Second Verse
Chapter 10 -- Meeting Demons
By the third demon bar, Xander's knees ached, his head pounded, and he was bored. No, more than that; he was BORED. Xander shifted his weight a little to the side to take his weight off the bruised part of his knee, and this left him leaning against Spike's leg. Spike reached down and slid his fingers through curly hair even as he continued his conversation with the two other vamps and the green horned demon that sat at the table with him. Xander resisted the urge to slap the hand away; he knew that Spike was simply showing the others his ownership, but that ownership made Xander squirm, both physically and psychologically. He slid even farther to the side, throwing more weight onto Spike's leg and moving off the bruised part of his knee altogether. He sighed in relief as he found a semi-comfortable or at least non-painful position for the first time in quite a while. He only hoped that Spike planned to leave soon because he desperately needed to stretch his legs.
"Shuman's noth strained well," hissed a voice behind him, and Xander struggled to not turn and look at a demon that would produce such a snake-like sound. Why did it have to be a snake? He hated snakes, and this one talked worse than Spike although Xander did catch that the demon was insulting his training and not his straining. Well, unless the demon had some bizarre cooking preference that Xander really didn't want to know about.
"Well 'nough," Spike returned as Xander felt cool hands pull him even farther into the lean. Letting Spike's hand guide him, Xander allowed his head to fall to the side and rest against Spike's thigh, and he tried really, really hard not to think about the possibilities if he just turned his head to face the other way. However, Xander Jr. obviously wasn't going along with this non-fantasizing pact if the tightness in his pants were any indication. When he heard Spike's knowing chuckle, he also wished the damn vampire would just stop sniffing him at the exact point when he would suffer the most embarrassment.
"Snoth sithing righth. Disgrassseful." Xander couldn't help gasp when a decidedly snakelike being with a pointed, reptilian snout and lizard-like claws slid into view. Where the hell did these things hide during the day? Yes, this was L.A. and people tended to ignore the odd…well…oddball, but not even an L.A. native would be able to ignore this thing slinking down the street. Although to be fair, the powerful back legs and thick tail dragging behind did make the creature do more of a march-strut rather than actually slink. Xander ignored the fear crawling up his into his now-nearly empty stomach and he remained nearly lying in Spike's lap. He almost blessed Spike when he felt cool fingers slip under the neck of his shirt to play with the well-bruised scar. For once, he allowed himself to happily fall into the half-daze lust-filled fog that followed.
"Don't know 'bout that. He's done well enough by me, especially since that bond isn't mine." A snaky hiss followed that remark, and Xander didn't even try to interpret that noise. Instead he floated along on his little lust-trip.
"Then whossse?"
"Take a sniff, mate." Xander didn't even fully decode the meaning behind Spike's words before a brownish snout with two yellow eyes suddenly darted into his personal space—far into his personal space as the mouth dropped open and the creature inhaled deeply mere centimeters from Xander's neck.
"Gah," Xander yelled as he jerked backwards and fell on his butt behind Spike's chair. The vampire merely laughed, but the snake-thing's eyes narrowed and the snout pushed forward towards Xander.
"Ruuuth," it hissed and Xander couldn't tell if the thing was going for 'rude' or talking in some demon language, which Spike had done once or twice tonight. Of course the thing might be calling him Ruth, but he didn't think he looked like a Ruth.
"Back-off rat-breath," Xander barked as he scuttled backwards across the cold tile floor using his hands and still mainly sitting on his butt. God, no wonder his knees hurt, didn't any of these places use carpet? Xander knew he had reached the land of panic and mental babble when it occurred to him that the tile probably made it easier to clean the blood—like the blood he was about to spill if the look on snake-boy's face were a portent of the future.
"Disgrassseful," the head hissed as back legs stepped forward, one rear claw catching at the edge of his gray jeans so that he couldn't move back any farther. Now the panic started to truly build. Xander looked over toward Spike who sat back with his chin cradled in one hand as he watched the show. Xander felt a genuine burning in his chest and stomach at the expression of amusement and disinterest evident in Spike's face. No rescue there. Well the vampire had warned him not to do anything to disgrace Spike and Xander knew that vampires were unreliable, but the warmth still reached his eyes and Xander fought off the tears that threatened.
"Hey, I think I squashed one of your cousins, yesterday," Xander blurted. If he died, he would die with as much dignity as he could muster considering the whole crowd had seen him groveling at Spike's feet for the last hour or so. "Little guy, four or five inches long, ran on four legs, long tail. He got in my way so I stepped on him and watched his guts come bursting out his back end." Oh yeah, that got a reaction. The open mouth now sported two fangs that had dropped down from the roof of the mouth like some sort of horror-movie monster. Oh shit. Xander could see saliva or poison or something else slimy and juicy sliding down the fangs, and he looked up defiantly. Just let this be quick, he prayed. Either that or let him learn how to shut up for once in his soon to be ended life.
"Shuman thrashhh. Filthhhhy slittle anmallll."
"You know, you might want to get that lisp taken care of, they teach English classes over at the community college." Okay, not learning how to shut up. Xander expected the strike, he just didn't expect the form it took. Snake boy lifted up a thick leg and held it over his chest.
"See if your guthsss bursths," snake boy hissed as the foot began its descent. Xander felt his stomach muscles contract even though he knew it wouldn't do any good. Very shortly not only his blood but his guts would lie on this floor and someone would thank the owner for having the foresight to put down tile. Before the clawed foot even made contact, Spike stood over him and snake boy lay on his back on the other side of the room. The broken table and scattered chairs suggested that Spike had tossed snake-boy away, but Xander must have closed his eyes or blacked out for the one important second because he had seen and heard nothing. One moment he faced certain death; the next, Spike stood over him with a bored expression and a cigarette hanging from one hand.
"He's mine now; you don't touch what's mine," Spike casually announced to not just the snake-boy but also the rest of the clients.
"Noth strained," snake-boy complained again as he stood up, a piece of broken wood held in one claw. Xander looked up at Spike in panic, but the vampire simply stood with that look of eternal indifference.
"He minds me. You got problems with his trainin' in general, you go talk to Cassidy. After all, he was Cassidy's for nearly four years and he's been mine for one night." At that, the snake-boy hesitated, obviously unsure.
"Spike's right. Boy smells of Cassidy's mark, so if he offended you, you go see Cassidy about that," the green horned demon added from his place at the table—a place from which he had never moved. The two vamps now stood, obviously nervous at the disruption. For a moment, no one in the bar moved, and Xander felt like he had been transported to some slow-motion reality. Then the snake-boy nodded.
"I'll thelll him," snake boy insisted as he picked his way through the table splinters littering the floor and walked to the door.
"Come on then, pet." Spike held out his hand, and Xander took it, allowing the vampire to pull him upright onto his decidedly shaky legs. Spike walked back to his chair and dropped into it heavily. Xander groaned, but put his hand of the seat back so that he could lower himself to his knees without causing too much more bruising. The two vamps had returned to their places, but Xander could see them darting suspicious looks from him to Spike to the retreating snake-boy.
"Hurt?" Spike asked without turning to face him.
"Yes." Xander waited a moment to see if Spike would relent and offer him a chair or leave the bar, but the vampire remained silent. With a sigh, he lowered himself onto his bruised knees and tried to avoid whimpering when his weight crushed the skin of his knees between the bony knee-cap and the hard tile floor. Xander closed his eyes tightly and tried to concentrate on all the little pains, the aching back, the stiff shoulders, the headache, in order to avoid the big pain that radiated up from his knees and flowed down to make his entire lower leg tingle and twitch. He felt a hand at his neck, and he wanted to argue, he wanted to protest, but he couldn't find the strength. His whole body shook with the knowledge that he had almost died. He allowed Spike to pull him closer, but this time, the hand pulled him so that he knelt between Spike's knees and now had to hunch over even more since he found himself totally underneath the table.
"Sit," Spike gently ordered, and Xander happily allowed himself to fall to the side, his knees finally released from the burden of holding all his weight. He pulled his knees up and sighed before he felt the fingers in his hair. At first they simply petted, as Spike usually did, but then they closed into a fist and Xander felt his head being gently pulled back toward the vampire. Rather than argue about it, he followed Spike's touches as the vampire used his foot and his hold on Xander's hair to arrange him so that he rested with his back against Spike's left leg and his legs curled Indian style on either side of Spike's right leg. He let his head fall back against Spike's knee and he stretched his back until he felt bones pop.
At that moment, Spike laughed; however, he didn't know whether his popping bones or the conversation at the table had inspired the laugh. He had listened in on the conversation in the first demon bar, but after that Xander had been too distracted by the various aches and pains to really pay attention. Now that the pain had eased, he found himself listening once again. This conversation proved far more interesting than the first one where Xander had finally stopped listening when Spike and a stone-skinned demon discussed the best ways to keep evisceration victims alive as long as possible. Very disturbing.
"Boy should be better trained."
"He'll get there. Besides, I don't fancy bringin' him to places like this regular-like."
"So you did bring him here just to embarrass Cassidy."
"Not my fault the git can't keep track of his own pets. He lost the boy, I picked 'em up."
"He's going to gut you for this. I don't care what happened between the two of them, he will kill both of you for embarrassing him."
"He'll try." At this, he could almost hear Spike smirk. The two vampires stayed silent as Spike and the demon talked, but from his place under the table, Xander could see them shuffle their feet nervously. What the hell did they have to be nervous about, he was the one sitting defenseless under a table in a room with lord knows how many demons who considered him part of this nutritious breakfast. Xander amused himself with thoughts of what demon commercials advertising breakfast foods might look like; at least, he amused himself until his memory filled in the image of one of the many vampire victims he had seen lying on the street. Okay, he definitely had slipped round the bend somewhere in the last couple of days.
"Your arrogance is going to get you killed. Hell, arrogance is going to take out the entire Aurelius line, what of it remains,” Spike’s demon friend pointed out.
"It can take the rest of the line, don't care. But if Cassidy comes for me, It'll be that wanker's last mistake." Xander's eyes had fallen closed, but coolness on his lips caused him to open his eyes to the sight of a piece of melon pressed against his lips. Oh no. The one thing he had told Spike was that he wouldn't eat out of Spike's hand. For god's sake, leave him some dignity. However, Spike's heavy right boot slid in closer to Xander, pressing on the still engorged cock, and Xander opened his mouth rather than get into an argument he couldn't win. He chewed silently as Spike switched to petting him like the family dog. Just don't react, Xander kept telling himself, but he didn't know whether his self-commandment applied to not reacting to the pressure against his cock by coming all over himself or not reacting to the humiliation by smacking Spike's hand away. Maybe both.
"How did you do it, anyway?" the deep voice asked in obvious awe. "How can he sit at your feet so happily while the bond holds him to Cassidy?" Xander suppressed the urge to snort at the word happily.
"Cassidy can't control anythin'. He can't hold his pets; he can't protect his territory or his minions. Anyone who follows him is goin’ to get taken by a stronger master or left to die." Oh boy, vamp feet really shifted at that, he noticed as he ate another piece of melon from Spike hand. Yeah, he was going to make the bleached wonder pay for this later.
"Master Spike," started a slightly higher and more nasally voice, "he is powerful."
"Oi, not unless his only competition's minions, he's not. My sire could kick his ass, easy. Me, I'd be more likely to eviscerate him and stake him out to see the sunrise. May do that yet if I can ever find the tosser." After this silence fell over the table and Xander sat eating one piece of fruit after another, long after he had enough. Either the four of them were doing something silent like playing cards or they were having the world's longest staring contest. Either way, Xander eventually grew even more bored and fell asleep leaning against Spike's leg.
"Pet, wake up." Xander sat up and promptly smacked his head into something thin and very solid.
"Shit."
"Hey, no damaging the goods there, luv," Spike ordered with a small laugh, and Xander opened his eyes to find himself curled under Spike's chair. Sound asleep on the floor. Oh yeah, this really did a world of good for his manly self-image, he thought to himself as he slid backwards to free himself from the chair without hitting his head on the rung, again.
"What? How long was I asleep?" Xander looked around the room and realized that the clientele had significantly changed. Before the only three vamps in the room, including Spike, all sat at the one table. Now when he looked around, he saw game-faced vamps in twos and threes throughout the room. Xander still sat on the floor, but he pushed himself closer to Spike, settling in between his legs and hoping that none of these vamps were Cassidy or Cassidy's minions.
"Long enough," Spike answered his question before pushing back his chair and holding out a hand to help him stand. He had to brace himself on the table until he could work a stiff left leg loose enough to actually walk on, but Spike continued to stand there, seemingly unconcerned even though Xander could see him making regular sweeps of the room with golden eyes. Even more importantly, the vampire leaned on one leg while the other rested on the rung of the now-abandoned chair. And the resting leg bounced. It bounced so hard that Xander expected the rung to break at any time.
Standing firm on both his sore legs, he pushed closer to Spike, his only form of protection in a room full of blood thirsty monsters. It did occur to him that Spike was a monster too, but at least he was a less blood thirsty monster, or maybe just a monster too polite to talk to and chew on the same person. Xander counted on the vampire telling the truth about that as he felt an arm circle a waist and he leaned into Spike's embrace. ‘Better the devil you know’ he thought to himself.
"Thanks for the drink, mate," Spike said as he nodded toward the green demon that still sat in the same spot. The two vampires had disappeared from the table.
"Any time, Master Spike," the demon replied as Xander felt himself pulled from the room. He followed compliantly as Spike guided him out to the parking lot and then to the waiting bike. In the parking lot, a few people stood under street lights and he wondered if these were more vamps. If so, the number of vamps at this one bar easily equaled the number of vamps he normally saw in a year. He suppressed a shudder and wondered what the hell had gone on while he slept like a dog under its master's chair. Yeah, he really didn't like that image at all.
Spike quickly mounted the bike and Xander followed, willing to do anything to get away from the stares that followed him from those strangely silent watchers. Spike drove several blocks, dodging around cars and changing directions so fast that he just knew he would die before the night ended, and not from a vampire bite either. Finally, Spike pulled the bike into a Wal-Mart parking lot and turned off the engine.
"Right, now where's this place with the mojo?" Spike asked, but Xander found himself still unable to completely regain his breath from the moments of unadulterated panic caused by the short ride.
"What the hell," he finally gasped. Spike only looked back at him over a leather-clad shoulder with impassive blue eyes. "Are you trying to kill me? If so, could you pick a quicker method?" That earned a quick flick of an eyebrow and a half-smile.
"Wot? Don't trust my drivin'? Been drivin' since before you wore nappies."
"Please don't explain that, I've reached my limit for grossness this evening. I just want to go home or back to your lair or wherever I'm going to sleep tonight. I hurt and I'm not feeling very friendly toward you right now."
"Pet," Spike growled, and Xander lowered his head so that his forehead rested against Spike's back in defeat.
"What Spike?"
"I need to know where that place is." Xander didn't look up, but he could imagine the gold eyes glaring at him from just the tone. Clearly he had reached another of those choiceless moments.
"Straight south of Glitters on the west side of the road, an old theater called Efrian's House."
"Yeah, know the place. Went there a time or two in the thirties; it had sewer access and one of the old masters liked the place." The bike started and Xander found himself alone with his thoughts. The city had slowed and quieted. Lights still shone and cars passed by at illegal speeds, but the pedestrians had disappeared and most of the apartment windows remained dark. It must be about 3 or 4 am, later than Gunn and the others usually hunted, but they might still be on the street.
Having seen Gunn and the crew going up against what he now understood to be minions, and seeing Spike going up against minions, he worried what would happen if Gunn met Spike. Unless Gunn or one of the guys got in a lucky hit, Spike would take them all out without working up a sweat. And even worse, Gunn and the guys fought vamps so often that they wouldn't even hesitate to attack a single vampire. Xander closed his eyes and sent up another prayer for the evening. He wondered whether his sudden increase in prayer counterbalanced the fact that he had taken up with a soulless killer.
When the bike finally stopped in front of the familiar theater, Xander immediately slid off and looked in the opposite direction. Thoughts of Fredrick assaulted him so suddenly that he wondered for a moment if the man's spirit hadn't returned to harass the loser who had failed him.
"Pet? This it?" Spike asked and when he turned to look, Spike gazed back curiously, his head actually cocked to one side as though trying to hear something.
"Yeah." Another long silence and curious gaze.
"You wait here then," Spike finally announced as he turned to go into the building.
"Don't you want…" Xander suddenly felt vulnerable, exposed in the feeble light of the only streetlight a half block away.
"Wait," the retreating figure ordered without breaking stride. Xander watched Spike disappear, making sure the vampire actually entered before he took off at a dead run. Two blocks, that's all he had to make. Two blocks. He ran until his breath came in ragged gasps and then he spotted the goal. Please let it work, please let it work. He slid to a stop in front of the booth and considered his options.
The cell phones the crew used were temporaries and could get disconnected at any time. Besides, they probably wouldn't take a collect call. That last part worried Xander. He knew his mother would take a call, but he didn't want to pull her into it, so he called the only other number he could remember. Not easy to forget a number like 555-HARD, especially when that number connected to Glitters. Hopefully T would still be there cleaning up or doing paperwork. Xander picked up the receiver and almost cried when he heard the dial tone. Dialing the operator, he quickly asked for a collect call.
Every ring of the phone left Xander in agony as he watched the sidewalk for signs of either Spike or the motorcycle.
"Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up," he chanted as he listened to each ring. Finally the line picked up and Xander could hear T agree to accept the charges.
"Darlin' are you alright?" came the familiar disembodied voice, and Xander felt his knees shake as he reconnected with his old life. For one minute he just wanted to cry and beg T to come and get him, but inside he knew the consequences. Spike might choose to set him free, but if he tried running Spike would kill him and anyone else who might try to help. Xander couldn't take that chance.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he finally answered in the strongest voice he could muster.
"Where the hell are you? Gunn and the boys have been worried enough they actually brought their paranoid asses into my club. They still refused to eat my food, but one step at a time."
"I'm with a friend," Xander explained as he tried not to choke over the word. "Did they tell you about Fredrick?"
"Hell, honey. Nobody blames you for that, not even that asshole Luther. I hope I never have to talk to that man again. Lord, how do you put up with him?"
"Luther's okay. I just need to get a message to Gunn, and I thought you could get it over there for me."
"If that's what you want, sure. You know, you could come over and we could sit in the kitchen eating stale potato chips while you gave me the message." Xander struggled for a moment with a real desire to just say yes. To run for the club even knowing that he would never make it, and even if he did, the club was open to the public, meaning open invitation for vampires. In the end he decided he valued both his own life and T's life far too much to make such a stupid move at this point.
"No, I'm heading for bed after this, so I'm really not up for the whole potato chip feast. I hooked up with a vampire hunter," Xander began as he carefully constructed his story to neither lie nor completely tell the truth.
"Blondie from the other night?" T asked and Xander nearly dropped the phone.
"How could you…"
"The boys said he had a dangerous look and a real interest in you, so tell me what your hunter told you."
"The vamps that killed Fredrick, they aren't normal vamps. Most vamps are minions, young and fairly easy to kill." Xander ignored T's snort of disbelief at that comment. "But these might be masters. What's more, it seems like at least one or two of these vamps are using magic, which isn't normal. Gunn's got to be more careful—keep the crew together—because something's happening. Some sort of vampire war has started, and if gang wars can take out neighborhoods, I don't even want to get between two feuding vampires." Xander managed the last part without choking over the irony that whether he wanted it or not, that's exactly where he found himself: between two feuding vampires.
"Xander, maybe you'd better come in."
"I can't T. Spike really does need me, and I need to get the vamps who killed Fredrick."
"Getting yourself killed won't bring him back, darlin'. You get your white ass back to Gunn's place before he tears that neighborhood up looking for you."
"T, I can't" Xander resisted the urge to scream out the whole tale, but he couldn't put someone else in danger, and he knew that T and Gunn and even Carlos and Luther saw him as the weak link, the damsel in distress who needed saving. That used to bother him a lot more, but now he simply accepted his shortcomings. However, now he had to work his way out of this without pulling his friends in with him, and if he couldn't, he needed to die without taking more of his friends with him. "Look, I'm really sorry about missing work, but I really gotta go."
"Fuck work," T insisted. "Your job and your paycheck are waiting, we discussed this. Of course, quite a few of the customers missed you terribly, but they'll live. Right now I'm worried about you off playing Lone Ranger."
"I'm with Spike. Trust me, I am firmly in sidekick mode. We ran into two vamps, and I hid behind his back the entire time. Didn't even touch a stake." Xander glanced down the street again. Spike hadn't shown yet, but he couldn't count on the vampire's curiosity keeping him in that theater forever. "Look, I gotta get to bed; I'm wiped out."
"Alright, but you promise to come in if you need help."
"I promise, Mom," Xander teased, enjoying the feeling of normalcy no matter how short-lived. "Bye."
"I'll give Gunn the message, you take care." T finished and Xander put down the phone. For a moment, he leaned his forehead against the sticky plastic and tried to regain his equilibrium. He had made the right choice; he had made the only choice possible. After just a few seconds, he turned to make his dash back to the motorcycle, and he nearly dropped dead of a heart attack in that moment. Standing behind him in full game face, Spike waited.