Dawny strolled aimlessly down the street, itching for something to do to kill the time before the vampire of her dreams returned. At the other end of the street a familiar vampire appeared.
"I told you not to come around here Dawny," she said.
"Like I care what you say," Dawny responded.
"Fraternity Row is mine. You can play your little kiddie games over at the high school where you belong."
"And if I don't, what then Harmony?," Dawny asked.
"Then I'll send you packing, squirt."
Dawny laughed. "You and what army?," she asked.
"This one," Harmony responded. Four male vampires appeared behind her.
Dawny groaned. "Oooh, I'm shaking. Harmony's got minions. You expect me to be scared of anything that obeys you?," she taunted as she swaggered up to her hapless foe. "You really are dumber than you look, Harmony. And believe me, that's quite a feat." Dawny walked around her. She strolled past the minions. Ran her hand along the faces of two of them. Ran her hands across the backs of the two others. "Hey boys. Looking for a new boss? Trust me, I'll make you forget all about Harmony. In like a millisecond. Come on, fellas. The choice is yours." She gave them a flirtatious glance and then circled round back in front of Harmony.
"Harmony, you're a disgrace to our entire kind."
"Oh yeah! Well you're . . . you're a . . . you're a . . . spoiled little brat!"
"Is that the best you could come up with?," Dawny wondered in all seriousness. "Your best shot. Right now. Come on." Dawny went bumpy. So did Harmony. Finally, Dawny could have some fun. Harmony growled and led with a wild right hook. Dawny blocked it. She tried a flurry of weak lefts and rights. Dawny blocked them all without even trying. She tried to slap Dawny. Dawny grabbed Harmony's arm and ripped out one of her fingernails.
"Ow! Bitch!," Harmony yelled. She tried a few kicks. Dawny blocked them all. Finally, Harmony had had enough. She backed up, growled and lunged at Dawny. Dawny leaped in the air and did a forward flip. Harmony missed her completely. After Dawny landed, she landed a right reverse kick to Harmony's face. Then, before putting it back down, she used her right leg to sweep Harmony's legs right out from under her.
Harmony was flat on her back. Dawny put her left foot on Harmony's throat. She smiled as she pressed the foot down. She could hear Harmony's Adam's Apple fracture. "You cross my path again Harmony, and your throat won't be the only thing I'll break." She stepped off Harmony. Harmony grabbed her throat. She rolled over and got onto her knees. She couldn't talk intelligibly because of the damage to her larynx. But her weasing was getting on Dawny's nerves. Dawny kicked her hard in the ass, sending her flat on her face. Dawny's face went back to normal as she calmly turned around.
Dawny walked up to Harmony's four minions. They were now Dawny's minions. They began following her. Dawny took her leather jacket off and twirled it around. "Boys, I'm looking for a new lair. Someplace to hang my coat. Why don't each of you try to find me a home. Whoever picks the best one gets to see where I hang the rest of my clothes." A seductive smile was all it took t send the minions racing off on their mission. Dawny rolled her eyes. Stupid, stupid vampires, she thought. They didn't even know when or where to meet up with her. Ditching them was almost too easy. Except she knew most male vamps were complete twits. Finding a guy like Spike – looks, muscle, smarts – was a rare feat indeed.
Dawny put her jacket back on. She walked up to the frat house where the party was that night. A group of college boys were standing in front of the doorman, trying to get in. "Members and passes only. If you do not have a pass, go home," he told them. Then he saw Dawny approach. Frat boys always liked cute, fresh-faced high school girls. Dawny walked up the steps to the entrance. "Come right on in," he said to her.
"Thank you," she said to him with a smile as she walked past him through the front door. Poor guy didn't even know what he had done. Dawny liked playing tricks on college boys. They always fell for her innocent schoolgirl act. She walked into the billiards room. It wasn't long before an upperclassman approached her.
"Hey there, beautiful. Can I get you something to drink?"
"You sure can."
"What would you like to drink?"
"You," she responded, licking her upper lip. Frat boy couldn't believe his luck. He should have known it was too good to be true.
They walked up to his third floor room. "I think I should tell you, I've done this before," Dawny told told the guy. "And I've gotten really good at it." The guy smiled. He went to unzip his pants. "No," Dawny told him. "I'll take care of that. Now close your eyes." He did as she said, brimming with anticipation. Dawny whacked him in the head with the base of a lamp. He fell to the floor, unconscious. Dawny picked him up and threw him out the window. She leaped out the window and landed outside on her feet twenty five feet below. She grabbed his right leg and dragged him away.
Xander and Buffy were trying to make sense of this new Spike guy. "He's nuts. He's crazy," Xander told Buffy.
"Probably," she replied.
"This town's already crazy enough without, you know, actual crazy people running around in it," Xander observed.
"But so what?," Buffy asked. "What's the harm?"
Xander realized what the harm could be. "Maybe he really is an old friend of Angelus. Maybe Angelus sent him to lure us into a trap. This could all be a setup. It's just the sort of trick he'd pull."
"But Xander, he's human. Why would a human work for Angelus?"
"How do we know he's human? Okay, he did come in uninvited. But he could have been in Sunnydale before you moved here. He could have been invited in by whoever owned the house before you."
"Yeah. We should make sure. Just in case." Buffy and Xander went out to the living room. Xander went up to Spike and put a cross against his forehead.
"What the bloody hell is this?"
"Just checking," Xander told Spike.
Buffy put her hand on his chest. Spike looked at her. Their eyes met. She glanced away nervously. She could feel it. "It's beating," she told Xander. Spike continued staring at Buffy. He felt like they had made a connection. She took her hand off of him. Their eyes met again. She turned away nervously, as if ashamed of what Spike made her feel.
"It's, It's okay," Tara stammered. "He's here to help." Xander didn't like the way everyone was liking the new guy. He walked across the foyer into the dining room. Buffy followed.
"Okay, we know he's human," Buffy concluded. "So I say let's give the guy a chance."
"Why not?." Xander answered. "It's his funeral." This was a positive development Spike hadn't planned for. He didn't consider that if Xander resented him, Xander would be even more likely to support his plan, because he would want to get rid of Spike. If Buffy didn't go along with Spike's plan, he could hang around for God knows how long. Xander definitely didn't want that. He had grown used to being the unchallenged alpha male in an otherwise female universe.
While Xander and Buffy were in the dining room, Spike queried Willow and Tara about the man of the house. "So tell me about this Xander chap? Is he a good bloke?"
"Xander's a sweetie," Willow responded, describing her lifelong best friend in predictable glowing tones. "The absolute sweetie-est. He's nice, and he's funny - "
"So he's a doormat?," Spike asked suggestively.
"No. Of course not. He's just great to be around. Makes everyone else feel special."
"Because he's ordinary?," Spike asked with malicious intent.
"Xander, ordinary?," Willow asked rhetorically. "He's totally unlike any other guy. He's . . . unique. He's great. He's . . . Xander." Spike thought he noticed that Willow had a hard time coming up with superlatives. Or perhaps he was noticing only what he wanted to.
"And he looks out for others," Tara explained. "He's always super helpful."
"Super-duper helpful," Willow added. "Always putting others first."
Tara continued. "Whenever we're blue, he makes us feel better. Brightens everyone's spirits."
"Sounds like the nicest guy in the world," Spike concluded. It was a barbed compliment. Spike knew nice guys finished last.
Angelus and Brad arrived at Jennifer's house. "Now remember, you have to be strong. She's going to be a wreck, so you need to be strong for her," Angelus advised Brad. Brad rung the doorbell. Angelus looked serious and upset. Jennifer opened the door. Angelus flashed the badge.
"Shane Parnell, Sunnydale PD. I've very sorry to be here. Can I come in?," he asked. Jennifer saw the ashen look on Brad's face.
"Brad, what's wrong?"
"I, we, need to come in and tell you something. Something very bad happened tonight," Brad told her.
"Come right on in," she said. Angelus had his invitation. He walked in, head down, brooding. Jenny was very pretty and graceful-looking, with brown hair and gray-blue eyes.
"You need to sit down to hear this, Miss," Angelus advised. Jennifer sat on the couch. In hushed tones Brad explained as best he could. She cried. Brad held her, tried to comfort her.
"Do the others know?," Jennifer asked.
"No, I haven't had a chance to tell them. I came right here. Detective Parnell - he saved me and drove me here. If it wasn't for him, well, I'd, I wouldn't be here talking to you." Angelus loved the grief, the sorrow. He fed off it. But to combine the grief with gratitude, that was special. These kids believed they owed him their lives. And in a way they did, since he could end those lives at any moment.
"The others you mentioned," Angelus began. "You mean the girlfriends, the sweethearts, of the other gentlemen. You need to tell them. And right away. They shouldn't be alone. They'll need their friends to comfort them, see them through. And of course they'll need my protection, so long as this maniac is still on the lose."
"I'll call them. I'll tell them," Jennifer replied.
"No," Angelus told them. "Not like that. Too impersonal. Tell them to come over here. Say it's something important, that they need to get here right away. I've done a lot of homicide cases, and it's important, it's essential, to be with your friends at an awful, unfathomably desolate moment like this." Now he wouldn't miss a moment of grief. Angelus began to think this would be his best practical joke ever. If only he could contain his bloodlust long enough to bring everything to fruition.
Jennifer called Emma, Jasmine, Laura and Meghan. They took about 15 minutes to arrive. In the meantime, Angelus tried his best to stay in character. "Do you want something to drink, Mister?," a weepy Jennifer asked.
"No thanks. I'm fine," Angelus replied. "And call me Shane."
"Mister, I mean, Shane, thanks for what you did," Jennifer told him.
"Just doing my job," Angelus replied. "I'm so sorry that I couldn't save the others. You're a brave woman, Jenny. You're gonna get through this. I'll see to that." Angelus had to continually fight the urge to burst out laughing. It was even tougher to suppress Angelus's trademark smirk and maintain Angel's trademark visage of brooding, sincere concern.
Emma, Jasmine, Laura and Meghan soon arrived. They looked over at Angelus, who stood in the corner, looking serious. "Who is this?," Emma asked Jenny. Emma was short, blonde, petite. Very cute, and very much Angelus's type. He had to remind himself that flirting would be grossly inappropriate at a moment like this.
"He's with the police," Jenny whispered. "He's here to help."
"Help? Jenny, what's happened?," Jasmine asked, realizing something was horribly wrong. Jasmine was tall, thin, dark-complexioned. She reminded Angelus of one of Gaugin's models. The four girls sat down. Jenny and Brad explained the tragedy in hushed tones. The girls all gasped and wept. They couldn't believe a horrible thing like this could happen. Only Angelus could explain.
"Ladies, I can't tell you how sorry I am for your losses," he began. "I'm Detective Shane Parnell, Sunnydale PD. You can call me Shane."
"He's the one who saved my life," Brad explained to the girls. This was perfect. Now they would see their killer as their hero.
"Just doing my job," Angelus responded. "I wish, from the very bottom of my heart, that I could have done more. What you're dealing with here is a vicious, hardened, pathological killer, in her actions more animal that human. She doesn't kill so much as hunt. But we'll get her. And in the meantime I'm here to keep you safe, make sure she doesn't lay a hand on any of you nice young ladies." This was the truth. Angelus would have these nice young ladies all for himself.
"Why? Why does she do this?," an anguished Laura asked Angelus. Laura was a tall, athletic brunette who looked a little like Cordelia.
"Hard to say," Angelus began. "How can you explain why one human being kills another?," he asked rhetorically and with delicious irony. "I don't know how many times I've asked myself that question in my line of work. There's just an evil to this world. All we can do is fight it as best we can." He walked over to the ladies. Looked down at them with his puppy dog pout. Nothing like hitting on a girl in mourning.
But Meghan was still stuck on anger. She didn't care for the policeman's hollow bromides. She stood up in front of Angelus. "Why didn't you stop this thing? Isn't that your job?," she yelled in between sobs. "What are you good for?" She started punching Angelus in the chest. He took a few steps back. She pursued. "You let him die! You let Jared die! You let them all die!" Then she burst into tears and could no longer go on speaking. Angelus hugged Meghan. Tried to comfort her. He knew this was what she really wanted.
Meghan was tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, head cheerleader, May Queen. The sort of girl Cordelia would have been best friends with (but also jealous of) in high school. "There, there. Let it out. It's okay. It's okay," Angelus told her in soothing tones. "You have a right to be angry." She sobbed on the lapel of his jacket. Angelus gently stroked her flaxen hair, trying to comfort her. "We all feel pain. We all know grief. We all lose someone we love. But you need to be strong. Jared would want you to be strong." Meghan slowly stopped sobbing.
Angelus was very comforting. She let him hold her. The two of them stood in the back of the living room. The couches were in the middle. Angelus was looking at the girls and Brad on the couch. With his left hand, Angelus slowly pulled Meghan's hair back from her neck. Then he put on his game face and dug in. The girls shrieked. They saw Angelus change. They saw his eyes, his teeth. They saw him drink Meghan. First maximum grief, now maximum terror.
Angelus finished with Meghan. Jasmine and Laura rushed towards the door. Angelus grabbed a vase and threw it into Jasmine's head, knocking her to the ground. Then he leaped across the room to get in front of the door to prevent any of the ladies from leaving. He grabbed Laura, the one who looked a little like Cordelia. He held her for a few seconds so he could feel her heart pound and listen to her lungs gasp in terror. Then he bit down and drank.
Jenny, Emma and Brad raced into the kitchen in an attempt to escape out the back door. Angelus grabbed Jasmine, who was unconscious but still alive, and dragged her by her hair as he made his way across the living room and into the kitchen. He threw her body at the three would-be escapees. It hit and knocked down Emma and Brad. They screamed as they pushed Jasmine off of them. Jasmine was dazed but beginning to regain consciousness. Jenny tried to run down the stairs to the basement. "Going somewhere, my sweet?," Angelus asked as he grabbed her arm and pulled her back up the stairs. Then he kissed her hand like a would-be suitor.
Brad ditched the girls, running in terror away from Angelus. He sprinted through the living room and out the front door. Someone grabbed him on the porch. It was Cordy. She looked in his eyes. "Remember me?," she asked. "So, you saved yourself and left your girlfriend to rot. I guess chivalry really is dead." Then she bit down into her final victim. Cordy knew she had time to savor this kill while Angelus finished off the girls.
Angelus threw the terrified Jenny into the dining room display case. "So much for you boyfriend!," he taunted. Emma fled back into the living room. He noticed Jasmine coming to. So he grabbed her head and rammed into the kitchen island, knocking her out again. He would be back for her later. Now he had to hunt Emma, his favorite of the five.
When she was five feet from the front door, Angelus came out of nowhere and grabbed her from behind. He held her, gently. She was crying. "Please!, Please!, No!," she pleaded. Angelus began fondling her. With Jasmine and Jenny temporarily incapacitated, he believe he could take his time. He even considered siring Emma. But he feared Cordy would make the Buffy connection and get all pissed-off. Granted, he could always claim he sired Emma because she reminded him of Darla, but that would also upset Cordy.
"You like it, don't you?," he asked Emma. Nothing sicker than trying to turn on a girl right before you kill her, which was why Angelus loved the idea. Angelus put his right hand up her short skirt. But Emma kept her cool. She stepped on Angelus's right foot, startling him and allowing Emma to break free from his grasp. She turned to face him. He was between her and the door, so she had to fight him. She punched him in the groin. Angelus grimaced. Then she kneed him in the groin. Angelus groaned. This girl was a little TOO much like Buffy, Angelus thought.
Now he was furious. As she tried to get by him, he grabbed Emma's right arm and twisted it beyond the breaking point. He could hear the radius and the ulna fracture in her forearm. Emma reached for Angelus's face with her left hand, trying to gouge out his eyes. He wasn't expecting such a spirited fight. And he had others to kill. He grabbed her left hand with his right, and crushed it. Then he grabbed Emma's head and snapped her neck. He liked that snap of the spine severing. He had always liked that hollow crack.
Now Angelus rushed back into the kitchen, getting there just in time to prevent Jenny from escaping out the back door. He also blocked her access to the door between the kitchen and the living room. She knew the basement would be a death trap at this point. So she ran into the dining room. Angelus grabbed Jasmine – who was dazed but conscious – put her over his shoulder, and went back into the living room. He made it to the front door before Jenny.
He stared Jenny down. Jasmine was trying to speak. "What happened? What happened?," she asked. Angelus put her on her feet, and turned her to face Jenny. Jasmine could see the terror in Jenny's eyes. Angelus bit into Jasmine from behind. He watched Jenny watch him feed. Jenny fled up the stairs. Angelus dropped the drained Jasmine and went up after Jenny.
"Jennifer, Jennifer?," he called out in a soft, soothing voice. "No one's left to help you. Bradley's deserted you in your hour of need. He's left you to die." He could hear breathing coming from her bedroom. What a fitting spot for an execution. He entered. She was at the window, trying to open it and leap out. "Are you trying to sneak out?," he asked jokingly. "Cause if you do, I'll have to tell your parents when they come home. I don't think you want me to meet your parents. I bet I'm not the type of boy they'd want you inviting into your bedroom. Course they'll get over it. They'll get over everything soon enough."
It was a wicked, devious ploy. Essentially, Angelus was telling Jenny that it was either her or her parents. If she fled and lived, they could die. And even if she tried to escape, he was so quick it would probably be in vain. She paused with the window half-open. "That's a good little girl," he told her. Angelus grabbed her right arm and bit into her right wrist. The rapid blood loss caused Jenny to lose her balance and fall to her knees. Angelus let go of her right wrist. He looked at her. She was very pale, but still conscious. He took her left hand and bit into her left wrist, draining her.
Now for the cleanup. Angelus looked in Jenny's desk drawer. He found a large pair of scissors. He ran the blade back-and-forth and up-and-down her left and right wrists. This obscured the bite marks, and made it look like a suicide. Then he picked Jenny up and put her in bed. He tucked her in. He rested her head on her pillow, fixed her hair. This was how her parents would find her. Sleeping beauty. "Sleep tight Jenny," Angelus whispered as he closed the bedroom door.
He went back downstairs to take his sweet time draining Emma. Then he grabbed the four downstairs bodies and tossed them in the backyard. Cordy had already ditched Brad there. They wanted everything to be a surprise when the parents returned. Angelus wasn't sloppy enough to leave blood stains. He walked back in through the back door, strolled through the kitchen, through the living room, and out the front door. He met Cordy in the front yard.
"Your are amazing!," he told her. "That was brilliant! That was genius. That was a work of art." It had all been her idea, even the part about Angelus posing as a good guy to lure the girls into the house. He grabbed her and kissed her. The last couple hours had really got him worked up. He pulled off her red jacket, her white shirt. She pulled off his black jacket, ripped open his black shirt.
"Angelus baby, should we be doing this right here, out in the open?," she wondered.
"Who's gonna stop us?," he asked her. While no exhibitionist, Cordy wasn't about to refuse Angelus, especially when he was this hot-and-bothered. She pulled off his shirt. They fell down to the ground and had at it like wild animals.
"Ohhh . . . Angelus!," Cordy moaned in ecstasy.