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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thank you to those who reviewed the first chapter. :)

Once again, many thanks to Sotia for beta-reading!

Hope you enjoy :)
I Have Waited For You

Chapter Two

October 2001

By the time Buffy returned home, the sky was lightening with the coming of dawn. She was exhausted, having searched everywhere she could think of for the vampire, to no avail. It was as though he had disappeared completely, and she was beginning to wonder if she had perhaps imagined him.

Common sense told her that it must have been a hallucination. She had seen William that afternoon, and it took a lot longer than just a few hours for a new vampire to rise after being turned. A call home, and to William’s apartment—just to check—had proved fruitless, however.

Pushing open the front door, she stepped into her house and was almost immediately pulled into a bone-crushing hug. William’s voice was frantic, his hands everywhere, and she felt the hot sting of tears in her eyes and on her cheeks.

“You’re okay,” she whispered, stroking his hair. “I thought—”

He pulled back, and stared at her, scanning her face and body for any sign of injury. “Where were you? God, I was so worried!”

Buffy pushed away from him, her fear transforming into anger that bubbled up and spilled over. “I’m the Slayer, William. I’ve done all-night patrols before.”

He slipped an arm around her waist, and tugged her back towards him. “Doesn’t mean I don’t worry.”

She looked up at him, sliding her palm over his chest and resting it over his heart. It was beating. “Did you go out last night?”

“No,” he said. “Inventory at the shop took longer than I’d thought; I didn’t get in until an hour ago. And when you weren’t here… with all the disappearances—I thought the worst.”

“Oh.” Buffy bit her lip, kicking herself for not understanding why he’d been so worried. She felt the last of her anger dissipate, and the confusion return in full force. She led him into the lounge, and they sat down on the couch. “I didn’t come home, because I was following something,” she said, taking his hand and finding comfort when her fingers found the pulse-point on his wrist. “A—a vampire. He looked like you.”

“What?” William’s mouth dropped open in shock as he took in what she’d said.

“A vampire!” Buffy stood up, and started to pace. “It was you, except with weirder hair and a big, black, leather coat! I spent half the night absolutely terrified that some vamp had got you and turned you!”

William stared at her with wide eyes, not sure what to say. “Buffy—”

“I was so scared.” Buffy interrupted. “And when I couldn’t find it… I started to think that maybe I was going crazy, imagining things. But why would I conjure up something like that?”

“I’m here,” William said, standing up and pulling her into a hug, trying not to let the confusion and fear he felt show in his voice. “It—it was a spell, or something. A vampire using a glamour to confuse you, throw you off your game.”

“But why would it run away?” Buffy’s words were mumbled, her face pressed against the soft cotton of William’s shirt. “When I saw you—it, I couldn’t move. I froze. Easy prey.”

William’s lips found hers, his mouth warm and caressing. “We’ll get everyone on it, do some research.”

She nodded, and tried to smile, the relief at finding him alive and here finally sinking in. “Okay.”

***

November 2001

Life went on. Buffy saw no further sign of the vampire with William’s face, and there had only been one more disappearance since Mr. Johnson of Hollander Drive. Buffy hoped that it would be the last.

The gang had tried to research the mysterious vampire, but with hardly anything to go on, it had pretty much been a useless effort. They were making slightly more progress investigating the disappearances; Willow had turned up some information on similar missing persons in the past, and so at least they now had something to go on.

Things were good. And so it came as no surprise that something bad was on the horizon; that was the way life as the Slayer worked.

“Guys!” Willow waved her hands frantically, trying to attract everyone’s attention. Pointing at the laptop screen, she continued, “I found something! Yay, progress.”

“Yay?” Buffy said. “Really-yay or Willow-yay?”

“Uh… well, yay with a side of uh-oh,” Willow replied. “Another disappearance, but there’s an eyewitness report this time.”

“What did they say?” William’s voice was sharp, his eyes piercing as he looked across the table at Willow.

Frowning, Buffy came up behind him, and laid her hands on his shoulders.

“Her name’s Alice O’Neill, she says that she and her boyfriend—David—went to bed, like normal. She woke up in the middle of the night for a glass of water, and when she got back to her bedroom, there was a dark shadow hovering over David, followed by a burst of yellow light… and a ticking or tapping noise, and then David was gone.”

“A ticking shadow?”

“Yep.” Willow nodded. “Should narrow down the search a bit. Hopefully, anyway.”

“I’ll go patrol,” Buffy said. “Keep an eye out. Searching for a shadow, though…”

“Yeah.” Willow shrugged. “At least it’s something.”

Squeezing William’s shoulders, Buffy leaned down and kissed his cheek. “Come patrol with me?”

“I’d rather not,” William replied, and stood up suddenly. Buffy had a glimpse of pale face and wide eyes before he swept out of the room and thundered up the stairs. Moments later, she heard the bathroom door slam shut.

Buffy stared after him, and sighed. The fear had been gnawing at William for weeks now, and no matter what she said or did, he refused to tell her why. A moment’s hesitation had her wondering whether to go after him, but when he got like this, she knew he preferred to be alone.

Ignoring Willow’s curious glance, she took her coat from the hallway, picked up her stake, and left the house.

***

She felt the presence almost as soon as she entered Peaceful Meadows Cemetery, and was instantly on her guard. It didn’t matter that this was one of the older graveyards, and as such had fewer new burials and less fledglings; vampire tinglies were vampire tinglies.

Stake in hand, she peered around the tombstones, her subconscious adding shadows and movement where there was none. She shivered.

Moving towards a mausoleum where she thought the shadows looked denser than they should be, Buffy felt her breath catch in her throat when she caught a glimpse of bright blonde hair and dark leather.

This time, she didn’t let herself hesitate, and sprung forwards, feet thumping across the grass in the direction of the crypt. Rounding the corner in time to see him running swiftly towards the gates of the cemetery, she sped up, determined not to let him get away.

They crashed together when she tackled him, pressing him up against the iron railings and trying to pin him down. They struggled, but she eventually got the upper hand, capturing his wrists behind his back and smashing his face on the metal bars.

“Who are you?”

“No one.” He even sounded like William, if a little rougher in accent. “Let me go.”

“Not until you tell me who you are, and why you look like my boyfriend.” Buffy increased the pressure on his wrists, pulling his arms tighter behind him.

“I can’t tell you,” he replied, sounding frustrated and angry. “You’ll find out soon enough, anyway. So just let me go, and get off home to your honey.”

“I’m not letting you leave,” Buffy said, matter-of-factly. “Now, tell me why you’re impersonating William, and I might consider just staking you and not setting you on fire, too.”

The vampire chuckled, his laughter infuriating in its smugness. “Oh, sweetheart, could you really do that to someone who looks like him? I know you, pet. You wouldn’t.”

She blinked, not liking the familiarity in his voice, or what he implied. She shook him. “Tell me! Who are you? What are you?”

“I’m a bloody idiot, is what I am,” the vampire said. “Too soddin’ impatient. Got here too early.”

“What?” She loosened her hold slightly, and he took the opportunity to pull out of her grip, darting away before she could grab him again.

“I’m a hundred and twenty years old, love.” He backed away, muscles tensed, ready to flee at a moment’s notice. “Time’s skewed my memories a bit.”

“You’re not making any sense!”

“Go home,” he said. “Go home, and ask him who he really is. Get him to tell you about all those missing people.” His last words were thrown over his shoulder, as he ran towards the wooded area at the back of the cemetery. “See you soon, love.”

***

Buffy didn’t even try to follow him this time. It’d be useless; in that, the vampire had been right. She would find it difficult to kill someone who looked like William, even if that someone was a vampire. She could do it… but she didn’t particularly want to.

Hugging her arms close around her body, she made for the cemetery gates, not feeling like patrolling any more.

As she neared Revello Drive, she was hit with the sudden feeling that something was not right. The night was too quiet, too still. There was a chill in the air that was unusual for Southern California, and her Slayer sense was tingling.

She sped up, racing towards her house just in time to see a dark shape pass through the solid wood of the front door. Heart pounding, she followed it into the house, bad feeling intensifying a thousand times as a ticking—or was that tapping?—noise filled her ears.

She tripped on the stairs, and cursed her clumsiness—why now, of all times?—tears clogging her throat. She knew what this was, what was going to happen, just as she knew that she was powerless to stop it. How could you fight a shadow?

Still, she had to try. When she finally reached her bedroom, a wordless cry caught in her throat as she took in the sleeping form of her lover—still dead to the world despite the noise she’d made in climbing the stairs, and the warnings she’d shouted out loud.

The shadow hovered over William, draping across him like a shroud. Buffy ran towards the bed, tried to grab at it, pull it away, but it was useless. Her hands slid through the thing like a knife through butter.

The ticking-tapping became louder and louder, followed by a flash of golden light that temporarily blinded her.

And then—

Then, William was gone.

-TBC-


Chapter End Notes:
Thanks for reading! Please leave a review to let me know what you thought. The final chapter will be posted tomorrow.



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