Chapter 14: Perseverance
Wesley’s call, as might be expected, came moments after Angel had left Cordelia’s apartment. “They have Spike.”
Cordelia blinked. It took her a second to recognize the voice on the other end of the phone. “Wes? What-“
“Drusilla just had another vision,” Wesley said quickly. “Wolfram and Hart have Spike.”
She sighed. “What do you want me to do about it?”
“Huh?”
“What do you want me to do about it, Wes?” she repeated with ill-concealed impatience. “Angel left to go scare Lilah, and I don’t know what you expect me to do.”
“Angel’s gone?” Wesley asked, thinking quickly. “Alright. I just thought if he was there-“
“I’ll give him the message when he gets back,” Cordelia assured him. “I’m sure we’ll figure something out. How’s Drusilla?”
She could almost hear him blush over the phone. “We’re-she’s just fine.”
His slip was telling. “I take it you guys found a way to pass the time,” she commented.
“That’s none of your business,” Wesley replied primly. “Given recent developments, however, I think it might be best for us to stay where we are.”
“You do that, Wes,” Cordy replied, only half-kidding. “It’s probably better for Drusilla to be out of sight until we get this figured out.”
They said their goodbyes, and she hung up the phone. She had a feeling that Buffy would soon be calling, but decided to take the cordless into the bathroom with her.
Not that she would admit it, but she hoped that it took the Slayer just a little while to figure out that Spike had been nabbed. Cordelia really needed some time to herself.
~~~~~
Giles’ head went up as Buffy stormed into his flat. “They got him.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“They took Spike,” Buffy said, an edge of panic to her voice. “Those lawyers have him.”
He frowned. “Are you certain? Perhaps he just went out, or-“
“The door to my house was open when I got home, just after sunset, and Spike wasn’t there,” Buffy said flatly. “Besides, I saw the same black SUV go back and forth along my street yesterday.” The Slayer slammed her fist into the back of the couch, which shook ominously. “I never should have left the house.”
Giles cleared his throat. “Perhaps. On the other hand, they might have come in while you were there and taken both of you. There’s no way to be certain, Buffy.”
She frowned. “Maybe so, but it doesn’t matter now. We need to get him back.”
Her Watcher pulled off his glasses. “I suppose we ought to call Angel,” he said. “If they’ve managed to get Spike, they might well find Drusilla.”
“Dammit,” Buffy said, frustrated. “I can’t believe I let Spike get taken. I was supposed to be protecting him.”
Giles gave her a concerned look. “Buffy, you’re doing your best, I’m sure. Spike is a vampire. If they need him so badly, I doubt they’re planning on dusting him.”
“We don’t know that!” Buffy objected. “Spike makes me want to dust him, and I-” She stopped there, fearful of giving too much away. “I should call Angel.”
Giles watched her dash away to use his phone, his curiosity peaking. Just the other day, Buffy had seemed to think of Spike as no more than an annoyance, and now-
It really was too horrifying to contemplate, so he shoved that thought to the back of his mind. There was no way Buffy would get involved with another vampire. Not after what had happened with Angel.
He was very nearly certain of it.
~~~~~
Lilah really didn’t like the look that Holland had on his face. It was bad enough that Lindsay had succeeded in capturing Spike. The vampire was still passed out and trussed up in a specially prepared office. She, on the other hand, had been unsuccessful in even locating Drusilla after Wesley managed to spirit her away.
Here she’d thought the man incapable of anything heroic.
“What do you have to say for yourself, Lilah?” Holland finally asked.
Lilah didn’t like his tone of voice either. She knew that the better Lindsay looked to the eyes of the Senior Partners, the worse she looked in comparison. She had worked too long and too hard, had made too many compromises, to give up a choice spot to him now. If there was one thing Lilah Morgan understood it was competition.
The competition at Wolfram and Hart was fierce.
She schooled her face into a placating expression, even though she was screaming on the inside. “I’ve been doing my best, but-“
“In this case, your best obviously isn’t good enough,” Holland stated, his tone chiding. “What I want to know is what you’re going to do to fix it.”
Lilah bit back the snarl in the back of her throat. “I’m working on it. I have our best psychics trying to get a read on her, but it’s like she has some sort of shield.”
Holland looked thoughtful. “I suppose that’s possible. It’s often difficult for psychics to see or predict others with similar abilities.”
Seeing her chance, Lilah took it. “Look, sir, I realize that I might have done better, but this was Lindsay’s project. I’ve got a lot on my plate right now, and I think it might be a good idea to let him take over this part. There’s the telekinetic that we’ve been working on, plus the Gorman case. I don’t want to give those projects less than my best when I’m in charge.”
Holland seemed to consider her logic for a moment. “You’re right, Lilah. I have been unfair. Lindsay ought to be the one in charge of retrieving Drusilla. I’ll notify him immediately. I’m sure he’ll come up with a solution to our little problem.”
It was a thinly veiled barb, but Lilah decided that it didn’t matter. She was well and truly clear of the whole mess, which was a very good thing. Her woman’s intuition was telling her that this whole situation could blow up in their faces at any time.
She didn’t particularly want to be there for that.
Grabbing a couple files from her office, Lilah stuffed them into her attache case and headed for her car. She’d spent enough long nights at the office to justify an evening at home. She’d have a glass of wine, turn on the TV, and go through her notes. It would be the perfect way to take her mind off what had been a hellish day.
That meant that it could only get worse. After all, just because she couldn’t see anyone in the rearview mirror, didn’t mean no one was there.
Angel’s arm snaked around the back of her seat and pinned her against the plush leather. Lilah tried to stifle her gasp, but she was quite sure that the vampire heard her heart rate accelerate dramatically.
“You have such a pretty neck,” he murmured. “I’m thinking of snapping it. Want to know why?”
“Why?” she asked, deciding to play dumb.
Angel was onto her game. “You’re a clever girl,” he replied. “You know why. I want to know what you want with Dru.”
Lilah knew she had a couple of choices. She could keep her mouth shut and hope that Angel’s soul kept him from doing her any lasting harm. Or, she could tell him everything he needed to know to wreck Lindsay’s project.
That last option was really appealing, as long as no one found out that she’d spilled her guts.
“We were trying to resurrect Darla,” Lilah confessed, deciding that in this case honesty really was the best policy. It wasn’t like it mattered anymore. “The idea was to use her to drive you crazy. We wanted you dark.”
Angel was impressed. Parading Darla around in front of his nose was bound to make him a little nuts. He still had a load of guilt from dusting her, and a lot of mixed feelings surrounding her. He loved her, but he didn’t. He admired her, but she had been evil. He had wanted to be with her, even if it meant losing everything he’d worked so hard for.
Drusilla, on the other hand, simply poured gasoline on the flame of his guilt. There was nothing ambivalent about his feelings for her. Angel wanted to protect her, to make sure no one had the chance to do the same things he’d done.
In short, Angel wanted to save her with the same intensity that once he’d sought to damn her.
“Not a bad plan,” he conceded. “What happened?”
Lilah sighed, feeling him loosen his grip slightly. “I don’t know. The spell went wrong, and Drusilla came back instead.”
“You were still going to try and use her to get to me.”
It was a statement, not a question, and Lilah nodded. “Until Lindsay discovered that Drusilla has visions. Then he came up with the bright idea just to use her.”
Angel didn’t miss the bitterness in her tone, and he silently exulted. This rivalry between Lilah and Lindsay would hurt them in the end, of that he was sure. As long as Angel could hope to turn one against the other, he might yet manage to save Drusilla. “What about Spike?”
“We’re going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.” Lilah tried to shift in her seat in order to see Angel’s face, but his arm was keeping her immobile. “He’s supposed to be the one that takes care of her.”
Angel frowned. There was no way Spike would go along with whatever plan they cooked up. He was annoyingly independent. And, where it concerned Dru, the other vampire would cut off a limb to keep her safe.
Then, something about what Lilah said caught his attention. “Wait a minute,” Angel said. “Where is Spike?”
“Wolfram and Hart has him,” Lilah replied, surprised he didn’t already know. “I would have thought-“
Angel frowned. He didn’t like being left out of the loop, but then he’d been waiting inside the parking garage for Lilah to come out for a while now. “How do I get him back?”
That kind of betrayal would be far too hard to hide. “I can’t tell you that,” Lilah said. “You’ll have to figure it out for yourself.”
His arm like a vise around her throat, Angel ground out. “Actually, you are going to tell me, Lilah. You know why? Because people like you are much more interested in saving their own skins than in company loyalty. I might not like Spike, but he is family.”
“Seventh floor,” Lilah finally said. “But I don’t know how you think you’re going to get inside. The alarms go off as soon as a vampire enters the building.”
Angel smiled grimly, even though he knew she couldn’t see it. “I’ll figure something out.”
~~~~~
When Spike woke, he was still feeling fuzzy-headed from the drugs they’d pumped into him. He had gone back downstairs to get some more sleep after Buffy had left, only to wake at the sound of footsteps on the stairs. He’d been expecting the Slayer, which was why it took him a moment to realize that the scent he was catching was of men’s aftershave, not Buffy’s usual vanilla.
By the time Spike realized that the scent belonged to neither Giles nor Xander-the only two men who might enter the Slayer’s house without waiting for someone to answer the door-it was too late. He had two tranq darts embedded in his chest, and Spike was out like a light.
There wasn’t even the chance to put up a fight, which really annoyed him.
The room they’d put him in was dark, for the most part, although he could see light through the window. Even though it was hours till daybreak, Spike could feel his skin crawl. He had no way to protect himself from the sunlight, and he could all too easily imagine himself bursting into flame.
Right when things were actually getting good between him and the Slayer, too.
Spike wasn’t quite sure whether or not to hope for rescue or escape. The chip would make fighting nearly impossible, and there was no telling whether or not Buffy would come after him.
Actually, she probably would, if only because Wolfram and Hart snatching him out from under her nose would have royally pissed her off.
It was too much to hope that her relatively friendly feelings for him would be strong enough to send her rushing in to the rescue.
Spike struggled with the bonds around his wrists. It felt like plastic of some sort, but it was strong enough to prevent him from snapping it. After a few minutes of fruitless struggle, he realized that he wasn’t going to free his hands through strength alone. The next best thing was to get his hands in front, rather than behind him.
That process went a little better, and after nearly wrenching his shoulder out of its socket, his hands were in front, allowing Spike to inspect the bonds more closely.
They did look like they were plastic, but obviously not your standard stuff. Whoever had put them on his wrists had cinched them tight, and Spike knew that he’d cut himself up pretty badly in his struggles.
He now had half a chance at doing something, however. Spike got himself standing and went over to the door. It was, of course, locked, and he tried forcing it open with his shoulder. The door rattled in its frame, but it wouldn’t so much as budge.
Spike frowned, wondering if his inability to force it open was due to whatever drug was left in his system or if it was the door.
Giving it one more powerful shove with his shoulder, Spike finally sat down on the floor again. There was nothing in the room, no furniture, nothing on the walls-except for the uncovered window.
And there was no way Buffy would manage to get him out before the sun rose.
~~~~~
They didn’t have much of a plan, but Buffy wasn’t willing to take the time to come up with one, not when they could be driving to L.A. A quick call to her mom, and Joyce had willingly lent her Jeep to Giles, since it was big enough to handle the four of them.
Tara and Willow were talking quietly in the back seat. They had made a stop at the magic store for basic supplies, hoping that they would be able to find anything else they needed in L.A. Buffy glanced over at Giles, who had put up surprisingly little fuss about heading out immediately. Perhaps her urgency was contagious, Buffy thought.
Giles was the first to break the silence. “Would you like to tell me what’s going on, Buffy?”
“What?” She frowned. “We’re trying to stop evil lawyers from using Spike.”
Giles lifted an eyebrow. “Somehow I don’t think your haste can be attributed solely to your desire to stop Wolfram and Hart.”
‘Crap,’ Buffy thought irritably. She didn’t want to talk about her feelings for Spike, but she had a feeling that was where this was going. “They came into my house and kidnapped one of my friends, Giles,” she said reasonably. “That tends to piss me off.”
“So you’re calling Spike a ‘friend’ now?”
The careful tone caused Buffy to freeze. Spike was a friend, as hard as it was to admit to it. Her life would be infinitely more boring without him. Just the thought of losing him sent a bolt of panic through her that she didn’t care to examine too closely. “Um, yes?” Buffy tried, hoping that her Watcher wouldn’t ask too many more questions.
Giles breathed out a sound that was almost a sigh. The very tone of his Slayer’s voice gave her away, whether she knew it or not. At least last time Buffy had been on “friendly” terms with Spike, it had been the result of Willow ‘s spell, and that had gone away. Now, however, it looked very much as though his worst fears were being confirmed.
He opened his mouth to speak, and then shut it just as quickly. “I do hope you know what you’re doing, Buffy.”
It was pointless to tell her that she had no business taking up with another vampire. Buffy had always done exactly what she wanted. The fears surrounding Spike’s chip were just the same as they had been a few weeks ago, when Giles would have counted on Buffy to stake him should there be a problem.
Except, knowing Spike and his history, Giles also knew that if Spike’s feelings for Buffy were similarly softening, it could be even better than the chip. A vampire’s nature was to kill, but Spike had gone above and beyond his nature in his intense devotion to Drusilla. Should he develop the same level of devotion to Buffy, it was possible that he might actually be able to transcend his demon’s inherent thirst for blood.
“I’m not sure what I’m doing, Giles,” Buffy said quietly. “I just know that I want a chance to figure it out.”
To her relief, Giles nodded. “All I will say then is be careful.”