The Fever, Part 2 Author: Elsa Frohman Rating: PG-13 Spoilers: Post Chosen. This is my AU AtS S5. Summary: Spike is back, and he's human -- sort of. He's
working for Wolfram & Hart as an outside contractor.
Liverpool, 1888
The private compartment was stiflingly hot. If any of the four
passengers had needed to breathe, they would have been very
uncomfortable indeed. The curtains were tightly drawn to
exclude sunlight, and a notice had been hung on the door
outside warning porters and conductors not to disturb this
travelling party.
The car swayed and bumped along the track in syncopation to
the steady chug of the steam engine many cars forward of their
position.
On one side of the car, an elegantly beautiful blonde woman in
a light-blue, wool traveling ensemble slept with her carefully
coifed head pillowed on the shoulder of a large, expensively-
dressed man with shoulder-length brown hair and mutton-
chops. For his part, he sat stiffly, glaring at the couple on the
opposite set of seats.
The pair on the other side was a stark contrast to their
travelling companions. The dark-haired woman in black silk
had curled up on her side on the seat with her head in the lap of
a younger man in workman's trousers and braces. Like his
counterpart, he was awake, idly stroking his lover's hair as she
slept. His honey-brown locks were pulled back in a small
ponytail and spilled over his forehead in unruly curls in the
front. He was slender and wiry, and his face wore an
expression of insolence as he gazed back at the other man.
"You've been playing the gargoyle for hours, mate," the
younger vampire said at last. "Give it a rest. Your face is going
to be stuck that way."
"You're going to be the death of us all," Angelus growled.
"Yah, yah... Heard it all before, Peaches. We got away -- it
wasn't even close. You're gettin' timid in yer old age."
"We had a good place. Now we've got to start over."
"We'll find another. Liverpool's wide open. Find someplace
better. Bet it'll even have a view to please Miss Snobbynose."
"You keep that up, boy-o, and one of these days she's going to
tear your head off -- if I don't first."
Spike made a rude nose. "Talk, talk..."
Drusilla stirred. She raised her head and looked at Spike with
bleary eyes.
"We there yet?" she asked.
"Not yet, princess," Spike said gently. "Not long now."
"Don't like the train," Drusilla said with a frown. "Clackety,
clackety, clack. Drowns out the orchestra."
"What orchestra, love?"
"My orchestra. They follow me wherever I go, playing the
songs I dance to." She sat up straight and began to sway to
music only she could hear, her eyes closed and her face a mask
of concentration. Then she stopped. "It's too hard to hear with
all that infernal clackety-clack!" she whined.
"We'll be there soon, and you'll hear your orchestra as clear as
real, sweetheart."
Darla's eyes opened, and she straightened up, raising her hands
to pat at her hair to make sure it was still in place.
"Do they take requests?" she asked with a smirk.
"Oh, yes, Grandmother. They will play anything I ask them to."
"Let me see, how about some Wagner, then? A little bit of
Gotterdammerung?" the blonde woman said derisively.
"Don't like that," Dru said with a pout. "My musicians are
playing hornpipes for me now. Songs of the sea and the men
who sail upon her. They dance so nicely with their bare feet on
rough planks. They dance until their feet are bleeding, and I
lick the ruby nectar from their toes."
"Rather rip their throats out m'self," Spike said with a chuckle.
"Gotta wait too long for their feet to bleed."
"Plenty to have anyway we want," Dru said, her eyes
brightening.
The train whistle blew to signal they were approaching the
station. Angelus stood and took his carpetbag down from the
shelf above.
"All right. It will be dark soon, and we can start looking for a
new place to live. In the meantime, you two are to behave -- do
you hear me? Don't draw any attention to us."
"I know the routine," Spike replied. "Hang around the station
until it's dark enough to go out. Act like we're waiting for
another train."
"We don't feed until we're well away from here," Angelus said
firmly.
Spike nodded sullenly.
"But I'm hungry," Dru whined.
"I don't care," Angelus snapped. "Do nothing until we can
move about freely."
"Yes, Daddy," Dru said, smiling sweetly.
The train shuddered to a halt with a hiss of released steam and
the squeal of steel brakes.
Darla parted the curtains slightly and looked out. They were in
the station, under a long, iron shed that protected the platforms
from the elements.
They stepped down off the train onto a platform that was all
but deserted. They seemed to be the only passengers
disembarking at this station.
"Seems odd," Darla said quietly as they made their way down
the walkway beside the idle train.
Angelus shrugged. "Fewer people to take notice of us."
"Empty station, an empty palace," Dru said in a sing-song
voice, as they moved into the station waiting room, which was
deserted except for a lone ticket-seller behind a window at one
end.
The dark-haired vampire began to sway, then pirouetted and
danced across the empty waiting room. Spike went to her and
caught her around the waist. They danced together to Dru's
silent orchestra, swinging around the rows of seats and
spinning down the aisles.
Darla raised an eyebrow. "So much for not calling attention..."
Angelus shrugged. "At least there's nobody here to see it."
"Something's wrong here," Darla said with a slight frown.
"This station should be full of people."
Angelus went over to the ticket window and tapped to get the
clerk's attention.
"Not doing much business today?" he asked, trying to sound
casual.
"Haven't you read the papers?" the clerk said irritably.
"No, I have to admit I haven't. We've been traveling, and I
haven't been keeping up."
"Your loss, mate. Nobody in their right mind would come to
Liverpool right now. And the ones with their wits about them
have left already."
Angelus frowned. "Plague?"
"Perhaps, don't know really. Whatever's causing it, it's the
devil's work. Attacks every night. You'd best find your lodging
before the sun goes down.
"This town has gone crazy."
Drusilla's mad laughter echoed through the empty station.
"Can't you feel it?" she cried out. "It's here! It is enormous, and
it is angry. It burns! It's drenched in blood! It's glorious!"
Gunn frowned.
"You'd better start explaining right away," he snapped. "What
do you mean we've both been exposed?"
Spike closed his mobile phone and put it back in his pocket. He
took Gunn's forearm and pointed to the scratch Ralph left
during Gunn's brief struggle with the vampire.
"Blood fever," Spike said.
"You mean I'm going to get sick?"
"No, probably not. This thing doesn't actually take hold in
humans. But you're a carrier now. It's in your blood. Any
vampire you come in contact with is going to be at risk."
"Any vampire... like Angel..." Gunn said slowly. "But he's not
going to drink my blood."
"Doesn't matter. It's searching for vampires. When an infected
human comes within a few feet of an uninfected vampire, it
jumps. And if you went to the office and didn't even get near
Angel, it would jump, human-to-human, until it got to him."
"What about you?"
Spike shrugged, but he looked worried. "I have no idea. It
might go for me -- then again, it might not. I still have some
vampire characteristics. I don't know enough to know whether
I can get it or not. But even if I can't, I'm a carrier now. And
that means I can't go back to the office, and neither can you."
"Shit!" Gunn said softly. "I thought vampires never got sick!"
"Not often. But there are things that can infect vampires; this is
one of them. I think it's a parasite -- a demon that feeds on
other demons."
"What's with this first stage and second stage stuff -- and is
there a third stage? And if there is, do I want to know about it?"
Spike shook his head. "The third stage is dust. The parasite has
consumed so much of the vamp that he can't exist anymore.
The third stage isn't our problem."
"OK, what about the first and second stages?"
"Maria is second stage. She can't feed on living blood anymore.
The parasite wants demon blood. She can only feed on other
vampires. When this spreads -- and believe me it will -- you
won't want to see what happens. The vampires of Los Angeles
will be tearing each other apart. There will be battles on every
street corner, every night."
"Vamps fighting vamps -- not sure what the downside is there,
bro," Gunn said with a frown.
"The downside is the first stage," Spike said quietly. "You're
already seeing it -- a 23 percent increase in vampire attacks. By
next week it will double or triple -- if it doesn't go higher than
that. Hundreds, if not thousands of humans will die."
"Shit," Gunn said quietly.
"You mean Maria's going to die?" Ralph whimpered. He was
still on the floor holding the female vampire as she trembled.
Spike sighed. "I'm sorry. I don't know of any cure."
"Por favor," Maria said weakly, "kill me now. I can't stand it
any longer. I'm so hungry."
Spike crouched down next to her.
"I know you're in pain, love" he said gently. "But you've got to
hold on a little longer. We've got to stop this before it spreads
any further. I've called for some people to come here, and
they're going to need blood samples so they can investigate the
parasite. It's important. If you help us, there's a chance -- I can't
promise anything, mind you, but it's a chance -- that they can
help you."
"Maria will help you," Ralph said. "Won't you, sweetheart?
She'll help you, and I'll help you, and you'll cure her!"
"I don't know about that, Ralph," Spike said sincerely. "This
isn't Star Trek. But we've got to try to find a way to stop this
from spreading. I can promise that we'll do our best."
"I don't care about finding a cure," Maria said with a sneer. "I
just want the pain to stop."
"I'll ask them to make you more comfortable," Spike replied.
"But you've got to help us."