Chapter Fourteen
L’Gant was on top of Jenn before either Spike could react.
For such a large demon, he moved pretty quickly, and Spike reassessed his opinion of him. Apparently, L’Gant had been working on his sluggish tendencies since Spike had last seen him. As the two Spikes leaped at L’Gant, Spike’s ears detected a familiar and surprising sound from Jenn.
And it was far from the screams that he expected.
Both Spikes stopped short, stumbling from their own momentum as they did so.
Jenn was hunched over and laughing wildly as the demon’s fingers danced over her ribcage. “S-stop!” she managed.
Spike exchanged an astonished look with demon Spike and then with a smiling Charlie who was calmly mixing more drinks. He glanced at the other bar patrons. Most were ignoring the spectacle, although a few afforded the situation a fleeting look before returning to their drinks and small talk.
“No!” L’Gant continued tickling the helpless Jenn until she was gasping.
“P-please!” she begged, sinking to her knees on the dirty bar floor and attempting to push his arms away. The effort proved futile.
“Magic words,” L’Gant demanded with affection in his voice.
“N-no! No m-magic!”
L’Gant moved to tickle her legs and neck. “Yes.”
Spike tensed further. Was L’Gant attempting to hurt Jenn? He couldn’t tell. He could hardly see Jenn underneath the demon’s massive body.
“F-fine!” she replied, sounding almost like she was in pain.
L’Gant immediately ceased his tickling and stood back, crossing his arms. “Okay. I give in. Now. . . magic words!”
Jenn peered up at the demon with her lower lip sticking out. “Fine. I’ll bring you the kittens I owe you next time we play.”
L’Gant looked doubtful. “That’s what you said last time.”
“I know. . .”
Spike couldn’t stand in silence any longer. “What? You play poker with him?”
L’Gant was notorious in Spike’s dimension for being a ruthless poker player, meaning he tended to kill whoever won if it wasn’t him (unless you did him a favor in return), and if someone cheated him, well, that was another thing all together. The night Spike and Harmony had joined L’Gant’s poker table had led to her doing a drunken strip tease on the bar in front of all the demon crowd to get out of her “debt” for winning. Spike of old didn’t exactly step in to save his girlfriend from said humiliation because he didn’t care much for Harmony and also because he was just glad L’Gant didn’t want to kill them.
“Apparently,” demon Spike answered. He was less surprised than Spike, but then, he knew Jenn better than Spike did.
“Of course!” L’Gant sounded annoyed.
“Why?” Spike asked Jenn, who was struggling to stand, still reeling a bit from the tickle session.
“B-because it’s fun!” she replied.
“And she actually plays fair and settles her debts. Most of the time,” L’Gant added, looking pointedly at Jenn.
“Well. . . most of the time I play fair,” Jenn corrected, accepting vampire Spike’s assistance in steadying herself. “I find it fun to play with demon rules. Helps me understand them. Kitten poker is a fascinating part of demon culture. Plus, L’Gant here is nice to me. He doesn’t make me do anything foolish, mostly ‘cause I take care of misbehaving customers for him.” She caught Spike’s incredulity. “I study demon culture. I guess you could say I want to eventually be a demon anthropologist of sorts.”
Demon Spike shook his head, as if he knew Jenn all too well. “I never know what you’re going to get into next, pet.”
She grinned at him. “I know! Like to keep you on your toes.”
“And that you do. You’re worse than Dawn.” He smiled at her, his eyes softening. Spike’s thoughts flashed to the Dawn of his dimension. All he knew of her was that she was studying archaeology at university. Regret seized him. He wished he had kept up with her better. His counterpart had done a better job of maintaining his ties to Buffy’s younger sister.
“Well, you know her studies inspired me.”
“Looks like it.” Vampire Spike inclined his head at the large grey demon. “Why are we meeting with L’Gant?”
Jenn waves her hand at said demon. “L’Gant has a huge library of old books, which he’s usually willing to loan me. Some of the books have resources about interdimensional travel.”
“As long as you return them,” L’Gant said, giving her flat stare, as if to remind them that he’s in the room.
“Now that you know I do. . . I turn them on time, no overdue books for me.”
Vampire Spike glanced at his counterpart. “See? Jenn’s resourceful.”
“It seems so,” Spike agreed.
Raising his large hand, L’Gant interrupted their exchange by closing his meaty fingers around demon Spike’s throat and slamming him against the top of the bar. Again, the bar regulars didn’t even flinch. They were probably used to L’Gant’s shenanigans.
Licking his lips, as if relishing the sign of aggression, Vampire Spike laughed in L’Gant’s face. “Was wondering when you were going to do that.”
Guessing that vampire Spike had somehow not settled his debts, Spike took the aggression as a cue to move, and he leapt at L’Gant, jerking him back and attempting to throw him to the ground. However, the demon’s mass was too great, and Spike only succeeded in tugging him back from his twin. L’Gant’s hands remained twisted in the other’s clothes.
Demon Spike grabbed L’Gant’s hand, snatching one of Charlie’s drinks and throwing it in the demon’s face. L’Gant hissed as the alcohol began burning his eyes, and he loosened his hold on vampire Spike to bring his hands to his face. The two Spikes then wrestled the demon into a chair at a nearby, vacant table. One of them punched L’Gant in the nose to keep him from struggling too hard.
L’Gant raised both legs before either Spike had a chance to dodge, and he sent his assailants flying in opposite directions. Spike crashed into a table occupied by a couple of vampires who slid into vamp mask as he broke their table.
Spike groaned at the wood digging into his flesh. For once, he was glad he wasn’t a vampire any longer. “Sorry to interrupt your cocktails,” he apologized without feeling much sympathy for them. Ignoring the pain shooting through his muscles, he bounced to his feet and sprang back toward L’Gant who was headed his way, not caring that his foe was three to four times his weight and three times as strong.
The vampires he disrupted looked as if they wanted to snap his neck, but their eyes lingered on L’Gant. They obviously didn’t want to interfere with L’Gant’s business, and they hurried to join the now retreating customers. Maybe they weren’t used to L’Gant’s fights causing this much of a ruckus.
L’Gant was headed back toward Demon Spike who was lying in a heap near the wall. The vampire was slow in getting to his feet, tentatively touching his wounded head. Blood welled between his fingers, and a curse slipped from his lips.
Using his body as a miniature torpedo, Spike tackled L’Gant at the center of his back, causing the demon to stagger forward.
Growling, L’Gant whirled on Spike, grabbing him by the shoulders.
Spike thought the wall might crumble behind him with the amount of force L’Gant used to smash him against the plaster with his calcium-filled breastplate. L’Gant’s breath smelled of the raw flesh that he regularly ingested.
“Hey!” Jenn waved a finger and used magic to throw a tray of half-empty glasses to the ground. The shattering glass disrupted the flow of the fight, and the two Spikes and L’Gant stared at her. Jenn frowned at them, hands on her hips. “You done with the macho crap now?”
Spike’s twin smirked from his position on the floor. He braced himself against the wall as he stood. “We’re barely getting started, love.”
“Well, stop now. We are actually here to get L’Gant’s help, not beat him to a pulp. I don’t know what happened between the two – er, three – of you, but I don’t appreciate being dragged in the middle of it when all I’m trying to do is help.”
L’Gant didn’t release Spike, but he seemed curious. “What could these vermin want bad enough to come to me for help?”
Neither Spike said a word.
Demon Spike didn’t because he was stubborn, but Spike didn’t because he couldn’t get enough air to make an audible sound.
Jenn changed tactics and appealed to L’Gant, “Let Spike go. Let him go, or I’ll start breaking things, and you don’t want that.”
“A little late for that, pet,” demon Spike observed, nodding to the glass shards and alcohol-drenched ground.
Jenn glared.
Spike gathered the small amount of air he had left and whispered, “B-buffy.”
Startled at the sound, L’Gant stepped back.
Clutching at his throat, Spike gasped, “We need your help to find Buffy.”
Confusion crossed L’Gant’s face. “The Slayer? She’s dead.”
The emotional pain that Spike felt at L’Gant’s words was sharper than any physical pain than his rival could inflict. Spike sought vampire Spike, whose eyes were cloudy with his own hurt.
His twin’s voice was hoarse and low. “He means the Buffy here.”
Jenn was calmer with her next words, trying to move the conversation away from the obvious source of the two Spikes’ pain, “What happened between you two. . . er, three?”
Before anyone could respond, the door to the now vacated bar slammed open. All eyes flew to the blonde in the doorway. “I did.”
L’Gant growled and said with an angry hiss, “Harmony.”
Demon Spike snorted and muttered, “Things just keep getting more interesting.”
Her hair up in a tight bun instead of loose over her shoulders and a grim expression on her face, Harmony trotted into the bar, and an entourage of vampires dressed in solid black filed in behind her, arms filled with crossbows and sulphur-tipped arrows. . . the only element that could kill demons of L’Gant’s variety.
“Hello, Gantie.” With her hands behind her back, she circled the demon with a confidence Spike had seen her possess only once. . . when she kicked him out of their bed with a stake. “Long time, no see.”
“No skin off my breast plate. I’m guessing you aren’t with this idiot anymore.”
Harmony rolled her eyes. “Please! I wouldn’t be with him if someone paid me.”
“Why the change of heart, Harmony?” L’Gant asked, remaining calm despite the imminence of his situation. “You certainly didn’t mind it before.”
Looking down her nose at the two Spikes, Harmony narrowed her eyes, “It’s different now.” Her chin lifted. “I’m different. He. . . they. . . you. . .” She huffed in frustration, and Spike vaguely mused which dimension this Harmony was actually from. “Whatever! Neither of you appreciated me like Michael. He believes in me. . . believes I have something to offer the world other than twisted sex games.”
“You need to sing a new tune, love,” Demon Spike commented from Jenn’s side.
Harmony clenched her jaw at his words. “And I have a mission now.”
L’Gant, whose violet eyes had been flicking between Harmony and the two bleached blondes, sounded completely amused. “So you’re here to exact your revenge on me?”
She regarded L’Gant as if he were stupid. “Um, no. I’m here for the, er. . . Spikes.”
“Then what’s with all the weapons in my bar? You can have them.” L’Gant took the opportunity to shove the still recovering Spike forward.
“Hey!” Spike managed.
“I’m not here to kill them,” Harmony clarified. “I’m just here to get them to help.”
“Help you what, Harm?” Spike asked, rubbing his throat and giving her his most helpless expression.
Harmony threw her arms up as if she couldn’t believe how inane his question was. “Well, duh! Help me get the Slayer out of Stephanie’s fortress! We have to stop Stephanie. She’s destroying everything Stephan and Michael worked for!”
His heart nearly stopped. Buffy was with Stephanie. . . a prisoner in Stephanie’s fortress. Finally, he had some bit of information to grasp onto. Spike found himself offering Harmony a genuine smile. Maybe he hadn’t given her enough credit in the past.
Spike’s sudden warmth toward her took Harmony aback, and she returned his smile.
“Wait a minute.” Demon Spike stepped forward. “How did you say you got here? And how do you know where his Buffy is?”
“Stephan has spies in Stephanie’s lair. He wasn’t stupid. She had them spying on him, too.”
“How did you cross dimensions?” Vampire Spike repeated.
Spike saw them standing in the shadowed doorway behind Harmony’s vampires before anyone else did. “Kranooks. Stephan said they escaped across the dimensions.”
“That’s right.” Michael emerged from the crowd and joined Harmony, his arm circling around her waist and drawing her close. A jagged cut sliced down his cheek, and his clothes were torn and dirty, but he was smiling. “Just because Stephanie treats the kranooks like slaves doesn’t mean they’re stupid. Forming an alliance really wasn’t that hard.”
As Michael touched the wound on his face, Spike heard a faint slithering in the background reminiscent of the battle in the forest. Spike shivered in remembrance of the fray. Even with Buffy and Angel at his side, he’d felt inadequate to fight off the hordes. After killing one or two, he had been so tired that he could scarcely stand. If he had been alone, he would have been killed. A fight with the kranooks wasn’t something he wanted to repeat.
When Spike re-focused, Michael was still talking, “It took some. . . negotiation, but I wish we’d have done it sooner.”
“Right.” Harmony beamed, not taking her eyes off Michael. “I’m so proud of you, honey.” She deposited a kiss on his lips.
The youthful vampire gave L’Gant the once over. “This him?”