Meztli’s Bright Smile

I heard the door open and close. “Willie? That you?” I asked, trying to force my eyes open as far as they would go, which wasn’t far, but all I could see where blurs.

“Oh my god, Spike.” I heard Buffy exclaim as she gingerly lifted up my chin to get a better look at my face. I turned my head from her pity, breaking contact.

“I told you to warn her, not bring her here to coddle me.” I accused angrily at the form I thought was Willie.

“She didn’t come to coddle Spike, she came with us so we could bring you back, tend to your wounds and perhaps you could aid us in locating this new demon.” The Watcher said as he titled my head up towards the overhead light.

Someone let out a low whistle. “Whoa, she really did a number on you.” It was the whelp.

“Yeah, that she did. One thing you need to know, she’s fast and incredibly strong. Last time I got bludgeoned like this without so much as bruising my opponent was with Glory.” I said, knowing that this allusion would make the danger this new girl posed quite obvious.

“Willie said something about her being like a big cat?” Giles asked, prompting a response.

“Yeah, like some genetic experiment gone very wrong.” I replied. Then a thought struck me. “You don’t think the Initiative is back to its old tricks again do you?” I asked, turning to the direction of Buffy. It appeared that nobody else had come to that conclusion, but my mentioning of it soon had the group thinking and tossing out ideas; most of which Buffy rejected.

“I refuse to believe that Riley would have gotten wind of this and not said a word to me, no warning or anything. It’s not like him at all.”

“Perhaps he doesn’t know about it. Maybe after the failure of the operations here on the Hellmouth and his involvement with you, he’s not Mr. Number-One guy anymore.” Xander suggested.

“Hate to give it to the Whelp, but he makes sense.”

“Thanks,” he beamed, and then realized what I had said. “wait, hey!” he exclaimed indignantly; I chuckled but it soon turned into a groan as my ribs, chest and lung flared up in pain.

“So,” I turned towards the Watcher, “where do we begin?”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The following weeks while I healed, everyone tried vainly to locate a number or address to reach Riley and try and get some information on this creature. So far all of our efforts were in vain. We were no closer to finding our creature, other than many more demon corpses were being found mutilated around town; this thing was a vicious killer and none of us wanted to face it without first knowing how to get it to join our side. Twice now, the last two days in fact, body parts had been found on each of the Scoobies’ doorsteps, so we were all on red-alert because it was obvious that this thing knew where each of them lived. Buffy had sent Dawn to my crypt at first, terrified of anything happening to her kid sister, but after a day the Bit had convinced her big sister to let her come back home. We were now reconvened at the Magic Box this evening, phones and laptops attached to each person, when there was a knock at the front door.

“We’re closed.” Giles shouted out loud, but there came another knock, and another and another. “Damn it all to hell!” he cursed under his breath. “Xander please go see whoever it is and send them away.” The boy got up grumbling and went to the door. Upon opening it he staggered backwards a step, looked behind him, and nervously talked to whoever it was at the door. I was intrigued by his behavior. After a minute he stepped backwards and the most exotic beauty I had ever seen stepped through the doorway.

She was wearing two pieces of pelt loincloths on her major body parts, the rest of her was left uncovered revealing skin that shone like copper, the skin was on the most lithe, lean and toned body I have ever had the grace to see upon a woman. With each movement she made, my vampiric eyesight saw the muscles move and quiver underneath the surface. Her eyes, upon closer inspection, were an amber hue, and she had great bone structure in her flawlessly symmetrical face. Each eyebrow was perfectly sculpted and arched, her lashes were thick and long, and her mouth… to die for – it was faultless – a beautiful Cupid’s bow with full and pouty lips that would make any man ache to kiss them. She would have made all the great sculptors in the history of the world weep with the perfection of beauty she embodied. All the males in the room stared at her in a mouth agape stance along with Willow, but the other two females in the building glared at her in envy and distaste.

“Um, h-how may we help you young lady?” Giles asked, stumbling on his own tongue, meanwhile Xander sat down between Red and me.

“She’s so…” he began under his breath.

“Beautiful, immaculate, perfect?” I offered as I continued to gaze her up and down.

“I was going to go with hot, but yeah, those work too.”

Red leaned in and whispered, “I’m with you two guys.” I smirked at her, before returning to listen to the girl’s answer to Giles.

“Yes, I believe you can. I was sent by the Powers to help the Slayer.” And she smiled at Buffy sweetly.

Buffy sneered a smile back. “Thanks but I don’t need any help from you, who ever you are. My friends and I have everything under control, so you can go back to wherever it is you came from whatever your name is.”

“Anacaona.” She said.

“A-whata-huh?” Buffy asked.

“My name is Anacaona.”

“That’s a weird name.” Xander said out loud before clamping a hand over his mouth. “Sorry, I didn’t intend for that to come out.”

Anacaona merely smiled at him. “Perhaps to you North Americans it is an unusual name, but not to me and my people.”

“Yes, a-and where is it you come from exactly?” Giles probed.

“The Amazon.” She replied.

“Oh, fascinating! You come from Brazil?”

“No, I come from the Amazon rain forest.” She corrected. This would explain her outfit, accent and exotic looks.

“A-and you were sent here to help Buffy? With what exactly? And why?” Giles asked.

“The Powers sent me to help with an upcoming battle you will be facing.” She clarified. Everyone was happy with her answer.

“You know, we’ve been having issues with a demon in town that seems to be out to kill Buffy, think you could help?” Xander asked.

“Xander! I mean, we don’t even know if she’s any good in battle, in Slaying vamps and demons. How experienced is she?” Buffy argued.

“Yes, well perhaps she could go out with you and patrol, so we might gain a perspective of her skills.”

“No!” Buffy exclaimed with distaste, before hurrying to cover up. “I mean, why doesn’t she go and patrol with Spike while I go and do some sweeping for my demon foe? He’s still recuperating and if she’s any good, he could use the help.”

“Oh, erm, well, y-yes I suppose we could do that, if Spike is okay with this plan that is.” He asked turning to me.

“Bloody yes I’m fine with it.” I said a bit too enthusiastically; Dawn shot me a look that I chose to ignore. I cleared my throat and stood up. “Um, yeah well, ready to head out then pet?” I asked the new girl. She nodded her head. “Right then,” I threw on my leather duster, “let’s go.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*