Chapter 11
Leaning on his cane, Joe waited nervously for his friends to return. When he saw Methos and Duncan's grim faces, his heart sank. "Nothing?"
Duncan shook his head. "Whoever it was is gone."
"Maybe Richie found Dawn," Joe said hopefully.
"Somehow I doubt it," Methos replied as the younger immortal came toward them.
"They wouldn't let me go backstage. I ran into one of the band members who went back and checked for her, but she wasn't there," Richie explained with angry frustration. "Something's happened."
"And just when you think things can't get any worse," Methos muttered staring past Duncan.
Spike chuckled as he walked back to the rendezvous point. Too bad the Scooby Gang wasn't here to see it, he thought. The band had been surprisingly good, and Dawn was outright adorable.
He was glad when he first heard that she decided to go to school in Seacouver. After spending the past few days with her, he knew she had done the right thing. She was no longer a 14-year-old hormone bomb, but a mature young woman capable of doing anything she put her mind to.
When he spotted Dawn's friends, the hair on the back of his neck rose. Something was wrong. She wasn't there.
"Uh-oh," Joe said as he watched Spike stalk towards them.
"Where's Dawn?" the blond man asked without preamble.
There was a silence as the other men looked at each other. Richie was the first to try to explain. "Umm, we don't know."
Spike lunged and pinned him against a massive tree then asked in a soft voice that sent chills down Joe's spine. "What do you mean you don't know?"
"Look, this isn't going to help," Duncan protested pulling on Spike's shoulder.
Everything happened so fast that Joe could scarcely believe it. Spike released Richie and, going with the momentum, spun, knocked Duncan's arm away and caught the immortal with a left cross to the face followed by a spinkick to the stomach and another kick to the chin. Duncan fell flat on his back clearly surprised by the strength behind the assault.
Richie yelled and tackled Spike from behind, and the men went down in a heap. Still struggling, they pulled each other up. Richie hit Spike with a right cross. Spike responded with a vicious closed-fisted backhand to the ear that sent Richie back to the ground then kicked him in the ribs for good measure.
When Methos came to breakup the fight, Spike grabbed him by his lapels and flung him hard into the tree fifteen feet away.
The blond would have continued his beating of Richie had he not noticed several security people heading their way. With an animalistic roar, he took off.
"That went well," Joe said with a roll of his eyes.