A/N: Small notice; I may move my posting schedule from Saturday to Sunday; I've noticed I tend to get a lot of errands done on Saturday and I end up feeling a little rushed to try and get another chapter posted, so I might start posting on Sunday.
Beth frowned at the chess board, trying to figure out her next move. She placed her hand on a chess piece, earning herself a skeptical look from the young girl across the table. She moved the pieces across the board and the girl's eyebrows went even higher.
"Are you sure?" Anya asked dubiously.
"What, why?" Beth inquired, studying the board.
"No, if you don't know, I'm not going to tell you," she responded cheekily.
"Fine then," Beth harrumphed, letting go of the piece.
Anya acted quickly, moving her chess piece to the spot Beth's had just vacated, calling, "Check."
"What!" she exclaimed, trying to figure out how she missed that.
"I thought you said you were good a chess," Anya recalled.
She scowled at the board. "Yes, relatively."
"Relatively to whom?" Anya asked.
Her scowl deepened. "Your dad."
Anya hummed in understanding. "That doesn't really mean much, Beth. He's not very good at chess."
"I'm coming to realize that, yes," she muttered, studying the board. "You sure didn't get your chess playing skills from him."
"And she didn't get them from me either," Dawn stated from the couch, her eyes trained on the TV. It was some Christmas special featuring some famous, attractive singer or another, Beth couldn't really remember. Her own mother was just as engrossed, even though the special only had lame jokes and singing. Wasn't that what the Christmas albums were for?
"How are you so good at this?" Beth hissed, almost afraid to move a piece. Anya watched her with wide eyes, waiting to strike. The girl only looked innocent with her hair pinned back with a cute red and green bow. It was lies though, all lies.
"Can you move your next piece? I already know what I want to do," Anya asked.
"Dad!" she called out. He was British. Didn't all British people play chess? It was a British thing, right? Especially of high society?
"He's out back with your uncle drinking beer and setting up the Christmas lights," her mom told her. "He can't help you anyway. He doesn't have the patience for those types of games. Trust me."
"Isn't that dangerous?" she questioned. "Beer and putting up lights? Aren't they using a ladder for that?"
Dawn and Buffy exchanged looks, long since having been resigned to their husbands' own stupidity. "It's a good thing 9-1-1 is easy to press," Dawn said by way of explanation.
"Daddy's used to falling off of ladders anyway," Anya commented. Beth looked over at her cousin, looking calm despite her words. Even Dawn didn't seem to be upset over that. What exactly went on at their house?
"Maybe someone not drunk should spot them," Beth suggested.
"Are you offering to go out in the snow?" Buffy replied.
"Ugh," she groaned, turning back to the chess board. She picked up a piece at random and moved it to another spot.
"You can't move that piece like that," Anya stated.
"Alright, fine, you rule stickler," she grumbled, moving it somewhere else.
"Are you sure about that?"
"Yes," she breathed, looking heavenward.
"Alright, I just wanted to make sure," Anya replied. "Checkmate."
"Cool. I lost. How long was this game?"
"Twelve minutes," Anya answered. "You're bad at chess. Can we play something else?"
"Beth!" Xander called out from the kitchen, disrupting the entire atmosphere of the house. "We could use your help out here."
"We don' need any bloody help!" was Spike's muffled response. He sounded in pain though, so no one doubted he was lying.
"Alright," she responded, standing up. "Let me get my coat on."
"Can't you just become a vampire and not worry about a coat?" Anya remembered, nose scrunching up.
"I can, but then it'll take me a million years to warm back up," she responded.
Anya frowned. "That sounds dramatic, but alright. Can I come with you?"
"Sure," she said, grabbing her coats and boots. Anya followed suit, quickly pulling on her fluffy purple jacket.
'Shut the door, Xander!" Dawn shrieked when a cold breeze blew through the house.
"Oh—right! Sorry honey!" The back door slammed shut, hard enough to make the doorframe rattle.
Finally prepared, Beth and Anya went out the front door, walking around to the back, lest they wear their boots through the house and face Buffy's wrath. Beth lifted the latch on the back gate, letting Anya through. Around the corner of the house, Xander was back up on the ladder with Spike holding it below. There was an empty six-pack ring on the porch, and a few empty cans as well. Beth knew her own father had quite the tolerance for alcohol and she assumed Xander wasn't a lightweight either, but even she knew this wasn't a good idea.
"Said we didn' need the help," Spike grumbled.
"Need someone to hold the ladder steadier?" Beth asked, steady gaze on her dad.
He snorted. "Very funny, Lizzie. 'M not drunk."
"No, but I'd say you're looking a little buzzed," she commented. "What do you need me to do?"
"Can you feed me the string of lights?" Xander asked, pointing at the ball of white lights barely visible against the snow.
She walked around the ladder, picking them up and handing the corded end to Xander. "Uh no," he said when he grabbed it. "We need the end with prongs."
She sighed, unraveling the lights to get the pronged end. "Who wrapped them up this way?" she asked, annoyed. Anya helped her by grabbing the other end and looping it around her arm. She spared a look at her father, who hadn't said anything in response, but instead chose to look very interested in keeping the ladder still for Xander.
"Here," Beth grunted, having finally unrolled it enough to get to the other end.
"Can I go build a snowman?" Anya asked.
"Sure," Beth told her.
"But not in the front yard," Xander added quickly.
"I'm not going to run out into the street," his daughter replied in a huff, crossing her arms over her chest. Spike made a sound of amusement at her posture.
"Lil Niblet, innit she?" he commented.
"I know you won't honey, but I'd like you where someone can watch you and I know mommy's too busy with your auntie Buffy to watch you," Xander explained calmly, like he wasn't talking to a child completely dependent upon him and absolutely under his rule.
"No she's not," Anya argued. "They're watching TV."
"And if you can get your mother away from it, you would be a savior to us all," he told her. "You can build a snowman back here."
"But then no one will see it!" Anya whined.
"We'll see it," Beth promised. "It'll be our own snowman and we'll only let special people see it."
Anya regarded Beth with a frown on her face, still unhappy with her father's ruling. "Fine," she said at last with a little sigh. "I'll make one out here." She handed the lights to Beth before stomping through the snow toward the farthest corner of the yard.
"You were the same, you know," Spike told Beth, jerking his head over at Anya, who was angrily packing snow together to make the base.
"Remember when she threw the hissy fit because you wouldn't let her play in the yard where the Watchers kept those squirrel-looking demons?" Xander reminisced, chuckling. "Thank God I didn't raise Anya in the academy. She wouldn't know how to leave anything alone."
"I had good reason to be like that," Beth countered indignantly. "You and Mum wouldn't let me go so much as down the hall from you where we lived in the Slayer Academy. There's no place in the world I could be safer, except maybe where they'll put the president in case of a zombie apocalypse."
"You were a little trouble maker," her father reminded her. "Got your hands into every little thing you saw. An' then you'd go an' cry 'bout it when we wouldn't let you play with it."
"When I was maybe two," she grumbled. "Anya's ten."
"You were worse then, because you wanted to be jus' like all the slayers," Spike remembered. "Your mum couldn't get you to keep your mitts out of her weapon's chest."
"Because you taught me how to pick a lock," she reminded him.
"You taught a ten-year-old to pick a lock?" Xander inquired. "Wouldn't that—I dunno—lead to problems with the, eh, uh, bedroom?"
"Xander!" Spike barked.
"Ew!" she squealed. "Don't be gross!"
"What?" Anya called, realizing she had missed something.
"Nothing, your daddy's just being gross," Beth replied.
"Oh," was Anya's soft, understanding reply. She went back to her snowman, no longer caring.
"She took that rather easily," Beth noted. "Uncle Xander, what do you say back at your home?"
"Oh, like your dad's any better," he grumbled. "Anya's a quiet, sneaky one anyway. Sometimes I don't even know she's there."
Poor kid, probably scarred for life. Of course, Beth's parents weren't that much better (wasn't she supposed to be the hormonal teenager around here?), and look how she turned out! Alright, okay, maybe not the best example, but she was relatively well-adjusted, say, in comparison to complete shut-ins and the socially inept.
"My dad is nothing you ever want to come close to," Beth told him, ignoring Spike's, "oi!" of protest.
"Sorry, Spike, can't help you there. She's right," Xander agreed. "I remember Sunnydale. Oh, boy, do I remember."
"You don' remember bollocks," he protested. "You din't know anythin' until after."
"I wasn't talking about the actual act," Xander corrected. "I was talking about the Buffybo—"
"Shut your gob!" he barked, shooting a frantic look at Beth. She rolled her eyes. Oh, what stories she wasn't allowed to hear. Considering what she already knew, she wondered just how bad this one was.
"Can you save this conversation for when I'm not around?" she pleaded. "I don't want to hear about the 'good ole' days' in this context."
"Wouldn' call it that," Spike murmured under his breath.
"We can argue semantics later, I don't actually want to hear what sort of depraved things went down in that crater," she responded. "I've already heard enough to keep my future therapist in business for years to come."
"You messed up your kid, Spike," Xander announced.
"She's not messed up," he argued. "She's fine."
"Yeah, heard you got a boyfriend," Xander commented, making Spike growl. He smiled. He always liked to get a rise out of the old ex-vampire.
"I did," Beth replied. "His name is Jacob. He's taking over a company."
Her uncle let out a low whistle. "Woof," he said. "At least it's not a vampire, right Spike?"
He only growled in response.
"Dad doesn't like him," Beth explained.
"I know," Xander told her. "He's been complaining about it all day. What ever happened to that other one? The Kalderash kid? Your dad didn't like him either."
"Zack? We never dated," Beth stated awkwardly. "We were only ever friends."
"Really? Not the way you made it sound, Spike," he chuckled. "From the way you talked about him, I was certain he was going to drop down on one knee."
"Wait until it's Anya comin' home with a boy!" Spike cut in.
"I've still got a couple years to prepare for that," Xander replied. "You though, you're doing it now. Beth, he get you a Christmas gift? He's only got a few more days."
She nodded. "He did. A necklace. It's pretty."
Xander chuckled. "You sound over the moon about it."
She shrugged. "I don't care much for jewelry. Besides, how could I wear it when I'm slaying? Either it'd get caught on something or some demon would use it against me. A necklace isn't very practical."
"Give it back then," her father suggested, though it sounded more like a demand. Knowing her father, it likely was.
"No, it's pretty, and that'd be rude," she told him. "I already took it, so I might as well keep it. I can wear it when I'm not slaying."
"Sorry, Spike, you don't win this one," Xander chuckled. "You're the only one on that island."
"Even Angel's on their side," he grumped. "Bloody Peaches."
"He also thinks I need to live a normal teenage life," Beth stated, rolling her eyes. People thought she was obsessed with living a normal life? It seemed like everyone else was too! Did they forget she was a slayer? And half-vampire? Did she need to remind them again, maybe engage in some vampire-y behavior? Scare a few nuns or something?
"He would say that," Xander mumbled. While Spike and Xander had come along way, long enough to be drinking buddies at the least, whatever tear there was between Xander and Angel didn't seem to have shrunk in the same manner. While Xander was never openly hostile or even cold toward Angel, he sure didn't miss the opportunity to make a few jabs at the old guy. Then again, Angel and Spike had cleaned up their relationship rather nicely, and Spike still taunted him at every chance he got.
"It seemed to be the part that really sold him on the guy," she sighed. Angel hadn't even seen a photo of the guy, but his exclamation of a "real boy?" was all she needed to know that he was for it a 110%. As her de facto uncle, shouldn't he have cared if she was—dunno—happy?
She looked over her dad, who had descended into a sour mood on such a happy holiday. Even though she and Jacob were now "official," he still loathed the boy something terrible. It was too much to expect him to be a cheerleader on team "Beth's Normal Relationship," but even begrudging acceptance of reality would have been nice. He still wanted her to be the little girl who thought boys were "yucky" (especially Jackie, when Buffy and Willow would make comments about how maybe they'd grow up and get married. Ew.). Beth sighed inwardly. Didn't anyone care about how she felt?
-.-
"And then he swore he wasn't drunk, but he nearly took the tree down with all his stumbling. I thought my aunt Dawn was going to take it out on him for being so irresponsible for getting absolutely sloshed the day before their plane trip home, but then Anya cut her off at the pass and started shrieking at him, saying something about how he was ruining the holidays for her and couldn't he just behave for once?"
Nadja burst out into laughter. "You're kidding me, right? His ten-year-old daughter started lecturing him on his behavior?"
"She was like an old house wife in her robe with curlers," Beth giggled. "My uncle looked so chastened. And then my dad—who wasn't three sheets to the wind just yet, but getting there—was laughing, thinking the whole thing was so funny, a little girl yelling at her father like that, and then she turned on him and let loose. He was gobsmacked."
"Gosh, who raised that little girl?" Nadja asked, finishing stirring the cookie mix. She pulled two spoons out of a drawer, handing one to Beth and getting the cookies put down on the cookie sheet. They were in Nadja's fancy kitchen again, taking up an evening making cookies and watching movies. Zack was schedule to be arriving soon; he had spent the first half of his break off snowboarding with his new college friends in Colorado and then between him seeing some of his old high school friends and Beth's family being over, she hadn't had a chance to see him. It made her heart hurt, but she tried not to think about it too much. After all, he was starting a new part of his life and, well, she had to accept the reality that there might not be much room in his world for her. And that was okay. That was fine. What did she expect when he moved across the country?
"Oh, you're all frowny again," Nadja commented. "You're not supposed to be frowny. We're making cookies, and I even let Zack come and crash our party. You should be happy."
"Sorry, I don't mean to be in such a funk," she apologized. "I was just thinking about sad things."
"Does it have anything to do with the fact that Jacob cancelled your last date?" Nadja inquired, trying to sound uninterested and failing to do so entirely.
Beth blinked, realizing that was an entirely normal thing to expect, except that wasn't the reason at all, making Beth feel a little guilty. She'd been pretty nonplussed when Jacob had asked to reschedule, saying holiday plans had gotten in the way. She'd been understanding and accepting, but it also meant it put more time between when she'd see him again. Shouldn't that mean she should miss him like crazy?
"No, I already saw him before Christmas," she decided. "I want to spend time with you anyway."
"Have you told Zack about your new boyfriend yet?" Nadja asked with raised eyebrows.
She shifted uncomfortably. "No," she admitted. "It hasn't come up."
"You told him about Daniel."
"Daniel's my friend," she pointed out.
"And Jacob's your boyfriend," Nadja retorted, drawing out the last word unnecessarily long. "I feel like that takes precedence. How come you haven't mentioned it to him? I thought you two had obnoxiously long gab sessions when you called him. You can't tell me it's never come up."
"It doesn't," she insisted. "We talk about other things. School, slaying, not dating."
Nadja narrowed her eyes at her. "Why, afraid he'd react poorly?"
"No, of course not," she admonished. "Why would he react poorly? He's my friend. He should be happy for me, although, you don't seem too thrilled. Are you upset I got a boyfriend?"
"No," Nadja denied, "and I already decided I'm not going to harp on you about my opinions. But don't you think it's weird that you haven't told Zack?"
"What do you expect me to tell him? 'Hey, I've got this guy I'm seeing and that I do other stuff with?' That sounds stupid."
"Other stuff?" Nadja repeated derisively. "What are we, twelve? You mean kissing and making out. You don't have to tell him those things. But he is your boyfriend, Beth, and it seems odd to me that Zack, who is supposedly your friend, is being left in the dark here. Why not just tell him?"
"You know, for someone who claims they're not going to have an opinion on this anymore, you sure seem to be expressing yourself here," Beth rebutted.
"I'm just saying it seems odd—"
"I know what you're just saying," Beth interrupted angrily. "I know what everyone is 'just saying.' Everybody has something they want to say about me dating Jacob. I'm doing things how I want to do them! What does it matter if I do it my way?"
"Because I don't even know what your way is!" Nadja exploded, throwing up her hands. "You barely ever talk about Jacob, and only if I ask about him first. You're so blasé about getting your first boyfriend when you should be over the moon about it."
"And there you go again, having an opinion about how I act in my own relationship," she shouted angrily. "It's either the best thing or the worst thing for everybody. Can't I do what I want for once, without everyone having their own two cents about it?"
"But I don't think this is what you want," Nadja insisted.
"And how do you know that? Instead of anyone just taking what I say at face value, everyone is coming up with their own ideas! Angel likes it because it's normal, my mum's already getting wedding colors together, my dad thinks I'm being forced into this by her, and you, someone who is supposed to be my best friend, is telling me I'm not excited enough so I must not like him at all! How am I supposed to know how I feel when I keep having to deal with what everybody else expects?"
"You're in a relationship with him! You should already know what you feel," Nadja insisted. "And I know you, Beth. There's something else going on. I don't know what it is, because you won't tell me, and maybe you can't even tell yourself, but I know you're only trying to convince yourself this is what you want, like you're trying to fill in some gap."
"You don't know what I want!" she snapped. "I want this! There is no gap, there is no hole, I am not looking for poor reconstruction. I wanted a boyfriend, and I've got one. Stop acting like you know so much more than me!"
"If you think this is what you want, then you're really, really stupid," Nadja finished coldly.
The anger fizzled between them as they fell silent, and Beth became acutely aware that this was their first real fight. And over a boy, no less. How stereotypical of her. She felt her eyes burning and she looked away from Nadja, who was standing there with her jaw set and glassy eyes.
The sound of the back door opening broke through the silence, followed by Zack calling out, "Hey, sorry I'm late. Tim was a douche who stole my car keys." He walked into the kitchen, the smile falling off his face when he felt the tense atmosphere in the room. "Everything alright?"
"Everything's fine," Nadja snapped, throwing the spoon down on the counter. "Stop being nosy for once in your life! Beth, finish with the cookies. I'm going to go pick out a movie." Without another word, she stormed out of the kitchen, nearly taking him down in the process.
"Somebody's on warpath," he muttered, looking back over at Beth, who was mechanically putting cookies on the cookie sheet. "What's got her? Better yet, what's got the both of you?"
"We had a fight," she admitted, sniffing.
"No," he gasped. He actually looked shocked. "You guys don't fight."
"Well, we did," she affirmed. And not even over something good, like patrolling techniques or the best way to whip up butter. Instead, it was over Jacob, who really was starting to feel like he was more trouble than he was worth. While it made her mom and aunt happy, it put distance between her and her father, and now it'd made her have her first fight with Nadja. And looking at Zack, she had to wonder why she didn't just tell him like she did everyone else. But when he was here, it felt like things were back to normal, the way they were meant to be, and she didn't want Jacob's presence to ruin that.
"About what?" he asked, coming up the counter and sticking his finger in the cookie dough. She smacked his hand with the spoon and he let out a small yelp, but still came away with cookie dough. He immediately stuck his finger in his mouth, his eyes taunting her to do something about it.
She could tell him right now. Deal with whatever changes it brought about; maybe it'd cause a fight like it did with Nadja, or maybe he'd be happy for her. But she couldn't get her mouth to form the words; her chest ached to think it could even put more distance between them.
"Stupid stuff," she told him, looking away. Well, it wasn't a complete lie. It really was a stupid fight. Jacob felt almost peripheral to her life when she wasn't with him, like he was some sort of figment made up her. It wasn't like they ever accidentally ran into one another in public. Their interactions were all very planned out. When he wasn't around, he ceased to be.
"Stupid stuff huh?" he murmured. "But you guys will be okay, right?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. I've never fought with a friend before."
"Not even once?" he asked, astounded.
"I don't have many friends, Zack," she reminded him somewhat rudely.
"Oh yeah, right," he said, looking sheepish. "Sorry. Sometimes I forget that, you know? It's hard for me to imagine people not liking you."
"Well, start imagining it because it's true," she replied, finishing up the last of the cookies. She put them in the oven, setting the timer so they wouldn't burn. "If anything, it's easier for me to imagine that people don't like me than that people do."
"Sorry," he said again.
"Don't apologize," she told him. "You're one of the few people in the world who likes me when they don't have to."
"Because it's easy to like you," he insisted. "I really can't imagine how my life would be any better without you in it."
The sincerity in his eyes made something burn in her chest, way more than it ever did when Jacob looked at her. She felt an urge to say or do something, but she didn't know what. And she didn't have time to find out what it was before Nadja came back downstairs.
"I picked out a movie," she said, coming back into the kitchen. She looked to have cooled off a bit. She eyes skipped between Zack and Beth, a critical look in them. Her eyes lingered on her cousin, her gaze softening into concern.
"Zack," Nadja began. "Can you go find some blankets for us? My mom insists we keep the thermostat down to help the environment."
"Why do I have to do it?" he asked indignantly. "You're the one who lives here. And besides, you get to see Beth all the time and I don't, so—"
"Just do it," she snapped angrily, pushing him out. He glared at her, but stalked off to do as she requested. Beth could hear his heavy footfalls as he climbed the stairs.
"Look, I'm sorry for raising my voice at you early and trying to tell you how to feel," Nadja apologized. "I'm trying to see this from your perspective, but I can't, so I really need to back off. But I still think you should tell Zack. You tell him everything else in your life, so it sticks out that you're not telling him this. He deserves to know."
"It's a high school fling," Beth told her. "We've only been dating for a month. Zack's not even here most of the time, which is why he doesn't know. The only reason my Aunt Dawn and Uncle Xander know is because my dad complains about it when he's hanging out with my uncle."
She sighed. "Okay, you're right. It's only been a month and anything could happen. But if things start to get more serious—like long-term serious—you need to tell him. It's one thing if this blows over in a couple of months. It's another if you start planning to move in together after high school."
"I will," she promised. It was weird seeing Nadja so concerned with her cousin, like glitch-in-the-Matrix weird.
Nadja exhaled loudly. "You know, you almost make me feel sorry for him, and I don't like that. Not even a little bit."
"Sorry?" she replied.
Nadja sighed, tapping her fingers against the counter. "Look, if you want to be with Jacob, then don't let anyone tell you what you should or shouldn't do. No one—and I mean no one, not even your dad or me or Jesus, can tell you who you should be with. That's something you've got to figure out for yourself. Do what makes you the happiest, because you deserve to be happy, Beth. And you deserve to be with someone who thinks you're amazing."
"I know," she agreed quietly. "It's sometimes hard though, because you're right, I should think I deserve someone great. But then all those little voices come back to me and remind me of what I am. And what that can mean to people."
"You haven't told him that yet, have you?" Nadja asked, sympathetic. She sighed. "Alright, look, it's been a month. It took you a lot longer to tell me you were part-vampire and Zack even longer—but also he's like such a pansy when it comes to vampires. Anyway, don't rush yourself into that, especially if you're not thinking long-term with him. But he'd be an idiot to dump you for that, and who wants to date an idiot anyway?"
She laughed. "I guess I'm not telling a lot of people lots of things."
"Yeah," Nadja agreed, studying her. There was a searching look in her eyes, one that disappeared when she took a deep breath. "Now let's hurry up and join Zack before he gets all impatient and builds a pillow fort or something."
"Would he actually do that?" she breathed. "Do you think we can do that?"
Nadja rolled her eyes. "Don't give him any ideas, alright? Or else we're never going to watch that movie."
-.-
On the last night of break before classes started up again, Beth had her entire gang all together. Zack had been invited back to Boston for some sort of friend thing, but he had forgone it, instead choosing to stick it out in Bellevue until he had to head back for his classes. Beth wasn't afraid to admit to herself that she was especially happy about this (even if Nadja only whined about it), but she wasn't going to start telling everyone else that. Besides, she didn't think he needed a big head anyway.
"I have heard quite a bit about you," Daniel told him as they were walking down the trail. "I heard you go to MIT for robotics."
He nodded. "Yeah, I do. I haven't heard too much about you though. Beth's not very good at describing people."
"I said he was a boy and my age, didn't I?" she responded, walking beside Andrew who was busy with his nose in a book. She didn't know what the book was about (or even if it was related to Slaying duties), but she kept a hand on him so he didn't run into a tree or trip over a rock like he did last time (he'd nearly gone and broke the glasses he didn't need).
"And that's such an apt description," Zack replied sarcastically.
"Well, I am a boy and Beth's age," Daniel agreed. "Although, I suppose if I were to describe Beth to someone, saying she is a girl who is my age is a fairly vague description. There are many girls my age, after all. The part-vampire part would be pretty unique, though not something I should just tell anyone."
"Yes, we do try to keep that one at least slightly under wraps," Beth informed him. "Although, there are some surprisingly perceptive demons out there. They haven't quite gotten the nail on the head yet, but they do ask a lot of questions. It's very annoying when you want them to be like 'argh! Kill!'"
"Wait, what?" Zack said, stopping. Beth did too, hearing Nadja groan, and jerked on Andrew's sleeve so he wouldn't keep moving.
"What?" Andrew asked, looking up from what he was reading.
"Daniel already knows?" he inquired, voice going high. He looked at Daniel incredulously, who looked fairly pleased with himself for being in the know.
"Oh, yeah, we talked about this before break," Beth explained. "I thought that with how sudden it had been for you and Nadja, that I had better get a jump-start on it before demons forced it out of me. He took it surprisingly well."
"Well then," he sniffed, looking down at Daniel.
"Yes, I did. I heard you didn't," Daniel stated like he was commenting on the weather.
"I didn't take it terribly," he defended. "You can't just drop something like that on a person and expect them to take it easily."
"Daniel did," Nadja reminded him sweetly.
"He wasn't in a high-stress situation when it happened!" he argued.
"It's understandable," Daniel assured. "You, after all, are not very fond of vampires."
"And who is?" Zack asked, meaning it rhetorically. Of course, Daniel didn't know that and answered anyway.
"I personally have nothing against them, especially Beth's dad, as he has not once been anything but cordial to me."
"It's true," Beth affirmed when she saw Zack's horrified face. "My dad actually likes him. They talk weapons sometimes."
"Spike can be very nice," Andrew agreed with a vigorous head nod.
"No side comments from the head of his fan club," Zack said, pointing at the Watcher. "Spike is a killer."
"Was," Nadja corrected. "Gosh, do you not have a hold on your tenses. He's human now and he helps with the good fight. You're just upset to hear that Spike is fine with Daniel, but still actively wants to kill you."
"Shut up," he grumbled. "That's not even remotely true. How can you be okay with Spike?"
Daniel shrugged. "I find him honorable. Despite all the odds, he's come this far. He wasn't supposed to, you know. He was the one no one expected."
Zack blinked at him. "That doesn't mean you should like him."
"Oh, get over it," Nadja told him. "Spike's not evil and you're a wimp."
"I'm not a wimp," he argued weakly.
Beth rolled her eyes. "Can we keep moving? I want to kill something tonight to help me get a good night's sleep. I have classes tomorrow."
"Does killing things really help you sleep?" Zack asked.
"It helps release some tension," Beth informed him. "I'm a slayer, it's what I do."
"Very true," Andrew agreed. "If you were a vampire, it'd probably make you more excitable." Everyone turned to look at him with blank stares.
"What?" he asked.
"Go back to your book," Beth told him with a sigh.
They continued walking down the trail, Zack still arguing with Daniel about the whole Spike thing. Well, Zack was arguing and Daniel was missing the whole mood of the conversation. Nadja was still trying to come between them to end the whole thing entirely. Andrew was back off in his little world, reading once more like she had directed him to. This left Beth as the only one remaining vigilant. Not the best thing, considering there were five of them and they were being relatively loud. She strained her ears to hear the woods around her. On the bright side, the noise would probably draw in vampires and she'd get to kill something. Speaking of vampires…
On the path in front of them, a few yards ahead, a vampire jumped out of the foliage. She heard Nadja let out a quiet yelp and Zack swear. Andrew didn't say anything, probably because he still hadn't noticed.
Beth recognized the vampire as one of McGregor's top men, usually seen as second-in-command and complete pain in the slayer's ass. While he was no head honcho, he was still someone she wouldn't mind getting rid of.
"You came to the wrong neck of the woods, partner," Beth told him, pulling a stake out of her jacket.
The vampire grinned maliciously at her. "No, slayer, I think it's you who've come to the wrong town."
Without another word, she launched herself at him. Lots of times she'd broken up one of his little stints, but he'd always run off before she could even so much as charge at him. This was the first time he openly sought her out for a fight and she was beginning to see why. He was a terrible fighter. His kicks were weak and it was easy for her to sidestep his punches. He and McGregor must have been having a torrid love affair because she couldn't come up with any other reason why the Master Vampire kept the weak link alive.
Within minutes (she'd been humoring him mostly), she'd gotten him down on the ground, stake over his heart. He wasn't afraid though, or even fighting it, like most vampires did. Instead, he did something completely different. He laughed.
She jerked her head back to look at him, expecting some crazy, deranged look in his eyes. He looked completely sane though, laughing like she'd told him some funny joke.
"You think you win, slayer?" he asked between chuckles. "Because you've got the stake at my heart?"
"That's usually how this works, yes," she told him.
"You got this battle under your belt, but what about the war?" he inquired, his laughter finally dying down. He was still smiling though and with the fangs, she had to admit it was a little unsettling. She'd have to remember that for the future.
"What war?" she demanded, grabbing the lapel of his jacket to lift him up, just so she could smack his head against the ground. He let out a groan from the impact, but kept on smiling.
"You're in deep shit," he told her. "There's no way you're going to get yourself out of this. He's got plans for you and he's big. Bigger than you've ever seen before."
"Who's big?" she questioned, slamming his head against the ground again.
The vampire laughed. "You don't know, do you? Damn, you're left right out of the loop. Didn't your little pet vampire tell you anything? You're in trouble, little girl, and I'm only disappointed I won't be around to see it."
"Who are you talking about? Who's big?" she demanded to know, overlooking the jab made at Charlie. She didn't know how this vampire knew about it, since she didn't think Charlie'd go around talking about it.
"James," he hissed. "He's going to take you down. You may be tough and your mom too, but she's got nothing on a Son of Cain."
"James?" she repeated, realizing he was talking about the remerged Master of Bellevue. "What do you know about him?"
"They didn't think I knew, but I heard him and McGregor talking. I saw the mark," he laughed. "And a slayer like yourself doesn't have anything on a vampire like that." He just kept on laughing. Fed up, and feeling like she'd get nothing more useful out of him, she drove the stake through his heart, stopping his little hyena-impression in its tracks.
She dusted the vampire off of her, standing back up. She looked over at her friends, who looked properly confused.
"I didn't get the joke," Daniel admitted.
"That's because there wasn't one," Nadja informed him. "He was just crazy."
"Bat shit insane," Zack agreed. "What was up with him?"
"I don't know," Beth admitted, "he said something about S—"
"Son of Cain," Andrew cut in. She looked over at him to see him standing shell-shocked, his face even whiter than normal.
"Mr. Wells?" Nadja asked worriedly when she saw his face. "Are you alright?"
He didn't answer, instead demanding, "Did he say Son of Cain?"
Beth nodded slowly. "He did. Why, does that mean something? Is that like leveling up for a vampire? Was that not his final form?"
He seemed to snap out of his shock, spinning on his feet. "Patrolling's over," he told her. "I need to get back to my study and make some phone calls. Come along."
"But we've only been out for an hour," she whined.
"I said we go, Elizabeth," Andrew snapped, startling her. He didn't yell at her; only when she insulted Captain Piccard would he actually raise his voice at her. But for this? Never.
"Andrew," she began quietly, feeling completely out of sync. She had no idea how this vampire had stirred him up into a tizzy; it was one of McGregor's boys, just one vampire in a long line of vampires they fought through to clear the town of them.
"I'll explain later," he told her. "But right now, we need to go home. I've got work to do."
She exchanged looks with her friends before following after her watcher, much more off-put by that vampire's weird behavior than she had been before.