Anna hadn't arrived back in time at Spikes' crypt before sunrise. She had
been out trying to get Xander to open the door but she knew he wouldn't.
She wasn't quite sure if she had actually wanted him to be stupid enough to
do that. She had had to find her way back using the sewers and because she
was knew in town it had taken her a while to find her way through the many
miles of sewers in Sunnydale. Naomi was there as well and she had a big
smile on her face.
"Where have you been?" Anna asked in a bad mood. The Sunnydale tunnels had not been pleasant.
"I've been right here all the time." The smile increased a bit more.
"For the rest of the night?" Anna didn't like being inside at night, as they didn't get out much in the day she tended to stay outside for as long as possible. Sometimes that involved being outside a few before dawn would some.
"Ah ha."
"Doing what?" Spikes crypt with dull all there was to do really was watch TV. They had gone inside shortly after their conversation, but Anna left just a few minutes after going in. When she had gone back outside Xander was gone. Luckily Spike knew where he lived.
"Stuff. Where did you go?"
"Xanders of course, remember Spike gave me directions. I was interested in his place and I was looking around and found something." Anna put one of her hands in her pocket.
"So tell me what you've got." Asked Naomi expecting Anna to reveal the interesting item in her pocket.
"I'll tell you later." She brought her hand back out of her pocket. "First you have to tell me what you were up to last night."
Naomi didn't answer. Her smile though had turned into a huge grin. Anna saw Spike for the first time this morning; he was wearing nothing but a smile and a towel. Then Anna noticed Naomi wasn't wearing her own clothes it was a huge shirt, Spikes shirt.
"OH MY GOD, YOU DIDN'T, DID YOU?"
"I did and it was great, all five times and it lasted a long time."
"I only have one thing to say to that, BITCH!" Anna smiled herself "He is such a honey and I am in such jealousy. What about Oz?"
"What about Oz? I can have them both, can't I?"
There was a knock on the door and a voice to answer it.
"Who is it?" He shouted and then he whispered, "You two hide back, I'll get rid of them." Anna and Naomi hid one in the coffin and the other under the bed.
"It's Buffy and Xander, who else would it be?" Spike opened the door.
"Well I happen to have a lot of friends."
"I thought they all wanted to see you staked." Buffy enjoyed picking on Spike; well he deserved after all the trouble he had caused them, especially two years ago.
"What do you want? Do you know what time it is? I should be sleeping!"
"Yeah, yeah we don't exactly want to be here either. There were some brutal vampire attacks last night on a couple of lads, do you know anything about it?"
"No and even if I did I wouldn't tell you anything."
"So how do we know if you're lying?" Xander never trusted he knew he was harmless, but he still couldn't be trusted.
"That's just a chance…"
"Quit it Spike, we're not going through that." Buffy was fed up of the lack of answers she got from Spike and yet she never staked him.
"Well maybe I could tell you something what's it worth?"
"You get live another annoying day."
"I fail to see the threat, I'm to valuable for information."
"Here's the threat" Buffy pulled out Mr Pointy " and you're not actually Mr answers these days, so I think you've run your afterlife span." She was just about to put the stake through the heart when unfortunately he answered her.
"Yeah I know about your two female vampires, they're new here, living in some empty house on Maple Street, killed a load of squatters for it."
"That's better." Buffy put Mr Pointy away and headed for the door with Xander "Remember if you're lying, it's hello to Mr Pointy again and bye bye Spike." They exited the crypt. A few seconds later Anna and Naomi reappeared from their hiding places.
"You two better be careful, if anything you don't want the slayer on your back." Spike warned, he was right Buffy was good at what she did and he didn't want her staking Naomi and Anna, Naomi especially. He strolled over to her and kissed her.
"Well where did you send them to?" asked an impatient Anna.
"Sure it's a vampire hangout, she'll probably find two female vampires there and stake them instead." Spike smiled "If not I'm pretty much dead."
"You could have saved your arse there, but you saved us instead, that's very sweet of you." Naomi snogged him; Anna looked away and rolled her eyes.
"So are we hitting them now or later?" Xander hoped now because he was bored and he didn't want to be told to go home.
"I'm just gonna pick up a few things and we'll hit them in daylight." Xander and Buffy headed to Giles where she could get some weapons. Mr Pointy was good, but she needed back up. They quickly arrived at Giles' condo, where he and Willow were waiting.
"Spike gave us a place check out, the problem is do we trust him?"
"Well you better just in case for the first time ever he tells the truth, without the assistance of black magic." Giles looked at the book he was holding. "We haven't had much luck though in finding an identity for the two female vampires."
"There are several murders that lead to Great Britain, but after that it gets a bit messy." Willow turned away from her laptop "Hang on I think that I've found something else, just give me a minute."
"What is with you British?" said Xander
"Yes I was quite surprised myself, I think the vampires are new, as the killings only start about one year ago, but the origin is hard to find."
"Okay, the earliest one I can find is in Rhyl then Chester, Liverpool, Birmingham and London. They spread all around Wales and England."
"Who were the first victims?" asked Buffy
"Two girls and one lad. The girls had their blood drained and then a few days later a lad was from nearby with his neck snapped." Willow looked at Buffy who was in deep thought mode.
"The two girls they're the vampires."
"I thought the two girls were the first victims?" said a confused Xander.
"They were killed then they came back and were repeating similar deaths to theirs."
"With the mystical energy of the Hellmouth attracting them here, of course." Giles smiled.
"Can you get a picture of them?"
"No there isn't one on-line, but there is a description it if you call it that, which I guess helps. Anna is 18, has long brown hair, quite tall and Naomi was 19, with ginger and blond streaks and is a bit taller then Anna."
"It's better than nothing," Buffy shrugged ", but still close to nothing."
"Wasn't there some vampire butt that needed kicking?"
"You make a good point Xand." It was about time they headed off to see if Spike was telling the truth; at least with the description she had she would have a better idea if she staked the right two. Then again any vampire being dust was good news. Buffy walked over to open Giles' weapons trunk and removed from it a cross, a bottle of holy water and three stakes. She gave a stake and the cross to Xander, and then put everything else in her bag.
"Anyone else wanna come?" Buffy asked, Willow replied by shaking her head and Giles with his eyes fixed in a book went hmm… "Looks like it just you and me!"
"Hmm" Giles looked up this time. "Oh and be careful they not be as old as Spike, but who knows what they are, or were like in their former life."
"See ya." Said Xander casually like they were just going to the Bronze and not off to fight some blood sucking fiends.
Xander arrived with Buffy at the abandoned house, the windows were boarded up and grass reached the windows. It was only an hour till sunset then who ever were in there would be leaving for something to eat. Buffy peered between two of the wooden planks blocking the daylight.
"Anyone there?" whispered Xander.
"No I don't think so, they're probably upstairs somewhere." Buffy was disappointed if they had been by the door; she could have kicked it down. Letting the light shine on their exposed undead bodies. Buffy kicked the door, so it opened but didn't make a load enough noise to wake the inhabitants up. Buffy took Mr Pointy out of her bag; it wasn't going to be much use in there. Xander clenched the cross in his right hand and the stake in his left. There was no sign of vampires in any of the downstairs rooms, but then again the basement door was locked. Buffy found that no problem, and the door opened; there was a stench in the air. It didn't take long to find out why; dead bodies don't tend to stay fresh, thats if you just leave them around.
"It's vampires." Xander stated the obvious, and then Buffy shut the door very quickly to keep the foul smell in the basement. They walked up the stairs there were three doors, Buffy chose the one in centre for no reason. She opened the door and it didn't creek eerily, but the content of the room was interesting. There were six vampires, two females and four males. The female vampires seemed to match the description Willow had given her. Lucky me thought Buffy.
"Xander" she whispered "Tried to get the planks of the windows." He nodded. The room was quite small there wasn't much room to move between vampires and he worried that he would trip over one of them. They were just sleeping on the floor; no beds not even a duvet. He walked between two of the male vampires, with the brown haired female vampire at his feet. That was the problem. She grabbed his ankles and an unbalanced Xander fell to the floor with a load thud. The thud woke up the male vampires and he was lying between them. His neck at their mouths and they growled at him for disturbing their slumber. He tried to get up, but the vamp at his feet wouldn't let go. He tossed over to lie on his back he could she her face and her hungry smile. Xander did the first thing that came to his head and kicked her in the face. Reacting she let go and clenched her face in pain. Xander may have got back on his feet but the two vampires were also on theirs. The closest one grabbed from behind, while the second came close to his neck. Xander tucked in his legs and kicked it away with both his feet.
"Buffy!" She knew he was in trouble and staked the vampire which held him.
"One down five to go." All the vampires were know a wake and were staring at the slayer and her friend.
"Mmm… breakfast in bed." The newly a woken vampire said licking his fangs. Buffy took out her favourite stake Mr Pointy ready for the attack, the first vampire pounced and landed right on it, useful. The vampires came right at them, hungry for the first feed of the night. The two vampires that Xander had kicked came after him, but were greeted with holy water in the face.
"My face, again!" called the vampire. Xander watched their face for a second then realised there were more important things to be done. He headed to the window and started to take the planks off. They were on tight he would have to put all his strength in to it. He stared Buffy, who was busy turning her vampires into a bloody pulp on the floor; the stake made contact with the males' heart and he quickly turned into a pile of dust. The red headed female came at her next and was able to knock Mr Pointy out of her hand. Buffy was left with no weapon and had to rely on her fists. Xander stopped trying to let the light in and looked though Buffys' bag of tricks. The other vampires looked angrier now and they came at him, but he was quick enough to get the cross out. Seeing the religious sign they hesitated. With one hand in the bag and the other holding the cross, he was able to find a stake for Buffy. Xander was also curious where his stake had got. He tossed her the stake; she stopped fighting for a second to grab. With one quick motion she drove the stake in to the vampires' heart and watched her explode into dust. It was time to help Xander with his two problems. She kicked one and was happy with the satisfying crack, which indicated a broken jaw. He fell to the floor and turned to dust. Buffy and the other vampire was confused.
"Oh that's where it went." Said Xander. One vampire left and she knew she was on her own. "Wanna do the honours." Buffy smiled.
"Thankyou." The strange thing was the vampire was also smiling and wasn't heading towards the open door. Buffy walked over and picked up Mr Pointy, who she had lost earlier. She heard noises coming a long the corridor.
"What's going on in here?"
"Yeah some of us are trying to sleep." Around twelve vampires walked in, and then there was the one already in the room. Thirteen was unlucky for some, in this case Buffy and Xander. Xander whispered in Buffys ear.
"Oh yeah." She walked back a few steps and pulled off the planks easily. It was embarrassing that he had been putting all his strength into it with no success and then with a flick of the wrist she had succeeded. That wasn't the point though, there was no one here to laugh at him and there was a gang of hungry vampires heading toward him. The last light of the day beamed in through the window. The female vampire that had grabbed his ankles before went up in a fury of flames.
"Arghhhhh!" Another vampires arm caught fire, he quickly bust into flames, with no water to put it out. A few backed off into the hallway and the others made their way up the shaded side of the room. They were pissed off with the intruders. A vampire chest caught the daylight, as the flames crawled all over his body he grabbed onto another fellow vampires, setting him a light as well.
"Come on Xander out the window quick." Buffy chucked her bag and Xander out of the window. The vampires were near her and grabbing.
"Hey watch those hands boys." She climbed on to the windowsill "Well my jobs done, see ya!" She jumped out of the window and landed softly on her feet. One vampire was stupid enough to run to the window to curse at her, but it's no use when you're big pile of dust.
"Ow, did you have to throw me out of the window as well?" Xander clambered onto his feet.
"Time was short and it was kinda fun." Buffy smiled "Sorry Xander, I promise not to do it again."
"Thankyou."
"This week." She mumbled to herself.
"What did you say?"
"Oh, I think we should be getting back to Giles', the sun will be down soon and those vampires aren't exactly gonna greet us as friends."
"Hey that didn't fit into what you said before." They began to walk off.
"Well that's because before I said let's go."
"You just keep saying that to yourself."
"I thought I threw you so you'd land on my bag."
"Yes and that was another problem, what do you keep in their?" he groaned.
"Oh, yeah, umm… sorry about that."
"Spikey." Asked Naomi
"Yes?"
"Is there a magic shop near by?"
"Yes."
"Can you take me there?"
"Yes."
"Can we go now?"
"Yes."
"So shouldn't we be going?"
"Yes."
The Bronze, home to all those teens that wanted something to do on a Friday night. In Sunnydale though it was only place, wait the only decent place to go for those too young to drink alcohol or didn't look twenty-one. Buffy, Willow and Xander were nearly there, Dingoes Ate My Baby was on and Willow was set on drool mode.
"Isn't Anya coming?" Asked Buffy "Not like we wouldn't miss her or anything."
"Yes, she's meeting us at the…" Xander paused. " Did you hear something?"
"Was it calling your name again?" Asked Willow
"I think so," Xander considered the fact that he was going crazy "but they're dust aren't they?"
"Xander." There it was again.
"Yeah, I heard it." They all stood still to try hear where the sound was coming from.
"Xander!" it was coming from behind them "Wait up!" It was just Anya who was now running trying to catch up with the gang.
"Shit your pants for nothing Xand?" Buffy smirked.
"Ha very funny." He called over to Anya "I thought we were meeting up at the Bronze."
"Well I saw you in the distance didn't I, I've been shouting at you for ages why didn't you hear me straight away?"
"Sorry I don't have super hearing?"
"I'll forgive you this time." She and Xander snogged and she was happy.
"Hey maybe you could get a Xander whistle, that way only he can hear it." Buffy suggested.
They approached the Bronze as usual they were letting anyone in as long as they were there with two bucks. There was a queue to get in and hopefully it meant that the Dingoes popularity was increasing ever still.
"Xander, I've left my purse at home can you pay for me?" Anya kissed him to seal the deal.
"I was going to anyway, but now I definitely will." Xander grinned. Buffy was never to keen on Anya it was that whole nearly getting lots of people killed, so that she could have her powers back thing. Tonight though she was acting a bit different, maybe it was PMT or maybe she was just being strange Anya, stranger Anya. Anya was just like Cordelia with the lack of the tact and being annoying, except in an ex-demon way. Once inside Willow made her way to find the closest table to the stage, so she had a good view of Oz playing the guitar. Xander went to get the drinks; everyone wanted the same fizzy drinks, so he didn't have to try to remember all the different drinks. The Dingoes started to play it was a new song, written by Oz and dedicated to Willow- isn't that sweet. Something was irritating Anya and Xander could tell.
"Are you okay?" he asked even though he already knew something was wrong.
"I've got a bit of a head ache could we go outside, maybe?" Anya asked. Xander nodded, as he really knew what she was hinting at and it wasn't anything he would dislike. He still informed the rest of the group, even though he knew that they knew what he and Anya were probably going to get up to on their little walk to the park.
The queue outside the bronze had gone down a lot since they had been inside, probably most of Sunnydales young adult population was in there. They were going to go to the park, which was only about a five-minute walk. There wasn't much town to walk around, so you got to anywhere pretty quick. He hadn't brought his car with him tonight otherwise he would of picked up Anya on the way there. It was just too nice a night to travel in a car, and his car was too broken down to transport anyone anywhere. Of course Xander was too broke to afford to fix it, maybe he could lend Uncle Rorys' car sometime. They arrived at the park soon enough; he put his arm around her and looked around. The park seemed to empty no one there but them, all alone no one to disturb them.
"See that girl over there, dancing near Oz."
"She's on dance floor Will, he's on the stage. Paranoid much?" asked Buffy.
"No I mean look at her, does she look alive? Hey I think she's drooling over him!" Willow pointed angrily at the girl drooling over her boyfriends only she was allowed to do that.
"Three things Will, it rude to point, I think your paranoid, she's not drooling over your man and I too think she's a vampire." The way too pale skin was a big give away.
"That's four things."
"Oh, umm… count the middle two as one."
"Okay, but strange person looking at Oz."
The new girl stuck out from the crowd; her hair was blue and purple, not something you see everyday in Sunnydale. Except for on Oz, who was too looking at the girl with blue hair and smiling. He'd found his hair mate, but hopefully for Willow the mystery girl was going to be on the receiving end of a pointy stick. The clothes she wearing was kind of wild as well, a sort of Goth meets hippie chick with a clash of biker girl. She was wearing biker boots, a bodes dress and a pair of blue round sunglasses. Oh yeah she was leaving with some guy.
"Gotta go."
"Okay, see ya in a minute." Willow sipped her drink and continued to stare mindlessly at Oz.
Buffy walked through the crowd of teenagers dancing, chatting or just sitting with friends. She made her way quickly to the exit, there was no queue now, and no one else was coming in tonight. The Bronze was full. All was quiet; there was no noise anywhere, which could help her to find where the vampire had gone. No sign of the struggle, but Buffy continued to look. There it was, something metal had fallen over, probably a bin. She found herself heading towards the sounds, it was just around the corner and she was thinking of something cool to say.
"Get a room." It wasn't exactly original and it was a little crude, but she couldn't think of anything else to say. She could have said, "be gone foul demon", but that was just stupid. Buffy approached the vampire; she clenched her stake in her fist ready for the kill. They turned around wondering who it was,
"Spike?" She managed to stop herself from staking him, even though she was at full power.
"Buffy, can't you see I'm busy." He tilted his head towards the girl to give Buffy a big hint.
"Oh I didn't did I give you permission to leave the house young man and with this girl, tell me is she undead or alive?"
The strange girl put on her game face, but didn't attack Buffy like most vampires had done in the past. This creeped her out in away that she would of guessed. Spike on a date I thought he was still pining for Drusilla or maybe this vampire is just rebound. Maybe I should warn her what a complete moron he is, hang why am I thinking this I should be saying it out loud.
"You do know that Spike's impotent." Buffy smiled, now that should of hit the heart dead centre.
"Hey!"
"Oh I know about his little feeding problem, but I definitely do know that all his well down below."
"Uuwww, way to much information."
"Now leave us." She spoke again, but Buffy just stood their still disgusted. "Is she deaf or just stupid? Go away!"
"You're going to listen to my hey. Spike, you do realise that your next date is going to be a big pile of dust."
"Buffy don't be hasty, why don't you just go back to the those morons you call friends while I finish my date."
Buffy felt slightly awkward, she knew that she should be staking little miss freaky, but she was with Spike. No matter how annoying Buffy found him, the gang still needed him as their main way of getting information resources.
"She's staring at me, I don't like it I mean it's not as if I can hurt anyone."
"What?" asked Buffy.
"Well I escaped from the Initiative, but ever since then I can't seem to hurt anything without getting this really bad main in my head. I would go see a doctor, but I'd just get hungry."
"That's a problem…" Before Buffy could finish she heard a scream in the distance "…but I have more important business to attend to, gotta go." She ran off into the night and headed to the alley at the otherside of the Bronze. She got there quickly and saw a girl with a vampire biting her neck.
"Oh so this is where you got to honey, I've been looking everywhere for you and here you are with another woman." Buffy tutted and the vampires yellow eyes meet with Buffys' stake. He dropped the girl who fell to the floor holding her hand to her wound. He tried to run but Buffy blocked his only exit, so the vampire attempted to pounce on her. Buffy grabbed him in full flight and chucked him over her head. He landed with a loud thump, as he lay on the ground in pain. That wasn't enough to kill him only a stake to his cold heart would do. She ran to him lifted her stake and imbedded it in his chest, soon afterwards he exploded into a cloud of dust.
"Nobody cheats on me. Are you okay?" Buffy asked the vampires' victim.
"Yeah, I'll be fine, but what was that?"
"It was a gang member on PCP," she gave the main excuse going for a vampire attack "You might wanna get a plaster on that and maybe walk home with a friend."
"Okay." The girl was dazed and confused, but she still strolled slowly into the busy Bronze to find someone she knew.
Buffy walked back to the alley where Spike and his girl had been, but like she expected they had disappeared. She hoped that the story had been told by Spike strange date was true but she doubted it. Her steps lead her back to Willow sitting at their table.
"Is she dust?"
"No, she was Spike date and an emergency with another vampire came up, so I had to go and save someone's life, again."
"Oh, but the good news is the girls with Spike and not my Oz."
"Who's not with me?" The Dingoes were having a ten-minute break and Oz had come to see Willow.
"The girl who was staring at you."
"The one with blue hair?"
"Were you noticing back?" asked Willow
"No it just someone else with blue hair and in this place it's pretty hard not to notice it."
"Hi, where's Xander? I was meant to meet him here, but I can't find him anywhere, has he stood me up?"
Everyone gave Anya a strange look and then they all got a bad feeling.
"Anya, Xander left with you about a while go and you went to the park to get on with the smooches." Buffy filled Anya in.
"No I didn't, I think I would notice that kind of thing."
"Oh my God Xander, he's out there with something else, we have to go right now to the park."
"Which park Buffy?" Willow raised a good point there were four in Sunnydale and by the time they had visited them all Xander could be hurt or even worse, dead.
"We always go to Weatherly Park, it's never as busy as the others."
"Take my van, I don't think I could explain it to the guys."
"Okay." Buffy grabbed the keys and they all stormed to the outside of the Bronze where Oz's van and Giles was.
"Giles get into the van, I tell you along the way."
"And I've got something to tell you…where's Xander?"
"Exactly what we want to know."
"Where have you been?" Anna asked in a bad mood. The Sunnydale tunnels had not been pleasant.
"I've been right here all the time." The smile increased a bit more.
"For the rest of the night?" Anna didn't like being inside at night, as they didn't get out much in the day she tended to stay outside for as long as possible. Sometimes that involved being outside a few before dawn would some.
"Ah ha."
"Doing what?" Spikes crypt with dull all there was to do really was watch TV. They had gone inside shortly after their conversation, but Anna left just a few minutes after going in. When she had gone back outside Xander was gone. Luckily Spike knew where he lived.
"Stuff. Where did you go?"
"Xanders of course, remember Spike gave me directions. I was interested in his place and I was looking around and found something." Anna put one of her hands in her pocket.
"So tell me what you've got." Asked Naomi expecting Anna to reveal the interesting item in her pocket.
"I'll tell you later." She brought her hand back out of her pocket. "First you have to tell me what you were up to last night."
Naomi didn't answer. Her smile though had turned into a huge grin. Anna saw Spike for the first time this morning; he was wearing nothing but a smile and a towel. Then Anna noticed Naomi wasn't wearing her own clothes it was a huge shirt, Spikes shirt.
"OH MY GOD, YOU DIDN'T, DID YOU?"
"I did and it was great, all five times and it lasted a long time."
"I only have one thing to say to that, BITCH!" Anna smiled herself "He is such a honey and I am in such jealousy. What about Oz?"
"What about Oz? I can have them both, can't I?"
There was a knock on the door and a voice to answer it.
"Who is it?" He shouted and then he whispered, "You two hide back, I'll get rid of them." Anna and Naomi hid one in the coffin and the other under the bed.
"It's Buffy and Xander, who else would it be?" Spike opened the door.
"Well I happen to have a lot of friends."
"I thought they all wanted to see you staked." Buffy enjoyed picking on Spike; well he deserved after all the trouble he had caused them, especially two years ago.
"What do you want? Do you know what time it is? I should be sleeping!"
"Yeah, yeah we don't exactly want to be here either. There were some brutal vampire attacks last night on a couple of lads, do you know anything about it?"
"No and even if I did I wouldn't tell you anything."
"So how do we know if you're lying?" Xander never trusted he knew he was harmless, but he still couldn't be trusted.
"That's just a chance…"
"Quit it Spike, we're not going through that." Buffy was fed up of the lack of answers she got from Spike and yet she never staked him.
"Well maybe I could tell you something what's it worth?"
"You get live another annoying day."
"I fail to see the threat, I'm to valuable for information."
"Here's the threat" Buffy pulled out Mr Pointy " and you're not actually Mr answers these days, so I think you've run your afterlife span." She was just about to put the stake through the heart when unfortunately he answered her.
"Yeah I know about your two female vampires, they're new here, living in some empty house on Maple Street, killed a load of squatters for it."
"That's better." Buffy put Mr Pointy away and headed for the door with Xander "Remember if you're lying, it's hello to Mr Pointy again and bye bye Spike." They exited the crypt. A few seconds later Anna and Naomi reappeared from their hiding places.
"You two better be careful, if anything you don't want the slayer on your back." Spike warned, he was right Buffy was good at what she did and he didn't want her staking Naomi and Anna, Naomi especially. He strolled over to her and kissed her.
"Well where did you send them to?" asked an impatient Anna.
"Sure it's a vampire hangout, she'll probably find two female vampires there and stake them instead." Spike smiled "If not I'm pretty much dead."
"You could have saved your arse there, but you saved us instead, that's very sweet of you." Naomi snogged him; Anna looked away and rolled her eyes.
"So are we hitting them now or later?" Xander hoped now because he was bored and he didn't want to be told to go home.
"I'm just gonna pick up a few things and we'll hit them in daylight." Xander and Buffy headed to Giles where she could get some weapons. Mr Pointy was good, but she needed back up. They quickly arrived at Giles' condo, where he and Willow were waiting.
"Spike gave us a place check out, the problem is do we trust him?"
"Well you better just in case for the first time ever he tells the truth, without the assistance of black magic." Giles looked at the book he was holding. "We haven't had much luck though in finding an identity for the two female vampires."
"There are several murders that lead to Great Britain, but after that it gets a bit messy." Willow turned away from her laptop "Hang on I think that I've found something else, just give me a minute."
"What is with you British?" said Xander
"Yes I was quite surprised myself, I think the vampires are new, as the killings only start about one year ago, but the origin is hard to find."
"Okay, the earliest one I can find is in Rhyl then Chester, Liverpool, Birmingham and London. They spread all around Wales and England."
"Who were the first victims?" asked Buffy
"Two girls and one lad. The girls had their blood drained and then a few days later a lad was from nearby with his neck snapped." Willow looked at Buffy who was in deep thought mode.
"The two girls they're the vampires."
"I thought the two girls were the first victims?" said a confused Xander.
"They were killed then they came back and were repeating similar deaths to theirs."
"With the mystical energy of the Hellmouth attracting them here, of course." Giles smiled.
"Can you get a picture of them?"
"No there isn't one on-line, but there is a description it if you call it that, which I guess helps. Anna is 18, has long brown hair, quite tall and Naomi was 19, with ginger and blond streaks and is a bit taller then Anna."
"It's better than nothing," Buffy shrugged ", but still close to nothing."
"Wasn't there some vampire butt that needed kicking?"
"You make a good point Xand." It was about time they headed off to see if Spike was telling the truth; at least with the description she had she would have a better idea if she staked the right two. Then again any vampire being dust was good news. Buffy walked over to open Giles' weapons trunk and removed from it a cross, a bottle of holy water and three stakes. She gave a stake and the cross to Xander, and then put everything else in her bag.
"Anyone else wanna come?" Buffy asked, Willow replied by shaking her head and Giles with his eyes fixed in a book went hmm… "Looks like it just you and me!"
"Hmm" Giles looked up this time. "Oh and be careful they not be as old as Spike, but who knows what they are, or were like in their former life."
"See ya." Said Xander casually like they were just going to the Bronze and not off to fight some blood sucking fiends.
Xander arrived with Buffy at the abandoned house, the windows were boarded up and grass reached the windows. It was only an hour till sunset then who ever were in there would be leaving for something to eat. Buffy peered between two of the wooden planks blocking the daylight.
"Anyone there?" whispered Xander.
"No I don't think so, they're probably upstairs somewhere." Buffy was disappointed if they had been by the door; she could have kicked it down. Letting the light shine on their exposed undead bodies. Buffy kicked the door, so it opened but didn't make a load enough noise to wake the inhabitants up. Buffy took Mr Pointy out of her bag; it wasn't going to be much use in there. Xander clenched the cross in his right hand and the stake in his left. There was no sign of vampires in any of the downstairs rooms, but then again the basement door was locked. Buffy found that no problem, and the door opened; there was a stench in the air. It didn't take long to find out why; dead bodies don't tend to stay fresh, thats if you just leave them around.
"It's vampires." Xander stated the obvious, and then Buffy shut the door very quickly to keep the foul smell in the basement. They walked up the stairs there were three doors, Buffy chose the one in centre for no reason. She opened the door and it didn't creek eerily, but the content of the room was interesting. There were six vampires, two females and four males. The female vampires seemed to match the description Willow had given her. Lucky me thought Buffy.
"Xander" she whispered "Tried to get the planks of the windows." He nodded. The room was quite small there wasn't much room to move between vampires and he worried that he would trip over one of them. They were just sleeping on the floor; no beds not even a duvet. He walked between two of the male vampires, with the brown haired female vampire at his feet. That was the problem. She grabbed his ankles and an unbalanced Xander fell to the floor with a load thud. The thud woke up the male vampires and he was lying between them. His neck at their mouths and they growled at him for disturbing their slumber. He tried to get up, but the vamp at his feet wouldn't let go. He tossed over to lie on his back he could she her face and her hungry smile. Xander did the first thing that came to his head and kicked her in the face. Reacting she let go and clenched her face in pain. Xander may have got back on his feet but the two vampires were also on theirs. The closest one grabbed from behind, while the second came close to his neck. Xander tucked in his legs and kicked it away with both his feet.
"Buffy!" She knew he was in trouble and staked the vampire which held him.
"One down five to go." All the vampires were know a wake and were staring at the slayer and her friend.
"Mmm… breakfast in bed." The newly a woken vampire said licking his fangs. Buffy took out her favourite stake Mr Pointy ready for the attack, the first vampire pounced and landed right on it, useful. The vampires came right at them, hungry for the first feed of the night. The two vampires that Xander had kicked came after him, but were greeted with holy water in the face.
"My face, again!" called the vampire. Xander watched their face for a second then realised there were more important things to be done. He headed to the window and started to take the planks off. They were on tight he would have to put all his strength in to it. He stared Buffy, who was busy turning her vampires into a bloody pulp on the floor; the stake made contact with the males' heart and he quickly turned into a pile of dust. The red headed female came at her next and was able to knock Mr Pointy out of her hand. Buffy was left with no weapon and had to rely on her fists. Xander stopped trying to let the light in and looked though Buffys' bag of tricks. The other vampires looked angrier now and they came at him, but he was quick enough to get the cross out. Seeing the religious sign they hesitated. With one hand in the bag and the other holding the cross, he was able to find a stake for Buffy. Xander was also curious where his stake had got. He tossed her the stake; she stopped fighting for a second to grab. With one quick motion she drove the stake in to the vampires' heart and watched her explode into dust. It was time to help Xander with his two problems. She kicked one and was happy with the satisfying crack, which indicated a broken jaw. He fell to the floor and turned to dust. Buffy and the other vampire was confused.
"Oh that's where it went." Said Xander. One vampire left and she knew she was on her own. "Wanna do the honours." Buffy smiled.
"Thankyou." The strange thing was the vampire was also smiling and wasn't heading towards the open door. Buffy walked over and picked up Mr Pointy, who she had lost earlier. She heard noises coming a long the corridor.
"What's going on in here?"
"Yeah some of us are trying to sleep." Around twelve vampires walked in, and then there was the one already in the room. Thirteen was unlucky for some, in this case Buffy and Xander. Xander whispered in Buffys ear.
"Oh yeah." She walked back a few steps and pulled off the planks easily. It was embarrassing that he had been putting all his strength into it with no success and then with a flick of the wrist she had succeeded. That wasn't the point though, there was no one here to laugh at him and there was a gang of hungry vampires heading toward him. The last light of the day beamed in through the window. The female vampire that had grabbed his ankles before went up in a fury of flames.
"Arghhhhh!" Another vampires arm caught fire, he quickly bust into flames, with no water to put it out. A few backed off into the hallway and the others made their way up the shaded side of the room. They were pissed off with the intruders. A vampire chest caught the daylight, as the flames crawled all over his body he grabbed onto another fellow vampires, setting him a light as well.
"Come on Xander out the window quick." Buffy chucked her bag and Xander out of the window. The vampires were near her and grabbing.
"Hey watch those hands boys." She climbed on to the windowsill "Well my jobs done, see ya!" She jumped out of the window and landed softly on her feet. One vampire was stupid enough to run to the window to curse at her, but it's no use when you're big pile of dust.
"Ow, did you have to throw me out of the window as well?" Xander clambered onto his feet.
"Time was short and it was kinda fun." Buffy smiled "Sorry Xander, I promise not to do it again."
"Thankyou."
"This week." She mumbled to herself.
"What did you say?"
"Oh, I think we should be getting back to Giles', the sun will be down soon and those vampires aren't exactly gonna greet us as friends."
"Hey that didn't fit into what you said before." They began to walk off.
"Well that's because before I said let's go."
"You just keep saying that to yourself."
"I thought I threw you so you'd land on my bag."
"Yes and that was another problem, what do you keep in their?" he groaned.
"Oh, yeah, umm… sorry about that."
"Spikey." Asked Naomi
"Yes?"
"Is there a magic shop near by?"
"Yes."
"Can you take me there?"
"Yes."
"Can we go now?"
"Yes."
"So shouldn't we be going?"
"Yes."
The Bronze, home to all those teens that wanted something to do on a Friday night. In Sunnydale though it was only place, wait the only decent place to go for those too young to drink alcohol or didn't look twenty-one. Buffy, Willow and Xander were nearly there, Dingoes Ate My Baby was on and Willow was set on drool mode.
"Isn't Anya coming?" Asked Buffy "Not like we wouldn't miss her or anything."
"Yes, she's meeting us at the…" Xander paused. " Did you hear something?"
"Was it calling your name again?" Asked Willow
"I think so," Xander considered the fact that he was going crazy "but they're dust aren't they?"
"Xander." There it was again.
"Yeah, I heard it." They all stood still to try hear where the sound was coming from.
"Xander!" it was coming from behind them "Wait up!" It was just Anya who was now running trying to catch up with the gang.
"Shit your pants for nothing Xand?" Buffy smirked.
"Ha very funny." He called over to Anya "I thought we were meeting up at the Bronze."
"Well I saw you in the distance didn't I, I've been shouting at you for ages why didn't you hear me straight away?"
"Sorry I don't have super hearing?"
"I'll forgive you this time." She and Xander snogged and she was happy.
"Hey maybe you could get a Xander whistle, that way only he can hear it." Buffy suggested.
They approached the Bronze as usual they were letting anyone in as long as they were there with two bucks. There was a queue to get in and hopefully it meant that the Dingoes popularity was increasing ever still.
"Xander, I've left my purse at home can you pay for me?" Anya kissed him to seal the deal.
"I was going to anyway, but now I definitely will." Xander grinned. Buffy was never to keen on Anya it was that whole nearly getting lots of people killed, so that she could have her powers back thing. Tonight though she was acting a bit different, maybe it was PMT or maybe she was just being strange Anya, stranger Anya. Anya was just like Cordelia with the lack of the tact and being annoying, except in an ex-demon way. Once inside Willow made her way to find the closest table to the stage, so she had a good view of Oz playing the guitar. Xander went to get the drinks; everyone wanted the same fizzy drinks, so he didn't have to try to remember all the different drinks. The Dingoes started to play it was a new song, written by Oz and dedicated to Willow- isn't that sweet. Something was irritating Anya and Xander could tell.
"Are you okay?" he asked even though he already knew something was wrong.
"I've got a bit of a head ache could we go outside, maybe?" Anya asked. Xander nodded, as he really knew what she was hinting at and it wasn't anything he would dislike. He still informed the rest of the group, even though he knew that they knew what he and Anya were probably going to get up to on their little walk to the park.
The queue outside the bronze had gone down a lot since they had been inside, probably most of Sunnydales young adult population was in there. They were going to go to the park, which was only about a five-minute walk. There wasn't much town to walk around, so you got to anywhere pretty quick. He hadn't brought his car with him tonight otherwise he would of picked up Anya on the way there. It was just too nice a night to travel in a car, and his car was too broken down to transport anyone anywhere. Of course Xander was too broke to afford to fix it, maybe he could lend Uncle Rorys' car sometime. They arrived at the park soon enough; he put his arm around her and looked around. The park seemed to empty no one there but them, all alone no one to disturb them.
"See that girl over there, dancing near Oz."
"She's on dance floor Will, he's on the stage. Paranoid much?" asked Buffy.
"No I mean look at her, does she look alive? Hey I think she's drooling over him!" Willow pointed angrily at the girl drooling over her boyfriends only she was allowed to do that.
"Three things Will, it rude to point, I think your paranoid, she's not drooling over your man and I too think she's a vampire." The way too pale skin was a big give away.
"That's four things."
"Oh, umm… count the middle two as one."
"Okay, but strange person looking at Oz."
The new girl stuck out from the crowd; her hair was blue and purple, not something you see everyday in Sunnydale. Except for on Oz, who was too looking at the girl with blue hair and smiling. He'd found his hair mate, but hopefully for Willow the mystery girl was going to be on the receiving end of a pointy stick. The clothes she wearing was kind of wild as well, a sort of Goth meets hippie chick with a clash of biker girl. She was wearing biker boots, a bodes dress and a pair of blue round sunglasses. Oh yeah she was leaving with some guy.
"Gotta go."
"Okay, see ya in a minute." Willow sipped her drink and continued to stare mindlessly at Oz.
Buffy walked through the crowd of teenagers dancing, chatting or just sitting with friends. She made her way quickly to the exit, there was no queue now, and no one else was coming in tonight. The Bronze was full. All was quiet; there was no noise anywhere, which could help her to find where the vampire had gone. No sign of the struggle, but Buffy continued to look. There it was, something metal had fallen over, probably a bin. She found herself heading towards the sounds, it was just around the corner and she was thinking of something cool to say.
"Get a room." It wasn't exactly original and it was a little crude, but she couldn't think of anything else to say. She could have said, "be gone foul demon", but that was just stupid. Buffy approached the vampire; she clenched her stake in her fist ready for the kill. They turned around wondering who it was,
"Spike?" She managed to stop herself from staking him, even though she was at full power.
"Buffy, can't you see I'm busy." He tilted his head towards the girl to give Buffy a big hint.
"Oh I didn't did I give you permission to leave the house young man and with this girl, tell me is she undead or alive?"
The strange girl put on her game face, but didn't attack Buffy like most vampires had done in the past. This creeped her out in away that she would of guessed. Spike on a date I thought he was still pining for Drusilla or maybe this vampire is just rebound. Maybe I should warn her what a complete moron he is, hang why am I thinking this I should be saying it out loud.
"You do know that Spike's impotent." Buffy smiled, now that should of hit the heart dead centre.
"Hey!"
"Oh I know about his little feeding problem, but I definitely do know that all his well down below."
"Uuwww, way to much information."
"Now leave us." She spoke again, but Buffy just stood their still disgusted. "Is she deaf or just stupid? Go away!"
"You're going to listen to my hey. Spike, you do realise that your next date is going to be a big pile of dust."
"Buffy don't be hasty, why don't you just go back to the those morons you call friends while I finish my date."
Buffy felt slightly awkward, she knew that she should be staking little miss freaky, but she was with Spike. No matter how annoying Buffy found him, the gang still needed him as their main way of getting information resources.
"She's staring at me, I don't like it I mean it's not as if I can hurt anyone."
"What?" asked Buffy.
"Well I escaped from the Initiative, but ever since then I can't seem to hurt anything without getting this really bad main in my head. I would go see a doctor, but I'd just get hungry."
"That's a problem…" Before Buffy could finish she heard a scream in the distance "…but I have more important business to attend to, gotta go." She ran off into the night and headed to the alley at the otherside of the Bronze. She got there quickly and saw a girl with a vampire biting her neck.
"Oh so this is where you got to honey, I've been looking everywhere for you and here you are with another woman." Buffy tutted and the vampires yellow eyes meet with Buffys' stake. He dropped the girl who fell to the floor holding her hand to her wound. He tried to run but Buffy blocked his only exit, so the vampire attempted to pounce on her. Buffy grabbed him in full flight and chucked him over her head. He landed with a loud thump, as he lay on the ground in pain. That wasn't enough to kill him only a stake to his cold heart would do. She ran to him lifted her stake and imbedded it in his chest, soon afterwards he exploded into a cloud of dust.
"Nobody cheats on me. Are you okay?" Buffy asked the vampires' victim.
"Yeah, I'll be fine, but what was that?"
"It was a gang member on PCP," she gave the main excuse going for a vampire attack "You might wanna get a plaster on that and maybe walk home with a friend."
"Okay." The girl was dazed and confused, but she still strolled slowly into the busy Bronze to find someone she knew.
Buffy walked back to the alley where Spike and his girl had been, but like she expected they had disappeared. She hoped that the story had been told by Spike strange date was true but she doubted it. Her steps lead her back to Willow sitting at their table.
"Is she dust?"
"No, she was Spike date and an emergency with another vampire came up, so I had to go and save someone's life, again."
"Oh, but the good news is the girls with Spike and not my Oz."
"Who's not with me?" The Dingoes were having a ten-minute break and Oz had come to see Willow.
"The girl who was staring at you."
"The one with blue hair?"
"Were you noticing back?" asked Willow
"No it just someone else with blue hair and in this place it's pretty hard not to notice it."
"Hi, where's Xander? I was meant to meet him here, but I can't find him anywhere, has he stood me up?"
Everyone gave Anya a strange look and then they all got a bad feeling.
"Anya, Xander left with you about a while go and you went to the park to get on with the smooches." Buffy filled Anya in.
"No I didn't, I think I would notice that kind of thing."
"Oh my God Xander, he's out there with something else, we have to go right now to the park."
"Which park Buffy?" Willow raised a good point there were four in Sunnydale and by the time they had visited them all Xander could be hurt or even worse, dead.
"We always go to Weatherly Park, it's never as busy as the others."
"Take my van, I don't think I could explain it to the guys."
"Okay." Buffy grabbed the keys and they all stormed to the outside of the Bronze where Oz's van and Giles was.
"Giles get into the van, I tell you along the way."
"And I've got something to tell you…where's Xander?"
"Exactly what we want to know."