A dangerous sorcerer named Felix Faust has come to Sunnydale, intent on raising an ancient demon to subjugate all of humankind. To succeed, he must perform a powerful curse to displace his enemies, transporting them from one time and place and exch...
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PART 1: DREARY DAYS, DARK NIGHTS
Buffy Summers strode through the blackened cemetery, eyes and senses alert, a sharpened stake in her raised hand. This midnight ritual of patrolling the graveyard had become routine for her over the last two years. Although she was only seventeen years old, she had been endowed with unique strength and skill to protect her hometown of Sunnydale from the bizarre creatures that threatened it. While every other high schooler was sleeping soundly in bed, after a day of classes and studying and hanging with friends, Buffy stalked the night searching for monsters. Under cover of darkness, Sunnydale was home to hordes of bloodsucking vampires. And fate had chosen Buffy to be the Vampire Slayer.
A twig snapped. She jerked toward it. "Hope that was a bunny," she whispered aloud. It wouldn't be the first time she had mistaken a harmless rabbit for an approaching vampire.
But at this hour, in this sort of graveyard, she rarely encountered bunnies.
She lifted the stake higher as she crept toward the noise. Her heart skipped faster, her pulse throbbing. This was a newer sensation for her. She had become confident taking on vampires over the last two years. Even the vicious vampire, Spike, no longer frightened her like he first did.
But in the last few months, fighting vampires had become far more dangerous, and far more personal. Ever since she had fallen in love with one. A vampire with a soul named Angel.
Ever since Angel had lost that soul, transforming overnight into the deadliest vampire she had ever faced. Manipulative. Cunning. Mocking. Always one step ahead, and delighting in his psychological torment of Buffy. Angel resented her for loving him, and now wanted to make her suffer like no one had ever suffered before. Topping it all off, in his early days as a vampire, Angel had become an expert in terrorizing his victims.
Now every encounter she had with Angel could be her last.
Stepping past a tombstone, Buffy saw a tall black figure with his back to her. It would be so easy to drive a stake between his shoulder blades, deep into the heart, and be done with him. But it didn't feel right somehow. And she should probably make sure it was a vampire she was staking, just in case some other human weirdo was stalking the park besides her.
"You come here often?" she asked.
The man turned. Revealing the angry, warped visage of a hungry vampire.
The warped visage of Angel.
Buffy gasped, taking a quick step back. "Fancy meeting you here."
The enraged face softened. "Buffy," he said, in the gentle voice he had always used when they still loved each other. When he had still cared.
The vampiric ridges melted from his face, the grotesque demonic expression changing to one of kindness. Even tenderness.
She wrinkled her brow, her fingers twitching on the raised stake.
