Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy or the Dark Hunter series. Buffy is the property of the absolutely amazing Joss Whedon, and the Dark Hunters belong to Sherrilyn Kenyon. If I win the lottery and somehow buy the rights, I'll be sure to let you know.
Also, this takes place after Anne in Buffyverse and after Time Untime in DH-verse.
Chapter One:
Buffy's first day back at school for her senior year, she was shocked by the appearance of a new girl who had apparently transferred to Sunnydale that August. Alicia Addams was a pretty girl with long brown hair and bright blue eyes, and seemed friendly enough. She was incredibly smart, taking most of the same classes as Buffy while a junior, and Willow said that she was rarely seen after school, and then only to do grocery shopping or run other errands. The rumors circulating around her were strange: she lived with a recluse who was never seen in town, she never went out after sunset, and she had no family to speak of. Alicia herself was a shy girl, never talking unless called on by the teacher, and didn't seem to have any friends at Sunnydale High.
Walking into the English classroom one day, Buffy slid into the one empty seat not in the front row, finding herself next to Alicia. The brunette was bent over a cellphone, texting someone. Buffy found this rather odd, seeing as Alicia didn't have any friends in the school and didn't appear to have any family. The blonde was about to ask the other girl what she was doing when the teacher walked in. Buffy slid down in her seat, preparing for another hour of complete tediousness, when the teacher announced that they were going to be completing a partner assignment over the next week on one of the stories in Ovid's Metamorphoses, which they had (supposedly) been reading.
"You will be assigned a random partner to hopefully keep your grades up," the teacher said wryly, clearly having lost hope in imbuing enthusiasm for language in any of the students. "The pairs are as follows:…" Buffy tuned out the assignments, instead doodling across the cover page of Metamorphoses. "Addams and Summers," came the teacher's voice, cutting through Buffy's mental haze. She glanced over at the other girl, wondering what she was thinking about being paired with the teenage runaway, only to find Alicia staring right back at her. Alicia offered a small smile before turning back to the teacher.
After class, Alicia stopped Buffy before the blonde could leave.
"When and where do you want to meet to start working on this project?" Alicia asked.
"Well, if you have a free period now, we could go to the library," Buffy offered. Alicia looked startled for a moment before grinning wryly.
"That's right, your friends are the ones who have pretty much appropriated the library," she said. "Let's go." Buffy led the way down the white tiled hall, quickly reaching the double doors that led to the library. She pushed through one of the doors, holding it open for Alicia, before heading into the library proper.
"Hey, Giles, do you know where any books by Ovid are?" Buffy called. She really hoped that the librarian understood that demons should not come into this conversation.
"They're in aisle five, why?" Giles asked, appearing at the entrance to one of the rows. "Ah, a project?" he asked kindly. Buffy nodded. "I'll be in my office if you need anything." With that, Giles disappeared into the windowed room that served as his office.
Buffy started spreading her notes (pitiful as they were) across one of the tables while Alicia grabbed a copy of Ovid's Metamorphoses from the shelves. When the brunette came back, she had not one, but two books in her arms. She set them both onto the table and started unpacking her notes, adding them to Buffy's.
"What's the second book?" Buffy asked, looking curiously at the unlabeled leather-bound book that was underneath Metamorphoses.
"Ovid, in the original Latin," Alicia replied, not looking up from her notes.
"How will that help us?" Buffy asked. "I thought Latin was a dead language?"
"It is, if only because it is no longer evolving. Just because a language is no longer being used commonly doesn't mean no one speaks it," Alicia corrected, sorting Buffy's notes to correlate with hers.
"Okay, but I still don't see how that helps us, unless you know someone who reads Latin," Buffy said, skeptical.
"My parents made me learn Latin at a young age. I'm as close to fluent as anyone can be these days," Alicia admitted.
"Okay," Buffy said, shocked. "Wow. Um, so what myth do you want to analyze?" Alicia shrugged.
"I've read them all, so whichever you've read will be fine," Alicia said with a small smirk. Buffy grinned, accepting the jab good-naturedly.
"How about Apollo and Daphne? I like that Daphne stood him up," Buffy said. Alicia looked oddly sick at the mention of Apollo.
"Could we not do a myth featuring Apollo? I really don't like him," Alicia said, an apologetic note in her voice.
"Why not? He's really hot, and a pretty decent character aside from chasing every girl in sight," Buffy commented, slightly puzzled by the other girl's reluctance.
"I read this one myth when I was younger that really stuck with me. It explained the origin of the vampire myth, with Apollo at the center," Alicia replied.
"Why would Apollo be blamed for vampires? He's the sun god, and vampires traditionally can't go in the sun," Buffy asked, slightly nervous about the direction of the conversation.
"According to the myth, Apollo told Zeus that he could create a better race than humans. He created the Apollite race and gave them Atlantis as their home. Every Apollite queen gave birth to one of Apollo's children, and they were the favored people of the god. However, Apollo took a human lover, a Greek princess, and she bore him a son. The Apollite queen, enraged that a mere human would be chosen to carry the son of her child's father, sent a small contingent of guards to kill the princess and her son. When Apollo discovered who was behind the death of his lover, he was consumed with rage. He cursed the Apollites to never walk in the sun, drink each other's blood, and die horribly at the age of 27, the age that his human lover dies at," Alicia told Buffy.
"That doesn't explain how vampires can about," Buffy said, curious as to how the Greeks explained vampires.
"Stryker, Apollo's son by an Apollite woman, found an Atlantean goddess named Apollymi. She showed him how to consume human souls in order to lengthen his own life. He in turn showed his people how to do this, and became the leader of the new race of Daimons, the term for those Apollites who chose to take human lives and souls in order to live longer themselves. According to the myth, they would kill a human by biting their neck and drinking their blood, before capturing the soul as it fled the body," Alicia told Buffy. The Slayer got chills from hearing the story, as if a Daimon was going to emerge from the shadows of the stacks.
"Well, that does explain vampires," Buffy said eventually, forcing a small grin. "So no myths about Apollo. How about Artemis and Actaeon?"
"Sounds good," Alicia agreed. The two girls bent over their notes and books, putting the disturbing myth out of their minds for the moment. Not even five minutes after they started working, however, Willow and Xander pushed through the doors, Xander bemoaning the fact that they had to go to school.
"Oh," Willow said, noticing Alicia. "Hello. Alicia, right?" She looked puzzled as to why the other girl was in the library. Alicia nodded.
"You're Willow, right? Buffy and I are working on the English project assigned earlier," she said, correctly guessing the source of Willow's confusion. The redhead's expression immediately cleared, and she looked incredibly apologetic.
"Sorry, it's just that most people don't come in the library. It's not like you're not welcome or anything, it's just strange seeing a new face in here. Not that you're a new face, per say, because you've been here for months now, and I'm babbling, so I'll just shut up now," Willow said, blushing the same shade as her hair. Alicia smiled kindly, and then looked at the clock. She jumped up as if she had been burned, rushing to gather her belongings.
"I'm really sorry, Buffy, but we'll have to finish this later. I've got Calculus right now on the other side of the school! Nice meeting you," she said, bolting from the room and nearly knocking Giles over in the process.
"Well, she's certainly in a hurry," the librarian said neutrally, taking off his glasses and polishing them quickly. Willow frowned after the dark haired girl.
"Calculus isn't for another twenty minutes. That's why I'm here and not in class," Willow said slowly. "Also, she's not in Calculus. She's in Pre-Calc as far as I know."
"So where is she off to in such a hurry?" Buffy mused.
"While I am just as curious as you are, there have been some odd occurrences concerning vampire activity recently," Giles said, effectively pulling Buffy from her thoughts on the other girl. "There has been a drastic decrease in vampire sightings, and the number of deaths has decreased dramatically as well."
"I don't see how that's a bad thing," Xander interjected. "Maybe they've decided that hanging around here is too dangerous now that we've got Buffy back!"
"While I would love to believe that, I fear that there is something much more sinister at work. The calm before the storm, you might say," Giles said, his voice a warning against unfounded hope.
"How long has this been going on?" Buffy asked.
"Since the beginning of September, right around the time that the Addams girl appeared," Giles said slowly. "I fear that she may be caught in things beyond her understanding. She has few friends among the students, and none outside of school. It is quite plausible that she was kidnapped by whatever is scaring the vampires and is being forced to help with whatever scheme it has come up with."
"Well, I for one want more information on whatever arrived in September. I'll stop by Willie's after school and see what he knows," Buffy said, gathering her own things. "In the mean time, I have to go to class. Why do I go here again?" With that, the blonde disappeared through the door. Willow sat down at the desk that Buffy had just vacated and spread her Chemistry notes out in front of her.
"Okay, Xander, time to study for the Chem test today," the redhead told her friend, who merely groaned in response before sitting down in front of her, ready to listen.
"Why do I go here, again?" Xander repeated Buffy's question in the same forlorn tone of voice.
A/N: I'm not really sure when Willie showed up, but I think it was before Season 3, right? If it wasn't, just go with it. Also, Alicia Addams is actually one of Sherrilyn Kenyon's characters. Her sister, Brynna, goes to school with Nick in the CoN series, and she's a blue blood Squire. If you want to look for her, she's in the Dark Hunter Companion.
Also, depending on the response that I get from this, I may or may not continue the story. I kind of know where I want this to go, but I'm not totally sure, so if not enough people respond, then I won't keep writing this.