Chapter 18
Note: *sighs* I know the story has been lagging a little, truth is, I'm having a hard time trying to piece everything together, because I keep changing my mind as what's happening at the moment; it isn't as clear cut as the first 14 chapters or so. Yes, it is a b/s fic, but I just wanted to show some problems they might have before getting together. I don't particularly want to make my story where spike suddenly becomes overly nice and buffy and spike go into ultra-love mode. I want buffy to understand what she did to spike and if they get together, I'd rather it be a mutual thing instead of one practically becoming a subservient pansy begging for forgiveness.
OMG. I have been so freaking busy lately! Arg! Stupid teachers. some of them should be repeatedly pummeled with rubber chickens!
~~~
"Took you long enough to contact me." Lucifer said as he stepped out of the shadows of the almost empty bar.
William glared at him with dark violet eyes, "I've been busy."
Lucifer tossed the front page of a newspaper on the table William was sitting at. "So I see."
William glanced at the headline, which read, 'LuminaCorp CEO is number 1 suspect.'
William closed his eyes and shook his head, "I have no idea how this mess happened. look, I'm not here to talk about this. Do you have it?"
Lucifer opened up an intricately carved wooden case, which held a sword with a pure black blade overlaying another sword with a clear, transparent blade. Lucifer pulled out both swords and tossed the clear one to William. William caught the sword with ease and studied it was must interest. He ran his finger along the edge and lifted it. His finger looked untouched, but when he pressed down, a slight bit of blood began to pool at the tip. William licked the blood off of his finger.
Lucifer smirked at William's action, "Satisfied? Both swords are sharpened down to an atom, cuts through anything, even Archangels."
William tested the weight of the sword, "Nice, very light. is there a sheath for this?"
Lucifer pulled open a bottom compartment in the wooden box and pulled out two metal sheaths. "They've been coated with some unearthly, magical metal which is suppose to keep the blades from cutting through. Although, I'm not took sure if that's true. just be careful."
William nodded as he sheathed the sword and tied the scabbard to his back. Then he faced Lucifer again. "When is it?"
"Soon."
William raised an eyebrow. "You don't know?"
"It doesn't really matter, time does not exist on the plane we're fighting on. We could be at war for 100 earth years and not a millisecond would pass here. So it doesn't really matter."
William placed his hands on his hips.
Lucifer laughed as he turned around, getting ready to leave. "If you really want to know. It'll be in 4 to 5 days. It's not like any of us can prepare for it or bring in any new players. We'll just have to wait it out."
With that last word. Lucifer exited the club, leaving William in there alone with his thoughts.
~~~
Buffy kept glancing behind her as she tried to keep up with Dawn, her father and the tour group. She had this unnerving feeling that she was being followed, but she couldn't turn around and demand whomever was following her to show themselves.
Buffy sighed as she quickened her pace and returned to Dawn's side. The tour guide was currently pointing at the dorms for UCLA and describing the type of dorm rooms that were inside. Buffy glanced at the tree and suddenly saw a flash of black, he eyes widened as she gripped Dawn's arm a little tighter. Dawn looked at Buffy with concern. "Is there something wrong?"
Buffy shook her head and pretended to brush it off. After this, she had to go talk to Angel.
~~~
***Nemiphoren frowned at Michael's floating figure. This was the second time Michael had taken over and roughly shoved him back into the mindscape. Something weird was going on.
Michael's suddenly raised his head and floated back to the ground and he woke up once more.
Nemiphoren folded his arms and glared at Michael. "What the hell is going on?"
Michael turned around in surprise, not realizing that Nemi was standing behind him. "W-what do you mean?"
"You've been acting strange lately, especially after you met that blond headed girl. I have this feeling that I know her." Michael shook his head a little too quickly, "No you don't. I was just getting bad vibes from her, so I took over to make sure that we sent her away."
Will peak his head out from behind Nemi, "I didn't sense bad vibes from her. Why did you send the bad man after her?"
Michael shoved his hands in his pockets, " I know her and I know that she's bad news. Trust me."
Nemi gave him a suspicious look and finally gave up with a sigh. "Fine, I know you aren't going to tell us what's going on.you have that defensive look right now. But I'm going to figure it out. You never take such drastic measures against any mortal."
Nemi turned around and disappeared with Will.
Michael let out a sigh and shook his head while muttering to himself, 'He'll understand one day. It's for the best.'***
~~~
"Detective Anderson!" The commissioner shouted as he slammed his hand down on the desk. "You weren't supposed to leak out any information! It is against protocol!"
" But sir."
"But nothing rookie!" The commissioner spat back. "I'm reassigning this case to another detective that is more responsible. This is a very rich and influential man we're deal with at the moment. I can't believe that you would tell those media leeches confidential information that hasn't been approved by me! You're suspended without pay starting now."
Anderson shrunk into his chair and finally nodded as he walked away with his head bowed down.
"Damn greedy rookie trying to make himself a media wh*re." The commissioner muttered under his breath. Then he marched out of the office and grabbed a passing officer. "I want Detective Jose in my office ASAP."
The officer nodded as he trembled in fear at the commissioner's wrath and took off for Jose's office.
~~~
Buffy sighed as she sat in Angel's office while nursing a mug. Angel was pacing in the room while muttering curses after hearing what Buffy just told him about her visit to Spike. or was it William? And about this thing stalking her.
"Why did you go visit him?"
Buffy shrugged. "I-I don't know.?"
"I think that William might have sent this stalker guy after you."
Buffy nodded, "Yeah.. I thought so too, but why?"
"He wants you to stay away from him."
"I know, but even the William that we first met wasn't so paranoid or hostile!"
"Maybe he's gone over the edge."
Buffy rolled her eyes, " I don't think so, when I was at his apartment. Something felt off. I still can't put my finger on it though."
"Look, you're priority number one right now. You're in danger and I think you should go back to Sunnydale."
"What?! And lead this stalker back to my home?! No. Way."
"Buffy."
"No.."
"But.."
"NO!"
Angel threw his hands down and gave an exasperated sigh. Damn she was stubborn.
During this moment, a dark figure hidden in the bushes outside of Angel investigations wrote down 'Sunnydale' on his notepad as he pressed his headset closer to his ear, trying to get more information from the microphone he had hidden under Angel's desk.
~~~
Detective Jose examined the cadaver that used to be Stephanie Fieldman and looked back up at the coroner. "Okay, so yer sayin' that Stephanie was hit on the head and killed before her body was dumped into the garbage compactor. The coroner nodded as she lit up a cigarette. Detective Jose gave her a disapproving look. "Seniorita, those things can kill you."
The coroner shrugged, "The fumes I inhale in here everyday will kill me faster than any little ol' cigarette. I stopped caring a long time ago."
Jose sighed as he stuffed his hands in his pocket. "Have you seen this kind of blow before? I find the marking on her skull to be very unusual."
"They are, I'm thinking that whoever killed her was probably on drugs or on some extreme adrenaline rush. Humans can't hit this hard. I've only seen bruises and wounds like this on car crash victims or suicide victims that jump off of buildings."
Jose nodded as he took in the information and carefully assessed it. "Are there any DNA samples on her? From fingerprints? Or maybe rape?"
The coroner shook her head. "Nope. Whoever handled her was very careful, probably wearing gloves."
"Do you know what she was killed with?"
"I was thinking a bat, but no wood splinters. Can't be a pole, unless it was a really thick one. maybe you should check out the recycling center, in the pile where she was found. I know that it's being kept in storage right now."
Jose nodded, "Thank you seniorita." Then he reached over and plucked the cigarette out of her mouth. "You're a nice girl and I like working with you. I'd rather you didn't hurry off into death's arms so soon."
The coroner laughed as she shook her head. "Fine, I'll try. Only for you Jose."
Jose gave her a bright smile as he turned to exit, "Thank you." ~~~
Officer Eliza groaned as she followed Jose into the where house. She groaned once she took a whiff of the odor coming from the saved pile of trash. Jose paid no heed to the smell and started to carefully pry apart the pieces of garbage. Eliza's eye twitched as she stood there, arms akimbo.
Jose rolled his eyes and turned around, "I could use help sometime this century. or are you afraid of breaking a nail?"
Eliza face soured and she mutely headed for the trash pile and started to pry apart the compacted pieces.
Finally, after searching for about 2 hours Jose found a bloodied and smashed typewriter. He waved Eliza over and the both of them studied it with much interest. Jose bagged the typewriter and sent it off to the forensic investigators. ~~~ ***Nemi frowned as he watched Michael's frozen figure levitating in mid air. Michael was acting a little too suspicious lately, especially with him constantly taking control during the strangest times. Nemi concentrated slightly and saw Michael, through William's body, opening up a drawer beside his desk with a key and pull out a little black book with phone numbers.
Nemi made a mental note of who Michael was calling as William's finger stopped under a few strange symbols and a very long phone number. Without alerting Michael, Nemi hurried over to Will and woke up. With their combined abilities, they managed to tap into the mindscape and eavesdrop on Michael's conversation.***
"Do you have the notes for today?" William asked the person on the other line.
"Yes. Apparently this girl is from Sunnydale, she's only visiting because her younger sister, Dawn, is thinking of enrolling into UCLA."
"Good. go on."
"Buffy visited Angel Investigations today at around 4:30 in the afternoon. Buffy seems to have enhanced senses from what I could tell. She seemed to be able to sense me following her."
"You're going to have be more discrete. remember, no matter what happens. This is not to be connected back to me."
"Yes, of course, it's apart of the contract."
"Is that all?"
"Oh, and the girl will most likely stay for another 2 weeks. And from what I can tell, she is in need of financial help."
Michael nodded slowly while filing away the information. "Good, I our meeting will be a different time tomorrow. I have a meeting all day and I might not be able to catch you. In that case, update me the day after tomorrow."
"Understood." With that last word, Shadow hung up.
Michael studied the phone for a second and decided not to hang up. He quickly speed dialed Sharon.
"Sharon."
"Yes?"
"I want you to look up Buffy Summer's financial records, debts, jobs, . actually, just give me the whole nine yards."
"Alright."
*** Michael finally shook out of his trance after he hung up. Before Michael could notice, Nemi quickly curled up with Will on the floor and pretended to be sleeping. Michael glanced at the sleeping figures and let out a sigh as he stretched a little and wandered off. Will still kept his eyes tightly shut as he clung onto Nemi. Nemi, on the other hand, immediately shot his eyes open once Michael was out of range and narrowed his eyes; studying Michael's retreating figure.
Nemi turned back to Will, "We have to find out what's going on."
Will looked up at Nemi quietly and nodded, "He's doing something bad, I can feel it. But I don't know why? Why does he want to hurt this Buffy girl?"
Nemi rolled the name on his tongue a few times, "Buffy. Buffy. It sounds so familiar, but I can't put my finger on it."
Will nodded in agreement. "I think we should find out more about her and why she's supposedly so 'dangerous'." Will added the little air quote, emphasizing the little lecture that Michael had given them earlier on how dangerous this girl, Buffy, was and how they should stay away from her.
Nemi's eyes looked distant as he stared at where Michael was levitating earlier, " I have a plan."
Cont.
Note: *sighs* I know the story has been lagging a little, truth is, I'm having a hard time trying to piece everything together, because I keep changing my mind as what's happening at the moment; it isn't as clear cut as the first 14 chapters or so. Yes, it is a b/s fic, but I just wanted to show some problems they might have before getting together. I don't particularly want to make my story where spike suddenly becomes overly nice and buffy and spike go into ultra-love mode. I want buffy to understand what she did to spike and if they get together, I'd rather it be a mutual thing instead of one practically becoming a subservient pansy begging for forgiveness.
OMG. I have been so freaking busy lately! Arg! Stupid teachers. some of them should be repeatedly pummeled with rubber chickens!
~~~
"Took you long enough to contact me." Lucifer said as he stepped out of the shadows of the almost empty bar.
William glared at him with dark violet eyes, "I've been busy."
Lucifer tossed the front page of a newspaper on the table William was sitting at. "So I see."
William glanced at the headline, which read, 'LuminaCorp CEO is number 1 suspect.'
William closed his eyes and shook his head, "I have no idea how this mess happened. look, I'm not here to talk about this. Do you have it?"
Lucifer opened up an intricately carved wooden case, which held a sword with a pure black blade overlaying another sword with a clear, transparent blade. Lucifer pulled out both swords and tossed the clear one to William. William caught the sword with ease and studied it was must interest. He ran his finger along the edge and lifted it. His finger looked untouched, but when he pressed down, a slight bit of blood began to pool at the tip. William licked the blood off of his finger.
Lucifer smirked at William's action, "Satisfied? Both swords are sharpened down to an atom, cuts through anything, even Archangels."
William tested the weight of the sword, "Nice, very light. is there a sheath for this?"
Lucifer pulled open a bottom compartment in the wooden box and pulled out two metal sheaths. "They've been coated with some unearthly, magical metal which is suppose to keep the blades from cutting through. Although, I'm not took sure if that's true. just be careful."
William nodded as he sheathed the sword and tied the scabbard to his back. Then he faced Lucifer again. "When is it?"
"Soon."
William raised an eyebrow. "You don't know?"
"It doesn't really matter, time does not exist on the plane we're fighting on. We could be at war for 100 earth years and not a millisecond would pass here. So it doesn't really matter."
William placed his hands on his hips.
Lucifer laughed as he turned around, getting ready to leave. "If you really want to know. It'll be in 4 to 5 days. It's not like any of us can prepare for it or bring in any new players. We'll just have to wait it out."
With that last word. Lucifer exited the club, leaving William in there alone with his thoughts.
~~~
Buffy kept glancing behind her as she tried to keep up with Dawn, her father and the tour group. She had this unnerving feeling that she was being followed, but she couldn't turn around and demand whomever was following her to show themselves.
Buffy sighed as she quickened her pace and returned to Dawn's side. The tour guide was currently pointing at the dorms for UCLA and describing the type of dorm rooms that were inside. Buffy glanced at the tree and suddenly saw a flash of black, he eyes widened as she gripped Dawn's arm a little tighter. Dawn looked at Buffy with concern. "Is there something wrong?"
Buffy shook her head and pretended to brush it off. After this, she had to go talk to Angel.
~~~
***Nemiphoren frowned at Michael's floating figure. This was the second time Michael had taken over and roughly shoved him back into the mindscape. Something weird was going on.
Michael's suddenly raised his head and floated back to the ground and he woke up once more.
Nemiphoren folded his arms and glared at Michael. "What the hell is going on?"
Michael turned around in surprise, not realizing that Nemi was standing behind him. "W-what do you mean?"
"You've been acting strange lately, especially after you met that blond headed girl. I have this feeling that I know her." Michael shook his head a little too quickly, "No you don't. I was just getting bad vibes from her, so I took over to make sure that we sent her away."
Will peak his head out from behind Nemi, "I didn't sense bad vibes from her. Why did you send the bad man after her?"
Michael shoved his hands in his pockets, " I know her and I know that she's bad news. Trust me."
Nemi gave him a suspicious look and finally gave up with a sigh. "Fine, I know you aren't going to tell us what's going on.you have that defensive look right now. But I'm going to figure it out. You never take such drastic measures against any mortal."
Nemi turned around and disappeared with Will.
Michael let out a sigh and shook his head while muttering to himself, 'He'll understand one day. It's for the best.'***
~~~
"Detective Anderson!" The commissioner shouted as he slammed his hand down on the desk. "You weren't supposed to leak out any information! It is against protocol!"
" But sir."
"But nothing rookie!" The commissioner spat back. "I'm reassigning this case to another detective that is more responsible. This is a very rich and influential man we're deal with at the moment. I can't believe that you would tell those media leeches confidential information that hasn't been approved by me! You're suspended without pay starting now."
Anderson shrunk into his chair and finally nodded as he walked away with his head bowed down.
"Damn greedy rookie trying to make himself a media wh*re." The commissioner muttered under his breath. Then he marched out of the office and grabbed a passing officer. "I want Detective Jose in my office ASAP."
The officer nodded as he trembled in fear at the commissioner's wrath and took off for Jose's office.
~~~
Buffy sighed as she sat in Angel's office while nursing a mug. Angel was pacing in the room while muttering curses after hearing what Buffy just told him about her visit to Spike. or was it William? And about this thing stalking her.
"Why did you go visit him?"
Buffy shrugged. "I-I don't know.?"
"I think that William might have sent this stalker guy after you."
Buffy nodded, "Yeah.. I thought so too, but why?"
"He wants you to stay away from him."
"I know, but even the William that we first met wasn't so paranoid or hostile!"
"Maybe he's gone over the edge."
Buffy rolled her eyes, " I don't think so, when I was at his apartment. Something felt off. I still can't put my finger on it though."
"Look, you're priority number one right now. You're in danger and I think you should go back to Sunnydale."
"What?! And lead this stalker back to my home?! No. Way."
"Buffy."
"No.."
"But.."
"NO!"
Angel threw his hands down and gave an exasperated sigh. Damn she was stubborn.
During this moment, a dark figure hidden in the bushes outside of Angel investigations wrote down 'Sunnydale' on his notepad as he pressed his headset closer to his ear, trying to get more information from the microphone he had hidden under Angel's desk.
~~~
Detective Jose examined the cadaver that used to be Stephanie Fieldman and looked back up at the coroner. "Okay, so yer sayin' that Stephanie was hit on the head and killed before her body was dumped into the garbage compactor. The coroner nodded as she lit up a cigarette. Detective Jose gave her a disapproving look. "Seniorita, those things can kill you."
The coroner shrugged, "The fumes I inhale in here everyday will kill me faster than any little ol' cigarette. I stopped caring a long time ago."
Jose sighed as he stuffed his hands in his pocket. "Have you seen this kind of blow before? I find the marking on her skull to be very unusual."
"They are, I'm thinking that whoever killed her was probably on drugs or on some extreme adrenaline rush. Humans can't hit this hard. I've only seen bruises and wounds like this on car crash victims or suicide victims that jump off of buildings."
Jose nodded as he took in the information and carefully assessed it. "Are there any DNA samples on her? From fingerprints? Or maybe rape?"
The coroner shook her head. "Nope. Whoever handled her was very careful, probably wearing gloves."
"Do you know what she was killed with?"
"I was thinking a bat, but no wood splinters. Can't be a pole, unless it was a really thick one. maybe you should check out the recycling center, in the pile where she was found. I know that it's being kept in storage right now."
Jose nodded, "Thank you seniorita." Then he reached over and plucked the cigarette out of her mouth. "You're a nice girl and I like working with you. I'd rather you didn't hurry off into death's arms so soon."
The coroner laughed as she shook her head. "Fine, I'll try. Only for you Jose."
Jose gave her a bright smile as he turned to exit, "Thank you." ~~~
Officer Eliza groaned as she followed Jose into the where house. She groaned once she took a whiff of the odor coming from the saved pile of trash. Jose paid no heed to the smell and started to carefully pry apart the pieces of garbage. Eliza's eye twitched as she stood there, arms akimbo.
Jose rolled his eyes and turned around, "I could use help sometime this century. or are you afraid of breaking a nail?"
Eliza face soured and she mutely headed for the trash pile and started to pry apart the compacted pieces.
Finally, after searching for about 2 hours Jose found a bloodied and smashed typewriter. He waved Eliza over and the both of them studied it with much interest. Jose bagged the typewriter and sent it off to the forensic investigators. ~~~ ***Nemi frowned as he watched Michael's frozen figure levitating in mid air. Michael was acting a little too suspicious lately, especially with him constantly taking control during the strangest times. Nemi concentrated slightly and saw Michael, through William's body, opening up a drawer beside his desk with a key and pull out a little black book with phone numbers.
Nemi made a mental note of who Michael was calling as William's finger stopped under a few strange symbols and a very long phone number. Without alerting Michael, Nemi hurried over to Will and woke up. With their combined abilities, they managed to tap into the mindscape and eavesdrop on Michael's conversation.***
"Do you have the notes for today?" William asked the person on the other line.
"Yes. Apparently this girl is from Sunnydale, she's only visiting because her younger sister, Dawn, is thinking of enrolling into UCLA."
"Good. go on."
"Buffy visited Angel Investigations today at around 4:30 in the afternoon. Buffy seems to have enhanced senses from what I could tell. She seemed to be able to sense me following her."
"You're going to have be more discrete. remember, no matter what happens. This is not to be connected back to me."
"Yes, of course, it's apart of the contract."
"Is that all?"
"Oh, and the girl will most likely stay for another 2 weeks. And from what I can tell, she is in need of financial help."
Michael nodded slowly while filing away the information. "Good, I our meeting will be a different time tomorrow. I have a meeting all day and I might not be able to catch you. In that case, update me the day after tomorrow."
"Understood." With that last word, Shadow hung up.
Michael studied the phone for a second and decided not to hang up. He quickly speed dialed Sharon.
"Sharon."
"Yes?"
"I want you to look up Buffy Summer's financial records, debts, jobs, . actually, just give me the whole nine yards."
"Alright."
*** Michael finally shook out of his trance after he hung up. Before Michael could notice, Nemi quickly curled up with Will on the floor and pretended to be sleeping. Michael glanced at the sleeping figures and let out a sigh as he stretched a little and wandered off. Will still kept his eyes tightly shut as he clung onto Nemi. Nemi, on the other hand, immediately shot his eyes open once Michael was out of range and narrowed his eyes; studying Michael's retreating figure.
Nemi turned back to Will, "We have to find out what's going on."
Will looked up at Nemi quietly and nodded, "He's doing something bad, I can feel it. But I don't know why? Why does he want to hurt this Buffy girl?"
Nemi rolled the name on his tongue a few times, "Buffy. Buffy. It sounds so familiar, but I can't put my finger on it."
Will nodded in agreement. "I think we should find out more about her and why she's supposedly so 'dangerous'." Will added the little air quote, emphasizing the little lecture that Michael had given them earlier on how dangerous this girl, Buffy, was and how they should stay away from her.
Nemi's eyes looked distant as he stared at where Michael was levitating earlier, " I have a plan."
Cont.