Previously: That night, Angelina woke up with a start, cold sweat dripping from her face and making her pyjamas stick to her. It was not comfortable.

She rolled out of bed and was surprised to see that she hadn't woken Lorne at all, or if she had, he wasn't paying her any attention. Which she was grateful for.

She headed into the wardrobe and pulled out a clean pair of pyjamas and peeled off her sweaty ones, then headed to the bathroom, not really caring if Lorne was awake and watching, but kinda hoping he wasn't because as she shut the door and turned on the light, there under her left breast and tracing all the way to her hip, was tacky blood.

Turns out her nightmares were more real than she thought.

Chapter 41

Buffy was lying awake in the spare bedroom at Giles' apartment.

It was kind of him to take her in for the mean time, she wasn't going to be safe sleeping in her own apartment, seeing as how she had invited Angelus in and all.

She knew Dawn was safe as was Faith, Robin and everyone else, but she couldn't seem to shake the uneasy feeling that had followed her into her new bedroom.

She could no longer stare at the ceiling and decided she could do with a drink, so rolled out of bed and headed towards the kitchen.

She entered the kitchen to find Giles sitting up with a mug of coffee.

'Thought you don't drink coffee after six?' Buffy startled him.

'Oh. Buffy.' He relaxed 'Well at times like these, I found coffee helps'

'What times?' Buffy asked.

Giles sighed and picked up the book he had placed on the chair next to him. He had put it there only because Buffy had scared him, and he didn't want to worry her, but it was too late for that.

'I'm afraid that Angelus may be up to something…'

'You mean, besides him scaring and possibly killing everyone?' Buffy took a seat next to the Watcher.

'Well, yes. I- it's' Giles didn't want to say.

'Giles spit it out. What is he up to?' Buffy was starting to worry more than usual.

'Giles pointed to the book and Buffy looked. When finding it all written in a demonic language, she just stared blankly at Giles.

'There is a Romanian gypsy tale or legend if you please, that states that three hundred years after the cursing, a child shall be born…'

'And?' Buffy found this boring but she probably needed to pay attention.

'And, that child shall have the means of manipulating demon blood to their advantage…'

All Giles got was a blank look. He sighed 'In short, it means a child who is either bitten or attacked by a demon of some sort, won't die, but shall obtain the demon's abilities. Which could therefore be quite valuable if bitten by a vampire.' Giles explained.

It dawned on Buffy then. 'So you think Angelus is looking for this 'child' so he can use them as a weapon of mass destruction?'

'I'm afraid he could be' Giles took a swig of his coffee.

'Great. Just what we need' Buffy was bummed. She could do with one of Spike's hugs, but he wasn't here. 'Well how do we find this kid?'

'That's complicated in itself. They won't be a child anymore' Giles took off his glasses and began to polish them. 'They will be roughly twenty three years of age'

'And that day just gets better' Buffy sighed. 'Ok, so they'll be in early twenties. Any clues as to who it could be?'

'That's where I'm at a loss' Giles admitted as he rose to refill his coffee.

Buffy groaned. She had no clue how to find this person. There had to be millions of people in their early twenties. How was she going to find one?

'Maybe you should ask Lorne to help?' Giles suggested as he sat back down, handing another mug of coffee to Buffy. She took it and gratefully sipped at it.

'I'll ask him tomorrow' she agreed.

It would be helpful if he found anything, and having another on the look out wouldn't hurt.

Buffy and Giles sat there and discussed theories and ideas on the 'child' and Halloween until very early in the morning.

~**~

Robin and Xander had grabbed Indian for tea. Neither one of them had felt like cooking; Xander because he couldn't really, and Robin because he couldn't be bothered.

Both men had decided take away was fine and so had gotten Indian to go and had dropped into the Liquor Store on the way home and picked up a six pack of 'James Boag'

They had sat and eaten while having comfortable, light conversation. Mostly it was Robin talking about what had happened to him and Faith after they had remained behind.

Robin had explained that he had to go into hospital and have stitches and his wounds disinfected and how Faith had visited every day for the three weeks he had to remain there.

After that, they had to find work for a while, because they had used all their money on Robin's hospital fees. They were broke and had battled to keep the roof over their heads.

Once they had enough money to make it over, they had no idea of where Buffy and the others were staying and so Faith had called Angel, only to have the call diverted to a mobile number, but Angel had answered and after a quick catch up, had told them exactly where the Scoobies were.

Xander had sat listening politely, though he didn't really care. He didn't particularly like Robin Wood. He wasn't sure why. Wood was a nice guy, full of life, liked jokes and obviously loved Faith. Maybe that was why?

They had sat and talked about the Halloween plan that they had all come up with; that they were to patrol tomorrow and on the night of Halloween as well as the day after; just in case Angelus decided to show up.

When both of them had found themselves 'joked out' and un-talkative, they said their goodnights, Robin taking the couch in the lounge room, while Xander went off to his room.

Xander had come to the conclusion that living with Robin would be weirdly awkward.

~**~

Angelina stood there in front of the mirror not believing what she saw. The blood wasn't real, it couldn't be. It had all been a dream. This could still be a dream of a dream and none of this was actually real.

To check that theory, she pinched herself. No this was definitely real. The blood remained there, still tacky and reminding her of what she had woken up from.

Shaking her head to clear it, she dropped her fresh clothing to the floor and opened the cupboard in order to get to the medical supplies. She pulled out antiseptic wipes and some gauze.

Slowly Angelina began to wipe away the blood. But every time she finished cleaning the wound, fresh blood would pour out and replace the old, removed blood.

Angelina tried once again to wipe away the blood once it was tacky, but the same thing happened.

She was becoming frustrated, cold and exposed. She was standing in the only bathroom totally naked; if anyone came in to use the toilet they were going to get an eyeful.

Angelina once again waited for the blood to become tacky, some of which had run down her stomach before becoming tacky, but instead of wiping it off again, she found a bandage in the cupboard and instead wrapped that around herself.

She waited a few minutes to see if the blood would disagree with the bandage and soak all the way through and piss her off. The bandage didn't stain, which was a good thing and so Angelina pulled on her fresh clothing and was about to head back to bed when she was overcome with dizziness.

She couldn't see straight and the room was quickly becoming black.

'SHIT!' was all she managed to think before she collapsed on the floor, to be discovered later in the morning.

~**~

'You did what?!' Angelus roared.

'I was bored, you and Dru were shagging, what do you think I was gonna do!' Ally roared back. 'You wanted a member taken out a day, but you didn't do much when you were living under the same roof! So why cant I take them out on the street!'

Angelus had shoved Ally up against a wall and was becoming livid with rage.

'Because I had a plan!' he slammed her head against the wall.

Ally shuddered but didn't give Angelus the satisfaction of a whimper. Drusilla was off hunting. She had scampered away as soon as she saw what was going to happen to her beloved Ally. She knew Angelus would show no mercy because Angelus didn't like Ally.

'You never told me what the plan was you bastard!' Ally cried.

Angelus pushed her so far into the wall, Ally felt like she was melting into it. His face was inches from hers when he spat 'We were going to strike tomorrow night. The night before Halloween and the night after. That way the Scoobies would have no idea what to do when we attacked the second time. Got it bitch?' he let her go.

Ally slumped to the ground and looked up. 'Who's attacking tonight?'

Angelus whirled around. 'Not tonight! Tomorrow night you stupid cow!'

Ally stood up; rage burning behind her eyes 'Technically it's tonight asshole! It's four in the morning remember?'

Angelus opened his mouth to shout something back but closed it and thought about what she had just said. 'Yes, you would be right. Sorry' his mood softened.

Ally stood there trying to control her rage. How she wanted to lash out and hit him. She knew he was stronger and faster than she was though and could kill her faster than she could kill him. Ally didn't move when Angelus crept closer.

'Ally do you forgive me? I'm sorry about that'

She had no clue what to do, so she just said 'It's fine'

'Good!' Angelus lunged forward and suctioned his lips to hers, forcing her to kiss him back.

When he pulled away, he had a thin trickle of blood running down the corner of his mouth. He had bitten her bottom lip. She hated him. It was worse than an abusive boyfriend/girlfriend. This was an abusive vampire who had no intentions of leaving her alone, unless he dusted her. Ally would rather live, so put up with his shit.

'You and Dru can attack tonight' he smiled and he strode away to sleep in the room of his latest victim; a beautiful, wealthy blonde girl, with an amazing house.

Drusilla wasn't back yet, and she was the only one who Ally wanted right now. Oh how she wished she could get a hug right now. Drusilla's hugs were always comforting. And the way she crooned over Ally, as if she was a small child always bought a smile to Ally's face.

But Dru wasn't here, so Ally once again slid down the wall, curled herself into a ball and cried.

Her tears mixed with the blood on her broken lip, and it burned, but she didn't care. She just sat there and cried, not caring who was there to hear it.

From the other room, Angelus could hear sobs. He smiled; must've really gotten to the girl this time.

He closed his eyes and let sleep take over him.