The Book of Fours

by Nancy Holder

  Rain poured down, the droplets sizzling in the flames. Steam rose, but the fire kept burning. Dancers began throwing things into it, things which struggled and squealed, and screamed.

  The dark-haired woman was Mirielle. She looked drugged.

  Or dead already.

  The faces of the people were horrifying as Mirielle was led forward. The masked figure bent toward her and chanted, and she collapsed in his arms.

  He ululated in the back of his throat.

  Then he turned and looked straight at Kendra, laughing with utter contempt.

  * * *

  Then something went wrong, said the ghost of Kendra to Buffy, who was dreaming again. The Baron was inside me for a moment; inside my soul, inside my spirit. He polluted me. I didn’t know it at the time. Time stopped for me while he made a nest inside my being, like a rat.

  If Drusilla had not killed me, eventually his evil would have grown inside my soul, and I would have gone to him. I would have served him.

  The vampire woman freed me, only I didn’t know it at the time.

  But Baron Diable knew.

  He was furious that his plans had been thwarted. He could do nothing against the vampire woman, as she was protected by her lover, Spike. But he can still do things to you, Buffy.

  Beware of him. Of them all. They will try to trick you, Buffy. They’ll set you against each other. They’ll put a snake in the garden.

  Then Kendra stepped away from Buffy, with a very sad expression on her face.

  Willow stood quietly in her hospital gown. She said, “Buffy, I’m so sorry. I’m not going to make it after all.”

  Buffy gaped at her. “Willow?”

  Chapter Five

  Buffy had dozed off, so Faith took India Cohen’s diary off the blonde’s lap and read it for a while.

  I really like this India chick, she thought. She had a pair on her.

  Faith settled in.

  August 20, 1993

  I stopped writing things down because I finally realized that it could endanger my parents. My mother has been home for a couple of days, but it looks like she’s going back to Manila to star in a movie.

  I have pieced some things together: I don’t think I’m my father’s daughter—I mean, that he’s not my birth father or however you say it. I think it was someone else, in the Philippines. Someone the Marcoses knew about. I think Mom married my dad because my real father couldn’t or wouldn’t marry her. That seems incredibly old-fashioned, but I think that’s what happened. I don’t know for sure.

  I think Kit does know. For a while I wondered if he was my father, but he’s too young.

  It would be cool if he was, because I feel like I have no one in the world but him. I feel incredibly alone. I used to think all teenagers felt this way, especially Navy brats, but being the Slayer makes it worse.

  Kit talks to me about all kinds of things. I can tell he’s lonely, too. He can’t ever let anyone know who he really is. He spends all day talking with a fake accent, which he drops around me. I’m the only person he can be himself around.

  I know he’s an only child, and his mother (his “mum”!) died when he was around my age. Another thing we have in common—absent mothers. His favorite color is blue. Mine, too. And he’s an Aquarius, same as me. Isn’t that kewl?

  He’s not that much older than I am. Not when you take into account that I have had to mature very fast.

  We have been training, and I have sort of a rep around the base now. I work out with the sailors and everyone gets a kick out of “the captain’s tomboy,” as they call me. I usually run with them in the mornings and sometimes I do their workouts on the perimeter of the field near the Naval hospital. I have a nickname, which is “Tuffie,” and my dad is very amused by the whole thing. My mother doesn’t like it at all.

  Meanwhile, I’m writing because I’m too excited just to keep this in—we kicked a lot of butt today!

  Kit and I went to Oshima Island—it’s this island you can ferry out to, where American P.O.W.s were kept in World War II. Inside the mountain, the Japanese dug tunnels, and inside the tunnels, they made cells. They’re covered over with mushrooms and moss now, and very gross.

  But a vampire clan had moved in, and Kit wanted to exterminate them before they decided to take the ferry over to the main island (we live on Honshu, which is the most populated island in Japan).

  So we went over this morning, and snuck into the tunnels (they’re condemned) hoping that they were all sacked out. Vampires don’t have to sleep during the daytime, but that’s when they usually do sleep, because they can’t go out in daylight or they burst into flames.

  But remember, the tunnels are inside the mountain, so they are protected from the sun, and it was a pretty scary situation. We were tiptoeing down a slimey path, and Kit was explaining to me that these vampires are particularly brutal and dangerous. I said, “As opposed to the nice ones?” and we both chuckled. That was cool; I like it when I make him laugh.

  I was incredibly nervous because he said it was time for me to start slaying on my own. He said he’d be there as backup, but he’s supposed to be a Watcher, not a Slayer. I said, “Wanna trade jobs?”

  Anyway, we tried to make as little noise as possible, with our backs together. He was staring into the tunnel, and I was staring the way we had come, so we looked like Siamese twins as we crept along. I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to turn on our flashlights. The farther in we went, the darker it got. Vampires can see in the dark. Major disadvantage.

  Before we went in, I suggested seeding the entrances to the tunnels with holy water and wafers. Kit was very proud of me for thinking of that, but he said the tunnels had too many hidden passages and we would never be able to find all the entrances and exits. If we put out traps, they would know we were onto them, and they might retaliate by putting the hurt on the islanders big time. (A few people still live on Oshima Island. That’s how we got wind of the vamps in the first place—locals talking about bites, deaths, etc.)

  Anyway, something made a noise and I jumped like twenty feet in the air. It turned out to be a rat. Just as I was registering that this was a false alarm, a whole bunch of vamps jumped out of the shadows and surrounded us. There must have been at least ten of them.

  I was terrified, but I tried to keep my cool. We both had crosses out and were holding the vamps at bay. I flicked on my flashlight. Kit’s came on seconds later.

  They weren’t pretty. Their features were vaguely Asiatic, and they had long Chinese-style mustaches. They were wearing robes so tattered and old they were falling apart.

  And talk about stinking. Yuck.

  I said to Kit, “There’re too many.”

  He said, “That doesn’t matter.”

  They rushed us. I figured we were going to die and I muttered “Good luck” to the next Slayer.

  But as soon as they started attacking, I just kind of went into a trance. I was kicking and punching and whacking on them and they were grunting and fighting back, but they were getting nowhere. Everything was a blur of blackness and light, because somehow both Kit and I had hold of our flashlights and neither of us let go.

  Then Kit started going nuts with the karate, and in less than a minute, he had staked his first kill. I could tell the vampires weren’t prepared for the dusting, which made me think they’d been isolated for a long time. Or that maybe Japan has been Slayerless.

  I had my stake out, too, and I lunged at the vamp across from me—it was extremely tall, maybe even seven feet—but I missed him. He laughed and hissed at me, and said something in a foreign language.

  Kit said, “They’re Korean. They have a queen,” and I didn’t say anything. I didn’t even spare the time to be impressed that he could understand Korean and fight at the same time. I wasn’t sure I was actually fighting. I didn’t have a strategy. I was working with what was in front of me, going blow by blow. I had no clue how I had survived so far, and no idea how to keep my lucky streak going.

>   When you see a fight in the movies or on TV, you have to remember that’s it’s all been planned out in advance by the stunt team. We were not stunt people. We were real people. The fight was really happening, and the vampires were really trying to kill us.

  Sometimes I had to remind myself to pay attention, because it was unreal after a while. I was hitting and punching and I couldn’t keep track of what was who. I heard another dusting, but I couldn’t remember how many vampires had surrounded us. I could barely even remember my own name. That sounds hokey, but it was true. If you’ve never been that afraid, I envy you.

  (Who am I writing to? Just myself. And I was there!)

  We were still totally surrounded. Kit had dusted two vamps and all I could do was not get killed. That pissed me off and it was like suddenly, someone was guiding me, because I was making good moves that were bringing about some decent results—i.e., damaging vamps.

  I grabbed the one in front of me by the wrists, then yanked hard and grabbed its forearms. I gave it a headbutt supreme and while it was reeling, I whipped my stake out of my jeans and slammed it directly into its heart.

  That sucker screamed and poofed into dust right before my eyes. I couldn’t help my whoop of triumph.

  Kit cried, “Huzzah!” just like a real honest-to-goodness regular guy at a Renaissance fair.

  I didn’t have time to enjoy the moment, though, because another vampire took the place of the one I’d killed. I lunged forward, landing on one knee, and rammed my stake into it with an uppercut. It exploded, too.

  Pow! Pow! Pow! I was like some super chick in a comic book. I was loving how powerful I was.

  I am the Slayer!

  We just kept going, and going, and I was getting awfully tired. I had no idea how Kit was holding up, but he was still on his feet.

  Then suddenly the vamps backed away, looking past our heads. They bobbed their heads and lowered their eyes, humble in their rotten silk robes and long, drooping mustaches. There were five left.

  Kit said, “Oh, great.”

  I asked, “What?” But I didn’t look away from the five vamps. One of the first things you learn in Vampire Slayer Academy is that you never look away from your adversary. Ever.

  “Her Majesty has arrived,” he replied.

  It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about. Oh, yeah. They had a queen.

  I still didn’t turn. I said, “What do you want me to do?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  His voice was shaky. I wanted like anything to look, but then we might have five vampires on our tails at the same time that we had something worthy of “Oh, great” attacking us from the front.

  Here is the weird part—like none of this has been weird—but right then, I realized I was hungrier than I had ever been in my entire life. I was so hungry that I would have eaten just about anything someone put in front of me, including peas, which I absolutely detest so much that even writing down the word makes me gag.

  It was pretty much a passing thought because hey, survival, but I told myself that if I got us out of this, I would go to the commissary and buy myself an entire half-gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

  I said to Kit, “Count of three, you turn around and take on the five vamps behind us. I’ll fight the queen. Don’t argue.”

  I counted. When he turned around, I did a backflip over him—no lie!—and landed about one foot away from this incredibly startling thing, in like, this robe, with incredibly long, talonlike fingernails. When she smiled, her fangs glistened.

  She said something in Korean—I figured—and while she was going on and on, I just kind of lost my patience. I can’t explain it any other way. I rammed into her and knocked her over.

  We went for it, a kind of bitchfight with extra cheese, and she was bashing the heck out of me and I was starting to feel very outclassed.

  But then I thought, Hey, I’ve killed at least two vampires tonight! I just kept pummeling and trying every way I could think of to beat her back far enough to get a stake into her.

  Then all of a sudden, she yelled something in Korean or whatever and all the vampires ran away! She whirled her cape around and went into a cavern.

  I shouted after her, “Wimp!”

  But Kit grabbed my wrist and said, “For God’s sake, India, come on.”

  We ran like fools. We ran so fast I thought we were gonna start flying. I dropped my flashlight and Kit yelled, “No!” I left it there and we kept going.

  We got outside, where the daylight was dying, and he said, “She told them to forget about fighting us in there and find a way to cut us off from the main island. She said that now that they’ve been discovered, they should go for it.

  “She didn’t know you were the Slayer. She’s never heard of the Slayer. They were here long before World War II, hiding out.”

  He went on for a while about their history, but I wasn’t too interested in hearing about it. I was so tired my bones were trembling. I could barely keep my eyes open. And he’s going on about some Manchurian dynasty or I don’t know what, with vases and stuff. He was all fired up and I wanted to ask him politely to shut up, but I was too tired even for that.

  We got on the ferry and kept a watch, but no vamps showed their faces. Maybe they were holding on to the outside of the hull. We didn’t see them when we landed, and we hung out for a while.

  He drove me back to the base, and we parked about thirty feet from my new house. We live on a sloping hill with other homes for captains and admirals and their families. We have a Japanese house maid, a gardener, and a sewing lady who comes once a week. She used to make the most amazing dresses for Mom, but I’ll bet she’s wondering if she’s still got a job.

  Kit said, “You did it. You dusted vampires tonight.” He looked very proud of me, but I could tell he was frustrated that we didn’t finish off the clan.

  I apologized, and then I got pretty emotional. He asked me what was wrong and I said, “It’s never going to be over, is it? I’m going to do this until I die.”

  He went into all this stuff about my great destiny and how I’m making a difference in the fate of humanity, blah blah blah, and I said that all I want from now on is to do sports and be left alone.

  I told him, “When my mom goes back to the Philippines, I’m going with her.”

  He said I couldn’t, that I had to stay and fight. The thing that hurt was that I realized he wouldn’t miss me. He never said anything about not wanting me to go, only that I couldn’t go because of my duty.

  I told him to go to hell and I ran home.

  I was crying for like an hour before my father came in my room. I told him I wanted to go with Mom and he acted really uncomfortable until I finally got it: Mom doesn’t want me to go with her.

  He didn’t say it, but when I guessed it, his face admitted the truth. I fell apart. She doesn’t want me and Kit doesn’t care anything about me except that I’m learning how to kill vampires.

  My dad said he had come to tell me he had to go down to the ship and he would probably have to stay there overnight. So I was going to be home all alone.

  He asked me some questions, like, had someone hurt my feelings? But he wasn’t very good at it. I told him I didn’t feel good but I had taken some ibuprofen. That seemed to be enough for him to feel okay about leaving me.

  It was too much for one night. I had finally killed some vampires but so what? There’s more of them and there will always be more of them. My mom is leaving us, basically, and I can’t go with her.

  Kit doesn’t care about me, either. He probably has a girl friend back in England.

  I hate being the Slayer.

  “Well, damn,” Faith said, “I can’t take it anymore. What a whiner.”

  She shut the book and put it down.

  The floor trembled. She said casually, “Giles, another earthquake.”

  “Right.” He sounded as unimpressed as she was.

  Then Buffy woke up and said, “Hold onto somethin
g! Quick!”

  The entire condo started rocking, tilting up and down. The walls buckled, the floor cracked apart and jutted up in large sections, like pieces of ice. The ceiling lobbed huge chunks of itself to the floor. Glassware shattered. The tiles on Giles’s stairway popped off, and the bannister collapsed.

  “It’s the big one,” Faith cried.

  The floor was rippling and shaking; everything was ripping apart and being flung around the room. Giles’s desk overturned, then slammed against the opposite wall.

  It was insane, it was crazy, it was Nature at her most pissed off.

  “Willow!” Buffy shouted. “Willow, tell Kendra to run!”

  “What?” Faith said.

  Then up from a fissure in the floor, a swathed head jutted upward. A torso followed, then arms. It was holding a box. It rose into the air as the apartment shattered and split apart around it.

  As the condo blew to pieces with the force of an explosion, a second covered head appeared.

  Then the second story ceiling collapsed, trapping Buffy, Faith, and Giles in mounds of rubble.

  Faith grunted and started swearing.

  Buffy struggled, horrified, as both creatures pulled out axes and started gliding straight for Giles, who was pinned.

  And who stared helplessly back at them.

  The Book of Fours

  Prologue

  September 23, 1995

  Kit just brought over my weapons trunk, and here’s my diary. I’d forgotten all about it. I was keeping it so well hidden that I hid it from myself.

  We’ve just moved to Spain. I think I’m going to love it here. My mother has made her move back to Manila fairly permanent. We all pretend she’s so busy with her career that it makes more sense for her to be there rather than here. But it hurts. I’m alone a lot. Since I’m older, my dad’s not as worried about me. Sometimes I wonder if he knows about Kit being my Watcher.

  True to his word, Kit has managed to follow me from Japan to Italy to here. I don’t know how he does it. He says the amount we move is “remarkable,” and he has actually wondered if my dad’s ship is performing covert operations.