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Present Childe by Ariel Dawn
 
Lost
 
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Disclaimer: All hail Joss

Author’s note: Much thanks to the wonderful BTL for helping me with the awkward bit at the end of this chapter.
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Chapter 29: Lost

On the floor of the Crawford Street mansion’s garage, Wesley Wyndham-Price groaned. Buffy let her attention drift from Faith to the prostrate Watcher for a moment. The vampire rolled her eyes at the two watchers on the ground. They were messing up her plans. It wouldn’t be long before they were conscious again.

“So,” said Buffy returning to their topic of conversation. “You don’t care what happens to Riley?”

Faith shrugged her shoulders. “No, he was nice, but he didn’t get my motor runnin’, you know. ‘Sides he seemed way to interested in you.”

“Hmm, the kiss of death for any Faith relationship,” observed Buffy. “So about the thrall... I’m sorry.”

“Ha!” laughed Faith bitterly.

“Hey! I am! I still would have done it, but I’m sorry that it made you think even worse of me.”

“Doesn’t make me want to forgive you,” muttered Faith. “You forced me to save a vampire.”

“A vampire that saved your life,” observed Buffy. “You could have been a little more grateful.”

Faith looked away from Buffy and into the dark recesses of the van, breaking eye contact. Clearly Faith didn’t want to remember the attack on the warehouse in LA.

“Look, I’ve made some mistakes in my life, unlife. One of the big ones is losing you as a friend,” Buffy added with a sigh.

She stepped forward and cut the ropes around Faith’s wrists. “You can go, take these idiots with you,” said Buffy gesturing towards the unconscious watchers at her feet. “If they get left here they’ll get eaten.”

With haste, Faith slipped out of the van, picked up Wesley, with great difficulty owing to the sedative in her system, and placed him in the back of the van.

Faith returned to the other watcher and was about to pick him up too, when the door adjoining the house opened and in walked Spike. Buffy smiled the moment he entered the room.

“There you are!” she said happily.

Spike slipped an arm around his mate’s waist and drew her closer to him. He nuzzled her neck tenderly before turning his attention to the goings on in the garage.

“The Slayer’s leaving?” he asked curious. “She didn’t even get the grand tour.”

Buffy shook her head softly. “I don’t think that would be a good idea, Spike. She might not like some of the things we have inside.”

“Still, think it’s a bit rude, not to have a proper visit,” Spike added.

Faith heaved the other watcher on her shoulder and moved to put him into the van, ignoring Spike’s comments. Spike however didn’t like the fact that he was being ignored. Slipping her arm from around his mate’s waist, he reached forward and pulled the watcher down off of Faith’s shoulder with vampiric strength, sending the unnamed watcher crashing into the wall.

The moment the watcher’s body hit the wall, Spike buckled and clutched his head in pain.

“Spike?” asked Buffy concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“Fine, luv,” he said shaking it off and standing up again. He stepped forward towards the Slayer, a look of fear on her face.

There was no way that Faith, the sedative still in her blood stream, would be able to fight off a master vampire.

“Bloody bint, in my house you don’t ignore me,” Spike intoned looking the frightened slayer down.

“Buffy said I could go,” Faith whispered. “She saved me from being taken back to England by the Council.”

“Council gits playing God again?” commented Spike knowingly. “What about the watchers then?”

“I was going to take them to Giles,” explained Faith.

Spike turned his back towards Faith and walked towards the body of the other watcher. Lifting the unconscious form to eye level, he looked back at the slayer.

“I don’t know this one and I’m feeling a bit peckish after my nap.”

“Spike,” whispered Buffy half warning, half condescending.

“What? She has one watcher for the proof. I’m not going to eat that Wesley pillock. His blood probably tastes like tweed.”

Spike shifted into game face preparing to bite.

“No!” screamed Faith.

It was too late, and Spike’s fangs had already made contact with the watcher’s skin. Faith’s cries were suddenly joined by a groan of pain from the bleach blond vampire. He dropped the watcher and clutched his head once again.

“What the bloody hell did they do to me!” he yelled, before righting himself and stalking out of the garage, his destination clear to Buffy, but not to the slayer.

“I think you should leave now,” noted Buffy.

Faith wiped the tears from her cheeks and moved towards the other watcher, heaving him up on her shoulder. Buffy watched the slayer moved with difficulty towards the van. Faith had been traumatized by the attack on the warehouse in LA. She’d been putting up a brave front, but clearly she wasn’t the same. And would never be. It was only a matter of time before some nasty got the better of her.

Buffy decided then and there that she would have to keep a better eye out for Faith.

Buffy hit the button for the garage door to open. The sound of tires squealing filled the room and the van disappeared into the bright sun. Buffy hit the button for the door to close and headed off to find her mate.
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Buffy found Spike beating the snot out of Riley in the basement of the house.

“What the bloody hell did you ponces do to me?” Spike growled.

The bloody mess that once was Riley was whimpering on the floor. In the shadows, Harmony looked on with tears in her eyes. By virtue of Spike being the master of the clan, he could do what he wanted with Buffy’s fledge, but Harmony still felt that Riley was hers. She wanted the beating to stop, so she could take care of the sandy haired vampire.

“Behaviour modification chip,” moaned out Riley at last.

“What?” asked Buffy as she stepped closer to her fledge.

“Can’t hurt humans,” explained Riley trying to control his breathing and the tears of pain. “Can’t feed.”

Buffy took in the information slowly. From her link with Spike she knew that he was devastated by this news. Taking away his ability to feed off humans, to him, made it seem like he wasn’t really a vampire anymore.

Buffy knew different though. She was a vampire that didn’t feed from humans and she had managed just fine. Spike just had to see that this wasn’t the end of the world. She moved towards her mate and embraced him. He needed comforting now. As they moved out of the room and up the stairs, Buffy looked over her shoulder at Harmony.

“Clean him up, I have plans for him tonight,” ordered Buffy authoritatively.
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Mistress Elizabeth stepped out of her home, the minions appearing behind her as she stepped across the threshold of their house and into the dark night.

“I’ll be back for the fledge,” she said over her shoulder and she walked off towards Willow’s dorm room.

It was Buffy’s understanding that Willow would be home safe and sound by now. There were things she needed to discuss with her friend. Something she needed to get off her chest, before the topic of discussion became dust at dawn.

The fact of Riley, bound and gagged in the basement of her house, weighed on her conscience. With each passing moment it grew worse. She needed to confess. She wasn’t going to tell Faith, no matter what the slayer said to deny her feelings for the former commando, Buffy wasn’t that stupid.

And as much as Buffy tried to defend her actions with things like: Spike was captured, Riley’s buddies put something in Spike’s head, he captured our minions, and various other charges, she couldn’t, in hindsight justify it to herself. Her soulless self.

Buffy knocked on Willow and Amy’s dorm room door and waited for an answer.

The door opened a crack and Amy peered out of the dorm room.

“Oh, Buffy, it’s you,” noted the witch. “Willow’s not here, she’s at her parents house.”

“Thanks,” replied the vampire, turning to go. She stopped a moment before heading off. She turned back to the witch, who was still hanging on the edge of the door to her room. “Amy? I really am sorry that Willow got hurt, I didn’t want that to happen.”

“I know,” responded the witch. “You love Spike, I understand. We all agreed to help. We knew what we were getting into. Really we did. Just be glad that no one died.”

Buffy nodded thoughtfully and walked out of the dorm building, heading towards Willow’s house.
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When she found herself in the bushes outside Willow’s bedroom window, Buffy got nervous. How would Willow react to Riley’s death? A gut feeling told her that Willow wouldn’t be able to just let this one go unnoticed. Sure, Buffy had kidnapped her friend, but this would be way different.

So different that Buffy was pretty sure that they would never be friends again. Willow had her limits. For a brief second, Buffy considered not telling Willow about Riley. There were benefits to that scenario: Faith would never find out and wouldn‘t hunt Buffy and Spike down in revenge, and Willow would never find out and would remain Buffy’s friend.

The cons to the proposal were that of course in some way, Willow would find out, and there would end the friendship for certain. Killing was one thing, lying about it just added a new dimension of evil on top of it.

In the room on the other side of the glass, Willow was sitting on her bed, reading a book, a glass of water on the table beside her.

Buffy sighed as she raised her hand to knock on the pane of glass. Tonight would change everything.

At the sound of the knock, Willow was up out of bed and opening the window to let her friend in.

“I was wondering when you’d check in on me again,” began Willow with a smile. “How’s Spike?” Willow walked back to her bed and sat down.

“He’s okay. They put something in his head that makes it so he can’t hurt humans. He’s taking it pretty hard,” answered Buffy.

“Oh, Buffy. I’m sorry,” apologized Willow unnecessarily.

“He’s not the reason I came to talk though,” said Buffy, cutting off the pity fest before it started. Buffy had done something bad and she had to get this over with before she chickened out.

“Sure, Buffy. What’s up?”

Willow’s compassionate and understanding eyes looked back at Buffy’s hazel ones. The trust in Willow’s eyes was almost too much to take.

“I...I did something, vampire-y. Something bad, really bad. And I feel, well, bad about it.”

Willow’s eyes went wider and the red head pushed herself back a bit on her bed, distancing herself ever so slightly from Buffy.

“What...what did you do?” asked the witch tentatively.

“I was angry. I wanted revenge. I know that’s not an excuse...”

“What did you do Buffy?” asked Willow again, this time with a hard tone to her voice.

“I...” The words stuck in Buffy’s throat. She couldn’t say it. Saying it would end what good thing she had with Willow. The Scoobies would never trust her again.

“You killed someone,” Willow finished for her.

Silence filled the air in the room. A lone tear trickled down Buffy’s pale face as she nodded in confirmation. The only sounds in the room were the ticking of Willow’s wall clock and the beat of Willow’s heart.

“Was it a bad someone? I mean, were they a murderer, rapist, or child molester?” asked the witch.

“Of humans, I doubt it,” answered Buffy quietly.

Silence filled the room once again. Willow was staring, not at Buffy but at a blank spot on the wall, her hands grasping the comforter beneath her.

When Willow didn’t respond, Buffy leaned forward a bit, trying to capture her friend’s eye.

“I think you need to leave, Buffy,” came Willow’s voice, carefully restrained.

Buffy nodded again, and turned towards the window that she had come in through.

“I’m sorry, Willow. I regret it now, if that means anything,” Buffy whispered back towards the witch as she slipped out the window and into the night.
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tbc...




 
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