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“Can you hear him up there?”

Dawn’s voice was barely over a whisper, as she asked her terse question of the vampire who had just come into the room from the kitchen, the moment that Xander had disappeared up the stairs.

The one thing they had all managed to agree on was that it would be to their advantage if Xander did not know that Angel was in the house. It was fairly certain that after Angel’s threats, and aware that the older vampire possessed senses that the humans did not, Xander would be too cautious to try anything at all if he knew that Angel was around.

So Angel had stayed out of sight in the kitchen until Xander had gone upstairs – but not a moment longer.

“Of course I can,” he replied, a bit more sharply than he meant to. “Shhh.”

A moment or two of tense silence was all that Dawn could stand before she broke the silence again with a loud whisper, “Well, what’s he saying?”

“Quiet,” Angel barked, his dark eyes focused intently up the stairs, though he could not see anything from where he stood next to the couch.

No one was seated on it anymore.

As Buffy and Dawn both stared anxiously at the vampire, his chocolate brown eyes glowed golden with rage, and a low growl rose in his throat at something that he had just heard.

“What?” Buffy demanded with alarm in her voice. “What did he say?”

Angel turned his furious gaze on her for a moment, piercing and accusing. “You don’t want to know,” he told her.

“Yes, I do!” Buffy snapped incredulously. “Tell me!”

Angel shrugged. “You’ll probably want him to demonstrate what he just said to Spike before you’ll actually believe it anyway – and by then you’d all be dead.”

Buffy’s eyes widened with shock, as they all fell silent, taking in the deadly implications of his words. Suddenly, Angel jerked slightly forward toward the stairs, his eye widening as he barely managed to keep himself from taking off up those stairs, and to his childe’s rescue.

“He’s in,” he told Buffy, his voice low and grim. “And the door’s closed.”

“Okay,” the Slayer drew in a deep, shaky breath, moving toward the stairs herself. “We’re on, Anya – let’s get up there.”

***********************************

“See – I’ve got a real problem with what I’m seeing here, Spike.”

Xander spoke in a soft, casual yet menacing voice, as he slowly advanced on the terrified vampire, who was desperately scrambling backward across the floor in an attempt to put as much distance as he could between himself and the boy.

“After all the times I’ve told you – all the time I’ve spent trying to get it through your stupid head…”

Spike’s back hit the bed, and he realized with a rising sense of panic that he had nowhere left to go, as Xander closed the gap between them, and reached down to jerk him to his feet by the collar of his shirt.

A nasty smirk came across the boy’s face as he finished, “…you still think you have half a chance of getting away from me! Well, guess what, Spikey?”

Releasing one side of Spike’s shirt, Xander drew back a surprisingly powerful fist and slammed it without warning into the smaller vampire’s face. Spike let out a startled cry of pain, his hand rising to his swiftly bruising cheek – before he suddenly raised wide eyes full of shocked understanding to meet the hatefully satisfied gaze of his attacker.

“That’s right,” Xander sneered softly. “I think you’re beginning to get it, aren’t you? Wow, you really must be getting a lot smarter, huh?”

He paused, leaning in closer to Spike’s face, chuckling softly as the backs of his knees hit the bed and he lost his balance with a soft gasp of fear. Before Spike could fall backward onto the bed, one of Xander’s hands darted out behind Spike’s head to grasp his hair in a cruel, painful fist, while his other hand locked around the vampire’s throat in a suffocating -- *silencing* -- grip.

“And this time,” Xander continued in a deadly soft whisper that was in sharp contrast to the violence of his actions. “I’m not taking any chances. You won’t be around to run your mouth to Buffy – not when I get through with you.”

*********************************

“It’s locked!”

Anya’s stage whisper was full of dismay as she turned fearful eyes on the Slayer just behind her. For now, Buffy and Anya were the only two who had ventured up the stairs – though it had taken a very vigorous argument to convince Angel and Dawn to wait downstairs for their signal.

Buffy’s heart lurched at the implication of the vengeance demon’s words, though she could hear nothing, no sounds of violence or trouble, from the other side of the bedroom door. “It’s okay,” she reassured Anya quickly, though her own whisper was shaky and a bit uncertain. “We figured as much, remember? We expected him to lock them in…”

“You -- *what*?”

Dawn’s unexpected voice from just behind them on the stairs was full of incredulous fury.

“Dawn – get back downstairs,” Buffy ordered tersely, her expression taut, and betraying more of her fear and guilt than she would have liked, as she turned in surprise toward her little sister. “I told you to wait…”

“How could you do this to him, Buffy? How could you do this to him when you *know* how scared he is of Xander, and now Xander’s in there, just…”

“I hate to interrupt the stereotypical family squabble,” Anya broke in – then frowned, as she shook her head and corrected, “Actually – no. I have no problem interrupting, because it’s very annoying the way you two are constantly at each other’s throats. I mean, I never had a sister when I was human, so I don’t really know, but even if this sort of ridiculous behavior is normal – it’s very stupid and petty when Spike is locked in there right now with my possibly slightly psychotic ex. Now – don’t you think it’s about time we got him out of there?”

Buffy blinked at her in the surprise that usually followed one of Anya’s incredibly honest outbursts – and then nodded her agreement, her jaw setting with determination. “You’re right,” she said, taking the slim, compact video camera – belonging to Giles – from her jacket pocket and handing it to Anya. “You’d better get in there.”

“Right,” Anya took a deep breath – and then turned back toward Buffy, suddenly nervous. “Just – pop in, pop out. Should be – perfectly safe…right?”

“Just don’t let him see you – and first chance you get, try to get the door unlocked.” Buffy advised. “I’ll break it down if I have to – but I’d rather *not* have to – but anyway, I don’t think he’d hurt *you*, Anya…”

“You might be surprised,” the vengeance demon muttered, turning back toward the door with a slight shrug as she prepared to teleport herself and the camera into the locked room.

************************************

“Now – first things first,” Xander smirked as he maneuvered his frightened captive around so that his back was against the wall between Buffy’s bed and the door, freeing the hand that had gripped his hair, but keeping his other hand locked relentlessly around Spike’s windpipe so that he could not cry out. “Let’s make sure we won’t be interrupted…”

Taking a tiny vial of pale pink powder from his pocket, Xander used his teeth to pull the cork out of it, and then tossed the powder in front of the door, spitting the cork out to the side before muttering a few poorly pronounced Latin words.

Spike’s eyes widened in surprised recognition, as he stared up at the boy in confusion. He remembered enough by now to remember magic – and to remember that as far as he knew, Xander did not know any.

The boy smiled at the obvious bewilderment in Spike’s face, as he answered the unspoken question. “A present from a friend,” he shrugged – and Spike immediately knew what “friend” he was talking about. “She was very concerned when I told her about the new demon loose in town – and how it doesn’t need an invite – and could she possibly suggest anything that might make a house – or a room – pretty much un-enterable? Nothing and no one goes in or out. Not voices, or other sounds…and definitely not people.” The cruel satisfaction was clear in Xander’s smug smile.

As it slowly dawned on Spike just exactly what Xander had done, and how – the panic that had already gained a foothold in his heart began to swell up inside him, overwhelming him as he realized that Buffy’s plan was thwarted already. If no one could get into the room – then help was not coming.

He was truly alone with Xander.

And this time – Xander meant to kill him.

*****************************

“What are you waiting for?” Buffy urged Anya in an impatient whisper. “Go on! Hurry!”

“I’m trying,” Anya informed her, a slight edge of irritation born of worry in her voice. “Something’s wrong – I can’t get in…”

“What do you mean you can’t get in?” Dawn asked, panic rising in her voice. “You have to get in! We can’t just leave him alone in there with…”

“Dawnie, keep your voice down!” Buffy snapped at her. “Do you want Xander to hear you, and blow the whole thing?”

“I don’t care about your stupid plan!” Dawn practically exploded – though she *did* keep her voice down. “You thought it was so smart to make him do this – and now he’s locked in with Xander and no one can get to him! You’re gonna get him killed, Buffy, and then how are you gonna feel?”

“Shut *up*!” Buffy hissed at her in a warning whisper, turning on her with blazing, furious eyes that glittered with frustrated, fearful tears.

“Break it down,” Dawn suggested urgently, her own eyes welling with tears. “We have to get to him, Buffy – we have to get to him before…”

“Nothing’s happening, Dawn,” Buffy assured her little sister – though she wished that she believed it herself. “I don’t hear any noise from in there – and I’m sure we’d hear *something* if Xander was hurting him – right?”

Dawn paused for a moment, breathing hard as she tried to control her raging emotions long enough to consider that point. Suddenly, she frowned, her eyes widening with a new concern. “You’re right – I don’t hear *anything*. Nothing at all. And – if they’re both in there – we should hear *something* -- right? Voices – *something*…”

Buffy’s face slowly formed a frown to match her sister’s, as she realized that Dawn was right.

Something was definitely off here…

“It’s a spell,” Anya announced softly, turning toward them after the last of the failed attempts she had been making to teleport into the room, throughout the Summers’ sisters’ argument. “It has to be a spell of some kind. That’s why we can’t get in at all, and we’re not hearing anything from inside. They probably can’t hear us out here, either.”

Buffy’s heart sank with dismay at the thought that Xander could be doing absolutely anything to Spike on the other side of that door – and she could not get to him…couldn’t even know for sure what was happening.

*Stupid,* she cursed herself viciously. *If he dies because of me…*

She couldn’t even allow herself to finish that thought – not now.

There was no time.

“Go get Giles,” she instructed Dawn firmly. “We need to find a way to break the spell – and fast!”

For once, Dawn did not argue, seeing immediately that the magic-experienced Watcher might be their best hope of helping Spike at this point – and she rushed down the stairs to obey her sister’s order.

***********************************

Once the room had been magically secured, Xander no longer felt the need to restrain his victim, from resisting, or from calling for help, if he should choose to do so.

It wasn’t as if anyone could hear him, anyway.

And besides – Spike was far too well conditioned to dare such a thing in Xander’s presence.

It had been a simple matter, getting a few easy spells from Willow – a matter of a single expensive but worthwhile overseas phone call, in which he had spun a very believable tale for his friend, of the new danger that Buffy was dealing with here in Sunnydale, and what he needed in order to help her defeat it.

Willow had immediately offered to come home and help, concerned that Giles had returned only a few days earlier, and was apparently unable to do anything about the situation. Xander had assured her that it would not be necessary; it was far too soon for her to be attempting spells on her own just yet. If she would just tell him what to do – he would be able to handle it himself.

And of course, she had accepted his words.

After all – if not for him, she and the rest of the world would all be dead, anyway.

Surely, she had obviously believed, Xander’s heart was much less likely to be corrupted by the power of the magic than hers was.

So now, Xander had in his hands a few neat magical tricks, which would allow him to complete his revenge against the vampire that had taken from him everything he had ever valued – and to get away with it, as well.

In fact, with the door effectively barred, and no one able to hear what went on inside – he could even take his time about it…make the vampire pay for the past few days of intense stress, the terrible fear that had kept him awake the past few nights, sick at the thought of being found out, whenever Spike inevitably recovered enough to remember and tell Buffy what had happened to him – and who had done it.

Well, after tonight, that would not be an issue anymore.

He would tell Buffy that Spike had lost it – completely freaked out – and had locked them into the room, intent on killing the boy that he *falsely* viewed as a threat to him. It had taken a while, he would inform her, putting just the right parts of weary, thwarted accomplishment and compassion into his voice – but he had thought that he was getting through to the poor, panicked, confused creature.

And then – just when he thought that it was under control – Spike had attacked him, going for his throat.

*I forgot about the chip,* he pictured himself crying for Buffy’s benefit, feigning sorrow and regret. *I just – reacted. I staked him before I could even think – I thought he was going to kill me…*

And of course – Buffy would buy it.

The fact that he was up here, alone with Spike right now, was proof enough that she would buy it.

And Spike would be gone – and Xander’s life could finally get back to the way that it should be – back to normal.

But first, he thought with a cruel smile – he had plenty of time to play.