Chapter Five

When Buffy did not show up at school the next day, Giles immediately sought out Willow and Xander to see if they had any idea where she was. When neither one could say that they had spoken to her since the afternoon before, his stomach began to churn and he debated ringing Buffy’s home to see if her mother knew where she was. Only the fact that he could come up with no good reason for the school librarian to be phoning a student’s house at 9:00 in the morning to ask where she was kept him from frantic dialing.

The courier’s arrival at noon, with a small package for which he had to sign, did nothing to relieve his fears and the sight of the videotape inside the package made his hand tremble. He quickly set up the nearest TV/VCR, thanking the stars that not all the school’s machines were out on loan for the day. One glimpse of the first shot of an immobile Buffy lying on a stone floor at the feet of Angelus and Drusilla and he collapsed into his chair with a moan. He watched in horror as the two vampires ripped the clothing and flesh from his clearly incapacitated slayer, cringing at the agony in her eyes. When he recognized the voice coming from behind the camera, he felt as though a cold hand had taken possession of his heart, squeezing it into something hard and icy.

His initial fear and pain were replaced by a lethal rage. Immediately he realized that this was about himself and Ethan – the vampires were superfluous to the sorcerer, only a means to an end – as was the torture of his slayer. The Watcher had no trouble recognizing a baited trap when he saw one. Had he not been so outraged at the ordeal Buffy was undergoing at Ethan’s behest, he might have been shocked at his own impatience to spring the trap and confront his old friend. As it was, emotions and desires he hadn’t experienced in many years roiled through his body as he continued to watch the video.

Giles watched in bemusement as Ethan gleefully filmed Spike attempting to crawl back into a wheelchair, wincing despite himself at the vampire’s obvious weakness and trembling limbs.

So, not only do we have Angelus back amongst us, but his family is not dead either. Buffy is at the mercy of three master vampires, at least two of which have every reason to hate her.

Giles was not so foolish as to think that there was any trace of affection for Buffy in the demon now controlling the body of her former boyfriend and protector, but he was not yet aware of how angry the demon would be at having been the Slayer’s pet vampire. His fear was that Drusilla and Spike would be the ones to revenge themselves on Buffy before killing her. He was still watching the tape when he heard the doors to the library slam open and quickly turned the television off, ejecting it and stuffing the tape in his coat pocket.

Tersely, he explained to the anxious teens outside his office that Buffy appeared to have been captured by Angelus and that there was sorcery involved. While he was mentally chastising himself for not having properly finished the beating he’d administered to Ethan at Halloween, he was already gathering the books and supplies he would need to rescue his slayer. He barely acknowledged his two companions as, with an ease that surprised him, he fell into the necessary ruthless pursuit of vengeance that had been such a part of his life as a younger man.

Taking Willow and Xander with him, he drove to his home as quickly as possible. While he rummaged in a closet for more weapons, he set Willow to work performing a locator spell to help them find where Buffy was being held. The novice witch had bravely volunteered to try to come up with a spell to use against Ethan, only to be disappointed when Giles gazed off into empty space as he said, “No, thank you, Willow. I believe I will be handling this one myself.”

Xander’s face had paled at the thought of facing three of the four members of the Scourge of Europe at the same time, but he dutifully began to sharpen stakes and fill water guns with holy water. By the time darkness had fallen, the weapons were stacked by the door and the two teenagers were anxiously waiting to leave. However, Willlow’s locator spell could find no trace of Buffy and the redhead’s eyes filled with tears as she feared the worst. Giles, on the other hand, was not surprised, he simply ran his eyes over the map and noted the area that the locator light seemed to be avoiding.

“He’s cloaked the building,” he said brusquely. “It is obviously somewhere in this area –“ he waved his hand at an older and more remote part of Sunnydale. “Perhaps one of those old mansions on Crawford Street; they periodically attract vampire nests that Buffy must go in and clean out.”

“Let’s go then,” Xander shouldered the weapons bag and began to open the door.

“No,” the Watcher said flatly.

“No? He’s got Buffy and you’re saying, ‘no’?” Xander challenged, his question echoed in Willow’s eyes. The faces of the two teens reflected their fear and confusion.

“I am saying that you are not coming with me. This will be a fight involving serious magics and I cannot be worrying about you two.”

Willow’s face was hurt and her lip crept out as she said softly, “I can do magic, Giles.”

The Watcher fixed distant eyes on her as he said, “You cannot do these kinds of magics. Nor should you. Do you understand me, Willow? Under no circumstances are you to try to summon anything magical tonight.” His hard eyes bored into hers until she dropped her gaze and nodded obediently.

“But,” Xander protested weakly, “The stakes. Won’t Buffy need them for vampire dustage?”

Giles appeared to think for a minute, then reluctantly agreed, “All right. The two of you may accompany me to the area, but you are to remain in the car and if you see anything at all…untoward, you are to drive away immediately. Is that clear?”

The two teens nodded eagerly and began carrying things out to the car. The Watcher waved them out, then closed the door and focused, pulling into himself as much power as he was able. He could feel the magics enter his body and fill it with the strength of the earth and its essence even as he chastised himself for not having continued to practice the techniques that he’d been taught by the coven so many years ago.

Finally, offering a prayer that he had absorbed as much power as would be needed to counteract whatever Ethan had done, he left the house and joined the impatient students waiting in his car.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buffy awoke to the feeling of cold hands yanking her over onto her back, hands which began an immediate assault on her bruised and cut body, smacking her face until she opened her eyes to glare at the vampires once again standing over her. She pushed down the fear clenching her stomach as the demon wearing Angel’s face leered at her nakedness and ran his hands up her thighs. He roughly inserted his fingers into her vagina, laughing at the cry of surprise and pain that escaped her lips before she could stop it.

Once again, Ethan was holding the video camera and directing the vampires as they began another round of torment on Buffy’s body. He could see that she had regained some feeble use of her limbs and asked idly if they wanted him to strengthen the spell; Angelus laughed, saying with a leer, “No, let the bitch struggle. It’ll be more fun that way. She’s no match for the two of us.”

Angelus signaled to Dru to hold Buffy’s arms while he yanked her legs apart and unzipped his pants. Buffy couldn’t prevent the tears from leaking out of her eyes as she realized what the vampire was planning. When, instead of the romantic lovemaking she had pictured him allowing her to share someday, he rammed his cock into her dry, virginal passage she gasped with both physical and emotional pain. The vampire shoved his way past her hymen with no pause, using the blood to lubricate the dry channel so that he could pump into her more easily.

Ethan was once again carrying on a running commentary on the action, offering Giles close-ups of the Slayer’s tears as well as the blood that colored the insides of her thighs when the vampire finally shuddered to release and pulled out of her. The Slayer was sobbing silently, her dreams as shattered as her maidenhead. She barely noticed that Spike had once again rolled back into the room and she completely missed the suppressed rage on his face at what he had seen.

Drusilla had not missed her former lover’s arrival, however, and she took Angelus’ arm and began to whisper in his ear. The demon threw back his head and roared with laughter.

“That is just delicious, my pet! You are truly fit to be my mate.”

He walked over to Spike’s chair and pushed it closer to Buffy, the puzzled mage filming the whole time.

“Here’s the thing, Will,” he began conversationally. “The Slayer looks like a ripe little peach, but she’s dry as a bone. Maybe I don’t appeal to her anymore – the devil knows she used to get wet for me just kissing good-night...”

Buffy squeezed her eyes shut, sure that if the vampires did not kill her soon, she was going to die of humiliation and pain all by herself. Whatever trace of affection she might have still felt for the gloating demon had completely fled and her only thought was to hold on long enough see him turn to dust, preferably at her hand.

She heard him continue as he dragged Spike out of his chair and threw him down beside the still-silent girl, saying, “So, for the sake of making it more interesting the second time I take her, I want you to work some of that magic you do so well, and get her wet for me. Drusilla tells me you have a very talented tongue; let’s see you do something useful with it. When I go again, I want her ready, willing and waiting for my cock.”

He pushed the younger vampire’s face toward Buffy’s still bleeding sex, laughing the entire time as Spike snarled and snapped at him. The blood that Spike had taken from the Slayer the night before had gone a long way towards helping him heal, but he knew he wasn’t yet strong enough to take on his grandsire. He glanced up into the face of the woman he’d loved for over 100 years, hoping for some sign that she objected to what he was being asked to do, but her dancing eyes and the way she held the Slayer’s arms told him she didn’t care what he did to the girl. Her eyes were only on Angelus, and it was clear that her only thought was to please him.

Instead of doing as he was told, Spike pulled himself up the Slayer’s trembling body, pretending to be much weaker than he actually felt. He allowed his head to fall against her neck, whispering quickly, “I’m sorry, luv. You don’t deserve this any more than I do.” Before Angelus could object to the disobedience, he dropped between her spread legs and began to lick the blood and Angel’s spendings off the insides of her thighs. As his mouth got closer and closer to her center, Buffy felt the same fluttering in her lower abdomen that she’d felt the night before when he’d been suckling on her breast.

Spike felt her pulse increase slightly and smelled the faintest trace of arousal as he ran his tongue through her folds, carefully cleaning her off and soothing the bruised and torn area. Buffy turned her flaming face to the side as she realized that the blond vampire was having exactly the effect Angelus had expected him to; she clenched her teeth and fought the sensations emanating from her previously untouched and unseen most private parts.

Drusilla leaned over her, cooing in the Slayer’s ear, “My William is very talented, is he not, Slayer? Don’t try to pretend you don’t like it. I know you do – I know you—“ She broke off abruptly to snarl, “No fair, William. You are just to prepare the Slayer for Daddy. You are not allowed to enjoy your taste of the Slayer. She is Daddy’s!”

“Sod your fuckin’ ‘daddy’,” Spike growled, rolling away from the kick Angelus aimed at his head. He bit back the bitter words he wanted to throw at Dru about how much better Buffy tasted than she did, knowing that she would take her anger out on the helpless slayer rather than on him.

A loud noise at the front of the house attracted Ethan’s attention and he put down the camera, ordering Angelus to, “Go see what might be interrupting us. I’m quite sure Ripper will not have been able to locate us yet; perhaps you will have the opportunity to eat a Girl Scout or two.”

The old vampire snarled at being given orders by a mere human; however, he had acquired his knowledge of what the mage could do the hard way and was reduced to grumbling his assent as he left the room. Drusilla drifted behind him, curious as to what might have knocked on their door and picturing the Girl Scouts that the sorcerer had jokingly mentioned.

Neither Spike nor Buffy held any actual interest for the magician, so he ignored them in favor of drinking some wine while he waited for the two vampires to come back.

Spike’s roll had taken him across the Slayer so that he was now lying beside her, their eyes only inches apart.

“How’s that spell doin’, pet?” he whispered anxiously. “Any chance you’re ready to dust that wanker yet?”

Buffy shook her head silently, gesturing at the bolt holding her chain which she had managed to work loose. “I’m loose, but I still can’t move very fast. It’s just taking too long to wear off. What about you?” she hissed. “Didn’t my blood do you any good at all?”

“More than you know, pet,” he smirked, thinking about the hard-on he’d been sporting just a few seconds ago. “But I’m not up to fighting them yet.”

“So we’re screwed,” she said sadly, then flashed her eyes at him, daring him to say what he was thinking. She flushed when the humorous glitter there told her he was biting his tongue. Then, to her surprise, his expression changed and he appeared almost ashamed as he said quietly, “I wouldn’t have said it, Slayer. Angelus is an animal, and if I was any kind of a gentleman I’d be apologizing to you for having any part in what’s goin’ on here.”

“You’re a vampire, Spike. Not a gentleman.”

Her easy acceptance of his role in her humiliation and rape angered him more than he cared to admit, and he snapped out, “I might kill you, but I would never have raped you. Got too much pride for that.”

Buffy’s intended answer never came as movement at the edge of the room caught her eye; she gasped when she realized that she was looking at her Watcher’s face reflected in the glass of the window.

Spike immediately followed her gaze and muttered, “The cavalry’s here, huh, pet?”

She nodded, her face screwed up in a worried frown. “But what is Giles going to be able to---“

Her whisper was cut off as her watcher pointed his hand at her and she felt the last vestiges of the spell leave her system. With a yank, she pulled the bolt out of the floor, wrapping the chain around her wrist and leaping to her feet. Her nudity, to which she had become somewhat accustomed, suddenly made her feel exposed again, and she looked around frantically for something with which to cover herself. Feeling the brush of cloth across her hand, she looked down to see that Spike had taken off his tee shirt and was holding it out to her.

With no time to puzzle out his ability to read her mind, she snatched it out of his hand and whirled to face the sorcerer who had yet to realize what was going on. He frowned at her in surprise, muttering, “Must be that Slayer healing. No way should that spell be wearing off yet.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out some more of the dust, raising his hand to blow it towards her, only to find himself knocked to the floor, the hand holding the dust firmly pinned down.

“Ripper!” he crowed, with what sounded too much like happiness. “You’re early, but that’s all right. You can still join the party.”

Behind him, Angelus and Drusilla came back into the room, having found no one at the front door and no sign of entry. They blinked for a second at the sight of Ethan lying on the ground, Giles sitting atop him wearing a look the formerly souled vampire had never seen before.

“Remove this violent person from me and then you may have your Slayer to do with as you wish,” Ethan proposed. “Just do not kill him, please. That privilege is reserved for me.” He waited confidently for the two vampires to overwhelm his former lover and allow him to begin the torture he had been planning for him.

Angelus looked at the mage and quickly decided that what happened between Ethan and Giles was not his problem. His gaze settled on the Slayer, now on her feet and standing almost protectively over his smirking grandchilde. Drusilla, behind him, saw what Buffy was wearing and flew across the room, only to be caught on the face by the chain Buffy was wielding like a mace.

“Go get him, Slayer,” she heard from behind and below her. “Let me worry about Dru.”

Taking Spike at his word, Buffy stepped forward to meet the snarling vampire. Confident that Buffy would still be weak from blood loss and the lack of anything to eat or drink for over twenty-four hours, Angelus glided towards her, his demon face to the fore. Behind him, Giles was pounding on Ethan’s face with one hand and restraining the hand containing the immobilization dust down with the other.

In a physical contest, there was no comparison between the aging but still fit Watcher and the slender, effete magician. However, Ethan had not come back to Sunnydale to engage Giles in a physical confrontation, but rather to overwhelm him with black magic. Squirming free of the watcher’s punishing fist for just a second, he gasped out a quick Latin phrase and waited for Giles to collapse.

A grin that looked much more like the Ripper that Ethan remembered from their early days together shaped the Watcher’s face as he responded with a phrase of his own. Ethan felt himself become paralyzed, and frantically tried to summon enough of his power to raise one hand. Instead, he found himself flattened to the floor as surely as if he’d been tied down and gagged.

Giles stood up and turned to watch his Slayer as she squared off against her former boyfriend. From the corner of his eye, he could see Spike holding on to to a hysterical Drusilla as she screamed for her daddy and struggled to break free. With a sigh of resignation, the blond vampire brought up his fist in a vicious uppercut that effectively silenced the mad vampire, leaving her in a crumpled heap across his lap.

While Buffy was beating Angelus bloody with her chain, she was no closer to dusting him than she had been when she started and Giles could see that she was beginning to tire, the events of the previous night having taken more of a toll on her than she wanted to admit.

He bent down and unclenched Ethan’s fist, shaking the dust into his own hand and getting as close to Buffy and Angelus as he could without getting hurt. He held up the handful of dust so that Buffy could see it, and when she kicked Angelus in the crotch and shoved him towards her watcher, Giles blew the dust into the vampire’s face. Immediately, Angelus was frozen in place, toppling over and landing on his face on the floor, his hands still clutching his testicles.

“Thank you, Giles,” Buffy said gratefully. Now that she could stop the fight for her life, she realized exactly how tired she was and rested her trembling weight against a table.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to get here,” he responded, his normal softness once again evident on his face. “I hope they did not have time to hurt you any more than—“

A snarl from the vampire still sitting on the floor with his unconscious girlfriend in his lap reminded him that they were not alone in the room. He was staring at Spike and Drusilla and therefore completely missed the pleading look that Buffy sent the blond vampire.

The two mortal enemies locked eyes and the Watcher frowned as he realized that some sort of communication was taking place between Buffy and the blond vampire. After a few tense seconds, Spike nodded almost imperceptibly and said quietly, “No, Watcher. Seems like you were just in the nick of time. Slayer’s all alive and well and on her way back to being the obnoxiously perky little pain in my ass that she’s always been.”

There was complete silence in the room as Ethan and Angelus struggled to speak and Giles looked back and forth between Spike and Buffy, wondering what he was missing. The silence was growing more and more uncomfortable until Willow and Xander burst through the door, stakes, crosses, and holy water in hand. The sight of Buffy wearing nothing but a black tee shirt, her arms, legs and neck visibly covered with partially healed wounds stopped them in their tracks.

Willow’s sympathetic, “Oh, Buffy!” almost covered for the boy’s sudden gasp as he realized that she was probably naked under the shirt. Spike did not miss the gasp, nor did he miss the sudden increase in the boy’s heart rate, and he surprised himself with the possessive growl that emerged from his throat.

Buffy had turned to look at her two friends and hadn’t missed the look on Xander’s face or the growl from the vampire behind her. Once again, one of world’s most feared vampires was showing more concern for her dignity than was someone who should care about her and she felt another small piece crumble off her slayer’s rigid view of the world. She tugged ineffectually on the shirt in an attempt to cover more of her legs as she asked quickly, “Xander? Stake?”

“Wha--? Oh. Oh, yeah, of course, stakes. Here you go, Buffy.”

He tossed her a stake, then frowned when she didn’t hold out her hand for two more.

Buffy stalked up to the immobile vampire and turned him over so that he was facing the ceiling. She bent over him as far as she could without flashing the vampire behind her and looked him in the eye.

“Kinda a scary feeling, isn’t, Angel? Can’t move, and you know the person who can is probably really, really pissed off at you?”

In spite of the vampire’s best attempt to appear contrite and loving, the eyes staring back at her bore no trace of the soul that had shone out so visibly before, and she didn’t need Spike’s quiet “Don’t fall for it, Slayer,” to make her decision. While a sorely wounded part of her would have taken some pleasure in having time to make the vampire suffer the way she had at his hands, the girl who had loved him was controlling her now. She calmly brought her hand into position and said, “You know why I’m doing this.” His eyes reflected brief panic just before she raised her arm, bringing it back down quickly and plunging the stake into his chest. She waited stoically as the dust settled to the floor, then straightened and turned to look at the equally immobile sorcerer.

“I will handle this, Buffy,” Giles said quietly, stepping closer to Ethan. “I am the reason he is here. Why don’t you take care of the other two vampires and let Xander and Willow take you home?”

Buffy turned to look at Spike and Drusilla where they remained on the stone floor; she saw his arms tighten protectively around the insane vampire and felt her heart wrench at the proof that soulless vampires could indeed love and forgive. Spike’s eyes stared into hers as he waited anxiously to see what she would do. There was none of the pleading that she had seen in the eyes of his grandsire, just a calm acceptance of their probable fate.

She toyed briefly with the idea of just staking Drusilla and allowing Spike to find his own way out of Sunnydale; however, she quickly realized that not only would he probably not want to live without his lover of over 100 years, but he would never forgive her. She would have no choice but to kill him as well, or spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder.

Giles studied Buffy while she stared indecisively at Spike; as he watched her, he observed her healing wounds, the shirt he’d seen the vampire rip off and hand to her, and the fact that she was in generally good condition to have suffered the things he had so painfully watched. Even with Slayer healing, it seemed unlikely that she would be so well on her way to recovery so soon after suffering such damage. His eyes narrowed as his gaze shifted to the blond vampire and he surprised himself by saying, “If you do not want to do it, I will take care of it for you, Buffy. You can go home.”

“No,” she whispered, stepping closer to the two vampires and kneeling down beside them. She heard the shocked intakes of breath from both Xander and Willow as she calmly sat down beside the vampire who had been her surprising support through her ordeal.

She looked at Spike, trying to read his eyes and his normally expressive face, but it was still and mask-like.

“I don’t want to kill you,” she said quietly, letting her eyes fall on the now-stirring woman in his arms.

She saw him tighten his grip again, his eyes now pleading with her. “I can’t live without her, Slayer. I won’t.”

Buffy’s eyes filled with tears of sympathy as she struggled with her inherent need to rid the world of the creatures in front of her.

“You can’t control her,” she said bluntly. “If I leave her here until you can travel, more families are going to lose their children. I can’t do that, Spike.”

“Do what you have to do, Slayer,” he said with stubborn resignation. “I won’t be without her.”

Whatever Buffy’s intended reply, no one heard it; as Buffy began speaking, Drusilla came to her senses and began to look around the room frantically for Angelus. She pulled out of Spike’s arms, ignoring the startled Slayer, and began running around the mansion screaming for Angelus. Giles quickly ordered Willow and Xander into the car and threw the inert Ethan over his shoulder. He looked back at Buffy as he walked toward the door saying with more sympathy than he’d shown when Angel was the danger in question, “Spike is quite right, Buffy. You must do what you were born to do.”

She waved her hand dismissively and got to her feet, stake in hand as she waited for Drusilla to return to the mansion’s main room. She looked at the small pile of dust where Angelus had last stood and braced herself for the coming attack. Behind her, she could hear Spike’s low moaning as he tried to get to his feet.

“Please, luv, please,” he chanted over and over – not sure if he was talking to the Slayer or to his suicidal mistress.

Drusilla burst back into the big room, her eyes this time going right to the Slayer and the stake she was holding. “Where is he?” she shrieked, running at Buffy. “What have you done with him?” The lighted candle the insane vampire had picked up somewhere along the way fell out of its holder, landing unnoticed on the edge of the small carpet upon which rested all that remained of her sire. She gave a piercing wail as she glimpsed the pile of dust at the Slayer’s feet.

Heedless of the rapidly developing fire behind her, the grief-stricken vampire fell to her knees in front of the small dust pile that had been both her destroyer and her life’s focus. The fire quickly crept up the old, dry rug to catch the edge of her flowing dress and set it smoldering.

“Dru!” the horror and fear in Spike’s voice was palpable and sent a chill through Buffy. She could see him out of the corner of her eye, struggling to get to his feet and run to the woman he loved. Tears of frustration rolled down his face as his still-crippled back would not allow his legs to work.

Finally noticing the flames eating at her dress, Dru leaped to her feet and whirled briefly in fear and confusion. Her actions fanned the flames into the inferno that would destroy her ancient body in seconds as well as scattering sparks to other areas. The fire quickly spread to the draperies and furniture as the vampire turned back to the pile of dust and sank to her knees on the flaming rug. She knelt there, her hair now catching fire, crying and moaning in her grief and agony. Buffy shook herself and cast an apologetic glance at the now-sobbing Spike who had given up his attempt to stand and was instead trying to drag himself to the rapidly growing conflagration that was the women he had loved and cared throughout his unlife. Before he could get close enough to touch her, Buffy reached through the flames and mercifully plunged her stake into the flaming vampire’s back.

She snatched her hand back quickly, hissing at the burns on her arm, and looked over at Spike. The room was filling with smoke and Buffy’s eyes began to burn as she coughed.

“Go on, Slayer,” he choked out, his eyes ravaged by grief. “Get out!”

With a silent nod, she ran for the door, pausing just outside to breathe in the cool fresh air. There was no sign of Giles and Ethan, although Willow and Xander were waiting obediently in the car, their faces illuminated by the flames now beginning to show through the curtained windows. Buffy began to walk hesitantly towards the vehicle, trying to blank her mind to the way Spike had cared for her, soothed her cuts and her feelings. She told herself it was only because he wanted her to kill Angelus for him that he’d been so concerned for her welfare, but his whispered apologies for hurting her, his genuine regret at having been Angelus’ instrument of humiliation gave the lie to that interpretation of his behavior.

Memories of leaving him inside the burning church while she carried Angel’s unconscious body out to safety flooded her brain and suddenly the idea of leaving the blond vampire to burn again was more than her sense of fair play could tolerate. To the accompaniment of horrified screams from Willow and Xander, she whirled and ran back into the burning building, She got down on her hands and knees to avoid the heavy smoke, crawling until she found Spike huddled over the piles of ashes and dust in the center of the floor. Being in the very center of the room had so far kept him safe from the flames leaping up the walls and she sighed with relief when she saw that he was not on fire.

Summoning up the last reserves of her strength, she grabbed the unresisting vampire around the neck and began to pull him behind her as though saving a drowning man. He didn’t fight her, but he gave her no help either, seeming to have gone into a catatonic state as the depth of his loss overwhelmed him. With a gasp of relief, Buffy fell out the door and onto the cool, damp grass of the yard, rolling over until the vampire was lying there with her. She dragged him a safe distance from the building, then propped him up against a small tree. His eyes were dull and focused on the burning building, paying no attention to the nearly nude girl gasping for air on the grass beside him.

“Buffy!” Willow’s frightened voice brought the Slayer to her feet, groaning with the effort. With a last glance at the emaciated vampire, she staggered towards her friends and a ride to the safety of her home. Xander’s strong arm went around her waist and he got her into the back seat before running around to take his place behind the wheel.

“Where’s Giles?” she asked dully, forcing herself not to look back to where she’d left the weak, heartbroken vampire sitting outside with nothing but a small tree to provide shelter from the sun’s impending arrival.

“He said he would be home later. He took Ethan off that way.” Willow gestured toward the nearest building, another abandoned house with an over grown yard. “He said not to follow them.”

Buffy nodded tiredly. “Wasn’t really planning to,” she admitted, settling back against the seat. There was silence as Xander started the car and pulled out onto the dark street. They were almost to Revello Drive when Buffy said mockingly in her perkiest voice, “So, anybody got any ideas about what to tell my mom about where I’ve been for the past two nights and why I’m wearing nothing but a man’s tee shirt?”


The End


The first chapter of the much Spuffier sequel is with my beta, so look for it to begin posting soon.