FOOLS FOR LIFE:
CHAPTER 17: REVEALING GET-TOGETHERS
"C'mon then, ya wankers!" Spike snarled.
The group of vampires in front of him snarled back. One was down, one was hurt, the other three were gearing up.
It was his third fight of the evening. Not going to the bars, not tonight, but god he needed to fight. He needed to kill something! But hitting the bars would end in drunken brawls and no matter how many fights he won, sooner or later THAT would end with him in a bloody mess without even remembering too clearly how it happened.
So no bars, no boozing. Clem had a point, bad way to go. But he needed to kill something. Her words still echoed in his mind every second he didn't distract it. And nothing distracted so well as a good fight. Busting some heads, breaking some jaws.
Plus he learned a long time ago there was something to be said for sober fights over drunken ones. He won them more easily and enjoyed them more too being able to actually remember them. And since he didn't feel like wandering around too far, he stuck close to home, which meant in the graveyard in search for vampires.
There were lots of little gangs like these strutting around town. Fledgling punks, still had dirt behind their ears, some only having been vamped as little as weeks or even days ago. And as soon as they ganged up a little with other snotnosed brats, oh how tough they thought they were.
It hadn't actually been that hard when he had to switch from killing humans to killing vampires two years ago. The loss of 'live-feeding' had been tough, sure, but as killing goes, humans didn't put up enough of a fight.
Plus there was another bonus. He looked at the vamps in front of him, trying to spread out, to box him in. They thought they were top of the hill, especially the new ones. 'Oh, I'm vampire now, I'm so strong.' They thought they could take on the world. Even when their opponent was also a vampire, and had been at it for far longer than them, had spent a century doing little else but fight! Plus the older vamps got, the stronger. Slowly, but steady.
One of them charged him with a growl. Spike sidestepped and flung a fist into the side of his face. Hard. The vampire flew to the side and crashed into the pedestal of an angel statue. Before he could recover Spike grabbed him by the throat with his right hand and lifted him up against the statue's side.
The vampire made a gurgling sound. He tried to call the others for help as they stood there gawking, but to do that you need to use our lungs, to get the air past the vocal chords. And Spike's grip was like steel. The young vampire grabbed his arm and tried to move it. He found it wasn't unlike being gripped by a marble statue as Spike tensed up his arm to make sure it wouldn't move. It cost more energy than it showed on his face, but they didn't need to know that. And it added to it. That other bonus. There it was: surprise.
The surprise of something that thinks it's a big, bad, monster that prowls the night...that thinks it's the hunter and then encounters something that can eat it for breakfast. That moment when it realizes it is in fact the prey. There it was, in the eyes. And as always followed by dessert: surprise turning into fear.
It was all there in the vamp's face and Spike grinned. No whisky could beat that.
He held the vampire in place as he turned his head and looked back at the two others who were still standing there, unsure what to do. The expressions on their faces were not that different from the one he held up.
"Come on now, laddies. Don't be shy, there's enough to go around." His face vamped out and there was a glow in his eyes as he bared his fangs and laughed.
The vampires hesitated and exchanged looks that did not spell bravery. He may have overdone it. He wanted them to fight not run. He wanted some good kills, and didn't feel like running after them for it!
Then, from the left, the wounded vamp that had been on the ground, suddenly jumped him. Spike dropped the one he was holding as his attacker rammed into his stomach with his shoulder. He immediately seized the vamp's neck with his arm and thrust him around, smashing him into the statue. The vampire crashed into the ground, clawing, trying to get up. Spike stepped up and kicked him upwardly in the ribs just as the young vamp had managed to get on all fours. Then he smashed his fist down into his face, making him crash into the ground again.
He could tell the other vampires were just looking on. 'Not the bravest bunch' he thought. To give them an opening even they might take, he turned his back on the main group completely as he placed his knee on the fallen vampires back, grabbed his head and with a twisting motion, ripped it off completely. His knee sank to the ground as the body he was leaning on turned to dust.
He got up, wiping the dust off his hands. "Well now, anyone care to.." He started, but all he saw was three figures, running away among the gravestones as fast as they could.
"HEY!" He yelled not without some indignation. "Come back here!!" Damn, he overdid it. Should have let that last one land a few punches, it may have gotten their courage up a bit. He cursed silently and started to chase them, jumping over headstones as he ran.
"Get back here and fight, ya soddin' gits!" he yelled to no avail. Was there no pride left in vamps these days? Damn, they were splitting up. He looked quickly at all three and followed the biggest one. Maybe he'd last longer.
Spike ran as fast as he could, and he knew the graveyard well. Soon there would be a bit of a clearing in front of a mausoleum. If he could make a jump from a big tombstone right before that, he'd probably..
Before he could finish that thought something shot out of the dark and tackled the vampire he was chasing with a crushing 'thud'. Distracted by it, he had to dodge the stone he was planning to jump on to prevent from crashing into it.
As he regained his balance, he heard a brief struggle followed by the familiar sound of a body bursting into a dusty cloud. Someone beat him to it. And there was not a long list of possible candidates.
Buffy got up, wiped her sleeve and noticed him looking at her. She smirked. "Getting' slow are we, pet?" she said. "Li' le fledgling vamp to fast for you then?"
Spike opened his mouth to answer, then stopped. What was that? Was she making fun of his accent now? Well, that was new. Not quite what he expected either.
"Uh, not hardly." He answered, not sure what the vibe was here as her usual disdain also seemed absent. Certainly compared to the last time he saw her. "Was just about to jump him when you butted in."
Buffy smirked again. "Sure mate, let's say that's what happened eh?"
Spike frowned. Not bad as imitations go, but the joke was getting old now. Plus there didn't seem to be enough sarcasm to it. And where were the curses? The 'you still here?'s and the 'get out of my face!'s?
"You alright, Slayer?" he asked, looking her up and down a bit. He noticed her black nail polish. Huh, that was new. Not the usual pearly pastels. Didn't look bad though.
Buffy looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Bloody hell, not you too! Spare me the looks and the wiggin'-outs, had my share today, thanks."
It was beginning to bug him now! "Look, I don't know what the soddin' joke is here but it's getting kind of old, alright, Slayer? Maybe this is some new little game you managed to cook up to get your rocks off, 'have another laugh at Spike' or something, but I'm not bleedin' amused!"
Buffy looked at him with genuine surprise. "Don't get yer knickers all in a twist mate, what's with you then?"
Spike drew breath for another angry reply, but then he noticed again the complete absence of sarcasm or mocking tone or, well...any kind of punch line. He stopped and looked at her again. What was going on here?
Buffy shrugged. "Whatever, mate. can't be standing here all day." And with that she wandered off leisurely. She stuck her stake under her arm as she checked out some fresh graves she passed here and there.
Spike was still standing there, frowning, and looking at her intently as if he was trying to find a needle in a walking haystack. Then he started to follow her slowly.
Buffy snickered a little. "Someone is stalking meee." she said. At the tone of a little kid's taunt in a school yard. A British school yard. Spike tried to reply but he couldn't think of anything to say. Something weird was definitely going on here but....
That thought was cut short when he was jumped by two vampires. The same two from before except they had brought some reinforcements. A third jumped him from the other side and several more vamps circled Buffy as well.
"Bloody hell, not NOW!" Spike growled as he bashed one vamps head against the wall of the mausoleum.
** **
"Well, what could I have done? Chain her to the couch?" Willow moaned.
"Don't worry Will, no one says it's your fault. If Buffy wants to leave, she'll leave. There's nothing you could have done." Xander reassured her. Then he thought for a second. "Although that 'chaining' thing is not bad as visuals go."
Everyone was in the living room, with several magic books already spread out on the table and various laps. "Xander's right hon, don't worry about it. And as you said, she's just patrolling and there's no reason to think her abilities are any less than normal. She'll probably show up in a few hours. Let's try and have something worked out by then."
"Yeah so we're looking for love spells, right?" Xander asked as he flipped through an ancient volume on his lap. "As I recall, the one...ahem I had Amy do, wasn't that hard to reverse."
"No, they usually aren't." Tara answered. "But the hard thing is to know what spell was used, in whose name it was invoked, were there catalysts involved, that sorta stuff."
"Catalysts? You mean like I used Cordy's necklace?" Xander remembered.
"Exactly, something personal could be a catalyst. But..."
"Well then let's check if something's missing." Xander interrupted. "Would be helpful if Buffy was here or Dawn, but we can check. I mean it wouldn't be the first time Spike would have stolen something for his Buffy scrapbook."
Tara sighed and lent on her arm. "No, but...well..."
Willow glanced at her girlfriend in between flipping pages. "But you're not so sure it's a love spell ?" Tara looked at her and smiled.
"Me neither." Willow shook her head.
"What do you mean?" Xander said. "Seems an obvious choice. Spike wants her, she...has a fling with him, then she breaks it off...he gets desperate. Remember Will, he had the same idea before. When Dru left him he wanted you to..."
"I know." she said. "I remember, but I also remember he never went through with it. And I'm not saying it's not an option but, this doesn't seem like a love spell. For one thing....where's the love?"
"Exactly." Tara said. "Even love spells gone wrong usually still include some obsession or affection for someone in their results. Like in your case, Xander, it went to...well, everyone. Not who you intended but the effect was still what it should be."
Xander flashed back for a second to multitudes of women screaming his name. He sighed. He could have enjoyed that so much more if he hadn't been running for his life.
"And when my own spell misfired, she and Spike were all over each other, but they were still themselves where everything else was concerned." She thought for a moment. "Here it seems to be the opposite. No sign of sudden love cooties, but..her personality is changed. She never spoke of Spike as her 'love' or anything, she just..."
"Started acting like him. Taking over his personality traits. No, doesn't sound like a love spell." Tara added.
"So..what does that mean, he's changing her? Making her more to his 'liking'? Making his perfect Buffy? That's even worse!" Xander said getting angry again.
"But to him, Buffy already was perfect. I mean we were all around him for the past two years, he worshipped the ground she walked on." Willow countered. "From what I've seen he couldn't even stand to be around the Buffy-bot, not just because it reminded him of her but because of all the ways she was so clearly NOT Buffy. I'm sorry, I could be all wrong here but I'm not sure this is something Spike would particularly go for."
Tara smiled as she looked at Willow who was brooding in earnest now. "I'd sooner see him do a love spell, but....as we said..."
Through all this Anya had just silently sat in her chair listening to them go back and forth. Now though she rubbed her temples and sighed.
"It's not a love spell." she said quietly.
Xander who was just about to say something stopped and looked at his ex, as did Tara and Willow. "What do you mean, how do you know?"
"Because I know. It's the spell of a Vengeance Demon." Anya said tiredly.
Tara's eyes grew big and she and Willow exchanged looks. "You mean you think Buffy was right in her suspicions? Spike had that friend of yours, Halfrek do something to Buffy?"
"Well..." Anya started.
"But how can you be so sure? I mean it's a possibility but.." Willow frowned and looked at Anya intently.
"Wait a minute," Xander cut in. "Halfrek? That friend of Anya's? What does she have to do with it?"
"She's been hanging out with Spike, Buffy was wondering why." Tara explained quickly, "It's possible but..well it doesn't seem like revenge any more than like a love spell."
Willow nodded, thinking about it. "Yeah, I mean, making her smoke and spout British slang? Not really earth shattering in terms of spurned-lover- revenge."
Anya frowned as she rubbed her closed eyes this time. "Enough! I don't know anything about that, but it's a spell by Halfrek, yes. I know because I felt it when it happened."
For a moment the room was silent. Xander just looked at Anya.
"You...felt it?" Willow asked not understanding. "What do you mean? You didn't feel anything on Buffy's birthday when we were under Halfrek's spell. You had no more clue than the rest of us."
"Is it..because you used be a Vengeance Demon?" Tara asked carefully. "But, Willow's right, you..."
"No." Xander said quietly never taking his eyes off Anya. For a moment everyone was silent. Then he calmly added: "It's because she IS a Vengeance Demon."
Anya looked up at him and said nothing. "Aren't you....." Xander said.
Willow and Tara drew in a deep sudden breath as they looked at Anya, who still said nothing. Xander and Anya just looked at each other in silence until he spoke again.
"When...?"
Now she glared at him. "When do you think?!" she snapped.
** **
TBC!
Now R&R!
CHAPTER 17: REVEALING GET-TOGETHERS
"C'mon then, ya wankers!" Spike snarled.
The group of vampires in front of him snarled back. One was down, one was hurt, the other three were gearing up.
It was his third fight of the evening. Not going to the bars, not tonight, but god he needed to fight. He needed to kill something! But hitting the bars would end in drunken brawls and no matter how many fights he won, sooner or later THAT would end with him in a bloody mess without even remembering too clearly how it happened.
So no bars, no boozing. Clem had a point, bad way to go. But he needed to kill something. Her words still echoed in his mind every second he didn't distract it. And nothing distracted so well as a good fight. Busting some heads, breaking some jaws.
Plus he learned a long time ago there was something to be said for sober fights over drunken ones. He won them more easily and enjoyed them more too being able to actually remember them. And since he didn't feel like wandering around too far, he stuck close to home, which meant in the graveyard in search for vampires.
There were lots of little gangs like these strutting around town. Fledgling punks, still had dirt behind their ears, some only having been vamped as little as weeks or even days ago. And as soon as they ganged up a little with other snotnosed brats, oh how tough they thought they were.
It hadn't actually been that hard when he had to switch from killing humans to killing vampires two years ago. The loss of 'live-feeding' had been tough, sure, but as killing goes, humans didn't put up enough of a fight.
Plus there was another bonus. He looked at the vamps in front of him, trying to spread out, to box him in. They thought they were top of the hill, especially the new ones. 'Oh, I'm vampire now, I'm so strong.' They thought they could take on the world. Even when their opponent was also a vampire, and had been at it for far longer than them, had spent a century doing little else but fight! Plus the older vamps got, the stronger. Slowly, but steady.
One of them charged him with a growl. Spike sidestepped and flung a fist into the side of his face. Hard. The vampire flew to the side and crashed into the pedestal of an angel statue. Before he could recover Spike grabbed him by the throat with his right hand and lifted him up against the statue's side.
The vampire made a gurgling sound. He tried to call the others for help as they stood there gawking, but to do that you need to use our lungs, to get the air past the vocal chords. And Spike's grip was like steel. The young vampire grabbed his arm and tried to move it. He found it wasn't unlike being gripped by a marble statue as Spike tensed up his arm to make sure it wouldn't move. It cost more energy than it showed on his face, but they didn't need to know that. And it added to it. That other bonus. There it was: surprise.
The surprise of something that thinks it's a big, bad, monster that prowls the night...that thinks it's the hunter and then encounters something that can eat it for breakfast. That moment when it realizes it is in fact the prey. There it was, in the eyes. And as always followed by dessert: surprise turning into fear.
It was all there in the vamp's face and Spike grinned. No whisky could beat that.
He held the vampire in place as he turned his head and looked back at the two others who were still standing there, unsure what to do. The expressions on their faces were not that different from the one he held up.
"Come on now, laddies. Don't be shy, there's enough to go around." His face vamped out and there was a glow in his eyes as he bared his fangs and laughed.
The vampires hesitated and exchanged looks that did not spell bravery. He may have overdone it. He wanted them to fight not run. He wanted some good kills, and didn't feel like running after them for it!
Then, from the left, the wounded vamp that had been on the ground, suddenly jumped him. Spike dropped the one he was holding as his attacker rammed into his stomach with his shoulder. He immediately seized the vamp's neck with his arm and thrust him around, smashing him into the statue. The vampire crashed into the ground, clawing, trying to get up. Spike stepped up and kicked him upwardly in the ribs just as the young vamp had managed to get on all fours. Then he smashed his fist down into his face, making him crash into the ground again.
He could tell the other vampires were just looking on. 'Not the bravest bunch' he thought. To give them an opening even they might take, he turned his back on the main group completely as he placed his knee on the fallen vampires back, grabbed his head and with a twisting motion, ripped it off completely. His knee sank to the ground as the body he was leaning on turned to dust.
He got up, wiping the dust off his hands. "Well now, anyone care to.." He started, but all he saw was three figures, running away among the gravestones as fast as they could.
"HEY!" He yelled not without some indignation. "Come back here!!" Damn, he overdid it. Should have let that last one land a few punches, it may have gotten their courage up a bit. He cursed silently and started to chase them, jumping over headstones as he ran.
"Get back here and fight, ya soddin' gits!" he yelled to no avail. Was there no pride left in vamps these days? Damn, they were splitting up. He looked quickly at all three and followed the biggest one. Maybe he'd last longer.
Spike ran as fast as he could, and he knew the graveyard well. Soon there would be a bit of a clearing in front of a mausoleum. If he could make a jump from a big tombstone right before that, he'd probably..
Before he could finish that thought something shot out of the dark and tackled the vampire he was chasing with a crushing 'thud'. Distracted by it, he had to dodge the stone he was planning to jump on to prevent from crashing into it.
As he regained his balance, he heard a brief struggle followed by the familiar sound of a body bursting into a dusty cloud. Someone beat him to it. And there was not a long list of possible candidates.
Buffy got up, wiped her sleeve and noticed him looking at her. She smirked. "Getting' slow are we, pet?" she said. "Li' le fledgling vamp to fast for you then?"
Spike opened his mouth to answer, then stopped. What was that? Was she making fun of his accent now? Well, that was new. Not quite what he expected either.
"Uh, not hardly." He answered, not sure what the vibe was here as her usual disdain also seemed absent. Certainly compared to the last time he saw her. "Was just about to jump him when you butted in."
Buffy smirked again. "Sure mate, let's say that's what happened eh?"
Spike frowned. Not bad as imitations go, but the joke was getting old now. Plus there didn't seem to be enough sarcasm to it. And where were the curses? The 'you still here?'s and the 'get out of my face!'s?
"You alright, Slayer?" he asked, looking her up and down a bit. He noticed her black nail polish. Huh, that was new. Not the usual pearly pastels. Didn't look bad though.
Buffy looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Bloody hell, not you too! Spare me the looks and the wiggin'-outs, had my share today, thanks."
It was beginning to bug him now! "Look, I don't know what the soddin' joke is here but it's getting kind of old, alright, Slayer? Maybe this is some new little game you managed to cook up to get your rocks off, 'have another laugh at Spike' or something, but I'm not bleedin' amused!"
Buffy looked at him with genuine surprise. "Don't get yer knickers all in a twist mate, what's with you then?"
Spike drew breath for another angry reply, but then he noticed again the complete absence of sarcasm or mocking tone or, well...any kind of punch line. He stopped and looked at her again. What was going on here?
Buffy shrugged. "Whatever, mate. can't be standing here all day." And with that she wandered off leisurely. She stuck her stake under her arm as she checked out some fresh graves she passed here and there.
Spike was still standing there, frowning, and looking at her intently as if he was trying to find a needle in a walking haystack. Then he started to follow her slowly.
Buffy snickered a little. "Someone is stalking meee." she said. At the tone of a little kid's taunt in a school yard. A British school yard. Spike tried to reply but he couldn't think of anything to say. Something weird was definitely going on here but....
That thought was cut short when he was jumped by two vampires. The same two from before except they had brought some reinforcements. A third jumped him from the other side and several more vamps circled Buffy as well.
"Bloody hell, not NOW!" Spike growled as he bashed one vamps head against the wall of the mausoleum.
** **
"Well, what could I have done? Chain her to the couch?" Willow moaned.
"Don't worry Will, no one says it's your fault. If Buffy wants to leave, she'll leave. There's nothing you could have done." Xander reassured her. Then he thought for a second. "Although that 'chaining' thing is not bad as visuals go."
Everyone was in the living room, with several magic books already spread out on the table and various laps. "Xander's right hon, don't worry about it. And as you said, she's just patrolling and there's no reason to think her abilities are any less than normal. She'll probably show up in a few hours. Let's try and have something worked out by then."
"Yeah so we're looking for love spells, right?" Xander asked as he flipped through an ancient volume on his lap. "As I recall, the one...ahem I had Amy do, wasn't that hard to reverse."
"No, they usually aren't." Tara answered. "But the hard thing is to know what spell was used, in whose name it was invoked, were there catalysts involved, that sorta stuff."
"Catalysts? You mean like I used Cordy's necklace?" Xander remembered.
"Exactly, something personal could be a catalyst. But..."
"Well then let's check if something's missing." Xander interrupted. "Would be helpful if Buffy was here or Dawn, but we can check. I mean it wouldn't be the first time Spike would have stolen something for his Buffy scrapbook."
Tara sighed and lent on her arm. "No, but...well..."
Willow glanced at her girlfriend in between flipping pages. "But you're not so sure it's a love spell ?" Tara looked at her and smiled.
"Me neither." Willow shook her head.
"What do you mean?" Xander said. "Seems an obvious choice. Spike wants her, she...has a fling with him, then she breaks it off...he gets desperate. Remember Will, he had the same idea before. When Dru left him he wanted you to..."
"I know." she said. "I remember, but I also remember he never went through with it. And I'm not saying it's not an option but, this doesn't seem like a love spell. For one thing....where's the love?"
"Exactly." Tara said. "Even love spells gone wrong usually still include some obsession or affection for someone in their results. Like in your case, Xander, it went to...well, everyone. Not who you intended but the effect was still what it should be."
Xander flashed back for a second to multitudes of women screaming his name. He sighed. He could have enjoyed that so much more if he hadn't been running for his life.
"And when my own spell misfired, she and Spike were all over each other, but they were still themselves where everything else was concerned." She thought for a moment. "Here it seems to be the opposite. No sign of sudden love cooties, but..her personality is changed. She never spoke of Spike as her 'love' or anything, she just..."
"Started acting like him. Taking over his personality traits. No, doesn't sound like a love spell." Tara added.
"So..what does that mean, he's changing her? Making her more to his 'liking'? Making his perfect Buffy? That's even worse!" Xander said getting angry again.
"But to him, Buffy already was perfect. I mean we were all around him for the past two years, he worshipped the ground she walked on." Willow countered. "From what I've seen he couldn't even stand to be around the Buffy-bot, not just because it reminded him of her but because of all the ways she was so clearly NOT Buffy. I'm sorry, I could be all wrong here but I'm not sure this is something Spike would particularly go for."
Tara smiled as she looked at Willow who was brooding in earnest now. "I'd sooner see him do a love spell, but....as we said..."
Through all this Anya had just silently sat in her chair listening to them go back and forth. Now though she rubbed her temples and sighed.
"It's not a love spell." she said quietly.
Xander who was just about to say something stopped and looked at his ex, as did Tara and Willow. "What do you mean, how do you know?"
"Because I know. It's the spell of a Vengeance Demon." Anya said tiredly.
Tara's eyes grew big and she and Willow exchanged looks. "You mean you think Buffy was right in her suspicions? Spike had that friend of yours, Halfrek do something to Buffy?"
"Well..." Anya started.
"But how can you be so sure? I mean it's a possibility but.." Willow frowned and looked at Anya intently.
"Wait a minute," Xander cut in. "Halfrek? That friend of Anya's? What does she have to do with it?"
"She's been hanging out with Spike, Buffy was wondering why." Tara explained quickly, "It's possible but..well it doesn't seem like revenge any more than like a love spell."
Willow nodded, thinking about it. "Yeah, I mean, making her smoke and spout British slang? Not really earth shattering in terms of spurned-lover- revenge."
Anya frowned as she rubbed her closed eyes this time. "Enough! I don't know anything about that, but it's a spell by Halfrek, yes. I know because I felt it when it happened."
For a moment the room was silent. Xander just looked at Anya.
"You...felt it?" Willow asked not understanding. "What do you mean? You didn't feel anything on Buffy's birthday when we were under Halfrek's spell. You had no more clue than the rest of us."
"Is it..because you used be a Vengeance Demon?" Tara asked carefully. "But, Willow's right, you..."
"No." Xander said quietly never taking his eyes off Anya. For a moment everyone was silent. Then he calmly added: "It's because she IS a Vengeance Demon."
Anya looked up at him and said nothing. "Aren't you....." Xander said.
Willow and Tara drew in a deep sudden breath as they looked at Anya, who still said nothing. Xander and Anya just looked at each other in silence until he spoke again.
"When...?"
Now she glared at him. "When do you think?!" she snapped.
** **
TBC!
Now R&R!
