“Yes we know. He was cursed with a soul.” Giles nodded.

“Well, yeah,” Spike said quietly, but clearly enough for each of them to hear. “We all were.”

“What? Are you saying that you were also cursed with a soul?” Giles questioned Spike, his tone a mixture of shock and incredulity.

“Gypsy’s didn’t stop at Angelus, Watcher. Dru, Darla, and I also got souls.” Spike answered the Watcher, ignoring the gasps and exclamations coming from the Scoobies. “Course, we got our own souls, and they’re not curses. Not anymore at least.”

Based on the group’s reaction to the news that Angelus wasn’t the only one cursed with a soul, Spike expected more gasping explanations to his last statement. What he got however, was silence. Absolute silence. Which made him wonder if they had actually stopped breathing. Unsurprisingly, it was the Watcher that recovered first, asking for an explanation while the Scoobies stared in frozen shock and horror and the Slayer gazed unseeingly forwards shaking her head slightly.

“Yeah, Watcher, okay then. I’m guessing the Poof didn’t exactly fill you lot in, not that I’m surprised.” Spike wondered what exactly Angelus actually had told these people, and what had happened to them all as a result of what he had undoubtedly left out. “The Gypsies wanted vengeance, yeah? Revenge for the loss of their favorite daughter and all that rot, so they cursed us all with souls, rest of us were like… collateral damage… his family, you know? The idea behind the souls was to cause pain and suffering, guilt and horror for all the things we’d done. Problem was, for Angelus, his soul from when he was human wouldn’t have fit the bill. Didn’t know him as a human myself obviously, but Darla says he was a drunken laze-about. Caused trouble, spent all his family’s money on drink and whores, and had a thing for the young virgin girls, willing or not. Gypsies didn’t think giving him his human soul would do much good, thought the soul and demon would get along a little too well, so they cursed him with another soul.”

“Whose?” Willow asked timidly. She didn’t think she really wanted to know, considering she was responsible for cursing him with that soul for a second time, but at the same time, she had to know. She had to know what they… what she, had done.

“His victim’s, the young Gypsy potential,” Spike quietly answered the young, redhead witch, watching as silent tears fell in rivers down her checks as he confirmed her worst fear. Spike cursed his wanker of a grandsire in his head, not yet sure what had happened to these people because of the bastard, but knowing it surely wasn’t good.

“And the rest of you?” Giles asked coldly, a hint of exhaustion coloring his question.

“We got our own souls, from before we were turned. Dru had been headed for a convent. I’d been a gentleman from a wealthy family, basically a pathetic mama’s boy concerned only with poetry and literature. Darla, she’d been a whore of course, not exactly the epitome of virtue but she came from a family with no money and was left on her own, not a lot of other options in those days for women. Didn’t make her a bad person really, just circumstances.”

“I believe you said that your soul is no longer a curse? How is that?” Inside, Giles was reeling from the information he was hearing, though he allowed none of it to show on his face. He wondered what else they would learn about Angel’s apparent deceit, as it was becoming quite clear that there had been deceit. He was fearful of the effect this story would have on the children he cared for, particularly his Slayer who still believed herself in love with Angel. As he pictured Jenny in his mind, he had to admit, he was likewise fearful of what this would do to him.

“Got it anchored of course. Dru and Darla’s too.” Spike responded evenly. “As for how, gotta tell you about what happened after we were all cursed.”

Spike waited for some affirmative sign to continue, which came in the form of the Slayer’s almost nonexistent head nod while she continued to stare blindly at the wall behind him. “Right, so, it was chaos after we were cursed. The pain was unbelievable, even for me. But I managed to get Dru, Darla, and myself to shelter. Soul didn’t seem to change me much except for making me feel guilt, but it didn’t really change who I was or anything. Of course, being turned didn’t really change me that much either, was Darla, Dru, and Angelus who made me the vamp I was. Anyway, wasn’t the same for the girls. Don’t know if it was because I hadn’t been a vamp as long, that I hadn’t changed much or that I was so used to taken care of Dru, but I managed to keep my wits about me a fair bit more than the girls. Not sure where Angelus was, he wasn’t with us when we were cursed. Felt him near a few days later, but Dru got hysterical when she felt him, and then he was gone.” Hysterical was an understatement of Dru’s condition she’d felt Angelus. She’d lost it, screaming and thrashing about, petrified he was coming back to hurt her more. It had terrified him.

“I did my best though, kept them from meeting the sunrise, got animals and such for blood after a while. Tried to take care of them, help them.” He let out a deep sigh, remembering those first few months when the three of them had stayed camped out in a deep cave in the woods. “After a few months, Dru started nattering on about how she needed to leave, had to go to her brothers. Had no idea what she meant, Angelus had killed everyone she ever knew. Getting her soul back only made her madness worse at the time, as broken as she was. We followed her when she insisted on going though, stayed together. Ended up in what’s now the Czech Republic. Dru led us to a monastery, had a group of monks there called the Order of Dagon. They took us in, to my surprise. Somehow they knew what we were and seemed to know what had happened, it was almost like they had been waiting for us. Course it was Dru leading us there, so I figure they probably did.”

Most of the Slayer’s group was listening to him with expressions of interest and curiosity, though their eyes showed that their minds were busy trying to process what he had told them so far. He wondered how much they were still really hearing at this point, knowing he’d soon have to stop for the day if he wanted them to absorb and understand what was to come. He hadn’t even gotten close to the important part yet.

Anya, unlike the others, seemed mildly bored and he wondered, as an 1100 year old ex-vengeance demon, how much of his story she already knew. Even if she knew it all, he doubted that she had purposely kept it from the others. More likely, they just didn’t ask what she knew and didn’t listen to her when she offered.

“Being with the monks helped us all, ‘specially Dru, cope with our newly returned souls. Darla left us after about a year. She needed a place, a home, and living with the monks wasn’t it for her. She travelled a bit, trying to figure out a place for herself. Finally ended up settling down in France, Paris to be exact, and she’s been there ever since. Flourished, she has. She kept in touch, still does, see her every couple of years. She’s done quite well for herself actually,” Spike informed them with a chuckle. “Went back to her roots she did, working girl through and through. Took a while, but she ended up a Madame, runs her own brothel of sorts. Real exclusive place… demons and humans both.”

“Now, before you get your knickers in a twist, Slayer,” Spike was quick to add when he saw the look of shock and disgust on Buffy’s face, “Darla’s place is safe as houses. No killing, maiming, or bloodshed under her roof. Not for the customers or Darla’s girls. Anyone who does, client or employee, gets thrown out on the street if they’re human and killed if they’re not. Place is actually renowned for its safety along with its service. Bet your Watcher here has even heard of it, La Maîtresse des Âmes?” Spike smirked as he watched a blush rise on the Watcher’s face.

“Yes, well, I am familiar with it… not first hand of, of course,” Giles spluttered. “I was, uh, not aware that, the uh, p-place was run by a vampire… or that it, um, catered to demons at all really.”

“Yeah, well Darla keeps a low profile… in that respect. No violence, no deaths, no attention.” Spike explained.

“So that’s what happened to Darla. Me and Dru though, whole other story. After the curse, Dru’s state of mind got really bad. Her soul and her head were just so fractured. She was terrified all the time, scared of Angelus coming after her again. Being with the monks helped her, but it wasn’t ‘til a while after Darla left that she started getting any better. She started having moments, just a few seconds at first, where she was sort of lucid and you could see the pious girl she once was, talk to her a bit. It was nice, for me anyway, cause I missed her. She was my sire, my everything really, and I loved her. Course things were different between us after the souls. Even with the fragility of her mind, she was an innocent again, yeah? Oh, she still remembered all the things Angelus had done, everything she’d done, but she was different and so were things between us. Not sure I could’ve gone back to the way we were either, least ways not then, but it’s worked out. She’s still my family and I still love her, just not the same way.” Spike wanted to make sure that this group he had come to for help, understood how important family was to him.

“Let me be right clear about one thing… Dru is my family, as is everyone in my home including Glinda here. Anyone goes after them, hurts them in any way and I will kill them. Soul won’t stop me.” His voice had hardened into a deadly tone, ensuring each person there knew that Spike would do anything to protect the ones he loved.

“I’m only telling you lot about Dru, about me and her, so you understand if or when you meet her. It’s been a long time, but her mind is still… what he did to her… some things even time can’t fix, yeah? She’s still a bit childlike and talks in riddles a lot of the time, lives in a world of her own, she does. Just want you lot to be a bit prepared, don’t want you to freak.”

“Well, yes, Spike. Thank you for informing us of Drusilla’s, uh, state. We will endeavor to treat her accordingly.” Giles attempted to reassure the vampire whose home they were all sitting in, in a typically formal British fashion. “Perhaps, however, it would be best to move on for now and return to how you were able to remove the curses on your souls?”

“Course, Watcher.” Spike agreed. “As I was saying, Dru started getting a bit better at the monastery, she felt safe there I think, or as safe as she could feel. One night, after we’d been there for a couple of years, she started talking about her soul. We were outside looking at the stars, she likes that, says they talk to her. So, she asked me if her soul would stay with her this time. Said the stars told her they could take it away, and she was right scared, didn’t want to lose it.”

“I did my best to reassure her, but it got me thinking. We weren’t given our souls, we were cursed with them. As I’m sure demon-girl here can tell you, thing about curses is there’s always a way to break them, yeah? Curses are meant to be a bad thing, the souls put an end to our evil ways sure, but the purpose was to make us suffer. Figured that meant there was a way to break the curse and lose the souls.” Spike couldn’t help but notice the pained silence that settled over the Scoobies at this. He wondered again what had happened to them. He was telling them all about his history and he figured soon it would be time to hear about theirs.

“Knew the only way to find out about the curse was from the Gypsies, so I set off to find them. I left Dru alone with the monks for the first time, though she’d stay with them as I went away other times over the years. Took me months to track the right Gypsy clan down, and it wasn’t easy to get them to talk to me once I had. Eventually they listened to me though.”

Spike started to chuckle, low and rumbley, at the memory of turning up at the Gypsy camp asking for help. “Let me tell you, they were right shocked when I told them why I was there. Once I convinced them I really was looking for help making sure me and Dru’s souls weren’t gonna take a runner, and not trying to figure out how to break the curse, they helped me.”

Spike wasn’t sure how much to tell them next, the spell used to bind their souls wasn’t complicated. After a moment, he decided that he’d cut to the chase, as the Watcher and maybe the witch were the only two with more interest and he could tell them more about it later. “They worked out a sort of binding spell for me, one that would override the curse. Mix a few herbs, draw a little blood, chant for a bit and goodbye curse, hello permanent soul. Did the ritual bit there with them, made sure it was safe and wasn’t gonna make my head explode or something, then headed back to Dru. She was really happy to bind her soul, make sure it couldn’t leave her again, helped settle her mind a bit more.”

Giles listened to Spike, an awful feeling of dread forming in his chest. He thought he knew where this story was headed, and feared if he was correct, the effect it would have on all of them. He turned his head to try and look discretely at his Slayer and her friends. Seeing the looks of shock and anxiety on their faces, he knew he wasn’t the only one worried about what Spike would tell them next.

Turning back to look at Spike again, Giles noted that he seemed to be giving them a moment to process what they had heard, or perhaps to prepare for what they would hear next. Knowing that the vampire was waiting for a signal to continue, he took a deep breath and asked what everyone was wondering but no one seemed to really want to know.

“And this spell, after you had Dru’s soul bound, what did you do with the information?”

“I did exactly what you think I did, Watcher,” Spike said with no small amount of regret. Given the reactions he’d gotten from the Slayer’s group so far, and the looks on their faces now, it wasn’t hard to put together that something had happened with Angelus while he was in town. Spike couldn’t be sure what it was, but he had a gut feeling and his gut was rarely, if ever, wrong. “I left Dru with the monk’s again not long after, and headed for Paris. Knew Darla was about there somewhere and it was easy enough to track her down. She may not be the most scrupulous person I’ve ever known, but when I told her about the curse and the spell she wanted her soul bound.” Spike remembered being surprised that Darla’s first reaction to his news that the curse could be broken was to ask how to bind her soul and not how to get rid of it. She’d found a way to deal with the guilt and had some big plans for her unlife in the city of love, plans that didn’t involve killing everyone in her path. She’d made good on those plans and Spike could honestly say he was right proud of his great-grandsire.

Tara had sat quietly through Spike’s tale. Knowing his story nearly as well as he did, she had spent the time watching their guests rather than listening. She knew what was coming next, and based on what she had seen on these people’s faces and in their auras, she was certain the coming revelations would not be well received. A quick glance at Spike, and she knew that he had picked up on it as well. Tara rose from her seat and poured Spike another drink. She settled on the arm of his chair after handing him the glass, a hand resting gently on his shoulder in a sign of support. Spike, aware of Tara’s subtle repositioning and gentle support, threw the young witch a grateful look.

“What did you do next, Spike?” Giles asked resignedly, after several minutes of continued silence from the vampire.

Spike looked at the Slayer as he answered the Watchers question. He could see from the rigidness of her body and the blank look in her eyes, that the girl was close to breaking down. He only hoped he wouldn’t find himself on the wrong side of her powerful fists or pointy sticks if she did. “I tracked down Angelus.”

“And did you find him?”

“Yes,” Spike answered simply. “It took a while, but I tracked him to an area near Krakow, in what’s now Poland. He was staying in an unused barn, hunting animals in the woods to survive. I told him what I had found out about the curse and gave him what he needed to bind his soul.” Spike figured direct and succinct was the way to go. Angelus’ soul was obviously a sore spot for this group, though he couldn’t yet say why, and he saw no reason to sugarcoat the information for them.

“So, you are telling us, that several years after he was cursed, you told Angel about the curse, including what would break it, and gave him everything he would need in order to remove the curse and permanently bind his soul?” Giles asked with barely restrained anger, furiously wiping glasses.

“Yes...”

Anything further Spike was going to say, was forestalled by Buffy launching herself off of the couch. Without looking at anyone the Slayer ran for the front door, leaving it hanging open in her haste to escape. The rest of the Scoobies seemed frozen in place staring after her and Spike decided to take pity on them. Nothing more could really be accomplished without the Slayer anyway.

“I’m guessing now might be a good time to call it a day, Watcher. Doesn’t look like you lot can take in much more, and, well…” Spike trailed off, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the open front door.

“Yes, quite right,” Giles replied distractedly.

“Come back tomorrow, same time, and we’ll get on with this. Lots more to tell you, haven’t even gotten to the reason we’re here yet,” Spike said as he stood. He walked the still stunned group to the door, closing it gratefully behind them. He wasn’t sure what he had expected when he decided to come to the Slayer, but today sure as hell wasn’t it. Spike sighed deeply as he rubbed his hands tiredly over his face. This was going to be a lot more bloody difficult than he had hoped.

TBC...