Disclaimers: Mutant Enemy and Joss Whedon own it all. I'm just doing this for fun, and hopefully entertainment
Reviews: Welcomed and appreciated
She lifted her nose to the wind and sniffed. The barrage of odors assaulted her, but she found the one she was searching for. Close, so close. She started to run, a steady, even gait. With each step his scent grew stronger, his quintessence pounding through her consciousness. Have to get to him, have to get to him, have to get to him. The need was overwhelming. She stopped, turning her head first right, then left. Looking through the ink-black night. Seeing forms, shapes, knowing where to seek.
He was close. She could feel him, sense him. Running down a dark ally, she came across the carcass of a dead animal, she didn't know what kind, but she bentover and ripped at it, drinking from it. As she pulled away, a face looked back at her, the face of a once living man. No matter, just a dead animal now, she thought. Sustenance, but no satisfaction. She began to run again, closer to her objective.
Finally arriving, she saw him. Her destination. He stood there, silhouetted in a doorway. She threw herself at him, hethrew his head back giving her access to his life force. She bit down, drinking deeply as she screamed out in orgasm, Mine!
Buffy woke with a start and felt for the coolness of her mate. Confusion and fear invaded her senses. "Angel?"
"I'm here babe." He woke earlier, torn at his feelings from feeding on her. She was a strong girl, woman, but she was young and in love. She would do just about anything for him and he had wanted it so badly. The need to mark her had been paramount, he almost couldn't stop there. The temptation to turn her had been great.
She rose naked from the bed and went into his arms. "Hold me." She was trembling."I just had the strangest dream, totally gave me the wiggins." He pulled her close, his coolness tempering her fevered body.
He looked down at her, seeing the fear in her eyes. "Just a dream Buff. We had a pretty intense time of it. Are you okay with it all?"
She laughed, shaking her head to clear the confusion. His nearness calming her, diminishing the memory of the dream. "Okay? I am so totally more than okay. I love you, why shouldn't I be okay?" She reached up and pulled his face down to hers so she could kiss him. He ran his lips over his mark.
He pulled her tight to him. "Mine."
"What time is it?" She lost all sense of time in his room, the curtains always pulled during the day. "He looked over at the clock on the shelf. "It's about ten. Giles left a message that we should come to the library at three. We have plenty of time." He lifted her in his arms and carried her back to bed.
"Wait, starving here. Need food if I am to carry on, and you know how grouchy I get when I'm hungry." She reached over for his robe and put it on. "Meet you in the kitchen."
Spike looked up from the counter as she entered. She looked ethereal. "So, now you know?"
She eyed him suspiciously. "How can you tell?"
"You smell different. You smell…taken." He didn't know how else to describe it.
"Can I just say, the whole smell thing? Ewww!" She turned to the refrigerator and took out the makings of a sandwich. "So should've showered."
Angelus chuckled from the doorway. "Hey lover, a shower won't take away the scent of me. It's ingrained." He came up next to her and took out a bag of blood and grabbed a mug.
She looked up at him. "I can live with that."
"Soddin' hell, how much more bloody precious can the two of you get?" Spike rolled his eyes.
Ignoring the question, Angel asked the younger vampire, "Did you let Oz out of the cage?" He'd almost forgotten about Oz.
"Yeah mate, hours ago. The sounds coming from your room told me you wouldn't be bothering. He got dressed and left. Said he'll be back tonight." Spike proceeded to crush mini-wheats into his cup of blood.
Buffy squinted at him. "And again, ewww! What the hell are you doing?"
"I like the texture." Spike got up and headed for the TV room. "I think I can catch up on Passions on the soap network, so I'll leave the two of you to your sweet nothings."
"We're going to the library at 3:00, be ready."
"Yeah, yeah. Can't wait to catch up with the kiddies. And how are we supposed to get there? Think watcher man wants us to catch a sunburn?"
"Days are shorter Spike, lots of shade. We can go through the sewers if we need to, they lead to the school basement." Angel spoke to Spike's retreating back.
Buffy grabbed her sandwich and went past Angel. "I need to shower, really shower, before you come up. Give me twenty minutes, okay?" She kissed him and left.
Angelus smiled at her retreating form, memories of the previous night running through his head.
As he turned to remove his cup from the microwave, standing before him was a strange little man in a very loud coat.
Dropping his cup with a crash, Angel grabbed him by the throat. "Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Whistler, now put me down big guy. I'm not the enemy."
Angelus released his grip, but didn't let him go. "What are you doing here? How did you get in?"
"One question at a time. Okay, first one, what am I doing here? Waiting for you."
"Why?"
"Cause I need a date… to the Bronze." He smiled.
"Not in the mood for jokes little man. If you have information worth hearing, spill it. If you're gonna make with the one-liners, I will pull out your ribcage and you can wear it as a hat." Angel let him go and he fell back.
"Hello to the imagery. Very nice." His voice became serious. "It wasn't supposed to go down like this. Nobody saw the girl or the baby in your life. Goes to show how free will works, I guess. We saw you helping Buffy, being her support, loving her. But you weren't supposed to go through the last 30 years the way you did."
Angel rolled his eyes, damn these stupid, fucking beings, he thought, always interfering, always making demands. He gave the strange man a withering look. "So what? I was supposed to be ever suffering? Wearing my heart on my sleeve? Weeping at the fate of humanity? I lost the soul and I'm glad to be rid of the bastard. If you've come to try and saddle me with that whinny asshole, you can think again."
"No, can't saddle you with something you never lost. I'm just here to let you know you're going to have to make some very hard decisions. And when push comes to shove, it's all going to be up to you."
"You don't have anything useful to tell me, do you? Just nebulous little tidbits that allude to nothing. What are you, just some immortal demon sent down to even the score between good and evil?"
He smiled at Angel. "Wow, good guess. I am impressed."
"Well, why don't you get off your immortal ass and give these mortals a hand? They need a direction, I need a direction."
"This is the best I can do, but in the end, it's gotta be you Angel. It's gonna be up to you to save the world this time. She did it once, but the way thingsare playingout, well… you're gonna have to make the big decisions. You'll know what needs to be done and you're going to have to play the players."
"But the sword…"
"The sword isn't enough. You gotta be ready." He turned to leave. "You gotta know how to use it. And you gotta know who to hand it off to. You gotta trust. And you gotta be ready to make the hard decisions, not the popular ones." He turned back to face Angel, "She'll love you no matter what, you gotta remember that, she'll love you for all time." With that, he was gone.
Great, Angelus thought, another vague demon.
The group assembled in the library, minus the two vampires and Willow. "Where are the dead boys?" As much as they made him nervous, Xander knew the strength of the two of them could only be a help to Buffy.
Cordy ran her hand over his back. "Um, hello? Daylight outside. Vampires in flame, not a pretty sight." He looked at her and smiled a somewhat dreamy smile, which was not lost on Buffy.
Buffy spoke up. "They'll be here soon. Spike wanted an espresso. Don't ask, so they're coming as soon as it's dark enough." Looking at Xander and Cordelia, holding hands, she asked. "So what have you two been up to?"
"Oh, here are the donuts. A little late in the day, but still a sugary, carb-filled delight." Cordelia pointedly looked at Buffy. "What have you and Angel been up to?"
Buffy lifted a brow to that. "Okay, so where's Willow?"
"She went home to change and then she wanted to stop over at Oz's. See how he handled da cage. She's very worried about him." Kendra looked over at the watcher. "Did ya find out anyting?"
"Actually, yes. I think we should wait until we are all assembled though." He looked through the box of donuts and pulled out a jelly-filled.