To Save A Vampire

Chapter Ten

As the three men were heading towards the library, Joyce was holding a pillow over her head again. Buffy was going through another bout of the curse and, already, she was ready to beg Willow to take it off.

She decided to see if she could help research and maybe get this curse broken before they headed to England. So, instead of just lying there, she gathered up the other two Summers’ women, who were still not talking to each other, and went to the library.

Upon entering the parking lot, they saw Giles’ car park next to the side door. Xander got out and ran to the door and someone under a blanket also got out and followed Xander through the door.

“I guess that would have been Angel, huh?” Joyce said, as she parked the car.

“Yay, the vampire himself,” replied Dawn.

“And the traitor, Xander,” Buffy growled from the backseat.

“Enough out of you, young lady. From what I’ve heard and seen, the only traitor is you, for what you caused to be done to him,” Joyce snapped, seeing red again being reminded of what her daughter had done. ”Though he is moving around pretty good for someone with all those injuries,” Joyce said.

“That’s because instead of taking off the curse like she was ordered to by Giles, Willow took the rest of the energy she had and fixed Xander with her magic,” Buffy explained. “So he only hurt for maybe a day at most, while I’ve been hurting far longer with this curse and losing my boyfriend.”

Seeing red, Joyce turned around and started swinging at her daughter. “How can you be so self-centered and callous about this? If it wasn’t for Willow’s magic, Xander might still be at death’s door. My God, what did I do to raise such a selfish little bitch?”

Giles had seen Joyce park her car and had decided to park his near by. As he walked the short distance over to her car he had heard part of the conversation and saw Joyce’s reaction to it, and just stood there and watched. After she had turned back to the steering wheel and it looked like she was trying to bend it, he tapped on her window, startling her, and waved.

As soon as she saw Giles, all the anger drained out of her, and she felt safe. She wasn’t sure if it was love or not, but right now, Giles was what she wanted and needed. “‘Kay, everyone out, and Buffy, you move more than two feet away from me, I am chaining you in the basement when we get home.”

“Joyce, I hate to do this but we have to get inside quickly. It’s almost time for another attack of Buffy’s and I have to put a silence spell on her so that she won’t attract attention inside.”

“Yes, yes, of course. You’re right, as always Giles. Okay, double time girls, we have a dead line, thanks to your sister. We need to get through that side door and inside before she starts screaming.”

How little did they know that she was going to be screaming for a very different reason soon.

After closing the door and taking the blanket off Angel, Xander helped put out the little fires here and there and brushed the ash off. When he saw some left on Angel’s face, he didn’t stop to think, he just reached up and gently removed it and the movement became a caress. Angel stiffed and Xander pulled back, shame written on his face.

“No, don’t be ashamed. I was worried you might not be ready, that’s all,” Angel said.

“I’m not ready for everything, but we do have to get to know each other, and I just wanted to touch you,” Xander said in a near whisper, with a slight note of panic in it.

Putting his hands behind him, Angel said, “Touch away. I won’t stop you, promise.”

Smiling shyly and, contrary to what he wanted to do, Xander started to trace Angels face, the contours, the cheekbones, the lips. Feeling bold, he tilted Angel’s head down and gave him a gentle kiss, a bare touch of lips on lips before pulling back. It was enough for Angel to follow, wanting more.

Smiling up at him, Xander gently let his hands explore other parts of Angel’s body, his hard chest, his biceps, sliding down to his hips, but going no further, much to Angel’s disappointment. Reaching up again, he gave Angel a longer kiss than before, but he still backed off.

Looking up at Angel, he asked “Would you do something for me, please?”

“What?” asked Angel, a little confused.

“Change for me. If I am to marry you, then I want all of you; not just the human looking part, but the demon as well. I’m not afraid of you. I just want to explore that side as well, so please?”

Looking into Xander’s silver eyes, he could see truth, so he changed and stood there, waiting for the rejection he knew would come. But instead, he felt the fingers on his ridges, which made him purr. He felt the fingers trace this new face, and he felt those hands pull his head down to kiss this face as well, but this time Xander cut his tongue on one of the teeth, accidentally or on purpose Angel would never know, and then he slipped it into Angel’s mouth and let the blood flow.

He couldn’t help it; he grabbed the boy and picked him up and held him against the wall, pressing himself between his legs, and kissed him. He kissed him like he had never kissed Buffy, running his hands all over the boy’s body, slowly so as not to startle him, exploring his mouth equally as slowly so as to savior every detail, hearing every moan, and recording to memory what caused them for future reference.

He heard the door open, but it didn’t register in his mind until he heard the screech. “ANGEL!!!”


As Giles opened the door to let the ladies into the library, the first thing they saw was Angel pinning Xander against the wall, trying to suck his tongue out, and Xander trying to give it to him. ‘Well it looks like Angel and Xander are working past their problems nicely for the wedding’, thought Giles, cracking a smile.

Joyce, upon seeing the two of them against the wall, didn’t know what to say or do. On one hand, she found it extremely erotic, and on the other she was worried about Xander. But, looking at the way they were going at it, right now she would settle on erotic, and worry about Xander after the make out session.

Dawn was shocked; first because there was no hand in front of her eyes, so she was keeping very very quiet; second, she was shocked because her crush was plastered against a wall making out with a guy, a vampire guy, who six months ago he wanted to dust. She felt like she was in a twilight zone episode. But she had to admit, they were hot together.

Buffy was standing there with her mouth open, trying to get her voice to work. She looked around and noticed that none of the adults were going to stop this insanity, so it was up to her. Looking at them, all she could get is sick to her stomach. Finally finding her voice, she yelled, “ANGEL!”

Angel raised his head. He was in game face and had blood on his lips, making them all jump back. Giles and Buffy grabbed for stakes. Upon seeing this, Angel put Xander down and pushed him behind him, which earned him a kidney punch, and a smack upside the head.

“Don’t be stupid. And shift back to your human face. You two put down those stakes. As you can see, I have no bite marks on my neck whatsoever.”

“Then where did the blood come from?” sneered Buffy, still trying her best to break them up.

“Not that it is any of your concern, Buffy, but it came from my tongue when I purposely cut it on one of his fangs and fed him my blood.”

“What? You actually fed him your blood? That is, like, so gross,” Buffy said.

“Buffy, if you had read up on your vampires, sharing blood is part of sex for them, especially if it is voluntary, like mine was,” Xander said, rolling his eyes.

“Listen, we don’t have time to chat about this right now. Buffy is about to have another go round with the curse Willow gave her, and I need to put a silence spell on her so she won’t attract attention here,” Giles said.

Hurrying everyone in, he quickly redid the spell from the previous night just in time, as she began to scream as soon as he was done.

“My God, what did Willow do to her?” asked Xander.

“She is cursed to relive random ten minutes of your attacks, every hour on the hour,” Joyce said.

“Hecate modified it so that from eight in the evening to eight in the morning she doesn’t have it, but she said she wouldn’t take it off,” Giles said.

“Well, let me try it. I lived through that and one person going through it is enough. Besides, the revenge is mine not Willow’s and I will have my revenge on your daughter, Joyce, but not like this.”

Joyce nodded her head; she understood somewhat.

Cast in hate where evil dwells
I use my power to break the spells
Used on this fighter of light that night
Used in the name of goodness and light

A curse was cast for evils done in the past
I say here and now, curse no longer last
Break from this slayer’s mind from this time
Break using this spell’s form and rhyme

There was a flash of silver from his hair and eyes, and then Buffy flashed. First she glowed, then she had a silver outline of her body and all was colored in silver, like a dark negative of herself. A large ball of magic came from her head and a stream of energy from his head touched the ball, then both stiffened and both cried out.

A voice was heard, “This is my judgment, this is my punishment, do not try to undo it.”

Xander stood up, and he bowed, “As you wish my lady, so shall it be.”

Buffy was left on the floor crying and weeping, banging her hands on the floor, hitting them so hard she was cracking the tile and cutting her hand.

“The curse has been removed, she no longer has to relive it ever hour on the hour, but in my opinion something worse has taken its place.”

“What is it Xander, what did the voice do?” Joyce wondered what else her daughter would have to live through.

“Once a month, on the anniversary of my attack, she will fall into a coma like sleep and relive the whole thing in a dream. She will receive no damage, there will be no screaming, but she will feel every hurt, punch, burn, and cut as I did while I was there. I wish I could stop that as well, but it is out of my hands.”

“Who was the voice that spoke?” Giles asked.

“I don’t know. It was female, but not Hecate, so I obeyed,” Xander said.

Turning to Buffy, Xander said:

I return speech to you today
Forgiven are the sins you pay
Distance from me you will stay
Hatred for you forces you away

“Why? Why must I be the one to pay? Just because I’m the slayer I don’t deserve happiness?” moaned Buffy as she sat up. “Why should you get what you want out of this mess while the rest of us take second place, or second best?” she asked. “Answer me,” she demanded.

Going over to the table and sitting down next to Angel before looking up at Buffy, Xander sighed. “Buffy, I could explain it to you until we are fifty and you still would not get it. You should be thankful I helped get rid of the curse, and yet you sit there and act like I am to blame for all your problems.

“You must understand; I am a pawn just like you to this prophecy. I just get the prize at the end,” Xander said smiling.

“UUURRRGGGHHH! That is what I mean. Why do you get the prize? When do I get the prize? When do I get a chance at happiness? What do I have to suffer through to be a winner?” Buffy demanded, looking up.

“Buffy, you still don’t get it, do you? You’re the Slayer. That is your gig, that is your prize and your test, and everything in between,” Giles said.

“So that means just because I am a slayer, I get no chance at having a boyfriend, no chance at a family, no chance anything normal in my life?” Buffy asked, incredulously.

“Basically, yes,” Giles replied, stunned that she would even ask such questions.

“So sorry, but that’s not going to work. I’m so outa here that I was gone yesterday,” Buffy sputtered as she got up and left.


“Well, now that scene is over let’s get down to research. Mrs. Summers, welcome to our main research center, also known as the mouth of hell.”

“Xander, quit joking. That’s not even funny,” Joyce scolded.

“Joyce, he’s not joking. Under this table is the mouth to hell,” Angel told her.

She looked down and paled slightly. “Who would build a school over a mouth to hell?”

“We have asked ourselves that question every time someone tries to open it.”

“Okay, before we were interrupted, Giles was pointing out that it seems we are playing with the Greek gods on this one. That means the silver bowl had to be made by Hephaestus for one of the gods,” Xander said.

“Quite right, Xander. I’m impressed.”

“Now, here is something else I’ve been thinking about. Since it has to do with souls and stuff, I’m willing to bet it has to do with Hades as well. He made the silver bowl to do something for Hades or the realm of Hades.”

“Hmmmm, another logical deduction. Good going.”

“You go grab Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. It has a nice section on Hades; she was obsessed with him. Angel, go get Sir Nice’s Greek Death Stories. It’s nothing but stories of Hades’ realm.

“Dawn, since Willow isn’t here yet, she isn’t feeling well, you take the computer duty and search for info on Hades, silver bowl, etcetera.

“Joyce, you and I will search through this stack looking for anything pertaining to a silver bowl. These books contain nothing but material about ancient artifacts or myths of ancient artifacts.”

After about an hour of searching, Xander sat up and started reading out loud, “I think this is it … Hades’ silver bowl was known to give a form of immortality. If the person’s blood was mixed with wine of any sort in the bowl, or in a larger amount, the soul would be bound to that body for eternity. The body would not age nor wither as time passed. Warning; if the body is killed then the body would rot around the soul, leaving a ghost attached to bones.

“So, now we know why the wine and such, but I don’t like the idea of the rotting part,” Xander said.

“But if you two mix your blood, your souls will be bound to both your bodies, so even if you get turned, Xander, you still have your soul,” Giles said.

“Okkkaaayy,” Xander said, with a shiver.

“Now we know what the bowl does, but we still need to find out where it is at,” Angel said quickly, changing the subject, after noticing Xander’s shudder.

“That’s here as well. Now let me see, ah here it is … To safe guard it, Hades always relied on the four brothers of the winds. He built a cavern where they would meet and support the bowl and could talk in secret. The caverns were located near the mouth of Tartarus. Since the mouths would move, so would the caverns and, thus the secrets of the winds and the bowl would be safe from intruders.”

“And, let me guess, that translate to the mouths of hell, or the Hell Mouth.”

“Yes, it does indeed. So we need to find the cavern of winds around here and the silver bowl so you two can get married.”

Turning towards Angel, Xander whispered, “What do you think of Buffy as the flower girl?” Which earned him a smack on the back of his head.


After Buffy ran out of the library, she strolled the streets of Sunnydale for a while, until she spotted Willow on a swing by herself. Remembering what the red headed witch did to her, she marched up and started to attack when she noticed the girl was despondent and not really aware of her surroundings.

Waving a hand in front of her and trying to get her attention, she hollered, “Willow, yoo-hoo, WILLOW!”

Finally snapping out of her little trance, the witch looked up and said, “Oh, Hi Buffy, grab a swing. I’m just waiting for a vamp to come and eat me.”

“And may I ask why you want a vamp to eat you?”

“Xander double crossing Harris, that’s why,” Willow said.

“He sure does get around town for being such a loser,” Buffy complained.

“I wouldn’t call him a loser anymore. He is four- times stronger magically than me. He has all my experiences, plus he is now the High Priest of Hecate. And, by the way, there has never been another High Priest, so he has a major boost of power there. And, get this, it is up to him if my powers go back to normal or if they are bound more, or stripped permanently.”

“Ya, he has Angel, Giles, and Mom in his corner. I’m going to England to see if I can save my life. He has everything we wanted handed to him after it was taken from us.”

“Hey, how come you’re not writhing on the ground in pain? It’s two o’clock and you should be in agony about now,” Willow said.

“Remind me to thank you properly for that later, but that is one good thing Xander did with his magic so far. He tried to remove the curse totally, but someone interfered, so now I only have to suffer once a month in a coma-like state and dream and feel everything.”

“Ahh, he must have botched the spell, then,” Willow said, smugly.

“Actually, no, he didn’t. Just as the curse was gone, a voice said, ‘This is my judgment, this is my punishment, do not try to undo it’ and it left.”

“Oh, you had one of the higher ups get into the act,” Willow said. “That always sucks.”

“So what do we do about Xander?” Buffy asked.

“What can we do? I mean, he is protected by a goddess, by Giles, Angel, your Mom, and let’s not forget Dawn. And, if you really look at it from a different point of view, they are in the right. It’s just that we want things our way now, which is not really wrong, per se.

“Listen, the only way we are going to get this resolved is to face Xander and talk it out,” Willow said.

“You can, but I can’t. He has banished me from him with a spell. The spell to remove my curse removed me from his presence as well.”

“Well, I will try to talk to him, but it will be slow going. You do know that.”

“Ya, if he’d just left my Angel alone all this wouldn’t have happened. Did I tell you we caught them kissing in the stacks, and Xander purposely cut his tongue on a fang to give his blood to Angel? Like, too gross.”

“But Buffy, giving blood to your vampire lover is a great thing to do, according to the books,” Willow said, looking confused. Didn’t Buffy ever do that with Angel?

“Well, I didn’t. If Angel ever turned fang faced the make out session was over,” Buffy said, shuddering.

‘Maybe Angel is better off with Xander. Xander seems to accept both sides of Angel, and wants both sides’, Willow thought.

“Well, you head over to the library and I will head out and get ready for tonight’s patrol. I heard a rumor of a new Master in town and I’m going to see if it’s true. If so, I might need your magic and Angel’s strength for back up.”

“Actually, it’s Xander’s magic. I can’t do magic for at least another month because of the spells I did the other day.”

“GRRRRR, okay fine, Xander’s magic,” huffed Buffy.