Xander leaned back into the deeper shadows of the alley and watched the blonde vampire jimmy the back door of one of the few but respectable Main Street establishments. A balmy California night if ever there was one--warm, clammy, breezeless, with more than a touch of the graveyard. Skin slick with sweat, Xander regretted the choice of the jacket. He thought of discarding it. Folding it up and sticking it under a well-chosen crate. Gave a 1-in-5 chance that it wouldn't be recycled by the local vamp population if he came back for it by dawn. What, besides holding stakes in a stylish and ne'er-do-welling manner, did he even need it for?
He cursed the delinquent vampire, the crazy seer vamp who sired him, and hell, the no-good moony-eyed Jack-the-Ripper cum Romeo who sired her for good measure. The only three vampires who induced the part-rage part-terror headaches that scattered all of his thoughts like packing peanuts.
The jamb of the door splintered. Spike disappeared inside.
The alley, but for the faint sound of merchandise being tossed off its shelves, stilled. The door gaped like some broken-jawed eyeless creature.
Despite committing his fair share of B&E, theft of government property, and even the very occasional abduction, Xander considered himself a cut above Chipped Wonder. It'd been nearly two years since he looked on as Jack O'Toole and his dead hooligan pals smashed the hardware storefront to bake a pretty twisted "cake". Spike here wasn't even a tenth of the kind of the threatening of creepy, psychotic O'Toole.
And yet—Crime's going down and the Xand man is sucking on his gums, waiting for an invite. Crime of the booze-lifting variety, no doubt. Why Xander hadn't yanked the hastily acquired pipe that seemed in steady supply for the villainous element from Spike's hand-- he couldn't say.
Riley would have Action Man'ed the night's highly illegal activities to a standstill blocks ago, Xander thought.
Spike reappeared in the doorway, his body lit by something jammed under his arm. Something glowing. A chain had been slung over his shoulder and coiled around his waist like a bandolier to make room for the bound grimoire in one hand and a wickedly ornate ax in the other. Equipped for war. Xander half-expected to see a dagger clenched between Spike's teeth. Underneath the glowing jar? urn?, a bottle of amber glinted. Points to me for the booze, Xander noted. The vamp paused for only a moment on the edge of the door, in the gray space carved out by the glow of whatever it was under his arm, before he was trotting off down the alley.
"Vamp speed—highly overrated," Xander quipped as he loped behind Spike at a distance, heading unerring east around dumpsters, crates and fences as they snaked through the underbelly of Sunnydale.
At corner of Main and 8th, the alley abrupted in a grassy lot marked off for development. The green-taped fence was smattered with public hearing notices. From the cover of post office's awning, Xander could see the glowing prize slip from Spike's arm as he took the seven-foot fence in one smooth leap. No hesitation. Xander was across the street in seconds to rescue the fallen object. The urn. It was deep cerulean, a pulsed faintly. It was safe, now, in his hands.
He felt a surge of pride. The urn made this game his now--despite the fact he had no clue as to the rules. Or the urn's function. Or the stakes. Stakes.
Xander grabbed the stakes out of his jacket pocket and threw the dead weight to the side. He started running. He only had to make it to the ridge of trees at the top of the hill. From there, he could cut across the corridor of burnt-out Mustang skeletons in the abandoned junkyard to the baroque metal gates of Rotterdam church. Spike had made the mistake of taking the scenic route. Xander thrilled as he flew up the steeply inclined hill as easily as if he'd been strolling arm-and-arm with Anya through Restfield Park. Blood pumped through his body. Who needs Action Man when they've got the Xand Man?
The hand on the urn tingled, as though it had a heartbeat of its very own. He was so very awake now, universe.