Chapter 2

"What the bloody hell..."

He spoke as he moved from the bed into the hall. Trying to clear his head for the upcoming hell he was going to give the person who would call this late. When he first heard the ringing he almost decided to ignore it. But then Giles realized that it might be one of the gang in Sunnydale, only they might call this late for a emergency, or ignore the fact it was 12:37 am here.

It was only a month ago that he had left with Willow for detox in England. She had been doing better and better every week that he saw her. But she would never be the same. His patience was running thin, with new headaches from the Council and Willows withdrawal, he had little room for problems half a world away.

He picked up the now agonizingly loud phone, he would lose it if it was Xander, though he cared, the man was calling almost everyday. Grumbling he spoke into the receiver.

"Um...yes...hello."

"Is this Rupert Giles?"...
The woman sounded frantic. He couldn't recognize her voice.

" Yes. Who..." She then cut him off, annoying him a little bit.

"Sorry, you don't know me but there's this guy here, though I can't tell if he's a guy, he so bloody..."

He couldn't understand a word this lady was saying. Becoming a little more frustrated.

"Miss, calm down please, take a breath..."

"Okay, I'm sorry. My name is Gwen Mckellin. I'll do my best make this brief, I was attacked and I was save by this man. All I know about him is that his name is William. I haven't seen him for a week. Then tonight I open my door and there he is, blood all over, I couldn't tell if it was him until I saw a scar on his face that I've seen before. I found a slip of paper placed on him with your name and number. So I called you."

"Why haven't you called the hospital yet." He was a little shocked that this lady had called him instead.

"Well...your going to think I'm crazy, the man that attacked me was a vampire, and I think this guy is to. I don't feel a heartbeat but he moaned when I touched his chest."

This alarmed Giles greatly.

Why would a vampire have my name a phone number. I don't know any English vampir… It finally hits him. A wave of revulsion hit him when he remembered what Xander had told him in a heat of passion and anger.

"Miss, does this vampire have bleached hair, scar over one brow and blue eyes?"

"Yes, you know him then?"

"Yes unfortunately, Miss I suggest you get out of the house and I will be there as soon as possible. Where are you?"

The anger in him boiled his blood as he wrote down where she lived. He drove as fast as he could. Buffy was a daughter to him, and this monster tried to rape her. Thoughts flew through his head, but Giles had no idea what he was going to do. Whatever Spike was up to, he would most likely be dust before Giles left that house.

***********

Gwen put the phone on the hold. Immediately she made her way to the door. Picking up the stake as she stepped over the still unconscious body and ran out the door. Slamming it as she went. She was grateful for him saving her life, but wasn't about to test whether she could cheat death twice. She stood outside, stake in hand, hugging herself waiting for this Giles guy to show up.

***********

The fog was lifting. His mind focusing, he blindly clutched for it, knowing that when he woke that there would be pain. There was always pain when he woke. But his memory lurched forward.

I'll say hi to Buffy for you

His eyes shot open. Ignoring the pain he scrambled to get to his knees.

"Buffy..."

One word was all he could get out before mind numbing pain shocked through him and knocked him out of consciousness.

Bloody hell

He slowly opened his eyes, ignoring the twinges of pain from movement. This time he was more cautious of moving around. He looked around. Apparently he was in a house, didn't know whose it was. In mid thought his eyes locked on the phone on the corner end table.

Buffy...got to warn Buffy...

Knowing that any use of his legs would knock him out again. He slowly flipped over onto his charred stomach, grinding his teeth at the constant pain that ached his body. Slowly, he pushed himself against the hard wood floor, new lines of blood flowed from the movement. His crushed hands were no use, after a few inches he had to stop and physically pant to try and stay conscious.

Come on you bloody wanker stay with it and get on over there.

He began again, slowly moving forward, stopping every few inches to keep awake. He did this for what seemed to be an hour. Until he accidentally smacked his leg against the coffee table. With a scream he fell back out of consciousness.

He never noticed that the door behind him had opened, letting in a figure with a stake raised.

***********

Giles arrived, determination on his face, his eyes were searching for the house. To his luck the lady had taken his advice and was out on the front lawn, clutching a stake. He parked the car in front of the house. The woman saw this and got up with the stake raised, obviously she wasn't the trusting type. As he stepped from the car they suddenly turned there heads towards a gut wrenching scream from the house.

"Miss Mckellin, I'm Rupert Giles, you called me, told me about William. I'm going to go inside and see how he is doing."

He slowly walked up and raised his hands to not alarm her. She didn't ease at all. Her stance was ready, but obviously untrained. Still, she could do a lot of damage. Cautiously he sidestepped so his front was always to her, slowly circling around, keeping a safe distance. Once his back was facing the door, he turned and started approaching.

His hand tightened around the stake in his jacket pocket. Walking up the steps, he heard his foot make a splattering noise, looking down he saw that he just walked into what seemed to be very large pool of blood. Noticing the streaks coming from the pool entering the house, he followed, raising the stake out of the pocket and into position ready to pounce.

Following, the streaks pooled then moved off into one of the rooms to the side. He then saw the figure on the floor. Anger rushed through him, his eyes blurred with tears of rage. Stepping forward, not caring whether the vampire heard him or not. Giles was about to make the killing blow, when he noticed something odd. Spike had passed out.

Maybe it's from blood loss...probably cut himself too deep..

Curious Giles looked closer, he didn't see any marks on his back, but noticed that all the blood was coming from Spike's front. He also notice the hands, fingers swollen purple and bent into odd angles. Kneeling down to the Spikes side, positioned the stake just in case it was a hoax, gently rolled him over.

Giles lurched backward from the ghastly sight that laid before him. Spike had been mangled beyond recognition. The sight caused his eyes to go wide and bulge. Instinctively Giles brought the back of his hand to his mouth to keep him from vomiting.

"Dear god."

His voice was weak, stunned. This definitely wasn't self inflicted.

***********

"Man, I's gots to get me a new job.."

Jack mumbled to himself as he turned off the dirt shoulder of the road. This was his third trip from the coast Texas to California in two months. He was in the middle of the damn desert Somewhere near the west of Phoenix Arizona. He didn't have time to check what was in the back of the semi.

He had heard a noise in the container. Something was definitely moving back there, and boxes of frozen fish don't exactly jump around.

I probably picked up a Mexican going to San Diego.

He mused to himself. It was in the middle of the night he didn't need this. He walked up the side of his truck, swaggering from the thought of beating someone up, and from the five beers he had while at the bar.

Snapping up the back he stumbled back a few steps. The stink overwhelmed him. It smelled like the whole cargo was rotting. This just pissed him off. He couldn't see inside but he knew someone was there.

"Damn, Listen Pedro if you shitted in there, then I'm going to kick your..."

He caught a flicker of yellow rings, spaced apart, like eyes. Then the eyes moved swiftly forward. Two hands appeared from the hold and wrenched him inside. He couldn't even scream as it tore into him.

***********

Two hours later the truck was abandoned. A small insignificant trickle of red liquid ran from the dark cargo hold and out the back, dripping onto the dirt. A long figure could be seen walking west toward California. A single word hung in the wind.

"Sunnydale"