Chapter Four – Exploration
“I’ll need something from each of you,” the mage said, “something small, inconsequential. As long as it is something that has come from your world.”
Buffy frowned, then put her hands to her ears, feeling the cool metal of her hoop earrings.
“Will these do?” she asked, pulling the earrings out and holding them towards Kali.
“Perfect,” Kali replied, her eyes wide and smiling.
Buffy had liked the mage immediately. She wasn’t fully human, but she wasn’t a vampire like all the other women in the cave. Something about her warm smile and cheerful demeanour put Buffy instantly at ease, and she felt a little more hopeful that they would be home soon.
She watched as Spike rifled through the pockets of his duster, eventually pulling out his silver Zippo lighter.
“Don’t lose it,” he said gruffly, “prized possession is that.”
“I’ll take good care of it,” Kali grinned, and placed both the earrings and the lighter in a stone basin. “It will take some time. Hours, days perhaps. But I am confident that once I have located your dimension, a simple spell will be enough to send you back.”
“Thank you.” Buffy said. “Um… so what do we do until you’re done?”
“Head back into the main cave,” Kali replied, “I’m sure Roman will have someone show you around properly.”
-
“Wow,” Buffy said, shielding her eyes against the glare of the sun, “it’s beautiful.”
She was standing on the headland of a cliff, looking out towards the sea. After they had seen Kali, Roman had suggested a tour of the area, and had singled out a tall, thin slayer by the name of Jack to show Buffy around.
“It’s deceptive,” said Jack, “beautiful by day, yes, but the night hides all manner of beasties.”
“I can imagine,” Buffy said, “I have first hand experience of how hellishly hellmouthy a Hellmouth can be.”
“Yes, Roman told us a little about you and your world,” he shook his head disbelievingly. “It’s a little hard to believe you’re a slayer.”
Buffy raised her eyebrows. “Likewise.”
“I have to say though,” Jack said, a twinkle in his eye, “you’re certainly the best looking slayer I’ve ever met.”
“All your slayers are men!” Buffy replied, slightly startled by his comment. When Roman had cornered him earlier, Jack had seemed reluctant to take on the task of showing Buffy the island.
They began to walk down a narrow path, lined on either side by tall trees. Apart from the sound of their footsteps, the soft swish of waves on the beach below and the murmur of nature, it was quiet and still.
“Where are we headed to now?” Buffy asked, a few moments later.
“I thought you might like to see the village,” Jack replied, “it’s not far.”
“Okay,” Buffy nodded.
Jack led the way, winding through the small copse, his feet sure on the uneven ground. It was obvious that he had made the journey countless times before.
They came to a stop by a run-down barn, bales of hay piled high outside, and a rusting tractor in the yard.
“I’ll be back in a sec,” Jack said, as he disappeared around one side of the barn. Buffy sat down on a bale of hay, again wondering about the strange mish-mash of old and new in this world.
Jack returned a few moments later, leading a dappled grey horse behind him. He beckoned Buffy over.
“Hang on to his reins for a moment, would you?” he said, and went back around the side of the barn.
Buffy eyed the horse doubtfully. “Good horsey?”
-
“Cosy set-up you have here,” Spike said, as he dealt out the cards.
“It suits me,” Ruby smiled up at him, gathering her hand and shuffling the cards together. “Roman and the others are good to us.”
“How’d it happen?” Spike asked, “how did slayers and vampires start working together?”
“It’s been like this for almost as long as there have been slayers,” Ruby replied. “I’m not the best person to talk to about history, but from the stories I’ve heard… there was a slayer, many hundreds of years ago in Russia, who fell in love with a vampire. The vampire had sired many loyal kin, and when there was threat of an apocalypse, they joined together with the other Russian slayers of the time to prevent it.” She shrugged. “Since then, we vampires who don’t want to see the destruction of the world seek out the groups of slayers and pledge to help them.”
Spike frowned, wondering how something so small, so simple as a slayer and a vampire falling in love, could have started an alliance that lasted through the centuries.
“An’ I gather there are certain other… benefits to the arrangement?”
“Not all of us are like that,” Ruby said, after a moment. “Oh! Snap!”
“Bollocks,” Spike pushed the cards towards her.
“I like this game,” Ruby grinned, “I like winning.”
“Yeah, yeah. Your turn to start.”
She threw an ace of hearts onto the table. “Anyway, not all of us take advantage of the ‘benefits’ you mentioned. My partner – Jack – he and I are nothing more than good friends. We train together, I help him patrol, we talk and share secrets as friends do. But nothing more. Some… use each other for sex, it is true, and others – like Roman and Josie – share true affection for each other. But most of us,” she shrugged, “most of us are just good friends.”
“Do you…” Spike began, “what do you do for blood?”
“Ah, what you are really asking is if we kill,” Ruby’s eyes sparkled, “I didn’t take you for one who shies away from uncomfortable questions.”
“I’m not, usually,” Spike said, “dunno what’s come over me.”
“It’s this place,” Ruby sighed, “there’s something about it… but you had a question. No, we do not kill. Animal blood is enough to sustain us… and some slayers choose to share their blood with their consort.”
Spike’s eyebrows shot up. “If I wasn’t a bloke, I’d consider stopping here.”
“Not all of the vampires who help the slayers are female,” Ruby said.
“But all your slayers are men,” Spike replied, with a wry grin, “sorry love, don’t swing that way.”
“No, I rather think not,” Ruby grinned, “it’s only this base where there are no male vampires, you know. So if you did want to stay, there are options. We have several more hideouts all over the island – some hidden in the cliffs like this one, some in old houses, warehouses and the like. Vampires who decide they wish to help us live in them. When a new slayer arrives, they start their training at one of the other bases, and try to find a vampire who matches them.”
“And it’s like this all over the world?” Spike asked.
“Yes,” Ruby said, “the council – the Council of Mages, that is – organise everything. Vectis, well, we’re not a very big island. But because we have a Hellmouth, there’s an unusually large concentration of Slayers sent here.”
Spike nodded, absorbing the information. At some point during the conversation, their card game had been forgotten, and he set about gathering the cards into a pile.
“And your slayer?” Ruby asked, eyebrow raised. “Roman assumed on seeing a vampire and a slayer together, that you had a similar set-up in your world. But your line of questioning tells me that it is not the case. Am I right?”
“Yeah, there’s nothing like that in my world,” Spike said, then snorted. “And there’s nothing between the Slayer and me.”
“But you’d like there to be.”
Spike didn’t answer, and nothing was said for a long moment.
“So!” Ruby finally broke the silence. “You’ve heard about our world. Tell me about yours.”
-
Travelling by horse and trap was fast becoming Buffy’s least favourite method of transport. Every bump in the road rattled up through the hard wooden seat, jolting her this way and that. Jack found her discomfort amusing, chuckling lowly to himself as they rode towards the nearby village of Freshwater.
“How much further?” Buffy asked.
“Five minutes or so,” Jack replied, the horse’s reins held loosely in his hand. “So, how long have you been a slayer?”
“Six years,” Buffy replied, “and it’s the Slayer. As in, the only.”
“Yeah, Roman mentioned that you fight alone,” he shook his head, “I don’t know how you do it. I rely on Ruby and the other slayers to watch my back.”
“I’m not really alone,” Buffy said, “I have my friends, and Giles – he’s my Watcher. Hey, do you have Watchers here?”
“Watchers?”
“Yeah, he’s like, my teacher. But for the slayage.”
Jack considered. “There’s the Council of Mages. They research demons and prophecies, and work on magic that might help us fight. But it’s the older slayers who teach and train us.”
“How’s that work, exactly?” Buffy asked, “When there’s so many of you, how do you find new slayers? At home, when one Slayer dies, another is called.”
“That’s how it is here,” Jack nodded, “but on a larger scale. A mage finds us when we are young, and we’re sent to train with some of the older slayers. At some point in our lives, our slayer powers are activated.”
“When another slayer dies.”
“Yeah,” Jack frowned, “it’s kind of morbid.”
“It really is.”
-
Buffy leapt from the trap, happy to have finally arrived. The village was little more than a small cluster of shops and cottages overlooking a wide, sweeping bay. Like most of what Buffy had already encountered in this world, the strange mix of old and new was present here as well: Jack had pulled the horse and trap up alongside an ancient looking moped, and moored in the bay were one or two boats with electric motors.
“It’s so quaint,” Buffy commented, looking around at the thatched houses as Jack led the way through the centre of the village.
“Quaint?” Jack raised his eyebrow, and gestured towards a black and white building nestled at the foot of the white cliff. “You should see that place on a Saturday.”
“Let me guess, demon bar?”
“No,” Jack grinned, “karaoke night.”
Buffy rolled her eyes. “So, is there a store around here? I could do with getting a few things.”
“Yeah, this way,” Jack gestured, “they don’t stock much, though. What did you want to buy?”
“Um, just some toiletries, toothpaste that sort of thing, but – oh-” her face fell suddenly, “I don’t have any money.”
“Not a problem,” Jack said, “Roman coughed up, said to let you get whatever you needed.”
“That was nice of him,” Buffy said, then looked down at herself, wrinkling her nose, “I don’t suppose the store sells clothes?”
“No,” Jack replied, smiling, “but I’m sure one of the girls will have something you can borrow. We can ask around when we get back to base.”
Buffy nodded, and smiled to herself as Jack went into Orchards Stores, holding the door open for her to walk through. The shop was small inside, and the shelves were densely packed. She quickly found a toothbrush and some toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner and a couple of other things she thought she might need.
The man behind the counter was elderly, and had a large moustache.
“Aater, Jack,” he nodded, and began to ring up the items, “who’s your young lady?”
“Afternoon, Bert. This is Buffy,” Jack said, “she’s visiting our lovely island.”
“Hi,” Buffy smiled.
“Ah, it’s always nice to see an Overner taking an interest in Vectis,” Bert said, then leaned over to whisper conspiratorially, “we don’t get too many visitors nowadays see, they’re all too afeared of what we keep hidden in the dark.” He straightened up. “But if you’re stopping with Roman and his group of buffle headed slayers, you’ll be right.”
Buffy looked towards Jack in surprise. “Is it not a secret?”
“Oh, it is,” Jack chuckled, “but Bert here’s a special case.”
“I was a Slayer,” Bert said.
“But you’re old!” Buffy’s eyes widened. “Er…I mean…”
“I am at that,” Bert smiled, “but I’m a slayer – retired, mind - nevertheless. Vectis Caulkhead born and bred, too.”
The more Buffy learned about this strange world, the more she thought that she had the short end of the stick back home. Here, the burden of being a slayer was shared between hundreds, and Bert was living proof that the slayer lifespan wasn’t always twenty-five and under.
“Ready to go?”
Buffy was pulled from her thoughts by Jack’s voice, and she mentally shook herself. “Sure.”
They were almost out of the store when a display next to the counter caught Buffy’s eye.
“Wait,” she said, and moved towards the display, “I need to get something else.”
“Okay,” Jack nodded, and passed her a five pound note.
Moments later, she said goodbye to Bert, and slipped the packet of cigarettes into her pocket.
-
Spike eyed the sparring couple with interest. The vampire and slayer circled each other, both holding a sword outstretched in front of them. They were dressed in leather and wool, and moved with an ease and grace that said they’d done this a hundred times before.
“Fancy it?” Ruby said suddenly, “It looks like you’re itching for a go.”
“Sounds good,” Spike grinned, “fist and fangs or d’you need a weapon to hide behind?”
“No weapons,” Ruby said, “I think you’d pref-”
She stopped suddenly, as a shrill wailing noise filled the cave.
“What’s that?” Spike asked, his head turning from side to side as he took in the flurry of movement and sound. The slayers were gathering around Roman at the back of the cave, weapons in their hands and stony looks on their faces.
“Where’s the breach?” A voice shouted, then, “Is it Rhys?”
“Silence!” The room fell quiet. “Brian, Steve, take your group out onto the beach. Alisdair and Mike, you go with your group and check all the exits. Matt, Chris and Jonah, you head-”
“Roman!” Josie’s voice was high and panicked as she ran into the room, red dress whirling behind her.
“What? What is it?”
“It’s Kali. She’s gone.”
-
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