Part II
Spike was in good humor when he entered the Magic Shop the next night. No matter what happened the evening promised to be interesting. At the very least more interesting than his day had been. There was only so much television a vamp could stand before he started to stagnate. Once Timmy’d gotten out of the well it seemed the writers had lost all direction.
That had been his problem lately. Every day was the same; every night was empty. He couldn’t be true to his nature. Couldn’t hunt. Couldn’t feed. He was dying of boredom. His life was certainly a total cock up when the only remarkable thing he had to look forward to were visits from the Slayer.
Speaking of the Slayer, there she was, her mouth hanging open in shock upon his entry into the store.
“What in God’s name are you doing here, Spike?”
“Came to join in the meeting, didn’t I? I’m a Scoobie now, like you promised. When do we patrol? I want to kill something”
A bark of laughter erupted from the boy at the Slayer’s right hand side. “Looks like Spike has finally lost it. As if Buffy would ever make such an insane promise! That chip’s finally curdled your brain.”
Giles looked up from behind the counter where he was fiddling with register tape and turned in surprise towards Buffy. “Is this true? Did you make a pledge to Spike?”
Buffy’s chin jutted petulantly, “So what if I did? He’s a vampire. I said what I had to say to get him to help me find Riley. It’s not as if he’d keep a promise he made to us. Does anyone remember that he teamed up with Adam against us?”
“Buffy, don’t you think you should hold yourself to a higher standard than that of a vampire? What’s a person worth if they can’t be trusted to keep their word?”
“Giles!”
“Buffy, you made a promise. I wish you hadn’t made it. I suspect it will be end badly. In the end, however, what do you feel your word is worth?”
Buffy let out a long suffering sigh, “Fine! Spike, sit down out of the way somewhere and let me forget about you until I’m ready to leave.”
Spike couldn’t believe how entertaining this was turning out to be. By the looks of things, the Slayer was well and truly upset. He moved towards the stair to the landing to sit but at the last minute changed direction to the chair to Buffy’s left and was rewarded with a jump in her pulse.
Spike sat back with a grin and waited for patrol.
~%~@~%~@~%~@~%~@~%~@~%~@~%~@~%~
“If you’re gonna slay with me you need to keep up.” Buffy stalked through Sunnydale’s industrial section with purpose.
“Having no trouble keeping your pace, Slayer.”
“Just remember, you’re doing this at your own risk. I’m not gonna rescue you if you get out of your depth.”
“Odd. I thought you’d treat a member of the team better. That the way you’d treat droopy boy?”
“Xander’s my friend!”
Spike snorted, “Yeah, so much so that you immediately assumed he was the one I was talking about.”
“Well you were!”
“I know that, but how do you know unless part of you agrees with my assessment?” Spike turned to her just in time to receive a fist in the nose. “Ow! Just like you to resort to hitting when you’re not clever enough to think of a comeback.”
She stood facing him almost sputtering in her anger. Spike had to force a smile back before she really let into him. He felt a brief pang of regret. He missed fighting the Slayer. There was a time when all he could think about was provoking her into a fistfight but that no longer held appeal since he’d lost the ability to fight back.
She finally started to speak, “I am so clever! I’m clever enough to…” before she could finish she was pushed to the ground. Spike glared stupidly at the vampire in a bike jacket who’d attacked Buffy from behind.
Spike was jolted out of his surprise when the vamp chortled, “Slayer! I always wanted to kill me a slayer!”
“Who the hell do you think you are! We were talking!” Spike raged. If he couldn’t hit the slayer he certainly wasn’t going to allow this moron with bad fashion sense to touch her.
Before the newcomer could formulate a reply he was ash, drifting slowly downward and into Buffy’s hair and Spike was out one stake.
“Oh gross, Spike! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get this stuff out? For dust it’s surprisingly sticky.”
This time they both jumped when a beam of light centered on their faces. The beam ended in a flashlight which was held in the hand of a night watchman. “Whatever you kids are doing out here, you gotta keep it on the other side of the fence, okay?” He gestured with the flashlight towards the enclosure that was so beat up and ratty that Buffy and Spike had passed through it without even noticing.
“We’re already gone.” Buffy grabbed Spike’s arm and started to lead him towards the boundary.
“Hold it!” the night watchman jerked his flashlight again. “Take your glow ball with you.”
Buffy turned towards the ground near her feet where the flashlight sat on a golden glowing crystalline sphere.
Part III coming soon
Originally posted at http://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/75092.html
