Chapter 12
"It's almost midnight. We should get our guest of honor ready," Darla said. She didn't know where Drusilla's whelp was, and she didn't much care. She was enjoying the peace. I should consider organizing an accident for the boy, she thought, making a mental note of Riley's imminent demise.
Drusilla flowed into the living room, black velvet swishing around her long, perfectly shaped legs. "I bought a new dress for the party. Do you like it, Grandmummy?"
"You look wonderful, my dear."
Drusilla graced Darla with a radiant smile and asked, "Where's my boy?"
Darla's smile froze at the mention of the demon farmboy. "I don't know. Off playing with his toys would be my guess."
Drusilla smiled, "My boy likes his toys."
The blonde master vampire snorted, rising gracefully to her feet and clapping her hands sharply. A minion appeared in the doorway, not meeting his mistress's eyes. "It's time," she said briskly. "Fetch the Slayer."
"Immediately, Mistress. It will be done," the minion mumbled humbly and left quickly to do Darla's bidding.
The minion and two of his lackeys descended to the dungeon, none too happy with the task they'd been given. They have never faced this Slayer, but enough of their kin had died at her hand for them to fear her.
The sight that greeted them was not one they expected or dared hope for. The Slayer, Aurora, was lying on the cold stone floor, unconscious, and the mother Slayer was nowhere to be seen. The Watcher was weeping softly, his eyes leaking a mixture of tears, pus and blood.
"Quickly!" the head minion ordered his two companions. "Get the girl!"
Nate merely sat and watched as the vampires lifted Aurora's body and carry it out of the cage, weeping soundlessly.
"The Slayer, Mistress," the head minion announced proudly. Darla turned, surprised.
"You're still alive," she said, impressed. "I was sure the girl would reduce you to dust in the blink of an eye. And you knocked her unconscious. Now I am impressed."
"Oh no, Mistress, she was already unconscious when we got there," the minion corrected, choosing honesty over flattery. He would rather be honest than take undue credit for something he didn't do and be punished for it later.
Darla frowned. "She was already…? What about the other Slayer? I seriously doubt she would sit idly by as someone attacked her precious offspring.
"There was no sign of her, Mistress. The Slayer's mother wasn't there." If the minion had a heartbeat, it would be pounding against his chest painfully. In stead, he swallowed hard.
"What do you mean there was no sign of her? Where the hell is she then?!" Darla screamed. The minion tried to say something, anything that would get him out of this with his unlife intact, but his throat locked up, denying all sound from leaving his parched mouth. He squeaked and gargled when the elder, more powerful vampire gripped and squeezed the tender flesh of his neck. His tortured bleats ceased abruptly when Darla effortlessly twisted his head off his neck, watching with satisfaction as the minion burst into dust.
"Find the Slayer, or you will share his fate," Darla hissed at the remaining minions. They scrambled wildly to get away from Darla before she changed her mind and dusted them as well.
***************
Buffy wouldn't scream. Her face was contorted in pain from the fresh blow to her already bruised body, but still she uttered no sound.
Riley had brutally beaten the Slayer, his former girlfriend, with a wooden club. He hadn't broken her skin. Not once. Each time the club smacked into her soft flesh, forcing a hiss or gasp from her, the vampire laughed, licking his lips and readied the club for the next swing.
"It'll be better if you just scream," Riley told the silently weeping Slayer. "If you scream, the beatings will stop."
"Fuck you," Buffy hissed furiously. It hurt to breathe and Buffy was tired, but she knew this was only the beginning. God knows what this insane creature would do if she did give in and scream.
"Insolent to the last," Riley sneered. "That was the one thing about you I really hated. Only difference is now I get to beat it out of you like I always wanted." He punctuated his statement with another bone crunching hit to Buffy's midsection.
Buffy sobbed, swallowing the scream bubbling to her bloodied lips. "You'll pay for this," she promised, coughing up dark blood, wincing as the terrible pain knifed through her anguished body.
"Who will make me pay?" Riley asked. "Your daughter? She's as good as dead herself. What about your husband? Oh wait! He is dead! There's nobody left to save you, Buffy! Nobody!"
Buffy screamed finally as the club crashed onto her shoulder, her arm tied to the stone slab twisting her shoulder into a more vulnerable angle and intensifying the pain of the blow.
Riley whooped his pleasure at the tortured sound leaving his prisoner's body, covering the sound of the low growl behind him.
"Don't you feel better now, my sweet?" Riley jeered.
Before Buffy could muster up the needed energy for any kind of answer, Riley yelped and she watched as the vampire flew across the dungeon, crashing into the opposite rock face wall.
"I do feel better, thank you," Angel growled, his eyes golden. His upper lip was curled up into a snarl, showing his elongated fangs. Slowly, his tongue stole over the sharp points, and he grinned, pulling his angelic demon features into a mask of death.
Spike was at the tied Slayer's side, freeing her and trying to block her view as much as possible with his body. "It'll be alright, pet," he kept saying over and over, picking her up off the slab and carrying her from the cavern.
"Spike? What's going on? Angel?! Oh God, it hurts!" Buffy sobbed with each jarring step the blonde vampire took.
"Shhh, pet. It'll be alright," Spike soothed, not wanting to think of the monster that was this broken woman's husband, or what she would do to him, Spike, for loosing the demon on the world.
Angel advanced on Riley's huddled form, growling deep in his chest. "You think you can touch what is mine and get away with it, boy?! I will teach you to keep your hands off my property once and for all!"
"Am I supposed to be scared? You're nothing, old man!" Riley spat at his nemesis, hate coursing through his veins like fire.
Riley leapt at Angel, the club still locked in his hand, and swung the weapon at him. Angel was ready for the attacking demon and flipped him easily, sending Riley flying into the walls again.
With a deafening roar, Riley vamped out and launched himself at Angel again, kicking and punching. His military training served him well in any battle situation, but against the Slayer's demonic husband it was all but ineffectual. Every kick and punch Angel blocked, followed by very hard, very painful blows and kicks of his own.
Angel was reveling in his newfound strength, tenfold what it was when he was a human with vampiric strength. Just think what kind of vampire my Buffy would make, he thought after snapping Riley's head back with a solid punch to the jaw.
The thought of the Slayer who wore his ring and bore his child opened his ears to her cries coming from somewhere close by. "Buffy," he snarled, murder in his voice and turned his golden eyes to the bleeding vampire lying at his feet in a semi-conscious mess.
"You stole her. You hurt her. Now you'll pay."
Riley looked up at the immense figure looming over him, his blue eyes swelling fast. Angel grabbed Riley by the ears, getting a good grip and making sure the boy screamed when the skin started to tear. Then he twisted. Hard.
Riley's head popped off like an undead grape, a cry dying on his lips as his body and his bodiless head turned to dust.
Angel turned and strolled out of the torture chamber, shaking vamp dust off his hands and licking his lips and fangs.
Buffy screamed again when Spike popped her dislocated shoulder back into its socket. "What happened, Spike?" she asked for the hundredth time. "Where's Angel? He's dead, isn't he? Tell me, damn it!"
"Buffy…," Spike started, uncertain how to tell her what she wanted to know. At least she's not strong enough at the moment to dust me, he thought wryly.
"Angel!" Buffy yelled, pushing Spike out of the way and leaping into her dark husband's waiting embrace.
"Buffy! No!" Spike cried, trying to stop her before it was too late.
But it was already too late. Angel had his fangs in the Slayer's throat and was eagerly gulping down the hot elixir of her blood.
"Stop it! You'll kill her!" Spike tried to pull the vampire he just made, the vampire who made him, away from the weakened woman, but the Slayer's blood was powerful and it fed Angel's already increased strength.
Angel merely swiped the bleach blonde away, as if he was an annoying knat. He felt Buffy's heart slow and withdrew his fangs from her bruised neck, ripping open his shirt and tearing at the flesh, letting the blood run free. Buffy's glazed eyes locked on the flowing red liquid and her lips followed soon after.
"NO!" Spike cried, storming at the couple locked in their deadly embrace of blood. "What do you think you're doing?!"
"Shut up, Spike" Angel growled savagely, lacing his fingers into Buffy's golden locks, pulling her sucking mouth closer to the wound she was so eagerly drinking from. "I know what I'm doing."
Suddenly, Buffy let go of Angel, her cries of renewed pain filling the caverns. She fell to the ground, shaking uncontrollably, clutching at herself.
Then she went quiet. Her body was perfectly still. Not even the rise and fall of her chest marred the illusion of immobility.
Her eyes opened.
"Oh God, what have you done?" Spike breathed, sinking to his knees as the strength and the will to remain upright left his body.