Cretian Escape

Chapter 11 – A Room with a View

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Peering around the corner, Buffy could see that the hall intersected with another hall where numerous demons were passing by. All that passed in and out of view were dressed for a fancy evening out. Men in suits, women in nice dresses. And the stream of demons just kept flowing. Why in the world would so many demons be gathering here?

A heavy hand came down on Buffy’s shoulder. Jerking, Buffy looked around to see Vassilious standing behind her with six other vampires behind him. “Get your exercise, little slayer?”

Buffy tried to shrug under his grip. “No, not yet. Let me walk around the block, get some fresh air, and I’ll be back in a sec. Promise.”

“I see that you have seen some of the guests arriving.” Vassilious politely took Buffy’s elbow and guided her down the hall, heading towards her cell. “Actually, you are the guest of honor.”

When they arrived back at her cell, she wasn’t surprised that he immediately injected her with the sedative. What was surprising was that the sedative didn’t seem to be as strong as usual. Her head was clearer, but she was still weak. Buffy suspected that the different drug had something to do with the demons arriving and Vassilious’s cryptic words, “the guest of honor.”

Vassilious was back in thirty minutes. “We’re ready. Slayer, I am going to escort you to the great hall, but know this, I don’t trust you one bit. You are going to wear shackles and chains and will have six guards at all times. If you try anything, it will be simple. No matter how valuable you are, you will be dead.” Vassilious could see the defiance in her face, but truth be told, he hoped she didn’t make any attempt to escape. For some incredible reason, he just didn’t think it would be a fitting end for this warrior to be cut down while in chains. And as for her appearance, it was atrocious. No one deserved to be shown to an audience looking like that, Vassilious told himself. With a few sentences of Latin and a spinning motion of his hand, he washed away the dirt and grime from her hair and skin, and with a few more words, Buffy’s dirty and torn clothes were replaced with a tasteful black dress and shoes. Vassilious looked her up and down, nodded his approval and left the room with no further words of explanation to Buffy.

First “guest of honor” and now “valuable,” what was going on? Buffy soon found out. When Buffy stepped out into the hall, she could hear the den of what she was to find out was a large crowd. Thirty yards away, and they turned into a very short passageway that led into a great hall. Vassilious led her up four steps and seated her on an ornate wooden chair. Buffy didn’t know what to think. Her mind just swirled round and round.

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Argonia loved grand entrances. Of course she did, thought Vassilious. She loved for all eyes in a room to follow her and only her. Her burgundy dress was translucent and slit down to her waist, which exposed a good deal of her chest. He had to admit that he enjoyed the view, but he wasn’t thrilled by the leers directed her way from both men and women all over the grand hall.

At one time, he would have felt pride at being with this beautiful creature. Vassilious didn’t know when it had changed, but tonight, he felt no pride. What he felt was…acceptance. Yes, he accepted his place by her side, a lover that just shares her time. He accepted her flirting with one and all that they met in the crowd. Actually, flirting was way too tame of a word to describe what Argonia was doing. He accepted the leers at her scantily clad body. What he was having a hard time accepting was his own feeling of disgust when she overstepped the bounds of flirting to intimate physical contact, rubbing up against those that particularly caught her eye, and her hand slid down to fondle them upon occasion. Problem was that there was nothing new about that behavior either.

But he was so confused. How could he feel both love and disgust at the same time? Unexpectedly, he thought of the slayer, that slip of a girl had been loved by two vampires, loved her enough to change their lives. Here he couldn’t get one vampire to love him, let alone let that love change her life. That is if Argonia could love him at all. Vassilious stopped. Where had that thought come from, he wondered. Who was he kidding? He knew where it came from, he thought as he watched her run her hand under a vampire’s waist band.

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“Pretentious bitch.” Spike burned. Boiled. So this was the woman that dared to take his slayer. This was the woman that would pay. Pay by turning to dust. That is after a slow, satisfying session of torture.

“Bitch? You got that right. Actually, bitch in heat is more like it.” Cordelia stood up on tiptoe to watch the mistress of the Sepatucci clan’s progression through the crowd. “Her frizzy hair looked like it has been set on fire. And that dress. Can you say S-Lut! But whoa, who is that guy walking with her? The one with the black hair. Now he looks yummy. Shame he has to die, too.” Sensing that Spike was approaching a breaking point, Cordelia pulled on Spike’s sleeve to gain his attention. “It’s blendy time again.”

Cordy had declared that eating some of the buffet food would help them blend in more. Personally, Spike suspected she was just hungry. So while they were moving down the buffet line with Spike pointing out the food that was safe for Cordy to eat, the dinthe the crowd suddenly rose. Curious, Cordy and Spike looked over their shoulders to see the side of Buffy being led to a chair on the dais.

Even though he had been expecting the head of the clan to display the top item of the auction, he was still taken by surprise. He took a deep breath, preparing to look her over. However, Cordy grabbed Spike’s arm before he could see much. Nevertheless, he tried to shake her off.

Cordelia wasn’t letting go. “Sp…Franco…Franco!” She jerked his arm hard. “Franco…” She was relieved when he looked down at her. Cordy stood up on the balls of her feet to get her face as close to his as possible. “You remember what you promised Ang…the big guy.” Damn, it was hard avoiding the use of their real proper names.

“No, I don’t remember,” Spike lied as he started turning back towards the dais.

Unrelenting, Cordy jerked him until she had his attention again. “Liar, liar, pants on fire. Flaming. I smell smoke here.”

Shutting his eyes, Spike drew in a deep breath, not for the oxygen but to calm himself down. He blew it out slowly. “I remember. No looking at her.”

“Because you would do something stupid like try to save her now instead of later,” Cordelia finished for him. “So be cool and get us another glass of champagne.”

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Cordelia was facing the dais when Spike returned, and she quickly made sure that Spike wasn’t.

“Bloody hell, you chit, I’m not a top that you can spin around,” Spike snapped in frustration.

“Buffy has been seated on the dais.” Cordelia was glad to see that Buffy was in good shape. “Remember the black haired vampire that was with the red headed bitch that kidnapped Buffy? He’s the one who brought her in. I’m guessing that he must be in charge of her.”

“Then he will be one of the first to die.” Behind his contacts, Spike’s eyes turned to a cold, artic blue.

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Shock. Buffy was shocked by what was to be her fate. Auctioned off like a lamp or an antique table. What were they going to do? Check her teeth like she was a horse? Well, let them find out that she bites, Buffy thought. She watched as a grey demon with white hair in a tuxedo stepped up on the dais and stood next to her chair.

“Ladies and gentlemen, let us first thank Mistress Argonia for our most prized item in this auction.” While the crowd clapped, Buffy wanted to spit. Her captor, Argonia, waved her hand to the crowd and preened under the attention. Standing next to her stood Vassilious, but his expression on his face didn’t look the same as Argonia’s. His face was expressionless. No, that wasn’t right. He was too expressionless, like someone that is trying to cover his or her true feelings. Interesting. Maybe she could get him to do a little talking about himself next time he visited her cell.

The announcer continued. “As you know, vampire slayer auctions are few and far, far between. The last one was over one hundred sixty years ago. In view of that, the items we have now amassed are truly magnificent. Please take your time looking over the rare items in the cases spread around the room. For instance, in case twelve, you will find the Spectre of Alganis, which the great Louis Artan killed a slayer in Paris in 1923. Over in case twenty-one is the dagger used to kill the Mexico City slayer in 1869. But please, explore the cases and discover the other treats. But the sweetest treat of all sits beside me. The Slayer of Sunnydale. Who here has not heard of her and her murders? No one. There has never been such an offering at a slayer auction as this killer of our kind.” He had to pause until the applause quieted down. “Should you purchase her, you can end her life, keep her as a pet or whatever you like. With this slayer…”

Cordy could literally see Spike shake with anger. Damn, damn, double damn. Just what she didn’t need at that moment. Big mouth demon in the penguin suit. “Hey, Franco, chill. They’re just words. Now these words: liquidy, bubblely, goodness. Drink up and let’s get some more. Shoo.” Cordy patted him on the tush and sent him towards the bar, which was luckily away from the dais.

From then on Cordelia kept Spike’s back to Buffy or kept someone blocking his view of her if at all possible. And after the introduction, they played it safe and walked back over to a case far away from the dais and pretended interest in the Scepter of Halic used to kill a slayer in Morocco and the other objects in the case.

Cordy whispered so only Spike could hear. “…a bone from the Master? Ha. Let me tell you, I was there when B…she took a sledge hammer and smashed the master’s bones to dust. See, she was acting kinda funny when she got back from…”

Spike suddenly stiffened and stared off into space.

Cordy jerked on his sleeve. “Helloooo. I was talking here, rude-o boy.”

“She’s looking at us.”

Cordy didn’t need to be told who “she” was. Stepping to the side to look at Buffy, Cordelia was caught off guard when she immediately made eye contact. Startled, she quickly stepped back out of view. “How did you know that?” she asked Spike.

One corner of his mouth lifting up, Spike gave Cordelia the smallest of smiles, but his eyes were sad, as they had been since she had first seen him here in Crete. “I can feel her eyes; I can feel her attention focused here, now specifically on my back.”

Quickly, Cordy went from holding Spike’s sleeve to holding onto his arm. “We’ve been over this. You know what Angel said; don’t look at Buffy. You promised because both of you know that you would do something crazy and go after her now. She saw me and knows that a rescue is coming. So keep your eyes off her. Be satisfied with that.”

“What would a look hurt? No one has recognized me.” Now Spike sounded like a petulant, little boy.

“Because no one thinks you are on this earth anymore. So keep all eye business this way, towards me.”

Closing his eyes for a moment, Spike visibly composed himself. “I know, but how does she look?”

Cordelia peeked around Spike again, and gave a slight nod of her head to Buffy. “Good but a little spacey. She looks like she may take the air head crown away from me.” She watched his fists ball up and knuckles turn white.

“They’ve got her drugged. Bloody bastards are going to pay.” Spike sightlessly scanned the crowd again and then looked back at Cordy. He knew Buffy was taking comfortseeiseeing Cordelia. To her, Cordy meant the cavalry was on the way. They have given the maiden in distress hope. But damn his promise. He couldn’t stand it anymore and started to turn around before Cordelia grabbed his arm again. “Don’t, Sp…Master Perez.” She dropped her voice down to a whisper. “You would not help her. What do you want? Her freaking out up there at seeing a ghost? No one, and that means no one can know that you are back.”

Spike knew she was right, and froze. He stood like that for a few moments, deciding. To look or not look? Bugger it, he still took a quick look before facing Cordelia again, earning a slap on his chest.

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Buffy scanned the room and made a mental note to thank Vassilious for the new dress and cleaning up. She would have hated appearing a pathetic mess to a crowd such as this. Her second pass looking over the crowd, her eyes were drawn for no apparent reason to a specific man with his back to her. When a woman leaned to the side of the man, Buffy’s eyes met Cordelia’s, and she saw Cordy nod. After the initial shock wore off, Hope blossomed. Buffy quickly looked down on the floor in case anyone was watching her face. Taking a moment, she tried to think it through. If Cordy was here then Angel was, too. And that meant they were going to try to save her Oh, Oh, she wanted to look back but was scared she would start crying with relief. In her drugged state, she feared accidentally doing something to give them away. When she thought she had herself composed again, she looked back up. What she wanted to see was Angel and feel that comfort that he was near. She looked at the man standing with Cordy whose his back was to her, and her heart sunk. No way that man was Angel. This man was shorter and leaner. She scanned the room again, trying to find Angel but again with no luck. It would make sense that her captors would be looking for Angel, her ex-lover. As a result, it would make sense that Angel wouldn’t and couldn’t be so visible in the crowd.

When Buffy looked back, the man with Cordy was turning towards her, but Cordy grabbed his arm and turned him so that he faced away again. All Buffy got was a glimpse of his profile. It took a second for her fuzzy brain to process the flash of the side of the man’s face. Off handedly, she guessed he must be one of Angel’s men. This man wore a suit well, adding weight to her assumption that he was one of those lawyers that worked for Angel. His hair was dark brown, short and a riot of curls. She concentrated on what she had seen of his face. His skin was pale, making her think he might be a vampire. He also had chiseled cheekbones.

And it was those cheekbones that started her line of thought in another direction. The drugs caught hold, and she saw Spike in the man’s place. His blonde hair that she liked to mess up out of his heavily gelled hairstyle. His tight black t-shirt and tight black jeans all under a black leather duster. Yummy. She closed her eyes and could see him in one of her frequent dreams. He was standing in profile, and when he sensed her presence, he turned to look at her, already smiling a smile meant only for her, hot and loving all at the same time. …

Looking back up, then the man in the suit glanced at her again. Buffy was anxious to see his stunning blue eyes, but in reality, what she saw was brown eyes looking back at her. Hope crushed, she looked down in her lap, staring at the cuffs around her wrists and didn’t look up again until she was put back in her cell. No Spike. No Angel. She started to wonder if Cordy was an impostor planted in the crowd just like the Spike she had been chasing in Irakleio when she was kidnapped?

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Spike saw her just before she looked down, seeing her disappointment. It took all of his self-control and then some help from Cordy to not go to her and kiss her worries away. But he also saw sadness. No, it was mourning, which made him want to get in her face, “Don’t you dare give up!” But he would be satisfied with another quick glance and not storm the gates. He wasn’t known for such control, but he would for his slayer’s safety. She had recognized Cordelia, and that’s all that they could afford for Buffy to know.

No shock that Spike would disobey Angel. When did he ever obey? Actually, she was impressed how well he had done staying away from Buffy. Cordy thumped Spike on the chest when he took another quick peek at Buffy. When he looked at Buffy the first time, exp expression was one of curiosity and hoput wut when they looked eye to eye the second time, he could see her hope leave before she cast her eyes to her lap. “She didn’t recognize me. I think she was suspicious until she saw my eyes. Cordy, you did your job well if Buffy doesn’t recognize me.” Maybe he should have been sad that she didn’t recognize him througs dis disguise. But no, he was more energized, more determined than he had been a few hours ago. No one was going to auction his slayer off. No matter what happened to him, he was going to get her to safety. Make her smile again.

Drawing his attention, Cordy elbowed Spike in the ribs. “Remember. Jewelry. I’m thinking we’ll go with rubies.”

An hour later, Cordelia watched as the dark haired vampire that had been withoniaonia stepped up on the dais and led Buffy ofwardwards an open archway leading to what appeared to be a hall. “Oh, oh, there they go. They are leading her out that side door. This is my part. How do I look?”

Spike rolled his eyes. He turned to watch Buffy and her entourage leave. Two guards walked next to her, one on either side, while four walked behind. All were armed with automatic rifles. The most interesting part was the stakes they also carried. So they were expecting his grandsire after all.

Cordy prepared herself as she approached the exit that Buffy had exited. As soon as all of Buffy’s guards cleared the archway, two different guards stepped back to their post in front of the door less passage way. One in a black tuxedo and one in a midnight blue one.

Cordelia continued unperturbed. She had been expecting them, but even better, they weren’t expecting her. Before she caught their eye, she gripped her handbag tightly and started to sway, appearing to be slightly unsteady on her feet. Acting oblivious as drunks often do, Cordy headed for the space between the two. Taken unawares, they didn’t catch her until she was half way through. Each grabbed an arm and hauled her back into the main hall.

Cordelia acted befuddled. “Huh? What?”

The one in the blue tuxedo spoke up. “I am sorry, ma’am. No one is allowed beyond this point.”

“What?” Cordy slurred her words. “That lady over there, ya know, the one with that floppy pink thingie she calls a hat, she said that the ladies room is down this hall.”

As she said it, using the arm with which she was holding her handbag, she gestured wildly, flinging it into the guarded hallway. Luck was with her. Both guards went for her purse allowing her an excuse to step into the hallway. She glanced quickly down the hall and saw guards by a doorway and the black haired vamp leaving the room. Bingo. ‘We arstepstep closer, Buffy.’ Cordy thought. ‘Just give us some more time.’ With a grin on her face, Cordelia accepted her handbag back and made a beeline for Spike.

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TBC

Stick with me. I am a zealot about Spuffy, and there will be Spuffy!!
Dana