When Buffy woke the next morning it was neither pleasant or relaxing as it should have been. Instead she woke to Faith's insistent pleading tones as the younger Slayer tried desperately to get away from her.
"B please you gotta go," Faith pleaded as sweat beaded at her hairline.
"Wha-Faith what's going on?" Buffy asked still not quite awake.
"Something is happening to me and it's not something good. You've gotta move B I don't wanna hurt you."
Buffy felt her mind clear instantly at the younger girl's desperate tone and her hand went to Faith's chest instinctively to reassure herself the other girl's heart was still beating.
"B, please," Faith said desperately, clenching her eyes shut as her whole body trembled.
"I thought I told you already that I wasn't going anywhere," Buffy said cupping the younger Slayer's face and pressing their lips together.
Faith resisted at first, her body tense beneath Buffy's but she eventually relaxed and kissed Buffy back with the same ferocity. Buffy pulled back when she felt a sharp sting on her lips and her breath quickened as she lifted a shaking hand and felt the warmth of blood on her lip.
"No," she whispered staring at Faith who still lay with her eyes closed, her chest heaving with each breath she took.
She could see the other Slayer's nostril's flare when the coppery scent of her blood hit the air. Faith's eyes snapped open and her gaze zeroed in on the now clotting cut on Buffy's lip. The younger Slayer growled deep in her throat and her newly elongated canines were beared in a way that made her look feral. Her forehead stayed smooth and her eyes were still a deep brown but held none of the softness Buffy had grown accustom to seeing. She barely had time to jump off the other Slayer's body before Faith snarled and lunged forward, screaming angrily when the chains prevented her from getting very far.
"Faith! It's me Buffy, I know you're still in there you have to hold on," Buffy said as Faith let out another frustrated scream as she strained in her restraints.
Buffy watched in fascination and horror as Faith's muscles tensed and the metal of her restraints made a dreadful crunching sound before snapping. Faith leaped at her as soon as she was free, snarling as she flew off the bed. Buffy vaguely heard her door bang open as she struggled to hold Faith off and heard the younger Slayer yelp before falling against her as a dead weight sending them both crashing to the ground. Giles and Xander stood in the door, a tranquiliser gun held in the older man's hands.
"What's with you and the fanged types?" Xander asked trying to ease the tension.
"I was always a problem child," Buffy shrugged kissing the top of Faith's head.
"Buffy I know you do not like it but I highly recommend we move Faith to the chains in the basement," Giles said looking at both girls with concern.
"I know," Buffy sighed managing to stand with Faith in her arms, "Tell Will to meet us down there, I want her to reinforce the chains."
"What happened?" Dawn asked meeting them at the bottom of the stairs with a group of Potentials surrounding her.
"The venom is making her change, making her dangerous," Buffy told them, "No one is to go down into the basement under any circumstances."
"Shouldn't we be staking her or something?" Kennedy asked, "I mean a vamp is a vamp right and I would hate to see the Psycho Slayer with added vamp strength."
Willow who had joined them by this point was glad the blonde Slayer was holding Faith because the look on her face was beyond murderous and she was sure Kennedy would have been met with an angry Slayer powered fist to the face if she had not.
"She is one of use," Buffy ground out, "If anyone so much as goes near her with a stake they will be answering to me," she said glaring dangerously at everyone in the room before stalking off towards the basement with Giles and Xander in tow.
"You better stay out of Buffy's sight for awhile," Willow told Kennedy before she and Dawn followed the others to the basement.
"Does this mean I'm bunking with you now Slayer?" Spike smirked as he cleared his things off the bed in the basement.
"In your dreams," Buffy said lying Faith carefully down once he was done.
"You better believe it," he said jumping out of the way when she went to hit him.
"You can take me room, I want to stay down here with Faith," Buffy said securing the shackles around Faith's wrists and ankles as gently as she could.
"What happened up there?" Xander asked as Willow murmured something over the chains causing them to glow momentarily.
"She said she could feel something happening, something not of the good but I reassured her she would be fine. Then I cut my lip on fangs I didn't know she had and she changed. It was like she was a vamp but wasn't. No unattractive yellow eyes or bumpy forehead, just your run of the mill blood lust and desire to rip my throat out," Buffy said running and hand tenderly over Faith's head.
"You cut your lip on her fangs?" Dawn asked her forehead scrunching in confusion, "How did you...oh...OH!"
"Yes well circumstances aside," Giles said blushing as he cleaned his glasses, "It seems the physical transformation has begun which means we are running out of time."
"She's still alive right? I mean she has fangs and is all blood drinky now so she's not..." Willow trailed off shooting a hesitant glance at her best friend.
"Heart's still beating," Spike said, "Can hear it," he shrugged off their questioning looks.
"Okay Giles I want you to call Wesley and see if they've found anything. Spike, Xander, I want you to hit up every demon bar in town. Talk to everyone and everything, and by talk I mean hit until they tell you something useful. Will I want you to get into contact with the Coven, see if there's anything they can do, maybe slow it down or something. Dawnie, we and everyone upstairs are going to hit the books and the web, look for anything on vampiric transformation. There has to be something out there and I am not going to sit by and let this keep happening to her," Buffy said.
"Aye aye captain," Spike said as Xander threw him the thick blanket that would protect him from the sun until they could reach the tunnels.
"I'll bring you some books," Dawn said to her sister once the others had left, "Oh and for the record I'm really happy for you, you two make a cute couple. Faith was always so much cooler than any of your other boyfriends, even if I didn't show it at first I always liked her and I am happy she came back."
"Thanks Dawnie," Buffy said hugging her sister and smiling as the younger raced back up the stairs.
"You hear that baby?" Buffy asked planting herself at the unconscious Slayer's bedside and placing a hand on Faith's shoulder so she could feel every breath the other girl took, "Dawn thinks we make a cute couple and I'm going to make sure we get the chance to be one."