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English
Series:
Part 2 of The Travellers Series
Collections:
Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-05
Words:
1,261
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1/1
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8
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The Travellers

Summary:

Fandom: AtS post NFA
Characters: Spike, Angel
Rating/Warnings: none.
Summary: It began with a story called Pilgrims' Progress and is now becoming a series. Los Angeles fell and the battle ended with a few saved at least. Spike started walking and Angel followed.

Work Text:

 

 

The Travellers
by Lilithangel
http://www.livejournal.com/users/lilithbint


They saw the blond first. He ambled into town wearing a long black coat without any other obvious belongings. He looked worn down and tattered around the edges, but his eyes were watchful. He also appeared to talk to himself as he walked.

Careful scrutiny by cautious eyes spotted his shadow. Taller, broader and darker he followed the blond focussed so intently he didn't seem to notice or care who was watching them.

It was a small town with more problems than it probably deserved so the two were watched from a distance to see if they brought more trouble with them.

They seemed an unlikely pair at first glance, but closer study showed a similar way of moving and air of extreme weariness that did not match their youthful appearance.

The blond settled in a booth with his silent shadow beside him and ordered two beers from the tired waitress. Aside from the order he completely ignored his silent companion, scanning the bar with a more than casual interest. His gaze rested briefly on a silent and still group at the back of the bar before moving on to connect with a redhead sitting at the bar. His lazy smile transformed his features and several of the watchers perked up.

His shadow glowered at him and made no effort to greet the young woman who slid into the booth beside the blond.

"I'm Lisa," she said with a coy smile.

"Hello Lisa," the blond returned her smile, "I'm Spike."

"Who's your friend?" she tried the smile on the shadow who just stared at her.

"That's Angel," Spike said.

"For real, Spike and Angel are your names?"

"Last time I checked anyway," Spike said, "just ignore him, he's not much for company."

"What about you?" she said, "are you much for company?"

"I'm a very sociable bloke when I want to be."

"Do you want to be tonight?" she practically purred.

Spike pursed his lips and then shook his head regretfully. "Unfortunately my socialising is pretty limited these days. Do you happen to know if anyone around here fancies a game of cards?"

"You want that lot." Lisa tossed her hair over her shoulder and nodded at the group that had caught Spike's attention earlier. She left the booth quickly as if being seen with them was risky to her health.

Spike studied the group more openly this time. He finished his beer and went to stand when Angel's hand stopped him. Angel's gazed flickered around the room and Spike saw that most of the locals had slipped out. Spike nodded his understanding but Angel didn't move his hand.

"What?" Spike said with some irritation.

"Chimera," Angel said. Spike looked at the group again and frowned. "Watch," Angel added.

Paying closer attention Spike realised what Angel meant. Although the five were separate individuals they moved and interacted more like a single entity. Which would make it a lot harder to beat them in a game of cards until Spike identified the head anyway.

It also meant that Spike wouldn't be getting his game of cards. The amount of power needed to force a group into a chimera was beyond most and had to be done for bigger reasons than cheating at cards. Angel jerked his head towards the door and Spike was tempted to agree. It was getting easier to communicate with the taciturn Angel even if he would prefer more vocal conversations, but before they could decide one of the group came over.

"Heard you might fancy a game of cards," the man said.

"Don't think I'd stand a chance," Spike said, "five against one and all. Or is it one against one really?"

Angel sighed at Spike's words and stood up as the man spoke again.

"What are you saying mister?" the man glared at Spike. The other four had also stood and were moving to join the first.

"I'm saying that as cheats go it's a pretty good one," Spike said and stood beside Angel, "what one sees the other sees, what one does the others all know."

The man frowned and his expression was matched by the others. Angel briefly touched Spike's arm and he saw the matching wrist tattoos they all sported.

"I think you two know more than is good for you," another man spoke.

"You think do you?" Spike smirked, "there's a surprise. So what is the big plan then? It can't just be a card con. Tell me it's more than another dumb idea for world domination."

They didn't reply, spanning out to try and surround the two vampires. Spike and Angel went instantly back to back. First two attacked and the other three stood back. They were stronger than normal humans but not used to fighting vampires and soon the other three joined in to try and tip the balance.

Spike was laughing despite a bleeding lip, bouncing on his toes to encourage his opponent to take him on. Angel fought grimly and silently, always keeping an eye on what Spike was doing. He took a couple of good hits for his distraction but only grunted.

One got the jump on Spike knocking him to the ground only to find Angel's fist in the way. Spike jumped back up quickly and spun the one that tried to jump Angel from behind. Angel copied with another and they banged heads together with a satisfying crack. A well placed boot and they were down to one on one.

The two remaining tried to run for it and Spike gleefully jumped over their heads and blocked the exit. Angel spun one around and clocked him while Spike head butted the other.

Pulling up the arm of the unconscious man Spike exposed the tattoo and showed it to Angel.

"Someone's been making deals with indelible marker," Spike said with amused disgust. "What is the world coming to?" He dropped the arm and wandered over to the bar. He snagged a bottle of vodka and a cloth and returned. "Really was just a small town shakedown."

A bit of not very careful scrubbing and the tattoos were obscured enough to negate the magic. Then Spike woke the five men up and let them see his vampire face. He nudged Angel and the older vampire followed suit.

"Play stupid games and you'll get the attention of worse than us next time," Spike said as the five men whimpered through their injuries. "Don't do it again."

The five men who had been terrorising the town refused to talk about what happened next to anyone, but the two were determined to find out where they had found the ritual. Two left town soon after and the other three lived very quiet lives from then on. A sixth man who did have visions of world domination was never seen again either.

A man and a woman who arrived later searching for the two found the locals very reticent about events. Nobody would admit knowing their names, where they had come from or what their next destination was going to be.

Lisa, who had seen the most of them refused to say any more than there had been some trouble and the two had fixed it for them and left. She didn't mention supplying them with fresh cow's blood or how solicitous the dark one had been towards the blond and she certainly didn't tell them about the evening they spent dying his hair and other things that the dark one just sat and watched.

The travellers continued on, with no fixed path and uncaring how long the journey would take.


END

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