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distraction was no match for the "quicker than the eye" movements of a vampire.
So he was content to sit, smoking until there was a haze surrounding the table and knocking back shots
that warmed him from the inside out, and mellowed him even more as the evening progressed and he
patiently watched his boy and waited.
Xander gave "last call", mixed and served the last of the drinks for the night, and shut down the bar.
He collected the empty beer bottles and trashed them, pulled the full garbage bags and tied the tops,
then replaced them with fresh ones while running a sink full of dishwater for the glassware. Then he
returned to the sink and turned off the water and collected the glasses that were left on the bar for
washing, wiping the bar down as he went along.
The overhead lights were turned up and the last complaining tipsy customers were seen to the door by
Mike, the huge bouncer, and the doors were closed and locked for the night. The waitresses were busy
clearing the tables, wiping them down, and chattering amongst themselves as they worked.
The boys from the kitchen came out with a burst of noise and laughter, and with help from Mike
started turning the chairs up onto the tables, a broom was brought out and Spike could hear the
scraping of the bristles across the floor as the detritus accumulated over the night was swept away.
They bantered back and forth like young people will do, and teased the girls.
One or two called out to Xander behind the bar, and he grinned back at them but, didn’t join in the the
usual nightly ritual. So they took the hint and left him alone, and concentrated on themselves. Spike
could hear the boys teasing Mike, about his new love interest, and Mike’s indignant replies. He
snorted with amusement at the nightly circus that was Sanctuarie at closing time. The employees of
Sanctuarie were an odd bunch, a mixture of different degrees of human and demon, from full bloods to
varying fractions, depending on the ancestry in their family tree.
But Sanctuarie was a place where all were welcome, as long as they were peaceful. Rusaka, the owner,
had the bar and the surrounding area warded and spelled six ways from Sunday against any kind of
violence, demon, human or other. That made it an extremely popular place to meet, and the job slots
were highly prized. Xander was fortunate that he knew the right people. When Rusaka started looking
for another bartender, Tomas and Sinjin told the boy to come down and apply, and vouched for him.
Xander got the job.
Xander finished his glasses, left them on the drainer, dumped the silverware and blender tops into the
water and started putting the cold stuff in the fridge. Then he straightened, ran an eye over the liquor
shelves behind the bar and disappeared through the kitchen door. He had a system he’d worked out
and it usually didn’t take him but an hour or slightly longer to close down the bar and head out the
door.
Spike finished one last shot and with a casual air walked up to the bar and jumped up to sit and swung
his legs up and over until he was standing behind the bar. No one commented, it had become
commonplace, since Xander started working there. Spike washed his shot glass, and then the
silverware and the two blenders and set them on the drainer and started racking the different glasses.
Xander came through the kitchen door carrying a box filled with liquor bottles, that he deposited on
the bar and proceeded to empty as he shelved each bottle. He didn’t make any comment to Spike but
his eyes glowed with gratitude when he looked up.
"Almost done then?" Spike pushed the last stemmed glass into the rack, and propped a lean hip on the
counter, admiring the play of muscles as Xander bent and stretched, to put the last bottles on the
shelves.
"Yeah, just got these last few bottles and putting the money in the safe, oh and running this stack of
ashtrays to the back to be washed." Spike grabbed the stack of dirty ashtrays on the bar and the empty
box, tossing over his shoulder as strode off toward the kitchen door. "You empty the till and I’ll take
these, yeah. Then we can go."
Xander was already popping the cash register drawer open as he spoke, and bent down to grab a
zippered money bag from a shelf under the bar. "Okay, this’ll just take a minute. I should be nearly
finished when you come back out here." He began punching the series of register keys to feed out the