BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

ODIUM

CHAPTER TEN: A NEW DAY

Buffy sat at the table in the Magic Box, doing her best to ignore the throbbing pain at her side. Even with Slayer speed healing, a wound like this would take a week or two to heal completely and would probably leave a nasty scar. At least it was one of the physical variety, something she could deal with in time. Unlike Gibson. No matter how much she disliked the man, she had to admit that in the end he'd come through for them, and that made her feel only the slightest bit sorry for him. He was slumped in a chair in the corner of the store, his face a deathly pale, huge dark rings under his eyes. Pure exhaustion seemed to radiate from him. Buffy watched as Willow brought him a mug of coffee. The witch was chirpier than Buffy had expected following on from such a hugely draining ritual, but if what the others had told her that was to be expected. Gibson had absorbed the brunt of the pain and suffering that the spell worked on its caster. It was something Giles said wouldn't be a quick thing to recover from.

She turned and stared out of the window at the setting sun. Marcus had been out all day, hunting high and low trying to find King. The last time he checked in he'd been about to risk a jaunt back down into the sewers and the remains of the temple where Buffy had imprisoned King. Buffy let out a long sigh. God she hoped the spell had taken. If it hadn't King would be along soon with the intention of finishing what he had started the night before.

"Buffy?" asked Willow. "You alright?" Buffy turned, slightly surprised by the sound of Willow's voice.

"Huh… oh I'm fine." She turned to stare back out of the window at the sinking sun. "Just thinking."

"You've been doing a lot of that recently." Said Willow taking a sip from her own cup of coffee as she did so. "You think he's still out there don't you."

"Where else would he be?"

"The spell worked Buffy. I felt it."

"Either way all we can do is wait and see if it takes." She said looking away from the window. She never saw the shadowy figure move away from the window and disappear into the gathering dusk.

*****

King strode up the grass verge that lined the highway, the small town of Sunnydale shrinking rapidly into the gathering darkness behind him. In the sky above, stars were beginning to appear. He loved the stars. He hadn't thought about them in a long time, but he remembered what it was like as a child, sitting out in the desert far from the Nile, staring up at the stars and wondering what truly lay so far away. This last century had answered that question, but none of the mystery was gone. He stopped for a moment, briefly staring up at them. Soonan had always loved the stars. He let out a choked sob of misery.

"I miss you." He wept quietly to himself. Why had she done this to him? Why had that damned Slayer done it to him? For every second he wasn't haunted by memories of his love, even her bones long since dust, he was haunted by memories of the faces of the hundreds who had fallen at his feet over the years. He could remember them all so vividly, more faces than stars in the sky.

"Why did you do it to me?" he hissed as he stared back at the town he'd left behind. "Better to just kill me and get it over with!" as his anger grew he began to hear him. The voice at the back of his mind hissed and spat obscenities, screamed at him to hunt beneath the stars he loved. To hunt the Slayer and her friends, split them open like water melons gorge himself on their blood. He shook his, head but the voice did not disappear completely. It withdrew further into his mind, cursing and spitting, crying out for blood and mayhem.

He turned to go when his eyes lighted on a small green road sign. It read 'NOW LEAVING SUNNYDALE' then beneath in small flowing italics 'come back soon!' King stared at the sign for a moment. Sunnydale. Even the name conjured up images of the diminutive blonde Slayer. The Slayer who had made him feel this way.

"Buffy!" he roared in fury and struck out, punching a large hole straight the sign with a crunch of bone against metal. Then as quickly as it had come, the anger vanished, leaving him only with despair and sorrow. He sank to his knees, clutching at the sign post the same way a drowning man clutches for a plank of wood in a storm.

"Why?" he wept desperately again. "Why did you do it to me?" He stayed there for a long time, crying softly to himself.

There was a loud grinding of tyres and the blinding glare of headlights filled his vision as he glanced up to stare at the vehicle that had pulled over next to him. The door to the car swung open invitingly.

"Are you okay?" came a woman's voice from inside. King straightened the shame he felt at crying like he had was nothing compare to the embarrassment of being caught doing it.

"I'm fine." He lied, sniffing slightly.

"You sure? I mean I can give you a ride somewhere if you really need." King glanced cautiously up the road to either side of him, before giving a brief nod and clambering into the car. There was only one other person in the world who could help him make sense of all the things flowing end over end inside his head right now.

"So…" said the driver. "Where are you headed?"

"LA." Said King staring straight up the highway, never once looking at the driver. "I'm headed for LA."