Chapter 9.
"Oh god, oh god. Xander! Are you alright?" Buffy rushed to his side. The branch he was impaled on was almost at her eye height. "I'll go get help."
"No." Xander stopped her. "I'd rather deal with this here. And then we make sure that guy is really dead." he put away his FiveSeven, slowly, so as not to jar his gut. He would look for the ineffective 9mm once he was healed.
"I'm wearing most of his brains, Xander. I think he's dead." Buffy quipped, more for Xander's benefit than her own.
"I don't suppose you brought a saw with you?" Xander asked more cheerfully than he felt. "Okay, then. Can you reach down to my left leg for me? There's a small packet of blood there."
"That's not much" Buffy observed as she passed up the blood.
"Quarter liter." he said as he took it. "About a cup. It isn't much, you're right. But it'll be enough to hurry my healing. Enough for me to get home anyway." Xander readied himself. He opened the packet and drained it dry. "Okay, now pull me off."
Buffy did as he asked; with a sickening SQUICK and a couple moans from Xander, the vampire was pulled free.
They both laid on the ground breathing hard for a moment. Xander waited a couple minutes until his new wounds had a least healed over on the outside. "Ow." Xander eventually said and started laughing. Even though that hurt his still healing abdomen.
"That's not funny." Buffy said, laughing along. "You almost died."
"You almost died too, if those bruises on your neck are anything to go by. How you going to explain those to your mom?"
"She's on a buying trip." Buffy said, thankful her mother was out of town. "They'll be healed by the time she gets back."
Xander stood up rather painfully and looked at their attacker. "Well, he didn't dust. Let's see if he left us any money for our troubles."
From some bushes across the cemetery, a second Slayer watched a girl and her vampire loot a body while laughing about it.
"All that trouble and the only thing the guy had on him was this stupid ring." Xander griped, holding the ring in one hand and a glass of warmed blood in the other hand. Xander hadn't fed on the body, but had tested the blood and it had tasted human to him. The man had either still been technically alive when he'd tasted or freshly enough dead that there were still some memories there. Unfortunately, the man was a good little soldier who simply tracked and killed who they told him to. The tracking skills might come in handy, but other than that, the man had no skills Xander hadn't already gotten from Halloween.
"I'll show it to Giles in the morning." Buffy said, taking the ring back. "What's with all the humidifiers? Sunny California too dry for you?"
"There's that. But there's also the Holy Water they're filled with to keep out the neighbors. Kind of like my own security system. At least against vamps."
"Cool! We should do this for the Library!" Buffy said brightly.
"Except then Angel couldn't visit." Xander reminded her gently. It also reminded her of their failure to find her missing boyfriend. "Also, the water wouldn't be good for the books. Giles would throw a fit." he joked as a counter point. He finished off his blood, stood up, and rinsed out his cup in the sink. "Alright. Let me walk you home now."
"What? No way! You just got impaled on a branch, Xander." Buffy objected.
"And I just had plenty of blood and some time to rest and heal. I'm fine now. And I'm not letting you walk home alone. That guy attacked you just after we separated. So, I'm walking you home and that's final. The only question is, 'do you want a gun'?"
Buffy was somewhat less sure of herself than only half an hour ago, before a gun had saved her life. She chewed on her lip for a minute.
"I'll bring my spare along. You can think about it on the way." Xander decided.
The walk to Buffy's house was without incident, even though Xander was extremely nervous. He could have almost sworn that someone was watching him. At her door, Buffy finally declined the gun for the last time.
As Xander started walking away; a man came out of Buffy's neighbor's house, he walked to the sidewalk, turned towards Buffy's house, then crisply turned up the walkway to where Xander was standing. "Who are you?" Xander asked. Something didn't smell right about this guy.
"Good day. I'm Norman Pfister with Blush Beautiful Skin Care and Cosmetics. I was wondering if I might interest you in some free samples?" The man said.
"You're a door-to-door salesman making the rounds in Sunnydale at 3 AM?" Xander asked incredulously.
"Would you like some free samples?" Norman repeated, still holding up his case.
It was then that Xander noticed the ring the guy was wearing. Exactly like the first guy that attacked them earlier that night. Xander backed away and drew his silenced pistol. "Buffy! Grab your weapons. We've got another ring bearer!" he yelled, plenty loud enough for a Slayer to hear. The man continued to advance calmly in the face of Xander's pistol. Xander brought his gun to bear and put two in the guy's head. The man didn't even pause. The bullets left holes in his head which were quickly filled in by what looked like meal worms. "Shit." Xander swore as he turned and ran. He entered the house, closed the door behind him, and locked it. A loud WHUMP sound told him the man had hit the door hard. Xander looked out the small windows of the door and saw the man disintegrating into little meal worms and trying to get in that way. But the well sealed outer door offered them no purchase.
Behind him he heard Buffy come downstairs with an ax, dressed only in a towel. He must have been staring. "What? I was in the shower, washing brains out of my hair."
"You may want to put on some shoes. There's a bug guy trying to get in. And bullets don't seem to bother him... again."
"You and bug people, Xander. What's up with that?" Buffy quipped.
"No, this guy is completely different than praying mantis lady. He's a man made of bugs, not a man who was a bug." Xander countered.
"Fine." Buffy turned to go get dressed as quickly as possible. Xander watched until just before she reached the next floor so she wouldn't catch him watching. There's one thing different between me and Angel, he thought to himself. I'm still a living, breathing male.
He watched as bugs started to fill the windows in the door. He started slowly backing up as he heard the glass start to crack under the pressure. "He's almost in." he warned. "Ready or not, I'm coming up." he warned the Slayer.
He walked into her room without knocking and got to see her bra covered back just before she pulled a sweater over it. "I don't suppose you have a giant fly swatter?" he asked.
"Baseball bat is about all I have for blunt force trauma." Buffy said.
"Remind me to get you a good, old fashioned, Morning Star. Three feet long with 4 pounds of spiked death on the end. With Slayer strength, it'll turn a vamp's head to goo and the rest to dust." Xander said. "For now, give me the bat. I'll buy you enough time to escape."
"What? I'm not leaving you." Buffy insisted.
"This guy came out of your neighbor's house, who you should check on tomorrow by the way, and he's wearing the same ring as the last guy that attacked you. Not me. These guys are after you. So you need to run to Giles' house and call in some backup."
"Mrs. Kalish?" Buffy whispered. Yet another body on her conscience.
"Buffy! Go!" Xander shouted, hearing footsteps on the stairs.
Buffy went to the window and stuck one leg out before looking back. "Don't you dare die on me, mister."
"Never." he promised. Dying for you is another matter though, he said to himself as he got ready to fight.
"Angel." Dru mewed.
"Yeah, baby. I'm back." Angelus said.
Spike smirked. "Is it really true?"
"It's really true." Angelus answered.
"You've come home." Drusilla smiled.
"No more of this 'I've got a soul' crap?" Spike asked.
Angelus leaned back and lit a cigarette to prove that he really was evil. "What can I say, hmm? I was going through a phase."
"This is great! This is so great!" Spike said.
"Everything in my head is singing! We're family again. We'll feed. Grrr. And we'll play." Drusilla bounced between her monsters.
"I've got to tell you, it made me sick to my stomach seeing you being the Slayer's lap dog." Spike admitted.
Angelus growled and grabbed Spike by the shirt. Then he backed off and kissed him on the forehead, laughing.
"How did this happen?" Spike asked, laughing along.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Angelus assured him.
"Oh, who cares? What matters is now you're back! Now it's three against one, which are the kind of odds I like to play."
"Three on two." Angelus corrected. "Harris got turned, but kept his soul somehow too. Worse, he likes guns and is getting good with them."
"Who cares? We're immune." Spike assured him.
"You'll care, when he puts one between your eyes that puts you down more than long enough for him to stake you." Angelus tapped Spike's head hard.
Drusilla looked wistful. "Kitten is showing his claws."
"Well, before we go after the whelp, we have to get Dru her cure. Hopefully the Order of Taraka is taking care of the Slayer and her new pet vampire even as we speak." Spike said.
Angelus growled even louder this time and got in Spike's face again. "You sent the Order of Taraka after Buffy?"
Spike shoved him back. "Yeah, what's it to you?"
"Nothing." Angelus replied nonchalantly. "I just wanted to be the one to kill her is all. She made me feel."
"We still need the key." Drusilla reminded him.
Spike suddenly had an idea. "Do they know you're back? That bitch of a Slayer stole our key from us. Big golden cross."
Angelus growled at the thought. "I know it."
"Tell the wankers that you're going to hide it bloody thing. Bring it back here, and soon enough, we'll have Dru's cure!" Spike decided he was a genius for thinking up such a brilliant plan.
Drusilla clapped her hands at the wonderful idea. Her plans were coming along beautifully. Even now, her Kitten was absorbing memories of a vicious assassin. One small step closer to becoming her Tiger.
