Chapter 46
And Knowing Is Half The Battle
"Did you miss me?" Spike grins as I push open the door.
"I remember it being a direct hit." I say. "Spill."
"Now, now. That's not how it works, Slayer. Tit for tat." he glances down at my chest, causing me to cross my arms. "I tell you about your soldier boy problem, after you get me something nummy to eat." Faith appears by my side, and leans on the doorpost.
"Oh, you shouldn't have." Spike says.
"She's not for you." I growl, and kick his foot. He chuckles. "But a deal's a deal. A juicy pack of O neg if you help us find Oz."
"Tell you wot. You let me bite her and I will tell you all about the facility."
"Sure, go ahead." I gesture. Faith scowls. "Oh, no Faith, he- he can't bite anyone. Apparently."
"Faith?" Spike says, leaning back to rake his eyes over the slayer in question. "Wait a minute. Faith, as in, The Mayor's little pet Slayer Faith?"
In an instant, Faith has slammed Spike up the wall by the throat so hard the tiles crack. He chuckles through the pain, until she squeezes the last air from his throat and silences him.
"You know, I always wondered if I could rip a vampire's head off with my bare hands. Never really had the opportunity. I dunno, always up for a learning experience Are you? Waddya say? Shall we find out?" She punctuates each question by slamming his skull against the wall. Spike isn't laughing now.
"Oh. No. Faith. Stop. We need him." I say with a half hearted yawn, checking my nails for a chip.
Faith gives him one last slam and then releases him, turning and stepping away like thunderclouds passing by me. She leaves the small room and heads down the stairs, brushing past a scowling Willow. Spike is visibly shaken, finger shaped welts on his pale throat, but he tries to laugh it off nonetheless. I smirk at him to cover my own discomfort. I had been on the other end of that back in the day, and the memory lingers. Willow enters the room, clutching a blood bag and shoots me a look which I translate as "told you your new girlfriend is still a complete psycho". Wills and I get each. It's a thing.
"Rosenberg?" Spike says, his voice raspy. He coughs. "Oh, I see. You gave me the bad cop, now I get the good cop." He chuckles and coughs again. Now, Willow by this time is crouching over Spike, a disturbingly familiar syrupy smile plastered on her face.
"Actually Spike" the redhead says, "I am the one you should be worried about."
"You? Give me a break. You're softer than marshmallow bunny rabbits you are." Willow grins darkly and holds up a sparkling crystal sphere under Spikes nose. It glows a shimmering yellow from deep within.
"Oi. What's that?" He glances at me, nervously.
"This? Oh, just an Orb of Thesula. You know how Angel got cursed with a soul?" Willow purrs. "See, Faith? She can hurt your body nine ways til sunday and back again. I suspect you would enjoy that. But me? Well… little marshmallow me will ram a soul so far up your ass you will make big ole brooding Angel look like chuckles the clown."
"You wouldn't." Spike says, all his bravado gone.
"Oh, I very, very much would." Willow hisses, her piercing green eyes gazing into his, fearless and unblinking. A slow dark lipstick smile crawls over her pale face. "And more besides."
She boops the sphere against Spike's nose and stands. The blood bag is tossed at Spike's face. "Drink up, buttercup. You'll need your strength for all the talking you will be doing." And with that, Willow slinks out of the room, leaving two pairs of gaping mouths.
"That just happened, right?" Spike says.
"You should see her on a full moon." I say.
"Well, the whole gang's here." Spike says as I finish tying him to the chair in the living room. " 'Cept that ponse Xander… ouch. Give me a little slack there love, a guy has to breathe."
"You don't need to breathe, Spike." I hiss.
"To talk." He says, levelling a stare at me. He turns his attention back to the room. "Since you are obviously so clueless as to what has been going on."
"So. Elucidate us." Giles says.
"Been happening for a while. Demons and vamps, going missing. At first we thought that blonde bint was working overtime. But rumours started to circulate of masked men dragging us off, here and there. Thinning us out."
"Lowell house." Tara says.
"Well now," Spike smiles, turning his attention to the witch. "You must be the blue rug Buffy's been munching on." I hit the back of his head, possibly a bit hard, but hey, sue me, I don't know my own strength yet. "Ow. Actually, I owe you a thanks, Blue. You should have seen Soul Boy's face when I told him he made Goldilocks change teams. Bloody perfect."
Okay, maybe that probably deserved a hit, but I haven't quite gotten over my hate of Angel. My hand pauses and rakes through my hair to cover the smirk. Hey, I am a work in progress, deal.
"Stay on subject." Willow growls. "I can ensoul you whether you have your balls intact or not." Cordelia, Tara and Giles seemed as stunned by Willow as I am. Spike certainly seems to be taking her personality change seriously.
"It's called The Initiative, alright? Bunch of military brains. They capture us, drug us and do… experiments on us. "
"And you know this, how?"
"Why do you think I can't play with the other puppies now? Got myself a trip to that particular vet. They put some, electrical wotsit in me brain. Seems to go off when I try to hurt people. Spoil my fun." Giles puts on his glasses, and pulls his 'fascinating' face.
"So they just let you go?" Tara says.
"No." Spike says, firmly. "Played dead, I did. Made a run for it. Only just got out by the skin of my fangs. I am the only one who has managed it. So, what luck, I am the only one who can lead you to the entrance."
"What luck." I say, heavy on the sarcasm. "Except, that's a dead end. They torched the entrance, brought down the house with firebombs and most definitely collapsed the shaft leading down."
"First thing I had them do when I took over The Factory from The Annoying One is dig a way down to the sewers. Thing about evil lairs, see, is that you don't want them to be your trap in case some namby pamby do gooders come knocking. You always have more than one way in and out. Smart villains have bolt holes, sally ports, back doors.
"I didn't get out through any frat house. I came up… well, soon as the sun goes down I will take you. I owe them that inconvenience, at the very least."
"No dice." I say. "Tell us where it is."
"Can't. Gotta get my bearings ain't I? It's up in the campus grounds. Not my usual territory." I glance around the room, reading the faces.
"You can't be seriously considering trusting him. You know he is going to try and escape." I say.
"Well" Giles says, "I would say his chances of escaping two Slayers are slim to none, considering that, er, computer chip thing in his head that makes him impotent."
"Hey." Spike snaps.
"Fine. But so as you all know, I am officially registering my whole 'not liking it' thing." I grumble. "Okay, so Faith and I slip in, get Oz, kill whatever that monstrosity it is they are making and get out."
"I am going too." Willow says. "I need a back door into their computer systems. So we can find out what they know, who knows and disrupt it. They could have files on any of us. We won't get much rest until that information is history."
"Well then. We wait for sundown."
I am once again laying on the grass behind Gile's apartment, staring up at a sky full of thoughts and fears. But this time Faith is laying beside me, jacket discarded, her hand nervously drawing circles on my exposed belly. We have been silently awaiting the preparations for the spell to lift the curse. Seizing a little time to just be alone together.
"Lex?"
"Yeah."
"In case things go to hell." She says, eyes fixed on the sky. "You know I am in love with you, right?"
"I... did not know that."
"Yeah. Well. I am."
"You know I am in love with you too, right?"
"Cool." She grins.
"Yeah. It is." I say.
The kitchen door swings open and Giles appears.
"Faith. It's time."
