Part Two
Buffy gathered herself after a few moments then opened the door. She found herself breaking out into a heartfelt smile at seeing Eric standing on her porch.
"Hi Buffy," Eric spoke as he held out the bouquet of red flowers to her. "_Whoa._ You look _great_." She blushed slightly at his compliment grateful that all her efforts had not been a waste. He stood on her porch in the gathering dusk dressed in a sport coat and slacks; casual, not too dressy. Buffy gave out a small 'eek' of surprise when she realized that he had brought flowers and quickly grabbed them from him.
"Oh! Carnations! I love the smell of carnations! I think you might deserve a kiss for that." She leaned across the threshold to lightly touch her lips to his cheek, letting them linger just a moment longer than a quick peck. When she pulled back, she could see the beginnings of a slight blush around his cheeks and when he looked at her she felt her own cheeks begin to redden.
"I'm glad you liked the flowers," he said with a shy rogish smile. She couldn't help but be attracted to the odd dichotimies of this man. In one moment he seemed quiet and withdrawn, while in the space of a heartbeat he could light up the room with his lop sided grin and quick wit. To have him smile at her like that made her feel like she was the luckiest girl alive to be the focus of that smile. She beamed her own smile back at him unconscious of her own unthinking happiness. With him she could forget about all the pain of the past few months and just be blissfully in the moment. A young girl in love, ('My God, is that what I'm feeling?') with a handsome sweet young man who could support her and care for her. A man with simple, everyday problems and tragedies to deal with. She couldn't help but feel secure in his presence and even after they had parted each evening, she found herself strengthened in her battles against the vampires on her nightly patrols. For the first time in a long while things seemed to have meaning again. There was a personal, compelling reason why she had to make the world safe from creatures of darkness, and that reason was the burgeoning love that she felt for this quiet, funny young man with his headstrong and devoted dog.
"Oh my God! How long have I been staring at you like this?" she asked suddenly when she realized she had lost herself in his smile.
"About as long as I've been staring at you."
'A few weeks ago I would have puked at mushy sentimentality like that, but from him it sounds like heaven.'
"Uh... C'mon in and let me put these in water real quick."
"Okay." Eric came in shutting the door after him and followed Buffy into the kitchen towards the sounds of a running faucet.
"Hi Eric," Buffy's mother greeted him from the kitchen sink where she was rinsing dishes. Buffy was rooting through the cabinets searching for a vase to put the flowers in.
"Hi Ms. Summers."
"Where's Max tonight?" Joyce asked him. "I think this is the first time I've seen you without him."
"Well it took some time to convince him that restaurants and movie theaters don't allow dogs, but he finally relented when I put on 'Benji the Hunted.' He loves that movie. When I left he was sighing contentedly and wagging his tail in front of the TV."
Buffy turned to Eric vase in hand and gave him an incredulous stare. "I don't know who's weirder, you or your dog."
"That's not even his favorite movie. His absolute favorite is 'The Secret of Nimh' followed closely by 'An American Tail.' He always gets teary eyed when Fieval starts singing 'Somewhere Out There.' I don't have a clue why my dog's favorite movies are about about mice. It's way too complicated, and I'm not even sure I understand it."
Buffy smiled a thoroughly amused grin at him and went to the sink to put water in the vase. Her mother took it and the flowers from her.
"It's okay, honey. I'll take care of those. You guys go have a good time."
"Thanks, Mom. I love you," she said as the kissed her mother on the cheek.
"I'll have her home by midnight," Eric assured her mother as Buffy put her arm in his.
"We don't know when we'll be back," Buffy corrected him. "Don't wait up."
On the porch, Buffy searched through her purse to check that she had everything while Eric stood near her.
"Geez, Buffy. Your Mom's gonna think that I'm taking advantage of you if I keep you out any later tonight," Eric warned her. "Don't worry about it. Mom trusts you. She thinks your a perfect gentleman."
"Well, maybe she shouldn't trust me," he slyly teased as his hand gently caressed her bare shoulder. She turned to him, a mysterious smile on her face as she moved closer into him.
"Maybe she shouldn't at that." Her manner was plainly not teasing.
Eric blushed at having his bluff called and cleared his throat.
"Maybe-uh-maybe we oughta get going now," he softly suggested to her, stumbling over his words.
"If that's what you want... Oh, c'mon! It is too easy to make you blush! You turn purple sometimes if I say something outrageous enough. Let's go, Beet-boy. Red clashes with your jacket." With that, smiling impishly, she took his hand and they began to walk towards his car.
* * *
Bob and Blake pulled up at the end of the street in their battered van and stopped. Night was falling rapidly and the light was fading. Their position afforded them a good view of the Slayer's house, but it was hard to make anything out in the growing darkness.
"Hey, Bob. Hand me those nightvision goggles would you?" Blake asked as he looked towards the back of the van, searching for his equipment. "And hand me that extra bag of fries you brought. It looks like we might be here awhile." Bob handed the bag and goggles to his partner. Blake put the headgear on and began to fiddle with it while he absently stuffed french fries into his mouth.
"Ah dammit! I forgot to recharge the batteries! I can't see crap right now!"
"Grrr!"
Blake quickly pulled the dark and useless goggles off and looked towards the Slayer's house.
"Yeah, there she is! That's definetly the Slayer. Whoa! She looks HOT. But who's that guy with her? I can't make him out." Blake pulled out the picture that Mortain had given him and inspected it, glancing quickly back at the couple that was coming out of the Slayer's house. "If he would just turn around I could tell for sure. What do you think Bob? Is it him?"
"Grrr," came his partner's uncertain growl.
"I don't know either. Hey, wait! He just looked this way when he was getting in his car. That's him! That's gotta be him!" Blake quickly tossed aside the bag of fries in his lap and reached down for the ignition.
"Grrr!"
"I know they're taking off! Shut up! I'm trying to find the keys! There they are!" Blake slid the keys in the ignition and tried to start the engine. It cough and sputtered the first few times then finally turned over. Blake revved the engine to life while Bob anxiously pointed further down the street where their quarry was driving away with the Slayer in the passenger's seat.
"It's okay, Bob. We've got them now!"
As the van began to pull away it suddenly jerked and stopped. A loud bang sounded a second later from the rear. At first Blake thought they were being fired upon. His mind began racing through all the enemies he and Bob had accumulated through their adventures (read assasinations) and realized that a lot of people wanted them dead. But he quickly put them all aside when he realized that it not been a gun shot but the sound of an exploding tire.
"What the hell was that?!" Blake exclaimed as he looked out the window at the rear left tire. The rubber was exploded and torn and was certainly going to have to be replaced. No fix-a-flat for this one. "Well, at least we have a spare in the back," he reassured his partner when another loud bang sounded from the other side of the van. Blake opened his door and raced around the vehicle, while Bob opened the side door. Sure enough, the right rear tire was inexplicably blown out as well. Blake bent down to inspect it while Bob was growling loudly and pointing off towards the end of the street.
"What is it?" Blake looked in the direction of Bob's giant stone finger to see a dog fleeing down the street. "What's wrong? Dog got scared by the noise and it's running home. What about it?"
"Grrr! Grrr!"
"You think-you think that's HIS dog? And you think that it just used out two rear tires as chew toys?"
The dog had stopped it's flight and turned around at the end of the block to regard the two partners. It stood there staring intently at them as a low growl began in its throat. Its hackles rose up as its growl became louder and louder.
"You know Bob, I think you might be right. Is that thing's eyes glowing?"
Electrical discharges began to play around the dog's body and it's eyes began to glow white. It slowly began to advance upon them. Bob stretched out his claws and let out a deep challenging growl of his own.
"No Bob! We're not going to fight this thing!" Blake reached into the open van and drew forth a long rifle wrapped in cloth. "You pick your battles carefully and this is not one we have to fight. Time for a strategic retreat. Bob, you know what that means."
Bob growled in disappointment and the dog began to charge them. Bob scooped up his partner in his arms and spread his mighty wings out. With a few quick beats they took off into the air just as the glowing canine leaped at them. His teeth just barely missed Bob's stone foot. With Blake in his arms the giant stone gargoyle flew off into the deepening night sky leaving the snarling dog below on the street.
"There's gotta be some kind of ordinance against letting your dog run around glowing."
* * *
Eric and Buffy walked arm in arm down the street towards the theater. Parking was hard to find nearby so Eric had been forced to park further away than usual. The crowds were swarming around the theater that Friday night but the street they had parked on was relatively quiet and deserted. A few people passed them but for the most part they had the street to themselves.
They had had a wonderful dinner, Eric introducing her to the restaurant he and his parents had went to regularly when he lived here. The food had been delicious and they had laughed together all through dinner. The more time she spent with him, the more she came to care for him. There hands had brushed numerous times during the meal and finally she had reached out and laid her hand over his. She remembered the way he had looked at her then, a look of wonder and relief washing over his face that she would let him hold her hand.
He had mentioned that he had run into Xander the other day and that the young man, while not hostile, had seemed worried that they were dating.
"It's just his gut reaction anytime I start going out with someone new," she had assured him. "Which isn't such a bad thing since almost everytime they've turned out to be murdering bastards in the end."
"Figuraively speaking you mean," Eric asked her.
"Uh, yeah. Figuratively speaking. Of course."
She reveled in her closeness to him now, snuggling up against him as they walked. She listened to him speak of his first days at college
after she had regaled him with her abreiviated and edited tales of her time at Sunnydale High. 'Heavily edited tales,' Buffy smiled to herself.
"So anyway, I'm running up to my first class," Eric continued with his story. "You gotta remember, this is like my second day there. I come running up with Max in tow and the teacher's giving me this look. And I'm trying to think of some kind of excuse, because she's just not going to believe what really happened. So there I am in my English class, a hundred other students looking at me standing there with my dog and the teacher's looking at me like I'm crazy. So I look up at all the other students, I look over at Max, and then I look back at the teacher. And then I say to her, 'Sorry I'm late, but Max had to-hey. Buffy? What's wrong?"
She suddenly stopped in her tracks staring at him in shock. She felt as if her whole world were coming apart around her. The warm blanket of love and security she had carefully woven around herself this last week with Eric slowly began to unravel letting in the dark winds of betrayal and despair.
"What did you just say?" she asked him quietly, her voice empty of emotion.
"Buffy, I'm telling you my funniest college story and you're not even listening. I said to her, "Sorry I'm late, but Max had to-"
"That's what I thought you said," she cut him off with a whisper. She could feel the empty hollow of her heart yawning wide. She looked up at the man she had begun to trust with her heart to find him staring at her, perplexed.
"Buffy, are you okay?"
At his words she began to feel the rising heat of anger. How could he continue with this masquerade now that she had obviously seen through it? And what had he hoped to gain by using her this way? What possible motive could he have had for wanting her to fall in love with him?
It was his words that tipped her off. The same words he had used twice before. And the same voice, though she had not recognized it until now. Twice before in a different guise he had said to her, "Sorry I'm late." Both times he had come to her rescue, saving her life, and even the life of her friend. But what right did this man have to play with her emotions like this?
"How could you do this to me?" she asked of him, her voice only a whisper at first but growing with intensity. "How could you lie to me, Eric? Or should I call you 'The Dragon?'"
"Buffy?" Eric was dumbfounded at her sudden change. "Buffy, I'm sorry. Have I done something wrong? What did I do?"
"Did you think I wouldn't find out? Did you?! Or what? Did you picture me as Lois Lane to your Superman? Huh? Was that your plan? Well let's get something straight: I don't do the brain dead damsel in distress gig! I can't believe you did this to me! Why didn't you just come out with it in the first place and tell me who you are? I mean, it's not like I don't understand the whole secret identity thing. But you lied to me. You made me care about you. Hell, you almost made me love you! But you can bet that's over now mister. Dammit! I hate you! You were supposed to be normal! Or at the very least, you were supposed to be honest."
"Buffy I don't know what you're talking about," Eric tried to explain to her, surprised and hurt at the vehemence in her voice. "But if you'll just tell me what I've-"
"Stop it! I know who you are now! You're the Dragon. The netherworld Sunnydale, the gargoyle and the assasin? I know who you-!" Buffy blood froze for an instant as her Slayer instincts came to the foreground. She could sense vampires nearby and there were several of them. In fact they were coming right towards her and Eric.
"We've got a problem," she informed Eric as she dug in her small purse for a stake.
"I'll say. Look, I don't know what's going on but, maybe we should talk about this."
"There's a group of vampires coming this way; about six of them I think."
Eric looked at her with a disbelieving expression on his face. "Alright, let's just forget about the movie. You wanna go get some coffee or something? If you want I'll-I'll take you home but I'd really like to understand what's going-"
"Here they come."
From down the street three men were walking down the street, their faces vamped out and snarling. From the opposite direction, two female vampires and a male were approaching, cutting off Eric and Buffy's means of escape.
"Yo, Slayer!" one of the vampires yelled to her. "We'll uh-we'll let you leave this time but we want your boyfriend there! Give him up and uh-maybe we'll like let you live or something."
Eric looked around in shock and fear at the approaching thugs and pushed Buffy behind him, trying to shield her.
"Buffy, get out of here," Eric told her desperately. "I'll hold them off while you run and get help. Just don't look back, alright?"
Buffy pushed Eric aside angrily. "What is up with you? I told you
I am not your Lois Lane! I'm not the brain dead bimbo you get to save. I'm the Slayer! You can take the demon dogs, and the gargoyles, and the gun happy assassins, but the vampires are mine, get it?! This is my job! Now turn into your armor guy thing, get out your sword, and let's go to work!"
"Buffy, it'll be okay! Just run! Don't worry about me!" Eric was becoming frantic as the vampires came closer.
"We just want your boyfriend, Slayer! Nobody else has to get hurt. He's been giving off some kinda weird aura that's scaring the crap out of our lesser minions and we're here to put a stop to all that. So back off unless you want to get sucked dry."
Buffy drew forth a second stake from her bag and readied it in her hand. "How about a sucking chest wound ugly?" She threw the stake from her hand directly at the vampire's chest, peircing his heart. He combusted a few moments later showering his comrades with dust. His partners took their cue from his death and charged the Slayer and her date. Buffy met the two head on leaving Eric to handle the other three.
'If he can handle an army of demon dogs, he can fight off a couple of vampires,' Buffy reasoned to herself.
Eric stood in shock at the spot where the first vampire had exploded and could not believe his eyes. Some guy had just exploded! And his date had thrown a wooden stake into the guy's heart just a second before! This just wasn't happening! Except that it was, because a guy and two very ugly girls had just roughly grabbed him from behind. He reflexively tried to fight them off and he landed a lucky punch on one of the women, knocking her away. But the other two were inhumanly strong and one of them was moving in to bite his neck with a pair of fake plastic vampire teeth. Or at least Eric hoped they were fake.
* * *
From a roof top not far away, Blake and Bob surveyed the scene on the street. They had searched through the city for the better part of an hour, looking for the car they had seen pulling away from the Slayer's home. Finally they had spotted it and the occupants parking not far from the theater and getting out. Blake had ordered his flying gargoyle companion to set them down on a nearby rooftop from where he could set up a good firing position with his rifle. As he had finished readying the scope, a group of vampires had happened on the scene apparently hunting for the same prey.
"Looks like these guys might do our job for us, huh Bob?"
"Grrr," his partner growled his assent.
Still, Blake tried to line up his shot on the young man who
matched the picture in the photograph that their new mysterious employer had given them. Just as he had the aiming recticle line up perfectly with the young man's heart, one of the vampires had stepped into his line of fire, ruining his shot.
"Damn vampires. Always ruining everything."
* * *
Eric watched in horror as one of the thugs moved to bite into his jugular. With a strenght born of fear and desperation he kicked out at the man, knocking him away. He turned to try and deal with the woman that was holding him but he looked just in time to see her fist smashing into his face knocking him out cold. As he slumped down to the street slipping into unconciousness, the only thing he could think of was that he had let Buffy down.
She staked one of the vampires she was facing and looked to see how Eric was faring. She had to admit, she was almost looking forward to seeing him in his armor with his sword. His movements were always so fluid and graceful yet deadly. She was stunned to see her heroic figure cold cocked by a vampire chic. Buffy watched as Eric staggered back and fell to the ground.
"Oh my God. What have I done?"
As the three vampires clustered over Eric's body moving in for the kill, her own remaining vamp took a swing at her. She deftly dodged his attack and plunged her stake into his heart. Not even waiting to see him combust, she raced over to Eric. She leapt high into the air, kicking out with both legs and knocking two of the vampires away while she crashed bodily into the third one. In the ensuing scuffle, she plunged her stake into the vampire. She was still struggling to untangle herself when the vampire exploded blanketing her in dust. The other two were just getting up as Buffy came at them again. She ducked one of their punches and kicked the other one in the stomach. With that vampire stunned for the moment, she plunged her stake into the other one. Just as the final vampire was recovering and about to pounce upon her, she ducked low and thrust out her stake impaling him upon it. The two vampires combusted in quick succession leaving Buffy standing alone on the quiet street.
She quickly raced over to Eric, cradling his bleeding head in her lap.
"Eric! Eric wake up! I'm the one who gets to beat the crap out of you, moron! Wake up!"
In front of her, a bright glowing light began to coalesce. It shimmered and grew in size until a vaguely humaniod shape began to appear in the light. It quickly faded, and in it's place stood the
armored knight with his sword looking down upon her as she cradled Eric's head. Buffy looked back up at him, and then down at the young man's bloodied face. "Oh boy," she sighed.
"There's more of them coming," the voice came from behind the visored helmet. "About ten or so. They are coming up through the sewers."
At hearing the stranger's voice she wondered how she could ever have mistaken Eric's voice for this man's. There were some similarities but this man's was much deeper, older, more mature.
'I just accused my boyfriend of being some kind of supernatural swordsman. Great, Summers.'
She gently set Eric's head down on the pavement and got to her feet just as the first manhole cover opened and more vampires began to pour out onto the street behind her. She hefted her stake, still looking at the armored knight.
"You get half, I get half?" she asked him nonchalantly.
"Seems fair," he replied.
Another manhole cover lifted and more vampires came running out on to the street. With a smile, Buffy turned and rushed the first group while the knight held up his sword in one hand and began to expel bolts of energy from his other hand. Buffy fought off her vampires with punches and kicks, staking them when she could. The knight harried his group with blasts of energy wounding some while he decapited others with his sword. When he was finished he came back to the ones he had blasted and finished them off. He decapitated the last vampire just as Buffy staked her final opponent. The evening breeze blew the accumulation of dust around through the air while the two victors turned to regard eachother in the quiet that followed.
"This is starting to be a habit," Buffy spoke breaking the silence.
"We seem to make a good team," he replied to her.
From the sidewalk where he lay, Eric began to moan and stir. Buffy rushed over to him, fretfully brushing the bloodsoaked hair away from his face.
"Will he be okay?" the knight asked her from a few feet away.
"I think so. He's just waking up."
"... I have to go now."
"I kind of figured you were going to say that." Buffy looked up
from Eric's face into the glowing eye slit of the armored knight. He nodded to her then he began to glow once more. When the light began to fade he disappeared as well until even the glowing light had vanished. In her arms, Eric moaned and his eyes fluttered open.
"Are-are you okay, Buffy," he asked her weakly.
"Yeah, I'm okay," as she laughed a little at his worry for her. "Um, a car drove by and scared those creeps off. They won't be back, I don't think. How are you feeling?"
He slowly sat up rubbing the growing welt on his head. The bleeding had stopped and she saw that he was noticably less pale.
"I'm okay, I guess. Some hero I turned out to be. Wait. Buffy, did you throw a-? Did that guy-? I must have gotten hit harder than I thought." He slowly stood up as Buffy helped him to his feet."
"You did great," she reassured him. "Besides, it's my fault you got hurt. I should have... I shouldn't have... You did great, Eric." She moved close to him and reached her arms around his neck. She brought her lips to his and kissed him softly. They stayed that way for a few moments until Eric broke it off and looked down at her perplexedly.
"Were you mad at me just before all that happened? Weren't you yelling at me about something?"
"What are talking about?" Buffy asked him innocently.
"Oh well. That girl must have really hit me hard. That's the worst part. It was a girl that knocked me out. Kind of hard on the ego there."
"No, it wasn't a girl. It was a big bruiser of a guy that hit you, don't you remember?"
"It was?"
"Yeah, of course it was. C'mon now. Let's go get you cleaned up and maybe we'll still have enough time to see the movie. Okay?"
"Alright."
Buffy looked up into his eyes once more and found the burgeoning love she had felt for him still intact. She took his arm once more and they began walking down the street.
"Wait, I remember you saying something about loving me."
"They must have hit you harder than I thought," she smiled at him.
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