WARNING: This fic will include violence, torture, bondage, character death,
bloodplay, etc...
 

**********

Part 2

*****

A nasty frown had descended upon Xander?s face as he surveyed his room.
Somewhere, within the various piles of things collected over the years,
something was trilling at him. The sharp, high pitched noise had been repeating
incessantly for the past four minutes and Xander was just about to go
insane...-er.

?Dammit!?

The sound almost seemed to be echoing off the walls, but the vampire finally
located it?s source hidden behind a stack of comic books. It was a cell phone.
Why the hell would... Oh!

Xander?s frown morphed into an easy grin as he realized the only person who
could be calling him was the same one who given it to him. When he had yet
again refused to accompany Darla on her latest vacation, the vampiress had
presented him with a cell phone as a staying put present. And, with a threat of
letting Puppy go at him for a few hours if he didn?t keep it charged, Darla
patted him on the cheek and left for parts unknown, but probably a whole hell
of a lot better then Sunnydale.

Xander removed the phone from its charger, studied it for a moment, then
pressed the talk button. ?Hello??

?Darling! How is my sweetest Childe??

?Darla!? The younger vampire didn?t even try to keep the elation from his voice.
?How?s... where exactly are you now? Dru and Bleachboy still hanging around?
How?s the hunting? Terrorize any villages lately? Did you-?

?Xan, honey, I know it?s going to be incredibly trying for you, but shut your
mouth for a minute. This wasn?t exactly meant to be a social call. I need you do
to Mommy a favor.? Xander was slightly taken aback by the seriousness in her
voice. ?Watch your back.?

The frown returned. ?Any specific reason or just in general??

Darla paused a moment before answering. ?Evidently, Miss Edith was quite
chatty last night. Dru keeps ranting about how if her precious kitten isn?t
careful he?s going to be taken by the green men.?

?The green men? What?s a green man??

?How the hell am I supposed to know?? Darla snapped. ?I?m not loony. Just...
take care of yourself.?

Xander smirked. ?Yes Mother.?

?Don?t get pissy with me, boy. I said take care of yourself and I mean it.?

Xander sighed. ?Yes, *Sire*.?

?That?s better. Now, regal me with the latest news from good ole Sunnyhell.?

*****

This is not gonna be a simulation, or a training exercise.? Riley?s face was hard
as he addressed his team. ?This is the real deal. Mess up and you?re not cleaning
the head, you?re a corpse. Got it?? He waited for the nods of assent before he
continued. ?The main objective of this mission is to capture more specimens for
study, however, considering the large number of HSTs that we?ll be facing, the
Professor and I have decided that you will have the option to use lethal force,
if necessary.?

Forrest fought hard to keep his eyes focused on Riley and not rolling upwards.
It was painfully obvious who had been the driving force behind that little
change. Walsh didn?t give a damn about the men. All she wanted was more lab
rats. Forrest almost shuddered at the thought of what Riley might have had to...
do for the professor to get her to agree to something like that.

?However, this does not mean you can stake everything that growls at you.?
Cornfed eyes fell on an innocently blinking Forrest. ?Use your discretion, but
play it smart.?

Riley indicated for the men to open their dossier files. ?Now, our target is this
building. It used to be known as ?The Bronze?. It was a popular hangout for
teenagers until the vamps took it over.?

?Demon nightclub?? Forrest snorted. ?Man, this town?s got everything, doesn?t
it??

A few sparse chuckles were heard throughout the briefing room, but they died
under Riley?s glare. Once the others were, quieted his attention turned back to
Forrest, displeasure clearly written on his usually affable face. ?Anything else
you?d like to add, Agent Gates??

?No, Sir.?

Riley gave a silent prayer of thanks at the response. The last thing he need to
worry about was a confrontation with one of his own people. ?All right then.
We?re gonna be in two teams. One will go in through the front, the other the
back. We should have a pretty good element of surprise thing going on. These
creatures think they own this town. That they?re above humans. We can use that
to our advantage. Hit them hard, and fast.?

?Read over the files. Get some rest. We move out at twenty three hundred
hours.? He held up a hand before anyone could protest the time. ?I know, I
know, wouldn?t it be better to raid the place while the sun?s up? According to
our intelligence, very few vamps actually nest there during the day. Night is
when the place comes alive... so to speak.? He let his gaze travel over his men,
noting the various expressions on their faces, or in Graham?s case, the
comforting lack of any expression. ?Any questions? Okay, dismissed.?

**********

Xander stalked through the streets of Sunnydale, a sneer firmly fixed on his
face. He had wanted some time alone and had escaped from the Bronze through
the sewer tunnels for that express purpose - Willow hated the tunnels. But,
after only a few hours of freedom he was returning to the place he had come to
loathe.

The night had been a complete waste. He had never had such a disastrous hunt.
There had been no one on the streets! No one! No giggly hormonal teenagers, no
drunk off their ass homeless... It was deader then he was. Could it be? Did the
cattle finally look up and realize they were grazing outside a slaughterhouse?

Xander just knew something like this was going to happen. Humans might not be
the smartest species on the planet, but if you hit someone upside the head with
something long enough...

This, combined with his earlier talk with Darla just cemented the idea that had
been floating around his head for a while. It was time to move on. He?d pack a
light bag, politely wish the Master all his best, tell Willow to go suck on a
Chaos demon, and be on his way. Sunrise was still roughly five hours away. He
could be in L.A. in three... of course, to make that work he?d have to steal a car.
Good thing he was evil.

Xander stopped suddenly, all his plans disappearing as a lovely scent assaulted
his senses. His nostrils flared, trying to garner more of that wonderful smell.

Human. A fresh, healthy, regularly bathing, variety of human. Xander actually
felt his mouth begin to water as his ears strained to pick up the accompanying
heartbeat. Maybe the night wasn?t going to be a total wash after all.

Evidently one of the sheep hadn?t gotten the memo to be scared shitless. He
rounded the corner of a building and... there he was. Mmm, such a nice sheep,
too. All young, and muscular, and... heavily armed?

Xander blinked as he began to see beyond the initial bloodlust. Yes, the human
was young and well built, but it wasn?t the physique of a regular gym bunny. No,
that was the body of someone who was trained to fight for a living. And, his
clothes... At first glance, Xander had simply wrote them off as a by-product of
the severe lack of fashion sense that assaulted many human males in their
twenties. But, upon closer inspection, the vampire realized those drab clothes
were actually fatigues.

So, either a militia had decided that Montana had just gotten too touristy, or....
 

The military had come to Sunnydale.

Of course, he might have been on leave from that base outside town. But, that
certainly didn?t explain why he was caring a big gun, and... something else. The
soldier was periodically looking down at something in his left hand, then looking
back up to the buildings. And, he was slowly, but surely turning towards where
Xander was standing.

With a soft curse Xander ducked behind an abandoned car. He didn?t know why,
he just knew he had to get out of sight immediately.

This was a new game, a different game, and until he figured out the rules, the
vampire determined that discretion was the better part of surviving the night.

So, Xander hid behind the car, that tantalizing heartbeat echoing through his
ears.

*****

Graham frowned as his eyes slowly swept the street. There were no heat
signatures on his viewscreen. Nothing. Not even a rat, but... The Marine could
almost swear he felt someone was there. He moved to check the instrument in
his hand again, but before he could, Riley?s voice came over his earpiece.

?Miller, report.?

Graham pocketed his infra-red device and brought his tiny communicator up to
his mouth. ?Miller here, Sir.? His eyes glanced over the street again.
?Everything?s clear. No stragglers.?

?Good. Get into position.? Riley ordered. ?Let?s do this.?

**********