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dragonyphoenixTitle: Conjuring Love From the Ashes of an Old Flame
Fandom: BtVS
Characters/Pairing: It starts out as Spike/Dru and Buffy/Angel, but then there are a couple of love spells so we get Willow/Angelus, Willow/Angel, Willow/Yarn!Spike, Willow/Spike
Rating: I'm going with PG in this section, but it's R-rated overall.
Concrit: Please, in comments
Disclaimer: They aren't mine, not yet, but the will be once I've taken over the world. Bwah-ha-ha.
Warnings/Squicks: While the sex isn't non-con, with Angelus as a partner it's not like it's going to be lovey-dovey sweet
Summary: Drusilla has a way to bring Angelus back. Unfortunately she needs Spike's ashes to do it.
Note: Written for a bad_swa prompt – conjure
Note: The Spike doll is based on two knitted Spikes by whichclothes
Note: The awesome banner was created by Shaken Silence
Note: Set after Bandy Candy but before Revelations
Master Index for the story
“Giles,” Buffy called out, shoving her way through the library doors. “Giles!”
Walking out of his office with a distracted air, Giles called out to Buffy, “Oh good, I was hoping to see you. Something odd...”
“Willow is missing.”
Giles stopped and stared at Buffy. “Are you sure?”
“We share a second period class, and she wasn't there so I asked around. Nobody's seen her,” Buffy said.
“Perhaps she's ill,” Giles offered.
“This is Willow we're talking about. The last time she missed a class, Malcolm had kidnapped her,” Buffy snapped out.
“Malcolm? Right, the demon in the robot's body,” he said. “Oh,” he added, catching Buffy's meaning. He pulled off his glasses and started cleaning them. “I, uh, suppose we could call Faith and have her investigate.”
“I'm going over there myself.” When Giles started explaining why she should stay at school, Buffy added, “She's my best friend.”
“Fine, but I'm driving, however, before we go there is something you should know. Some of my books are missing.”
“Giles,” Buffy almost shouted. “I think Willow disappearing is more important than a bunch of books.”
Giles shook his head. “That's not my point. Each of the books taken pertains to vampire lore, dark magic mostly. Some of the spells require human blood, and I'm thinking of those that specifically need the blood of a witch.”
“Drusilla,” Buffy shouted. “Drusilla took Willow's pencil the other night. Maybe she came back and grabbed Willow?”
“I don't know. With Angel watching Willow, she should have been safe, but I did want to prepare you for the possibility.”
Spike, dressed in the only thing he could find that fit, a pair of purple sweatpants, was passing the long hours until Willow's rising by searching for something she could wear in her closet. While she would, naturally, look perfect in anything, nothing there was good enough for his beautiful vampire. Still, she probably shouldn't run around naked while they went hunting for clothes. “Got to be something here that's not total trash,” he was saying, when the doorbell rang.
He froze.
“She's not answering,” he heard the Slayer say.
“Give her a moment. If she is ill, it'll take her time to come to the door,” the Watcher replied.
Spike grabbed Willow's corpse, desperately looked around for a hiding place, and then dove under the bed, taking care to make sure his love didn't get banged in the process.
“I'm going in,” Buffy said. He heard a key in the lock; it sounded like windows slamming open in the middle of the day, letting the sunlight in. Spike kept as still as only a vampire could, certain the Slayer was going to find them at any moment and end his unlife, which he could live with, except she'd kill Willow as well, and he wasn't about to stand for that.
Willow's bedroom door slammed open, and a moment later a shout rang out, in the Slayer's strident voice. “Giles!”
“Buffy,” Giles called out. “It looks like a love spell was performed in the kitchen.” Joining Buffy in Willow's bedroom, he added, “Good lord.” Footsteps walked around the bed as Giles started listing out components, “A pentagram laid out in chalk, censers although I can't tell what they were filled with, other than some sort of herb mixture, and hmmm runes.” He paused for a moment and then added decisively, “Buffy, there's no blood.”
“Huh?” came a tearful query from the doorway.
Spike rolled his eyes. “Come on,” he whispered, “find us already so I can fight you or get the hell out of here.”
“Whatever spell was done here, and we can't say for certain it was Drusilla at this point, it almost certainly didn't require human blood,” Giles said.
“How can you be sure? I mean, if she drained Will,” Buffy trailed off. Spike smiled, enjoying both the Slayer's distress and ignorance even though he was still worried about Willow's safety.
“Trust me, human blood in vampire spells rarely gets drained – the spell used by the Master being one of the few notable exceptions. It would be splashed all over, well, let's just say any human blood would be highly visible,” Giles said.
“What kind of spell was it? Do you think it was Drusilla's work?” Buffy asked.
“I'm not sure what the spell was. We should get the books back to the library, and I'll start researching. I doubt it was Drusilla. Willow knew better than to invite a vampire into her home. I'm starting to think Willow took the books, although how she knew of them I don't know since I kept them hidden behind... Well, never mind where.”
Buffy's voice sounded almost dead as she replied, “Willow might have invited Drusilla in to get her lucky pencil back.”
“Her what? You can't be serious,” Giles exclaimed.
“You didn't see how upset she was. She'd have done almost anything to get that stupid pencil back,” Buffy said.
“Surely she wouldn't have...” There was a pause, and then Giles added, “We need to know more about the spells, especially the one performed here in Willow's bedroom, before we can determine a course of action. I'll take notes on the setup of each spell, placement of components, what was used where, that sort of thing, and then we can work this out back at the library.”
“I should call Angel,” Buffy said. “Maybe he knows something.”
As Buffy reached over to pick up Willow's phone, Giles shouted out “No.” There was a pause, and then Spike heard, “I'd prefer to document the setup of this spell, since it's the one I don't recognize, before you, um, before it's disrupted.”
Buffy's voice sounded like thrown knives. “I'm not going to disturb the scene of the crime.”
“I didn't mean,” Giles started. “It's just that spells are very specific, and the slightest movement of components could set my research back by days.”
“Fine, I'll call from the kitchen,” Buffy muttered as she headed out the room.
“The kitchen? Where the other spell is? Aren't there any other phones in the house, preferably not near the remnants of the spells?” Giles hurried out after her. “Oh,” he called out to Buffy, “and ask Angel about the spell in Willow's bedroom. Perhaps he'll recognize it.”
Spike waited until he could hear their voices in the kitchen, Giles' sounding like he was walking on eggshells around the Slayer, telling Buffy to be careful about some potion she'd almost knocked over, and then Buffy on the phone, presumably with Angel. Slipping out of Willow's room, Spike opened a couple of doors, finding a bathroom and a master bedroom, which he guessed belonged to Willow's parents. Knowing that Giles would be scrounging around Willow's bedroom, possibly even getting down onto the floor, Spike figured that the other bedroom had to be a better hiding place. As quietly as he could, Spike carried Willow to the other room and slid her under her parents' bed, pulling the covers down so she'd be invisible from the doorway, and then hid himself in the closet, ready to fight if they were found.
An agonizingly long hour later, after the front door had closed behind Buffy and Giles, Spike peered through the window and watched them drive away, before speaking to Willow as he let the curtains close behind him. “I should never have Turned you here,” he said, looking towards her hiding place. “It's too vulnerable. I'm sorry pet. I should be taking better care of you.”
He listened to Buffy for a moment and asked, “What do you mean, Willow is missing?” Thunderstorms danced in his eyes. “Drusilla? Are you sure?” He waved Dru over. “Willow didn't mention anything about a spell when I walked her home,” he responded truthfully. Grabbing Dru by the throat, he added, “Sure, describe it.”
Holding the phone away, he whispered to Dru, “What did you do to my witch?”
“I made her love you,” Dru replied.
“After that,” he said before bringing the phone back up so he could speak to Buffy. “It doesn't sound like anything I'm familiar with.” After a pause, he added, “I don't know what Dru's been up to, but I'll see what I can find out.”
Rolling his eyes as Buffy jabbered on, he asked Dru, his voice pitched so it wouldn't carry to the phone, “What did you do?”
“Nothing. She's yours,” she replied, as if that said it all. It did. Drusilla was too obedient a Childe to touch anything of Angelus' without permission. “What's wrong?”
“Willow is missing,” he told Dru, forgetting to modulate his voice in his anger. “Huh?” he said into the phone. “Sorry, I was just repeating that Willow is missing; trying to get used to the idea.” After a pause he added, “No, I'm pretty sure I'll know something this evening.” He waited impatiently for Buffy to finish. “OK, see you tonight.”
Angelus threw the phone against the wall. “Damn it. What happened to her?”
“You care?” Dru asked.
“No, I don't care, but she belongs to me. I told her to go to school, and she didn't. If it's just her disobeying, well I can punish her for that, but this feels like something else, and I don't know what.”
“You mentioned a spell?” Dru asked, focusing on the part of the conversation that bothered her. “There's something just out of reach. The stars are singing discordant tunes full of double meanings, hidden motivations, and dire warnings, but I can't quite hear them.”
Drusilla could see tiny bubbles, as fragile as glass, floating about the room, carrying her answers inside, but only the gentlest touch would allow her to catch one. She reached out, quite carefully, and had just gotten one sitting on her hand when Angelus' words, as sharp as cut glass, ripped through the bubbles, bursting them all. She let out a small gasp as all her pretty answers shimmered through the room like fairy dust before vanishing into nothingness.
“Buffy saw the remnants of Willow's love spell and doesn't know what it is,” Angelus said with a laugh. Shivering, Dru wrapped her shawl more closely around her shoulders. “She thinks you want Willow for her blood, to use in a spell of your own.”
Unable to hear the stars' songs, Dru forgot the whispered warnings that hadn't quite reached her ears and, allowing herself to be distracted by Angelus' words, replied, “So many spells use witch's blood.”
“Not until I'm done with her.”
Spike dressed Willow in the first thing that came to hand – the shirt a set of horizontal stripes of browns, oranges, and golds, along with a short-skirted green jumper – being more concerned with getting her stowed someplace safe than with what she looked like to others. As soon as the sun was low enough, he stashed her in a stolen car and made a run for the closest cemetery, searching for a spot that looked like it wouldn't be disturbed.
The von Hauptmann crypt, located in an almost abandoned corner of Shady Rest, hadn't seen guests in decades. Its dust swirled around Spike's feet as he carried Willow in. He hid her in one of the stone coffins, furthest of three from the door, leaning over to kiss her cold lips before pulling the lid over her resting place. “Sleep well, pet. I've got a bit of business to take care of, but I'll return as soon as I can. Try not to wake up till I get back, OK?”
Spike went looking for weapons. He knew that Willow loved him, and who could blame her, but she also seemed to be infatuated with Angelus. That wasn't going to stand.
He knew of a demon, a crafter whose knives and swords had a balance unmatched by any other weapons Spike had ever wielded. Unfortunately he didn't have time for the trip, which was about fifteen miles outside of Sunnydale, not when there was a weaponry shop in town. It was called a sporting goods store, a hunting supply store, or some such nonsense, and it didn't carry swords, which was a pity, but crossbows and knives, now that would be useful.
Spike was just a couple of blocks away from the shop when he saw a vampire, dressed in a suit with bits of grave dirt still caked around the edges, dragging some human bint into an alley. Not that thrilled with the clothes, not only was it a suit but it was a cheap one at that, with a thick weave, but figuring they it was better than wearing sweatpants, Spike decided to intervene. As a bonus, he'd get the woman for dinner. He wasn't all that hungry yet, but he hadn't eaten in, hell it had been a while, hadn't it? He'd been a doll for the better part of a week, and then he'd had Willow's blood, but he'd given most of that back to her in the Turning.
“Hand over your clothes and this won't have to get ugly,” he called out as he stepped into the alleyway.
The vamp turned, still in game-face, as if that was going to scare him off. Why'd he always get stuck dealing with the dumb ones? “I don't have time for this, boy,” he said, shifting into a fighting stance.
The vampire lunged forward, only to trip on Spike's outstretched foot. Grabbing the vampire by the jacket, Spike yanked him around and slammed him into the wall before, with a flick of his wrist, he sent the vampire staggering backwards where it vanished into a cloud of dust.
“Hey,” he shouted, “I needed him alive.”
“Are you mentally deficient?” The dark-haired girl, in a delightfully tight top, was obviously a Slayer but apparently new to the job since she didn't recognize him as a vampire.
“Needed his clothes,” Spike explained.
She gave an appreciative leer towards his naked torso. “Guess you do at that. What happened?”
“This is what magic'll do to ya.”
“Magic?” she asked with a snort. “What the hell do you know about magic?”
“I know you're the Slayer,” he replied, starting to wonder if he could use her against Angelus. “The name's William,” he added, almost telling her he was Spike before realizing she might recognize the name.
“Faith,” she replied with a nod of her head. “You some kind of demon hunter?”
“Something like that,” Sike said.
“Yeah, well leave the demon killing to the experts,” she replied. Hearing a whimper from the ground, she asked the girl if she was OK. Getting a terrified nod in response, Faith added, “You should get out of here.” As the girl ran for the street, Faith called out, “Get home fast and don't go out at night.” Turning to Spike she added, “You still here? I thought I told you to buzz off.”
“You up for a real challenge?” Spike asked Faith.
Giving him another leer, she said, “You think you can take me on?”
Spike briefly wondered why he always got stuck dealing with the idiots. If Angelus wanted something, they immediately pegged what was up. Nobody ever thought Angelus was making a seductive play, mostly because he was busy tearing their guts out but still. Should be easy enough to get a Slayer back on track though. “Angelus,” was all he said.
She froze. “The vampire.”
“That's the one,” Spike replied.
“I heard he was a good guy now,” she said.
“You heard wrong.”
“I've got it on good authority,” she replied.
“Then your intel is out of date. He got happy a few nights back, and now he's up to his old tricks,” Spike explained.
“That bitch,” Faith exploded. “I can't believe Buffy bagged him again, knowing it would turn him, and didn't say a thing. What? Is she gonna let him kill all her friends before even trying to stop him?”
“Don't know about that, but I wouldn't mind some help taking him out,” Spike said.
“Lead on,” she replied.
“Was just gonna stop and pick up some weapons, and then we can be on our way.”
In an abandoned corner of a cemetery, in a crypt shut against the world, where no light could enter to disturb the sleeping darkness, the lid of a tomb erupted from its resting place and shattered against a cold, stone wall. A voice called out from the tomb. “Spike? Angelus?”
Fandom: BtVS
Characters/Pairing: It starts out as Spike/Dru and Buffy/Angel, but then there are a couple of love spells so we get Willow/Angelus, Willow/Angel, Willow/Yarn!Spike, Willow/Spike
Rating: I'm going with PG in this section, but it's R-rated overall.
Concrit: Please, in comments
Disclaimer: They aren't mine, not yet, but the will be once I've taken over the world. Bwah-ha-ha.
Warnings/Squicks: While the sex isn't non-con, with Angelus as a partner it's not like it's going to be lovey-dovey sweet
Summary: Drusilla has a way to bring Angelus back. Unfortunately she needs Spike's ashes to do it.
Note: Written for a bad_swa prompt – conjure
Note: The Spike doll is based on two knitted Spikes by whichclothes
Note: The awesome banner was created by Shaken Silence
Note: Set after Bandy Candy but before Revelations
Master Index for the story
* * *
“Giles,” Buffy called out, shoving her way through the library doors. “Giles!”
Walking out of his office with a distracted air, Giles called out to Buffy, “Oh good, I was hoping to see you. Something odd...”
“Willow is missing.”
Giles stopped and stared at Buffy. “Are you sure?”
“We share a second period class, and she wasn't there so I asked around. Nobody's seen her,” Buffy said.
“Perhaps she's ill,” Giles offered.
“This is Willow we're talking about. The last time she missed a class, Malcolm had kidnapped her,” Buffy snapped out.
“Malcolm? Right, the demon in the robot's body,” he said. “Oh,” he added, catching Buffy's meaning. He pulled off his glasses and started cleaning them. “I, uh, suppose we could call Faith and have her investigate.”
“I'm going over there myself.” When Giles started explaining why she should stay at school, Buffy added, “She's my best friend.”
“Fine, but I'm driving, however, before we go there is something you should know. Some of my books are missing.”
“Giles,” Buffy almost shouted. “I think Willow disappearing is more important than a bunch of books.”
Giles shook his head. “That's not my point. Each of the books taken pertains to vampire lore, dark magic mostly. Some of the spells require human blood, and I'm thinking of those that specifically need the blood of a witch.”
“Drusilla,” Buffy shouted. “Drusilla took Willow's pencil the other night. Maybe she came back and grabbed Willow?”
“I don't know. With Angel watching Willow, she should have been safe, but I did want to prepare you for the possibility.”
* * *
Spike, dressed in the only thing he could find that fit, a pair of purple sweatpants, was passing the long hours until Willow's rising by searching for something she could wear in her closet. While she would, naturally, look perfect in anything, nothing there was good enough for his beautiful vampire. Still, she probably shouldn't run around naked while they went hunting for clothes. “Got to be something here that's not total trash,” he was saying, when the doorbell rang.
He froze.
“She's not answering,” he heard the Slayer say.
“Give her a moment. If she is ill, it'll take her time to come to the door,” the Watcher replied.
Spike grabbed Willow's corpse, desperately looked around for a hiding place, and then dove under the bed, taking care to make sure his love didn't get banged in the process.
“I'm going in,” Buffy said. He heard a key in the lock; it sounded like windows slamming open in the middle of the day, letting the sunlight in. Spike kept as still as only a vampire could, certain the Slayer was going to find them at any moment and end his unlife, which he could live with, except she'd kill Willow as well, and he wasn't about to stand for that.
Willow's bedroom door slammed open, and a moment later a shout rang out, in the Slayer's strident voice. “Giles!”
“Buffy,” Giles called out. “It looks like a love spell was performed in the kitchen.” Joining Buffy in Willow's bedroom, he added, “Good lord.” Footsteps walked around the bed as Giles started listing out components, “A pentagram laid out in chalk, censers although I can't tell what they were filled with, other than some sort of herb mixture, and hmmm runes.” He paused for a moment and then added decisively, “Buffy, there's no blood.”
“Huh?” came a tearful query from the doorway.
Spike rolled his eyes. “Come on,” he whispered, “find us already so I can fight you or get the hell out of here.”
“Whatever spell was done here, and we can't say for certain it was Drusilla at this point, it almost certainly didn't require human blood,” Giles said.
“How can you be sure? I mean, if she drained Will,” Buffy trailed off. Spike smiled, enjoying both the Slayer's distress and ignorance even though he was still worried about Willow's safety.
“Trust me, human blood in vampire spells rarely gets drained – the spell used by the Master being one of the few notable exceptions. It would be splashed all over, well, let's just say any human blood would be highly visible,” Giles said.
“What kind of spell was it? Do you think it was Drusilla's work?” Buffy asked.
“I'm not sure what the spell was. We should get the books back to the library, and I'll start researching. I doubt it was Drusilla. Willow knew better than to invite a vampire into her home. I'm starting to think Willow took the books, although how she knew of them I don't know since I kept them hidden behind... Well, never mind where.”
Buffy's voice sounded almost dead as she replied, “Willow might have invited Drusilla in to get her lucky pencil back.”
“Her what? You can't be serious,” Giles exclaimed.
“You didn't see how upset she was. She'd have done almost anything to get that stupid pencil back,” Buffy said.
“Surely she wouldn't have...” There was a pause, and then Giles added, “We need to know more about the spells, especially the one performed here in Willow's bedroom, before we can determine a course of action. I'll take notes on the setup of each spell, placement of components, what was used where, that sort of thing, and then we can work this out back at the library.”
“I should call Angel,” Buffy said. “Maybe he knows something.”
As Buffy reached over to pick up Willow's phone, Giles shouted out “No.” There was a pause, and then Spike heard, “I'd prefer to document the setup of this spell, since it's the one I don't recognize, before you, um, before it's disrupted.”
Buffy's voice sounded like thrown knives. “I'm not going to disturb the scene of the crime.”
“I didn't mean,” Giles started. “It's just that spells are very specific, and the slightest movement of components could set my research back by days.”
“Fine, I'll call from the kitchen,” Buffy muttered as she headed out the room.
“The kitchen? Where the other spell is? Aren't there any other phones in the house, preferably not near the remnants of the spells?” Giles hurried out after her. “Oh,” he called out to Buffy, “and ask Angel about the spell in Willow's bedroom. Perhaps he'll recognize it.”
Spike waited until he could hear their voices in the kitchen, Giles' sounding like he was walking on eggshells around the Slayer, telling Buffy to be careful about some potion she'd almost knocked over, and then Buffy on the phone, presumably with Angel. Slipping out of Willow's room, Spike opened a couple of doors, finding a bathroom and a master bedroom, which he guessed belonged to Willow's parents. Knowing that Giles would be scrounging around Willow's bedroom, possibly even getting down onto the floor, Spike figured that the other bedroom had to be a better hiding place. As quietly as he could, Spike carried Willow to the other room and slid her under her parents' bed, pulling the covers down so she'd be invisible from the doorway, and then hid himself in the closet, ready to fight if they were found.
An agonizingly long hour later, after the front door had closed behind Buffy and Giles, Spike peered through the window and watched them drive away, before speaking to Willow as he let the curtains close behind him. “I should never have Turned you here,” he said, looking towards her hiding place. “It's too vulnerable. I'm sorry pet. I should be taking better care of you.”
* * *
Angelus picked up the phone. His face broke into a grin, wide enough to brighten the room as he heard who was on the other end. “Buffy!” He listened to Buffy for a moment and asked, “What do you mean, Willow is missing?” Thunderstorms danced in his eyes. “Drusilla? Are you sure?” He waved Dru over. “Willow didn't mention anything about a spell when I walked her home,” he responded truthfully. Grabbing Dru by the throat, he added, “Sure, describe it.”
Holding the phone away, he whispered to Dru, “What did you do to my witch?”
“I made her love you,” Dru replied.
“After that,” he said before bringing the phone back up so he could speak to Buffy. “It doesn't sound like anything I'm familiar with.” After a pause, he added, “I don't know what Dru's been up to, but I'll see what I can find out.”
Rolling his eyes as Buffy jabbered on, he asked Dru, his voice pitched so it wouldn't carry to the phone, “What did you do?”
“Nothing. She's yours,” she replied, as if that said it all. It did. Drusilla was too obedient a Childe to touch anything of Angelus' without permission. “What's wrong?”
“Willow is missing,” he told Dru, forgetting to modulate his voice in his anger. “Huh?” he said into the phone. “Sorry, I was just repeating that Willow is missing; trying to get used to the idea.” After a pause he added, “No, I'm pretty sure I'll know something this evening.” He waited impatiently for Buffy to finish. “OK, see you tonight.”
Angelus threw the phone against the wall. “Damn it. What happened to her?”
“You care?” Dru asked.
“No, I don't care, but she belongs to me. I told her to go to school, and she didn't. If it's just her disobeying, well I can punish her for that, but this feels like something else, and I don't know what.”
“You mentioned a spell?” Dru asked, focusing on the part of the conversation that bothered her. “There's something just out of reach. The stars are singing discordant tunes full of double meanings, hidden motivations, and dire warnings, but I can't quite hear them.”
Drusilla could see tiny bubbles, as fragile as glass, floating about the room, carrying her answers inside, but only the gentlest touch would allow her to catch one. She reached out, quite carefully, and had just gotten one sitting on her hand when Angelus' words, as sharp as cut glass, ripped through the bubbles, bursting them all. She let out a small gasp as all her pretty answers shimmered through the room like fairy dust before vanishing into nothingness.
“Buffy saw the remnants of Willow's love spell and doesn't know what it is,” Angelus said with a laugh. Shivering, Dru wrapped her shawl more closely around her shoulders. “She thinks you want Willow for her blood, to use in a spell of your own.”
Unable to hear the stars' songs, Dru forgot the whispered warnings that hadn't quite reached her ears and, allowing herself to be distracted by Angelus' words, replied, “So many spells use witch's blood.”
“Not until I'm done with her.”
* * *
Spike dressed Willow in the first thing that came to hand – the shirt a set of horizontal stripes of browns, oranges, and golds, along with a short-skirted green jumper – being more concerned with getting her stowed someplace safe than with what she looked like to others. As soon as the sun was low enough, he stashed her in a stolen car and made a run for the closest cemetery, searching for a spot that looked like it wouldn't be disturbed.
The von Hauptmann crypt, located in an almost abandoned corner of Shady Rest, hadn't seen guests in decades. Its dust swirled around Spike's feet as he carried Willow in. He hid her in one of the stone coffins, furthest of three from the door, leaning over to kiss her cold lips before pulling the lid over her resting place. “Sleep well, pet. I've got a bit of business to take care of, but I'll return as soon as I can. Try not to wake up till I get back, OK?”
Spike went looking for weapons. He knew that Willow loved him, and who could blame her, but she also seemed to be infatuated with Angelus. That wasn't going to stand.
He knew of a demon, a crafter whose knives and swords had a balance unmatched by any other weapons Spike had ever wielded. Unfortunately he didn't have time for the trip, which was about fifteen miles outside of Sunnydale, not when there was a weaponry shop in town. It was called a sporting goods store, a hunting supply store, or some such nonsense, and it didn't carry swords, which was a pity, but crossbows and knives, now that would be useful.
Spike was just a couple of blocks away from the shop when he saw a vampire, dressed in a suit with bits of grave dirt still caked around the edges, dragging some human bint into an alley. Not that thrilled with the clothes, not only was it a suit but it was a cheap one at that, with a thick weave, but figuring they it was better than wearing sweatpants, Spike decided to intervene. As a bonus, he'd get the woman for dinner. He wasn't all that hungry yet, but he hadn't eaten in, hell it had been a while, hadn't it? He'd been a doll for the better part of a week, and then he'd had Willow's blood, but he'd given most of that back to her in the Turning.
“Hand over your clothes and this won't have to get ugly,” he called out as he stepped into the alleyway.
The vamp turned, still in game-face, as if that was going to scare him off. Why'd he always get stuck dealing with the dumb ones? “I don't have time for this, boy,” he said, shifting into a fighting stance.
The vampire lunged forward, only to trip on Spike's outstretched foot. Grabbing the vampire by the jacket, Spike yanked him around and slammed him into the wall before, with a flick of his wrist, he sent the vampire staggering backwards where it vanished into a cloud of dust.
“Hey,” he shouted, “I needed him alive.”
“Are you mentally deficient?” The dark-haired girl, in a delightfully tight top, was obviously a Slayer but apparently new to the job since she didn't recognize him as a vampire.
“Needed his clothes,” Spike explained.
She gave an appreciative leer towards his naked torso. “Guess you do at that. What happened?”
“This is what magic'll do to ya.”
“Magic?” she asked with a snort. “What the hell do you know about magic?”
“I know you're the Slayer,” he replied, starting to wonder if he could use her against Angelus. “The name's William,” he added, almost telling her he was Spike before realizing she might recognize the name.
“Faith,” she replied with a nod of her head. “You some kind of demon hunter?”
“Something like that,” Sike said.
“Yeah, well leave the demon killing to the experts,” she replied. Hearing a whimper from the ground, she asked the girl if she was OK. Getting a terrified nod in response, Faith added, “You should get out of here.” As the girl ran for the street, Faith called out, “Get home fast and don't go out at night.” Turning to Spike she added, “You still here? I thought I told you to buzz off.”
“You up for a real challenge?” Spike asked Faith.
Giving him another leer, she said, “You think you can take me on?”
Spike briefly wondered why he always got stuck dealing with the idiots. If Angelus wanted something, they immediately pegged what was up. Nobody ever thought Angelus was making a seductive play, mostly because he was busy tearing their guts out but still. Should be easy enough to get a Slayer back on track though. “Angelus,” was all he said.
She froze. “The vampire.”
“That's the one,” Spike replied.
“I heard he was a good guy now,” she said.
“You heard wrong.”
“I've got it on good authority,” she replied.
“Then your intel is out of date. He got happy a few nights back, and now he's up to his old tricks,” Spike explained.
“That bitch,” Faith exploded. “I can't believe Buffy bagged him again, knowing it would turn him, and didn't say a thing. What? Is she gonna let him kill all her friends before even trying to stop him?”
“Don't know about that, but I wouldn't mind some help taking him out,” Spike said.
“Lead on,” she replied.
“Was just gonna stop and pick up some weapons, and then we can be on our way.”
* * *
In an abandoned corner of a cemetery, in a crypt shut against the world, where no light could enter to disturb the sleeping darkness, the lid of a tomb erupted from its resting place and shattered against a cold, stone wall. A voice called out from the tomb. “Spike? Angelus?”