CHAPTER 17

Seth had never been mistaken for a patient man. He always did what felt right at that moment. If he wanted a car, he'd take it. If he wanted to have a woman, he'd take her. The law was none of his concern because he never got caught. And despite the streets less than favorable opinion of him, no one ever turned him in. He lived his life that way for twenty-eight years. Want. Take. Have. Repeat ad infinitum. Being turned had only increased his need to do now. He fed whenever, where ever and on whomever he pleased. For the most part Gabriel gave him free reign and he was grateful for it.

That had been the only reason he staved his mantra for the past day. True, he had indulged on an afternoon snack 'n sack, but other than that, he behaved like a good lil' vampire. And that was why he was bouncing off the walls.

"Booooring!" he shouted. His voice echoed off the walls of the building as he waited for a response from one of his allies. As if on cue, both the woman and her 'pet' sauntered into the room.

"What is it now?" Rack asked, perturbed. Though there was the defiance in his voice, Seth also detected a twinge of fear. That, coupled with the warlock standing a good three feet behind the woman, was enough to dismiss his barb.

Seth rolled his eyes, allowing an unneeded breath to pass from his lips. He ran his slender fingers through his shock of blond hair and laced them behind his head. He cocked his head to the side, in mock admiration of the man.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were being a tad bit impudent with me." Seth's mouth curled up in a smile though it fell well short of his eyes. "And you know how I so dislike that." And in the blink of an eye, Seth was standing by his side. Rack felt the vampire's breath on the back of his neck and tried to move but his biceps were caught in a painful iron grip.

"You do know I dislike that, don't you?" The words were barely a whisper though Rack heard them loud and clear.

"Are you finished with the grandstanding, Seth?" Jennifer asked. Seth dropped his hands from Rack's arms and walked away.

"Yes, m'lady," he said, lowering his head ever so slightly. Seth had been surprised how easy this small woman had in tempering his domineering persona. Only two others had that same eerily calming effect on him and they were forty years away.

Seth plopped back into the leather chair, one leg draped across its arm. His arms dangled lazily at the sides. To further signify his boredom, the young vampire puffed his cheeks in and out like an overgrown fish. A light smile touched Jennifer's lips though Rack kept his features decidedly neutral.

"Patience, my warrior," she soothed and Seth caught himself mid-puff. Her voice was so mesmerizing. It tore through his emotions, drawing forth all his lust and admiration, though they were singed at the edges by a hint of fear. It also calmed his need for action. Only one person had ever had that effect on him.

He shook those thoughts from his mind and focused on the now, on what had to be done.

"So what do we do with the tyke?" he asked her. She smiled, somewhat condescendingly and for a moment Seth wanted nothing more than to rip her pretty little head from those slight shoulders of hers. Again, her words, though terse, settled his demon.

"I am preparing what needs to be done now. Rack here is working on a teleportation spell for us to enter the Bronze, after your minions clear the building…"

"Yeah, about that minion thing," Seth interrupted. She raised her pencil thin eyebrows. "Well, I seriously doubt that any of our little hit squad is left."

"How do you figure?"

"Well, considering my slayer made short work of the three Flanzen'da demons, I seriously doubt the other two had much trouble with Primus and his little cohort."

"So why send them?" It was Rack.

"Pretty much for shits 'n giggles, to be honest," both figures stared at him, awaiting elaboration. His head fell back in exasperation. "Jesus, people. I was bored. Wanted to see my trollop in action, and since she doesn't have to heart to fight me, that pretty much nixed the idea for any type of one on one."

"The other two would have sufficed, would they not?" Jennifer asked.

"No," Seth replied, a little too forcefully. Jennifer met him with a stare of indignation but he ignored it. "I told you, those two are too important. They are off limits." He cast a warning stare toward the dark haired woman and he was taken aback how quickly she acquiesced.

"As were the slayer's friends, I take it?" she questioned.

"Well, they're alive," he replied matter-of-factly.

"That will suffice," she said, "as long as they are all here for the ritual tomorrow night."

"And after tomorrow night," he stretched out across the chair like a big cat before he stood. "You will have your little girl and I will have mine." He stopped even with Rack. "And we get to have a little one on one chat before I leave," the words were spoken in a low growl, leaving Seth's implications quite clear.

"Now," he said, sauntering through the double doors to the back of the building, "let's see if little miss teen's got in all her beauty sleep."

Rack looked to Jennifer questioningly, and she only nodded toward the door. He followed Seth apprehensively, with her close behind. Yes, this Seth was quite an interesting character. If only she had more time to enjoy his company in the fullest sense. She chuckled lightly. Somehow she would have him. Not now but she would have him. And if everything went as planned tomorrow night, her desire for Seth would fall neatly into place.

***

Falling off a nice, comfortable couch onto a hard floor, for all intents and purposes, was an immediate, though not ideal, wake-up call. Even if it just so happened that said person had been strangled into unconsciousness.

Dawn Summers butt hitting the hardwood floor was that wake-up call.

She sat there for several minutes, attempting to clear the cobwebs from her mind. She closed her eyes and tried to remember what happened.

Okay, Summers, she said to herself, focus. Faith was fighting some ninja turtle/armadillo thingies. I stop her. Willow and Tara are out on the porch. I run to them…

"Hello, darling," a voice interrupted. Dawn's eyes shot open and she yelped in surprise. Instinctively, she scooted away from the approaching blond until her back slammed into a bookcase. She hugged her knees tightly to her chest, never taking an eye off the intruder.

Seth strolled across the floor, casually taking in the surroundings. It was nothing fancy. There were several bookcases partitioned around the room, their shelves littered with books. The office furniture was a mahogany set; an above average desk, with three 'interrogation' chairs situated in front of it. A small ovalish table with two more chairs was positioned to the left of the door. And then there was the beautiful leather couch that sat caddy corner to the desk where he had laid the girl earlier.

Dawn wasn't interested in the stranger's fascination with the surroundings, but was grateful for the time he gave her to assess him.

'Always know your enemies, nibblet', Spike had told her once. 'Find something you can use against 'em. Everyone has a weak spot.'

He was about six feet tall, with a wiry frame, but powerful. Though his arms were covered in tattoos, Dawn saw his cable-like veins bob to the surface as he meandered closer to her. He moved with an inhuman gracefulness and Dawn knew that he was a vampire.

He stopped two feet from her and cocked his head to the side in amusement. She knew he could smell her fear, and despite the tears welling up in her eyes, Dawn refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing the terror that wanted so much to form onto her face.

"What do you want from me?" her voice was low and angry. She had obstructed any of the fear she was feeling from bleeding into her words. The man chuckled humorously before squatting in front of her, his forearms resting on his knees.

"Now is that any way to treat a friend?" Dawn was struck by the sincerity of his voice although it was a farce.

"You're not my friend," she spat. His left eyebrow arched and she noticed he had a scar strangely similar to Spike's. Come to think of it, his eyes were that same piercing blue…

"Well, that doesn't mean I can't be your friend."

Dawn laughed hollowly and locked into his eyes. No, they weren't the same. There was something…artificial about them.

"What? You don't think I want to be your friend?"

"People usually don't strangle and kidnap someone they want to be friends with," Dawn replied.

"Well, yeah but to each his own, right?"

"Whatever." At that, the vampire burst out into cascading laughter.

"Guess you're not buying that routine, are ya?" Dawn responded with her patented teenager eye-roll.

"Okay, ya got me. So I don't want to be your friend…"

"What do you want with me?" She interrupted. He pursed his lips and raised one hand up to them in contemplation. His eyes drifted to the ceiling. Dawn resisted the urge to kick him in the face but she didn't want to irk him just yet.

"Word to the wise, sweetie. Don't interrupt me again."

"Why not? What are you gonna do?" She countered with a hint of challenge in her tone.

His amusement faded and he slammed his hands to either side of her head, causing her to jump. His face was only a few inches from hers and though he whispered the next words, she could hear them clearly enough.

"Do you really want me to answer that question?" Dawn could only stare at him with wide eyes, her tears now falling in full-force. This close she could really see into his eyes and they were definitely un-Spike like. They didn't even look human. The closer she looked, the more she could see a faint tinge of fluorescent green within the irises. It was unlike anything she had ever seen. For that one moment her fear was abated by a natural curiosity. The latter was broken when she felt his fingertips trace the side of her face.

"You have such soft skin," he said longingly. Dawn wanted to scream at his proximity but it would have been useless. She wanted to call out for her protector. Spike had been there when Buffy wasn't. But it didn't matter. No one was going to save her. She watched the stranger's eyes travel up and down her body. She shivered as he continued his diatribe.

"Softer than my slayer. Of course, she's all scarred now. Not as sexy to feel but sexier to look at, I think." Dawn's eyebrows furrowed questioningly. His slayer? Scars? And then she knew. Faith had never answered Dawn about the scars, how they had gotten there. The answer was right in front of her.

Before she knew what she was doing, Dawn's right hand wrapped around the vampire's wrist. Her fingernails dug into his flesh and he didn't move. The shock that registered on his face made her clamp down even more forcefully and she felt the distant surge of energy clawing forth from within her.

"You. Will. Not. Touch. Her. Ever. Again," she commanded, each word overwrought with venom and promise of retribution. The stranger's look of shock transformed into pain as Dawn heard the distant sizzle of flesh. She held onto his arms for a few more seconds before she pushed him with an inhuman strength. The vampire slid ten feet across the floor, stopping at the feet of two new strangers.

The room was quiet for several seconds. Both Rack and Seth looked at the young girl with fear and wonder while Jennifer couldn't hide her exhilaration.

This will be even better than I thought. Her power is still there, she mused, yet it must be locked away somewhere within her.

"Seth, are you all right?" she asked aloud. The vampire didn't answer her as he stared in disbelief at what just transpired. He scrambled to his feet, pushing past his two allies and stumbled into the other room. He was gasping for air, as if he were about to hyperventilate. He put his hands onto the island in the middle of the room to steady himself. He risked a glance at where she had touched him. His skin was seared and all that was left in its place was a small handprint that radiated with a green tint. The pain had yet to register in his mind.

"It can't be," he muttered, shaking his head at even the possibility of it all. True, the girl did bare a resemblance to her but that was it. The young girl didn't have that olive complexion or the dark features, yet the shape of her face, her voice; those similarities were uncanny.

Seth raked his hands through his tangled hair; not even flinching as his nails dug into his scalp. How could it be possible? Could they be one and the same? If there was only a way to find out…

Seth's eyes shot open at the thought and he unzipped his vest, dropping it to his feet. He examined the print on his forearm more closely. The pain was starting to rear its decidedly uncomfortable head but he was more concerned with other things.

The vampire lifted his black tank top over his head, his eyes surveying his ripped stomach. He had always been proud of his build and flaunted it whenever possible, yet now was not one of those times. He twisted his hips and lifted his arm to get a better glimpse of an old souvenir.

There, on his left side, right below his ribs was the exact same handprint. The skin had never completely healed thus resembled scar tissue more than anything. And though human eyes could not discern it, vampiric sight picked up on the glow. The same fluorescent green radiance. Even more disconcerting was that the hands were identical in size.

His jaw dropped and he glared with incredulity at the door he had just exited, totally ignorant of the pain, which was now in full force.

"Impossible," he whispered before finding himself inextricably stumbling back to the teenage girl.

***

It took Dawn a minute to adjust to her new situation. Actually, adjust wasn't quite accurate. It was more along the lines of realizing her situation that her brain was processing. The two figures staring at her from across the room were the least of her concerns as she twisted her wrist back and forth horrified at what this little hand had just done. Though there no ill effects to her that she could detect, the faint smell of burned flesh permeated her nostrils. That single revelation churned her stomach and she was emptying the contents of her stomach on the wooden floor.

"That's it, let it out," a melodic feminine voice encouraged. Dawn vaguely sensed a hand holding her hair back, but between her retching and sobs of disgust she had no time to ponder any other courses of action.

After what seemed like two hours to her, her stomach finally settled and she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Dawn sat up, startled by the beautifully familiar face staring back at her in concern and…intrigue?

"Are you feeling better?" The dark-haired woman asked. "Did he hurt you?" Dawn managed to shake her head. "Good. I'm sorry if he did. It wasn't our intention to harm you." Not yet, she added internally.

"What do you want from me?" Dawn asked. She couldn't help staring at the woman. She had seen her somewhere before.

Jennifer patted Dawn's trembling hand and elicited a genuine smile. She spoke reassuring words to the teen, though Dawn wasn't listening. She was too busy studying this woman's features. The woman had a face that stood out. She had an almost exotic beauty to her, like she was from a fairy tale or something. It was apparent that she had an ethnic heritage, though the young brunette couldn't quite place her origins. Only if she listened more when Giles was helping her with…

Dawn's scowl shifted into utter disbelief as it clicked whom this woman standing before her was.

"Ms. Calendar?" she choked out.

No sooner had her words hit the air that Seth stormed in and gazed at Dawn. Dawn was taken about by the intensity of his eyes. She flinched, expecting to see hate or rage but they were decidedly absent. Instead, he looked at her with some sort of admiration? Affection? Love?

"Emerald…" he said, falling to his knees, his eyes transfixed on Dawn.

This day couldn't get any weirder if it tried, she thought before burying her face in her hands.