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"My God. What happened? Hold on let me get my first aid kit," Mr. Giles said before he ran back to his office.
Faith waited for him to get started on cleaning up my cut and then replied. "Followed a vamp from the Bronze to Memorial Cemetary where I found these two," pointing at Oz and Willow who were seated at the table, "getting ambushed by a large fang gang. So I dusted my guide and headed over to help. Four of them headed over to take me while the other four kept themselves busy with Red and her boy. The first one I met was pretty easy to dust but the others worked as a team so it took me a bit longer to finish them. When I heard a scream, I looked over to see Red get knocked towards me and her boy try to hold his own against the four. Didn't last. He was out and they grabbed him to take off. I just focused on finishing off my boys so I could help him. Don't know where Rambo here came from but he stopped the four from taking them. I was able to finish off my three, and that one he left groaning in pain, quick enough to see him take out the last vamp by breaking his arm before he staked him. Don't know where he learned his moves but he knows vampires and their weaknesses pretty well."
By this time Mr. Giles had finished cleaning me up and was looking me over with a critical eye. "So Mr. Harris, sounds like you have a story to tell here."
"Me? Why not you two? I'm sure Oz and Willow would like to know what both of you know about all of this. Especially considering you are the adult here, and are better able to explain things, what with being a teacher and all," I finished with a grin.
Giles sputtered and turned to look at the two students huddled together looking at him with questioning eyes. With a final glare at me, he started:
"This world is older than any of you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons, demons walked the earth. They made it their home... their hell. But in time they lost purchase on this reality. The way was made for.. mortal animals... for man. All that remains of the old ones are certain... vestiges. Certain magicks, certain creatures..."
"Like Vampires," I shot out.
"There are no such things as vampires," Willow meekly said.
"Of course not, those guys tonight were just close relatives of Klingons. And their teeth, new kind of dental work. The turn-to-dust thing was just an illusion. I know I thought similar things when I first met a vampire. Right after the usual 'Oh-my-god-I'm-gonna-die' thoughts," I said.
"But what are vampires then? Demons?" Willow questioned.
Giles grabbed a few books and explained. "The books tell that the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human... mixed their blood. He was a human form possessed... infected by the demon's soul. He bit another and another. And so they walked the earth. Feeding. Killing some. Mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind. Waiting for the animals to die out."
Oz raised his hand. "What do you three have to do with this?"
Giles sighed. "For as long as there have been vampires there has been the Slayer. One girl in all the world. A Chosen One..."
Willow spoke, "And that is... Faith."
"Yes, basically it is like this: Faith is the Slayer. Don't tell anyone. That should be all of the vampire information that you need."
Willow looked wide-eyed at him. "But how do you kill them? How do you protect yourself from them?"
"Use a cross to keep them away or splash them with holy water. One touch of either burns them," I replied earning another glare from Giles. "What? From what I've seen of this town so far is that they'll need all the help they can get. I'm not about to let my friends be caught unprepared again."
Giles started in on me again. "Which brings me back to the topic of you: How do you know so much about vampires?"
"Knew the previous Slayer," I answered with a look that said I wouldn't say any more. Yet.
Giles looked shocked at me for a moment. He then continued excitedly. "Really? Were you there for the whole time? Do you know what happened to the Slayer or her Watcher? And what about Lothos?"
I glared at him and said, "Watcher died. Slayer died. Lothos died. End of story."
"But..."
"Look, I'm not ready to talk about it yet. Got it?"
"But the Watchers..."
I growled out, "Drop it now or you'll never get the story. Understood?"
Mr. Giles stopped short blinking. "Of course. When you are ready."
Faith looked at me with a curious expression before I turned towards Oz and Willow. They gave me a concerned look, but then Willow looked down and started questioning Mr. Giles again.
"What about Jesse?"
He looked confused for a moment. "Who?"
"Jesse. He was also there tonight while I was preoccupied with two vamps. I sent him away while I tried to hold them off," I said as I moved to sit at a chair at the center table. "Willow? Do you know Jesse's number?"
"You think he might be home?" she looked up hopefully.
"That's where I sent him. We can check tomorrow morning. Hopefully, he'll be there."
"But why not tonight?"
"It's practically 3 in the morning, Willow. I don't know what his parents are like but mine would skin me alive if I got calls this late on a school night. The only thing I can do is hope he made it there or to check the hospital and see if he headed there."
She looked back down and meekly replied, "Ok."
"There is probably nothing to worry about. Why don't you stop by his house in the morning to pick him up and I'll check at the hospital to see if he's there. We'll just meet here in the morning to fill each other in on what we found, sound good?"
"Yeah."
"Faith, could you take Oz and Willow home? I still need to fill Giles in on some things the vamps mentioned, but those two need to get home for some rest."
Faith looked to be a little peeved to be asked to babysit, but Giles told her to go on ahead and he promised he would fill her in on what I said. Grumbling, she helped Oz up and led the two out the door.
Great, I want to ask her out so what do I do? I help knock her down to second-hand duty. Really smart move there, idiot.
Giles roused me from my thoughts. "What did the vampires say that you thought was so important?"
"The two vampires I ran into before I headed over to help them out mentioned something about The Harvest and The Master. My guess is the Master is the local equivalent of Lothos and the Harvest is their new undead holiday. Kinda like Christmas, but with blood and bodies instead of turkey and presents."
He nodded and then walked over to a bookcase pulling out a book. "Well, the Master appears to be a very old vampire who came to this town for one reason: open the Hellmouth. Now, the Hellmouth is a portal of mystical energy that leads directly to..."
"Wait, let me guess: Hell?" I replied with a grin.
"Yes, quite," he grimaced and continued. "It seems he had almost succeeded when an earthquake occurred... trapping him within the entrance of the portal and sealing the Hellmouth."
"Kinda like a cork in a bottle."
"Precisely. Now we were warned about the Harvest earlier and I have been researching for what it might be but I haven't come up with much other than it appears to be an event meant to release the Master."
"Would that open the Hellhole thing or not?"
"I don't know yet. I had hoped Faith might be able to gather some information tonight."
"Well, do the names Luke or Darla mean anything to you?"
Giles looked up at me startled. "Where did you hear her name?"
"Darla? She was one of the vamps that kept me busy in the mausoleum before I went to help the others. Why?"
He walked over to his office and looked around for a while before coming out flipping through a very large book. Moving up beside me he set it down after settling on one page.
"Is this the vampire you saw?"
"Yeah, she looked like that. At least until I burned her face with a cross."
"Darla is a vampire over three hundred years old who terrorized Europe for many years. She even sired one of the most brutal vampires in history: Angelus. Together the cause the death of untold thousands."
"So I'm guessing she got the vampire mother of the year award a few times then."
Giles gave me a look. "No, but I thought you should know who will be hunting you if you truly did what you said you did."
"Great, my very own stalker vamp courtesy of Sunnydale. Just what I've always wanted."
"Can you be serious for one minute? This is a very serious situation."
"I know, but humor is the only way I deal with this stuff. Kind of a 'laugh-to-keep-from-cowering-in-fear' sort of thing."
His face softened a bit before he continued. "I understand, but Darla will be after you now. She has a history of vengence like you have never seen."
"Okay," I said holding up my hands. "Consider me warned. I'll just carry a stake and cross at all times. Good enough?"
"Yes. Now unless there was anything else, I think I should get you home."
"Nope. Take me home, Jeeves," I said with a smirk as we walked out.
My only answer was an exasperated sigh.
***