At about one o'clock, Xander asked Giles' leave to go have lunch with Anya and Tara. Things were slow at the Magic Box, and Xander's manning of the counter was purely voluntary anyway, so Giles made no objection. Xander called the two women at Anya's apartment and told them to expect both him and a bag of burritos.
When Xander arrived with the promised Mexican treats, he found Tara and Anya intently surfing the Web on Anya's computer. But the smell of salsa and refried beans quickly lured them to the kitchen table.
As Anya tore into her burrito, Tara held up several sheets of paper to Xander. "We're finding some stuff," Tara said.
"Yeah," added Anya. "Maybe we'll score a few points with the new Watcher."
"I wouldn't get my hopes up about that," Xander said. "It's gotten pretty obvious over the years that Watchers are not our friends."
"I suppose," Anya said through a mouthful of burrito. "The ones who come to interrogate Buffy weren't much fun. Though they didn't try to slay me, which was a nice surprise."
"Heck, those guys were nothing," Xander said. "A couple of years ago, before either of you joined the group, there was this woman, Gwendolyn Post. She said she was going to be Faith's new Watcher, but instead she just tried to electrocute us all with this magic glove that looked like something from a Medieval bondage boutique. Turned out she'd been kicked out of the Watchers, and they just hadn't bothered to tell us.
"Then we got Wesley. Man, they don't stuff shirts like that anymore. Totally useless."
"Willow told me he's not like that anymore," Tara said haltingly.
"Yeah, well, Willow also told me that those little burrs that stick to your shirt are where Velcro comes from." Xander paused and thought about that for a second. "Of course, we were eight years old at the time. And I still can't prove she's wrong. Anyway, if Wesley's any less of a doofus than he used to be, it's because he's not a Watcher anymore and they made him give back the broom they had shoved up his-"
"But Giles is a Watcher!" Anya interjected nervously, apparently feeling the need to reassure herself about her employer. "And he's OK, isn't he? I mean, he's got no sense of humor and his aftershave smells like bowling shoes, but he's not evil or anything."
"Giles is the exception that proves the rule," Xander asserted.
"Actually," Tara said, thinking aloud, "I don't think an exception ever proves a rule..."
"My point," Xander asserted, "is that we can't trust this new Watcher lady. I mean, come on - would anybody who wasn't at least a little bit psycho volunteer to hold Faith's leash?"
"Faith's been in jail a long time," Tara said. "Maybe she's changed."
"Yeah. And maybe my dog, Iggy, is off frolicking on the farm my parents said they sent him to."
"You really think so?" Anya said. "Because Iggy would be more than twenty years old..." She paused and let understanding hit her. "Oh. Sarcasm."
"I'm just saying, we've got a Slayer gone bad and a Watcher who's...already bad," Xander said, "So don't turn your back on either of 'em."
"But what if they're standing on either side of you?" Anya said. "And then, one of them asks you the time, and-"
Xander looked at her, head askew.
"Oh. Metaphor."
-----
Three hours later, the group was reassembled at the Magic Box. Giles and Sarah jointly took control of the meeting by being first to share what information they had discovered.
"From what we can discern," Giles began, "there have been no sightings of Walpurgis since her ship was sunk in 1513. Her symbol has been seen here and there, but as far as we can tell, they were all drawn by either admirers or pretenders."
"What is more," Sarah added, "Walpurgis was never one to stay inconspicuous for very long. Her long-term ambition was to create a sort of dark paradise where vampires could prosper and humans would live in their service. So, if the vampire you encountered last night was indeed Walpurgis, we must wonder where she has been for the past five hundred years."
"What about the whole speed thing?" Xander asked. "She smacked my arrow away like she was Wonder Woman. How can she do that?"
"Frankly, we don't know," Giles said.
"There are many stories, of course," Sarah added. "Some say she was struck by lightning at the moment she was turned. Others say it is the type of demon she harbors, something with unearthly speed. Though if such a demon exists, the Watchers are unaware of it."
"Actually," Tara said, "Anya and I think she might have been like that even when she was human."
Giles leaned towards Tara with intense interest. "What have you found?" he asked.
Tara pulled out a few sheets printed from Anya's computer. "Okay. When we started our Web search on 'Walpurgis', we found a lot of stuff about Saint Walpurgis, who was a famous, devout abbess in the 700's."
"Her big claim to fame," Anya added, "is that she's got her own holiday - Walpurgis Night. Though it's not really hers; it was a pagan holiday that got remodeled when Christianity came to town. Anyway, I remember people celebrating it in the springtime, back in the old days. Big bonfires, lots of drinking, lots of nookie." She paused and sniffled a little. "I really miss it."
"Is there a point concealed within all of this?" Giles asked. "Because the Council is quite certain that Walpurgis the saint did not become Walpurgis the vampire."
"No," Tara said, "no, she didn't. The dates are all wrong. But we did find a reference to another Walpurgis who looks like a good candidate. There's an old sword-fighting manual that was published in Germany in 1397. A Medieval sword club has the pictures on their website."
Tara placed one of the printouts from Anya's computer on the table. It showed a picture of a man and a woman facing off with swords and small shields. The caption was virtually unreadable, as it was hand-written in a flowery script and had suffered the loss of clarity that comes from being scanned into a computer. And it was in Medieval German. Nonetheless, it was possible to make out the name "Walpurgis" in the text.
The blonde witch turned the picture towards Xander and Giles. "So do you think that's her?" she asked.
"This isn't exactly mug-shot quality," Xander said. "I can barely tell which one is the woman."
"In fact," Giles said, "this may not even be a life drawing of Walpurgis, just a character given her name."
"Right," Tara said. "But even so, she's the only female character in the whole book. A woman sword fighter would have to be awfully good to get her name in print like that, back in the Middle Ages, wouldn't she?"
"You may be right," Giles said. "But according to our best accounts of Walpurgis' history, this book was published while she was still human."
"Exactly," Tara said. "I'm just saying that maybe she was born that fast."
"I suppose it's possible," Sarah said. "Unfortunately, we know nothing of Walpurgis' life as a human being. Other than what you may have uncovered, that is."
Faith spoke up. "I don't see what's so special about her being able to stop an arrow. I mean, I've seen Ang-...other vampires do that."
"Yeah," Xander answered, "but this was...she was a blur. One second I was shooting at her back - yeah, I'm the kind of guy who shoots vampires in the back - and the next, she was looking right at me, ordering the Surfing Dead to kill us all."
"The what?" Faith asked.
"Walpurgis' henchmen," Giles said. "They, ah, have a very particular style of speech and dress. Turned in the early eighties, I imagine."
"Ooh!" Anya cried. "We found one other thing." She grabbed another sheet of paper out of Tara's hand and showed it to the group. It was an article, more than four months old, from the science section of an Internet news service. Before anybody could even read the complete title, Anya yanked it away and started to summarize it. "Back in March, somebody found a barrel on the beach in Maryland."
Xander looked over at Tara. "Did you college kids have another kegger and forget to clean up?"
"No!" Anya said, frustrated that Xander was making jokes while she was trying to show the group how smart she was. "Not a beer barrel. An old wooden barrel, or what was left of one. The metal hoopy things were still sort of holding it together, but it looked like it had been crushed by something. Anyhow, the top part of the barrel had a name burned into it - 'Gaviota', which is Spanish for 'seagull'. The experts who looked at the barrel said that, because of the way the barrel had been made and stuff, it was probably about five hundred years old. And that it had once had flour in it."
Sarah perked up. "That doesn't make sense, for something so old to just wash up on shore."
"I haven't gotten to the good part yet," Anya said. "The Gaviota was a trading ship that disappeared on its way back to Spain from Africa in 1513, the same year that Walpurgis' ship was sunk." Anya was practically beaming at her own cleverness.
"Very interesting, Anya," Giles said, causing Anya to squeak with pride. "But what do you think it means?"
"What does it mean?" Anya said loudly. "What do you mean, what does it mean? It means...things from 1513 are popping up!"
Tara mercifully took over. "It might mean that...well, if Walpurgis' ship attacked the Gaviota on their way to the New World, maybe they took what was on board, including that barrel. They probably would have been happy to get some extra supplies for the trip."
"Even if the barrel and Walpurgis' reappearance are connected," Giles said, "that doesn't explain where they've been all this time. Or why they would show up on opposite sides of the continent."
"No, it doesn't," Sarah agreed. "However, I believe that right now, we should discuss our next move."
"How 'bout some recon?" Faith suggested. "Once the sun goes down, I mean. Sounds like this chick's been all over town; I'm bound to find her."
"All right, Faith," Sarah said. "Find her if you can, and try to discover her hideout, but do NOT try to take her on until we can learn more about her weaknesses."
"Sure," Faith said casually.
Sarah looked harder at Faith. "I am quite serious, Faith," Sarah said. "Walpurgis has killed Slayers before."
This statement drew Faith's full attention. "How many?" she asked.
"Three. That we know of," Sarah replied.
Faith was stunned. "Right," she said. "Recon only. Gotcha."
Sarah turned to Giles. "Mr. Giles, I'm afraid I must raise the awkward subject of accommodations. Faith's departure from prison was not precisely legal-"
"There's a surprise," Xander muttered to Anya.
"-and I am fairly certain that I am, at the very least, wanted for questioning in her disappearance. So I'm afraid staying in a motel is simply not possible."
"I see," Giles said. "Well, doctor, you are certainly welcome to stay in my guest room. It's...recently vacated. As for Faith," Giles turned and looked at Xander, "Xander, you have a spacious flat. Perhaps-"
"What?! I mean, um, yeah, my- my futon couch folds out," Xander said.
"What?!" Anya repeated. "All right, I've tried to be really understanding about all this-"
"Yes," Giles cut in, his voice dry with irony. "Your behavior this morning certainly reflected that."
"But there is no way that, that, MURDERER is going to stay at Xander's apartment!"
Faith's eyes widened slightly. She had almost forgotten what that word sounded like...FELT like, when it was directed at her.
"An," Xander said, "Giles wouldn't have asked for Faith to come here if he thought she would hurt anybody." He glanced over at Giles, as if to say, Right?
"Xander, don't be stupid!" Anya screamed, getting more and more worked up. "Giles doesn't know anything! Why do you think Buffy ended up-"
For the first time ever, Anya Christina Emanuella Jenkins stopped herself from speaking.
"I..." she said. "I need to go...check the mail."
She went into the back. No one pointed out that it was Sunday, when there would be no mail. Or that the mail slot was on the front door.
"Sorry," Xander said, not looking at anyone in particular. Then he looked over at Faith.
"Look, you stay at my place, and I'll stay over at Anya's. Then you'll have a real bed, and I'll have a sane girlfriend. Relatively speaking."
"Oh. Yes, ah, good idea," Giles said. He suddenly seemed a bit dazed, like he'd been struck in the head and hadn't quite realized it. "Anya and I have a couple more hours to work; perhaps you could take Faith to your flat and help her get settled in."
"Alone?" Xander blurted, then quickly recovered. "Right, sure, no problem. Here," he said to Faith, throwing her his keys, "throw your stuff in the car. I'll be there in a minute."
"Sure," Faith said. She walked out the door with her brand-new duffel bag containing a brand-new set of clothes and toiletries, supplied to her by the Council agent who had brought Faith and Sarah to Sunnydale.
As Sarah got up to return to the loft for further perusal of Giles' collection of manuscripts, Xander leaned over to Giles and said, very quietly, "If she kills me, I will haunt you in the worst way. This is the Hellmouth; I can do that."
-----
Xander and Faith drove in silence for more than two minutes before either of them spoke.
"So, uh, how's Willow? Giles said she was sick."
"Yeah," Xander said tonelessly. "Nobody knows what's wrong."
"That...must be hard for Tara."
"Yeah."
"She looks like she's dealing, though."
"She's been part of the gang for a while now," Xander said. He never even glanced in Faith's direction. "She knows sometimes you just have to suck it up and keep working."
"I know what you mean," Faith said.
"Right," Xander said, not meaning it at all.
"This one time," Faith said, "these demons got loose in the cafeteria, and they hurt my best friend Sonya really bad. I didn't know if she was going to make it. But I had to let somebody else handle it and kill the demons, or else ALL my friends would have ended up dead."
"Wait a sec," Xander said. "There were demons in jail?"
"Long story," Faith said. "But yeah, there's some weirdness in there. One time, I had to fight this slime demon that came up through the sewer pipes into the showers. Just when I thought my naked slaying days were over." Faith chuckled. "And once, me an' Sarah had to exorcise this ghost who haunting one of the cells and making everybody who lived in it go crazy. Oh, and then there was the guard who became a vampire."
"Huh," Xander said. "I didn't think there'd be so much action in prison. The supernatural kind, I mean."
"Yeah, well, prison attracts the worst of everything. Human and not."
Xander said nothing. Another minute went by in silence.
"Xander," Faith said. "I just want to say-"
"Don't," Xander said.
"But-"
"Just don't, OK?" Xander took a breath. "Willow's really sick, there's a scary super-vamp on the loose, Dawn is gone, and my girlfriend is worried I'm going to be raped and murdered - not necessarily in that order - in my own apartment. My personal tachometer is deep in the red zone, so lay off the gas."
They pulled into the driveway of Xander's complex. Xander took his house key off its ring and handed it to Faith without looking at her. "It's number 218," he said. "I changed the sheets on the bed this morning, and the towels are in the cabinet next to the bathroom sink."
"Oh," Faith said. "Thanks."
He doesn't even trust me enough to go in with me, she thought.
"I'm gonna go see Willow," Xander said. "She's been alone all day in the Immunology ward."
"Yeah. Catch you later."
Faith got out of the car, and Xander drove away without another word.
-----
Willow had been pronounced stable and moved from the ICU to an inpatient room. The duty nurse allowed Xander to go in and see her, but required him to wear a surgical mask because of Willow's compromised immune system.
Tara was already there when Xander walked into the room, also wearing a yellow mask. Xander pulled up a chair next to Tara's at Willow's bedside.
"Hey, you," Xander said warmly.
"Hey," Willow replied. She sounded half-asleep, but was nonetheless smiling a little at having the two people she loved best at her side.
"We sure do like to hang around this place," Xander said. "I'm not sure if it's the food or the come-take-my-temperature nightgowns."
"Well, I just came for the masks," Tara said. "Great for road trips to L.A."
Willow chuckled weakly. "Thanks," she said. "My busy day of ceiling-watching has definitely put me in the mood for some humor. Though I did find a crack in the corner that looks like Rutger Hauer, or maybe Nancy Reagan, I'm not sure."
Xander smiled, and Tara patted Willow affectionately.
"How's it going with the slaying?" Willow said.
"Well, we've got this new vamp chick in town who's pretty bad-ass," Xander said.
"Really?" Willow said. Her eyes opened wider, and she was suddenly animated by anxiety. "I- I should help you."
"Don't worry," Tara quickly added. "We've got it under control. The Watchers got Faith out of jail to help us."
"FAITH?" Willow shrieked, rapidly making the transition from anxiety to outright fear. "That's like throwing gasoline on a fire! Or liquid hydrogen!" Willow threw her legs over the side of the bed. "Where are my clothes?" she demanded.
"Honey, you can't leave the hospital," Tara said. "You're really sick."
"But, but, you can't trust Faith, she's bad!" Willow cried as she stood up. "She's badness in human form and, and sleazy pants! I have to help you!"
"Will," Xander said loudly, Willow's anxiety beginning to evoke his own, "it's okay, just get back into bed. We can handle it."
"No! No, you need me. I can't stay here when you need me!" Willow was now officially freaking. She walked rapidly towards the door until one ankle caught behind the other and she fell to the floor. Tara and Xander ran to her sides and lifted her up. Her eyelids were drooping, and she seemed delirious.
"I have to, to help," she murmured desperately. "I'm the big gun...she said I was the big gun..."
"Hey!" A voice cried from the doorway. Tara and Xander turned their heads to see the duty nurse standing in the doorway, pulling a mask over her face. "What is she doing out of bed?" The large woman strode over to Willow and single-handedly hauled her back to the hospital bed. She turned her head to glare at Tara and Xander.
"Out!" she demanded. "This patient doesn't need anyone upsetting her right now."
"B-but..." Tara began, but the stern look on the nurse's face told her it would be useless to argue further.
"Come on," Xander said quietly. "We'll come back later."
Reluctantly, Tara followed Xander down the hall to the elevators.
-----
At about eight o'clock, the sun was well below the horizon, and Faith began her patrol.
She hadn't really seen the necessity of starting so early. The real vamp action didn't usually get started until at least midnight, when the humans were more tired, more drunk, and more likely to be alone. But Sarah had insisted, saying that Faith needed to get reacquainted with the geography of Sunnydale.
As Faith walked around, though, she found that she needed little reminding. So many places had memories attached. The crypt where she'd fought Lagos, the little graveyard where she'd first encountered the cult of the Eliminati, the ruins of the high school. And then, downtown, the grimmer memories: the alley where she'd murdered Allan Finch and taken her first step down into the dark, and City Hall, where she had met a man whom she was only too eager to follow the rest of the way down.
The guilt gets less painful, Faith thought, but it never goes away.
Faith crossed through the center of town and headed north, towards another set of graveyards. For the zillionth time, Faith marveled at the sheer amount of real estate that was devoted to the dead portion of Sunnydale's populace. She was willing to bet that somebody out there was making a fortune reselling cemetery plots after the original occupants climbed out and stumbled away.
Hey, speaking of, she thought. In one corner of the graveyard she'd just entered, she saw dirt giving way as someone - or more accurately, an ex-someone - dug itself out of its resting place.
Faith dashed towards the vampire, hoping to stake it before it could get out of its grave and orient itself. The monster's already hideous face was twisted with the mindless hunger and rage of the newly-risen.
It swiped at Faith with all its strength. She ducked, cracked a jab against its chin, then leaped up and kicked it square in the chest. The creature stumbled back and fell over its own gravestone. Before it could rise again, Faith slammed a stake into its chest.
Brushing the vamp-dust off the plain, black T-shirt and jeans the Council agent had given her, Faith felt a surge of satisfaction. She hadn't had a good slay in a while. There weren't a tenth as many demons in prison as there were on the Hellmouth. Punching bags and target pads were fine, but they was no substitute for a real demonic opponent. Even if it was a whacked-out newbie like this one.
Just then, Faith heard voices from somewhere beyond the entrance to the graveyard. She slipped behind a mausoleum and listened as the voices grew nearer.
"...turned him late last night," a male voice said, "so he ought to rise up any time now."
"He's an architect, like you asked for," said another young man's voice.
"Good." This was spoken by a woman with some kind of European accent. "He will be hungry when he wakes. We will get him someone to eat, and then we will find the other target."
Faith dared to peek for a moment around the side of the mausoleum to see three vampires approaching - two males in Hawaiian shirts, and a female in sweatpants and a black, pinstriped jacket that might once have been part of a man's suit. Is that Walpurgis? Faith wondered. Giles had said that she was German or something, and this vamp definitely sounded foreign.
The Slayer pulled her head back out of view, but she could hear the footsteps now as they drew close to the dusted vampire's empty grave. "Uh, Val? Jake?" one of the men said, "I think somebody got to him first."
Jake sniffed the air. "Yeah, Bobby," he said, "I smell dead vamp. Bummer."
Walpurgis sighed, then looked around on the ground. "I see no arrows," she said.
"Then it probably wasn't those three weezes we saw last night," Bobby replied. "I bet those guys don't even go to the john without their crossbows."
"Who else could have done it?" the woman asked.
"Lessee," Bobby said, "Slayer's dead, Spike's gone, and we know it wasn't the witch. That only leaves one person." He held a finger in the air and grinned.
"Aw, not this again," Jake moaned.
"Kolchak!" Bobby cried.
"Koll-chok?" Walpurgis asked. "A demon lord, perhaps?"
"Bobby, man, for the eight millionth time, THE NIGHT STALKER was just a TV show," Jake said.
"Yeah, but it was based on a real guy!" Bobby declared.
"No it wasn't!" Jake replied.
"Yes it was! He killed vampires and witches and stuff all the time! And half the things that were on the show? Right here on the Hellmouth, baby." Bobby grinned.
"Boys," Walpurgis cut in, "You may tell me of the demon Kolchak later. We have more work to do."
"Right."
"Sorry."
Walpurgis began to walk back towards the arched gateway of the cemetery, Bobby and Jake close behind. Faith followed at a distance, keeping at the forefront of her mind the two rules for shadowing vampires: stay downwind, and don't count on the dark to hide you.
-----
"Do you think she's OK?" Tara said, taking a sip of what tasted like day-old coffee in the hospital cafeteria.
"Yeah," Xander replied, his voice a bit tight. "She just got faint, that's all. No big deal."
Xander had no idea what he was talking about, and Tara knew it. But she didn't challenge his statement, because she knew he needed to believe it as much as she did. The bond between him and Willow was extremely interesting to Tara, and though at times she thought she ought to feel threatened by it, she never really did. She knew they had had an affair in high school, but Tara believed that they had done so only because they hadn't yet understood the nature of the powerful feelings that connected them. Tara could see people's auras sometimes, and she could even see the result when two people's auras touched each other. She thought of these in terms of the elements. Casual acquaintance was transient, like air; sexual and romantic passion flared like fire; friendship and familial love flowed like water. But what was between Willow and Xander was pure earth - trust and loyalty like bedrock, deeply hidden at times, but utterly indestructible.
Xander's voice brought Tara back up from the depths of thought. "Do you think we should go home?" he asked halfheartedly. "Visiting hours are long over."
"I know," Tara said. "I just- I don't want to leave without knowing if she's OK."
Xander's eyes shifted left and right, and then back to Tara's. "Maybe we could sneak up," he said. "Just for a quick look."
Tara nodded. They tossed their paper coffee cups into the trash and headed for the cafeteria exit. Then Xander stopped so quickly that Tara bumped into him from behind.
"Uh oh," he said quietly. Tara looked over his shoulder to see what was the matter. In the corridor outside the cafeteria, three people walked in a triangle - a woman in a black suit jacket at the front, and two very familiar men in bad tourist gear right behind her.
"That's them," Xander whispered. "Walpurgis and the Surf Nazis."
"What do we do?" Tara asked.
Xander turned his head to the right. "I'd say go for help," he said, "but I guess it's already here."
Faith was walking rapidly up the hallway, perhaps fifty feet behind the vamps and closing. As the three vampires pushed the button for the elevator, Faith caught up to them and stood there with them, waiting like any other hospital visitor.
Damn, Xander thought, she got smooth while she was in the slammer. The last thing Xander had ever expected from Faith was subtlety, but standing by the elevators with three bloodthirsty killers, she was cool as fresh lemonade. Not like the psycho-bitch who had nearly choked the life out of him in her own motel bed.
Yeah, Xander's inner voice said, but let's not take any chances, OK?
The elevator arrived, and Faith got on it with the three vampires. As the doors closed, Xander realized that he still had no idea what to do. He didn't even know what the vampires were doing here.
But it wouldn't hurt to check Willow's room.
-----
Faith watched the elevator doors close and noted that the vampires had pushed the button for the fourth floor. She pushed the button for the eighth floor and waited.
She didn't know for certain what the vamps were up to, but she guessed they weren't bringing anybody a get-well card. Faith also knew that Willow was somewhere in the building. Maybe that was a coincidence. Maybe not.
Sarah had told Faith not to fight Walpurgis yet. But if the she-vamp was here to kill Willow, or anybody else for that matter, Faith would have to try to stop her. That wouldn't be easy, especially not with her two goons backing her up.
The elevator beeped, and the doors opened at the fourth floor. Faith looked into the hallway; a sign up near the ceiling read "Immunology".
Damn, Faith thought. They ARE here for Willow.
Faith waited for Walpurgis to step out of the elevator. Then she stepped in front of Jake and Bobby and sprang into the air. Kicking back with both legs like a mule, she slammed a heel into each of the male vampires' chests. The two men slammed back into the rear wall of the elevator while Faith shot forward through the air like Supergirl.
Faith tried to tackle Walpurgis. The vampire turned and circled her hands gracefully, partly deflecting the Slayer to the right while taking a half-step to the left. Faith hit the floor and rolled rapidly to her feet. The two opponents turned to face each other just as the elevator doors closed in front of Jake and Bobby.
"I see some things do not change," Walpurgis said. "You are a Slayer?"
"THE Slayer," Faith replied. "Since you're obviously in the middle of a fashion emergency" - Faith glanced at Walpurgis' pinstriped suit jacket - "I won't bug you with the details. I'll just jab this sharp stick through your chest."
Faith reached behind her and pulled a stake out of the waistband of her jeans. Her hand suddenly smarted; there was a small crash as the stake smashed into a glass cabinet to Faith's right. The Slayer realized that Walpurgis had just kicked the stake out of her hand, and Faith had barely even seen it happen.
She backed off a little, giving herself a moment to think. Don't try any fancy stuff, she thought, just stick with the quick moves.
Faith leaped forward into punching range and threw a series of jabs at Walpurgis. The vampire backed away as she blocked or ducked each punch. Then, as Faith made a jab to Walpurgis' jaw, the vampire grabbed the Slayer's wrist and used both her own strength and Faith's to hurl the Slayer more than twenty feet down the hall. Faith landed hard on her tailbone and skidded a few more feet before rolling backwards and using the momentum to stand up.
The Slayer decided to go defensive. Maybe letting Walpurgis attack first would give Faith the opening she needed.
The vampire rushed forward and sprang into a jumping front kick. Faith blocked it only to take Walpurgis' follow-up roundhouse kick in the side of her head. The Slayer fell back, but Walpurgis stayed with her, pummeling her senseless with punches and kicks that were faster than Faith could possibly follow. Finally, Walpurgis knocked Faith to her knees with a punch to the stomach, then grabbed the Slayer by her hair and smashed her face into the wall of the corridor. Faith fell to the ground, nearly unconscious.
There was a commotion from somewhere back down the hall. Faith's blurry vision showed someone being thrown backwards through the stairwell door next to the elevators. She couldn't quite see who the flying figure was, but the yell it made was distinctively Xander's. The Slayer realized that Xander must have been coming up the stairs when Jake and Bobby were coming down. She watched helplessly as Xander tried to roll onto his knees, just in time to be kicked in the head by one of the two Hawaiian-shirted vampires who came out of the stairwell after him. Xander fell over backwards, obviously down for the count.
The two male vamps walked up to Walpurgis. "We caught that little freak on the stairs," Jake said, pointing at Xander's splayed, unconscious form.
"Yeah, and his girlfriend's taking a nap in the stairwell," Bobby added. "Man, she's gonna wake up with, like, concrete face."
Walpurgis looked down at Faith. "Gentlemen," she said, "your town has a new Slayer."
"Whoa, another one?" Bobby said. "The other one just died. They must have sent this one Federal Express."
"Precisely the problem," Walpurgis said. "You kill one, another will come. And, no matter how skilled you are, or how careful, one will eventually be lucky enough to kill you. So," she said, again looking down at Faith, "perhaps it is better to keep the Slayer you know, and simply discourage her."
Walpurgis raised her foot and brought it down on Faith's knee. The pain stabbed through Faith's delirium like a spear, and the Slayer shrieked. Faith didn't even have time to draw breath for a second scream before the vampire raised her foot again and smashed Faith's other knee. Then the sole of Walpurgis' shoe slammed down on Faith's head, and the world went dark.
END CHAPTER 3
When Xander arrived with the promised Mexican treats, he found Tara and Anya intently surfing the Web on Anya's computer. But the smell of salsa and refried beans quickly lured them to the kitchen table.
As Anya tore into her burrito, Tara held up several sheets of paper to Xander. "We're finding some stuff," Tara said.
"Yeah," added Anya. "Maybe we'll score a few points with the new Watcher."
"I wouldn't get my hopes up about that," Xander said. "It's gotten pretty obvious over the years that Watchers are not our friends."
"I suppose," Anya said through a mouthful of burrito. "The ones who come to interrogate Buffy weren't much fun. Though they didn't try to slay me, which was a nice surprise."
"Heck, those guys were nothing," Xander said. "A couple of years ago, before either of you joined the group, there was this woman, Gwendolyn Post. She said she was going to be Faith's new Watcher, but instead she just tried to electrocute us all with this magic glove that looked like something from a Medieval bondage boutique. Turned out she'd been kicked out of the Watchers, and they just hadn't bothered to tell us.
"Then we got Wesley. Man, they don't stuff shirts like that anymore. Totally useless."
"Willow told me he's not like that anymore," Tara said haltingly.
"Yeah, well, Willow also told me that those little burrs that stick to your shirt are where Velcro comes from." Xander paused and thought about that for a second. "Of course, we were eight years old at the time. And I still can't prove she's wrong. Anyway, if Wesley's any less of a doofus than he used to be, it's because he's not a Watcher anymore and they made him give back the broom they had shoved up his-"
"But Giles is a Watcher!" Anya interjected nervously, apparently feeling the need to reassure herself about her employer. "And he's OK, isn't he? I mean, he's got no sense of humor and his aftershave smells like bowling shoes, but he's not evil or anything."
"Giles is the exception that proves the rule," Xander asserted.
"Actually," Tara said, thinking aloud, "I don't think an exception ever proves a rule..."
"My point," Xander asserted, "is that we can't trust this new Watcher lady. I mean, come on - would anybody who wasn't at least a little bit psycho volunteer to hold Faith's leash?"
"Faith's been in jail a long time," Tara said. "Maybe she's changed."
"Yeah. And maybe my dog, Iggy, is off frolicking on the farm my parents said they sent him to."
"You really think so?" Anya said. "Because Iggy would be more than twenty years old..." She paused and let understanding hit her. "Oh. Sarcasm."
"I'm just saying, we've got a Slayer gone bad and a Watcher who's...already bad," Xander said, "So don't turn your back on either of 'em."
"But what if they're standing on either side of you?" Anya said. "And then, one of them asks you the time, and-"
Xander looked at her, head askew.
"Oh. Metaphor."
-----
Three hours later, the group was reassembled at the Magic Box. Giles and Sarah jointly took control of the meeting by being first to share what information they had discovered.
"From what we can discern," Giles began, "there have been no sightings of Walpurgis since her ship was sunk in 1513. Her symbol has been seen here and there, but as far as we can tell, they were all drawn by either admirers or pretenders."
"What is more," Sarah added, "Walpurgis was never one to stay inconspicuous for very long. Her long-term ambition was to create a sort of dark paradise where vampires could prosper and humans would live in their service. So, if the vampire you encountered last night was indeed Walpurgis, we must wonder where she has been for the past five hundred years."
"What about the whole speed thing?" Xander asked. "She smacked my arrow away like she was Wonder Woman. How can she do that?"
"Frankly, we don't know," Giles said.
"There are many stories, of course," Sarah added. "Some say she was struck by lightning at the moment she was turned. Others say it is the type of demon she harbors, something with unearthly speed. Though if such a demon exists, the Watchers are unaware of it."
"Actually," Tara said, "Anya and I think she might have been like that even when she was human."
Giles leaned towards Tara with intense interest. "What have you found?" he asked.
Tara pulled out a few sheets printed from Anya's computer. "Okay. When we started our Web search on 'Walpurgis', we found a lot of stuff about Saint Walpurgis, who was a famous, devout abbess in the 700's."
"Her big claim to fame," Anya added, "is that she's got her own holiday - Walpurgis Night. Though it's not really hers; it was a pagan holiday that got remodeled when Christianity came to town. Anyway, I remember people celebrating it in the springtime, back in the old days. Big bonfires, lots of drinking, lots of nookie." She paused and sniffled a little. "I really miss it."
"Is there a point concealed within all of this?" Giles asked. "Because the Council is quite certain that Walpurgis the saint did not become Walpurgis the vampire."
"No," Tara said, "no, she didn't. The dates are all wrong. But we did find a reference to another Walpurgis who looks like a good candidate. There's an old sword-fighting manual that was published in Germany in 1397. A Medieval sword club has the pictures on their website."
Tara placed one of the printouts from Anya's computer on the table. It showed a picture of a man and a woman facing off with swords and small shields. The caption was virtually unreadable, as it was hand-written in a flowery script and had suffered the loss of clarity that comes from being scanned into a computer. And it was in Medieval German. Nonetheless, it was possible to make out the name "Walpurgis" in the text.
The blonde witch turned the picture towards Xander and Giles. "So do you think that's her?" she asked.
"This isn't exactly mug-shot quality," Xander said. "I can barely tell which one is the woman."
"In fact," Giles said, "this may not even be a life drawing of Walpurgis, just a character given her name."
"Right," Tara said. "But even so, she's the only female character in the whole book. A woman sword fighter would have to be awfully good to get her name in print like that, back in the Middle Ages, wouldn't she?"
"You may be right," Giles said. "But according to our best accounts of Walpurgis' history, this book was published while she was still human."
"Exactly," Tara said. "I'm just saying that maybe she was born that fast."
"I suppose it's possible," Sarah said. "Unfortunately, we know nothing of Walpurgis' life as a human being. Other than what you may have uncovered, that is."
Faith spoke up. "I don't see what's so special about her being able to stop an arrow. I mean, I've seen Ang-...other vampires do that."
"Yeah," Xander answered, "but this was...she was a blur. One second I was shooting at her back - yeah, I'm the kind of guy who shoots vampires in the back - and the next, she was looking right at me, ordering the Surfing Dead to kill us all."
"The what?" Faith asked.
"Walpurgis' henchmen," Giles said. "They, ah, have a very particular style of speech and dress. Turned in the early eighties, I imagine."
"Ooh!" Anya cried. "We found one other thing." She grabbed another sheet of paper out of Tara's hand and showed it to the group. It was an article, more than four months old, from the science section of an Internet news service. Before anybody could even read the complete title, Anya yanked it away and started to summarize it. "Back in March, somebody found a barrel on the beach in Maryland."
Xander looked over at Tara. "Did you college kids have another kegger and forget to clean up?"
"No!" Anya said, frustrated that Xander was making jokes while she was trying to show the group how smart she was. "Not a beer barrel. An old wooden barrel, or what was left of one. The metal hoopy things were still sort of holding it together, but it looked like it had been crushed by something. Anyhow, the top part of the barrel had a name burned into it - 'Gaviota', which is Spanish for 'seagull'. The experts who looked at the barrel said that, because of the way the barrel had been made and stuff, it was probably about five hundred years old. And that it had once had flour in it."
Sarah perked up. "That doesn't make sense, for something so old to just wash up on shore."
"I haven't gotten to the good part yet," Anya said. "The Gaviota was a trading ship that disappeared on its way back to Spain from Africa in 1513, the same year that Walpurgis' ship was sunk." Anya was practically beaming at her own cleverness.
"Very interesting, Anya," Giles said, causing Anya to squeak with pride. "But what do you think it means?"
"What does it mean?" Anya said loudly. "What do you mean, what does it mean? It means...things from 1513 are popping up!"
Tara mercifully took over. "It might mean that...well, if Walpurgis' ship attacked the Gaviota on their way to the New World, maybe they took what was on board, including that barrel. They probably would have been happy to get some extra supplies for the trip."
"Even if the barrel and Walpurgis' reappearance are connected," Giles said, "that doesn't explain where they've been all this time. Or why they would show up on opposite sides of the continent."
"No, it doesn't," Sarah agreed. "However, I believe that right now, we should discuss our next move."
"How 'bout some recon?" Faith suggested. "Once the sun goes down, I mean. Sounds like this chick's been all over town; I'm bound to find her."
"All right, Faith," Sarah said. "Find her if you can, and try to discover her hideout, but do NOT try to take her on until we can learn more about her weaknesses."
"Sure," Faith said casually.
Sarah looked harder at Faith. "I am quite serious, Faith," Sarah said. "Walpurgis has killed Slayers before."
This statement drew Faith's full attention. "How many?" she asked.
"Three. That we know of," Sarah replied.
Faith was stunned. "Right," she said. "Recon only. Gotcha."
Sarah turned to Giles. "Mr. Giles, I'm afraid I must raise the awkward subject of accommodations. Faith's departure from prison was not precisely legal-"
"There's a surprise," Xander muttered to Anya.
"-and I am fairly certain that I am, at the very least, wanted for questioning in her disappearance. So I'm afraid staying in a motel is simply not possible."
"I see," Giles said. "Well, doctor, you are certainly welcome to stay in my guest room. It's...recently vacated. As for Faith," Giles turned and looked at Xander, "Xander, you have a spacious flat. Perhaps-"
"What?! I mean, um, yeah, my- my futon couch folds out," Xander said.
"What?!" Anya repeated. "All right, I've tried to be really understanding about all this-"
"Yes," Giles cut in, his voice dry with irony. "Your behavior this morning certainly reflected that."
"But there is no way that, that, MURDERER is going to stay at Xander's apartment!"
Faith's eyes widened slightly. She had almost forgotten what that word sounded like...FELT like, when it was directed at her.
"An," Xander said, "Giles wouldn't have asked for Faith to come here if he thought she would hurt anybody." He glanced over at Giles, as if to say, Right?
"Xander, don't be stupid!" Anya screamed, getting more and more worked up. "Giles doesn't know anything! Why do you think Buffy ended up-"
For the first time ever, Anya Christina Emanuella Jenkins stopped herself from speaking.
"I..." she said. "I need to go...check the mail."
She went into the back. No one pointed out that it was Sunday, when there would be no mail. Or that the mail slot was on the front door.
"Sorry," Xander said, not looking at anyone in particular. Then he looked over at Faith.
"Look, you stay at my place, and I'll stay over at Anya's. Then you'll have a real bed, and I'll have a sane girlfriend. Relatively speaking."
"Oh. Yes, ah, good idea," Giles said. He suddenly seemed a bit dazed, like he'd been struck in the head and hadn't quite realized it. "Anya and I have a couple more hours to work; perhaps you could take Faith to your flat and help her get settled in."
"Alone?" Xander blurted, then quickly recovered. "Right, sure, no problem. Here," he said to Faith, throwing her his keys, "throw your stuff in the car. I'll be there in a minute."
"Sure," Faith said. She walked out the door with her brand-new duffel bag containing a brand-new set of clothes and toiletries, supplied to her by the Council agent who had brought Faith and Sarah to Sunnydale.
As Sarah got up to return to the loft for further perusal of Giles' collection of manuscripts, Xander leaned over to Giles and said, very quietly, "If she kills me, I will haunt you in the worst way. This is the Hellmouth; I can do that."
-----
Xander and Faith drove in silence for more than two minutes before either of them spoke.
"So, uh, how's Willow? Giles said she was sick."
"Yeah," Xander said tonelessly. "Nobody knows what's wrong."
"That...must be hard for Tara."
"Yeah."
"She looks like she's dealing, though."
"She's been part of the gang for a while now," Xander said. He never even glanced in Faith's direction. "She knows sometimes you just have to suck it up and keep working."
"I know what you mean," Faith said.
"Right," Xander said, not meaning it at all.
"This one time," Faith said, "these demons got loose in the cafeteria, and they hurt my best friend Sonya really bad. I didn't know if she was going to make it. But I had to let somebody else handle it and kill the demons, or else ALL my friends would have ended up dead."
"Wait a sec," Xander said. "There were demons in jail?"
"Long story," Faith said. "But yeah, there's some weirdness in there. One time, I had to fight this slime demon that came up through the sewer pipes into the showers. Just when I thought my naked slaying days were over." Faith chuckled. "And once, me an' Sarah had to exorcise this ghost who haunting one of the cells and making everybody who lived in it go crazy. Oh, and then there was the guard who became a vampire."
"Huh," Xander said. "I didn't think there'd be so much action in prison. The supernatural kind, I mean."
"Yeah, well, prison attracts the worst of everything. Human and not."
Xander said nothing. Another minute went by in silence.
"Xander," Faith said. "I just want to say-"
"Don't," Xander said.
"But-"
"Just don't, OK?" Xander took a breath. "Willow's really sick, there's a scary super-vamp on the loose, Dawn is gone, and my girlfriend is worried I'm going to be raped and murdered - not necessarily in that order - in my own apartment. My personal tachometer is deep in the red zone, so lay off the gas."
They pulled into the driveway of Xander's complex. Xander took his house key off its ring and handed it to Faith without looking at her. "It's number 218," he said. "I changed the sheets on the bed this morning, and the towels are in the cabinet next to the bathroom sink."
"Oh," Faith said. "Thanks."
He doesn't even trust me enough to go in with me, she thought.
"I'm gonna go see Willow," Xander said. "She's been alone all day in the Immunology ward."
"Yeah. Catch you later."
Faith got out of the car, and Xander drove away without another word.
-----
Willow had been pronounced stable and moved from the ICU to an inpatient room. The duty nurse allowed Xander to go in and see her, but required him to wear a surgical mask because of Willow's compromised immune system.
Tara was already there when Xander walked into the room, also wearing a yellow mask. Xander pulled up a chair next to Tara's at Willow's bedside.
"Hey, you," Xander said warmly.
"Hey," Willow replied. She sounded half-asleep, but was nonetheless smiling a little at having the two people she loved best at her side.
"We sure do like to hang around this place," Xander said. "I'm not sure if it's the food or the come-take-my-temperature nightgowns."
"Well, I just came for the masks," Tara said. "Great for road trips to L.A."
Willow chuckled weakly. "Thanks," she said. "My busy day of ceiling-watching has definitely put me in the mood for some humor. Though I did find a crack in the corner that looks like Rutger Hauer, or maybe Nancy Reagan, I'm not sure."
Xander smiled, and Tara patted Willow affectionately.
"How's it going with the slaying?" Willow said.
"Well, we've got this new vamp chick in town who's pretty bad-ass," Xander said.
"Really?" Willow said. Her eyes opened wider, and she was suddenly animated by anxiety. "I- I should help you."
"Don't worry," Tara quickly added. "We've got it under control. The Watchers got Faith out of jail to help us."
"FAITH?" Willow shrieked, rapidly making the transition from anxiety to outright fear. "That's like throwing gasoline on a fire! Or liquid hydrogen!" Willow threw her legs over the side of the bed. "Where are my clothes?" she demanded.
"Honey, you can't leave the hospital," Tara said. "You're really sick."
"But, but, you can't trust Faith, she's bad!" Willow cried as she stood up. "She's badness in human form and, and sleazy pants! I have to help you!"
"Will," Xander said loudly, Willow's anxiety beginning to evoke his own, "it's okay, just get back into bed. We can handle it."
"No! No, you need me. I can't stay here when you need me!" Willow was now officially freaking. She walked rapidly towards the door until one ankle caught behind the other and she fell to the floor. Tara and Xander ran to her sides and lifted her up. Her eyelids were drooping, and she seemed delirious.
"I have to, to help," she murmured desperately. "I'm the big gun...she said I was the big gun..."
"Hey!" A voice cried from the doorway. Tara and Xander turned their heads to see the duty nurse standing in the doorway, pulling a mask over her face. "What is she doing out of bed?" The large woman strode over to Willow and single-handedly hauled her back to the hospital bed. She turned her head to glare at Tara and Xander.
"Out!" she demanded. "This patient doesn't need anyone upsetting her right now."
"B-but..." Tara began, but the stern look on the nurse's face told her it would be useless to argue further.
"Come on," Xander said quietly. "We'll come back later."
Reluctantly, Tara followed Xander down the hall to the elevators.
-----
At about eight o'clock, the sun was well below the horizon, and Faith began her patrol.
She hadn't really seen the necessity of starting so early. The real vamp action didn't usually get started until at least midnight, when the humans were more tired, more drunk, and more likely to be alone. But Sarah had insisted, saying that Faith needed to get reacquainted with the geography of Sunnydale.
As Faith walked around, though, she found that she needed little reminding. So many places had memories attached. The crypt where she'd fought Lagos, the little graveyard where she'd first encountered the cult of the Eliminati, the ruins of the high school. And then, downtown, the grimmer memories: the alley where she'd murdered Allan Finch and taken her first step down into the dark, and City Hall, where she had met a man whom she was only too eager to follow the rest of the way down.
The guilt gets less painful, Faith thought, but it never goes away.
Faith crossed through the center of town and headed north, towards another set of graveyards. For the zillionth time, Faith marveled at the sheer amount of real estate that was devoted to the dead portion of Sunnydale's populace. She was willing to bet that somebody out there was making a fortune reselling cemetery plots after the original occupants climbed out and stumbled away.
Hey, speaking of, she thought. In one corner of the graveyard she'd just entered, she saw dirt giving way as someone - or more accurately, an ex-someone - dug itself out of its resting place.
Faith dashed towards the vampire, hoping to stake it before it could get out of its grave and orient itself. The monster's already hideous face was twisted with the mindless hunger and rage of the newly-risen.
It swiped at Faith with all its strength. She ducked, cracked a jab against its chin, then leaped up and kicked it square in the chest. The creature stumbled back and fell over its own gravestone. Before it could rise again, Faith slammed a stake into its chest.
Brushing the vamp-dust off the plain, black T-shirt and jeans the Council agent had given her, Faith felt a surge of satisfaction. She hadn't had a good slay in a while. There weren't a tenth as many demons in prison as there were on the Hellmouth. Punching bags and target pads were fine, but they was no substitute for a real demonic opponent. Even if it was a whacked-out newbie like this one.
Just then, Faith heard voices from somewhere beyond the entrance to the graveyard. She slipped behind a mausoleum and listened as the voices grew nearer.
"...turned him late last night," a male voice said, "so he ought to rise up any time now."
"He's an architect, like you asked for," said another young man's voice.
"Good." This was spoken by a woman with some kind of European accent. "He will be hungry when he wakes. We will get him someone to eat, and then we will find the other target."
Faith dared to peek for a moment around the side of the mausoleum to see three vampires approaching - two males in Hawaiian shirts, and a female in sweatpants and a black, pinstriped jacket that might once have been part of a man's suit. Is that Walpurgis? Faith wondered. Giles had said that she was German or something, and this vamp definitely sounded foreign.
The Slayer pulled her head back out of view, but she could hear the footsteps now as they drew close to the dusted vampire's empty grave. "Uh, Val? Jake?" one of the men said, "I think somebody got to him first."
Jake sniffed the air. "Yeah, Bobby," he said, "I smell dead vamp. Bummer."
Walpurgis sighed, then looked around on the ground. "I see no arrows," she said.
"Then it probably wasn't those three weezes we saw last night," Bobby replied. "I bet those guys don't even go to the john without their crossbows."
"Who else could have done it?" the woman asked.
"Lessee," Bobby said, "Slayer's dead, Spike's gone, and we know it wasn't the witch. That only leaves one person." He held a finger in the air and grinned.
"Aw, not this again," Jake moaned.
"Kolchak!" Bobby cried.
"Koll-chok?" Walpurgis asked. "A demon lord, perhaps?"
"Bobby, man, for the eight millionth time, THE NIGHT STALKER was just a TV show," Jake said.
"Yeah, but it was based on a real guy!" Bobby declared.
"No it wasn't!" Jake replied.
"Yes it was! He killed vampires and witches and stuff all the time! And half the things that were on the show? Right here on the Hellmouth, baby." Bobby grinned.
"Boys," Walpurgis cut in, "You may tell me of the demon Kolchak later. We have more work to do."
"Right."
"Sorry."
Walpurgis began to walk back towards the arched gateway of the cemetery, Bobby and Jake close behind. Faith followed at a distance, keeping at the forefront of her mind the two rules for shadowing vampires: stay downwind, and don't count on the dark to hide you.
-----
"Do you think she's OK?" Tara said, taking a sip of what tasted like day-old coffee in the hospital cafeteria.
"Yeah," Xander replied, his voice a bit tight. "She just got faint, that's all. No big deal."
Xander had no idea what he was talking about, and Tara knew it. But she didn't challenge his statement, because she knew he needed to believe it as much as she did. The bond between him and Willow was extremely interesting to Tara, and though at times she thought she ought to feel threatened by it, she never really did. She knew they had had an affair in high school, but Tara believed that they had done so only because they hadn't yet understood the nature of the powerful feelings that connected them. Tara could see people's auras sometimes, and she could even see the result when two people's auras touched each other. She thought of these in terms of the elements. Casual acquaintance was transient, like air; sexual and romantic passion flared like fire; friendship and familial love flowed like water. But what was between Willow and Xander was pure earth - trust and loyalty like bedrock, deeply hidden at times, but utterly indestructible.
Xander's voice brought Tara back up from the depths of thought. "Do you think we should go home?" he asked halfheartedly. "Visiting hours are long over."
"I know," Tara said. "I just- I don't want to leave without knowing if she's OK."
Xander's eyes shifted left and right, and then back to Tara's. "Maybe we could sneak up," he said. "Just for a quick look."
Tara nodded. They tossed their paper coffee cups into the trash and headed for the cafeteria exit. Then Xander stopped so quickly that Tara bumped into him from behind.
"Uh oh," he said quietly. Tara looked over his shoulder to see what was the matter. In the corridor outside the cafeteria, three people walked in a triangle - a woman in a black suit jacket at the front, and two very familiar men in bad tourist gear right behind her.
"That's them," Xander whispered. "Walpurgis and the Surf Nazis."
"What do we do?" Tara asked.
Xander turned his head to the right. "I'd say go for help," he said, "but I guess it's already here."
Faith was walking rapidly up the hallway, perhaps fifty feet behind the vamps and closing. As the three vampires pushed the button for the elevator, Faith caught up to them and stood there with them, waiting like any other hospital visitor.
Damn, Xander thought, she got smooth while she was in the slammer. The last thing Xander had ever expected from Faith was subtlety, but standing by the elevators with three bloodthirsty killers, she was cool as fresh lemonade. Not like the psycho-bitch who had nearly choked the life out of him in her own motel bed.
Yeah, Xander's inner voice said, but let's not take any chances, OK?
The elevator arrived, and Faith got on it with the three vampires. As the doors closed, Xander realized that he still had no idea what to do. He didn't even know what the vampires were doing here.
But it wouldn't hurt to check Willow's room.
-----
Faith watched the elevator doors close and noted that the vampires had pushed the button for the fourth floor. She pushed the button for the eighth floor and waited.
She didn't know for certain what the vamps were up to, but she guessed they weren't bringing anybody a get-well card. Faith also knew that Willow was somewhere in the building. Maybe that was a coincidence. Maybe not.
Sarah had told Faith not to fight Walpurgis yet. But if the she-vamp was here to kill Willow, or anybody else for that matter, Faith would have to try to stop her. That wouldn't be easy, especially not with her two goons backing her up.
The elevator beeped, and the doors opened at the fourth floor. Faith looked into the hallway; a sign up near the ceiling read "Immunology".
Damn, Faith thought. They ARE here for Willow.
Faith waited for Walpurgis to step out of the elevator. Then she stepped in front of Jake and Bobby and sprang into the air. Kicking back with both legs like a mule, she slammed a heel into each of the male vampires' chests. The two men slammed back into the rear wall of the elevator while Faith shot forward through the air like Supergirl.
Faith tried to tackle Walpurgis. The vampire turned and circled her hands gracefully, partly deflecting the Slayer to the right while taking a half-step to the left. Faith hit the floor and rolled rapidly to her feet. The two opponents turned to face each other just as the elevator doors closed in front of Jake and Bobby.
"I see some things do not change," Walpurgis said. "You are a Slayer?"
"THE Slayer," Faith replied. "Since you're obviously in the middle of a fashion emergency" - Faith glanced at Walpurgis' pinstriped suit jacket - "I won't bug you with the details. I'll just jab this sharp stick through your chest."
Faith reached behind her and pulled a stake out of the waistband of her jeans. Her hand suddenly smarted; there was a small crash as the stake smashed into a glass cabinet to Faith's right. The Slayer realized that Walpurgis had just kicked the stake out of her hand, and Faith had barely even seen it happen.
She backed off a little, giving herself a moment to think. Don't try any fancy stuff, she thought, just stick with the quick moves.
Faith leaped forward into punching range and threw a series of jabs at Walpurgis. The vampire backed away as she blocked or ducked each punch. Then, as Faith made a jab to Walpurgis' jaw, the vampire grabbed the Slayer's wrist and used both her own strength and Faith's to hurl the Slayer more than twenty feet down the hall. Faith landed hard on her tailbone and skidded a few more feet before rolling backwards and using the momentum to stand up.
The Slayer decided to go defensive. Maybe letting Walpurgis attack first would give Faith the opening she needed.
The vampire rushed forward and sprang into a jumping front kick. Faith blocked it only to take Walpurgis' follow-up roundhouse kick in the side of her head. The Slayer fell back, but Walpurgis stayed with her, pummeling her senseless with punches and kicks that were faster than Faith could possibly follow. Finally, Walpurgis knocked Faith to her knees with a punch to the stomach, then grabbed the Slayer by her hair and smashed her face into the wall of the corridor. Faith fell to the ground, nearly unconscious.
There was a commotion from somewhere back down the hall. Faith's blurry vision showed someone being thrown backwards through the stairwell door next to the elevators. She couldn't quite see who the flying figure was, but the yell it made was distinctively Xander's. The Slayer realized that Xander must have been coming up the stairs when Jake and Bobby were coming down. She watched helplessly as Xander tried to roll onto his knees, just in time to be kicked in the head by one of the two Hawaiian-shirted vampires who came out of the stairwell after him. Xander fell over backwards, obviously down for the count.
The two male vamps walked up to Walpurgis. "We caught that little freak on the stairs," Jake said, pointing at Xander's splayed, unconscious form.
"Yeah, and his girlfriend's taking a nap in the stairwell," Bobby added. "Man, she's gonna wake up with, like, concrete face."
Walpurgis looked down at Faith. "Gentlemen," she said, "your town has a new Slayer."
"Whoa, another one?" Bobby said. "The other one just died. They must have sent this one Federal Express."
"Precisely the problem," Walpurgis said. "You kill one, another will come. And, no matter how skilled you are, or how careful, one will eventually be lucky enough to kill you. So," she said, again looking down at Faith, "perhaps it is better to keep the Slayer you know, and simply discourage her."
Walpurgis raised her foot and brought it down on Faith's knee. The pain stabbed through Faith's delirium like a spear, and the Slayer shrieked. Faith didn't even have time to draw breath for a second scream before the vampire raised her foot again and smashed Faith's other knee. Then the sole of Walpurgis' shoe slammed down on Faith's head, and the world went dark.
END CHAPTER 3