"I feel like you should be more worried about this, Eris," Willow said in concern from her sleeping bag on the ground. She had also offered to stay in Eris' dorm with Buffy, just to have an extra hair of eyes and ears.
She was trying to get through to Eris about the potential danger of a stalker vampire, but Eris wasn't really getting it. "I am worried, Will, but I'm not gonna hide under the covers like a scaredy cat. I'll be fine!"
"A vampire is obsessed with you, Eris, you're allowed to be a scaredy cat," Buffy spoke from beside Eris on the bed, she seemed calm and collected as she brushed her hair, but the stake hidden under her pillow said otherwise.
"I have THE Slayer for my Cousin, I have nothing to worry about," neither Buffy nor Willow could tell if Eris was trying to act brave or was saying these words to try and make herself feel better.
"I can't always be there to protect you," Buffy said in a more serious tone, her cousin's trust in her felt wrong, "I've had people get hurt because I couldn't be there for them."
"Buff, I promise, everything is going to be fine, I have faith."
Eris seemed so sure of her safety, but she couldn't have been more wrong…
She slept soundly for the entire night, knowing for sure that nothing could get into her room, but the loud and panicked scream heard from the other side of the door early in the morning broke that serenity.
"AAAAAH!" the three women shot up in panic when they heard the frightened scream of one of their female dorm mates.
"What the fuck!?" Eris shouted and jumped to her feet to scurry to the door, she flung the door open to see why someone screamed but the feeling of something splattering across her cheek made her pause.
"Oh Jesus!" she heard Willow said in fear when her and Buffy saw the door.
There, pinned to her door was a poor pigeon. It wings had been ripped off and pinned separately to the body. Blood had dribbled down from the corpse and pooled onto the ground, and right above the body had "Cara" written in blood.
He had found her.
"Call College security!" Buffy shouted as she pulled Eris away from the door and into the hallway. The black-haired women had frozen in terror, realisation of her danger setting in as her eyes stayed fixed to the door. Several people and run off to use their dorm phone to phone security whilst others looked at the door in horror. "Willow go call everyone on the public phone," the Witch nodded and hurried away to down the hall to call the gang, possibly get Graham to come up first.
It hadn't taken long for the gang and security to show up, Graham and Buffy kept Eris between them as she had to answer questions. She spoke as truthful as she could, got into an altercation with a strange guy at the Bronze but nothing else happened. She left the part about him being a vampire out, but her answers were enough to satiate the guards.
They had organised her to stay with Buffy and Willow in her dorm until they can ensure Eris' safety and have the poor bird taken down. They were taking this as serious as they could and would try their best to figure out what happened. That would be impossible for them, but it was appreciated.
The gang had all gone to Giles' to discuss what happened and make sure Eris was ok, "so this Vampire thinks Eris is his dead lover, Cara?" Giles was asking various questions to get as much detail about this as possible. He was worried for Eris and the potential danger she was in.
"You saw the bird, he is completely obsessed," Buffy replied from next to Eris, she had not left her cousin's side since they woke up, "he's messed up."
"Pinning a bird to the door is exactly what Angelous did to his victims," Spike said from his spot on the stairs, he wanted to stay away from the military men but he found the situation way too interesting to miss.
"Angelous?" Riley asked which made Buffy tense.
"He known as the worst vampire in history," Giles piped up, thinking it easier for him to explain Buffy's ex's history, "he liked to drive his victims insane before killing them…or siring them."
"You think this HST wants to make Eris a vampire?" it was Grahams turn to speak up, and he was very visibly angered and stressed. His arm had wrapped itself tightly around Eris' waist, afraid that if he removed it she would be taken from him.
"I would theorise that is his end goal," Giles replied, a grim expression settling on his face, "if he believes Eris to be his dead beloved, then it would only make sense that he would want to make her immortal."
"But why the dead bird?" Willow asked from beside Xander, "I don't see why he needs to make her insane or scared."
"Well as you explained he is not very sound of mind, this could be his way of showing affection."
Buffy stood up abruptly, anger twisting her features, "if this is his way of showing affection then he's too dangerous to be left alive."
Giles remained composed, knowing that his Slayer was not in the best emotional state, "we cannot be to rash with this. He may be insane but he still poses a threat, we need a plan."
"We already have a plan, I go out, I kill him, I keep Eris safe," Buffy stormed her way over to the weapon chest to grab as many weapons as she could hold.
Riley stood from his chair and walked over to Buffy, worry evident on his face, "Giles has a point, Buffy, we need a plan that isn't just find and kill."
Buffy turned to him in frustration, "the longer we sit around and plan, the easier it is for this creep to get closer to Eris. We need to kill him NOW."
"She's right," Graham said as he too stood from his chair, "he needs to be eliminated as quickly as possible."
"Not you too Graham," Riley replied in exasperation, "fine, the three of us can go and patrol for the day. The rest of you can stay here and keep Eris safe."
"Alright, I see I won't change your minds," Giles sighed deeply, he was used to Buffy's strong headedness, but it still exhausted him, "keep safe, don't underestimate him."
"I won't," the Slayer said her goodbyes to Eris who had remained silent the entire time, before heading off with Riley and Graham.
"Not very bright of the Slayer to take all the strong-armed lads away from the one who needs protection," Spike teased as moved away from the stairs and over to sit next to Eris, he enjoyed how out of sorts she looked.
"We don't need the commentary, Spike," Xander huffed as he glared at the Bleach Blonde vampire, "plus you're here."
Spike raised a brow, "and what makes you think I'll help?"
"That's right, I forgot you were a selfish, blood sucking monster," Xander snapped but was soothed by Willow.
"If you help you get to beat something to death," Giles piped up, feeling a headache forming.
"If I get to fight, then yea, I'll help," the bleach blonde vampire looked at Eris and smirked, "little lady here needs to get a grip, she has blood that would make any vampire obsess over her, she needs to get used to this."
Willow frowned and shook her head at Spike disapprovingly, "that's not helping, she's in shock."
"You would know all about obsessing over her, huh Spike?" Xander snapped.
"I was never obsessed over her, I just wanted to drink her blood," Spike shrugged, unphased by the dork.
This only made Xander smirk, "too bad you've been neutered and can't ever bite her."
That made Spike glare.
"Enough," Giles said sternly, not wanting to deal with the two men's constant bickering, "we have more important things to deal with. We need to gather things before sundown and are only wasting time."
Xander wanted to keep going but decided to stop, he was better than this anyway, "what do we need?"
"We need vampire deterrent, perhaps some items from the magic shop."
"I can go with Xander if you make me a list?" Giles nodded to Willow and grabbed a piece of paper to right some items down.
Giles went upstairs to gather some other items whilst Willow and Xander left, leaving Spike alone with Eris. "Hey, knock it off," Spike grabbed Eris' chin and jerked her head round to face him, making her snap out of her fear induced haze, "you've slept with a vampire before, this is hardly as dangerous as that."
Eris jerked her head back from his grasp and glared, "you didn't pin a bird to my door, I'm allowed to be scared."
Spike snorted and leant back in the chair, "you can be scared, but acting like a frightened child and zoning out isn't going to help"
Eris hated to admit it, but he was right, she was being silly, "I hate that you're right."
"I always am."
"Shut up," she said with a sigh as she stood from the chair to go get herself a drink, "but thanks, for snapping me out of it. You're the only one that's not acting crazy."
Spike raised a brow, surprised that she thanked him, "no point getting all bent out of shape by an insane vampire, I was a lot worse when they were dealing with me."
Eris snorted at his words, "you know, I actually agree with you on that. With how they all act when you're mentioned, this creepy stalker seems so tame."
"Oh? Do they talk about me a lot?" He leant forward, seeming curious as he watched her pour some of Giles' whiskey into a glass. "Make me one too, yea?"
"Could have said please," she rolled her eyes but grabbed another glass, "they haven't really told me much about what you did, only that you tormented them relentlessly."
"Oh you have no idea, I made your cousin's life a living hell."
"That's not something to be proud of."
"I'm a vampire, remember?"
"Good point," she finished making the drinks and sat back down after handing him one, "tell me about what you used to do, I'm curious."
"You might need a few more drinks, it's a lot."
"I might as well just grab the whole bottle, Giles can yell at me later."
It was the first time since they fought that Eris had a casual conversation with Spike. If was conforting, and took her mind off the stalker, even if the converstaion was about all the horrible things he did to her cousin and her friends.