Spike gave up on sleep. The adrenaline charged jolt that had awakened him pretty much precluded the possibility anyway. And now, he had something to contemplate. He went through the mechanics of getting ready to face the world on automatic pilot. His mind was busy with other things. When he left his (basement) apartment, he saw that the Viper, which he had neglected to return, though close, was in a bright patch of sunlight. Once inside the car, he'd be all right, the high-tech, or magic, or whatever in the glass would protect him. He hiked the duster up over his head and made a mad dash for it.
As he drove to the law firm he felt a strange, almost terrifying little thrill at being able to observe the blue sky and bright yellow sun. It didn't seem right, somehow, a vamp going out in broad daylight without bursting into flames. But for his part, Spike had most assuredly had enough of flames.
Into the underground parking garage. A bit of a relief, that, even though he'd been perfectly safe in the car. Then, up to his office, and never had it been such a welcome sight since it had been Rose's.
Duster off, reading glasses on, and begin clicking away on the computer. He hadn't even been able to touch type when he'd started this job, but with some coaching from Rose, and a vampire's speed and reflexes, he was now able to type faster than most humans. If he got much faster, it would probably be too fast for the computer to handle.
Wesley came in, intending to pick up some papers he'd left in the office before Spike had gone to his other assignment. He was expecting the office to be empty. Therefore, it was something of a shock to see the bleached-blond vampire diligently bent over the computer screen.
"Spike, I thought you'd be home asleep," he observed.
"Got a rude awakening and couldn't go back to sleep," Spike replied. He wasn't planning on telling the Watcher about his conversation with The Powers. Wesley would think he'd gone right off his nut. "Thought I'd do some more looking into that two demon, ward breaking thing."
"I wish you well," Wes remarked. "So far, I've gotten nowhere with it. Unfortunately, it's been our best lead to date." He grabbed a piece of paper and started scribbling something on it. "Those are the sources I've already checked. No sense having you wasting time going over the same material again."
"Thanks, P.., Wesley." Spike stopped himself just before calling Wes the much-hated nickname he'd coined for him. He had sort of promised not to call him that.
Wesley glanced at Spike, and saw the question in his eyes that he couldn't bring himself to voice. "Of course, we'll get Rose back, Spike. Come hell or high water, we'll get her back."
"But what happens if we don't?" Spike asked. "She'll probably wind up in a dimension so far removed from here that we won't even be able to track her down, let alone rescue her."
"That's why we're going to get her out before Daria's employer comes to her," Wes replied. "Don't borrow trouble, Spike, we've got plenty of that to go around." He tried injecting a more cheerful tone. "Keep your pecker up." Then, he left.
"Wonder if that stupid git knows what that means in this country?" Spike mused, unable to suppress a grin. Then, he went back to the research with more of a will than he'd shown since he started at the job. After all, it was personal.
&&&&&&&&
The Q'xlzr demon, generally a good source of information, had been giving Angel run-arounds and bogus leads so far. And, after accepting a fairly substantial payment. He grabbed the quivering blue-gray demon by the collar and lifted it up off the ground.
"Shall we try this again?" Angel suggested. The demon's long pointy ears twitched, and an odd mewling sound came from its throat. Angel slammed it into a wall. Q'xlzrs weren't much as fighters, but they could take quite a bit of damage. And this one was going to if he didn't give Angel some answers. "Now try it in English."
"I already tell you everything I know, vampire." The slit of a mouth moved strangely, due to differently hinged mandibles. "You give I rest of money you promise I."
"The money was promised in exchange for information," Angel replied. He picked up the Q'xlzr again. "For telling me fairy tales, you get nothing but a painful set of lumps."
"No faeries," the demon protested. "Just the ghost and the bounty hunter. Bounty hunter has many friends. Many friends with much money. Maybe they pay I, to tell them you looking for them."
"If they don't already know that," remarked Angel. "Then they're even dumber than you are. You said that you had information. And you still haven't given me any. Do you want to try flying again?"
"No fly, no fly," the demon squeaked in protest. "Bounty hunter dangerous woman. If she find I tell about her business, she find I. Kill I slow. Price for information go up."
"If the information is useful I'll give you something more." Angel went to game face. "How about your life?"
The Q'xlzr trembled in his grip, and the ends of its ears sagged. "No kill I. I tell. Vampire protect I from bounty hunter?"
"Give me a good reason to," Angel suggested. "If it's good, I'll see that you're protected." His grip tightened.
"Bounty hunter work for seller from Umorik dimension," the demon gasped. "I talk better if not choking," it suggested.
Angel set his informant back on its feet. "Keep talking," he urged. "After all, your life depends on it. Especially since the fate of a very good friend of mine might depend on that information."
"Seller have many connections," the demon replied. "Get ghost and sell to highest bidder. Word is now that bounty hunter want to get vampire to go with ghost as set." It looked at Angel quizzically. "You?"
"Not me," Angel answered. "Do you have any idea when and where the sale is to take place?"
"No have time," the Q'xlzr admitted. "Seller not have all money needed for bounty hunter. Need more time to get. Especially if bounty hunter get other vampire. Special vampire?"
"I suppose you could say so," Angel replied with a sigh. Of the many words he could think of to describe Spike, special was not one of them. "What about the place?"
"Neutral ground," the snitch informed him. "I can tell where, not far, not far. You protect I?" it asked plaintively.
"Tell me where the sale will take place and I'll protect you," Angel promised, letting his features go back to human.
&&&&&&&
Wesley went to check on Spike's progress, or lack thereof, and walked into a veritable cloud of profanity.
Spike was pacing up and down the office, cussing up a blue streak. A few visible dents in the walls suggested that he had felt a need for more than a verbal release of his feelings. Hearing the Watcher's entrance, Spike turned on him.
"Well, I found it, for all the bloody damned good it will do," he started in. "Simple enough, really. The ponce and I could break any wards we wanted to. Except the ones that have Rose trapped."
"Why?" Wesley wanted to know. "What are so special about Daria's wards?"
"Special ain't the problem, Watcher," Spike replied, flinging himself back into his chair so abruptly that it went sailing backwards until it hit the wall. He wheeled it back in front of the desk. "The problem is that we have to be close to the warded object. Really close. I can get in and out of the McBride bint's place no problem. I've already had an invite. But Angel, on the other hand..,"
"I see," said Wesley, wishing that he didn't. "Daria McBride is hardly likely to invite him in at this point in time."
"Too right," Spike agreed. He was feeling about at the end of his tether. How was he going to be able to puzzle out The Powers' cryptic remark that he had the means to free Rose? Then, inspiration struck, and he was up out of the chair and halfway to the door before Wes could say anything.
"Where are you off to now, Spike?" The suddenness of it all had not only startled the researcher, but it worried him as well. Heaven only knew what Spike might do if he felt the situation was truly hopeless.
"Got to go sing for someone." And Spike was out the door before Wesley could say anything else.
&&&&&&&
Rose was singing, and indeed, had been singing all day. Not actually having a throat, it didn't get sore with overuse. And singing was a way to pass the time. Daria had been in and out occasionally, and had even tried to strike up a conversation a time or two. Rose had ignored her and kept on singing. All of the songs she sang had one particular theme. No prizes for guessing the theme. Every once in a while she wondered if this was to be the pattern for the rest of her existence. Trapped in one place without a friendly face to look at, or a comforting voice to listen to, a companionable ear to hear her. She was finding that she missed her friends terribly. And of course, more than anything or anyone, she missed Spike.
The cessation of the singing drew Daria back into the room. "Are you done yet?" she asked irritably. "Your moonstruck wailings are starting to give me a headache."
"Are they really?" Rose murmured with patently false sympathy. "So sorry to inconvenience you. I know you'd never dream of putting me out in any way."
"I'd really like to be able to slap you," Daria muttered.
"The feeling's mutual," Rose replied sweetly. But curiosity superceded her desire to carry on with the sniping match. "What exactly does all that money buy you that is so important?"
"You have got to be kidding," Daria exclaimed. "Look around you and what do you see?"
Rose managed to convey the feeling of a shrug without actually being able to do it. "A place that's much too big for one person. And no one to be close to, to keep you company and share your secrets with. Aren't you dreadfully lonely?"
"I live in the kind of luxury that most people only dream of," Daria remarked, giving Rose a puzzled look. "And companionship is easily enough found. I have everything that I could possibly want."
"But do you have what you need?" Rose asked. "I lived in a dumpy little apartment with furniture that was almost as old as the building. The only things of mine that were there were my clothes and one picture. But I had my friends, and I had Spike. And I was happy. I didn't feel a need for any of the things you have here."
Daria shook her head, giving up on the argument. She didn't even begin to understand the point that Rose was trying to make. All she knew for sure was that she could never be content under the circumstances that the ghost had described.
Rose looked at Daria feeling a stab of sympathy despite herself. The bounty hunter was missing out on the best things, the things that truly mattered, and she didn't even realize it.
&&&&&&
"We have to wait," Angel told Spike for what seemed the millionth time. "I know where the auction is going to be held. And we should have a good idea of when after Daria's employer comes to get Rose."
"I don't like it," Spike stated flatly. He was still stinging from Lorne's refusal to do a reading on him. "What if your informant gave you a song and dance just to get you off his back? We could go to what we thought was the auction and come away with nothing. And no idea where Rose is."
Angel sighed. "The wards are in place. Once Daria's client comes to get Rose, we keep him under close surveillance. The auction place is not only neutral ground, it's also not private property. We'll be able to get close enough to Rose to break the wards on her without having to wait for an invitation."
"I'm tired of waiting," Spike sulked. "I want Rose back. I want to be able to go to sleep without being worried that I'll never see her again."
Before Angel could make a comment of any sort, Fred came bustling in.
"We finally found out what killed those men," she announced. "It was a spell, but we were pretty sure of that to begin with." She stopped and shuddered, still horrified at what had happened. "Whatever the spell was, it just ripped their souls out of their bodies."
Angel gave Spike a questioning look, and Spike returned it with a 'well duh' look.
"Don't you think you'd know if I lost my soul?" Spike asked. "It's not like you haven't seen me without one before."
"I think that the spell could only be triggered once," Fred interjected, going to stand between the two of them. "It's fairly elaborate, and requires some pretty rare items. I'd be surprised if she had what she needs to cast that one again."
"What happened to their replacements?" Spike asked, getting interested in something besides feeling sorry for himself. "They should have been relieved long before I found them. The next shift should have beat me to the punch."
"I wasn't able to get a straight answer out of anybody," Angel admitted. "Do you think it could have been another spell?" he asked Fred. "Something that Daria cast to cover her tracks and keep us off her back for a while?"
Fred considered. "I'll have to get with Wesley on that one. But it does sound like a possibility. I'll get back to you as soon as I have something." With the same urgency as she had entered, she left.
Suddenly, Spike was wearing a grin. The sort of grin that Angel was sure he didn't like. "What are you up to now?" he demanded.
"I just thought of the perfect way to keep track of where Rose goes once the bounty hunter's client picks her up," Spike replied. "Just get little Miss Science to rig something unobtrusive by way of a tracking device, and ..,"
"You are not turning yourself in to Daria McBride," Angel announced with finality. "Are you out of your mind, Spike?"
"Yes and no," Spike remarked cryptically. "Think about it, Angel. Not only would we know exactly where Rose is at any given time, but there'd only be one of us that has to fight his way through God only knows what to get close to her. Since we'd be offered as a set, they'd be keeping us together."
"Spike, I think this is a really bad idea," Angel said weakly. There was a certain amount of logic in Spike's argument, though.
"Can you come up with something better?" Spike shot back. "This will work. It has to work." He sat down and his brow knit in thought. Eventually, he must have come up with something that cheered him a bit. "Even if it doesn't work, I'll get to be near her."
Angel buried his face in his hands. Spike had the bit in his teeth now, and the only thing he could do was give him his head and let him go wherever he wished. But he had to give it one last shot. "Is there any possible way that I can talk you out of this?"
"Not a bleeding chance," Spike answered cheerfully. "'Cause even if you don't have Fred whip up that tracking device, I'll still go."
&&&&&&&&
"I want to go on record as saying that I still think this is lunacy," Angel remarked as the car glided to a stop in front of Daria McBride's house.
"I know, I know," Spike said with a sigh. "You've only said it a thousand times. But I have to do this." He got out of the car and marched boldly up to the front door and rang the bell.