I Didn't Say I Was YOUR Friend: Part 1
by Azreel
The setting and characters of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer are property of Joss Whedon, WB, Mutant Enemy and maybe some other people I'm missing. This story is only an entertainment piece, and no copyright infringement is intended.

The author reserves full rights over the original characters depicted in the story (but if you want them, drop me a line).

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Part One
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There was only one teenage hangout in this dinky little town, so it wasn't really surprising to the man that it was packed even on a tuesday night. He scanned the crowd, looking for his prey. Angela would be so disappointed, he thought. But I can't go on like this. Animal blood, even human blood stolen from the blood banks, didn't even take the edge off his hunger now. He needed warm prey.

On a nearby table, a girl disengaged herself from the chatter of her friends and studied the vampire intently. Was an ugly person ever made vampire? This one, even in clothes that were absolutely five- years-ago, was gorgeous. Almost like Angel... but she cut that line of thought short.

"And then she said..." the boy at the table was saying, and then stopped to follow his friend's stare. "Buffy?"

"Undead alert," the Slayer said softly. "On the dance floor."

"What?" the red-haired girl exclaimed. "What would a vampire be doing here?"

"The word 'hunting' comes to mind," Xander replied.

"B-but... every vampire in town knows the Slayer hangs at the Bronze. It would be suicide to hunt here."

"Maybe this one has a death wish," the Slayer said grimly, as the vampire made his way out of the Bronze with a girl in tow. "Let's not disappoint him, shall we?"

"W-w... uh, do you need help?" Willow said anxiously.

"Uh, no. Just stay here and keep the table, okay? This'll only take a minute."

By the time Buffy made it to the door, the vampire and his conquest were nowhere in sight. She let her Slayer senses take over, directing her towards the vampire. The streets of Sunnydale were nearly deserted, as one would expect in a town were vampires roamed nightly. Buffy's "spider-sense" kicked in wildly, and the Slayer nearly sprinted in pursuit of the vampire. He must be feeding on her now, Buffy thought.

The pair were snuggling on a dark alleyway. The vampire was making his move now, pretending to whisper something to her ear. Buffy saw his eyes glow weirdly, and his fangs as he prepared to sink them in the neck of the young blonde girl.

"Leave her alone!" the Slayer shouted.

The girl seemed to come to her senses somewhat while she turned to Buffy, and then screamed when she saw her boyfriend's vampiric countenance.

"One-night stands are dangerous, sweetie," Buffy scolded the purported victim. "Run, now."

The girl didn't wait to be told twice, and scurried away while the vampire turned his golden glowing eyes on Buffy.

The vampire was dismayed over the setback. He had botched his hunt. The one mistake that could be fatal, that had proved the undoing of so many of his kind. But he couldn't allow himself to panic now. Time for damage control. Besides, he was still hungry. This girl would sate his need as well as the next one.

He tried to charm her by making eye contact. The girl wasn't impressed. In fact, she was so unimpressed that she did a masterful forward flip and landed a strong kick to his chest, sending him to the wall. She followed up with a punch that could have pulverized his jaw had it landed. He had to use all of his vampiric speed to dodge. One could have expected her fist to break itself against the wall where his face had been only moments before, but she pulled back easily when she saw him duck.

It was all the vampire could do to fight the red haze that threatened to take over his mind. He was hungry, and scared. This girl was a regular tigress.

"How'd you _do_ that?" he asked weakly.

"Practice makes the Slayer," she repplied succintly, and then he saw she had a wooden stake in her hand. "Pleasure meeting you, but you must be going now."

The vampire tried to go hand-to-hand with Buffy, and found himself in a desperate grapple over the stake. The yammer of fear, of blood and hunger, became stronger inside the vampire's brain. When it became clear that his strength was not enough to overpower her, he got his legs under her and kicked himself free. The girl was extremely good, she was on her feet in no time. But by the time she threw herself at him again, the vampire was flying six feet aboveground.

"How'd you _do_ that?" the Slayer echoed his own feelings of seconds ago. She even tried a jumping shot at the vampire, but he dodged by rising higher.

To Hell with discretion, the vampire was thinking. This girl already knows what I am, and I'm going to be dead if I don't flee right now. The demon, the beast inside him was screaming for the blood of the girl below, but he denied it. Was he a coward for fleeing from a girl less than a tenth his age? The so be it. Perhaps going hunting in this town wasn't such a hot idea after all. Teenagers used to be so easy... Maybe he should start hunting old people. Although with his luck, it would probably be a retired olympic medalist.

Satisfying himself that the girl wasn't trying to follow, he flew home. Nobody but the Slayer saw him flying over the lamplit streets. Even if somebody had seen him, in Sunnydale perhaps no one would have been fazed by it.

Angela is going to be very upset when I get back, the vampire thought.


* * *
"So, how'd it go?" Xander asked her when Buffy appeared back at their table. "Total slayage?"

"Not really," Buffy said tartly. "He took off on me. Literally."

"What do you mean?" Willow asked.

"I mean he flew away. Man, that was weird. The guy didn't even have a game face, just fangs and weird glowing eyes."

"Oh. I didn't know vampires could do that."

"Neither did I," the Slayer replied. "So I guess I'll have to consult my personal advisor on things weird and dangerous."


* * *
"Laurent!" the girl cried when he came through the window, genuine concern in her voice. "What happened?"

"I went hunting."

"You WHAT?!! I though we'd talked about this."

"Just chill, okay? I'm not in the mood. And speaking of chill, do we have anything in the fridge?"

Puzzled, the girl went to the small refrigerator and poured a glass of thick, red fluid from a small plastic bag. She gave it to the vampire. "Did you kill someone?"

The vampire gulped down the blood as if it was his first drink after a week in Death Valley. "I never kill when feeding, Angela. _Never_. As it was, the shoe was entirely in the other foot tonight."

"Huh?"

"Girl came at me with a stake. I came that close from being the prey, not the hunter."

"With a stake? You mean she knew what you were?"

"Either that, or her supply of Mace was low this evening. As vampires go, Angela, I know I'm not a combat monster. Still, I can hold my own against a teenage girl. But this one, you had to see her. Strong, quick. Never saw anything like it before."

"Are you sure she was a normal teenage girl? Couldn't she have been, uh, another vampire?"

"Might have. She didn't show me her fang face, though. And if she's that strong before even vamping out, I don't want to _guess_ what her powers might be like."

The vampire poured himself another glass of blood, emptying the plastic bag. Angela guessed he had not managed to feed before the girl jumped him.

"Why would a vampire want to stop you from feeding? Territory?"

"Perhaps. But something she said to me... reminds me of a legend I heard long ago."

"What legend?"

"It was about someone... called the Slayer. Ancient enemy of the vampires since the dawn of time. I always though it was a vampire's version of the boogeyman. And even if it was true, I expected something a little more impressive. Not a sixteen-year-old with blond hair and a leather jacket."

"But if she's ancient enough to be a legend, she cannot be a teenager, can she?"

"I guess not... Well, there went our last blood. I had to spend a lot of power to get away, and I can only be grateful that she didn't really hurt me."

"I'll go shopping tomorrow and get you something. It'll have to be pig, however, or cow," the girl said, booting up a laptop.

"Beggars can't be choosers, can they? Serves me right for breaking my promise, I guess. But now this Slayer knows I am here, and... what are you doing?"

"I'm mailing the only person I know who can tell us more about this Slayer."

"Melissa?" the vampire asked, distressed.

"Melissa."


* * *
It was the next day at school, and the Slayerettes were gathered at the library. Giles, tired after half a night of researching and cross-referencing, had several books open in front of him.

"Actually," the librarian said, "flight is a very common power in vampiric mythology. Holywood vampires can fly, as do Anne Rice's, and the power of flight was a common assumption in medieval vampire trials. When one limits oneself to the more serious sources, however, one sees that the prevalence of such skill was grossly exaggerated. The Watchers' Diaries mention only a handful of vampires with the power of flight, and some of those have question marks next to them. In at least two instances, however, a flying vampire proved to be the downfall of the Slayer."

"Great," Buffy complained. "You know, I can always trust in you to boost my self-confidence, Giles. Any prophecies of impending Slayer's death coming to term recently?"

"I-I have searched the Codex again for any clues. I couldn't find anything that spoke of the Slayer being in greater danger than usual, but seeing as how we seem to understand these prophecies mostly _after_ the fact..."

Giles' voice trailed off at that point. Recently he'd found a prophetic passage in the Codex that had seemed to refer to Angelus and the danger he would pose to the Slayer. He was still feeling guilty over not finding the right interpretation until after the Angel situation had blown over.

"Yeah, yeah, prophecies are tricky beasts, we all know that by know," Buffy cut off. "What about our flying ace?"

"Oh, o-of course. Did he look anything like this pictures?"

The Watcher presented several portraits for the Slayer's examination.

"Nope," said Buffy after a few minutes. "You know, maybe we should do a mug shot archive, like the police? It would speed up these searches."

"Uh... yes, we could work on that. It isn't any of these, then. Does that mean this is a previously unregistered vampire, or just that his power to fly is not in record? If he can fly, he should be old and powerful, so he must be on record somewhere..."

"Great. Giles, you hit the books and locate our flyboy. Meanwhile, I'm going on patrol tonight. Another night spent protecting an unsuspecting world from the undead menace. There goes my social life. It's not like I _have_ a social life to begin with, anyway, so..."

"Buffy?" Xander interrupted her.

"What?"

"Watch the skies!!" he said, in his best alien-monster-flic imitation.

None of the others got the joke, however, so he just sat brooding. "Okay. Excuse me for breathing."

"Xander," grunted Buffy and went out.


* * *
The vampire woke shortly before almanac sunset. That was okay, the windows on the place were all closed tight (but not boarded over. Dead giveaway for vampires' homes, that). He looked at the laptop resting by the phone, and the girl that sat eating at the kitchen table.

"Rise and shine," Angela said. "You thirsty?"

She must've been kidding. If the vampire were human, his stomach would be growling. "Do we have anything?" he asked.

The girl went to the refrigerator and got a bottle very much like a Gatorade bottle. She pitched it towards the vampire. He was quick, and caught the bottle without trouble.

"Chateau Le Swine," the girl said. When she saw the way the vampire was downing the bottle, she said, "Go easy! We won't have enough if you are going to drink like that."

"I'm hungry. Very much."

"Well, try to restrain yourself. Can't buy too much of the stuff here. Makes the locals restless."

"Let them. We are going to be leaving soon. Can't stay too long in a place with a Slayer."

"Laurent, I've been thinking... about this Slayer. What if there is more than one of them? Say, one for every city? And in this little town, of course, one is enough to keep the vampires under control. But in a big city like San Francisco, it would be much more difficult. Too many places to hunt, so the Slayer couldn't patrol them all. That's why you haven't heard of them."

"If the other Slayers are anything like the one I faced last night, I should have heard of them. Makes no sense. If there was an entire group of supernaturally strong people hunting the vampires, we should _know_ about them. Besides, it would be stupid from a strategic standpoint. A town this size shouldn't have more than half a dozen vampires. A dozen, tops. One capable Slayer should be able to finish them all in a short time, and then move on where she was more needed. The big cities, for instance. I gather, then, that Melissa hasn't been in touch?"

"Not yet. E-mail is a great way to contact someone if you don't know where in the world they are, but it's not instantaneous. I made a bit of digging by myself, however."

"Really? And what did you find?"

"NewsBase has a lot to say about this town. It seems there have been a lot of strange incidents. Disappearances, grave-robbings, mysterious deaths. Recently the local high school was attacked nightly by what was reported to be 'a gang of youngsters on PCP'. None caught. Sounds familiar?"

"Vampires, or something similar. But very sloppy," the vampire said. "Even on San Francisco, we daren't go that far."

"Sloppy, because they are desperate. There's a war, and they're losing it."

"Against the Slayer... Coming here is starting to seem like a mistake. _Staying_ here, however, would be downright insane."

"So, if there's only one vampire Slayer, and she's here, why don't the vampires just pick up stakes and go? Uh, no pun intended."

"Maybe they _are_ insane... or just obtuse. I don't have a very good appreciation of my kind's thinking abilities."

"I'd say there's more to this town that meets the eye. Perhaps we should stay just a little bit longer, at least until we hear what Melissa has to say."

"Okay, I'll give you that. But if Melissa is too slow in answering, or if there's nothing in her answer that warrants staying, we're leaving. I don't want to go mano a mano with this Slayer again."

The vampire had picked out his street clothes, and went into the bathroom to change.

"Okay by me... Hey, where are you going?"

"I'm going out to find my kindred. Perhaps they can give me some dish on this Slayer."

"But if she's out there..." the girl protested. She was afraid the vampire was going out to hunt. She'd noticed that packed blood didn't seem to be doing the thing for him anymore.

"Here," he said, loading his pistol and giving it to her. "Lock doors and windows, don't invite anyone in. And try to get some sleep. If anyone comes in uninvited, shoot."


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