As they read, the girl began to cry, by the end of the letter she was sobbing uncontrollably. The third of the group let the tears fall silently. Taking a deep breath he turned around, noticing the girl was wrapped in the embrace of the other, who was staring at him with a look of total helplessness.
Clutching the envelope, he poured the remainder of it’s contents onto the table. The girl turned to see what they were.
"So, tonight’s the night?" Willow asked Buffy.
"Yup." Buffy picked up one of the stakes that had been sitting on the table, inspected it and threw it… WACK, the stake was now embedded in the wall. "Tonight’s the night Angel pays for what he’s done. For the pain he’s brought to those I care about." She turned back to the table, picked up the crossbow and began to examine it. She loaded an arrow and aimed at the wall. "Tonight…" BANG…the arrow flew across the room and split the stake it half. Buffy looked at the crossbow, with a satisfied smile. "Angel is going down."
As Buffy neared the cemetery, she pulled a stake from the sleeve of her leather jacket. Holding the crossbow against her left thigh, she readied the stake in her right hand. ‘The crossbow is for Angel.’ She thought. ‘Why stake him, when I can send an arrow right through him….Flying fatality.’ A wicked grin spread across her face. Her smile grew as she noticed two vampires, off to her left. "Oh goodie…looks like my practice dummies just arrived." Buffy said quietly. Setting the crossbow on the ground she leaned against a grave stone and cleared her throat, loudly. Almost immediately the two vamps were advancing towards her. In a matter of minutes Buffy had staked them. She dusted herself off with a pout. "How unfun of them…when are the undead gonna learn to fight…you’d think they’d have thought of that by now."
"Very good…I must say, you haven’t lost your touch…." Buffy whirled around, stake ready. Angel was leaning against a tree, clapping his hands. "I see you were in the mood for more of a fight, though."
"Nah…I was only warming up…getting ready for you." She twirled the stake between her fingers. "Although that won’t be much of a challenge either!"
"We’ll see…not tonight though." Angel smirked.
"Ah, you’re not chickening out on me now, are you?"
"Now would I disappoint you?" Angel smiled.
"Well…" Buffy laughed.
"I’ll come for you when you least expect it…I just love thrill of the hunt."
"Too bad you’re the hunted, not the hunter. Here’s a piece of advice…Don’t turn your back on me Angel. You just might find a stake sticking through it one of these days!"
"Feisty tonight, aren’t we…I did always love that about you. Be in touch…Lover." Angel turned and began to stroll away. Buffy stepped on the edge of the crossbow, flipping it into her hand. She raised it and aimed.
"I warned you not to do that!" she yelled as the arrow flew through the air, hitting Angel in the shoulder. Lowering the crossbow, Buffy glared at Angel. "Next time, it won’t be your shoulder I’ll be aiming for!"
Angel turned, ripped the arrow from his shoulder and tossed it to the ground. "Next time there won’t be any time for you to aim at anything. After all it’s a little to do much of anything when you’re being drained of all your blood…well except die that is!" Angel laughed as he disappeared into the night.
"Damn…" Buffy muttered under her breath as she entered the Bronze. Scanning the room she quickly spotted the table where her friends were sitting. Walking towards them she soon realized they were engaged in an in-depth conversation, about what she wasn’t sure.
"That’s what I’m telling you." Willow exclaimed.
"You’re sure, you understood what she was saying?"
"God Xander, she’s not stupid. Give her a little credit will you?" Cordelia poked Xander in the ribs as she spoke.
"Exactly how many ways do you think there are to interpret ‘Tonight, Angel is going down’? It wasn’t really meant as a figure of speech."
Buffy sat in the empty seat between Willow and Cordelia and casually joined the conversation. "Well off the top of my head, I can think of at least two ways." Willow and Cordelia jumped, Xander on the other hand gave her a confused look. "You see, there’s the way Willow took it…meaning I was going out tonight to kill Angel. Then there’s the way it actually went down."
"Okay, I give…what did happen?" Xander asked.
"The soulless bastard wouldn’t fight me." Buffy reached for Willow’s glass, who in return pushed it towards Buffy. She took a sip and continued. The start of a smile spreading across her lips. "On the up side, I did manage to shoot an arrow through his shoulder as he walked away."
Xander patted her on the shoulder. "That’s my Buf-ster, shoot him in the back!" They all groaned. "What?" Xander asked shrugging.
In the shadows Angel stood, watching silently. "Soon Buffy…Soon." He whispered.