Buffy blew out the air she'd been holding in her lungs. It was done, she'd been inniciated. There'd been this huge ceremony and everything... some sort of blood oath that crossed her mind as possibly a little too creepy. She glanced back at Spike. He wasn't the sort of guy she'd go for... but he was sweet in his own cocky kind of way.
Spike threw the girl one of his legend smiles. 'God, I hope the poor chit doesn't get herself killed. Both our necks on the line, Slayer... try not to mess it up.' He thought with growing agitation.
Xander looked at Buffy with predatory eyes. He'd show her her place... she'd dare not to challenge anyone else in their power field. Some little blonde American slut that thought she'd just come in the middle of his life and shred it into a thousand pieces. He wouldn't accept her standing until she had beaten him in a fair fight.
The criminals walked down the street and turned into an alleyway. Buffy laughed harshly as the ale she'd had began its invasion on her mind. Dawn had been the first to fall under the ale's affects, and the poor child had repeatedly run into a stone wall. "Well, that man will think twice before he asks our good lady Buffy for a nightly courtship." Xander said to the women. He cowered away from the pale streetlights.
"His purse will regret it all the more." Buffy told him, pulling the man's purse from nowhere.
"I must admit... even with the knowledge of your reputation... I have no idea how you do it." Willow admitted to the blonde.
The group went on with their jokes until they heard a yell from the direction of the bar they'd been at during the earlier parts of the evening. Chances where that at this very moment about half the patrons of this establishment would come to realize their recent loss of income. Buffy smelled the air and her eyes grew wild. "They come." She stated, quiet simply and turned back to her new friends with a calm expression on her face. "Running might be good now." And with that, they ran. They ran as fast and as hard as they could... but still the sounds of the mob followed them. Buffy ran faster then them all and when Xander, Willow, and Dawn turned the corner, she was gone. They guessed a direction closer to their stronghold and fled.
Buffy stuck her head out just in time to see the mob follow her colleagues. She swore to herself and went in the opposite direction. It was dark... and even with her uncanny ability to see things in the dark... she missed it and fell.
Buffy stood up and looked at the man on the ground. He appeared to have been beaten. Normally she'd not have a mind to do anything but take his purse and be done with the poor man. But something struck her as oddly familiar. She bent over the man and tried to see where she'd recognized him from. Buffy pushed her hair out of her face and gasped as she recognized the man. For three or so days, Spike hadn't returned home. No one had seen or heard neither head nor tails of him. They'd just assumed he'd been caught or killed. But this man before Buffy looked completely. Black clothing, bleached hair... she thought it surely a wig, but perhaps not. She ran her hands through it and sighed as she made contact with a nearly deathly cold face. "What have you gotten yourself into?" Buffy asked the limp body. She grunted as she picked him up and threw him over her shoulder. He wasn't a large man, but she herself was rather small for the times. Buffy grunted as she made her way down the alley again.
Angel stared at Buffy as she dropped the mangled form of Spike to the ground. "What exactly are you doing, dropping 'that' on my floor?" He asked her, gesturing to Spike.
Buffy crossed her arms, "Well, actually, that's Spike." Angel straightened in his chair.
"You don't say." He looked down at the form and laughed, "Well, Willy, what have you gotten yourself into. It's a right shame, it is." He nodded to Drusilla as she left the crowd around them, "Dru, be a dear and help our William get comfortable. The ground isn't the place for the likes of him. Besides, he's startin' to smell." Dru nodded with a smile as she picked up Spike and carried him out of the chamber.
Buffy turned, and left the room, leaving Angel with the shadows.
Angel stared at the door. The girl was intriguing, but she was a child, and would most likely find it hard to grow up. Street urchins were all the same. The only other that had grown on the streets was Spike, and look at where he'd ended up.
"She seems like a charming girl." Ethan Rayne stepped out from behind the curtain. "Pity, she's not very bright."
"She grows on yah." Angel told the old Brit.
"Of course she does… now, about our little, arrangement." He glared at Angel, "You promised me a body… a mangled corpse. Not a beat up man in his room with his mistress."
"Actually," Angel stood, "She isn't his mistress. She dotes on him, but he doesn't return the gesture."
"Either way, William the Bloody." He sighed as he began to pace, "He's a problem. We need the girl for our own reasons, but he, we both agreed was better off dead."
"And I told you. In the habit of killing Spike, it's more difficult than one would assume."
"And the Slayer watches out for him now."
"The Slayer is simply a name, a title for the papers. It's a public interest, and naught else."
"So says the legendary Angelous. Head of the Scourge of Europe. Of the Order of Aurileous. Don't forget those who took you in, boy. You joined the order long before now."
"I know where the Order lies."
"Yes, dear Darla brought you in. Then you, your precious Drusilla, and after her came Spike. He didn't ask for it, but in the company of your childe, your ward of the order, you overlooked it and let him join. If we don't get the girl, the Lady will be very upset. The Master may hold the power, but the real power lies in her hands. The Anointed has almost been told and you sit here making the plans of a petty thief. That isn't your life. The Order needs you to fulfill your duty, and eliminate the others."
"The Anointed is a wives' tale. A special killer to lead the 'Slayer' to the Master's fold. I don't believe in pagan prophecies."
"Why not? Look at the world you live in. Power has passed on generations. The Slayer, as they call her is not the first. She comes from a long line of people trained to kill and to fight and to scheme. As her mother before her, and her mother before her, and so one back through history. She has no family, they let her go when her mother died. They told her nature. That is why she is called the Slayer. Her family has ancient rights to it. Do you not remember? She was the fifth child of her mother. Each child was raised alone, unaware of the others existences. She is the last one of this generation. The Lady wants her alive. And Spike, Slayer of Slayers, who has killed her sisters and her mother is left out to kill this one as well? He knows the tales, the rules of our Order must be followed, or the Lady's wrath will be rained upon you."
"The Lady doesn't concern me. She's likely to burn at the stake as a witch, in any case. You know the laws don't hold for that non-sense."
"And yet, two of your own practice the beliefs as well. We don't know if her magics are real. If her tales of things we fear at night are simply tales. The Storyteller himself finds her stories boggling. Don't bugger this up." Ethan stepped threw the window and left Angel to his thoughts.
He couldn't do it, he couldn't just turn over the girl to the care of the Lady. The Lady was the one they all feared, even the Master stayed away from her. He went to his desk and saw a letter sitting on it in the Lady's hand.
Childe of our own Darla, brought to our circle in years of late, sire of Drusilla, grandsire of the William who displeases our grace. Our face shall be shown in the court of your people. As we find your runnings of interest to us. Don't disappoint us.
THE LADY OF THE ORDER OF AURILEOUS
Angel tried to grasp what was being said on the paper. The next meeting was that night. And he'd have to set up an audience with the Lady. No one had ever seen the face of the Lady, at least, none that would speak of it. When at gatherings, she was always veiled. The reason was unknown to him. But he had to be alone in the same room with her, and that frightened him more then he'd like.