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Part Three
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"Okay, step one is..." Xander never could understand why they had to recite these every week, did vampires have really bad memories?
"Do not feed off a human under any circumstances." The group spoke softly still somewhat afraid the humans would notice they were there.
"Exactly, you can feed off of cow's blood, pig's blood... Willie always has a great supply of blood from the slaughter houses, make sure you check to see if it is fresh-he will try to cheat you. Also never steal from the blood banks, human blood is never okay. If you're really stuck try rats or mice." A sigh of distaste murmured through the group.
"And number two is?" Xander was getting into the spirit of things now and had apparently decided that the spirit of things was eerily similar to the captain of a cheerleader squad.
"Never use your vampire abilities against humans." The chorus of voices was getting stronger, this rule were easier to follow than the first one.
"That means no throwing rude clerks against walls, no going game face on children throwing rocks, no nothing!" The vampires all sat there looking as angelic as third-graders.
"Number three?" Xander was getting progressively louder and Willow and Buffy were watching him nervously. Cordelia on the other hand was sitting with her face in her hands at the back of the room wondering and not for the first time what she was doing involved with him.
"Never associate with the other vampires, the ones who don't have souls." They all were very happy with this guideline. None of them particularly wanted to be reminded of what they had been.
"Right, that means if they're not here tonight, then they're not one of you. Some of you are actively involved in helping the slayer, which is great but I don't want anyone to feel obligated to. I understand that for some of you hunting your former comrades is very difficult and no one will think less of you for not actively hunting other vampires. On the other hand we believe guideline number five supersedes any reluctance you may have and it is?" Xander watched to see their response to this guideline, this was the one that was important to him.
"Always protect any human from attack by any vampire or other demons." They stated it loud and clear and Xander was relieved.
"Exactly, if any humans are being attacked then it is permissible to use your supernatural abilities to help them. We, as you know, weren't going to make this a guideline but after hearing from many of you about how helping protect humans from things you once did helps you regain some of your lost humanity we decided it was an important step. We want everyone to feel as human as is possible."
Angel almost shuddered at the thought of how stupid this whole group thing was. A sorry group of vampires with souls trying to make their lives mean something other than death. Angel had thought that was possible for one shining moment over a year ago and everyone had paid dearly for that mistake. Of course now everyone thought Angel was the one with the attitude problem, Buffy was continually nagging him to be more involved in the group, to make more of an effort.
He thought back to when Buffy had first seized upon the idea to have the group. They had been sitting in his apartment after he had finally realized that she was determined to forgive him for the horrible things he had done. He was too weak to fight her on this issue; he wanted too badly to be with her. So he was sitting there complaining about the newly souled vampires. How they were crying and moaning and generally being a huge pain in the neck. Which is something a vampire usually gives rather than receives. Anyway he was talking about how they had lost two to suicide that day. He thought it was a good idea, he only wished he had been able to do it. She was horrified at the thought of this. She actually thought he wasn't responsible for what he had done and therefore none of the vampires at the factory were. He could see the logic in her thinking but logic doesn't help much when your basic premise is wrong.
He argued against her forgiveness for a while longer then he finally shut-up and decided to hate himself in private from now on. It was to late though, she had already decided to go talk to the vampires and see if she could help them. He thought for sure Giles would stop her but no, Giles thought the vampires could be valuable allies. Willow was always willing to give a second chance so Xander was his only hope. That turned out to be somewhat of a false hope. He remembered the first meeting, it was only Spike, Dru and himself there arguing over who was more evil and who deserved to die more and on and on. He had gotten really angry with Spike when Spike tried to apologize for trying to kill him and his girlfriend. He had turned Spike's girlfriend into a vampire could anything be worse than that? Well, he had also driven her insane. Dru just sat in the corner the first meeting whimpering "I killed my bird, I killed all my birds' repeatedly. And here they were now a year later with a few less vampires and a lot less death and weekly meetings.
"Number six?" Angel was starting to worry this would never end.
"Accept that you do have a demon inside you and resolve to always keep it under control" Exactly, Angel thought, remember you are a demon.
"This doesn't mean you are a demon, just think of it as your bad side. You all have the capacity for good, we just want you remember that the demon will always be with you but that you are not the demon." Xander was a little weak on this guideline, he wasn't sure he fully believed it himself. He had been beaten down though by Buffy and Giles insistence on this fact. He had to trust they were right. He also had just realized he was running this meeting so if he decided to cut this guideline reading off here no one would stop him.
"Okay, great, I think we all got the gist of it. You all have copies now so I say take them home put them on your fridge or whatever. You all now these by heart anyway." Xander saw Angel then lurking in the shadows at the back of the room and thought...cake!
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