Guns were not something Buffy ran into very often. In her entire career as a Slayer, she had only been shot at twice – once in Las Vegas, and once by Darla.

With any luck, today wouldn't be the third.

"I said, who goes there?" the gunman repeated. He was dressed in a heavy coat, and carrying a long-barreled hunting rifle.

"Name's Buffy," she replied evenly. "Who are you?"

"Cain. Gib Cain. Now what are you doing here?"

"Hunting werewolves?" It just came out. Though Buffy couldn't think of anything better to say.

Cain lowered his gun, then began laughing.

"It's funny if you don't believe in werewolves…" Buffy started.

"No, it's funny to think about you killing one."

"I can handle myself." Buffy didn't want to reveal her identity as the Slayer, but she had her pride.

"Let me ask you something. How many werewolves have you killed?"

"Killed?"

Cain displayed a tooth necklace.

"I tore a tooth from every wolf I kill. This one will make it an even dozen."

"And it doesn't bother you that a werewolf is a normal person twenty-eight days out of the month?"

"I don't know if they really are. All I know is that the other three, they're a monster."

After a minute of Buffy and Cain staring at one another, Cain put away his gun.

"Well, I'm done here. Any idea where else the boys and girls like to get together in this town?"

"You looking for a party?"

"No, but the werewolf is. They're suckers for that whole 'sexual heat' thing. Sense it miles away. But this place isn't opening tonight, so the werewolf'll look elsewhere."

"Sorry. Can't help you." Not that Buffy didn't have a few ideas, but she wasn't about to tell him.

"Well, this outing was very illuminating," Giles said after Cain left.

"Yeah, but now we've got two problems," Buffy muttered. "Stop the werewolf from biting people, and stop Cain from killing the werewolf."

"Do you have a plan?" Giles asked.

"Assemble the troops."

"Okay, people," Buffy addressed the assembled Scooby Gang in the library. Everyone was there – Willow, Xander, Giles, Cordelia, Jenny, Oz, even Angel.

"We've got less than an hour before sunset. We need to capture the werewolf so it can't bite anyone, and we need to stop Cain so he can't kill it."

Her gaze wandered around the room, before settling on the girl next to Xander.

"Cordelia. What are the most likely locations in town for people to get together?"

"Well, with the Fish Tank closed, the Bronze is going to be even busier. There's the place where Xander and I were attacked near the woods. And there's the Motel 6 – lots of one-night stands there."

"That's three places for us to cover." Buffy thought for a moment. "Oz and I will take the Bronze, since the Dingoes are playing there anyway. Angel, can you get into a motel room uninvited?"

"I doubt it."

"OK, then you and Willow can go to the woods. Xander, Cordelia, Jenny, Giles, you cover the Motel 6. Let's move, people!"

Cain sat in the back of his van, contemplating the silver bullet he had just made. As he waited for sunset, his thoughts turned to the idiotic little girl he had met earlier.

What had she been doing there? As funny as the idea of her hunting a werewolf was, she had acted completely seriously. Maybe she was a good shot. Maybe she wasn't alone – there had been that older guy with her, though he looked like a librarian.

He wondered if she might be the werewolf herself. Serial killers sometimes revisited their crime scenes, why not werewolves? Not that he would shoot her unless he had actually seen her change from human to werewolf.

Cain had seen his dad had been ripped apart by a werewolf when Cain was 18. After that, he had dedicated his life to hunting the monsters, so they could never hurt anyone else. He wasn't in this for thrills, or for money.

He was in it because it was the right thing to do.

Covering the Bronze was actually a little boring. Buffy mostly came to hang out with Willow, Xander, or Angel. But they were off covering other locations. And after helping the Dingoes get set up and staking out a good vantage point, there wasn't a whole lot to do except sit and watch the band.

She decided to try vamp-spotting. Buffy hadn't been able to sense vampires the way Giles said she should, but she could often pick them out based on a dozen different clues. Outdated clothes were a big one – that was how she had identified the first vamp she had encountered in Sunnydale. Well – knowingly encountered. The first was Angel, but she only found that out weeks later. Pale skin was another hint – any human living in Sunnydale ought to have a decent suntan.

Even nerds like Tucker Wells.

Buffy was pretty well attuned to anything out of the ordinary, and a pale Tucker Wells at the Bronze, chatting to girls, and not making a fool of himself, was definitely out of the ordinary. His current target was Lishanne Davis, a cheerleader.

Not wanting to draw attention to herself, Buffy simply watched them from afar. Vampirism seemed to make just about anyone more charismatic, and Tucker was no exception. He was making Lishanne laugh, and even danced with her before heading to the exit. Buffy followed.

Outside the Bronze, Tucker and Lishanne were kissing against the side of the building. Buffy had seen this a hundred times. When she closed her eyes, he would vamp out, let her scream, then feed.

Fortunately, vamps in feeding mode rarely paid attention to their surroundings. As they kissed, Buffy crept closer. When Lishanne closed her eyes, Buffy drew a stake. And Tucker was dust the moment Lishanne started screaming.

"Oh my… oh… what was that?" Lishanne panted. Her dress – a rather nice shade of purple – was covered in Tucker dust. Tears started to roll down her face.

"Don't worry, you're OK," Buffy held Lishanne's shoulders, comforting her.

"He was… a vampire…" Lishanne sobbed.

"You're fine. Go on home."

Lishanne nodded. She wiped away her tears, and started walking away.

Most Sunnydalers didn't admit to the existence of vampires. That probably had to do with the fact that most people who saw vampires didn't live to talk about it. But thanks to Buffy, there were more and more survivors.

Buffy wished everyone knew the truth. She thought that if she got on stage at the Bronze and announced that vampires were real, most Sunnydalers' reactions would be like Oz's "that explains a lot!" rather than her own initial disbelief.

And if everyone knew she was the Slayer, it might be easier too.

When Buffy went back in to the Bronze, the Dingoes were done playing. She went upstage to help them break the set.

"Hey, Buffy," Oz greeted her, "you walked out on us!"

"Sorry." Buffy picked up a drum set like it was made of cardboard. "Had some unscheduled slayage."

"Oh, I see. Well, at least that's over."

In retrospect, those were very poor words, for just as Oz finished talking, a werewolf burst through the back window onto the stage.