I decided not to do any investigating on my own that night. I might have
vampire powers at night, but I didn't want to face two unknown vampires on
my own. It didn't seem like good odds at all. Better to go in knowing
more about them. We'd have to have a briefing in the morning and get
everyone up to date.
At six the next morning someone pounded on my door. I slipped on my robe and went over the throw the door open. It was Van Helsing. I let him come in and led the way to the table.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Katherine, I think you need to tell Buffy and Giles all about yourself," he got right down to brass tacks.
"Are you crazy, Van Helsing? Buffy is a vampire slayer, I am a vampire. I may a mutant vampire, but I don't know if she's going to understand the difference."
"Don't be foolish Katherine. You are not the undead. You were born the way you are. You can go out in the daylight, you eat food, breath, sleep, all those things."
"Yeah, but I also drink blood. I really don't see a need to tell every single person we meet from another universe my whole life story."
"Katherine, there's something I haven't told, you, but now is as good a time as any. There is some evidence that not all the vampires were destroyed by Doctor Strange's reading of the Montesi Formula."
"What?" I shouted. "You're just telling me this now. Shit, shit, shit. How am I supposed to handle that?"
"Don't get excited, it's just a possibility, but if there are vampires here in London, and somehow Spike and Drusilla join forces with them, they will know all about Buffy. Don't you think that Buffy and Giles and Beatrice, for that matter, deserve to know all the facts?" Van Helsing actually reached out and patted my hand.
"God, I suppose you're right, but if she slays me I'll never forgive you."
"If she slays, you, I would never forgive myself."
"When are you going to learn you're not responsible for me, Johann?"
Van Helsing stood up and patted my hand again, "Friends are always responsible for each other. I made a reservation for breakfast for all of us at the Inn's restaurant. I will go call Beatrice on her cell phone. You get ready."
I watched him go and sighed. Get ready, yeah get ready to spill my guts to practical strangers. It's bad enough telling Buffy and Giles, but what was Beatrice going to think of all this? Ah well, there was no use in prolonging the agony. I took a quick shower and got dressed. I headed down the hall and knocked on Buffy's door. She opened it with a towel on her head.
"I take it Van Helsing let you know about our breakfast date?" I asked.
"Yeah, he said you two have some things to tell us. I'll be down in a couple of minutes. I think Giles is already down there," she walked back into her room, continuing to towel her hair dry.
When I got to the dining room Giles and Van Helsing were both there already. They had their head's together over Van Helsing's lap top. I ordered an orange juice from the waitress and sat across from them. They didn't look up until Buffy walked up.
"Hey Giles, looks like you found a way to stick your head into research even a universe away from the library. What's go you two so interested?" she sat down next to me.
"I was just curious as to why when they've been here at least a month, only three bodies have been found. Johann was showing me some maps of the London Underground. There are so many access tunnels that they could have hidden an army of bodies. Now I'm wondering why you even found three," Giles commented.'
"Perhaps they were wanting to let their presence be known to the local vampires," Van Helsing suggested.
"But I thought you said there are no local vampires," said Buffy.
"Yes, but they don't know that. I doubt they have even realized they are in another universe."
"How could they not know that?"
"Would you and Rupert have known right away if you hadn't run into us?"
"I guess not, but when I tried to call my mom, I would have figured something out."
"Yes, but Spike and Drusilla don't have any parents to call, do they? This world seems to be enough like yours that it would take quite some time for vampires trying to hide out to realize that something is wrong."
"This sounds like a conversation I want to get in on, but is this restaurant really the best place to have it?" Beatrice walked up and squashed in beside Buffy.
"At six thirty in the morning, Detective White, I doubt there is anyone to overhear. I'm glad you could join us a bit earlier," Van Helsing said.
"No problem, I'm pretty much a morning person. I was just about to go for a quick run around the block when you called."
"I am definitely not a morning person, so let's get some fuel before we get down to talking," Buffy waved the waitress over.
After we had all placed our orders for eggs, bacon, fruit, and in Giles case kippers we got down to business. Van Helsing offered to tell them all about vampires in our world for a start. I was interested to hear his version.
"First of all, as I told Rupert last night, there is some indication that not all of the vampires were destroyed as we thought," Van Helsing began.
"What? Well that's just peachy, we could be dealing with local vamps as well as Spike and Dru?" Buffy asked.
"It is highly unlikely that any vampires here in London would want to join forces with strangers. They have enough problems of their own. Last night Giles told me a bit about your version of vampires, now I will describe ours. First of all, I have to say that they seem to be quite a bit more powerful. Traditional vampires can change their form, most to mist, some to wolves, and many to bats. They also have to be invited in to dwellings as in a person's home, but not into public places such as this Inn. They do not turn to dust if you stake them through the heart. In order to truly destroy a vampire in this world you must stake them through the heart and then decapitate them. Holy objects do burn them if they touch them. The sun will destroy them, and younger vampires have to sleep throughout the day. Older vampires can be active as long as they are out of the sun, as I understand Spike and Drusilla can. Vampires also have limited mental powers. If they look into your eyes and you do not have the power to resist, they can hypnotize you and drink your blood at their will."
"In other words, we could be in big trouble, if we run into more then one of these things," Buffy looked a bit pale at Van Helsing's recitation.
"Any vampires here would be likely to want to avoid trouble. Losing most of your population to a powerful spell would tend to make you more timid. As I said, younger vampires must sleep through the day. Unfortunately, any vampires who could have survived would be likely to be ancient, over two hundred years at the least. We also have a weapon that they don't know about," Van Helsing turned to me.
"There's something else that I have to tell all of you. As Van Helsing explained earlier, my mother was a vampire hunter, or a slayer in your parlance. That's not all she was, she must have also been a mutant, a human with extraordinary powers. She was also part of a family that was cursed in a way. The story goes that centuries ago in Babylon there was a vampire queen who called herself Lillith. She fell in love with a mortal and her husband, the king of the vampires had him destroyed in a fit of jealousy. She killed the ones who killed her lover and went into the sun. She had had a mortal husband and children before she was turned, and since her sacrifice of herself, her female decedents have been believed to be a possible reincarnation of their vampire ancestress. The vampires believe that if they turn one of her blood line that woman will gain all the powers Lillith had when she died and bring the vampires into a new golden age."
"What does all this have to do with you?" asked Beatrice.
"Sorry to go through all of this, but it's important. My mother was seduced by a powerful vampire who wanted to turn her an fulfill the prophecy, what he didn't know is that she was pregnant with me," I could see Giles and Buffy had some idea of what was coming. "Normally vampire blood would kill any fetus, but I turned out to be a mutant as well. I survived and my mother had herself cremated because she knew she would survive after my birth. During the day I am perfectly human, but at night I have the same powers as vampires. Before you go all slayer on me Buffy, I'm not undead, I never died, and I've never killed anyone. If anyone here has a soul, so do I. At any rate what this all means, is that we do have the advantage of surprise. No vampires from this world know about me and Spike and Drusilla certainly won't be prepared."
"Quite a story," Giles was the master of understatement.
"Yeah, I'm glad you finally told us," Buffy was frowning, "what were you afraid I'd go all slayer on you?"
"We did just meet yesterday, Buffy. I wasn't sure what you would do. I don't generally start out with my life story when I meet people," I felt some need to defend myself.
"I'd love to get a sample of your blood," Giles mused.
"Giles, geek much? Katherine here just spilled her guts and you're excited about her blood," suddenly Buffy was defending me.
"Hey, it's no problem. I've studied some genetics, and I'd love to get a sample of Spike or Drusilla's blood. I am trying to find a cure."
"Really," Giles was confused, "from what we've seen you have the best of both worlds. Why would you want to lose your powers?"
"I still have to drink blood, I may not kill anyone, but it's still not a great experience. There's also the fact that I have to wonder what will happen if I die, or get killed. I don't even know if I'll continue to age, or be trapped in this in between life until I do get killed. If I do get killed, in a non heart crushing or decapitating manner, will I come back as this super vampire incarnate?"
"I could see how that would put a damper on your spirits."
"If we could get back to the topic at hand," Beatrice said, "how are your powers going to help us in this fight? What can you do?"
"I have extra strength, I can change to mist form, and I can change to a wolf and track. I also am able to hypnotize most humans," I said over Buffy's head.
"And what are your weaknesses?"
"Sunlight makes me a normal human, Holy objects burn my skin, Obviously a stake to the heart of decapitation will kill me even at night. I don't need to be invited into dwellings and silver and garlic don't do anything. Although if you breath garlic breath in my face at night, it really stinks. Heightened senses, that might be where that legend came from."
"Thanks for the information. Now I have some for all of you. Last night there was a full out bar brawl at a Pub called The Drum and Whistle. Patrons report a dark haired woman and a blonde man molesting the band and then kidnapping the lead singer, one Yvette Nathan. Sounds like it could be your friends, Buffy," Beatrice looked quite pleased with herself.
"What do you mean by a bar brawl," Van Helsing looked up from his computer.
"From reports, it was quite bizarre, the whole place started fighting each ther. The Yard was called in right away, but still by the time they got there, all the patrons were either unconscious or lying on the floor groaning. No one could put a handle on what started it. It seems that everyone got absolutely furious everyone else at exactly the same time,"
Beatrice pulled out a large stack of papers from her bag. "I've got copies of the eye-witness reports here. I stopped at the Yard before I came here."
"What happened to the band?"
"The woman broke the lead guitarists arm, the man knocked two of the others together hard enough to give them both serious concussions, and the woman broke the neck of the key board player."
"Definitely sounds like Spike and Drusilla, but that other stuff is just weird," Buffy took the top report off the stack and scanned through it.
"They've never done anything like this before?" I asked.
"The killing and maiming, yeah, but they don't have the power to make other people hurt each other for no reason."
"You said Drusilla is psychic, would she have the power to control the minds of everyone in the Pub?"
"I've never seen her do anything like that."
Van Helsing looked up from his lap top again, "May I make a suggestion. Why don't Giles and I got with Beatrice to the Drum and Whistle and Katherine and Buffy can go back to the Underground and see if they can trace them from there."
Giles didn't look like he appreciated this idea, "Are you sure that would be wise? Shouldn't one of us go with them?"
"It seems to me that as they are the ones with special powers, they are best suited to the job."
"Sounds good to me," said Beatrice. "Doctor Van Helsing is also known as an expert on strange phenomena, so his visiting this strange crime scene would be legitimate. Come on Mr. Giles, don't you want to investigate with us?"
"Buffy, is this all right with you?" Giles looked expectant.
"Sure, why not. We are the super powered types anyway. Why don't you go with Beatrice and Van Helsing."
"If you think it would be best."
We finished our breakfasts and paid the bill. Beatrice led Giles and Van Helsing to her car and Buffy and I watched as they sped away. I hadn't said anything, but I was a little wary myself of being all alone with Buffy. She, on the other hand, looked cool as a cucumber.
"The only problem is, there goes our ride," she watched the car fade into the distance.
"We might as well take the Underground, that's where we're going anyway. Are you ok with this, Buffy?" I started off to the nearest station.
Buffy hurried to keep up with me, "Yeah, I'm not sure about this mutant thing, but I have pretty good intuition about people. It's part of being the Slayer. Are you nervous about being alone with me?"
"A little. I'm glad you don't have a bad feeling about me, but it's like we're natural enemies or something."
"Hey, I had a vampire boy friend, I'm not going to get picky about a little blood sucking. As you pointed out, you aren't undead. You can go out in the sun and everything. By the way, does anyone ever call you something besides Katherine?"
"No, never been one for nick names. What about you, is Buffy your real name?"
"Yeah, my mom and dad had an odd sense of naming."
With that we reached the entrance to the underground. This time we went to the ticket machines and spent our money like normal commuters. It seemed to be past rush hour, whenever that was in London. There were only three other people in the car. We sat as far away from the others as possible so that we could talk more freely.
"Have you ever been to London before?" Buffy asked.
"No, but I have been to Austria and Germany. What about you?"
"This is my first time outside the states. Too bad it's not for a touristy reason."
"Well, if we find Spike and Drusilla quickly, maybe you'll have some time to look around."
"I doubt it, after all we're going to have to find the way home. Who do you think Beatrice was talking about earlier?"
"I'm not sure, but there are a number of powerful magic users around. If no one here can help you, I'm sure Doctor Strange can send you back."
"Whenever I hear that name, I can't help thinking about the comic book. It's just too weird."
Our conversation was cut short as the computer voice, that reminded me of the elevator on "Red Dwarf" announced our station. We jumped off the train and waited until it was far down the tracks before jumping onto the tracks. Carefully avoiding the live track, we headed for the maintenance room and the entrance to the tunnel.
At six the next morning someone pounded on my door. I slipped on my robe and went over the throw the door open. It was Van Helsing. I let him come in and led the way to the table.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Katherine, I think you need to tell Buffy and Giles all about yourself," he got right down to brass tacks.
"Are you crazy, Van Helsing? Buffy is a vampire slayer, I am a vampire. I may a mutant vampire, but I don't know if she's going to understand the difference."
"Don't be foolish Katherine. You are not the undead. You were born the way you are. You can go out in the daylight, you eat food, breath, sleep, all those things."
"Yeah, but I also drink blood. I really don't see a need to tell every single person we meet from another universe my whole life story."
"Katherine, there's something I haven't told, you, but now is as good a time as any. There is some evidence that not all the vampires were destroyed by Doctor Strange's reading of the Montesi Formula."
"What?" I shouted. "You're just telling me this now. Shit, shit, shit. How am I supposed to handle that?"
"Don't get excited, it's just a possibility, but if there are vampires here in London, and somehow Spike and Drusilla join forces with them, they will know all about Buffy. Don't you think that Buffy and Giles and Beatrice, for that matter, deserve to know all the facts?" Van Helsing actually reached out and patted my hand.
"God, I suppose you're right, but if she slays me I'll never forgive you."
"If she slays, you, I would never forgive myself."
"When are you going to learn you're not responsible for me, Johann?"
Van Helsing stood up and patted my hand again, "Friends are always responsible for each other. I made a reservation for breakfast for all of us at the Inn's restaurant. I will go call Beatrice on her cell phone. You get ready."
I watched him go and sighed. Get ready, yeah get ready to spill my guts to practical strangers. It's bad enough telling Buffy and Giles, but what was Beatrice going to think of all this? Ah well, there was no use in prolonging the agony. I took a quick shower and got dressed. I headed down the hall and knocked on Buffy's door. She opened it with a towel on her head.
"I take it Van Helsing let you know about our breakfast date?" I asked.
"Yeah, he said you two have some things to tell us. I'll be down in a couple of minutes. I think Giles is already down there," she walked back into her room, continuing to towel her hair dry.
When I got to the dining room Giles and Van Helsing were both there already. They had their head's together over Van Helsing's lap top. I ordered an orange juice from the waitress and sat across from them. They didn't look up until Buffy walked up.
"Hey Giles, looks like you found a way to stick your head into research even a universe away from the library. What's go you two so interested?" she sat down next to me.
"I was just curious as to why when they've been here at least a month, only three bodies have been found. Johann was showing me some maps of the London Underground. There are so many access tunnels that they could have hidden an army of bodies. Now I'm wondering why you even found three," Giles commented.'
"Perhaps they were wanting to let their presence be known to the local vampires," Van Helsing suggested.
"But I thought you said there are no local vampires," said Buffy.
"Yes, but they don't know that. I doubt they have even realized they are in another universe."
"How could they not know that?"
"Would you and Rupert have known right away if you hadn't run into us?"
"I guess not, but when I tried to call my mom, I would have figured something out."
"Yes, but Spike and Drusilla don't have any parents to call, do they? This world seems to be enough like yours that it would take quite some time for vampires trying to hide out to realize that something is wrong."
"This sounds like a conversation I want to get in on, but is this restaurant really the best place to have it?" Beatrice walked up and squashed in beside Buffy.
"At six thirty in the morning, Detective White, I doubt there is anyone to overhear. I'm glad you could join us a bit earlier," Van Helsing said.
"No problem, I'm pretty much a morning person. I was just about to go for a quick run around the block when you called."
"I am definitely not a morning person, so let's get some fuel before we get down to talking," Buffy waved the waitress over.
After we had all placed our orders for eggs, bacon, fruit, and in Giles case kippers we got down to business. Van Helsing offered to tell them all about vampires in our world for a start. I was interested to hear his version.
"First of all, as I told Rupert last night, there is some indication that not all of the vampires were destroyed as we thought," Van Helsing began.
"What? Well that's just peachy, we could be dealing with local vamps as well as Spike and Dru?" Buffy asked.
"It is highly unlikely that any vampires here in London would want to join forces with strangers. They have enough problems of their own. Last night Giles told me a bit about your version of vampires, now I will describe ours. First of all, I have to say that they seem to be quite a bit more powerful. Traditional vampires can change their form, most to mist, some to wolves, and many to bats. They also have to be invited in to dwellings as in a person's home, but not into public places such as this Inn. They do not turn to dust if you stake them through the heart. In order to truly destroy a vampire in this world you must stake them through the heart and then decapitate them. Holy objects do burn them if they touch them. The sun will destroy them, and younger vampires have to sleep throughout the day. Older vampires can be active as long as they are out of the sun, as I understand Spike and Drusilla can. Vampires also have limited mental powers. If they look into your eyes and you do not have the power to resist, they can hypnotize you and drink your blood at their will."
"In other words, we could be in big trouble, if we run into more then one of these things," Buffy looked a bit pale at Van Helsing's recitation.
"Any vampires here would be likely to want to avoid trouble. Losing most of your population to a powerful spell would tend to make you more timid. As I said, younger vampires must sleep through the day. Unfortunately, any vampires who could have survived would be likely to be ancient, over two hundred years at the least. We also have a weapon that they don't know about," Van Helsing turned to me.
"There's something else that I have to tell all of you. As Van Helsing explained earlier, my mother was a vampire hunter, or a slayer in your parlance. That's not all she was, she must have also been a mutant, a human with extraordinary powers. She was also part of a family that was cursed in a way. The story goes that centuries ago in Babylon there was a vampire queen who called herself Lillith. She fell in love with a mortal and her husband, the king of the vampires had him destroyed in a fit of jealousy. She killed the ones who killed her lover and went into the sun. She had had a mortal husband and children before she was turned, and since her sacrifice of herself, her female decedents have been believed to be a possible reincarnation of their vampire ancestress. The vampires believe that if they turn one of her blood line that woman will gain all the powers Lillith had when she died and bring the vampires into a new golden age."
"What does all this have to do with you?" asked Beatrice.
"Sorry to go through all of this, but it's important. My mother was seduced by a powerful vampire who wanted to turn her an fulfill the prophecy, what he didn't know is that she was pregnant with me," I could see Giles and Buffy had some idea of what was coming. "Normally vampire blood would kill any fetus, but I turned out to be a mutant as well. I survived and my mother had herself cremated because she knew she would survive after my birth. During the day I am perfectly human, but at night I have the same powers as vampires. Before you go all slayer on me Buffy, I'm not undead, I never died, and I've never killed anyone. If anyone here has a soul, so do I. At any rate what this all means, is that we do have the advantage of surprise. No vampires from this world know about me and Spike and Drusilla certainly won't be prepared."
"Quite a story," Giles was the master of understatement.
"Yeah, I'm glad you finally told us," Buffy was frowning, "what were you afraid I'd go all slayer on you?"
"We did just meet yesterday, Buffy. I wasn't sure what you would do. I don't generally start out with my life story when I meet people," I felt some need to defend myself.
"I'd love to get a sample of your blood," Giles mused.
"Giles, geek much? Katherine here just spilled her guts and you're excited about her blood," suddenly Buffy was defending me.
"Hey, it's no problem. I've studied some genetics, and I'd love to get a sample of Spike or Drusilla's blood. I am trying to find a cure."
"Really," Giles was confused, "from what we've seen you have the best of both worlds. Why would you want to lose your powers?"
"I still have to drink blood, I may not kill anyone, but it's still not a great experience. There's also the fact that I have to wonder what will happen if I die, or get killed. I don't even know if I'll continue to age, or be trapped in this in between life until I do get killed. If I do get killed, in a non heart crushing or decapitating manner, will I come back as this super vampire incarnate?"
"I could see how that would put a damper on your spirits."
"If we could get back to the topic at hand," Beatrice said, "how are your powers going to help us in this fight? What can you do?"
"I have extra strength, I can change to mist form, and I can change to a wolf and track. I also am able to hypnotize most humans," I said over Buffy's head.
"And what are your weaknesses?"
"Sunlight makes me a normal human, Holy objects burn my skin, Obviously a stake to the heart of decapitation will kill me even at night. I don't need to be invited into dwellings and silver and garlic don't do anything. Although if you breath garlic breath in my face at night, it really stinks. Heightened senses, that might be where that legend came from."
"Thanks for the information. Now I have some for all of you. Last night there was a full out bar brawl at a Pub called The Drum and Whistle. Patrons report a dark haired woman and a blonde man molesting the band and then kidnapping the lead singer, one Yvette Nathan. Sounds like it could be your friends, Buffy," Beatrice looked quite pleased with herself.
"What do you mean by a bar brawl," Van Helsing looked up from his computer.
"From reports, it was quite bizarre, the whole place started fighting each ther. The Yard was called in right away, but still by the time they got there, all the patrons were either unconscious or lying on the floor groaning. No one could put a handle on what started it. It seems that everyone got absolutely furious everyone else at exactly the same time,"
Beatrice pulled out a large stack of papers from her bag. "I've got copies of the eye-witness reports here. I stopped at the Yard before I came here."
"What happened to the band?"
"The woman broke the lead guitarists arm, the man knocked two of the others together hard enough to give them both serious concussions, and the woman broke the neck of the key board player."
"Definitely sounds like Spike and Drusilla, but that other stuff is just weird," Buffy took the top report off the stack and scanned through it.
"They've never done anything like this before?" I asked.
"The killing and maiming, yeah, but they don't have the power to make other people hurt each other for no reason."
"You said Drusilla is psychic, would she have the power to control the minds of everyone in the Pub?"
"I've never seen her do anything like that."
Van Helsing looked up from his lap top again, "May I make a suggestion. Why don't Giles and I got with Beatrice to the Drum and Whistle and Katherine and Buffy can go back to the Underground and see if they can trace them from there."
Giles didn't look like he appreciated this idea, "Are you sure that would be wise? Shouldn't one of us go with them?"
"It seems to me that as they are the ones with special powers, they are best suited to the job."
"Sounds good to me," said Beatrice. "Doctor Van Helsing is also known as an expert on strange phenomena, so his visiting this strange crime scene would be legitimate. Come on Mr. Giles, don't you want to investigate with us?"
"Buffy, is this all right with you?" Giles looked expectant.
"Sure, why not. We are the super powered types anyway. Why don't you go with Beatrice and Van Helsing."
"If you think it would be best."
We finished our breakfasts and paid the bill. Beatrice led Giles and Van Helsing to her car and Buffy and I watched as they sped away. I hadn't said anything, but I was a little wary myself of being all alone with Buffy. She, on the other hand, looked cool as a cucumber.
"The only problem is, there goes our ride," she watched the car fade into the distance.
"We might as well take the Underground, that's where we're going anyway. Are you ok with this, Buffy?" I started off to the nearest station.
Buffy hurried to keep up with me, "Yeah, I'm not sure about this mutant thing, but I have pretty good intuition about people. It's part of being the Slayer. Are you nervous about being alone with me?"
"A little. I'm glad you don't have a bad feeling about me, but it's like we're natural enemies or something."
"Hey, I had a vampire boy friend, I'm not going to get picky about a little blood sucking. As you pointed out, you aren't undead. You can go out in the sun and everything. By the way, does anyone ever call you something besides Katherine?"
"No, never been one for nick names. What about you, is Buffy your real name?"
"Yeah, my mom and dad had an odd sense of naming."
With that we reached the entrance to the underground. This time we went to the ticket machines and spent our money like normal commuters. It seemed to be past rush hour, whenever that was in London. There were only three other people in the car. We sat as far away from the others as possible so that we could talk more freely.
"Have you ever been to London before?" Buffy asked.
"No, but I have been to Austria and Germany. What about you?"
"This is my first time outside the states. Too bad it's not for a touristy reason."
"Well, if we find Spike and Drusilla quickly, maybe you'll have some time to look around."
"I doubt it, after all we're going to have to find the way home. Who do you think Beatrice was talking about earlier?"
"I'm not sure, but there are a number of powerful magic users around. If no one here can help you, I'm sure Doctor Strange can send you back."
"Whenever I hear that name, I can't help thinking about the comic book. It's just too weird."
Our conversation was cut short as the computer voice, that reminded me of the elevator on "Red Dwarf" announced our station. We jumped off the train and waited until it was far down the tracks before jumping onto the tracks. Carefully avoiding the live track, we headed for the maintenance room and the entrance to the tunnel.