Chapter 6
Tara, Oz, and Giles drove all day to get to their destination. Faith had everything on Miss Summers including her current residence. The sun was setting as they parked across from the house. Giles nodded to Oz who began to strip and then slowly changed into his wolf form. Tara opened the sliding door and let him out. As she closed it again she turned to Giles.
"Why haven't you told Faith about Oz? Don't you trust her?"
"It's Oz's secret to tell, not ours, but I understand why he hasn't revealed this to them." He handed her the transcript of Buffy's delusions.
"Oz kills someone."
Giles nodded his head.
"But Oz is different."
"He is only different, because right after I was aware of his condition I called in favors and had him trained."
Oz knew he was different from other werewolves. He knew he could be like how Buffy had imagined him, but he had achieved inner peace. Mostly due to spending an entire summer in Tibet with an associate of Giles' learning how to harness the wolf in him and combine it with his own essence. With all that internal work he found that in wolf mode he was able to use his human mind, but it was in tuned with his wolf instincts. As soon as Oz came back he contacted his cousin, the little boy who had bitten him and sent him to the monks in Tibet; anything to keep the child away from the Hellmouth and the hunters, like Cain. Though Cain was dead, that was the thing about the Hellmouth and the master; they didn't care what type of human you were. Cain had discovered him a few months after he was bitten and had tried to hunt him. Except the hunter had not done his homework, Oz tried to save the hunter, but he refused to believe in vampires even as Xander and Willow attacked him.
Oz walked around the house trying to appear as a common stray dog, which in the darkness he probably did look like. He could smell the scents of the occupants of the house. He drew closer to the dining room window trying to pick out Buffy's scent so he could identify her later. But there was another scent an undead scent, a vampire. It was familiar, but Oz couldn't place it. As Buffy got up to close the open window he heard part of her conversation.
"So you guys can afford a shopping spree tomorrow?"
"Sure." Her mother replied.
"Why, honey, what's wrong?" Hank asked.
"Nothing, I just don't want to be a burden."
"Buffy, don't think that," their voices drifted out of range as Buffy closed the window.
Oz had her scent and he knew what she was doing tomorrow. As he turned he caught sight of the swoosh of a leather coat as someone walked away. He turned and quickly ran back to the van, but as he started toward the street a car came out of nowhere and headed straight for him. He turned and ran to the only safe place, Buffy's front door. He slammed head first into the door, barely missing the car. He looked up to see a vampire laughing at him as they drove off. He turned toward the van when the door opened and he fell onto the feet of the person who opened it. He felt pain shoot up his front leg as he heard heavy breathing above him. He looked up to see Buffy staring horrified down at him. Not able to talk in this form, he tried to get up and back slowly away from her, but only managed to fall back on his butt.
"Buffy?" Her mother asked from behind her.
Buffy glanced down at the wounded animal, trying to figure out how a wolf could possibly be here. It looked so scared as it stared up at her.
"Buffy?" Joyce called as she stepped up behind her daughter.
But Buffy's eyes never left the animal before her. "It's a dog, he's hurt." Buffy spoke.
The animal whimpered as Joyce appeared at the doorway.
"Buffy, it's probably a stray."
"He looks so scared, not like Oz."
"Buffy?"
The animal seemed alarmed by the name and started to back away. Buffy stepped forward and tried to pet it.
"Buffy, you don't know what it has."
Buffy watched as the frightened animal looked up at her.
Tara watched Oz and Buffy from inside the van down the street. She put her hooded black sweatshirt on with the hood up. Then she grabbed an old ripped collar and leash.
"What are you doing?" Giles asked.
"Oz is h-hurt and ssometimes he'll ch-change involun-tarily when he gets too sscared. It's like a defense mechanism."
She pulled the hood down over her forehead more, and then quietly slipped out of the van. Tara walked down toward the Summers Residence. She took a deep breath, hoping to suppress her stutter.
"Silver." She called out, it was the name her and Oz came up with in case of a situation like this. He had even gnawed on the collar and leash to make it seem realistic.
Buffy heard a female voice call out and watched as the wolf turned in the direction of the voice.
"Silver, where are you, you bad dog!" Buffy looked up and saw a woman across the street. Even in the dark Buffy could see that the woman was carrying a torn collar.
"Well, that explains it." Joyce spoke as she too caught sight of the woman.
But something wasn't right, Buffy could feel it.
"Silver!" The voice became annoyed.
"Go," Buffy urged the wolf.
As it slowly limped over to its owner whose face was shadowed by the hood of the shirt, Buffy knew that she had heard that voice before. Once the dog was at the sidewalk its owner crossed and picked him. The woman barely even glanced in their way as she carried the animal across and down the street.
As Joyce led her daughter inside, Buffy realized something odd about that wolf. It had the exact same colored eyes as Oz. Not as a wolf, but as a human. Normal everyday Oz, but how was that possible wolves generally had pale blue eyes. Didn't they?
Once inside the van Giles waited 5 minutes before driving away. Oz transformed back and dressed as Giles headed toward the motel where they had reserved a room.
"What happened?" Giles asked Oz.
"There was a vampire watching her, probably from Sunnydale, he smelled familiar and strong." He readjusted his wrist and winced realizing he broke it. "Damn, vamps tried to kill me."
"Giles, d-drop us off at a-a hospital, he needs this to be wr-wrapped up." Tara spoke.
"What did you hear?" Giles asked Oz.
"Her mother is taking her on a shopping spree tomorrow. I've been around here once when I was with the band. There's a nice indoor mall about 5 minutes from our hotel, that's where they would go."
"Are you sure?" Giles asked.
"Positive, it's the only place in the area where they can find Buffy nice expensive clothes in style, but not too expensive that she would feel guilty. There's a lot of that feeling in that house."
"Money," Giles asked distracted.
"Guilt, I think Buffy thinks that being in the hospital put a strain on her relationship with her parents."
"Or, she feels guilty for what she d-did to the f-friends in her m-mind."
As Giles pulls up to the hospital both men look at her.
She pulled open the sliding door and then realizes that they are watching her. "What? I think about it, we go up to her tomorrow she's going to f-flip, but we could u-use that. Cause I'm dead!"
Faith let Wesley get some sleep and she helped Angel out of the bathroom. Wesley had clothed him in some of Giles' clothes, black sweat pants and a loose black button down shirt. Faith had insisted that he wear socks, which Angel couldn't figure out why. He watched the slayer as she told two of her group to go find him some fresh blood from a hospital or butcher once the sun rises. She laid him on the couch as another girl handed her a hot cup of tea.
"What is with this guy and tea?" Faith asked smiling at the girl.
The other girl shrugged her shoulders, "he's British, I don't know."
The other girl, Nancy (?) who was bandaging some of Angel's worse wounds spoke up, "he only drinks coffee when he doesn't want to be calmed."
"Must be scary," Faith remarked.
"Can be," the man, Larry, replied.
Angel winced as the woman touched a very sensitive wound.
"Nancy, careful," Faith whispered.
"Trying, but it looks like there is something in the wound."
Faith gently rolled Angel onto his side so he was facing the cushioned back of the couch. He could feel them lifting his shirt to inspect the wound on his side.
"Man that is deep." Faith whispered. She pushed a belt into Angel's face. "Bite down; we have to pull it out." Angel did as he was told as he saw Larry standing over them with the lamp in his hand.
"Amy, can you help?" Faith asked.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Faith handing a pair of long tweezers to the girl he didn't know. He refused to look away as he felt several hands brace him to hold him still. He felt the cold instrument dip into the wound and searing pain as whatever was lodged in there was tugged on. He bit down hard as the pain continued. Minutes ticked by as Amy carefully tried to wedge it out.
"It's not coming out." She whispered, but Angel could hear her.
"Give it to me, and hold him." Faith spoke and hands traded places; "Angel, on the count of three."
He nodded his head and closed his eyes.
"One, two, three." YANK!
He screamed biting down harder, and vamped out. He expected them to back away, but the hands remained in place. Except one that was trying to quickly bandage him up.
Still panting for unneeded breath, he glanced up at Larry. Larry looked down at him not startled by Angel's face. "What was it?" He gasped.
Larry glanced up at Faith. Angel watched as Faith brought the tweezers into his view. Although it was covered in his blood Angel could see the piece of wood.
"It looks like a match stick?" Amy spoke sounding confused.
"It is," Angel rasped.
"Dude they really didn't like you." Larry commented.
"No, they don't." Angel replied as Faith rolled him over and propped him up on the couch.
"What were they trying to do?" Nancy asked.
"Burn the soul out," he replied as he let his demon face fade back. He shuttered involuntarily. "I was her puppy, and she rode me every chance she got. Her boy would even join in sometimes."
"Who?" Larry asked.
"Willow and Xander," he saw Faith's confusion and elaborated, "red head and brunette."
"White Hats," Amy whispered.
"Oh," Faith whispered, "I haven't faced them yet, just Spike and Dru."
"How are you still here?" Angel asked.
"He wanted his minions to take me down instead, why?"
Angel tried to sit up more, but it only caused more pain, so he gave up. "Spike has killed two slayers in his time."
"And how many have you killed?" Faith asked.
"None, I was never interested in the slayer."
"But you created Spike?" Amy asked.
"No, I sired Drusilla, and she sired Spike, your watcher's books probably call him William the Bloody."
He watched the realization hit Faith's face. "That's where I heard the name Angelus before; you're part of the Scourge of Europe."
He nodded his head, "was. Darla is dead; she was my sire and was sired by the master himself. I killed her right after the Harvest and in his rage the master locked me away in the Bronze as they took the town." He glanced up at Larry and Nancy. "Your friends were the first two to be sired by the master after he rose."
"We weren't really friends." Larry explained, "just classmates. But Willow she was super smart, she could have done anything with her life."
"What do you mean?" Faith asked.
"She was a computer whiz," Nancy spoke. "She was the smartest person in probably the whole school and she was only a sophomore."
"Should I be worried?" Faith asked.
"I don't think so," Amy replied. "As a vampire she hasn't used her smarts very much as all."
After trying to run over the wolf Spike joined the rest at a dingy motel.
"So?" Willow asked.
"The wolf, witch, and librarian are here."
Drusilla hissed. "Ruff, bad dog, no broken 'SNAP' bone will stop him."
"No, it bloody won't!" Spike exclaimed. "But we'll get her tomoorow."
"Why what's going on?" Xander asked.
"We're going shopping." Spike grinned.
