Fear and rage mingled in
Riley Finn's eyes at the threat in the vampire's eyes. Even chained and
beaten to his knees, Spike still had the capability to strike fear into
Riley's heart – and that infuriated him. He took a couple of steps
closer to the bound vampire, raising the crop to strike.
Suddenly the weapon was wrenched from his grasp from behind him and
hurled against the wall on the other side of the room. Riley whirled
around to see Diana – as he had never seen her before. The chip had not
permitted Diana to go into her natural vampiric face. But the chip was
no longer in control of her.
And neither was Riley Finn.
The inhuman hatred and rage in her eyes sent chills through the
soldier's heart as she stepped slowly around him, a predatory grace in
her movements – stalking him, preparing to move in for the kill.
"Diana," he said softly. "Calm down." He had no idea what had caused
the chip to malfunction, only that it *had* indeed malfunctioned, and
he was going to have to be very careful if he was going to get out of
this room alive.
His soft order seemed to incense the vampiress further; her only
response was a menacing snarl as she took a couple of slow, measured
steps toward him. Quickly he took out the knife he kept in his back
pocket, holding it out defensively in front of him, attempting to warn
her back.
And then she laughed.
A blood-freezing, sickening sound of cruel mockery, indicating just
what she thought of his pathetic attempt at self-defense. He felt his
hope fading with the knowledge that unchipped, this little vampire whom
he had freely victimized for months was far more powerful than he was.
Even with the experimental drugs that had increased his natural
strength, it still did not compare to the super-human strength of a
vampire. Hence the need for the chip.
The broken chip. The chip which was not functioning.
As if suddenly remembering this herself, Diana launched herself at the
lieutenant, knocking him to the floor on his back and driving her fangs
into his throat. He tried to push her off, fight her off, but she was
too strong for him and held him pinned to the floor. But she drew back
after a moment, frowning with irritation.
Diana had never bitten a human before. She had missed the vein. She
tried again, and the fallen soldier howled in agony, writhing uselessly
beneath her.
"Don't let him scream like that," Spike suddenly told her, softly, and
she looked up at her sire, startled, as if just remembering his
presence in the room. "He'll bring the troops down on us," he finished.
But in spite of his correction, his face was full of pride for his
childe.
Looking for a moment at her still-helpless sire, Diana then returned
her attention to the man beneath her on the floor. "The key," she said
softly, menacingly.
Riley shook his head emphatically. "Are you out of your mind?" he
snarled. "You think I'm gonna have you *both* to deal with?"
"Yes," Diana continued softly, chillingly. "I do." Then she lowered her
fangs to his throat in a shallow bite, and dragged them viciously
through his flesh down toward his collarbone.
Riley tried to scream in pain, but Diana had heeded her sire's advice,
and her hand was firmly over his mouth. Removing her fangs, lapping
casually at the blood flowing freely from the gaping wound, she
returned her eyes to Riley's, smiling. "The key," she repeated.
Weakly Riley reached into his pocket and held it out to her. Rising
from her victim, Diana went to her sire, losing him and helping him to
his feet, then leading him back with her to stand over Lieutenant Finn,
struggling weakly in an attempt to rise.
Feeling better already with this turn of events, Spike smirked, "Let me
help you with that," and hauled the soldier to his feet, slamming him
against the wall hard. He smiled coolly at Finn as he spoke to Diana,
"What do you want to do with him, love?"
Her eyes blazing with fury and bloodlust, yearning to tear into her
tormentor again, Diana reluctantly asked, "How much time do we have?"
Spike's smile widened. "Well, the way I figure it, love," he said.
"We've got a bit. The Slayer said we'd have twenty minutes from
whenever they figured out the chips were down. Now, judging by the lack
of screaming alarms and running soldiers in the halls, I'd guess that
no one knows about the technical difficulties yet. With the exception
of the good lieutenant here." He leaned in closer, his eyes narrowing
in menace, "And he's not going to be telling."
Diana slowly smiled as his words sank in. "So we don't have to leave
just yet."
Spike thought about it. He wouldn't let his childe take *too* long to
wreak her vengeance. The Slayer would be a bit concerned when they took
a little longer than expected to get there. But if he knew her, she
would wait for them. And it wouldn't hurt her to worry about him a bit,
he thought smugly. He had pressing business to attend to. Long overdue
payback to make.
Spike's attention was suddenly drawn to Diana, as he noticed that she
was looking closely at his face, her eyes sad. She reached a gentle
hand up to lightly trace an ugly red gash made by Finn's crop. As her
eyes turned slowly to Finn, the tenderness faded to a vengeful rage as
she raked her fangs savagely across his face, tearing a bloody streak
across it to match the one he had left on her sire.
Finn's scream was muffled again, by Spike's hand this time. Smiling
grimly at Diana, he tossed the weakened excuse for a man onto the bed
and said, "Go ahead and have your fun, pet. I'll let you know when we
have to go."
Twenty minutes later, the bed, the floor and Diana were soaked in the
blood of Riley Finn. Diana had done her best to repay him for the
months of abuse she had endured at his hand, and Spike found himself
somewhat in awe of the macabre talent displayed by his childe. When
Riley was too far gone to even react anymore, both vampires took their
fill of his blood.
Suddenly, Spike heard the slam of the door opening and rushing footstep
in the suite. He prepared himself to attack, before he heard a familiar
voice, urgent and fearful.
"Spike?"
The Slayer, he realized with relief.
Suddenly, his eyes widened and he gulped. *The Slayer!* Uh-oh.
Buffy appeared in the doorway, her eyes softening in relief when she
saw Spike. "There you are! What's going on? Why aren't you..." Her words
cut off suddenly when she looked away from him and her eyes fell on the
rest of the scene before her.
The room was deathly still. Spike watched anxiously the parade of
emotions that made its way across her face... shock, horror, disbelief,
sorrow, anger, disgust...he wished that he knew exactly who and what each
of those emotions was aimed at. Then her eyes met his, and he wished to
not know again.
At that moment the alarms went off.
Tear-filled eyes glaring at him, Buffy said shortly in a trembling
voice, low with anger, "Let's go." She reached for Diana's arm, visibly
recoiling a bit at her bloodstained face and body.
Diana pulled away instinctively with a snarl. Impatient, furious, still
trembling with shock and an odd sense of betrayal, Buffy snatched her
arm, pulling the girl back with a force to match the vampire's
strength. "Do you know what a Slayer is, Diana?" she snarled.
"Buffy," Spike hurried forward to pull her away from his childe,
sensing the danger in this situation.
She threw his arm off her roughly, and he staggered back a step or two.
Turning her furious eyes on him she said in a low, dangerous voice,
"*Don't*."
He stood back, not daring to approach her in this frame of mind. He
knew the shock the scene must have been for her. After all, though she
had a vague idea of what Riley had been doing to Diana, she had never
seen it firsthand. All she *had* seen for herself was the bloody,
ravaged mess Spike and Diana had made of her ex-boyfriend. And that was
what was controlling her emotions at the moment. Spike was very much
aware that the wrong word or move at this moment could get him and
Diana both dusted.
"Buffy," he said softly, making his voice calming. "Let me take her. I
know the way. She trusts me."
Wordlessly Buffy released Diana with a disgusted half-shove away from
her, and stalked past them out into the hallway, where she broke into a
run. Quickly the vampires followed her, aware of the faint, far-off
sound of men shouting and pounding footsteps.
The Initiative had awakened.
They struggled to keep pace with the furious Slayer as she impatiently
led them at a run to the rear entrance, where the van was waiting for
them.
Catching up to her, gasping, Spike tried again, "Slayer! *Buffy*!" as
he managed to catch her arm.
She stopped for a moment, turning on him. "I said *don't*, Spike!" she
snapped. "Don't explain, don't even talk to me, don't *freaking* touch
me!" And she jerked her arm away from him, turning to continue down the
hall.
He followed, a worried frown on his face. This was not turning out so
well. Buffy finally led them out into the night, and they saw the van
in front of them. Not a moment too soon – it had been fifteen minutes
already since the alarm had sounded.
Opening the back door to the van, Buffy stepped aside to allow Diana to
get in. Spike helped her, trying to calm her. She had already been
nervous, and now the prospect of leaving him had her terrified.
"I'll be all right, love," he lied. "Go on now. You'll be safe." He
cast the Slayer a glare that demanded that she not make him a liar in
those words.
The Slayer was glaring right back with a greater intensity of fury as
she spoke again, her voice full of barely controlled rage.
"Get in."
"What?" Spike was confused – and not a little frightened.
"Get in the van," she clarified her order.
"Why?" he asked, suspicion creeping into his eyes. Judging by her mood,
her intense anger at what they had done, he could easily see her taking
him back to her house with her, just to beat the crap out of him
herself for what he had done. In another five minutes his chip would be
fully functional again.
With a muffled roar of fury, the Slayer advanced on him until she was
right in his face, looking him in the eye as she snarled, "You can't
stay here, ok? Not with what you – what they're gonna find..." She
couldn't finish, but he finally understood.
In spite of her anger, she was scared for him. She knew that when the
desecrated body of Lieutenant Finn was found in his room, there would
be nothing for him but cruel torture and death.
Her voice little more than a whisper of absolute fury, she ordered
again, "Get. In the freaking. Van. Spike."
The sound of the approaching soldiers grew louder; there was no longer
any option. Wordlessly he obeyed, leaping into the back to sit by his
now weeping, trembling childe, as the Slayer jumped in the side door
and the van roared away into the night.