Title: Dark Haven: Dark Legacy

Installment Title: Transference

Author: Lindsey Blythe

Wordcount: 2,686

Rating: PG-13

Characters: Xander Harris, Aleister Mortimer, Miranda Holbrook

Beta(s): Akime Salt

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Note: So first and foremost I blame my bff, Starr_Falling for feeding this plot bunny in the first place. Also want to thank all of my friends and fellow minions on facebook for putting up with my crap and all my blubbering about this series for months. I love each and everyone of you. I especially want to thank akime_salt for her awesome beta-ing skills, and for helping me to whip this fic into shape. I would love to say this fic is going to be updated every two weeks, but I'm a pretty slow writer, so this might be updated a lot slower than that. Sorry!

ETA: This story is a multimedia fic, but what is being posted here and on A03 is only the plain version. If you want to read this fic with all the bells and whistles that include: graphics, click-able character bios, and embedded music. Please go to this site: darkhavenseries dot x10 dot mx slash efic

Boston, Massachusetts

"I quit."

Those two simple words changed everything for Xander Harris. It had been a year since the destruction of Sunnydale, a year since Anya's death, and the removal of his right eye.

In the wilderness of Tanzania, among the tribal people there, Xander had finally shed the class clown mask that he wore all of his life. Those eleven months in Africa had been the best and the worst time. He had seen poverty, sickness, and death.

Xander also learned to be himself there. He learned to not take things for granted, and to count every one of your blessings His time in Africa had peeled every mask, every false truth about himself and he was able to finally move out from behind Buffy's shadow, and finally grow out of the roles of the donut boy, and the zeppo.

After he returned to The New Watcher's Council Headquarters in Cleveland, it didn't take him very long to realize that he didn't fit into the role of a traditional Watcher. He really had no interest of mentoring some young junior slayer and possibly watching they die. And Xander had enough of watching the people he cared about die to last a life time. And in Africa, he was never assigned a slayer. He just retrieved them, and sent them on to someone else that can train them to reach their full potential.

And besides, his girls didn't need him anymore to watch out for them. They were all scattered all over the world, and everybody was too busy doing their own thing. Hell it had been almost a year since he had seen the rest of the Scoobies. At the moment, Buffy and Dawn were in Rome. Willow and her lover Kennedy were in South America. And Giles and Andrew were running the headquarters in Cleveland.

He knew deep in his heart that leaving the council was the right thing to do. So the next day, he went to Giles's office, and tendered his resignation.

Oh, Giles and Andrew hadn't been happy about it. And he got some concerned emails from the girls, but after they realized that he was completely serious, and that they couldn't change his mind; they reluctantly accepted his resignation.

For the next month or so, Xander traveled aimlessly through the country. Stopping at all the places he wanted to visit all those years ago on his failed road trip.

And at the moment he was in Boston, playing the tourist, and taking in the various sights all the historic city had to offer. While at night he would hit the bars and the clubs and pretended to be a carefree twenty-three year old. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. But it was better than lying down in his bed, counting the cracks in the ceiling to pass the time after he had woken up from yet another nightmare.

Suddenly, a brisk wind whipped past him making him shiver. He zipped the zipper of his black leather coat as high as it would go, and then rubbed his hands together in a vain hope to generate some heat. After a moment, he slipped his hands back into his relatively warmer pockets and looked around and realized that he had no idea where he was.

Xander winced as he finally snap out of his thoughts. He was brooding again, goddamn it. Xander was turning into dead boy! If Xander started wearing leather pants, and stalking people for fun he was going to promptly throw himself into moving traffic.

Looking around, he realized to his astonishment that Xander was no longer in the relatively tourist friendly part of downtown, but instead he had unconsciously wandered into the seedier section of the city.

The buildings in this part of town were old and broken down. There was a smattering of abandoned buildings, their windows were bordered up with cardboard, and the walls were sprayed with graffiti. As he walked by, he got some looks that were a mixture of seductive and sharply calculating from a few prostitutes who were already out and ready to pick up their latest trick. Xander just ignored them, as he pulled out his phone and pulled up the GPS app.

Xander paused for a moment as he tried to figure out a way to the nearest bar or at this point he even would settle for a way to just go back to his hotel.

Suddenly, a loud scream pierced through the night, startling Xander so much that he almost dropped his phone.
Activity on the street seem to freeze for a long moment, before people went back to their own devices. What was one more scream in the night, especially in a neighborhood like this?

As Xander stood there, a part of him wanted to just walk away and find a way out of this neighborhood as fast as he could. Yet, another part of him, the very same part that made him follow Buffy all those long years ago was drowning out any lingering feeling of self-preservation.

And in the end he couldn't just ignore a person in need. Xander bit back a frustrated groan as he quickly shoved his phone back into his pocket, and promptly ran in the scream's direction. He dodged various people on the sidewalks as he muttered a mixture of curses and apologies as he bumped into or shoved people out of the way.

He heard another scream as Xander turned the corner into a small narrow alleyway. Standing there were three men, and at first Xander thought that maybe he got lost again, but as he carefully approached the group Xander spotted the tale-tell signs of the sharp pronounced ridges of their faces, the glowing yellow eyes, and sharp fangs. Xander realized that these were not humans, but actually were vampires. The woman continued to struggle and scream, and Xander knew that she had no way of getting out of the vampire's hold alive. Vampires were preternaturally stronger and faster than most humans, and if he didn't intervene this stranger would die, and he couldn't handle adding yet another death to his already guilty conscience.

Xander inwardly groaned. It was just his luck that he would stumble on some vampires, only a month after he quit the whole slayerette gig. Xander glared at the vampires, noticing that the other two vampires full attention was on their companion as he drained the last few remaining pints of blood from the middle aged woman. The woman's screams had now faded into painful whimpers and her body was mostly limp in the creature's arm. Xander slid the stake out of his arm holster, and carefully, oh so carefully walked behind one the vampires and staked him quickly and efficiently.

"Hey!"

Xander turned in time to feel a hard fist connect to his chest. It hurt like a bitch, but Xander was able to push the pain aside, and kick out with a solid round house kick to the guy's solar plexus, then he followed it up with a kick to the vampire's right knee in a move that quickly disabled the creature. Xander smirked at the sharp crack he heard as his heavy workman's boots broke the man's right knee. The vampire screamed, and collapsed on to the ground.

Xander didn't hesitate for a moment, and quickly bent down to dust the vampire in one fluid movement.

Xander stood up and looked over to where the last remaining vampire stood. The woman was now standing in front of the creature; his hands were firmly wrapped around her throat as he used the dying woman as a shield.
"Let her go," Xander spoke for the first time.

"No way," The vampire said, as he slowly back away to towards entrance of the alley. "I'll die if I do." Xander's hand tightened around the stake, as he started to advance on the vampire.

Xander didn't say anything, he just shook his head. The vampire was going to survive tonight either way, but if he had to get the vampire to let this woman go so Xander could get her get some much needed medical attention.

"Ah, ah, ah," The vampire said, as he visibly tightened his grip around the woman's neck. The vampire's grip was so hard that the woman was beginning to turn blue from the lack of oxygen. "Don't come any closer, human."
Xander froze, but his eyes didn't move from the vampire's yellow malignant gaze. "Look, man this can be just be between you and me-just let her go"

The vampire eyes once again darted towards the entrance, then back again at and/isn't needed Xander had a chance to move, the vampire suddenly threw the woman out the way and charged at Xander; slamming him hard into the ground. Look this sentence through again.

Xander groaned as his head connected to the hard pavement. Blinking out of his daze,he went rigid as he as saw the vampire's razor sharp fangs were only a few precious inches away from jugular.

Xander knew from experience that the vampires was stronger than him, and that at this point his only option was to fight dirty. He quickly brought his knee up, and slammed his knee as hard as he could to up into the vampire's crotch.
The vampire groaned in pain, and loosen his grip enough for Xander to roll free.

"I'm going to make you suffer for this," The vampire snarled through barred teeth, as he cradled his abused crotch in his hands.

Xander didn't say anything as he stood up as quickly as he could and connected a hard round house kick in the man's solar plexus, and then followed that up with a kick to the vampire's head. And then once again, he bent down and staked the prone form of the vampire.

When the dust finally cleared enough for him to see, Xander immediately noticed the woman was lying only a short distance away. She was alarmingly still, and Xander couldn't see her breathing. Xander hurried over to her as fast as he could with his bruised ribs. He knelt down beside her, and took her pulse. Xander was relieved that he could still hear a faint heartbeat, but he was also alarmed at how quickly her pulse was fading. If he didn't get this woman medical attention soon, she would inevitably die in this alley tonight.

"Shit," Xander cursed.

He quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed 911. Xander rapidly relayed as much information on the woman's injuries, and the relative location of the alley as he could. While at the same time, he invaded any questions concerning his identity, and anything that would lead to any incriminating information that would point the police in his direction. This was Boston, not Sunnydale, and Xander knew that he would have a hard time explaining the knife, and the wooden stakes that were stashed in the inside pockets of his jacket. They would probably jump to the conclusion that Xander was responsible for what happen to this poor woman, and he really didn't want to end up in prison.

After a few minutes talking to the operator, Xander hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pocket. He took in the woman's worn dress, and with a sigh, he gave her a silent apology, before Xander ripped a large piece from the end of her dress. He took the torn piece of fabric, and pressed in against the wide open wound on the woman's neck in a small hope that it would stop the bleeding. It wouldn't be long until the paramedics arrived, but he couldn't just leave her alone as a waiting meal for anything else that might want to snack on her defenseless body tonight. Xander would leave the moment he would hear the sirens, hoping it would give him just enough warning for his escape.

Suddenly, the woman began to slowly stir. It was only a short moment later, when her eyes gradually opened to reveal emerald colored orbs that were filled with a mixture of pain, and resignation. Xander quickly came to conclusion that this woman knew that she was dying.

"Hold on." Xander said, softly. "Help-"

The woman's hand shakily came up to rest upon Xander's cheek. "T—Thank you." She barely managed to get out, before suddenly Xander felt a wave of—of energy for a lack of a better word enter him. It was like a tidal wave inside of him; it was all hot like a blazing inferno, and yet at the same time frigid like there was ice surging in his veins. He shivered, as at the same time his vision of in his one good eye went abruptly black then white. It surged rapidly from the crown of his head, through his chest, and then Xander screamed at the sudden feeling of hot white pain in his left arm. And then as abruptly as this started, it was over. The pain receded suddenly and a moment later his vision gradually starts to fade back in.

Dark Haven Manor

Addams's Vale, Massachusetts

The first thing he noticed was the silence. There weren't any sounds of cars driving past, no loud music, and no heavy footsteps of people walking down the street. There wasn't a steady stream of noise that came with being in a big city like Boston. There was just sound of a cool breeze that whipped passedhim, and as his eye began to focus he spotted the thick corpse of trees that surrounded him.

"What the hell?" Xander said as he sat up from where he had been lying on the grass. He turned around, and froze as he took in the decrepit old Victorian mansion standing a few hundred yards away from him. "And where the holy fuck am I?

"Welcome to Dark Haven, Mr. Harris."

Xander whirled around to see an middle aged man standing in front of him. The man was almost ghostly pale, with black slicked back hair, and his frame was as thin and narrow as a was dressed sharply in a tailored black suit, and trousers. Quite frankly, the man looked like he worked at a mortuary or something. However, what Xander found the most striking was the man's piercing gray eyes. The man seemed to not look at you, but to look through you instead. It was as if the stranger could immediately see all Xander's inner most thoughts and secrets. Quite frankly, this dude wigged him the hell out. But instead of running away as he probably would ofdone eight years ago, Xander pushed aside his discomfort and straighten up to his full height to glare right back at the man.

"Who are you, and what am I doing here? Xander demanded, and then he quickly added: "And if you are a demon that kidnapped me for a sleazy sacrifice or something, that you are out of luck, buddy. Cause I got to tell you, that my two best friends are a bad ass slayer, and an uber powerful witch who will not take kindly to you kidnapping me.

"My name is Aleister Mortimer, and I'm the executor of The Addams's estate." The man shook his head, "And I have no intention to sacrifice you or anybody else for that matter."

"The Addams's Estate?."

The man gestured towards the mansion: "For the last two hundred or so years, it has been mine and my family's duty to guide each new proprietor of the house."

Xander nodded, then froze in horror as the young man ran back through what Mortimer just said. "And the new proprietor is…"

Mortimer lifted an eyebrow, and gave him another piercing look, before he finally said: "Why, you are Mr. Harris." He smirked down at Xander's stunned face. "You are the new proprietor of Dark Haven."

To Be Continued …

Next time on Dark Haven: Dark Legacy

- Xander realizes that getting out being proprietor of the manor is going to be a lot harder than he originally thought.