3 Days Later

The Bronze

Pushing open the curtain which led to the backstage area, Angelus stepped out and found himself back into the crowds of young people clubbing on this Friday night.

Angelus was mildly full from the young woman he had just eaten and now he was in need of a drink.

Moving his eyes over the heads of people, Angelus frowned, unable to find Buffy within the crowd.

Angelus took his first step into the crowd and decided to just go to the bar then track down his mate. Perhaps she was also getting dinner, eventually, Angelus was more than confident that she would return to him.


As Angelus neared the bar, his dark eyes landed on Buffy sitting on a stool and flirtatiously laughing at the young man talking to her.

Rolling his eyes over this man, Angelus noticed the wooden stake in his back pocket. Lifting his gaze back up to his face, Angelus sneered at the lovesick look the man was giving his mate.

He had recognised this man. Angelus believed his name was Riley.

Buffy did not help the raging jealousy in Angelus' chest as she leaned over to the man and whispered something into his ear and ran a hand over his chest.

Angelus watched as Buffy pulled back her head and slipped her hand into Riley's. Riley stared at Buffy with large eyes, it was clear that he was not in communication with either Faith or any of her friends.

Buffy shifted off of the stool and began to lead the military man away from the bar and towards the dance floor.

As they passed, Buffy lifted her eyes to Angelus' face and smiled at his jealousy.

Hanging back, Angelus watched as his mate faced the young man with sandy brown hair. She slid her hands over his shoulders and around his neck, letting the slow music guide their minimal movements.

Angelus' upper lip curled as Riley took a small step closer, pressing his front to Buffy's. He closed his eyes and buried his nose into her hair, breathing in the refreshing citrus scent.

The fists at Angelus' sides clenched with a fury.


For the remainder of the evening, Angelus had turned all of his energies towards Riley Finn.

Buffy tore herself away from the college man with a fib of needing to head to the Scoobies for a meeting. Riley had taken it in stride, although disappointed in how his evening would end. He had truly hoped that tonight was a step forward for them. He's been teetering on asking Buffy on a date for sometime.

As Buffy disappeared to hunt for a midnight snack, Angelus on the other hand had other plans.

Standing near the base of the stairs, disguised by the shadows, Angelus' eyes glare unblinkly at Riley standing at a table with his friends laughing.

For a better angle, Angelus took a step to move around the room, all the while keeping his stare on Riley.

Outside: The Bronze

"Goodnight," said Riley to the nightclub bouncer sitting on a stool by the door.

The night chill hair sent a shiver through Riley's entire body. He closed his jacket tighter around himself and buttoned it up.

Hearing the sounds of a whimper, Riley turned his head as he passed a couple, apparently engaged in a heated kiss.

With a smile, Riley continued to walk through the darkened alleyway heading back towards his apartment on the UC Sunnydale campus.

The woman seemingly kissing the man pulled her head back, removing her fangs from the side of his neck. Buffy let the man's body fall to the pavement just as Angelus came into view, also exiting the Bronze.

Curiously, Buffy stepped out into the alley, leaving the man's body lying there, and watched her mate walk away, following the completely unaware man.

She morphs back into her human guise and smiles to herself, wondering just what Angelus had up his sleeve. Angelus was hunting.

Buffy knew that he was very much jealous over her interaction with Riley tonight. She was positive that he will have a few things to say about it in the hours to come. She had nearly forgotten all about the military man until this very night when he bravely approached, asking to have a drink with her.

It brought her great satisfaction that he was totally unaware of the changes from these last few days. He couldn't at all sense the difference with vampiress.

Tilting her head to the side, Buffy couldn't stay behind a moment longer. She was desperate to know what Angelus was going to do. She held her hands into the pockets of her coat and trailed behind the two men.


In the horizon, Riley could see the top of the library, which was the biggest building on the UC Sunnydale campus.

Smiling to himself, Riley couldn't stop thinking about Buffy. The way she held him close as they swayed to the music at the club. The intoxicating scent of her perfume. The way her curves felt under his palms.

The image of her smiling up at him stuck in his mind. More than anything, Riley wanted to feel her lips against his own. He wanted to taste her skin as he ran his tongue over her. He wanted to feel the tightness of her cunt surrounding him as he buried himself deeply inside of her welcoming body.

Walking through the pathway leading into multiple directions to various areas of campus, Riley failed to see the shadowed being standing in front of him.

He paused mid-step. His heart lumped into his throat, startled.

The dancing smile on his face fell meeting the eyes of Angelus.

Angelus devilishly smiled, "Riley Finn, did you lose your way?" He jabbed a powerful right cross at Riley's face.

Riley staggers backwards, but catches himself. He looked at Angelus with a frown. "Who are you?" He demanded to know and blocked Angelus' incoming attacks. Riley quickly spins into a backhand swing.

Angelus catches his arm, forcing him down on one knee, and slams a knee into Riley's face. "We have a girl in common."

Recognition fills Riley's expression. "Buffy. How do you know Buffy?"

Angelus lifts Riley off of the ground and throws him through the air. Riley flies back into a large heap of trash bins aligned on the side of the sidewalk.

Riley scrambles up from the ground and pulls out a baton from his boot. He then uses the baton to block Angeus' kick but the weapon is knocked out of his hand and the vampire punches him across the face.

Still on his knees, Riley retaliates with a fist to Angelus' groin and, as the vampire bends down around his pain, gets to his feet picking up an empty liquor bottle from the knocked over trash bin and smashes it over his head. He grabs Angelus by the coat and rams a knee into his back, sending him against the building.

Angelus swings a backhand but Riley blocks it and slams the same knee into his stomach. Angelus recovers and grabs Riley's jacket slamming him back against a thick tree trunk. He hits Angelus in the face with a left cross, but Angelus just slams him against the tree trunk again, getting his hands around his throat.

"Did you really think Buffy would ever have eyes for you, boy?"

"There's no claim on her."

Angelus' hand around Riley's neck tightened. "That's where you're wrong, boy. And now I'm going to teach you a lesson you will never forget."

Riley dropped down, under Angelus' strength, he pulls out a taser from his jacket and shoves into Angelus' chest.

The shock flings him back and he falls to the ground as Riley gets back on his feet and goes after him.

Angelus raises his head and growls at him, in full vamp face. Riley plants a hard kick into his chest and Angelus tumbles out onto the pavement. Standing over him, Riley tries to hit him with the taser once more, but Angelus catches his wrist, forcing him to drop it, and drives a fist into his stomach.

He lifts Riley over his head and growls as he runs with him across the walkway to send him crashing to the ground. Riley rolled across the sidewalk landing at someone's feet.

Groaning from the pain, Riley opened his eyes, staring at a pair of tall red pump shoes. Slowly, he lifts his eyes up the length of the woman standing over him.

It was Buffy.

Her arms were folded across her chest. The smile on her face was enough to make his entire body clamp with fear. Her smile held a strange mixture of sinisterism and pleasure.

"Buf—" Riley began to say when Angelus picked him up again and sent him flying to the other side of the walkway. He flops to the pavement.

Angelus looked at Buffy. "Out for a midnight stroll, lover?" He asked.

"Well, I thought that you could use this." She held out a braided hemp long coil of rope she had found on the way to the campus.

Angelus took the rope from her hand. "So thoughtful." He smiled and wrapped an arm around her back and held her tightly his front.

His mouth violently crushed against hers.

Buffy grinned into the kiss and licked her tongue over his sharp fangs before he abruptly broke away and turned back to Riley.

The smile on her face surged with excitement. She had long missed watching her lover get all hot and bothered with jealousy. He always performed his best word when he was in a rage.


Shaking himself from a briefly unconscious state, Riley's head pounded inside of his skull. In fact, his entire body felt as if he was broken in half and then haphazardly put back together.

He moved his hand to rub his face when he realised that his wrist was bound.

Becoming more aware, Riley turned his gaze to find his wrist tightly tied with a rope. He looked at his other wrist and also found his wrist bound. Trying to shift on his feet, Riley lowered his gaze to his ankles. He realised that he was also naked.

Angelus had bound all of Riley's limbs with the rope entrapping, spread-eagled between two trees. Panic swarmed through his entire body.

From the shadow's Angelus appeared holding a dagger in his hand. He studied the sharp blade and lifted his eyes to Riley. "Back in my day, we didn't have chainsaws. But I've always preferred a dagger. It always seemed much more… meaningful." He looked at Riley. "Buffy on the other hand never had a preference. She always just used whatever was around her. It's quite astonishing what she could accomplish with just a needlepoint." He paused thoughtfully. "She's quite something."

Riley fearfully swallowed.

"When I first met Buffy," Angelus released a sigh at the memory, "it was complete chaos. France was on the verge of a revolution. Hundreds upon hundreds were running around the armory with pitchforks and torches. But amongst all of that… this beautiful and elegant woman emerged from the smoke." Angelus smiled at the thought.

Riley remained silent and felt the beaded sweat dripping down his face sting into his eyes.

"She came to me like a Siren. Wherever Buffy goes, her legend follows." He looked at Riley. "To be in the presence of such greatness… I won't lie to you, it was somewhat intimidating. And believe me, I'm not easily intimidated." Angelus smiled. "She looked at me like an insect."

Riley frowned.

Angelus began to chuckle and stepped closer to Riley. "Oh, she didn't care for me at all. She found me… uncouth. Buffy was such a snob in those days." He laughed to himself. "But, somehow… I won her over. I mean, I did try to kill her at first but… our hatred for one another was just so…" he trailed off and looked down at the Claddagh ring around his finger. "I can't blame you for having a schoolboy crush. We are all just servants to that beauty, those green eyes, that magnetic smile, and of course, and that mysterious mythology that follows her. I can speak from experience, I've been a loyal servant to her finest attributes for well over two hundred years."

Riley's jaw tightened and tried to stop his bottom lip from quivering.

"We've been through a lot, Buffy and I. And despite all of our differences, we've always found a way back to each other." Angelus stood face to face with Riley and smirked. "She's mine, you see. She'll always be mine because in fact, Riley. I do have a claim to her. As she has a claim to me. That's what being mated means. So it was quite foolish of you to think that you would be able to cut in between us. Because you're nothing, Riley. You mean absolutely nothing to her. She will not come to save you."

Riley let out a breath.

"I do wonder one thing." Angelus began, twirling the dagger in his hand, he looked Riley straight into the eye. "Are you a screamer?"

Riley swallowed.

Angelus' hand launched out and grabbed Riley by the face, forcing his head to turn to the right. "Now, hold still." Holding the bound man still as he wiggled, desperate for freedom, Angelus carefully cut into the skin under Riley's jaw, and followed the long line to his chin and up the other side to his ear.

Riley gritted his teeth and tears sprang into his eyes from the pain as Angelus continued to cut through his skin around his face.

After another minute, Angelus used the pointed tip of the dagger to help loosen the skin as he began to peel it back.

Grinning, Angelus enjoyed how Riley was trying hard not to scream. "Still so brave. Let's see this big heart of yours." Angelus taunted and decided to move to begin cutting through the skin of Riley's torso.

Angelus wanted him alive as long as possible. By then the pain would be too much and he will eventually pass out and soon die.


After sometime, Buffy appeared in the background behind Angelus as he tossed another slabe piece of skin from Riley's body to the ground.

Riley had long since died, soon after the skin of his torso had been brutally peeled off.

Holding her arms across her chest, Buffy tilted her head to the side, examining Angelus' work as if it were an art installation. "Marsyas." she said, then shifted her gaze to Angelus. "And I take it that you're Apollo?"

"Except, Apollo was the God of Sun and light and all things good like truth and dance." He stood up straight from his crouched position and took a step back to examine his work. "He healed the sick, while I… take life away." Angelus moved around Buffy to stand behind her. His arms circled around her waist and his chin rested on her shoulder. "What do you think?"

"I think…" she narrowed her gaze over the flayed body. "This might be your best work."

"I disagree." said Angelus, placing a kiss on Buffy's neck then stepped back towards the body that was once Riley Finn. "I think my best was in eighteen-fifteen. Remember that baker in Denmark?"

Buffy smiled at the memory. "How can I forget. It was all that the newspapers would talk about for months."

"Ingenuity went into that." He held one arm across his chest and the other rubbed his chin. "Oh, I almost forgot." Angelus lowered his eyes to the slices of skin on the ground. "Can you get me a few sticks, please?"

Nodding her head, Buffy turned to the woodsy area and picked up a small armfull of sticks from the ground. She walked over to Angelus and placed the pile of sticks at his feet.

Buffy looked up at the sky that was beginning to brighten. "We better go soon."

"Just give me another minute."

Releasing a heavy sigh, Buffy stepped backwards to the wooden park bench she had been sitting on for the last few hours. She crossed one leg over her knee and crossed her arms over her chest.

Morning

Exiting out of the Rocket Cafe, Faith bit into the blueberry muffin she had purchased as Willow and Tara walked hand and hand beside their Slayer friend.

"Y'know, I think I am gonna drop psych," said Faith.

"No!" Willow whirled around to her best friend. "You promised that we'd take the class together. Tell her, Tara."

Tara remained silent wearing a slanted smile on her face, finding Willow's reaction amusing.

Faith rolled her eyes. "But it's boring."

"You think all of your classes are boring," said Willow, raising the arch of her brow at the burnette.

"But I really mean it this time." Faith frowned, tossing the wrapper of the muffin to the trash as they passed it.

Tara sipped the latte in her hand and asked, "Maybe you should give it more of a chance. I mean, you kinda have to since class drop is past it's deadline."

Faith groaned. "Fuck!"

Willow giddily clapped her hands together, winning this battle against the Vampire Slayer. "You're not gonna regret it, Faith. I sw—" her eyes turned to the mass of students and professors standing outside of a yellow-taped off area.

"What the…?" Frowning, Faith stepped towards the crime scene.

Moving in-between the crowd to get to the front to see what had happened, Faith pushed her way around.

Finally reaching the front of the group, Tara's hand covered her mouth. "Oh my God."

They stared at a skinless body bound by its wrists and ankles with rope tied between two trees.

Faith turned her head to see someone vomiting into the grass off to the side and others crying at the gruesome display of merciless torture.

"Who could've done this?" asked Willow, holding a hand over her mouth. The body had a foul order radiating off of it because of the warm weather and the beaming sun that was high in the blue cloudless sky.

"Who do you think?" Anger rolled off of Faith in waves. She knew exactly who could have done such a monstrous act of violence. Buffy was sick enough to pull it off.

"Guys," Faith and Willow turn their heads to Tara. pointing her finger, they followed it to find the skin of the poor victim held up by branches, revealing the identity of the victim. "It's Riley."

"Jesus Christ." Faith let out a breath of angry frustration. Her buried fingers buried into her dark and began to pace back and forth. "Fuck!" She kicked a trash can, sending it flying into the air and across the courtyard.

The crowd standing around the crime scene all turned to the ruckus happening behind them.

Faith held up her hands in defense, proving to them that she was fine and stable.

Willow and Tara walked over to the Slayer. "I should've killed her when I had a chance." said Faith, cracking her knuckles, desperate to kill Buffy.

"You can't blame yourself for this, Faith. We all trusted Buffy. We couldn't've known there was a way that she could have removed it."

"Gi-Giles is still looking into it how it could've been done," said Tara, trying to say something that would give Faith some sort of level of comfort.

Faith shook her head, "Still doesn't make it better. I should've known somethin' wasn't right. After we… Buffy was different." Faith looked down at her combat boots. "Not the woman I lo—" she paused, catching herself in mid-confession.

"Not the woman you what?" asked Tara.

Willow frowned when realisation appeared in her eyes. She had always known that Faith had an attraction towards the blonde vampiress—it was hard not to, Buffy has a very magnetic personality. Willow hadn't expected Faith to be in love with Buffy.

She now wondered what had happened between the pair during all of those times they were alone patrolling together.

"This has got to end. We gotta fuckin' kill her." Faith dropped her arms to her side and looked at the crime scene. "She wanted to piss me off…" The rage inside of her boiled. She was finally ready to kill the legendary Quod Spiritus Sanctus (The Beautiful Demon) once and for all. "Well, now, I'm wicked pissed off." Her eyes glared at the flayed body bound between the trees.