanted to call you, but you were out
killing things. Ah...Were you? Killing things? Did you find out..?"
"Nah," Spike stopped gnashing his teeth and really looked at the shy witch.
This was more than her normal nervousness around all these strangers. With
his free arm he reached up and rubbed her back. "Where's Red? Thought you
two were joined at the hip?" He offered her a leer and found it disturbing
that when she returned a weak smile and seemed to be reassured by it.
"We split up...to cover more ground. She should be here soon. I...I...Spike
" she swallowed hard. Spike smelled no fear, but there was uncertainty,
sadness, and a helplessness he hadn't sensed from her since shortly after
Buffy had died. Her nails bit into his arm and she looked almost as if she
were ashamed. "Spike, I ran into Riley. He's back."
Spike snarled and pulled away from the witch. He ripped the heavy bag off of
its chain and sent it crashing into the wall. Angel first moved to restrain
him and then seemed to think more clearly and stood back, then tried to stop
Tara from getting closer.
Spike saw red, lost in the memory of Buffy and how utterly distraught she
had been at how she and the soldier boy had left it. The unresolved status
of their relationship had caused her a great deal of pain. Finn hadn't
contacted her for her birthday, or when Joyce had died. After he had claimed
to love her, he had disappeared without looking back. Xander showed more
concern for the ex-demon and she hadn't been worthy to have Buffy wipe her
feet on her. As far as Spike was concerned, the Slayer had gone to her grave
blaming herself for far too many things. Finn's departure shouldn't have
been one of them. He was weak and that weakness had endangered her and her
minions. If Spike had had a hook like that when cutting his deal with Adam
he would have had the chip out long ago; on the downside, Frankendemon would
be master of the Hellmouth. The thought of Xander's pet name for Maggie
Walsh's favorite son stopped Spike short.
This was not good. He was likely the only one to whom Xander had shown his
real feelings regarding the commando. Xander valued loyalty. The boy might
forgive a betrayal to himself but was fiercely protective of his 'pack'.
Xander hadn't known the whole story when Riley left. Gradually, over time,
he had realized exactly what Buffy had meant in her sobbing and fragmented
references to their break up. Spike cleared up the last details for him one
night on patrol shortly before they had become lovers. Xander's response
hadn't been the white-hot rage that he had leveled against Angel for
sweeping into town and frightening Dawn and threatening Spike, it had been a
loud, scathing tirade. Xander had paced between the tombstones, treating
Spike to his quick-witted sarcasm and dead on impersonations. He had played
out scenario after scenario of how Riley's 'vampire Russian roulette' could
have killed all of them. It was only later, after Spike had finished his
sardonic snickering, that he realized what he had witnessed. If you peeled
away the comedy routine and looked past the Sunnydale-speak, the boy had
boiled down the various elements of the situation and analyzed every way
that Finn's 'addiction' could have been used by an opponent. His Xander had
one of the best senses of strategy Spike had ever come across. No, this was
not going to be good, but Spike gleefully anticipated the meeting of those
two.
"Let go." Tara barely whispered at the large strange man who had grabbed her
arm. *Wouldn't Red and Xander be pleased that she stood up for herself. Even
such feeble resistance must have cost the shy one quite a bit.* Angel let go
and Tara slipped past. She placed a palm against Spike's rumbling chest. She
didn't flinch from his yellow-eyed glare as she spoke. "I'm sorry. I'm so
bad at this. It was worse with Riley. It was like I sucker punched him. I
didn't mean to tell him about Buffy - not like that. But he knew as soon as
he looked....Oh God, then he asked about Joyce...." Tears filled the little
blonde witch's eyes and her breath came in gasps. "Spike....I couldn't have
hurt him more if I tried."
*Good!* Cheering would be in bad form, so Spike pulled the weeping girl into
his arms. He rubbed her back and said, "There, there, little bit." The deep
rumbling purr that vibrated through him had nothing to do with this warm
body in his arms. This sweet child had hurt Finn far more than he could
have. Spike gave outward comfort to Red's girl, while drinking in the
satisfaction of Finn's pain.
"Find Red." Spike mouthed the words at the great gaping poof while Tara
sobbed against his chest. After a brief look of confusion, Angel exited the
practice room while Spike continued to make soothing noises. Spike wondered
if his mate knew that Finn was in town, but figured that if Tara had just
spoken to Xander that he probably did. Spike had never shared the little
stake-through-the-heart story with Xander. In the beginning, before they
were together, he had figured Xander wouldn't care and later he feared
Xander would take some drastic action against Finn. Not that Spike cared if
Finn lived or died, or thought Xander couldn't handle the walking biology
experiment. But Spike worried that once Xander had hurt the commando, he
would blame himself. The boy took on too much guilt and worry as it was;
Spike wasn't having that blood-junkie burden his pet with his death.
Willow was suddenly there, smelling of melon shampoo, and gathered her
girlfriend into her arms. As she steered Tara toward the stairs leading down
into the storeroom, Willow called out over her shoulder. "I got beau coupe
hot plates, but Laura said there isn't good ventilation in the kitchen.
Angel, will you help Spike rig up some sort of table in here?"
They were gone before Angel finished stammering out his affirmative. In
response to Angel's questioning look Spike said, "Well, I'm not following
those two down there and that's the only place I can think of to get a
table."
"There's an old door out in that dumpster we were hitting each other with.
At least it was there last night." Angel said.
Due to rampant sunlight, they ended up having Wesley and Jonothan drag the
door into the shop, leaving it for the vampires to clean it and assemble
some sort of work surface. The witches had yet to come up the stairs and the
prom queen was making dire threats as to what she would do to Xander when he
finally got back. Jonothan kept bringing bags, boxes and crates into the
back. They contained everything from first aid supplies and cases of soda to
fire axes and wooden javelins.
Spike had heard from Dawn shortly after going to bed that morning. She had
been at Megan's and called to say they were going over to Stephanie's. The
nibblet was amazingly tolerant of the group's overprotectiveness, but tended
to treat them all as one entity at times. She would tell one of them what
her plans were and where she was, and assume that meant that the rest of
them knew. It had led to some laughable incidents of miscommunication.
Laughable with hindsight; not so amusing when he and Xander had tracked her
to the fitting room at Old Navy - by scent - in the crowded mall. It still
had been hard to explain to the startled pack of teenage girls why he had
cast no reflection. Only in Sunnydale could Xander's babbled explanation of
'it's a new security mirror, I've heard that sometimes happens' been met
with nods of agreement and one girl actually saying she had seen a segment
on the Discovery Channel about it. As Xander had pointed out it could have
been worse. At least Old Navy had coed-fitting rooms - twenty minutes later
and it would have been The Limited. Spike snorted to himself, earning him a
sharp, wary look from Angel, and thought what they ought to assemble in the
practice room was a detailed, wall-sized map with a big, movable red 'X' for
'Dawn is here'.
Xander was back. Spike wondered if he had smelled him or heard him. All he
was sure of was that he sensed it just before hearing two doors shutting on
a large vehicle out in the alley and the sound of feet hitting the ground
from a height. Spike closed his eyes and tried to sort though the abundant
and varied information that his enhanced senses offered him. Normally he let
his brain process the myriad sensations without thought as to what signal
had been interpreted to draw any given conclusion, but it was important to
him to know if he had sensed his mate's arrival on a physical level, or if
they were connected in a less mundane way by some sense he had never yet
used. He was lost in this contemplation when warm hands slid around his
waist and Xander pulled him flush against his long, lean frame. Spike was
surrounded by the scent of sunlight and bathed in the heady aroma of Xander.
For a moment the boy paused and seemed with his limited human senses to
drink in Spike's scent, and take comfort from embracing his cool tight body.
Xander's breath ghosted along Spike's neck, sending ripples of desire after
it as he whispered, "If I bat my eyelashes and string up a tarp, you think I
could get some big strong vampire to carry in the groceries?"
*Adorable! He's flirting in right in front of Angel and his minion. Guess
that'll let them know what they can't have.* "Try it. Maybe Peaches will
volunteer." Spike teased, knowing that even in a low whisper Angel heard
every word. *Take that, you big poof, told you he was mine....Hold on. He
was where?* "Groceries?" *Pet, I love you, but I wish you came with
instructions in English, or at least a translator.*
"Well," Xander smirked and nipped at Spike's ear. "Most of what we got are
the ingredients to bake a cake, zombie style, along with a few party
favors." *Maybe there are Cliff Notes?*
"Xander, I think you may want to talk to Cordelia," Angel said. Spike glared
at him but refused to rise to the bait. Spike was perfectly secure in having
the great looming fairy talk to his Xander. He would have been just as
secure if Xander's arms weren't tightly holding his back flush with the
boy's warm chest.
Xander didn't even look at the poof; he was still nuzzling Spike's neck when
he murmured against it, "What? She doesn't like being worshipped by the
masses?" Then he released Spike.
The look in Xander's eyes as his gaze traveled up Spike's body to finally
meet his eyes spoke of longing and need. The boy looked tired as well as
horny. Xander swallowed audibly. Spike could see his randy lad struggle
against his libido and firmly throttle it into place. To break the thick air
of desire which had settled between them in that heated look Xander rapped
his knuckles against the door and asked, "What's this for?"
While Spike was updating Xander on the recent activity at the shop, they
were interrupted by an angry cheerleader. Xander calmed her with a few words
and sent the new boy out with Angel's minion to string up a tarp between the
truck and the back entrance to the shop. Soon they were alone, accompanied
only by the poof, who feigned interest in the piles of supplies, while Spike
looked at Xander - really looked. The boy looked tired, not
worked-all-day-slayed-all-night-let's-spend-the-week-end-in-bed tired, but
running on reserves, nothing but caffeine and sugar tired. For too long
Xander had been writing his body IOU's for sleep and living on take out
food. Spike vowed to take better care of his mate - if they made it through
until tomorrow.
"You all right, Pet?" Spike asked, reaching over to cup Xander's face and
rub his thumb along his boy's stubbled jaw. A flash of loss and confusion
and perhaps the desire to curl up in Spike's arms and shut away the world
crossed the suddenly pain-filled brown eyes before Xander tried to answer.
It wasn't hard for Spike to follow Xander's disjointed and fragmented
answer. The boy was overwhelmed, not by the actions he was taking but by
their anticipated consequences. Spike pulled him into a tight embrace, and
over Xander's shoulder watched realization steal over his Sire's face. This
young man, who had done more about this most recent crisis in the past
twenty-four hours than all the rest of them dithering about, had been two
years younger when he put the same children he had raced around the
playground with in the front lines and watched them die. And now he was
doing it again. This time he lacked the naivete of believing that he could
keep them all alive. He had to go into this battle knowing that if he lived
through it he would most likely have more blood on his hands. Spike could
give a rat's ass about the lunchables of Sunnyhell, but Xander would feel
every injury, every death, with his whole being.
Spike waited until Xander finished lamenting. Spike wasn't sure if he had
been talking about graduation or now when mentioned not having a chance in
hell, but decided now was not the time to indulge Xander's tendency to
assume responsibility for events he had no control over. He loosened his
hold and looked deep into Xander's eyes. Spike spoke low and soothing but
with firm conviction. "No one has a chance in Hell, love. Trust a demon's
word on that, or if you don't, ask Peaches. That's why you fight, to prevent
Hell from being here, to keep this place a little better than Hell. It must
be working; otherwise all the Hellspawn wouldn't be trying to crash your
party."
It was the right thing to say and earned him a kiss and a thank you. After
another interruption, this time from Xander's blood dealer friend - who
apparently insulted Angel by treating him like a vampire - Xander sent
Angel to round up the others for a strategy session. Spike watched Xander
blink and nod while the crazy red-haired bint explained how to make
explosives out of common household chemicals. When Xander said, "Okay,
great," Spike was convinced the boy hadn't understood a word. Spike shadowed
his mate as he went from one person to the next, calming and instilling
confidence with a wide smile and a few joking words. No wonder he had caught
Angel watching his Xander so intently - this was not the same boy he had
left here two years ago. Spike glared at Angel the next time he saw him
looking at Xander, but received only a blank look in reply.
Part 12
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