A Trunk Full of Trouble

Chapter 9 – The Trade

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Spike was shoved into the back seat of a Lincoln Town Car. In the front seat, a beaten up Xander was driving and Sal got in next to him and trained a crossbow on Spike. Pfk got in the back next to Spike and held a gun on Xander. A deadly criss cross. Buffy was noticeably absent.

Spike was furious. “You didn’t have to put her in the trunk.”

Pfk snorted. “No, we didn’t have to, but we did.”

“Well, get her the bloody hell out of there.” Spike wanted to strangle the little pip squeak so bleeding bad he could taste it.

Said pip squeak smirked, knowing he had the upper card. “Think of her as security.”

“I told you to get rid of her, that she…” Xander threw over his shoulder.

Spike growled. “Shut up, Xander.”

“…that she was bad news..”

“Shut the fuck up, Xander.” Spike smacked Xander on the back of the head gaining a somewhat satisfying yelp.

Pfk yelled over them. “Shut up, both of you.”

Spike glare at Pfk. “Look, Pfk, I was going to get your sodding money…”

“Didn’t look like you were getting any money a few minutes ago. Looked like you were getting a piece of ass.” Pfk leered and licked his lips.

In less than a second, Spike punched him in the nose. Blood started dripping out immediately.

Using his shirt tail, Pfk delicately dabbed at his nose. “Alright, that’s it. I want interest on the principal. I saw her on TV, and the girl was worth five hundred thousand. Now I want double that, plus the original two hundred thousand.”

Spike’s eyes widened in shock. He felt like he had been punched again. “Bullocks. You’ve got to be kidding me. There’s no bloody way. You don’t know that they have one million to pay at your whim.”

“That’s your problem, not mine.” Pfk held out his bloody shirt tail. “It’s simple. Get the money, or she dies.”

*****

Spike and Xander were dropped off at the diner near the burned out warehouse. After saying an absent minded hello to the waitress, Glenda, Spike borrowed some change to use the pay phone, but before he could make the call, Xander insisted on his attention.

“I told you to get rid of her.”

Even though he wanted to smack him to his knees for repeating that same old tune so many times, Spike chose to just growl. After putting the coins in, he picked up the hand set in the phone.

Xander finally got smart and tried a different tack. “Ok, ok, let’s just go. Blow this town off. We could get new id’s, new names and start again. Go to Dallas or Pittsburg or somewhere that is not here. Let’s just get out of town.”

Spike slumped a tad and blew out an unneeded breath. “Not bloody well going to happen, mate. Fucking deal with it already.”

Xander pulled on his shoulder to turn him so they could look eye to eye. “Look, man, you’ve only known this girl for two days.”

Spike looked down and shook his head. “I know.” What could he tell Xander? He couldn’t believe he had fallen for Buffy in only two days either. But he had, and he had to get her back.

“Is she worth getting dusted over?” Shaking him, Xander looked at his friend like he had just turned chartreuse.

Spike’s eyes flew back up to meet Xander’s. “Yes. Yes, she’s worth it and more.”

Xander let out a long sigh while he let go of Spike. “Well, I’m out of here.”

Nodding his understanding, Spike started searching for the Watchers Council’s number. He suspected it wasn’t in the phone book under W, so it would take a bit of using contacts and networking.

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What a trip the last two days had been, Spike reflected. Now he, a vampire, was standing waiting to be introduced by another vampire? who kills vampires? to the head of the Watchers Council. The man who trained slayers to kill vampires. A rattle snakes’ nest if there ever was one. Just the thought made Spike’s head spin. What the bloody hell was he doing here? Buffy. It was for Buffy.

The granite poof, Angel, spoke first. “Spike, this is Rupert Giles.

Before Spike could speak, Giles surprised him. “William the Bloody, but your prefer Spike.”

Now on high alert, Spike looked the watcher up and down. “You’ve done your homework.”

“Of course.” Giles slowly nodded his head. “You have a reputation…”

Oh, balls, was there a stake coming from somewhere that he should be ducking. “Actually, I don’t kill…”

“…a reputation for not killing humans.” Now Giles’ expression showed interest.

Spike let out the unnecessary breath that he had been holding. “No, I haven’t killed since I left my family decades ago.”

Giles held out his hand to shake. “When all this is over, I would like to discuss your remarkable decision with you, if you don’t mind.”

Spike certainly hadn’t expected such an affable reception. “I…well…you…Right. I guess we could do that.” Spike shrugged and glanced over at Angel forittlittle help, but Angel was stoic as ever. But back to business. “Do you have the money?”

Angel answered. “I have your bag of two hundred thousand.” He set the infamous bag at Spike’s feet.

“And the million?” Spike was starting to get a sick feeling in his stomach.

Giles finished cleaning his glasses. “Originally, the ransom that was requested was for half a million. After much manipulation of our finances, we were able to scrounge up that amount in cash.”

Now his stomach was doing flip flops. “And…?”

With he glasses now perched on his nose again, Giles answered Spike’s question. “And that is all we have now.”

“What?!” Spike was practically hopping in place. “You only have five hundred thousand? Then what about the other half a million?”

“That is the rub, so to speak. There is and will not be more than half a million. You will just have to convince them to take what we give them. See if we can barter somehow.”

“Barter? Barter?! You don’t understand. These creeps won’t take anything less than a mil - cash. They will…”

“They *will* have to take what we have to give. Now, if you will excuse me, I have another issue to attend to. The Hellmouth and all that.” Giles started walking away, Angel with him.

Spike took a step after them. “Why don’t you use your slayers?”

“Absolutely not.” Spike could hear anger in Giles’ voice. “Buffy is there of her own doing. We will give the original money, but we will not send the girls in danger over her prank.”

Furious, Spike yelled after them. “You fucking wankers. I care more about her than you do.”

Angel briefly looked back, but kept walking.

Disgusted, Spike turned and headed to the pool parlor to meet Pfk. No wonder Buffy didn’t feel wanted or at home with Giles and the Slayers Academy. That Giles was a cold fish. A big, fat tuna. However, Spike would give Angel his due, he thought. The granite vampire did show a little compassion for Buffy when he had come after her. Spike had heard the affection when Angel had spoken of her, but still, Angel had just walked away all the same.

Picking up the bag of the seven hundred thousand dollars, Spike headed out. Well, he cared about Buffy; he loved her and no matter what was in the bag, he was going to somehow get her back.

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With great mistrust, Spike walked into the Eight Ball Pool Hall and found Pfk playing against Sal in the back. With the bag slung snugly over his shoulder for safe keeping, Spike spoke first. “Pfk. Let’s do some business.”

The demon nodded, put away his pool cue, and led the way into a deserted room in the back. “First I see the money, and second you see the girl.”

Spike shook his head. “No. Not gonna happen that way. I see the bird now, then the money.”

Pfk was trying hard for an air of superiority over Spike, but he was finding it hard. Good thing Sal was with him. “You don’t understand how these things work...”

“What things work? What the bloody hell are you talking about?” Spike paced a few steps in frustration.

“Business. How things work in this business. I get the…who are you?” Pfk’s manner changed drastically when Angel suddenly appeared behind the demon. Sal started across the room to help his employer.

Angel talked low in Pfk’s ear. “First off, tell the moose to settle down.” Pfk did. “Second, I’m the one holding the very large knife at your back. They call it a Bowie knife. It is a torturer’s wet dream, believe me, I would know. And I would hate to gut you and then kill your partner so fast you wouldn’t even get a chance to bleed on the floor.”

Pfk looked over at Spike. “Who is this guy?”

Angel didn’t let Pfk dismiss him by talking to Spike, so he answered. “I’m a friend of Spike’s. That’s all you need to know.”

Spike was thankful. He wanted to do a jig like some mamby-pamby girl. His luck had finally changed. “Now that we made the introductions, show us the girl.” He poked a finger into Pfk’s face. “And you had better start praying that nothing has happened to her.”

Pfk drove and Sal sat next to him with Angel and Spike in the back seat, holding knives on the pair in the front of them.

Spike spared a quick glance at Angel. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

Ever composed, Angel didn’t bother looking over. “Everyone can use some back up.” After a few moments, Angel asked, “When we get her back, what do you think she is going to do?”

What an odd question coming from someone who works so close with slayers, Spike thought. Why ask him? “She is going to do whatever she wants to.”

Angel nodded. “I have a soft spot for Buffy. There is a great amount of responsibility and heartache to care about that girl. Sla…” Angel glanced up at Pfk before continuing. “…girls in her profession don’t live long.”

Spike felt like he had been hit by a freight train. He had never thought about the lifespan of a slayer, but when he did, he understood why they would die early. He could see her lying on the ground with her throat ripped out. “Yes, she would.”

Angel looked at him in question.

Spike kept his eyes on Sal, but his voice was firm. “I would make sure. I would be watching her back.”

“You would need to learn how to fight.”

“You have to be a good fighter to be a vampire that won’t feed. Every punk demon wants to kill me for the bragging rights. But I would find someone to teach me to fight better and fight with a partner.” Confidence rang clear as he spoke.

“And if she doesn’t want you helping her when she is finished training?” Angel’s tone was polite.

Now the light shined brightly on the matter. Angel wanted to see what Spike would do if Buffy decided that there wasn’t a place for him in her life as a slayer. “Then she will be who she wants. I won’t try to stand in her way.” As he watched Angel nod, Spike wondered what Angel would have done if he pushed himself off on Buffy. Can you say, “Dust!” Yes, Spike could, but if Buffy wanted him, he wouldn’t let Angel come between them.

As the car traveled farther down the road, Spike idly wondered if Angel would be so polite if he knew that Spike had left a little love bite on his slayer-in-training.

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After the original two demons, Pfk and Sal as Spike called them, dropped her off in a huge warehouse and locked her in an office three floors up, Buffy paced and sat around bored. She had tried to pick the lock but was hindered by the fact that she had no idea how to make like a thief. So she sat in a swivel chair and spun in circles, trying to think of a way out. The ceiling. She looked up at the ceiling, which was most importantly made up of tiles instead of some solid material. Pay dirt. She started stacking a chair and a box to climb on.

Wait. She heard deep voices and the two sets of footsteps on the stairs up to the office that she was in. Buffy scrambled to get the chair and box off the desk before whomever it was entered, hide the evidence of her escape for use later.

She was spinning in the swivel chair as two of the grey thug-like salla demons entered. The first one through the door had a lecherous grin on his face while the second guard leaned his back on the closed door.

Buffy’s eyes widened. This was so definitely of the bad. “Uh…hi, fancy meeting you guys here.” No answer. Not good. “See, this is my problem. The door has been locked and I couldn’t leave…?”

The demon took a couple of steps forward. “Just our luck. Sweet, little you being locked up here.”

Not the answer that she wanted to hear. “…But problem solved. The door is unlocked now, and I can leave.”

“No, that’s still your problem, little girl.” He reached down and unbuttoned his pants. “You’re not going to leave here alive whether they pay the ransom or not.”

“Not alive?”

“No.”

“No breathing?”

“No. And in the meanwhile, since you are handy, Stan and I want to play a little.” He sized her up with a look. “We may be a little big for you, but you’ll do.”

“What game do you want to play? Monopoly, yhatzee, go fish??” She was terrified of what was about to come out of his mouth.

“Rape.”

No, no, no. “Ra…ra…rape…?” One of a slayer’s worst nightmares was coming true. Yes, dying was the top one, but being raped by a demon had to be number two. Ok, she couldn’t beat them up, so she had to start thinking fast. “Wouldn’t you rather I participated willingly?”

The demon at the door spoke up for the first time. “No, I like scr screaming.”

He should have stayed quiet. Desperate now, Buffy kicked the closest demon in the stomach, and he went sailing fifteen feet into the opposite wall. What was up with that? She had hoped for a foot or two, but fifteen?? She didn’t have anymore time to think when the demon that was at the door came at her. When he reached out for her, she grabbed his arm before he could and flipped him in the air. Before either had the time to make another attack, they heard voices downstairs.

The first demon pointed a claw in her face. “Not a word about this, girlie.”

With that, both demons hurried downstairs, leaving Buffy to think about what had just occurred. Looking out of one of the only very small places in the frosted glass windows that were translucent, Buffy could see Spike and Angel with three crossbows trained on them, held by the three salla demons. Somehow she had to help.

Thinking back to the incident she had just had with the two demons, she was stunned over what had happened. She had used her fighting training from the academy, and it had worked better than she had expected. No, it had worked like a dream. When she had kicked the demon, he shouldn’t have traveled so far. When she twisted the other demon’s arm, he shouldn’t have flipped so easily. What was going on? She asked that but also suspected that she knew the answer. She had finally received all of her slayer strength, and none too soon. She would celebrate later, but right now, she needed to help Spike and Angel.

Buffy went back to her original plan of escaping through a ceiling tile. She looked down at her feet and then back at the ceiling. Could she do it? She could if she really had her slayer strength. But there was only one way to find out. She lined up under the target tile, crouch down and jump. She came through the tile with more force than she had expected, but she did plan on where she was going to land. Actually, there was a lattice work of thin metal and beams. She was lucky enough to jump so that she could grab one of the beams and then pull herself up. Thinking of her new abilities, she grinned wide. ‘Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.’ She had finally come into her own.

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“Nice set up, Pfk.” The warehouse was just like Spike’s now burnt-out one, but with “the works” in improvements? super sized. Ultra expensive cars were everywhere. “Let’s see what you would think if someone took a match to it.” Pfk threw Spike a hateful look over his shoulder

Angel pushed on Pfk with the tip of his knife. “This is all nice and cozy like, but keep to why we are here. Let’s see the girl.”

“How about no?!” Pfk was unexpectedly smug. “See, two of my boys are behind you with crossbows. Put your knives down.” Spike and Angel swung around to see two more salla demons on the stairs leading up to the office with crossbows trained on their chests. “Ah, I love the sound of metal hitting concrete. I guess a crossbow trumps a knife tonight.” He motioned for Sal to pick up the knives and search both Spike and Angel. He found one more knife on Angel.

Unbeknownst to all the demons on the floor of the garage, Buffy was above them, moving in the rafters. She watched as Spike and Angel were made to drop some wicked looking knives. Seeing the pair of them was all she needed to boost her courage enough to act decisively against her captors. She, along with the two vampires, could win out the night. But first, she had to get down to the best possible spot, and then find a way to help without getting Angel and Spike killed. Not to mention the icing -- wait until they saw the new strength enhancing her fighting skills.

Regardless of the change of power due to his lack of weapon, Spike repeated Angel’s demand. “We have to see the girl.”

Pfk puffed up with self importance. “Ha. Funny. No, you don’t get to demand anything. But since it is my men with the crossbows, I get to demand. And I demand to see the money.”

Glancing over at Angel, Spike handed the bag over. Grabbing the handle, Pfk held the bag in the air, weighing it. “This isn’t a million two. There’s no way. This weighs considerably below.” He set the bag on the trunk of a car and opened up the bag. After rifling around, he glared at Spike. “What are you trying to pull?”

Spike tried to step forward but got poked in the back by an arrow. “The two hundred thousand I owe you is in there. The half a million for her original ransom is in there. That is what was owed. You’ve been paid in full.”

“No, no, no, no, no.” Pfk’s sing song voice was annoying. “I said an additional half a million. You’re ripping me off.” Pfk was practically hopping up and down with fury.

Spike didn’t care anymore. He was pissed and was getting desperate to see Buffy and make sure she was alright. “I don’t bloody think so, now let us make sure the girl is alright. Seven hundred thousand should at least buy a peep.”

Furious, Pfk pulled a gun and stuck it in Spike’s face. “No, I do think so, and I’m going…”

Angel knew a pending train wreck when he saw one. “Gentlemen, let’s talk this through.”

“I’m…listening.” And that was just barely, considering all the snorting and cursing Pfk was doing.

Spreading his hands palms up, Angel tried to diffuse the situation. “I represent the people that put up the half a million for Buffy.”

That at least stopped the furious, small demon from shooting Spike as he turned towards Ange“Goo“Good, show me the other half a mil.”

Angel dropped the bomb. “And I can assure you that there will not be any more money forthcoming, but I am sure we can…”

“Now that wasn’t what I wanted to hear.” Pfk tried his best to get up into Angel’s face, which was hard coerinering the nine inch difference. “Not going to work for me.”

Ah, how Spike wanted to verbally tear into this guy, but he kept reminding himself that Buffy was at risk. “Pfk…PFK! I’m sure that we could work something out.”

“Actually, I think we can work out which one of you I will shoot first and then keep the girl for myself. After all this, there must be something valuable about her."

Chuckling, Spike shook his head. “Not anything you want, Pfk. I promise you. Not anything you want.”

And Spike was still shaking his head when a forklift came out of the back and crashed into a Jaguar two cars down from where Spike and the others were standing. Using the spectacular distraction to his advantage, Spike kicked the crossbow out of the hand of the salla demon trained on him. Before his foot hit the ground, Spike hand punched Pfk out cold so that he could concentrate on finishing off the salla. The other two sallas were on Angel; Spike would help out there when he could. At the moment, the salla he had was enough for him.

Finally, Spike was able to get in a good blow to the salla’s wind pipe, make a successful grab for Pfk’s crossbow and shot the salla. He turned around into time to see Angel brutally snap the neck of another of the sallas. Taking a step forward, Spike looked for the third salla and froze. He blinked his eyes several times but still saw the same thing. He looked over at Angel, and the expression that he saw on the brunette vampire’s face told Spike that he saw the same thing, and was just as shocked. Buffy was fighting, holding her own with the last salla demon. Spike shared a quick look with Angel, trying to decide whether help her or not, and with a nod of agreement, they held back. Their decision paid off. They watched as Buffy fan kicked the demon, sending him sideways. She reached down for the crossbow and shot him through the eye socket.

Angel smiled. Buffy had bagged her first demon, and she did it with style.

Spike couldn’t have been more proud of her. He started towards her, but then the door of the warehouse opened and in walked Giles and two petite brunette girls that Spike assumed to be other slayers-in-training.

At the door shutting, Buffy looked up and the two girls joined her, all laughing and carrying on about Buffy’s success.

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TBC


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