White Knight, Black Knight

White Knight, Black Knight Chapter Nine


“So Kyri and Usagi told me to ask you if you and Spike have had sex yet?”

Xander all but snorted the pop he was in the middle of drinking out of his nose. It was Monday lunchtime at the work site. When Xander had woke up finally Saturday afternoon Spike hadn’t said anything but he’d sort of looked at Xander. When the sun had set the vampire made his escape from human and kitten and Xander hadn’t seen him since. Which was just as well, it left Xander time to think.

“No we haven’t shagged, and I am so glad your fiancé and her girlfriend are taking a notice of my sex life. Should I be worried?”

Bobby looked like he was as embarrassed as Xander was. “Nah, it’s just that they, well their hobby is to watch television shows and pointing out guys who don’t know they are gay or should be getting it on with othharaharacters. It’s kind of scary actually. I think they just wanted me to shock you. That and they really do want to know.”

Xander thought about moving his lunch out of the way so he could bang his head on the table. Nah, too much trouble. He took a bite out of his hamburger and made Bobby sweat just a little. It was bad enough that when he’d gone and finally gotten a cell phone and called Cordelia yesterday she’d grilled him, now his friends’ girlfriends were getting involved.

“Okay tell them this, I do kind of like Spike, but I don’t know if he likes me and I’m not ready to make a total ass out of myself to find out just yet. And that is all those two harpies are getting!”

“Fine by me, I didn’t want to bring it up anyway. Hey you gonna drop by Havens tonight?”

“Nah, my friends got back into town from their trip and I’ve got to catch up with them. I’ll probably end up at the Magic Box all night. Tomorrow okay?”

mad made plans and went on to talk of other things. The current project, a friend’s bad luck with women, but through it all in the back of Xander’s mind was thoughts about a certain blond vampire.

****

Xander rushed from his apartment to the Magic Box, late for the Scooby Meeting. He’d stopped by home to check on Max and change. He’d got behind because the little fur ball had got into his closet and shredded his favorite Hawaiian shirt. He’d already killed a pair of shoes and one end of the couch as well, Kitten of Death was right!

He walked in the Magic Box, the bell chiming about his head. Giles was taking care of some last minute customers, and all the girls but Buffy were all gathered around the research table, chattering to each other. From the sounds of it, Buffy was in the training room hitting the heavy bag.

Xander walked over to the table and pulled out a chair, sitting on it backwards. “Hey there Ladies! Was a fun time in La-La Land had by all?”

“Ooh I got backstage to see Pink and we went to Rodeo Drive and we walked past the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills and Cordy took us to some shops on Friday! It was just great! I got all my school shopping done in L.A.! Janice is gonna die from envy!”

“Whoa, slow down Dawn, you’re gonna beat me and Willow at babbling if you keep that up!”

“Xander!”

“Willow!”

The customers left and Giles locked up. “Yes, now that we are all here, perhaps you should brief us on any problems you’ve had this past week Xander.’

Xander straightened up and gave his report as Buffy drifted in from the back. “Well we cleared a couple of nests, slayed some minor demons. The biggest problem, and I do mean biggest, was the ROUSs’.”

“I beg your pardon?” Xander all but laughed, Giles looked so confused and only Willow got the reference right away, she was leaning over and whispering in Tara’s ear.

“Jeeze, do I need to get cards made up or something? Rodents of Unusual Size. We killed two, but we figure there is more down in the sewers somewhere. I’ve asked around, no one summoned them so me and Spike figure it’s just some sort of side effect of the Hellmouth, giant four foot tall rats. Cause the regular ones running around in the tunnels just aren’t nasty enough. Hey, maybe we can get a camera and film us killing a couple and make a bad B movie! I’ve seen giant octopus movies, and alligators, giant rats wouldn’t be that hard of a stretch!”

Buffy groaned. “Please tell me yodn’tdn’t go looking for these things with Spike!”

“Umm, we found the first one by accident. Actually we came across both of them, but we were kinda looking for the second. Some of the workers in one of the sewer plants got munched and we went hunting.”

“Xander are you sure you were safe with Spike as your back up on patrol? I mean, he tried to kill me and waved that bottle in my face that one time.”

“Come on Wills, that was years ago, he saved Dawnie here. Besides we patrolled all week and the worse injury I got was a smashed thumb at work. We’re… friends.” Xander was so not getting into the subject of his dreams with his two best friends, his father figure, the girl he thought of as a little sister and Willow’s shy lover.

“The phenomena of the rats really is quite fascinating, perhaps you could pinpoint on a town map where exactly you fought them. Buffy, come over here and look, you’ll want to check these places out when you patrol.”

Whether Giles was just interested in the rats or not, Xander was glad of the distraction. Buffy had looked ready to blow her top, and then Dawn would have jumped in and defended Spike and they would have gotten into one of their screaming matches.

As he was pointing out the sites of the attacks and where they’d found the two rats they had killed the phone rang and Tara answered. A few moments later she handed the phone to Xander.

“Here it’s for you. I-I think it’s your boss at work.”

“Hello?”

“Hey Xander, it’s Mike. Listen one of the foremen at one of the other sites found something and Mr. Long said we’d better tell you and let your friends handle it. They were digging a basement when they came across a stone with what looked like Teutonic runes from what I’ve heard.”

Xander grabbed a noteboightight out of Giles’s hands, much to the watcher’s surprise and started taking notes. When the call was over he finally noticed that everyone was looking at him like he’d just walked into the room naked.

“What?”

”I think, perhaps that we are all curious as to what that was all about.” Giles was polishing his glasses again, meaning that he was near the end of his rope. Guess he shouldn’t have snagged the notebook.

“Well at one of the sites the company I work for has got going right now, the workers dug up a stone with what my foreman, Mike, said looked like runes. Mr. Long, the owner, was wondering if we could check it out.”

“Xander why does your boss think you can do anything about it?”

Ohh, just like Buffy to cut to the quick. “Because he knows I help you and that you’re the slayer. How else did you think I got time off to fight Glory? I’m probably the only human he’s got working for him that’s got the demon level health insurance package.”

****

Almost a full hour later and finally they were on the other side of town to look at this rune stone or whatever it was. Buffy had thrown a fit when she found out not only was her secret identity not so much of a secret in the demon circles, but that Xander had more friends than just Spike who were demons.

Even Giles had interrogated him, which pissed Xander off to no end. It wasn’t like he was stupid or anything, but they seemed to think he was doing the equivalent of wandering the Hellmouth at night naked and bleeding by working where he did. Dawn had thought it was neat, but both Willow and Tara hadn’t said a word to him since.

At the site a large demon was waiting, at least Xander was sure it was a demon. Tall, over six feet, and dark black, he was either a demon or an African warrior, maybe both. Without hesitating Xander walked right up to him, figuring him to be the security guard left on site that Mike mentioned.

“Hey I’m Xander, I think Mike said I might be by about a stone?”

“I am called Halim, nice to make your acquaintances.” Xander was almost embarrassed that none of the other Scoobies other than Giles moved to shake the man’s hand or return his greetings. He shrugged apologetically at the taller man and he just smiled slightly. It was obvious he hadn’t expected much from the Slayer and her group.

Xander quickly grew bored while Willow, Tara and Giles were all oohing and aahing over the stone. It was entirely too big to carry back to the magic shop so Tara and Willow were doing rubbings of the figures etched into the stone. There was no use as to try his luck talking to Buffy, she was obviously still mad, besides which she was looking back towards where Halim had gone back to his rounds like she was getting an itchy staking finger.

“I do believe that this is all we can do for now, I must consult some books, and perhaps you Willow will go on that infernal machine and see if you can find out anything. Xander perhaps you’d better tell your…friend we are leaving and we will let your employer know something as soon as we do.”

Xander did just that, adding an apology to the larger man.

”It’s all right young man, it’s not unexpected. In fact I’m more shocked at your reaction, not many humans walk right up to an effrit with no fear and just shake their hands.”

“Yeah, well I dated a vengeance demon for almost two years and I hang out with William the Bloody, so not much shocks me anymore. Besides I really doubt Mike would let me talk to you if you were gonna pull my arms off aeat eat me to death with them or something like that.”
“A vengeance demon? Anyanka? You are brave, or foolish.”

“Gee, thanks. I think.” Xander laughed and waved goodnight. He quickly made his way back to the SUV, he’d been elected to drive even though the others were upset with him, and no one else had a car big enough to fit them all. When he got there the three women were all piled in the back and Giles was in the passenger side reading over one of the rubbings mumbmumbling under his breath. Instead of starting up meaningless babble he just got the car going and headed back to the shop.

“I hope this isn’t gonna be an all night thing Giles, I gotta get home before too long.”

“Lemme guess you have a demon waiting for you at home?”

Buffy’s snide comment had a different effect on Xander, he immediately thought of how Spike looked whenever the blond slept over on his couch, shirt and boots off and pants unbuttoned. He shook his head to clear it of the image, he so didn’t need to wreck.

“No Buff, no demon, well it might be a demon, I got a kitten for my birthday and I don’t wanna leave him at home too long alone. The little shit’s loves to get in my stuff and destroy everything despite the cash I put out for special cat toys.”

“Oh my Goddess! Xander! Why didn’t you tell us we missed your birthdaym sum such a bad friend, leaving you all alone!”

Before Willow could go on a marathon guilt trip Xander hurried to assure her. “Don’t worry Wills, I know you were busy with your trip and all. Besides it wasn’t like I was alone, the guys from work threw me a great party and Clem gave me the cat, Max, and Buffy you should see the sword Spike gave me! You’re gonna be so jealous!”

“So now you’re getting gifts from Fangless? What’s next?”

Before he could reply a re dre darted across the road about a half-mile from the shop. Xander jerked at the wheel, swerving to avoid it. He managed to stop the SUV without rolling it over or causing the airbags to go off.

”What the hell?”

“Language please Xander!”

“Whatever G-man, did you see that? Looked like a kid or something.” Without thinking Xander got out to check for signs that he’d run over someone.

He should have known it was one of the oldest tricks in the books; he immediately was attacked by fledges hoping to kill some good Samaritans. They had struck before Xander even had a chance to shut the door to the car. He punched the vamp that had a hold of his shirt, loosening his hold enough so that he could reach back into the driver’s side under the seat where he’d hidden his sword. He could hear the sounds of fighting all around, the others either had gotten out of the SUV to help him or had been dragged out. He could only see Buffy though, and she was busy with four fledges to fight.

He swung his weapon as well as he could given that he was backed up into the car. He managed to decapitate one of his attackers and the dust flew into his eyes, making it hard for him to see. He swore under his breath and then started coughing. Leave it to him to die from second hand vampire dust rather than from the vampire itself.

He finally managed to get clear of the vehicle to where he could move and managed to off another fledge. That left only three more for him to worry about, Buffy still had two and he could hear Giles and the witches still fighting from the other side of the street.

He barley listened as Buffy made rude comments on the vampire’s fashion choices, time patrolling with Spike had helped him learn the value of keeping quiet and focusing during a fight.

Just when it looked like the Scoobies had turned the tables on their attackers Xander was knocked down from behind. Stunned, he struggled to keep the heavier vampire that was now sitting on his chest from biting. Just when he had just about lost the feeling in his arms the vampire suddenly was light as air as he turned to dust. Coughing once again Xander looked up, into the blue eyes of the vampire that saved him.

“Spike!”