"Being the Slayer made me different, but it's my fault I stayed that way."

-Buffy

Chapter 24

It was as if he'd never been in town before, though he recognized so much. Everything looked different, felt different, even smelled different and it was all he could do not to run into the night and follow the pounding of blood. He'd seen only two of the others that had been with him down in the dark with the monsters. One of them had been sniffing at a jacket, a piece of clothing the monster had given him to track down the girl's loved ones. The other one had been crouching on the ground, an old woman clutched in his arms and blood dripping down his chin. Vampires. It was impossible to ignore what they, what He, had become.

Soulless monsters of the night. The dark-haired giant who had nabbed him was one and, undoubtedly, the blond man he'd taken blood from was one too. The girl hadn't been, he knew that, and she hadn't been overly terrified of the situation. Dalton knew that her only fear, her only worry, was the blond vampire. It didn't make him any less determined to help her. He should, he supposed, he was a vampire now. Soulless, blood-sucking demon of the night, evil incarnate. He didn't feel like himself anymore, wasn't truly sure who he was but he knew he still loved his books. Whatever else had happened that hadn't changed, and he knew that he wanted to help the girl. Wondered if maybe the blond vampire had wanted to help her too.

"Find her loved ones, bring them here." It had been an order, one he had no problem fulfilling if he'd had any blasted idea as to where or who her loved ones were. Specifically the one named Jesse. Unfortunately the Monster had given him what looked to be a woman's jacket. The other, the thing the girl had given him, was a ring; heavy, silver, with a skull protruding from its center. He considered it for a moment before placing it on his right thumb. It was a tight fit but, at least, it wouldn't be carelessly lost.

"Find Jesse..." He whispered to himself, he'd assumed Jesse was a boy but he had been given a females jacket. Maybe, just maybe, Jesse was a girl. He grimaced a little, looking down at the thing before his shoulders dropped and he brought the thing up to his nose to sniff.

Couldn't hurt

It was...sweet. Smelling of perfume and intoxicating flowers but beneath that he smelled something more, something likened to copper and sharp citrus. It was a unique smell and one, he found, amazingly easy to pick out. It wafted through the streets, weak but enough for him to follow. It sent pangs of hunger through his body, made his muscles quiver and his throat felt like sandpaper but he could follow it.

The scent took him through twists and turns, into alleyways, through a graveyard, up the main street, down the back and all the time he felt a strange, peculiar itching in his skull. Growing increasingly insistent, making alarm bells ring in his head. He didn't even realize the sun was rising until he felt his hand burn, the book falling with a heavy thud onto the ground. Instinct had him hurtling under a conveniently placed awning, hand flapping in the air to stop the flames. Gasping, in pain, Dalton took note of where he was; Back on Main Street with nowhere to go and the sun rapidly making escape impossible. Hi eyes went to the book, the only map he had to get back to the girl laying on the ground, in the sunshine.

He had to get it.

Her daughter was gone and Joyce Summers had spent the last hours of the night searching for her, questioning demons and fighting Vampires. Demons and Vampires. It was almost more than she could believe sometimes, more than she could accept. Almost. On that night, her daughters sixteenth birthday, Joyce's world had changed forever. It would have been easy to forget, to dismiss or deny but she had felt that he daughter, for the first time, was completely comfortable with herself. Buffy had been arrogant and sometimes cruel, to fit in with her 'friends' at school back in L.A., to disguise her own insecurities and fears. The Buffy she had seen that day was a woman, strong and capable with little hint of child left in her.

She'd seen a warrior, a princess-knight-errant with only one goal; save the world; In spite of everything. She saw her girl believe in herself and, for that moment in the car, a woman desperately in love. She'd learn, she'd accepted, she'd given her blessing and Buffy had opened like a flower to the sun after a long winter. Now her girl was gone and Joyce Summer had no qualms with the means in which they found her, hale and whole.

Thanks to her new outlook she did not, at first, notice the man that was darting out of, and back in to, the shade of an awning across the street from where her car lay idling. Her thoughts, however, where interrupted by the howl of pain he let out as he lunged into the sun again, hands grasping at the ground in desperation. Something was flung, backwards, thumping against the glass that cracked under the pressure. The man returned, crying in pain, to the safety of the shade but Joyce could see the sun had already trapped him, something he seemed to realize as well. Tears of pain on his face he grabbed the object, a book, against his breast. She couldn't be sure but she guessed his eyes were scanning around him, searching for some venue of escape.

What would a vampire need to protect so much that he was willing to burn for it? Joyce didn't know but her blood quickened, her heart pounded and some sort of maternal instinct shouted from the darkest depths of her soul and her hand shifted gears. Tires squealed in the relative silence of the morning as she rammed her foot against the gas, turning the car around to the other side of the street, not even bothering to brake as she ripped the car into reverse and screeched as she slammed her foot on the brake. Reaching over she flung the door open, the vampire hurtling into the car even as she snarled "Get In!", without looking she reached to the back seat and grasped her previously discarded jacket as she shifted back into drive, foot moving to the gas pedal and making the car shoot forward even as the vampire desperately tried to close the door and cover himself with the jacket she had flung at him.

For Joyce it was like a dream, or a B movie, but she found herself taking her attention off the road and on to the Vampire she had just rescued.

"Have you seen my daughter!?" The question came out sharp and biting but the Vampire gave her a wiry smile.

"I hope so."

"Certainly, we'll head over immediately. Are you quite sure you're safe Joyce? Yes, quite right. Yes, we will come in all haste." Giles hung up his phone solemnly, all too aware of the silence that had gripped the room as soon as the phone had rung.

"What's going on Giles?"

"Yeah is Buffy's mom okay?"

Giles turned, raising his arm to remove his glasses even as the other reached into his pocket to retrieve the handkerchief he would use to clean them. Fidgeting with the glasses in his hands he spoke in a rather dry, somewhat bewildered, tone, "It seems Joyce has, hmph, captured a vampire who claims to have seen Buffy." The responses to his words were instantaneous, questions shooting forth from every direction faster than he could process much less answer. Not bothering to do so he merely replaced his glasses and stepped away from the group, plucking his coat from where he had placed it draping over the loveseat and scooping his keys from the bookshelf as he passed. By the time he reached the door the questions had ceased, turning partially to look behind him he felt a certain satisfaction for the sarcasm in his voice.

"Yes, well who will be joining me? Anyone?"

As if it has been orchestrated the teenagers turned, immediately, to Jesse whose eyes scanned the room quickly.

"Jenny, Amy, Will, and Oz stay here and keep researching. Xander, Cordelia you're with us."

Like a well-oiled machine they separated and moved towards their assigned places. It would be frightening if there hadn't been some show of humanity there. Xander tossing a choice insult towards Oz for being left behind while the other replied, with a smile, that it wasn't a hardship to be left alone with three beautiful women. Jesse pressing a brief, but meaningful, kiss on Amy's lips as she wrapped her arms around him in a quick hug, one hand holding her place in a book that dangled against Jesse's leg. Willow forcing a promise out of Cordelia to call as soon as they knew where Buffy had been taken. Jenny blowing him a kiss even as she moved towards the phone, to continue her quest to find the spell that would return Angel his soul.

Though he was, for the most part, a careful driver there had been a time, in his youth, were he had never cared to bother for such a thing. A time where driving quickly and skillfully could be the difference between Life and Death or worse, at the time, incarceration. It was these skills he found himself returning to now. He wasn't pleased to know Joyce was alone with a Vampire, no matter how securely she had restrained him, and he was aching for any shred of information that would help him find his Slayer. The Watcher Council would surely disapprove.

When they arrived at Buffy's home a scant three minutes later Cordelia was clutching at Xander's arm hard enough to draw blood with one hand and pressing her other against the back of Jesses seat so hard it had turned white. Jesse pulled open his door before the car had even stopped and rolled on the grass, hands clenching it and swearing never to get into a car with him again. Xander struggled against Cordelia's hold on his arm, brows furrowed in pain but his voice was pure glee, "Didn't know you had it in you Giles."

It took another minute before Cordelia finally released his arm, Giles plunging out of the car and up to the front door with a glaring Jesse close on his heels. The door opened before Giles could knock and Joyce ushered them all inside.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes Giles I'm fine, thank you. He's in the basement, come on."

As Joyce led them through the house, and down towards the basement she recounted how she had picked up the vampire. Taking care to mention he had not tried to hurt her or hamper her when she had tied him to one of the support beams that was exposed in the lower part of the house.

"He hasn't said much else." Joyce finished as she brought the others to a halt in front of said vampire. He was an un-impressive creature, balding head and dark brown hair. Round Glasses cracked, goatee matted with rust colored flakes cracking off with every breath and clothes covered in filth and blood.

"You said you were bringing friends. I didn't want to tell the story twice." His voice was high-pitched, the voice of a younger man and filled with pain and weariness. They glanced at each other, silently debating who would be the one to speak. After a short pause Giles stepped forward, unsurprised to find himself fulfilling this role.

"What's your name?"

The vampire glanced up at him before bowing his head, shoulders slumping forward, "Dalton. Just...Dalton now."

"And when where you turned?"

"Last night, I think. I don't know how long I was out for."

Giles eyes the man, he'd never heard of a newly sired vamp that could control himself this well without feeding. Even if he had fed through the night if he'd been exposed to sunlight he must have been in great amounts of pain. He felt something being pressed into his hands and looked down to see a book, an older volume; the one Joyce had informed them the Vampire had run into the sunlight to retrieve.

The Book of Urizen, dating back to 1794 and written by William Blake. One of the later editions, this one from 1818 and in horrifying condition. The vampire, Dalton, glanced upwards and, seeing the book, answered the question Giles was proposing to ask.

"I had it, when I got taken. I had it when I woke up. It stopped me from..." His eyes turned, bitterly fighting back tears of pain, "doing something I wouldn't even have considered once." Looking pleadingly around at them, voice rising with a tinge of hysteria, "Please I need to find Jessie. I don't know who she is, or her last name but I need to find Jessie." Giles blinked but Xander chuckled loudly, elbowing his taller friend in the side.

"I'm Jesse." The teen said, pushing Xander backwards even as he stepped forward.

"I'm supposed to give you this. It's supposed to mean something. It's, damn-it, it's in my coat please." The men glanced around at each other, all of them unwilling to go near the starving vampire. A huff broke their silence and Cordelia strode forward, "Honestly, men!" bending forward she reached into the vamps pocket. First one, then the other before pulling out a heavy silver ring.

"Hey I know this."

"What is it?" Jesse reached forward.

"It's that ugly ring Buffy's always wearing." She handed it to him and Giles watched as he inspected it, "I keep telling her it clashes with her outfits but does she listen to me? I mean, honestly, that thing is horrendous."

"Yeah, yeah." Xander mumbled, plucking the ring out of Jesse's hands, "she said that she took it off that vamp from parent-teacher night. You know, Evil Dead? The guy Angel warned us about? Spike?"

"How did you get this?" Giles rounded on the vamp.

"She gave it to me."

"Maybe you should explain the whole of it."

Dalton took a deep breath, uncomfortable with the realization that he didn't need it.

"Last night, I think, I got snatched off the street. A big guy, brown hair, really pale. He did something to-to m-my neck, hurt so bad. Couldn't really focus, I think I passed out. I remember hearing voices, screaming, cursing. There was the guy, the monster, and a woman. She was...strange. Beautiful and terrifying. And there was a m-m-man, blond guy. The monster pushed me to him and there was blood filling my mouth." There was a certain kind of horror in his voice, co-mingled with unbridled joy as he remembered the taste of it. Remembered the first instant upon waking where he had felt himself stronger than he had felt at any point in his memory.

"When I woke up the blond guy was screaming, another man was kneeling in front of him and I knew what he was doing, drinking his blood. I heard a heart beating, just like now; I could smell her just like I can smell you. It's like a perfume, irresistible and sweet." His mouth watered even as he tried to fight back the part of him that wanted nothing more than to free himself from his bonds and feast on any of the people here. Even if he could just get a drop of it. Shaking his head, clearing it, he continued, "That's when I saw my book and I stopped, I don't know why but I stopped. She was just there, crying, she gave me the ring she told me to find you." He inclined his head towards Jesse, "Said my name!" He paused, still reeling over that instant.

"The other guy, the Monster, made the blond guy get up. He told us to find her loved ones, to bring them back to where they are. I don't think the others will know how."

A multitude of questions were lodged in their collective throats but only Joyce was allowed to voice the one that mattered most.

"And you do?"

Dalton nodded, his eyes moving back to the book in Giles hands.

"I made a map."

I don't have any excuses for why it took so long to update. Suffice to say it's been a long couple of weeks T_T I hope you all enjoy this Chapter, next one will bring us back to our favorite couple ^_^