She stalked streets wreathed in darkness, certain in her power and dominance over all that surrounded her. She moved with a feline grace as she prowled the nearly empty streets of a small town perched over the mouth of Hell.
She’d been taught that she was the top of the food chain and all others should tremble in her wake. A dark ringlet of her hair slithered across her pale throat. With an amused chuckle she shook her head and reached up with her free hand to smooth her hair into place. The thin exotic beauty, dressed in an amalgam of vintage and new garments drew a couple of admiring glances from passer-by’s. Usually such admiration would have been rewarded with a painful, drawn out blood-soaked death. Instead this time they escaped with their lives; she had another target this evening, one that was essential for her family to survive and thrive.
The small being cradled carelessly in her arms whined fretfully, wanting to be free to explore and run. She’d gone from being a snack for her poor wounded boy to being an indulgence. One that from her past history would no doubt end up either starved to death or drained in a fit of pique. But for now, Miss Sunshine was a coddled lovie.
“Tut tut little one. Mummy will let you play when we talk to the shopkeeper.” She soothed the small puppy, her red-tipped nails scratching gently through the dog’s fur. The insane childe of the Aurelian clan studied the shop front, waiting for the last customer to leave and the owner to switch off the open sign, waiting for her moment to strike.
“Nearly time, then we can play,” she crooned. Her wide blue eyes were filled with suppressed glee at the mayhem she was about to set in motion. She’d seen it all in the stars. From this one death a network of horror, pain and slaughter would erupt. It would take years for it all to come into fruition, but she had all the time in the world, her daddy had made sure of that when he had turned her into the monster she had once feared becoming but now loved with an unyielding passion.
“Time to say nighty…night.” Drusilla giggled, her blood warming in anticipation of the kill.
~~~~~~~~~~~
He looked up at the heavy wooden door and sighed heavily.
This isn’t going to be easy.
How was he going to convince a Watcher that he was from the future and that he was here to save the world, infact to save the entire dimension? It would be just his luck that the man would have him committed in the insane asylum. The younger watcher was no fool, he had survived countless attempts to be replaced as the current slayer’s guide. Hell, he’d even out manoeuvred Eyghon, with more than a little help from that vampire and the Slayer’s friends.
Roger grimaced. He tucked his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. His fingers rubbed against the crystal; it was his and the other’s last desperate refuge. Once their tasks were done and history was rewritten, they would all be without a place to go in the future, gods willing. So he, Ethan and Willow had created the crystals as an insurance policy. None of them had a safe haven to go to once they’d killed him, so they had chosen instead a far different path for their lives and souls.
It was a daring plan, but one that might just work miracles for countless lives. It was now time for him to create one for himself and his family; it was the first step on a path he should never have veered from. His son needed him. Buffy had said over and over to all of them in their darkest moments, ‘Baby steps guys, baby steps.’ Taking a deep breath, Roger Wyndam-Pryce raised a hand and knocked loudly on the door. He had a son to save and a Council to salvage from the hands of bureaucrats and reform into a fighting force that would withstand anything that was thrown at it. The man behind this door would play a pivotal role in all the changes they needed to make
The door creaked open.
“Good evening, Mr Giles. If I might have a moment of your time? We have a lot to discuss. Oh good, is that a bottle of scotch I see? I think you might need a drink in a moment.” Roger brushed past a stunned Giles and into hopefully bright new future—one where his son didn’t end up with a knife in his gut and with a forgotten god weeping over his still form while the vampire who’d sent him to his death stepped into an alleyway and set in motion the end of the universe.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Sorry, honey.” He leant over and blew out some candles. “We’re closed.”
“Miss Sunshine here tells me you had a visitor today.” She stared at the shopkeeper, her glittering eyes unwavering in their insanity. “But she worries,” she sing-songed before smiling crookedly at the implacable man. After a beat a faint frown flickered across her visage at the lack of fear he was displaying. “She wants to know what you and the mean teacher talked about.”
Drusilla glanced around the small basement shop, her eyes lighting on the closed curtains behind the counter. She frowned but then easily dismissed the feeling of being watched as nothing. The vampiress let Miss Sunshine drop to the floor as she examined the shopkeeper who stood behind the counter watching her intently.
“What’s this? No pricklings of fear? I wanted delicious shivers. How disappointing.” She pouted and took a step forward, confident in her safety and control of the situation. She tilted her head to one side and studied the little man contemplatively. “Aren’t you a brave little lad!” Dru snapped her teeth sharply at the nonplussed man who stood watching her. Julian let one hand rest on the glass-topped counter and stared at the being that had caused the death of his friend’s love and sired the monster that spawned Connor, one of the instruments of his entire family’s death. Hatred prickled through him as his hidden hand clutched his stake. He itched to stake her but that was an honour reserved for another, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t hurt the lunatic.
“If you want to come back tomorrow, I am sure…”
“I don’t think so. You’re so shiny and new. When are you from then?” Something had registered in her mind; there was a tinge of curiosity niggling at her, but it was overridden by the need to survive. “Doesn’t matter though.” She shook her head, mentally dismissing him as a threat. “You’re helping the nasty teacher hurt my happy family.” Drusilla leaned over the counter and snarled as her features morphed into those of her true nature. Amber eyes glistened with anger and hunger as she eyed his throat, her fangs itching to tear the flesh away to reveal the vein that was filled with the ambrosia she could never get enough of. She was unaware that her confidence would very soon be her down fall.
“That all you got?” Julian sneered. “Just some fangs and a fugly face? How about I help out with that?” He reached for the squeezy bottle he’d placed near the cash till; grabbing it he aimed and let loose the thrice sanctified water. She screamed as the Holy Water sprayed across her demonically distorted features. Her back hit the dresser behind her, dislodging the crystals, orbs and magical paraphernalia that were displayed there. The sound of the goods crashing to the ground covered the noise of the door bell as Fred’s parents came in, raising their crosses and aiming them at the shrieking vampiress, forcing her to the ground. Drusilla clawed at her face as the skin melted and burned, her features morphing back into the ethereal beauty that had initially drawn her sire to her.
Crouching on the floor she glared up at the impassive face of the man. “You’re a bad puppy — I’m going to have to spank you now.” Reaching behind her she pulled herself up, tears of pain streaming over her ruined face. Her lips twisted into a sneer. She spared a glance at the older couple, dismissing them as no threat to her. She began to sway from side to side.
“Be in me…” she crooned.
“Be in this, you demented, crazed rabid nut job!” Robin shouted as he pushed the curtain aside, revealing where he had been hiding with the shaking shop owner. He fired a bolt from his crossbow, but in his eagerness to kill the woman who had sent the Chaos demons after his Faith, he was slightly off target. Pinning her through the side to the heavy oak dresser, he at least immobilised her.
“Noooo!” she wailed, suddenly terrified. “It’s not how it is meant to be…the stars are all clouded. Where are my pixies?” Her hands hung limply at her sides as she swayed mindlessly from one foot to the other.
Robin vaulted over the counter and pulled out one of Faith’s old stakes he’d kept just for this occasion. “More fitting this way I think.” His face was impassive as his fist rose and with unerring ease, slammed downwards, piercing the hissing vampire’s chest.
“But…this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be…why are you hurting me, you bad puppy?” Drusilla glanced down at the stake piercing her long dead heart and then laughed as she stared up at her executioner. “It’s all different now, isn’t it?” she whispered, her voice childlike and shaken as realisation dawned on her. “You’re not from around here, are you?” She laughed briefly before her body disintegrated into a fine ash. A small pile was all that was left of her and it lay defeated at their feet. Robin’s shoulders heaved as he tried to breathe; he took great gulping breaths and wept in relief. He may have failed in revenging his mother’s death, but Faith would live now. He had changed the past and made the future a little brighter for all of them. Now all he had to do was wait another day to really seal the deal.
“Oh my God, it worked! We did it!” Julian let out a holler of victory as he skirted around the counter, pulling the shocked salesman with him. They all ignored the whining of the small dog that pawed at the ashes, searching for the vampiress who had taken him from the dead arms of his previous owner.
“Isis protect me, you saved my life!” he babbled his thanks. “I don’t know how to repay you.” His hands trembled slightly as he reached out to shake his saviour’s hands. “Thank you…thank you.” The Burkles smiled at the shaken man and patted him on the shoulder, trying to calm the poor naïve man down.
Julian stepped up next to Robin and gently put an arm around the immobile man. “Come on, it’s over – let’s get back to the others.”
Robin wiped his hand over his face and nodded.
Without another word they all left the shop, leaving the owner behind to lock up and sweep away the remains. A paltry remnant of a demoness who had once reigned in terror over Europe and South America – a dust bunny and some ash that was dumped out in the trash without a moment of ceremony.
Drusilla passed away, unnoticed, unmourned and unremarked by all but those who had been in the shop and elsewhere.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Need another drink?” Roger asked wryly as he leant over and poured a healthy shot of Scotch into Giles’s glass.
“Yes…I think I need – the First you say?” Giles stared at Roger in shock. “And he gets a soul? Are you sure?” He didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or faint from shock.
The older watcher stared gravely over his glasses and nodded. “I am not lying to you. This is all true.” He gestured at the notes and diaries littering the table between them.
“The future?” Giles’s voice shook with shock.
“Yes, and no I don’t know who won the World Cup,” Roger added dryly, though now he wished he’d taken some notice.
“Are you sure that you should be telling me all this?” Giles stared down at the reams of notes and the pile of diaries Roger had given him. “Aren’t there rules about things such as this?” He was sickened at the litany of horrors and disasters that were to happen to everyone he held dear. “Is this all a test? Has Travers put you up to this?” he added suspiciously.
Roger groaned tiredly; they had known that this would have been a difficult part of the plan, but Giles had to be warned about it all. There was no other option. He was needed to help take control. “Call your girlfriend, Janna of the Calderash clan. Her name is now Jenny, I believe? Ask her to tell you about the spell she is working on—the restoration spell.”
“The what?”
“Just do it, man. I don’t have all night.” Roger sighed. His hand reached for the other pile of paperwork he needed to give the man, papers that none of the others knew about, but would appreciate once it all was organised.
“But we aren’t talking…” Giles trailed off and flushed in embarrassment. He ducked his head, trying to avoid the censure in the older man’s eyes.
“Good God, man. How old do you think you are? Honestly, when Buffy told me about the sang froid? between the two of you, I laughed. You’re both adults, for God’s sake just talk to each other. It might actually save lives!” Roger stood and strode to the telephone. Pulling out a piece of paper he dialled the number and waited a beat. “Here. Talk to the woman.” He waved the handset at Giles. He rose and took it, turning his back to talk Jenny in private.
“Jenny?”
Roger shook his head. He pulled out the three envelopes and placed them on the table. He patted Giles’s hand and bid him goodbye.
“Wait! Jenny can you hold on for a moment,” he requested then covered the receiver with his hand. “You can’t just tell me all this and then go.”
“I have go. Talk to her and when you’ve finished read these. If I can come back, I will.” His eyes were steely with determination. “Promise me you will help Wesley. He needs it.”
Giles stared at him in shock. “O…okay. I will do my best.”
“That’s all I ask.” Roger smiled tiredly and left, his steps lighter than they had been for long while.
“Jenny, what’s this about a restoration spell?”
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Many many thank yous to all the fab people who have reviewed it has made me a very spoiled and happy girl :) And also a productive one!