Save me, Please

Chapter 1: Aurelia

Sunnydale, California

April 1999:

Aurelia was wondering around. The night air whipping her in the face had a calming effect on the newly risen vampire. She looked every bit as dangerous as she felt with her black leather jacket which was tight and zipped up over what she knew was a dark red tank top. It showed a bit of her smooth mid drift which was not as tanned as it once had been – the effects of now being dead. Her black jeans were a snug fit but not to snug that she looked like a common whore or white trash. A pair of three inch black ankle boots rested on her feet and pushed her short 5'1 to 5'4.

The only really innocent look about her and what threw the humans off was her honey-golden blonde hair which fell to just past her shoulders and large almond shaped emerald green eyes. Soon enough she found herself outside the alley of the bronze. She smirked as she saw her 'friends' enter the club. Willow, Xander, and Oz – she didn't see Cordelia but she would bet her soul that she was inside. She smirked at at her thoughts; not that she had a soul to bet anymore.

"Buffy? Is that you?" a male voice asked from behind her. She slowly turned, her head inclined at a angle as she looked at the boy from her peripheral vision which was much better as a vampire. She smirked softly as she reconsigned Scott Hope. Turning fully she smiled wide and innocently her eyes alight.

'This should be fun.' she thought as she walked forward.

"Hi Scott. How are you?" Aurelia asked. Scott looked Buffy over as she approached. She seemed more confident, maybe the word was arrogant or dangerous with her steps as she approached. Something inside him told him to run, but he didn't see why. Why should he run from his ex-girlfriend. Smiling he shrugged.

"I'm doing okay, graduation is coming up though so I'm a bit stressed." Aurelia smiled, inwardly smirking at the thought that after so much bitching on her behalf she wouldn't really see graduation. At least not as a human. Why should she worry about it anyways, she had eternity.

"Graduation, that's a big thing. I'm looking forward to it," she said coyly before she walked behind the boy slowly and stopped. Scott began to tremble slightly as he felt Buffy's hands on his shoulder.

"Yeah, maybe you'd like to come inside with me? We can dance and chat about old times," he suggested and Aurelia chuckled. It was a bitter, evil amused chuckle – reminiscent to any evil vampire but people who knew Angelus or Darla would most likely think of them first upon hearing it. Vamping out Aurelia twisted the boy around and tilted her head.

"How about we just feast!" she exclaimed and pulling him to her sunk her fangs into his neck. The blood flowing down her throat was divine and she sucked every last drop before dropping her ex-boyfriends body unceremoniously to the ground. Frowning and pouting mockingly at the body she shrugged.

"Nothing personal Scotty, your just not my type."

††††††††††

"Hey Buff! Where ya been? Your mom has been wiggin'," Xander called as Aurelia came over to them smiling a innocent and normal Buffy smile. She sat down and shrugged sending them a apologetic smile.

"Sorry, I ran into a old friend from L.A. - Pike. We got to talking and I felt asleep there, I was hurt so I skipped school," she said.

"Oh, are you okay? What happened?" Willow asked, worried for her friend. Aurelia had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Though her words were not all lies. She did have a friend named Pike in L.A. He had helped her defeat Lothos but after a few months of dating they had broke up and as far as she knew he was still in L.A. Fighting the good fight and seeing some girl named Amelia. Not that she cared, that was Buffy's life she wasn't Buffy – at least not in the soul having since.

"A vampire got lucky. I don't know what I would have done if Pike hadn't shown up." All sort of true. A vampire had gotten lucky, unfortunately no one came to her rescue. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear she smiled and looked at her friends. She wondered how Angel handled being around them. They all smelled very good – especially Willow who smelled a bit like freedom, power but a blurry line drawn between a dark and light power. Cordelia smelled like musk, and leather, almost a sexual smell with strawberries and cinnamon – better then Willow in her opinion. The others were nice, though Oz being a werewolf put her off but not terribly so – if she really wanted to she could drain him but she had no wish to drain the cool headed boy. Maybe torture, maybe. She did wonder how long it would take her to make him scream and beg her to kill him.

Seeing her friends worried expressions – Willow, Xander and Oz that is – she smiled and waved it off. Answering quickly. "Don't worry, Slayer healing." The others nodded and Aurelia turned sharply as she sensed another vampire from her line, the Masters line. Standing she smiled and flicked her hair over her shoulder casually.

"I'm sorry guys but I should get home. I don't want to worry mom anymore then I have too," Aurelia said and waved as she left. She caught a glance of Angelus or Angel as he was more fond of these days, at her 'friends' table as she left. She smirked, there was no reason for her to get herself caught by Angel before she was ready for them to know what she was. She had a game to play and she didn't need Soul boy to ruin it. As she walked home she chuckled. She still had twelve hours till sunrise and of course she needed to find a way to fool her friends and Angel. If she couldn't go out into the sun and go to school each day they'd get worried and come and annoy her.

She smiled almost innocently as she spotted a pair of teenagers walking across the street. It was a wounder the town had any people in it at this rate. She should hunt before returning home, after all she wanted to to have some fun with her family before she killed them. She never thought she'd be more happy then she was now that her dad had come into town to drop Dawn off then now. Maybe she'd keep Dawn around, turn her when she turned thirteen or so? Walking up behind the couple she pushed the thoughts into the back of her mind. Right now she would hunt, and feast.

††††††††††

Bronze:

"Have you guys seen Buffy today?" Angel asked as he came to stand at his girlfriends friends table. He couldn't exactly call them his friends, especially after last year. He still remembered vividly the fear that came off Willow as he – Angelus – held her by the neck and the same fear and slight lust that came off Cordelia the time he tackled her to the ground. The threats and the fact he had tormented and killed their teacher and friend. He still mourned for Jenny Calender, the woman he killed and the woman who had only tried to help him.

"Sorry Dead boy, you just missed her." He didn't spare Xander more then a glance. The boy annoyed him but he could also understand why the boy didn't like him. He had in Xander's eyes stolen his chance with Buffy out from under him. He didn't have the patience or breath to tell the boy he'd never had a prayer to begin with. He had known Buffy while she was still a normal girl, not personally but with his vampire scenes he could hear and see how the girl had interacted with people in L.A.

To tell the truth Buffy had been a lot like Cordelia. She'd seen the girl put a less popular girl down once or twice for an outfit or thinking she could talk to her at Hemery in front of others or at all. He'd seen Buffy tease boys to get what she wanted, be it money, attention or for them to do her homework for her. He had seen Buffy at her games, cheering as the head cheerleader. He had seen her order the other cheerleaders around during practice like they were her minions or army. He'd seen Buffy sweet talk her father out of more money then Cordelia's would most likely give her, and he'd seen as she pulled along her current Boyfriend, Tyler by a string. He'd seen her as she sat in the movies behind two boys, and how the older dark haired boy had turned around to make them stop giggling and talking. The point was he knew Buffy's type and they all had a dangerous edge to them. Tyler was simply the jock she dated for the prestige, he knew of others courting men or women for the same reason when he was alive. Pike had been a real crush on her part and though he did not know when or why they broke up as he was already in Sunnydale bye then he knew the boy was into his twenties when Buffy was fifteen and they'd dated and Xander didn't stand a chance.

"So she's okay? She's been gone since last night, was she hurt?" Angel asked, ignoring Xander. Willow smiled and nodded.

"She seemed fine. A bit distracted but she said a vampire got lucky last night but a old friend of hers, Spike, no no Pike helped her and took her to his place to recover. She was a little pale but I don't think she was still hurt," she said. Angel raised a eyebrow and nodded. Pike was in town? He didn't believe it for a second, from what he had seen of Pike when he watched Buffy I L.A he was a social kind of guy. He would have come with Buffy to see her friends. Nodding he sighed and stuffed his hands into his black pants.

"Thanks Willow, I'm just gonna go back to the mansion. If you see Buffy will you tell her to stop by?" he asked and she nodded. He turned then and walked out the back he stopped though as he smelt death and Buffy. Looking around he searched for the reason, he didn't like smelling death and Buffy in the same place, and he dreaded to think what it might mean. He stopped short as he saw a familiar face. Wide dead eyes, bite marks in his neck. Scott Hope, Buffy's ex-boyfriend. He stepped closer and leaned down. It was just a vampire attack but Buffy's scent was over him, which could mean only two things. Either Buffy had run into him on her way here or...shaking his head he stood and continued walking. Buffy wasn't dead, she wasn't a vampire, she was human and he couldn't, wouldn't believe otherwise.