Chapter

2

I opened my eyes. I was stretched out lengthwise, across the backseat of a moving car. My dress was a wrinkled mess. Its skirt was pushed up around my hips, and my legs were spread wide. It was still dark outside the windows.

I began to groan. I was in pain, from the top of my head, to the tips of my toes, and everything in between. I had the hangover from Hell; and I mean that literally.

I heard a woman speak, from the front passenger seat. "She's awake, Spike."

I mumbled, "Repent you sinners."

I slipped off the back seat, onto the floor, and grunted loudly. Then I put my hand on the seat, and began to pull myself up. I was feeling great pain. I also felt very groggy and nauseous, like I was about to throw up.

I said, "Stop the car! I'm about to puke!"

The car pulled to the side and stopped. I fell back. My head rested against the left rear door. The door opened. I turned myself over, poked my head outside, and everything in my stomach came barfing out.

Then the door shut and we were moving again. I got up to a sitting position in the back seat. I smoothed out my dress so my skirt covered my legs to its full length. Spike was driving. Blonde Harmony sat beside him. I was still groggy and in pain. Now I also felt hungry.

I muttered. "I'm hungry. I want to kill somebody. Drink his blood."

Harmony turned around. She said, "I know how you feel Val, but we can't allow that."

She handed me an open thermos and said, "Here's some of the good stuff. Have some of your own back."

"Some of my own?" I put the mouth of the thermos under my nose, and smelled the warmed up liquid inside. "My own blood?"

"That's right." She told me. "We can't have a brand new vampire going off the deep end, and biting the first live person she sees. Once we get to where we're going, there'll be enough pigs' blood to fill you up. Then you'll be able to control your bloodlust."

I poured the contents out of the thermos into its lid-cup, and gulped it all down. I drank down several cups of my own blood. Then I no longer felt hungry, or groggy. My mind cleared.

I repeated, "Once we get to where we're going? Where are we going?"

Now Spike spoke. "Wolfram and Hart Headquarters Val. That's where everything'll be explained to you."

I looked out the window. We were driving through the dark, almost deserted streets of downtown L.A. According to the dashboard clock, the time was 2:37 AM.

I looked myself over. My maroon colored dress was wrinkled from top to bottom, and the skirt had a large dark stain down the front.

"Spike!" I asked, "Did you rape me?"

He said nothing. He and Harmony faced straight ahead.

I repeated, "Did you?"

He didn't turn his head. "You can't rape a dead woman."

Then I asked, with a very hoarse voice, “What'd you fuck a corpse?"

Harmony called out, "Hey Val! Watch your mouth!"

"Well what did he do, after he killed me?"

Now Spike said, "I'm not a rapist Val. I'm a seducer."

"Yeah--right!" I spoke with scorn. "You're a real Mr. Charm, aren't you?"

We arrived at Wolfram and Hart Headquarters. Spike parked in the Company's basement garage. Then he, Harmony and I took the elevator up to the 38th floor.

Inside the elevator, there was a full-length mirror to the right. I looked at it, and saw my dress all wrinkled. Its skirt was stained with blood and semen. My hair was also a mess.

"Spike." I said, "Whatever you call it, I have been ravished."

He said nothing. Neither did Harmony. I didn't see either of their reflections in the mirror.

When we reached the 38th floor, Harmony escorted me to a ladies room, where I cleaned myself up as best I could. I fixed my hair as neat as I could. Then Harmony went outside, and came back in a few minutes, with a clean yellow dress that was just about my size. My overall appearance was barely presentable.

I said, "I can see my reflection in the mirror, but I can't see yours, and I couldn't see Spike's."

"That's how it is with us vampires." She said, "No one's ever been able to figure out why."

Then we went back out into the corridor, where Spike was waiting. He and Harmony escorted me to a small office.

Inside the office, a guy in a suit, in his late twenties, sat behind a desk with his back to a window, overlooking the lights of the City. I’d seen him at the Club a few times. This night in his office, he was alive, with blood flowing through his veins.

If Harmony hadn't given me that blood to drink, it would have been impossible for me not to bite him, and suck out his blood, 'til he died. Now I had my bloodlust under control, but I just couldn't help looking hungrily at his very appetizing neck, and licking the tips of my brand new fangs.

"How do you do Miss Malone." He said, "My name is Lindsey McDonald. I see that you are now a vampire."

"Yeah!" I snapped, "Thanks to Spike! He killed me, and I went straight to Hell! Then he, or maybe Harmony, had some kind of kinky sex with my corpse."

"Me?" Harmony laughed. "What do think, I'm some kind of weirdo lesbo necrophile? Even if I was, how could I have spurted semen all over you?"

Lindsey McDonald asked, "You went to Hell?"

"That's right." I told him, "I was killed by a vampire, and I went straight to Hell. I've been a very bad girl, who's done very bad things; and very bad girls who do very bad things, really do go to Hell. We go directly to Hell. We do not pass 'Go'. We do not collect $200; so repent you sinners."

Mr. McDonald chuckled. Then he said, "Repentance is not encouraged at Wolfram and Hart, Miss Malone."

"That's obvious." I said, "It's also obvious that I was more than just Spike's evening meal and kinky toy. If that's all I was, I wouldn't be here. I might not even be undead. Now what the hell do you people want?"

"We want your cooperation Miss Malone. We know all about the unlawful goings on at your place of business. It's very profitable, but very risky. Wolfram and Hart would like to eliminate the risk."

"I see." I said, "You want us to pay you to protect our patrons and employees from people like Spike; so what happened to me won't happen to any of them."

"Exactly, and don't forget the Police. You don't want trouble with them either do you?"

"Okay Mr. McDonald." I said, "Let's get to the point. How much do you want?"

Harmony laughed, "How much do you got?"

I said, "Fuck that!"

"Relax Miss Malone." The man behind the desk said, "Harmony's joking. I'm sure that something reasonable can be worked out between you and Wolfram and Hart"

"Oh I'm ready to be reasonable," I told him "but I'm not the only one you'll have to deal with. I have a partner. Dylan McKay."

Lindsey McDonald said, "Dylan McKay? Son of the late Jack McKay; and heir to who knows how many secret overseas bank accounts?"

"That's him." I told them, "And a much bigger payoff, than you'd ever get out of my share from the After/Dark nightclub."

Harmony asked, "How big?"

"Big enough," I told them, "for each of us to live comfortably, for as long as we remain undead."