Title: Too Much Grief 6/10
Authors: Eaglewolf & Donna (aka-Cashew)
Rating: NC-17 over all
Feedback: Please. It's always appreciated.
Disclaimer: Joss, Fox, and everyone else in their sandbox own it.

Spike watched the pair from the shadows, a choking kind of sadness closing his throat. Buffy, the golden glorious Slayer reduced to this… this mindless casual cruelty. He turned burning eyes to the Watcher. Word had filtered through that HE'D done this to her. Had turned her in a frenzy of grief. Spike didn't care why he'd done it, just that he had. Better the Slayer be dead than be this.

Spike advanced on the pair, body stiff with a mixture of rage and burning sadness.

"Watcher!" he snarled, capturing their attention. Giles let the body he was feeding on drop to the ground. Spike looked at Giles in disgust; it was a child, not more than 12 or 13 years old. Even in all his years with Angelus as William the Bloody, he had drawn the line at children.

Giles stared at Spike impassively, eyes cold. He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, relishing the sweet taste of young blood. "Spike. To what do we owe the dubious pleasure of your company? Care to join us?" Giles gestured at the litter of bodies; all that was left of a lost Boy Scout troop. Buffy ignored the two, busy enjoying her late night snack.

Spike snarled at Giles,

"You turned her you bloody bastard! She was the Slayer! The finest..." Spike broke of rage and despair clogging his throat.

Giles sneered at Spike,

"Aw, you gonna cry? Go boo-hoo? Poncy sod! If you would've thought of it, you would have turned her yourself!"

Spike stared at the remains of a man that he once had greatly admired, had respected. That was the legacy of the chip in his head, it had forced him to see humans for what they really were, not just happy meals on legs.

"That's were you're wrong Ripper." Spike said, despair coating every word.

"I loved her enough to let her die." A blood red tear trickled down a sculpted cheek at the sight of Buffy, sitting splayed legged on the ground with an angelic looking whimpering boy across her lap; blood dripping down her chin as she greedily drained the wailing child.

Giles laughed in Spikes face. "Get out of here Spike. Be a good boy and go away."

Spike whirled away from the sight of Buffy feeding; he was sickened beyond words. Hatred shining in his eyes he advanced towards Giles.

"I couldn't touch you while you lived, but you just made your final mistake, you became a demon." Drawing closer to an indifferent Giles, Spike pulled out a stake from his duster. Giles raised an amused brow. "You'll pay dearly for...."

"Shut up Spike!" A look of amazed surprised betrayal spread across Spike's face as his lips formed Buffy’s name a second before he 'poofed.'

Buffy lowered the stake to her side and grinned at her Sire. Buffy dropped the stake and went back to her snack, picking up the scout leader who was desperately trying to crawl away.

Giles just grinned as he trod upon the remains of Spike 'William the Bloody' rejoining his childe in the snack.

Buffy turned her head as she noticed a familiar blonde figure walking briskly across the quad.

"Giles," she motioned towards the woman with her head. A feral grin crossed the Watchers face as he rubbed his hands together.

"Mmm..Let's go have some fun." Buffy grinned back, licking the last of the lost Boy Scouts blood from her lips. They followed a safe distance away, not wanting their prey to know that they were being stalked.

Tara shivered and looked around behind her. She felt as if she was being watched and with this being Sunnydale, you could never be too sure if what was watching you was friend or foe. She was worried about Willow. Ever since she'd heard about Buffy’s death she'd been trying to get out of her commitments and come back home to her love. Seeing nothing behind her, she just hurried into the dorm and up to their room, closing the door with a sigh of relief. She petted a purring Miss Kitty and tossed her bag on the bed.

Hearing a knock on the door she frowned, not really in the mood for visitors. She considered ignoring it. After all she was back early, no one was expecting her, but if it was someone from the dorm they must've seen her come in. Sighing she crossed to the door and opened it, swallowing a gasp as she saw Giles standing there looking pale and shaken.

"Tara... " Giles whispered, "May I... Come in?"

Tara swallowed and for some reason nodded nervously. Giles walked into the room, his face stony.

"Tara... I'm so sorry. I don't know how to tell you this... but Buffy was turned. She… Willow... Willow's gone."

Tara gasped collapsing on the bed; the shock of the news overwhelming her senses, not allowing her to senses the wrongness about Giles.

Giles knelt before Tara. "We can't find Willow Tara. I saw you across the quad and followed you. I... I was hoping you could do a locator spell." He raised pain filled eyes to the trembling blond.

"I lost Buffy." His voice was husky, pain filled. "I can't loose Willow too, neither can you. Help me?"

"Oh Giles." Tara whispered her eyes filling with tears as she went to wrap her arms around the older man.

"I'm so sorry. I came as soon as I could."
She closed her eyes as she held him, wanting to take away his pain, wishing there was a way to stop him from suffering. It was then that she noticed... how cold he was.

"G..G..Giles." Tara stammered pulling away from the Watcher, eyes shocked, not wanting to believe what she was feeling.

"Na uh" Giles said pleasantly gripping her wrists in a hard grip.

"You stay put." He heard a slight commotion in the hall and his smile chilled Tara to the bone.

"Invite her in." He ordered pleasantly. Tara firmed her lips.

"Invite her in." He snarled, grinding her bones together. Tara gasped and hesitantly said to come in. She gasped as Buffy sauntered through the doorway dragging a woman behind her.

"Play time?" Buffy asked grinning wickedly.
Giles' answering smile was cold.

"You sure do like to play my love, don't you?"
Buffy clapped her hands and bounced up and down.

"Love to play. Love, love, love it."

Giles grabbed Tara by the neck and motioned to Buffy. Buffy pulled duct tape out of her pocket and ripped off a piece, placing it across Tara's lips before she kissed the young witch.

"Oh! By the way, don't worry... Willow's fine. Her time will come."

"Oh Giles, just imagine Willow coming home to find Tara here face down on the ground. OOH it gives me shivers just thinking about it."

"So this is for?" Giles gestured to the unconscious woman.

"Dinner!" Buffy winked.

"I wanna have a lot of fun with witchy here. I’m gonna be very hungry when we’re through. Oh won't it be delicious when Willow finds her?" Buffy gestured to a trembling Tara. Giles chuckled and told to her to have her fun.

~~~~~~~~

It had been two days since Buffy and Giles had risen. Two days since they took the only thing that mattered. Xander dropped his head into his hands and stifled a moan. They had searched every crypt in Sunnyhell to no avail. They couldn't find them anywhere. Xander let out a sob, poor Anya. He had failed her, like he had failed everything important in his life. He looked up at the sound of his apartment door opening; hoping beyond sense that is was Anya. It wasn't. It was Willow. He looked up at her, eyes red rimmed, face haggard. Willow shook her head, no luck. For some reason the locator spell hadn't worked.

Willow sat next to Xander on the couch and laid her head on his shoulder, sharing his grief.

"Maybe if I did the spell in the dorm room. Tara's presence is strong there, maybe that will help."

Xander sighed and nodded.

"Oh Willow." Xander sobbed, the loss becoming too much to bear.

Willow wrapped her arms around him and just held him, rocking back and forth. Her grief ran too deep for tears. After a while, Willow pulled away and wiped the tears from Xanders face.

"C'mon Xander lets go find them. And then find whoever did this to them, make them pay."

Xander nodded his head and let Willow pull him through the apartment and out the door. Willow glanced down as Xander stopped to lock the door and took a small jump backwards.

"Xander?" She said bending down to examine the object closer, she felt the bile rise in her throat, but she'd seen worse in her high school days.

"Yeah, Will?" Xander sounded tired, like he'd had more than enough to deal with, and Willow didn't want to pile anything else on top of him.

"Have a look at this." She said picking up the severed ear and holding it out in her palm to show Xander.

Xander went white and he whispered one word, "Anya."
He looked at Willow and the steel in his eyes frightened her.

"I'm going to kill them Willow." His face was set in grim determination. He knew it was Anya's ear because it still had the diamond earrings he'd given her for Christmas attached. She *never* took them off. Giles and Buffy were going to pay and pay dearly.

~~~~~~~~

They arrived at the dorm room. Willow noticed the door wasn't closed all the way. Her stomach clenched in icy fear. She gingerly pushed the door open with her foot calling out Tara's name.

"Wills? Isn't Tara due back tomorrow?"

"Shh." Willow hushed Xander.

Willow felt on the wall for the light switch before opening the door all the way. She slowly entered the room, Xander at her heels. Her jaw dropped open in shock at the destruction. Someone had trashed the room. Clothes and belongings were strewn all over. Something crunched under foot. Willow looked down to see her foot had stepped through a framed picture of her and Tara, ripping the photo in half.

"Oh my god!" Xander whispered, appalled at the destruction.

"Why would anyone do this? It doesn't make since."

Willows eyes widened. "Miss Kitty!" She exclaimed.

"Where is Miss Kitty?" She started calling the cat in panic, wading through the tangle of belongings. She kicked aside some clothes to get to the bed and tripped, falling to one knee. Willow looked down to see what had tripped her and screamed.

"Why do I always find the bodies?" She moaned. She hesitantly reached down to pull clothing from the body. As she uncovered the person, her body stiffened in dread. Willow uncovered the head and never realized that the screams she vaguely heard in the distance where her own.

Xander rushed over to Willow’s side at her first scream. He clapped his hand over his mouth to try and keep down the gorge that threatened to erupt. It was what was left of Tara. Her face had been stripped off, just her ears and head where untouched. Her blond hair was red with blood around her face. The sweater that Willow had just bought her was soaked with blood and torn away to reveal countless bite marks, unmistakably vampire. Xander lost the battle with his gorge and whirling, threw up. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, tears rolling down his face.

"Willow!" He tried to yell over the Witches screams. He grimaced and slapped her across her face. Willows head snapped to the side and the screams stopped.

"Xander!" She sobbed. "Tara!" Xander pulled her face against his stomach, stroking her hair, rocking her back and forth.

"Willow, we need to get out of here. They might come back." There was no need to say who 'they ' were. Willow and Xander both knew who had done this, they just didn't know why. It was Xander’s turn to pull Willow from the room and outside. Willow followed, feeling numb. She was going to have to stake them, destroy them. She ran into Xander’s back as he stopped dead.

"Xander? Why..." Her voice trailed off at the absolute stillness of his body. She walked around him and she in turn stopped dead.

"Anya." Xander breathed her name in pure joy.

"You're alive!"
He started towards her, a smile of happiness spreading across his face.

"Xander." Willow began; something about the way Anya looked was setting off warning bells.

"Wait!"

Something slammed against Willows head and she felt a searing pain as the world went black.

Xander stumbled as Willow fell into his back. He whirled around just in time to catch her before she hit the pavement. A pair of feet stepped into his view. Startled he looked up, shock robbing him of speech. Something slammed against his head and the world went black.

Buffy smiled down at the pair sprawled at her feet. She grinned at Anya.

"Well, I guess we won't be going to the mall after all."

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