Lewis Mumford.
Buffy awoke with a start and squinted in the early half-light of pre-dawn that filtered in through the tinted windows of her hotel room. Her heart thumped loudly and she lay panting for breath as the warm flush of arousal played over her skin. The folds of her sex lay swollen and moist between her thighs and the sensitive skin of her nipples was puckered tightly. She lifted her fingers up to the right side of her neck, softly stroking the smooth, unblemished skin that covered her thumping pulse. ‘Wow!’ she grinned, ‘now that’s what I call a dream!’
The sound that had pulled her from sleep reverberated once more through the room, and this time her pleasure-addled mind deciphered it. Someone was knocking on the door of her suite.
She dragged herself out of bed, threw on her robe and dashed out to the lounge. She pulled open the door to find Faith standing there, one hand on her hip and her eyes checking out the time on her watch.
“Get a move on B. I thought we were going to start this training session nice and ear …” Faith’s voice trailed off as she raised her eyes to take in Buffy’s sparkling eyes and dishevelled appearance. “Damn girl,” she smirked, “you got some luscious little honey hidden away in your bedroom?”
“No, of course not,” Buffy muttered, heated blood staining her skin red once more, this time from embarrassment. She tried to straighten her hair, pressed her thighs together and pulled her robe tighter around her. She glanced up to see Faith standing there, arms folded, right eyebrow raised, smirk firmly in place and knew she wasn’t going to get away without coming up with an explanation.
“So, spill!” she said. “We’ve got all day, and I’m not giving up till you tell me what’s the what.”
“Um, just, just, you know,” Buffy stuttered, “a, a n-n-nice dream.”
Faith narrowed her eyes and then grinned once again. “Oh, I get it. Had yourself a little vampire loving with your dream honey did you?” She chuckled and shook her head. “Damn B. You and the vamp sex! Well it must be good judging by the state of you. Almost makes me wanna take one out for a test drive. Hmm, I wonder if Angel would be interested in the bridesmaid seeing as the bride’s found another groom?”
“Faith, you can’t do that,” Buffy hissed as she dragged the dark haired Slayer into the suite and shut the door.
“Whoa, touchy, touchy. Okay, okay. Five by five B. I won’t go near your ex-honey if you still have feelings for him. Anyway, seems a bit too like history repeating itself for my liking. Although, I have to say, greedy!”
“No it’s not like that. I can honestly say that I don’t have any feelings like that for Angel anymore,” Buffy declared. “No, I was thinking about the fact that one, you’re with Robin now. And two, don’t forget that pesky old curse of Angel’s. We’ve got enough problems without sending an invitation for Angelus to join the party. Other than those little issues,” Buffy tipped her head to the side and chewed her lip; “I’d totally say go for it. In fact I think you two would be good for each other.”
Faith scowled. “I wasn’t looking for your blessing or anything,” she grumbled. “Hurry up and get ready. Suddenly I feel very in need of a work out.”
Buffy laughed and dashed through to her room to throw on some sweats and a tank top. She carried her trainers through to the lounge, quickly sliding them on and lacing them up, before following Faith out the door and over to the elevators. The morning sped by as the two young women did a few circuits then moved onto the mats to spar. Just after nine Kennedy appeared, eager to escape the full on research jamboree that was developing upstairs.
Wesley was due soon but was going to call into the offices first to pick up any information on Cyvus Vail and look up the licence plate number Willow had come up with. After leaving Buffy’s suite last night, Willow had had a hot bath, then crawled into bed in her pyjamas to try one more session of self-meditation. She’d quickly slipped into a deeply relaxed state, only stirring briefly when Kennedy joined her in bed. Willow had woken Kennedy just before 2 a.m. with the news that in her sub conscious she’d revisited the farewell day at the Sunnydale crater, and she’d not only spotted the limousine, but also stared at and memorised the licence plate number, then woken herself up and written it down.
It had taken some effort for the two girls to get back to sleep and the Willow had been awake again by 6.30 so she could ring Wesley at home before he went into the office. Willow had been up and bouncing around since then, but Kennedy had tried to go back to sleep for a couple of hours before finally giving up and settling on a workout instead.
From then on the three Slayers rotated through one on one sparring workouts. Both Faith and Kennedy were mindful of the senior Slayer’s pregnancy, and avoided any kicks or blows to her abdominal area, but other than that it was full on, all out fighting. By 10.30, when they decided to call it quits, Buffy was exhausted. She was hot and sticky and it seemed she had more aches in her body than she had muscles.
Tired, but buzzy, the three girls set off back upstairs. All three showered and dressed before joining the research squad. Wesley had been there for about an hour, and he, Giles and Willow were eagerly crosschecking information from various texts, the Internet and Wesley’s contacts in LA. Buffy, Faith and Kennedy slipped into the room within minutes of Xander and Oz, who’d been out on a donut run.
The girls set about making drinks and the whole team sat down to take a break and share all the information they’d gleaned so far.
“Right, it seems that we can confirm Wesley’s initial speculation that Cyvus Vail is involved in this affair.” Giles began, while the others munched on the sweet, doughy treats. “Wesley was able to uncover that the licence plate number Willow remembered,” at this he nodded approvingly at the red haired witch, “belongs to a vehicle owned by Wolfram and Hart.” Gasps and angry murmurs erupted from Xander and the three Slayers who were hearing this for the first time.
“Furthermore,” Wesley took up the story, “the limousine in question, driven by a Wolfram and Hart employee, was dispatched to the residence of one Cyvus Vail at 10 pm on the evening of May 30th and was returned to the car pool at 10 am the following morning.”
“So Wolfram and Hart and Vail are working together on this?” Buffy asked.
“Well, given the financial transactions that took place, plus the transport provision it certainly appears so, although we already suspected that was the case considering that it was Lilah who provided Angel with the amulet in the first place.”
“So this woman Lilah works for Wolfram and Hart. Wouldn’t that make Angel her boss?” Buffy asked Wesley curiously.
Wesley stared at Buffy, absolutely speechless as incredulity, amusement, sorrow, embarrassment, and finally regret rolled over his face like waves in a storm, smashing into one another, stirring up this usually stoic man until he was forced to turn away from them. Silently he stood, head down, hands clenched by his side as he strived to compose himself. When he turned back his face was calm once more, leaving no sign of the currents that might lie beneath the surface.
“Let us simply say,” he rasped, “that Lilah Morgan is an ex-employee of Wolfram and Hart, who is presently contracted to work for the Senior Partners as their sometime liaison. She has from time to time provided me, us, with somewhat dubious, entirely unreliable information.” Wesley paused as Giles handed him a glass of Scotch, correctly reading that the younger Englishman would benefit from its soothing effects. Despite the early hour, he quickly tipped the glass back, consuming the entire contents before continuing to share his evidence.
“But, in regards to the amulet, I have no doubt that Lilah’s role would have been wholly official. For some reason the Senior Partners wanted the Amulet to be used in the battle against the First. They could not have foreseen that Buffy would choose Spike as her Champion; perhaps they assumed that Angel would use it. Whatever their intentions, it appears likely that the amulet has been recovered and that either the Senior Partners themselves or Cyvus Vail are in possession of it.”
“So Vail is the key to this?” Faith asked softly. “Where do we find this guy? I’m ready to kick some warlock butt.”
“Well Faith I can certainly tell you where Vail resides. But I don’t think it will be as simple as ‘kicking warlock butt’,” Wesley said. “From the information I’ve uncovered, he is a pretty high level warlock, with connections to a whole network of sorcerers on the West Coast. He is very wealthy and very, very powerful. He has had some sort of ongoing relationship with Wolfram and Hart for years now, including a recent, very expensive transaction. We are going to have to develop a very carefully thought out approach to countering his magic abilities. Apart from taking out the Kith’harn demons that he uses as bodyguards, this battle promises to be more of a magical nature than a physical one. And as much as I know you’re going to dislike this suggestion, I think we’re going to have to bring Angel on board too.”
Buffy scowled. Faith caught her eye and nodded in sympathy. She knew the younger slayer would understand how she felt, not just the desire for action, but also the absolute need to be at the forefront of Spike’s recovery, without Angel’s sanctimonious interference. And there was no way Buffy was gonna just sit around and twiddle her fingers while the mojo mob got to ride to the rescue.
Without pause Buffy quickly rose to her feet and strode decisively over to where Giles was sitting. She stopped beside him and silently scanned the faces of the people in the room.
“Well it seems like you guys have phone calls to make and all sorts of planning to do. We obviously can’t just wander in there all angry and revengy, knock this Vail dude around and demand our amulet back. No, there will need to be research and plotting and much grave discussion and debate. Not really my thing.” Buffy shrugged. “So if you don’t mind me, I’m in serious need of a new Slayer outfit. Giles,” with this she thrust out her hand towards him, palm upwards, fingers wiggling determinedly, “you’re the big boss man now, you must have some form of access to the formerly corrupt Council’s coffers. A credit card, traveller’s cheques, cold hard cash, whatever, I’m in need and its about time the Council coughed up for past services rendered. Hand it over buddy.”
“Buffy, I don’t really think that this constitutes proper use of Council resources,” Giles frowned disapprovingly as he polished the spectacles in his hands.
“Really? Well just consider it a tiny fraction of the back-pay they owe me for all of those years working for them for free.” She looked at his dubious expression and then went in for the winning shot. “And anyway, you know that if I have to stay here at research central, I’ll just get bored and restless and wander around whining at everyone and getting in their way.”
“Oh well, when you put it like that I suppose it would be good for you to get in a little bit of … retail therapy? Is that what you call it? You’ve been through a lot lately and if it will help get you in the right frame of mind for this mission…” Giles folded like a house of cards and reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet. “Just don’t spend too much Buffy,” he grimaced as he slid a piece of plastic into her hand.
“Hmm,” Buffy muttered as she glanced around the room, alighting on the envious expressions of her two sister Slayers before flicking her head at the two girls. As her fingers closed triumphantly on the credit card, she turned back to Giles and grinned sheepishly. “Thanks Giles. I really mean it; it’s just what I need. I’ll just grab my two, uh, fashion consultants and we’ll get outta your hair.” With that she swept out of the door, closely followed by Faith and Kennedy.
The remaining crew stared bemusedly at the door until Giles refocused their attention with his throat clearing. “Right people, shall we get back to it?”