She drank quickly, wishing to finish her meal as soon as possible. In ten years she had never enjoyed her dinner less. Yet it was strangely erotic with the rusty warm liquid running down her throat...like bitter chocolate.

Yes, this was the moment she had dreamed of for countless days and nights. Sharing a meal with her long-lost beloved.

He hadn't wanted to come and pleaded so hard to be released from their engagement. Said he didn't want to be together with her.

Xander was a family man now (Buffy had seen to that.) Well, he _had_ been a family man, but Buffy couldn't hide them forever. She was the one who had taken away her Beloved...on the day that they were to marry. Buffy had SENT her away; told her that Xander couldn't possibly marry her. Buffy had loved Xander far too much to "sacrifice" him to a monster.

What else could Cordelia do but leave?

The Bitch hadn't even told him the truth about what happened that day; kept weaving lies to end all her hopes that maybe Xander would come after her so they could be together again...but Buffy forced him away. She even married him; bore his children. All for the sake of keeping Cordelia away! It had worked, of course; she'd managed to thwart Cordelia for years.

Well, that didn't matter now. In the end _Cordelia_ had triumphed and Buffy had fallen. That was the Slayer's one weakness; she couldn't separate a demon from a face. It was funny; even at the end Buffy couldn't separate the two.

"Please," she had begged. "He's finally happy now. Don't hurt him. He doesn't need you...he wouldn't understand if you came back."

But Buffy was the one that didn't understand. She should have killed Cordelia years ago if she wanted to protect Xander.

Cordelia finished drinking at last and with a violently swift motion slashed open her left wrist. "Oh, Xander. Now we can be together as we should have been ten years ago."

Her blood trickled into his mouth, drowning his lips in deadly crimson.

"Forever."