With everything packed and ready to go they gathered around Willow again. "Now, I don't want any argument's about this last part! Were going where I say were going and were going to stay there, at least until Giles shows up, maybe longer." Everyone nodded their agreement.
"Okay Wil, we do what you say" Buffy said to her quietly, "but where are we going?"
"Spike's place" Willow said with an evil grin on her face.
*********
(Sunday, 10:17PM)
When they pulled through the broken gates leading into the cemetery where Spikes crypt was located Willow told Buffy to turn off her head lights. Xander behind her in his car turned his light off too. Buffy drove down the cemetery road as far as she could then drove the car up on the grass. She had to go very slow to avoid tombstones and trees. Xander followed her closely. When they got to the crypt Willow had them carry the box of books inside first. The crypt was very dark but Willow would only let them turn on one flashlight.
"Buffy" Willow said in the dark, "I want you to go out now and sweep the whole cemetery. If you find anything out there, kill it. If it's a demon, hide the body. Be back as soon a you can, we still have to hide the cars." Buffy went out the door and disappeared in the dark.
"Dawn, show us how to get below" Willow ordered. Dawn led them to the slab of stone that covered the hole in the floor and the ladder leading down. Xander helped her to move the slab to one side so that the hole was fully opened. With that done everyone but Willow started making trips out to the cars and bringing things inside.
With the noise they were making bringing things in Willow didn't here Spike come up the ladder. "Hey" he yelled out "what the hells going on here?"
Willow turned to Spike and pointed the flashlight at her face so that he could see her. "Shut up Spike" she said sternly. "Were moving in, get use to it. If you give me any trouble I'll turn you into a frog."
Spike stopped suddenly and took a step back. He had never seen the 'witch' like this before and he wasn't certain she couldn't turn him into a frog. "Okay Red, what's going on?" he asked her in a quiet tone of voice.
"Like I said, were moving in." Willow said to him quietly, but with an mischievous glint in her eyes. "Make yourself useful and help out."
Dawn entered the crypt just then carrying her and Buffys cloths. "Hi Spike" she said cheerfully.
Xander and Anya entered next, followed by Tara. All of them were carrying bundles.
"Bloody hell, you can't do this" Spike protested.
"Become a frog or help Spike, which will it be" Willow said in a threatening tone of voice.
Spike hesitated again, he wasn't sure what to do. He walked over to Dawn and whispered "What's going on Niblet?"
"Big trouble Spike, big big trouble" she whispered back to him.
"Where's Buffy?" he whispered to her.
"Clearing the cemetery of anything alive" Dawn whispered back.
Spike looked at her to see if she had meant what she said. When the rest of the gang started going back outside to get more things Dawn moved to join them. Spike didn't feel comfortable with the way the 'witch' was looking at him and followed Dawn outside. He could see the two cars parked next to his crypt and could see that they had a lot of bundles inside of them. As Xander was unloading things from the car and handing them to Tara, Dawn and Anya, Spike stood there and watched. When Xander tossed a bundle to him he caught it but didn't move.
"Better make up your mind Spike" Xander said to him "help or become a frog."
"She can't really do that, can she" Spike asked?
"I don't know Spike. She just got a new spell book and is itching to use it" Xander said with a big grin on his face. "You want'a risk it?"
Spike looked at Xander closely for a few moments then headed inside with the bundle. It took them five minutes to get everything unloaded from both cars. Once they had everything inside they had to move it down the ladder to the crypt below. Spike went below and lit a couple of candles, he then stood at the bottom of the ladder as they dropped the lighter things down to him. When all of the light things were down he had Xander come half way down the ladder. The women handed Xander the heavier things and he handed them down to Spike who set them on the floor. Willow told Dawn to lead Tara and Anya down below and carry everything back to Spikes crypt. Xander and Spike came back above.
"Spike" Willow said to him "where can we hide two cars that's not to far away from here?"
"There's an old tractor shed on the other side of the cemetery. It looks like it's ready to fall down, but it's solid enough if you don't bang into it" Spike replied.
"Can we get to it from here" she asked.
"No, you have to get back on the road outside the gate and drive around to it. You can come back on foot though" he told her.
Willow used the flashlight to look at her watch, it was 10:42PM. "Do you have any water here, enough for all of us for several days?"
"Not hardly" Spike grumped.
Willow reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of money. "Go with Xander and buy bottled water, soda, snack food, anything that won't go bad for a few days. Go to a couple of different places so your not buying everything in one place and draw attention to yourself. But hurry, you only have forty-five minutes."
Spike started to protest, but Xander took the money and grabbed Spikes arm and pulled him toward the door. Spike shrugged and followed him outside. They got into Xanders car and drove over the grass until they were back on the road and left the cemetery. Once outside the cemetery Xander turned his headlights back on.
They went to three places and bought some things at each. Never to much to draw the clerks attention by the amount. At the last place as they were buying two cases of soda, Spike added a case of beer and a bottle of whiskey at the last second. They got back to the crypt with five minutes to spare. Xander started carrying things inside and Spike helped him get it all inside.
They started to carry it down the ladder when Willow stopped them. She told them to go hide the cars and get back as fast as possible. She gave Spike the keys to Buffys car. They left with Spike leading the way to the tractor shed. When they got there he pulled inside and Xander pulled in next to him. Spike searched around until he found a couple of old tarp's and put them over the cars. As they left Spike moved the doors closed. They headed back to the crypt through the cemetery by the direct route.
They were halfway to the crypt when Buffy joined them. Spike could see that she was in a very serious mood so he didn't say anything to her, he just nodded his head in her direction and grinned lopsidedly. Buffy gave him a grim smile as she continued to look in all directions, seeking out any potential enemy. When they got back to the crypt all of the soda, water, and other things had been moved down the ladder. The only thing left to move was the heavy box of books. Willow asked him if he could lock the door or jam it shut so no one could get inside. He told her he couldn't lock it, but he could jam it tight. He told her it wouldn't keep anyone out who really wanted to get inside, but if someone was just trying the door it should keep them out. She told him to do it.
Once the door was closed she told Xander to go below and for Buffy and Spike to carry the books down below. It took some work to get the box through the hole in the floor but they managed it. Willow looked around the vault to see if there were any obvious signs of them being there but couldn't see any. She then climbed down the ladder and told Spike to close the lid. He climbed up the ladder and pulled the stone slab in place to cover the hole. Once they were all below she told Buffy to pull down the ladder and move it back further into the crypt. All of the supplies and bundles that had been stacked on the floor had already been moved further back into the crypt. Willow was satisfied that there was no easy way down into the crypt and followed the rest of them back to the vault where Spike normally lived.
When Willow entered Spikes vault she was surprised with the way it looked. She could tell that Buffy was surprised too. Xander walked over and sat down next to Anya and took her hand to hold. Tara was sitting in a chair and looked tired. The three of them, Tara, Dawn and Anya, had carried all of the supplies and clothing from near the ladder back to where Spike lived and had stacked it up. Tara was stronger than Anya and Dawn, so she had done the heaviest amount of work. Dawn was sitting on the bed, she looked tired too.
With everyone below ground and all of the supplies stacked around Spike turned to Buffy and said "Will someone 'Please' tell me what the 'Bloody Hell' is going on?"
"Ask Willow" was all Buffy said.
"Were going to hide Spike" Willow said as she looked at her watch. "In fifteen minutes were going to pull the rabbit hole in after us and hopefully no ones going to find us. If they do were probably all going to die."
Buffy walked over to the bed and sat down next to Dawn. She put her arm around her shoulder and hugged her close. Dawn laid her head down on Buffys shoulder and sighed with relief that Buffy was with her. When Spike saw this he was stunned to the core. Buffy wasn't afraid of anything. He had seen that often enough to know it was true. But he could tell that she was afraid now, and not just for herself. She was afraid for all of them. Spike didn't know what to say or do so he walked over to a chair and sat down.
Willow moved over to the only table in the room and started pulling the ingredients for the spell out of it's bag. Tara came over and helped her get things ready. She used red chalk to draw a pentagram on the floor and yellow chalk to draw a circle around it connecting all the cardinal points. She used black and white chalk to inscribe some symbols between the arms of the star. She used the red chalk to inscribe a symbol in the center of the pentagram. She surrounded the pentagram with seven black candles and six red ones, thirteen in all. She set out four brazers at the four points of the compass, North, South, East and West, and started smudging bundles of different herbs.
When everything was ready she told everyone to move to the far end of the vault. She looked at her watch, picked up the spell book and stepped into the center of the pentagram. She opened the book to a certain page and started chanting. No one knew what language she was speaking, but Tara recognized a few words of magic that were very powerful. The smoke from the smudge pots started moving around the outside of the pentagram counter clock wise. The candles started to burn brighter and the symbol's inside the pentagram started to glow. At exactly midnight Willow spoke a word of magic and all thirteen candles blazed up like torches and melted down within seconds. The smoke from the smudge pots gathered in a dark cloud over Willows head and started flashing like a thunder cloud full of lightning strikes. There was a rumble like deep thunder and the smoke was gone, the candles burnt out and the symbols that had been written inside the pentagram were gone.
Willow stepped out of the pentagram on unsteady feet. She walked over to the table and set the spell book down. She then fainted and slumped to the floor. Buffy rush to Willows side, followed by all the others, except Spike, he hung back a little and stayed completely away from the pentagram. It only took a few seconds for Willow to revive but when she did she was very tired. She told them that the spell had gone right so they and the artifacts should be safe.
Buffy and Tara helped her to her feet and walked her over to the bed. The bed was a huge four poster. Buffy had never seen anything like it before. The mattress was ten feet long and eight feet wide. When she tested the mattress it didn't feel like a regular mattress at all. It was very soft and felt like a big pillow. She looked at Spike, but he just grinned at her. Buffy got up and took charge again. She told Xander that he had the couch to sleep on and that the five women would all share the bed and sleep together.
"What about me" Spike complained "where am I suppose to sleep."
"You don't sleep at night Spike, remember" Buffy said to him without any sympathy for having taken over his crypt and his bed.
"Bloody Hell" Spike mumbled as he walked over to a chair and sat down on it.
*********
(Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday)
Buffy woke up suddenly and sat up in bed, at first she didn't know where she was. She looked around the crypt and saw that Anya had gotten out of bed during the night and had joined Xander on the couch. They were very crowded but from what Buffy could see they didn't seem to mind. Willow, Dawn and Tara were all snuggled up together and sleeping soundly. Buffy couldn't see Spike anywhere.
Buffy slowly worked her way off the bed not wanting to wake the others. She picked up a flashlight and walked out into the hall. She saw the glow of a candle down the hall and head in that direction. She turned off the flashlight as she neared Spike who was sitting on the floor leaning back against a wooden crate. A candle was on top of the crate and the light from it was showing on a book he had in his lap. He was wearing a Walkman and listening to music. He had the volume up and didn't hear her approach. Looking over his shoulder she saw that he was reading poetry. This surprised her and she made a noise. Spike closed the book quickly and turned his head to see who was there. When he saw that it was Buffy he pulled the earphones off of his head. Buffy could hear the music, it was a Billy Idol song with a pounding beat. Spike turned off the Walkman and set it to one side. He put the book behind him.
"What's up" was all he said to her.
"Both of us apparently" she replied.
Spike snorted and then smiled crookedly. "Bed not comfortable enough" he asked?
"Actually it's very comfortable. Where did you get it. I've never seen anything like it" she said.
"I picked it up a couple of week ago" he told her without telling her where. "Haven't seen one like it me self in over a hundred years. Use to be the kind of bed that royalty and the very rich slept in. Who knows, you might'a been sleeping in some princes bed."
Buffy thought about that for a few moments and smiled crookedly. "That or some robber barons."
Spike smiled at her and nodded his head "Could be both" he said quietly.
Spike continued to sit on the floor as Buffy moved around to the front of him and sat down on the floor and leaned back against the wall. "What were you reading" she asked him.
Spike hesitated for several moments before he spoke "Just a touch of home" he replied. "Picked it up at the same time I got the bed." He reached behind him and picked up the book. He flipped it across the distance between them.
Buffy caught the book and opened it. The book was called 'Sonnets to My Love'. She flipped through several pages and started reading one of the sonnets. It took a couple of minutes. Spike sat quietly and didn't say anything while she was reading. "I'm surprised" she said with a look of curiosity on her face.
Spike snorted and said "Bet you are. Use to write that kind of tripe myself, long, long ago. Wasn't any good at it, but I wanted to be."
Buffy stared at Spike with even more curiosity in her eyes. "Before you were turned into a vampire you mean" she asked him gently.
"Yeah, back when I was weak and people walked all over me" he said quietly. Spike looked at Buffy intensely for several moments. "I know you think I'm a monster, but I'm more of a man than I ever was then."
"But you don't have a soul" she said to him almost in a whisper.
"I've know a lot of men with souls over the years that were bigger monsters than I ever thought of being" he told her honestly. "The only thing a soul ever did for me was to make me weak."
Buffy sat there for several minutes not saying anything. She pushed herself up to her feet and dropped the book into Spikes lap as she walked back down the hall.
**********
The next three days were long and very boring for everyone, except Willow. There was very little to do in Spikes crypt except eat and sleep. They didn't have enough food on hand for everyone to eat their boredom away so the only alternative was to sleep. Tara tried to keep Dawn occupied most of the time, but even that had it's limits. Several times Dawn went off with Spike to talk and when she came back she seemed happy. Xander and Anya took a blanket with them and found an empty vault down one of the halls. It gave them some privacy. Willow was spending all of her time reading the spells in the spell book and working out lists of ingredients that would be needed for each of them. She tried to get Tara to read the spells with her but Tara said that the spell book dealt mostly with dark magic and that was dangerous. Willow scoffed at that and said that it was the book that had allowed her to cast the spell that was hiding them. Tara didn't argue, but she wasn't happy that Willow was so involved with the spell book.
Buffy was the one having the hardest time of anyone. She was meant for action, to fight the enemy and defeat them hand to hand. Hiding from an enemy was very hard for her. She was also very worried about Giles. If he had caught the first plane possible to come home he should have been back to Sunnydale late Monday. At the very latest he should have been back sometime Tuesday. It was already getting late into Wednesday and they still hadn't heard from him. To burn off energy she started walking up and down the hall. When she wasn't walking she was doing pushups and situps and every other exercise she could do in the limited space available. Another problem she was having was a lack of water. After three days of exercising, and not enough water to waste it on washing, she was feeling pretty cruddy. No one had said anything but whenever she got near Dawn she would wrinkle her nose. Buffy felt that one more day of inactivity would drive her crazy.
The other thing that was driving her crazy was being so near to Spike all the time. Having him so near to her made her think about him all the time. Thinking about him all the time was frustrating her and making her angry. Being angry at him all the time made her want to beat him up and make him suffer for making her angry all the time. She just knew that if she didn't get away from him soon she would end up staking him before another day passed.
*********
(Thursday)
It was a little after 1:00 AM when Spike woke her up by touching her on the shoulder. She opened her eyes immediately and looked at him. He whispered that he had heard some noises coming from above. She got out of bed quietly and followed him down the hall. They were standing together with weapons in their hands when Willow joined them. Buffy told her she should go back, that it wasn't safe. Willow looked at her and said a word under her breath and a small fireball appeared in her hand. She said another word and it disappeared. Willow wasn't helpless by any means. They turned off their flashlights and waited in the dark. They heard the stone slab being moved to one side. They didn't move, they were waiting for whoever it was to make a light or to drop down the hole.
"Where's the Bloody ladder" a voice said with a very British accent.
"It should be right there" a very familiar voice said.
Buffy pointed her flashlight up at the hole and flipped it on. Giles was framed in the hole with another man next to him. Buffy pointed the beam down so that the hall was lit but not going straight up through the hole. "Giles" she whispered loudly.
"Buffy" Giles said quietly "where's the ladder?"
Willow turned on her flashlight and Spike helped Buffy get the ladder and set it up in the opening to the hole. Giles came down the ladder first and was followed by three other men. They were all dressed like the British commandoes in the movies, even Giles. Buffy threw her arms around him and hugged him.
"Where have you been" Buffy whispered fiercely. "You said you were coming home as fast as possible. You should have been here Monday or Tuesday at the latest. I've been worried sick about you."
"I'm sorry Buffy" Giles said quietly "it took a little longer than I expected to get away."
Buffy glanced at the three men with him and nodded her understanding. The men with him had to be from the Counsel of Watchers, one of their 'action squads'. Spike went back up the ladder and pulled the stone slab back over the hole. Buffy and Willow led Giles and the other three men down the hall to Spikes vault. Spike followed behind them. One of the men kept glancing over his shoulder at Spike in a nervous manner.
The noise of the group entering the vault woke everyone up. When they saw that it was Giles they all rushed to him and gave him enthusiastic hugs of greeting, even Xander. Giles was a bit overwhelmed by the response of the greeting. He loved Buffy, Dawn, and all of the others, but he had never realized just how much the feelings were mutual. Dawn had wrapped her arms around him and hugged him so long that he actually blushed.
*********
Once the greetings were over and everyone settled down Giles explained why it had taken him so long to return. With the information Buffy and Willow had given him over the phone he had been able to identify the nature of the artifacts. When they had called the second time and told him about the writing on the disks and how it matched some of his books he had understood that they were all in grave danger and that was why he had them go into hiding and had Willow cast a spell of concealment. When he explained the situation to the Counsel and they understood how dangerous the situation was they felt it was necessary to plan his return out more carefully. Giles told them that he needed to see the artifacts and the books to confirm certain points of information. Once he knew for certain what the artifacts were and the danger they faced they could make a plan of action.
Buffy took him to the books and artifacts, Willow showed him the passages in the books that matched the writing on the disks. She showed him the pictures of other artifacts and the book with the passage about the disks, box and cross that referred to a spell of binding. One of the men with Giles took off a backpack and withdrew several books from it. The two of them sat down on the floor next to the box of books and the artifacts and started talking quietly as the translated the passages and made notes.
Seeing that Giles was in full research mode, Buffy suggested that everyone else go back to bed. She showed the other two men that had come with Giles where they could lay down to rest. Spike stood in the doorway of the vault watching. He noticed again that one of the men kept looking at him nervously and was fingering a cross that was hanging from his neck. This made Spike grin as he realized that the man was afraid of him and must know that he was a vampire. He wondered how Giles had explained to the Counsel that he had sent Buffy to hide out in a vampires nest.
********
When everyone woke up in the morning they could see that Giles and the other man were still going over the books and artifacts. They could also see that sometime in the night Willow had joined them in the research. She was taking notes as Giles and the other man spoke to her and was pointing out a passage in one of the books laying on the floor spread around them. Buffy hadn't been able to sleep but had stayed away from the researchers, not wanting to distract them from what they were doing. Spike had disappeared from the vault sometime during the night.
With everyone up and moving about Giles called all of them into a group. The men from the Counsel were standing to one side. When Spike appeared behind one of the men, the man jumped straight up into the air. Spike grinned at him evilly and moved to stand behind Dawn putting his hands on her shoulders. Dawn leaned back against him in a relaxed manner. The man who had jumped in the air was looking at all of the Scoobies as if they were some kind of monsters. He kept fingering the cross hanging from his neck nervously.
Giles started to explain the situation. He told them that over a thousands years ago a Celtic king in the northern highlands had traded the lives of his wife and three children to make a bargain with a Druidic sorcerer for immortality. He had traded his soul and had his spirit ensorcerered so that he would live forever. Part of the bargain was to be turned into a vampire, for which he traded his soul. The other part of the bargain was that he could not be killed by normal means. If he were killed the ensorcerered spirit part of him would make his body reincorporate and he would live again.
The king ravaged his own people and the people of neighboring kingdoms for over twenty years. He became known as 'The King of Fear' or 'Mac Fear'. Five kings from neighboring kingdoms banded together to fight him and invaded his kingdom. They defeated his army in a great battle and had him penned up in his castle, but were unable to breach it's defenses. The vampire king would come out of his castle at night to attack and kill some of the men of the besieging army. If they were able to overwhelm him and kill him, his spirit would reincorporate him and he would live again.
The stalemate continued for months. The besieging kings knew that if they didn't find a way to kill the vampire king soon their armies would desert them. They gathered together four sorcerers and a holy man from the church of the new sect of 'christians' that had recently come to their part of the world. The holy man had brought a young woman with him that he claimed was the key to defeating the vampire king, she was a 'Slayer'.
The key to defeating the vampire king was to bind his spirit and prevent it from reincorporating the vampire king. The only time this could be done was immediately after the vampire had been killed and before the spirit could reincorporate him. The binding spell was prepared and the slayer met him in battle. During the battle the slayer was killed, but in dying she killed the vampire king. The four sorcerers and the holy man inacted the spell and the spirit of the vampire king was entrapped within a small wooden box that could not be opened and bound for eternity. The four sorcerers and the holy man carried off the artifacts to different parts of the world so that the binding spell could never be broken.
In the years following the death of the vampire king a cult appeared in the highlands that worshiped him and sought his reincorporation. Over the centuries they became know as the 'Sons of Mac Fear' that eventually became know as the 'Clan MacPherson'. They sought untiringly for the artifacts of the original binding spell. They also sought ways to break the spell.
During the mid-eighteenth century the Clan MacPherson was accused of treason and the King of Britain decimated the clan. It was thought that they had been wiped out and that the cult of the 'Sons of Mac Fear' had been destroyed. Some of the clan had survived and had fled to the new world, taking the artifacts they had gathered with them.
Sometime in the 1880's members of the clan moved to the area of the Hellmouth and were there when the town of Sunnydale was first established. They became prominent members of the community and grew very rich. They had also continued to search for ways to break the binding spell and release the spirit of the vampire king.
In the 1920's the five original men that had come to the Hellmouth and established the MacPherson family died of old age, all within a short period of time. For some unknown reason the sons and grandsons of these men had decided to bury the artifacts they had gathered over the centuries with these men and had a massive mausoleum and crypt built. The family had continued to tap the powers of the Hellmouth over the years and had grown richer and more powerful in the community, but had never retrieved the artifacts or attempted to break the binding spell.
It was believed that the reason the MacPherson's had never been able to use the artifacts to unbind the vampire king was because they had lacked one final ingredient that was absolutely necessary, the blood of a live Slayer. It was also believed that some 'other' group or power had learned of the artifacts and believed that they could use them to break the spell. That was the only explanation that made any sense of breaking into the MacPherson crypt and stealing the artifacts. That and the fact that there was a Slayer living in Sunnydale that could be used as the final ingredient to break the binding spell.
When Giles finished his story everyone sat in silence. The enormity of the story was unbelievable. The spirit of a Master Vampire bound within a box for eternity, but if ever released would be unkillable because no one alive today had the knowledge or magical skills to rebind it again. Giles had explained that it took much less skill or power to break a spell if the people doing it were willing to use 'blood magic' the darkest of the dark arts. Using the blood of a living Slayer would make the breaking of the spell a surety. He had also explained that the other artifacts that Buffy had recovered were all powerful ingredients to be used in the breaking of the spell. They would make it possible to release the spirit of the vampire king by replacing it with the spirit of the Slayer at her moment of death.
Buffy was the first to recover from the shock of Giles revelations. She suggested that since they had all of the artifacts of the binding and the ones needed to break the binding, why not just destroy all of them? The man from the Counsel who had been working with Giles on the translations, Mr. Mensey, told her that they couldn't destroy the artifacts. When she asked why? He said that no one knew what kind of powers would be released on the world if they were destroyed. Destroying them might even end up releasing the vampire king or do other things to horrible to imagine. Buffy mumbled that she could imagine a lot, but didn't push the point.
**********
Once it was understood that they couldn't destroy the artifacts the next question was what were they going to do? They couldn't stay hidden underground forever. Buffy wanted to know why they had to hide? As long as the artifacts were hidden why did they have to hide. Giles looked at all of the people gathered around him and smiled at them sadly.
"Buffy" he said looking into her eyes "with everyone here knowing where the artifacts are, how long do you think it would take before one of us were captured and forced to tell everything?" As he said this he glanced over at Dawn.
Buffy understood immediately the danger he was pointing out. "But Giles" she said beseechingly "we have to do something. We can't stay down here forever. We need to find out who it is that wanted the artifacts and take them out of the picture. If we get them there won't be a threat."
"I agree" Giles replied "but how are we going to find this information out if going out puts everyone in danger. It's not as if we can just walk up to the local vampires and ask for information." Buffy sat there for a few moments then turned around and stared at Spike.
Spike, seeing Buffy and Giles staring at him, took a step back with a look of suspicion on his face and said "What?"
*********
The light over the entrance to 'Willy's Place' was out as usual, the whole area was in shadows. It made it easier for the customers to come and go without being noticed. Not that anyone paid any real attention to who or what came and went at Willy's. Willy had 'connections' that kept the police far away from his place. He also had 'agreements' with the vampire and demon communities that kept his place a 'neutral grounds'. Even the Slayer respected the neutrality of his place, most of the time. Unless she wanted information. Then she'd come in, disrupt his business, scare off his customers, threaten him and knock him around until he cooperated. Whenever he saw her come through the door he knew he was in trouble.
The Slayer had just come through the door. As she walked toward the bar Willy thought about trying to run but decided against it. She would catch him and just beat him up more for running. He stood there trying to smile as if everything was fine but beads of sweat were forming on his forehead. When she got to the bar he called out loudly "What can I do for you Slayer?"
Buffy heard a noise behind her and saw two vampires going down the hall to the backdoor. There were a couple of demons sitting in a booth that avoided eye contact with her and a big demon sitting alone at a table in the far corner that glared at her, but didn't get up. Buffy turned back to Willy and smiled her sweetest smile. "You can talk to me Willy" she said cheerfully.
When the Slayer smiled it really made Willy nervous, sweat started running down the side of his face and he mopped it off with a bar rag. "What would you like to talk about Slayer" he asked with a tremble in his voice.
"Oh, I don't know. How about certain individuals breaking into crypts and stealing stuff" she said in a more serious tone of voice. "Or maybe who sent them to do it and why?"
Willy swallowed loudly. "I don't know anything about vampires breaking into crypts" he stammered out.
"I didn't say vampires Willy" Buffy said quietly. Willy backed up against the backbar.
"You know Willy, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. But to tell the truth I actually prefer the hard way" she said as she walked around the end of the bar and started walking toward him behind the bar.
Willy backed up as far as he could until his back was against a beer cooler. When Buffy had him cornered she punched him in the stomach. As he started to fold over she punched him in the nose and straightened him up. She punched him in the stomach again, but grabbed his shirt collar to prevent him from folding again and slammed him against the cooler. "I could keep this up all night, you know that don't you Willy" she said to him calmly. "I could beat on you till your just a puddle on the floor and no one would stop me. So talk!"
Willy swallowed loudly and nodded his head. Buffy let go of his shirt but kept him pinned against the cooler. "Look, I don't know much, honest" he stammered out. "All I know is that some sorcerer hired some vampires to break into a crypt and steal something for him. He told them that he would raise a Master for them if they helped him. He's working out of a warehouse down by the docks somewhere. That's all I know Slayer, honest" he said as he cringed against the cooler.
Buffy stepped back, straitened Willys shirt and smiled at him. "Now that wasn't so hard was it" she said. Buffy turned and walked out from behind the bar and out the door.
About twenty seconds after she went out the doorway, Spike walked in and headed for the bar. When he saw Willy still standing against the cooler wiping blood from his nose, he said "Was that the fucking Slayer I just saw leaving? What the hell did she want?"
Willy was still shaken, but answered "Yeah, that was her alright and she wanted what she always wants. Free information."
"There, there lad" Spike said sympathetically. "I hope you gave her what she wanted though? I gave her some bad info about a month ago and she beat me so bad I was down for a week."
Willy looked at Spike, then at the doorway and swallowed loudly. "Well mostly" he said with a shaking voice.
"Well lad, if I was you I'd go chasing after and tell her the rest of it" Spike said quietly. "You really don't want a pissed off Slayer coming back now do you?"
"She won't be coming back" Willy said a little more forcefully.
"Willy, Willy, Willy, you poor sod" Spike said as he sat there shaking his head. "That girl has killed a Master, used a rocket launcher on a demon, blew up a high school, kicked the shit out of a god, and killed more of my brethren than I can count, and you honestly think she won't be coming back."
Willy swallowed loudly again and sweat started running down his face. "Look, I didn't lie to her, I just didn't tell her everything, that's all" Willy whined.
"Ya know, that's why she kicked the shit out me last month, I didn't tell her everything" Spike said seriously. "The bloody bitch has no sense of humor at all."
"Ah, Spike, why don't you tell her the rest of it" Willy whined as the sweat ran down his forehead and into his eyes.
"Tell her what" Spike asked? "I don't know anything."
"Look, I told her there was this sorcerer down on the docks that hired some vamps to do a job for him. What I didn't tell her is that this guys got like twenty, twenty-five vamps working for him and at least a dozen big ass demons. I figured she'd just walk in there and they'd take her out real easy like" Willy said nervously.
"And why would I want to do this little favor for you Willy" Spike asked with a lopsided grin on his face.
Willy looked at Spike grinning at him then walked over to the cash register. He opened it up and pulled out a twenty dollar bill. He looked at Spike again and pulled out two more. He walked back to Spike and held them out to him. "Because were friends" he asked?
Spike grinned at Willy, took the money and got up off the bar stool "Just because were friends" he said as he walked out the door.
*********
Spike met up with Buffy several blocks away from 'Willy's Place'. He told her what Willy had left out about all the vamps and demons working for the sorcerer and being in the warehouse with him to protect him.
"You know, I should go back and kick the shit out of that little worm" Buffy said angrily.
"You can't Pet" Spike said to her softly "he paid me to find you and tell the rest."
"How much" Buffy asked out of curiosity?
Spike grinned at her and said "Enough".
*******
Buffy had wanted to go down to the docks and find the warehouse, but Spike had advised caution until they had a better plan than suicide. Buffy groused about it but she didn't really argue. Even she knew she couldn't take on thirty or forty vampires and demons all at once. They worked their way back through town and back to the cemetery. Once they were back underground at the crypt they met with Giles, the Counsel 'action team' and the Scoobies in Spikes vault. They told them what they had learned about the sorcerer, his promise to raise a Master and the small army of vampires and demons that were protecting him. The next question, of course, was what were they going to do next?
Giles looked over at Mr. Mensey, the apparent leader of the Counsel 'action team', for several moments before he said anything. "The decision is yours of course, but it looks like it's time for 'Plan B'."
Buffy, Spike and the Scoobies all looked at Giles wondering what he meant by 'Plan B'? Mr. Mensey sat staring at the floor for several minutes in deep thought before he looked up at Giles and said "I suppose your correct". He stood up from the chair he had been sitting in and walked to a far corner of the room and withdrew a cellular phone from one of his pockets, dialed a number and talked to someone briefly. When he rejoined the group he had a grim look on his face.
"I understand that all of you are used to keeping secretes" Mensey said to them "but what I'm about to tell you has some rather sticky implications. One of the reasons that it took Mr. Giles so long to make his return was that he didn't come alone. When the Counsel understood what might be at stake here they sent along some help, just in case. Besides the three of us" he said as he pointed at himself and the two other men that had come with him "there are three other teams hiding outside of town. I have just alerted them and they are on their way here now. These teams are all highly trained with very specialized weapons. Specifically, they are vampire slayers."
The rest of the group sat in silence, mainly from the shock of this revelation. Buffy looked at Mr. Mensey and asked a one word question, "Slayers"?
"Not in the sense that you are 'The Slayer', but there are vampires and demons in other parts of the world and each of these men have several 'kills' under their belts" Mensey explained. "The sticky part of this situation is that bringing a para-military group into another sovereign nation might be looked upon rather unfavorably if it were to be found out. Especially by your American Government, it has a rather parochial outlook at times. I'm going to have to ask each of you to swear to keep our being here a secrete and not to reveal it to anyone, ever."
"Not a problem" Buffy said with a tone of amusement in her voice "were not really in direct contact with our government very often. They sort of like to pretend that the Hellmouth doesn't really exist."
"I understand, from what Mr. Giles has reported to the Counsel, that what you've said is true" Mr. Mensey replied "but still it wouldn't be very good for 'diplomatic reasons' for it ever to get out that we had been here."
Buffy looked at Mr. Mensey for a few moments then looked around the room at her friends. "Like I said, not a problem. You've never been here, we've never seen you, we've never heard of you" she said in a serious tone of voice. "But, all that aside, what is 'Plan B'?"
"Were going to attack the warehouse, kill all of the vampires and demons and kill or capture the sorcerer" Mensey told her in a no nonsense tone of voice. "We would prefer to capture him, if possible, because we would like to extract certain information from him. But we 'will' kill him if necessary. Anyone with the knowledge and skill to do what he has threatened can't be allowed to get away."
"We don't normally kill humans around here" Buffy said as she glanced over at Giles to get his reaction to what had just been said.
"I know" Mr. Mensey said in a flat tone of voice "that's why I'm here".
*********
(Friday)
It took the rest of the night for the three 'special' action teams to make it from where ever they had been hiding to the crypt unseen. The last team made it just before the sun came up. The crypt had felt crowded before, but with nine more added it felt over crowded. There were empty vaults available, if you didn't count rotting coffins and moldering bodies as occupants. The men chose instead to pitch their bedrolls along the walls of the hall leading from the ladder back to Spikes vault. The new men all looked fit and very dangerous.
One man from each team met with Mensey, Giles and Buffy to plan out the attack. Spike wasn't invited to join the planing session by Mr. Mensey, but Buffy called him over because she knew that he knew more about the warehouse district near the docks than anyone else. Mensey accepted his presents without comment, but the other three men from the teams eyed him warily. Spike glared back at them for a few moments, then ignored them.
Spike told the group that from his personal knowledge there were only three empty warehouses near the docks and that only two of them were big enough to hold all the vampires and demons that were reported to be working for the sorcerer. He drew a fairly good map of the area and showed the best approaches to both of them. He also told them that only one of them could be accessed from the sewers and was most likely the one they were looking for because that was the only way that the vampires and demons could move around during the day time and it was the only escape route available to them.
The men from the action teams were suspicious of his information but Buffy and Giles accepted it as reliable. The discussion next centered on whether or not they should try to make the assault tonight or do a reconnaissance of the warehouses and plan the attack for the following night. Buffy was against doing a reconnaissance, she felt there was to much of a chance that the people doing it would be seen and warn the sorcerer. She felt the best plan was to go to the warehouse that was most likely and if they found it empty to immediately move on to the second one. The team leaders were against this because they claimed that there wasn't anyway to know if the sorcerer and his minions were in either one of the warehouses. Giles told Mensey that he trusted Spikes information on the warehouses and that he agreed with Buffys plan. Mensey thought about it for several minutes and studies Spikes map carefully. He then over road the objections of the team leaders and said they would go with Buffys plan.
They then started working out the points of attack on the warehouse. Buffy volunteered to come into the warehouse by the sewer route, it was the most dangerous, but she was the only one with the knowledge of the sewer system in Sunnydale. A wrong turn down there could take someone off in the wrong direction and they wouldn't be where they needed to be when the assault started. She explained that between her and Spike they had been through almost every inch of the sewer system at one time or another.
Buffy and Spike going on the assault was a given. Giles insisted that he was going too. Buffy explained the danger involved to all the Scoobies and asked if they wanted to go or not. After everything they had been through together over the years she wasn't going to tell any of them that they couldn't go. Willow said that she was going and Tara said that she was going with Willow. Xander looked as if he were afraid, but fear had never stopped him from following Buffy into danger before, he said he was going.
Buffy could tell that Anya didn't want to go but because Xander was going she said she would go too. Buffy looked at Dawn and told her flat out that there was no way she was going, period. She then asked Anya if she would mind staying behind with Dawn. She also told Anya that she needed someone she trusted to stay behind and guard the artifacts, books and Dawn. Anya seemed relieved and said that she would stay behind and guard Dawn. Buffy told everyone to try to get some rest today because it was going to be a long night and they needed to be sharp.
********
When all of the others were laying down to rest Buffy went out into the hallway and found Mensey and the other team leaders. She asked to talk to them privately and led them a short way down the hall. Buffy looked at the four men for several moments without saying anything before she started to speak.
"I just wanted to talk to all of you about Spike" she said to them. "I know that most of you, maybe all of you don't trust him, but that doesn't really matter because I trust him. Spike is part of my team and he is my responsibility. I want you to know that I take my responsibilities very seriously. If you or any of your men should have a little accident during the fighting tonight and accidentally kill Spike by mistake, I want you to know that I will personally rip your arms off and beat you to death with them. Am I being very clear about that? I suggest that you inform your men so that there won't be any mistakes." Buffy stood there until each of the men nodded their acknowledgment of what she had said to them. "Sweet dreams" she said as she turned around and went back to the vault to get some rest.
Buffy didn't see Spike standing in the dark shadows as she walked past him. But Spike had heard every word she had said to the men and had a very thoughtful look on his face that turned into a big smile.
*********
(To Be Continued)