After their second shower, Spike began exploring the house. He had left Xander in their bedroom, unpacking their clothing and toiletries, preparing for an extended stay on the island.

Spike wandered into the various rooms that he came across. So far he had discovered four bedrooms that were all about the same size. All were decorated similarly. He realized that all of the rooms he had been in had blackout curtains and shutters adorning the numerous windows. He wondered if the house always had them or if it was something that the Council had procured. Spike shrugged and continued walking.

He had gone through three separate living areas, the laundry room, the kitchen and the dining room before he ran across the set of stairs that he knew had to be somewhere in the house. They were inside one of two linen closets.

The layout of the closet was interesting. Three walls were covered in wide, deep shelves that held hundreds of pieces of linen in all colors. The stairs leading down were on the right side of the closet, behind a plain white door. Unable to find a light switch, Spike allowed his demon to come to the fore and cautiously descended the stairs finding a locked door at the bottom. Examining the door closely, Spike determined that the lock was rarely used. He forced it and entered what appeared to be a spacious gym.

He grinned, spinning around the room. All of the equipment was covered in dust and none of it was the quality of Giles’, but there was a heavy bag, a punching bag, weights, a sparring ring and a variety of loose training materials. He would need to clean it up, but this would be a good place to start teaching Xander how to defend himself.

Spike smiled at the thought of his mate who could be, at this very moment, lying in their bed. Spike had to restrain himself from sprinting back up the stairs and into said bed. He growled and began searching for an entrance to the tunnels.

Walking through the training room, Spike opened every door, finding nothing out of the ordinary. He did find a small bathroom that contained only a commode and a sink, but he was sure that the others would appreciate having an extra toilet around.

Spike huffed and stomped to the middle of the room. There had to be access to the tunnels somewhere in this basement. There had to be. “Bloody architect…” Spike closed his eyes to try to get a sense of the room. He felt a slight draft wafting towards him from behind the heavy bag.

He moved to the bag, reaching up to pull it down from its hanger before starting his search. After about thirty minutes, he discovered where the draft had come from. There was a tiny hole drilled into the mortar between two heavy bricks. 

He ran his fingers around the bricks, searching for any other openings or cracks. Finally, he gave into his impulsive nature and stabbed into the hole with one clawed hand, tearing out the mortar and pulling out a brick.

He slid closer to the hole that he had made, hanging onto the brick in case he needed to smash something. Peering through the darkness, he smiled. He had found the entrance to the tunnels.

*****

Giles glanced up from his desk when Spike appeared in the doorway. “Did you find the tunnels?” Spike nodded and approached the desk, sprawling out in a chair before his nephew.

“Found ‘em. Gonna take a bit to get to ‘em, though.” He stretched out, his legs straight out before him. “Did you get any further on that?” Spike waved a hand in the direction of Giles’ desk, where the scroll and the dissected envelope were laid out, surrounded by various references.

“Well, the scroll has not produced much, but the symbols on the envelope are quite interesting. Look at this.” Giles scooted around the table to sit next to Spike. Pointing at a symbol near the corner of the envelope, he continued. “The only other time I have seen a symbol similar to this was in researching a non-portended prophesy while I was in training. It took me days to find the reference that contained this symbol. It means water.”

“Well, that’s bloody helpful! We’re on a sodding island! Of course there is going to be water!”

Giles laughed at Spike’s outburst and waited for him to stop so that he could finish. “Combined with this symbol, it means ship.” Spike glared at the envelope, trying to see what Giles was trying to tell him.

“A ship, and water.” Spike sighed heavily. “Why didn’t the bloody watchers just translate the damn thing?” He snarled, biting his bottom lip. “Ok. Give it to me.” He snatched the paper out of Giles hand and began to study it. “If you sound this out phonetically, you end up with an Pictograph that contains…” Spike trailed off as he became immersed in the symbols on the envelope. Giles smiled and rose from the desk, heading for the kitchen.

Tara was sitting at the table with a map of the island laid out in front of her. She smiled up at Giles, motioning towards the chair across from her. “Sit down. I found some interesting areas of the island. There are several places that tourists aren’t sent to. They are simply blank areas on the map. Look, here.” Giles leaned in and looked at the areas that Tara indicated.

“I’m pretty sure that this is the area where the Watcher disappeared.” Tara pointed at a large area of flatland. “All of his notes seem to indicate that he lived along here. None of the histories show any unusual activity, but you never know.”

Giles nodded, pleased with Tara’s discoveries. “Spike found the tunnels, and we have been able to translate a single word on the envelope.” He moved over to the counter, and continued speaking ads if to himself. “You never know, we may actually discover what is happening on this bloody island within the next year or so.” He grabbed the teapot and slammed it on the stove, forgetting to add water.

“You might want to put something in there, or you’ll burn out the pot.” Tara never raised her eyes from the map, her face alight with contained laughter.

 Giles sighed and filled the pot with water before returning it to the stove.

Tara folded the map and smiled up at Giles. “Want to talk about it?”

Giles groaned. “No,” he sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it. I want to sleep, and I want to take a shower without having to worry that someone will need to use the facilities before I finish.” He glared at the whistling kettle. “I want to have some proper tea and I want to go get in the bloody pool!”

“There’s another bathroom in the basement.”

Giles jumped and turned to look at Spike.

“Just a loo, but should give you a bit of privacy.” Spike shrugged.

Tara smiled warmly at Spike, as did Giles. “Find anything?” Giles indicated the envelope in Spike’s hand.

“Yeah. Confirmed my suspicion that the Council are gits. Look here. Glinda had us looking into the shipwrecks on the north side of the island.” He reached out and twined his fingers through her hair, before setting the envelope down on the table. “All this fucking says is that the demons revel in the sinking of ships, but pinpoints them a little better.” He pointed. “This little line here, over the dash, that’s a mukee. North by northwest.” He stood and walked over to the teapot. “The Council knows where the damn demons are holed up, they just didn’t care to come fix it themselves.”

He sniffed at the canned tea, wincing, then turned to Giles and smirked. “Gonna take my boy out on the town, now. See you later.”

*****

Spike entered the bedroom to find his mate face down, half off the bed, with his head on the floor. He watched as Xander wriggled around, moving so that his head and part of an arm were completely under the bed. He smiled happily and walked over, worming his hand under Xander’s shorts, reaching up to grab a taut buttock. 

Xander jumped and squealed, pulling his head out from under the bed and glaring at Spike. “You scared the shit out of me, Spike!”

Spike freed his hand and smirked, launching himself at the bed and landing next to Xander with a bounce. Xander grinned and leaned back over, squirming back under the bed. “I kicked my shoe under here when I was unpacking, and when I reached under to get it, I saw something weird. I tried to move the bed, but couldn’t even budge it, so I’m looking…” He grunted and moved down even lower.

Spike crawled to the edge of the bed and leaned over, joining Xander half on the floor. He allowed his demon to come out and scanned the underside of their bed. “There’s a trap door. Hop up, love.”

Both men scrambled off and Spike lifted the bed. Or tried to. “Fuck!”

Xander turned at a sound, seeing the door open a crack. Tara’s soft voice entered the room, “Spike?” Xander moved to the door, opening it and allowing Tara and Giles to enter.

Tara began to laugh as she saw Spike ineffectively struggling to move the bed. Giles stood quietly, a small smile creasing his face. Spike grunted and shoved, but was unable to budge the considerable mass of the bed.

 “Bloody, buggering fuck!” Spike collapsed to the ground, panting needlessly and glaring at the room as a whole.

Tara stopped laughing long enough to step into the room and peer under the bed. “It’s not bolted down, it should move easily,” she murmured.

Spike growled and stood, moving towards her with intent. Xander pounced, slamming Spike to the floor before looking over at Tara. “Well obviously it’s not.”

Tara frowned and muttered a short Latin phrase before reaching out with one hand and showing the bed out of the way.

Spike roared, his fangs descending as his face shifted and dove at her. Tara squealed and ran, Spike racing behind her. Xander and Giles rolled their eyes at each other and Giles motioned to the now exposed trap door. “Shall we?”

Xander shrugged as they heard a crash from the living area. Tara squealed and Spike answered with a growl, both sounds followed closely by a hoarse shout. When both Tara and Spike began to laugh, Giles reached down and tugged the o-ring attached to the door, opening it, and allowing it to thud heavily against the floor.

Both men peered down into the darkness. After a moment, Xander moved away, searching for a flashlight. Tara ran into the room, still gasping for breath, Spike close behind. He began to say something to her, but turned instead, looking down into the hole in the middle of his bedroom floor.

He moved closer, pushing Xander back when he arrived with the flashlight. “Stay behind me,” he hissed, taking the proffered light. As a group, they moved forward, the illumination woefully inadequate.

Spike scented the air and relaxed, his demon falling away. He turned and smiled at Xander. “Be right back, pet.” He pressed a quick kiss to Xander’s mouth and eased himself down through the floor.

Xander dove to the ground, his hands on the edge of the opening, straining to catch sight of Spike. “Spike?”

A snick-hiss, and suddenly they could see clearly. Spike was standing in a natural cavern under the house, an antique lantern alight in his hand. A natural shelf sat several feet below the trap door, a long set of stairs leading from the shelf down into the cavern.

Xander scrambled back, looking around for his shoes. Tara and Giles carefully climbed down to the shelf and began to descend the stairway.

Xander tugged on his shoes, not bothering with his socks and followed them quickly. He raced down to Spike and wrapped his arms around him. “Is this it?”

Spike aimed his lantern to the right, the beam fading as it moved down a long passageway. He looked at Xander and grinned. “Yeah, pet, you found the entrance to the tunnels.”

To be continued...