Daywalker
Rating: M
Dedication: for my friends Lucy, Jenny, Kylie and Emily. Or the annoying bunch as I call them. Kidding!
Disclaimer: Yet we come to this part and I still say to suing maniac I DON'T OWN DEM! Huh, maybe being in Antigua has rubbed off on me…
~*Prologue*~
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London, 1896.
Lady Elizabeth Anne Summers, or Beth to her friends, was not the most prestigious of the upper class women in her society in England. She was viewed upon most of the well groomed Lady's as a black smug on white satin table sheets despite being more beautiful than all of them put together. She asked too many questions, spoke her own mind without properly thinking like a Lady should and seemed too smart for her own good, apparently. She held more grace and stillness in her steps than a feline, that none of the ladies in her society could master. Her aura held power and authority despite that her sex was the suppose to be the weaker one.
But she wasn't weak.
In fact she was far more stronger than any humans. She was the Slayer.
One girl in all the world to fight the Vampires, the Demons and the forces of Darkness.
However, tonight her main battle ground was something much worse. Tonight she was playing hostess for her father at their wonderful establisment, a complete and utter nightmare for her. She entered the ballroom of the west wing, smiling to each and every guest she met. It was another excuse for her father to leave and for him to get her to show her 'pretty face and get a husband as so as possible', her father's words not her own.
How much she wanted to tell him that wasn't possible considering her watcher wouldn't allow it since 'it is improper for a slayer to marry and have children since duties always came first'. Prick. Maybe she would go against duties, marry and have children. She was quite fond of Sir Robert, though she did not love him he would be a good husband and father without a doubt. Sad fact was, considering the lifespan of a Slayer, it was never going to happen anyway.
"Beth, there you are darling" Catherine said cheerily as walked up to her with a spring in her step, making her brown curls bounced. Catherine and Elizabeth had been friends since they were little. Their mothers had been friends and so their union was naturally there. They had lessons together, had holidays together, went to church together, shopping together. In short they just did everything together. They were the closest of friends Ladies of their status could be. That was until Cathering had moved away and Elizabeth was chosen, they only stayed in toch via letters.
"Catherine, this is a surprise. What are you doing here?" Elizabeth said "I thought you would still be in Italy, enjoying the time with your husband".
"Jacob has let me visit Papa and Mother" Catherine said "And of course my friends".
Elizabeth smiled then frowned "On your own?"
"Of course not silly, a lady walking around London at night is quite dangerous" Catherine said "Especially now".
"Now?" Elizabeth asked questionably.
"I didn't expect you of all people not to know. After all, you are curious of all news in London" Catherine said, a little to airily for the blonde's liking. "This morning I've read that there have brutal murders".
"Murders? This morning?" Elizabeth said, a little shocked as last night she had been patrolling and found no evidence of a new nest of vampires.
"Yes, lets see…they found a family of five hanging by their, umm, well their organs" Catherine said, shuddering slightly. "A nunnery near by was…many of the nuns were either tortured, raped or both. I believe only one nun survived, quite traumatised from the ordeal furthermore she went mad, raved on about a devil in the body of a man. Maybe the Ripper decided to go for more decent people than whores" she chuckled tensely at the thought.
"Don't worry Catherine, you'll always still be my whore" Elizabeth said mischievously with a smirk.
"Elizabeth Anne Summers!" Catherine said and swatted her friend humorously then chuckled with her friend "I am a married lady. You should not be talking to me like that!"
"Oh Cathy, you know me too well enough to know I will talk the way I like to talk" Elizabeth said, smiling.
"You always get into trouble with that tongue of yours" Catherine shook her head.
"And I always get out of it with this very tongue too" Elizabeth said.
"You're very arrogant for a lady, usually it is found in a man" Catherine said.
"Not arrogant, free-thinker" Elizabeth corrected her with a grin. "Not a trait a man is willing to marry but one can hope"
"I hope you are married and soon, you cause too much trouble around our society" Catherine giggled.
Elizabeth laughed with her friend. It was good to see her friend even it was going for a while, Count Jacob loved his wife dearly and would rarely be apart from her.
"Beth, who are those gentlemen?" Catherine asked looking over Elizabeth, Elizabeth turned to see the newcomers "I don't believe I have ever seen them before"
Elizabeth looked at the pair of men. The shorter man had blond hair, soft poetic blue eyes, strong bone cheeks and an arrogant smile that could rival her own if it wasn't for the other standing there next to him. He was barely smiling slyly and it still sent a cold shiver down her spine. His dark brown hair was tied back because it was so long, deep mahogany eyes had a dangerous twinkle in them and when they made contact with her own, it made her want to panic. But the Slayer in her had none of that, and so she held her ground as she stared back at the stranger. As soon as his friend grabbed his attention, Elizabeth looked over to Catherine.
"No, I don't think I have" Elizabeth said "Lets go and fine something to drink, I'm quite parch".
"Very well" Catherine sighed.
As soon as she and Catherine and her poured themselves a drink from an elegant silver punchbowl. They walked up to the rest of group of their society, after all Elizabeth was the hostess and hostesses had to be a part of it all. However, mingling with the ladies and gentlemen was a complete bore to Elizabeth and Catherine but appearance was everything in this upper class world. But socialising was always a good thing, provided information for any problems a Slayer may come across if she knew where to look.
"Dear lord is that so?" Lord James said.
"It's true; gypsies all over the place when we visited Romania" Catherine said "None of them wash except by the riverside"
The was a chuckle amongst them but only Elizabeth smiled in a secret way. When she visited Wales she had to live like a gypsy and wash by the riverside. Being a slayer you had to go undercover at times when there was a demonic underground gang being rumoured planning for Hell to come upon God's green Earth. While thinking of that memory she glanced towards the dance floor when the music stopped.
The dancers had proceeded to bow and were now waiting for a new song to pick up again, Buffy looked down at her empty dancing card. It wasn't because she was a bad dancer or the gentlemen were scared of her. The truth was that she found the gentlemen she did dance with just kept on going on about their achievements and such and it made her want to pull out her secret knife under her dress and put herself out her misery. She wanted a husband that listens to her, to be patient, smart and wise. Not a pompous idiot that talks until there is no air in his lungs and she was some kind of trophy wife.
She slightly frown when she felt someone behind her, even though she didn't hear them approaching. Elizabeth turned around to face them. The dark haired stranger was there smiling charmingly. "Madame, would you honour me in a dance?" he asked with a slight bow.
"Sir, why would you dance with me? There are plenty of other Ladies that would more likely to interest you than I" Elizabeth said. "Furthermore I have to play host with my guests than dance the night away, since my father is not here"
"So you are Sir Summers's daughter, Elizabeth? Am I correct?" he asked, showing no discourage.
"Very" Elizabeth said, she gave him a quick once over "And whom may you be?"
"Angelus" he said.
"The Latin word for angel" Elizabeth said "I have a feeling your not one"
Angelus looked a little shock and amused from her cheek, after all no one said to him. Unless they knew what was under his mask.
"Beth!" Catherine scorned.
"I'm sorry sir" Elizabeth smiled appologetically. "My tongue has a tendency to have a mind of it's own".
"I quite like that tongue" Angelus said flirtiestly making Catherine eyebrows shot up and smiled.
"Beth I'm going to dance with James" Catherine said.
"Wouldn't Jacob go mad?" Elizabeth asked.
"Bah! He's in Italy thank you" Catherine smiled and James led her to the dance floor with the rest of their friends leaving Elizabeth with Angelus.
"You naughty girl" Elizabeth chuckled.
"You must have a really good relationship with your friend to call her that" Angelus observed.
"Closest thing to a sister" she said as she turned back to Angelus, missing the smile that would make her think he was the devil. "Do you have any sisters or brothers?"
"One sister, but she died a long time ago" Angelus said "Along with my mother and father"
"Oh dear, I'm so sorry. Was it syphilis?" Elizabeth asked.
"Something worse than that" Angelus said.
"I won't press on, I know how losing someone you love can hurt" Elizabeth said showing a sympathetic face "I lost my mother when I was little and I miss her terribly".
"I'm very sorry to hear" Angelus said, returning a sympathetic face.
Elizabeth froze when she heard a shout from outside and slight growl that followed it, knowing what 'animal' was attacking the poor bystander. "I'm sorry Mr Angelus but I think my friend is trying to catch my attention" Elizabeth said, pretending to be looking at said 'friend' as she sort of waved. "Excuse me, please enjoy the evening" without letting him say another word she moved as fast as her dress would allow her to.
Angelus's watched her leave as his friend, or really grandchilde, walked up behind him and said casually. "So mate you think the chit is worth giving to the girls?"
"Spike my boy, I think she's worth being turned" Angelus smiled cunningly without turning towards Spike.
"Meal and new playmate" Spike drawled, taking a sip of the wine that was currently being served to all the guests. "Wouldn't Darla have your head?"
"I would have to make it up to her, over and over and over and-"
"Enough!" Spike shuddered "I don't need to know what's going in your bed mate"
Angelus just chuckled just as Elizabeth exited the ballroom. As soon as Elizabeth entered her room pulled her the bottom of her dress off as if it was attached with Velcro. Revealing what would pass as trousers that had twin daggers that could be passed as swords attached to her legs and dived out of her window.
She landed on her feet with her swords unsheathed in both hands, and ran, without a scratch from the landing. She ran down the garden, jumped, flipped over wall, and landed on her feet in the shadows. She ran well with the shadows following the screams and turned into an alley were she spotted the most ugliest, whitest, baldest she saw about to eat a whore. He turned a smiled in a very fangy manner.
"Slayer" the Master smiled.
"...and that's were it all ended for me"
Present day
Elizabeth looked at the stunned Barman, except she wasn't called Elizabeth anymore. Beth turned to Bethy that then turned to Buffy and it stuck. She had dyed her hair brown instead of keeping her blonde locks but her corset days never really left her. Although her English accent had dissappeared over the years, it sometimes came out when she was excited or absolutely pissed off. The only thing she kept from her childhood was the cross that she was wearing now and it wasn't even burning her. Buffy took another shot of tequila, stopping her face from vamping out from the taste as it was very strong tequila.
"Baldy turned me after the grand battle, said something about me being worthy of his blood." Buffy said then added with a half shrug "Oh. And me being pretty."
"So how come you still have your soul?" the demon barman asked.
"Must of be because of my slayerness" she smirked at his widened eyes. "Don't worry mate, I strictly go for baddies, unless you happen to be one of them".
"So what happen to the Master?" the barman asked.
"I returned the favour" Buffy smirked at the memory.
"What about your Watcher, your father and this Catherine?" the Barman asked pouring her another shot.
"Well, I told my watcher to bugger off, my father to fuck off and Catherine?" Buffy smiled "I looked after her and her two daughters and I followed them here in the Big Apple when Catherine died. Would go back to Europe but after the Titanic incident, no thanks".
"You were on the Titanic?" the Barman exclaimed.
"Yep" she drank the shot and made a face at the strong taste again. "Wasn't so grand as everyone believes, and that film? Bah! It barely touched the surface of everyone's panic! I got stuck in one of the rooms, took me at least two hours to swim around to find the exit. If I wasn't dead I would have died".
"What about her daughters?" the barman asked.
"One died of hypothermia" Buffy said softly, sad at the thought of the loss of Catherine's child, 'devasting' was an understatement. "The other survived, married a guy called Harris had a couple of kids and their descendants resides on the Hellmouth in Sunnydale. I don't know how they survive since demons love that place".
"They may be safe. Heard there was a Slayer there" the Barman said.
"Yeah, she looks like Catherine, except straighter hair" Buffy said.
"You've seen her in action?" the Barman asked.
"Duh, I sort of check on how the new generation is going. She's got passion in her but lacks precession" Buffy said "Could teach her a few things".
The Barman smiled at her and poured her another glass. She was about to reach for the glass when someone shouted around the bar in a strong New York accent "IS THERE A BUFFY AROUND HERE?". She frowned in annoyance. Couldn't she just drink in peace and tell someone her story so that her legend could make all vampires quiver as much as they with the Slayer?
"If you shouted any louder I'd have to cut your balls off" Buffy said towards the new arrival, noting that his clothes were a bit 'stuck in the pass' with the bowling hat he was wearing. Buffy just had one issue with vampires and evil demons, other than killing innocent people and causing destruction in the world, and that was the fact they never seemed to update their look. Especially the stupid ones. You could just tell who they were.
"So that be you?" he asked.
"Depends" Buffy said, taking a sip of her shot of tequila no longer putting on a show of flinching at the taste. "Who the bloody hell are you?"
"Whistler"
"What do you want?" Buffy asked, her frown deepened smelling the demon in him.
"Job" Whistler said as he walked up to her carefully.
"What is it?"
"A guy has lost his way."
"Give him a map" Buffy scoffed before turning back round to her tequila, she'd rather be drinking anyway.
"He's a champion" Whistler said, ignoring her quip and walked to her side to try to maintain some eyecontact. "Well, a potential Champion and he needs your help."
"I kill the baddies, I don't babysit" Buffy said, then took another swig of her drink, emptying it in one. "Another please" she said to the Barman.
"He is important" Whistler persisted "Apocalypses important"
"I've stopped many Apocalypses in my unlife, what makes this one any different?" Buffy asked.
"Heard of the End of Days?" Whistler asked.
"What about it?" Buffy asked, her eyebrows rose in a 'yeah, so what?' fashion.
"It's coming and we need him" Whistler said "He's the deciding factor of who would win, if he's on our side evil destroyed, if he's on evil side we're destroyed"
"Wow that's motivating" Buffy said sarcastically. "Why me?"
"Cause he needs a reason to do this and by all accounts you fit the job"
"And you don't?"
"I can only point the guy in the right direction, you on the other hand, you can bring the best out of him. Trust me on that."
"I don't know." she frowned in concerned. "I mean, I'm a fighter not a rehabilitator. Don't get me wrong I'll fight but if he's the deciding factor and all. That's putting a lot of pressure on me."
"You won't be unrewarded if we win." From the curious look on her face he continued. "The Powers that Be will grant you whatever you want or so what I've heard."
"And all I have to do is give him a reason to fight for us?"
"Yes"
She thought for a moment, mulling over all possiblities before she gave him her answer. "Fine, what's the address?" Whistler handed Buffy a folded piece of paper, she took it from his hand and opened it up. "He's a…" Buffy began but couldn't continue from the shock.
"Yeah" Whistler.
"Thought I'd never seen one of those" Buffy chuckled lightly, "Well, I guess I'm off to help to save the world!"
She hops off her bar stool and headed for the door, opening it without a flinch. The sun streamed down through the room, making all vampires, except her, squirm away from the deadly rays despite the beginnings of twilight.
It took her half an hour after sunset around New York to find this so called lost soul guy and finally came to an alley. She had to double check that it was right place from the street sign before cursing Whistler for giving her this job.
"Oh bloody hell" Buffy muttered at the stench. "Please may he not be here". As if on cue there was a sound of crash, a sharp squeak, breaking bones and a soft hungry growl. "Bugger" Buffy muttered, making a face as she entered the place "Hey! Anyone home?"
She rounded the corner to see a dirty hobo sucking on a rat. If she weren't dead she would have heaved at the sight so instead she did the verbal approach.
"Oh that's just gross!" Buffy exclaimed, he looked at her "Don't you have any class in you?"
He looked away from her, as if afraid of attacking her "Get away from me".
"Oh help me it's a scary vampire" Buffy said mockingly. "Please Mr scary vampire don't eat me".
He looked shocked that she knew what he was but still determined to keep her away from him. "You don't know what I have done…what I-" he began.
"Save the self pity mate, don't like it" Buffy interupted.
He had a look of realisation on his face "You're a vampire"
"Took you long enough, then again you haven't been eating your spinnage?" Buffy quipped, he looked confused at her to which she tried to clarify for him. "Don't you watch TV? You know Popeye? Ever? Please don't tell me your one of those vamps that are stuck in the past".
"Please just go away" he murmered, curling up into a ball pathetically.
"No, apparently you need my help."
"I don't need anyone's help, especially yours."
"Weren't you just eating a rat a moment ago? Last time I check you can get blood from other sources such as the butchers. They tend not to say anything if you pay the right price."
"I know that but I deserve to live like this"
"Like a hobo? Jeeze, don't know about you mate but I sort of like the comforts of an appartment and a nice warm bed." she glanced around the street. "In fact I'd pick that over this any day"
"Just leave me be" he said.
"No, I was given the job to help you" Buffy said "I'm not doing this for charity, I prefer to sit at home with a bloodshake and reminisce on old times. But someone told me you are important to the world of good"
"Vampires are not good" he said.
"And they don't have souls" Buffy said with a shrug "But, hey, we do"
His head shot up and looked at her through his scruffy hair. "How could you have your soul? I was cursed."
"Slayers keep their souls when they're turned" Buffy said.
His eyes went wider than saucepans if she thought it was possible.
"You were a slayer?" he asked.
"Yes" Buffy said.
"Then you should get away from me" he said.
"Whatever you did in your life before your soul came, it's done and over" Buffy said "But what you can do to make up for it is to help people".
"It doesn't matter how many life's I help it would never be enough" he said.
"No it won't" Buffy said "But it would be a start".
He looked at her sadly "I don't think I can".
"Of you can't! you can't even go through a round with a fruit fly!"
"But-".
"Look mate I'll drag you out this place with you kicking and screaming and trust me I can do that" Buffy said "I don't take a no for an answer".
"Fine" he said reluctantly.
She pulled out a bag of blood "Your going to need it. It's pig's blood"
He looks at her and took the blood from her hand, to then turn away from her. He then bit into the blood bag and drained it within seconds, famished.
"There's more at home" Buffy said as she pulled him to his feet.
"Thank you" he said.
"First things first, we are going to have to get some clothes, one big honking piece of soap and scrubbing brush cause you stink worse than this alley and more blood since you look like Nasfuratu on a bad day, and trust me I met him" Buffy said.
"You talk too much" he said without really thinking it through.
"Yeah well my tongue has a mind of it's own" Buffy said then notice his look "What?"
"You sounded like someone I knew" he said.
"Whatever" Buffy said "C'mon, we have got a lot of shopping to do and I don't feel like slowing down at all".
Shall I continue?