"Yeh, well, the demons in the bar did not offer all of the information a person could have wanted."

"I didn't go after her to get to you, for the record. Went after her because she was eating people in my city."

       There's not much point in talking out your differences with a vampire, Johnson. 

I dunno. Vampires do loyalty, sometimes, some of them.

"Yeah, she does that," he says, fondly. "We'll be in better shape when she's back. Probably. Think these orc things are any good for eating?"

"The blood's black. That's probably not a good sign."

"Ugh."

"She gonna make it?"

"She'll live. Bet she wakes up in another twelve hours. She won't be able to fight in this condition, though, not without blood to help her heal. Doubt she'll be able to walk at this pace, either."

" - all right, they're about thirteen hundred meters that way." He gestures. "I don't know where the entrance is, though, we'll have to look around for it."

"All right. Lead the way."

They look around. It takes a while. 

It's weird for there to be no one out on the plains at this hour. Maybe it's the couple years after they all got slaughtered, or maybe they're here watching - nah, he'd notice that - probably - 

Eventually they find the entrance. 

"Ryan, you down to stay here with Drusilla?"

      "I - yeah. Sure. I protest this, by the way. I would stop you if I had the faintest idea how."

"I know. There're ten of them," he adds to Spike.

Spike nods and sets Drusilla down with Ryan.

He's not badly injured, not anymore; he can take a few people in a fight.

Half of them are asleep and they're not expecting a fight and also they obsessively and unstrategically go for Alex. It doesn't take long.

"Great. Sunrise pretty shortly, if it's going to happen at all."

"All right."

He lays Dru out so that she'll hopefully be comfortable when she wakes up. He tries orc blood, just in case, and then spits it out in disgust.

He starts a fire by singing and cooks himself a steak. Ryan looks horrified. 

"Look, I'm a vegetarian when I have a choice about it. - you're welcome to some if you want but I don't know that it's safe for humans."

      "I'll pass."

"Tagalong human gonna have a problem making it four days without food? I guess we could always kill him, be convenient for Dru."

"Some of these plants are safe for humans. I forget which ones but when I eat them I'll know. He's going to be more valuable once we get out of here than any of us, unless you went to college in the last few years."

       "What?" What?

"We, like, haven't invented gunpowder. Everyone'll be really excited to talk to anyone who has a modern science education, which regrettably I mostly don't." I won't let him hurt you but 'I won't let you' is a less compelling argument than 'bad idea'. Okay?

       I am really not sure how far I'm supposed to trust you.

What did Matt say?

       Ryan sighs.

Spike sighs. "Yeah. OK."

"I would say that Dru can have a pint off me but I'm really not a fan of the mind-control nonsense, and if she tries it on our enemies once we get there they'll kill her faster than you can say 'she's crazy and doesn't know what she's doing' -"

"She can't hypnotize you by biting you. Can't do it at all when she's unconscious."

"Yeah but I'm in no hurry to have her recovered. Can you keep her under control or not?"

"Yeah. Can't promise I can keep her quiet, but she's not gonna attack anyone at any very inopportune moments."

"All right." He scoots over and offers Drusilla his wrist. 

Drusilla still isn't really awake, but she can be coaxed to drink for a while. It helps that she really, really needs the blood.

"All right. That's enough for now."