"Quiet night." Dawn said, pulling her coat tighter around her slim frame.
"You would rather we ran into trouble?" Conner responded with a mock punch to his girlfriend's shoulder.
Turning, she punched him back, but with a smile as bright as the sun on her face, "Hit me again and there will be trouble."
"Easy you two." Spike said from behind them, "I like it as rough as the next guy, but save it for the baddies."
Without so much as a glance back at the vampire, the two continued on their merry way.
Spike knew he should be paying attention to what could be lurking in the shadows, but he found himself compelled to watch the couple in front of him. He loved Dawn with all his being and had cared for her, uncharacteristically for a vampire, well before he had went and got himself a soul. As for Connor, he didn't feel the same as he did about Dawn, but he did care for the boy. Besides, he owed him a debt for pulling his fat out of the fire in L.A.
Yet, they also represented something else that ground Spike's teeth; his importance.
More had changed in the last two years of Spike's undead existence than they had in the last two hundred. First there had been his time in Sunnydale with the Slayer. She had turned his head to stone and his insides to mush in his time there, which lead him back to his soul and eventually into the Hellmouth to play Roman candle.
Then there had been his time in Los Angeles. It had started well, with him being able to be a thorn in Angel's side, but it had not ended well between Fred's death and their tumble with the Black Thorn.
Six month ago, there had been the Queen.
Now, there was Cleveland.
Another Hellmouth; another world to save. Same old, same old; yet everything else was different.
First and foremost of on his list of things different was him. Something had happened to him in L.A., though he wasn't sure exactly what it was. He had given as well as he had took, which was a lot, and at the end of the tussle, when Connor had saved him from the dust pile, he hadn't healed right.
To look at him, he was his usual handsome self, but physically he was weaker and slower than he was before and there was no explanation for it.
For the first time in his life, Spike was out patrolling with others not as the "Big Bad", but as the one with "experience." Connor was the muscle, while Dawnie add the magical mojo.
Of course, he wasn't the only one who had changed, but he was the one he was worried about.
Dawn with the magic. Gunn with the light show. Angel and Willow…
Spike suddenly realized that the two in front of him had stopped.
He was about to ask what was wrong when he caught a familiar scent that was coupled with a dark feeling deep in the pit of his stomach.
Vampires.
In front of them was an old metal building that had, by the looks of things, been a mechanic's garage. There were two windows in the front, but they were blacked out with paint, which left them no easy way to see what was going on inside the building.
"You two stay here." Spike said, as he headed around the back of the building. He might not be able as strong as he once was, but he could still skulk with the best of them.
After making a complete circuit of the building, Spike returned to his companions.
"One way in. One way out." Spike said, pointing to the metal door before them.
Connor nodded, "Dawn, can you tell us how many are in there?"
Still huddled in her coat, she nodded. Closing her eyes, she stood completely still. For several seconds, her face was expressionless, until she flinched and scrunched up her lips and nose.
Opening her eyes, she shook herself out of her coat and became very serious, "Seven vamps and three humans."
She paused for a moment before adding. "It's not pretty in there."
Both Spike and Connor nodded.
Spike walked to the door and tried it. Incredibly it opened.
Just before they stepped through, Dawn stopped them. She placed each of her hands on each of her companion's chests. Spike didn't feel anything at first, but when she pulled her hands away, he felt a slight warmth spread through his body.
Dawn smiled, "Just a little insurance"
Spike didn't ask what she had meant; he trusted her.
The three of them quietly slipped into the building and took in what lie before them. On the far end of the room, six vampires huddled around three human bodies that were lying on a large wooden table like a giant blood buffet. All of them, including the vampires, were naked.
Spike had no illusions as to what was happening. A blood orgy. Back in the old days, he had been involved in more than his number of them, along with Angulus, Darla, and Dru. The vampires would rape their victims before feeding. The sexual energy in both the vampires and their prey would heighten the feast.
It was an old ritual and not something Spike had seen done in over a hundred years; which meant that they were dealing with old vampires…
He was about to mention that fact to Dawn and Connor, when Connor asked, "I thought you said there was seve…"
Connor didn't get to finish as a vampire dropped from above them and grabbed Spike. Spike growled as he grappled with it. "Yeah, you better worry about me first."
He was going to say something else, but the vampire's fist split his lip.
From the moment that the vampire dropped, Connor and Dawn rolled into action. They knew that Spike could take care of himself, so they concerned themselves with vampires that were in front of them. In the few seconds that it took the feeding demons to look up to see what the commotion was, Connor was already on them.
Popping the foot long blade that was lodged in the mailed gauntlet he wore on his left hand, he slashed the throat of the first vamp he passed and continued towards the next one. That one looked up just in time to catch the wooden stake that Connor wielded in his right hand directly in the chest. As it dusted, Connor turned and dusted the first vampire, who was vainly trying to hold his ruined throat together.
As he turned to face the next one, it exploded in a gout of flame and fell to the floor as the fire quickly consumed it. Another ball of fire came from where Dawn stood to his side, forcing the last three vampires to scatter, two rolling towards Connor, which he quickly took advantage of.
In less than thirty seconds, they had dispatched the remaining three vampires and were checking on their victims.
"Are any of them still alive?" Dawn asked pensively.
Connor checked the pulse of the first two and shook his head, "No, they have been dead for some time."
Moving to the last one, a young girl about their age, Connor was surprised to find a pulse, albeit a thready one.
"She's alive." Connor exclaimed excitedly.
Connor looked her over; she was in bad shape. "Can you do anything for her?" Connor asked as he turned to Dawn.
Taking the girl's head in both hands, Dawn closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she spoke. "There wasn't much I could do, but I think I was able to heal her enough till we can get her some help."
"Not sure she'll thank us though…" Connor whispered.
Dawn nodded and then reached into pocket and pulled out a cellphone. They had set the phone up on a relay so it would be untraceable, It wouldn't do them any good if the authorities were bothering them. The police were as jaded to paranormal activity in Cleveland as they had been back in Sunnydale and L.A., but much of what they did left them in a gray area that they would rather not have to explain to them.
"You call for help, while I take care of the other two." Connor said, a resigned tone in his voice.
Dawn nodded and turned her back to the table. Although she knew Connor had to make sure the two dead humans didn't come back to life as vampires, but that didn't mean she wanted to watch. They were entering another one of those "gray" areas.
Back from near the entrance, Dawn caught the sound of Spike swearing. A moment later, he staggered out from behind a stack of barrels.
"Who's next!" He shouted unconvincingly, though he was in the midst of his normal swagger.
Spike looked at Dawn, who was now speaking to the 911 dispatcher, then to Connor who had taken the first head off and was working on the second, and swore.