The Crypt: Standing the Test of Time by Erin-Starlight

Standing the Test of Time

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters nor am I making money off this. This is just for fun.

Summary: When captured in the aftermath of a battle Spike finds himself at the mercy of his old rival--Count Dracula. Will he be saved before it’s too late or will he be lulled into something even more dangerous than the Counts’ wrath?

Warning: This is slash. It will have some Spike/Dracula and Spike/Angel in it. This is a challenge I took up to do a Dracula slash fic with the guys. I'm not usually a slash writer but I did it for this challenge, where I had to set in up some in my last fic.

Authors Note: This story takes place after my one shot “William Restored.”

Spoilers: For the Peter David IDW comics Spike vs. Dracula 1-5.

The life of a slayer was a hard one. Carey Sullivan had grown up raised by her first watcher never knowing her own parents. Her whole life had been taught in the ways of the Council and slayer lore. Tales of the slayers of the past were her bedtime stories making her determined to excel when her time finally came. She had learned hand to hand combat instead of waiting for the skills to come to her like so many before her had. Learned tracking and hunting all to fine tune herself.

Carey had never expected for that day to be marred by her Watchers’ death. More shocking was the fact that she was not the one chosen girl, now it was an army. It was an exciting moment in history nonetheless and she had been thrilled to meet those who had been chosen. For the first two weeks of training with the new slayers under Buffy Summers, Carey was in awe of the older girl. Though she was only a year younger than Summers herself she still regarded her as a role model. The third week changed her prospective of everything the new order stood for.

Old methods that Carey had grown up with were thrown out in favor of new ideas. Half of these suggestions weren’t even from Mr. Giles or Summers but from her nosy friends. The slayer handbooks were taken from the libraries, old experienced Watchers who had survived were pushed aside for the laughable "Scoobies." Was she actually suppose to follow the orders of the geeky cyclops and the annoying fanboy? It felt like a slap in the face to her teachings.

Interested in finding out the reason for this madness Carey had researched Summers past thanks to the help of her new mentor. He had shown her the journals of Mr. Giles and several other watchers. She had thought that she would find the answers she sought to better understand why these new methods were apparently needed. What she found sickened her.

Buffy Summers, the woman she had admired was a fraud. She hadn’t lived so long because she was good, oh no, it was because she was damn lucky. Against the Master she had died after her lack of planning had caused his escape only to be saved by Xander Harris. Angelus, who lost his soul after sleeping with a slayer, had tried to destroy the world. Did Buffy save it with skill? Why no, she used the help of another vampire that she would later sleep with making a deal with the devil to let him escape if he helped her.

For as long as she could recall Carey knew what was suppose to be done in a crisis. The hard choices that had to be made. Summers didn’t it seemed. When Wilkins had kidnaped Willow Rosenburg the answer should have been to let the witch die. But no she gave him back the firepower he needed and caused unneeded bloodshed of her classmates by doing so.

Dying again her friends brought her back to life causing more problems for the slayer line that had ended up costing Carey her first Watchers’ life. Summers brilliant plan for defeating the First? Activating the slayer during the battle, trusting her demon ex-boyfriends and actually worrying about the vampires escaping into daylight. Hello vampires, not going to matter if they make it outside.

Unable to listen to these new orders Carey had confronted Summers head on reminding her of the old teachings.

"That was then, this is now. We’re fixing what didn’t work." Summers had said.

That was the final insult, it was a affront to the memory of her Watcher and the way she was raised. She would not stand for it. "Really? Guess you're right. Your way sure seemed to keep you alive...oh wait, no it didn’t."

Since then Carey had requested a transfer wanting nothing to do with Ms. Queen of all slayers. Her new Watcher had been supportive of this and guided her onto the right track. He had been overworked setting things right with the Council and the misguided Rupert Giles to join her in France. He had promised to rejoin her soon and for that she was thankful.

Faith Lehane wasn’t much of a role model either, almost as much as a disappointment as Summers. A murderer, a slut (at least she use to be according to rumors), a demon supporter but at least she wasn’t as bossy nor as fake as the other senior slayer. Carey was just happy that Faith had been ordered to leave. Soon they would deal with the vampire the way he should be dealt with not with mollycoddling.

"Are you sure you want to do this now? We could wait until you’ve healed better."

"No, we need to leave now." Angel said removing the stints and bandages. "You heard what they said, they’re shipping Faith out of here. She’s the reason I haven’t been staked yet and with the way these new slayers act I rather not find out how they react to souled vampires personally."

"Do you have a course of attack or are you merely acting out impulsively?" Illyria asked from her spot near the door.

"I have a plan!" He shot back irritably. "Well sort of, it’s more of a plan in motion. Anyway, it’s not like we have much of a choice. We need to get out of here and make it to Romania. Where we’ll grace the Count with our presence and give him a piece of our mind."

Connor nodded noting that his father was in deadly serious by the steel he detected in his voice. He had to makes sure that they all were ready however. "How are you feeling?"

"Mostly sore but the injuries are healed." His father responded evasively. When he made to protest Angel met his gaze. "I’ve fought when I was worse off and done fine. We’re doing this and that’s final."

"I’m just worried about you and well...us if you get your ass handed to you." Connor replied rolling his eyes at his dad’s sore expression.

"My ass will not be handed to me! This is going to work, I have been around for hundreds of years and able to handle them all just fine!"

"Like the two blotched up heists? Hey, I’m just saying not everything goes as planned!" Connor reasoned.

"I can’t believe Gunn told you about those," Angel groaned, "and for the record neither of those were my fault. Magic and electric thieves aren’t things you can plan for!"

"Okay, I’m just worried about the forty or so slayers stationed here verus the three of us. And the you know--ass handing-of-us thing."

"Trust me on this okay? I’m not going to risk letting anything happen to you, I promise." With that Angel stuffed the few items from the adjoined bathroom into his duster pockets. It wasn’t much but every little bit would help on the trip ahead of them.

"I know dad."

-- --

It wasn’t fair, hell a lot of things weren’t right with this picture. She knew that she should have fought harder about it but maybe she was just sick of the struggles. The Council had ordered her to leave and return to them to be reassigned. Faith had agreed not being able to stand around while others made the choices without her anyway. It was best for everyone this way she had reasoned. No potential wars would start, not unneeded deaths, Angel didn’t want her to risk herself anyway. It was the right choice. So why did she feel like shit?

The thing that nagged on her might the most however was not leaving Angel when he needed her but the dream that she had. It felt like this was an event that her dream was warning her about, at least a part of it. Her mind kept replaying the first part with Spike when he was attempting to tell her something. Faith had figured that he was in it because he was in danger but what if it was something else? His appearance might have meant something but she focused on how she felt then instead. He had reminded her of Wesley, was dream Spike suppose to be guiding her?

Spike had told her that she was almost late and she had trouble making a choice. Taking out the strange metaphors like the clothes Faith could see it reflecting her current problem. Most haunting was Spikes’ words, "Come now, you always know what is decent and practical, Faith."

Did she? Faith couldn’t remember a time where she was able to make the right call for something like this. No matter what she decided she was still betraying someone.

"He’ll cutting it awful close isn’t he?" Jane asked from her spot on the bottom of the stairs.

"He’s always prompt, she’s the one who’s taking too long." Carey huffed beside her resisting the urge to check her wrist watch again. He was coming by soon to take over the command of leading them. She wanted to impress him after he had taught her so much and was nervous about screwing it up. Not many slayers had their own watcher, and while he had several other girl he taught she was his pet project.

Jane Jordan, two years her junior, had come from a strict religious backround. Her father was a preacher, her mother was a school nurse with their own sense of values making Jane very uneasy about her new role. At first she had felt that she was cursed scared to let her parents know of her powers. Her father saw it as a gift however and helped her embrace her new trials. Little by little she had learned to accept herself as a slayer. For the most part the others ignored her progress noting that she was adapting well and not believing her to be much of a trouble maker like Carey had been labeled by some.

What they did not know was that Jane didn’t have the same distinctions of good and evil when it came to the demon world. She believed whole heartedly that all of these creatures were hell spawns killing any that would cross her path. No one had bothered to teach her these shades of grey when she first joined the ranks and the few that did know of it saw no point in setting her straight. While Carey herself did not kill first ask questions later she had yet to see anything from the demon community to change her mind of it’s apparent evilness.

As both Jane and Carey will struggling to improve themselves into better warriors they had become fast friends. A few of the other girls had agreed with their way of thinking that was supported by the remaining members of the old Council. Why couldn’t they work the way they wanted to without censor from Summers and her crew? Were they suppose to have these powers and just fall in line no questions asked?

Not that anyone ever bothered to ask us what we wanted. Oh no, it’s always Mr. Giles who decides what was right based on how his slayer had been. The slayer who had died twice under his watch, Carey thought bitterly.

Things were about to change for the better and wouldn’t you know it Faith Lehane was taking too long to leave. Carey didn’t want the other woman to be there when he arrived. What was taking that damn cab so long to get there?

A creak came from atop of the stairs announced Faith as she threw her duffel bag over her shoulder giving some smart ass remark to earn snickers from the departing girls going on patrol. Was she saying good-bye to everyone? No wonder it was taking forever.

"Hey," Faith said tapping Jane on the shoulder, "I asked around and they said you moved Angel. Where is he? I’ve been looking all over for him. And I’m not leaving until I see him."

"I...umm...I don’t know...er...where he is." Jane was a horrible actress as she turned pleading eyes to Carey.

"Riiight. Look cut the crap already ‘cus I can pull better lies out my ass and you're just wasting time." Faith rolled her eyes at the exchange the two had. "Whatever, I’ll find him myself."

"I wouldn’t advise that."

Faith frowned at the interruption following the source of the voice. Standing in the doorway was a man who to most would be unimpressive. He was an old man who seemed to be almost too fraile to be intimating made up for it with his steely glare. He was flanked by three slayers Carey recognized from her training sessions as Sarah, Alison and Michelle.

"Oh no?" Faith asked clearly not threatened by this unassuming man nor his slayers. "Really, why not luv?"

Carey winced at the fake accent Faith had adopted to taunt her Watcher with.

"Like disrespecting your superiors it’s usually best not to get involved with matters that no longer concern you. Not that I expect you of all people to understand such things Ms. Lehane." The man answered angered but still with an air of on in total control.

"You know who I am?"

"It would be impossible for anyone not to after those lovely mug shots and your appearance on Americas’ most wanted, wouldn’t it? Harder still for me to forget you though I wish such a thing was possible." He responded flatly.

"I don’t think you’ve met my watcher, have you Faith." Carey asked looking at the young womans’ confusion. "Allow me to introduce Mr. Roger Wyndam-Pryce."