Chapter 4: The Harsh Light of Day
Spike
Classes at UC Sunnydale had started a week ago. Spike only knew that because he'd come home that night and found Lucy pouring over textbooks.
"I can only be a part-time student because there aren't enough evening classes, but it's better than nothing," Lucy had said.
School was something that Lucy enjoyed, so Spike hadn't had to fake enthusiasm when he asked what classes she was taking. It was interesting to find out that one of UC Sunnydale's few evening classes was History of Demons, spelled to appear as History of Cheese Making to any non-demons.
Then Sunday and her gang had gotten themselves dusted by the Slayer and her pals. That would have been a pain to clean up if they'd given Sunday the responsibilities having half a brain could have gotten her. They hadn't, because Lucy hated her.
Spike wanted to surprise Lucy with dinner and dancing since they hadn't had a proper night out since they got back to Sunnydale. As much as he liked Joyce, standing on her porch and talking didn't have the excitement he often craved. Going to a nightclub, catching a meal and maybe getting into a fight would all provide the fast-paced activity they'd been missing. Of course, without Drusilla around to occupy most of Lucy's attention Spike's plans didn't stay a surprise for long.
"I want to go to the Bronze. The Dingoes are playing," Lucy said when she got home. She smirked when she saw the look on Spike's face. "Did you really think I wouldn't find out?"
"A man can hope," Spike said. But he was used to this sort of thing. Drusilla had known a lot of the decisions he made before he'd even started thinking about them.
Lucy chuckled. "I love you."
Spike reached out to cradle her cheek with one hand. "I love you too. What time are your boys on?"
There was an overabundance of kids at the Bronze that night. The dance floor was packed with beating hearts pumping young blood through sweaty bodies. Apparently Lucy's Dingoes were more popular than Spike remembered.
Lucy pressed her body against his and whispered in his ear. "Dance with me?"
Spike smiled. "That's the plan."
They danced until Spike spotted Red and Boston entering the club. Then they headed to the first floor. The Slayer wasn't there. They didn't need to get into a fight with her people.
"This is a new song," Lucy said a few minutes later. "'She knows that side of me'...I wonder if Oz wrote it. It's sweet."
The words of the song did sound like it could be Wolf-boy waxing poetic about his curse. And it was sweet, assuming he'd been thinking about Red when he'd been writing it.
They were sitting in one of the upholstered armchairs that were never in the same place twice in the shadows of the balcony level. They could still see the stage but they were out of sight of anyone on the ground floor. Spike put an arm around Lucy and she leaned into his chest.
"I'm glad we came home," she said.
The Dingoes stopped playing at half past eleven. Spike and Lucy waited until after they'd packed up to head back downstairs.
"How's about we look for a bit of lunch?" Spike suggested.
Lucy nodded. Then she frowned and tilted her head towards the door. "Huh."
Spike gave her a questioning look. He trusted that she would have said a bit more if they'd been in immediate danger, but he still wanted to know what was going on.
"Harmony attacked Willow," Lucy said.
"Did Red dust her?" Spike asked. He was kind of hoping that the answer was yes. Harmony was a pain to deal with. Minions showed more logical thinking than she did.
"No, Oz threw her across the street and she ran away." Lucy shrugged. "Whatever. It's not our problem. What were you thinking for lunch?"
Lunch was a pair of girls they ambushed a few blocks from the Bronze. They weren't vampires or Slayers to be able to run in the heels they were wearing. If it came to a hunt, it was sure to be amusing. Lucy approached them first, asking for directions. While the girls were distracted, Spike crept up behind them.
"Thanks for your help," Spike said when the taller girl finished explaining how to get to the Espresso Pump. "I'm not in the mood for coffee though."
The girls jumped at his sudden appearance. Their hearts sped up, beating frantically from the fright.
Delightful.
"They have hot chocolate." Lucy put on her game face and sank her fangs into the shorter girl's throat.
The taller girl's scream was cut off when Spike grabbed her and bit into her neck. Hot blood, B-positive, slightly spicy, rushed into his mouth. It didn't take long to drink every drop. When he was finished he let the body fall to the ground and stepped over it to reach Lucy's side.
"I like her jacket," Lucy said, eyeing the red leather blazer on the corpse she was holding at arm's length. "Do you think it'll fit me?"
Spike looked it over. "Seems about your size. Try it on."
Lucy dropped the body once they'd gotten the jacket off. She pulled on the blazer and did up the button at her waist. "It's comfy. I'm keeping this."
Spike gave her a one-armed hug. Then they left the bodies behind and went to see who else there was to kill. Spike was hoping for a run-in with the Second Slayer. He hadn't fought her since they left Sunnydale. That had been fairly boring. They'd had a plan in the works and Second hadn't had any of the Slayer's style. Spike wanted to see if a year of running with the Slayer's crew had made Second any less of a textbook Slayer.
They didn't end up meeting Second or the Slayer. There was a brawl going on behind Willy's that Spike toyed with jumping into. Then the M'Fashnik knocked out his opponent and yelled that he could beat anyone who was standing there. That was too good of an opening to pass up.
"I'd like to test that theory," Spike said.
The M'Fashnik snarled. "You're not worth my time, halfbreed."
A grey-skinned, floppy-eared demon inched up behind him. "Uh, man, maybe you don't wanna—"
The M'Fashnik backhanded the grey-skinned demon in the face and sent him flying.
"Someone's had too much to drink." Lucy giggled. "You could knock him over with a feather."
The M'Fashnik growled at her. Lucy wiggled her fingers in a parody of a wave.
Spike grinned.
Dalton had something big to tell them about when they got home. It was easy to tell because he'd covered the table on the factory floor with books. He only did that when he ran out of room in his office and that only happened when he'd put together something fantastic.
"What have you been up to?" Spike asked.
"You could call it a history project," Dalton said. "Have you heard of the Gem of Amara?"
Spike thought for a moment. "Magic jewel that makes you invincible, innit?"
"Basically. It only works for vampires." Dalton looked from Spike to Lucy. "The sorcerer and poet Amarasimha created it. It causes us to be immune to sunlight, staking, crosses and decapitation, rendering its wearer functionally invincible, as master Spike said. It's been deemed a myth, but I believe it's in Sunnydale."
Lucy looked at Spike with big, pleading eyes. Well, they were going on a treasure hunt then.
"Go on," Spike said.
Using most of the books on the table and half a dozen maps, Dalton laid out his argument for the Gem of Amara currently being located in Sunnydale. Spike and Lucy listened carefully.
"A sealed crypt, huh? Do we have anyone with mining experience?" Lucy asked.
"There's Ryan," Dalton said.
"Ryan," Lucy repeated. "He doesn't live here, does he?"
Dalton shook his head.
Spike smirked. "Well, the night's still young. How's about we find Ryan and take a look around?"
Lucy grinned back. "This is going to be fun."
It didn't take long to find Ryan and bring him back to the factory. He and his boyfriend lived in a crypt in Shady Hill Cemetery. Spike wasn't being sarcastic when he said it was a nice place.
Ryan looked over Dalton's maps. "We'd have to do some scans to know where to start digging. The equipment—"
"You'll have it," Spike said. "Tell Dalton what you need and we'll send someone to steal whatever we haven't got."
Ryan quickly nodded. "Okay, boss. Once we know where to dig it looks like it should only take a few nights to break through. I can give you a better estimate when we're on site."
Lucy tapped her nails on the tabletop. The look of concentration on her face made Spike wait in silence and the other two men followed his lead.
"We should start tomorrow," she said at last. "That way we'll have the whole night to work. But we can gather supplies now. It's late; the Slayers won't be patrolling anymore."
Ryan didn't question how Lucy knew that. He and Dalton put together a list and then went to wrangle minions to get what they needed.
"We'll be back before sunrise," Dalton promised.
With Dalton and Ryan gone, Spike and Lucy were alone in the factory. Lucy was already fully engrossed in one of Dalton's books.
"Do you miss the sun?" Lucy asked.
Maybe not so engrossed.
"Occasionally," Spike said. Often, he thought.
Lucy nodded. "I don't miss the sun yet."
It wasn't difficult to figure out what she meant. When they found the Gem of Amara, Spike would get to use it first.
It quickly became clear that tunneling into the crypt was going to take more than a few nights. They laid in a stock of provisions in the form of two chained up college boys and a mini fridge filled with bags and quarts of blood. Then Spike and Lucy banned anyone from leaving the tunnel. It wouldn't do to have the Slayer and her pals tipped off that they were up to no good because a minion wanted a drink. Most of the vampires Ryan and Dalton had strong-armed into working on the dig had enough self-preservation to agree.
And then there was Harmony. Spike didn't even know why she was there.
"No one forced you to come here," Lucy said. "But now that you know what we're doing you have to stay."
Harmony crossed her arms and pouted. "I thought we were going to have a party, not dig up some stupid tunnel. This is boring."
That was about what Spike expected from Harmony.
Lucy growled. "Tough luck. Make yourself useful or I'm going to see how long it takes you to heal from a broken neck."
Spike smirked as Harmony took a step back and then ran for the relative safety of the other end of the tunnel. Ryan flinched away when Lucy stalked back to the table of blueprints they were overseeing operations from.
"She's going to get us all killed," Lucy said.
"If you're worried about her talking you could always cut out her tongue," Spike suggested.
"There's an idea." Lucy's anger melted into a thoughtful expression. "Maybe later. About how far do we have left to go, Ryan?"
Ryan swallowed nervously. "A little less than a hundred feet."
"So, a day or two?" Lucy said.
Ryan nodded.
Lucy smiled. "We'll be finished before my next classes."
"That's nice?" Ryan said. He didn't sound so sure.
"What's above us?" Spike asked.
It took a few seconds for Ryan to check and confirm that there was nothing above the direction they were tunnelling but road. That was good. Spike wasn't keen to get a building dropped on his head.
The excavation moved forward. Between Lucy and Ryan, they kept an organized rotation going of who was digging and who was taking a meal break. The blood of one of the collage boys tasted a little chemical but it seemed to only be steroids, not anything that would make someone sick.
"There should be another foot left," Ryan told Spike and Lucy on the fourth night of tunneling. "If we keep going at this rate, we'll have it open in a few minutes."
"Good," Spike said. "Make sure we keep going at this rate."
Ryan nodded frantically. His eyes flickered towards Lucy. She smiled at him and he swallowed nervously. The man was as twitchy as a rabbit.
"Is that acceptable, mistress?" Ryan asked.
"Perfectly," Lucy said. "Run along now."
Ryan ran.
Lucy turned to Spike and spoke in a whisper that none of the others would be able to hear. "Remember how Andy thought I was Dru? That little misunderstanding is making the rounds now that it's only the two of us."
That was amusing. And stupid. Spike knew that the Watcher had books with pictures proving otherwise, but he wasn't going to share those with Sunnydale's demonic population now was he?
After fifteen more minutes of drilling, digging and dust, they'd cracked open the crypt. Ryan made sure the hole was wide enough that no one would get stuck and then backed away. The smell of stale air and old bones drifted down to them.
"This ought to be interesting," Spike said.
Lucy grinned. "Isn't it always?"
It wasn't difficult to climb up into the crypt. Spike gave Lucy a hand when she stopped halfway to gawk at the objects piled around them. There was a wall of scrolls in individual honeycomb-like shelves across from a table covered with gold, jewels and carvings. More treasures were piled on the floor. Two bodies that were reduced to bone and scraps of cloth were displayed in shallow stone sarcophagi in the middle of the crypt.
"Cool," Lucy said.
None of Dalton's books had a description of the Gem of Amara beyond "gem". Spike thought it might be in the necklace one of the skeletons was wearing but a quick test showed that there wasn't any magic in it.
Spike looked around the crypt at all of the possible gems they had to go through. "Split up?"
Lucy nodded. "Probably a good idea."
They shifted through the jewelry on opposite sides of the crypt. There were a few jewel-studded boxes and goblets that Spike hoped didn't have the Gem of Amara decorating them. That would be a pain to figure out. It would be a clever way to hide it though.
"Found it," Lucy said.
Spike looked to where Lucy was standing. She had one hand wrapped around a golden cross on the table. Spike worried for a second before he realized that the cross wasn't burning her. Lucy held up her other hand to display the green gem set in the ring on her finger. Spike mirrored the smile on her face.
This was going to be fun.
A/n:The lyric quoted in this chapter is from "She Knows" by Four Star Mary aka the real life band behind Dingoes Ate My Baby.