Ok, First off I just want to say, I am a sucker for opposites attract, which is why I find I am a sucker for a spike and willow pairing. (Don't judge they contrast each other so well, think about it) And while I was very happy with the inclusiveness of a gay pairing between Willow and Tara, It just didn't make much sense to me. Willow had never once shown an interest toward women until then, All throughout her childhood she had a crush on Zander, then it was Oz, she mentioned that she thought Dracula was sexy, and she even had a crush on Giles, or at least an appreciation for his appearance/accent. Not once does she show an appreciation, (not even subtly) for women. I even re-watched the series to try and catch a hint of her closet gay, there was none. So while I could argue for her being bi, not gay, I feel like it was more for inclusiveness that was thrown in, not that they didn't do a fantastic job making the relationship look mutual and healthy, but still. Anyway, this is set right after the episode with Dracula, Oz left and there is no Willow and Tara paring, other than friendship. Also, the characters are a bit older than in the show. Enjoy.

Pain wasn't anything new to Willow, she had been hurt a lot in her 23-year life. Even before she got caught up with Buffy she knew pain. Granted, the kind before Buffy was more of an emotional pain from her parents' negligence, but it still hurt when they brushed her aside. It's ironic if you think about it, her parents were world-renowned child psychologists who wrote the book "The Dangers of Over-coddling Your Child" Willow was fairly certain she remembered seeing Joyce read a copy. You would think that all of the pain she had been exposed to up till now would prepare her for what it felt like dying, but it didn't.

She had been out walking, A bad habit she developed when her thoughts became a jumbled mess. She always thought, perhaps too much but couldn't stop, her mind was always working, no matter what she did to try and quiet her mind. She was thinking about Giles leaving for England, or at least his desire to return when he felt unneeded by Buffy. Giles had told her that he was staying and asked her not to mention his intent to return to Buffy, Willow was grateful for that and agreed to keep that secret but looking back on it, Willow couldn't help but feel hurt. The reason Giles was staying was for Buffy, not her. She knew that was selfish of her, that Giles was here for Buffy so it made sense that he would stay or leave depending on whether Buffy needed him. But Willow couldn't help but feel hurt that the only father figure she had in her life would have left her so easily.

That wasn't the only thought running through her head. Why did Dracula have special abilities compared to other Vampires? It didn't make sense to her, Why could he shape-shift? Why could he turn into smoke? Buffy said that she killed him but he kept coming back. Was he really dead then? Why did vampires and demons have an affiliation with Xander? Why had her magic gone wonky on her yesterday morning at the beach? On and on her mind swirled. She hadn't even realized that the sun was setting until a chill breeze shook her from her thoughts. Willow rubbed her arms and started making her way back home.

The night was calm, the air crisp with the scent of pine and earth. Willow often found solace in these late-night walks, where the quiet streets and the distant hum of the town allowed her thoughts to wander. She passed by familiar landmarks, the Bronze where so many memories were made, and the park she, Xander, and Jessie used to play together.

Willow's mind was so preoccupied that she didn't notice the danger she was in. Usually, she would have noticed, Willow wasn't as strong as Buffy or had Buffy's slayer senses, but she liked to think she had good enough instincts to know when someone or something was watching her. But this creature was different, it moved with an unnatural grace, and faded into some sort of mist to follow her. By the time she realized she was being followed, it was too late.

"Slayers pets should learn to be more careful." His Transylvanian accent voice rang out in the silence. Willow whipped around to meet the eyes of Dracula and felt her body go paralyzed by his thrall. So he was alive, Willow had a feeling he was. Before she could do anything else The vampire lunged at her from the darkness, his strength overwhelming. The vampire's fangs sank into her neck before she could even process that she had been grabbed. The pain was immediate and excruciating, but what followed was worse.

As the vampire drank from her, Willow felt her life slipping away. She had always imagined dying would be peaceful, a release from the suffering, but this was anything but. It was a violent tearing away of her essence, leaving her empty and cold. It hurt, more than anything she had felt before, not the time she had a bookshelf collapse on her, or been tossed around like a doll by a demon, or had the restoration spell she performed on Angle sear itself into her skin, late nights pushing herself so far her body started shutting down on her, even losing both Jessie and Oz couldn't compare to this pain. Truthfully, her heart hurt worse than the gushing wound on her neck. To think that after all her years on the Hell mouth, she was going to die alone as a snack for some hungry vamp in a stupid cloak.

Anger burned through her veins, or perhaps that was the pain. Either way, Willow was angry, so unbelievably angry that she did something stupid. She didn't know why she did it, or what possessed her to do it, but in the end, she did. She grabbed Dracula by his hair, she felt him growl and his claws sink into her skin to pull her closer in an iron-tight grip. No doubt he expected her to try to push against him in an attempt to fight him, Willow had thought about doing just that, but she knew that she was dying, even if she was able to push him away from her at this very moment, he was too aggressive when he tore into her throat, the numerous medical journals her parents had pushed on her to read as a child told her that she would be unconscious in one minute and bleed out within five minutes whether or not he was here. There was no one here to help, she had no phone to call an ambulance that had a response time of 15 minutes, she wouldn't win this one so she did what she could to hurt him. She hadn't even thought of the consequences when she did it, she just wanted to cause him pain. She used his hair to violently yank his head closer, which was easy as he had been expecting her to pull him away from him, and then she ripped into his neck.

Dracula roared out in surprise and pain as he jerked away from her, but Willow wasn't going to let him go that easily with her death looming in front of her, she dug her blunt nails into the flesh of his face leaving droplets of blood and yanked him back to burry her blunt teeth back into his neck, she didn't know how much time she had left so she simply kept biting him, gradually feeling her body grow weaker as her thoughts began to jumble and blur.

Oh, everything hurt, tears painfully leaked out of her burning eyes and she felt so much. Inside her was a swirling mass of emotions anger, sadness, frustration, guilt, pride, satisfaction, many she could not even name, she could not even hope to sort through them all. She was doing something, wasn't she? She couldn't think with all this noise in her head, not to mention there was a vile taste in her mouth, she tried to get rid of it but couldn't. Something was cradling her head closer to that vile taste.

"Shhh, It will be alright. You will be a marvelous Childe" the voice soothed but Willow hated it, Why? Ugh, she couldn't think anymore everything was going dark. Hmm, dark, sleep, good.

Willow let the shadows pull her under and just like that, she was gone.