The Same Night. WPOV

Growing up I was never the kind of girl who would baby-sit somebody's kids and end up inviting my boyfriend, or in this case girlfriend, over and make-out with them instead of keeping and eye on the children. Before you judge let me tell you what happened. Buffy and Faith went patrolling for that demon that's been chewing up the locals so they asked me to baby-sit and I'm more then happy to. I love spending time with my little niece and nephew. I do love spending time with them, but sitting around while they're sleeping and waiting for Buffy and Faith to get back is not something I like to do. I get bored and normally I'll just read because Faith has a lot of romance novels at the house, but we're not at the house we're at the hotel and there's nothing here to read.

So when I showed up I ordered the kids some room service, and after they ate I gave them a bath, and then we watched a little bit of TV and they were in bed by ten. Buffy told me that their bedtime is nine but I'm the cool aunt that let's them stay up an hour later. After they went to bed I had nothing to do. There's not much on TV so I called Sky even though she's two doors down and I could have rushed over there really quick. I felt kind of bad because she was in her pajamas and getting ready for bed when I called. I told her that sometimes Buffy and Faith take a while when they patrol and not to wait up for me. I didn't tell her why they sometimes take so long because she doesn't need to know that. I don't need to know that but for some reason Faith thought I should know.

The whole thing started out very innocent. She came over and we decided to see if there was anything on TV. I ordered a movie that's ok, nothing very interesting but just enough to keep our attention. We sat on the couch together and we were sitting close but not touching. We haven't had `the talk' yet and I don't know where we stand in terms of our relationship, and I don't want to make her uncomfortable. After about fifteen minutes she did the whole fake yawn thing, and draped her arm over my shoulders. I leaned against her and put my head on her shoulder because I wanted to do that the entire time I was sitting next to her. I was feeling a little affectionate so I turned and gave her a little kiss on the neck. After about ten minutes had passed I turned and gave her another kiss on the neck, only this one lasted a little longer and there was some use of my tongue.

I'll admit that I wanted to tease her a little bit. I've recently learned that Sky has a very sensitive neck and I wanted to use that to my advantage a little. I never thought that when I stopped kissing her neck she would pull me up so we'd be face to face, and start kissing me like she was an addict needing a fix. I really didn't think she would, but she did. When she kisses me like that I tend to lose some of my self-control. It didn't take her long to figure this out. I've always thought Sky was a very smart woman and she keeps proving me right. I'm not too sure how long we were like that, but I don't think it was too long before I started slowly pushing her backward. I still think it's a little strange that Sky likes it better on the bottom, what with her being a slayer and all that. I know from experience that they like to be in control, especially in the bedroom.

I gently massage my tongue with hers and then return to my own mouth. She likes it when I tease her a little. Her tongue follow mine and she gently explores my mouth, and I feel her fingers work their way into my hair. I cup one of her full breasts and the nipple instantly hardens against my palm. She moans into my mouth and her hips grind against mine but only a little. She knows as well as I do that we're not doing anything more then kissing, and some light above the clothes groping on this couch. I guess she doesn't know that since her thigh just slipped in between mine and firmly grinding against my hot core. Then I hear something, in very the back of my mind, some tiny little voice and it says “Red?”' I pull back from the kiss a little because it's hard to make-out with someone and be confused at the same time.

“Faith?” Oh shit, did I say that out loud? I think I did. No, wait, I know I did because Sky just pulled away from me, and her body is tensing up. She looks a little pissed and I don't blame her. I can tell she's trying to stay calm but it isn't working out too well. She lets out a winded `what did you say?' and I have to rush to respond. “I thought I heard Faith's voice. I think she's trying to get a hold of me telepathically.” She relaxes and then concentrates a little bit. I'm just glad she believes me. If she wasn't a witch I don't think she would. “She'd only do that if she was in trouble.” I close my eyes and take in a deep breath and concentrate. This isn't too hard to do, all I have to do is connect myself to every slayer in the world and then focus solely on Faith. It's not as hard as it sounds and it only takes a minute or two.

“Faith, what's wrong?” I ask with my mind. I can already tell she's not alright. She feels weak, and broken. That demon must've been too strong for them. Or maybe there were more of them. The vampires around here are still weak, and probably always will be weak. No vampire could have done this to her.

“The demon, he's too strong. He got Buffy, and I can't move. I'm in the park, by the woods. Help Willow.” The connection dies before I can respond. Don't worry, she isn't dead or else I wouldn't be able to feel her anymore. She's just unconscious. But we have to get to her soon because the vampires around here may be weak but they're still vampires and they'll take a free meal. And what better blood then an unconscious slayer? I open my eyes and start gasping for breath. I don't like connecting to all of the slayers like that, it always leaves me feeling like I was being smothered with a pillow or something. Sky starts rubbing my back and she's holding onto my hand. Ever since we got together she's been a lot more affectionate then she's ever been before. Ok, I think there's a lot more important things going on right now then the fact that Sky is affectionate.

“The demon was too strong for them. He took Buffy away and Faith hurt really bad. We need to get there, she's probably dieing.” I jump up and rush for the door but Sky stops me. She has all that slayer strength which I never thought was annoying until just now. I do my best not to glare at her but it's hard. Faith might be dieing and who knows what that demon is going to do with Buffy, or could be doing to her right now. The look in her eyes calms me down a little bit. She looks empathetic but determined. She isn't going to let me leave, but she's going to come up with some other plan.

“We can't go alone. If that thing was able to bring down Faith and kidnap Buffy then we need more slayers.” She's right. I can't let my emotions completely cloud my judgment. But the demon is gone, and it took Buffy. We need to save Faith, and then we can worry about finding the demon. I tell her that but she still doesn't look too happy about it. “I'm sure there are other slayers in this town. Even if they are just passing through. Can't you do your little head-trip and find out?” I nod my head and then concentrate. I don't really want to do this again but I don't have time to argue. Sky is one of the most stubborn women I've ever met, top that off with her having all that slayer stubbornness and winning an argument with her is damn near impossible. There are other slayers, three of them and they're patrolling near the park. So I send out a little message to them telling them to find Faith and bring her back here.

“There, are you happy now?” I aks and my tone is a very unpleasant one. But all she has to do is give me the puppy-dog eyes and I'm goo on the inside. I know what her real problem is, why she didn't want me to go out there and get Faith myself. She doesn't want me to get hurt. I'm not a slayer and I guess she thinks I can't protect myself. Yes going out there alone when there's a demon this strong on the loose, but I am the most powerful witch in pretty much the whole world, I can take care of myself. I killed that one demon a couple Thanksgivings ago and Buffy and Faith got their butts kicked by it. I'm not just little meek Willow anymore. I can hold my own in a fight against a vampire or a demon. I just choose not to. What, you think I like going out and getting all sweaty and getting my clothes dirty just to kill a couple of vampires? I'm not a slayer so I don't get that double H feeling like they do.

“You don't have to protect me all the time.” My voice is soft now because I know this is a big issue for her. “I can take care of myself. If anything I should be worried about you. You don't have all the witchy powers that I do.” I do worry about her every time she goes out on patrol. Just because there are a couple thousand slayers walking around today it doesn't mean they never die. I wrap my arms around her and rest my head on her shoulder. I think it's a little weird that we're so close. I mean, it's only been a week since we got together, and we haven't even had `the talk' yet. But I guess none of that is really important right now since there's some loud knocking at our door. It's all three slayers, well four if you count the unconscious and dead looking Faith. At least I think it's Faith. She's so beat up that she doesn't even look like herself anymore. I step out of the way and the girls rush into the room.

“Put her on the couch, and be quiet.” I force myself to stay calm because the kids are in the other room and if they wake up and see one of their moms like this it could traumatize them for life. I close the door and watch as they lay Faith down on the couch. I start looking at her a little closer then before. Her left leg looks broken in a couple of places. Her head was bleeding, I can tell because her hair is getting blood on the couch. Giles is not going to be happy about this cleaning bill. I kneel next to the couch and put my hands over Faith's chest. I can't heal her like I did when she crashed on her motorcycle. You can only do something like that to a person once. If I tried to heal her like that again it could kill her. So I can't do something like that. What I can do is give her slayer healing a little power boost, which is what I'm doing right now. It won't heal her completely, but it will get her out of the woods and hopefully she'll wake up.

BPOV

I can't believe this is actually happening. I mean, you fantasize, make plans, and start organizing everything, and then you hope for the best while almost having a heart attack the entire time but none of it seems real. The moment the music started playing I thought my heart had stopped. I wasn't even out of my dressing room yet and I had tears in my eyes. As soon as I walked out of the room I felt a little overwhelmed, but I stayed calm. Staying calm in overwhelming situations is just something I'm good at I guess. I felt like I was going to be sick by the time I reached Giles and put my head on his arm. But when I looked up and I saw Faith standing at the end of the isle the feeling went away and was replaced with a sense of calm.

I haven't really been paying attention to anything the minister is saying. All I can do is look into Faith's eyes as tears pour out of mine. I'm not blubbering, or sobbing, just...leaking. I know how gross that sounds but it's what I'm doing. My lips are quivering, there is no lump in my throat, no knot in my chest, just a steady stream of tears rolling down my cheeks. These are tears of joy, and Faith has them too. Only she has the whole quivering bottom lip thing going for her, and I think she looks so cute, and beautiful and perfect. She's perfect, and she's mine, and today that is going to be finalized. We're finally getting married. I think the minister just said we can exchange our vows now. I really need to start paying attention. Good thing Faith is going first because that lump is starting to form in my throat and I don't think I'm going to be able to talk.

“Buffy,” she gets out but she has to stop. She dabs at her eyes and sniffles and I can't help but smile. So much for being the tough one in this relationship. I'm never going to let her live this down. Anyway, she clears her throat and starts again. “Buffy, all my life I've been dreaming for something better. To be someplace that's safe, where everything is simple and I don't have to worry about just getting by day to day.” There's so much emotion in her voice, so much happiness it's making me want to start blubbering. “But now I can finally stop dreaming because I'm never going to find anything better then you and everything you've given me.” Now seating Blubbering Idiot party of one, ah yes that would be me. I guess it's my turn to say my vows. The vows that I worked on for almost five months. It takes me about a minute to calm down, and I sniffle a little bit, and take in a deep breath.

I'm startled awake when I hear something break. It sounded like glass or something. I open my eyes and it takes them a few minutes to adjust to the dim light. Where the hell am I? This isn't my bed, or the hotel room bed. What happened? It takes a minute for it to all come back to me. The demon beat Faith up pretty bad, threw her into a tree, and when she wouldn't let up on him he finally started slamming her against a tree. I was screaming and freaking out the entire time, I tried to get away but the demon is just too strong. He walked for what seemed like hours, and I was fighting the entire time. After a while we stopped and he held me with my back to his chest and he put his large hand over my mouth and nose until I passed out from the lack of oxygen. I thought he was trying to kill me, I guess he just wanted me to shut up.

I'm pretty sure we're in some kind of cave. It's really small though, unless the demon has some sort of hidden door. I look around until I found what woke me up. The demon's standing at a table in the corner and he dropped a bowl or something and it shattered. Even though the cave or whatever this is, is small I'm pretty sure I can crawl passed him and out the entrance. I slowly move onto my hands and knees and very slowly start to crawl towards the way out. There's a flap covering it and that might be a little difficult to move without him hearing but I have to take the chance, I need to get out of here. Faith told me to lay low for a while, well I did and now I need to escape. Who knows what this thing wants with me? I might not get another shot at getting out. So I'm taking this one. I get about five feet away from where it put me and I'm shocked. Literally shocked with electricity.

I jump back a little bit and it's like there's some invisible wall all around the little area where the stupid demon put me. The wall shimmers a light blue color before it becomes invisible again. The demon turns around and looks at me. I guess it wasn't expecting me to wake up this soon. Unless he always has that surprised expression on his face. I'm trying to control my fear, and not let it control me. But I have to say being trapped in this little space like an animal isn't helping with the bringing of calm. I don't know why I'm still alive, I don't know why he hasn't eaten me yet. I mean, he ate all of those people in the park, that's why Faith and me were there in the first place. So why am I still alive? I guess I won't be getting my answer anytime soon because he turns back around and grabs another bowl.

I can't see what he's doing and I don't really care. I know I should care, I should be concentrating on everything that he's doing, but I can't. All I can think about is how beat up Faith was when that demon was carrying me off. All I can concentrate on is the empty feeling I got when I couldn't hear Faith in my mind anymore, when I couldn't feel our slayer connection anymore. I don't know if she's dead, or if she just passed out. All I know is that she was hurting so bad, and she needs help and I can't give it to her because I'm trapped here. I want to be asleep again, I want that demon to knock me out again so I can keep thinking about our wedding day when everything was so simple, and we were so happy. I want to think about our wedding night. Because I wanted it to be so special that I cut Faith off for a month before the wedding. I stopped making love with her because I wanted the next time to be so special. And it was, and she was crazy enough to put up with that.

She would do anything for me, we all know how Faith gets after slaying and she resisted. I'm sure she got herself off in the shower a few times, but I couldn't have asked her not to do that. If all of that pent up energy isn't released in someway things tend to get a little tense between us and I didn't want to act on that tension. Feeling her being so worked up tends to work me up and I know it would have ended in us making love, and I wanted to wait. But the point is, Faith would do anything for me, and I just left her there to die. I wasn't even strong enough to get away from this demon so I could help her, and now she's all alone, and really hurt and she needs help and there's no one who can get it for her because I'm here, trapped like a defenseless animal.

I'm concentrating now, but not on Faith anymore. No, now I'm trying to get a hole of Willow. If I can just send her a message telepathically then she'll know that Faith is in trouble and she needs to find her. But I think the demon has some sort of barrier around this place because I can feel my mind reaching out, but it's being blocked. Almost like there's a steel wall around my mind and nothing can get in, and nothing can get out. Now I really do feel alone. In situations like this I could easily contact Willow. She's become so powerful that as long as you concentrate hard enough she'll be able to hear you no matter where you are in the world. The farther away, the harder you have to concentrate, but we're in the same town so it doesn't take a lot of energy. But now that's been taken away, my safety net is gone and the fear is starting to rise up again. I try to force it down but it's getting harder. I'm completely on edge and I have no idea what I'm going to do. I have no idea how I'm going to get out of here.

I jump a little bit when I see the demon turn around. The bowl is in his hand and he's walking towards me. Well this can't be good. I back up as far as I can go but unfortunately that isn't very far what with there being a wall behind me and all. He just keeps getting closer and closer. I wonder if he has to shut down the invisible wall to get through. If he has to shut it down then I can try and distract him and then I can make a break for it. That little plan is shot down when all he has to do is keep walking. The wall is shocking him, I can hear it, I can see it, I can smell it but it isn't hurting him. I guess he has some pretty thick skin or something not to be affected by that. What is this thing? What does it want with me?

It kneels down about three feet away from me and I can feel my body start to panic. My mind is telling it not to but my muscles are tight like a spring, and they're waiting to be released. It puts the bowl down next to its foot and I glance inside. It's filled with some kind of liquid. I have no idea wha it is or what the demon is going to do with it, and I don't really want to know. I see the demon reaching out for me and I try to back up some more but I'm up against a wall so there's nowhere to go. But I don't just sit here and take it. I struggle, I kick, I punch but nothing is working. He's just too strong, his skin is too hard and I think I broke a couple of bones in my right hand. I don't stop fight. I'm not fighting as much as I was a few seconds ago but I'm still struggling. I'm not going to just sit here and let it do whatever the fuck it wants me to.

But I guess it doesn't matter what I want or how hard I fight because he's so much stronger then I am. He scoots closer to me and now I have nowhere to go. I'm stuck against this little part of the wall and there's nothing I can do about it. He reaches out with one hand and pries my mouth open. What the fuck is he doing? I fight all I can but it isn't working, and if I try to fight any harder my neck could snap, so I force myself to calm down a little bit. He uses his free hand to bring the bowl up to my mouth. I have to drink that stuff? What is it? Is it poison? He dragged me all the way back here just to poison me? No, this is for something else. If he wanted to me kill me he would have done it in the woods.

The liquid is warm, and a little sticky, and before I have a chance to spit it out he closes my mouth and then plugs my nose. The only thing I can hear is the sound of my heartbeat pounding in my ears. I'm going to hold my breath for as long as I can. Maybe the demon will get impatient and let go of me? No such luck. It feels like I've been holding my breath for hours. Everything is getting a little blurry and even though I don't want to I swallow, and the second all of the liquid is done my throat he lets me go and takes a few steps back. I can hear the electric force field thing shocking him as he leaves my little prison.

I'm dropped down on all fours breathing heavy and coughing. That stuff, whatever it was, did not taste good, and it burned a little going down. I hope he doesn't do that again because it fucking sucked. I try purging it up but it must be some type of magical liquid because no matter how far I shove my fingers down my throat it won't come back up. So now I guess the only thing for me to do is sit here in terror and wait to see what that stuff does. If it is poison I hope it isn't painful, and I hope it's quick. I don't want to go through a slow and painful death. But I think I would rather do that then have my worst fear come true. I really hope that whatever he made me swallow doesn't turn me into some kind of demon. I don't want to be a demon, I want to be me. Sure my life does kind of suck right now, but it's getting better. I just want to go home and be with my family. But I guess that's too much to ask since there's no way of getting passed that stupid barrier. I hope Faith's ok. If I do make it out of here alive, and she isn't I don't think I'll survive the sadness.

Taken (part 2)

The Same Night. FPOV

They're keeping something from me, I know they are. I may be a lot of things but stupid isn't one of them. I know when someone isn't telling me something that I should know. Ok, so maybe I have been tricked in the past what with the whole Angel pretending to lose his soul and tricking me into believing he was working for me, but I'm different now, and Red is just really easy to read. Both her and Giles. They've been researching for the last couple of hours. After my slayer healing did enough to keep me conscious I told Willow what the demon looked like, how strong it was, and that it was male. I even drew her a little picture, nothing too detailed because my arms feel like they're gonna fall off but it was good enough for them to find the thing. But now they're not telling me something and I really wish they'd knock it the fuck off.

“Mama?” I jump a little at the whispered voice. I wasn't expecting it, and I really wish she'd just go back to bed. She shouldn't see me like this, she shouldn't have to be around all of this tension. This is exactly why me and B can't move to Ohio and help run the slayer school because our kids would suffer too much because of it. I try to roll over onto my side but the pain in my leg forces me to stay on my back. I do look at her though, and she looks so small. She looks scared too, like she wants to run away, run back to bed and hide under the covers and pretend like she never saw me like this. At least that's what I want to do right now. Hide under the covers and pretend like all of this isn't happening. Like my wife isn't in the hands of some scary ass demon. Like I almost didn't die in the line of duty.

“Hey baby,” I whisper and she inches a little closer. “What are you doin up? It's way passed your bedtime.” She looks down at her little bare feet but then she looks up at me with a little pout on her face. I don't think she's ever looked more like Buffy then she does right now. And the sight is completely breaking my heart. I get tears in my eyes, and I blink them back. Crying isn't going to do me any good. Finding out what the fuck is going on will do me some good. I need a solution to this fucked up problem. I need to know how to make it better. She inches a little closer to me and she still looks scared as hell. It's making feel even more helpless then I was a couple minutes ago. My wife was taken by a demon and there's nothing I can do about it, and I'm the reason my baby girl is scared. Yeah, I feel really peachy right now.

“Mama, what hurt you?” her voice is so soft, like she thinks if she talks too loud it'll hurt me more. My eyes tear up a little more but I hold them back. The last thing she needs right now is seeing me break down. That'll probably scar her for life or something. Then again, she's only three so I'm sure she won't be able to remember any of this when she's older. Here's hopin. I sigh a little bit and she keeps inching towards me. I don't want to tell her the truth. I don't want to tell her that a demon did this because I'm afraid that she'll panic every time me and B go patrolling after this. That until she forgets all this ever happened, she'll remember the time she saw her mama lying in a bed beat to hell and she'll freak out thinking it'll happen again. But I can't lie to her. I can downplay the fuck out of it but I can't lie.

“A demon, baby. I big, bad demon did. I'm gonna be ok. See?” I sit up a little bit and force myself not to wince because of the pain. She steps a little closer and now she's about a foot away from the bed. I reach my hand out and she just looks at it. She has this strange expression on her face, like she's never seen a hand before. It makes me smile a very small and short lived smile. When she slowly reaches for my hand I expect her to hold onto it, so I can wrap my fingers around her tiny hand and pull her a little closer to me. But she doesn't do that.

She gently grips onto my thumb and slowly turns my hand over so she can see the back of it. It's swollen and bruised and there's some dried blood where the cut was. She slowly traces all of the bumps and the bruises with the tips of her fingers, very softly, not causing pain but not lessening the pain already there. If she wasn't only three feet tall, had brown curly hair, and light brown eyes then I'd swear she was Buffy. The expression on her face, the gentleness of her touch...it all just screams Buffy and I don't know if I can handle that right now. But right now isn't about me, it's about her and making sure she isn't scared, or panicked or worrying. Because she's just a kid, her biggest concern should be figuring out how to con me into giving her some chocolate.

I feel something that I've never felt before, at least not regarding my children. I feel guilty. Guilty for having them. Guilty for brining them into this world, guilty for being one of their mothers. I feel guilty because I know this isn't going to be the last time one of us gets hurt. We're slayers, it's our job to hunt down the demons and vampires and make sure that the world stays safe. It's our job to not live in ignorance to all of the evil in this world. And we brought children into that. Innocent children, and instead of worrying how to con me into giving her some chocolate or letting her stay up with me, or letting her watch TV at this late hour, she's worrying about a demon who beat me to a bloody pulp. And she knows that Buffy isn't here, because she knows that if Buffy were here she'd be at my side taking care of me. She's slowly figuring it out. I can almost see the wheels turning in her head as she connects all the dots. I want to keep her from talking, I want to stop her from asking the question that I know she's going to ask. But I can't because I can't lie to her.

“Did the demon hurt Mommy?” Ok, wasn't expecting that. I want to lie to her. I want to tell her that no the demon didn't hurt Mommy, that Mommy had to go see aunt Dawn but she'll be back later. I want to tell her that everything is ok, that my slayer healing will make me all better and we don't have anything to worry about. I want her to stay in the dark. I don't want her to be in the know. I don't want her to know that the demon took Buffy, and that she might not come back. I don't want her to know that her once happy family might be broken forever. Because in the dark there might be fear, and she's feeling it right now. I can see it in her eyes that she's afraid. But in the dark there's also hope. I don't want to be the one to rip that from her. I don't want to be the one that takes away that shred of hope. I come up with something to say. Not a lie but not the whole truth. I look into her eyes and she starts to tear up because I've been quiet for a lot longer then I should have been. I take in a little breath and open my mouth.

“Faith I need to- Addison, what are you doing up?” Thank God! Saved by the redhead. I may not be able to lie to my little girl, but Red can. Dishing out little lies to instill hope is just what the Scoobies do. How many times in the past have they said something to Dawn to try and make her believe that everything would be ok even though the situation seemed completely hopeless? Don't worry, I'll wait. I watch Red take control of the situation. She tells Addy that she needs to talk to me about some grown up stuff and Addy fights her at first but I give her a little stern look and she lets Willow usher her back to bed. She doesn't worry about me getting offended that she's telling my baby what to do. She saw the desperate look in my eyes when she walked into the room when I was about to tell Addy that the demon didn't hurt Mommy, but Mommy is still trying to fight it. What? That isn't a total lie. Buffy won't give up fighting until she's tied up, knocked unconscious, or killed.

Now that Addy is gone and I don't have anything else to focus my mind on, it's right back to where it was before, and again I know that I'm being kept in the dark. As a human I want to be kept in the dark because that's where the hope is. But as a slayer I need to be in the know. I have to know everything about a situation no matter how bad it is so I can help find a solution. But the human side of me is screaming to be left in the dark on this one. My slayer side is stronger. It's always stronger. I have to know what's going on. I have to do know they're keeping from me. Even if all my hope for getting Buffy back alive is shattered. I have to know because I can't stand not knowing. It hurts more then the shattered leg, and the internal bleeding, and the broken hands, and the broken ankle, and the sore neck and all of the other physical injuries the demon inflicted on me.

I hear Willow talking to Giles. I can't hear what they're saying because they're whispering and my slayer hearing isn't that good. I have a feeling it's about me though. Or what they're going to say to me when they come in here. I hate that I can't just walk in there and demand that they tell me. I hate that I have to lay here like some fuckin loser and wait for them to come to me. I abso-fucking-lutely hate this. There's nothing I can do about it and I hate that there's nothing I can do about it. So I sit here in the dark, literally. The only light in the room is the light shining in from the other room. I don't want the lights on in here because my head still hurts from getting slammed up against a tree really fucking hard. I hear Giles raise his voice a little bit and it surprises me, but at the same time it doesn't. Over the years he's been like a dad to me, and I guess he's just trying to protect me from whatever knowledge they have. But I guess Red won the argument because here she is standing at the door looking worried.

“We need to talk,” she says and I nod my head. She sits down at the foot of the bed, a book in her hand and she rests it on her lap. It's opened to a certain page, the one on the right side has been dog eared and it makes me wonder if that's the thing that Giles got pissed about. He really cares about those books. The tension that builds in the room is almost tangible. I open my mouth to speak but she interrupts. “The demon that you fought is called a Ferreus demon. It's Latin, it means `made of iron'. It's skin is like an exoskeleton, it takes a lot to injure it with force. You're lucky to be alive.” Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just tell me about Buffy. I just I thought that loud enough because she sighs, like she read my mind or something. The look on her face is not a happy one.

“And here's where the luck runs out.” She pauses and it's pissing me off because I know this is the part that they were fighting about. This is the part about Buffy. “This explanation is going to sound pointless but it's important.” I try not to sigh too heavy. This sounds like it could be long and I just want to know where the fuck my wife is. “A Ferreus demon is not only tough on the outside but it's genetics are also very strong.” And I need to know this because...? “It doesn't matter what else they...breed with, the offspring always comes out one hundred percent Ferreus demon. And for some reason, because of that all of the offspring are born male. When these demons go in search of a...mate they find something that is strong enough to carry one of their offspring, something that can take the physical stress of it.” I'm getting a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, almost like my insides are rotting.

“They also need something with a flexible womb because the babies grow very large very fast.” I am not liking this at all. She sighs and shifts around on the bed a little bit. She won't meet my intense gaze. She refuses to look up from the bedspread. “Because Buffy is a slayer her body can take the stress of carrying one of these things. And because she's carried two babies, one of them pretty recently, her womb is flexible enough to hold one of these things.” I see the tear force its way out of her eye, and then snake its way down her cheek, and finally it reaches her chin. It rests on the end of it for a few seconds and falls. It lands on the bedspread and darkens the fabric with it's wetness. I'm focusing so much on that tear so I don't have to focus on what she just told me. But now that the tear has been absorbed by the comforter there's nothing else to focus on but this ugly truth.

“So that thing carried her off, took her back to some secret layer and is raping her right now?” I have to ask. It would have been wrong not to ask. My voice is nothing but venom. Nothing but anger and hatred and I so need to hit something right now. I need to get this out before it kills me, gives me a heart attack or something. Willow looks up at me so fast that if I didn't have slayer eyesight I wouldn't have seen her head move. Her eyes are wide and she's shaking her head back and forth. She also looks a little guilty for not explaining something. I guess there is some silver lining to this horrible, black cloud.

“No, no it's not raping her. See, there's steps that need to be taken, rituals that need to be performed to make her body ready. The first thing it's going to do is force her to swallow a tonic, the book didn't list the ingredients.” Like I care. “But it does say that the tonic is a very powerful aphrodisiac. It has to make her body want sexual intercourse or the other rituals won't work.” So not only has this thing taken my wife away from me, but it's going to make her want to fuck it? I almost want to laugh that sounds so ridiculous. Buffy would never fuck some evil demon. At least not again. And this thing isn't even a vampire with bleach blonde hair, and a stupid accent. So we should be safe. I ask Red how long the other rituals will take. From what she's said this thing won't touch her until all those are done.

“It doesn't specify exactly how long each of them take, but my best guess is five hours. It just depends on when it made her drink the tonic, because it has to wait three hours for that to set in before it can start the others. So, that's eight hours. But we don't know if it's given her the tonic yet. We don't even know if they've reached the demon's layer or not. It could be starting on the first ritual right now.” Her face drops a little bit, so I ask the question that she doesn't want to answer. But she does because she knows I hate being left in the dark. Even though at this point I really wish I was still there. “It has to brand her with the mark.” She holds up the book so I can see. It's almost like a three d triangle or something. “It uses a needle and some homemade ink, and it'll tie her down so it can tattoo it on her lower back.” Damn, she's gonna be pissed about that. I can almost see the angry look on her face. It makes me want to smile, but I don't.

“Find her,” I say, and I don't recognize my own voice that's how much anger is in it. I don't think I've ever been this fucking angry. Ever. “Call as many slayers as you can to make a search party, do a spell, get back into the dark shit if you have to. Just find her!” I scream and I think my voice box just snapped. My throat hurts so bad from all the screaming I've done tonight. Red jumps off the bed and leaves the room. I guess she's taking my words to heart because I just heard her give Sky the job of hunting down as many slayers as she can. I guess Red is going to keep herself busy working on a spell. I heard her talking to Giles earlier about a locator spell. She tried, it failed. Something about a magical cloak that she can't get passed.

But I don't give a fuck about any of that. They are going to find her before that thing lays a hand on her. I don't care how many people I have to kill to get her back, how many demons I have to torture to find the location of that thing's home. We will get her back. And even after all that Red just told me, all of the hope that she ripped away from me, I still have a feeling like they're keeping something from me. Like the rituals and the raping is just the half of it. But I'm letting my human side win for a change. I want to be left in the dark on this for just a little longer. Because I don't think I could handle any more bad news right now.

Taken (part 3)

The Same Night. BPOV

Everything just seems so different. I know that everything is pretty much the same, but everything feels different since we made our way back down that isle together. Ever since the minister announced that we're now wife and wife everything feels different. Kissing Faith just seems…a lot more intense then it used to. Maybe my mind is just playing with me because our wedding day was a very emotional day. It doesn't matter though. Kissing her is more intense and that's just fine because it makes it seem like the world stops for us. Our lips connect and the world stops spinning. I know that doesn't really happen because that would mess a whole lot of things up, but to me that's just the way it feels.

This is the first time we've left our room since we got here. I want to spend every second of my time with Faith, but then she said `how many times are we going to get to come to Hawaii by ourselves? Might as well spend as much time soaking up the sun as we can.' But I don't want to `soak up the sun'. I want to be alone with her in our room just relaxing together in that giant bed, or making love. Either one is fine with me. All of our relaxing has led straight to that anyway. We'll be in bed fully clothed, watching TV or just listening to the ocean, and then she'll kiss me or I'll kiss her, and then one kiss leads to another and before we really know it we're making out like a couple of teenagers. And then one of us will start to get naked, and take the other's clothes off and then we'll make hot, passionate love for a while and then sleep.

And we could be doing that right now but Faith wants to relax on the beach. I think I wore her out. Poor baby. I wanted our wedding night to be special. I wanted us making love to feel like it was our first time. So about a month and a half before the wedding I cut her off. And I mean I completely cut her off. No sex of any kind, no kissing, no touching, nothing. I know she that `scratched her itch' in the shower. There's no way in hell I could have asked her not to do that, she probably would have spontaneously combusted or something. My point is, she isn't used to getting this much sex, and I think she wanted to come down to the beach to have a little break. I'll admit that we have been going a little overboard with the hot lovin, but this is our honeymoon, that's the whole point. Get in as much sex as you can before you stop having it all together. But that's never going to happen. The way she is after slaying it's safe to say that our sex life is never going to die out.

“Look out!” I hear someone scream, and about two seconds later I feel something hard hit my ankle. I turn around really quick to see what happened. I'm a little irritated that someone disturbed my peaceful relaxation but I can't be too mad. I mean, it's not this guys' fault the frisbee got away and hit my ankle. I didn't even hurt, just surprised me a little. I watch as the guy jogs over to us and I have to say he is a hottie. If I was single I'd definitely be interested. He's wearing nothing but his swim shorts, and his body is tan, and muscular and he's a little sweaty because of the hot sun, and if I was single I'd be having fantasies of taking a shower together and washing off all that sweat and then building up some more while he presses me against the wall and takes me right there. If I was single I'd definitely be having those thoughts.

“Hey, sorry about that. My friend isn't so great at the aiming aspect of frisbee.” I tell him that it's ok, no harm no foul. I hand him the frisbee but he doesn't leave. I can feel his eyes checking me out a little bit and out of the corner of my eye I see Faith prop herself up on her elbows. She lifts her sunglasses a little bit and raises an eyebrow. This isn't going to be pretty. But before she gets a chance to talk frisbee guy opens his mouth. “I'm Jeremy, my friend Mark and I are going to a party a little later on, and I was wondering if you two wanted to go.” I smile a polite smile and jump in before Faith can say anything because I know she's going to be rude.

“Well Jeremy it's nice of you ask, we appreciate it,” I shoot Faith a little glare and she just rolls her eyes and puts her glasses back down. “But we're here on our honeymoon, and we just want to spend some time together.” It takes him about a minutes to process all of that and he says a little apology and tells us to go to the party anyway, and gives me the address. Then he goes back over to his friend and I just smile at Faith. I am a little insecure about my age, so when hot young guys ask me out it makes me feel pretty good. From the little scowl on Faith's face I'd say she's thinking otherwise. “Oh, come on baby, he didn't mean anything by it. He didn't know we're married.” I crawl over to her and place a couple of kisses on her neck.

“You could've said something when his eyes were all over you. I thought he was gonna mount you right here.” I giggle a little bit and tell her that she's the only one I want, the only one I love. I seal it with a kiss that started out innocent. I love the taste of her lips, and they're so damn soft. I never want to stop kissing her. But we do break apart when we here the whoops and hollers from some of the other beach goers. There are some people who are giving us some disapproving looks, and even though they think we're disgusting they won't stop staring. I hold onto her hand and interlock my fingers with hers. “Hey baby, why don't we go back to the hotel? Spend some of that time together all by ourselves?” She's up faster then I thought she could move and it makes me laugh. We pack up our stuff and head back to the room for another afternoon of doing nothing but having hot, and passion sex, and then relaxing together.

I don't know why I'm thinking about that now. I don't want to be thinking about my honeymoon while I'm trapped in this prison. I don't know if the effects from slaying, or that nasty liquid that the demon forced down my throat, but my body is reacting in all sorts of horrible ways. Being trapped here it feels like time is frozen, but I know it's not. I know that the minutes are ticking away because the longer I sit here, the more turned on I'm getting. It has to be something that the demon did. Even the second part of the double H rule wouldn't be this intense if there wasn't some type of outside influence. I don't understand why the demon would want to do this. No matter how turned on I get I'm not going to give in to it. I'd never, ever do that, for multiple reasons.

The most obvious reason is because this is an evil demon. I'm not into that kind of stuff anymore. I slept with Spike because I needed something at the time that only he could give me. I don't need or want that anymore. Plus, I'd never cheat on Faith. In any way, shape, or form. Giving in to this demon of my own free will would be cheating, and I'd never do that. Even if we weren't married I'd never cheat on her. Besides if I slept with this demon then I'd just be going along with whatever evil plan he has up his sleeve, and I'm a slayer, I don't help evil I stop it. At the moment I can't really stop anything, but that's not the point.

Now, if we look passed all of the emotional reasons why I wouldn't touch this thing, if we strip away the fact that I love Faith, and this thing is evil, there's one other reason why I wouldn't touch it. No matter how much I argue with all of my friends, I am small. Just little Buffy, five foot two inches tall, and I weight around a hundred and five pounds. This demon is over six foot, and I can't guess how much he weights, but it's way more then me. His…anatomy is larger then any of the guys I've been with, and the toys that Faith and I have at home. So it's pretty safe to say that if thing does decide to force itself on me I'd rip in all kinds of horrible, painful ways. So there's no way I'm going to give in to this thing no matter how much my body wants it. Not only because I'm in love with someone and because this thing is evil, but because it would hurt.

I pull myself from all of those thoughts when I see the demon move. He's been sitting at that table for a while now, mixing things into another bowl. I have no idea with he's doing, if he's going to make me drink that stuff or not but it doesn't matter. I'll fight him again if he tries even if it seems hopeless. I watch him carefully as he takes everything off of the table and puts it on the floor. He moves the table to the center of the room and then goes over to a chest that's against the back wall. He pulls out a pair of…they look kind of like handcuffs but different. Shackles, maybe? I'm not entirely sure. He has four pairs of them and already I'm getting a sinking feeling in my stomach. I watch as he walks over to the table and on each leg he fastens one fair of shackles, and now I know exactly what he's going to do. He's going to tie me down, one shackle on each wrist and ankle.

I try not to cower away from him when he walks over to my little prison but it's impossible. He's so big, so strong, and again I know what it feels like to be normal. When I turned eighteen and Giles gave me that drug that made me helpless I hated the feeling, of not having my slayer strength, of not being able to protect myself. And I feel like that now, helpless, hopeless, like a normal girl. I watch as he leans down and picks up a rock, a white crystaly thing. The electric shield lights up like it did before, only there's a low hum, and then it's gone. He puts the rock in a different spot then where it was before. Without even thinking I spring forward. I dash around him and run for the exit. I'm almost there, three feet away when I feel my hair being pulled. Why did I have to wear a ponytail?

I kick, and scream, and fight with all of the strength that I can find, but it isn't enough. My muscles don't want to work, all of them are screaming at me to just give up. But I won't. Even if it is pointless or hopeless I have to keep fighting. I can't just sit back and let this thing have its way with me. It picks me up around the waist and my skin is on fire in a horrible way. I think I'd rather it be on fire in the literal way. I'm not supposed to be feeling like this with anything but Faith. Only Faith should be able to light my skin on fire like this. It takes me over to the table and holds me down. But I'm not on my back like I thought I'd be. I'm on my stomach and he's shackling my wrists to the table. It's an awkward position that my arms aren't used to and my shoulders are already hurting.

I try pulling on the restrains but they're too strong, and it feels like my skin just tore. I scream as he puts his hand on the back of my knee and forces my leg to stay still. My other leg is trying to kick his hand away but it isn't working. I'm starting to panic, there's no way I can deny it at this point. I'm struggling, and screaming, and basically freaking out, but none of it matters to him. I feel the restraint snap around my ankle and it feels like my fait has just been sealed. It's a horrible feeling, that's sinking right down to my soul. When he gets my second leg locked in the shackle I stop moving. It's just so hopeless that I can't force myself to keep fighting. I flinch when I feel him take my shoes off. What the hell is he doing? I struggle a little he slowly slides my socks off. There isn't much room for me to move around and it's making the struggling thing really hard.

I shiver when the cool air hits my now bare feet. I shiver even more when I feel the demon touch the small of my back. I try to force myself to struggle when I feel him start to lift my shirt up. My muscles are so tired though, they want to give up and at this point I don't have any inner strength left to force them. All I can concentrate on right now is the hot, burning sensation in my pants. I'm getting so damn wet I can feel it on my thighs and spilling forward onto my mound. I have to force my hips to stay still, otherwise I'd be rubbing myself against the seam of my jeans, trying to find some type of friction. I moan when I feel my pants move a little bit and the seam does rub against me a little. I scream when I feel something, like a needle, yeah definitely feels like a needle, hit my skin. I keep screaming because it keeps happening, and I can hear a little smacking sound, of metal against metal.

I don't know how long it lasts. Could have been twenty minutes, could have been twenty hours, but the point is it's finally stopped. I let out a little sigh of relief and watch as he walks over to a different table and sets down whatever it was he was holding. And I was right about the needle part. It's huge. The part that was hitting against me is small, like a normal needle, but the shaft is a lot bigger. And you want to know what was making that sound? A hammer. That's right, this big demon thing put that needle against my skin and then used a hammer to make it mark me. I wonder what he made? Because I don't think it's going to go away. I see him pick up a bowl and he walks back over to the table I'm tied to. I feel his hand on me again and it makes me moan against my will. I'm only moaning because he's rubbing something cool against my skin, and we all know how much my body loves the cold.

I hear him make a grunting noise and it disgusts me. I'm not completely disgusted with the demon, I mean after all he is a boy demon and it doesn't really matter the species, if a male hears a female moaning, and groaning and wanting to be taken they're going to react. I'm disgusted with myself a little bit. I'm disgusted because I can't force my body to turn off. I can't make the throbbing between my legs go away. I can't force myself not to moan, and groan and want something hard, and long inside of me. Fucking me until I scream and then fucking me some more. I want Faith, and all I can think about is her. Her wearing the strap on and me straddling her, riding her so hard and fast, squeezing her tits and pinching her nipples hard enough to make her wince, and then kissing the pain away.

Then pulling off of her and straddling her face. Feeling her soft tongue deep inside of me, rubbing in all the right places, and then feel the vibrations when she hums. Just thinking about all that, thinking about fucking Faith makes me come. I moan and arch my back a little and I feel the orgasm gush out of me. I feel so ashamed but at least I'm not as on edge as before. Now at least I'll be able to sit still. I freeze when I feel my shackles being released. First on my legs, then on my hands. I try to punch the demon, and then swing around and kick him, but he already has a hold of me so I can't move. I try to struggle but he squeezes my arm and it hurts so fucking bad, so I stop moving.

I watch as he grabs onto the front of my shirt. I feel him pull it, feel the material strain against my back until it finally gives, and most of my torso is exposed to him. Thank God I decided to put on a bra. I feel him pull me up and I start kicking but it doesn't do any good. He breaks the button and zipper of my jeans, and then rips them off me and now all I'm wearing is my underwear. He tosses back over to the little area I was in earlier. He stomps over to the rock and puts it back in place. The electric shield glows and hums, and then it disappears. But I know it's still working, I can feel the charge flowing through the air, and I know better then to touch it. I reach and touch my skin where the needle was. It's swollen and it hurts and it's bleeding, but I can feel my slayer healing taking care of it already. I'm smart enough to know that it isn't going to go away. Not completely. The swelling will go down and the bleeding will stop, but the brand will still be there.

Why is he doing this? Why did he expose me like this? Why did he mark me? I don't know, and I have no way of finding out. It's just all so overwhelming. I want Faith to come and save me. To take me away from this place, to take me home. I want to be with my family, I want to hug my kids and then have Faith wrap her protective arms around me. I want to feel safe again, I don't feel safe at all right now. And the worst part about all of this is I'm getting turned on again. My body is starting to heat up, my clit is starting to throb, and there's nothing I can do about it. I just want Faith to come and save me, to kill the demon, to take me out of here, and then fuck me, long and hard and fast. That's what I want, but I highly doubt that's going to happen. I just hope someone found her in time. I hope she's ok and not still lying at the edge of the woods bleeding to death. I wish I could get out of here and make sure she's ok. I just want to get out of here.

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