Lost in the Smoke
Chapter 11
(Disclaimer in part one)
The Scooby gang left the Magic Box soon after Anya's tirade crushed all their newfound hope. With everyone going off in their own directions, Buffy, Spike, and Dawn were on their way back to Revello Drive in silence. Tension and aggravation had tightened up the muscles in the Slayer's back. The idea that they were nowhere closer to the truth after a whole day of work annoyed her to no end. She abruptly stopped in the middle of the road half way home.
The vampire looked quizzically at his love and asked, "What's the matter pet?"
"You guys go on home without me. I need to go kill something and take out some frustration," Buffy replied.
"You want me to come with, pet? I can join you once I drop the Nibblet off at the house," he suggested, earning him a glare from said teenager. Obviously, she didn't like being considered a young burden, but it didn't really bother any.
"No, it's okay. I'll just patrol some and be there in a bit. You just make sure Dawn does the homework I know she has." She waited from him to nod his acceptance and then kissed him on the cheek, setting out for the closest cemetery.
*******
From the shadows, he watched the three people walk down the street toward their home. He stayed out of the light of the street lamps and just far enough away from the group so none of them would sense his presence.
He chucked to himself. He had thought of them as people. To most people that's what they were; normal people, a family. But he knew better. He knew the secrets they kept from the rest of the world; that one of them was the Slayer, the Chosen One, one was a Master Vampire, the ones the Slayer was supposed to kill instead of walk hand-in-hand with, and the third wasn't even real, but a girl created simply to hold pure energy itself, the Key. What a family they made.
He saw the chance of tonight being when he would succeed improve greatly when he saw them split up, the Slayer, because that's how he had to think of her right now, emotions would only inhibit him, she going one way and the other two going another. It would be easier if the little sister had gone with any of the other Scoobies, but she still wouldn't be much in the way of a crimp in his plans. Silently, he followed the pair to the house and waited for his opportunity to strike.
*******
Patrol proved to be boring and less than satisfying for Buffy. She had only dusted two vamps and one had been a fledgling only half out of his grave, so that one really didn't count. Her sweep through three cemeteries had done very little to provide her with any stress relief, so she decided to just call it a night. She smiled, knowing that at least spending some time curled up to her undead boyfriend would make everything better.
Turning, she gave the place one last glance, seeing only rows of headstones and desolated crypts, before leaving the cemetery and heading home.
*******
It took a while, but finally a good prospect was presented to the man hiding outside the Summers' home. He thought the girl would never leave her houseguest alone, but eventually she gave up pestering him and went to her room. Minutes later, music could be heard blaring from speakers in her room, music loud enough that she would never hear the scuffle that would surely take place down stairs.
A quick peak in the window assured him that the blonde vampire was indeed asleep on the couch in the living room. He walked around the porch to the front door and opened it, using a spell to muffle any noise it made. Being in the good versus evil battle this long had taught him a few things, some helpful spells included, although no one had any idea. Also, not having to worry about being invited in, like some trespassers would have to be, made things a lot easier.
He entered the living and watched the person on the sofa sleep, the creature unconsciously taking unneeded breath. William the Bloody had always been an enigma to him, loving and embracing being a vampire, but still clinging to the habits of humanity. Yes, he was always an enigma, and a pain in the man's sides.
Simply staking him had been the plan, but now that seemed too easy and quick. Spike was woken up by the force of a punch hitting him square in the face and the feeling of his body being forcibly lifted from the couch. A look of confusion passed over his face when he saw who his attacker was, but it was quickly pushed aside by the thought that he had to fight to protect himself and Dawn, who he remembered was upstairs, incase the attacker had gone insane and decided to hurt her too.
The fight lasted a little while, both men fighting for something dearly important for them, but the rage flowing through the intruder proved to be too much in the end for even the Big Bad to handle. In an instant, the man was sitting astride Spike with a stake poised to kill him.
*******
Buffy was sauntering up the front steps of her house when she sensed that something was a miss. She couldn't hear any disturbances since all noises were being drowned out by Dawn's stereo, even thought the sound was having to come through two walls to get to where she was.
That's when the Slayer noticed the shadows moving around inside her living room. She could tell one was Spike, and the other looked familiar, but she couldn't place it. What she did recognize, was that the two figure were fighting fiercely. She bounded into the house and turned to look into her living room. Her muscles were already tensed to fight.
The sense in front of her was chilling. Spike was on the floor with the attacker sitting n top of him. The man's back was toward her, so she ran into the room. The man had been alerted to her presence when Spike had looked over at her. Buffy saw the stake in the air, raised, ready to plunge down into him. She now looked into his face was shocked by who looked back at her. Their eyes locked and his arm, holding the stake, stayed still in the air.
Shocked by the sight before her, before her Slayer senses took over Buffy only had time to quietly utter his name once in disbelief, "Angel."
**********
I had so much fun writing this chapter and I'm proud of it too. My day has just gone so down hill in the last few minutes, so writing this helped considerably. Now, I think I'm gonna go workout some, because I feel the sudden urge to slay something. What did you guys think of it? Any comments, thoughts, anything? I could really use some good news, so please review. Oh, and I read that you thought the formatting to the left and everything was better so I'm going to go back and change the formatting in the other chapters when I get a chance. Thanks for the input.
