Chapter One
It had been three years since Spike and Buffy had destroyed the Master and his minions. Three years in which their bond had deepened and Buffy had settled into the job as the one and only slayer in their darker world. With Dawn’s help, she was able to stay in touch with her mother and her friends back in Sunnydale, but she no longer missed them the way she had before Spike had been deposited in Winterset. Seeing them through the sides of the portal-bubble once every couple of months had turned out to be enough for all of them. Xander and Willow were continuing their lives in Sunnydale, finishing high school and moving into adulthood. Their lives had diverged from both Buffys’ – the Buffy now living in their world was living in grown-up domesticity with her souled Spike and no longer pretending to be any younger than she actually was.
“Their” Buffy, on the other hand, had been forced to grow up very quickly when she’d found herself alone in a strange world. High school, college, who was dating whom…these were all things that were completely foreign to her life in Winterset. She had settled into a comfortable life that surprised both herself and Spike – slaying what few vampires or demons were foolish enough to want to challenge a slayer and her master vampire mate, traveling around the country, or the world, as she was needed.
“Come on, lazy bones,” Buffy said, pulling on Spike’s toes where they stuck out of the side of the bed. “It’s almost three o’clock in the afternoon. We promised the mayor of Shadyside that we would be arriving tonight. The train leaves at five.”
With an exaggerated groan, Spike opened one blue eye and scanned the room, his gaze going immediately to the windows. He groaned again when he saw that it was a dark and dismal day outside.
“So much for hopin’ it was a sunny day,” he grumbled, sitting up and scratching his chest. “Don’t see why I have to go, anyway. The woman wants to see you – the Slayer – not some old vampire what follows you around like a puppy dog.”
Buffy’s laughter at his semi-serious complaining did nothing to improve his mood, and he growled as he stretched his stiff body.
“You know you’re not my puppy dog,” she soothed, reaching over to run her fingers through his disarrayed curls. “You’re my guard dog. All mean and scary and…”
“And thoroughly tamed,” he laughed, his mood improved by her soothing touch. “You’ve got me on a tight leash, and you know it.”
“I don’t want you on a leash,” she said, suddenly serious. “I want you with me because you love me and want to be beside me. Do you feel like I own you? Like I’m a boss?”
Once again cursing Buffy’s absent father and whatever other experiences had caused the insecurities still hidden under a beautiful young woman’s outward poise and confidence, he hastened to reassure her.
“Meant that in the nicest way possible, pet,” he crooned, pulling her onto his lap and nuzzling his marks on her neck. “Want to belong to you. Do, you know. Even without the claim, I’d be yours for as long as you wanted me. You didn’t put that leash on me – I did. And I’m grateful for it every day.”
“You don’t have to come with me, you know,” she offered, still not sure that she hadn’t detected an undercurrent of unhappiness in his voice. “You’re right about the mayor. She just wants to see me to talk about some gangs of young vamps that are terrorizing tourists. There’s probably nothing watchery to do. I’ll find out where they hang out, slay a bunch of them and the rest will run home to their mamas.”
“You want me to send you out to face a bunch of undead hooligans by yourself? What kind of a mate do you think I am?”
Full of righteous indignation, he rose to his feet and deposited her on the floor, an arm’s length away from his naked body. Without further comment, he grabbed his jeans off the nearby chair and began to pull them on, muttering about “insecure bints with no common sense” and ignoring her satisfied grin.
“I’ll be warming up your blood,” she threw over her shoulder as she left the bedroom.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Learning to get around safely had been a challenge at first, but with the shorter days and darker skies of the new world, Spike had soon adapted to the new conditions and found that many days, a good hat with a wide brim, his ubiquitous leather coat, and gloves would be enough cover to allow him to move around during the daylight hours.
Cities in this dimension were much smaller and more widely spread out than in their original world. Word had spread about the Slayer and the vampire who was her constant companion, and they occasionally received calls for help from other areas of the world. Clem, they discovered, had relatives on almost every continent, so no matter where they went, they were assured a place to stay and some demon hospitality.
The trip to the neighboring resort city was a fairly short one – nothing like the ones they occasionally had to take to reach trouble spots elsewhere in the world. They easily made the train and relaxed into their seats. There was little to see out the windows as darkness settled in and the train sped through the barren lands between the two cities.
Buffy dozed on Spike’s shoulder until she felt the rougher ride when the train crossed other lines as it pulled into the station. She stretched, drawing admiring glances from the few men scattered around the mostly empty car. One possessive flash of Spike’s fangs had them all becoming very interested in something else and, while they waited for the train to stop, they carefully avoided looking at both the pretty girl and the vampire accompanying her.
Buffy shook her head, giggling at Spike’s muttered threats that she knew were more for show than anything else. He actually enjoyed the attention his California girl drew from the male populations of this darker world, basking in the knowledge that she was all his and happy about it.
~~~~~~
An hour later they were sitting together on an overstuffed sofa in the comfortable living room belonging to Janice Stevenson, the mayor of Shadyside and the woman who had contacted Buffy. They accepted cups of tea and assuring Mayor Stevenson that they understood completely why she hadn’t wanted to meet them at her office.
“I just think it would be better if no one knew that you were here,” she said with an anxious glance around her otherwise empty living room. “Many of these boys…these vampires…have parents who are still part of their lives, and they would be very unhappy if they knew I had brought the Slayer to Shadyside.”
Buffy nodded her understanding, while Spike raised his eyebrows.
“They’re still with their families?” he asked in surprise. In spite of the differences between this world and the one they had come from, the idea that you could become a vampire and remain in the bosom of your family struck an ache he had thought long gone.
“Well…” She shrugged and struggled to explain. “I wouldn’t say that they are ‘with’ their families. They all live…well, we don’t exactly know where they live or the police would have done something about them by now. They don’t live at home. We do know that. But they stay in touch, show up for family parties and things like that.”
“I guess if you’re a parent, having your kid alive – even if he’s really dead – is better than knowing he’s gone forever.” Buffy sounded dubious, but smiled reassuringly at the other woman.
“Speaking as a mother…” the woman smiled back at her, “I have to say that if something happened to one of my children that was fatal, but didn’t take them completely out of my world, I’d be very grateful.”
“So what’s the plan, then?” Spike skipped right to the crux of the matter. “You want the Slayer to scare the piss out of them, but leave them in one piece?”
“Yeah.” Buffy frowned. “That’s a good point. What do you want me to do? If I fight them, somebody’s going to get dusty. Maybe that would scare the rest of them into behaving for a while, but…”
The mayor sighed and refilled her teacup. “I understand,” she said sadly. “I know that some of these boys are not going to survive an encounter with you. But if it scares the rest of them into minding their manners a bit better, it will be worth it. I just don’t want their parents to know that I brought you in.”
“Of course,” Buffy said quickly. “You don’t want to lose friends over it.”
“Or votes,” Spike drawled, raising one eyebrow at the flushed woman.
“Neither one,” she responded firmly. “Some of these people are my friends. I’ve watched these boys grow up – or grow up as much as they could before something killed them.” She met Spike’s eyes firmly. “And, yes, I would lose some votes if it became known that I was directly responsible for having any of them killed. The owners of the businesses that depend upon the tourist trade would be happy, but the boys’ parents and their friends would not.”
“Can’t the parents control them?” Buffy asked, a small frown furrowing her brow. “I’ve never had to slay anything that had parents before.”
“Everyone has parents, love,” Spike reminded her gently. “It’s just that in our world their vamped offspring tend to do them in before the families have time to mourn.”
Mayor Stevenson appeared shocked. “You mean in the world you came from, vampires kill their own families?”
“In most cases,” Spike said tightly. “I think our demons might be a little stronger than yours. You wouldn’t see any turned kids running to Mum for sympathy in our world.”
“Oh dear.” The mayor sipped her tea while she absorbed this information, then she glanced up at Buffy’s troubled face. “Then you won’t have any problem staking someone your age or younger?”
Buffy shook her head. “No. I can handle it. Back in Sunny- my hometown - it wasn’t uncommon for me to have to stake vamps that I’d gone to high school with. I even almost had to stake a child once, but An--my boyfr—a friend did it for me.”
She glared at Spike who hadn’t been at all fooled by her stammering, and who had muttered loud enough for the other woman to hear, “Bloody poof probably enjoyed it.”
Turning her attention back to the older woman, Buffy asked, “Is this normal? For you to have so many young vampires in your city? In Winterset it seems like the vamps are pretty careful who they turn. They don’t do a lot of random vamping.”
The mayor shrugged. “We’ve never had quite this many before. I’m not sure what happened. Maybe an older vamp turned one boy and he went after all his friends? I don’t know why we ended up with so many boys the same age all vamped at the same time, but it’s like an epidemic.” She glanced up at a sound from the hallway. “Oh, hello, honey. Come in and meet our guests,” she said to a lanky teenager wearing a high school jacket. “This is my youngest son, Jason,” she said, smiling fondly at the boy.
Buffy smiled at the embarrassed young man and waggled her fingers at him. “Hi, I’m Buffy,” she said. “And this is Spike. We’re just visiting here for a few days.”
He nodded and smiled pleasantly, but didn’t come any farther into the room. Spike abandoned his intent to shake hands, sinking back into the cushions and nodding instead.
“You must be pretty important visitors if my mom’s your first stop,” he said, laughing. “There are a lot more interesting places to go on your first night here than our house.”
Before either Spike or Buffy could explain what they were doing there, Mayor Stevenson spoke up.
“Buffy’s mother and I were friends in college,” she said, giving Buffy’s hand a warning squeeze. “She promised her mom she would come and see me as soon as she got here. We were just finishing up our chat when you came in.”
“Well, don’t let me interrupt,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll be in my room cramming for a math test tomorrow. Nice to meet you, Buffy, Spike,” he added as he turned to leave. “Let me know if you want to know where the hot spots are in town.”
“It was nice to meet you, too, Jason. I hope we see you again before we leave.”
Spike just nodded and raised his hand in farewell, frowning slightly as his eyes followed the boy from the room.
After receiving information about which clubs and restaurants the gangs of vamps seemed to be hanging around the most, and being told that Mayor Stevenson had made reservations for them at a seaside hotel, Spike and Buffy stood up to leave.
“Are you going to begin tonight?” she queried as she walked them to the front door.
Buffy shrugged. “Probably. We aren’t expecting to have to stay very long. If these are just kids who’ve gotten carried away with their new power, seeing a few of their friends go ‘poof’ ought to give them something to think about.”
Spike nodded, grinning at the woman’s shudder. “Nothin’ like meeting the pointy end of the Slayer’s stake to ruin a bloke’s night,” he agreed. “Makes stayin’ home and watchin’ TV with the folks look mighty appealing.”
Turning down Mayor Stevenson’s offer to call a cab for them, they assured her that they would prefer to walk the easy couple of miles to their hotel.
“It’ll give us a chance to get the feel of the city, and to maybe meet one of the gangs. Who knows? We might get lucky and get mistaken for lost tourists right away.”
They waved their good-byes and walked off in the direction they’d been pointed, watched intently by their hostess. When they were out of sight, she closed the door and leaned against it briefly, then raised her head, straightened her shoulders and went to the back of the house.
She knocked twice; then pushed her son’s door open, smiling when he glanced up at her.
“How’s the cramming going?”
“Could be better. I’m thinking maybe I should have paid more attention last week…”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” she said, frowning at his unusual lack of confidence. “You’re a very bright boy.”
“I’m a jock, mom. When are you going to admit that?” He gave her a sheepish smile. “I do my best, but I’m never going to be a brain, like…”
“Don’t.”
He sighed and nodded. “Sorry.” He waited for a few minutes then asked, “Did you want something, Mom?”
“I…no, not really. I just wanted to…to be sure you were here. That’s all.” She gave him a sad smile and turned to go. “Just do your best tomorrow. I’m sure you’ll be fine.” She paused with her hand on the door. “Jason?”
“Yeah?” He glanced back up at her.
“Stay in tonight. Okay?”
“Was planning to.” He went back to his notebook, missing the relieved slump to her back as she closed the door behind her.
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