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Chapter 3:

As soon as the door to her cell was open the Slayer sprinted out of the room. By the time Spike caught up with her (after giving the unconscious guard a sturdy whack to the head for good measure) she was pummeling the first guard senseless.

For a moment all Spike could do was watch the beautiful violence unfold before him. There was no special grace to it. Nothing but pure brutality as the Slayer took out unknown months of frustration and imprisonment on the hapless vampire.

He walked slowly but loudly behind her, not wanting to startle her, until he could see that she'd pretty much pulverized the vampires head. Spike was tempted to wait and see if she could actually dust the guy by smashing his head in, but the need to leave before anyone knew she had escaped overcame his demon's baser instincts.

"Don't think he's going to follow us, pet," he told her softly, carefully reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder.

She looked at him as if she'd forgotten he existed. Then she nodded. Her eyes looked past him to the rows of cages with the frightened humans inside.

"Suppose you have some heroic need to help them?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Figures."

He hadn't thought of that. Of course he hadn't really been thinking when he'd let loose a Slayer who, even if she wasn't strictly insane, obviously had some issues to work through. Still, rescuing the humans wasn't an entirely bad idea. Although it would definitely destroy their chance for a stealthy get away, the chaos and confusion might be enough to cover their tracks.

Spike pulled the keys off the battered body of the guard and began to unlock the cages on one side. As he did so, the Slayer began to simply break the locks on the other side with her bare hands. Unlike her cell, these cages had been made to hold only normal humans. For a moment Spike wanted to follow her lead and toss the keys, just to show her how strong he was. He thought better of it however, knowing that if she caught him doing it, it would only make him look insecure.

At first none of the humans moved, unsure of what was happening. Then one person ran. As soon as the first person moved they flooded toward the doors, before he and the Slayer could finish freeing the last of them.

'It's going to be chaos all right,' Spike thought.

Once the last of the cages was opened Spike dashed for the stairs to the lower level pushing past the escaping humans. He made it to the stairwell and looked down. The prisoners were making a real mess of their rescue. They had madly rushed down the stairs toward the welcoming green light that promised "Exit."

Unfortunately the vampires had chained shut the old fire exit. The first people to reach the door had been crushed by those behind them. Luckily, for Spike at least, those who had made it down the stairs were so tightly packed around the door that there was a great deal of space clear on the floor opposite it.

Knowing it would take too long to fight through the mob, and that any moment his undead brethren would show up, Spike opted for the quick way down and leapt over the railing, his leather duster billowing behind him.

He hit the ground just as a vampire rushed into the crowded stairwell.

"Spike wha-" he didn't let the vampire finish. Instead he whipped the shot gun around and smacked the vampire in the head, momentarily stunning him.

Behind him he heard another thump and for a moment he worried that he'd lead the way for some sort of suicidal lemming leap off the stairs. It was only the Slayer however, who'd followed his lead.

"This way," he instructed her.

"But-"

"There's no way out that door," he snapped impatiently. They needed to get a move on before too many vampires were awake.

Reluctantly she followed him. Spike became apprehensive that it was too late, because in the direction they needed to go, half a dozen vampires were rushing towards them. Spike dashed straight towards them. As they closed in on them he raised the shot gun and fired, making a neat little hole in the lead vampire who stumbled back into the others, causing them to trip over each other.

What he had thought was inspired strategy to even the odds, ended up slowing them down. The hallway was narrow enough that the tangle of vampires on the ground blocked the way forward. The ceiling was too low for him to jump over the pile of bodies so he was forced to scramble over the undead obstruction. One of the vampires grabbed his leg, but the Slayer kicked that vampire in the head, and he let go of Spike.

Ahead of them another vampire mob was approaching. This time he and the Slayer simply barreled through them. Punching and shoving their way through the cluster.

Luckily once they were past this second group there was a side hallway that would take them to the parking garage. Behind them they could hear shouts and screams, but ahead of them was another "Exit" door, and this one Spike knew was open.

As they entered the underground parking lot Spike made a beeline for his DeSoto.

"Get in!" he yelled at the Slayer.

She obeyed, even if she did look skeptically at his baby.

As soon as they were in, Spike threw the car into gear and sped out of the lot into the nearly deserted streets of Sunnydale.

"Where are we going?" the Slayer asked slowly, still testing out her voice.

"L.A. Big enough we can get lost there."

She thought over that for a moment and then suddenly blurted out, "You're a vampire."

"Never said I wasn't."

"No, I mean why did you free me?"

Spike waited to answer her as he pulled onto I-5 and the DeSoto was swallowed by the early morning traffic. Now that they were away from the cages, and the mass of terrified humans, Spike could really smell the Slayer for the first time and he took a moment to learn her scent.

After the overwhelming crush of fear and bodily functions that had been the prisoners, her scent was refreshing. She smelled raw, no hint of soaps or deodorants, but she was clean. She smelled slightly of sweat but that only served to reinforce Spike's notion of her as a wild thing. He also noted that there was no hint of fear in her scent.

"What? You don't think I did it out of the evilness of my heart?" he asked.

She snorted.

"Well, actually I did. You know about the Master's plan?"

"Big factory, sucks blood out of victims. Seems kind of lazy to me."

"Bloody right it's lazy. Not just that, it goes against the natural order. Vampires hunt, vampires kill, vampires feed. That's the way it's meant to be. None of this canned blood crap."

"So what? You want me to slay the Master for you so that you can go back to killing?" the tone of her voice made it very clear that she had no intention of helping him in such a plan.

"What? No. If I was going to go after the Master I'd do it myself thank you very much. Don't need the help of a Slayer. Look I didn't have an actual plan. I only just found out last night that he was holding you."

"Still not seeing why you care."

"Look, I don't run from slayers. I'm not just any vampire, you know?" Unconsciously he puffed out his chest and straightened his shoulders. "I'm Spike. William the-"

"The Bloody?" she finished for him. "You've got to be kidding me," she said with disbelief.

"You've heard of me?"

"My Watcher warned me of Spike, sure. Vampire of the Aurelian clan, killed two Slayers. You expect me to believe you're him?"

He couldn't believe her. He'd saved her–seriously fucking up his own unlife in the process–and she didn't even believe that he was him.

"I am too, you bloody bint!" he snapped at her.

"Sorry," she said, as if she thought he was taking the whole thing too personally. "I just thought you'd be taller."

"Like you're one to talk," Spike muttered under his breath.

There was silence for just a beat or two, when the Slayer suddenly demanded "Say something!"

Startled Spike glanced over at her. The tough as nails demeanor she'd slowly been regaining since he'd freed her had melted. Now she was running her fingers through her long matted hair, trying to untangle it, and looking hopefully at him like a child asking for a treat.

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Anything, I just don't like. . . I don't like for it to be quiet."

Spike nodded, then realized she wanted him to vocalize, "Yeah, okay. Umm. . . bollocks, I don't know what to say." He glanced around the car hoping a topic would present itself to him. His eyes alighted on the stereo. "You like the Sex Pistols?"

"Huh?"

He flipped on the tape deck. The sudden burst of sound startled the Slayer, but then she relaxed back into her seat comforted by the sound.

Spike had hoped that the music would keep him from having to talk to her non-stop. Instead he found that the Slayer was vastly ignorant when it came to music, so he set out to educate her properly figuring that the drive to L.A. should be just long enough for a brief introduction.





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