As Dawn walks into Magic Box Anya looks up with a smile, "Hey Dawn…" her face drops as Elaena walks in after her, "…and you brought the baby home wrecker with you."
Dawn stiffens, before losing her temper, "Anya! What have you got against Elaena?"
Anya looks at Dawn scornfully, "Do you have any idea how many women have been scorned because of them, and their predations? I have seen thousands of victims of their philandering ways."
"Do you realise that Succubae are monogamous?"
Anya straight out laughs, "No they're not. They hunt husbands and try to seduce them away from their wives."
"What? Like Vhesthine's done to Xander? Oh, wait, she's never even looked at Xander because you're both friends."
Anya sneers, "I've seen the way she moves around Xander. I'm just lucky that he doesn't have a wandering eye."
"Anya! She always moves like that! Come on Elaena, I can see we're not welcome here."
Elaena shakes her head, "It's ok, we can stay here."
Dawn shakes her head, and opens the door to leave, "I just wish Anya knew what it was like to be a succubus."
Elaena nods as she follows Dawn through the door, "Me too."
As the door swings closed, Anya looks at the table behind the partition shelves, "Halfrek, no, we're friends. Please don't do that to me."
From the table comes Halfrek's voice, "Wish granted."
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Jonathan looks up at the ceiling from Buffy's couch in blissful heaven, "Man am I glad I didn't get involved with that mind control orb thingy."
Buffy looks up from her paperwork, "What mind control orb thingy?"
"Hmm, oh, it was month or so ago, before you went to LA, and before the demon eggs thing. They killed someone, and then tricked me into helping them try and persuade you that you killed them."
Buffy's eyes widen, "Wait, you summoned those demons?"
Jonathan nods, "Yeah, I left as soon as I found out what they were doing."
Buffy thumps the desk, "Jonathan, that's something we should have known when you first started coming round."
Jonathan whines, "But I was going to warn you about your pamphlet, and it would have come up then I'm sure. But then you started talking about sex, and went to LA for a week. And, well…"
Buffy sighs, "You've been coming around to help feed Vhesthine for a few weeks. Thank you for that by the way."
Jonathan waves his hand weakly, "It's fine. I actually had a couple of girls start talking to me at the arcade last week."
Xander opens the front door, and closes it in a panic, "Buffy! Are Willow or Tara around?"
Buffy looks concerned, "No, they're going on a date before Willow's apprenticeship starts. What's wrong?"
Xander wipes his face with his hands, "It's Anya, she's insatiable, but she always seems so unsatisfied afterwards. I can't keep up! On top of that, she's off her food."
Buffy sighs, "How long has this been going on?"
"Since Wednesday. But Buffy, I think it's something serious as she didn't even shout at me when I left for work this morning."
"Xander, why would she shout at you?"
Xander mumbles, "I glued her favourite bullet to the inside of her panties, and charmed them to be unremovable for six hours."
Jonathan shakes his head, "Hey, not cool man. Even I know not to do that."
Xander holds his hands up, "Hey, how we spice up our sex lives is none of your business. Buffy, you need to do something, I can't even go to the Magic Box on my lunch break as she pulled me downstairs and wouldn't let me go until I was already late."
Buffy puts her head in her elbow on the desk and theatrically sobs, "Ok Xander, why don't you both come to dinner tonight? Vhesthine went out to the park with Dawn and Elaena to meet Suzy and her baby, now they've moved into Vhesthine's apartment."
Xander winces, "Um, can we do another night? When Vhesthine's not here?"
Buffy shakes her head, "No Xander, as Vhesthine's one of the most knowledgeable people I know when it comes to magic. Razial is the most knowledgeable, but his help doesn't come cheap. I don't know what Anya has against Vhesthine, but this isn't the sort of thing that should just wait."
Xander sighs, "At least tell me you'll be there." Buffy mumbles something, "Sorry, what was that?"
Buffy looks away, "It's my turn to hunt, so I'm going to be late."
"Buffy! Are you picking up guys? What about Vhesthine?"
"Look, it's not like that. For us, sex doesn't mean anything. Neither does kissing outside being a show of affection. It's all about essence, and we need to ensure that Elaena is well fed, as she needs to forget how to feed until she's ready to learn how to do it properly."
Xander starts, "Wait, what?"
"Xander, she almost killed Clem when he popped around for some company now Spike's dead. If we don't get it under control now, then when she gets closer to adulthood she won't be able to control herself, and she'll feed on anything she can kiss."
"Not that, the whole sex doesn't mean anything."
Buffy shrugs, "What? It's like a good back massage that comes with expectations. Honestly, I'd rather just pay for the massage and forgo the expectations. It also means I don't have to be around too many people."
"Buffy, what does hunting entail?"
"Mmm? Oh, when it's my turn I usually do my patrol and then go and sit in the Bronze drinking orange juice until a guy tries to chat me up. If I get there around 6 it's usually not to busy on a Saturday, and if I'm lucky I won't even have to dance before someone uses a cheesy pickup line. The last couple of weeks I've been done by 8pm. But the first week I was there till midnight. Let me tell you that there's nothing quite so bad as being around that many people with pounding music going on, and all your brain wants to do is pretend that you're about to be slaughtered. I'm just glad that Vhesthine was there to keep me grounded."
Xander frowns, "How comes we didn't see you?"
Buffy shrugs, "Because you weren't looking for Buffy in a super short party dress with lots of sparkles. You were looking for Buffy wearing steel toecaps and an attitude to match."
"So, wait, why isn't Vhesthine going this week then?"
Buffy looks at Xander patiently, "Because it's not fair to put all of that on one person. I hate it, it makes me super uncomfortable, and Suzy will be there for emotional support. But I have to do this on my own." Mumbling she adds, "And I don't want to start therapy, and if I can't do this on my own, then I promised I would." More loudly, Buffy asks, "Jonathan, will you be around for dinner?"
Jonathan looks up from where he'd just dozed off on the couch, "Huh, what? Oh, no. A girl has a 1st edition VHS of Star Wars, and I'm going to help her move it to DVD. Then we plan to watch Han Solo shoot first."
Buffy smiles, "Good for you. Oh, look, these bills won't pay themselves."
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Sam looks at the array of photos on the desk as her mind tries to join it together with something she heard recently. Across from her are Agents Howes and Jones from the FBI Homicide division. Leaning against the back wall is Riley, who's looking bored.
Howes shakes his head, "Honestly, we thought this was just some crazy copycat trophy killer. But you're telling us it's a demon?"
Sam nods, "Looks like it, as there's no sign of any tool use in the removal of the head. But there are signs of claws breaking the skin here, here, and here. The head was then torn off and discarded. While a bear could do that, they wouldn't then only eat the intestines. No, if it was a bear, you'd expect to see gnawing on other fatty parts of the body. There's just something about these that makes me think it's been described to me before, or I read it somewhere."
Riley sighs, "Sam, just look at your notes. You know it will be there somewhere." Stepping away from the wall he adds, "What's worrying me more, is that 5 years ago, these became more common on the east side of the Rocky's, and were slowly moving west. Except, now they've stepped up in frequency, and seem to be making their way to the southwest of the USA."
The other three all look at the map on the wall and swear.
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Buffy pensively looks at the door to the Bronze, and the rope queue guide that the bouncers are already starting to set up. Checking her phone she grimaces as she realises that Suzy went in almost an hour ago now.
Setting her shoulders, she starts to walk towards the door, only for someone to brush past her on the way in. Someone who will never know how close they were to having their neck broken, as Buffy manages to stop herself inches away from their neck.
Shivering, she turns back to the other side of the street, trying to control her breathing. This repeats itself over the evening, until, just before closing, a vampire attacks her from inside the alleyway she's been hiding in.
When Suzy comes out with a plastic cup holding the last of her mocktail, she finds Buffy desperately kissing the vampire, who's neck is obviously broken, while trying to elicit a reaction.
Suzy stands there for a long moment as her brain slowly processes just what it's seeing, as the person beneath her isn't making any moves to get away.
Once she's digested what she's seeing she calls out, "Buffy?"
Buffy lifts her head for a moment, "Just a little bit longer, I think I'm almost there."
The vampire takes the opportunity to say, with a hint of hysteria in his voice, "Help me! She's insane."
Suzy chuckles, "Buffy, his neck's broken. I don't think he can feel what you're doing."
When Buffy sits back, a contemplative look on her face, the Vampire's eyes look to Suzy, "Hey, aren't you acting a bit blasé for this?"
Suzy shrugs, "I was a whore in LA for years, and Buffy saved me and my baby from being lunch when I tried to get out. Now the area is being run by a succubus with vampire's working as her heavies to ensure the girls aren't mistreated by the Johns. My weird shit'O'meter has been maxed out for a while now. At least I'm still clean though. What about you, I thought you'd be more distraught."
The vampire's lips quirk, "Well sorry about not being able to feel anything below my neck. I'd laugh, but I can't breath hard enough for that."
There's a loud crack as Buffy sets the vampires neck back into position. Then she sits back on her heels and watches the vampire, who says, "Look lady, I appreciate you doing that, I really do. But could you drag me behind that dumpster over there, that way I won't die before my neck heals."
Suzy laughs and grabs the vampires legs before beginning to pull, "Buffy, face it, you need to just give him a pamphlet and call it a night. Nobody's going to think any less of you because of this."
Buffy whines as she pulls a pamphlet out of her purse, "But I can do this. I don't need therapy."
The vampire rolls his eyes to look at Buffy, "Hell yes you do. You've just spent an hour trying to jerk me off with a broken neck. Jeeze, if disabled people get you off, just head to the paraplegics ward at the hospital. They may even pay you for it."
Both Buffy and Suzy look at him, "Shut up."