A/N: Sorry for the delays recently! I've been fighting an illness this past month or so, and it finally turned into full-blown bronchitis on its merry way to pneumonia. You'd think that this would give me more time to write, but it actually only made me sleepy and slightly incoherent.
A/N2: Thanks to my betas – Jason aka deiticlast, leathon, murg, SariLane, and Satsuma – whose feedback I greatly appreciate and rely on. Also, a big thanks for all the reviews and to asyouwish and blueyes for the recs!
I know some other fabulous authors have made art for this fic, but I didn't want to post or link to their pics without their permission. If you're interested, I'd love to direct people to it! (And if you'd rather I didn't, I won't mention it again! In fact, forget I ever wrote this...)
"It's just so… weird seeing you drink that," Buffy said, her gaze straying to the bottle of TruBlood Vi was holding.
"Yeah, well, it's kinda weird drinking it. It tastes horrible," Vi admitted with a grimace. "But it's not like I have a whole lot of options here."
Buffy studied her for a moment. "Is it hard?" she asked quietly.
Vi hesitated; this wasn't the best place to discuss this. Then again, she didn't know when she would see Buffy again, and it felt good to talk about it with someone. She looked around quickly before dropping her voice so low that only Buffy could hear.
"The hunger is really strong, especially as a newbie. I'm not even supposed to be out in public like this. But, well…" Vi said ruefully. Then her expression sobered as she continued to whisper, "The hardest part is that I can feel my two 'instincts' constantly battling with each other. It's like… a supernatural SmackDown! in my head. All the time."
There was a moment of silence as Buffy digested this information. She hadn't thought about how difficult it would be for a Potential/Slayer to become a vampire – at least one that never lost her soul. Buffy felt her already considerable respect for her friend grow. She couldn't even imagine what that constant inner turmoil must feel like.
Then she sighed. "Do you ever get the feeling that someone up there seriously dislikes us?" she asked.
"Either that, or they like us too much," Vi replied with a grin. "You gotta admit; wherever we go, we put on quite the show, especially you."
Buffy gave her first real laugh in months. It felt both strange and good. "Just call me Puppet Buffy, ready to entertain the PTB at the jerk of the strings," she said wryly.
Vi grinned for another beat before her expression grew sad. "So, you're leaving soon?" she asked.
Buffy's smile faded, too. "Yeah, tomorrow morning," she said. Then she purposefully raised her voice to slightly above a normal speaking tone. "But I'll be in touch. And if you ever run into any trouble, you call me, okay?"
Subtlety was so not her thing.
Vi bit her lip. Lowering her voice again, she whispered, "I appreciate it, really I do, but he's not so bad. From what Chow's told me, he's actually pretty fair and reasonable."
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Whatever."
Knowing she wasn't going to win this particular argument, Vi went back to the subject most important to her. "So where are you going?"
"Kennedy."
Vi nodded, understanding what she meant. "Any reason?" she asked, trying to see if Buffy had any leads without asking straight out. While it seemed unlikely that anyone at the bar would put two and two together, why risk it?
Buffy hesitated for a moment. "I had a dream. Faith was there," she finally said in a hushed tone, looking at Vi meaningfully. Then she winced. "There was Latin involved."
Vi chuckled. At Buffy's glare, she swallowed her grin. "I'm so sorry for your linguistic pain," she said solemnly. When the glare turned positively murderous, she quickly said, "Maybe I could help. Unlike you, I was forced to learn a little. What did she say?"
"Something about greasy custard doing the calypso?" Buffy immediately offered.
At Vi's horrified look, Buffy didn't know whether to be offended or amused.
"You're not serious, are you?" Vi asked faintly. She never bought into Buffy's dumb blonde routine, but sometimes the things she said…
Buffy rolled her eyes. "C'mon, Vi. I'm not that bad. I figured out it was Latin, didn't I?" she pointed out.
"Sorry,' Vi apologized sheepishly. "So what do you remember?"
Now it was Buffy's turn to look sheepish. "Okay, there was something custard-y about Faith's message," she conceded. "There was also the word 'qui', I think. That means 'who, right?" She paused as she tried to recall more words.
As Vi watched her friend wrack her memory, she couldn't help but think that it was almost like the days when they were focused on defeating the First, when she was part of the team. She felt a surge of guilt.
"I'm so sorry I can't come with you," she blurted out. "I hate that you'll be all alone again."
All of a sudden, Buffy looked a little nervous. "I won't be," she admitted. "Xander's there."
"Oh," Vi said, clearly confused by Buffy's reaction. Wasn't that a good thing? It definitely made her feel a little better. Then it hit her. "Oh."
Buffy sighed. "Exactly. I haven't seen him since… you know. I don't even know if we're friends anymore."
"Well, you're never going to find out if you don't see him," Vi reasoned.
"But maybe it's better that way," Buffy said hesitantly. "I mean, what if we aren't friends anymore? What if we can't trust each other? This might not be the best time to find out."
Vi frowned. "Are you seriously considering the 'run and hide' plan?"
"Of course not," Buffy protested, bristling at the implication. "I'm going, aren't I? I just… just…" She paused, at a loss for words.
Seeing Buffy's distress, Vi decided to ease off a little. Whatever happened with Xander would happen, no matter what she had to say about it. She hoped the two friends could forgive each other, but a lot had happened. She and Buffy had done some fence mending themselves after the collapse of Sunnydale, and they didn't have nearly the same history as Buffy and Xander; or the same kind of loss.
Vi took a long pull from her bottle at the lull in conversation. As she lowered her drink, she accidentally caught Eric's eye; or maybe not so accidentally. He gave her a pointed look and then moved his gaze to Buffy.
Vi bit back a frown. Eric was probably going to make one final effort to keep Buffy here, which of course wouldn't work. Then again, maybe he was going to tell her about the blood bond, something which Buffy needed to know about. In either case, nothing bad would happen here in Fangtasia in front of the entire bar, right?
"Eric wants to see you," she whispered.
Buffy snorted. "That's nice," she replied, not budging an inch in her chair. She barely restrained the urge to look at Mr. Overlord and stick her tongue out at him.
Vi dropped her voice as low as it could go, barely even breathing the words. She knew that Buffy would be able to hear. "Be nice, Buffy, please," Vi pleaded. "It's just for tonight. And I think you need to talk to him. Besides, he's in charge here, and he could cause… problems."
"Is this the fairness you were talking about?" Buffy retorted.
"I didn't say that he wears fluffy bunny slippers," Vi hissed under her breath. "He's a fair and reasonable yet extremely powerful vampire."
"Please," Buffy scoffed under her breath. "At the end of the day, they all still fit into an ashtray."
Vi frowned. "Uh, actually, we don't," she said, practically mouthing the words as she didn't even want a fly to overhear their conversation.
"Really? No *poof*?" Buffy asked, looking at her friend with unabashed interest.
Vi shook her head. "No, we turn into a pile of pulpy flesh, so it's more of a… slurp," she explained quietly.
Buffy wrinkled her nose. "Okay, thanks for the gross visual," she said dryly.
She hesitated for a moment; what on earth could the Sheriff want to say to her? As far as she was concerned, they were done. Finally, her curiosity got the better of her.
With a huff, she relented. "Oh, all right. Are you coming?"
"Uh, I don't think I'm invited," Vi said cautiously.
Buffy contemplated dragging her friend along anyway just to annoy the Sheriff, but she ultimately decided against it. Whether she liked it or not, this was Vi's home now, and after she left, Vi would still have to live there.
She casually strolled over toward the 'throne', showing no haste in her steps. When she came within a few paces, she stopped and gazed at him expectantly.
Then Buffy bit back a laugh. She was so having a déjà vu moment; at least this time she knew the score. At least she thought she did. That was when his eyes met hers.
The air crackled with electricity. Buffy fervently hoped that it was a side effect of his blood, because the alternative did not make her happy. Besides, electricity would be so cool. She could totally work that. Of course, she would have to learn the past tense of 'smite'.
She couldn't help but grin as she imagined herself summoning lightning bolts. The grin faded, however, when she noticed that the Sheriff was still staring at her, and her expression turned into a grimace when she felt her body react to his intense look. The possibility of commanding lightning seemed less likely by the moment.
She looked at him sternly. "More talking, less gawking," she ordered, folding her arms across her chest in a move that was both defensive and self-conscious.
"Maybe we should take this somewhere more private?" Eric suggested, inclining his head toward the bar's back door, which she now knew led to his office.
Buffy laughed in disbelief. "You have serious control issues. You know that, right?" she said dryly.
He looked at her in silence, his face betraying nothing. And yet, she knew he was slightly amused. She blushed when she also discovered that he was feeling a little frisky. How did she know this?
She could feel his emotions.
A knot of dread formed in Buffy's stomach as she finally realized what he had been trying to tell her the previous night. The Sheriff wasn't trying to manipulate her into a blood bond. He already had one with her, the second she swallowed his blood. Hopefully it didn't mean that there had to be actual – gulp - bonding, though by the emotions flying through the air she wasn't so sure. She needed to get to the bottom of this now.
Before she could say another word, however, she heard something else that stopped her cold.
Buffy Summers?
It was no more than a whisper across the room, but she could hear it. Okay, there were definitely perks to swallowing the Sheriff's blood.
Buffy whipped around to find the owner of that voice. Her eyes locked on a startlingly familiar face near the front entrance.
Alastair Davies. Only he wasn't.
Buffy automatically began moving toward him. That's when he ran.
Bursting out of Fangtasia, Buffy took a quick look around. Alastair Davies – or Collins, as she knew him – was no where in sight.
"Sonofabitch," she muttered under her breath.
Still, she wasn't going to give up, not when she was so close. She raced down the street and found to her delight that she was moving faster than usual. Not vampire speed, but faster than she had ever run before. She couldn't help but smile as she put on another burst of speed.
"Over here."
Buffy immediately changed direction and headed toward the voice. To Buffy's surprise, she saw Pam standing in the shadows of the Fangtasia parking lot, restraining the runaway Watcher with one hand and covering his mouth with the other.
Buffy raised her eyebrows. "What- How did you know-"
"I didn't," Pam sniffed. "But a human running out of a vampire bar? Not the brightest idea. But then, he is just human."
By this time, Eric and Vi had joined them.
"How does he know who you are?" Eric immediately demanded.
"He, uh, works for my old employer," Buffy replied. She noticed the way Vi's eyes widened in surprise.
Eric frowned. "He's also been in the Fellowship church recently," he said flatly. "I'd recognize that stench anywhere."
To Buffy's dismay, she heard three sets of fangs extend as Pam's grip tightened. Collins was somehow affiliated with the Fellowship? Okay, so it wasn't exactly an earth-shattering move on the Council's part, but it made the current situation a lot more complicated. After all, even Vi was pissed off by this news.
"I need to talk to him," Buffy said firmly.
"What a coincidence," Eric said with a faint smile. "So do we."
This was not what Buffy wanted to hear. Getting information out of Collins would be hard enough without three vampires looming over them. Yet she was reluctant to take more drastic measures until she found out more about this blood bond thing. For all she knew, if anything happened to the Sheriff, something bad would happen to her as well.
"Can we take this somewhere more private?" Pam requested primly. "Some place where I don't actually have to be touching this filth?"
Eric nodded. "My office," he said.
To Buffy's chagrin, all three vampires and their unwilling captive began heading in that direction without another word. What really annoyed her, though, was the fact that it was the most logical place to go. With a sigh, she fell in step with them.
As soon as they entered Eric's office, Pam tossed Collins into a chair like he was a rag doll. Collins, for his part, tried to regain his composure. He looked up at his captors hatefully but said nothing.
Buffy stepped forward until she was right in front of him, partly because she wanted to take the lead and partly because she wanted to put herself in between him and the angry vamps. As much as she disliked the man – and she was talking dislike on an epic scale here – she wasn't going to let them touch him.
To her surprise and delight, no one objected. It was at that moment that she realized that the Sheriff wanted something from her. He wanted to stay on her good side, so much so that he was relinquishing power over the situation. She could feel it.
Things were starting to look up. She turned toward the elusive 'Mr. Davies'.
"Why did you run?" she asked.
Collins gave a snort of disbelief. "What else was I supposed to do when I saw the Slayer chatting with the local vampires?"
Ouch. Good point. "We're on the same side here," Buffy said slowly.
"Is that so?" he said scornfully, casting a disparaging glance at the vampires behind her. "Look at you. You're already in league with vampires again. Are you shagging them this time, too?"
Normally, she wouldn't be above knocking Collins around for this, but not in this crowd. Sometimes taking the higher ground really sucked.
Firmly ignoring the two sets of curious eyes on her back, she appraised Collins coolly. "No, I'm probably just the only thing that's standing in the way from them killing you," she said evenly.
Then she sighed and rubbed a hand over her face. This was no time to play who had the bigger stake; not when the girls were at risk.
"It doesn't have to be this way, you know," she said quietly.
Collins eyed her. "You've lost the cooperation of the Council. And even if you hadn't, you can be damned sure I wouldn't talk about our missions in front of vampires," he sneered.
Though Buffy hated to admit it, he had another good point. What was the world coming to? "These vamps aren't involved," she began.
"Oh no?" Collins cut in, swinging his gaze swung toward Vi. "Look at that."
Buffy narrowed her eyes at the disgust with which he said this.
"Is this really necessary?" Pam asked loudly. "Can't we just use the glamour on him and be done with it?"
"No," Buffy said sharply. She didn't know what effect it had on humans and she wasn't about to learn through trial and error.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Collins give an almost imperceptible sigh of relief. She narrowed her eyes. It could've just been that he didn't want to be under vampire mind control. Who did? More likely, however, he had information that he didn't want to share. The question was, with whom? The vamps? Or her?
She chose her next words very carefully. "You know I can help find the Potentials."
Collins threw his head back and laughed. "That's rich. Haven't you made enough of a mockery of the Calling? We know you dumped the girls, the instant you were done using them and your friends as foot soldiers. Leave the Potentials to us, and you can go back to your little self-involved world."
Buffy could hear Vi growling behind her. She was too busy letting her fist fly toward Collins' head to really be concerned, though; so much for the higher ground. She connected solidly, and before she knew it, he was knocked out cold.
She hadn't meant to, but in her anger she forgot she still had a little extra oomph. But hey, he still had his arms, so as far as she was concerned this little encounter was a success.
She stood back on her heels and studied Collins' prone form. He knew something. Short of beating him to a bloody pulp – which was sure to go over swimmingly in a room of angry vamps – she was running out of options. Collins was many things, but a snitch definitely wasn't one of them. She knew his type; he was trained for this. He would die before telling any secrets.
Feeling her hesitation, Eric stepped toward her. "There may be another way," he offered. "Something all parties could agree to?"
Pam, who knew him better than anyone, immediately caught on. "Sookie?" she guessed.
"Sookie," Eric confirmed.
"Huh? What's a 'sookie'?" Buffy asked, thoroughly confused. At first she thought it was some vampire thing, but one glance at Vi's equally bewildered look told her that it probably wasn't.
"Sookie is a person, not a 'what'," Eric explained patiently. "And she happens to be a telepath, a very good one at that."
Buffy couldn't help but laugh. "Really? Sookie?"
Vi couldn't resist. "What was that, Buffy?" she jibed. "You sound like two little Pomeranians or something."
"I love it!" Pam grinned. Then she pouted. "If only they didn't have such a terrible taste."
Buffy just stared at Pam, unsure if she was serious or not. The thought that she might be the namesake for a Pomeranian-shaped vampire snack was disturbing on so many different levels. Then she shook her head; there were more important things at stake here.
Did she have reservations about this 'plan'? Of course she did. Did she totally trust Eric? That was a big, fat no. Was there a chance that Collins' mind - or hers, for that matter - would let out more information about Slayers than was appropriate for vampires' ears? Yep. Did she want information from Collins about the Potentials more than all these misgivings? Definitely.
And of course she didn't forget that something had changed between her and the Fangtasia vamps. She had the power now, at least until she figured out what the Sheriff wanted from her or he decided that she wasn't worth it. Still, Buffy wasn't completely sold on the idea.
"Is she human?" she asked. At Eric's nod, she pursed her lips in thought. Then she gave him a crooked smile. "Does she like you?"
Eric's hesitation was all the answer Buffy needed. Well, that and the uneasy feeling he was projecting toward her.
"Get this Sookie," she said. "I want to meet with her first, though. And when she's reading Collins' mind, I get to ask the questions."
Eric pulled out his cellphone and dialed. Everyone else fell silent as he began speaking.
"Bill," he said curtly. "We need Sookie's services for a few hours."
Thanks to her supercharged hearing, Buffy could hear 'Bill' say that he didn't know where she was and that even if he did, she was still too injured to make the trip.
Eric smiled. "You mean you aren't aware of her whereabouts at all times?" he taunted. "I'll have to remember that."
Buffy rolled her eyes. Did he ever stop? To her surprise, she saw her expression echoed in Pam's face. The two shared a look of exasperation. Were they having a moment?
Swallowing her smile, Buffy turned back to Eric, whose delight at tormenting Bill was almost palatable to her. Bill, for his part, was very protective of Sookie. And he did not want Eric around her. She liked him already.
"Fine," Eric sighed. "Then we shall come to you. Expect us there in an hour."
Bill made some comment about meeting them at some local restaurant. From the sound of it, it was a humanrestaurant. That was weird. Maybe this Bill wasn't a vampire. And if this Bon Temps was as rural and non-vampy as it sounded, going there wouldn't be a bad thing, especially if she had to make a quick escape with her Council frenemy here. This plan was sounding better and better by the moment.
Eric smirked and hung up. "We must travel to Bon Temps," he announced. "Sookie is still not feeling well enough for travel."
The fact that he actually cared about this piqued Buffy's curiosity - and it made her slightly suspicious.
"How do I know this isn't a trap?" she asked matter-of-factly, though she really didn't think this was the case. Still, it needed to be said.
Pam burst out into peals of laughter at the mental image of the residents of Bon Temps trying to set a trap. "I like your sense of humor," she said with a smile.
Oddly, this was reassuring to Buffy. Still, she looked toward Eric.
"Which part?" he asked. "When this human recognized you and ran? Or when you refused to let us use the glamour on him? Or when my own subject refused to do my bidding and come here because Sookie is injured?"
"Alright, alright," Buffy said crossly, not sensing anything amiss except his own annoyance at this Bill. "Road trip."
Eric gave her a small smile. "We'll take my car," he said.
Maybe it was because it had been a long couple of days; maybe it was because she wanted to assert her dominance. Or maybe it was simply because it had been a long time since she had been able to mess with someone.
Whatever the reason, Buffy found herself holding her hand out for the car keys expectantly.
"Fine, but I'm driving."
