Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. They belong to Joss and ME
Chapter 2
She didn't know how long she stood in front of this vision of her cousin. Was this a dream? It had to be. Faith was dead and worse yet her body stolen and no doubt defiled by grave robbers. She took a step towards the figure and reached out to touch it.
She was solid, and frighteningly cold. Her hand snapped back as if it had been burned. Faith smiled.
"I'm real Buffy." She took a step towards her cousin, only to have Elizabeth step away.
"No, you, she is dead. Faith is dead. I saw her buried." Her voice trembled as she whispered the final words.
"I'm not going to hurt you. Please believe me. I have things to tell you. There is so much you need to know. This is all going to be difficult to explain, and I need you to trust me and listen to me. You must listen to me Buffy. I came back to help you. Please, let me talk to you." Her eyes. There was something different inside of them, yet Buffy saw the emotion of her words reflected in them. Elizabeth stepped towards her cousin and embraced her. She was real, it was her.
"Your are ice cold. How long have you been standing out here?"
"Not long really. What I have to say to you can wait no further. Can we go inside?" Elizabeth nodded and started walking back to the manor, with Faith following behind her. As they grew closer to the open doors that lead into the great hall Faith stopped. Elizabeth walked inside and was halfway across the room until she realized that Faith had stayed outside.
"Faith? What are you doing? Why are you just standing there?" She looked puzzled. Faith looked down at the ground just across the threshold, a small-unseen tear streaming down her face.
"I cannot enter Buffy. Not until you invite me inside" her head was still looking down. Elizabeth walked towards her. She felt a tinge of fear.
"You practically grew up in this house with me, you need no invitation to enter." She stopped just 3 feet from the threshold herself. Faith's body started to shake, and she closed her eyes. Her head still bowed down to the ground as she spoke.
"Buffy please," her voice broke and now whispered, "just trust me. Invite me in." her face now wet with tears. Elizabeth was taken aback, but complied with Faith's request. She stepped back and spoke, in barely a whisper.
"All right. Faith, please come into my home." Faith opened her eyes lifted her head, and walked inside.
"Thank you." Faith gave her a faint smile, "I no longer walk in this world as I once did. I live, yet I am not alive. I am not a ghost, for as you can feel, I am flesh. I.. I am a vampire" She could hear the beating of Elizabeth's heart, and worst of all, she could smell the fear. She dared not approach Elizabeth, knowing that she would either faint or run away.
"No," Elizabeth shook her head as she backed away. She stopped, she felt as though the ground was rising to meet her. She felt herself fall; yet she was still conscious. Faith stepped immediately beneath her and caught her before she hit the ground fully. She cradled Elizabeth in her arms and brushed the hair from her face. Elizabeth caught Faiths hand and looked into her eyes once more. There it was, there was the darkness she had seen in the garden. It was still Faith though. She could still see the fire in those deep brown eyes. Faith sat her up, and they were silent. Elizabeth waited until she felt she could walk.
"I think I'm ready to hear what happened to you. Do you still want to tell me?" asked Elizabeth.
"Yes." Faith stood and helped her to her feet. They walked to Elizabeth's room and sat together on the chaise next to the window and Faith began to tell her tale.
"One evening a few months ago, I was looking out onto the countryside. I wanted to be outside so badly, I felt like I would burst just being locked up in my room. I hadn't been feeling well for a few days prior and so mother would not let me set so much as a foot out of my room. But I had to get out. The night was just too beautiful to look at from inside a window. I waited until everyone had fallen asleep and went out into the garden. It was still warm and I could hear the sea from a distance." Faith stood up and walked to the window.
"As I walked out further into the garden I felt a tingling in the back of my neck. It was as if I was being watched. I walked a bit further and as fast as I could, I turned around. And there he was." She turned and dropped to her knees and took Elizabeth by the hands smiling.
"Oh Buffy he was the vision I had always dreamed would come for me. He was tall with dark hair like my own. He apologized for frightening me and introduced himself."
"Please forgive me. I did not mean to frighten you so," said the stranger as he took her hand and kissed it. Faith smiled and bowed her head slightly.
"Oh, its quite all right. I should have been more alert. But then, I was not expecting anyone on my fathers property at this late hour, especially someone whom I have never met" She looked into his eyes for what seemed like hours.
"I am truly sorry" he smiled and took her hand "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Wesley Wyndam Price." He clicked his heels and bowed to her and softly kissed her hand as gentleman do sometimes.
"I am very pleased to meet you Mr. Price." He was holing onto her longer than a gentleman should. She realized this quickly and pulled it away.
"Oh, no, you see that simply will not do." He stepped closer "Please call me Wesley." he took another step closer. She did not move.
"I have met you before, I am sure of it. You feel so familiar to me, yet I cannot quite place you." She wondered how she could forget such a man, but she was certain they had met. Still he walked closer to her, and still she did not move.
"Ahh, my sweet Faith, we have met before." He walked behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. He then whispered in her ear. "It is in your dreams where we have met," he paused and felt her shiver, then he continued speaking to her as he started to run his hands slowly down her shoulders to her arms. "It is in your dreams where I have loved you." He kissed her neck and felt her quiver beneath his touch. Her eyes were closed. Yes. Now she remembered. It was him. Her dreams of their moments together were so audacious she had not dared tell anyone, not even Buffy or Willow, who were the two people she shared everything with.
"I have loved you for so long Faith, and now I am here to take you with me." He came to face her again. "Come with me." He put his arm around her waist and pulled her into his kiss.
"It was at that moment, Buffy, that I truly felt alive. I had never known true happiness until his lips met mine." She closed her eyes and touched her fingers to her lips. "When our lips parted, he looked into my eyes, and brushed the hair from my face. And then, then he asked me something."
"I walk in a different world than you do my love. To walk away with me you must first do one thing" he caressed her face.
"Yes, anything" she placed her hand on his. His skin was cold.
"Do you want to die in my arms?" He leaned down and kissed her once again. His mouth opened and his tongue brushed her bottom lip. She looked at him as he lifted his head.
"Yes." She whispered and closed her eyes.
He kissed her again on the lips. Then slowly he left her mouth and continued to her cheek, then down her jaw line, and the soft tender flesh of her neck. Her blood now pumped viciously through her veins. He placed a hand on her breast and squeezed lightly. She felt a heat inside of her that she never felt possible. He felt her arms come around his neck and push his head down against her. Her other arm running up his back. She knew what he was now and she was welcoming him. That was all the permission he needed. He plunged his sharp teeth into her neck. She gasped, her eyes opened wide to look at the night sky. She felt the air leaving her body, but she didn't care. She felt him, taking her blood, taking her life, yet she drew him nearer to her.
"Wesley, yes, take me with you." She closed her eyes and she was gone.
There was a look of pure ecstasy on her face as her right hand slowly reached her neck. She turned her head to the right, and there were two very small scars.
Elizabeth stared at her for a moment, mesmerized by her story, and the thought of the stranger who had taken her into his world. Faith turned and opened her eyes to look at Elizabeth.
"I walk in his world now Buffy, I belong to another realm, and I am the happiest I have ever been. There is strength inside of me that I cannot describe. I feel everything, hear everything. My senses are connected to this world in a way that you cannot even begin to imagine. I know I am frightening you, and I would have spared you this confusion, but I had to come and see you. I had to warn you. If you marry Lord Angelus you will befall the same fate as your mother and father." Faith stood up and sat next to Elizabeth again.
"Faith, they were killed by highwaymen. They were robbed and left to die. What does their death have to do with my marriage to Angelus? Now Elizabeth's stomach was churning. Until know she had accepted the tale told to her by Faith with no question. Whatever Faith was now, she knew that her cousin would never lie to her or hurt her. She had come to accept this arrangement her father made, and thought someday she would come to care for Angelus and perhaps even love him. But now the doubts she had in the beginning were coming back in waves.
"After I was buried, Wesley came for me and took me from the coffin. We went back to my home and gathered some of my clothing. I took only a few things. Just enough to get me by, but not enough for anyone to notice missing. He took me to Ireland with him. He needed to close some of his older accounts so that we could come back and live in England for a while. Angelus lived in an estate outside of Dublin, and was making plans to move to England as well. He came into a small inn were Wesley and I had been staying and started inquiring if any of the locals had visited England recently. The innkeeper pointed him in our direction. He was quite polite and offered to buy us our dinner if we would inform him of the happenings. Wesley asked him why he wanted to go to England. Angelus said he wanted to buy some land and marry. He had grown tired of Ireland and wanted to make a fresh start elsewhere. Wesley told him that he most probably would not find what he was looking for in England, thanked him for his offer of dinner and we walked out. I didn't know quite why he had been so rude, until he told me just who Angelus was." She waited for what she had just told Buffy to sink in until she continued.
"It was rumored that Angelus came into his fortune by having his father killed. His father was killed by highwaymen." Elizabeth felt her head grow light, but she held herself straight. She needed to hear this. "It is believed the highwaymen were in fact hired assassins." Elizabeth's eyes grew wide, and her breathing increased, yet she remained quite. Faith continued.
"His father was not the only one to have met such an unfortunate end. His mother and brothers and sisters were also killed, much in the same fashion. Of course no proof was ever to be found that Angelus had anything to do with their deaths. He was always out of the country, or had some explanation of why he was not around, but it is quite odd, don't you think?" Elizabeth now had her eyes closed, and a small tear ran down her cheek.
"Go on." Said Elizabeth in a low voice.
"Since his father was dead, and there was no one left to share any inheritance with, he became the sole heir. Buffy, he has an immense fortune to do with what he pleases. He bought himself a title, and he means to do more. This man is evil. There is no telling what he plans to do with this fortune he is amassing, but whatever it is, it surely cannot be good. Wesley decided he wanted to follow him back to England. Once here we found out he had purchased my old home. I did not know my parents had left England. We were able to find out about you because of the passages within the walls grandfather had shown us as children."
"But how did you get into your home. It was his now. I had to invite you into my home." Elizabeth was puzzled.
"We had been traveling for days. We waited for Midnight and went to the kitchen entrance. Wesley had me in his arms and told the servant I was hurt. She invited us inside." Faith got up and turned her back to Elizabeth. "Wesley, put me down and when her back was turned he killed her." Her head was bowed down, she was afraid to look back at Elizabeth. She felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Did you drink her blood?" Elizabeth asked hesitantly
"Yes. I was starving. I craved it. There was a need in me. This is what I am now Buffy, who I am." Faith turned and looked into her cousins eyes. She could see tears, but also compassion.
"Tell me the rest." Said Buffy softly.
"Wesley took the woman out and disposed of her body. I then got us into the passages. We were there for a few days. I had to learn them all over again. Angelus had taken the Master Suite, luckily most of his plans were made from there. One night we heard him talking about Earl Summers and his daughter. He had been told by one of the maids that he had been invited to party for Elizabeth Summers' 18th birthday. By this time he was fully aware of your fathers fortune, and the vastness of his wealth. After the night of the party he started making his plans. One evening he had asked one of his men if everything was being done. The following day he asked man if it was done. I did not know what "it" was until the following night when he told the man again that he needed the same people who killed the Earl and his wife to do the same with his daughter after you were wed. He plans to marry you and take you to Italy for your honeymoon. You will die there if you do not do something. You must not marry Angelus. You must leave this place."
Chapter 2
She didn't know how long she stood in front of this vision of her cousin. Was this a dream? It had to be. Faith was dead and worse yet her body stolen and no doubt defiled by grave robbers. She took a step towards the figure and reached out to touch it.
She was solid, and frighteningly cold. Her hand snapped back as if it had been burned. Faith smiled.
"I'm real Buffy." She took a step towards her cousin, only to have Elizabeth step away.
"No, you, she is dead. Faith is dead. I saw her buried." Her voice trembled as she whispered the final words.
"I'm not going to hurt you. Please believe me. I have things to tell you. There is so much you need to know. This is all going to be difficult to explain, and I need you to trust me and listen to me. You must listen to me Buffy. I came back to help you. Please, let me talk to you." Her eyes. There was something different inside of them, yet Buffy saw the emotion of her words reflected in them. Elizabeth stepped towards her cousin and embraced her. She was real, it was her.
"Your are ice cold. How long have you been standing out here?"
"Not long really. What I have to say to you can wait no further. Can we go inside?" Elizabeth nodded and started walking back to the manor, with Faith following behind her. As they grew closer to the open doors that lead into the great hall Faith stopped. Elizabeth walked inside and was halfway across the room until she realized that Faith had stayed outside.
"Faith? What are you doing? Why are you just standing there?" She looked puzzled. Faith looked down at the ground just across the threshold, a small-unseen tear streaming down her face.
"I cannot enter Buffy. Not until you invite me inside" her head was still looking down. Elizabeth walked towards her. She felt a tinge of fear.
"You practically grew up in this house with me, you need no invitation to enter." She stopped just 3 feet from the threshold herself. Faith's body started to shake, and she closed her eyes. Her head still bowed down to the ground as she spoke.
"Buffy please," her voice broke and now whispered, "just trust me. Invite me in." her face now wet with tears. Elizabeth was taken aback, but complied with Faith's request. She stepped back and spoke, in barely a whisper.
"All right. Faith, please come into my home." Faith opened her eyes lifted her head, and walked inside.
"Thank you." Faith gave her a faint smile, "I no longer walk in this world as I once did. I live, yet I am not alive. I am not a ghost, for as you can feel, I am flesh. I.. I am a vampire" She could hear the beating of Elizabeth's heart, and worst of all, she could smell the fear. She dared not approach Elizabeth, knowing that she would either faint or run away.
"No," Elizabeth shook her head as she backed away. She stopped, she felt as though the ground was rising to meet her. She felt herself fall; yet she was still conscious. Faith stepped immediately beneath her and caught her before she hit the ground fully. She cradled Elizabeth in her arms and brushed the hair from her face. Elizabeth caught Faiths hand and looked into her eyes once more. There it was, there was the darkness she had seen in the garden. It was still Faith though. She could still see the fire in those deep brown eyes. Faith sat her up, and they were silent. Elizabeth waited until she felt she could walk.
"I think I'm ready to hear what happened to you. Do you still want to tell me?" asked Elizabeth.
"Yes." Faith stood and helped her to her feet. They walked to Elizabeth's room and sat together on the chaise next to the window and Faith began to tell her tale.
"One evening a few months ago, I was looking out onto the countryside. I wanted to be outside so badly, I felt like I would burst just being locked up in my room. I hadn't been feeling well for a few days prior and so mother would not let me set so much as a foot out of my room. But I had to get out. The night was just too beautiful to look at from inside a window. I waited until everyone had fallen asleep and went out into the garden. It was still warm and I could hear the sea from a distance." Faith stood up and walked to the window.
"As I walked out further into the garden I felt a tingling in the back of my neck. It was as if I was being watched. I walked a bit further and as fast as I could, I turned around. And there he was." She turned and dropped to her knees and took Elizabeth by the hands smiling.
"Oh Buffy he was the vision I had always dreamed would come for me. He was tall with dark hair like my own. He apologized for frightening me and introduced himself."
"Please forgive me. I did not mean to frighten you so," said the stranger as he took her hand and kissed it. Faith smiled and bowed her head slightly.
"Oh, its quite all right. I should have been more alert. But then, I was not expecting anyone on my fathers property at this late hour, especially someone whom I have never met" She looked into his eyes for what seemed like hours.
"I am truly sorry" he smiled and took her hand "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Wesley Wyndam Price." He clicked his heels and bowed to her and softly kissed her hand as gentleman do sometimes.
"I am very pleased to meet you Mr. Price." He was holing onto her longer than a gentleman should. She realized this quickly and pulled it away.
"Oh, no, you see that simply will not do." He stepped closer "Please call me Wesley." he took another step closer. She did not move.
"I have met you before, I am sure of it. You feel so familiar to me, yet I cannot quite place you." She wondered how she could forget such a man, but she was certain they had met. Still he walked closer to her, and still she did not move.
"Ahh, my sweet Faith, we have met before." He walked behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. He then whispered in her ear. "It is in your dreams where we have met," he paused and felt her shiver, then he continued speaking to her as he started to run his hands slowly down her shoulders to her arms. "It is in your dreams where I have loved you." He kissed her neck and felt her quiver beneath his touch. Her eyes were closed. Yes. Now she remembered. It was him. Her dreams of their moments together were so audacious she had not dared tell anyone, not even Buffy or Willow, who were the two people she shared everything with.
"I have loved you for so long Faith, and now I am here to take you with me." He came to face her again. "Come with me." He put his arm around her waist and pulled her into his kiss.
"It was at that moment, Buffy, that I truly felt alive. I had never known true happiness until his lips met mine." She closed her eyes and touched her fingers to her lips. "When our lips parted, he looked into my eyes, and brushed the hair from my face. And then, then he asked me something."
"I walk in a different world than you do my love. To walk away with me you must first do one thing" he caressed her face.
"Yes, anything" she placed her hand on his. His skin was cold.
"Do you want to die in my arms?" He leaned down and kissed her once again. His mouth opened and his tongue brushed her bottom lip. She looked at him as he lifted his head.
"Yes." She whispered and closed her eyes.
He kissed her again on the lips. Then slowly he left her mouth and continued to her cheek, then down her jaw line, and the soft tender flesh of her neck. Her blood now pumped viciously through her veins. He placed a hand on her breast and squeezed lightly. She felt a heat inside of her that she never felt possible. He felt her arms come around his neck and push his head down against her. Her other arm running up his back. She knew what he was now and she was welcoming him. That was all the permission he needed. He plunged his sharp teeth into her neck. She gasped, her eyes opened wide to look at the night sky. She felt the air leaving her body, but she didn't care. She felt him, taking her blood, taking her life, yet she drew him nearer to her.
"Wesley, yes, take me with you." She closed her eyes and she was gone.
There was a look of pure ecstasy on her face as her right hand slowly reached her neck. She turned her head to the right, and there were two very small scars.
Elizabeth stared at her for a moment, mesmerized by her story, and the thought of the stranger who had taken her into his world. Faith turned and opened her eyes to look at Elizabeth.
"I walk in his world now Buffy, I belong to another realm, and I am the happiest I have ever been. There is strength inside of me that I cannot describe. I feel everything, hear everything. My senses are connected to this world in a way that you cannot even begin to imagine. I know I am frightening you, and I would have spared you this confusion, but I had to come and see you. I had to warn you. If you marry Lord Angelus you will befall the same fate as your mother and father." Faith stood up and sat next to Elizabeth again.
"Faith, they were killed by highwaymen. They were robbed and left to die. What does their death have to do with my marriage to Angelus? Now Elizabeth's stomach was churning. Until know she had accepted the tale told to her by Faith with no question. Whatever Faith was now, she knew that her cousin would never lie to her or hurt her. She had come to accept this arrangement her father made, and thought someday she would come to care for Angelus and perhaps even love him. But now the doubts she had in the beginning were coming back in waves.
"After I was buried, Wesley came for me and took me from the coffin. We went back to my home and gathered some of my clothing. I took only a few things. Just enough to get me by, but not enough for anyone to notice missing. He took me to Ireland with him. He needed to close some of his older accounts so that we could come back and live in England for a while. Angelus lived in an estate outside of Dublin, and was making plans to move to England as well. He came into a small inn were Wesley and I had been staying and started inquiring if any of the locals had visited England recently. The innkeeper pointed him in our direction. He was quite polite and offered to buy us our dinner if we would inform him of the happenings. Wesley asked him why he wanted to go to England. Angelus said he wanted to buy some land and marry. He had grown tired of Ireland and wanted to make a fresh start elsewhere. Wesley told him that he most probably would not find what he was looking for in England, thanked him for his offer of dinner and we walked out. I didn't know quite why he had been so rude, until he told me just who Angelus was." She waited for what she had just told Buffy to sink in until she continued.
"It was rumored that Angelus came into his fortune by having his father killed. His father was killed by highwaymen." Elizabeth felt her head grow light, but she held herself straight. She needed to hear this. "It is believed the highwaymen were in fact hired assassins." Elizabeth's eyes grew wide, and her breathing increased, yet she remained quite. Faith continued.
"His father was not the only one to have met such an unfortunate end. His mother and brothers and sisters were also killed, much in the same fashion. Of course no proof was ever to be found that Angelus had anything to do with their deaths. He was always out of the country, or had some explanation of why he was not around, but it is quite odd, don't you think?" Elizabeth now had her eyes closed, and a small tear ran down her cheek.
"Go on." Said Elizabeth in a low voice.
"Since his father was dead, and there was no one left to share any inheritance with, he became the sole heir. Buffy, he has an immense fortune to do with what he pleases. He bought himself a title, and he means to do more. This man is evil. There is no telling what he plans to do with this fortune he is amassing, but whatever it is, it surely cannot be good. Wesley decided he wanted to follow him back to England. Once here we found out he had purchased my old home. I did not know my parents had left England. We were able to find out about you because of the passages within the walls grandfather had shown us as children."
"But how did you get into your home. It was his now. I had to invite you into my home." Elizabeth was puzzled.
"We had been traveling for days. We waited for Midnight and went to the kitchen entrance. Wesley had me in his arms and told the servant I was hurt. She invited us inside." Faith got up and turned her back to Elizabeth. "Wesley, put me down and when her back was turned he killed her." Her head was bowed down, she was afraid to look back at Elizabeth. She felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Did you drink her blood?" Elizabeth asked hesitantly
"Yes. I was starving. I craved it. There was a need in me. This is what I am now Buffy, who I am." Faith turned and looked into her cousins eyes. She could see tears, but also compassion.
"Tell me the rest." Said Buffy softly.
"Wesley took the woman out and disposed of her body. I then got us into the passages. We were there for a few days. I had to learn them all over again. Angelus had taken the Master Suite, luckily most of his plans were made from there. One night we heard him talking about Earl Summers and his daughter. He had been told by one of the maids that he had been invited to party for Elizabeth Summers' 18th birthday. By this time he was fully aware of your fathers fortune, and the vastness of his wealth. After the night of the party he started making his plans. One evening he had asked one of his men if everything was being done. The following day he asked man if it was done. I did not know what "it" was until the following night when he told the man again that he needed the same people who killed the Earl and his wife to do the same with his daughter after you were wed. He plans to marry you and take you to Italy for your honeymoon. You will die there if you do not do something. You must not marry Angelus. You must leave this place."