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Part 7
Leonna wandered into the main room of the factory and sighed. Melanie and Drusilla were off somewhere together. Those two were as close as peas in a pod now. In a way they were similar, Melanie was not ‘all there’ either, but she wasn't as bad as Drusilla. And Spike...well, Leonna was enjoying his reaction to her. She was trying to bring back all the memories that she had made for him, and was succeeding greatly at it.
She smiled suddenly as she heard him enter the room. He was walking again, regaining his strength slowly but surely. She turned and gazed at him.
"Spike, it's so good to see you walking again. I'm glad you're getting some of your stamina--I mean strength, back," she said. She watched for Spike's reaction to her words, and she was delighted when he blushed just a bit.
"Yeah, well, the sooner I get stronger, the faster we can kill the Slayer. But I'm not loving this new twist you added to the plan. You'll take him away, right? I don't want him anywhere near me and Dru."
"Of course, if that’s what you want. Even though I was sorta hoping we could stay together for a while, you know, make some new memories,” Leonna said, walking over to Spike. She stood before him, and brought her hand up to gently caress his chest. “What do you say?”
Spike pulled away from Leonna and began to pace the room. “I can’t. I want to, oh God, believe me I do, but I have Dru and I love her. Besides, what’s with you and Melanie? Why are you all of a sudden traveling around with a woman?” Leonna laughed. “Is that what you think? Hmm? That I’m ‘with’ Mel? No way, my pet. Women are better to have around, that’s all. You can’t trust men. Give them what they want and they’re gone. I’m surprised, darling. I thought you knew me better than that.”
Spike shrugged. “Haven’t seen you in hundred years. People change.”
Leonna laughed again. “Yes, my sweet, they do. Now how are you feeling?”
“Stronger. Soon, it’ll be soon. Just keep him away from Dru,” Spike threatened and growled. If he so much as touched her again...Spike shuddered. He couldn’t think about it.
“Chill, honey. He’ll be too busy. You know, he and I were never together. I didn’t know him that long, plus he was involved with Darla. But we never were, and I was a little curious,” Leonna smiled a sadistic smile and gave a little laugh. “Don’t you worry about him, Spike my love. By the time I’m done with him, he won’t even look at Drusilla.”
Leonna smiled.
Spike smiled.
They could not wait.
“Hey Buff.” At the sound of Angel’s voice, Buffy turned around from where she was standing sorting through her weapons on the bed and smiled. He noticed she had changed into a knee-length black skirt that had slits running up each side.
“Hey yourself. What’s up? I have to patrol, and then I thought we were going to go back to the library for an all-night study session,” Buffy said. Angel’s face was a blank mask, and Buffy immediately knew something was wrong. “What is it?”
Angel avoided her gaze as he moved to the bed and sat down. Concerned, Buffy pushed her crossbow out of the way and sat down next to him. She took his hand in hers and gazed at his profile, waiting for him to talk.
“Buffy...someone--I’m guessing vamp--they....they torched my apartment.”
“What?” Buffy gasped. “Oh God, Angel, are you okay? Were you there?”
“Yeah, I was. I was getting ready to leave to go back to the library and all of a sudden this....this ball of fire came through the window. It landed on the carpet in the living room and caught the rug first. I was lucky, the fire didn’t start to spread for about a minute, and I had time to grab most of my clothes and all of the little personal things that I have and get out. I called the fire department, but by the time they got there, the fire had pretty much destroyed everything. All that art work...”Angel trailed off, and Buffy’s heart went out to him. That had been his home for the last three years and she knew how much it meant to him.
“Jesus. This is just great. I’m so thankful you didn’t get hurt!” Buffy said, and pulled him into a hug. She whispered in his ear, “Angel, I’m going to find the vamp that did this, and I’ll torture him for hours, just for you.” 0 She lifted her head off of his shoulder and looked at him, giving him a little half-smile. “Everything will be okay.”
“I know. Come on, we should probably head over to the library and get to work. We can worry about this later,” Angel said as he stood up. Buffy followed suit, and picked up a few stakes from the bed.
“Wait a sec, Angel. Where are you going to stay?”
“I don’t know yet. I guess I’ll have to start looking for a new apartment or maybe even a small house or something.”
“Okay, but I mean right now, while you’re looking,” Buffy said, her lips slowly creeping up in a little smile. “You know,” she said as she stepped over to his side and ran her fingers lightly up his chest, “I think you should stay here. I’d feel safer and all.”
“Oh, really? And where do you expect me to sleep? There are only two bedrooms after all,” Angel said, his lips centimeters from hers.
“You know where,” she whispered and drew him in for a long kiss. When it broke off, Angel looked at Buffy, full of skepticism.
“As much as I would love to, I can’t actually see your mother going for that.”
“You just leave everything to me. Come on, we can go talk to her right now. That talk we had on the beach today helped a lot,” Buffy said and took his hand. They walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Joyce was sitting at the counter paying bills. She glanced up and smiled.
“You guys ready to go? I can drive you if you want,” Joyce offered, preparing to get up. Buffy motioned for her to stay where she was.
“No, that’s okay, we’re going to walk. I need to do a quick sweep of the graveyard before we go back. But Mom, I have bad news. Angel’s apartment was set on fire.”
“Oh no. That’s horrible, I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Summers, I’m just glad I wasn’t hurt,” Angel said.
“Is that why you were carrying that big bag when I let you in? You saved some of your things?”
“Yeah, he did, but listen Mom. Angel’s going to start looking for a new place, but in the meantime, I was thinking he could stay here. You know, so he doesn’t have to pay for a hotel or anything,” Buffy said. Joyce nodded.
“You know, that’s a good idea,” Buffy smiled, but Joyce wasn’t finished. “The couch is very comfy.”
“Um...Mom, I wasn’t exactly thinking he’d be sleeping on the couch. I kinda thought he could sleep with me. Well, not like that, but you know, in my room, my bed is big enough for two people, and you can trust us, totally, I mean it’s not like we’re gonna do anything with you here too, ‘cause that would be majorly gross and I think I just broke the record for the longest sentence ever. Okay, I’m shutting up now,” Buffy said sheepishly, then looked at Angel, who was trying hard not to smile and failing utterly.
“Yeah, I was waiting for you to say that. Let me think about it, okay? Be careful,” Joyce said, and Angel took it as their cue to leave. Buffy kissed her mother on the cheek, then turned and went through the dining room out the front door with Angel right beside her.
As they were walking down the street, Buffy shoved her stakes into strategic hiding places, tucking one inside her knee-high boots, another into the back of her skirt where she could reach it in a moment. She also handed one to Angel. They walked in silence, hand in hand, until they reached the graveyard. Pushing the wrought-iron gates open, they did a quick sweep but found nothing.
“Have I told you that you look beautiful today yet?” Angel asked as they walked towards the high school. Buffy giggled.
“Not in the last hour or so.”
“Well, you do. But are you really going to fight a vampire in that?” Angel asked. He gestured at her tube top and skirt.
“Yeah, why?”
“It’ll be a quick fight,” Angel grinned.
“Oh, of course, you know, with my skills and all. The person who came up with the idea of putting slits in a skirt should get a big metal,” Buffy said.
“Because the vamp will be so busy staring he’ll never know he’s dust.” Angel laughed, and Buffy joined her.
“What, you getting jealous?” she asked.
“Of course not. See, unlike the vampire, I know full well that it’s mine, and the vamp can only dream.”
“I don’t know if I should kiss you or kill you,” Buffy grinned.
“I’ve got a suggestion,” Angel said, leaning to kiss her gently. “And I love you.”
“I love you,” Buffy said, her heart racing and her lips touched his again. She reached up with both hands, placing them around his neck and pulling him closer. He encircled her waist and pressed her body to his, and she stood on tip-toe to get even closer.
Suddenly, Buffy heard a growl and broke off the kiss, annoyed. A vampire stood a few feet away from her, smirking. She was instantly on edge and shifted into a fighting stance.
“You people are so rude, do you know that? We were busy,” Buffy said as she punched the demon in the head, sending her sprawling backwards. She quickly went on the offense, giving her a roundhouse kick to the jaw, followed by a steady stream of punches. She whipped the stake out from her skirt and staked the vampire, who stood stunned and whispered a name before she feel to dust.
Turning around, she saw Angel watching her intently. She walked back to him and he rested his arm on her shoulders as they continued on towards the school. “Did you hear what that vamp said before she blew away?”
“Yeah, it was a name. ‘Leonna.’ I have a bad feeling about this.”
They walked the rest of the way to the school in silence and when Buffy pulled the library doors open she was surprised to see all the Slayerettes (minus Cordelia) already there and pouring over books. “Hey guys, I didn’t think you’d be back so soon.”
“Hey Buffy, Angel. We ordered some pizza,” Willow said from her spot by the computer.
“Ooh, yummy. I forgot to eat,” Buffy replied, walking over to the table and picking up two slices with the cheese oozing off of them slowly. She handed one to Angel and took a bite of her own. “Bad news guys. Some vamps decided to go pyro on us and they torched Angel’s apartment. He’s gonna be staying with us until he finds a new place.”
“Hey man, that really sucks. We haven’t found anything yet, which sucks even more,” Xander said as he came down from the stacks with a book in his hands.
“Yeah, I know. Where’s Giles? We ran into a vampire on our way over and Buffy killed it, but it said ‘Leonna’ before it became dust,” Angel said.
“Leonna, hmm?” Giles asked as he came out of the office. “I wonder if...no, that’s impossible. She’s dead.”
“Exactly what I was thinking. But it doesn’t make any sense then.”
“Full research mode?” Buffy asked, already making her way up the stairs and walking over to pick up a book of names. She flipped through, but couldn’t find the name. Giles tossed her a book from off of the table, and she went back into the stacks to read by herself. Everyone became engrossed in their own books and the library became eerily silent.
“Melanie? Mel, my sweet? Where are you?” Leonna called, becoming more and more frantic. Melanie was nowhere to be found. When Leonna had awakened up, the other bed had been neatly made, and Melanie had vanished without a trace. “Spike,” she said, running up to him. “Have you seen Mel? I can’t find her anywhere.”
“Leonna, you’re not gonna like this. Take a seat, luv,” Spike said, leading her over to a chair.
“What is it?”
“Melanie...Melanie was killed. About an hour ago. By the Slayer,” Spike said.
Leonna stared at him in shock. “Oh God. No. Not Mel. No,” she said over and over again, shaking her head vigorously. “How could you let this happen? You know what she’s like. How could you?”
“I didn’t, she went out with Drusilla and they didn’t tell me, I was still sleeping. When Dru came home she told me. She was in shock.”
Leonna looked away from him, and he felt the air change as her anger built up. He could feel her anger, it almost became a tangible thing, he felt like if he reached out he would be able to touch it.
“That’s it. Our plan is put into action tonight,” she said, hatred in her voice.
“Um...luv? Tonight? That’s a little short notice. The night’s half over as it is. Why not wait until tomorrow night?” Spike said rationally. Leonna thought for a moment, then nodded.
“All right, tomorrow night. I hope the Slayer enjoys tomorrow,” she paused.
“It’ll be the last time she sees the sun shine.”