The Fever, Part Seven 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 streets were empty. Far from the chaos and good hunting
Angelus had predicted, it was more like breaking into one of
those monasteries where everyone takes a vow of poverty and
trying to pick pockets. Even the gas lamps on the street corners
were unlit. Apparently, nobody cared to venture outside to do
it.
There was ample evidence that there had been trouble. The
buildings were decorated with broken windows, and the streets
dotted with abandoned carriages. Here and there on the
pavement were dark splatters that the vampires could easily tell
were dried human and vampire blood. The remains of a bonfire
-- undoubtedly an attempt to keep evil at bay -- blackened the
intersection of two boulevards. At another intersection the
remains of a barricade were strewn across the pavement.
A dead horse that seemed to have been ravaged by wolves or
starving dogs lay spread out on the cobblestones. One of its
legs had been torn off and its neck was twisted at an impossible
angle. Its throat had been torn out.
"There aren't any rats," Darla whispered. "Listen -- there's
nothing living within earshot at all."
"The humans are all hiding in their homes," Angelus replied in
a low voice. "Windows shuttered, doors barred. They don't
dare step out into the street. We're too late. It's over."
Darla shook her head. "It's more than that," she whispered.
"There should be scavengers. After a slaughter, there are
always scavengers -- rats, dogs, maggots and the like. There's
nothing moving here -- no rustles from the alleys, no skittering
from the shadows. Something's wrong."
Angelus paused and listened intently. When he heard nothing,
he sniffed the air.
"You're right," he whispered back.
"Why are we whispering?" Spike said loudly and impatiently.
"There's nobody to hear us. Some hunt this turned out to be."
Drusilla giggled insanely. "They'll be here soon enough," she
cackled.
"Be quiet!" Darla snapped.
"We're here! We're here! Come one, come all!" Drusilla called
out.
"Keep her quiet!" Angelus snapped at Spike.
"Drusilla, princess, Angelus wants you to be quiet," Spike said
with sarcastic sweetness.
"Doesn't matter," she giggled. "Daddy can't hide. They're
coming."
"Just the same, pet, let's humor him."
"Very well," the dark-haired vampire said with a prim smile.
"No matter. They're here." She pointed down the street ahead.
A small group of figures had emerged from an alley. They
were fighting amongst themselves, pouncing on one another,
rolling and tumbling, clawing and biting.
"What the hell?" Angelus said quietly. "They're all vampires.
And they're trying to feed on each other."
Drusilla laughed again.
Angelus strode forward to see what was going on. Darla didn't
follow him. She stood her ground, staring at the knot of
struggling figures.
When Angelus was about halfway to the struggle, Darla
suddenly called out to him.
"No! Don't go any closer!"
Angelus turned. "What?"
"Run!" Darla shouted. "Now!"
She turned and picked up her skirts to take off in the opposite
direction. Spike watched her in confusion.
The vampires had noticed Angelus' presence, and broke off to
come after him. Angelus hesitated for a moment, considering
the choice between assuming a defensive stance and running as
Darla had. The eerie silence was broken as the pursuing
vampires set up an ear-shattering howl. Angelus broke and ran.
Spike grabbed Drusilla's hand and dragged her along behind
him. She was struggling against him, trying to get away to join
their pursuers. Darla was out ahead, running as fast as her
skirts would allow. Angelus streaked past.
"You'd better get her moving," Angelus called back over his
shoulder.
Spike paused just long enough to snatch Drusilla off her feet
and toss her across his shoulder. He was moving again, and
caught up to Angelus and kept pace for a bit, even though
Drusilla was struggling against his hold and throwing her
weight back and forth, endangering his balance.
"Settle down, pet," Spike hissed.
"Let me go!" Drusilla screamed. "I have to go to them."
Angelus put on a burst of speed and pulled ahead of Spike.
They pounded down the street, looking for a way to escape the
mad, shrieking vampires on their heels. Darla ducked into an
alley and Angelus followed. By the time Spike got there, the
two older vampires were scaling the brick wall at the end --
their shoes kicked off, and their fingers and toes finding
purchase in the mortar. They skittered up the wall like huge
spiders, finding holds in what seemed like a smooth surface.
Spike couldn't follow them carrying Dru, and if he let go of
her, he was certain she wouldn't follow him up the wall.
"All right, then," he said under his breath. "We stand and fight.
Like it better that way, anyway."
He took Dru off his shoulder, and she immediately tried to
break away and go back the way they came. Spike took her by
the shoulder and spun her around to snap his fist into her face -
- just hard enough to do the job. She crumpled to the ground
unconscious.
"Sorry, pet. Can't protect you and keep you from running at the
same time. You'll thank me when you've got your wits about
you."
Spike stepped across her prone body to take up a defensive
position, his ridged and ferocious demon face emerging as he
prepared to make a desperate stand.
Suddenly, the mouth of the alley was full of vampires. But they
weren't coming toward him. There were more than there had
been before, and they were fighting each other again. They had
gone mad -- madder even than Drusilla. They howled and
snarled like animals. They tore at one another and bit one
another. Their blood was flying out in great gobs, splattering
against the brickwork and cobblestones.
Spike backed up slowly. He'd never seen anything like this. He
knew that vampires would occasionally fight one another --
particularly if there were a prize in the balance. But this was
something else entirely. There were no sides. Every individual
was fighting every other. They were tearing one another apart.
Spike took another step backward and realized Dru wasn't on
the pavement where he'd left her. He looked up and saw
Angelus' head sticking over the edge of the roof above.
"Come on!" he called. "Now, while they're distracted."
Thinking Dru must have come to her senses and gone up while
his back was turned, he kicked off his boots, leapt onto the wall
and climbed up. Angelus gave him a hand onto the roof. He
stood up and found only Angelus and Darla were waiting for
him.
"Where is she?" Spike demanded.
"I don't know," Darla said irritably. "She ran off while you
were watching the fight."
"I've got to go after her!"
"No! Go after her and you can't come back to us. Not ever!"
Darla said vehemently.
"What do you mean? Of course I'm going after her," Spike
replied. "How can you think of leaving her behind with
everyone gone mad down there?"
"If one of them so much as touches you, you're lost! If you
touch the blood they've spilled, if you even come near to one of
them, you're as good as dust," Darla replied.
Spike stared at the blonde vampire. Darla looked terrified. In
the eight years he'd known her, Spike had never seen fear on
her face, but he saw it now.
"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" he demanded.
"Yes, love. What are you talking about? What's going on?"
Angelus asked warily.
"It's the Blood Fever," Darla said in a hushed voice. "The
Master told me about it. He ran into it in Tuscany before the
Renaissance. He said it threatened to destroy every vampire in
Europe.
"The fever makes your hunger grow until it drives you mad.
First, the infected attack every human they can find, until
there's no one left to eat -- then the hunger drives them to feed
on one another."
"But it didn't wipe out every vampire in Europe, obviously,"
Angelus said impatiently.
"No. The Master stopped it. He chose sacrifices amongst his
followers. He tied them to stakes in the apse of an abandoned
church. He used them to lure the whole band of infected
vampires in; then he barred the doors and set it aflame. He
burned them all."
Spike backed away. "How can you even think of leaving
Drusilla out there?"
Spike was unmoved. "She's yours. Don't you revel in
reminding me of that every night of my unlife, Angelus? 'My
women,' you say. I'm just here to take care of your woman.
You created her. You claim to own her. And now you're
willing to walk away and leave her to that fate?"
"Throw your existence away if you like, you fool," Darla
snapped. "But for my part, I intend to be gone from this place
before the sun rises. I'm sure Angelus will be coming with me."
"We've got to get out of here without encountering any of
them," Angelus said with a frown, Drusilla seemingly
forgotten. "If we go back to the streets, we don't know when
one of them is going to come out of an alley or around a corner
at us. Even if we stick to the roofs, we may encounter one of
them."
"There's nothing for it. I say we stay up here and take our
chances," Darla replied.
Angelus nodded.
Spike backed away from them.
"Come with us now, or you're on your own, boy," Angelus
snapped.
"Run, if you like, coward," Spike sneered. "But remember this.
You've given her up for lost. She's not yours any more, and
she'll never be again. She's mine now, and I take care of my
own."
Spike stepped off the edge of the roof and plummeted to the
pavement below, where he landed in a feral crouch. He sniffed
the cobblestones searching for Drusilla's scent. Finding that
delicate fragrance among the odors of dung and blood and
mud, he followed.
Spike heard the door slam as Ralph went back inside. He
closed his eyes and continued to lean against the cool hood of
Gunn's truck.
His stomach hurt. His throat was raw. He was barely
suppressing the shaking.
So, this was what it meant to be human. It made him a victim
of his own body. Well, bugger that.
He stood up straight and forced his feet to walk back to the
house. No more hiding. No more watching. It was time to do
something... but what?
"Knox!" he bellowed as he came through the back door.
The light of her laptop screen illuminated Fred's face. She
paged through document after document, data table after data
table. She took quick notes in a separate window in the corner
of the screen.
"No -- that can't be," she mumbled, as she came across a
particularly unlikely bit of data. She went back several
documents and checked what she'd read again.
"What on earth are you up to?" she whispered.
Angel put his forehead against the glass of the panoramic
window of his office. It was cool. He seldom opened the blinds
unless it was night. He knew he didn't have to worry about the
sunshine, thanks to the special coating that kept out the harmful
part of the spectrum, but he still wasn't comfortable with
sunlight falling on his face.
The city lights twinkled through the darkness. It was an
impressive sight even if it was near midnight. He could watch
the moving headlights of the cars out on the freeway, or the
blinking wing lights of a plane landing at LAX, or the dark
skyline peppered with a few office lights still on in distant
glass towers.
Life was going on out there. People were meeting, separating,
falling in love, falling out of love, making deals and making
connections. But it was all on the other side of the glass. He
couldn't touch any of it. He was cut off, encased in steel and
specially formulated plastic that kept him safe, but also kept
him isolated. He was the bubble boy. Not so different from the
way he'd been keeping himself lately, he mused sadly. Not so
different at all.
Knox wheeled his chair over to the door and stuck his head out
of the computer room.
"What?" he asked, sounding like he'd rather be left alone.
"I want some straight answers," Spike said, steeling his voice
to keep out the tremble that was trying to creep in.
"OK, let's go outside," Knox said, glancing around furtively.
"No. I want answers here, where everybody can hear them.
Gunn, Ralph, get in here!"
"Look, there are things it might not be the best idea..."
Spike grabbed Knox's arm and yanked him out of his chair.
"I don't bloody care! We're all entitled to the truth -- me, Gunn,
Ralph, Maria and even them," he said, pointing to the four
restrained vampires.
"Now, wait a minute..."
"No, no more waiting. Now. What are you planning to do with
them?"
Knox bit his lip.
"Have you got a drop of humanity in you?" Spike said angrily.
"Can you take sentient beings and put them in agony and let
them die slowly?"
Knox frowned. "Oh, I guess they end up so much better off
when you break into their nests and stake them all?"
"I don't bloody torture them!" Spike shouted. He took Knox by
the shoulders and threw him roughly back against the wall.
"I don't do experiments on them. I don't kill them by inches
while they feel themselves dying for days on end."
Knox looked like a deer caught in headlights. Spike was
advancing on him, his face full of rage.
"I'm not killing them!" he blurted out. "They're not going to
die!"
"Liar!"
"No! Really! We've found a way to stabilize them in the second
stage! They'll be fine. They just can't attack people anymore!"
Spike backed off a step. He looked at Knox in disbelief.
"I'm not lying. It's the synthetic blood mix. We've added a
couple of things to it, and it keeps the disease organism in
check. They'll be fine as long as they have some of it every
day."
"Oh, God," Spike said, his voice dripping with revulsion. "It's
sicker than I'd guessed."
"What do you mean?" Knox asked, relaxing just a little, since it
seemed Spike might not tear his head off, after all.
"Wolfram & Hart can build an army of incredibly powerful
slaves. They'll be completely dependent on you and completely
controllable. And you don't even have to capture infected
vamps -- you can make your own."
Gunn and Ralph were in the room now, looking at Spike and
Knox in mute surprise.
"Spike..." Gunn said tentatively, "they can't be up to anything
like that. Angel runs Wolfram & Hart, and he'd never..."
"Wouldn't he? Then how do you explain this?"
Gunn shook his head. "I don't know... Something's not right.
Maybe we should call Fred."
"I'm through calling," Spike said angrily. "All I get is 'We can't
reach Angel right now.' I'm through. This stops here and now."
Spike went to a doorframe and pried off a bit of the wooden
molding, breaking it so it had a pointed end. Gunn's eyes
widened as the former vampire quickly dispatched the four
captives, plunging his makeshift stake into each and moving on
to the next. Then he went to Maria's bedside.
"No! Don't!" Knox cried out. "We need her. We're incubating
an antibody culture..."
Knox rushed over and tried to take the stake from Spike's hand,
but Spike pushed him away easily, knocking him off his feet.
"You can't do this. I only need a little longer!" Knox pleaded.
He started back toward Spike, but Gunn intervened.
"I wouldn't do that, man," Gunn said. "I don't think he's in the
mood to negotiate."
Ralph was paralyzed. He watched in mute horror as Spike
raised the stake over Maria's bed.
"Your choice, pet," Spike said. "Tell me what you want."
Maria looked up at him for a moment as if she didn't
understand what he was asking. Then she nodded.
"I think I want to go on living," she said quietly.
"You're going to be dependent on their synthetic blood mix,"
Spike said evenly. "You won't be able to harm humans, or any
living thing, for that matter. It will be like wearing a muzzle.
I've been there, love. I may not approve of what you do, but I
know what it's like when you can't. It's not going to be much
fun for you."
"Yes, I know. But... I think I want to try..."
Spike nodded. "All right."
He gathered her up and started toward the door carrying the
ailing vampire.
"Please! You don't know what you're doing!" Knox pleaded.
"Leave the female!"
"Ralph!" Spike barked, "get whatever they've got on hand of
the synthetic blood. She's going to need it, and you will, too."
Knox gave in, knowing he was defeated.
"There are two gallons in the kitchen," he said glumly, at least
hoping to stave off the demise of his prize specimens.
Spike motioned for Ralph to get it.
Knox stepped in front of Spike. "Look, I think I understand
where you're coming from. But this isn't the way. The Senior
Partners are very interested in this project. They aren't going to
stand still for you walking off with the main subjects. And you
aren't stopping anything, either. We have more subjects at the
other location. Maybe they aren't as far along as these two, but
we'll have them there in a week."
"You won't if I find out where it is," Spike said with narrowed
eyes. "This is wrong. If you don't know it, I feel sorry for you."
"They're going to send people after you," Knox said flatly.
"People a lot scarier than me. You can't believe you're going to
get away with this. And what are you going to do when the
synthetic blood runs out?"
Spike shook his head. "I haven't a clue. I'll worry about it when
the time comes."