Erie woke up in a place where everything was white. And she was damn 
sure she hadn't come here, wherever here was, voluntarily. Reason 
enough to be cautious. The vampiress sat up swiftly, ready for an 
attack from any corner. 
But there wasn't a person in sight. 
In fact, there was nothing but walls on all sides of her. One wall 
was made out of glass though. She shrugged. Okay, time to get out of 
here. It would be nice if there were people on the other side of the 
glass, because she was getting kind of hungry, but she would be glad 
to be out of here in any case. 
As soon as Erie's hands touched the glass, she got shocked. Shit! 
Electrified fence. What is this, a prison? Apparently someone had 
noticed that she was awake, because a little panel in the ceiling 
opened up, and a bag of blood fell out.
Now this was getting creepy. No person in sight, locked up in a nice 
electrified cell, with blood falling from the sky. Yay! Why did she 
doubt this was good? This had the whole lab-rat smell to it. Hey, she 
may be from before television was invented, but that didn't mean she 
hadn't seen plenty of sci-fi movies. 
In fact, if there was a bunch of government types in Sunnydale 
picking up demons for experimentation it would explain why so many 
minions had disappeared lately. The Slayer couldn't have dusted them 
all, not even with all her little helpers. And her sire had been 
keeping vampire activities low around town ever since that sorcerer 
guy had gotten the whole family halved in one day. 
Erie eyed the ominous little bag in the middle of the room. The 
vampiress would bet her right tooth that the blood was drugged.
Then she smiled evilly.
But it might just be her ticket out of here.
After all, these shit-heads only had experience in dealing with 
minions. And you could say a lot about minions, but they didn't have 
four brain-cells between them. 
Let's see if they're ready to deal with a real vampire.

**********************************

Methos threw his coat over the back of the couch, stalked into the 
kitchen to grab a beer and finally plunked down in front of his 
computer. He popped open the bottle, and threw the cap into the 
wastebasket conveniently placed halfway between the kitchen and the 
living room, so that he could reach it from wherever he decided to 
open his beers. 
A long gulp of the liquid, a sigh, and he finally relaxed back into 
his seat.
Sometimes being a graduate student was more trouble than it was 
worth. Especially when one of those pompous teachers with too many 
titles attached to his name tried to push his opinion on poor Adam, 
eventhough Methos knew damn well there wasn't a word of truth in the 
whole statement. Of course, there was no way to explain he had bloody 
well been there when the language had been invented, and that the 
writer of that particular text would do the bloody Macarena in his 
grave, if he had any idea how they mangled his words two millennia 
later.
Methos shook his head, trying to dislodge the better part of his 
annoyance. He had better things to do than wind himself up about 
things he had no hope of changing. He started up the computer. 
One of which was checking out the most recent Watcher-memos. He had 
neglected Adam Pierson's other profession during the finals, so he'd 
better get up to date fast. You never knew if somebody familiar had 
come into town in the last two weeks. It was better to be safe than 
sorry when it concerned his head staying on his neck. 
The immortal mentally listed the current whereabouts of the people he 
most wanted to avoid. Kronos, always at the top of his list, was in 
Southern France somewhere. He had lost his Watcher again some three 
weeks ago, but it was unlikely his former friend would visit Paris. 
His brother didn't particularly like cities. A smile flitted across 
Methos' face. After all, it had been the forming of larger and larger 
cities that had eventually destroyed the Horsemen. That, and some 
nasty manipulation on Methos' part.
The immortal resumed his list. Nope, nobody important was close that 
he knew about. 
In a much better mood, the old immortal started to sort his mail.
Memo to all Paris Watchers. Oooh, probably about where the monthly 
little Gathering was held. The immortal smirked. Watchers were a 
pretty morbid bunch, even considering the fact that they were 
essentially professional peeping toms. Once every month they had a 
small party with plenty of alcohol, that always turned into a betting 
contest of 'If your immortal fought with mine, who do you think would 
win?' Adam Pierson was notorious for winning that pool every other 
month. Yep, it's good to be in research, so to say.
Three pieces of junk mail were swiftly read and discarded.
One announcement of an immortal moving to Paris. Who? Gerard Resing. 
Didn't ring a bell. Methos made a mental note to check out the guy's 
chronicle. 
One obituary. Kennan, killed in Sunnydale by an unknown immortal. 
Never met the man. Something nagged at the back of Methos' head. 
Sunnydale. He had heard that name before recently, but he couldn't 
remember where. He wrecked his brain for a minute, then shrugged. 
Things like that always fell in place at the most unexpected times. 
It couldn't be important.
One confirmed new immortal. Well, that would be the unknown immortal 
that killed Kennan, if the Watchers held true to form. Methos opened 
the mail. And he was proven right. No name, no date of birth, no 
photo, pretty good description. Male, bleached blonde, blue or grey 
eyes, and so on. Killed Kennan in an unfair fight. Methos winced as 
he read the details of the so-called battle. Ouch, that was one nasty 
character. Definitely new, since he was seen holding his head, when 
he stepped into immortal range, the very first time he was spotted. 
Apparently seen with Cassandra, Kennan and suspected unknown 
immortal. Cassandra? What was she doing in Sunnydale? The witch 
hardly ever left her cabin in Donan Woods. Methos swiftly checked her 
chronicle to make sure she wasn't getting adventurous in her old age. 
He let out a relieved sigh when he saw that she was thankfully back 
in Scotland after a three-day trip to Sunnydale, reason: see PN-
402F5. What the hell did that mean?
Methos turned back to the entry on the unknown immortal and scanned 
down. 
For more details: see PN-402F5. The old immortal didn't particularly 
like mysteries; they tended to get one killed. He fully intended to 
get to the bottom of this, as soon as he had some spare time. 
The next email also originated in Sunnydale. Busy little town, wasn't 
it? 
Suspected immortal, seen in company of Cassandra and confirmed new 
immortal, possibly teacher of latter. Another description: black 
hair, dark eyes, height, etc. Possibly called Alexander Lavelle 
Harris. Confirmation is pending.
Methos sat back with a thud, blinking at the screen in sudden 
recognition.
Of course! That's where he knew the town of Sunnydale from.
That's where Xander lives. 

Part Two  

Last July

Xander looked forlornly under the hood of uncle Rory's car. Now his 
car, really, for the time being. Uncle Rory had been driving under 
influence again, and he had been caught doing it, also again. So now 
he was minus one driver's licence, and he had dumped his car on his 
unsuspecting nephew, who hadn't even wanted to plunder his hard-won 
piggybank to pay for it. Oh yeah, this was a good deal. Xander 
thought sarcastically, looking at the smoke coming from the car.
Uncle Rory got money for more bottles of whiskey, and Xander got some 
wheels for the duration of the summer. And since the mayor was so 
much barbecued snake, and school was out, forever, he decided to take 
to the road. Or at least until he could scrounge up enough money 
working odd jobs to pay for college, which would be in about, oh, ten 
years or so. Nope, the young man didn't see any point in that, so he 
decided to use the money he spared up to go cruising the country. At 
least he could tell his kids he had done that once, in the good old 
days, before he sank down into lower-class suburbia, never to be seen 
again. Not that Xander wanted to be seen, should that really happen.
He'd started the trip happily enough, and it had been fun. He liked 
the quiet. It gave him time to contemplate his life, what there was 
of it. And he had decided he didn't care where life would take him. 
As long as he could help Buffy fight evil, everything else became an 
insignificant detail. And with the way things went, he'd probably not 
even get the chance to become the total failure his father always 
said he was, considering how many times he had nearly died already. 
Okay, becoming morbid guy here. Yeah, well, what else is there to do, 
when you're looking at a car that has died its last death, you're on 
a road in the middle of nowhere, and on top of that it's getting dark 
fast. 
Xander sighed and slammed down the hood. He looked left, long stretch 
of empty road. He looked right, and even more empty road. Hmm, what 
do you say we flip a coin? No, seriously, he had passed a town some 
fifteen minutes ago. How far could that be? An hour later Xander was 
rethinking his decision to leave the car and walk back to 
civilisation. It was cold. You'd think summer nights were hot, 
especially considering some hours ago the airco in the car had barely 
held out in the baking temperature. It was dark. Never a good for a 
Sunnydale resident. And he still hadn't seen any cars going either 
way.
A rumbling sound behind him announced that last part was about to 
change. Xander put on his lopsided smile, and stuck out his thumb, 
trying to look harmless. Yep, harmless Xander here, doing the old I'm-
sorry-but-my-car-broke-down. As if anyone in this day and age still 
believed that line! Even if it was the sorry truth. 
To his stark amazement the car stopped. A window opened and a scruffy 
looking hippy type appeared, along with a substantial cloud of sweet 
stuff. And not of the HoHo variety. "Hey, dude, need a ride?" 
Oookay, taking a hitchhiker in the middle of the night? So not a 
problem for the guy with nothing but smoke between his ears. Talk 
about clichés. 
"Just to the next town. My car broke down." Xander answered in short 
easily comprehensible phrases. He got in the passenger seat, noting 
the two wasted flowergirls in the back. "Hi!" He smiled nervously. 
The blonde girl with blue glitter on her face waved back at him. The 
other one was not really with it. Xander turned back around as the 
car started up again, hoping to see the worn soon. Drugged people 
behind the wheel? Not an improvement over alcohol, in his opinion. At 
least they wouldn't crash into any non-existent cars.
Xander was completely surprised when he felt a sudden sharp pain in 
his neck. An instinctive look sideways revealed that the driver now 
had yellow eyes, and a set of sharp teeth and a shit-eating grin. 
Shit! Vampires! Only he could manage to get attacked away from the 
Hellmouth. Xander struggled wildly, not really believing what was 
happening to him, but small strong hands held him against his seat 
from behind in a parody of a lover's embrace. He could feel the blood 
drawn out of him at a dizzyingly fast pace. At first there was an 
irritating itch all over his body, but all too soon his swiftly 
emptying veins started to hurt until he thought he couldn't take it 
anymore, and his heart pounded loudly through the strain. 
Xander could feel his struggles growing weaker as he lost feeling in 
his hands and feet. His co-ordination was shot to hell. Dark specks 
floated through his vision, and crawled out of the corners of his 
eyes, until they swarmed his vision with the deepest black he had 
ever seen. In the end there were no sensations left but the sound of 
his slowing heartbeat. He was dimly aware of screeching tires, and 
the impact his body made as it was thrown out of the moving vehicle, 
but it was all so far away and insignificant. It didn't even hurt 
anymore. 
A hesitating beat. Another one. 
And then there was silence. 

********************************

Spike stopped dead in the middle of the park. He cocked his head and 
consciously breathed in once, to catch the scents floating on the 
night. He ignored the flowers, the bark from the trees, the fresh cut 
grass and the smells of small animals to focus on bigger prey. Human. 
The thrilling scent of his victim went in through his nose and then 
tantalised his tongue on the way out through his mouth, never 
reaching his non-functioning lungs. 
He was getting close. It had been a long hunt through most of 
Sunnydale's back-alleys, but that's how Spike liked it. It was never 
any fun if his victims froze in fear. He grinned maliciously. No 
chance of that happening with this one. He moved through the bushes 
in absolute silence, circling around the place where he knew his prey 
was located. He positioned himself behind a tree near the most likely 
flight path, and used the old rock-in-the-opposite-bushes trick. It 
never got old. Whether human or demon, the stupid buggers all kept 
falling for it.
Spike could hear leaves rustling as someone came his way. The vampire 
shifted to game face and waited impatiently behind his tree. He could 
hear a heart beating loudly, breath panting quickly, as his prey 
moved closer and closer. He caught a glimpse of dark hair moving past 
his hiding spot, and he leapt.
A startled cry sounded as they fell to the ground. They tumbled over 
the grass, both fighting for the upper hand, using all the dirty 
tricks they knew. Finally, Spike managed to pin the other's wrists 
down and smiled in victory. He bloody well knew more dirty tricks 
than any human whelp.
He grinned at his victim, fangs exposed.
"Well, now, who's a nummy treat?" 
Dilated brown eyes looked up at him, and Spike just couldn't resist 
anymore.
The vampire leaned down and captured Xander's mouth. The immortal 
gave as good as he got, despite the fangs getting in the way, and it 
was only a matter of time before the kiss started to taste metallic. 
Spike shifted back to his human mask, and started licking a slow path 
down Xander's neck. The young man arched up against the weight 
pinning him down, but the blonde made sure to keep his arms pinned, 
while he drove his lover out of his mind.
They had played this game five times in the last two weeks. Xander 
had first invented it as a way for Spike to let out some of his 
boundless energy and his well-honed hunting instincts without killing 
any humans. And the vampire had to admit it was bloody good fun 
following his lover around town and embarrassing him by having sex in 
whatever place they ended up in. The vampire had soon found out that 
the immortal blood he got from Xander during their lovemaking was 
more than enough to sate his bloodlust. Spike had no need to kill for 
food.
Didn't mean that he wouldn't do it for fun, though. He loved the 
smell of fear on his victims just before he ripped their throat out. 
Spike was not into the complicated mental games Angelus always 
played, but he liked a good fair chase before his dinner. And Xander 
knew how he felt from the beginning. Emotions don't lie. Spike 
suspected it was more than just that though. The kid hadn't shown any 
vampire characteristics since that night they beat the mad sorcerer, 
but Spike could feel they were there. 
Bleedin' white knight is afraid of 'imself. Spike didn't understand 
why. The same way he didn't really understand what made Angel such a 
mincing ponce. Not that he wasn't 'appier with the souled up version 
than the bitter psychopath, but sometimes he missed the old days of 
running with his sire. But nooo, it's always Batvamp to the rescue 
these days. He understood Xander and Angel better after his little 
baptism in Heaven, though. Well, in that he could recognise the 
effin' emotions in his Xanpet. Still can't feel them. Not that he 
bloody well wanted to, self-respecting vampire that he was. But 
understanding would be neat.
Spike smirked. But, he would teach Xander what it meant to be a 
vampire one of these days. With or without his effin' soul. After 
all, the immortal shared Spike's demon, and he had a reputation to 
keep up, now didn't he?
Spike had just undone Xander's jeans with his hand, and intended to 
move downwards to suckle that sweet hardness, when he was hit with an 
electric shock. He screamed in equal parts agony and fury.
"Spike!" Xander shot up from his position like a jack in the box, 
released hands fumbling to close his jeans. Spike stood up slowly, 
testing his balance. The voltage had fried his nervous system, and if 
he had been a normal vampire he didn't doubt he would be paralysed. 
But since part of him was immortal, it wore of quickly. Oh yeah, 
fight electricity with electricity. One for immortality, zero for the 
poor pillock that had interrupted them.
Two green-clad soldier types with a wanna-be bankrobber look stepped 
out of the bushes, weapons trained on Spike. The vampire grinned at 
them evilly. Now, these dolts had really asked for it. No way was 
Xander going to protest him killing these gits in a righteous rage. 
The two lovers exchanged a meaningful look, before they exploded into 
a flurry of motion. 
Spike jumped the biggest one, snarling and clawing at him without any 
of his usual finesse. No creature would interrupt Spike having sex 
with his luv and live to tell about it! The soldier tried to defend 
himself, and at one point another one of those electric shocks jazzed 
through the vampire's body, but he didn't bother to give it more 
attention than he would a Chaos demon. Which meant no bloody 
attention at all, ever since his Dru shacked up with one of them 
wankers.
The blonde stabbed his teeth violently into the guy's throat at a 
definitely awkward angle, but who gave a damn about neatness at this 
point? The bloodier the better. Salty, fear-filled blood hit the roof 
of Spike's mouth. He had missed that particular taste. Xander had 
many feelings for Spike, but fear was bloody well not one of them. 
The vampire did blink at the way the liquid tasted flat. It took him 
a minute to find out what he was missing. There was no sparkle in it. 
No extra tingle on his tongue, courtesy of the electrical quality of 
Xander's blood. 
Well yeah, you moron! That's what you get for drinking bubbly all the 
time and then trying to fall back on a cheap pint. He let the dead 
soldier fall at his feet in disgust, before searching out his lover. 
Xander had apparently conked the guy on the head with his trusty big 
knife. Spike could still hear the git's heart beating away at him all 
happy like. The vampire had the nagging feeling that it would 
continue to be a nuisance for quite some time. 
"You know, pet. If we leave 'im alive, he'll go back to wherever 'e 
came from and report us to the brass." Xander sank down beside his 
opponent and checked his belongings. Several high-tech toys he set 
aside for further inspection. Spike had never seen half of it. He 
didn't particularly care for guns. It was no fun mowing your victims 
down from afar in stead of upclose. 
"Yeah, I know. But I didn't vamp out, and you're just another vampire 
to these guys who just happened to be more resistant to their taser 
than most. And they're not gonna look for me, since I'll be dead or 
turned. No biggie."
Spike narrowed his eyes. At times he really hated the way Xander 
became squeamish at the mention of killing. So, he didn't want to 
kill for fun. A bloke could understand that. But for protection? 
Hell, bloody mums killed to protect their little buggers. At least, 
normal mums. He chuckled. The Slayer's mum, definitely. But Xander 
wouldn't even do that. Spike narrowed his eyes. There had to be a way 
around that hang-up. He'd think on it some more.
The soldier boy started to moan. "He's waking up, luv."
Xander nodded, now concentrating his scavenger ways on the guy Spike 
had killed. Finally, he nodded to his lover and motioned to a pile of 
high-tech junk. 
"Here, take this. And let's go."
Spike took the strange weapons in his hands, and took a last look at 
the lucky bastard that got to live. Wouldn't be for long, if Spike 
had anything to say about it. As he said before, no idiot tried to 
come between Spike and his lover. 
No-one. 
Then he turned around and followed Xander home, already casting his 
mind towards the moment they would get back in the basement. Had to 
make up for the sudden halt in their earlier proceedings, now, didn't 
he? 
And he knew just how to do it.

*********************************

Another pair of eyes looked after the leaving pair emotionlessly. 
Then they turned on the soldier, as he sat up slowly. He was 
definitely in shock, but he would be useful still. He moaned at the 
sight of his dead comrade, and then frantically patted himself down. 
But Xander had taken his communication devices. 
In the end, he stood up and started walking. The watcher had expected 
this, and followed at a reasonable distance. The soldier would go 
back to his base of operations, but after the watcher knew the 
location, he would not be left alive to report anything. 
It was best to keep possible allies as well as possible enemies on 
their toes.
It just wasn't clear yet which would be which.

*********************************** 

Part Three  

Methos thanked the stewardess for the beer and the delicious steak 
that he had just eaten. He leaned back in his chair, stretched out 
his legs as far as possible, which was never far enough eventhough he 
usually travelled first class, and went back to the problem at hand.
Cassandra had been in Sunnydale, the same town where his Xander was 
living. Why had she been there? She couldn't possibly have known 
about the young immortal. Methos had only trained him for two months. 
He winced, trying to find another reason for the immortal witch to 
have come to Sunnydale. But he feared she had found out about his 
latest student. Cassandra was exactly the reason why Methos hadn't 
taken a real, long-term student in six hundred years. He showed young 
ones the way occasionally, as he had done with Xander, but he never 
kept them with him for long. Every time his former slave found out he 
had taken a student, she would try to poison their minds towards him. 
Oooh, the big bad Horsemen destroyed my village and killed everyone I 
knew, and he kept me as a slave for three years. And then he let 
Kronos have me just once, which he bloody well couldn't do a thing 
about, so I escaped. Never mind the fact that Cassandra willingly 
served Methos, to great detriment of all the other slave-women. Or 
that she could have escaped a hundred times before that night. But 
no, she felt betrayed because she loved Methos, and he didn't do 
anything to stop Kronos from taking her.
Accumulated wisdom of five thousand years: There's nothing worse than 
a woman scorned. And he'd scorned quite a lot of women in his day. 
And most of them he hadn't even been aware there was any scorning to 
be done. 
Methos sighed, and sat up a bit straighter. Well, what's done is 
done. He regretted what he had done to Cassandra, and he knew he 
wasn't capable of killing her, but he really wished she'd stop her 
evil Horsemen campaign. Only that woman could hold a grudge for over 
three thousand years. Time for some damage control. 
The old immortal had found that it was difficult to predict which 
side his students would take. Especially since he had the tendency to 
take on the annoyingly Boyscoutish types. Take MacLeod for example. 
The younger Highlander's morals were definitely far to naïve
still, 
when Methos met him, so he had taken him on as an unofficial student. 
And yes, Cassandra did show up, though later than expected. In 
typical fashion MacLeod didn't even listen to Methos' side of the 
story, and judged him guilty. Okay, so he was guilty, but the 
Boyscout should at least have listened to him before doing anything 
rash. But that was clearly too much to hope for.
Unlike MacLeod, whom Methos knew would react badly, he still had high 
hopes for Xander. The young man had been one of the more unusual 
students he had ever taught. It was a rare day when the ancient kept 
getting surprised by a young immortal, especially in this day and 
age. He just hoped Xander would surprise him again.
Methos smiled as he thought back to the night he had first met the 
young immortal. Now that had been surprise all by itself. Met was the 
wrong word though. The kid had literally been thrown at his feet.
***************************************
Last July

Methos walked with a determined pace towards his motel. He should 
have stayed indoors, after the bus had dropped him and about fifteen 
other poor travellers off in this town in the middle of nowhere due 
to 'an unscheduled emergency'. Please wait here, a new bus will 
transport you further in the morning. Ah yes! The unscheduled 
emergency, of course. If it had been scheduled, it wouldn't have been 
an emergency, now would it? And now he was bloody stuck in this town 
for another night. 
The immortal had decided to find a pub and start drinking. He'd 
earned it. The pub had been surprisingly nice for such a small town, 
but then again, there was probably not a whole lot else to do here 
for entertainment, so it had to be, really. It had been open longer 
than he had thought too. Which was why he was walking in the middle 
of the night back to his motel. Which would have been closer to the 
pub, if he'd had anything to say about it. 
A rumbling noise announced a car, just seconds before it turned the 
corner with squealing tyres. It looked to come straight at him, and 
Methos was really not in the mood to make the evening even worse by 
dying in a gruesome automobile accident, so he stepped back into the 
shadows of a convenient building. He waited until the car passed him 
by, and was just about to continue his course, when he heard a heavy 
thud accompanied by the kind of cruel laughing he'd heard too many 
times in his life. Usually when he was in the unfortunate position of 
being completely at the mercy of someone else. He'd laughed like that 
himself once.
Almost against his will the immortal turned around and stared at the 
crumpled form lying on the road. Don't get involved, Methos, or 
you'll get stuck in this town for another week helping to solve a 
murder investigation. He crinkled his nose. No thanks, not for this 
immortal.
And then it started. A slow itch in the back of his neck was 
building, until it resulted into a steady grating hum. Methos closed 
his eyes with a strained expression on his face. Oh yes, and Fate was 
still a fickle bitch. He should just walk away, let someone else deal 
with the new immortal. He hadn't trained anyone in seventy-six years, 
and that had turned into a grand disaster. Why go trough the agony of 
raising another child just to have it die at the hands of another? At 
least MacLeod was old and strong enough to defend himself properly. 
Methos opened his eyes and sighed. He couldn't just let whoever the 
kid was walk around in complete ignorance and it wasn't likely 
another teacher would show up in this dump any time soon. It looked 
like he was going to be in this town for considerably longer than a 
week. The ancient walked over to take a look at his newest student.
He turned the body over. A young man, maybe twenty, with dark hair. 
Strongly built, that was good. Methos frowned. No visible injuries. 
Some blood in the neck area, but that small amount was hardly enough 
for a mortal wound. Yet, there were no other signs of trauma to the 
body. It had to be a severe wound though, or he would have already 
woken up. Of course, the neck area was always vulnerable.
Methos stopped his musings, when a large gasp announced the beginning 
of a new immortal life. The boy's eyes opened and dark eyes looked 
around wildly. Methos took care not to restrain him.
"Sssh, it's alright. You're fine. Just lie still." And other shushing 
words soon had the young man calmed down a bit. Horror shone from 
those disturbingly expressive eyes.
"I died. I died, right?" The voice sounded slightly panicky, but 
Methos had seen worse reactions to a first death.
He nodded solemnly. "Yes. You did. But you revived."
The young man suddenly became very calm. "I'm a vampire." He stated 
in a perfectly serious tone. Methos raised an eyebrow. Okay, this 
wasn't a reaction he'd ever seen before. It must be all that nonsense 
they showed kids on television these days. The boy sounded pretty 
convinced though.
"Noooo," He drawled, "you're not a vampire. You're what is called an 
immortal. The same as I am."
The unnatural calm broke and the kid started babbling nervously. "Not 
a vampire. That's a good. Sooo. Immortal, huh? As in not able to die, 
I take it? Not a demony version of immortality I hope, but then I 
feel pretty normal, and..." 
Methos fell in. "You're human, only when you die, you'll wake up. 
Except for beheading, there's no coming back from that." It had been 
a while since he'd had to add the "you're human"
part. Way back when 
immortals had often been stoned, burnt, outcast, and/or exiled for 
being demons, he'd made sure his students knew they were just
normal 
humans with an extra feature. He'd never thought he'd have to
use the 
line again though. 
The young man grinned widely. "Well, I guess that cuts down on my 
chances of becoming a virgin sacrifice. They don't usually behead 
people." He suddenly looked flustered. "Not that I'm a virgin, 
really." 
The old immortal smirked. At least this kid was original. Though he 
was a bit weird. Right, and you're perfectly normal. "My name is Adam 
Pierson."
The boy sat up and held out his hand. 
"Alexander Harris. My friends call me Xander."
Methos shook Xander's hand, then stood up and helped the kid stand as 
well all in one fluid motion. Xander looked at him curiously, and 
appeared to be pretty much over his first death experience without 
too much trouble. Methos couldn't honestly say he had ever seen 
someone so blasé about finding out they were immortal. If he
hadn't 
felt the younger immortal's buzz go from non-existent to strong and 
steady, he would have thought the boy was a more experienced immortal 
trying to pull the same stunt as Felicia Martins and trying to act 
new, before taking their teacher's head. 
Xander seemed honest though. Still, Methos hadn't lived for five 
thousand years without being cautious. He would keep an eye on the 
younger immortal, until he was completely sure.
"Let's get someplace warmer, and I'll tell you more of the details." 
He suggested.
Two dark eyebrows lifted. "Yep, I knew it. There's a catch, right? 
There's always a catch." Xander kept muttering to himself as the 
other man passed him, presuming his walk to the motel. "Hey, wait for 
me."
Oh yeah, kid. There's a catch alright. 
And it's called the Game. 

Part Four  

Drake paced through his room in long angry strides. Things weren't 
going well in Sunnydale. He shook his head in annoyance. And that was 
an understatement. After the death of the not very lamented Kennan 
two weeks ago, he had concentrated on getting his servants back up to 
a reasonable number. He'd created quite a few fledglings to take the 
place of the ones he'd lost, but somehow the numbers didn't 
noticeably increase. 
Vampires were disappearing all over the place, and the Master vampire 
had no idea how or what and he was starting to get pissed off about 
it. His first guess had been the slayer, of course. So he had a 
somewhat more experienced minion follow her around unseen. She had 
spotted him the third night though, and he'd been dust ever since, 
but at least he had reported back in twice before he met the wrong 
end of a stake. The huntress hadn't killed any more minions than 
usual. In fact, she had killed a lot less of them than usual. There 
were just no vampires to be found and slayed. 
No, something else was doing this. Drake had tried to find out who 
was behind it, if not the slayer, but it had been more of a curiosity 
than an actual threat. After all, minions were a dime a dozen. Hey! 
They were always the first to get staked, and Drake generously 
admitted he had dusted a hell of a lot of them himself. It was no 
skin of his back how long their average unlifespan was. 
The vampire was sure he would have found out what lay behind the 
mystery sooner or later, but since two nights ago the stakes had gone 
up. One of his childer had disappeared. He growled, game face coming 
to the fore in his anger.
He damn well hadn't kept Erie out of that debacle with the sorcerer 
only to have her get staked on him now! Drake should have grounded 
her to the house grounds the way he had done with young Aaron, but 
Erie was eighty years old, plenty old enough to take care of herself. 
Or it should have been. Somehow it hadn't been enough, though.
A rapid knock sounded on his door. 
"WHAT?!" He roared. 
One of Drake's minions entered. Jim was his name, or Tim, or... Oh,
who 
the hell cared what the little weasel was called? As long as he had 
information about a certain missing person.
"The Mistress is back, Master." That took a load of his chest, and he 
even managed a smile. 
"Well, get her in here." 
He hadn't finished the sentence or Erie entered, pushing the 
unfortunate minion roughly out of the way. Drake lost his mile at her 
appearance. She looked absolutely horrible. Her blond hair was 
frazzled, eyes lying deep in her skull even in her human face, and 
she was as hyper as an addict who really needed another shot. Furious 
too. Drake was expecting to see her vamp out any time now. Before he 
could say anything though, she knelt down, eyes down submissively, 
even while her back was still tensed in anger. The Master vampire 
smiled in amusement. Erie had never liked bowing for any man, which 
was pretty much why he chose her in the first place. Her sheer 
arrogance was amusing at times. But there was no arrogance at all 
when she spoke next.
"Sire, I need your help." 
The older vampire blinked in shock. Okay, not something he had ever 
thought to hear her say. Neither of them was much into traditional 
vampire lore on top of her personal opinions. So this had to be 
serious. He stifled the urge to rub his head. Vampires didn't get 
headaches. Damn, there goes my chance of repopulating the family, he 
thought sourly. 
"I will do everything in my power to help, childe." So much for 
tradition. "Now, what's the problem?"
Erie looked at him with big glazed blue eyes, and told him what had 
happened to her. The story about the scientist lab wasn't a surprise 
to him really. With the way things went today, as opposed to a 
hundred years ago, it was only a matter of time before there would be 
some form of government action taken against demons and vampires. He 
had no problem with humans trying to defend themselves against the 
creatures of the night. It was pretty amusing, and made the hunt a 
lot more fun. Drake growled softly. But they shouldn't have touched 
his childe. 
His anger only increased when she told him the story of how she had 
tried to feed of a human after her escape, only to find she couldn't, 
because of the excruciating pain in her head. Drake resumed his 
pacing during her explanation, trying to think of ways to get rid of 
whatever they had put in Erie's head that was causing the pain. 
Something computer-like he reckoned. Unfortunately computers were not 
his strong suit. 
There was nobody currently in Sunnydale who could perform operations 
on demons. He knew of a demon in LA who could, but what demon really 
wanted to help a vampire? None, really. That particular blood feud 
was older than dirt and even more pointless. Fun though, most of the 
time, when Drake didn't need a favour. Besides, Drake didn't feel for 
much letting his family out of his sight right now with these crazy 
soldiers walking around. One incapacitated childe was quite enough, 
thank you, he didn't need two. If Aaron would even manage to escape, 
like Erie did.
He blinked and smiled evilly. Another option was of course raiding 
the facility Erie had been locked up in. But as he suggested it to 
her, she scowled.
"Not a great idea. I don't think I can find it again. It was 
somewhere near the university, but that's a lot of ground to cover. 
And I'm sure those fucking scientist wouldn't be happy co-operating."
She had a point. If he turned a doctor, the bastard would have to be 
a childe to be of any use for the operation, but there was no fucking 
way he was siring some lowlife who had defanged his first childe. 
Still, that didn't mean Drake wouldn't take his fighters and lay 
waste to that facility as soon as he found it. And he would find it!
Erie suddenly grinned. "Hey! A chip is electrical, right? Don't you 
think there's some sort of spell to turn it off?"
Drake scowled at her. "You are not going to pull a spell on yourself, 
you hear me! You don't know the first thing about magic and spells 
are pretty unreliable when they're said right. You could fry your 
brain!" Not to mention magic was practically the bane of his 
existence. Nothing good came from it. It would be hard to convince 
Erie of this though.
Those blue eyes grew bigger and became moist, and the blonde 
sensually draped herself all over him, trying to tempt him into 
giving in..
Ah shit! Not the puppy dog eyes! Anything but that. 
Drake argued back and forth with Erie for another hour, but he had 
known from the start that he couldn't refuse her feminine wiles. 
Still, he had to keep up appearances.
He had his pride, after all. 

Part Five  

Spike stared at the place where his hand lay on his sleeping lover. 
He could feel the slow rising and falling of Xander's chest. Up, 
down, up, down. From all the things that separated a human partner 
from a vampiric, he wouldn't have thought that part would bother him 
the most. But for some reason, it did.
He'd had sex with mortals before, although usually it was only a bit 
of foreplay to the draining and killing part of the evening. There 
were always wankers around that practically worshipped vampires for 
some barmy reason or other, and they were always bloody enthusiastic. 
Especially in the more recent years, with all that Anne Rice crap 
floating about. A vampire just had to hint at immortality, and voila! 
One meal to go, with extras on the side. And there were definitely 
advantages to having a mortal lover now and again. For one, the heat 
was bloody amazing, especially as you plowed into them. Another was 
the rush you got as a vampire from hearing the heart speed up in 
excitement, and all that delicious blood rushing to the surface. 
Bleedin' erotic, and not something two vampires could share with 
eachother. It wasn't as erotic as exchanging blood of course, but it 
had its own unique appeal.
Still, Spike seldom bothered to bed any Happy Meals, mostly because 
they were too dainty to give them a good buggering. The vampire 
grinned evilly. They broke so easily. Now that was one problem he'd 
never run across with Xander. The kid gave as good as he got, and he 
was always good for more. Lately Spike had started wondering how much 
of that was due to Xander's immortality, and how much to his borrowed 
vampiric strength. Or maybe it was just that Xander was a kinky 
little bastard. He certainly had to be, to dive into bed with Spike. 
The other little scoobies would hardly agree with what he was doing. 
The blonde really hoped he'd be there when Slutty found out. It was 
sure to drive her nuts, if she wasn't already.
Xander murmured something and shifted in his sleep. Spike frowned, 
hoping the immortal wasn't having a bad dream again. The young man 
had woken up from a couple of those the last two weeks. After some 
gentle pushing he'd told Spike they mostly went back to the glimpse 
of Hell that was foisted onto him. In Spike's opinion Hell was not 
something people like Xander should ever see. 
The blonde stroked his lover's side in comfort, and with a sigh the 
dark-haired man settled back down, resuming the slow breathing 
pattern. Spike frowned at the movement. What was it that bugged him 
about that? He racked his brain for an answer. It's not like he had 
never felt a human lover breathe before, they did it all the time. 
Before he killed them in various inventive ways, that is. The vampire 
blinked in astonishment. That couldn't be it, could it? Bloody Hell, 
it was! He didn't see Xander as a human toy or meal, but as an equal. 
And an equal to a vampire, was always another vampire. They certainly 
didn't have any fuzzy feelings for other demons. Only the continuing 
up and down movement against his body when he slept wrapped around 
his lover, really bollocksed up his instincts. 
Spike smiled. Actually, he kind of liked the thought that even his 
demonic instincts were saying that he and Xander belonged together 
for eternity. Even if they got confused because the immortal had all 
of the vampiric traits, but was still human nonetheless. 
The vampire looked at the man lying next to him. At the closed eyes 
that usually showed everything Xander was feeling. At the thick dark 
hair that his hands were always itching to stroke for some reason he 
couldn't fathom. At the cute upper lip he just wanted to nibble on. 
Oh yeah, he was suckered in by love but good again. He hadn't 
repeated the words after that night two weeks ago, but suddenly he 
felt like spoiling his new lover. Then he frowned. Right, good one 
there. And how was 'e supposed to go about doin' that? Xander was no 
soddin' Dru, who he could always tempt with a new birdy or a flimsy 
gown. Or in his more bloodthirsty moods a nicely wrapped person for 
her to play with. A bloody corpse was not something Xander would 
appreciate finding in his bed one night. Besides, he wasn't bleedin' 
Angelus with his flair for the dramatic! 
Suddenly a knock sounded on the door that led to the outside. Spike's 
eyebrow rose. Who in Hell was at the door at four in the morning? Not 
one of Xander's little friends, that's for sure. The slayer usually 
patrolled 'till twelve on weekdays, two or three in the weekend. 
After that there were few people outside anyway. If there had been an 
emergency of some kind, the bint would bloody have been by already. 
And it wasn't as if they went out of their way to include Xander in 
their demon bashing parties anyway. Which was really something that 
made Spike want to gift-wrap the lot of 'em for Xander, so the kid 
could do with them as he pleased, preferably killing them in lots of 
painful ways. The blonde snarled. He is not a bloody vampire, you 
moron! 
His mood was not improving any by getting out of a bed filled with a 
warm snugly Xander to find out the floor of this basement was not any 
warmer than he remembered it being. He stalked to the door, and 
practically ripped it open.
"What?!" A pathetic looking red-haired vampire in full game face 
stared at him with his mouth gaping wide open. Oh great! A minion, 
can't be anything else.
"What, you've never seen a naked vampire before?" Spike leaned 
against the doorway, with an infuriating smile on his face. Hey, this 
was his turf. He could do what he liked, and no idiot minion could 
say otherwise. Besides, he was William the fucking Bloody, he 
certainly didn't feel any less superior without any clothes on. He 
looked bloody good, and he knew it.
The minion shuffled a bit, obviously uncomfortable. It wasn't really 
clear if that was because of the other vampire's lack of clothing, or 
the reason the minion was here in the first place. It had to be 
something serious. Spike had made no bids for Mastership of Sunnydale 
since he arrived back in town. The thought alone would probably send 
whoever was Master at the moment in a tizzy, what with Spike owning 
the Gem of Amara and all. If he even knew about it.
The uninvited guest had apparently scrounged up enough courage to 
talk. 
"Um, Master Drake is requesting a meeting with William the Bloody on 
a serious matter concerning the vampire community in Sunnydale." Ooh, 
he learnt his lines, good for him.
"Drake, 'ey? Met the bloke. Wasn't impressed." This was usually the 
moment Spike would light up a cigarette to accentuate his non-
impressed state. Lacking that he studied his nails in an equally 
casual manner. Hmm, he needed to paint his nails again, hadn't 
noticed that. New lover and all could do that to a man. It was so 
easy to get side-tracked when you had a nearly naked Xander coming 
out of the shower, wearing nothing but a small towel.
The minion shrugged. "He still wants to see you." Spike grinned at 
the other vampire. It didn't seem as if this minion was very 
impressed with Drake either for that matter. But then, most vampires 
on the Hellmouth were Aurelius, and Drake had been what again? Oh 
right, Mashenau. Still, this one had to be an older minion to even 
dare to imply something bad about his Master to another Master 
Vampire. Probably hoping Spike would take over the community. It was 
a good move on Drake's part to send an Aurelian though. Less likely 
to get staked on sight. And the other Master Vampire didn't know that 
the risk was a lot greater because Spike was shacked up with one of 
the slayer's little helpers.
It was still a risky move, and it made Spike curious to say the 
least. Well, he could go see what Drake wanted to talk to him for. 
"Right. Wait here." He slammed the door in the minion's face. While 
searching for his clothes he debated if this was a good idea. 
Eventhough it was near to sunrise, at least he wouldn't be trapped in 
another vampire's lair all day, thanks to his precious little gem. 
But on the other hand, Drake could have heard about that little 
marvel from Kennan, and decided to get it for himself. But if he knew 
about the Gem of Amara, why would he have waited for two weeks before 
making a move, and why the Hell would he ask for a bloody meeting? 
"Oy! Xander, wake up!" One thing was for sure. He was not going to 
step into the lion's den without backup. And at least he could rely 
on Xander to actually watch his back, as opposed to all those idiot 
minions he'd had in the old days. He remembered a certain time when 
he had first met the immortal, conveniently pinned under Angelus' 
arm. 
"Hmm, wha..." A hoarse voice asked. Screamed too much last night,
did 
you, pet?
"Get your arse out of bed, we've got business to attend to." The 
vampire grinned at the sleepy looking young man. Hell, he looked 
bloody delicious with his hair all tousled and all that creamy skin 
just there for the grasping. Spike's cock twitched. Pity there was no 
time. 
Xander dressed himself on automatic, but he was awake enough to start 
paying attention. "What business?" He inquired curiously, while 
putting on his jeans. The immortal apparently took a cue from Spike's 
relaxed state that it wasn't any apocalyptic event. Getting a bit 
blasé there, aren't we, luv?
"We're going to see a bunch of vampires. For some reason the 
Sunnydale Master wants to see me." 
That woke Xander up in an instant. Ridges appeared above his brow, 
and his dark eyes turned molten gold. He looked extremely dangerous, 
and Spike's cock started paying even more attention. This would be 
the other reason he wanted Xander along. The blonde couldn't think of 
a better opportunity to coax Xander's vampire out to play than to 
introduce him to the community. 
"We're WHAT?!" Xander yelled in a near roar.
Spike grinned devilishly at his agitated lover. 
This was going to be bloody great fun! 

Part Six  

It finally happened. Spike had gone utterly around the bend. He was 
now officially the definition of crazy vamp. What idiot wanted to 
walk right into enemy territory and take on the leader of a bunch of 
vampires? For a second Xander hoped he had heard wrong, but no, the 
blonde was grinning way too widely for it to have been Xander's 
imagination. And there were familiar joyful twinkles in those blue 
devil eyes. Lean muscles tensed for jumping into action at the 
slightest provocation. Energy was shimmering around the vampire like 
a live thing at the thought of the coming challenge. Ready to take on 
the world, and not caring in the least about the danger. This was the 
essential Spike. Take no substitutes.
It also made him irresistible to Xander, eventhough the immortal 
really didn't care for the vampire's latest plan. The young man's 
anger died down from a simmering boil to a low hum. Which was a good, 
because now he was at least calm enough to make with the talk. 
"So what, we're going to a tea-party with the local vamp master? Or 
no, wait, that would be a blood-party." He said with a mocking drawl 
on the last word. "Not my idea of a fun time, Bleachboy." 
The vampire pouted out his bottom lip in a playful manner. Oh no, not 
the lip! Xander groaned internally. "But Xanpet, don't you want to 
show those wankers what a beautiful lover I have? They'll fall all 
over themselves for the chance to sire you, luv." He moved sensually 
closer to Xander, who had only vaguely heard anything after the 
word 'beautiful' fell. Spike thought he was beautiful. Beautiful? And 
Spike being mushy? Something was wrong here. Despite the fact that a 
yummy vampire was sensually stalking towards him, his mind cleared up.
"Wait a minute. Sire? What do you mean they'll fall all over 
themselves trying to sire me? I don't want to be a vampire!" It was 
bad enough he was as close to it as a human could possibly get 
without losing the heartbeat and the bodyheat. He did not want the 
whole package, thank you very much. He glared at Spike's smirk. The 
blonde knew as well as he did that this was not a topic Xander felt 
comfortable exploring. It was bad enough he had almost drained a man 
once, even if it was in self-defence. He could still taste the 
tantalising coppery liquid on his tongue, the sweetness and thickness 
of the blood as it went down his throat. And this was so not 
something he wanted to dwell upon. Bad Xander!
"Doubt you can be, mate, what with the immortality an' all. But if it 
was possible I'd bloody well turn you m'self." And that was... 
strangely comforting. Even flattering in a way. To think Spike would 
give him eternity, because he thought a mortal lifetime was not 
enough time to spend with Xander. It said something about how serious 
the vampire was about their relationship. Xander blinked. Huh, I'm in 
a relationship. With Spike. Xander and Spike. Doing the twosomeness. 
Ooh, and coupledom. He suddenly smiled generously at -his- vampire.
"So, why am I going to walk into the lion's den again?"
The blonde raised an inquisitive eyebrow at this sudden change of 
heart, but apparently he wasn't going to argue with it. "I need back-
up. I'm going as the Master that feels generous enough today to 
indulge the minions, me being the big vamp in town an' all. And 
you're going as my consort."
Consort? Xander's smile widened even more. Oh yeah, they were a 
couple all right. Spike was even going to admit it to his friends. Or 
not-friends. Or enemies. Well, his circle of acquaintances in any 
case. The smile became a bit less happy, when Xander thought about 
telling his own friends about it. He just couldn't see himself 
admitting to Buffy and Giles that Spike was his lover. The love of 
his life. Even saying anything to Willow would have a questionable 
outcome.
He shoved the issue to the back of his brain and started paying 
attention to Spike's instructions on how to act. 
"You may wanna swagger a bit. Don't act like a pansy-assed nonce. You 
are consort to William the Bloody, and it has to show. Come on pet, 
show me that cat-like thingie you do when you fight." Cat-like 
thingie? What the hell is he talking about? Xander shrugged and tried 
to look dangerous as he walked towards Spike. Brow frowned, taking 
big steps he tried to stalk his lover.
The vampire blinked a couple of times rapidly, before he laughed out 
loud. "Not that way! You look like a kid playing cops and robbers." 
Now that was insulting! Xander could feel Spike's mirth at his 
attempt.
"Oh yeah, like I should know how to look dangerous? I know you 
vampires spend whole days perfecting your casual threatening stances, 
but I don't." 
Spike stopped laughing, but the smirk never left his face. "We don't 
practice, luv, we're simply predators." A genuine smile lifted his 
lips upwards. "But then, so are you. Pretend there's an immortal 
bloke just outside your range, and you 'ave to fight 'im to the death 
as soon as you feel 'im." 
Xander shrugged, and decided to humour his lover. He immediately fell 
with ease into that focused place he had learnt to find under Methos' 
tutelage. He didn't think he was doing anything different when he 
walked through the room this time. He still frowned, and took big 
steps, only now it went more smoothly and instinctively. Apparently 
there was quite a difference however, because in stead of mirth the 
hot flare of lust Spike sent his way was compliment enough.
"Oy, that's it. Hold that thought, and they'll not stand in your 
way." With that the blonde turned around and disappeared up the 
stairs. Xander followed with more apprehension, still acutely aware 
of everything around him.
Which was why he immediately saw the vampire standing in the shadows 
of the house. Spike lit up a cigarette and blew out a ring of smoke, 
before turning to the fidgeting vampire.
"Well, mate, lead the way."
Yellow eyes gleamed from the shadows and fell on Xander. The immortal 
tensed, ready for an attack. "You are supposed to come alone."
Spike just stared at the other, unblinking. And eventhough the blonde 
looked less terrifying because he wasn't in game face, the minion 
lowered his eyes. Xander could sympathise. He knew firsthand how 
penetrating those ice blue eyes could be. Although in his case it was 
usually more of the want-to-strip-you-and-fuck-you-into-the-mattress 
variety.
"Okay, follow me."
They walked towards one of the rougher neighbourhoods. Xander was 
scared shitless, but it wasn't visible from the outside. He was 
continually asking himself what he thought he was doing. He was even 
starting to resent the way Spike was walking along as if he didn't 
have a single care in the world. He didn't even seem to follow the 
minion. He was just out for a stroll on a beautiful night, and he 
happened to be going the same way. The vampire clearly found this all 
to be extremely amusing. There was not a word spoken the entire way, 
and finally they stopped in front of a two-story apartment building. 
It looked a bit dilapidated, but not anything unusual for Sunnydale. 
Both the factory and the mansion had looked quite a bit worse, Xander 
knew. Whoever was Master at the moment apparently liked his creature 
comforts. The immortal would not have gone looking for vampires here 
first.
Well, at least there was one good thing about this. If they got out 
of here alive, he could tell Buffy where vampire central was and she 
could just go in there and flush it out. Now for the alive part. The 
street outside was empty, but just inside the door there stood two 
bodyguard types. Big, burly and with heavy wrinkled brows clearly 
displayed. The minion that had brought Spike and Xander here 
whispered something to one of them, and the giant grumbled once, 
before letting them pass.
Spike smacked him on his back in passing. "Good job, mate, make sure 
there don't get any ruffians in the place, will you?" Xander rolled 
his eyes. God, Spike, please don't rattle the locals! If they had to 
run, they would have to get past Burly and his friend to get out of 
the building, so let's stay friends.
The blonde grinned at him, as if he had heard the thoughts directed 
towards him, and Xander groaned when he remembered that he most 
likely had felt the angry annoyance part. Both immortal and vampire 
had gotten so used to the empathic link that they sometimes forgot 
about its existence. It was still an incredible asset in bed though. 
Xander grinned himself.
The minion stopped before a door that looked like all the other doors 
in the hall and knocked. A pretty blue-eyed blonde girl clad in blue 
silk blouse and black mini-skirt opened the door. The young man 
automatically checked the miles of legs that went under them, before 
he mentally smacked himself on the head. Duh! One, she's a vampire! 
Two, you already have a lover. And three, said lover is smirking at 
you, because he damn well knows what you're thinking. 
"So, and who're you, ducks?" The vampire returned his attention to 
their hostess. 
She sent them a clearly fake smile and gestured them in. Without 
answering the question. And there were another two vampires. Both 
male, one had red hair and big green eyes and the other brown hair 
and brown eyes. The latter was pretty plain looking compared to the 
two beautiful vampires standing next to him. And he also looked a tad 
too familiar. This was not good.
"Drake!" Spike smirked at the scowling vampire. "Fancy meeting you 
here." The blonde slowly walked around the room, drawing all eyes, 
while the vampire himself was studying the surroundings. "Not a bad 
place. A bit ordinary, but it's always better than Angelus' last 
gig." He turned to the Master Vampire. "Don't you agree." 
Drake's scowling didn't lessen any, but apparently he knew better 
than to engage Spike into battle, be it verbal or physical.
"Spike. These are my childer: Erie and Aaron. And you're companion 
is...?" He asked in an almost disinterested tone. Xander just
looked at 
him darkly, his anger growing in bounds. He'd had quite enough people 
ignoring him in everyday life. He really didn't need it from some 
stuck-up vampire that had tied him and Spike to a pole to die. The 
immortal was not in a mood to help this guy out in any way, shape or 
form.
Spike's eyes flashed golden for a moment, and Xander could feel the 
hot wave of anger flowing over him. Nope, he didn't like the 
dismissal either. Then the blonde showed his teeth in a truly 
horrific grin. Xander had never seen quite that expression on his 
lover's face. Uh oh, he thought, this can't be good.
"Oh well." The blonde said in an almost equally disinterested tone, 
but with him it was obviously fabricated. "This is Xander, my consort 
and childe." The consort and childe in question kept his face blank 
with some difficulty. Why the hell did Spike say that? He was not a 
vampire! And it wouldn't take long for them to find out.
Drake blinked, Aaron gaped at the apparent mortal and Erie just 
looked slightly interested. "He's mortal. I can hear the blood moving 
through his veins from here." And that was even shorter than Xandeer 
had thought. "What are you playing at, Spike? It's forbidden to 
include mortals in vampire business."
Spike never took his eyes off Drake's as he spoke to Xander.
"Show 'em, luv."
And despite his misgivings, Xander vamped out.
He just hoped Spike knew what he was doing. 

Part Seven  

Spike grinned at the dumbfounded vampires that were staring at his 
lover, before turning to take a look himself. It wasn't everyday that 
Xander showed his game face and Spike was bloody well going to enjoy 
it while it lasted. After all, during sex he was always a tad busy 
with other stuff to get a real good look. 
Cheekbones elevated and sharpened in ways they never would have if 
Xander had really been turned, sharp fangs exposed in an almost 
snarl, smooth ridges obscuring the eyes but accentuating the white-
pink stripe over one eye. A hot flare surged to Spike's cock as he 
looked at what he had started to think about as his personal mark of 
ownership. How many sires could say they had given their childe the 
same scar they had? None really. Though Angelus had gone for his own 
type of brand. Thinking about his sire really did nothing to dampen 
his arousal.
Xander shot him a truly angry glare with blazing golden eyes. Spike 
got a sudden image of a familiar dark-haired person staking a 
somewhat less familiar looking blonde. Ouch, bit pissed off there, 
are you pet? He lifted an eyebrow inquisitively. Or maybe a bit 
jealous?
His grin widened. He was distracted from the interesting direction 
his thoughts were beginning to take by a rough voice.
"How? What is he?" Spike could see from the dangerous squinting of 
Xander's eyes that the young man's temper was not improving. Now 
you've done it, mate, getting my pet angry, not a good move. The 
vampire had found out pretty early on that the dark-haired boy was at 
his most vicious when he thought he was being ignored. He tolerated 
it in friends, though not nearly as much as he used to, but he 
absolutely hated it in other people.
"I do have a name. It's Xander. And if you know what Kennan was, you 
should know. If you don't..." Lips curved up in a condescending
half-
smile. "...you're really not worth our time. Come on, Spike, let's
go. 
There are better things to do than listen to this Master-wannabe, who 
runs when things get hot." Drake's cheek ticked angrily. Ouch, hit 
him right where it hurt, luv. Spike had to admire it. He turned 
around, duster swirling dramatically, and intended to follow Xander.
"No, wait!" The pretty blonde called after them desperately. Even 
Xander reacted to that genuine plea, and turned around. A firm nudge 
reached Spike through their link. Apparently Xander refused to back 
down on his point, so he wanted the vampire to play Good Cop in this 
Good Cop-Bad Cop game. Can't say as how he ever played that part 
before.
"What's the matter, ducks?" He inquired, barely able to keep the 
amusement out of his voice. He took a glance at the brown-haired 
vampire, but he was making no attempts to stop his childe from 
speaking. Which meant it was the woman that had asked for this 
meeting all along. Probably by childe-right. Drake wasn't too fond of 
the old ways, and neither was Spike for that matter, but he still 
couldn't afford to throw the rulebook completely out the window. And 
in any case, the sire-childe traditions had never been in dispute, 
not even in the most radical clans. 
Blondie looked relieved that they had stopped moving towards the 
door. She threw a furtive glance at her sire, but he just nodded. 
"Okay. You've probably noticed all the weird disappearings lately. 
Well, three nights ago I found out firsthand what is causing them."
Both Spike and Xander now had their full attention on the vampiress. 
Spike didn't go to what Xander referred to as Scooby meetings, but 
Xander told him all about them afterwards. Especially anything about 
the gits dressed up as soldiers that the Slayer had run into a couple 
of times. And all of Xander's little band agreed that they should 
find out more in case they should become a nuisance at a later date. 
They still hadn't a clue how to go about finding them nancy-boys 
however. In the meantime both Spike and Xander had scoured the town 
looking for information. 
And of course, when they had finally given up on that, it fell right 
into their laps. At the most inconvenient of times. Spike still 
hadn't forgiven the idiots for interrupting what should have been the 
perfect ending to a perfectly good chase. And neither had Xander, 
judging by the glow in his still vampiric eyes. 
"You had a run in with the soldiers?" Xander demanded of her. She 
looked startled that he knew anything at all, but quickly regained 
her wits.
"Yes. They captured me, and took me to some sort of underground 
laboratory. Complete with electrified glass cubicles, bagged and 
drugged blood falling from the ceiling, and apparently with crazy 
scientists." She vamped out. "Those madmen did something to me. I 
escaped last night, but when I tried to grab a bite to eat, I got 
this excruciating migraine." Green-gold eyes looked at 
Spike. "Naturally I experimented some, but each time I try to hurt 
people my head explodes." 
Spike's eyes narrowed. This was not good. If they were experimenting 
on vampires and demons, who knows what they might come up with. It 
only lent merit to his idea that humans were naturally twisted fucks 
as much as the next demon. He didn't much fancy losing his bite 
himself. He couldn't conjure up concern for some strange vampire's 
loss, though. Her own fault for getting caught in the first place. 
Naturally, his nummy treat thought differently. Xander shifted back 
to his human face, and seemed genuinely concerned about Erie. "How 
are you eating, then?"
She shrugged. "I haven't thought about it yet. With all the agony I 
kind of lost my appetite.
Xander sent big brown pleading eyes in Spike's direction, accompanied 
by a picture of Xander cutting himself and blood dripping in a glass. 
Spike blinked in astonishment, then vamped out. He stalked over to 
his mate, gripped his arm and turned them both away from their 
audience. He growled, trying to keep his volume down, but still 
needing to get his point across once and for all. 
"Absolutely not! She can drop by the bloodbank for all I care. I'll 
even bloody deliver it myself, but you are mine! My mate, my blood, 
mine for the taking. I. Don't. Bloody. Share. Got it?"
Disbelief slowly gave way to delight and a beautiful smile graced 
Xander's face as the words sank in. Satisfied that the whelp 
understood, he turned back to Drake, ignoring the girl. 
"So. I take it you didn't sent for me to warn me away from any nasty 
humans. What do you want?" The blonde pulled his pack of cigarettes 
out of his pocket and went through the ritual of lighting it. All the 
while waiting for Drake to make his request. As sire, the brown-
haired vampire was obligated to help his childer if they asked for 
it. Even if it meant loss of face. That didn't mean the Master of 
Sunnydale found it easy to ask a potential rival for help. And Spike 
liked to rub his nose in it a bit by making it seem like the other 
vampire was beneath him. He put the fag in his mouth and extensively 
searched his pockets for his lighter.
"I want that chip in Erie's head to stop functioning. There's no way 
a doctor can get it out, so I thought you could pull some magic on 
it?" His mouth twisted in distaste on the word. 
Spike smiled, inwardly trying to sort out his thoughts. The clan of 
Aurelius had quite a reputation as magic users, but unfortunately 
Spike had never cared much for that part of the heritage. Still, 
Xander could get the Watcher on it and if that failed there was 
always Angelus in LA. The vampire stared disinterestedly at the 
cigarette in his fingers. "And why would I help you? What's in it for 
me?" The blonde felt a half-annoyed, half-amused surge from Xander, 
but apparently his lover was content with letting Spike handle the 
deal. Which was how it should be, had Spike really been the little 
knight's sire. Coincidence? Or had his pet read more about vampire 
lore than Spike knew?
Drake gritted his teeth, and sounded a bit strangled when he replied. 
"I'm willing to give the reigns of the Sunnydale community to you and 
submit to your orders." 
The other Master almost dropped his cigarette. Holy Shit! His own 
former Mastery of the Hellmouth back. It had been his goal when he 
first came to Sunnydale to dig for the Gem of Amara. That and 
twisting the Slayer's head off her romp and/or strangle her with her 
own entrails, but that was beside the point. Events happening as they 
did, he had never gotten around to doing it after he had met Xander. 
So to have it thrown in his lap now! This was bloody sweet! Wait a 
minute. This was a bit too good to be true.
"And in exchange?" He asked with trepidation.
"You get rid of all of the Initiative, beginning with Erie's chip and 
ending with everything and person in that laboratory." 
Ouch. Spike did not fancy starting a war on the American government. 
That could not be good for his health. Or Xander's. He was all ready 
to turn down the tempting offer, when Xander suddenly spoke up.
"It's a deal!" He stated in a firm tone, that left no doubt in 
anyone's mind that he meant it. Spike gaped at him. What the bleedin' 
hell was the kid thinking? Even Spike wasn't crazy enough to try 
that. He wanted to protest, but somehow Xander managed to politely 
fend off the other vampires, say goodbye, and muffle his stunned 
lover out of the door all in one go. The blonde absently heard him 
promise to return the next night and he even gave Erie the best way 
to the bloodbank. Spike couldn't get a word in edgewise, until they 
were well away from the building.
Then he exploded.
"Are you nuts?! You and me can't take on those soldier boys all by 
ourselves! You've seen what fancy weaponry they have. Hell, you've 
toyed with most of it this whole day!"
Xander turned to him, as serious and mature as Spike had ever seen 
him. "Those army guys are going to become a problem sooner or later. 
I'd rather take them out before they become aware of us. Tactical 
advantage and all. I know the military mind, remember? And I 
certainly know that the order and disbelief of science against the 
chaos and faith of magic is going to give one hell of a bang. 
Besides, who said anything about doing it alone? 
If I'm not mistaken Buffy, Giles, Oz and Willow will not be on the 
side of science here. And now we have a complete army of the undead 
at our disposal. Does soldiers won't know what'll hit them! Makes a 
nice change, don't it?" 
And the grin on that face was dark and dangerous, making Xander look 
positively evil for the first time since Spike had seen him fighting 
that night a few weeks ago.
Spike couldn't help grinning back at his beloved pet. 
And besides, he was starting to like the idea.
Army gits, you better start running! 

Part Eight  

Chei wanted to make sure her spell was in place, before she started 
on the more dangerous part of tonight's activities. It was easy to 
test. She just had to deliberately bump into a mortal. Dark eyes 
scanned the street, until they found a nice-looking man of 
the 'Always help a lady in need' type. He would do. 
She pretended to stumble and fell against him. The man frowned at a 
place a few inches above her head for a second, before continuing his 
journey without having said a word. The Chinese vampiress smiled 
after him. Her craft still worked. This particular spell made sure 
mortals would ignore her under any circumstances. It had often been 
useful to be nearly invisible to her prey, so she had used the spell 
a multitude of times. Unfortunately it had been thousands of years 
since she had practised magic though, so she had wanted to make sure 
she hadn't forgotten her skills. She was glad to find she needn't 
have worried. 
Chei pulled at the ridiculously short and uncomfortable skirt she had 
bought the night before, after she had noticed the strange men in the 
green outfits. She had followed the surviving mortal back to its 
lair, before killing him. He hadn't tasted very good. In fact, few of 
the mortals she had eaten since she had awakened from her long sleep 
had tasted very good. They were weak, and had this weird aftertaste 
that was just unnatural. The vampiress guessed that the mortals these 
days ate differently than in her own time. It was not a change for 
the better. On the other hand, their health had improved 
significantly.
As she walked swiftly towards the place she had eaten the soldier, 
she contemplated the other changes she had seen. Like the mortals 
they ate, the modern vampires had become so much weaker than her 
contemporaries that they were laughable. The Chinese girl had only 
viewed them from afar, but she couldn't honestly say she wanted to 
get any closer. 
Especially not after she had seen the current slayer dust four of the 
vampires in short order. They didn't even fight her with magic! 
Chei pulled open the entrance to the soldier's lair and entered. She 
found herself in a small area with metal rungs leading downwards. The 
vampiress swiftly descended. After long miles of empty corridors she 
heard howling and followed the sound. Soon she found herself in a 
vast and white place. On either side of her were doors. Behind most 
of them were white-dressed people doing things to demons with weird 
metallic things she didn't know. Occasionally she encountered small 
groups of green-dressed large humans, holding what she knew were 
weapons, even if she didn't recognise them. 
And then she entered a large space filled with all sorts of pathetic 
creatures. Demons, vampires, werewolves, all locked up in small 
spaces behind clear walls. When they saw her, they started to yell or 
howl, but one glare from her red eyes was usually enough to silence 
them.
She shook her head in annoyance. This was just undignified. There 
were vampires locked up in here being treated like animals. Not that 
they were much more than that in her opinion. Chei had been locked up 
in worse places, and she had still escaped, certain magic-warded 
dungeons coming to mind. 
But this place held no magic. What had the vampiric race come to? She 
had known that Hell was losing its place in the world when she 
decided to go into hibernation, but she had never envisioned that 
this would be the eventual outcome. 
Chei had been one of the last full-blooded vampires. She had always 
been proud of the fact that she had been born a vampire, and not made 
like those younger than her. The old ways of both Hell and Heaven had 
been dying after the great wars, and somehow vampire blood and human 
blood had become mixed. In her eyes and in the eyes of most born 
vampires it was a perversion. Prey becoming predators after they 
died? It was not how the world was supposed to work. 
But in the end the made vampires became infinite in their numbers, 
and they were much more resilient. The true vampires had been forced 
to retreat. Many of Chei's friends and fellow warriors had died. Many 
others had given up on life and gone into hibernation. She wondered 
how many of them were still locked up beneath tons of earth, never to 
see the moon and the stars in the night sky again. She herself had 
only awakened because her sire bond had become active after so long. 
Her mother's ring was now on the hand of a young warrior of Heaven.
She smiled cruelly. Well, at least the angels and the immortals 
hadn't done any better in the end than the demons and vampires had. 
Their fate was even more permanently sealed than hers had been. As 
long as she was alive, the old ways could come back.
The vampiress watched curiously as a white-dressed woman entered a 
big metal door. Why was that door placed so far away from the others? 
Chei waited until the woman left the place, and moved quickly to get 
inside the door before it slammed closed. She frowned at the sight of 
a second door that looked even more impressive than the last. There 
was a little box beside it with flickering lights, but the vampiress 
didn't know how it worked. She didn't care though. She had plenty of 
experience with locked doors.
"Cluade emprenir ta cruz-fa kerido." 
The lock whined, and for a moment she thought her unlocking spell 
didn't work on this new sort of lock. Then the lights became green 
and the door clicked open.
Chei stepped into a small room with two tables at the centre of it.
On one of them lay a demon that was ripped apart and practically 
disembowelled. On the other lay a demonic creature she had never seen 
before. She recognised human parts, and parts of several known 
demons, not to mention the vague vampiric sense she got off him. But 
there were also metallic parts to the thing. Chei wrinkled her nose. 
Whatever it was, it wasn't pretty. 
But it certainly felt strong to her magical senses. Much more so than 
the weak demons outside, stronger even than the slayer. In strength 
he came closest to the demons of old than anything she had seen in 
this world so far. He was even stronger than she herself was in her 
past-hibernation frailty. 
Now this could have interesting possibilities.
"We have many things to discuss, my friend." She said to him.
His eyes opened instantly and focused on her.
An evil grin crossed her small doll's face. 

*****************************

Methos looked at the small town lying in the valley below him as he 
drove past the city limits. It looked idyllic enough. A normal small 
town that was like countless others he had visited over the years. 
The people would probably be friendly to strangers, because 
California was a tourist attraction for large numbers of vacationers. 
Not that Methos had any intention to stay long, but he always 
assessed new places for potential danger. He really hated getting 
chased out of town by people accusing him of witchcraft. The old 
immortal smiled. That was one good thing about the twentieth century. 
Most people treated science as the Holy Grail, and superstition was 
at an all time low since his first memories began five thousand years 
ago. Let's hope the twenty-first century continued the trend.
No, the townspeople wouldn't be a problem this time. If there was any 
danger it was most likely to come from his own student. That is if 
Cassandra convinced him of his teacher's evilness. Methos sighed. 
Sometimes he wondered if he wasn't a fool to let the red-haired witch 
live. He'd forgone taken her head near to a dozen times in the last 
two thousand years, but she never changed her opinion about him. And 
she never stopped coming after him and his students.
Still, the ancient had high hopes that Xander wouldn't believe her. 
When he had trained the boy he'd gotten the impression that he had 
seen more sorrow than one so young should have. Methos had often 
wondered about the cynical and self-deprecating attitude Xander 
showed at times. When he wasn't cracking jokes. It reminded the old 
immortal a bit too much about himself. 
He didn't doubt for a minute that the kid could be quite dangerous if 
he wanted to be. The signs had been there. But the morals all 
children were automatically taught these days did much to reassure 
the ancient that Xander would never fall to the debts he himself had 
revelled in for a good quarter of his life.
But, in case the kid had decided to believe Cassandra, Methos decided 
to take extreme care. And of course the best way to avoid a 
challenge, after avoiding the immortal in question entirely, was to 
meet them on their own turf.
For one, it made them feel more secure. And if that didn't work, 
there was always the fact that few immortals alive today really 
wanted to have a quickening rage through their own house if they 
could help it. Insurance was a bitch.
Methos grinned wryly, as he went in search of the house Xander had 
given him the address to on the day he returned to Sunnydale. 

Part Nine  

Spike watched his Xander as he enthusiastically explained how they 
could go about putting that underground lab out of business. The 
vampire listened with amusement as the plans went from serious to 
idiotic and back to serious. There had been some good ideas in there, 
along with some... very imaginative ones. 
The vampire just liked to hear his pet talk about a vast variety of 
subjects. Xander hardly ever got really excited about something, 
unless it involved him, Spike and some sweet or other. Not that Spike 
disliked that part of his mate, quite the contrary. The immortal was 
very adventurous in the sexual areas, much to the vampire's delight. 
What he really didn't like was that Xander for the most part only 
joked to amuse others, not himself. It was rare that the kid was as 
giddy as this. Spike smirked. And it didn't hurt that the boy was 
planning to take down plenty of what the rest of the world would 
consider Good Guys <TM>. Xander was gesturing wildly with his arms, 
while he explained. Watching Spike with those big glittering eyes for 
reactions to his latest cocked up plan. He was even pretty graphic 
with the pictures of death and mayhem. 
Spike was getting both hungry and horny seeing his little knight so 
excited. So, the next time Xander looked at him for approval to an 
idea - this one was about getting those electric fences wet, which 
Spike really didn't consider a good idea, unless it involved some 
hapless soldier git being electrocuted - he grabbed his lover.
The sudden startled look in those eyes made Spike smile.
"I'm sure we can think of something, luv, but for now I have a more 
immediate plan in mind." 
Xander laughed, and wriggled his hands into Spike's shirt 
suggestively.
"Oh, and what's that?" He asked teasingly.
Spike lowered his head and kissed his young lover for a long time, 
nibbling at that bottom lip, and raking his tongue just above his 
upper teeth. He had soon found out that his lover had more vampiric 
traits than just the dangerous ones. Just as Spike himself had found 
he had some new kinks from his immortality. Like the weird happy 
tingle he felt when Xander paid attention to what would have been 
Spike's pulse points had he been alive. The first time Xander had 
licked his wrists, the vampire had practically jumped off the bed as 
he felt the spark travel from the point of contact up through his 
arm, down into his non-beating heart and then straight to his groin. 
It had been a surprise. But a very good one.
Likewise, Xander had some specific vampire erogenous zones, 
especially the teeth. The young man moaned into Spike's mouth, before 
breaking away gasping. 
Oh, right. Has to breathe, don' he? Inconvenient little habit. 
The blonde moved down to pay attention to the immortal's neck. 
Something that turned them both on, for obvious reasons. Spike swiped 
his tongue over the vessels beating just under the skin, resisting 
the urge to bite. 
Wouldn't want nummy to faint before he came, now would we? Waste of 
good cum that is. Spike had always liked exotic things with his 
blood, from weetabix to mango-parts, but taste of Xander was still 
his favourite. Especially the double feature. He waggled his 
eyebrows. Following his thoughts the vampire pulled his mate's jeans 
down to his ankles and started to play.
It was a toss-up to who liked this best. Xander's hands gripped his 
hair in a slightly painful grip, never stopping the arousing moans 
and whimpers. Not a talker, his pet was. Which had baffled the 
vampire the first time he had sucked the immortal off, that time in 
his own lair. The kid talked all the time. He hardly ever shut up. 
Which was not the nuisance you'd think it was, because he just 
rambled on about everything and nothing, but in a cute way. And it 
was still twice as coherent as anything Dru came up with in her more 
lucid periods.
Spike sucked once hard, making Xander cry out sharply in almost pain, 
before the blonde soothed the weeping head with his tongue and 
listened to the whimpering. There was that one low groan he needed to 
hear, and then he gave it his all. Four heartbeats under his tongue, 
and then hot liquid flooded his mouth. Spike pulled back a little, 
not wanting to miss the taste, as he swallowed it all. 
Finally he pulled away, and stood up, kissing Xander and feeding him 
his own taste back. The immortal took a while to recover, but then 
those dark eyes opened and a wicked smile came out to play. The 
immortal tilted his head back and to the side, clearly an invitation, 
while naughty hands reached into the vampire's pants. 
Spike didn't need to be told twice. 
His face rippled and he sank his head down to that delicious soft 
skin. It parted without any trouble, and rich blood pooled up. It 
gathered in his mouth, mingling with Xander's other taste, before 
Spike let it glide down his throat. His cock throbbed, and he could 
feel rough callused hands stroking it. The vampire climaxed just 
before he reached the point where Xander's blood stopped flowing on 
its own, and he had to start working for it. It was the point where 
he usually stopped drinking, but they both knew he hadn't eaten 
anything for a while now, and it wouldn't kill Xander.
As the immortal's knees started to give out, Spike gripped him 
tighter, holding him close lovingly. A short while later and that 
straining heartbeat weakened even more, the skin touching Spike's 
lips growing cold quickly. 
The vampire pulled back and gently lowered his now dead lover to the 
ground, still not letting go. He searched the pale face, wondering 
again as he always did when confronted with a dead Xander, what kind 
of vampire the immortal would have been. He caught glimpses of it, 
sometimes big ones, sometimes more subtle, but never the complete 
picture. Even Xander's game face was all wrong. It wasn't his own. It 
was a variation on Spike's. And even had it been Xander's own it 
would still have been wrong. The way the blood kept to the surface of 
the skin, even in his demonic visage, was disconcerting. One time he 
had even blushed while being in game face, and that had been so 
bloody strange that Spike just had to laugh at the sight. Too bad 
Xander hadn't seen the fun in it. The apologising sex had been great 
though.
Xander gasped in a deep breath, and Spike smiled down at him.
"Back already, luv? You're getting faster at this, you realise." 
The young man sat up and shrugged. "Hey, I'm getting stronger in my 
old age. Either that or it's getting to be a habit."
They stood up again after another sweet kiss. 
"So, you think Giles is awake yet?" Xander asked, eager to get 
working on the current problem. Spike narrowed his eyes to the east. 
"Sun's only fifteen minutes away. I wouldn't know. Bet the Watcher is 
an early riser though. And he has to see Slutty before she goes to 
class. Has to keep up the score board, you know. Slayer 4 - Vampires 
0 or some such bollocks."
Xander stomped the grinning vampire on his arm.
"Oy!" He said aggrieved.
"Don't call her that. She's got a name. It's Buffy." 
Spike glared at Xander. "I'm not planning on 'aving her over for a 
cuppa, mate. I'm a bleedin' vampire. It's not right to know a slayer 
by name. Makes for bad publicity." 
Xander just glared back. "I'm taking a wild guess and say that you're 
not going with me to Giles' place, Publicity Boy." 
"Wrong, pet. I like 'earing you knock them on their rears with your 
grand plan to attack the soldiers." Spike smirked.
Xander looked him up and down and mock-smiled. "Yeah, well, that's 
not up for discussion right now. You, um, look a bit ravaged there." 
The blonde looked down curiously, and groaned at the sight of his 
decidedly soggy jeans. And of course, Xander had escaped unscathed. 
The whelp had bloody well done that on purpose, he grouched. 
"Right. So I'll hop by your place, and then I'll meet you at the 
Watcher's." 
"That's the plan." Xander said cheerfully, and then he pulled a 
miffed Spike into another one of those earth-shattering kisses. 
Before the vampire was completely recovered he had vanished around a 
corner. Spike blinked.
"Right. Bloody well get on with it then." 
The sooner he got changed, the sooner he could get back to his little 
knight.
When he reached Xander's house his plan to get in and out quickly 
fell apart though. It had been a while since he had experienced that 
feeling of spiders crawling around in his brain, but he hadn't 
forgotten what it meant. 
There was an immortal in Xander's house, waiting for him to come 
home. 
That couldn't be a good thing. And Spike was bloody buggered if he 
let an immortal hunter kill his Xanpet when he could have taken the 
bastard out without his lover even having to know about it. 
Bloody Game and its bloody rules! If there was one thing Spike hated 
with a passion it was all them soddin' rules! It was a cut and clear 
case of ripping the man's head off, getting the high of his life, and 
going back to his nummy all clean and innocent looking. Spike 
frowned. Except it wouldn't be a secret all that long if the 
resulting lightning buggered up Xander's basement, now would it? Now 
that was a bit of a problem. Had to get the git away from there 
first. How was he going to do that?
Spike shrugged. Oh well, he'd just have to see how it went.
It couldn't be that hard to get rid of one immortal, now could it? 

Part Ten  

Methos picked the lock on the basement door with the ease of long 
practice. He had circled the house when he had first arrived, but 
there hadn't been any immortal presence that he could detect. In 
fact, there wasn't any sign of life at all. Which was strange, since 
it had just gotten light, and he knew from training Xander that the 
kid was definitely not an early riser. Maybe he was on vacation with 
his parents? 
But then again, from the reluctant way Xander had talked about his 
home life Methos had gathered that it wasn't a happy one. The kid had 
talked extensively about his friends and high school and his road 
trip and pretty much every other subject under the sun, but 
empathetically not about his parents. He was probably staying with a 
friend as long as his parents were away.
Good. That gave Methos the perfect opportunity to explore a bit. It 
was practically standard operation by now. Enter a friend's house 
while he's away to get to know the feeling of the person living 
there, and wait for them to show up. The immortal went to the back 
entrance, because he didn't want the neighbours to report a 
suspicious character entering the house to the police. He intended to 
sneak into the house, find Xander's room and look if he could find 
something that told him where his friends lived. That way he could 
ask where Xander was and when he'd be back.
He picked the lock of the basement door and went down the stairs. At 
the bottom he practically stopped dead, looking around curiously. 
This was not your typical basement. It looked more like an apartment 
really. Except for the dark and depressed atmosphere and the bare 
pipes everywhere, of course. There was a bed, a television and a 
washer, not to mention a kitchen-corner with mini-fridge and a door 
in a corner that probably led to a bathroom. Methos' eyebrow went up. 
Xander hadn't told him that his parents rented out the basement. He 
was lucky that the tenant also wasn't home, because he hadn't thought 
to check the basement for movement before breaking and entering. He 
couldn't imagine anyone wanting to live in a basement anyway. But 
apparently someone did. 
Methos moved through the room to the stairs leading to the rest of 
the house. 
Fifteen minutes later he was close to the point where he wanted to 
strangle his students' parents. He had found what must have been 
Xander's room, but it had been stripped bare. In fact, he hadn't 
found a single thing in the whole house that showed Xander had lived 
there for more than eighteen years. No pictures of him, no mementoes, 
absolutely nothing. What had been there were excessive amounts of 
dirty dishes, empty beer bottles and empty bottles of medicine. He 
fervently hoped those people weren't stupid enough to mix the last 
two. 
If he was honest with himself, he was glad Xander wasn't living here 
anymore. The ancient blinked in sudden realisation. But there was 
still that basement. He hadn't considered it before, but if Xander 
really was living in the house, then maybe the person living 
downstairs was no tenant. Methos decided to go back and check the 
place out again. 
And sure enough, now that he knew what to look for, he could clearly 
see Xander's influence all over the place. Starting with the 
magazines and colourful furniture, and ending with the large amounts 
of junk food in the fridge. Methos grimaced. What was it with young 
people and junk food these days anyway? When he had first taught 
Xander, he had been rendered speechless to see someone stuffing away 
even more food per day than Richie Ryan did. And that was saying 
something. 
Methos sank down on the couch and contemplated what he had seen 
throughout the house. On second thought, maybe it wasn't strange at 
all. Richie had been a street kid, before MacLeod took him in, and 
food had always been a luxury. So now that he could eat as much as he 
wanted, he ate as much as possible. Xander's attitude was pretty 
similar. Combined with the obvious disinterest the Harrises were 
showing for their son, it said much more about his childhood than 
Methos really wanted to know. It sure didn't improve his anger 
towards Xander's parents any. Some people just shouldn't be allowed 
to have children. 
Suddenly he felt another immortal approaching. Methos stood up 
immediately, and made sure his sword was unobstructed. It was 
probably Xander, but according to the Watchers there was at least one 
other immortal in Sunnydale. The blue-eyed blonde one that tortured 
and killed Kennan in cold blood. There was no Watcher on him, because 
that execution had immediately earned him a red-flag file. Nobody 
wanted to see him kill a Watcher in that way. 
And then there was that strange annotation in his and Cassandra's 
file. Methos hadn't been able to find out what PN-402F5 meant in the 
short time before his plane to the States departed. No matter, the 
internal workings of the Watchers could wait until he was back. 
He gripped his sword, when he heard the basement door open and a 
person walking very quietly down the stairs. Black jeans, followed by 
a red shirt and open black duster and then a pale angular face with 
shockingly blond hair. Sharp blue eyes stared into him. Methos cursed 
under his breath. Of the two immortals in Sunnydale he just had to 
meet the wrong one. And what was this nasty piece of work doing in 
Xander's basement? The immortal briefly considered the possibility 
that the blonde had killed his student, but that was quickly 
discarded when the other spoke.
"So, waiting for Xander, are you?" The blonde smirked, obviously 
amused. He walked nonchalantly closer to Methos, appearing to be 
utterly relaxed, and not reaching for his own weapon. The ancient 
didn't buy it. He'd seen that move done before by plenty of 
immortals. Try to get the opponent to relax, before pouncing 
unexpectedly. 
"Maybe. Why do you want to know?" Methos challenged the other. He 
held his hand on his sword, ready for the moment the other would 
attack. He didn't pull it yet though. The blonde stopped his advance, 
and put his hand inside his coat. Methos tensed, waiting to see the 
first flash of steel. 
In stead of a sword, the younger immortal pulled a pack of cigarettes 
out of his coat and flashed the dark-haired man an infuriating grin. 
Oh yes. This one was at least mildly psychotic. And he reminded 
Methos a bit too much of Kronos in one of his more playful moods. 
That couldn't be a good thing.
"Oh, no reason, mate. You don't want to see Xander, take my word for 
it. If you're smart, you leave Sunnydale right now, and I'll let you 
live." The blonde lit his cigarette and took a long slow draft, not 
looking at the other man. Methos briefly contemplated a pre-emptive 
strike, but he could practically see the tension in that lean body. 
For some reason he didn't doubt that the other man would be faster.
"I'm not leaving until I've seen Xander. I'll be damned if I leave 
him at your tender mercy." He scoffed. What was this dangerous 
immortal doing in his student's basement anyway? Methos suddenly 
recalled the Watcher report on Xander. Apparently he was already seen 
with this man and it hadn't come to blows. In fact, the blonde was 
speculated to be Xander's student. Now that was something the ancient 
just couldn't imagine. Xander was not the boy scout MacLeod was - 
Thank God - but he was way too integer to teach someone like this. 
That would be like Richie teaching Kronos. Methos almost had to laugh 
out loud, the idea was so ridiculous.
The blonde waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Oh, Xander likes being 
at my tender mercy, I assure you. And I'm not about to let some 
pillock end my fun by killing my Xanpet! Bugger the basement." The 
last was said in an undertone.
Methos eyebrows nearly touched his hairline. He couldn't actually be 
saying what Methos thought he was saying, could he? Xander and this 
immortal, lovers? Methos couldn't wrap his mind around it, and it 
sure didn't do anything for his concentration, because the next thing 
he knew he was being knocked on his bum, with an irate immortal on 
top of him, trying to claw his eyes out. 
He quickly recovered his wits though, and started to fight back. 
There was no way he could reach the sword in his coat now. Methos 
concentrated on keeping those hands away from his face and neck, 
which wasn't as easy as it seemed, while he aimed his foot at the 
place the other man was touching the ground with his left foot. Damn, 
this guy was strong! 
A hard kick against an uncovered ankle and a heave with his arms to 
the right, and he rolled the kicking, punching, scratching madman on 
top of him over, and quickly followed through. He ended up crouched 
low above the other man, who was still fighting as if he was 
possessed by a demon. And was that growling? Methos wasn't sure how 
long he could keep the other immortal pinned, so he resorted to mean 
tactics.
He moved his right knee sharply into the lower abdomen, which he knew 
from experience hurt like a bitch, and his left arm across the guy's 
throat cutting off his blood-flow and oxygen, and let gravity do the 
rest. It wasn't quite as effective as he would have liked, but it 
would have to do.
"Will you listen!" He hissed angrily. "I'm not here to kill Xander!" 
The blonde stopped growling and fighting and looked up at him 
suspiciously.
Methos continued. "In fact, that's pretty much the last thing I want. 
It would be a waste of those two months I spent trying to teach him 
how to use a sword in the first place!" A condescending smile graced 
his face.
The blonde smirked up at him, and Methos had to resist the urge to 
smack him. 
"You! You're Xander's teacher?" He looked the old immortal up and 
down as much as he could with the restriction at his throat, and 
laughed out loud. "Well, at least you're English." 
Then the blonde pulled a sudden move, which he should have been much 
too weak for by now because of the lack of oxygen, and pushed Methos 
to the side roughly. The younger immortal didn't bother to pin him 
down this time, but just stood up smoothly and looked down at Methos.
"Well. I guess introductions are in order, hmm. I'm Spike."
The old immortal stood up, still keeping a cautious eye on the other 
man. 
"Adam Pierson." He didn't offer his hand.
Spike nodded, then grinned at him. "For the record. You harm a hair 
on Xander's head, and I'll decorate the whole street with your 
insides. Last time I tortured an immortal I was a bit pressed for 
time. I'd be happy to start again where I left off." 
Methos grinned back, with eyes just as cold. "As long as you remember 
that the same applies to you. I'll hunt you down 'till the ends of 
the earth if you kill my student." 
And that was not a false promise. Methos had done precisely that 
several times when the occasion asked for it. 
This time Spike's grin was a lot warmer. He slapped the ancient on 
the back. "Maybe you're not so bad after all. Any git willing to kill 
for Xander has to have some good qualities, right mate?" The blonde 
winked at him, before turning around and sauntering into the 
bathroom. 
There was no doubt now that this was the guy that had brutally killed 
Kennan. And this was Xander's lover? Methos narrowed his eyes at the 
closed bathroom door. This could not be good. If Xander reminded the 
old immortal too much of himself at times, Spike was as cheerfully 
destructive as Kronos. Though he did appear to lack the desire to try 
and conquer the world. So far. Still, the similarities were far too 
obvious for Methos' peace of mind.
The old immortal decided to stay around for a while longer, even 
after he had finished explaining to Xander about Cassandra. In fact, 
it was now even more important to talk to Xander about that time than 
before, even if by some miracle Cassandra hadn't said anything to him 
about Methos' wilder days.
Because the world really didn't need two new Horsemen. 

Part Eleven  

Xander walked towards Giles' place. If he was lucky, Buffy would 
still be there with her vampire stakeage report, before she had to go 
to class. That is, if she even had class today. Xander was sad to say 
he was not that informed about her and Willow's roster. He had tried 
to keep informed about things like that at the start of the year, but 
Willow and Buffy hardly paid any attention to him, because they had 
been so very excited by the new school and all. That had pretty much 
ended his joy for the whole college experience. He had taken his 
anger out on a lot of poor unsuspecting vampires for a while, until 
the night Spike caught him doing that. 
And that had started a roller coaster of events that somehow led to 
him being connected to Spike with some sort of empathic link. That 
night had also been the first time Spike and Xander had become 
lovers. Xander still found it hard to believe at times, how utterly 
right it felt to love the blonde vampire. He couldn't remember being 
so enamoured with him when they had been enemies. 
Of course, the first time he had seen Spike he'd seen him at a damn 
inconvenient angle, looking upwards from under Deadboy's arm. Excuse 
the pre-occupation with thoughts not sex-related there. Fear of death 
was not good for his libido. 
Well, not always, anyway.
After that the vampire had always been The Enemy. Xander had to admit 
that on the few occasions he had seen Spike the blonde had looked 
good. But that had still been in his denial fase, and not much about 
the same sex got through to him in those days. He had caught himself 
commenting on several guys' looks to Willow and Buffy a couple of 
times, including on Oz and Angel. Xander cringed. But he had been so 
one of the girls, that it hadn't even seemed strange to them. He 
hoped.
Spike hadn't changed a bit since those days that Xander could see. He 
was still an evil, soulless vampire with a lust for inventive 
killing. But somehow he had grown on Xander. It was so sweet the way 
the blonde made him the centre of his universe. The young man had 
never known anyone who did that. All his life he had been the 
irrelevant person. His parents didn't care if he lived or died. 
Willow had been a good friend once, but that had changed after the 
Factory Incident. He'd always been the least useful slayerette. And 
this year even his friendships had started to fray. Spike's sudden 
attention was such a heady feeling. It made Xander all warm and 
tingly inside.
Oh yeah, he was in love.
And he knew Spike loved him too. Why else would the vampire even 
attempt to curb his killing? Not that it always worked: that soldier 
that had attacked them coming to mind as an obvious exception. But at 
least he cared enough to try. 
Xander wondered what would happen when Spike took over the vampire 
community of Sunnydale. Could he even be a leader, and not kill any 
humans? And why had Spike forced his lover to reveal his vampiric 
side? There had to be a reason for it. Xander knew from when they had 
still been enemies, that Spike was pretty good at planning. He was 
just way too impatient to carry his plans out. 
It had probably something to do with status. Xander winced as he 
considered the ramifications. It meant that Xander was now officially 
a vampire to the undead population. This could not be good. 
Especially since the young man was not all that happy about the 
abilities he had gained from Spike. He had almost drained a person 
once, and he wasn't sure he wouldn't do it again. He shared Spike's 
demon, and he knew first-hand that Spike was not all that good at 
impulse control. He had pretty much inherited that.
Xander frowned. Spike was supposed to be sharing Xander's soul, too. 
Why didn't the vampire do any soulfilled thingies, then? Maybe he had 
changed in some way, but Xander had missed it somehow, because he 
didn't actually had anything to compare the vampire to from before 
the link was in place. Well, there was the non-kill issue. The 
immortal decided to do a little more Spike-watching and a little less 
Spike-ogling. Maybe there was something he could find after all.
Xander reached Giles' house, and knocked on the door. 
"It's open!" A perky female voice called out, sounding a bit muffled.
Yep, Buffy was present. Xander pushed open the door, and plastered on 
his goofy smile. Hi, it's Xander. The guy that you haven't seen in a 
week, because he was too busy shagging your mortal enemy. But, I'm 
harmless, really!
"Hi, Buffy. Long time no see." The same, but shorter. And infinitely 
less embarrassing. Also, less chance at getting staked. 
Then Xander remembered why he was here, and blinked. Oh shit, how the 
fuck was he going to explain the latest problem? It was not as if 
Buffy and Giles even knew about the he-and-Spike-hanging-out-together 
part. Let alone the part where Spike was going to take over the 
Hellmouth vamps, and he was going to help a vampire get a no-biting-
allowed chip out of her brain. Xander winced. And what about the 
soldier boys?
"Oh, Xander. It's, um, good that you're here." Giles started. 
It is? Why didn't he like the start of this conversation.
"D-do you remember last week, when Buffy ran into some, uh, soldier 
types?"
"Ye-e-es." Xander drawled. Oh no, this was not good. Nope, no way, no 
how was a Giles calmly discussing the army gits - jeez, I'm starting 
to think like Spike - a sign that Buffy was going to slay them any 
time soon.
"It appears that s-she's personally acquainted with one of them." The 
ex-Watcher fiddled with his glasses.
"What Giles is trying to say is that I know one. Riley Finn. He's a 
TA at my school. Pretty much a hottie. He's working for some 
government program that's called the Initiative. Oh, and I also 
invited him to the Scooby meeting at ten." Buffy interrupted what 
could have been a long and drawn-out explanation.
Xander stiffened. Okay. Now that was bad news on a whole different 
scale! Buffy knew a soldier? Buffy invited that soldier to a Scooby 
meeting? A Scooby meeting that begin in - he glanced at his watch - 
two and a half hours? Oh, Spike was going to love this.
"That's... good news. Has he told you anything about this Initiative? 
What do they do anyway, besides kidnapping vampires?" Careful with 
the sarcasm there, I'm good old harmless Xander. Not interested in 
slaying the Initiative in the least.
Buffy pouted a bit. She never liked it when others didn't believe her 
at her word about slayage stuff. "Riley says it's classified, but 
they imprison demons and vampires for research and stuff. They're 
good guys." 
Giles frowned at her, with a grim expression on his face. "We're not 
certain of that, Buffy. Secret projects in - in principal are meant 
to benefit the government in some way." 
The slayer looked at him with a duh-look on her face. "Yesss. They 
get rid of demons. That's of the good in my book."
"I don't think that's what he means, Buffy. They could just kill the 
vampires. In stead they capture them with tazers. What do you think 
they do with them afterwards? Lock them up to make them see the error 
of their ways and get them to reform? I don't think so. What about 
the research part?" Xander asked her, losing his happy Xander face 
this time. Buffy had to see this initiative wasn't a good thing! 
Government and demons was not a good mix. He hoped Willow would show 
up soon. Xander knew she had hacked into some pretty serious stuff in 
her time. She had to know the government wasn't always on the side of 
good, right? 
Giles suddenly spared the dark-haired boy with a look. "How do you 
know they capture them with tazers?" 
And there he was, sitting next to a suddenly tense slayer and a 
frowning ex-Watcher looking at him. The immortal sighed. Time to come 
clean.
"It's a bit of a long story. Giles, you know how you said about me 
and Spike staying close to eachother, because of the link?" He 
started.
"Yes. But I also remember saying that it wasn't necessary anymore." 
Giles raised his eyebrows, clearly curious as to where Xander was 
going with this, and what it had to do with tazers and soldiers.
Xander laughed. "Yes, well. The damage was done. I realised I kind of 
like Spike." 
"You like Spike? How can anyone like that bleached moron, evil undead 
guy?" Buffy exclaimed, still not getting the point.
The same could not be said of Giles. You could say what you wanted to 
about the ex-Watcher, but he was observant. "Bloody Hell!" Sign of G-
Man anxiety about to start. Yep, there go the glasses. Take them off, 
clean them thoroughly while staring into space, then put them back on 
and refocus on the problem at hand.
Which would be Xadner, unfortunately. 
In the meantime, Giles' outburst made something click in Buffy's 
head. 
"Oh! Oh. You mean..." She looked a bit queasily at her friend. Then she 
put on her version of Willow's resolve face. Uh oh. "This isn't good, 
Xander. Spike is evil! He doesn't care about you. He'll just play 
with you until he's bored, and then he'll kill you."
And a hot-burning feeling started in the pit of his stomach. "I know 
Spike is evil, Buffy. Believe me, I know. I've got this nice empathic 
link with him, remember?" He said angrily, resisting the urge to 
start growling about her insulting his mate. And wasn't that 
vampiric? "Just like that same link is telling me Spike is pretty 
much into is as much as I am." 
She looked chastised for a moment, before she jumped to her feet, 
practically growling herself. "Where is he? I'll stake him myself." 
Xander jumped up too, and this time he was so angry that he couldn't 
prevent his shift to game face. "You'll do no such thing! Spike 
hasn't killed anyone in two weeks, just like you asked. And you're 
going to dust him as a reward?" Okay, except for that soldier, but 
that was self-defence. And Xander himself of course, but he got up 
again afterwards.
Giles interfered. "Buffy! Xander! Calm down!" 
The two angry young people calmed down enough to actually listen to 
him. Giles pinched the bridge of his nose, before looking up at his 
charges. He startled at seeing Xander vamped out. 
"Um, Xander, you're, um, in vampire visage." Xander blushed bright 
red, and he noticed Giles looking at him in fascination, until he 
shifted back. Spike always did that too, when he blushed in game 
face. Why was that? 
"Sorry, G-Man."
Giles nodded. "Quite. Buffy. Though I loathe to admit it, Xander has 
a point. You - you did tell Spike you wouldn't stake him if he didn't 
kill anyone."
Buffy was still not completely mollified. "He probably killed people 
when he wasn't with Xander."
Xander smiled at her sheepishly. "Heh. I can say Spike didn't kill 
anyone then. He really hasn't left my sight in two weeks."
Both Buffy and Giles were now looking at him as if they had never 
seen him before. Xander shrugged, then decided to change the subject, 
before this got even more embarrassing.
"Which brings me to the Initiative. Night before last I was out 
walking with Spike." Or something like that anyway. "And we were 
attacked by soldiers. They used a high-voltage tazer on Spike, and 
they seemed pretty ready to use it on me, which would not have been a 
good thing if either of I had been mortal." 
Xander sank back down on the couch, since he was not planning on 
telling this story standing up. Buffy and Giles took their previous 
seats as well, and settled in for a long story. 
It would have to wait, however.
Somebody was knocking at the door. 

Part Twelve  

Methos eyed his companion with some trepidation. The blonde immortal
was sauntering along in a sedate pace, while Methos was itching to
see that his student was alright with his own eyes. He didn't trust
Spike further than the length of his sword. And it really didn't help
any that the blonde was telling him all kinds of stories, while they
were walking to where Xander supposedly was.
"And I said to 'im: Mate, if you want to learn 'ow to swim, don't
fiddle around on a boat, just jump in there. If you float, you can
swim. If you drown, well, at least I had some fun." Spike smirked at
the old immortal in a disconcerting mix of joy and menace. "Bloody
pillock drowned, of course. Couldn't swim to save 'is life. At least
Dru took care of the bloke's little girl." The infuriating immortal
turned to him, expectantly waiting for the obvious question.
Methos wondered if he really wanted to know the answer. "Your
girlfriend raised the daughter of the man you killed?"
Spike laughed. "Oh, she did. Kept 'er alive longer than those
bleedin' birds of hers, anyway. Cor, those things never lived longer
than a month. And every time it was: Spi-i-ike, I want a birdie. They
sing so nice. All the way to the stars and back.
Bloody should 'ave bought her one of those mechanical singing birds.
See if they lasted any longer." He grumbled.
The ancient raised his eyebrows. "What about the girl?"
Spike shook off the memories of what Methos had decided was clearly a
crazy woman. How long did the man stay with her, anyway? He would
have lopped off her head in the first year. Just to be sure she
wouldn't come back as an immortal.
"Oh, that one got herself stuck on me Dru's teeth somewhere in her
third month, I think. Something about spilling her tea on Miss
Jessica's frilly."
Then again, Spike was not all that much there himself, Methos thought
somewhat incredulously. Stuck on her teeth? What in the hell did that
mean?
Spike started in on the next story, and Methos listened in fascinated
horror. After half an hour of stories about Spike and his bizarre
girlfriend killing one person after another, the old immortal wasn't
sure who was worse, Kronos or Spike. Okay, Kronos was a lot more
ambitious than Spike, but at least Kronos could be reasoned with on
occasion. And the Horsemen did have some purpose in raiding caravans
and settlements other than just plain slaughter. Things like gold,
slaves and horses. The three necessities in life. Though Methos did
recognise the telling of these stories as a not so veiled threat to
Methos' life should he try to harm Xander, the actual stories made
his blood freeze in his veins.
"And here we are." Methos tuned back in, when the blonde suddenly
stopped talking. He looked at the stairs leading down to a little
courtyard with a row of doors. Spike moved down the stairs towards a
door on the right. The ancient followed, but as he got closer he
frowned.
"I don't feel an immortal in there?"
Spike looked at him curiously. "You don't? I wouldn't know. I never
feel Xander."
Methos blinked in surprise. Now this was something he had never heard
of before. An immortal that couldn't feel another?
"Does Xander feel you?"
"Nope." Spike seemed to think about the situation. "It's probably
because we share the quickening."
Methos really doubted that. After all, he and MacLeod shared
quickenings, too, but they still felt eachother. Granted, there was
the extra recognition, and the way they knew when the other took a
head, but that was something else than not feeling eachother at all.
Besides, that didn't explain why Methos wouldn't feel Xander. If he
was even in the house in the first place.
Spike knocked on the door, and a small blond girl opened. She had a
small skirt with a long-sleeved top on, her hair bound up in a
ponytail. And she was wearing an absolutely pissed off expression on
her face when her eyes landed on Methos' companion.
"Spike!" She practically growled.
"Slayer!" Spike smirked back at her.
Small hands gripped the younger immortal's duster and dragged him
inside the house. Methos followed with an amused grin on his face. He
liked the way the small blond treated the guy who had just told him
one hundred and seven ways to kill a man, a couple of which he
himself hadn't even tried before.
"Xander just told me you are dating him, Spike?" She said with a
sugary sweet smile, and an obvious emphasise on 'dating'. The young
immortal lifted his hands, trying to create some room between them.
"Now, now, pet. Not with the threats. We have guests, you know. Is
not proper."
"I'll show you proper. If you lay one hand on Xander, I'll chop your
fingers off and shove them someplace you won't like, before I stake
you." The girl lost her smile and scowled at him.
Methos winced. He didn't know what was going on with these people and
violence, but he had to admit they were at least creative.
"Buffy! Leave him alone." A familiar voice sounded from behind the
terrible twosome someplace. Xander managed to sound both angry and
resigned. This battle between Spike and Buffy had obviously been
going on for some time. And why did the names today get weirder and
weirder?
The two combatants separated reluctantly, and Methos finally got a
look at the rest of the room. So did Xander apparently.
"Adam! What are you doing here?" His student laughed excitedly, and
suddenly the old immortal had two armfuls of happy Xander. And did
someone just growl, or was that his imagination?
Xander laughed again, and started introducing people. "This is Buffy,
and I take it you know Spike, and this is…" Methos' eye finally
landed on the last of the people in the room. This one was elder than
the other people, but it didn't take more than one glance for Methos
to recognise him. His eyes widened comically.
"Ripper."
A cautious nod. "Eric." Then Ripper smiled at him, that devil-may-
care smile that had first attracted the ancient immortal to the young
rebel. "I see you still have your hair."
Methos shrugged. "Well, that's immortality for you."
"Quite." He answered, silly grin never leaving his face. The young
people in the room gaped at the exchange. Xander regained his speech
first.
"You… know eachother?" He asked hesitantly
"You could say that." Methos replied with a smirk.
Spike laughed out loud. "Oh, this is good. Good old Ripper banged
your teacher, back in the day, if I'm not mistaken."
Methos just gave the young ones a mysterious smile, and Ripper didn't
seem any more inclined to give an answer, though the blush might give
him away.
Methos couldn't remember seeing Ripper blush before.
He kind of liked it though.

Part Thirteen

Spike watched in amusement as the immortal git and the Watcher sized 
eachother up. The vampire lifted one eyebrow as he saw the intense 
and assessing gaze the latter threw the new guy, before he suddenly 
looked away, and became the blushing, bumbling fool. 
Well, well, the Watcher's not such a ninny little librarian, after 
all. Of course, Spike had pretty much guessed that the git wasn't as 
much of a push-over as he looked, ever since he came storming into 
the warehouse and started setting the place on fire. He couldn't 
blame the wanker either. If soddin' Angelus had killed his Dru, he'd 
have hunted the bastard down and tortured him for a couple of weeks, 
before finally killing him. Sire or no sire. Torching the ponce was 
kind of mild in comparison. The stupid poof shouldn't have dressed up 
the gypsy-kill anyway. That would teach him to listen to Spike on 
occasion. Yep, Spike was more of a kill em and leave em kind of guy. 
It was so much less trouble that way.
Xander smiled that silly half-smile that Spike loved. "So, I take it 
Adam's not your real name?" He asked his teacher. The blonde narrowed 
his eyes. Yes, he loved that smile, but he absolutely did not love 
the fact that it was directed at someone other that him. The vampire 
was willing to cut the older immortal some slack, because he had 
taught Spike's little knight how to fight so prettily, but that 
gratitude was not endless. Especially not if the pillock took 
Xander's attention away from Spike.
Unaware of Spike's jealous thoughts, Adam smirked at his 
student. "No, not really. But it'll do for now." 
The immortal's eyes landed back on Spike, looking at him warily. Oh, 
it would be fun keeping this one on his toes. The vampire grinned 
menacingly and waggled his eyebrows at the man. He'd had a load of 
fun relating some of his and Dru's adventures to the guy. Adam hadn't 
said a word the entire way to the Watcher's place, but Spike could 
sense that he was uncomfortable with the more inventive tales. But 
not to the point where he wanted to run away screaming, and the 
vampire had to respect that in someone who wasn't a demon. It made 
him a lot more interesting to keep around than the friggin' Scoobies. 
As long as Adam didn't make any move on Xander, whether it was 
killing or fucking, he was okay in Spike's book.
"So, I take it you really do know this guy?" Adam asked Xander with a 
move of his head in Spike's direction. Xander looked at the vampire 
with a grin and a familiar twinkle in his eyes that clearly 
conveyed 'fuck me now'. 
"Oh yeah, I know him, alright." The young man spoke in a deliciously 
low voice. Spike was instantly tempted to take the young immortal up 
on his offer, but there was a small obstacle. A blonde one, with a 
grim face that Spike recognised from several earlier occasions. 
"Oh, I've heard how much you know him. And I would be quite happy to 
hear he never gets near you again." The slayer cocked her head, and 
addressed the vampire directly. "Preferably because you're a big pile 
of dust, but I was told I'm not supposed to slay you, so you get off 
easy. This time." 
Spike raised an eyebrow, inwardly gritting his teeth. He'd really 
have to kill Slutty one of these days. That was the second time she 
had managed to interrupt Spike's quality Xander time. And he was sure 
there were going to be many more such occasions in the future, now 
that the feckless bint had finally clued into their relationship. No 
doubt she would start haunting his steps to make sure he wouldn't be 
alone with his Xander for more than five minutes. 
Oh yeah, the slayer was going to die. The vampire frowned. Except 
that she might be useful to have around when they took on the G.I. 
Joe ninnies. Because Spike sure as hell didn't intend to see Xander 
die for some two-bit vampire with a chip in her head that was stupid 
enough to get caught in the first place. Even if the kid did look 
yummy waving his bloody big knife around. 
The vampire still had to find a way to make sure Xander didn't even 
die temporarily, because reviving in a lab filled with nutty science 
types was not a good idea. And what was better than to stick the 
annoying little blonde in front of his lover to catch any stray 
bullets? 
"Right. Let Xander decide for himself what he wants. At least he can 
be sure I'm no' goin' to lose me soul and start killing off all his 
friends like the bloody poof did." And the sad thing was Spike 
actually meant that. As happy as it would make him to kill all the 
little slayerettes, he was sure he wouldn't like the effect it would 
have on Xander. But that didn't mean he couldn't hurt them 
emotionally. Like now.
Oooh, look-it that. Widening big green eyes with a flimsy shining 
film over them. Hit her where it hurt, did he? Had to remember that 
one. 
"You bastard! You'll just kill them outright! Well, not while I'm the 
slayer you won't!" And the slayer pulled a stake, and made a beeline 
for his chest. Spike had just enough time to wonder what she thought 
she was going to accomplish by staking him, when a body stepped 
between them.
Spike had expected to see Xander pull such a stunt, so it was a bit 
of a shock when it turned out to be the wrong dark-haired immortal.
Adam had an amused expression on his face as he dryly 
commented. "While I'm sure a temporary death would do Spike's 
character some good, I can't imagine this many people gathered here 
just to see this riveting boxing tournament. So why don't we act like 
civilised people and sit down before someone gets hurt." 
The Watcher's expression firmed. "Quite. Buffy, sit down! What Xander 
does in his own time is really none of your concern, even if it is 
something as blatantly stupid as having a - a relationship with 
Spike. Tea anyone?" Giles walked towards the kitchen.
"Hey!" Xander exclaimed affronted. Then he directed a glare at Spike 
that said they would talk later. 
What? As if it was his fault that the slayer had an itchy trigger-
finger? 
They all seated themselves, some more reluctantly than others. Spike 
made sure he sat next to Xander, and he was pleased when the boy 
moved over a bit to give him more space. Xander couldn't be too 
pissed if he wanted Spike to sit next to him, now could he?
It took the Watcher a while to make his tea, and the tension in the 
room became pretty uncomfortable, until Adam started asking his 
student about life after they separated. Spike listened with 
interest. He didn't know a whole lot about Xander's life. He knew the 
basics of the young man's fight with the evils of the Hellmouth, but 
Xander was reluctant to discuss anything about his immortality. The 
vampire guessed it was the same reason Xander didn't like to think of 
his inherited vampirism. The young immortal just didn't like killing, 
and he'd rather forget the fact that he had killed three people. 
Spike had a hard time understanding that attitude, and he had tried 
to use both the link and his brand new understanding of the softer 
emotions, courtesy of the Heaven Gate, to its fullest to get even a 
glimpse of Xander felt about the subject. A bit of anger, a bit of 
sadness, a whole load of guilt and fear, and the slightest bit of 
satisfaction and even some joy, which only aggravated the guilt. 
Humans were so effin' complex! You'd never see a vampire feel 
guilty 'cause he killed a bloke who wanted nothing more than to kill 
him in return. With the possible exception of Angel, but Spike had a 
hard time believing even his soulled up Sire would regret killing 
someone in self-defence. 
So this was the first time Spike heard something about Xander's 
challengers and he paid close attention. The vampire was peripherally 
aware that the slayer was listening with a sad expression on her 
face. Somewhere in there the Watcher returned with the tea, and 
cookies, and Spike found himself sipping from a cup before it 
registered. Then he grimaced and put the revolting stuff back on the 
table, as far away from him as he could get. He'd hated drinking tea 
even before Angelus insisted on joining some upper-class party, and 
his sire's 'insistence' didn't make things any better.
The story of Xander's life the past year was winding to an end, when 
the witch and her wolf arrived an hour early and took their own 
seats. When he finally finished Red looked at Xander and quietly 
commented. 
"We really have been growing apart, haven't we, Xander?"
Dark eyes looked at her sadly. "Yeah. We have. And I fear it's not 
going to be better any time soon, Wills."
The little witch put her chin just the slightest bit up, and frowned 
a bit. "Yes, it will. We'll make sure of it." Little Red's got fire! 
Spike half-remembered hearing that tone before but for the unlife of 
him he couldn't remember where. Probably that time he'd stumbled into 
Sunnyhell knackered off his ass. He still couldn't remember all of 
what happened that time. He was just glad that the slayer had 
neglected to stake him for some reason.
Xander smiled lopsidedly. "No, I'm pretty sure that won't work. You 
see, I really don't approve of the way the Initiative captures 
anything non-human just to experiment on them. But Buffy thinks it's 
of the good, so..." 
The Initiative? It just figures that the soldier-gits have a nice 
name for their little operation, doesn't it? Spike smiled evilly. 
Well, they'd just have to take a little initiative themselves.
Buffy frowned. "Hoe do you know they experiment on demons? Riley said 
they captured them for research. They could just be trying to 
understand them better, so the soldiers can kill them more 
effectively."
Spike snorted. "Yeah, right. This is the U.S. government, people! 
They've been pulling experiments on the local populace since the 
discovery of mind-altering drugs. They'd do anything to get an 
advantage over the blokes in other countries." 
Adam looked grim. "I'm with Spike on this one." The vampire nodded at 
him in approval. Like Spike, Xander's teacher was older than he 
looked, and the older a person got the less idealistic he became. At 
least in Spike's experience.
"But we don't know one way or the other, right? And even if they 
experiment on demons, it doesn't have to be bad. Maybe they can find 
something to stop demons from killing people." Red asked with this 
hopeful look on her face. 
Spike glanced over the other occupants of the room. The Watcher 
didn't seem too happy about anything to do with the Initiative, but 
he was clearly loyal to his slayer out of principle. The slayer and 
the witch were both way too optimistic. Unlike Xander who had already 
seen too much in his young life to believe that there was anything 
completely good or completely evil. Adam's face was hard to read, but 
the immortal had already sided with Xander and Spike. And then there 
was the witch's boyfriend. The vampire couldn't read anything in that 
bland face, but he doubted the werewolf was happy with the 
Initiative. He didn't say anything though.
Finally the slayer sighed. "Okay. The way I see it, we just don't 
know enough. For all we know they could be studying the demons in 
real life habitats. Or they could be creating the monster of 
Frankenstein. I agree we should find out more." She perked up. "I can 
ask Riley when he gets here." 
Xander sat up straight. "I forgot about that. That means Spike and me 
are out of here, before he shows up. I don't think it's a good idea 
to stick a soldier and a vampire in the same room." 
Spike raised an eyebrow. "The slayer knows one of those soldiers 
personally?" And she knew him pretty well if he read that sappy 
expression right. And Spike clearly remembered that expression being 
directed at his Sire. Huh. Looks like Angel was being traded for a 
mere mortal. Spike smirked.
The small blonde glared at the vampire. "What of it? It's a good 
thing I do, or we'd never get any information." 
Well, that was true. Of course, Spike could have just captured one of 
them and tortured him for a bit. That was one method that never 
failed to provide information. Still could, if the slayer's toy 
soldier wasn't inclined to speak. 
Xander tugged on his arm to get him moving. A bit anxious to get out 
of here, aren't you, pet? The young immortal looked back at his 
teacher with a clear question in his eyes. Adam shook his head almost 
imperceptibly. 
The older immortal clearly intended to stay around and maybe learn 
more. Spike approved of the tactic. He would have stayed himself, if 
he thought he could get away with it. But Xander was obviously 
reluctant to see his lover in even the slightest bit of danger. And 
besides, Spike really wouldn't mind being alone with the boy. Who 
knew when the blonde menace would hop between them again with the 
wrong kind of stake in her hand? She was annoying that way.
Xander waved goodbye to his friends, and pulled Spike after him with 
a firm grip on his duster. The vampire had just enough time to throw 
in one last taunt. 
"Say hello to your new boy-toy for me, slayer. Maybe I'll meet him 
some time over the wrong end of a tazer."
Yep, there it was again. That delicious hurt look on the chit's face.
Spike smiled evilly as Xander pulled him out the door.

******

TBC