Musical Wars
Chapter 11 -- Politics, Vamp Style
Xander woke with cool limbs tangled around his own and blue eyes watching him. For several seconds he lay there unmoving as Spike simply watched him.
“Mornin’, pet,” Spike finally said, and Xander realized that the vampire was waiting for some sort of explosion. Well, he would have to keep waiting because in the cold light of day he realized that Spike had a right to be upset and that his back had already healed, so clearly the vampire had not hit him nearly as hard as it had seemed like the night before. He was actually more pissed about Spike getting the Safari clients worked up and then leaving him.
“Morning,” he answered.
“Your back’s healed up,” Spike commented.
“Yep,” he answered, and then the long silence revealed Spike’s true meaning. “You didn’t expect it to heal-you wanted the marks to stay a while,” he said quietly.
“Wanted you to have somethin’ to remember, something to make sure that you didn’t make the same mistake a second time.”
“Won’t do it again,” Xander said and then dropped his gaze. He had thought when they went to bed that all was forgiven but obviously not. He froze on the bed, waiting for Spike’s next move, but Spike simply pulled himself up so that he sat leaning against the headboard and waited. After a couple of minutes, Xander slipped out of the bed and went to the cabinet. He bent down and grabbed something off the shelf he normally didn’t even like to look at, and he went back to the bed where Spike waited with a raised eyebrow. He handed the whip to Spike.
“It’s okay, really,” Xander tried not to let his hands shake as he remembered the pain from last night, but he had told the truth when he’d once said he’d rather have Spike get it out of his system than stay mad.
“Ya want me to?” Spike asked curiously.
“Want, no. Definitely no. Rather take a trig test nude type no. But it’s better than having you mad at me.”
“Not mad, pet. Ya made it right with me.” Xander hadn’t realized how upset his demon was until Spike said those words and the creature calmed down and stopped circling uneasily.
“But you wanted the punishment to last longer.” Xander said.
“When I had ya up on the wall, yeah. Expected it to last a couple of days even with you healin’ up faster than a human. But I also didn’t expect that you’d understand the concept of makin’ up with your master.”
“So you don’t want…” Xander gestured helplessly toward the whip Spike had laid on the bed.
“Once a master forgives, punishment’s over. No goin’ back. Fact is, pet, it works out better anyway since I really don’t want you cringin’ around with a sore back. I’m surprised is all.”
“So is this another one of those how weird I am moments? Cause the whole no sex rule is now back in play since I actually did stake Angel.”
“Wot?” Boy that got Spike’s attention. The vampire sat straight up on the bed, yellow eyes locked on his own.
“He kinda came up behind me during the fight, but he’s a little faster than the average vamp, so I ended up staking him in the stomach.” For a moment, Xander wondered if Spike were angry, his blank face and motionless yellow eyes focused on him. Then Spike began to laugh.
“Bloody hell, if the pouf’s stupid enough to walk up to somebody durin’ a fight, he deserves a stomach ache, but what in the bloody hell did he say to ya for doin’ it?” Spike leaned forward eagerly, and Xander found himself responding to the pure delight in Spike’s face.
“Well didn’t really say much except something along the lines of ‘Stop it.’ Of course, at the time he was rolling on the floor.” Spike’s eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hairline, and Xander hurried to explain. “Carlos decked him from behind with a stool or something, so when I felt this vamp who had grabbed me start stumbling, I pulled up my feet and threw all of my weight on him, sending us both to the ground before I even noticed it was Angel.”
“Oi, glad now I didn’t kill the soddin’ Largis demon. That must have been a treat.”
“Yep, kinda fun,” he admitted. “It felt nice not to be the bumbling idiot for a change.”
“Ya aren’t an idiot; thought we had this discussion already.”
“I’m not insulting the pet, Spike. I’m simply pointing out that when it comes to fighting I take after the Keystone Cops more than Kung Fu.”
“Pet, ya took down a 250 year old vamp. Don’t know any other humans who ever did that single handed, so I’m thinkin’ you need to change that attitude of yours.”
“I didn’t really take him down,” he pointed out but Spike’s uplifted hand stopped him.
“Oi!” he snapped. “Not goin’ turn into some bloody poof always makin’ supportive comments, so bloody well take the compliment and shut up.” Spike swung out of bed, and Xander sat there, shocked and not really knowing how to deal with Spike’s version of emotionally supportive. Strangely enough, it actually *was* more emotionally supportive than his parents. He smiled and picked up the whip to put it away. While he had the cabinet door open he looked at the pile of his clothes. He had no idea how to dress or even if he should bother getting dressed.
He sat on the bed naked and wondered what his life would be like without a job. True, his job had only been three nights a week and like most of his other jobs, he had lost it before he really even got used to being there, but what was he supposed to do all day while Spike was out doing his ‘vampire things’? He went into the bathroom and found the familiar towel thrown over the sink, so he finished his morning duties and took a quick shower.
Surely Spike wouldn’t want him along while he and Ajani took out Cassidy’s minions, so that left him locked in the lair, hopefully just locked in now that Spike trusted him because the chains were not nearly as fun when Spike wasn’t there, and oh god, he had not just thought of chains and fun in the same thought. Nope. Na uh. He was not going to admit that even to himself.
Chains bad, he chanted as he dried off and opened the laundry room to toss in the towel. Well, if nothing else, he could do laundry; Spike never used a towel more than once, and he was picking the habit himself. Oh god, he was turning into a housewife. A kinky housewife. Xander tried to mentally scrub the image out of his mind as he walked into the main room.
“Oi, hurry up, pet,” Spike complained as he came in the room.
“What? Where are we going?” He reached in for a faded pair of jeans and a plain white t-shirt. When Spike growled, he tossed the t-shirt to one side and grabbed a button up greenish-blue one instead.
“Ya get hit in the head too hard last night? Told ya, helpin’ Q.”
“Ajani,” Xander corrected absent-mindedly. “You’re taking me with you?”
“Yeah, punishment's over.”
“I know that. I just thought you wouldn’t want me tagging along.”
“Ya fight better than Q, why wouldn’t I take you?” Xander turned in surprise to look at Spike’s confused face as he buttoned up his shirt.
"Hate to break it to ya, Fangface, but Ajani kicked my ass last time I took him on."
"Oi, where the bloody hell were you fightin'? In the fight I watched, ya got in a good hit, and then surprised yourself so bad ya lost your balance. Then, injured leg and all, ya tried to hide the injury and still managed to get in a couple of good hits. Ya might a killed the git if you'd had a stake."
"Really? I was good?" Xander thought back to that night, the pain of his leg, the feeling of being a wounded animal circled by a predator. He tried to reconcile his memory with the fight Spike described.
"Up until you completely lost your mind and charged him like some bloody mindless minion. Now, get your boots on and don't forget your soddin' weapons this time; I feel like dusting some fledges." Spike walked away without another glance, heading up the stairs and out the door which stood open, allowing the lights from the parking lot to shine in. Xander pulled on his boots, tucked his knife into the one boot and a stake into the back of his jeans. A large crucifix from his days of hunting with Gunn went in one pocket, and he snapped off the lights as he went up to join Spike.
Xander was surprised they didn’t take the motorcycle, well, at least until he saw Ajani and two strange vamps sitting on a low brick wall outside a car repair shop. He tried to suppress the shivers he felt as they walked closer to the three waiting vamps. Logically he knew that the three in front of him were far less dangerous than the one walking next to him, but logic had very little to do with his feelings of revulsion at the two dirty, subservient minions milling around a far more confident-looking Ajani.
“Master Spike.” Ajani inclined his head as they walked up, but he didn’t project the obsequious cowering he’d shown the last time.
“Q,” Spike acknowledged, and Xander felt a cool hand reach out and pull him closer. Feeling a little like a toddler whose mother doesn’t want him to wander too far, he had to suppress the urge to shake off the hand. Instead he reminded himself that the alternative was being chained in a basement, and he inched closer to Spike. The inner demon obviously approved because it sent little thoughts of relief and safety up through his mind. He quickly nodded at Ajani and then returned to studying the minions. Pretty standard cronies, really the only surprise had been Ajani bringing them.
Xander didn’t realize he'd been released until he noticed that Spike had started walking again, and he had to quickly trot to catch up.
The five of them walked in silence for some time, and Xander wondered at his own sanity for walking in the middle of a pack of killers that considered humans food. The minions would certainly attack him given a chance, and Ajani probably would. Funny enough, the 120 year old serial killer stood between him and certain death, and he just had to mentally laugh at that irony.
No wonder he’d nearly flunked out of school; his teachers always expected him to understand stupid examples of irony with hairbrushes and watches. If his English teacher had asked him about the irony of seeking protection from a serial killer he might have made better grades.
He realized he was mentally babbling, but he couldn’t come up with any other diversions as they walked through increasingly run down neighborhoods. He realized that they were only blocks outside of Gunn’s territory, and he prayed that they didn’t turn east.
“Through dere,” Ajani said and he gestured toward a store front. It didn’t have any of the signs Xander associated with vampires—no broken windows or boarded up doors or even any signs that the building was abandoned. The front window of the store advertised a special on computer repair, and a cardboard sign hanging in the door announced that the shop was closed.
“Right. Need to check it out,” Xander stood so close to Spike that he could feel the vampire tense up. He glanced over at Spike in time to see him glaring with yellow eyes at the two minions now standing by a giant trash bin. He suddenly understood Spike’s dilemma.
Spike and Ajani needed to check out the lair, and minions couldn’t be trusted to do it, especially if these minions had been Ajani’s for as short a period a time as he suspected. The weak demons would be easily turned, so they couldn’t be trusted around another master unless Ajani were present. And as minions, their ability to act stealthily was limited at best. Of course, as a human he would have alerted every vampire around with his smell and heartbeat, so he needed to stay outside too. Spike wanted to stay with him and protect him from the minions but he also wanted to go into the building and investigate the lair. He wanted to object to being treated like an invalid except he really did worry about being alone with two possibly hungry minions and he didn’t want to challenge Spike in front of the other vampires. He suspected it might prove deadly.
“Master?” he asked, making sure he said it loud enough for Ajani and the minions to hear.
“Yeah, pet?” Spike’s eyebrow did a quick twitch, but other than that he kept a neutral expression.
“The minions aren’t yours, master. If they bother me should I disable them or dust them?” Xander did his best to look innocent. One of the minions growled, and Xander’s vision went red as his demon responded to the threat with a growl of his own. He turned, determined to stare down the minion, and the vamp flinched back. When the second minion also dropped his gaze, Xander felt the world shift as the blues and greens returned and the world once again looked slightly out of focus as was normal for human eyes.
“Try not to dust Q’s property, pet, but if they give ya trouble, do what you think best,” Spike shrugged and then made a jump for a second story window sill. Xander had to give a low appreciate whistle for the athletic prowess as Spike easily pulled himself up. Ajani gave him a strange look and then leapt for the sill as Spike pulled up onto a ledge and moved over to a second window. Ajani made it, but only by one hand and he had to swing himself to get a second hand on the sill and then scramble with his feet against the wall trying to pull up. Yep, Xander thought to himself, his vampire was definitely better.
He turned away from the building, suddenly much more interested in keeping the two minions in sight. When he looked over, one growled at him, and Xander panicked for a second before he felt the rising growl from his own chest. So, his demon recommended bluffing? He could do that.
“Back off blood breath,” he snapped, and the second minion’s eyes now snapped over to him.
“Human,” minion one growled.
“Well no duh.” He rolled his eyes. “Vampire,” he announced, pointing a finger at the complaining minion.
Vampire number two dropped his gaze again, but vampire number one now slithered forward, fangs bared in a National Geographic sort of way.
The vampire stopped about four feet away, and Xander leaned back against the wall even as he reached back in his waistband for a stake. Without backing up or losing eye contact, he looked at the vampire without flinching.
“You are so bucking to be dusted ‘cause one more step and your buddy’s gonna be washing your remains out of his hair--or not. He doesn’t look big on personal hygiene.” He watched as the minion opened his mouth to reply only to close it and back off to stand with his friend. Co-minion? Whatever.
He hadn’t let go of the stake at the small of his back when a familiar figure reappeared at a second story window and dropped down. Xander felt a moment of panic that Ajani had returned without Spike, but he reminded himself that Spike could take care of himself far better than Ajani and would easily sacrifice the younger vampire to save his own hide. And wow, betraying allies should really not be a comforting thought.
“Ajani,” he said with a quick tilt of his head. He may not want to challenge the vampire, especially in front of minions, but he also wanted it clear that he didn’t feel any particular loyalty toward him either. He liked Ajani, but that wouldn’t keep him from staking the vamp. Ajani looked at him for nearly a minute—a minute during which Xander grew increasing uncomfortable until the vampire finally turned his attention to his minions.
“This massah’s out, so we be waitin’ for him.”
“And Spike?” Xander asked, half expecting Ajani to see the question as a challenge, but Ajani answered without emotion.
“Guardin' de sewah, too many minions for us both to stay and he wants de massah dead fore the minions done get riled.” Xander could understand that vamp logic. If the minions start doing their mindlessly destroying minion thing, the poor little human in the middle could very well get hurt. Probably didn’t trust Ajani to take care of whatever prep work needed to get done.
Then something else occurred to him. Spike had left him with three vampires, and he suddenly knew that Spike was trusting him to take care of himself. It was more than Gunn ever did, but then again with his little passenger hitting the brakes in the middle of fights, he couldn’t really blame Gunn for thinking of him as a total screw up not even worth training. He just wished Gunn had looked past that to see whatever had make a century old vampire trust him.
He leaned back against a chain link fence, feeling the cold thick wire digging into his back. Okay, he just needed to wait for Spike. He could do that. He shifted against the fence. No problem waiting. He was the mighty waitin' man. How long could this new master take to get back anyway? He’d just wait for Spike. Oh who was he kidding; he couldn’t stand the quiet.
“So, Ajani, do you ever remember your life, I mean the life before you got… um… well… vamped.” Wow--that really came out bad. Hopefully asking about life before undeath wasn’t some sort of vampire taboo. Ajani turned and considered him with a curiously blank expression. “Don’t remember?” Xander finally asked just to fill the silence.
“Jes’ been awhiles since I thought about it, but I kin ‘member ever moment.” Ajani moved toward the street so that Xander found himself between the two minions standing next to the dumpster and Ajani who stood watching the street from the edge of the alley.
“So you still know who you were? You remember dying?” He shifted slightly so that he leaned against the building and could keep an eye on the minions even while talking to Ajani. He might be stupid, but even he wasn’t *that* stupid.
"Sho enough. Went to a stomps ovah in de next county to meet up wid a woman, met a vamp instead. Fore I knew it, I b’longs to the vamp, and I follow him north. Fuhgot m’self for a while truth be told."
Xander thought about that, well, to be more accurate, he tried to decipher the vampire’s thick accent. He’d gone to a ‘stomps?’ Well he wanted to meet up with a woman, so party maybe. Yep, Gunn and the crew had staked more than their share of vamps at parties, maybe because people were just so willing to invite anyone in during a party. But Ajani had forgotten himself? He obviously remembered now, so what had changed? He briefly considered the possibility of vampire psychology classes just to try and understand his life, but Ajani continued talking.
“I ‘members dis one time, these white folks eased up on a group of boys day aftah a squall. Lynched ‘im all. Three bodies swingin’ jes’ cause dey’s worked up over some niggah who’d passed one a dey’s tests—de type dey used to keep us from votin’.”
“Holy shit,” Xander responded. Sure he’d studied the violence and racial killings in the south, but he was standing with a man who’d watched friends get hanged because white people were angry about a black person casting a vote. Ajani was like a living textbook, or an unliving textbook anyway.
He looked at Ajani’s face and wondered if the vampire still cared about those three dead boys. Yeah, if he met three boys now he’d probably catch a snack and would kill them without regret, but did he still remember being a human and watching innocent people die? Did he remember caring? Ajani continued after a brief pause as if the vampire couldn’t stop talking now that someone was listening.
“B’longin’ to a vamp didn’t seem too bad. My massah, when some older vamp ketch him and dust him, I’s a bit lost. De other vamp, he don't wan' me”
Xander couldn’t come up with a more intelligent response than “huh.” Ajani seemed to have finished because he wandered back toward his minions. Xander watched him thinking again how little he had understood on those nights when he had followed Gunn. A blond head suddenly appeared in the window, and Spike leaned down holding out a hand. Without even questioning, Xander jumped up and grabbed for the outreached hand. He felt Spike’s grip lock onto his wrist and pull him steadily upward until his feet landed on the window sill. He ducked down and crawled into the building without talking, moving to one side while Ajani made the jump and then reached down to help his minions.
Spike stood to the side and gestured Ajani over to him, and the two talked before Ajani gestured to his two minions and started out the door. Xander waited as Spike walked over to him and watched the three leave.
“We gonna help?”
“Not if we can bloody help it; it’s Ajani’s job to take them out, innit?” Spike walked up and stood at the door and Xander moved in just behind him.
“Then why are we here?”
“Already took out a couple of older vamps, one was childer for sure. Now it’s time for him to take charge and take over the soddin’ nest. Can’t do that for him.”
“And if he gets killed?”
“Then we find another vamp to make master. Only doin’ this to get the minions off the streets and back under control, pet. Don’t really care of Q bloody gets himself killed or not.” Xander knew that Spike was telling the truth, but he had grown to like the red-haired vampire and he really didn’t want to see him killed. On the other hand, he could see that if Ajani didn’t fight for himself, he would never hold power and never demand obedience from his minions.
“I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” Xander said, and Spike instantly jerked around and glared at him. It only took Xander a half-second to process that look.
“I like him in a totally human don’t really want to see him dead type way and not in any sort of feeling loyalty or wanting to serve him type way.” He watched Spike’s features go from infuriated to amused in a blink.
“Don’t know how to take ya half the time,” Spike acknowledged.
“Yeah, don’t know what my own brain is doing three-fourths of the time, so no problem.” They stood in silence for several minutes, and Xander had almost reached the limits of his ability to stay quiet.
“Ajani’s done, pet.”
“Done as in finished or done as in done for?”
“Oi, think I’m daft enough to still be here if he’d lost?” He had to admit Spike had a point. He also had to admit that he was relieved that Ajani instead of the other homicidal monster had won. If Gunn could see him now, he’d probably run a stake right through his heart.
“Come on then,” Spike called, and he realized that Spike had started down the stairs. He hurried to catch up, passing through several doors and passing Ajani’s two minions at the entrance to the basement stairs before descending into the main lair.
The vampires had obviously chosen this building for its huge basement, which looked like most lairs he’d seen—a little cleaner than normal, but not the cozy retreat Spike kept or the sheer decadence of Cassidy’s warehouse. This place had a little trash scattered across the floor, old newspapers and tossed clothing. The furniture was clearly picked from the garbage, and a half dead human hung from chains on one wall. Xander looked closer at the hanging human.
Xander almost froze at the sight of a black man hanging from chains: bruised, clothes half torn away, eyes closed, neck torn and seeping blood. It's not that he'd never seen a human half dead in a vampire lair before, it's just that he never expected the half dead victim to be Gunn.