Willow jumped up excitedly from her laptop. "She's coming up to visit!"
"Who's coming Will?" Buffy asked curiously as she glanced up from her book.
"Rachel of course!" Willow rolled her eyes.
"Rachel who? I've never heard of a Rachel." Anya sighed, flipping through a magazine.
"Rachel would be the girl Willow's been telling us all about for the past three weeks Anya, how could you not have noticed." Xander pointed out, Anya just shrugged. They all returned to researching the newest demon on the Hellmouth.
 
 

Willow continued chatting to Rachel. As it turned out she was going to be visiting for a week; staying at Willow's house and arriving tomorrow. Willow also remembered that it was her birthday tomorrow as well and decided to organise a party at the Bronze. Nothing fancy just an introduce-you-to-my-friends kinda party, she decided.
"She's going to be here as of tomorrow, her parents are dropping her off at my house." Willow stated as she typed.
"This Rachel you're speaking about Willow, how did you meet her?" Giles asked.
"Oh I haven't met her yet in person, I met her online and she seems  really nice." Willow replied absently. Giles sighed.
 
 

"Don't you seem to recall a certain man who seemed really nice that turned out to be a demon Willow?"
"Yeah, we know lots of those. There's Angel, Oz, Xander at one stage..." Willow smiled not getting Giles' point.
"The G-man's talking about Malcom - Mr Evil Creepy Robot guy." Xander reminded, "hey when you think about it he was a lot like Mr Evil Creepy Robot guy number two; Ted."
"Rachel is not a demon!" Willow exclaimed.
"You just can never tell Willow." Giles started.
"Well, you're all going to meet her demonless self tomorrow at her party. It's her birthday, so be nice." Willow assured. At least she hoped she wasn't a demon.
 
 

Willow guided Rachel into the pulsing Bronze. Rachel seemed a little nervous about meeting her friends but decided to just go with it. Anyway, it was her birthday and she was going to have some fun. She fiddled with the crystal Willow had given her as and 18th birthday gift; it was for friendship. Willow noticed and smiled.
"Well this is the Bronze." She waved her arm around. "And, my boyfriend's in the band." She smiled. Oz wasn't going to get the chance to speak with Rachel because the Dingoes had a gig out of town and the were leaving tonight.
"This is cool, we don't have anything like this back home." Rachel moved to the beat of the music. "Your boyfriend's the one that goes all wolfy once a month right?"
"Yep." Willow nodded. "That doesn't freak you out or anything does it?" Willow had decided to fill Rachel in on the darker side of Sunnydale, she seemed to take it fairly well.
"Course not. It's just funny he's in a band called the Dingoes - the whole canine deal. Wolf, dingo..."
"Oh there's my friends. Don't worry they promised they'd be on their best behaviour." Willow and Rachel trotted over to where the Scoobies were sitting.
 
 

Rachel surveyed the scene. A petite blond in fairly revealing clothes was perched on the edge of a chair, obviously wanting to be anywhere but there. She looked bored and occasionally tapped her foot to the music. Another girl was sitting comfortably on the lap of a guy. She was was playing with his hair and whispering things in his ear; making the guy turn red. The guy was well built with brown hair and fully engrossed with the girl on his lap. She sighed, the first good looking guy she'd seen in a long while was taken. Damn, trust her luck. The guy was just too delicious, if he ever became available she was going to be there. Then there was a stuffy looking man seated slightly away from the others, he smiled as they came forward.
 
 

"Hey guys, this is Rachel." Willow announced. "Rachel this is Buffy, Anya, Xander and Giles."
"Hi, nice to meet you. You look great." Buffy smiled. She shot a glance over to Anya.
"Oh I'm supposed to introduce myself and make compliments right?" She paused and smiled at Rachel. " I'm Anya as I'm sure Willow has told you. Your hair is quite pretty, men love black hair; I should know. You must get lots of sex." Rachel smiled faintly, remembering Willows comments about the sex-crazed ex-demon.
"Hon, what did we discuss this afternoon?" Xander reprimanded. "Anyway, Xander Harris, the Willsters oldest buddy and comic genius. Nice to finally meet she who Wills has been talking non-stop about."
"Does she say good things about me?" Rachel smiled
"How could she not?" He winked, trying to make her feel at home. It worked, she gave him a huge smile.
"Rupert Giles, nice to have made your acquaintance Rachel." Giles smiled and shook hands with Rachel. She noticed he was holding a small cross in his palm.
"What's this?" She asked
 
 

"Oh, a cross? Where did that come from?" Giles stuttered.
"Yes he's a very religious man. Praise the Lord and all that." Buffy added. Willow shot them both a glare.
"Honestly Giles, it's quite simple you do it like this. Rachel are you a demon?" Anya rolled her eyes.
"No."
"See she's not a demon. Now we can all breathe a sigh of relief and have fun. Come Xander to the dance floor." Anya got up and dragged Xander behind her.
"That went well." Willow sighed. "Want to get something to drink?"
 
 

Two hours later and a lot of vodka, whisky, beer and whatever else the could lay their hands on - the Scoobies +1 were smashed and wandering through the park.
"As the respon-sible adult I should advise you all that drinking is harmful to your health." Giles slurred.
"Much like slaaaying, but we still do that anyway. I see no pro-blems." Buffy nodded.
"Well we should all go home and to bed then. We're gonna feel like hell tomorrow." Xander added.
"Yes bed is good. Xander we're going." Anya grinned as they stumbled off into the darkness. Giles looked around warily, he was seeing fuzzy shadows through his blurred vision. Through his alcohol fogged mind he realised it wasn't too safe to be out at night.
"Yes home, all of you." He ordered, just as he tripped over a branch. "Fuck!"
"Giles are you alright?" Willow asked. "Buffy you should get him home. Buffy!" Buffy snapped her attention to Willow and helped Giles up. After they'd left Willow turned to Rachel.
"What do ya wanna do now? It's your birthday." Willow sat down on the ground. Rachel plopped down beside her.
"Seeing as everything's gone topsy-turvy to me. We should sit." Rachel nodded.
"Yes sit. Sit is good." Willow giggled.
 
 

Angelus and Spike surveyed the scene before them. The Slayer and her groupies were all way past drunk and wandering the park.
"Unbloody believable. She's stupider than I thought." Spike exclaimed.
"And to think she's stopped the world ending more than once." Angelus mused.
"You should kill her now. Get the bitch out of the way once and for all." Spike suggested, passing a flask of something to Angelus. He took a swig.
"That's too simple Spike, you have to do these things properly."
"Sorry, forgot about your whole planning theory. Find 'em and kill 'em I say. Hey what are they doing now?" Spike slurred. Angelus laughed as he saw the Watcher fall over. Spike knew how the Watcher felt, he done that more than once tonight.
"Didn't even know Watchers were allowed to say fuck." He finally noticed that there was an extra member of the gang. "Who's that one?" He pointed.
"That? That's the little witch isn't it, 'cor I remember she smells nice. All sugar and spice and everything nice. Shoulda taken her when I had the chance. Still might actually..." He trailed off.
"Not her, the one sitting next to her. Looks a little like Dru." Angelus muttered, remembering how his childe had died a few months ago. He was looking for someone new, and this girl might just be it.
"Go ask her. Cause I'm sure as hell going to see my Red." Spike started over towards the two girls with Angelus right behind.
 
 

Willow glanced around, something was giving her the creeps. She spotted two people walking towards them. Luckily when she was drunk she still had some common sense and realised who they were.
"Rachel, up! We're going now!" She squeaked jumping up and pulling Rachel by the arm.
"Huh? Why?" Rachel noticed the two men walking towards them. "Who are they?" She grinned, they weren't too bad at all.
"Vampires and vampires are bad."
"But they look so yummy, I could eat them all up." Rachel sighed.
"No they'd eat you. Now go."
"Going somewhere pet? You could at least spend the time to say hello to an old friend." Spike smirked.
 
 

"Old friend! Are you out of your mind? You tried to kill me." Willow yelled.
"Not forever pet. Just for a little bit, honest." Spike grinned. "Cause your my Red and I couldn't live without you." The slurring of his words ruining the effect.
"You know that's kinda sweet in a warped kinda way." Rachel added. The tall dark guy was kinda hot. He had the whole tall dark handsome thing really going for him. Then there was this cute blond one who had it for Willow. Her head kept telling her that they were bad and evil like Willow had said but the alcohol was telling her other things. Naughty things.
"Your drunk again aren't you?" Willow accused, Spike shrugged. She glared at Angelus. "And you, come to kill my new fish?"
"Actually me and Spike here were reminiscing about old times. I just came to meet your new friend." Angelus explained. "I would be Angelus and who exactly are you little one?"
"Rachel."
"So you like the idea of eternal life?" He queried.
"Doesn't seem too bad to me at the moment." She smiled.
 
 

Willow was shocked. Rachel didn't know the in's and out's of vampires and here was Angelus trying to make it sound all great! She would remember to stay sober for the rest of her life.
"That would be because your drunk. We all are so let's just leave before we do anything we regret." Willow reasoned.
"Regret was more of a soul-having me thing to do." Angelus shrugged.
"And I wouldn't regret anything Red, neither would you." Willow's mind wandered back to the whole 'having' scenario.
"Nope. Going now." Willow turned taking Rachel's arm. Angelus nodded to Spike who stepped between them and placed an arm around Willow's waist.
"Just like you said Red, we're going - for a walk. Be back in a bit mate." Much to Willow's protests Rachel watched them walk out of the park. She was now left talking with what Willow described as a dangerous soulless killer. But he seemed everything but that.
 
 

All of a sudden Angelus spoke. "So little one do you like roses?" Rachel smiled. How could a soulless killer talk about flowers? Willow was probably exaggerating about vampires and way too drunk.
"Yes I do actually, no particular colour though. Black, red, and white they're all equal in my eyes." Angelus smiled and held out his arm. "Black and red, my two favourite colours. Come I have an old mansion that has wonderful gardens. My -- sister Drucilla used to love roses."
"What happened to her? Willow used to know her right?" Rachel asked, that name sounded familiar to her, someone Willow knew. Angelus could tell that this girl didn't know too much about Sunnydale and the creatures that walked the night or much about his little 'family'.
"She died a few months ago. Willow used to be friends with her. She did look a lot like you."
 
 

Angelus gave her a tour of the Crawford Street mansion and a very glossed over version of life as a vampire. Rachel was starting to wonder what Willow's problem with vampires was, they seemed alright, just misunderstood. Angelus was very proud of his persuasion skills, she was playing right into his hands.
"So what do you think of eternal life little one? Want to give it a try." He smiled as warmly as possible, handing her one of the roses from the garden. Rachel inhaled the hypnotic scent.
"Maybe." Angelus took that as a yes. Before Rachel had a chance to blink, he bit into her neck and started to drain the life out of her. The delicate petals of the blood-red rose softly fluttered to the ground.
 

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