Xander and Angel sat side by side on the couch watching the clock.  The numbers on the bright green face slipped by much faster than Xander would have liked-faster than Angel would have liked, too, he suspected, as the vampire grew progressively more still and tense as time passed.

Xander fidgeted nervously when the clock switched to five-forty ( Read more... )

Sunlight.  Xander squinted and shaded his eyes against the bright morning sun, so startling after the dim lobby and blacked-out apartment.  Businesses were opening, sidewalks were being swept.  Cars passed by, little one-person worlds on their way to their Saturday shopping.

Did yesterday even happen?  It was hard to believe.  Everything was so ( Read more... )

Chapter 1

I staked Jesse.  I staked a demon.  I staked Jesse.  I staked-

Xander gripped the stake tightly and fought for balance as a wave of vertigo washed over him.  A faint sound of chanting echoed in his head, and for a brief moment he thought he could smell beer and burnt wood.  He regained his footing and looked around the Bronze.  ( Read more... )

Prologue

The one-eyed man stands just out of the flicker of firelight, watching the stars.  It’s the third village in Uganda so far, all of Africa bleeding into one long stream of villages, faces, languages.  He doesn’t turn when he hears the village chief step up behind him.

“Sometimes-”

He takes a sip of beer from the clay jar in his ( Read more... )