Strength
Xander wasted yet another token in the slot machine and pulled the lever. He was killing time till they could go and pick up the laptop Spike had bought, and while he had slept well for once, he was too tired to do anything really. He was too restless to read, and too bored to watch daytime television and he was caught in between exhaustion and restlessness, as if something was crawling on his skin ever so slightly.
He’d already bugged Spike into leaving as soon as they had picked up the laptop and when Spike went down to get in some blackjack while waiting, Xander had packed up everything and checked out.
Still it had been so nice to actually sleep without nightmares. He didn’t know if it was because of the bath or the fact that Spike purred to him for most of the night but it helped, he didn’t feel quite so fragmented.
And waking up listening to Spike questioning the room service people about how many vitamins were in the cereal and if there was active bacteria in the yogurt was hilarious to no end. Not that he’d tell his Big Bad Mate that. Still the breakfast in bed was lovely, and Spike hand feeding him fruit in bed always led to more fun.
Still it made him all gooshy on the inside to know that Spike had read some of the books they’d bought already. The vampire didn’t need to sleep that much when he was well fed and healthy and always stayed up till nearly dawn then slept with Xander for just a few hours before his hyperactive nature had him awake and ready for the next night.
Spike also was a speed-reader. In fact if there was ever a contest between him and Giles Xander was sure that Spike would win, as long as the book was something he was interested in. If it wasn’t it would be good if he got even five pages into the book before abandoning it for something else, even if it was annoying his mate while Xander actually was trying to read.
Putting the lever on the slot yet again Xander spared a thought for their child and pitied any future teacher it would have. Between his class clown nature, and Spike’s attention deficit and hyperactivity the poor teacher was in for a world of hurt. And gods help them if they ended up home schooling.
He laughed at himself. Once again he was putting the cart in front of the horse, or some such old fashioned saying. Here he was thinking about school and all that when the child he was planning for wasn’t even a bump in his midsection yet.
Still he couldn’t help but wonder if it would be a boy or a girl. Blue eyes or brown? Maybe a boy with his eyes and Spike’s cheekbones. Still at this point he’s settle with a healthy child with ten fingers and toes. He knew most parents said that but it was far more likely that the Initiative’s version of Doctor Frankenstein fucked something up more than Mother Nature ever would.
He couldn’t wait to get away from Las Vegas. Too many people in one place, the Casinos were always crowed and even his sense of smell was overwhelmed at times from the scent of sweat and hairspray and perfumes. Now that it was early evening it was getting worse. Spike must be going insane.
He laughed to himself. He still remembered the first time he realized just how well the vampire could smell. It was right before Graduation and he’d been meeting Willow at the school to unload supplies for the bomb he was making from the back of Oz’s van. After they left Spike had come out of hiding to help him move the supplies to the right place, the vampire was a wiz at explosives surprise, surprise. He’d made a leering comment about what they’d been up to in the back of the van, nearly on top of the supplies, and Xander had felt his face turn red and he stuttered for five minutes while Spike had laughed.
Now he used that sense of smell to his advantage. He knew if he got within a hundred feet of the blackjack table and started thinking…fun thoughts, that Spike would smell it and well the last time he’d teased the vampire like that they’d had quite a bit of fun.
Suddenly the slot machine he’d been using as a cover for daydreaming lit up and tokens fell into the floor. He’d actually won something for once and Xander laughed, thinking it was his lucky day for once.
He didn’t realize how lucky. He stooped over to pick up his winnings as two men walked down the isle of slots in the next row. There was just something about them that set him off, he could see their shoes and they were too nice, too polished.
Xander found the answer to why it bothered him in the memories of the soldier. Army regulation spit shine.
Okay, they could be just two guys on leave looking for something to do. Then again they could be looking for him and Spike and they’d have to leave faster than he thought. As he stood up he tried to look around, making it look like he was looking for someplace to cash in his tokens. There were two more circling the floor on the other side, this time a man and a woman but the man’s hair was too short and the woman’s gait was too…off.
He had to get out of there and find Spike. Now.
He still took the time to get together his stuff. Nothing would make him look more suspicious than if he just left a thousand dollars worth of tokens. He made is way to the exit, trying to look as normal and touristy as possible. Maybe he should have gotten an old shirt like he used to have, there seemed to be a plethora of Hawaiian shirts in the casino. It would have made great camouflage.
“Excuse me sir. If you’ll follow me to the office we can help you get those tokens cashed in.”
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. The mantra circled around in his brain. Three men had stepped out of the isle and were trying to be so very helpful. Yeah right, he might not be as old as his mate but he wasn’t stupid. Still he’d have to play along.
“Gee, thanks…that’s nice of you guys lead the way.”
Okay three guys with him, and four others were floating around the slot room. Not good. What he needed was a distraction. Fortunately for him he’d watched way too many spy movies. He saw just the distraction he needed right up ahead.
It was a tour group of women. Middle aged women with too tight pants and too much make up trying to look younger. He knew the type; in fact his Mother was the type. Sweet faces and sweet words but underneath the façade total bitches and would do anything to get what they wanted.
He followed his escort meekly, babbling about how he never won anything and how lucky he was and what a great hotel and mainly trying to look as harmless as possible.
Just as he passed the group of harpies he let his foot catch on one of the chairs. He tripped and made sure to give the bucket of tokens an added flip. Tokens spilled all over the twenty or so women, rolled into the floor and generally made a serious mess.
The effect was instantaneous. Bodies flew off the chairs and into the floor as spandex clad women fought and grabbed over the money. One of his guards was pushed over and the other grabbed his elbow to help him off the floor. Xander used his weight against the man and pushed as he pulled and the man fell. The third man was quickly moving in and Xander kicked at his knee, only a glancing blow not enough to cripple but enough to drop the man.
Working quickly he got out of the area, moving to the edge of the room and headed for the exit. One of the people fighting over tokens had an oversized jacket and his picked it up as he passed, putting it on. He needed to find Spike and they needed to leave. Like five minutes ago.
As he made his way to the table game room, he noticed more people headed to where he’d just been. They were probably covering the exits now.
As he neared the blackjack tables he saw his mate’s head swivel towards him, and the vampire immediately got up leaving his hand at the table unplayed.
“Xander?”
“We’ve got company Spike, of the olive green variety. Did you get the laptop?”
As they spoke they were both moving towards the door and Xander immediately felt better with Spike rubbing against his shoulder.
“No Pet, picking that up later on the other side of town.”
“Good, let’s get the hell out of here. You think the spell on the rings stopped or something?”
He watches as Spike looked down to the rings the witches had spelled for them. “Dunno. Maybe these just help cloud their perceptions, but if they saw you it didn’t help. We’ll figure it out later eh?”
They made their way to the lobby and Xander could see all the military personnel in civilian clothes. He could see how they were armed and right about then he would have loved to have some sort of weapon. Yeah a knife and stake was all well and good when you fought demons, but these were humans.
They passed one set of soldiers looking the other way and Xander snorted to himself. Thinking “these are not the druids you’re looking for’ wasn’t going to help much. The hyena in his head was growling and he was certain if he could see his alter egos in the real world she would have been saying, “I told you so!” He recognized his restlessness from earlier much have been because he’d sensed something was coming. Xander made a mental note to listen to his brain more often.
Finally, after many doges and detours they made it to the exit and tried to look nonchalant. Xander looked at his mate wearing his beloved duster in the lobby of a hotel in the middle of a desert.
“Spike! Take off your coat and carry it.”
“No Xander, not the duster, don’t even think it!”
“I didn’t say leave it Blondie, I said carry it. For god’s sake only the dead would be wearing black or clothes like that in this climate. We may be going to the underground garage so you don’t have to worry about the sun but it looks funny and they’ll notice! Take it off!”
He rolled his eyes as Spike growled at him. Whatever. He knew that the Initiative had ways of tracking being with lower body heat, but he hoped the fact that Spike had been in a small room filled with people had masked that or confused it or something.
But now they were going into the garage where there weren’t many people. Bad because they’d stick out more, but good because if they were caught they could fight back.
He came to a stop before leaving the crowded room and acted like he was tying his shoes while Spike kept watch. He was wearing a long sleeve shirt so he was able to slip the ankle sheath holding his knife off quickly and attached it to his wrist. It didn’t fit right, but it was better than nothing. Standing up he let Spike lead the way.
“We have got to get me some better weapons.” Xander muttered to himself. He couldn’t risk the baby by fighting hand to hand unless there was no choice.
The garage looked empty but that restless feeling was back. Spike could feel something as well, he could tell because his lover’s eyes was more gold than blue and he could feel the growl that was so low he couldn’t hear it. At least they had gotten to the car okay though.
“Stop right there.”
Fuck. It was a casino worker at least but he was on a little walkie-talkie saying that he found someone suspicious. Before he could finish talking though Spike had moved and the man was on the ground, either unconscious or dead he wasn’t sure and he didn’t have time to look. Since he had the keys to the car he got to drive and he pulled away while Spike was still getting in the car.
A big truck moved to block the entrance but Xander managed to move around the front, the sides of the car scraping on the concrete walls as they drove away.
“And Elvis has left the building! Damn that was close! Where to now Spike?”
“Dunno Xander…guess just drive around or something. Are you okay Love? Fuck how did they find us? Sodding hell!”
He watched helpless as Spike took out his frustrations on the dashboard. He could feel the tension vibrating off of his lover and there wasn’t except anything he could do about it. Spike was the type to either kill what was bugging him or shag until it stopped bugging him and well they were in a car driving. Not the best place to have sex no matter what Charlie Sheen did in the movies.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Scared as hell and worried but okay. Hey you think there’s anything on the car, like bugs or tracking devices or something?”
“I doubt it Pet. They didn’t know which one we were driving. Still we may need to switch cars, did you have to hit the wall back there?”
“So sorry Spike, next time I’ll stop for the nice men in green.” He gritted his teeth. He knew Spike was just worried but that didn’t give him the right to snark. Most of the time they got along but every once in a while they’d end up bitching at each other till one or the other left to go kill something and blew off some steam. Or they had sex, either one.
Still the problem was they couldn’t do that right now, which left snark. Which he didn’t feel like right now but evidently his mate did.
“Don’t have to get so huffy Xander. Just think I should be driving that’s all.”
“Well by all means let’s just stop so we can switch. I’ll be happy to park somewhere nice and bright.”
Okay maybe he felt like snarking too.
The drove in silence for a while, and Xander was regretting his words. When he stopped at the next rid light he turned to his lover and spoke.
“Sorry Pet.”
“Spike…”
They looked at each other and finally laughed, and the tension ended somewhat.
“Still need to do something about the car Pet, that nice scratch down the side will make us easy to identify.”
“Is there someone you can call to arrange for another? Gotta admit I like this magicked glass.”
Spike sighed and leaned his head back on the seat. “Yeah, we might be able to get one from the same lady who’s doing the laptop up for you. I’ll ask and see when we go to meet her. She’ll know where we can get one at any rate.”
Xander fiddled around in his pocket while trying to drive, finally finding the cell phone and tossing it in Spike’s lap. “Call her and see, maybe we can get the car or at least hide out there till we can find one.”
“Good idea Pet.” Spike picked up the phone and was looking at the front while Xander had to move through rush hour traffic.
“Xander…how do you get this bloody thing to work?”
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