— — —

"It's about freaking time the stupid vampire was knocked out." Joshua told his partner.

"Yeah." Trent said. "Took him long enough to. Did you notice how he kept eye contact with the Emear? They just sat their and stared as if they've known one another."

"The pretty girl? Yeah I noticed. You've got to admit though......" He punched in a code and the electrical barrier was taken down as the door slid open. "She's kind of cute. I actually wouldn't mind getting some action on her." Trent laughed as they stepped in. They flipped the vampire over. It was in its demon form. They picked it up and as they set it down on the bed, its eyes opened.

"Sorry guys. Your not doing anything to me today." Spike threw Josh to the floor. Trent ran over trying to restrain it as Josh got back up and started to fill an ejector with a yellowish fluid.

After Spike broke Trent's arm, Josh held out the needle in front of him. Spike snickered. He threw Trent behind him into the cell and grabbed the needle. He broke it in his fist. Picking up Josh, he threw him in with the other man, closing the door.

An ear piercing alarm was going off as Spike turned to Kara's cell.

"Hurry up and open the door!" Kara yelled at him. She told him the code and he punched it in. The door opened and she was free. They ran down the corridor, ignoring all the cries for help. Picking random doors to exit out of, they eventually came upon a large rectangular room. From 3 of the four doors, cadets were coming out.

Spike shoved Kara through the fourth closing door, and followed immediately behind her. It slammed shut behind him. A huge room stood in front of them. People in lab coats walked with clipboards in their hands. Cadets walked around keeping an eye on everything and everyone.

"We'll never get out." Kara said. Her eyes were wide. Spike looked around, then up. A vent, big enough for them to fit through gleamed down at him.

"Yes we will." He grabbed a chair, placing it under the vent. Kara watched as he grabbed the vent and yanked.

At the same time a man dropped a large box with metal instruments in it. They clattered onto the cement. Spike handed the vent down to Kara and she carefully set it on the ground. No one noticed as Kara and Spike jumped up and through the vent.

When they were finally outside, they both ran until they reached the cemetery.. Spike led her to his crypt. When he flung the door open, a group of vampires surrounded them.

"What the hell are you doing in my crypt?" Spike asked them.

"Not your anymore. When we came, there was no one to claim it, so we took over." One of them sneered at him. Spike growled at him. The sneering one growled back. Spike pushed forward to attack, but was held back by his sister. The other vampire had also wanted to attack, but was also held back by his friends.

"Sorry to bother you. We'll leave." Kara told them. They nodded to each other as she pulled her brother away. She was able to pull him out of the cemetery before he finally yanked away.

"Great! I don't have a place to stay anymore and I'm...." He stopped. He heard a faint heartbeat. As it got closer he began to hear two.

Just my luck. He thought. Kara shook her head.

Two girls were coming up the sidewalk. Spike smiled. The girls were whispering to each other and giggling.

"Ladies." They stopped in front of him as he spoke. "Are you lost?"

They shook their heads.

"Your parents do know where you are at, right?" He asked them as though he was worried. Come on Kara. Help me. He growled at her in his head. She smiled and turned to them.

Run! She told them. Their faces were startled. Run hard and fast. He'll hurt you if you don't. They began to back up slowly.

"I won't hurt you I swear." He told them. He glared at Kara from the far corner of his eye. The girls began to run. Spike turned to them and snarled. He grabbed one of the girl's hair and yanked her back. A burst of pain came to his head. Spike yelled and let go of the girl. His hands clasped his head and he fell to his knees. Kara was at his side immediately.

"What's wrong?!" she said.

"I-I don't know." The pain was now gone and he slowly began to stand with Kara's help. She let go and he stood on his own. He turned toward her questioningly. Slowly his hand went to Kara's face. As he touched her, she closed her eyes trying to burn the touch into memory once again. His fingers went behind her ear and into her hair. He tangled it up and yanked.

"Ow!" She screamed. His hand quickly flew out of her hair and onto his head. He expected some pain, but none came.

"Weird." He murmured.

"More like ow!" Kara shoved him. "What's going on with you?"

"I don't know." He was trying to figure that out. "Those commandos must have done something to me." He murmured out loud. Kara was to busy rubbing her head to listen to him.

They began walking to the southern end of town with Spike muttering under his breath.

"Why do you keep grabbing your head?" Kara asked him.

"Because......... I think those commando guys did something to my head. When I yanked that girl's hair, I got a sudden..........I don't know what it was, but it felt as though my head burst. And when I pulled on your hair, nothing happened." Spike stopped. He stared at the mortals as they went in and out of the Wolf's Mouth.

I can't hurt humans, but i can hurt demons. Spike thought. Kara smiled.

"Maybe it's fate." Spike looked at her oddly as she spoke. "Maybe, your supposed to be on the good side. Save the humans, kill the demons."

"If that is it, then maybe you're considered one of the demons I get to kill." He murmured.

"Hey! I heard that!" She playfully hit him on the arm.

"Well........ That's just a bunch of shit that is pissing me off." He growled. A few people that were walking by began to walk faster after hearing Spike growl.

"Forget it for now. Let's go before you flip out. The sun's gonna come up soon and we need to find shelter."

— — —

Buffy was startled. Men dressed in camouflage had tried to take out the vampire that had called himself Spike. They had done it too. Rather than bullets in their guns, they had, had stakes. Something was wrong with this picture and she was going to figure out who and what they were.

"I'll ask Gyles about it." She murmured to herself. She began to walk back to the club, where she left her friends.

The band had been booed off the stage and they had the radio going. Buffy found her friends quickly. They asked her if she had gotten it. She replied no and explained about the weird men.

"Wow. Talk about freaky." Xander stared off into space with his coke in his hand. "You'll tell Gyles right?" Buffy nodded.

"Enough deep thinking. Let's party, it's what we're here for, right?" Willow said perking up. She grabbed Buffy's and Xander's arm and pulled them onto the dance floor.

They danced to three songs before they collapsed onto a couch exhausted. A slow dance began to play as they talked about their plans for Thanksgiving weekend. All three were staying home, while their parents went out of town.

A guy came up, asking Willow to dance. She accepted, leaving the other two alone.

Now is a good time to ask her. Xander thought. Though Buffy had lived in the town for a few months, it seemed as though they had been friends forever.

"Buffy." he said.

"Hm?"

"Do you..........will you go.......out with me?" Xander asked. He felt his face turning red.

"What?! Xander. I......... I can't. I mean, I do, But I can't........I don't want to ruin our friendship. I.......can't. Sorry. It's just.." Buffy tried to explain. She like him, just not in that way.

"Don't worry. I understand. No one wants to go out with a loser like me anyways." He stood and began to leave.

"Xander! No! I didn't....." He was to far away to hear her. "....mean it that way." She collapsed back onto the couch. When the song ended, Willow came bounding back, asking what had happened to Xander.

"He left." She told her simply. There was a long pause before Buffy asked, "have you two ever.......dated?"

"Yeah. Once, but we broke up." Willow sipped her root beer.

"Why?"

"He stole my Barbie." Willow said.

Buffy choked. "What?!"

"We were about seven or eight." She explained. Buffy sighed in relief and nodded. "After that we decided to just stay friends."

Buffy nodded again.

They stayed for a few more hours, then decided to go home. As they walked, they saw to girls running towards them.

"Don't go back there." One of them gasped between breaths. "There's a guy with blond hair and his face is...........it's like disfigured or something."

Buffy and Willow looked at each other. "Vampire." They both murmured. The two ran past them to the entrance of the cemetery. No one was there.

"The vampire that I chased before.....he had blond hair." Buffy said allowed.

"Yeah, but you saw him being dragged off by those guys." Willow said. Buffy just nodded. "It could be a different one you know."

"Probably. Oh well, I'll find him tomorrow when I patrol." Buffy said. Though she knew she would be chewed out by Gyles for not getting him tonight. She walked Willow home before returning to her own.

For almost two years now she had been a slayer. A girl, chosen to kill all the demons. Blah, blah, blah, blah... The lecture seemed to go on forever. She had it told to her by her Watcher Gyles. The Watcher was, obviously from the name to guard, put also to train the slayer for three or four years. After those years were up, the slayer was on her own. Every time a Watcher or Slayer died, somehow the people in charge of the whole thing, found someone new.

Buffy walked in through the back door. Her mother, Joyce, was sitting at the bar. Both of her hands were around a mug of coffee. Her large, golden locks of hair covered her face from view. When she turned to look at Buffy, her face was pale and her eyes were swollen.

"Buffy." Her mother said, slightly sighing.

"What's wrong?" Buffy began to get scared.

"Huh? Oh nothing. I-I'm just...you worried me. There was a car wreck and a pedestrian was hit. I was afraid it was you." She wiped her eyes. "I'm just glad your okay."

"Don't worry. I wasn't even involved." She gave her mother a quick hug and she felt her mother's muscles relax. "I'm going to bed. OK?" Her mother nodded.

"Night." Joyce said.

"Night." Buffy left the kitchen and into a small hallway that led to the front of the house. The stairs were by the front door and led to three rooms and a bathroom. The master room, her mother's, was on the right along with the bathroom. While the other two bedrooms were on the left. Buffy went to her room at the end of the hall.

She flopped onto the bed and fell asleep immediately.