Deb and Dev do some high-risk, high-reward slaying in Las Vegas. Back in LA, Spike takes the risk of reading poetry onstage - in front of Claire.
Five cars pull off the road on the outskirts of Las Vegas early Friday night. Devlin and Debbie step out of his car. They are joined by Cynthia and Theo, Danielle and Luiz, Melanie and Paul, and Diego and Sidney. "It's good to finally be able to take the tinfoil off the windows," Melanie says.
"Don't know why we couldn't have waited," Sidney gripes about starting the trip in the late afternoon.
"There's competition," Dev explains.
"Why don't we let them knock this guy off?," Theo asks.
"Seems kinda stupid to risk our lives when we don't have to," Cynthia – Theo's girlfriend and Debbie's best friend – concurs.
"Because they could fail. And because we need to set an example to scare off anyone else who's thinking of going after Debbie. Deb and I are taking eighty percent of the risks. And afterwards, you all get to have eighty percent of the fun. Which reminds me." He passes out id's to Debbie, Cynthia, Theo, Danielle, Melanie and Diego.
"Fake licenses?," Danielle asks.
"Compare it to your real one," Devlin suggests.
"Holy shit."
"It's good, no?"
"It's perfect. How did you get these?," Diego asks.
"My real license says I'm forty six. My face says I'm nineteen." Devlin pulls our an Ohio license. "This says I'm twenty three. I get a new one every five years or so."
"How dorky," Sidney says with a smirk.
"Whatever happened to sneaking in places?," Paul asks.
"I bet you actually pay for your clothes," Luiz quips. The three of them laugh. Devlin looks annoyed, but lets it slide. Sure, they think he's a dork. But they also risk their lives for him.
"Follow me. Wait for my signal before entering."
"What if we miss it?," Cynthia asks.
"Trust me. You won't." Devlin drives to an industrial park well of the Strip. He puts on his vampire face and approaches a warehouse. Two muscular vampires stand on either side of a metal door. They glance down at Devlin. "Yo, I'm new in town. I'd like to play. Way I hear it, that requires a thousand dollar ante." He pulls out a thick wad of twenty dollar bills and hands it to the vampire on his right. "I think you'll find everything's in order." The vampires in Vegas have formed syndicates and carved up the town into a series of rackets. A vampire must pay a certain monthly charge for a "Hunting License" which allow him to work a certain number of casinos and kill a certain number of people. Vampires who don't pay are killed. The vampire racketeers use a portion of these earnings to pay off cops, who stay quiet so long as the vampires keep their killing from getting out of control. Sixty million annual visitors offer plenty of enticing meals, and keep the vampires from preying on the locals and getting hunted down. As this lowly vampire counts the money, Debbie fires her crossbow from sixty feet away, piercing the heart of the vampire to Devlin's left. The other vampire looks startled, to say the least, as his colleague disintegrates. Dev grabs the money back with his right hand and takes the arrow in his left hand, staking the vampire to his right before he can react. Debbie drops the crossbow and walks up to Devlin. "Remember honey. We play this cool."
"I won't spazz out. Just because this guy put a hit out on me is no reason for me to take this personally," she replies sarcastically. They kick the door simultaneously, knocking loose the bolt. It swings open, and they enter. Their friends rush over, Cynthia, Theo, Danielle, Melanie and Diego on the left side of the door, Luiz, Paul and Sidney on the right. Those three go bumpy. Danielle and Melanie look away. They don't like seeing their boyfriends like this. Diego manages a small smile. He kinda gets a kick out of it. When the door is about to close, Cynthia sticks a doorstop on the ground to catch it. Once they enter, Dev is attacked from the left, and Debbie from the right. He punches his adversary to the ground, and she kicks hers down. Two more vampire come at them, and two more end up on their asses.
"Settle down, people!," a man calls out from eighty feet away, his voice echoing in the cavernous space. He is six foot three, two hundred twenty pounds, with greasy black hair, a mustache and goatee, and tattoos on his arms. He wears a tight black t-shirt, black leather pants, thick silver belt, gold chains round his neck, and a black blazer with the arms cut off. "Let's see who our visitors are before we roll out the welcome mat. Devlin," he says with pronounced understatement. "We could have made a great team. But you had to follow in Spike's footsteps. I suppose his cautionary tale wasn't enough to keep you away from this piece of tail. You must be Debbie, Rogue Slayer. Love the job you did on Buffy's girls." He's trying to drive a wedge between her and Dev by reminding her that the bad guys approve of her work. "That made me think that if I wanted to get you, I'd have to try something new."
"And you still failed," she says as they both walk towards this man. Devlin wears blue corduroy pants and a dark green button-down shirt. Debbie wears a black tank top, and unbuttoned plaid flannel shirt, and gray jeans. Her hair is down, to Devlin's delight. He loves to watch her long curls cascade as she leaps and whirls around during a fight. The four vampires they fought have joined four other vampires, a quartet standing against either wall, flanking their boss, as well as the invaders. Slightly behind and on either side of this boss are two young men in short, bulky leather jackets.
"Oh, have I?," the boss replies with a smile. "How do you know my plan all along wasn't to draw you here into an ambush? A cocky enemy falling into a trap of his own making: ask your boyfriend if he's ever used that one."
"Clearly we both have tricks up our sleeves, among other things," Devlin replies, noticing the two men grabbing on their waistbands. "To be honest, even though I've know you for – what is it now? – fourteen years, I'm still surprised every time I see you. Maybe it's your Gold's Gym body, or your Philly accent, but you don't look or sound like a Bubba."
"It's a name that makes people underestimate me. You know how important that can be in our business."
"Oh do I ever! Your guards worst the least bit afraid of me. Now they're gone with the wind."
"Always put the expendable ones outside. You know that."
Devlin looks around. "Just so you know what's up, we got no problem with any of you."
"That's right," Debbie. "We're only here to kill Bubba."
"Of course, if you insist I defending him - "
"Then we'll have to kill you all." They laugh. "That's right. They always laugh before I kill them," Debbie boasts.
"For those in your position, it's something of a jinx," Devlin adds. Bubba went after Deb because the ambitious vampire has been expanding his racket. He knew that Angel had driven many vampires out of Los Angeles, and figured that made Orange County a lucrative market, as well as opening up opportunities in San Diego. But Debbie and her tireless slaying stood in the way.
"Enough," Bubba says, putting his hands up and walking over to Devlin. "We'll settle this like men. You and me, to the death."
"And Debbie?"
"She can have a go with me after I kill you. That should keep her hands full. I suppose she'll be looking for another vampire do get sweaty with once you're gone." Bubba gets in Devlin's face. Actually, since he's six inches taller, Bubba gets well above Devlin's face. Dev winds up and throws a right hook. Bubba blocks it and lands a right hook of his own. Devlin flies ten feet back and slides five more feet on the floor. Bubba finds that a little excessive. The two men who stood by Bubba's side pull out their pistols and aim at Debbie, who is thirty feet in front of them. On the ground, Devlin pulls out two guns and fires from forty five feet away, splattering their brains on the back wall before either of them could get off a shot. Bubba realizes Devlin was on to him. He knew Bubba got in his face to block his vision, and he flew so far back to get a clear shot. He feels foolish for falling for Devlin's trap and throwing a punch. Debbie takes a few seconds to recover from the near-death trauma. Something about pointing guns at a Slayer makes them feel especially vulnerable, especially because they're not used to ever feeling vulnerable. Bubba goes bumpy and attacks her from the left, wrapping his arms around her. Devlin leaps to his feet, rushes over and pistol-whips Bubba away from his girl before he can bite her. As the other eight vampires converge, Devlin points the guns behind him and fires two shots through the metal door. Debbie's friends, who are standing along the wall outside, see the shots pierce the door, and know it's time.
"Rock and roll," Diego says. Sid and he smile at one another. She winks. The three vampires burst in: Sid with a stave, Paul with an ax and Luiz with a curved sabre. The humans follow: Theo, Cynthia and Diego with crossbows, Melanie and Danielle with stakes and crosses. Devlin puts the safeties on and hurls his guns behind him. They slide along the floor towards Debbie's friends. Mel and Danielle tentatively pick them up. Devlin showed them how to use the weapons, but they're still unsure about firing live ammo in a crowded space. Debbie recovers from the trauma of having two guns pointed at her just in time to realize she's being octuple-teamed by vampires. Dev takes Bubba's right cross, and responds with a left jab and right hook. Deb does a forward flip to avoid the charging vamps. When they turn and face her, she knocks one down with a right hook kick, another with a left roundhouse kick, and third with a reverse flip kick. She throws a fourth vampire over her shoulder into the side wall and stakes him. By now, the vamps notice she has backup. Sid, Paul and Luiz take on the three vampires Deb just knocked down. The other four look at the five humans, count the three crossbows, each assume they'll be the lucky one who doesn't get shot at, and charge.
"What about me!?," Debbie mockingly complains. Her friends retreat. Three of the pursuing vampires slow down, leaving one in the lead. Too late, he realizes he's been abandoned. Diego, Cynthia and Theo fire when he's ten feet away. Diego and Cynthia both hit the heart, and Theo misses by two inches. He turns to dust. The two vampires behind him attack. Mel and Danielle hold out their crosses. The other three drop their crossbows and do likewise, backing up into a corner. The final vampire turns to face Debbie as she comes up from behind. He pulls out a plastic trophy.
"Hey! That's my gymnastics trophy. Oh." She throws a right hook. He willingly goes down. "Did we forget about someone?," she asks the two remaining vampires who are attacking her friends. They turn round and leap at the Slayer. She throws one into the wall to her right, but the other one knocks her on her back and gets on top. Melanie rushes up and stakes him in the back. Debbie gets up. "Thanks."
"I saved you," Mel says with a smile.
"No you didn't. I could have taken him on my own." Just then, the vampire to her right knocks her down with a left cross. When he charges Debbie while she's down, she sweeps his legs and gets up. Theo and Cynthia stay to watch and help out if needed. Diego, Melanie and Danielle run over to watch their undead significant others in action. Sidney uses her agility to kick her opponent into submission before staking him. Paul and Luiz trade blows and prevent their opponent from stealing their weapons before finally getting the chance to behead them. At the far end of the room, Dev and Bubba go at it ferociously. Bubba uses his much longer reach to land powerful punches, and his long legs to connect with a few kicks. Devlin eventually figures out Bubba's rhythms and starts to anticipate and block Bubba's attacks before launching effective counter attacks. But when he gets overconfident, Bubba ties Dev up and tosses him across the floor.
"I don't get you, Dev."
"Few people do."
"We have the same enemies." They trade right hooks. "The same goals." Dev ducks another right hook and lands a left uppercut. "The same view of the world." Bubba connects with a left cross and blocks Dev's right hook. But Devlin ducks Bubba's right hook and lands a right roundhouse kick. "Why can't we be friends?"
"We could. We would. If you hadn't gone after someone I love." Dev lands a left hook. Bubba lands a right hook. But when he tries a right hook kick, Dev grabs his leg and throws him into the back wall. The bruised, bleeding vampire slowly walks over to his fallen opponent. "I don't believe in principles. I believe in individuals. And I fight for the ones I care about." He lands a left hook kick as Bubba tries to stand up. "Be they human or vampire. It doesn't bloody matter." Bubba chuckles as he stands up.
"You're still his boy."
"Not anymore." Dev lands a right hook kick to the chest and a right roundhouse to the head, followed by left and right hooks. "I used to wish I was him." He ducks Bubba's right jab and lands a quick left uppercut. "Now he wishes he were me."
Claire and Anita sit on the far side of a round table at their favorite bohemian bar. Sitting to Anita's right is Russell. He's a Trent Reznor wannabe with light brown hair and no testosterone. He used to date Claire, until she found out he had sex with their male art professor. Anita eventually decided to turn him into her compliant little boy toy. Onstage is Edie, the beautiful blonde girl Claire took pictures of, the one Spike thinks Claire's dating. He's not alone. Anita calls them "Gertrude and Alice." Edie finishes up her fiery performance art poetry. She's quite charismatic, and has Claire's rapt attention. She leads the cheers and applause when Edie finishes. She walks down from the stage, gives Claire a hug, and sits to Claire's right and Anita's left. The bar's owner gets on stage.
"Edie, brilliant as always. Our next performer is making his debut on this stage. Or, any stage for that matter. Please give a warm round of applause for William." The applause is tepid. Strangely, the loudest cheers come from Edie.
"Oh God. Another blonde loser who's never been fucked reading an angry poem about the clitoris," Anita gripes.
"No, this guy's cool," Edie assures her best friend. "I met him backstage." Spike walks out on stage with a book in his left hand and a glass of scotch in his right. He looks very nervous.
"Holy shit," Claire says. Her eyes get very wide.
"Okay, he's cute. But it's no reason to get all wet," Anita replies. Then she looks to her right and sees Russell staring at Spike. "That goes for you too," she warns, hitting his left shoulder.
"I know this guy," Claire reports. "We met at my house Tuesday night. There was an incident."
"You know William?," Edie asks, intrigued.
"His name's Spike."
"Oooh. A double identity. That is interesting," Anita says.
"I had no idea he wrote poetry," Claire exclaims. "He just seemed so totally not the type."
"I bet there's a lot you don't know about him," Russell says.
After a long wait, Spike clears his throat. "A shot of courage." He downs the scotch. Then he begins reading. Anita puts her hand on Russell's pants.
"I don't fucking believe it! This guy's making you hard!"
"No. Your hand on my dick is doing that."
"It was already hard when I put it on."
"I think he looks a little too rough for you, Russell," Edie jokes.
"You have no idea," Claire adds.
"What's that mean?," Edie asks, a little suspicious.
"Just that, Russell's not his type. Shut up. I'm trying to listen."
"Your beauty, effulgent." Russell stands and claps. Anita glares at him. Claire lets out a "woo!" Spike hears her voice, looks down and sees Claire. He smiles nervously. He thought he was only performing for strangers.
"Okay, that was for Cecily. This next one is called . . . "
"You wish he wished that," Bubba retorts. "Spike would never want to be you."
"If the choice was between the two of us, he would. Because you're about to die." Dev takes a left cross, ducks under a right hook, lands three left hooks and a right uppercut. He growls, leaps up and head-butts Bubba, who hits the wall and pushes Devlin away. When Bubba steps out and tries a left jab, Dev grabs his arm, throws him to the ground, leaps down and drives the stake in his left hand through Bubba's heart. Bubba just smiles.
"You'll wish you hadn't done that." His skin turns to dust, but it's more like a shedding than a disintegration. Bubba turns into a hideous green monster and stands up. Deb, who'd finished off her final opponent a while back, stands slack-jawed.
"What the fuck?," Debbie asks. Dev attacks from behind, but Bubba kicks him away with his right leg. Then he charges Debbie. Her human friends retreat, while Dev's vampires, weapons in hand, tentatively circle round the monster. Debbie is knocked down with a right punch. She gets up, leaps at his legs, and causes Bubba to fall on his face. However, she notices that the pointy spines all over his flesh cut into her in several places on her arms and chest as she threw herself into him. Dev grabs his lower right leg and tries to break Bubba's ankle. but he whips his leg and throws Devlin high into the air. When he crashes down, Deb helps him up. "Care to explain?" The three vampires stand in front of Bubba, who lashes out with his arms, causing them to back up. Dev leaps at Bubba and hits him in the ribs with a flying right kick. Debbie jumps at him from behind, putting her arms around Bubba's face. He spins around trying to get her off. It takes ten seconds before he can toss her to the ground. Dev helps her up. The five fighters stand in front of the monster. Mel and Danielle walk up and fire a combined eleven shots, putting five bullets in Bubba's chest, helping to slow him down.
"He must have been born-again as a full-blooded demon," Devlin surmises. "I've heard about this sort of thing. Never thought someone like Bubba would have the connections to pull it off." As Bubba moves forward, whichever fighter he attacks retreats, while others try to assail him in his flanks. He easily beats back these challenges. He decides to focus on the Slayer, mostly because hers is the only blood he wants to drink. He charges Deb, swipes Dev aside and knocks her down. But as he tries to get on top of her, Sidney leaps at him and drives her stave through his heart. He screams and backs up, yelping as he pulls it out and tosses it away.
"Shit," Sidney says with a sigh, noticing that a stake through the heart didn't kill him. Diego runs over and hands her his ax.
"Let me handle this," Devlin says to the Slayer. He slowly shuffles towards Bubba, ducking a right hook and taking a left fist to the top of his skull. He sinks his teeth into Bubba's mid-section and pushes him on his back as he growls in pain. Bubba runs the claws of his right hand across Dev's back. He winces as he hits Bubba twice in the face with left jabs. Bubba roars and throws the vampire to his left. He stands up and resumes his attack on Debbie. But before he can hurt her, Dev leaps fifteen feet, grabs Bubba's left forearm as he swings it forward, and bites deep into his left wrist. Bubba pounds him to the ground with his right fist. But he's hurt. He can no longer make a left fist, and Luiz takes advantage of his distraction by slicing the curved blade of his sword into Bubba's left knee before removing it and rolling forward past the demon before he can retaliate. Sidney throws the ax Diego gave her and hits Bubba right between the eyes, though the blade doesn't penetrate very deeply. He pulls it out with his right hand and swings it at Debbie, who ducks. Bubba stomps on her back, knocking Debbie to the ground. He knocks Dev away with a swipe of his left forearm, stomps Debbie again with his right foot and raises the ax to administer a mortal blow. But Paul leaps up and swings his ax, cutting off the demon's right hand. Bubba screams as blood spurts out. He can't make a left fist, but he can grab Paul round the neck and raise him in the air. He knocks Debbie away with a right kick and prepares to bite the vampire's head off.
"Leave my boyfriend alone!," Melanie yells. She gets within eight feet, aims carefully and hits Bubba twice in the crotch. Bubba yelps and tosses Paul into the wall to his right. Realizing she's next, Melanie screams and runs away from the demon and over to Paul. Devlin steps in front of Bubba, kicking him in his injured left knee. Bubba swings his left hand, clawing Devlin's chest. Danielle steps up and puts a point-blank shot into the monster's face. He recoils, then leaps at her. She screams and runs away. Luiz hugs her and stands ready to protect her. Bubba uses his terrifying quickness and power to get on top of Debbie once again. He pins down her right arm and leans in to bite her. She hits his face with a left punch, but it does little good. At the last moment, Devlin climbs on top of Bubba, pulls his head back, and strains mightily for several seconds before snapping his neck. He falls face-first to the ground, dead. Debbie gets up and hugs Devlin. Everyone takes some time to recover from the traumatic fight. After a minute, Dev feels compelled to rush the vampire with the trophy.
"I swear I didn't know. I swear, Dev!," he pleads.
"Whatever, Johnny. It's over. No one's dead. So you get to live."
"Thank you. Thank you," the sycophantic vampire replies. Dev takes the trophy and looks at the inscription.
"Nineteen ninety six. You must have have been nine when you won this," he says as he hands it to Debbie.
"And you must have still been nineteen." She pauses and looks queasy. "Let's not talk about the past."
"Especially when we got such a good future to look forward to," Theo says with a big smile. During the hectic combat, a small plastic garbage can along the right wall was knocked over. Out fell a mountain of gambling chips. "One hundred. One hundred. Five hundred. Fifty. Twenty five. A thousand! We hit the motherload!" Johnny smiles. Dev pushes him against the wall, hands him the thousand dollars and lightly slaps his face with his right hand twice.
"Get lost, Johnny."
"Don't I get a cut? You couldn't-a-done-it without me."
"This is your cut. Now scram before my friends here treat you like the vampires you snitched on." Johnny runs away. Dev walks over to the treasure, where Debbie's human friends are already congregated. "Like they say, you have to spend money to make money." The humans start to stuff the chips in their pockets.
"Not so fast," Dev commands. "Look at the back." He picks up a large handful. "Bellagio, Caesar's, Mirage, Luxor, MGM – we have to separate these by casino."
Theo empties the rest of the can. "There's gotta be hundreds of thousands of dollars here."
"We're rich!," Diego exclaims.
"No we're not," Devlin counters. "This is house money. And the houses aren't going to part with it easily. You try and cash even a thousand, and they'll find out your id's are fake."
"Since when were YOU a follow-the-rules guy?," Diego asks.
"What we are going to do is repatriate this money, for which the casinos will love us. As long as we're losing more than winning, we'll get the best rooms, the best everything. They'll treat us like fucking rock stars." He think about it. "This is gonna be one helluva weekend."
"I'm not sure we can lose this much money," Theo cautions.
"Oh, we can. And we will." He turns around and sees Sid, Luiz, Paul and Deb dismembering Bubba. Debbie is especially zealous. "He's not coming back, love." She turns around, looks at him and smiles sadly.
"He's wasn't supposed to come back the first time."
"It wasn't Bubba. It was a demon using his body. He'd lost sense of self when he changed." Devlin talks about turning from a vampire to a demon the way Buffy talks about turning from a human into a vampire.
Paul holds up Bubba's hideous severed head. "This will look great in my bedroom."
"You mean MY bedroom," Sidney objects.
"Why don't we put it in the living room," Luiz suggests. "On top of the television, perhaps." His roommates like the suggestion. Debbie leaves Dev for a moment and runs over to the two dead humans. He quickly catches up.
"I've never killed people before," Deb says, taking responsibility for Devlin's actions.
"It was them or you."
"I know. Still doesn't quite make it right."
"Yeah, well, the world's never been quite right."
NEXT: Spike meets Claire's friends.