So You Think You Can Dance

by Slaymesoftly

A future fic (no comics references to speak of) that takes place in an American city that contains a minor hellmouth and the accompanying assortment of vampires and demons. The fair-sized squad of slayers live there and keep things under control. Buffy is visiting to see if she can help out with a problem that has arisen. She finds unexpected help from a dead guy...

1. Chapters 1 - 4

Say you will, say you will, give me one more chance

At least give me time to change your mind

It always seems to heal the wounds

If I can get you to dance…

Fleetwood Mac

CHAPTER ONE

"What do you mean 'There's a new sheriff in town?' You guys are the sheriff, remember?" Buffy put her hands on her hips and glared around the room, noting for the first time how beat up the Cleveland slayers were. "Is this why you called me here?" She gestured at the sulky-looking girls, who were trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to hide their casts and bandages.

"I didn't want to," Vi said, "but I was outvoted."

Buffy turned her gaze on the only experienced slayer she knew. "Want to bring me up to speed, then?"

Vi sighed. "Okay, I haven't seen him yet, but there's a vamp out there who's been killing demons and beating up every slayer he comes across. He tells them... Becky, tell her what he told you."

Becky squirmed and tried to hide behind her hair as she mumbled, "He told me I was going to get myself killed... and to go back and tell my boss I shouldn't be on my own yet." She raised her eyes to Buffy's. "But I swear, until I fought him, I've never had any trouble. I've dusted lots of vamps!"

Buffy frowned at her. "He didn't try to kill you?"

Becky shook her head, her hair swinging back and forth in front of her face. "No," she whispered. "He just knocked me out. When I came to, he was sitting on me and growling. He shook me and yelled at me, and then he told me to "get my arse home".

Buffy gave a little start. "He said 'arse'?"

Becky nodded. "Yeah, Vi had to tell me it meant 'ass'. Didn't matter, I got the message loud and clear."

"You didn't know—" Buffy stopped, reminding herself that many of the girls looking at her so earnestly were only in their early teens. If she looked at them through less judgmental eyes, she had to admit that they seemed very young to be facing death every night. She sighed and shook her head. "Okay, so he sent you home to lick your wounds. What about the rest of you?"

An angry-looking older brunette in the back of the room raised her hand. "The son-of-a-bitch broke my arm. I would have had him if he hadn't done that. My stake was on its way to his heart when he blocked it." She seemed thoroughly offended that the vamp in question hadn't accepted his fate as she'd expected him to. Buffy couldn't resist an eye roll, which she noticed Vi duplicating.

"Uh, were you under the impression that vampires don't fight back?"

There was a lot of muttering around the room, before one of the other girls with a cast on her arm spoke up. "Most of the vamps we find are still shaking off the dirt. They're pretty easy pickings. The only things we really have to worry about are demons, but they don't usually bother us much."

"Are they 'bothering' anyone else?" Buffy asked. "You know, like the people you're supposed to be protecting?" She glared around the room, then back at Vi who looked mortified.

"They're really better than this, Buffy," she said, adding her glare to Buffy's. "I know they act silly sometimes, but they try hard. They've just never had to go up against anything as tough as this vamp."

"Okay. So, we've got an older, more experienced vampire in the area and he's kicking your butts, but also taking out demons. What I don't get is why he hasn't killed any of you yet. Slayer blood is like chocolate vitamins to vampires. It gives them lots of energy and tastes good too."

She leaned against the big table in the middle of the room. "How about we go around the room and each one of you who's met this vamp tells me what happened. I want to know everything – what's he look like, how does he fight, what are his weaknesses, his strengths, what did he say to you? Everything. Let's start with you." She pointed to the dark-haired slayer who'd been so angry at being defeated.

The girl swallowed hard, then lifted her chin. "He's not real tall, but he's strong and very fast. He doesn't... I didn't notice any weaknesses," she admitted. "It felt like he was just playing with me. Even when I had the stake out, now that I think about it. He was laughing at me."

"And did he say anything to you before he let you go?"

"He said some stuff under his breath, but I don't think he was talking to me. Something about sending children to do a woman's job, and stuff like that." She shrugged apologetically. "My arm hurt really bad, I really wasn't paying any attention to what he was saying, I just wanted to get away before he killed me."

"Which he didn't do."

"Well, no. But he followed me! He followed me almost all the way back here. I just kept running and I guess he couldn't catch me."

"Uh huh," Buffy grunted in disbelief before turning to another girl. "How about you? What's your story?"

"Uh, I don't really have one," she said meekly. "The only time I saw him was when he was fighting with a demon. I was by myself, so I decided it didn't matter who won, I needed backup. I called Vi, but by the time anybody else got there, the demon was dead and he was gone."

"Okay, so you watched him. You weren't distracted by fighting or a broken arm. What did you notice? What can you add to what..."—she looked at the dark-haired girl questioningly, and the girl muttered her name— "Rita said?"

"Um... I dunno. Really fast? He was a lot smaller than the demon, but he was all over him. And strong. He tore the demon's head off."

"Fast and strong. We already know that. Kinda comes with the vamp package. How about what he looks like? Does he wear distinctive or out of style clothing? Something that might tell us how old he is? Anything that would stand out if you spotted him from a distance? Did you get a chance to see his human face? Would you notice him in a crowd? What about hair color? Something unusual like red hair? Or... bleached blond?" She exchanged looks with Vi and shrugged. "It's not like Billy Idol was the only one to copy Spike's look; one of them could have got himself turned before he developed better fashion sense."

"No. Regular clothes – jeans, T-shirt, maybe some kind of motorcycle boots? Curly brown hair, but not so curly you'd notice it right away. Not like he had a 'fro or anything like that."

"So ordinary-looking? And you didn't see his human face?"

All the girls shook their heads. "He looked like an ugly vamp. Like there was something wrong with his face. I'm not sure I'd recognize him if he wasn't in game face," a girl wearing bandages on her hands said. "He seems pretty ordinary – not real big, not wearing old styles, except for the accent—"

"Accent?"

"Yeah, he's Australian or something. He doesn't sound American."

"What hand does he lead with?" Blank stares greeted her. "When you're fighting, what hand does he lead with, and which hand does he hit with the hardest?" Buffy looked at Becky. "He hit you. Which hand did he use? Right or left?"

"I didn't see it coming," Becky admitted, hanging her head. "We were fighting and then I just... all of a sudden – wham! I was on the ground seeing stars."

Buffy gave an exasperated sigh. "All right, ladies. Take your vitamins, get some rest and heal. Nobody goes out by herself until we've dusted this demon. Got it?" The girls shifted their eyes to Vi, the nominal leader of their group, but muttered their agreement to Buffy's order. Buffy turned to Vi and asked, "Is there somewhere private we can talk?"

Vi gestured with her head and led Buffy into a small office near the kitchen. She closed the door and sank into a chair. "They really are better than this, Buffy." She repeated her earlier statement. "It's just that there hasn't been much going on here since they arrived and this is the first time they've gone up against something they can't handle easily. I'll work with them more," she added.

"I'm not blaming you," Buffy said with a reassuring smile. "We sent these girls out, thinking they were trained and ready to go. This is good information to take back to the school. We'll have to make some changes to our training techniques to prepare them better for what kinds of demons and vamps they might come across."

"It's too bad they can't spar with one – or watch you spar with him. You know, how Spike used to work with us? There's really no substitute for practicing against a master vampire – even if he does have a soul that keeps him from beating you up too bad."

Buffy gave a smile that managed to be sad and proud at the same time. "Yeah, having Spike around helped you girls a lot. Even before you got your powers, you at least knew how fast a vamp can be." Buffy's smiled faded. "And we can only hope they never have to face anything like a Turok-han."

Vi shuddered in agreement.

"Okay. So we need a plan. I'm guessing you haven't seen this guy yet?"

Vi shook her head. "Not yet. He's always one jump ahead of me when I show up with help. He just fades away so fast I can't even sense him after a few seconds."

"Okay. We'll give the girls some time to heal, and meanwhile you and I will patrol. If we get lucky, maybe we'll find him and dust him before he has time to start accumulating minions. These girls aren't ready to take out any big nests. Some of them are going to have to build their confidence back up."

"Do you feel that?" Vi spun around in place, trying to pinpoint the faint tingles that meant 'vampire'.

"I do." Buffy narrowed her eyes and remained still, seeking the source of the vibes. "Here we go," she said unnecessarily as several newly risen vampires approached them. "None of these guys look like our big bad, though."

Vi shook her head. "Nah, they look like ordinary, run-of-the-mill fledges to me. That's pretty much all we run across anymore."

"Can't be all that's out there," Buffy said, settling into a fighting stance as the hungry vampires picked up speed. "Something is turning all these newbies you guys keep having to dust. Something you haven't seen yet."

"Maybe it's our mystery vamp," Vi grunted, impaling the first to arrive on her stake. She kicked another away, following him to where she could get him into staking range.

"Maybe." Buffy didn't even sound like she was breathing hard as she took out the first two to reach her – staking one with each hand. She engaged the remaining one in a fight, tucking her stakes where she could reach them easily. Enjoying the workout, she played with the tiring vampire until she realized that Vi was waiting for her. Knocking him down and staking him quickly, she apologized. "Sorry. It's been a long time since I had a good workout."

Tucking their stakes away, they continued to stroll through the warm night, catching each other up on their lives since Sunnydale's collapse.

"I heard Spike came back," Vi ventured. "How is that even possible? I saw that giant hole he made."

Buffy shrugged her shoulders. "Something to do with the amulet. Angel didn't let us know about it, and that stupid Andrew—" She sighed. "Anyway, he did come back somehow, but he never called anybody, and then Angel pissed off a whole bunch of evil guys and they all got killed fighting a demon army." She shook her head. "We weren't really sure about Angel when he took over Wolfram and Hart; we thought maybe he'd lost his soul again. Instead, he was trying to take down this heavy-duty evil from the inside – without bothering to let the Council know so we could send slayers to help with the fight." Buffy's voice deepened almost to a growl as she remembered how angry she'd been. "Not only did we not get to help, but Spike was dust again before I even found out he'd come back."

"I'm sorry," Vi said softly. "That must have hurt – losing him twice."

"I'm not sure which bothered me the most, that he didn't come running to me as soon as he could, or that he let Angel get him killed again." Buffy sighed. "Either way, he was just as gone as if his dust had stayed at the bottom of that hole." She shook herself and said in a more normal voice, "It doesn't matter. I've had plenty of time to get used to it. It did hurt, but I'm fine now. People die. Especially heroes. It's what happens. Life goes on."

"Uh huh," Vi said dubiously. "Well, I don't want to get used to that. I hope we can find this vamp before he does kill somebody I know."

"We'll find him," Buffy said confidently. "If I have to, I'll start patrolling alone. He won't have any idea I'm not some newbie he can play with and make fun of. Not until it's too late. I'll get him."

It was several nights, and many dead vampires and demons later before Buffy got the opportunity to go out alone. A bout of food poisoning had left half the girls, including Vi, moaning and throwing up. Of those who had not eaten the bad fish, almost all were still sporting casts or bandages, something Buffy found rather strange, but shrugged off. Buffy played nursemaid for as long as she could stand it, then grabbing a sword and her stakes, she almost ran for the door, pulling a hoody over her head as she did.

"I'll just do a quick patrol and be back in a jiffy," she said, smothering her guilt. "See you guys later."

She jogged away from the building, not slowing down until she was sure no one could call her back to clean up more vomit. Not being very familiar with the city, she ended up sticking to the cemeteries she'd visited when patrolling with Vi. Said cemeteries being pretty much empty of anything worth stakes or swords. She almost laughed with excitement when she walked around the corner of a large mausoleum to find several robed demons involved in some sort of ritual that required tying bleeding humans to a pole.

"Is this a private party, or can anybody play?" Buffy sang out as she decapitated the closest celebrant. She used the edge of her sword to slash through the ropes holding the two victims, instructing them to "Run like your life depends on it" before whirling to meet the remaining large and very angry demons. It took only a few minutes for them to realize that the smiling, quipping woman facing them down so cheerfully was not one of the novice slayers they'd become accustomed to ignoring unless the slayers were in a group. They began edging away from the darting point of her sword, and when she had run it through the chest of the tallest demon in charge, the other two turned and ran in different directions.

"Damn!" Buffy stood for a half-second, not sure in which direction to go, then shrugged and took off down the path. "I guess one of them gets away no matter what," she grumbled as she increased her speed. "Hey you! Slow down. We have a date!"

The demon threw off the robe that was hindering his progress, which drifted over Buffy's head as he sped up and disappeared into a grove of trees. By the time she'd slashed her way out of the smelly robe, the demon had vanished leaving Buffy to indulge in some creative swearing. Once she'd run out of names to call the missing demon, guilt over having been away from her sick sister slayers for so long began to come back, and she started back in the direction of the gate. She pulled her hood back up over her head and wished she'd worn gloves to keep her hands warm.

Noises ahead sent her sprinting toward the sounds of combat, only to find the two people she'd released huddled together while a vampire and a smaller, but no less dangerous, demon fought over them. Buffy shepherded the victims out of the cemetery, making sure they were in a well-lit area with plenty of traffic before she returned to slay the winner of the on-going combat. No sooner had she returned, than the vampire dispatched his opponent and turned to her with a toothy grin. "Time for a lesson, little girl," he said with a throaty growl.

"You got that right, fangface," she snapped back at him. She plunged the sword into the trunk of a tree for safekeeping and fell into a fighting stance, her hood still shadowing her face, but leaving her eyes clear. As the girls had reported, the vampire was not big, but very fast and clearly an experienced fighter. His face seemed not so much ugly as scarred in some way, giving him a slightly grotesque appearance.

His confident grin faded as he waited for Buffy to make the first move. Instead, she just held herself balanced on the balls of her feet and waited for him. He shrugged. "Have it your way, pet," he said, snapping a jab to her face. Buffy easily slipped the punch and retaliated with her own one-two combination. She got him with the "one", but the "two" landed on empty air as he gave her a taste of how quick his reflexes were.

They exchanged kicks and punches for several minutes, first one the aggressor, then the other, neither one gaining an advantage. Buffy resigned herself to a lengthy fight, refusing to admit she was enjoying having an opponent that could match her. She could see that the vampire was still wearing a smile, although it had gone from a cocky grin to one that seemed like pure joy. The fight gradually began to be less about killing the opponent, and more about coming out the winner. Buffy's stake never left her belt, and the vampire never attempted to bite her, even when they briefly came together occasionally in hand-to-hand tests of strength.

It was during one of their hand-to-hand matches that Buffy's hood fell off, allowing her blond hair to spill out. The vampire, who had temporarily pinned her to the ground, froze, his triumphant grin still in place, his eyes wide as he stared at her. The grin vanished. "Bloody hell," he breathed, rolling off and away from her. "Thought I was imaginin' that scent..." He remained where he'd rolled, lying on his back with his arm over his eyes.

Buffy remained where she was, trying to tell herself it was all a coincidence, but there was no denying the recognition that had flared in those golden eyes.

"Spike?"

Chapter Two

"What the fuck are you doing here? I thought you were in Europe somewhere."

Buffy blinked at the anger in his voice. "I thought you were dust!" she snapped back. "Which one of us should be more surprised?" She sat up and glared down at his covered face.

He heaved a sigh and lifted his arm so as to meet her gaze, visibly flinching at the pain underlying her angry glare. He just stared at her, still wearing his vampire mien and unable or unwilling to respond. Buffy watched as his expression softened, but he didn't go back to the human face she was more used to. Now that she knew who he was, she couldn't believe she hadn't recognized him sooner. Scars or no scars, his game face should have been as familiar to her as her own. And the way he fought...

"You've been beating up my slayers," she said, forcing herself not to let her eyes betray her mixed feelings. "Did you think somebody wasn't going to do something about it?"

"Come to sort me out then, have you?" The challenging look he gave her held less humor than she would have expected. It reminded her more of the Spike she'd first met who'd been both a brilliant fighter and a too-confident-for-his-own-good enemy.

"Just be grateful you haven't killed any of them... yet."

"Not planning to kill anyone, Slayer. But those girls needed a wake-up call. They're too cocky by half. Going out in groups and slaying newly risen vamps before they're even all the way out of the dirt." He snorted. "And pretending they don't see what the demons are up to so they won't have to take on something that might give them a run for their money. Somebody had to do something."

"So you came here to teach my girls that some vamps fight back?" She scoffed, even as she let her face relax into a less antagonistic glare. She tried to ignore the little ball of hope that was growing in her chest – the one that said he was still on the right side. The ball froze when he shook his head.

"I'm here for the Hellmouth," he said. He gestured at his face. "Need to do some healing after—need some healing. The extra energy is helping."

"You get energy from the Hellmouth?"

"Demon does. Why do you think there are so many of us here? This one doesn't have quite the same punch that Sunnydale's did, but it still gets the job done."

"So, you're here for yourself, not to—"

"Not here for your girls, Buffy," he said, his voice gentle. "Wouldn't have paid them any mind if one of them hadn't jumped me and shown how unprepared she was for something like me."

"There's no way to prepare them for something like you," Buffy said, not even aware of the implied compliment. "But you could have just talked to Vi about it. You didn't have to keep beating them up."

"It's not that they're not trained for it," he said, ignoring her real question. "These girls... they aren't as strong as you are. Not even as strong as you were when I first met you. And not as fast either. They're slayers, yeah, but they don't have all the tools they need. They need a different kind of trainin'. Something that takes into account their strengths and weaknesses."

"You should have told somebody," she repeated. "If you didn't want to call me, you could have told Vi. Hell, you could have sent an anonymous email if you didn't want anybody to know you weren't—" She broke off, overwhelmed by the emotions she'd been too angry to let herself feel. She leapt to her feet, blinking back unwelcome tears. Taking a deep breath, she let it out and tried to calm herself. When she felt she had her voice under control, she said, "Anyway, why don't you come back with me so the girls can see who you are and—"

"No." He rose smoothly to his feet, but remained where he was, a good several feet away from Buffy who had turned to leave.

"No?"

"No. Not doing show-and-tell tonight. Or any night, most likely. It was a good fight, Buffy. We should do it again sometime." Without another word, he turned and began to walk away, leaving Buffy to stare after him, too bewildered to call his name. When he'd disappeared into the darkness, she shook herself and began the walk back to the slayer group home. She pulled her hood back up and told herself it was because the night was chilly – not that she was trying to hide her damp eyes.

She entered the building quietly and went directly to the room they'd managed to keep open as a guest bedroom, shedding her hood only after she was safely behind a closed door. She threw herself onto the bed and tried to absorb the fact that Spike was not only alive – again or still, she wasn't sure – but that he was not interested in spending any time with her unless they were fighting.

By the next afternoon, things were almost back to normal. While some of the girls still looked pale and drawn, most of them had bounced back and were full of energy. Buffy looked at the group with more aware eyes, wondering which ones might be a little stronger than others, which ones might be smarter or have more common sense and street savvy. It didn't occur to her to doubt Spike's word. If he said the girls weren't as strong and fast as they should be, then they weren't; and it was her job to figure out how to work around those things and keep them safe while they did their job. She made a mental note to email the main school in England and ask Faith to start testing the girls there.

"So, what are you thinking?" Vi had walked up behind her while Buffy was surveying the girls sprawled around the big common room and arguing over whether to have pizza or Chinese food for dinner.

"I'm thinking we need to do some work," Buffy said without explanation. She sat down in a chair and put her elbow on the table. "Try to pin me," she said. Vi blinked at her, but sat down obediently, "I'm pretty sure you're stronger than I am, Buffy," she said.

"I know. But I need to check something out." Buffy wiggled her fingers and Vi clasped their hands together. "On three." The other girls looked at them curiously, watching as Vi and Buffy strained against each other until Buffy sighed and forced their house leader's hand to the table with one swift movement.

"See? Told you."

Buffy nodded. "Yeah, I'm stronger. But you almost gave me a fight." She frowned. "But maybe not as much of a fight as you should have. Bring one of the other girls up here. One you think might beat you."

"So not gonna happen," Vi said with the confidence of someone who had been a slayer for several years and fought against uber-vamps. "Suzie, come on up here, please."

A stocky redhead approached them. "Yeah? What, you want to arm wrestle me?" She giggled and looked at the other girls. "I always win those contests."

"With the other girls you do," Vi said. "Let's see how you do against me."

"Pfft," Suzie said, shrugging. "You're just older and taller, not stronger." She sat down, smiling confidently and taking Vi's hand in hers. Her confident smile changed abruptly when, without seeming to try very hard, Vi pinned her hand to the table. "I wasn't ready. Let's do it again – left handed."

Vi shrugged and changed hands, only to pin Suzie even more quickly. "What the hell?"

"Thanks, Suzie," Buffy said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "I'm sorry we embarrassed you, but I had to know."

"Know what?" All the attention was now on the two older slayers.

"Hit me," Buffy said, hands hanging at her sides. Suzie was just embarrassed and angry enough to take the senior slayer up on the invitation, and her hand lashed out almost too fast for the eye to follow. Buffy's block was too fast for the eye to follow, and the now really embarrassed girl was left holding an arm sore from where Buffy had blocked the punch with a flick of her wrist.

There was a lot of babbling as the girls all tried to make sense of what they'd seen and explain it away. Buffy waited for the babble to die down, letting them vent while she and Vi had a quiet conversation.

"Okay, are you going to explain? How did you know?"

Buffy gave a small, sad smile. "There's a reason you haven't seen the new vamp in town. And it's not just because you'd be able to give him a fight."

"You mean I'd be able to dust him," Vi said, frowning at Buffy's choice of words.

Buffy shook her head. "No, Vi, you probably wouldn't. But the reason he was avoiding you is because you know him." Buffy waited for Vi to process what she was saying.

"But I don't know any vamps. The only one I've ever met that wasn't on the end of my stake was Spike. But he's..." She stared at Buffy's face, noticing for the first time the haunted look in her eyes. "Oh. My. God."

"Yeah. Kinda my reaction, only more with the 'Where the hell have you been? Why didn't I know you weren't dead?' and less with the God stuff."

"Spike is who's been beating my girls up and telling them they suck?"

"Yep. Not on purpose at first, but once the first one tried to fight him, he started looking for them. He told me they aren't strong enough or fast enough. But I don't know why that would be. And I don't know if they've always been like that and we just missed it at the school, or if something's going on here that's sapping their slayer powers."

"But I've got all mine," Vi protested. "If it was something here, wouldn't I be affected too?"

Buffy shook her head. "I don't know if you are or not. Being older and trained for longer, maybe you're just that much stronger than your girls are."

"Still, it seems if something was weakening them I'd have felt it too. I was away for a while, but I've been back for a couple of weeks."

"You'd think so." Buffy frowned. "But if you're not affected, then that means we're sending girls out as slayers who probably can't do it without getting killed. I'll need to talk to Faith and Willow and ask them to run a check on all the girls there. If they're all okay, then it's definitely something going on here."

Vi looked over at the girls for whom she was responsible. "I guess I'm lucky I haven't gotten anybody killed. I'm glad Spike was here." She looked at Buffy. "Is he going to come by tonight? Explain to the girls why he was able to beat them so easily?"

Buffy bit her lip. "I don't think so."

Vi opened her mouth to ask why, then shut it when she saw the expression on Buffy's face.

The conference call with Faith and Willow didn't go as well as Buffy might have liked. She made a snap decision not to tell them about Spike until she'd spoken with him again. The thought that he might not want to talk to her was unacceptable, so she refused to think it. She stammered out a half-baked explanation of having "accidentally" wrestled with one of the girls and found her to be weaker than she should be. She could hear the suspicion in Faith's voice. Fortunately, her drawled, "You wouldn't be lying to us now, would you, B?" was enough to get Buffy's back up, and she easily summoned the righteous indignation needed to defend herself.

"What would I be lying about? I'm giving you important information here. These girls are all slower and weaker than they should be. You need to find out if that's what we're sending out to fight evil, or if I need to be looking for something locally that could be sapping their strength. Just get on it."

She stared at the phone after she'd hung up, guilt washing over her. She tried to tell herself that she was keeping the news about Spike from them because she needed to know more about how he'd survived when Angel and everyone else connected with him hadn't, but a little voice kept insisting she just didn't want to admit to them that Spike was once again undead, and once again hadn't bothered to tell her he wasn't dust. She told the little voice to shut up and went downstairs to meet Vi and the small group of girls she'd chosen to take out that night.

"Okay," Buffy said, looking over Vi's choices, "here's the deal. We're going to patrol as usual, but only in pairs. If you spot any demons or the vamp we're looking for, you call for back up. You got that?" She held up her radio, making sure each girl had one. "Stakes and swords. Stakes don't do much against demons unless you can stab them in the eye or something. But that's a last resort. Use all your weapons."

"So, we can't fight the vamp if we find him? I owe him," Rita said, her arm now healed enough that she could go out with just an ace bandage protecting it.

"You very literally can't fight him. I mean, you can, obviously, but you're going to lose again. I don't think he broke your arm on purpose, he was just defending himself and didn't know—" Buffy stopped, horrified. "Oh my God. I wonder if you're weaker in other ways? Maybe you can't take a punch or a kick?" She exchanged looks with Vi. "Okay, new plan. You don't engage with anything unless Vi and I are there to step in if we need to. All right? Everybody's got that?"

The grumbling from behind was beginning to get on Buffy's nerves by the time they came upon a Fyarl demon holding onto a leashed dog and roaring at the tearful owner tugging on the other end of the leash. So far, she and Vi had been the only ones to stake anything – in spite of it being obvious that the few vamps they'd encountered were so newly risen they hadn't engaged their brains much past "must have blood", and the other girls were not happy at being treated as if they couldn't handle themselves.

"Give that dumb woman credit," Vi said, "she's willing to fight for her dog."

"Yeah. Balls but no brains. Okay, ladies, let's see what you can do..." Buffy gestured at the demon, now dividing his attention between the dog and the group of eager girls surrounding him. With a roar, he threw the dog back at its owner and spun around looking for a way out of the circle of sword wielding slayers.

Buffy left Vi to watch the proceedings while she checked to make sure the dog and owner were okay. Assured that the woman and her dog were shaken but not harmed, Buffy escorted them to edge of the cemetery and waved away her thanks. As she returned to the girls, she felt a tingle on her neck, but a quick scan of the area didn't show her any vamps and she turned her attention to the Fyarl. His clawed hands were raised defensively, but he looked like he would much rather leave than take on slayers with swords.

However, when one of the girls tried to stab him and he was able to block it and wrest her sword away with no trouble, his attitude changed. He grabbed the disarmed girl and held her over his head, ready to smash her to the ground. The other slayers looked at Vi and Buffy; their fear for their friend obvious.

"He's going to kill her!"

"No he isn't," Buffy said calmly. "Because if he does, I will chop him into tiny little pieces... slowly." She approached the glaring demon and cocked her head at him. "And I'm pretty sure he knows it, don't you, big guy?" She held the easily confused demon's gaze, letting her relaxed and unafraid posture speak for itself. Her sword dangled from her hand in a way only someone very confident of her ability to put it into play quickly would be likely to hold it. With an unintelligible snarled curse, he threw the hapless slayer at Buffy and snorted mucus in their direction.

Buffy caught the girl with one arm and sidestepped the toxic snot. She allowed the slayer whose fall had now been broken, to drop to the ground while she buried her sword in the Fyarl's chest. He roared and tried to pull it out, but Vi had circled behind him. She swung her weapon at his neck, severing his head.

"Is he dead?" The girls gathered around the headless body, avoiding the rapidly hardening pile of mucus.

Buffy shrugged. "I don't know. Unless one of you has something pointy made out of silver, we can't make sure. I don't know how he'll do without his head, but..." She yanked her sword from his chest and wiped it on the grass. "I don't think he's going to be stealing pet dogs anytime soon." Just to be sure, she kicked the head as hard as she could, blinking in surprise when a few seconds after it had disappeared into the darkness, it came sailing back.

"What the hell?" They all looked from the still-headless and very dead-appearing demon to the head, now rolling to a halt.

"Let me," Rita said. "I could send a soccer ball the length of the field even before I was called."

The other girls scoffed, but stood back when Buffy stepped away and pointed to the very abused-looking head. "Go for it."

Rita took a couple of running steps and met the head squarely, sending it arching into a small pond some distance on the other side of the road. "Let's see somebody kick it back from there," she said, smiling as she accepted the congratulations of her friends.

"Thought about it," came a new voice. "But didn't fancy getting my clothes wet, and you bints aren't old enough to see me naked."

The girls whirled around, hands going to their stakes.

"It's him! Get him!"

"No!" Buffy's command slowed them down enough for her to get between the slayers and Spike, now strolling up with a complete lack of concern. When Vi quickly joined Buffy, clearly protecting the vampire and slayers from each other, the girls stopped and milled around in confusion. "We can take him," they argued. "There are eight of us."

Buffy shook her head, giving Spike a warning glance over her shoulder. He stopped and bared his teeth at the unhappy slayers. "You sure about that, luv?" he said to the girl who'd spoken.

"You can't beat eight slayers!" Rita protested. "Even if some of us aren't as strong as we're supposed to be." She pointed at Buffy. "There's nothing wrong with her. She's awesome."

"Always has been," he agreed softly, giving Buffy a small smile that she returned before she could help herself.

"There wouldn't be eight of you," Vi said. "Buffy and I aren't going to help you stake Spike, so forget it."

Rita flinched. "You know him?"

Vi didn't respond to Rita, just turned to look at Spike. "You've been hurting my girls," she said, hands on hips. "Maybe I should stake you."

He grinned at her, his scarred face and fangs making it more scary than friendly.

"Look at you, all grown up and acting liking a real slayer."

"They're real slayers, too." Vi defended her girls who were still muttering threats.

"That they are, luv," he said. "Never said they weren't, just needed to let them know that their tools weren't all there before they got themselves killed. Didn't mean to hurt anyone too badly – I expect that's something else you should look into." He gestured at Rita's arm. "That arm shouldn't have broken just cause I blocked her. Yours wouldn't have... or Buffy's."

"We're looking into it," Buffy interrupted. "I've told Willow and Faith to check out all the girls at the school and see if it's everybody, or just these girls."

"So you told them about me?" He raised a heavily-scarred eyebrow.

"Uh... actually, I didn't... I may have kept that part to myself for right now." Buffy's gaze challenged him to make something of it, but he just nodded.

"Prob'ly for the best," he said without explanation. As Vi shepherded the girls down the road toward the gate out of the cemetery, Spike walked up to Buffy and cocked his head. "So, Slayer. Now what?"

Buffy shrugged. "Now what, what? I'm going to go back to the house. You're welcome to come with. If you want to..."

"Don't think that's a very good idea, luv," he said after a short pause. "Not till we've talked more." He brushed his hand against her shoulder and turned back the way he'd come.

"It's pretty hard to talk to somebody who keeps walking away!" Buffy yelled at his rapidly-disappearing back. He just raised a hand in acknowledgement and kept going, leaving her glaring after him. She pulled her radio from her pocket and called Vi.

"I'll be home later," she said. "I have vampire butt to kick first." Without waiting for a reply, she shut the radio off, put it back in her pocket, and sprinted after Spike.

Chapter Three

She knew he could hear her pounding after him, but he never changed his pace. He didn't slow down so she could catch up but continued to stride purposefully and briskly.

At least he isn't running away...

When she'd caught up with him, she walked along without speaking until she couldn't stand it any longer.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Sorry, pet. Am I not being sufficiently obedient?"

"Obedie— I just meant why are you being so... so... unfriendly?"

He turned his head to look at her. "You think I'm being unfriendly?"

"You don't? You keep walking away from me. You won't come back to the house to talk there. You're being all sarcastic and..." She shook her head and lowered her voice, allowing some of the emotion she was fighting to bleed through. "Spike, I thought you were dead. Twice. Twice I... I grieved... for you. And now you're not dead. But I didn't know. And you won't talk to me, and you act like we're just... just..." To her dismay, she felt tears prickling her eyes. She took a deep breath and waited until her voice was under control before increasing her pace to catch up with him again.

"It's been a long time. I know that. And if you don't... It's okay. I mean I know we're not... not... But dammit! Don't act like we never were! You don't have to... You don't love me any more. I can see that. But don't act like we're strangers. Like I've got no right to ask you where you've been... or to... to want to talk to you." When there was no reply, she added a soft "Please?" and stopped walking. She held her breath while he took several more steps before halting. He stood with his back to her, the tension in his shoulders very visible in the tight tee shirt he was wearing.

When his shoulders slumped and his head dropped, she released her breath with an audible sigh. She watched as he turned and began to walk back to her, moving as if being dragged against his will. When he reached her, he stopped and ran his still amber eyes over her face before raising one hand to brush against her cheek in what felt almost like a caress. Then he dropped his hand and shook his head.

"I don't think not loving you is possible, Buffy," he said with a sad smile. "It's been part of me for too bloody long." She started to smile back, encouraged by his use of her name, but the smile faded as he shook his head. "But I'm not the man for you. Not what you want. Would have been better if I'd just stayed dead to you – for both of us, I suspect."

"Don't tell me what I want," she growled. "And if you're planning to tell me you stayed away from me for my own good—" His abrupt response interrupted her intended threat to dismember him one body part at a time.

"It's gone, love."

"What? What's gone? You just told me you still lov— Oh." She couldn't help the sudden intake of breath or the way her eyes widened. "Your soul? You lost it?"

He nodded. "Turns out the amulet – handy as it turned out to be for keeping me in this world – had a limit to the number of times it could bring me back before it had to leave something behind. One of those times, it didn't bring the soul with." He touched his own face. "Creature that did this to me managed to destroy the amulet in the process. Can't even wear it around my neck for insurance now. It's gone, and the soul's gone. Forever, I expect."

"Well... that's... but you didn't have it before. Not when we... It's okay. I trust you..." In spite of her words, she knew the doubt was clearly visible on her face. He snorted a short laugh.

"No you don't, love. Appreciate the words, but we both know you don't. Not really. Not a hundred percent. Nor should you," he added, sending her shocked eyes flying up to his. "I've been feeding, Buffy. For a good long while now. Not on the innocent, and I rarely kill, but I'm getting my sustenance straight from the tap again. Don't think I'm ready to give that up."

She couldn't control her flinch, or the way she shrank back from him. She tried to recover, but it was too late. He'd already seen her reaction. Nodding his head and giving her another one of those sad smiles that looked so odd when he was wearing his fangs, he said, "That's what I thought. You see now why I stayed away? I'd never hurt you or yours, and I'll keep fightin' the good fight, but I'm not the chip-broken, souled up vamp you were used to. That's not who I am anymore, love."

Buffy just stared at him, making no attempt to hide the tears filling her eyes. "But... your soul. You fought for it. You earned it. You could—"

"Fought for my soul, Buffy. That's gone. Destroyed with the amulet. Wouldn't go askin' for someone else's soul even if I wanted to. Don't know what I'd get next time around." He brushed his hand through her hair, watching it slide across his fingers. "We're done, love, you and I. Had our time. And a glorious time it was, now and again.

"But I'm soulless, unchipped, feeding, and right happy about it most of the time. You don't want that in your life, and I don't want to spend mine tryin' to hide what I am from you. Love you as much as I ever did, but I'm my own man now, not your personal pet vampire." They stared at each other, both sets of eyes shiny with tears they were too proud to shed. "Give me your phone," he said abruptly, breaking the tension.

Buffy pulled out her phone and handed it to him, watching impassively as he entered a number. He handed it back to her, closing her hand around it and keeping it covered with his own, much larger, hand for a moment.

"If you ever need me for anything, the number's in there. Don't be afraid to use it." He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it before letting her go. "I'm sorry you had to find me like this, Buffy. Never meant for you to know. You take care of those girls, yeah?"

He turned, so quickly she could almost visualize his old duster whirling around him, and was gone before she could speak.

Instead of going straight back to the slayer house, Buffy wandered around the city, mulling over what she'd learned. The missing soul explained the harder edges Spike had shown both her and the other slayers. She had to admit she was just as glad she wasn't going to have to explain him to them—especially to Vi who had only known him as the quiet, guilt-ridden, souled vampire living in Buffy's basement. But for him to say he'd been feeding... "I rarely kill" was hardly a ringing endorsement of his willingness to stay on the side of good.

By the time she'd worked her way back to the house, she had almost accepted that he'd probably done the right thing by staying away. There was no way she could justify the presence of a vampire in her life. One with no soul, who "only rarely" killed his prey. She straightened her shoulders and went back inside to talk to Vi and her squad.

"Hi, Will, what do we know?" Buffy settled back against her pillows and smiled to hear her old friend's voice.

"Hi, Buffy. Not much right now. We know that all the girls here are fine, but Faith's gone to check out a squad in Iceland. They've lost two girls already and they aren't sure why. Since we don't know what's going on, or if it's just affecting new slayers, you'll need to be careful. You and Vi both. Just 'cause you're stronger than the other girls right now, doesn't mean you can't be affected by whatever it is."

"Huh. I hadn't really thought about that. Since Vi is mostly okay, I just figured... yeah, okay. We'll watch for any signs of weakness. Funny thing is, though, none of these girls felt weak or knew that she was losing it. They just thought Spi—" Buffy choked off her words, but Willow had known her too long.

"Spike? Spike is alive? And there?"

"Well, no... and yes. He's just as dead as he ever was, just not as dusty as we thought. Turns out that amulet kept bringing him back. He's kinda... mangled... from whatever he took on the last time, but he's not dead."

"What's he doing there? Was he looking for you? How did he know where you were? When did he—" Buffy broke into Willows rapid questioning.

"No, he didn't come looking for me. He's here because the Hellmouth feeds his demon and it's helping him heal. He didn't know I was here..." Buffy paused, then said softly, "He didn't want to see me. Didn't want me to see him. He... he doesn't want to be around me."

"Oh. Oh Buffy! I'm... well I'm sorry, I guess, but it's not like you haven't thought he was dead and gone all this time. I mean, you're okay with it, aren't you?"

"I will be," Buffy said firmly. "I was just a little surprised at first, but it's all good. He's right, we had our time and—" Buffy's voice faltered. "He's right," she repeated. "It's for the best that we just go our separate ways again."

"That doesn't sound much like either one of you," Willow said, the sympathy in her voice palpable. There was silence as she waited for Buffy to clear her throat and explain.

"His soul's gone, Will. Gone and destroyed with the amulet. And he's feeding. Still fighting demons, and he watched out for the slayers – after he beat some of them up to show them they needed help – but he's feeding. He says he hasn't killed anybody... or hardly ever, whatever the hell that means. But he's a real vampire again. Maybe one that plays on our side most of the time, but still..."

"Oh goddess... I'm so sorry, Buffy."

"I'm sorry too. I'm sorry for Spike who worked so hard to win that soul, and was so proud of it. And I'm sorry that he thinks it's okay to feed as long as he doesn't kill anybody. And I'm sorry that he doesn't love me enough to give that up." She stopped. "I didn't mean to say that part out loud," she mumbled.

"Maybe not, but you'd still be thinking it, wouldn't you?" Willow's voice was gentle. "If you can't tell me, who can you tell?"

Buffy sighed. "I know. But it's so not the point now. The important thing is to find out what's happening to these girls... and fix it. Dwelling on Buffy's usual sucky love life isn't really what we need to be doing."

"Right. Well if Faith finds out anything in Iceland, I'll let you know. In the meantime, be careful. If it's something there in Cleveland, it's got to be either magic of some sort, or something the girls are getting somehow. Poison or something. Either way, there's probably somebody or something doing it."

"Yep. I just need to find it and kill it. No problem. How hard can it be?"

Three weeks later, Buffy was discovering how hard it could be. They'd eliminated the obvious things – the pizza place, the Starbucks, even the grocery store where they bought juice and milk and cereal. Buffy could find no trace of demonic activity anywhere the girls all got stuff to eat or drink. The device Willow had given her years before, that could detect magic in large doses, was not indicating anything magical going on in or around the house beyond the normal wards against demons that all slayer group homes were given.

The first break came when the radio squawked and Rita gasped for help. Buffy sprinted to the other side of the cemetery to find that Rita was doing her best to protect Vi, who was on the ground and barely conscious. The vampire facing Rita was laughing as he feinted at her just to watch her stumble when she tried to dodge. He glanced up and frowned at Buffy. "Wait your turn there, blondie. There's plenty of me to go around."

"There's going to be even more of you to go around when your dust starts blowing away," Buffy said, rolling her eyes.

"You're pretty sassy for somebody who used to be a slayer," he growled, back-handing Rita to the ground and turning to face Buffy. His attempt to hit her failed as Buffy easily slipped his punch and provided her own retaliatory jabs that knocked him back several steps.

"Change of plans," she muttered, making a mental note that he should have fallen down at the second hard jab. She attacked full-on and had him on the ground moaning in a very short amount of time – if not as short an amount as she'd expected. She sat on him, her stake pushing into his chest hard enough to draw blood. "Now then, you're going to tell me why my girls are losing their powers, and why you expected me to be too. Bad assumption, by the way," she added as he attempted to throw her off; she pushed harder on the stake with one hand while punching him with the other.

When he came to, she was still perched on top of him, still digging the stake into his flesh. Rita and a recovered Vi were standing on either side of him, stakes at the ready.

"Let's try again, huh? What do you know about what's happening to the slayers here?"

"You're just going to stake me anyway," he growled. "Why should I tell you?"

"Because if you don't, we'll take you back to the house and chain you up while all the girls who've been hurt recently take turns making you really sorry you didn't." Buffy gave him a mega-watt smile that didn't reach her eyes and waited for him to get her meaning. His eyes flickered to Rita and Vi, both of whom seemed ready to start making him pay right then and there.

"It wasn't me!" he blurted. "I'm not doing it. It's this... creepy human guy. He has stuff that can make vamps weak too. And demons. He used it to get a few of us to work for him turning new vamps, and then he started giving it to the slayers. He said we'd have all the slayer blood we could drink pretty soon." Buffy's growl and the extra pressure she unconsciously put on the stake had him searching for more information to give her. "He likes us to turn young girls!" he threw in quickly. Buffy ignored that seemingly irrelevant factoid.

"How is he giving it to the slayers? Or to the vamps and demons, for that matter. What is he doing, giving it out in candy?"

The vampire shook his head. "I don't know," he said, repeating it when Buffy's expression darkened. "I don't! I just got weaker and weaker, and one night this human threw me into a van and took me to a room with a lot of other weak vamps. He never told us how he did it; he just said he wouldn't reverse it unless we went to work for him. After a couple of weeks, everybody said yes. Well, except for Jake. He said no. I don't know what happened to him..."

"Where do I find this 'creepy human guy'? And I can't begin to tell you how weird it is to hear a vamp call somebody 'creepy'." Buffy leaned a little harder on the stake, smiling when the vampire hissed in pain.

"He's got a building over by the park. I think he owns it or something. It's got a name... the something Towers. He lives in the penthouse, but only a few of the girls have seen that – the rest of us live in the basement and meet with him in his lab down there." He looked at Buffy's impatient face and said quickly, "You can get in through the parking garage. He uses some of the vamps as security, and he's got a couple of demons as guards, but that's it."

"Interesting that he isn't worried you'll turn on him..." Buffy said almost to herself. "He must be pretty sure of himself..."

"He's a pretty scary guy... for a human."

"You're sure he's human? Not some old vamp or some kind of demon?"

"Nah. The girls vouched for it... the ones that came back. He's human, just scary."

"Girls? Came back? From where—" Buffy suddenly remembered that he'd mentioned the guy living in the penthouse. "Oh. Ewwww!"

"That's what they said."

Buffy didn't even look down when she pushed the stake the rest of the way through the vampire's chest. She gave a little grunt as he turned to dust and she dropped to the ground. She stood up and looked around, a shiver going down her back.

"Let's go. Call everybody in. We need to decide how we're going to take this guy down. A human that's too kinky for a female vamp is not somebody we want running loose. Even if he wasn't trying to get us all killed."

CHAPTER FOUR

Buffy left Vi to bring the slayers up to speed on what they'd learned. The girls most interested in research and puzzle solving went right to work trying to figure out how the drug, whatever it was, was getting to all of them – apparently even Vi. Buffy hadn't mentioned her doubts about her own strength, but she knew how to test it. She took out her phone and stared at it, then clicked on the number and waited for it to ring.

"Buffy? What's wrong?" There was no "Hello", no "how are you?" just her name and a question. Going along with his apparent preference for a business-only relationship, Buffy said shortly, "You need to fight me. Tonight, if possible."

There was silence, then: "Is this a fight I'm going to win more easily than I should?"

"I hope not, but... I just need to know, okay?"

"Alright, love. Meet me outside in twenty minutes."

"Outside? Here?"

"Got a big backyard, don't you?"

"Yeah. Okay. Twenty minutes."

She closed her phone and stared at it, then sighed and went downstairs to tell Vi what she was going to do. She found her sitting in the office, holding an ice pack to her jaw.

"He hit you pretty hard, huh?"

Vi grimaced. "He did, but it shouldn't have knocked me out. I guess whatever's going on is getting to me now. You're going to be all we have left."

"Maybe..."

Vi looked at her sharply. "What do you mean 'maybe'?"

"I mean I didn't feel just right tonight either. Stronger than you, but not quite me. I... I called Spike. He's coming by to spar with me and tell me if I imagined it or if I'm losing my powers too."

"Here? He's coming here?"

"Well, he's coming to the backyard. I'm going to meet him outside."

"You want me to keep the girls in here?"

"I think so. I'd rather they didn't know I'm worried. They've lost enough confidence as it is with their powers fading more all the time. Some of them are pretty much back to being normal girls. We need to find this guy before we're all like that."

"Okay. I'll try to keep them inside and away from the windows."

Buffy left the office and turned toward the kitchen, waiting until it was empty before slipping out the backdoor. She paused on the small deck, extending her senses, but not feeling anything; so Spike's arrival took her by surprise. She jumped when he landed lightly on the deck beside her.

"Didn't you know I was here?" She could hear the frown in his voice although his face was hidden, the light from the window showing only his silhouette.

Buffy started to say something about not having expected him to come from the roof, then sighed and shook her head. "No. I didn't feel you, not even a little tickle on the back of my neck."

"How about now?" He stepped closer to her, not quite touching but close enough for her the catch the scent that said "Spike" and to feel his body near hers. Any trace of vampire tingles were being overwhelmed by her unexpected reaction to his proximity, and she stepped back.

"N... no. Not in a slayer way."

"What other way is there?" He sounded genuinely confused as he also stepped back a pace.

"Nothing. No other way. Never mind. Let's do this, huh?"

"Any time you're ready, pet. You know fightin' with you is one of my favorite things to do..." He jumped over the small railing, landing lightly on his feet; Buffy was just a half-step behind him. Turning as he landed, he threw a quick jab at her face, which she dodged fairly easily. He bounced away when she tried to follow up, luring her away from the deck and out to where they had more room.

They hadn't been sparring long before it became obvious to both of them that Spike could have ended the fight at almost any point. He was just a fraction of a second faster, his punches just an important little bit harder than hers, and when he tackled her to the ground, she was unable to throw him off. Only when she smashed her forehead into his face, did he roll off, cursing and holding his bloody nose.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "I couldn't think of any other way to get you off."

He shook his head. " 'S alright, love. You did what you needed to do. Was the smart thing to do. That's why you're the world's oldest slayer, and those other bints are afraid to leave the house."

Buffy sat up and rested her arms on her knees. "They're afraid because they've all pretty much reverted to normal humans." Feeling a need to defend Vi's squad, she added, "And they aren't really afraid – not all of them, anyway. It's just that they've lost a lot of confidence. I... we don't let them go out much. And never alone. I can't let them get killed."

"And how are you plannin' to stop that from happening? Case you didn't notice, Slayer, I had you dead to rights way more often than makes me comfortable."

"I know you did," she said with a sigh. "But it's you. You know me. You know my moves and you're a really good fighter and may—"

"Don't even try going there, Buffy. Refusing to admit what's happening isn't going to keep you alive. Accept it and deal with it until we can figure out what's going on."

Buffy didn't call him on his easy assumption that he was now involved; she just nodded.

"I know a little bit more than I did before. I know whoever's doing it is a human, and he's got drugs that work on anything or anybody – not just slayers. He's got a gang of vamps he sends out to turn people for him, and a couple of demons for bodyguards. And I kinda know where his lair is." She swore silently at not having gotten an actual address from the vamp before she'd staked him. "And I know that he's... sleazy and gross and—" She stopped and shrugged. "I guess that part's not important, what's important is that we know he's somehow getting these drugs into us and he needs to be stopped before he starts feeding slayers to vamps and demons."

"That's his plan?"

"Well, that's what he's been promising them. That they'll have all the slayer blood they want..." Buffy shuddered. "I almost hope that's all he wants from us."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Spike's growl echoed in the dark yard as he took out a handkerchief and wiped the blood off his face.

"Nothing... just, he apparently takes some of the really young vamp girls up to his penthouse, and they don't always come down. The ones that do, don't want to go back."

"Takes a lot to freak out a vampire – young or not." Spike's growl had grown into a full-fledged snarl.

"That's what I told the girls. Whatever this guy is, whatever he's doing... He needs to be stopped... now."

Spike rose to his feet and held out his hand to Buffy. She took it and allowed him to pull her to her feet, not releasing his hand until he let go. They stood, facing each other uncertainly until Buffy finally asked, "Will you come in and meet the girls? Let them see that you're not a boogieman, and that you're on our side?"

To her surprise, he agreed right away. "Alright, slayer. Let's see what my little army's going to look like."

"Your army?"

"He's not gonna be looking out for badass old vamps, is he? And I don't seem to be affected by whatever he did to the local ones, so that makes me the leader." At Buffy's indignant huff, he laughed. "Always subject to your wishes, Slayer. Didn't mean to imply otherwise."

"The hell you didn't," she muttered, opening the kitchen door and standing inside. She looked at him, tilting her head on the side to study his expression, which he had kept carefully neutral.

"If you want me to stay outside, I will," he said finally. "Girls could gather in here or—"

"Come in, Spike," she interrupted. "I trust you."

"Well that just goes to show the drug is making your brain weak," he said, smothering a smile as he stepped past her and into the kitchen. "You can't know that."

"I know you," she replied. "I know you, Spike."

She stopped him before he could go any farther, wetting a paper towel and wiping off some blood he'd missed. She pointed to his hands and he quickly rinsed them.

"What's the matter, Slayer? Don't you want them to know you bloodied me?"

"I just don't want you to scare them any more than you already have," she snapped. "And could you lose the wrinklies?" Without waiting to see if he complied, she led him past Vi's office and into the main room where there was a growing silence as the girls looked up and saw what Buffy had brought into their home. She remained close enough that there could be no doubt that she had brought him in willingly.

From the bewildered looks on some faces, Buffy could tell they didn't know for sure who was standing behind her. She turned her head, to find that Spike had gone back to his human mien, which, while not quite what it used to be, had only a few fading scars left to mar his face.

"You're healing," she blurted, blushing when he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Told you I would. Didn't you notice before this?"

Buffy shook her head and mumbled about it being dark outside and game faces, blushing more when he whispered in her ear, "Should think you'd recognize me in the dark, Slayer. Maybe you need your memory refreshed."

She stiffened. "My memory's just fine, thank you."

"Didn't mean it like that, Buffy." He dropped his teasing tone. "I just meant maybe you needed to... Bloody hell." He shook his head. "I don't know what I meant. Sorry, pet. Time and place – this isn't it. Forget it."

"Damn right it isn't," she hissed before turning to smile at the stone-faced slayers. "Okay, girls. For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, this is Spike. He's the vampire that discovered you didn't have your powers and told me about it. So stop glaring at him and say 'thank you'. Or, you know, just stop glaring at him."

"Ladies," Spike said, inclining his head just a little. "I'm glad to see you're all still here and without holes in your necks."

The uncomfortable silence was broken when Vi came up to Spike and held out her hand. "It's good to see you again, Spike," she said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "If you teach these girls the way you did us back in the day, it won't matter if they have their powers or not."

There was some grumbling and muttering, but they'd all heard enough about the vampire in Buffy's basement – the one who had died to save the world – to be curious about him. When Buffy caught some of the older girls giggling as they checked out the body in the tight tee shirt, she almost wished Spike still had his duster. Especially when she caught him flexing his biceps as he bent over the map they'd been studying. His smirk when she pinched him told her he knew what the girls were looking at and that she'd caught him preening for them.

"Show off," she whispered. "Behave yourself."

"Not my fault I'm irresistible, is it?" he whispered back. "Let them have their fun, pet. They'll listen better if they aren't worrying about whether I'm going to kill them or whatnot."

"It's the 'whatnot' I'm worried about," she grumbled, but smiled and stepped away as she let him work his charm on the young slayers now competing for his attention. She stood back with Vi and watched with a combination of admiration and annoyance as Spike managed to get them all involved in strategizing about how to locate the bad guy's lair.

"I didn't know Spike could be so... so..." Vi waved her hand around helplessly. "He was never like that when we were in Sunnydale."

"He's a different vamp without his soul," Buffy said with a nod, forgetting she hadn't told Vi that little detail. "More fun, but—" She froze, peering at Vi from the corner of her eyes.

"Is that why you wouldn't let him come back here with you? Because he didn't have his soul?" Vi seemed more curious than worried, and Buffy relaxed a little, shaking her head.

"No. It was his idea. He didn't want... and he was right. I can't have him in my life with no soul. The only reason he's here now is because we need his muscle."

The minute the words left her mouth, Buffy wanted to choke them back. She'd forgotten about Spike's vampire hearing, but the way he stiffened and turned to stare at her made it very clear that he'd heard what she said. Buffy tried to put every bit of regret she was feeling into her eyes, but his face shut down and he went back to the young slayers without looking at her again.

It wasn't until he was ready to leave that he spoke to her, keeping his eyes on Vi as he suggested they give him some time to hang out around the park and try to figure out which building was housing both a vamp nest and a particularly nasty human. Vi agreed immediately and Buffy nodded reluctantly.

"I could go with you," she offered. "I'm not totally weak yet."

"I'll be less conspicuous by myself," he said, still not looking her in the eye. "Tonight's getting on, so it may take till tomorrow evening, but I shouldn't have any trouble finding out where the vamps are going in and out. Can't be that many buildings with 'tower' in the name, either. You keep working from this end, trying to find out how you're getting that stuff. It's not like he can be injecting anybody, it's got to be getting in through food or drink, or something..."

Buffy nodded. It was impossible to argue with his logic, even though she wanted desperately to have some time alone with him to take back her words. It was very obvious that he had no intention of giving her that time, and she quit trying.

"Okay. You'll keep me—us posted, right? Let us know what you're finding out. And... be careful. He's got stuff that works on vampires too."

"Been taking care of myself for a long time, Slayer." Without anything else in the way of a good-bye, he let himself out the backdoor and disappeared into the night.