by Nancy Holder
“Oh, joy. Sounds like Principal Snyder’s back to his old self.” Xander sighed.
“Which is oddly comforting,” Buffy muttered. The principal made her life difficult and unpleasant, but he had never tried to kill her.
Giles and Ms. Calendar still hadn’t arrived when Buffy reached the top of the stairs. Cutie’s fear wouldn’t override Pragoh’s call indefinitely, and Willow was getting impatient with the snail’s pace. Buffy wouldn’t be able to delay much longer.
Maybe no more than a few seconds, she thought when the fire dragon jumped over the last coffee puddle and bounded through the door.
“Guess he reached his two-cup limit,” Xander joked.
Once the threat was out of sight, it was also out of the kur’s mind. Willow’s cautious demeanor vanished in an outburst of hostile irritation as she tried to barge past Buffy. “Out of my way.”
“Not so fast.” Buffy put a hand on Willow’s chest. “You wouldn’t want to run headlong into something else that could hurt Cutie, would you?”
“No, but Cutie’s not upset, so there’s nothing to worry about.” The kur hissed at Buffy as Willow pushed by her. “Except you!”
“Willow! Wait!” Buffy rushed down the stairs with Xander close behind. She reached out to grab Willow’s shirt, determined to stop a misguided charge through the Hellmouth barrier. But Willow didn’t fight when Buffy pulled her to a stop on the bottom stair.
The basement teemed with Hellmouth creatures. The small openings into the underworld only allowed a limited number of beasts through at one time. The rest had to wait their turn to leave, including the kur. The presence of the fire dragon directly ahead on the floor was another plus. It negated any impulse Cutie had to push to the front of the line.
“Slayer!” Spike had his back to the storeroom door, but he was losing the battle against Dru’s incessant battering. “Will you please tell your short, stubborn friend to do something?”
“Is there a problem?” Giles paused behind Xander. He had a bag slung over his shoulder and his arms were laden with a book and candles. Ms. Calendar stopped on the stair above him with more magickal paraphernalia.
“He won’t call the bats!” The door banged, and Spike leaned into it with his shoulder. “And she’s getting stronger!”
Rolling her eyes, Buffy raised her voice to be heard over the thrum of wings and feet. “Pragoh! Why haven’t you called the bats?”
The demon’s upper lip curled back in a snarl. “Don’t have to do what puny vampire say.”
“Puny?” Spike’s ability to cope was strained to the limit, and the insult pushed him too far. He vamped out and whirled to menace the demonic beast master.
“That cannot be good for our side,” Xander said.
“Excuse us. We have a spell to cast.” Giles squeezed past Xander, Buffy, and Willow. Taking care not to step on the fire lizard, he moved under the stairs and dropped the spell supplies.
“Couldn’t we have used a simpler version of the binding spell?” Ms. Calendar asked as she joined him.
“To ensure success, no.” Giles pulled a round, metal censer out of his bag and tested the chain.
Buffy concentrated on the clash of demonic male egos. She did not want to referee a fight between Spike and Pragoh. She wanted to stop it, and barged forward as Spike charged, but she wasn’t quick enough to intercept. Arms folded and snorting defiance, Pragoh stood his ground. Just before Spike barreled into him, the storeroom door flew open.
Spike’s face returned to human form in the split second it took him to stop and look back.
A hush fell over everything as Dru’s grotesquely majestic presence emerged from the doorway. Draped in torn streamers of a white gown with long, dark hair and black velvet wings, the tall, exotic she-bat exuded primal power. A low guttural growl sounded in her throat as her golden gaze bore into Spike. There was no affection in her eyes, no trace of weakness in her bearing as she brandished winged claws. She wanted blood, beginning with the vampire.
“Gone a bit stir-crazed in there, love?” Spike’s flippant tone was laced with fearless arrogance, but the tension in his jaw showed that he recognized the danger. “Our little friend here was just getting ready to make it all better. Weren’t you, Pragoh?”
“Still mad,” Pragoh huffed.
“Say please, Spike,” Buffy urged.
The enormous energies Dru generated kept Buffy in a state of total Slayer readiness. Primed to repel an attack, she swept the room with her senses. Clouds of microbes, colonies of mites, and larger solitary beasts continued to flow through the leaks in the Hellmouth barrier. Under the stairs, Giles and Ms. Calendar furiously prepared to cast the binding spell. Xander stood above Willow, ready to grab her.
“‘Say please’?” Spike tilted his head back and laughed. “Not bloody likely.”
Unfurling her huge wings, Dru flew toward Spike. Light glinted off her fangs, and her high-pitched screech sent chalkboard chills up Buffy’s spine. Spike tried to duck out, but Dru’s wingspan was too expansive to escape. She folded him in the membranes and threw back her head, mouth open to bite.
The attack was a catalyst igniting all the other potential calamities in the room. Everything exploded at once.
Willow jumped off the stairs. Xander grabbed the back of her shirt and dragged her down into a mass of yellow jelly orbs on the floor. Cutie spit and snarled as the fire dragon sprang clear. Lying on her side, Willow clutched the frenzied kur, kicked, and screamed. With one terrified eye on the lizard, Xander slipped his arms around Willow’s waist, buried his face in her back, and hung on.
Giles crept out from under the stairs with a lump of charcoal in his hand. Shooing straggler Hellmouth creatures out of his way, he darted to the basement wall several feet to the right of the main breach. Smaller punctures were only evident because of the mists and streams of ultrasmall beasts moving through them. Giles began to draw a large semicircle on the cement floor with the charcoal. Ms. Calendar drew smaller circular patterns within the outline and positioned unlit candles.
Vamping out again, Spike drove his fangs into the main rib on Dru’s left wing. Enraged by the pain, Dru flew into a Cutie-style fit that imperiled every creature still in the basement. She was a riot of slashing teeth and talons, striking out in all directions. Spike threw himself at her, shoving her backward and bringing her down with the momentum. He tried to catch and pin her winged arms, but she eluded his grasp and clawed his cheek.
Willow had stopped fighting Xander, but Buffy didn’t know how long Spike could keep Dru down. She was certain that if he lost the battle, someone else would die. “Pragoh! Call the bats now!”
The gray demon jutted his chin to refuse, then fixed Buffy with his beady haze. “What for Pragoh?”
“A bribe?” Buffy asked, incensed. “You want a bribe to do your job?”
“Ow!” Spike wiped a smear of blood off his neck, then smacked bat-Dru with his fist. “Agree now, negotiate later!”
Furious, Buffy advanced on Pragoh. “Call the bats.” Her voice was tight, leaving no doubt that she meant it or else.
Pragoh flinched. “You owe.”
“Call them.” Buffy stared the demon down until he cupped his face and closed his eyes. Then, despite her hatred of the punk vampire, she stood on the edges of Drusilla’s wings to help Spike hold her down for the count.
Buffy heard the thunder of wings before the flock of brilliant red bats swooped in. Huge, with saber fangs, they dove through the Hellmouth breach like hot knives through ice cream. When the last bat was gone, Drusilla gave up her struggle.
Spike rolled off Drusilla’s still body and stood up. “How long before she’s right again?”
Buffy jumped back when the leathery wings suddenly began to recede. “Not long.”
Within the space of a few seconds, the furry bat face smoothed into the perfect contours and porcelain complexion of Drusilla’s human countenance. Wing membranes seemed to evaporate as talons and claws softened into bare
feet and delicate hands. Drusilla’s transformation occurred with astounding speed compared to the recovery rate of the human victims.
Must be a vampire thing, Buffy thought as Spike drew the tatters of Dru’s dress closed. He slipped out of his long coat and settled it over her shoulders when she sat up.
“I don’t like this party, Spike.” Dru’s head drooped against his chest. “The li’l red pawns tricked the queen and now they’ve gone and taken all the tea and crumpets.”
“But you won the game.” Smiling tightly, Spike caressed her cheek with the back of his hand.
“Get a crypt!” Disgusted with the vampire fawning, Buffy turned to assess the other ongoing dramas. Spike’s tenderness toward his vampire mate made her uneasy. She didn’t want to watch him lift Drusilla into his arms and whisk her away. They were monsters, not a gallant knight and a damsel in distress. She glanced back anyway, but they were gone, and she put the loathsome couple out of her mind.
“One more candle there should do it,” Giles said. He and Ms. Calendar put the finishing touches on the charcoal diagram they had drawn on the floor. Situated directly under the library, the large semicircle encompassed all the shimmering distortions visible against the cinderblock wall. All the breaches, Buffy realized, had occurred on the outer edge of the Hellmouth.
Giles and Ms. Calendar tensed when the fire dragon scampered toward the wall, but it had no interest in them. It stopped to look back at Buffy just for a second before it leaped through the barrier.
Bye, little guy. Buffy allowed herself a brief pout. She was glad the dangerous creature was gone, but it hadn’t hurt anyone. It had actually helped her save Willow.
Although, we’re not home free on that one yet, Buffy thought, checking on her friends.
“Feeling better, Willow?” Xander asked. They were both sitting up, but he still had a grip on her skirt in case she made another break for it.
“A little.” Sighing, Willow rested her chin on the top of Cutie’s furry head.
“Except for lighting the candles and the incense, I believe we’re ready.” Giles brushed black dust off his hands. “Have all the creatures gone through?”
The moment Buffy was dreading was near, but there was no avoiding the inevitable. “Everything but the kur.”
“But he wants to stay with me,” Willow said.
Xander, Giles, and Ms. Calendar watched Willow, intent and worried but not knowing what to do. Nothing could make the necessary parting easier.
“Cutie has to go back where he belongs,” Buffy said, her voice gentle but firm.
“We belong together.” Willow tightened her grip on the creature. “Here or there.”
“Good. Kur girl go there.” The gray demon waved toward the Hellmouth breach. “Pragoh need prize.”
Xander frowned. “Did I miss the part where we all woke up in a box of Cracker Jack?”
Aghast at the implication, Buffy stepped between the demon and Willow. “What are you talking about?”
“You owe bribe!” Pragoh poked her with a stubby finger. “Big demons blame Pragoh for all this escape. Want something make them not be mad.”
Buffy grabbed Pragoh’s finger and leaned into his face. “Evil weakened the barrier and opened the Hellmouth edition of Pandora’s box, and it’s your job to round up the strays and take them back. We don’t owe you anything.”
“Especially not Willow!” Ms. Calendar struck a long fireplace match and began lighting the candles.
Giles opened the metal censer and snapped an aromatic cone of incense into the holder.
“She want go!” Pragoh snapped, exasperated.
“No, the kur wants her to go,” Buffy countered. “She stays.”
“Only if Cutie stays too,” Willow said.
Buffy ignored Willow. Her plan required precision timing, but it wouldn’t work if Willow or the kur suspected anything. Until it was time to act, it was safer to let Willow believe she could keep her pet.
Huffing with indignation, Pragoh pulled his finger out of Buffy’s grasp. Then he poked her again. “You give girl or Pragoh not take back spell.”
“Spell? What spell?” Buffy looked at Giles.
“The spell he used to bind the school,” the Watcher explained, stunned. “We do not have the power to reverse it. No one will be able to enter or leave the building unless Pragoh lifts his containment spell.”
“So we’ll all die of starvation instead of monster measles,” Xander said.
“Nobody else is going to die.” Buffy fixed Pragoh with a no-nonsense Slayer stare. “He can take me instead of Willow.”
“Then you’ll die!” Ms. Calendar protested.
Giles placed a hand on the teacher’s arm to silence her. His expression of puzzled concern and curiosity suggested that he wasn’t sure what Buffy was doing, but he wanted to hear her out.
The demon was just as intrigued, and Buffy had his complete attention.
“I bet capturing the Slayer would please your big demon bosses,” Buffy explained. “Who knows? They might even give you a promotion.”
Pragoh’s nose twitched in agitation, as though he suspected a trap but couldn’t discern what it was. “Why Slayer go?”
“It’s my job,” Buffy said.
“Since when is ‘sacrificial lamb’ in the Slayer job description?” Xander asked. He still had a grip on Willow’s skirt.
Buffy addressed Pragoh. “I put my life on the line to protect innocents every day. Willow is an innocent.” Sensing that the demon wasn’t convinced, she added, “I’m expendable.”
Pragoh frowned.
“Look, here’s how the Chosen One thing goes down,” Buffy went on. “The instant Giles and Ms. Calendar seal the barrier, I’ll be as good as dead and another Slayer will be called. Just like that. No mess, no—whatever.” She wasn’t sure being trapped in the Hellmouth qualified as being dead, but her reasoning convinced Pragoh.
The demon pointed toward the wall. “Slayer go now.”
CHAPTER NINE
She isn’t going anywhere,” Giles said.
Buffy flashed him an annoyed look. If Giles didn’t understand her motives or what she was thinking or planning, he should trust her enough not to interfere. He did.
“Not just yet,” Giles continued. “The bargain—an extremely bad one, in my opinion—is this: You remove the containment spell around the school, and then Buffy will do . . . whatever she’s decided to do.”
Buffy let the Watcher talk. His carefully chosen words implied that he knew suicide was not her intention. His calm, reasoned approach also lent credence to her proposal.
The short demon snorted, but he didn’t argue. He moved into the center of the corridor and faced the stairs, just as he had when he cast his binding spell. With his plump arms raised, he closed his eyes. After humming for several seconds, he mumbled an incantation, then hummed again.
Buffy watched Willow, looking for signs of unrest, but for now, she wasn’t a flight risk. The kur was insensitive to Pragoh’s humming chant and at ease.
Pragoh abruptly stopped humming and turned. “All done. Now Slayer go.”
“I think not!” Giles stiffened. “Buffy stays right here until we know—for a fact—that the spell has indeed been removed.”
Losing patience, Pragoh stamped his foot. “Pragoh mad.”
“Tough.” Buffy glanced at Xander. She needed him to execute her plan, but that would wait. “Go check the doors upstairs, Xander. If you can get outside, we’re in the clear.”
“Uh—” Xander looked at Willow, afraid to let go.
“It’s okay. Nobody’s going anywhere until you get back,” Buffy assured him.
“Okay. See that you don’t.” Halfway up the stairs, Xander paused to look back. “I mean it.”
“I know.” Buffy smiled.
After lighting the last candle, Ms. Calendar walked behind Buffy and whispered, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Ditto that, Buffy thought as the teacher returned
to the space under the stairs. Ms. Calendar picked up the old book and went to stand beside Giles. When the time came, they had everything in place to seal the Hellmouth.
On edge with anticipation, Buffy watched the stairs for Xander and reviewed all the steps of her plan. Her thoughts were so focused, she almost didn’t sense Angel moving toward them through the basement corridors. Every nerve in her body sizzled as she turned to greet him.
“Angel!” Giles exclaimed, surprised when the vampire suddenly appeared by the storeroom.
Angel didn’t respond to the Watcher. His dark eyes captured Buffy’s gaze and held her with the intensity of his caring. When he stood over her, the cosmos took a breathless pause. Buffy clung to the intimate moment. Things didn’t always work out as planned, and it might be their last.
“When did you get here?” Giles asked. “Into the school, I mean.”
Angel dragged his attention away from Buffy. “I’ve been hanging out in the tunnel for the past hour. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.”
“You could say that,” Buffy agreed. “The Hellmouth sprang a few leaks and a horde of low-life demons flew the coop.”
“That explains why the building was sealed,” Angel said.
“Yes, to prevent the contamination from spreading.” Giles looked up sharply. “How did you get in again?”
Buffy was way ahead of the librarian on that one. The fact that Angel was inside the building meant that Pragoh’s containment spell was no longer in effect. Without being obvious, she took stock of all the players. Fate had replaced Xander with Angel, a switch that could prove critical. The vampire was stronger, with a higher tolerance for pain.
“I walked in after Spike and Drusilla ran out,” Angel said. “Drusilla looked a little frazzled.”
“Turning into a giant bat takes a lot out of a person,” Ms. Calendar said.
With the pests gone and the containment spell broken, there was no reason to delay. Buffy plotted her moves while Giles, Ms. Calendar, and Angel talked, taking it for granted that they would know what to do and when to do it. Her life and Willow’s depended on it. Once she set events in motion, they would all be committed.