"All right... there... yes, that's it! That's my little Andrew!"

A little pleased hiss was his reply.

"Drink, Andrew," Edgar said, his dark brown eyes glowing golden-red, but with encouragement for a change instead of bloodlust. "Think of all the crimes she committed... the ones that are against vampire law. She has to pay the price."

And Andrew did. Tightening his grip on the female criminal's head and shoulders, he began the draining process that Edgar had spoken quite fondly about. Soon, there was nothing left of the woman but a corpse... or "cadaver", as Edgar preferred to call it sometimes. Andrew then carefully let the body drop, and as the body made contact with the floor, the barrier disappeared.

Edgar had wanted to join in the fun of draining the female criminal's life force, but the invitation hadn't included him. So, he decided to stand and watch, leaning against the doorway and playing the part of the casual observer while his Childe had all the fun.

As soon as the barrier disappeared, Edgar pulled himself away from the doorway, a pleased grin adorning his face as he took in the sight of Andrew with fangs stained with blood, and his eyes glowing with sated bloodlust. Goshdarnit, if he saw Andrew as beautiful the first time he saw him back when he was human (which he did), then Andrew was still beautiful even now. Bone-white fangs, his mouth covered with the criminal's blood... it was something neat and inspiring, indeed.

But for Edgar, the work of an ethical vampire was never done.

Regardless, he began bursting out into impromptu applause. "Had fun, Andrew?"

Hearing the applause of his Sire and his voice, Andrew looked up at Edgar, and let a smile cross his own face while his features reverted from vampire to human. "Oh, yeah, Edgar," he nodded before taking an unneeded breath. "Definitely."

Edgar then cast a proud look at the body of the female criminal, who had died at Andrew's hands. "Good job, Andrew. Not bad for your first kill as an ethical vampire, I must say."

Andrew blinked, a puzzled look replacing the smile that was previously there. "Ethical vampire? I don't get it."

Edgar smiled at the look of confusion on his Childe's face. "An ethical vampire, Andrew, is a vampire that only feeds on criminals — you know, people like muggers, rapists, child molesters and child rapists, to name a few," he explained.

"Really?" Andrew asked, surprise now replacing confusion. When Edgar nodded, Andrew remarked, "Wow."

"It is a lot to take in at the moment," Edgar nodded as though in agreement, before he locked eyes with Andrew. Then, the events of the previous afternoon came back to him...

The sun was shining down on Edgar, and he wasn't even burning up (thanks to the spell he had cast on himself so he was able to walk about in the daylight). But from Edgar's perspective, the best part was Andrew Wells, the first ever male Slayer, lying at his feet.

"The birds singing. Such beauty. I never thought that the daytime would be so exciting as the night itself."

And then he and Andrew fought, although their fight was more like a dance, with swirls of intricate movement on both their parts. Fists, feet and fangs. What Andrew remembered thinking was that Buffy and Spike would've been proud if they had gotten to see something like that. And then it happened... that 'one good day' that Spike would mention sometimes. Edgar had gotten to Andrew when he let his guard down, and was holding Andrew by the shoulders, his fangs all at the ready, and about to write history with blood... and not just any person's blood, but the blood of a male Slayer at that.

But then Edgar stopped as an idea came to him. He didn't want to kill Andrew. No way. Instead, he wanted Andrew to be by his side, as an ethical vampire.

After all, there were many human criminals out there in the world.

These criminals, Edgar knew, committed crimes that were against vampire law. And people have the nerve to refer to my kind as 'monsters' in their stories, Edgar thought, mentally shaking his head. Well, maybe some of my kind are monsters, but no more or worse than there are among humankind.

With those thoughts in mind, Edgar then turned to Andrew, having made his decision. His white fangs bared, he then pierced Andrew's throat and, before Andrew knew it, his crimson life force was leaving his body... being stolen by this monster in human form. Initially it was painful, but then the pain turned to pleasure, which Andrew had only experienced in his dreams.

Feeling his heartbeat beginning to slow along with his pulse, Andrew began to strike at Edgar's back, although he was weakened by blood loss. Thankfully, Edgar seemed to sense this, for he pulled his fangs out of Andrew's throat and licked them clean with his tongue.

"Edgar?" Andrew asked. "Is someone bleeding?" He reached up and wiped away a little of the blood on his throat, and then looked at it, puzzled as though wondering if it belonged to someone else.

Apparently, to Edgar, the answer seemed to be pretty obvious (which it was). "Andrew," he said, "I'm afraid I took a bit too much."

"Oh," said Andrew unconcernedly, and lay his head back as though uncaring of his life slipping away from him.

Immediately, Edgar supported Andrew's head in his arm. "Andrew, listen to me," he said, his tone filled with a determination the likes of which Andrew had never heard previously. "At the moment, your choices are quite short. You can either die out here from blood loss without my intervention, which is something I don't want and would be a shame of colossal proportions. Or... or you could choose to spend eternity with me," he added, his tone of voice now changed from determination to passion. "For you, the choice should be simple."

It was for a moment that Andrew began thinking over the two choices: either die, or spend eternity with Edgar. Finally, he made up his mind, having decided what he felt he and Edgar wanted.

"Then I choose... to spend eternity with you, Edgar."

When Edgar heard those words, he felt his undead heart give a leap. "I was hoping you would say that, Andrew," he said, hearing the anticipatory purr in his voice. "Yeah, I was hoping you would say that."

Andrew couldn't help but smile himself, although a bit weakly.

Now was the right time. Andrew had given his consent, and Edgar knew that forcing vampirism on someone was akin to the crime known as rape: if it was against someone's will, without their consent, it was not okay.

After all, like that saying goes, 'No means no and yes means yes', Edgar thought, and I believe that also applies to vampires as well, especially when it comes to siring a vampire too.

With that, Edgar took that as his cue. Sitting Indian-style on the grass while making sure to have Andrew lay his head on his knee, he unbuttoned his shirt, causing Andrew to blink a little in puzzlement. Then, using one of his nails, Edgar opened a vein in his chest. The blood made its appearance, and Andrew suddenly couldn't help but wonder about something when he laid eyes on the crimson life force.

Was this how Mina felt in the 1977 BBC film "Count Dracula" when Dracula opened his black shirt and then made a wound in his chest before getting her to place her mouth on the wound? If it is... well, I just hope this will turn out better for me than it did for her... at least, I hope so.

He was soon brought back to his present situation when he heard Edgar's voice whispering to him:

"Come... come."

Shrugging mentally, Andrew's last thought was Well, here goes nothing.

He managed to raise his head up (with a little help on Edgar's part) so that he was at eye level with the blood. Feeling the sensation of his mouth being pressed to the wound, Andrew took that as a signal to open his mouth. Before he knew it, he felt the sensation of Edgar's blood flowing over his tongue and teeth.

"Take from me... take. Drink... drink... drink. Live... live. Drink... drink... drink... drink," Edgar purred, his words seeming to spur Andrew on, as well as encourage him in his actions.

It was at that very moment that Andrew remembered Buffy telling him about when she drank some of Dracula's blood. However, she had said, Dracula had been right when he later told her that he had not drunk enough of her blood for her to change into a vampire.

Now I understand exactly how Buffy must've felt when the same thing happened to her, Andrew mentally remarked to himself. After all, Dracula had only taken some of her blood. So as a result, Buffy had plenty of free will left in her after she told Dracula she was standing right there, thus causing him to leave Sunnydale. Good for her, of course.

In my case, this is different. I gave Edgar my consent. It's not like Edgar's going all 'Dracula' on me and forcing his vampiric lifestyle on me, or anything like that. I did say 'yes', and I meant every word of it... definitely.

Deep down, somehow Andrew had always known Edgar was a different kind of vampire. He was able to cast spells (which explained why he was able to walk about in the daylight, whereas the Hellmouth vampires had to stay out of the sun and sleep all day).

From Andrew's point of view, Edgar was a vampire, but the ethical, daywalking kind, not the evil, demonic, Hellmouth kind. Even though Andrew, Jonathan and Warren were viewed by Buffy as pains in the neck, stupid they weren't. They had long since heard about the Hellmouth vampires... evil, soulless beasts who lived for the kill and nothing else.

But Edgar wasn't like that at all... not one bit.

Edgar smiled fondly as those memories came back to him, and then picked Andrew up in his arms, causing Andrew to wrap his legs around Edgar's waist. Edgar could tell Andrew was trying to keep in control.

"Edgar?" Andrew suddenly asked, his tone full of hope. "You'll take me to places I've never been to, right? You won't leave me or anything like that?"

Edgar shook his head, smiling slowly. "Of course not, Andrew. I marked you as mine since the day I locked eyes with you, if you know what I mean."

Andrew smiled a little himself, realizing what Edgar did mean.

Edgar had to admit, there was a certain poetic justice in having some bedroom fun with Andrew on the criminal's bed, with her dead shell as their only witness.

But when Edgar perked up his ears, what he heard made both him and Andrew stop and think for a bit. There were muted voices and the sounds of people walking by (as well as a few footsteps sounding like they were coming over to the dorm room). He disengaged Andrew's legs from around his waist, but never missing the disappointed pout on Andrew's face, especially his lips. That mouth of Andrew's looked so beautiful — any idiot would go nuts when it came to having fantasies about losing themselves in the fullness of Andrew's lips. Shagging Andrew, as much fun as it sounded, would have to wait — maybe until later.

Shaking his head to clear away those thoughts, Edgar then asked, "So where do you want to go, Andrew?"

Andrew grinned. "Visit my older brother Tucker first. Show him about his trying to leave me in his shadow. Then I would like to go to Texas, France, New York — maybe even Africa, or Las Vegas in Nevada..."

"Sounds like you have it planned out, huh?" Edgar remarked. "Well, then, let's hit the road already."

Andrew laughed a little at his Sire's suggestion, his laugh making Edgar smile a little with pride at the precious jewel of a vampire he had sired.

All too soon, Edgar heard his Childe's voice calling to him. "C'mon, Edgar — let's go! Those criminals out there aren't getting any younger, you know."

Edgar nodded in agreement and headed over to where Andrew was waiting by Edgar's black Triumph motorcycle.

"Let's go, Andrew," he purred, getting on the motorcycle before helping Andrew get on behind him. "We got towns to paint red."

"And criminals to find and kill," Andrew added, wrapping his arms around Edgar's waist before Edgar started up the motorcycle. His dark brown eyes seemed to glow red at the thought while he licked his mouth in anticipation and excitement. "Red. A beautiful color."