Drusilla paced around the room, petulantly squashing cockroaches under the pointed toe of her red shoes. She was in a foul mood, especially since that little Brenda girl had taken her Angel away. Narrowing her eyes, she sighted another cockroach and carefully made her way toward it. She pictured the other brunette in her mind as she angrily brought her foot down on the roach and pushed it down into the ground. Feeling slightly better, Drusilla laughed in delight and then looked up to see Spike watching her.
She made her way slowly towards him, swaying her hips dramatically as she walked. When she finally reached him, she held out her forefinger and trailed it lightly down his left cheek. "Spikey?" she asked in a girlish voice.
"Yes pet?" Spike answered, smiling at his beautiful Dru. He was just happy to have her back after her preoccupation with Angel. He knew that she wasn't happy that he had left but at least she didn't try to follow him.
Drusilla sat down on his lap and rested her forehead against his cheek. "I want to kill something. Can we kill something?" she asked in a hopeful voice, looking up at him.
"Of course we can, love," he responded, grinning wickedly. "What do you want to kill?"
"It doesn't matter," Dru said gleefully. "Let's go find some mean people to have for supper."
Spike laughed in delight. God, he loved Drusilla when she was in one of her moods. "All right, pet. Why don't we try that club down by the docks? I bet there are lots of people there for us to eat."
Drusilla giggled in agreement and the two rose and left the warehouse.
*****
Emily tried to concentrate on the
conversation at hand, but she kept getting distracted by Xander's deep
brown eyes. Shaking her head again to clear her thoughts, she turned
to focus once again on Giles, who was talking about forming groups to discover
what was going on in Port Charles. "This is important Emily," she
reminded herself. She managed to keep her concentration on the Watcher
for exactly twenty-seven seconds before her eyes were drawn once again
to Xander's face. "Damn!" she thought to herself. "How do Willow
and Buffy do this?"
"Emily?" a voice shattered her reverie. "Emily, have you been listening to me?" It was Giles and he was obviously annoyed.
Looking around the room in panic, she tried to force her mind to remember what he was saying. Of course, the traitorous thing wouldn't latch onto a single thing so she had to make something up. "Um," she said hesitantly, "We need to find out who the vampires are so Buffy can slay them?" When they just kept looking at her, she gulped and continued, "And we should split into groups with some of you guys in each group so we can look faster?"
"Yes Emily, that's right. But I asked you which group you would like to be in," Giles explained carefully.
Emily blushed furiously. "Oh," she said quickly. "Um, Buffy's group."
"Okay, that's just fine," Xander said jokingly. "You all just go with the big bad Slayer. Willow and I'll show you. Huh, Wil?"
Willow smiled patiently at her friend. "Sure Xander. We'll find 'em and slay 'em all by ourselves. Anyway, I'll go look on the computer and see what I can come up with," she offered. "This might have been going on for a while but nobody noticed. I'll look for anything fishy. Um, sorry Xander," she apologized as he winced. "I mean, suspicious."
"Oh, I'll be in your group," Emily changed her mind quickly. Turning to the rest of the group, she smiled shyly. "I mean, they should have help, right? Shouldn't we have someone, um, stronger in our group, though? No offense, Xander," she added hastily.
"Oh no, of course not. Weenie boy'll just sit back and take it," Xander joked.
Willow covered a smile with her hand, and turned to Emily. "I think his ego needs a little boost," she whispered to her. Emily only smiled, and fell into the dark pools of Xander's eyes.
Lucky tapped her lightly on the shoulder. "Em," he whispered. She looked over her shoulder at him, startled.
"What?"
"I'm going to be in Buffy's group," he said. He glanced darkly at Xander. "Are you sure you want to be alone with them?"
"I can take care of myself, Lucky," Emily insisted.
Lucky looked doubtful, but turned his attention again to Buffy. She sat beside Jason, subtly darting longing glances at his face. "Hey," Lucky said over the murmuring of the others. All eyes turned to him. "Have we got our groups all figured out?"
"Oh, yes," Giles said, adjusting his glasses. He motioned at Buffy. "Buffy, Lucky, Nick-"
"Oh, no!" Willow exclaimed. Giles turned to her in mild shock. She blushed furiously and cocked her head to hide her face with the fan of her hair. "I'm sorry, it's just--I thought we decided Nick was going to be in our group."
"Yeah," Xander agreed. "We need the ex-SEAL to help us kick some vampire ass."
Buffy grinned and nodded. "Sure, Nick is in your group. Rachel can be in ours."
"Sounds good," Nick said, and flashed Willow a smile. Willow felt her heart skip a beat, and smiled back shyly.
Giles watched the exchange with sinking horror, and silently cursed teenage love. The thought trailed off as he remembered the task at hand. "Yes, well, back to the groups. I suppose it will be Buffy, Lucky, *Rachel*, Mr. Morgan, and me." He looked at the rest of the group, especially Jason. "Any objections?"
"No," Jason replied and crossed over to look out the window. "Where is she?" he mused aloud. Giles cocked a curious eyebrow.
"Is there going to be a problem?" he asked.
"No," Jason said again. "There's
only one thing," he added, turning again to the group. "I have to call
a sitter."
Spike and Dru strolled into Luke's. Spike rubbed his hands lightly together and smiled charmingly at his companion.
"Supper," Dru whispered excitedly.
Spike grabbed her arm and pulled her along after him toward the bar. The man behind the bar glanced up at them as the approached, and a smile lit his face. "Oh, you got to check this out, Claude," he said with a laugh. Spike looked to him sharply. "What century are you from anyway, man? Check out the threads."
Spike scowled and leaned over the bar to stare its proprietor. "Is there something wrong with my clothing?" he asked darkly.
"Oh, no, man," the man laughed. "They're just a thousand or so years out of date."
Spike straightened, trying to hide his surprise. He felt a hand on his arm and jerked away nervously. He shot a surprised glance at the woman by his side. "Oh, I don't know, Luke," she said, stroking Spike's arm. "I kind of like them. Very---sexy."
"You're a doll, Lucy," Luke said and walked to the other end of the bar, chuckling to himself.
"So," Lucy drawled, ignoring the glares from Dru. "What's on your agenda tonight?"
Spike grinned and brushed Lucy's hand off his arm. "My companion and I are looking for a good meal," he said.
"Well, lucky you. You've come to just the right place." Lucy guided them to a table. "Have you ever considered modeling?" Lucy asked him as they sat. Spike raised an eyebrow.
"modeling?"
"Yes, you know, you've got a very nice face and figure. A little on the thin side." Lucy laughed. "But that seems to be the fashion. And you've got that whole gothic look." She waved her hands excitedly. "You know, the dark clothing, bleached hair. It's all the latest rage. To tell you the truth, at first I didn't like it. Everyone running around in those black clothes and sunglasses. I've always like a lot of color in my wardrobe. It's so horrible to see all these people running around in these big dark clothes and hide their bodies and hair and faces. There's so many good-looking people hiding out there behind black shrouds and make-up." She paused long enough to sip at her wine, then launched into her spiel again. "Anyway, now it seems very fashionable to wear all black, and *I*, being the very fashionable person that I am, have decided I have to follow the same trend. She glanced down at her clothes and wrinkled her nose. "Not with *my* clothes, of course, but the models for my *company* of course wear all black."
Spike looked at Dru, who was watching Lucy with breathless delight. He shook his head, then glanced at the entrance and was startled to see Angelus.
"Dru," he said, cutting Lucy off
in mid-sentence. He nodded toward the doorway, and saw Dru's eyes follow
to glance in that direction. Nothing registered in her eyes, and Spike
looked over at the entrance again. Angelus was gone.
"What are you going to do?" Brenda asked curiously.
"Just hang on," Carly whispered. She fumbled with the switches again, and muttered a quiet curse. Brenda sighed.
"How are things coming along?" Angel asked, coming up behind them.
"Oh, fine, just fine," Carly muttered. "I don't see why we couldn't get in to see Jason."
Angel's face darkened. "The slayer was there," he said shortly.
"The slayer?" Carly asked anxiously, dropping her flashlight. It rolled away from her, and Angel bent to retrieve it.
"Don't worry about the slayer,"
Angel whispered. "I'll take care of her. Now get back to work."
Lucy look uncertainly at the pair of vampires. "Ah--did I miss something?" she asked.
"No," Spike said, waving his hand at her. "Keep talking."
Lucy started to speak again, but
was cut off by a shrill scream from the back of the club. "What-" she started
to ask, then the club was swallowed by darkness.