Set season 6. Post-Tabula Rasa. Buffy and Spike have kissed twice, everyone knows that Buffy was in heaven and she’s still the queen of denial. A stranger comes into town and so does a new enemy...

Disclaimer- Joss Whedon owns everything, apart from Jasmine; do you actually really think I have enough brains to come up with the whole of the Buffyverse? I wish...anyway I have returned all the characters. What do you mean Spike’s missing? Of course he’s not in my basement handcuffed to
the wall, ::laughs nervously:: why would you think that? ::Runs off to the basement::

When the text is in bold it's the characters thoughts

Chapter 1

“Stupid fucking bint!” Spike growled as he paced around in his crypt, “what gives her the right to be such a A class bitch to me?” He collapsed into a chair and took a swing of whiskey.

And why the hell do I take this? She treats me like shit, like I’m inferior to her and everyone else, but I keep on going back to her for more! Since when did William the Bloody, the Slayer of Slayers become so pussy-whipped? He gave a humourless chuckle

I’ve always been loves bitch, that’s what I told her and soul boy. As a human I lived for Cecily, it was because of her rejection that I meet Dru. I loved Dru for a century, took care of her when she was sick but the second her ‘daddy’ came back she leaves me. She was never really mine He thought bitterly.

And now the Slayer. She’s either telling me how much she hates me, or kissing me and then telling how it was a mistake and she really hates me. There were those moments when she actually talks to me as if I’m a friend, but then its back to bitchy Buffy.

And then when I try to help her out when she’s in trouble with a vampire, like tonight, she tells me that she doesn’t need my help and that I should stop stalking her! The girl really needs to get over herself. She was in my fucking cemetery so I had every right to be out there and what makes her think I was stalking her? OK, so I was watching her for a 5 minutes, 10 at the max...I just enjoy watching her fight, she’s a good fighter. It had nothing to do with the fact that when she was fighting her skirt would ride up and I could see her knickers, of course not

“Right, you try to convince yourself of that, mate” He muttered. “How the hell did it happen? How did I manage to fall in love with the Slayer?! That’s just disgusting, I mean at least Peaches ad his soul to blame but I’ve got nothing! I guess I could blame the chip, but that’s just a lie and everyone knows it.”

He sighed. “What the hell happened to getting drunk and forgetting anything to do with the Slayer? I can’t even follow a simple plan to get drunk anymore, that’s just pitiful”

Well I guess I should have another go at that plan. He thought as he took another mouthful of Jack Daniels and started to drink himself into oblivion.


~*~


“UGH! Why do vampires have to be so damn annoying” Buffy growled as she walked home. Well one vamp in particular

“I mean I tell him to leave me alone and I’m not interested in him but he keeps on following me around!” Or you purposely go to his cemetery, hoping to see him. A little voice in her head told her .

“Shut up, that’s not true I so did not want to see him.” She tried to convince herself, but was failing. “It was just one kiss” It was two kisses, now don’t tell me you forgot one of those fucking amazing kisses!

“They weren’t that good...even if my knees turned into jelly after” she mumbled to her self.

As she reached her house she saw all the lights were turned off. She checked her watch, it was 2.30 am and it seemed as if everyone had gone to bed. So that she wouldn’t wake anyone, Buffy used the tree outside her window to climb up to her bedroom window. She lay on her bed, too tired to change into her pyjamas.

You know blondie was good at kissing, the voice had returned and it seemed it was trying to play match maker between herself and Spike. Imagine if you went all the way with him. That’ll be hot! the voice, which sounded suspiciously like Faith, told her.

Buffy had to admit ‘Faith’ was right, if the kisses were anything to go by the sex would be mind-blowing. At that thought her mind conjured up images of a naked Spike and her hands slowly moving down his toned abs.

“Oh God! I did not just imagine Spike naked. Ew ew ew! That just gave me the wiggins! OK maybe I’m over reacting, but I’m never going to sleep with Spike. Even if it was hot, sweaty mind-blowing sex.” She groaned, as the image of a naked Spike assaulted her mind again.

“OK, he’s kinda good looking, I’ve got to be blind not to see that” Come on B, don’t you mean drop dead gorgeous, with rock solid body and promise in the downstairs department? Asked ‘Faith’, Buffy ignored her and continued talking “BUT it’s never gonna happen. He’s a soulless vampire! Even if he had a soul he’s still a vampire...I’m not gonna go through all the trouble of I’m turning evil, I can’t go through it again. I’ll just ignore him for awhile and soon it’ll blow over” She told herself.

But the Faith in her knew it wouldn’t be so easy.


~*~


In the pitch black of one of the woods in Sunnydale, crickets chirped filling it with sound. A small light could be seen hovering above the ground. It was the size of a pinprick, which was a bright silver-gold colour and was barely noticeable among the thick leaves.

It slowly grew larger and moved up until it was next to one of the higher branches of a tree. The small light became a small portal, and one second the portal was bright silver and the next it had become a deeper gold colour, all other colours paled in comparison. The woods became bathed in a bright light, which cast shadows all around the woods. Everything had become quiet, the crickets silenced, nothing could be heard.

The colours started to change faster and a small scream could be heard coming from the portal and a figure hurtled through it and landed with a thump onto the ground.

“Sonofabitch! I’m never gonna get used to that, however many times they send me through that portal” an East London accented voice grumbled. “My new shirt’s bloody ruined as well, that was my new French Connection shirt as well, FCUK shit aint that cheap either, this cost me a bloody fortune!”

A woman straightened and dusted herself off. “They couldn’t drop me off on a bed could they? Nope, that would be too much bloody hard work; instead they drop me 20 feet off the ground and get my clothes dirty!” She said sarcastically “Well done Jasmine, how the hell did you wind up working for those wankers?!” She looked up at the skies and smiled sheepishly “Sorry, I didn’t mean that.” Yeah right, course I did.

She looked around with her light brown, almost amber eyes, surveying her surroundings. She looked up “You could have at least told me where the hell to go!” she shouted to the heavens. “I need a fag.” She mumbled “See that’s what you guys do to me, I try to give up smoking and you just drive me back to it.”

She started to walk out of the woods trying to find her way into civilisation. “Where am I again? Didn’t the town have something to do with the weather? Rainydale? Snowdale? Sunnyvale? And where does the guy I have to check out live? Damn now I wish I had listened to them.” She took out her cigarettes and lit one of the few remaining. OK, that’s it no more smoking for me, I’m quitting for good “or until the next time I’m pissed off at something” she said out loud

Jasmine walked for ten more minutes until she finally found some a group of people. As she got closer she felt a strange tingling. A group of vamps, of the male variety
As if my clothes aren’t dirty enough

She walked over to the group flicking her long raven hair behind her and gave them a sexy smile. One of the vampires grinned at the rest of them and stepped towards her; his only thought was how he was going to have an easy dinner that night.

He gave her what he thought was a charming smile “What’s such a pretty girl like you wandering the streets of Sunnydale all by your lonesome?” He asked, his voice was deep and he had a deep southern accent.

Sunnydale, that’s what this place is called, I knew it was weather related “Oh, I just arrived in town and I was looking around,” She answered, her voice husky and she thrust her breasts at him.

He stared at her breasts and when he talked he never looked up, “well I’m sure I can help y’all out” He drawled “I’ll give you a guided tour around” He grabbed her and dragged her into a nearby ally, the other vampires following. “We can start here” He vamped out and shoved her against the wall. “Your too pretty to just kill, I think I’m just gonna turn you”

Jasmine rolled her eyes “Come on, is that supposed to scare me? Please, you’re so lame!”

She took the confused vamp by the shoulders and swapped the positions so that he was now against the wall. She took out a stake and pressed it against his heart, “I’m actually looking for someone, and you’re gonna help me find him”

“Make me you fuckin’ bitch” he spat. As soon as the words left his mouth he was dust.

Jasmine smiled and turned to the others, “Now are you gonna help me, or do you want to meet the same end as you dusty little friend here?”

They looked at each other and then the remaining three ran towards her in their game faces.

She sighed “Why does everyone have to do it the hard way?”

She staked one of them quickly, but toyed with the other two who were attacking her at the same time. All their punches and kicks were blocked but she didn’t throw any punches for the first couple of minutes. She soon grew bored and grabbed one of the vamps by the head and twisted it off, he turned to dust in her hands, she seemed unfazed by this and jut wiped the dust off on her jeans. The other vampire stared at her and then turned to run. Before he got a chance to run she was in front of him.
“W-What are you?” He stuttered, scared for his unlife.
“Never you mind. I want you to tell me what I want to know otherwise you’ll be joining the other dust piles, understand?” He nodded “Good! Now tell me where does the vampire called Spike live?”

“Why do you want him? He’s a traitor to my kind, betraying us for the Slayer. He’s pathetic!”

Jasmine’s annoyance was clear on her face, and the vampire swore that he saw a flash of violet in her eyes, but the next second they were back to their normal colour.
“That is none of your business! Where. Does. He. Live?” She ground out each word and her hand went around his neck and held it tight.

The vampire’s anger at Spike faded and was once again filled with fear at the mysterious stranger in front of him.

“OK, I’ll tell you. Just please don’t hurt me” He choked out. She nodded and loosened her grip. He started to breathe deeply as if he had been deprived of oxygen.

Jasmine again became annoyed Bloody hell, he’s gonna be the one who drives me back to smoking! She complained to herself. Well it aint like I’m gonna get cancer or anything...

But out loud she said “Boy, stop frontin’, you’re a bloody vampire you don’t need to breathe!”

Frontin’ ? I need to stop listening to so much hip-hop music! But man, Pharrell Williams is HOT! She mentally shook her head while waiting for the vampire. Not the time to think of that, business now fantasies later.

“He l-lives in a crypt in the cemetery on Henderson Avenue.” His voice brought her out of her thoughts. “T-The crypt is the biggest o-one there, kind of hard to miss. There I told you can I go now?”

She thought about it for a moment “One more thing. My employers only told me his name and nothing else; therefore I have no idea what he looks like. You’re gonna tell me.”

He stared at her “Your kidding, right” Her eyes narrowed “Guess not. Kay, if I tell you this will you let me go?”
She nodded her head “uumm...well I’ve only seen him a couple of times so I might be a little off. He’s got a whole Billy Idol look, the peroxide hair and the punk look...he wears this really cool black leather duster and everyone say’s that he took it from the second Slayer he killed. Oh and he’s British...kinda like you are. That’s all I know. You promised that you’ll let me go.”

Jasmine stood there for a few seconds. Then in a split second she raised her stake and drove it through his heart. He looked shocked and then dissolved into dust.

“I guess I lied.” She nonchalantly. She went out of the ally and looked around. “Time to find me a vampire” She gave a predatory grin as she walked off into the night.

Disclaimer- I own all of the Buffyverse, fine I only own Jasmine and Spike. OK I don't wanna get sued (for all the £20 that I have) so I only own Jasmine. Please give me Spike, I promise to be good, well I can't actually promise that...

Chapter 2

It was almost an hour later when Jasmine found Spike's crypt. The reason for this being it was her first time in Sunnydale and so she had no idea where Henderson Avenue was, and the only people around to ask at 3 am were drunks and she didn't have the time to decipher what
they were trying to say.

When she had finally found the right cemetery she still had the problem of finding the right crypt. The vampire had told
her that it was the largest crypt, but she found that almost all the crypts were roughly the same size.

And so after much grumbling, asking every vampire she came across and then dusting them, she had found Spike's crypt and was now surveying the outside.

She stood outside and listened for any noise coming from the inside. She was able to sense him inside but she was also able to tell that he was still, and most probably asleep.

She looked in her pockets for a few seconds, until she pulled out a circular stone. She took a minute admiring it, the stone was a deep blue colour and it seemed as if it held the ocean. She rubbed it in her hand, it had a smooth, shiny surface as if it was polished glass. And though it seemed fragile, as if a fall would break it, Jasmine was able to feel the power that it contained. She knew it would take a lot to break something like it.

With the stone held tightly in her fist she mumbled in Latin "Occaeco".

In an instant Jasmine was no where to be seen.

"Cool!" A bodiless voice exclaimed, "I'm invisible! Now how come it's taken you guys so long to give me one of these?" She asked. "This is some badass shit!"

After a few minutes of making objects seem as if they were floating on their own, Jasmine finally remembered what she had come to do. As quiet as possible she opened the crypt door and walked inside, silently thanking the Gods for the thick layer of dust which covered the floor and muffled the sound of her boots.

She looked around the crypt noting the more homely quality it possessed compared to other crypts she had seen. Maybe there are some vamps who don't like living in cold dirty places...don't know why he just didn't buy a flat though.

She walked over to Spike, making sure she didn't step on the empty bottles of JD that littered the floor and found that she was in fact right, he was asleep. She stared at him for a moment, appreciating the view.

Wow, She thought to herself, he's hot! I mean look at those cheekbones, and even with that very cool duster on I can see that he has a killer body! Damn, what I would give to have a man like that! But nope, I don't have any time to date cause you guys are always sending me on bloody missions!

She glared at no one in particular and then went back to looking, or rather drooling over the vampire in front of her.

After a while she finally managed to tear her herself from Spike and went back to what she was supposed to be doing. She started to look around the crypt, learning all she could about it and noted where he kept all his possessions. While she was looking around she found the stairs that led to the lower part of the crypt.

She walked downstairs and whistled appreciatively as she saw his bed. Not bad, not bad at all and then proceeded to jump on it.

She rolled over to one side of the bed and opened his dresser and ruffled through until she found something that made her grin. A pair of silver handcuffs.

Kinky, just how I like my men...damn his girl's lucky Sighing she went back to her snooping.

Once Jasmine had finished looking around she went upstairs and back over to Spike. She was tempted to touch him, but managed to resist.

See ya around babes ,she thought. She blew him a kiss and with that left, closing the door as quietly as possible.

A moment after the crypt door closed, a pair of bright blue eyes opened. Spike's nostrils flared as he smelt his crypt. He could smell a new scent, one he hadn't met before. Someone was just in his crypt, someone he didn't know and someone who had somehow managed to stay out of his sight. Spike fully intended to find out who or what that someone was and what they hell they were doing in his crypt.


~*~


As soon as Buffy woke up she regretted it. Her head was pounding and felt as if it would explode. As she stood up she was forced to sit back down because of the wave of dizziness that washed over her. She groaned and then stood up again, this time much slower. She glanced at her clock to find that it was 11.45.

ooh lazy Buffy, she chastised herself. It had been a long time since she had woken up that late. She usually had nightmares in which she was forced to claw her way out of her coffin. She shivered remembering the experience, the nightmares usually meant that she was awake before the rest of the house.

She stumbled into the shower, hoping that the hot water could calm her raging headache, but it made no difference. She walked out of the shower and could smell pancakes being made and smiled to herself, it seemed that both Dawn and Willow had woken up just late as she had.

As she walked into the kitchen an extremely lively Dawn greeted her with a bright smile.

"Morning Buffy!" She waved and then proceeded to stuff her face with more pancakes.

Buffy glared at her sister "Say's who" She grumbled while she swallowed a couple of Advil.

"Aw you feeling OK, Buff?" Willow asked just as cheerfully as Dawn.

Buffy took a seat at the island and put her head in her arms. Not ready to face all these happy people while she felt as though someone had repeatedly hit her on the head with a very heavy object.

Willow looked at Buffy sympathetically and placed a plate of her pancakes in front of her.

"Here ya go. Have some blueberry pancakes, pancakes can cure all illnesses, it's a proven fact."

Buffy just shook her head. She couldn't eat anything without having the feeling of being sick. And as appetising as Willows pancakes sounded she didn't think she would be able to stomach it.

She looked up at the concerned face of her friend. "It's OK Wills, I'll eat something later...once the room stops spinning." She frowned and dropped her head back into her arms.

Willow chuckled and carried on talking, but Buffy was only half listening to the conversation instead her thoughts were on her best friend.

Willow was trying hard to get along without Tara in her life, but Buffy could tell how hard it was for her. Her voice wasn't as animated as it once used to be. She was finding it hard to get on with her life without Tara; Buffy knew what she was going through as she had felt the same when Angel had left her, but it was worse for Willow. At least when Buffy went through the break-up with Angel he had left for L.A and so she rarely saw him, but Tara was still there in Sunnydale as she was also now apart of the Scoobies. That meant that Willow would always have to see her at meetings, Buffy’s heart went out for her best friend and she hoped that her and Tara would be able sort their difference out and get back together. She could see how much it was killing the both of them having to be apart like that.

As she came out of her thoughts she heard Dawn and Willow discuss what their plans for the day were.

"I think I might visit Spike, see if he can give me a lift to the movies later on." Dawn grinned.

Buffy’s head shot up, "Dawn, I don't want you to see Spike anymore."

Dawn glared at Buffy, "Why the hell can't I see him?"

"B-because, um...um...he's a bad influence on you" She told her feebly. Truthfully Buffy didn't know why Dawn couldn't; she just didn't want them to spend any time together.

"Please, that's a load of shi-crap and you know it! You can't stop me from seeing him Buffy, it's not fair! He was the one who looked after me in the summer when you were...you were gone" Dawn said softly. "He was the only one who didn't treat me like a little kid, and he's changed a lot and he helped us out when we need him the most" She looked at Willow trying to get her support.

"She right Buffy. He could have just left Sunnydale, he had no reason to stay but instead he stayed and helped us...he didn't have to but he did. He was just as upset as we all were after you d-died; I really think he loves you Buffy...you should have seen him."

Willow liked Spike. He always helped her out, or was there to talk to when she needed someone just to listen. After Buffy had fallen off the tower she could see that he was grieving just as much as the rest of them were, that's when she realised how deep his feelings for Buffy had been. She knew that they only reason why he had stayed in Sunnydale in the first place was to help Buffy, so when he didn't leave after her death she was surprised. Her and the rest of the Scoobies were even more surprised when he told them that he would look after Dawn, even though no one had actually asked him to.

"I don't know why he stayed here Buffy, but I'm glad he did." Willow told her quietly as Dawn gave her a grateful look.

But Buffy knew why he had looked after Dawn during the summer. He had promised her he would, just before the battle he had made a promise to look after Dawn and he had kept his promise to her.

She sighed as she realised she couldn't keep Dawn from seeing him, over the summer her school girl crush on Spike had disappeared and instead she saw Spike as her big brother, the one who protected her from the world.

"Fine you can see him" She finally told Dawn, "just be careful when you go to the cemetery, kay?"

Dawn nodded and hugged her sister before running up the stairs and minutes later was out of the door after telling her that she was going to see Spike.

Willow smiled at her. She knew how much Spike was in love with Buffy, and could tell that Buffy had feelings for the blond vampire, even if she wouldn't admit to them.

Goddess, she's so stubborn! Why can't she just admit her feelings? Everyone would be so much happier...well apart from Xander. She grinned at herself as she thought of what Xander's reaction would be if Buffy and Spike ever got together. He'd probably faint from the shock of it all, and if Giles were still in Sunnydale he would rub a hole into his glasses!

She chuckled as she imagined the looks on their faces, earning a questioning look from Buffy. But Willow just shook her head at her. She had a feeling it would take a lot for Buffy to face up to her feelings for him.

"Stupid stubborn people" She grumbled.


~*~


"Spike," Dawn called as she walked into his crypt "Spike, you here?" But she received no reply.

She went over to his sofa to see if he had fallen asleep. Though he wasn't there, Dawn saw all the empty bottles that surrounded it. Him and Buffy probably got into another fight, and that's why she didn't want me seeing him. Why can't she see that her and Spike would make a really cool couple...I mean they'll be so cute together!

Dawn had held the view that Spike and Buffy were meant to be together for a while. She was the first one who knew that Spike was in love with Buffy, to her it was obvious from all the looks he would give her sister. Though she didn't agree with the whole chaining-Buffy-up-to-make-her-listen part of Spike's plan, she knew that was probably the only way to make her sister listen. But that plan had backfired so badly on the vampire. But Dawn knew that Spike was genuine in his love for her sister, though that faith had wavered slightly when he had the Buffy bot built. But after everything he had done to help she didn't understand how anyone could doubt him. It wasn't every day a vampire was tortured by a hell God with a bad perm just to save her life. She knew that Spike wasn't a normal vampire, falling in love with the Slayer proved that, but why was it so hard for Buffy to understand that. She could understand how Buffy might be a little cautious about another vampire after all the heartache with Angel, but why couldn't Buffy see that Spike was Angel and he would leave her unless it was by force?

How can she not see how perfect Spike is for her? Dawn asked herself. Shaking her head she went downstairs to see if Spike had for once used his bed to sleep on instead of the couch.

Dawn able to see that the covers were slightly messy, but again there was no sign of Spike. Sighing she left his crypt, there was no point in waiting for Spike as there was no way in knowing how long he would be.

I'll just go to see Janice instead, she thought happily as she walked through the cemetery, not seeing the dark figure watching her hidden in the shadows.

t.b.c


Sorry for all the spelling and grammar mistakes that I know are in here. I don't have a beta reader, so if anyone wants to be mine just email me. But guys remember that I'm from England so I'm using UK spellings.

Evil Seductions

Set in season 6, post-Tabula Rasa. Buffy and Spike have kissed twice, everyone knows that Buffy was in heaven and she's still the queen of denial.

Disclaimer- Joss Whedon and ME own everything/everyone that you recognise, everything else comes from my less imaginative mind.
::glares at Joss:: I don't know why he has to be so greedy, it's not like he needs all the characters. He could give one of them to me, like, I don't know... maybe Spike, I'd be more thanhappy to take him off Joss' hands ::looks hopeful:: or maybe not... ::grumble::


Chapter 3

The minion stood in front of his master's door, his fear was palpable, his eyes darting nervously around. He was only there to report back on his findings but this still caused him fear. He raised his hand once again to knock on the large door, but like the many times before he lowered it not being able to find the courage.

"Do you plan to stand out there any longer or are you actually going to enter?" An accented voice asked through the door. British to be exact.

The minion jumped once he heard his master's voice and cursed himself for not realising that his master knew of his being there, "well?"

Taking a deep breath he tentatively opened the door. The bedroom was decorated much like the corridor outside. The floorboards were a deep brown colour, almost black, and were highly polished. The wallpaper was a rich red and to him, seemed like blood. At this thought his stomach reminded him that he had yet to feed. Directly in front of the door was a fireplace in which there was a roaring fire. A large leather chair was facing the fireplace and though the minion couldn't see him, he knew his master was now occupying the seat.

"Have you done what I asked of you?" He asked in a clipped voice.

The younger vampire vigorously nodded his head, indicating that he had, before realising that his master was unable to see him.

"Y-Yes Sir, I have." He squeaked, his voice trembling
"Good"

They both were silent for a few moments when the older vampire gave out an exasperated sigh, "and what exactly did you find?"

"Oh, uh...I-I was able t-to find the vampire that you wanted, h-he lives in a crypt in one of the cemeteries." He stuttered

"A vampire living in a crypt, how cliche!" His master laughed "Oh well his living conditions are not my concern. Has he had any visitors since you found him?"

"Only one. A young girl, human. She went to see him but left quickly."

The older vampire sat thinking about the information he had just received. It seemed as if all the rumours he had heard were true, William the Bloody had been fraternising with humans!

Such a shame, he thought to himself William once had so much promise but now all of that has just gone to waste He was once the Slayer of Slayers, and know he consorts with them. No matter, once I have accomplished my goal, he will no longer be a problem.

Coming out of his thoughts he once again remembered his minion. “Did anyone else visit William?”

Confusion clouded the younger vampires face, “who’s William?”

Sighing he pinched the bridge of his nose, while absently wondering whether vampires were able to get headaches. “William, is the vampire which you are meant to be watching. Did he receive any other visitors?”

“Um...I can’t think of any...Oh wait there was another girl.”

“And was she another human, or does he actually associate with his kind?”

“She wasn’t human, something about her felt off, but she wasn’t a vampire either. I don’t know what she was."

The Master vampire was now somewhat intrigued, “What do you mean by ‘something about her felt off,’ how was this?”

“W-well, s-s-she didn’t have a heartbeat,” he stuttered “but I could feel that she wasn’t a vampire. I don’t know, she felt like she was powerful, like she contained magic, but at the same time she didn’t. I can’t explain it.”

“That is quite obvious. But if you see her again I want you to follow her for as long as possible. Then come and report back to me, but your main task is to follow William, understand?”

“Y-yes sir.”

“Good, you may leave.”

He ran out, stumbling in his haste, leaving his master to his own thoughts.

Not alive but not undead either. Who might this be? Could it...? No they are not foolish enough to try and oppose me, plus since when would they care about a vampire? They kill our kind, not help them. No, it must just be another one of his companions. Nothing to worry about, nothing at all...



~*~



“Willy, you don’t want to piss me off anymore than I am, so you’re gonna tell me what I want to know.” He growled.

“I don’t know anything, I swear! Come on Spike, would I lie to you?”

“Yeah, you would. So I’ma ask you again, what do you know about some chit that’s lookin’ for me? And I don’t want no lies, otherwise my hand would get very acquainted with all your body parts.” Spike threatened, while knowing that his threat was in vain as the barkeeper was not worth the chip going off, but he figured Willy didn’t know that.

“Y-you can’t, your chip won’t let you.” He answered triumphantly.

Bugger, since when did ‘e grow a pair o’ balls?

“Yeah, you’re right, I can’t beat the shit outta you.” He replied calmly. And frankly this frightened Willy even more. He hadn’t met calm Spike before, the Spike he knew would of punched him, pain be damned.

“But you do know there are other ways I can ‘urt you. One which don’t need my fists.” He whispered.

The feral way in which he grinned caused Willy to gulp and once again reminded him why Spike had the moniker of William the Bloody. And the menacing look in his eyes reminded him that Spike was friends with two Wiccans, two very powerful Wiccans.

“Uh, I just remembered something that I was told by one of the demons here. They said something about some British girl trying to find you. She asked demons about you, like where you live and stuff, and then she killed them. That really all I know.”

“Now tell me Willy, if she killed all the demons she saw, ‘ow exactly did you get this information?” Spike asked scepticism clear on his face.

“You sayin’ that I’m lyin’ to you? You know I wouldn’t do that to Spike, you’re my buddy...and would buddy’s lie to each other? I didn’t think so. The demons that told me this said they were just lurking and they saw her. And that’s all I know about her.”

Spike surveyed him for a moment before finally concluding that he was actaully telling the truth. The smell of fear was surrounding him, causing Spike’s demon to revel, but Spike knew that this meant that Willy was too scared to lie.

“You sure that’s all you know? No name, description, nothin’ else?”

“Well I think they said she was Indian or Asian...or was in Haitian? Well one of those, oh and she cursed a lot...but that’s seriously all I know.” At Spike’s nod he visibly relaxed. “So now you have what you wanted, you leaving?” At Spike’ glare he stuttered, “n-not that I-I want you to go. Just that since you came most of my customers left...and you know I gotta earn a living.”

Spike didn’t say anything, instead he just sat at the bar. He stayed there for a few more minutes, deep in thought, and then sat up and left the bar without a word.

“That was rude” Willy muttered, before returning to the remaining patrons.



~*~



“Sharkie’s off my tail about my Kittie poker debt, I haven’t pissed anyone off lately...I think. There was...no, I killed ‘im last year. I haven’t been to the mother country since the 80’s so no one there, so who the hell is this girl?!” He wondered.

He had waited awhile after his mystery stranger had left. Then using the sewer entrance in his crypt he tried to get some information, but to no avail and now he stunk. No one knew who this new girl was, the only break was from Willy and only then he knew she was British and Indian, or Haitian.

How 'ard can it be to find ‘er? She must be staying somewhere, but why doesn't anyone know where? Growling he decided he needed some violence to relieve some frustration and so headed to the nearest cemetery.

While walking he was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't hear someone calling him.

"SPIIKEE!" Dawn called. She had just come out of the theatre and had spotted the unmistakable peroxide blond head. "SPIKE!" She shrieked once again.

Aren't vampires supposed to have better hearing than normal humans? She wondered as she walked towards him. She called his name once more and that he heard.

"Oh hey 'Bit, I didn't see you there"

Dawn rolled her eyes "I know you didn't, I've been calling you for like ages, you are so deaf! Anyway where were you today? I came by earlier and you weren't there."

"Uh yeah I 'ad some business to take care of, took me the whole day."

"What business?"

This time it was Spike's turn to roll his eyes. She's so stubborn, just like her sister he mused. Thinking about the Slayer he was reminded of the argument with her the night before, and the desire to kill something was back.

"Nothin' that you need to know about. Anyway why were you around mine?" He asked, changing the subject.

His evasion of the question did not go unnoticed by Dawn, but she decided to annoy him about it later.

"I was just bored, and I wanted a lift to the theatre." She told him "But you weren't there so I had to walk" She pouted at him knowing that he was unable to resist the Summer's pout. "So...you can make it up to me by taking me for some ice cream."

"Sorry 'Bit, I'm a little busy at the moment." The pout returned, this time with Dawn's speciality, the infamous puppy dog eyes.

Sighing, Spike conceded defeat, ::cough::whipped::cough:: his inner thoughts taunted. Spike didn’t even try to deny it.



~*~



“And then Ryan said that he wanted to go out with Lara but Lara wants Adam, who supposedly is interested in me. But I like Eric, not Adam plus I don’t want to hurt Lara’s feelings ‘cause she’s my friend. But...”

Spike sat eating his ice-cream whilst absently nodding his head. He had stopped listening to what Dawn was saying after her teenage dilemma number 4...she was currently on dilemma number 10.

The ‘eartache of a 15 year old he sighed. You would ‘ave thought livin’ on a Hellmouth would put her problems in perspective.

“So what do you think I should do? Spike? Spike!” Rolling her eyes, Dawn realised that he had been ignoring her. Her first thought was to smack him, but she thought of a better idea.

“Anyway, Buffy said that she wanted to, and I quote ‘jump Spike’s sexy bones.’ Just thought you should know.”

“Mmm...huh?!” Spike started when Dawn’s words finally penetrated his mind, “she said what?” He asked, his eyes wide, only to meet Dawn’s smug face.

“Ha! I knew that would make you listen!”

“Ha, bloody, ha, ‘Bit. That was so funny.” He commented dryly.

“That’s what I thought. Anyway, it’s your own fault that you weren’t listening to me. You should be more polite to people.” She chided.

“Uh, evil vampire ‘ere. I’m not polite, especially not to food.” He told her as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

Dawn snorted. “You’re as evil as my little finger! Face it Spike you’re not evil anymore...actually I don’t think you were ever really evil.”

“I was evil...I was the bleedin’ Slayer of Slayers! I ruled Europe!”

“And now you baby-sit the Slayer’s little sister. Yup, that’s so evil.”

Having no answer to that, Spike just glared at Dawn, causing her to giggle. I ‘ave become so bloody pathetic! He sulked.

“Aw...did I hurt poor Spikey’s feelings? Tell you what, why don’t you tell me some more stories about how evil you used to be."

Spike scowled and muttered something about still being evil, but then remained quiet. Dan shrugged and returned to her ice cream.

After a moment Spike spoke. “Big sis wasn’t the first Slayer I ‘elped y’know.”

Dawn raised an incredulous eyebrow.

“Really. In 1888 me and Dru teamed up with the Slayer, Elizabeth, to help ‘er out with Jack the Ripper.”

“Yeah right. You expect me to believe that Spike. Why didn’t you tell me this before...I mean you’re saying that you took out the most infamous killer in British history.”

“The reason I never said anythin’ before is ‘cause I thought my rep hadn’t been shot to hell, and if I said anythin’ ‘bout helpin’ another Slayer I wouldn’t hear the end of it. But I thought I might as well tell you as you already think of me as a bloody white hat.”

For some reason Dawn found herself believing him. “But why did you have to help her with Jack the Ripper, I mean wasn’t he like human?”

Spike snorted “Do you know how gruesome those murders were? No way a normal ‘uman could do that, our Ripper was a demon, a Folvaka demon to be exact. Well Folvaka demons love killing things, unfortunately they’re the thickest buggers around. For them the bloodier the better, which ain’t a bad philosophy but they caused a ‘uge mess out of it. Folvaka demons are also shapeshifters which is why the Folvaka demon in question was able to look like a ‘uman and make those women follow ‘im. Once the demon killed the women, it decided not to clean ‘is mess up, and instead let some ‘umans find the body. This obviously caused a big fuss and the Folvaka demon liked being the reason for the fuss.”

“So it decided to kill some more women!” Dawn concluded.

“Got it in one, Pet. Problem with this was that people got scared and less people went out at night, and this meant it was ‘arder for us other demons, which had brains, to get food. At this time I ‘ad only been a vampire for about 8 years and ‘ad only found what a Slayer was. I went out searchin’ to kill the Slayer in London but decided the Folvaka demon was a bigger threat, so me an’ the Slayer joined forces.”

“So I was right about you never really being evil if you helped the Slayer!” She told him triumphantly.

“’old on there ‘Bit. I only ‘elped out the Slayer then ‘cause my food supply was bein’ threatened. After we killed the problem I still planned to kill the Slayer, just that the Folvaka demon got to ‘er first. So in the end it was me and Dru against it, didn’t really need Dru though, killed it myself.” He told her proudly. “We got to it just after it killed its last victim, Mary Kelly. He did a job on her...somethin’ Angelus would be proud of. See I’m more of the quick kill type a guy, can’t be bothered with the torture aspect. But the nutter did all of that. We got to her room only minutes after the killing, could smell her blood miles off, there was a broken window and we looked through. It was ‘orrible, even my demon was disgusted by it, blood everywhere, her skin was even cut off and all her inside organs ‘ad been taken out.” He shuddered at the memory.

Glancing at Dawn he saw that she had paled a little. “You want me to stop Platelet?”

She shook her head “I live on the Hellmouth, remember? I’ve seen a lot worse, kind of...”

Nodding his head Spike continued, “If you want me to stop tell me alright? I don’t want you to get nightmares otherwise the Slayer will stake me for sure."

Anyway we left her room to track the Folvaka before it got away. It was that far off, kinda ‘ard to run through the East End covered in blood. We cornered it in an alley and he knew we ‘ad ‘im. Started talking crap ‘bout how we’re all demons and that I should understand ‘im killin’. Wimp was tryin’ to bide ‘is time, knew ‘e had no chance against me an’ Dru. You see the Slayer was easy for ‘im ‘cause she was inexperienced, she stumbled an’ ‘e took the opportunity to kill ‘er. Though I ‘ad only been a vamp for 8 years my family were Dru, Darla and Angelus, and they taught me well. I always loved a good fight, and this was no different. He tried to shapeshift into something bigger than me, but this just made ‘im slower and sloppier. All it took was a few punches and a twist of his neck and ‘e was dead. Me and Dru had fun celebratin’ that night, ‘ad a nice feast.” He grinned as he reminisced.

Dawn rolled her eyes, “so you killed one killer demon only to go and do it yourself?”

“You gotta realise that the East End was the most violent place in London, maybe even in England. Killings were a normal thing in that time, the thing that made the Jack the Ripper’s murders stand out was how vicious they were. Normally it was a knifing or a beatin’ but this was done by a maniac, something that was not normal. When we killed it was done more subtlety so that no one would think anythin’ of it, but this was definitely front-page material. When I killed it didn’t stop people goin’ out, but when the Folvaka did it people got shit scared and that meant less food for us demons.”

“Kay I get it. Wow, I’m friends with the reason why the most notorious killer in England stopped...though I don’t feel like eating the rest of my ice cream now.” She grimaced, pushing her plate away.

Spike laughed “Come on, I better get you home before the Slayer dusts me.”

“I can get myself home Spike, I’m not a little kid. Anyway I thought you had some other things to do.”

“All I wanted to do was kill somethin’, but the need for that’s gone now.” He explained.

“Why did you want to kill something. Was it ‘cause of Buffy?”

“No it wasn’t, but why would you think that?” He questioned her as they made their way out onto the street.

“Just that Buffy was in a bad mood this morning and she almost didn’t let me come to see you. And now you said you were in a bad mood and needed to kill things, I just thought it was linked.”

“It’s not linked, something else put me in a bad mood.” But why was Buffy so pissed?

They walked to Revello Drive in silence; each lost in their own thoughts. Dawn trying to solve ‘Teenage dilemma number 10’ and Spike thinking about Buffy.

Did I really piss her off that much last night that she didn’t want Nibblit to see me? He pondered. No that can’t be why she got her knickers in a twist, she was the one that pissed me off, not the other way ‘round. I thought Dru was loopy, but she’s just as crazy. Hot one second, cold the next, getting a vampire’s hopes up. Making me even more pathetic than usual.

They soon reached 1630 Revello Drive. “You wanna come in, hang out a bit?” Dawn questioned as they stopped outside her door.

“I think I’ll just get goin’, don’t think your sister will be too ‘appy seeing me.”

“Well you’re my friend, I don’t care if she doesn’t want you here, I do. Anyway she’s probably gone Slaying or Bronzing.” She told him, turning around to open the front door.

“It’s OK. I gotta go and do some things anyway.” He told her.

“But I though you...” Turning around she saw that Spike had already disappeared into the night.

T.B.C


A.N.

I finally decided to update and brought a little bit of history with it.
The idea to add a little bit of Jack the Ripper into the story came from sitting in my history lesson thinking, “hm, 1888...was Spike in London then?” Yes that is all I do in lessons, think about Spike, lol.

I was gonna make it so Spike said that he was Jack the Ripper, something about being a newly risen vamp and “him and Dru feelin’ a little peckish.” Only to tell Dawn that actually he was in Russia at the time with the rest of his ‘family’ as he had been sired 8 years before. But as I was surfing the net I discovered that actually Nancy Holder had written a book about Spike helping the then Slayer, Elizabeth, with the Ripper problem. In her version Elizabeth was killed by ‘Jack’ who was a demon but Spike never killed ‘Jack’ and the demon decided to come into Sunnydale mid-season 6.

I haven’t actually read Blood and Fog so I don’t know the whole story, but only a short summary. Because of this I decided only to take part of the history out and change the rest of it. So Spike and Dru did kill ‘Jack’ and I changed the type of demon he was to a Folvaka demon (which I made up), as I don’t know what the demon was in the book. I didn’t want to re-tell the story of Fog and Blood, so I changed most of it...plus I know a lot of people who weren’t very happy with the book.

I tried to make the Ripper history as true as possible, which meant I’m sitting with my laptop on my um...lap and my history notes in one hand whilst typing with the other.

Mary Kelly was the supposed to be the last of the Ripper victims and she was killed in her room (which had been supposedly forgotten in Nancy Holder’s book). She was discovered by her landlord’s assistant who called the landlord who called the police.

I’m sorry if any of this is wrong, don’t blame me but my teachers notes ;-)

Kay, I’m out...this was only meant to be a short authors note.
See you in a few more months for my next update. Please review this...Oh and again if anybody wants to be my beta reader please email me...I really need one!

Evil Seductions


Set in season 6, post-Tabula Rasa. Buffy and Spike have kissed twice, everyone knows that Buffy was in heaven and she's still the queen of denial.


Disclaimer- Please, if I actually owned all of this do you really think I’ll be writing fanfiction, out of which I would receive nothing? I didn’t think so. If I did own BtVS, I would be writing up the screenplay for a movie, a very Buffy/Spike centred movie. But it is Joss Whedon who actually owns everything, and he isn’t writing up a movie.


Chapter 4



Jasmine quickly dodged to her right as the demons fist shot past her face, grazing her cheek. She kicked it in its stomach, desperately trying to find its weak spot, but instead she met the demons natural body amour. The moment that her foot had made contact with its grey scales, pain shot through her foot, quickly travelling up her leg.

Jasmine then stumbled back as she tried to maintain her focus. Sensing her pain, the demon grinned. Well she assumed it was a grin, the condition that its teeth were in made it hard for her to tell.

The demon in front of her was called a Telak demon. They were notoriously difficult to kill, for many different reasons. The one that she was currently trying to kill was 7 feet tall; and would be considered as one of the smaller ones in its species. Though at first glance, its body seemed soft and fleshy, as though it was pumped full of fat, in was actually the opposite. Every single part of its body was covered in some sort of scales, that provided it with armour, which made it extremely hard for anything to do any real harm to it. On top of the problem with the armour, there were spikes that covered every inch of its body. Except one part. There was a small area, between its neck and shoulder, where it was vulnerable, but it was difficult to reach. The demon had a long tail, which seemed almost double the length of its body. And if even one of them were to embed itself in you, you would find your strength draining away very rapidly. So, to put it bluntly, this was a very hard bugger to kill.

The Telak, which was now the main source of trouble, took a step forward, thinking Jasmine to be an easy kill. But Jasmine wasn’t and by now the pain in her foot had become a very dull throb, so she swaggered forwards giving it a grin of her own. Then suddenly she lunged forwards, all her power going into the punch that was aimed at the demon in front of her. This was just enough to send it staggering back, but only barely.

“Playtime’s over, babes.” She smirked, her eyes sparkling.

She once again ran forward, but this time the Telak was prepared for an attack. As she moved to punch it, she left an opening in her defence. The Telak exploited this and brought an arm forwards, so that the spike that was attached to it was able to slash her stomach. She winced in pain as she felt sting of the wound, the burn causing her eyes to water. However, she ignored the pain, and continued her assault. Jasmine used a combination of punches and kicks and though she knew this didn’t cause much damage, she didn’t let this bother her. The Telak’s tail came up from behind her, but she was able to sense it and she jumped back, getting out of its way.

Looking around her surroundings, Jasmine tried to find a quick and easy way she could kill it. While she searched, its tail came back up behind her, but this time she failed to sense it. It swept up behind her and one of the spikes implanted itself into her back, causing her to let out a scream of pain. Her breathing became laboured as even though the spike was in her back just for a short time, she could feel much of her energy being sucked away. The Telak had its heard thrown back as it felt her energy entering into its body. Closing her eyes, she grabbed its tail and jerked it out of the small of her back. Her eyes shot back open as she let out an ear-piercing scream as the pain ripped through her.

Placing a hand onto the wound, the slayer winced as she felt the pain from contact. Bringing her hand away she saw that it was covered in blood. Wiping her hand on her already ruined shirt, she turned to the demon, who was adjusting to her power running through its veins.

Narrowing her eyes, Jasmine attacked, instead of meeting it head on she stepped to its left and before it could react, she latched onto its back, her arms around its neck. Closing her eyes, she tried to block out the pain which was emitting out of various wounds -- a series of cuts and bruises and her head was throbbing from when she was thrown into a gravestone, earlier in the fight. Now the pain in her back added to her discomfort. Not that hanging onto a 7-foot demon would be very comfortable even without her injuries.

The Telak tried to throw her off, but her grip just tightened around her neck. Her legs straddled it from behind, while staying mindful of the spikes. Now that she had a better grip -- and was less likely to fall off -- she took one arm away from around its neck. Bringing the now freed arm back, she punched the only unprotected part of it.

It howled in agony. Thrashing around in pain, it was finally able to throw her off. She flew back, causing her to crash into yet another gravestone.

“Damn, I’ve gotta stop doing that.” She winced as she sat up. Moving her black hair out of her face, she saw that the demon was still roaring in pain. With a self-satisfied smirk, she stood up, steadying herself as she still felt a little dizzy.

The Telak saw that she was up and turned to face her, its face full of fury. It ran towards her, and she quickly climbed onto a -- slightly unstable -- gravestone. As it came close to her, she jumped into the air and once again attached herself to the demon’s back. Her legs once again snaked around its back, not unlike what she had done before. But this time she extracted both arms and placed a hand on either side of its head. And with a sharp twist, she broke its neck.

She jumped back and landed onto the ground in a crouching position, just as the Telak crumpled to the ground, its weight sending a shockwave through the ground.

The adrenaline from the fight was fading fast, so now Jasmine felt the pain from the wounds that covered her body. Her body burned as from head to toe, she was hurting.

“The Slayer should gimme something, something for helpin’ her out in patrol. Didn’t even have to ask me…true, she don’t actually know I’m helpin’, well she don’t exactly know who I am…But still, I’m doin’ this outta the kindness of my um, heart? Well, I deserve some credit.” She sighed, “and now my clothes are definitely ruined!” Jasmine let out another long-suffering sigh as she looked down at her clothes.

Though her bosses had given her place to stay, she became bored while on her own. It was a small apartment that was close to the outskirts of Sunnydale, for the reason that I would be harder to find her. Also, it had been magically protected from any form of attack – both magical and physical. And the magical cloak on it also meant that no one would be able to use a locator spell on it.

The flat itself had been only sparsely decorated, only including the bare necessities. This meant a small bedroom, small living room, which lead into a kitchen and a bathroom. Some might call it cosy, but to Jasmine it was nothing but cramped and she could wait to leave it.

She had spent half the day alternating between sleeping and watching television. She soon found out that daytime TV in America was just as boring as daytime TV in England. Her (small) kitchen had already been stocked up on food for her, so she decided to cook. For the first time ever, she thanked her mum’s incessant need to teach her how to cook a full Indian dinner.

But then she found that she had nothing left to do. Her bosses her told her that to only scarcely go out, but she decided that a trip out to kill some demons wouldn’t do too much harm. If she did meet the Slayer, she would just try to pass herself off as a demon hunter, which was kind of the truth. And if she met Spike, well she would probably melt into a puddle at the sight of him, but that just means she would have to avoid him.

Well it now seemed that her great idea to patrol wasn’t so great after all. Her body was aching and her wounds were still bleeding profusely. All she wanted to do was to go home, have a nice long bath and then watch an episode of ‘Eastenders’. But her bathroom only had a shower, and there was no ‘Eastenders’ on American TV.

As she walked, well staggered home, she wandered how in denial people in Sunnydale must be if she was able to walk through town while bruised and bleeding, yet no one even gave her a second glance. Eh, that’s good for me then. I don’t need people stoppin’ me in the middle of the road questioning me.

While walking she found herself in front of the ice cream parlour. Her mouth started to water, and suddenly her wounds didn’t seem to hurt as much. A grin lit up her face as she entered and was able to see all the different types of ice cream that were available, she was now practically salvating at the sight. Moving towards the front counter, she saw a familiar peroxide blond head.

mmmm…Spike and ice cream. Very tasty She thought to herself. She then realised that she was in full view of said vampire and she couldn’t risk being spotted by him.

Quickly she hid behind a pillar, praying not to be seen. Spike seemed to be with a young girl, who looked very friendly with him.

Hm…to young to be his girl, I hope. Maybe his sister…uh maybe not, any family of his died time ago. Please, say it’s just a mate, all my fantasies would be ruined otherwise!

A laugh from the girl in question brought Jasmine out of her thoughts, and she strained to her their conversation.

“I was evil…I was the bleedin’ Slayer of Slayers! I ruled Europe!”

“And now you baby-sit the Slayer’s little sister. Yup, that’s so evil.”
Aha! The Slayers kid sister, not his girl! Not that I have much of a chance with him, but a girls gotta have her dreams! Hm…Slayer’s sis looks like she’s very good friends with Spike. I’m surprised that the Slayer lets her hang with him, even if he is chipped, most Slayer’s act like they have a fuckin’ pole up their arse! Maybe this one’s different Damn, I really should have listened to the briefing I was given…

After a few more moments of watching the pair, she decided to leave. If she was noticed by Spike, her cover might be blown. No, she would have to let her fangirl tendencies out another time.



~~*~~



“Come out, come out, wherever you are.” Buffy called as she wandered through the cemetery whilst thoroughly bored. “Come on you stupid vampires! I’m the Slayer, give me something to slay!” But her surroundings remained silent. Sighing she sat her self down onto a nearby gravestone.

“Why didn’t I think to bring my cell?” She asked herself. “At least I could talk to someone”

Letting out a sigh, she decided to take her cellphone on future patrols. Convientely forgetting that the last time she did just that, her cell had been smashed to pieces during a fight with a demon.

Jumping off the gravestone, she decided to visit another one of Sunnydale’s many cemeteries. That was until her oh-so-helpful Slayer senses went off, telling her that there was a vampire close by. Turning around she saw a small vampire, who in its game face, obviously thought itself as frightening. She gave it a grin. Doesn’t look too challenging, but he’ll have to do.

“Slayer!” He hissed, baring its fangs.

“Dead.” She pointed, before frowning, “I mean, deader , or undead…er.” Rolling her eyes at how silly she was being, she gave him a smile. “Dust.” She finally told him, before running forwards and punching him in the gut.

While Buffy had been trying to figure out what to call him, the vampire had been staring at her in confusion. This is the legendary Slayer? She’s nothing but a ditz! She’ll be such an easy kill, I can’t wait to tell the boss that she’s dead! And everyone tho- His thoughts were cut off as he found her fist in his gut.

Buffy hit him wherever she could. Whether it was his face or any other part of its body. Too easy. But a kill’s a kill. She thought as she gave a hard kick, causing the vampire to lose his balance and so making him fall onto the ground. Buffy stretched, thinking the vampire was as good as dust. But he took her cockiness as an advantage, and while she wasn’t looking he swept her legs from under her and she fell with a yelp. The vampire quickly straddled her across her stomach and repeatedly punched her face, his mouth bared into a grin.

Maybe not so easy she inwardly groaned. They stayed like that for a few moments, before Buffy noticed that in the vampire’s eagerness, it had forgotten to secure her arms. Amuture When the vampire stopped for a moment, she took the chance and punched him, making him fly off of her.

Standing up, she noticed that her lip had been split. Pouting she walked towards the vampire. “You made me bleed.” She told him, almost casually. Before he had a chance to get up, she straddled him and taking a stake out of her waistband, she quickly dusted him.

“See, told you…dust.” She smirked as she wiped the dust off of herself.

Twirling her stake around her fingers, Buffy hummed as she walked, her stress slightly relieved. She was once again about to leave the cemetery when a stench hit her. She wrinkled her nose as she smelt what seemed to be a dead demon. A very rank, dead demon. She followed the smell and soon stumbled on a large grey demon. She was able to tell that it had only very recently been killed, its neck broken.

Now that’s what I needed. A good fight. Who the hell killed him first? She wondered, before…SPIKE! Why does he get to kill the big demons and I get stuck with stupid fledglings? I’ll have to tell him o take his anger out on smaller demons, and leave the big ones to me. She decided. But then another voice spoke up in her head. And when you do go and see Blondie, make sure he’s alone so you can jump him! “Faith” told her. Buffy let out a groan. Her “Faith” voice had been telling Buffy her views throughout the day, and usually her thoughts had all been to jump Spike. What actually horrified Buffy was the fact that jumping Spike actually seemed like a very good idea.

Why don’t you go and see him now, girl? It’s not like he’s gonna say no to you… “Faith” tried to convince Buffy.

But what would I say? “Hi Spike, do you want to have sex now?” Another voice in her mind asked.

“Oh God, I sound like Anya. No, I need to be more subtle than that.”

What the hell are you saying? Vampires equal bad, and you dust bad vampires…well unless they’re Angel. Spike is a vampire, a neutered vamp, but still a vampire and he’s NOT Angel. And that means you will not be having sex with him! You need a nice NORMAL guy, emphasis on the normal. It doesn’t matter how sexy Spike is, he is still a vampire. It seemed the Slayer side of Buffy wanted a say in the matter. The Slayer’s opinion wasn’t very popular with “Faith” or the other Buffy, but it was the one that seemed to make the most sense.

Buffy groaned. “I’m hearing voices in my head. I’m a schizo! As if I wasn’t weird enough.” She rubbed her temples as her head was starting to throb. “Thinking is hard enough for Buffy as it is…it’s worse when there’s three voices in Buffy’s head.” She paused, “and now I’m talking about myself in the third person. My life is so screwed.”

Home. Bath. Bed Buffy thought, and this time all three of the “voices” agreed with each other.



T.B.C




A.N

First of all, I want to say a big, big thank you to my wonderful, new beta, Beth ::huggles:: God knows I REALLY needed her.
So this chappie is for her :)

X-mas beak is coming up, so that means now update for a while.

Happy holidays to everyone. Have a great Christmas and New Year!

Disclaimer – It’s miiinnee! My precious! *Pets the Buffyverse characters* Noooo…you can’t haves it…naughty Joss won’t take it away! It’s all miiine… *shrieks* Thief! He stoles it! Spike was mines!

Oh, um, sorry…wrong story *blushes* What I actually meant to say was that Joss and ME do in fact own everything, and I am just a lowly minion of theirs.



Chapter 5

Buffy let out a loud sigh of relief as she lowered herself into the steaming bath. After the initial sting as the water touched her wounds, she let herself relax. The steaming hot water lapped at her body, the silky texture giving her a feeling of absolute bliss. The smell of lavender floated around the bathroom from both the bath scent and the lavender fragranced candles that she had lit around the tub. She leaned her head against the bath rim and closed her eyes, letting the sensations wrap around her. The heat more therapeutic than it was scalding.

This was what she needed, a hot bath that would be able to soothe away her aches and pains. After deciding to finish off her patrol, a demon decided to attack. She cursed her luck, when she actually wanted a demon to pummel she had to make do with a fledgling, but when she wanted to go home and sleep, a big demon decides that it wants a Slayer-sized snack.

Though the battle didn’t take too long, she didn’t escape without any injuries, though they were only minor ones. What was most annoying was that the demon she encountered exploded into a load of blue slime, slime which stains and ruins clothes. She didn’t know why she even bothered buying anything nice; it would just get ruined while she was out patrolling.

Although the logical part of her brain was telling her that she shouldn’t wear her expensive clothes out slaying, she just didn’t seem to register the fact. The less logical part of her brain (“Faith”) argued that one should look nice while patrolling as you might find a nice, hot guy. Despite the fact that Spike was the only guy that she met on patrol and though he was hot, she was looking for someone who actually had a pulse. Or so she claimed.

So she had had to drag herself home, say a quick “hi” to Dawn -- who was on the phone, as usual -- before taking herself upstairs. And put another perfectly good outfit in the garbage, well perfectly good considering all the demon goo that was all over it.

She closed her eyes, while all her troubles seem to slip into oblivion. Lavender was supposed to be a great stress reliever along with helping you sleep. At least according to Willow who had given it to her as a present while the Glory drama was at full swing. But Buffy just hadn’t the time to use it then. Then again, she doubted that anything short of a heavy-duty spell would have rid her of all the strain that she had then felt.

But now she didn’t have all that to trouble her and so she slowly drifted into a well needed sleep.

An hour later, the cooling water woke her from her slumber. The candles had almost burnt out, so that if she had awakened any later she would have been in darkness. She stretched her body, satisfied with the feeling of peace that she felt. Though she knew that it wouldn’t be long until the pressure of living life would return, she planned to delay it for as long as possible.

I really don’t want to get out yet she mentally pouted. Though the water was now quite cool, it would still feel warmer than what she would feel once she had left the tub. And because of this, combined with her being lazy, Buffy didn’t want to leave the tub.

Ignoring her inner voice that told her to just add more hot water and stay in longer, she stepped out. The cold air hit her instantly, causing her to shiver. Buffy quickly wrapped herself in her bathrobe, hugging it as close as possible to her body as she tried to regain some of her body heat.

Entering her bedroom she noticed how late it was, and she had a feeling that Dawn had yet to eat dinner. Walking over to her sister’s door Buffy realised that Dawn had been on the phone since before she had had her bath. And THIS is the reason why we’re going to lose the house, because Dawn’s gonna talk all my money away.

Beneath all her inner grumbling, Buffy was able to realize that she was being slightly hypocritical. When she was 14, all she really did was talk on the phone or shop. So Dawn was just doing what she did at that age.

“Oh my God! You won’t guess who was totally crushing on you! Guess! Fine…” Dawn paused, just to build up suspense. “Russell Jacobs!” She squealed.

Buffy smiled, yep, she had definitely been like that at Dawn’s age. What had she told Angel in her senior year? Oh yes, that she had once been a carbon copy of Cordelia. Though that thought now caused her to cringe, at the age of 14 she had no real reason to be anything but shallow. She lived in L.A. at a time when she thought vampires and demons were all in horror movies, not in real life. Then she didn’t have the fate of the world resting on her shoulders, and then she hadn’t seen the darker side of the world.

Dawn had already had to grow up so fast. She had to, with their mother dying in the middle of the war against a hell god and then Buffy dying, she had had no real choice. Buffy was glad to see that the past year hadn’t claimed all of Dawn’s innocence.

“No way! She didn’t! When? I can’t believe she did that to him!”

Dawn’s excited squeals brought Buffy out of her musings and back to the reason why she was standing outside her little sister’s room. Food. Though Dawn would claim that she wasn’t hungry just so she could talk for longer, Buffy knew better.

She knocked and opened the door just enough to put her head through. “Dawnie, I’m gonna make us some dinner, so come down in about 20 minutes.”

Dawn lifted her head and mumbled a quick “whatever” before resuming her oh-so-important telephone conversation. Ah, to be 14 again without a care in the world. Buffy thought to herself.

Letting out a sigh she left knowing that she was lucky that she got that one word out of her. Just as she was about to walk down the stairs, Buffy realised that she hadn’t asked Willow.

She hadn’t seen the Wicca since that morning. Dawn had told her that she had retreated into her room just before she had returned from patrol. This wasn’t very unusual, as for the past week since her break up; Willow was seen by Buffy less and less. Buffy guessed that this was how she coped with breaking up with Tara, but she was getting a little worried. Getting so isolated from the group couldn’t be good. Last time she had a break up so bad was with Oz, and that hadn’t worked out well at all. Now she had a lot more experience with magic and that was the main reason why Tara had left her. Whatever happened, Buffy hoped that they could get through it; Willow was already improving as she had spent breakfast with them that morning. Breakfast usually was something between Buffy and Dawn, and if Dawn was late for school, just Buffy.

Knocking on her friend’s door Buffy waited for an answer. None came. She tried again. “Will’s, we’re gonna eat dinner, which means ordering pizza, but do you want something?” She waited but again there was no answer.

Frowning, Buffy slowly opening the door, only to find the lights out. Turning on the light, she could see no sign of the red head.

Turning back to Dawn’s room, she once again opened her door. “Dawnie, did Willow say anything about going out?”

Dawn had managed to disconnect herself from her umbilical cord to the outside world….otherwise known as the telephone. She shook her head. “Maybe she’s with Tara and they’ve decided to get back together!” She said excitedly.

“Maybe.” She said before turning away.

Buffy found that she couldn’t share Dawn’s enthusiasm. Sure she wanted her best friend and Tara to become a couple again, but she doubted it would happen anytime soon. Willow had hurt Tara with her abuse of magic and in turn had lost a lot of her trust. Buffy had a feeling that they still had a lot of work left to do if they were to be as close as they once had been.


~*~*~*~


Willow was bored.

She had done everything there was to do in Sunnydale, and she was still very bored. It was too early for her to return back to Revello Dr., she had had to pull a ‘Buffy’ and snuck out, but she giggled to herself in realizing she didn’t even need to use the window. Even though she knew that Sunnydale was dangerous at night, she knew she had the power to protect herself. As hard as the transportation spell was to learn, it was worth it, even if it did leave her feeling slightly queasy.

The town had never felt so dull before. Ah, that’s because you’ve always had Tara with you before. A voice reminded her. And it was true. As much as it hurt to think about it, she couldn’t help but remember all the fun times that she had shared with Tara. That was the reason why everything seemed so much more tedious, because she was alone.

Though she wanted Tara back, Willow refused to give up magic. In her mind, she was completely in control and Tara couldn’t understand. Her use of magic wasn’t becoming dangerous, but the opposite. Willow believed that it was good to wield that much power, especially as she was using it for good. Whatever anyone said about the dangers of her magic, Willow couldn’t see their logic.

Sure, the Tabula Rasa had gone slightly wrong, but it wasn’t overly dangerous. Both Buffy and Spike had figured out about their strength and were able to kill the vampires. They would have been able to sort everything out in the long run, so no danger there.

And resurrecting Buffy had been an honest mistake. Willow’s thoughts were that she was just being a concerned friend. And living on Earth wasn’t so bad.

So, in Willow’s eyes it was her friends that didn’t know what they were talking about. But Willow just wished that they could see that.

Willow decided that she would just walk around for just a little longer before returning home. It was either that or returning to the Espresso Pump, and she had already had one too many cups of coffee that evening.

She had been walking for about ten minutes before she heard it. Just a small sound, it could have been an animal, but Willow knew that the sound was someone following her. She had walked into a more remote area of Sunnydale. It was somewhere where she had the chance to think, but now it was also somewhere that she couldn’t call for help.

She walked on, hoping that she had just been paranoid. It was quiet for another five minutes, but then she heard snapping sound, like a twig breaking.

Spinning around she squinted into the dark. There were only a few streetlights on the road, so it was too hard for Willow to make anything out. The only thing that she could then hear was her own heavy breathing.

Praying that she wasn’t being foolish, Willow called into the dark. “Anyone there?” She asked, sounding more defiant than she felt. No one answered, so Willow walked on, her pace quickening.

“Miss Rosenberg.” A voice called.

Willow stopped dead in her tracks. Slowly turning around, she yelped as she came face to face with a vampire who was in his game face.

“Who are you and what do you want with me?” She asked. “And how do you know my name?”

The vampire chuckled. “All very valid questions, but none that can be answered now. All I can say is that my master wishes to meet you.”

“Y-your master? Who is he and why does he want me?”

“I’m afraid I cannot answer those questions just yet. But if you just follow me, you will find out.”

Willow stared at him incredulously and against her better judgment started to laugh. The vampire looked at her with a confused expression on his face. This just made Willow laugh even harder.

Once she was able to control herself, she spoke. “You expect me to follow you? Me, a powerful witch, to actually follow a vampire? How stupid do you think I look? I grew up in this town and I know that following anybody anywhere without knowing them is incredibly dumb! This has got to be a big trap. There-there could be loads of vampires hiding. You lead me to them and BAM! No more Willow! I like being Willow, I don’t want to die!”

The vampire let out a sigh. “That’s a lot of trouble for just one girl who I could kill in a second.”

Willow face became even paler than usual. “You expect me to follow you after you threaten my life?” She asked while slowly backing away. Run. Run. Run! Run!!! She repeated this mantra in her mind.

The vampire seemed to sense this as he shook his head at her. “Now, don’t think about running away from me. Just trust me and follow me.”

Willow looked around wildly, trying to find a way in which to escape, but the darkness obscured the sight. What she wouldn’t give to have Buffy with her right now! She could barely make out the vampire that was stood in front of her. “Y-you actually expect me to trust you when you’re in your grr face? Again, how stupid do you think I am?”

Shrugging, he shook off his game face. “Now will you come with me?” He ran a hand through his black hair, his patience starting to run thin. He couldn’t understand why his master had been so adamant about seeing this girl. He could sense some power surrounding her, but they were on a Hellomouth, surely there had to be others with far more power that her.

“Nope. You’re a vampire and I tend to distrust vamps. Call me crazy. Been there, done that and he killed my goldfish.”

He growled. “The only fucking reason why you’re not dead is because if I kill you, I’m dust. But if I tell my master that I snapped your neck because you were struggling, I’m sure he’ll understand.” Willow’s hand immediately went to her neck. He grinned. “Yes, that neck. That long, creamy, neck, with all that luscious blood pumping right underneath it.”

Willow eeped, which seemed to bring the vampire out of his reverie. “You expect me to trust you when you’re making lust-y eyes at my neck!” She exclaimed.

He sighed, while wondering what he had possibly done to deserve this. “Fine, I’m sorry for ‘making lusty eyes at your neck.’ What you don’t seem to understand is that it really is in your best interest to come with me.”

Willow gulped. So I seem to have two choices, I die here and now or I follow him and more than likely die later. Great (!). Praying that there will be someone somewhere who comes looking for her. Opening them again, she nodded. “Let’s go.”

At this the vampire visually brightened. “Excellent choice! And by the way, I’m Sam.” He told her before he started to walk.

Slowly Willow followed him. If this is such a great choice, why do I feel like I’m a little red lamb being led to the slaughterhouse?


~*~*~*~


Ten minutes later, Willow was no closer to finding out where she was going. Though the thought of using her magic to dust Sam had crossed her mind, she still wasn’t certain whether other vampires were surrounding them. Then she remembered the useful transportation spell that she used to get out of the house, before the recalling that it took a few moments to gain enough energy to do it, and so he would definitely know that she was up to something. So in the end, she had nothing else to do but follow him and keep asking questions.

He answered every question of hers with either a laugh or a smirk, and soon she had almost given up. Willow realised that though he seemed cleverer that the others she usually encountered, he wasn’t any less annoying than them.

From the way in which Sam talked, Willow was able to conclude that he had been well educated when alive. She placed his accent from New York, though it seemed that he had tried to repress it. And apart from the fact that Sam wouldn’t answer any of her questions and he was a vampire, he didn’t seem that bad. Well, Willow only started thinking that after he stopped looking at her neck and licking his lips.

After a while Willow noticed that the houses which they passed were becoming larger, and it didn’t take her long to realise that they were now in the rich part of Sunnydale. Confused she turned to her companion.

“Why are we in the rich area in Sunnydale? Do we have to pass it to get to wherever we’re going?”

He shook his head at her, “no, my master has a house a little further away.”

Willow looked at him in disbelief. His master lived in a house instead of a crypt or a factory, this is new. What vampire actually owns a house? She knew that while Angel was Angelus he had that mansion; but she was never quite sure whether he had it before or had killed the owners. Knowing Angelus…probably the latter. Well, couldn’t hurt to ask the question that was on her mind. “Did he kill the people who owned the house?”

But all Sam did was laugh and shake his head. “You really don’t trust vampires, do you?”

“Well as your kind does usually try to eat me, I normally don’t put vampires high on my friends list. And you still haven’t answered my question.”

“Fine. As you know, vampires are able to live, or unlive, for a very long time. If we aren’t stupid enough to get ourselves killed, we are also able to accumulate a large amount of money. My master is not stupid, so instead of living in cramped, cold accommodation, he opted to purchase a home. And if you think about it, it does make sense. If he’s going to be staying here, he does need somewhere large to live.”

She took in a deep breath, trying to figure out what exactly she did mean. “What I meant to say was why did your master go to the trouble of buying it, when normal vampire behaviour is to just kill the owner.”

Sam stopped walking for a moment and fumbled around in his coat pocket. After a few seconds he took out a cigarette packet and a lighter. After offering one to Willow, which she declined, he lit the tip and inhaled deeply.

“It’s kinda like me, and other vampires, smoking. We don’t need the cigarette as our lungs are dead and the nicotine doesn’t affect us, but we do it anyway. I guess it’s because we’re holding on to some form of human life, even if our demon hates it. It’s the same for my master. He’s doing something that’s a reminder of when he was alive. Wherever my master goes, he buys a house instead of killing the owner. At first I didn’t understand. Why go to all the trouble of fake papers, when we can have the house in an instant. But now I understand. Plus, what you asked applies to everything. Why pay for anything at all?”


“I never thought of it that way before. One thing though, the thing about your master not being stupid, kinda wrong. He brought a house in the same town as the Slayer. Sounds like a stupid idea to me.”

“You keep on thinking that.” He answered, walking away.

She frowned, trying to understand what he meant. She ran to catch up with him, all thoughts of running away now gone from her mind. “What did you mean by that?” She asked.

But the only answer she received was a shake of his head. Great, we’re back to the cryptic answers again.

They walked together for a few minutes in silence, before Willow became a little more curious about where they were going.

“Didn’t you say we were only a little ways away? How much longer till we get there anyway?”

“We’re here.” Sam told her, coming to a stop.

Willow blushed slightly. “Oh.” She said before turning to the house that they were in front of. “Oohh!” She exclaimed as she saw it.

They were actually standing in front of two large gates, which towered impressively over them. A little further back she could see a large house. It was standing in semi-darkness, but Willow was still able to make out its impressive features. Two white pillars flanked the large wooden door, though Willow could tell that there were carvings in the door, she was unable to make them out. She could see dozens of large windows blankly staring at her with some type of relief in the frames. But what captured Willow’s eye was the large fountain that was placed halfway down the driveway. It was extremely large, like Willow guessed most things would be, but that wasn’t what had caught her attention. In the middle of the large stone pool there was an angel with water shooting from its mouth. But to Willow, it didn’t seem like water. The liquid was deeper in colour and Willow had a strange feeling that it was actually blood, human blood. She knew that she should expect something like this, she was entering the home of a master vampire, but she still felt a little sick at the thought.

“Yeah, that is blood. Beautiful, isn’t it?” Sam asked. He must have seen Willow stare at it, but mistook her repulse for wonder.

“Something like that.” She muttered under her breath.

If Sam heard her he gave no indication of it. But instead he pressed a button on the intercom that was placed next to the gates.

“Yeah, who is it?” A gruff voice asked through the speaker.

“It’s Sam. I have he guest that the master requested.”

Willow heard a small beeping sound before the gates slowly opened. Sam took her arm and pulled her in.

“Because my master has requested you, you shouldn’t have any problems. No one should speak to you, being as you are considered food, however should they I advise you to keep your mouth shut.”

Willow nodded her head; her face had again become paler than usual. Why did I follow him?

Once they got to the door Willow was able to see the carvings, though she was too frightened to enjoy them properly.

“This is where things get a little rough.” Sam murmured.

Before she had the chance ask him what he meant, Sam had opened the door and roughly pushed her through. She stumbled as she fell through. Turning around she saw that Sam again had his game face on and was leering at her. Grabbing her again by her arm he dragged her to the end on the hall.

Inside the mansion was just as impressive as the outside. The walls were light green in colour and as a border there was a gold leaf pattern. Judging from what she had seen, Willow wasn’t surprised if she found the gold leaf was actually made from gold. There were a few vampires in the hallway all stopping when they saw her. To say it made her feel embarrassed was an understatement.

When they reached the stairs, Sam pushed her towards them. “Walk!” He barked. This order seemed to evoke laughter from the other vampires, and Willow had no choice but to obey.

He grabbed her arm again, but let it go as soon as they were out of sight. She rubbed her arm, which now had red handprints on them. She glared at him, but he just shrugged.

“I have to keep up my reputation.” He explained. “We still have another flight of stairs to go up. But no one should be around here.” He said while they walked down the corridor. Willow thought, belatedly, that the last statement he made sounded just like Spike.

Willow noted that each floor had a different colour scheme. The first had an earthy feel, the walls on the second floor were painted a deep blue, and the third floor was deep red.

Suddenly Sam stopped in front of a large door, and Willow guessed that his master stood on the other side.

“This is where I leave you.” He told her. “Just knock on the door and when he answers go in. It’s been fun, Miss Rosenberg. And I promise, the next time that I see, I won’t try to eat you…but after that I’m not so sure.” He gave her a wink and walked back down the corridor.

Willow took a deep breath, a few times, and placed her hand on the door handle. But the second she did, a gasp escaped her lips and he stumbled backwards. The power that she felt radiating from the room was like none she had felt before. And it was pure evil. She couldn’t understand how she could have missed it. Sure, auras had always been Tara’s specialty, but how could she have missed it? The whole house was drenched in evil. It was such pure darkness that she couldn’t believe it had taken her this long to feel it. What she could feel didn’t come from the vampires downstairs, but from one vampire who was on the other side of the door, and wanted to see her.

She was even more frightened than before, and now she knew that there was no way in which she could escape, she was trapped.

At that point she was shaking, but nevertheless, she raised her arm and knocked, praying that maybe no one would answer. But unfortunately, someone did.

“Come in.” A voice called.

As she opened the door her fear intensified, if that was possible. The room, like most of the house, was dimly lit, the only source of light being the large fireplace. Even if her eyes were closed she would know that the man that was now facing her was the infamous master. Since he was the focus of the dark aura that she had felt.

Willow was surprised at how young he looked, but she didn’t let looks deceive her. Though he looked young, Willow was able to feel how old he actually was. He had a pale face and red lips which seemed out of place on him. And though black hair covered most of his eyes, she could still make out the piercing green irises.


“Miss Rosenberg delighted to meet you. I’m so glad that you chose to join me.” He smiled.

More like I was forced. She thought, but was too scared to say out loud, so instead she smiled back.

“I’m sure you are wondering why I wished to see you, I am guessing that Sam only told you the bare minimum.”

His accent sounded more aristocratic than Giles, but unlike Giles, he didn’t sound stuffy.

“First of all, my name is Marcus.” He told her, holding out his hand. And she held hers out; he took it in his grip and placed a kiss on the top of her hand.

“Please, make yourself comfortable.” He told her, indicating one of the large chairs that stood before the fireplace.

To scared to refuse, Willow sat down, Marcus followed by sitting on the second seat.

“Though this is the first time that we have met, and it was only this evening that you knew about me, I have followed you for quite a while now.”

“You have?” Willow squeaked.

“Ah, so you do speak!” He laughed, and Willow felt herself blush. “And yes, I have been following you. Your character has interested me as I feel you may be able to help me. Miss Rosenberg, I know about the immense power that you hold. For someone that is at such a young age and already has this much power is amazing. And so, I have concluded that your talents would be of use to me. I want you to join me, to use an old cliché, come over to the dark side.”

Willow could do nothing but stare.

“I know this is a lot to take in, but I believe that it is in your best interests. You are powerful now, sure, but imagine if you embraced your other side, the darker side. The magic that you practice now is limiting, but you will not have anything restricting you if you choose dark magic. I know that you have tasted it before, when you resurrected the Slayer.”

Willow’s head shot up, eyes wide. “H-how do you know about that?”

Marcus laughed. “I told you Miss Rosenberg, I have been watching your moves for quite a while, and researching what I have missed. It was quite fortunate for me that the Hellmouth would provide me with all that I needed. I have travelled across the world, and though I have encountered witches more powerful than you, I have no doubt that if you do embrace your full power, so you will be stronger than them all.”

“You want me to join you and turn my back on my friends. And let’s not forget the part about becoming evil!”

“If to better yourself you must turn your back on your friends, then so be it. These so-called friends of yours are just holding you back, you increasing power frightens them. They cannot understand the need you feel to increase your magic! You try to help, yet they think that it is you that needs help. Now tell me, do they sound like friends to you? And the darkness within you is already a part of you, your soul that is. What you struggle with, my dear, is accepting your fate.”

“No. They are my friends. I won’t become what I have been helping to kill. I won’t become evil, it doesn’t matter what you say, nothing will change my mind.”

Marcus rose from his seat and went to stand next to the fireplace. “It’s funny. Now that I have become a vampire I do not need the warmth that this fire provides me. It shouldn’t affect me, but it does. Standing in front of it gives me some form of comfort, but that is all it gives me. It is the same with your friends. You’ve had them there for so long that you no longer know what to do without them. They are what give you comfort. But I can help you, I can show you how to live without them, and in turn, your power will also rise.”

“No,” She whispered. “They’re my friends; they’re more than just comfort.”

Marcus turned to her, a kind smile on his face. ‘I understand this must be a lot for you to take in. Take some time to think about it, and I am sure that you will come to the right decision. In a few days I will send Sam out to bring you here again. I am sure that you will choose wisely.”

“I don’t need a few days, I won’t betray my friends.”

“Miss Rosenberg, it seems to me that you are more worried about your friends then you are about yourself. Shouldn’t you do what is best for yourself, not them? They may be your friends but that does not mean that they know what is right for you. As I said take a few days to think about it, and choose what you believe is right. Don’t you want to further you experience with magic? You and I both know how much more you are capable of. You may return home now. But remember, you will be seeing Sam soon. Farewell Miss Rosenberg, it has been a pleasure to meet you and I hope I will meet you again.”

Willow muttered a quick goodbye before rushing out of the door. She ran downstairs as fast as possible. Unlike when she arrived, not one vampire was in the hallway. Probably out hunting. She thought to herself.

As she reached the gates outside, they opened without her having to press any buttons. Looking back, she was unable to see anyone, but had no doubt that one of Marcus’ minions was probably watching her as she left.

She broke into a run as she left the manor. She ran down the street, not stopping until she was satisfied with the distance, though she didn’t exactly know where she had ran to, but at that time she didn’t really care. She bent over trying to catch her breath while her mind tried to sort out what exactly had happened.

He had wanted her to become evil. Though when Marcus first told her that she refused to listen, soon his arguments were making sense, too much sense and that scared her. What he described to her, all that power, sounded so good to her and while she sat there she had wanted to become stronger, had wanted to embrace the darkness within. He had said things that she had been feeling for a while. How her friends didn’t understand about her power. But what had frightened her most of all was that if she had stayed any longer, she probably would have agreed and betrayed her friends. She couldn’t even bare thinking about it.

But there was one line that he said that troubled her the most.

”It was quite fortunate for me that the Hellmouth would provide me with all that I needed.”

Whatever Marcus’ plans were, they didn’t stop with her. Willow realised that if he had his way and she joined him, then he would probably use her power to take over the Hellmouth. But he just needed to do something else first, Willow could feel it.

But whatever it was, Willow was sure that she would have no part in it. She just hoped that her resolve wouldn’t fade…




A.N.

::waves:: Uh, hi. Wow another update, betcha didn’t expect this did ya? I have a helluva lot of problems going on and exams so the next update might not be for a while…then again, I might surprise you (and myself) and update sooner.

And of course a big huggles to my beta Beth, who actually makes this fic slightly decent! *Mwah*