Chapter 7



Arrangements for the daytime meeting had been difficult. While the car windows and the windows of the Sunnydale Human Demon Relations Office had a special coating that protected Buffy from the sun’s deadly rays, getting to and from the car proved difficult. Yet the arrangement couldn’t be helped. Her mother couldn’t—or wouldn’t as Buffy suspected—meet with her after dark any day this week or the next, so a meeting had been conveniently set up at the Relations Office.

Neutral ground—it required neither and invite into Joyce Summers’ home or the risk of walking into a house full of vampires. Joyce hadn’t been enthusiastic about either option, so Rupert Giles’ office seemed the next best thing. Not to mention the hundreds of trained professionals that would be milling about the office should something go wrong and her daughter try to attack.

The thought that her mother didn’t trust her anymore stung, but Buffy could understand the hesitation. Instead she had done all that she could to comply with her mother’s wishes so that she might ease her doubts.

Now Buffy was sitting in Giles’ office for the second time in just over a week. Her mother was running half an hour late. Another half hour and Buffy was going to put her down as a no show. It hurt to know that her mother didn’t want anything to do with her now that she was a vampire—she hadn’t asked for vampirism, but she was being punished for it all the same.

“I’m sure she’ll be here any moment,” Giles said with enough false conviction in his voice to confirm the thoughts that were already running through her mind. She could appreciate the sentiment behind the gesture though.

Buffy smiled sadly at him. “My mother doesn’t like vampires, Giles. I don’t need to ask you to know that the meeting with her the day after I was turned didn’t go well. I find it almost hard to believe they managed to convince her to meet with me at all.”

Giles frowned and looked at his hands knowing she was right. The elder Summers woman had been devastated by the news that her daughter had been turned, despite that, however, she had flat out refused for an hour to even contemplate meeting with her turned daughter. In the end it had been Buffy’s younger sister who had convinced their mother that she should a least make the effort to meet with Buffy. But now? Joyce Summers wasn’t going to show, and looking at Buffy, Giles knew she knew it as well as he did.

“Some families do take the news harder than others. Given time, perhaps she will come around,” he offered.

Buffy gave him another small smile, “Perhaps.”

The sound of the clock on the wall reverberated off of the walls, and with each movement the second hand seemingly echoing pointedly throughout the small room. Buffy watched the hands on the clock tick by slowly, her heart falling a little bit more each minute her mother failed to arrive.

She knew in coming that she was setting herself up for disappointment. Vampires frightened Joyce Summers. She didn’t fully understand them, or trust them. Having grown up in a time where vampires were considered no more than mythical creatures, seen only in the horror movies rented to watch late at night huddled up on the couch in the safety of your own home, the integration of real vampires into everyday life had been hard on her mother. She had tried to live in denial for months and for awhile had been successful until her next door neighbour had been turned and she had been forced to accept the truth. She had moved her family to another house not long after.

Therefore Buffy had known: the moment she became a vampire—in her mother’s eyes at least—she ceased being her daughter. Buffy Summers was dead.

Buffy let her eyes stray to the clock again. It was now less than five minutes to four o’clock.

Buffy sighed and stood up. “She’s not coming, Giles.”

“It’s not yet four o’clock,” he replied as he removed the glasses he wore and gave them a quick polish on the end of his shirt before looking back up at the clock that had loomed over them as they had sat together for the last hour.

“I seriously doubt leaving it another five minutes will—” Buffy was cut off mid speech as the door to the office slammed open making the man beside her jump in fright.

An absent hand flew to his heart. “My word!”

“Buffy?” A dishevelled looking Dawn asked from the doorway. Her face broke into a smile as her eyes landed on her sister and she launched herself across the room and into her sister’s arms.

“Dawn!” Buffy stood in shock as she looked down at the teenager wrapped around her waist. “Does mom know you’re here?”

Dawn glanced up, giving her sister a pointed look. “What do you think?”

“I’m guessing no.”

“And you’d be right. I came straight from school,” she said as she grinned up at her sister. “This is so cool. What’s it like to be a vampire?”

Giles smiled at the two siblings as he made his way to the door. “I’ll leave you two to catch up. Take as long as you need.”

Buffy smiled her thanks and waited until the door had closed behind him. “You shouldn’t be here, Dawnie.”

Dawn gave her sister an incredulous look. “What? Why not?”

“Cause it’s obvious mom doesn’t want you here. She made sure that the meeting time was during the day when you’re in school. She doesn’t want you seeing me,” Buffy explained as she pulled her sister down into the seat opposite her own.

A defiant spark ignited within Dawn’s eyes. “Well that’s too bad. You’re my sister and she can’t stop me from seeing you if I want to—which I do.”

If only that were true.

Despite herself, Buffy smiled. “I just don’t want you getting into trouble because of me.”

Dawn grinned, knowing that she had won this round with her sister. “So tell me everything. Have you met any cute vamps yet? Where are you staying?”

Buffy grinned for the first time in days as she let her sister’s incessant chatter wash over her. She may have been abandoned by her mother, but at least she knew that her sister still cared for her.


*****


It was still a few hours away from nightfall when Buffy arrived back at the mansion. The house was blanketed in total silence as she made her way back up the stairs intent on getting a few hours sleep before dusk settled in and the house was roused for the evening.

Her footsteps echoed loudly on the stairs and she found herself walking on the balls of her feet to avoid making unnecessary noise. She relaxed once more when her feet were on carpeted flooring. Navigating her way through the halls, she headed for her bedroom.

She stopped as she began to pass Spike’s door. He had said to come to him if she needed to talk. Well, no, he’d said to come to him if she decided she wanted to tell him what had been on her mind, but she figured he wouldn’t mind if she went to him anyway. She needed to talk to someone and he seemed the better option over going into the room that Angelus shared with his sire.

Buffy hesitated for a moment before moving towards his door and knocking on it lightly. No one answered.

Opening it slightly she peered into the darkness of his room. “Spike?”

Taking a deep breath, Buffy slipped soundlessly into the room as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She toed off her shoes by his door and padded across the soft carpet towards him.

“Spike?” she called again as she let her weight sink down into the soft mattress of his bed. The movement caused the covers to slip down his body and expose the bare expanse of his back. Her eyes followed its line, trailing over the slight dip in his waist before skimming across the swell of his buttocks barely hidden by his sheets. Oh God, she thought looking away in mortification, he sleeps naked.

“Buffy?” Her eyes went wide at the sound of his voice as he rolled over. She swallowed heavily as his hand reached out and touched her elbow gently. “What’s wrong?”

“I, um—I just wanted to talk. I didn’t think you’d mind,” she managed to choke out around her embarrassment, mentally berating herself at how stupid she sounded.

Spike frowned and pulled the sheet higher around his waist. “I don’t. Not at all, love. What’s wrong?”

Buffy glanced back at him and smiled when she saw the sheet bunched across his chest. He motioned her towards him with his head and encouraged her to lie down beside him. His arm naturally fell around her form as she came to rest her head against his shoulder and melted into his side.

“What’s on your mind, pet?”

His sleep roughened voice sent tingles of pleasure racing down her spine. God, what would it be like to wake up to that every morning? The feel of his voice washing over her was almost a tangible pleasure, one to which she felt sure she could easily grow accustomed.

“I was meant to meet with my mother today,” she said softly after a moment.

“Yeah? How’d it go?” His thumb was making lazy circles where it rested at the base of her spine just under the hem of her top. The constant motion was soothing and she felt her body relaxing more heavily into his embrace as her hand moved to rest against his chest.

Buffy let out a long winded sigh. “She didn’t show. I waited there for over an hour for her—nothing. Not even a phone call.”

Spike frowned and leaned down to place a soft kiss on the top of her head. “It can take time, love. Not everyone is comfortable with the idea of vampires to begin with.”

“Oh, I know, believe me. Mom is most definitely someone who is not okay with vampires. I just wish it didn’t hurt so much. These past few days, I’ve just wanted to curl up in my mommy’s warm embrace and pretend none of this ever happened. But it did. I’m a vampire and because of it my mother doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

His embrace tightened around her almost imperceptibly. “Maybe you should leave it for a little while, give her some time to get used to the idea and then go and visit her?”

She had to smile at his attempts to make her feel better over her mother’s abandonment. If he knew her mother and her feelings towards vampires then he would realise that time would only make her grow more wary. “Maybe.”

“We’re your family now too, pet.”

“I know,” Buffy said quietly as they fell into a comfortable silence. His hand was still rubbing soothing circles across her lower back. She could feel the tension she had kept trapped within her muscles since awakening begin to seep away as she allowed her body to be lulled into a state of total relaxation. “What are you plans for tonight? Anything exciting?”

His chuckle reverberated through her body. “I’m going out with you and Angelus, love.”

Buffy’s head shot up off his shoulder so she could look at him. “What? What do you mean? Since when I am going out? Where is he taking me?”

Spike’s smile grew. “He’s taking you to Requiem, pet.”

“Requiem?”


*****


Buffy could feel the heavy pulse of the music thrumming through her body even as the limousine pulled up in front of the club. Requiem. The scents that were seeping out through its doors were heady and intoxicating: human sweat, the musk of arousal, the tang of fear and the sweet spice of fresh blood. Her senses were going wild and she could barely contain her moan of hunger. Her demon was clawing to get out and feed.

“Take this,” Angelus said, pulling her attention back inside the car.

Her eyes flickered down to the gun being offered to her before drifting back up to the man holding it.

“I’m going to need a gun?” she asked, hesitantly reaching out to take the object in her hands. It was cool and heavy against her skin. Her hand fell around its handle naturally, yet somehow it still felt awkward in her grasp.

Her sire’s expression was grim. “Hopefully not, but you never know. You have to remember you’re not just Buffy Summers anymore. You’re my childe, a member of the Aurelius clan and part of the familial fold. Whether you like it or not, you just became a target in this town. With power you make enemies, and our clan is powerful.”

His voice sent chills of fear racing down her spine. A target or victim—they were the same thing if she got caught. She never wanted to be the victim again or to experience that same feeling of helplessness she had in that alley. She had thought by becoming a vampire that it would put any chance of that happening again behind her. Somehow the chance that she would become a target because of her status as an Aurelian hadn’t crossed her mind.

“I don’t know how to use it,” she said softly, looking to Spike, who was sitting beside her, for support.

Spike smiled gently, taking the gun from her. “You turn the safety off here.” He pointed to the safety switch. “Then aim and fire. Aim for the chest, it’s the biggest surface and therefore the easiest to hit. The gun shoots stakes so if you can hit them in the heart, they’ll dust.”

Angelus held another small object out to her. It was a small black strap that had a modern looking buckle on it and a gun holster. “Wear this to strap it to the outside of your thigh. Your skirt should cover any bulge it makes.”

Buffy nodded and unsnapped the buckle before pulling up her silk skirt. She stretched the strap around her leg and fumbled to do up the buckle. Buffy froze as pale hands slid across the skin of her thigh to help her. Spike snapped it up easily before taking the gun from her and sliding it into its sheath. His hands lingered over her exposed flesh for a minute before she hastily pulled her skirt down again and gave him a nervous smile. If she could blush she would have been red.

Both vampires missed the look that was passed between Angelus and his sire.

“Shall we?” Darla asked with an indifferent tone aimed at the display being put on before them.

Buffy’s eyes snapped to the elder vampire and she nodded.

“Good. Let’s go then.” The light in Darla’s eyes was mischievous as she sent a look in her lover’s direction. The car door was opened for her and she turned gracefully in her seat before sliding out of the limousine. Angelus and Drusilla followed her.

Buffy smoothed the silk of her skirt self consciously once more before turning to look at the door.

Spike smiled at her. “Ready, love?

“Ready,” she replied, before manoeuvring herself across the seat to the door and sliding out. Her skirt fell heavily around her legs as she straightened up and looked at the place before her.

Velvet ropes that contained the queue of mostly vampires waiting to get into the club were ignored as their party walked up to the front doors. She was conscious of the gun strapped to her thigh as she walked, suddenly nervous about whether she would be allowed in with a weapon on her person. Doors were opened to them without invitation as they reached the entrance however, and they slipped in without question.

The heavy pulse of the music thrumming through her body grew stronger as they entered the club and she had to brace herself against the heavy assault on her senses.

Her eyes grew impossibly wide as she took in the scenes around her and realised for the first time exactly where they were. This was no ordinary club. Angelus had taken her to a feeding club. Her eyes shot to his and she noticed the wicked gleam in his eyes.

Oh my God.





AN: Thank you to all the wonderful people who left reviews for the last chapter, your comments seriously inspire me to write faster especially when I am having trouble with a chapter ^_~ and of course to Andrea for her amazing work beta’ing this for me.