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The cold London air was making her shiver, and the black leather coat she wore was doing little to warm her. Despite having moved across the big sea a while ago now, she still missed the California heat sometimes. Great Britain was too gray, too cold, and definitely too rainy for her.
Still, it was the best place for her at the moment. Her business in London had finally concluded today, and she was more than glad to be taking the train up north again tomorrow.
Her hotel was only a fifteen-minute walk from the restaurant they had held the meeting at earlier, so she had decided to walk back. However, the colder it got, the more she regretted her choice.
The streets of London were dark at this time of night, and the part of town she was currently walking through was rather deserted. A normal person would probably have been scared. Not her, though.
Never her, not when she was more dangerous than anything you could encounter on a night out.
If anything, she kind of hoped something would jump out of the shadows and try to attack her. At least the fighting would warm her up a bit, and she was still feeling on edge from the meeting earlier.
Maybe that was the reason why she decided to take a closer look into the next dark alley that she walked past. You never knew what might lurk there.
At first, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. The street was empty except for two men that had just stumbled out of what she assumed was the back entrance to the bar next door.
They seemed to be arguing about something, but unfortunately, she wasn’t close enough to hear them. Carefully, to stay hidden in the shadows, she moved closer. Just when she had gotten within earshot, the shorter of the two men suddenly grabbed the other by the wrists and pinned him against the wall.
His porcelain white skin glistened under the moonlight, and despite the cold, he was only wearing a t-shirt. From what she could see of his clothes, they looked very 90s-adjacent—it wasn’t enough to convince her he was a vampire just yet, but it was common for them to stay somewhat trapped in the decade they were turned. Fashion-wise, at least.
Or maybe she was just reading into things because she was itching for a fight. She didn’t see anything else out of the ordinary, except for the fact that the guy had perfectly bleached, almost white-looking hair that looked just a little too familiar.
She shook her head. Just because someone happened to have the same haircut as Spike really didn’t mean anything. Especially since the other man didn’t seem bothered by the situation he was in. She couldn’t see his face very well, but he almost seemed happy to be trapped by the other.
She sighed and was just about to turn around when the blond guy suddenly attached himself to the taller man’s neck, who in return let out a scream.
Oh well, maybe she would warm up after all.
Years of experience meant she didn’t even have to think about her next move. It might have been a while since she had gone patrolling like this, but like riding a bike, she’d never unlearn it.
She quickly jumped out from her hiding place in the shadow and pulled the vampire away from the other man and threw him a couple of meters away. His scream was higher than she had expected, but she didn’t have time to analyze that right now.
The second man stared at her with a mixture of both shock and surprise on his face. He had curly hair and was dressed almost entirely in black. He also didn’t make any attempt to move away from the situation.
“Run,” she instructed, short but affirmative. She couldn’t see a bite mark on his neck yet, but sometimes the victims were too shocked by the course of events their night had taken to run away without instructions. And she didn’t want him around in case this got ugly.
She turned around, ready to face the vampire head-on when she saw that he hadn’t gotten up yet. Well, not really. He was trying, but he hadn’t managed to do more than sit up yet.
Before she could investigate further, she suddenly sensed a presence behind her back. The vampire, behind her, copied her move from before and grabbed her by the waist and held her up. She quickly scanned the area, trying to figure out where the second had come from but didn’t see any obvious entrance. Hopefully that meant there wouldn’t be more.
She rammed her elbows into both sides of his ribcage and was just about to kick his legs as well when he let her go. Ugh, now her coat was dirty from falling onto the dirty street. Quickly, she got up again and moved far away enough to have an eye on both vampires before turning to face the second one.
It was safe to say she was surprised when she saw that her latest attacker was the same curly-haired man she had just saved. “What the hell?” she couldn’t help but yell.
“I just saved you. What was that for?”
The second guy at least seemed to be recovering faster than the first, who was just now sitting up and holding his head. Strange.
“Saved me?” He answered, the curly-haired guy answered, equally confused, “You threw my boy- no my friend against a wall.”
“He’s not your friend, trust me. He was about to kill you.” Usually, she didn’t make a habit out of arguing with the victims like this, but they also usually didn’t attack her.
But before she could devote any more time to arguing with idiotic strangers, she needed to get rid of the vamp. Considering he still hadn’t moved, it shouldn’t be too complicated anyway. She pulled out her stake, always hidden in her coat, and walked towards him.
This close up she could see that he wasn’t bumpy anymore and seemed to be busier checking his body for wounds than anything. Well, maybe he hadn’t fed in a while; they could get rather weak then.
This time she heard the other guy move before she felt him. She sighed. What was wrong with that one? Still, she hoped that with a quick stab to the heart, this would all be over.
The stake was already in motion when the vampire finally looked up at her. She was expecting fear, anger, rage anything along those lines. Instead, the guy looked at her like she just told him Christmas had come early this year.
“Buffy? Is it really you? I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. This is so great. Dan, come over here, it’s Buffy.” What? She had killed countless vampires, demons, and other creatures during her time as the Slayer, and many of them had known her name.
None of them had ever said something like this to her, though.
“What?” She was still holding the stake but wasn’t moving it anymore. Something truly strange was going on here.
“Right, you probably don’t remember-“
“Phil, stop talking to our attacker. Don’t give her any more information.” The curly-haired guy, who she assumed must be Dan, had made it to them. He squeezed himself between her and Phil? What kind of vampire named himself Phil?
She dropped the stake. Not only was Dan now protecting this Phil guy with his body, but she also truly wasn’t sure what was going on anymore.
“No, it’s okay, Dan. It’s Buffy. Remember the girl who saved me-“
“Saved you from that ‘vampire’ in California?” Dan sighed, “Of course we’re being attacked, and you immediately think of that story.”
“It’s not a story,” Phil now seemed annoyed, “and I promise that’s her.”
Dan slowly turned around to her, clearly still skeptical. She probably wasn’t the best at putting together puzzle pieces like this, but she was almost a hundred percent sure now that neither of these men were actually vampires.
“What do you want?” Dan asked, his voice harder than before. He was clearly trying to appear stronger than he was. “And if possible, could you please tell this idiot here that you’re not a vampire slayer and are probably trying to kill us or like steal our wallets? Whatever criminals do.”
She couldn’t help but chuckle. “Sorry, but just to be clear, neither of you are vampires? Because your boyfriend over there is right, I actually am the slayer.”
“See, I told you.” Phil started shaking Dan’s shoulder, clearly very excited. Dan in turn looked even more confused than before.
“But-“
“We’re not vampires,” Phil supplied, “But I’m a huge fan. You probably don’t remember, but you saved me from a vampire when I was like twelve and on vacation in California with my family. I’ve been trying to find out more about you ever since, but everyone just says I’m crazy. I never thought I’d see you again.”
“Oh, well, ahem. Thank you.” It actually felt kind of nice to be appreciated for her work by people outside of her circles for once.
“Wait, but if that’s ‘Buffy,’ I thought you said she protected the world from evil. Why did you attack us? Oh god, was it our last pod episode? I swear I was only joking.” Dan answered, clearly still confused.
“Ah, about that,” she couldn’t help but be at least a little embarrassed. This hadn’t happened to her in years. “I do. Only fight evil, I mean. I saw him ahem at your neck, and you screamed, so- I kinda-“
“Oh my god, you thought I was a vampire? That’s so cool. I’m not, though. I promise, you can do any checks you want. Dan just has a sensitive neck, and I was using that to try and convince him to get my jacket from inside. I forgot it, and it would be so awkward to go back in.”
“And it wouldn’t be awkward for me?” Dan answered, looking rather embarrassed and shielding his neck.
“Okay, I really don’t need the details,” she decided to help Dan out, “as long as neither of you are dead, I don’t have any business here. And I’m sorry for throwing you against the wall.” She directed that last part towards Phil.
“Hey, you kicked me too,” Dan protested.
“Well, to be fair, you attacked me.”
“Only because you attacked Phil. What was I supposed to do, just let you throw him against the wall?”
Before she could argue again, Phil interrupted them, “Awe. I knew you would protect me with your life if necessary. Is that why you’ve been going to the gym?”
“Yeah right, I’m only keeping you around because you know how to do the laundry.”
“Pfft. You love me.”
She had to say, in all her years of slaying, she had never had an encounter like this. But she couldn’t deny that it was funny to hear them bicker like that.
Eventually, she helped them both off the dirty street, as if it seemed her coat wasn’t the only casualty tonight, and checked that neither of them were vampires (both definitely had a pulse). She was ready to say her goodbyes.
“Wait,” Phil said, suddenly looking shy, “could you sign something for me? I really am a fan.” Dan rolled his eyes at Phil’s request, but even that wasn’t enough to hide the fondness in them.
Huh? That really was a first. “Ahem, sure, yeah. Why not? I figure I owe you after throwing you against a wall.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Phil answered before producing a Sharpie and his phone case from his pockets.
“Yeah, right,” she heard Dan mumble, “you’ll complain about the bruises for weeks.” But he didn’t actually look mad. If anything, he looked still a bit suspicious of her. Like she might try to hurt Phil again, from his stance she could tell he was definitely still shielding Phil from her.
Well, if someone had attacked one of her loved ones like she just had, she probably wouldn’t have acted any different.
They said their goodbyes afterward, but she still heard them arguing while she left the alley.
“See, I told you she is real. And she thought I was cool and mysterious.”
“She thought you were a vampire, probably because you are so fucking pale.”
“Uh-uh, she thought I was a vampire because you can’t keep still when I touch your neck.”
“Yes. Which you know, why did you do that in public in the first place?”
“We still need my jacket.”
“Right. Wait, does this mean vampires actually exist?”