AN: The remainder of the fic will be posted on my Live Journal and/or Dreamwidth one chapter at a time, as new chapters are completed. Just couldn’t get it done in time for posting this round.
CHAPTER TEN
Spike returned to the apartment to find that Buffy had gone to bed, but as soon as he came in she sat up, rubbing her eyes.
“That took a while,” she said. “I was beginning to worry about you.”
“You were snoring, not worrying,” he snickered.
“Well, if I didn’t have so much confidence in you, I would have been worrying. So, what was going on?”
“Old Tom’s spy minion brought an army with him, and it turned out my help wasneeded. Had myself a good brawl, helped Tom scare the truth out of the minion, and came home to take a nap alongside my favorite woman.”
He shed his clothes before going into the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash the blood and ichor off his hands. As he slid into bed beside Buffy, he extended an arm and waited for her to snuggle into his side.
“Think your fancy weapon might get a bit of a workout,” he said, stroking her back. “If you want it to. Don’t want you feelin’ obliged to take on somebody else’s battles just because you happen to be here.”
“Spike! I’m here because you’re here. And there’s a hellmouth that seems like it needs some housecleaning. I’d probably be here anyway to help Faith and her girls, once we knew about the Turok-hans.” She nuzzled his chest. “I admit, the fact that we’ll be helping an old vampire is a little bit ooky-making, but if you vouch for him—”
“Can’t do that, love. He didn’t get to be that old and rich by being a wimp. He’s smart, I’ll give him that, but I’ve only known him for a bit over a year. For all I know, he slaughtered half the country before he settled into being a nice guy who is a good boss. He says he knows the vamp the minion told us is behind all this, and that they have ‘history’. No idea what he means by that.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to Faith about him tomorrow. Maybe she knows more than you do. And I’m going to call … not Giles. I don’t want to talk to him yet, but maybe I’ll try Willow. She can do some research on Thomas Vandekirk. If he’s as old as you say, he must have left a trail somewhere. Willow can get into the Council records and see what they know about him.”
“Good idea.” He nuzzled her hair, noticing that her breathing had slowed after she gave a big yawn. “Don’t know about you, but I’m a bit on the weary side after not just the one, but two good tussles tonight. Are you alright with just sleeping here like an old married couple?”
“Are you okay?” Buffy sat up suddenly. “Did you get hurt again tonight?”
He chuckled and pulled her down where he could wrap both arms around her. “No, love. I’m fine. But I am bloody tired, and so are you…. Not that I couldn’t if you want to! Not saying that at all. Do you want to? ‘Cause I will! I can! I want to!”
His panicked babble had her giggling as she dropped a kiss on his bare chest.
“It’s fine, you big worry wart. It’s just not… normal?” She sighed. “I guess we really don’t know what’s going to be normal for us, do we? I mean way back when we were… whatever we were… it was all we did. We tore our clothes off as soon as we got in the door. But that was just one part of the day, wasn’t it? We never had a chance to learn how—” She felt him stiffen beside her. “And that was my fault. Totally. I know that. You would have liked nothing better than to have something like this….”
“It’s alright, love. It’s who we were then. You were dealing with the loss of Heaven and being back in the world that asks so much of you. And there was a demon pushing you for more than you had to give just then. I admit, I would have liked more, you know I would. But I didn’t deserve to have it. And then, after the soul….”
“After the soul, you were afraid to touch me. And I was afraid to let you know I wanted you to. And then the First was there and it all went to hell. We didn’t have time to learn what normal was going to be for us, did we?”
“We can work on sorting that out after we make sure this hellmouth isn’t going to start spouting ugly old vampires.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Buffy snuggled into his side and yawned again.
“Good night, love.”
XXX
Buffy had an unsatisfactory phone call with Willow, in which she refused to explain why she wanted Willow to do the research on Thomas, rather than asking Giles to do it.
“I’d rather not talk to him right now,” Buffy said. “And that’s all I’m saying about it until we’re finished here and on our way home.”
“Okaaaay. I mean, it’s right up his watcherly alley,” Willow replied, “but I’m on it. Anything else?”
“Not just now. Maybe once we find out who this new bad guy is and how he can summon demons thought to be extinct, and Turok-hans, which we’d kinda hoped were extinct, we’ll have more questions. “
They hung up with Willow promising to get back to Buffy as soon as she had anything for her, and Buffy repeating that she didn’t want to talk to Giles about it.
“I guess if she tells him I don’t want to talk to him, he might start figuring it out, huh? Especially since he was so weird when Dawn told him where I was going and why. He’ll know we’ve figured it out.”
“If I didn’t know I have to take some of the blame for not coming to you straight away, he’d be better off staying away from me,” Spike growled. “I didn’t know you were grieving so badly, but he bloody well did. He had no right to do that to you, don’t care what the big poof told him.”
Buffy sighed and nodded her head. “Yeah, you do have to take some of the blame. Good thing for him, you know that.”
“If I didn’t, I don’t think the soul could stop me from tearing him apart,” Spike said so calmly and quietly that Buffy stared hard at him.
“But it will, right?” she asked with narrowed eyes. “And even if it didn’t, I get first crack at him.”
“He’s all yours, sweetheart.”
“Just so that’s settled.”
XXX
Willow called back in a surprisingly short amount of time, pointing out to Buffy that it was well into the evening in England and she wanted to go to bed at a reasonable hour.
“Sorry, I forgot the time difference. So, what do we know?”
“Not as much as you might think. He is old. Probably over 200. But he seems to have kept a very low profile most of that time. No ‘Scourge of Europe’ type nicknames for him or anything like that, although he was the master of a small city in the Balkans at one time. It doesn’t say a whole lot about him, but there’s nothing to indicate he wasn’t a normal vampire and eating people just like you’d expect. He kinda went off the Council’s radar after the first world war, and popped up again in Florida after WW II. There was some kind of dispute with another vampire there, and after a big battle, which your guy seems to have won, he disappeared again, and we don’t have anything on him until Faith and the other slayers got to Cleveland. And we didn’t know his name until you asked about him.”
“So, not always a good guy, just not Angelus and Darla level of evil.”
“Nope. Keeps a low profile, even when he’s the master of a city. Once I knew who to look for, I found that he owns a lot of property in Cleveland, has some property in the Netherlands, and has money in a Swiss bank, so he’s a savvy businessman. That’s about all I’ve got.”
“Okay, well, that’s more than we knew before. Thanks, Willow. I… we… appreciate it.”
“Buffy… why don’t you want to talk to Giles?”
Buffy took a deep breath, then decided to trust her old friend. “Because it’s beginning to look like when Angel talked to him before he called me, he told Giles that Spike survived, but was still a vampire, and that it was better if I just thought he was dead.”
“Oh Goddess! I can see Angel doing that… but why would Giles go along with it? I mean, he had to know how destroyed you were. Even if you did try to hide it most of the time, we could all see it, including him. Do you really think he would have kept something like that from you? Just so you’d be with Angel?”
“I just don’t know,” Buffy sighed. “But all the signs point to it. He and Angel were keeping it a secret from me until just a while ago.”
“What happened?”
“I think Dawn happened. She told Angel I was still mourning for Spike, and that he should realize… I’m not sure exactly what she told him, to be honest. I just know that she’d almost guessed he was hiding something, and he denied it and refused to believe I had any lingering feelings for Spike. But I guess it made him start paying more attention to me, and he started to see it and feel guilty. So, he told me and gave me a plane ticket. I think he was sure I’d be right back. Asshole,” she muttered almost to herself, but she heard Willow giggle.
“Well, you do have to go back at some point. That’s where you live and work,” Willow said.
“Oh, we’ll go back once we’ve settled things here. The longer I’m gone, the more time Dawn will have to get into trouble. But I kicked Angel out right away, so we don’t have to see him.”
“What about Giles?”
Buffy sighed. “I don’t know yet. I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but it’s pretty hard. The more we learn, the more convinced I am that he knew all the time and he let me grieve for a whole year. Maybe longer, based on what Spike says about ordering Andrew not to tell me about him in LA. He told Andrew he would do it himself when he was ready… whatever the hell that means….” There was a pause while she glared across the room at Spike. “Anyway, obviously Andrew could have told someone else. Giles, for instance. I just don’t know.”
“Do you want me to try to find out the truth? Maybe I can get Giles to talk to me and get an explanation… if there is one.”
“Spike’s sure the explanation is Giles didn’t want Spike back in my life. That’s kinda harsh, but it’s hard to think of any other reason.”
“Well, I’ll see what I can find out without telling him what you suspect. He’s going to figure it out soon though, if you still won’t talk to him.”
“Yeah. That should be a major clue. If he’s got something to feel guilty about, knowing I don’t want to talk to him should up the guilt. But I don’t care if you tell him. I’m not keeping it a secret exactly, just not discussing it with the other slayers here who look up to him. Faith knows, and she agrees with us. I don’t much care if he knows we know.”
Buffy gave a small laugh. “If he ends up talking to Dawn, trust me, he’s going to know we know. He’ll be lucky to get out of that conversation alive.”
“I think I need to talk to him about this. I don’t want all of you mad at him if it turns out you’re wrong. And if you’re not wrong, and he did hide it from you that Spike was alive, then… then I need to know that. It changes how much trust I can put in what he says.”
“Do whatever you think is best. If we get this wannabe big bad’s butt kicked tonight, we might be on our way home pretty soon. If not, I might be calling back for more information.”
XXX
To Spike’s surprise, Thomas called him to ask if they could meet at his apartment – just himself, Spike, Buffy, and Faith.
“I think the less the slayers are seen going in and out of here, the better,” he explained.
“Probably right,” Spike agreed. “For a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it would be just as bad for their reps as it would be for yours.”
Thomas just snorted and suggested a time not long after dark. Buffy, who’d been listening, volunteered to call Faith, saying she wanted to talk to the other slayer anyway.
XXX
Faith arrived early, traveling in the sunlight not being as big an issue for her as it was for Thomas.
“Did you walk all the way here?” Buffy asked.
“Nah. I took a cab and put it on the Council’s tab. If they aren’t going to pay me enough to buy a car, they can pay for my transportation.”
Buffy raised her eyebrow at Spike, who frowned, then shrugged and nodded.
“Don’t see why not,” he said. “Not like we can take it with us.” He turned to a puzzled Faith to say, “When I go back with Buffy, I’ll just leave the car with you.”
“Cool,” Faith said. “Maybe I’ll even learn to drive and get a license.”
“What is it with slayers and not driving?” Spike said in disgust.
“Most of us didn’t use to live long enough for it to be a problem,” Buffy pointed out. “And I can drive now. I was driving when we were still in Sunnydale.”
“I’ve seen you drive, love. My comment still stands.” He laughed and dodged the shoe she’d thrown at his head.
A knock on the door interrupted whatever semi-serious damage Buffy was planning to inflict on him, and he gratefully went to usher Thomas into the apartment.
“Just in the nick of time,” he said. “The love of my life was throwing shoes at me.”
“I don’t think I want to know,” Thomas said, noticing Faith’s laughter and Buffy’s rolling eyes.
“You don’t,” Faith said. “Trust me. So, what’s up?” she added, switching gears immediately. “What do we know?”
Thomas seated himself in one of the two chairs, nodding in gratitude when Spike offered him a beer while he got one for himself and one for Faith. Buffy was sipping on the Diet Coke she’d been drinking when Faith arrived. When everyone had a drink and had relaxed, Thomas began to speak.
“Well, to begin with, Henrico is someone I had a… disagreement with… once. Long before either of you girls were born. We had a dispute over which one of us was going to be running a city in Florida. This was before Disney arrived and turned the middle of the state into a gigantic theme park. As it turned out, the city wasn’t big enough for both of us and we had a bit of a war over it.”
Thomas smirked. “He lost, of course, but the attention it attracted meant I needed to go elsewhere for a while. The elsewhere, turned out to be here eventually, and I’ve made myself a very nice home in this dark and chilly city. I’ve no idea if turning up here is an intentional move to get back at me or if he just needed to be near a hellmouth. Either way, there’s no love lost between us, so he needs to be stopped.”
Buffy rolled her eyes. “So, you need us to do what? Help you get rid of an old enemy?”
“That old enemy has at least two more Turok-hans he’s using as bodyguards. He’s also been using them to keep the demons and vampires in line, although that may be more difficult now that Buffy has destroyed the four he sent out after us.”
“Did you find out how he got them? Or how he got them to work for him?”
Thomas shook his head. “That I don’t know. Although he may be working with a human sorcerer. My source wasn’t clear on that, just that some human helped him find them and there was magic involved.”
“A human? And magic? That’s interesting. Maybe I should have asked Willow to offer her services.”
Faith spoke up. “There was a magic using guy here a while ago. He said he was an old friend of Giles’s. Gave off kind of a creepy vibe, but I didn’t catch him doing anything evil, so I just told him I’d tell Giles “Hi” from him, and let him go on his way. Forgot to mention it to Giles though.” She looked at Buffy. “Do you have any idea who might be? I didn’t catch his full name. It was Edgar or Edward or something that. If he’s still here, maybe we can get him to help.”
“Ethane Rayne?” Buffy rolled her eyes while Spike looked puzzled. Buffy poked him, saying, “You remember Halloween, don’t you? Evil Spike, bespelled Buffy?”
Spike laughed. “Bloody hell, yes! One of many times in my life I should have bitten first and gloated later.” He frowned. “Wasn’t he responsible for the watcher spending time as a Fyral demon? I remember that. He still owes me money for helping him out when nobody else could understand what he was saying.”
“Okay, I’m guessing not likely to help us?” Faith looked back and forth between Buffy and Spike.
Buffy shook her head. “More likely, Ethan is behind this whole thing. Who knows why? But anything that can mess with Giles… or with me, for that matter, has got to be on his radar.”
“He wouldn’t have known you’d be here, would he?” Thomas asked.
“No, I don’t think so. But he probably knew about the hellmouth, and the slayers stationed here. He might have thought just riling up the hellmouth would be enough to bring Giles running to help Faith and her girls.”
“So, do you think he’s still here?” Thomas looked as if he might be planning to take Ethan apart, limb by limb.
“It’s hard to say. He might have just given this Henry guy a couple of spells to use to bring out the Turok-hans and then left town, hoping he’d created a problem. On the other hand, he’d probably like to be able to admire his results, especially if Giles shows up, so who knows?”
“Does this mean I should call the boss man and tell him what’s going on?” Faith looked less than happy about having to explain about her relationship with Thomas.
“Let’s try to get rid of Tom’s old mate first,” Spike said. “Then we can look for a cowardly sorcerer.”
Thomas nodded his agreement. “I’m hoping for a little more information before we go charging in there. Maybe even a way to lure them out where we can fight on our own terms. We know he’s using at least some simple magic to keep the entrance hidden, I don’t want to find out the hard way that that’s not all he has going for him.”
“Meanwhile, maybe we can look for Ethan, or any sign that he’s still around.” Buffy said, nodding to Faith who gave her a thumbs up.
“What did you do with him before?”
“The first time, I think Giles beat him up and he left Sunnydale. The next time…. I punched him, and I think Giles beat him up again, or was going to. I’m not sure, but Ethan got away. And the last time, after he turned Giles human again, the Army guys from the Initiative arrested him, and we never heard from him again.” Buffy and Spike exchanged glances. “If he’s been released, or escaped somehow, he’s probably not very happy with me for turning him over to Riley.”
Spike gave a snort of agreement, which meant nothing to Thomas, but had Buffy and Faith nodding.
“Man could be holdin’ a bit of a grudge.”
Chapter Eleven
“I think you’re going to have to talk to Giles,” Willow said, when Buffy had shared their concerns about who was providing the magic for Henrico. “He thinks he knows what’s going on there, and he said you’ll need his information.”
“Did you tell him I was with Spike?”
Willow sighed. “I did. I also asked him why he never told you Spike was alive. He just kind of mumbled something about Angel saying you were very happy, and not being sure it actually was Spike that Faith saw.”
“Bullshit!”
“Yeah, kinda what I said, only more tactfully.”
“So, he knows that I’m furious with him?”
“He does now. I made it very clear that you felt completely betrayed, and that I agreed with you one hundred percent. I also told him Faith was on your side, and that he probably shouldn’t try to talk to Dawn anytime soon. I haven’t told him yet that you’re sure Ethan’s involved somehow, but he seemed like he knew it already.”
“Well, if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather he told you whatever it is he wants to share, and you can tell me—us. You might remind him that besides Spike and me, there are a bunch of other slayers here and if he knows what’s going on, he needs to tell us about it. In fact, he probably should have been on the phone to Faith as soon as he knew anything was up. It’s one thing to think he can decide who I have in my life, it’s another thing entirely if he has information that working slayers need to have to stay safe.”
“Oh Goddess! I didn’t even think about that. Now I’m really annoyed with him. And kinda worried, to be honest. None of this seems very Giles-like.”
“Well unless someone did a body swap with him….”
“Not beyond the realm of possibility, I suppose, but a less unlikely excuse is worth looking into. There may be something else wrong with him.” Buffy could hear the frown in Willow’s voice.
“Yeah,” Spike piped up, loud enough for Willow to hear him. “Like senility? Or terminal arrogance?”
Willow’s sigh was more than audible. “Hi, Spike,” she said, knowing he could hear her. “I’m looking for an answer more sinister and outside his control. But thanks for the input.”
“Just offering suggestions,” he muttered, turning away from Buffy, who was rolling her eyes.
“I wonder if Ethan’s done anything to Giles? Something not as obvious as turning him into a Fyarl demon? “
“Worth looking into,” Willow said eagerly. “I’ll do a magic scan as soon as I get a chance.”
“Well, let us know what you find. Meanwhile, we’ll be here dealing with whatever Ethan got up to here.”
They said their good-byes and Buffy put the phone down.
“What do you think?”
Spike shook his head. “Not even goin’ to attempt a guess. I don’t know anything about the mage, except what you’ve told me, so no idea what sort of mischief he might get up to. Or how likely he is to be carrying a grudge against you or the watcher. Although, if you were responsible for turning him over to the Initiative….”
Buffy sighed. “Yeah. At the time, I was still all ‘rah, rah, demon fighters’. Now that I know more about them, I guess Ethan has a right to be pretty pissed off at me.”
“What’s his beef with the watcher?”
Buffy frowned. “I don’t know exactly. They go way, way back – like while Giles was still the Ripper and raising demons and stuff. I guess they were buddies or something….”
“Or somethin’” Spike said under his breath, remembering some over heard conversations when he was in Giles’s tub. Buffy frowned at him, but didn’t ask what he meant.
XXX
Buffy and Faith took advantage of the slightly warmer day to try to cover some of the places they thought Ethan may have been, or even places they could find him, but they got nowhere. It was too big a city to search for one man, one man who was capable of magically hiding where he was staying—assuming he was actually still in Cleveland. A phone call from Spike brought them back to the apartment.
“What’s up?” Buffy walked in and put her coat down, the key Spike had given her now in the pocket. They couldn’t decide if that made her a resident, and therefore made the apartment vamp-proof, but Spike promised he’d find out the next time Thomas came by. He had no trouble getting into his own home, but that didn’t mean another vampire wouldn’t. His invitation could easily be the default position when living with a human.
“Looks like Tom’s other informant was a bit more useful than the dishonest one. Seems he’d already quit hanging around Henrico because the Turok-hans spooked him, and then decided he’d rather be part of a group that has already shown it can handle them.”
“What else do we know?”
“For starters, your old friend Ethan Rayne was definitely the source of the magic. He summoned the demons from South America, and was able to conjure the Turok-hans up from beneath the hellmouth. But the informant doesn’t know if the mage stayed around or not. He took himself out of there when he saw one of the ugly buggers decapitate another vamp with one hand, and he doesn’t know what’s gone on since then.”
“Maybe I should ask Willow to come over and help us locate Ethan, if he’s still here. At least then, we’d know if we need to worry about him.”
“Is Thomas sure he knows everything this guy knows?” Faith frowned, reminding them that the other supposed informant had kept important information from him. She grinned at Spike. “Think you’d like to use your powers of persuasion on another spy?”
“All I had to do was look evil and dangerous,” Spike said. “His imagination did the rest for him… that and knowing what the big poof was like back in the day.”
Buffy and Faith both stared at him. “He was afraid of you because you used to be part of Angel’s family?” Buffy sounded somewhere between disgusted and angry.
“Angelus didn’t restrict all his ‘artistic’ impulses to working on humans,” Spike said tersely. “He was happy to spread the pain around.”
“I don’t think I want to know,” Buffy said, shaking her head.
“You don’t.”
Spike and Faith spoke at the same time, then exchanged mutually surprised looks. Faith just shook her head when it looked like Spike was going to ask her about it.
“The point is,” Spike said, changing the subject, “that if he’s telling the truth about what he knows, plus what we know from the other one, it seems as if Henrico is probably down to two Turok-hans and however many other vamps and demons he’s been able to recruit. All we really need to know now is if there’s any more magic involved than just that hidden entrance to the hellmouth.”
“Knowing how to get them to come out and fight might be useful,” Buffy said. “I’d a lot rather be fighting where I can see instead of inside a hellmouth.”
“Meanwhile, I’m going to call the boss man and remind him that he’s got a house full of slayers here, and if he knows anything about Ethan’s plans, he needs to share them.” Faith grimaced. “It could be a loud conversation if he’s been holding back on me.”
“Go get him,” Spike encouraged. “If the wanker knows anything that could put you and your girls in danger, he needs to cough it up.”
“I wonder if….” Buffy frowned.
“What?”
“Nothing. It’s too far-fetched, even for Ethan.”
XXX
After Faith’s unsuccessful conversation with Giles, Buffy was re-thinking her idea. Giles had danced all around any knowledge he might have about Ethan in Cleveland, as well as knowing anything about a pending war between two master vampires. What he didn’t seem to know, was that Faith was well acquainted with one of those vampires, and she’d quickly decided not to tell Giles about Thomas once she’d realized he was keeping information from her.
“It’s like he’s hoping there will be a big war between them and we’ll all have to wear ourselves out keeping the human population safe. He kept saying he hoped B and her honey were going to be helping me out, but not to count on it.”
“He called me ‘her honey’?” Spike appeared ready to head for London immediately, obviously more offended by the epithet than the implication he would help.
“Words to that effect. You don’t want to know what he really called you,” Faith snickered.
Spike’s only response was a deep snarl, which made Faith laugh even harder. Buffy rolled her eyes at them and reached for her phone.
“I’m calling Willow again. She needs to know about this stuff. Who knows what’s going on with other slayers in other places?”
XXX
“Well, the good news is, Giles is heavily surrounded by magic,” Willow began.
“And the bad news?”
“I can’t figure out how to break him out of it yet, and he won’t help me because he thinks he’s just fine. He told me I shouldn’t listen to you or Faith because neither one of you can be trusted.”
“What‽”
The phone was on speaker so that Faith could hear the conversation, as well as the duplicate responses.
“It’s not him, Buffy. The magic isn’t even hard to see, it’s just so much a part of him now that I’m not sure how to break him out of it. We may just have to treat him as a…. not an enemy, exactly, but as somebody not on our side. Which is probably going to include me now. He was pretty pissed off when I told him he was under a spell.”
“Wonderful. So the only one who really knows Ethan has been tricked into thinking slayers are his enemies.”
“Um…. I think it’s just you and Faith…. He seemed a little concerned about the other Cleveland slayers, and said maybe they should stay away from you two. I think you need to bring them all into the loop before he starts turning them against you.”
“I’m on it,” Faith growled. “I’ll call a meeting right away. Can you be there?” She looked at Buffy with a raised eyebrow.
“Absolutely! We need to let the girls know what’s going on so they can be safe while we straighten this out.”
Willow spoke again. “I’m going to keep looking into how to fix this, but our best bet might be just to find Ethan and make him break it.”
“That’d be just great, if we knew how and where to find him. I’m more than happy to take over the beating up Ethan from Giles.”
“I’m thinkin’ there needs to be a more permanent solution this time….” Spike’s comment got a thumbs up from Faith, but a head-shake from Buffy.
“I know Ethan is a long way from innocent, but as far as I know he is still human.”
“And trying to get you and Slayer #2 here killed,” he growled, but didn’t bother to argue. Buffy knew her narrowed eyes made it obvious she knew what he was thinking, and he shrugged at her. “Still got the soul, love, but it’s no more of a detriment than it would be if I was human. Not going to apologize for what I want to do to anyone who is trying to hurt you.” He frowned, then added, “Not to mention, we don’t know when this bespelling thing may have begun. If it’s responsible for the watcher keeping you in the dark about me….”
“Okay. Let’s try to find Ethan. Then we can worry about what to do with him.” Buffy turned her attention back to the phone and Willow. “What can you do from there to help us find Ethan?”
Willow sighed. “Me, personally, nothing. I think I really need to stay here to keep an eye on Giles and keep working on how to break him free of this magical influence. But, I do have an on-line acquaintance there in Cleveland who is a better-than-average novice witch. I was thinking about trying to recruit her anyway so that Faith would have some magical back up. I’ll talk to her and get back to you with her contact info. She should be more than capable of finding any cloaking spells that could be hiding Ethan.”
There was a long pause.
“You know, we’re just assuming it was Ethan who bespelled Giles because it seems like that’s who’s causing problems where you are. But they might not be connected.”
“We’ll find out when we locate him,” Buffy said with no trace of uncertainty in her voice. “Just let us know how to find your friend, or let her know how to find us.”
“Will do. I’ll try to reach her right now.”
XXX
The meeting at the slayer house was a bit of a revelation. While all the girls knew who Giles was, of course, and a few remembered meeting him while they were in training, none of them seemed overly surprised to learn he may have been compromised and not operating in their best interest.
“In all fairness to him,” Buffy said, as it became obvious that the slayers’ loyalty was more to Faith and to the other senior slayer than to the man who was the titular head of the watcher side of the new Slayer and Watchers Council, “it seems like it’s mainly Faith and me that he’s not trusting right now. You’re all probably safe, but you needed to have this information in case he tries to get at one of us by feeding you lies about us.”
“You all know who Willow is, right?” Faith looked around the room for nods. “She’s going to be working on breaking whatever magic he’s wrapped up in, but he’s suspicious of her now, too, so we don’t know how it’s going to go.”
“In the meantime, at some point in the next couple of days, we might be taking on whatever Ethan’s helping to control the hellmouth, so you’ll want to be ready for that. Regular patrols every night, as usual, but be alert for anything weird.”
XXX
It was surprisingly easy to find Ethan, once Willow’s friend Angie had contacted them and come to help. It turned out she was delighted to be working with the slayers, and had been looking forward to the time Willow put her in touch with them. They agreed to meet her at an office building where Thomas rented space, and, although he said he rarely used it, had assured them he could get to it in the daytime.
They all agreed that the less time they were seen together, the less likely that the enemy would know to expect them. Which made daytime a better choice for meetings that included the two vampires. To the best of their knowledge, they had killed everything sent out against them, as well as almost everything in the small army that had attacked Thomas in his own club. So, while Henrico probably knew that Spike was willing to fight with Thomas, he didn’t know who Spike actually was, and would have no way of knowing that Buffy and Faith would be fighting alongside him and Thomas.
Unless, of course, Ethan knew that Buffy had found Spike when she got to Cleveland….
Buffy and Faith stared at the map in front of them as Angie pointed to a glowing point not far from the hellmouth entrance.
“That’s it? Just like that, we found him?”
Angie beamed. “He wasn’t trying very hard to hide from another magic practitioner, but he’d be invisible to most people—even slayers.”
Buffy looked from Faith to Thomas, who was being very quiet and keeping a low profile in front of Angie. None of them were sure how Angie would feel about working with a vampire, and Willow had agreed that just meeting Spike would be more than enough excitement for her at one time.
Thomas nodded and said quietly, “I know exactly where that is. In fact, I own the building to the left of it. They are separated by only a narrow space, not even wide enough to be called an alley.”
Angie stared at him with wide eyes. “Are you Thomas Vanderkirk?”
Giving her a shocked look, followed immediately by one of his most innocent and charming smiles, he nodded. “I am. And I see we have not been as clever as we thought we were. And that you are much more perceptive and knowledgeable than we’d anticipated.”
“I was told to expect to meet Spike, but I didn’t know….”
Although Angie appeared to be more curious than frightened as she held out a tentative hand, he took it, holding it just long enough to increase her blush, then releasing it and offering a warm smile and reassuring words. “While I’m not as famous as my heroic friend here, I am just as unlikely to be dangerous to a human who has never given me reason to be. You have nothing to fear from me.”
“Not to mention, you’ve got the world’s two longest-lived slayers standin’ right here beside you. He’s not stupid, either,” Spike said with a snort.
“There is that,” Thomas allowed, with a wave of his hand toward Buffy and Faith.
Buffy gave Spike a quick glance of approval for the way he’d included Faith in his comment, earning herself a smirk. “Not stupid either, love,” he said softly.
The by-play brought an answering smirk from Thomas, whose hearing had caught Spike’s comment.
“If the testosteroney fanged ones are through sharing smirks, let’s decide what we’re going to do and when we’re going to do it.”
“Get there as fast as we can and kill him,” Spike said, only partially joking.
“Find out what else he’s done and make him fix it,” Thomas said. “Then we kill him.”
At Angie’s shocked expression, Buffy punched Spike on the arm and glared at Thomas.
“You see, Angie? This is what it’s liking working with vampires. Killing is the first thing they think of.”
Spike and Thomas exchanged shrugs, growling softly.
“Don’t worry about them, Angie,” Faith spoke up. “One of them is too whipped to follow through on that without permission; and the other one wants to stay in business in my town. They’re just trying to seem all big and bad.”
Both growls increased in volume and seriousness, but aside from that, neither Spike nor Thomas seemed inclined to argue. Ignoring them, the girls looked at the map and tried to plan an approach that might prevent Ethan from seeing them coming.
“He might not even have wards up,” Angie said. “Since he thinks you can’t find him, he won’t be worried about slayers sneaking up on him.”
“Which we won’t be doing until tonight,” Spike pointed out, gesturing at the window with its heavy curtain.
“Faith and I can go in the daylight. I’m pretty sure we can persuade him it’s in his best interest to tell us everything he knows.” Buffy’s grim expression reminded them that she’d had confrontations with Ethan before.
“Maybe I should go with you?” Angie volunteered timidly. “In case there are wards?”
“Willow would never forgive me if I let anything happen to you,” Buffy said, frowning. “But it is a good idea.”
“We can bring a couple of the girls with us, just in case she needs to be protected while we’re busy ruining Ethan’s day…”
“Okay. That works. Slayer bodyguards. Now to figure out how to get close without Ethan recognizing me.”
Thomas spoke up. “By the time you bundle up, put your hat on your head and a scarf around your face, he won’t be able to recognize you. And I can see that you get into the building next door. You’ll be safe there until you’re ready to confront him.”
Buffy regarded Thomas with renewed respect. “That’s a good plan. How will you get us into your building, though?”
“One phone call. I’ll tell the doorman you’re on your way and to let you in.” He hesitated, then said, “Try not to frighten or slay the residents, please. They aren’t all human, but they’re harmless and good, hard-working people.”
Buffy and Faith nodded, well aware that not all demons were evil and dangerous, and that the sight of several slayers might terrify them.
“I’ll tell Jim to ask everybody to stay in their apartments while you’re there. No sense rattling any cages unnecessarily.” Thomas walked to the desk and picked up the phone there, dialing from memory.
While he explained to his doorman that there were going to be some young women arriving soon and that he was to show them every courtesy, Faith used her phone to call the slayer house and ask Katie to pick one other girl and meet her one block from their destination.
CHAPTER TWELVE
When the four slayers, bundled against the cold in one way or another, and weapons hidden, approached the apartment building, they saw that Thomas’s building manager was already holding the door open for them.
Buffy smiled her thanks as they all entered, relieved that they had apparently remained undetected by anyone in the adjacent structure.
“Thank you,” she said. “Did Thomas tell you why we’re here?”
He shook his head. “I’m pretty sure it’s above my pay grade,” he replied with a wry smile. “But if you need anything, I’ll be in my office or patrolling the place. Either way, you should have no trouble finding me.” He pointed to a closed door marked “Building Security”.
He started to walk away, then hesitated. “Not sure it’s important, but just so you know, it’s possible to get from here to the building you’re interested in from the roof. They aren’t very far apart, and when you get up there, there is a ledge that sticks out.” He shrugged. “I had to follow a thief over there last year. It was an easy jump for me, so you should have no problem with it.”
“Good to know. Thanks.” Buffy and Faith exchanged smiles.
“I get the feeling we’ve been made already,” Faith said, watching as Jim went into his office and closed the door behind him.
“Seems like,” Buffy agreed. “Maybe we should have somebody watching the roof? If it’s that easy to go from one to the other, anybody could use it to come this way.”
“Yeah, I’ll take Katie and check it out. You see what you can learn from here.” Faith gestured for Katie to follow her to the door marked “stairs”, and they disappeared into the stairwell.
Buffy surveyed the sunny lobby, gazing out the smaller back door into a nondescript alley containing a large trash bin and not much else. Angie peered over her shoulder.
“I think the wards end at the alley,” she said. “I don’t feel them from here.”
“Good to know. I guess Ethan isn’t worried about the trash truck guys.”
“What’s your plan?” Angie asked with genuine curiosity. “I don’t think those wards would keep you out, but they’d definitely make it hard to sneak up on him. And it’s a big building; he could be anywhere in it.”
“Yes, he could be. I’m sort of hoping he’ll come out for some reason, and we can jump him then. As far as we know, he’s got no reason to expect us to be looking for him; and no reason at all to think we might be lurking next door.”
Angie raised an eyebrow at her, and Buffy flushed and shrugged. “I didn’t say it was an actual plan, just something I’d like to have happen. I’ll work some more on the plan part of it while we watch the building… just in case we get lucky.”
Toni, the slayer watching from the glass doors said, “Would lucky mean a tall, kinda skinny guy with a demon bodyguard coming out of that building?”
Buffy flew to the glass to see Ethan poised in the exit from the nearby building, talking with his more-or-less-human-appearing companion and someone inside the building that they couldn’t see. She pulled Toni back to where she wouldn’t be visible by anyone looking in their direction. Using a potted plant for cover, the two slayers crouched on the lobby floor. Angie, in the meantime, had hastened to the stairs to go after Faith and Katie; who, having observed Ethan’s exit, were already on their way down at a speed that just bordered on being a controlled fall.
“Angie, if we grab him, do you think you can control him?”
The young witch frowned. “Yikes! I have no idea. I’m pretty strong…. At least Willow thinks I am. But I have no idea if he has weak wards because he can’t do better, or if he just didn’t think he needed to bother. I can try to bind him for a while, but no promises. Do you know how strong he is?”
Buffy shook her head. “No. All I know is he knows a lot of stuff and can do spells, but Giles never had any trouble with him, and I beat him up before and he didn’t stop me.”
“Well, if you want to grab him, I’ll see what I can do. At worst, I can tell if he’s trying to do a spell and you can stop him.”
“Here they come!” Toni said from her hiding place.
Buffy and Faith exchanged glances.
“Let’s do it.”
The four slayers burst out of the door just as Ethan and his small entourage, which now included a second almost-human-looking demon, reached the area in front of their building, While Buffy knocked Ethan unconscious with one punch, Faith and the other two slayers quickly disposed of his bodyguards, who fortunately, reverted to their demonic forms and then dissolved.
“Huh, he must have put a glamour on them so they’d be able to pass as human,” Angie said in surprise. “Good idea.”
“Yeah, he’s a freakin’ genius,” Faith snarled, holding a now-conscious Ethan up by the arms she was twisting behind his back.
When he began a chant, Buffy smacked him across the mouth, breaking his intended spell. He shook his head, then tried again, only to be smacked again, this time earning himself a split lip.
“I can keep this up longer than you can,” Buffy said cheerfully. “Kinda looking forward to it, actually.”
“So, Rupert sent you instead of coming himself,” Ethan sighed. “Not quite what I had in mind, but I can work with that. Have to say, I’m a little surprised he would send you, given….But perhaps you don’t know yet?”
“If you’re talking about Spike, he’ll be here as soon as it gets dark, along with the master of the city, who’s not real happy about the help you’ve been giving his old enemy.”
“So, you have found him. I thought the spell on Rupert would keep you away from here.”
“You spelled Giles, not me. And not Angel, I guess.” Buffy’s eyes narrowed. “So, you’re responsible for keeping me from knowing Spike was alive and here?” The look on her face had Ethan suddenly less confident as it clearly occurred to him that he might be in actual danger.
Meanwhile, Faith had never relinquished her hold on his arms, and he grimaced as she yanked on them. “If B doesn’t take you apart for keeping her from her honey, I might do it for turning our boss into something else to worry about,” she growled in his ear.
“Maybe we should take him inside with us?” Angie said. “I mean we are standing on a public street, and it’s still daylight. Not to mention, he might have more bodyguards in that building.”
“I like the way you think,” Faith said, as she dragged a reluctant Ethan through the doors Katie was holding open.
When they were safely inside the lobby, and a curious Jim had peered out of his office, seen their captive, and retreated quickly, Faith threw Ethan into a chair. All four slayers were within easy punching distance of him, and Angie was standing by quietly. He took a hard look at her and smiled.
“Got yourselves a replacement for the redhead,” he said to Buffy with admiration in his eyes.
Angie didn’t respond, except to nod briefly. If she was flattered at being compared to Willow, she didn’t let on, only continuing to keep her eyes on him, alert for any signs he was trying to do a spell. He sighed and relaxed back into the chair.
Obviously deciding that charming was going to be the way to go, he gave a friendly smile.
“All right, ladies. You’ve won. I’m sure we can come to some sort of accommodation here. What can I do for you?”
“You can start by taking the spell off Giles,” Buffy said. “Sooner, rather than later.”
“Oh, but it’s been such delicious fun!” Ethan protested. “I haven’t really harmed him, only helped him get that stick out of his ass.”
“Making him be stupid about Spike has harmed me,” Buffy said, her expression no friendlier than it had been while she was hitting him.
“And making him try to turn slayers against us has harmed me, and could have hurt my girls,” Faith added, in case he was still thinking he wasn’t in much trouble with them.
“All right, all right,” Ethan sighed. “It’s been fun while it lasted.” He glanced at Buffy. “Are you planning to turn me over to those overfed bullies you did last time?”
Buffy shook her head. “No. The Initiative is out of business.” She softened her expression briefly. “I should probably apologize for that. Back then, I didn’t know exactly what they were.” Her face hardened again. “On the other hand, I almost killed Giles while he was a Fyarl demon because you spelled him into it, so, whatever they did to you, you probably had it coming.”
They all turned when Jim stuck his head out of his office again, saying, “The boss is on his way. Ten minutes out.”
Faith waved her thanks at him, then turned a gleeful grin on Ethan. “We don’t need any help from the military this time.”
Buffy laughed at his puzzled expression. “There might be a small argument about who gets to do what to you,” she snorted. “Since Giles is too far away to beat you up, Faith or me, or one of the other girls might have to take over that job.”
“On the other hand,” Faith said, waving a hand at the darkening sky outside. “There are a couple of really pissed off vampires on the way here. I’m not sure we could stop them if they decided they wanted a piece of you.”
Ethan paled. “You’re slayers. You save humans! You wouldn’t turn me over to vampires!”
“Welcome to the new and improved Slayers and Watchers Council,” Buffy said blithely. “We make up our own rules. Meanwhile, we’ve got ten minutes or so for you to fix Giles.”
Ethan waved his hand. “It’s easy. Just use the release word.”
“Which is….”
He rolled his eyes, looking slightly embarrassed. “Lover,” he muttered. “The word is ‘lover’. Not something one is likely to hear from Rupert, is it?”
Buffy was already dialing Willow, crossing her fingers that it wasn’t too late in the UK for her to find Giles.
“Hello? Buffy?”
“Hi, Wills. We got Ethan. He says the word you need to use to break the spell is ‘lover’. Will you be able to try it tonight, or do we have to hang on to him until tomorrow to know if he’s telling the truth?”
“It’s a little late to find him somewhere, but I can try the phone. Will that work?”
Buffy turned to Ethan. “Will it work if she’s on the phone, or does she need to be where she can see him?”
He shook his head. “The phone will be fine. The important thing is that he hears the word from someone using it for the intended purpose.”
“He says you can do it by phone, you just need to be sure you do it with intention.”
“Got it. Let me go, and I’ll call you right back.”
XXX
There was an uncomfortable silence in the lobby while they waited for Buffy’s phone to ring, and for Spike and Thomas to show up. Which they did, somewhat unexpectedly, emerging from the stairwell.
“Underground garage,” Spike said in response to the curious looks. He smiled at Angie, Faith and Katie, winked at Toni, and put his arm around Buffy.
“Is this the wanker?” The look Spike favored Ethan with was not a warm one, but it paled in comparison to the one the full game-faced, pissed off master vampire standing next to him was wearing.
Ethan shrank back as if trying to burrow into the thin upholstery of the furniture. He was clearly re-thinking the side he’d chosen in the pending battle. Thomas gave him no time to begin an apology, but hauled him up by the front of his shirt and held him in front of his face, his fangs bare inches away.
“Do you know who I am?” he asked in a guttural snarl.
“If I had, or if I’d known who your friends are, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Ethan said, obviously trying for bravado and explanation. “I was clearly mistaken when I thought a little harmless assistance to your old… friend… would only provide a minor headache for the local slayers, and perhaps some annoyance to their head watcher.”
“You thought bringing out Turok-hans would be a ‘minor headache’?” Faith seemed about to bite Ethan herself.
“In retrospect, that may have been an error in judgement,” he admitted. “I hadn’t had any actual experience with them myself.”
“We can probably remedy that,” Spike said with a feral grin. “I’d be happy to introduce you to one of the two left down there.”
Ethan looked puzzled. “Not that I don’t understand what a bad idea it was, but I was sure I’d summoned at least six of them.”
Buffy twirled her scythe. “You did. I-we ended them.”
“Ah, the indomitable Ms. Summers. Of course you did. Is it any wonder you were Rupert’s favorite slayer?”
“I was his only slayer until a few years ago,” Buffy snorted. “And no thanks to you, I’m not his favorite right now.”
As if on cue, her phone rang and she answered it on the first ring. “Yes, Willow?” She began to smile and then handed the phone to Ethan.
“Giles wants a word with you,” she said brightly. “Say ‘hi’, Ethan.”
“Rupert! Old chap, old friend, old—yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I think that’s a bit excessive, don’t you? Oh, no, no, of course not. You’re quite right. And yes, she has. However, her recently-found lover seems to have a new friend who is quite intimidating and very angry with me. I cannot promise I will be alive by the time you get here.”
Thomas, who had yet to go back to his human face, had released Ethan to take the phone call, but had not moved very far away.
Ethan handed the phone back to Buffy. “He wants to speak to you.”
“Giles?” she said shortly. She listened for a short time, then said, “I’ll try. But we’re all pretty pissed off at him. I’m not making any promises.” She held the phone out to Faith, saying, “He wants us to keep Ethan alive until he gets here.”
While Faith had a quiet conversation with Giles, Buffy, Spike, and Thomas all fixed hard stares on Ethan, who seemed to have relaxed a bit. Thomas finally dropped his vampire mien when he realized it was making Angie nervous, and making the two younger slayers a bit antsy. He gave Angie a smile and an apology for frightening her.
“It’s okay,” she said, blushing. “I just have only ever seen one real vampire before, and he ran away when I flicked a little fireball at him.” She studied Thomas and his relaxed posture, then Spike and his clearly amused grin. “I’m guessing neither one of you would be that easy to get away from.”
Spike laughed. “Good guess. But neither one of us is planning to hurt you.” He lost his amused expression when he turned his gaze back on Ethan. “Can’t say as much for the mage here. Don’t care if Rupert does want to be the one to do the honors. I owe him… Buffy owes him… the actual Master of Cleveland owes him…. I’m pretty sure Slayer #2 can come up with some good reasons for wanting to off him.”
“I didn’t do anything to you,” Ethan muttered at Spike. “I was just trying make life harder for Rupert and Miss Goody-two-shoes here.”
“So, not trying to hurt me… just the woman I love.” Spike’s face shifted and he stepped closer to the chair and the cringing man on it. “I think you’ve confused my priorities, mate.” He grabbed the arm of the chair and flipped it on its side, dumping Ethan out at Faith’s feet. He followed up by lifting Ethan into the air by his belt, and holding him there with one hand while he wrapped his other hand around the man’s throat.
“Spike….” Buffy edged closer to them, not as sure of Spike’s actions as she wanted to be. She thought he was just trying to scare Ethan half to death, but also knew if he wanted to kill him, he could do it before she or Faith could stop him.
“Hey, used-to-be-blondie,” Faith said, grinning at Ethan’s terrified expression, “I kinda, semi-promised Giles we’d keep him alive.”
When Ethan looked at her hopefully, she added, “Didn’t promise he wouldn’t be a little the worse for wear, though.” She turned her back and walked over to Buffy.
Spike was still holding Ethan, and clearly struggling to decide what to do, when Thomas spoke up.
“We need to get more information from him about what Henrico has down there in his lair. And how we can get them to come up here where we can fight them in the open.”
Spike snarled, then dropped Ethan to the floor with a thud. “Lucky for you, seems like I’m the only one wants to see you dead just now.” He shook off his fangs and went to stand by the doors, staring out into the dark street.
While Ethan was lying on the floor, recovering the breath that the drop had knocked out of his lungs, Katie produced some handcuffs, which she snapped around his wrists, effectively pinning his arms behind him. Tina added a set of leg restraints that she put around his legs before hauling him up to a sitting position. Legs together in front, and arms locked behind him, Ethan sighed and allowed himself to slump against the tipped over chair.
“Now,” Thomas said, squatting down to eye level. “Tell me everything you know about Henrico’s set up, his minions and soldiers, and whatever magic might be protecting him.”
Originally posted at: https://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/764317.html
