CHAPTER FOUR
 
Buffy left Vi to bring the slayers up to speed on what they’d learned.  The girls most interested in research and puzzle solving went right to work trying to figure out how the drug, whatever it was, was getting to all of them – apparently even Vi. Buffy hadn’t mentioned her doubts about her own strength, but she knew how to test it.  She took out her phone and stared at it, then clicked on the number and waited for it to ring.
 
“Buffy? What’s wrong?” There was no “Hello”, no “how are you?” just her name and a question. Going along with his apparent preference for a business-only relationship, Buffy said shortly, “You need to fight me. Tonight, if possible.”
 
There was silence, then: “Is this a fight I’m going to win more easily than I should?”
 
“I hope not, but.... I just need to know, okay?”
 
“Alright, love. Meet me outside in twenty minutes.”
 
“Outside? Here?”
 
“Got a big backyard, don’t you?”
 
“Yeah. Okay. Twenty minutes.”
 
She closed her phone and stared at it, then sighed and went downstairs to tell Vi what she was going to do.  She found her sitting in the office, holding an ice pack to her jaw.
 
“He hit you pretty hard, huh?”
 
Vi grimaced. “He did, but it shouldn’t have knocked me out. I guess whatever’s going on is getting to me now.  You’re going to be all we have left.”
 
“Maybe....”
 
Vi looked at her sharply. “What do you mean ‘maybe’?”
 
“I mean I didn’t feel just right tonight either. Stronger than you, but not quite me.  I... I called Spike. He’s coming by to spar with me and tell me if I imagined it or if I’m losing my powers too.”
 
“Here? He’s coming here?”
 
“Well, he’s coming to the backyard. I’m going to meet him outside.”
 
“You want me to keep the girls in here?”
 
“I think so. I’d rather they didn’t know I’m worried. They’ve lost enough confidence as it is with their powers fading more all the time. Some of them are pretty much back to being normal girls.  We need to find this guy before we’re all like that.”
 
“Okay. I’ll try to keep them inside and away from the windows.”
 
Buffy left the office and turned toward the kitchen, waiting until it was empty before slipping out the backdoor.  She paused on the small deck, extending her senses, but not feeling anything; so Spike’s arrival took her by surprise. She jumped when he landed lightly on the deck beside her.
 
“Didn’t you know I was here?” She could hear the frown in his voice although his face was hidden, the light from the window showing only his silhouette.
 
Buffy started to say something about not having expected him to come from the roof, then sighed and shook her head. “No. I didn’t feel you, not even a little tickle on the back of my neck.”
 
“How about now?” He stepped closer to her, not quite touching but close enough for her the catch the scent that said “Spike” and to feel his body near hers. Any trace of vampire tingles were being overwhelmed by her unexpected reaction to his proximity, and she stepped back.
 
“N... no. Not in a slayer way.”
 
“What other way is there?” He sounded genuinely confused as he also stepped back a pace.
 
“Nothing. No other way. Never mind.  Let’s do this, huh?”
 
“Any time you’re ready, pet.  You know fightin’ with you is one of my favorite things to do...” He jumped over the small railing, landing lightly on his feet; Buffy was just a half-step behind him.  Turning as he landed, he threw a quick jab at her face, which she dodged fairly easily. He bounced away when she tried to follow up, luring her away from the deck and out to where they had more room.
 
They hadn’t been sparring long before it became obvious to both of them that Spike could have ended the fight at almost any point. He was just a fraction of a second faster, his punches just an important little bit harder than hers, and when he tackled her to the ground, she was unable to throw him off. Only when she smashed her forehead into his face, did he roll off, cursing and holding his bloody nose.
 
“Sorry,” she mumbled. “I couldn’t think of any other way to get you off.”
 
He shook his head. “ ‘S alright, love. You did what you needed to do. Was the smart thing to do. That’s why you’re the world’s oldest slayer, and those other bints are afraid to leave the house.”
 
Buffy sat up and rested her arms on her knees.  “They’re afraid because they’ve all pretty much reverted to normal humans.” Feeling a need to defend Vi’s squad, she added, “And they aren’t really afraid – not all of them, anyway. It’s just that they’ve lost a lot of confidence.  I... we don’t let them go out much. And never alone.  I can’t let them get killed.”
 
“And how are you plannin’ to stop that from happening? Case you didn’t notice, Slayer, I had you dead to rights way more often than makes me comfortable.”
 
“I know you did,” she said with a sigh. “But it’s you. You know me. You know my moves and you’re a really good fighter and may—”
 
“Don’t even try going there, Buffy. Refusing to admit what’s happening isn’t going to keep you alive.  Accept it and deal with it until we can figure out what’s going on.”
 
Buffy didn’t call him on his easy assumption that he was now involved; she just nodded.
 
“I know a little bit more than I did before. I know whoever’s doing it is a human, and he’s got drugs that work on anything or anybody – not just slayers. He’s got a gang of vamps he sends out to turn people for him, and a couple of demons for bodyguards.  And I kinda know where his lair is.” She swore silently at not having gotten an actual address from the vamp before she’d staked him. “And I know that he’s... sleazy and gross and—” She stopped and shrugged. “I guess that part’s not important, what’s important is that we know he’s somehow getting these drugs into us and he needs to be stopped before he starts feeding slayers to vamps and demons.”
 
“That’s his plan?”
 
“Well, that’s what he’s been promising them. That they’ll have all the slayer blood they want...” Buffy shuddered. “I almost hope that’s all he wants from us.”
 
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Spike’s growl echoed in the dark yard as he took out a handkerchief and wiped the blood off his face.
 
“Nothing... just, he apparently takes some of the really young vamp girls up to his penthouse, and they don’t always come down. The ones that do, don’t want to go back.”
 
“Takes a lot to freak out a vampire – young or not.” Spike’s growl had grown into a full-fledged snarl.
 
“That’s what I told the girls. Whatever this guy is, whatever he’s doing... He needs to be stopped... now.”
 
Spike rose to his feet and held out his hand to Buffy.  She took it and allowed him to pull her to her feet, not releasing his hand until he let go.  They stood, facing each other uncertainly until Buffy finally asked, “Will you come in and meet the girls? Let them see that you’re not a boogieman, and that you’re on our side?”
 
To her surprise, he agreed right away.  “Alright, slayer. Let’s see what my little army’s going to look like.”
 
“Your army?”
 
“He’s not gonna be looking out for badass old vamps, is he? And I don’t seem to be affected by whatever he did to the local ones, so that makes me the leader.” At Buffy’s indignant huff, he laughed. “Always subject to your wishes, Slayer. Didn’t mean to imply otherwise.”
 
“The hell you didn’t,” she muttered, opening the kitchen door and standing inside. She looked at him, tilting her head on the side to study his expression, which he had kept carefully neutral.
 
“If you want me to stay outside, I will,” he said finally. “Girls could gather in here or—”
 
“Come in, Spike,” she interrupted. “I trust you.”
 
“Well that just goes to show the drug is making your brain weak,” he said, smothering a smile as he stepped past her and into the kitchen. “You can’t know that.”
 
“I know you,” she replied. “I know you, Spike.”
 
She stopped him before he could go any farther, wetting a paper towel and wiping off some blood he’d missed. She pointed to his hands and he quickly rinsed them.
 
“What’s the matter, Slayer? Don’t you want them to know you bloodied me?”
 
“I just don’t want you to scare them any more than you already have,” she snapped. “And could you lose the wrinklies?” Without waiting to see if he complied, she led him past Vi’s office and into the main room where there was a growing silence as the girls looked up and saw what Buffy had brought into their home. She remained close enough that there could be no doubt that she had brought him in willingly.
 
From the bewildered looks on some faces, Buffy could tell they didn’t know for sure who was standing behind her. She turned her head, to find that Spike had gone back to his human mien, which, while not quite what it used to be, had only a few fading scars left to mar his face.
 
“You’re healing,” she blurted, blushing when he raised an eyebrow at her.
 
“Told you I would. Didn’t you notice before this?”
 
Buffy shook her head and mumbled about it being dark outside and game faces, blushing more when he whispered in her ear, “Should think you’d recognize me in the dark, Slayer. Maybe you need your memory refreshed.”
 
She stiffened. “My memory’s just fine, thank you.”
 
“Didn’t mean it like that, Buffy.” He dropped his teasing tone. “I just meant maybe you needed to... Bloody hell.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what I meant. Sorry, pet. Time and place – this isn’t it. Forget it.”
 
“Damn right it isn’t,” she hissed before turning to smile at the stone-faced slayers.  “Okay, girls. For those of you who haven’t figured it out yet, this is Spike. He’s the vampire that discovered you didn’t have your powers and told me about it. So stop glaring at him and say ‘thank you’. Or, you know, just stop glaring at him.”
 
“Ladies,” Spike said, inclining his head just a little. “I’m glad to see you’re all still here and without holes in your necks.”
 
The uncomfortable silence was broken when Vi came up to Spike and held out her hand. “It’s good to see you again, Spike,” she said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “If you teach these girls the way you did us back in the day, it won’t matter if they have their powers or not.”
 
There was some grumbling and muttering, but they’d all heard enough about the vampire in Buffy’s basement – the one who had died to save the world – to be curious about him. When Buffy caught some of the older girls giggling as they checked out the body in the tight tee shirt, she almost wished Spike still had his duster. Especially when she caught him flexing his biceps as he bent over the map they’d been studying.  His smirk when she pinched him told her he knew what the girls were looking at and that she’d caught him preening for them.
 
“Show off,” she whispered. “Behave yourself.”
 
“Not my fault I’m irresistible, is it?” he whispered back. “Let them have their fun, pet. They’ll listen better if they aren’t worrying about whether I’m going to kill them or whatnot.”
 
“It’s the ‘whatnot’ I’m worried about,” she grumbled, but smiled and stepped away as she let him work his charm on the young slayers now competing for his attention.  She stood back with Vi and watched with a combination of admiration and annoyance as Spike managed to get them all involved in strategizing about how to locate the bad guy’s lair.
 
“I didn’t know Spike could be so... so....” Vi waved her hand around helplessly. “He was never like that when we were in Sunnydale.”

“He’s a different vamp without his soul,” Buffy said with a nod, forgetting she hadn’t told Vi that little detail. “More fun, but—” She froze, peering at Vi from the corner of her eyes.

“Is that why you wouldn’t let him come back here with you? Because he didn’t have his soul?” Vi seemed more curious than worried, and Buffy relaxed a little, shaking her head.

“No. It was his idea. He didn’t want... and he was right. I can’t have him in my life with no soul. The only reason he’s here now is because we need his muscle.”

The minute the words left her mouth, Buffy wanted to choke them back. She’d forgotten about Spike’s vampire hearing, but the way he stiffened and turned to stare at her made it very clear that he’d heard what she said. Buffy tried to put every bit of regret she was feeling into her eyes, but his face shut down and he went back to the young slayers without looking at her again.

It wasn’t until he was ready to leave that he spoke to her, keeping his eyes on Vi as he suggested they give him some time to hang out around the park and try to figure out which building was housing both a vamp nest and a particularly nasty human. Vi agreed immediately and Buffy nodded reluctantly.

“I could go with you,” she offered. “I’m not totally weak yet.”

“I’ll be less conspicuous by myself,” he said, still not looking her in the eye.  “Tonight’s getting on, so it may take till tomorrow evening, but I shouldn’t have any trouble finding out where the vamps are going in and out.  Can’t be that many buildings with ‘tower’ in the name, either. You keep working from this end, trying to find out how you’re getting that stuff. It’s not like he can be injecting anybody, it’s got to be getting in through food or drink, or something...”

Buffy nodded. It was impossible to argue with his logic, even though she wanted desperately to have some time alone with him to take back her words.  It was very obvious that he had no intention of giving her that time, and she quit trying.

“Okay. You’ll keep me—us posted, right? Let us know what you’re finding out. And... be careful. He’s got stuff that works on vampires too.”

“Been taking care of myself for a long time, Slayer.”  Without anything else in the way of a good-bye, he let himself out the backdoor and disappeared into the night.