It was a strange sensation walking through the hallway the next morning. He couldn't describe how alive he felt. His senses were sharp, muscles honed, mind alert. He could feel his classmate's eyes on him as he walked past and liked the feeling of it. Like he was suddenly a big dog and they were all little puppies running to scatter out of his way. He wore the only turtleneck he owned to cover up the bite marks Faith had given him. He didn't want to have to answer any questions someone was bound to ask when he or she saw it. He didn't think that "Oh; my friend got bitten by some crazy were-thing in the woods. Now she has all these bloodthirsty urges and her hormones are raging, so she had her way with me and tore my neck with her teeth in the process." Somehow he didn't think that would go over to well.

He passed the library, checking if it was empty out of the corner of his eye. He didn't see anyone at the tables inside and doubled back. He his head peeked through the door and scanned the room fully. He sniffed the air, unsure why he felt the urge to do so, but that also came back with nothing. He pulled the books he'd taken yesterday from his backpack and made his way into the stacks. Once he shoved the last one in place, his ears perked at the sound of the doors opening and the voices of two people chatting. He peered around a bookshelf to see Mr. Giles the librarian and that Buffy girl again. He didn't know whether to believe the rumors about them, but the one about them always being together seemed to be true.

They both sat and the biggest table next to the stairs and he cursed silently to himself. He'd wanted to get out of here without anyone seeing him, but that seemed shot now. He sighed and moved from behind all the shelves. The two of them looked surprised to see him there.

"Can I help you with something?" Mr. Giles asked.

"Uh," Xander started lamely. "I was just uh, looking for a math book. Um, intro to calculus?"

"Oh, I'm afraid you were in the wrong section," Mr. Giles replied. "All the math texts are over in the corner. I'll get it for you, Intro to Calculus you say?"

"Uh, yeah."

The older man walked off to get the book and Xander shifted uncomfortably on his feet when he felt Buffy staring at him. He twitched nervously and started biting his fingernails. If he listened closely he could hear her heartbeat from where he stood. It sent a strange impulse through him. He sniffed the air and picked up the faint scent of jasmine in her hair. Her heart beat louder in his ears. The aroma of her floating through the air and driving his sharpened senses wild. He stepped closer to her, his hands shaking with some strange anticipation. She looked at him oddly, and he couldn't help flashing his teeth. He spun away from, not wanting her to think he was some sort of weirdo. Though he guessed it was too late for that. Her scent was all around him, the sound of her blood coursing through her body getting louder and louder. He bit his lip to fend off all the urges he felt to hurt her, but his side suddenly exploded in pain and he cried out and hunched over. He felt Buffy rush next to him.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"I...," he struggled. "H-hurts so badly..."

"Do you need me to get the nurse?"

"Won't help," he muttered.

He spun quickly to face her and grabbed her by the shoulders. She knocked his hands away, but he jumped and tackled her to the floor. He growled deep and low and she struggled underneath him. She kicked him off and sent him sprawling across the room. He shot to his feet, all the urges he felt building within him suddenly gone.

"I... I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean. Oh god what is going on..."

He looked at her a few feet away perched in a fighting stance, waiting for him to attack again. Mr. Giles walked back over to them, the book in his hand and a confused look on his face. Xander knew he wouldn't let himself attack her again and turned to run for the door.

"I'm sorry," he said again.

He ran straight for the bathroom and nearly kicked the door off its hinges when it didn't open right away. Heading straight for the sink, he poured some cold water into the palms of his hand and splashed his face. He stared at his reflection in the mirror, checking his teeth to see if they too had turned into fangs. They hadn't, but he imagined that it was only a matter of time. He pulled down the turtleneck to examine his bite mark and jumped back when he saw that it wasn't there.

"Shit," he muttered. "Shit, shit, shit."

He knew then that he was screwed. That thing had bitten Faith and she went all savage on him. She bit him and now he was heading there himself. He'd wanted to hurt Buffy so badly, more than anything he'd ever wanted in his life. His hands started to shake uncontrollably. He had no idea what he could do about it. He didn't want to go around ripping people into little pieces; he'd never wanted to hurt anyone. He had to get out of here now.

***

"What the fuck did you do to me?" He cried as he burst into his room.

Faith was still there like he'd asked her to be. He didn't think it was a good idea for her to be at school when she had clearly visible fangs and the uncontrollable need to tear living things to pieces. She was curled up like a cat on the end of his bed and perked her head up calmly when he stormed in. She sniffed the air quickly and smelled the blood on him. She sat up to look at him more closely and saw the blood covering his mouth and shirt. The scent of his it made the hair on her arms stand on end.

"What happened?" She asked.

He put his hand to his mouth, as if the memory of whatever he'd done made the bile surge into his throat. He ran out of the doorway and down the hall into the bathroom. He threw the toilet seat up violently and placed his face over the edge of the bowl, letting the contents of his stomach go. Faith leaned against the doorway and waited for him to finish.

"That fucking dog that always barks at us," Xander coughed before throwing up again. "He was tied to the tree outside the house; I guess the owner want to give it some fresh air or something. So I go walking by and he starts barking and won't stop. So I bark back at it, thinking maybe it'll shut up, but it only barked louder and started jumping at me like it wanted to bite me. So I... Oh god I..."

He threw up in a few more spurts and Faith knew exactly what he'd done. He rolled away from the toilet bowl and collapsed on the floor weakly clutching at his stomach.

"I killed the fucking dog," he groaned. "I nearly ate the damn thing."

"That's not so bad," Faith offered.

"Not so bad?" He shot back. "This is all kinds of bad from where I'm looking."

"You could have killed a person," she mumbled.

"I nearly did," he said.

"What?"

"At school," he continued. "I went to put those books away, cause you know, big help they were. And no one was in the library so I put them back and then Mr. Giles and that Buffy girl come in and sit down. So I'm standing back in the stacks hiding out from them but they don't leave. So I go down and face them and make up some lame excuse about needing a math book or something. Mr. Giles offered to get it for me and I'm standing there next to Buffy, and I can feel the blood moving in her body. I could hear her damn heartbeat from three feet away, and then my side started to hurt like yours did and she asked me what was wrong and turned on her. I tried to bite her Faith. I wanted to bite her. God damn it Faith, I wanted to kill her!"

He groaned and rolled onto his side.

"What did you do to me?" He asked. "What's happening to us?"

"I wish I knew," she said quietly.

She moved from the doorway and kneeled down next to him, gently pulling his head into her lap she pet his hair softly. He clutched her arm firmly and snuggled his head into her legs. She still smelled the blood he was covered in; it made her stomach rumble. She leaned over him and flicked out her tongue to clean the blood from his face. He made no move to stop her. His eyes closed and let himself drift off to sleep.

***

He woke up hours later in his backyard. He didn't remember how he'd gotten there, but his hands were covered in dirt and his knees ached slightly. He could smell the moisture in to cool night air, but it was polluted by the vile stench of death. He pushed himself up and walked slowly around the yard trying to find the source of the smell. He nearly fell into in a large hole dug into the grass behind the shed and turned his head away from the stink. He peered his head passed the edge of the hole and found the source. The body of some girl he didn't know lay in the dirt, mangled beyond recognition. Blood caked her now dirty blond hair and she was missing a few fingers on her left hand. He put his hand to his mouth and turned to walk away. He collapsed to his knees when he reached the front of the shed. He hadn't done that had he? Why couldn't he remember? He crawled slowly across the grass and stopped when he was suddenly staring at a pair of boots.

"Faith?" He mumbled.

"Oh good," she said sarcastically. "You're awake. I thought I was going to have to bury both of these cunts by myself."

"Both?" He asked weakly.

He looked up to see that Faith was dragging another body by the shirt behind her.

"What did you do?"

"We," she said crouching down so that they were face to face. "We did this Xander. Don't tell me you don't remember."

She grinned at him, her fangs flashing in the moonlight.

"How?"

"You'd be surprised how easy it was," she said. "I didn't even have to talk you into it."

"You lie."

"You only wish I did," she said moving to stand again. "You were vicious Xander. Didn't show one ounce of mercy."

She dragged the body of the other girl behind the shed and tossed it into the hole. It almost scared him to see that she was suddenly so apathetic about killing these two people. Yesterday she was crying about what she was becoming, and now she seemed to embrace it without a care in the world. He slowly moved to his feet and stumbled to the hole. Faith stood over it staring at her handiwork. If he didn't know better he would have thought she was pleased with herself.

"You would think with all the weird crap that goes on in this town, some people would learn not to jog at night." She commented dryly.

He didn't respond. He couldn't bear to make himself look at the bodies again. Though they were mutilated beyond any recognition, he didn't want the image of them burned into his memory. Faith kicked a mound of dirt onto them and continued throwing the rest of the pile on.

"Help me," she grumbled.

He nodded numbly and began scooping the rest of the dirt in. His body ached in ways he didn't understand, and didn't want to. He didn't know what happened to Faith all of a sudden to make her stop caring that they were ending people's lives, but he knew he didn't want it to happen to him. When the bodies were covered he walked swiftly away from the dirt pile left over. He stopped in the middle of the lawn and fell to his knees again, fighting back the urge to vomit.

"Xander," Faith purred from behind him. "Don't take it so hard. People go missing all the time."

"Not from us," he shot back. "Faith listen to me, we have to get help. There must be something someone can do. We have to..."

"We have to what?" She yelled. "What are we going to do? Take a bath in some holy water? Stab ourselves with silver knives to see if we die?"

"Maybe we could talk to someone."

"Who?" She demanded. "Who's going to know a damn thing about us?"

"Mr. Giles," he said. The name popping into his head out of nowhere. "The rumors about him, all that weird supernatural shit he's into, and those books he has. What if he can help us?"

"What about the other rumors Xander?" She bit out. "You know the ones where he *kills* things like us? Sorry if I don't want to walk up to him and go 'hi, I'm turning into some crazy wolf/vampire thing and I've already killed a bunch of people. But can you please, please help me?' I don't think he'd go for that."

"Maybe if we tell him it was an accident..."

"Oh right," she spat. "I 'accidentally' ripped their intestines out and ate them? They just sort of fell into my mouth?"

"I'm just trying to..."

"Look at my hands Xander!" She shouted, lifting them up to show him that they now resembled claws more than finger. "Look at my teeth. Go dig up our two friends back there and take a good long look at what we did. What *you* and *I* did."

She marched toward and poked her finger harshly into his chest.

"You can't fix this!"

"I still have to try," he mumbled. "There has to be something we can do. I'm going to talk to them."

He moved to walk away from her but she grabbed his shoulder. Her heard her growl and he suddenly found himself lying on his back staring at her fangs.

"I'm sorry Xander," she said apologetically. "But I can't let you do that."

She raised her fist above his head. He didn't even feel blow before his mind slipped.