A/N: Not going to disclaimer, of course I don't own Buffy. The only thing I own is the original stuff I've come up with for this fic.
So I'm now up to Season 6 (literally just finished 5 and it destroyed me.) and I have SO many ideas. I might do some drabbles alongside this when things are a bit more developed.

Thank you for the favourites and follows and reviews so far! I hope you continue to enjoy!

Buffy levelled the crossbow as they pushed open the already ajar door. It became apparent quickly that there wasn't any danger here. The house was empty or seemed it. They'd still do a sweep, but Buffy doubted anyone was here.

"Oh cool, it's like a library in here.' Willow said as she bypassed the broken groceries and walked towards the back of the living room. "S-sorry, probably not the time to get excited." Willow stopped halfway to a bookcase looking back at Giles and Buffy with an apologetic look on her face.

She wasn't wrong about the library part. Bookcases took up every inch of wall. The only place they didn't was where the TV sat but even that was surrounded by books. Even shelves with ornaments still had the odd book littered here and there. When she'd said she was a bibliophile Giles hadn't imagined this.

"I can see why you like her." Buffy said, glass crunching under her boots as she crossed the room and joined Willow.

It was on the tip of his tongue to say he didn't like her, that she was just a friend but if Buffy had noticed then maybe he needed to stop trying to talk himself out of feelings that were quite clearly there.

"Maria?" Giles asked putting a foot on the bottom of the stairs. Fear took hold of him suddenly though and he couldn't do it, he couldn't go up there. Instead he called her name again.

"I don't think she's here." Willow said peering around into the kitchen. "I don't think anyone's here."

"Someone's been here thou- is that a shoe?" Buffy asked as she spotted one of Maria's shoes on the living room floor.

"Looks like she fought back." Willow said noting the smashed vase on the floor. "Maybe, maybe she made a run for it. There's a path over the road. Ooh maybe Oz will be able to catch her scent?" She suggested enthusiastically.

~?~

"She's got spunk your girl Charlie."

"Please."

"Really, a fire-cracker."

Maria blinked slowly. She tried to lift a hand to her head, but her hand wouldn't come up all the way, she tugged groggily before realising that it was restrained. Thick rope biting at the skin on her wrist, pinching at the fading bruises.

In a flash it all came back to her. Her father was a vampire. The short creepy man and his goons had done something to him. They'd been at the house and she'd run. Her head was throbbing where she'd been hit, and it felt damp. The more she became aware of her surroundings; the more things were starting to hurt. As she became more cognizant, she pulled at her restraints and looked down to see that she'd been tied to a pillar in some sort of factory.

"Please." Maria heard her father say as she stood up, which in retrospect might have been a better place to defend herself but wasn't the best considering her foot was now throbbing with pain. There were other injuries too she was slowly becoming aware of that had clearly happened in transit.

"Oh, and there she is." The short man who'd ordered his goons to take her was there, goons still flanking him.

"Please Oliver, let her go." Charlie said, he was on his knees, a thick brass collar around his neck.

"Now you know I can't do that Charlie." Oliver said a sinister smirk on his face.

Maria was trying to take in what was happening, where they were, who everyone was. The creepy man she'd dubbed a second Snyder in her head was Oliver, he was clearly part of the mob and clearly her father had gotten wrapped up with them and ergo she was. Scenes of torture rattled around her still hazy brain. Because that's what was going to happen wasn't it? She'd seen the movies. She'd read the books. The mob used the people their victims loved against them all the time and that's what she was now. She pulled at the rope around her wrist, but it was fastened too tightly.

"See-" Oliver walked over to her and yanked at her chin, suspiciously strong fingers digging into her jaw. She could see the top of his balding head, roots starting to come through where he clearly dyed his hair. Something about that amused her. "Charlie was a naughty boy, weren't you Charlie?"

"Please-" Charlie said again before one of the goons kicked him square in the side. The vampire in him surged forward before he shook it off.

"He ruined my friends." Oliver gestured to a reddy-brown stain on the floor and now Maria noticed it she noticed the others. This must have been the warehouse, the warehouse from the paper. "And we just can't have that."

"Don't hurt her." Charlie wheezed.

"What are you doing to him?" Maria asked letting her eyes fall to her father again. The thick collar around his neck had an iron bar that linked to two thick cuffs around his wrists. They were for keeping something powerful in check, but if Oliver and his goons were vampires too then why would they need the chain for her father.

This was all too much. There were too many questions, too much was happening.

"Well! Now here's the fun bit you see." Oliver let go on her chin and grinned. Almost skipping to the centre of the floor and rubbing his palms together. "Your father owed me a debt and he started working for me. I thought once we turned him, because you're a smart girl Maria, you know what he is by now don't you?"

Maria nodded.

"I thought Charlie would be easy to handle and he's a big guy. Perfect for the goon game, only Charlie didn't want to play along and so we had to coax him." Oliver pulled a vial of something yellowish in colour from inside his jacket and Maria watched her father flinch and pull back.

She'd never seen him so scared before, never seen that kind of panic in his face. His body was shaking and there was sweat on his brow. Her big bear of a father had been reduced to a pale shaking mess and she couldn't seem to match up the two images.

"So, we had to get him in line. But Charlie still wouldn't play by the rules and he runs away to Sunnydale thinking we'll never find him. Thinking that we'll just forget about him. Pretty stupid choice of town Charlie." Oliver shook a finger in front of her father's face.

"Charlie still won't play along though, even when we find him. Even when we visit his house. So, we had to press on a nerve." Oliver turned to Maria who shifted uncomfortably. "BINGO." Oliver shouted causing her to flinch. "It turns out though that was a bad idea, my fault, I mis-judged, and, your father decided to make mincemeat out of my little operation here. You understand that can't go without consequence."

"Don't touch her!" Maria's father shouted and tried to pull at his restraints. He was earnt a shock with a cattle prod and Maria pulled at her own restraints.

"Oh Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. Don't you get it yet? I'm not going to harm a hair on this pretty little head." Oliver said walking over and yanking Charlie's head up by grabbing a fistful of his hair, positioning his head so he was forced to look at Maria.

"You are." Oliver said into his ear.

Charlie paled and wretched, dropping back to the floor when his hair was released from Oliver's grip.

"No, no I'll do anything. I'll do anything you want." He pleaded. He looked like he was going to vomit, and it made Maria's breathing shallow.

"It's too late Charlie." Oliver said taking a thick silver gun with a needle on the end from one of his goons. He screwed the vial of yellow liquid into it and there was a hissing noise.

"I'm sorry." Charlie said looking at Maria.

"What's happening? What are you doing?" Maria asked pulling at her restraints hard.

"Hold him." Oliver said to one of goons who grabbed her father by the hair.

"What are you doing? Stop it!" Maria said fighting at rope around her wrists, that was pulling her arms back painfully behind her.

There was the sound of the needle being depressed and what sounded like a wail from Charlie.

"Dad?" Maria shouted as Oliver and his goons stepped out of the way.

He wasn't her father anymore though. Whatever he was now was a shadow of what he'd been. He was practically foaming at the mouth. Straining to get to Maria, fangs bared, every muscle in his body tense. Veins in his neck and hands bulging.

"Take the collar off, keep the cuffs and we'll see how long it takes him to break the chain." Oliver grinned. It was then Maria saw there was a chain running from the thick metal cuffs on his wrists to it was bolted into the floor. The weight of the collar around his neck and the pole attaching it to the cuffs was what had been holding him down, keeping him under control.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about seeing that." Buffy appeared in the doorway, arrow in her crossbow.

"Who the hell are you?" Oliver said his lip curling up into a snarl.

"I'm the slayer." Buffy replied. "And you picked the wrong town to bring the mob too."

"Kill her." Oliver waved his hand at his goons who started to advance on Buffy and the others.

Maria could barely see though tear blurred eyes. She was focused on her father, on what was happening to him. The ridges on his face seemed somehow more prominent. He was growling, foaming, straining at the chain to get to her. He ran toward her and she flinched when the chain pulled at the ground, yanking him back and making him yelp.

"Dad-" Maria said quietly. Charlie backed up again before pulling at his restraints. His eyes were rimmed red, vein throbbing in his neck.

"Maria, we have to get you out of here." Giles was trying to undo the knot at her wrist, but Maria was too focused on her father to even acknowledge that someone was helping her.

"Giles!" Willow called tossing him an axe.

"Dad?" Maria asked again as her father tore towards her again, the thick chain pulling at the bolted floor.

Fighting had erupted around them as Giles used the axe to get through the rope. Buffy took the two goons down with relative ease, them disappearing into dust as their boss disappeared to the upper floor of the factory.

"Maria, we need to get you out of here." Giles said again.

"No!" Maria shouted as Buffy made for her father, thrown back, a bigger man stepping in to protect her.

"Kill me." Charlie's voice had returned for a millisecond to normal. He was the soft bear of a man she knew and loved again. His face was normal, though he was straining. As though there were two parts of him fighting. "Please." His voice was almost a beg and it broke Maria's heart. "I'm sorry." He said again looking at her but not meeting her eyes.

"Touching really but this is all taking too long" Oliver called from the upper deck of the factory floor, taking aim with his pistol he fired at the place where the chain was bolted to the floor.

Buffy fired the crossbow as the gun went off and it stuck into Oliver's chest with a thud. Oliver didn't fade away like the others had done but his glamour disappeared revealing skin similar to that of a toad, green blood oozing from the wound.

As Oliver's body hit the floor Maria's Father made a beeline for it, snarling worse than ever. Buffy started towards him.

"NO!" Maria shouted again lurching forwards.

The monster turned.

Charlie all muscle and fangs, practically foaming at the mouth charged at her. Maria's back collided with the ground, the wind knocked out of her and pain blinding her. Charlie had her pinned to the ground, snarling like a wild animal. He raised his head back, spittle stretched between his fangs, ready to bite when he stilled above her.

Charlie's features shifted back to human. A content smile crossed his face and as Maria reached up to put a hand on his face he turned to dust.

Like I said I've a lot planned out for this. I'm so excited to keep writing. I'm having so much fun and also breaking my own heart at points too...

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If you didn't enjoy, I guess this just wasn't your cup of tea but I wish you happy hunting for something more your taste in your fanfic days!