Notto Bene: This is Work In Progress. If, when it reaches the point that I've got to in writing it, it suddenly stops for ages, please don't be mad. (Does that make sense?)

Disclaimer: Joss, WB, UPN et al. own Buffy. I do not.

Author: Paradigm Shifter

Title: The Prices We Pay…

Rating: R, I suppose.

Pairing: Xander / Darla

Feedback: Please! While this will probably continue anyway, its nice to know if someone likes it.

Notes: I was browsing the net for fiction (ff.net got a bit boring) and happened across a Darla/Xander site. Never one to turn down anything that looks remotely interesting, I had a peek at a few fics. They were all by Jason Thompson (well, except one by VegaKeep which was REALLY good), and were all really cool. I also found a few cool Harmony/Xander stories, but Darla got her teeth into me before Harmony could.

The little demon and angel I have sitting on each shoulder are currently arguing over whether it should be a dark fic. The demon is winning. Dark fic it is then. But be warned: it's pretty mushy in places. I am almost ashamed to call some of this mine…

Continuity: I don't know. I know Darla comes back in Angel series 2, but not much else. It might be interesting to say that the Sires power over their childe is so strong that the childe would never be able to stake them, like Angel did in Buffy season 1. So, lets say that Darla was never staked, and instead got away from Sunnydale for a while, to escape the Master's anger…

{Buffy was 'killed' by the Master, and resuscitated by Xander. Therefore, the next Slayer has been activated. Darla uses this. Xander was so broken by Jesse dying that he could only remember Jesse, not who turned him, also, Darla did not turn Jesse, Luke did.}

*

Darla looked into the eyes of her opponent. The Slayer, a dark skinned girl stared back coldly into the seemingly dead eyes of the vampire.

"So, vampire, you choose to attack me here?"

Darla looked incredulously at the girl. "Certainly. Why not, hmm? Afraid I might WIN?" With that, she lunged, and was caught with a backhanded blow to the face, sending her reeling.

The Slayer smiled. "You should know by now, vampire…" she spat the word, "…that as fast as we die, another just comes along to get you next time…"

Darla sneered. "You're like a plague! Worse than vampires could ever be. We have restrictions after all." Darla stepped sideways as a stake came flying for her heart, and slapped it out of the air, causing the Slayer to gasp at her speed.

Smiling, Darla motioned to the Slayer. "Do that again. It was fun!"

"Happy to oblige." The Slayer threw another stake at Darla, but this time, instead of batting it out of the air, Darla caught it as it went past. Bringing it around, reversing it in her grip, Darla threw it back at the Slayer.

Shocked at this development, the Slayer didn't fully notice the stake until it was too close to stop. It embedded itself in her stomach, causing her to fall to the floor clutching at the bleeding wound.

Darla stepped up to her. "Choose to die honourably, hmm? Not a word of pleading? Good. I hate beggars."

The Slayers eyes were hidden under a veil of pain and loathing. She brought a small cross up in front of her. "Back, demon!"

Darla looked amused. "Oh come on, if I wanted to, I could just leave you to die here from blood loss. Belly wounds don't heal quickly, even with Slayer powers. And with the stake in there, it will be days before it even begins to close."

The Slayers eyes told Darla that she was right. Centuries of sucking peoples blood told her just how much the girl had left. Watching victims die slowly was something of a hobby…

"Yes… I think you'll have fatal loss of blood in about… oh… I don't know… 15 minutes? Yes. That seems about right."

With that, Darla turned and left…

…time was now of the essence. She would have about two months before the Watchers damned Council sent another Slayer. How strange that Buffy was not dead… perhaps her… brush… with death transferred her powers to the next.

But Darla somehow doubted that was the truth…

*

Darla stood over the body of a teen that had the misfortune of chatting her up in a club. Normally, Darla would go after the less popular kids, as it would be less noticed in the social circles that the kid had gone. Getting the school quarterback and draining him wasn't good for publicity.

But that was what happened tonight. Never one to turn down an easy meal, and when they hit on her it was an easy meal, because they were so eager, Darla dragged him out to the local lovers lane and drained him.

She had thought momentarily about turning him, but she didn't go for blondes. She was one herself, but blonde guys didn't do anything for her. Brunettes were her dish of choice, and recently, two had been featuring in her thoughts very prominently. One of them with hatred, and the other with some sort of sick fascination.

Angelus, 'the one with the angelic face', her childe, had nearly staked her. Her, Darla, one half of the scourge of Europe, nearly eliminated by a piece of wood from the contaminated other half of the pair. Darla refused to think of Angelus as Angel, the weak, souled version of the man she had spent so long with. The man she defied the Master for.

The other daily feature in her dreams was Alexander Harris. The young friend of the Slayer who had staked his friend when Luke had turned him. The 'Master' had wanted Darla to turn the boy, but she deliberately made herself scarce when it came to turn him. After the fiasco with Angelus, she was in no mood to have another chide so soon. except for maybe one...

Harris was an enigma. Completely unaware of the terrors the night held in Sunnydale before the Slayer arrived, when he found out all about what went on, he didn't run screaming. Jesse had told her so much about his ex-best friends after he had been turned. He also turned out to be a remarkably good lover considering that he had been a virgin when turned. Not as good as Angelus just before he became 'infected', but Angelus had had over 140 years to learn what she liked. Jesse was so good considering everything. Darla moaned and rubbed herself gently as she remembered. Luke was furious when he discovered that Darla had 'influenced' Jesse, a vampire who should not have been powerful, and yet was. The Master's favoured childe had turned a fledgling of another vampire to her own whims.

But Darla was digressing. 'Xander' as Jesse had called him, was perfect, a reason to return after the Harvest fiasco, and a fitting way to remove the Slayers friends for the Master to deal with the Slayer herself.

Darla smiled to herself, licking the still warm blood of the quarterback off of her lips, and turned the key of the blood red sports car that the jock had used to bring her out here. It would soon be reported stolen, but that wouldn't bother her.

She needed to get back to Sunnydale before the sun rose.

*