Note: See first chapter for disclaimers.
Also, don't be too hard on Giles - he'd just gotten back from a not-so-successful fight and Spike does have a way of making himself rather annoying when he wants to.
The young man released a ragged breath and pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes.
Obviously "Spike" was a name the blonde had given him – it certainly wasn't something he'd have chosen for himself, but she hadn't hurt him and that was, by far, the more important of the two battles to have won.
He swore again, wishing desperately that he could remember something, anything, about himself, these people – even this place.
As his breathing calmed and his thoughts slowed, he realized that he could hear them, the horrifying pair and the other two, speaking in the next room.
"No, no – it was a Zelrict demon. See the row of jagged spines along the jaw line?" The man in glasses, the blonde had called him Giles, spoke.
"Ugh, gross – what's it do?" The blonde's voice now.
"Let's see..." Giles again. "It produces a slime that can cause hallucinations in its victims... it can create a pulse of... force, essentially, that it can fling at its victims at will and... ah, here we are. Its hide is incredibly thick, enabling it to shrug off the injuries that would mortally wound so many others, but, upon sustaining an actual injury, the creature usually dies." There was a pause. "They bleed to death."
"You mean like those Russian people? There's a whole race of demons that are hemo... hemo..." This boy's voice held so much more uncertainty than the man's did.
"Hemophiliacs, yes..." The young man shuddered. The arrogance and dismissal in those words was familiar. "None of you happened to get any of its... slime on you, did you?"
There was some murmuring and lots of movement. That Giles fellow was definitely bossy enough, but he didn't doubt that the blond was in charge.
"Uh, no, don't think so, G-man." It was odd, he could almost picture the smile that went with the boy's words. He felt the corners of his lips turn up.
"Actually, Xander, there's some on the back of your shirt... right there, see?" This second girl, not the blonde, her voice struck a chord inside the young man. He closed his eyes at the ache that swelled up, noting that his smile hadn't faded. It was a good kind of ache.
"What? Ah! Get it off me!" The young man bit his lower lip to keep from laughing. "Giles! Giles, what do I do?"
"Take it off – carefully!"
There was the sound of several people moving all at once and then he sensed them calm again.
"Alright, Xander, follow me, I'm sure I can find a suitable replacement for you until you get home. Willow? No, not in the trash, I don't want anyone accidently coming in contact with it. Just put that in the sink for now, we'll figure out what to do with it later. No, no – the bathroom sink."
"And be careful, Wills," the blonde's voice was low. "Spike's acting kind of funny."
"Spike's acting... what do you mean?" The young man frowned at the thread of fear in the other girl's voice.
"Well, I... it was like he was afraid of me."
The sound of her giggling lit up his face. "Afraid of you? You mean, like he's acting all snarky?"
"No," the sound of the blonde's confusion made him nervous. "He... He flinched away from me... started babbling like Xander does when his brain goes on autopilot. And the look in his eyes... it was like he really was afraid of what I was going to do to him."
The two girls shared a moment of awkward silence.
"Well, he did get knocked back pretty hard. He might just be a little loopy."
He could almost hear the blonde nod. "Anyway, he seemed pretty wigged to see me, so I'm gonna wait out here. Just call if you need me?"
"Will do."