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Author's Chapter Notes:
Really wanted to post more than one chapter at a time, but they seem to be too long to do that. Sigh.
Chapter Three

Periodically throughout the day, Buffy sent tentative thoughts out, seeking some sort of contact with the vampire, but there was no trace of him anywhere.

(I’m not worried. Nothing’s happened to him. He’s safe at Giles. He’s just mad at me and doesn’t want –no he’s not mad at me. That’s not what I felt before he…it wasn’t anger. Not at me, anyway. Damn him! He knows me well enough to know I say things I don’t mean when I’m mad. He can’t think I really meant…I mean I did mean it. In a way. It WAS without my permission. I didn’t tell him he could…What does he mean, he can’t help what I do to him. The spell’s over. He CAN so help it. Look at me. You don’t see me mooning over him or dreaming about how it felt to…or what a good kisser he is…or how he made me…gah!)

Telling herself she was just checking in with her Watcher before patrol, Buffy hurried to Gile’s apartment as soon as her classes were over. She burst in the door, startling the man who was quietly reading at the table.

“Buffy? Is something wrong? You’re all flushed and agitated…”

“No, nothing’s wrong. What could possibly be wrong? Everything’s fine. The spell is gone, I stayed awake in class today, everything is hunky dory. Why wouldn’t it be?”

Her Watcher stared at her intently for a few seconds before shrugging and going back to his book.

“Indeed. Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Where’s Spike?” she blurted abruptly after scanning the visible parts of the apartment and seeing no sign of the vampire.

“I don’t know, actually. I got the impression he was planning to stay here until there was a reason to leave, but when I awoke this morning, he was gone. Quite rude, I have to say. To just leave like that in the middle of the night without leaving a note or anything. Well, that’s what I get for expecting a vampire to behave like a gentleman, I suppose.”

“Did you need him for something, Buffy?” he inquired when she didn’t respond to his reply, except to slump down into the chair she’d spent so much time in with the vampire.

“What? Oh, no. No, I don’t need him…I just…just wanted to talk to him about those commandos last night. To see if he…he…to see if he remembered anything important about them.” She paused her babbling, quite pleased that she’d come up with a good explanation for her behavior.

“Oh, well then, no problem. Spike and I chatted about that quite a bit last night after you left. I can bring you up to speed. Essentially, he did not get any more of a look at them than you did, although he does think he might be able to recognize a scent or two under the right circumstances.”

“Oh, well. That’s good then…he told you all about them…so you know…so I don’t really need to talk to him…”

Giles stared at her intently. “That is correct, Buffy. You have no need to talk to Spike.”

“Right. No need. Nope, no needing here.” She gave her watcher a dazzling smile. “I don’t need him at all.”

“Exactly.”

There was an uncomfortable silence while Buffy struggled to maintain her cheerful smile and the watcher tried to figure out why she was behaving so strangely. He mentally reviewed what Spike had told him about the previous night’s events and could come up with no reason for her behavior aside from perhaps knowing one of the men.

“Buffy?” he quietly interrupted her attempted cheerfulness. “Spike did mention that it appeared that one of the men recognized you. Did you know one of them?”

Grateful to have something else to talk about, Buffy hastened to answer him. “I’m not sure. He definitely acted like he knew me, and there was something sorta familiar about his size and voice, but…I don’t know, Giles. I can’t quite place him. Must not be somebody I know very well. Maybe somebody I’ve seen around school…” She drifted off in thought then her eyes went wide.

“Oh my god! I think it was Riley! I even remember that one of the men called him, “Finn.” How could I have not noticed that?”

“Finn? Riley? Unusual name, that.”

“No, no. Not Finn Riley. Riley Finn. The TA in Professor Walsh’s psychology class. That’s who it was!”

“Someone on the faculty?”

“Well, a grad student. He’s very tight with Professor Walsh. Lives in a fraternity house with a lot of other grad students. All big, fit guys, now that I think of it…”

“And you know where he lives because…””

“Oh, well,” she blushed and looked down at her hands, “I think he likes me. We’ve gone out for coffee a couple of times and…What’s the matter, Giles?”

“I am just recalling something Spike said about those men and their…employers…having some interest in you now that they know you are not a normal girl. Buffy, I think you will need to be very careful around this Riley Finn. At least until we know more about this organization.”

“Spike’s just being paranoid. So far all these guys have done is capture demons and vampires. Why would they have any interest in me? I’m on their side.”

(At least I am unless they’re trying to hurt Spike.)

“That may be true, Buffy, but until we are sure they mean you no harm, I want you to be particularly careful around them. Give them no reason to suspect you know who they are, or that you are not a normal co-ed.”

“I AM a normal co-ed!” she pouted, then at her Watcher’s disbelieving expression she amended, “Well, except for the super-strength and the slayage….”

“Precisely,” he said dryly. “Just be careful, will you, please? Perhaps you could bring this Riley Finn around to meet us? Introduce him to your friends? That would give us a chance to size him up.”

“Well, Willow already knows him, cause she’s in the same class with me, but I guess I could…oh my god!”

“What? What?”

“I ran into Riley while I was under the spell. In front of a store selling wedding gowns! I told him I was marrying an older man…a man named Spike. Oh, I am soooo screwed.”

“Nonsense. You’ll just have to tell him…tell him you were kidding or something…you’ll think of something. I have great faith in your ability to come up with a convincing story, Buffy. Just imagine I’ve given you instructions that you’ve completely disregarded and now you have to explain why you did so. I feel sure you will come up with something..”

“Okay. Thank you…I think.” She stared suspiciously at her Watcher, not sure if she’d just been insulted or not.


**********************

In a plush office deep under the Lowell House, a grim looking woman was questioning what she had, until now, considered her best squad of demon catchers.

“All right, Agent Finn. Explain this to me again. One more time. You had Hostile 17 down and were preparing to re-capture him when a small woman told you he was “her vampire”?

“Uh, yes, that was pretty much how it went.” He looked down at his feet uncomfortably while his companions nodded their heads.

“And when you attempted to remove her, she took out 6 of my best men. By herself. Without a weapon. And without actually harming any of you except for bruises?”

“Uh, Professor Walsh? The vampire tripped me,” one of the men offered helpfully.

“Oh, well I’m sure that made all the difference,” she replied with poorly concealed sarcasm. “Now to continue; when she had incapacitated all of you, she and the vampire ran off and you were not able to keep up with them?”

“They ran really fast,” Riley mumbled to accompanying agreement from his men.

“Do we have any idea who or what this woman is? Is she a demon? Another vampire?”

“Actually, Professor Walsh, I believe she might be a freshman here at the university. A student in your psych 101 class, Buffy Summers.”

“Not a vampire then, if she goes around in daylight. Perhaps a form of demon we’ve not encountered yet….”

“I…I don’t think so. She seems like an ordinary girl to me,”

Riley shifted uncomfortably as one of his men snickered. Maggie Walsh fixed the laughing soldier with a cold eye and raised an eyebrow.

“Riley is trying to date her,” the still snickering man explained. “He’d like nothing better than a chance to learn more about her.”
“Well, that works out nicely then, Agent Finn. I suggest you pursue a relationship with this girl and endeavor to learn more about her and her remarkable abilities.”

“He called her ‘Slayer’,” Graham said quietly.

Maggie whirled and fixed the soldier with a steely gaze. “Who called her ‘Slayer?’ and why wasn’t I told this immediately.”

“The vampire. Hostile 17. He told her to leave and he called her ‘Slayer’.

“This just continues to get more interesting. A hostile is rescued by a small girl whom he attempts to send out of danger and whom he addresses by the title of a mythical creature designed to kill his kind.”

“The operative word there is ‘mythical’, Maggie, “ Riley hastened to interrupt as he saw her go into ‘curious scientist’ mode. “The Slayer doesn’t exist. It’s just a story handed down by superstitious vampires.”

“It would appear, Agent Finn, that there is at least one extremely superstitious vampire out there who believes your Ms. Summers is, in fact, this mysterious ‘Slayer’. I suggest you put your efforts into both finding Hostile 17 and the rather expensive piece of government equipment he is carrying around in his head, and into learning more about Ms. Summers and her possible involvement with him.”

“She’s not ‘involved’ with him,’ Riley stated firmly, while behind his back his friends rolled their eyes. “If she actually intended to rescue him from us, I am sure she had a good reason. She probably doesn’t know he’s a vampire and thought we were mugging him or something.”

“Well, we’ll find out, won’t we?” She waved her hand in dismissal, calling Riley back into the room after his men had filed out.

“Riley, you know I trust you implicitly,” she began, “but I must have your assurance that you will take all precautions with this girl until we have learned more about her. Under no circumstances is she to learn about our facility until we know who and what she is and whose side she is on.”

“She’s not a demon,” he insisted stubbornly.

“That remains to be seen, does it not?” She turned away in dismissal and the big man left the room shaking his head.

************************************

As darkness fell over the hellmouth and the small city above it, a lone motorist drove past the “Welcome to Sunnydale” sign and headed for Los Angeles. Inside the big car with the tinted windows, a bleached blond vampire clutched the steering wheel and glared through the small opening in the darkened windshield.

(That’s all I am to her. A vampire. Something that would rape her, kill her friends. Something beneath her. I’ll show her. If that’s all she thinks I can be, than that’s what I’ll be. There’s got to be some demon doctors in LA can figure out what those tin soldiers did to me and fix it. I’ll get this problem taken care of, and when I do…)

He completely lost his train of thought at that point, because he really had no idea at all what he would do once he could kill again. Instinct told him to go back to Sunnydale and kill the woman who was making him so miserable. But her teethmarks on his neck, faded as they might be, and her blood inside him that was making every mile he traveled more painful than the last, were both telling him that he could no more kill her than he could spend the day at the beach.

With a sigh, he put aside what he would do once he was relieved of his disability and drove on into the night.





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