The Slayer and I didn't say anything as we descended the stairs to the access tunnel. Not even to discuss Angel. It was clear to me she felt…something for him. Her heart was beating faster than it had before, and I didn't think it was because of the potential danger we were walking into.

The new situation with Angel bothered me. For a vampire, there was something off about him, but I could not come up with a feasible resolution. There was something in his eyes which I hadn't seen in a vampire's eyes before.

And that name…Angel…why on earth was it stirring some dusty thing in my memory?

As we reached the end of the stairs and started down the tunnel, all thoughts of Angel were pushed aside when I caught a whiff of…

"Xander." I groaned, stopping short.

The Slayer turned to be with wide eyes.

"What?" she demanded.

"Xander," I continued, addressing the darkness stretching out behind us, "come out at once. I can smell you perfectly clearly."

There was a pause, then a sigh, and then Xander shuffled into view. He looked a bit sheepish, but proud as well. Proud and determined. I crossed my arms, and I heard Buffy echo my earlier groan as she rubbed her forehead in frustration.

"Xander, what are you doing here?" Buffy asked.

"Something stupid." He answered promptly, "I followed you."

"Even after we all said not to?" I said. I frowned at him and clicked my tongue. "You've been misbehaving, Xander."

"I couldn't just sit at home and do nothing." Xander argued. He knew he would get nowhere with me so he turned his gaze to Buffy. Somehow, all boys are capable of doing something with their eyes that makes them looks so pathetic and endearing. I believe you call it a 'puppy-dog eyed' look, or something similar to that.

I must admit it's fairly accurate, and it was what Xander was doing.

To my dismay, Buffy seemed to yield.

"I understand." She said, "Now go away." She added. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"No." Xander snapped.

"Xander, you're gonna have to."

"Look, Jesse's my bud. If I can help him out then that's what I gotta do."

There was a long moment of silence, and I knew the Slayer was backing down. I would have put my foot down and insist he take his leave, but with Angel lurking up above us, doing…whatever it was he was doing, and vampires in the crypts…I admit I didn't want him going off alone. Odds were he'd give us a head start and then come after us later, and end up getting killed.

Not to mention trying to usurp the Slayer's position of authority was definitely not the way to win her affection.

The Slayer and I looked at each other.

"Fine." We both said, then I turned back to Xander: "But from here on, you must obey. If we tell you to fight, fight, if we tell you to run, there's to be no arguing, you simply run. Understand?"

He nodded, a happy grin spreading across his face.

We turned and started down the tunnel again, this time with Xander right behind us.

"Besides," he said as we started down, "it's this or…chem class."

The tunnel evidently made Xander nervous. He wouldn't stop prattling the whole time. I let him, since he prattled quietly, but I have to admit more than a few times the Essence stirred inside with anger and annoyance.

Rip that throat out. I need silence.

'You know I won't.'

Doesn't mean you don't want to.

'Be quiet.'

We're both hungry…we know how upset we can get when we're hungry…just a quick nip?

'No! Now be quiet. You're distracting me even more than he is.'

There was finally a blessed pause in Xander's sudden attack of verbiage, but it didn't last long.

"Okay," he said, "so, crosses, garlic, stick to the heart." He was talking mostly to himself I realized. Buffy answered anyway.

"That'll get it done." Buffy said.

"Sunlight, too." I added. "Not that there'll be an opportunity to use it down here, however."

"Cool." Xander said, "Of course I don't actually have any of those things."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

"Well, I'm so glad you thought this venture out before deciding on such a reckless course of action. Otherwise one might say you were being foolhardy."

I felt Xander glare at my back.

Buffy sighed and handed him something. I glanced back and saw it was a cross.

The Essence growled and recoiled.

Stings. It hissed.

I smirked.

'Getting nervous?'

It stings you too, wench.

"Well, the part of my brain that would tell me to bring that stuff is still busy telling me not to come down here." Xander explained. "I have this though."

A sudden stab of light pierced through the darkness, and even though it was behind me, my eyes still felt seared and I gave a gasp of pain.

"Turn that off!" Buffy and I both snapped at him. He fumbled with his torch before switching it off. I had to stop to let my eyes readjust from the attack of light. Like I said, having advanced eyesight also means having rather sensitive eyesight.

"Sorry!" Xander whispered. "So what else?" he asked.

"What else what?" Buffy asked as we started moving again.

"For vampire slayage?" he answered.

"I'm not sure that's a word." I muttered.

"Oh…fire, beheading, sunlight, holy water, the usual." Buffy answered.

"You've done some beheading in your time?" Xander asked. I could hear him turning green again.

"Oh yeah," the Slayer answered, "there was this time I was pinned down by this guy that played left-tackle for varsity-well, at least he used to before he was a vampire. Anyway, he had this really, really thick neck and all I had was this little exact-o knife-"

Xander made a shuddering, weak laughing sound.

The poor lad. As annoying as he could be, he was so new to this. It was easy to forget. I made a note to not tell my story about my time in France during the revolution. Now that was beheading. I hadn't stayed long. The smell of blood permanently in the air had all but sent me into a frenzy.

A few months in Serbia will cure that, though, as it turns out.

"You're…not loving this story." Buffy guessed.

"No actually, I find it oddly comforting." Xander answered.

'As long as he's not the one having to do it.' I thought.

Because he's weak.

'Because he's young.'

Same thing.

'We were young once…were we weak?'

We were different.

'As Mother reminded us every day.'

Buffy took Xander's answer in silence, and then turned and started back down the tunnel. We had only gone a few steps when I felt something bump into my hand, sending a hot flash up my hand and to my shoulder. I jerked my hand away and whirled around.

Xander lifted the cross defensively.

"Just seeing if it worked!" he said.

"You…attacked me with that?" I demanded.

"I didn't think it would kill you…I was just…experimenting."

I shook my hand, shaking out the burning sensation.

"Well. It works. Satisfied?"

Xander nodded, swallowing.

Fantastic. Now I had gone from being a monster to being something to experiment upon. At least it showed they were becoming less afraid of me…I suppose. I just wish Xander had found a less painful way to show it.

We hadn't traveled much further one when the familiar stench drifted to me.

"We're close." I said, and to my surprise, the Slayer said it at the same time. Xander looked sharply at us, and I heard his heart skitter.

"How can you tell?" he asked.

"No more rats." The Slayer answered. Huh. I hadn't even noticed the rats, but she was right. The air felt more pensive as we continued, and then I spotted a body lying in the way and stopped short. I pointed.

"There." I said. The smell of decay was stronger now, but there was a familiar scent mixed with it, coming from the figure on the floor. Before Xander had a chance to turn on his torch, I had it placed in my mind.

"Jesse." I said. And so it was.

He was smeared with dirt, and looked paler than before, and he was lying face down on the floor. Xander yelled his name and rushed to him, as did Buffy. I hung back, something not quite feeling right about this.

Danger

The Essence was hissing and I felt myself tensing up.

Jesse bounded to his feet when they got close, raising a pipe over his head.

"Jesse!" Xander barked, and Jesse hesitated.

"Xander." He said in relief, embracing his friend. Something about him being that close to Xander made me step forward.

"Be careful." I said. Buffy turned to me, frowning.

"What's wrong?" she asked. I stared hard at Jesse.

"Not sure." I answered.

"Are you okay?" Xander asked, ignoring me.

"I am not okay on an epic scale." Jesse said, "We've gotta get out of here."

"It's cool, Buffy's a superhero and Margery's a half-vamp." Xander said cheerfully. Jesse locked eyes with me, a confused look in his eyes…and something else lurking behind them…something familiar.

Kin

'What?'

Buffy was kneeling in front of Jesse, looking at a chain around his ankle.

"Hold on." She said. She broke it with the pipe Jesse had been using, and it felt off with a loud clank.

'What kin?'

In his eyes

Then it hit me.

"Think anyone heard that?" Xander asked.

"Xander," I said, pulling Buffy to her feet and pulling Xander away from Jesse, "come away."

"What?" He asked. Jesse's eyes hardened and his mouth twitched.

"He's changed." I said. I realized what it was that had bothered me so much about him now.

"No heartbeat." I continued. Buffy gaped, Xander's mouth dropped open and he looked at Jesse, hoping to hear a rebuttal, but Jesse's face contorted and changed. A shadow moved out of the corner of my eye, and I realized this had been a trap all along.

"Run!" The Slayer shouted, seeing the shadow at the same time. She darted past me as I grabbed Xander by the wrist and a jerked him along with me as we all turned and fled in the opposite direction.

We had to alter course a few times, thanks to vampires being everywhere, including right behind us. We became completely disoriented, but eventually the Slayer spotted a room off to the side of the tunnel and darted into it.

I followed her lead, hurling Xander in the room ahead of me.

"Help me!" Buffy shouted. She was wrestling with the heavy iron door, so I grabbed hold of it, and together we slammed it shut just as Jesse lunged for us with a growl. I heard him yelp in pain as he connected with the metal door, and we leaned against it even after Buffy locked it.

"Oh man," Xander said, pacing back and forth, "Oh man, oh man. Jesse…Jesse's-"

"Gone." I said with a grunt as a body slammed into the door again.

"Isn't there…I don't know, a cure or something?" he asked. Buffy and I both shook our heads.

"Xander, you can't think of him as Jesse now." I told him, "He's not there anymore. Jesse's dead. There's a demon in his body, nothing more. He's not your friend."

"We need to get out of here." Buffy said.

"There is no 'out of here'." Xander answered.

I looked around wildly, feeling like a trapped animal.

"Up there!" Xander shouted, spotting the vent in the ceiling at the same time as I did.

"Help me with it!" Buffy shouted, springing up to the vent, I followed suit and we each grabbed hold of the vent and yanked as hard as we could. The vent groaned in protest, then finally yielded and fell to the floor with a loud clatter.

The door started shrieking as the metal began to bend. The vampires were breaking through.

"Go!" Buffy shouted. I offered a hand to Xander, he grabbed it and I all but threw him up the vent. Buffy shoved me up next, and Xander and I pulled Buffy up after us.

We ended up in an air vent, and began crawling as fast as we could. The crash of the door below us and the snarls that closed in on our heels let us know our pursuers were right behind us. Xander, the one in front, gave a shout when he came upon a ladder.

"Go!" I yelled at him. We couldn't fight in such close quarters. Our only hope was up that ladder.

Xander zipped up the ladder in no time at all and pushed open the hatch. I winced and closed my eyes as sunlight hit me full in the face. It was an uncomfortable feeling, but one I could handle. I grasped the ladder and clamored up, with Buffy right behind me.

As soon as I hit outside, I yanked my hood up, then reached down and pulled Buffy out with one arm. Just before she was in the clear, a hand reached up and grabbed her ankle. She let out a cry of surprise and I wrapped a free arm around her waist when I felt the force of the pull.

Xander slammed his foot into the hand, loosening the grip, but what really did the trick was when sunlight lit on the vampire's flesh.

A crackling sound filled the air, and the scent of charred flesh filled the air as the vampire growled in pain and pulled his hand away. We both fell back, with the Slayer landing on top of me, while Xander hurriedly kicked the manhole cover back in place.

We lay there, the Slayer panting while I struggled to my feet. Xander was panting too, and trembling ever so slightly. I looked around at us, covered in dust and dirt…and without Jesse. I sighed and slid my hands into my pockets, protecting them from the sun.

"Well…" I said, "that did not go as planned."

Xander shook his head.

"No it didn't." he answered, then swallowed. "Jesse…I just can't believe it."

I swallowed as well and stepped towards him. I pulled hand back out and put it on his shoulder.

"Fret not." I told him, giving his shoulder a squeeze. He looked up at me from beneath his black bangs, his eyes sad and…horribly empty.

"We will take our vengeance." I assured him. "And you will have yours."