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Chapter 10

Disharmonic Key

Spike hefted the knife. It had nice balance. Dropping it in the duster’s side pocket, he closed and locked the weapons chest. Gunning the Desoto, he ran all four traffic lights, reaching the apartment building where he’d last seen the Slayer in record time.

Bounding up the stairs, he knocked on Claire’s apartment door. When the petite brunette answered, Spike spoke quickly. “There’s been a delay. The Slayer’s gone missing. Call your mum and tell her.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Not at this point. I’ve got it covered.”

Claire nodded and shut the door. She’d have to use the phone quickly. Ethan was stopping by shortly to see her before leaving on a sudden errand.

The door shut and Spike went to the alcove. Following the instructions he had been given, he stood on the exact spot he had last seen the Slayer.

“Reveal.”

His finger tingled and the ring shone brightly, but glancing around the hall, he couldn’t see anything different. There were no ghostly footprints in a path leading across the carpet, no little floating light in the air, nothing at all that he could use to follow the Slayer’s trail.The tingling stopped. Disgusted, he looked down at the ring and saw that it had grown dull.

“Bloody hell. It didn’t work.” Muttering about incompetent wizards, he turned to leave. Right in front of him stood the Slayer.

Spike realized immediately that his eyes were deceiving him. This woman wasn’t his golden Slayer; the figure had no heartbeat, no smell, no fire. He watched as the apparition flickered briefly, like a candle flame caught in a light breeze.

A magical construct, this Buffy didn’t respond to either Spike or her surroundings. Instead, she mimicked the Slayer’s movements from earlier, holding up her wrist to show him a ghostly bracelet, then turned and ran for the stairs.

Closing his hand tightly to keep the ring from slipping, Spike hurried to follow.


*****

Kyle pulled his bike into the garage and locked the door. Walking in, he headed for the study. He had reached the hall when Giles threw open the study doors. “Kyle. Thank goodness, you’ve returned. Your grandfather has had a heart attack. He’s still alive and I’ve called for an ambulance.”

His heart pounding, Kyle ran to his grandfather. In the distance, the wail of a siren could be heard. Giles hurried to open the door for the paramedics. Gesturing to the two uniformed men carrying the gurney, he moved aside and pointed through the door. “This way.”

Watching them pass, he wondered what would happen if Chaplaine died tonight. Buffy was missing, Spike was still following her trail and the Successor Imperial Wizard had not yet been sworn into office, or even made an appearance.

The paramedics quickly ascertained that the unconscious man needed transport to the hospital. They hurriedly loaded him into the ambulance and drove away, siren wailing.

Giles turned to the young boy. “Call your sister and explain what’s happened. She needs to reach your mother immediately. It’s time for Ms. Chaplaine to come out of hiding. While you phone, I’ll put out the fire in the fireplace and then we’ll leave for the hospital.” He watched Kyle mentally gather himself together and head for the phone.

The boy’s tough. He’ll be fine. I just hope that’s true for the rest of us.



*****


Deeply concerned over the Slayer’s whereabouts, Spike was amused as well. Walking on the sidewalk and keeping an eye on the phantom Buffy, he watched as she hid behind signs and parked cars. Obviously the ring’s spell called for imitation of every movement.

Spike knew the exact moment she became bored with hide and seek. He snickered when Pod Slayer as he was calling her in his head, stopped, stamped her foot petulantly and openly moved to the sidewalk.

He continued to follow the apparition while she window shopped, occasionally turning her head to watch her quarry. Spike realized he was the only one that could actually see her when the apparition walked between two people carrying on an animated conversation. She even occasionally walked right through people.

Mentally pushing her to move faster, he hoped it wasn’t much farther to the real Slayer’s location.

Finally arrived at the abandoned building, Spike witnessed the attack and understood why the Slayer had disappeared so completely. Seeing her lying crumpled on the ground, he worriedly wondered what would happen now that the apparition had reached the point where the real Slayer had been rendered unconscious and no longer moved of her own volition.

Letting out the unnecessary breath he’d been holding, Spike mentally praised the wizard’s clever spell as the unconscious Slayer was lifted by unseen hands and carried into the building through a side door.

Closing the unlocked door, he saw her disappear through the wooden floor in the center of the empty room. Bending over the same spot, he felt around until he discovered a hidden latch. Placing his ear to the floor, he couldn’t detect any demons below.

He popped the latch and slid open a narrow trapdoor. Dropping through the access, he landed with a soft splash. Looking around Spike realized he was ankle deep in filthy water somewhere within a dark stone tunnel.

Gagging from the foul stench, he quickly stopped inhaling. Changing to game face for better sight he noticed the tunnel gently slanted downhill.

Reaching overhead, he quietly slid the trapdoor back into place. Peering through the low light, Spike saw the apparition being carried around a bend in the tunnel thirty feet ahead. Trying not to touch a brown sticky residue on the rough stone walls that was the main source of the foul odor, Spike hurried to catch up.

After slogging downhill for nearly ten minutes through the ankle deep muck following the imitation Slayer, Spike finally detected demons. Shuffling sounds and rapidly beating demon hearts announced members of the Thesa Clan were only a few yards ahead around another bend in the circuitous tunnel. He stopped and touched the ring.

A moment later he felt the now familiar tingle of a working spell. Walking confidently forward around the tunnel’s bend he saw that the floor leveled out into an enormous vaulted cavern. Milling within the space were not only non military Clan members, but dozens of armed Thesa soldiers. The space, lit with flickering metal sconces hammered into the walls, threw the demon’s shadows against the sticky encrusted walls, giving them a warped and jagged appearance.

A cacophony of sounds reverberated around the cavern making it nearly impossible to judge where any one individual sound originated. Spike followed the wall upward with his eyes to the ceiling of the domed cavern. He could see bleached bones carefully hammered into place all around the top. Dozens of skeletons, they represented a myriad of demon species and the odd human or two. Spike immediately recognized them for what they were-war trophies.

Abruptly bumped by a soldier, Spike quickly moved aside, nodding his head diffidently. The demons wore no rank insignia that he could see so he had no way to know the difference between foot soldiers and their commanders. Unobtrusively as possible, he continued to the center of the cavern.

Rapidly scanning the area Spike realized the stop to change his appearance had cost dearly, he’d lost sight of the apparition’s direction. Trying not to attract undue attention, the vampire quickly walked the cavern perimeter. His heart sank when he realized it was the main juncture for four distinct tunnels. Without a scent or heartbeat to follow, he had no idea which direction to choose. Balling his fists, Spike stood closer to the rough wall and tried to decide what to do.


*****


The unscheduled meeting with the Gashi went much better than Ethan had expected. After being announced he was ushered into a room with a large table. Seated around the table were the Gashi Chieftain, his sons and various underlings. Ethan recognized the ambassador he had met previously.

The Chieftain offered him a seat at the end of the table and a goblet of wine. Afraid to insult his host, Ethan accepted courteously. Taking his time drinking the dry cabernet, he ran the various arguments through his mind that he hoped would persuade the leonine demon to agree to the sudden changes.

Finally when he could stall no longer, Ethan set his empty glass on the table and launched into an explanation. The Chieftain listened politely. Finally, he signaled that Ethan could stop and immediately agreed to the new terms.

Ethan realized that for some unknown reason the demon actually preferred the new location and date. He shrugged away nagging questions that sprang to mind concerning why the leader would readily agree to the changes without demanding concessions.

Instead, thrilled with the quick acceptance, Ethan shook hands with the higher ranking members of the Clan and allowed himself to be politely escorted from their den.

When the door closed behind the wizard’s emissary, the Chieftain turned to his eldest son. “Have one of the soldiers unchain our newest acquisition and bring him to my study. I want to hear more about what he has translated. It has been most enlightening.”

Standing up in preparation for following his father, the son smiled. “This meeting was very fortuitous, especially after finally locating a translator.”

“The humans have a saying. ‘Good things come to those who wait.’” The Chieftain chuckled. “I believe that waiting so long and then discovering a way to destroy our enemiesand the humans living on the Hellmouth would fit that particular saying very well.”





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