Brave New World

Chapter 2
The following night, Buffy slowly awoke. Detecting voices not too far away she did not move, pretending to still be asleep, while straining to discern what they were saying and who they were.

"Willow, I want you to watch her carefully." It was the Master. "She was a Slayer, and they don't always turn right. If she is as I hope, you will have gained a powerful new sister to play in the night with, and I, a wonderfully, powerful new disciple. But sometimes, quite rarely, a few of them continue to behave as if they were still Slayers and try to kill their Sires. It's as if they had somehow managed to keep their souls. If she should turn out to be one of these, well.... I think it would then be quite enjoyable for you to see her suffer for what she did to Xander, perhaps a replacement for Puppy."

Buffy shuddered involuntarily. Listening to the Master, she realized that while she now felt very different from what she had been, she did not feel as if she were a part of these vampires. Indeed she still felt all the hatred and disgusted she had ever had for them. The possibility that she was still en-souled shocked her. She had never heard that such a thing might be possible. It had never been mentioned in any of the Watcher Diaries that she had read, and, most certainly Merrick had never mentioned such an event occurring in the past. She realized that was probably because any Slayer in the past who had been vamped would never have been listened to let alone been trusted to be telling the truth.

Assuming they ever even got back to their Watcher. One thing was for certain; she did not want to experience whatever it was that the Master planned to do to her should he discover that she had kept her soul.

For the moment, Buffy decided, she would play along and bide her time. She would play the evil sycophant to the Master, acting like the fawning and obedient little minion that he wanted her to be.
For the time being.

But now she had to eat.

She had been feeling a terrifyingly, powerful urge to eat from the minute she had awoken, but had been stifling it whilst she planned. But her hunger pains grew worse the longer she lay there. It was almost a physical pain. It reached the point that she involuntarily let out a faint growl.

The Master's keen hearing picked ur grr growl, and he smiled cruelly. "Ah! Awake at last. And hungry, no doubt. Willow my dear, bring up one of our guests for dinner." With a sullen glare at the former Slayer, Willow left the room, whilst the Master moved over towards Buffy.

Buffy opened her eyes to find herself naked and still tied to the bed with wire. Forcing down the surge of panic that she felt start to well up inside of her, she instead concentrated on acting hungry and confused, as she had seen other fledglings act. Since she was starving and still disoriented, there was not really much acting to do. She felt her Vampiric face rise to the surface and slid her tongue across her teeth. **Fangs! Oh God, I have fangs!**

"Hello, my Childe, did you sleep well?" asked the Master as he crossed the room and sat on the bed. Knowing that she could not give him a smart-mouth quip, as she would have liked to, Buffy was frozen by indecision about what exactly to say. She stared at him in silence, her fear making her mind blank.
Misinterpreting Buffy's silence as insolence, the Master angrily slapped her hard across her face, splitting Buffy's lip. Mistaking his slap to mean that he knew her secret already, Buffy began to loose control of her panic and frantically tried to move away from him. As she struggled, the wire cut into her still bound wrists. The sharp pain brought enough clarity to her confused mind for her to hear the Master say, "When I ask you a question, Childe, you will answer me. Is that understood?"

Buffy stopped her frantic struggles and in a small, terrified voice whispered, "Yes." Relief swept through her making her body go limp. Then he struck her again.

"Yes, what?" he asked harshly.

"Yes...Master," she replied meekly, lowering her eyes.

The Master laughed and then stroked her face, "That is correct. You are to always address me as 'Master' or 'Sire'. It will help you remember your position here. Under Me. I am your Sire and Master and you will obey me in all things. At all times."

"Yes, Sire," Buffy quickly replied.

Willow returned with a teenage girl in tow. The girl's hands and feet bound with duct tape and a gag in her mouth. "Here," she said as she casually tossed the girl across Buffy's lap as if she were nothing more than rag doll.

To one part of Buffy, to the young girl whom she had once been, the idea that she was going to feed off of this girl made her want to scream in rage and despair. To another part of her, the new Demon part, the desire for the blood that she could heard pulsing through the terrified girl's vein's exacerbated the already overwhelming hunger that she felt. Finally it was the Slayer part of herself who took control. The part that could look at her situation without emotions to cloud her judgement; the part which knew that if she did not feed on this girl . . . did not pass this first test of the Master's, then she would have no hope of escaping. Or of surviving.

Trying to scream through the gag in her mouth, the girl looked in desperation at Buffy but saw no hope for rescue from her. The Master and Willow watched Buffy for her reaction. Cocking her head to the right, she looked up at them questioningly.

"Master, may I?" she softly asked.

With a smile, the Master nodded, "You may, my Childe." He then waved to Willow to untie Buffy's hands so she could feed.

Buffy bent over the girl, all the while silently praying to God for forgiveness for what she was about to do. As quickly as possible, she sank her teeth into the girl's neck and began to feed. The feeling was overpowering. She knew at that moment, that even if she had been left alone with this girl, she would not have been able to stop herself from feeding. The girl died quickly as Buffy finished draining her body. Her hunger sated for the moment, Buffy concentrated on remaining calm. Suddenly, she was startled to feel her face shift as it changed back into her normal human visage. Buffy looked up to see the Master smiling at her.

"Very impressive," he said looking towards Willow and rubbing his hands with glee. "You see? Such rapid control over her appearance so quickly. If her cunning and intelligence are unaffected by the transition, she will truly be a wonderful new addition to our family."

"Oh yes, very nice," Willow said with a cold toneless voice. Glancing past the Master, Buffy saw the redheaded Vamp looking at her, but with an almost expressionless face. Buffy had the feeling that she looked vaguely familiar but it passed when the Master addressed her.

"Get yourself dressed. I will introduce you to the rest of your new family here."

He intended to keep an eye on Buffy for a very long time. He would not truly trust her until she had proven herself to him. But before she could be allowed the freedom to do even that he would have to break her to ensure she did not get any ideas about rising above her station. He had not existed for this long without learning to take pre-emptive action against those who might seek to unseat him as their supreme ruler. The now ex-Slayer was currently weak from her transition to vampire, but that would change, in time. She would gain her strength back and eventually might become even stronger than she had been as a Slayer. He planned to keep her on a tight leash and keep her weak for awhile. Until he felt more certain of her loyalty towards him. Until he had properly trained her.

He left Buffy alone with the expressionless, redheaded vamp. "Who are you?" she asked. Willow tossed her the clothing she had brought earlier onto the bed and walk over to stand as close to Buffy as possible, without actually touching her.

"My name, as the Master has already mentioned a number of times by now, is Willow. Are you stupid or just hard of hearing," she spat out at Buffy. Willow grabbed Buffy's chin and glared directly into her eyes. "I don't like you. You killed my mate. Do you remember him? He was the striking one in the black leather jacket." Willow released Buffy's chin and backed off, all the while continuing to look at Buffy in pure hatred. "If the Master did not desire you as his Pet I would rip your heart out with my hands," she hissed in tightly controlled fury. "Hurry up and get dressed! The Master is wait. Though what he sees in you is beyond me." With a snort of contempt, she left the room.

As Buffy hastily dressed, she cast about in her mind to come up with a plan to keep the Master and Willow from discovering her secret. **The simplest way,** she thought to herself, **is to pretend to be crazy. That way, if I make any mistakes, they can be blamed on me being psycho-girl. No one ever questions the crazy ones, and I know just how to do it.**