man in motion
by SoulVamp
Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15
Gunn swept back into the lobby and sagged into a chair. On the other side of the room, Angel sat with his arms folded across his chest. "Well?" he asked.
Gunn opened his mouth to answer, then shut it again and shrugged. "She got him. The two of 'em took off."
Angel considered this. Was it worth all this trouble after all? Spike didn't seem eager to hang around and screw with him, and maybe Wes was right. What was done was done, and this whole plan went against everything he'd tried so hard to do all these years. It was wrong... not to mention stupid, haphazard, and...
If Buffy ever found out, there'd be no forgiveness there. Ever.
"Maybe we should just cut our losses," Angel said finally. "He got his reward. What's the harm in --"
"Boss, don't you get it?!" Gunn cried. "We let that asshole live, and his shadow won't ever get up to full strength!"
"His... shadow?"
Gunn gave a short laugh. "Oh, please, did you really think I was doin' this to help you with your lame vendetta?" Suddenly Gunn's eyes turned milky white, his voice lowering to a feral growl. "There's a plan for that boy, and I'll execute it with or without you."
Angel was knocked cold before he even saw Gunn's fist hurtling toward his face.
***
Xander's jaw fell open. "What? Spike?! Uh, Dawnie... I don't mean to state the obvious here, but Spike's... well, he's gone. Dust. Sorry, but he's not coming back."
Dawn looked pained briefly, but shook it off. "Xander, I know what I saw, and it was him. The hair, the fangs, everything. Spike's in there, and we've gotta --"
"I'm going in," Faith announced.
"Are you sure?" Kennedy asked. "What about the others in there?"
"Oh, please! I can totally wipe the floor with 'em. Nah, it's cool. You guys stay out here. If I don't come back in ten, send the troops in."
Without giving anyone else a chance to argue, Faith made a mad dash for the side of the building and kicked the door in.
"See, this is why she and I didn't last," Xander said, shaking his head. "It's all about the quick payoff, no little niceties, just bam!"
Kennedy and Dawn peered at Xander oddly.
"Sorry, did I just take that to a place it didn't need to go?" he asked weakly.
***
"Well, we'll just have to show up, then," Fred said decisively as she pulled into the airport parking lot. "I don't have the address, but once we get to town, it shouldn't be too hard to find."
"How's that?" Spike asked, exiting the car.
"Just point me to a library," Fred said proudly. "There's almost no info I can't get given a computer and a cup of coffee."
Spike grinned. "Brilliant, then," he said. "Shall we?"
The next flight didn't leave for Cleveland for another hour, so while Fred nervously paged through a magazine, Spike bought cigarettes and wandered outside.
Really should give this up, got a pair of nice new lungs now, he thought, taking a lazy drag. Ah, well, enjoy it while I can. Last packet for me, get on the bloody patch when it's empty.
He gazed up at the sun streaming across the cloudless sky, a perfect crystal blue. So damn beautiful, he thought. God, that alone's worth losin' immortality.
That and the look on her face when I sweep her into my arms again...
***
The look on her face was priceless.
"Dearie me!" he said. "It's Faith! The rogue-fucking-Slayer! How the hell've you been, pet?"
Faith was training her crossbow on the nervous man in the corner. "Shut up, Spike," she commanded. "I'll deal with your little friend here, and then I'm bustin' you out."
"Thanks ever so," he said with a smirk. "Been goin' a bit stir crazy in 'ere, but then I'd wager you know a thing or two about what prison does to a person."
Ignoring his remark, she turned her attention back to the man, who was now whimpering. "Please don't kill me," he pleaded.
"And this is the amazing and powerful warlock," the vampire muttered with contempt. "Knew you didn't have the stones to keep it together."
"Who are you?" Faith demanded. "How'd you bring him back from the dead? And where the fuck are the keys to the cage?"
"J - Jay," he stammered. "Jay Ellis. I - I didn't bring him... my wife. She did it. Here." He flung a ring of keys at Faith. "Take him. Just go."
"Your wife, huh? Where's she?" Faith picked the keys off the floor and moved toward the cage, keeping the crossbow pointed at Jay.
"I don't know," Jay replied. "Really. I swear."
Faith unlocked the cage. "Let me take care of 'im," the vampire said. "I'm feelin' so terribly peckish."
"Like I'd let you eat him, even if he's up to no good? Don't think so, man," Faith said. She yanked him by the arm toward the door.
"Wait!" Jay called. "You don't know what you're --"
"Did anybody ask you?" Faith pushed the vampire out the door, then turned to Jay and released the trigger on the crossbow. The arrow slammed into the wall an inch beside Jay's head. "Try anything else even remotely freaky, and you'll have three pissed off Slayers to deal with. And next time, we won't let you live."
"Neither will he," Jay whispered to himself with a hint of a smile. "Let the chaos begin."
Buffy could only stare at the blond standing next to Faith, her feet rooted to the floor as she drank him in.
Spike.
His mouth, his shoulders, his eyes, his hair, his skin...
"How did you get here so... I... we... ?" She turned to Willow. "Did you... ? What... ?"
He held up a hand. "Why don't you scroll through those questions a mite slower, blondie? Your head'll spin off."
Suddenly she didn't care about the answers. She flew to him and kissed him hard, not caring that everyone was crowded into the living room watching the entire display as his arms wound around her waist and he molded himself to her.
"Okay, okay, B, you guys wanna get a room for that?" Faith asked. "'Cause I get that you're with the happy, but there's a psycho warlock and his badass spousal unit we gotta deal with."
"Spike?" Willow piped up. "Is Fred with you?"
"Fred?" he asked, confused. "Er... uh..."
"Stayed back in LA?" Willow asked. "Maybe I should call, make sure everything's okay out there."
"Eh, yeah, right, ring him up. Make sure --"
"You mean ring her up?"
He cleared his throat. "'S what I meant. Her. Yeah." He laughed nervously.
Willow took a step backward. "Wait a minute..."
"Will?" Buffy's voice was suddenly full of concern. "What is it?"
Willow looked at Faith. "Where did you guys find him?" she asked slowly.
"That warehouse," Dawn supplied. "People had him locked in a cage, he was --"
"The Empath," Willow realized. "Oh, God, you guys, this isn't Spike, this is --"
He chuckled. "Well, parts of me are," he said. "Sort of." His fist shot out and punched Kennedy in the stomach, sending her flying across the room, where she landed in an unconscious heap.
Buffy shook her head in disbelief. "No... no... I knew it was a trick the minute I heard you were alive..."
His features morphed into gameface. "Alive?" he sniffed haughtily. "Please, Slayer, I've never felt more dead." He gripped her by the shoulders, and before anyone could move to stop him, sank his fangs into her neck.
***
"Got it?"
Fred nodded, jingling a set of keys. "All rental car enhanced," she said happily. "Now to get all researchy."
Spike held up a small scrap of paper. "Got directions to one of those cyber cafes," he told her. "Think that'll do?"
"Oo, even better than a library! Unlimited caffeination and computer access!"
He chuckled. "If I'd known you were so easy to please..."
Her blush was unmistakable, and he mentally kicked himself. Poor thing's a bit hung up on me, I shouldn't... Oh hell...
For the briefest of moments, Spike wished there could be two of him... one to live in passionate bliss with Buffy, the other to make a go of it with Fred.
***
She spun the chair around when Gunn entered. "Nice job," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Which part of things were you not clear on?"
Gunn was nonplussed. "Couldn't be helped. The further Angel gets from this place, the less effect it's got on him. He starts makin' with the stupid conscience bullshit even five miles from the building."
Lilah grinned and stood up. "But not you."
"Nope."
"You're still ours, aren't you?" She trailed her fingertips along the lapel of his jacket. "Great thing, the human mind. It might be weaker than a demon's, but the results are so much nicer." Abruptly, she tightened her grip on the fabric she held and pulled him closer, her features hardening. "And yet you make more mistakes," she hissed. "You let a few things slip to him, didn't you?"
"Nothing so specific that he'd ever figure it out," Gunn replied.
"He knows too much already," Lilah said, shoving him away from her. "Stake him."
"Consider it done." He gave Lilah a decisive nod as he departed.
From the shadows clinging to the corner of the office, Wes appeared. "So why didn't you do that to me?" he asked. "Why not work harder to turn me against him, too?"
Lilah sighed. "Call me crazy, call me old-fashioned..." She sidled up to him and ran a hand through his hair tenderly. "I just couldn't, Wesley..."
The axe sliced through her neck swiftly, her head hitting the floor with a thud. Wes didn't waste a moment assessing the damage, simply dashed from the office, trying to ignore the sharp sting swelling behind his eyes.
He knew it wouldn't be long before she'd regenerated, but hopefully this would buy him some time.
***
Buffy awoke in her bed, tucked beneath crisp sheets. A sharp pain thudded in her neck, and she struggled to sit up.
"Sleeping Beauty stirs."
She glared through the darkness and saw the slim form leaning casually against the doorframe, his face still contorted into angry bumps and ridges. "What did you do with everyone else?" she demanded, her voice hoarse.
"All in due time," he assured her. "Right now, the lot of 'em's tied up... wanted you to watch while I drain the life out of each and every one of your pathetic little mates."
"Not gonna happen, Spike."
His fangs glistened as he grinned. "Oh, it's so cute the way you say his name like that, even when you're all angry and determined-like." In a flurry of speed, he was straddling her, hand buried in her hair as he drew her head up brutally. She let out a strangled cry of pain. "Don't you bloody well get it?" he asked. "I'm only wearin' his skin, Slayer."
"What are you?" she managed.
He leaned in closer. "I'm what's been buried beneath his soul, his humanity, his chip, his brain... all these years, I'm finally free."
She gulped, realization setting in. "You're..."
"I'm what wriggled in when he fed from Drusilla," he confirmed. "I'm his demon."
Fred had been at the keyboard for what seemed endless dull hours that left Spike feeling twitchy and useless. Four cappuccinos, ten cigarettes, and something called a "killer brownie" -- a scary concoction that tasted as if it were made from a block of solid sugar -- in him, Spike's knees started to bounce. He found himself cracking stupid jokes and babbling the most inane things at Fred as she worked.
"So then in '76, I decided I fancied bein' a blond," he said. "Dru left the bleach on too long, though, and I wound up stark platinum. Burned like hell, but after she showed me the Polaroid, I decided I rather liked it."
"What'd you say?" Fred asked distractedly, her bleary eyes focused on the monitor.
He took another sip of his over-syrapped beverage and grinned. "'Course there was that period in the mid '80s when I decided to give a bit of what-for to the little goth sorts. Dyed it pitch black. Got m'self all up like whosisname from Bauhaus --"
"Robert Smith?" Fred tried.
Oh, so she is payin' attention, he thought with a grin.
"No, that's the Cure, luv. Oh, bollocks, what the hell was that bloke's name?"
"Stanley Avenue!" Fred suddenly cried triumphantly.
Spike frowned. "Got no idea who that is, but I know that's not it."
"No, no, that's the street where they live!" She was beaming, eyes all twinkly and excited at her detective skills.
Spike's tongue drifted to the roof of his mouth and he set his jaw tightly as an entirely inappropriate thought presented itself to him.
Cup her face, you ponce! Grab the back of her beautiful neck and take her mouth! Pull her into your chair, take those long legs and wrap 'em around you! Let her feel what's goin' on in your trousers! Grind it against her, make her all --
She was snapping her fingers in front of his face.
"Spike? We go now? Yes? Earth to Spike..."
"Sorry, right, yes, off we go!" He pocketed the car keys before she had a chance to protest.
"Hey!"
"Oh, come on, let me behind the wheel for a change, eh?"
"You drive too fast," she pointed out.
"How would you know, pet?" he asked. "Never seen me drive, have you?"
"No," Fred replied. "I just somehow suspect that you drive fast."
He winked at her. "Buckle up."
She rolled her eyes, but acquiesced and headed for the passenger side. "Oh, and it's Peter Murphy," she said.
Spike was infinitely impressed. God, she could get me into so much trouble.
***
"Trouble. Lots and lots of trouble," Angel said as he stood up. "God, what was I thinking?"
Wes didn't meet his boss' eyes. "It's the firm," he told him. "They tried to put you in a thrall, and it's not holding quite as firmly as they'd like."
"Gunn... damnit, they've gotten to Gunn..."
"Very much so, it seems," Wes said. "He's on his way now to dust you."
"We've gotta get out of here."
Small beeps sounded across the room. Für Elise. Angel turned his head toward the source of the sound and spotted Fred's cell phone blinking on the coffee table.
Wes moved toward it and answered.
***
C'mon, pick up, pick up, pick up! Willow thought insistently. Her hands were free, but her feet were tied securely to the staircase banister. Spike -- or, no, not Spike... Spike's way evil twin -- had been too hasty, hadn't emptied her pockets. She'd thought at first of calling 911, but tell them what, exactly? "Help, my friends and I are being attacked by a vampire!" would definitely be seen as a prank call and ignored. Even if Fred couldn't do anything from LA, maybe she could at least --
"Hello?" came a male voice on the other end.
"Y - you're not Fred."
"No, not the last time I checked." There was a moment of silence. "Willow? Is that you?"
"Oh, Wesley! Thank God! Yes, it's me! Is Fred there?"
"No, not at present, but --"
A voice in the background. Muffled conversation.
"Wes?" Willow asked.
More silence.
"Hey, Willow." A different voice. Deeper. Worried.
Her eyes grew wide. "Angel."
From somewhere above her, Willow heard a clucking sound. She raised her head and found herself staring straight into cat-yellow eyes.
"And just what does the witch think she's doin'?" He plucked the phone out of her hand and flung it across the room.
Willow squeaked as he tore the rope from around her ankles, slung her over his shoulder, and carried her upstairs.
"Willow?" the small voice echoed from the speaker of the phone. "Willow?!"
***
"Willow's prob'ly gettin' her neck snapped even as we speak, boss."
Angel whipped around, tossing the phone to Wes. "Gunn, it doesn't have to be like this," he said tensely.
Again, the younger man's eyes clouded over, the fetid white substance milky and thick across his pupils. "Yes," he replied. "Yes, it really does, actually." He stepped closer to Angel and grasped him around the neck, lifting the vampire off his feet and crushing his windpipe.
Wes punched the phone off in frustration, unable to get Willow to respond on the other end. He lifted his head in time to see Gunn produce a stake from his jacket pocket.
"Gunn! No!"
Wes dove at him, trying to knock his legs out from under him, but Gunn merely kicked him away. "Yo, English, you wanna chill? I got my hands full."
Wes rose to his feet. "Put him down, Gunn. This isn't really you. You're under the influence of --"
Gunn's hand squeezed tighter around Angel's throat.
"Stop!" Wes begged. "Please!"
The stake inched closer. Angel scrabbled at Gunn's hand, trying to pry it from his neck.
"You wanna do something good for humanity?" Gunn growled. "Why don't you fucking die for it?"
He plunged the stake into Angel's chest, and the vampire dissipated into a swirl of dusty grey ashes.
Gunn's body went slightly limp at the moment of impact, and Wes took this opportunity to leap on him, pummeling his fists into his face until it was an unrecognizable bloody pulp.
From the doorway came the sound of clapping.
"You're so sexy when you've gone bad, lover," Lilah purred.
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