Xander hadn't told Faith he'd smelled more than vampire or Willow as he'd followed the scent trail. Or that he was still smelling more, the vampire that had kidnapped Willow had been drinking. Which was both a good and a bad thing.

It was a good thing because it slowed the vamp's reflexes down, maybe even near human levels.

Bad because it was causing flashbacks to his bitter, angry and drunk father. And the reaction the Hyena had to Tony Harris getting in his face. It was the first and last time Xander hit his father and yes the Hyena had been in the driver's seat, but he remembered it. Like Angel remembered Angelus' actions. Neither of them had actually committed the actions, but their hands, their voices, had inflicted pain on others.

And now Xander intended to inflict pain of his own free will.

He followed the smell of alcohol and vampire and saw a flash of radioactive hair. 'Spike?' he remembered Spike from Halloween and when Angel had offered the back of his neck to Spike on Parent Teacher night before that. And when Spike had used Angel to cure Drusilla of whatever was making her sick. Spike who'd made a deal with Buffy to help stop Angelus from ending the world and to get his nutbag girlfriend out of town. Drusilla, the bitch that killed Kendra right in front him while he'd been helpless to do anything, too busy trying not to pass out from a concussion of his own and a broken arm. 'So where is the crazy vamp?'

A good question that needed an answer, Xander aimed the crossbow and fired, hitting his target and watching Spike fall over with a cry of pain as the bolt pierced his thigh from behind. Quickly reloading, Xander fired again, piercing Spike through the shoulder as he howled. Xander reloaded and approached the fallen, drunk vampire who glared at him and tried to get a grip on the bolt in his thigh.

"Answer my questions and I'll make your end fast." Xander told him. "Don't and this could take awhile."

Trying to think through the fog of alcohol and pain, Spike focused on the man standing about five feet from him with a loaded crossbow aimed at him. If he could just get one of these bolts out him, he'd have a weapon he could use against the man. He needed to buy time, he decided, his shaking hands trying to pull at the one in his thigh.

"The redhead, why did you take her?"

"The little witch? Need some Magic worked and thought, ya know, get my hat trick."

"Hat trick." Xander vaguely recognized the term, he might not play sports, but he knew some of the popular expressions. "Three goals."

"Three Slayers."

"Okay, thanks for answering my questions." Xander shot another bolt and it pierced the vamps other shoulder, making him howl again. "They're my friends. The first one was for slowing you down, the second was for the redhead, the third is for the Slayer. One last question. Where's Drusilla?"

"What's it to you?" Spike glared as he tried to pull at the blood slickened bolts with his shaky hands, something ruffled against his mind, but he barely noticed it in the midst of everything else.

"South America with a Chaos Demon, damn between the slime and antlers, I don't know whether to go with gross or weird." Spike stared at the man, shocked.

"Apparently I can read minds." The man murmured and shot a fourth bolt, this one pierced Spike's unbeating heart and the blank faced man with blazing golden brown eyes and expressionless face watched him crumble into dust. The smell of blood had activated his teeth and the words were lisped out. "Even vampire minds."

Xander took several deep breaths and struggled to get control over himself. The bloodlust was riding high in him right now and he couldn't risk hurting anyone. He made his way out of the factory and into the cool November late afternoon and headed back to the Crawford Street Mansion, he wasn't fit company right now. He broke into a run, hoping to exhaust himself and burn through the adrenaline, bloodlust and fear he was feeling. He'd enjoyed hurting Spike, more than he was comfortable with.

Turns out he could run faster than a normal human too and it wasn't long before he arrived at the Mansion and once inside stripped his clothes and climbed into a cold shower, bloodlust wasn't like sexual lust, bloodlust made you crave violence and Xander didn't want to crave violence but between the anger, the flashbacks and the smell of blood it had hit his system like a wildfire and he needed to bleed it out of himself and fast. The shower helped but not enough, not enough. He got out and dried himself off and got dressed and headed outside again. He ran. He ran and hoped he'd outrun his demons eventually because they were howling behind him as he ran.

Eventually he stopped, so exhausted he nearly flopped onto the ground and turned and slowly walked to the High School. He needed to make sure Willow and Faith had gotten out and to let everyone know he had too. He hadn't meant to worry anyone, but it would have been harder to deal with if he'd stayed. He was pretty sure Faith could and would understand but Willow would have been afraid and he really didn't want to scare her.

Because he didn't want to be a monster and monsters were scary.