[Reviews - 200]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 5231 times

- Text Size +




Author's Chapter Notes:
If you check my profile, there is a website listed there. I do have other stories that I have not posted here.
Chapter 17, Hush part 2

Spike and Buffy meandered through downtown Sunnydale. They had already killed several demons that had attempted to take advantage of the widespread voice loss. Worse was the chaos perpetuated by humans. It reminded Buffy of the Band Candy incident, which she proceeded to tell the blond vampire about.

At the entrance of the magic shop, Spike and Buffy encountered Graham. He had been assigned crowd control by Walsh. The trio stared at each other for a few long moments before they were attacked by a demon pilfering the magical components of the shop.

Graham drew back from the fight to watch the Slayer and the vampire dispatch the creature in perfect tandem, almost as if they had telepathic communication. After they had nodded politely and continued down the street, the soldier took time to tail them to watch their actions. It was a few blocks later when the blond couple moved in to break up a fight, and hose down a burning cop car, that Graham realized that maybe his assessment was correct. The pair did have innate communication. He decided he wanted to know their story without Walsh's prejudices coloring his perspective.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The door of the deserted church opened slowly, and outside the cool winter wind tossed the leaves around. The Gentlemen floated out of the building followed closely by their human-like minions. Hunched over and garbed in straightjackets, the minions dragged their buckle clothed hands on the ground. The noise announced their coming for anyone awake to hear it.

Serina rose from her bed with an uneasy feeling. She put on her robe to go downstairs. Serina was about to enter the kitchen when the sound of metal dragging along the pavement caught her attention. She went to the window to peer out. Across the courtyard she could see a man floating along in the air. Serina leaned closer to the window to see better. She jumped back in surprise when a horrible face appeared on the other side of the glass from her.

Across town at the campus, the floating monsters glided through the dorms until they got to the room that they were most interested in. One presented the door to other with a flourish of his hands, and then he knocked. The college boy inside opened the door, but the loss of his voice kept his screams silent as the minions rushed him. They hoed him down on the bed while the Gentlemen produce an old fashioned doctor's bag from which one of them pulled out a scalpel and proceeded to cut out the boy's heart.

By the next morning, Serina had devised a silent spell to cast the face she'd seen onto a bowl of water. She confidently showed the picture to Giles, who immediately went to the bookshelf to pull out a book titled, 'Fairy Tales'. The two worked silently and quickly once they figured out what was going on. Then Giles called a Scooby meeting, using the communication ring he and Buffy were each wearing.

When the group had gathered, Serina and Tara retired to Giles' bedroom to do a voice restoring spell and to go over the plans for the coven. Since they didn't have the telepathic capabilities the others had, they didn't want to slow the conversation down. Serina had noticed the glances that Tara had thrown back over her shoulder as they climbed the staircase. She had been filled in on everything that had happened in Sunnydale the past few months, and she wondered how Willow was going to juggle a werewolf boyfriend and a wiccan girlfriend. Things were going to get interesting very soon. The spell was a complete failure, much to the disappointment of both women, but the talk about the coven was a success.

Giles held up the picture that Serina had drawn of the creature she'd seen. He directed his thoughts to Buffy, who then transmitted them to the rest of the group. The Watcher was intrigued by the ease in which the Sultana and her clan communicated. He picked up the drawing that Serina had made and passed it to Xander, who looked at it before he passed it on.

Who are the Gentlemen? Giles projected to the group. They are fairy tale monsters. He picked up the book on fairy tales, turned to the bookmarked page, and handed it to the nearest person to hand around the room. They want human hearts. Seven of them.

I knew it wouldn't be something simple like kittens, Buffy groaned. She leaned her head against Spike's shoulder.

That explains the body I saw this morning at the dorms, Willow announced. I only got a glance at it, but the poor guy looked absolutely terrified, and there was a big old hole in his chest. She shuddered at the memory.

They have at least three of them then. Giles held up the newspaper to show the headlines; 'Brutal Slaying' and 'Fifteen Year Old Stabbed, Heart Missing'.

How do we kill them? Xander asked. Can Buffy stake them?

In the tales, no sword can kill them, Giles said. But the princess screamed once, and they all died.

What about using this? Willow grabbed a CD out of her pack to show the others. I think we have one left over from last year when we had the party at Buffy's.

No, only a real human voice will do, Giles informed the group. But I have no idea how to do that, unless you think that Doyle and Cordelia could sneak by the quarantine.

I don't think so, Doyle piped in from L.A. It's big news down here. They've called in the National Guard, and the town is surrounded. The only way in would be if we had a transporter from Star Trek or something.

It was just a thought, Doyle, Buffy projected back to the Conduit. Don't worry about it. We'll get it figured out. Spike and I'll patrol tonight.

That would probably be the best idea, Buffy, Giles announced. He gathered up the books before he pressed Willow into doing another web search to try and find out anything else about the predicament they were in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Look, luv. Red pinpointed where the three victims were killed last night. Spike laid the map out on the table and pointed to the three spots. Then he circled the area between them with a forefinger. I figured we'd try looking in this area first.

Sounds good. Buffy picked the crossbow up off the table. She hoped that most people took the news reports seriously and stayed off the street. The rest of the gang were hold up at Giles' with express orders not to answer the door to anyone without the code knock. Anya's idea earlier in the day to wish their voices back hadn't work, as they found out the wishes needed to be voiced out loud to work.

The Sultana and her vampire left their house, and they moved quickly towards their destination. The pair stayed on the alert as they continued to scan their surroundings for anything out of the ordinary. The quiet of the neighborhood they were surveying made the sound of clanking metal hitting the ground all that much louder.

There's three of them. Buffy pointed down the street towards the advancing minions. We can take out two with the crossbows.

That should make things a bit easier. Spike slung the crossbow off of his shoulder at the same time Buffy did. The two aimed and fired simultaneously. They both hit their targets directly between the eyes.

The remaining minion blinked in surprise as his companions dropped to the ground lifeless. He peered questioningly at the advancing duo before loping off towards the deserted campus church at the end of the block. The minion hoped to get to the safety of the others of his kind before the two warriors killed him.

Spike and Buffy stalked down the street while they followed the minion. They stopped long enough to pull their arrows out of the dead bodies, and they rearmed their crossbows. The two blonds entered the church cautiously where they were able to kill two more minions before abandoning their weapons. With the astute communication that the Slayer and the vampire seemed to have even before their mating, the pair launched themselves across the room towards their adversaries.

Graham followed the straight jacket clad creature in the hopes of finding its hiding place. He hit the thing he was following with a lethal dose of electricity as soon as it touched the door of the deserted church. Graham carefully entered the building to find that he was not alone. He watched in wonder as the pair quickly dispatched several more creatures before one of the nasty looking minions broke free from the fighting and raced up the nearby stairs.

Buffy sprang back from her confrontation to follow the escaping minion up the stairs. She was quickly followed by Spike, who had thrown off his opponent. Graham zapped the one remaining creature with his tazer gun before he too ascended the stairs. Upstairs the three were swarmed by even more straight-jacketed, pock-marked creatures, and Graham lost his tazer gun in a fierce struggle.

The Gentleman grinned even wider than before at treasure they had been given. Their last two hearts had come to them. How fortuitous. The lead Gentleman floated over to the table where he picked up his scalpel. He commanded the minions to hold the fighting girl tightly. Things couldn't be better than this, he thought.

Buffy struggled against the creatures holding her while she wondered how she was going to get her voice back to defeat the Gentlemen. She glanced down at the table where she noticed a small wooden box with ornate paintings on it. Her mind flashed back to the dream she'd shared with Willow. The little girl was carrying that very same box.

Spike, Buffy screamed, The box on the table. Smash it. She struggled harder while she tried to get to the table.

Gotcha, Slayer. Spike swung around abruptly. His attackers hurled away from his body, and they laid sprawled on the floor several feet away. Spike leaped towards the table with the minions hot on his trail, but he managed to get the box and smash it to the ground. Pieces of mist swirled up and three of them entered Spike, Buffy and Graham, while the others floated out the window.

Buffy choked a bit when the mist entered her body, but that didn't stop her from throwing back her head to scream at the top of her lungs. The sound reverberated off the walls of the small room until the heads of the Gentlemen exploded with loud pops and the flinging of nasty green slime.

Graham stared silently at Spike and Buffy while they stared back at him. Somehow he didn't think the two of them or their friends were the menace to society that Walsh and the other fanatics on her team thought they were.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Graham glanced around to make sure no one was tailing him. He'd asked if he could take Finn's place on the team that tailed Spike and Buffy. Graham wanted a chance to see the duo in action and possibly get a chance to talk them. He'd ordered the other soldier on duty to take the evening off. Graham knocked on the door of Giles' apartment. The door opened and light spilled out into the courtyard.

"I'd like to talk," Graham said quietly.





You must login (register) to review.