A/N: A great big thanks to Mita427, the first to review this story! (Besides me, but I think reviewing myself on a story doesn't really count, does it?)  Anyway, more reviews are always welcome!  So, here's chapter 5!

Chapter 5: Downtown at Night

     He appeared in the woods again.  It was darker than last time; black clouds covered the sky, sending prickling rain in his direction.  Wind came at him from all sides, blowing his leather duster up behind him, making him look, from distance, a superhero standing in the rain.  But he wasn't.  He was just a vampire.       

     Thunder rolled in, lighting up the dark sky.  The rain pounded harder against his skin, and it felt like it suddenly turned to hail.  The wind whistled louder in his ear.  It was getting dangerous.

     Suddenly lightning struck down a lone tree in the middle of the vast land.  Fire started crackling, and flames leapt up into the air.  The fire started to creep along the ground to him, twisting and turning like a snake.

     It was very real.

     And it was very dangerous.

     Spike tried to turn and run the other direction away from the fire, but couldn't bring himself to do that.

     It was like a magnetic force held him there.  Holding him there at least until the fire reached him.

     In the distance, Spike could hear whispering, though it was very soft.  He closed his eyes, and listened harder.  

     He could make out at least one sentence.

     "Let him burn.  Let him die slowly, because, you see—"

     The voice got louder, and louder, until it was like someone was in front of him, talking.

     "Only with a soul, you can feel."

     Spike opened his eyes instantly, and a man, a preacher, appeared in front of him. 

     "With a soul, you can beat me."

     "Get out of my dream," Spike commanded, even though he hardly knew whom the guy was.  He felt like letting go, and just attacking the man, with or without super vampire strength.  "I don't tolerate people visiting my dreams.  Had a nasty run in with the First yesterday." 

     "Oh, I'm afraid I can't do that.  I'm like your guardian angel, only I can do this—" He disappeared, and reappeared next to Spike—"And I can bet the First can't do that, can it?"

     "Who are you?"

     "They call me Caleb," he introduced himself, and walked away from Spike.  "He calls me Caleb." He pointed to the sky.  "But the First calls me Master, because I do work for it.  I do the dirty deeds to the wicked girls, I do the good deeds to the good girls, but all the deeds wind up the same, don't they?" Caleb sighed.  "Tragic, really.  Here you are, one minute away from being set on fire." 

     Spike, who was too lost in Caleb's little speech, looked down at the ground, the fire close to his feet.  He jumped back, a little shocked, and reminded himself that he was a vampire.

     "But only I can stop it," Caleb announced, and snapped his fingers.

     Suddenly, everything froze.  The rain froze, the fire froze—it was like time itself had been frozen.

     "How'd you do that?" Spike asked, glaring at Caleb.  He felt that he just couldn't trust this preacher guy.

     "The First gives me it, and I use it.  I can do anything with help from the First.  I can stop time, too.  I can convince you to do terrible things.  I can convince you to kill her…" Caleb looked at Spike with eyes that were hypnotic. 

     Spike brushed off the feeling of hypnotic eyes and shook his head.  "I can't kill Buffy.  I—"

     "You love her," Caleb finished for him.  "But maybe that love isn't enough.  And maybe power alone isn't enough to beat me, because in the end, you'll wind up the same: alone and betrayed by Buffy.  Sometimes loving someone isn't enough alone.  You have to love from your soul, and only then, you will find the power inside you." Caleb looked Spike right in the eye.  "The power to sacrifice your life for those you love." 

     Spike woke up.  He was still in the basement; the lights still out.     

     He decided to follow Angel's advice and catch a few winks before heading out that night, but those few winks turned into a nightmare, and with that Caleb guy in his dream, that scared him more than ever.  He seemed much more evil than the First, and apparently, Spike guessed, had a thing against girls.

     Spike sat up in bed, resting his feet on the stone floor.  He rested his head in his hands, thinking.  What was it about power and love that Caleb said?

     He couldn't think, though.  Everything that came into his mind got lost in a whirlpool of deserted hopes and dreams he didn't even know he had.

     Spike sighed, and stood up.  Since there was no way to tell if it was sundown or not, he decided to check.  And maybe I'll have some time to discuss that dream with…someone.

     He walked up the stairs to the lobby.  The lobby was completely deserted.  No sign of Angel or anyone else.  He looked outside.  It was dark.  Night had fallen.

     Someone walked in just at that time.  It was a boy, well, duh, Spike thought.  And it seemed…it seemed like the boy had the same scent as Angel. 

     "Hey," the boy said casually to Spike, like a person says hi to their friend at first sight.  Then the boy realized whom he said 'hey' to, and reacted instantly, grabbing a stake from underneath the jacket he wore.  "Who are you?" The boy questioned, holding the stake up in a throwing position.

     "That's the question I should be asking you," Spike said, looking at the boy.  "You a similar scent to Angel," Spike pointed out. 

     "How do you know my father?" The boy asked sternly.

     "Your father?" Spike chuckled.  "Wow, life in L.A. just gets weirder, although Sunnydale is the center of weirdness…"  

     "Who are you?" The boy asked again, this time with a tone more dangerous than last time.  He flicked his stake, like he just couldn't wait to throw it at Spike's heart.

     "I'm…Spike.  William the Bloody.  Doubt if you've heard of me, actually.  Angel doesn't really like mentioning me to strangers, or, to his son…" Spike sighed as the boy's tension loosened, "And, what are you doing walking around with a stake?  What if an old, innocent man comes up behind you and you stake him?"

     The boy grinned, but that grin vanished instantly.  "I'm careful.  Unlike you, I can sense who's a vampire and who's not." Then, he added, "My name's Connor." He lowered his weapon and put it away.

     "Connor?" Spike stifled a laugh.  "Good name…Connor…doesn't really have a ring to it, does it though?" 

     Connor shrugged.   "It's good enough for me."

     "I see you met my son," Angel said bitterly, coming down the stairs.  "What ever you do, don't trust him all that much.  He may look harmless, but he's very strong," Angel warned Spike.

     "Like father, like son," Spike muttered.  "So, why are we going downtown?"

     "There's this demon, in the bad part of town.  He's very useful if you want to know about your soul.  The first time I arrived in L.A. I went to visit him.  Although he can get short-tempered if you ask him a lot of questions," Angel explained as he took a weapon out from the weapon case.  "Also, there's this rogue demon on the loose.  I'm thinking that we can kill it before it can kill anyone."

     "All right with me, but let me get the pointy sword," Spike said eagerly.

     Angel grinned.  "Okay, just don't accidentally kill anyone with it." He threw the sword to Spike, who caught it carefully.

     "What about the boy?" Spike motioned to Connor.

     "I can come along with you, just in case you guys get too scared to handle the demon," Connor said with a tone that was positive and ready for action.  

     "Actually, Connor, I want you to stay here," Angel said slowly.  "This rogue demon is too dangerous for us to even handle, and I don't want you getting killed."

     "Fine," Connor muttered under his breath before heading up the stairs.

     "I think he should've come with us.  You know, for back-up."

     Angel ignored Spike, and grabbed another sword, bigger and sharper than the one that Spike had.  "Let's go," he commanded, and headed out the door, Spike following. 

     Somehow, even Spike couldn't think it was possible: Los Angeles seemed scarier at night than Sunnydale ever did.  There weren't a lot of people out on the streets, but there were a lot of vampires roaming around.  Along the way to downtown, they ran into a group of ten vampires.  Angel took out at least seven, while Spike struggled with three.  One pinned him against the brick wall, and another one prepared to strike at him, but Spike came out as the victor.  He cut off their heads with the sword he had, and the two turned to dust, while the third one knocked him to the ground.

     "Are you okay?" Angel asked as Spike cut off the head of the third one.

     "Yeah," Spike replied, as he got up from the ground, "just great." His left hand hurt, and he remembered the incident at the bar a day back. 

     They walked two blocks more before they finally stopped outside a building.

     "Are we here?" Spike asked.  They had walked the two blocks uphill, and by the second block, his feet started hurting.

     "Yeah," Angel responded. 

     The building looked like it was abandoned, and it had an eerie sense to it, like it was haunted.

     "Well, come on." Angel took the first step, and walked inside the building.

     Spike sighed, and followed Angel.

     It was even scarier inside than outside.  Darkness filled every corner of one small room they were in, and Spike, even though he was a vampire, was scared.  "Angel…" Spike said uncertainly.

     Either Angel didn't respond, or because he disappeared, Spike figured that it was the latter, because even with his night vision vampires always had he couldn't see the outline of Angel in the dark. 

     Spike clutched his sword he carried, preparing to strike at anything that jumped out at him.

     "Hey!"

     Someone grabbed his shoulder, and Spike turned around, swinging the sword at the person.

     "Spike, it's me," said Angel.  "I found the room."       

     "What room?"

     "The room where the demon is."

     "The rogue demon or…?"

     "The other one."

     "Oh."

     It was completely dark, except for a little bit of light coming from the back room.  "Do I need to pay him?" Spike asked.

     "No, although if you want to get killed, give me the sword," Angel offered.  Spike handed Angel his sword, and walked into the back room.

     The door behind him closed with a bang, but Spike was too focused on the demon that was in front of him.  Immediately, Spike knew that something was wrong.  Something was not right.

     "Who are you?" Spike asked the demon.

     The demon warily eyed Spike.  "Do not ask who I am, for who you are is far more important."       

     "Right…" Spike said unsurely.  He spotted some stuff for spells that lay in front of the demon, and a book that was opened to a certain page.  A long, narrow knife rested off to the side of the book.  "You know, I think I hear Angel calling me.  I better go…" He turned for the door but there was no door.  In fact, there was no doorway at all, just another blank wall.  "What happened to the door?" He wondered, staring absent-mindedly at the blank wall.

     "It's a simple door removing spell.  Just do that and this and no more door," the demon answered.

     He faced the demon, and asked forcefully, "Who are you?"

     The demon stood up, still facing Spike, and answered in a thunderous voice, "I am Trodigur."

     "Trodigur?" Spike nodded, and acknowledged him.  "I know your kind.  You guys steal souls…" he trailed off as he remembered the rest.

     Trodigur nodded and finished Spike's sentence.  "Yes, I steal souls away from vampires who carry them.  Then I send the vampire to live an eternity in Hell.  Now," he said, looking Spike straight in the eye, "come to me."

     Spike moved forward, even though he didn't know why.  It was like hypnotic eyes were staring at him, making him obey every whim that Trodigur ordered.  Spike broke eye contact with Trodigur, but no matter what…this puppet's strings are broken.  I don't take orders from anyone anymore.  It was like when the First made him murder those people.  He was under that same haunted feeling again.  The feeling that you can't do anything except carry out whatever someone tells you do, even if it's something dangerous.  Before he knew it, Spike was standing in front of Trodigur.  They were at least an arm's length away.  Don't take my soul away, Spike thought desperately, not now…

     Trodigur raised his arm, planting it on Spike's chest, right where his heart would have been if he were still human.  Trodigur started chanting something.  Spike struggled to move, but something was keeping him there.  It was like both his feet were glued to the floor.

     Trodigur finished chanting.  Spike sighed, thinking that the spell didn't work, and that his soul was still intact.  But he was wrong.  Trodigur's eyes were gleaming with triumph, meaning that he succeeded in the spell.  Slowly, even Spike could feel that his soul was slowly being sucked away into nothingness.  It wouldn't be a matter of time before Trodigur succeeded in the final task…sending Spike to live eternity in Hell.

To Be Continued…