Chapter 9
Scarlet paint peeled poetically from the walls and them smell of sandalwood incense conquered the quiet room. Various article of clothing lay strewn across the cold concrete floor. There were two tables, one by the bed and one by the door. The one by the bed was mahogany, and six white and red candlesticks of various heights and widths. The one by the door looked like oak but was actually just a particularly cheap piece of plastic that supported incense and more candles in dusty brass holders. The bed itself was queen sized, with four four-foot colonial brass bead posts. The sheets were plain, unstained white cotton while the quilt was made of silk and colored a deep wine red.
Lina lay beside Zel's cool body. Her hair was tousled and still wet from the rain, and the sweat didn't help either. But now she felt warm and soft and loved. It was as though lust danced proudly behind her eyes so that when she reached out to touch him, he responded and pulled his arms gently around her, holding her in silent, blissful exchange.
"I don't know what to say." Lina truly didn't, but she knew she had to say something. This wasn't what she had expected, or even what she had thought she wanted, but now she wished she could stay next to him forever.
Zelgadis sighed, half contentedly and half as though he were holding something back.
"What is it?"
"Oh, I was just trying to remember. There was a girl. I don't remember who she was or why she even stands out in my mind."
"In bed?" Lina's voice went shrill. Then logic gave her a swift kick in the ass and reminded her that if this guy had been around for over millennium or something ungodly like that, she couldn't have been his first.
"No, not in bed." Zel sounded appalled at the idea. "I don't umm…entertain much. But that girl, she had red hair like you. Big crimson eyes I think. Everything is so far back, it's impossible to remember things like that…I'm surprised I do."
"Do you remember her name?"
Zelgadis looked at her with wide eyes. "Yes, I do. Her name was Lina!"
"Like me? There was a girl that looked and had the same name as me?"
"Yeah, I know it sounds strange. I remember that she loved the color red."
Lina smiled and kissed him. "Red's my favorite."
"I still remember Xellos' stupid smirk, I just-." Zel sat up in bed and stared at her.
"Who's Xellos?" Lina propped herself up on one elbow to look intently at his face.
"It's coming back. You disappearing, then Gourry and then Amelia. I remember Xellos did - I don't understand. How can you be here, now, like this?"
"Zel, you're not making any sense. What do you mean by, 'you disappearing', and who are Gourry and Amelia?"
"Don't you remember anything? No, you couldn't. But how come you're here now? Is this all just a dream?"
"Slow down! What are you talking about?' Lina was rapidly growing impatient.
"Before Akahoshi Rezo managed to turn me into a vampire, I knew you and Gourry and Amelia. We traveled together, went on adventures. We thought we had killed Rezo and his clone, but they were both clones themselves and mortals have apparently never even seen the real one. I have a feeling that something strange is going to happen soon, and we're going to be a part of it. Do you have any idea how to contact that Slayer of yours?"
"I don't know what you're going on about. But I can get in touch with Buffy and Giles if I need to. Before that, I could swing by the library at my school and take a few books out. I like to be able to research things like this, because I believe in vampire instinct, okay?"
Zel smiled at her trust and caressed her cheek fondly with his large, now quite warm hand.
"Zelgadis, I love you." Lina muttered, her eyes closed.
"I love you too, Lina." He kissed her tenderly on the forehead. Zelgadis pulled back the sheets to so that he could change and go with her. All of a sudden, he felt pain stab him ruthlessly and repeatedly by his shoulder blades. He fell forward off the bed and onto the cold floor, and shriveled as he panted with pain.
"Zel? Zelgadis!" Lina jumped up from her bed and ran next to him, trying vainly to pull him to his feet. She succeeded pulling him onto his knees and trying to question him to help him, but it made no difference and he couldn't respond through teeth gritted hard against agony.
A brilliant strobe-like light pulsed from his back and Lina saw two enormous feathery black wings grow from his back like a raven. They reached their full size and ceased to expand, and left Zelgadis a shaken, panting and frightened still curled into a ball but on his knees. He finally managed an agonized glance up at her, with eyes contained a mixture of regret and gentle warmth. He stumbled onto his feet, allowing Lina to help him steady himself by leaning on her shoulder.
'You have a wings." Lina idiotically blurted out.
"It's broken." Zel said. "Akahoshi's curse on me. The only way to break it was if even as an chimera and a demonic servant of hell, an Angel could fall in love with me and I with her."
"I'm not an angel." Lina shook her head, tears welling in her eyes.
Zel put his arms around her body and held her closely. "You're my angel." He whispered into her ear. "And then," he spoke more loudly, "I could gain my wings and join her in heaven. But I will always be a chimera."
"And I would always love you for it." Lina kissed his shoulder.
"Well," Zel began, as he steadied himself, and stood straight without Lina's help, "We were going to go to the library and to find the Slayer. Now we'll get there considerably quicker, won't we?"
Giles growled. He was not in the habit of growling really, but life was not going his way. He was trapped in the school library with a snob, smart geek and a dumb geek, an air-headed athlete, a unionized genie and, most irritating of the lot, Xellos.
"Penny for your thoughts, Rupert-kun?" Xellos asked as he polished his staff with Giles' tie, which Giles had removed an hour or so ago as it was not giving enough room for the vein that popped out of his neck when he seethed with frustration.
"My thoughts, you want? I think this is an unproductive waste of time. Nothing is getting done and this apocalypse of yours is practically on our door step." Giles removed his glasses and inspected them for dust.
"Well, it's really your fault. Rupert-kun. I mean, you could be making wishes right now."
"That's foolish." Giles shook his head. "If we are to fight evil…eventually…then we should save these for when we truly need them, not for something to do."
Xellos clapped his hands most enthusiastically. "Excellent, Rupert-kun! You have learned something very important. Valuable things ought never be wasted."
"And I suppose you're going to tell me that you taught me that?" Giles frowned. "Honestly, I'm at least ten years older than you and have learned far more. Really, I am well aware it pays to conserve."
Xellos grinned. "Once again you amaze me." He gave a soft, lighthearted laugh. "You've worked with literature for twenty-two years, four months and eighteen days and you still haven't learned the books greatest lesson? Do not - ever - judge a book by its cover."
How did you know?-." Giles began but he was interrupted by a large pair of….
"Giles, this isn't doing us any…" Xander sauntered up to Giles and then his expression changed very dramatically. "…good…MORNING! Er...afternoon...umm…wanna make crazy naked love?"
Xander was greeted, as Giles was moments before, with a pair of impossibly large breasts, which were attached to a very tall, thin girl with long black hair and a saucy smirk plastered across her face.
"OOOOOOOOha ha ha ha!" The girl guffawed at Xander's blatantly stupid question and her whole body, particularly the upper region, shook with each chuckle. "Ano, can someone tell me if Cordelia is here?"
Cordelia emerged from her distracted peer group, Buffy close behind. "Hi, Naga. What are you doing here?" Cordelia asked.
"You said you would go to the beach with me!" Naga pouted.
"Look, I'm sorry about that. I have to - ."
"Study!" Buffy jumped in. 'She's studying for the final exam with us.
Naga seemed to accept that with a nod. Then she frowned a contemplative frown. Her brows furled and she bit her lower lip. Something didn't compute.
"Why are you studying now then? Exams are two months away!" Naga jutted her chest out towards Buffy in an unspoken challenge.
Willow beat Buffy to it. "Well, Cordelia failed all of her exams last semester, so we thought she really needed the extra time." Cordelia shot an 'oh-my-god-you-are-so-lucky-Buffy-is-here-or-I'd-kick-your-scrawny-ass' look at Willow but nodded at Naga with a sycophantic grin.
Naga nodded but battled with this inwardly. Something was NOT right. "Well, Cordelia, why are you hanging around such total losers when you could have been with me!"
Buffy frowned, but Willow jumped in again. "Because losers are smart and Cordelia isn't so it's natural that she would need our help."
Upon hearing this, fury rippled through Cordelia's eyes but she said nothing.
"Well," Xellos began, rolling up his sleeves, "If you want the honest truth, Naga, we are a band of vampire slayers and we are waiting for one of the strongest Slayers to arrive so that we may be prepared to face what threatens to be the End of the World."
Naga brandished a very blank look and then slipped into default mode. "OOOOOOha ha ha ha! You are funny, little purple man! But the great Naga can see through your trickery!"
"Very well then, toddle on back outside and await your doom, but you needn't impede our progress." Xellos's words were harsher than his joking tone.
"What progress?" Giles muttered.
Naga seemed torn between pride in her latter statement and worry that if she was wrong and the world was ending, all her favorite sleazy fashion outlets would go with it. "But…" she began and then faltered.
"Xellos, why did you tell her?!" Buffy decided she had more than enough to worry about without adding to her troubles by including more unnecessary little helpers.
As though he had read her mind, Xellos said, "I assure you, Buffy-chan, that whomever I tell is more than capable of handling themselves in this little venture of ours."
Xander leaned over to Giles. "Is it just me, or is it a little bit the creepy that this guy seems to know all this stuff he isn't planning on sharing with us?"
"Yes it is, but if you can find a way to get it out of him, I'd be glad to hear it."
Willow kissed her teeth and shook her head. "I think what he means, Giles, is that maybe his Slayer isn't as wholesome and gentle as this guy wants us to think."
"Yeah," Buffy joined in, "I mean, I'm starting to get the tingle that maybe this guy is Keyser Sozing us."
"What?" Giles turned to Buffy.
Buffy's reply was drowned out by the heart stopping sound of shattering glass, which echoed through the otherwise deserted library. Buffy, Willow and Xander sprinted towards the windows at the back of the room, with Cordelia, Naga, Amelia the Genie, Gourry and Giles in hot pursuit. Xellos, however, seemed thoroughly relaxed.
"Oh. My. God." Buffy commented.
Just outside the shattered library window was a very blue man with grey-blue flakes covering his half naked body. Huge, feathery black wings beat against the otherwise warm, listless air. He was holding a girl in his arms. A girl with long, shimmering crimson hair. The blue man smiled and landed softly on the windowsill. The girl in his arms descended from his arms gingerly, careful not to step on any glass, as her feet were bare.
"LINA?!" Buffy and Willow exploded simultaneously. Xander was notably less concerned, as Lina allowed him to help her off the windowsill and over the glass that lay strewn plentifully across the thinly carpeted floor. The blue man folded his enormous wings and jumped down onto the floor, despite his bare feet, in one fluent motion.
"Yes?" Lina's eyes sparkled and a watery smile beamed across her pretty face.
Buffy was livid. "What are you doing here? Who's that?" she added, distress towards Zelgadis easily recognizable in her voice.
"This is Zelgadis, Buffy. Buffy, meet Zelgadis. Zel, this is the Slayer."
"What the HELL!?" Buffy rounded on Lina. "WHO IS HE?!!"
"Calm down, Buffy-chan." Xellos's rather feminine voice cut through the confusion like a well-sharpened katana. "This is my Slayer."
Scarlet paint peeled poetically from the walls and them smell of sandalwood incense conquered the quiet room. Various article of clothing lay strewn across the cold concrete floor. There were two tables, one by the bed and one by the door. The one by the bed was mahogany, and six white and red candlesticks of various heights and widths. The one by the door looked like oak but was actually just a particularly cheap piece of plastic that supported incense and more candles in dusty brass holders. The bed itself was queen sized, with four four-foot colonial brass bead posts. The sheets were plain, unstained white cotton while the quilt was made of silk and colored a deep wine red.
Lina lay beside Zel's cool body. Her hair was tousled and still wet from the rain, and the sweat didn't help either. But now she felt warm and soft and loved. It was as though lust danced proudly behind her eyes so that when she reached out to touch him, he responded and pulled his arms gently around her, holding her in silent, blissful exchange.
"I don't know what to say." Lina truly didn't, but she knew she had to say something. This wasn't what she had expected, or even what she had thought she wanted, but now she wished she could stay next to him forever.
Zelgadis sighed, half contentedly and half as though he were holding something back.
"What is it?"
"Oh, I was just trying to remember. There was a girl. I don't remember who she was or why she even stands out in my mind."
"In bed?" Lina's voice went shrill. Then logic gave her a swift kick in the ass and reminded her that if this guy had been around for over millennium or something ungodly like that, she couldn't have been his first.
"No, not in bed." Zel sounded appalled at the idea. "I don't umm…entertain much. But that girl, she had red hair like you. Big crimson eyes I think. Everything is so far back, it's impossible to remember things like that…I'm surprised I do."
"Do you remember her name?"
Zelgadis looked at her with wide eyes. "Yes, I do. Her name was Lina!"
"Like me? There was a girl that looked and had the same name as me?"
"Yeah, I know it sounds strange. I remember that she loved the color red."
Lina smiled and kissed him. "Red's my favorite."
"I still remember Xellos' stupid smirk, I just-." Zel sat up in bed and stared at her.
"Who's Xellos?" Lina propped herself up on one elbow to look intently at his face.
"It's coming back. You disappearing, then Gourry and then Amelia. I remember Xellos did - I don't understand. How can you be here, now, like this?"
"Zel, you're not making any sense. What do you mean by, 'you disappearing', and who are Gourry and Amelia?"
"Don't you remember anything? No, you couldn't. But how come you're here now? Is this all just a dream?"
"Slow down! What are you talking about?' Lina was rapidly growing impatient.
"Before Akahoshi Rezo managed to turn me into a vampire, I knew you and Gourry and Amelia. We traveled together, went on adventures. We thought we had killed Rezo and his clone, but they were both clones themselves and mortals have apparently never even seen the real one. I have a feeling that something strange is going to happen soon, and we're going to be a part of it. Do you have any idea how to contact that Slayer of yours?"
"I don't know what you're going on about. But I can get in touch with Buffy and Giles if I need to. Before that, I could swing by the library at my school and take a few books out. I like to be able to research things like this, because I believe in vampire instinct, okay?"
Zel smiled at her trust and caressed her cheek fondly with his large, now quite warm hand.
"Zelgadis, I love you." Lina muttered, her eyes closed.
"I love you too, Lina." He kissed her tenderly on the forehead. Zelgadis pulled back the sheets to so that he could change and go with her. All of a sudden, he felt pain stab him ruthlessly and repeatedly by his shoulder blades. He fell forward off the bed and onto the cold floor, and shriveled as he panted with pain.
"Zel? Zelgadis!" Lina jumped up from her bed and ran next to him, trying vainly to pull him to his feet. She succeeded pulling him onto his knees and trying to question him to help him, but it made no difference and he couldn't respond through teeth gritted hard against agony.
A brilliant strobe-like light pulsed from his back and Lina saw two enormous feathery black wings grow from his back like a raven. They reached their full size and ceased to expand, and left Zelgadis a shaken, panting and frightened still curled into a ball but on his knees. He finally managed an agonized glance up at her, with eyes contained a mixture of regret and gentle warmth. He stumbled onto his feet, allowing Lina to help him steady himself by leaning on her shoulder.
'You have a wings." Lina idiotically blurted out.
"It's broken." Zel said. "Akahoshi's curse on me. The only way to break it was if even as an chimera and a demonic servant of hell, an Angel could fall in love with me and I with her."
"I'm not an angel." Lina shook her head, tears welling in her eyes.
Zel put his arms around her body and held her closely. "You're my angel." He whispered into her ear. "And then," he spoke more loudly, "I could gain my wings and join her in heaven. But I will always be a chimera."
"And I would always love you for it." Lina kissed his shoulder.
"Well," Zel began, as he steadied himself, and stood straight without Lina's help, "We were going to go to the library and to find the Slayer. Now we'll get there considerably quicker, won't we?"
Giles growled. He was not in the habit of growling really, but life was not going his way. He was trapped in the school library with a snob, smart geek and a dumb geek, an air-headed athlete, a unionized genie and, most irritating of the lot, Xellos.
"Penny for your thoughts, Rupert-kun?" Xellos asked as he polished his staff with Giles' tie, which Giles had removed an hour or so ago as it was not giving enough room for the vein that popped out of his neck when he seethed with frustration.
"My thoughts, you want? I think this is an unproductive waste of time. Nothing is getting done and this apocalypse of yours is practically on our door step." Giles removed his glasses and inspected them for dust.
"Well, it's really your fault. Rupert-kun. I mean, you could be making wishes right now."
"That's foolish." Giles shook his head. "If we are to fight evil…eventually…then we should save these for when we truly need them, not for something to do."
Xellos clapped his hands most enthusiastically. "Excellent, Rupert-kun! You have learned something very important. Valuable things ought never be wasted."
"And I suppose you're going to tell me that you taught me that?" Giles frowned. "Honestly, I'm at least ten years older than you and have learned far more. Really, I am well aware it pays to conserve."
Xellos grinned. "Once again you amaze me." He gave a soft, lighthearted laugh. "You've worked with literature for twenty-two years, four months and eighteen days and you still haven't learned the books greatest lesson? Do not - ever - judge a book by its cover."
How did you know?-." Giles began but he was interrupted by a large pair of….
"Giles, this isn't doing us any…" Xander sauntered up to Giles and then his expression changed very dramatically. "…good…MORNING! Er...afternoon...umm…wanna make crazy naked love?"
Xander was greeted, as Giles was moments before, with a pair of impossibly large breasts, which were attached to a very tall, thin girl with long black hair and a saucy smirk plastered across her face.
"OOOOOOOOha ha ha ha!" The girl guffawed at Xander's blatantly stupid question and her whole body, particularly the upper region, shook with each chuckle. "Ano, can someone tell me if Cordelia is here?"
Cordelia emerged from her distracted peer group, Buffy close behind. "Hi, Naga. What are you doing here?" Cordelia asked.
"You said you would go to the beach with me!" Naga pouted.
"Look, I'm sorry about that. I have to - ."
"Study!" Buffy jumped in. 'She's studying for the final exam with us.
Naga seemed to accept that with a nod. Then she frowned a contemplative frown. Her brows furled and she bit her lower lip. Something didn't compute.
"Why are you studying now then? Exams are two months away!" Naga jutted her chest out towards Buffy in an unspoken challenge.
Willow beat Buffy to it. "Well, Cordelia failed all of her exams last semester, so we thought she really needed the extra time." Cordelia shot an 'oh-my-god-you-are-so-lucky-Buffy-is-here-or-I'd-kick-your-scrawny-ass' look at Willow but nodded at Naga with a sycophantic grin.
Naga nodded but battled with this inwardly. Something was NOT right. "Well, Cordelia, why are you hanging around such total losers when you could have been with me!"
Buffy frowned, but Willow jumped in again. "Because losers are smart and Cordelia isn't so it's natural that she would need our help."
Upon hearing this, fury rippled through Cordelia's eyes but she said nothing.
"Well," Xellos began, rolling up his sleeves, "If you want the honest truth, Naga, we are a band of vampire slayers and we are waiting for one of the strongest Slayers to arrive so that we may be prepared to face what threatens to be the End of the World."
Naga brandished a very blank look and then slipped into default mode. "OOOOOOha ha ha ha! You are funny, little purple man! But the great Naga can see through your trickery!"
"Very well then, toddle on back outside and await your doom, but you needn't impede our progress." Xellos's words were harsher than his joking tone.
"What progress?" Giles muttered.
Naga seemed torn between pride in her latter statement and worry that if she was wrong and the world was ending, all her favorite sleazy fashion outlets would go with it. "But…" she began and then faltered.
"Xellos, why did you tell her?!" Buffy decided she had more than enough to worry about without adding to her troubles by including more unnecessary little helpers.
As though he had read her mind, Xellos said, "I assure you, Buffy-chan, that whomever I tell is more than capable of handling themselves in this little venture of ours."
Xander leaned over to Giles. "Is it just me, or is it a little bit the creepy that this guy seems to know all this stuff he isn't planning on sharing with us?"
"Yes it is, but if you can find a way to get it out of him, I'd be glad to hear it."
Willow kissed her teeth and shook her head. "I think what he means, Giles, is that maybe his Slayer isn't as wholesome and gentle as this guy wants us to think."
"Yeah," Buffy joined in, "I mean, I'm starting to get the tingle that maybe this guy is Keyser Sozing us."
"What?" Giles turned to Buffy.
Buffy's reply was drowned out by the heart stopping sound of shattering glass, which echoed through the otherwise deserted library. Buffy, Willow and Xander sprinted towards the windows at the back of the room, with Cordelia, Naga, Amelia the Genie, Gourry and Giles in hot pursuit. Xellos, however, seemed thoroughly relaxed.
"Oh. My. God." Buffy commented.
Just outside the shattered library window was a very blue man with grey-blue flakes covering his half naked body. Huge, feathery black wings beat against the otherwise warm, listless air. He was holding a girl in his arms. A girl with long, shimmering crimson hair. The blue man smiled and landed softly on the windowsill. The girl in his arms descended from his arms gingerly, careful not to step on any glass, as her feet were bare.
"LINA?!" Buffy and Willow exploded simultaneously. Xander was notably less concerned, as Lina allowed him to help her off the windowsill and over the glass that lay strewn plentifully across the thinly carpeted floor. The blue man folded his enormous wings and jumped down onto the floor, despite his bare feet, in one fluent motion.
"Yes?" Lina's eyes sparkled and a watery smile beamed across her pretty face.
Buffy was livid. "What are you doing here? Who's that?" she added, distress towards Zelgadis easily recognizable in her voice.
"This is Zelgadis, Buffy. Buffy, meet Zelgadis. Zel, this is the Slayer."
"What the HELL!?" Buffy rounded on Lina. "WHO IS HE?!!"
"Calm down, Buffy-chan." Xellos's rather feminine voice cut through the confusion like a well-sharpened katana. "This is my Slayer."