Fear and rage mingled in Riley Finn’s eyes at the threat in the vampire’s eyes. Even chained and beaten to his knees, Spike still had the capability to strike fear into Riley’s heart – and that infuriated him. He took a couple of steps closer to the bound vampire, raising the crop to strike.

Suddenly the weapon was wrenched from his grasp from behind him and hurled against the wall on the other side of the room. Riley whirled around to see Diana – as he had never seen her before. The chip had not permitted Diana to go into her natural vampiric face. But the chip was no longer in control of her.

And neither was Riley Finn.

The inhuman hatred and rage in her eyes sent chills through the soldier’s heart as she stepped slowly around him, a predatory grace in her movements – stalking him, preparing to move in for the kill.

“Diana,” he said softly. “Calm down.” He had no idea what had caused the chip to malfunction, only that it *had* indeed malfunctioned, and he was going to have to be very careful if he was going to get out of this room alive.

His soft order seemed to incense the vampiress further; her only response was a menacing snarl as she took a couple of slow, measured steps toward him. Quickly he took out the knife he kept in his back pocket, holding it out defensively in front of him, attempting to warn her back.

And then she laughed.

A blood-freezing, sickening sound of cruel mockery, indicating just what she thought of his pathetic attempt at self-defense. He felt his hope fading with the knowledge that unchipped, this little vampire whom he had freely victimized for months was far more powerful than he was. Even with the experimental drugs that had increased his natural strength, it still did not compare to the super-human strength of a vampire. Hence the need for the chip.

The broken chip. The chip which was not functioning.

As if suddenly remembering this herself, Diana launched herself at the lieutenant, knocking him to the floor on his back and driving her fangs into his throat. He tried to push her off, fight her off, but she was too strong for him and held him pinned to the floor. But she drew back after a moment, frowning with irritation.

Diana had never bitten a human before. She had missed the vein. She tried again, and the fallen soldier howled in agony, writhing uselessly beneath her.

“Don’t let him scream like that,” Spike suddenly told her, softly, and she looked up at her sire, startled, as if just remembering his presence in the room. “He’ll bring the troops down on us,” he finished. But in spite of his correction, his face was full of pride for his childe.

Looking for a moment at her still-helpless sire, Diana then returned her attention to the man beneath her on the floor. “The key,” she said softly, menacingly.

Riley shook his head emphatically. “Are you out of your mind?” he snarled. “You think I’m gonna have you *both* to deal with?”

“Yes,” Diana continued softly, chillingly. “I do.” Then she lowered her fangs to his throat in a shallow bite, and dragged them viciously through his flesh down toward his collarbone.

Riley tried to scream in pain, but Diana had heeded her sire’s advice, and her hand was firmly over his mouth. Removing her fangs, lapping casually at the blood flowing freely from the gaping wound, she returned her eyes to Riley’s, smiling. “The key,” she repeated.

Weakly Riley reached into his pocket and held it out to her. Rising from her victim, Diana went to her sire, losing him and helping him to his feet, then leading him back with her to stand over Lieutenant Finn, struggling weakly in an attempt to rise.

Feeling better already with this turn of events, Spike smirked, “Let me help you with that,” and hauled the soldier to his feet, slamming him against the wall hard. He smiled coolly at Finn as he spoke to Diana, “What do you want to do with him, love?”

Her eyes blazing with fury and bloodlust, yearning to tear into her tormentor again, Diana reluctantly asked, “How much time do we have?”

Spike’s smile widened. “Well, the way I figure it, love,” he said. “We’ve got a bit. The Slayer said we’d have twenty minutes from whenever they figured out the chips were down. Now, judging by the lack of screaming alarms and running soldiers in the halls, I’d guess that no one knows about the technical difficulties yet. With the exception of the good lieutenant here.” He leaned in closer, his eyes narrowing in menace, “And he’s not going to be telling.”

Diana slowly smiled as his words sank in. “So we don’t have to leave just yet.”

Spike thought about it. He wouldn’t let his childe take *too* long to wreak her vengeance. The Slayer would be a bit concerned when they took a little longer than expected to get there. But if he knew her, she would wait for them. And it wouldn’t hurt her to worry about him a bit, he thought smugly. He had pressing business to attend to. Long overdue payback to make.

Spike’s attention was suddenly drawn to Diana, as he noticed that she was looking closely at his face, her eyes sad. She reached a gentle hand up to lightly trace an ugly red gash made by Finn’s crop. As her eyes turned slowly to Finn, the tenderness faded to a vengeful rage as she raked her fangs savagely across his face, tearing a bloody streak across it to match the one he had left on her sire.

Finn’s scream was muffled again, by Spike’s hand this time. Smiling grimly at Diana, he tossed the weakened excuse for a man onto the bed and said, “Go ahead and have your fun, pet. I’ll let you know when we have to go.”

Twenty minutes later, the bed, the floor and Diana were soaked in the blood of Riley Finn. Diana had done her best to repay him for the months of abuse she had endured at his hand, and Spike found himself somewhat in awe of the macabre talent displayed by his childe. When Riley was too far gone to even react anymore, both vampires took their fill of his blood.

Suddenly, Spike heard the slam of the door opening and rushing footstep in the suite. He prepared himself to attack, before he heard a familiar voice, urgent and fearful.

“Spike?”

The Slayer, he realized with relief.

Suddenly, his eyes widened and he gulped. *The Slayer!* Uh-oh.

Buffy appeared in the doorway, her eyes softening in relief when she saw Spike. “There you are! What’s going on? Why aren’t you…” Her words cut off suddenly when she looked away from him and her eyes fell on the rest of the scene before her.

The room was deathly still. Spike watched anxiously the parade of emotions that made its way across her face… shock, horror, disbelief, sorrow, anger, disgust…he wished that he knew exactly who and what each of those emotions was aimed at. Then her eyes met his, and he wished to not know again.

At that moment the alarms went off.

Tear-filled eyes glaring at him, Buffy said shortly in a trembling voice, low with anger, “Let’s go.” She reached for Diana’s arm, visibly recoiling a bit at her bloodstained face and body.

Diana pulled away instinctively with a snarl. Impatient, furious, still trembling with shock and an odd sense of betrayal, Buffy snatched her arm, pulling the girl back with a force to match the vampire’s strength. “Do you know what a Slayer is, Diana?” she snarled.

“Buffy,” Spike hurried forward to pull her away from his childe, sensing the danger in this situation.

She threw his arm off her roughly, and he staggered back a step or two. Turning her furious eyes on him she said in a low, dangerous voice, “*Don’t*.”

He stood back, not daring to approach her in this frame of mind. He knew the shock the scene must have been for her. After all, though she had a vague idea of what Riley had been doing to Diana, she had never seen it firsthand. All she *had* seen for herself was the bloody, ravaged mess Spike and Diana had made of her ex-boyfriend. And that was what was controlling her emotions at the moment. Spike was very much aware that the wrong word or move at this moment could get him and Diana both dusted.

“Buffy,” he said softly, making his voice calming. “Let me take her. I know the way. She trusts me.”

Wordlessly Buffy released Diana with a disgusted half-shove away from her, and stalked past them out into the hallway, where she broke into a run. Quickly the vampires followed her, aware of the faint, far-off sound of men shouting and pounding footsteps.

The Initiative had awakened.

They struggled to keep pace with the furious Slayer as she impatiently led them at a run to the rear entrance, where the van was waiting for them.

Catching up to her, gasping, Spike tried again, “Slayer! *Buffy*!” as he managed to catch her arm.

She stopped for a moment, turning on him. “I said *don’t*, Spike!” she snapped. “Don’t explain, don’t even talk to me, don’t *freaking* touch me!” And she jerked her arm away from him, turning to continue down the hall.

He followed, a worried frown on his face. This was not turning out so well. Buffy finally led them out into the night, and they saw the van in front of them. Not a moment too soon – it had been fifteen minutes already since the alarm had sounded.

Opening the back door to the van, Buffy stepped aside to allow Diana to get in. Spike helped her, trying to calm her. She had already been nervous, and now the prospect of leaving him had her terrified.

“I’ll be all right, love,” he lied. “Go on now. You’ll be safe.” He cast the Slayer a glare that demanded that she not make him a liar in those words.

The Slayer was glaring right back with a greater intensity of fury as she spoke again, her voice full of barely controlled rage.

“Get in.”

“What?” Spike was confused – and not a little frightened.

“Get in the van,” she clarified her order.

“Why?” he asked, suspicion creeping into his eyes. Judging by her mood, her intense anger at what they had done, he could easily see her taking him back to her house with her, just to beat the crap out of him herself for what he had done. In another five minutes his chip would be fully functional again.

With a muffled roar of fury, the Slayer advanced on him until she was right in his face, looking him in the eye as she snarled, “You can’t stay here, ok? Not with what you – what they’re gonna find…” She couldn’t finish, but he finally understood.

In spite of her anger, she was scared for him. She knew that when the desecrated body of Lieutenant Finn was found in his room, there would be nothing for him but cruel torture and death.

Her voice little more than a whisper of absolute fury, she ordered again, “Get. In the freaking. Van. Spike.”

The sound of the approaching soldiers grew louder; there was no longer any option. Wordlessly he obeyed, leaping into the back to sit by his now weeping, trembling childe, as the Slayer jumped in the side door and the van roared away into the night.