ADVANCEMENT OF THE SPECIES
Part 3: Roll With the Punches
by perletwo
"Rogue?" Rahne's soft voice piped up. "What did this Spike mean when he said he'd get you something to eat?"
"Not what you're thinkin', Rahne..."
Spike took me back to his place, which was an old crypt at the back of the cemetery, and set me down in the room's only armchair. Ah could tell the way he did it that this was an honor, but ah was too weak-kneed to tease him about it any.
He dug around in one of those old, 50's style refrigerators and came back with two vacuum-sealed plastic bags of blood. Ah could smell it before ah saw it, and that awful hunger went into overdrive, strong enough to nearly knock me over.
He handed one of the bags out to me, and ah grabbed at it and had my fangs in the plastic almost before ah even realized what it was. Part of me was revolted by what ah was doing, but as soon as ah got that first swallow of blood that awful, cramping hunger started to ease, and ah'd bolted the first bag down almost in one long gulp.
When it was gone, the starved feeling had started to turn into an appetite. That scared me, so ah refused the second bag when Spike offered it, even though ah was still trembly.
He shook his head, but didn't argue. He just went and got a glass and a heavy green wine bottle, and mixed the blood half-and-half with red wine. Ah just shook m'head when he brought it over to me.
"Take it," he said, not unkindly. "You're gonna be too weak to do anything if you don't feed. The hunger'll come back and you'll need to feed so bad you'll go hunting to get it."
"With any luck this'll've worn off before that happens," ah said. But ah wasn't sure an' ah didn't want to chance it, so ah took the wine and drank it. Closed m'eyes an' pretended ah didn't know what it was cut with. "This isn't...ummm..."
"Pig's blood," he answered. "From a butcher shop. The premium stuff's hard to come by. I have to do trades and barters with the butcher even just for this stuff."
A li'l light went on in my head. "Do you - vampires - do that often? Make deals to get food, or whatever else you need?"
He shrugged. "We do whatever we have to to get along from day to day, just like humans do."
"The bartender at the Bronze, he was butterin' me up all night," ah said, thinkin' out loud. "Gave me drinks an' little bites to eat, just enough to make me want more. Then he got me to agree to meet him out in that alley." Ah started to pace, feelin' a rage buildin' that ah could tell wasn't really mine. "Ah bet he had a deal worked out with Griffin, t'get his victims out there to him."
"Could be." Spike's eyes darkened. "I'll have to have a little...talk with the barman. Put a stop to that."
"Why d'you care? Ah mean, you're a vampire too, shouldn't you be tryin' t'cut yourself in on the action, 'stead'a stoppin' it?"
"Reminding myself you're new here and don't know me very well, unlike some other people I could name," he said through gritted teeth. "I've got this computer chip inside my brain. Anytime I try to hurt a human, it triggers intense pain in my head. I can't hunt; that's why I go to the butcher."
Ah must've looked shocked or confused or something, 'cause he added, "The Army captured me, put this thing in my head an' then buggered off. Been kinder to just kill me. Still, I was lucky, all things considered. They got hold of some other demons to use in much worse experiments than this."
"An' there it was," Rogue said, toying with her spoon. "The thing ah was always so scared of after mah power emerged - bein' made into some kind'a science experiment, bein' treated like ah'm somethin' less than human. Are you still paranoid if you find out for sure it really happens?"
Jean just closed her eyes and shook her head sadly.
"Yeah, but still. Why ruin the deal for all the other vampires?" ah asked.
He shrugged. "I know some of the kids that hang out at the Bronze. At least one of 'em's important to me. You look a little like her, with all that long dark hair. Next time it could *be* her. I'd like to cut the odds of that down to size if I can."
Ah felt enough better then to wander around the crypt and look it over some. It was actually kinda nice, if you made yourself forget what it was really supposed to be for. He had a TV and a little bit'a thrift-store furniture, some books and a lot of candles for lighting.
Spike just sat on the corner of a big stone bench and watched me. He didn't say anything until ah picked up a framed photograph on a side table by the armchair. It was a kinda ordinary-lookin' blonde girl at a beach somewheres, smilin' and squintin' into the sun.
"Don't touch that!" he growled, jumpin' up to grab my wrist. His eyes were flashin' gold sparks, but he stayed in normal face, an' relaxed when ah put the picture back down. He let go of my wrist an' reached down to nudge the picture back into place, runnin' his fingertips along the edge of the frame.
"Sor-RY!" Ah rubbed my sore wrist. "Is that the girl you said ah look like? 'Cause ah really don't see it."
"No. That's her sister. She - Buffy - was - Oh hell," he said, still gruff. "Doesn't matter. She's -dead.-"
An' that was it. Ah didn't need to ask any more, 'cause ah could see it, through the pain screamin' in his eyes an' voice. He'd loved her, an' that short, skinny bottle-blonde was important enough to him t'change his whole look on life for, in ways ah'd prob'ly never get t'know.
"Ah'm sorry." Ah was, too. Ah hope ah sounded as sincere as ah felt. "Hasn't been long, has it?"
"Forever." He looked away. "A month."
"An' it's her sister that you said was important to you? The one ah look like?"
"Yeah. Dawn." He smiled a bit then, and a kind'a peacefulness came over him. "I promised Buffy I'd protect her. I blew it when it counted, but - never again. If that means wiping out every other vampire and demon on the bloody Hellmouth, then so be it." He took a swig of the wine. "Days I lie awake askin' myself what's the point of it all, Dawn comes over here or I go over to her place, an' I remember what it is I'm doing here."
"Must be nice, t'be important t'somebody like that." Ah found a book, leafed through it a bit - somethin' by Dickens, ah forget what. "What's a Hellmouth?"
"H'mm? Oh." He'd lit up a cigarette and started sucking down the smoke. "It's a gateway to the Hell-dimension the darker magickal energies are drawn from. The one here's sealed, but it radiates magicks like crazy. Seeps into everything, makes life here kind'a - surreal, I s'pose. Lotta vampires an' demons're attracted to the place. I first came here because my Sire was badly injured, and I was hopin' the energies here would speed up her healin' process."
Maybe it was the aftereffects of the vampire-personality, but that didn't sound all that unreasonable an explanation t'me. "You think that's why ah turned into a vampire when Griffin bit me? This - magic - did somethin' to mah powers?"
Another shrug. "Who knows? Live on a Hellmouth, you pretty much learn to roll with the punches when it comes to bizarre occurrences."
Rogue paused and gave Jean a long look, daring her to contradict this account of life in Sunnydale.
"Hellmouth? I wonder if that's anything like the cairn some demon-creatures tried to drag Ororo into once," the scientist mused, sipping delicately at her coffee.
"C-cairn?" Rahne's eyes were wide as saucers. "Tha - tha's'na anywhere nearby, is it?"
"Mm-hmm. Out on Route 20. Don't worry, it's sealed shut now." Her eyes danced with mischief. "But get Kitty Pryde to tell you about the time she spent Christmas Eve alone in the mansion. At least, she *thought* she was alone...It's quite a story."
"Spike also left me alone in the crypt," Rogue said. "But ah wasn't alone for long."