September 1997
Buffy's first indication that something was wrong was the thick brown netting that swooped down out of nowhere to pin her to the floor with a thud.
A chuckle drifted over from somewhere to her right. "You forget how young they are." Buffy raised her head to try and see where the voice was coming from. "Has it really been ten years since we managed to track down a Slayer?"
There, in the corner, she spotted him. She thought. Something was standing in the shadows, whapping a baseball bat against its leg. She tried to move, but the weights along the net pinned her against the floor, and she couldn't get enough leverage to push herself up. At least Wesley hadn't barreled in after her and gotten himself knocked out.
The creature in the corner stepped into the light and smiled at the vampires Buffy had followed in and the others milling around. It waved away the two vampires hovering over Buffy with his hand...no, hoof. Her stomach churned as he walked over to her and crouched down, bringing his disfigured face to hers. His rank breath was hot against her cheek.
"Had my eye on you back in LA. You'll make a fine pet, won't you? Quite worth the effort it took to track you down."
"You shoulda just called. Could have saved yourself a lot of trouble letting me kill you sooner," she spat.
He chuckled and cracked his baseball bat across the back of her head. "Big talk for someone who's in a net." He turned to two of his lackeys. "Pick her up. I want to look at her."
Buffy tried to break free when the vampires grabbed her, roughly hauling her up for inspection, but her head still swam from the blow.
Running a hoof down her face, he gave a twisted smile. "Yes, she is a pretty one. Looks stronger than that last one, too. Perhaps she'll last a bit longer. What's your name, pretty one?"
Probably shouldn't piss off the guy with the baseball bat. Play along. Stall until Wesley gets here. "Buffy."
"Buffy." Her name sounded dirty, coming from him. He nodded and said, "I'm Kakistos. But you will call me Master."
Oh, that's it. "Over your dead body," she said, dropping all her weight on the vampires holding her and twisting her body up, aiming a kick towards Kakistos's head. He caught her foot in midair, pinching it between his hooves. Kakistos snarled and started to twist her leg, but he suddenly laughed and batted her foot away.
"Feisty. The other one was too, and the one before her." He leered. "We have ways of fixing that."
Buffy spotted her stake where it had clattered to the floor. It was in reach, she just needed to wriggle away from the vamps holding onto her.
There was a sudden crashing sound behind Buffy as thousands of tiny glass shards sprinkled the building, followed by a rock thudding to the floor. The vampires tightened their grip on Buffy while Kakistos nodded to one of the minions closest to the door.
"Go see what that was."
Shaking the glass out of her hair, Buffy hoped Wesley wasn't doing something stupid, like...brushing the vampire dust off his shirt as he ran into the building, grinning at her?
"I think your training is paying off," he said.
Buffy grinned back and used the distraction to wrench her right arm free and send the vampire careening towards Wesley, who staked it before it could recover. Then she reared around and slugged her other captor in the face before diving for her stake.
"Kill him!" Kakistos screeched at the other two vampires. "But I want the Slayer alive!"
Thunk, poof, the closest vampire was dust. Buffy turned her attention to the two remaining vampires who were advancing towards Wesley.
Wesley closed one eye, squinted, brought his arm back then let it snap forward, sending his stake hurtling into the vampire.
As it crumbled into ash, Buffy let out a low whistle. "That's impressive, Wes."
He smiled. "I was the dart champion for four years running in the Watcher's Academy."
The remaining vampire shrieked and jumped on Wesley, but as Buffy went to help him Kakistos grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the ground.
"That will cost you, girl," he snarled, kicking her in the ribs and sending her flying backwards into a pile of debris.
Buffy grabbed the nearest object, a jagged piece of sheet metal, and jumped up. "That will cost me? Oh, that's an original threat." She spun the metal around in her hands and cocked her hip, shooting him a glance. "Not that I expected better from a vamp who was cross-bred with a goat."
When Kakistos was halfway to lunging at Buffy, she winged the sheet metal at him. His arm hit the ground with a wet thud, and Kakistos howled. Buffy sprinted past him, across the room, and skidded to a stop just in time to avoid knocking over the vampire who was attached to Wesley's neck. One quick thrust of the stake and the vampire was history. She caught Wesley just before he fell over and risked a glance back at Kakistos. He was lying on the floor, still howling and clutching the shoulder where his arm has been. It would be easy enough to finish him off, but Wesley needed to go to the hospital now. Worrying about a big bad vamp had already cost her one Watcher, so Buffy was already halfway down the street before she realized she'd made her decision.
***
Beeping. Wesley became aware of a dull beeping and something heavy on his chest. He opened his eyes and the pure white slowly gave way to spackling, marred by a large black fly crawling across. Bringing his head down replaced the spackled ceiling with the more appealing sight of honey blonde hair splayed across his torso and chest. The movement sent sharp pains ricocheting through his neck as the events of the previous night came rushing back to him. Buffy must have taken him to the hospital.
A sudden coughing fit overtook him, causing Buffy to spring off him in alarm. She relaxed -- somewhat -- when she realized where she was, and poured him a glass of water from the nearby table.
"You okay?"
Wesley nodded. "Yes, thank you," he rasped, gratefully accepting the proffered glass. He noticed Buffy chewing on her bottom lip and tried to smile more encouragingly. "Really, I'm fine. What about you?"
"I'm okay. Kakistos is still out there though."
"We'll find him. I'll send word to the Council tomorrow and have them fax me everything they have on him."
Buffy nodded. "Okay, good." She checked her watch. "Jeez, I haven't been home in two days. Mom...well, she probably didn't notice. Her work schedule is so wacky, I'm lucky if I see her a couple hours a week. But I should still check in, y'know?"
"Of course," Wesley smiled. Buffy bit her lip and continued to stand in one place, staring at him. "Is something the matter?"
"Well...I mean, you're all alone here, and it's not like you've got any family in town...."
"I'll be fine. Really. I'm fine, go."
"Okay." She reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing it lightly. "I'll come back in a couple hours."
"That's really not necessary--"
"No arguing, I'll be back." She grabbed her coat and left.
Wesley leaned back and stared at the ceiling. If Kakistos was still alive, then Buffy must have relinquished her chance to kill him in order to save Wesley. But it made no sense. Every book Wesley had ever read said Slayers operated almost purely out of instinct. Watchers knew going into battle that if it came down to saving their Watcher's life or killing a demon, Slayers would -- and had -- invariably chosen the kill. It was instinct, like breathing. Like Slayers, Field Watchers were expendable. An acceptable loss.
But Buffy...she could have killed Kakistos if she'd wanted to. Instead, she'd chosen to go against her instincts and save Wesley. Or perhaps saving him was her instinctual response? Either way, unorthodox or no, Buffy was certainly turning out to be a remarkable, unusual Slayer.
As Wesley drifted to sleep, he realized how thankful he was, to have the opportunity to work with someone like her.
Up next: Chapter 5 - Hornet's Tails, Nails, and Third Rails