The club was packed when Spike & his canine companion came in. He felt a surge of pride, thinking everyone had come there to see him, but the sound of music from the stage reminded him that he wasn't the only act. He scanned the crowd for the familiar head of short-cropped black hair and found it towards the stage. He swaggered over to the man's table and plopped down unceremoniously on a chair next to him. Angel smiled over his bloody mary.

"I don't recall inviting you to sit down, youngster."

"Sorry, gramps, but' you know 'ow impetuous we rowdy youth are, 'ey?"

Angel gave Cerberus a thorough scratching behind the ears. "Hiya, boy! Awww, yer such a good doggie, yes you are!"

"C'mon, then, don't spoil 'im. Cerberus, go in back now, you know you ain't allowed in here..."

The dog ignored his master in favor of the attentions of the other vamp.

"Cerberus..." Spike warned him in a no-nonsense tone.

The dog stopped his happy panting, staying wide-eyed and perfectly still for a moment. Then he bolted, yipping, for backstage.

Both vamps stared non-pulsed at the dog's retreat. Spike straightened his shirt. "Well, I... guess I told 'im..."

His eyes changed focus from the curtain behind the stage to the figure on it. It was a girl, eighteenish, with a thick, raven-black, waist-length mane. She sang very well, even if it wasn't the sort of music Spike preferred. She was doing a cover of "Cherish", singing to what Spike assumed was a karaoke recording. She looked familiar somehow, but he was also sure he didn't know her. Maybe he's seen her in passing in the club before. He thought she had a strange fur stole over her shoulder, until he saw it twitch. It was a rabbit. A LIVE one. Or rather, an undead one. Now he remembered who she was.

He also knew why Cerberus had bolted.

Not long ago he had met the girl in question at this very club. She was a werewolf, out seeking revenge against the vamp who'd turned her familiar. Unfortunately, Angel had beaten her to the punch. She was amiable enough about it, but her rabbit had not been so forgiving. When they met up again, the vicious bunny had given the poor pup a nasty chomp in the nose, ala' Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Spike saw another familiar face out of the corner of his eye, a flash of red at the table next to them that turned out to be Willow's old flame, Oz.

Spike was wary of a confrontation, but since Angel sat closer to the boy, Oz saw him first and said a friendly hello. Then Oz noticed Spike, but to the vamp's relief, he didn't flip out. He instead quite casually asked Angel, "So, you Angelus again, or did HE get a soul?"

Spike remembered that the wolf-boy was very easygoing about anything, although by his scent he didn't seem to be on any drugs. He decided it was probably a necessity, keeping calm so he didn't "wolf out". Maybe he could take lessons...

Angel laughed. "No, and not exactly. Let's just say that Buffy touched a lot of lives..." The smile stayed, but turned melancholy.

Oz sensed the gray cloud that seemed to come over the two vamps. "She's gone, isn't she?"

Angel only nodded, but Spike stared at Oz.

As if he could read minds, Oz told him, "I've been all over, learning about different philosophies, different ways to meditate and become one with everything. You might say I've gained a sixth sense of sorts."

Oh.

"You loved her too, didn't you?" Oz said it as if it were common knowledge.

Spike felt his throat tighten, and could only nod. It was getting unsettling how perceptive the boy was! Suddenly Spike wished he'd stayed home...

"H-how... how is... Willow doing?"

Spike almost felt a bit of satisfaction at seeing the wolf-boy out of sorts. Almost. But then, he knew what it was to love and not be loved back.

"She's good, mate. Was a bit hard, losing Buffy, for all of us, but Tara's helped Willow through the worst of it..." he stopped at the pain that came into Oz's eyes. "Still, might do 'er good t'see a friendly face, you should go see 'er."

The girl finished her set, and the three clapped enthusiastically, even though none of them had really been listening.

"I'm up," Oz told them, pulling his guitar out from behind the table.

The girl settled herself into the table Oz had vacated. She watched him, entranced. No doubt she knew what he was.

For his part, he seemed to be making every effort not to notice her.

When his set was done, Oz sat instead at Angel's table, while Spike went up. The girl was clearly disappointed. She was still staring at the wolfboy, Spike saw from the stage, and her rabbit seemed irked by her lack of attention.

Spike was halfway through his second set when the battle began.

It was completely without provocation. One minute the crowd was sitting peacefully, apparently enjoying the music, and the next demons from several of the tables got up and started pummeling their neighbors. Spike, for his part, managed to take down a couple before he took a hit to the back of the head. The last thing he saw before the world turned black was a pair of men towards the back, one tall and thin, the other short and stout, laughing at the carnage around them. They looked familiar...

Cerberus whined as he awoke under a table. He had run out from backstage when he saw his friend getting attacked, and set to protecting the vampman, only to find himself struck fiercely on the head by a bat and kicked viciously. He must have slid all the way under the table.

As he gathered his senses, he found he was not alone. The vampbunny was there too, staring at him with strange blue eyes. It wasn't wearing it's game-face, which he remembered had gold eyes like every other vamp. He stood to face it, watching it warily. Did it want to fight or not?

**Our friends have been taken,** it informed him, it's mind-voice sounding like it wasn't sure he was bright enough to understand. He bristled at that; only humans had forgotten how to mind-speak, but this creature seemed to be insinuating that dogs had as well.

Still, Cerberus was no fool.. He put aside his anger and reached out his senses. The room was deathly still, the smells of the room's former occupants made faint by their absence and the settling dust. He warily stuck his head out from under the table. Sure enough, no one was there.

He pulled his head back under and addressed the rabbit. **Do you know where?**

The rabbit's mental voice sounded astonished. **Don't you?**

The vampdog snarled, irritated. **How could I? I was unconscious! What about you? If you know, you must have been awake when they left-- why didn't you follow?**

**I wasn't awake. Like you, I got a nasty kick halfway through the battle and woke up here.** It was Cerberus's turn to be confused. **Then how do you know?**

The bunny gave a mental shrug. **The bond, of course!**

**... bond?**

The bunny huffed. **Isn't that vampman your familiar?**

**... familiar?**

Somehow the rabbit managed to give the dog an incredulous look with lapine facial features. **I had gotten the impression you were close to the man... don't dogs look at their humans as familiars? As their spiritual bond to the human race and companion in magical studies? Lydia is my familiar and I am hers. We are soul-bound. I can follow the bond to where she is.**

Cerberus felt a pang of sorrow. He had heard of such a thing, heard other dogs speaking of such bonds with awe and reverence. He thought Spike and himself were close like that, but now it sounded like he was supposed to have some psychic bond that allowed him to share the man's thoughts and feel what he felt. But the truth was, he had no idea where the man was or how he was doing...

He shook his head. It didn't matter that he wasn't Spike's familiar, he was still his friend. And he would never get the chance to try to soul-bond if he didn't find him first. **So why are you still here?** he asked the rabbit, thinking he would be off like a lightning bolt if only he knew where to go.

**I'm a little too small to be taking on all our enemies alone. Not that I think you'll be much more help, but you're something, at least. So I propose a truce. Let us put aside the natural animosities of our species, and concentrate on the fact that we are both vamps now. I drink blood just like you.**

Cerberus pranced antsily. **Just lead me to them.**

Spike groaned as he came to, his eyes focusing on the ceiling of the tent. Not this place again! Now he knew why those two men had been familiar; they were the same men who ran the demon circus and had made Spike and Cerberus their main attraction. Spike glanced around for a sign of his canine compatriot. He had to stop and close his eyes after a moment, head swimming from the effort. He hadn't seen the dog, but he did see other occupants. Angel, Oz, Lorne, and the girl performer (what had Lorne called her, Lydia?), as well as a bunch of other demons he didn't know. Besides him, only the girl seemed to be awake.

A slight rustling and a breeze from the left made open his eyes again. The ringmasters stood in front of him. The taller one spoke.

"G'd mornin', Sunshoine! 'Ow's that lovely money-makin' 'ead o' yours?"

Spike didn't grant them a reply, but stared at them blankly.

"Surely you remember us?" asked the short one.

Spike tried to lunge at them, and slammed against an invisible barrier of some sort. "Don't call me 'Shirley'," he muttered, defeated. That made his captors laugh heartily. That was good; so long as they were laughing, they probably wouldn't hit him.

"Ah, ve are so happy to have you back, comrade! And now ve have the infamous Angel, and two verevolves to boot! Now if only ve had managed to catch the wampire bunny and your doggie... Ahh, but I'm sure ve vill find dem soon enough, nyet? Dey vill come looking for deir masters, and vhen dey do..." He slapped his hands together, and he and his partner laughed cruelly. They were still laughing as they left.

Spike's heart skipped a beat, which was odd because he hadn't even noticed t start beating in the first place. Cerberus was free! He prayed to whatever might be listening that the dog stayed that way.

Lydia's thoughts echoed his own. "Nicky is still free!" she breathed. "Thank the Goddess!" She turned her head and smiled at the vamp. "Don't worry, Nicky will get us out." She laughed at the incredulous look Spike gave her, and the sound woke Oz, Angel, and Lorne. "It's the nature of a prey species to be excellent escape artists." she elaborated.

Spike sighed. "It's a good thing I'm already dead, cause I think we have a long wait a head of us."

Lorne held a hand to his head. "How does this keep happening? The spell is supposed to kepp demons from fighting inside Caratos! I had it reinforced after the last time, too!"

"I've dealt with these blokes before," Spike told him. "They're masters at penning demons, they probably know all sorts of ways to disable shields, too."

"And as for the first time, I'd say it was a combination of the shield being weakened over time-- you do have to re-energise them now and again, you know-- and the fact that my Nicky and Spike's dog are animals."

Lorne looked puzzled. "What has that to do with anything?"

"Animals can go through the sheild of a circle, because of their innocence-- I'm guessing they were able to deny the spell over your club the same way. And after they started fighting, it probably short-circuted the spell, allowing others to overcome it."

"That does it, no more livestock in the club!" Lorne muttered.

Lydia seemed to contemplate Spike for a moment. "About what you said a moment ago ... I'll never understand why vampires are referred to as being 'dead'. If you were dead, you would not be talking to me right now."

"Well fine, 'undead' then. Point is, I can't die again."

"Sure you can. Someone stakes you or you step out into sunlight or drown in a tub of holy water..."

Spike shuddered, and he felt Angel beside him do the same. There was a death he hadn't contemplated. "Yeah, but that's not the same..." Angel told the girl.

"Why not?"

"Uh, well... because..." He looked at Spike, exasperated. "Help me out, here!"

Spike shrugged. He'd never really thought about it before. "I... guess because we don't need to breathe, and our hearts don't need to beat?"

"But they CAN, right?" she asked. The vamps nodded.

"So are you alive when they do?"

The vamps blinked at each other.

"Besides, I'm sure there are some beings in the universe that live without heartbeats and breath."

"Amoeba?" Lorne offered helpfully.

Lydia nodded, smiling. "At least they don't have hearts or lungs in the normal sense, although they do 'breathe' and have circulation in an abstract fashion. But elsewhere in the universe there could be energy lifeforms that don't even do that!"

"Ok, Star Trek episodes aside, the point is that our once-human bodies no longer have to do the things that were necessary to keep them 'alive'." Spike told her, believing that settled the matter.

"Besides," Oz piped up, "in most cultures being alive means having a soul. Vampires, by definition, don't have one."

"Well, then I guess 'gramps' here IS alive," Spike quipped.

"And whose definition is that?" the girl asked the wolfboy quietly, scrutinizing him.

"I don't know who originally said so, but I know firsthand that it's true. This one here," he waved a thumb at Angel, "has a soul. It was taken away for a while, and he became evil, and turned good again when he got it back."

She chuckled, shaking her head. "You all really think it's all as simple as that? What do you know about the nature of vampires?"

Spike decided he didn't like this girl. "I should think I know a sight more than you, luv, since I AM one, and you're not!"

She smiled, evilly, he thought, and raised a brow. "So a wolf knows more about the biology of its body than a human who has actually taken one apart and looked, huh? You can only know something if you STUDY it, take it apart piece by piece and examine it. Most beings go through their entire existence only knowing WHAT they are, not how or why. So I ask you again to tell me what you think you know."

"What makes YOU such an exp-" Spike began.

"My people have been hunting vamps for EONS!" she sneered. "Unlike some bloodlines, mine never forgot who they were!" She looked at Oz pointedly.

Spike sighed. It was going to be a long imprisonment.

The two vamp creatures raced through the city's alleys, trying to stay out of view of any humans or monsters. Every once and a while he found his instincts urging him to snap the rabbit up in his jaws. It was the flash of movement that caught a predator's attention, and he kept seeing that flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. He managed to just barely keep himself in check. He wondered if the rabbit was fighting a similar instinct to run from the dog. Then he thought better of it. Becoming a vamp had made the rabbit a predator, as his nose well remembered from the creature's attack. Yet, despite their bad start, he found himself kind of liking the little fellow. It was nice to have an animal friend, one he could talk to, and that knew what it was like to be a vamp.

He almost stopped when he felt it. A sudden surge of anger, that was over as soon as it began. It didn't feel like it came from within himself. It felt like the rage he sometimes felt emanating from Spike when the man fought a demon, an almost palpable heat. But he shrugged it off. Nicky's words about familiars were just getting to him. It was wishful thinking.

Angel had decided to answer the girl's question, hoping to avoid a fight between her and Oz. They were going to have to all work together to get out of their jam.

"Sunlight!" That got her attention away from the wolfboy. "We can't be in sunlight, or we burn up. We can't bear the presence of crosses, and it's touch will burn is. Holy water is like acid to us. A wooden stake through the heart will kill us. We don't need to sleep, or eat, or drink anything but blood. Our hearts don't need to beat, but they do if we are excited or agitated. We CAN eat normal food, and we can make love. We are cold to the touch, unless our heart beats or we are freshly fed. We normally don't have souls. And we live forever."

She smiled. "Now we're getting somewhere. Ok, so lets think about each of these things. You need blood to live. Why?"

Spike told her what he's told Xander about blood not so long ago. He remembered the awkwardness, the resignation he'd felt then, and they desperate need to be accepted. His heart had been beating then. He'd felt the blood moving through him, and almost felt alive. He was also acutely aware then of how NOT alive he was. How that fact made a wall between him and the Scoobies. Between him & Buffy.

"Now why do plants need the sun? Why do humans need to eat?" "Energy." Oz replied. She nodded. "To function, to MOVE, everything needs energy of some sort. For vamps, the energy comes from blood. But rather than blood being a carrier of food and oxygen, like it is in humans, in vamps it's food in and of itself. They are like a sponge that must be kept moist. It's no coincidence that blood and saltwater are very similar. The ocean is the womb of the Goddess from which all life on earth began. Becoming a vamp is like dying and then having a psuedo-rebirth. The body is animated through a different means of life, but animated nonetheless. So the blood keeps the body alive, keeps it from deteriorating, keeps it regenerating, constantly reborn. Not really so different from humans."

"But NOT human, luv," Spike pointed out, trying to keep the bitterness from his voice.

"No. Vampirism is a disease. When you become infected, your body is transformed to make it more hospitable for a demon entity. But one might say that if it walks like a human and talks like a human... Look. There are a lot of ways to make a cup. You can cast it in metal, throw it on a potter's wheel, mold it from glass or clay or plastic. The material is different, and so it the way it was made, but the END result is the same, and THAT is what counts. Hyenas are genetically closer to cats, but in shape and behavior are more like dogs. There are a lot of different ways for a boy to function, and still end up alive."

"Ok, so I'm still wondering about the sunlight & cross and holy water thing, how does THAT fit in? I mean, so long as we are talking about Vampire physiology..." Lorne wondered idly.

"The cross burns because vampires are evil, and it's the ultimate symbol of good. And the holy water works on the same principle." Angel said, as if it were simple.

Lydia was trying hard not to laugh. "Ok, smart guy, then what about the sunlight?"

"... It's... the light of God! Annnnnnnd... evil can't... stand up to Him!" He nodded vigorously, trying to seem confidant in his answer.

"Well, you've got it partly right. I suppose I should have expected answers like that from someone named 'Angel'."

Angel scowled, and Spike tried not to grin, forgetting how much he was irritated with the girl himself.

She continued. "Ok, this explanation is in a few parts. First, you have the simple matter of the sun affecting dead matter. Dead things decompose faster in sunlight, so it stands to reason that a 'dead' body would want to stay out of the sun, and a vamp's body is like a well-preserved dead body in many respects. One might think of blood as embalming fluid, keeping the body in stasis, but you still want to keep the body in a cool place and out of sunlight. But that's only a partially effective answer, since we've already determined a vamp isn't really dead, just living by alternative means. Ok, so if a vamp isn't really dead, then we could look at it as an allergy to the sun. There are humans who get burned quite easily in sunlight, and some whose skin goes so far as to burst open and bleed when burnt. Given the delicate nature of a vamp's quasi-dead skin, they take it many steps further and literally burn. And, if you want to get really symbolic, the sun is a symbol of fire, a great purifier. It stands to reason that, if a demon is a negative being, then the sun would be burning the demon out of the body, but unfortunately take the body with it. The same goes for holy water, which is also a purifier.

"As for the cross, it IS a holy symbol, but not for what you think. At least, not in this case. When you study to be a witch, you are taught that symbols and words have power because they act as magnets for specific energies. We chant and envision god aspects in order to invoke that power within ourselves, a sort of mind-over-matter meditation. Long before Christianity, there was the SOLAR cross, whose sides were all equal and represented the four directions and elements. Altogether it represented the sun, S-U-N, not S-O-N. So when a vamp is touched by a cross, they are basically being hit with the power of the Sun.

"The stake is a symbol too, one of earth. The earth to which we go when we die. The heat is the seat of the blood that keeps a vamp alive, even if it doesn't beat. Put a stake through it, and it's magic against magic, the power of earth sending the vamp to their final rest."

Angel looked skeptical, but Spike found that she made a lot of sense. He wasn't one to believe in deities, but life and death and science he could. Sure, there was a bit of metaphysical mumbo-jumbo in there, but she had added a scientific logic to it. At least the elements were a tangible thing, something he could see and feel...

They group sat there a moment, each trying to absorb what she'd said and decide what, if any of it, was true. All save one of them.

Lorne raised a hand. "Ahhh, I don't mean to break up this nice little philosophical discussion, but don't you think we should be trying to get OUT of here?"

They all nodded, and set their minds to chewing on the problem at hand. All but Spike, who had the strangest feeling that Lydia and their captors had been right, that Cerberus was rushing to find him. He felt like he could feel the dog's claws clicking as they raced in the back of his mind.

Somehow Cerberus knew they'd reached their destination before Nicky said anything, before the rabbit had even stopped. Maybe it was a whiff of demon he'd caught, but he thought it was something else. HE thought he could feel Spike near, but he didn't know how, since he couldn't see, hear, smell, touch, or even taste him. It was just a feeling.

HE didn't get a chance to think on it. They were in the open, a big field before the circus. Cerberus felt a ball of dread in the pit of his stomach, making him want to retch. He remembered those tents, the tortures he and his friend endured. It was a certainty that their friends were here now. And there was no way to sneak in. The grass was too short to crawl through, and the gibbous moon shone bright on their white fur. they were going to have to rely on their speed to see them safely inside.

Sure enough, when they reached the enclosure, they were spotted. They bolted for an area far off to the left of the guards. With their vampire-enhanced strength, they leapt the wall just before the guards reached them. The only problem was, there was a guard standing right where they landed on the other side.

The demon muttered a hearty curse in his own tongue as the two little beasties struck him from behind. It wasn't enough to do any severe damage to him, but the animals took a moment to get oriented from their fall. Unfortunately, a moment was all it took for the monster to grab hold of Nicky.

"Well, this is some service!" the demon commented in his guttural tongue.

His fellow guard had come over to see what was the matter. "What is that?"

"My dinner!" the first guard replied cheerily.

The second guard spotted the dog on the ground. Cerberus was just getting to his feet. The guard grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and held him up. "Hey! This is a dog!"

The first guard shrugged, trying to get a firm grip on the struggling rabbit. He liked to swallow his food whole-- and alive. For his part, Nicky was trying to kick and bite, but the demon's tough skin seemed impervious to his attacks. The monster was about to pop the rabbit into his massive jaws.

"Hey, you idiot, that's the bunny! These are the two the bosses have been waiting for!"

The first guard lowered the small vamp and pouted. "Awww. But it's just a little bunny, the bosses would never know if I ate it..."

"I'D tell them," the second guard informed his friend while he held Cerberus immobile around his neck, hands clamped firmly around the dog's legs. Cerberus' bites were just as ineffectual as the rabbit's had been. "Besides, we're sure to get a great reward for capturing them both," the guard continued, oblivious to the gnawing.

On to Part 2 ...