Gray, Chapter nine
Gray
After having her world destroyed by the Winchesters, Eve wanted to rebuild her family. She claimed a soul with his own dark power and his own moral gray. He would be her champion. Hopefully. Xander just wanted to go home, preferably before the hunters Sam and Dean Winchester caught up with him.
Chapter ONE :: Chapter TWO :: Chapter THREE :: Chapters 4+5 :: Chapter SIX :: Chapter SEVEN :: Chapter EIGHT
Spike has his own geeky side that he doesn't let show very often, but he might just have one or two answers... along with new problems.
"Okay, try again, and this time don’t cock it up,” Spike warned.
Xander glared at Spike but he held his breath. It was better than having Spike shove a pillow over his face again. The cheap hotel pillows were seriously itchy.
Xander held his breath as the second ticked past. In just a few minutes, Xander's lungs started getting twitchy, even if technically they didn't need oxygen. As the time stretched, the ghosts started to form out of the motes of dust. Every time Xander did this, human Spike... which would be William... always appeared first. With his soft curls and wire glasses, he was definitely not the same as Spike. But at the same time, Xander could almost see parts of Spike in him... or him in Spike. Xander watched as William drifted around Spike, his gaze always on his alter ego.
Maybe William was the soul.
Spike interrupted his train of thought. "Right then, are they back?"
"Yep," Xander said, and instinct made him breathe again and the ghosts scattered.
With a sigh, Spike glared at him. "You bloody little twit. You did that on purpose."
"Hey, it's normal. I've spent over two decades of breathing."
"And every time you breathe, you stop using those powers of yours. How can we test this if you bollocks it up every time?" Spike leaned close, yellow eyes glaring at Xander, and that was not a good expression.
Xander pulled at the restraints. "Oh, I don't know. You could untie me and we could do something like walk down to the cafe and test it in the real world."
"After you tried to eat me? Not bloody likely, mate." Spike snorted at he whirled around and headed for the hotel window to look outside again. Yep, the bleached one was twitchy about something, not that he was going to tell Xander. Xander could inherit all the super-powered Alpha coolness he wanted, and Spike was still going to treat him like a giant goober. It was like some universe rule of cool, as in Xander couldn’t have any.
"I never tried to eat you,” Xander complained.
Spike kept his attention focused out the window, watching from the crack between the puke green panels. "You fed off my energy."
"Not intentionally."
Spike snorted. "Right then, that makes it all better. I'll still be soddin' dead, but it won't count because you won't have meant it.” Glancing over his shoulder, Spike demanded, “Exactly where did you learn logic, Harris?"
"Hey, it's better than you. You were trying to eat me all though high school."
"I was not." Spike actually had the nerve to look offended.
"Yes, you were."
"Were not."
"You hit me over the head and dragged me to your secret lair. A secret vampire lair. That wasn't exactly friendly."
Spike turned and gave Xander his full attention. "I planned to kill you, you nit, not eat you."
"Oh, that makes it so much better." Xander rolled his eyes. He knew food groups, and Spike had looked at Xander like he was the sugariest most fattening food group in the world. He looked at Xander like Xander was that guilty late night snack that you didn’t want to admit you inhaled in one sitting. Actually, Angel had always given him the same look, which explained Xander’s Angel-issues.
"Bloody right, it does make a difference. Eating someone when you know their name is just rude. That's the sort of shite Angelus gets up to."
"Oh yeah, and you only kill people you don’t know. That’s totally better." Xander sighed and stared at the ceiling. "Why are we fighting about this again?"
Spike crossed the room and sat down in the chair next to Xander. "Because you're a stubborn git who won't hold his breath long enough to test out how far this streak of demonic goes. You're a bloody alph, love. I've never even met one of the old one's children. Even old Heinrich was a twelfth century vamp, and the old ones had been gone a good five thousand years before that. We don't know if you're going to lose control and start feeding on the world."
"Spike, the only think I have a craving for is Cheetos. I'm having a Cheetos craving that could drop a horse."
"I'm not going to the market again."
"But Spike...." Xander let his voice trail off in a whine.
"Not listening," Spike sing-songed.
"But I'm seriously hungry for Cheetos. Come on, I'm dying here."
"Forget it."
"But my knickers are really bunchy, here," Xander tried.
That earned him another Spike glare. "You don't have permission to use any British phrases. Ever."
Xander gave Spike a cheeky grin. "Hey, I'm an alpha. How do you plan to stop me?"
"Sit on you," Spike threatened.
“You can try, bloodbreath.” Before Xander could say any more, Spike had leaped on him, straddling his waist and bracing his hands on Xander's shoulders, pinning him even more firmly to the bed, as if being tied hand and foot wasn't enough.
"Don't care wot you are, you'll bloody listen to me before we have an accident." Spike snarled the words, all humor gone. Xander froze, captured by Spike's yellow gaze. For long seconds they stared at each other. The ghosts began to form, first William and then Darla, for some reason. She didn't normally show up, but she wandered the edges of the room, giving Xander that superior gaze that made it clear she considered him a lower life form. Minutes passed, and Xander flinched as Spike's fingers dug into the soft spot of his shoulders. Spike's victims started to drift through the shadows, half-specters that faded in and out of reality.
Spike sat up, stretching his neck from one side to another. Xander tried very hard to not notice that Spike was sitting right on his crotch. The pressure was doing very odd things that Xander really didn't want to think about. “Do not breathe. You bloody nod or shake your head, but if you so much as think about breathing, you’re going to find out how a sire disciplines a recalcitrant fledge, understand?” Pointing a thin finger in Xander’s face, Spike growled his words.
Xander nodded. Soulded Spike could inspire terror just as well as pre-souled Spike. Xander learned something new every day.
"Right then. Is William back?”
Xander nodded.
“Is Darla here?”
Xander sucked in a shocked breath.
Spike’s eyes turned yellow.
“Sorry!” Xander hurried to say. “In my defense, that was a little out of left field. I didn’t know you’d guess that she’d showed up.” Xander stopped. “Wait. How did you know she was here?”
“Simple, pet. She wasn’t actually here.” Spike ran his tongue along the inside of his lower lip. At some point in the last few years, Xander had learned to read Spike fluently because that meant that he was feeling superior.
“I really hope she’s not literally here because that whole school-girl thing she had going kind of creeps me out." Xander shivered as he thought about Darla’s Catholic girl outfit. There was something really wrong about a vicious vamp dressed up like a little girl. Then again, vampires probably thought it was really unfair to have an ass-kicking slayer called Buffy.
"Once a whore..." Spike let his words trail off. "So, what was she doing?"
"Do you mean other than looking at me like I'm a bug?"
Spike nodded and leaned back, which put more pressure in places that Xander really didn't want to think about. "Good."
"Um, is that a good that Darla thinks I'm a bug or good that you can scare me into breathing?”
“I’m trying to get you to focus.”
“Yeah, yeah, Xander sucks on the demon front. I already admitted that, Spike. So, how did you know Darla would show up?”
Spike turned and leaped off the bed before going back to the window. “Because I was thinking about her.”
“And…” Xander let his word trail off in a clear invitation for Spike to continue. Knowing Spike, if Xander demanded an explanation, Spike would take great pleasure in ignoring him.
“You’re seeing thoughts, luv. I think about Darla, and she appears in your visions.”
“No, I’m not. I mean, every time I hold my breath, you have all these victims…” Xander stopped when Spike turned and looked at him with an utterly dead expression.
Swallowing, Xander tried mentally sort through that fact. Angel, sure. Angel was obsessed with his crimes. But Spike wasn’t broody-boy. He was strong and confident and definitely not haunted by a hundred years of murder. That’s just not how Xander saw Spike. But if Xander was seeing Spike’s thoughts…
“All the time?” Xander asked softly.
Spike turned and glared. “I was a bad man, never denied it.”
“But you think about it? All the time?”
Spike made a strange face. “Don’t seem right to pretend they didn’t exist. I know what I did. I don’t need you talking about it.”
“Right. No talking.” Xander clamped his mouth closed as the need to talk about this nearly overwhelmed him. How could Spike think about all his victims all the time and not go bug-ass crazy? Turning his back, Spike went back to watching out the window. Right, that was a way safer topic.
“What’s with the window-watching, Spike?”
“Bloody hell, Harris. I broke you out of a hunter’s lair. I’m fairly sure Rupert’s coming after us.”
“Giles?”
Spike left the window and stood over Xander. “You’re demon, luv. You’re a soddin’ alph. And this Rupert Giles is a mite bit more militant than ours, and ours isn’t exactly a fluffy bunny. Exactly what do you think they’re going to do when they find you gone?”
“Um, say ‘good riddance?’” Xander said with a hopeful look. Spike’s cold glare pretty much said everything that needed to be said on that theory. “Should we be running, Spike? I mean, I really don’t want to fight with Giles, and let’s face it, seeing ghosts is not exactly a great superpower.”
“And draining creatures of their lifeforce.”
Xander cringed. “I’m trying to repress that one.”
“That’s what worries me.” Spike ran a finger through his hair. “You’re not safe on your own, but we’re not safe here. We wait too long and we’re going to end up having to go up against this universe’s Rupert.”
“Maybe not. Maybe he won’t find us,” Xander said. Spike didn’t even bother answering. “Right, because no way is Giles the obsessive do anything to get his demon sort,” Xander added wearily. “Okay, problem one is that you won’t unlock me from the bed. And while the lack of having to pee is both convenient and freaking me out a little, this is not going to work long-term if we’re running from hunters.” With that, Xander pulled on the shackles.
Sucking in his cheeks, Spike spent a long time considering Xander. Until the ghosts showed up, Xander didn’t even realize he’d started holding his breath. Angel was there… or Angelus anyway. He stood to the side of Spike looking at him with this hungry predator’s expression that made a cold shiver go up Xander’s spine. The victims were relegated to the edges of the vision, but Angelus seemed to grow larger and larger, his hand coming up to catch Spike around the neck.
“Um, Spike, what are you thinking about?” Xander asked, and for a half second, Angelus turned that scary leer toward Xander before he faded out of existence.
“If you can’t control those powers, you’re going to kill someone else,” Spike said.
“And that would requiring thinking about Angelus why?” There was definitely something rattling around in Spike’s head.
“Now you bloody use your powers.” With a dramatic sigh, Spike dropped into the chair.
“Um, is this something that’s going to freak me out?”
Spike pursed his lips.
“Oh god. How bad is this?”
Leaning back, Spike propped his foot on the edge of the bed. “You get out of hand, and people are going to die. If we’re on the road, you need to listen to me. No questions, no hesitation, pet.”
“And that makes you think about Angelus?” Xander could feel sweat gather along his spine because this was feeling like very dangerous territory.
“I’ll do what I have to, Harris.” Spike leaned in close, his boot pressing on the edge of the bed so that Xander tilted toward him. “I won’t have you turning evil, and if that means that I need to keep you in hand until you have control over these powers, I have no problem with that.”
“But Buffy…”
“Isn’t here. Besides, seeing as how you’re a demon now, that puts you in my court. So, let’s talk about the ground rules if I’m going to let you off that bed.”
Xander swallowed. This was so not how he’d imagined his rescue going. Totally not. Actually, Spike’s rescues looked a whole lot like Spike’s kidnappings.