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Reunions / Part 2

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It was just after five in the morning when Willow opened the bedroom door and stepped out into the hallway. Vi and the other three slayers of the Action Team were all standing in the hall waiting for her. Vi and the other three slayers were all dressed. The four young women stood there looking at her, waiting for her to tell them what she wanted them to do. Pride washed through Willow as she realized that ‘her’ team was ready to follow her without any questions, into any situation.

“Everyone get packed and ready to leave” Willow told them with a rasp in her voice. Her eyes were still red and puffy from the crying she had been doing, but she had herself under control now. “Someone call the airport and book us the first flight to Los Angeles. Once we have a flight time call down to the lobby and tell them we will be checking out and ask them to arrange for a car to take us to the airport.”

Willow didn’t say anymore as she turned and walked back into her bedroom. None of the girls said anything until her door closed behind her.

“Man, that call must’a been some deep shit” Ruth said quietly. “Haven’t seen her look so bad since her and Kennedy broke it up.”

“Enough of that” Vi said as she took charge of the situation. “Sara, you call the airport and arrange for the tickets. Let me know the flight time. Ruth, you and Nicky break down the weapons and put them in the shipping case. I’ll pack up mine and Sara’s stuff and be out to help in a few minutes.”

Ruth and Nicky headed for the room they shared and where they kept the weapons case. Sara headed for the living room of the suite where she had been standing guard while the rest of them had slept, she would use the house phone in there to make her calls. Vi entered her room and quickly packed hers and Sara’s thing into their suitcases, locked them up and carried them out to the living room. Sara was just hanging up the phone as she entered the room.

“First flight leaves in forty-five minutes, we can’t make that one” Sara told Vi. “Next one leaves at 8:00AM, but stops in San Francisco for a two hour layover before going on to L.A.. Next one is non-stop to LAX, leaves at 10:15AM. That’s the one I booked, we need to get there an hour before departure to pay for the tickets, check our luggage and go through security.”

“Okay” Vi said, “call down to the lobby and tell them were checking out and arrange for a car to take us to the airport. Then call room service and have them send up a breakfast and coffee for everyone.”

Sara nodded her head to acknowledge her orders and picked up the phone again. Vi left the living room and walked down the hall to Willows bedroom. She tapped on the door then opened it and entered. Willow was dressed and her suitcase was packed and ready. She was sitting on the edge of the bed with her head bent, her hair was hanging down and obscuring her face. She had her hands in her lap and was picking at one of her fingernails. When Vi stopped in front of her Willow lifted her head to face her.

Willow had stopped crying and most of the redness and puffiness was gone from her eyes, but she still had a look of pain shining out from them. Vi had to agree with Ruth about the way Willow was looking. It had been years since she had seen Willow look so distressed. She couldn’t help wonder what that call from Giles had been all about or about what she had heard Willow screaming at Giles over the phone as she stood outside the door. She had heard Will cuss before, but in eight years she had never heard her cuss at Giles. Something really bad must have happened or was going to happen soon. *God, don’t let it be about Buffy! If there’s anything in this world that Willow couldn’t deal with it was something happening to Buffy.*

Vi couldn’t help herself, she had to ask “Is Buffy okay?”

A startled look flashed across Willows face.

“Was that what the call was about?” Vi continued.

Willow bent her head again and after taking in a deep breath she let out a long sigh. She then raised her head and with a look of determination on her face she replied. “No, the call wasn’t about Buffy. It was something else.” Willow hesitated for several long moments as Vi stared down at her waiting for an explanation. She squared her shoulders and looked Vi in the eyes. “Vi, I’ve never lied to you, or any of the other girls. But, I can’t tell you what that call was about, at least not now. Please don’t ask.”

Vi looked at Willow for a full minute. Willow didn’t turn away and held eye contact with her the whole time. Vi could see that Willow was upset about not telling her what was going on, but she could see that determined look on her face and knew that asking wouldn’t get an answer and would only hurt Willow in the end. For seven years Vi had been part of Willows Action Team and for the past four years she had been the head of it. In all that time Willow had never asked her to do something that wasn’t important or critical or necessary. Vi nodded her head in acceptance without saying anything.

“Alright, back to business” Vi said briskly. “The plane leaves at 10:15, we need to check out around 8:30, a car is being arranged to take us there and breakfast will be up shortly. Everyone’s bags are packed and ready. Ruth and Nicky are packing the weapons now. I’m going to go see how their doing and if they haven’t finished yet I’ll give them a hand. Sara made all the calls and is in the living room if you have any questions about the arrangements.” Vi nodded her head to Willow again and walked to the door to leave.
As she opened the door she heard Willow say quietly “Thank You!”
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The flight left on time and would have arrived on time, except they were held in a holding pattern for an extra forty-five minutes due to rain. Southern California was the only place Willow had ever been to that panicked every time it showered. By the time they landed and gathered their luggage, caught a taxi and drove to a hotel in central L.A., checked in and got to the suite they rented, it was already past three. With the lack of sleep that all of them were suffering from the girls were cranky, hungry, and wanting showers and fresh cloths. But before they did anything else they carried the weapons case into one of the bedrooms and unpacked the weapons and assembled the crossbows. Experience over the years had taught all of them that weapons always came first.

The first thing Willow did was to opened the backpack she used as her ‘magic bag‘, take out what she needed and proceeded to cast a warding spell on the whole suite. Hotel rooms, being public places, were not very good at keeping out vampires, demons or other unwanted mystical beings. The Coven had worked out a simple spell that even the least sophisticated or magically talented slayer could use to ward wherever she might be staying. Once a slayer moved out of the hotel rooms the spell quickly faded away. Willow then carried her suitcase and her ‘magic bag’ into the room she had chosen for herself and closed the door behind her.

Vi had warned the other girls off on asking Willow any questions about why they had come to L.A.. They all knew that no Slayer much less an Action Team had been to L.A. in almost seven years. They were all deeply curious about what they were doing here, but all of them, out of respect for both Willow and Vi, were keeping their questions to themselves. Once they had all the weapons unpacked and assembled, ready to use, they let themselves relax a little.

Vi and Sara picked one of the bedrooms for themselves and the other went to Ruth and Nicky. Each bedroom in the suite had it’s own bathroom so they were all able to take a shower and change cloths in a short time. They had all just returned to the living room of the suite and were trying to decide if they were going to call room service for dinner or if they were going to go down to the hotel restaurant when Willow came back into the living room. They could all see that she hadn’t changed her cloths or given herself the time to take a shower yet. They knew that meant she had been casting spells or on the phone since she had entered her room.

Willow looked them all over and smiled at them lopsidedly. “Call down and have room service send up a meal and try to get some rest. Will be going out later tonight.” she told them. “Sara, call the lobby and see if you can arrange for a car rental, we’ll need it while we’re here.”

Willow turned around and left them, going back to her room. This was unusual behavior for Willow, she was the leader of their team and very seldom cut herself off from them the way she had been doing all day. When dinner arrived Willow didn’t come out to join them. Vi took a tray to Willows door and knocked on it. Willow took the tray without even asking what she was getting. She just gave Vi a tight lipped smile and whispered “Thank You” as she closed the door.

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At ten o’clock Willow came out of her room again. She had taken a shower and changed her cloths. Her hair was still wet and tied back with a black ribbon. All of her cloths were either black or dark gray. With her pale complexion she looked like a ghost, or a vampire. The girls all looked at her and stood up, waiting for directions.

Willow spoke clearly, but quietly, as if talking to loudly would shatter the pale distant demeanor she was wearing like armor. “Sara, go get the car and meet us in back of the hotel. There’s an alley that leads to the kitchen and the laundry. Go back by the laundry and turn around, wait for us there. The rest of us will go down the back stairs with the weapons and meet you there.”

Sara grabbed up her jacket and slipped it on. It was bright red with bright yellow strips on the sleeves and car club decals on the front. But if anyone bothered to look closely they would have noticed that it was a reversible jacket with a flat black side to it and no markings at all. The rest of the girls were dresses similarly, bright colors on the outside, flat non-reflective colors on the inside. Willow slipped her small backpack on and shrugged it into a comfortable position. The rest of the girls picked up the dark gray and black duffle bags that contained their assembled weapons. When they exited the suite, Sara went left to the elevator down to the lobby, the rest of them went right to the stairs at the far end of the hall. Everyone moved quietly and no one in any of the rooms they passed heard a sound.

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They had been driving around for two hours. Sara was driving with Willow in the passenger seat. The other three girls were in the backseat. The weapons bags were open on the floor, weapons ready and immediately available if needed. Vi was sitting behind Sara, looking over the seat at Willow. Willow was looking down at her hands where she was holding a small glass vial with something glowing floating around inside of it. Every once in awhile she would say something quietly and Sara would turn a corner to head in the direction Willow had told her to go. No one was saying anything except Willow, and then only to give directions.

All of the girls had seen Willow use her magic hundreds and hundreds of times. Sometimes small spells like the warding spell, sometimes big spells like fire bolt’s and lightening strikes. But in all the years that Vi had been around Willow and seen her use her magic she had never seen Willow concentrate so hard on a seemingly minor spell. It was fairly obvious that it was some kind of tracking spell and that Will was trying to locate someone or something. But it was also obvious that she was having a very difficult time locating whatever it was she was looking to find.

When the little speck of light in the vial started to glow brighter Willow quickly told Sara to make a right turn. Sara made the first right turn she could and followed an alley for several blocks deep into an area of what appeared to be empty lots, derelict buildings and boarded up warehouses. As they were passing the truck ramps of one warehouse the glow flared brightly and Willow told Sara to turn left. As soon as Sara turned she had to stop and turned off her lights. If she went any further she would enter an open truck bay and be inside the warehouse.

Willow looked the situation over and quietly opened her door and got out of the car. Sara had fixed the light switches on the doors so that no lights turned on when the doors opened. Vi and the rest of the girls got out of the car quietly and handed out the weapons to everyone. Sara turned off the engine and pocketed the key. Vi handed her a crossbow that she quickly cocked and laid a bolt in place for immediate use if needed. Ruth and Nicky also had crossbows ready and each of them were also carrying swords. Vi didn’t have a crossbow, she was carrying a four and a half foot long stake with a sharpened point on each end. All of them, even Willow, had short wooden stakes tucked in their belts. Willow slipped her backpack off and took several things out of it and put them in her pockets. Vi noticed one of the items and bit down hard to prevent herself from saying anything in shock. What she saw Willow putting into her pocket scared the living hell out of Vi. She had only seen Willow use a similar item once before and that time the fireball she had launched from the little blue tube she had so casually slipped into her pocket had blown a building half the size of the warehouse they were getting ready to enter into flaming splinters and rubble, and that was from fifty yards away. What the hell would that thing do to a building they were inside of was anyone’s guess.

They entered the warehouse in a diamond shape around Willow. Sara was forward, Vi on the left, Ruth on the right, Nicky covering the rear. They moved quietly and slowly through the darkness of the warehouse. Willow was still holding the little glowing vial in one hand, the other hand was in her pocket holding something else.

They were deep inside the warehouse when they heard a car engine racing and a car, their car, came around a corner and slid sideways to a stop twenty feet away from Ruth with it’s headlights pointed straight at them. Someone jumped out of the drivers side and ran off into the dark. They all stood there like deer caught in the lights of an on rushing car. They could hear noises coming from different directions around them, but couldn’t see anyone hidden in the dark.

Suddenly they could hear the clicking of hard boot heels as they moved toward them. A voice called out “Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman.” Giggles broke out from several voices in the dark around them. “Well actually I smell the blood of a Witch, don’t I Red.” As the voice stopped speaking a vampire stepped out into the open not ten feet away from Vi. They all turned in his direction. The vampire was dressed in tight black motorcycle leathers with mystic symbols painted on them. He had white blond hair and was wearing a chain around his neck from which hung a large silver cross. He had a long sword in one hand, but was using it like a walking stick instead of a weapon. As they watched his face morphed into human form and they could all see him clearly.

Vi was the first to react, she said one word “Spike” and fainted dead away.

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