Chapter One - Chance and Happenstance

The building that the Cottonwood Creek Casino occupied was new and raw. The casino itself, while possessing lots of electronic bells and whistles, especially in the slot machines, was generally short on glamour. If Spike had cared about that, he would have found it unimpressive. As it was, it was just sort of boring.

Looking around, he noticed a young vampire he'd seen over at Willy's a couple of years ago, before he'd been barred. He couldn't remember the kid's name, but he wandered over and said hi.

"What's going on with the Slayer?" the boy asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Why is she over here bothering us?"

"She broke up with her boyfriend," Spike said. "She has a lot of free time. Maybe she likes the commute."

"She just staked a friend of mine."

"It's what she does, mate."

"She was different from what I've heard about her: She was looking for Eric, and only for Eric. She let me and another vampire go, just so she could get at him."

"What'd he do?"

"Well, that's just it, not a damn thing. He wasn't back from Stanford long enough to do anything that would get her pissed off at him, I mean his parents hardly let him out at all."

"You ought to consider moving," Spike told him.

"Can't."

"Stay wary, then."

The young vampire wandered over to the long line of slot machines. Spike returned to the roulette wheel, passing a man who wore the fringed leather jacket that marked him as a casino security guards. Gang Long had not waited for him, but had placed a cautious bet. He won.

"I think I understand this, Spike."

"Don't tell me you have a theory? People with theories go broke."

"Let me try," the boy insisted.

"Go ahead." It wasn't Spike's money the boy was spending. The boy picked the next four numbers. Spike, watching the quick exchange of glances between the croupier and the man in the jacket, decided to pull the kid out. He had no idea how good the ID Ann supplied really was, but he didn't want Gang Long, who didn't look his real age--1579 years--and barely the stated age--22years--on his ID, to be the test case, even if it was only with the IRS. Ann would be annoyed if anything happened to Gang Long, and besides, he liked the boy.

"Time to go," he told Gang Long

"No, no. I..."

"Yes. Come on. Ann said I should decide where we go and when we leave. We leave now."

"OK, but I know the next ten numbers."

Spike froze, thinking. Two to the tenth. If he started with a fifty dollar chip and kept the bet just on the dozen or the column, he'd get....staked, he suddenly realized. Even Gang Long couldn't foretell a completely random event. The boy had tapped into a rigged wheel. "You can try your theory again sometime. Now, we go."

"All right."

Spike didn't let anything delay their exit. He refused the free drink and got Gang Long into the Viper as quickly as he could without actually running, but he didn't relax until the car was moving.

"Listen," he started. "Do you know how some dragons get about money? Hoarding gold, jewels, like that?"

"Only European dragons do that, Spike; I'm a long."

"Humans get that way, too. And if you win too much, or what they think is too much, they can get angry at you. Back there, they might have killed us, just so they wouldn't have to pay you what you won. Especially since we weren't the ones who were supposed to win."

"It was the girl, the one alone."

"How could you tell that?"

"The way the croupier and she didn't look at each other."

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"So, how was your day?" Willow asked, sitting down across from Buffy and Anya. Xander, carrying beers, and Tara, carrying only water, crossed the floor of the Bronze and joined them.

"Even with Glory around, vampires keep coming. I got two at the old cemetery, but the third ran really well for someone who was so recently dead. Straight north, too."

"Isn't that Frat Row?"

"So embarrassing. I've been to parties at some of those places."

"And I," Xander said, "never realized how al fresco-y frat boys get when the temperature rises."

"What?" Tara asked.

"There were couples coupling in the graveyard," Buffy said. "Which was also embarrassing."

"You weren't the one who tripped over that one pair," Xander complained. "I did."

"I was the one she recognized, though," Buffy said.

"Outdoors is nice," Willow said.

"I don't know about a graveyard, though," Tara said

"A flowery field."

"Buggy," Spike said, arriving suddenly with Gang Long and making himself at home.

"I don't like bugs," Tara admitted. "Hi, Spike."

"Hi. And this time of year, the sprinklers come on most nights."

"Hey, Gang Long," Willow said. "You look good. What have you been up to?"

"Roulette," the boy said. "I won, but Spike made us leave. I want a lemon coke."

"Me, too," Willow said. "Anybody else?"

"No, thanks."

"Roulette?" Anya asked. "Is that where they pay you to put chips on squares?"

"More or less. We went to the new casino out in Sylvandale."

"Does Ann know you're taking Gang Long gambling?" Buffy asked, watching Gang Long in his black linen jeans and loose gray silk band collar shirt walk with Willow over to the counter. .

"Hell, yes. I wouldn't do anything with her boy she didn't know about."

Xander choked. "Her boy?"

"Ward, fosterling, alumnus, whatever. Not son and not lover."

"You sound sure of that," Buffy said.

"I asked."

"You have no tact whatsoever, do you?"

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(Chapter 2)

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