Act 2: Healer of the Broken Heart
© 2003 by Chris Regan
Spike's Rainy Night Meeting
It has been a tuff week the rain and hale had been pounding Los Angeles it had let up just long enough for Clem and I to drive to the Bucket of Blood, as we sat there listening to the rain come down we sipping on our drinks and watching the demon belly dancer do her stuff.
The cellular phone behind the bar rang Joe the bar tender picked it up then yelled at them "Whistler it's for you".
I got up from the table and walked over as the bar tender handed it to me "Thanks Joe."
"Yea"
"Hello, yea this is Whistler, sure I'll see to it, OK, I understand Spike is to be with us when we pick her up." he handed the phone back to the bar tender.
"Here Joe, and Thanks."
"Sure any time" Joe said as he put the phone back on its cradle.
When he got back to the table "Who was that Whistler?" asked Clem.
"That was the Man up stairs some one is coming down tomorrow and we are to pick them up at the Demon's Ritz at midnight. We are to arrange with Spike to take the person on a shopping spree."
"OK" said Clem.
With a frown "How are we going to get him to do it?" asked Whistler.
"With him it is best to tell the truth! I'll give him a call" as Clem took out his cell phone and a pen then started to punch in Spike's speed dial number on the pad.
I sat in my office, it was Friday and the week had been a long one, "I had been staring out the window and thinking about the truth that Angel was the one killing the young women and trying to figure out how to stop him with out killing him. That thought disturbed me, for in the old days I wouldn't have stopped to think about it I would have done it. In the old days, Angelus wouldn't have wasted a drop of blood but what I saw in the alley was messy and brutal. Blood was all over the alley, Angel, and his victims were covered but he walked away as if his clothing were pristine. I never realized that much blood could cover so much area.
I had originally stayed around because I saw the fear in Angel's eyes when he confided in me, that night after the big battle when we were both sauced he confessed to me "Spike, since I signed my soul away I had been having laps in my memory." It wasn't until I was sober that it means anything to me. Then the first body was found then another and so on, I knew Buffy would never for give me if I let something happened to him that could be prevented. So I stayed now I'm neck deep in it. I picked up my cup and realized it was empty getting up I went to the brake room which is next door to the copy room.
After getting another cup of blood I looked in the copy room and saw the pile of papers Harmony had left for me. I walked in and started doing the boring repetitive job of copying.
While copying my mind is going over all the facts on the three new women that had been killed, they were all bleach blondes between the age of twenty-five and thirty not the same shade of blonde as Buffy's hair, most had that new two tone die job dark on the bottom and lighter on top. Funny the dark in their hair reminds me of the shade that Cordy's hair was."
When the phone rang, it startled me I threw the papers I was stacking in the air they flew all over the small room landing on the floor.
"Bloody hell! Who would be calling at this late hour?" I said, as I answered my phone.
"Hello, Oh Clem what the hell do you want at this hour?"
"I need to ask a favor of you, could you meet me."
"Yea, I can meet you it will take me about twenty minutes to finish what I'm doing, but yea are you at your usually hang out?"
"Yes Spike."
"OK, see you in an hour then"
Spike heard Clem hang up the phone, and then he heard a click on the line, "I got it Angel, why don't you try to get some sleep?"
"I would if you weren't creeping around down there at all hours of the day and night doing what ever the hell your doing!"
"If you want to know, I'm making myself useful; Harmony had a stack of copying we needed for Monday's meeting. I told her to go on her date that if she left it down by the copier that I would do it for her."
"Well aren't you the boy scout!"
"Angel I will be done in twenty minutes."
"When you're done get the hell out, I want to be alone!"
The phone clicked there was silents then the dial tone. I said to the receiver as I hung up the phone, "Yea, to practice you're brooding, no doubt over Cordella's death". Twenty-five minutes later I left by the door that went to the underground garage.
Still pissed at Angel, I went to the 1950 Chevrolet, it was a big, black convertible, it was his favorite, he never want me to drive it. As I stood there looking at it I remember being on the roof and seeing him and the vampire that washed the company cars, out there on the top level shining up the old ones so they sparkled in the moon light.
I took a deep breath and felt the dampness in the air and got in, this one thing of late I obliged him most of the time but not tonight. I turned on the lift for the top and when it was open clipped it down then drove out of the garage and into the night. I was going toward Glendale, down the empty street known as Western, over the freeway over pass pasted the kiddies train, up to Los Feliz Boulevard, to San Fernando road were I made a left, and down to W. Chevy Chase boulevard then another left down to Alger St. and a right into the parking lot next to the Bucket of Blood where I knew Clem and Whistler hung out. I got out of the car and walked into the bar.
Joe the bar keep said "Long week?" I looked at him with a puzzled look and scratched my head.
"The chicks that are being killed, you're looking in to it right!"
"OH, Yea, Joe if you only knew how many clues there are to sift thought."
"You're usually Spike?"
"No, not tonight, I think I want something stronger make mine a boiler maker."
"That bad."
"Yea and some." Spike sees Clem and Whistler at a corner table, Clem waving to him, he gets his drink, downs the whiskey sets the glass on the bar, then threading his way though the tables where other humans and demons are sitting, as he carries the beer to the table.
"Hey Clem, Hey Whistler, how's it hanging."
"About the same five feet off the floor and still hairy" said Clem.
"About the same" Said Whistler.
"What's up guys?"
"We need to ask you a favor, some one is coming in, and they requested that you be with us when we pick them up at midnight, tomorrow night," said Whistler.
"I'm flattered guys, but who is this person?"
"We don't know Spike my contact wouldn't tell me just that we were to pick her up at the Demon's Ritz and that they wanted you there too."
"It sounds fishy to me, a little cloak and dagger but it is interesting, tell you what I'll meet you at the hotel."
"Thanks Spike, it will be worth your time I'm sure, Angel is not to know that you're meeting with her."
"The cloak and dagger thickens" Spike said then he slugs back the last of his drink gets up, he said, "See you tomorrow" then leave the bar and drives to his place.
The cat met him at the garage entrance door "What kept you I was worried?"
"Garmon, I had an unexpected meeting with Clem and Whistler."
"About what?"
"Some one is coming in they want me to be there when they pick her up."
Spike opened the refrigerator and got a beer out and sat down at the table, the cat jumped up and sat down on the table.
"You look pale have you been getting enough blood?"
"No, not today"
"You better get some or Mona will give you an ear full!"
"Yea, I know" as he downed the rest of the beer, and got up throwing the bottle in the recycle bin then got a cup down and took a bottle out of the refrigerator with red liquid in it and poured a cup then stuck it in the microwave.
"What's worrying you Spike?"
"Been worried about Angel, He isn't acting normal?"
"Maybe if you described it I could help, I am older than I look, I saw and heard a lot when I was in the lab, and it might help."
"I doubt it! You know the other night we saw Angel at the murder scene."
"Yes Wesley told me."
"Well his face was cover in long fur, his eye were fiery red as if he was searching for something that he couldn't find."
Garmon stood and started to pace across the table back and forth "When I was a kitten my mother told me a story about a princess that loved a common man so much she left her station in life to be with him. Evil in the form of a monk came and put a spell on him turning him into a monster that roamed the country side by night. Until one night he changed in there bed chamber. The monk and his brothers busted down the door the monster ran, the lady had fainted as her handmaids came running in, it was that night that they were taken to a tower in the monk's castle.
It was spread by the monk and his followers that the young man had killed them. A friar did not believe they were dead there was no blood in the bed chambers and clothing was missing. He made a very quiet search, in his search he found a cohort in Arzhel a friend of the missing man and his wife they found thought a chat with the local bartender that there were strange things happening at the old castle. After poking around a bit and talking to the stable boy they found out that she was in the tower the boy heard her singing every evening. In the shadows he would see a figure that howled like a wolf, then one night he was gone, but she sang none the less. It was afterwards that the friar and Arzhel set a plan in motion to rescue her.
My mother said she was saved and taken over to Britain to Arzhel's castle. That is where she had the child, she had ebony hair and blue eyes, and mom said the baby looked like her. Their love was strong and bound them together.
But it was not just them alone it bound but it was there descendents too for every two hundred years one some times two are born that has the gift, they are tested and if they passes they gets there hearts desire."
"What is that suppose to mean?"
"Not sure, it is just a story my mother told, I got the feeling that she had seen them but she would never confirm or deny it."
"It's late I'm going to bed, you coming or are you waiting for Tristana."
"I'm waiting for Tristana."
"You're worried about her."
"Yes she is due any time and I still haven't gotten her to sleep in the house.'
"The weatherman said we are to get rain tonight. If you find her and need help send one of the dragon for me."
"Mona has been keeping an eye open for her all evening."
"You know where I will be."
"Thanks I will let you know."
As he got ready for bed he said to himself
"I wonder what Clem meant by Angel isn't to know she is in town? Who is she? God my life is getting stranger the longer I'm around Angel. As he fall a sleep he mumbled cats and dragon I would have eaten long…"
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