Bliss Took Hold 28
by Danielle

A lone demon stood in front of the cave when they arrived, and Buffy approached brazenly.

 

“Now what’s a guy like you doing in a nice place like this?” She tilted her head innocently as her throwing knife hit it between the eyes.

 

Riley and Angel walked over, looking down at the body with disappointment.

 

“That’s it?” they said at the same time.

 

“Okay, that’s just creepy...” Willow chimed in from behind them.

 

Buffy pointed at Riley and reprimanded, “Remember, you’re on back-up duty *only*, buster.”

 

Xander and Spike followed Tara and Giles, and suddenly Spike whipped around, snarling. The group looked back to see more than a dozen Ghorlocks closing in from behind them.

 

The blonde vampire leaped into the closest four, wincing as the first shock hit him. He managed to impale two of them on his sword before getting scratched down the side by one.  Xander raised his axe and sliced off the demon’s hands, looking back to see what the others were doing.

 

Willow had slammed two against a tree, knocking them cold; then Tara and Giles ran to the fallen demons to finish them off. Riley had gotten zapped, and Angel helped him up after removing the Ghorlock’s head. The Slayer had two cornered and was being electrocuted by a demon behind her.

 

Xander glanced back at Spike, who was ferociously beating and hacking at three more demons; then the human ran to help Buffy.

 

He tripped over something on the way to her, feeling a slight tingling in his leg. Ignoring it, he buried his axe in the Ghorlock’s back, watching it go down with a detached feeling. Finally looking down, he saw the problem. The side of his calf had several wicked looking needles in it. His leg felt numb and tingly, and he watched as several grey, vein-y lines etched themselves just under his skin. Mesmerized, he saw that it took only a minute to turn the skin between the top of his sock and the bottom of his baggy shorts a sickly grey color.

 

Giles ran to him, examining his leg. The fighting was almost over, but the fiercest demons had yet to fall.