I do not own the characters of Buffy, Angel, Willow, Giles, Spike, Drusilla, Xander, or any other known characters and/or places; I do, however, own the character of Jaely, and the following story involving all said characters.
Please tell me what you think (no flaming) - this is my first ever submission to a fanfic archive........Thanks!
Part Two
The Changing
One Month Later
It had been a month since Jaely Marcel had come into the lives of Angel, Buffy, and the rest of the Sunnydale group. She had become close with them all, even Buffy, despite the fact that she was dating Angel. And as for Angel himself, he felt himself falling deeper and deeper in love with Jaely, ignoring warnings from the others as well his own conscience.
"Angel, you did this for me?" Jaely looked around Angel's apartment wide-eyed, taking in the sight of the candles and flowers that he had filled his place with.
"Only for you," he told her. "I - I wanted to make tonight special. I mean, it being our one-month anniversary."
Jaely turned to him, tears in her large brown eyes. "How did I find you?" she asked. "How did I get such a wonderful, beautiful man to love me?"
Angel moved to her, and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her lips gently. "You're so easy to love," he told her. "I couldn't help myself."
He kissed her again, and soon, they were in his bed, making love with a tenderness and passion that neither of them had ever felt before. Afterwards, as she lay entwined in his strong arms, she noticed a tear rolling down his cheek.
"Angel? Baby, what is it?" She moved up so that her face was level with his, and wiped his tear away with her thumb.
"I haven't felt like in this in so long. I can't remember ever feeling like this." He sat up and faced her, reaching out to stroke her tousled dark curls. "I love you, Jaely. I love you so much that I need to tell you everything."
She looked worried, and sat up, preparing herself to face whatever he had to say.
"Okay, Angel. Tell me. Whatever it is, I'll be here when you're finished."
"Don't be so sure," he sighed.
He was about to stand up, when out of seemingly nowhere, Spike appeared, followed closely by Drusilla. Angel jumped to his feet, but a vamp came from behind him and knocked him to the ground, and he hit his head on the way down. As he was losing consiousness, the last thing he heard were Jaely's screams.
* * *
Buffy strolled into the school library, where she and Giles, her Watcher, always met. Though not Slayers, Willow, Xander, and even Cordelia, also congregated there, just as much a part of Buffy's vampiric adventures as her. She wasn't surprised to see them all there now.
"Hi." Willow smiled, as Buffy sat down next to her at the table they were gathered around. "We were about to call you. We found out what Spike and Drusilla are up to."
"Yes," Giles said thoughtfully, his British accent seeming sad tonight. "It seems that once a century, vampires can change a human into one of them, without repurcution from you, the Slayer."
"What? You mean that an innocent person is gonna die tonight, and there's nothing I can do to stop it??"
"It sucks, doesn't it?" Xander said, then looked up to disapproving faces. "No pun intended!"
"I wonder who it is,"Cordelia mused. "Well, if it's someone from school, we'll see who's absent on Monday." She also got the disapproving faces. "Well, someone has to cut the tension in here!"
Buffy sighed. "So what do we do now? Just wait?"
"That's all we can do, I'm afraid," Giles sighed. "We've tried to find anything that would give us a way to stop it but we can't. Even if we got whoever it is away from them, they'd just find someone else."
Buffy bit her lip. "This is so wrong."
* * *
Angel found Spike and Drusilla in their usual place, and when he made himself known, they just laughed.
"Ah, Angelus," Spike said, with a British accent thicker than Giles'. "We were expecting you. I know you wouldn't want to miss this."
Jaely was tied by her wrists to a bed, her mouth gagged with cloth. She saw Angel, and her eyes widened with hope, but as Drusilla approached her, she shrank back, terrified.
"Don't worry, my pretty lass...we're not going to hurt you." Drusilla freed Jaely's mouth, and Jaely sobbed quietly. "In fact, we like you so much that we're going to make you one of us."
Jaely looked at Angel, who tried to move over to her, but was stopped by Spike.
"Let her go!" he screamed, and suddenly, his face had changed and his vampire face had emerged. He growled angrily, but Spike just grinned.
Jaely's eyes became even wider than before, and she screamed at the sight of Angel, and then Spike, both vamped out. "What are you?!?!?" she wailed.
"There, there, Dearheart," Drusilla soothed. "Don't be afraid. Soon, you will understand everything."
Spike moved quickly and grabbed Angel's arms, then nodded to Drusilla. "She's all yours, my dark goddess. Feast upon your new child."
And then, as Angel watched with horror, helpless to do anything, Drusilla bit Jaely's neck. Jaely's voice cut off mid-scream, as her body went limp and fell back. Angel knew that it was now too late. Soon, Jaely's body would die, and her soul would be taken from her. Then, in it's place, her new self, a demon self, would take over, and after brief episode of fitful sleep, she would awaken with a thirst for human blood.
Spike released Angel, and he ran to her bedside, scooping her up into his arms.
"You had no right," he whispered in a weak voice. "You had no right."
Spike shrugged and waved Angel away. "Take her, if you please. What's done is done. I have no desire to watch the change. However, she'll be back after she has fed on her first. A child always comes back to her sire."
Angel carried Jaely away from them, sobbing as he looked down at her pale face.
"It's my fault," he cried, as strode through the dark tunnel. "I killed you. I killed you."
* * *
When Angel awoke some hours later in his apartment, Jaely was gone as he knew she would be. She was out prowling for her first meal, her first victim, with no conscience telling her it was wrong. For lack of a better solution, Angel decided to go to Giles and Buffy. Maybe they would know what to do to save Jaely before it went any further.
"Angel," Giles said, startled to see the vampire appear in the library.
"Great," Xander muttered, as Buffy ran to Angel. "Just the bloodsucker I was hopin' to see."
"Angel...what's wrong?"
"Where's Jaely?" Willow asked.
"Sp - Spike..." He slumped down into a chair, as Xander shot to his feet.
"What about Spike? Did he do something to her?"
Angel looked up at them all, tears falling from his sad eyes. "He changed her."
They all breathed a collected gasp of shock and grief, as they realized who the human was that had been chosen for this century.
"No!" Xander yelled. "No! We have to get to her before it's too - "
"It already is!" Angel roared. "I was there when it happened."
"But how..." Giles asked. "How did they know where to find her?"
Angel buried his face with his hands. "She was with me."
Xander lunged at him. "It's your fault! You're the one who did this to her!"
"Don't you think I know that?" Angel wept. "Don't you think I know that?"
"Where is she?" Cordelia asked.
"I don't know. I brought her back to my place after and when I woke up she was gone."
"We have to find her," Buffy said. "Willow, get on the 'net and see if there's any way to transfer Angel's curse to Jaely. We might not be able to save her as a human, but maybe we can save her as a vampire."
"That's a great idea!" Giles exclaimed. "There just may be a way!"
"Xander, Cordelia, you come with us. We've gotta find her before she kills
anyone!"
* * *
Jaely was prowling Sunnydale's bad neighborhood (which was only a half a block away from its good neighborhood. As Cordelia had once told her, Sunnydale wasn't big on town), hoping to catch some late-night club-goers on their way home. She spotted a young couple on the street a ways down, and started towards them, growling with hunger.
Just as she was about to cross the street, Angel, Buffy, Xander, and Cordelia jumped out of an alley and blocked her way.
"Get out of my way!"
"No, Jaely, we wanna help you. " Buffy signaled to Xander and Cordy to grab Jaely's arms from. They crept up on her from behind, slowly.
"I don't want to be helped! I like being this way - everything seems so much...clearer. " She looked over at Buffy. "I can hear your heart beating."
Just as Xander and Cordelia were about to grab her, she moved away.
"Guess she heard us too," Cordelia whispered to Xander.
"Jaely, please...let us help you, " Angel pleaded. "I love you, and you love me. If you let us help you, we can be together."
"Why? So that we can watch while Spike and Drusilla and all the others have all the fun? I don't think so, Angelus. This time I won't be taken in by your pretty face and your soft voice."
It was then that Buffy acted. She ran at Jaely and grabbed her arms, then knocked her to the ground, pinning her down. "Help me get her arms tied," she said, motioning to the rope that she had stuffed in her pocket. "I hope this works," she said, as Xander and Angel tied Jaely's arms together behind her. "I've never had to catch a vamp before - usually it's just the ol' stake in the heart routine, ya know?"
They hoisted Jaely up from the ground and Angel tossed her over his shoulder. "We're gonna help you whether you like it or not," he told her.
Jaely growled. "It's your fault, Angel! You made me what I am, now leave me be!"
* * *
When they all got back to the library, Giles and Willow were waiting anxiously.
"We did it!" Willow exclaimed. "We found a way to transfer Angel's curse to Jaely!"
"How???" Angel demanded.
"You have to take the blood of someone who's in love with her and make the sign of the cross on her head with it." Giles said. "Then, while saying this chant," he held out a book of Gypsy curses to them. "You, Angel, have to, ahem, make love to her."
They all were silent. Jaely, who'd been gagged by Buffy, struggled to get free.
"You can use my blood," Xander said finally. "I'm - I'm in love with her."
"And you can go into Giles' office for the second part,"Cordelia offered.
Angel nodded, and looked down at Jaely. "This is gonna work, Jaely," he promised. "I'm gonna get you back."
* * *
"It's been an hour," Xander said, looking at the clock above the bookcase nearest them. "It's time to wake her."
Angel nodded, and as everyone watched, he got up and went into Giles' office, closing the door behind him.
Jaely was asleep on the couch, her face as innocent and beautiful as always. Angel sat down beside her, and gently nudged her awake.
"Hmmm?" She yawned and then opened her eyes slowly, smiling sweetly when she saw Angel at her side. "Hi...have you been awake long?"
Angel smiled, tears filling his eyes once again. "Yeah, I have."
"Oh," Jaely said, touching his face. "You should've woken -" She sat up and looked around suddenly. "Where am I? This isn't your apartment."
"No, it's not. Jaely, some things have happened - "
"Wait, I remember something." She looked at him. "I remember it all."
Angel looked down at the floor sadly. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't be, Angel. You didn't do this to me. You just loved me and I love you." She caressed his face. "We're together forever, now Angel. Just you and me."
He looked at her. "Are you okay?"
"I feel different inside, ya know? It's a lot to get used to, but I'll be okay. I promise."
"I love you Jaely, and I'll protect you always."
"I know you will Angel, I know."
The End
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