Musical Wars
Chapter 8
Where exactly would you find a listing for demon psychiatrists? Or maybe demonic psychiatrists. Except demonic psychiatrist sounded way too much like the tag line for some horror film where a psychiatrist ended up being some demon who sucked brains. Baby sent up his own opinions with bitter, sharp condemnation for the idea that they needed a psychiatrist. Xander was fairly sure that the stabbing stomach pains were Baby too.
"Xander?"
Xander continued to stare at the white wall, refusing to even look at Willow. He followed a fairly interesting crack that wandered up the wall and split into three tributaries that flowed up the drywall to the ceiling.
"Xander? Angel said you might want to talk, and he's not really good with the whole talking part of relationships. He's more with the slightly stalkerish following you through the night and killing things for you, which is certainly a legitimate form of expressing friendship, but not always helpful."
The couch dipped as Willow sat down next to him, but Xander couldn't even come up with any words to answer her. His thoughts had become smoke, and every attempt to pin them down to a feeling or a word just sent little wisps of half-thoughts floating through his brain.
"Angel seems pretty upset," Willow offered after a second.
Xander couldn't even place the emotion that slammed through him, but it was definitely not of the good. 'Enormity.' The word floated up from some English class on a day when Xander hadn't been sleeping. Enormity: abomination, heinousness, horror, monstrosity. Xander just couldn't figure out whether the enormity was Angel being upset or the twisted emotions in his own head over the fact he had upset Angel. He wondered if his English teacher would be proud of him for remembering that word. Then again, it probably didn't make up for the fact that he couldn't remember any of those books they always read.
"Xander, you're kinda freaking me out here. I mean, I know how hard it is to lose someone because... well, you know." Willow's words trailed off miserably, and Xander glanced over. The perky Willow of his memory had been replaced with a wide-eyed young woman who looked on the verge of crying.
"I just need some time to deal. I'll be--" Xander tried to assure her that he'd be okay, but his voice cracked and he couldn't say it.
"Yeah, it kinda hurts like someone's ripping out your guts."
"Yeah," Xander whispered his agreement, his throat tight.
"So, come upstairs?" Willow asked as she stood up and held out her hand. Xander blinked at it for several seconds before reaching out to take it. Baby growled at the smell of the blood thumping just under her pale skin, and Xander closed his eyes in silent struggle for a second.
"Goddess!" Willow screeched just as Xander stood.
Before Xander could even open his mouth, the basement door flew open and Angel charged down the steps so fast that the pounding footsteps became a single rattling roar.
"Willow?" Angel asked, but his hand fell on Xander's arm, jerking Xander to his side. Part of Xander wanted to yank his arm away and stand on his own, but another part wanted to hide behind Angel as Willow stared at them in shock.
"Willow? Willow, what happened?" Jenny asked as she detoured around Xander and Angel to put her hand on Willow's shoulder.
"Angel bit him!" Willow nearly wailed. Xander put up his hand to touch the new claim bite, and the skin felt hot and sticky to the touch. He had an urge to suck at his fingers, but he didn't think that would erase the horrified expression from Willow's face.
"It isn't what you think. I can explain," Angel said as his fingers tightened on Xander's upper arm.
"Yes, do explain. Perhaps your explanation will convince me not to put a stake through your heart."
Xander spun around to see a strange man holding a crossbow aimed directly at Angel. Xander instantly twisted to get in front of Angel, but the iron hand on his arm thrust him back and out of the way. Fear crushed him as the man raised the crossbow an inch.
"Giles," Angel said softly.
"I thought I made it clear that I never wanted to see you again," the man answered. His slightly receding hairline had just enough curl to frame his face, and Xander could see in his eyes a desperate desire to turn Angel to dust. He tried again to move closer, only to have Angel's fingers dig into his flesh hard enough to make tears of pain blur his vision.
"Rupert, I told you I was calling him," Jenny stepped forward, putting herself between Giles and Angel.
"You told me he was going to pick someone up. You didn't mention that you were going to ask the blood-thirsty monster into our house."
Angel flinched.
"I've told you how sorry I am. I just came here for Xander, and we're going to head back for L.A. as soon as the sun sets tomorrow." Angel took a step forward so that he was standing just behind Jenny, and Xander got dragged along with him.
"Get away from her," Giles practically yelled as he charged down the last few steps in order to get a better shot.
"Rupert," Jenny said in a warning tone, and now Xander could smell a familiar scent drifting off the man. Even without Baby's sense of smell he knew that Giles had been drinking.
"You just can't stay out of my life, can you? If I see you again--"
"Giles!" Willow cried at the same time that Jenny stepped forward with a serious expression on her face.
"Rupert, do not finish that thought. You know as well as we do that Angel is not Angelus. He feels as badly about Kendra's death as the rest of us."
For a long second, Giles stared at Jenny with a blank expression that made Xander worry more than screaming or yelling or even threatening with pointy wooden objects. Growing up in his father's house, he'd learned to deal with the drunken anger with its random accusations and bitter jokes. He'd learned to deal with the manic glee that would make his father laugh and rip apart some part of the house in a half-assed attempt at home renovation. He'd learned to avoid those depressed moments when his father would sob and tell Xander how much better his life would have been if Jessica just hadn't gotten pregnant. He'd slur advice to Xander to pay for an abortion if he got some girl pregnant.
Alcohol set loose ugly emotions that slowly made Xander hate his father, even if he still loved the man, and again with the need for psychiatric help. However, after they moved to L.A. and things got really ugly, his father would reach these points where he didn't seem to have any emotion, and that's when he did things that Xander really didn't even like to think about. And Giles had the same look. Xander trembled with a need to get between Angel and that cross bow.
"I doubt that very much," Giles finally said. "And I don't really see that much of a difference between Angel and Angelus, especially since he has clearly just put a claim mark on a young man in my basement."
"Claim mark?" Jenny turned around an looked at Xander. Behind him, he could hear Willow gasp.
"It's not what it seems," Angel quickly said. He let go of Xander's arm, but Xander simply stepped closer.
"Pray tell, how is it different?" Giles' sarcasm made Angel's back go a little stiffer.
"He's carried a demon for years, but with William's death, he struggled to get control of it. I simply stepped in to help him."
"Of course. Your motives are always pure." Giles snapped back. Raising the crossbow another half-inch, Giles sidestepped to get a clear line of fire without having Jenny in the way. Immediately, Xander stepped forward, putting his own body between the two men.
Without warning, Angel used vampiric speed to move to the bottom of the stairs. Xander would have followed, but Angel held his hand up, palm forward. "You stay," he ordered. "Willow and Jenny, would you stay with him while Giles and I have a talk?"
Angel turned and climbed the stairs without another word. Inside, Xander could feel Baby curling into a tight ball of pain. Not childe. Not someone to keep close and rely on. Not even a fledge to protect. Irrelevant. Left behind with humans. Minion.
Xander lost his breath as Giles turned to follow Angel up the stairs, and part of him still wanted to throw himself at Giles since the thought of losing Angel ripped at him even if he didn't really like Angel, and even Angel was clearly not big with the Xander-love. Feeling a tightness around his chest that made breathing hard, Xander turned back to the couch with heavy steps, Baby twisting in a need to prove himself as worthy of more than minion even as Angel's orders left him trapped in the basement.
"Maybe I should," Jenny let her words drop off, but she gestured toward the stairs.
"Oh yeah, definitely," Willow agreed.
Xander pulled his knees up and wrapped his arms around them. His face felt funny, like the time when he hyperventilated at school and his skin felt all tingly and cold. Minion. The word rattled around in his head, making Baby growl with a desperate, painful need to prove otherwise.
He didn't move when Jenny followed the two men out of the basement.
"Giles won't do anything... well, nothing permanent," Willow assured him. She smelled nervous, and Xander glanced over toward her. She jumped and scuttled backwards a couple of feet.
"Okay, that's just weird. So this is... what... normal? This isn't looking normal, but then I'm the girl that went all grrrrr and ate a principal, so I don't really have much room to be talking normal."
Xander lay his cheek on his knee and listened to the bits of conversation he could hear from upstairs.
"Buffy?" Xander asked Willow. She glanced up at the ceiling for a second.
"You can hear them? So, it's not just skin-deep, the whole demon upgrade? So, does that make you a demi-demon? Okay, this conversation is getting weird, weirder even than most Sunnydale conversations."
"What's the whole story with Buffy?" Xander repeated his question. Willow watched him suspiciously, twisting her fingers and chewing on her lower lip. She looked like the little girl who, in third grade, nearly cried when she didn't have an answer.
"Buffy. Okay, I can answer that, but let's play that game we played as kids."
Xander stared at her for a second, his brain slow to pull out the memories of his childhood. "You mean the one we made up after me and Jesse refused to play doctor with you any more?" Xander asked.
Willow blushed. "Someone could have told me I was playing wrong," she said softly, but the tension drained from her body as she sagged down into the chair. Of course, she still stayed between him and the stairs, and that wasn't lost on Xander at all.
"We just got tired of you poking sticks in our mouths and using that flashlight to look into our ears," Xander shrugged.
"But that's what a doctor--. Never mind. So, your answer is that Buffy was two slayers before Faith. The Master drowned her, and Angel brought her back with CPR, but he must have been too late or pushed too hard or something because she went into a coma and never came out."
"I already knew that part. Why does Giles blame Angel?" Xander asked.
"Oh, maybe because he drinks a little too much and doesn't always go with the rational explanation. Well, he used to drink too much. And obviously has drunk too much today, but normally he's much better now. But anyway, when he drinks, he thinks Angel and the Master had some sort of deal or something."
Xander glanced up. If Spike was right, Angel did have a deal with the Master, but this might not be the time to bring it up. In fact, from the shouting, never would be a really good time for that discussion. He tried to comfort himself with the fact that Giles and Jenny seemed to be doing most of the actual yelling.
Baby circled and made little mewls of distress at being banished from trying to protect master.
"So, my turn. What's up with the whole demon face? I'm thinking I would have noticed if you were a demon, but then again, I was remarkably unnoticey until I met Buffy."
"I got attacked. A demon's blood mixed with mine and I sort of inherited Baby by mistake," Xander offered. Baby growled and threw himself against Xander's mind as he roared his displeasure. He wasn't a mistake. He wasn't a minion. Xander just closed his eyes and let himself ride out the pain.
"Okay. That's... Can't they get him out?"
"He's part of me, Willow, and that was your second question, so my turn. Who's Kendra?"
Willow paled. "She was Giles' second slayer." She shifted nervously and stared down at her feet.
"Faith is getting into this fight. I guess she's up now." Xander said as a new voice joined the fight. Willow made a funny noise.
"Xander, it's a little before midnight. You sat and did the staring thing for a really long time. We were ready to check to see if you had mold growing on you." Willow tried to make it a joke, but not even she could laugh. "You worried me," she whispered. She still smelled faintly of fear and sweat, but those smells faded under something warmer. Xander struggled to find a way to reach out to her, but he couldn't find the words that would tell her that he still loved her, even if he wasn't the same person she'd known before.
"So, what's up with Kendra?" he asked instead. Baby slowly circled and settled, and Xander felt a popping in his nose that made his eyes tear and his cheekbones ache. He reached up to rub away the soreness, and Willow visibly relaxed.
"Not that I don't like the new look, but I'm a kinda fond of the old look," Willow said. Before Xander could answer, she kept going. "Giles really loved her. Buffy was his slayer, but Kendra was more like a daughter. She worshipped the ground Giles walked on and she was this really neat girl, really neat." Willow stopped, and Xander could smell the salt. "That's my fault too. I wanted to make Angel happy. He would just sit by Buffy's bed with this expression like he was lost, and I wanted to show him that he didn't have to feel guilty all the time, and so I cast this happiness spell. Only he wasn't as much with the happiness as he was with the psychotic killing. Kendra died trying to protect me. Angelus killed her."
"And that's why Giles hates Angel." Xander didn't even say it as a question; he knew the answer from the fighting upstairs.
"Big with the hate. She had this really cool accent, and the first time we met her, I thought Wendell would swallow his tongue, which might have been embarrassing except that she blushed and started stammering and it was really love at first bumble." Willow's voice had a soft sadness to it even if she did smile. "After Kendra died, Wendell really was miserable. I think Larry asked him to prom just to cheer him up, but who knows, maybe he and Larry might have made it if I hadn't--" Willow stopped. And they were back to the squish story. Xander struggled to imagine Willow having to deal with so much pain and loss.
"You've had a hard time, huh?" Xander asked.
Willow shrugged. "Not so easy when demons pretty well run the town. Angel hung around as long as he could, but he was miserable about hurting Buffy, and Giles just drank more and more when he was around. Besides, Faith is holding her own and when we need extra help, Larry and Oz and even Devon will sometimes show up with a stake."
"You and Larry working together, huh? So not natural," Xander tried for a joke. Upstairs voices came through so loud that even Willow glanced up. He doubted she could hear the words, but he could. Angel hadn't wanted him. Angel had to take him or else the demon Xander carried might overwhelm him. Angel would do what he could to excise the demon.
Baby's presence faded as the demon retreated. Xander only realized he had gone into demon vision when it disappeared, leaving the basement dim and blurry. In the back of his mind, Xander could feel a cold acceptance, but he wasn't as ready to give up as Baby was.
"Xander?" Willow asked as Xander stood. Stairs were out. He definitely couldn't go up against Angel, not with his demon in full retreat. One wall of the basement had a row of high windows, short, fat windows that Xander could see grass on the other side of. Grabbing the coffee table, he dragged it to the wall.
"Xander, I don't think this is such a good idea. Um, I'm thinking this is really a very bad idea."
Xander ignored her. Standing on the coffee table, he fought with the rusty latch.
"Okay, I really don't want to have to tell on you, but I so will, mister."
Xander dismissed her threats as the window opened with a rusty groan and the sharp crack as the painted wood split.
"Mister, don't you dare."
Xander grabbed the sides of the window and pulled himself up until his belly rested on Giles' lawn. A nearly full moon cast cold light over the trees and bushes, making them look almost bluish. Hands grabbed his ankle, and Xander yanked his leg, squirming to get free of the basement.
When Willow screamed, he scrambled up. Giles' nice little home with its picket fence and white siding burst to life with shouts and a few particularly nasty curses. Xander ran for the trees
Hours later, Xander sat in a graveyard watching a few last fledges head for crypts as the first birds of dawn whistled. The sky was just as dark as when he'd fled Giles' house, but Xander could feel the dawn in Baby's rising discomfort. He'd wandered the town as he considered his options. The only one that made sense was staying in town and praying Jenny and Willow weren't as good as everyone seemed to think. After all, Willow had gotten that one wrong answer back in third grade.
Xander flinched at his own patheticness. The odds of Spike just showing up… not really going to happen. Fact is, his plan sucked turkey eggs, only it sucked less than any other plan he'd come up with.
Baby still voted on going to the court and prostrating himself in front of the Anointed One to try and earn a place there, but Xander wasn't big on the eating of random people and doing acts of random mayhem. Neither of them really wanted to go back to Angel, even if Baby did feel some perverse loyalty toward a master who wanted to cut him right out of Xander's mind.
Xander allowed his mind to wander back to Spike. Settling in on a headstone, he imagined his sire striding across the graveyard, his leather coat flapping open on each side making Spike look bigger than life. Spike would issue a random curse like 'bloody hell' or 'soddin' twit' and then pop him upside his head for even thinking Spike would leave him.
Feeling the tears, Xander just sat and let them fall. Spike hadn't abandoned him, but he still felt angry. Spike was supposed to be immortal. Spike wasn't supposed to leave him.
Xander heard a heartbeat and wiped the back of his hands over his eyes. He'd dodged Willow and Tara and Jenny and Angel and Faith a dozen times tonight, but he was just too damn tired to keep running. If they found him, maybe he wouldn't have to make a decision because they were all for making his decisions for him.
The pins and needles tingling started at the base of his spine—slayer.
Faith walked up to him, stopping nearby and leaning on the next headstone over. Xander waited.
"So, you worried people, buddy."
Xander just stared at Faith, feeling Baby circling darkly at the Slayer's sympathy. He didn't need sympathy from a slayer. Shaking off the sudden anger, Xander shrugged. The cemetery was so quiet that the leaves rustling made a backdrop for the songs of the morning birds.
"So, how ya doing?" Faith finally asked.
"Holding like the last stitch on a fat girls pants," he answered. He jumped when Faith slapped him on the arm hard enough to leave a bruise.
"You're five by five, babe. Or, at least you will be," she added after a second. Faith headed to the next aisle and plopped down on a grave stone, one boot hitting the front of stone with every restless kick of her leg.
"Sure." Xander didn't even bother trying to sound like he believed it. They sat in silence, the crickets chirping in the distance and something heavy dragging through the distant bushes. Xander glanced over to see if Faith would go do the slayer bit, but she just sat and continued swinging her legs. Thump. Thump. Thump.
"So, you're part vampire. That's... completely fucking freaky."
Xander huffed a burst of laughter. Then, the sound turned into a longer laugh, one that Xander couldn't seem to stop. He slid off the headstone and let himself sink into the damp ground, laughing until tears rolled down his face and his side ached in a cramp. Leaning forward, Xander struggled to catch his breath as he started getting light-headed. Finally, the laughter tapered off, even as he continued to feel hot tears rolling down his face. Faith still watched, only now her foot hung motionless.
"At least you say it. I got so tired of being told I wasn't acting like a 'normal' pet, that I told--" Xander stopped. He didn't want to say the name. He couldn't say the name. In the back of his mind, he could feel confusion war with pain, and funny enough, he didn't even know which part was him and which part was Baby.
"Angel's clueless. Big lunk says the most offensive shit, and then he gets all broody when people tell him he's an ass," Faith agreed.
"Angel's..." Xander thought for a moment about how to finish the thought. "He's okay," Xander finally finished. Baby sent a stab of frustration through him. Baby obviously thought Angel deserved better than okay. Angel was master. However, Xander retaliated with thought about Angel being a totally shitty master.
"He's five by five," Faith agreed.
"That doesn't actually make sense, five by five," Xander pointed out.
"Yeah, like you're one to talk about making sense. So, what's it like having a demon rattling around in there?" Faith asked as she stared off into the distance where the dragging noises had now stopped. The wind shook the leaves, rustling them overhead. Well, either than or a ulat demon had crawled up there. He remembered the story where an ulat made these tree branches shake, and two minions went over to investigate. They got snapped up before Spike could even-- Xander cut that thought off.
"Demon boy? You with me?" Faith asked. Xander shot her a disgusted look.
"It's like having a voice that sounds a whole lot like me, but it's urging me to do things I want to do when I know I shouldn't want them."
"And that's different from the rest of us, how?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure that before the demon I didn't have fantasies about ripping the limbs off people and beating them with the bleeding stumps," Xander pointed out. Faith jerked a little but didn't answer immediately. Instead the silence pushed in on them.
"I don't know," she said quietly. "Had a few of those fantasies. And someone took Spike away from you, so you're entitled."
"Aren't you supposed to be the slayer, the one girl in all the world who stops the demons from ripping off human arms?" Xander asked.
"Are you?" Her voice sounded suddenly serious.
"Am I what?"
"A demon?"
Xander stopped. Okay, he had called himself a demon, and in front of the slayer, which was a whole new level of stupid. Baby started to panic, pushing against the wall in his mind that separated them. Xander's heart started pounding right before his vision slid over into the edges and red tones of the demon. Suddenly, Faith appeared in sharp outline against the stone, a few mosquitos wandering in the air between them.
"That's one way to answer," Faith said. Xander could see her body tense so that her arms corded as lines of muscle appeared under the skin. Xander sat up, his heart so loud in his ears that he couldn't hear much besides his heart beat and hers.
"Was that a quiz? because I'm really bad on quizzes. I always give the wrong answer. Especially on pop quizzes, they're the worst. My English teacher told me I was a pop-quiz moron once, and I'm thinking he was right," Xander stammered as he pushed himself up from the cold ground. Faith just sat on the headstone, leaning forward a bit, and watching.
"Fuck, you and Willow really are buds. You sure you're not related to her?" Faith asked with tilt of her head.
"Related? Wha?"
"That babbling. I always assumed it was a Willow thing. Tara and Larry and Oz--not so much for babbling. But you have it down."
"It's a talent," Xander answered. He forced Baby back so the graveyard returned to the dusky blue of night.
"So, the eye thing. You could make slammin' money in a sideshow with that trick."
"You calling me a freak?" Xander asked with a weak laugh. He couldn't manage more since his tongue threatened to stick to his mouth it was so dry.
"Fuck, yeah. But seeing as how I'm the one slayer in the world, well, except for coma-girl, I don't have much room to criticize on the freak-front."
"So we're heading toward bonding and not slaying, right?" Xander asked. He could feel his own demon complain, a desire to fight twisting around his stomach in cold, slimy coils even if the demon was terrorized by the idea. Of course, maybe Baby wanted to fight *because* he was terrified. After all, any demon who learned about the world through him had to have a few loose screws.
"I could take you, but I'm not looking to slay," Faith agreed.
Xander could feel the coils around his stomach turn to resentment. "Please, you could not take me."
"Could, too."
"As if."
"You looking to prove something?" Faith demanded as she pushed off the headstone with a sly smile.
"Oh shit. Um, maybe?" Xander stumbled up, his feet refusing to cooperate as he considered that the slayer was looking at him like a cat considering a fluffy play toy with lots of pink feathers, and now Baby really complained. The world slid back into demon vision as Xander backed away from the slayer.
"Hey, five by five with me. I just have one ground rule," Faith said as she circled slowly. Xander watched her movements as her long legs covered the ground with a restrained grace. She moved like a predator, and Baby itched to throw himself at her.
"Ground rules are good," Xander nodded. He just hoped the ground rules involved no blood, pain, or death. Then again, death would be fine as long as blood and pain weren't involved. Death would actually solve a lot.
"Everyone walks away with limbs more or less in tact," she smiled. Xander didn't even have time to object before her foot slammed into his stomach, sending him flying backwards into headstone. The cold grass under his hands and the even colder stone behind his back made him leap up again, even with the ringing still in his ears.
"Bitch," Xander snapped without his mouth even checking with his brain first.
"And proud of it, babe. You got something to show me, or are you going to lay there all day?" Faith stepped up, and before Xander could even realize he was moving, he had taken a kick at Faith's lower leg, connecting with a jarring thump of flesh against flesh.
"Fuck," she cursed as she stumbled to one side, struggling to catch her balance. Xander leapt up in a moment, pressing his advantage. Still off-balance, Faith backed up to a tree where she caught herself by grabbing at a branch. Xander punched but found only air as Faith used her hold on the branch to twist out of the way.
Realizing his mistake, Xander tried to turn, but a sharp crack and Faith had the broken branch in her hand. Xander had only half turned when the solid wood slammed into his side, sending him flying into the truck of the tree. The tree at his back limited too many of his moves, so he danced sideways just as Faith sent a flying kick into the trunk.
"What's the matter? Don't want to dance with me?" she taunted as she followed him. Now Xander and Faith circled each other warily. Xander breathed deeply as the scent of sweat and dirt and car exhaust and musk and human sifted through to him. Human. Prey. Xander narrowed his eyes and watched Faith's feet as she moved over the uneven ground.
"You smell... interested in more than dancing," Xander pointed out as he identified the musk now floating through the air.
"Good fight gets the engine revving. Thought I'd take a test drive with you."
"But what--" Xander didn't finish, driving forward in the middle of his own comment, and catching Faith off guard. She turned and deflected his attack so that Xander got in a strike to her side, but he also got hit back. Baby roared happily.
Xander stood panting and Faith now held a hand to her ribs. Inside, Xander could feel Baby pressing him to attack the weakness, but Xander held back. She might be faking. He concentrated so much on preventing Baby from raging out of control that he missed the counter attack.
Faith slammed into him with her full weight, and with his feet badly positioned, Xander couldn't prevent a fall. Instead, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her down with him. She positioned herself so that she fell with a knee in the groin, but Xander ignored the pain and tossed her off to the side before straddling her.
So he looked down as she lay on the ground, his fists in her shirt and her dark hair spread across the grass. "Who's on top now, Slayer?" he growled.
"Oh, bottom can be fun, too," she practically purred, and Xander froze at the sudden image. Despite her open invitation, something smelled wrong. Baby growled his pleasure at the scent of fear, but Xander froze as he realized that her sultry words masked something darker. No. He didn't want that. He didn't want her. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, she bucked up and sent him toppling backwards. Xander scrambled back, but he didn't get far before Faith landed on top of him, pressing him down into the damp earth.
"Of course, steering around the curves is my usual position," Faith said, squeezing her legs on either side of Xander.
The attraction that Xander had felt before burned out as his fury rose. "Get off," he ordered quietly, not willing to fight when he felt so much hatred. She wasn't his sire; she wasn't even his master. He wouldn't submit to her any more than he'd submit to some poodle with a pink bow in its hair. He was Aurelian.
"I'm trying to get off, or hadn't you noticed?" Faith asked.
Xander felt the ache in his mouth and the cold tingles in his face as his fangs dropped, and then he bucked up, twisting his body so that Faith fell to the side. Instantly, she sprang up into a fighting crouch, and Xander, one knee still on the damp earth, growled as he adjusted his own weight.
"Damn, babe. If you still want to play, I'm up for it."
"I'm not playing. Back off," Xander snapped even as the sound of Faith's beating heart called him, pounding like the sirens he'd read about in The Odyssey, as if he would die if he couldn't reach it.
"Can't take the heat?" Faith asked sweetly. Xander launched himself.
His first attack ended when Faith tossed him into bushes that clawed his skin, leaving long, red, crisscrossing trails across his arms and face. Faith stood with an amused expression, one hand on a hip and completely unprepared as Xander leapt at her, keeping his attack low. He struck her knees, sending her crashing to the ground hard enough to elicit a breathy grunt.
Ignoring the increasingly faint objections about killing, Xander bared his teeth and landed on top of Faith, driving both his knees into her stomach. The sudden overwhelming scent of fear spiced the air as Xander pinned her hands to the ground.
"Get off," Faith snapped as she struggled below him. Xander smiled, showing his fangs as he slid his knees off her to either side, both trapping her and giving him the leverage he needed to keep her pinned.
"I'm trying to get off, or hadn't you noticed?" Xander mocked her. Faith's eyes went comically large, and Xander felt a brief flair of pride that he had put fear into a slayer. Then a hand grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back with such force that Xander ended up running backwards for several steps as he tried to catch his balance before falling on his ass.
He bounced back up, still growling, only to find himself faced with a game-faced Angel. Xander hesitated, and before he could say anything, Angel backhanded him with enough force to send him over one set of headstones and crashing into another. Shaking his head to try and clear his thoughts, Xander backed away as Angel closed the distance