(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 13 - I'd Like To Change My Point Of View
"Buffy?" Willow said again, tapping her friend on the arm to get her attention. The Slayer looked up quickly from the book she had been staring at. She hadn't read a single word on the page, and yet she'd not been aware of her surroundings at all. William was on her mind, the man she had fallen in love with, only to find out he was not a man at all but a vampire.
It was just three nights ago and Buffy had been glad to spend her time from that night on Friday until Monday morning all alone with her own thoughts, whilst her mother was away. Buffy had cried a lot over William, shed so many tears she wasn't sure she had any left now, she was just kind of numb.
Willow had been expecting her best friend over at her house for a study session on Sunday and when Buffy hadn't showed up she'd called her, quite worried for her safety. The two friends had then spent a couple of hours talking over the phone about what had happened, before Buffy declined Will's offer to come over, apologised for missing their study date and said she just really needed some alone time.
Unfortunately for Buffy, life had to go on. She had to go to school, attend her classes, see her friends, and face her mother later when she got home again. For now though she was in the library, trying to find any information she could on a demon called Eyghon that had apparently come to Sunnydale via an old friend of Giles' and though it wasn't entirely clear how the whole situation had occurred it seemed Ethan Rayne was back in town too and related to the whole mess. The Watcher hadn't said much, just taken Jenny to his house after an unfortunate altercation with the demon-infected man had left her temporarily unconscious and terribly weak right after.
Buffy was glad to have Giles attention diverted away from her as she attempted to hide her red-rimmed eyes and generally down mood. Willow of course was overly aware of Buffy's pain and Xander picked up on it too. Though she was loathed to do it she had to tell the boy something, and admitted she and William had broken up following a fight. So far she'd neglected to mention the bleached blond's demon side, for fear of an 'I told you so' reaction that was bound to reduce her to tears once again. After the whole Angel debacle, and Xander's obvious hate of the vampire with a soul, Buffy knew better than to tell her friend about the second blood sucker she had fallen for, afraid of being labelled as some kind of freak.
"Sweetie, are you sure you don't wanna talk about it" Willow asked kindly. The blonde shook her head and kept her eyes down.
"If I talk about it, I have to think about it" she said softly, "And if I do that... God, Will, it hurts so much" she said as tears came to her eyes once again, "After everything with Angel... it was bad but, I never fell this hard for him. With William, my God I was going to let him..." she couldn't even finish the sentence as she concentrated fully on fighting the urge to cry like a child.
"I'm so sorry, Buffy" Willow said sympathetically, "He seemed so nice, the way you talked about him..."
"I can't believe I was such an idiot" Buffy said frustratedly, dragging her hair off her face as she ran her fingers through her blonde locks, "It was all a stupid game"
"Was it?" Willow checked, "I mean, I know he lied and stuff but do you know why?" she asked, looking thoughtful, "Angel has a soul, he's good and everything, maybe William is too"
"The thought occurred to me" Buffy sighed, "I dunno, Will. Giles made it seem like Angel was a one time deal, and even if William did have a soul I still can't be with him... he's still a vampire"
With a deep breath and a shake of her head she forced herself to face the table once again and grabbed the next book from the pile.
"This is so not what we're here for" she said, pulling open the leather bound tome at a random page and scanning the first few lines, determined to be helping Giles right now. It was what she and Willow had been left in the library for after all, whilst the Watcher had taken Jenny home and Xander had been dispatched for snacks. Speaking of which he'd been gone a very long time...
"Eyghon takes much energy to survive and saps it's host body of all resources... yadda yadda yadda" she read aloud to herself as she moved down the page, "If another dead host isn't available and Eyghon is forced to move it will choose an unconscious being to move into. Unconscious being?" Buffy echoed, a frown forming on her face as she looked at Willow. The red-head looked equally horrified as she realised what her friend had figured out seconds before.
"Miss Calendar!" she gasped. That was who the demon had infected next, and now it was alone with an unsuspecting Giles who bore the symbol that could be his downfall - the Mark of Eyghon tattooed on his arm.
"Hey, what are we doing?" Cordelia checked as she pulled away from Xander. There was only so far she could step back since they were in a closet but she made an effort to get away at least.
"Well, it's called kissing" the boy told her as if she were retarded, "And I'm thinking we've moved up a notch on the make-out scale since your tongue was all the way in my mouth there"
It was too dark for him to see properly, which Cordy was grateful for as she felt herself blush.
"I have to be insane!" she said more to herself than to him, despite the fact he was standing right in front of her, "I'm voluntarily making out with Xander Harris! My God, I'm like totally committing social suicide!" she exclaimed. Far from being hurt Xander just smiled as she sat down with a thump on the stool behind her.
"But hey, what a romantic way to die" he told her as he put his hands on her arms and pulled her up from her seat, "And also, you just kinda sat on the doughnuts" he told her seriously.
Cordy was about to explode about ruining her new and expensive skirt but the look on Xander's face and the sight of the dented cake box on the stool behind them sent her into fits of giggles. What they were doing was weird and she could never, ever tell her friends about it, but it was fun, and right now that was what she needed, just a little fun. That decided her laughter ceased and she kissed her 'secret boyfriend' with a passion. Yeah, definitely fun.
"Where've you guys been!" Willow exclaimed when Xander and Cordelia came in, him straightening his shirt and her messing with her hair that wasn't quite perfect, not that the red-head had noticed.
"I went for snacks" Xander told her, not understanding her frantic mood, "And I met Cordelia in town, she gave me a ride back to the school"
"And we came straight here to the library to help you out" Cordelia smiled overly much, "Didn't stop at any rooms on the way for any reason at all"
Willow have them both a strange look before going back to running around the table, glancing at random pages of books as she went.
"Getting kinda psycho scary now, Will" Xander told her, but she didn't stop. He hurried around the table and caught her by the arms as she made to go around again, like she was on a circuit.
"Willow, what's going on?" he asked her, hoping for some kind of calm and sane answer. He didn't like to see his friend so worked up, and it also bothered him that Buffy wasn't right here where he'd left her.
"The demon, Eyghon" she began to explain, "It needs a body to exist in, and when there was no dead person to jump into after that guy Phillip, it went for unconscious instead" she told him.
"Oh my God" Xander gasped, "Miss Calendar?"
Willow nodded frantically.
"Buffy went to Giles' to tell him, and to stop the demon from attacking him, but the only way to stop it is..." her sentence trailed away as she glanced back at the table full of books, "I need to find a way, Xander. I like Miss Calendar I don't want Buffy to have to..."
"Oh God" Cordy said quietly in the background as she realised what the unsaid parts of Willow's sentence were. To kill the demon meant having to kill a teacher she actually quite liked most of the time - that sucked!
The phone in Giles' office rang into life at that moment and Xander asked Cordelia to answer it whilst he sat Willow down and got her to go over the situation again from every angle so they might come up with a solution to save Miss Calendar and Giles.
Meanwhile Cordelia answered the phone call which was from Buffy.
"Buffy, what's happening?" she asked the Slayer who sighed.
"It's okay, Giles is fine" she explained, "but Miss Calendar with the demon is gone, probably after Ethan Rayne" the blonde told the girl, asking her to pass all this on to Willow and Xander. They needed a way to stop this thing and fast.
"Willow is totally stressing" Cordy told her, "but I don't know if..."
"I've got it!" the red-head suddenly yelled, loudly enough that Buffy heard on the other end of the line. She didn't wait to hear the actual plan, just hung up the phone confident the problem would soon be solved. At least the demon killing portion of her life was do-able, even if the love part was kinda sucking right now.
"No, no, no, why'd he pick tonight to not be here!" Willow said frustratedly as she continued to pound rather pointlessly on Angel's door.
"Creature of the night, Will" Xander reminded her, "He's probably out... creaturing"
"I don't understand why we need him anyway" Cordelia chipped in, as the trio walked away from the basement apartment, trying to think where else they might find the souled vampire they'd come looking for, "I mean, unless he's unconscious the demon won't go near him, right?"
"The demon goes for dead before it goes for knocked out, Cor" Xander reminded her, "And as charming and personable as Angel can be, he's still fangy. Vampire equals dead, walking dead but still" he told her as they walked along.
A look of realisation dawned on Cordelia's face as she realised her mistake and the three headed on down the road. They were half way between Ethan's costume shop and the Bronze and were unsure whether it would be best to go to the club in the hope of finding Angel, or the shop where it was likely Miss Calendar, carrying Eyghon inside her, would be headed.
"Oh, where's a friendly vampire when you need one?" Willow said frustratedly to herself as she turned full circle and found herself face to face with some guy's well-muscled chest in a black T-shirt, "William?" she frowned when she realised who it was. She reeled back a few steps, almost tripping over Xander and half-hiding behind him when her memory kicked in. Spike smelt the fear coming off her in waves, but the other two barely flinched. Seems Buffy had only shared the truth of his vampire condition with one of her mates then, not the whole gang.
"Who is this?" Cordy frowned, not getting it, though she was quite enthralled by the gorgeous bleached blond standing before her. He was pretty hot, for a Goth type.
"This is William" Xander said with disdain, "Buffy's boyfriend... oh no wait, EX-boyfriend" he said over smugly. It was all Spike could do not to let his demon take over and rip the little git's throat out.
"Speaking of Buffy" he said smoothly, "Wondered if she was around. She's not at the Bronze and I, er, need to talk to her" he said a little awkwardly.
"Well, she, she just, she doesn't want to talk to you" Willow told him, desperate to hide the shake in her voice as well as her knees and failing miserably on both counts, "She's over you, completely, never really liked you anyway" she said, still gripping onto Xander's arm like a security blanket and hiding slightly behind him.
"Look, Slayer and me need to have a conversation" Spike told the trio, "Tell me where she is, pet" he said, looking directly at Willow, "I don't want to have to get angry with you" he said, eyes flashing gold just for a moment. Far from being petrified as she ought to have been, Willow was thrilled to be reminded of exactly what William was. He was a vampire, and if appearances were to be believed he cared for Buffy, in which case he'd do just about anything to help her out.
"We'll take you to Buffy" she said, letting go of Xander's arm now and facing the bleached blond with more confidence. Her friends were stunned.
"Good plan, luv" Spike smirked.
"I'm not finished yet" she told him, "We will take you to Buffy but you have to do something for us too. You have to save her"
"Save the Slayer?" William looked at her with a confused expression, "From what?"
"Eyghon" she told him, before going on to explain how she had a plan to defeat the demon that had infected Miss Calendar and was likely to kill Giles and anyone who stood in it's way unless they stopped it fast.
The plan explained, Spike nodded and agreed he'd do as she asked, but as he and Willow began striding away towards the shop with Cordy right behind them, Xander had a question.
"I don't get it, Will" he shook his head, "How's he going to do this? It was only going to work because Angel was a vamp..." the word was left severed as Spike looked back at him, ridges on his forehead and fangs at his lips, showing he was a vampire too.
"Oh my God!" Buffy gasped as she heard a crash at the front door and Miss Calendar's voice, distorted by Eyghon's presence, telling both the Slayer and Ethan they would die at her hand. As the cowardly Brit explained the demon no longer wanted him, since he'd removed the mark from his skin with acid, Buffy frantically tried to snap the ropes that bound her face down to a table. Ethan had tattooed her with the mark of Eyghon and she knew she was as good as dead if she didn't get up and fight right now.
"Buffy!" Giles yelled as he rushed into the fray.
"No, go away, Giles, please!" she called back, but her Watcher who cared so much for her was determined she would not be endangered by something he himself had caused. He pulled the infected body of Miss Calendar away, but the demon inside her was taking hold fast and had the strength to fight back. Giles was flung into the shelving at the back of he store, and as Eyghon turned to face the Slayer, Buffy managed to snap the ropes that bound her and scramble to her feet.
"Your turn, little girl" Miss Calendar smiled evilly as she moved to advance on the blonde.
"Don't think so, mate" said an English voice as strong hands grabbed the Techno-Pagan's body from behind, dragging her around to face him. Spike's hands wrapped round her throat and began choking the very life out of her as Giles scrambled to his feet.
"No! He's killing her!" he exclaimed, but Willow and Xander ran to stop the Watcher from intervening.
"Trust me, Giles, it'll be okay" the red-head told him as Eyghon raged inside Ms Calendar until her body finally slumped forward into Spike's arms - unconscious. Passing her quickly to the nearest able bodied person, which was Xander, Spike waited for battle to commence. Inside him his own demon fought with Eyghon, his face morphing between human, vampire, and the demon that had infected him. It took just a few moments for his own demon to overcome the new arrival and Eyghon was soon forced out of his system, forming into a hazy shape in the centre of the room before crumbling into nothing. With no host body it could not survive.
The exertion of the fight that had raged within him sent Spike sprawling to the floor and despite her better judgement, Buffy went to his aid, Willow right behind her.
"Nasty little bugger, that was" Spike gasped, despite the fact he didn't really need the air, "Still, your plan worked Red" he half-smiled at Willow, "Like a bloody charm"
"You knew when Eyghon was in trouble it would look for the next body to jump to" Buffy realised, glancing at her friend.
"So I gave it some trouble" Spike chipped in.
"And it found someone to jump into" Willow completed the explanation as Buffy glanced between the two of them.
"Had my own demon inside of me for near on a hundred and twenty years now" Spike said almost guilty as Buffy looked away, "Always does love a good fight, 'specially when it wins"
As Xander began to say that Ethan had escaped again and Giles told the group he would be taking Jenny home now, Buffy shot Willow a look and she left the unlikely pair alone, taking Xander and Cordy out with her, despite protests from the boy that had always loved the Slayer a little more than he should.
"Are you okay?" Buffy asked Spike when the others were gone. He nodded, pulling himself to his feet.
"Be right as rain, luv" he assured her, "Don't worry about me"
"I don't want to" she told him honestly, "I don't want to worry about you, or think about you... and it's not going to be easy, but I can do it, if you're not around"
"What are you...?" Spike began, looking confused, only to have her interrupt.
"I can't have you hanging around here" Buffy explained, as she walked away towards the door, "I... I'm grateful, that you helped tonight" she told him as she turned back and looked at him, with tears in her eyes, "but... if you come near me or my friends again, I will have to stake you"
"Pet, I don't want to..." Spike started only to be cut off again as she put up her hand to silence him.
"I will have to stake you" she repeated, trying to hide the shake in her voice even as a tear rolled down her cheek, "Please, don't make me do that" she begged of him right before she disappeared from his sight.
To Be Continued...