Fury of the Beast

Feedback: Please, send it, please........I'm desperate.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, but considering the current level of quality in the writing, I'm a little glad for that......except for the paychecks, anyway, I'd be rich.

Xander sat in the rather uncomfortable chair, almost sinking into it under the eyes of Wesley, Angel, and Cordelia.

To make matters worse, he was handcuffed to the chair, so he couldn't slip away. Not like he could go anywhere in the middle of the day, anyway.

"I'm a vampire, yes. But I'm not one of the usual vamps around. In my case, the turning itself is a curse, I'm guessing for the standard vamp, it's not." Xander tried to explain.

"What do you mean, the turning is a curse?" Wesley asked, through piercing eyes.

"Wesley, think about it. I'm have to drink blood to stay alive, and do it willingly, or I'll go nuts and kill someone without meaning to. I have to stay inside, to avoid the sunlight, or I'll be a crispy critter in about two seconds. I can't walk into a church unless I sneak in to avoid the sanctified ring of holy ground. I can't have kids, or even hope to have a normal life. And to top it all off, I've got this thing inside me what wants to go and kill people for fun. Trust me, despite the power, this sucks." Xander explained.

"Why don't you have the demon's face?" Angel asked.

Xander had spent the night trying to figure out what to say, as to not expose all Kindred to Wesley, or Cordelia.

Angel was another vamp, so he might be tolerated by the other vampires around, but Cordelia and Wesley would be killed, or worse, Embraced or Ghouled on the spot.

He sighed.

"As far as I get it, a wizard had a wife or something that was turned by a standard vamp about three thousand years ago. He managed to restore her soul, and make it permanent, along with some side effects, like the lack of the game face, and some extra power, but she was stuck as a vamp, and she had to adapt. Unfortunately, the demon was still there, although more base, and she made more vamps, although there's not very many around." He said, slowly.

"And her traits were passed down." Wesley guessed.

Xander nodded.

"Those of us that can quell the demon just try to survive. It sucks. I have a thing inside me that wants to hurt and kill, yeah, but like Angel, I'm not its slave. I'm still me, although I am a vamp. I don't know everything, though. My kind keep a low profile."

"Perhaps, but I'm still not convinced you are what you say you are." Wesley said, frowning.

"You saw for yourself Wes. He doesn't have the wrinkled face, and he hasn't tried to hurt any of us." Cordelia said.

"Thanks Cordy." Xander sighed.

Angel spoke up.

"The only reason you're still here is because I wasn't sure what you are, Xander. Now that I know, you're safe from me." Then he leaned in.

"But if you hurt anybody, Xander, I will kill you, got it?" Angel dictated, his eyes cold as Arctic ice.

Xander shrunk further into the chair, and nodded.

"You've got it, Dead.......dammit! I can't call you that anymore!"

Everybody but Xander chuckled.

Nicholas sat in his chair, holding the cut over his eye, and grimacing in pain due to all the stretched muscles.

If that second vamp had been a little more lucky, he'd be staring out of one eye right now.

What's worse, is that he used the ring and didn't even kill one vamp.

He must be getting rusty.

Now his muscles ached and strained, and he was short of ammo, and had nothing to show for it.

He sat down in the rocking chair, pulled out his shotgun, and began to clean it.

Then his door burst open, and Nicholas could make out a dark shape.

He smiled, stood up, dropped the shotgun, and grabbed his katana.

"Now, Lindsey, I complement you on your initiative in sending an assassin after our vampire hunter. Have you heard back from him yet?" The chairman of the review board asked him.

Lindsey was sweating nervously, trying to keep his face from showing the dread he felt crawling up his spine.

The reviews were always hell. You were lucky to stay in your current position, really lucky if you get promoted.

If you're unlucky, you're dead.

Lindsey's luck hadn't been that good lately.

"I haven't heard from him yet, but he's one of the better ones. Besides, he's a Fyarl demon, not much can kill him." Lindsey replied to the question.

Then Lindsey's cell phone went off.

He picked it up, and listened to the voice on the other end of the line.

He grew pale as he listened to the voice of one of his assistants.

With a sigh of disappointment mixed with dread, he hung up.

"It appears our hunter is more resourceful than we thought. My assassin was found dead in a dumpster, in about a hundred pieces."

"How unfortunate."

Those two words were perhaps the most chilling words Lindsey MacDonald had heard in his whole life.

Xander sat in one of Angel's chairs, feet up on Angel's desk, reading one of Angel's books.
Macbeth, it wasn't too bad, even if good old William Shakspere wasn't really his style.

He felt just fine, as if he was somehow annoying Angel when he wasn't there.

It was still a few hours until sundown, and he had to kill some time before we went to go and meet up with Lily again.

"You know, that book is fifty years old, I'd appreciate it if you took care of it."

Xander twisted his head around, and saw Angel looking at him.

"It's a good read, pretty boring, though." He replied.

Angel walked around to his side of the desk, and sat in his chair.

He then looked at Xander with an inquisitive gaze.

"What you told the others, Cordelia and Wesley, it's not true, is it?"

Xander blinked.

"How'd you know?"

"I've been around a while, seen a lot.........done a lot. I've heard some legends about great vampires, more powerful than my kind. Different, just as evil in some ways, but different. The stories I'd heard didn't match up with what you said." Angel replied.

"Why didn't you call me on it?"

"I know you. I know that you wouldn't hold anything that would hurt Cordelia back."

Xander nodded.

"Make sure you don't tell them, Angel. My kind have a code, if I break it, I and everyone who I told will be hunted down. As you're a vampire, I might get away with you knowing, but Cor and Wes would die, or worse." Xander said.

Angel nodded.

"I'm going to take a look around underground, search for the hunter you tangled with last night."

Angel began to walk out the door, then stopped and turned around.

"Oh, and Xander."

"Yeah?"

"Get your feet off my desk."

Nicholas wandered the city, wondering when, or even if, he would encounter those two vampires again.

The first one, he was a fledgling, perhaps Brujah or Gangrel, maybe even Assamite.

But the other one, he didn't recognize its clan. He wondered what it was.

It was old, perhaps an Ancillae, maybe even an Elder. He was at least old enough to know how to combine a few sword techniques, so that in spite of Nicholas' superior speed, the hunter was bested.

That didn't happen everyday.

He also wondered who sent that demon he sliced up. He had evidently ticked somebody off.

He'd look over his enemy list, if it wasn't about a mile long.

He stepped up to a ATM, so he could get some money from his accounts, and buy more ammo and weapons, when he felt something pull in his chest.

Gasping, he fell to his knees, the world growing grey as the pain in his chest grew stronger.

With a choking sound, he fell to the ground, and the world went black.

Kate Lockley walked into Angel Investigations, looking around for Angel, when she saw a rather handsome young man lounging around, reading a musty old book.

"Is Angel in?" She asked.

He looked up.

"Sorry, he's running all around L.A right now, maybe it's something I can help you with? I'm Xander, by the way."

"Detective Lockley, LAPD. Do you know this man?"

With a sigh, she pulled out a few photographs, and showed them to Xander.

On them, were the pictures of a very pale, yet muscular man, wrapped up in tubes and equipment that you'd find in a hospital.

The man was Nicholas, the 'Immortal.

"This man was found in front of a Citibank Savings and Loan, suffering from a heart attack."

"Why are you bringing this to Angel, though?" He asked.

"Because, on his person, there were weapons, that would easily be used for.....certain activities."

"Like what?"

"A shotgun, with custom made shells. A pair of machine pistols, loaded with silver bullets. And a sword."

Xander looked around the desk, spotted the notepad, tore off a piece of paper, and began to write Angel a note with a pencil he'd found on the floor.

"A sword? Well, that's new. Anything else about this guy that stood out?"

"They're still running tests on him now, but the doctors on duty thought that something was weird with his muscles." She replied.

Xander looked up from writing the note.

"Like what?" He asked.

"Can't really tell yet, that's why they're doing tests."

"All right, thanks. If you want to meet up with Angel, you could come back in a few hours." Xander told her.

"I might do that, but don't count on it. My day is pretty hectic."

"All right, thanks for dropping by."

With a nod, she walked out.

Mentally, Xander was overjoyed he'd learned how to use that little hypontic thing on humans.

He was pretty sure she wouldn't have told him anything at all without a slight whammy on her mind. It seemed like she was too focused on finding Angel.

What was it with Angel and blondes, anyway?

Sighing, Xander got up from the chair, and went downstairs to use the sewer access.

Sometimes being a vampire really sucked.

The smell of the sick and dying flooded Xander's nose.

To the Beast, it was tantalizing, the scent of easy prey.

To Xander, it was terrible, even more so because the creature within him forced him to enjoy the smell.

The hospital was clean, pristine, white. The cleansers had made everyone inside unable to smell the horrible scents within.

Unless the person was a vampire, in which case, they smelled the blood, the sick, and the wounded, underneath all that clean air that was scentless to the mortals within.

He made his way to the room of the hunter that had tried to kill him the night before.

He had to know why this man had tried to kill him.

He slowly opened the door.

Nicholas lay on a bed, wrapped in breathing tubes and bandages, along with the restraints to hold him in place.

He was a far cry from the intimidating hunter that had tried to kill him earlier. This man had been relentless, chasing him across places where no normal human could go.

And now, he was helpless. Weak, dying. Xander could smell it. This man was completely human, and Xander knew he wouldn't be able to pull through whatever had happened to him.

The hunter's body was worn out, muscles torn, heart failing.

The only way he would live, is if Xander made him into a vampire, and Xander wouldn't do that.

Nicholas stirred.

He took one look at Xander, and his weak heart began to race.

"So, you're here to kill me? Or to change me so I can be a pawn to your plots?"

Xander shook his head.

"I'm not here to kill you. Or Embrace you, which is worse in my opinion. I'm here to find out why you came after me." Xander replied.

"You're a bloodsucker. You kill people to survive."

"Some of us do, yeah. I don't, and a few others I can think of don't. I just want to know why you began hunting." Xander said.

Nicholas stayed silent for a minute.

Xander sighed.

"Me, I lived my whole life on top of Vamp Central. Didn't know it until about three years ago. It all started with this new girl in my high school. She was beautiful beyond belief, and she caught my eye. Next thing I know, I've just skateboarded into a railing."

Xander smiled at the memory.

"I found out later that she was much more than I thought she was. She was a vampire hunter, one of the best. She could match their speed, strength, and power, without much trouble. At first, I thought she was nuts. But later, I had to kill my best friend, because he became a vampire, and his soul didn't survive the change." Xander slowly spoke, then sighed.

"For three years, I helped her fight them, along with a few other people helping us out. A librarian that knew just about everything about the demons in the night, a musician that was a werewolf, a computer hacker turned witch, a high school prom queen who came here to become an actress, and a reformed vampire, who even now runs around helping those in need." Xander said.

"We had to blow up our high school to kill a giant demon snake, which, thankfully, isn't very common anywhere. After that, we relaxed for a bit, and then...the night I became what I am."
Xander sighed.

"A group of vampires had cornered a little kid, and they were going to kill and eat the poor kid. I did the only thing I could. I killed their leader, and the rest of the group chased me down, leaving the kid alone, thank god. At the end of it all, I was impaled on a tree. If it wasn't for a pair of passing vampires who were a little more noble, I would have died right there." He sighed again.

"After that, I left home. I came to L.A, cause I had nowhere else to go. I still don't know what I'm going to do here." Xander finished.

Nicholas was staring at him the whole time with his piercing brown eyes.

"I hunt your kind because your kind killed my wife, and I found out what did it. I tortured that vampire to death with holy water, and found out where your nests were. Then I came across this little item, that made me deadlier, stronger, faster. But all power has it's price, and me lying in this bed is the price for it."

Nicholas then glared at Xander.

"You'd better kill me now, vampire, cause if you don't, I'll come after you later, and I'm going to slice your head off." He dictated.

"I'm many things, hunter. But I'm not a killer. Not now, hopefully, not ever."

Xander then turned and walked out of the room, leaving the half-dead hunter behind.

Lindsey sat in his leather chair, wondering when his new assassin would show up.

He had one more chance to take out the hunter, or he'd be terminated. And that wasn't just his job, the senior partners really wanted that book.

His phone beeped, and he hit the speakerphone.

"Mister Alhazez here to see you, Mister MacDonald." The cheerful voice of his secretary came over the phone.

Finally. "Send him in."

In walked a tall, gothic guy. Dressed in a leather jacket, leather pants, and sporting a large, blue mohawk, he didn't look like your standard assassin.

The man took a bow.

"Abdul Alhazez, master disciple of the Assamites at your service."

Well, those of you who have played the game will know who I just introduced here, but for those who haven't, I'm not going to ruin it for you.

Anyhoo.......Feedback.....Please.

I'm nothing without it.

Nick.