"What the hell did you do that for?"

The Slayer blinked as she stood, brushing off her clothes. She'd never had someone get angry with her for saving their life before. "That man was going to kill you. I rescued you."

"For your information, I didn't need rescuing. I was handling it just fine."

"He had you pinned against a wall!"

"Yeah, well, that was all part of my plan to…lure him into a false sense of security!"

"From where I was standing, it didn't look so false."

"Then maybe you should stand somewhere else." The blonde girl stormed over to where her crossbow lay and picked it up before starting out the alley. She stopped, sighing heavily when she felt a hand on her arm. "You've already ruined my night enough. So why don't you just piss off now, and leave me alone."

"Where are you going to go? That guy—he's really not someone you want to be chasing after."

The blonde turned and narrowed her eyes on the Slayer. "I've been chasing William the Bloody in one way or another for almost my entire life. And I don't need you to tell me what I want."

"Look, I don't know who you are, but…"

"Yeah, well, I know who you are. You're the Slayer. Miss Chosen Vamp Fodder herself. And hey, that's great for you, but I don't need a sacred calling to tell me vampires are evil and need to be made dusty. So if you'll excuse me…"

"No! Wait. Don't run off, all right? You…how do you know about Slayers?"

"I know a lot of things. But right now, I have to go. You're making me waste valuable time that I could be spending hunting my prey."

The Slayer shivered at the tone in the girl's voice. She'd never imagined anyone thinking of Spike as prey before—especially someone who Spike himself would so clearly consider to be the actual prey. "If you want to kill Spike, that's fine by me. But chasing after him right now isn't going to get you very far." She stepped closer to the girl again, holding out her hand. "I'm Nancy."

The girl eyed the hand outstretched in front of her warily for a moment. With a resigned sigh, she took it. "Buffy."

Nancy's eyes widened slightly. "Buffy? Really?"

Buffy snatched her hand away. "Hey, I didn't say anything about Nancy."

"I'm sorry, you just…don't seem like a Buffy. I mean, you're all 'grr' and with the crossbow…"

"Yeah, well, my mother gave me this name," Buffy snapped. She started to walk off when Nancy ran in front of her, blocking her way.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by that. I was just surprised. It's not really a name you hear outside of Valley Girl movies."

"Unless, you know, you're me and you hear it on a daily basis."

"Um, good point." Nancy frowned. "But really, none of this matters. I need to know who you are and what you're doing here."

"And why is this exactly?" Buffy asked, clearly exasperated. The damn Slayer had already made her miss her chance at killing that monster and now she was playing twenty questions?

"Because I'm the Slayer, and this is my town. So again, I need to know who you are and what you're doing here."

"Your town? Take a look around. It's their town. You've just been given temporary residency until one of them gets lucky and the next Slayer is called."

Nancy pulled back, her eyes going hard. "This is my town, and I need to know who you are and what you're doing here," she repeated for a third time.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "And where exactly have you been for the past few minutes? I'm Buffy. I'm here to kill William the Bloody. Do I need to write it down for you?"

Nancy put her hands on her hips. "You know that doesn't really tell me anything."

"Good, 'cause nothing else is any of your business."

"Look, Buffy, I…"

"Nancy! You're all right."

Buffy glanced at the two people who had just walked out of the club's back entrance. They had to be the two most unfortunate fashion victims she had ever seen. Not that her outfits were exactly Vogue-worthy, but at least she knew the evils of Hawaiian prints and fuzzy sweaters.

"You'd been gone for a while, and we were worried," said fuzzy sweater girl. "Well, Xander was worried. Not…not that I never worry about you, but I figured you were just out here slaying those baddies." She caught sight of Buffy for the first time, and her eyes widened. "Er…boys! Slaying those boys. But…uh…not in a killing sort of way."

Buffy rolled her eyes. Could this possibly get any more pathetic?

"It's okay, Willow," Nancy said. "She knows about Slayers."

"How does she know about Slayers?" the boy in the Hawaiian shirt asked. "She's not another Slayer, is she? Did you die again, Nan?"

"No, I didn't die. She's…"

Before Nancy could finish, Buffy asked the boy skeptically, "How do you know about Slayers?"

"We're Nancy's friends," he replied, his chest slightly puffed out. "We help her."

"Is that's what's up with that shirt? You wear bright colors to attract vampires for Nancy over there?" Buffy jerked her thumb towards the Slayer.

The boy opened his mouth to respond, but Nancy stepped in. "Xander and Willow are students at the local high school. They found out about my Calling, and they help me."

"You get help from high school students?" Buffy asked in disbelief. "I'm sure all the vampires out there are deeply afraid."

"You know, Buffy…"

Before Nancy could finish her sentence, Xander interjected with, "Her name is Buffy?"

Buffy threw up her hands. "Oh, this is it. Seeing as my night has been effectively ruined by the Slayer and her vamp bait, I'm going to find someplace that's else."

"I'm not vamp bait!" Xander exclaimed. "For your information, I can help with the killing. And…and the research. And I can whittle stakes!"

"Oh aren't you just a regular Renaissance man." Buffy had started off when Nancy cut her off again.

"I can't let you leave."

"You can't exactly prevent me from leaving."

Nancy narrowed her eyes. "I can."

"What exactly is your problem? I came to this town to take care of a vamp that, rumor has it, is giving you a bit of trouble, Slayer. So how about you just get out of my way and let me do what I came here to do?"

"I can't let you wander the streets of Sunnydale in search of Spike!"

"Why the hell not?"

"Because you're obviously a loose cannon, and I can't deal with one of those right now."

"A loose… I've been doing this my entire life. I know what I'm doing."

"Um, if the scene I walked in on earlier is any indication, no, you don't."

"I told you I had that under control."

Nancy held up her hands. "Fine. You had it all under control. You were going to distract Spike by letting him rip your throat out. I got it. But why don't you just accept some help with killing him, all right? Do you have a place to stay?"

"Sure I do." Buffy crossed her arms in front of her, though Nancy could still tell that her confidence was slipping for the first time that evening. "I just…haven't figured out where it is yet."

"Come stay with me. At least for the night. Clean place to sleep and a warm meal. What do you say?"

Buffy knew what the Slayer was doing. She was trying to lure her in so she could figure out more about her. The thing that Buffy hated about it though, was that it was working. The promise of a place to sleep and food to eat was just more than Buffy could turn down. "Okay. But this is very very temporary. I'm killing William the Bloody and checking out of Sunnydale tomorrow night." The sound of Xander's sudden laughter made Buffy turn around sharply. "Something funny over there, Don Ho?"

"It's just, well, you act like killing Spike is going to be a piece of cake. Nancy's been trying for months, and she can't kill him." Missing the flash of shame in the Slayer's eyes, Xander continued. "You're not going to be able to just hunt him down and kill him in one night."

"Only takes one stake to kill a vamp," Buffy retorted.

"How about we just call this a night now," Nancy said, seeing the murderous glare Buffy was bestowing on Xander. "Willow, Xander, can you two get home okay?"

"Oh, I'm sure the Big Kahuna has a whole bag of personally-whittled stakes with him. They'll be fine," Buffy said.

Xander opened his mouth to speak, but Willow cut him off. "We'll be fine, Nancy. Call me tomorrow?"

"Of course. Night guys."

Nancy's friends said their good-byes and headed back towards the club as Buffy and Nancy walked together out of the alley.

*** *** ***

Spike stepped over the crumpled body at his feet. He'd hoped a kill would satisfy him, but his run in with that girl in the alley behind the Bronze had left him even more agitated than when he'd set out that night. And now he was left with nowhere to go but back to the mansion that Angelus had managed to turn into a love nest for himself and Drusilla…

Spike lit a cigarette as he walked slowly back towards Crawford Street. The night was still relatively young, and he was sure there was some kind of mayhem he could get into in ol' Sunny D, but his heart just wasn't in it. Leave it to Angelus to ruin a perfectly good Hellmouth for him…

And now that girl… He was sure his night would've improved greatly if he could've sunk his fangs into her. Or something else for that matter… Just thinking about what it had felt like to have her pressed between his body and the wall made his cock swell in his jeans. And her knowledge of who he was only intrigued him more…

Yet the Slayer had ruined his fun yet again. He wished he could just kill the bloody little bitch and get it over with. He'd killed Slayers in the past. But this one was proving to be difficult. He'd come close, but his soulful grandsire had always been there to pull the chit out of the fire. And now that Angelus was back to his old self, well, he seemed to think the proper way to kill a Slayer was to send her flowers and draw her little pictures while she slept. Pillock.

Spike thought back over the last three Slayers he had fought before this one. The first had been relatively easy, all things considered. One big fight, and he'd taken down a Slayer within the first two decades of his vampiric existence. Elevated him to the status of Master at an age when most of his kind were practically still fledglings.

Of course, most of the demon population called that a fluke. Said he'd just managed to get lucky, fight a Slayer when she was already down. But Spike had shut them up when he'd become the only vampire in history to kill two Slayers.

Not that he'd had any intention of stopping there. Too many other vamps had killed themselves one Slayer. Usually, they tended not to push their luck past that, figuring doing in one Slayer was enough to ascertain bragging rights. But Spike wanted more. Another vampire might get two as well, and Spike was in no mood to share the title "Slayer of Slayers."

It was his desire to secure that distinction for himself alone that had led him to Los Angeles not too long ago. He'd heard of a Slayer there who was reported to be the longest lived Slayer in history. A Slayer in her twenties, as this one was, was practically unheard of.

But age hadn't made her any weaker. If anything, the number of battles she'd survived had made her stronger than almost anyone Spike had ever had the pleasure of facing. He'd limped away from more fights with her than he cared to admit.

At the time, he'd wanted to blame all the mess in LA on circumstances, on nothing being as it should've been. But now after this Slayer kept getting the better of him, he was starting to worry that he'd somehow lost his edge. Or maybe the first couple of Slayers had just been a fluke…

Realizing he'd reached the mansion, Spike threw his cigarette to the ground and snubbed it out under his boot. With his vampiric hearing, he could catch the sounds Angelus and Drusilla were making already, and as soon as he opened the door, he was assaulted by their scents. It only served to make the image in front of him now of Dru's arms chained to the wall, her legs wrapped around her sire's waist as he took her, all the more vivid—all the more revolting.

"Have a good hunt, Willie?" Angelus asked, not even bothering to stop his thrusting.

"Sod off," Spike snarled, fighting the urge to go fight for what was his. But Drusilla would never forgive him if he hurt her "Daddy," and he knew it. He'd seen now how little he meant to the woman he'd loved and taken care of for over a century.

Angelus chuckled, then gave a sharp twist of his hips to make Drusilla squeal. "Doesn't look like I'm the one who has to do that now, boy."

Drusilla turned to Spike then, her eyes clouded over and unfocused. "Does Mummy's sweet William want to play, too?"

"Don't worry about him, Dru. He's not any fun anyway." Angelus features shifted, and he sank his fangs into Dru's ivory neck. All thoughts of her childe fled from her mind as she screamed in pleasure.

With a snarl, Spike stormed off, going upstairs to sleep the day away alone.

*** *** ***

Please review. I got a lot of hits on the last chapter, but a lot less reviews. This makes me think that people read the first chapter and weren't interested in the rest. Am I right here?

And bonus points if anyone can remember what episode Nancy appeared in. lol





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