Title: The Whirlwind, Part One - Ave Maria
AUTHORS: Ace & Prophecy
EMAIL: rosewood@i... & prophecy_gurl@y...
RATING: Strong NC-17
CONTENT: Language, violence, sex - consensual and non, torture
DISTRIBUTION: Jen, 'Deadly Beloved' (http://www.geocities.com/prophecy_gurl/darla). All others please ask.
DISCLAIMER: This story is not in any way intended to infringe on copyrights held by Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt, Mutant Enemy or AOL Time Warner.
SUMMARY: Spike wasn't the only vampire who killed slayers, he was just the one who bragged about it.
FEEDBACK: Send to both authors, please! We're dying to know what you guys make of this one! DEDICATION: To our regular writing partners - you know who you are - for being patient with us as we wrote this...

Whirlwind - Part 1

Ave Maria

Naples 1760

Angelus wandered into the huge ballroom, quietly surveying the guests. Darla had insisted they attend this gala, in fact it had been thrown in their honor. Appearances were so important to his sire. He understood it to some extent. It was rather delicious posing as brother and sister. It made the things they did in their bed so much more interesting.....

"There's my darling brother," Darla smiled, waving at him from across the room. She excused herself from the circle she was talking with and crossed to his side. "Having fun, yet, Precious?" she kissed his cheeks in the fashionable greeting.

"I can think of a hundred ways I could be having more fun right now, sister dear." He held her just a little longer than could be considered exactly fraternal before releasing her. Angelus loved the look in her eye, that slightly predatory gleam as she took in his appearance. He had chosen his clothes very carefully, wanting to catch and keep his sire's undivided attention.

She shook her head with delight at his words, "Behave yourself..." she purred, fingering the scarlet cravat at his throat. "Is this the one I... selected for you in Rome?"

"Aye, it is sweetheart. It's the one you took off that hopeless fop just outside the gates to the Vatican. It goes rather well with the coat, don't you think?"

"It really does... red looks good on you..." she remarked, eyes scanning the room. "Have you been introduced to all the lords and barons yet?" She knew how much society games didn't thrill him - the fiasco with the Master still fresh in her mind. Darla just hoped that Angelus would know not to act out in front of all these mortals.

"I've met most of them. And what a puffed up lot they are....." He looked down at his diminutive sire, all shining and golden in her lovely gown. She was the most beautiful creature in the room and he belonged to her.

"True, true... but aristocratic blood, my sweet..." she gave a little shrug. Arrogant humans were tolerable if you knew how delicious they tasted.

"Better than your average Yorkshireman, I'll agree....So who's the target tonight? Have you chosen anyone to slake your thirst or is it to be catch as catch can?" Angelus surveyed the room again, trying to find something that would pose a challenge. He had gotten very good at taking down the weak, at culling the human herd. But he was meant for something more, he wasn't just a wolf prowling around the flock.

"We might have a little difficulty hunting tonight..." she warned, her eyes fixed on someone over his shoulder. "Take me onto the dance floor so we can talk without one of those insufferable noblemen demanding I dance..."

"Whatever you say, my darlin'. I am your faithful servant." He took her hand and led her to the floor. The musicians had just struck up the strains of one of those new dances out of Vienna, something called a waltz. Fortunately, Darla had hired a dance teacher for him so he knew the steps. Once they started whirling around the floor, he leaned in a little. "So what's the difficulty, pray tell?"

"Do you see the girl in the jade satin? With the older fair-skinned man in tweed?" She spoke very softly, to ensure only his supernatural hearing would make her voice out over the music.

Angelus scanned the room, his coal-dark eyes lighting on the girl in question. She was small in stature but had the same feminine roundness he had come to expect in Italian women. Dark hair, dark eyes, nice bosom, high and firm and a truly lovely throat. He nodded to his sire. "Aye, I do. Pretty little thing..."

"_Dangerous_ little thing..." she corrected firmly. "Also a reason to finish our time in Naples quickly..." Darla added, letting him see how genuinely worried she was, how much the little girl had alarmed her.

"Humans are never dangerous. They're just food." He looked at the girl again, trying to determine just what had her so worried.

"She's a Slayer, Angelus... the predator of our kind..." She hissed.

"A Slayer?" He looked at the girl again. She didn't look any different from anyone else in the room.... And besides...."What's a Slayer?"

Darla sighed softly - she should have taught him this earlier. "Briefly - there is, in the whole world, one girl born with powers to sense, hunt down and destroy our kind..."

"So she's a hunter, like us?" He whirled them around again, his eyes still tracking on the girl. A challenge, a challenge right here in this sea of silks and finery. Something he might be able to really sink his teeth into.

"Yes... she is... so don't start getting any wild ideas, precious," she gripped him firmly. "You're so young and I won't lose you to that little whore..."

"So she can sense us, can she...." He was still watching the girl, a million thoughts running through his head. Angelus knew he was young but that didn't mean he wasn't ambitious. If this girl was such a threat to his kind, he could stand to gain quite a reputation if he took her down. Maybe it would make up a little bit for the shame he had brought on his sire during their meeting with the Master.

"Yes, she can," Darla's tone was commanding. "So we will not tempt her... So many of the Master's childer have been taken by Slayers... it is not worth the potential grief..."

"But such a challenge....Think of it, taking down the hunter of our kind." He licked his lips as his eyes narrowed. The girl wasn't very tall and she was quite young, not even out of her teens. Just the perfect age, on the cusp between innocence and corruption. He moved them a little closer, trying to extend his senses just enough. And felt a twinge of disappointment.

The girl was not a virgin……pity about that.

So ambitious... Normally that trait of Angelus' made Darla terribly proud. This time his bloodlust had her worried - he could bring the wrath of the slayer down on both of them! "Angelus - you're too young to risk it... She's dangerous and there is no way in Hell that you could take a slayer, my darling... perhaps when you're older...?

He felt the need to obey his sire, he had obeyed her in all things except the one about old bat face. But the dark-haired girl who stood so stiff beside the obvious Englishmen had his full attention now. Angelus needed to taste her blood, needed to feel it filling his mouth and warming him from the outside in. He pushed aside his sire's objections about his age without a single thought.

"Think how much it will raise you in the Master's esteem if you are the one responsible for taking her out...."

"You're scheming..." Darla accused, her voice and eyes sharp.

His voice dropped into that seductive tone he loved to use with her, the one that always set her to quivering in his arms. Angelus' eyes never left the girl, kept her pinned under his gaze as he smiled. "Aye, love, that I am. My youth demands that I scheme, does it not? I'm not strong enough to take her on without a plan, now am I?"

The little Slayer could feel someone scrutinizing her, and her head turned in Angelus' direction and she regarded him curiously - a foreigner....

Darla took Angelus' chin in her hand, forcing him to look at her. "You're not strong enough to take her on at all," she insisted, almost cruelly.

Angelus looked at his sire for a minute, giving her a winning smile. "Ah, but my darlin' sister, I'm not planning on using my strength on her....I'm planning to use my other talents." He licked his lips, letting his tongue linger there for just a minute before his eyes returned to the girl.

Curiosity turned to a genuinely warm smile from the little Italian slayer - much to the obvious chagrin of the Englishman by her side.

"You're going to try to seduce the slayer?" The vampiress studied her childe with an expression verging on morbid fascination. What a disgusting... yet intelligent idea. "Feel free to try, precious... I doubt your chance for success..."

The man standing beside the girl looked down at her, concern written on his face. He scanned the crowd.

His hand tightened on the little slayer's arm and he was whispering in her ear as Angelus turned that winning smile on the girl. "Do you now? Do you really doubt my talents in that arena, my love?"

The fair-skinned Englishman glared at him.

The girl giggled and put a calming hand on her companion's.

"She has her Watcher with her... he's not going to let you get close enough..." Darla pointed out. "And once she realizes what you are, darling, she'll stake you - or at least try, I'll wager..."

Angelus pulled Darla to him, pressing his body against hers tighter than convention would normally allow. "Do you not think she would follow this face anywhere? Especially considering the man hanging on her looks like a real prig……She's a girl, Darla. I know girls.... And that watcher fellow looks like he would blow away in the face of a good wind."

A sidelong glance, a half-smile directed at the girl on the other side of the room before he whispered in his sire's ear. "You could distract the watcher...."

"Oh, you're good, precious..." She broke away enough to restore the proper distance - no sense drawing unwanted attention. Darla arched her brows, "Why would I want to do that, hmm?" She wasn't going to make this easy on him - hopefully convince him to abandon the foolhardy scheme.

He looked down at her, wondering if she had caught the thrill of the hunt yet. The sound of the girl's distinctive heartbeat was like a drum in his ears. "I could make it worth your while...."

"I don't want to watch you get yourself staked, my precious..."

"I'm not planning on bein' the one who gets staked....If you get my drift..." He flashed the little Italian one of his most seductive smiles. The one that had melted so many hearts back in his native Galway.

She waved back, dark eyes sparkling, beguiled.

"Naughty boy..." she cuffed him lightly. "I still say you won't manage it..."

"Care to make a real wager on that, sister dear?" Angelus rolled his eyes at the girl, shrugging as he regarded his dance partner with a look that told his target just how bored he was with the woman in his arms.

His sire's eyes narrowed, "On what terms?" she feigned disinterest.

The Slayer dropped her eyes bashfully, to hide a laugh behind her fan.

"What terms would you be willin' to offer?" He graced the girl with another smile, this one slower and had an admiring glance thrown in as he took in every detail of her lush form.

She bit her lip, considering... "If you survive, but get humiliated by the Slayer, we return to England and you will _BEG_ forgiveness of my Sire for your arrogance..."

He glared at her, almost stopping the pattern of the dance. She wanted him to agree to that? To agree to humbling himself in front on that....that thing that had sired her? The thought was almost enough to dissuade him from his plan....

Almost.

Angelus nodded slowly, his attention returning again to the girl. She did have a nice little shape, he just knew how good it would feel wrapped around him. "And what would you wager in return, darlin'?"

"I don't know..." Darla shrugged her shoulders, genuinely unsure. "What do you want of me?"

"Hmmm....." He looked down at her, looked down at where the swell of her bosom rose above the neck of her dress. "I want to be in control....Just for one night..."

She chuckled and nodded... "Alright, precious..." His terms weren't all that extreme - plus, Darla truly doubted he'd manage his objective so she'd have agreed to almost anything.

"So....Tell me everythin' you know about Slayers...."

****

Watching the foreign gentleman on the dance-floor Maria hid her blush from Richard, her Watcher, behind her fan. After all the time it had taken her to convince him to let her come tonight, she sincerely didn't want to annoy him too much - he'd only forbid her from society galas in the future.

Richard noted her interest and was watching the younger man intently. He and his sister were the talk of Naples, so many people were fascinated by their charm, by their stunning looks and their social grace. Maria insisted that they come tonight to catch a glimpse of them but he was far from pleased.

"Thank you for letting me come," she spoke softly, fingering the emerald at her throat. It was a little odd to be all dressed up like this, but a good odd.

This gathering was frivolity that they had no time to indulge in. There had been a rash of killings recently in the highest circles of Neapolitan society. But the lights and the music had given her so much joy. Her dress set off her dark beauty and his grandmother's necklace looked so perfect gracing her throat.

She put her hand on his arm, "You're quiet, Richard..." she murmured, turning her attention from the handsome man on the dance floor and back to her watcher. He seemed a little... displeased at her curiosity.

"Just not comfortable with all......this.." He gestured around the room, taking in the opulent furnishings, the elegantly dressed couples that whirled around the floor in the scandalous new dance from Vienna. And that man who was staring at his charge as if he could eat her alive?

"It's glorious!" Maria smiled up at him, her dark eyes dancing. A slightly impudent smile pulling at the corners of her lips, "Do you know how to waltz, Richard?" she asked.

"Absolutely not....And neither do you. Maria, don't forget why we are here. That couple found last night with their throats torn out?"

"I know..." she nodded with appropriate sobriety. "But it's nice to pretend to not have to worry about all that for a little while.."

Richard looked down at her and relented a little. She really was a wonderful girl, he trained her since childhood, hoping against hope that she would never actually be Chosen. But a few months ago she woke with the power coursing through her and both of their birth-rites kicked in that fateful day. Much to his sorrow, for her life was destined now to be very short and very brutal.

A warm smile and an affectionate whisper, "Can you not lose yourself in the music, Mio Guardiano?"

He returned that smile warmly and chuckled. "I imagine that I can give it a try....It doesn't look too difficult. Shall we?"

Thrilled, she gave him her hand and followed him out on the dance floor. Richard was always so good to her - her teacher, mentor, - once a father to her, now her lover. She genuinely loved the peculiar Englishman, and his young motherless children. The family was a little corner of normalcy in the deeply strange world of Slayer/Watcher.

Richard followed the steps of the dance carefully, he was rather graceful on his feet. "Keep your head, my dear girl. The vampires we are seeking may be among us right now."

"Anyone you suspect?" she asked, a little giddy to be dancing - and very daring to be waltzing, no less!

"I have no idea....Most of these people we have known for years..." He noted over her shoulder that the guests of honor were only a few feet from them and the man still watched Maria very intently.

"Except the foreigners," she remarked before thinking. Richard wasn't Italian, but he'd raised her and was the closest person to her, so she really didn't think of him as 'foreign'.

"Do you feel anything from them? It's one of your talents, you know. Being able to sense the undead, it comes along with the dreams..."

This was new... and interesting. But trust Richard to turn a ball into a training exercise. "I'm not sure how I would do that..." she admitted, closing her eyes briefly, trying to get impressions from the room around her.

"Focus....It should be like a pain in your....well...." He stopped, momentarily flustered. He and Maria had been lovers for over a year and he still had problems referring to certain portions of her anatomy. It had been such a shock that evening when he came home from a trip to Rome to find her waiting for him in his bed. Waiting for him wearing nothing but the flowing river of her lustrous dark hair and a smile.

He was still not accustomed to thinking her as his lover instead of his ward, his slayer...

Maria nodded, understanding, trying to focus. Eyes closed, she was concentrating hard, when she felt herself bump into someone behind her. Focus shattered, a blush creeping up her cheeks, she stammered an apology. Perhaps Richard was right - this place was out of her depth.

Richard looked down at her and whispered. "Try again." He moved them across the floor, trying to get closer to the couple in question. "You should feel a pain deep in your belly. Like something is squeezing tightly."

"Why would I _want_ to feel that?" she teased, trying to shake off the lingering embarrassment.

"Because it will keep you alive....They can sense you, you need to be able to sense them."

The blonde woman broke away from the dark-haired young man who had been ogling Maria and took his hand, leading him straight over to them. "I don't believe we've been introduced..." she smiled, her voice warm and honey-sweet.

Richard stopped the movement of the dance and gave the young woman his best imitation of a stuffy Watcher.

Angelus smiled at the little Slayer, his eyes alight with mischief as he noted the answering sparkle in her dark eyes.

"It's terribly forward of me, but my brother so dislikes all the fuss and pomp... My name is Darla Westchester... this is my brother, Angelus..."

Richard nodded and extended his hand to the other man. "Richard St-John and my ward, Maria Delgrazio."

Angelus took the other man's hand and gave it a quick shake, careful not to linger. It would not do for the Watcher to realize there is a difference in his body temperature.

"A pleasure... Do I detect the British Isles in that voice and name?" Darla asked, politely.

Suitably coy, Maria stood slightly behind Richard. It might be charming for the elegant foreign blonde to be so forward, but Naples was her home and it would not do to shame Richard or herself.

Richard nodded. "Born and bred...Posted to Naples by my employer."

Angelus moved forward a little, his eyes on the Slayer. He took her little hand in his. "May I have the honor of dancing with your ward?"

Maria darted her eyes up to Richard, pleading.

"I'll keep you company, Mr. St-John... and vouch for my brother's good intentions..." Darla met the Englishman's eyes a tad brazenly.

Richard felt a flush starting underneath his collar. The blonde was petite and very pretty. She reminded him so much of his sweet Peg who died birthing his young son. He cast a glance at the dark-haired man who towered over his little slayer. If these were the vampires they seek it would be a wise move to isolate them from the rest of the guests. "You may...But only one dance."

Angelus gave the man his most charming smile. "Don't worry...I'll take good care of the lovely young lady..." He then whisked the blushing Maria away into the movement of the dance.

"She's very pretty, Mr. St-John," Darla remarked, watching Angelus' infamous charm start to work on the Slayer.

Richard smiled, watching the two of them whirling around the floor. The man was a superb dancer, he moved as though the music was a part of him. "She is a wonder..."

"Very graceful..." Darla turned back to the Watcher. "Is there.. a Mrs. St-John?"

Richard looked away for a minute, then back at the young woman at his side. "She passed away a few years ago."

Letting a little of that Virginian drawl into her voice, Darla demurred and apologized profusely. "I never meant to bring back bad memories..."

Angelus held the young girl in his arms, covertly studying her throughout the dance. You can learn a lot about an opponent by watching how they move. He cataloged her weaknesses as he whirled them around the room. And planned her seduction.

Maria could feel the eyes of old friends on her and her dance partner... could feel the envy that this charming foreigner had picked her - and not any of the more social-climbing types on the floor.

"I am used to her loss by now, Miss Westchester....Excuse me, but do I detect the colonies in your speech?"

"I spent a great deal of time when I was younger in Virginia... working with the missionaries..." a nostalgic smile. "There was even a time I was debating taking the veil..." The smile on Darla's face was mysterious, hiding her own amusement at this creative little fiction.

Richard nodded. "I considered the priesthood myself when I was younger. It is so satisfying to serve the greater good."

"And to know that the Lord is smiling on you is the greatest reward..." Darla broke off with a little cough to hide the chuckle that wanted to escape.

"Precisely....Did...did your brother accompany you in the colonies. He doesn't seem to be the missionary type."

Darla was unable to suppress the wave of mirth that erupted in a delicate chuckle. Angelus as a missionary? What a diabolical thought! "Ah... my brother isn't quite the rogue he attempts to convince people he is... But he was in various schools while I was away in Virginia..."

"So...You're his ward, are ye?" Angelus' gaze flirted briefly with the swell of her bosom above the dress.

"Si... R- Mr. St-John adopted me when he came to Naples... I was about six years old.." Maria told Angelus.

"And I bet you were just a lovely then are you are now, darlin'." Angelus whirled her closer to the doors, it was his objective to split up the partnership of Slayer and Watcher. From what Darla had told him, the girl would be more vulnerable without her mentor.

A glance over her shoulder to check on Richard relaxed Maria. Her dance partner's sister was keeping him company so she needn't feel guilty. "The years change people, signore.."

"Now darlin', are you sayin' that you were like most little girls? All knees and big eyes?" Angelus whirled the little slayer through the steps of the dance, careful not to let his cold hands touch more skin than necessary. He would have to do something about his ambient body temperature to keep this little one fooled long enough.

"A child is a child... innocent and therefore vulnerable to the dangers that they're unaware of..." Maria mused.

"Ah, so true. Children are sweet, their innocence and unawareness makes them the perfect prey for a hunter." His brown eyes were warm as he studied the curve of her mouth. She didn't look dangerous. She was soft and pliant in all the right places. But if his sire said she was dangerous, then she must be. "Such a shame that they are not better protected from the wolves at the door. So many of them fall prey to the horrors of this world."

Richard relaxed a little, the young woman at his side was charming company. So bright-eyed and beautiful. Nothing like his fiery little Maria. Refined, elegant and so very gracious.

"So... do you miss England, Mr. St John?" Darla inquired politely, wanting to keep the conversation flowing to give her boy a chance to work his magic.

"I do at times, Miss Westchester. I do indeed. The summers here are so beastly hot." Richard glanced over the dance floor, keeping his eye on his little slayer. It was his job to watch Maria. Even if it had not been his job, he would have been happy to watch her. So petite, so full of life...

Darla 's eyes narrowed briefly as her companion's protective streak kicked in. How to get his attention away from the little girl...? Of course! "Would you mind escorting me to the banquet hall? I think I left my wine glass there..." she frowned, glancing around for effect. She just hoped Angelus would take the hint while she was gone.

Richard turned his attention back to his companion, suddenly aware of his own rudeness. "I would not mind in the least, dear lady. Lead on."

Her gloved hand touched the watcher's in a gesture of warmth. "Thank you," the vampiress practically simpered, mentally groaning at herself.

Maria nodded vehemently, "Failing to protect the innocent is the greatest crime so many are guilty of. It makes me so angry..."

Angelus nodded, his eyes straying to her graceful neck. The blood that ran in this girl's veins was singing to him in ways he had never heard before. Inside this tiny little body was a wealth of power. Power that he wanted for himself. The game had just become more interesting. "Pity that they do not have some divine protector. Someone who could wipe out all the evils with their own hands."

"Not even legend provides that... Oh, we have heroes and warriors, but they're only human - even in our stories... You'd think a loving God would send his angels more often..." Maria paused, a little embarrassed at her outburst. It was a frequent complaint to Richard - the slayer was left to do all the saving but she could only be in one place at a time, and thus people suffered. "Forgive me, signore... I do not know what I'm talking about..."

"There are angels, sweetling and then there are angels...." His voice dropped into a beguiling whisper. "And I think that one of God's most beautiful angels is here in my arms tonight." Angelus felt her heart speed up at the blatant compliment. Oh, the little slayer was not used to anyone complimenting her looks. Shame on that insufferable prig that accompanied her. Angelus himself would have written poems about the line of her throat……..before he ripped it out.

"Signore, you... you flatter me," Maria's eyes dropped bashfully, not sure how to take the remark. Was he being lascivious or was he being sweet? She wasn't used to dealing with this - vampires, demons, evil sorcerers she could handle. A charming young man made her a nervous wreck.

"No, bella.... You flatter me by spending some time with a lonely foreigner." Angeles considered pressing a kiss into her palm but rethought the idea. His lips, like his hands, were cold and would have given away the game much too quickly.

And he was so enjoying the game. The delicate flush warming her dusky cheeks was enchanting. Had he still been human, she would have been worth a night or two of dalliance.

Control of the situation was spiraling from Maria's grip faster than she even realized. "H-how long are you staying in Naples?" she stammered, trying to get the conversation back to more trivial concerns. She wasn't used to feeling this exposed or this shy and her warrior side rebelled at the very idea.

Angelus stifled a laugh. They were in Naples for as long as the blood flowed freely, which if he was able to take out this solitary slip of a girl, showed no signs of stopping. "A few days, a month perhaps. My sister likes to travel and I can't very well let her go alone, now can I?"

"How devoted..." she remarked, glancing around for Richard and the blonde lady. Odd... she could spot neither.

Angelus had noted his sire's exit, she was giving him the space he needed to accomplish this game. Now if only Darla could manage to throw a few fledges their way, he could put the rest of his plan into action. "I hear the gardens in this place are truly magnificent, full of all kinds of night-blooming flowers. Would you agree to see them with me?"

Warily, Maria nodded. She adored jasmine, and well... if this young man was as foreign as he seemed, perhaps he knew not of the nosferatu. She should accompany him to protect him, at least. It was her sacred duty after all.

Angelus waited until the dance ended before bowing to his partner. He placed one large hand at her waist and guided her out onto the terrace. The moon was full tonight, it shone above them brightly illuminating the garden paths. There was a bench located underneath a spray of jasmine that he guided her towards. Fortunately the night air was almost cold so once they had been outside for a few minutes, his cool skin should not arouse her suspicions overly.

"Isn't it beautiful?" she murmured, taking a seat on the bench. She glanced around warily, feeling a little guilty at being out without a chaperone, and hoping that no demons would interrupt this little... what? rendezvous?

"Not nearly as beautiful as you." Angelus sat next to her, his eyes never leaving his face. The little slayer was growing aroused, despite her innocence she was responding to him. Just as most women did, including his sire. A handsome face was such a wonderful weapon to have, it could lead to such delicious possibilities.

Richard would certainly disapprove of her behavior and would make training miserable for her for weeks as a punishment for her behavior. But this foreigner was oddly fascinating. "We should not be out without a chaperone..."

"Probably not...But that makes it so much more interesting, don't you think. A full moon..." He gestured toward the sky, then touched one of the blossoms hanging down over their heads, snapping it off and bringing it down to caress her cheek with it. "The smell of jasmine and a touch of danger to add to the thrill..."

She shivered slightly, dark eyes closing at the touch of the petals. "I do not wish to disgrace my Guardian..." she breathed. Dangerous? If only he knew what could be lurking in the dark gardens...

Angelus breathed deep, scenting the girl on the wind. She was wavering, ready to fall into his arms at the slightest touch. The protest about her guardian was almost perfunctory. He brought her hand to his lips and placed a small kiss in it. "What your guardian does not know will never hurt him...He is not your father, bella..."

Maria had stopped thinking of Richard as a father figure a long time ago... But he was still her lover.. this was hardly fair... "You're cold..." she remarked, letting her hand linger in his.

"The winter night air has that effect on me. But not all of me is cold." Angelus moved a little closer. "So tell me, bella...Is there someone who already owns your heart, or do I have a chance?"

Caro Dio... What a question! She shook her head slightly, "I... have no suitors..." It wasn't a lie, exactly. "I have my duty to my family which is foremost..."

"But what about your duty to you?" Another kiss, this one on the fingertips. A slide along the bench, moving just a little closer. Remembering to breathe was difficult, it had been years since he'd done this on a regular basis. But breathing allowed him to catch all the nuances of her warm, human scent. There was a taste of ash clinging to her, she'd taken down at least one of his kind recently.

Angelus also noted the smell of her lover on her skin, traces of earlier kisses. The man who had been with her, the one Darla had identified as her Watcher was also her lover. How entertaining, perhaps an angle he could use.

Maria's head was spinning - how to deal with such a charmingly insistent man? He was getting far too close and it just wasn't proper... if they were caught...She stood up suddenly and crossed over to one of the rosebushes. "My duty to myself is secondary..." she told him, her rapid pulse beginning to slow at the distance.

Angelus followed his prey, noting her movements and judging which way she would turn next. She was like a deer poised on the edge of flight. Or a tigress waiting for its next meal. He found this whole thing far too amusing. There was just enough danger to it to whet his appetite for more. "That is where you are wrong, cara. You should come first....A lady should always come first."

"Who _are_ you?" The young Italian turned back to him, confusion in her eyes. "I've never... never known anyone who... anyone like you..." she admitted, tracing the petals of a rose with her fingertips.

"Just a man...No more, no less. And you, cara mia, who are you?" Angelus touches her chin, lifting her eyes to his. "You are so much more than you seem. "

Maria's lips curled in a slight smile, "Am I not allowed my little mysteries, Signore?"

Angelus returned that smile, a predatory gleam in his eye. "That you are, bella. All women should have some mystery about them. That's what keeps us men coming back..." He listened carefully, catching the slight scrape of a boot on the ground. Darla had kept her promise. Time to see if his sire was right about this little girl.

Realizing someone was watching them, Maria's head whipped around. The amber eyes were easily spotted in the darkness, and she sighed in irritation. Dolce Jesu, could she never have any peace? "I think you should go back inside," she suggested to her companion, standing between him and the nosferatu and pulling a stake from the bodice of her gown.

Angelus moved forward, acting as the brave protector. "What's wrong, cara?"

"You do not wish to see this, believe me..." Maria's voice was almost more authoritative and commanding than even an angry Darla. She eyed the vampires, hoping not to have to move until the handsome foreigner was out of harm's way.

One of the vampires lunged at her and Angelus hit him hard, knocking him to the ground. The fledge stared up at him, rather confused as to why Darla's favorite childe had acted in such a fashion. Why was he keeping him from such a delectable meal? It wasn't as if he wouldn't share….

Taking advantage of the vampire's distracted state, Maria drove a stake through its back and whirled on one of the others. She _loathed_ fighting in gowns.

The dust rose and covered Angelus' fine coat. He grimaced, not because one of his brethren had met his end, but that his coat had been ruined. Angelus turned towards one of the others and pretended to be visibly shaken by its vampiric visage. He watched the Slayer as she moved, admitting to himself that she was magnificent.

Panting, more due to the corset she was unused to rather than the exertion, Maria made short work of the group of nosferatu. She turned back to her wide-eyed companion. "Let's get you inside," she said simply. Richard would not be pleased that she'd slain vampires in front of a stranger.

"W-what were those things?" Angelus stood there, wide-eyed and trembling. He was trembling due to suppressed laughter. Darla had chosen several of his least favorite fledges. It was good to clean out the nest once in awhile....

"Disfigured lunatics, escaped from the asylum..." Maria suggested, using one of Richard's favorite excuses. She took his arm, "A warm cider will make you feel better..." *While I go and beg forgiveness from Mio Guardiano...*

"No....They disappeared, it's like they exploded. What were they, really?" Angelus balked at returning to the house. It would not do to lose the girl in that press of bodies. "M-my sister and I were attacked by something like this a few nights ago..."

Her eyes widened, alarmed. "Where? What happened?" she demanded, worried.

The young vampire played the frightened victim to the hilt. The girl seemed to respond better to the helpless. "Some sort of monster showed up at our door three nights ago..."

"Monster? Caro dio, tell me you didn't invite him in?" She begged.

"He...it was begging for help. Something about a carriage accident...." Angelus looked down at his dust covered hands and shivered. This was so much fun. "I invited it in while I grabbed my coat..."

"What happened, exactly?" she asked, taking his hands in hers. Would he and his sister be safe? Richard should know this! "Tell me exactly... no matter how strange it seems... I won't think you're crazy."

"It grabbed my throat....I'm not a small man, cara but it shook me, like a dog with a rat." He shrugged and moved away a little.

"Did it get away?"

She was worried.

"N-no....It knocked me down....It killed one of my footmen and grabbed my sister." Angelus walked over to the trellis, his handsome face illuminated by the soft moonlight. "I managed to wrestle it to the floor...It…it had fangs."

Maria followed him, putting a gentle hand on his back. "There are... things out there in the Dark in Italy that can't be explained rationally... What happened next?"

Angelus shuddered at her touch. Something about this girl was lighting a fire within him. Was this what his sire meant be being able to sense a Slayer? He liked the sensation, it was far from unpleasant. "Darla threw my cane to me and I hit it. The cane broke on its shoulder...That cane was made of solid oak..." He shook his head and sighed.

"And you hit it in the chest and it exploded like those creatures?" She asked, making small circular stroking motions on his broad back.

Angelus nodded. "I stabbed it with the broken end and found myself lying in a pile of ash..." He touched his coat. "Ash just like this....And there have been more of them. Circling our house at night, peering in the windows."

The little slayer turned him to face her with surprising strength. "Promise me you won't invite them into your home... Promise me this and I promise you and your sister will be safe...."

"There are so many of them, cara. They are everywhere around our house..." He moved away from her for a moment, his back very straight, Then he turned to face her, his eyes alight with hope. "Could you?....No, it would be selfish of me to ask.."

"What is it?" Maria met his eyes fully for the first time. She was energized from the battle, and her protective streak was out in force. So the nosferatu were stalking Mr. Westchester and his sister? She'd soon put a stop to that.

"You killed them so easily...Would you consider helping me? Darla is afraid to return home and I...I feel like less than a man because I can't protect her. I can't protect my own sister..." He looked down at the girl standing by his elbow. "Would you accompany to my home and help me rid it of these....these things?"

Her eyes darted back to the doors of the house, concerned briefly for conventional matters. "Let me get my cape... then I'll come with you," she promised.

Angelus gave her a grateful smile. If seduction wouldn't work, subterfuge would. Once she was in his home, she would become the hunted, rather than the hunter. "I'll gather it for you....." He guided them toward the garden doors and hesitated at the threshold. Turning to face the killer of his kind, he ducked his head as if embarrassed by his next statement.

"Would you mind if we didn't disturb my sister with this? She is so frightened....I...I want to protect her..."

Maria put a gentle hand on his arm, "Of course... We will make your home safe again for your sister," she promised him with a confident bow of her head. Her small hand replaced the stake in its hiding place in her bodice as she waited for his return.

TBC

Part 2