FULL CIRCLE
Chapter Four
Author name: Marie
Rating: PG
Summary: A woman from Spike and Angel's past moves to Sunnydale to begin again. Occurs at the end of this season's Buffy and Angel.
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, except Emma
Feedback: Love it.
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Present Day Sunnydale
The next afternoon, as I was unpacking another box full of knick knack's. It seems with every move, the amount of stuff this store accumulates triples. I need to do a check of our overhead. Maybe I should stop buying from some of those low lives's that come by at night.
"Excuse me." A British man startled my thoughts. "I was looking for a Emma."
"You found her. And you might be?"
"Rubert Giles." The man stood there in his tweed jacket, looking very Oxford-like. He had my book in one hand and was looking around at the mess, which is my store.
"Nice to meet you. And you have my book."
"Yes, Anya, said that you wanted it translated." He stuttered slightly.
"Yeah, I was hoping that it could be." This guy was very cute, in a British academic gentlemen sort of way. Why do English guys do it for me so much?
"May I ask why?" The man asked with a bit of curiosity, as he quickly scanned the box that I was unpacking from.
"One of my dealers likes to sell me old freaky books. I guess I just like to know what is in them before I sell them. Besides, I am a sucker for all of that vampire stuff."
"Really?" That peaked his curiosity.
"Yeah. Don't ask me why, because it is a long complicated and slightly embarrassing story. But I have always been interested in all of that stuff. Plus I am a researcher by heart, as you can see. So it just sort of fits." I smile and he smiles back shyly. "So were you able to find anyone who can translate it."
"Honestly, I don't think that there is anyone alive anymore who can read it. I was doing a bit of research on it. From what I can tell, the language is a gypsy one dating back to the eighth century. Since it was a tribal language, it died when the tribe died."
"Marcus thought that might be the case."
"Marcus?"
"My associate." I hear in the back room the kettle that I put on start to steam. "Do you want some tea?"
"Love some."
"Come on back. Marcus, I am going in the back." I yell down to him, only to receive a slight grunt in return. "Can you put that bell on the door sometime?" I usher Rubert in the back and proceed to make some tea.
"It's dark in here."
"Yeah, I don't like the light. Does it bother you?"
"No, its fine. So as I was saying," I hand him the tea, "thank you. As I was saying, the language died. And from what I can tell. It is a mixture Russian and Arabic, without a bit of Chinese syntax thrown in to make it all the more complicated."
"So what you are saying is there is no way I can't get it translated." Sitting down in one of my chairs, I motion for him to do the same.
"Not exactly. The interesting thing is although the language is eighth century, the book is not. In fact from the binding, I would say this book is sixteenth century."
"That's pretty good. So if the book is younger than the language, then at least when the book was printed somebody was alive who spoke the language."
"Absolutely."
"But that doesn't necessarily mean that I can get it translated. Because for all we know, the publisher was the last speaker of the language."
"Right. But we still may be able to find someone. Which is the real reason that I came by. I have some friends over in England who works for the British Museum. They might be able to track down a speaker, or at least decipher the text a bit."
"Really." Nice contacts, Rubert. "But I would have to send it to them." The thought of sending this expensive over the Atlantic to a bunch of scholars whom I have never didn't seem to shake me as much as it should have. Normally I am a little tight about my belongings, unless you are paying customer that is.
"Yes. It will be perfectly safe with them. I promise that you will get your book back in no time."
"Well then, it's a deal. I have a feeling that my book will be in good hands."
"Thank you." He looked around for a moment, I could tell that he knew he should leave, but didn't want to. "So you just moved here."
"Yes."
"From where?"
"Savanna."
"Right. Well it looks like you are almost done with the unpacking bit."
"Absolutely, that is the one thing that I despise about moving, all of the boxes lying around. But it is inevitable, I guess."
"That is the dreaded part. I just moved back here from England for a while and those boxes are still not unpacked yet."
"Why did you come back?"
"Family issues."
"Running away from or towards."
"Towards. A young woman, who I am sort of a surrogate father towards, needed some help. So I moved back."
"Wow, that is really good of you. So, Rubert, what do you do?"
"I own the magic store.'
"Really. Now that is an interesting titbit. I never would have pictured that you were into that type of stuff."
"Well, I am sort of interested, but mostly it is a profitable business and like you I have always been interested in the freaky stuff." He smiled. He has a really nice smile. "May I ask you a question. Why do you not like the light?"
"Oh, I am actually allergic to it. I don't normally go into it because it grosses people out. But you don't seem like the type. Have you ever heard of Congenital erythropoietic porphyria?"
"I have heard of porphyria before."
"Well this is more extreme than the generally sun sensitivity. For me, I go out in the sun and welts start forming, then suddenly I can't breath. Not too pretty. So basically, I live at night.
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England 1880's
The morning I woke up and actually opened my eyes. William is there, watching over me like a mother hen and I felt safe. The brick in my chest is slightly less painful, but I no longer feel cold, which is a relief. At first I thought I was dreaming, but William kisses my forehead and I know this was real. Only at that moment do I remember how real this really was.
"Morning, sleepyhead. We have been waiting for you." He smiles again and kisses my hand. It is at that moment that I remember the pain and the warmth, the blood. All of the blood.
"Where am I?" I whispered. "What am I?" A pained look overtakes William's face.
"You are a vampire, my dear." A strange voice answers for William, then I see him. The man with the eyes, he is the man in my dreams, the man who wanted to finish the job.
"A what." I try to sit up, but I have no strength. William finally puts a pillow behind my back.
"You are still weak, love." His hand rests on my cheek. His touch soothes me. "You should rest more. We will go get you something to nibble on and be back. Need to get your strength back." He again kisses my forehead. Sleep did sound good, so I close my eyes. I can hear William talking to the other man about me. "She should be better by now."
"Maybe her illness, makes her weaker. To be honest, Spike I have no idea why she is like that. Maybe all she needs is some good blood."
"Maybe." I hear William get up and the two of them leave the room. I open my eyes again and look around. It is hard to describe where I was. The place is unlike anything I had ever seen. It is like what I had imagined a brothel would look like. Filled with velvet, satin and silk fabric. There are scents burning in the air. The one thing I do notice was how dark it was. Even though, I assume it is nighttime, it feels darker than night. They are teasing about the vampire bit, aren't they?
It takes me weeks to gain some sort of strength, the blood doesn't help. I don't want to drink it, but William forces it down my throat. Somehow it is grossly refreshing. I come to realise that they weren't joking about the vampire bit. William has turned me. I can tell from the look in his eyes every time a new realisation hits about my new life, he feels the guilt. I had wanted to die and he obliged me of my wish. I just never imagined that he would give me this immortality. I lie in bed most of the day, too weak to even walk. They try to explain that it is my illness that made me so weak, but I know that they are lying. I wasn't supposed to be like this, I wasn't supposed to be so fragile. They would leave me at night to go hunt and return all pumped up. William would always come straight to me and make me drink and tell me about their adventure. During the days, he would sleep beside me. His arms entangling my body. We had never slept like this before, it is nice.
The other man, Angelus, is actually not as scary as he had seemed when I had first woken up. I think he sees me as some kind of pet or doll to take care of. He always bring me new dresses to wear or ribbons to put in my hair, or jewels to adorn my neck, telling me that when I got my strength back, the two of us would go out. He is kind.
The others are merely just there. But there is one woman, Druscilla, she is incredibly territorial. I don't quite know what I have done, but I know that she doesn't like me. If she had her way, I would have been killed. "Pathetic creatures like me always should be put down", she would say. But William and Angelus wouldn't allow it and she has a way of reminding me of that.