Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me

Spike lit a cigarette and turned on the telly to watch a little late night crap for a while. Normally he'd go out and terrorize the town once Xander was asleep, but the boy had been having nightmares and Spike still hadn't received an answer to his challenge to Angelus. He really didn't want to leave Xander until his nightmares stopped, at least.

Which meant he spent a lot of time watching really bad telly or reading some of the books he'd gotten Xander. The books weren't that bad but Spike had plans to find the git in LA who started those bloody stupid Geico commercials and rip out his upper intestines through his nose. They were really annoying.

Xander hadn't asked how he had issued his challenge. Both the Watcher and Slayer had but Xander acted like he didn't want to know. And maybe he really didn't; that whole ignorance thing had worked well for their relationship so far. Xander knew he fed, knew that Spike had slipped out of the house as soon as he had drunk enough pig and cow's blood to be able to heal enough to walk that night he'd been rescued. But Xander never asked who he killed or what he did.

It was a comfort in a way because, while Spike had started feeding from the low-lifes of humanity in case he was ever asked, he really didn't think Xander was ready to hear how he'd found a few tough guys down at the docks running a crap game and had not only come away fully healed and with a full belly but enough cash to buy the Cheerleader her sparkles.

And Xander probably didn't want to know how Spike had found one of Angelus's fledges to send his message. Vampires can live through an amazing amount of torture. He'd taken the highest of the Irish Bastard's boot lickers that he could find, carved a nice note telling Angelus where he could stick his Master of the Order crap on the skin of his chest, doused it in holy water so it wouldn't heal too fast, cut off his arms and legs and then rolled him down to Angelus's new lair and rung the buzzer.

He hadn't stuck around to see the results, but he bet it had been spectacular. Still, he doubted he would get any points from the Slayer for not using a human, and all the little kiddies would find it “icky”. Just thinking about it made his eyes roll. This was why he could never figure out why the bloody Council had little girls doing their fucking job for them; so many things could be considered icky by teenaged girls.

There was a knock at the door and Spike swore in every language he knew when he saw who it was. And Xander made fun of the Watcher for tempting fate. “Do you know what bloody time it is?”

“Some time after one am, I think. The clock in my car is one of the few things still working. And don't even pretend you were sleeping, Bleach Boy. It’s way too early for all evil little vampires to be in bed.”

“What the fuck happened to your car and why did you drive it here?” Spike knew that tone of voice had terrified his minions before but the dark haired girl in front of him just pushed her way into his living room. He'd be angry if he wasn't so damned amused by it.

“What happened to my car is that while I was entertaining a date we suddenly were involved with a real life version of a Howling movie, and not the really stupid one with the marsupial werewolves!”

“Keep your fucking voice down! Xan's asleep!” Spike hissed and his true face slipped into view for a moment but Cordelia just rolled her eyes at him. She did lower her voice, though, which was a good thing. He'd hate to break the arm of one of Xander's friends.

“Excuse me for being freaked out at nearly becoming the werewolf equivalent of a deluxe can of Alpo! I was attacked by a fucking werewolf! And my jackass of a date ran off when I couldn't get the car to start! I don't know if he got away alive or not, because the furball took off after him and did I mention it was a werewolf?”

The bird's voice was getting sharper and loud again and Spike wondered just what she wanted him to do about it. As he moved into the kitchen to put on the kettle for tea, he realized that this was most likely why most vamps just made their lovers into their Childer as soon as possible, so they could kill off any friends and not have to be bothered at odd hours of the night.

“Got the werewolf bit, 'm not stupid. Didn't bite you, did he?”

“No, and can I say thank god?! I don't think there's enough electrolysis in the world to get unfuzzy from that. And I can't help but hope Andy got away too, if only because I want to be the one to kill him. I can't believe he just ran off and left me there!”

As he poured a cup of tea it was on the tip of Spike's tongue to ask the girl again just why the hell she came here, when he remembered Xander saying something about the only difference between Cordelia's parents and his was the fact that hers could afford to buy her off. “Cowardly git. Tell you what, ducks, you find him and I'll rip a body part off, eh?”

Before she could say anything, though, Spike's ears heard Xander's heart begin to race in the other room. He stood up and made his way to the bedroom but before he got there Xander had started screaming. He pressed his lips together and totally ignored the cheerleader as she started asking questions.

He opened the door and was on the bed and had gathered up Xander in his arms before she even made it down the hallway. “Xan, Xan-luv, wake up. It's just a nightmare, pet, wake up for me now. Xander!”

Suddenly Xander gasped and sat up straight in bed. “NOO! Stop! Please, don't hurt her! NOOOOOOOOO!!!”

Spike pulled Xander back into his arms. He really thought he'd left his habit of waking someone out of screaming nightmares behind. “Ssh, ssh, luv. It's okay. What did you see, Xan?”

Xander was gasping now, and crying great big fat tears and Spike hated it because there was nothing he could do to help other than to hold his lover. “Angelus! He was...she was blond, long hair...I couldn't really see her face but what I saw was all...mangled. He was taking strips off her hide, like peeling an orange, and she was screaming but you couldn't really hear it 'cause she had already screamed so damn much she was hoarse.”

Xander turned and burrowed into Spike's arms, hiding his face. “It was just awful, Spike! I mean, I get the whole vampire, enjoy human’s death thing but it was like he was purposely pushing the images at me. Bastard.”

“Xander? Do you know if it was a dream or a vision?”

“I—it was a vision, definitely. It's happening now, I think. It felt like now. Oh, god! Buffy! Spike, call Giles and see if he can find out if Buffy is home!”

Spike opened his mouth to argue because he didn't want Xander to be alone but a voice from the doorway spoke up. “I'll call, Xander. Don’t worry.”

Spike smiled to himself. He'd forgotten that the girl was even there, to tell the truth, but right now he was glad she had butted in.

“Why's Cordy here?”

“Dunno, all I've gotten is talk of werewolves and her bitching about her bad taste in men. Think you can lay back down and get to sleep?”

“You'll stay with me, right?”

“Git. Like I've left you yet.”

Xander smiled and allowed himself to be tucked back in bed and Spike sat up against the headboard so that Xander could use his chest as a pillow. “Spike, do you...what will we do if that was Buffy?”

“Doubt it is, pet. You talked to her today, right? If he'd just grabbed her tonight he would have played with her a bit longer. No, whoever it was, Angelus was just having a bit of fun with dinner. Now shut your eyes and try to go back to sleep, Xan. If the Slayer's missing I'll wake you up.”

Spike believed what he was saying but he still listened in while the girl was trying to get the Watcher on the phone in the other room. He didn't want to be lying unintentionally.

*****

“And you're sure it was a werewolf?” Xander watched as Buffy jumped down from looking at the hole in the top of Cordy's car. She was still overly quiet but he had never been so damn happy to see her. The image of what he had seen the night before had caused uneasy sleep for the rest of the night.

“Don't be a moron, Buffy. Claws, a big old snout in the middle of his face like a wolf. If it walks like a werewolf and howls like a werewolf, it's a werewolf.” Cordelia gave a sniff that seemed totally false to Xander, proving she actually had a sense of humor. “It was so awful. Daddy just had the car detailed.”

Xander put his arm around her shoulder and gave her a pat. “There, there.”

Giles brought out a newspaper he'd had rolled up and spread it out on the car's hood. Buffy came up to around him to look at it at the same time. “So, what's the word?”

“Well, it seems there were a number of other attacks by a wild dog around town. Several animal carcasses were found mutilated.”

Willow squinched up her nose. “You mean like bunnies and kitties and stuff? No! Don't tell me.”

She looked at Oz and he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Oh, don't worry. I mean, they might not look it, but bunnies can really take care of themselves.”

Cordy made a choking noise under her breath and Xander elbowed her. She was right, though. That was overly sappy and, considering the dreams he'd been having, it didn't look good for the rabbit.

Willow just smiled goofily at Oz. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Even Giles looked like he was going to get a cavity from all the sweetness. “Yes, uh, um, fortunately, no people were injured.”

Buffy put her hands on her hips. “That falls into the 'that's a switch' column.”

Giles nodded. “Yes, true, but I doubt if that will continue. Traditionally there are three nights of the full moon, and last night was the first. Tonight is the total full moon, therefore, we have two more nights to be on the look out.”

He turned and walked into the side door that was closest to the library and they all followed. Thanks to Cordy's late night call, they were all at school early so the halls were mostly empty.

Xander shoved his hands into his pockets and tried to remember everything he knew about werewolves. “G-man, is there any way we can tell if a human has been wolfed? You know, other than watching for some guy to squat at a fire hydrant or chase the mailman?”

Giles sighed. “Not really. There are legends that there are tell-tale signs: a person would have two fingers on the same hand be equal in length, or the person afflicted would have a—a unibrow.”

Cordy snorted. “That's not a sign of werewolves as much as bad grooming.”

“Yes, well, since Xander has been seeing a wolf, especially around Willow and Oz, I think it would be best if they were to stay safely locked indoors...”

They walked through the doors to the library and stopped dead. Xander groaned and closed his eyes. He had seen this once already and he didn't need to see it again, but he opened his eyes to look at his friends. Willow gasped and clung to Oz, hiding her face in the crook of his neck. Cordy screamed, and it wasn't one of the girly ones but a sound of anger and sadness. Buffy stood shell shocked and Giles stepped forward to confirm what they all knew.

Giles sighed sadly and he looked older than Xander had ever seen him as he closed Harmony's eyes as she lay dead on the main table of the library. She was barely recognizable, her face and body cut horribly, the remaining skin gray in death.

There was a note attached to her chest, and Xander could read the large printing even from by the door. It's unnatural for a vampire and a Slayer to work together so I thought you could use a little Harmony. You shouldn't have gone to Spike for help, lover. I don't like sharing. See you real soon, and say hi to your Mother for me. Love, Angel.”

*****

“I want him dead. But I want to hurt him a whole lot first. I want to learn to use those Japanese wooden stick things so I can use them like a giant set of nutcrackers and squeeze his balls until they burst. I want his eyeballs poked out! And then I want to kill him slowly!!”

Xander had his arm around Cordelia but otherwise let her rant. It wasn't like he disagreed with anything she was saying. Well, other than wanting to cross his legs real tight on the ball cracking part. But yeah, he wanted Angelus dead too. Really badly.

They were all at Giles's apartment. Flat. Whatever. Well, all of them except Spike but Spike was out trawling the tunnels trying to get information, any kind of information. And killing all sorts of things, probably. Xander made a mental note to shower when he got home. Even though Spike knew he'd been comforting Cordy in a friends-only type way, he didn't want to get his lover all pissed by having her scent on him too much, and Cordy pretty much hadn't let go of him since that morning.

Harmony may have been a shallow idiot, but she'd been Cordelia's shallow idiot. And a sort of friend. Xander kinda felt the same way; she'd been Jack to their Will and Grace and Angel really needed to pay.

“I still say we need to talk to Ms. Calendar. I mean, her people put the soul in Angel, right?”

Buffy shook her head. “Her uncle might have helped but Angelus killed him.”

Xander fought inwardly against showing how relieved he was. Cordy, on the other hand, was on the rampage. “Hello!! Okay, I get the whole different degrees of evil thing, but Angelus is out to kill every one of us! We need to get with the program, people, instead of letting Spike do most of our fighting for us! I've watched The Untouchables! We've got to up our attack or else we're going to end up mutilated or lap vamps for the damn bastard and if I'm going to be vamped I'm going to be a master vampire, damn it!”

Ethan nodded at that. “Hopefully, Spike will find some useful bit of information. I have a few contacts, but unfortunately most are too cowardly to become involved in a battle such as this. There isn't a clear winner between Angelus and us and they won't choose sides until there is one so they may say they didn't fight against the winner.”

Xander shrugged. “Can't say as I blame them. I guess...well, I could try to see something, I guess. If I was able to get ahold of anything that belonged to Angelus. Angelus, not Angel.”

“NO!” Giles and Ethan had both shaken their heads but, surprisingly, it was Cordelia who protested the loudest. “Xander, you didn't hear yourself last night. You were screaming something awful; even after you got back to sleep you were, well, talking about what was happening. It was like you were trapped. I swear to god, I thought Spike was going to implode, he was so worried. You're not going to try to get into Angelus's head; it isn't a good idea.”

Xander could feel the blood leaving his face. He hadn't realized that. He looked over at Giles and Ethan, who both nodded. “I'm afraid until you're better trained it really is inadvisable to try anything like that, Xander. From what Ripper told me about the note Angelus left, I am unsure as to whether or not Angelus knows about your new talents, but the longer we keep him in the dark, so to speak, the better off we will be.”

“So what do we do?” Willow sounded small and Xander wanted to hug her too but, while she'd been less angry towards him, she still wasn't comfortable.

Giles sat down the tea cup he'd been fiddling with. “Well, for tonight, Buffy and I will tackle the werewolf problem. Willow and Oz, I think it would be advisable if you were to stay indoors, considering Xander's premonitions. Ethan will meet with his contacts, and Cordelia can go with Spike and Xander on patrol. If—if you feel like it, that is.”

Cordy nodded. “Believe me, I feel like it. I may not be up to Buffy's level of ass kicking but I still want to try out my skills at self defense and take some of Angelus's cronies out.” She turned to Xander. “Think Spike will teach me to fight dirty? Like, bar fighting?”

Xander chuckled, while everyone else either groaned or looked frightened. “Sure. You know he's always said you'd make a good dominatrix or a master vampire.”

Giles, Buffy and Willow all looked like they'd swallowed a bug but Ethan was trying to hide his snickering.

Cordy shook off his arm, picked up her purse and headed for the door. “Come on, if I'm going to do this I'll need the right accessories. There must be a place that sells sharp, pointy objects somewhere in this town.”

*****