"We can't go on like this for long. If you don't kill me first, I will eventually kill you," she promised—no, vowed.
How else could this possibly end?
"Don't threaten me with a good time, Slayer."
Being a Slayer - a vampire's mortal enemy - has taught Nora two things: First, with great power comes... an abysmally short life expectancy. Second, always expect the worst from soulless demons and you will find that they are actually quite predictable and, consequently, easier (and more fun) to kill.
At least that's what she thought before Levi decided to grace her town with his undead presence. Soulless as they come, the tight-lipped vampire largely refuses to behave as his nature dictates, hunting his own kind instead of directing his bloodlust at her.
Soon, Nora finds herself in a sort of alliance with the most dangerous (and infuriating) enemy of all: the one she wants to know.
AN: Have you ever wondered what Levi would be like living the life of an immortal vampire in the twenty-first century? No? Well, I did, and I had (am having) too much fun with it, so here you go.
In short, this is a modern vampire AU set in the Buffy (BtVS) verse. It can be read entirely fandom-blind. If you don't know Buffy but want to read about vampires, slow burn enemies to lovers, violence, spice and a dash of fucked up, then I only have to say: hope you enjoy.
If you know Buffy - which, again, you don't have to at all for this story - I'd like to note that this is set roughly twenty years after the S7 finale but mostly ignores the post-series canon (comics, Angel S5 etc.). This story is quite self-contained and I consider this an AU and not a real crossover, so all you need to know is that there are many Slayers all over the world, and the rest of the Buffy canon is more treated like an Easter Egg if anything.
(If you're following my other WIP: I have NOT abandoned it. But the brain wants what it wants, and I'd much rather write whatever than nothing at all.)
Content Warnings: Violence, gore, eventual smut, mature and sensitive topics
Chapter 1: Opposite Day
The nape of Nora's neck prickled. She stopped mid-step, casting a glance around. Grey stone to her left and right, the street lanterns a distant blotch of light up ahead and behind her.
She was alone in the dimly lit alley, as one tended to be in the middle of the night. That's what it looked like, at least. The dustbins weren't big enough to hide a person-shaped abomination, right?
But they were close. Probably right around the corner.
"I thought I'd make it to the park, at least," she mumbled, tapping on her smartwatch to start her favourite custom workout.
Slaying. Usually on top, right above running, sparring, and yoga.
She took one deep breath, reaching out with her senses.
Behind her.
Nora whirled around, drawing her stake from inside her baggy jacket.
The first one jumped her, fangs bared. Its hiss cut short when the wooden weapon sank deep into his chest. The vampire's yellow demon eyes widened in the second of realisation it had left, then its ugly bumpy face disintegrated into dust. Nora pressed her lips shut as the ashes settled. Inhaling dead vampire once had been more than enough.
"No! Max!" The screech came from a young-looking woman who had just rounded the corner. Nora caught a glimpse of wide-set eyes in a sweet, round face before shock and despair contorted it into a mask of pure rage. The vampire shed her human visage, features rearranging, growing bumpy and wrinkly, eyes lightening until they were so yellow they seemed luminous beneath the streetlights behind her. "I'll suck you dry, you bitch!"
"But he started it!" Nora's light-hearted protest got lost beneath the vampire's feral scream as it launched its frontal assault.
Not exactly strategic, but to be fair, there wasn't a ton of space to get creative.
Nora ducked an instant before the vamp could sink its teeth into her neck, elbowing its side as she manoeuvred around.
Before it could do more than yelp in pain, she drove her stake deep into the vampire's back, straight into the heart.
It crumbled to dust. In the sudden silence, the electric tension did not lessen, however, thickening the air, infusing Nora's every muscle.
Cold alarm spiked in her chest, followed by a low, inhumane growl.
She had turned halfway when something grabbed her by her neck, shoving her against the wall, hard.
Shit—another one. About to crush her windpipe or tear out her throat with its teeth, or both. Shit shit shit.
Her vision was darkening fast, but she could make out a silhouette, the yellow eyes, the vicious snarl.
The stake was still clenched in her fist. Just one good hit—
She had barely raised her hand when the cold pressure around her neck vanished. Gasping and coughing, Nora blinked as the world came back into sharp focus.
And found herself face to face with a rather short, pale man: stake at the ready, precisely where her foe's heart must have been mere seconds ago.
His expression was blank as he slowly lowered his weapon. Pitch-black strands of hair fell over his forehead towards tired eyes that searched her neck, then trailed down, pausing at the identical weapon she still held in her loosening grip, before homing in on her face.
Nora cleared her sore throat and opened her mouth to speak—to thank the stranger or ask him who the hell he was, running around at night staking vampires, she hadn't yet made up her mind—but he was quicker.
"You're covered in filth." The friendly pointer was accompanied by a subtle wrinkling of his straight nose.
Normally, Nora fancied herself fairly quick-witted, but of everything he could have said or done, she hadn't expected that. Granted, she wasn't great with people, but wouldn't most be focused on the blood bath—well, dust bath—that just went down? Even those who were clearly aware of the existence of demons?
"You don't say," was her dry answer at last. She wiped her face, then moved on to her jacket and trousers. "Also, it's not filth, it's vampire dust."
"Same thing. It's disgusting." The strange stranger's voice was surprisingly deep for someone of his stature and age—she was guessing mid-twenties, at most, so roughly the same as her. She also hadn't expected to encounter anything like that bored, American drawl in the middle of Ashwick, a quaint English town no one would ever have heard of if not for its main attraction: one of the busiest Hellmouths in the entire United Kingdom. Not the kind of info you'd find in brochures. A tourist trap only in the literal sense, so it was fortunate they didn't get a lot of those. (Unless you counted those without a heartbeat.)
Whatever the rude man's deal was, Nora wouldn't let that reprimand sit. It wasn't like she had much control over the course of falling ashes—especially when he had exploded that last vampire right in her face—so who was he to call her disgusting in such a disapproving tone?
"Says the bloke who got half of the vamp he killed on his shoe." She tilted her chin at his immaculate, polished black leather footwear.
He looked down immediately, his sharp brows furrowing.
The corners of Nora's lips curved up. "Ha. Got you."
The man's already narrow eyes narrowed further, meeting hers again. Blimey, that was a grade A glare. "Tsk. Just who the hell are you, taking a midnight stroll in goddamned yoga pants? I'd guess clueless or suicidal, but you got just enough common sense left to bring a stake."
"Funny, I was about to ask you the same—minus the yoga pants." No way was his outfit—black trousers and a grey T-shirt beneath a simple black leather jacket—as stretchy as hers. Fashion wasn't exactly a top priority to her once the sun was down.
He wouldn't provide any information, silently waiting for her answer. Despite the unnecessary dig at her reasonable choice of clothes, Nora decided to give in for once, seeing as the prick had helped her out. "Suppose you could say it's my calling." She smiled at her little pun. Vampire Slayers were Called, after all, which sounded much fancier than what it actually was: a shit job with shit pay and shittier hours, and she didn't even get danger money. "What's your excuse?" Because she sure had never heard of a male Slayer.
His features had turned stone-cold. It was a subtle difference, yet a second rush of adrenaline froze her blood. He clearly understood what she was talking about. He understood too well. "I should have known right away. You already killed the others before I arrived, huh?"
How had she not noticed earlier? It must have slipped under her radar in the heat of battle, overshadowed by the animosity the three vampires had practically radiated when they'd attacked her. The throttling hadn't helped either. "You're one of them." Nora all but leapt back, doubling the distance between them. Her Slayer instincts kicked in, and she had taken on a fighting stance without making the conscious decision, stake raised.
"Easy there. We don't wanna do something we'll regret." The vampire lifted both hands above his head, but he wouldn't let go of the stake in his right. As if he needed it to harm her. He was the real weapon. An apex predator. He threw a disdainful glance at the dust covering the ground between them. "And I don't belong with those piles of trash."
"Liar. You're a vampire. I can feel it." And how she could, now that it had registered. The fine hairs on her nape stood up and her heart was punching against her throat.
"Never said I wasn't, Slayer brat." His voice was even, betraying nothing.
He emanated demonic energy, raw and powerful, but it was lacking something crucial.
The bloodlust. If it was there, he suppressed it well. Another reason she hadn't picked up on it, at first.
What the fuck was going on here? He had killed his own kind. He still hadn't tried to eat her. He wore the face of a handsome young man. This entire situation was confusing, irksome. The Slayer Handbook certainly never mentioned anything like this.
"Where are your lumpies?" she asked, sounding offended.
He frowned, blinked once. "My what?"
"Your real face." The frown deepened. She wasn't sure if he was miffed—what for?—or if he still didn't get it. "Your demon face."
Now he was definitely miffed. He somehow managed to look down at her as though he were a foot taller, not just a few measly inches. "I don't need it for small fry."
Was he insulting her, or was he only talking about the vampire he'd dusted?
Whatever. Nora had no patience left to try to make sense of this whole ordeal. She lifted her chin. "So, what's your deal, then?" When he gave no response, she started fidgeting, glaring back and forth between the vampire and the weapon in her white-knuckled fist. "I should stake you right now." She despised how unsure she sounded. If she only had time to think. If she only could ask her Watcher what to do.
For some reason, the vampire's stance relaxed. He folded his arms, the tip of his stake pointing at the ground. "You can try. Or you can be polite and say thank you."
She gave a derisive snort. "Yeah, right. Because you're surely all about manners and altruism. Vampires famously—" The vibration of her watch drew her attention to her wrist.
Finished your workout?
Oh, right. Stupid, meddling vampire probably wasn't going to attack her anytime soon. She tapped to confirm.
When she looked up, the tension had returned to the set of his shoulders. "Someone looking for you?" He glanced around, nostrils flared. Bloody hell, the man was high-strung for a super-powered being.
"My watch just reminded me that you ruined my workout."
The vamp stared at her as if she'd just invited him to a picnic. As if she was the one behaving completely out of the ordinary. After several seconds, he huffed. "I should have let the bastard have a bite before saving your ungrateful, crazy ass."
What the fuck?
"You did not—I'm not—" Nora was suddenly short of breath, a hot flush of anger rising to her cheeks. "I was just about to—"
"I don't give a damn," he drawled, shrugging dismissively. "Know what, you're right about one thing: there's zero reason for you to thank me. I'm not in the business of doing favours. You happening to be there had no impact on my actions."
"But why would you—"
"You can either piss off from here or wait till someone else makes you their tasty little snack, but I'm not gonna hang around and bore myself to death in the meantime." Keeping his dark gaze trained on her, he took several careful steps back. "Have a great night." He turned and walked away.
"You are already dead, Arschloch!" Nora shouted after him. The German insult slipped out on accident. A perfect addition to probably the lamest comeback of the twenty-first century. Splendid.
"Undead," he retorted, just loud enough she could hear, then he broke into a run and disappeared around the corner.
#
Three vampires not only in one night, but also hunting in a pack, apparently. That was already unusual. Now add in the fourth, who had, at every turn, done the exact opposite of what he was supposed to do.
This must have been her weirdest patrol. So far.
In her haste, Nora almost broke her key when she turned it in the lock. She bent it back in shape—not for the first time—while pressing down the door handle with her elbow. Slayer strength and impatience were an unfortunate combination.
"Hange!" she yelled as soon as she was inside their house, kicking off her shoes and discarding her jacket on the bench.
Nora wasn't greeted by an answer from her Watcher and roommate, but by a croaky meow. Garlic scampered into the hallway, his fluffy white tail bobbing. She scooped him up and strode into Hange's bedroom.
The formerly asleep woman groaned and blinked when the lights went on, scrambling upright, her shoulder-length brown hair standing in every which direction. Nora set Garlic down on her best friend's lap and sat on the edge of the mattress, gathering her knees to her chest. "You won't believe what just happened."
Hange reached for her glasses on the bedside table. "How late is it?" Her bespectacled gaze filled with concern once it landed on her phone screen—one a.m. "Are you alright?" Hectic, rust-brown eyes screened every part of Nora's body for injuries.
"Yeah yeah, fine. Got strangled for a bit but it's healed up already." Nora waved it off.
"What? Lemme—" Hange's hand shot out, but Nora caught her wrist.
"A vamp staked another vamp literally in front of me," she rushed to say, steering Hange's attention towards what mattered. "Incidentally the one that was occupied with my neck."
Hange dropped her hands on their cat, gaping at her Slayer. "It saved your life?"
Nora grimaced. "Well, not necessarily, but he did help me out." The words tasted sour in her mouth. She was about eighty percent sure she would have got out of that precarious situation on her own—excellent odds for a Slayer—but it wasn't like she'd ever be able to prove it.
"Gee, you seem grateful." The corners of Hange's lips twitched.
"Not you, as well," she groaned, casting her eyes to the ceiling. "He was such a git. And a vampire, remember?"
"Okay, then," Hange sat more upright, oblivious of Garlic's disapproving glare. "Start from the beginning."
So, Nora recounted the vampire attacks, how the stranger had intervened with the last one, followed by their weird little exchange.
Hange pinched her chin, her other hand occupied with ruffling Garlic's long white fur. "That's indeed strange behaviour."
"You think?" Nora deadpanned.
"The only explanation that would fit for a soulless, bloodthirsty demon like him is that he wanted the prey for himself. Or maybe he had some sort of feud going on with the vamp he staked. But if either were the case, he still would have tried to kill you, in the end."
What her Watcher was saying made sense, of course. Very much unlike what had actually gone down during patrol earlier. "He was more concerned with the dust on my clothes." Glowering at the empty space above Hange's shoulder, Nora rested her chin on top of her knees, blowing an unruly curl that had escaped from her top knot out of her face.
"Weird little bugger," Hange said. "And you didn't get his name?"
"I didn't really get the opportunity to ask. Plus, I doubt he would have told me anything, seeing as he refused to explain why he acted like it was Opposite Day. Even after he realised I'm a Slayer."
Hange peered at her, gaze sharpening. "So why did you?"
"Did what?" Nora asked, wary. It never boded well when Hange got that sort of expression on her face.
"Act like it was Opposite Day."
Stalling hadn't helped much. In the jumbled, spinning mess that was her mind, the question had started to crystallise right after the strange vampire's swift departure, but Nora hadn't found a clear answer yet. Instead, she had found several, and not a single one of them should matter, because she was a Slayer—and just like vampires, they didn't work well with nuance. The sneaking suspicion that she had thoroughly mucked this up was slowly rising in the pit of her chest, so naturally, Nora got defensive. "Between almost choking to death and that stuck-up twit swooping in for my rescue as though I was some damsel, you can't imagine I was off my game for a second, there?"
"Understandable." Hange nodded, taking Nora off guard. Wasn't a Watcher supposed to scold their Slayer when she neglected to neutralise a perfectly stakeable vampire? Instead, a slow grin crept on Hange's features. "So what are you gonna do next?"
"Take a shower and go to bed." Stalling, again.
Unfortunately, Hange was having none of it. "And about your mystery vamp?"
Her mystery vamp. Yuck. She had run into him, so he was her problem now, was that it? Nora wiped a hand over her face, resisting the urge to knock her forehead against her knee, hard. "I was hoping you'd tell me, Miss Watcher."
Hange opened and closed her mouth several times, fidgeting in her cross-legged seat some more until Garlic had enough and leapt off the bed with an annoyed little grunt. Nora knew this dance well; curiosity and prudence were two excellent qualities in a Watcher. An excess of one, however, did not make up for a lack of the other.
Hange was trying, at least, adopting a sensible tone. "It's your decision. You're the Slayer, and he's a vampire, probably painting our town red."
That was a tad more matter-of-fact than Nora liked right now. "And Slayers slay," she sighed. Yet, knowing Hange, she added, "I'm hearing a 'but' here, though."
Hange's eyes lit up. "But, I admit I'm intrigued. He sounds fascinating. I'd love to learn more about his motives."
There it was. All the headache-inducing nuance that someone in Nora's profession couldn't afford to consider. Not exactly an appropriate reaction for a Watcher, either, but perfectly Hange. She looked like she was about to drool.
"Keep it in your pants. I won't introduce you." Nora was teasing, but the mental image of her favourite human getting within biting distance of a literal cold-blooded killer induced sheer horror. She rarely let Hange accompany her on patrol, and never without a large cross and a ranged weapon. Close combat against beings with superhuman strength and reflexes wasn't advisable if you weren't that sort of freak yourself.
Hange, the madwoman, was smiling greedily, unperturbed. "I'm saying, his behaviour is damn near unprecedented. If you bump into him again and dust him without interrogating him first, we might miss out on useful information."
"I was worried you'd say something like that." Regardless, Nora felt some tension drain from her muscles.
So maybe her inaction hadn't been the entirely wrong call. And maybe she was also somewhat opposed to the idea of hunting down the 'mystery vamp' and staking him ASAP. Must be those pesky nuances that shouldn't even exist, but right now she didn't feel like giving herself a migraine pondering it too closely.
The world wasn't black and white, but with soulless demons, you got pretty damn close.
A shudder ran down the length of Nora's spine. The demon's strange yet powerful energy still echoed in that dark place deep within her, and suddenly she hoped she'd never have to fight him. You didn't need sadism or bloodlust to be callous and cruel.
"Admit it. You're curious, as well. I know you." Hange's voice was brimming with mirth.
Nora heaved a sigh. "Against my better judgement."
Hange chuckled. "Exactly what the average Watcher longs to hear." With a wink, she added, "On Opposite Day."
AN: I feel like this is rather niche, but in case this is someone else's jam, too... Well. I'd love if you let me know your thoughts in the comments.