Banner by Me
Banner by Me
Chapter 8
“Jesus, Spike!” Xander said and rushed forward, wrapped the vampire’s arm around his neck and helped him to a nearby chair. “What the hell happened?”
“Adam happened,” Spike muttered.
“Who’s Adam?”
“It’s what that bloody freak show is calling himself. Damn near tore us apart before we managed to escape.”
Buffy and Angel didn’t look too much better. All three of them were sporting injuries from their encounter with Adam. Their clothes were ripped and marked with blood.
“He’s creating an army,” Buffy told Giles, taking a seat beside Willow. “One of Riley’s friends, Forrest, I think. He’d… it was awful, Giles. He was like Adam.”
Willow shuddered and gripped Buffy’s hand.
“Good riddance,” Xander muttered under his breath.
“We can’t defeat him,” Angel said. “He’s too strong.”
“It’s a shame you guys can’t combine your powers,” Xander replied ruefully.
“Ow! Bloody hell, pet,” Spike complained when Xander pressed too hard on the wound in his side. “Leave off, yeah? Nothing a little blood won’t cure.”
“Spike, you have a gaping wound in your side. I’m not going to ‘leave off’. You need stitches.” Xander held up his blood-saturated towel as proof. “Don’t make me sic Angel on you. And speaking of Angel, where was he when you were being run through?”
“Prolly holding up the floor after Adam clocked him one.”
“Because I was saving your ass at the time. You’d have more than just a hole in your side if it wasn’t for me.”
“Pfft.”
“Xander’s right though. Stitches will help hold the skin together while you heal.” Angel turned to Wesley. “Wes, can you get the first aid kit out of the bathroom?”
“You know, I think Xander is on to something,” Giles said suddenly.
“What? Huh? What did I say?”
“About combining their powers.”
“You know, Rupert, that just might work,” Wesley agreed as he walked back into the living room carrying the first aid kit. “The strength of a slayer combined with two master vampires? Buffy would be unstoppable.”
~*~*~*~*~
“Why are you being so stubborn about this?” Xander asked. They were lying in bed together; Xander was on his side facing Spike.
The Slayer and her gang had gone home and would be back in the morning to plan. For what, Spike didn’t know. He refused to have anything to do with the spell. No way was he getting within ten feet of the Slayer.
He was really only alive thanks to Angel. The Slayer had watched him struggling with Adam and done nothing to intervene. Claimed she was busy with Forrest, but Spike knew better. She’d wanted him dead and had thought letting the Frankenstein demon do the job would be her way of going about it. Spike didn’t say anything to Xander though. The boy had just about reached a decision as far as his friends were concerned; he wasn’t going to be the one to provide the ammunition to make him leave. He wanted Xander to leave because he wanted to be with him. Not because he couldn’t stand being around his friends anymore.
“For one thing, I don’t like the idea of the Slayer rattling around in my head. Second, I don’t trust the Slayer or her watcher,” Spike said finally. He wasn’t going to lie about what he was feeling, however.
“Who said she was going to be in your head? And Wesley will be doing the spell.”
“Not going to be a spell. Least not with me.”
“But—”
“Not going to change my mind, pet. Slayer can manage just fine with Peaches. Tap into Angelus’ power and Adam doesn’t stand a chance. Besides, she’s gonna need someone around to deal with the riffraff,” Spike said, referring to Forrest and the other demons Adam had acquired for an army.
“Yeah. I guess.”
“Besides, I’ll be able to keep an eye on Angelus. Make sure nothing happens to him. He’s pissed a few people off, taking our side. Be a simple matter to take him out while he’s so defenseless.”
Xander nodded. Buffy and Willow never missed an opportunity to catch him alone and question him about Spike and complain about Angel’s behavior. Each time they did, though, they just pushed him further and further away. Made his decision to leave Sunnydale easier.
Angel hadn’t said anything, but Xander could tell that they’d also confronted him as well. It had made for a tense few days in Sunnydale.
He was just glad Angel had made Cordelia and Doyle stay behind in Los Angeles to work on getting Angel Investigations up and running again. Cordelia would have lit into both Buffy and Willow and it wouldn’t have been pretty.
What really hurt him was that neither Buffy nor Willow had yet to mention the fact that he’d been captured, tortured. The only reason he was alive was because he and Spike had worked together to escape. Then, Spike, along with Angel and his gang had rescued him when he’d been recaptured. His friends hadn’t even realized he’d been missing; they’d been too busy with school to wonder about their “Xander-shaped friend”.
In a few weeks he was going to turn into a werewolf for the first time. He was pretty damn scared about that. But they’d not asked him how he felt. Willow had only asked him where Oz was, and he’d answered her truthfully that he didn’t know.
“Get some sleep, love. Tomorrow’s gonna be a long day.”
Xander sighed and nodded and snuggled down next to Spike.
~*~*~*~*~
Tomorrow ended up being a long day, and Xander was never so happy to be back at the mansion and in bed, with Spike wrapped around him like some four-legged octopus.
They’d all set out at sunset. Spike had put his foot down about the spell and it had ended up being just Buffy and Angel. Wesley had performed the spell without a hitch and Xander had stood over the vampire as Buffy and the others had raced into the cave that was Adam’s base of operations.
Buffy had kicked Adam’s ass all over the place and Spike, Wesley, and Giles had taken care of Forrest and the few demons Adam had recruited and not yet killed. Riley had been there; Spike had killed him. Spike had told Xander about it on their way back and Xander had just smiled. He’d been beaten pretty badly at the hands of that particular soldier and hoped that the asshole wouldn’t figure so prominently in his nightmares any longer.
He’d also had a run-in with Buffy, aka the Scary Slayer. The First Slayer’s essence, Giles had said as they’d collapsed onto chairs and couches in Angel’s living room. Apparently she’d not liked sharing space with a vampire, even one that happened to have a soul. Said it was filthy. Tainted. Buffy had stood over them, and her voice had been hoarse, raspy, when she claimed she had to do away with the evil infesting her.
“Over my dead body,” Xander had shouted. Buffy had taken a step forward and Xander had really thought he was going to have to kill his friend. Then she’d stumbled on her feet and righted herself, blinked, and she’d been Buffy again. The murderous haze gone. He’d not taken any chances and told her to get away from him.
Xander had helped a weakened Angel to his feet, then Spike had been there and was holding the vampire up on his other side. “Let’s go home, yeah?”
There’d been nods all around and they’d retreated back to Angel’s mansion.
“So…”
“What’s on your mind, pet?”
“Adam’s dead. The military is about to be a thing of the past.”
Giles had called a contact at the Council and discreet calls had been made to certain heads in Washington. The troops were being recalled, provided the threat to the citizens of Sunnydale was dealt with. Everything had been hush hush, of course. They’d denied culpability, claiming the people in charge had acted on their own.
Xander hadn’t believed it for a second, especially after Spike had told him the Germans had tried something similar during World War II.
“So…” Xander said again.
“So?” Spike asked.
“I guess you’ll be leaving now. Buffy said she wouldn’t stop you if you wanted to leave.”
“Not like she could.”
Xander nodded.
“Anyway, Peaches said I could stay with him for a bit. Said we worked pretty well together.”
“Angel said that?”
“Said you could come too, if you want. Plenty of rooms, what with him living in a hotel now and all.”
“Gonna need that. My dad’s probably already rented out the basement. And, I don’t have a job anymore, seeing as I was fired.”
“Hear he’s got a cage in the basement too.”
“Pretty handy… and creepy.”
“Peaches is full of all kinds of surprises.”
Spike smiled and Xander smiled back.
“Count me in,” Xander said.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
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