Adult-FanFiction.org : Buffy

Humanity	By : QueenB Category: AtS/BtVS Crossovers > Het - Male/Female > Angel(us)/Buffy > Angel(us)/Buffy Views: 4278 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS), nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Thoughts are shown in italics.
[TELEPATHIC THOUGHTS]
Russian indicated by [small caps]

The silent watcher looked on as Buffy tackled a particularly large demon. The creature was huge, purplish in color and covered with sharp spines and sporting needle-like teeth. It towered at nine feet and the petite Slayer looked hopelessly outmatched. Privately the watcher wondered how she’d manage without proper weaponry. The small stake she carried appeared hopelessly inadequate for the task at hand.
Suddenly, another blonde streaked from her right and charged, yelling insults at the startled beast. “Oi, pick on someone your own size, you overgrown people eater!”
Buffy halted, absolutely infuriated. “Spike, will you get OUT OF THE WAY!?!? You’re blocking my shot!”
The watcher frowned. Spike? Who the hell was that? And why would any other human risk his life in this foolhardy fashion?
The man in question had tackled the monster, throwing it hard into an adjacent gravestone. “Come on, you purple pillock, is that all the fight you’ve got?” The watcher gaped in astonishment as the man’s face suddenly shifted, revealing bony ridges on his forehead and pointed fangs.
Buffy sighed in exasperation and hefted the stake. Watching carefully for her opening, she swiftly threw it at the creature’s head when it struggled to scramble upright. The small wooden projectile flew through the air and unerringly found its target--in the monster’s left eye.
The creature gurgled, pawed feebly at the piece of wood and then toppled like a stone, pinning the leather-clad blonde underneath its weight. Buffy stared at him in amusement, shrugged her shoulders and then casually yanked her stake out of the creature’s eye. After wiping it on the demon’s scaly hide, she walked off into the darkness.
“Hey, Buffy! Come on, you just going to leave me here?” the man shouted as he struggled ineffectually to remove the behemoth holding him to the ground.
“Who cares, Spike?” she yelled back. “Nobody invited you to this party, anyway!”
The watcher stared at the vampire as he finally shoved the monster off and took off after the blonde Slayer. “You’d think after lending you an assist, you’d show a little gratitude,” he groused.
“You want gratitude, Spike, go work at a soup kitchen. Why don’t you just take off and find someone else to pester? Go back to pool hustling. I’m sure you’re low on cash by now.”
The vampire darted in front of her and started what was obviously a long-standing argument. “God, Buffy, when you are going to give me any credit? I tell you, a man can change.”
“You don’t want credit, Spike. You prefer money. And as I keep telling you, you’re not a…”
“A man, yeah, I know. Look, Slayer, just because I’m not human doesn’t mean I’m not a man.”
“Wow, now there’s a positive endorsement for putting up with your company! ‘The Slayer hangs out with a vampire!’” Buffy exclaimed with a bitter laugh.
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” Spike said in a low suggestive tone. The watcher shivered, feeling a sudden chill. By the stiff, icy expression that appeared in Buffy’s eyes, that was evidently the wrong thing to say.
“Seeing how badly that turned out, there is no way I’m repeating that particular mistake. Especially with you.” She brushed past Spike, either ignoring or not seeing the flash of pain that darted across his face.
“Buffy, what the hell was so special about Angel?” At her incredulous look, he sneered, “Oh, right that poncy soul of his. Like that’s so wonderful! He needed a soul to be good. Without it, he was an evil, vicious bastard, wasn’t he?”
“And isn’t that a case of the pot calling the kettle black! As if you were never an evil, vicious bastard!”
“Well, I’m trying to be good. And I’m doing it without a stupid soul!”
“That’s right. You don’t have a soul--you’ve got a leash.” Buffy gave him a poisonous smile and sauntered off leaving the vampire speechless.
The listener had heard enough for the time being. The vampire had initially appeared to be an obstacle but perhaps might now be an asset instead. The game would have to be carefully played but success definitely seemed in the cards.
Nodding in satisfaction, the watcher melted quietly into the shadows.
__________
Xander greeted the other men on his shift. He couldn’t believe how great his life was these days. He was going to marry the woman he loved who loved him, he’d found a career for which he was perfectly suited instead of an endless string of dead-end high school jobs with his name on the shirt and the demon population seemed to be fairly quiet these days.
And only on the Hellmouth would something like that be considered a perk. He shook his head, resisting the urge to whistle a happy tune. Oh yeah, life was good.
“Psst, you there. May I talk to you?”
He spun around quickly. Maybe he’d been congratulating himself too soon. In a dark corner of an unfinished section of the building the crew was working on, a tall figure peered nervously out at him from the shadows. And wasn’t it just a little too warm to be wearing a heavy coat? With a hood?
“You’re Xander, aren’t you? Alexander Harris?”
“Who’s asking?” Xander returned as he tried to stroll casually towards a toolbox only six feet away. It was broad daylight but he knew vampires could move about during the day if they avoided direct sunlight--and he didn’t like the way this woman (he could see it was a woman now) kept glancing uneasily at the patch of sunlight lying on the bare floorboards.
“You don’t know me. But I need to know if you’re Xander Harris. Don’t move!” she snapped sharply, finally noticing his subtle movements. Her voice softened as if she didn’t want to startle him. “I just need help and you’re the only one I could turn to--that is, if you’re Xander Harris.” She gave him a desperately hopeful look. “Well?”
He’d stopped at her earlier admonishment but suddenly dived towards the toolbox. Knocking it over, he yanked up a large wood cross with a pointed end that he’d hidden in the lower compartment for just such an emergency. Brandishing it towards the hidden woman, he yelled, “Back, fiend! I’ve got a stake and I know how to use it!”
Amazingly, the woman appeared almost relieved. “If you know what I am, then you must be Xander Harris. I need your help. Or rather, the help of your friend.”
Xander approached her carefully. She shrank back from the cross until her back met the supporting wall behind her, but her eyes remained riveted on the young man as if he really were her last hope. “What friend would that be, lady?”
She gave him a penetrating stare and said the last thing he expected.
“The Slayer.”
__________
Buffy was getting Dawn ready for school when the call came. Secretly she welcomed the interruption. She’d been in the middle of another fight with her little sister. They seemed to come daily now.
Dawn questioned her authority on almost everything. Now she wanted to stay out tonight with some boy she’d met, a boy Buffy didn’t even know. When the older girl had pointed out what had happened the last time Dawn had dated some strange kid, the teenager had blown up at her.
The yelling match had escalated in fury and volume when the harsh ringing of the phone had interrupted. When Buffy had turned to answer it, Dawn had used the distraction to bolt from the house. Buffy sighed and hoped she could catch up with Dawn when she left school. “Hello, Summers’ residence? Who’s calling?”
“Buffster, it’s Xander. You’re not going to believe what happened to me today.”
__________
Xander had told the foreman he had a family emergency and managed to bundle the vampiress into the trunk of his car without being seen. She’d asked to be taken to Buffy’s house. She’d told him calmly that she already knew where the Slayer lived and had given him Buffy’s address as proof when he’d hesitated. “If you know where Buffy lives, why come to me?”
She’d sighed and gazed at the floor, then raised her eyes with a sheepish look. “Well, if I’d just shown up on her doorstep, I don’t think she would have been predisposed to greet me kindly. I was hoping that you wouldn’t stake me on sight. I’m not looking to challenge her. I really need her help.”
“Look, Buffy has to go to school. She’ll meet with you later. So I can’t take you to her house right now.”
She gave him a puzzled look. “Well, then, where are you taking me?”
Xander drew a deep breath. “There’s a vampire I know. He’ll put you up at his crypt until dark.”
The vampiress stared at him in outright panic. “NO! I don’t want to see another vampire! You don’t understand! I have to stay away from them. And I have to be back before dark--before I’m missed.” Her eyes darted around wildly and she clenched her fists in frustration.
Xander frowned. He’d never met a vampire who was scared of other vampires and this one appeared terrified. “Look, lady, we’re out of options here. I’m not taking you to see my friend until I’m sure you’re not going to try and hurt her.”
Thinking for a moment, he said, “You can stay at the Magic Box. It’s a little shop that sells magical items. It’s run by a powerful witch so I don’t suggest you try anything.” He added a glare to back up his lie. Anya wasn’t a witch but there was no need to let this woman know that.
She thought for a moment, then nodded. “All right. You want to protect your friends. I understand.” She flashed him a grateful smile. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it,” Xander replied without thinking. Damn, he couldn’t remember ever before meeting a vampire who was so…polite. Except for Angel. Angel had avoided other vampires, too, come to think of it. Did this woman also have a soul?
He eyed her uncertainly. How did you spot a souled vampire, anyway?
__________
There had been a heated argument between Xander and his fiancée when he’d brought the woman to the Magic Box. He’d hurriedly invited her in and then had to explain to Anya why he’d let a bloodsucking fiend into the store when they’d gone to so much trouble to make the place resistant to vampiric entry. Anya had glared at the hooded figure and hissed at him.
“It’s because she’s a woman, isn’t it? God, Willow was right about you. You’re just a sucker for demonic women!”
“Come on, Anya, you’re not being fair. She’s asking for our help. I thought you of all people would understand.”
“What, just because I used to be a demon I should keep an open house to every one who marches up to us? First Spike, now this. I mean, this woman could kill me and every customer who comes in here!”
Xander sighed. “In that case, why risk it during daylight? Vampires usually hunt at night. And she’d be pissing off the Slayer. I haven’t met any vampires dumb enough to try that in a while. Just stick her in the basement and lock the door. I installed a heavy-duty deadbolt. No vampire can get through that.”
He glanced back at the woman and gave her a reassuring smile. She didn’t look up from underneath her hood.
Anya shook her head, still doubtful. “At least let’s see her face first. She might not even be a vampire, just some con artist trying to take advantage of your weak nature!”
He couldn’t believe Anya. Sometimes the logic of her mind defied understanding. “So she poses as a vampire to gain what--free blood?”
The woman spoke up for the first time since she’d entered the store. “It’s all right, Xander.” She raised her hood revealing the face of a middle-aged woman, not much older than 35, though that gave no clue to her real age. She had black hair and brown eyes. She also appeared tired and strained and there was a wretched expression on her face.
“Like I said, I can’t stay long anyway. I have to get back before sundown or they’ll know I’ve been out. I’ll probably have to grab a shower, too. I don’t want them to smell that I’ve been with humans.” She gave a brief shudder and gritted her teeth.
Xander and Anya glanced at each other. What vampire was nervous about human odor? This was getting stranger by the minute. “We still don’t know you’re a vampire,” Anya accused.
The woman gave her a level stare and then her face abruptly shifted into familiar ridges and yellowed eyes. The two humans jumped back even as her features re-settled into human lines. “Satisfied?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m convinced! Anya, what about you?”
“Definitely, no doubt about it! The basement’s this way.” Backing up warily and shooting Xander a hostile look, Anya pointed towards the basement.
Just before she disappeared, the woman gave Xander one last pleading gaze. “You’ll tell the Slayer not to hurt me, right? I want her help not a fight.”
“Sure, absolutely.” She smiled at him again and disappeared into the basement.
__________
“And that’s it, Buffy. She’s been there ever since. You can see her after school but you’d better come directly to the Magic Box. She’s really terrified of being out after dark for some reason.”
“Fine, Xander. But you really owe me on this one, especially if she turns out to be a murderous demon.”
Buffy hung up the phone and bit at her lip. She knew Xander was a bit of a soft touch where female demons were concerned. But he’d grown far more responsible in the last few years. If he was certain this woman needed help, then she had to look into it. Besides, the vampiress was safely caged and sounded a lot less dangerous than most.
All the same--she shrugged, packed a stake and headed off to school.
__________
Needless to say, all the Scoobies were excited when they heard the news. They gathered in the Magic Box and waited impatiently for Buffy to show up. They’d been bombarding Xander with questions about his mysterious ‘friend’ ever since they arrived while he did his best to tell his story.
Willow was incredulous. “Xander, are you kidding me? You brought a vampire? Here? And she says she knows Buffy?”
“Willow, she said she knew about the Slayer not that she knew her. She wants to wait until Buffy arrives before coming out. If she’d planned on hurting us, don’t you think she would have taken advantage of Buffy’s absence and tried to attack us by now?”
Tara peered curiously towards the basement. “So what’s she like, Xander? I mean, what’s her name?”
Xander opened and closed his mouth silently. Anya rolled her eyes in exasperation. “You mean you didn’t even get her name?”
He retorted, “Hey, it’s not as if you asked when I brought her here. You were getting all jealous and upset because she’s female!”
They all jumped when they door banged open. Buffy walked in with Dawn, the latter appearing slightly out of breath. “So, Buffy, you ran all the way, huh?” Xander felt secretly pleased. It wasn’t often he had news that could get Buffy so excited.
Buffy spoke with her usual bluntness. “I’m sorry I’m late. I had to pick up Dawn. OK, Xander, where is she?”
Dawn flounced over to a chair and pouted. “Yeah, let’s see this mysterious vampire. I don’t want to miss an important date because of this.”
Anya glared at Xander and said, “You brought her here. You can bring her out.”
Xander walked back and unlocked the basement door. “Remember, Buffy, I promised you wouldn’t stake her until you heard her out.”
Buffy eyes narrowed. “I’ll decide that for myself.”
The woman came up and hesitated when she saw so many other people. Xander swiftly made introductions. Then her eyes locked on Buffy. She stepped forward, extending her hand. “How do you do? I’m Melissa Shaw.” When Buffy didn’t respond, she nervously dropped her hand. “What did Xander tell you?”
“Not much. Only that you wanted my help. I think you should know I’m not in the habit of helping vampires.”
At that moment, the door banged open again, revealing a blanket draped over a smoking figure. He ran forward only to rebound off the invisible barrier that shielded the Magic Box. “Oh, for cryin’--will one of you invite me in already! I’m about the fricassee out here!”
“What’s-the-magic-word, Spike?” Xander singsonged.
The vampire growled and yelled, “NOW!”
Xander appeared to think and then shook his head sadly. “Nope, that’s not it.” He shut the door and turned back only to blink in surprise. “Hey, where’d she go?”
The others started looking around the Magic Box. Melissa had mysteriously disappeared.
Tara said, “I think she ducked back down into the basement.” Ignoring Spike’s yells as he continued to burn under the sunlight, the others marched down to the basement.
There they found the woman huddled on the floor, shaking in obvious terror. “What’s the matter, Melissa?” Willow couldn’t remember seeing such mortal fear on a vampire’s face before, not even those who faced Buffy.
“What’s that other vampire doing here? He’s one of Onegin’s crew! God, they found me! They know I’ve snuck out!” She bent her head down and started moaning.
“Spike doesn’t really work for anybody but Spike. And who’s Onegin?” Buffy frowned. The name was unfamiliar. Was it another vampire?
Melissa lifted up her face. “Y-you know this vampire? He’s a friend?” She paused and the ghost of a smile twitched at her lips. “And his name is Spike?”
“I wouldn’t call Spike a friend exactly. More of a reluctant ally. It’s a long story. He won’t hurt you, I promise,” Xander said firmly. He was beginning to feel distinctly protective of Melissa even if she was considerably older than he.
She took a shuddering breath and grasped his outstretched hand. “Maybe I should stay down here until he goes. I don’t want to talk to other vampires. Even if they are named after dogs.”
Buffy ruthlessly stifled a laugh at that last comment and made a mental note to ask about it later. She said, “Fine, we’ll just ignore him. He’s got to go away anyway or risk a premature death by sunlight. Now answer the question. Who’s Onegin?”
The vampiress’s face hardened and she spat out, “The bastard’s my Sire.”
__________
Willow peeked out from behind the store blinds and called back. “The coast’s clear. He’s gone for the moment. He’ll probably be back by nightfall, though.”
Melissa settled herself at the Magic Box’s table and listened carefully. “I don’t sense him nearby. I guess it’s safe.” She let out a relieved sigh and Buffy raised her eyebrows. For a vampire, this woman certainly appeared to breathe a lot.
“I should start at the beginning. I’m a computer programmer. A damn good one, too. I was in town with my sales team two months ago as part of a seminar. I was just walking back to the hotel when someone came up behind me and knocked me out. I’d been warned to be careful after dark but I was in such a hurry to get to my room that I wasn’t really paying attention.
“When I came to, there was this man holding me in this iron grip and biting my throat out. The agony was horrific. I tried screaming and struggling but I couldn’t break his hold. I could feel my life just slipping away.”
She stared around at them and attempted a bleak smile. “I’d thought that was just an expression, you know. But I actually felt it happening. Then he ripped open his chest with a really long, sharp fingernail--god, the man should see a manicurist. There’s no reason for anyone to be sporting talons like that.”
She shuddered in disgust and continued. “He pressed my face into his chest and held his other hand over my nose. After awhile, I got too dizzy and weak to keep my mouth shut and his blood just…” she trailed off and stared at the floor.
Buffy broke the awkward silence. “So then what happened?”
Melissa looked up wearily. “I woke up chained to a wall. I was in a dungeon. I was disoriented and confused but the most powerful sensation was this awful gnawing hunger at the pit of my stomach. It seemed to be reaching up and clawing at my throat. I started yelling for help. But nobody showed for what seemed like ages.
“Finally, when the hunger was so bad I thought I’d go insane from it, Onegin showed up with Yuri. That’s his amanuensis.” At their uncomprehending looks, she amended, “His right-hand man. Yuri does practically everything for Onegin. He trusts him implicitly.”
“Yuri’s a vampire, too?” Tara said quietly.
Melissa nodded. “Onegin’s got over fifty fledges and minions ranging in age from about three to two hundred years but he’s set Yuri above them all. Ilyosha Dimitri Konstantin Onegin is--or rather was--a Russian boyar. That’s a level of nobility just below that of the ruling princes in Czarist Russia. It was abolished by Peter the Great. Onegin was deeply pissed, he never forgave him.”
Melissa allowed herself a swift malicious grin before continuing. “He turned Yuri about four hundred years ago. He was one of his serfs and is totally devoted to him.”
“They had a kid with them. He couldn’t have been much older than she.” She gestured towards Dawn. “They’d torn open his throat so that he was bleeding but still conscious. He didn’t have much strength to do anything but moan. They held him up to my mouth and told me to drink.”
She let out a hysterical laugh, startling them all. “I thought I’d been captured by lunatics, you know, mad serial killers like the Manson family! But when they brought him near me, I smelled his blood. It was...incredible. I could hear his heartbeat, smell his fear and…other things. He’d wet himself.”
Melissa gave another shudder. “But the blood--it was like nothing else in the world mattered. They held him nearer, and I was suddenly terrified. I started screaming again for somebody, anybody, to help me. I begged them to let us both go. Onegin smiled this awful smile and told me the boy was as good as dead anyway. If I didn’t finish him, they’d feed him to one of the other fledges.
“I didn’t understand what he was talking about, only that I’d gotten trapped in some awful Bela Lugosi nightmare and that there was nothing I could do for the kid. I thought if I pretended to go along with it maybe I could get out. I asked them to unchain my hands, that it was difficult to get a good grip with my hands pinned that way. When they unchained me, I bolted for the stairs. Yuri tackled me before I got two feet. They rechained me to the wall and dragged the kid away. I never saw him again.”
Melissa looked up at them with unshed tears in her eyes. “You have to understand. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, only that I had to get away. It was selfish of me not to think of that kid, I know. But I was still weak from hunger. I couldn’t even save myself.”
Buffy decided to turn things to a safer subject; reliving this incident obviously had the woman deeply upset. “So, why’d this Onegin turn you anyway?”
Melissa blinked at the sudden change of topic but appeared glad to think of something else. “He wanted a computer programmer to work for him.”
Willow snorted. “Is he crazy? Hasn’t he ever heard of hiring consultants?”
Melissa grinned weakly at her. “That’s what I asked later once I realized what had been done to me amd why. Onegin told me he’d previously hired a man but the guy left him after years of service. He’d gotten a better offer from another company that included extensive travel to sunny countries that Onegin refused to travel to...for obvious reasons.” She ruefully shook her head. “So he thought that a vampire programmer would be more faithful. Plus he doesn’t have to pay me. Onegin’s like a lot of rich men--really cheap.”
“If he doesn’t like sunny climates, what’s he doing here? We are in California, you know--Sunburn Central,” Xander pointed out.
“Low property values. It seems real estate is priced really low here.”
“Yes. No doubt due to the high death rate,” Anya nodded. “This Magic Box was a real steal, especially after the original owner died. What?” she asked when the others grimaced.
“So all this happened two months ago? Why come to us for help now?” Buffy pointed out. “You had plenty of opportunities before now, didn’t you? I mean, they obviously let you loose from the wall.”
Melissa shook her head again. “They kept me chained until I got even hungrier. The next time they brought me a victim, I didn’t hesitate. I-I drank his blood until he was dead. But I still hated it. I hated Onegin, too and didn’t make any bones about hiding it. When they unchained me at last and brought me into his study to start working at the computer equipment, I vomited most of the blood I’d just drunk onto the rug. A sixth-century Persian rug. Onegin was furious.”
Melissa grinned again and this time there was a glint of gold in her eyes as if the memory brought her a sense of deep satisfaction. Then the look faded. “That’s when he gave me my first beating.”
There was a sharp hiss from Dawn. “He beat you?! That’s just awful!”
Buffy glanced sharply at her. She’d brought Dawn here to keep her out of trouble with her new date but now she wondered whether this exposure to the seamier side of vampire life was such a good alternative.
Melissa appeared to come to the same conclusion. She straightened herself and said, “You know, there’s no need to go into the sordid unlife of vampires. It involves a lot of brutality, bloodshed and viciousness to drive out your humanity and encourage your demon to emerge. Over time you just stifle whatever humanity is in you just in order to get the pain to stop. After that, it becomes about inflicting pain on others. Onegin wanted me to kill my family and friends. I pointed out that since I was an only child and my parents had retired to a lovely home in Vermont and we were in California, that might be a tad difficult.”
Tara grimaced, “Why’d he want you to do that?”
Melissa shrugged. “There are lots of reasons. It severs your last ties to humanity. It makes killing strangers easy. Why balk at taking the life of an unknown after you’ve ripped out the hearts of your kinfolk, right? It’s also a kind of rite of passage, a final test. If you can bring yourself to kill your family, you’ve got what it takes, I guess. So I pretended to go along as much as I could.
“But it’s no good. I can’t stand the other vampires and they know it. They punch and hit me when Yuri isn’t around to stop them, even the females. I’d thought that I might make some allies among them at least, but no dice. After a while I just stay in the computer room where they don’t dare go. Onegin doesn’t want some bored, rowdy minion damaging the equipment so he made the room off limits to the others on pain of a severe dusting.”
Buffy shifted impatiently. “Well, that gets that story out of the way. Now back to Anya’s question. Since they trust you now and you’ve adjusted to being a vampire, what do you want from me?”
Melissa looked at her in silence for a long moment. “You don’t get it. I haven’t adjusted and I don’t want to be a vampire. I tried talking to the other minions, asking if they ever regretted being…what they were. They all laughed at me as if I was insane. Most of them have been vampires for years. They just LOVE existing on a permanent liquid diet, they ADORE ripping out the throats of human beings and eating food that reeks of piss and fear. They think of themselves as superior beings and that humans are just food like cows. Try pointing out that most humans don’t live in pens and most vampires slum in sewers and crypts and the irony goes right over their heads. Just because this lot stay in a castle…”
Buffy interrupted, “They live in a castle?”
Melissa peered at her, mystified by her sudden excitement. “Yeah, it’s a big dig on the eastern side of town.
The Scoobies all stared at each other and said as one, “Dracula.”
Melissa blinked. “Dracula? What’s Bram Stoker got to do with it?”
“What does this Onegin of yours look like?” Buffy demanded.
“He’s short, about five feet, three inches but strong for his height. He has blondish hair and close-set blue eyes.”
The others relaxed. This didn’t sound like the Prince of Darkness at all. Melissa noted it but she was still baffled. “Why the interest? And why’d you mention Dracula?”
“Dracula was in town a couple of years back. He came here specifically looking for Buffy. It sounds like your Onegin set up house in the very same castle,” Anya explained.
Melissa’s jaw dropped. “You mean there really IS a Dracula? I thought he was a myth!”
“So did we--until he showed up here,” Tara added.
“Well, Onegin isn’t Dracula, if that’s what you were all thinking. He’s only about five hundred years old. Although he’d probably cream himself if he knew he was staying in the same castle that Dracula was in.”
Melissa considered for a moment, pursing her lips. “I don’t think I’ll tell him. He’s got enough of a swollen ego as it is. Anyway, he’s not a daredevil like Dracula. He warned us to avoid the Slayer. He said you were really dangerous. The tales are that you defeated a dinosaur, a five-thousand-year-old Master vampire and a Hellgod. There was even stories that Hellion demons came into town because they thought you were dead, and yet, here you are. He was very specific in warning us away from you. He hasn’t survived for over half a millenium by being foolhardy.”
“It sounds like he’s done his homework,” Buffy muttered. More than that. The details of her exploits weren’t the sort of things to make the papers. Otherwise the people of Sunnydale would be giving her ticker tape parades down the main street of town. It sounded as if this Onegin had been keeping tabs on her.
“And that brings me to why I’m here. When I heard him talk about you that way, it gave me hope. Maybe my enemy’s enemy could be my friend. Or at least an ally,” she hastily amended at Buffy’s look.
“So what is it exactly you expect me to do for you?”
Melissa drew a folded piece of paper out of her coat. “Yuri watches me pretty closely when I’m working on the computer, but he’s as ignorant as Onegin as to how it works. There are some real disadvantages to outliving your own time period. I put out a search engine on vampiric cures and after a while I came up with this.”
She smoothed the paper out reverently on the Magic Box table. The others bent over the table to study it. Buffy started. Some flicker of memory teased her. Where had she seen such a face before?
“Okay, it’s a demon. So what?” Dawn shrugged.
“Look at the small print. It says this is a Mohra demon. The blood of eternity runs in their veins and is said to have regenerative properties. The rumors are that their blood can make a vampire human.” Melissa’s voice dropped reverently on the last word as if she were speaking of the Holy Grail.
“So you want Buffy to nab a Mohra demon for you?” Xander chirped. “No problem! We’ll just round up one and get Buffy to kill it.”
Melissa shook her head. “It’s not that simple, Xander. Mohras are solitary, secretive types. They’re warrior assassins. Like all assassins, they have to be hired. You can’t just walk up to one in a bar and start pitching a deal.”
“Then how do we find one?”
Melissa turned to Buffy with something like hope in her voice for the very first time. “So you’ll help me?”
“Hold on, I didn’t say that. Like I said before, I’m in the business of killing vampires not helping them. I’d much prefer to wipe out this Onegin and his little vampire club, not bring another demon into Sunnydale.”
Melissa shook her head frantically. “No, you can’t do that!”
Buffy’s mouth tightened. “In case, you haven’t been following me, that’s what I do. I’m THE SLAYER. Get it?”
Melissa stood up. “I understand. And I want Onegin dead, too. I’ve no fondness for him or any of his people. He stole my life, he robbed me of my humanity and I may have to spend an eternity dodging death at the hands of countless Slayers because of him. But it’s essential to my plan that Onegin remain alive at least for the time being.”
“Oh, you’ve got a plan already? That’s convenient,” Dawn said sarcastically.
“Look, if you want to kill some of Onegin’s minions, I can tell you where they hunt. Take out as many of them as you can. If Onegin perceives you as a threat, then he’ll have to hire someone to get rid of you. And who better than a Mohra demon?”
Melissa looked around at them. “It’s very simple, just like the best of plans. When the Mohra comes after you, you kill it, get some of its blood and make me human. Then I’ll show you the way I got out of the castle and you can go and slaughter the rest of them to your heart’s content. I drew up a plan of the castle schematics as well as the surrounding sewer system from the city’s plans on the computer. That’s how I was able to get away during the daytime and find Xander.”
At their continued silence, she bit her lip in frustration. “Look, I know this plan seems farfetched and you’ve no reason to trust me, but you’ve got to believe me. I just want to be human again!”
Melissa slumped back down as if this speech had taken too much out of her. The strained silence was abruptly broken by a rumbling sound. “Xander, did you forget to eat the lunch I packed for you?” Anya asked.
“Hey, it wasn’t me!” he protested.
Melissa gave them an embarrassed look. “I’m afraid that’s my stomach. Onegin keeps me poorly fed to make me weak. He thinks it’ll make me more eager to go out and hunt on my own eventually.” She cast her eyes down in shame as the others subtly edged away from her.
“Well, I’d say it’s time for some research.” The others groaned at Willow’s suggestion but started pulling down books nonetheless. “We’re just covering our bases in case your plan falls through,” she explained to Melissa.
“Maybe we can ask Spike if he knows any Mohras,” Dawn chimed in and then shuffled when the others glared at her. “Fine, it was just a suggestion.”
“Forget it, Dawn, the fewer vampires we bring into this the better. Besides, seeing how Spike likes to beat up other demons, we can’t necessarily trust him around Melissa,” Xander gestured towards the woman who appeared ready to bolt down the basement stairs again.
“There’s someone else I can ask.” The others stared expectantly as Buffy fell into silence again. Buffy sighed, knowing how little the others would care for this suggestion. “I saw a Mohra demon when I was in Los Angeles. I mean, this was two years ago when I was visiting my father. I stopped in to see Angel and this thing came crashing through the window. Before I could get more than a glimpse at it, Angel had picked up a clock and smashed it in the forehead. It screamed and then exploded in a burst of light. Apparently, these demons are really easy to kill if you know their weak spot.”
Melissa frowned. There was obviously something about this Angel that had everyone on edge. She decided against pursuing the point, at least in front of Buffy. She shifted to another tack. “It exploded? But then there’d be no blood left. I couldn’t get back my humanity that way. Maybe you should call this Angel and see if there’s some way of incapacitating it without delivering the coup de grâce.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll see what he has to tell me about it. He said he’d been catching up on his reading so maybe he knew a lot more about it than he told me.”
Buffy turned away so the others couldn’t see her face. The blood could make a vampire human. Had Angel known that--and deliberately thrown away his chance at humanity? If he had, he wouldn’t have told her. It wouldn’t be the first time he kept something from her.
Melissa’s voice cut in on her thoughts. “That’s wonderful. You all seem to have this well in hand. I should get going before the sun sets.” She peered anxiously outside the window.
“Wait!” Willow exclaimed. “How do we get in touch with you if we need to?”
Melissa wilted. “I-I don’t know. I hadn’t thought of that. Sneaking out of the castle just this once had been incredibly risky. It would be suicidal to try it again.”
Willow brightened. “You said you use computers, right?” Melissa nodded, not certain where Willow was headed with this. Willow proudly pulled her laptop out of her knapsack. “You can get in touch with me on this. Just give me your email address...”
Melissa shook her head emphatically. “Onegin has Yuri check my emails. They want to make sure I’m getting no messages in or out of the castle unless they’re strictly business.”
Willow thought for a moment. “That’s easy. We’ll send in a bogus email that looks harmless--you know, the sort of junk that people get every day. But we’ll use a code word so you’ll know it’s from me. You’ll pretend to dump it but store it somewhere in the system where you can look at it later.”
“How about the Scarlet Witch?” Xander lifted his eyebrows at Willow’s look. “What? She’s a really great comic book character. She’s a little like you, Wills. She’s got red hair and her magic doesn’t always work but she’s one of the good guys and I’m just going to stop talking now.”
Melissa smiled at Xander. “The Scarlet Witch works for me. You can even disguise it as an ad to sell comic books online.”
Xander hopped up from the table and said, “I’ll just drive Melissa back to the castle. Now that we know where it is, I can get her there in no time.”
Melissa quickly warned, “That’s great, Xander, but don’t get too close to the castle. The minions may be asleep but Yuri occasionally walks around looking out the windows.”
“Won’t they notice you’re not in your room?”
She shook her head again. “They know I like to take long walks in the sewers, if only to avoid them. Besides, it’s daylight outside. Where am I supposed to go? I just don’t want them to suspect I’ve been contacting outside help.”
After giving Buffy a quick rundown of where she was certain Onegin’s vampires liked to hunt, Melissa donned her coat and drew up her hood. Xander checked outside the Magic Box to see if Spike was still around, although Melissa assured him she couldn’t sense his presence.
__________
After they bolted out to the car, Buffy turned to the others. “Okay, am I the only one thinking this could all be an elaborate trap?”
Anya nodded in agreement. “Buffy’s right. That talk about going through the sewers sounds incredibly risky. What if she warns Onegin and the others about it? We could find ourselves walking into a whole pack of hungry vampires.”
Willow pulled on her laptop. “There’s one thing we can check about this Melissa Shaw. Let’s see if her name comes up anywhere in the local news.” She tapped a few keys and peered into the screen. “Oh, look, here’s a short article. ‘Melissa Shaw, brilliant computer programmer, in town for computer seminar, has been reported as missing by her assistant. The rest of her team is quite agitated as Miss Shaw has always been responsible and dedicated to her work. She was working out of New York and this was her last stop before heading back to the east coast.’ There’s a picture and a brief description.”
The others crowded around. There was a picture of the vampiress in grainy black and white. She was smiling and looked much as she had when they saw her. Willow continued fiddling with the computer for a little longer and then looked up in disappointment. “That’s all it says. The article was posted about two months ago and there’s been nothing since. I guess local news doesn’t consider it a big topic when a tourist disappears.”
Dawn spoke up, “Well, she was telling us the truth about that, anyway. We know we’re dealing with a two-month-old fledging, not some age-old badass. I think she’s on the level. I mean, if she wanted to kill us, why not just pick us off one by one? This Onegin knows about us--or Buffy, anyway. Melissa was able to find Xander during the daylight. If she’s part of some plan by this Russian count….
“Boyar,” Anya interrupted.
“Whatever. What I’m trying to say is, this seems like a really complicated plan just to get Buffy.”
“Maybe it’s meant to get all of us at once,” Tara offered.
“Oh, come on, Tara, I doubt very much whether we rate highly as threats in the demonic community,” Anya scoffed.
“See? And what about that part about becoming human? If she really wants the Slayer dead, why not just bring us to kill Onegin, like Buffy wants? Once she’s human, she wouldn’t have any reason to kill Buffy. Or us,” Dawn finished triumphantly.
Tara shrugged. “Maybe when Buffy speaks to Angel, she can ask him about this Onegin and see what he knows about him. If he’s really the sly, devious sort, he’ll clue her in.”
The others looked dubious as if they didn’t share her confidence. After a moment, they all turned to the books, digging out information on Mohra demonology.

TBC
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