Summary: An unusual assignment for Buffy and Faith (written for the Undercover

Lovers challenge on Oralfxatns)

-Dafmeister

A Thief In The Night

Chapter 1

“Hold up a minute, B”

“Faith, this is so not the time to be getting cold feet.”

“Like I got a choice in these shoes.”

“You can’t wear your boots with that outfit, it’d look stupid.”

“Yeah, it’d be the boots makin’ me look stupid.”

“Could you be a bigger wuss? Have you even seen what I’m wearing? Stop bitching and move it, we’ve got work to do.”

“Just gimme a minute, all right?”

“Why?”

“I wanna go over some stuff, maybe do a little ‘previously on...’ bit.”

“Faith, I don’t think-”

“Zip it, Blondie.”

“Okay, fine, just hurry up!

“So, I’ve done some bad stuff since we met. Killed a guy, tried to pin it on you, went Boston Strangler on your friend, sold you out to the bad guy, spied on you for weeks-”

“More like a month.”

“Whatev. Chained you up, planned on torturin’ you to death, almost killed another one of your friends, poisoned your boyfriend, beat up your mom and your sister-”

“Technically, Dawn wasn’t-”

“You wanna let me finish?”

“How about I finish for you? You stole my body, slept with my boyfriend and almost got me killed by three angry Watchers, did I miss anything?”

“No, I think you got it.”

“Great. Now is there a point anywhere in there?”

“Point is, I go through with this, you’re gonna owe me.”

Chapter 2

A week earlier

The fog was heavy that morning. It gathered in thick grey banks over the Pacific that rolled east through the Golden Gate and shrouded the bridge until all that could be seen of it was the towers looming up out of the murk, sentinels standing watch over the waking city, while below them the foghorns roared their warnings across the water.

Willow listened to the horns’ distant rumble, smiled and pulled the covers tighter around herself. The first time she heard them, the morning after they had arrived in San Francisco, she’d been absolutely sure that they would drive her crazy. Now, only a few days later, the horns were familiar, safe, even comforting. Listening to them, she felt that after the chaos and terror of their battles against the First Evil, and everything that had gone before, she had finally come to a human place with human problems. Problems that were simple enough that they could be solved with a few really big horns.

The arm draped around her waist tightened, and Willow’s smile grew wider as Kennedy snuggled up against her back. “Morning, Brat.”

“Morning, Witch,” Kennedy replied. She raised her head far enough to kiss Willow’s cheek. “Sleep well?”

“Like a log that just ran a marathon. You?”

“Like a log that spent half the night trying to wear out her girlfriend. I thought I was the one with the superhuman stamina?”

Willow’s smile turned into a self-satisfied smirk. “I didn’t hear you complaining.”

“My mother always said never to talk with my mouth full,” Kennedy shot back. “Besides, you were making enough noise for the both of us.”

“Oh God...” Willow groaned, her cheeks reddening. She rolled over to face Kennedy, lowering her voice as though she could take back whatever had come out of her mouth the night before. “You don’t think we woke anyone, do you? These walls aren’t exactly big with the soundproofing.”

“You weren’t worrying about that last night,” said Kennedy, her voice turning husky.

Willow grinned at her. “Yeah, well, your tongue stud kept doing that thing where it makes me forget stuff.”

“You could’ve asked me to stop,” Kennedy pointed out.

“But we finally got a room all to ourselves!” Willow objected. “It’d be wrong if we didn’t make the most of it.”

“Yeah, it’s all ours,” Kennedy muttered, looking around the room. Her upper lip curled in a faint gesture of distaste.

“What’s wrong with the room? It’s clean, it’s comfortable, it’s got a bathroom for just us...”

“It’s a crappy room in a crappy hotel,” Kennedy shot back. “My Dad sent me a new credit card, I could’ve taken you somewhere nice, like the Hyatt.”

“Ken, baby, your Dad’s not gonna pay for us all to stay in a five-star hotel.”

“I know,” Kennedy sighed as she laid her head back on the pillows. “Okay, how about this? After Giles is done talking to whoever he’s spending all day talking to and we know what the next move is, you and me go away somewhere for the weekend. We’ll get a huge room with a hot tub and a bed the size of Central Park, and we’ll live on room service the whole time. You know, when you’re not tied to the bed.”

Willow’s eyebrows shot up her forehead. “Wait, you wanna tie me up?”

“Definitely,” Kennedy grinned. “I figure it’s the only way I’ll get you to stay still long enough for me to finish.”

“Finish what?”

“Counting your freckles with my tongue.” Kennedy’s grin turned positively wolfish.

As they walked hand-in-hand into the dining room, they spotted Buffy and Dawn already sitting at the table eating breakfast. Or, rather, Dawn was eating breakfast; Buffy looked to be just pushing her cereal around in circles in the bowl. The look on her face was one that Willow had become all too familiar with over the previous week, distant and pre-occupied. Nothing like the glowing, optimistic smile she’d worn as they bade farewell to Sunnydale.

“Sweetie, could you get me a cream-cheese bagel and some coffee, please?” Willow said, letting go of Kennedy’s hand. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kennedy’s mouth tighten as she followed Willow’s eye-line toward Buffy, but Willow pushed that to the back of her mind as she walked across to the table. “Hey guys.”

“Hey Willow.” Dawn’s smile carried just a hint of relief.

“Hey,” said Buffy. “Check you guys out with the early rising.”

“Early?” Willow frowned. “It’s after eight.”

“Which for you guys is practically the break of dawn,” Buffy said, grinning a little too much.

“Hey, we’re not that bad.”

“Didn’t you miss breakfast yesterday?”

“Well, yeah...”

“For a minute there, I thought Kennedy was gonna kill the receptionist when she found out.”

Dawn giggled. “Who knew she was such a grouch if she didn’t get her coffee.”

“Well, she is from New York,” Buffy pointed out.

“You think that’s why they’re down early this time?”

“Actually,” Buffy stage-whispered, “I think they just wanted to beat Xander down here so he couldn’t smirk at them when they walked in.”

“Does that mean we should be doing it?”

“I think so. I mean, what’s breakfast without a little smirk.”

“Good idea,” Willow said, scowling at them as she took a seat. “Tease the uber-powerful witch.”

“Who is also grouchy when caffeine-deprived,” Buffy replied. “You guys make such a cute couple.”

“You know,” Willow remarked in an excessively pleasant voice, “I just realised I never actually turned anyone into a toad. Doesn’t that seem like the something any self-respecting Wicca oughtta have done?”

“Yeah, good luck with that, Miss Frog-Fear.”

“That’s frogs, not toads. Totally different kettle of fish.”

“Kettle of fish?” Buffy thought about the image for a moment and shuddered. “You’re officially spending way too much time with Giles.”

“We were up late talking to the coven,” replied Willow.

“Again?”

“Lots to talk about,” Willow replied, a hint of exhaustion creeping into her voice. “Which is why I think I’m entitled to a little early-morning snuggle time.”

“Hey, I’m not arguing.”

“Not until you’ve had coffee,” Dawn added.

“I’m not the one who had the three-mocha-a-day habit senior year of high school.” Willow shot a sly look Buffy’s way.

“You’re just jealous ‘cause you always got twitchy halfway down your second,” Buffy shot back. This time Willow could see in her smile just a hint of the old high school Buffy, before the weight of her responsibilities had worn her down, and she wished there was some way to bring that girl back.

She was about to respond when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Kennedy slid a breakfast tray onto the table in front of her and sat down, one arm draped around Willow’s shoulder. “One bagel, extra cream cheese,” she said, and dropped a kiss on Willow’s cheek.

“Extra?” Willow said doubtfully. “Ken...”

“Come on, live a little. Besides, you could stand to put on a couple of pounds.”

“If it’s curves you want, you’re dating the wrong girl.”

“I know,” replied Kennedy. “I just like giving you extra calories to burn off.”

The look in Kennedy’s eyes made Willow’s cheeks burn, and she wracked her brain for a new topic of conversation. “Oh, hey, Buffy, I got an email from Vi last night.”

Buffy, who’d gone back to brooding over her cereal when Kennedy arrived, looked up. “Yeah? How’s she doing?”

“Pretty good,” Willow replied, nodding happily. “Enjoying the family time, I think. She wanted to know if we had any idea when we’re getting all ‘Avengers, assemble!’ again.”

Buffy’s eyes dropped back to her bowl. “Soon, we just gotta figure out the where. Couple of weeks, maybe?”

“Okay, I’ll let her know.” Willow took a sip of her coffee. “It was a good call, suggesting the new girls take some time away.”

“Well, there’s no point having them all here with nothing to do,” Buffy replied. “Besides, they need some time to figure out if this is what they want, and they deserve to be with people they love for a while.”

“Plus it got Andrew out of our hair for a while,” added Dawn. She turned her eyes toward her sister, a shadow of concern crossing her face. “You think they’ll all come back?”

“I don’t know.” Buffy poked at her cereal for a moment. “It’s not like there’s one girl in all the world any more, none of them have to come back. They should get to choose.”

“Damn straight.”

They all looked around as Faith walked up to the table, carrying a heavily laden breakfast tray; two bananas, a melon slice, a Danish and a heaped bowl of cereal. Kennedy shook her head in amazement. “God, what is it with you and breakfast food?”

“You know what they gave us for breakfast in Stockton?” Faith asked as she took her seat and started peeling one of the bananas.

“No.”

“Me neither. Ate it for three years, not a clue.” Faith took off the first third of the banana in one bite. “Hey, B, where’d you get to last night?”

“Huh?” For a second it looked like Buffy didn’t know how to respond. “Oh, I, uh, went for a walk, I needed some air. I got back kinda late.”

Willow caught a momentary frown on Dawn’s face. The sisters were sharing a twin room, and she was pretty sure that look meant that Dawn knew ‘kinda late’ was an understatement. It wouldn’t have surprised her to learn that Buffy had a stake in her pocket when she went out, either.

“Heads up, guys,” Faith muttered.

“Heads up why?” Buffy followed Faith’s gaze to the buffet tables. “Giles and Xander?”

“Ran into ‘em on the stairs, they been arguing about somethin’ all the way down here.”

“Arguing about what?”

“I dunno,” Faith shrugged, “some crazy idea Xander had I think.”

A collective sigh ran through the group; even Kennedy had been around long enough to appreciate Xander’s unerring ability to wind Giles up, and they watch the pair approaching with a mixture of amusement and resignation.

“Come on, G-Man, just think about it for a minute!”

“I have thought about it,” Giles replied irritably, “and it’s absolutely out of the question.”

“It’s a great idea,” Xander insisted as they put their trays down. “You’re just mad ‘cause the big Watcher brain didn’t come up with it first.”

“For the last time, Xander,” Giles slapped a folded newspaper down on the table beside his tray, “we are not going to set up a Slayer training camp on Alcatraz.”

“Alcatraz?” Buffy repeated, arching her eyebrow in Xander’s direction.

“Okay, look, I know it sounds kinda crazy-”

“Because it is,” Giles put in, unfolding his newspaper.

“-but,” Xander went on, “just think it about for a second. It’s big, there’s lots of living space, plenty of room for the Slayers to practice, and it’s close enough to Haight-Ashbury so Buffy can go shoe shopping any time she wants. Plus, our own island fortress! What’s not to love?”

“It’s dark, dank and drafty, not to mention fogbound half the time,” Giles replied.

“Sounds like London,” Kennedy whispered into Willow’s ear, not quite quietly enough to stop Giles from over-hearing. He gave her one of the same long-suffering looks he’d perfected on Buffy years earlier, took a sip of his tea and screwed his face up in distaste.

A hint of a smile twitched at the corners of Buffy’s mouth. “Giles, why d’you keep going for the tea? Every day it’s the same. Just try the coffee, it’s pretty good.”

“Buffy, there are certain things in this world that are sacrosanct, one of which is tea with breakfast.” Giles took another sip. “Oh dear Lord!”

Buffy just shook her head and went back to her cereal. She was finally lifting a spoonful up to her mouth when Giles turned the page of the newspaper and she froze. “Giles, wait.”

“What is it?”

“I dunno...” Buffy was staring at a picture attached to a small article halfway down the page. “Who’s that?”

Giles glanced at the article. “Erm, it says her name was Constance Bauer.”

“Was?”

“Yes, she died a few days ago. The article’s about the results of the coroner’s examination. Apparently there was some suspicion of foul play, but her death was due to natural causes.”

“No,” Buffy said quietly. She turned the newspaper around and scanned the piece herself. “No, they’re wrong. There’s something oogy going on.”

“Buffy, there’s nothing there to suggest-”

“I know, I know, but my Slaydar’s blipping on this.” She looked into his eyes, almost begging him to trust her instincts. “Giles, there’s something weird about this, I know there is. We need to look into it.”

Giles looked at her closely for a moment, and then glanced around the table at the others. “Alright, we’ll see what we can find out.”

Chapter 3

“That’s just freaky,” Kennedy whispered, peering into her girlfriend’s empty, staring eyes. Willow was sitting on the edge of their bed, her new laptop balanced on her knees while her hands hovered no more than a finger’s breadth above the keyboard.

“What’s freaky?” Willow asked, startling her.

“God, you can hear me?”

“Course I can hear you, sweetie.” An impish smile appeared on Willow’s lips. “You’re right in front of me.”

“You know you have all these tiny little ones and zeroes flashing through your eyes right now?”

“I do?” Willow blinked and her eyes focused in on Kennedy.

“Uh-huh. It was kinda like watching the credits from The Matrix on a really tiny screen.”

“Matrix-eyes,” Willow said, and giggled. “Nifty.”

“You’re such a geek sometimes,” Kennedy said, smiling fondly at her.

“I’m a nerd, sweetie, not a geek. There’s a difference.” Willow’s gaze drifted off into the distance again. “Okay, I’m into the coroner’s records.”

“Like you’re gonna find anything...” Kennedy muttered. She got to her feet and started pacing the room. “Why’re we wasting our time on this? All we’ve got is one little newspaper story, and it’s not like we don’t have tons to do already.”

“I know it’s not much, Ken, but Buffy’s been right about stuff like this before. Remind me later and I’ll tell you about her first room-mate in college.”

“She’s miserable and she wants something to distract her, that’s the only reason she’s got us doing this.” Kennedy turned and stood staring out of the window, arms folded tight across her chest. “You know she’s going out patrolling, right? She wants there to be something weird going on.”

“Maybe she does,” Willow said grudgingly. “The Angel thing’s hitting her hard, Ken. She trusted him, and then he turned around and joined Evil Incorporated. She just needs some time to get used to the idea.”

“I get that, but how come we have to-”

“We can spare a couple of hours, she’s earned that much.”

Even through the blank look, Kennedy could tell she was done talking about it. Even after the months they’d known each other, she sometimes found herself surprised by how resolute Willow could be once she’d made up her mind. For a few moments she stayed by the window, the gentle hum of Willow’s computer the only sound in the room. “Anything?”

“It looks clean. The coroner couldn’t find anything weird. You know, apart from the whole woman-drops-dead-at-twenty-eight thing.”

“So Buffy was wrong?”

“I guess. Let me just check something.”

“Will...”

“It’ll just take a second, I’m gonna... whoa!”

At first, Kennedy wasn’t very happy about what Willow had found, her pride stung at being proven wrong, but the feeling didn’t last long. By the time they all regrouped in the dining room for lunch, Willow was glad to see that Kennedy was more excited than anything else, eager to get to work on her first case as a Slayer.

They all made small talk at first, while their waiter took their orders and brought out their meals. Then, when they could talk freely without anyone listening in, Willow said quietly “You were right, Buff.”

A ripple of surprise ran around the table; to one degree or another, they’d all suspected Buffy was sending them on a wild goose chase.

“Score one for Momma Slayer,” Faith said around a mouthful of cheeseburger. The flippancy of her words was belied by a look of respect that Willow found a little unnerving. “Nice catch, B.”

There were murmurs of agreement from the others, but Buffy didn’t look happy about being proven right. She leaned forward in her chair, her face grave. “So what’s the deal?”

“I’m not sure,” Willow replied. “The coroner’s report looked pretty normal. Constance Bauer was found at home, in her bed. She didn’t have any injuries, the toxicology report was clean, no sign of serious illness, nothing. Cause of death was listed as ‘idiopathic cardiac arrest’, and that’s it.”

“Idio-what?” Xander put in. “Her heart stopped ‘cause it was stupid?”

“Idiopathic means ‘of unknown cause, Xander,” Giles explained with a slightly exasperated look. “Someone once called it a high-flown term meant to conceal ignorance. All they know is that her heart stopped.”

“So, basically, coroner-speak for ‘ya got me’?” Buffy said.

“More or less,” replied Giles.

“Wait a minute,” Dawn said, the look on her face telling everyone she thought she was missing something. “The paper said she died of natural causes, right? How can they be sure if they don’t know what killed her? Isn’t that, like, suspicious or something?”

“It’s unusual, certainly, especially in someone of Ms. Bauer’s age, but it’s not unheard of,” Giles explained. “There’s nothing there to suggest foul play, so there’s no reason to dig deeper. Sometimes people do just die.” He looked sceptically at Willow. “What makes you so sure that there’s something unnatural going on?”

“’Cause after I pulled the coroner’s report, I did a search for similar deaths,” Willow said, grinning with pride.

“She’s not the first.” Faith didn’t need to make it a question.

“Not even slightly,” Willow replied. “Constance Bauer was the fourth woman under thirty-five to die like that this year, and there’s more going back to last summer.”

“All unexplained?” Giles asked, staring off into nothing as his mind worked over the new information. “Did the police investigate any of them?”

“Just basic unexplained death stuff. They closed the files pretty quick when the coroners couldn’t find anything suspicious.”

“Okay, Giles, Final Jeopardy time,” Buffy said. “Say this is something supernatural. What kind of demon could kill someone like this?”

“I’m not sure,” Giles replied cautiously. “We don’t have a great deal to go on. There were no marks, no signs of violence. Without access to my books-”

“Ooh! Ooh!” Dawn burst out, pointing at her watch. “Five hours, I win.”

“Five hours?” Giles asked, baffled by her excitement.

“Before you started pining for your books again,” Xander replied, extracting half a dozen five-dollar bills from his pocket and handing them to Dawn.

“You got my little sister gambling?” Buffy glared at him, then shook her head and turned back to her Watcher. “Giles, I know you’re flying kinda blind right now. Just best-guess me and we’ll go from there.”

“Well, if I had to make a guess I’d say it sounded like something had drained their life-force. There are a few demon races that can feed that way, but we’d need more information before we can narrow it down.”

“So let’s go get some,” Kennedy said eagerly. “I mean, it’s a murder, right? Shouldn’t we start with looking at the crime scene?”

Constance Bauer’s former home was an apartment taking up the top floor of a converted three-storey town house in the Mission District. The occupant of the apartment below hers was out, for which Faith gave great thanks with every passing moment as she knelt in front of the apartment door, working on the lock.

“Can you get that thing open or not?” Kennedy hissed at her, casting a worried look down the stairwell. “Giles and Willow won’t be able to keep the old biddy downstairs tied up forever.”

“You wanna take over, Trust Fund?” Faith snapped. “All I gotta work with is a couple of B’s hairpins.”

“It’s okay,” Buffy reassured her. “Just relax, you’ll get it.”

“Relax?” Annoyance merged with incredulity in Faith’s voice. “Easy for you to say, B, you’re not the one with prints that’ll set off every alarm in the frickin’ state.”

“Even if they do, it’s not like anyone but us can recognise your face as long as you’re wearing that charm Will made you.”

“Did you have to bring that up? Frickin’ rawhide strap she hung it off’s making me itch.” Faith shifted the pin in her left hand forward a fraction and twisted. There was a quiet, metallic click from the lock and the door swung open a little. “Score!”

“I never knew you could do that,” Buffy said as she and Kennedy followed Faith inside.

“Ya kiddin’ me, right? I’m a Southie.” Faith looked around the apartment, trying to get a read on its late occupant. “’Kay, B, we’re in. What’s the plan?”

“Look around, see if anything looks funky.”

“Thank you, Mrs Brubaker.” Giles accepted the tea she handed to him and placed the delicate porcelain cup and saucer carefully on a lace coaster on the coffee table. Beside him on the couch, Willow did likewise with a friendly smile.

“Oh, don’t mention it, Professor Stewart.” Mrs Brubaker, a rail-thin woman in her seventies with her silvery hair pulled back in a tight bun, settled into the armchair opposite them. “I get so few visitors these days, it’s nice to have a reason to get out the good china.”

“Yes, it’s really quite exquisite.” Giles raised his cup and gingerly took a sip of the steaming liquid, then let out an appreciative sigh. “My word, I don’t believe I’ve tasted better since I came to this city. Where on earth do you find such a good Darjeeling?”

“There’s a little shop in Chinatown that sells it, I can get you the address if you like.”

“Thank you, that would be-”Giles hesitated for a moment as Willow prodded him with her foot. “Very good of you. Now, as I was saying, the research Alison here is assisting me with concerns unexpected deaths among the young. We’re trying to find any commonalities that might lead to a pattern. So, I was hoping that you could tell me something about the young lady who died in the apartment upstairs?”

“That poor girl, it’s so sad what happened to her.” Mrs Brubaker’s eyes glanced upward for a moment, and she sighed. “Some of my friends thought it must be hard sharing a building with two young people, but she was a lovely neighbour. I broke my hip last year, and she did all my grocery shopping for me until I could walk again. Not like that one in the other apartment.” She looked upward again, this time with surprising venom. “He didn’t even stop by once to see how I was doing. It was the same when Connie died. You would think he didn’t even notice she was gone. Do you know she was lying up there for two days before they found her? You hear about these things happening in cities, but...”

“One never expects it on one’s doorstep.” Giles nodded, sadly. “Was it you that raised the alarm?”

“No.” A faint look of shame crossed the old woman’s face. “It was a young man from her office. She was a paralegal, you know, in one of the big firms. She didn’t go to work on the Monday, and they couldn’t reach her on the phone all day. He came over to check on her that evening. He could hear her phone ringing through the door, so he came down and asked me if I’d seen her. I told him not since she went out on the Saturday night. Connie and I had swapped spare keys in case of emergency, so I let him in. Oh! The look on the poor boy’s face after he found her! I think he was sweet on her, but she wasn’t interested in him.”

Willow looked up from her notebook, her pen hovering over the paper. “Was she seeing someone else?”

“I think that depends on what you mean by ‘seeing’, my dear,” Mrs Brubaker replied, rather tartly. “You could say she was seeing a lot of people, but she didn’t often see them more than once, if you follow my meaning.”

“Miss Bauer was...” Giles hesitated, searching for an appropriate word.

“Promiscuous,” Mrs Brubaker said firmly. “Oh, I know it’s not the done thing to disapprove of that kind of lifestyle these days, but I’m an old-fashioned lady. I would have liked to see her settle down with someone, not bringing a different young lady home every weekend.”

“She was gay?” asked Willow.

“In every sense of the word, young lady.” A hint of a smile flickered on Mrs Brubaker’s lips. “Which is why that poor young fellow from her office never had a chance, of course. Not that poor Connie was looking for anything serious, even if she was that way inclined. Half the time her conquests didn’t even stay until morning. Like that one that was with her the night she died; I fell asleep in my armchair that night, and I heard the front door slam when she let herself out. It always slams if you’re not careful.”

“She wasn’t alone that night?” Giles’ interest suddenly sharpened. “Did you see who she was with?”

“The police asked me the same thing, Professor, but I’m afraid not. I was awake when they came in, just after eleven, but I only caught a glimpse of her. All I know is she had dark hair, and I’m sure she was pretty. Connie’s girls were always pretty. Anyway, she was gone just after two in the morning, and the police told me that Connie died around five.”

“I see...” Giles glanced at Willow, silently asking her if she could think of anything else to ask, and she responded with a minute shake of her head. “In that case, Mrs Brubaker, thank you very much for your time, and for the tea.”

Faith rifled through an untidy stack of magazines on the coffee table, a mix of legal titles and the kind of girly stuff she could imagine Buffy relaxing with while she got a pedicure. “You guys find anything?”

Buffy emerged from the kitchen, a frustrated look on her face. “The only unholy thing in there’s the amount of ice-cream in the freezer. Kennedy?”

“Still checking,” Kennedy replied from the bedroom. “So far all I’ve got is she’s not a neat freak and she’s got even more trashy romance novels than Willow had.”

“Any sign of a struggle?”

“I don’t think so. The bed’s messed up, but the rest of the room’s just untidy, not trashed.”

“So she didn’t put up a fight.” Buffy looked around the living room and sighed. She turned to Faith and said “Any ideas?”

“Hey, I’m an ass-kicker, B, You were always the one doing the P.I. crap.” Faith saw the shadow pass across Buffy’s face, realised what she’d said and swore under her breath. “B, I’m-”

“It’s fine,” Buffy said curtly, turning away. She felt Faith’s hand on her shoulder. “Faith, I said-”

“I’m pissed at him too, okay?” There was an unusual note of bitterness in Faith’s voice, one she didn’t try to hide, instead letting her sense of betrayal at what Angel had done show openly. “Look, B, I love the guy, but he’s lost it if he thinks he’s changin’ that place. I get it.”

“No, you don’t.” Buffy turned back to face her, and her eyes were burning. “You don’t get it, but I do. I figured it out. Angel shows up with a Hellmouth-closing amulet and a stack of info from a source he says isn’t remotely reliable? It came from them.” Even now she couldn’t bring herself to say the name. “It was the wrong apocalypse, not the one they wanted, so they gave Angel something that would stop it from happening and take him out of the picture at the same time, and then I sent him off to be second-front guy and handed the amulet to Spike! They set a trap for Angel and I threw Spike into it instead.”

For a moment, Faith didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t even thought about it that way, and part of her wondered if her own resentment toward Spike played a part in that. “B, I’m sorry... Am I allowed to say that now?” She put a lighter note into her voice, in spite of the stab of pain she felt at remembering the last time she’d tried to apologise to Buffy, all those years ago.

“Yeah, you’re good,” Buffy said with the briefest and faintest of smiles. “I’m not gonna beat you to death for saying it.” Her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. “Giles? Oh, okay. See you in a minute.”

“Time to get gone?”

“Time to get gone.”

Chapter 4

The seven of them regrouped in Willow and Kennedy’s room after dinner to discuss what they’d learned, and what was supposed to be a fairly short catch-up spiralled into a full-blown research session. Within an hour the floor was covered with printouts of coroner’s findings, police reports and whatever biographical information on the victims that Dawn and Xander had been able to find online while the others were investigating Constance Bauer’s home.

They spent hours comparing victims to one another, searching for some common thread uniting them. Finally, Buffy rolled her head back against the wall, pushed aside the locks of hair that had escaped her ponytail, and sighed in frustration. “This is making my brain hurt. Giles, you got any idea what we’re up against here?”

“I’m starting to think so.” Giles shifted in his armchair, stretching his back. “I was right before, we’re clearly dealing with a creature that can drain the life force from its victims, a form of psychic vampirism if you will. I only know of a few demons that feed in that way, and what we’ve found rules out most of them.”

“Like what?” asked Kennedy.

“Well, the Tulmarik only feeds on adolescents,” Giles replied, ticking the suspects off on his fingers, “and our victims’ ages range from twenty-one to thirty-four. Nighthaunts drain their victims by instilling abject terror in them; all but one of our victims seem to have died peacefully in their beds, and the other one, what was her name...”

Willow glanced at her notebook. “Jessica Weston. Died in the sauna at her gym, there were three other women there with her when it happened. She just fell asleep and never woke up.”

“Not exactly mortal terror there,” Faith added.

“Okay, so we know what it isn’t,” Kennedy said impatiently. “What is it?”

Giles hesitated. “I think it’s a succubus.”

There was a moment of silence, and then Xander said “Succubus? As in a whip-toting, thigh-high boots wearing, horns on her head, leather bikini, ride you ‘til you die smiling bat-winged bimbo from hell?”

“Xander!” Buffy hissed, casting a protective look at Dawn.

Giles looked at him with a mix of surprise and distaste. “Whip-toting... where on earth do you get these images?”

“Erm... you know, books ‘n stuff?”

“What books? No, don’t tell me, I really don’t want to know.” Giles shuddered for a moment. “Real succubi are a lot less distinctive. They don’t have wings, rarely carry whips and generally dress like normal women. They do have horns in their natural state, but they can shape-shift to look completely human when hunting.”

“Don’t succubi feed on guys?” Dawn asked.

“And you’d know about sex-demons how?” Buffy snapped. Dawn just rolled her eyes, as if to say ‘I’m not a kid any more.’

‘Normally, yes,” Giles replied, “succubi hunt men and incubi, the male counterparts of succubi, hunt women.”

Kennedy narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re saying demons can’t be gay too?”

“Uh-oh,” Faith muttered, grinning.

“It’s not a matter of sexual preference,” Giles said hurriedly. “It’s a feeding, pure and simple. I’ve never heard of a succubus feeding on women, or an incubus on men for that matter, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. The demon would simply be hunting among those who would be attracted to it.”

Buffy was looking sceptical about the idea. “Giles, wait a minute. These things feed through sex, right? But you said Connie Bauer died hours after the other girl left. And what about Jessica Weston? Like Will said, there were three other women in that sauna with her.”

“Right,” Faith agreed. “She was going at it with one of them, you think the other two woulda noticed.”

“Unless they were joining in,” Xander suggested.

“Dude, get your brain outta the gutter before it gets stepped on,” Faith retorted.

“Victims of these kinds of attacks rarely die immediately,” Giles explained. “The demon will often end the feeding while the victim is still alive, no-one’s entirely sure why. Some demonologists have theorised that the act of feeding forms a link between the demon and the victim, and if the victim, dies while that link is active the demon could be endangered. Others think it’s simply so that the demon can feed on them again in the future.”

“So if the feeding doesn’t kill them, what does?” asked Willow.

“The feeding doesn’t kill them immediately,” Giles replied. “However, having their life force drained in that way leaves them... vulnerable, for days, even weeks. Closer to death. Sometimes, especially after repeated feedings, the victim will just slip away, especially in their sleep.”

“Why especially?”

“When we sleep, we’re a little closer to death already, if you think about it. Heart rate slows, brain activity is reduced. Combined with a depleted life force, it can sometimes be more than a person can withstand.”

“Okay.” Buffy was convinced. “We’ve got a succubus hunting gay women...”

“We sure all these chicks are gay?” Faith asked.

“At least five of them,” Willow replied. “Mrs Brubaker told us about Connie Bauer, Natalie Kaminski-”

“Which one was she again?” asked Buffy.

“The tourist. She was a gay rights activist in at home Houston, her group put an obit on their website. Then there’s Julie Halloran – she sued her ex-boss, said he fired her when he found out she was gay. And the police looked at Jing-Mei Chou and Louise Thomson long enough to find out that they both liked going to lesbian clubs.”

“Five out of eight,” Kennedy observed. “Even San Fran’s not gay enough for that big of a coincidence.”

“So how do we find this bitch?” Faith’s thoughts were turning to the practicalities of hunting. “They hang out anywhere specific?”

“I’m afraid not.” Giles tried not to sound discouraging. “They live among humans as a rule. Our best bet will probably be to find its hunting ground. Succubi tend to find a good place to hunt and stick to it.”

“So we just need to find a good place to pick up lesbians.” Xander said, jokingly. “Will, you said the cops found a couple of the dead girls went to clubs, right? Any chance they went to the same one?”

Willow rifled through the papers littering the bed. “This one says Jing-Mei Chou was a regular at a club called Kitsune. Who’s got the Thomson report?”

“Here.” Faith held it up. “What do we got... our girl went to the Lexington, some place called the Blue Diamond and...” She turned the page. “Kitsune.”

“Kitsune...” Dawn muttered. “I know that word, I’ve seen it somewhere.”

“It’s from Japanese folklore,” said Giles. “Kitsune are fox-spirits, they often have several tails.”

“Just the place to meet some foxy ladies,” Xander quipped, to universal groans. “So we know two of them went to the same place, at least.”

“Three.” Everyone looked at Buffy. “I saw a ticket for a party pinned up in Connie Bauer’s kitchen. It had a picture on it, like the club’s logo. Will, can you check if they have a website or something?”

“Sure.” Willow turned to her laptop and tapped in a search. “Is this it?”

She turned the computer so they could all see the screen. At the top of the page was the word ‘Kitsune’ in electric blue letters. A vivid orange-red fox wound its way sensuously through the letters, its nine tails curling over the top like a fan. Buffy examined it for a moment. “That’s it, that’s what I saw.”

“Three out of eight,” Giles said, a little doubtfully. “It could just be a coincidence.”

Faith picked up the street map they’d used to plot where each victim had died. “You sure about that? All the dead chicks lived within a mile of this place.”

“And,” Willow said, clicking on another search result, “The club opened three weeks before the first victim died.”

“Well, when you put it like that...” Giles smiled. “This club seems like a good place to start, at least – and this would seem like a good time to call a halt for the night,” he added, seeing a few hidden yawns around the room. “Shall we pick this up after breakfast?”

“Yeah,” Buffy said. “We need to find out more about this club, and about succubi.”

“Like how to kill ‘em,” added Faith.

“As a for instance.” Buffy got to her feet, stretching the cramp out of muscles that had been in one position for too long. “You know, something that doesn’t involve me toting the Scythe in a crowded nightclub.”

“In that case,” said Giles, “I think a shopping trip may be in order. I’ll see if I can find any texts that may be useful.”

“Someone better go with him,” Faith said, smirking. “Giles on his own in a book store? Bad idea if we wanna see him again this week.”

Giles gave her one of his exasperated looks. “I seem to recall a time when Slayers treated their Watchers with a degree of respect.”

Buffy looked at him in surprise. “Giles, how old are you?”

The burst of laughter that ensued from everyone but Giles acted like a curtain falling on the meeting. As they filed out of the room, Faith had a thought. “I’m talkin’ to Robin tomorrow, you want me to ask him if Crow-guy knows anything about these demon chicks?”

“Faith, Bernard Crowley was one of the most respected Watchers in the world, even after he retired. Referring to him as ‘Crow-guy’ isn’t entirely appropriate.”

Faith just shrugged. “Yeah well, the guy says Robin can go stay with him while he’s healing but he won’t let me near the place? Not exactly making me wanna play nice.”

“Watchers are generally a conservative lot, Faith, it’s not surprising he finds the thought of you a little, well, off-putting.”

“How the hell am I gonna start making things right if guys I never even met before won’t give me a chance?”

“If it was easy, it probably wouldn’t be worth doing.”

“If you’re just gonna go all fortune cookie-”

“I’m not.” Giles almost put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but thought better of it. “If it really matters to you, then I’m sure Robin will bring him around. He can be remarkably persuasive when he wants to be. And it was a good idea to see if Crowley knows anything. Can I leave that with you?”

Faith just looked at him for a moment, not used to being spoken to that way. “Yeah, sure. Thanks.”

Chapter 5

“Okay,” Buffy said late the following night, after they’d spent hours in Willow and Kennedy’s room, poring over the half-dozen books Giles had been able to acquire. “What do we know?”

“I know I miss the table from the Magic Box,” Xander replied, grimacing as he stood up and stretched; he’d been sitting on the floor with his back to the wall for too long.

“I’d settle for just the chairs,” added Dawn.

“The chairs...” Xander’s face turned wistful at the memory. “Couldn’t we have done this downstairs somewhere? Somewhere with seating?”

“Nice idea,” said Faith. “Let’s go down to the bar with all the demon books and talk ‘bout killin’ some hell-chick. I’ll buy you a beer while we wait for the straitjacket squad to show up.”

Giles shook his head in despair at the bickering. “I don’t know what you’re all complaining about. None of you spent half the day traipsing around this godforsaken city trying to find an occult bookshop that sells more than incense and cheap paperbacks about interpreting dreams.”

“That’s why you got the armchair. Again,” Buffy said, rather pointedly.

“I thought that was in deference to my advanced age,” Giles replied with as much dignity as he could muster. “In any case,” he went on, consulting his notes, “at least our collective discomfort hasn’t been for nothing. We know more than we did about the usual hunting patterns of a succubus.”

“And the nightclub’s definitely looking like the place to start,” Kennedy put in.

“Indeed. Everything I’ve seen suggests that a succubus will find good a hunting ground and stay there as long as she can. We also know how to kill one.”

Buffy nodded. “Silver blade through the heart.”

“One thing we don’t know,” Faith said impatiently. “How the hell do we know when we’ve found the bitch?”

“That won’t be so easy, I’m afraid,” Giles replied. “From what we’ve been able to learn, the succubus will be completely indistinguishable from a human while hunting. It may revert to its natural state when feeding, but even that isn’t definite. The only thing we know for certain is that the intended victim will be overcome with lust for the demon.”

Faith shook her head, frustrated and angry. “So what, we wait ‘til we catch a coupla girls playin’ tonsil-hockey, then follow ‘em home and if they’re screwin’ we gank the one on top? Screw that!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Faith!” Giles jumped to his feet before he could stop himself, stung by what she was saying. He turned away from them all, toward the window, looking out over the city. “I wasn’t suggesting we just jump in, but at the moment-”

“We gotta be sure Giles,” she interrupted him. The anger was gone from her voice, and as much as she tried to hide it she looked shaken, even a little scared. “This thing’s gonna look human, we gotta be sure. All I’m sayin’.”

“Faith’s right,” Buffy said quietly. “Giles, we need a way to pick a succubus out of a line-up that doesn’t involve seeing who’s best with a bullwhip.”

“I know,” Giles replied. He continued staring out the window for a moment, composing himself. The emphasis Buffy put on Faith’s name was subtle, but enough to remind him that the problem might have a particular resonance for her. “We’ll think of something, Faith. We wouldn’t be able to go hunting until tomorrow night anyway, unless anyone has a silver weapon hidden away that they’ve not mentioned?”

“Why don’t we call it a night, guys?” Buffy suggested. She could feel the frayed tempers in the room, born of too many people cooped up in too small a space with too few answers. “We’ve got everything we’re gonna get out of the books. Let’s get some rest and take another swing at it in the morning.”

There was a round of nods and murmurs of agreement, and they went their separate ways. Buffy and Dawn went back to their room, one floor up, and were preparing for bed when there was a knock on the door. They looked at each other in surprise, both wondering who it could be at that hour. Buffy walked over and opened the door.

Faith was standing in the corridor, fidgeting nervously as she waited. “Hey, B. Got a minute?”

“Uh, yeah,” Buffy replied. She wondered if she should invite Faith in, and was about to do so when she caught Faith peering past her into the room, as though checking to see if Dawn was there. She stepped out into the corridor instead, pulling the door closed behind her. “What’s up?”

“I’m, I just... I wanted to...” Faith floundered for a moment, struggling to find the words. “I’m sorry I went off on Giles like that, I shouldn’t be puttin’ you in the middle of that kind of crap.”

“It’s okay,” Buffy replied.

“No, it’s not. You guys’re just gettin’ things back together after...” Faith left the sentence hanging, reluctant to bring up any of what had happened toward the end in Sunnydale.

“It’s okay, really.” Buffy reached out and her fingers just brushed Faith’s arms. “Look, I’m not saying I loved you two yelling at each other, but it’s good you’re thinking like that. We do need to be careful on this one.”

Faith nodded, a sad smile forming. “Too bad I didn’t figure that one out a few years ago, huh?”

“Faith, don’t go there.” Buffy looked away, anywhere but Faith’s eyes and the pain they carried. “We’re just starting to get along, now’s so not the time to be digging up that stuff.”

“Got it. Five by five.” Faith tried to sound unaffected, but her voice couldn’t carry the lie. She turned away and started walking down the corridor toward her own room.

“Faith.”

“Yeah?”

“Sleep well.”

“Yeah, you too, B.”

Faith’s wish didn’t come true, though. Buffy spent a restless night in and out of sleep, her dreams haunted by all the things she hadn’t wanted Faith to speak of. As the sky brightened outside, she got dressed and crept out of the room, leaving Dawn still fast asleep.

Willow and Xander found her in the dining room when they went down for breakfast. She was sitting by the window with a half-drunk mug of coffee in her hand, gazing out at the hotel garden.

“Hey Buff,” Xander said cheerily. “How’re the worms?”

Lost in thought, Buffy hadn’t heard them approach, and at the sound of Xander’s voice her head jerked around in surprise, eyes blinking. “Huh? Worms?”

“Y’know, as in early bird gets the.” Xander looked at Willow, hoping for support. “Come on, it was kinda funny.”

Willow shook her head sadly. “Sorry, sweetie.”

“Not so much ‘kinda funny’ as ‘kinda lame’,” Buffy added. “Also ‘kinda gross’.”

Xander thought about arguing the point, and then his shoulders slumped in resignation. “Late night. Early morning. Man need coffee before making with the funny.”

“Man go get coffee,” Buffy said, and held out her mug. “Get friend re-fill while at it.”

Taking the mug with a weary sigh, Xander turned to Willow. “You want too?”

Willow nodded, smiling. “Thank you, Cavewaiter.”

While Xander headed off in search of a coffeepot, Willow took a seat next to Buffy. Her friend was still smiling, but in her eyes there was something else, something that Willow couldn’t quite place. “You okay, Buff? You look like you’ve been up for a while.”

“What? Oh, yeah, I, uh, I didn’t close the curtains completely last night and I got sunbeamed in the face. Couldn’t get back to sleep, so...” It all came out in too much of a rush to be convincing, but before Willow could say anything Buffy had already moved on. “Where’s Kennedy?”

“In the shower. She’ll be down soon.”

“Good, that’s good,” Buffy said, nodding as though Willow had said something terribly important. “Any ideas on how we’re gonna solve the whole who’s-the-succubus problem?”

“Not yet,” Willow replied. The way Buffy kept changing topics was starting to worry her, so before Buffy got a chance to do it again she went on, “We’ll figure it out. There’s gotta be a spell or a potion or something that’ll let you see them.”

“Yeah, there’s gotta be.” Buffy smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Before Willow could say anything more, however, Giles arrived. As soon as Buffy caught sight of him she switched into pleasant small-talk mode, anything but the problem they’d been discussing the night before. From the look on his face, Giles knew what she was doing, but he went along with it.

One by one, the rest of the group joined them, with Faith the last to arrive. Buffy and Xander were discussing the relative merits of the blueberry and cinnamon muffins on the buffet table when she arrived.

Her eyes looked tired, but there was a spring in her step that had been entirely absent the previous night. She flopped into a chair with a hint of her old swagger and gave them all a beaming smile. “Mornin’!”

“Someone’s in good mood all of a sudden,” Kennedy observed. “Did Robin show up last night?”

“Just got off the phone with him.” Faith snagged a sachet of sugar from the bowl on the table, ripped it open and poured the contents into her mouth. “Good news, guys – Robin and Crow-guy came up with the goods.”

Any thought of further small talk vanished in a heartbeat. Giles leaned forward eagerly in his seat. “They found something.”

“Plenty. Mostly old news, though. ‘Cept for the part where they figured out how to ID the bitch.” Faith’s smile turned a little smug as she finished, but if anyone noticed they could forgive it.

“See?” Willow said to Buffy. “What did I tell you?”

“Well done, Faith,” said Giles. He was smiling too, but the look in his eyes was more apologetic than happy. “It was a good idea to call them. What do we have to do.”

“I’m kinda fuzzy on the details,” Faith replied. “Sounds like a job for Willow. We gotta put a spell on somethin’ so we can see her. Robin’s emailin’ it all over, should be here any time now. Looks like maybe we go huntin’ tonight, B.”

“Sorry, guys,” Willow said a little while later. They’d all gathered in Buffy and Dawn’s room this time, just for variety, and waited there while Willow read through the information Robin had sent. “No hunting trip tonight.”

“What?” Faith had been lounging on Dawn’s bed while they waited, and as Willow spoke she sat up in a hurry. “You sayin’ it’s not gonna work?”

“No no,” Willow said quickly, “it’ll work. It’s kinda nifty, actually. Robin and Crowley found an enchantment I can put on a ring or a bracelet or something. Whoever’s wearing it’ll get the tinglies if they get within a few yards of a succubus, and if they touch it they’ll be able to see its true form.”

“Okay,” said Buffy, “sounds good. What’s the bad news?”

“I can’t do it in time for tonight,” Willow replied. “The spell’s pretty specific; I’ve gotta do it at midnight, under moonlight, it’s a whole ritual magic thing.”

“Damn.” Buffy bit her lip in frustration at losing another night. “Okay, so is there anything we can do today?”

“We still need to find a silver blade,” Kennedy pointed out. “What are we thinking, letter opener or something?”

“Should work,” said Buffy. She looked over at Giles. “Just make sure it’s real silver, it’s hard to tell sometimes.”

“Thankfully.” Giles rubbed his chest where Buffy stabbed him in her freshman year of college.

“Just one question left, then,” said Buffy. “Who’s going into the club?”

“Sounds risky,” Xander said, grinning. “I’ll volunteer.”

“Hands up who saw that one coming,” said Faith, smirking at him.

“It’s a club full of lesbians.” Kennedy looked at Buffy like the answer was obvious. “Who d’you think’s gonna fit in?”

“You two?” Faith arched an eyebrow at her. “No way.”

“Faith’s right,” said Giles. “Kennedy, a succubus can compel uncontrolled lust from anyone who is sexually attracted to women.”

“Which makes you and Will the equivalent of a hot fudge sundae,” Buffy finished.

“Indeed.” Giles removed his glasses and began polishing the lenses. “Xander and I are obviously out of the question, and Dawn’s too young. Buffy and Faith are the only ones here who can do this.”

“You up for some undercover, B?”

“You think we should both go?” Buffy’s desire to find the demon was clashing with her innate dislike for undercover work.

“This nightclub looks quite large, Buffy,” Giles said, “there’s a lot of ground to cover.”

Faith nodded in agreement. “And we’re gonna have to get close if Red’s gizmos are gonna work.”

“Maybe you should pretend to be a couple,” Dawn said, a mischievous grin on her face.”

“What?” Buffy’s head snapped around to stare at her sister.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Kennedy said, more thoughtfully.

“No, no, bad idea, very bad!”

“Just think about it,” Kennedy persisted. “It’s a nightclub, single girls go there to meet other single girls. If you both go solo you’re gonna get hit on, a lot.”

“Great!” replied Faith. “I get hit on by the demon chick, I let it take me somewhere quiet and I kill it, it’s a great plan.”

“Assuming it goes after either of you,” Giles put in. “There’ll be hundreds of women there, the odds of either of you being the intended victim aren’t very good. And even if one of you is chosen, if you’re separated you won’t be able to support each other. Whereas if you pretend to be a couple, I would imagine most of the single women would leave you alone, you can concentrate on watching the crowd for anything suspicious and you’ll be together if you find anything.”

Buffy and Faith shared a look. “Don’t you hate it when he gets logical?”

“Uh, Giles?” Xander said hesitantly, casting a nervous glance in Buffy’s direction. “You sure this is a good idea? Buffy and Faith?”

“What’s the matter, Xand?” Faith asked. “You think we’re gonna start wailin’ on each other?”

“That’s not it,” he replied. “It’s just that you guys, you’re... you can get... you know... you’re... help me out here, Will.”

Willow looked at him like she was a drowning woman and he’d just handed her an anvil. “Xander!”

“You got something to say, Will?” Buffy asked, far more pleasantly than Willow thought was healthy for her.

“Uh, well, you know...” Willow looked at her helplessly. “I’m trying to find a good way to say it.”

Xander nodded furiously. “A way that lets everyone get out of the room with all their parts attached, I already hit my yearly limit on missing pieces.”

“The right way to say what, Red?”

“It’s just, you guys, when you’re together, not saying it’s a bad thing, I mean look who’s talking here, yay gayness! But you two, sometimes... when you’re spending a lot of time together, you can get kinda subtexty, you know, in a Xena and Gabrielle kinda way. You know?”

Buffy and Faith looked at each other for a long moment, then they both turned to Willow and said “I’m the Xena here, right?”

Kennedy rolled her eyes at them. “That’s what they’re picking up on?”

If they even heard her, Buffy and Faith didn’t give any sign of it. They were squaring up to each other, nose to nose and glowering. Buffy said “You as Xena? Come on!”

“Think about it, B,” Faith retorted. “One smokin’ hot brunette, rockin’ the leather look and tryin’ to make up for her evil past. Plus,” she indicated Buffy, “one annoying perky blonde.”

“I am not Gabrielle!”

“You do like fightin’ with a stick, B. I’m the one with a thing for blades.”

“Stake! It’s not a stick, it’s a stake, and-”

“Okay, now I’m seeing it,” Kennedy said.

“Hey!” Buffy turned on her. “There is no subtext here. We’re two straight girls, this is a subtext-free zone.”

“You know the thing about straight girls?” Kennedy replied with a crafty grin. “They’re like spaghetti noodles. Only straight ‘til you get ‘em wet.”

“Listen up, Trust Fund,” Faith shot back. “I just spent three years banged up with five hundred chicks. If this girl’s noodle was gonna get moistened, it woulda happened by now.”

“Do they seem defensive to you?” Kennedy said, her voice teasing.

“We’ll be fine,” Buffy insisted, folding her arms across her chest. “Won’t we, Faith?”

“Five by five, girlfriend.”

“Well, that seems settled,” Giles said. In spite of himself, he couldn’t help admiring the way Kennedy had gotten Buffy and Faith to stand together. “Today we find some weapons for you, tonight Willow does her enchanting, and tomorrow...”

“Tomorrow we hunt.”

Chapter 6

“You want me to wear a wire?” Buffy gaped at Xander as though he’d suggested she dance down the road in her underwear.

They were all sitting in the hotel garden, enjoying the afternoon sun. Willow and Giles had already been out and bought the ingredients for Willow’s ritual that night, and Giles had picked up a couple of hallmarked silver letter openers that would serve as weapons. As far as Buffy was concerned, there was nothing else they could do to prepare.

And then Xander had one of his bright ideas.

“Why not?” he protested. “It’s classic undercover. You guys go in miked up and we’ll be listening for anything weird.”

“Yes, why not,” Giles said, his voice practically dripping sarcasm. “After all, it worked out beautifully last time.”

“That was different,” said Xander. “We’re going after one little demon, not the source of all evil.”

“He just wants to hear what’s going on inside,” Kennedy said sourly. “Why not have them wear hidden cameras, too?”

“’Cause we’re not gonna find cameras we can hide under Buffy’s idea of party clothes,” Xander replied simply. “Come on, Buff. I know we never did stuff like this before, but it makes sense. At least this way, if you get into trouble we’ll know and we can come running.”

Buffy gave him a sceptical look. “And you’re gonna be, what, parked round the corner in a black van?”

“Something like that.”

“I hate to say it, Buffy, but he is making sense for once,” Giles admitted.

Faith nodded. “Can’t hurt havin’ backup, B.”

Buffy thought about it for a minute and then nodded in grudging acquiescence. “All right, go buy some toys.”

“Thanks, Buff, you’re not gonna regret it.” Grinning like a schoolboy, Xander headed off.

As he was walking away, Faith’s cell phone started ringing. Robin’s call ID was on the screen, and she flipped it open. “Hey babe! Yeah, I miss you too.”

Buffy listened to the one-sided conversation for a minute, her lips pursed, and then she stood up and announced “I’m getting another drink, anyone want one?”

Willow got to her feet as well. “Yeah, I’ll come with.” She followed Buffy through to the hotel bar, and once they were out of earshot of the others she asked “What’s wrong?”

“What? Nothing, I’m fine.”

“Please, Buff, don’t get all hidey again.”

“Will, I’m okay, I promise. I just...” Buffy glanced back toward her friends outside. “It just bugs me how she’s so ‘look at me, I got a boyfriend’ sometimes. I mean, I’m happy she found someone and she’s not getting gone like she used to, but does she have to get all in your face about it?”

Willow looked at her closely for a moment. “Buffy, are you jealous?”

“Of Faith? God, no. I mean, not like that, not jealous that Robin’s with her. It’s...”

“She’s got someone and you don’t.”

“It’s more than that, Will.” Buffy sighed, half in disappointment with herself for acting this way. “Out of my last three boyfriends, one’s the new CEO of Wolfram and Hart, one got married right after he walked out on me and one’s... dead. And then there’s Faith; she gets out of the joint and she’s already got herself a decent guy.”

“That you once went out on a date with.”

“Will, it wasn’t like that. When I went out with him I was halfway sure he was a bad guy, remember? In any case, I already told you I’m not jealous of her.”

“Sure you’re not jealous of him?” Willow said, teasing.

“Willow!” Buffy gave her an exasperated look. “Enough with the subtext talk, okay? Tomorrow night’s gonna be hard enough without me thinking about that all the time.”

“You mean the whole pretending to be gay thing?” Willow nodded sympathetically. “You want Ken and I to walk you through some stuff?”

“Stuff?” Buffy raised a suggestive eyebrow, seizing the opportunity to get a bit of her own back.

“Not that kinda stuff!” Willow exclaimed, her cheeks colouring. “You know what I meant.”

“Yeah, I know, Gay Girl 101.” The moment of levity passed, and Buffy put her arm around her friend, making sure Willow could see how grateful she was. “That’d be good, Will, thanks. When do you want to do it?”

“Tomorrow good for you?” Willow said, hoping Buffy wouldn’t mind waiting. “I was planning on going over the ritual some more before tonight, I wanna make sure nothing goes wrong.”

“Good call,” Buffy agreed. “If the spell doesn’t work we’re never gonna find this thing.”

In the event, the ritual went as smoothly as any of them could have wished, and after spending the day resting in preparation for the night’s hunt, Buffy and Faith joined Willow and Kennedy in their room to talk through how they were going to blend in.

“The cover story sounds good,” Kennedy said once Buffy had finished laying out her ideas. “Just keep it simple and try not to make anything up when you’re not together, that’s how you get caught.”

“Great,” Buffy said with some relief. “Now, is there anything we need to watch out for? Anything we’re supposed to say, or know, or-”

“Oh my God!” Kennedy cried in mock horror. “Willow! We forgot to teach them the secret lesbian handshake! They’re doomed!”

“Har har, smartass,” Faith grumbled. “We’re not gonna get anywhere if we get made ‘cause we can’t talk the talk.”

“You’re not infiltrating a cult,” Kennedy shot back at her. “It’s just a normal nightclub, except without any guys.”

“But what if someone picks up on us not knowing anything about the whole gay scene?” Buffy asked.

“That doesn’t have to be a problem,” Willow replied. “If this is the first time either of you has been in a relationship with another woman, you’re still gonna be learning all that stuff.”

“You think they’d buy that?”

“What, you think we all come pre-programmed to like Better than Chocolate and the Indigo Girls?” Kennedy looked the two of them over and shook her head. “Trust me, convincing people you two are gay’s the easy part. The hard part’s gonna be convincing anyone you’re a couple. You haven’t got within three feet of each other since you walked in the room.”

Buffy and Faith looked at each other for a moment and edged a few inches closer. Willow let out a despairing sigh and said “Guys, you’re trying to make people think you’re gonna be waking up together in the morning. You’ve gotta be more... coupley.”

“Look, we’ll be okay,” Buffy said, starting to get flustered. “We’ll hang out, we’ll dance, we’ll laugh when the other one makes a funny.”

“You do that and everyone’s gonna think you’re just friends,” Kennedy replied. “You want them to think you’re a couple, you’re gonna have to do more than that.”

“You mean like holding hands and hugging?”

“I mean like kiss her, you idiot! God!” Kennedy threw her hands up in the air. “If you want to keep the single girls off your back, you’re gonna have to mark your turf, a lot.”

Buffy had gone more than a little pale. “Okay, okay, we can do that, right Faith?”

“What? Yeah, sure, no problem.”

“No problem, huh?” Kennedy regarded the two of them for a moment, clearly not convinced. “Show me.”

Buffy’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”

“Show me.” Kennedy folded her arms impatiently. “Kiss Faith.”

“You mean here? In front of...”

“If you can’t do it here, how’re you gonna do it in a crowded nightclub?” Kennedy pointed out. “Kiss her.”

“Come on, B, the brat’s not gonna give up on this one,” Faith said, coming to stand in front of her. “Let’s just get it over with.”

“Get it over with, right, okay.” Buffy took a deep breath and tried to swallow the lump forming in her throat. She leaned forward a fraction; Faith copied her and their lips brushed for a moment. “Okay?”

“You call that a kiss?” Kennedy said. “Come on, do it like you mean it.”

“Ken,” Willow murmured in her ear, “are you sure about-”

“I’m sure.” Kennedy returned her attention to the two Slayers in front of her. “You’re supposed to be lovers, right? So sell it. Pucker up and kiss each other like you wanna go back to your room and do things that are illegal in Texas.”

Buffy had to fight off a moment of panic as she turned to face Faith again. Just forget it’s Faith, okay? Pretend it’s someone cute, like Colin Farrell. She leaned forward again, and this time, when their lips touched she didn’t pull away. She felt Faith’s hand on her hip and let it ease her forward, opening her mouth a little as she did until her tongue could just brush along Faith’s bottom lip.

“Now that’s more like it,” Kennedy said approvingly.

Her voice broke the moment, and Buffy and Faith both took a hurried step backward. Buffy’s cheeks turned pink and she coughed awkwardly. “Okay, good, that’s good. What time is it?”

Willow glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “Almost six. We’d better start getting ready.”

Buffy and Faith made a hurried exit, neither one meeting the other’s eyes as they left. Kennedy managed to keep herself together until they closed the door behind them, and then she dissolved into a fit of the giggles.

Willow gave her a disapproving glare. “That was mean.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Kennedy said, not sounding the least bit repentant. “It’s just... straight girls! So much fun to mess with.”

Xander brought their rented van to a halt on a side street, just down the block from Kitsune. “What do you think, Giles?”

Sitting on the bench seat beside him, Giles peered out of the windows at their surroundings. “We’re not blocking anyone, and I can’t see any sign of parking restrictions here. This should do nicely.” He turned to speak to the five girls sitting in the back. “Are you all ready?”

“Think so,” replied Faith. She was fiddling with the new silver bracelet on her wrist. “You sure these things are gonna work, Red?”

Willow gave her a look full of wounded pride. “I activate hundreds of Slayers all over the world and you still don’t trust me to do one little enchantment.”

“It’s not that, Will,” Buffy said soothingly. “It’s just these bracelets are the only real chance we have of finding the demon before it kills someone else, so...”

“You’ve both got your weapons?” Kennedy asked, cutting off any further talk about Willow’s ability.

“Weapons? Yeah right.” Faith turned her letter opener over in her hands, feeling what little weight it had. “Can’t believe we’re going in armed with stationary.”

“They’ll do,” Buffy said flatly, and put hers into the side pocket of her purse. Faith gave hers one last sour look, then pulled up her pants leg and slipped it into the top of her boot.

“Don’t forget to switch on your microphones,” Dawn reminded them as they made to get out of the van; she was carrying the receiver tuned to Buffy’s mike.

Buffy narrowed her eyes at her sister. “Remind me why I let you come with us?”

“’Cause I told you the only way you’d get me to stay in the hotel is if you tied me to a chair,” Dawn replied, grinning at her. Then she grew serious again. “Be careful, okay?”

“Always,” Buffy assured her. She opened the back door of the van, but before she got out she turned back and kissed Dawn on the forehead. “I love you.”

“Ooh! Hold up,” Willow exclaimed as Buffy stepped out of the van. She rummaged through her shoulder bag and pulled out a water bottle filled with a strange-looking blue liquid. “Both of you drink some of this.”

“Gatorade?” Faith said, eyeing the bottle dubiously.

“No, it’s a sobriety potion,” Willow explained. “I figured you’d want to keep your heads clear, but you’d look suspicious if you weren’t drinking, so I brewed this up. For the next six hours or so, you can’t get drunk.”

“Damn,” Faith muttered under her breath, “I was countin’ on a coupla beers to get me through tonight.”

“I know what you mean,” Buffy whispered back. “Still...”

“Yeah, I guess.” Faith took the bottle from Willow and unscrewed the cap. After a moment’s hesitation, she raised it to Buffy. “Here’s lookin’ at you, babe.”

It was still early enough that there wasn’t a queue to get into Kitsune, for which Buffy was profoundly grateful. The thought of having to wait on the street, with nothing to do but worry about how she was going to handle things inside, was not one that filled her with pleasure, and the closer she and Faith got to the door, the happier she felt. She realised that Kitsune was about average-sized for a city nightclub, but compared to the Bronze it was huge, four storeys of concrete looming over them as they approached. Above the door, the club’s logo was done out in ice-blue and flaming orange neon, and from inside she could hear a pounding baseline that echoed her heart’s nervous thump. She glanced at Faith, wondering if she was feeling the same. “You ready?”

“Five by five,” Faith replied. “Let’s do this.”

On a rational level, Buffy knew that what Willow and Kennedy had told them made sense. Even so, deep down a part of her was still half-expecting to walk into a completely alien world, where everything was different and up might very possibly be down. Therefore, it came as both a surprise and a relief when they passed through the coat check area and found themselves on the edge of a perfectly normal dance floor. The room was trimmed in polished chrome, including the furniture; combined with blue-tinted lights, it gave the place a crisp, clean look. A long bar stretched down the far wall. The music was loud, but not as loud as Buffy had thought from the street, clearly pitched so that people could talk without having to yell into each other’s ears.

Faith snaked her arm around Buffy’s waist, and Buffy forced herself not to react, treating it like it was something that happened every day. She leaned over so she could speak without being overheard. “Are you getting anything yet?”

“Not a twitch.” Faith’s eyes were scanning the room, taking in everything and everyone. “Where d’you wanna start?”

“I don’t know. The bar?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Skirting the dance floor, they picked their way between knots of women clustered around tables or couches by the wall. The bar itself was busy but the club didn’t skimp on bar staff, and before long they were almost at the front of the crowd.

“Hey there!” Buffy looked around and saw a woman in her mid-twenties smiling cheerfully at them. She was a couple of inches taller than Faith, with short, spikey brown hair and mischievous blue eyes. “I don’t think I’ve seen you round here before, this your first time?”

“Uh, yeah,” Buffy replied. For a moment her mind went blank and she had to fight to recall the cover story they’d put together. “We just heard about this place and we thought we should check it out.”

“Good call. Hey, what’re you drinking?”

Buffy and Faith looked at each other for a moment, and then Faith shrugged. “Couple of beers?”

“You got it. Hey, Ronnie!” The woman waved to one of the bar staff, a skinny girl whose jet-black hair matched her lipstick. “Three beers, buddy.”

Ronnie snagged three bottles from under the bar, popped the caps and set them on the bar. The woman handed two of them to Buffy and Faith and raised her own. “Cheers.

They raised their beers in response and both took a long sip. The beer was good, chilled just enough. Faith let out a long, satisfied sigh. “Thanks.”

“No problem, I like seeing new faces round here.” The woman took another swig from her beer. “I’m Ellen – and yeah, I’ve heard all the jokes, so don’t even go there.” The smile on her face got even wider.

“Nice to meet you,” Buffy said, warmly. “I’m Summer, and this is my girlfriend Leah.”

“Hey.” Faith reached over to shake hands, while sliding her other arm around Buffy’s waist.

“I’m sorry, is she bothering you?” An arm was laid across Ellen’s shoulder, and the tall, athletic brunette it belonged to went on, “I swear, you can’t take her anywhere.”

“And a very good evening to you too, Hannah,” Ellen said, her ever-present smile still firmly in place.

“Don’t mind Ellie here,” Hannah said to Buffy and Faith, “she thinks she’s the welcoming committee for this place.”

“Well someone’s gotta be sociable,” Ellen retorted, and planted an affectionate kiss on Hannah’s cheek.

“Are you guys...” Buffy looked from one to the other, not sure of the signals she was getting.

“She wishes,” Ellen replied, just ahead of Hannah. “Where you been all evening? You still owe me a beer.”

“Dodging Naomi,” Hannah replied, and Ellen nodded as if that explained everything.

“Who’s Naomi?” asked Faith.

Hannah nodded toward the far corner of the club, where a long, sweeping staircase led to an upper level. “You see the little redhead trying to put the moves on the lipstick?”

Buffy and Faith looked and saw a young redheaded woman, who couldn’t have been any taller than Buffy, talking to a statuesque blonde in a summer dress. “Yeah?”

“That’s Naomi.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Ellen added, “she’s a great girl, she’ll just hit on anything bigger than a B-cup.”

The Slayers shared a momentary look, wondering if they finally had a suspect.

“Bigger than a B? She’s getting picky,” Hannah said, and they both laughed.

“So,” said Ellen, returning her attention to the Slayers, “are you guys new in town?”

“We’re on vacation,” Buffy replied.

“Dim Sum’s idea,” said Faith. “She wanted to be here for the big parade.”

“Dim Sum?” Buffy looked at Faith in genuine outrage. “Honey, I told you before...”

“But it’s perfect for you, cupcake,” Faith replied with her most endearing smile. “You’re so small and tasty.”

“What do you think?” Hannah asked Elllen. “Together six months?”

“They’re still figuring out pet names,” Ellen pointed out. “I’m going with four.” They both looked expectantly at the Slayers.

“Six,” Buffy said, finally. “We got together last Christmas.”

Ellen nodded knowingly. “But I’m guessing you knew each other a long way before that.”

“Yeah, I met her in high school,” Faith said. “We didn’t get along too well back then. I left town for a few years, and when I came back she’d gone and got all cute.”

“We were at a Christmas party, and it just happened,” added Buffy.

“Meanin’ she hit on me.”

“I did not!” Buffy objected. “I was the hitee that night.”

“Sum, you ambushed me under the mistletoe.”

“After you danced over to where I was sitting and spent ten minutes waving your ass in my face.”

“I was feelin’ hot, and you were sittin’ by the a/c vent.”

Buffy didn’t get a chance to respond before Ellen and Hannah burst into fits of laughter. “You guys are just too damn cute,” Ellen said between giggles.

“You said it,” agreed Hannah. “Hey! I just realised – if they’re staying in town until the parade, they’ll be around for the party Saturday night.”

“Party?” Buffy tried to sound like she didn’t know what they were talking about, while the image of the ticket in Connie Bauer’s kitchen danced through her mind.

“There’s a big costume party here on Saturday,” Ellen explained. “You should come, it’s gonna be amazing.”

“Won’t it be sold out by now?” asked Faith.

Hannah shook her head. “Yuki always holds a few tickets on the door for people who show up on the night.”

“Yuki?”

“She owns Kitsune,” Hannah explained. “She took the place over about a year ago, it was such a dive back then. She turned it around, made it somewhere to love.”

“You are such a teacher’s pet,” Ellen said, smirking at her.

“I wish,” Hannah replied, a wistful note creeping into her voice. “Seriously, guys, if you wanna come, I could talk to her about getting you on the list.”

Buffy and Faith looked at each other for a moment, thinking about it, and then Buffy said “Why not? Thanks, Hannah.”

“Any time. If you come back tomorrow night, maybe I can introduce you.”

“It’s a date.” Buffy glanced across the club and saw that Naomi had succeeded in luring the blonde onto the dance floor. “Guys, it’s been great meeting you, but I think my girlfriend owes me a dance or six.”

“At least,” Ellen said. She kissed them both on the cheek in farewell. “Go have fun, we’ll catch you later.”

Buffy led Faith away and onto the dance floor. As they merged into the mass of gyrating bodies, she whispered “Dim Sum? There’s gonna be payback for that.”

“Worth it,” Faith replied, grinning at her. “We goin’ somewhere?”

“I wanna check out Naomi,” Buffy replied. They began to dance, moving subtly through the crowd, Buffy guiding them in the direction of the blonde.

“You think it’s her? Seems too easy.”

“Maybe. I just wanna make sure.”

They passed within a few feet of the redhead, who was oblivious to their presence, completely entranced with her own dance partner.

Buffy’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. “Anything.”

“Zip. You?”

“See above.” Buffy shot a glare at Naomi, almost annoyed at her for not being a succubus. “Damn it.”

“Take it easy, B, we only just got here.”

“Summer,” Buffy reminded her. “As long as we’re in here, it’s Summer.”

“Right. So what’s the next move, Sum?”

“We’re here, we might as well check out the rest of the dance floor.” Buffy looked around, plotting their next move. “After that, maybe upstairs?”

A new song came on, spurring more people onto the floor. The crowd pressed against them, pushing them closer together. Face to face, they moved on. Faith leaned in and whispered in Buffy’s ear, keeping her voice low so the microphone wouldn’t pick her up. “Remember the last time we danced like this?”

They were brushing against each other every time they moved now, the press of the crowd was so strong. “I don’t think we ever danced like this.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I know.” Buffy’s breathing began to quicken into short, ragged gasps. “The night before...”

“Before. That was a good day, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, it was a good day.”

“I wish I-”

“Faith.” Buffy’s voice faltered a little. “Concentrate on the job, okay?”

Chapter 7

When Buffy woke up the following morning, her first coherent thought was that someone had cracked open her skull and poured hot lead inside. Her stomach churned like the ocean in a storm. Just lifting her head from the pillow was enough to send slivers of pain shooting through her, and sitting upright felt like the most monumental battle she’d ever fought.

“Morning, Dim Sum.”

Buffy’s head moved before she realised what was happening, turning to focus on the source of that voice. She had a moment’s view of her sister sitting on her bed and grinning, then sparks filled her eyes and bile scorched her throat. She swallowed hard, forcing it down again, and very cautiously opened her eyes. “Stupid Xander and his stupid microphones...”

“Looks like someone had a bit too much to drink last night,” Dawn observed. She handed Buffy some painkillers and a glass of water.

Buffy swallowed the pills and gingerly lowered her head to the pillow again. “Oooh, I’m gonna kill Willow...”

The painkillers and a hot shower helped to settle her head, and half an hour after she woke up Buffy felt she could withstand the walk down to the dining room. She and Dawn were the last ones down. Faith was sitting with her head on the table, looking distinctly green around the gills. Buffy slid carefully into the chair beside her and sent a baleful glare in Willow’s direction. “You said that potion meant alcohol wouldn’t affect us.”

“No,” Willow said, “I said you couldn’t get drunk. Like I just told Faith, you still had the alcohol in your system. How much did you guys drink last night?”

“Not this much,” Buffy said miserably. “It can’t have been this much. Can it?”

Painfully, Faith lifted her head. “Three beers, coupla JDs, few shots of that brown stuff...”

“Here.” Giles passed a large glass of orange juice over to Buffy. “Drink that, and try to eat something. You’ll feel better.”

Buffy’s stomach flip-flopped at the thought of food, but she took a blueberry muffin from the plate of assorted pastries Xander had brought over and started picking at it a little at a time.

“So no luck last night?” Xander asked.

“Nada.” Faith sat up again, massaging her aching head with one hand. “You weren’t wrong, Giles, there’s lotsa ground to cover in there.”

“I didn’t see anyone acting succubusy,” said Buffy. “You think maybe she moved on?”

“It’s possible,” Giles admitted, “but I doubt it. As I said before, once a succubus finds a good hunting ground it tends to stay there unless forced to move on, and I can’t say any reason it would have to. There are still plenty of potential victims, and no sign of danger.”

“Maybe it just wasn’t hungry last night?” suggested Dawn.

Buffy shrugged, being very careful not to rock her head. “I guess that means we gotta go back tonight.”

Giles nodded. “And tomorrow, and the next day if need be.”

“No more wearing a wire, though,” Buffy said flatly. “Stupid things are way too uncomfortable.”

“It’s not like we could hear anything much anyway,” said Dawn.

“Tomorrow might be a problem,” Faith reminded them. “Club’s gonna be closed for this party; that chick Hannah said she could probably score us some ticks, but I don’t know...”

“Plus we’d need to get costumes,” added Buffy.

“Well, let’s cross that bridge if and when we come to it,” said Giles. “For now, I suggest we focus on making tonight a successful hunt. And on that subject,” he added, casting an eye over their dishevelled state, “perhaps the two of you could do with a few more hours sleep.”

Faith turned a bleary eye on Buffy. “Guy’s got a point, B. Damn, girl, you look worse than I feel.”

“My pretend girlfriend, ladies and gentlemen.” Buffy drained her orange juice and rose from her chair. “I’ll catch you later, guys.”

“Are you gonna nap together?” Kennedy asked innocently. “You know, to stay in character.”

Faith threw a muffin at her.

One of the best things about being a Slayer, Buffy reflected that night, was that if you were feeling rough, you could be pretty sure you’d bounce back fast and hard. Sleeping through to lunchtime did both of them a lot of good, and by the time they had to get ready for another night out they were fully recovered.

Which, she admitted to herself as she surveyed the club from a vantage point on the upper level, was a very good thing. She’d thought Kitsune was busy the night before, but Friday had brought out a whole extra crowd and the club was heaving. After an hour spent fighting their way through the crush of people, hoping they’d get a tingle from Willow’s bracelets, they’d retreated upstairs, where things were quieter and they could get a good view of what was going on below.

“You see anything?” Faith was hanging over the rail, nursing a JD and Coke. They were both using Willow’s potion again, to keep their heads clear, but neither of them wanted a repeat of that morning, fast recovery or not.

“A lot of dancing, a lot of smooching...” Buffy replied, her eyes sweeping over the throng. “Nothing demony.”

“Yeah. Think we’re gonna strike out again tonight?”

“Hope not, I wanna get this done with tonight.”

“What’s the matter, Sum?” Faith gave her a teasing smile. “You don’t like being my girlfriend?”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “You didn’t see the flyer about the party on the way in did you?”

“No.”

“There’s a theme for the costumes.” Buffy shuddered. “Trust me, we don’t wanna have to come here tomorrow night.”

“Theme? What theme?”

“There you guys are!” They both jumped as Hannah called out from behind them. “I was starting to think you’d be a no show. Why’re you hiding up here?”

“Just takin’ a time-out,” replied Faith. She nodded toward the dance floor. “We got tired of banging elbows down there.”

“Yeah, I get that,” said Hannah. “Me, I love it when it’s like this. I’m a lawyer, I spent my whole day at a respectful distance. Then I come here and I’m rubbing up with people, and...” She blushed. “Okay, that’s going to a whole other place.”

“Sounds like a fun place,” Faith grinned.

“Leah honey,” Buffy said, “let’s try not to embarrass our new friends too much, ‘kay?”

“Spoilsport.”

“Always.” On impulse, Buffy dropped a quick kiss on Faith’s lips. “And you love it.”

“You guys...” Hannah smiled at them, and then snapped her fingers as she remembered why she’d been looking for them in the first place. “Hey, I talked to Yuki, she wants to meet you. You got a minute?”

Buffy looked at Faith and nodded. “Sure, that’d be great.”

“She’s downstairs somewhere, I...” Hannah peered over the railing. “I see her. Come on.”

They both followed her eye line but couldn’t pick out one person in the throng, and Hannah was already leading them toward the stairs. They followed, hand in hand to stay together, until Hannah finally came to a halt at a table in one corner. “Yuki, these are the girls I was telling you about.”

Hannah stepped aside to reveal a tiny, elegant Japanese woman, aged around thirty, with an aristocratic face and delicate, almond-shape eyes. “Summer and Leah, right? Hannah said you were pretty. I’m Yuki Hasegawa, pleased to meet you.”

“Same here,” Buffy replied, and Faith nodded in agreement. “This place is fantastic – we only had one club in town where I come from, and it was nothing like this.”

“Thankyou.” Yuki’s eyes drifted around her domain for a moment, and a look of almost parental satisfaction came over her. “I’m quite proud of how it’s turned out. So, Hannah was telling me you’re interested in the party tomorrow night?”

“Yeah, it sounds like a blast,” replied Faith.

“If it’s okay,” Buffy added. “I mean, we only came here the first time last night, we’re not exactly family.”

“It’s better than okay,” Yuki replied, “I always want to see more new people in here. There’s two tickets at the bar with your names on them, just tell them I sent you. Just remember,” she smiled wickedly, “costumes are mandatory.”

“Then I guess we’re going costume hunting tomorrow, honey,” Buffy said to Faith, all the while dearly hoping it wouldn’t prove necessary. “Thanks, Miss Hasegawa.”

“Yuki, please.” She finished her drink and sighed. “And now, I’m afraid I have to stop talking to my friends and do the hostess thing. Summer, Leah, I hope I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“You see?” Hannah said after Yuki had left them. “I told you we’d get you in.”

“And you were right,” said Buffy. “She seems nice.”

“Oh, Yuki’s great,” Hannah began, and then blushed. “You might have noticed, I’ve got kind of a crush on her.”

Faith gave her a puzzled look. “So how come you’re not doin’ anything ‘bout it?”

“She got hitched last fall,” Hannah replied, a little sadly. “Or domestic-partnershipped, or whatever they’re calling it.” She turned her head away, blinking to clear what had to be tears. “Hey, look, they’re only three deep at the bar right now. Why don’t you guys go get your tickets.”

“Okay,” Buffy said, trying to act like she hadn’t noticed the tears. “We’ll get some drinks, too, you want one?”

“No, I’m good.” Hannah took a deep breath, steadying herself. “I’m gonna go find Ellen, see what kinda trouble she’s getting into. Catch you later?”

“You got it,” Faith replied. As they walked away, she said to Buffy “Man, that sucks for her.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it does.”

They collected the tickets and a couple of drinks, and then made their way over to a quiet corner to plan their next move. Faith took a moment to examine her ticket and her eyes suddenly widened.

“Told you,” said Buffy. “You why I wanna get this done tonight?”

Faith’s reaction wasn’t what Buffy was expecting. She let out a snort of laughter and said “Are you kiddin’ me? We gotta go to this party!”

“What? Why?”

“So I can see you dressed up in this kinda stuff. Man, that’s frickin’ hilarious.”

“Oh very funny,” Buffy said, glaring sourly at her ticket. “Can we keep our minds on the job, please?” Faith didn’t reply, and when Buffy looked up she was staring off into the distance. “Hello?

“We’re not gonna need the ticks, B,” Faith said, suddenly completely serious. “Check it.”

Buffy turned to see what she was looking at. “Oh my God, is that Naomi?”

“Yeah.”

The little redhead had pounced onto dark-haired woman, wrapping her legs around her waist and kissing her so ferociously that it looked as though she was trying to crawl inside her mouth. Everyone around them was stepping back in surprise.

Faith tore her eyes away from the spectacle. “That look like someone gettin’ succubused to you?”

“Let’s find out,” Buffy replied. They began heading that way, but just as they took their first step, the brunette began staggering toward the exit, still with Naomi wrapped around her. People stepped aside to clear them a path, and by the time Buffy and Faith had pushed their way through the crush, their quarrey was already stepping outside. Buffy fished her cell phone out of her purse as they pushed on and hit speed-dial. “Will? We’ve got something, tell Xander to pick us up outside.”

They got to the street just in time to see Naomi and the brunette practically fall into a taxi. It was pulling away from the kerb when their van appeared around the corner. Xander pulled in a couple off doors down and they ran to meet him, Faith going around the back while Buffy jumped into the front beside Giles. “Follow that cab!”

“I can’t believe you just said that,” Xander muttered as he drove away.

The cab wove its way through the Friday night traffic, working its way up into the Castro district. Xander followed at a discreet distance, trying to remember everything he’d ever heard on cop shows about tailing a car. As they drove, Buffy and Faith filled in the others on what had happened.

About ten minutes after leaving the club, the cab pulled over on a residential street lined with small apartment blocks. Xander stopped the van about a hundred yards away, and they watched as the two passengers tumbled out of the door, immediately jumping on each other again. One of them tossed some money to the driver, and without waiting for change they began to stagger across the street, still completely entwined in each other.

The black SUV never had a chance of stopping in time. The driver stamped on the brakes and hit the horn, but the two women were completely oblivious. The SUV ploughed through them, flinging them aside like dolls before it came to a halt. The driver leapt out of his door and stood in the street, frozen with horror at what had happened. For a moment there was perfect silence, broken by an endless, agonised scream.

“Giles, what the hell happened tonight?”

The turn events had taken had thrown them all. When they got back to the hotel, they all gathered in Buffy and Dawn’s room to talk, but none of them knew where to begin. Buffy’s question was the first word spoken.

“I’m not sure, Buffy.”

“Are they gonna be okay?” asked Dawn. She was sitting on Buffy’s bed wrapped in her sister’s arms, her eyes red from crying.

“I think so, Dawnie,” Buffy replied, trying to project a certainty she didn’t feel. “They were both alive when the paramedics took them, I think they’ll be okay.”

“So I’m guessing neither one of them’s our succubus?” Xander’s usual humour had deserted him.

“We don’t know that,” Faith said. “We checked Naomi last night, but we never got close enough to the other chick for Red’s bracelets to do their thing.”

“It doesn’t matter, Faith.” Giles began polishing his glasses, just to give his hands something to do. “Being hit by a car wouldn’t cause those kinds of injuries to a succubus, any more than it would to a vampire. In fact, after this I’m not so sure we’re dealing with a succubus at all.”

Willow lifted her head from Kennedy’s shoulder. “You’re not?”

“No. Whatever was causing those women to behave that way, it was clearly neither one of them.”

“How do we know anything made them act like that?” Kennedy stroked some loose hair from Willow’s face. “Maybe they were just drunk and stupid.”

“They weren’t, Kennedy,” replied Buffy. “The brunette carried Naomi all the way out to the cab, no way she could have been that drunk. They were totally out of it, both of them. Giles, it looked... it looked kinda like that thing with Riley and I at the frat house.”

“An outside influence keeping them completely engrossed in each other, and oblivious to everything else,” Giles said, thinking about it. “Yes, it did look rather like that.”

“Okay,” said Faith. “What does that and kills like a succubus?”

“I don’t know,” Giles replied. “I’m sorry, but I don’t. Whatever this is, it’s something I’ve not heard of. I’ll have to do more research.”

“And fast,” said Buffy. “The party’s in like twenty hours and I just know this thing’s gonna be there looking for another meal.”

“All right,” said Giles. “I think a couple of the bookshops I found may still be open.”

“At this time of night?” Kennedy asked sceptically.

“Occult bookshops tend to keep strange hours,” Giles replied. “In the meantime, Willow, and as much as I hate to say this, I think the Net may be our best hope for a quick answer here.”

“Research party in our room, then.” Willow got to her feet, feeling better now that she had a project to focus on.

Xander rose as well. “I’ll go get some snacks.”

Buffy nodded at him in appreciation. “Dawnie, I’ll see you later.”

“What? I’m coming with you.”

“No you’re not, you’re tired and freaked out and-”

“Of course I’m freaked out, I just saw a girl with her thigh-bone sticking out of her leg! Buffy, I want to catch the thing that did this. Please.”

Buffy desperately wanted to say no, to keep her sister away from all of it, but she knew she couldn’t do it. “All right. Let’s go to work.”

Chapter 8

“Dorobou no kisu.”

Xander frowned. “I feel like I should be saying gesundheit.”

“Yes, very amusing.” Giles rubbed his tired eyes and yawned. “We’ve eliminated every other possibility we can come up with, this is the only thing that fits.”

Outside the hotel, the city was lazily waking up to its Saturday morning. Inside Willow and Kennedy’s room, the seven of them were stretched out wherever they could find a degree of comfort, surrounded by books and papers, with Willow’s laptop cables threading their way through the mess.

“Okay, Giles,” Buffy said quietly. “What’s Dorothy-no-kissy’s deal?”

“Dorobou no kisu,” Giles corrected her. He consulted his notebook for a moment. “The name is Japanese, it means ‘thief of kisses’ – typical demon theatricality, I’m afraid. The demon takes the form of a human, always female. Like a succubus, it feeds through sex, but the method is rather different.”

“Different how?” asked Faith.”

“Succubi interact with their victims directly. They seduce them, using their powers to make the victim feel an intense lust for them, and when they have sex they drain the life from the victim. A dorobou no kisu is much more... discreet, I suppose would be the word.” Giles paused to take a sip from a cup of almost cold coffee. “They often have no contact whatsoever with their victim, or victims I should say; there are always two at a time.”

“Two?” Faith looked up in surprise. “You mean...”

“It feeds on lovers,” Giles confirmed. “If there is even a hint of sexual attraction between two people, the dorobou no kisu can heighten it almost to the point of insanity, as we saw last night. Then, when the sexual energy is released, the demon feeds on it from a distance, draining both victims.”

“Just like the frat house,” Xander said.

Faith’s ears perked up. “Sounds like a story.”

“Which now is not the time for,” Buffy replied quickly. “Giles, how come we never thought about these doro-things before?”

“Because I’d never heard of them,” replied Giles, his tone defensive. “I had nothing to work with and I took my best guess. These demons are incredibly rare, Buffy. Willow could only find one account of one ever being encountered outside Japan, and that was a ninety years ago in Korea, during the Japanese occupation.”

“Right,” Buffy said, ashamed of her outburst. “I’m sorry. Did you find anything about killing them?”

Giles nodded in acknowledgement of her apology. “There’s only one way that’s described in anything we’ve found so far. Sakura blossom.”

“What’s sakura?” asked Dawn.

“Japanese cherry trees,” replied Kennedy, and everyone looked at her in surprise. “What? I know things, okay?”

“Kennedy’s quite right,” Giles said. “According to the accounts I’ve read, the blossoms are poisonous to a dorobou no kisu. The most effective way to kill one seems to be to force it to swallow a mouthful of blossom extract. That seems to kill the demon in moments and the body crumbles to dust afterwards, much like a vampire.”

“Okay, that’s handy, but how do we find it in the first place?” asked Faith. “It’s not like we can go ‘round jammin’ flower juice into people’s mouths until one of them pops.”

“That is a problem,” Giles conceded. “Perhaps there’s some way to surreptitiously expose everyone to a small amount of the blossom extract? Not enough to kill the demon, but enough to cause a reaction. Once you’ve identified who it is-”

“It’s Yuki.”

Buffy’s statement took them all by surprise. Faith spoke up. “I don’t think so, B, she seemed-”

“Seemed what? Nice?” Buffy scoffed. “Ask Xander about the last time he went on a date. It makes sense. These things are Japanese, so’s she, and she started up her nightclub right before women started dying. It’s a perfect setup for one of these things. People pay you to come into your place and get attracted to each other, and when you get hungry you just pick a couple like apples off of a tree.”

“There is a certain logic to that,” said Giles. “If you could find some way for her to swallow some blossoms without, as Faith said, jamming them into her mouth, you could test the theory without anyone being any the wiser.”

“I know how to do it,” said Faith. “We go to her party and buy her a drink.”

“Spike it, you mean?” Giles considered the idea. “It’s a possibility, you’d only need to put a few drops into her drink to see a reaction. It would have to be something quite strong, though, to mask the taste.”

“She was drinking neat Scotch last night.”

“That should do it.” Giles looked around the group. “Can anyone think of anything else we need to do?” No one said anything, so he went on. “In that case, I’ll go and find some cherry blossom extract, and then I suggest we all get some rest, we’ve had a long day. We can do more research later. In fact, it might be an idea if Willow and I stay here tonight, to keep investigating.”

Buffy shook her head ruefully. “You guys sleep, Faith and I’ll have to catch a nap later. Right now, we have to get costumes for tonight.” She thought about what she was likely to be wearing come the evening. “And something to wear over them in public.”

“...I go through with this, you’re gonna owe me,” Faith said as they approached the club’s doors that night.

Inside the pockets of her trench coat, Buffy’s fists clenched. “Faith, there are two girls in the hospital right now, could you take a minute to care?”

“I know, I do, I just hate this frickin’ outfit!”

“Well it’s not like we had a lot of time to find something that fit,” Buffy shot back. “Now quiet down, we’re here.”

They handed their tickets to the doorman and stepped into the coat check area. The girl behind the counter, who must already have had a memorable evening, all but gawped as they removed their trench coats. Trying to project a confidence she never thought she’d really feel in a dark red bustier, matching hot pants and knee-length stiletto boots, Buffy retrieved a riding crop and a dog leash from the inside pocket of her coat and handed it to the girl. “Do you like this colour on me?”

The girl, whose eyes had been darting between Buffy’s outfit and the tiny white shirt and plaid miniskirt Faith was wearing, managed to stammer out “Yeah, it looks great. Really brings out your... eyes.” She gulped.

“Aww,” Buffy said, smiling sweetly. “You’re so nice.”

The girl blushed, grabbed both trench coats and almost ran for the coat room. In spite of the circumstances, Buffy felt a little flash of pride at the reaction she’d caused. Then she carefully forced her expression back to one of superior disdain as she turned to Faith, savouring the fact that her heels, and Faith’s flat schoolgirl shoes, gave her the height advantage for once. She attached the leash to the collar around Faith’s neck.

“Come along, Puppy.” Buffy turned and strutted away toward the bar, the leash in one hand and the crop in the other.

“Arf arf,” Faith muttered under her breath, slung her book bag over her shoulder and followed.

The club was at least as busy as it had been the previous night, and the dance floor was awash with dominatrixes, naughty nurses, stripper cops, miniskirted superheroes, French maids, angels, devils, fur-bikinied cavewomen and a hundred other options that looked like they came straight from Xander’s subconscious.

“How come I have to be the one wearin’ the collar?” Faith hissed in Buffy’s ear.

“Because you saw what the party theme was and you laughed,” Buffy replied. “Have you got the cherry stuff?”

“Right here.” Faith patter her bag. “So what’s the plan, Mistress?”

“Find Yuki,” Buffy replied. “Assuming we can even recognise her in all this.”

“Maybe if we find Ellen or Hannah...” Faith’s voice trailed off. “Oh crap. B, if you’re right...”

“I know. ‘Hey Hannah, remember that girl you were into? Turns out she’s a life-sucking demon.’ I’m starting to hate this town.”

“You and me both.”

They began at the bar, got themselves a couple of drinks and began to circulate through the crowd, searching for a face, any face, that they recognised. A dozen times they thought they saw a familiar face through the crowd, only for it to turn out to be a total stranger.

And then Ellen stepped out of the crowd right in front of them, and they both jumped.

“Oh my God, it is you two!” Ellen was staring at them in open admiration. “Damn, you guys look good.”

“Didn’t your Mom ever you not to startle a dominatrix with a whip?” Buffy brandished her riding crop, smiling as she did. “You look great!”

“What, this?” Ellen glanced down at the red cheerleader costume she was wearing, which looked like it was a couple of sizes too small for her. “Just a tiny little something I threw on.”

“Threw or painted?” Buffy asked, raising an eyebrow. “You remember Puppy, don’t you?”

“Woof,” Faith said.

“I’m afraid Puppy isn’t really getting into the spirit of things,” Buffy said, narrowing her eyes at Faith. “I think I’m gonna have to punish her later.” She swatted at Faith’s ass with the crop.

“You lucky dog,” Ellen said to Faith. “So, you guys enjoying the party?”

“It’s amazing!” Buffy gushed. “Have you seen Yuki tonight? We wanted to say thanks for letting us come.”

“Yeah, I saw her upstairs, I think she’s working her way round the tables up there. Just look out for the Slutty Red Riding Hood costume, you can’t miss her.” Ellen glanced over at the dance floor. “Hey, look, I gotta run, there’s a blonde pirate waiting for me to show her some moves. I’ll catch you later, right?”

“You betcha,” Faith said.

“Cool. And you be a good Puppy, you hear?” Ellen grabbed them both into a hug and planted a kiss on their cheeks. “God, you guys are cute.”

“That girl got a double dose of the happy juice,” Faith said once Ellen had left them.

“Yeah,” Buffy replied absently. She was staring after Ellen, a puzzled look on her face.

“Somethin’ wrong?”

“What? No.” Buffy shook it off. “I just thought her outfit looked familiar, that’s all.”

“It’s a cheerleader costume, B. Seen one, seen ‘em all.”

“Yeah, I guess. Come on, let’s go find Yuki.”

They finally tracked her down at a table in one of the quieter corners of the upper level. Ellen’s description of Yuki’s costume as ‘Slutty Red Riding Hood’ was, if anything, an understatement. Under the red cape she was wearing a low-cut red gingham dress that was as tight as a corset and barely covered her ass, while her legs were covered with thigh-length black boots. “Summer! Leah! You came.”

“Came, saw and are planning to conquer,” Buffy said, plastering her brightest smile over her face.

“If you’re dressed like that, I don’t think anyone’s gonna fight back,” Yuki said. “You having a good time?”

“The best, aren’t we Puppy?”

“Damn straight,” said Faith. “We were hopin’ we could buy you a drink, just to say thanks. What’re you having?”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Yuki said modestly.

“Yeah, but we’d like to,” Buffy insisted. “Please?”

Yuki saw the earnest expression on her face and laughed happily. “I never turn down a free drink twice. I’ll have a Scotch, neat, no ice.”

“Scotch, neat, no ice,” Buffy repeated, and let go of Faith’s leash. “Puppy, fetch.”

“Arf!” Faith said, playing up to it in spite of the smug look in Buffy’s eye. She headed for the stairs, forcing herself not to cast nervous looks over her shoulder at Buffy, standing alone with the woman they thought was their target.

As she queued at the bar, Faith slipped the little bottle of cherry blossom extract out of her back and kept it concealed in her hand. She ordered Yuki’s scotch and a couple of beers for herself and Buffy, and stood tapping her foot impatiently while the bartender fetched them. It seemed to take forever before the three drinks were in front of her. She paid, and while the bartender’s back was turned she slipped a few drops of the extract into the Scotch.

When Faith got back upstairs, Buffy and Yuki were laughing together like old friends. Seeing Buffy’s performance brought back memories of the night Angel pretended to switch sides, and she had to fight down a wave of guilt before she rejoined them.

“Thank you, Leah,” Yuki said, accepting her glass. “What should we drink to?”

Buffy glanced at Faith, who nodded imperceptibly. “To a hell of a party!”

“A hell of a party,” Yuki echoed, and took a long sip of Scotch. She held it in her mouth for a moment, savouring the flavours, then swallowed and let out a sharp exhalation. “Mmmm, that’s so good. I swear, sometimes I think a nice single malt’s better than sex. Just sometimes.”

Buffy couldn’t believe it. She’d been so sure Yuki was the demon, she could barely stop herself from staring when there wasn’t a hint of a reaction. “W-wow, that good huh? I was always more of a bourbon gal, maybe I should switch?”

“Hey, go with what suits you. If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong,” Yuki assured her with a smile.

“Right, right...” Frantically wracking her brain for an idea what to do next, Buffy could feel herself on the edge of starting to babble and decided they needed to regroup somewhere away from their former prime suspect. “Well, we’d better let you get back to running your party, huh Leah? Thanks again, Yuki.”

“No problem, glad you’re here. Have fun!”

“Fun, yeah...” Buffy picked up Faith’s leash again and led her away to the darkest, quietest corner she could find. “Now what?”

“I don’t know, B.”

“You did put the cherry stuff in, right?”

“Course I did.”

“And you used enough?”

“Giles said it’d only take a few drops.”

“Are you sure you didn’t get the drinks mixed up?”

“Yeah, B, I’m so stupid I can’t tell the difference between a glass of Scotch and a beer bottle!”

“Don’t get sarcastic! I trying to think.” Buffy ran her fingers through her hair, trying to focus. “Gimme my phone, I’m gonna call Giles and tell him what’s happening.”

Faith fished it out of her bag and handed it over. Covering her other ear with one hand to block out the noise, Buffy hit the speed-dial.

“Buffy?” Giles voice was just barely audible.

“I’m here.”

“What?”

Buffy raised her voice. “I said I’m here.”

“Good. How are you doing?”

“We were wrong, Giles, it wasn’t her.”

“Damn it.” Giles fell silent for a moment, and Buffy could almost see him pacing the room. “What are going to do now?”

“I don’t know. Did you guys find anything else?”

“Nothing much. Willow’s been searching constantly, but accounts are very few and far between. One thing we do know is that the translation of dorobou no kisu we had is wrong. It doesn’t mean ‘thief of kisses’, it means ‘kissing thief’ and apparently the meaning is very literal. Before it can feed, the demon marks its future victims by kissing them.”

“Kissing them...” Buffy repeated, her mind whirling.

“Yes, does that mean something to you?”

“I know who it is.” Buffy snapped her phone shut before he could reply. “It’s Ellen.”

“Ellen?” Faith’s jaw dropped. “No way, B.”

“The demon, it marks its victims by kissing them.”

Faith’s hand flew up to her cheek where Ellen kissed her. “She kisses everyone.”

“I saw her kiss Naomi last night,” Buffy said. “We’ve gotta find her.”

Faith nodded, her face calm in spite of the cold fury she was feeling. “Let’s go hunt us a cheerleader.”

They hurried over to the railing and looked down, searching for a flash of red in the throng below. A commotion at the back of the club caught Buffy’s attention and she saw a couple, locked in a fevered embrace, staggering through a door that Buffy guessed led to an alley behind the building.

“I see her,” Faith said, pointing. Ellen was near the bar, watching the couple leave with a satisfied smile on her face. As they watched, she turned and started walking toward another door, the one that lead to the bathrooms and the stairs leading upwards. “You were right, B. She’s gotta be goin’ for the roof.”

“Let’s go.” Buffy took off, forcing her way through the crowd with Faith following in her wake.

The door leading to the roof was ajar when they reached it. Buffy pushed it open, cautiously peering out into the night. She saw Ellen at once, standing by the edge, looking down over the parapet at the alley below. “No-one likes a peeper.”

“Hey Summer.” Ellen didn’t turn around, but even so Buffy could tell that she was smiling. “Told you I’d catch you later.”

“It’s not Summer,” Buffy said as she stepped out onto the roof. Faith was a step behind her, unclasping the leash from her collar and wrapping it around her fist. “It’s Summers. As in Buffy Summers. As in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

“I know,” Ellen replied, and Buffy’s step faltered for a moment. “I made you two for some kind of hunters the night we met. It wasn’t hard after that. By the way,” she turned, finally, “you never told me what you thought of my outfit.”

The nagging familiarity in Buffy’s mind snapped into focus; Summer’s cheerleader costume was almost identical to the ones from the rebuilt Sunnydale High. “You know, they weren’t like that when I was at school.”

“I know,” Ellen replied, shrugging, “but the old style just wasn’t slutty enough for this party. So, you gonna introduce me to your friend?”

“I’m Faith.”

“The rogue,” Ellen said with a nod of recognition. “Good Slayer and Bad Slayer together again. You guys are just too cute for words.”

Faith snorted disdainfully at the idea. “You know this much about us, you must be wicked stupid to be sticking around.”

“Why?” Ellen asked them. “It’s not like you two are actually a threat. If you’re coming after me, you gotta have some idea what I can do to you.”

“News flash, El,” Faith snapped. “We’re not gay!”

“Oh no!” Ellen’s hand flew to her mouth in mock horror. “My plan is ruined!”

“Okay, getting bored now,” Buffy said. “Faith, let’s-”

Buffy was suddenly flung backwards against the wall, and before she could react Faith was pressed up against her. Their lips touched, and it was like a floodgate opened inside. In a moment, the only that mattered was Faith’s skin under her hands, Faith’s lips on hers, holding her, taking her, having her. She pushed away from the wall and they landed in a heap on the roof, the rough concrete scratching at their skin.

“You know, you’re not the kind of couple I normally go for,” Ellen said, sauntering across the roof toward them. “Normally I like ‘em new, first time together, the lust’s sweeter. Maybe I’m a veal kinda girl.”

They rolled over, Faith landing on top. Buffy’s hand slid between them without her even thinking about it and torn open the front of Faith’s shirt, sending buttons scattering in all directions. Faith’s mouth left hers and began working its way down her throat until it reached her shoulder and bit down hard, the pain sending a jolt of pleasure through her. She cried out in ecstacy, her hand tangled in Faith’s hair as they writhed against each other, legs entwined like snakes.

“But you two,” Ellen went on, crouching down beside them, “the denial, it’s delicious. How long have you been fighting this? Four years? Five? You’ve aged it like a great champagne and now... now it’s time to pop that cork.”

I’m gonna die, Buffy thought somewhere in the depths of her brain, I’m gonna die being fed on by a demon and I’m gonna go out smiling. The thought was repellent, but she couldn’t hold on to it, couldn’t make it break through the waves of desire consuming her. All she could do in the tiny part of herself that was still hers was scream.

And then she remembered something, something that had happened the night she and Faith first met, and a realisation it had triggered in her years later.

“This is gonna be so sweet.” Ellen stood again and leaned against the wall nearby, her hands caressing her body. “You know I don’t have to be this close to feed, right? I just love to watch.”

The hand in Faith’s hair tightened its grip, pulling her away so that Buffy could look her in her lust-clouded eyes. “Faith.”

“Buffy...”

“Faith, look at me.” Fear and desperation put an edge into Buffy’s voice, just enough to jolt Faith back to some semblance of self-control. “Remember how slaying always makes you hungry and horny?”

“Yeah?”

“You ever notice how sometimes it goes the other way?”

For a heartbeat, Faith stared at her, not understanding, then her leg lashed out. Her foot caught Ellen behind the knees, sweeping her off her feet and dumping her on the roof almost on top of them.

They were on their feet in a moment, before Ellen even had a chance to realise what had happened, their lust for each other merging with the primal bloodlust they both carried deep inside. Ellen tried to scramble away, but Faith snatched her up and hurled her into the wall before she could cover more than a few inches. Dazed from the impact, Ellen lashed out blindly. Her fist connected with Buffy’s shoulder, landing with inhuman force. Buffy rolled with it and retaliated with a vicious blow to the stomach that left Ellen doubled over in pain.

Faith looped the leash around Ellen’s neck and yanked back on it, forcing her head up and back. “B, get the cherry stuff!”

Ellen heard what she said and realised what she meant. With a great, panic-spawned convulsion she tore herself free before Buffy could reach Faith’s bag, abandoned when Faith jumped on her. Buffy launched a kick at her that sent her reeling backward, easy prey for Faith who grabbed her from behind and pulled her into a wrestling lock, helpless to do anything.

Buffy picked up the back and removed the bottle of sakura extract. She crossed to Ellen, grabbed her jaw with one hand and squeezed, forcing her mouth open.

“This is for Naomi, and Connie Bauer, and all the others.” She rammed the whole bottle into Ellen’s mouth, then punched her under the jaw. Ellen’s mouth snapped shut under the impact, shattering the glass.

Chapter 9

The water was almost scalding, raising great clouds of steam that filled the bathroom. Faith’s skin flushed under its touch, the cuts and scrapes scattered across her skin weeping fresh blood. Faith didn’t care about the blood, or the pain that came with it. She just wished the shower could wash away what had happened that night, or at least let her forget it.

Finally, the heat began to make her dizzy. She shut off the water, took one of the fluffy white towels from the rail and dried herself off, then she got dressed and lay on her bed, staring into space, hating what she’d done.

The knock on her door came about half an hour later. For an instant, she considered ignoring it, pretending she was asleep, but the idea was dismissed as quickly as it arrived. She’d had no control over anything that had happened, so why start pretending she did now?

Buffy was standing in the corridor, dressed in her PJs, with her hair pulled back in a rough ponytail that still managed to look flawless. Just like everything else with Buffy. They stared at each other for a moment, neither of them knowing what they should say or do. Then Buffy took a step forward and suddenly they were kissing again, gently at first and then more roughly, hungrily. Buffy kicked the door shut behind them as they stumbled across the room and fell onto Faith’s bed in a tangle of limbs.

“No.” Faith pushed them apart, almost throwing Buffy off her. “No, we can’t.”

“Faith, what’s wrong? Why are you-”

“This isn’t us, B!” Faith cried, desperately clinging to the last threads of denial. She leapt up from the bed, covering her face with her hands. “This isn’t us, Ellen did this to us, it’s all...”

“Ellen’s dead, Faith. No one’s doing this to us but us. I’m not here because of her, I’m here because of you.” Buffy went to her and gently but firmly pulled her hands down, forcing Faith to look her in the face. “Because I want you.”

“No, no...”

“I want you, Faith,” Buffy repeated. “I think I always wanted you, I just couldn’t admit it to myself. Ellen didn’t make it happen, she just shoved it up in my face, and now I can’t lie to myself any more. I want you, and I know you want me. Don’t you?”

She sounded completely sure of it, but there was a look of doubt in her eyes that made Faith’s heart ache. “Yeah. Yeah, I want you too.”

“Good.” Buffy smiled at her, a smile so bright Faith wanted to bask in it. “So, can we get back to the part where you’re kissing me?”

Down to the depths of her soul, Faith wanted to say yes, but she made herself shake her head. “No, B, I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m with Robin! Don’t you get that?” Tears welled up in Faith’s eyes, but she was too upset to remember how much she hated crying in front of other people. “I made him a promise, B. I’ve only been with him two weeks and I’m cheating on him.”

“No you’re not. Faith, what happened earlier wasn’t your fault, or mine. We couldn’t control ourselves, that’s not cheating.”

“Yes it was! ‘Cause I wanted to do it. And what about now, huh? You said it, Ellen’s gone, this is all us. I’ve got a boyfriend out there and all I can think about is how much I wanna touch you. That’s cheating on him. I can’t be that girl, B, I won’t be her again.”

“Oh God...” Buffy subsided onto the bed again, her head in her hands. “Faith, would you just calm down for a minute? Let’s just think about this.”

Faith turned away, leaning on the window ledge while she took a series of deep, calming breaths. “Okay.”

“Okay. I want you and you want me, right?”

Faith nodded, not trusting her voice yet.

“Good. Second question: do you us to be together?”

“B, what did I just-”

“Forget Robin, forget everything that’s outside this room. Right now, do you wanna be my girlfriend.”

“I... yes.”

“Okay, last question. This one’s for all the points.” Buffy hesitated, her voice catching in her throat. “Do you wanna be with me more than you wanna be with Robin?”

Faith turned around, her eyes welling up again. “Yeah, yeah I do.”

Relief flooded across Buffy’s face. “Thank God! I almost thought... never mind. It doesn’t matter any more.”

“B, I can’t just dump him and jump in the sack with you.”

“Why not? If it’s what we both want-”

“I don’t know! Please, B, just gimme some time here, lemme figure out what I’m gonna do.”

Buffy sighed, disappointed but accepting. “Okay. I know you’re trying to do the right thing, Faith. I’m not saying I wouldn’t rather be kissing you right now, but I’ll back off, let you figure out how you wanna do this. Is that okay?”

“Yeah,” Faith said quietly, a decision forming behind her eyes.

“Good.” Buffy turned and walked to the door. Faith followed her, and as Buffy opened the door Faith caught hold of it, stopping her.

“One more,” she said, leaning forward to press her lips against Buffy’s. The kiss was softer than any they’d shared before, filled with possibilities.

When they parted, Buffy put up her hand to stroke Faith’s cheek. “Sleep well, baby. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“See ya, B,” Faith replied, her eyes glistening.

Buffy woke the next morning from a sleep filled with dreams of a future she hadn’t even known she wanted the day before. She got up and went to the window, stretching herself as she went, and looked out at the buildings across the street, drenched in early morning sunlight. Smiling to herself, she went into the bathroom to deal with her morning routine.

When she emerged, Dawn was sitting up in her bed, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“Morning, Dawnie.”

Dawn gave her a look that said no one had any business being so cheery at that time of the morning, especially after the series of late nights they’d had. “What’s got you in such a good mood?”

“What’s wrong with being in a good mood? We got the demon, the sun’s shining... I think today’s gonna be a good day.”

Dawn grunted something incomprehensible at her and made for the bathroom. By the time she was finished, Buffy was dressed and ready to go. “You mind if I meet you downstairs? I wanna go make sure Faith’s awake.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Dawn sat down on her bed and slumped back onto the pillows.

Buffy smiled at her indulgently and set off down the corridor, humming to herself and thinking about what she was going to say when she saw Faith. She reached Faith’s room, knocked smartly on the door and waited.

Nothing happened.

“Faith?” Buffy knocked again. “Faith, are you up?”

Nothing. Suddenly, Buffy could feel a chasm of doubts opening up beneath her feet. She tried the door handle, praying the door would be locked.

It swung open freely. Buffy stepped inside, already knowing what she’d find. The closet doors stood ajar, open enough to see that the closet was empty. The bed hadn’t been slept; the rumpling from when they fell onto it the previous night was still clearly visible. Resting on the pillow was a note made from a single folded sheet of paper, on the front of which was written a single letter B.

The End