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Chapter Twelve

Buffy took the steps up to the fraternity house door three at a time and burst in to the living room, looking around frantically. In her hurry to be sure the other soldiers were all okay, she didn’t notice that the room was heavily draped and darkened even though it was a bright day outside.

When she didn’t see anyone near the door, she went in further, searching frantically for signs of life as she advanced. A sound from around the corner in the game room made her look to her left and she was surprised to see Xander standing near the pool table. Standing unusually close behind him was Riley’s former roommate Graham.

Buffy saw Xander’s eyes looking over her head and when they widened in fear, she whirled and ducked just in time to avoid the fire ax a vamped out Forrest was aiming at her head. A quick kick to his jaw, followed by a leg sweep that took him to the ground, and she had the axe in her hand and was swinging it toward his neck. At the last second she shifted it away from the snarling vampire on the floor as Graham said, “Do it, Slayer, and your buddy here is lunch.”

She looked up to see Graham also now in vamp face, holding Xander by his neck and licking his lips.

Growling herself in frustration, Buffy moved slightly to where she could keep Forrest within her peripheral vision.

“Let him go, Graham,” she said coldly.

“Oh, I don’t think so. What are you gonna do? Kill me?”

He laughed and showed her his torn throat. His laugh choked off when Forrest tried to sneak up on her from the side and, without taking her eyes off of Graham and Xander, she smashed the axe into his head, sending him to the floor unconscious. Looking the newly turned vampire in the eye, she swung the axe and sliced the downed vampire’s head off, watching the dust drift away out of the corner of her eye.

“Well, yeah,” she said, rolling her eyes at the surprised fledgling. “What part of ‘vampire slayer’ didn’t get explained to you?”

With a frightened snarl, he shoved Xander toward her and ran out of the room using his newly acquired vampire speed. Without knowing how many other men in the house had been turned, Buffy was afraid to leave Xander alone while she chased him, so she pushed him toward the door and out into the safety of the sun.
As they walked back toward the Magic Box, Buffy scolded Xander to hide how upset she was at his close call.

“Didn’t you get the memo to stay away from Riley? What were you doing there?”

“Same thing you were, probably. I thought I’d warn the other guys before he got to them.” He looked at her sheepishly. “Should have listened to Giles’ warning about getting close to any of them unless I was standing in the sun.”

When Buffy raised her eyebrows and grinned at him, he quickly added, “Which I will deny with my dying breath – ok, bad choice of words—if you try to tell him I said it!”

They were both laughing when they entered the shop and Giles looked up in relief. “You got to them in time, then, I take it?”

“Oh no,” Buffy answered, still giggling at Xander, “he’s been there. Had to kill Forrest. Graham got away.”

“And this is amusing?”

Her Watcher’s cold tone brought Buffy back to the seriousness of the situation and she subsided.

“No, of course not,” she said apologetically. “I was laughing at Xander.”

“Xander, why is there blood on your shirt? And why is it torn?” Anya’s questions took the attention away from Buffy and put it on Xander.

“Well, now that’s a funny story....” he began. The Watcher just shook his head and retreated to the back of the shop muttering that he would never understand American children.



After spending the afternoon with her mother in the hospital, and making it very clear to the staff that she was to have no visitors after dark except for herself or her sister, she went home to prepare for the night’s work. She knew Riley would be using his commando training to raise an army of vamps, and she wanted to eliminate the nest as quickly as possible.

She found Spike sitting on the couch watching Passions and sat down beside him to fill him in on what she’d found at the fraternity house.

“So, soldier boy’s tryin’ to make himself a vamp army of minions,huh? Wonder how that’s gonna work out for him?”

She looked at him and frowned. “It seems to be working out just fine, if Graham and Forrest are any example. What do you mean, you ‘wonder’?”

“Jus’ that Wonderboy got himself into that pickle and prob’ly isn’t at all perturbed by it. But he’s turnin’ men who don’t wanna be vampires. Even though their demons will see that they are properly bloodthirsty, they still might resent the hell out of him. They might not remember why they hate him; but they’ll hate him.”

He seemed so sure, Buffy didn’t actually doubt him, but had to ask, “How do you know that?”

“Ever wonder why you never hear of any turned Slayers, love?”

“Uh, no, actually. I never thought about it – except when I have nightmares that it happens to me...”

“That’s why. You’d hate it. And even though you’d make one hell of a vampire,” he grinned at her outraged look and ducked the punch she threw at his head, “your first official, vampiric act would undoubtedly be to dust the one who turned you – and your demon would want to do it slowly and painfully. It’s pretty widely accepted that only a bleedin’ idiot would think about turnin’ a Slayer.”

“You mean no one ever has?”

“I guess some stupid git must have at one time or there wouldn’t be so many stories about what happens after. But, it hasn’t happened in my lifetime...er, unlifetime.”

Buffy was quiet for a few minutes, thinking about what he said. “So, did you resent Drusilla? For turning you, I mean.”

He looked at her with wide open eyes. “Resent her? She was my salvation. William was a bloody wuss that nobody cared about. Dru gave me an unlife that was worth livin’”

A pang of jealousy made Buffy flinch away from him as she heard the affection and gratitude in his voice.

“Oh,” she said, her tone cold and distant.

She refused to turn and meet his eyes as he said quietly, “You asked me, love. Doesn’t mean I don’t love you. That I’m not happy with my life now.”

When she didn’t answer, he put a tentative hand on her arm and rubbed gently.

“Buffy? Look at me, love. Don’t turn away like that.”

She shook herself and reluctantly turned to meet his anxious eyes. “It’s okay. I just...sometimes I forget...what you are. I really didn’t need that much of a reminder just now.”

He sighed and pulled her into his lap. “I am what I am, Buffy. Just as you are what you are. I can change how I behave for you; the things I do, the way I dress...but I can’t change what I am. All I can do is promise you that I will never intentionally let that bring you any harm.”





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