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Chapter 20

"Mistress Drusilla?" Helena, the chaos demon, said cautiously. "The confusion powder is wearing off Master Spike. Should I renew it?"

Drusilla gave Helena a dreamy look. "No, the moonlight is ready. The naughty Slayer and her friends won't hurt her now."

"What about Master Spike. He's very..." Helena searched for a word that wouldn't upset her mistress to describe the master vampire. "... um, volatile."

"He is, isn't he?" Drusilla replied dreamily. "I remember when he'd crash and bash. He would wear ribbons of blood like beautiful poetry."

"Mistress Drusilla," Helena said to jolt the vampiress out of her trance-like state. "Why now?"

"The moonlight accepts the sunlight," Drusilla whispered while she repeated earlier words. "She is ready for him as he is ready for her. They need each other to fight the hell-god."

"You don't think Master Spike will leave her do you?" Helena wondered aloud.

"Oh no. He'll be mad and pouty, but he loves her..." Drusilla's eyes focused on the chaos demon. "All of her. He will be relieved -- eventually -- that all his girls are one."

"I'm glad we're here then, Mistress Drusilla." Helena shivered. "I've heard the tales of William the Bloody."

"We all have." The mad vampiress clapped her hands. She looked at the body sitting across from her. "This one is a party pooper. I don't like party poopers."

"Of course not, Mistress. Let me go find Ralph. He'll find you a new one." Helena hurried to leave the room.

"Everything is starting to happen now," Drusilla whispered to herself. "The new dawn approaches. They think they know what she is, who she is. They've only just begun to know."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Come in!" Cassie greeted Beth and Jack. "Cordy and Willow are already here. We're just waiting on Anya." She stepped to the side to let the two women into the dorm room.

Cassie's roommate took one look at the two newcomers, and she hissed ferociously at Beth. She grabbed her things from her bed before she stormed out of the room.

"Didn't I tell you she was weird?" Cassie turned to Cordelia and Willow.

"She gave me the wiggins," Beth replied. "Maybe we should have Spike come by and check her out. He's pretty perceptive about people."

"I wonder what a taparrich demon is doing in this dimension." Anya appeared in the open doorway. "They're soul suckers you know."

"My roommate is a soul sucker?" Cassie stared at the ex-vengeance demon. "Why didn't she like Beth?"

"Probably smelled Spike on Beth," Anya replied. "There are many species of demons that consider vampires half breeds because they take over a dead body. Genetically speaking they're still human."

"You seem pretty knowledgeable about things," Jack replied. She had heard about Anya from Beth, but she hadn't met the other woman before.

"When you've been around for over a thousand years, you tend to know things," Anya said. She put the bag she was carrying down on one of the desks.

"Are you still a vengeance demon?" Cassie asked. She closed the door before any of the students could eavesdrop. Besides, she was curious as to how Anya ended up in Sunnydale.

"I still have my powers, if that's what you mean." Anya covertly glanced at Beth. "Really though, I'm here just to help the Slayer."

"Which Slayer?" Cassie asked.

Anya shrugged carelessly. "Just the Slayer. Might be you, might be Faith. Hell, might be someone else. I'm just the Powers that Be's little helper."

"Cool" Cassie commented.

Only Beth realized that Anya meant her and not Cassie or Faith. This made the vampiress realize that the dark-haired Slayer wasn't in the dorm room. "Where's Faith?" she asked.

"On a date with Riley," Cassie replied. "Everybody's getting lucky except me," she grumbled under her breath.

Beth heard what the Slayer had said though, and she patted the other girl's shoulder. "Angel will be back before you know it. You know with two Slayers and the Specter, you're not tied to Sunnydale. Spike told me what the Specter said about being around to protect things here."

"That sounds cool," Cassie said dreamily. "We could move to L.A. to help Doyle. I could even transfer to UCLA."

"Okay, now that we've given Cassie a happy, can we get down to business?" Cordelia asked.

"Is that all you think about, Cordy?" Willow teased.

"Of course not!" Cordelia huffed for a minute before she pulled several files out of her oversized bag. "But I want to get it out of the way before we have our fun. First off, the kitten breeding is really taking off. Our orders have quadrupled in the last two weeks." She opened a file, took out several papers, and handed one to each woman.

"I think that's Tribble's fault," Beth sighed. She studied the paper she had been given. "He's fallen in unrequited love with that new Persian Clem got from the animal shelter."

"He should be our new mascot then." Cordelia grinned. "He makes all the demons want to buy more kittens."

"Oh, that's a good idea," Anya replied. "Wonder if I should have an animal at the Magic Box? Maybe I should order a couple of kittens to be shop cats."

"How is the demon parts collecting going?" Willow asked. She wrinkled her nose at the thought of some of those said demon parts.

"Not bad. Definitely could be better." Cassie joined the conversation. "We really need to get rid of the Initiative for that venture to pick up. Easier said than done, though," she muttered. "Faith refuses to meet Maggie Walsh. It'll be hard to get an in otherwise."

"Don't blame her though," Jack replied. "The woman sounds like a real piece of work if you ask me."

"We're good at blowing things up," Willow commented as she thought about the now vacant high school.

"We need something that isn't going to destroy Sunnydale." Anya grimaced. "I like my money and my orgasms just the way they are."

"We'll think of something," Cassie said as positively as she could. The problem was she had no idea how to get rid of a government run program.

Beth made a mental note to talk to Anya about the Initiative later. If Anya still had some of her powers maybe they could devise a way to get Walsh and the soldiers out of town without bloodshed.

"Well, now that the business is out of the way, let's have some fun!" Anya picked up the bag she had brought. "Everyone bring the fingernail polish?"

Each woman rummaged around for the polish that they had brought. Beth pulled out a bottle of black that she had taken from Spike's collection. Anya brought orange to match her lipstick. Willow brought green again while Jack brought purple, which turned out to be Clem's favorite color or so she said. Cordelia brought a rich burgundy shade left over from her massive make-up buying days as a rich kid.

The ladies settled down to paint their nails and gossip. Anya showed off the products that she had recently purchased at a sex toy party she had attended with one of the other Main Street shopkeepers. All in all it was a pleasant evening for the Scooby ladies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spike moved through the house in an unending circuit of boredom. Without Beth there, he just couldn't find anything exciting to do. Not that he begrudged his girl time with her friends, but he was bored.

"Television is so bloody boring," the vampire muttered. His thoughts settled on his other girl. "Maybe the Specter is out patrolling. She's always up for a good brawl. We can hit Willy's or something."

Spike grabbed his duster. He was out the door without a second thought. If one of his girls was unavailable, maybe the other was free.

Spike hit the Specter's usual patrol route, but she was nowhere to be found. He did stake a blond female vampire that looked vaguely familiar to him. Spike wrinkled his nose as he thought about her asinine come-on line about unicorns. It made him glad that Beth wasn't a total ditz.

That train of thought got the bleached blond vampire thinking about Beth's sire. Why on earth would Luke turn her? Sure, she was one sweet little gal. That was one of Spike's favorite things about her; her innocence. However, Luke usually liked them a bit more masculine. That didn't mean that his 'cousin' preferred males. Luke had a particular type and, it wasn't petite and curvy.

Then, Spike remembered that Beth had told him that the Slayer before Cassie had staked Luke. Interesting. Wonder what Rupes can tell me about her? He changed course, and he went to find the ex-Watcher.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spike entered the Magic Box. He could tell that it was just the two Watchers in the store. Wednesday evenings were always slow.

"Hey, Spike." Wesley looked up from his book to greet the vampire.

"Wes, Rupert." The vampire found a place to sit, but he twitched nervously in his seat. "I was wonderin' about the Slayer before Cassie."

"Buffy Summers?" Giles looked surprised. She was dead, otherwise Cassie wouldn't be the Slayer. He wondered why the vampire was interested in a dead Slayer. "Why do you want to know about her?"

Spike leapt to his feet. He paced around the store touching objects as he did. After a few seconds, he started to speak. "When I met Beth, I was surprised by her. I never expected to fall for someone so sweet and innocent. I am the Big Bad, after all. Slayer of Slayers and all that rot." He turned to look at the Watchers. "Let me assure you, she is sweet and innocent. She's never hurt a living soul."

"Spike, what's this all about?" Giles had a strange feeling about the conversation.

"When I met Beth, she told me..." Spike trailed off.

The room was filled with silence until Giles blurted out, "Told you what, man? Out with it." He took off his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. Spike wasn't usually one to have enough patience to draw out any subject. Something was bothering the vampire. If Spike was concerned, they needed to listen up.

"She told me her sire Luke was killed by the Slayer before Cassie." Spike revealed Beth's secret in one short sentence.

"Beth's a vampire?" Wesley's jaw dropped. "Just last week I saw her in the sun."

"Gem of Amara, Watcher," Spike replied.

"Beth's a vampire." Giles sat down heavily as he repeated Wes' words, just not as a question. "Now I know why you swore to us that you'd never turn her."

"About Buffy Summers?" Spike prodded the other man.

"She was unexpected," Giles finally said after several minutes of contemplation. "She was never identified as a potential." He gave a short bark of laughter as he remembered the one report that Merrick had been able to submit before his death."

"What?" Spike and Wesley asked at the same time.

"I'm sure before he died that Merrick despaired ever teaching her," Giles said softly. "By all reports, she was the quintessential California cheerleader: blond, vapid, and into the latest fashions."

"She did kill Lothos," Wesley said thoughtfully. "That says something about her. Maybe her calling started to change her."

"Yes, she did, but apparently, she couldn't handle her parents divorce. I spoke to Mrs. Summers right after Cassie was called. Buffy Summers ran away from home in L.A. and was killed."

"She was here in Sunnydale," Spike insisted. "Luke was the Master's vessel. He had been for years. He would have never left Nest's side."

"Miss Summers was here?" Giles looked puzzled as he remembered speaking with Mrs. Summers. He was sure she distinctly said that her daughter had run away in L.A. He could only speculate on what happened. "Maybe the Master killed her?"

"If he had, wouldn't he have been able to escape without killing Cassie?" Wesley asked.

"Yes, of course. So, Buffy wasn't killed by the Master. This is the Hellmouth. There are other threats."

"Yeah, like that Finn git Faith's datin'," Spike grumbled. "I'm sure he's got some kind of gadget that picks up body heat."

"Or lack thereof." Giles nodded.

"Beth's never killed." Spike bit his lower lip. "I'm not sure why you lot can't tell she's a vamp, but it makes me thrilled she's stayed under the radar. What I want to know is now that I've revealed her status, if you're gonna treat her any differently."

"Beth's part of the group, just like you," Giles reassured Spike. "We protect our own."

"Good to know, Watcher." Spike glanced at the clock. "Beth should be home from her party soon. Talk to you later, mates." He strolled out of the Magic Box, confident that his girl wasn't in any danger from the Watchers.

Wesley watched the bleached blond vampire leave. After a few moments, he said in soft voice, "He gave up the Gem of Amara? He could have ruled the Hellmouth with it, even more than he already does."

"I can't believe we never noticed that Beth is a vampire." Giles still appeared a bit shell shocked from the revelation, despite his acceptance of the situation.

"Are the others ready to know?" Wesley asked. "She's kept it a secret for over two years."

"We'll have to wait and see, I suppose." Giles rose to his feet. "If Riley doesn't say anything, we should wait for Beth to tell us."

"I agree."

Spike walked towards home. He mulled over the information he had gotten from Giles about Buffy Summers. Luke was killed by a Slayer around the same time Cassie was killed. Therefore, he concluded that the Summers bint had killed the older vampire despite Giles' insistence that the girl never made it to Sunnydale. According to the demon grapevine, the Specter showed up around the same time. Spike wondered how it was all connected.

It was all very odd!

All thoughts of the previous Slayer fled Spike's mind when he saw Beth surrounded by several demons.

"You and that boyfriend of yours are traitors!" One demon snarled in Beth's face. "We're going to teach you a lesson."

Spike growled. The sound echoed off the buildings, and the demons looked around, startled by the noise.

"It's the boyfriend," the demon snarled again.

"You threatened my girl!" Spike changed into game face. "That's the last thing you'll ever do." He advanced on the group of demons.

"Hey, blondie! You having some problems?" Faith sauntered up. She was trailed by Riley Finn.

"Nothing I can't handle, Slayer. You're welcome to join the dance." Spike grinned unrepentantly when Riley paled at the sight of his vampiric visage.

"By the way, Riley," Faith said over her shoulder. "This is Spike. He's a vamp and another one of my allies."

"I'm hurt." Spike placed a hand over his heart. "Only an ally?"

With that the vampire attacked the demons still surrounding his girlfriend with a fierce determination.

"Picking on Spike's girl wasn't very smart," Faith muttered to Riley as she watched the carnage.

"Another one, Faith?" Riley grunted. He was still a bit upset about Faith's protecting Dalton. "I thought you were supposed to kill vamps."

Faith shrugged. "Spike and Dalton are different, I guess. If Cassie and the gang aren't freaked out over them neither should you."

Riley grumbled under his breath, but he did nothing. Faith gave the military man the one thing Maggie Walsh couldn't; sex and lots of it. He kept silent about many of the things that he had seen in Sunnydale, just so he could keep having sex with Faith.

Faith smirked to herself. She knew she had Riley by the short hairs. She watched as Spike ripped through the demons. When the vampire finished, he caught Beth up in a kiss. The dark-haired Slayer decided it was time to leave the two alone. She dragged the reluctant Riley Finn away.

In the excitement of the fight, and Spike discovering the toy Beth had received from Anya, the vampire forgot to tell Beth that he had told the Watchers about her vampiric status. Neither of the Watchers mentioned that they knew. They continued to treat Beth as they always had.





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