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Chapter 26: Lie to Me (Part 2 of 2)

The next night Buffy was patrolling near the school with Ford.

"And on your right, once again, the beautiful campus," said Buffy, playing tour guide. "I think you've now seen everything there is to see in Sunnydale."

"Well, it's. . . really. . ."

"Feel free to say dull."

"Okay. Dull's good." Just then he noticed two people running by and up the steps of the school. "Or maybe not so dull. Is that more vampires?"

"Must be the weather," Buffy said as she pulled out a stake and a cross.

She handed the cross to Ford. He took it, but then he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his own stake.

"Stay close to me," Buffy ordered him.

She hopped up the steps the vampires had just run up and cautiously looked around. Ford was close behind her, cross and stake held ready. She looked around the corner and saw nothing.

"Maybe they were just passing through," Ford suggested.

Buffy turned around to look at him. "I don't think so."

Then a blonde female vampire grabbed her from behind and tried to bite her. Ford took a step back. Buffy kicked the vampire in the face, then grabbed her by the arm and flipped her over onto her back. Her companion - a male vampire - rushed at Buffy and grabbed her, pulling her over a railing with him. She landed in a crouch on the grass below and got up while the vampire rolled to his feet. She kicked him in the jaw, making him fall backward.

She lost track of Ford, and hoped he was okay as she knocked the vampire out with a punch to the face and staked him. She ran back up the stairs to Ford, who was crouched down.

"Where's the other one?" she asked, looking about.

"I killed her." He coughed. "I, I killed her and she just turned to dust. It was. . . amazing!"

Buffy raised her eyebrows in surprise. Ford was doing good for his first night of slaying. Even so, she sent him home to rest up. Then she called Giles and arranged to meet him at the library.

"Sorry to beep you guys in the middle of. . . stuff," she said to Giles and Ms. Calendar when she met them at the library. "But it seemed really weird."

"No, you did the right thing. Absolutely," Giles agreed a little too strongly.

Ms. Calendar stopped in her tracks. "You hated it that much?"

"No!" Giles insisted. "But, but, uh, vampires on campus is, could have implications. Very, very grave. . ."

"You coulda just said something," Ms. Calendar told him.

"Uh, honestly, I, I've always, I've always been interested in, in, uh, monster trucks," Giles tried to backpeddle.

"You took him to monster trucks?" Buffy asked, amazed.

"I thought it would be a change!" Ms. Calendar explained.

"It was a change," Giles said softly.

"Look, we could've just left." Ms. Calendar was beginning to get annoyed.

"Wha-what, and miss the nitro-burning funny cars?" said Giles sarcastically. "No, couldn't have that."

"Okay, can we get back on the vampire tip here?" Buffy tried to rescue him. "These guys were here with a purpose."

"Yes, yes, and, uh, we must, uh, ascertain what that purpose is," Giles agreed.

"Where's your friend?" Ms. Calendar asked.

"I sent him home," Buffy told them.

Giles sat at the table. "Oh, uh, good. Yes, the less he's involved in all this, the safer he'll be."

"He did bag a vamp his first time out," Buffy bragged.

"Really? In any case, let me get some of my books. I-"

As Giles headed into his office, the blonde female vampire that Ford claimed he had staked, ran into Giles as she ran from his office. Buffy ran to help Giles, but was knocked to the floor underneath him when the vampire gave him a hard shove.

The vampire jumped up onto the table and leapt over the mezzanine railing, allowing her to escape through the stacks.

Ms. Calendar helped Giles and Buffy up. "Are you guys okay?"

"A book! It took one of my books!" Giles yelled with outrage.

"Well, at least someone in this school is reading," Ms. Calendar commented.

"He said he killed it," Buffy said mystified. "That's the vampire Ford said he killed."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Drusilla was talking to a bird that lay dead in a cage.

"You sing the sweetest little song. Won't you sing for me, hmm? Don't you love me anymore?"

Angelus walked up behind her, angry.

"Do ye know what Lucius tell me, Drusilla?" She didn't answer, just continued to make twittering noises at the bird. "He tells me you went out the other night."

"My tummy was growly," she pouted. "And you were out." She turned her attention back to the bird. "Come on." She whistled. "I'll pout if you don't sing."

"And he says that ye saw that whelp of yers, William."

"Spike?" She smiled, then continued to talk to the bird. "I'll give you a seed if you sing."

"The bird's dead, Dru. Ye left it in a cage, and ye didn't feed it, and now it's all dead, just like the last one."

Drusilla cowered and whined. Angelus struck her across the face.

"Ye don't go out unless I say ye do. And ye don't go talking te that pitiful thing ye sired. Is that clear."

Drusilla nodded. She got up slowly, rising up against Angelus, then she began to nibble on his ear.

"Do you forgive me, Daddy? Or have I been a bad girl?" She made a little barking noise.

"This is so cool!" came an unfamiliar voice out of nowhere.

Angelus looked up to see a living teenage boy enter the room.

"I would totally live here," the boy said.

"Does anyone pay any attention? Who the hell is supposed to be on watch?" Angelus yelled.

His senses told him that his minions were scurrying for cover.

"I know who you are," the boy said to Angelus.

"What a brilliant lad ye are." Angelus said sarcastically. "Too bad the world will never know of yer wit."

Angelus vamped and growled at the boy.

"I came looking for you, Angelus. You are Angelus, right?"

Angelus was a little startled. The boy really did seem to know who he was, and he wasn't scared. It wasn't half as fun if they weren't scared.

"Ye've got a real death wish, me boy. It's almost interesting."

The blonde vampire came in then and walked up to Angelus handing him the book she had stolen from Giles. Angelus began to leaf through it.

"Ah, this'll be useful. We may have to tweak it a little." Angelus turned his attention back to the boy. "So, how did ye find me?"

Angelus was aware of the slightest tremor in the blonde vampire. Just enough to answer the question for him. He'd deal with her later.

"That doesn't matter. I've got something to offer you." The boy paused. "I-I'm pretty sure this is the part where you take out a watch and say I've got thirty seconds to convince you not to kill me? It's traditional."

"Well, we wouldn't want to go against tradition now would we?"

Angelus grabbed the boy by the throat and slammed him against the wall. To his disappointment the boy barely flinched. It was as if he was scared of nothing.

"So, ye've got thirty seconds to convince me not to kill ye. But I should tell ye, I'm a hard sell."

"Yes!" the boy cried with glee. "See, this is the best! I wanna be like you. A vampire."

Angelus laughed. "Well that's not going to happen."

Angelus snarled and moved in to bite the boy.

"Wait, Daddy. The boy has things to say," Drusilla interrupted.

Angelus relented. He could always kill the boy later.

"Well, feature this: I'm offering you a trade. You make me a vampire, and I give you the Slayer."

"And how would ye do that, me boy?"

"I know her; she trusts me. I can lead her into a trap. I've already got the whole thing set up."

"Is that so? Ye know her? The two of ye're close?"

"Yeah, we've known each other for years. She's even got a crush on me."

"Now that is interestin'," Angelus said with a grin.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Buffy was getting ready for her nightly patrol when she heard a knock on the door. She went downstairs to answer the door. When she opened the door no one was there. She was about to close it, when she looked down.

"NO!" she screamed, immediate grief devastating her.

Lying on her porch was Ford's body. His hands were crossed over his chest, like a body ready for a funeral, and in his hand he held a single red rose.

Buffy leaned down to check his pulse. He was so pale, so still, that she wasn't surprised when she saw bite marks on his throat.

"No, Ford," she whispered through her tears as she cradled his head in her lap. She knew she should do something, but she couldn't think what it was. All she could do was remember all the times they had shared together. Remember her grade school crush, and wonder how she could have failed Ford and let this happen.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"I'm so sorry, pet. Are you all right?" Spike asked as he stood back, feeling hopeless.

Buffy was kneeling down by Ford's grave, placing flowers on it.

"No, I'm really not."

He knelt down beside her and put his arms around her. He knew it wasn't much, but he also knew it was all he could do.

"He came here to see me before he died. . ." Buffy said softly.

"It's not your fault, pet. You're not the reaso-"

"But I am. He didn't move here. His father wasn't transferred. He ran away from home. He had cancer. He was dying, only had a few more months to live, and he came here. To see me. I don't even really know why. He just wanted to see me and because of that. . ." she couldn't speak anymore, she was so choked with tears.

"Shhh, there there."

Spike cradled her in his arms and gently rocked her.

"It's not your fault, pet. It's still not your fault. It's not right, not right that he lost the time he had left, but he wanted to see you, and he did. That's something. Not much, but it's something."

Finally, Buffy got her tears under control.

"He's the last one. This has to stop. We have to find Angelus. Ford's the last one," Buffy vowed as a hand reached up from the earth.

She was almost casual as she pulled Ford up from the ground, and drove a stake through his heart.





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