Part 2:
#
" ... and then he just ran away like I was the devil or something. A girl could really get insecure here."
Giles nodded, going through Buffy's report in his mind once more.
"And the name of the Vampire was Darla, correct?" he asked.
"I think so. That's what he called her. How come he knows a Vampire by name anyway?"
"Maybe ... maybe he knew her before she became a Vampire?" Willow offered, looking up from her notebook.
"Unlikely," Giles said, reaching for a book he had handy, starting to flip through the pages. "Unless I am mistaken this Darla is ... ah, here she is."
He put the book on the table and Buffy saw a painting of the woman she had seen earlier. The painting showed her with longer hair and she wore a dress, but it was her. No doubt about it.
"I bet this dress works like a wonder bra," Buffy remarked.
"Does a good job if that's so," Xander added.
Darla," Giles said, ignoring the comments, "is one of the most infamous Vampires in history. She is also at least a thousand years old. Sired by none other than the Master."
"The Master?" Buffy asked. "Well, seeing as I dusted him two years ago she can't be all that tough."
"The Master was the most powerful Vampire in creation, Buffy," Giles reminded her. "You were able to kill him because he was still chained to the Hellmouth when you fought and still he almost killed you."
Buffy remembered that fight. The Anointed One had lead her down into the Master's lair. If Giles hadn't figured out that the old Vampire would be unable to cross the boundaries of the Hellmouth unless he fed on Slayer's blood ... she didn't want to think about it.
"Okay, so she's probably a bad ass. That still doesn't explain what she has to do with Angel, ah, I mean Professor Fitzpatrick."
"From what you told us the two seemed quite, ah, intimate with one another. He knew her name and she didn't bite him when she had the chance."
Buffy didn't like the word 'intimate' in this particular instance, but she tried to concentrate on the important stuff.
"There was something else," she said. "Just after she vamped out on him. He didn't look afraid when she went all demony, but then she started saying something that sent him running. Sounded like some kind of rhyme."
"A rhyme?" Willow asked. "Maybe ... maybe some kind of spell?"
"Yes, and when she started he seemed to be in pain."
"Can you remember the words?" Giles asked.
"I ... I'm not sure. Something about bonds of blood and hellfire, I don't remember every word. I don't think she got to finish it. I ... I sort of attacked her somewhere in the middle of it."
"Bonds of blood ...," Giles muttered. "There is a possibility. Powerful Vampires have been known to, ah, to use living humans as slaves, use them for daylight work. They feed them their blood, but not enough to initiate the change."
"You mean like that guy in the Dracula movie?" Xander asked. "Renfield?"
"Yes, close to that. A Master Vampire's blood is highly addictive. Unless the human has a very strong will he will do anything to, ah, to get another fix."
Buffy leant back on the couch, trying to wrap her mind around it. Could it be? Angel a slave to this vampire bitch?
"No, I can't imagine that. He was resisting her. He tried to get away. And if he were bonded to her by her blood, why would she need to recite some kinda spell?"
Giles nodded.
"Granted, it doesn't sound like it adds up. First order of business should be to have a long chat with Mr. Fitzpatrick. If we can find him."
"I got his address," Willow said. Buffy moved over to where the redhead worked on her notebook.
"I hacked into the university records. Angel Fitzpatrick, born in 1969 in Boston, made his degree in psychology at the university of Michigan, moved to Sunnydale two months ago. And here is the address."
"You're great, Willow!"
Buffy was halfway to the door when Giles held her back.
"You shouldn't go alone, Buffy! The last time he saw you he ran for his life. It might be better if, ah, the rest of us were there as well."
Buffy sighed. The thought that Angel was terrified of her made her cringe inside.
"Okay, you guys come along! But let's hurry! He didn't look like he planned to stay in one place for too long."
#
Buffy broke open the door when knocking didn't work. Angel's apartment was on the small side and looked like it had been left in a hurry. Several books were strewn on the ground, a few shirts still hung in the open closet.
"Guy didn't waste a lot of time packing," Xander said.
"Scared people tend to run fast."
Buffy looked around the room, trying to get a sense of the man she'd lusted after these past few weeks. She felt like she knew him, which was an illusion of course. Except in class they'd never so much as exchanged a word.
Still, she had never felt this way for anyone before. It had to be more than his really good looks. Maybe it had been the way he'd looked at her just hours ago. Never before had she seen a man so filled with terror. She wanted to make the fear in his eyes go away.
"He is not here," Giles said, coming over from the other room. "And it does not look like he will be coming back anytime soon."
"Hey, look at this," Willow called from the bed.
She was lifting a long, wrapped bundle out from under the bed. Judging by the look on her face it was pretty heavy. Buffy walked over to take it from her hands. It *was* pretty heavy and something about it was giving her the creeps. She undid the wrapping.
"Isn't that ...," Willow began.
Giles came over to take a closer look. He took off his glasses, sighing.
"Yes, I'm afraid this ... this looks exactly like the painting we saw."
Buffy held a gleaming sword, nearly twice the length of her arm. The blade was polished to a shine, giving her a warped reflection of her own face. Buffy imagined she could feel cold seeping into her hands from where she held it. There was a blood-red ruby embedded into the handguard and it seemed to twinkle at her menacingly.
"The sword of the Butcher Knight." Giles muttered.
Buffy felt cold.
###
Angel drove through the dark, never paying attention to the speed limit. The sign that said he was leaving Sunnydale vanished into the night behind him. Stupid! Shouldn't have stopped by his apartment before he left. Waste of time. Nothing there that was worth taking with him anyway.
His foot had never left the pedal but still it felt like a crawl to him. He had to get out. Get as far away from here as he could before it was too late. Sometimes he had managed to stay ahead of Darla for several years before she found him. If he just went far enough away from here, far enough away from the Slayer ...
There was a thumb behind him, the car bucking under him as if he'd driven over a hole. He looked into the rear view mirror and saw nothing.
"Nice idea! Now we can have some privacy."
He swiveled around and saw Darla sitting in the back-seat.
"Where were we?" she asked him, smiling.
He hit the break for all it was worth, the tires screeching across the concrete, the seat belt biting into his flesh. Darla was thrown forward and went right through the wind shield.
It took Angel a few moments to recover. He would probably be bruised from the seat belt tomorrow, but if that was the only price to pay, he would do so gladly. He looked up through the shattered wind shield and saw Darla rising to her feet in front of the car.
"Now that wasn't very nice," she chided him, holding her side.
Angel stepped on it and the car roared forward again. He knew he couldn't kill her this way, but if he just managed to slow her down long enough ...
Darla leapt up before the car could hit her and grabbed him while in midair. The seat belt nearly cut him in half as she swung back into the back-seat of the car. Next thing he knew her arm snaked around his neck from behind. Desperate, he threw the car into a tailspin, but Darla held on.
"Now that we will not be disturbed again ...," she whispered into his ears.
Angel tried everything to shake her off, but she didn't even budge. His eyes found the tree line on the side of the road and he turned the car toward it.
"By Bond of Blood I call the Might," Darla began.
The trees loomed closer, the car screeching toward them, still accelerating.
"Of Fire From Hell, Inferno's Light"
Angel closed his eyes as the car jumped off the street and skidded toward the edge of the forest.
"I Curse Your Soul with Satan's Bite"
The sound of the crash cut through the silence of the night.
#
Buffy knew she was dreaming. She knew that she had finally gone to sleep after searching for Angel had turned out to be fruitless. She had been tired and wouldn't be much use to anyone until tomorrow, so she had slouched down on Giles' couch while the others tried to find out more about Angel and the Butcher Knight.
She knew she was dreaming. It didn't help much.
There was screaming all around her. She could see people running, running like the devil himself was chasing them. They were dressed mostly in robes and primitive homemade clothing. The town Buffy found herself in looked like something out of the middle ages. No, that wasn't exactly right, because at this moment it looked like a loud corner of Hell.
Several of the buildings were burning, smoke curling into the dark night sky. The stench of blood was thick in the air, almost enough to make her gag. People were yelling, shouting for everyone to get away. A little farther away she heard the screams of the dying.
"Quickly! We have to get her out of here," someone yelled.
Buffy found herself grabbed and saw two men with gray beards, wearing battered-looking suits of battle armor, who were quickly herding her toward a waiting carriage. Only now did she become aware that she herself was dressed to fit the scenery. Silver armor, fitted to her slim figure, stained with soothe and blood.
"What is going on here?" she yelled at the men.
"Chosen One, we need to get you to safety," one of them said.
The screams seemed to be coming closer.
"He is almost here!"
They ran past a hut and moments later the wall of it blew outwards. Buffy had an image of something huge and black rushing past her, a flash of silver in the air. Something wet touched her face and the man to her left suddenly let go of her arm.
A headless body fell to the ground. She could see the head roll away down the street.
Shuffling hooves, the heavy panting of a huge horse. She turned around and saw him.
"Slayer," the Butcher Knight growled.
He sat high on a giant black horse. His body was covered in black battle armor, the light of nearby fires playing across the obsidian surface. His armored fist held a heavy broadsword, the blade stained with blood. Splatters of blood also covered large parts of the armor and the flanks of the horse.
His face was hidden behind a black helmet. She imagined she could see two eyes somewhere inside it, burning a demon amber.
"Run, Chosen One," the other bearded man said. "I will delay him as long as I can."
The Knight laughed and the horse started toward them again. Her bearded protector raised a sword to meet the onslaught. It didn't even take a second. The huge broadsword flashed through the air, cutting clean through steel and flesh, black armor glistening as more blood was added to the existing stains.
Buffy was frozen. She couldn't move a muscle, she could only stare at this nightmare creature that was now slowly coming toward her. She finally noticed that her right hand was clutching a battle ax, one that had seen use today it seemed, but she didn't find the strength to raise it.
The Butcher Knight climbed off his horse and came toward her, towering over her by at least two feet. Now she was sure, two amber demon eyes were looking at her from somewhere inside that black helmet.
"And so another Chosen One dies," he growled, raising his sword.
From the corner of her eyes Buffy saw two figures coming around the corner of a nearby hut, fighting against each other. The Vampire known as Darla stood there, wearing black battle armor as well, a sword in hand, and smiled broadly, half her face smeared with blood.
The figure fighting her looked like a fairy tale knight. Silver armor, long hair, fighting against the Vampire with sword and battle ax. She could see his face, his eyes focused on the enemy in front of him. Swords clashed, sparks flew. She knew that man.
"Angel?"
He looked at her for a second, his eyes widening in terror.
"Elia," he screamed, pushing Darla away and starting toward her.
The Butcher Knight's sword arced down.
Buffy woke with a start, her body covered with sweat.
"Angel?" she whispered. There was no answer except the concerned glances of her friends.
###
"It will not be easy, Buffy," Giles said. "According to the records of the Council the Butcher Knight killed at least a dozen Slayers, maybe more."
"Just do your best, Giles!"
Buffy sat down on the couch, trying to think. Willow slouched down beside her, looking worried.
"So if Buffy's dream is right and Angel is not the Butcher Knight," Willow asked, "then why was the Knight's sword in Angel's apartment?"
"Much more interesting would be the question how Mr. Fitzpatrick can still be alive if he was, in fact, a knight in the middle ages."
Buffy closed her eyes. Angel, a knight. Somehow the image fit. A knight in shining armor trying to save the damsel in distress. Okay, said damsel had obviously been a Slayer, which would preclude her needing much rescuing, but still ...
"And you wore battle armor, Buffy?" Xander asked. "Women's armor, I mean? Molded to your ... you know?"
"Off topic, Xander," Willow remarked.
"During the middle ages it was quite customary for warriors to wear armor," Giles started to lecture, "though only a few Slayers ever did. Women who were seen wearing armor and weapons might have ... upset the more delicate sensibilities of that time."
"Huh?"
"He means girls trying to play with the toys of the boys got burned at the stake."
"Oh!"
Giles was rummaging through books again and Buffy found herself with nothing to do except more of the same. She wished she knew where Angel had gone to. From the looks of things he had left town in a hurry. If he was gone, though, why did she still have these warning dreams about him and the Butcher Knight?
She just hoped he was okay.
#
Angel regained consciousness and immediately became aware of the pain in his chest. Something wet was trickling across his face. He tried to open his eyes and succeeded somewhere around the fifth or sixth try.
He was still sitting in his car, only there was not a whole lot left of it. Most of the hood was gone, wrapped around a large tree. It was hard to figure out which parts of his car the warped metal around him might have been before the crash.
Angel hung in the seat belt, sure that it had broken at least several of his ribs. The steering wheel was pressing hard into his chest and he was unable to move his arms. He didn't want to think about how much of his legs might be left, he couldn't see any trace of them right now.
It was still dark, so he couldn't have been gone too long. Once the sun rose he would be safe. Safe from her. Then he could see about getting out of here and ...
"You look stuck."
Darla walked up to the car. Her clothing was in tatters, but her skin unmarked. She smiled at him.
"Sorry that I had to leave you for a while, but I needed a snack to get back in shape. Thankfully there was a truck driver up there, looking to see if he could be of help. I think the Americans' sense of helpfullness is highly underrated."
Angel tried to get out of the car, tried to do anything, but he was stuck. Every little movement hurt him.
"You gave me a good chase, Angel," Darla said, "but now it's over. Take it like a man, okay?"
"Never," he managed to growl at her.
"You don't exactly have a choice right now!"
She knelt down beside him, looking over his body.
"Look at you. All cut up and crushed. It won't kill you, of course, but how long do you think it will take until you can heal all that? Weeks? Months?"
She pressed a kiss to his cheek and he could do nothing. One of her hands cupped his chin and forced his neck around until she looked into his eyes.
"I'm getting tired of the chase, lover. There is a Slayer in this town, who has been all too much trouble to us. It's time to deal with her."
"No," he screamed.
"Not your choice!"
She slapped him hard and then sat down on the ruined hood of the car, looking at him.
"By Bond of Blood I call the Might"
The pain in his chest intensified, but it was no longer a result of the car crash. He could feel his blood beginning to boil as the magic gathered in the air around him.
"Of Fire From Hell, Inferno's Light"
"Please, Darla! No!" He didn't care that he was begging. He would have kissed her feet if she would just stop this. She just smiled and continued.
"I Curse Your Soul with Satan's Bite"
He screamed as he felt the darkness pool inside him, liquid fire running through his veins. The wreckage of the car protested as his arms and legs came free, breaking the warped metal easily with a strength that was anything but human. Darla watched it all with pure rapture in her eyes and completed the incantation.
"Arise Angelus, my Butcher Knight!"
The forest fell silent as Angel's scream shut off abruptly.
#
"Uh, guys?" Willow startled everyone, rousing them from their research work.
"Willow, what is ..." Giles looked up, his eyes following Willow's pointed finger.
Buffy had almost fallen asleep again, now she was wide awake. They had taken the sword of the Butcher Knight from Angel's apartment and brought it here. Now there was an eerie light playing around the blade, energy sparkled from it like a halo.
A moment later the sword was gone without a trace.
"This is not good, right?" Xander asked.
TO BE CONTINUED
#
" ... and then he just ran away like I was the devil or something. A girl could really get insecure here."
Giles nodded, going through Buffy's report in his mind once more.
"And the name of the Vampire was Darla, correct?" he asked.
"I think so. That's what he called her. How come he knows a Vampire by name anyway?"
"Maybe ... maybe he knew her before she became a Vampire?" Willow offered, looking up from her notebook.
"Unlikely," Giles said, reaching for a book he had handy, starting to flip through the pages. "Unless I am mistaken this Darla is ... ah, here she is."
He put the book on the table and Buffy saw a painting of the woman she had seen earlier. The painting showed her with longer hair and she wore a dress, but it was her. No doubt about it.
"I bet this dress works like a wonder bra," Buffy remarked.
"Does a good job if that's so," Xander added.
Darla," Giles said, ignoring the comments, "is one of the most infamous Vampires in history. She is also at least a thousand years old. Sired by none other than the Master."
"The Master?" Buffy asked. "Well, seeing as I dusted him two years ago she can't be all that tough."
"The Master was the most powerful Vampire in creation, Buffy," Giles reminded her. "You were able to kill him because he was still chained to the Hellmouth when you fought and still he almost killed you."
Buffy remembered that fight. The Anointed One had lead her down into the Master's lair. If Giles hadn't figured out that the old Vampire would be unable to cross the boundaries of the Hellmouth unless he fed on Slayer's blood ... she didn't want to think about it.
"Okay, so she's probably a bad ass. That still doesn't explain what she has to do with Angel, ah, I mean Professor Fitzpatrick."
"From what you told us the two seemed quite, ah, intimate with one another. He knew her name and she didn't bite him when she had the chance."
Buffy didn't like the word 'intimate' in this particular instance, but she tried to concentrate on the important stuff.
"There was something else," she said. "Just after she vamped out on him. He didn't look afraid when she went all demony, but then she started saying something that sent him running. Sounded like some kind of rhyme."
"A rhyme?" Willow asked. "Maybe ... maybe some kind of spell?"
"Yes, and when she started he seemed to be in pain."
"Can you remember the words?" Giles asked.
"I ... I'm not sure. Something about bonds of blood and hellfire, I don't remember every word. I don't think she got to finish it. I ... I sort of attacked her somewhere in the middle of it."
"Bonds of blood ...," Giles muttered. "There is a possibility. Powerful Vampires have been known to, ah, to use living humans as slaves, use them for daylight work. They feed them their blood, but not enough to initiate the change."
"You mean like that guy in the Dracula movie?" Xander asked. "Renfield?"
"Yes, close to that. A Master Vampire's blood is highly addictive. Unless the human has a very strong will he will do anything to, ah, to get another fix."
Buffy leant back on the couch, trying to wrap her mind around it. Could it be? Angel a slave to this vampire bitch?
"No, I can't imagine that. He was resisting her. He tried to get away. And if he were bonded to her by her blood, why would she need to recite some kinda spell?"
Giles nodded.
"Granted, it doesn't sound like it adds up. First order of business should be to have a long chat with Mr. Fitzpatrick. If we can find him."
"I got his address," Willow said. Buffy moved over to where the redhead worked on her notebook.
"I hacked into the university records. Angel Fitzpatrick, born in 1969 in Boston, made his degree in psychology at the university of Michigan, moved to Sunnydale two months ago. And here is the address."
"You're great, Willow!"
Buffy was halfway to the door when Giles held her back.
"You shouldn't go alone, Buffy! The last time he saw you he ran for his life. It might be better if, ah, the rest of us were there as well."
Buffy sighed. The thought that Angel was terrified of her made her cringe inside.
"Okay, you guys come along! But let's hurry! He didn't look like he planned to stay in one place for too long."
#
Buffy broke open the door when knocking didn't work. Angel's apartment was on the small side and looked like it had been left in a hurry. Several books were strewn on the ground, a few shirts still hung in the open closet.
"Guy didn't waste a lot of time packing," Xander said.
"Scared people tend to run fast."
Buffy looked around the room, trying to get a sense of the man she'd lusted after these past few weeks. She felt like she knew him, which was an illusion of course. Except in class they'd never so much as exchanged a word.
Still, she had never felt this way for anyone before. It had to be more than his really good looks. Maybe it had been the way he'd looked at her just hours ago. Never before had she seen a man so filled with terror. She wanted to make the fear in his eyes go away.
"He is not here," Giles said, coming over from the other room. "And it does not look like he will be coming back anytime soon."
"Hey, look at this," Willow called from the bed.
She was lifting a long, wrapped bundle out from under the bed. Judging by the look on her face it was pretty heavy. Buffy walked over to take it from her hands. It *was* pretty heavy and something about it was giving her the creeps. She undid the wrapping.
"Isn't that ...," Willow began.
Giles came over to take a closer look. He took off his glasses, sighing.
"Yes, I'm afraid this ... this looks exactly like the painting we saw."
Buffy held a gleaming sword, nearly twice the length of her arm. The blade was polished to a shine, giving her a warped reflection of her own face. Buffy imagined she could feel cold seeping into her hands from where she held it. There was a blood-red ruby embedded into the handguard and it seemed to twinkle at her menacingly.
"The sword of the Butcher Knight." Giles muttered.
Buffy felt cold.
###
Angel drove through the dark, never paying attention to the speed limit. The sign that said he was leaving Sunnydale vanished into the night behind him. Stupid! Shouldn't have stopped by his apartment before he left. Waste of time. Nothing there that was worth taking with him anyway.
His foot had never left the pedal but still it felt like a crawl to him. He had to get out. Get as far away from here as he could before it was too late. Sometimes he had managed to stay ahead of Darla for several years before she found him. If he just went far enough away from here, far enough away from the Slayer ...
There was a thumb behind him, the car bucking under him as if he'd driven over a hole. He looked into the rear view mirror and saw nothing.
"Nice idea! Now we can have some privacy."
He swiveled around and saw Darla sitting in the back-seat.
"Where were we?" she asked him, smiling.
He hit the break for all it was worth, the tires screeching across the concrete, the seat belt biting into his flesh. Darla was thrown forward and went right through the wind shield.
It took Angel a few moments to recover. He would probably be bruised from the seat belt tomorrow, but if that was the only price to pay, he would do so gladly. He looked up through the shattered wind shield and saw Darla rising to her feet in front of the car.
"Now that wasn't very nice," she chided him, holding her side.
Angel stepped on it and the car roared forward again. He knew he couldn't kill her this way, but if he just managed to slow her down long enough ...
Darla leapt up before the car could hit her and grabbed him while in midair. The seat belt nearly cut him in half as she swung back into the back-seat of the car. Next thing he knew her arm snaked around his neck from behind. Desperate, he threw the car into a tailspin, but Darla held on.
"Now that we will not be disturbed again ...," she whispered into his ears.
Angel tried everything to shake her off, but she didn't even budge. His eyes found the tree line on the side of the road and he turned the car toward it.
"By Bond of Blood I call the Might," Darla began.
The trees loomed closer, the car screeching toward them, still accelerating.
"Of Fire From Hell, Inferno's Light"
Angel closed his eyes as the car jumped off the street and skidded toward the edge of the forest.
"I Curse Your Soul with Satan's Bite"
The sound of the crash cut through the silence of the night.
#
Buffy knew she was dreaming. She knew that she had finally gone to sleep after searching for Angel had turned out to be fruitless. She had been tired and wouldn't be much use to anyone until tomorrow, so she had slouched down on Giles' couch while the others tried to find out more about Angel and the Butcher Knight.
She knew she was dreaming. It didn't help much.
There was screaming all around her. She could see people running, running like the devil himself was chasing them. They were dressed mostly in robes and primitive homemade clothing. The town Buffy found herself in looked like something out of the middle ages. No, that wasn't exactly right, because at this moment it looked like a loud corner of Hell.
Several of the buildings were burning, smoke curling into the dark night sky. The stench of blood was thick in the air, almost enough to make her gag. People were yelling, shouting for everyone to get away. A little farther away she heard the screams of the dying.
"Quickly! We have to get her out of here," someone yelled.
Buffy found herself grabbed and saw two men with gray beards, wearing battered-looking suits of battle armor, who were quickly herding her toward a waiting carriage. Only now did she become aware that she herself was dressed to fit the scenery. Silver armor, fitted to her slim figure, stained with soothe and blood.
"What is going on here?" she yelled at the men.
"Chosen One, we need to get you to safety," one of them said.
The screams seemed to be coming closer.
"He is almost here!"
They ran past a hut and moments later the wall of it blew outwards. Buffy had an image of something huge and black rushing past her, a flash of silver in the air. Something wet touched her face and the man to her left suddenly let go of her arm.
A headless body fell to the ground. She could see the head roll away down the street.
Shuffling hooves, the heavy panting of a huge horse. She turned around and saw him.
"Slayer," the Butcher Knight growled.
He sat high on a giant black horse. His body was covered in black battle armor, the light of nearby fires playing across the obsidian surface. His armored fist held a heavy broadsword, the blade stained with blood. Splatters of blood also covered large parts of the armor and the flanks of the horse.
His face was hidden behind a black helmet. She imagined she could see two eyes somewhere inside it, burning a demon amber.
"Run, Chosen One," the other bearded man said. "I will delay him as long as I can."
The Knight laughed and the horse started toward them again. Her bearded protector raised a sword to meet the onslaught. It didn't even take a second. The huge broadsword flashed through the air, cutting clean through steel and flesh, black armor glistening as more blood was added to the existing stains.
Buffy was frozen. She couldn't move a muscle, she could only stare at this nightmare creature that was now slowly coming toward her. She finally noticed that her right hand was clutching a battle ax, one that had seen use today it seemed, but she didn't find the strength to raise it.
The Butcher Knight climbed off his horse and came toward her, towering over her by at least two feet. Now she was sure, two amber demon eyes were looking at her from somewhere inside that black helmet.
"And so another Chosen One dies," he growled, raising his sword.
From the corner of her eyes Buffy saw two figures coming around the corner of a nearby hut, fighting against each other. The Vampire known as Darla stood there, wearing black battle armor as well, a sword in hand, and smiled broadly, half her face smeared with blood.
The figure fighting her looked like a fairy tale knight. Silver armor, long hair, fighting against the Vampire with sword and battle ax. She could see his face, his eyes focused on the enemy in front of him. Swords clashed, sparks flew. She knew that man.
"Angel?"
He looked at her for a second, his eyes widening in terror.
"Elia," he screamed, pushing Darla away and starting toward her.
The Butcher Knight's sword arced down.
Buffy woke with a start, her body covered with sweat.
"Angel?" she whispered. There was no answer except the concerned glances of her friends.
###
"It will not be easy, Buffy," Giles said. "According to the records of the Council the Butcher Knight killed at least a dozen Slayers, maybe more."
"Just do your best, Giles!"
Buffy sat down on the couch, trying to think. Willow slouched down beside her, looking worried.
"So if Buffy's dream is right and Angel is not the Butcher Knight," Willow asked, "then why was the Knight's sword in Angel's apartment?"
"Much more interesting would be the question how Mr. Fitzpatrick can still be alive if he was, in fact, a knight in the middle ages."
Buffy closed her eyes. Angel, a knight. Somehow the image fit. A knight in shining armor trying to save the damsel in distress. Okay, said damsel had obviously been a Slayer, which would preclude her needing much rescuing, but still ...
"And you wore battle armor, Buffy?" Xander asked. "Women's armor, I mean? Molded to your ... you know?"
"Off topic, Xander," Willow remarked.
"During the middle ages it was quite customary for warriors to wear armor," Giles started to lecture, "though only a few Slayers ever did. Women who were seen wearing armor and weapons might have ... upset the more delicate sensibilities of that time."
"Huh?"
"He means girls trying to play with the toys of the boys got burned at the stake."
"Oh!"
Giles was rummaging through books again and Buffy found herself with nothing to do except more of the same. She wished she knew where Angel had gone to. From the looks of things he had left town in a hurry. If he was gone, though, why did she still have these warning dreams about him and the Butcher Knight?
She just hoped he was okay.
#
Angel regained consciousness and immediately became aware of the pain in his chest. Something wet was trickling across his face. He tried to open his eyes and succeeded somewhere around the fifth or sixth try.
He was still sitting in his car, only there was not a whole lot left of it. Most of the hood was gone, wrapped around a large tree. It was hard to figure out which parts of his car the warped metal around him might have been before the crash.
Angel hung in the seat belt, sure that it had broken at least several of his ribs. The steering wheel was pressing hard into his chest and he was unable to move his arms. He didn't want to think about how much of his legs might be left, he couldn't see any trace of them right now.
It was still dark, so he couldn't have been gone too long. Once the sun rose he would be safe. Safe from her. Then he could see about getting out of here and ...
"You look stuck."
Darla walked up to the car. Her clothing was in tatters, but her skin unmarked. She smiled at him.
"Sorry that I had to leave you for a while, but I needed a snack to get back in shape. Thankfully there was a truck driver up there, looking to see if he could be of help. I think the Americans' sense of helpfullness is highly underrated."
Angel tried to get out of the car, tried to do anything, but he was stuck. Every little movement hurt him.
"You gave me a good chase, Angel," Darla said, "but now it's over. Take it like a man, okay?"
"Never," he managed to growl at her.
"You don't exactly have a choice right now!"
She knelt down beside him, looking over his body.
"Look at you. All cut up and crushed. It won't kill you, of course, but how long do you think it will take until you can heal all that? Weeks? Months?"
She pressed a kiss to his cheek and he could do nothing. One of her hands cupped his chin and forced his neck around until she looked into his eyes.
"I'm getting tired of the chase, lover. There is a Slayer in this town, who has been all too much trouble to us. It's time to deal with her."
"No," he screamed.
"Not your choice!"
She slapped him hard and then sat down on the ruined hood of the car, looking at him.
"By Bond of Blood I call the Might"
The pain in his chest intensified, but it was no longer a result of the car crash. He could feel his blood beginning to boil as the magic gathered in the air around him.
"Of Fire From Hell, Inferno's Light"
"Please, Darla! No!" He didn't care that he was begging. He would have kissed her feet if she would just stop this. She just smiled and continued.
"I Curse Your Soul with Satan's Bite"
He screamed as he felt the darkness pool inside him, liquid fire running through his veins. The wreckage of the car protested as his arms and legs came free, breaking the warped metal easily with a strength that was anything but human. Darla watched it all with pure rapture in her eyes and completed the incantation.
"Arise Angelus, my Butcher Knight!"
The forest fell silent as Angel's scream shut off abruptly.
#
"Uh, guys?" Willow startled everyone, rousing them from their research work.
"Willow, what is ..." Giles looked up, his eyes following Willow's pointed finger.
Buffy had almost fallen asleep again, now she was wide awake. They had taken the sword of the Butcher Knight from Angel's apartment and brought it here. Now there was an eerie light playing around the blade, energy sparkled from it like a halo.
A moment later the sword was gone without a trace.
"This is not good, right?" Xander asked.
TO BE CONTINUED