To Save A Vampire

Chapter Two

After Willow got Buffy calmed down and settled beside Angel, the slayer latched onto him like a limpet, as if she thought the White Knight was going to show up at any minute and take her Angel away.

"Now that we have the hysterics under control, maybe we can get back to the matter at hand; the prophecy itself and the consequences if it is not completed properly," Giles commented.

"If this man is not found and the quests completed by the next solar eclipse then he will die, and possibly so will Angel if they are already bonded at that time. If we could only figure out what the prophecy means by ‘Night's eye’."

"Giles, I think I might know," Xander said softly, as if afraid to be laughed at.

"Well go on, what's your idea?" inquired Giles, smiling at the boy he considered his son.

"I once read in a fantasy book that thieves referred to the moon as the night's eye, and they cursed it when it was opened and saw all," he replied quietly.

"Oh Xander, that was just some dumb kid’s book. Why bother us with that trivial garbage?" groused Buffy.

"Because, Buffy, he might be right. Let me look at the prophecy again … It fits, and that would make the night's eye is blind a lunar eclipse. Well done Xander, well done indeed," complemented Giles.

Angel smiled over at him while Buffy scowled. Willow beamed as if she gotten the answer herself.

"Giles, I don't want to seem pushy or anything, but why don't you read us the whole prophecy? Maybe then we can be of more help than we are with just the bits and pieces being thrown at us," Willow added.

"Oh dear, you mean I haven't…? No, I haven't because they’re right here next to me. I have made copies for everyone so you can make notes on each stanza of the prophecy." Giles gave the stack to Willow who handled them to Angel, who gave them to Buffy, who just tossed the remaining ones towards the general vicinity of where Xander was sitting, totally missing, and then he had to clean them off the floor, after shooting her a dirty look.

Angel looked over at Xander and started talking, "Xander, before you read any of this, promise to read it all the way through before you blow your top. I'll think you'll understand after you’re done, okay?"

"Sure, Deadboy, whatever you say," Xander replied, giving him a strange look.

By the time he was done cleaning up the mess Buffy had created, the others had already finished reading and were talking about the prophecy. So he began to read each stanza and look at each one separately to see if he could decipher it's meaning.

Picking up a pencil, he began reading the first stanza:

To save the vampire's soul
To keep the vampire whole
To White Knight's dread
He must wed the undead

The pencil breaking sounded like thunder in the room, even over the talking at the other end of the table. Everyone looked toward where Xander was sitting with the two halves of the pencil, and saw that he was pissed.

Angel knew immediately what was wrong and slid Buffy's arms from around him in case he had to make a run for it. "Xander, you promised you would read it through first before you lost your cool," the vampire stammered out, causing everyone to look at him strangely.

"Sit back down, NOW, or you’re leaving in a dust pan. I will read it further, but if it doesn't give me a happy ending, someone had better start talking and talking fast."

Angel quickly sat back down after scooting his chair out of arms’ reach of Buffy, giving her a look that screamed not now.

After he had finished reading the rest of the stanzas, Xander looked up at Giles. "Angel, or should I say, Angelus, knows who your White Knight is. He named the person himself. While he tells the story, I'm going for a walk. I'll be back in a bit. Please, no one follow me; I have to do this alone," he said as he started to hyperventilate.

Willow got up to follow, but Angel stopped her. "No, this time let him go. When I finish this story you'll understand. It started when I was still Angelus and Buffy was in the hospital with the flu. I came that night to turn her, but someone was guarding her. He actually scared Angelus. He made Angelus back down not once, but three times that night. Angelus left calling that person the Slayer's White Knight."

"Who was this person?" asked Buffy, "I don't remember anything ever being said about it."

"Neither have I, and I should have heard about it if someone was guarding Buffy that night," said Giles, a little upset about someone facing down Angelus alone to save his slayer, and he never knew about it.

"That's because the person never told anyone so I respected their wishes and kept the secret as well. But now the truth must come out for his sake, at least. The man that night who made Angelus back down was none other than Alexander LaValle Harris."

"What?"

"No way."

"Good God, that boy…"

"That's right, and that wasn't the first time he has forced me to do something that I didn't want to do. The night he saved Buffy from drowning in the Master's cave?"

"What about it? Everyone knows you had to drag him down there," Buffy said, indignant that the Zeppo was getting the attention as hero. Most likely had a cross to scare off Angelus, ya that's right that's what he had.

"That's where everyone's wrong. He had to force me at stake point to lead the way to the Master's cave. He was the one to perform CPR, he was the one who saved Buffy’s life. If it weren’t for him, I would have stayed inside my apartment and just brooded."

"Don't paint him as the hero. He wasn't the hero, you were," Buffy insisted, still not wanting to believe that Xander could save anything more than a package of Twinkies. In her world, Angel was her hero, her soul mate, the one she was destined to marry some day.

It never entered into her bottled blond mind that, since she was a slayer, she probably would not live long enough to see the fulfillment of her dreams. She had everything planned out, from the flowers to the time of day so that Angel could be outside and not have to worry about the sun. In her world, everything was perfect - until now. This White Knight business with Xander was going to mess it up. Well, she would just have to see about that.

She wasn't as dumb as everyone thought she was. She had noticed the extra bruises on Xander’s body that had nothing to do with slaying, and if worse came to worse, she was sure his own father would remove the problem for her. Oh, she would cry with the rest and be angry with his father but, after all, what can one expect from a loser like Xander, living with a loser alcoholic father?

Smiling to herself, she kept her plans to herself and listened in on the rest of the conversation.


After he left the library Xander roamed the halls of the school, at first dodging Snyder, and then after he left, just roaming the empty courtyard. He knew that he had to go through with the ritual; he had to in order to save his own life. But how could he do the sexual part? It was wrong; his dad told him so. You’re not supposed to touch that - - only a female is, and if you let another male touch you then you’re a fag and no son of mine will live to be a fag. How is he going to do this and live?

He would have to move in with Angel, a creature that he had hated since he first showed up. And not because of his love for Buffy, or her love for him, but rather, the feelings that the man stirred inside of him - - feelings that, if he ever let them out, would get him killed at home and, if not killed outright, he’d definitely get a beating that would make him wish he were dead. He had had more than one erotic dream, with Angel in the starring role, where he had to change his sheets in the morning.

Now here he was given the opportunity he had been dreaming about on a silver platter and it scared him to no end. Hearing footsteps behind him, he turned around, only to meet a fist.