Previously on Grey Lines:

Buffy and Spike's kiss is interrupted by a dazed Clem. Spike decides to follow the demon while Buffy goes to call Giles. Spike and Clem reach the clearing to find the same spectacle that had greeted them two nights before. Buffy and Giles arrive. Giles decides to check something out and moves around the clearing to see the man who is evoking the Foris Caliga. Buffy and Spike talk, she is worried about him, but something she says drives him away and he moves into the group of demons. The man spots Spike in the middle of the crowd and moves to talk to him, eventually Buffy and Giles see his face - it's Ethan Rayne.

In her own hideaway, between the bushes, Buffy's heart raced as she saw Ethan slowly move away from Spike. She struggled to control her heavy breathing as anxiety and fretfulness took over, when she heard her name being called:

"Buffy!"

She looked in the direction of the sound to see Giles holding Clem by his arm.

"You almost let Clem go." Giles complained.

Ignoring his disapproving look she said:

"It's Ethan Rayne."

"Yes, I know." The British man said, taking out his glasses and cleaning them with a handkerchief.

"How did he escape the Initiative? I thought he got arrested the last time." Buffy asked confused as her gaze returned to the clearing ahead.

"I really have no idea." Giles replied, putting his glasses back on and looking in the same direction the young girl next to him was.

They watched as the bleached vampire patiently waited his turn. In front of him two more vampires were turned to dust.

"Giles..." she finally got the nerve to ask him. "Are you sure nothing will happen to him... besides loosing his soul..." her voice faltered as she spoke "I mean..." she paused, looking longingly at the large pile of dust on the ground.

She waited for Giles to reassuringly voice out: "Absolutely not!" but it never came. Instead, the librarian restarted fidgeting with his glasses. The site of his bowed head, along with the frenetic movement of the old man's fingers over the handkerchief made her heart skip a beat. She knew that look of uncertainty.

"Giles...?" she coaxed him to speak.

"I... told Spike... there is a chance he might..."

"He might what?" she questioned, but deep inside she didn't want to hear the answer.

"There is a chance he might die." Giles finally blurted out.

"What?!" her breath now came in short asphyxiating gasps while her heart seemed to freeze.

"He knows he might die." Giles gave her a compassionate look as he identified the pure anguish in her eyes.

She looked back at the clearing. It was his turn... The bleached vampire stood in front of the bright white circle, slowly outstretching his hand.

"No!" she spoke in a low voice.

Without hearing Giles' pleas to stay down, the Slayer stood up and prepared to run in the clearing's direction when suddenly, the white circle disappeared. Instantly, all the demons around it fell to the floor unconscious, except for Spike. Completely unaware of what was happening he looked around him, his hand still outstretched, reaching for nothingness.

"I knew it!" an angry voice roared through the woods.

Spike looked up to meet a pair of seriously pissed eyes.

"I knew it." Ethan Rayne repeated as he moved toward the vampire. "Did you think I couldn't smell it on you, vampire?"

Spike was lost. What had just happen. How did he know?

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Buffy froze in place and it was Giles' strong hand pulling her down that brought her back to reality.

"What's happening?" she asked, her eyes fixed on the only two standing figure in the clearing.

"I don't know." Giles confessed. "He must have somehow..." suddenly realisation crashed on the old librarian. "He has been using the Foris Caliga to collect the demons and theirs powers."

"Yes, and..." she was becoming increasingly annoyed at Giles' strange ability to avoid getting to the point.

"He can tell Spike has a soul because of the demons he already has inside of him." Giles finally made sense.

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"Who do you think you are?" his wrath was clear in his voice as he approached the vampire. "Thinking you could destroy my creation?"

"Hey, chump I have no idea-"before he could finish his statement, Spike found himself dangling by his neck in Ethan's remarkably strong hand.

"Who sent you? Was it Giles?" the man gave the vampire a creepy grin as he spoke.

"I-I.." Spike struggled with the strong fingers that gripped his throat, his feet kicking the air as he desperately sought release. But the man ignored him, effortlessly holding the vampire even higher as he moved around the clearing looking into the thick forest that surrounded him.

"Oh Giles, old mate. Don't be shy." He mockingly singsonged while, in his hands, Spike kicked and jerked like a fish out of the water. "Come out, come out wherever you are..." and another wicked grin settled over his thin lips.

No answer.

"Well, I guess it's just you and me then." Ethan turned his attention back to the vampire. With crazed eyes wide open he spoke: "Let's play, shall we?" And with that the sorcerer's fist connected with the vampire's face propelling him across the clearing.

Never giving Spike the chance to recover, Ethan moved at lightening speed and soon his shoe pressed painfully over the vampire's neck. Suddenly, thunder roared in the skies and a river of rain began to pour.

"Oh, don't tell me you're tired already. I thought you were a master vampire." Rayne mocked grinningly, increasing the weight over Spike's throat.

"Ah..." the vampire managed to let out a muffled groan, as his hands held the sorcerer's leg, desperately trying to pull it away.

Eventually, Ethan released him, hovering over him as he coughed his lungs out and rubbed the tender skin of his bruised neck. Slowly, Spike dragged himself to his feet but he didn't stand for long, soon Rayne was on him, throwing a series of unanswered blows.

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Buffy watched from the shadows as Spike got beaten to an unrecognisable pulp by the old man.

"We need to help him. Spike can't fight him. Right now, Ethan must have the strength of hundreds of demons." Giles explained as the rain soaked his clothes.

Suddenly, Buffy fell into complete Slayer mode:

"Giles, Ethan can't know you're here. That will only get him even more pissed and then we are history. You take Clem out of here. Take him back to Xander's place and I'll see if I can help Spike." Her voice was flawless, built on certainty and absurd confidence.

"Buffy, you can't fight him. He's probably stronger that Glory was." Giles pointed out.

"I'm not planning on fighting him. We're gonna run until we find another solution. Get everyone to Xander's, it will take Ethan longer to find you that way." Buffy explained.

"Be careful." The librarian whispered as the Slayer moved through the heavy foliage and disappeared.

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"Now, now... Why do insist on going through this. All you have to do is tell me why you are here. That's all I want to know, then I'll..." Ethan paused for a while standing over the beat up vampire. "Well, I won't let you go, that's a given but... well, let's just say that big piles of dust can't feel pain. What do you say?"

Spike breathed heavily as the blood filled his lungs and throat, but there was still room for his usual trademark arrogance.

"Sod off." He spat out dryly as the drops of rain violently crashed against his marred face.

The simple sentence seemed to trigger something in the old man. The rage grew inside of him and soon it was blatantly plastered across his face. Suddenly, his muscles started to contort, as if something wiggled it's way just under his skin, but Ethan seemed oblivious to what was happening. As the emotions boiled inside of him, his eyes became completely white as if his iris had just been erased from his eyeballs and soon the tracks of engorged veins mapped his now blue skin.

"You worthless little- Ah!!!" Ethan cried out all of a sudden, bringing his hands to his head. It was clear he was in deep pain.

Buffy watched from the bushes and when the sorcerer clung to his head and screamed in pain she saw her opportunity. In the blink of an eye, she was knelling next to the vampire.

"Spike." Her voice was nearly a whisper next to Ethan's excruciatingly thunderous screams.

Under heavy eyelids, the vampire glanced up at her.

"Hey, luv!" he greeted drunk with pain.

"We have to get you out of here." She snaked his arms around her neck trying to pull him up but he seemed to refuse to help. "Spike!"

"Huh...?" he spoke sleepily.

She put her arm around his waist and lifted him up to his feet. He hissed as her hand pressed against one of his open wounds. While Buffy dragged the vampire into the woods, Ethan continued to scream and howl in pain.

They moved through the thick bushes and trees as quickly as she could carry him. The rain soaked their clothes, making them heavy and making it hard to move, but even so the Slayer continued to haul Spike's weight.

Eventually, she grew tired, feeling her legs buckle under her. She had to find shelter, there was no way she could drag his now unconscious body through the entire forest.

"Spike!" she tried to wake him.

Kneeling down, she let his head rest over her legs, the raindrops running down his chiselled checks. In the background the thick silence of the woods had muffled the tormented cries of the mad man, but she could still feel them in her chest.

"Spike!" she called out again running her trembling fingers through the his soaked hair.

Slowly he tried to force his eyelids to open, but at that moment they seemed to hold the weight of the world and all he could do was moan.

Buffy desperately looked around for a safe place to spend the rest of the night, which wouldn't last very long. Soon, in a couple of hours, the sun would be up and she had to find a place to hide the bruised and beaten vampire from the scorching rays. Her eyes wandered through her surrounding until they fell over what seemed like and opening of a cave.

"The old Sunnydale Mines." The light bulb lit up in her head.

In one last effort, her stood up, dragging Spike to his feet and towing them both into the cavern.