Chapter 10
“What’s the best thing in the world?/June-rose by May-dew impearled;/Sweet south-wind, that means no rain;/Truth, not cruel to a friend;/Pleasure, not in haste to end;/Beauty, not self-decked and curled/Till its pride is over-plain;/Light, that never makes you wink;/ Memory, that gives no pain;/Love, when, so, you’re loved again./What’s the best thing in the world?/—Something out of it, I think.” ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “What’s the Best Thing in the World?”
Life being what it was, Buffy was at Faith’s skanky motel room at sundown, instead of at her house, waiting for Spike. She wasn’t real happy about that either, since it was the second time in as many days that she’d had to give Scott Hope the brush off.
She thought she’d managed to salvage this meeting, though. A lie about a family emergency and a promise to talk to him the next day would hopefully tide him over. Buffy really did mean to go out with him. Scott was nice, normal, charming—and most importantly, he had a heartbeat.
Of course, deep down Buffy knew that trying to date a normal guy was futile. She would always have some apocalypse to fight, and you could only make excuses for so long before a boy would get tired of being ditched.
Buffy wanted to try, though. She wanted to get back on the horse, so to speak.
Tonight there was Faith to deal with. Faith, who was even now preparing to run again. “You’re just going to dump this on me?” Buffy demanded.
“You don’t know me,” Faith shot back. “You don’t know what I’ve been through, so don’t try telling me how to handle my problems.”
“Because running is such a good plan.”
“Yeah, well, there isn’t a better one, trust me.”
Buffy shook her head. “Look, why don’t you come with me? We’ll get Spike and figure out how to take this Kakistos guy.”
“You can’t take him, B.” Faith shoved the last of her clothing into her bag. “Why don’t you let me take care of this?”
“Like you took care of your Watcher?”
The question stopped Faith cold, and Buffy knew it had been a low blow. She had to guess that the dark-haired Slayer had had some affection for her Watcher since she was so freaked out. Still, running wasn’t the answer. Buffy knew that much. Slayers didn’t run from the monsters; they killed them.
Even when the monster happened to be your boyfriend.
“Shut up,” Faith said. “You weren’t there.”
“No, I’m here.”
There was a pause, and Buffy thought she might have gotten through, but they were interrupted by a knock on the door. “What now?” Faith muttered as she opened the door.
Buffy could hear the low growl, and she saw the misshapen hand shoot through the doorway to latch onto Faith’s throat. She only had a moment to act, and she managed to shoulder her way in between Kakistos and the other Slayer, slamming the door on the ancient vampire’s hand.
Putting the chain on, Buffy grabbed Faith’s hand. “I just bought us some—” She stopped as the hand ripped through the wood as though it was paper. “—time!”
Faith started screaming, and Buffy kept a tight grip on her. “We don’t have time to scream!”
Pulling Faith along behind her, Buffy just hoped that Spike would get her message from her mom, and that he wouldn’t be too pissed off when she found out they’d slayed Kakistos without him.
~~~~~
“What do you mean she’s not here?” Spike demanded.
Joyce often forgot that he was a vampire these days. He was always so nice to her that she lost sight of the fact that he was supposed to be scary. She took a step back. “William—”
“Sorry, luv,” Spike said quickly, “but I asked Buffy to wait for me. It was important. Did she say where she was going?”
“Buffy called and said to tell you she had to find Faith, that it was important, and that it had to do with someone named Kakistos. Do you know who she’s talking about?” Joyce watched him carefully, hoping that his temper wouldn’t cause him to go off again.
Spike frowned. The name rang a bell, as it had the night before, but the connection escaped him. It wasn’t anyone he had met before, of that much he was certain. “Is everything alright?”
The uneasiness in Joyce’s tone brought Spike out of his thoughts like a dash of cold water to the face. “Sure,” he replied. “It’ll be fine. I just have to find them.”
Spike didn’t wait for her response, hurrying off with a frown of concentration. He didn’t know where the other Slayer was staying, and he wasn’t sure where to start looking. Of course, if Buffy had needed to go out looking for the girl, that indicated that she wasn’t staying with the Watcher or any of the Slayer’s friends.
It took too much time to locate a payphone and call the motels in the area, longer still to settle on the cheap, run-down place off the highway. That was simply guess-work, since no one answered the phone in the office. Spike figured there might be trouble.
By the time he reached the motel—and saw the room with the gaping hole in the door—both the Slayers and whatever was after them were long gone.
Spike cursed, knowing that there was no way to catch up with the girls in time. He could spend all night hunting them down, or he could find Giles and hope for the best. “How the bloody hell does she expect me to keep her alive when she keeps running off?” he snarled, stomping off towards Giles’ flat. “Stupid bint won’t make it through the sodding year if she keeps acting the idiot.”
He hadn’t run out of things to say when he found himself in front of Giles’ door. “Spike,” Giles greeted him. “Where’s Buffy and Faith?”
“How the bloody hell should I know?” Spike demanded, still angry, although he couldn’t have precisely said why. “Told your Slayer to wait for me at her house, and when I get there she was already gone. Tracked them both to that shitty hotel, and they were gone.”
“Gone where?” Giles asked sharply.
“Am I supposed to be psychic now?” Spike snarled. “Dunno. There was a big hole in the door, so I’m assuming that whatever is after them found out where they were. Not much I can do about it when I have no idea where they went.”
Giles would have liked to argue—would, in fact, have liked to insist that Spike go out and find them, but he knew the gesture would be futile. “Well, I’m sure they’ll show up here eventually.”
“What was it?” Spike asked. “Joyce said something about Kakistos, but I don’t think I’ve heard of him.”
“Kakistos is Greek for—”
“Worst of the worst,” Spike said, cutting him off impatiently. “I know that much. Plenty of vampires give themselves silly names to indicate how important they are.”
Giles shook his head. “This name was given to him. Kakistos is a vampire so ancient his hands have become cloven. Apparently, he killed Faith’s Watcher, and now he’s followed her here.”
“And he’s on their tails.” Spike swore again, and his language nearly caused Giles to blush.
“I’m sure two Slayers will be able to handle him,” Giles said with a confidence he did not feel. “Buffy is quite good.”
Spike didn’t respond. “This Faith didn’t tell you what was chasing her or what happened to her Watcher, did she?”
“No, she led us to believe her Watcher was on a retreat. The Council had no idea as to Faith’s whereabouts between the time Miss Felton’s death and her arrival in Sunnydale.” Giles gave Spike a look. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking I have to wonder about a bird who wouldn’t give at least a head’s up when she’s got something this big and bad chasing her down,” Spike replied.
Giles shook his head. “Faith was most likely traumatized by her Watcher’s death. Perhaps—”
“Perhaps you’ve got a loose cannon worth keeping a careful eye on.”
~~~~~
Buffy hadn’t known that she liked Buster Keaton so much. Scott was everything a guy should be: sweet, attentive, charming. She was just glad she’d managed to cover her shock when he’d presented her with the claddagh ring. Buffy was fairly certain that she’d managed to convince him that it hadn’t been about him. “A good friend gave me a ring like that,” she’d said. “He was killed this last spring.”
Of course, she couldn’t tell Scott that her “friend” had turned into a psychotic killer who had killed several people in their class. He’d never believe her anyway.
Scott left her at her front door with a chaste peck on the lips, and Buffy stood inside the door just long enough to be sure he was gone. She needed to see Spike, and she still needed to patrol. There was no getting out of that, even with Faith in town.
Besides, Buffy wasn’t so certain that the other Slayer was as over her issues with Kakistos as she said. You didn’t just move on from something like that, no matter how much you might want to.
When Buffy showed up on his doorstep, Spike’s greeting was less than enthusiastic. “What do you want, Slayer?”
“I came to see if you wanted to patrol with me tonight,” Buffy replied, wondering if he was going to allow her to come inside his house.
He stared at her for a moment before grudgingly moving out of the way. “I thought you had some hot date tonight.”
“I did have a date.” Buffy shrugged. “We went, we saw, he walked me home. Now it’s time to patrol. You did say you wanted to go with me until we figured out what new big bad was in town.”
“You killed the new big bad,” he growled in reply. “And you’re going to listen to me now? What happened to that idea the other night when you were running off to face Kakistos?”
“For the record,” Buffy snapped, annoyed at his tone, “I didn’t go running off to face Kakistos. I went to find Faith, and then he found us.”
“You stood me up.”
“Things got crazy!” Buffy stared at him. “You of all people should know how that works. We got new information, and your little sunlight allergy doesn’t make you daytime friendly.”
“You could have called me,” Spike snarled. “How the bloody hell am I supposed to keep you alive if you go running off everytime something comes up?”
“That’s right, because this is a job,” Buffy said, oddly hurt. “You got paid to protect me, and I’m cramping your style.”
Spike actually growled at her. “It’s not just that. It’s—” Stopping, he turned away from her. “I’ll grab my jacket.”
Buffy grabbed his arm to prevent him from walking away. “No, Spike, what is this?”
“It’s not just about the job, okay?” He wouldn’t look at her. “It’s—I like your mum, and your Watcher is a decent bloke, and your friends are okay, too. Does that answer your question?”
Her hand dropped. “You care.”
“Don’t be making more of it than it is. It’s just about more than the money. That’s all.”
She could tell that even saying that much had cost Spike something. “Okay.” Buffy took a deep breath and added, “I don’t particularly want to see anything happen to you either.”
“I’ll grab my jacket,” Spike repeated, not bothering to respond to her statement.
They completed the first part of their patrol in silence until Spike asked, “What about the other Slayer?”
“She’s sticking around,” Buffy replied. “Giles is going to be her Watcher until they send in a replacement.”
“She staying with you?” Spike asked.
Buffy’s face showed how unlikely that scenario was. “No. I think she’s going to stay at that hotel.”
“Right.” Spike frowned. He’d been in plenty of hellholes, and it was one of the reasons he’d chosen to actually buy a place. While he had no plans to stick around forever, it would be easy enough to either sell the place or just shut it up once he did leave. Spike had often thought it would be nice to have a little bolt hole. Sunnydale would do for that as well as anywhere else.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Not a very nice place, that’s all,” Spike replied.
Buffy raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t think you’d care. You and Faith didn’t exactly hit it off.”
Spike shook his head. “I’ve lived in places like that, luv, that’s all. I know what it’s like.”
Buffy was silent for a moment. “She hasn’t asked for help.”
“That one wouldn’t.” Spike smiled a bit and shook his head. “She thought she could handle that Kakistos, didn’t she?”
Buffy shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.”
There was another long pause. “You okay with her staying?”
“I guess.” She sighed. “Faith’s had it really rough, Spike. I mean, I lost a Watcher, so I know what it’s like. Maybe this will be good for both of us.”
“Maybe,” Spike said, his tone very neutral.
“Are you going to look out for her?”
“Your Watcher asked me to.”
“So are you going to?”
“Figure I will.”
“Then why are you with me?”
“Because you’re still my first priority.”
Spike’s very even tone had Buffy looking over at him, a smile appearing on her face. “You’re a good guy to have around, Spike.”
He didn’t reply to that, but Spike felt a flush of pleasure all the same. It was the first time in over a century that he felt like he had an actual partner.