CHAPTER TWO

Spike knocked on the door to where Harmony had stowed Faith. He wished someone had told him Faith was going to be in town. He had left Harmony babysitting the giant Poof while he went to find the Slayer. She didn't look happy to see him, or maybe it was just sheer exhaustion. Spike was betting on a mix of the two. "Bad time?"

"The flight here sucked the life out of me. All I want is to go to bed." She leveled her dark eyes on him. "Alone."

He snorted. "I get the message. Won't stay long. I just had a few questions but they can wait."

"Nah, have a seat. I can spare a few." She flopped down on the love seat, gesturing at the couch for him.

Spike watched her body settle. Faith had a nice one, nicer than Buffy's he had to admit, darker, a little more lush, not quite Cordelia curvy but nice enough. Spike sat and held up his cigarette pack waggling it. "Want one?"

She made a 'gimme' motion with her curled fingers and Spike lit one for her. She puffed happily. "Worse thing to happen to me in prison." She blew smoke rings for emphasis.

"I know it's old-fashioned but I don't like seeing women smoking." He took a deep drag. "Just as well most of them are quitting."

Faith laughed in her smoky, whiskey-throated way. He liked her rasp. "I didn't peg you for a liking the lady-like girls."

"You never met Dru." Spike shut his eyes, picturing his black rose. "I'm not sure I ever even saw her in pants."

"Dresses give me hives." Faith shuddered. "And to answer your questions before you even ask, they're all fine including Buffy. Giles told you Anya died saving Andrew."

"Bloody waste that was," Spike said unapologetically. "Got me wishing it was the other way around. I liked Anya."

Faith took a drag. "You feel guilty even thinking like that. We haven't thought much about her death...about any of it in general. We've been too busy tracking down new Slayers and it gives us enough to think about...which is good."

"I'm glad I missed out on all that estrogen. Poor ol' Rupert's probably plucked himself bald, worrying like a mother hen." Spike grinned.

Faith choked, smoke exploding from her lips. "I'm telling him you said that."

"Don't you dare." Spike levered himself up and headed for the door. "I'll let you get some sleep."

"Thanks, because you're supposed to be watching Angel, anyhow." Faith stretched, casting a longing look at her bedroom.

"Sodding waste of my time. There are so many bloody alarms and spells on this place he's safe as houses." Spike shrugged. "Besides Harmony's babysitting him."

"That's punishment," Faith accused and Spike only grinned. "Do you have any idea who did this to Angel?"

Spike shook his head. "He's being really tight lipped...no lipped, whatever. Do I think he knows more than he's telling us, yeah. He's trying to protect someone from something. He gets like that. Well, not with me since he'd be having a party with my dust as confetti if I were to buy it."

Faith shuddered. "Now there's an image."

"Hey, this time I left out the part about him being naked and rolling in the dust." Spike smirked.

"Spike, I'm warning you." Faith wagged a finger at him and he only grinned. "So, what do we do about this?"

Spike shrugged. "Don't know, don't really care. Got other things to worry about."

"Say what you want, Spike, you're worried about him. I can see it." Faith summoned up a smile.

Spike glared, hating she could read him. "Yeah, right. Speaking of my other concerns, need to go handle one of them now." Spike swept out of the room.

He went into Kala Willingham's office. The young lawyer smiled, seeing him. She reminded him of Robin's mother in coloring, even in how she wore her hair. Still, the resemblance to Nikki wasn't what drew him to her. She was convenient. As one of the up and comers, she was situated such that her office shared a wall with Eve's office. He got the benefits of meaningless office sex and eavesdropping opportunities all at the same time.

Kala rocked back in her chair. "Sorry, Spike, I've got a meeting in five minutes."

"S'okay luv. I'll just sack out on the couch for a while if you don't mind." He collapsed down on it, smiling seductively up at her.

"I don't mind. I just wish that I had your job of doing...what is it you do?" She grinned, getting up.

"I do plenty. It's just behind the scenes," he assured her.

Laughing, she gave him a kiss then left. Spike watched her go, loving the way her dress highlighted her well-formed ass. That was the one thing he had over Angel, he could have all the sex he wanted without fear and he had moved passed celebrating his return to the flesh and was into drowning out memories of Buffy with all the sex and booze he could fit into a day. That, too, had already gotten old but still a good shag with Kala and Harmony, not at the same time unfortunately, was something he looked forward to. Spike settled on the couch and listened intently to what was going on in Eve's office. He had heard her earlier on the phone trying to dissuade someone from making an appearance and he knew she had failed, listening to the time she set up for the meeting. She had told the man on the phone he was lucky Angel was out of action for the day which was the only reason she was even allowing it. Spike had to know what had rattled Eve.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," a man was saying. Spike didn't recognize the voice.

"What did you expect, Daniel?" Eve asked. From her tone, Spike could imagine her sitting on the edge of her desk, her legs swinging putting on that little girl act of hers. There was nothing proper or professional about Eve and if he had thought Darla's innocent little girl act was bad, she was a freaking acting genius in comparison to Eve.

"You had to have brought me back for a reason." The man sounded desperate. "What you did was wrong."

"And here I would have thought you'd be overjoyed to be reunited with your son," Eve bubbled. Spike's brow furrowed. He wished he had a clue as to what was going on.

"It's against God's will to resurrect the dead," Daniel snapped.

"Why? He does it occasionally. Besides, you're the one who killed yourself, Daniel, and it was for nothing. We're giving you a second chance, so be grateful."

Spike took note of the snarky in Eve's voice. He had lived with enough headstrong women to know that was a bad thing.

"And what of my son's chance?" Daniel asked. "He's an empty shell."

"Healing takes time, Daniel," Eve said, almost mockingly. "He had a severe breakdown. His little brain just couldn't handle it and all the terrible things Angel did to the boy took their toll, right down to that spell that robbed him of himself."

Spike sat up. Angel hurting a kid? That sounded more like Angelus and it was more than enough to whet his appetite to know more.

"I can not believe even he would hurt Steven."

"Uh-uh, Daniel, we don't say that name here," Eve said.

'Steven?' Spike got up and grabbed a note pad. He wrote that down.

"And you should be happy that the boy isn't a babbling idiot at this point," Eve continued.

"He's not far from it." The pain in the man's voice gave Spike an idea why he was so adamant about meeting with Eve. "He doesn't really remember me, only that he used to love me like a father. He barely speaks. He just prowls about all day and all night. It's all I can do to make him sleep and eat a bit and without the drugs you've given me I couldn't even do that."

"Daniel, all you have to do is keep aiming him at demons, keep him sharp and it'll all work out."

"I can't...he needs help that I can't give him."

"He'll get it, Daniel. He will slowly come back to himself, just keep working with him. And try not to let him kill Angel ahead of schedule. The Senior Partners weren't too happy that Angel nearly got dusted last night," Eve said.

Spike wished he had a recording device so Angel could hear this. He might even tell the giant poof that he was being set up

"This is very dangerous," Daniel said.

"Just keep control of him, Daniel." The snap in Eve's voice told Spike volumes. Eve was worried, playing some Machiavellian game that could kill her, too, if it went wrong, no doubt. He could only wonder what she was up to. He heard the man moving toward the door so Spike jumped up and ran for his. He had to see who Daniel was.

This man was important enough for Eve to take a risk, especially if they were trying to screw over Angel. Daniel knew who hurt Spike's grandsire and part of Spike was pissed about that and another part wanted to send the man flowers. Spike cautiously peered out the door. Daniel was a rather ordinary mortal man from the scent of him. A good head of hair, moved like a hunter and had the deadest eyes Spike had ever seen. His gut feeling that this man was trouble deepened.

Daniel put a wide brimmed hat on. While terribly out of fashion Spike saw it did two things; it hid the man's face and the hat called eyes to it. The hat would be all anyone would notice. Spike started down the hall after him. The two men stopped and stared at each other for a brief moment."

"Spike!" The vampire whirled, hearing Gunn's voice. "Aren't you supposed to be looking out for Angel?"

"Harm took my place," Spike said, willing Gunn to go away.

"Good, then you can sit in on Wes' meeting about those murdered kids," Gunn said.

Spike cast a glance down the hall. Daniel was already gone. Spike wrinkled his nose. "Do I have time for a smoke?"

Gunn scowled, knocking a piece of fuzz off his lapel. "No."

Spike kept his cursing to himself. Gunn had just cost him an opportunity to learn something, maybe stack the decks in his favor. Still, he needed to keep on the good side of these people. He rather liked Gunn at any rate and helping to catch a kid killer would probably count in his favor if he seriously wanted the Shanshu. He wasn't sure he did. Part of him wanted to screw over his grandsire. Part of him wanted to be human again so he could make one last attempt at winning Buffy.

Spike knew it was futile. If he did fulfill the prophecy and by some miracle it was in Buffy's life time, he knew she'd be furious at him stealing what should have been Angel's. The argument that if Angel was really meant to Shanshu he would do so, no matter what Spike did wasn't likely to hold any weight with Buffy . Even if it did, Spike knew he'd end up like Captain Cardboard, shunted aside, relegated to the background, left behind because he was too human. Riley had moved on.

Spike knew he needed to move on as well because he knew deep down it would never be him she honestly loved. He was there in her darkness and eventually she'd come to hate him for taking advantage of her weakness, no matter how much she needed him at the time. The best thing he could do was just disappear, start life again by himself for once in his life. Still, he wasn't ready so he followed Gunn to the meeting.

He picked up the Krispy Kreme Key Lime donut before Gunn could and let the key lime goo coat his tongue. He could almost taste the tartness. Gunn frowned.

"You can't taste so why do you insist on stealing my donuts." Gunn tossed himself in a chair.

"I can taste...just not like you can. 'Sides, eating's social. Peaches keeps forgetting that," Spike said.

Gunn rolled his eyes and looked over at Fred and Wes. "Are we any closer to figuring out what's killing these kids?"

"I've been researching the runes painted on the bodies," Wes said. "And I'm very much afraid of what it means."

"Big bad demon?" Gunn seemed almost bored with that idea.

"Forensics aren't done yet so we don't know what kind it might be. It might take days," Fred said. "But Wolfram and Hart has extensive demonic genome banks."

"Tell them to start looking for primers for human DNA to do the PCR," Wes said.

"Human?" Fred's eyes went huge.

"You can find the symbols left at the crime scenes in a half dozen magic-related books at Barnes and Noble. Azazel, Mammon, Baphomet and other devils, half of which aren't even real."

"Wiccans don't do human sacrifice," Gunn protested.

"These would be wanna-be Satanists at best," Wes said.

"Or someone wanting you to think that," Spike said.

"Would they go through a charade this drastic?" Fred sounded unconvinced.

"Why not? A lot of demons know Angel's here doing the do-gooder shite. Embarrassing stuff like that gets around." Spike made a wry face. "And a lot of demons don't like to get their hands dirty so they use humans to do it. Isn't that why Wolfram and Hart exists in the first place?" Spike licked the last of the filling off his lips.

"Not anymore," Gunn grated out, his fingers griping the table hard.

"Whatever gets you through," Spike said. So much for him being good.

Fred's phone rang breaking the tension. "Yes? Really? Good, bring it to conference room 212a." She hung up. "They have copies of the coroners's reports on the first four victims."

"Regardless of what they show, I think we should stick to our plan," Wes said.

"Which is?" Spike asked.

"Stake out local colleges in the area where all the victims were found." Gunn wore a 'where were you last meeting' look on his face. "All of the victims are college-aged and all but one attended colleges near where their bodies were found. We were going to go out in teams of two. It was going to be me and Angel, Wes and Fred and you and Harmony, Spike."

"Not in this life time," Spike said. "I'll take the Slayer. She should be rested up by tonight."

"I was going to pair with Faith now that Angel's on the injured list," Gunn replied.

"You take Harmony," Spike said. "Faith and I work together pretty good."

"But we thought you'd want to be with Harmony." Fred pushed up her reading glasses. "She's your-"

"Shagbag," Spike I interrupted. "Nothing more. Besides me and Harmony don't work well together. Last time we did, I staked her one."

"Let him go with Faith." Wes held up his hands. "There'll be less whinging on that way. I'll go with Harmony if you'd rather go with Fred."

"No, that's fine. I'll take Harmony." Gunn gave Spike a sour look. "But I have a gut feeling saying 'beware of anything Spike wants this much'."

"Good instinct," Wes muttered.

Before Spike could summon up a retort, someone knocked on the door and Gunn called for them to enter. One of Fred's lab-coated underlings came in with a thin file in her hand.

"What did you find out, Susan?" Fred asked.

The young blond opened the file. "It's the same in every case. The blood was drained from the body through a slit throat. All showed signs of being suspended from their ankles, most likely to facilitate drainage of blood. All the dismemberment was post mortem and done with a large knife and not a saw. Clotting at the neck wound indicates all the victims were alive when their throats were cut. The medical examiners believe the killings to be ritualistic and that it was probably the same group of killers."

"Group?" Fred broke in, a worried look on her face.

Susan nodded. "The angles of the cut marks show at least two killers, one right handed and the other left with varying degrees of strength and precision. Some victims have multiple cuts in the bone, trying to hack it off. The limbs in others were cut clean through. They also said it's likely the victims were murdered elsewhere and arranged for the police to find."

"Has toxicology come back on any of them?" Spike asked and everyone stared. "Hey, so I watch CSI, leave me alone."

Susan smiled shyly. "All the victims had blood alcohol levels over the legal limit and in one there was evidence of GHB, the date rape drug. Chances are it was given to all of them but dissipated in the other victims."

"Drunk then drugged, sounds like your ugly little theory has some merit, Wes," Gunn said, making a face.

"What if it is humans?" Fred asked. "We're used to doing the demon killing thing."

"You stop them and hand 'em over to the coppers," Spike said. "Should be easier than what we're used to dealing with."

"We've done similar things before like when Cordelia got pregnant...oh, that was before you and Gunn joined us, Fred," Wes said.

"Pregnant?"

"Some guys were seducing young ladies so a particularly gruesome demon could implant his seed in them, nasty business. Gunn kept Cordelia and I safe the time Wolfram and Hart declared war on us. Lindsey lost a hand in that undertaking."

"Or like Dr Seidel," Fred said, then looked away quickly.

"It's never easy facing humans. You could accidently hurt them," Wes said sympathetically.

"It's hard to think humans could do this to one another," Fred said.

"They do it all the time, luv. You don't need monsters like me and Angel. Humans are pretty terrible by themselves," Spike said.

"I would love to debate that." A glum expression pulled down Wes' face. "But I'm afraid I can't."

"Susan, is there anything else?" Fred asked.

I'm afraid not."

"Thanks."

Gunn waited until Susan was gone to hand out the assignments as to who was taking which colleges. "Fred, you and Wes can start at any times. The rest of us will start at sun down."

"Works for me. Faith will get in a good long nap by then," Spike said, getting up. He headed for his suite, with his notes about Daniel hiding in his pocket. He needed time to think of what to do about that but until then, he needed to think through the things he wanted to say to the Slayer.