The Silent Urge Series

*
**
***

Part B Cravings

Chapter 21- Debuts III

~ Xander ~

"Hey Umah, are you through with the stuff there?" Maerg asks and then his jaw seems to unhinge in pure shock. "Ras, get your ass over here and look at this." I swallow hard, erm… did I do wrong? I look up and down the neatly piled up boxes with their new content labels. Raspla comes into the room too, narrow-eyed he takes in the stacks of boxes, the pile of sorted out cardboard, the new inscriptions and then he laughs. Huh?

"Well Umah, you did a good job. Really good. Looks really good now. Wasn't that clean and sorted since… well since the club opened and this room was unoccupied. Good job." Maerg pets my shoulder and I get slowly to my feet, my knees cracking from the, I look at my watch, damn, hours I knelt here. I give the list over to Maerg and out of the corner of my eye I see Raspla blanch. Uh oh. I hide an amused smile.

Maerg's furry eyebrows begin to climb up his wrinkled forehead. The corners of his mouth twitch as if not sure whether to go down in distaste or up in a smirk. I flex my shoulder blades to shake off the nasty crawling feeling, yes, I noticed the boxes saying full, but weren't anymore and the lack of several bottles in some of the boxes further down the stacks. I make a mental note to never (!) provoke Maerg in anyway. I so don't want to be on his bad side.

"Umah," he calls me the tenth time this evening and I wonder why. Is it some kind of insult in his native language, whatever that may be? "you go out there and tell them to wait if they want anything now you can't mix on your own or if they ask in a language you don't understand. Croprie?" Erm, if that means 'agree', yes. So I nod.

"But wha…"

"I have to have a talk with our Raspla here." He says with an overly bright smile and puts one arm around Raspla's shoulder, squeezing him against his side. Raspla coughs.

Uh oh. "K. Yes. Me out there. Now." And I am out of the storage room and behind the bar. I need some seconds to get used to the darker surroundings. Hm. There are not a lot of customers here. I mean it's after 2 a.m. Rush hour is long over and the club is near closing time. There was no special event tonight, nothing prolonging the normal business hours. Forty minutes. And I am alone behind the bar. A demon bar. In the dark. Without superpowers or slayer or witch or… Willow. I miss Willow. Wish, no wish, wishing is not good, but I would like to show her this, here, show her that I’ve finally managed to…

"Hey!" Someone yells and I jump. Damn. Look professional. Look as if you do this everyday, twenty-four-seven. Walk over there, don't stumble too much. Oh nice, yellow eyes staring at me impatiently out of an ugly vampface he has something suspiciously looking like a little cross burned on his chin. I frown. "Hey! What can I bring you?" Evil ugly vamp that will be staked in a few minutes by my friend, the slayer! I smile at him. He looks at me unsure, sniffing the air, his nostrils widen and narrow like a pig's snout. I shudder.

"Blood." He eventually says, still uncertain if he wants to be served by me. "Okay." I say and look around for… ah, yes there… A pos, B neg, A neg, B pos, AB neg, 0 … "Erm… any preferences?" I fake-smile at him.

~ Spike ~

Oh bloody hell yes! Unlife is good.

"And it's all in that bank account?" I ask a beaming Treck. He shakes his head. "Nope, Spike, that is just your ‘every day' money to do what you want to with. The rest is divided in these two accounts." He shows me more papers with even bigger numbers on it. "Bloody hell!"

"Yes." He smiles shyly, but proudly. "The interest of these accounts goes on this account. Whenever you need more money in this account, phone this or that number for the accounts and transfer money over with your password. Password is this."

"My password is your middle name?" I look at him through lowered lashes, distaste only barely concealed. I hate it when people get into my life without me wanting them in.

"Oh sorry… yes… but you can change it, just call the banks and change it… I was just making sure I wouldn't forget it all the time you were gone." He gets this faraway, I-missed-you-so-much-look-again and caresses my hand the thousandth time in the last, bloody hell, four and a half hours. Damn, I missed the boy’s break. Fuck. I promised and I wasn't there.

I growl at myself but Treck interprets it as growling at his hands and he pulls it back as if burned. "I understand that you are not comfortable with … contact for now. Will we celebrate your return?" He asks when I am on my feet already, preparing to leave the office and find my whelp. Hope he is not too angry… no, he wouldn't get angry just disappointed that another person has forgotten him. Fuck. I can just picture these brown kicked-puppy eyes. "Spike? Celebrate?" Treckle calls after me.

"Yes, yes, whenever you like." I murmur and slam the door.

~ Xander ~

"I don't know… what can I get for this?" The vamp stutters whilst he scatters notes over the bar. Some are torn and bloody and they are all one-dollar-notes. I look at him again, at the notes, at him… "What did you do? Steal the collection?" I ask jokingly and he looks down, ashamed then snarls at me. "Didn't know he was a priest, k? Just saw him counting money and wanted it." He holds up his scorched hand. "Fucking crosses." I use all my scoobie training to not burst out laughing. I can't stop the grin though and avoid looking at the bedaddle vamp by counting the money.

"Hey master, can give you some A pos." His eyes brighten and he grins at me wincing when the skin on his chin is stretched.

"Where did you get that?" I ask him while I fill his glass. He laughs and starts explaining.

"So I see this man in black with the box in his hand and I think to myself, let's look what's in there. The man climbs in his car and opens the box, counting the money and I think how nice, a meal and change too! Good day for me, so I grab him and shake him and the cross that hangs on the silver chain around his neck is flying through the air, coz you know I am shaking him, and it hie rie right on the chin a few times and that's when he gets it and starts burning me with his cross on my hand."

I try to make impressed eyes and hand him over his drink. "But you got him in the end?" He makes as if to get the drink but at the last moment, when I have already let go of the glass, he pulls back to wave his hand in a gesture of don't-ask. The glass falls down on the bar and all the contents spill in my direction so I jump back and only get a bit on my hand.

~ Spike ~

Back into the club only twenty minutes from closing time. I look around. Not a lot people left, thirty or fifty maybe… they all seem to be laying low, not wanting any trouble but … bloody fucking hell… what is that punk over there doing with MY boy? He is wildly gesticulating with his hands and arms and now he is grabbing for my nummy and nummy is pulling back and where the fuck are Maerg and Raspla and I nearly fly over the distance to the bar and embed a stake deep in the vamps back. Fucker.

~ Xander ~

When I look up, my hand going absently to my mouth so I can lick away the blood, I am stunned to see Spike angrily staring at me through a cloud of dust.

"What happened?" He barks, eyes flashing golden. That's Spike, kill first, ask later.

I lick the blood away. "Just spilt a drink!" I growl, annoyed. "There was no need to dust a paying customer."

He pointedly doesn't answer my question and looks at the clock on tall.all. "Your shift is over." He tells me, just when a slightly rumpled Raspla with a grinning Maerg emerge from the storage room.

"Took a bit longer than expected." Maerg slurs and takes in the dust and the spilled blood on the counter. "Problems?"

"No." Spike answers before I get the chance. "Boy's shift's over." He nods curtly. Then gestures with his hand to the bar's entry. "Come on, whelp."

~ Spike ~

Well, good, overreacted a bit but what the hell. One vamp less won't hurt. And if he'd really touched the whelp I'd… I cock my head when the first beats of the last song vibrate through the club.

~ Xander ~

I stop shortly before Spike and look at him. He is practically glowing. I haven't seen him this confident and proud ~ this sexy ~ since the night in the high school where Deadboy offered me to him. Ooooh, this gives me mushy feelings now. I giggle and Spike looks at me strangely then: "Wanna dance?"

"Huh?"

He rolls his eyes annoyed. "Music – dance floor – moving?" An eyebrow cocked, waiting.

"Dancing?" I squeak.



***
**
*