Buffy crashed through the back door and Giles, Riley, Xander and Anya followed. They were all equipped with stakes and the like. They made their way quickly backstage and started searching through instrument cases.
“Ho!” Giles shouted as a vamp jumped from a case that should have held an acoustic bass. Buffy looked up and instantly got tackled by another vamp. The third jumped in front of Xander and Anya.
“Riley, help Giles!” Buffy said from the floor as she wrestled the vamp off her. She gave it a swift kick to the face and turned to face yet another vamp that had come through the door. “Spike,” she stated with a slight look of disgust on her face.
“Buffy,” he said quietly, then ran past her to tackle the vamp that was about to get her in a chokehold. Buffy watched slightly impressively as Spike beat the vamp to a pulp, and with the stake that Buffy threw him, dusted it nearly instantly.
“Looks like Riley’s not the only one around here who’s miserable about something,” Buffy stated with only the slightest hint of sarcasm, and then rushed away to help Anya and Xander with their vamp.
“You’re welcome,” Spike yelled after her. He leaned against a pillar and watched Buffy dust both other vamps in a matter of seconds.
“So, Spike,” Xander started, catching his breath, “what could possibly bring you to the Bronze again? And please, feel free to disregard my question and… just leave.”
Spike sneered. “I was taking a walk and heard the racket. Figured you lot were finally awake and were doing something about the pest population.”
“What were they? I mean, vampires, yes, but I don’t understand how they made us sleep,” Anya asked.
Giles shook his head. “I’m afraid I’ve never come across anything like them before. I’ll have to…”
“Sleeper vamps,” Spike fabricated. “They’re rare, but they exist. They didn’t seem to be the brightest of their kind, either, if they gave us a wake-up call. Usually, they come to a town, gather as many people into one location as possible, and cast a spell of some kind through noise. The people sleep forever, die of starvation, and the vamps take over the town.”
“What about the others at the Bronze?” Riley asked grudgingly. “Aren’t they still going to sleep forever? The town still seemed pretty dead on the way down.”
“No. You killed the vamps, their spell is broken, half the town is waking up as we speak.” Spike stared at the floor and Riley was surprised at the lack of snide comments in his response. Then Spike stood up straight and stared at Buffy. “Anyway, that’s what I know, thought you might want to.” He turned and strutted out of the club.
“Well, that was less unpleasant than usual,” Xander stated. He put his arm back around Anya and they bade goodnight to the others as they left in a slight hurry.
Giles looked perplexed. “I’ve never heard of sleeper vamps before,” he said airily.
Buffy smiled. “It’s okay, Giles. It’s happened before. You’ll survive.” She looked over at Riley and smiled at him. He seemed to cheer up. Whatever was wrong with them was clearing up now that the vamps were dust. Riley came over and put an arm around her waist. They bade goodnight to Giles and left him standing in the middle of backstage, muttering, “But I’ve studied every classification of vampires. It was a necessity…”
Buffy smiled again and leaned into Riley as they walked. “I’m sorry I was grumpy. Just groggy, I guess.”
Riley noticed already that she was back to normal… almost. A little distant. Riley himself was still not feeling right about Buffy. Protective. Disappointed. “Me too. Dusting vamps made it better.”
Buffy smiled and broke apart from Riley. She kissed him goodnight and said she was going home to call Willow and Tara to make sure they got back okay. Riley watched her go.
And decided he needed a drink.
***
Willow popped into the hallway and walked into Xander’s apartment. Everyone was awake now. Oz sat there watching, fascinated, as Xander and Anya greeted each other as though they’d never met before.
“Hey,” he said as she sat in a chair next to him.
“Hi,” she responded. Then, in a whisper, “I haven’t gone yet.”
“Oh,” he said. “Are you… going to?”
“Of course. But I’ll be back.” She smiled and laid her head on his shoulder, closed her eyes and popped out.
Outside Angel’s mansion, Riley woke up. He didn’t remember why or how he got here, but he knew he needed a drink.
***
Willow blinked herself awake and rolled over to pick up the phone. “Hello?” she answered groggily.
“Hey, Will. You’re awake,” said Buffy from the other end.
“Yeah, I am… wait. I went to sleep like two minutes from now.”
“It’s the next day, Will.”
“Oh. …What?”
“The noise at the Bronze. Sleeper vamps. Made us and apparently half the town sleep in quite seriously. Me, Riley, Xander, Anya and Giles were immune… well, not completely. We woke up about an hour ago. But we dusted the vamps and now everyone else is waking up. Otherwise they would have slept forever and starved to death.”
Tara sat upright in bed and looked a little startled. Willow looked sideways at her girlfriend and understood something. “Oh. Thanks, Buff, I gotta go.” And she hung up the phone.
“Wh…” Tara began.
“Sleeper vamps made that noise at the Bronze. It’s tomorrow. Sweetie, did your hometown have a community meeting?”
“I… y-yes. Why?”
“How much of the town attended?”
“All of it, except m-maybe the sick or the elderly.”
“That’s what hit your town, Tara. The sleeper vamps. They came and they made them all sleep forever and they starved. I guess they were found shortly thereafter and were buried and then deserted.”
Tara’s eyes were blank as she took in the information. “Oh.”
Willow watched for a moment and then touched her girlfriend’s hair. “Baby, are you okay?”
Tara blinked, looked at Willow, and then said shortly, “I’m hungry.”
Willow smiled and Tara smiled back. “Me, too. Pizza?”
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