Disclaimer: I own neither BtVS nor Anita Blake.

A/N: It seemed like a good idea at the time.

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"Why are you doing this again?"

"Aw c'mon, Giles." Buffy grinned at the image of her Watcher reflected over her shoulder in the mirror. "Haven't you ever wanted to see how the other half lives?" She frowned and adjusted the black leather corset that revealed just as much as it concealed, "Or maybe - unlives?"

"This is a very foolish idea."

"Why?"

Giles took his glasses off and squinted at them through the fading October light. "I - I just have a very bad feeling about this, that's all. A vampire slayer dressing as one of her - her quarry for a pagan, ritualistic holiday?" He shook his head, "It seems almost as if you - you're tempting fate!"

"Well, when you put it that way - "

"Buffy - "

"Giles it's just one night, and besides it's way too late for me to go and get another costume! Snyder already gave me one warning, if I don't show my rear is... well something grass-like and rhyming with dear?" She shook her head, "Anyways bad things will happen. To me. And then slayage will be difficult on account of my having to move - again - to find a school that will take me." She paused and turned revealing that oh-so-innocent Buffy look that told Giles he would get nowhere with logic. "So really, Giles, when you think about it's just best for the fate of the world if I go out there and - and y'know... be all vampy for a night."

Blasted teenagers. "Well with that rather astounding logic, I suppose - "

The blonde threw her arms around the older man's neck and hugged him, squealing with glee. "Oh, Giles I knew you'd understand! Have fun and don't wait up, or stay too long with the books and dust, I'll see you tomorrow!"

With that parting remark the blonde whirlwind was out the door.

Giles cleaned his glasses and frowned, "What is that trendy and innocuous phrase the children use?" His eyes lit up as he slipped his spectacles back into place, "Ah yes, 'my spidey sense is tingling'."

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Belle shivered and looked about in surprise. This was not her boudoir. This was not her body, nor was it the body of one of her vassals, children, or acquaintances. She studied the petite form and dusky gold skin, it would do for now.

There was a strange power emanating from the ground here, it felt almost like... no, it couldn't be. The Mother was sleeping. The petite vampire reached out to her connection with her line and felt -

Nothing?

"Impossible," she spat, and tried again. Her delicate scowl would have had her most faithful near wetting themselves in fear as she stamped her foot in a fit of pique. When she discovered who was behind this mess heads would roll and hearts would burn.

Until then... her lips curved a little at the sight of a rather nice specimen in fatigues. She could have a little fun while she plotted her retaliation.

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Buffy blinked and swallowed hard, almost choking at the thick musky smell that permeated her bedroom. Wait... she focused reluctantly on the black silk pillowcase and sheets she rested on, this wasn't her bed. Ergo, not her bedroom. Uh-oh.

She turned and stiffened in surprise at the naked back that presented itself to her stunned hazel eyes. Pale skin covered lean muscles leading up to broad shoulders and platinum blonde hair. Buffy shrieked and scooted backwards straight off the foot of the bed.

"S'matter, luv... up for round six already?" The blonde vampire leaned up on his elbows and grinned down at the hyperventilating mass of sheets on the ground. "Plum tuckered me out, luv."

"Wha - how - why - " Buffy swallowed down her fear and let anger bubble up. "What the hell did you do to me, Spike?" She shook her head, "No, you know what? It doesn't matter, I'm gonna dust you either way so maybe - maybe I'm just better off not knowing what happened - "

"Hold up there, luv. Y'mean you don't remember?" Spike scowled, "Tha's rich. Bloody hell woman!" He sighed and tunneled his fingers through his hair, a nervous gesture that Buffy found oddly mesmerizing. "Jus' - just try an' remember last night, will ya? 'Fore you do somethin' rash."

"Rash? Rash?! There's nothing rash about my desire to kill... you...." The blonde ex-slayer swallowed heavily as flashes from the night before began to replay themselves in her head. She remembered the strange wave of energy that had spread through the town. She remembered the entity known as 'beautiful death' that had come to possess her body. She remembered blood and sex and pleasure so intense she thought she'd died.

Oh god, she remembered.

Rolling over quickly Buffy's lower body spasmed as her gag reflex worked and her stomach rebelled against what her brain was telling her. On hands and knees she shook, skin shivering with tiny aftershocks of pain. Of course there was nothing her body could really do, her physical reactions were without purpose. The physical functions they mimicked no longer existed in her current form.

Her eyes, when she turned back to Spike, were wide and haunted and damp with pinkish tears. She tried not to focus on the vampire's pale, muscled chest, she tried not to acknowledge the strange hunger that was unfurling in her belly, she attempted to deny what she remembered doing to and with her Xander-shaped friend all. Night. Long. "Where is he?"

The blonde vampire flicked back the covers on the opposite side of the bed, revealing Xander's deathly pale form. Buffy stood and stumbled to the bed, desperately searching for a pulse, a flicker of movement, some sign of life.

Nothing. No pulse, no breath, no life.

She started to cry then, wracking sobs that left tracks of pink - and later red - down her front. Bitter liquid that turned the silky sheets stiff with minerals and blood. Spike pulled his mistress, his new sire - though that wasn't quite the word anymore, was it? - into his arms to sooth her as he'd soothed his Dru for so many years.

When she'd calmed down a bit, he pulled her away from his chest just long enough to chuck her under the chin and lift her eyes to meet his. He smiled gently, but the pointed incisors added more than just a bit of an edge to his grin, "Here now, what's this about? He'll be up again in a few days..."

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A/N2: *grins* yes, I am evil. Like? Love? Loathe? Lemme know!