MORTAL ALLIES SERIES
Episode 2: Spike's a Good Boi
By: Passion4Spike
Chapter 2: Band Candy
Chapter Summary:
Spike rolls into town to find it turned upside down by Band Candy.
The woman waved her arms wildly, trying to flag down the unmistakable car as it zoomed past, calling, "Spike! Hey! Is that you? Spike! Wait up!"
Spike slammed on the brakes and pulled the DeSoto over to the curb as the very person he was looking for flagged him down in the center of town.
"Spike!" Joyce called breathlessly as she ran down the sidewalk toward the big black car and the vampire now leaning against it waiting for her. "Spike! It's really you! Far out!" she gushed, coming near.
"Joyce, just the person—" he began before he was engulfed in a full-body hug and a wet kiss that would've made Don Juan blush.
Spike's bottom lip stretched out, caught between her teeth, then finally slipped free as he pressed her back firmly by the shoulders. "Uhh…" he stammered, licking the sweet warmth from his lips as he got her to arm's length. "Well, happy t' know someone in this town's glad to see me," he said, recovering.
He released one hand from her shoulder and reached into his mouth, pulling out a bazooka-sized wad of pink bubble gum. He arched a brow at her. "Reckon this is yours, luv?"
"Yeah, cool," she confirmed, taking it from him and popping it back into her mouth with a sly grin.
He tilted his head, studying her a moment. "Never expected a reception like that in Sunnyhell."
Joyce bit her bottom lip and tried to lean back in for another snog, but he easily kept her pressed away. "That's a very fetching wrap you've got … new, is it?" he tried, hoping it would distract her from her unexpected mission to devour his lips.
Joyce blushed demurely, batting her lashes, and fingered the feathers on the knee-length, sleeveless vest she wore. "Thanks. Ripper got it for me. It's cool, isn't it? Very Juice Newton, right?"
"Ripper?" Spike began to question as a man ran up behind her, panting and flushed from the exertion. Spike did a doubletake of the man who was dressed in a torn and dirty white t-shirt with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in one sleeve, and faded jeans.
"Spike, this is Ripper, Ripper, Spike," Joyce introduced them, keeping her eyes on the dreamy vampire and his oh-so-blue eyes.
"Watcher?" Spike questioned, his brows furrowing, his hands dropping from Joyce's shoulders as the 'danger' seemed to have passed.
"That's right! And just what d'ya think yer doing with my girl?" Giles challenged, stepping up to intersperse himself between Joyce and Spike. "Get your hands off or I'll take them off."
Spike snorted. "Will ya, then?" he asked, a burble of a laugh forming as he spoke.
Ripper's eyes narrowed in anger. "Don't think I can?"
Spike smirked. "Love t' see ya try."
Without further warning Giles took a swing at the vampire, making Joyce jump back in surprise. Spike caught the man's fist easily, stopping the swing dead, several inches from his face. "Now then, what were ya saying?" the blond asked casually.
Ripper lifted a knee, aiming at Spike's jewels, but the vampire shoved him back by the hold he had on his fist before the knee could come close to landing. The Watcher was propelled backwards, stumbling, his arms windmilling trying to catch his balance. His back hit a nearby building, and he fell to his ass on the sidewalk.
Spike turned to look at the gape-mouthed woman still standing nearby. "Uhh … Joyce, luv. Mind tellin' a bloke just what the bloody hell is going on 'round here?"
"Nuthin'," Joyce replied causally, flipping her hair back off her shoulder and exposing her neck. She slinked back up to him, thrusting her chest forward and pressing her boobs against his arm, trying to make it seem accidental. "Just hangin' out. Ya wanna hang out? We could … go to my place."
"With 'im?!" Giles demanded angrily, scrambling back to his feet and crossing the distance between them in a rush of jealous fury. "Just 'ad a go, we did! Thought we were gonna find the chocolate and then have a bit more fun."
Spike turned to face the approaching man, arching a brow. "Must not be doin' it right, mate … looks like the lady's still in need."
Giles pulled a gun out from the back waistband of his jeans and aimed it straight at Spike's head. "Say that again, you little pillock!"
Joyce jumped back as Spike moved with vampire speed, lifting Giles' arm and pointing the gun into the air just as it fired. Spike clicked his tongue reprovingly, pulling the gun from Ripper's hand. "There's your problem, mate. Too fast on the draw, you are. Gotta take yer time, make it last … make it good for her," he advised, throwing the gun down the nearby sewer drain.
"Ooooo!" Joyce purred, moving against the vampire again, pressing her body close to his side. "You're so strong and brave," she cooed to Spike, her mouth hovering next to his ear, her breath warm and inviting. "Maybe you could show me …"
Spike arched a brow at her and took a step to the side, trying to pull his arm from her grasp without resorting to breaking fingers. The Slayer's mum was deceptively strong. "Reckon the Slayer's got enough reasons t' stake me without adding another, luv."
"Back off, vampire!" Giles resumed, recovering from having his weapon confiscated. He moved nearer, getting right in Spike's face. "Get away from her or I'll have Buffy dust you, good and proper this time!"
Spike smirked. "That before or after she beats ya senseless for shagging her mum?"
"She's my bloody Slayer! Does as I say, doesn't she?" Ripper contended, jabbing a finger against Spike's chest.
Spike raised his brows, looking down at the Watcher's finger as it poked against his sternum, considering options: Break his finger. Break his arm. Break his neck.
"She's my daughter, she does as I say!" Joyce argued, still clinging to Spike's arm, pressing against him protectively. "And I say Spike stays."
"She's my Slayer! She does as I say! And I say he goes!" Ripper countered.
Joyce glowered at him, turning to face him more directly, letting go of Spike for the moment. "My daughter trumps your Slayer!" she told him angrily.
"Bollocks!" Ripper exclaimed, leaning forward right in her face. "He's a vampire!" he asserted, jabbing that finger toward Spike again but not quite touching. "That means Slayer trumps daughter!"
"Oooo, I love it when you get all manly and forceful," Joyce purred, leaning in the last inch and devouring Giles' mouth in a ravenous kiss.
Spike sighed and rolled his eyes. Leaning back against the car, he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one as he waited for them to come up for air. He looked around the downtown street noticing that just about everyone was acting like the two in front of him. That tingle of magic he'd felt earlier when he'd rolled into town suddenly made a bit more sense – in fact, it felt vaguely familiar, a bit like the time Halloween went all topsy-turvy.
This could be interesting. Would the Slayer be just as helpless this time as the last? Too bad he didn't have time to find out. He had a mission, a plan.
"Right then, enough snoggin'," Spike ordered around the fag dangling from his lips, yanking the two apart. "Where's the little mutt?" he asked Joyce.
Joyce looked back at him, suddenly remembering his dreamy eyes and those cheekbones and, oh, his lips were just scrumptious! They tasted so good, like whiskey and tobacco, so soft and supple. Her eyes slid down his body, taking everything in, and settled beneath his belt. Buffy had been right … nothing 'little' there.
"My eyes are up here, luv," Spike informed her, shaking her arm to get her attention away from the front of his jeans.
Joyce's eyes darted back up to meet his, a flush rising in her cheeks. "I'm sorry … what did you say?"
"The mutt that I gave ya last year? Where's it at?" he asked again.
"Oh." She waved a hand casually. "With Buffy, as usual."
"And Buffy is where?" Spike prodded.
Joyce shrugged.
Spike looked at Giles, brows raised.
"Dunno, but when I find her, she's gonna dust you—" Giles began.
"Yeah, yeah, good and proper," Spike finished sarcastically. "Bloody brilliant," he groaned with a sigh. "Tell ya what, let's find 'er, shall we?" Spike suggested, dragging them both toward the back door of the DeSoto on the passenger side, next to the sidewalk.
"There aren't any rats in there, are there?" Joyce asked, looking inside warily. "That was soooo grody!"
"All clear," Spike assured her, opening the door. "In ya go."
"Maybe Ripper can drive and we can have a little … alone time in the back," Joyce suggested, leaning into Spike temptingly.
"Sorry, pet. Nobody drives my car but me," Spike declined, pressing her toward the open door.
Joyce got in with a pout and Spike shoved Ripper after her. "Watch it, bleach boy! When I find Buffy…"
"Sing me a new one, Watcher, that one's gotten old already," Spike sighed, waiting for Giles to get in the car before slamming the door closed.
He sighed and looked around, thinking. If something was afoot in Sunnyhell, then the Slayer would be where the afooting was going on, which would mean where that tingle of magic was coming from. He turned on the spot and got the general direction before stalking around the car and getting in behind the wheel. He rolled his eyes, shaking his head at the slurping and snogging sounds coming from the backseat.
"Oi! Mind the leather!" Spike called back over the seat.
"Sod off and put on some proper mood music," Ripper retorted, the slurping sounds stopping momentarily, but starting right back up.
Spike snorted. "Got 'God Save the Queen'," he offered.
Giles' head popped up over the seat, his eyes curious. "The Sex Pistols?" he asked.
"'Course, who else?" Spike replied.
"Yeah, brilliant that!" Giles agreed, nodding. "Turn it up," he demanded before his head disappeared behind the seatback again.
"The Slayer's gonna slice off your balls," Spike told Giles as he started the car and popped the cassette into the player, turning the volume up.
God save the queen
The fascist regime
"She's my Slayer, she does as she's told!" came the terse reply over the music as Joyce sighed and the springs in the backseat began to squeak out an ever-quickening rhythm.
They made you a moron
A potential H bomb
Spike snorted. "Keep tellin' yourself that, mate," he muttered, pulling out and heading toward the source of the tingling magic.
God save the queen
She's not a human being
** X-X-X-X-X **
"Let's go, you two," Spike ordered, opening the back door and hauling the two writhing 'teens' out of the backseat of his car.
"Hey! Hands off m' girl!" Ripper demanded as Spike manhandled them out of the car.
"I'm not your girl!" Joyce insisted, leaning into Spike, and gazing into his dreamy, blue eyes. "I'm my own girl … I go where I want and do whatever I want with whoever I want," she breathed, running her hand up from the vampire's belt to rest on his chest. "Ya get me?"
"I get ya, luv," Spike replied, wrapping his fingers around her wrist and removing her hand from his chest. "And if the Slayer catches me getting' ya, I'll be wishin' for dust, I reckon."
"Where are we going?" Joyce asked as Spike pulled her through a crowd of people gathered around a loading dock at a warehouse.
"Lookin' for the Slayer and the mutt," Spike told her, glancing back over his shoulder to see if Giles was following – he was. Sniffing after the Slayer's mum like a love-sick schoolboy in short pants.
"Oh! Chocolate! I want chocolate!" Joyce exclaimed, realizing what the people around the loading dock were scrambling after. She reached down and started picking up chocolate bars with one hand as Spike pulled her along with the other.
"Let's go, pet," Spike urged her as he climbed up on some boxes to reach the high loading area of the warehouse, helping her up after him. "C'mon, Watcher, try to keep up."
"I can keep up with the likes o' you, vampire!" Ripper sneered, clambering up the boxes behind them while unwrapping a chocolate bar at the same time.
"Don't make me regret savin' you," Spike warned, shooting him a glower.
"You save me!? When did you save me?!" Giles demanded, taking another bite of the chocolate.
Spike's brows shot up as he stopped and spun back around to face the man. "Didn't the Slayer tell ya? Had a deal, we did. You lived, Dru and I walked. Ya think you would've gotten outta that mess alive if it'd just been up to Angelus?"
"That's a load of bollocks! Just making it up, trying to keep me from havin' Buffy dust you," Ripper contended.
Joyce shook her head. "It's true. I heard it."
"Nobody asked you, did they?" Ripper snarled at her.
"Screw you!" Joyce yelled at him, stepping toward him.
"No, screw you!" Ripper yelled back, leaning in and poking a finger against her chest.
"Think you've both had enough screwing for a bit," Spike moaned, pulling Joyce away from the Watcher and heading deeper into the warehouse.
"Look at all the chocolate!" Joyce exclaimed in awe, her eyes wide as she ran her hands over box after box of chocolate bars.
Spike looked from the boxes lining the walls to the bars both of them continued eating, and his eyes widened. "Magic chocolate, eh? That's gotta mean the Slayer's ripe for the pickin'. This will be bloody delicious."
"Oo! Oo! I know him!" Giles exclaimed, jumping up and down and pointing to a man down one of the aisles. "Ethan bloody Rayne! C'mon! Let's get 'im!" he urged Spike, tugging on the vampire's arm.
"Not your soddin' Slayer!" Spike reminded him.
"Chicken, are you?" Giles taunted, walking around in a circle flapping his arms like wings and clucking like a chicken. "Buffy could take him. She's not a little nancy boy like you."
"Me? Afraid? Of that little ponce?" Spike questioned, watching the man walk around a corner in the warehouse and disappear from view.
"Then come on!" Ripper urged, tugging harder. "Dinner's served!"
Joyce joined in, pulling on his other arm. "I know you could take him. You're so strong and manly," she cooed.
"Oh, bloody hell," Spike groaned as he started after them, both Giles and Joyce breaking into a run. Spike sighed and passed them effortlessly, following the fresh scent, his duster billowing out behind as he ran. He found the man in no time and stopped a few feet away, listening as Ethan spoke into a phone.
"Yeah, I've been out there. Town's wide open. You guys can go anytime. I'm sure Lurconis doesn't like to be kept waiting," Ethan was saying.
From back in the direction Spike had come from, he heard a familiar voice exclaim, "MOTHER! GILES! What are you doing!? Stop! I said, 'stop'! Oh, for God's sake, stop eating the chocolate and stop … stop … that!"
The man on the phone looked up at the sound and saw Spike, who hooked his thumbs over his belt buckle and began sauntering toward Ethan just as he hung up the phone. "Are you one of Trick's guys? I believe they're heading for the hospital to pick up the goods, then on to the ceremony."
Spike smiled, but before he could answer he found himself planted face-first on the dirty, cement floor being turned into a martini – shaken, not stirred. He growled and flung an elbow back at the attacker and was rewarded with a satisfying crunch of bone and whimper of pain. He began to do it again but the creature bit down even harder, growling and wrenching at the back of his neck. The vampire growled back even louder and rolled, trying to dislodge the attacker. It didn't work. The demon's teeth just clenched down tighter, drawing a roar of pain and fury from the vampire, and sending blood spurting out over the grimy floor.
"Get the other one!" a female voice called and suddenly the pressure on Spike's neck was gone. Before he could recover he found himself flipped over onto his back roughly, a stake pressed against his chest.
He blinked up, shaking his head, trying to clear the stars that had started blanketing his vision. Somewhere nearby he heard the demon growling and the sound of a thud and a crack of cranium against concrete.
"I should've known!" Buffy barked at him. "What are you doing here? What's going on with the chocolate!? Who else is involved!? Talk!"
"Hello, cutie," he rasped out dazedly, reaching for his neck to try and triage the damage and slow the bleeding.
"Don't 'hello, cutie' me. You really shouldn't have come back," Buffy warned, pressing harder on the stake.
"Whoa, Goldilocks! Dust me and ya won't have any intel … and I've got it!" Spike bargained, his senses returning in a panicked rush. "White flag! Truce!"
"You know, you're awfully good at calling truces when you're losing," Buffy pointed out. "Start talking!"
Spike was still trying to staunch the bleeding in his neck. He pulled out a long, needle-like tooth from one of the wounds. "Bloody hell! Why dontcha do somethin' about that sodding shark demon? Attacked me for no reason!"
"Spike, are you alright?" Buffy asked, not taking her eyes off the master vampire she had pinned down between her thighs.
"Didn't I just say I wasn't? Have ya gone soft in the melon!?" the vampire exclaimed. "Dontcha see this soddin' tooth! Was in my neck, wasn't it?! Bleedin' out here, I am."
Buffy smiled down at him sweetly. "I wasn't talking to you. Spike? Bring me what you've got."
The vampire's brows pulled together, his face contorting in confusion as he heard the growling shark-demon getting closer, clearly dragging something across the floor.
Buffy's smile widened into a feral grin. "If you move, I will dust you," she warned the vampire, looking over to see her dog dragging an unconscious man toward her by one foot. She sighed when Dog-Spike stopped next to her with his prisoner. "Ethan Rayne … figures. And out cold. Damn it," she groaned, looking back down at Vampire-Spike. "I guess this is your lucky day. Talk."
"What the bloody fuck is that?" the vampire asked, watching the huge dog warily.
"Spike, meet Spike," Buffy said cordially, as if introducing two people at a holiday mixer.
The vampire just stared at the huge animal, gobsmacked for a moment. "But … I mean … ya got two dogs now?" he asked, looking back up at the Slayer.
"Noooo. I mean, I know he looks like two dogs, but… it's just one, trust me."
"But, the wee mutt …" Spike began, still looking confused.
"Grew up," Buffy said flatly. "Now, talk."
Spike looked back at the dog. "Bloody hell…" he breathed, his mind reeling. It looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place exactly where he'd seen one before. This thing was a soddin' mountain of fur and fangs. He wasn't sure it would even fit in his car now, let alone in the floorboard where it'd been when he'd found it. "What the hell ya been feedin' that thing?" he wondered, still trying to reconcile the little puppy to this monstrosity before him.
"Vampires," she informed him casually. "Now talk or you'll be next," Buffy demanded, pressing just a bit harder with the stake.
Spike hissed in pain, his attention being drawn back to her. "Can't seem t' remember anything … stake pressin' into my chest is cutting off circulation to my brain," he contended.
"You don't have any circulation … and I'm not entirely convinced about the brain, either," Buffy retorted before looking over to her dog. "Spike, hold," she said with a tilt of her head. In the next moment the dog's mouth was around Spike's throat. His drool dripped in hot, slimy globs, coating the vampire's skin and mixing with the blood to form a light-pink puddle on the floor. Crunchy rabbit. But my hooman says no crunch. Why no crunch? Tasty white rabbit.
Buffy pulled the stake away from the vampire's chest. "Does that help?"
"Not. Bloody. Amused," Spike ground out, reaching up to wrap his hands around the beast's neck.
"I really wouldn't do that if I were you," Buffy warned, standing up off him.
Dog-Spike's fangs dug deeper into Vampire-Spike's neck, on the verge of creating a few new ventilation holes in his jugular. A long, resonate growl trembled through the air from the dog's chest, vibrating the vampire's entire body.
"Dust him! Yes! You're my Slayer and I say dust him!" Ripper demanded as he and Joyce came around the corner, both in the process of readjusting their clothing.
Buffy looked up in time to catch the last of the adjustments, her eyes flying open wide. "I thought I told you two to STOP! Oh, my God … I am so gonna need therapy and drugs. So many drugs."
"Dust the twat!" Ripper continued, coming closer.
"No! Don't hurt him! He's too pretty to hurt!" Joyce argued, running up and tugging on Spike's arm, trying to pull him away from the dog.
"Oh, please God, don't tell me…" Buffy began, her eyes scrunching closed, her fingers massaging the traumatic migraine forming between her brows.
"Ya got it wrong, Slayer!" Spike defended, feeling like his neck was the hapless rope in a game of tug-of-war between the Slayer's mum and her demon dog.
"Release!" Buffy told Spike and he let go of the hold on the vampire's neck, but continued to growl as he let Joyce drag the vampire a couple of feet away.
"You too, Mother! Let go of the pretty vampire!" Buffy demanded as she stepped up and wrapped her hand around said vampire's neck. She lifted the blond up to his feet and slammed him back against a block wall, jarring his still-questionable brain around in his skull like an overwrought ping-pong ball.
"What. Did. You. Do?" the Slayer snarled in his face.
"Nothin'! I bloody swear! Joyce, luv! Tell her! Was the Watcher! Warned him, I did! Told 'im you'd chop his balls off and feed 'em to him!" Spike swore, his hands wrapping around Buffy's wrist and forearm in an attempt to keep her from ripping his head off.
"You can't trust a dirty, rotten vampire! Dust him!" Ripper demanded again, making Joyce move in protectively and beg for Spike's release, all the while Spike was trying to tell Buffy that he didn't do anything. In the next moment everyone was talking at once, making Buffy's migraine throb and expand as daggers danced a lively jig in her frontal lobe.
"WHOOOF!" Spike interjected, a sound loud enough to make the unconscious man on the floor groan, and all the others stop talking.
"I agree," Buffy said in the moment of stunned silence that followed. "Everyone just shut up."
She turned to her mother. "Did you …" Buffy gritted her teeth, trying to stop the images in her mind from making her retch. "Did Spike … touch you? Show me your neck!"
"No! Didn't bite 'er, either!" Spike continued to object, drawing a warning glare from Buffy.
Joyce pouted and shrugged coquettishly, pulling her hair back from her neck. "Not yet… but, there's still time. You can't dust him, Buffy. I forbid it. I'm your mother, and I forbid it."
"Told ya," Spike spat at her, glowering blue laser beams at the Slayer, who loosened her grip on his throat a fraction.
"Dust him!" Giles insisted again.
"Sod off, Watcher!" Spike shot back.
"Giles! I'll deal with you later! Everyone shut up! The next person who talks is going to get seriously dead!" Buffy threatened, looking back at her prisoner. "What do you know about this? Who's behind it? Who else is in on it?"
Spike pursed his lips together, drawing his cheeks in, and raised his brows, his eyes going wide.
Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes. "Now you decide to listen to me? Simon says you can talk, and I advise you to make it believable," Buffy told the vampire.
"Right. See, here's the thing. I just came to town to have a chat with yer mum 'bout the mutt. Just got 'ere today and I'm bloody well not staying," Spike explained. "Found these two having a bit of a snog…"
"Skip that part," Buffy cut in. "What do you know about this place and the chocolate?"
"Not involved, am I?" Spike insisted.
"Truce ends in two seconds unless you start giving me something useful," Buffy informed him, drawing the stake back out from the back of her jeans.
"Yes!" Giles exclaimed, jumping up in the air and pumping a fist. "Dust! Dust! Dust!"
"Giiiless," Buffy drawled warningly, not taking her eyes off the vampire.
"Right … errr, heard that bloke on the phone with someone," Spike began, pointing to the prone human with the dog standing guard over him. "Said the town's wide open and they shouldn't keep Lurconis waitin'. Then he thought I was one o' Trick's guys and said they were heading for the hospital and then to the ceremony."
"Who's Trick?" Buffy asked.
"Dunno."
"Who's Lurconis?"
Spike shrugged. "Demon. One of the older ones, you know with the sacrifices and favors and ceremony bollocks."
"Where do I find it? And what are they getting at the hospital?" Buffy continued.
Spike furrowed his brows. "Guess would be babies … demons have a right fondness for virgins and little bits – blood's sweeter, ya know? And the hearts taste like brandied peaches, only crunchier–"
"TMI," Buffy stopped him. She looked around and found the phone on the wall. "If you try anything, Spike will rip your lungs out and then I'll feed them to you," Buffy warned the vampire as she released him and headed to the phone.
"Pfftt," Spike snorted, straightening his clothes. He glowered down at the dog with a flash of fang and golden eyes.
Spike, the dog, sitting by his human prisoner, bared his own impressive fangs in a snarl, glowering back at the vampire with a low rumbling growl.
"If not fer me you wouldn't have this posh life with the Slayer, best remember that, Fido," Spike informed him, hooking his thumbs over his belt smugly.
The big puppy huffed out a breath and the growling stopped, but he continued to watch the white rabbit suspiciously.
Buffy rolled her eyes at the two Spikes as she picked up the phone and dialed the school library; Willow picked up on the second ring.
"Okay," Buffy began. "The demon's name is Lurconis, and we think it eats babies. The bad guys will be getting them from the hospital. I want you guys to go over there and guard the babies. I'll send Spike to help …"
"Oi! Not a white hat!" Spike objected. "Not goin' to the hospital and guarding any soddin' babies."
Buffy rolled her eyes, still talking into the phone, "Yeah … yeah, he's still got the Assistance Dog id on, it won't be a problem. Meet him at the emergency room entrance … yeah … okay. Bye."
Buffy hung up and raised her brows at the vampire.
"Oh, right … that's alright, then," Spike agreed, sniffing.
Buffy squatted down on her heels next to the dog, which actually made the dog taller than her. "I need you to meet Willow at the hospital. You remember that place, right? Smells like …"
"Human blood, death, and antiseptics," the vampire provided. "Kinda sickly sweet."
Buffy looked up at him, then back at the dog. "You know what place it is?"
"Whoof!" he replied, standing up and wagging his tail madly.
"Okay, you go there and I'm gonna see if I can find this demon," Buffy told the dog.
Spike-the-dog began to whine, pressing his body against hers and nearly knocking her over. "It'll be okay," she assured him, rubbing his wide flanks. "I'll take the vampire with me and toss him into the line of fire if it gets dicey."
"Oi! Not soddin' demon fodder," Spike argued.
"Go on, now. They need you there! Run!" Buffy told the dog who gave the vampire a challenging glare and an ear-splitting bark, before taking off down the long aisle of the warehouse toward the exit.
"Don't forget to look both ways before crossing the street!" she called after the dog, drawing another, "Whoof," in reply.
Buffy looked over at Spike. "Okay, where do we find this Lurconis?"
Spike shrugged, picking another needle-like tooth out of his neck with a scowl of annoyance.
"Spike. Where?" Buffy demanded.
The vampire rolled his eyes. "Where else, Slayer? The sewers."
"Okay, let's go!" Buffy called to everyone. Joyce and Ripper started moving to follow her, Spike, however, just stood still.
"Are you coming?" Buffy asked, turning back.
"Got better things t' do than mount up with you lot, don't I?" Spike sniffed.
Buffy furrowed her brows in suspicion. "Like what?"
"Like nothing that's any of your business," Spike retorted, lifting his chin in defiance.
"Spike, I don't have time for this!"
"Then run along! Tick-tock, Slayer! Gotta keep the world safe for puppies and Christmas and whatnot," Spike urged, waving a hand for her to go on.
"Argh! You are the most annoying vampire I've ever met!" Buffy growled, taking a few steps back toward him. "Don't eat anyone or I swear you'll be dusty before dawn."
"Not even him?" Spike wondered, tilting his head back toward Ethan.
"Yes! Eat him! Drain him dry! Make it hurt!" Ripper enthused from behind Buffy.
Buffy rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "No, not even him."
"Spoilsport!" Giles grumbled.
"Fine. Just got a bit o' business with a mutual acquaintance of ours," Spike told her. He pointedly sniffed the air in her direction and arched a brow at her. "Think you might've seen 'im recently, eh?"
Buffy paled and looked back at Giles to see if he was listening, but he and Joyce were grabbing more chocolate from one of the boxes. She moved closer to Spike and hissed in a low voice, "Leave him alone! Leave me alone! Go away!"
"Or you'll dust me good and proper like ya did Angel?" Spike whispered back to her. He looked back at Giles and Joyce then met her eyes again. "They don't know, do they?"
"Get. Out. Of. My. Town," Buffy snarled, pulling her stake out again.
"I'm too pretty t' dust," he asserted smugly, bobbing his brows at her. "Your mum said so."
"Don't push me!" Buffy threatened, holding the stake up toward his chest.
"Smells like Peaches has already been pushing ya to the limit … or is that sweet aroma for me?" Spike smirked. "Think I'm hot, do ya? Got ya all wet and ready, eh?"
"You're a pig, Spike! Get out before I make you into pretty dust bunnies!"
Spike held his hands up in surrender. "Leaving this very night," he assured her, taking a step back. "But ya didn't answer the question."
"And don't come back," Buffy added with a glower before turning on her heel. She slapped the chocolate from the adults' hands and began dragging them with her out of the warehouse.
"You still didn't answer the question!" Spike called after her. He smirked as she shot him a dirty look over her shoulder before turning a corner and disappearing.
He took a deep breath and let it out, formulating his plan as he started for the exit. He did have a mutual acquaintance of theirs to see, but it wasn't Angel.
**END NOTES**
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you're enjoying the start of this new story! Please stop in and let me know, I'd seriously love to hear from you!
Thanks also to my wonderful friends, PaganBaby and Holli117, for sharing their talents with me by betaing this story. Any mistakes here are mine because I just can't stop fiddling!
More to come soon!