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They hadn't talked while they'd headed to Giles' house after their
trip to the hospital. Oddly it had been Spike who had insisted
about them going to the hospital, claiming they weren't going to
be of any help to Giles and Willow if still hurt.
None of them had uttered a single word after that remark. Buffy
looked at the vampire, who was driving them to Giles' house, his
eyes on the road, his jaws clenched.
Buffy lightly squirmed in her seat; she didn't want to admit she
was afraid of him in that moment. She saw he was barely containing
its demon's rage.
She knew Spike didn't give a damn about them. As he'd reminded
them time and again, the only thing which kept him from killing
them was the chip.
He'd betrayed them, yet in the end had helped them, thinking about
it his betrayal had helped them sorting things out.
She'd always suspected Spike liked Giles. What she'd never
imagined was that Spike liked Willow, as well.
There was something she couldn’t understand about him; his whole
behavior that night had surprised her, to say the least.
<Can this night get any weirder?>
She silently wondered; her eyes filled with tears when she heard
Willow's voice telling her she'd just jinxed herself. She let out
a shaky breath and closed her eyes thinking about Giles.
She couldn't let herself feel the pain, she couldn't let the
emptiness claim her...or she wouldn't be able to help Giles and
Willow.
Later, she was going to explore the depth of her feelings...and
let them kill her, if her friends were dead.
If Giles was dead.
For now, she just had to find them. No matter what.
She opened her eyes and looked at Spike realizing he was probably
thinking the same things, she
cleared her throat and softly said, "We'll find them, Spike."
Spike looked at her, for the first time since they'd left the
graveyard, his glare was as cold as ice as cold as his voice when
he said, "You can bet on it, Slayer..."
Buffy saw even what the vampire wasn't telling her...
Whoever had taken Giles and Willow was dearly going to pay. For
the first time since she'd known him, Buffy totally agreed with
him.
~~*~~*~~*~~
They all went into full research mode, as soon as they entered
Giles' apartment, though they were all hurt and tired, they just
couldn't let themselves rest.
They didn't want to waste precious time. It was dawn when Spike
finally told them to go to sleep.
Spike was tired and angry. He realized his cover was slowly
shattering, but after that night he didn’t have time to think
about his facade. Heta7tanatos was more important than anything
else.
The fact that the demon had taken Giles and Willow showed how much
serious that matter was. He’d had barely time to contact the
Eletti, since they had returned to Giles’ apartment.
It was strange how he'd slipped into the role of leader of the
Scooby Gang, he thought. Never had he been so glad about the heavy
training he’d had when he was still alive.
He realized that not even Buffy had paid attention to that,
although he hadn’t missed the strange looks she had been giving
him. He knew she was on to something…probably not his calling, not
his real identity, but she suspected, that was enough.
Now he was alone, in the watcher’s living room, reading old text
that talked about demons and prophecies. When he was still alive,
he had spent countless hours reading them, studying them. His
cover of bad-ass-master vampire didn’t include depth knowledge of
obscure texts...that had been a bonus.
Only Dalton had been aware of his knowledge’s depth. He had been
sent by the Eletti to help him…too bad, he had been fried by the
Judge.
The texts weren’t very clear about the entity that had taken
Willow and Giles. A purple mist was usually associated with the
Amethyst order. Necromancers and warlocks.
Heta7tanatos meant humans and demons had associated to end the
world.
He shook his head. Men and women like him, for centuries had given
up their lives, to join the Eletti, trying to save the world.
Most of them were alone; they gave up love, family and friends to
do so. He had been lucky, he had had Drusilla…and when she’d left
him and he had been assigned to Sunnydale on a permanent basis,
there had been the others. The ScoobyGang.
His demon respected them, because they were valid opponents. His
soul…he respected them, for their strength, for the loyalty they
showed to the Slayer…for the fact that though not being forced by
a calling as in Buffy or Giles’ case, they stayed and fought
risking their lives, risking their souls.
He couldn’t get why people…regular people wanted to end the world.
He could see the demons’ points….but why humans wanted to do that
was beyond him.
He closed his eyes thinking about Willow and Giles. He understood
now, why there were such strong regulations about caring for
humans.
Truth was he cared about both of them, more than he wanted to
admit…and that was a weakness he couldn’t afford right now.
He opened his eyes when he heard steps approaching, he knew
without a doubt that it was, Buffy.
The vampire turned and looked at her noticing she was wearing one
of Giles' shirt and a pair of shorts and said, "You should rest,
Slayer...you're still weak."
"I will survive..." she said, sitting on the couch next to him,
Spike looked at her and said, "You have to regain your
strength...get the hell out of here and go to sleep."
"I can't..." she said in a low voice.
"You have to" he all but growled.
"I can't close my eyes...I'm too worried...." She said,
shaking her head when she realized she had just admitted her
weakness to one of her worst enemies. It was just…for the life of
her; she couldn’t see him as an enemy…not after that night.
"Fine...don't close your eyes then...just lay still and let your
Slayer's healing works its magic..." he snapped.
Buffy took a deep breath and looked at the vampire, his hair was
tousled, she'd seen him running his hands through it quite often
for the last hours, he was paler than usual.
<What the hell is going on here?>
She silently wondered. He'd never looked so concerned, so worried,
not even for Drusilla. She shook her head and asked, "What’s
happening, Spike?”
The vampire looked at her, seeing the meaning behind her words,
yet he shrugged and said, “’ Looks sodding
clear to me, slayer…”
“Why did you fight with us last night?” she asked looking at him.
Spike looked back at her, tempted to tell her the truth…but unless
the Eletti gave him the all clear, he couldn’t, so he just cocked
an eyebrow at her and said, “Who said I was fighting *with* you? I
was fighting the demons…a nice, good spot of violence ….”
“Tell me another one, Spike….” She snapped. “I don’t believe you!
I saw you fighting the demon that had broken Xander’s wrist and
beat it in a bloody mess…I saw you charging the demon that was
holding Willow…”
“They were nearer…” he replied.
“Yeah, right…” she paused for an instant then she surprised him
punching him on the nose
“Ow….you BITCH!” He growled.
“I want the truth, Spike…and I want it now! What did the demon
tell you? Why were you fighting with us? Why are you still in
Sunnydale?” she asked, marking each question with a punch.
Spike got up from the couch and surprised her, calmly saying,
“You’re not ready for the truth, Slayer….and it doesn’t matter
now…we have to find Red and the Watcher…and kill whatever took
them…”
Buffy shook her head and whispered, “You’re right…but we’re not
finished, Spike…I want answers….and I’m more than ready to hear
the truth”
Spike snorted at her words but said, “Perhaps you’re right… ”
Buffy shrugged and said, “So, what are we going to do?"
"Research for now...we've got to know who are we dealing with
before we can do anything...isn't what your watcher always says?”
He paused and looked at the Slayer, she was close…too close to the
truth…and it was still too soon, he got close to her and whispered
against her face, “Or have you forgotten while playing GI-Jane?"
"Bastard" she said through clenched teeth.
Spike cocked an eyebrow at her and said, "That I am, ducks..."
Buffy looked at him and decided to let it drop. She really wasn't
in the mood for her usual banter with the vampire, though she
realized his last attack had been a way to distract her from what
was happening, so she took another deep breath before asking, "Did
you find anything?"
Spike ran a hand through his hair. Should he tell her what he
knew, what he had found out? He wasn’t supposed to read dead
languages, but he knew she had heard what the demon had told him
and recognized that he had been speaking to him in a language he
wasn’t supposed to know, so he shrugged and said, “Not much….I’m
not the brainy one, here remember? "
Buffy swallowed, trying to fight back tears, her voice was cracked
when she said, "Giles is"
"And Red..." Spike added.
Buffy tilted her head up, surprised by the softness in the
vampire's voice. She got up and said, "I know someone who can help
us..."
Spike looked at her and said, "Look ducks, if you're going to call
Peaches... "
Buffy shook her head and said, "No, I'm not..."
"Who then?"
"Ethan Rayne" she whispered.
"Ethan_ Halloween, Eyghon, Band Candy Incident_ Rayne?” Xander's
voice called from atop the stairs.
Buffy turned toward his friend. He looked like death warmed over,
yet she couldn't help smiling at his words.
She shrugged and said, "He knows magic, black magic, dead
languages..."
"He's a bastard...last time he was here; he turned Giles in a
demon!" Xander said approaching them.
"Do you have a better idea?" she asked.
Xander looked at her he was about to speak, when Spike interrupted
him saying, "Look, I don't care who you call...I couldn't care
less even if it was that wanker of my grandsire...just do it!"
"Shit, fang boy I didn't know you cared so much..."
Spike growled morphing in his game face. He was so very tired. Of
everything.
He was tired of feigning he couldn’t care less about what happened
to them, while he actually lurked in the shadows, helping them.
He was tired of putting up with all the crap and the venom that
boy threw at him.
Habit and discipline, yet kicked in and he was able to catch up
before he did something he could regret. His voice was as cold as
ice when he said, "Look, had it been one of you I'd been
celebrating right now, but I *respect* the Watcher, so make that
phone call, now!"
Both Buffy and Xander noticed either Spike hesitancy and the
fact he hadn't mentioned Willow, they looked at each other, then
Buffy said, "I'll go and try reaching Ethan"
"How do we know he's not part of this?" Xander asked.
Spike smiled at him, "Trust me, once ducks reaches him we'll find
out whether he's part of it and I do really hope he isn't... "
"And what if he is? You what? You can't hurt him, can you?" Xander
snapped.
He couldn't believe they were going to waste time into looking for
Ethan Rayne.
"I can..." Buffy whispered. She looked at Xander and repeated, "I
can..."
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