CHAPTER 6
"So what did you tell him?" Tara asked as Willow finished relaying the afternoon's events to the assembled Scoobies later that evening. Xander, Giles, Dawn, Tara, Buffy, and Spike sat around the table. Anya stood behind the counter, counting the day's receipts while she listened to the meeting.
"Not much more than we already had," Willow said. "Which may have been too much. Buffy's the Slayer. Spike's, well, Spike." The young witch shrugged and smiled at her girlfriend. "He already believed that Spike's journal was true, although I think he kind of thought the slayer stuff was, I don't know, vampire urban legend or something."
"He wants to interview Spike further," Buffy commented.
"Really?" asked Dawn, turning to the vampire. "Are you going to do it?"
"Told him I'd think about it," Spike replied. "Not too keen on the idea, but a bloke's got to keep his options open, right? Don't want to tell him too much, especially until we suss out why he's interested."
"Well, what's done is done," Tara commented. "We'll just have to work with what he knows."
"And speaking of done," Xander injected, "are we done with vampire academic adventures? Because I'm kind of worried about the giant demon spiders."
"Yeah, me too," Dawn said, a look of disgust on her face at the mention of Sunnydale's newest insect problem.
"We don't know that they're demon, Xander," Anya admonished her fiancé. "They could just be really big spiders."
"Anya has a point," Giles said. "Buffy, I'd like you to catch one tonight, if at all possible, so that we can examine it."
"Alive?" The Slayer's disgust was evident. "If you think you're giving me a really big butterfly net, Giles…"
"Dear Lord, no," the older man responded. "Feel free to kill it, but try not to, er, destroy any special marks it may have."
"Yeah, so I'm thinking swords and crossbows tonight?" Buffy turned to Spike as she asked the question. "I mean, if at all possible, I'd like to avoid getting within stake range of the suckers."
"Eww!" Dawn agreed.
"Bit of an arachnophobe, are you, Slayer?"
Buffy fixed him with a withering stare before smiling sweetly.
"You get to carry the body."
"And I'll make that a double 'eww!'" Dawn said.
"If you two are finished," Giles began. "I think, considering the attack this afternoon and Willow's professor's interest in Spike, it would behoove us to be on our guard."
"You think they're more than a coincidence?" Willow asked, wrinkling her brow. Professor Gage seemed like such a nice guy. Weird hobby, of course, but who didn't have a skeleton or two in their closet? Of course, on the Hellmouth, those skeletons were just as likely to be literal as metaphoric.
"Will," Xander pointed out, "when was the last time anything happened to us that was a coincidence?"
"Point," the redhead conceded.
"He said he had recently received a grant to fund his study of the Scourge of Europe." Giles said, recalling his afternoon conversation with Gage. "Willow, would there be University records you could, er, hack into to find out who sponsors his grant? That might give us some insight into his motives."
* * * * *
Buffy and Spike patrolled that evening, the vampire taking care to walk a few paces farther away from the Slayer than normal. This was because Buffy kept swinging the sword she carried in her right hand in wide arcs in front of and to her sides.
"I like swords," she said, breaking the silence of the night.
"They make you feel all manly, pet?" Spike asked, taking a drag on the cigarette hanging from his mouth.
"Yeah."
Spike almost thought he saw a genuine, if small, smile accompanying her response to his joke.
"There's something, I don't know, elegant about swordplay," she continued, oblivious to the vampire's close examination of her face. "Don't get me wrong. Give me a good stake any day. And there's an art to staking, too. But it's more…"
"Brutal? Vicious? Personal?"
"I was going to say 'fighty,'" she said, finally looking at her companion. When he rolled his eyes at her word choice, she continued. "But personal works. You have to be closer to make the kill and it's… With swords, it's more structured, more formal. Even in a fight to the death, it seems more like an exhibition and less like a fight."
"I always was one for the fist and fangs approach, myse-" Spike stopped short as Buffy suddenly leapt at him, sword raised.
Before he could react, he found himself flat on his back, the Slayer spread out on top of him, and the hilt of her sword slamming down flat against the ground next to his left ear. Too stunned to respond, Spike just stared up at Buffy.
But she wasn't looking at him; instead she was looking around, peering into the darkness. Over her shoulder, Spike could see an arrow sticking out the tree he had been standing in front of. It appeared to be identical to the one fired at him in the Magic Box earlier that day.
Even as Spike processed the fact that Buffy had jumped him to save him from an attack for the second time that day, she was up and running. Spike jumped to his feet also and took off after her. He could just make out another figure – the one she had spotted and was now chasing – disappearing into the woods that lined the graveyard.
The figure raced through the woods, with the Slayer close on his heels, and the vampire close on hers. The attacker saw a break in the trees ahead, and just before he reached it, he glanced over his shoulder to check the progress of his pursuers, even as he continued to run.
Suddenly the man was pulled up short by something he had run in to. He hadn't seen anything, but it was like a wall of thin strands of sticky silk. As he struggled to free himself from it, he started to panic because he was stuck; the last thing he wanted to deal with was an angry slayer and her pet vampire. Sternly admonishing himself for briefly forgetting the knife clipped to his belt, he looked down to check that it was still there. As he reached for the present knife, he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and he froze, his blood running cold.
At least a dozen giant spiders emerged from the underbrush as he watched. They quickly covered the ground separating them from him and swarmed. As the first bit, the man screamed. However, his screams quickly faded out as the massive amounts of venom being injected into his body rapidly shut it down.
Buffy skidded to a halt and Spike nearly plowed her over as he caught up. The pair, who in their combined lives, had seen more than their fair share of the gross and disgusting that the world had to offer stared in horror at the sight before them.
There was a wider than average gap between two trees and a giant web had been strung, using the trees as a frame. The attempted assassin had run headlong into the web and was caught. He was covered in the giant spiders, as they bit into his flesh.
The abrupt silence that followed his aborted screams, punctuated by disturbing hissing and biting noises jarred Buffy into action. She pulled the crossbow she had slung around her neck up and began to fire into the throng, aiming for the spider's heads. Unfortunately, after she shot three, the others realized they were being attacked. Since they had sufficiently killed their first prey, they turned and a wave of spiders rolled toward the blonde duo. Buffy dropped the crossbow and made sure she had a firm grip on her sword. Without speaking, she and Spike placed their backs to one another and faced the oncoming horde.
"Apparently we should have brought a really big shoe," Buffy called as the first spider reached her and she sliced it cleanly in half.
"That, or a really big can of Raid," Spike replied, trying to fend three off at once.
"You'd be surprised how well that works sometimes," Buffy replied. "Moving."
She somersaulted through the air over four spiders and made quick work of them before they could turn around.
Spike decapitated one of his, while kicking another away from him. It landed on its back and while it struggled to right itself, Spike stabbed it quickly.
"Yeah?" he called, picking up the conversation.
"Ask Xander about the preying mantis that wanted to mate with him sometime."
Buffy's sword whistled through the air as she cleaved another spider in two.
Spike finished the third one, only to find the last one sneaking up on him from behind. He stabbed it through the large body part of the arachnid, pinning it to the ground.
"Willow bought him a bottle of 'Off,'" Buffy said, moving closer to Spike and the dying spider. "Told him to wear it as aftershave."
A snort of laughter escaped Spike before turning to focus on the situation at hand. "Suppose it's dead yet?"
As he asked, the spider twitched and both warriors took a step back.
"Let's give it another few minutes," Buffy said. "We should see if Mr. Fly is enjoying his time in the parlor."
Spike's eyebrow rose in question.
"Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly?" Buffy asked.
"Right. I'm pretty sure he's dead."
The two approached the web carefully, watchful for any more eight- legged enemies.
"Yup," Buffy said. "Definitely dead. What's this?"
One of the man's hands had yet to swell from the venom and Buffy pulled a ring off his index finger.
"I've seen this somewhere before," she said examining it closely.
Spike peered over her shoulder at the ring. His lips tightened into a thin line when he saw it, but he didn't comment. Instead, he said, "We should get going, luv."
Buffy pocketed the ring and agreed. "Yeah. I'll come back tomorrow and, I don't know, burn all these spiders or something. Grab our friend and let's go."
"Bloody hell, woman!" Spike exclaimed. "I'm not your sodding bell boy!"
"I told you, you were carrying it!" She walked off leaving Spike no choice but to pick up the now-dead spider and follow.
tbc
+++++
A/N: Okay, so the spiders may act abnormally for being just really big brown recluses; if you're an entomologist or something, let's just chalk abnormalities up to Jonathan and his magick bone, huh? The previous descriptions of them should be accurate, but aside from that…
Thanks, once again, for the encouraging reviews. I really appreciate them. Sorry for the delay in this chapter. I'm debating between two ways to go with the story and don't want to box myself in a corner or run out of story before I decide where I'm going. I'll try to pick up the pace. ht
"So what did you tell him?" Tara asked as Willow finished relaying the afternoon's events to the assembled Scoobies later that evening. Xander, Giles, Dawn, Tara, Buffy, and Spike sat around the table. Anya stood behind the counter, counting the day's receipts while she listened to the meeting.
"Not much more than we already had," Willow said. "Which may have been too much. Buffy's the Slayer. Spike's, well, Spike." The young witch shrugged and smiled at her girlfriend. "He already believed that Spike's journal was true, although I think he kind of thought the slayer stuff was, I don't know, vampire urban legend or something."
"He wants to interview Spike further," Buffy commented.
"Really?" asked Dawn, turning to the vampire. "Are you going to do it?"
"Told him I'd think about it," Spike replied. "Not too keen on the idea, but a bloke's got to keep his options open, right? Don't want to tell him too much, especially until we suss out why he's interested."
"Well, what's done is done," Tara commented. "We'll just have to work with what he knows."
"And speaking of done," Xander injected, "are we done with vampire academic adventures? Because I'm kind of worried about the giant demon spiders."
"Yeah, me too," Dawn said, a look of disgust on her face at the mention of Sunnydale's newest insect problem.
"We don't know that they're demon, Xander," Anya admonished her fiancé. "They could just be really big spiders."
"Anya has a point," Giles said. "Buffy, I'd like you to catch one tonight, if at all possible, so that we can examine it."
"Alive?" The Slayer's disgust was evident. "If you think you're giving me a really big butterfly net, Giles…"
"Dear Lord, no," the older man responded. "Feel free to kill it, but try not to, er, destroy any special marks it may have."
"Yeah, so I'm thinking swords and crossbows tonight?" Buffy turned to Spike as she asked the question. "I mean, if at all possible, I'd like to avoid getting within stake range of the suckers."
"Eww!" Dawn agreed.
"Bit of an arachnophobe, are you, Slayer?"
Buffy fixed him with a withering stare before smiling sweetly.
"You get to carry the body."
"And I'll make that a double 'eww!'" Dawn said.
"If you two are finished," Giles began. "I think, considering the attack this afternoon and Willow's professor's interest in Spike, it would behoove us to be on our guard."
"You think they're more than a coincidence?" Willow asked, wrinkling her brow. Professor Gage seemed like such a nice guy. Weird hobby, of course, but who didn't have a skeleton or two in their closet? Of course, on the Hellmouth, those skeletons were just as likely to be literal as metaphoric.
"Will," Xander pointed out, "when was the last time anything happened to us that was a coincidence?"
"Point," the redhead conceded.
"He said he had recently received a grant to fund his study of the Scourge of Europe." Giles said, recalling his afternoon conversation with Gage. "Willow, would there be University records you could, er, hack into to find out who sponsors his grant? That might give us some insight into his motives."
* * * * *
Buffy and Spike patrolled that evening, the vampire taking care to walk a few paces farther away from the Slayer than normal. This was because Buffy kept swinging the sword she carried in her right hand in wide arcs in front of and to her sides.
"I like swords," she said, breaking the silence of the night.
"They make you feel all manly, pet?" Spike asked, taking a drag on the cigarette hanging from his mouth.
"Yeah."
Spike almost thought he saw a genuine, if small, smile accompanying her response to his joke.
"There's something, I don't know, elegant about swordplay," she continued, oblivious to the vampire's close examination of her face. "Don't get me wrong. Give me a good stake any day. And there's an art to staking, too. But it's more…"
"Brutal? Vicious? Personal?"
"I was going to say 'fighty,'" she said, finally looking at her companion. When he rolled his eyes at her word choice, she continued. "But personal works. You have to be closer to make the kill and it's… With swords, it's more structured, more formal. Even in a fight to the death, it seems more like an exhibition and less like a fight."
"I always was one for the fist and fangs approach, myse-" Spike stopped short as Buffy suddenly leapt at him, sword raised.
Before he could react, he found himself flat on his back, the Slayer spread out on top of him, and the hilt of her sword slamming down flat against the ground next to his left ear. Too stunned to respond, Spike just stared up at Buffy.
But she wasn't looking at him; instead she was looking around, peering into the darkness. Over her shoulder, Spike could see an arrow sticking out the tree he had been standing in front of. It appeared to be identical to the one fired at him in the Magic Box earlier that day.
Even as Spike processed the fact that Buffy had jumped him to save him from an attack for the second time that day, she was up and running. Spike jumped to his feet also and took off after her. He could just make out another figure – the one she had spotted and was now chasing – disappearing into the woods that lined the graveyard.
The figure raced through the woods, with the Slayer close on his heels, and the vampire close on hers. The attacker saw a break in the trees ahead, and just before he reached it, he glanced over his shoulder to check the progress of his pursuers, even as he continued to run.
Suddenly the man was pulled up short by something he had run in to. He hadn't seen anything, but it was like a wall of thin strands of sticky silk. As he struggled to free himself from it, he started to panic because he was stuck; the last thing he wanted to deal with was an angry slayer and her pet vampire. Sternly admonishing himself for briefly forgetting the knife clipped to his belt, he looked down to check that it was still there. As he reached for the present knife, he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and he froze, his blood running cold.
At least a dozen giant spiders emerged from the underbrush as he watched. They quickly covered the ground separating them from him and swarmed. As the first bit, the man screamed. However, his screams quickly faded out as the massive amounts of venom being injected into his body rapidly shut it down.
Buffy skidded to a halt and Spike nearly plowed her over as he caught up. The pair, who in their combined lives, had seen more than their fair share of the gross and disgusting that the world had to offer stared in horror at the sight before them.
There was a wider than average gap between two trees and a giant web had been strung, using the trees as a frame. The attempted assassin had run headlong into the web and was caught. He was covered in the giant spiders, as they bit into his flesh.
The abrupt silence that followed his aborted screams, punctuated by disturbing hissing and biting noises jarred Buffy into action. She pulled the crossbow she had slung around her neck up and began to fire into the throng, aiming for the spider's heads. Unfortunately, after she shot three, the others realized they were being attacked. Since they had sufficiently killed their first prey, they turned and a wave of spiders rolled toward the blonde duo. Buffy dropped the crossbow and made sure she had a firm grip on her sword. Without speaking, she and Spike placed their backs to one another and faced the oncoming horde.
"Apparently we should have brought a really big shoe," Buffy called as the first spider reached her and she sliced it cleanly in half.
"That, or a really big can of Raid," Spike replied, trying to fend three off at once.
"You'd be surprised how well that works sometimes," Buffy replied. "Moving."
She somersaulted through the air over four spiders and made quick work of them before they could turn around.
Spike decapitated one of his, while kicking another away from him. It landed on its back and while it struggled to right itself, Spike stabbed it quickly.
"Yeah?" he called, picking up the conversation.
"Ask Xander about the preying mantis that wanted to mate with him sometime."
Buffy's sword whistled through the air as she cleaved another spider in two.
Spike finished the third one, only to find the last one sneaking up on him from behind. He stabbed it through the large body part of the arachnid, pinning it to the ground.
"Willow bought him a bottle of 'Off,'" Buffy said, moving closer to Spike and the dying spider. "Told him to wear it as aftershave."
A snort of laughter escaped Spike before turning to focus on the situation at hand. "Suppose it's dead yet?"
As he asked, the spider twitched and both warriors took a step back.
"Let's give it another few minutes," Buffy said. "We should see if Mr. Fly is enjoying his time in the parlor."
Spike's eyebrow rose in question.
"Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly?" Buffy asked.
"Right. I'm pretty sure he's dead."
The two approached the web carefully, watchful for any more eight- legged enemies.
"Yup," Buffy said. "Definitely dead. What's this?"
One of the man's hands had yet to swell from the venom and Buffy pulled a ring off his index finger.
"I've seen this somewhere before," she said examining it closely.
Spike peered over her shoulder at the ring. His lips tightened into a thin line when he saw it, but he didn't comment. Instead, he said, "We should get going, luv."
Buffy pocketed the ring and agreed. "Yeah. I'll come back tomorrow and, I don't know, burn all these spiders or something. Grab our friend and let's go."
"Bloody hell, woman!" Spike exclaimed. "I'm not your sodding bell boy!"
"I told you, you were carrying it!" She walked off leaving Spike no choice but to pick up the now-dead spider and follow.
tbc
+++++
A/N: Okay, so the spiders may act abnormally for being just really big brown recluses; if you're an entomologist or something, let's just chalk abnormalities up to Jonathan and his magick bone, huh? The previous descriptions of them should be accurate, but aside from that…
Thanks, once again, for the encouraging reviews. I really appreciate them. Sorry for the delay in this chapter. I'm debating between two ways to go with the story and don't want to box myself in a corner or run out of story before I decide where I'm going. I'll try to pick up the pace. ht
