Chapter 17 – Bad Moon Rising
Part 2
I see the bad moon arising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin’
I see bad times today
I hear hurricanes ablowing
I know the end is coming soon
I fear rivers overflowing
I hear the voice of rage and ruin
Hope you got your things together
Hope you are quite prepared to die
Looks like we’re in for nasty weather
One eye is taken for an eye.
J.C. Fogerty
The delicate snore from the back seat made her mother turn around and smile at Journey. It never failed. Strap the kid in, pop Sleeping Beauty in the DVD player, hit the highway and within thirty minutes Joy was sound asleep. Raven watched in the rearview mirror as Buffy took the box of juice from her baby sister’s hand to deposit into the bag they brought along for garbage. She smiled as Buffy adjusted Joy in her car seat then did the same to the teddy bear strapped in next to Joy.
“I don’t think the bear cares if he’s crooked,” Raven said with a grin.
“I know,” Buffy said. “But I always cared if Mr. Gordo was comfortable on his rides.”
“So, glad I don’t have any of these particular family tendencies,” Raven, with a smirk that she had unknowingly acquired after hours of watching one adorn her father’s face.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Buffy said, smiling. “Do you consider stuffed toys too much of a weakness for the big bad Slayer out to save the day and the world while still maintaining her tough with it ‘tude?”
Rolling her eyes, Raven retorted, “Ha, ha, funny, Mum, very funny.”
“By the way I love those boots you’re wearing? Who made them?”
“They’re Harley Davidson’s,” Raven replied, glancing down at her black boots with the red flame along the side and back. They made her look tough. So, yeah, her mother was right. Looking beautiful and tough was important to her. Thank god that Daddy gave her a credit card of her own. Sometimes she was sure that her spending far surpassed her mothers. She shifted in her seat, adjusting her black jeans then smoothed down her blue sweater that made it look like she had decent sized boobs.
I wonder if Wesley ever notices…
“So, what did Dawn say when you talked to her last night?” Buffy asked, interrupting Raven’s thoughts before they got too complicated.
It was a bitch being in love with the boy she’d always wanted but feeling butterflies every time she was around the younger Watcher. She was sure it was result of the one-on-one training that Wesley sometimes gave her. Faith was certainly right about the fighting making you horny. If only Connor was a bit more aggressive on the sexual part of their relationship then whatever the feelings she had for Wesley would go away. A smile flitted across her face as she remembered her boyfriend giving the okay for her to seek birth control. Soon, she thought. Their relationship would be what it was supposed to be for a slayer and a son of a vampire…passionate.
“Hello, mother to daughter,” Buffy called, snapping her fingers. “I asked you about Dawn.”
“Sorry, Mum, was thinking about something,” Raven said, with a nervous laugh.
“Shopping in LA, I’m sure.”
“Uh, Dawn’s fine. She and Josh are having a grand old time living the Ivy League existence that is Harvard. They spent last weekend with Clem and Flora out at the cabin.”
“I still can’t believe that Clem is married,” Buffy said, absently. She sighed longingly. “I’m happy for him being so happy.”
“Daddy loves you,” Raven said, reading her mother’s face. The separation was killing her mother slowly. She knew about her mother’s past and her fear of being alone was becoming more pronounced everyday. Buffy was tense most of the time now. “He’ll come back.”
“Yeah, if somebody doesn’t screw everything up.”
“I know,” Raven said. “We just can’t let them know that we know anything. And get as much information from them before we return to Sunnydale.”
“Oooo, we get to play the little spies,” Buffy said, with a giggle. It sounded forced but Raven let it go. Her mother was trying and sometimes that was all you could ask of someone. “Do I get to play the bad slayer or the good slayer?”
“Uh, Saint Buffy over there,” Raven said. “I mean all the lectures we, young followers, get about everything you’ve done to make the world a better place.” She laid a hand on her chest. “I mean, of course, I have to be the young upstart with the bad ass, jealous attitude.”
“Okay, you bad, me good,” Buffy grumbled, shifting in her seat. “I never get to have fun.”
“Yeah, right,” Raven said, with a wicked grin. It was the perfect opportunity to bring up going to the doctor. “Not like you and Daddy didn’t have the whole house rocking the last weekend he was here. No, of course not, and it’s not like you two were caught having a quickie on the washer downstairs by one of your best friends.”
”Angel told Max not to go down there,” Buffy said, primly but a flush was covering
her cheeks.
“Having to wait all day was too much, huh?”
“None of my daughter’s business,” Buffy said.
Raven watched her mother wring her hands. The clear sign that she was unhappy, talking about Daddy always made her that way. Maybe it hadn’t been the best introduction to what she wanted to say. She sighed as she decided to wait till later. She was eighteen and didn’t need anyone’s permission to seek birth control anyway. All she had to do was talk to Kate, get what she needed, and the only two people who needed to know were she and Connor. Kate couldn’t tell anyone else and besides she doubted she would anyway.
So, it was back to business.
“Seriously, Mum,” Raven said, sitting up a little straighter as she maneuvered to pass a slow moving car. “How are we going to keep them out of this? Giles and Wesley are like bulldogs when it comes to this shit. The doom and gloom duo aren’t going to just accept our word to walk away.”
“I know,” Buffy said. “They both have this really bad habit of saying one thing to your face then going behind your back to figure it out anyway.” She looked out the window. “They are both interfering, uptight old farts.”
“Mother!” she said with a laugh. “I have never heard you speak like that about them before. It’s always been respect them. They have so much more education than we do,” Raven mimicked her.
“I lied. Look, play ignorant about the whole thing. I know you can act,” Buffy said, patting Raven’s leg. “Don’t let them know we know anything. We’ll find out what they do know then we’ll meet to figure out how to sabotage their research.”
“You can be such a bitch,” Raven said, giggling. She glanced over at Buffy in amazement. Sometimes her mother surprised the hell out of her. Buffy always tried to be super mom, doing the whole June Cleaver bit, but sometimes when she was in Slayer mode, Raven could see the girl she’d once been. She would never admit it but she could never hear enough tales about her mother’s heyday of slaying.
Raven nibbled a manicured fingernail that she had spent a fortune on as she worried over her father. There was nothing she wouldn’t do to protect him including lying outright to the two men she was supposed to blindly follow without question. She wondered if any slayer had really followed that rule. She doubted it; they were the ones who picked teenage girls to be the killing machines. Served them right to have to put with the volatile emotions of their charges.
~~~~~~~~
The room was exactly twenty-one paces long. Spike knew every inch of the peeling vinyl floor. He’d been walking it for the last hour and was becoming more and more agitated with each step. Surveillance work had to be the worst assignment with this job. Vampires weren’t meant to just sit and watch. He wanted the violence, the chase, and the adrenaline rush but, no, they were stuck together in this cramped room, watching the building across the street. There was nothing to do to relieve his boredom. So, he paced while Dylan took the pictures.
The year before after Angel and his team had beaten Jasmine,
a goddess that seemed to spring forth from the very earth itself. In the wake
of destroying world happiness, Angel had been offered the position of CEO of
Wolfram and Hart. After considerable deliberation and
Angel had done some more investigation and had uncovered the possibility of a secret society operating under the authority of Wolfram and Hart senior partners. He had come to Spike about it, and they had taken it to Jake, so here they were. Their assignment was to track down all the members of this society, find out their purpose, and hopefully avert whatever was coming. A study of W&H holdings had brought them to the office building across the street. It was empty, serving no purpose, in a suspicious part of town which would give excellent cover to clandestine meetings.
Three shifts to watch it and Spike and Dylan had garnered the evening shift.
It seemed they were right. So, far four cars had dropped passengers off. They had all subsequently disappeared into the building. Dylan had snapped all their photos while Spike paced. He wanted to go home. The brief time with Buffy only made him yearn for her even more. Maybe the old saying was right. The one about absence making the heart grow fonder. He was going crazy because her soft body wasn’t next to his every night, his body was screaming in need to sink into hers, his heart lonely because she wasn’t there to talk to about the day. The man and the demon needed their mate.
He sighed.
“Quit thinking about her,” Dylan said. “You’re only going to make it worse.”
“Can’t help it,” Spike complained. “She is so far into my very pores that even my sweat aches for her.”
Dylan laughed. “No wonder you got the nickname William the Bloody because if that’s the shit you were spouting back then, it’s a wonder you weren’t called a lot worse.”
“Pillock,” Spike said, with a grin. He sank onto the floor, leaning his head against the wall and closing his eyes. “You’ll find out one day when you’re in love.”
“Never,” Dylan swore, softly. “Never turn myself into a mopey, horny, wimp.”
“It makes you stronger,” Spike said.
“Bullshit. Look at you. You’re acting like some lovesick puppy begging to be petted. Get it out of your system, get laid, have some bloody fun.”
Spike opened his eyes to stare at the young man across from him. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask if Dylan was offering but he already knew the answer. The young man had been quite frank about his lack of sexual preferences. He didn’t much care about sex, race or species. Human or demon, if they could get him off then Dylan was ready, willing and able. Spike shook his head. If his partner was a woman, he’d be called a whore and an indiscriminate one at that. He just hoped Faith knew what the hell she was doing.
“No wonder my family doesn’t like you,” Spike said. His voice was deeper from emotion than before. “Everything they’re warning me about you is true.”
Dylan turned to look at him. They’re eyes connected and Spike could see what his family didn’t see in Dylan’s eyes, the intense pain, loneliness, and insecurity. Sometimes he felt like he was looking into a mirror, seeing a reflection he hadn’t seen for over a hundred years. But he could never forget that very same look from before he was turned and it still haunted him to this day. Spike broke the connection first. It was safer not to dwell on those things. He stood to resume his pacing. He tried to think only about his wife, laughing, on top of the washer crying out his name, lost in the passion. Her legs wrapped around his waist, squeezing the very life force out of him. She was his future. He had committed and he wanted to honor it with his very soul.
“Holy shit,” Dylan muttered, snapping wildly. “Spike, get your ass over here.”
Spike hurried over, kneeling beside him, to look at the newest car that was dropping someone off. He drew his breath in sharply as he recognized the man that glanced around him before entering the building.
It was Gunn.
To be continued…
