Chapter 3
Angel tracked Buffy’s scent to the middle of town and saw her in the shadows of the store front, her movements graceful, yet powerful. “Buffy,” he growled.
He watched her yellow eyes turn towards him, recognizing him. He watched her movements still as she watched him. Slowly, he walked across the street.
Buffy stayed still as he came closer, somehow recognizing who he was, what he was.
“You’ve got to come with me,” Angel insisted as he got within arm’s distance.
“Hungry,” Buffy pouted.
“I know where we can get some food,” Angel grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him.
“Mmm,” she inhaled his scent, “You smell good. Can we go hunting?”
“No, we do not eat people,” Angel shook his head negatively.
“They’re just cows, meant for food.” Buffy said.
“No, no. People are friends, family.”
“Who are you?” Buffy whispered. “You smell,” she paused to inhale, “like mine.”
“No,” Angel stepped back and let her go. “No, I’m not.” Angel’s face shifted to his demonic visage, Angelus fighting for dominance. He knew that this, Buffy being a Vampire, would solve so many problems between them, but he also knew it would cause so many others. “You’re Buffy, you’re the Slayer. Please, remember. You’re Chosen to fight evil, to protect the innocent, the humans.”
“No, not a Slayer,” Buffy stepped back at his description of the Slayer. “I’m a Vampire and you’re a Vampire. Are you my Sire, you smell like my Sire?”
“Please,” Angel looked up at the night sky, the muscles in his body wanting to embrace the Slayer come-Vampire. “Buffy, please remember. I’m Angel. Vampire with a soul.”
“No,” she sneered and stepped further away. “I smell that, too. Disgusting!”
“Buffy, come with me.” Angel pleaded. He knew he could not fight her, not protect her from herself. He knew that if he gave in, he would lose her, maybe even lose himself. It was too tempting to forget about the soul and be with her.
“No,” Buffy turned away and pouted. “You’ve ruined my hunt.”
“Buffy,” Angel followed and grabbed her arm.
Buffy turned back growling, “Leave me!” She pushed him into the store’s front window and watched as his body broke the glass. Angel landed inside the store, setting off the alarm.
He heard her sneer, “You are unworthy, not my Sire.”
Before he could get up, Buffy disappeared. The only thing left to do was to go back to soldier-Xander and Cordelia.
~*~*~
Giles took out a stack of papers from the book cage and blew dust off of them. He walked toward Willow reading a book. “I don’t even know what I’m looking for. Plus I can’t turn the page.”
Giles cleared his throat, “Well, alright. Let’s review. So, everyone became, uh, whatever they were masquerading as.”
“Right. Xander was dressing up like a soldier and Buffy had these teeth, you know ironic, Vampire.”
Giles sat back, still thoroughly confused at the situation, “A-and, uh, your, your costume?”
“I'm a ghost!”
“Yes. Um... w, uh, uh, uh, the ghost of what, exactly?”
Willow self-consciously tried to cover herself with her hands, “Well, this is nothing. You
should see what Cordelia was wearing. A-a, a unitard with cat things, like ears and stuff.”
“Good heavens. Uh, she became an actual feline?” He stuttered.
“No! She was the same old Cordelia. Just in a cat costume.”
“She didn't change?” Giles asked.
“No. Hold on... Partytown. She told us she got her outfit from Partytown.” Willow said.
“A-a-and everyone who changed, they, they, they, they acquired their costumes where?”
“We all got ours at a new place. Ethan's.” Willow jumped, “Oh, Buffy!”
“What about Buffy?”
“She’s a real Vampire, Giles.”
“Dear lord,” Giles moaned as he took off his glasses. “We need to figure this out.”
~*~*~
Cordelia, Angel, and soldier-Xander walked down a dark, dirty alley, looking for Buffy. Soldier-Xander scanned the area with his trained eye.
“Are you sure she came this way?” Xander asked.
“No,” Angel almost growled. He caught up with soldier-Xander and Cordelia quickly after his confrontation with Vampire-Buffy.
“She'll be okay,” Cordelia said quietly.
Angel scoffed back, “Buffy would be okay. Whatever she is, she won’t be okay when she comes back.” Angel didn’t want to admit to them that he already encountered her, or that she’d pushed him away.
Unknown to the group, a gang of Halloween-monsters and a Master Vampire hid in the shadows, listening to their conversation.
Spike turned to his companions, “Do you hear that, my friends?” He waited for them to acknowledge, “Somewhere out here is the tenderest meat you’ve ever tasted, and all we have to do is find her first!”
In another alley, vampire-Buffy inhaled the scent of her latest prey. Suddenly she took off, running down the alley.
Buffy followed the transient human from the local pub. She kept to the shadows as he wandered through the streets, his crude demeanor and fishy stench repulsed Buffy, but she knew that this one, her prey would not be missed.
She listened as he sung a noxious melody into the night air, his voice cracking on every other note. His lips curled into a menacing smile, showing his rotten teeth to the world. She slipped past him and entered an alley, ready to pull her prey to her.
“Please, help,” she whimpered from the shadow.
“Wee little poppet,” he sang into the night. He stumbled on something unseen as he headed into the alley and Buffy had to repress her gaiety. It would ruin the fun if she revealed the game too soon.
“Help me,” she whispered, her feral eyes tracking the pirate as he came closer.
“Oh little girl. Where are you, little girl?” he teased.
“Please,” her face slipped into her human mask as he came closer. Buffy stepped out from behind the wooden crates she used as cover and stepped into the light. “Help me.”
“Pretty, pretty,” the shipman came closer.
Buffy smiled as her face shifted into her true demonic self and whispered, “No, you are.”
He barely screamed as she attacked. With one hand clasped around his carotid artery and windpipe, she grabbed his arm and wrenched him closer. She inhaled the scent of his fear, “You are nothing but a smelly cow.”
Her nails bit into the skin of his neck, freeing his rich blood. Her grip tightened as he choked and sputtered on his last breaths. “Filled with liquor and god knows what venereal disease.”
She listened to his gasps and shook her head. “Tsk, tsk. Cows aren’t supposed to talk.” With a fluid motion, she cracked his neck; ending his pitiful life.
She pushed his corpse against the brick wall in the alley, preparing to drain him when she heard someone walking down the alley. With disgust she pushed herself away from the corpse, allowing it to collapse on the dirty ground.
She turned toward the noise and shifted her facial features back to the smooth human mask.
~*~*~
Giles and ghost-Willow walked through the front door of Ethan’s Costume Shop.
Giles called out, “Hello? Anyone home?”
Willow walked towards the back of the store, bypassing Buffy’s returned gown and pointed out a door partially opened. “Giles.”
They walked in slowly, their eyes darting to and fro when Giles stopped dead in his tracks, “Janus. Roman mythical god.”
“What does this mean?” Willow pointed to the two faced bust of the god.
“Primarily the division of self. Male and female, light and dark,” he answered.
Ethan appeared behind Giles and smirked, “Chunky and creamy. Oh no, sorry. That’s peanut butter.”
Giles’ eyes narrowed, “Willow, get out of here, now.”
Willow complained, “But…”
“Now,” he ordered. Willow stared at Giles face, pale and angry.
“Hello, Ethan,” Giles sneered.
“Hello, Ripper,” Ethan grinned.
~*~*~
Buffy watched as her previous prey came running at her. She smelled the sweet scent of his adrenaline. She smiled shyly as her eyelashes fluttered.
“Are you all right ma’am?” He gasped, unable to recognize her in her human guise.
“Now that you are here,” she purred.
“I saw him attack you,” soldier-Xander continued as Cordelia and Angel arrived.
“Buffy! Get away from her,” Cordelia yelled as she pulled him further away from Buffy.
Angel stepped closer to Buffy, his demon crawling to the surface of his being. He couldn’t help but remember holding her. She was calling to him, enticing his evil self to defeat the soul. Buffy stepped back behind the crate as he growled at her, her basic knowledge knowing that he wasn’t as weak as he seemed earlier.
“What's your deal? Take a pill!” Cordelia flipped her hair behind her shoulder.
Buffy weakly growled at Angel, her face shifting again.
Willow ran down the alley, catching up to her friends, “Guys!”
“Willow!” Angel warned before he growled once more at the vampire inhabiting Buffy’s body and mind. He wanted her, wanted to be free and in some part of him wanted to give up the fight. He was angry at himself for being so weak, so pitiful.
“Guys, you gotta get inside.” She warned before she looked behind her. “Hurry!”
Willow flew down the alley, revealing Spike and his monster gang coming down the alley. Angel growled, “This way, find an open warehouse.”
Soldier-Xander turned to grab his weapon; Buffy grabbed Cordelia by the arm and licked her lips, “Not so fast, honey.”
Before anyone could react, Buffy had her teeth embedded in Cordelia’s smooth neck and was pulling on her blood. Cordelia’s scream fell short of release as she quickly lost consciousness
“Fuck!” Soldier-Xander yelled as he watched the lady in the cat costume fell into the arms of the monster.
Vampire-Buffy lifted her head from her meal and growled at her previous prey. “You’re next.”
Soldier-Xander turned around and ran towards ghost-Willow and Angel, too stunned at watching Vampire-Buffy kill.
~*~*~
“What? No hug? Aren’t you pleased to see your old mate, Rupert?” Ethan grinned.
“I'm just surprised I didn't guess it was you. This Halloween stunt stinks of Ethan Rayne,” Giles admitted. The two foes faced each other, watching and waiting for the other to act.
“Yes, it does, doesn't it? Don't wish to blow my own trumpet, but it’s genius. The very embodiment of 'be careful what you wish for',” Ethan laughed.
“It's sick, brutal, and it harms the innocent,” Giles pushed his words back at the disturbed man in front of him.
“It’s not like you don’t remember the chaos we caused years ago with a spell like this,” Ethan challenged and licked his lips slowly.
“I’m not the same,” Giles spat.
“Oh, and we all know that you are the champion of innocents and all things pure and good, Rupert. It's quite a little act you've got going here, old man,” Ethan taunted. He smiled at the look of outrage and humiliation filter across Giles’ face.
“It's no act. It's who I am,” Giles insisted, knowing that he worked hard to move beyond his past.
“Who you are? The Watcher, sniveling, tweed-clad guardian of the Slayer and her kin? I think not. I know who you are, Rupert, and I know what you're capable of.” Ethan paused, “But they don't, do they? They have no idea where you come from.” Ethan licked his lips again and motioned to his crotch. “I know you and I know what you like.”
“Break the spell, Ethan. Then leave this place and never come back.” Giles new full well that some part of him wasn’t the perfect Watcher. That he wanted Ethan to succeed with chaos, to help him succeed. And, something inside Giles wanted to acknowledge Ethan’s taunt, to go back to the days of orgies and black magicks.
“Why should I? What's in the bargain for me?” Ethan smiled, he saw the Ripper still in Giles’ eyes.
“You get to live.” Giles threatened.
“Oh, Rupert, you're scaring me.” Ethan smirked; Giles was fighting for control over his psyche.
Giles clenched his fist and punched Ethan in the stomach causing Ethan to lean forward. Taking a step back, Giles threw his fist toward Ethan’s face.
tbc...