106

Rose was tired enough to sleep soundly, but nervous enough to be up betimes.

"What's the rush, luv?" Spike asked. "It's still dark out. Give Percy a chance to get his beauty rest."

Rose tried to smile at the lame jest, but it was a feeble effort at best. Even though it was inordinately early, she got up, showered and dressed anyway. She knew that trying to got back to sleep would have been an exercise in futility.

Spike didn't know what to make of it. Rose was so keyed up he could almost swear he could see her vibrate with nervous energy. He knew well and good it wasn't the first demon she'd dealt with, so this had to be something more. At present, though, she wasn't volunteering any information, and Spike decided that now was probably not the best time to ask. She looked ready to jump out of her skin.

Rose had finally puttered about in the bedroom as much as she could, so she moved the act into the living room. There, dead center of the coffee table sat the book, a protective ring of salt around it, just as it had been left the previous night.

She sat down, propped her face in her hands and stared at the volume as though she expected it to speak to her. Even sitting, though, she radiated an energy that almost hummed in the air.

Spike took a nearby chair. "It's behaved itself all night, pet," he remarked. "What makes you think it's going to start acting up now?"

"Spike," she began, ignoring his question. "I have to ask you to do something for me, and it's very, very important."

Normally, Spike would have enthusiastically offered to do whatever she pleased, if only it would make her happy. But this favor, he suspected, was in an entirely different category. "What do you want me to do, luv?" he inquired cautiously.

"When Wesley and I.., perform the ritual." She stopped for a deep breath. She'd almost said summon the demon, and that would have ruined everything. "I want you to wait in the next room until I call you, please."

Of everything Spike could have imagined she'd ask him, that one had never even made the list. "Why don't you want me there?" he queried a bit suspiciously.

She summoned up an almost natural smile. "Because you're a distraction, darling, even when you're not saying anything." The smile grew and her eyes got a little dreamy. "At least, I find you very distracting."

Spike grinned back at her and made it work. He was a lot better at this than she was. He was dead certain that she was up to something now. "So what are you not telling me, sweetheart?" he asked casually. "I can tell you're keeping things from me, so I can only assume that it's something you don't think I'd like."

She sighed. Aside from the fact that she didn't like trying to deceive him, she still found untruths very unpalatable. But she couldn't tell him everything. He'd object and create a fuss and perhaps ruin a chance, however slim to make him corporeal again.She decided to give him a little of the truth, and see if he'd accept it as the whole. "The rite we'll be performing isn't entirely to banish the demon," she said slowly. "Actually, it will summon it." Seeing a big objection coming up, she hurriedly added, "But not to worry, Wesley and I will be taking every precaution imaginable."

Somehow, Spike found that he wasn't too surprised. "It's been my experience in dealing with demons," he observed calmly, "that the precautions you need are the ones that aren't imaginable." He regarded her steadily. "So why exactly are you planning on summoning the demon?"

"We need to ask him something," she mumbled. Why did she think she could even start to hide anything from Spike. He obviously saw right through her. The question now was, would he keep at her, let her keep what little was left of her secret, or work it out for himself?

"There's only one thing I can think of that's important enough to you to go to that kind of risk," Spike responded, looking into her eyes. "The same reason you were reading that effing book in the first place." His voice became a little heated. "Did you really think that I'd want you doing something that damn dangerous on my account?"

Rose, looking shamefaced, muttered, "Of course not, why do you think I wasn't going to tell you?" She forced herself to look him in the eye. "But think about it, Spike. If Ahmed Al-Shere could put himself into a book like that his knowledge might cover what we need to know to..,"

"Get yourself into a whole lot of trouble, precious," Spike finished for her. "Sweet girl, trust me on this one. I've been around demons a lot longer than most. And the last thing you want is to owe a demon a favor. Just get rid of him and have done with it."

"But we won't owe him a favor," she argued. "He'll owe us one for freeing him. Wesley and I have gone over the whole thing from top to bottom more than once. And there'll be a listening device in the room so that Angel and that special ops team can hear and come running if things get sticky."

Despite himself, Spike was starting to see an insane kind of logic in her arguments. "Why not have Peaches and his pals in the next room with me?" he asked bluntly. "The farther away they are, the farther they'll have to come to pull you and the Watcher out of the fire, pet."

"They won't be very far away," she promised. "But we thought that the next room might be too close. We don't want to tip our hand too soon. The demon might get suspicious."

"They usually are," Spike remarked. "Is there any way at all I can talk you out of this, Rose? I really don't like the idea of you putting yourself in harms way like this."

"The greater the risk, the greater the potential gain," she said softly, gazing at him with a look that would have melted his heart had he had one. It still did all kinds of strange and wonderful things to him. "I happen to think you're worth any amount of risk."

Spike sighed. He'd lost this one, and he knew it. In her own sweet way, the lady was every bit as stubborn as he was. He vanished suddenly.

Rose was startled. She'd expected more arguments, questions, something. But not a disappearing act. She sat there, heart thumping uncontrollably while she tried to figure out what she'd done to send him off like that. Then, she felt something drop down over her head, and saw the protective charm she'd constructed the day before.

"You forgot it," he observed mildly. Carrying that damned mojo that far had fair taken it out of him, metaphorically speaking. "Since I can't make you see sense, the next best thing I can do is to make sure you cover all the bases."

&&&&&&&&

Rose and Wesley finished the final lines of the wards around them. They'd actually be summoning the demon into the circle with them, that couldn't be helped. But the circle should keep the demon from going elsewhere until and unless they were ready for it to go.

Rose felt the uncomfortable and unaccustomed bulk of the gun in her pocket. When Wes had handed it to her, she had protested, pointing out that she had never handled a firearm before. Wesley had stood firm.

"At the range we'll be at," he'd pointed out. "It would be almost impossible to miss. If the demon looks to be ready to cause any trouble at all, I want you to draw that gun and shoot and worry about what you're hitting later. I'd rather die in the attempt than to set Ahmed Al-Shere loose with no constraints."

In fact, the gun was a very small caliber weapon, a 'ladies handbag gun', Wesley had called it. She'd practically have to shoot someone right in the eye to do any serious damage with it.

Wesley and Rose exchanged a glance. "Ready, Rose?" Wes asked.

"As ready as I can be," she said a little shakily. "I really hope this works."

"Demons are notoriously slippery customers," he remarked. "Don't put too much faith in this, Rose. All things considered, you're still probably Spike's best hope."

Rose didn't quite know how to respond to the statement, so she just said, "Let's have this over and done with."

Wesley picked up the book and opened it to the pertinent section. "Do you want to read it, Rose? You seem to have a better grasp of the accent than I do. I've never been too good with demon languages."

Rose took the volume like it was going to bite her. She knew why the Watcher had had her read the spell, and it wasn't because he lacked any talent with languages. It was because he was better able to defend her than the other way around. With a tremulous voice, she read out the necessary words.

There was a noise like a thunderclap, that nearly knocked the pair of them off their feet. Then, standing in front of them, still within the confines of the warding circle, stood Ahmed Al-Shere.

The creature stood easily six and a half feet tall, green and scaly with a definite reptilian mien. Somehow, the middle-eastern style of dress seemed incongruous on such an inhuman creature.

"At last," the creature muttered in a guttural bass voice. "To be free. To be able to use the senses." It started to take a step, and was stopped by the wards. It turned its gaze to its summoners. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Nothing's for free," remarked Wesley calmly. "Including freedom itself. We have freed you, partially. If you want the rest of your freedom, it will cost you something."

"Pitiful mortals," it said in disdain. "I could end your lives in a heartbeat. How dare you make demands of one whom you should be worshipping?"

"Perhaps you would allow us to make our request before you dismiss it out of hand?" Rose asked tentatively. She was trying to be brave, but she was shaking like a leaf.

"What a lovely child," the demon observed. "State your proposal. I will listen."

"There is a.., friend of ours," Rose said shakily. "He died while wearing a magical amulet. When the amulet was returned here, he was brought back, but as spirit only. We thought you might know how to..,"

"Bring him back?" Ahmed Al-Shere laughed, and it was a spine-chilling sound. "Where is this specter?"

"I'm here." Spike walked through the door. True, Rose hadn't summoned him, yet. But it did seem to be his cue.

The demon eyed him with little apparent interest. "It will be a difficult task," it observed. "I find that the payment is insufficient."

"What else do you require?" Wesley asked. He'd been prepared for this, even if Rose hadn't.

The demon's attention seemed to be fixed on Rose. "So untouched," it murmured. "So pure. I can practically taste the sweetness of it." The demon addressed Rose directly. "Is the restoration of your friend worth your virtue, child?" It reached out a taloned hand to caress her cheek, and she flinched back.

It laughed again. "So you like not this visage, do you? Perhaps this one will be more to your taste." A shimmer of light, and instead of the reptilian demon stood what appeared to be a man. Tall, tall as the demon form had been. Swarthy of skin, with jet-black hair waving down to his shoulders. Face set in a permanent sneer. Eyes so dark as to be almost black, and a vivid, jagged red scar running the length of his left cheek. "Answer me now, child," he said, in the self-same voice as the demon. "Will you lay with me to bring your friend back?"

"She bloody well will not!" Spike responded sharply from without the circle. "Keep your meathooks off her, demon, she's mine."

"I did not ask you, spirit," Ahmed said mildly enough. "I asked her." His eyes fixed themselves on Rose once more. "I await your answer, child." This time, his hand shot out so quickly that Rose could not evade it, and wrapped around her waist and pulled her close. "Do you care enough about him to let me taste your innocence?"

"Let go of her," Spike demanded, going to game face.

"A vampire?" For the first time, the demon seemed surprised. "You wish me to regenerate a vampire?"

"Not at the price you're asking," Wesley stated firmly. "Release the lady. Either make a more reasonable request, or consider the deal to be off."

"She has not yet given an answer," Ahmed Al-Shere rasped. "I will hear it from no other lips but hers." He looked down at the aforementioned lips, and started to bend down as if to kiss them. He suddenly doubled over as the report of Rose's weapon gave her answer. Wesley calmly produced something a little more lethal and emptied the clip into the demon's head. It fell to the floor and lay still. There was another soft thud as Rose's small weapon dropped from her limp hand.

Spike hovered outside the circle in impotent fury. This was the worst, the absolute worst. He wanted to be inside that circle. He wanted the demon to be alive so he could wrap his hands around its throat and slowly choke the life out of it, to beat it to a bloody pulp for daring to lay a hand on Rose.

Angel and the team of toughs raced in, only to find that they'd missed everything. It was over, including the shooting.

Wesley hurriedly began undoing the wards. He wanted to get Rose out and away from the demon's corpse. She was most decidedly a little green around the gills. He'd barely opened the protective circle then she went bolting to the loo, where she could be heard being violently sick.

Angel turned to the now unnecessary team. "Get that thing out of here," he ordered. "Burn it, scatter the ashes, whatever seems the best way to make sure that it won't be coming back again." He turned to Spike. "Do you want me to..," he jerked his head in the direction of the bathroom.

"I'll call you if I need help, ponce," Spike muttered, allowing his features to slip back to normal. He vanished, and then Angel and Wesley could hear him speaking softly and soothingly to Rose.

&&&&&&

"It was a nice try, luv," Spike said later, when Rose was ensconced comfortably in bed. "I'm afraid I could have told you it was doomed from the start."

"I had to try," Rose said dispiritedly. It had been Spike's best chance to date, and it broke her heart that it had blown up in her face.

"No more mucking about trying to make deals with demons," he said firmly. "I'd rather see that Amalyar demon trying to make a meal of you than that poncey bastard macking on you."

Rose summoned up a wan smile. "Was it really that bad for you?"

He favored her with a tender smile of his own. "You'll never know, pet," he said softly. "But I'd rather be like this forever than to have anything happen to you. In case you haven't gotten it through your pretty little head, I love you."

"If the tables were turned," she asked softly. "Would you have taken the risk for me?" A small pause. "And I love you too."

"Dirty pool, precious," Spike murmured. "I'd walk into the daylight with a cross in each hand for you. So I guess we're even."

"I guess we are." Rose snuggled down in the pillows, feeling warmed as much by his love as the blankets covering her.