Hey, people. Sorry it took so long to get this section out, blame it on school and stuff. Well, I was planning on having the next part out fairly soon after posting this, but it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to at least late Sunday or Monday. So, please r & r, because that's the only payment I get for this. Thanks.
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Part 5: No Evil
Buffy walked a bit more quickly as they approached the Magic Box, her mind going over everything that had happened that night. Even though she knew she shouldn't, she couldn't keep herself from smiling. She just felt too good. They're all in danger and she was on cloud nine. Yeah, she's a great friend.
It was just that he said he loved her. Granted she wished he would have told her to her face, but she knew. Something told her she had known for awhile, or at least suspected. But to hear it, that was just…amazing. Okay, Buffy, you're starting to sound like a lovesick teenager.
Wait a minute. Did she just say lovesick?
Buffy reached for the door of the Magic Box when she felt him pull her other arm. She turned around just in time for him to step to her and brush his lips against hers. Those soft kisses, she liked those the most.
"Spike," the small blonde said, breaking the kiss, "we can't. Not here."
"What? Scared we'll give old Rupes a heart attack?" he grinned at her wickedly.
"Well, yeah, there's that. And also the fact that your grandsire who already hates you and is my ex boyfriend happens to be waiting for us on the other side of the door." She shifted her weight onto one foot and crossed her arms. "Do you really want me to have to explain to Dylan that you're a big pile of dust because you couldn't keep your lips to yourself?"
"Yeah, but what a way to go," he purred, kissing her once more.
Buffy felt her resolve dissolving quickly. He was such a good kisser. If they were back at that the crypt – wait. Why had they left the crypt again? It seemed important. More important than this? It had to be if they left. Oh, that's right. Big, nasty evil afoot. Spike was the big, nasty evil once. Maybe if he was good, she'll let him be again. Okay, Summers, that's it. Remember, resolve. Resolve!!
She broke the kiss once more, surprised at how tight her lungs felt from the lack of oxygen. Had they really been kissing that long? Huh. She couldn't ever remember that happening before.
"We better get inside," she told him weakly. "You know, before they send out a search party."
"Yeah, we should," he said, nodding his head, but neither one of them moved. To be honest, she didn't know if she could right at the moment.
"Um, it might actually require us, you know, moving," Buffy said.
"That might help," he agreed.
The slayer swallowed hard, forcing herself not to kiss him again before reluctantly turning back to the door. After taking several deep breaths in hope that her face would no longer be 'flushed,' Buffy opened the door and stepped inside. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up at her. For a split second, Buffy wondered if maybe she had 'I Just Slept With Spike' tattooed across her forehead or something.
"Hey, guys. What's up?" she asked nervously as Spike joined her.
"They were attacked tonight after we left," Connor told her simply as he looked up from the book he and Dawn were sharing.
She felt Spike tense next to her before she exclaimed, "What?! Oh, God. Is everyone alright? Where's Dylan?!"
"Cordy's got her," Angel told her from his post beside the counter where Giles was writing.
The slayer spotted the seer and then snatched the toddler away from her. Holding her close, Buffy kissed the child on the head as Spike demanded, "Who came after them? What happened?!"
"And why is my baby doing a scene from a silent movie?" Buffy asked, watching curiously as Dylan opened her mouth, look as if she were trying to speak, then repeating the process.
Spike looked at his child just as confused as her mother, then turned back to Angel.
"Me and Connor caught the tail end of the show," Angel told them. "All we know is that they lost their voices because of some kind of spell. They're trying to fix it now, and Giles is writing down everything that happened for us."
Buffy raised her eyebrow as she looked around at her silent friends, and then at the two mute babies. Jessie sat in her father's lap, looking to him for answers for what happened. Dylan was fascinated by the fact that, no matter how much she tried, she couldn't make a sound come out of her mouth. It didn't appear to scare her, but that stubborn streak she had inherited from both of her parents had taken over, and she was now determined to not give up until she could speak again.
Tara and Willow had found a reversal spell and now they, along with Cordy and Anya, were working to brew the foul smelling stuff that was supposed to give them their voices back.
Xander was trying to keep little Jessie distracted by making her demon doll wags its arms and legs all over the place, as well as make goofy faces to make her smile. Of course, most of the time Jessie just looked at him like he was insane, but it was kind of cute nonetheless.
Giles was at the counter, writing feverishly on a piece of paper what had happened as Angel, Connor, Spike, and Buffy watched. The two vampires were doing a good job of avoiding eye contact, opting instead to watch the middle aged man's hand move rapidly to finish his sentence. When he was done, he tore it out for them to read, and both Angel and Spike made a move for the paper. Angel reached it first, much to Spike's annoyance.
Angel began to read aloud. "The power to the shop went out around seven o'clock while we were still researching, and soon after the storm blew up. When we went in search of some other means of light, someone came in through the back way, and attacked us, though no one was hurt. He had someone with him, a woman, who cast a spell to first put out the candle we had lit, and then to take away our voices. Whoever he was, he was about to attack Cordelia and Dylan when Angel and Connor came back and scared him away."
"Bloody hell, Watcher. A simple 'We were attacked. A witch took away our voices' would have worked," Spike grumbled, earning him an icy glare from Giles.
Buffy tighten her grip on Dylan after hearing she had been in direct line of danger. She knew she should have been there. Now there were two of them, and one of them is a witch? Great, that is just what they didn't need.
Dylan stopped her efforts for speech for a moment, noticing her mother's worried look. The child then laid her head on Buffy's shoulder and snuggled up close to her neck. A kind smile rose to the slayer's lips at the toddler's actions to make her feel better, and she reworded them with a kiss on the forehead.
"So, there's two of 'em now?" Spike continued on, having not noticed what his daughter and her mother were doing.
"Looks that way," Angel sighed, handing the piece of paper over to him to read. "Shouldn't be too hard to take care of. I scared him off pretty easily."
"Ick!" a voice rang out from the center of the room.
Everyone turned to find Willow standing there, a cup of that awful stuff they had been brewing in hand, making faces. When she saw all eyes where on her, she said, "It's ready."
Tara drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly before taking the cup and drinking from it. She made a bitter face as she pushed it away quickly like that would make the taste disappear faster. "Giles?" she said, holding it out for the Watcher next.
Buffy had always seen Giles try and act as dignified as he could, no matter the situation. So the slayer couldn't help but laugh whenever her Watcher took the cup, took a sip, and nearly spit the stuff out before sputtering "Good Lord, that's awful!"
Seeing that the potion was working, Xander marched up to Giles and held out his free hand to take the glass from the older man.
"No, wait, leave that one," Spike spoke up. "I like him better without the voice."
Xander glared at the bleach blond, but Angel added, "As much as it pains me, I agree with Spike on that one."
Buffy blinked as she watched the two vampires exchange a small grin at Xander's aggravation, before he grabbed the cup from Giles and swallowed quickly.
"Geeze, Willow," he said when his voice returned to him. "That taste like my old gym socks."
"Oh, drat, you figured out the secret ingredient," Willow played, fixing a bottle with the stuff in it for Dylan and Jessie while the cup was continued to be passed around. The red head finished and handed it first over to Buffy. "Here, try and get her to take just a little."
"Think it'll probably be easier to use the cup, Red," Spike said and Buffy nodded in agreement before handing the bottle to Xander.
Once the cup had been passed around to all the others, it took both Buffy and Spike to force young Dylan to drink from it. Anya and Xander did not fare much better with Jessie, but when she started to cry from being forced to drink, their task was done. It wasn't until Dylan exclaimed, "Yuckie!" that Buffy and Spike's was.
"Now that that's out of the way, what do we do now?" Connor asked, leaning against the staircase that Dawn was sitting on. "This guy's obviously pretty brave if he's willing to attack the group like he did tonight."
"At least no one got hurt," Buffy sighed, holding Dylan close. Spike reached over and pushed down the soft curls of the little girls blond hair and gave her mother a reassuring look. He wouldn't let Dylan be in danger again if he could help it.
"Yeah, right," Dawn whined, rubbing the back of her head. "He ripped out a thing of my hair when he pushed me down."
"I think you'll survive that," her sister said, rolling her eyes at the teen.
"Don't feel bad, Dawnie," Willow said with a grin before reaching up and touching her own head. "He got me too."
"So, did you guys get any clues while you were at Willy's?" Xander asked as he sat down again with Jessie.
"Got a possible name," Buffy told him. "Eric."
"Eric? Well, doesn't that just strike fear into your heart," her friend said sarcastically.
"Anything else?" Giles put in, ignoring Xander now all together.
"Nothing really," Spike continued for her.
"Actually, we do have something else," Angel spoke up. When all eyes turned to him, he held up a small piece of deep blue cloth.
"A dish rag?" Spike asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No," his grandsire hissed. "I got it off the guy who attacked us tonight."
"So?" Xander said.
"So, we can do a location spell with it, you dork," Cordelia said, catching onto what Angel had in mind a lot faster than the others.
Buffy watched as her ex nodded in agreement and then handed it over to Willow. "Can you find him with just that?"
"Sure, no problem. Just give us a minute," she told him, heading back into the center with Tara.
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Eric slowly pulled the door close to the attached bedroom that he and Van were sharing leaving the little boy sleeping quietly. Marie had been busy setting up her room for the spell she was about to perform, and now the whole place smelled like incense. He just hoped the manager wouldn't charge them extra for stinking up the room.
The black-haired woman hung up the phone and sighed as she looked at her brother-in-law. "Boss says he'll be here soon, and that he hopes everything will be done by the time he gets here."
Eric nodded his head understandingly. "You ready to do this?"
Marie sighed deeply as she looked over at the small circle that held the ingredients she needed. He knew she wasn't as powerful a witch as her sister had been, but she still had more than most.
"As I'll ever be, I guess," she said with a slight shrug. "I just wish, you know, that it was Katie doing this instead of me."
"Hey," he said taking her by the shoulders and giving her a smile. "You'll do great. Just remember what she taught you and there's nothing that she'll be able to do about it. Everything will be great. I promise."
"I hope you're right," Marie said solemnly. The young witch drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly before saying, "Boss wants you to meet him at some club in town. The Bronze, I think. He said that it would be closed tonight, so no one should be around. You go, and I'll do the spell."
"You sure you can do this without any of my help?" he asked, raising his eyebrow slightly.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. Just promise me when this is over, we're going to take a nice, long vacation with no demons or vampires or slayers within a hundred mile radius."
He laughed lightly at her. "Deal." Eric took her hands into his, then gave her a small peck on the cheek. "I'll be back in couple of hours. Keep an eye on Van."
"Don't I always?" she asked with a smirk that he returned.
He then let go of her hands, grabbed his coat off the twin bed, and headed back into the still, wet night.
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"Got him," Willow exclaimed happily with a large smile. She turned in her seat to face the group that stood behind her and Tara. "Looks like he's heading for the Bronze."
"The Bronze?" Buffy repeated with a raised eyebrow. "I thought they were renovating that place until after New Years."
"They are," Xander agreed. "We got the contract the other day. It's going be closed until at least the tenth."
"Well, someone didn't tell him that," Willow said with a shrug. "He's making a straight line for it."
"Who cares why he's goin' there," Spike groaned. "Let's just go kill him and be done with it."
Buffy glared at him for his choice of words. They were not there to kill anyone, not yet anyway. First things first, they needed to know what this guy was up to, then they would decide if he needed to be slayed.
"Well, who's all going on this little mission," Cordy asked. "I mean, I would think that less is best for the whole stealthy thing."
"Agreed," Angel said, nodding his head. "Me and Connor can go check him out, see what he's up too."
"How about not," Buffy bit back, as if he were insane. "I think it goes more like Angel, Connor, and Buffy need to go check it out."
"Don't forget me, love," Spike put in. "If this really is the guy you and the poppet have been dreamin' about, I'm sure as hell goin' with you."
"We don't need you," Angel sneered coldly at his grandchilde.
The bleach blonde returned with his trademark smirk. "Don't matter, Peaches. Where the slayer goes, I go."
Angel's eyes narrowed on the younger vampire, and Buffy quickly moved herself between them to keep a fight from breaking out. God, how did they ever get along with each other for twenty years when they can't even do it now for twenty minutes? And they both have souls for heaven sakes!
"Okay, we're all going out," she agreed, looking between the two to make sure that the other would be coming and to leave it at that. The slayer then turned back to Dawn. "Could you take Dylan home? I'd feel better if she was with Mom."
"Sure," the teen agreed, taking her niece from her sister.
"I'll go with her," Willow volunteered. "You know, in case Magic Girl shows up or something."
Buffy smiled her thanks to the witch, then turned back to the rest of the group. "The rest of you keep up the research until we get back."
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The back alley of the Bronze, now there was a familiar place.
This had been the place where he had first officially met her all those years ago, when she was still an innocent girl and he was revered, respected, and feared even by those in the vampire community. That had been the night he had wanted her, but not in the same way he does now. He wanted her blood on his hands, to taste her life drain away between his lips. Now, five years later, he was hiding once again in the shadows of the alley, but this time it was to try and save her life instead of taking it away.
She hid there in the shadows with him on this night, crouching down low behind a pile of old wooden boxes, watching and waiting for this mysterious figure to arrive. Peaches had taken point outside the alley, using all the knowledge he had gained from living on the streets like a rat for ninety years to blend in with his surroundings. As for Peaches Junior, Spike wasn't quite sure where the boy had disappeared to, but had taken their only firing weapon, a crossbow, with him.
So that left him and her here, watching and waiting alone in the cold December night. Her hair was still slightly damp from the shower that they had been caught in earlier, but the clothes that she had changed back into were nearly completely dry, except for those tight little pair of jeans of hers. Not that he minded getting a good look at the denim material shaping itself to her body. No, he really enjoyed that actually.
"Would you stop looking at me like that," she said in a loud whisper, her eyes still locked on the alley entrance.
"Like what, pet?" he grinned, sounding as innocent as possible, to force her to explain.
Buffy turned her gaze to him. "Like I'm some villager that you want to ravage."
Spike couldn't help but chuckle at her. "Aleady did that tonight, remember, love. Course, if you fancy another go…"
She made a show of rolling her eyes at him, which just caused him to laugh even harder. "You're such a pig," the blonde said, turning her gaze back towards the entrance way.
As the cold night became silent again, his mirth began to die as he continued to watch her. He had expected her to say a bit more on the subject then 'You're such a pig.' After all, it wasn't ever day one gets to sleep with the person they love, that wasn't spell induced.
"Buffy," he said more softly and seriously, causing the slayer to look back over to him from the tone. "We do need to talk about what happened tonight."
"Yeah, I know. We need to talk about a lot of things," she agreed. "Kind of want to catch this Eric guy first, though."
An older model Taurus headlights cut through the dark as the car pulled into a parking space out front. Both the slayer and vampire straightened up a bit, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.
"Looks like you're goin' to get your wish," Spike said, eyeing the blond-haired man who got out of the car.
The young man wasn't the type of person who stood out in a crowd; much like Spike had always prided himself on doing. No, this guy would blend into the background and was never the one that would be questioned for any sort of evil activity. In fact, he looked more like the guy who lived down the street and would let you borrow his lawn mower or invite you over for a Sunday afternoon barbeque nothing like a predator. But those were the type that always made the best hunters; the best and most dangerous.
He came around to the front of his car, looked around for a moment, then sighed before sitting on the hood. Nervously, he rubbed his hands together as he continued to apparently wait for someone. The guy would scream easy meal to any vamp, and Spike couldn't help but wonder why they were all getting so worked up over him.
Buffy glanced over to the vampire at her side and nodded. He took the signal, and, while she went up one side of the alley through the shadows, he took the other. Spike crept halfway up through the dark alley when the man on the Taurus suddenly straightened up, and his body became ridged. He was aware that there was someone else there and slowly began to scan his surroundings for the hidden party. The man scanned right over where the slayer would have been and slowly came towards Spike, who had pressed himself as far as he could into the shadows. But that was not enough, for the man's eyes stopped dead on him.
Crap.
Spike watched as the man scurried to get off the hood of his car before running into Peaches, who had snuck up behind him and placed himself to where he couldn't inside the car. The young man's eyes widened in surprise as the older vampire crossed his arms and said, "Going somewhere?"
He vamped out for good measure, causing the boy in front of him to jump back a little. Still got the touch, Spike saw.
The blond-haired man turned to run the other way, only to find Spike standing there, also in game face. Quickly, the younger vampire seized the man by the throat, and slammed him onto the hood of his car. Buffy jogged up to stand beside him, all the while the guy struggled in Spike's grip. Connor made his presence known as well, coming out from a nearby shadowy area, the crossbow still raised up in case he needed to use it.
"Who are you?" Spike hissed.
"I-"
"Who?!"
"Eric!" he cried out. "Eric Davidson."
"Who sent you?" Buffy demanded.
"I did," a new voice answered.
The slayer spun on her feet, recognizing the voice. Her mouth hung slightly opened as she fixed her gaze on her old friend and fellow Scooby.
"Oz?"
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