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A Very Strange Vampire by slaymesoftly
 
Ten
 
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Chapter Ten

 A phone call to Willow when Buffy woke up provided the information that there’d been some sort of problem at the campus of UC Sunnydale and classes had been cancelled. Students were instructed to remain in the dorms, so Willow’s plan to spend a few days with her parents had gone down the tubes.

 “I don’t think it matters, though. Those commando guys are too busy with whatever’s going on to worry about tracking down your friends. Giles called me early this morning to tell me to go home, then he called back and told me not to worry about it. Apparently some demons got loose or something. Anyway, the soldiers started blowing things up and now the real Army is here and nobody knows what’s going on.”

 Forgetting about Spike, now sleeping in his own bed, Buffy began pulling off her pajamas and pulling out her daytime clothes. When she was dressed, she called Giles, trying to talk to him and pull things out of the closet at the same time.

 “What do you mean, ‘don’t come back yet’?” she yelled, forgetting about the sleeping vampire. “If there’s something going on, I need to be there.”  She listened for a second, then glanced at Spike who was peering at her through bleary eyes. “Well, yeah, he did, but I can— I can so drive! I’m just not very good at it.” She sighed. “Yeah, yeah. Okay, but we’re leaving as soon as the sun goes down.”

 She hung up and looked over at Spike.  “Sorry?” she offered as he sat up, once again giving her a look at his mouth-watering torso. She smothered the wildly inappropriate reaction she was having to seeing the sheets barely covering his lower abdomen and tried to explain.

 “Giles says something went wrong inside the lab—it’s called The Initiative, by the way—and they had to call in the regular Army to help out the guys who worked there.  The Council apparently has heard about it, but didn’t know they were already operating here. He said it’s okay for m—us to come home, but there’s no rush until he figures out what we need to fight...” She paused when he cocked his head at her. “Well, what I need to fight, I guess... if those guys aren’t still after us, there’s no reason for you to—”

 “Wouldn’t leave you to fight something by yourself, Slayer,” he growled, missing the surprised look on her face as he reached for his pants. 

“When do we leave then?”

 “We can’t leave until it’s dark. Giles was very... unsupportive... of my driving abilities.”

 “Tell you what, pet, when this is all over, I’ll give you driving lessons, alright?  In your mum’s car!” he added quickly. “Not mine!”

 “Spike, when all this is over, we’re not going to have a truce any more. Why do you want to teach me to drive? Or are you figuring I’ll just kill myself doing it and save you the trouble?”

 He laughed, but sobered immediately. “Nah. The idea is to keep you alive while I figure out how to get my ring back.  If I don’t let you drive by yourself till I know you can, I won’t have to worry that you’ll do something stupid and off yourself before I get around to it.” He frowned. “Come to think of it, I guess having the ring means you wouldn’t die, doesn’t it? Well, there you go, then. This is the perfect time for you to take driving lessons. You can’t kill yourself. And by the time I figure out how to get my ring back, you’ll be good enough at it not to crash into anything bigger than you are.”  He smiled at her, pleased with his own reasoning.

 “Huh.” She rolled her eyes and looked at the pants he was holding. “Why don’t you go back to sleep? I’m going to run downstairs and get some food and buy something to carry all my stuff back in.  You don’t need to get up yet.”

 He shrugged and dropped his pants on the floor. “Alright, pet. Talked me into it. I am still a bit knackered.”

 “Do you need more blood?” She frowned with what she assured herself was concern for the casino’s customers, not for Spike.

 He shook his head. “Got some in the little mini-fridge there. I’ll be fine. Go have fun before it’s back to the daily grind.” He flopped back on the bed, put the pillow over his head and became immobile again. The sheets were still barely covering his legs and hips and Buffy took advantage of his inability to see her to take another long look at his body. She realized she’d been staring too long when he lifted the edge of the pillow to peer at her. “See anything you like, Slayer?”

 “Sorry,” she muttered, blushing from her roots to her chest. “I wasn’t... I mean I was, but... dammit, Spike, you’re naked!”

 “Not quite, but I could be if you wanted—” His hand plucked at the edge of the sheet as if to throw it off.

 “Gah!”

 Buffy used every ounce of her slayer speed to get to the bed before he could get completely naked, yanking the sheet out of his hand and pulling it up to his chin.  He put his hand on hers, holding it to his chest.  “I don’t mind if you look, Buffy. I was just pulling your chain. But if you’re going to stare at me like that, there’s a good chance you’ll see something you don’t want to.”

 From the corner of her eye, Buffy caught the tent beginning to form in the sheet and she blushed again, snatching her hand away. “I said I was sorry.”

 “And I said I didn’t mind, so long as you know what you’re doin’ to me.”

 “I don’t mean to,” she whispered. “I just... I’m not used to worrying about... I mean most vampires... and I never... except for Angel... Gah!”

 “I’m not most vampires, Buffy. Never have been, never will be.” He closed his eyes, then opened them again almost immediately to glare at her. “And I will never, ever be the same as your bloody ex. Man or vampire.” He shut his eyes again and put the pillow back over his face.

 Buffy stood beside the bed, biting her lip, then pulled the rest of the covers up over him, frowning when the extra weight didn’t make the tent go away.  She watched his chest rise and fall as he heaved a sigh.

 “It’s not going to go away because you cover it up, Slayer. Just get the bloody hell out of here and when you come back it won’t be a problem any more. I promise you.”

 She frowned, then got his meaning and blushed again. Without responding, she turned and grabbed the key, vowing to herself not to return until Spike was awake and dressed.

 ~~~~~~~~~~

 After a late breakfast while most people were having late lunches, and a walk outside that lasted only long enough for her to decide it was too hot, even for a southern California girl, she did a little more shopping and returned to the room. It was late afternoon by then, and she thought Spike would probably have woken up.  The sound of the shower when she entered the room told her she was right.

While she waited for him to come out, trying to decide if she hoped he had taken his clothes in with him or if she’d prefer that he come out wearing a towel, she began packing up her earlier purchases into the small travel bag she’d bought. The sound of water cut off, and after a few minutes, Spike came out wearing his jeans and carrying his shirt, which he quickly pulled on. Telling herself she was not, definitely not, sorry that he was dressed, Buffy smiled at him.

 “Good timing,” she said, indicating the windows. “The sun’s almost down enough for us to leave.” She surveyed her small pile of new clothes and sighed. “I’m almost sorry I didn’t get to wear all this stuff... I guess I over-bought, huh?”

 He laughed as he sat to put on his socks and boots. “Told you to spend the money, luv. Can’t complain because you did.”

 “But I didn’t get to wear most of it. It’s not like I’m going to have much use for something like this in Sunnydale.” She held up a silky green dress that she’d really liked.

 “We could always come back,” Spike said, not looking at her directly. “When this is all over. Just extend the truce a bit and come back and enjoy ourselves. There’s a lot you haven’t seen yet... of Vegas, I mean.” He snickered when she glared at him.

 “It is not my fault that you’re an exhibitionist!”

 She carefully didn’t respond to his opening words, and he didn’t pursue it. He put some bills in his pockets, gave her some for her pockets, and stuffed the rest into her bag along with the remaining coins and his extra clothes.

 “Don’t let me forget to get the bag out of the hotel safe,” he said as they walked toward the elevators.

 “Don’t forget the gold coins... I think I can handle that.”

 “Never took you for a gold-digger, Slayer.” He wriggled one eyebrow at her. “It’s a nice look for you.”

 She rolled her eyes and stepped into the waiting elevator car. Once down, they stopped at the desk and she stepped to the side to wait. “Just get us out of here before they have an apocalypse without me.”

 ~~~~~~~~~

 Forty-five minutes later, they were pulling out of the underground garage and onto the brightly lit strip. Spike flinched at first, then laughed at himself. “You’d think I’d know better than to be worried about neon burns,” he said.  He drove normally till they reached the edge of the city, then turned to Buffy with a grin. “Hold on to your hat, luv. Sunnydale, here we come.”

 Remembering his driving on the way to Las Vegas, Buffy wondered briefly if she might not be happier with her eyes closed, but she kept them open and tried to enjoy the I-could-die-any-minute feeling that was riding with Spike in the open desert. She was surprised to find that the normally chatty vampire actually concentrated on what he was doing, and in spite of the speed involved, she began to feel perfectly safe.  He slowed when they reached the outskirts of Sunnydale, asking, “What’s the plan, Slayer?”

 “Giles’s, I guess,” she replied. “Find out what’s changed since this morning and what we—I need to do to help.”

 “It’s ‘we’, Slayer. Told you this morning I was going to be there with you.” He gave her a sideways look. “Assuming, of course, that you trust me to watch your back and not bite it.”

 “I trust you,” she said softly, “but I don’t get it. What’s in it for you?”

 After muttering about people being dumber than they look, he sighed and said, “Want to be sure that place is shut down, don’t I? Besides, can’t take you back to Vegas with me if you get yourself blown up or what not.”

 ~~~~~~~~

 The update from Giles indicated that there were a substantial number of altered creatures – some mostly human, some mostly demon – that were being controlled by one unusually enhanced soldier that was apparently some sort of cyborg.  The hybrid creatures were not difficult to kill, but they didn’t stop fighting until they were completely dead. There were stories of body parts continuing to attack long after the body had fallen.

 “Sounds like “Terminator” stuff,” Buffy muttered.

 “One little ordinary human girl took him out,” Spike said. “This one has to fight a slayer. Poor sod doesn’t stand a chance.”

 Buffy gave Spike a smile of appreciation and then asked, “So, where do I go and who do I talk to about weapons?”

 Her watcher made a face. “Whatever that oaf you were seeing has left of his men is what is providing the information from inside. They are insisting they are the only ones who are capable of taking out the remaining enemy. I believe there may be some turf wars going on among the military staff.”

 “Awesome. So how do I—” Spike coughed. “—we get in?”

 Giles gave her a phone number and directions to a command center.“Got a better idea, Slayer.” Spike waited until she looked at him, then said, “Why don’t we go in the way we got out? They won’t be expecting us, and we won’t have to run around somebody else’s rules and regulations.”

“That’s actually a good idea, Spike.” Once again Giles reminded himself to look into William the Bloody’s human education and background.

 “It is a good idea. Okay, let’s go. It’s going to take us a while to get in there if we go in the back way. Weapons?” Buffy looked at Giles who shook his head.

“I’ve no idea, unfortunately. The usual for the demons, I imagine, but I don’t know about the hybrids or the monster in charge. I suspect firepower may be more important than anything else. Perhaps something to....” He wandered off, coming back with a small bag. “I believe these may be of assistance.” He opened the bag to show an assortment of grenades and other small explosive devices. Taking out the things he knew Buffy wouldn’t know how to use, he started to hand the bag to her.

 “Hold on there, Watcher,” Spike said, taking a piece of plastic explosive from his hand. “This could come in handy.”

 “You know how to use it?”

 Spike shrugged. “I’m old. I know stuff.”

 “’K then, let’s go.” Clutching the bag and with a sword hung over her back, Buffy went to the door. Spike looked in the weapon box and took another sword out for himself. Giles watched in both fear and amazement as his slayer went out the door to do battle with a cyborg, one of the world’s most feared vampires by her side.
 
 
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