“What the hell was that?”  Sam Lawson paused when the odd sensation skittered across his nervous system.  This feeling was somehow vaguely familiar, yet one that he hadn’t experienced before.  Lawson probed the strange sensation for a few moments before it dawned on him that his Sire was calling him.  “What the hell does he want?”

Lawson still had two more years before he planned on checking up on his neglectful Sire.  He noticed during the last couple of visits where he followed Angel for a week or two that the older vampire was clearly depressed.  He shuddered at the thought of munching on rats.  Lawson was tempted to step out of the shadows to help.  It was only his own anger over his abandonment that stayed his actions.

Moments later another sensation similar to Angel’s traveled across Lawson’s mind.  This one wasn’t as familiar as his Sire’s, but he recognized it anyway.  In that moment Lawson realized the animosity between Angel and the one called Spike was more than two master vamps competing for territory.

Spike and Angel were family!

His family!

“This bears looking into,” Lawson muttered.  Nothing tied him to his current residence.  It was a place to sleep at best.  “I’ll start for Los Angeles after a good day’s sleep.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Willow stood in the bathroom where she studied herself in the mirror.  What on earth was wrong with her?  Now that she had time to think rather than react, she wondered if she was some kind of sick pervert.  She just got Tara back, and here she was thinking about adding another person to their relationship.

Tara appeared in the doorway.  “Everything okay, baby?” she asked in a soft voice.

“Yeah, I am,” Willow replied rather quickly.  She gave Tara a bright smile.  “It’s just been a long day, you know.  It’s not every day a girl finds out she has the potential to bring about the apocalypse.”

Tara reached out to cup Willow’s cheek.  “That isn’t gonna happen this time.”  She leaned in for a kiss.  When she pulled away, she whispered, “Did you feel the connection with Wesley as strongly as I did?”

Willow blushed until her cheeks matched her hair.  “I … uh … maybe.”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Tara assured her girlfriend.  “Triads are really good when a magic user needs to balance his or her power.”

“You mean, me, don’t you?  The one that needs balance?”

Tara dipped her head, and she peered at Willow through her hair.  “Power’s not a problem.  “You’ve got that in spades.  Balance and control are a lot harder to maintain.”

“Wesley’s so different than he was before,” Willow replied.  “When he was in Sunnydale before he was so nerdy and repressed, but now he’s completely different.”

“Sounds like somebody else I know,” Tara grinned slyly.  She led Willow into the bedroom.

“I can’t even believe I’m contemplating this,” Willow muttered.  She sat down on the bed, and she put her hands on her face.  “How on earth are we gonna approach him?”

Tara’s grin grew.  “I don’t think that’ll be a problem, baby.  He definitely showed his interest.”

“If you’re sure,” Willow’s muffled voice was filled with skepticism.

“I am, but for now…”  Tara joined Willow on the bed where she pulled the redhead’s hands away from her face.  “Can you just be kissing me?”

Willow closed the distance between herself and Tara.  As their lips met, they fell back onto the cool sheets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Buffy toweled her off her hair.  She was naked from her shower when she entered the bedroom.  “I’m really sorry about how I treated you before, Spike.”

“You apologize one more time, Slayer, and I’m putting you over my knee.”  Spike looked up at his lady love.  His eyes filled with lust when he saw her nude body.

“Promises, promises.”  Buffy threw the towel at the vampire.  “We both know that you’re the willing slave not me.  If anyone is going to end up over somebody’s knee, it’ll be you.”

Spike caught the towel with one hand while he chuckled.  “You’re probably right.  Come to bed, luv.  We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

“I know.  I’ve never hired a boat before.”  Buffy wrinkled her nose.  “Why on earth did Angel have to get himself dropped in the ocean?”

“You’ll figure it out later,” Spike assured Buffy.  He opened his arms in welcome when she crawled into the bed next to him.  “Today was a long day too.”

Buffy smiled up into Spike’s face.  “Day’s gonna be a little bit longer.”  She placed her hand behind Spike’s neck, and she pulled his face down to hers.

“Whatcha got in mind, Slayer?” Spike managed to whisper before their mouths met in a tender, loving kiss.  He buried one hand in Buffy’s hair, and he used his body to push her onto her back.

Buffy sighed against Spike’s lips as he covered her form with his heavier masculine one.  She dragged her lips from his, and she sighed again when his cool, aggressive lips glided down her jaw line to her throat.  “Make love to me, Spike,” she pleaded.

Spike growled at the request.  “That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”  He skimmed one hand down Buffy’s side to grasp her thigh.  Spike pulled her leg to give him more room to settle between Buffy’s legs.

Buffy reached between her body and Spike’s to unzip his pants.  He’d unbuckled and unbuttoned them before lying down while she was bathing.  She used both hands to push the jeans down before she grasped the firm globes of his ass with lusty fingers.  Squeezing hard with no worry about bruising him, she murmured, “Mine.  All mine.”

Spike let out a husky, lust filled chuckle that reverberated through Buffy’s body.  “Yours, Slayer.  I’ve been for a long time now.”  His lips traveled down her neck to her chest.

Buffy let out an incoherent bleat of joy when Spike’s mouth found her breasts.  Her pelvis lifted in the air when his mouth covered one aching nipple while nimble fingers fondled the other hardened crest.  She could feel the juices ooze from her throbbing pussy.

“Fuck, Slayer.  You’re quite hot and horny, aren’t you?”  Spike spoke into Buffy’s flesh.  He doubled his assault on her tender breasts.

“For you, Spike.”  Buffy’s words came out as ragged moans.  “Only you.”

After a few moments, Spike continued his journey south.  He enjoyed making Buffy squirm when he licked and nibbled at her ticklish ribs.

“Stop.  Don’t tickle me,” Buffy said between giggles.  She let out a sigh of relief when Spike’s lips left the ribs to move down to her bellybutton.

After Spike rimmed Buffy’s bellybutton with his tongue, he looked up into her face.  With a cheeky grin, he made a suggestion.  “You should get this pierced, luv.  It’d be so sexy.”

Buffy raised an eyebrow.  “I always figured that you’d prefer nipple or clit piercings.”

“Speaking of clits, I know of one that’s been severely neglected.”  Spike moved to where his face was level with Buffy’s well trimmed mound.  He curled his arms around her outer thighs to open her secret spot for his perusal.  “Bet I can make you come so fast.”

Buffy whimpered when Spike used his fingers to open up and expose her sex to his relentless gaze.  It was enough to escalate her arousal.  Her moans grew louder when he blew cool air on her heated flesh.  Unsure of what to do with her hands, she used them to pluck and tug at her aching nipples.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Giles felt his jaw drop.  “Show me!” he demanded.

Reggie nodded his assent.  He pushed past his old friend to enter Giles’ living quarters.  In the dining room he placed the cloth covered bundle on the table while he let his book bag fall to the floor with a thud.

Giles looked out the door to make sure nobody was eavesdropping before he closed the door and locked it up tight.  He followed Reggie into the flat where he grabbed a decanter of whiskey and two glasses before joining the other Watcher in the dining room.  Giles poured both himself and Reggie a shot before he reiterated his demand.  “Show me, Reg.”

“Right.”  Reggie unfolded the cloth from around his most prized possession.  “As you know, you bought this book along with a Watcher’s diary a few years ago.  After that we were able to link it to The Apotropaic Prophecies.”

“I thought your translations yielded very little.”  Giles took a drink.

Reggie nodded.  “You’re correct.  The only translation that I was able to make was the title, which was Slayer Sultana.  That changed last May about the time when Glorificus’ apocalypse was thwarted.”

“When Buffy died,” Giles murmured.  He hated thinking about that dark, desolate time of his and all of the other Scoobies’ lives.  Even Spike had been a broken shadow of his former self, even worse than after the chip had been placed in his brain.

Reggie gave Giles a startled look.  “You never reported that.”

“What’s the point?” Giles lifted his glass in a toast.  “The Slayer line obviously runs through Faith now.”

“Oh, well, that explains much.”

“How so?”

Reggie leaned over to pull a set of scrolls out of his book bag.  He placed them on the table next to the tome.  Unrolling the first parchment, he pointed to a symbol that was identical both in the book and the scroll.  “I believe this is the symbol of the Immortal Guardians.”

“What makes you think Buffy is this Immortal Guardian?”

“Here!  Read this!”  Reggie pointed to a particular passage.  He moved over to let Giles in closer to the precious manuscript.  “It’s my firm belief that the prophecies only reveal what is needed when the time is right.  Whatever alignments that would have created a Slayer Sultana have now passed.”

Giles adjusted his glasses to let him read the words, “It will come to be that the Slayer who is no longer the Slayer and her vampire champion will have the means to stop the greatest evil the world has ever known.”  He looked up at Reggie.

“That certainly fits what you described to me over the phone, Rupert.  Your Slayer is no longer the Slayer, she’s involved with a vampire, and the First Evil is afoot.”

Giles sat down in a chair.  “It certainly fits the prophecy, but what does it mean?  What means do this Slayer and her vampire have to defeat the First Evil?”

Reggie shrugged, unable to answer his fellow Watcher’s question.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

THE NEXT MORNING

Xander stared at himself in the mirror.  He still couldn’t believe he was a woman now.  Not that he was an unattractive woman, mind you, but he’d been a man for twenty one years.  Why the hell had he thought a drink with Warren was a good thing?

“I need to pop in to talk to Buffy.”  Anya’s voice drifted through the closed bathroom door.  “You be a good girl while I’m gone, Xander, and we’ll play a nice game when I get back.”

Xander shuddered at the thought of playing one of Anya’s games.  He just couldn’t decide if it was a shudder of pain or anticipation.

“Don’t forget to call in to work.”  A pop marked Anya’s departure.

Xander pulled his robe on, unlocked the door, and shuffled towards the phone.  He dialed up the boss’ number.  Tito answered on the third ring.  “Harris, we have a couple big contracts to bid today.  You better not be late.”

Xander cleared his throat, and then he lowered his voice.  “Sorry, Tito, I seem to have caught a cold.”  When Tito was quiet for longer than necessary, Xander started to worry.

Tito finally spoke, his voice filled with laughter.  “You got turned into a woman.”  The construction worker let out a bark of mirth.  “Here I thought Richard was just too sloshed to know what he was talking about, but he wasn’t.”

“Weirder things have happened,” Xander replied.  “It’s Sunnydale, after all.”  Tito had been at the Wedding That Sunk like a Rock.  It was obvious that the other man hadn’t been surprised by the oddness of some of the guests.

Finally Tito said, “Doesn’t matter, Harris.  Doll yourself up.  We need you for the negotiations.  You’re the only one who knows all the details.”

“But…”

“Don’t be late, Harris.”  Tito hung up without saying good-bye.

“Fuck!” Xander growled prettily while he hung up the phone.