Summary: Spike tells Giles how he ended up in New Orleans and about the vampire he met that changed his undead life.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own everything. But I wouldn't mind leasing Spike from them for a couple of weeks :)
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Seeing Spike Through Buffy's Eyes Chapter 8 - From Sunnyhell to New Orleans
Spike was putting the finally touches on the bar when Giles walked downstairs. "Giles, help a mate out. Take the trash to the dumpster in the back. I'd do it, but the sunlight and all." Giles reluctantly hauled the trash bags outside. When he was finished, he took his time inspecting the pub. Slayers wasn't a hole-in-the-wall like Willy's. In a way, it reminded Giles of the Bronze. It had a large bar that ran along one side. There were tables through the majority of the room, booths lining an adjacent wall, and couches scattered here and there. In the corner were a stage and a dance floor. In the opposite corner, dart boards and two pool tables. The place was clean and inviting.
"Spike, you have a nice place. How'd it all come about?" Giles was ready to finish the talk the two had started the night before.
Spike motioned for Giles to take a seat at the bar. He built a Guinness for Giles, then one for himself. He came around the bar, taking a stool adjacent to the Watcher. He lit a cigarette, starting his tale.
"I'll skip the part about how I got here. Let's just say that I spent a couple of weeks driving. Not really finding any one place I wanted to be. The closer I got to Louisiana, the more I remembered how much I liked New Orleans. The town still reminds me of an old European city. The type Dru and I used to terrorize. There's also a good group of demons here. Voodoo and cemeteries with nothing but crypts. Old world mystique. There's just something about the place. It holds the same draw for vampires as it does for humans. It's also as different from Sunnyhell as night is from day. Here vampires are as much accepted as the chicory coffee and beignets you find at the Café Du Monde. We're part of the city's legend. It's an easy place for a vampire to live."
Spike took a long draw from his cigarette before continuing. "Was in town for about a week when I ran into a vamp I used to know in Prague. He was there the night the mob came after me and Dru. We started talking. He had heard about me working with the Slayer. Of course here, that was all rumor. No one believed it. William the Bloody working with a Slayer? Not possible. I denied it. I was starting a new life. Why bring up the past. I was the Big Bad and proud of it. He had also heard about the Initiative blokes. He told me there were others in the area who had escaped from the government. I guess the lab in Sunnydale wasn't the only one, but when the Slayer busted it up, the government got rid of the entire project. Killed most of the demons they had under their control, but a few got away. I asked him if he knew where they were. He did, and he took me to meet them."
"There were all sorts of demons, about twenty all together. A few other vampires, like myself. I talked to them, became friends with some. They told me there had been more. Some had died trying to dig the chips out of their brains. Others had killed themselves rather than live that way. Mostly what I had expected. Might have killed myself if circumstances had been different. Through them, I met other people. And when I say people, I mean demons and humans. Like I said, here, we're just another part of the city."
"One vampire I met, Anthony, he's a good man. You'd like him. He's younger than me. Turned about sixty years ago, so it's not like he's a fledgling. We got to be mates, good mates. He's from these parts. Still has family here. His great-granddaughter is one of my bartenders, Cassandra. Giles, I've never met a stranger vampire in all my life. He acts like Peaches, but Tony doesn't have a soul."
"I'm going to tell you a secret, Giles. Something no other Watcher has ever none. Do you know why some people are turned and some are bled? A vampire is like a wolf, hunting the strays from a pack. We look for the weak. The easy kill. Which includes just about everyone, since we're stronger. But when you're looking to turn someone, you're looking for someone who never ran with the pack. The outsider. Angel was a useless man. He spent all his time in pubs. Stole money for drink. Didn't want to work. But he was strong and handsome. Drusilla was outside of society because of her visions. Her own family thought they were the work of the devil. Angel driving her mad just put her even further on the outside. And me. Well let's just say I wasn't part of the crowd.'
"But someone made a mistake with Tony. He was part of something. He had a business, a family, a place. If anything, he should have been bled. He won't tell me who sired him. But I do know he killed his sire. Ran with him for twenty years, killed him, then went back to his family. And they took him in. He has no idea what happened to him. He said he woke up one night and missed his wife. She's been dead now for years, so he lives with his grandson. Drinks pig's blood. Won't even touch the human stuff I buy."
"He's the closest thing I've ever had to a best friend, at least a vampire best friend. We got drunk together one night. I told him everything. From Drusilla to Buffy. I told him about why I left Sunnydale. The next morning, he woke me up and asked me what I was planning on doing with the rest of my life. No one ever asked me that before. I didn't have a clue. He said I could continue to wander around or I could come up with a plan. Now the last plan I ever came up with involved killing the Slayer, so this was a bit different. I liked the idea of having a place of my own, a business. It was something I never tried before. Tony got me in contact with a lawyer he knew. The lawyer knew a guy who could forge the paperwork I needed to be a human. Can't get a liquor license without a driver's license and a birth certificate. We found this place and here I am."
Giles had been silent through the whole story. He was completely perplexed. "The money, Spike. Where'd the money come from?"
"I have tons of money, always have. You aren't a vampire for over a century without putting some aside now and then. There are accounts in banks all over Europe. And with computers, it's easier than it's ever been to move it." Giles was shocked. "Look, Ruppert, just because I acted like I didn't have a dime, doesn't mean it wasn't there. It was a game to scam cash out of all of you, especially the whelp. Couldn't do anything else. If things had gotten bad enough, I would have dipped into my savings. I told Buffy money wasn't a problem. When she first started working at that fast food place. I told her I could get her money if she needed it. She didn't want it."
It wasn't sinking in. Giles couldn't let it sink in. "You have money. You have bank accounts all over Europe. You, who have lived in a crypt, lived in an abandoned warehouse, and spent time chained to my bathtub, have money. Well, I never."
"Yes, Giles, yes. I have money. Bloody hell, if I knew that's all it took to shock you, I would have told you years ago." Spike walked behind the bar. "Did you hear anything else I said, or are you fixated on the one point?"
Giles took out his handkerchief. He cleaned his glasses then deposited them back on his nose. "Sorry, just trying to accommodate the brain to the fact that you are, shall we say, solvent. So this place, it's legal. I mean, you legally own it?"
"As legal as you can get with a forged identity, but yeah. It's mine. All the proper paperwork and such." Spike needed something stronger to drink.
"Pour me one of whatever you're having." This was not the story Giles had anticipated. "Tell me more about this Anthony."
"Tony? Actually, I think I'll let you talk to him yourself. Besides you, he knows more about vampire lore and myth then anyone I've ever met. The Watcher's Council would love to get their grimy little hands on his library. I'll invite him over tomorrow." Spike put a full glass in front of Giles, along with the bottle. "There are a few other things I should tell you, Giles. For one. I've been writing to Faith."
Giles grabbed for the glass. He downed the liquor in one swallow. "Faith? You've been corresponding with Faith? Why in God's name would you do something like that?" One more shock and Giles knew he would keel over dead.
"Because she's alone in there, Giles. She's going to get out one day, you know. And where's she going to go? Who's she going to turn to? The rest of you have forgotten about her. The Watcher's Council leaves her to rot in jail. She's a Slayer. It would be nice if when she was released, she didn't feel like the world had abandoned her. That's what caused all the problems in the first place. I've offered her a job when she gets out. I want to keep her as far away from Buffy and the Nibblet as possible." When he had started writing to her, Spike hadn't cared about her any more than the rest of them. He's only thought had been about Buffy and Dawn. He wouldn't stand by and watch the rogue Slayer go after his family. But after a few months, he learned he liked the girl. She was his type of person.
"And one more thing," Spike said as Giles poured himself another drink. "The great-granddaughter of Tony's I mentioned? Cassandra? My bartender? She's also my girlfriend."
The glass was forgotten. Giles drank straight from the bottle. Bloody hell!
------TBC
