Chapter Three
Shifting the small pack he’d slung over his shoulder, Spike tramped in silence behind Buffy and inhaled the sharp pine scent that thickly permeated the air. Crickets and katydids chirped and hummed in the humid night air. They’d been traveling on foot for hours because no man-made roads pointed to their destination. Angel’s car was long forgotten on the side of the highway.
Angel was leading the way ahead of Buffy, and Spike was content to let him play tour guide through the dense forests somewhere along the border of East Texas and West Louisiana.
First, they were going to check out the coordinates given to them by the Wolfram and Hart crew, and then, they planned to head a bit further south to the spot Willow pinpointed as a probable entrance to Vampire Villa.
Spike tried not to let Buffy’s closeness disturb his determined stoicism. He wasn’t sure when he’d be able to forgive her betrayal.
It wasn’t the fact that she was dating some other bloke that bothered him. . . well, actually it did bother him. It felt like she’d twisted a bloody knife in his gut, and that was a feeling with which he was well acquainted.
However, what got his gander even more was the fact that she’d left out that tiny detail when she’d arrived in L.A. He’d thought that was something she wouldn’t forget to mention like Dawn started school, she and Giles were training the Slayers, Xander was married. . . and oh yeah, she had a sodding boyfriend.
For three days after the surgery, he’d hidden from her within the walls of the massive law firm. He figured she’d just show up again at his apartment and not go away, and she would be more considerate in the harsh light of day at Angel’s place of work. The first day, after the painkillers had worn off, he’d had a massive headache despite what Fred had done to speed his healing with magic. He’d slept on the sofa in his office most of the day after discovering, interestingly enough, that despite his outward appearance as a vampire, he could still enter the sunlight without harm.
Buffy must have been recuperating as well because the next day – just as he had been feeling a little less like someone had pounded his head in with a sledgehammer – he had heard her uncertain knock on his office door. He had marveled at how vastly different her hesitancy was from the past when she would have kicked down the barrier between them and entered in a huff.
She knew better now.
She had given up after ten minutes or so of waiting for a response but had returned every couple of hours like clockwork to try again. A couple of times she’d left him covered plates of food just outside the door, as if she was trying to make up for her mistake by attempting to fill the hollow pit in his stomach for him.
After a whole afternoon of Buffy’s persistence, Spike had headed into the extensive hidden and dank passageways of the evil law firm, searching for an empty room to train and get re-acquainted with his magically-induced vampire senses and muscle flow. Gunn had found him, and they’d spent some time sparring. Gunn must have told Fred where to find him because she came ostensibly to see how he was faring in a physical sense. However, she spent most of the time sharing her own experiences of working with exes and gently nudging him to talk about his feelings. The support had been nice. Spike hadn’t been surprised that Angel didn’t tried to find him; he hadn’t really wanted to see Angel either. Something about adding Buffy to the mix always threw them both for a loop.
Lilah had approached him in the unlit halls, bragging to him about how easy he was to find because she’d used Gunn’s overhauled security system to pinpoint all the demons in the building, even the artificial ones. She’d said that she guessed where he was on the first try and that she had some important message from her evil superiors about Angel.
On their quest, Angel would apparently be finding out something very important about a prophecy that he had been meant to fulfill but hadn’t. Spike was supposedly in charge of making sure Angel stayed on track when and if he learned whatever it was he was supposed to learn.
Spike had no clue what Lilah had been prattling on about, but he’d found over the years that even though they had evil ulterior motives, Lilah’s bosses could be dead-on accurate about a lot of things.
Before his mind could go further down that line of thinking, Spike was shaken out of his memories by running smack into Buffy on the trail. Her unique essence filled his nose, and he silently cursed his body as it reacted positively without his permission.
Outwardly, he groused, “Some warning would have been nice.” He was distinctly aware of the double meaning behind his words.
So was Buffy. She shot back a clipped shush but didn’t look back at him. She hadn’t really made much eye contact with him since they’d started the trip.
Spike stepped away from her, directing his senses into the trees and beyond their small group. The sound and sight of movement caught his attention. Leaves rustled loudly, and branches snapped.
With the instinctual trust that they had built the last few years and in their prior years of hunting together as vampires, Spike and Angel fell into a well-used pattern.
Spike circled left and back the way he’d come while Angel took the path right and around. Buffy followed their lead and stayed alert and unmoving in the same spot.
Their quarry predictably walked right into their trap, and they hurriedly closed in on a male who was running and stumbling like he was exhausted. Detritus from the trees crunched under his feet, and he was crying and panicking. He didn’t seem to be paying attention to where he was going. Spike stepped around a tree and caught him, pinning his arms at his sides.
Fake vampire senses clicking into place, Spike identified his captor as a vampire – a very young but surprisingly clean vampire.
The vampire rolled his eyes wildly and thrashed about, cursing. “Let go of me! They’re after me, and I can’t let them get me! I need out of here now!”
Angel loomed behind him and aided Spike in slamming their prisoner against a nearby tree. Buffy hovered at Spike’s elbow, and he resisted the urge to pull away from her.
The vampire blinked away the shock of their force and stared into Angel’s glowing yellow eyes.
“Listen,” Angel growled loudly to get him to stop fighting them. “Who’s chasing you? Maybe we can help.”
“You can’t help me against them. *No one* can help me,” the youth insisted. “I just have to get away. . . get back to my home. It’s safe there.” He lunged against them again to no avail. “Let go of me!”
Spike and Angel exchanged knowing glances. They’d caught themselves a young vampire who was afraid of something. That wasn’t good. Youthful vamps were supposed to be fearless and reckless. . . not afraid.
The vampire continued, “Listen. Can’t you hear them coming? You’d do best to hide until they pass.”
Something was thundering in the distance – a lot of something.
And that something was rapidly getting nearer.
“Hide? Hide where?” Buffy asked, pushing forward to stand next to Angel.
The vampire lurched forward again, and this time, Spike and Angel let him go. “The city.”
“What city?” There was no place that could be considered a city for miles, except for a small rice-farming town.
The vampire gave them an incredulous glare. “You don’t know the city?” He gave their attire the once over. “I guess you don’t *look* like you know the city.”
Spike elbowed Angel, and Angel took Spike’s cue. “Oh, that city. That’s actually where we were headed. Mind if we tag along?”
The source of the noise was within a hundred feet, and it almost sounded like slithering. And branches weren’t just snapping; trees were emitting sharp cracking sounds and crashing to the earth. Every muscle tensed, Spike tried to catch a glimpse of what was coming through the trees but saw nothing even with his newly enhanced vision.
The young vampire nodded assent and began jogging slowly until Spike, Buffy, and Angel matched his tempo. Then, he ran more rapidly as whatever was chasing him also increased in speed.
Spike brought up the rear of the group, he dodging trees and fallen limbs with alacrity, relishing the power of his new body.
Abruptly, the vamp leading them halted, and their pursuers instantaneously seemed louder. The young vamp whipped out a small, handheld device and traced a line in the air.
A portal swept open, glowing yellow-green with invitation.
Once it was wide enough, the vampire ducked through the crackling doorway.
Spike paused to glance back into the darkness as Angel hurtled through behind the youth. Squinting his eyes again against the pitch black, he couldn’t make out anything distinct, but he thought he almost saw. . .
Before he could let his mind comprehend what his eyes were detecting, Buffy grabbed his arm and pulled him into the hazy cloud of the gateway to Vampire Villa.
* * *
Spike landed neatly on his feet at Buffy’s side. Disorientation from the dimensional shift overcame him for a few seconds, but Buffy’s hand, steady on his arm, brought him back to reality. The sky above was completely free of heavenly bodies. However, the ground was like the one they’d just left, and they were standing on a small cliff with a few random pine trees surrounding them.
“It’s like this is the overlapping edge between dimensions,” Spike mumbled to himself.
The young vampire, who had pocketed whatever device had opened the portal, heard him. “That’s right. And down there, that’s the city.”
Spike, Buffy, and Angel peered over the edge of the cliff to view a massive array of dense lights shimmering in the valley. Buildings of various heights jutted up like a thick field of corn stalks, and the sea of the metropolis appeared endless in all directions.
“Oh my god,” Buffy whispered, bringing her hand to her mouth in horror at the thought of all the vampires that must live there.
Their vampire companion eyes lit, seeming to take Buffy’s shock as amazement, and he moved to stand in her personal space, breathing in her ear, “Yeah. Isn’t it wonderful? I bet you’ve never seen anything like it!”
Buffy moved back from the violating vampire and into Spike’s chest. Spike’s protectiveness won out over his anger and hurt, and he allowed her to remain against him. They were entering a turf that was most definitely not their own, and they would have to support one another. Personal issues could be dealt with later.
Angel caught Spike’s eye, and they telegraphed an entire conversation in the space of a second. Spike understood that they needed to get away from this vampire to discuss strategy. On the other hand, the young vampire might prove to be an invaluable resource.
Angel cleared his throat. “We haven’t properly been introduced. My name is Liam, and they are William and Elizabeth.”
The vampire raised an eyebrow. “What century are you guys from?”
The three didn’t respond.
The youth let out an awkward laugh. “Right, right. You guys must be old.” He held out a hand to them and announced, “I’m Michael. I’m two. . . er, two in vamp years. Nice to make your acquaintance.”
Angel grasped the proffered hand, and then, Michael turned on his heels and started jauntily away from them as if they had never met.
Spike almost grunted at Michael’s typical vampire behavior, but he held back.
“Wait,” Angel called after him.
Michael glanced back over his shoulder but didn’t turn fully around. “Yeah?”
“Could you at least let us know a good place to stay in the city?”
“Oh, yeah. Sure.” Michael thought for a moment. “Stay at Kooch’s. It’s right at the edge of the city in neutral territory. Got free blood in every room, and the owner is discreet with newbies to the city like yourselves. Welcome to Vamp Villa. You got a free ticket in.” Then, he flipped Angel and Spike each an oddly-shaped coin, which was different from the monies the Wolfram and Hart crew had given them for use in the vampire city. “Those are for the hotel. Enjoy your stay.”
Without another word, he resumed his trek away from them.
When Michael was out of earshot, Spike was the first to speak. “What the hell was that out there?”
Buffy scooted back from Spike, and he silently mourned the loss of her presence at his side. . . no matter what she had done. She gave him an almost timid glance and said, “I don’t know, but it seemed like it might have been reptilian.” She held up her hands in confusion. “It? They? I think there was more than one.”
“A whole lot more than one,” Angel acknowledged. “What matters right now is that we’re still intact and that we made it into the city.”
“On W and H terms,” Spike added in a tone that said he felt a little uncomfortable with that. He reached for his pocket without realizing what he was doing. Patting the empty jeans, he sighed. He hadn’t smoked a cigarette since becoming human because well, he didn’t want to get lung cancer, but he was sorely tempted right about now.
“Wonder where Willow’s coordinates would have taken us?” Buffy wondered aloud, crossing her arms and changing the position of her feet. “It looks so innocent from up here. . . warm and safe with all the lights in the darkness.”
“It’s hardly going to be that,” Spike admonished. He watched Buffy shift her feet again and gaze longingly at the city, and he could tell she was tired after their long walk. At least some things were familiar about her even if he didn’t know what was going through her brain about more intimate things.
Buffy turned to Angel for confirmation.
Angel inclined his head toward his grandchilde. “Spike’s right. We’ll have to be on our toes from here on out. But at least we made it. Willow’s coordinates or no.” He paused. “We’ll make a plan in the morning.”
Buffy made a list of goals, “Find out about scary reptilian things and what they’re doing in our dimension. Check. Uncover and thwart evil vampires from taking over the world or crossing into our dimension or something like that. Check. Got the plan ready.”
“Great. All in a day’s work. . . that we’ll accomplish tomorrow,” Spike said wearily. “We need to get ourselves acquainted with the city first and get some shut eye before that.”
“Some respite should come first,” Angel agreed.
With that, they headed single file down the narrow path that Michael had paved for them. Spike was too tired to make even polite conversation and so apparently were his companions.
* * *
Kooch’s turned out to be an extremely small human-style motel on the very edge of the city. It was so far on the edge that nothing but a few trees and brush surrounded it. A flickering neon sign with several unlit letters, reading “Kh’s,” greeted Angel, Spike and Buffy, and an almost imperceptible glow lit the vacancy sign below. No cars filled the lot, but would the vampires really drive here?
They circled the place a few times before determining that there was no office and no staff. Instead, they found a squat, vending-like machine under a pole with a rusty metal shelter/roof. Spike mentally noted that no wonder the place was newcomer friendly; it seemed virtually deserted.
Angel and Spike examined the machine while Buffy played lookout for loitering vamps.
“Looks like there’re two rooms available,” Angel concluded.
“Yep. And only one has a bathroom for showering,” Spike added with a touch of amusement.
Attempting to peer around Angel’s tall form, Buffy perked up at the notion of a shower. “I could definitely use one of those. I call the room with the shower.”
“Guess we’re stinking roomies, mate.” Spike grinned at Angel as the only real vampire among their party shoved the coins Michael had given them into the machine.
Angel carefully pushed the proper buttons to obtain the two remaining rooms. As he gathered both sets of keys into his palm, he said quietly to Spike, “I don’t like the idea of Buffy staying by herself surrounded by who knows what kind of vampires.”
Frowning and planting her hands on her hips, Buffy inserted herself in between the two males as if to remind Angel that she was standing right there. “I can take care of myself. Come on. I thought you knew that by now.”
Pushing aside the events of the last few days, Spike allowed himself to be entertained by Buffy’s stubbornness. He crossed his arms and smirked at Angel. “Looks like you have a dissenter.”
Angel ignored Spike. “You haven’t been around vampires that much.”
Buffy visibly tensed. “Um, beg to differ. Vampire slayer here.”
“I meant. . . never mind.” Angel leaned toward her and nervously glanced around. “Be careful how loud you say things, Buffy.”
Buffy’s eyes flashed yellow. Angel was irritating her, mainly because she was exhausted and just wanted the comfort of a private room. “Elizabeth. If you’re going to be that sensitive about everything I say, call me Elizabeth here. Liam.”
“Fine, Elizabeth. I don’t want. . . ,” Angel changed his words mid-stream, “I won’t have you staying alone.”
“Okay, then.” Buffy snatched the key to the room with a bathroom from Angel’s hand and spun on her heel. She tugged loose one of Spike’s hands from his crossed arms and dragged the startled man with her. “Spike will stay with me.”
“Pet.” Spike’s joy at watching the verbal scrapping between Buffy and Angel gave way to fear and hurt that ripped through his gut. He did not want to be trapped alone with her in a small room. He’d rather go out and face the reptile buggers again than face her and the absent boyfriend that hung between them like the proverbial elephant.
“Buf. . . Elizabeth,” Angel called. “If you’re doing this to spite me. . .”
Buffy stopped in her tracks and faced Angel. “I’m not. I’m just tired and rapidly getting beyond grouchy, and I just want to go to sleep without someone fussing over me.”
Angel’s face was an unreadable mask as they left him behind. Spike wasn’t fooled by the vampire’s surface placidity. He knew what kind of pain lay underneath it.
He knew what lay underneath it because he felt the same sense of betrayal.
And would either of them really benefit from staying in a room with her, recognizing that neither of them ever stood a chance in the arms of Buffy Summers?
In that moment, Spike believed that he had somehow gotten the short end of the stick.