Spike and Dru

Drusilla's Soul: Part Six of Eleven

Spike

The following day all of us except Ilyria are sitting in the Hyperion's lobby, waiting for Red and her Slayer. Angel's being his usual bright, happy self, constantly complaining about how late the two of them are. Drusilla just seems... vacant and distant. Thinking about something far away from here. 'Course I can't blame her. Why the hell would anyone want to be here when there are about five thousand quadrillion other places to be?

I hear Kennedy's voice growing nearer and then she and Willow are walking through the door. I see Willow pause as if startled and then lock eyes with Dru. Did I forget to tell her she was going to be here? No. I distinctly remember saying 'Dru had a vision'. So why does she seem so surprised to see her here? But she regains her composure quick enough. Maybe she just doesn't like being in a room with so many vampires. Must be it.

"Good, you're finally here. Now Angel will stop complaining about how late you are."

Willow smiles, barely perceptibly, and Angel turns to glare.

"I wasn't complaining," he protests. I don't even bother to say anything back to him.

"Nice flight?" I ask Willow.

She laughs. "Hey, what's with the politeness? Are you possessed?"

"Of course not. And if I was, I think I might know it. Hopefully."

"Have we found out anything about the Initiative yet?" Willow asks.

"Nothing, really. All the leads we got was this demon women living under a forest. Said they took her to an remote old warehouse and there was a tree and barbed wire. That's about all she remembers I think. She said something about poison - sedatives maybe - I guess that could have affected how well she was paying attention to her surroundings." I stand up and stretch, pacing the floor. I'll probably never know why it's so uncomfortable to sit on a chair for so long.

"Remote? What do you think she could have meant by that?" It's Kennedy who speak this time.

"I don't know. She said 'outiside the city' but other than that I have no clue. Could be anywhere, and we don't even know if that's headquaters, do we? I mean, sure, it's a start, but there's not much to go on, is there?" I dig in my pockets for my lighter and light a cigarette, taking a long, slow drag to calm my haywire brain.

"So, warehouse outside the city. Tree, barbed wire. I think I got that. I'll get looking. Probably a pretty wide search though. I'm going out on a limb here and assuming that outside the city also means near the city, so we're obviously not going to be searching for places in like, say... Alaska." Willow says. "So, should we stay here, or go somewhere else? I mean, this is a hotel, right? There must be rooms."

"Just go upstairs. There are four rooms taken and I'm pretty sure they're locked. If not, you can probably tell whose they are by the things in them. Just go upstairs, pick a room." Angel said. Willow and Kennedy did just that, leaving the three of us in the lobby. Angel pretty quickly clears off too. Just me and Dru. I walk over to her, but when I sit on the chair beside her, she gasps and then groans, clutching her head, her sharp fingernails leaving crescent-shaped incisions. I hold her tightly against me, instinctively trying to protect her, even from her own mind. She collects herself, but doesn't try to scramble out of my arms.

"What was that, pet? Another vision?"

Dru nods slowly, dark tendrils of hair escaping from the pins that hold it back to fall into her face. She doesn't say anything immediately and I start to think she's just going to keep it a secret, like maybe her vision's about something bad happening to one of us and she doesn't want to tell me about it in case I might be scared, but she starts describing the vision in a delicate, fearful voice.

"It was her... The star. She's falling... It hurts. What are they doing to her?" Dru groans low in her throat, seeming almost as if she can feel this so-called 'star's pain. She whimpers, that sound she makes when she's about to cry and all I can do is hold her close to me and stroke her hair.

"It's going to be okay." I tell her. I've had to repeat these words to her so many times over the past few days that it seems like they have ceased to hold any meaning whatsoever, but Drusilla seem to become minutely calmer. She lifts her head up and holds my gaze for a very long time. It seems almost like we have a kind of telepathy then, although of course that can't be true. Well, it can be, I guess, but I'm fairly sure we're not having a mental conversation right now. Tears swim in her eyes, but none glisten on her cheeks. I see her mouth, so beautiful, and can't help but press my lips against hers. She kisses me back, wrapping her slender hand around my neck. I can't belive it's been almost fifteen years since we last did this. How did I spend all that time, exactly? Some of it with the Slayer, in what was probably the worst years of her life. And how stupid am I, thinking about the Slayer while kissing Drusilla? That isn't right. I open my mouth, letting myself taste her. I bit my on tongue very hard and feel her gently sucking at the wound. I finally pull away from her after what feels like forever; if I were human I'd be gasping for breath.

"Come on," I say, feeling my mouth stretch into a grin. "Let's go upstairs." Drusilla returns my smile with a hungry grin of her own, her face tilted downwards, throwing it into shadow. It almost appears as if she's wearing bright red lipstick, but I know it's my own cold blood smeared over her mouth.

...

Willow

I almost hadn't expected to see Drusilla here. I know Spike had told me about her on the phone, saying it was her who'd had a vision, but still... I'm probably being stupid. None of them know it was me, so what's the big deal? But that doesn't really help me. Just thinking of how she must have been after I'd cast the spell is enough to give me the shivers. She seemed docile enough earlier, but she might not have been a few days ago. What if they find out it was me? But they have to. I have to tell them. I came here with that intention and I'm not about to just let it go like that. But then I didn't know Drusilla was already with them. I think of the way Spike looks at her... They were together for longer than I'm going to live and I expect him not to be mad at me when I re-ensoul her?

"Will? Aren't you coming to bed?" Kennedy says from where she's propped up among the pillows, reading some book.

"Not right now," I say. I take a deep breath and stand up from my chair. "There's something I've got to do first."

Kennedy raises an eyebrow. "It's three in the morning." she says. As if that means anything when we're living in a hotel full of vampires. "Can't it wait?"

I shake my head. "I have to do it now. I need to tell them everything."

"Wait till morning." Kennedy says. "Besides, whatever is that important is probably a good idea to tell everyone at the same time. Wait until everyone's together."

Kennedy's right. I should do that, I should wait until they're together. That would be sensible. Maybe I should even just wait until all of this is over. But my mind tells me that I can't do that. Morning. I will tell them in the morning, as soon as I wake up. I can't put this off any longer. As soon as I can, I need to tell them that it was me. I gave Drusilla back her soul.

...

The two men in the woods walk at a relatively slow pace, their heavy boots making no sound at all. They passed like ghosts and they knew that they were as invisible. They carried a small girl between them, a girl who was just barely still a child. She seemed asleep, or even dead. They did not worry about her, for they knew - or thought - that she would remain out cold.

She opened her eyes.