Chapter Three

"Have you found her yet, Trick?"

"We have." The dark-skinned vampire answered. "She moved to the Hellmouth."

"Perfect. We will take care of both at the same time. We will use her blood to open the Seal."

"Of course, Kakistos." Trick said smoothly. "Shall I arrange for the car?"

"Yes, we will leave tomorrow night after we have gathered supplies. Send your boys over to the orphanage as planned. That should tide us over nicely."

The vampire nodded towards his men, sending them off to their task. Idly, he wondered why Kakistos was so obsessed with this girl. Its not like she was all that special. Just another Slayer in a long line of the irritating little girls. He had not yet been employed by the cloven-hoofed Master when Kakistos had first tried to kill Faith, but he had heard that the girl had managed to seriously wound him after he had killed her Watcher. He, however, always tried to be somewhere else when a Slayer was in the area. This time, however, he figured he'd stick around to see how it played out. If Kakistos managed to kill the Slayer and open the Hellmouth, there might be some profit in being there. Nevertheless, he planned to have escape routes already in place if the Slayer managed to kill his boss instead.

Well, I'll find out soon enough, he thought to himself, but right now I've got to go pick up my suits from the cleaners.

- - - BtVS - - AU - - BtVS - - -

Buffy stood motionless against the doorframe as she divided her attention between watching the technicians install her new security system and listening to Lillith explain to her what she needed to do ward her new home against intruders of the more demonic kind.

'That will keep all the baddies out?' Buffy asked her.

'Not only keep them out, but actively warn them away.' Lillith answered. 'At least, until enough of our essence seeps into the place that the warding is not necessary. After that happens, they will shy away simply because we are a bigger, stronger predator. Once we have regained full strength, we will be able to mark your loved ones as ours, so that others will know that to touch them means death. Even the darkness inside your humans will be able to sense the mark.'

Buffy liked that idea. The safety of her mother and her friends, even Giles, had always been one of her biggest concerns. Even after she'd gotten dragged into the hell dimension, she'd worried.

'Speaking of regaining our strength,' Lillith interrupted her thoughts. 'We need to feed soon.'

'Any ideas?'

'Oh, yes...' Lillith began silkily, but was quickly interrupted.

'Any ideas that aren't Willow?' Buffy's lips curled into a small smile without her even realizing it.

'Do you feel the surging magickal energy to the west?'

Buffy glanced over her shoulder in that direction. 'Yeah. I've felt it before, but I could never find what was causing it, and it always seemed in bounce on and off of my radar, and almost always in a different location. Now, I can find it easily.'

'It is widely varied, unstable and very chaotic. That much supernatural energy would go a long way towards rebuilding our power reserves.'

'Sounds good. We'll go later tonight.' Buffy turned as she heard familiar footfalls behind her. A moment later, Willow walked into view almost a yard away, her head down, obviously going through something in her head.

'You know, she really is good looking, for a human.' Lillith smirked to her host.

Buffy had always thought that Willow was beautiful. From the first day they'd met, Buffy had always seen past the horrible clothes and the terrible, almost painful, shyness. It was only when she had used the thoughts and memories of her family and friends that she'd finally acknowledged, to herself at least, the crush that she'd always had on the redhead. She had loved Angel with every part of her being, but a part of her heart had always belonged to Willow. With a small sigh, she waited patiently until the redhead looked up and noticed that she was being watched. With a smile and a wave, she picked up her pace and trotted over to stand next to her.

"Hi, Buffy!" She said brightly.

"Hey, Wills, what's up?" Buffy smiled back.

"I just thought I'd come over to see how you've been." Willow said. "We haven't seen you in a few days."

"I've been settling myself." Buffy told her. "I've been fighting for so long, it's taken a while to learn to relax. I took a walk around town, getting a sense of what was here, where they were, and how much trouble they could be."

"Well, your mom cooks for the whole group every Sunday, and we were wondering if you'd come." Willow grinned engagingly. "I know that you said you don't eat food much anymore, so just what do you eat? Is it because of the demon that's inside of you? Do you know what kind of demon it is?"

Buffy listened to her friend ramble off several more questions, waiting for her to take a breath before starting to answer. They continued along that line, Buffy answering every question that Willow came up with as honestly as she could, except for identifying the type of demon that she now hosted, trusting that the information wouldn't go further than she wanted it to, namely back to Giles, until the security technicians finally finished. She paid them and watched until they were out of sight, then led Willow inside and gave her the grand tour of the newly refurbished mansion.

"What do you think?" She asked when they finished the tour and ended up in the den.

"This looks great," Willow exclaimed. "but I noticed that the kitchen is empty."

"You and Mom can fill it with whatever you want." Buffy chuckled. "Even if I did still need food, I never could cook, so you'll be using it more than I would."

"Maybe we can have this weekend's dinner here, then." Willow's face turned serious. "I walked to Xander, and told him that you were back. I asked him about that night."

"What did he say?" Buffy asked after she regained control of the Old One snarling in her head.

"He said that he did it because he wanted you to focus on the fight, and not try to just hold him off until I did the spell, because he knew that Angelus would take advantage of your hesitation." Willow recited from memory. "He was very eloquent with his explanation, and you know what that means."

Buffy nodded. It was something he did when he practiced his apologies. He only did it when he knew he screwed up big, and needed a good explanation in case he was caught.

"He's really upset that you won't see him, although he's freaked out that your part demon now." Willow frowned, remembering Xander's reaction when she told him. The first thing he'd said was that they had to find a way to get it out of her.

"I suppose." Buffy muttered. "It's just going to take time. My reactions aren't entirely my own anymore, and my demon doesn't forgive betrayal, since it was a betrayal that left it weak enough for the Shadowmen to capture and use her to make the First Slayer."

'We should just kill him and be done with it.' Lillith snarled.

'We can't. He's young and what he did was stupid and wrong, but he's still my friend.' Buffy told her.

"Well, when you do see him," Willow said, unknowingly interrupting the argument. "please don't kill him. He's still our best friend, even if he is a stupid poophead sometimes, and he's really sorry."

'See?' Buffy said to the demon in her head, then focused on Willow once again. "Will, I need to go out and feed soon. Do you want me to walk you home?"

Looking out the window, Willow realized that it had gotten dark without her realizing it, and she nodded.