1Chapter 4 - Realization
Buffy fought the thick fog of sleep. She heard someone's frantic voice calling her, who ever was calling her, demanding that she get up, was shaking her. "Come on Buffy please. Open your eyes."
Buffy's leaded eyes lifted slowly, her vision blurred and Willow's face came into focus. The Slayer in her growled in protest at the sunny hour and, stubbornly, went back to sleep leaving Buffy to fend for herself until night fall.
A lot of help you are. Buffy thought, mentally shoving Slayer who in turn glared, eyes flashed with amusement . Yeah sure you go ahead and laugh you useless,
Willow was shaking her again braking off her thought process. "Willow?" Buffy asked uncertain. Willow, kneeling over her, heaved out a sigh of relief and flopped on the edge of her own bed.
"God Buffy, you scared the crap outta' me. I've been trying to wake you up for the last twenty minuets." Still foggy Buffy swung her legs off the bed lifted her arms above her head and stretched like a lazy cat. Looking around she noticed the lack of color and emotion was back. Sighing, she turned to Willow.
"What time is it Will?" Her voice husky with sleep. "It's four o' clock in the afternoon Buffy. You slept the better part of the day away. What's wrong? You look a bit pale." Willow asked her concern for Buffy shown through her eyes.
"Nothing." Buffy lied remembering her dream. "I guess I was more tired than I originally thought." She continued going over to her closet to get some clothes and her toiletries before heading out the door. Before Buffy was fully out the door Willow called out.
"Hey Buffy, about last night," "Forget it Will. It's ok." Buffy said closing the door officially ending the conversation.
"I was hoping we could talk about it, you know like we used to." Willow finished looking sadly at the closed door.
Buffy was relieved to see she was the only one in the shower room. She passed the mirrors then stopped and looked again at her colorless reflection. Buffy turned her head to the side. There on the left side of her neck, over Angel's mark, was proof the 'dream' last night was anything but.
Also she was more then a 'bit' pale, her skin was as white as the sheets were black on her bed. Groaning Buffy rested her forehead on the mirror. Grate. Just perfect. Buffy thought.
She, also, didn't feel anger as she should have been, would have been, if she could feel. Well at least everything's back to normal. Sighing again Buffy turned back to the showers.
Later a clean Buffy emerged from the college. She was wearing her favorite pair of faded, low-rise, blue jeans, her only blue pair, and a black turtle neck. With her black leather jacket and chunky heeled boots to top it off.
She walked into Giles's house. Giles looked up from his worn leather bound volume and tea to greet Buffy. "Hello Buffy. I presume you slept well?" "Well, on the count I woke up like thirty minuets ago, yeah I slept well enough." Giles looked at her perplexed. "Thirty minuets ago, Buffy it's four thirty five." "I'm very much aware what time it is Giles."
"A-are you ok?" Giles stammered. "Yeah, I'm perfectly fine. Except for this weird dream I had last night." Buffy told him about the pool/ocean of blood and her standing in the middle of it, but left out the Dracula parts.
After Buffy related the dream, Giles sat back in the recliner he was sitting in and took off his glasses. The only sound in the room, that Buffy heard, was the sound of two hearts beating and steady breathing.
As Buffy watched, and waited for Giles to do or say something the tension mounted stifling the air in the room, like a candle under a glass.
Buffy swore she could hear the wheels turning in Giles's head. Unable to stop herself Buffy broke the silence. "Thinking of a way to dodge the truth?" Giles looked at her, blinking owlishly, as if he just notice she was their.
"And what, Buffy, do you think the truth is?" Giles asked putting his glasses back on. "I don't know Giles why don't you tell me?" Buffy countered and deciding to play dumb.
"I must be going off the deep end, Giles, because I'm telling you, me drinking blood-and liking, no loving it, sounds like a first class ticket to 'Looney village' to me." Buffy stood up to pace across the room, the Slayer reminding her exactly what it felt like to have the hot tasty substance sliding down her throat, sending liquid fire through her veins.
"...not all of your dreams are premonitions Buffy. Buffy are you listening to me? " Giles voice snapped her back. "Huh? What...oh yeah, no I know that Giles but..." Giles lifted a disapproving eyebrow.
"Ok, look Giles I'm not saying theirs an ocean of blood somewhere out their waiting for me I'm saying it was weird that the act of drinking blood didn't grosse me out it was-kinda-erotic." Buffy said the last word so low Giles almost missed it.
"Erotic?" Giles repeated as if unsure."Yes Giles erotic, sexy, exciting,"
"I get it Buffy," "No, I don't think you do Giles. I wanted it. The Slayer wanted it." " Buffy, why are you referring to the slayer and yourself a separate entities?" Yeah Buff, why are you referring to us separately? The Slayer mocked. Buffy dodged the question by asking another.
"The blood called to me Giles. Why?" Buffy nearly screamed the words daring him to answer, to argue. When he did neither Buffy went on.
"Ok then, next question. It is true that Slayers are forged in darkness and have other powers besides strength and agility?" At the question Giles shot to his feet. "Who told you that?" He demanded. "So it's true then?" Buffy inquired ignoring his demand. When she got no answer she continued.
"And is it also true that Slayers can only find their 'true mates' in vampires and demons?" Giles grabbed Buffy's arms, so tight that if it weren't for the Slayer powers she would have bruised, and gave her a shake.
"Who told you these things Buffy?" Giles asked his voice held a frantic note. Buffy's stared up at him with emotionless, hard eyes. Get him the fuck off us. Now. The slayer growled.
"Is it true that when a Slayer steppes out of line or finds her 'true mate' she is destroyed?" Buffy's voice, like her, held no emotion. No cadence.
Giles dropped her arms turning his back to her. "I need a drink." He said and headed to the kitchen. "Yeah I figured." Buffy countered and walked out the door, closing it silently behind her. Giles watched her retreating form melt into the late afternoon shadows.
When she was completely out of sight he picked up his phone, dialed a number and waited for someone to pick up. On the third ring someone did. There was a pause. Giles stared blankly into space and said "She knows."
Buffy sat on top of the old, Spanish moss covered mausoleum in one of her favorite cemeteries. Waiting for the sun to sink below the mountains. Dose he really think I'm that stupid? Buffy thought rhetorically. Giles had called some one. Who? Buffy thought. Probably the Council. The slayer replied tiredly.
He probably did call the Council, who were probably on their way now, either to kill her or try to incarcerate her. She sighed heavily, watching as the sinking sun painted the sky a kaleidoscope of bland grays, silvers, and whites. The Slayer stirred awake in Buffy.
Crickets song played faintly somewhere in the cemetery. She heard mouse's final scream as an owl caught it in it's crushing talons. A gusty wind picked up, sending bursts of cold like spears of jagged ice straight through Buffy's black leather jacket into her bones.
She sat unmoving, seemingly oblivious, to the cold, watched as a vampire ventured out of near by mausoleum. Play time. The Slayer though darkly, masking the power oozing from her pores. Not wanting to give away her position too soon.
Standing slowly she watching unblinkingly at her pray. Her muscles tightened in anticipation of the kill, her fingertips tingled but she stood full height patiently waiting for the perfect moment to pounce.
The vampire walked by the stone mausoleum and was thrown back by a fast moving flash of blonde hair.
"Didn't your sire ever tell you not to play in the cemetery, alone, at night?" The Slayer inquired, speaking as if she would to a slow child. Her presence alone sent a deadly hush over the night.
The crickets' song ceased, the wind stilled as the shear power clung and flowed off her. The vampire took a step in retreat then stopped and growled.
"Oh, now I'm scared." she said looking board. Her eyes gleaming as the vampire lunged. The vampire's body slammed into the mausoleum where Buffy once was and roared in fury.
The Slayer, now standing by a row of headstones a few feet away, she laughed callously at the vampires folly. The vampire charged again and again and every time she dodged, laughing, unemotionally, as she did so.
After many fruitless attempts the vampire stopped glaring at Buffy with hatred, while Buffy only smirked with amusement."Your not giving up already, are you? Scared?" She taunted.
"Me?" the vampire sneered "You're the one running from me." Buffy smirk faded and her eyes narrowed turning an eery glowing emerald. "Oh really?" she whispered.
In a blur of motion Buffy ran, used his shoulders for leverage, wrapped her legs around his neck and twisted her body toward the ground. The vampires neck snapped as they hit the ground.
Buffy rolled away from the howling vampire who was now writhing in agony on a freshly dug grave, his head in at an abnormal angle. "You think so now?" She growled out through clenched teeth. Buffy kicked the vampire in the ribs so hard they caved in and sent the vampire through a headstone, crumbling it.
The vampire curled into the fetal position and whimpered. The Slayer in Buffy rivaled at the sound, causing a malicious half smile to form on Buffy's face as she stood over him. The vampire suddenly grabbed her ankle and twisted causing Buffy to go down hard. When she hit the ground the vampire pined her body under his.
"Your not so tough now are you Slayer?" The vampire snarled down at her. His breath smelled so sour it brought tears to her eyes. "Neither are you." Buffy said smiling sweetly up at him.
The vampire looked confused for a moment then looked at the stake protruding from his chest and bust into dust. Buffy stood up dusting off her clothes. They're always so damn cocky. Buffy thought wearily.
And it's not over yet. A small spotbetween Buffy's shoulder blades itched causing Buffy to stand up straighter.
"You want to help me put in some after-hours slayage? Drac." Buffy asked turning around as he stepped out of the shadows. "Is that what you call it, little one, what it is you were doing? Slaying?"
Buffy regarding him thoughtfully. "Yeah, slaying. Why? No wait you'd probably call it 'hunting'." Dracula lifted a well-defined brow. "Hunting, yes that is exactly what you were doing. Do you not know the difference?" Buffy cocked her hip out and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Ok hot shot...what's the diff?" "The 'diff', as you so bluntly put it, is that a Slayer; a Council trained Slayer, disables and stakes their target. A huntress, like yourself, stalks, plays with, and then kills her pray. And she enjoys doing it."
Buffy's mouth twitched humorlessly. "What's the point of a job if you don't enjoy doing it?" She asked.
Draculabowed in an old fashioned courtly manner and held out a elegant, pale hand. His nails were sharpened into points. Buffy looked at the outstretched hand then up at him raising and eyebrow. "Scared?" Dracula challenged.
The slayer in Buffy was on full alert as she put her much smaller hand in his. Dracula drew her closer, into the circle of his arms, so her body pressed awkwardly against his. Buffy squirmed, his touch repulsed her.
The Slayer in her clawed at her to get him away. One of Dracula's hands gripped her lower back while the other caged the back of her neck.
"Do not fear, little one, I will show you the extent of your powers. If you allow me to." Buffy was dizzy, it felt as though she were standing in the middle of a fast spinning Marry-go-round. Then when see looked around they were back in the room from her 'dream'.
"How did you," Buffy trailed off feeling nauseous. "Breath little one. The first time you teleport is always the hardest." "Is that was we did?" She asked still a bit queasy, "More or less." he confirmed cryptically.
"Well ok,lets not do that again for a few hours." Buffy stated staggering away from him. Dracula placed a hand on her shoulder preventing her retreat. Buffy looked at him eyes flashing.
"How about a taste?" Dracula's voice dropped to an hypnotic octave. Buffy stiffened. "I wont let you." "Yes you would, but I am not talking about me." He said ripping open a deep gash in his wrist, allowing blood to flow freely. "I was talking about you." Buffy stared transfixed, no matter how hard she tried she couldn't look away.
Her tongue trailed over her suddenly dry top lip, wetting it. "I-if I drink that," Buffy trailed off her teeth biting her bottom lip hard, trying to ignore the reaction the free flowing blood pooling from his wrist.
"Nothing. If you drink it nothing, for you are nowhere near death." Buffy looked from his wrist to his hypnotic black eyes and stepped forward taking his wrist in her small hands. Dracula looked down at her. "Have a taste of your darkness. Your power."
Buffy closed her eyes and bent her head to his wrist, her mouth locking over the gash. The blood slammed through her, causing her eyes to snap open. The potent twist of sweet honey and tang of copper had Buffy groaning and sucking, more, greedily down her throat.
She saw flashed of her hunting, running free, becoming one with the Slayer in her. Of feeling the rush of life she lost. In color.
Her heart-rate accelerated dangerously, white-hot electricity shot spears of pleasure/pain through her veins. Power, an overload of power and emotion wreaked through Buffy's small frame, pouring into her. Washing away small bits of the minute amount humanity left in her.
The euphoric ambrosia embedded itself into the empty places where pieces of her shattered heart and soul had been. The Slayer in her, just as greedy for the rush of emotions, clawed and demanded Buffy take more.
Always more. Never enough.
Dracula ripped his wrist away from her. "That is enough." Both Buffy and the Slayer growled loudly, dangerously, in protest. Glowing emerald eyes pinned him. "More." Buffy sounded more Slayer than human.
"Are you certain?" Dracula asked already knowing he'd won. Buffy growled again and grabbed him by throat bring him down to her eye level of 5'6. "More." Her voice was a deadly whisper without his vampire hearing he would never have caught it.
"As you wish." He whispered calmly laying his larger hand gently over the one straggling the non-existing air out of him and coaxed it to let him go. With her wrist in his hand he pulled her flush up against him. Buffy growled as Dracula bent his head to her neck.
The growl turned into a whimper of pain, as his fangs sank deep. Buffy didn't struggle, it was after all what she wanted, but sagged against the solid wall of his chest.
Buffy was stuck in a dreamlike half awake-half asleep state as she felt her heart rate and breathing slow and go shallow. Then she was falling back and a something bland, lukewarm and thick slide down her throat.
Buffy gaged, spitting a small amount of the substance out. "Drink it all, little one, and live." Dracula's hypnotic voice floated through the foggy, dreamlike state her was in coaxing her to comply.
She swallowed all of it down and listened as her heart beats as they slowed further, stuttered, then ceased to beat at all.
Darkness enveloped her as she took her last breath.