Previously: Pretending to be Angel, Angelus returned to Sunnydale intent on getting revenge on Buffy and her friends. When he met Riley, Angelus took an instant dislike to him and decided to include him in his plans. Buffy invited Angelus to stay at her house.

Reminder: Although this story is set in season 4 of "Buffy," I am ignoring certain events that occurred. So, status is: Buffy and Willow are attending UC Sunnydale, while Xander is not. Oz left town, and the Willow/Tara and Xander/Anya relationships developed as seen on the show. Spike never returned; Faith didn't come out of her coma. Buffy knows Riley is a member of the Initiative, he knows she's the Slayer, but Adam doesn't exist. Buffy and Riley are dating but have not slept together yet.

Demon Bait, Ch. 4/9: Dreams

Angelus was dreaming. He stood in his favorite type of room, a dungeon, with a cabinet crammed with torture instruments open before him. He surveyed his choices. He could start slowly, with the riding crop and the screwdriver, or he could skip ahead several steps to the chainsaw and the flamethrower. Did he really have the patience to proceed gradually with this particular individual? He considered, then made his selection and carried the items across the room to his chained, gagged, and blindfolded victim.

He ripped the blindfold off so that his prisoner could see what was in store for him. "Good afternoon...Riley." Angelus smiled his most malevolent smile, the cold, chilling one with lots of fang. "You thought you were better than me, didn't you? You thought you could steal Buffy and not suffer any consequences. Well, *I'm* the only one allowed to love, hate, kiss, or kill her." He held up his hydraulic pump, box of rusty nails, and cat o' nine tails.

Riley's eyes bulged. "Mmmm, mmmm!" he moaned through the gag, thrashing and fighting to break free.

"You'll never get loose, you know," Angelus informed him. "You think I would be that careless? No way. We're going to have some fun today!" He tore the gag from Riley's mouth, and Finn instantly started screaming a high-pitched coward's scream that only seemed to get louder. And louder. And louder.

Until it woke Angelus up. The noise, unfortunately, was not that of Riley screeching in fear. It was actually the sound of an army of fire trucks racing down the street. The piercing noise quickly died down as the vehicles passed the house and continued on their way.

Angelus sighed. The dream had had the makings of a very depraved one, but he'd been awakened just as it was starting to get bad. He'd always loved playing the vampiric equivalent of a mad scientist. Ah, well. He'd slept most of the day away, and it was about time he got up. He dragged himself out of bed, took a shower, dressed, and skulked downstairs. It was mid-afternoon and Buffy was long gone, but she had been considerate enough to cover the windows so he didn't have to worry about sunburn. And taped to the refrigerator door was a note. "Angel--went to class. Back this afternoon. Buffy." How sweet. Saccharine sweet. Angelus crumpled the note and pitched it in the trash.

He retrieved his pitcher of blood, microwaved himself a cup of O positive, and made his way into the living room. Ordinarily during daylight hours, he'd have a playroom set up with a few victims to entertain him, just like his dream-Riley. At Buffy's, he only had the TV set. Angelus shook his head in wonder. Sixty cable channels, and not a single one was devoted to torture.

He flicked through them all anyway, just in case, but came up blank and ended up settling for the Style Channel. A perky hostess announced, "This season, black is the new black and will be used for anything from shoes to skirts. In other news, spandex is in and leather is out."

Angelus snorted and changed the channel. The woman had shot her credibility with one sentence. Leather was *always* in.

He zapped around for several more minutes before concluding that the Style Channel might have been the best he was going to do. Damn Buffy anyway. What did she expect him to do all day while she was gone? Angelus wondered if by chance she had any videotapes full of scenes of carnage and destruction. He had to get his fix somehow. He snooped around until he found a movie collection in a nearby cabinet. "Breakfast at Tiffany's." "Jerry Maguire." "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." "Sleepless in Seattle." It just got worse and worse. Why no "Vampire That Ate Seattle" or "Die, Humans, Die"?

Angelus was getting desperate when he spotted a handwritten note on top of the VCR. "Buffy--Don't forget to tape 'Passions' while I'm gone. Love, Mom." Angel didn't watch much TV, so Angelus wasn't sure what "Passions" was. If he had to guess, he'd say some type of porn, but he couldn't picture the uptight Joyce Summers asking her daughter to record adult movies for her. His curiosity piqued, Angelus flicked on the VCR and rewound the tape to play it from the beginning. The first scene featured two teenage girls. One was rambling, "Fate! Ethan and I are meant to be together. It's only a matter of time." Angelus growled. "Passions" was a daytime soap opera. Well, sadly, it wasn't like he had anything better to do than watch it. He decided to keep the tape playing until the show put him back to sleep. Maybe he could pick up where he had left off with the Riley-dream and get to hack off a few limbs or press that flamethrower into action.

Instead, half an hour later, he found himself engrossed in the show. It actually wasn't too bad. In fact, it featured a couple of excellent characters: a witch and her partner-in-crime, a doll she had sewn together and brought to life. They almost made up for the absolute worst character: a virtuous angel girl who glowed like a lantern and spouted platitudes of goodness that had Angelus close to hurling. Still, all in all, it was a reasonably entertaining program. Angelus even managed to capitalize on the whiny-teenager scenes and pick up some sappy romantic dialogue to try out on Buffy.

By the time the tape ended, dusk was approaching and Buffy hadn't yet returned. Angelus was starting to become incredibly irritated. He hated to be ignored and by rights, he should have been the center of attention. At long last, he heard two cars pull up outside the house. Doors opened and slammed, and Angelus set himself to listen; he wasn't below eavesdropping.

First came a voice he recognized as that of Buffy's mousy little friend, Willow. "Where's this surprise you've been talking about? I'm dying to see it!"

"It's inside. Come on," Buffy responded. She unlocked the door and entered the house, followed by Willow and Riley. "Angel! I'm back!" she shouted before she spotted him in the corner of the room. "Oh, there you are. Sorry I'm so late. I had a lot to do at school. Anyway, I brought some old friends to see you."

Angelus eyed the redhead. "Well, well. If it isn't Willow." Somehow, he couldn't bring himself to be overly enthusiastic. She'd given him his soul back, and he was still holding a grudge over that one.

"Angel!" Willow smiled broadly, then to Angelus' annoyance ran over and hugged him. He fought to keep from recoiling.

The door swung open again to reveal Xander and a brunette girl half-hidden behind him. Xander's gaze fell on Angelus and he stopped in his tracks. "Wow. Deadboy. Color me underwhelmed. When Buffy said she had a surprise for us, I thought it would be one I'd like."

That was one reaction Angelus could appreciate. Unfortunately, he couldn't reciprocate in kind or he'd blow his cover. Instead, he merely looked down his nose at the twit and remained silent.

Xander slowly proceeded into the room, and Buffy indicated his companion. "You remember Anya, of course."

Angelus nodded. He felt a certain kinship with the former vengeance demon. He'd been trapped inside wet-blanket Angel, unable to be his true self; she was trapped in the body of a teenage girl, unable to be *her* true self. In a way, though, Anya was even worse off than he had been: She was reduced to dating Xander. Oh, how the mighty had fallen.

Buffy went on, "I knew the gang would want to see you again, and I figured we could go to Giles' together so you can fill us in as a group about this thing that brought you to town. Only, we're stopping at the mall first for a few minutes. I need to pick up a couple things and if we see Giles right away, he'll go into total research mode and we won't be able to escape for hours."

"Fine. Works for me." Angelus set aside his blood cup and trailed the others to the door, his brain working swiftly. He'd already assessed his opponents and dismissed Xander as a nonentity. The boy couldn't buy a clue if someone handed him correct change and told him where to get it. Anya was too self-absorbed to care what he did, plus she hadn't known Angel very well. Riley was overconfident and had an ego to match. Buffy was somewhat lacking in the smarts department. Willow was more on the ball, but he could play on her sense of compassion. That left Giles. The Watcher was the most intelligent member of the group, the most logical, and the second most experienced, behind only Anya. If he suspected Angelus was back, he might well stake first and ask questions later. It was vitally important that Angelus snow Giles as well as he had the others so far.

TBC