“Xander!”
“Riley? Is that you?” Xander asked as the
soldier stepped out of the shadows about a block from his apartment. He
extended his hand, which contained a cross, and Riley recoiled. “Great
you’re a vampire. Man, I’d love to stay and fight, but if I kill you,
Willow would be very upset. She was going to beat the shit out of you,
human or not, but now that you’re a vampire, it’s going to be ugly.”
Xander then threw a bottle of Holy water into Riley’s face, and bolted for
home.
He
was just inside when he heard the thud as Riley collided with the barrier
baring him from entering.
“An?”
he called out still keeping an eye on the vampire.
“Yeah!” his future wife replied coming
towards the living room. “Oh Riley, Hi.”
“Don’t invite him in!” Xander said
tersely “He’s a vampire.”
“Oh.”
Anya said then turned to Riley and said “I’m sorry.”
“Be
sorry for yourself, bitch.” Riley snapped back, his demonic visage coming
to the fore.
“Watch your mouth about my fiancé, you
little leech.” Xander snarled, grabbing a water pistol full of Holywater
from the closet and pointing it at the vamp. “You should know what this
is, you gave it to me. Now get lost, or I’ll decide that facing Willow’s
anger is worth it.”
Riley
decided that a tactical retreat was a good idea, and
ran.
“I’ve
got to call the others.” Xander said, picking up the
phone.
*****
Buffy
and Willow were in the middle of a session of unarmed sparing when the
phone rang, so Buffy was breathing a little heavy when she answered the
phone “Hello!” The voice on the other end made her blood run cold.
“Riley?” She asked a bit worried. Out of
the corner of her eye she saw Willow answer her cell
phone.
“Hi,
Buffy.” Riley’s voice said into one ear, while the other heard Willow say
“Riley’s a vampire?”
“So,
how’s life without the sun?” she inquired into the
phone.
“So
Xander told you already, huh? I didn’t think he’d had time yet.” Riley
said “Well, I guess that means you won’t be inviting me
in.”
“Not
a chance. Actually, I won’t even be the one to kill you, cause Willow
called it.” Buffy said. “Something about keeping a
promise.”
“I’m
so afraid of a little girl with a shovel.” Riley’s tone was full of
sarcasm.
“You
should be.” Buffy replied.
“Well, I’m not. I’ll enjoy killing all
your friends, then I’ll turn you, make you mine forever.” Riley
said.
“Wow,
I’ve never heard that before.” Buffy said, then covered the mouthpiece
and asked Will “Do you want to tell him, or should I?”
“I’ll
do it.” Will said, an evil glint in her eye, as she took the phone.
“Riley? Hi, I just wanted to thank you for being so inadequate as alover
that you drove Buffy into my bed.” Willow’s voice was full of laughter.
“Buffy says my little finger is bigger then your
equipment.”
“I’m
going to rip your heart out. How dare you touch my” was all that Riley
managed to say before Willow hung up the phone.
“Xander is calling Giles, and we’ll tell
Dawn in the morning.” Willow said.
“And
tomorrow we hunt him down, and make him dust.” Buffy said, her voice
betraying her desire to kill Riley.
“He’s
mine.” Willow said before passionately kissing her lover “I’m going to
beat him to death with a shovel.”
“Why
a shovel?” her curious lover inquired.
“When
Riley was asking how to woo you, I told him that if he hurt you, I would beat him to death with a
shovel, and I always keep my word.”
“Speaking of your word, I believe you
promised me I could ravish your body this evening.” Buffy said, cupping
Willow’s buttocks and kissing her passionately.
“Like
I said, I always keep my word.” Willow reached her hand between their
bodies and gently tweaked a nipple. “So take me to bed, cause last time we
made love in the kitchen, Dawn walked in.” Willow turned bright red, just
at the thought, not that Buffy’s roaming hands weren’t contributing to the
flushed state of her skin.
*****
Anya
cringed at the crunch sound. She’d turned her back ten minutes previously,
finding herself grossed out by what Willow was doing to poor Riley. Sure
he was a vampire, but was it really necessary to keep hitting him with the
shovel? All the bones in his body looked to be powder, and most of the
blood that should have been in his body was spread on the walls of the
alley.
The
fight hadn’t ever been fair. Willow had trapped Riley with a binding
spell, then proceeded to methodically crush every bone in his body.
“Hmm,
what do you think?” Willow said, taking her lover in her arms and giving
her a kiss.
“Well, I think he’s not going to be a
threat for quite some time.” Buffy said, a bit worried by the ferallook
in her lover’s eyes.
“No,
I mean what should we do to him now.” Willow asked, sounding lost in
bloodlust.
“Stake him.” Xander
said.
“What?”
“Stake him, Will.” Xander repeated. “We
don’t torture vampires, we kill them. Look at him. What’s next, have him
drawn and quartered? Maybe stuff him into an Iron Maiden? He was our
friend at one time, and we owe it to him to kill him, but this is wrong.
I’m leaving.” With that Xander gathered Anya to him, and walked brusquely
out of the alley.
“He’s
right.” Buffy said slowly. “Yes he hurt me, but he’s paid for that, now
it’s time to put him out of his misery. Unless you want to keep himas a
pet.” The sarcasm dripped for the slayer’s words.
“Fine!” Willow put down her shovel, drew
her sword and with one quick turn, decapitated the pathetic vampire lying
in front of her.
The
gleam hadn’t left Willow’s eyes with Riley’s death, though.
“Let’s go kill some demons!”Willow
almost shouted before tearing out of the alley, hunting for somethingto
kill.
“Will!” Buffy called after her, before
taking off after her lover at full slayer speed. She caught up with Will
at the gate to Restfield cemetery, where the redhead had found her first
demon.
The
thing was seven feet tall, and weighed at least 450 pounds, and it was
sort of funny watching this huge monster being overcome by a slight girl.
Buffy
saw several opportunities for Willow to finish the fight, but insteadshe
kept hacking at the demon, like she wanted to make it suffer. Finally
Buffy walked up behind the demon, which was fighting from one knee,
because Will had hamstrung the beast, and decapitated it with one swift
blow.
“What
did you do that for?” Willow shouted at her girlfriend, waving her sword
around wildly.
Buffy
dropped her sword, and walked slowly up to the woman she loved, whispering
“I love you Will!” as she took her in her arms and gave her a light kiss.
“What
are we doing here?” Willow said as if just waking up. “What did you do to
that demon?” She then asked looking at the shredded demon carcass before
them.
“I
just killed it, you’re the one who made it into hamburger.” Buffysaid
smiling now that Willow seemed to be back to normal.
“I
did that?” She pointed at the demon.
“Yep.”
“Why?”
“I
don’t know. After you beat Riley to a pulp, you just went nuts.” Buffy
tried to downplay the incident.
“I
beat Riley to a… to a pulp?” Willow gasped. “Really?”
“You
broke every bone in his body. Even Anya couldn’t watch.” Buffy
said.
“I
can’t remember any of this. It’s like I wasn’t in control of mybody.”
Willow paled, freaked by her apparent loss of control, and started to
cry.
“Shh!” Buffy said holding the woman she
loved more then life itself. “Don’t cry, it’ll be alright. Let’s get you
home, some sleep will do you good.”
*****
Buffy
woke up when Willow screamed and sat up. The slayer gathered the wiccan in
her arms and started to sooth her, gently rubbing her
back.
Both
girls were startled by the knock at the door. “Are you guys alright?” Dawn
asked.
“Yeah
we’re fine. Come in if you want.” Buffy said, after making sure that the
two of them were decent.
“I
heard someone scream.” Dawn said from the doorway, taking in the sobbing
redhead cradled against her sister.
“I
think Will had a nightmare. You can go back to bed if you want.” Buffy
explained.
“Will?” Dawn asked hesitantly “Is there
anything I can do or get for you.”
Willow wiped her eyes on Buffy’syummy
sushi pyjamas, then looked at Dawn and said “No, I’m fine now. Thank you
though.”
“Ok,
then I’m going back to bed.” With that Dawn closed the
door.
“Share time, Will.” Buffy said, puling
the hacker so that she was sitting against her. “Tell doctor Buffy what’s
wrong.”
“I
think I’m going insane.” Willow blurted, then silence began a long and
uninterrupted reign in the room.
Finally Buffy decided that Willow really
wasn’t going to elaborate. “What makes you think that?”
“I’m
having really bad nightmares. I keep seeing images of violence, images of
me killing my friends, dominating you, whipping you bloody, then fucking
you. I keep seeing myself killing my parents, ripping them to
shreds.” Willow whispered
softly.
“Will, they’re just dreams.”Buffy tried
to soothe her.
“Are
they?” the witch asked “tonight I freaked out. What if I’d attacked you,
or Xander?”
“But
you didn’t!” Buffy insisted.
“Buffy, I love you, but I think I need to
be away from you for a while.” Willow said, her face determined.
“I
don’t want you to go.” Buffy said, her own tears beginning to
flow.
“I
know, and I don’t want to but I have to.” Willow
said.
“Where will you go?” Buffy
asked.
“LA.
I’ll stay with Angel in the hotel, maybe he can help me sort some stuff
out, and I can help him.” Willow decided.
“For
how long?”
“Two
weeks, a month at the most.” Willow said.
“I
love you more then anything, and if something happens to you, I’ll die.”
Buffy said.
“I’ll
be fine, except for the whole missing you thing, and the missing dawn
thing, and the spending time around Wesley and Cordelia thing.” Willow
started to babble.
Buffy
stopped her with a kiss. “I’ll be waiting for you.”