Disclaimer: The Characters of BTVS and ATS are the property of Joss Whedon and various other people/entities. I am only using them for fun and entertainment only. This is the sad reality that hits me when I wake up from my naked Spike filled dreams.

Author’s note: Once again hugs to my fabulous Beta, BTL who tried to add a tid bit of hope to this rather angsty chapter.
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Chapter 8: If Wishes were Vampires

“Tell me about The Immortal,” Buffy requested of Anyanka as they walked down the corridor, to D’Hoffryn’s audience chamber.

“What’s to tell? He’s a menace, thinks he’s all high and mighty, because he did the gods a favour once upon a time and they granted him immortality.” Anyanka waved her hands about as she talked, the flick of her wrist telling Buffy it was nothing great. It got Buffy wondering exactly what the Immortal had done to merit such a gift.

“You know him?” Buffy asked.

“I’ve met him on occasion, it’s hard not bumping into him while in Rome, he tends to have his fingers in pies that aren’t his business.”

Buffy nodded. Since she had heard about the Immortal and his connection to Spike, she desired to know everything about him. And more importantly if he could really make Drusilla abandon Spike.

“You are still thinking about your vampire!” Anyanka cried out. “Erixel! I thought I told you to take him to bed and get him out of your mind!”

“You did,” Buffy conceded. But it didn’t work, she mentally added.

“And?” she prompted. “Did you?”

Buffy looked into the eyes of her friend and lied. “No, Anyanka.”

“Trust me, once you do it, it will be over and done with. You’ll thank me,” the older demon added with a tiny pat on Buffy’s back.

The had reached the entrance to D’Hoffryn’s chamber and pushed open the door.

“D’Hoffryn!” Anyanka greeted. “I hope this staff meeting is short, I postponed some truly ingenious plans for this event,” Anyanka commented, turning every demon’s attention towards her.
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Buffy returned from her monthly staff meeting with D’Hoffryn to find Annette waiting patiently in her Rome apartment. Her monthly quota had been upped, again. She only hoped that the Italian people had more ingenious ideas about vengeance than the French. She was tired of coming home with blood on her clothes.

After sending the girl on an errand to fetch some gloves, for Buffy was in constant need of new gloves, the former Slayer sat down at the small desk situated in front of her bedroom window and sighed.

She had been held at the train station while the authorities discussed the nature of the killings. Spike, nor Angelus had been found on the train. This did, however, give her time to do some impromptu vengeance wishes for some of the passengers that were scattered about the station.

Annette had looked on in wonder as Buffy’s demon face was brought to the fore each time she said that the wish had been granted. She wished that Annette wasn’t so fascinated by her demon side.

Buffy took out a slip of paper from her desk and began to write out a letter. Reagan had to be informed of her new address, though she didn’t know how long she was going to be here. It all depended on how long William stayed in Rome with his family.

Buffy scoffed. His family, she thought bitterly. His family that tortures him, that doesn’t appreciate him, that is intent on turning him into a monster. A family that he’d rather stay with than with you, she had to tell herself.

Staring out into the grimy street Buffy suddenly felt very dirty. She had given herself to William for the most idiotic of reasons, to get over him. To use him, which was what Anyanka thought all men were good for. She had to come to the realisation that there was no hope of her falling out of love with him. She just had to find a way to keep the fact of him from interfering with her life.

Buffy shook her head and extolling her problems to Reagan on paper. Explaining all of her William related woes to Reagan usually did a world of good for her heart.

“Madame!” squealed Annette’s voice gleefully from the hallway.

Reluctantly, Buffy put down her pen and turned in her seat, just in time to see Annette enter the room, papers fluttering in her hand while the girl clutched a package wrapped in brown paper.

“Madame! I have here a list of all the orphanages in the area, and your new gloves.” Annette smiled up at her mistress expectantly.

Buffy smiled softly and petted the girl’s head. She was so eager to please and so completely unprepared for what this life was like.
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Enjoying the calm night air, Buffy set about gathering information for her next large scale infiltration. Her specialty was orphans, mainly because she was one. She had tried schools but it seemed that the orphanages had the most abuse occurring within their walls.

This particular one was for girls, and run by the church. No novelty there. Buffy looked up at the solid stone walls and shuddered. It was so much like the Watcher’s Council it made her stomach queasy. She pressed on despite her sick feeling, her need for information winning out. There were things every Vengeance Demon needed to know before entering a site, like what to wear. This orphanage looked pretty strict, she didn’t know if she could just walk in off the street and see the children or whether she had to be given a referral by a priest. Maybe she should just forget the whole thing and pretend to be a nun.

Pretend to be a nun. That brought back memories. William memories.

So what’s the total nun deaths then, just curious...”

“A lady does not reveal her body count, Spike.”

No! Bad brain! Thinking about William, unproductive! Buffy tried to convince herself.

Buffy hiked her skirts up to ascend the stairs when something shiny caught her eye. In the street was a man, he had an air of confidence about him and at once Buffy knew that this was the Immortal she had heard so much about.

He was flipping a coin in his hand, which was catching the moonlight. Buffy stopped what she was doing and trod down the steps heading in his direction.

“You are new,” he said plainly, a hint of an accent. “How old are you, demon?”

Buffy scoffed. “A lady does not reveal her age sir. Whatever your impressive heritage maybe, you will not find me so easily manipulated.”

“Elevated when you were seventeen?” he stated, slowly beginning to circle her.

“Yes,” she answered, though she really didn’t see the need for her to answer, his eyes telling her he knew more than what he was saying.

“You are young then. Aurelius is interested in you...Can’t think why...Perhaps they see something in you others cannot. Must be a vampire thing.” His hand brushed a ringlet of her blond hair to the side of her face before looking into her green eyes. Buffy shivered. It was as if he was looking right through her.

“If you are talking about the Order of Aurelius, I know of only two vampires from that line who have anything to do with me.”

“You were a Slayer,” he continued on, his eyes scanning her face.

“If you knew all of this before you met me, why, pray tell are you stating the obvious?” Buffy asked with a raised eyebrow.

The Immortal simply chose to ignore her question, posing one of his own. “Do you like to annoy those who are more powerful than yourself?”

Buffy smiled. “Are you going to tell me to get out of your city? The high and mighty Immortal lowers himself to tell a simple and young Vengeance Demon to get out of his city?”

“No.”

“No?” she asked confused.

“I wanted to see what they saw in you.”

“Saw? Past tense?” Buffy’s voice was laden with fear.

“No need to worry, dear demon.” He reached up to brush her cheek, but Buffy pulled back. “William the Bloody and Angelus are perfectly alright, still undead. I only was curious. Angelus speaks of you as his own.”

“I am not his,” she snapped.

“No, you belong to someone else.” The immortal reached up to Buffy’s neck, pulling down the lace collar to reveal Spike’s healed bite marks.

Buffy’s hand flew to her neck.

“How did you know?” she asked.

“I think it’s quite interesting that a Vengeance Demon, so highly feared, would allow herself to be marked by a vampire, a half breed.”

Buffy raised her head up higher, not allowing the Immortal to see inside her cleverly made up façade of Erixel the Vengeance Demon.

“You are proud of his marks. I apologise, I had no idea you were so in love with this creature, this thing that is so far beneath you.”

“You're nothing to me, William. You're beneath me.”

Her own words thundered in her head.

“Is there any point to this?” Buffy asked disdainfully.

“The point, young demon, is that I have now seen what they find so appealing. We shall meet again.,” he promised, grabbing her hand and pressing a kiss to it before she could pull back.

And with that he turned and walked away.

Well at least I can tell Anyanka that I’ve met the Immortal,thought Buffy as she climbed the steps of the orphanage once more.
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In the end Buffy managed to get into the orphanage without a referral by a priest, or in a nun’s habit.

The nuns had been more than happy to let Buffy walk around the orphanage and talk to the girls in the dormitory. She suspected that they wanted her to adopt more than one.

Buffy sat at the bed of one of the little girls, her blond hair freshly washed. The girl, Antonia, had been telling her a fantastic tale of how she was forced to wash the shit out of the baby’s nappies because the nuns were cruel and unjust.

Buffy nodded in understanding.

“You know what I would wish?” said the little girl, Buffy listening attentively. “I would wish that something would come and scare the nuns so badly that they would crap in their pants and have to wash it out. Maybe Vampires.” Antonia laughed at the thought of vampires.

Buffy laughed too. She had the perfect vampires for the job.

“Wish granted,” said Buffy shifting into her demon face for a moment. “I certainly hope that this makes you learn the phase be careful what you wish for.”

Antonia screamed and fainted dead away at Buffy’s face. With a laugh and a smile, Buffy flicked her wrist, making the Scourge of Europe appear in the dormitory.

“What the bloody buggering hell is this?” came Spike’s voice.

“Where are we?” asked the loony Drusilla in her fairy like voice.

The older members of the family directed their attention to the cause of their teleportation.

“You!” spat Darla, her vamp bumpies coming out.

Buffy smiled right back at the blond vampire. “Yes, me. Hello Darla,” said Buffy pleasantly.

“Why’d ya bring us here?” asked Angelus.

“Business,” she said. “Nothing more,” she stated, staring Angelus straight in the eye. “ A vengeance wish, you are to terrorize these nuns.”

“We don’t follow your orders, Slayer!” barked Darla.

Buffy rolled her eyes. “So don’t follow my orders then. Perhaps you’d like to take advantage of the situation that I’ve put you in? You are in an orphanage, in the daylight, with dozens of people helpless and afraid. What do you normally do in this situation?” Buffy asked.

“Can you smell it daddy, they’re all afraid of us and the Slayer Demon,” whispered Drusilla into Angelus’ ear as Spike stared on with anger. “And look, Daddy! Nuns! Like I was! You like the way they taste.”

“It’s up to you, you are free to go and do as you please. The wish was for vampires to come and terrorise, nothing more, I think you’ve accomplished your task,” said Buffy, standing up from her seat on the bed, and turning to exit the dormitory. There were other floors to visit.

“Where the bleeding hell are you going?” asked Spike, putting his hand on her elbow.

“I have things to do. Unlike you, I have a job to do,” she retorted, using indifference to cover up her true feelings.

“You can tell me why you brought us here...” Spike looked her in the eye, his blue depths searching her own.

“It isn’t my fault that the child asked for vampires. You and the rest were the first ones I thought of. I could have chosen any vampire to carry out this task. Consider yourself fortunate that I thought of you. And this way you can add to your body count, nun wise.”

Buffy dislodged his hand from her elbow and headed out the door into the hallway and up the stairs. She clenched her fists in frustration at him. This wasn’t about him. Ok, I’m really trying to convince myself it isn’t about him, she thought.

The next floor up she found another dormitory of children, older, about Annette’s age. A nun in the corner was attempting to lead a lesson about how young ladies should act.

“Can I help you miss?” asked the nun.

“Oh Sister, I beg your pardon for interrupting your lesson. Mother Superior said that I might meet some of the children. I am thinking about adopting...”

The sister smiled and beckoned her further into the room. With confidence, Buffy approached, only to stop when the nun’s face turned from warm welcome to panicked. Buffy turned to look behind her to find that Spike had followed her up the stairs.

“You were supposed to wait down stairs!” Buffy hissed. Spike wasn’t in game face, but it was clear that this was a girl’s only institution and the presence of man was shocking indeed.

“I bloody well will not!” he protested.

Buffy smiled apologetically at the sister and led Spike back to the doorway.

“Spike! I can’t have you in here!” Buffy let go of Spike’s arm and closed the door behind her.

Spike frowned as she released his arm, telling himself that the empty feeling was only because the smell of fear was blocked, not because she let go of him. His anger for even thinking it causing him to snap at her. “Oh afraid I’ll muck up your pretty plans? Bloodshed and exploding entrails? I’m up for a fun time.”

Buffy exhaled deeply. “It doesn’t work that way, I have to get the wish out of the child first! With you here I won’t get a bloody thing out of the children! Go back to your sire and do whatever it is that you were put on this earth to do!” she said with no little venom in her voice.

She was so angry.

“That’s right, was put on this green earth to get my heart ripped out by a sweet looking girl who pretended to like me, so that I could get turned by my dark princess and kill nuns. I get it,” he said solemnly.

Buffy cringed. “Oh god, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Just how did you mean it?”

Spike waited for her to respond and Buffy stared at him unable to formulate a response.

“It seems to me pet, that you are rather intent on trying to make yourself mad at me, for what reason, I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” said Buffy incredulously before she could bite her tongue.

“I see it now,” he said, catching her chin with his thumb and forefinger, tilting her pouting face upwards to face him. “Regret what happened pet?”

“Never,” she said with a hardness setting in behind her eyes.

“You knew I’d go back to her afterwards,” he said quietly, his lips a bare whisper from hers.

“I did,” she said firmly. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

Buffy jerked her chin out of his grasp and headed out of the dormitory and down the stairs. She had to get out of there before she started crying. Her little feet carried her further and further away from him, but her tears came closer and closer to the surface.

“Buffy!” he called after her. He could smell the salt from the tears that were begging to fall from her eyes.

Buffy had reached the main door of the building and was standing in a patch of sunlight where he could not follow. He hovered near the edge, watching her intently. Buffy breathed in deeply and turned slowly to face him.

“Go back to Drusilla, Spike.”
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tbc...