‘Slayer’

The night Buffy first saw vampire Willow it had probably been at the female’s most pathetic worst.

Buffy had stood in Ethan Rayne’s magic shop backroom and stared bemusedly down at a passed out, frail, slender girl, slumped over a wood coffin and clutching to her chest the bloody forearm to her own, gnawed off right arm. It looked like the vampire had been trying to reattach the limb, so Buffy, in curiosity, took the stump and tried to place it back at the elbow.

Nothing happened. Perhaps she was holding it backwards so she turned the limb around.

“What...what are you doing?” Gile’s incredulous, soft inquiry came from the door.

“Oh. well.” Buffy put the limb back in the box. “If I got my leg bit off by a demon, would you be able to stick it back on?”

“W-w-wha, well, er,” Giles softly stammered. He was still in some kind of shock after finding his old buddy Ethan finally dead. “W-we, pack it in ice--”

“No. I mean, with Slayer healing. Stick it back on, ta dah! That sort of thing.”

“No,” Giles finally answered. “No. Very old vampires could manage it. But not you.”

“Good to know.”

“Why,” Giles asked then, in exasperation. “Why haven’t you staked it yet?”

“Giles, it killed Ethan Rayne for you. Shouldn’t you be happy? But no. All talk again. ‘I’m going to kill him this time! It’s done this time!’” Buffy mimicked in an awful parody of Gile’s voice. “So I even gave you ten minutes, waited outside the shop, while you have yet another mano y mano discussion with your old magic buddy. Instead, I come in and you’re making with the manly tears over his corpse.”

“I, I had a little something in my eye,” Giles protested wearily.

“We need to find out exactly what he was up to, this time,” Buffy finally concluded. She reached down to push some of the vampire’s long, red hair away from her face. She looked fully upon her visage for the first time. “Take this vamp home with you, Giles. Maybe we can get some answers.” She straightened and gave the room another sober once over, assessing the used syringes and the wooden box that had obviously been the vamp’s prison. “And see what the fuck has been going on in here.”

Once they got the unconscious vamp chained and secured in the Watcher’s tub, Giles explained who she was: the vampire Willow, a childe of the Master, one of his most vicious lieutenants. Buffy had apparently dusted her brother, ‘Zander’, and Willow herself had never been seen since the final assault upon the factory.

“And the backroom?” Buffy further asked in a hard voice.

Blood tapping, Giles merely explained. And from the emaciated state the vampire had been in, it had probably been going on for a very long while.

The second time Buffy saw the vamp, the redhead was barfing into Giles’ toilet, having crawled out of the tub in her chains to do so. Her stumpy arm was bandaged, but still bloody.

“What’s wrong with you,” Buffy asked in bemusement, and surprised herself when she helped gently hold the vamp’s head in place and kept her red hair out of the way. The vamp just barfed some more.

“I believe Ethan tainted his own blood,” Giles answered wryly from the bathroom doorway.

“Sucks,” Buffy merely replied. The vamp, after finishing with the barfing, simply laid a pale cheek against the cool porcelain of the toilet seat and sighed.

Buffy found, to her embarrassment, that she began thinking about the red haired vamp alot. Sure, it was a disgusting, soulless creature, which she was in the habit of staking on a regular basis, but still...

“Where is it?” she asked, when she’d gone to see the vamp for the third time, and found her Watcher’s tub empty. Giles sighed.

“In my guest bedroom,” he answered wearily. “It’s gone into a fever. Really, Buffy, with Wesley’s help, I believe we’ve uncovered what Ethan’s last plot was. I think it’s time we--”

“No,” was Buffy’s answer, and she immediately went to the bedroom to check on the vampire.

That night, when they had their research session, Buffy took her books and sat in the room with the unconscious vamp.

“No, Xander don’t,” the vamp whispered once, in the throes of her delirium. “No Xander don’t let him kill me. Please Xander please Xander please--”

Huh, Buffy thought. Zander again.

Faith walked in while Buffy was thoughtfully smoothing back Willow’s red hair.

“Keeping an eye on it?” Faith asked curiously.

“Yeah.” was Buffy’s curt reply.

Faith sat a while with her, making idle conversation. Buffy knew Faith was interested in her, possibly more than just as a Slayer pal. The eldest Slayer was just then getting further involved with the intriguing Cordelia Chase, however. Faith was too late in that regard.

It was Kendra who broached the awkward subject on everyone’s minds when Buffy had spent a third research session in the sick vamp’s bedroom.

The Jamaican Slayer sat directly in front of Buffy and looked her right in the eye.

“Is she your pet?” Kendra asked point blank. The question made Buffy smile. She kinda liked the idea.

“Dunno,” the Slayer honestly answered with a shrug. “It’s up to her.”

Kendra left the room, then came back with musty Watcher Diary books.

“Xio Lin, 1205, Eydlyn, 1533, Shandra, 1782,” Kendra recited, dumping the books in Buffy’s lap.

When Buffy read the yellow posted entries, she found that the Slayers Kendra named had all kept vamps as pets.

Willow’s fever broke the next day and even in her very weakened state she managed to escape. When Buffy found out, she immediately left Gile’s apartment for the closed up magic shop. She found Willow in the backroom, futilely trying to tear apart the coffin with her one hand.

“Where’s my arm,” the vampire merely demanded, her voice strained.

“Oh,” Buffy answered. “Well. I figured you’d want it. So it’s in my mom’s freezer.”

Willow slumped against the box. She looked small and frail, her slender frame swallowed in one of Gile’s white tee shirts and a pair of his boxer shorts. The drawstrings were drawn tight so they wouldn’t slip off her slim hips. Buffy had tied them herself.

“Want my hand,” the vamp finally said.

“Sure,” Buffy answered. Actually, she’d wondered about that. The forearm stump had been fully healed at the wrist. A clean cut. Buffy didn’t get why Ethan Rayne would chop off the vamp’s hand. “Rayne had an apartment upstairs. Wanna look?”

For the next hour, Buffy watched the weakened vamp tear apart Ethan Rayne’s apartment.

“Feel better?” she finally asked when Willow collapsed in the middle of the room. “Saw a sledge hammer. You could do the coffin now.”

“Need blood,” the vamp simply replied.

“Yeah. Well, you finish up here, then I take you to the butcher’s.”

“No. Want human. Pig stinks.”

“No human for vamp. Slayer says,” Buffy admonished. She left the torn apart bureau she’d been leaning on and approached the vampire where she sat sprawled in the middle of Rayne’s bedroom. Willow looked even more vulnerable with her little arm stump just peeping beneath the white tee sleeve. The vampire’s green eyes were dark with anger. They were angry and wet. Wet with some kind of grief it seemed.

Willow might be angst-girl at the moment, the Slayer thought, but Buffy still found her really pretty.

“You want me,” the vampire suddenly accused. “Heard you with the second Slayer. You’ll put me in a box.”

“Puhleeze!” Buffy had huffed, feeling totally offended. “Do you know how we found you? Ethan Rayne had you in a fucking pink negligee. I won’t do that to you,” she emphasized, kneeling to look Willow in the eye.

Willow said nothing. She stared at her, her green eyes big and enraged and even more wet.

“He used drugs, didn’t he. I could never remember anything,” the vamp finally blurted.

Buffy went still. Nice going Summers, she thought. She had assumed the vampire already knew.

“We found ketamine downstairs,” she finally admitted softly. “‘Date rape’ drug. Giles actually recognized it.” Willow said nothing. “I burned that nightie for you,” the Slayer added.

Willow’s response was to take the sledge hammer and re-smash everything in the room. She stabbed everything of Ethan Rayne’s too, with a knife the Slayer gave her. Buffy was impressed. She made sure to keep any matches or gas tanks and such away from the vampire however.

They never found Willow’s hand. After hammering the coffin to bits and everything in the backroom, Willow ignored the whole ‘pet’ topic that had been brought up earlier. She ate the blood Buffy bought her, they retrieved her forearm limb from her mom’s freezer, they got Willow some extra clothes and a pair of sneakers of Buffy’s for the vamp to wear, and finally, she made the Slayer take her to the abandoned Bronze, where she intended to stay. Willow never addressed Buffy’s attraction for her again.

Buffy figured it would take a while. The vamp did spend some time locked up in a box, after all. In the meantime, she kept a close Slayer eye on the crippled vampire, and began to solidify a relationship with Cordelia Chase. Cordelia and her mom got along really well.

One night, the inevitable happened. Humans cornered her crippled vampire in an alley and ganged up on her. Buffy dropped in like the superhero she was and beat the drunk and angry frat boys off.

“Keep away,” Willow snarled, when Buffy tried to lift her up.

“Woo. That’s bad,” Buffy commented matter-of-factly, though her heart hammered with fear and adrenaline at seeing the thick piece of wood sticking in Willow’s chest. “Good thing they were drunk.”

Buffy pulled the wood out quickly and winced as Willow screamed. She immediately put pressure on the wound.

“You need blood,” Buffy assessed.

“Duh,” Willow spat, obviously in great pain. She was trembling, and trying very hard not to pass out. Buffy quickly made a decision. It was probably too soon to offer what she was about to offer, but this was as good a chance as any.

“You can have some of mine,” Buffy offered.

“Wh, what?” Willow whispered, shaking.

“No biting. But you can take from a cut.” Buffy did just that, quickly, with her knife, right on her forearm. She offered the bleeding wound to Willow’s lips. “Go ahead.”

Willow broke into ‘grr’ face just at the scent of it. Buffy couldn’t help staring, fascinated. It surprised her when Willow quickly turned her head away, a look of raw hurt in those yellow eyes.

“No, it’ll be a pact! I’ll be your slave!” the vampire accused.

“What’s so bad about that?” Buffy said lightly, but her face was serious, as she held her arm out.

“You’re with Cordelia,” the vampire harshed out, keeping her face averted.

“We talked. She’s fine with me keeping you,” Buffy assured. Actually, that wasn’t quite true. She and Cordelia were still in the ‘can we still talk about this?’ stage.

“You’ll never really love me,” she heard barely whispered to her. Buffy hardly believed her ears. She found herself laughing nervously in response.

“You’re a vamp, I’m the Slayer!” she answered before she could stop herself.

That night, Buffy managed to get Willow blood that wasn’t hers, but ever since then, Willow never spoke to her again, unless Buffy made her.

* * *

‘Savage Tara’

After Tara killed the first of that pack who had murdered her, she offered the hot, bloody heart to the Moon. She then found flint and obsidian in the mountains, more gifts of the Goddess. It was an easy task to knap a few into knives and take the wolf’s hide. Every week or so she took another wolf. Then another. Goddess now owned all their hearts and their hides flapped like victory banners in the night breeze.

When Tara took the last werewolf who had killed her, she didn’t have time to offer the heart to the Goddess because she ended up chasing the red haired intruder instead.

That vampire perplexed her. It had only one arm, and Tara, having been reborn with the savage Wild intertwined with her demon essence, essentially knew the basic rule: the strongest survived. A vampire with one arm should be dead, but Tara had no desire to fulfill the rule of natural selection and kill Red Hair.

After the night of chasing her intruder, Tara waited near her lair to see if Red Hair would return. The vampire did, the slim creature creeping up the cliff surface with a little difficulty, a package tied with red ribbon held in her mouth. She entered Tara’s lair and when she emerged, the package was gone.

Once Red Hair disappeared over the ridge, Tara leapt, and with a few more bounds, accessed her lair. The white box was in plain sight and Tara rent it and the red ribbon apart. A handkerchief fluttered down from the box remains.

The scent hit Tara’s vampiric senses like a freight train. Musky.

She immediately tore after the one-armed vampire.

She found Red Hair nonchalantly walking in the forest, looking as if she were taking an oblivious, leisurely nighttime stroll. Tara kept to the cover of brush and trees and tracked her, yellow eyes glued to her prey. Sometimes she’d move silently ahead, to see if Red Hair would let herself walk into her. She never did. The other vampire would turn, altering her direction ever so slightly, always keeping a few feet away from Tara, just as Tara would keep a few feet away from her. The game progressed this way for a while, Tara admiring the sleek, slim figure Red Hair made. The other vampire had a constant, little quirk to her cute little lips and Tara liked it. She considered pouncing.

“Liked my gift?” Red Hair finally spoke, smiling slightly in her direction. Tara ducked a little, disappearing further into the growth. “I had fun last night, it was the most fun I’d had in ages.”

Red Hair had a soft, pleasing voice, to the feral vampire’s heightened, aural sense. Coquettish. Tara liked it too.

“Now, I should let you know,” Red Hair continued, as she walked along the uneven ground with vampiric grace. “That there are two Watchers in town, and three Slayers. Watchers are these knowledge guys, and they’re specifically knowledge experts on how to kill vampires. Slayers are something you should already know about. It’s like hereditary knowledge.”

Tara allowed a very low growl to escape her throat, as she watched Red Hair walk along.

“Yes. That’s a Slayer. And there are three of them. And they all know you’re here.”

The slim vampire in long, leather black turned to glance briefly to where Tara remained hidden, her pale face soft and exhibiting gentle concern.

“I know you killed your last werewolf. That rogue pack numbered five. If you start hunting humans they will come for you,” she told her seriously. “But you can come live with me, if you want. It is a bit lonely out here, don’t you think? It’s also going to be winter soon, and my lair is warm.”

They had reached the clearing where Red Hair’s car was kept. The vampire paused at the edge and then glanced back at Tara again.

“Think about it,” she softly suggested. She smiled a little, mischievous. Her one hand came up and ran slowly down her side, accentuating her slim waist and the curve of a feminine hip. “And maybe about other stuff too,” she added flirtatiously. She took off in a run for her car.

Tara stepped out of the cover of brush and watched with demonic eyes as Red Hair pulled her car around and drove away, letting go of the wheel to briefly throw a parting wave. Bemused, the feral vampire tugged at the handkerchief she’d stuffed between her breasts.

She inhaled it.

* * *

When Willow got home, her left hand had an enthusiastic workout.

“OH Ohhhhhh....” Willow moaned, this time sprawled fully nude as she touched herself. She wished she had a name to moan, and a human visage to moan for. As much as she loved the feral girl’s demon face, she’d yet to see it relaxed into human form. She thought about what she could teach the other vampire, and she thought about what the girl could teach her. And she thought most of all about what they could learn together.

“Mmmm,” Willow sighed, very satisfied, and smiled happily as she licked her own scent from her fingers.

At noontime, Willow felt, even in deep slumber, the prickle of something on the edge of her senses. She woke immediately, then groaned.

“Shit,” she exclaimed sleepily. “Don’t--”

Her door got kicked open.

“--come in,” Willow ended with a growl, trying to pry her tired lids open.

“Oh!” Buffy exclaimed. “Oh....shit. Sorry. Um. I’ll...” The Slayer turned around and, in a fluster, faced the now broken door.

“You know I sleep in the nude, what is your problem?!” Willow snapped from the bed. She lay on her stomach, atop the covers, hugging a large, soft pillow to herself. She remembered falling asleep that way, pretending the soft mass was her feral girl.

“Yeah, nude, but, y’know, not while you’re doing the nudie with someone else, and--wait,” the Slayer said, pausing. She took a big sniff. “Wait. That’s only you!” The Slayer spun around, hands now on hips. “Who’s giving you happy thoughts? Is it me?” she added hopefully.

“Hell no!” Willow cried from the bed. The Slayer gave her a disapproving look.

“God, not Faith,” the Slayer admonished.

“The Slutster? Are you kid--will you just tell me why the fuck you are here?!” Willow finally yelled.

Buffy dropped her curiosity for the moment and looked serious.

“Two mountain lion attacks yesterday evening, Sunnydale Forest,” the Slayer related. Willow immediately sat up, a look of dismay on her face.

“It’s not her,” she defended. “It’s not. I know, I would’ve sensed it.”

“And I believe you,” Buffy assured, coming to sit carefully on the edge of the bed. “Cuz there were witnesses. First guy who was snatched was a mountain biker. Eyewitnesses say they thought they saw a big cat drag him off. Second biker was a lady who got pounced. Nearly got her skull chewed off but her friends threw rocks, drove the cat off.”

“Why are you telling me this? I can take care of myself. And so can she,” Willow commented, frowning.

“That’s not the point. Ken wants this one.”

“Wants what? A pet cat?” Willow asked, exasperated.

“Can you, maybe, cover up? It’s kind of distracting,” the Slayer answered instead. She vaguely waved towards Willow’s dark haired intimate area, even as she surreptitiously admired it.

“Why? You used to dress me when I was sick,” Willow said sullenly. She remained where she was across from the seated Slayer.

“Yeah, but you didn’t smell all sexy while I was doing it,” Buffy grinned at her. The Slayer picked up the large pillow and dropped it in Willow’s naked lap. The length covered the vampire’s soft little boobs too, and Willow’s arms--well, one was only half an arm--came around automatically to hug it.

“That’s better,” Buffy sighed. “Where was I? Oh yeah. Well, Miss, ‘I had me dem killer sharks, mon,’ wants to bag it.”

“Sharks?” Willow repeated, feeling a little impressed. Her estimation of the second Slayer went up a notch. “Wait a minute. You’re not supposed to let her go into Sunnydale Forest,” she added with a scowl.

“Her and Miss ‘Wicked Cool’,” Buffy added. “Who of course, thinks going after endangered mountain lions would be wicked cool. I told them to stay put, but I haven’t good reason to keep them out by tomorrow. By then that cat will kill again. Once they get a taste of human they can’t stop.”

Pfft, Willow mentally retorted. Tell me about it.

“Not if I kill it first,” Willow growled.

“That’s my girl,” Buffy complimented with satisfaction. Something lying on Willow’s lair floor caught her attention and she peered at it. “So that’s what happened to your phone,” Buffy added in feigned surprise.

* * *

Willow always found the Slayer’s personal visits extremely annoying, but they did serve a purpose. Information sharing was better than none, and Willow had watched the Slayer enough to know how much disdain she had for the rest of demonkind. With the exception of Willow, Buffy the Exterminator had no tolerance, patience, or understanding to waste on those she was Chosen to just kill. Willow didn’t have to like it, but the Slayer’s fondness of her had its advantages. Unfortunately, Willow did have to give a little to get a little.

“I got a question,” Buffy then announced, looking nowhere near ready to leave Willow’s lair anytime soon. Willow hugged the pillow and suppressed a sigh.

“Yes, Buff?” she encouraged in a sweet voice.

“Feral vamps. Wesley says--”

“They’re vamp beasts, the demon having burst the human bubble frame we are squeezed into and are merely the demon, the killing force,” Willow interrupted in a weary voice. Hell, she was really going to need a nap this afternoon before she could go into Sunnydale Forest again.

“Dumb beasts, worst than a minion,” Buffy clarified.

“They’re mistakes,” Willow re-clarified. “Which minions aren’t. No vampire in their right mind would sire such things on purpose, they attract too much attention and are more trouble than they’re worth.”

“So Miss Grr-Girl--”

“Is not one of those. If she were, she’d have gone after humans the moment she rose. No, her intellect and self-awareness is all there. It takes cunning to hunt werewolves. It takes patience to skin them. It takes control not to go after easy prey like humans.”

“You said she was a newborn but she sounds like more than your average fledge. Wait, did you say skins? Ooo, neat.”

“I don’t know what she is,” Willow added thoughtfully. “But she’s something more than me.”

* * *

When Tara rose from her shallow grave in the forest floor, the dark world had been given anew to her. Sight, sounds, taste, and touch--and more, those extra supernatural senses that could be described as the sixth, or even the seventh sense. She saw and felt things even more so than she had as a witch.

Tara was wild now, wild and a demon, and perhaps because of her magic she could not, like other vampires, conveniently dismiss what she once was; she died beneath her Goddess and rose a new creature, completely in Her Awareness. This was the same, living world she once loved, but now Tara was fated to experience it from the Other side.

On the nights she had hunted the wolves, plotting how to take them, she would see the oblivious human prey walking about, and wonder why she didn’t just take them too. It disturbed her, this...hesitance, when it came to possibly killing the human sheep. Her demon self clamored for the easy kill, to wreak bloodletting after bloodletting, but a small, very strong part of her made her desist, and never act on such demonic instinct. Tara was wild, she kept to the forest, but she mostly stayed away because to venture into the human world would mean confronting these strange, conflicting sides of herself that she really wanted to avoid.

So while she tried to dismiss thoughts about Red Hair’s offer, Tara left her lair to hunt mountain lion instead.

When Tara found the lion, it was sated, full bellied, and fiercely guarding its half eaten human prey. The snarl it gave at Tara’s presence was deep and frighteningly threatening. Tara snarled back.

She didn’t know why, but that little part of her that resisted killing defenseless humans now told her that this lion was the one to kill.

They kept snarling, back and forth, as Tara edged closer and closer, slowly provoking the lion. When they finally leapt at each other, they filled the air with their fierce sounds and with the scent of their freshly spilt blood.

A few clashes later, Tara wrestled the large beast, bear hugging its twisting body, and sank her fangs in from behind. She wanted the lion to die under her teeth.

When the beast finally stopped struggling, Tara slid to the ground with the dying animal sprawled in her lap. She hugged the large, hot body close and sucked.

“Oh!!” she heard as she fed, the sounds of light feet scrambling down the slope to her. “Oh!! That was great! I’m so glad you got him! I almost had to do it, because the Slayer made me, but I’m all giddy now because you did it instead!”

Tara gave out a low, warning growl, even with her teeth still in the beast’s thick neck.

“Oops! You’re being all possess’y. I don’t want any mountain lion. See? I’ll be right over here. I’m not hungry at all, you go ahead and eat every last drop.” Red Hair sat down at a respectful distance across from Tara and her kill, laying a battle ax down. The slim vampire smiled in delight at her.

“I got all excited watching you fight,” she shared with a cute grin. “Can you smell me?”

Tara didn’t stop feeding but she did give a loud sniff. Red Hair was wet all right. The vampire in leather then sighed.

“I wish you could just stay up here. It seems best for you. You can eat animals, and maybe a hiker or two. But the Slayers are pushing it. They’re going to come up here at some point, and they’re ‘stake first, ask questions later’ morons. Believe me, I know. It’s just not safe for you anymore.”

Red Hair nodded to where the lion’s half eaten prey, the biker guy, lay. “And it’s not just about the Slayers. Humans with their recreational kicks are coming further into the forest every time. The rangers will be all over this. If I can find your lair, they can find it too.

“Please come home with me,” Red Hair finally pleaded. The other vampire rose to her knees and Tara idly realized, as she finished her meal and stroked the rough fur beneath her fingers, that if Red Hair had two hands she would be clasping them. “Please. At least try it and see. Maybe when the Slayers see that you’re okay, you can come back. You just have to agree not to kill humans.”

Red Hair paused and watched her expectantly, as if waiting for Tara to speak. But Tara had not spoken a word since her Rising. Wild things had no need for speech. Tara hugged the cooling animal to her, cheek resting against mountain lion fur, and stroked her dead cat.

“I’m not offering much, am I,” Red Hair finally murmured apologetically. “It’s hard, life with three Slayers. But...I was hopin’...you might like a little fun, maybe?” she asked in a breathy, hopeful voice. “With me?”

Tara heard the tremor of uncertainty in Red Hair’s soft question. Looking into Red Hair’s wide, green eyes, she could see the touch of fear that lay there. She remembered another lifetime when she’d felt unattractive, unworthy, some cow, just because she’d thought herself...lacking.

Tara suddenly stood up, the mountain lion falling with a thump at her feet. She knelt and heft the beast like a sack over one shoulder, the huge paws dangling. Tara merely stood, eyes glowing yellow, waiting for Red Hair to do something.

“Oh...Oh!! You mean--? Okay!! Great! And yes! Bring your kitty too. We can go this way!” Red Hair babbled, happiness suffusing her pretty face and slender frame. She picked up her ax and began leading a path down from the cat’s killing ground. Tara followed.

Sex with Red Hair, Tara personally contemplated. Yes, that would be fun.

* * *

Willow could not believe her good fortune. She had the feral huntress safely in her car and on their way back into Sunnydale.

The kitty cat lay in the trunk, lowering the car a bit dramatically with its dead weight. Willow figured the blonde vampire would want to skin it later. She wondered if she could convince her to make a rug out of it. Wouldn’t that be neat? It would need glass eyeballs though. Maybe she could persuade the feral girl to use a taxidermist instead.

First thing first, Willow reminded herself, as she stole admiring glances at her demon faced passenger. She had to get her vampire to her home and get her acclimated. Then maybe she could suggest dropping the kitty cat at the taxidermist.

“We’re really going to have to get you clothes,” Willow said pleasantly, as she drove along Sunnydale’s deserted, night time streets. The feral girl’s dress was mere, bloodstained strips now; one more rip and she’d be clad only in that sturdy, once-white cotton bra she wore.

“And I know just the boutique. You’ll like it, very Nature Girl.” Willow pointed her car down the warehouse lined street to where her club, the Bronze, lay. It was lit and noisy. It was ‘Vampire Nite’, which meant that humans would be present who liked to get their kinks from ‘safe’ vampires. It was tawdry business, but it was one way for Willow to make a little legitimate money and to keep the club’s bills paid.

Willow parked her car and then turned to her passenger.

“It’s going to be loud,” she warned. “And lots of people inside. If you put your ‘grr’ face away for now, it’ll make it easier on your ears and stuff.”

The feral girl just stared with her yellow eyes.

“Would you like me to show you how?” Willow asked gently. The blonde’s answer was to push her door open and step out. Willow quickly exited the car as well.

“Ok! Maybe later,” she added, hurrying after the other vampire.

Red Hair was right, when Tara entered the club, the energies were almost too much. After the serenity and rightness that was the energy of the living forest, Tara just wanted to take a big rock to everything human-made in this place and smash it. Electromagnetic waves, electronic sound waves, the hum of constant electricity and the irritating, artificial voices--like the screaming whir of the blender voice behind the bar--all these things gave Tara an instant headache.

And the beings present, living or unliving, hardly impressed her either, as they stood about, their energies mixing or deflecting. Since Rising, she knew she still retained her witch’s Sight, her ability to read auras. It had made hunting the wolves that much easier. Here, she saw sad and stupid colors all around the humans, pulsing dully with lust and dark intentions. The energies of the vampires were lackluster too, their appetites unsatisfied.

Obviously this was a crappy club night for everyone.

She glanced back briefly to look at Red Hair, who was strolling slowly through the crowd, watching her.

Red Hair’s energy was special; very special. Her blood made it so, which was more powerful than any Tara could sense in the room. That, and the magicks she had obviously been practicing. Red Hair did not belong in this scene.

Tara turned back and focused on scenting out Red Hair’s personal lair.

When she approached the steps which she believed led the way, a very large, muscular, male vampire stepped before her.

“What’s this, a feral vamp?” the male slowly rolled out in a deep voice. There was a perfect coldness to his human features. Tara read his ‘viciousness’ level; it was high. “You’re a newborn. You’re a mess. And you’re not paying me the proper respect.”

Tara answered by savagely biting his throat.

“AAAARRR!!” the male roared in anger. Willow had never heard her lieutenant actually scream before. Even when the Slayers kicked him in the balls, Rocky barely peeped. He was her best muscle and he was good at intimidating new vamps. Apparently, Rocky’s approach did nothing for Willow’s feral girl at all.

Willow watched in bemusement as four other vamps managed to drag her feral girl off Rocky. In a wild melee of flailing limbs, blows, and screams, her four other vamps ended up on the club floor clutching at their bleeding, torn throats. Suddenly a wide berth was established around the feral vampire.

Tara stood poised in the middle of the club floor, mouth and chin bloodstained. Through the wild tangle of her hair she gave everyone the savage gaze of her yellow eyes. No one was going to prevent her from going to Red Hair’s lair.

“Now everyone,” Willow addressed pleasantly. “That was fun, but no more playing with our newest nest member. Show’s over.”

Silently, the circle of vamps and humans around her feral girl broke up warily, still keeping their safe distances. The dark blonde then turned and made her slow, threatening way up the stairs to Willow’s lair.

“Rock, you can have the extra blood that’s in the frig’,” Willow offered to her wounded lieutenant. He was leaning against the stairs, hand clutching his throat.

“Boss,” he rasped out.

“I’ll be fine,” Willow assured with a smile, and ascended her staircase.

Tara stood silently inside Red Hair’s lair, her demonic eyed attention fixed on the damage of the doorway’s broken frame.

“Let me start a bath!” Willow gaily suggested, as she reached the top of the stairs. She slipped in past her oblivious guest. “I have a shower too. You can take off your....what you’re wearing, get squeaky clean, and then have a nice soak!” Willow eagerly pulled off her coat and entered her bath suite. Master himself had seen to the suite being built; when he finally got out of Hell, he spared no trouble and energy in putting in a sunken jacuzzi style bath. Willow started up the water, set it for ‘very hot’, and carefully prepared a sachet of salts and herbs. It was while she was trying to tie the sachet closed with her teeth that she heard a very large scraping sound in her bedroom.

When Willow peeked out the bathroom entrance, the feral vampire had just finished dragging her heavy, wood armoire before the front of her bedroom door.

“Oh...” Willow commented. “Are you expecting someone? Well it’s good then, that I have a back entrance,” she added in breathy cheerfulness. “Wouldn’t want to be trapped alone in...here...maybe?” she ended lamely, as the blonde vampire proceeded to strip. When her generous bosom sprang forth from her loosened bra top Willow’s brain headed for parts south.

“Trapped is good,” she eventually noted, as the curvaceously nude, blonde vampire brushed passed her and headed into the bath suite.

The glass to the shower unit was completely transparent. Despite the hot steam that clung to the glass surfaces, for the next half hour Willow enjoyed an immensely good nudie show. The airborne moisture clung to Willow too, making her red locks damp and her sleeveless, silk, white tee stick to her body, and yes, it made her leather pants a bit unbearable and chafey, but Willow didn’t mind at all. It was sort of chafing her in just the right place.

“Oboy oboy oboy,” Willow enthused, and wriggled where she sat on the bath suite’s tiled floor, watching the feral vampire soap up her boobs once more.

Finally, the blonde vampire turned off the water and exited the shower. Her demonic face was still to the fore.

“Come into the tub now and have a soak!” Willow encouraged, going to her knees and grabbing a bottle and comb with her one hand. “I’ve oil for your hair. I can try and get your tangles out while you’re soaking.” The blonde vampire complied, stepping into the sunken tub and sliding in. She didn’t make a sound or an expression, but Willow believed she enjoyed the new, soothing, hot sensation. Without thinking, Willow guided the feral girl’s back to her by touching her with her severed limb.

“Head back,” Willow requested softly, already squeezing oil into the dark, blonde tresses. She put the bottle down and began running the comb through the wet mass, working gently at the tangles.

“Downstairs you made quite an impression, and that’s good,” Willow chose to say conversationally, as she carefully worked through the stubborn locks. “No one from this nest will bother you now. Although Rocky, the big guy you’d bitten first? He’s my lieutenant, so just be good to him after this, okay? I can’t afford to lose him.

“It’s hard to find good help,” Willow softly continued. “I may be Aurelius, with the most powerful blood, but things change when you’re crippled. I’d prefer to think it didn’t matter but it’s funny what strengths one loses with just the lost of an arm.” She tried to say it lightly, but Willow realized her words came out sounding alot sadder than she’d meant to say.

Water stirred, and a wet hand rose to brush rough fingertips on the stump in question. Willow hadn’t realized she’d rested it on the young woman’s shoulder while she combed her hair.

“Like it, do you?” Willow whispered with a little smile. “Sometimes I get propositioned cos of it. Some people think it’s sexy...or, y’know. Kinky.” She smirked. “One of the Slayers, the youngest one, she was asking why I don’t stick a knife there, or a big ol’ sickle. Y’know, be all ‘Candyman’. I told her, ‘yeah right!’” Willow stuck the arm in question out to demonstrate. “ ‘Chainsaw!!!’”

To her surprise, the feral vampire actually snickered, a rough little chuckle. Obviously she understood Willow’s reference to the ‘Evil Dead’ movies. Willow joined her in her brief laughter.

“She’s such a moron,” Willow murmured, carefully working her comb through another tangle. “It would just make me look weaker. Y’know, ‘without the sickle, she’s nothing!’. Magic is easier. I’m learning it right now. That way, the power would always be inside me. And deception is good. Sometimes I play up the whole ‘I’m vulnerable-girl’ act.

“ ‘Cept....except when that turns the Slayer on,” Willow added in a whisper, her mood suddenly changed. She stared at the comb in her one hand.

Suddenly she flung it into the tub water.

“I don’t know why I told you that!!” she snarled angrily. She felt a firm grip on her severed limb. She had unconsciously laid it back on the feral girl’s shoulder.

There was an awkward moment of silence, as Willow struggled with her feelings. The blonde vampire slowly raised her face to Willow. For the first time, she allowed her demon face to melt away.

“Oh...” Willow ejected in soft surprise, as she stared into the new experience of deep, blue human eyes. The pale skin was beautiful, the eyebrows so light, and her lashes....

Willow watched the feral vampire turn around slowly in the water, touching her severed arm all the while. The girl directed her face towards it, blue eyes still on Willow. She placed her full, red lips on the scarred flesh and kissed it.

“You must....” Willow breathed, watching with wide eyes as the feral vampire rose from the water. She coaxed the redhead to her back. Willow’s limb was still held against the soft mouth, and then she watched her arm laid against the girl’s face. The blonde vampire caressed it with her cheek.

“You must really like it then,” Willow whispered.

Her answer was a wet mouth sucking the knobby end in and tonguing it.

* * *

Willow really hadn’t proper sex since Xander’s death. Being physically disadvantaged, she didn’t trust anyone enough in bed--certainly had never met a creature she could even trust to take to bed. But having detected no sense of depravity and especially no sense of ill intent in the feral newborn, Willow knew she could finally relax and trust her. And enjoy some real sex.

Really, really fun and sexy sex. For the first time, Willow allowed someone to play with her stumpy limb, and she couldn’t believe the sensations.

“Oh ohhh--” Willow moaned, as the blonde sucked her in again. “D-Do you h-have to give me a b-blow job there?” Willow complained, feeling far too neglected in other parts of her now very aroused body. “EE!!” Willow squeaked, when a rough palm pushed between her legs. The pressure pretty much said, ‘behave!’.

That same hand began to roughly undo her pants. The other joined its partner in trying to peel the damp leather down. The blonde’s mouth finally let go of Willow’s stumpy right arm and her teeth came down to help pull on the redhead’s pants also. Willow felt her body ruthlessly and repeatedly tugged along the slick tile by the hands/pants struggle.

“It’s--it’s cos of the steam,” Willow tried to explain. “It’ll stick--OW--That’s me you’re pulling and--wait!!”

With a splash, Willow fell into the hot water. She threw her arms out to cling to the blonde.

“You--bad--This is leather!! Do you know how hard it is to find good leather pants?” Willow cried in indignation. The feral vampire’s hands still worked at the stubborn garment in question, and Willow squealed despite herself with feeling such gropey fingers. Her silk tee was completely soaked and sticking to her. The other vampire obviously felt the calling of one of Willow’s perky, erect nipples because her mouth came down to suck hard on it.

“AG--” Willow gasped, and felt herself suddenly hoisted out of the tub and laid on her back again, this time on the other side of the bath, that determined mouth latched to her breast. Firm hands triumphantly slid her wet leather off her ass. The blonde vampire’s mouth finally let go.

“You’re--bad,” Willow panted from where she lay, feeling her legs freed and dangling in the water. The feral vampire moved between them, breasts and nipples brushing the sensitive inner flesh. Her teeth came down and grabbed the end of the wet, silk tee, pulling it up and uncovering Willow’s boobies. “Very--very, bad. Y-you’re just gonna do me, aren’t you? You savage,” Willow grinned, looking up at her blue-eyed, wet ravisher. Her answer was darkened, aroused eyes and bold fingers pushing into the wetness of her pussy.

“AH--” Willow couldn’t help crying out. That felt so good. She spread wider and welcomed the penetration. The fingers immediately began to move. It had been such a long time--a really long time--and she loved this, wanted this, just to be simply fucked. Her hips eagerly met the firm thrusts.

“Wh--” Willow gasped, feeling the other vampire suddenly adjust her body with a loud splash. She hoisted the redhead’s legs onto her shoulders. It opened Willow up even further. The pumping between her legs got harder. She felt her ass smack wet tile. A hand came around her thigh to grab one of her jiggling breasts and Willow practically bounced her slender body against the floor from the rough groping.

“UG--Do me---Do me---Do me--” Willow raggedly panted to the rhythm of herself being noisily fucked. It felt so good. So so good. “Do me---Do me--” Do me because I want you to-- “Do me--” Not because you can. “Do ME--” Do me because I say so. Not because I can’t.

“Harder--” she demanded desperately, wanting to reach that place of letting go. “Fuck me harder!!”

She felt pounded into the floor.

“Give--it--to--me--” she panted with each thrust, her eyes squeezing shut. She wanted to feel every sensation and know that this was happening because she said so. “Give--it--to--me--GIVE IT!” she snarled. The feral vampire complied. Willow felt the immediate harsh suck of a mouth on her clit and--

Her body erupted into orgasm.

Her head smacked resoundingly into the cold tile.

And everything went black.

* * *

“Uhhhhhh...” Willow groaned, as she finally pried her lids open. She saw the bath suite’s lights, and felt the gentle ministrations of a mouth at her throat. “Uhhhhh. I paaass out?” she uttered in dismay, trying to make sense of the nagging throb at the back of her head. Thankfully, vampiric healing will make that self-inflicted wound go away. How embarrassing. Willow felt the blonde vampire’s mouth let go of her throat and then her human visage came into view, tub water lapping against Willow’s boneless legs. Willow grinned at seeing the shit-eatin’ grin the other vampire wore. It was big and lopsided and--

“Pretty,” Willow whispered, her lethargic fingers coming up to trace this new expression of the feral vampire’s that she was privileged to see. Obviously feeling very proud of herself, the blonde vampire licked Willow playfully on the nose and Willow could smell herself on the girl’s lips.

“Tee hee!” Willow giggled. The blonde moved back, more water splashing the sides of the tub, and stared appreciatively down at Willow’s languid, half naked form. She openly admired her handiwork.

“I’m glad you’re not a fuck ‘em and leave ‘em kind of girl,” Willow murmured, humorously watching the feral girl watch her. She felt water surge up under her ass again as the blonde vampire suddenly moved forward.

And effortlessly picked up a surprised Willow from the wet tile, settling the redhead against her naked body like one would with a child. Willow’s legs and arms automatically wrapped around the other vampire as she felt them both sink into the warmth of the water.

Willow was a little stunned. The embrace was so...comforting. She even felt herself lay her head on the feral girl’s shoulder.

“Cuddling,” she swallowed. “C-Cuddling’s g-g-good...”

Suddenly a sob escaped Willow’s throat.

Suddenly she was bawling.

* * *

“I-I-I’m getting tired o-of this cathartic crap, aren’t you?” Willow finally got out after her big crying jag had abated. She was all sobby and feeling really stupid, weak, and foolish, but the feral girl was still there, and still not looking to leave. She had placed herself and Willow in the bed while Willow had been crying like a little baby.

Willow rubbed her eyes again and sniffed, she hoped, for the last time. Now that that was done, she was sure she wouldn’t need to do a sobfest ever again.

“You’re so patient,” Willow realized, her tone almost accusatory. The feral vampire just played idly with Willow’s little boobs, fondling them. “That’s not how baby vamps are.” That remark earned the redhead a sudden ‘RUFF!’ in the face from the feral vampire.

“Okay, I take that back. The ‘patient’ part,” Willow grinned. She felt much better, calmer, and looked in wonderment at this new lover of hers. The feral girl merely laid beside her and touched her casually...not trying to be forceful at all. Willow hadn’t even touched her back yet.

“I, I wanted to give you something. Y’know, like the first present?” Willow mentioned a little shyly. “But the Slayer pushed things, so I couldn’t court you properly. But if you want, you can have it now.” Willow went to demon face, the blonde vampire’s blue eyes suddenly lighting up at the transformation. The girl’s rough fingers delicately explored the redhead’s forehead ridges as Willow used a fang to cut her own finger.

Tara’s nostrils flared at the scent of Red Hair’s potent blood.

“For you,” Red Hair said softly to her. “No strings.”

Tara took the offered finger into her mouth and sucked it in.

Willow watched as the feral girl’s eyes shut in utter pleasure, a lovely, low growl emanating from her throat. Willow knew that tasting such blood for the first time can be a really special experience for a very young vampire. It had been like that for Willow with her Master, and it had been like that with Xander. It was baby tastebuds tasting candy for the very first time. It was better than candy. Better than even sex.

Blood was the best kind of sharing between vampires, especially without the power games. But all too soon, the cut on Willow’s finger healed and there was nothing left to taste. The feral vampire reluctantly let the digit go and began to wetly mouth inside Willow’s palm, then her wrist, down the length of her forearm, and then inside her elbow. Willow started giggling.

“Heeheehee!” she chortled in delight, as the blonde vampire moved further and began to suck right at the inner skin where hip and pelvis met. It tickled.

A rough lick at her pussy made Willow realize that the feral girl was going to seek another kind of ‘feeding’ now that there was no more blood to be had.

“Wait, you didn’t get your turn,” Willow admonished, as she tried to reach down. “I’m not just a ‘do me’ girl. Well, okay--in the bathroom I was, but, I wanna fuck you too. Come up here,” she enticed, with her best cute and sexy voice.

Tara paused just as she was about to thrust her tongue inside Red Hair. Damn, she was feeling a little orally fixated at the moment. She could eat Red Hair all night long--both kinds of eating. But a thought occurred to Tara--quite a wicked thought--and she grinned evilly.

Willow felt that grin against her inner thigh and wondered a little nervously about what it meant.

“A-Anything you want,” Willow offered with a little trepidation, feeling the feral female make her slow way back up her body. Although, y’know--” The blonde vampire placed her knees on either side of Willow’s shoulders and raised up, giving the redhead a juicy, sumptuous spread for her to see. “--l-l-letting me know what you want, wo-would be, um.” Willow gave up conversing, as she deeply inhaled fresh, feral-Kitten. “How do you wanna cum?” Willow asked weakly.

To her surprise, the blonde didn’t angle her tasty center down or grab Willow to go up. Instead, she frowned and re-positioned herself, as if trying to figure out something.

“Uh,” Willow commented helpfully, realizing that golden Pussy had just gone out of reach of her accommodating lips. Willow tried to follow that pretty cunt and felt hands firmly push her up slightly onto her left side instead.

“So,” Willow tried to helpfully ask, now baffled. She waved her little stump a little. That was really juicy pussy she was missing out on. Unlike the usual newborn, her feral girl hadn’t seen to her own needs since the night started. If it were Willow who were that aroused she’d be fucking the door knob by now.

The blonde vampire took firm hold of Willow’s stumpy arm and ran her creamy slit right up the length of it.

OboyOboyOboyOboyOboy!! Willow’s brain babbled. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing--Feeling--she watched the feral girl stroke herself up and down and start to moan and Willow’s brain was rendered the kind of puddle a teenage boy’s was when he sank into his first vagina. She was really just a sex toy at the moment, but wow, first row seat to the best sex show!!

Willow eagerly tensed up the muscles of her severed arm, making it as stiff as a rod for the gorgeous blonde riding it like a pole.

Tara slid along Red Hair’s arm and enjoyed herself immensely. She was very close to cumming, but she saw how Red Hair’s big green eyes were just so big and amazed, and loved the exhilarating feeling of knowing she was the cause of such perfect awe. She decided to extend her pleasure, let Red Hair see what she was doing to her, and masturbated along that slender, muscled length slowly, drawing out every wet, slippery contact. She teased herself repeatedly with the knobby end. And oh yeah, she made those deep sexy sounds in her throat that were rendering the slender vampire beneath her a total milky waterfall. She finally felt Red Hair press into her fiercely, practically grinding her clit and nearly making her cum. Tara looked down and saw the urgency in Red Hair’s eyes.

“I’m Willow,” the vampire whispered up to her.

Willow. Tara’s eyes gleamed, silently possessing the word. Names were power.

“Willow,” Tara pronounced solemnly, her speech suddenly apparent now, to this new World. It was her first word since Becoming.

She raised herself up and resumed stroking in earnest, a woman wantonly riding flesh.

“Tara,” she gave, as she held Willow’s arm tight against her. Then Willow pressed hard--very hard--and Tara came, her demon face exploding to the fore. Like a lioness, she roared.

* * *