full 3/4 1/2   skin light dark       
 
Anarchy Reigns by angelic_amy
 
Pledging Allegiance.
 
<<     >>
 
Thanks to Sue and Niamh for the beta!


Chapter 6: Pledging Allegiance.


Sammy was not your typical vampire. It wasn’t the fact he was vertically challenged that made him so different from the other vampires in the gang. No, it was his nature. He was too gentle, soft. He didn’t experience that same thrill during a hunt, felt none of the buzz after satiating his hunger. He was by no means human friendly; he just didn’t see the fun, the sport, in chasing down old ladies who walked with crutches.

Maybe it was his intelligence that was to blame. Unlike his only friend Toby—who had been of the slow on the uptake sort, even before he had taken far too many hits to the head during his high school wrestling career—Sammy believed there was more to un-life than the kill. He believed he was reborn for a greater purpose. The unlikely duo had tried to join several of the more notable gangs in LA, only to be rejected each and every time. His appearance probably didn’t help matters.

Not only was Sammy uncannily short, he was also quite slim. His build was in proportion to his height which meant, by comparison, most cheerleaders had more muscle mass than he did. He had dark brown hair, chocolate coloured eyes and skin as clear and pale as ice. His complexion pale even by vampire standards, probably due to the fact he preferred to spend his afternoons inside with some philosophy book or another, rather than frolicking in the sun like his classmates. He wasn’t unattractive, but he was also nothing special to look at. One of the first things he’d done after being turned was to kill everyone who had ever picked on him in high school about his height.

A good portion of the senior class died that summer.

Weeks after his sire had ditched him, Sammy had run into Toby struggling to free himself from his own grave. The pair had become a team that very night, making a pact to infiltrate a vampire gang that was going somewhere, a gang that made plans more in depth than just ‘kill the humans’. That had been three years ago.

Toby, although not very bright, was incredibly loyal. Even in death Sammy found himself the victim of taunting, this time from both humans and other vampires. The difference was this time he had Toby backing him up. His only friend was as different from him, as night was from day.

Towering over Sammy, Toby had to be at least six foot five, maybe more. And his history with wrestling also meant he had a lot of muscle mass on his frame. When he walked his arms kind of swung by his sides, and his shoulders looked like they were permanently arched upwards because of the bulk of muscle he carried. His biceps were so developed they were larger than Sammy’s thighs.

It was possible Toby had once been quite a looker, but several beatings to his face had permanently dented his nose. His hair was a bright, shocking red—if his height didn’t make him stand out in a crowd that sure did. A smattering of freckles dotted his face, more prominent now that his tan had long since faded. And a long pink scar ran from his left cheekbone to the edge of his mouth from a recent fight, not even his vampiric healing managing to close the wound without scarring.

The scar came from the last fight the pair had managed to flee. That had been three days ago, when they had still been in LA. And now they found themselves in Sunnydale.

“Sam, Sammy? Can we go hunt soon, Sammy?”

Sammy sighed audibly, eyes rolling from the map stretched out in front of him as he turned to glare half-heartedly at Toby. “Soon. I have to figure out where this factory is first. Remember how that fellow, Mason, told us about this town? How we could finally find a gang worthy of having us involved in their plans? Well, we’ve got to find that bird he was talking about first.”

“And then we hunt?”

“Yes, Toby. Then we hunt.”

“I can’t wait to hunt, Sammy,” Toby giggled happily. “I can’t wait.”

Sammy closed his eyes for a moment to collect his thoughts, drowning out the sound of his friend’s prattling, before he returned his attention to the map. This night was going to change his life. This night, his un-life would be given purpose. And Sammy couldn’t wait.

~~~

Anya had finally decided they could go home, Xander had done his share of ‘helping’ her for the night. He used the word helping lightly, for in his girlfriend’s mind apparently that entailed moving every single crate and box in the basement and placing them somewhere else. Half the items he moved, she had later requested he replace back where they had been originally positioned. Xander was convinced Anya was just making him move the boxes over and over again so she could watch him sweat.

Feeling her arm link with his, Xander turned to press a gentle kiss to her temple before returning his attention to the street ahead. Boy, was he going to sleep well tonight.

“Xander, how much will I have to jack up the prices at the Magic Box if I wish to purchase a vehicle like that next month?” Anya questioned, pointing off to her right.

Xander’s eyes followed her arm, a chuckle escaping his lips when they fell upon a sleek black Mercedes which was slowly making its way down the street. “About three thousand percent. Sorry, Ahn, I don’t think you’re going to be able to afford one of them on your salary.”

Anya pouted, leaning her head against Xander’s shoulder as they continued walking.

“Do you think Giles would give me a raise?”

~~~

Buffy and Spike walked in silence toward Restfield Cemetery, the earlier joviality between the two of them having somewhat evaporated as they both lost themselves in thought. Spike was worrying about the black car—he knew there was something off about it. It was one thing to know you were being watched, it was another to feel a sense of… familiarity about the unseen eyes. It unsettled him. If only he could have gotten a closer look. If only he had been able to smell something in the air, anything that would hint as to who or what the occupant of the vehicle was—human or demon. If only…

Buffy’s thoughts had once again turned to her earlier conversation with Willow. She knew the redhead had given her sound advice, but it didn’t make it any easier on Buffy, second guessing her decisions was something she had almost turned into a sport these last few months. She was falling for Spike, and it was surprising how easy it had been to let that little tidbit of information out. The words had been spoken before she could censor them, which only made her believe in the feelings even more. Thoughts lead to feelings, and feelings lead to Buffy badness… isn’t that what she’d told Willow earlier on?

She snuck a glance at Spike, taking in the strong lines of his cheekbones, his jaw, his expressive blue eyes…

It was then Buffy came to a sudden realization. She was worried about her feelings for him, yet hadn’t been sure if his feelings for her were as genuine as she’d hoped. If she ever worried, all she had to do was look closer. Spike’s eyes were expressive, in fact so expressive you could read his feelings with a simple glance into them. He wore his heart on his sleeve for the whole world to see. And if you couldn’t read his emotions in his eyes, you could sure see them in his body language. The tilt of his head, the arch of an eyebrow, the curl of his tongue behind his teeth... words weren’t needed to know exactly what he was thinking when he smiled that lascivious smile.

“See somethin’ you like, pet?” Spike questioned.

Buffy blinked, his voice breaking her thoughts as her focus returned from his lips to his eyes, finding the exact expression she had been day-dreaming about stretched across his face. “Maybe,” she replied coyly. “Do you th--”

The rest of her sentence was cut off when a shrill scream broke through the night air, Slayer and vampire immediately taking off at a run in the direction of the sound.

~~~

Back at the Magic Box, Giles once again found himself immersed in his diaries. Completing the record of the major battles Buffy had faced over the last few years taking far longer than he had first anticipated. It made him wish he hadn’t given up on them in the first place.

Removing his glasses to massage his aching temples, Giles decided he had done about as much as he was going to get through tonight. If the records were to be legible and intelligible he was going to need to get some rest, and preferably not at his desk as he had done so on many a previous occasion. Returning his glasses to the bridge of his nose he stood and closed the diary, returning it to its place on the shelf above his desk. Packing up his things for the evening, he slipped his coat over his shoulders and picked up his keys.

Giles stepped behind the register to make sure it was secure, the day’s takings already safely locked away in the small safe in his office before he made his way to the back training room to check the back door.

The chime of the bell tinkled from the front of the shop and he quickly moved out of the training room towards the noise. Anya was supposed to lock the door behind her when she had left over an hour ago.

“I’m sorry,” he apologised loudly before he even made it to the room, “but we’re already closed for busi--”

He stopped suddenly when he found the room empty. A frown crept across his brow as he moved more cautiously into the room.

“Hello?” he called, his own voice echoing back at him. When several moments of silence brought no response, he sighed. Maybe it was his imagination.

“Or perhaps it was the wind,” Giles muttered under his breath.

Just as he dismissed the sound something caught his eye. A folded piece of paper, and it was tacked to the doorframe with a pin.

Carefully removing the note, Giles opened it up to examine. The handwriting was memorable, its large printed capitals triggering a sense of familiarity, but he couldn’t quite place where he had seen them before. The message itself was clear, but without context with which to place it opened up numerous possibilities.

BE SEEING YOU

“Be seeing you… be seeing you…” Giles muttered with a frown, trying to unlock the memory in his mind that would make sense of this. He flipped it over to check the back but it was blank, just as he had suspected it would be.

Folding the note in half and then in half again, he slipped it into his pocket. Stepping outside onto the street, he fumbled with his keys for a moment before finding the right one and sliding it into the lock.

The Watcher’s thoughts drifted to the short chat with Spike earlier in the evening. He wondered if it were possible the note writer was somehow involved with this mysterious black car? Giles knew it would be foolish to assume they were, but he couldn’t help but wonder as he walked down the street.

“I’ll just show it to Spike tomorrow. No need to worry Buffy just yet,” he muttered under his breath, headed for his car and a nice glass of whiskey once he was home.

~~~

“And that’s why we think the sister should be the target.”

Dark eyes, shielded by a curtain of dark hair, followed the suited minion who had just given the presentation. If someone was going to take down the Slayer they needed to first find a weakness, the metaphorical Achilles’ heel to sever, although actual severing sounded like fun. Once your opponent was on their knees, then you went in for the kill.

“Everything is wrong, fingers sticking in and giving it a stir…”

Suit-vampire visibly gulped, quivering as he lifted his eyes to that of his master before dropping them again instantly. Head bowed in subservience, he spoke, “But, Mistress, the girl… she is the most logical target. When Darla was…”

“Fool!” Came the gasp from another lackey, effectively silencing Suit.

“Grandmummy’s vision was clouded.” A blood red fingernail pointed in Suit’s direction, the vampire cowering under her attention. “Your vision is clouded.”

Drusilla sighed melodramatically, her head rolling backwards, hair floating off her shoulders and swaying with her body as she smiled devilishly at the charred beams above her. This had once been her home, this shell of a factory. Ghosts of her past danced and frolicked around her head as she began to hum a long forgotten tune. It was just loud enough for the small group of vampires seated at the once majestic table to hear, none of them daring to interrupt her.

“The little green blob has flown the nest. No tea for her at this party.”

“Little green…” Suit mumbled, his confusion stretching across his face. “Mistress, the girl…”

“Is gone, and you are trying my patience!” Drusilla snapped.

Frightened for his safety, Suit slumped further into his seat as if trying to push himself through it.

“My boy will return, my boy is the key,” she proclaimed, dissolving into a fit of giggles. “Key… little green blob was a key, but her lock is broken.”

None of the other lackeys made a move to speak or, well, move. There they sat, still and silent, watching as their leader, their Mistress, began humming again, slowly swaying to music only she could hear.

The thump, thump, thump, of someone knocking on the front door echoed throughout the factory. Immediately Suit leapt to his feet to go answer it, intent on making up for his apparent grievous mistake in suggesting the Slayer’s sister as their target. Reaching the door, he grasped for the handle and twisted, the door opening slowly with a loud crunching noise.

Behind the door stood two men, vampires… Suit realized when he sensed no heartbeat. One of them was very short and the other was tall.

“Hey,” the short one greeted. “We’re here to see your Mistress.”



~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Liked it? Leave a review! Your kind words are a big encouragement and I’m going to need it if this fic is going to be as smutty as it is supposed to be.
 
<<     >>