Buffy slipped into the kitchen, her mind whirling in confusion. She leaned against the wall and put a shaky hand to her forehead. To her own touch, she felt flushed and she struggled to control her rapid heartbeat.

She could still feel the heat of the vampire's gaze on her. His deep, black eyes had fastened on hers and conveyed an emotion she hadn't seen in years.

Love.

He looked at her with naked yearning; not lust, that she was familiar with, but a raw, hungry longing that filled her with a strange sense of betrayal. As if she had missed out on something important.

As if something that had been so right was now so very wrong.

Brushing angrily at the tears she felt sliding down her cheeks, Buffy picked up a glass sitting in the dish drainer and filled it with water from the tap. She gulped it down, hoping it would calm her.

She should have been feeling revulsion that an undead animal desired her, but visions of Angel's sad, handsome face filled her mind's eye and she couldn't control the wave of erotic heat that made her stomach do flip-flops.

Buffy took a deep breath, willing herself to relax.

"Buffy? Are you okay?"

When she looked up at Giles, the cold, impersonal mask was back in place. Setting the glass on the table, she smiled tightly. "I'm fine. I should go patrol, see if I can take out two or three or a dozen vamps."

"Yes, well, I-I will be heading to the library with Angel, so if you need me for anything, you can reach me there," Giles said.

Buffy slipped past him and picked her jacket off of the bar. "Great. What's Larry and Oz's plan?"

"They'll do neighborhood patrol, make sure everyone's observing curfew. Hopefully take out a couple of vampires themselves."

Buffy looked at the two young men, talking quietly to Angel. "Giles, are you sure you trust him?"

Giles followed her gaze. "Yes, I do. He's sacrificed a great deal to help us when he could've just left Sunnydale."

"You never told me why he believes I was destined to come here."

Giles shook his head. "I honestly don't know, Buffy. You'll need to ask Angel."

The vampire in question looked up at the sound of his name. Giles smiled and Buffy looked away, uncomfortable.

"Maybe I will," she whispered. "Maybe I will."

Daytime in Sunnydale was eerie, surreal. the nearly-empty streets and somber residents giving the town a diseased feel.

Nights were worse. The sultry, Southern California evening was as silent as the grave it had become. Not even the once-normal sounds of nocturnal animals broke the suffocating hush. To Buffy, as she walked close to the shadows of the abandoned and boarded-up shops bordering Main Street, it seemed as if Sunnydale existed within a vacuum. Even the air was afraid to move for fear of rousing the notice of the monsters creeping inside the shadows of the night.

Occasionally, a distant scream would pierce the gloom, followed by the maniacal laughter and hungry growls of the vampire marauders. Somewhere, music throbbed tonelessly, probably coming from the Bronze nightclub where she had found Angel chained in the basement.

Buffy was edgy. This town was giving her a serious wiggins and again she had the unnerving sensation that she somehow belonged here. But, not here, not in this Sunnydale. Deep within her subconscious, a picture of a far different Sunnydale formed; a quaint, tiny village, nestled between the ocean and the mountains. A successful, happy Sunnydale, one where the nights were only a little bit scary.

She shook off the feeling of déjà vu as she turned onto Bristol Avenue. Immediately, she pulled back into the deep shadow of an awning. A half-block away, a black convertible was stopped in the middle of the street, the headlights cutting through the gloom. Even from the distance, she could see the pack of vampires, maybe five or six of them, crouched over two sprawled bodies.

Buffy reached behind her and quietly slipped her crossbow off of her shoulder. With a swiftness born of experience, she loaded it and shifted it to battle-readiness. On silent feet, she ran the short distance to the car. So intent were the vamps on their feast, they never heard the tiny Slayer approach until she was practically on top of them.

Lifting the crossbow to her shoulder, Buffy fired the bolt, embedding it with precision in the nearest vampire's back. With a shocked groan, it exploded into copper-tinged dust. Before the pack could react to the assassin in their midst, Buffy had pulled a wicked stake out of her waistband and slammed it into the heart of a female vamp, just beginning to rise to confront her. She went without a sound.

"Bitch!" one of the animals screamed, leaping for Buffy with outstretched claws.

Buffy dropped to a crouch, swinging her right leg outward. It caught the vampire at the knees, bringing him crashing to the pavement. The other vamps snarled in fury as they grabbed for her.

The one on the ground grabbed Buffy's arm and jerked her down, his mouth wide open in anticipation. Buffy rolled into the motion, ending up in a straddle over his legs. In seconds, another pile of dust joined the first two. She continued the roll, leaping to her feet from an almost-horizontal position. Her upward momentum ended in a savage snap kick that nearly took the head off of one of the two remaining vamps.

They hung back, suddenly wary of the tiny blonde Slayer who had destroyed three of their comrades in less than a minute. "Slayer! You shouldn't have come here, you're being hunted by every vampire in the county," one snarled, his eyes glinting ferally in the dim light.

Buffy smiled with chilling hatred. "Let them hunt. If I can kill your pathetic Master, I can kill all of you."

They broke away from each other, fanning out on either side of her. Buffy kept her eye on the larger of the two, letting the smaller one circle her in a tightening trap. Just as her peripheral vision alerted her to the smaller vamp's impending attack, she launched her body in a spinning kick, the side of her combat boot catching the larger vamp in the nose. She smiled at the satisfying crunch of breaking bone.

With a howl of pain, he dropped to the ground, giving the smaller vamp the opening he thought he needed. Throwing his arms around Buffy's shoulders, he impaled himself on the stake she had thrust under her arm.

Buffy smiled down at the remaining vampire. "All alone now. What are you going to do?"

The odds had been reduced from five against one to one against one and he knew it was hopeless. Scrabbling to his feet, he managed to take a half-dozen steps. Buffy aimed and threw the stake in her hand.

And then she was alone on the dark Sunnydale street.

A quick check of the two victims showed them to be very dead. Buffy stared at them dispassionately. Tourists, from the looks of it. Rental car, map in the front seat, camera on the dashboard.

"You just wandered into the wrong town," Buffy whispered.

With a shake of her head, she turned and melted into the night, unaware of the avid vampire eyes that had followed her every move.

With a grin, the monster that had once called himself Scott Hope ran into the night, eager to tell Xander and Willow all that he had witnessed.