A sigh of exasperation filled the air as Giles slammed the phone onto the hook, wearily eying the group that had toddled through the front of the Eola Hotel. There was a certain amount of illogical logic in his frustration; he had been trying to reach them for ten minutes and, despite the timeliness of arrival, it was rather annoying that they had left without waiting for a call of confirmation.

He was relieved, though, to see Buffy without Spike persistently following at the heel. While he had long ago vowed to stay out of his Slayer’s personal life and decisions, it was more than disconcerting to see her so carelessly throw aside protocol and leap into a relationship with another vampire. A soulless one at that. A vampire that was not only a vampire, but also one that had—on numerous occasions—attempted to end all their lives. A vampire that until recently set out on a campaign to discover what was wrong with his spontaneous handicap and then fix it. Giles wouldn’t pretend to know all the particulars; he also wouldn’t delude himself into a false sense of complacency. If Buffy was allowing herself to become emotionally entangled, he suspected that there had to be at least some faith that she had sat down and weighed out the possible range of consequences.

The one slice of small comfort he conceded was that they were away from Sunnydale—away from home—and that people often did strange things without the echo of outcome to answer them while on vacation. And granted, while trying to find Faith and potentially facing an apocalypse was far from a vacation, he knew it was the closest thing she had had for some time.

“Giles,” Willow said in greeting, snapping him from his reverie. “You look like your favorite puppy died.”

“We didn’t wanna bother you,” Xander continued with an easy shrug, “but we’re getting on the extreme side of restless with the massive doing of nothing back at the place.”

Sam chimed in helpfully. “We wanted to know if you needed help with the thing.”

“Or a break,” Donna suggested. “Or…” She nudged her boss.

Josh blinked at her. “Don’t look at me,” he said. “I was just following everyone else.”

“Xander declined my invitation to spend the day obtaining mutual orgasms,” Anya said with a faux-cheery smile. “So here I am.”

“We’re all here to help,” Wesley added. “With anything you need.”

There was a pause. Giles removed his glasses and shot Buffy a pointed look, asking for her input without words. When the Slayer realized it was her turn to offer her reason for being present, she shrugged and offered a half-smile. “I’m here because I figured it was time we…you know…started contributing. Now that the full is out and about, no more tiptoeing around issues is required. That and it’s sort’ve my job.”

“A job that you’ve been neglecting for nearly three days,” Harris pointed out.

She frowned. “Hey. That first night, yes, Will, Donna and I partied at the diner. Then I got distracted.”

“I’ll say.”

Her eyes narrowed even further. “Ummm, the phantom car heading right to St. Francisville? Being trapped in the Addams’ house? The book? Any of that ring a bell?”

The elder Watcher cleared his throat and stepped in before his children threw down in an all-out screaming match. “Speaking of which. I believe I have discovered what occurred that night that made Faith appear to be in two different places at once.” He tossed a hesitant gaze to Sam, who smiled a weak smile of reassurance before Willow reached back and took his hand almost out of instinct. “It’s actually very simple and I am therefore appalled that I did not think of it before.” He nodded at Buffy. “Your pull with Faith is not unlike that of a vampire’s. Not unlike, but different enough that you do not realize it. While there has never been a case of two slayers before you, the Council seemingly has an answer for everything, even circumstances as unprecedented as this.”

She stared at him blankly. “Your point?”

“What you saw was an image of what your senses are supposed to target. It was a double, Buffy. A form of astral-projection—like Billy, when Sunnydale was literally a living nightmare.” He smiled grimly. “Furthermore, since you failed to visually confirm that Faith was in the vehicle you and Spike followed, I have reason to believe that the projection itself was not at Faith’s hand at all.”

“Why not?” Josh asked, as though he knew what was being said.

“Because the double was based on a feeling—a sixth sense. If it was Faith, there would be no ambiguity as to her appearance. She knows well what she looks like, therefore planting the image is hardly difficult.” The elder Watcher expelled a deep breath. “Whatever used her to get you to St. Francisville was working with minimal persuasion. Its forces were restricted then.”

“Of course,” Wesley murmured in stilled bewilderment. “Whatever drove Faith here must have known that we would follow; or that there would be people who followed with intimate knowledge of her patterns. Or—”

Josh held up a hand. “You’re saying this Faith chick came here for a reason?”

“I’m saying she was driven to Natchez by forces outside her control,” Giles replied. “Something wanted her here.”

“Why?”

“Because we were coming,” Willow answered glumly, her shoulders slumping with dreary realization. “Maybe even you. Who knows? It got us here, didn’t it?”

“Why would we all need to be in Natchez?” Donna asked, eyes shadowed with concern. “I don’t understand…why are we a factor at all.”

“For this.” Giles held up the book. “Our mysterious guide was operating on restricted powers until…” He cleared his throat and nodded at Sam. “Until the book was read from.”

Josh’s brows arched. “You’re saying that Sam reading some old book gave a big nothing some umph?”

“I have reason to believe that, yes.”

“And he just happened to read the exact passage needed for this…whatever…to trap us in this god-forsaken pissant town?”

A thin smile spread across the elder Watcher’s lips. “Well,” he said, “I have yet to deduce whether it was the recitation of a specific passage or simply by reading the words that were on the page…any page. Whatever it was, though, has restored the…the…”

“Thing,” Donna, Josh, and Sam provided simultaneously.

Xander and Willow traded a bemused glance.

“Ummm, quite. It has restored this…thing…to at least an amount of power considerable enough to keep us grounded.” Giles replaced his glasses. “There is more about this book that I need to divulge before any other action is put into motion. Namely, the proprietor, its powers, and a reasonable assumption on what it hopes to accomplish.”

Sam licked his lips nervously. “Wh-what’s that going to do?”

“Give us ideas on how to stop it,” came the soft reply. Buffy had a familiar, determined look about her that the Scoobies were collectively relieved to see. She glanced up a minute later, eyes finding Giles’s with a nod of acknowledgement. “All right. So we’re here. You thinking research party, patrol party, or a mixture of both?”

“Actually, I…” A flustered look overcame him for brief seconds; he shook it off just as quickly and offered a nod. “Quite. Ummm, there are some terms and references that Willow can help with. Wesley and Anya can stay with me to research the text.” He turned to the former demon before she could protest. “I need your knowledge with some of the higher beings that are mentioned. Their powers and the like. Whatever you know, I need to know. All right?”

“What about us?” Donna asked, raising her hand. “I want to help.”

Willow shrugged. “You wanna research terms with me?”

She nodded, oddly genuine. “Sounds like fun.”

“Only you would find that fun,” Josh remarked.

“It might be beneficial,” Giles continued, unhampered. He flashed a quick glance to the Deputy Chief of Staff. “If you would call your supervisor—the one who told you of the Initiative—”

“Leo,” Josh confirmed with a nod.

“Yes. Whatever he can tell us—anything he can tell us—”

“There is reason to believe that Leo is the only person in the West Wing that knows about it,” Sam said. “And even so, he is generally not in the habit of handing over classified evidence just because we might have a situation.”

Xander blinked at him. “Why not?”

“It doesn’t work that way.”

Buffy shrugged. “Tell him that I’m the Slayer, and in order for me to do my job, I need all the information on what I’m fighting that I can get.”

Josh arched a brow. “What makes you think that that will be effective?”

“Well, if he knows diddly about demons, he should know about me. And if he doesn’t know about me, he needs to read up.” The Slayer smiled sweetly. “When it comes to dealing with all things otherworldly, I’m the one you go to. ‘Kay?”

“Look, lady. If the government—”

“Don’t give me shit about the government. There’s been an apocalypse every year since I came to Sunnydale, and the government did nothing to stop them. If I hadn’t been there, you wouldn’t be here.”

Giles offered a dry smile at that. “She’s right, you know.”

“We’re going to need every resource we can manage,” Wesley said. “You’re going to have to learn to trust us if you want to walk away from this unscathed.”

There was a brief silence. Sam and Josh exchanged a long look. “We’ll call,” the former said, nodding a little with a small smile. “What is Toby doing?”

“I believe he spent a good portion of the night talking to your Press Secretary,” Giles retorted. “He got rather pissed then decided to highlight in every extreme why he always gets the blunt of the bad assignments. After he was through with me, he rang her up, and I didn’t see him for the rest of the evening.”

“No wonder she was pissy in her briefing,” Donna muttered.

The elder Watcher shook his head. “This is all beside the point.” He pivoted to Buffy. “You and Xander should do as much surveying of the town as possible before the sun goes down,” he said. “I believe you two are the only ones left without something to do, so there you have it. We need to know what, if anything, has changed since yesterday aside from the invisible barrier…the sooner, the better.”

“Before the sun goes down?”

He pursed his lips, hesitation embedded in his eyes; reluctance in league with comprehension. “While we do not know what is going to happen, or what may already be in motion, I would request that you do your patrolling with Spike, just to further ensure your safety.”

“Why?” Xander intervened. “It’s not like he can hit anything. And what makes you think that he’d stop Buffy from getting hurt?”

The Slayer looked at him with interest. It seemed Pod Xander was momentarily in recession.

“He would,” Donna argued. “He cares about her.”

“He—”

“Why can’t he hurt anything?” Josh asked. “The guy’s a vampire. Aren’t vampires strong, or is that another one of Hollywood’s embellishments?”

Willow smiled. “No. Vampires are of the massively strong. Definitely. It’s just that you—or the Initiative—put a chip in his head. He’s all with the passive-aggression now, or else he gets a major ouchie.”

Sam smothered a smile.

“He can’t hurt anything,” Anya concluded.

“You mean he can’t hurt humans.”

The lobby stilled effectively. All eyes landed on Josh.

“What?” Buffy asked, voice trembling. “He can—”

“I’m pretty sure that Leo said the neurological implants are only applicable to humans.” The Deputy Chief of Staff shrugged. “I guess we don’t much care if demons are taking out other demons.”

“Spike can hit…” The Slayer licked her lips; eyes alight in a fashion no one had seen before. As though she was suddenly filled to the brim with excitement and would burst if she couldn’t let it out. “He can…oh, this is gonna make him so—” She caught herself, realizing that the others didn’t much care if the resident vampire was in the best of spirits. She did, though, and that was all that mattered. Still, with their budding relationship soaring with disapproval, perhaps it wasn’t best to bring attention to the fact that they were getting cozier by the minute. Thus, she shrugged and finished on a note of feigned indifference, “He’ll be interested to know that.”

“Fantastic,” Giles murmured, shaking the thought away before it could settle. “Well, if that’s the end of it, I say we disperse. Willow and Donna, you will need a list of resources that I need you to track down. I would advise you head to the library, if you can find out where it is located. See if you can find any information on the Internet. Wesley, Anya, and myself will remain here to look through the books. Sam, Josh…you might like to confer with Toby once your call has been made. Buffy…”

“Xander and I hit daytime patrol. Gotcha.”

Her casual acceptance persuaded a smile to the elder Watcher’s face. And though he knew the words were wasted on her, he thought to add them just the same. “Be careful.”

True to form, the Slayer shrugged and offered a grin. “Hey,” she argued. “It’s me.”

“And for that, I believe I have cause to worry.”

She smirked but nodded. The most capable of them all, and truer words had never sounded.

*~*~*

Had Xander not taken immediate advantage of their assigned time together to attack her personal relationship with Spike and the choices she had made the minute they stepped into an area of solitude—at least away from the others—she would have been concerned. From the casual acceptance of the morning to the slightly snippy exchange inside, he was acting the part of someone who was trying to honor her decisions with disavowal but an acknowledgment that it was none of his business. He hated vampires, always had, and never made a light case of it. Thus his behavior up until now had been rather remarkable. Oh, there had been a slip-up here or there, but on a general whole, he was an entirely different person with different views. Thus, naturally, it raised some general questions and apprehension for his well-being. She thought perhaps he had suffered a minor heat stroke and was relying on selective alternatives.

Fortunate for her, he gave her nothing to worry about.

“Just out of curiosity,” he said not two minutes after they were alone. Natchez was a variably larger town than Sunnydale, and while she had no qualms about walking anywhere, getting to the cemetery from mid-downtown wasn’t exactly going to be easy. Giles was correct in his assumption if he wanted them back before sundown. “When did you forget that Spike is a vampire?”

The Slayer groaned and rolled her eyes, holding up a hand. “Don’t. Just don’t.”

“No, I wanna know. After all, if you two are gonna be so close, I’d like a couple reasons why you don’t think he’s a reasonable threat anymore.”

“It’s complicated, Xander.”

“How so?”

“I don’t wanna talk about this.”

He shrugged. “Sorry if I can’t see it the way you do. Less than a month ago, you hated the guy with a passion and were looking for any reason to reduce him to tiny Spike bits.”

Buffy lulled her head heavenward. “This is what happens,” she informed the sky. “I tell him I don’t wanna talk about this, so naturally, we talk about it.”

“I don’t see how you could’ve gone from being so—”

“That was then, Xander. Drop it.”

“I—”

The blonde groaned again and stomped her foot, pivoting to face her friend with more than a note of exasperation. “Look, there’s no reason for him to be here. Okay? He came here as a favor to me. More over, he had the opportunity to take advantage of my body when Faith was in control. He didn’t. And you know what, he’s the only one that’s been here for me since we arrived. So bite me.”

Xander stared at her. “And you wonder why we’re worried.”

“I don’t—”

“You shut yourself up with him, Buff. Kinda hard to be there for you if the only one you let close is a vampire that nobody here trusts except you.”

She shook her head. “You’re way outta line.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Well, obviously—”

“The guy’s trying to get his fangs in your throat, Buff! He’s a killer, and everyone can see it but you. And if it’s not that, then he’s trying to get into your pants.”

The air dropped dead. Buffy pursed her lips, her eyes suddenly far away. Her skin tingled and her breathing became labored. Hot. Overwhelmed with the shade of recent memory. Too sudden to foresee, too delicious to let go.

His lips, hot and needy against hers. A series of hungry, almost desperate whimpers clawing at the back of his throat. His tongue clashing against her tongue. His hands sliding over her skin, clutching at her shoulders, massaging her breasts. Nimble fingers tugging at her nipples before his mouth dropped to draw them into a frozen inferno of blistering sensationalism. His erection rubbing desperately against her center. His arms abound her with such care, such tender adoration. The look of awe in his eyes, peeling back layers to reveal his inner self.

“Buffy?”

She shook her head, banishing her lustful thoughts to a darker realm of herself. Now was not the time. “Even if that’s true, which it’s not, it wouldn’t be relevant to why he’s here.”

“He’s been all touchy-feely. I’m telling you, he either wants some neck or…some neck.”

“That’s not true.”

“How do you know?”

“’S you an’ me, kitten. An’ anythin’ else jus’ doesn’t measure up. It’s you an’ me. God, it has to be somethin’. An’ I’m not about to ruin it by leapin’ into bed with you. I want it—Christ, how I want it. But I want you more.”

“I just know, okay?”

“I’ll wait for you, Buffy. Don’ rush ahead ‘cause that’s what you think I want.”

“He’s evil. Why can you not get that? He’s no different from any of the other vamps you go out and stake on a daily basis, only he is, because you won’t stake him!”

An exasperated sigh tackled her throat. “Thank you very much, Giles.”

“You really think he cares about you?”

No—I know he does. If he didn’t, I would’ve woken up naked in his bed this morning rather than in his arms.

She didn’t say that. For whatever reason, it didn’t seem like something Xander would react favorably to. Instead, she shrugged, voice quieting. “He’s changed.”

“Oh really? He’s not evil anymore?”

“I didn’t say that. He just…he wouldn’t hurt me.”

“Oh please.”

“He wouldn’t.”

“Right. The same way Angel would never hurt you.”

Buffy’s eyes darkened. “Spike is not Angel.”

Xander nodded emphatically. “Yeah. He doesn’t even have a conscience to hold him back. The only thing that stands between him and a killing spree is a chip that those guys—” He pointed in the direction of the Eola Hotel. “—put in his head. That stops working, and then what? You really believe that Spike would continue to bend over backwards just because you asked nicely?”

“I—”

“In case you’ve forgotten, this is the same Spike that’s killed two Slayers. Not just one, my friend, but two.” He stopped and stared at her. “Are you so completely convinced that he’s not playing up to you so that if the chip ever stops working, you won’t even see him coming?”

A nag struck Buffy’s resolve, but she shook it off. It was ridiculous. “That’s ridiculous.”

“He’s a vampire, Buff. Plain and simple. Not too long ago, he had me and Will trapped in the factory to do a love spell for him. Mr. Psycho Obsessed With Psycho Girlfriend suddenly turning over a new leaf just because you asked him to?”

That was it. The Slayer stopped dead in her tracks, her shoulders slumping. All fight was gone. She didn’t have it in her to face these sorts of questions right now. “Why?” she asked. “Why are you doing this? Can’t you just…why are you lecturing me when you’re the one dating a demon? What makes you so above it all?”

“I’m not. I get that. But the last time you dated a vampire, Buffy, people died. And this was a vampire that was supposed to have a soul. Spike doesn’t even have that.” He shook his head. “I don’t wanna see you get hurt, is all. I was there for the drama that was Angelus. With him, you had to bring the monster out. Spike’s all monster, all the time. No prompting required. And no matter how hard he tries to get you to believe it, that’s what he is. I just…I don’t wanna see you get hurt again.”

Buffy smiled humorlessly and offered a dry nod, temper flaring. “Yeah, well, either shut your eyes or staple your lips,” she spat. “Congrats, Xander. You failed.”

Her strides gained momentum. She ignored his voice as he called after her. Ignored the heated vibrations of lingering non-apology. Her mind was in overdrive, working desperately to eradicate all of her friend’s words from hindsight.

It was too late. Her heart was already on the line.

And whether she liked it or not, there were some truths to be reckoned with. Spike was a vampire. He was the very same vampire that had kidnapped Angel to restore Drusilla. The same that had beaten her senseless outdoors after showcasing her inexperience. The same that had come to her dorm room to kill her, and would have killed Willow had there not been a chip.

This was a vampire that had murdered Slayers before. A vampire that had bragged about his conquests—the only vampire that had truly come close to defeating her. He had wanted to kill her for so long, and he made no secret of that. This was Spike. The Spike she had known for three years. Spike who was crazy for Drusilla, hungry for Slayer blood, and killed anything that stood in the way of either goal.

Spike whom had asked her last night if he could kiss her. Who had held her in his arms, exciting her like no man ever had. Who had cradled her in his embrace until morning. Who had made her pancakes and kissed her goodbye with such longing and promise that it took everything she had not to push him back inside and spend the day making out with him like crazy.

This thing with Spike was making her lose her focus. And what was worse, she didn’t want anything to change. She wanted to go back at sunset, receive a greeting kiss that would put the farewell one to shame, and then go out with him to patrol the cemetery. She wanted to laugh with him, share supper, and watch movies. She wanted to know more about Mary. She wanted to know him, pure and simple.

Whatever Xander’s prerogative had been, however, something had managed to wiggle inside. Where before she was complacent, the cool fingers of doubt were approaching a firm hold on her heart. He had made her doubt all the wonderful things that had occurred between them in the past couple days. And even if her mind tried to convince her that said doubt was there only by suggestion, it was still there, nonetheless.

This would be what she carried with her all day. A doubt of everything. A realization.

She hoped he was pleased with himself.


TBC

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