Chapter 2
Los Angeles - A few hours ago
It was taking too long. Something went wrong; he could feel it. He trusted Justine to complete the task but he was starting to doubt his faith in her. He should have known better than to trust anybody, but himself. However, he didn’t have a choice in the matter. Suddenly headlights from a car appeared in the distance, as it approached the meeting spot, Holtz stepped out of the shadows. It stopped in front of him and he could see Justine peering at him from the driver’s side so he quickly stepped in.
“I take it that it didn’t go well.” Holtz’s voice was cold and unforgiving causing Justine to flinch.
“Somebody warned him, but I’m not sure who. I sliced him but he still got away with Connor. He clocked me with a gun… hard. By the time I came to, Welsey was long gone.” Justine rubbed her sore face, before she continued. “Damn, my face hurts, you owe me dental work.”
“I owe you nothing, you’re the one lost Connor and now we’re going to have to track him down. I’m not letting Connor get away, so let’s go.”
They had barely driven a few moments before a Humvee overtook their car, quickly cutting them off. As Justine swerved off the road to escape, more vehicles quickly approached and blocked them from going any further. Thinking quickly, Holtz grabbed a blanket and bag that he spotted in the back seat. Without Connor he had nothing to negotiate with, but they didn’t know that.
Holtz looked out the window to see Angel jump out of one of the SUVs then charge their car. Holtz quickly wrapped the blanket around the bag while Justine jumped out of the car in an attempt to stall Angel. However, she was no match for the raging vampire and was quickly thrown aside.
"Come any closer and I'll snap his neck!" Holtz yelled. That definitely got everyone’s attention, including Angel, who stopped dead in his tracks. Holtz looked around to see that he was surrounded by men in commando gear, each with a gun trained at him. Either Angel had more friends than he thought or more likely a very powerful enemy.
"Who are they?" Holtz asked
"They work for me." A beautiful and impeccably dressed woman approached him. She exuded power and confidence from every pore.
"Ah. The attorney." Holtz quickly realized.
"Yes.” Lilah answered “You are gonna give us the kid, Captain Holtz."
"Don't!" Angel exclaimed, the panic on his face evident. Holtz thought this was a very interesting development but also inconvenient.
"That's cute. You'd rather see the fanatic with the baby than us?” Lilah couldn’t help but be amused by Angel’s panic. It was all too easy sometimes. She turned to address the real problem, Holtz. “Those are automatic weapons pointed at you. They didn't have them in your time. They fire sixteen bullets per second."
"And if they were going to use them they would have already. They want the baby alive." Angel pointed out.
"Something we all have in common." Holtz clutched his pretend Connor tighter. As long as they believed he had the baby, he’d be fine, otherwise he knew he’d be dead in moments
Suddenly, the air shivered and as a demon in the vague shape of a man appeared before them. His face looked melted and a large scar crossed it from forehead to chin. The demon was another enemy of Angel, Sahjhan.
Sahjhan smirked and said "Not all of us.” He then turned toward Lilah, “You do not want the child alive. You want the child dead. That was our arrangement."
"Yeah. I'm a lawyer. Have you met me? We have a new arrangement. I'm keeping the baby."
"You can't do that!" Sahjhan angrily exclaimed.
Lilah addressed the armed men circled around the group. "Ignore the loud mouth with the bad skin. He's impotent in this dimension."
"We're leaving." Holtz announced. He needed to get out of there before the situation got any worse.
Lilah was having none of it and her patience was wearing thin. "No one's going anywhere."
One of the commandos stepped closer to Holtz, and Angel swiftly knocked him down, taking his weapon before turning it on Lilah.
"Don't shoot." Lilah told her commandos. The situation was quickly getting out of hand and somehow she needed to get control back or her bosses would definitely not be happy.
"Yeah. You really don't want to. Your bullets won't kill me. But mine will kill you and her first." Angel threatened the commandos.
"He'll be dead before I hit the ground." Holtz warned holding the makeshift baby closer to him.
"I know." Angel answered.
"So. I'm going to leave now, right? With me, he gets to live, anyone tries to take him, he dies."
After a long beat, Angel said, "Take him."
Sahjhan couldn’t help but interject at this point, "Woah! No! What is wrong with you people?"
Holtz then turned to Angel relishing the distress he could see plastered on his face. He lost his entire family because of Angel and now he would know the extreme pain Holtz felt every single day. "I will take good care of him, as though he were my own son. He'll never even know you existed. Don't come after me. Holtz paused. “You will though, won't you? Maybe I should just..."
"No. Please." Angel pleaded. "Take him."
Sahjhan, raised his hands, proclaiming, "Lekko najine forkahdio!"
Suddenly, a big explosion with bright sparks lit the night and a bright hole opened in the air, a portal to a world with a blood-red sky.
"What you are looking into is the Quortoth, the darkest of the dark worlds. So, I can widen the portal and you can all be swallowed up by a world you cannot begin to imagine or you can keep your word and kill that child.” Sahjhan said as he turned to Lilah, “Now!"
When no one moved, Sahjhan spread his arms into the air. "Don't say I didn't warn you." The open portal that tore the night sky proceeded to become a larger more threatening presence.
Lilah knew when to cut her losses "Kill it."
"No!" Angel desperately yelled.
As the commandos and Angel stood there with their weapons trained at each other, Holtz knew what he had to do to survive this. He swiftly pushed Justine away from him so he could head for the fiery portal. As soon as Angel saw Holtz’s intentions he dropped his gun and charged after him, fearful that Holtz would be so mad as to take his baby in to that demon world.
Justine screams of "Daniel! Daniel!" was distant in Angel’s ears.
Angel yelled "No! No!" as Holtz jumped into the open portal and disappeared from view. Angel attempted to jump after him, but was violently thrown back by a lighting bolt that originated from the center. The force was so powerful, Angel flew through the air at least 10 feet, then landed hard on the ground. He painfully rolled over to look back at the portal.
"Wow. I didn't count on that. Kinda takes care of my problem." Sahjhan chuckled. He then lifted his hands in the air again and said, "Forkahdio najine lekko."
The portal to Quortoth quickly shrunk to a pinpoint before it completely disappeared from sight as if it never existed.
Satisfied with the outcome Sahjhan looked down at Angel and said "All right then. Have a good summer." And with that he disappeared as quickly as he came.
Lilah looked down at the tortured vampire in disdain. "Hmph! Well, I'm looking at a mountain of paperwork."
One of Lilah’s armed men asked, "Should we do something about..."
Looking back at Angel, she answered, "Yes, we should. We should let him suffer."
In disbelief at all that happened, Angel rolled over onto all fours and looked around him in devastation. Unable to get up, overwhelmed by emotion he collapsed back down and stared at where the portal had been and mournfully uttered "Connor."
Sunnydale - Now
Life could be a funny thing. In the hundred plus years that Spike had been walking the earth, it never ceased to surprise, amaze, and entertain him. Just a few short hours ago, he sat sulking in front of his crispy crypt like a right tosser but the fates must have been in a pleasant mood because things had taken a 180-degree turn for him. There he sat in his car staring at his new home, an extremely posh apartment building. Did he mention the posh part? It was one of those industrial brick building that was built at the turn of the century turned into swanky modern lofts. The building was three stories high with large bay windows that went almost from floor to ceiling on each floor. The grounds were cultivated with trees lining the building, flower gardens, and even a sodding playground. That’s right, a playground! The pal that Clem was, he had really pulled through. But what the bloody hell had he gotten himself into? He missed his crypt, his dark dismal, safe, normal crypt where he could at least pretend he was still the big bad.
Spike slowly banged his head against the steering wheel of his beloved DeSoto hoping the dull ache it caused would wake him up from this bizarre dream. Dawn was approaching, but he was too knackered to leave the car, even if it was to settle in to his new flat. Connor cooed softly in his sleep in the seat next to Spike, causing him to turn toward the sound. Oh Angel was going to kill him right and proper when he found out. Oh, what the hell, life was short, might as well live the good life for a little bit. And maybe it was time he lived under the Slayer’s radar as well. If he kept his nose clean and stayed out of the scoobies way, he’d have a chance, a chance for something new. Who needed them anyway?
The only wee little problem was that of money. He didn’t quite lie to Clem, he did have enough to live on and pay rent for the next couple of months or so, but then he’d be plumb out, the well dry. Well, not quite dry, he was loaded, but Angel had done a runner with his inheritance and subsequent funds after he got his soul. All of his accounts were all wrapped up in some bank account run by Wolfram and Hart. Maybe he could have Clem’s pal Shorty help him out. shorty seemed to be connected in the demon business world.
His rambling thoughts were suddenly broken by a sharp knock on the window.
“Hello there! Welcome to Twin Palms!” Outside his driver side window was a five-foot Mynoth demon that looked suspiciously like an overgrown shi tzu waving at him enthusiastically. He was covered in a creamy white fur from head to foot and was dressed in an impeccable grey suit. Spike sighed heavily before he looked over to Connor. “Guess this is as good a time as any lil’ bit.” He grabbed the snoozing baby and swiftly got out of the car.
The shi tzu started gabbering immediately. “Mr. Pratt, what a pleasure to meet you sir! Your reputation precedes you. I’m Mr. Taylor.” He promptly grabbed Spike’s right hand and started shaking it vigorously. “When Shorty called me up, the Mrs and I were over the moon with excitement. To have a vampire such as yourself in such close consort with the slayer living in our community, it really is an honor. Your presence will be sure to give a respectable community such as ourselves a good name with Ms. Summers. You see the, Home Owners Association has been concerned she would mistake us for the common demon riff raff and burn us to the ground. Sure there was that one time the Magrong decided to try his hand at world domination but teenagers will have their rebellious times. Now that you’re here though, we can put those fears to rest. You will put in a good word for us with the slayer, right?”
“Umm, yeah, sure, whatever.” Spike nodded dumbly. This was too weird for him. He was used to bringing anarchy, not respectability.
“Oh, and what have we here?!” the shih tzu continued. This must be your little boy Clem talked about. I had no idea that vampires were able to have children. I’ve been told to keep your situation quiet, and you can trust me on that, I assure you. We’ve had 8 little ones ourselves. They’re all grown up and married and we miss their little barks.” Spike made no movement except to raise his left-eyebrow a little higher as the only sign of his slight amusement at this ridiculous creature. The shih tzu kept rambling on undeterred by Spike’s unresponsiveness.
“It’s always a pleasure to have a family man join our little community. By the smell of your boy, he’ll be a powerful one when he grows. Well, come on, come on, what are we doing standing here when the sun will light the sky soon. Let’s get you all settled. If you give me your keys, I’ll park your vehicle in the underground garage. I’ve put you in one of the nicest units. And you’ll be happy to know that all our windows are tempered with UV proof glass which means no poofing into dust, isn’t that great?”
As the mynoth demon looked at Spike with excited expectation, all he could answer was “Yeah, sure, great.” Never in his life had words failed Spike so completely.
They went through the front double glass doors and entered the lobby area. The lighting was low but the room felt warm and comfortable. On the right side of the room was a large lit fireplace with shelves filled with books on either side of it. The fixtures appeared to be from the art deco period and added to the classic upscale feel. Scattered around the room were large plush chairs for lounging and on top of that, at the back wall were French glass doors that opened to a lush terraced patio. A few residents were sitting around the fire chatting but they didn’t take any notice of their group as they walked through the lobby and continued up the stairs.
Everything was moving so fast, Spike barely had time to take it all in. By the time he got to his new flat he was too knackered to pay attention to his new landlord.
“….and you have Mrs. Felding down the hall. Very nice lady but kind of strange; she actually has three cats that she doesn’t want to eat, can you imagine? To each their own, I always say. Well, here it is.” Mr. Taylor motioned to the door they had stopped in front of.” I’ll let you get settled and will give you a tour of the grounds tomorrow. I put one of the old cribs in the master bedroom. If you have any questions, I’m in apartment 1. Ta ta!” And with that the fluffy guy was gone as quickly as he came.
Barely taking in his surroundings, Spike wandered around the rooms until he found the master bedroom. In all the commotion, somehow Connor had still stayed asleep on his shoulder. He gently laid him down in the old-fashioned wooden crib then planted a soft kiss on his forehead before he quickly stood and scrubbed his hand across his face in a futile attempt to get rid of the squishy feelings a vampire had no right to feel. ‘Need a bed now. The best thing to do is just to sleep on it’ thought Spike. He proceeded to strip everything off, crawl under the covers, and fall into a dreamless sleep.
_________________________
“What? Huh?” Spike snorted. He rolled over on to his back, and stared at the blank ceiling, trying to blink the sleep out of his eyes. Something had woken him up just as he was starting to get a good sleep on, something loud, very loud. He rubbed the grime out of his eyes and blurrily looked towards the source, which turned out to be the baby cot. Well, not the cot itself, but whatever was in it. Then the events suddenly all came back to him in a flash. He slowly got up detangled himself from his sheets and peered into the cot to see a squalling Connor who looked non too happy.
“What’s all this ruckus about? Feels like I just laid you down.” Apparently babies had different hours than vamps. Then the unmistakable smell hit him. Oh, the smell.
“Oye! That is an awful stink you’ve created. Blimey! What am I going to do with you?”
He located the bag full of baby junk Wesley had brought with him and searched through it but didn’t know where in the hell to start. There was nappies, wipes, powders, cloths, and loads more that he had no idea what their use was for.
“Okay, I can do this, I’m a man of many abilities.” Apparently not every ability, because got as far as tossing out the foul nappy and putting Connor’s bum under the bathroom faucet to wash off the rest of the stink when he came stumped. He needed some advice from a female, and unfortunately he was on short supply. But there was one bird he did trust even if she was a do-gooder and luckily he nicked her phone number.
“Tara, luv, I need your help, and you can’t tell the Scoobies.” He paused, as he listened to her reply. “No! This is not illegal, I swear.”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Hey Everyone! This chapter took a lot longer than I thought it would. There are some dialogue from the Angel episode "Sleep Tight". For those who aren't very knowledgeable on Angel episodes, I'll do some more explaining in the next chapters. For those who are really knowledgeable, please feel free to give me advice because I wouldn't be surprised if I get things wrong.
Chapter End Notes:
So, what do you think?