Chapter 36

February 18, 2005

"Drusilla! No!" Liz shouted.

Spike with blinding speed reached for his sire, even as he held onto Luke he managed to wrap an arm around Dru's middle. While Spike grabbed her, Liz jumped in front of Maria facing Drusilla. If Spike had been any slower or if Liz had been an inch more to the left the official active Slayer would be bleeding from the neck and the next Slayer would probably be called.

Whimpering slightly Drusilla lowered her arm. "Sister shouldn't save malevolent little buggies. They crawl and fester until they overwhelm and suffocate." She warned cryptically.

"What the hell just happened?" Maria snapped out of her trance and stepped away from Liz's back and hit the counter behind her. "What did she do to me? And who is she calling a bug?"

"If the exoskeleton fits." Spike glared as he released Dru from his hold. Before he would have relished in having the Dark Princess close to his person. He would have delved deeper into her unique scent and gotten lost for days. Now, while it did still give him comfort he felt revulsion at the thought of immersing himself in her as a lover would.

Ignoring Maria for the time being Liz focused on the vampire in front of her. Dru, although tamed somewhat, still was a soulless creature prone to fits of violence towards those she perceived as threats, whether they be to her or her family. Her friend had yet to take the life of an innocent since their first meeting but Liz wasn't naïve. Drusilla would kill an innocent person eventually, as would Spike and Angel. She was prepared for that. At least when it came to the two dark haired vampires.

Buffy, her sister Slayer, more than likely wouldn't be able to drive the stake into Angel when the inevitable happened, just as she wouldn't be able to take Spike's life. When it happened though, a battle would ensue, both fighting for their mates.

"Dru, why don't you go upstairs? Angel's going to be here later, Spike can heat you up some blood. Luke can show you his train." Gently she coaxed her toward the back room.

"Trains." Drusilla smiled closing her eyes. "They have such yummy treats inside." She wistfully remembered as she glided back the way she came.

Spike hoisted Luke higher onto his waist. "Are you going to be ok down here alone?"

"Yes." She firmly stated. "I appreciate the concern." Liz kissed his lips and then tickled Luke. "Take care of Dru, I can handle the fall out down here. At least this way she'll be upstairs till Angel shows."

"Dru's always good for her Daddy." Spike murmured, a century of playing second fiddle couldn't be erased over a few years.

"And I'm always good for you." Liz teased. "You, Luke, and baby come first with me."

Cocking his scarred eyebrow he whispered in a low gravelly voice. "Sometimes you're bad for me."

"Of course. Can't be good all the time. Occasionally I need a good spanking from my bad ass master vampire." She giggled and backed away as he reached out to grab her.

"Don't tempt me little girl."

"But I'm so good at it." She shot back.

Spike winked at her, "Damn right you are." With a mock bite sent her way he and Luke followed Drusilla upstairs to keep her company and keep her quiet till Angel could be on babysitting duty.

Just as Maria started to shriek her questions again Liz raised a single hand to silence her. "Dru is a vampire. She's also a pre cog and a post cog, she was before she was turned and she still is now. Hypnotizing is the way she usually kills."

"Kills?!" Maria grabbed her throat in part shock and part protection.

"Yes. Apparently she saw something that she didn't like in you. Whether it was our history or something you're going to do, I don't know. Don't be too worried, she tends to see everything, even something small, and run with it. It just brought out her protective side." Liz tried to explain but try explaining that she basically had a wild panther on a very thin and fragile rope that could break at any moment and maim with ease. Then try to explain why she allowed that panther to live when it's had hundreds of deaths under its belt already. Not an easy or sane task.

"And you're ok with this? Isn't it your job to kill her?" Max yelled pointing at the door Drusilla, Spike, and Luke went through.

"First off, don't raise your voice at me Max. Two what I do or don't do when it comes to my slaying is my business. Three Dru and I have an understanding, she doesn't kill innocents and I don't kill her. That's all you need to know so back the fuck off." She ordered.

Maria got close to Liz, invading her personal space. She couldn't understand why Liz was like this, the girl she knew wouldn't have let anyone die if she could help it now she's drawing lines in the sand. "She nearly killed me. Aren't I an innocent?" She argued.

"I have my doubts." Liz volleyed back.

"That's not fair. Just because we're not friends anymore doesn't mean I'm a bad person who deserves to die." Maria could hardly believe this was the same girl she's known since kindergarten.

"Did I say you deserved to die or that Drusilla should have slit your throat? If I felt that way I wouldn't have stepped in when I did. All I said was that I doubt you're innocent. Turning your back on your best friend isn't innocent, marrying someone because they can get you places isn't innocent." Although she promised herself that she wouldn't get into all this with Maria she didn't want to hold this in any longer. Maybe it'd be therapeutic.

"Like you're so pure and innocent?" Maria crossed her arms.

"Once again you're putting words in my mouth. Never said that. I'm in love and married to a killer. Spike, who's still soulless, has killed a lot of people in his one hundred and twenty years. I've hurt people I care about…some I didn't but I'm not riding around on my high horse thinking I haven't done wrong."

Kyle who had been quiet during the whole exchange spoke up. "Then why aren't you making it right? Why let them run around free, why let them be alone with Luke?" He wanted to understand, he wanted to be behind Liz's decision on this, especially after abandoning her to the point where she felt she had no choice but to leave her home, but he couldn't, not with Luke being watched over by killers.

The others, if they had voiced their concerns, would have been ignored easily but Kyle's concern deserved an explanation. "Spike and I met before I became a Slayer. It happened when Buffy, a lot of scared girls, or Potentials, were fighting the First."

"The First?" Tess asked.

"First evil. It's what gave birth to the demons. Vampires and many subset of demons came later but it was/is the ultimate evil. I was up in LA with my cousin, Fred, Angel and the others you met last night lived there too. The fighters were needed in Sunnydale, they needed all abled bodies and minds down there. I couldn't go because I was pregnant. A few of the others didn't go either. However Buffy sent Spike up to LA to protect us if it was needed." Liz smiled wistfully remembering fondly the first meeting with the bleach blonde handsome vampire.

"Did he save you from a creature? Is that why you fell for him?" Kyle questioned.

Liz shook her head negatively. "No. He just…he was Spike." As if that explained anything to the gathered group. Scrubbing a hand down her face she sat down at a stool in front of the counter. "Ok, Spike is my mate. Basically that means he's it for me. I'm his, he's mine. There's a deep connection like no other."

Max leaned forward to try and mention their soulmate connection. It too was a deep, amazing link between them like no other. Liz, however, put a stop to that train of thought.

"Don't go there Max. While I'll look back at some of our relationship fondly, it's not close to what Spike and I have." From there she went in depth to how the mating bond is different from other types of relationship bonds.

She went onto explain that vampires and slayers especially are essentially made for one another. Slayers are so strong and fight in the shadows for so long that they needed someone or in this case something, to balance them, to challenge them, to accept who they are completely and fully.

"Lord knows the Council tried and succeeded in keeping that little tidbit a secret for centuries. We have no idea how many Slayers had demon or vampire mates and lovers out there." The others hung onto her every word as she laid it all down.

"So why did the Council try to keep this under wraps?" Isabel hated secrecy, it physically hurt her heart sometimes keeping her alien status from her loving and clueless parents. She couldn't imagine the pain of being told that loving someone was an abomination. Despite Nasedo, when he was alive, wanting them to follow destiny there hadn't been any strong resistance to dating outside their species.

"According to the Council everything non-human was evil and should be eradicated." Liz picked at the sandwiches that no one ate. "Plus add the fact that Slayers hunted the forces of darkness on a nightly basis, they didn't want their image of a pure Slayer tainted. Forget the fact that we have demon blood and essence flowing through our veins to give us the strength, fast healing, and visions that come with the Slayer package. Add on top of that they wanted to keep us under their holy than thou thumbs. We start to have fuzzy feelings toward the creatures we're supposed to kill it might affect our duty. And they never want us to have any fun. We're tools for them to wield and when one doesn't fall in line then they can be disposed of and a shiny new moldable slayer is called."

Liz let out a big breath after that long tirade. Clearly she had issues with the Council. She'd never had met them, the previous Watcher's Council, but she read the Watcher's Diaries and talked to Buffy. She knew enough to know how they operated and it sickened her.

"Why aren't they trying to separate you both now? According to you that's their thing." Michael jumped in with a question of his own.

"Well, if the Council, as it had been, was still around you can bet they'd be trying to take us out. However the previous Council was blown up. I've never had the displeasure of meeting them or their lackey's. Now Giles and a few other people have resurrected the Council. Dating vampires is no longer forbidden. It's still not loved but we're not killed for it either."

"Which is a blessing." A husky voice said from the swinging door. "I wouldn't have left a bomb, I'd be keeping them alive for a long time if they went after my love and it's not something those stuffed shirts would enjoy."

"Nice imagery Angel. I've been trying set these guys at ease and torture threats aren't helping." She teased.

Angel shrugged slightly. "Sorry."

"Dru's upstairs, she had a bit of an episode earlier."

Angel nodded but kept silent. Quietly he left the room, she assumed to go upstairs. His and his Childe's relationship was complicated, probably more so than Dru's relationship with Spike. She did no envy Angel having to balance that.

Taking in the group she realized no one was going to eat the sandwiches that had been made. Everyone was too busy digesting the massive dose of information she laid on them to digest meat, cheese, and bread. Rising from the stool she picked up the tray full of sandwiches, she could at least save them for later, and made her way back behind the counter.

Liz didn't get far when the shatter of glass interrupted her task. A knife whizzed past her, slicing her across the shoulder and clattering to the floor with the tray of lunch that fell from her hands.

She dropped to the floor. Meats, lettuce, and soggy bread squished beneath her knees and hands. She glanced quickly at the others, they were ducked under tables and behind anything they could crawl too. Liz cast furious eyes over the landscape, one front Crashdown glass door was in pieces on the floor, jagged edges clung to the metal sides but no one was out there.

From behind her Spike burst in through the kitchen door. "Liz!"

"Just a graze." He smelled the blood and his eyes glowed yellow. "Lucas?"

"Angel and Dru." When he crouched down next to her he gently looked over her arm. "Who did this?"

Liz peeked out from her place, again searching the outside. "Don't know. They knifed and ran." She hissed as Spike dabbed at the small wound.

Looking around on the floor mixed with the useless lunch, lay the knife. Reaching for it she grabbed the handle. It was ornate. Intricate design all along the handle, a beautiful image of a goddess with a sword. On top was a shiny red jewel. The blade had delicate etched in leaves and vines that traveled from hilt to nearly the tip. "Who would toss this?" She held up the decorated knife.

"It's a might pretty to throw and leave behind." Spike agreed.

"That's because she has plenty of them. Losing one won't matter much." Angel took the dagger from Liz and caressed the sharp edge.

"I take it you know who it belongs too?" Liz slowly stood facing her less broody friend of late.

"Darla."

TBC