Previously: He then straddled her and admired his prey; and amazingly, she didn't try to throw him off either. The rain had caused her makeup to run, which he knew she didn't normally wear, her hair was all ratty because of slaying and probably because it was the way she had wanted it for tonight and the clothing. Oh the clothing! The rain had caused the clothing to stick to her and because of the style of clothing she was wearing, there was very, very little to the imagination.

She would make a good vampire. And if his assumptions were right, she'd be able to walk in the sun.

He traced her collarbone with his index finger and ran it all the way down the middle of her chest, til it came to rest in between both breasts.

"Deals can be fun," he breathed.

Chapter 57

Upon entering the bar, I was immediately overwhelmed with bright colours and various smells. Sometimes it sucked to be a vampire. Bad joke I know, but its true.

There were various Halloween characters walking around in this sodding place. Angelina hadn't been kidding when she said you had better dress up. There were witches and wizards, goblins and ghouls, ghosts and gremlins, the odd corpse bride wandering around and a very convincing Angelus look alike. Only problem was he didn't have as much 'nancy boy' hair gel as the real Angelus. Even thought h was evil, he still took the time to look after his hair.

As my jaw was being accustomed to the ground, Buffy took a few more steps into the bar, allowing the others to get inside.

"Wicked" Faith was impressed with the whole thing. It hadn't been very often that she had actually attended something like this. She wasn't very into the whole dress up thing. Willow was the next to speak.

"Anyone want a drink?" she chirped as her wings shimmered in the light. If she weren't careful, someone would mistake her for a bloody big fairy and would try to sell her on the black market. I had bought my fair share of fairy dust; I used it to make Dru happy. She had always loved looking at the sparkly crap.

There were quite a few nods and Willow and the Whelp wandered off towards the bar. I watched as they approached and saw Xander jump about a mile high. I wasn't quite sure why, but it was funny all the same. I silently laughed at how stupid the git was and then followed Buffy and the others towards a large table that wasn't occupied.

The table wasn't occupied because it had a bloody 'reserved' sticker on it. Upon further inspection, I found that the sticker read:

'For Buffy and friends'

So it was our table for the night. Lorne had made sure that we had a good view of the stage. We were sitting just off to the side of it, but we would be able to see nonetheless.

Right now however, we didn't want to see.

On the stage, singing Justin Timberlake's 'Sexy Back' was a demon dresses up as Professor Frankenfurter from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

It was enough to make anybody cringe, and not just because of his appalling voice. His costume seemed to be made out of flesh of some sort and there was a purple ooze dripping down his left leg. It smelt god damn awful. I was going to throw up if I didn't get away soon. Buffy looked just how I felt.

In fact, everybody at the table did.

"Lorne will be on in about 25 minutes," Willow informed us all, breaking us out of our horrified stares; I could've kissed her for that. It was so horrible to look at, but you couldn't turn away.

"Well I only need ten," I breathed as I shot a glance over at Buffy. She knew what I was thinking and blushed.

I stood and held out a hand to her "Care for a drink?" I grinned as she took my hand. "Would love one," she giggled as I lead her over to the bar, as to not cause too much suspicion.

We hadn't noticed that Willow and Xander had bought over enough drinks for the whole table. So when we left there were many confused faces behind us.

Giles took off his glasses and began polishing them, he was sick of having to listen to the Rocky Horror demon sing. He didn't want to have to look at him as well. He was even considering going up there and singing himself, though he knew he probably wouldn't have the time. He had slayers to look after.

Xander handed out all of the drinks he and Willow had just bought and then took a seat next to the fairy. He picked the wand up off the table.

"If I wave this around will I turn anyone into a frog or something?" he asked, truly interested.

Willow shook her head, "Nope. Real witches don't need wands"

"Ok then" Xander grinned as he began spinning the wand around and pointing it people and saying "Bam!" It was childish, but it was Halloween and he was allowed to be.

"Wonder where Robin is?" Faith was wringing her hands in her lap. She was concerned for him and she was allowed to be. He was her other half and he was still recovering from Sunnydale injuries and on top of that, he was wandering around in the dark. For him it was suicide, whether he was with Angelina or not. Faith wasn't too sure if she would be able to keep both her and Robin safe. Faith wanted to go look for him, but knew that she would have to stay here.

"Don't worry Faith-y" Anya stated. She always had a habit of calling her 'Faith-y' and she wasn't sure why. It just kinda happened.

"I'm sure he and Angelina will get here soon." Xander nodded.

"And if they aren't here before Lorne goes up on stage, we'll go look for them ok?"

Faith felt better about that and so nodded and took a sip of her drink. She had no clue what it was, but it was pretty good. The liquid looked electric blue. She'd have to find out later; when she knew Robin was safe.

~**~

Robin could hear voices. He couldn't open his eyes, or if they were open, he couldn't see jack. Which was annoying but understandable seeing as how he was thrown into something really hard.

The voices seemed to be going over rules or whatnot. He couldn't move yet, so he couldn't do nothing but listen.

"So they're the rules all right?" a female voice stated.

"Sure. Why not?" a cocky male voice replied.

Robin knew that voice but couldn't quite place it in his now hazy mind. Maybe if he concentrated really hard.

Slowly a few images came to mind; a dark coat, a cross around Buffy's neck, and for some reason, hair gel. Then it clicked.

Angelus.

Robin had a feeling that he was going to die tonight, and all he could do was lie here and wait. He wished he'd forgotten about the belt and gone to the bar. He wanted to tell Faith how much he loved her. But all that he could do now was pray that a miracle happened.

~**~

Meanwhile

Buffy and I had been busy in the bathroom, getting 'close'. It had been forever since we had actually been able to do something like this and it was all Angel's bloody fault. Grandsire or not, he was a fuckhead.

We had missed each other and hadn't been able to spend too much time together as Buffy was doing all of her slayer duties and I rarely went outside in the daylight. I wasn't too good with the whole 'burst into flames' idea.

So we just had to wait until this whole ordeal was over. But it was taking too long and we could wait any longer.

We had snuck away from the bar and the vampire karaoke bar owner behind it, partially because she was giving me an odd look, partially because I had something else planned. We headed towards the bathrooms and as soon as we were inside one of the cubicles, some clothing had come off.

Outside of the bathroom, you could hear the demon who was still singing up on that bloody stage finally stop and then there was a female voice speaking. Not singing, just speaking. Lorne must be on his way out.

"I think we should go now" Buffy whispered just as the bathroom door opened.

"Err, Buffy?" it wasn't hard to tell that Willow knew what was happening and you could hear how embarrassed she was. "Lorne's on in less than five. I think you should come back now. Everybody noticed you'd left the bar"

I mentally cursed. Neither of us had checked the table to see if any of the Scoobies had seen us sneak off.

"Ok be right out" Buffy called and Willow quickly disappeared.

"Oops" I grinned at her and her playfully hit me in the shoulder. "Best we be going then pet," I said as I zipped up my jeans. Buffy nodded and rearranged her clothing, and then together we walked out of the cubicle, startling some ghost as we left.

As we entered back into the real world, we both noticed that Willow had darted back to the table with fresh drinks while the rest of the Scoobies waited for us.

We also noticed that the lighting had changed and instead of it being coloured lighting that had splayed everywhere, there was now a single spotlight on the stage. There stood that vampire woman who had been giving me funny looks.

"And tonight I notice that a lot of you have outdone yourselves and gone all out," she said as she admired a few costumes, then she caught a glimpse of me. "And I also see that a few of you have not" the crowd broke into whispers, asking about 'who Zoe would pick?' Or 'What will Zoe dress them in?'

"Let's see shall we?" Zoe scanned the room, looking for her victim. She scoped the whole bloody room and yet she still chose me.

"You. Did you bother to even dress up?" She asked with a polite smile.

"Me?" I pointed to myself and she nodded.

"Can we get the spotlight over there?" She asked and the spotlight moved to encircle me. Bloody brilliant.

"So I'll ask again. Did you bother to dress up tonight?"

"I don't wear this everyday pet. Tend to stick to the red and black. And no pins" I stated. I didn't know that Buffy had moved slightly behind me and was shaking her head to signal that I hadn't dressed up.

Zoe grinned and beckoned with a finger "Come here please"

The crowd broke into cheers and claps as I reluctantly made my way up on stage.

Zoe was handed a box from the side of the stage and began to pick bits and pieces out of it.

"You said you like red and black yes?"

"Yeah" I knew what was about to happen. Angelina had warned us all and yet it still managed to happen to me. Damn.

Zoe picked a pair of bright red boxers and a olive branch wreath as well as a toga, a pair of fairy wings and a black bow tie.

"Put these on please" she smiled sweetly.

"What if I don't," I challenged.

Zoe motioned to a microphone standing all alone in the corner, next to a piano. "Then you'll be backing vocals for the night"

I didn't want to do that. "Fine" I grabbed the garb from her hand and began putting it all on. The crowd was going wild as I pulled on the boxers.

Once I had everything on, Zoe figured that a sparkly top hat would complement the piece nicely and so I had to wear one of those as well.

I was then finally allowed the return to my seat.

The whole table was in fits of laughter. I couldn't see what I looked like so I gauged by their emotions that I must look pretty ridiculous.

"Nice look Spike!" Xander was in tears.

"Yeah. It's pretty wicked" Faith added.

"Marvelous!" even Rupert was laughing. That was it. I was going to take this shit off.

I began with the hat. Buffy stopped me. "Remember what Zoe said. You'll have to be backing vocals" she tried so hard not to laugh. In the end, laughter prevailed.

I waited for a few minutes while they calmed down and then everyone noticed that there were still two empty seats at the table. Robin and Angelina still hadn't shown up and Lorne was coming onstage now. The crowd was clapping and cheering and once again the spotlight swung back to the stage and rested on the piano.

The phantom came out on stage in a cloud of smoke.

It was quite an entrance, but then again, knowing Lorne it was probably his idea.

Buffy leaned over to me, careful not to bump the hat off my head. "Faith, Giles and I are going to look for Robin and Angelina. Faith reckons something bad has happened. You stay here with Willow and Xander."

I was about to open my mouth to argue, but she put a finger to my lips. "Please. Stay here. For Lorne" she was signaling me with her eyes that she didn't want to cause too much suspicion, and me leaving with all of the stuff I had on, would do just that.

Defeated, I nodded and she kissed my cheek. "Be back soon" and silently her and the two others left without another word.

"Now who got the box tonight?" asked Phantom Lorne from the stage as he surveyed the crowd. He spotted me sitting at the table with the Whelp and Willow. He grinned "Nice to see you here toga boy"

I chuckled. "We'll see about that!" I called to him.

"We shall" and then he turned back to his piano and began his night of singsong.

If my dressing up was the only hitch tonight, it might not be so bad. I just hoped it was the only hitch.

If not, it was probably going to be somewhere close to hell. Or like Buffy's birthdays. Take your pick.

I settled into my chair as well as I could and silently thanked Buffy for saving me from going up there as Lorne began the song 'I Will Survive".

~**~

Buffy looked back at the little karaoke bar as she strode down the street, flanked by Giles on the right and Faith on the left. She just hoped that nothing had gone terribly wrong and that she would be back in the club listening to Lorne sing in less than twenty minutes.

Though she knew it was unlikely, that slayer senses were almost 100% all the time, and that it was likely that Faith was indeed onto something.

Though she still couldn't help but wish that she were wrong. She hated to walk out on friends like that, but it was for a good cause. And she was sure that Lorne, being Lorne, would understand completely.

The three of them strode on into the night and the dark streets that awaited them. Faith hoping to god that Robin was alright, Giles thinking he was too old for this sort of thing and Buffy just wanting to be back in the club.

~**~

I know I haven't updated in ages. I'm sorry!

I was trying to work in some things in this chapter and every time I tried, I didn't like it so I started again.

Sorry about the wait…

I also intend to update my other story 'The Left Hand of God'

Very shortly too!

Enjoy the chapter!

~Barn~