"I'm doing it the hard way. I don't need a soul to be good. I just need you."

Harmony has to tell her boyfriend that she's a vampire. Deb and Dev try to figure out where their relationship goes from here. Jeta seduces and threatens a female vampire. And we take a trip back to New York, where Devlin vainly competes with Spike for Dru's affections while simultaneously trying to get Spike to respect him.

Harmony's teenage boy toy Alex gets out of bed around noon on Sunday and walks into the kitchen. He opens the fridge, and is shocked to find nothing but bottles of red liquid. How odd. He shrugs it off for the moment and goes into the bathroom to take a shower. After that he goes back into the bedroom and kisses a still sleeping Harm on the cheek. She smiles. Then he opens a window. Harmony shrieks when the light hits her and rolls off the bed. "What you doing? Close it! Close it!!" A frightened Alex obeys.

"Sorry. Guess you're not much of a morning person."

"It's okay," she says, covering herself with the sheet and walking over to Alex. "I'm guess I'm still recovering from all the fun we had last night." Alex smiles and they kiss.

"One the best nights of my life."

"Silly me. I'm dragging these sheets along the floor, and getting them dirty." She drops them, and stands before Alex stark naked. He has that shocked, goofy, I can't believe my good fortune look teenage boys give if they're ever lucky enough to be in such a situation.

"You dropped them on the floor. Doesn't that — why am I thinking this through?"

"That's my boy."

"I'll sleep on the couch tonight," Devlin tells Debbie after they get back home.

"Whatever you want."

"You know what I want."

"All too well," she replies after a long pause.

"There should be a statute of limitations."

"On murder?"

"Well, yes. See, you changed me. I became a different person because of you. Therefore, it's wrong to hold me accountable for things I did before we met."

"I know. And I'm not."

"Wait," Dev replies after a few seconds of pause. "How aren't you?"

"I'm punishing you for not telling me the whole truth. For hiding certain . . . details from me."

"Such as me mentioning that I made her cry and beg without telling you how I made her cry and beg."

"And all those people you killed at that coffee shop."

"If I could, I would have called her to make an appointment for a fight to the death. But since that wasn't an option - Okay, bad time for humor." He paces back and forth. "If I told you that I raped her, would you have ever let me get close to you?"

"I can't say. Because you didn't."

"And, of course, love is supposed to be based on honesty."

"I wouldn't be sure about that. I still love you."

"Honesty about how we feel, in the present tense. Honesty about what we do, in the present tense. Look, I'm not like Angel or Spike. I don't have the luxury of hiding behind a soul."

"Luxury?," Deb scoffs.

"Yeah. Sure, guilt hurts and a conscience haunts, but that's a small price to pay for absolution. That orphanage I massacred, those ballerinas I tortured, you can't hold that against me, cuz I didn't have a soul when I did those bloody awful things.' I'm doing it the hard way. I don't need a soul to be good. I just need you."

"Is that a threat?"

"I thought is what a tribute."

"Bull. You're warning that if I cut you loose, you'll start killing again. Fuck me, or people will die.' That's despicable."

"I said I needed you, Deb. Not your body. I may desperately want it. But as long as you'll have me in your life, even if it's not in your bed, that's good enough for me. And don't tell me I'm the only one who wants me in your life."

"No comment." Dev smiles.

"If I walked out that door right now, it would hurt both of us."

"It would probably hurt you more, since you'd burn up." They both chuckle. "God, what have I gotten myself into?," she asks with both humor and despair.

"I don't know, Deb. No one's ever tried to do what we're doing."

"Who's fault is that?"

"The Watchers. For socially isolating the Slayers. And the vampires, of course. For being too narrow-minded and barbaric. But not the Slayers."

"They've always wanted the vampires?," she asks incredulously.

"No, no, no. They've always wanted someone to share their life, to share their risks, to share their fears with."

"Trust me, when we met, the last thing on my mind was Finally! A vampire I can fuck!'"

"I said companionship. Not fucking. That's just," he smirks, "the advanced form of companionship."

"So you think we're regressing?"

"Oh no. We're in some . . . super-advanced, ultra-mature phase. Without sex."

"Like marriage." They both laugh.

"Till death do us part. My death, of course."

"Don't go thinking you can get out of the doghouse by dying," she jokes with the casual morbidity that's become a staple of their domestic conversations.

Jeta sits on a hay bail, concentrating really hard to see if she can lift up a gas can. It jiggles a little, but does not leave the ground. Vampire life was so boring when you're not traveling, and when you aren't with somebody special. She was beginning to learn that. There was hunting and killing, but that took up at most a few hours a day. Otherwise, there was nothing to do but sleep and sit around. To live that way for an eternity felt like divine punishment. She was only a couple weeks old. How would she feel after a year? Or ten years? If Jeta didn't have her murderous plotting to help pass the time, she doesn't know what she'd do. But the plotting felt hollow. She was fighting for sole possession of a gross-smelling, ill-mannered, ugly man she despised. What could be more pointless? Not having the murderous plot. Yes, that would be far more pointless. Jobyna returns. Jeta stands up and grins. She can feel her blood rising. It's strange. Women never made her feel this way when she was human. "Is your hunger satisfied?," she asks as she slowly circles Jobyna with a predator's gaze.

"What are you doing?," Jobyna nervously asks.

"Appreciating you. You should fell honored, Jobyna. There's a reason Ivan picked you. You're beautiful."

"N-no I'm not," Jobyna shyly responds, covering her exposed shoulders with her hands. That she was prudish turned Jeta on even more.

"Not like the rich city girls on the promenade with their fancy hats and expensive dresses. In a better way. They're so fragile. You're tough. You can roll around in the mud and still look good. So to speak."

"Where are Devora and Lukina?"

"Gone. Well, Lukina's dead. Devora's never coming back. It's just the three of us. You look scared. I thought you wanted them gone?"

"I'd also want you to be gone," Jobyna responds, finally getting some back bone. Which also turns Jeta on.

"Ingrate!" She slaps Jobyna with the back of her right hand. "That's the thanks I get. Before me, you shared him with four. No you share him with one."

"Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you the first chance I get."

"I'd kill you first," Jeta responds with a wicked smile. Jobyna knows this is no bluff. Unlike the dead vampires, she doesn't underestimate the new girl's powers. But she also hesitates to leave Ivan, since she's unsure of her prospects on her own. There's German soldiers to worry about. Not to mention the locals. Everywhere she goes, everyone will be against her. And it's hard to take on the world all alone. Harder than fending off Jeta's advances.

"This is what separates you and I and Ivan from the others. All vampires have the bodies of animals and the minds of humans. But we few know how to use both. At the same time.

Alex and Harmony lie in bed, smiling and staring at one another. "You are the most . . . amazing, incredible . . . you're the girl of my dreams." Harmony feels her heart melt. She's not used to boyfriends appreciating her, let alone worshipping her. "No. You're better. Cause I've never had a dream this good." She runs her left hand through his hair.

"Well, Alex, I've never known anyone like you, either. So sweet, and trusting, yet incredibly sexy and masculine."

"I wish I didn't have to go home. I mean, I know I have to. I have school. And my life." Harmony looks worried.

"Aren't I a part of your life?"

"You're the best part! That's the thing. Being with you, it's, it's like a fantasy. Like it's not real. Better than real. Too good to be true."

"It's definitely true," she responds, getting on top of Alex and straddling him. "I'm all real. You know that." He looks up at her, his mouth agape. His breath starts quickening.

"I am, kinda hungry," he offers, appropo of nothing but his growling stomach, which for the moment takes precedence over his lower parts for the first time in nearly a day.

"I can order in."

"Sure. But I should be heading home soon. Before my parents start asking too many questions." Her instinctive response is to kill them, but she knows that would backfire. Like Sidney said, think with your mouth, not your teeth.

"It is getting late. I should probably get dressed."

"Wait," he says with a smile, putting his hands on her thighs. "Just, let me, savor the view for a few more seconds." Harmony puts her hands on his chest and stares down into his green eyes. She was feeling something entirely new. She was feeling, appreciated. Spike certainly never made her feel that way. "I could do this all day," he confesses. "But - "

"You have to get back to boring real life." She gets off him and they both get out of bed and get dressed.

"Yeah. Hey, Spring Break's in a couple weeks. I could tell my parents I'm going away with my friends for a few days and spend them with you." When she was in high school, Harmony liked college boys. Now that she's out in the world, she likes high school boys better than she did when she was in high school. Because now they treat her like a goddess.

"That would be great. Believe it or not, there's a few good clubs in LA I didn't take you to last night."

"How do you get in everywhere? And without me being carded?"

"My I.D. from work. My firm has connections."

"Could they get Lakers tickets?"

"Please, they could get Lakers." Now there's an invigorating fantasy that Harmony quickly suppresses in the presence of her boyfriend. "Oh, and if there are any bands you wanna see, Lorne — my friend at work — he can get you backstage passes."

"So you work. What about college? I thought you went to Mission Viejo?" She forgot that lie.

"Why would I have an apartment here and go to school way down there?"

"Good question." Uh-oh. He's getting suspicious.

"That's where I went to college. Sidney still goes there. She's the friend that invited me to the party."

"So you're not eighteen?" Oops. Her excuse just created more questions.

"Does it matter?"

"I, I guess not. You definitely look eighteen." That she did.

"What matters is we have a great time together."

"That we do. That we most definitely do." She puts her arms around his waist, then slips her hands a little lower. He likes that.

"You keep doing that, I'll never leave."

"Sorry," she jokes and lets go.

"Don't be." But despite how great she kept making him feel, he still had some nagging questions, and not just about her age.

"Are you on a special diet?" That gets Harmony's attention.

"Why do you ask?"

"I looked in your fridge - "

"It's a liquid diet. High protein. That Atkins thing. But more convenient. It's the hip new diet. Are the stars are doing it."

"Okay." But he didn't look convinced. He just stared to her in silence.

"What?," she asks with mock innocence.

"When I saw you sleeping this morning, you, you weren't breathing."

"That's impossible."

"I know. And your skin. It always feels great. Really great. But, strange. Not in a gross way. Just, different. You're very different. Don't get me wrong. I like it. A lot." He pauses again. "Why did you freak when I opened the window?"

"I-I-I'm grouchy when I get up in the morning."

"And why do we only go out at night?"

"I'm a night person."

"What's in the fridge?" He quickly walks to the kitchen. She zooms past Alex and cuts him off. "What are you afraid I'll discover?"

"That the diet drink tastes really bad, until you get used to it."

"It's a little dark in here. How bout I open a window?" He walks over and reaches his left arm out for the shade.

"No!" She grabs his right arm and pulls him away from the window, inadvertently throwing him to the ground, which she instantly regrets. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Alex." He gets up and backs away, further increasing her anxiety. He looks like he can't believe what he's about to say.

"Are you a vampire?" Harmony laughs. "I know. It's funny. Crazy, actually. So are you?" He stares at her. She stares back, looking tender and vulnerable. "Cause when I put everything together: how you got in and out of my room so easily, how you seem afraid of the sun, the bottles of what looks like blood in the fridge, your extraordinary and, at times, exhilarating strength. Of course, I could be wrong. Since we all know vampires don't really exist. How bout we go outside for a walk? I'll apologize for bringing this crazy subject up, and we'll have a good laugh. Like the one you just had."

"You're really smart."

"Does that mean I'm right?"

"It means, you're really smart. Which, by the way, for the first time in my life, I find sexy. And I'm not just saying that because you're about to run out of my apartment screaming."

"Can you say it? So everyone in the room is talking like they're nuts, and not just me."

She walks up to Alex and takes his hands in hers. "Alex, I'm a vampire." He lets go and steps back, looking down and putting his left hand to his temple.

"Can I have a moment? Cause, you know, it's not everyday I guy finds out his girlfriend's a vampire."

"Actually, it's more common that you think."

"That's not hard. I thought it didn't happen at all. Because vampires aren't real! And now I find out I'm sleeping with one." He walks in a circle and puts his right hand in his hair.

"Sidney's a vampire. So are Paul and Luiz. And Devlin. He lives with Debbie. So that's four people dating vampires at your own school."

"I don't know any of those people."

"Don't you go to Laguna Hills?"

"Torrance. Hey, maybe I'm spreading a trend," he jokes angrily.

"But I'm still the same girl you fell for. The same girl you've had incredibly hot sex with. The same girl who cares about you very much."

"Where are your fangs? Do you have fangs?" He shakes his head. "I'm can't believe I'm asking this."

"When I get mad, or hungry, they come out. But I don't drink human blood. They test you every day where I work, and if you fail they kill you. So I would never bite you, even if I wanted to, which I don't, though you are really hot. I don't think like that anymore. You're way much more fun alive."

"Glad to know I'm more than a meal to you," he comments sarcastically.

"Alex, we have fun together. I like spending time with you. You like spending time with me. And did I mention the sex?"

"Yeah, well, vampires are supposed to be sexy. That's how they lure you in."

"No luring. This is a lure-free zone. I've never felt this special. The way you treat me — I love it. And I don't want to give it up. Do you?"

"God, no, but, then again, can you give me some time to think about this? I need time. This is, beyond major. I have to let it sink in."

"Whatever you need, Alex. How much time?"

"I, I don't know. I'm sorry Harmony." He leaves. She slowly walks into her bedroom, sits down at the edge of the bed, and starts sobbing. It ain't easy being a single vamp in the big city.

Devlin already knew that in 1979. But he had Meg. She had this sixth-floor walk-up in the Lower East Side, but he didn't mind. Like he was going to lose his breath climbing all those stairs. It was a great relationship. She worked during the day while he spent time with his "family." Then they partied at night. They partied so hard on weekends that she was too busy sleeping it off to think of inviting him for a Sunday afternoon stroll through the East Village. It was Meg he thought of as he passed the time watching the five-o'clock news while Dru and Spike danced around their subterranean home to the Sex Pistol's "Holiday in the Sun." Chained to the wall opposite Dev is a clean-cut man in his mid-twenties. "Why do we keep leftovers?," Dev asks.

"Your mum wants to play with her stock broker," Spike explains.

"Bond trader," he coldly points out. For a young vampire, Devlin shows an alarming distaste for sadism. Watching people suffer makes him bored. "We should do experiments. I'd like to know how long a person can live without water. We could get ten people, different ages, genders, sizes, over a thirty day period and record how long it takes each of them to croak." Spike walks over and playfully grabs Devlin's spikey black hair.

"Hard to believe it's my blood inside you."

"What are we still doing here, anyway?"

"Wut's this? I thought you loved the Big Apple?"

"I do. But how bout a little break? Let's go find that new Slayer and kill her." Dru pinches his cheek and smiles.

"He's yours awl right," she jokes to Spike.

"Chip off the old block," Spike says with a smile, reversing himself. "One day you'll snuff out one all by yourself."

"And what better way to learn how than to help you do it?"

"Listen to this one. He's never even battled his first mob, and already he's chomping on the bit for Slayers."

"They grow up so fast these days," Dru quips. They both laugh and continue dancing.

"The Sex Pistols suck," Dev call out to get daddy's attention. "Paul Weller could kick John Lydon's ass."

"Wut was that?" Dev stands up and walks over to the old man. Dru moans excitedly.

"Naughty boy. Naughty, naughty boy," she says with approval.

"They're fake. Creating by clothes-store owner to push his knick-knacks. They're the Monkees of punk rock." Spike hits Dev in the face with a right hook.

"How's that again, boy?"

"And you copied your hair from that guy in Generation X. Right after we saw them open for the Damned." A right jab to Dev's nose, then a left hook he ducks under, landing a left uppercut to Spike's chin.

"Really," Spike responds with a sneer. "Well the Jam aren't even a bloody punk rock band."

"You take that back!" Dru squeals with excitement. Dev charges Spike. He throws the boy to his left. Dev crashes into the wall a few feet to the left of the captive. "Would you recommend five or ten year t-bills in this inflationary environment?," he asks before ducking Spike's left jab. He yells in pain when his fist hits the stone. Dev grabs Spike's hair and bashes his forehead into the wall. "How about corporate debt versus muni bonds?" Dev gets in front of Spike and throws a right cross. Spike grabs Dev's fist and throws him across the floor. As he tries to get up, Spike kicks him in the mouth. He then puts his left hand under Dev's chin and his right on top of Dev's head.

"Say when," he starts twisting Dev's neck. Dru gets worried. Dev defiantly stays silent, merely spitting out blood like a fountain. Spike twists the neck a bit more.

"Don't take my bluebird," Dru pleads. Spike chuckles.

"You know what your bluebird's problem is?" Dev tries to get up, so Spike puts his right foot into Dev's back and forces him down face first. "He doesn't know wut he bloody is. Devy-boy still thinks he's human." Spike puts his foot on Dev's head. Devlin goes bumpy, grabs the foot and bites Spike in the ankle. "Ow!" He backs away and grimaces before smiling. Dev stands up, all nice and bumpy. Dru loves it.

"I know what I am. And I know what I can be."

"Then why do you waste your time with humans?"

"You mean Meg."

"If you like the bird so much, just sire her."

"You don't get it." He looks at Dru. "I've been spoiled. I can't help comparing every vampire girl to the first one I met." He puts his right hand on her left cheek. She puts her left hand on top and sighs. Spike rolls his eyes. "And as you can guess, they've all been found hopelessly inferior. Dru cuts her right cheek and lets Dev lean in for a lick. When he goes to kiss her on the lips, she puts her right index finger across his lips. He opens his mouth, takes the finger and sucks it. Dru slaps him with her left hand.

"Bad boy." He smiles. Spike laughs and makes out with Dru to annoy Devlin. Dev walks up to the bond trader and literally rips his throat out, putting the man's Adam's Apple on his tongue, which he sticks in and out. The blood covers the dead man's clothes and drips on the floor. Dru finds the gore delightful. Spike just finds it wasteful and puts his left hand around Dev's neck, lifting him up in the air. Dev laughs.

"You think that's funny? Ruining other people's toys?" Dev spits the Adam's Apple into Spike's face. He lets go of Dev and starts laughing, then knocks him down with a sudden right hook. Dru wraps her arms around Spike from behind to calm him down.

"Our happy home smells loik viscera again." Dev confidently stands up.

"Look who's making her happy, daddy." Spike lands a left cross to Dev's mouth.

"Play nice with the boy, William. Remember how you were at that age?"

"He needs a pet." Dru's eyes light up.

"What happened to the last two pets' you brought me?"

"Remember?," Spike asks with a chuckle. "You keep their scalps under your bed."

"It's fun watching a vampire as its brain dries up." Spike sees a twinkle in the boy's eyes. Yes, he does have cruelty. Even if it is misdirected against his own kind. Spike puts his hands to Devlin's cheeks.

"Someday you'll make me proud."

"When that comes, will you tell me?"

"I won't need to. You'll know." Tears start to well up in Dev's eyes. Spike pushes him away and turns around. "Bloody hell!! Why do you have to ruin everything with feelings?"

"What's wrong with that? People have feelings."

"That's EXACTLY wut's wrong with that!"

"The more I'm like them, the more I understand them, the more I can hurt them."

"Listen to our Black Prince," Dru says with pride.

"Kids," Spike begins. "One minute you want to rip their heads off. The next . . . you don't." He couldn't bring himself to express affection that openly, since Spike only believes in romantic love.

"You two got plans?," Devlin asks.

"CBGB's. Where else?"

"Who's playing?"

"The Heads."

"The Talking Heads?," Devlin exclaims with disdain. "Those new wave sell-outs! How could you?"

"Their singer gives me tingles. Remoinds me of William when we first met."

"You don't even own any of their albums." And then Dev remembers what sorts of fans the sell-out new wavers attract. "You're just going for the high-school girls."

"What's wrong with combining work and play?"

"What work? You want work, let's go find that Slayer."

"Remember wut you were loik when Angelus told you about them?," Dru asks, fondly recalling.

"We don't use that name around here."

"Where's that Darla girl?," Dev asks. "I bet she's lonely."

"You think she'd welcome a pipsqueak like you with open legs?"

"No," Dev replies with a devious half-smile. "But isn't that the point? She never respected you. How bout we teach her some respect?" Spike finds the idea momentarily intriguing. He's impressed by Dev's revenge fantasy, but worried that all of Dev's revenge fantasies still revolve around other vampires.

"I don't go for blondes," he shrugs.

"Neither do I. But that's not the point."

"And, pray tell, what is the point?"

"Destroying the order of Aurelius. Pruning the family tree of its diseased branches." Dev dreams of the three of them killing all of the Master's vampires before killing the Master himself.

"Again, I ask, wut's the point?"

"Gotta have someone to fight."

NEXT: Elektra is sired, and meets her brother. Harmony meets Claire. And Elektra arrives in LA.