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A/N Thanks to April of course for being - and I steal this description from Larilyn - a splendiferous proof reader.

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"He's getting the body cleaned up." Willow’s voice is low, almost strangled, as she emerges from the bedroom with Giles. “He won't let anybody help, but he's calmer now."

"Thanks, Will." They can't discuss this here. Angel has been doing a good job of sending the curious young slayers back to bed; even so, this is delicate and they need privacy. "In here." She indicates a neighbouring room and they trail in after her, and damn it to hell, Xander's here and that's the last thing they need.

"Buffy?" Dawn’s voice is small and shaky and she is looking at her for answers. What has happened and why? Why would a happy, beautiful, vibrant girl like Carlotta take her own life?

"I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I think…"

It's no surprise that it is Xander who interrupts. "I think it's pretty obvious what happened. He killed her."

"No." She shakes her head in an attempt to bring order to her muddled thoughts. "He wouldn't. Besides, it doesn't make sense."

"Oh, it makes perfect sense. He killed her and tried to make it look like suicide. Or do you buy that crap about sleeping right through it?"

"No, I mean I know he wouldn't do this. But the sleeping part, that doesn't make sense. No way a vampire could sleep with all that slayer blood around." She frowns. Even now that she has fitted together the pieces of this detestable jigsaw in her mind, she still rails against her own impossible conclusions. "I think he was drugged or something. Someone else must…"

"Jesus, Buffy, can you hear yourself?" Xander shakes his head in disgust. "A girl is dead in there, fresh bite in her neck--"

"That didn't kill her." But her protest falls on deaf ears. Xander convinced himself of the vampire's guilt a long time ago and now he has a crime to match his verdict.

"And you still trying to defend him. Come on, Buff, you're doing it again, making excuses, exceptions, and you're not even screwing him anymore." He pauses and regards her with suspicious disdain. "Or are you?" If he'd slapped her it would've hurt less and, God, why is Angel looking at her like that?

"Xander, that's enough." Thank God for Giles, calm and authoritative. "We have no idea what happened in that room and it'll do no good to jump to any conclusions. Now Buffy, can you tell us what you found?"

"Yeah. Spike had a mark on his arm, like a puncture just here." She indicated the soft flesh on the underside of her own elbow. "And there was a syringe by the bed. Someone took blood from him and there was that empty vial in the bathroom that had had blood in it." She shakes her head. "None of it makes sense."

"Unless he killed her, and all this is just to throw us off the scent."

"No, Xander." Angel is such a good man, despite his mistrust, despite the shadow of jealousy and suspicion that has stalked them since she had publicly taken Spike's side over his. Despite all of that, he is a good, honest man. "Spike's a lot of things but he's not stupid. If he'd done this, he'd be long gone."

"And the note. It said, 'see you soon.' I think..." She pauses; no one else has followed her to this impossible conclusion—well, of course not, because it's insanity. "I think she somehow drugged Spike and took the blood. I think she slit her wrists and then I think she drank it." Aghast, uncomprehending looks greet her revelation. "I think she turned herself into a vampire."

"Buffy, that is impossible. She's a slayer." Giles tries to reason. "You yourself know how abhorrent, how inconceivable such an act would be, even to the most corrupt or disturbed of the chosen."

"I know. Everything inside me tells me it's not possible, that a slayer couldn't do this." She shakes her head and chews at her lip. "And Spike once told me it's the same for vampires: killing slayers, that's fine, but none of them would ever consider turning one. It's just—I don't think wrong even covers it; unthinkable, I guess."

"I say it doesn't matter." Xander again. Why can't he just back off for a minute? "I say we got two vampires in there and I say we deal with them."

"No!" There is panic in Willow's voice, and something else that she can't identify, but it is enough to arouse her suspicion.

"Willow?" She lets the question come out hard and accusing. "What do you know?"

Willow’s eyes flash nervously around the room, and for an instant it appears that she will avoid the question. Then she shuts her eyes and begins her confession. "She did it, you’re right. Just like you said, only she didn't put Spike to sleep." A long, pregnant pause. "I did."

"What?" she exclaims in sync with her watcher. "Good God, Willow, why would you do that?"

"She came to me. She knew Spike's blood wasn't going to work in the spell, and she wasn't going to let him die trying. She said she had the answer, she said she knew what the spell wanted. A true vampiric abomination, something utterly detestable to both sides."

"A vamperised slayer?" Horrible, sinking confirmation.

"She had me cast a sleeping spell. I waited in the next room for her signal. Just after he bit her, I cast it. She did the rest."

"I should turn your girlfriend, witch." The room stills at the malevolent calm of the vampire's voice as he comes more fully into the room, advancing slowly on the watery-eyed redhead. "I should turn her and feed you to her before I stake her."

She should intervene, protect Willow from the demon that threatens her, but in this instant she feels no kinship with her oldest friend. And perhaps Spike deserves his revenge. Didn't Willow claim the same herself just four years ago when she stripped the skin from a still-living body with her magic?

At any rate, the sickness broiling in her gut is paralysing. She is beyond horrified, beyond disgusted with Willow. For once her heart and her calling are of one mind; the witch has done something unforgivable and she isn't sure she could move to her friend’s aid even if the vampire had his fangs at her throat.

"You should, but you won't." Willow should not sound so certain, so sure of her own power. "You won’t because you know you still need me."

"I do at that." He regards her with calculated disdain. "You can do your hocus-pocus on the chains?"

"Yes."

"Chains? What chains?" She feels as if events are rushing past like the flashing images she remembers seeing during a particularly hammy drowning scene on some awful made-for-TV flick.

"Right. We'll need something to keep calm her: potion, trinket, whatever." His businesslike attitude is almost more frightening than his grief, and if she did not know him quite so well, she would imagine he cared nothing for the dead girl in the next room.

"I can do that."

"Pray that you can, 'cos you let her down now, it'll be your girl I go after." As always, the most effective threats are those made with icy calm. So much more menacing that way.

"Spike, what are you talking about?" Finally she manages to get his attention, the shrill panic in her voice just enough to make him turn his dark, obdurate eyes on her.

"You can't describe the hunger when you rise, slayer, the desperate uncontrollable desire to feed. You don't think—you can't. All you can do is find the nearest living body and drink until the world turns red around you and you understand that now you are a God." She hates the cool detachment of his voice, hates to recognise the ice cold masquerade of coping that crippled her for so many painful years.

"In three nights’ time," he continues, and if his voice falters a little he covers it well, "Lotta'll rise, and I don't fancy any of our chances of stopping her doing something she might not be able to live with."

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A/N On the subject of how long it takes a vampire to rise:

Now vampire come out of graves and in europe it takes at least three days to get someone buried, so I'm going with that becuase vampire legends do come from the old world.

However on Buffy while most vampires come out of graves (and I assume you don't get people buried the same night) there have been occassion on the show where vampires have risen the same night (that annointed one episode in season one) and even in just a few hours (helpless). This is evidence I shall mostly be ignoring :)


Big thanks to everyone who reviewed

Hey Vamps, I know the whole Willow does bad storyline is a bit tired, but it's instrumental in getting me where I want to go. Glad you liked.

Does this clear thiings up for you CordyKitten? Although giving him Carlottas soul would have been an interesting idea, a soul that was already connected to him maybe could have been at peace if it were merged with him....

Hia Enchantress Is that a hint for more spuffy touchy touchy? Yeah course it is, all in good time my child all in good time. ;)





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