The Downside of Elemental Dieseling

Author: Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah…These characters are Joss's. I don't own them, never did and never will. Thanks for the loan, Joss.

…

Chapter 6

As Wes and Angel approached, they could see one of Taras' rather illicit looking men was standing by the elevator doors. He was leaning back against the wall with the button panel with his arms crossed. He was wearing a wrinkled suit that had seen better days as he sized up the pair coming toward him.

"You dat guy, Price?" the man said as he lunged away from the wall into a standing position. His eyes studying the pair, dismissing Wesley's studious demeanor and then traveling over to Angel who met his glance with equal challenge.

"Uh, yes." Wesley said, fixing his glasses on his face. He was wearing one of his old Watcher suits, in order to give the impression of bookworm as he smoothed his tie.

"Who's he?" the man said jerking his head at Angel and shifting his eyes toward Angel with suspicion.

"He's with me." Wesley responded with a superior air that the subject was no up for discussion.

In response, the man looked away with a sneer and put his hand up to the headset stuck in his ear.

"He's here and he brought company." He stated with his eyes turned away, listening to his headpiece. He looked back at Angel as he huffed, "Yeah."

The tinny sound of a voice on the other end could be heard directing the man. Finally, the man brought down his hand, lumbered around and pressed the button calling the elevator. He turned back to Wes and Angel.

"You can go up." He said as the elevator opened its' doors at that precise instant.

…...

Back at Wolfram and Hart, Fred was trying to distract herself by doing some paperwork in her office back in the lab. She fidgeted at her desk, finally pulling her hair back into a ponytail as she did her best to concentrate on the work in front of her. She opened a large manila folder and began to read. She reached forward to pick up a pencil to make notes. She looked up to see that there were none on her desk. She opened the top drawer of her desk and did not find any pencils inside. That's funny, she thought. She prided herself on keeping a lot of sharpened pencils on hand. She sat back in her chair and just happened to look up. That's when she saw the multitude of sharpened pencils sticking into the ceiling over her desk.

"Spike!" She said with a grin, picturing the vampire sitting at her desk slinging the pencils upwards.

The smile slid from her face as her thought turned again to the situation with Spike. She jerked herself up into a standing position and thought. 'Okay. That does it! No more waiting around here for someone to tell me that they found Spike. Spike always called me Science Girl. Now, I am going to use it to find him.' Fred walked over to a file cabinet, yanked it open and pulled out an overstuffed file with jumbled papers. She still had all the readings on the Quavolchan stone. She knew that the stone had a unique energy signature. She reasoned that if Spike still contained that energy, it should be possible to use it to locate him.

"Okay, guys. I'm done waiting. I'M going to find Spike." Fred said determinedly to herself.

…...

Spike was glad that the women finally seemed to tire of poking and prodding him as they turned back to their card tables. He noticed that several women had cocktails and others had cigarettes smoldering in the ashtrays located by their elbows. It hit him that he had not had a drink or a smoke in several days which was an approximate eternity for him.

The most enticing thing in the room was the cigarette smoke; the sensual smell of the smoke seemed to follow him like a predator. He tried to resist, but he found himself mesmerized by the smell of the cigarette floating in the air. He spied an older woman wearing a magenta silk blouse with bulbous gold buttons place her cigarette in the ashtray by her elbow. Almost hypnotized, Spike approached the table where the ashtray was sitting. The cigarette smoldered, sending up a wisp of smoke like a snake charmer's cobra. He stood there at the corner of the table, staring at the ashtray trying to will the tendril of smoke over to him. He was standing there, just inches away from table as he slowly extended his hand toward the ashtray. Suddenly to his dismay, a larger hand whisked the tray over to the other side of the table away from him.

"Alla, watch your cigarette. The child almost burned himself." A woman with a leopard print scarf artfully draped and pinned around her shoulders on the other side of the table scolded the smoking woman who looked abashed. Then, of all things, the woman with the scarf had the audacity to smile patronizingly at Spike, who stared back stunned.

Seeing his prize so easily taken away from him, Spike had to fight against his own nature to keep from pursuing it. Monitoring himself, Spike pinched his lips together to keep from voicing what he would have likely said as an adult.

"Sonny, you come ovar here. You get into trruble over dere, Myedvyezhohnahk" Mamushka called over, patting the side of her leg.

Feeling everyone's eyes on him, Spike grudgingly made his way over to Mamushka. Once he got closer, he was surprised to find himself swung up onto her lap.

"You help me play da cards, okay?" Mamushka entreated as she cocked her head to look at him and giving him a slight pat on the rump which made Spike momentarily uneasy.

"Oh, well. It was better than pushing that stupid toy car around." Spike thought.

…...

When the doors of the elevator opened onto the penthouse, there were three large men standing there to greet Wesley and Angel. Wesley was wise enough to stand next to Angel expectantly to wait for an invitation to be issued for the vampire to enter.

"Welcome. Please follow me, Mr. Pryce." Smolin said as he extended his arm toward Taras' office. "Mr. Golovchenko would like to see you alone. Your associate can wait here."

Wes moved out of the elevator with Angel following a step behind. Wes turned slightly to look at Angel. Angel acknowledged with a emphatic blink that everything was acceptable. Wes' eyes shifted to the men and back to Angel.

"Wait here." Wes commanded, in effort to establish the relationship in front of the men.

Crossing his arms, Angel stood there, coolly looking at the other two men. Taras' men were both large imposing men who held themselves that somehow implied a threat. One had an earpiece like the man downstairs. Angel sniffed the air slightly. Humans, he thought. There was silence between the three men as they waited.

…...

Wes was ushered into Taras' office. Taras was standing on the far side of the desk, contemplating the object sitting there in front of him.

"Boss, this is the expert in demon languages, I told you about." Smolin announced, stopping at the doors as Wes entered further into the office.

"Er..Hello, I'm Wesley Wyndam-Pryce." Wesley said as primly as he could.

"Yes. Thank you for coming in such short notice. My name is Taras Golovchenko." Taras grasped Wes' hand in his meaty one. "I understand you translate demon languages, yes?"

"Indeed. I am lettered in twenty five different demon languages." Wesley said and then cleared his throat. He didn't want Taras see him as any obvious threat so he fiddled with the knot on his tie. Bending down, he took a deep breath as he peered at the object on the table. "Is this what you called about? It's amazing."

"Ah, Right to it! I like that!" Taras clamped his hand on Wes' shoulder. Wes feigned a wince for Taras' consumption. "You will do a translation of the text on the vessel."

Spinning toward Smolin, Taras commanded. "Leave us. Let no one in this room until I come out. Is that understood?"

Smolin nodded as he backed out of the room and closed the double doors. Wes heard the lock slide into place.

…...

Despite the situation, Spike found himself actually enjoying the card party the women were having. He discovered that Canasta was a version of Rummy. It wasn't poker and no kittens were involved, but it was better than sitting on floor or watching one of those horrid children's television programs. At first, Mamushka asked his advice on what card she should play, everyone seemed to enjoy how the little boy's eyes went over the cards that were in play and Mamushka's hand. He finger went out and deftly pointed out the card she should play. Mamushka put the card on the table as Spike instructed with a wink to her partner. Ten minutes later, Mamushka found herself going out far earlier than she had ever before and she and her teammate caught their opponents with an exceedingly high number of points.

"Sonny, you are so smart! I never won dat many points in one hand. You're a genius, dat's what you are!" Grabbing Spike's head, Mamushka crushed a kiss on Spike's forehead. Spike blushed a little bit at the open praise as he settled back with a slightly embarrassed grin.

For the rest of the party, Spike was being celebrated and extolled as some kind of prodigy. All the women were very impressed with his card playing skills. He was being called from table to table to assist one of the women during her card play. Everyone of them telling him how smart, handsome and sweet he was, to which Spike was surprised at how good it felt.

At one point in the party, Spike said to himself. "I'll say one thing for these ladies…they're right bleedin perceptive!"

…...

Angel continued to stare at the men by the elevators, when the doors opened once more and a newly coiffed and bleached Shirley appeared. She had several bags from department stores hanging from her arm as she was digging in her purse. Looking up, she saw the three men standing there and from her expression, it obviously did not please her at all.

"What are you doing standing here?" Shirley said indignantly. Then with irritation evident in her voice, she yelled. "Smolin! Smolin!"

"Yes, mam." Smolin came over from the direction of Taras' office.

"Is there somewhere else you can put these gentlemen? It is really off-putting seeing them just standing there when you get off the elevator." Shirley complained. Looking around, she asked "Is my mother-in-law still having her party?"

"Yes, you are right. Of course. Yes, Madam is still having her party in the game room." Smolin snapped his fingers and gestured for the three men to follow him.

Shirley watched to see the men leaving the entrance hall and then spun her heel to make her way back to the game room.

Angel and the other men slowly measured each other as they entered the entrance to the large living room. Just for a moment, Angel could swear he could smell Spike, and then it disappeared.

"Say, is there somewhere I could get a cup of coffee?" Angel asked, wanting to see more of the penthouse, hoping to search the premises.

"Go get him a cup of coffee." Smolin commanded one of his men.

One of the men disappeared back on the other side of the entry hall. He came back a couple of minutes later with a cup of coffee for Angel which he grudgingly took. Angel's eyes searched the penthouse as he sipped his coffee, trying to think of a reason to use to look for Spike.

…...

Inside the office, Taras had removed the warding spell that surrounded the relic. Wes examined the relic in his hands checking the lid, seal and body for cracks; which, luckily, he didn't find any. Wesley had begun to translate the text from the object, taking copious notes.

Turning the relic in his hands, he began to put together the text. He was very surprised to see the word Pylea on the vessel. He was even more disturbed by the word 'cow'. Since the team's trip to Pylea, he knew that this text could be a direct threat against Fred. He needed to get Fred to safety, so Tara couldn't find her. Pushing away from the desk, Wes looked up at Taras.

"I believe I need to reference some books back at my office to clearly translate the text." Wesley said as he straightened his papers, and then standing up.

I thought you were an expert in languages. I would not have shown you this item, if you were unable to decipher the writings." Taras said as he came closer to Wes

"You see, there is some very un..unusual references on the base. I need to confer with some colleagues to make sure that I have the correct translation." Wes said, putting a stammer into his voice.

"There is no need to confer. You are not leaving." Tara said ominously as he leveled a pistol at Wes.

The doors opened with Wes walking very carefully with his hands held up. Taras was following him just behind him with a gun. Wes' eyes looked directly at Angel, giving him a signal. Angel smashed a fist into the face of the larger of the two men standing next to him. The man flew back against the wall. As Angel swung around on the smaller man who dodged the blow, Wes began to turn to launch himself at Taras. Years of street fighting showed itself, as Taras easily gained the upper hand by slamming the base of the gun into Wes' shoulder. Wes went on his knees with pain. Seeing Wes go on his knees, Angel swiftly charged toward him but found himself collapsing as the smaller man rammed a stun gun into his side.

"Very good" Taras said, pleased as he watched his men bind the arms of Wes and Angel. "Take them to the basement."

Sounds of arguing women could be heard coming from the game room as Wes and Angel were pulled roughly to their feet and pushed toward the elevator. When the elevator doors opened, Angel and Wes were slammed into the back wall of the elevator. Taras' men grabbed them by the back of their shirts and turned them around.

There was the sound of a door opening and then the sound of heels stomping toward the entry hall.

"Taras! You must do something about your mother. They were smoking and drinking in front of him. They were even teaching him to gamble!" Shirley called out; clearly incensed from the situation she had left.

She came stamping toward Taras who was standing there with his arms folded and a calm look on his face. Shirley pulled her hand forward and Spike lurched in between them. Spike staggered to gain his balance. He looked up at the adults hovering over him and then looked toward the elevator. His chin dropped.

There, in front of him, were Wes and Angel who starred back with equally startled expressions as the doors closed.