He was certain he could put them at their ease. He no longer knew if he wanted to expend the energy. Explanations meant nothing. What mattered was the success of the spell. There would have to be a sacrifice. More than just blood. For the spell to succeed, George would have to sacrifice a life.
Any human life would suffice. Pity it had to be one of the Vampire Slayer’s friends. But, if her friends were involved, the Slayer would be involved, too. It was simple and efficient.
George smiled.
He would succeed at last.
Chapter 18
BUFFY WAS GLAD GILES PUT HER EXHAUSTION INTO words.
“It’s late,” Giles said, “Everybody should go home and get some sleep. Tomorrow we may be up all night.”
“Tomorrow?” Cordelia shouted like she had been shaken from a deep sleep. She looked at the others in horror.
“Tomorrow? But that’s the night of the Spring Formal!”
“It’s also the night that, according to my uncle, the forces of evil must be prevented from taking over the world,” Dave added helpfully.
“How considerate is that?” Cordelia took a deep breath. “Well, I guess this affects me, too. Especially considering what’s been going on with Naomi.” She winced, saying the next few words as if every one had to be dragged from deep inside. “The Spring Formal is out.”
She pointed her index finger at her boyfriend.
“But, Xander Harris, we’re going to every single other dance that Sunnydale High ever holds!”
“Ever?” Xander echoed.
She frowned slightly as she paused to consider. “Well, at least until graduation. After that, we’ll see.”
Buffy decided there was hope for Cordelia yet.
“Come on, everybody,” she called to the others in the room. “I’ll walk you home.”
Willow looked up from her computer monitor. “Giles? Do you think we should look into this mastery business?”
“Oh, right. That is rather important. Willow and I will be doing just a bit more work.” He nodded at their resident computer genius. “If it’s all right, I’ll give you a lift.”
“Hey, anything to defeat the forces of evil.” She waved to the rest of the crowd. “If you see Oz, tell him I’ll give him a call!”
Buffy thought Willow looked a little sad. As busy as she was, Willow might be feeling lonely. With all that had been going on the past couple of days, the usually inseparable twosome of Willow and Oz had been pretty separated.
But they all had their part to play in this. The rougher the situation, the more Willow stayed glued to the computer. Buffy wondered if other Slayers had had such a wonderful network of friends to help them out.
People were pretty quiet as they walked through the streets of Sunnydale. She guessed everybody was tired. The streets were quiet, too, as if even Sunnydale was resting. Getting ready, Buffy guessed, for tomorrow night. The end of the world. Again.
She left Cordelia and Xander at Cordelia’s house. Dave waved and said he had to get back to see his uncle.
Buffy had no choice but to head for home. The Slayer was all alone once more.
Xander had never seen Cordelia so jumpy. Every rustle of leaves, every insect chirp, had her grabbing for him, which he sort of liked. But her constant gasps and yelps ended up startling him, too. It was even making him a little panicky.
He put his arm around her and walked her firmly up the steps to her front porch. Cordelia searched in her purse for her keys, never a short procedure at the best of times.
She frowned up at Xander. “What if I wake up in the middle of the night and Naomi’s staring at me?”
Xander wished that he could calm her down. He squeezed both her shoulders.
“Hey. Remember there’s no way for a vampire to get inside unless you ask them in.”
“You’re sure about that?” She pulled out her keys at last.
“Inside. I’m here. I’ll make sure that nobody’s around until I hear you lock the door behind me. Willow and Giles are still working on this. Between them, they can get to the bottom of anything. I’m sure we’ll be able to figure a way out of all of this tomorrow.”
Cordelia sighed. “I hope so.” She took a final glance over Xander’s shoulder at the dark, dark world. “I’d better get inside.”
Big brave Xander. And what happened when Cordelia had locked the door and he was out here all alone? Well, Buffy was probably just down the street. No doubt she’d show up if he screamed loud enough.
Cordelia gave him a goodnight kiss that was barely a kiss at all. Xander could tell that her heart wasn’t in it.
She unlocked the door quickly, but paused as she stepped over the threshold to look back at Xander a final time.
“And I’m going to miss the Spring Formal!” she wailed.
The door shut behind her. Xander waited for the sound of the bolt being turned. He went down the steps and headed for his own house on this very quiet night.
He stopped and took a look around. It was spooky how empty the streets were.
Why did he feel like he was being watched?
He wondered if it was too late to drop in on Ian and the others for those promised Druid lessons.
It would be so easy for Naomi now.
She could wait until Cordelia was almost asleep. Cordelia’s oh-so-cute, oh-so-sincere boyfriend, Xander, had said that vampires can’t come inside when they’re not invited. True, as far as it went, but it didn’t matter. Naomi could just call Cordelia back outside.
Naomi remembered back when Xander was such a skinny nerd that Cordelia wouldn’t look at him twice. My, but the boy had filled out nicely. Naomi imagined he’d be quite tasty, too.
She had toyed with putting Cordelia back under her spell tonight, or with attacking Xander on Cordelia’s front porch, draining him and leaving him for Cordelia to find in the morning.
But both plans lacked drama. It was far too quiet in Sunnydale now. Naomi’s best plans deserved an audience. She would wait until tomorrow, when she could use Cordelia, when she could use both of them as part of the larger drama that would swallow Sunnydale whole. Naomi pictured the perfect moment. She’d let Cordelia regain her consciousness just long enough to watch Naomi drain the life’s blood from her precious Xander. And then, why not let Eric drain Cordelia to give him extra strength to defeat the Druids?
It was a lovely plan. She was sure Eric would appreciate its poetry.
But enough of Cordelia and her little high school chums.
Right now, Naomi had other business.
So Buffy was feeling sorry for herself. So what?
Well, Cordelia and Xander were gone in one direction, and Dave down a different street to check on Barb and head home. The march of the dancing couples. Only Buffy was destined to march everalone.
Angel . . .
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
“Buffy!”
Two young men waved at her as they ran up the street. Oz—and Ian.
“Have you seen my uncle anywhere?” Ian called.
“She looks like she had a fight with your spell,” Oz added. “Sorry, Buffy. You all right?”
“No prob.” She tried to smile at Ian. “Just a little run-in with killer plants.” Oh yeah, the torn clothes, the smudged face, the too-tangled-for-a-comb hair. She always liked to run into prospective dates when it looked like she had been rolling around in fertilizer.
Oz pointed down to his less-than-spotless clothing. “We had to put down the revolt of some bathtub goop, ourselves. You haven’t seen Willow around?”
“Sure. Willow’s still at the library. We just left there. Willow and Giles are still doing that—you know—computer stuff.”
Oz nodded. “Maybe I’ll just drop by.” He pointed at Ian. “Tomorrow?”
Ian nodded back. “We can use all the help we can get.”
Buffy was glad Oz was going to drop in on Willow. She thought that would be good for both of them.
She was even happier that it left her alo
ne with Ian.
Oz trotted off down the street in the direction of the high school. Ian smiled kind of shyly. A good first sign, Buffy thought.
“I haven’t talked to you much,” he said
“Yeah. I kind of noticed. I figured it was because of the Druidic silence and all.”
“Yeah, we Druids have that kind of reputation, don’t we?”
There was a pause in the conversation.
Well, Buffy thought, now that we’ve covered the social habits of Druids, where do we go from here?
“So,” she asked, “you’re looking for your uncle? So was Dave.”
Ian shrugged. “Yeah. He’s acting a little strange. More than a little, really. Here we are, ready to turn back the tide of evil that’s seeping through the Hellmouth. This is not a small thing.”
“Not small at all,” Buffy agreed. “Actually sounds kind of big.”
“It couldn’t be bigger. According to my uncle’s calculations, if this thing isn’t stopped by tomorrow night, it could change the world.”
“And this change isn’t a good thing, right?”
“It couldn’t be worse. My uncle was really hyper about this whole thing until we got here to Sunnydale. Then, all of a sudden he gets into one of these moods—my uncle has these moods; you’ll have to take my word for it. And so he just sits in the living room and broods. Oh,” Ian pointed off someplace behind him, “we rented a cottage out by the edge of town. Anyway, my uncle said it was very important that we enlist your services. Gives us a little extra help in case anything goes wrong.”
“Well, he did visit Giles once,” Buffy offered.
Ian looked up to the sky. “And that’s it! Did he ever mention any of the finer points of his plan?”
“I don’t think he ever mentioned his plan.”
“Exactly.” Ian sighed. “And then, after totally screwing up his own schedule, tonight he simply disappears, without a word. There’s something very strange going on in the Hellmouth.”
“Understatement of the year,” Buffy agreed.
After a moment’s pause, she added, “Maybe Giles could help you find your uncle. He’s good at that sort of thing.”
Ian considered that for a moment before answering. “No, if my uncle doesn’t want to be found, no one will find him. That’s another Druid sort of thing.”
Wait a second.
“But,” Buffy pointed out, “if you won’t find him, then why are you out looking for him?”
Ian threw up his hands. “Well, I had to do something!” He looked at his hands, as if surprised they were in the air. He grinned a little sheepishly. “Besides, I was sort of hoping that I would run into you.”
Buffy found herself grinning, too. Now that Ian was talking to her, he said nice things.
“So what are you doing this fine middle-of-the-night?” Ian asked.
“Me? Actually, I was headed home.”
Ian nodded, and looked around at the empty streets. “Well, since I have absolutely no idea where he’s gone, I guess I could look for my uncle in the direction of your house.”
“It sounds like a plan,” Buffy agreed. After a moment, she added, “It would be nice to have someone walk me home for a change.”
“Always glad to oblige.”
So they walked.
“Even though we come from different traditions,” Ian said after a moment, “I feel . . . a great . . . affinity for you.”
Affinity? Buffy thought. Well, that’s new. Not necessarily bad. Just new.
“Are we all that different?” she asked after another silence. “We’re both looking for the same things.”
“And we use some of the same methods. You’re a great fighter.”
“Thanks.” Buffy was glad it was the middle of the night. She thought she was blushing. “You’re no slouch yourself.”
“Just think, if the world was a different place, like a comic book or a TV show, we’d make a great crime-fighting team.”
“Yeah,” Buffy agreed. “If the world was a different place.”
She looked up. They were already at her place. Didn’t this walk usually take longer?
“Well, this is it,” Buffy said. “The old Summers place.”
“I really enjoyed talking to you.”
Somehow, they were facing each other. Somehow, they were only a foot apart.
“Yeah,” Buffy said, looking up at Ian. “I enjoyed talking, too.”
“We’ll have to do it some more. Not that I’m supposed to be here all that long. Maybe we can do something tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” Buffy said. “Tomorrow.” Half an hour ago, she wasn’t even sure she was ever going to see Ian again. Now, she was half hoping he would kiss her.
“Of course, tomorrow might also be the end of the world.” Ian grinned. “I suppose it’ll give us something to talk about.”
“I’m glad you finally told me something about why you’re here. I really wanted to trust you.” As long as the two of them kept talking, and standing here like this, maybe, just maybe . . .
“We want you to trust us, too.” Ian frowned. “What was my uncle thinking about?” He looked up toward the house. “I’ve really got to find him.”
“Find him,” Buffy repeated. The spell was broken. She glanced toward her front door, “Well, look, I’ve really got to go inside.”
“Yes.” He waved as he trotted away. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow,” she echoed.
Wow. She wasn’t exactly sure what happened there.
At this rate, if they had a couple of weeks, this could grow into a real romance.
And when was he leaving? Probably as soon as his uncle finished his spell? And when was that? Tomorrow?
Like usual, Buffy girl, your timing is perfect.
Buffy sighed and unlocked her front door. She really needed her sleep.
One way or another, tomorrow was going to be a big day.
Willow kept such thorough files on their earlier cases that it only took a few minutes to get some really meaty descriptions of the mastery spell.
She scrolled quickly down through the text.
“Ooh, there’s a lot on this, but most of it’s very old.”
Giles looked up from the pile of books he was perusing. “Interesting. I can’t find any recent mention of it either. It appears to be a power or a spell that some vampires once controlled, but most seem to have lost. Drusilla’s name keeps cropping up, though. I wonder if she used it in her fight with Kendra. It would certainly explain how easily the vampire killed a Slayer.”
“Yeah. Maybe they don’t use it very often,” Willow mused as she skipped on to the next likely Web site. “Maybe the knowledge was only used by certain vampires. Most of these references I have are central European. You know, the classic vampires.”
“European, hmm?” Giles stroked his chin. “I wonder if the Druids brought something with them—oh, unknowingly of course.”
“I never meant to bring any vampires.”
“Pardon?” Giles said. Both Willow and he looked up at the sound of the new voice.
It was George, the elder Druid, standing just inside the library door. And this time, Willow noted, he cast a shadow.
“But a new vampire did follow me—that is, from Wales,” George continued. “He makes offers of power, offers of control.” He shook his head. “I’m afraid this Hellmouth is a very confusing place.”
“Especially for an outsider,” Giles gently agreed. “We are willing to assist you.” Assuming you tell us what’s going on . . . he added silently.
“I have been remiss in not seeking you out earlier.” He spread his palms, face up, in a gesture of helplessness. “I am afraid there have been certain complications.”
“There always are.” Giles sighed. “I think we can thank the Hellmouth for that, too.”
“Yes. Well, I’m afraid that my needs have changed . . . in a way that you may not approve.” George looked directly at Willow.
Giles
frowned. He stepped quickly in front of the Druid. “Willow, get out of here!”
“I’m afraid it is too late for that,” George said.
Giles raised a hand to block the other’s way, but his hand froze and began to shake as though it was fighting against an invisible force.
“Hey!” Willow called from behind the computer. “Giles?”
“You do not make it easy,” the Druid said to Giles. “But you cannot stop me.”
Giles’s whole body was shaking now. “If you—do this you are—no better than those—things you fight against!”
George smiled sadly as he stepped past the librarian. “You might be right. And after I have successfully completed my spell, you or the Slayer will be free to destroy me, if you still so choose. But I will have served my purpose, and I will die content.”
The Druid sighed as he slowly approached Willow. “I had been blind for so long. Blind to the truth that our only chance lies in the ancient rituals, the spells of life and blood.” He held out a hand toward Willow, as if he was asking her to be his partner in some ancient dance. “As I should have seen it as a sign that this woman was named after our beloved Willow tree.”
“No! N—” Giles’s voice stopped abruptly. He no longer shook. He seemed frozen solid.
“I hope you will forgive me,” George said to Willow, “but he was becoming tiresome.”
Willow stood up, backing away from her computer. “What do you want me for?” she offered in a shaky voice. “I’m just the computer girl. I can be far more useful to you in gathering information. What do you want to know?”
“I’m afraid the time for information has come and gone. There’s now only time for action.”
There had to be some way she could distract him. Maybe she could still get away.
“You’re going to leave Giles as a statue?”
“Oh, you’re right. It would be easier to just put him to sleep.”
George nodded toward Giles without turning his gaze from Willow. The librarian moaned and fell gently to the floor.
“Willow.” George smiled gently. “I can not think of a more appropriate name for what must be done.”
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