Disclaimers – If you want to read the
disclaimer’s go back to part 1, the same ones apply to this part as well. This
story is still rated PG-17 and I don’t own any of these characters.
You can contact me at Shadowlander1@coastalnet.com
Willow wasn’t sure what to
make of the funny smelling human standing before her. The slim blonde was
staring at her with accusing eyes that held a fire that few sun-walkers
carried, eyes burning in their mesmerizing depths. A fire that seemed to burn
from within, hinting at a strange power that could both consume and ignite the
unsuspecting with it’s fiery touch. In all, the female intrigued her in ways
Willow didn’t want to even begin to think about. It was bad enough she was
living outside of a Hellmouth and had a nut leech invading her dreams, now she
had a human giving her strange looks.
“Me,”
Willow said returning the stare with one of her own, it seemed like the thing
to do at the time. Something about the human called to her, whispered to her
inner self about nights of passion and fire, of long hunts prowling under the
silvery moon for unsuspecting prey. Willow could almost taste the blood of a
fresh kill as the two of them prowled the night, claiming the darkness for
themselves. She could feel her ‘beast’ begin to stir as the call of the hunt
started to pound in her veins, it was overwhelming. Willow felt her control
start to slip as her own eyes locked with those of the young woman staring back
at her.
She
could hear the pulse pounding in the female…and the male! Willow tore her eyes
away from Buffy’s, suddenly remembering that there was someone else in the
room.
“No!”
Willow growled, fighting to regain her composure in front of the two humans.
‘This can’t be happening,’ she thought, suddenly feeling trapped, the walls
closing in on her. It was the movement of the male that caused her to turn and
bolt out of the library, running down Xander, who had the misfortune of
entering at that time.
At that very moment in a
boarded up old mansion across town Drusilla sat back in the antique chair, once
used as a throne for some European king, and smiled evilly. Her plans were
turning out just perfect, even better then she had first envisioned. The Slayer
had responded so well to her manipulations, the dreams the nasty chosen one had
been having were all Dru’s doing. The master Vampire had big plans for the
Slayer and those plans did not include her continuing in her slaying duties.
No,
Buffy was to stand at her side, as her Enforcer, once she took over as the
undisputed ruler of Sunnydale. As soon as the current master, Drusilla’s
worthless sire Angelus, was dusted she would move in and take over the
Hellmouth. It would be Buffy’s final act as the Slayer, a fitting end to a
worthy adversary’s career – the vampire grudgingly admitted – before she took
her proper place as Drusilla’s Enforcer.
She
could hardly wait! Soon Angleus and that equally worthless childe of his,
Spike, would be gone. The Slayer would be no more, replaced with Dru’s ideal
warrior, one with the savagery and brutality created and nurtured by Drusilla’s
own hand. And then there was her little kitten, Dru smiled at the thought of
the fierce shape-shifter, so full of defiance and pride.
It was those very traits
that made her perfect as her Enforcer’s mate, but she would have to be tamed
first. Right now Willow was too strong willed, already biting at the collar
that Dru would soon put around her neck. She would have to do something about
that, Willow’s ‘humanity’ would make it difficult to properly train her. To
weed out those undesired ‘human’ traits, Dru would have to use other means to
tame Willow, the child’s mixed blood made it hard for the Vampire to manipulate
her mind unlike the human Slayer.
No,
a different approach would be necessary, perhaps she would use the Slayer to
help tame the little kitten. Yes, that would be perfect. After all Willow was
for Buffy anyway, a gift from Drusilla for all the hard work in removing
Angelus from power.
Willow sat in a quiet
corner of the Bronze, well as quiet as it got in the youth club on a Wednesday
night anyway, and silently cursed her decision to come back into town. The
longer she spent in Sunnydale, the more she hated it. Maybe it was the evil
radiating off the Hellmouth, or maybe it was the overall cluelessness of the
town’s human populace.
Whatever
the cause, it was playing havoc with Willow’s control. She usually didn’t get
this jumpy until around the full moon, when the effect of the moon’s
gravitational pull was at its strongest and her control over her shape-shifting
talent was at its weakest. However, since coming to this cursed little town,
Willow had had to consciously maintain her human form. Especially around a
certain funny smelling sun-walker with golden hair and eyes that glowed from
within.
The
same funny looking sun-walker that was currently in the clutches of some
hormone driven boy groping one another on the dance floor. ‘Marco’s right, it does look like some
bizarre form of mating ritual,’ she thought forcing herself to remain in her
little corner and not storm the dance floor and gut hormone-boy for touching
her life-mate.
‘Life-mate???
Where the hell did that come from??’ Willow wondered running a hand through her
shoulder length hair. Sure, if she was real honest with herself, she could
admit that she found the blonde attractive…all right, more than attractive.
Something about the human called to Willow, and not just to her human half. No,
the call was also felt by her ‘cat’, her animal self that was growling
restlessly, irritated at hormone-boy draping himself all over ‘her’ mate.
Gripping
the sides of the table with both hands she fought to remain right were she was
and not go over there and rip out hormone-boy’s heart and hand it back to him.
As much as the action would appease her cat, she doubted that it would go over
very well with the blonde.
Her
view of the dance floor was suddenly blocked when somebody stepped in front of
her table.
Rupert
Giles stood calmly before the young redhead, who maintained a death grip on the
table and had just made a sound like…a growl?? He had been quietly observing
her for some time, watching her watch Buffy and her latest boyfriend over on
the dance floor.
Originally
he had come to the Bronze to help Buffy fine tune her ‘vamp-radar’, as Xander
insisted on calling it, but the Slayer seemed more interested in groping her
current dance partner in front of the small Wednesday night crowd. Since the
whole library incident and what Buffy told him about her dreams that morning,
he was more than curious about the mysterious young woman.
“Err,
may I join you…Willow is it??” He asked once getting her attention.
‘Huh?’
Willow thought wondering how he knew her name. She didn’t sense any hostility
from him, just curiosity and caution mostly, then she remembered him. “Ah,
sure,” she said with a nod of her head. She didn’t quite trust herself to let
go of the table just yet.
“You’re
the guy from the library. How do you know my name?” She questioned once he took
the seat across from her, effectively blocking out the dance floor.
“This
actually,” Giles replied pulling out her class schedule from his jacket pocket.
“You dropped it when you l-left earlier.” He explained, handing over the slip
of paper. “I gathered the books you’ll need for class, they are waiting for you
at the library with your backpack. I’m Rupert Giles the Librarian.”
“Thank
you. I was in kind of a hurry today.” Willow replied with a small grin, after
regarding Giles for a moment. The human, while on guard, didn’t seem to be a
threat, he was more curious about her then anything else she realized. She also
sensed that he wanted something out of her, “So Mr. Gi….”
She
stiffened suddenly, whatever she was about to say forgotten. She was on her
feet faster than Giles could see, her eyes flashing in the dim light. He was even
more startled by the low growl she emitted, “You need to leave! Take as many
people as you can! NOW!!” She growled out, the tips of her fangs peeking out as
she spoke.
For
his part Giles remained frozen in his place at her outburst. He could see the
fangs, but her face remained human. ‘Just who or what is this child?’ He
wondered before another voice brought him out of his chair.
“BUFFY!!”
The sadistic voice called out with way too much cheer over the music to bring a
stop to all activity in the Bronze.
“Angelus!”
Giles cursed coming out of his seat and spinning around searching for the
master vampire. He heard an answering growl beside him mirroring his own anger.
“You
know THAT?!?” Willow questioned in disgust, having spotted the vampire over by
the main entrance moving towards the dance floor. She never knew a human to
associate with a leech willingly, although from the librarian’s scent, it
wasn’t a pleasant association.
‘Worry
about that later.’ She decided, her growls becoming a full fledged roar of
outrage as the vampire made his way to ‘her’ life-mate. Willow didn’t fight it
as her control slipped away, her animal half becoming dominant. There was a
leech, several of them in fact, in the same building as her life-mate! Her cat
called to her, outraged that such creatures dared to take up space near its
mate. Such offenses would not go unchallenged, those damn things were going to
die! ‘And they better stay dead this time!!! She fumed moving towards Angelus,
intent on ripping out some major organ and eating it.
Willow’s
roar startled even the vampires in the Bronze, they just weren’t used to
hearing something that fierce, the sound echoing throughout the room. Hairs
stood on end and blood seemed to turn to ice as what sounded a little like
someone in extreme pain seemed to cut everyone to the bone.
Willow
continued growling as she stalked towards Angelus, intent on sinking her fangs
into the undead leech that stood in her path. Suddenly her path was blocked by
one of Angleus’s more adventuresome or stupid, depending on your point of view,
minions. Without breaking stride she brought her foot up nailing the hapless
minion right between the legs. As he crashed to his knees in pain, Willow moved
suddenly in front of him. Grabbing his head pushing back to expose his throat,
latched onto his neck sinking her fangs in deep, biting down hard and pulling.
Releasing the minion with a shove he is dust before he hits the ground. Blood
dripping form her fangs, she growls warningly at Angelus.
Angelus
had stopped in his tracks towards the Slayer, at the initial roar from Willow.
His own demon thrown momentarily by the savage sound, recovering quickly he
looked around for the source of the sound, outraged to be interrupted in his
evening amusement. Then he spotted her as she stepped out of the shadows of one
of the corners. A slim, compact redhead dressed in leather was heading his way
growling at him. Him! The Great Angelus, Master of Sunnydale!!
He
watched in disbelief as she kicked one his seconds in the groin and then
proceeded to rip out his throat. Angelus had never seen such a violent act, it
turned him on. His demon lusted over the magnificent site of her kill, as an
unholy light burned deep within her eyes. This was a predator he acknowledged,
all ready envisioning her at his side as he turned her loose on Sunnydale. Such
a fiery little thing, but she wasn’t a vampire. Whatever she was, she would
soon be his. He vowed, looking forward to bending her to his will.
Buffy
was staring murderously at Angelus, all ready easing into a battle stance, when
the roar cut through the air. The Slayer turned toward the sound instinctively
knowing its source and momentarily forgetting about the master vampire heading
her way.
As
Willow stepped out of the shadows, Buffy’s eyes widened in recognition, ‘The
girl from the dream.’ She thought, watching the way the redhead moved toward
Angelus. ‘Like a tiger stalking its’ prey.’ The image came to her mind of a
large reddish cat on the prowl looking for a kill. Buffy could feel her pulse
rising as the vampire stepped into her path, she was about to intervene when
the redhead kicked him. The Slayer almost felt sorry for the vampire….almost.
She watched in fascination as the leather-clad woman tilted the vamp’s head
back and just ripped out his throat.
Buffy
couldn’t explain the feeling of…pride?!?…she had at watching the vamp turn to
dust. Much less the arousal she felt over seeing the blood stained fangs that seemed
to lengthen as the redhead growled at Angelus. ‘This is too weird,’ she
thought, forcibly refocusing her thoughts on the vampires surrounding them and
not on the beautiful creature growling at Angelus. And most definitely not,
thinking about what it would be like to kiss that blood drenched mouth. ‘No, no
bad slayer.’
“Hey
Angel, long time no see.” Buffy taunted before sending a roundhouse kick to
Angelus’s head. That seemed to snap everyone out of the trance like state that
had descended over everyone…just another typical Wednesday night in Sunnydale.
Between
Buffy and Willow, and the help of Giles and a few others they held their own
against the vampires, the element of surprise long gone after the first growl.
Angelus
howled in pain as Willow drew blood, leaving four parallel lines across the
right side of his face. The master vampire knew he was fighting a losing
battle, he couldn’t believe how well the Slayer and the redheaded minx worked
together. They had cut through his minions like they were fledglings. He had to
get out of there, before he ended up as dust himself. Grabbing one of his
minions he threw her into the approaching redhead and made his escape cutting
out the back door.
He
paused for a moment to watch as the redhead finished off the minion in the same
fashion as before. Although she seemed to take a bit longer to rip out the
throat, almost as if she stopped to take a long drink after a strenuous
workout. He felt himself hard at the scene, laughing to himself as he took off
into the night. He had plans to make, he had to find out who that creature was
and properly claim her. After all, they had unfinished business to attend to,
he thought brushing one of the cuts on his face with a finger before bringing
the now bloody finger to his lips. He almost didn’t mind that he just lost
several minions to that blonde, bitch Slayer, almost!
Willow
was ready to chase after the escaping vampire when Buffy grabbed a hold of her
and spun her around. The cat growled warningly not recognizing its’ mate at
first, but then recognition struck it. The two stared into each others eyes for
several long minutes, before Willow reached out and licked the side of Buffy’s
face with a purr and a happy little whistle. The Slayer was so stunned what she
couldn’t stop Willow as the read head darted out the back and into the night.
“What
the hell was that ???!!!” Xander broke the stunned silence having come up
behind Buffy along with Giles.
Across town at Dru’s lair
The
Vampire witch’s laughter echoed throughout the empty corridors and rooms of the
mansion as she watched her little kitten lick the Slayer’s face. She was so
proud of both of them, they worked so well together, cutting through the weak
minions of Angelus with such savagery. “Oh how my little kitten behaved.” Dru
sang out, her voice carrying through the mansion. It had taken all night to
subtly direct Willow’s thoughts, breaking down her resistance to her animal
instincts. But it had worked, Willow had been just about ready to rip apart the
Watcher when Angelus had shown up!
But
Angelus had seen her kitten’s fire and wanted it for his own. ‘No, no, that
just won’t do.’ Dru thought. ‘I can’t have Angelus touching her, I’ve just
about got her willing to come to me. He’ll only ruin everything.’ She fumed.