Stranger In My House
by Shyfox
Dancing With The Devil
[reviews]
*****
Chapter Four: Dancing with the devil
"Yahtzee!" Buffy cried excitedly, as she saw the die flip over landing on a one, making a total of five.
"Again?" Xander said, looking bug-eyed at the evidence of the dice sitting there. "I think she's cheating. Nobody gets three yahtzees in a row!" He protested, vehemently. He thought it was unfair for her to get three, especially since he hadn't gotten a single one yet.
"Maybe the dice are rigged?" Oz shrugged, nonchalently.
"Beginner's luck?" Buffy offered, not wanting her friends to be mad at her.
"Hey, you don't suppose she's unconsciously using some of that famed Slayer strength, do ya?" He whispered, recieving a hearty kick under the table for his trouble. "Ow." He rubbed at the spot, noticing the warning look in Willow's vibrant eyes.
"Xander, Stop it!" She mouthed in his direction, and he held his hands up in suplication.
"Okay...okay. I was just asking."
"Well...don't."
Buffy noticed the subtle feuding going on between the two, but she wasn't at all sure about the cause. "Well, I think we're all pretty much Yatzee'd out. What do you guys want to do now?"
The three friends looked at each other for a moment, before Oz came up with an idea. "Think she's up for a round at the Bronze?"
"Uhhh...well...I...really don't think that's a good idea." Willow hedged. Who knew what kind of a crowd would be there. A place packed to the brim with teenagers, it was also a place where vampires were prone to go prowling for an unsuspecting bite to eat.
"What's the Bronze?" Buffy asked, peering back and forth between her friends wishing somebody would drop her a clue.
"It's this really cool..." Xander started.
"Club." Oz, joined in.
"Which I really don't think you'd want to go to." Willow insisted, trying to keep the other's from inticing her too much.
"Why not?" Buffy asked, and now Willow was stuck. What could she really say? The place gets visited by bloodthirsty vampires, which Buffy had been born and destined to fight?
"It's uh...loud...and...and way too noisy. And it's usually pretty packed with...with...loud...a-and boisterous teenagers. I mean...we're in college now. Do we really want to hang out with a bunch of teenagers?" Willow asked, desperately, in between shooting baleful glares at her two male friends, who weren't helping her in the least, at least in her opinion.
"Hmmm, loud music...dancing...lots of people? Sounds like my kind of place, actually." Buffy said glibly, finding herself growing more intrigued about the place the longer Willow talked about it. The red-head sighed in defeat, knowing that when her wife got that look in her eyes, that excited, 'I'm going to take on the world' look, there was no holding her back. She nodded her head wearily, vowing to get even with her two best 'pals' later.
"Okay...but let's try not to stay out too late, okay? We don't want to wear you out, Buffy." Feeling a little bit like a Mother hen as she said it, but then she was going to be a mother, so she guessed that she came by it naturally.
"Okay...mom." Buffy grinned, then blinked when Willow seemed to freeze at that, and wondered what the red-head was thinking as they eyed each other warily for a moment.
After Buffy went to change into some more comfortable Bronzing clothes, Willow turned to the guys, her resolve face firmly in place, and her green eyes more serious than they had ever been. "If she gets hurt tonight, or even one vamp tries to make a move on her, I'll stake them first, and beat you over the head with a shovel after."
"Hey, don't worry, Will. We'll look after her." Xander said, Oz nodding in agreement. "It's just...she's been cooped up in here since she got out of the hospital. Don't you think she needs to get out a little?"
"Well...yeah. But...to the Bronze?" Willow still felt the need to protest their chosen hang out place. "Couldn't we go somewhere less...vampy?"
"Come on, Will. It's not like we said. 'Hey, let's go to Willy's.'" Xander protested. "I mean, it's not like there's that many 'no vamp' zones out there."
*****
"The moon is out and there's a chill tonight
C'mon and dance away the growing night.
Wave your hands in the air like you just don't care
Gonna get with the rhythm 'til the morning light.
You might think it's nice being all alone,
But, now I'm thinking that it's nice to be...
I should know better than to want to belong,
But the beat is so strong, I got to take it on.
Come on, come on, do it with me now.
Come on, come on, do it with me now.
Come on, come on, do it with me now.
If you want my love, you've got to drink the blood.
I want to dance with you.
I want you right next to me.
I want your soul and I'll give you what you need to be...
Pull you close I'll sniff your hair.
I'll keep you warm in the cold night air.
Just one kiss is what you need right now.
Just one kiss and I will show you how.
Just one kiss is what you need tonight.
To be dancing with the devil by the pale moon light.
-- Ancient Rap Diva
Moonlight shone in through the window, adding to the feeling the lighting in the Bronze created, and gave everything a somewhat gloomy look. Buffy shivered slightly with anticipation as she moved behind Willow into the club.
She wasn't sure what she'd expected the place to look like, but somehow she'd pictured it almost exactly as she was seeing it now. The crowd seemed to move and bend, allowing them passage through the thick throng of people, making way for the small group almost as if they were welcoming them in. She felt her heart beat starting to pound with the steady pulsing of the music, almost as if she and the beat were becoming one entity. It touched her deep inside, triggering something within her soul that she couldn't remember ever feeling before, but had a certain familiarity to it. She wondered if the place had become imprinted on her subconscious somehow, and then wondered how much time she'd actually spent in the dark, crowded club.
The hairs on the back of her neck were actually standing at attention as she scanned the dark interior, the sane part of her psyche wondering why she and her friends would choose to actually hang out here, while another part of her, a more intuitive side, reveled in the wild, dark emotions the place evoked. "So this is the Bronze." she said, her words being swallowed by the decibel level in the place.
"Come on, Buffy." Willow shouted above the noise, grabbing her hand instictively, not wanting to lose the blonde as they passed through the gyrating mob. The subtle gesture sent a shock through the blonde, who felt a sudden awareness as the warmth of her companion's hand spread throughout her entire body. Not wanting to call attention to the connection, for fear of losing it, she hastily followed the red-head's lead.
Willow spotted an unused table and made a bee-line for it, dragging her willing passenger along, while Xander and Oz took up the rear.
"Hey, who wants a drink?" Xander asked, once they had settled at the table. "Will?"
"Just water for me, Xander." Willow said quickly, trying to get the attention off herself.
"Okay, Oz?"
"Nothing for me. Thanks." Oz said, settling his forearms on the table while he perused the place steadily with his eyes, as if he was hunting for something. Which might not be so far from the truth, Xander reflected, not knowing what wolfy resources the guitar player still had at his disposal.
"Buff?"
*Beer. Beer Good. Beer Foamy.*
"Buff?" Xander asked again, trying to get the distracted Slayer's attention.
"Uh...sorry, Xand." Buffy said, blushing slightly. "I guess I'll have a beer." She wasn't really sure why she'd chosen that particular beverage, except it had seemed like a good idea at the time, but the looks she received made her wish she had ordered something else. "What?" She asked, innocently, wishing they'd stop looking at her like she'd murdered a cat or something just as atrocious.
"Nothing." Xander said quickly, jumping up from his seat. "I'll get them." Not wanting to be the one to stick his foot in his mouth, he was off and moving before he had a chance to say anything else.
Willow's concerned gaze fell over the Slayer like a dead weight. It wasn't so much the promise they had made that was making her uncomfortable about her friend having a beer, after all, it was understandable that Buffy in having completely forgotten about anything to do with the baby would have forgotten that as well. It was more the fact that Buffy hadn't been out of the hospital that long, and she didn't know what the beer would do to her system. Plus, it brought back too many Cave Slayer memories, and she didn't want her best friend devolving on the dance floor.
Willow gave her worry up as useless though, when Xander came back and Buffy took her first tentative sips. She watched as the blonde licked the suds off of quenched lips, having to physically rein in desire she wasn't supposed to be feeling, as she watched her drink.
"Not bad." Buffy said, finally, hearing the rough voice in the back of her head grunting in agreement.
She enjoyed sitting here, soaking up the atmosphere, but she was also getting restless. She wanted to be up, moving and grooving with the people on the dance floor. Her body felt strong, healthy and for the first time since leaving the hospital she didn't feel the oppresing weight of her amnesia coming down on her. She wanted to lose herself in the din and confusion all around her. "Come on, Will. Let's dance." She shouted over the sound, pulling a surprised Wiccan to her feet and started shimmying through the crowd, not bothering to stop and see if the men were following them or not.
Closing her eyes, Buffy began to move. It felt so natural to be here, so right, and as she continued to dance, she found her world narrowing until it was just her in this space, her and the redhead that danced awkwardly beside her, although she felt her loosening up the longer they danced.
Willow, for her part, didn't know whether to dance or flee. She was caught in a paradox of emotion. Part of her relished the contact, she hadn't danced with her wife since before the accident, and it felt familiar, if not a little strange, to be doing it now. On the other hand, it was that sense of the familiar that was giving her fits. A heat had always flared between them while dancing, and had led, on several occasions to potentially embarressing situations. She felt that heat now, in a part of her that just wanted to forget there was anything wrong between them, a part that wanted to forget all that had happened recently and just lose herself in her wife's arms. She held herself back, only because she knew the attention would not be welcomed by a wife that had forgotten all about them.
*****
Malevolent beings had a way of invading these four walls. Mingling with the youth of the small burg, bringing terror and torture to those that were unaware of the dangers. The person that had been trained to be aware of the dangers was gone, or as good as, and the creatures of the night had taken advantage of the situation, living the high life while the Slayer was out of commission.
It was understandable then that those forces of darkness were none too happy to see the hero return. One such force watched the dancing couple from the shadowy corners of the Bronze, taking interest in the proceedings, and smiling a deadly smile as a blonde head picked up as if finally becoming aware of the dangers that surrounded her.
"That's Ok, B. I've got a few surprises left in store for you. Paybacks a bitch."
*****
A tingling sense of awareness stole in on Buffy's idylic mood, a tickle creeping up in the back of her mind, causing goosebumps to rise on her skin and the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end.
Blue eyes opened warily and scanned the interior of the club, searching the darkened shadows and corners uneasily, trying to make out where this sense of danger was coming from. But she was unable to peirce the veil of darkness, which just made her apprehension grow.
Willow noticed the change in her wife's mood almost instantaneously, years of practice due to hanging out with a Vampire Slayer had honed her skills in telling when something was wrong. Due to Buffy's face and the way she was scanning her surroundings she could tell Buffy was picking up on something. 'Great. Just Great. The vampire's couldn't leave the Bronze alone for just one night?" She thought anxiously, looking around herself, although if Buffy couldn't tell where the danger was coming from, she doubted very much that she could.
"Buffy?" Willow tried to get the Slayer's attention as she came to a total stand still, her body going totally rigid.
Buffy felt her heart pounding heavily in her chest, could almost hear her breaths as she exhaled heavy puffs of air, fear and adrenaline coursing through her system as all of her instincts took over completely. She could hear Willow, as if from a distance, although the hand on her arm was what really got her attention, causing her to turn and look back at her friend.
Whether it was her intense fear acting up or the dim lighting of the Bronze, she was never quite sure, but for a split second Willow looked almost demonic. She blinked her eyes shut, then again, hoping to clear them of the heinous vision. When she looked again, she saw the concerned visage of her best friend staring back at her.
"Buffy...are you okay?" Willow asked, wondering what had set the Slayer off.
"Uh...yeah...maybe we should..." Buffy started to answer her, but the strange sensation still hadn't left her, and it was driving her to distraction. Willow gestured Xander and Oz over, worried that some of Buffy's more negative memories in this place were returning.
The sweat was starting to cool on her back, leaving icy tendrils of sensation on overly sensitive nerve endings. The sound of a breaking glass, no doubt caused by the clumsy handling of a bartender, caused Buffy to lift her gaze to the skylight in the ceiling where a half remembered image of creatures coming in through the roof ghosted over her vision in living color.
"Hey Buffster, you all right?" Xander asked as he approached the girls, noticing the wild look in the blue eyes right off. He felt his gut seize when she looked at him, noticing she was looking right through him as if she was seeing something else in his place.
Buffy had heard Xander's words, but they were being spoken by a Xander that no longer looked like the cool, happy go lucky friend she'd come to know. His eyes had taken on a wild, feral quality, and he was grinning at her like she was the main entre in tonight's menu. She shook her head, starting to back away from his maniacal grin, which in turn only made her friends follow her, concerned for her well being.
"Buffy." Oz said, moving in from her other side as if to stop her movement, but all Buffy saw when she looked at him, was a huge hairy creature with claws and fangs.
Willow was unable to take the fear she saw reflected from her love's eyes anymore and hastily moved forward to stop her wife's momentum. Unfortunately for her, Buffy was in another world all her own.
*****
"I'm bored." Willow said, truly looking bored, even as she stalked the rapidly retreating Slayer. Buffy backed into a wall of people, unable to move any more as the demonic version of her best friend sidled up to her, wrapping an arm around the terrified woman's neck. "You look like you could entertain a girl." The demon smiled, wickedly, showing a pair of pointy white teeth.
Buffy pulled away from the face that grew steadily closer to her own, but she was unable to dodge the determined visage. "Why don't you give us a kiss?" The vampire asked, licking her lips hungrily as she grinned before lunging at the Slayer's throat.
"Get off of me." Buffy said in a panic, pushing the vampire away from her as hard as she could, before dodging through the crowd, not looking behind her even as people gasped at the abrupt treatment, and ran out of the club as fast as she could.
*****
"Hey, Will. You okay?" Xander asked an obviously shaken Willow, helping her up from the floor and checking her over to make sure she wasn't hurt.
"Yeah." Willow said, her trembling. "But Buffy isn't. We've got to find her before anything bad happens."
*****