Chapter 2

Spike frowned. "I thought we agreed that we didn't announce that to the world, pet," he ground out between his teeth, glaring at her. Her face hardened at the nickname, and before anyone could react, her fist had snaked out and collided with his jaw.

"We did, along with that nickname. You know I'm not your pet, William. I belong to no one, whether they sired me or not." Buffy and Dawn gasped.

"You're a vampire?" Dawn asked, eyes wide. Fleur nodded slowly.

"It's a twisted story. Pops and Granna, Spike and Drusilla to you, were out walking one night, saw me, decided to turn me, but didn't know the catch." Buffy frowned.

"Catch? What catch? I didn't know there was a catch with turning vamps." Spike groaned loudly, reminding the three girls to his presence.

"Can we continue this wonderful conversation somewhere else, maybe at your house, Slayer?" Buffy nodded, and they all walked back to the house. When they got there, Buffy invited everyone in, Spike quickly walked over to a couch, sat down, and lit up his fifth cigarette since Fleur showed up. "You might as well call the rest of the Scoobies. Blokes'll probably find out anyway," he told her. Buffy looked pointedly at the cigarette as Fleur rolled her eyes, walked over to Spike took his cigarette, put it out, and threw it away. He just glowered at her, but waited until she was distracted by the arrival of the rest of the gang. Willow and her girlfriend Tara, Oz, who was being very much the loner, Giles, and of course Xander and Anya. Fleur looked around nervously, caught Spike smoking again, marched over, snatched it from his fingers, and smothered it in her hand. Xander winced at the smoke curling up from her palm.

"Doesn't that hurt?" he asked, looking at her. She shook her head.

"Vampire," Fleur said shortly, shrugging. They all nodded, but Spike looked livid.

"That was my last one!" he said indignantly. Fleur shrugged.

"It's bad for your health." He opened his mouth to retort, but she held up her hand. "Save it, pops, I've heard it for over a hundred years. I don't care if you are eternal and it won't kill you. I know that. But they aren't, so you won't smoke in here. Plus, it smells nasty," she said, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

"You're a hundred years old?" Anya asked. The French girl shook her head.

"Not really. I'm two hundred and ninety eight, but I was with those two for about a hundred," she explained. Willow raised her eyebrows appreciatively.

"You were with Spike, the Punk Prince of the Undead, and Drusilla, his insane dark goddess, for a hundred years? How'd you stand it!" Spike rolled his eyes.

"We weren't that bad. I made sure her rooms were on opposite sides of the house from ours, and Angel didn't hardly disturb her. Didn't like her much." Fleur growled menacingly, and slowly vamped out. Honestly, there wasn't much change. Her forehead wrinkled a little, her teeth elongated, and her eyes went yellow, but that was about it. If you barely glanced at her, you would have thought she was thinking really hard.

"I thought we had agreed that that was one name you conveniently forgot when I was around, daddy," she hissed, stepping up to him. "He is not one of my favorite vampiric relatives, and you know it. No matter how far away my rooms were, you could still hear my screams, we both know it. You just enjoyed the combination of that, plus Drusilla, you sadistic—,"

"Hey, calm down, Fleur," Buffy said, quickly stepping in between the two vampires. "He didn't mean anything by it." Fleur scowled, but backed off and de-vamped after a moment.

"Sorry, guys, but he and I both know what would happen when Darla was…preoccupied, or he was in a bad mood. Because of what I am, he would take everything out on me, blame me for his mess ups. If we had both been human, I would have been pregnant enough times to fill this room." She grimaced. "When he got his soul, Darla blamed it on me. Bit later, she left to go ask them to take it back. She never returned, and not long after, Pops here got drunk because Granny got sickly, came to me, and we had a long torture session which ended with me knocking him out, packing my few bags, and leaving. I've been moving around for the past eighty years or so, and decided to check up on dear old daddy while I was around, maybe offer to help you guys." Oz looked at her.

"You have a soul?" he asked quietly. Everyone looked at him surprised since he hadn't really spoken since they arrived at the house. Fleur bit her lip.

"That's what I wanted to explain. You see, when I was eighteen, I lived in Paris, worked for a man by the name of Pierre DuPont." She glanced at Giles, who's face lit up with shock and understanding. "He was my watcher until Spike here got me. I was on my way out for a walk when Spike came up, and pulled me into an alley nearby. We fought until two in the morning, Drusilla watching the whole time. Finally, he broke both my arm and my legs, and vamped me. He wanted to turn me evil, make me his new play toy. Problem was, when you turn a Slayer, she doesn't lose her soul. She stays like she was, and her changes are very few. She's mostly the same as she was when she was alive. But, there are three things that become different." She looked at the older man, her eyebrows raised. He sighed.

"There was a case back around fifty years before Fleur. One girl by the name of Susan was out patrolling when the Master caught her. Instead of just killing her, he turned her into a vampire. He ran into problems then. She never lost her soul, and remained good, but now hated both vampires and the council—the vampires for doing that to her, and the council for letting it happen. She lived for sometime, and was extremely strong and hard to kill. She kept her slayer powers, but those were multiplied by the vampire strength. Along with that, a mere stake in the heart couldn't kill her. The only thing that could was a stake, bathed in Holy Water, set on fire, and plunged deep into her heart. She finally couldn't take it anymore, and committed suicide." Fleur nodded.

"Yeah, but not many people knew what else would happen to her." She looked at Oz, her eyes tired and sad. "Just like werewolves turn demony on the nights on and around the full moon, she would become a full demon the three nights of the new moon." Fleur bit her lip and looked at the floor as everyone stared at her in shock. "That's why I needed to find Spike. Tomorrow night is the first night." Buffy looked at her, and felt as if she had been stabbed when she saw the tears streaming down the vampire's face as she silently cried. Surprising herself and everyone in the room, she stood up and walked over to Fleur, wrapped her arms around her, and let the girl cry on her shoulder.