Settled in the back seat of Angel's convertible with a
fresh human at her mercy, Buffy slowly drained him while
she half listened to Angelus and Spike talking in the
front of the car. The gas station attendant's blood was
good but not as good as Angelus'. She would have to convince
him to let her drink from him again soon.

She took one last mouthful, rolling the blood around and
savoring the texture and taste, before she swallowed. Being
a vampire certainly changed one's perspective on life. Or
unlife. Before being turned, she had been miserable and
depressed, feeling like a failure for not being able to
prevent her mother's murder. Now she felt free. She had no
duties or responsibilities except to have fun and be herself.
For the first time in years, ever since becoming the slayer,
Buffy's life was her own. And she owed it all to Angelus.

Buffy's gaze shifted from him to Spike. He used to be her
enemy, except for that one time he'd helped her fight Angelus
for his own reasons. She felt a real kinship with Spike now.
She supposed it was only natural. They were related in some
vampiric way, and if Angelus accepted Spike's presence then
she would too.

"Buffy," Angelus called. "Finished? Ready to give us some
backstory?"

She licked her lips and shoved the body onto the floor. "Too
bad the top's down. It would be so easy to dispose of the
body by throwing it out of the car. Oh, well. What do you want
to know?"

Angelus changed lanes and almost clipped the front of another
vehicle. Ignoring the furious beeping of a horn behind them,
he accelerated and addressed Buffy. "Start from how you came to
be in Santa Ana."

"All right." Buffy thought back. "You know about my mother's
death last year? A vampire got to her. I never found out which
one but of course I was still the slayer at the time so I went
around staking as many as I could find. And then I just felt
empty. Like all my years of effort had been wasted. No matter
how many demons I killed, more would come and kill more and more
people. Giles and the others tried to talk to me about my
supposed responsibilities, but I'd had enough. That was when I
quit and ran off to Santa Ana to get a job in this crappy diner
called the Silver Knife.

"Anyway, I stopped busting my ass trying to save people and just
waited for something to kill me. I didn't care if it was in a
car accident or an earthquake or whatever, as long as it
happened. I guess I had what you'd call a death wish."

Here, Spike nodded knowingly. "All slayers get them, sooner or
later."

Buffy went on, "It took about eight months, but a few days ago
that vampire named Penn attacked me in an alley near the diner.
I thought he'd kill me right away but instead he took me to his
lair and tortured me. He kept talking about what it would do to
Angel to find me mutilated and freshly dead. Then last night he
packed me up in his car and said we were going to Los Angeles. I
don't remember anything after that until I woke up today. Much
improved, if I do say so myself. Those souls are such a pain,
it's a wonder anyone wants to keep theirs."

"That they are," Angelus agreed. "But Penn miscalculated. Luckily
for us, and unluckily for him. All we have to do now is find
him and show him how big a mistake he made. His lair was probably
close to the diner. Where was that located?"

"On Terrace Street in the southeast area," Buffy replied. "I know
the lair is in Santa Ana, too, in a crypt in a graveyard. I
don't know which one, though."

"Any more details?" Angelus asked. "Can you estimate how far it
was from the diner?"

Buffy shook her head. "I was unconscious on the drive over. And
when Penn took me out to go to Los Angeles, I wasn't in any
condition to look at much. But I do remember hearing a train
whistle nearby several times a day, if that helps."

"It does." Spike spoke up from the front, where he was studying
a map of Santa Ana that they'd stolen from the gas station along
with the attendant. "Railroad tracks run past a graveyard about
10 minutes from the diner. That looks like our best bet."

Angelus followed Spike's directions and they approached the Oak
Grove Cemetery shortly afterwards. "We need the best description
of Penn's car you can give us in case he's still around."

"I don't know much about cars," Buffy pointed out but she racked
her brain anyway. "I remember that it was small. Black, sporty.
Two doors."

Spike pointed. "You mean like that Mustang right there?"

A small, black, sporty, two door car was moving along the street
away from the graveyard in front of them.

"That's it!" Buffy cried. "Can we catch him?"

"It won't be a problem." Angelus stepped on the gas and bore down
on the other car, ramming it hard from behind. A sickening crunch
of metal sounded. The Mustang veered to the right with Angelus
sticking to its tail. He rammed it again. The Mustang shot off
the road and into a ditch, with the convertible right behind it.

TBC