By midday, Faith had dropped by Spike’s crypt, and the vampire had been extremely surprised to see her there. For one thing, he had never told her where he lived or, even less, had invited her to visit. For another, he had thought, until then, that she ignored everything about his association with the Mayor. Seeing her stride in as if she owned the place, flirt with him, and then finally deliver her message that their boss expected him at the town hall by nightfall had quickly corrected his assumption that the Mayor had trusted him without reservations. The secretive smiles and weird looks the brunette had given him the handful of times he had seen her since they had both crossed to the other side now seemed clearer.

The message, as well as the messenger, irritated the vampire. If he went to meet the Mayor at sunset, it meant not showing up for patrol with the Slayer and his idiotic grand-sire. Angel might believe he had won that battle and that was hard to accept. However, he was aware refusing the invitation might not be in his best interest; it would be an incredible loss of time not to follow through with his plan with the Mayor now beginning to make his move. So, irritated or not, he went to the rendezvous.

Unlike his previous visits, it wasn’t very late, so there were still people around. No one questioned his presence however, and he reached the Mayor’s office without even being asked his name. He couldn’t help but wonder if anyone else had such easy access to the Mayor, or if someone had given his description to the security personnel. Whatever the case, it was interesting to notice.

When he entered, Faith was already there, idly playing with a stake under the patient and fatherly gaze of the Mayor. Spike quelled the bad feeling her playing with the weapon stirred in him, and instead focused on the fact that the Mayor had absolutely no reason to want him dust. At least, none yet.

“Spike!” the Mayor said, jovial. “A pleasure to see you. Perfectly on time, too. Punctuality is such an important things, and more often than not…”

Affecting a nonchalance he was far from feeling, Spike sprawled in the chair in front of the desk and interrupted the Mayor as abruptly as he dared.

“Time’s an important thing, too, and the night isn’t getting any younger. Let’s get on with it.”

The Mayor had a small chuckle. “Yes. Of course. Faith dear?”

An inclination of the old man’s head, and Spike was ready to stand and fight for his life. The Slayer however merely went to open a door, and stood back to reveal a tall… something. Not human, definitely, because a human didn’t have serpentine eyes like this, but it was hard to tell much more than that as the creature’s body was wrapped in long Bedouin’s robes.

The show only lasted a second, too fast for Spike to do anything more than stand and take a step back from the chanting creature. He didn’t like magic in general, and he liked it even less directed toward him.

“He is free of any soul,” the creature announced as it stopped its spell, or whatever it was it had been doing.

The Mayor nodded, seeming pleased. “Good. Now you two can run to Angel and…”

“What the bloody hell was that about?!”

Giving Spike an indulgent look at his outburst, the Mayor waved at Faith and the robed creature. The first walked out of the office, while the other disappeared into thin air, and the vampire was soon alone with his boss.

“There’s no reason to get upset,” the Mayor said patiently. “I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t learned to make sure my allies are who they claim to be. You told me you had lost your soul, and there was no disrespect intended by my checking that information. Now that I did, I will be able to give you missions that are more sensitive. Do we understand each other?”

There was no doubt in Spike’s mind that the only possible answer was affirmative. If he had nothing to hide, then he should have no objections to his story being double-checked. He sat down again, nervous fingers drumming on his thigh, and tried his best not to scowl as he waited for his orders.

The previous evening had been long and painful for Buffy. She had hoped that a good night of sleep would mend things, or expose it all as nothing more than a nightmare, but sadly last night’s revelation had not disappeared in the sunlight.

She couldn’t really say that Faith’s betrayal was a surprise. Since what had happened after the other Slayer had accidentally killed a human, Buffy had hoped, sincerely hoped, things would get better with the brunette; but she always had doubts that Faith would ever fit into their group again. The real surprise had been to hear in her voice and see on her face the depth of Faith’s malaise. Buffy had never realized until hearing it to what degree the brunette resented her simply for being alive and having friends around her.

Then, there was Angel. His act as Angelus had been perfect. So perfect that, even though she knew it was only an act and had insisted that he do it when Giles had suggested it, Buffy had been scared for a minute or two that it had been more than playing a role. Almost. She knew him enough to see through the masks, didn’t she? She hoped she did.

Still, it had hurt to see him cozy with Faith. It had hurt even more than remembering what a bastard Angelus was; and there was the problem. She couldn’t get the image of the two of them, side by side, out of her head. Things had been difficult for Buffy and him, since his return; but a few days ago, he had finally started patrolling with her and she had regained her trust that things would get better between them. And now… an evening’s worth of acting, and her fears were back at full strength. Fear that he didn’t love her as much as she thought he once did. Fear that it wasn’t enough for a vampire and a Slayer to be in love to guarantee a happily ever after. Fear that Angel’s slow withdrawal was only his way of making the break less painful.

She went to the mansion after school, with the goal of reassuring herself that she was worrying for nothing. She didn’t get much relief. Flat comfort words, still too much distance between her and Angel, and then, just as she was about to leave, murmured words that caught her attention.

“Now you know…”

Frowning, she looked back at Angel, wondering what was his point. They knew about Faith’s new allegiance, that had been the goal of all of this, but why would he point it out again now?

“You know how I feel when you spend so much time patrolling with Spike,” he finished after a slight hesitation, his voice completely blank.

Her eyes widened in surprise and shock. She left the mansion with a glare and her hurt pride and heart. Without a second thought, she directed her steps toward Spike’s cemetery. He hadn’t showed up the night before, and she had intended to stop by his crypt later. She wanted to see if he had left them again, and if not inform him that Faith had switched sides. She wasn’t going to change her plans in reaction to Angel’s words. If her boyfriend was jealous of her friendship with another man, it was his problem. Not hers.


It was the middle of the afternoon when Spike jerked awake from a deep and dreamless sleep, his rest disturbed by… what was it? A presence. Tingles down his spine. He took a deep breath, allowed his eyes to adjust to the faint lightning of the lower level of his crypt, and had no trouble finding the Slayer standing by the ladder. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the Slayer he wanted to see.

“Slept well?” the brunette asked as she started walking around the room, inspecting his possessions before finally coming to sit at the foot of his bed.

“Well enough,” he grunted, annoyed at having been awoken. “What’s the message?”

“Message?” She repeated with a smile, turning her face toward him. “No message. I just thought I’d drop by. Say hi. See how you’re doing. If you… need anything.”

He merely raised an eyebrow at that, wondering how far she was going to push things. It wasn’t the first time she had hit on him; and while he could easily admit that, judging from the way she moved on a dance floor, she had to know pretty well how to use her body, he was not interested. Once upon a time, he might have been. Dru had never cared much whom he fucked as long as he came back to her in the end. Things were different, now. He would have given a lot – just about anything – to taste a Slayer’s fire and love, to feel her around him, above him, beneath him, have her in his bed and his life, but it wasn’t this Slayer he wanted.

“So, do you?” she asked when after a few seconds he still hadn’t answered, turning around to kneel on the bed. “Need anything? Want anything? Anyone?”

Her eyes pointedly slid over his form, covered to the waist by a flimsy sheet, and he was suddenly very aware of his usual nakedness. She didn’t stop at simply looking, and placed her hands on his legs, running them lightly back and forth, getting higher and higher by the second. His body responded to her words and touch, but his mind refused to listen. It had been a long time since he had found comfort in another body, but he wasn’t that desperate yet.

“Not needing anything,” he replied coolly as he pulled away and stepped out of the bed. He picked up a pair of pants, doing his best to ignore her eyes on him. “And I think you’d better go home. Daddy dearest might get upset if he knew what his little girl is up to.”

“’M not the only one up to something,” she replied with a naughty grin. “And he’s my boss, not my father.”

“Yeah, well, he’s my boss too, and something tells me he wouldn’t appreciate…”

“Who cares!” she cut in as she came to him, hips swaying a tad too much to be natural. “He’ll never know…”

He caught her hand just before it made contact with his bare chest, and fixed a cool gaze on her.

“Not interested, ducks. So do both of us a favor and don’t insist, alright?”

Her eyes hardened as she pulled her hand out of his grip. She took a few steps back, never breaking eye contact.

“How did you lose it?” she demanded coldly.

“Lose what?”

“Your soul. Who did you fuck to lose it?”

He caught himself just as he was about to claim he hadn’t fucked anyone. What or who he did was none of her business, and he bluntly told her so. She observed him silently for long seconds and finally nodded.

“’Should have known,” she commented with a shrug. “She did it once, makes sense that she’d do it again. Is that why you changed sides? Because she used you and now she’s back to her dear Angel? Must have stung, huh? Or did you…”

“You’d better leave, Faith,” he interrupted with a snort. “Until now, you’ve been amusing, but there’s only so much of your ramblings I can take before I get bored. ‘D hate to have to explain to daddy that his girl tried to double-cross him.”

“He’d never believe you.”

Standing straight and tall, she suddenly looked like the Slayer she should have been. Proud and outraged at a vampire’s antics. Ready to kill.

“He would,” Spike replied calmly, with the barest touch of amusement. “After all, that’s why he asked me to keep an eye on you. Same as he asked you to keep an eye on me. Didn’t you know?”

Outrage turned into confusion, then denial. A muttered curse, a resounding ‘your loss’, and she was striding away. Shaking his head, Spike found his fags and lit one, sitting on the edge on his bed and wondering if it was worth trying to get some more sleep, Faith already out of his mind.

He hadn’t smoked half the cigarette that Buffy’s voice called his name from the upper level, and a smile found its way to his lips.

“Spike?”

There was no answer, and Buffy walked farther into the crypt. She looked around, noticing a television in front of an armchair that looked older than she was. She called the vampire’s name again, a little louder, supposing that he might be in the lower level. She was right, because his voice came up through the ladder hole.

“Yeah, heard you, stop hollering and give me a sec.”

The second turned into a minute, and as she settled on the armchair he finally appeared, hair tousled by sleep, cigarette hanging from his lips, red shirt unbuttoned, and barefoot. Under other circumstances, she might have appreciated the sight. She would have, certainly, if she hadn’t had a boyfriend already and hadn’t seen Faith come out of the crypt moments before. Spike’s appearance, obviously fresh out of bed, was worrisome, on more than one level.

“So, what’s going on?” he asked as she still was observing him silently. “You don’t come by so often. Must be important.”

“I was wondering why you didn’t show up last night. If you had left town again or what.”

A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “Just got tied up with a friend, and when we were done I figured you’d be finished with patrol. Dropped by to say hi to your mum. She didn’t tell you?”

Buffy frowned, before remembering that she had barely seen her mother in the morning, as they were both late. She itched to ask more about this ‘friend’, but came back instead to the important news, made even more important by Spike’s most recent visitor.

“Faith is working for the Mayor,” she declared abruptly, and wasn’t sure whether she needed to worry when Spike’s only reaction was the widening of his eyes.

“Is she, now,” he murmured, pulling deep on his cigarette. “That’s good to know.”

Buffy tried to convince herself that she was only asking the next question for purely Slayer-related reasons, but in the end she had to admit that her interest was more than professional.

“Would you tell me what she was doing here five minutes ago?”

Knowing everything that I now know, I figure I should have told her the truth then. Told her I had joined the Mayor too, but only so that I could spy on him for her and the gang. Told her I had lost my soul, but was trying to play by her rules, again for her, so that she could be proud of me, and who knows, maybe…

Well, I didn’t. Caught by surprise, I made some excuse about Faith having always been hot for me, and how she wanted to jump my sexy bones, or something along those lines. I might have slipped in there some mention of Angel and his problem with intimacy. Earned myself a punch to the nose for my trouble. That was bloody stupid, I know. She told me often enough.

Might have made our lives so much simpler if I had told her the truth right there and then. Yet, at the same time, we’d have missed a few interesting things.

Yeah, I learned my lesson; I’m not going to spoil anyone about what’s going to happen next. Happy?