[RP for at_anycost]

Buffy took the subway because she can't bear to take the time to walk down to the precinct and she can't run full speed through the city at noon. Mac had called and told her they had some information about Danny. That had resulted in immediate panic but she had pushed it away. Whatever was going on, Danny needed her now and panicked Buffy was not going to help anyone. On the subway ride over she'd stood with her fingers pressed against the door, harder and harder until the glass cracked and she pulled. When it finally slides into the station, she's the first one off, shoving her way through people as she runs, just keeping her speed in check to the high rise that the lab is housed in. She doesn't bother with the elevator, it would only make her crazy, and she knows she can run stairs faster than the elevator will move. Once the door shuts behind her, she doesn't hold back, taking the stairs so fast she almost blurs. She pulls up to a stop at the right floor and bursts through the door. The receptionist directs her to Mac's office and her nerves flutter up again.

Buffy smooths her hand over her hair. It's a wreck and she knows it. She pulled it back in a knot after the rain last night and she hasn't looked at it since. She spent the whole night killing vampires, pounding on demons and decidedly not sleeping or eating. She's got on a wife beater that's seen better days and a pair of jeans that hang low on her hips. The knees are torn out and that happened only hours ago. She opens the door to Mac's office with a slight knock then steps inside hesitantly.

"Mr. Taylor...uhm, Detective Taylor...thank you for calling me. Buffy Summers," she says to jog his memory even though he's the one that called her.

Say goodbye to a glitter girl

relates to this

[don’t want to lose it // it must be worth losing // if it is worth something
(Tori Amos – ‘Talula’)]

“In case you didn’t catch it the first time, the name is Buffy, slayer comma the. I’m not one of the new girls and I’ve got more patience then you want to test.” She’s got a vampire flat on his back on the concrete floor of a warehouse. The vampire in question can’t talk right now because he’s got a silver cross half way down his throat. He gags and dry heaves but Buffy doesn’t move from where she’s sitting on his chest, holding him down by the throat with her free hand. She jerks the cross up out of the vampire’s throat. “Last chance. Fred Hirsch. Maybe you don’t know the name and I don’t care but there’s a guy, human and he’s probably got a few other guys watching him but there’s a lot of blood and you’d smell it. Ringing any bells here or do I need to hit you harder?”

“I don’t know. I swear I don’t know,” the vampire says between coughs. There’s smoke rising from the inside of the vampire’s mouth.

Buffy sighs and stands up She steps over the vampire, heels clicking on the cement as she heads to the door. The vampire makes a rush for her from behind but he forgets, she wasn’t born yesterday. She flicks her wrist, tossing a broken shard of wood behind her and the vampire has the point of the shard sticking out of his chest before he can get within reach of her. She doesn’t look back because there’s nothing worth looking back for. She’s gotten everything she’s going to get out of that one.

Danny has been missing for twenty seven hours and she tried to sleep once but the apartment was too empty and Rocky watched her guiltily from the corner. In the end she took the dog over to Dawn’s and went to patrol some more. She’s been at it for hours and she’s got no intention of stopping until she finds him. Vampires don’t have to hide from the sun in New York City. They can slip into shadows, slide between buildings and when it’s really necessary, dive into the tunnels underneath the city. She’s actually grateful for it because she doesn’t have to stop looking for him. He’s lost a lot of blood judging from the photographs and there’s no way that any predator in the area isn’t going to smell that. She just has to find the right area and the right predator.

The smell of street dogs from around the corner makes her stomach roll and she stops next to a building, retching on the sidewalk but her stomach is empty. She wipes her mouth and then shakes her hand out as she dips into another alley. Her knuckles are bruised and she thinks she might have cracked one of the bones in her hand on some idiot demon’s skull. She weaves around a bum asleep against the wall then ducks into an abandoned building that feels funny to her.

It’s another vampire and by the time she finishes with him, she’s got his blood all over her skin. The photographs echo in her memory and she shoves a stake through the vampire’s heart. A human being can lose four pints of blood before their heart slows to a stop and she also knows there wasn’t that much blood in the pictures. Her mind isn’t on the fight she’s in the middle of and that’s made clear as the vampire lands a punch to her jaw that sends her all the way across the room. She cracks her jaw and twists her neck to the side as she gets to her feet a little slowly. Danny’s so damn fragile. That’s running on repeat in her brain. Sure, for a human he’s tough but the punch she just took would have broken a human’s neck.

“This really isn’t the night to fuck with me,” Buffy spits as she grabs the vampire’s wrist, bringing his roundhouse punch to a screeching halt. She twists his arm, snapping it in two then grabs the back of the vampire’s hair, slamming his forehead into a wall. The blood splatters and it’s already cold. She jerks the vampire’s head back as she slams a stake through his chest. “I told you this wasn’t the night to fuck with me,” she whispers to the dusty stillness as she walks outside again.

There are plenty more vampires to question, to beat and it’s only a matter time before she finds the right one that can tell where Danny is. Once she does, Hirsch’s guys are going to find out just exactly what happens when you hurt her boyfriend. Until then, she’ll practice on the vampires in New York City. Practice makes perfect and Buffy is a perfectionist.