“Oh God, what have I done? They’re never gonna speak to me again.”
“Sure they are,” Xander said confidently. “If it helps, whenever we’re around them, you and I can fight a lot.”
She looked up at him gratefully. “You promise?”
Smiling, Xander said, “You can pretty much count on it.”
TONIGHT, PART 4
The funny thing is, Xander thought, Cordy’s been just about the only stable thing in my life lately.
After Cordelia decided to give the relationship another shot, they had actually done fairly well. Throughout all that followed—Angel, Jenny, Kendra—Xander and Cordelia had stayed together.
Arguing constantly, but we’ve stayed together, he thought.
The phone rang, startling Xander. He picked it up. “Joe’s Pizza, Joe’s not here.”
“Xander, it’s me,” Cordelia said. “We’re on for tomorrow morning, right?”
Blinking in confusion, Xander said, “Huh?”
“Tomorrow. We’re on, right?”
“I’m missing something here, Cordy.”
“So what else is new? Look, I’m going to pick you up around eleven. That’ll give you plenty of time to slack around and sleep late like you always do on Saturdays, even though the mall will be packed by then.”
“The mall? Why are we going to the mall?” Xander felt like he had slept through a meeting or something.
“Hello? To get you some new clothes to replace those Salvation Army castoffs you’ve been embarrassing me in public with. Don’t you recall anything I said to you tonight?”
Xander came within a hair of answering that question honestly, but if he’d learned nothing else while dating Cordelia, he knew that telling her you weren’t hanging on her every word was the kiss of death. Or, more to the point, death without the kiss.
“Right. The mall. No problemo. I am Shopping Guy, hear me roar.”
“Good. See you tomorrow at eleven, then.”
With that, she hung up. Cordy never wasted time talking on the phone to guys. Phone time was for girls. Serious gossiping, and all that.
Staring at the phone he’d just hung up, he thought back over the vast minefield that had been his love life over the last couple of years.
A super-strong Vampire Slayer who prefers a vampire to me. A giant praying mantis disguised as the most beautiful substitute bio teacher on record. A five-hundred-year-old killer mummy. And the girl I’ve spent the last twelve years despising.
Oh no, my life’s not too surreal . . .
Sighing and smiling at the same time, he stripped to his boxers, turned out the lights, climbed into bed, and fell asleep.
He dreamed of Buffy Summers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in the Bronx to a pack of wild librarians, Keith R. A. DeCandido has been author, editor, musician, critic, anthologist, TV personality, and packager in nine years in the science fiction/fantasy/horror/comics field.
With José R. Nieto, he wrote the Spider-Man novel Venom’s Wrath, and he and José are working on the sequel Venom’s Rage, due in 2000. Keith has published over half a dozen short stories in a variety of anthologies, and also assisted Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder in writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher’s Guide.
Keith has co-edited several acclaimed anthologies, including OtherWere: Stories of Transformation (with Laura Anne Gilman), Urban Nightmares (with Josepha Sherman), The Ultimate Alien, and The Ultimate Dragon (both with Byron Preiss and John Betancourt). His other editorial accomplishments range from editing a highly successful line of superhero novels to helping bring legendary science fiction author Alfred Bester back into print.
He is also the percussionist for the Don’t Quit Your Day Job Players, a rock/blues/folk/country band that plays regularly at science fiction conventions, where they have oft-times been Musical Guests of Honor, and at New York City clubs. The band’s first CD, TKB, was released in 1996.
The proprietor of Albé-Shiloh Inc., writing and editorial services, Keith lives in New York City with his lovely and much more talented wife, Marina Frants. You can find out more than you ever needed to know about the pair of them at www.sff.net/people/krad.
"She’s stronger than any Slayer you’ve faced. Force won’t get it done. You gotta work from the inside. To kill this girl...you have to love her.”
—Xander
A passionate night with Angel changes everything for the Slayer. Suddenly, Buffy must deal with two forms of ultimate evil: the almost-indestructible Judge—and the legendary vampire Angelus, who is determined to exact his special brand of revenge on the young woman who showed him true love.
Now, collected for the first time, are three stories from the hit TV series chronicling Angel’s darker side.
The Angel Chronicles, Vol.3
Published by Pocket Books
THE XANDER YEARS, Vol. 1 Page 17