Chapter 10 A Month
Buffy set her bag down as Giles walked into the training room with her.
"Ok we'll keep everything consistence and you stick with what Angel has taught you." Giles said and Buffy nodded and then she looked to the walls which hung weapons. Angel had begun to teach her some weapons well at least to fight with a giant stick. She really wanted to learn to use the sword and maybe even the crossbow. Buffy walked over to the wall and took the cross bow off of its rack and held it. "We'll get to that later."
"Is it hard to use?" She asked looking at it.
"Reloading loading it yes but that's the hardest part." Giles replied and Buffy nodded. "I'm sure when Angel returns he'll teach you."
"Why not you?" Buffy asked and put the crossbow back and Giles shrugged.
"I can I mean,"
"You can teach me knew things while Angel is gone you know." Buffy said with a smile and Giles nodded.
"Well better get on with your training, you patrol tonight."
Buffy, Oz, Cordelia and Doyle walked the cemetery and it was rather quiet tonight. They had to make believe Angel was still in town and keep the secret that Buffy was a slayer. If word got out Angel was gone the vampires would try to take over. And if everyone knew that there was a slayer, Buffy's life would be put in endanger much more than what it was now.
On the sidewalk that ran parallel to the cemetery walked Willow, Dawn and Xander. The three gone out to get ice cream and walk around on this rather cool night.
"Ok, ok how about this one; we loved a life time's worth." Willow said.
"Terminator." Xander answered the question and Willow nodded. It was quiet as the three walked.
"Ok how about," Willow paused trying to think of another movie line. "Use the Force Luke." She said in hesitation.
"Do I really have to answer that one?" Xander asked and Dawn laughed. They continued to walk together until a man stood in front of them. "Can we help you?" Xander asked and the man smiled and his faced morphed into a monster. Willow and Dawn screamed and they ran but were cut off by two more men also with the morphed faces. The three of them were being circled by these men. Xander was ready to defend his girls as one of the men was going to advance. Then just as he was about to lunged forward something flew forward and punctured his heart. He turned into the dust and the other two men looked to the direction where the stake came from. Buffy stood there with Oz, Doyle and Cordelia. The other two men hissed as Buffy began to walk towards them.
"Xander, Willow, Dawn get out of the way." Buffy warned them and the two vampires were no longer interested in her friends.
"Buffy?" Dawn asked as the vampires charged at Buffy. She jumped into the air and did a split kick. One got up and tried to jump on her, she grabbed him and tossed him to the ground while Oz grabbed hold of another vampire and Doyle staked him. Cordelia went to Xander, Willow and Dawn as they watched the event unfold. Doyle tossed Buffy a stake and she killed the other vampire. They all looked around the area and it was clear.
"Ok can some please tell me what just happened?" Xander asked but then five vampires came out of the brush and Buffy had to spring into action. She did a back flip and with her feet grabbed the vampire by his neck and tossed him to the ground and staked him.
"Whatever you do don't let them leave!" Buffy yelled and everyone had to spring into action. There was no Angel just them and five vampires. Xander, Willow and Dawn saw what they had to do to kill them and went to help. A vampire charged at Buffy and jumped into the air and kicked him down to the ground. The vampire jumped back up and the two fought. Buffy lowered herself to the ground and tripped him and stabbed him, three more to go. Another vampire came from behind her and tossed her to the ground. She then kicked him in the knee caps allowing for Oz to grab him through him to the ground and kill him. Buffy stood up and a vampire stood before her and showed its teeth.
"Slayer?" It asked and Buffy spun and kicked him and then jumped into the air and land on top of him and drove a stake into its heart.
"Buffy he's getting away!" Dawn yelled and Buffy looked up seeing the last vampire fleeing. She stood up and waited for a moment and then threw the stake and it lodged itself in his back and he turned to dust. Buffy looked over and everyone was unharmed.
"How many was that?" Doyle asked as Oz surveyed the surroundings.
"Eight." Buffy replied and she noticed a concern of worry on Doyle's face.
"Alright we're done for the night lets all go back to the mansion." Doyle said and the group left but questions needed be asked and answered.
"Giles!" Buffy yelled as they all piled into the mansion and the two Watchers came out from the kitchen and noticed the group had gotten a little bit bigger. They all flocked to the kitchen and it finally hit Buffy, she was hurt, her elbow was bleeding and bruised.
"Buffy what's going on?" Xander asked as everyone piled into the kitchen and Buffy went to the freezer to get ice. Wes went to assist her and grabbed a rag to wrap the ice in.
"Giles we took out eight vampires." Doyle stated and Giles nodded.
"Teams?" He asked Doyle nodded.
"What's going on?" Xander asked again but he wasn't being paid attention to at the moment.
"This is getting serious." Giles stated as he sat in a chair as Wes inspected Buffy's wound and put the rag on it. She winced in pain and then looked to Giles.
"Why?" She asked.
"Vampires rarely work as a team; if they are then they are up to something." Wes answered her and she nodded.
"What's going on!" Xander yelled and everyone looked at him.
"Vampires mate." Doyle said.
"I don't get it, vampires? What?" Xander asked again. Buffy took hold of the rag and letting it numb her elbow. Buffy looked up at her two friends and sister, Dawn's face was white, full of fear.
"Xander have you ever had anything happen to you that changed your mind on what's important?" Buffy asked and the sighed. "I'm not explaining it, I'm going to bed. You three stay here for the night." Buffy then took off and Dawn stopped her and the two sisters looked at each other. Buffy gave her the look to leave her alone and she headed upstairs to Angel's room. She had been sleeping there for the past couple of nights, for some reason she felt really safe in his bed like he was there with her. She didn't want to talk, she didn't want to explain what she was. All Buffy wanted to was sleep. She had been up late killing vampires and waking up early for school. And then sometime in that day she would long training hours. She didn't want to talk not now. As much as she should especially to Dawn, Buffy felt like she was alien now. Before she felt out of place having to raise her little sister but now with her duties as the slayer, the last couple weeks had been hard. And now doing all this on her own it was even harder. She put on one of Angel's shirts that hung in the closet and it fell to her knees. She crawled into his bed and before she closed her eyes, she wished she could roll over and he'd be right there.
Riley and his team snuck around in the jungle and in the clearing saw the demon.
"Alright, target acquired bring him in." Riley said into the radio. Angel was in a silent plane hovering over the area and the back opened and he stood out on the ledge.
"You're crazy!" One of the men said and Angel thought to himself, hasn't killed me yet. Angel jumped off of the plane and landed in the clearing. The demon turned around and hissed. Angel shot his crossbow at it and it screamed. It took the arrow out and the two circled one another. Angel tossed aside the crossbow and took out his favorite ax and twirled it. The demon charged at Angel and he smiled, tonight was going to be the kill.
The men celebrated a victory w and only lost one of their men. Angel was congratulated but he wanted to be alone. He headed to his tent and slowly lowered himself to the ground and pulled out a picture. It was a newspaper clipping of Buffy when she won the dance competition. He cut it out of the paper and kept it as his only picture of her which he carried around. He unfold the picture and looked at the black and white photo and smiled. The demon was dead which meant he could go back to Sunnydale but his line of thought was disturbed by Riley tapped on the tent.
"Traven is here." Riley said and Angel felt angry build up in him. He was probably here to ask how it all went. Angel would not take another assignment he needed to get back to Sunnydale, back to Buffy. Angel tucked away the small photo and left his tent seeing the old man in a suit standing there.
"I asked that this be kept under wraps." The old man said and Angel crossed his arms. While there was only one death, a record for Angel, villages and people everywhere knew something was up.
"Yeah well a demon like that, kind of hard to keep quiet." Angel spat back.
"Maybe Riley should have taken care of this whole operation."
"Would have been fine by me." Angel was about to go back into his tent but Traven had more to say, he could tell.
"You are to go back to England,"
"No," Angel said.
"And stay there,"
"No I'm going back to Sunnydale, my people are there and we haven't finished our work." Angel protested. "You can tell me what to do all you want I just won't listen." Angel then shrugged, he didn't care. Traven walked away knowing Angel would do what he wanted and there was no point in arguing.
"You understand why we have chain of command Angelus." Riley said as Angel was about go back into his tent. Angelus, he hated that name, it reminded him of so much pain and anger and the fact that Riley used it, it made his blood boil. Angel then walked up to Riley, both standing face to face, eye to eye. Riley was big but only human, Angel was a vampire capable of extreme strength and pain at one point in time he was the master of pain. Now they have put up with each other for the last month with this demon, set aside their differences to save as many lives as possible, but once Riley over stepped his bound by using the name Angelus, Angel had enough. With one swift move Angel pulled Riley into a head lock and Riley was helpless.
"I understand chain of command, as far as I'm concerned," Angel tighten his grip. "I follow no command, without me the Council will fall, why the hell do you think I can get away with all this?" Riley struggled but Angel didn't let up. "If you ever call me Angelus again you'll be licking your own tomb until you can't taste the difference between shit and French fries." Then Buffy's picture fell from Angel's pocket while he released Riley. Riley bent down and picked it up smiling.
"Squeeze of yours?" He asked and Angel snatched from Riley. "She's pretty Angel." Angel put the picture back in his pocket and headed back to his tent and pack. "You should introduce us, she may like a man in uniform." But before Riley could act Angel with his lightening speed gripped Riley by the throat.
"Back-off and go back to England and being the golden boy again, I have work to do." Angel let Riley go and finally got into his tent.
Short chapter but the month is over and now we've got the Scooby Gang involved. Riley has another appearance later on this isn't the last of him but that little tussle the two had, hint, hint for something later. Next Angel comes back to Sunnydale woo. I wanted Buffy to be alone and fight because she needs to know she's strong because boy howdy she'll need to be later and being a part only makes the heart grow fonder. And we start to get down to the nit and grit of things like Spike and some other things like…end of the world. More to come, hope you're enjoying. Reviews and comments are always welcomed, I love them, thanks for reading.