Chapter 6
Three days later, Buffy hummed happily as she flitted around her room. A date with Parker. Sure, there was the minor annoyance of Harmony being back in town, and a vampire to boot, but on the whole, things were looking up. Besides, how much trouble could Harmony really be? She flipped through the closet, searching for the right outfit. Something that was sophisticated, but not slutty, open to possibilities but not desperate. Settling on a halter and her leather pants, she focused on her makeup as Willow entered the room.
“Getting ready for the date with Parker?”
Buffy nodded. “Oh, I still haven’t been able to track down Harmony, but she’ll turn up. I’m surprised anyone with her lack of brains has managed to make it this long anyway.” She finished applying her lipstick, then swiveled for Willow’s approval. “How do I look?”
“You look great Buffy, Parker won’t know what hit him. So do you think you two…” Willow arched her eyebrows suggestively.
“Oh, I don’t know about that. It’s just, I think maybe there’s a real connection, you know? Maybe that was the problem this summer, I just kept trying to rush things. I’m just going to go slowly and see what happens.”
Willow nodded. “A good solid plan Buff.”
The knock on the door interrupted their conversation. “Oh, that’s him – you and Oz have a good night too, he’s playing at the Bronze again, right?”
“Um-hm, and then we’re going to crash at his place if you, you know, need the room.”
Buffy smirked at the redhead. “Maybe I will.”
~*~*~*~*~
The party was proving to be more than a little dull. Spike’s eyes roved across the crowd of intoxicated easy catches as Harmony continued to suck on the neck of their latest victim. She’d been quite sweet since he’d agreed to take her out and he was anticipating some kinky sex by the time they made it back to the caverns they’d set up camp in while they continued the excavation. He’d been quite surprised at some of the things she’d been agreeable to and had even suggested, but he wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. She’d certainly proven to have her uses, even if she did have the most grating voice he’d possibly ever heard in more than a century of existence.
He looked around again. It was just too easy. No fight, no struggle, just a smirk from him or a bat of the eye and a giggle from her and they’d lured more than one unsuspecting co-ed in for a little snack. Course he’d had to discourage her from actually killing anyone at the party, too much attention was not what they needed now.
Suddenly he was tired of watching Harmony engrossed in their young friend. He had better uses for her mouth tonight.
“Alright, Harm, enough, you’ve had you fun. It’s time to go.”
She turned to him, lips still smeared with blood and pouted. Quite the messy eater, his little Harm. He leaned over and licked her lips clean. “Now, now, none of that. I have plans for you.”
Harmony continued to pout. “But this one’s so sweet. Can I please take him with us? Please?”
“Harmony, we discussed this before we left. We don’t want to raise suspicion. Take another nip there, pet, then we’ll go.”
“Oh but Spikey, please? What if I let you…” She leaned in and began to whisper in his ear and Spike’s eyes grew wide. Well, well, he hadn’t been expecting that.
“Very well, bring the boy.”
She giggled and they arranged the lad between them so he appeared to be just another drunk freshman. Things were going along fine with their relatively unobtrusive exit, with Spike’s attention more than half distracted by Harmony’s promise, when he suddenly raised his eyes to see none other than the Slayer.
She narrowed her eyes and cocked her head in the way he’d grown so familiar with in his dreams, all fury and righteous indignation that suddenly made him harder than the most lascivious proposal Harmony could concoct. He noted the wanker she was standing with, some pale Angel imitation she’d picked up, and fought the urge to snarl at the boy. Then he pulled it together and decided retreat was the better part of valor on this occasion, tossing the dead weight so they could escape from the party.
He had truly been ready to wring Harmony’s neck by the time they made it back to the lair. Not that the Slayer knew what the Gem was about, but still, her Watcher might. He needed to speed things up before all his carefully laid plans fell apart. Ignoring Harmony, he dug back into the blueprints again. He was sure he’d almost located the exact spot, piecing together the information from the old text and various records of tunnels and excavations around Sunnydale over the last few years until he’d isolated a location that seemed to have been undisturbed, but fit the other clues.