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Author's Chapter Notes:
The "Ghost" underground station exists much as Spike described - I thought it would be an ideal place for London vampires.
Chapter 6

Spike slouched in the back of the car, a blanket draped over him, clicking his fingers and then tapping them on any hard surface he could find. He thought about what had just happened. First she had just laughed at him – well he was used to that - but then she laughed with him. What did it mean? What should he make of it? Was it a kind of flirting? If so, what should he do now? He stared at the back of her head, as if it could give him some insight as to what was going on in her mind and wondered what the bloody hell he should do.

To take his mind off it, he started to try and remember all the Ramones’ songs in chronological order, and then to sing them under his breath.

Buffy had the feeling that the vampire was staring at her, but didn’t want to turn round in case he was. If someone had told her that she’d be laughing with Spike, as if he were a friend, a couple of weeks ago – well even a couple of days ago, she would have thought that they were mad. She wondered what his next move would be, but judging from his previous behaviour, it would be something totally unexpected. Suddenly he started to sing, clicking his fingers and then tapping them on the back of her seat - oh he could be so irritating.

“Spike, settle down already!”

He then started to criticise Giles’ driving skills, and then trying to navigate from thirty-year-old memories and inevitably getting them lost.

“Is it me, or is he being even more obnoxious than usual?” Giles commented bitterly after he had stopped to scan the road map, “Or is that even possible?”

Spike seemed oblivious of their anger towards him, blithely humming and tapping away until they threatened to tie him up and put him in the trunk of the car.

“It’s called a boot, you morons – you should know that Watcher - boot, bonnet, accelerator, clutch, gear stick – huh! Americans never did learn the English language properly!”

They finally reached Whitechapel station and after some “discussion”, decided to leave the car there.

“Right then Watcher, get three tickets to the next station.”

“In which direction?”

“Doesn’t matter, we’ll only be using them to get on the platform. Was a time when you could get a platform ticket for tuppence – that was in old money,” reminisced Spike, “not that Dru and I ever bought one of course.”

“What is he talking about?” Asked Buffy in bewilderment.

“He’s talking about the dim and distant past, before decimalization of the pound,” explained Giles to a still puzzled Slayer.

“Come on you two, stop yapping and get a move on.”

Ignoring their glares, Spike headed to the station entrance, barely pausing while Giles got the tickets from an automatic dispenser. They followed him down the stairs and along to the end of the platform. Just as they thought that they would have to walk along the tracks, he suddenly turned sharply to his right and disappeared from sight. Buffy increased her pace and when she got to the place, she saw a doorway marked “Staff Only”.

“He must have gone in here.”

They opened the door, to find an impatient vampire waiting for them.

“What kept you?”

He headed off again at a brisk pace, leaving them to trail behind. He had been worried that he wouldn’t be able to find his way about in the tunnels, but now it all came flooding back and he remembered the last time he was here. That hadn’t gone too well – he and Dru had had to leave in a hurry, when she had brought home some still live “presents” for them. He had assumed he would never have to visit this place again. But the master forger called the Scribe had to be found, so that he could get the documents he needed to leave the country.

He could hear Giles puffing and panting behind him and he grinned to himself, but he slowed down to let them catch up.

Buffy saw Spike take something from his pocket, and it was only when he struck the match that she realised he had a pack of cigarettes in his hand.

“Where’d you get those from?” Then she remembered, “You took them from the hotel!”

“Saw them lying about, thought no-one wanted ‘em.” He said casually.

“You stole them from behind the hotel reception desk.” Buffy reached up and slapped the cigarette out of his hand.

“Hey! I haven’t got many left – anyway, serves people right if they don’t look after their things properly.”

Something inside Giles snapped, he caught hold of the vampire’s shoulders and slammed him into the wall. “It’s about time you told us what you are leading us into and where the hell we are!” He snarled.

Spike looked into Ripper’s eyes and the hairs on the back of his neck rose. He hadn’t often seen the other side of the Watcher’s personality, and when he had, he had always come of worse.

“Okay, okay, “Spike said holding out his hands palm forward placatingly, “these tunnels, along with most of the underground railway around here, were built at the end of the nineteenth century. Along here aways there is a “ghost station” that was built at the same time but became disused around the 1930s. Its called St Mary’s – they used it as an air raid shelter during the Second World War, but since then, they kinda forgot it.”

“So the vampires took it over.” Giles murmured.

“Yeah, that’s right – it’s perfect. Tunnels leading all over the city and a nice big HQ with lots of rooms.” Spike smirked at them, “very cosy. The vamp that runs things around here, by the name of Karl, is a wise old bird. Wouldn’t let anyone bring back their kills, and made them all use different parts of town to hunt, so that this place has been safe for over 50 years. Now don’t you think you’d better let me go Watcher, people might start to talk.” He curled his tongue suggestively, and Giles dropped his hands from the vampire’s shoulders as if he had been burnt.

“Look, we can stand around here all day yammering if you want, but we have a way to go yet, and I, for one, would like to get this over with.” Spike strode away and the other two found themselves trailing along behind as before.

After a while, Buffy began to feel as though she was being watched; her Slayer senses told her that there were vampires about.

“Yeah,” said Spike, as though he had read her mind, “The guards have seen us. Now both of you play along, if you want to get out of here – there’ll be too many for you to fight, let alone kill,” he said warningly, as they were surrounded.

“Well, I’m glad to see that standards haven’t slipped since I was last here.” Spike grinned and shoved his hands into his pockets. Then, as it looked as though Giles and Buffy were going to be attacked, he said, “These humans are mine –“

“Spike! Is it you? Well, I thought we’d seen the last of you years ago!” A large dark-haired vampire towered over the bleached blonde. Spike looked at him thoughtfully and then grinned,

“Well, well, Chris as I don’t live and breathe! How are you mate?” and he reached up and slapped the other on the shoulder.

Chris grinned back at him and then gestured towards the Watcher and Slayer, “Did you say these were your humans? Since when do you have your meals follow you about?”

They started walking down the tunnel again, Buffy and Giles surrounded by a crowd of curious vampires.

“I’ve just come over from the States – it’s all the rage over there. You know they invented fast food? Well now they have food on the hoof!” Buffy and Giles were looking at him stony-faced. Spike had not had time, or inclination, to explain the concept to the humans, and was hoping that they would follow his lead. “Yeah, I’ve this thrall thing going, and they follow me everywhere. Handy for snacks and such like”. Before anyone else could speak, he said hurriedly, “So where’s Karl then, I – “

“You are out of date. Karl doesn’t rule here anymore, the boss is a vamp by the name of Gryphon.” Chris said soberly. “He managed to beat Karl, and it was the worst thing that could have happened to us here. Gryph let his minions bring back live prey, and they always used the same tunnels to go in and out of. It was only a matter of time before it was noticed. And now we have the Exterminators to deal with.”

“What the bloody hell are the Exterminators?” asked Spike curiously.

“London Underground got tired of having the reputation of losing passengers, so they have employed a company to rid themselves of the “vermin” in the tunnels. I’m using their term of course.” Chris added hastily. “When they thought that all they were facing were rats and the like, they were easy to pick off, and discourage. But lately they have brought in someone who knows a thing or two about vamps, and the tide has turned against us. We are thinking of heading out, and finding somewhere else to hang out.”

“First I need to do a little business with the Scribe, can you tell me where I can find him?” Spike asked quickly.

“Sorry mate, the Scribe was one of the first vamps to disappear. We’ve lost over half our number now, and it doesn’t look as though they will stop until we are all gone,” he sounded aggrieved.

Spike tried not to show his fury and apprehension - if he couldn’t get papers from the Scribe, then all this was for nothing.

They had entered a large space, Giles looked round and saw a faded sign on the wall “St Mary’s”, so this must be the “ghost station”. He looked round curiously, there were several groups of vamps who all looked angry or nervous. Someone from the back of the crowd called out, “we want to see Gryph!”

Spike’s apprehension grew; they didn’t want to get mixed up in an internecine war. He motioned to the two humans, and they drifted back through the growing crowd. Buffy looked back at him and gasped, “The crystal is glowing!”

He realised that he’d been feeling a vibration from the crystal, but had been too busy to process the information. He put his hand up to his neck and touched the stone – it was warm. “There must be magic about. Come on don’t let’s hang about here.”

Giles suddenly crumpled to the floor, and Buffy stumbled into Spike. “What’s wrong luv?” The vampire held on to the girl, as she seemed to struggle to keep her eyes open.

“It must be a sleeping spell or something, I can hardly keep my eyes open,” she whispered. “Help Giles.”

Spike lifted the Watcher easily onto his shoulder, and supported Buffy round the waist as they moved as quickly as they could, back towards the tunnel they had entered by.

The room had gone quiet, as one by one, the vampires had all fallen where they had stood. There was a shout behind them, and as Buffy looked back, a group of four men armed with cross bows had come through another tunnel and were shouting at them to stop.

“Quickly,” she managed to say through the growing clouds in her mind, “cross bows.”

There was a whirring sound behind them and Spike grunted as a bolt hit him in the back, just missing his dead heart. Another group of men appeared from the tunnel that they were making for, also armed with cross bows. Spike was trapped between the two groups, and did the only thing left open to him. He struggled towards the wall. Another bolt hit him in the leg; he staggered but did not fall. He reached the wall, propped Giles against it, gently pushed Buffy behind him and stood at bay, game faced.



TBC





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