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Chapter 6:

It was the combination of the world shaking and the pressure that was being exerted on his chest that woke up Spike.

"What the. . ?" he asked as his eyes opened.

Above him was a strange girl. She was the one pushing rather roughly on his chest, and causing the bed to bounce up and down.

It took him a moment to remember who she was and where he was.

"Sun's down," the Slayer announced a little too cheerfully. "Time to get up."

She was obviously in little girl mode. Spike wondered if her personality switches from tough-no-nonsense-Slayer to five-year-old, were a result of her imprisonment, or if she'd just always been crazy.

Still, she had cleaned up rather well. Her matted hair had been brushed out and now seemed to glow. She'd braided it back, and looking at the length of the thick braid, he wondered just how long her hair was.

She was also wearing the clothes he'd picked out for her, and he was glad to see he'd guessed her sizes correctly. The red cotton blouse that tied in front was just a little too small for her, as he'd planned, and drew attention directly to her breasts. It also revealed her flat stomach above the waistband of the black jeans he'd selected.

Under the cuff of the jeans, he could see the black leather boots he'd gotten her. They'd taken most of the cash he'd had, but he figured she needed something other than heels or flip-flops. The army like boots had thick rubber soles which he figured were perfect for slaying.

She was sporting black eye liner, which told Spike she'd rummaged through his stuff. That was a potential problem. He didn't have anything to hide specifically, but he didn't want her to know how much money he had, or rather didn't have. He'd used most of his emergency stash buying stuff for her. He wasn't worried about getting more money; he was worried about her asking questions about where the money had come from.

As he started to get out of bed, she quickly scrambled off and turned her back to him, but not before he could see her start to blush.

"So what's the plan?" she asked as he hurried to get dressed.

"Give me a moment, will you, kitten?" he asked. Not that he needed time to think. He did have a plan, an immediate one anyway. He just needed to find a way to distract her for a bit.

Once he was dressed he turned and asked her, "You got all your stuff together?"

"Yep. I put it in your bag. Well, except for my old clothes. I threw them away, couldn't find anything to burn them with."

Spike smiled as the distraction he needed presented itself. Then he dug into his pocket and tossed her his lighter. She looked startled.

"Go on, in the parking lot, or somewhere. Have some fun while I see about the room bill."

"But I was kidding I. . ."

"It'll be good for you. Give you closure, or some such."

She hesitated for a moment weighing the lighter in her hand, and then dug the grey clothes she'd been living in for who knows how long out of the trash and ran outside.

Spike grabbed his bag, and headed for the front desk. There was a middle-aged woman sitting there now, not the young man who'd been there when they'd checked in. Spike took it as a good sign that the next shift change wouldn't be for a while.

"Can I help you?" the woman asked, bored.

"Just needed some change for the soda machine," he said holding out a twenty.

She nodded, not really paying any attention. The moment she had the drawer of the register open Spike leaned across the counter. He vamped and sunk his fangs into her neck, covering her mouth with his hand, and lifting her feet off the floor.

Normally she would have been too old to be on his menu, but he figured with the Slayer so close he'd have to take what he could get for a while, and the woman's blood was still superior to the factory blood he'd been living on.

Once her heart had stopped beating, he moved swiftly behind the counter and stashed her body. Luckily she was a small woman, but even if she hadn't been, Spike knew that bodies fit in much smaller places than most people supposed. If only you didn't mind breaking a bone or two.

Then he grabbed the cash out of the register stashing some in his pockets and some in the bag. He shut the drawer and went outside to find the Slayer.

She was off to one side, a look of intense concentration on her face as she tried to make the lighter work. She was holding the lighter between both of her hands, trying to work the wheel with her thumb in front of it, instead of to the side.

"Give it here." He held out his hand for it.

She gave him the lighter. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it, taking a minute to enjoy the nicotine rush. He just stood there and smoked until he was sure the Slayer was nice and annoyed. Then he dropped the cigarette into the pile of clothes.

"Like this," he demonstrated for her how to use the lighter then handed it back to her.

It took her two more tries, but she got a flame going. Then she bent down and lit the edge of a pant leg. They watched for a moment to make sure the fire caught, then Spike grabbed the Slayer's arm and pulled her away.

She pulled against him. "I want to stay and watch," she protested.

He laughed, "Quite the fire bug, aren't you? Sorry, kitten. Lighting fires is illegal. Wouldn't do to be caught by the cops."

'Cause you won't let me kill them,' he added to himself. Although fun as it might be, Spike didn't want to attract that kind of attention right now. Nothing too flashy that would make it to the news, and possibly the Master's ears.

Once she stopped resisting Spike took off at a quick pace, away from the motel, murder, and arson. As soon as he started to run, the Slayer took off after him, laughing.

She quickly outpaced him. Spike hadn't been running as fast as he could, preferring not to draw too much attention. He realized that was out of the question. The Slayer was running at full tilt. It was obvious by her laughter that she was simply enjoying the freedom of running. He doubted anything he could say would slow her down, so instead he increased his speed and tried to catch her.

He couldn't, however. She was quickly outpacing him. She looked over her shoulder, yelled, "Slow poke!" then turned down a side street.

"Fuck!" he cursed under his breath, thinking she was trying to get away from him.

The more he thought about it, the more he wondered why she hadn't left before now. After all, she looked presentable again. She could have simply disappeared into the human world while he slept, but she hadn't.

He continued to run after her, following her by scent as she wove in and out of the alleyways of L.A. Just when he thought he'd never catch up to her, he found her sitting on a bench at a bus stop kicking her feet.

She was breathing heavy, but she smiled at him. "What took you so long?" she teased.

He just looked at her like she was nuts, making sure not to breathe or look tired in any way.

"You're completely daft, you know that right?"

Her smile faded. "I'm sorry, I just. . . it was fun wasn't it?"

"We really have to improve your fun standards, pet. But yeah. Suppose it was."

She beamed at him. "So what's the plan?"

"First off, we look for a nest. Then-"

"What? You think I'm following you into some condemned building to get snacked on by your buddy's?"

"Okay, right. First off, when I kill you it'll be just you and me. I killed two other Slayers without any help, and I won't need any to kill you.

"Secondly, we're not looking for other vampires to help us, don't need the help, wouldn't trust them anyway. We're looking for a nest to kill them and take over their lair, got it?"

She nodded.

"So, now all we have to do is find a nest, and hopefully quickly. Get them all at once before they've fed and are fully up and about."

The Slayer smiled, "So I get to slay?"

He grinned; her enthusiasm for a good kill was contagious. "That you do, kitten. Just got to find you something to kill first."

"Oh, that's no problem. There're five vampires over there."

Spike looked to where she was pointing. They were in a fairly run down neighborhood. The sort where the residents didn't have enough clout to do anything about the old boarded up house that sat at the end of the block. Spike had to admit that the place did look promising. If there weren't other vampires there, they might just take over the place anyway.

"How can you know?" he asked her.

She sighed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "I'm the Slayer. I can sense vampires. There are six in the immediate area. You're one, and there are five over there."

He considered her answer for a minute. For the first time, it occurred to him how little he knew about slayers. It made him a little nervous to wonder what other abilities she might possess that he knew nothing about. Despite his reputation for being reckless, Spike did believe in certain axioms of battle. 'Know thy enemy' was the first among these.

"Right then, let's go," he told her.

As they got nearer to the house, Spike became sure that she was right. First of all, the two-story house wasn't really in as bad a shape as it had first appeared. The boarded up windows made it look run down, when in fact it was in rather good repair. A clever group of vampires may well have boarded up the windows to keep out both sunlight and the curious.

They approached the raised porch quietly. Below the floor of the porch was a wooden lattice work. The Slayer quickly moved there and broke off two of the thin white sticks of wood. There was no avoiding the loud cracking-noise that it made, but neither of them was going to face a group of vampires without weapons if they had any choice.

She threw him one of the make shift stakes and he hid it behind his back just as a vampire opened the front door. The Slayer was crouched below the level of the porch and the vampire only saw Spike.

"Hello, mate," Spike greeted the other undead.

Cautiously, the vampire moved down the stairs, his eyes never leaving Spike.

"What are you do-?!"

The vampire never finished his question. He was halfway down the stairs when the Slayer sprang forward and plunged her stake into his back.

When the cloud of dust cleared, Spike found himself staring into a pair of smiling green eyes. But only for a moment. Before Spike could move or say anything, the Slayer turned and ran into the house, her stake held high.





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