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Chapter 2 – Enthralled Emotions


“The Master is free?” Giles said in disbelief. “You talked to him… You actually communicated with him and then… walked away?”

“No, I’m standing here dead,” Buffy said, rolling her eyes as she hopped up onto the library table, giving her Watcher an annoyed glare.

“For all I know, you could have been turned-”

“Giles, I’m sitting in the sunlight. Even if I was a vampire, I wouldn’t be stupid. But here’s the sitch – I’m here, I’m alive, and for some reason he didn’t try to kill me last night. I have no idea where his twisted mind is going or what he has planned for me. For all I know, he is planning on turning me.”

“It’s entirely possible. I mean, by all rights, you should be dead – the Master isn’t one to leave people alive… especially not Slayers.”

“Hey, Encyclopedia Brown, I got all this. You wanna be a little more helpful in the ‘Slayer Wants to Live’ category?”

“I-I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful, Buffy, it’s just… this is so unprecedented,” he said, unable to stop the excited smile from lighting up his face.

“Well, I’m glad you think that Buffy’s impending death is so thrilling, but you know, I think I’d rather not die, so can we hit research mode?”

“Y-yes, of course,” Giles said, slipping easily into his Watcher demeanor.

“I can’t get over it,” Xander said, staring at the ground. “A vampire – an actual living, breathing vampire - got close to Buffy and he’s not dust.”

“Actually he’s not living or breathing,” Buffy said, throwing a book in his direction, a little harder than necessary as her irritation grew. She was growing more resentful toward her new friend – he had no idea what it took to actually slay a vampire.

“And he’s more than just a vampire,” Giles said, directing his attention to Willow and Xander. “The Master is… Well, he’s a bit unorthodox… even by vampire standards.”

“Meaning…?” Buffy asked, looking at him expectantly.

“He’s slightly over four hundred years old,” he continued, flipping through the pages of the book in his hands. “Young, to have the title of The Master. He’s faced as many as five Slayers, possibly more. There are accounts of Slayers from over a century ago who mysteriously died. Strangely no vampire took credit for these deaths-”

“Like a vampire popularity contest?” Willow asked in confusion.

“Precisely,” Giles said with a nod. “To kill a Slayer is the highest honor for a vampire. Forgive me, Buffy,” he added, realizing that she might be affected by the conversation. “There’s only one on record who has not openly bragged about the Slayers he has killed – William the Bloody.”

“And that’s the Master?” Xander asked.

“Yes,” Giles said with a nod. “The Master, William the Bloody, and Spike are all one and the same. I’m not sure if he has any other aliases.”

“Does he have any girlfriends?”

All eyes in the room turned to Willow, staring at her in disbelief. The redhead quickly shrank beneath their looks, nervously fidgeting with her hands. “Not like I’m asking for me, personally, but he was stuck down there for almost fifty years, right?”

“He was,” Giles confirmed, still not seeing where she was going with this.

“Well… vampires, from what I gathered from reading a couple of Anne Rice novels, they view se… I mean - making love as a big deal, right?”

“Please tell me you’re going somewhere with this,” Buffy said, a shocked expression on her face.

“I’m just saying… you know… being trapped down there for fifty years. His first night out on the town and he meets you… maybe…”

“It wasn’t his fangs doing the thinking,” Buffy filled in, swallowing heavily as she spun around to face Giles. “We have to come up with a solution to this – stat.”

“Here’s a solution: Buffy finds, Buffy slays, we all party,” Xander said, clapping his hands together.

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” Giles said, readjusting his glasses as he continued reading from a thick tome.

“Is it ever?” Buffy mumbled, getting to her feet and walking toward the door.

“Buffy-”

“I’m fine,” she said, spinning around to face the group, forcing a smile to her lips. “Just water fountain bound. Be back before you know I was gone.”

Turning away, she let the worried look cross her face again as she pushed her way through the double doors of the library.

“Willow, perhaps you should…” Giles trailed off, gesturing toward the entrance.

“I’m on it,” she said, quickly following after her friend. Walking into the hallway, she looked around, seeing the doors of the school shutting.

Buffy leaned against the side of the school, lightly banging her head against the bricks, barely noticing when the door opened beside her.

“You okay?”

Not bothering to look at her friend, Buffy shrugged.

“It’s okay if you’re not. I know I wouldn’t be handling it too well if an all-powerful vampire set his sights on me… or… if any vampire set his sights on me,” she amended, frowning slightly.

“There is a wiggy factor,” Buffy said, taking a deep breath before turning to Willow. “It’s just… Yeah, I mean, he was powerful. I could practically feel the power coming off of him, but…” she trailed off, looking around as she nervously licked her lips. “When I first saw him… Yeah, there was the obligatory irritated feeling – ‘hey, this guy managed to sneak up behind me, the Slayer’ – but there was also this tingly feeling, like, ‘hey, I hope this guy isn’t a member of the undead variety’.”

“What? You thought a vampire... a master vampire... was hot?” Willow asked in disbelief.

Buffy swallowed nervously. “I know it sounds majorly freaky, but Wills, if you’d seen him…”

“Scale of one to ten, what’s the hotness?” Willow asked, her mouth dropping open when Buffy bit her lip and shot her friend a knowing look out of the corner of her eye. “Buffy Summers!”

“I’m sorry!” she cried with a smile, not sounding sorry at all. “It’s not like I want to jump him or anything, but the eyes and the cheekbones and the strength… My God, Willow, the strength – it nearly knocked me over just by standing next to him and I just… It’s not like I get to have this feeling a lot. Slayer here – there’s not a lot of stuff out there that gives me the tinglies and can show power over me. But when it hit me…”

“You sure it wasn’t some kind of thrall?”

“Maybe,” Buffy said, her good mood practically evaporating at the mention of something mystically causing her to feel this way. “What if it is?” she asked, looking down at her hands as she nervously toyed with her thumbnail. “Would it still be affecting me the next day? When I’m not even around him?”

“I don’t know,” Willow said regretfully. Glancing at the door, she motioned to it. “Guess we should be getting inside,” she said, seeing Buffy nod in agreement.

The two girls walked into the library, seeing Giles and Xander discussing something.

“Oh, Buffy, I’m glad you two are back. We found a somewhat recent photograph of Spike,” Giles said, holding it up for the two girls.

Buffy and Willow exchanged a knowing look before Willow turned back to the image Giles was holding. “Kind of young looking,” Willow said, suppressing a smile as Buffy nodded in agreement. “Definitely not thrall,” she whispered to Buffy, seeing Giles and Xander looking at the two of them curiously when they giggled.

“What was that?” Xander asked.

Buffy managed to keep an innocent expression on her face as she gestured to the photograph. “Very… masterly.”

* * * * *

“What do we know about this Slayer?” Spike asked, walking through the mansion that he’d taken over the night before.

“She’s young,” one of his minions responded. “Hasn’t even been slaying for a year. She’ll be gone in no time.”

Spike raised an eyebrow, turning toward the other man. “That right? The girl who killed Lothos, Thomas, and Luke in less than a month won’t be any trouble to take out?”

The question obviously didn’t need an answer as Spike continued to walk through the mansion.

“And Angelus?”

“He’s, uh… he’s actually… kind of helping the Slayer,” another minion said hesitantly.

Everyone around him jumped in surprise when Spike started chuckling, unable to control his laughter. “Oh, that is priceless,” he said, looking up at the ceiling. “Well, he always did have a thing for the younger ones.”

“Shall we find him for you, sir?”

“No,” Spike said, grabbing a pack of cigarettes and walking toward the stairs. “He’ll find us, soon enough. Not like I want to see the poncey bugger anytime soon.”

“What shall we do in the meantime, Master?”

Spike sighed, rubbing his eyes in frustration, wishing that he could go one night without issuing orders to the idiots. “Find out everything there is to know about this Slayer,” he said, his face shifting as he turned around and faced the minions all nervously watching him. “Everything.”






Thanks so much to: NEO_trinityknot, veronica, Mac1, spufette, confused, BuffyandSpikeForever, riam, Carrie, jenny, momzilla, Cordykitten, mjspuff, Riahannon, Chelsea, phantomwriter & Crystal Pegasus for reviewing!





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