Fic update - Darkness Visible Chapter Six
Jun. 12th, 2007 12:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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gen_storytellerIt's been way too long - dunno if anyone is still interested, but here for the determined reader, is the latest chapter of my current WIP.
Once again, many thanks tobogwitch for being such a careful and patient beta and spikes_heart for cheerleading and encouragement!
Title: Darkness Visible
Pairing/Character: Spike and Anne plus a new Special Guest Star
Rating: G
Spoilers: Everything up to and including NFA
Disclaimer: I wish they were mine, especially Spike, but they are Joss’s. He really did say we could play though.
Story so far: Things in LA have remained dark after the battle, and demons of all sorts are partying. Spike has met old and new friends and acquaintances and is trying to make some sort of a difference.
Feedback? I yearn for it.
Chapter One is here
Chapter Two is here
Chapter Three is here.
Chapter Four is here.
Chapter Five is here.
Spike and Anne have brought their rabble of street kids and refugees to a hostel on the outskirts of LA, looking for somewhere a little safer. The last chapter ended:
Deep below him the scratching sound he’d been tuning out for a while seemed to be getting louder. Time to investigate. He put his shoulder to the heavy furniture, shifting it away with a rumbling, grating noise. Oh wonderful – this would alert anything. He tuned his hearing to its sharpest level. Nothing now.
Trailing his hands down the pocked walls he stepped carefully downwards. It was gloomy enough above, but here he had to rely entirely on his vampire senses. He could just make out the foot of the stairs and a narrow corridor leading off to the right. An ideal place for an ambush. Whatever nasty it was down there had to be bad news or it would have shown up before now. The cheerful calls of his pack of teens was about as unthreatening as you could get.
He snarled and threw himself down the last few steps, twisting to face the direction of the menace. He landed lightly on the balls of his feet, balanced evenly and ready to attack. Ten feet away, gripping a huge baulk of wood above its head, a demon waited for him.
Darkness Visible Chapter Six
Spike skidded to a halt, his fists still extended and his heels digging into the dust. The crumbling wall rasped against his knee, scuffing his jeans. His fangs retreated abruptly in surprise.
The demon’s eyes gaped wide. It backed into the wall, lost its balance and slid to the ground; its clumsy weapon crashed to the floor, forgotten.
“Spike? Is that really you, pal?”
Flakes of old plaster and whitewash cascaded as Spike steadied himself on the wall. “Of all the demons in all of the holes…”
The baggy-skinned monster grinned from ear to floppy ear. “Casablanca! Trust you to remember the good movies!”
“Clem, what in the name of all that’s unholy are you doing here?”
“Er – lurking?” Clem waggled his fingers propitiatingly. “Say, Spike, it’s good to see you. How’ve you been doing?”
It was impossible not to growl. “How do you think I’ve been doing? There’s been another apocalypse, Clem.” He strode forward and gripped a wide handful of skin. “Last time I saw you, Sunnydale was about to go crater-shaped. Now I find you in a different hole. You trying to tell me that’s a coincidence?”
There was an expression of comic alarm on the sagging features. “Yes! Or no! Well, both.” He yelped as the vampire tightened his grip and twisted a little. “Look, Spike, this is as far as I could get. I was visiting family in LA. Y’know. Hanging out. Trying to pick up the odd kitten here and there. I have this cousin who knows all the best demon bars – say, have you ever tried karaoke?”
”Can we get to the bleeding point here?” A not very gentle shake encouraged a return to the general vicinity of the point.,
“Then it all went down again. I got a nose for that sort of stuff. I tried to move on up to Sacramento – Mom’s cousins live there. They owe me a favour, so I thought I’d drop by. But this is as far as I made it. I can’t get any further, and this place was empty, so I thought, no harm done…”
He was babbling. Spike sighed and dropped him. “Deep breath, Clem. What do you mean, you can’t get any further?”
“It was getting bad down there. Really bad. Like I said, I got this far, then I met it. The barrier. It’s just over the ridge there.”
“Barrier? You mean some sort of mystical road-block?”
“That’s it,” Clem looked grateful. “No way out. You walk along a road, then bam.”
“Bam?” Spike settled against the masonry. Clem didn’t know how to do the short version.
“Yeah, bam. Like the sky drops down to the ground. You can see the sunshine beyond it, but there’s no going through. It’s like the sky meets the road, like in the old books, but this time it really…”
Time to cut him short. “What else can you see beyond it? People? Demons? Witches?”
“Nothing much. Landscape stuff, I suppose.” Clem had never been the most observant of creatures.
Spike sighed. “I think it’s about time we spread the joyful news. You’d better meet my gang.”
The demon looked alarmed. “Gang? Now, Spike old pal. I don’t know I want to get involved in that. You hear a lot about LA. I mean, if it’s you, I’m certain it’s all right. You’re good to go. But I think I’ll just hang down here, OK?”
Patience was a virtue. Knowing Clem gave good training in it. “Not that sort of gang. Kids. Their leader’s a girl. No special powers, but she’s good with stuff. She’s probably got better food than rat to share, too.”
The eagerness with which the demon scrambled to follow Spike was almost pathetic. At the top of the stairs Spike motioned him to halt, half-hidden by the elderly piece of furniture. “Stay here. I’ll get her.”
He slipped round the armoire and glanced up the hall to the door. “Carlos!” he hissed to the boy on guard. He hoped he’d got the right name.
The lad turned, curious, and smiled when he saw who was summoning him. “Yes, sir?”
How on earth had he got himself into a situation where boys like this called him sir? Spike jerked his head towards the room they’d assembled in earlier. “Anne? She still awake? Get her here for me.”
With the boy gone and Clem still cowering behind the furniture, Spike paced across the floor with his book. He flipped a page or two: another poisoning and a garrotting. Then a faint sigh made him look round.
“Carlos woke me. What is it? It had better be important.” Anne wiped the straggling hair from her face.
He grunted. “Need you to meet someone, pet. Old pal of mine, so don’t be worried by the way he looks.”
“Some old pals of yours tried to drain my friends dry.” Her crisp rejoinder startled him.
“This one’s different, love. Harmless as they come.” He raised his voice just a little, “Clem. Show yourself, mate.”
Anne might seem tough, but the flabby demon made her gasp and clutch the carved newel-post for support. Spike placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Clem’s been down there a while. Seems he knows some stuff about the neighbourhood. He might be willing to share.”
Clem grinned. It was probably supposed to be endearing, but it made the girl gulp again. “You did say harmless, right?” She faced Spike squarely.
“As a puppy. He’s been hiding out down there; scouted out the area too. He brought fuel with him.” Clem held out an ingratiating lump of timber.
Anne blinked, “I suppose I ought to know better. Nothing in LA should freak me. Hi Clem. What have you got to tell me?”
Clem stumbled out his explanation. Human women always seemed to make him uncomfortable, but Anne was patient – more so than Spike could have been with the rambling story. Once she’d picked out the essential elements she turned to Spike. “OK, so there’s a barrier of some sort. What does that mean for us?”
Carlos interrupted eager as any puppy. “Anne, it might have a gap in it! It might be a way out of town!”
“Or it might be a dead end.” She smiled at him with real affection. “All it means is that the road is closed here.”
“Well, no, luv. Could be a bit more than that. Sounds like a demon barrier. Could mean there’s a beasty we can beat up to get past. Got to be worth a try.”
Spike’s words made Anne twist her head and frown at him. “I don’t like the sound of beating up beasties.”
Glee danced in Spike’s eyes, a grin of pure joy suffusing his face, “I do, luv, It’s what I do. Big Bad here, remember?” He looked at her intently. “Don’t worry, pet. I’ll make sure none of your pack o’brats is hurt. Me and Clem’ll go see what’s what is all.”
An expression ludicrously like a beaten puppy’s crossed Carlos’s face. “Let me go. Please? I can help, really. I can run messages for you.”
Spike glanced inquiringly at the girl, “Let him come pet? He’ll be safe enough. Promise.”
Anne glared, then nodded. “Go on then. But come back safe or I’ll…”
“Flay your hide?” Spike grimaced. Not the sort of joke he enjoyed nowadays. Not for a couple of years in fact. He jerked his head at the boy. “Outside. And watch out for nasties creeping up on us.”
At the door Spike peered round, then raced for the cover of the bus. Clem and Carlos almost kept pace with him as he moved to the corner of the yard.
Beyond the low wall, which enclosed the parking lot on that side, there was an open patch of steep, rocky scrubland, bleached by the absent sun. The three paused for a moment, checking around them, then scrambled for the next closest cover, a withered bush. In every direction but the hostel the land stretched out, uneven and spotted with misshapen boulders, to lost mountaintops in the distance. Untouched even by the sickly sun, the range was hidden in the suffocating darkness, which reached down to engulf them.
“Which way?” Spike snapped. He felt too exposed, the pale solar disc a threat even in its vitiated state.
Clem waved eastward. “Over here – there’s a gully just over the ridge.”
Tentatively now, they clambered over the uneven surface, with frequent stops to check to their rear. Closer to the gully, rough scree made their footing more slippery and they slid as much as walked the last few yards.
As they made sense of what they saw ahead, they halted. The sky pressed down, quite literally into the soil, bending the dried grasses horizontal and cutting a groove through the rock-strewn ground. Beyond the sharp indentation, the earth glowed a rusty gold, reflecting a sunset that was invisible only feet away.
Spike reached behind him. “Shovel?”
Clem hastened to hand it over. “Spike, pal. Are you sure this is a good idea? That hostel’s a sweet little place. Nice kids, cosy bunks…”
“Food fast running out, packs of demons working their way towards us. Clem, mate, I had no idea you were so brave.”
The layers of skin shook as Clem retreated. “No, no. You’re right. You dig away. Go you!”
Ten minutes later a heap of soil lay to one side of a vertical trench. The side furthest away was sharply-incised. Clearly the barrier went deep. Spike brushed loose dirt from his hands and sprawled against the edge of his pit. This was not going to get them anywhere.
“You want me to try, sir?” Carlos approached, hand outstretched for the spade.
“You got super-strength kid?” Spike smirked, then relented. “Go on. Have a go, if you must.”
The boy reached for the spade and the loose ground beneath his foot gave way, toppling him into the ditch. He yelped and flung a hand out to save himself. A hand that went right through the barrier and into the light beyond.
“That’s it!” Spike punched the air – and drew a sore fist back sharply from the place where he’d connected with the barrier. He hooted in delight. “You can cross it! Me and my baggy friend here may be trapped, but you can get through and away.”
He leapt to the boy and half-lifted, half-hurled him up and into the barrier. As he’d expected, the lad went straight through. Flakes of sunshine glinted in his hair, turning the black iridescent. He grinned hugely and whirled around, “I see the sun!”
“You see. And you are seen.” A voice of thunder shook the soil around them, sending trickles cascading back into the hole. “What mortal are you who dares disturb my boundary? Get back whence you came.”
A bar of blue fire slashed across the dusty ground towards the group. The boy paled and toppled back down, sliding to join Spike in the gloom. He gripped Spike’s arm convulsively, terror in every lineament. Spike put him gently to one side and stepped up to the trench wall.
“Who the hell are you? And what are you creating a boundary for? Why can’t the kid go where he wants?”
The response rocked the ground. “Halfbreed. I sense the magic which holds your rotten carcase together. You may not pass. Not while evil holds sway in the city below.”
“Didn’t ask if I could pass. What’s the boy done to hurt you?”
“Mortals are of no interest to me. He may go where he will.”
“Not big with the consistency, are you?” Spike muttered, He raised his voice, “So, what’s it take to let a few more mortals out to see the sun, then?”
“I sense a trick, vampire. Why do you care about such beings?”
“Never mind why I care. They didn’t do squat to upset you. Won’t hurt to let ‘em go.”
“Intriguing,” the voice softened slightly, “you offer nothing, yet you expect compliance. Strange creature.”
“Don’t expect – just asking, is all,” Spike glared. “And you still haven’t said what your interest in all this is.”
“You do not need to know the Powers I represent! I offer you a deal, vampire. I will permit your humans to pass. But you must return to the centre of the disturbance and destroy it…”
“Yeah, yeah. Or perish in the attempt. I know the drill.”
“This is not the first time for you.” If it is possible for an earthquake to sound surprised, the voice achieved it.
“Bloody well nigh routine, mate. Got any tips how to do it?”
“I cannot give information without a sacrifice. What will you trade?”
Spike looked around. If Mr Boomy Voice cared so much about the task, why did he want a trade for basic information? He hunched his shoulders wearily. Always a bloody price to pay.
“You can trade me.” Carlos gripped the shovel, his knuckles white. “If I stay when the others go, that counts as a sacrifice doesn’t it?”
“The whole point of this is to get you kids out of here. And, no offence, mate, but what would it want with a scrawny kid from Crenshaw?”
More impressive booming. “A souled creature, offered escape, chooses to stay? That impresses me. You have a deal.”
“Now just wait a minute. I didn’t offer him. And if we’re talking souls here…”
“I detect your soul, vampire. It is soiled and damaged. This child has retained much that is clean, despite the world it comes from. The offer has been made and accepted. It is not for you to choose.”
“It sodding well is! He has no idea what he’s getting into.”
The Voice – definitely capitalised, that thing – continued calmly, “He goes to a certain death. That is what impresses me.”
Carlos blenched a little. It was one thing to volunteer, but the term “certain death” clearly had an impact on the teenager. Spike moved in front of him, impelled by a protective instinct he hardly recognised.
“Come on now, that’s a bit harsh innit?”
The reply echoed around the rocks in a manner Spike was rapidly coming to feel was needlessly melodramatic. “He must know what he faces. Would you send him ignorant to his fate?”
“Oh for the love of - enough of the drama queen stuff. This isn’t a throw himself to the lions sort of super-hero. He’s a kid – brave, stupid, willing. Give him a break. Give me one too while you’re about it.”
“Vampire, you tempt your fate. You reek of humanity and soul. Beware lest I destroy you.”
Spike paced back and forth. This was getting him deeper into the mess, which was always the way with him these days. “OK. I get it. O mighty one, what must this child do to appease you? And what’s in it for us?”
“Let him swear not to try to cross the line till the last of the darkness has been exorcised from this city. In return I shall permit the other mortals to pass through, and grant you the boon of a single contact with one who may lend you aid.”
“But they can cross anyway.”
“Not if I choose to forbid them. Just how far did your urchin get?”
“Point. So I get to phone a friend? As long as Carlos sticks with me? You up for that kid?”
Carlos had been twisting his head from side to side, attempting to follow the conversation and look for the source of the disembodied voice at the same time. He gave up and stared directly at Spike “Up, senor? Is it not down that we must go? Down into the city?”
Sooner or later the two languages thing would catch you out, even an adept bilingual like Spike. Patiently, slowly, he explained, “Are you really willing to agree to this? It’s not certain death, not if I can have any say in it, but it will be tough, brutal and dangerous. You can go along with Anne and the kiddies. No hard feelings here if you change your mind.”
Carlos shook his head. “No sir. I have seen what you did for us. We had no call on you, yet you brought us here, risking your very self for us. In return for the lives of my friends and sisters, I have nothing to offer but myself. I do so willingly.”
Spike gaped at him, awed. This boy might be a living cliché, but somehow in him it had a reality that was, well, real. If he was that determined to seek out glory, who was Spike to stop him?
“I grow weary of this. Make your choice, vampire or begone.”
“Right you are then. The boy stays. The rest go. Carlos, go fetch Anne and the others.”
The boy nodded, eager yet tense. He scrambled back to the hostel, his head held high. Spike sighed. Stopping this kid seeking martyrdom looked like it could become a full-time job.
Within ten minutes a ragbag assortment of youngsters approached, burdened by much of the gear they had unpacked so recently. Carlos looked flushed, determined and very tense. Anne frowned as she led her troupe to the pathetic little trench where Spike and Clem lounged while they waited.
“Is this some sort of joke?”
“Woman, be silent!” Anne jumped as the booming voice took her by surprise. As she searched round for the source it continued, “You have brought your charges here safely and deserve a reward. I shall permit you to leave this demon darkness and re-enter the world that seems normal to you.” Was that a sniff there? The tone was snooty enough.
“Why would you do this for us?”
“Be not so disingenuous!”
She blinked, processing the vocabulary as much as the accusation.
“The boy has told you all. I require a human to remain. Accept his choice and go. Now!”
There was a deep, intense, tangible silence. Beyond the line separating darkness from light, a ripple grew in the air. A vertical slit cut through the greyness and Spike leapt back as shafts of light radiated from it, cutting through the gloom. As the portal swelled, the golden light of early sunset transformed the landscape, giving even the scrub a welcoming glow.
A slow trickle of children clambered across the ditch and through the wound in the sky. Yet sooner than Spike could have hoped they were all through, staring round, screwing their eyes up to cope with the sun. Most of the older teens went through first, so the others were organised into groups, carrying their pathetic little bundles. Before long only Carlos and Anne were left.
Anne leaned in to Carlos. “I won’t forget this.” She grasped his wrist, gazed at his face, then leaned in to plant a soft kiss on his cheek. Before he could react she started to move, planting a foot firmly against the rocky edge of the ditch, and swung with her full strength, pushing him forward as she stayed back.
Caught by surprise the boy yelped and fell forward, tumbling into the sun.
Once again, many thanks to
bogwitch for being such a careful and patient beta and spikes_heart for cheerleading and encouragement! Title: Darkness Visible
Pairing/Character: Spike and Anne plus a new Special Guest Star
Rating: G
Spoilers: Everything up to and including NFA
Disclaimer: I wish they were mine, especially Spike, but they are Joss’s. He really did say we could play though.
Story so far: Things in LA have remained dark after the battle, and demons of all sorts are partying. Spike has met old and new friends and acquaintances and is trying to make some sort of a difference.
Feedback? I yearn for it.
Chapter One is here
Chapter Two is here
Chapter Three is here.
Chapter Four is here.
Chapter Five is here.
Spike and Anne have brought their rabble of street kids and refugees to a hostel on the outskirts of LA, looking for somewhere a little safer. The last chapter ended:
Deep below him the scratching sound he’d been tuning out for a while seemed to be getting louder. Time to investigate. He put his shoulder to the heavy furniture, shifting it away with a rumbling, grating noise. Oh wonderful – this would alert anything. He tuned his hearing to its sharpest level. Nothing now.
Trailing his hands down the pocked walls he stepped carefully downwards. It was gloomy enough above, but here he had to rely entirely on his vampire senses. He could just make out the foot of the stairs and a narrow corridor leading off to the right. An ideal place for an ambush. Whatever nasty it was down there had to be bad news or it would have shown up before now. The cheerful calls of his pack of teens was about as unthreatening as you could get.
He snarled and threw himself down the last few steps, twisting to face the direction of the menace. He landed lightly on the balls of his feet, balanced evenly and ready to attack. Ten feet away, gripping a huge baulk of wood above its head, a demon waited for him.
Darkness Visible Chapter Six
Spike skidded to a halt, his fists still extended and his heels digging into the dust. The crumbling wall rasped against his knee, scuffing his jeans. His fangs retreated abruptly in surprise.
The demon’s eyes gaped wide. It backed into the wall, lost its balance and slid to the ground; its clumsy weapon crashed to the floor, forgotten.
“Spike? Is that really you, pal?”
Flakes of old plaster and whitewash cascaded as Spike steadied himself on the wall. “Of all the demons in all of the holes…”
The baggy-skinned monster grinned from ear to floppy ear. “Casablanca! Trust you to remember the good movies!”
“Clem, what in the name of all that’s unholy are you doing here?”
“Er – lurking?” Clem waggled his fingers propitiatingly. “Say, Spike, it’s good to see you. How’ve you been doing?”
It was impossible not to growl. “How do you think I’ve been doing? There’s been another apocalypse, Clem.” He strode forward and gripped a wide handful of skin. “Last time I saw you, Sunnydale was about to go crater-shaped. Now I find you in a different hole. You trying to tell me that’s a coincidence?”
There was an expression of comic alarm on the sagging features. “Yes! Or no! Well, both.” He yelped as the vampire tightened his grip and twisted a little. “Look, Spike, this is as far as I could get. I was visiting family in LA. Y’know. Hanging out. Trying to pick up the odd kitten here and there. I have this cousin who knows all the best demon bars – say, have you ever tried karaoke?”
”Can we get to the bleeding point here?” A not very gentle shake encouraged a return to the general vicinity of the point.,
“Then it all went down again. I got a nose for that sort of stuff. I tried to move on up to Sacramento – Mom’s cousins live there. They owe me a favour, so I thought I’d drop by. But this is as far as I made it. I can’t get any further, and this place was empty, so I thought, no harm done…”
He was babbling. Spike sighed and dropped him. “Deep breath, Clem. What do you mean, you can’t get any further?”
“It was getting bad down there. Really bad. Like I said, I got this far, then I met it. The barrier. It’s just over the ridge there.”
“Barrier? You mean some sort of mystical road-block?”
“That’s it,” Clem looked grateful. “No way out. You walk along a road, then bam.”
“Bam?” Spike settled against the masonry. Clem didn’t know how to do the short version.
“Yeah, bam. Like the sky drops down to the ground. You can see the sunshine beyond it, but there’s no going through. It’s like the sky meets the road, like in the old books, but this time it really…”
Time to cut him short. “What else can you see beyond it? People? Demons? Witches?”
“Nothing much. Landscape stuff, I suppose.” Clem had never been the most observant of creatures.
Spike sighed. “I think it’s about time we spread the joyful news. You’d better meet my gang.”
The demon looked alarmed. “Gang? Now, Spike old pal. I don’t know I want to get involved in that. You hear a lot about LA. I mean, if it’s you, I’m certain it’s all right. You’re good to go. But I think I’ll just hang down here, OK?”
Patience was a virtue. Knowing Clem gave good training in it. “Not that sort of gang. Kids. Their leader’s a girl. No special powers, but she’s good with stuff. She’s probably got better food than rat to share, too.”
The eagerness with which the demon scrambled to follow Spike was almost pathetic. At the top of the stairs Spike motioned him to halt, half-hidden by the elderly piece of furniture. “Stay here. I’ll get her.”
He slipped round the armoire and glanced up the hall to the door. “Carlos!” he hissed to the boy on guard. He hoped he’d got the right name.
The lad turned, curious, and smiled when he saw who was summoning him. “Yes, sir?”
How on earth had he got himself into a situation where boys like this called him sir? Spike jerked his head towards the room they’d assembled in earlier. “Anne? She still awake? Get her here for me.”
With the boy gone and Clem still cowering behind the furniture, Spike paced across the floor with his book. He flipped a page or two: another poisoning and a garrotting. Then a faint sigh made him look round.
“Carlos woke me. What is it? It had better be important.” Anne wiped the straggling hair from her face.
He grunted. “Need you to meet someone, pet. Old pal of mine, so don’t be worried by the way he looks.”
“Some old pals of yours tried to drain my friends dry.” Her crisp rejoinder startled him.
“This one’s different, love. Harmless as they come.” He raised his voice just a little, “Clem. Show yourself, mate.”
Anne might seem tough, but the flabby demon made her gasp and clutch the carved newel-post for support. Spike placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Clem’s been down there a while. Seems he knows some stuff about the neighbourhood. He might be willing to share.”
Clem grinned. It was probably supposed to be endearing, but it made the girl gulp again. “You did say harmless, right?” She faced Spike squarely.
“As a puppy. He’s been hiding out down there; scouted out the area too. He brought fuel with him.” Clem held out an ingratiating lump of timber.
Anne blinked, “I suppose I ought to know better. Nothing in LA should freak me. Hi Clem. What have you got to tell me?”
Clem stumbled out his explanation. Human women always seemed to make him uncomfortable, but Anne was patient – more so than Spike could have been with the rambling story. Once she’d picked out the essential elements she turned to Spike. “OK, so there’s a barrier of some sort. What does that mean for us?”
Carlos interrupted eager as any puppy. “Anne, it might have a gap in it! It might be a way out of town!”
“Or it might be a dead end.” She smiled at him with real affection. “All it means is that the road is closed here.”
“Well, no, luv. Could be a bit more than that. Sounds like a demon barrier. Could mean there’s a beasty we can beat up to get past. Got to be worth a try.”
Spike’s words made Anne twist her head and frown at him. “I don’t like the sound of beating up beasties.”
Glee danced in Spike’s eyes, a grin of pure joy suffusing his face, “I do, luv, It’s what I do. Big Bad here, remember?” He looked at her intently. “Don’t worry, pet. I’ll make sure none of your pack o’brats is hurt. Me and Clem’ll go see what’s what is all.”
An expression ludicrously like a beaten puppy’s crossed Carlos’s face. “Let me go. Please? I can help, really. I can run messages for you.”
Spike glanced inquiringly at the girl, “Let him come pet? He’ll be safe enough. Promise.”
Anne glared, then nodded. “Go on then. But come back safe or I’ll…”
“Flay your hide?” Spike grimaced. Not the sort of joke he enjoyed nowadays. Not for a couple of years in fact. He jerked his head at the boy. “Outside. And watch out for nasties creeping up on us.”
At the door Spike peered round, then raced for the cover of the bus. Clem and Carlos almost kept pace with him as he moved to the corner of the yard.
Beyond the low wall, which enclosed the parking lot on that side, there was an open patch of steep, rocky scrubland, bleached by the absent sun. The three paused for a moment, checking around them, then scrambled for the next closest cover, a withered bush. In every direction but the hostel the land stretched out, uneven and spotted with misshapen boulders, to lost mountaintops in the distance. Untouched even by the sickly sun, the range was hidden in the suffocating darkness, which reached down to engulf them.
“Which way?” Spike snapped. He felt too exposed, the pale solar disc a threat even in its vitiated state.
Clem waved eastward. “Over here – there’s a gully just over the ridge.”
Tentatively now, they clambered over the uneven surface, with frequent stops to check to their rear. Closer to the gully, rough scree made their footing more slippery and they slid as much as walked the last few yards.
As they made sense of what they saw ahead, they halted. The sky pressed down, quite literally into the soil, bending the dried grasses horizontal and cutting a groove through the rock-strewn ground. Beyond the sharp indentation, the earth glowed a rusty gold, reflecting a sunset that was invisible only feet away.
Spike reached behind him. “Shovel?”
Clem hastened to hand it over. “Spike, pal. Are you sure this is a good idea? That hostel’s a sweet little place. Nice kids, cosy bunks…”
“Food fast running out, packs of demons working their way towards us. Clem, mate, I had no idea you were so brave.”
The layers of skin shook as Clem retreated. “No, no. You’re right. You dig away. Go you!”
Ten minutes later a heap of soil lay to one side of a vertical trench. The side furthest away was sharply-incised. Clearly the barrier went deep. Spike brushed loose dirt from his hands and sprawled against the edge of his pit. This was not going to get them anywhere.
“You want me to try, sir?” Carlos approached, hand outstretched for the spade.
“You got super-strength kid?” Spike smirked, then relented. “Go on. Have a go, if you must.”
The boy reached for the spade and the loose ground beneath his foot gave way, toppling him into the ditch. He yelped and flung a hand out to save himself. A hand that went right through the barrier and into the light beyond.
“That’s it!” Spike punched the air – and drew a sore fist back sharply from the place where he’d connected with the barrier. He hooted in delight. “You can cross it! Me and my baggy friend here may be trapped, but you can get through and away.”
He leapt to the boy and half-lifted, half-hurled him up and into the barrier. As he’d expected, the lad went straight through. Flakes of sunshine glinted in his hair, turning the black iridescent. He grinned hugely and whirled around, “I see the sun!”
“You see. And you are seen.” A voice of thunder shook the soil around them, sending trickles cascading back into the hole. “What mortal are you who dares disturb my boundary? Get back whence you came.”
A bar of blue fire slashed across the dusty ground towards the group. The boy paled and toppled back down, sliding to join Spike in the gloom. He gripped Spike’s arm convulsively, terror in every lineament. Spike put him gently to one side and stepped up to the trench wall.
“Who the hell are you? And what are you creating a boundary for? Why can’t the kid go where he wants?”
The response rocked the ground. “Halfbreed. I sense the magic which holds your rotten carcase together. You may not pass. Not while evil holds sway in the city below.”
“Didn’t ask if I could pass. What’s the boy done to hurt you?”
“Mortals are of no interest to me. He may go where he will.”
“Not big with the consistency, are you?” Spike muttered, He raised his voice, “So, what’s it take to let a few more mortals out to see the sun, then?”
“I sense a trick, vampire. Why do you care about such beings?”
“Never mind why I care. They didn’t do squat to upset you. Won’t hurt to let ‘em go.”
“Intriguing,” the voice softened slightly, “you offer nothing, yet you expect compliance. Strange creature.”
“Don’t expect – just asking, is all,” Spike glared. “And you still haven’t said what your interest in all this is.”
“You do not need to know the Powers I represent! I offer you a deal, vampire. I will permit your humans to pass. But you must return to the centre of the disturbance and destroy it…”
“Yeah, yeah. Or perish in the attempt. I know the drill.”
“This is not the first time for you.” If it is possible for an earthquake to sound surprised, the voice achieved it.
“Bloody well nigh routine, mate. Got any tips how to do it?”
“I cannot give information without a sacrifice. What will you trade?”
Spike looked around. If Mr Boomy Voice cared so much about the task, why did he want a trade for basic information? He hunched his shoulders wearily. Always a bloody price to pay.
“You can trade me.” Carlos gripped the shovel, his knuckles white. “If I stay when the others go, that counts as a sacrifice doesn’t it?”
“The whole point of this is to get you kids out of here. And, no offence, mate, but what would it want with a scrawny kid from Crenshaw?”
More impressive booming. “A souled creature, offered escape, chooses to stay? That impresses me. You have a deal.”
“Now just wait a minute. I didn’t offer him. And if we’re talking souls here…”
“I detect your soul, vampire. It is soiled and damaged. This child has retained much that is clean, despite the world it comes from. The offer has been made and accepted. It is not for you to choose.”
“It sodding well is! He has no idea what he’s getting into.”
The Voice – definitely capitalised, that thing – continued calmly, “He goes to a certain death. That is what impresses me.”
Carlos blenched a little. It was one thing to volunteer, but the term “certain death” clearly had an impact on the teenager. Spike moved in front of him, impelled by a protective instinct he hardly recognised.
“Come on now, that’s a bit harsh innit?”
The reply echoed around the rocks in a manner Spike was rapidly coming to feel was needlessly melodramatic. “He must know what he faces. Would you send him ignorant to his fate?”
“Oh for the love of - enough of the drama queen stuff. This isn’t a throw himself to the lions sort of super-hero. He’s a kid – brave, stupid, willing. Give him a break. Give me one too while you’re about it.”
“Vampire, you tempt your fate. You reek of humanity and soul. Beware lest I destroy you.”
Spike paced back and forth. This was getting him deeper into the mess, which was always the way with him these days. “OK. I get it. O mighty one, what must this child do to appease you? And what’s in it for us?”
“Let him swear not to try to cross the line till the last of the darkness has been exorcised from this city. In return I shall permit the other mortals to pass through, and grant you the boon of a single contact with one who may lend you aid.”
“But they can cross anyway.”
“Not if I choose to forbid them. Just how far did your urchin get?”
“Point. So I get to phone a friend? As long as Carlos sticks with me? You up for that kid?”
Carlos had been twisting his head from side to side, attempting to follow the conversation and look for the source of the disembodied voice at the same time. He gave up and stared directly at Spike “Up, senor? Is it not down that we must go? Down into the city?”
Sooner or later the two languages thing would catch you out, even an adept bilingual like Spike. Patiently, slowly, he explained, “Are you really willing to agree to this? It’s not certain death, not if I can have any say in it, but it will be tough, brutal and dangerous. You can go along with Anne and the kiddies. No hard feelings here if you change your mind.”
Carlos shook his head. “No sir. I have seen what you did for us. We had no call on you, yet you brought us here, risking your very self for us. In return for the lives of my friends and sisters, I have nothing to offer but myself. I do so willingly.”
Spike gaped at him, awed. This boy might be a living cliché, but somehow in him it had a reality that was, well, real. If he was that determined to seek out glory, who was Spike to stop him?
“I grow weary of this. Make your choice, vampire or begone.”
“Right you are then. The boy stays. The rest go. Carlos, go fetch Anne and the others.”
The boy nodded, eager yet tense. He scrambled back to the hostel, his head held high. Spike sighed. Stopping this kid seeking martyrdom looked like it could become a full-time job.
Within ten minutes a ragbag assortment of youngsters approached, burdened by much of the gear they had unpacked so recently. Carlos looked flushed, determined and very tense. Anne frowned as she led her troupe to the pathetic little trench where Spike and Clem lounged while they waited.
“Is this some sort of joke?”
“Woman, be silent!” Anne jumped as the booming voice took her by surprise. As she searched round for the source it continued, “You have brought your charges here safely and deserve a reward. I shall permit you to leave this demon darkness and re-enter the world that seems normal to you.” Was that a sniff there? The tone was snooty enough.
“Why would you do this for us?”
“Be not so disingenuous!”
She blinked, processing the vocabulary as much as the accusation.
“The boy has told you all. I require a human to remain. Accept his choice and go. Now!”
There was a deep, intense, tangible silence. Beyond the line separating darkness from light, a ripple grew in the air. A vertical slit cut through the greyness and Spike leapt back as shafts of light radiated from it, cutting through the gloom. As the portal swelled, the golden light of early sunset transformed the landscape, giving even the scrub a welcoming glow.
A slow trickle of children clambered across the ditch and through the wound in the sky. Yet sooner than Spike could have hoped they were all through, staring round, screwing their eyes up to cope with the sun. Most of the older teens went through first, so the others were organised into groups, carrying their pathetic little bundles. Before long only Carlos and Anne were left.
Anne leaned in to Carlos. “I won’t forget this.” She grasped his wrist, gazed at his face, then leaned in to plant a soft kiss on his cheek. Before he could react she started to move, planting a foot firmly against the rocky edge of the ditch, and swung with her full strength, pushing him forward as she stayed back.
Caught by surprise the boy yelped and fell forward, tumbling into the sun.
