“Spike,” he hissed, eyes narrowed, backing off to circle back around and find his opening.

“Fancy meetin’ you, mate,” Spike retorted cheekily, seeming completely unconcerned by Angel’s threatening growl. “Just when I was plannin’ on draining you dry, too.”

“You always were a bit of a foolish optimist,” Angel shot back. “‘Oh, of course, Dru loves me.’ ‘I can defeat Angelus.’ ‘I’m not just a pathetic little wanna-be that can’t—’”

Angel’s little parody was cut short by a furious roar from Spike, and soon the two older vampires were tangled in a furious fight on the ground.

Julien, meanwhile, had burst in on the scene just in time to rip the crossbow from Giles’ hands before the watcher had a chance to fire again on Cordelia. Giles’ hand went to his pocket in response, and Julien cried out in pain when the vial of holy water smashed open against his chest.  Skin on his face and arms sizzling as if it had been drowned in acid, he slumped to the ground.

His distraction had given Sayo the opportunity she needed to knock the cross from the otherwise-defenseless Xander’s hands, however. Jake immediately tried to bolt, and she took off after him, tackling her prey after only a few feet.

Xander, smart enough to realize that running would just leave him more defenseless, stood his ground. He gulped at the wicked grin on Cordy’s face, and suddenly saw his life flashing before his eyes. “Y-You really don’t want to…” he began nervously.

“Oh, but I do,” she sighed wistfully, catching his wrists in her powerful grip and forcing them back against the cemetery wall behind him. “I’ve wanted you for so long, Xander…” she whispered against his neck, lips playing lightly across the pounding pulse-point.

He shivered both out of fear and desire, and in that one moment all the horror of his friends’ deaths came over him at once, and he wondered… Why fight it? At least there’ll be no more pain…

“Xander!” Giles cried out in alarm, only to be halted in his tracks by a maniacally grinning Willow.

Too late Xander remembered that there was one last moment of pain, indeed. Cordelia’s razor-sharp fangs pierced his jugular, and for an instant white-hot pain lanced through his body before, slowly, it all fell away and…bliss…

“So, heh-heh, I’m Lonnie…” Buffy’s hopefully soon-to-be victim offered.

She smiled a wicked smile and shut the door behind them. “Buffy,” she countered, grabbing hold of the horrible plaid shirt he wore and pulling him in. “But then you already knew that.” Her fingers found the buttons but, rather than unfastening them, she ripped the fabric in two. She stepped back to consider the effect, hid how deeply unimpressed she was, and slipped her fingers under the straps of her dress. The black satin fabric slid off, leaving her completely nude before him.

“R-Right,” he agreed over-eagerly, obviously delighted by this turn of events. Not surprising since his singularly unspectacular looks and intelligence hadn’t earned him any regular bedmates in the clan. That this golden goddess wanted him was a dream come true.

Buffy sat down on the edge of the mattress and watched her victim incredulously. Oh god, she wasn’t going to have to him directions on what to do, was she? Fortunately, his dick seemed to have figured out at least part of the equation, and he finally guessed that taking his pants off might be a good next step.

She tried not to roll her eyes as he stumbled clumsily when his pants caught on his boots, that damn idiotic grin never leaving his face. She was tempted to finish him off right there with his pants wrapped around his ankles. No risks, no chances, the voice in the back of her head insisted. You’re going to make this a clean kill. And, maybe get yourself a bit of pleasure out of the stooge, if he even has the common sense to know where to put it…

“C’mere, handsome,” she purred seductively, sliding up the bed. She had to forcibly stop herself from laughing at the ridiculous appellation attached to this moron.

Excited now, he ran over to the bed, stumbling over his own clumsy feet until he feel onto the end of the mattress. She gave him a disbelieving look, and then tried to make her expression look turned-on. She doubted the oaf would even notice, however.

“You’re pretty,” he informed her, scootching up the bed so that he was beside her.

Buffy got a good look at his erection and tried to bite back her disappointment. Ah well, he was no Spike, but he’d have to do… “Not bad yourself, luv,” she purred, unconsciously mimicking Spike’s habit of pet names.

“Y’know,” he sidled up against her, “I was worried there for a while. After Derek got it, I mean. Everyone says it was Willow, and…” He gulped.

“What?” She draped her body over his, savoring the feel of having this male entirely at her mercy, even if he wasn’t the one she really wanted. At least not as a sex toy… “You were afraid I’d come after you, too?” She tisked lightly.

He laughed at the apparent absurdity of the notion and moved to cover her body with his. She stayed his motions, however.

“I wanna see you,” she whispered huskily against his ear, pushing him back. “Let me show you the time of your life…”

A broken purr sounded through his chest in response, and he let her climb on top of him. With a coy smile, she caught each of his wandering hands and held them up over his head. The tip of his erection rubbed against her inner thigh, but she ignored it for the moment.

“Do you trust me?” she asked slyly.

He smiled languidly in response. “Sure, babe.”

She grinned and reached over to the bag Spike had discarded in this room earlier for another purpose. Her hand emerged with a pair of silver handcuffs. He just gave her that goofy grin as she shackled him in place, obviously thinking he was in for the lay of his life.

A surge of triumph ran through her veins when she’d finally chained him up. What he had no way of knowing, of course, was that the cuffs were Spike’s special pair of magically enhanced ones. He only thought he was sexplay-trapped; she knew he couldn’t get out unless he gnawed through his wrists. Wicked delight filled her at the notion.

But there was no need to play her hand just yet…

“Do you know all the things I could do to you?” she whispered seductively, fingers tracing over his beefy torso. “All the wonderful things Spike’s taught me how to do?” She leaned in so that her cool breath brushed against his ear. “A hundred years of experience, and I know it all…” Her fingers reached the rough hairs surrounding his erection.

“Yes…” he hissed in delight.

Buffy grinned wickedly.

And he screamed out in pain and horror.

Giles did the only possible thing in his situation; he ran.

Spike’s struggle with Angel had provided a distraction for all of Spike’s allies, and it gave Giles the few moments head start he needed. He hated himself inwardly for turning his back on Xander and Angel, but he knew only too well that Xander was gone by now and Angel… Angel wasn’t a living being.

He felt his heart pounding in his chest and was just fighting back the first gasps of fatigue when he heard Willow’s cry of outrage. The chase was on.

Not foolish enough to believe that he could outrun the vampiress for even a moment, he leapt over the fence to the nearest front yard in a move that would inevitably cause a backache for weeks to come. Fear and anger gave him extra strength and stamina, it seemed, and he reached the door to the anonymous house safely, banged on it twice, and then stepped back to kick the lock in with every fiber of force in his being. 

Miraculously, on the second kick, the lock gave in, and he collapsed panting over the threshold. Willow circled the rim on the recently turned on porch light warily, gold-hot anger burning in her eyes that yet another prey had escaped.

After only a moment, however, she turned back to where they had left the others, apparently perceiving some signal beyond his senses. Giles took one moment of stunned relief, waving off the agitated cries of the woman whose house he had invaded, before a newfound grief struck him. Angel and Xander gone now. All his students taken by demonic forces. And the most painful outcome he had never even feared to imagine…
 
 

Willow returned just in time to see Spike and a badly burned Julien finally pin Angel to the ground. A laugh of triumph escaped Spike’s lips, and he quickly sunk his teeth into his subdued grandsire, draining off the older vampire’s strength. She ventured closer, and Spike waved in her in, allowing her to share in his hunt.

Angel fixed her with sullen eyes as she approached, and she patted him condescendingly on the cheek – avoiding the snap of razor-sharp fangs – before she set in to savor the intoxicating taste of two-hundred-year-old blood.

After only a few minutes, Angel finally passed out, and Spike halted Willow’s feeding. “Need some of that blood for Tuesday.”

She grinned, the crimson droplets on her lips looking black in the moonlight. “And then we get mommy back,” she giggled excitedly.

Spike nodded, keeping careful eye on Angel’s seemingly unconscious form and one knee pressed deep into his captive’s back. Not worth taking any risks now that he was so close to getting his Dru back. “The watcher got away?” he inquired curiously.

Willow instantly pouted. “Always was a smart old man…” She trailed off, and a wicked smile curved her lips. “Just imagine what sort of a vampire he’d make…” She sighed wistfully.

“We’re lucky they haven’t come down on us for havin’ a vamped slayer,” he countered. “Don’t need a watcher to add to the vamp-hunt.”

Willow sulked that her idea had been turned down, attention drifting to where Cordy now lay atop Xander sprawled across the ground. “We pixies have a new boy,” she sing-songed, correctly guessing that Cordelia had fed Xander her life essence.

Spike glanced over, first to make sure that Julien was feeding properly from where he and Sayo held Jake captive, and then to the dark-haired vampiress and her newest childe. “Bugger.”

Willow turned back to look at him, surprised at that.

“She’ll be weak for a coupla days now,” he provided, catching Sayo’s eye and gesturing for her to come over.

“You weren’t weaker,” Willow seemed alarmed by Cordy’s semi-impaired status. Indeed, the brunette had now fallen asleep, resting on Xander’s corpse.

“Yeah, and I wasn’t fool enough to try to vamp me a mate when I was all of two months old,” he shot back.

Willow frowned even further at the word ‘mate’, calculations and power plays running carefully through her head as she incorporated this latest member of their family into her plans.

“Go over and wake her up,” Spike ordered. “The two of you can get the boy back to the warehouse before dawn.”

Willow grimaced at the task of dragging Xander’s inert form and Cordelia’s semi-conscious one all that way. But even she wasn’t crazy enough to complain at Spike’s orders. Especially not when something so close to his heart as Drusilla was at stake.

“He is unconscious?” Sayo approached Spike and Angel just as Willow left.

“If he’s not, he’s sure playin’ one helluva long game of ‘possum,” Spike countered. “You got the chains?”

Sayo held up the bag she’d brought with her before deftly pulling several chains of linked iron from it. Without needing instruction, she locked Angel up securely while Spike held him down. “These will hold if he wakes up?” she asked skeptically.

“Dalton fixed ‘em up,” Spike countered, finally getting up off of Angel’s back. To his relief, Angel didn’t stir in the slightest in response. Looked like he was out for the count. “And with three of us on guard…”

Sayo nodded and looked around furtively. The holy water burns across Julien’s flesh had gone down with the healing power of the human boy’s blood, and she sensed no ambush nearby.

“But we’d best clear out quickly,” Spike agreed with her assessment. “Not a time for risks…”

Buffy looked up, fangs dripping blood as the door opened. Beneath her, a lacerated Lonnie whimpered pathetically. No help lay on the other side, however.

Drusilla blinked owlishly, as if the candlelight were painful to her sensitive eyes. “All the people out here,” she drolled, tilting her head in a dreamlike way, “are hearing such bloody screams…” She trailed off and looked back over her shoulder at the crowd. “Silly kittens afraid to check if the milk dish is full…”

Buffy sighed. She didn’t need this right now. “Dru,” she informed her grandsire tersely, “you’re supposed to stay in bed.”

“I want to stay up until daddy gets home,” Dru pouted, her voice sounding more childlike than her usual ramblings.

Buffy had long since learned it was a sign that her elder wasn’t feeling well. With a long-suffering sigh, she caved in. “Stay here with me, then,” she suggested. “There’s plenty of space to lie down.” In truth, blood stained the mattress cover, but then that was all the more of an attraction to a vampire.

Drusilla let out a girlish giggle and drifted into the room, arms waving about in a serpentine dance. In the hallway, a few curious heads dared to peek in to see what was happening within to cause such bloodcurdling screams. They got one look at the bloody bed before an equally bloody naked Buffy got up and slammed the door in their faces.

She could hear nervous whispers on the other side of the door but paid them no heed. “How are you feeling today?” she asked Dru casually as she made her way back to her victim.

Drusilla shrugged and yawned. “Daddy will make it all better soon.” She lay her head down on the pillow, face less than a foot away from Lonnie’s pain-contorted one.

“Spike should be back soon,” Buffy promised, lifting up her whip once more and fondling it gently in her hand.

Dru giggled. “Not that daddy,” she chided.

Buffy’s eyebrow quirked at that. “Spike’s got Angel?” she asked curiously.

“Make naughty daddy pay for everything he’s done to me,” Dru agreed darkly.

Buffy nodded and caught Lonnie’s bleeding member in her razor-sharp nails once more. He cried out in agony immediately in response.

“Boy’s a screamer,” Drusilla noted with disinterest, watching Buffy work. “The balls are just as sensitive,” she added her advice.

Buffy grinned when Drusilla’s words turned out to be true. Her attention turned back to her victim. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve had to put up with jerks like you?” she informed him in a deceptively pleasant voice, slicing and constricting his flesh. “Arrogant, self-centered creatures that look at me and only see a cheap fuck?”

He whimpered in something she guessed was supposed to be denial that he had ever looked at her in any such way.

“Did you really think I would let you off? That I would forgive something like this?” she asked nastily. “It’s men like you that make a girl’s life so difficult, so miserable…” Her grip tightened.

Drusilla smiled at the bloodcurdling cry. “What’d the silly boy do?” she inquired curiously.

A wicked smile curled Buffy’s lips. “Tried to take the power from me…”

Spike finally arrived back home to find a very anxious audience chamber. Sayo and Julien followed behind him, a slumped unconscious Angel supported between them, but not even this new captive drew attention away from the nervous gossip spreading through the minions.

“Oi,” Spike protested, catching the nearest vamp by the scruff of the neck, “what happened?”

The poor yearling promptly began stuttering horribly, shaking convulsively the entire time. Spike rolled his eyes and threw the vamp down onto the floor.

“What’s goin’ on?” he finally bellowed angrily to the room.

“Lonnie and Ryan got it,” giggled an excited female.

“She’s like a black-widow,” a dorky looking male agreed. “She draws them in to mate with her and then sucks them dry!”

Spike gave nerd-vamp an incredulous look. “Who turns these wankers?” he asked Sayo rhetorically.

She just shook her head, equally dumbfounded.

Giving up on getting any sense out of these idiots, Spike hastened to the room he’d set up for Angel’s capture, opened the door and… If he’d had breath, it would’ve been taken away at the sight before him.

His golden and black goddesses lay stretched out across the bed, both blood-spattered and sleeping contentedly in each other’s arms. Buffy was completely naked, and dark red stained her skin, looking like arcane sex-magic written across her supple flesh. His body instantly hardened at the sight, and a growl grumbled deep in his chest.

She stirred in response and smiled up at him through lazy eyelids. “I tortured and staked the last man I caught looking at me like that, you know,” she informed him, spreading her thighs slightly in invitation.

“Been havin’ a bit of fun without me, I see,” he replied, rolling his duster back off his shoulders before he approached the deathbed.

“Had to show those losers that no one touches me but you,” she agreed, holding out one hand to him in invitation.

Almost mesmerized, he approached the wicked mistress he’d created…

A cough broke the silence of the room.

Buffy’s attention turned to Sayo, Julien, and Angel for the first time. “Hey, Dru was right. You got him.”

Spike’s eyebrow quirked upward. “Dru was awake?” he asked hopefully.

“She gave me pointers,” Buffy agreed with a grin.

He practically moaned at the carnage he’d missed. Not that he wouldn’t stay to enjoy the aftereffects. “Chain him to the bed,” he instructed the vampire pair holding Angel.

They exchanged a shrug and moved to do so, Buffy aiding them with the manacles. She gave Angel a dark look that sent little tingles of pleasure up and down Spike’s spine. His girl. Not Angel’s anymore or anyone else’s. Slowly and deliberately he disrobed, catching Buffy’s eye as he did so. She smiled and licked her lips as his naked body was exposed to her hungry eyes.

“You don’t need us for anything else?” Sayo questioned once Angel was secured to the bed.

“Go on,” Spike agreed. “And if you need more blood tonight, there’s probably a bit left in Cordelia’s new boy.”

They nodded and left.

Buffy was curious at this last fact, however. “New boy?”

“That school chum of yours she was pinin’ away after,” he provided, putting one knee on the end of the bed and prowling up her body in a seductive crawl that had her shivering in anticipation.

“Vamp!Xander?” she asked curiously. “That’s gonna be…interesting…”

“Not half as interestin’ as what’s been happening here tonight, ‘d wager,” he countered, hands running up and down her bare curves.

She purred in delight and wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him in so close it was practically torture. “Just a little experimentation,” she countered, fingers trailing up and down the sharp edge on his cheekbone. “You know, being a slayer and a vamp aren’t so different, after all.”

“Oh?” His lips were on her throat now, teasing the scar where he’d made her his. She squirmed and her wet core pressed up against his throbbing cock enticingly, but he denied her for the moment.

“Yeah,” she finally answered, hands roaming his body possessively, scratching lightly and claiming his flesh for as long as he’d let her. “Cleverness is more important than strength, you use every talent at your disposal, and…”

He thrust inside her hard. “My wicked vixen…”

She gasped in delight and completion as their bodies fit together perfectly once more. “A-And now I can finally use all that power the way it should be used,” she concluded, sounding unnecessarily breathless as he began stroking his cock deep inside of her.

“Make ‘em bleed,” he purred appreciatively, grabbing her hips roughly and pushing in ever harder and faster.

“Never have to let off on the jerks who deserve it ever again,” she whimpered in agreement. “And all thanks to you…”

And then his mouth was upon hers, and their bodies were writhing together in blood and pleasure, and the time for talking was over.

And, hours later, when Angel awoke to the sight of a bloody and naked Buffy riding Spike like her sire was her everything, he knew he was well and truly in hell…

“I-I can’t do it anymore,” Giles insisted shakily, fighting back the edges of tears from his voice. The teacup clattered in its platter in his hand, and he hastily set in back down on the coffee table.

Joyce wanted to offer her sympathy, but she was feeling choked up as well. Poor Xander, lost to them now, too. It was all just more of a horror than she ever could’ve imagined. And she still couldn’t quite comprehend that her daughter was really gone to her now…

“I’m afraid there is nothing more I can do,” Giles continued, voice still shaky but more composed now. “I am incapable of defeating Spike’s gang without assistance and – if our reports on the ritual to take place this Tuesday are correct – then Angel will not long outlive Xander.”

Joyce managed a weak nod. “Perhaps it’s for the best,” she dared to suggest, “the more we get tied up in this, the worse—”

Her words were cut off when the door to Giles’ apartment suddenly opened, however.

The two humans turned in surprise to see a young woman of stocky, strong build standing in the doorway, proud black features looking down on them suspiciously.

“I am looking for Mister Giles,” she spoke in clear, heavily-accented English. Her accent was exotic, Jamaican perhaps or some other Caribbean dialect. And it was clear that, while English wasn’t her first language, she’d had a very precise teacher.

Giles blinked and rose, not sure what to make of this turn of events. “I am Rupert Giles,” he informed her.

She relaxed slightly in response but kept one eye on Joyce. “Who is she?”

“I think,” Giles countered, “that a better question would be, who are you? Seeing as you’ve chosen to break into my home and all.”

The intruder bit her lip, nervously considering Joyce’s presence before she finally decided that answering a watcher’s direct question was more important than maintaining her secret identity.

“I am Kendra,” she announced, “the vampire slayer. And I have come to help…”