Spike cracked his neck, jaw clenching. “That’s what I’d like to know myself.”
“Well, aren’t you two together?”
Spike sighed. “Yeah, right. Not for the lack of trying, but no.”
“Why not? You obviously like each other.”
Spike let out a derisive laugh. “You hear that Slayer?” he called out to Buffy, “Lois says we like each other!”
Buffy gave him an odd look, and a crooked smile. “That’s. . . great, Spike.”
“Yeah, and what I can’t figure out is if we like each other so much, why are you giving me the brush off for the nerd?”
Buffy stopped abruptly, and at the same time Lois and Buffy exclaimed, “Hey!”
Spike grinned triumphantly and nodded toward Clark. “So, how’s it feel to have both women defending you? Reckon you must be feeling like the King of the World right now. Got two—“
“All right, that’s it,” Buffy said, marching up to Spike. “Knock it off, Spike. You’re acting like a jerk.”
“Oh, and we don’t want that, do we? Don’t want to be a jerk because of Superman.”
“Okay then,” Buffy said calmly, and hauled off and decked him in the nose.
Growling, Spike swung at her, a move Buffy anticipated, and easily deflected. Angrier now that he’d missed, he lunged and succeeded in hitting her across the face, in which Buffy executed a perfect roundhouse kick, striking him right in the nose again.
“What the hell are they doing?” Lois exclaimed, utterly appalled.
“Oh, this is foreplay,” Anya answered, smiling brightly.
“Yeah, this is like second base to Spike,” Xander drawled.
“Really, it’s just par for the course with them,” Willow said.
“It’s so ridiculous! That’s not how you treat someone you love!” Lois nearly shouted.
Just when Clark was trying to decide if he could in fact sneak off and change to become Superman and break up the fight, Buffy and Spike stopped. Actually, it was Spike that stopped first.
“She’s right, pet,” Spike said, panting and wiping at his nose. “I don’t want to fight you. Not that way. Not anymore.”
“You didn’t seem to take offense to it a minute ago,” Buffy shot back, still in a fighting stance.
“Yeah, and it was wrong of me.”
Buffy dropped her hands, sighed, and stared at him, seeming defeated. “I hit you first. You just retaliated.”
Spike cocked his head to the side, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “What’s that then? You feeling guilty Slayer?”
Shaking her head to get her hair out of her face, Buffy replied with a haughty, “Maybe. You just . . . “ she gave him a pointed look, “Run off at the mouth when you shouldn’t be.”
“How do you expect me not to?” Spike demanded, “You have done nothing but yammer on about bloody—“
“Spike!” Buffy hissed, “Shut up. We’ll talk later okay?”
Throwing up his hands, Spike said, “Fine” as if it were anything but. Buffy opted to stay with him, and was pleased to find Lois taking the opportunity to rush to Clark.
“Is there something you’re keeping from us that we should know?” Lois asked.
“Nothing at all, just . . .personal stuff between Spike and I,” Buffy told her, glaring daggers at Spike who just shrugged.
The rest of the way was met with silence.
Once they finally reached the area that Buffy had been talking about, the group was feeling hot, stuffy, creeped out and slightly dirty.
“Glad I wore sneakers this time,” Lois muttered as they entered the clearing where the circle was.
“You went deep in,” Clark observed, taking it all in.
“How would you know?” Lois asked, confused.
“Well, look how far we’re in now,” Clark said slowly.
Lois gave him an odd look, but said nothing, and Spike snorted. Buffy elbowed him.
“So, you ladies feeling anything of the magic kind?” Xander asked Willow and Tara, rubbing his hands together.
Willow and Tara were now walking the perimeter of the literal circle in the sand at their feet, using their flashlights to trace it.
“We need more light in here,” Willow announced and, taking a deep breath said, “Illuminate!” A soft, glowing light lit up the entire area they were in.
“Wow,” Clark murmured. “I never thought stuff like that was possible.”
“Neither did I,” Lois agreed. “We should have had this on our walk in.”
“I can feel something old here,” Tara murmured. She looked up at Willow, “It feels almost. . . “
“Ancient,” Willow agreed. “But along with that old is something new.”
“Bad old? Bad new?” Buffy prodded.
“Bad old and bad new. Whatever it is that is old, and I’m feeling a definitive presence, is very, very bad. It’s not strong though, if that makes any sense.”
“So, you’re saying that whatever it is that feels like a presence is evil, but that it’s not strong? How is that possible?” Clark asked.
“It’s gaining power. Something can have an evil presence and still be weak.” Willow explained. “Say like... The Hellmouth itself. For all intents and purposes, it’s not longer, but the mark it left behind is still strong. It’s still felt.”
“So how do you know it’s not the Hellmouth you’re feeling?” Lois asked.
“Trust me, I know the difference,” Willow muttered. “You spend a lot of time in this town, and you begin to feel that energy force everywhere you go.”
“Someone has been performing something ancient, or –“ Tara looked around and gasped. She pointed to what appeared to be a bunch of squigglies to everyone else, but apparently meant something to Tara. Looking around the area on the walls, were other symbols. “Someone has been doing some conjuring. Conjuring of the dead. These are ancient ritualistic symbols for raising the dead.”
“So, maybe that’s how they’re day walking? Conjuring life into them?” Xander suggested.
“And where would such a ritual exist and come from?” Lois asked.
“Oh, ancient texts and rituals for raising the dead have been around for years. There’s often a slight variance in the translation, but rituals like that have been passed down for ages, “ Anya explained. “Only the highly magical and in tune, in other words, crazy, were able to perform such spells.”
“Luthor is crazy, but not magical,” Clark muttered.
“Tell me about it,” Lois agreed.
“But that doesn’t mean he couldn’t call on powers or have minions do his dirty work for him,” Willow added.
“Right, so the plan is to look up these ancient rituals – Anya, I will leave that to you since you are still connected to the demon world,” Buffy ordered.
“Did you just say still?” Lois asked, somewhat fearfully.
Anya grinned, “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t sick any of them on you unless you really deserved it.”
“And the rest of us will research rituals that could allow vampires to day walk,” Buffy finished. “Guess we report back to Giles. He’s supposed to have heard from the Council at some point tonight on their findings.”
“Surprising that Superman didn’t show up, again,” Spike said pointedly and glared at Clark, just as the glowing light illuminating the area, dimmed and dissipated.
“And on that, we’ll call it a night!” Buffy said, taking Spike by the arm and dragging him away from the group. And that’s when a group of green antlered demons staged a sneak attack – and one pulled Clark into the dark.