Chapter 7
He held his breath even though he didn't really need to breathe, and felt his body tense every time her shoulder brushed his chest. He knew that he should be concentrating on what was going on outside, but his thoughts kept going back to the petite slayer who was so close that there was always at least one part of his body touching her.
He could see Buffy's face in the darkness, and he could watch her openly because he knew that she couldn't see anything. The little light, which wasn't enough for her to see it, illuminated parts of her face, and it gave her eyes a golden glow. Her mouth was slightly ajar, and her breath came in irregular whiffs. When the conversation in the room started to get real interesting, her heart sped up, and the thin veins on her neck pumped faster.
All of this he saw during the short time that they spent in the closet and it took all of the control that he could muster not to reach out and grab her. The memory of her arms around him earlier kept popping up in his mind and it wasn't helping. He was still confused about that, he kept telling himself that it hadn't meant anything, she'd just been confused and lonely and needed someone, and he'd been the only one around. If the situation had been different, she wouldn't even have been in the same room as him for more then five minutes at a time. But still a part of him couldn't let go of the hope that there had been something there, something that she couldn't face up with yet, but would eventually come out.
The sound of a door closing brought him out of his reverie, and he realized that he'd barely heard a word that had been said. It could've been important, and he didn't want Buffy to know that he hadn't been listening. He wouldn't want her to think that he was even more pathetic then she probably already did.
In front of him Buffy pushed the thin door open and light flooded the small space. Spike squinted his eyes in the sudden brightness, and followed the petite slayer out into the room where Vin stood silent with his gaze fixed on the closed door trough which the visitor had disappeared. His shoulders were sloping, and the part of his face that Spike could see form the angle that he was looking looked close to hysteric. A second after the two blondes had stepped out he turned around to greet them with a stern and thoughtful expression.
"Anything that you might have heard are things that you cannot under any circumstances spread outside of this room. Is that understood?" Vin's voice was strained and even though he did his best to hide it there were traces of panic in it. Spike hadn't heard enough to know whether or not the conversation could be of importance to him and Buffy, but it was obvious that it was important to the other vampire, and that could give them an advantage over him.
"That depends, mate," Spike said with a wicked grin tugging at the corner of his lips. "What's in it for us?"
But before Vin had time to reply, Buffy stepped out and put herself between Spike and Vin and stared at the bulky vampire confidently.
"We'll keep it quiet, maybe even help you out, if you do something for us," she said with a secretive smile, and there was a sparkle in her eyes that Spike hadn't seen since they went trough the portal. 'What is she up to?' he thought wonderingly and decided to keep quiet and let her take care of it since she evidently had some sort of plan figured out.
Vin was also confused, and there was a doubtful look on his face as he gazed over at Buffy. He looked almost like he'd been discovered doing something really, really bad and he feared what the consequences could be.
"And what could that be?" he asked, trying his hardest to seem like he still was the one in control.
Buffy was silent for a while, like she was considering what to say next. Then she turned and looked at Spike.
"We want to get back home," she said slowly and almost too quiet for Vin to hear, but he did. Her eyes were still fixed on Spike's, and she smiled at him.
The vampire stared at the two blondes. This wasn't what he'd expected.
"All right," he said with a sigh. "This has been going on too long. Tell me where you're from, and this time don't lie."
Buffy nodded at Spike, and shrugged. 'Might as well get this over with,' he thought sarcastically and advanced on Vin.
"We're from Sunnydale, mate," he started, and before the other vampire had the chance to protest, he continued. "Just a slightly different one. We came trough a portal couple o' days ago, and me and the bird wants to ge' back, simple as that. Now, are you going to help us, or do you want us to spread out your dirty dishes all over this dimension."
Both he and Buffy braced themselves for the disbelieving reaction they knew was coming, but to their surprise Vin didn't react at all, he just stood there watching Spike curiously for a while before he nodded with a calm and unemotional expression.
"That's all?" Buffy exclaimed. "No; 'You're lying!' or anything like that?" His lack of response made the little trust she had had in him vanish in a second.
Vin shrugged and sat down calmly with an amused smile on his face.
"I had pretty much figured it out already," he informed the two. "Maybe not about the other Sunnydale, but about the portal. The Darascho told me that there had been a disturbance in the walls between dimension, and said that I should keep an eye open for anything unusual. Just a couple of hours later, I found you two. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that you don't really qualify as 'usual' around here."
"What gave us away?" Spike snorted sarcastically and watched the other vampire carefully. There was something that he was hiding, and the mention of a Darascho demon had only strengthened that suspicion.
The question seemed to have been highly amusing, because the bulky vampire stopped smiling and instead burst out laughing. To Buffy's great annoyance she seemed to be the object of his amusement, his eyes were on her and as he almost fell out of his chair due to his intense laughing fit, he pointed at her shakily. It took him almost five minutes to calm down enough to continue, and during that time the other two in the room had grown very impatient. Spike would surely have killed him by then if they didn't need his information so much.
"You, a human, who has the courage to talk with so much disrespect or fear, and who doesn't seem to get that she isn't much more then a slave. That's what gave you away, and unless you want everyone to start suspecting something, I'd tone down if I were you." Vin was still smiling, but his voice was calm and his eyes locked with the young blonde woman's.
Buffy stared back gravely and then shrugged dismissively.
"What's the point? The second we leave this room you'll spread out to everyone about where we're from."
The vampire kept his gaze locked on her, as well as his grin. His demeanor seemed to make Buffy quite uneasy, and she looked as though she had to keep herself from backing away from him.
"Not if there's something in it for me," he said slyly and sat down calmly. Leaning back comfortably he crossed his arms over his chest and got a smug expression on his face. "Why did you think I brought you here in the first place? A slayer with a pet vampire isn't anything I would have risked having around unless I had something to gain from it."
Buffy gasped in surprise at his words and stalked up to him where he still sat with the same expression. Behind her Spike did the same thing as he seriously started to ponder just how many lies the other vampire had fed them. Something in Vin's eyes and his whole posture lightened anger inside of Spike that he couldn't quite explain, but it was there none the less. Vin was smart enough to stop smiling and dropped his arms down to his sides so he wouldn't look as aggressive as he saw the yellow gleam in the blonde's eyes.
"How long have you known that I'm a Slayer?" Buffy asked him curtly and her face got a reddish tone to it. "How do you even know that Slayer's exists?"
Vin shrugged and leaned back in the armchair. He looked as though he refused to be affected by the anger that was turned towards him.
"We've had Slayer's here," he informed the blond young woman. "I've killed one myself, as a matter of fact, and I know how much damage they can cause." He didn't even flinch as Buffy's right hand moved almost to fast for the eye to follow and grabbed a stake which had been hidden in her pocket and made a move to stab it into his chest. But before it reached its goal a strong hand gripped her wrist and prevented her from moving any further. Without saying a word the two stared at each other and after a long moment of silence Buffy's muscles relaxed and Spike let go of her arm.
"I'd choose my words more carefully if I were you," Spike snarled and shot the other vampire an icy glare. "If you want to keep on living you're un- life, I'd suggest you tell the lady all she wants to know, but without the spicy extra's."
To his surprise, Buffy gave him a grateful smile before she returned her attention to the vampire that could turn out to be their enemy.
"For how long have the Slayer's been gone?" she asked with an emotionless voice, her eyes cold and her lips pressed together tightly when she wasn't talking. Vin seemed to realize that the situation wasn't very safe for him, and he nodded submissively to a question that hadn't been asked out loud.
"The last one, Andrea, died about forty years ago in the last big battle between vampires and humans. After her death almost all resistance gave in and we won. She had been the leader of the humans, and the Mayor knew of her importance, not as a person, but by what she was. He ordered for all slayers-in-waiting to be tracked down and killed; he went as far as hunting down every single girl in the age of fifteen to twenty-five in large cities. Just so there wouldn't be a chance of another slayer being called. He succeeded, and after Andrea was killed by the Mayor himself, there were no more Slayer, and therefor, no more resistance."
He had told this with an expression almost like he was re-living good memories, but then suddenly it changed and yellow glinted in his blue eyes. For some reason most of the more important vampires that Spike had seen didn't show their game-faces but walked around in their human facades. There hadn't been any reason to indicate why and no good opportunities to ask anyone, even though the question wasn't really that important.
"So what happens now?" Buffy asked, suddenly not too keen on hearing the rest of the story, the paintings she'd seen had been enough information of the murdering for her. "Why don't you run out and tell you're buddies that another slayer is around?"
Vin grinned and walked up close to her. The light breath coming from his mouth when he talked blew on her face when he replied.
"Because you're going to kill the Mayor for me."
He held his breath even though he didn't really need to breathe, and felt his body tense every time her shoulder brushed his chest. He knew that he should be concentrating on what was going on outside, but his thoughts kept going back to the petite slayer who was so close that there was always at least one part of his body touching her.
He could see Buffy's face in the darkness, and he could watch her openly because he knew that she couldn't see anything. The little light, which wasn't enough for her to see it, illuminated parts of her face, and it gave her eyes a golden glow. Her mouth was slightly ajar, and her breath came in irregular whiffs. When the conversation in the room started to get real interesting, her heart sped up, and the thin veins on her neck pumped faster.
All of this he saw during the short time that they spent in the closet and it took all of the control that he could muster not to reach out and grab her. The memory of her arms around him earlier kept popping up in his mind and it wasn't helping. He was still confused about that, he kept telling himself that it hadn't meant anything, she'd just been confused and lonely and needed someone, and he'd been the only one around. If the situation had been different, she wouldn't even have been in the same room as him for more then five minutes at a time. But still a part of him couldn't let go of the hope that there had been something there, something that she couldn't face up with yet, but would eventually come out.
The sound of a door closing brought him out of his reverie, and he realized that he'd barely heard a word that had been said. It could've been important, and he didn't want Buffy to know that he hadn't been listening. He wouldn't want her to think that he was even more pathetic then she probably already did.
In front of him Buffy pushed the thin door open and light flooded the small space. Spike squinted his eyes in the sudden brightness, and followed the petite slayer out into the room where Vin stood silent with his gaze fixed on the closed door trough which the visitor had disappeared. His shoulders were sloping, and the part of his face that Spike could see form the angle that he was looking looked close to hysteric. A second after the two blondes had stepped out he turned around to greet them with a stern and thoughtful expression.
"Anything that you might have heard are things that you cannot under any circumstances spread outside of this room. Is that understood?" Vin's voice was strained and even though he did his best to hide it there were traces of panic in it. Spike hadn't heard enough to know whether or not the conversation could be of importance to him and Buffy, but it was obvious that it was important to the other vampire, and that could give them an advantage over him.
"That depends, mate," Spike said with a wicked grin tugging at the corner of his lips. "What's in it for us?"
But before Vin had time to reply, Buffy stepped out and put herself between Spike and Vin and stared at the bulky vampire confidently.
"We'll keep it quiet, maybe even help you out, if you do something for us," she said with a secretive smile, and there was a sparkle in her eyes that Spike hadn't seen since they went trough the portal. 'What is she up to?' he thought wonderingly and decided to keep quiet and let her take care of it since she evidently had some sort of plan figured out.
Vin was also confused, and there was a doubtful look on his face as he gazed over at Buffy. He looked almost like he'd been discovered doing something really, really bad and he feared what the consequences could be.
"And what could that be?" he asked, trying his hardest to seem like he still was the one in control.
Buffy was silent for a while, like she was considering what to say next. Then she turned and looked at Spike.
"We want to get back home," she said slowly and almost too quiet for Vin to hear, but he did. Her eyes were still fixed on Spike's, and she smiled at him.
The vampire stared at the two blondes. This wasn't what he'd expected.
"All right," he said with a sigh. "This has been going on too long. Tell me where you're from, and this time don't lie."
Buffy nodded at Spike, and shrugged. 'Might as well get this over with,' he thought sarcastically and advanced on Vin.
"We're from Sunnydale, mate," he started, and before the other vampire had the chance to protest, he continued. "Just a slightly different one. We came trough a portal couple o' days ago, and me and the bird wants to ge' back, simple as that. Now, are you going to help us, or do you want us to spread out your dirty dishes all over this dimension."
Both he and Buffy braced themselves for the disbelieving reaction they knew was coming, but to their surprise Vin didn't react at all, he just stood there watching Spike curiously for a while before he nodded with a calm and unemotional expression.
"That's all?" Buffy exclaimed. "No; 'You're lying!' or anything like that?" His lack of response made the little trust she had had in him vanish in a second.
Vin shrugged and sat down calmly with an amused smile on his face.
"I had pretty much figured it out already," he informed the two. "Maybe not about the other Sunnydale, but about the portal. The Darascho told me that there had been a disturbance in the walls between dimension, and said that I should keep an eye open for anything unusual. Just a couple of hours later, I found you two. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that you don't really qualify as 'usual' around here."
"What gave us away?" Spike snorted sarcastically and watched the other vampire carefully. There was something that he was hiding, and the mention of a Darascho demon had only strengthened that suspicion.
The question seemed to have been highly amusing, because the bulky vampire stopped smiling and instead burst out laughing. To Buffy's great annoyance she seemed to be the object of his amusement, his eyes were on her and as he almost fell out of his chair due to his intense laughing fit, he pointed at her shakily. It took him almost five minutes to calm down enough to continue, and during that time the other two in the room had grown very impatient. Spike would surely have killed him by then if they didn't need his information so much.
"You, a human, who has the courage to talk with so much disrespect or fear, and who doesn't seem to get that she isn't much more then a slave. That's what gave you away, and unless you want everyone to start suspecting something, I'd tone down if I were you." Vin was still smiling, but his voice was calm and his eyes locked with the young blonde woman's.
Buffy stared back gravely and then shrugged dismissively.
"What's the point? The second we leave this room you'll spread out to everyone about where we're from."
The vampire kept his gaze locked on her, as well as his grin. His demeanor seemed to make Buffy quite uneasy, and she looked as though she had to keep herself from backing away from him.
"Not if there's something in it for me," he said slyly and sat down calmly. Leaning back comfortably he crossed his arms over his chest and got a smug expression on his face. "Why did you think I brought you here in the first place? A slayer with a pet vampire isn't anything I would have risked having around unless I had something to gain from it."
Buffy gasped in surprise at his words and stalked up to him where he still sat with the same expression. Behind her Spike did the same thing as he seriously started to ponder just how many lies the other vampire had fed them. Something in Vin's eyes and his whole posture lightened anger inside of Spike that he couldn't quite explain, but it was there none the less. Vin was smart enough to stop smiling and dropped his arms down to his sides so he wouldn't look as aggressive as he saw the yellow gleam in the blonde's eyes.
"How long have you known that I'm a Slayer?" Buffy asked him curtly and her face got a reddish tone to it. "How do you even know that Slayer's exists?"
Vin shrugged and leaned back in the armchair. He looked as though he refused to be affected by the anger that was turned towards him.
"We've had Slayer's here," he informed the blond young woman. "I've killed one myself, as a matter of fact, and I know how much damage they can cause." He didn't even flinch as Buffy's right hand moved almost to fast for the eye to follow and grabbed a stake which had been hidden in her pocket and made a move to stab it into his chest. But before it reached its goal a strong hand gripped her wrist and prevented her from moving any further. Without saying a word the two stared at each other and after a long moment of silence Buffy's muscles relaxed and Spike let go of her arm.
"I'd choose my words more carefully if I were you," Spike snarled and shot the other vampire an icy glare. "If you want to keep on living you're un- life, I'd suggest you tell the lady all she wants to know, but without the spicy extra's."
To his surprise, Buffy gave him a grateful smile before she returned her attention to the vampire that could turn out to be their enemy.
"For how long have the Slayer's been gone?" she asked with an emotionless voice, her eyes cold and her lips pressed together tightly when she wasn't talking. Vin seemed to realize that the situation wasn't very safe for him, and he nodded submissively to a question that hadn't been asked out loud.
"The last one, Andrea, died about forty years ago in the last big battle between vampires and humans. After her death almost all resistance gave in and we won. She had been the leader of the humans, and the Mayor knew of her importance, not as a person, but by what she was. He ordered for all slayers-in-waiting to be tracked down and killed; he went as far as hunting down every single girl in the age of fifteen to twenty-five in large cities. Just so there wouldn't be a chance of another slayer being called. He succeeded, and after Andrea was killed by the Mayor himself, there were no more Slayer, and therefor, no more resistance."
He had told this with an expression almost like he was re-living good memories, but then suddenly it changed and yellow glinted in his blue eyes. For some reason most of the more important vampires that Spike had seen didn't show their game-faces but walked around in their human facades. There hadn't been any reason to indicate why and no good opportunities to ask anyone, even though the question wasn't really that important.
"So what happens now?" Buffy asked, suddenly not too keen on hearing the rest of the story, the paintings she'd seen had been enough information of the murdering for her. "Why don't you run out and tell you're buddies that another slayer is around?"
Vin grinned and walked up close to her. The light breath coming from his mouth when he talked blew on her face when he replied.
"Because you're going to kill the Mayor for me."
