A Family Surprise
foxfire_hippie here are chapters one and two - it's too big for one post!
Chapter One
As the sun rose over Sunnydale, Willow and Tara sat hand in hand on the bench in the garden of the Summers' house. They had risen early to watch the spectacular sight, and underneath a warm woollen blanket, they snuggled together peacefully. Inside the house, Buffy and Dawn lay sound asleep. The quiet ushering in of the morning was seen only by the two witches, the birds who woke to scavenge for food, a few cats wondering in from a night's hunting and the milkman and postman as they began their rounds. Nobody would have guessed from the looks of sheer tranquillity on the girl's faces that they had once more spent the previous night with Buffy, hunting down a particularly malevolent group of vampires, who seemed content on attacking everyone and everything that came their way. Xander had called it just another night in Sunnydale, but Willow and Tara knew more than they let on. The vamps that had been attacking were after one thing, and one thing only - the blood of the Slayer and their compatriots - in other words, the Scooby gang. They were not sure why, all they knew was that the same had hunted down every Slayer in the past few centuries and had attempted to take the lives of her and her friends and family, usually being beaten to the punch by some other vampire group or single, more organised vamp. It seemed like this time they wanted it more than anything, and as Giles had said when entrusting the information to the two girls over the phone a couple of nights previously, “After several hundred years, they must be getting tired of coming in second place to the likes of Spike.” Neither Willow nor Tara had had the heart to tell the others - after all, Buffy dying again was definitely not something either of them wanted to contemplate, and as for the idea of losing Xander or Dawn, it was unthinkable. The only one that Willow wouldn't miss that much was Anya - okay, maybe getting her killed wasn't the best of ideas, and after all, Xander would miss his ex-vengeance demon fiancé. And as Tara had said when they had fallen into bed the previous night, living beings had a right to live, even if they had once been demons, and in Sunnydale, the rules were forever changing. Angel, with his soul was an ally and friend whom none of the Scoobies could contemplate killing, but when he became angelus, dusting him was the only option. Anywhere else in the world, vampires were vampires and those who hunted them down did not differentiate or care. But in Sunnydale, as the day stretched out ahead of the two witches and their group of friends, they were, for now at least, during the coming sunlit hours, safe and the complications with their connections to the demon world that were second nature to them were pushed aside. These vampires were not Angel and unlike him, they did not have a soul. Nor did they have a chip in the brain like Spike, and they were not like the werewolf Oz, only dangerous during the full moon.
Later that day whilst Dawn was at school, the group sat in the Magic Box, pouring as usual over piles of texts trying to discover the origins of the vampire mob. Giles having conveniently hidden the text with all the gruesome plans they had made at one point or another to kill the previous Slayers. To Willow and Tara, the search was futile, a huge pretence, but like Giles, they were not about to admit that they knew the truth.
“Giles, half these books have more to do with angel as Angelus than whoever these guys are. Are you sure you've got info on all the big bad vamps that have ever, you know, existed?” Buffy looked at her Watcher with an expression of exasperation.
“I never said all of them, and for some reason a lot of the books on vampire encounters seem to begin with our old friend. Well, the ones in English, that is.” Giles removed his glasses and characteristically wiped them with the bottom of his shirt. “You're more than welcome to look at the Latin, Babylonian or Spanish texts if you desire.
“British humour, I presume? Or was that a straight-up offer? Either way, no. I'm not large with the brainy. That department belongs to you and Will. Me, I like the tools. Stake and dust, that's my motto. Any luck on the net, Will?”
“Not yet. Although I'm finding info on vamps older than Angel and Darla, and for once it isn't Dracula. One called Guillaume Le Feuvre. He was a nasty piece of work by the looks of it. Governor of a small island off the French coast called Jersey.”
“Lovely place that. Now allied with the English, it has its own governmental system. Steeped in history, castles and churches and…”
“Giles stop with trip down memory lane and let Willow continue will you?” Xander butted in.
“Oh, yes… sorry.”
“Well it seems he turned his entire family and staff after he had been sired, and then they set about changing the entire population of the area where they lived. A place that is now called the parish of St… St… Giles, how'd you say this?” Giles walked over to the laptop on which the red-haired computer whiz was working.
“It's pronounced St. Won, even though it's written St. Ouen. It's a beautiful part of the island, but I thought that it had always been scarcely populated. Now I know why that's the case. Are there any records of him being slain?”
“Give me two secs. No. there are some vague records of his wife and eldest son being slain, along with the majority of the servants and the people that they turned. In fact there's nothing about him being in Jersey after the staking of his wife. It seems that they just disappeared. That and the fact that the translation's a bit shoddy. Even if I compare it with the French copy, I can't make everything out, but I'm pretty sure. Wait, what's this? This wasn't in the English translation… oh dear!” Willow blanched, the colour of her hair adding to the effect of her paling skin.
“What is it, Sweetie?” Tara looked at her other half, concern behind her beautiful blue-green eyes.
“I…er…it's…” Willow was staring in disbelief at the 1024 by 768 resolution on the screen in front of her. Tara got up and edged her way behind Willow's chair.
“Oh…that's…um…Giles!” Giles rushed to the side of the two girls and looked at the information that had disturbed them.
“Good Lord! Well, that's not exactly the… hmmm.” Once again the Watcher wiped his glasses. “Can you print me a copy of that?”
“Print…? Um, yes, just let me get my bag.” From the depths of her over-sized laptop case, Willow pulled out a portable printer and a stack of paper, then set about connecting the two machines with trembling hands. It appeared that the vamp group in question was the family of Guillaume Le Feuvre, and not only that, but Giles had been wrong. They had indeed killed a Slayer and her family. A young woman, not much older than Buffy who had two small daughters. What Le Feuvre had done to those children to gain his revenge was, and is still, not repeatable in civilised circles.
*
Willow sat, her head in her hands, staring through the window at the starry night sky. She couldn't understand why she was not asleep, after all, she was definitely tired enough. Then again she was finding it hard to get the mental image of the poor children of the Jersey-born Slayer out of her head. Tara had gone out like a light as soon as they had gone to bed, but Willow remained wide-awake. For the first hour, she had contentedly watched her beloved's chest rise and fall with the sounds of her rhythmic breathing. For the next hour or so, Will had paced the room, unable to remain still, something niggling at the back of her mind. And now she sat with her head in her hands. In a short while, it would be sunrise, and another day would begin. A new day meant facing new challenges. Putting up with stroppy malcontent teenagers (teaching one day a week at Sunnydale High instead of classes was proving demanding), trying to persuade Anya that moving everything out of the house to check for vampires was not a good idea (she had become convinced that Le Feuvre had found away to enter the house without being invited), and Gaia knows what else! Okay, so maybe the first one had become part of the normal daily routine, but it didn't help with the sleep issue. This must be the third day in a row that Willow had not been able to reach the Land of Nod, and now she was feeling it. As she sat she could feel every aching muscle, the heaviness of her bones due to the lack of rest, and her body creaked with the tiniest of movements. If only her brain was able to switch off, then maybe, just maybe, her body would get what it most craved - time to recuperate. Damn Giles! Why had he gotten them to research the history of the vamps they were tracking? And when exactly had they broken the silence thing that she, Tara and Giles were keeping? Willow almost longingly thought of the pre-Buffy times, when she had lived in blissful ignorance of the demonic evils of her hometown. But she shook the thought out of her head - pre-Buffy meant pre-Tara, and she couldn't, wouldn't go back to the days when she was without the beautiful woman snoring gently from across the room. Life without Tara would be unbearable. Okay, maybe not if she'd never known her, but it also meant that she may not have accepted the truth about herself and could still be pining after the two-timing werewolf who had spent the night locked in a cage with Veruca. But Oz, for all his faults was a good friend, and Willow still loved him and always would, just not in the way she once had.
As the first rays of sunlight snuck under the curtain and into the room, Willow crept into the hallway and downstairs to the kitchen. A large cup of coffee was in order, that and an enormous bowl of sugary cereal to kick start the day. However, she discovered that she would just have to settle for the coffee, there was no cereal to be found. Either the cereal fairy had eaten it or Dawn had polished it off the previous day. And unlike the aforementioned teenager, Willow could not face a breakfast of ice cream and syrup. She would have to pick something up on the way in. One lonely, over-sugared and milky instant coffee later and Willow made her way upstairs to wake Tara and jump in the shower. As she entered the room, Tara stirred. Her eyes flickered open gently, and she turned towards the fiery-haired beauty standing just a few inches inside the doorway.
“Morning, Baby.” Willow walked over to the bed, gently sat beside her girlfriend, and began to stroke her blond hair.
“Morning Sweetness. How long you been up?”
“Oh, you know, since before dawn yesterday. I'm worried, Tara.” Willow shivered slightly.
“What, because we haven't found them yet? It'll be alright.” Tara sat up and drew her love towards her, embracing her with both arms. “We'll find and slay them before they have a chance to do a Houdini on us, or well, you know. I promise you.”
“I know. It's just that… I don't want to… lose anyone else. Especially you.”
“You're not going to lose me. I won't let it happen. Why don't you go and jump in the shower, and I'll go down and make you some squiggly pancakes for breakfast.” She leant her head forward and gently planted a warm, soft kiss on Willow's red lips.
*
It was lunchtime when Willow finally got a break from the tenaciously troublesome teenagers that had been put into her classes. Remedial computer classes were a hundred times more trying to teach than regular ones. Sitting in the staff canteen with Buffy, eating a meagre lunch of homemade pasta salad, Willow was having difficulties concentrating on what her best friend was saying.
“So anyway, I figure that before we go out on patrol tonight, you and Tara could try a locator spell to see if we can find them that way.”
“Huh…? Sorry, what was that?”
“I said that Angel's shacked up with Spike and I'm sleeping with Xander behind Anya's back.”
“Oh, right… what?”
“Ground Control to Willow, come in Willow. Maybe you should go home for the afternoon. You know, pull a sicky, and get some sleep.” Buffy eyed her friend sympathetically.
“I can't. I've got two more classes this afternoon.” Willow looked horror struck at the very idea.
“Will, you can't possibly teach if you're going to pull a Rip Van Winkle on your feet. Go speak to the Head of Department. Tell them you've got a migraine coming on or something and that staring at computer screens all afternoon is not going to help. They'll understand. It's not like you're a full on proper teacher or anything. I mean you're good, but you're not qualified yet and you can't be expected to take on a full workload.”
“Yeah, maybe you're right. I think I will go and….” She fell asleep at the table. Buffy left her dozing and went to find someone in the school office. She'd tell them Willow was sick and then carry her friend home. It wasn't that far, and by the looks of it, nothing short of the Hellmouth caving in and swallowing them all would wake the sleeping Wiccan.
*
Tara had been home for an hour and a half and was cooking dinner for everyone by the time Willow came downstairs looking slightly dishevelled, but very much rested thanks to her tiredness induced coma. Dawn was doing her homework at the kitchen bench, Xander was fixing the toaster, Anya had managed to get marshmallow stuck in it and it had consequently died (how it had happened no one knew), Anya herself was counting the takings from the Magic Box, and Buffy and Giles were nowhere to be seen. They were presumably still training.
“Willow, you're up! Fancy helping me with my Maths homework? I've never understood algebra!” Dawn looked up pleadingly.
“Give her a chance to wake up, Dawny. Want a drink, Honey?” Tara smiled at Willow.
“Please, coke, with ice.” She said as she grabbed her sweetheart form behind and squeezed her gently between her arms. “What's the problem, Dawn?”
“Here.” She passed the Maths books to Willow.
“Oh, that's simple enough. What you've got to do is reverse the equation to work out the value of x. Look, I'll show you how to set it out.” She sat next to Dawn and pulled a piece of paper and a pencil towards her. Tara looked lovingly at Willow, no matter how the young Witch was feeling, or how exhausted she was, she always had time to help others.
It was as Willow was showing Dawn the formula needed to answer her algebra problem that Buffy and Giles walked in. Giles looked ready to collapse, whereas the sprightly Slayer appeared able to go another twelve rounds without tiring.
“Good training session, Buff?” Xander had just finished scraping marshmallow off of the heating coils from the toaster.
“Not bad, I think dear old Giles wouldn't have lasted another five minutes though.” She grinned at her Watcher as she spoke.
“Not so much of the old, thank you. I don't remember the job description calling for me to be battered like a fish. I was called upon as a Watcher, not a male Slayer and therefore would now like to sit down and have a cup of tea before dinner. And none of the stuff you Americans say is tea. I want a good old fashioned cup of Tetley.” He went to stand up again.
“I'll get it. Dinner'll be ready in fifteen, and there's not much for me to do, you sit down. Dawny, can you put your homework away and lay the table, please?” Tara said cheerfully, trying to calm Giles's moodiness.
“Yup. Anything to get away from school stuff. Cheers for your help, Willow.” She bounced over to the cutlery drawer, pulled out the necessary silverware and hurried into the dining room.
“So any ideas about how we catch this Le Feuvre guy and his gang?” Xander asked, making sure that Dawn was out of earshot.
“Well, first we're going to have to find them, and as we discovered, that is a rather difficult thing to do.” A calmer Giles looked at them over his cup of tea.
“Well, Tara and I could try a locator spell. I can't guarantee it would work, but I mean, it's worth a shot.” As Willow made her suggestion, Buffy rolled her eyes and gave her a look that said, 'I said that earlier' when she was sure Willow wasn't looking in her direction.
“Have we got the right supplies for such a specific targeting spell? We don't want every demon in Sunnydale to register on the map.”
“Yes, Tara's right. I mean it'd be awful if you killed some poor Vengeance Demon by accident.” Anya spoke for the first time in ages.
“Anya, honey. We know that you're an ex-demon, but you're mortal now… and, well… kinda the exception to the rule. Don't get me wrong… I know a lot of your old friends are demons… but you're one of us now. And apart from special circumstances demon equals enemy.” Xander struggled through his explanation.
“Oh! So it's perfectly alright for Angel, Spike and Oz to be wondering the streets, doing what they like, but not my friends?” Anya pouted.
“Well, in a word, yes. Angel doesn't hurt anyone any more, in fact, he saves them! Spike has a chip in his head, so can't hurt people. And Oz has managed to control his werewolf side. So they are harmless to the demon-unaware population. Your 'friends' hurt people.” Buffy chimed in.
“They only hurt those who have caused pain to others. That's what the Vengeance biz is all about.”
“But vengeance isn't always the right course of action to take. It doesn't incorporate the bigger issues. Plenty of people manage fine without it. My family tried to stop me from practising Magick and control me, but I never sought vengeance. In fact, I pity them now.” Tara stared at Anya with mild annoyance.
“Not everyone is a saint like you, Miss Perfect! And for your information, vengeance is a perfectly healthy way of dealing with life's upsets! Some of my clients have been women who were constantly abused by men who think women are not worthy to be in a man's presence!” Anya's temper was rising.
“If we have had quite enough of tearing strips from each other, I believe Tara asked Willow whether or not they had the right ingredients to cast such a specific locator spell.” Giles interrupted before World War Three erupted right there in the kitchen.
“I think so. It's more to do with the words than the ingredients anyway. All locator spells have the same basic formula. But we could do with some vamp blood. Shame Angel's in LA, we could have asked for a drop of his. We'll manage though. Can I borrow one of the stakes you used last night, Buffy? It may have some vamp residue on it - it should help.”
“Yeah, sure. You know, we could just ask Spike for some of his when he comes to sit Dawn later.”
“Talking of Dawn, dinner's ready. You lot go and sit in the dining room and I'll bring it through.” Tara's offer was irresistible to the majority of the Scoobies in the kitchen. Everyone apart from Willow piled into the dining room, Giles taking the last of his tea with him. Willow, however, stayed behind to help, and sneak a few kisses with the blond Wiccan beauty.
*
After dinner, Tara and Willow joined each other in their bedroom. They pulled out a chest of Magickal supplies from under the bed, and removed a map of Sunnydale from it, along with two white candles, a marble mortar and pestle, and a mixture of herbs. They placed them all together at the end of the bed with the stake Willow had borrowed from Buffy and washed up before casting the circle inside of which they would perform the spell. Within the Magick bubble they created, Willow and Tara ground together the herbs and lit the candles. The map lay between them, and the herb mixture, complete with stake sticking out of the middle, was positioned to the side of the map. The girls linked hands and began to chant the spell that Willow had composed during dinner.
“We search for the vampire Le Feuvre
May he make himself known.
Show us his hiding place
Above the ground or below.
As they chanted, the herbs rose out of the mortar in a spiral, lead by the stake. A white glow surrounded the Wiccan lovers as they repeated their chant, and exploded into a bright ball of light as the stake found it's resting place on the map. As the stake stuck point down into position, a few blocks away from the Doublemeat Palace, Willow's eyes, normally a beautiful hazel-green shone black. The white ball dissipated, and the herbs lay on the map, tracing the quickest route to the location from the Summers' house. Willow lay back and breathed a sigh of relief.
Chapter Two
Loaded down with weapons, the gang headed out into the dark night. Dawn was left at home doing her homework whilst Spike sat in front of the Summers' television watching reruns of Charlie's Angels, wishing he could sink his teeth into Jacqueline Smith's neck. For Buffy, the weapon load was easy to carry and she barely noticed the weight of the arsenal she had on her back. Xander was finding it fairly easy too, but the rest were raising quite a sweat from lugging the bottles of Holy Water, stakes, daggers and other battle paraphernalia that went with Slaying. All of them were wearing silver crosses around their necks, Buffy's being the only one with true sentimental value, having been given to her by Angel when they had first met after she moved to Sunnydale. The usual banter of the group had died after leaving the house. None of them were certain of what lay ahead, and Willow once again carried the mental image of the Jersey Slayer's two young children at the forefront of her mind. The blackness of the night reflected the heavy feeling each of them carried. Clouds hung thickly overhead, hiding the moon and stars from view. The yellow neon light from street lamps reflected off of buildings and dumpsters, casting huge shadows down the dimly lit alleys.
Tara shivered as they neared the sight, the very thought of how much was at stake was almost too much for her to bear. Even though she had fought vampires with the others before, tonight was different; there was something in the air that told her they would be lucky to escape with their lives. Why hadn't she and Willow cast a protection spell over them all before they left? It would have reduced the creeping fear she felt engulfing her. She gripped Willow's hand in hers and gave it a short, tight squeeze. Willow, too afraid too reply verbally, squeezed back. Even Anya remained quiet; her usually vapid complaints about human kind were nowhere to be heard. She glanced at Xander; trepidation showing in her eyes, he returned the look with what he hoped was a reassuring one. Giles brought up the rear; quietly deliberating over whether they were doing the right thing. Buffy, however, lead the group forwards, her only thought was to reach the nest and kill anything that moved other than her friends.
*
Dawn sat, staring at her History assignment, not really focusing on the task at hand. She hated the subject with a passion. History definitely belonged to the geeks and nerds. The American Revolution was the last thing she wanted to be writing about. Looking up to make sure Spike was absorbed in the television; she carefully slipped her history folder back into her book bag. It wasn't due in until next week anyway. She hated being stuck in whilst Buffy and the others went out on patrol, and this time she was sure something was up. Dawn hated being left in the dark just as much as she hated being called 'a child' by her older sister. She got up from the table and walked into the kitchen to get a drink.
“Spike, d'you want anything from the kitchen?” Dawn called through to the living room.
“There should be a bottle of blood in the fridge that Buffy left for me, can you bring it through, Squirt?” Dawn wrinkled her nose at the request. Spike may be a cool babysitter, but she wished he didn't need the liquid to survive.
“Want me to warm it in the microwave before I bring it through?”
“Yeah, cool. You finished your homework then?” He poked his head round the door.
“Kinda. I need to go to the library tomorrow and do some research for my history project, but I've done the rest.”
“Fair enough. Too much schoolwork'll rot your brain anyway. How 'bout a game of cards?” Dawn had other ideas.
“How 'bout you tell me what Buffy and the others are doing?”
“They're out on patrol. Though you knew that.” Spike looked at her with confusion.
“I meant, you tell me what they're patrolling for.” She couldn't make up her mind whether or not the bleached blond vamp was acting stupid or genuinely did not know what she had meant.
“No doing little squit. You're sister'd dust me for that, and I happen to like being alive… well you know what I mean. Now, wanna play cards, watch TV, or perhaps a board game. I haven't played 'Clue' in a while.”
*
The building was in a pretty derelict street, not too far from one of Sunnydale's many graveyards. Boarded up windows, and a door hanging from its hinges presented themselves to the Scoobies. The light in this street was worse than everywhere else. One streetlight stuttered about three hundred yards from where Buffy and the others stood. The other lamps had given up long ago, some broken by demonic vandals who preferred the dark, some by bored teenagers and one or two just needed the bulb changing. The shadows created by the one working light danced with each falter. Anya reached into her bag and pulled out a flashlight. Flicking the switch up, the light beamed out from its tiny source. She shone it up and down the street, which now appeared to be more of an old industrial alley. The sort that warehouses line, not too far from the businesses they stock, but out of the way of the everyday consumers. Giles put his bag on the floor, removed his glasses and wiped them on his shirt, letting go of a long, low sigh. These vamps definitely did not want to stick out. Tara once again squeezed Willow's hand.
“Maybe… maybe we should head back, something… something doesn't feel right.” She spoke with a voice that was barely above a whisper.
“You got butterflies, baby? It's ok. We'll be alright.” Willow smiled at Tara, trying to hide her own anxiety.
“I'm not going back 'til I've been inside. I wanna scope out their lair, and if it's empty then we'll go back. They are not gonna get away with eighty-sixing that Slayer and her kids if I can help it!” Buffy's determination was scarily strong. The others knew that any attempt to persuade her out of it would be futile, and they were not going to let her do this alone. She had died on them before, and they were not going to lose her again.
“Fine, we go in, check it out, and then split. If Buff gets to do a bit of dusting whilst we're in there then cool. But no one makes large with the heroics. Any sign of major trouble and we're out faster than Faith can say 'five by five.' Ok?” Xander looked at everyone, the fear clear in his eyes.
“Fine by me.” Anya looked like she'd rather be anywhere else but there.
“Xander is right, we want to leave in one piece. There will be no foolish acts of heroism from anyone - that includes you Buffy. I do not want to be carrying anyone out of here in a wooden box. We'll go in, take a look around, try and find out some more about there operation, then leave.” Giles's calm, father-like tone helped to restore the calmness of Tara's heart, and she spoke again.
“Someone's going to have to stay out here on lookout. We don't want to be caught by surprise.”
“Any volunteers?” Buffy looked around the group. Willow looked at Tara who nodded back. “Fine, that's settled. We'll have Wiccan Watch out here and the rest of us go in. Xander, you stick with Anya, Giles, you come with me. Stay together and if things get sticky get out as fast as you can. We'll meet up back home if we can't wait for each other. Will, can you set off some sort of magickal warning signal if you see one of them?”
“Yeah, three amplified crow calls okay?”
“Fine. See you in a bit.” And with that, Buffy led the way into the ramshackle building, stake in hand.
The inside of the building was in a worse state than the outside. Buffy was surprised the vamps hadn't accidentally killed themselves on the timbers hanging from the ceiling and walls. The staircase was missing several stairs, and a few others were snapped in the middle. Just as well Buffy had ten feet of rope coiled in her bag. Compared to this place, Spike's crypt was a palace. Buffy and Giles headed upstairs, taking their time to negotiate the wooden death trap as Xander and Anya began their search downstairs. The place appeared deserted.
The remaining stairs creaked under the smallest amount of pressure and Giles trembled slightly as he made his way upwards. The building had an air of death, and not the usual stench of blood that they had long associated with vampire nests. This was not so much a smell as a feeling. Negative energies permeated the air, telling the tale of those who had met their maker thanks to the group that now took residence in this shell of a warehouse. With each upward step, Giles became more and agitated and loathe to move onwards. Only the sight of the petite blond Slayer climbing the stairs in front of him kept him going, climbing the last few yards.
*
Xander and Anya got quickly frustrated with the lack of anything useful on the ground floor, and were soon back outside with Willow and Tara, leaning against the outside of the building, talking in hushed voices.
“Butkiss! Nothing, nada, zip, nientè!”
“Xander, will you shut up and stop moaning! It is possible that Giles and Buffy may find something upstairs, you know. Plus, you're getting on my nerves!” Anya, normally the irritating influence was first to complain about Xander's lack of hope.
“Anya's right. Just because you didn't find anything, doesn't mean they won't. I just wish they'd hurry up.” Willow looked at Tara as she spoke. The blond Wiccan looked ready to faint with fear.
With each moment that passed, Tara was becoming more and more concerned that they were in danger. The lack of vampires on the premises, combined with the mounting worry that had been with her since they had left the house, left her certain something was going to happen, and that certainty was beginning to take control of her mind and heart. She silently prayed to Diana, Goddess of protection and the hunt for help. The sooner they were away from there, the better.
*
When they reached the first floor of the building, both Buffy and Giles were shocked to discover that it was in a much better state of repair than what they had seen so far. The floorboards sparkled in the little light that came in from the boarded up windows. There was no debris in this room; instead it was set up to resemble something that looked like a cross between a home and an office. Buffy could see the outlines of filing cabinets, tables, a sofa and chairs. She reached into her bag and pulled out a flashlight that was identical to Anya's. The room was empty of occupants save her and Giles, yet what it held was nothing short of horrifically amazing. Down the far end of the room, above the filing cabinets was an area of wall that had been cork-tiled to create a giant notice board displaying all the information the vampires had managed to obtain on Buffy and her friends. Photographs of all of them with notes underneath, and charts that were unreadable at such a distance. She made her way across the room to get a closer look. Under her photo, one that she recognised had been taken a week earlier when she was on patrol in the park, was a list of her strengths and weaknesses as Le Feuvre saw them. Her friends and Dawn were under the weakness list. She looked at Giles's list. All it said was 'slow, negligible.'
“Shows how much they know, if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have the background on them that we do. You're more useful than they think, that's a good thing.” She smiled at Giles as he joined her and began to read the board.
“Yes, you're right, but I think they are talking about fighting skills, and there they are right I'm afraid to say. I have lost count of the amount of times that I have been knocked unconscious by one demon or another.” Giles frowned.
“Okay, so you don't have a decent left hook, but your brain skills are all the fighting skills you need. We wouldn't do half as well without you.” She smiled once more as Giles continued to read.
“Oh, dear!” He said after about five minutes. “This doesn't look good.”
“What? Stop the cryptic and tell me.”
“Under this photograph of Willow and Tara, it says that they hold a bigger threat than you. Apparently, Le Feuvre sees Witches as a problem that needs to be remedied. It references something in one of the filing cabinets, in the drawer labelled 'P-R'.”
“Well, let's find the drawer, and the info.” Buffy shone the torch across the drawers. “One thing in this vamps favour, he's well organised.” She found the drawer and pulled.
“Locked. Where's that crowbar?” She opened her bag again and delved into the bottom of it. In two minutes she had pried the steel drawer open and was searching its contents.
“How 'bout this? Prophecy comma Slayer and Witches?”
“That should be it. Now, how about we…” He was interrupted by three loud crow calls.
“Split?” And with that they made their way out of the building as fast as they could carry themselves down the rickety stairs.
*
The group met Buffy and Giles back at the house. They had wanted to wait, but the approaching vamp gang had left them little choice than to flee. They had been outnumbered by five to one, and the fact that the vamps had practically ignored Xander and Anya and had focused their attentions on the Wiccan lovers had made them decide to leave quickly. The commotion had enabled Buffy and Giles to slip past virtually unnoticed, and back at the house, there was major confusion. Dawn had been asleep on the couch when they had got back, and now she sat up in a state of bewilderment at the turmoil in front of her. No matter how much Buffy tried to make her go upstairs, she wouldn't, and Spike was not prepared to leave until he found out what was going on and had been paid for his babysitting services. Willow sat on the couch next to a shaking Tara who was not saying anything and staring directly ahead. Buffy stood in the centre of the room, trying to get to the bottom of what had happened, Xander stood next to the fireplace, near to a seated Anya who looked severely annoyed with something, and Giles sat, studying the pilfered file from the cabinet at the nest.
“So, what happened? I mean, I saw the vamps, but they were not interested in me, even after I dusted three of them. Anyone got any ideas why they were after Will and Tara?” Buffy looked around her. Xander stood, open-mouthed, his eyes full of incomprehension.
“No idea. I mean we were there too. Surely they could have laid into us too!” Anya pouted.
“Anya now is not the time for jealousy.” Xander got there before Willow could explode.
“I was just saying.” She said sulkily.
“Next time, they're all yours! That vamp with the greased back hair almost snapped me like a twig! And look at what they've done to Tara!” Willow, flame in her eyes, indicated her girlfriend.
“Guys, this isn't the time to lay into each other. It's obvious something isn't right. What's that you've got there, Giles?” Dawn spoke up.
“Oh, it's just something Buffy retrieved from a filing cabinet at the nest.” Giles looked up from the paperwork that he had immersed himself in. “Dawn, why don't you go and make a pot of tea?”
“If you think you're getting rid of me that easily…”
“It's… it's a good idea, Dawny. I'll c…come with you.” Tara spoke up for the first time since they'd arrived home. “We'll get a snack too.”
“Okay. But I still what to know what's going on.” Dawn left the room with Tara, obviously annoyed at how easily she had been turned around. But she knew that Tara needed company at the moment, and went without hesitation.
“Alright, Giles, what've you really got there?” Buffy turned to face him, then promptly plopped herself onto the couch, taking up Tara's vacant seat next to Willow.
“A rather old prophecy actually. It foretells of Le Feuvre's downfall at the hands of a Slayer aided by a group of people, including two Witches. The interesting thing is, whilst it does not depict how he will be destroyed, it gives a rather vivid description of the two Witches.” Giles looked over the top of his glasses at Willow.
“Let me guess.” Piped up Xander. “One with red hair and more mojo than any other, and the other her lesbian lover, has blond hair and is rather shy amongst strangers.”
“Well, nearly. It misses out the part about Tara being shy.”
“Pardon? Are you saying that the reason the vamps went for me and Tara is because their leader thinks we hold the key to destroy him? We're not Slayers, we're Witches! There is no way we are the ones meant to defeat this guy!” As Willow finished talking, Tara, who had just entered the room, carrying a tray of tea cups and a piping hot pot of tea, stopped, let out a petrified scream and dropped the tray with a crash.
“So much for the tea.” Anya, naturally gifted with stating the obvious, moved over to help Tara pick up the fragmented china.
“I'm… I'm so s…sorry.” Tara struggled to apologise as she picked up the remains of Joyce Summers' best teapot.
“That's okay. It's not like we don't have another dozen of the things. I used to break them all the time - what with the demon fighting and all.” Buffy smiled at Tara and got up. She walked over to her and guided her away from the blue and white remains back to the sofa.
“Well, I don't mean to stop the revealing talk, but I've got places to go, demons to see, if you've got my money, then I'll be off.” Spike, who had remained by the lounge door interjected.
“Of course. I'd forgotten you were there. Same time tomorrow? Oh and can you keep an ear out for any news on this vampire group?” Buffy, usually ready to have a go at Spike over his lack of tact, was too concerned about her Wiccan friends to care about scolding him and handed over the money he was owed.
“Sure. Say Red, I think you'd better get your little girlfriend up to bed. She doesn't look so good.” And with that he walked out of the front door. Willow turned to face Tara who had passed out on the couch.
Chapter One
As the sun rose over Sunnydale, Willow and Tara sat hand in hand on the bench in the garden of the Summers' house. They had risen early to watch the spectacular sight, and underneath a warm woollen blanket, they snuggled together peacefully. Inside the house, Buffy and Dawn lay sound asleep. The quiet ushering in of the morning was seen only by the two witches, the birds who woke to scavenge for food, a few cats wondering in from a night's hunting and the milkman and postman as they began their rounds. Nobody would have guessed from the looks of sheer tranquillity on the girl's faces that they had once more spent the previous night with Buffy, hunting down a particularly malevolent group of vampires, who seemed content on attacking everyone and everything that came their way. Xander had called it just another night in Sunnydale, but Willow and Tara knew more than they let on. The vamps that had been attacking were after one thing, and one thing only - the blood of the Slayer and their compatriots - in other words, the Scooby gang. They were not sure why, all they knew was that the same had hunted down every Slayer in the past few centuries and had attempted to take the lives of her and her friends and family, usually being beaten to the punch by some other vampire group or single, more organised vamp. It seemed like this time they wanted it more than anything, and as Giles had said when entrusting the information to the two girls over the phone a couple of nights previously, “After several hundred years, they must be getting tired of coming in second place to the likes of Spike.” Neither Willow nor Tara had had the heart to tell the others - after all, Buffy dying again was definitely not something either of them wanted to contemplate, and as for the idea of losing Xander or Dawn, it was unthinkable. The only one that Willow wouldn't miss that much was Anya - okay, maybe getting her killed wasn't the best of ideas, and after all, Xander would miss his ex-vengeance demon fiancé. And as Tara had said when they had fallen into bed the previous night, living beings had a right to live, even if they had once been demons, and in Sunnydale, the rules were forever changing. Angel, with his soul was an ally and friend whom none of the Scoobies could contemplate killing, but when he became angelus, dusting him was the only option. Anywhere else in the world, vampires were vampires and those who hunted them down did not differentiate or care. But in Sunnydale, as the day stretched out ahead of the two witches and their group of friends, they were, for now at least, during the coming sunlit hours, safe and the complications with their connections to the demon world that were second nature to them were pushed aside. These vampires were not Angel and unlike him, they did not have a soul. Nor did they have a chip in the brain like Spike, and they were not like the werewolf Oz, only dangerous during the full moon.
Later that day whilst Dawn was at school, the group sat in the Magic Box, pouring as usual over piles of texts trying to discover the origins of the vampire mob. Giles having conveniently hidden the text with all the gruesome plans they had made at one point or another to kill the previous Slayers. To Willow and Tara, the search was futile, a huge pretence, but like Giles, they were not about to admit that they knew the truth.
“Giles, half these books have more to do with angel as Angelus than whoever these guys are. Are you sure you've got info on all the big bad vamps that have ever, you know, existed?” Buffy looked at her Watcher with an expression of exasperation.
“I never said all of them, and for some reason a lot of the books on vampire encounters seem to begin with our old friend. Well, the ones in English, that is.” Giles removed his glasses and characteristically wiped them with the bottom of his shirt. “You're more than welcome to look at the Latin, Babylonian or Spanish texts if you desire.
“British humour, I presume? Or was that a straight-up offer? Either way, no. I'm not large with the brainy. That department belongs to you and Will. Me, I like the tools. Stake and dust, that's my motto. Any luck on the net, Will?”
“Not yet. Although I'm finding info on vamps older than Angel and Darla, and for once it isn't Dracula. One called Guillaume Le Feuvre. He was a nasty piece of work by the looks of it. Governor of a small island off the French coast called Jersey.”
“Lovely place that. Now allied with the English, it has its own governmental system. Steeped in history, castles and churches and…”
“Giles stop with trip down memory lane and let Willow continue will you?” Xander butted in.
“Oh, yes… sorry.”
“Well it seems he turned his entire family and staff after he had been sired, and then they set about changing the entire population of the area where they lived. A place that is now called the parish of St… St… Giles, how'd you say this?” Giles walked over to the laptop on which the red-haired computer whiz was working.
“It's pronounced St. Won, even though it's written St. Ouen. It's a beautiful part of the island, but I thought that it had always been scarcely populated. Now I know why that's the case. Are there any records of him being slain?”
“Give me two secs. No. there are some vague records of his wife and eldest son being slain, along with the majority of the servants and the people that they turned. In fact there's nothing about him being in Jersey after the staking of his wife. It seems that they just disappeared. That and the fact that the translation's a bit shoddy. Even if I compare it with the French copy, I can't make everything out, but I'm pretty sure. Wait, what's this? This wasn't in the English translation… oh dear!” Willow blanched, the colour of her hair adding to the effect of her paling skin.
“What is it, Sweetie?” Tara looked at her other half, concern behind her beautiful blue-green eyes.
“I…er…it's…” Willow was staring in disbelief at the 1024 by 768 resolution on the screen in front of her. Tara got up and edged her way behind Willow's chair.
“Oh…that's…um…Giles!” Giles rushed to the side of the two girls and looked at the information that had disturbed them.
“Good Lord! Well, that's not exactly the… hmmm.” Once again the Watcher wiped his glasses. “Can you print me a copy of that?”
“Print…? Um, yes, just let me get my bag.” From the depths of her over-sized laptop case, Willow pulled out a portable printer and a stack of paper, then set about connecting the two machines with trembling hands. It appeared that the vamp group in question was the family of Guillaume Le Feuvre, and not only that, but Giles had been wrong. They had indeed killed a Slayer and her family. A young woman, not much older than Buffy who had two small daughters. What Le Feuvre had done to those children to gain his revenge was, and is still, not repeatable in civilised circles.
*
Willow sat, her head in her hands, staring through the window at the starry night sky. She couldn't understand why she was not asleep, after all, she was definitely tired enough. Then again she was finding it hard to get the mental image of the poor children of the Jersey-born Slayer out of her head. Tara had gone out like a light as soon as they had gone to bed, but Willow remained wide-awake. For the first hour, she had contentedly watched her beloved's chest rise and fall with the sounds of her rhythmic breathing. For the next hour or so, Will had paced the room, unable to remain still, something niggling at the back of her mind. And now she sat with her head in her hands. In a short while, it would be sunrise, and another day would begin. A new day meant facing new challenges. Putting up with stroppy malcontent teenagers (teaching one day a week at Sunnydale High instead of classes was proving demanding), trying to persuade Anya that moving everything out of the house to check for vampires was not a good idea (she had become convinced that Le Feuvre had found away to enter the house without being invited), and Gaia knows what else! Okay, so maybe the first one had become part of the normal daily routine, but it didn't help with the sleep issue. This must be the third day in a row that Willow had not been able to reach the Land of Nod, and now she was feeling it. As she sat she could feel every aching muscle, the heaviness of her bones due to the lack of rest, and her body creaked with the tiniest of movements. If only her brain was able to switch off, then maybe, just maybe, her body would get what it most craved - time to recuperate. Damn Giles! Why had he gotten them to research the history of the vamps they were tracking? And when exactly had they broken the silence thing that she, Tara and Giles were keeping? Willow almost longingly thought of the pre-Buffy times, when she had lived in blissful ignorance of the demonic evils of her hometown. But she shook the thought out of her head - pre-Buffy meant pre-Tara, and she couldn't, wouldn't go back to the days when she was without the beautiful woman snoring gently from across the room. Life without Tara would be unbearable. Okay, maybe not if she'd never known her, but it also meant that she may not have accepted the truth about herself and could still be pining after the two-timing werewolf who had spent the night locked in a cage with Veruca. But Oz, for all his faults was a good friend, and Willow still loved him and always would, just not in the way she once had.
As the first rays of sunlight snuck under the curtain and into the room, Willow crept into the hallway and downstairs to the kitchen. A large cup of coffee was in order, that and an enormous bowl of sugary cereal to kick start the day. However, she discovered that she would just have to settle for the coffee, there was no cereal to be found. Either the cereal fairy had eaten it or Dawn had polished it off the previous day. And unlike the aforementioned teenager, Willow could not face a breakfast of ice cream and syrup. She would have to pick something up on the way in. One lonely, over-sugared and milky instant coffee later and Willow made her way upstairs to wake Tara and jump in the shower. As she entered the room, Tara stirred. Her eyes flickered open gently, and she turned towards the fiery-haired beauty standing just a few inches inside the doorway.
“Morning, Baby.” Willow walked over to the bed, gently sat beside her girlfriend, and began to stroke her blond hair.
“Morning Sweetness. How long you been up?”
“Oh, you know, since before dawn yesterday. I'm worried, Tara.” Willow shivered slightly.
“What, because we haven't found them yet? It'll be alright.” Tara sat up and drew her love towards her, embracing her with both arms. “We'll find and slay them before they have a chance to do a Houdini on us, or well, you know. I promise you.”
“I know. It's just that… I don't want to… lose anyone else. Especially you.”
“You're not going to lose me. I won't let it happen. Why don't you go and jump in the shower, and I'll go down and make you some squiggly pancakes for breakfast.” She leant her head forward and gently planted a warm, soft kiss on Willow's red lips.
*
It was lunchtime when Willow finally got a break from the tenaciously troublesome teenagers that had been put into her classes. Remedial computer classes were a hundred times more trying to teach than regular ones. Sitting in the staff canteen with Buffy, eating a meagre lunch of homemade pasta salad, Willow was having difficulties concentrating on what her best friend was saying.
“So anyway, I figure that before we go out on patrol tonight, you and Tara could try a locator spell to see if we can find them that way.”
“Huh…? Sorry, what was that?”
“I said that Angel's shacked up with Spike and I'm sleeping with Xander behind Anya's back.”
“Oh, right… what?”
“Ground Control to Willow, come in Willow. Maybe you should go home for the afternoon. You know, pull a sicky, and get some sleep.” Buffy eyed her friend sympathetically.
“I can't. I've got two more classes this afternoon.” Willow looked horror struck at the very idea.
“Will, you can't possibly teach if you're going to pull a Rip Van Winkle on your feet. Go speak to the Head of Department. Tell them you've got a migraine coming on or something and that staring at computer screens all afternoon is not going to help. They'll understand. It's not like you're a full on proper teacher or anything. I mean you're good, but you're not qualified yet and you can't be expected to take on a full workload.”
“Yeah, maybe you're right. I think I will go and….” She fell asleep at the table. Buffy left her dozing and went to find someone in the school office. She'd tell them Willow was sick and then carry her friend home. It wasn't that far, and by the looks of it, nothing short of the Hellmouth caving in and swallowing them all would wake the sleeping Wiccan.
*
Tara had been home for an hour and a half and was cooking dinner for everyone by the time Willow came downstairs looking slightly dishevelled, but very much rested thanks to her tiredness induced coma. Dawn was doing her homework at the kitchen bench, Xander was fixing the toaster, Anya had managed to get marshmallow stuck in it and it had consequently died (how it had happened no one knew), Anya herself was counting the takings from the Magic Box, and Buffy and Giles were nowhere to be seen. They were presumably still training.
“Willow, you're up! Fancy helping me with my Maths homework? I've never understood algebra!” Dawn looked up pleadingly.
“Give her a chance to wake up, Dawny. Want a drink, Honey?” Tara smiled at Willow.
“Please, coke, with ice.” She said as she grabbed her sweetheart form behind and squeezed her gently between her arms. “What's the problem, Dawn?”
“Here.” She passed the Maths books to Willow.
“Oh, that's simple enough. What you've got to do is reverse the equation to work out the value of x. Look, I'll show you how to set it out.” She sat next to Dawn and pulled a piece of paper and a pencil towards her. Tara looked lovingly at Willow, no matter how the young Witch was feeling, or how exhausted she was, she always had time to help others.
It was as Willow was showing Dawn the formula needed to answer her algebra problem that Buffy and Giles walked in. Giles looked ready to collapse, whereas the sprightly Slayer appeared able to go another twelve rounds without tiring.
“Good training session, Buff?” Xander had just finished scraping marshmallow off of the heating coils from the toaster.
“Not bad, I think dear old Giles wouldn't have lasted another five minutes though.” She grinned at her Watcher as she spoke.
“Not so much of the old, thank you. I don't remember the job description calling for me to be battered like a fish. I was called upon as a Watcher, not a male Slayer and therefore would now like to sit down and have a cup of tea before dinner. And none of the stuff you Americans say is tea. I want a good old fashioned cup of Tetley.” He went to stand up again.
“I'll get it. Dinner'll be ready in fifteen, and there's not much for me to do, you sit down. Dawny, can you put your homework away and lay the table, please?” Tara said cheerfully, trying to calm Giles's moodiness.
“Yup. Anything to get away from school stuff. Cheers for your help, Willow.” She bounced over to the cutlery drawer, pulled out the necessary silverware and hurried into the dining room.
“So any ideas about how we catch this Le Feuvre guy and his gang?” Xander asked, making sure that Dawn was out of earshot.
“Well, first we're going to have to find them, and as we discovered, that is a rather difficult thing to do.” A calmer Giles looked at them over his cup of tea.
“Well, Tara and I could try a locator spell. I can't guarantee it would work, but I mean, it's worth a shot.” As Willow made her suggestion, Buffy rolled her eyes and gave her a look that said, 'I said that earlier' when she was sure Willow wasn't looking in her direction.
“Have we got the right supplies for such a specific targeting spell? We don't want every demon in Sunnydale to register on the map.”
“Yes, Tara's right. I mean it'd be awful if you killed some poor Vengeance Demon by accident.” Anya spoke for the first time in ages.
“Anya, honey. We know that you're an ex-demon, but you're mortal now… and, well… kinda the exception to the rule. Don't get me wrong… I know a lot of your old friends are demons… but you're one of us now. And apart from special circumstances demon equals enemy.” Xander struggled through his explanation.
“Oh! So it's perfectly alright for Angel, Spike and Oz to be wondering the streets, doing what they like, but not my friends?” Anya pouted.
“Well, in a word, yes. Angel doesn't hurt anyone any more, in fact, he saves them! Spike has a chip in his head, so can't hurt people. And Oz has managed to control his werewolf side. So they are harmless to the demon-unaware population. Your 'friends' hurt people.” Buffy chimed in.
“They only hurt those who have caused pain to others. That's what the Vengeance biz is all about.”
“But vengeance isn't always the right course of action to take. It doesn't incorporate the bigger issues. Plenty of people manage fine without it. My family tried to stop me from practising Magick and control me, but I never sought vengeance. In fact, I pity them now.” Tara stared at Anya with mild annoyance.
“Not everyone is a saint like you, Miss Perfect! And for your information, vengeance is a perfectly healthy way of dealing with life's upsets! Some of my clients have been women who were constantly abused by men who think women are not worthy to be in a man's presence!” Anya's temper was rising.
“If we have had quite enough of tearing strips from each other, I believe Tara asked Willow whether or not they had the right ingredients to cast such a specific locator spell.” Giles interrupted before World War Three erupted right there in the kitchen.
“I think so. It's more to do with the words than the ingredients anyway. All locator spells have the same basic formula. But we could do with some vamp blood. Shame Angel's in LA, we could have asked for a drop of his. We'll manage though. Can I borrow one of the stakes you used last night, Buffy? It may have some vamp residue on it - it should help.”
“Yeah, sure. You know, we could just ask Spike for some of his when he comes to sit Dawn later.”
“Talking of Dawn, dinner's ready. You lot go and sit in the dining room and I'll bring it through.” Tara's offer was irresistible to the majority of the Scoobies in the kitchen. Everyone apart from Willow piled into the dining room, Giles taking the last of his tea with him. Willow, however, stayed behind to help, and sneak a few kisses with the blond Wiccan beauty.
*
After dinner, Tara and Willow joined each other in their bedroom. They pulled out a chest of Magickal supplies from under the bed, and removed a map of Sunnydale from it, along with two white candles, a marble mortar and pestle, and a mixture of herbs. They placed them all together at the end of the bed with the stake Willow had borrowed from Buffy and washed up before casting the circle inside of which they would perform the spell. Within the Magick bubble they created, Willow and Tara ground together the herbs and lit the candles. The map lay between them, and the herb mixture, complete with stake sticking out of the middle, was positioned to the side of the map. The girls linked hands and began to chant the spell that Willow had composed during dinner.
“We search for the vampire Le Feuvre
May he make himself known.
Show us his hiding place
Above the ground or below.
As they chanted, the herbs rose out of the mortar in a spiral, lead by the stake. A white glow surrounded the Wiccan lovers as they repeated their chant, and exploded into a bright ball of light as the stake found it's resting place on the map. As the stake stuck point down into position, a few blocks away from the Doublemeat Palace, Willow's eyes, normally a beautiful hazel-green shone black. The white ball dissipated, and the herbs lay on the map, tracing the quickest route to the location from the Summers' house. Willow lay back and breathed a sigh of relief.
Chapter Two
Loaded down with weapons, the gang headed out into the dark night. Dawn was left at home doing her homework whilst Spike sat in front of the Summers' television watching reruns of Charlie's Angels, wishing he could sink his teeth into Jacqueline Smith's neck. For Buffy, the weapon load was easy to carry and she barely noticed the weight of the arsenal she had on her back. Xander was finding it fairly easy too, but the rest were raising quite a sweat from lugging the bottles of Holy Water, stakes, daggers and other battle paraphernalia that went with Slaying. All of them were wearing silver crosses around their necks, Buffy's being the only one with true sentimental value, having been given to her by Angel when they had first met after she moved to Sunnydale. The usual banter of the group had died after leaving the house. None of them were certain of what lay ahead, and Willow once again carried the mental image of the Jersey Slayer's two young children at the forefront of her mind. The blackness of the night reflected the heavy feeling each of them carried. Clouds hung thickly overhead, hiding the moon and stars from view. The yellow neon light from street lamps reflected off of buildings and dumpsters, casting huge shadows down the dimly lit alleys.
Tara shivered as they neared the sight, the very thought of how much was at stake was almost too much for her to bear. Even though she had fought vampires with the others before, tonight was different; there was something in the air that told her they would be lucky to escape with their lives. Why hadn't she and Willow cast a protection spell over them all before they left? It would have reduced the creeping fear she felt engulfing her. She gripped Willow's hand in hers and gave it a short, tight squeeze. Willow, too afraid too reply verbally, squeezed back. Even Anya remained quiet; her usually vapid complaints about human kind were nowhere to be heard. She glanced at Xander; trepidation showing in her eyes, he returned the look with what he hoped was a reassuring one. Giles brought up the rear; quietly deliberating over whether they were doing the right thing. Buffy, however, lead the group forwards, her only thought was to reach the nest and kill anything that moved other than her friends.
*
Dawn sat, staring at her History assignment, not really focusing on the task at hand. She hated the subject with a passion. History definitely belonged to the geeks and nerds. The American Revolution was the last thing she wanted to be writing about. Looking up to make sure Spike was absorbed in the television; she carefully slipped her history folder back into her book bag. It wasn't due in until next week anyway. She hated being stuck in whilst Buffy and the others went out on patrol, and this time she was sure something was up. Dawn hated being left in the dark just as much as she hated being called 'a child' by her older sister. She got up from the table and walked into the kitchen to get a drink.
“Spike, d'you want anything from the kitchen?” Dawn called through to the living room.
“There should be a bottle of blood in the fridge that Buffy left for me, can you bring it through, Squirt?” Dawn wrinkled her nose at the request. Spike may be a cool babysitter, but she wished he didn't need the liquid to survive.
“Want me to warm it in the microwave before I bring it through?”
“Yeah, cool. You finished your homework then?” He poked his head round the door.
“Kinda. I need to go to the library tomorrow and do some research for my history project, but I've done the rest.”
“Fair enough. Too much schoolwork'll rot your brain anyway. How 'bout a game of cards?” Dawn had other ideas.
“How 'bout you tell me what Buffy and the others are doing?”
“They're out on patrol. Though you knew that.” Spike looked at her with confusion.
“I meant, you tell me what they're patrolling for.” She couldn't make up her mind whether or not the bleached blond vamp was acting stupid or genuinely did not know what she had meant.
“No doing little squit. You're sister'd dust me for that, and I happen to like being alive… well you know what I mean. Now, wanna play cards, watch TV, or perhaps a board game. I haven't played 'Clue' in a while.”
*
The building was in a pretty derelict street, not too far from one of Sunnydale's many graveyards. Boarded up windows, and a door hanging from its hinges presented themselves to the Scoobies. The light in this street was worse than everywhere else. One streetlight stuttered about three hundred yards from where Buffy and the others stood. The other lamps had given up long ago, some broken by demonic vandals who preferred the dark, some by bored teenagers and one or two just needed the bulb changing. The shadows created by the one working light danced with each falter. Anya reached into her bag and pulled out a flashlight. Flicking the switch up, the light beamed out from its tiny source. She shone it up and down the street, which now appeared to be more of an old industrial alley. The sort that warehouses line, not too far from the businesses they stock, but out of the way of the everyday consumers. Giles put his bag on the floor, removed his glasses and wiped them on his shirt, letting go of a long, low sigh. These vamps definitely did not want to stick out. Tara once again squeezed Willow's hand.
“Maybe… maybe we should head back, something… something doesn't feel right.” She spoke with a voice that was barely above a whisper.
“You got butterflies, baby? It's ok. We'll be alright.” Willow smiled at Tara, trying to hide her own anxiety.
“I'm not going back 'til I've been inside. I wanna scope out their lair, and if it's empty then we'll go back. They are not gonna get away with eighty-sixing that Slayer and her kids if I can help it!” Buffy's determination was scarily strong. The others knew that any attempt to persuade her out of it would be futile, and they were not going to let her do this alone. She had died on them before, and they were not going to lose her again.
“Fine, we go in, check it out, and then split. If Buff gets to do a bit of dusting whilst we're in there then cool. But no one makes large with the heroics. Any sign of major trouble and we're out faster than Faith can say 'five by five.' Ok?” Xander looked at everyone, the fear clear in his eyes.
“Fine by me.” Anya looked like she'd rather be anywhere else but there.
“Xander is right, we want to leave in one piece. There will be no foolish acts of heroism from anyone - that includes you Buffy. I do not want to be carrying anyone out of here in a wooden box. We'll go in, take a look around, try and find out some more about there operation, then leave.” Giles's calm, father-like tone helped to restore the calmness of Tara's heart, and she spoke again.
“Someone's going to have to stay out here on lookout. We don't want to be caught by surprise.”
“Any volunteers?” Buffy looked around the group. Willow looked at Tara who nodded back. “Fine, that's settled. We'll have Wiccan Watch out here and the rest of us go in. Xander, you stick with Anya, Giles, you come with me. Stay together and if things get sticky get out as fast as you can. We'll meet up back home if we can't wait for each other. Will, can you set off some sort of magickal warning signal if you see one of them?”
“Yeah, three amplified crow calls okay?”
“Fine. See you in a bit.” And with that, Buffy led the way into the ramshackle building, stake in hand.
The inside of the building was in a worse state than the outside. Buffy was surprised the vamps hadn't accidentally killed themselves on the timbers hanging from the ceiling and walls. The staircase was missing several stairs, and a few others were snapped in the middle. Just as well Buffy had ten feet of rope coiled in her bag. Compared to this place, Spike's crypt was a palace. Buffy and Giles headed upstairs, taking their time to negotiate the wooden death trap as Xander and Anya began their search downstairs. The place appeared deserted.
The remaining stairs creaked under the smallest amount of pressure and Giles trembled slightly as he made his way upwards. The building had an air of death, and not the usual stench of blood that they had long associated with vampire nests. This was not so much a smell as a feeling. Negative energies permeated the air, telling the tale of those who had met their maker thanks to the group that now took residence in this shell of a warehouse. With each upward step, Giles became more and agitated and loathe to move onwards. Only the sight of the petite blond Slayer climbing the stairs in front of him kept him going, climbing the last few yards.
*
Xander and Anya got quickly frustrated with the lack of anything useful on the ground floor, and were soon back outside with Willow and Tara, leaning against the outside of the building, talking in hushed voices.
“Butkiss! Nothing, nada, zip, nientè!”
“Xander, will you shut up and stop moaning! It is possible that Giles and Buffy may find something upstairs, you know. Plus, you're getting on my nerves!” Anya, normally the irritating influence was first to complain about Xander's lack of hope.
“Anya's right. Just because you didn't find anything, doesn't mean they won't. I just wish they'd hurry up.” Willow looked at Tara as she spoke. The blond Wiccan looked ready to faint with fear.
With each moment that passed, Tara was becoming more and more concerned that they were in danger. The lack of vampires on the premises, combined with the mounting worry that had been with her since they had left the house, left her certain something was going to happen, and that certainty was beginning to take control of her mind and heart. She silently prayed to Diana, Goddess of protection and the hunt for help. The sooner they were away from there, the better.
*
When they reached the first floor of the building, both Buffy and Giles were shocked to discover that it was in a much better state of repair than what they had seen so far. The floorboards sparkled in the little light that came in from the boarded up windows. There was no debris in this room; instead it was set up to resemble something that looked like a cross between a home and an office. Buffy could see the outlines of filing cabinets, tables, a sofa and chairs. She reached into her bag and pulled out a flashlight that was identical to Anya's. The room was empty of occupants save her and Giles, yet what it held was nothing short of horrifically amazing. Down the far end of the room, above the filing cabinets was an area of wall that had been cork-tiled to create a giant notice board displaying all the information the vampires had managed to obtain on Buffy and her friends. Photographs of all of them with notes underneath, and charts that were unreadable at such a distance. She made her way across the room to get a closer look. Under her photo, one that she recognised had been taken a week earlier when she was on patrol in the park, was a list of her strengths and weaknesses as Le Feuvre saw them. Her friends and Dawn were under the weakness list. She looked at Giles's list. All it said was 'slow, negligible.'
“Shows how much they know, if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have the background on them that we do. You're more useful than they think, that's a good thing.” She smiled at Giles as he joined her and began to read the board.
“Yes, you're right, but I think they are talking about fighting skills, and there they are right I'm afraid to say. I have lost count of the amount of times that I have been knocked unconscious by one demon or another.” Giles frowned.
“Okay, so you don't have a decent left hook, but your brain skills are all the fighting skills you need. We wouldn't do half as well without you.” She smiled once more as Giles continued to read.
“Oh, dear!” He said after about five minutes. “This doesn't look good.”
“What? Stop the cryptic and tell me.”
“Under this photograph of Willow and Tara, it says that they hold a bigger threat than you. Apparently, Le Feuvre sees Witches as a problem that needs to be remedied. It references something in one of the filing cabinets, in the drawer labelled 'P-R'.”
“Well, let's find the drawer, and the info.” Buffy shone the torch across the drawers. “One thing in this vamps favour, he's well organised.” She found the drawer and pulled.
“Locked. Where's that crowbar?” She opened her bag again and delved into the bottom of it. In two minutes she had pried the steel drawer open and was searching its contents.
“How 'bout this? Prophecy comma Slayer and Witches?”
“That should be it. Now, how about we…” He was interrupted by three loud crow calls.
“Split?” And with that they made their way out of the building as fast as they could carry themselves down the rickety stairs.
*
The group met Buffy and Giles back at the house. They had wanted to wait, but the approaching vamp gang had left them little choice than to flee. They had been outnumbered by five to one, and the fact that the vamps had practically ignored Xander and Anya and had focused their attentions on the Wiccan lovers had made them decide to leave quickly. The commotion had enabled Buffy and Giles to slip past virtually unnoticed, and back at the house, there was major confusion. Dawn had been asleep on the couch when they had got back, and now she sat up in a state of bewilderment at the turmoil in front of her. No matter how much Buffy tried to make her go upstairs, she wouldn't, and Spike was not prepared to leave until he found out what was going on and had been paid for his babysitting services. Willow sat on the couch next to a shaking Tara who was not saying anything and staring directly ahead. Buffy stood in the centre of the room, trying to get to the bottom of what had happened, Xander stood next to the fireplace, near to a seated Anya who looked severely annoyed with something, and Giles sat, studying the pilfered file from the cabinet at the nest.
“So, what happened? I mean, I saw the vamps, but they were not interested in me, even after I dusted three of them. Anyone got any ideas why they were after Will and Tara?” Buffy looked around her. Xander stood, open-mouthed, his eyes full of incomprehension.
“No idea. I mean we were there too. Surely they could have laid into us too!” Anya pouted.
“Anya now is not the time for jealousy.” Xander got there before Willow could explode.
“I was just saying.” She said sulkily.
“Next time, they're all yours! That vamp with the greased back hair almost snapped me like a twig! And look at what they've done to Tara!” Willow, flame in her eyes, indicated her girlfriend.
“Guys, this isn't the time to lay into each other. It's obvious something isn't right. What's that you've got there, Giles?” Dawn spoke up.
“Oh, it's just something Buffy retrieved from a filing cabinet at the nest.” Giles looked up from the paperwork that he had immersed himself in. “Dawn, why don't you go and make a pot of tea?”
“If you think you're getting rid of me that easily…”
“It's… it's a good idea, Dawny. I'll c…come with you.” Tara spoke up for the first time since they'd arrived home. “We'll get a snack too.”
“Okay. But I still what to know what's going on.” Dawn left the room with Tara, obviously annoyed at how easily she had been turned around. But she knew that Tara needed company at the moment, and went without hesitation.
“Alright, Giles, what've you really got there?” Buffy turned to face him, then promptly plopped herself onto the couch, taking up Tara's vacant seat next to Willow.
“A rather old prophecy actually. It foretells of Le Feuvre's downfall at the hands of a Slayer aided by a group of people, including two Witches. The interesting thing is, whilst it does not depict how he will be destroyed, it gives a rather vivid description of the two Witches.” Giles looked over the top of his glasses at Willow.
“Let me guess.” Piped up Xander. “One with red hair and more mojo than any other, and the other her lesbian lover, has blond hair and is rather shy amongst strangers.”
“Well, nearly. It misses out the part about Tara being shy.”
“Pardon? Are you saying that the reason the vamps went for me and Tara is because their leader thinks we hold the key to destroy him? We're not Slayers, we're Witches! There is no way we are the ones meant to defeat this guy!” As Willow finished talking, Tara, who had just entered the room, carrying a tray of tea cups and a piping hot pot of tea, stopped, let out a petrified scream and dropped the tray with a crash.
“So much for the tea.” Anya, naturally gifted with stating the obvious, moved over to help Tara pick up the fragmented china.
“I'm… I'm so s…sorry.” Tara struggled to apologise as she picked up the remains of Joyce Summers' best teapot.
“That's okay. It's not like we don't have another dozen of the things. I used to break them all the time - what with the demon fighting and all.” Buffy smiled at Tara and got up. She walked over to her and guided her away from the blue and white remains back to the sofa.
“Well, I don't mean to stop the revealing talk, but I've got places to go, demons to see, if you've got my money, then I'll be off.” Spike, who had remained by the lounge door interjected.
“Of course. I'd forgotten you were there. Same time tomorrow? Oh and can you keep an ear out for any news on this vampire group?” Buffy, usually ready to have a go at Spike over his lack of tact, was too concerned about her Wiccan friends to care about scolding him and handed over the money he was owed.
“Sure. Say Red, I think you'd better get your little girlfriend up to bed. She doesn't look so good.” And with that he walked out of the front door. Willow turned to face Tara who had passed out on the couch.