[Reviews - 137]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 1430 times

- Text Size +




Ralph Williamson was a bitter, driven man. He had been with the Council of Watchers since leaving college and had done everything that was asked of him. He went through training programme after training programme, but was never promoted into the job that he yearned for. He couldn’t understand it; he knew all the theory and had even trained would-be Slayers. He had seen most of his peers become watchers, but he had never been chosen.

He had managed to get a glimpse of his own file once, and had seen “lacks imagination” scrawled at the bottom of the only page he could read before he heard his manager coming back into the room. How he had wrapped up his conversation and left, he never quite recalled. Since that time he had been longing for a way to impress his superiors, get back into their good books in some way.

Then, a few days ago, Toby, one of his few friends, had called, telling him that Rupert Giles, his Slayer and a vampire had visited Toby’s house. Toby told him that he’d overheard a conversation about the vampire having a “chip” in his brain that stopped him hurting humans. Ralph was ecstatic, this had to be William the Bloody – the vampire that the Council were anxious to “interview”. The icing on the cake was that Giles, who he had been jealous of since college, was helping a vampire. How the mighty are fallen.

The would-be watcher gathered together a security team and sped to Toby’s house. His friend had neglected to tell him that he’d also betrayed the Watcher to a mad millionaire and by the time he had got to Toby’s home, the trio had fled, leaving the said millionaire and his thugs unconscious. They had interviewed the neighbours and the housekeeper, but learned nothing useful. Undeterred, he realised that at some time Giles would be leaving the country, so he went to work finding out which airport he would be using.

He might be lacking imagination, but he was thorough. He used all the favours owed to him and, where necessary, used a little blackmail until he had the information he needed. Then it would only be a matter of time until the vampire was in his hands.

He knew that they would be arriving in a hire car, so the logical place to intercept them would be the rental car park, which was away from the terminal buildings and relatively quiet. It was obvious that they would be arriving after dark, which would make a convenient cover for his men. He sat back and waited.

At last, he saw what he had been waiting for. He watched Giles drive his car past the place he and his men were waiting and sniggered to himself. He was going to enjoy the look on the Watcher’s face.

His heart sank, when he saw three young women getting out of Giles’ car. No sign of the vampire. He signalled his men to surround them and walked forward into the light.

“Rupert!” .

“What’s the meaning of this, Williamson?” Giles said stiffly, after his first look of disbelief. “I don’t remember requesting a welcoming committee.”

Williamson smiled and said in a smooth voice, “Where’s the vampire?”

“Vampire? What the hell are you talking about man? We are on our way back to the US and we’ll miss our flight if we stand around gossiping with you.” Giles picked up his case and started to move towards the exit. Williamson blocked his way with an up-stretched hand and his men moved in threateningly.

“Oh, Rupert, come along, please. You know which vampire we’re talking about. He goes by the name of William the Bloody, or, if you prefer, Spike. I know that you have been travelling with him, don’t pretend that you haven’t.”

Giles said thoughtfully, “Are you going to keep us here by force? I find it difficult to believe that even Travers would sanction such an action.” He caught Williamson’s expression and continued contemptuously. “He knows nothing about this, does he? You’ve planned it yourself. Come on ladies, we have a plane to catch.” He started to move away.

Suddenly, Williamson could feel the situation getting out of hand. He slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out a gun, thrusting it into the face of the startled Watcher. Buffy, who was standing behind Giles, felt her stomach clench with fear. Not again! Guns were the one weapon that really scared her and this one was pointed at her dearest friends. She steeled herself to act, though quite what she’d do, she had no idea.

“Yoohoo!” a voice interrupted.

They all swung round to see a middle-aged couple waving at them. “Yoohoo!” called the woman again. “Sorry to interrupt your meeting, but I wonder if you can help us.”

Before the furious Williamson could answer, Giles said quickly, “Yes of course. What’s the problem?”

“Well, me and my hubby here are on our way to America.” She said proudly. “We’ve never been out of the country before, but our Gemma – that’s our daughter – has paid our fare, so we can go out and have a holiday. Isn’t that marvellous? We’re so looking forward to it. But the problem is we followed the signs to the car park all right, but we can’t seem to find our way to the actual terminal.”

While she had been speaking, the two witches and Buffy had exchanged a glance and edged round so that they were behind the couple. Giles smiled brightly at them, “don’t worry, we’ll show you the way.” He walked past them gesturing towards a bus stop.

Before Williamson or his men could respond, the three young women and Giles were walking away with the middle-aged gent. The woman stayed where she was and exclaimed, “Oh, how helpful!” She looked over her shoulder and said to the retreating group, “Don’t wait for me – I’ll catch the next one.”

Several things occurred to Williamson simultaneously: the couple only had one suitcase between them, the woman wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, and why would she stay behind anyway. He smelled a rat. With a snarl, he began to raise the gun, at the same time the woman raised her hand and he found himself surrounded by an eerie green light and was held motionless. He watched in impotent rage as the bus arrived and the group began to alight.

______________________________________________


Spike, waiting in the shadows, had watched events with horror. In the brief seconds that they’d had for planning, Hilda had told him to keep away, that she’d take care of it. He was a being of action, his instinct told him to protect his mate and he’d been on the point of attacking the threatening men, when he’d seen the witch cast a mojo on them. Then Buffy was in his arms and he breathed in her wonderful scent and felt as though he would never let her go again.

“Come on! There’s no time for that, you pillock! Help us on with the bags.”

Buffy fought down a bubble of hysterical laughter, as she saw her indignant Watcher’s face. The shaking professor and the two ashen-faced witches were struggling to get their suitcases into the bus and Spike reluctantly released his Slayer and went to help them.

“She gonna be okay?” Spike asked worriedly returning to stand in the bus’s doorway.

To his surprise, it was Mackness who answered, “You know what she said – if you interfered, she’d turn your fangs green.”

Spike grinned in spite of his anxiety. “Yeah, she was pretty insistent wasn’t she.”

The professor continued, “She also said that none of us was to interfere, since she’s the only one not catching a plane, it would be best if she dealt with them alone.”

“Come on ladies and gents, are you on or off? I’ve got a timetable to keep.” The driver called over.

They all exchanged a glance. “The sooner we go, the less time she’ll need to keep the spell going.” Giles said reasonably. Then, looking at his watch, “We only have half an hour before our flight.”

They stepped back, the doors closed and the bus accelerated towards the next stop, Spike watching the witch for as long as he could.


___________________________________________


As he watched the bus drive away, the rage and hatred boiled in Williamson’s mind. It gave him inhuman strength; he felt the gun in his hand and concentrated hard. His finger began to tighten on the trigger. Since the spell was meant for humans, it had no effect upon the bullet as it sped on its way.

Hilda felt as though someone had punched her in the chest and had just enough time to think, “Oh hell! I didn’t get to say goodbye,” before she crumpled to the ground and the spell was broken.

Williamson recovered first and yelled at his men to get the car and chase after the fast disappearing bus. He was astonished when two of them tackled him to the ground.

“What are you doing?” He snarled as he struggled with them. “Let me go you idiots!”

They had been uneasy when he had brandished the gun, but when he had actually shot an innocent bystander, it was more than they could take. One of the men took out his phone and dialled the Council for help to contain him.

_______________________________________________


When the Sunnydale group arrived at the terminal, they’d had to run to be able to check in before the gate was shut. Spike, the only one with no luggage, kept looking back, hoping to see his friend.

“Never mind, she’s probably gonna hold them until she knows we are in the air. We can call her when we get home.” Buffy smiled at him reassuringly.

Home. He brought his full attention to her. Home. The word sounded like the most lyrical poetry, it brought visions of Buffy, Joyce, the Bit and him sitting round the table eating; sitting watching TV together……

“Spike!”

He was aware that she’d called his name more than once. He smiled at her sheepishly. “Sorry luv, I was in a world of my own there.”

She linked hands with him. He took one last look around the check-in area and then willingly allowed himself to be pulled along through to the departures lounge and towards his new life.


_________________________________________________



A/N

That’s where I’m going to leave it. I had always intended this to be a “British Adventure”. I hope you enjoyed reading the story as much as I (mostly) enjoyed writing it. I must thank all of you who have taken the time and trouble to send me feedback – it’s the only thing that kept me going – especially those of you who wrote more than once. I have to mention, Rosie, PamS, Kimmie, Cordykitten, Kim , to name just a few.

I’m thinking of posting another story on this site – watch this space!





You must login (register) to review.