Author's Note: As promised (or threatened, hehe) in the last chapter of the previous fic, here we go with the next one :) Unlike with the one I posted before, this one was quite easy and also much more fun to write, I hope it'll show and that you'll enjoy it. Feedback is highly appreciated!

Disclaimer: All characters, location and so on used from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer are not mine, but property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy etcetera etcetera, I'm just borrowing them for a while and I'm making no money with them.

Evil Within

When he rose from his grave and saw the teenage girl sitting beneath an old oak tree, the freshly sired vampire was convinced that he finally had some luck in his life – or unlife, as he probably should say now, he figured while he looked at the grave he just had dug himself out of, at the gravestone marked with his name and the day he had died. Before that fateful day, his life had mostly sucked, one streak of bad luck following the next; finally though, it seemed as if that had come to an end, a tasty looking girl right in front of him, seemingly unaware of his presence, focused on the book she was reading, not noticing how he started to sneak up to her, his mouth watering as he thought of how sweet her blood would taste.

If he had stopped for a second to ask himself why a girl who wasn't even eighteen yet would sit at the cemetery in the middle of the night, he might have reconsidered attacking her; since that particular thought never entered his mind though, he just kept sneaking up to her, letting out a low growl the moment he was close enough to grab her, his face morphing when he showed his newly gained vampiric side to the world. To his surprise though, all he managed to grab was thin air, since the girl had rolled out of the way with stunning grace when he had tried to snatch her; she came to her feet with the same elegance, his surprise turning into shock when she reached to the back of her pants, clutching a stake when she brought her hand forward again.

"Thought you'd have your first meal delivered right to your grave, huh?" she asked, twirling the stake as if to underline her words. "Gotta disappoint you about that, pal."

Getting over his shock quickly, the vampire snarled at the girl, then lunged forward to grab her once more; she sidestepped him easily, swiftly delivering a blow into his back and sending him stumbling forwards, nearly making him fall when his feet tangled up. In the last second, he managed to regain his balance and spun around, but she already was right there in front of him, punching him straight in the face; snarling with a mixture of pain and surprise, he took another step back, then brought up his fists and attacked again, his eyes never leaving the stake the girl still was clutching.

His dismay turned into annoyance when she managed to duck the first few punches he was throwing at her; then, his face lit up when his fist finally connected with her jaw and sent her sprawling, a grin showing his fangs when the stake fell out of her hand and to the ground. Quickly before she could grasp it again, he kicked it away, then bent down to grab the girl at the throat; struggling, she tried to get out of his grip, to no avail though, a gasp coming from her when he jerked her to her feet, then lifted her up in the air.

"So much about disappointment", he hissed, baring his fangs again and smiling when her eyes went wide; a second later, he howled in pain and let go of her as the crossbow bolt hit him in the back, thankfully missing his heart, but giving him more than enough pain nonetheless.

"Seems like your disappointment's not going to end", a new voice now came up from behind him; ignoring the girl for now, he whirled around, only to gulp a second later when he found himself staring at two more women, clearly older than the one he had been attacking just seconds ago, the taller of the two dropping the crossbow she had wounded him with and pulling yet another stake from her belt.

Deciding to ignore the teenager for now, the vampire focused on the one who had hurt him; he growled lowly at her, then started to speed towards her – when she brought back her arm and threw the stake, smirking when it hit him right in the heart, the vampire managing to take another two steps before he dissolved into dust.

"Good shot", the smaller of the pair commented, "but you finished him off quite fast. No fighting lust tonight?"

"Not right now", the taller woman gave back, calmly strolling to where the stake had fallen to the ground and picking it up, then giving the teenager a strict look. "I'm more in the mood for scolding. What did I tell you about taking too long with the staking, Dawn?"

"Sorry", Dawn sighed out in reply, having the decency to look ashamed, "but it was going so well, Pat, you saw it!"

"Yeah, until he punched you", Pat retorted, crossing her arms over her chest after shoving the stake back into her belt. "You're lucky that'll just give you a bruise and that you didn't get hurt worse", she went on, "or Buffy would've killed me."

"Sorry", the teen repeated, now even blushing slightly and shuffling her feet, "I know I should have staked him quickly…"

"Then why didn't you do it?" Willow now threw in, moving up to the teenager and giving her a concerned look. "Pat's right, you know, you could've gotten seriously hurt. What if something like this happens when we're not around?"

"Oh please", Dawn rolled her eyes, "as if Buffy ever would let me go alone. You know it took me a week to convince her to let me go with the two of you!"

"And if you tell her I actually let you try to stake that guy, she'll kill me", Pat reminded her about the unpleasant possibility of her untimely death, "so you better don't tell her. You know she doesn't like the thought of you getting into the whole slaying business."

"Yeah, just because I don't have super strength and everything", Dawn mumbled sourly, poking the pile of dust the vampire had left behind with one foot.

"Well, super strength does make fighting easier", the demon pointed out to her in reply, "and she's just worried about you. It's good that you want to learn how to fight those uglies, it's a great idea in a town like Sunnydale, but you have to keep in mind that you're a normal human girl, not a Slayer and not a demon. Fight accordingly."

"I'll try to keep that in mind", Dawn promised after thinking about that little speech for a moment; satisfied, Pat smirked and nodded, only to groan and roll her eyes at what the teenager said next. "So, wanna go and find another one?"

"I hope Dawn really doesn't tell Buffy about what we let her do tonight", Pat stated two hours later, on the way back home from the Summers' house, where they had dropped off the Slayer's little sister, grimacing as she thought about how Buffy might react to hearing about the danger Dawn had put herself in – and about the fact that Pat and Willow had let it happen.

"I'm sure she won't", the witch now reassured her, grasping her girlfriend's hand and smiling up at her, "because she knows that, if she does, Buffy won't let her go along on patrol anymore for another two years or so. It took long enough to convince her that she's old enough to come along now."

"Good point", the demon admitted, a bit calmer about the whole situation now – when Buffy had asked them to take over patrol for the next few nights due to the painful fact that a vampire had managed to dislocate her shoulder during the fight of the previous night, Dawn had bugged her to let them take her along for almost two hours until the Slayer had agreed, clearly worried about her sister's welfare despite the fact that she had been teaching her how to fight for the last two years now.

"You made a good point tonight, too", Willow now let her girlfriend know, distracting her from her musings about the injured Slayer and her sister, "when you told Dawn that she should fight like a human. She's seen Buffy and you fight so often now, I think she tends to forget that she's not as strong and as experienced as the two of you."

"Obviously", Pat grimaced, shaking her head to herself as she thought of how Dawn had taken her time with staking the vampire, only to end up in his grasp, not wanting to imagine what would have happened if Willow and she hadn't been around to help her.

"Well, it's kinda understandable", the redhead shrugged, smiling when she received a confused look from the taller woman in reply, quickly clarifying her words as she spoke on. "Just think about it, she's seen the two of you fight for years, and she looks up to both of you. Maybe she didn't do it consciously, but I think she wanted to impress you tonight, show you that she can be just as strong."

"Well, she better not try that again", Pat sighed out in reply, briefly letting go of her girlfriend's hand so she could get out her cigarettes and light one of them up, "or she will end up hurt one day when we're not around to help her."

"I'm quite sure she learned her lesson", Willow reassured her, "she's always been quick to learn such things. When she wasn't doing silly things on purpose after Buffy annoyed her, but she's gotten better about that lately."

"Might be because she's getting older and wiser", the demon smirked, making Willow giggle before she playfully poked the taller woman's side, her next words making her raise an eyebrow. "You must be awfully wise then by now, seeing you're two hundred and fourty one years old."

"I'm too reckless to be wise", Pat gave back, smiling when she made the witch laugh once more; nodding, Willow then moved closer to her so she could put one arm around the taller woman's waist, making her smile widen before she put her arm around the witch's shoulders, the couple walking on like that until they reached their apartment building.

To her surprise, Pat found Willow in the kitchen after she had made a quick trip to the bathroom once they had gotten home; standing in front of the fridge, the redhead was removing several items needed for a proper sandwich from there, placing them on the kitchen counter, her stomach grumbling so loud that the demon even heard it where she stood in the doorframe.

"Normally, I'm the one who's hungry after patrol", she commented while she strolled over to the witch's side, raising an eyebrow when she moved to make her sandwich, putting so much stuff on it that it would be difficult to take a bite from it without dislocating her jaw.

"And you've got a big appetite tonight", she thus observed accordingly, making Willow nod while she finally decided that her snack was thick enough now and put all the food back into the fridge.

"I'm starved", she then stated the obvious, underlining her words by taking a big bite of the sandwich afterwards, somehow managing to do so without making any of the toppings fall out and to the ground.

"And I don't even know why", she added after chewing and swallowing, "I didn't do any magic tonight or anything…"

"You had lunch, right?" the demon wanted to know with a frown – after all, she knew very well how Willow sometimes forgot to do just that at college when Buffy wasn't there to make sure she'd eat something, too busy with her studies and the huge library the campus was offering.

"I did", the redhead now reassured her, her words followed by another large bite of the sandwich, "which is why I really don't know why I'm that hungry."

"Maybe it was the excitement of seeing Dawn nearly get eaten", Pat shrugged after a moment, smirking and taking a bite of the sandwich as well when Willow offered it to her; afterwards, the redhead grabbed a plate from one of the cupboards and made her way into the living room, making herself comfortable on the couch there, the demon sitting down next to her a second later.

"Want some TV while you finish that beast of a sandwich?" she asked, picking up the remote when Willow nodded, her full mouth keeping her from answering any other way; smirking, the demon switched on the TV, then leaned back into the couch, zapping through the channels until she found something which at least was interesting enough to keep them occupied until the redhead would be done with her snack and they'd go to bed. Thanks to how starved Willow clearly had been when they had came home, it didn't take long until that happened; with a satisfied sigh, she put the emptied plate on the table, then covered her mouth to stifle a burp, making her girlfriend smirk again. "Think you'll be able to sleep with that monstrous sandwich in your tummy now?"

"If not, you'll just have to rub my tummy until I do", the witch gave back, getting up from her seat; this prompted Pat to switch the TV off again before she did the same, yawning as she made her way into the bedroom with the smaller woman.

"Just tell me if you need a tummy rub", she stated while changing into her pyjama, then removed her eye patch and put it on the nightstand, another big yawn escaping her while she laid down, Willow doing the same a moment later.

"I think I'm fine", she stated after making herself comfortable, "but I think I'll need some snuggles."

"That I can provide", Pat gave back, smiling while she opened her arms; with a smile curling her lips as well, Willow moved into the embrace, snuggling as close as possible to the taller woman and resting her head on her shoulder before she closed her eyes, drifting off into dreamland just a few minutes later.