The Covenant

by jamies_lady

Summary: After the fight with the senior partners the scoobies gather in rome for a well earned break but an unexpected meeting leads to adventure

Chapter 3

The phone in her hand kept ringing and ringing. All Buffy wanted to do was to get on with the action part but someone had to call Giles and Angel and somehow she’d wound up with the job. The Italian morning sunshine was lighting up the balcony where she was sitting, enjoying the first cup of coffee of the day whilst waiting for someone to answer the phone. Spike was inside, trying to find any reference in the past one hundred years about the Clan Marcasia, but so far with no success. They seemed to have dropped off the face of the world. Maybe they had; Inter-dimensional travel was known.
He watched Buffy in the sunshine. Effulgent. She had always been his light, and now glowing as she was, she looked like an angel. Spike always felt blessed when he saw her; unless she was angry, then he tended to feel only pain. She still had a mean right hook, and from the way she was fiddling with the pencil she was starting to get mad.
‘Will no one answer their damn’ phone this morning?’ she complained. ‘It’s nearly 8 am; someone should be at the Watchers Council by now.’
‘It’s only 7 am in the UK, love, they’re an hour behind us, so maybe they haven’t got to work yet, pet.’ Spike pointed out.
‘ Don’t be reasonable. I don’t want to do reasonable at the moment. I want someone to answer this phone’
At that moment a sleepy Giles spoke ‘Hello?’
‘Good morning Giles, it’s me, Buffy.’
‘Buffy my dear, have you any idea what time it is? It must be important for you to be calling me this early. Come to think of it, it must be important for you to be up this early.’
‘Unfair, Giles; I’ve been awake for ages. Anyway, we’ve hit a research problem here. What do you know about the Vampire Clan Marcasia? Only they’ve contacted us and want to meet. One of them was walking around in daylight, like he had a pulse, which he didn’t.’
‘I think I must have misheard you, did you say walking around in daylight? Vampires walking around in daylight without bursting into flames? At least I assume they, he, didn’t catch fire?’
‘No, no poofy vampires here,’ replied Buffy.
Spike looked across and smirked at her. He would have gone closer, but the sun was shining directly into the room.
‘Did I really say that?’ Asked Buffy with embarrassment.
‘You did, luv,’ answered Spike.
‘Sorry, anyway, back to business. We were contacted by one of the clan, a Charles Richards, who offered Truce and Parley and they want to see the whole gang, including you. We haven’t managed to find out much about them. Spike and I are going to have a look around tonight after dark. But we were wondering if you could find out any other details. If any of the Councils’ books survived the explosion. He was very polite, from what Willow said. Anyway can you come over? Please?
They want to meet Dawn, Xander, Willow, Rachael and Lord and Lady Carrington as well.’
‘Who?’ Queried Giles.
‘Spike’s been keeping secrets. Seems he has, or had, a title,’ Buffy said, walking back into the room, closing the blinds behind her and carrying the phone with her.
Spike started growling, gently. Buffy waved her hand at him to shush.
‘But the more important bit, Giles, is that this clan want to meet and they want you there’
‘I’ll start looking into them immediately. We need all the information we can get before we enter what could be a trap. I just wish we had more of the council’s records. But so many were destroyed’.
‘I know, but do what you can. Must go now Giles, I have to ring America. Bye for now.’ Buffy finished her call and went over to Spike.
‘Don’t want to ring Angel; don’t want to speak to him after he kept us apart for so long. Using his Sire’s thrall over you to stop you from calling me’ Buffy complained.
‘It wasn’t just him love. I didn’t want to intrude: you know that.’
The sight of an unhappy Buffy always broke his heart. This tiny woman had got him completely whipped. He truly was love’s bitch. Spike nuzzled into the claim mark on her neck, purring as he did so. It always seemed to soothe Buffy and succeeded this time as well.
‘Do you want me to ring Peaches then, pet?’ Asked Spike.
‘No, no I’ll do it, you could fix me some pancakes though; don’t fancy setting fire to the kitchen again.’ Buffy and kitchens were definitely to be kept apart. She could eat, and had been known to prepare cereal, but the vampire had surprised everyone by taking over the cooking. He often complained about feeding ‘happy meals on legs’ but was a remarkably good cook for a Victorian Gentleman.
Buffy went to the phone and dialled LA. It was the middle of the night there, so both Nina and Angel would be awake.
‘Hi Nina, its Buffy.’ Spike left Buffy to her phone call and went to the kitchen.
The smell of breakfast soon woke the others up and the kitchen filled up quickly. When Willow and Rachael had started eating Xander joined them, his hair still wet from a shower. ‘I hope you didn’t steal all the hot water, buster,’ said Willow.
‘No love I didn’t, left plenty for you two.’ Xander kissed both Willow and Rachael and went towards Spike.
‘You’re not kissing me,’ Spike threatened the younger man with his spatula.
‘But your apron told me to,’ argued Xander, pointing to the ‘kiss the cook’ apron Spike was wearing.
‘That’s my job, Xander’ smiled Buffy as she came into the huge kitchen. She loved it when they all started goofing around. It always eased the tension in her shoulders. And now that Xander and Spike were friends, life was ‘of the good’.
‘Angel has some information,’ she continued, ‘but not much. Seems the Head of the Marcasian line, Marcus, took a dislike to Angel when they met about 1800; said he was a bog Irish peasant and an uneducated boor who shouldn’t be allowed in decent company. Seems they knew the Immortal as well. Marcus was interested in fine arts, was rich, and tended to live in mansions rather than crypts. Said he had a Mate who was as deadly as he. Not a lot else to know. Took some persuasion to tell me even that. I had to put up with ‘you should be with me, what do you want with him’ speeches before he’d tell me anything. Poor Nina was in the room; I could hear her in the background. God will he never learn, brooding poof is right.’
Spike smiled and let her rant for a while before asking, ‘Hair gel finally got to his brain then? Like the description. Fits Angel wonderfully.’ Spike smirked and curled his tongue behind his top lip, melting Buffy as he did.
‘Well, what do we know then,’ asked Xander with pancake in his mouth, ‘other than the fact that Marcus has taste enough to dislike Captain Forehead, and he’s married.’
‘Giles said he’d look up what he could and then fly in with it,’ added Buffy.
Willow started ‘oohh oohhing’. ‘I could open a portal, he could just pop in, save airfare and time,’ she offered.
‘Let’s keep the big gun for emergencies Willow. I think the last portal scared poor Giles out of a couple of years and I don’t have that much scotch here.’ Buffy added with a smile. She was going ‘war leader’ on them; the original Scoobies noticed all the signs. The Buffy they’d had at the end of Sunnydale was making a reappearance, but this time they were grateful. She’d kept them alive before and would again, no matter what the future held.
Rachael held onto Xander, cuddling in closer. She could feel the change in the atmosphere as the greatest slayer that had ever lived started to take charge of the situation.
Buffy looked up from the cup of coffee Spike had passed her. ‘There is one bit of juicy gossip; Faith and Robin won’t be joining us, no matter what. Seems Faith is pregnant and Robin is hovering like a proud, protective daddy.’ Buffy’s smile lit up her whole face but Spike knew her well enough to know that a small part of her heart was a little envious: not jealous, but wistful for something she would never have now that she was with him for life.
Buffy gave him another beaming smile and made a grab for the last pancake before Dawn entered the kitchen.
‘I smell goodness, any left for me?’
‘Sure Nibblet, I’ll knock up some more, you just sit yourself down and fight big sis off this pile.’ Spike brought over another plate of sticky goodies and everyone dived in.
Spike heated up a cup of blood in the microwave, pulling a face as he drank it. He really had to find something better than pig. He looked around the room. Here he was, one quarter of the Scourge of Europe, cooking breakfast for the Slayer and her mates, inside a school that taught slayers to be slayers. Life, or unlife, was a funny thing sometimes.