Disclaimer: Not mine, but geez I like playing with other people’s toys.

Author’s Note: Portanus are something I wrote to be Anya’s favourite Arashamaharian food in Second Youth I’m using them here as well. If you can’t borrow from yourself... The chant Buffy uses to summon D’Hoffryn is adapted from the one Anya used in ‘Something Blue’ *Squishes* to BTL for the fab betaing. You are amazing!
Thanks to BTL, Wulfie, spet and Tasha for the fab reviews!
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Chapter 14: Vengeance

“Madame!”

She could hear Annette’s voice in her ear as she regained consciousness. She felt like she had had too much wine.

“Madame!” Annette called again.

“Oooh! Annette! I’m awake! No need to yell,” she mumbled as she pressed a hand to her throbbing temple.


Buffy opened her eyes. She was in her bedroom, covered by her blankets, but naked. Her eyes went wide as she realised what had happened.

The Immortal...he...he violated me! she thought with rising panic.

Her hand flew to her throat. Her pendant! This would have never happened if she had had her pendant on her. She could have teleported away if her pendant had been in its rightful place.

“Annette!” she barked. “Where is my pendant?”

“I found it on the floor this morning, so I put it with the rest of your jewellery on the vanity,” Annette answered in a small voice, not use to Buffy being so rough.

“Bring it to me,” Buffy ordered.

With trembling hands, afraid that she had done something wrong, Annette fetched the pendant and placed it in her mistress’ hands.

Buffy fastened the necklace around her neck, silently vowing never to take it off again.
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With wobbly knees and a sick feeling in her stomach, Buffy stood and covered herself with her robe. She had vengeance on her mind. With a dozen curt commands to the girl who held a frightened look on her face, Buffy dressed in haste.

That sick feeling was not going away and she had a horrible, horrible feeling from it. She had to know right away. She bade Annette pack her things while she ran an errand and left the flat; her was destination was one of three things that were on her mind. Buffy slipped into a back alley away from prying eyes and opened a portal, the burning smell that accompanied the rip in the fabric of this dimension filling the small passageway.

She barely cast a glance at her lair in which she stepped into before teleporting away again, finally reaching her intended destination: D’Hoffryn’s audience chamber.

Buffy knelt, her face hard and began her chant.

“Blessèd be the name of D'Hoffryn. I come in supplication. I bend as the reed in the flow of the rippling wave of vengeance. I come in the name of vengeance to call upon its master. Blessèd be the name of D’Hoffryn, the name whispered in the name of revenge, vendetta, justice, retribution, vengeance.”

With a puff of smoke D’Hoffryn appeared.

“Erixel! Dear girl how have you been?” asked the blue demon taking her hand and letting her rise up from the floor. His eyes passed over her keenly, assessing his creation. “Are you pregnant?” he asked as his eyes critically examined her, as if seeing something that could not be visually seen.

She looked up into his eyes ,her own green orbs glistening with unshed tears. “I was hoping that I wasn’t D’Hoffryn,” she said sadly.

He shook his head. “It is most certain that you are my dear. If you didn’t want to be, then why did you take off your pendant?” he asked.

“Oh,” she exhaled deeply. “I was having a disagreement with...”

“With your vampire, I see, and is he the father of the child?” he inquired with a blank face.

“I...I didn’t think vampire’s could have children.”

“There are circumstances,” D’Hoffryn told her cryptically. “But something tells me it is not against him that you wish vengeance.”

“No, it is not him that I wish to have punished. I was violated, drugged while in my human state by The Immortal, it is him who I wish to revenge myself.” Buffy felt her nails digging into her palms and forced them to relax.


D’Hoffryn nodded. “It is your right to ask me, and grounds certainly. But why did you not have your pendant on you?”

“It slipped from my grasp while William and I... ...” she trailed off, her cheeks flush with embarrassment. She cleared her throat before continuing on. “My maid picked it up and put it away before I left the bed. I was looking for it when The Immortal came in.”

“Hmmm,” contemplated the master of Arashamahar. “So you are uncertain as to who the father of your child is then?”

“Yes,” Buffy answered with averted eyes.

“Is the wish to centre on the child?”

“In a way.”

D’Hoffryn nodded again. “State your wish Erixel.”

Buffy thought for a moment before raising her head, her words filling the empty chamber. “I wish that it is my child, or the descendants of my child, to cause the pain, suffering, torture and eventual death of The Immortal.”

“Wish granted my child,” thundered D’Hoffryn’s voice.
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She couldn’t stay in England. She knew that much. She had a feeling that all of Europe wouldn’t be safe for her and her child once word got out that she was pregnant. But she was determined to have the baby, if only to find out whom the father was.

D’Hoffryn assured her that the baby was human, as all three parties involved had been human before they were made demon. Buffy herself still did not understand the logic behind this but she trusted D’Hoffyn’s word.

A part of her wanted to believe that it was Spike’s child, but her years of Slayer training told her that it was impossible. The dread that filled her could only confirm her belief that the being growing inside her now belonged to The Immortal.

Her plan to go to China was put off. It seemed easier if she were in a country that spoke the same language as she did, and she hadn’t mastered Chinese at all. Like most upper crust English ladies of the era, she had a rudimentary grasp of French, and German and some Italian. Chinese hadn’t been on the curriculum at school.

From the alley outside the building which housed her flat, Buffy could see a carriage of men in tweed coming to rest outside the front entrance. Buffy stepped out of the portal, using her hand to dissipate the smoke; through the haze she saw a carriage of men in tweed coming to a rest outside the front entrance of her flat.

Watchers, she immediately thought, her skin prickling with the need to run.

She teleported into the apartment, surprising her maid, who was furiously gathering items into a carpetbag.

Buffy grabbed Annette’s hand, stopping her mid step. “We must go now! Annette!”

“The bags are in your room Madame,” she answered, her hands trembling within Buffy’s grasp.

With a nod, Buffy led the girl by the hand into the bedroom and surveyed the pile of trunks. With a deep breath Buffy opened a portal, burning the carpet and the wallpaper of the room. Frantically the girl disengaged from her mistress’ hand and began pushing the bags and trunks into the portal, the last one through as the door to the flat was pushed in.

Buffy grabbed Annette’s hand once more and dragged the girl through.
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The pair of women stood in the middle of Buffy’s demon lair slightly out of breath.

“Madame?” asked Annette. “Where are we going next?”

A question that Buffy had yet to answer for herself.

“Where would you like to go Annette?” Buffy asked softly, brushing her hand through Annette’s hair.

“Oh Madame, I should very much like to go to Canada. Before my mother died and I was sent to that dreadful orphanage, my mother used to talk about how she would like to see that country.”

“Very well Annette, then that is where we shall go next.”
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They were settled a few days later in Ottawa, Canada, at a posh rooming house on Sparks Street. Buffy was yet again stuck with another alias, now known to her neighbours as the Widow Fairchilde, found herself extremely happy with Annette’s suggested location.

The place was pleasant, the people polite, and the vengeance wishes were not of the bloody variety.

“So this is where you are hiding,” came Anyanka’s voice from behind her one afternoon.

“Not hiding Anyanka,” said Buffy, turning with a smile. “It’s been only a few days since I last saw you.”

“Yes but the rumour mill is ripe with juicy tid bits. As your best friend you should have told me first!” she whined. “I’d like to be very mad at you Erixel, but I just can’t. You are going to be a mother!” Anyanka giggled and hugged her friend, giving her belly a rub.

“Is that what they are saying?” asked Buffy innocently after swatting Anyanka away, the two vengeance demons settling comfortably into chairs.


“Oh you know that D’Hoffryn can’t keep a secret. But really he couldn’t tell me who the father is,” she added with a suspicious stare.


“’Cause I don’t know...”

“Why you little slut!” Anya exclaimed. “I’m so proud of you!”

“It’s nothing to be proud of Anyanka! I was violated! Raped!”

“Oh D’Hoffryn told me about the curse, ingenious aren’t you? Guess that means you won’t be getting rid of it.”

“No! I...couldn’t do that Anyanka. I have to see the baby born. I have to know who the father is, regardless of the curse.”

“Are you going to tell me who the possible candidates are?” she asked. “And please tell me one of them is your William.”

“Yes William, so D’Hoffryn says, could be the father of the child. I just don’t understand how it’s possible...” she trailed off, Anyanka already one step ahead of her.

“Your last thought before the pendant left your fingers was what?” asked Anyanka eagerly.

“Him, and how we could have had beautiful babies. Oh D’Hoffryn! I did it didn’t I? My last wish before I dropped the pendant...”

“I’d give pretty good odds the kid is William’s,” said Anyanka. “So not only did you not tell me you are pregnant, but you failed to mention how you were fucking around with William the Bloody. I told you to get him out of your system, not to have his kids!”

“But I can’t get him out of my system Anya. I tried,” Buffy whined, flopping down on the fainting couch in her living room. “And now I have a reminder of William or The Immortal for nine months.”

“The Immortal raped you?” asked Anyanka aghast, suddenly cluing in to past information.

Buffy nodded solemnly.

“Well wow. I wish you weren’t a Vengeance Demon now, Erixel, cause I’d love to pick your brain for wishes right now.”

Buffy tried to smile up at her friend.

“Oooh! I have more news! I told you the gossip mill was running at a gallop,” Anyanka rambled on. “ The Watcher’s Council is after you, Erixel. It seems that the Demon Erixel has killed the Council’s newest prodigy, Miss Anne Summers some time after the wedding reception of Mr. and Mrs. Price. Imagine that! You’ve been killed again.”

“It amuses to no end,” said Buffy sadly. “I’d just like for once to have them tell the truth. I’m not dead, never have been. Centuries from now, someone is going to go through the Council files and think I’m seven different people.”

“Seven?” asked Anyanka. “What new identities have you forged lately that I don’t know of? Besides Mrs. William Fairchilde?” Anya stressed. “Don’t think I didn’t have a good laugh when I heard about that one Erixel.”

“It’s a civilized society out here too you know, Anyanka,” Buffy replied, even as her smirk refuse to leave her face. “I just couldn’t be my usual self to the people around here. I’m gonna start showing sooner or later. An unwed mother is scandalous.”

“In my time an unwed mother was normal. Only nobles got married... Anyway, I’m having a dinner party you must come,” she implored her friend, clutching onto her hand.

“Oh, Anyanka... I don’t know...”

“Krevlin has promised not to juggle any limbs that are still bloody and Grrentovik is bringing his famous Portanus. Please say you will come! We don’t see enough of you in Arashamahar.”

Buffy sighed, staring into the begging brown eyes of Anyanka. “Oh, all right.”
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tbc...