Woo, an update. Hopefully my formatting doesn't get borked.
The stairs to the second floor were blocked off, but Buffy's acrobatic experience stuck with her through her death and she vaulted up the crates to the railing above. Jack said that he'd meet her inside, and given the Sad Bats on the first floor, she'd need to be prepared when heading up to meet him. The knife she'd picked up off of the one would come in handy if she ran into more hostile vampires. Rare was it that she'd have non-hostile encounters with vampires, and tonight she'd had both. Hell, she was now one herself, so there was that.
They think they know the way, but they get lost on the road of life. Did the voice sound a bit different this time? Maybe there was more than one in there. Hah. As if the night wasn't crazy enough already, but she'd felt more herself since leaving that kangaroo court than she had since waking up in the asylum.
"Hoo-ee, girl. I caught the tail end of your little scrape there…" Jack was leaning against a wall near a window. The moonlight glinted off his face, as he looked outside for a second. His voice came out barely above a whisper. "You definitely haven't lost many skills since high school."
"Jack, those Sad Bats tried to kill me, what's the what?" Let it not be said that Buffy couldn't take a hint. She kept her voice in the lower decibels as well.
"Heh. Sad Bats, I'm going to have to remember that one. Their proper name is Sabbat. They're trying to raid the place. They're uh… Christ, I was hoping to spare this shit until later. Mostly they're mindless bloodthirsty assholes." Jack glanced out the window again.
Buffy raised an eyebrow. "They're here, why? Splain-y, please…"
"They got wind of this here gathering, so they figure they'd raise a little hell to put some heat on the 'Prince.' Before you ask, we ain't got time to go into all the political particulars. You've proven you can handle yourself against them, better than any fledge I've seen before."
"They're dumb vampires, how hard can they be?" Buffy shrugged.
"Normally I'd agree with you, but these goons seem to be a bit smarter than the average shovelhead they use. Heads up, take a look out there, easy though."
Buffy listened and edged her way toward the window and looked out at the alley below. Standing at one end of the alley was the man who executed Julia, swordless. The hulking behemoth stood opposite two Sad Bats with Uzis behind a thing that reminded her of the Gentlemen's minions.
"DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!" One of the men let out a crazed laugh as he ran forward, firing his gun. The clawed vampire galloped forward at the giant of a man who calmly raised his right hand. Blue energy gathered around the outstretched hand and behind the approaching Sad Bats two spiritual wolves gathered from the aether.
Observe the Sheriff, my childe. Note his strengths… That definitely was a different voice, and it was more familiar, more direct.
The spectral wolves pounced the gun-toting vampires, tearing out their throats in an instant. Wait, the vampires weren't turning to dust. They were just… bleeding, being eaten by the spectral wolves. They'd been men, not vampires. The clawed one on the other hand, ignored the plight of its companions, and it continued forward. The executioner held out his hand and blew as if one would a kiss. The charging vampire dusted instantly, turning into fire and ash.
Lowering his fist, the giant turned to look up at the window, spotting Buffy within it. Buffy tensed her muscles. There was no way she was ready to fight that. Avenging Julia wasn't in the cards right now, and perhaps it wouldn't be ever. She wasn't going to be able to deal with someone who could dust her without even laying a finger on her at the moment. When the giant lowered his head and started out the alley, Buffy breathed out a sigh of relief.
Jack chose to speak up then. "Idiots. Frenzied bastards. Right, we better get out the back. That should have been the last of them, and I'm pretty sure your ride's not much further."
Buffy would have spoken up, and hell, she could practically hear voices urging her to. However, she was still a little shaken at the casual ease that giant had displayed down there as she made it toward the office door. Trying it once, she shook her head. Locked. Of course it was. Luckily she knew of the best way to deal with that sort of thing. Lockpicking, Slayer Style. With a hard shove, she managed to pop the door off its hinges and slide it away from the door frame. The exit had to be through this office.
Jack, of course, had somehow managed to get inside without her seeing.
"… How? You were out there less than a minute ago…" Buffy needed a bit of an explanation.
"Shortcut… well-hidden. Very expensive." Jack commented. "You didn't seem to have any trouble."
"Carnegie hall method." Buffy commented, briefly wondering if that bit of old adage would be too young for the vampire ahead of her.
"Ah, yeah. Cool. So, bit more of a lesson here. See those Sabbat assholes? Don't act like them. You might be a big bad vampire now, which yeah, is kind of awesome. Keep it quiet. You act like the big bad vampire, you saw what happened. Hell, you did some of it yourself."
Buffy nodded. "Wasn't planning on becoming a Big Bad, anyway. Not even a Medium Bad. Just wanted to figure out what I was trying to do and what Julia wanted with me… "
"Yeah, do that on the down low. Same reason you don't let humans see you feeding. It's why the wolf doesn't want the sheep to know he's there. It's also why you don't go jugglin' dumpsters or outrun the 8:15 from Sacramento. And it's why you didn't know any of this before what happened at your High School. It's why you didn't see anything between then and now either." Jack paused. "Usually with new fledges, they learn this shit from their sires. They don't really know much before they get turned. Keep our secret, secret, and you make things easier on all of us. There's lots of cameras around… fuckups ain't tolerated. Should make sense enough. It's not so casual to a fledgling like you though."
Jack's statement there sounded focused. Buffy needed to clarify. "What exactly do you mean, like me? I mean, yeah, I'm all lacking in the sire-y department, but I'm not all that different… am I?"
"That party back there, with the assholes that killed Julia? That's the Camarilla. Hmph. They make a tidy business out of enforcing 'vampire laws' like this one. They didn't save you out of any sort of generosity, really."
"So, wait, you don't like the Camarilla? Not that I like the Jester Prince of Pooferton anyway…" Buffy shook her head.
"Hah! Slayer, you took what I said to heart!" Spike's voice was right by her ear, but she couldn't see him. Why, exactly, did he always appear as an auditory hallucination rather than just a voice in her head? "Because I'm me, pet. Now, the combination for the safe is easy…"
"I'll tell you what I think some other time, maybe. I like to let people form their own opinions." Once again, Jack couldn't hear Spike so he had continued. "Now, we need to get through that door, and it's magnetically sealed. There should be some sort of keycard somewhere. That brings me to my next point. You do what you gotta do to survive. Theft, destruction of property, breaking and entering? You'll probably do all that and more before the night's out. Now, take a look for that keycard."
Buffy immediately went over to the safe, and looked at it. Electronic lock, linked by wire to the computer next to it, and the computer was running…. Windows 3.1? Utilizing what she knew from working with Willow, she looked around for the password.
"Password's 'notepad', love. Put it in, and you should be able to unlock that safe. Otherwise, you'll need to use that knife of yours to cut the green wire." Spike was sitting in a swivel chair with his feet up on the desk it was next to. He had no cigarette in his mouth, but she could still smell the tobacco on his breath from where she stood.
She input Spike's password, and she idly wondered why anyone would use such a word to protect their computer. Once logged in, she easily accessed the electronic lock on the safe which then popped open. Inside were a few stacks of cash and a keycard.
"Take what you need, kid." Jack said from behind her. "Car's probably waiting for you outside."
Buffy nodded and stuffed her pockets with the cash before brandishing the keycard. "Okay, got the card, let's get out of here, Jackie…"
"Just Jack, kiddo." Smiling Jack's ocean of blood lies far away.
"Jack then…" Outside the door, a horn beeped twice, signaling a waiting car. The chariot awaits to bring us to the home of the fleet-footed god.
"Looks like we'll have to continue our chat another time, Buffy. I'll go make sure it's clear, but you should get to your car."
Buffy nodded and used the key on the door, disabling its magnetic locks. Jack went through first, but Buffy continued down after him, descending the stairs to find a taxi waiting for her. The man driving the cab was, like most everyone she'd met that night, a vampire, but one with fair skin and chose to wear modern clothing. His eyes were covered with sunglasses, likely to hide their inhuman nature.
That said. There was something off about him. Something that was supremely wrong and frightened her to the bone. She knew she needed to be on this cab, but with every step, she could hear the thrum of voices in her head get louder. The Dark Father takes us on a journey to follow his dark footsteps!
"H-hello…" Where. No. No… she would just… get in the cab. With the driver who wasn't going to talk much as he drove off to wherever she was going to be taken. Santa Monica! Santa Monica was where she was going to be taken. Nowhere near home. Good. The burning question within her for the cab driver could wait until she needed his services again. She wasn't going to ask it now.
Instead, she just rode in silence as she forced those feelings out and contemplated her new un-life. Santa Monica would come soon enough, and it certainly was a beautiful night….