A/N: Finally!!! *lol*

Chapter 9

With a resolve and a feeling of purpose that she hadn't felt in a long time Buffy walked down the narrow hallways looking for the vampire. Less then two meters behind her Spike followed, with eyes constantly fixed on hers, even though he kept his senses alert for any danger. The building wasn't safe, and its halls were filled with intrigues and lies. To not look out for enemies would be nothing but stupid.

"He's not in his room," Buffy noted thoughtfully just before she took off again, her mind set on finding Vin and start planning whatever it was that he wanted her to do. There was no point in postponing it, it would only keep them there for another day or two, and that was something that Buffy didn't want. And neither did Spike.

"Maybe in that room that we were in 'couple o' days ago," Spike suggested and hurried after her. She was already at the staircase further down the hall when he caught up with her. "Do you have a plan?" he added; a question that made her pause.

"Since when are you the level-headed?" she asked mockingly and grinned up at him. "I can't remember you ever being big with the planning."

He was well aware that she was making fun of him, but he decided not to comment on it. Instead he repeated his question.

"I don't think I need one," she answered him impatiently. "It's not like there's that much to argue about. I'll just tell him I'll do it, if he promise to help us get home. So when I've killed the Ma--" suddenly she remembered where she was, and she looked around worryingly. It was not a time to be reckless with words, and any suspicion directed in their way could be dangerous. "When we've done our part of the deal, we'll get back in one peace, and we'll be able to get on with our lives again."

She saw his next question coming even before he got the chance to open his mouth, and quickly silenced him with a troubled look that spoke more words then her mouth ever could've. She wasn't ready to discuss what their relationship would be like when they returned.

If they returned.

"Let's go look for the bloke then. Don't fancy us finding him in an empty hallway." That seemingly simple suggestion effectively put an end to their conversation, and they both continued on in silence. It took them a little over five minutes to reach the room with the large painting which had unsettled Buffy earlier, and to their relief Vin was there. But he wasn't alone. By his side on the couch sat the mysterious woman who had met them at the door when they first arrived. After the encounter with the Master both Buffy and Spike had forgotten about her, but now the memories came back. When she saw the two arrive, she turned her head in their direction, and shot an icy glare at them.

"Ah, see who's finally decided to join us. And not a minute too soon."

Giles could barely keep his eyes open, but still he refused to stop searching. It had been days since they last saw or heard from Buffy, and they couldn't find anything that could give them a clue as to where she was. The only thing that they knew for sure was that Spike had vanished at about the same time, a fact that wasn't that comforting to the remaining Scooby Gang. Xander had come up with numerous suggestion of what the blond vampire could have done to her, but the others could quite quickly rule out most of his theories because of their incredible lack of logic and common sense, or because of the fact that Spikes chip prevented it from happening.

But they all, except for maybe Dawn, thought that he had some part in the Slayer's sudden disappearance. Since there wasn't much else they could do, they had simply divided themselves into small groups, each with its own purpose. Willow and Tara tried to find a spell that could reveal Buffy's whereabouts, while Anya and Xander simply patrolled Sunnydale, and asked around. Giles had of course the task of searching his books for any possible explanation for why his Slayer seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth.

Left behind in the Summer's house Dawn staid, supposedly to serve as the gatherer of all of the info that the others could find, but since they'd all fund themselves short of anything at all, she had nothing else to do then sit around and worry, and do occasional homework. Against the will of both Giles and Willow, the teenager had called the school and reported herself as sick with a nasty flue that probably wouldn't go away for another couple of days. Quite possibly weeks.

To sum it all up, none of them was feeling even close to great. And they all wished for their friend to return safely. The fact that there wasn't much more they could do to help wasn't helping either.

Other then that Spike was gone too, they knew that Buffy had been out patrolling, and most likely together with the vampire. The two of them maybe met an enemy too powerful for them too fight, a possibility that no one really wanted to consider, or Spike tricked or forced her somehow to follow him somewhere. The second theory wasn't very nice, but a lot better then the other one, which would mean that she was dead. That definitely wasn't something that they wanted to think about.

With a sigh Giles gave in and shut the book. There wasn't a single thing in it that could explain her disappearance, and there was no point in him falling asleep at his desk. He had no choice but to go to bed and get a good nights rest. If that was even possible anymore.

"Who is she?" Buffy asked coldly as she walked in trough the door. Her eyes were fixed at Vin, but she still made sure that the woman didn't make any sudden movements. The same second as she'd seen her, Buffy knew that she didn't like her. The way that Vin obviously feared her when they'd all first arrived to the building was one clear indication that she was dangerous.

"Don't you worry about that, Blondie girl," the woman said, almost singing the words. Yes, she really had some resemblance to Drusilla.

"She is the one who can make all of our dreams possible," Vin hurried to say and shot the two arrivers a warning look.

Buffy turned her head to see what Spike thought of this, and felt a strange hurt when she saw how his eyes were glued at the woman's face. He seemed to have noticed the striking resemblance as well. Quickly she scolded herself for caring at all of what he thought or did, what was he to her anyway? 'More then I could ever imagine' she thought before she could stop herself, but she knew that it was true, she just wasn't ready to admit it yet.

Spike must have felt her eyes on him, because he finally turned his stare away from the dark woman to Buffy. There was confusion in his eyes, as if he suddenly was filled with dozens of contradicting emotions that he couldn't sort out. Before she had time to see anything more, Buffy turned away from him and stared at Vin.

"In what way can she help us? Clawing the Mayor's eyes out?" she asked sarcastically, indicating the long black-painted nails on the woman's pale hands.

"Dinah can do much more then that, Slayer. You shouldn't be rash." Vin shot a nervous glance in the woman's direction.

Dinah chuckled in amusement and held up her hands in front of her face and admired them. When she returned her attention to Buffy and Spike they both made sure not to meet her eyes, the strange way in which she'd been able to sneak into their minds the first time they met wasn't forgotten.

"Enough of this," Dinah finally said after a brief tense silence. "Vin here has convinced me that you two could be of use to me, so I will let you live. But if you do one wrong move however, I will break that promise. Understood?"

Without really thinking about it, Buffy nodded. It was like a fog had clouded her thoughts so she could barely hear them. She was fighting as hard as she could to remain in control over her own mind.

"What is it that you need us for then?" Spike asked sarcastically. If Dinah affected him in the same way as she did to Buffy, he didn't show it.

Without warning a thin and pale arm shot out, and then Dinah's long slender fingers gripped around his throat, her nails digging deep into his flesh.

"I'll tell you when I see it fit," she whispered coldly and for the split of a second her face changed into the bumpy features of her game face. "Until then you just keep your mouth shut and keep out of my way." She glanced over at Buffy. "That goes for your little girlfriend too."

Slowly she loosened her grip on Spikes throat and stepped back, her eyes not leaving his.

"Tonight you will join us in the main hall, where there will be a very important feast. All of the leaders in this area will be here, so you better keep a low profile. Don't make anyone suspect that anything's out of the ordinary with you. Tell them you just came back from Europe, that'll make them stop asking questions about your background. That's a sensitive subject in these days. And remember," she said calmly but with ice in her voice, "I'll be watching you."

Then she left the room, her steps barely audible on the stone floor.

They all kept quiet until they were sure she was out of hearing range, and then some. The first one to speak was Vin, and there was a slight tremble in his voice.

"That's someone you shouldn't mess with," he said, and sat down on the couch.

"Who is she?" Buffy asked and felt a chill run up her spine. "Or more correct, What is she?"

"She's the Mayor's right hand, his advisor and his spy. She finds out about everything that happens in this building." It was very visible how he had to keep himself from looking over his shoulder as she spoke.

"What's she doing planning his death then?" Spike asked confused and sat down as well. "It doesn't make any sense."

Vin stared at the vampire coldly before answering.

"When it comes to her, my advice for you is to not ask. I'll tell you what you need to know."

Buffy snorted incredulously.

"You expect us to just trust you? Fine, we have no other choice but help you if we want to go home, but I wont just do what you tell me without knowing anything. That thing isn't someone I'd like to work with without knowing if she'll suddenly turn and kill me. No way."

Vin looked at Spike as if looking for support, but found none. Instead the blonde stared back with a raised eyebrow waiting for an answer.

Vin rolled his eyes and gave up with a sigh.

"All right. I guess I have no choice in this. But I don't like this." He hesitated for a second before he continued. "I told you before that the Mayor isn't to popular around most of the vampires and demons around here. There's been a lot of talk about killing him, but no action. But for about six months ago Dinah decided there was time to actually get it over with, and she contacted me. I'll do the actual killing, and I'm the one who's going to be taking the blame if something goes wrong. But when we succeed, she'll be in power."

"And you accept that?" Spike asked skeptically. "You're putting your ass on the line when you know someone else will get the prize? I see no sense in that, mate."

Vin shrugged and leaned back casually.

"I will be rewarded, of course. I'll be second in command, and I don't want the top spot anyway. Too risky. There'll always be someone waiting for the right time to take the power for themselves."

Buffy had been standing quiet listening on their conversation, but she decided to get in.

"And you're volunteering to take the blame? How nice of you," she said sarcastically, clearly showing her disbelief.

No for the first time Vin actually looked quite sad when he looked up at the two blondes.

"I don't really have a choice, do I? I know that the second I'm caught she'll get into my mind and force me to say things that'll frame me. I've known it since the moment I said yes to this plan, but I've decided that it's worth it. If we succeed I'll be richly rewarded."

'He's going to be so unbelievably tricked,' Buffy though, and she almost felt sorry for the vampire. Almost. But she had no choice but to help him and his evil accomplice killing the Master. It was her only way to get home.

"We'll do it," she said determinedly. "We'll help you and the psycho bitch do this, and then you'll open a portal so that we can get home. That's our deal, okay?"

"Yes, that's our deal," Vin said with a pleased grin. "Our plans starts tonight at the meeting. You two better go and get ready; I'll send a human to get some clothes for you. We'll meet here at six to go over what you'll have to do."

A/N: I know, I know. I haven't posted in quite a while. But something called life got in the way. I'm now writing as fast as I can, and hopefully I've had the time to post another chapter this weekend. If I don't, it'll be another 2 weeks before I can post chapter 10, 'cause I'm not going to have computer for a while after this Sunday. Sucks, huh?