After nearly two years of recurring status as Anya, Buffy the Vampire Slayer's man-hating demon, Emma Caulfield has finally been promoted to a series regular. So what the Hellmouth took so long? "I really couldn't get into the head of [series creator] Joss Whedon," Caulfield tells TV Guide Online. Her mug will be added to the opening credits this fall, though. "I started with what was supposed to be one episode, and it kept evolving."

In Caulfield's December 1998 Buffy debut, her character- the 1,120-year-old patron saint of scorned women- twitched her nose and created an alternate universe in which Buffy never came to Sunnydale. And although a kinder, gentler- i.e., human- Anya has emerged, she's thankfully retained her trademark acid tongue. "There are times," she admits, "when I thought, 'God, I wish I could say that!'"

Fans can catch Anya in all her wisecracking glory on the April 25 episode when, after a fight with boyfriend Xander, she bonds with fellow declawed villain Spike. "The script was so hysterical, I literally was crying in my chair reading it," explains the actress, an old hand at working with backbiting vamps from her season as Jason Priestley's Beverly Hills, 90210 sweetheart. "Everyone [on that show] was really nice- for the most part."

And now that Caulfield's a Buffy full-timer, any chance Anya might morph back into monster mode? "It would be great to have my powers back... as long as I could look like me and not go through the whole prosthetics nightmare."

-Michael Ausiello