About A Girl
Part 3: Shock Me, Shock Me, Shock Me With That Deviant Behavior
By
Anessa Ramsey
(Disclaimer in the first chapter)
Sunnydale, CA
May 14, 2000
Giles looked the girl over, trying not to think about how small she was. She was slightly taller than Buffy, but not by much, though her frame was slighter and more fragile. Her long dark hair and innocent face made her look younger than her sixteen years. It was hard to believe that this girl was the new slayer.
The Council had confirmed that they were looking for the new slayer and that they had finally discovered her to be Elizabeth Parker of Roswell, New Mexico. Unfortunately they had no idea as to her whereabouts due to the fact that she recently ran away from home. They certainly did not know that she had been taken in by the vampire Angelus or that she was currently in the company of the longest lived slayer and her watcher. He would have to inform them soon.
As soon as Angel had seen her abilities and tested her for almost a whole day, he'd immediately dragged her to his car and driven her and Michael straight to Sunnydale to meet Giles and confirm the possibility.
Michael had tried to stop Angel, but when Angel vamped out, he complied rather quickly. He didn't want to expose himself and risk having anyone find out where he and Liz were.
The news that she was indeed the new vampire slayer stunned Liz. Everything in her rebelled at the thought that it was her destiny to fight the forces of darkness. 'Forces of Darkness'. The thought made her laugh out loud and caused the heads of several Scooby members to turn her way with curious looks on their faces.
"I'm sorry," she said when she saw their curiousity. "It's just, come on…the forces of darkness? Next you'll be telling me that there's an actual doorway into Hell."
"Oh there is," Willow said excitedly. "Sunnydale sits on the mouth of hell. This is the Hellmouth. Boca del Inferno. It's right under the high school library…or what's left of it. The Hellmouth actually opened and this three-headed monster that was like a plant came out. It went back into the ground when Buffy killed the Master. But that's not the reason the school isn't there anymore. See the mayor ascended and turned into this really ugly giant snake and Buffy trapped him in the school, in the library in fact, the irony of which is not lost on me, and she blew him up…well Giles pushed the detonator but still…"
"Willow, slow down and take deep breaths. You don't want to scare the girl already. She hasn't even had any training," Xander said. Giles looked at him oddly. Something rational actually came out of the boy's mouth. "What? I can be with the practical thoughts too."
Liz stared at the group in shock. It couldn't be true. She wouldn't let it be true. Her life wasn't supposed to be like this. She had dreams. She was going to go to Harvard and be a doctor. She was going to find the cure for some horrible disease and save people. It's what she planned to do her whole life. Now these…strangers were telling her that none of that would happen. No! She wouldn't accept it! "Are you completely insane. I don't have a pre-ordained destiny. I'm not a..a..a slayer. And you can't make me be one."
"Liz," Angel began to say softly.
"No! I'm not doing it. You can just tell them no."
"It's not that simple. You've been called. The demons will start hunting you if you don't hunt them first…and they won't stop until they kill you. One dies and the next is called."
She felt her eyes fill with tears. Michael was sitting beside her, wondering when their lives had become so insane. Liz was a vampire slayer. That concept alone was hard to contemplate. They needed to know more about this. "So what you're saying is that this is a birthright?" he asked.
"Yes, and you can't escape it."
"She needs a watcher," Angel said solemnly.
"We're not going to let some stuffed up, pompous, British git in tweed come in here and poison her or test her. We can't let them do to her what they tried to do to me. She isn't ready. I've been slaying since I was fifteen. She's already sixteen, going on seventeen. That only leaves a little over a year for her to be ready for their test," she spat. "She wouldn't be able to do it. Even I wasn't ready for what they did to me."
Angel studied her closely, wondering when she began using words that he'd only ever heard come out of Spike's mouth. Just as he was about to ask the door to the Magic Box swung open and in walked his wayward childe. He growled low in his throat, the sound stopping Spike in his tracks, when he was punched in the arm by Dawn who had a serious scowl on her face. "Don't even start," she said, effectively cutting off the insult that had been on his tongue.
Spike heard what she said and the biggest smile lit up his face, startling most of the people in the room who knew him. "Thanks, bit." He turned to Angel. "Not enough people in LA to save so you have to come here and play dark avenger." He would have kept going but stopped when he saw Buffy glaring at him. The whelp was positively beaming though. The only things they had in common were beer, darts, pool, and their mutual hatred of Soul Boy.
Spike took two more steps into the room when he smelled it. Slayer blood. But not Buffy's. His head shot to the left, looking at the small brunette that was new to the gathering. He watched her eyes widen as she took in his appearance. Curling his tongue behind his teeth, he smirked. "New slayer." The words just rolled off his tongue, his accent lilting and seductive. He walked toward her, his gait smooth and casual. He didn't want to frighten her…yet. He never broke eye contact, his huge crystalline orbs locked on her velvety chocolate ones. "What's yer name, luv?" he asked as he stood right in front of her.
"Liz," she whispered softly, unable to break the gaze he'd drawn her into. She knew him. She'd dreamt him. No one knew. She didn't tell anyone, not even Maria. For weeks she'd seen nothing but him in her dreams. Oh sure, there were other people. She'd seen Angel, but he was a different version from his past persona. How he was in her dreams was the complete opposite of how he was now. Not to mention that Angel was no longer covered in blood. There were two women also, sometimes there, most times not.
Spike, though, he was recognizable no matter what. It was his eyes that gave him away. Pools of sapphire blue that you fell into no matter how hard you fought not to. William the Bloody…poetry. He wrote bad poetry until that night when the black haired temptress stole his life. She scowled at the thought of Drusilla. Pictures of them covered in blood, hunting, feeding, preying on innocents, filled her head. But those soon fled and she saw him as he was now. She saw the pain the chip caused him, the protective love he felt for Dawn and the witches. His friendly hatred of the guy named Xander and the comraderie he felt with Anya because of their new lives and their bloody pasts. And then there were the dreams where it was just him and her, as they are now, tangled together, all flesh and sounds. The sounds. The moans, the screams, pleasure and pain culminating in trembling vocal orations. "I know you," she said, not breaking contact. "Will you recite some of your poetry for us…William?"
Spike jerked then, backing away from her hastily, his eyes wide and filled with memories he'd rather forget. Everyone was looking at him as if they'd never really seen him before. Only Angel and Buffy knew what he'd been. No one else. There was no way she could know. Liz stood and advanced on him. When she stood no more than six inches in front of him, she looked up and said again, "I know you."
This time it was he who was drowning. Suddenly it was as if there was no one else in the world. The air around them was charged and electricity fairly crackled between them. He didn't know who moved first only that one of them did and he was caught up in the most passionate, tender, sensual kiss he'd ever experienced. It had all the tenderness he'd lavished on Dru, the passion he would have given Buffy, the friendship he felt for Willow and Tara, and the protectiveness he felt for Dawn.
Buffy nearly jumped out of her chair when their lips met. The new slayer was clinging to Spike's shirt as if she'd never let go and his hands were wandering, as if they were controlling themselves. When they ran over Liz's butt and stayed, she covered Dawn's eyes. Giles was cleaning his glasses while Michael and Angel very nearly tore across the room to break them apart, but Angel never made it. A dark haired figure attired in black standing in the doorway stopped him in his tracks. He couldn't be…. It wasn't possible. "Doyle?"