“And then he had the nerve to break up with me!” Naomi’s eyes glowed red. “I was so upset, I didn’t care if I lived or died. And then I met a vampire.”
She held a hand out toward the monstrosity before her. “Oh Brycie, my Brycie. We’ll be together for ever and ever. Or at least we will until he rots away. You see, he’s still alive, more or less.”
The creature growled again.
One thought kept playing in Cordy’s brain. If Naomi can turn Bryce Abbot into this, what is she going to do to me?
“No talking back, now,” Naomi said to the muck thing. “I can pay special attention to you, Brycie!”
The thing took a shambling step away.
“That’s one of the perks of being undead,” Naomi said brightly. “I know so many ways to cause people pain. I have extra special ways to hurt my little creature here. Brycie will do anything to keep that from happening.
“Dear, dear Cordelia.” Naomi turned back to her again. This time she took Cordelia’s face in both her dead, cold hands. “If you ever disappoint me, why, I don’t even have to bite you. Not that I might, eventually. It would be so pleasant to end your life the way you destroyed mine.”
Cordelia couldn’t help herself. She just didn’t understand. “Destroyed?” she whispered.
Naomi laughed. “You remember all the times you won and I came in second? Well, I became a vampire first, and I’m going to make you pay!
“I’ll change you, Cordelia, so no one will ever recognize you again. But first I’ll give you to Bryce for a while. I’m sure he’d like to get better acquainted again.”
The creature became very animated at this suggestion, lifting its clawed hands above its head and letting out with a howl.
“And who says Naomi doesn’t take care of her special friends? Now be a good little creature, Brycie. Go back into the shadows where you belong.”
Naomi turned away from her, watching as the thing that had once been Bryce Abbot stumbled back toward his hiding place. Now that her attention was elsewhere, Cordelia tried—really tried—to move away, but she was still frozen in place. Somehow, Naomi allowed Cordelia to talk and to feel the vampire’s frozen hands, and nothing more.
“My,” Naomi said as the creature vanished among the garbage. “Wasn’t that special.” She turned back to Cordelia. “Since we’re going to be working together, I’ll introduce you to another member of our little entourage.” She clapped her hands. “Get out here! Now!”
A small woman appeared from the shadows at the far end of the alley. She looked vaguely familiar, like Cordelia had seen her around school at some time. Except now she had the ridged forehead and mouth full of teeth of a vampire looking for blood.
“I’ll do whatever they say, now,” she mumbled through her fangs. “Gloria won’t cause any more trouble. Even for Naomi.”
“You remember Gloria.” For some reason Cordelia assumed vampires usually tended to look cool and glamorous. She guessed it had something to do with attracting their prey. Cordelia also guessed that Gloria looked better than she had in life, too. But with Gloria, even the glamour was mousy.
“Actually, no.” Cordelia frowned. “Were you in gym class with me, maybe?
“ ‘Was I in gym class?’ she asks. ‘No, she doesn’t remember me,’ she says!” She bared her fangs as she approached. “Well, Gloria will make sure pretty little Cordelia remembers—”
“Gloria,” Naomi commanded. “Shut up.”
Gloria stopped abruptly and looked at the ground.
Naomi sighed as she looked back at Cordelia. “Sorry. Good help is so hard to find. That’s why I’ve recruited you.”
Oh. Gross with a cherry on top. Now Cordelia remembered this girl. “Did you used to chew gum?”
“Yeah,” Gloria replied, not looking at either of the others. “You can’t do that any more with fangs.”
“Junior High. It was gym class.”
“I could never climb the ropes,” Gloria muttered. “But Cordelia was really good at it!”
What, does everybody in Sunnydale have a grudge against me?
“Dear Cordelia. I can’t watch you all the time. But Gloria will at night. And during the day, Brycie will never be very far away. They’ll tell me if you don’t obey.
“In the meantime, Naomi has other plans with the new rulers of this town.”
A great wind sprang up. Naomi, laughing, seemed to fly down the alley and out of sight.
“I hate when she does that,” Gloria said to Cordelia. “Naomi’s so full of herself. ‘Good help is hard to find,’ she says. What makes her so special?” She dusted off her clothes. “I’m not so bad to look at.”
Well, Cordelia reasoned, if you could do a total makeover—lose the torn and ratty outfit, comb out her hair, give her face a little color—well, anything was possible—
“I never had any luck with men,” Gloria whined. “Then Gloria finally found a real looker. Of course he was a vampire.”
She smiled up at Cordelia. “You’ll like dealing with Gloria. You’ll see. Gloria’s an easygoing sort. Naomi can be a real pain.”
“Can I now?”
Cordelia still couldn’t move her head, but she recognized Naomi’s voice before the vampire floated back into her line of sight.
“Awwww! Gloria doesn’t like things sneaking up on her.”
“Gloria won’t like a lot of things I can do to her.” Naomi smiled. “My business didn’t take very long at all.”
She shook her head, getting her glorious curls to bounce lightly. “I just wanted to see how you two got along.” She looked straight at Gloria. “I just wanted to make sure I could trust you.”
Naomi turned her attention back to Cordelia. “You won’t remember this. You won’t remember me at all, until the next time you bring me my dinner.
“Your dinner? What do you—”
“Who are you going out with these days, Cordelia? I’m sure he’d be very tasty.”
What? Cordelia thought. No! Xander!
“It’s going to be so much fun destroying every little bit of your life,” Naomi continued, “all your friends, everything you care about.”
Cordelia had had enough of this. She didn’t care if she was frozen in place. “I’ll—I’ll get away. I’ll never talk to you again. I’ll—”
“No, Cordelia dear, I already have you under my spell. Besides, how can you fight something that you can’t remember? You’ll go on from day to day, wondering where your friends have disappeared to, where your boyfriend has gone, why your pets don’t come home. You’ll never remember when I give you my commands. But it will be you, Cordelia, who led every one of them to their deaths.”
Cordelia felt like she was going to cry. Why was Naomi being so horrible? Was it Cordelia’s fault she got to be head of the cheerleaders, went out with all the popular guys, was picked first at all the dances?
“Don’t worry, Cordelia. I’ll let you remember it all before I kill you.”
Naomi was always competitive—even back in their cheerleading days. Could Cordelia help it if she was the better cheerleader?
But Cordelia wouldn’t cry. Naomi was horrible now because she was a vampire. It went with the territory. And Cordelia wouldn’t give this creature the satisfaction of knowing she was causing her pain. Someone would save her. Where is Xander when I need him? Where is Miss Slayer?
“It’s time for me to go. But don’t worry. I’ll never be very far.”
Naomi drifted away from Cordelia until she, too, was lost in the shadows.
Cordelia blinked.
What was she doing in the alley behind the Bronze?
She must have come out here to get some air. Probably because she was so annoyed with Xander.
She felt a chill. That’s what I get, she supposed, for running away from my problems. She’d get Xander to talk to her, one way or another.
That girl, walking down the alley—Cordelia swore she recognized her from junior high gym class.
Oh we
ll, all sorts came to the Bronze. They let anyone in these days.
Well, she may have wandered out here in a daze, but that didn’t mean she had to stay out here. Something moved over in the garbage. Ugh. There are probably rats back here.
Cordelia turned around and marched back into the Bronze.
Right now, she really needed to see Xander smile.
Chapter 12
WHEN I GROW UP, I WANT TO BE A DRUID,” XANDER announced.
Oz regarded Xander with a look that was as close as Oz ever came to surprise.
“I just wanted to hear the way it sounds,” Xander confessed. “Doctor? Lawyer? Indian chief? Not for me. I’m going to be a Druid!”
“I know how you feel.” Especially, Oz thought, if the Druids could give me any way to control, or even cure, that full-moon habit of mine. He spent a moment studying the spines on the bookcase across the way. They’d come to the library to ask Giles for advice. It was a good quiet place to talk, too. No chance of other kids coming in here.
“Well,” Oz said at last, “it sounds like they have a lot going for them. And I liked their little magic tricks. I think I’d need something a lot bigger than flowers, though. I’ve always pretty much accepted it—I’m a werewolf.” He glanced at Xander. “You know, Willow and I have never been able to look at a full moon together. I tell you, it’s a real downer in the romance department.
“So—with this whole werewolf thing—I could see me getting tight with the Druids. But what about you?”
Xander had obviously considered this long and hard. “Buffy’s my best friend. And what can I do to help her? Most of the time, bupkis, nada, the big goose egg, double-oh-seven without the seven on the end. Nothing. If I could only learn a few of the tricks and techniques these guys have, I could back her up when all those beasties show.”
Well, that sounded like a pretty good reason to Oz, too. But he still had questions. “What do we really know about these guys? They talk a lot, but they haven’t shown us all that much. And we haven’t even met the uncle.”
“According to Buffy, he’s one sour character. Maybe you can only become a full-fledged Druid after you take a sour test. Maybe that’s why his three nephews are trying to cram in all that fun. I never thought of it that way.”
Oz wanted to review the facts. “But figuring, besides being sour, the Druids are okay . . ”
“Yeah?” Xander asked
“So I want to walk around under the full moon and you want to be Buffy’s sidekick in danger.”
“Yeah,” Xander agreed
“So how do we do it?”
“I suppose we keep talking to them.”
“Yeah, talking’s pretty safe. You know, for all the stuff they’ve told us, we still don’t really know exactly why they’re here.”
“A very good observation,” a cultured voice said behind them.
They both spun around. Giles regarded them both with a slight smile from behind the librarian’s desk. When had he walked in here?
“I surmise you did come in here to see me? This is the library, and since I see no booklike objects in your hands, then you must be looking for me.”
“Yeah, Giles,” Xander said. “We did a lot of talking with the younger Druids last night.”
“And they told us,” Oz added, “well, they want to do some big thing to stop this evil stuff. But that was pretty much all we got out of it.”
“Yeah,” Xander added with a grimace, like he hated how nada it sounded. “Well, they seemed like nice guys.”
“Except for the uncle. We haven’t met the uncle.”
“Well, you know, he could be sour, and nice too. In a sour sort of way.”
“Their uncle told me much the same thing,” Giles agreed. “I’ve been thinking about this. Druids were believed to have been wiped out in the early days of Christianity. Instead, apparently, they went into hiding for two thousand years. They may have used their secrecy down through the years to protect themselves. But their secrecy is getting in the way now. If someone isn’t totally open and honest with me, I suspect the worst.”
“The worst?” Oz asked. “What could be the worst?”
“You live above the Hellmouth and you ask that?” Xander asked in return.
Even Giles cracked a bit of a smile at that. Then he sobered. “They talk about working with the Slayer. I’m afraid they might want to use the Slayer instead.”
The librarian tapped his long fingers on the top of the railing. “I’ve really not talked about my suspicions with anyone. Their leader, their Uncle George? He gave us the very briefest of overviews for why they are here, and his explanation was credible—as far as he went. But he really gave no indication of the exact nature of his objective, or even how he planned to carry it out.”
Xander shook his head. “In other words, we’ve got no idea what he’s really doing. Is he Mr. Rogers or Snidely Whiplash?”
“Exactly.” Giles studied both Xander and Oz for a moment. “You said you talked to the three young men for quite a while. Did they give any indication of their uncle’s plans?”
“They were pretty vague,” Xander admitted.
Oz added, “My guess is that even they really don’t know.”
“They just told us things about their life.”
“You know. How much fun it was to be a Druid.”
“Indeed,” Giles replied dryly, “I imagine it’s all sorts of fun.”
“Well,” Xander said, “you do get to wear neat robes.”
A good point, Oz thought. “And you can pull flowers out of thin air and cause little lightning bolts to come out of the ends of your fingers.”
Xander nodded. “It’s a great way to burn up crumbled wads of paper.”
“Yeah. Well, these were the demonstrations they gave us last night.”
“I think, every time we tried to talk too much about why they were here, they started demonstrating.”
Oz thought there was more to it than that. “But there could be other reasons for what they did. You know, their father died the last time they tried to do this thing, whatever it is. It might be painful for them to talk about it.”
“I guess the only thing we can do now is proceed with caution,” Giles replied. “These Druids may indeed prove to be very helpful.”
Xander grinned. “Is it all right if we let them teach us a few secrets?”
“I don’t see what harm it can do, so long as the two of you watch out for each other, and you each keep an open mind. It would be wonderful if they were really what they said they were. Perhaps, with the Hellmouth out of commission, the Slayer, and her Watcher, too, could have a bit of a breather.”
Wow. This whole Slayer/Hellmouth thing affected everybody. Oz had never thought about the toll it took on Giles as well.
“I’ve actually done some further research,” Giles continued, “and found something very troubling. However, it may end up being reassuring.”
Xander stared at the librarian. “Once more, with clarity?”
“I believe,” Giles went on, “that after they were driven underground, the Druids fragmented. While some followed the ritual of nature worship, others were jealous of their loss of power and started to experiment with those darker forces which earlier they had only attempted to control. In fact, these offshoots of the Druids might even be responsible for some of the same calamities that our current group claims they must fix.”
“So you think these guys want to bring about trouble rather than cure it?” Xander asked.
“Not exactly. But I fear they might want to try and control that dark side, an ambition that—we know from our own experience—could have no good end.”
Giles threw up his hands. “Or my suspicions could be totally unfounded. We simply don’t have enough information.”
“Then information you will get!” Xander exclaimed. “This looks like a job for Xanderman. Quick, Oz! To the Xandermobile!”
Oz guessed that was as good an exit line as any.
&n
bsp; * * *
Xander found Cordelia standing in the middle of the hallway. School had ended fifteen minutes ago, and the place was pretty empty. Except for Cordelia, who was busy staring into space.
“Hey, Cordy!” he called. “Funny meeting you here, out in the open like this. You know, without the comfy confines of a broom closet—”
He stopped. Cordelia was still staring.
“Hello!” Xander called. “Earth to Cordy!”
“Bryce,” Cordelia replied.
“What?”
“Bryce Abbot.”
“What? You mean the football player you used to go out with? The one who went away to college? It was a good thing you broke up with him. The man had no neck.” Xander realized he was babbling. What was she thinking about an old boyfriend for? Was this why she was acting so strange lately?
Cordelia blinked. “Oh, Xander. I didn’t hear—my mind—” She frowned. “I’ve got a million problems with the dance.”
Again with the dance. Maybe she wanted to go with Bryce Abbot rather than Xander. Well, he didn’t have to stand around and take this.
“Well, don’t let me get in the way of the mambo,” Xander said. “I’ve got to go out and help some Druids.”
“You do?” Cordelia was still frowning. “Well, I guess I’ve got a lot to do, too.”
Well, if she was going to treat him like that, he could treat her like that, too. “See ya,” he said, and turned to go.
He walked quickly down the hall. As he turned the corner, he thought he heard Cordy call his name. Nah. It was probably his imagination. Or she wanted to ask him some dumb question about his tux.
Keep on walking, Xander, my boy.
It was time for some Druid action.
Buffy saw the big black car screech to a halt in front of the high school. Ian’s brother Tom waved from the driver’s seat. Xander and Oz rushed right past Buffy without a word, quickly jumping down the steps to the car.
“Okay!” Xander called. “Time to learn the secrets of the ancients!”
“Time for Tom to learn to drive on the right side of the road!” Dave’s voice called from somewhere inside the huge Caddy.
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