"Giles! Mrs. Summers! Hi!" Cordelia, despite all her apparent protests, was glad to see familiar faces. She had pretended to not really want to be a part of the Scooby Gang, but sometimes she actually missed it.
"Hello Cordelia," said Giles absent-mindedly. He was still a little baffled by their sudden appearance. Even more so in seeing Wesley with them.
"This isn't just a visit to family and old friends, is it?" The watcher asked, seeing the continuously serious look on Angel's face.
"Unfortunately, no." Angel glanced over at Mrs. Summers. "We have reason to believe that Buffy may be in trouble."
"Trouble?" Joyce said, his concern not misplaced. "What do you mean?"
"Cordelia had a vision," Angel explained.
"I saw Buffy and Xander kidnapped by Drusilla," added Cordelia.
Giles looked confused. "You had a vision?" He looked at Angel. "But I thought-"
"It's a long story," said the vampire. "One that I will tell, but not right now. There's something else."
Giles and Joyce both looked at him expectantly.
"Cordelia and I have had the same dreams," Angel continued. "And part of the dream showed up in the vision."
Surprise spread across Giles's face, but only for a second. "Black cloud, flash of light?" he asked simply.
"I take it you know something about this already? We've been trying to call all evening, but the line's busy."
"We've been having a party," said Joyce, wanting to say something. "The phone must have gotten knocked off the hook."
Angel nodded to her, indicating that he had heard her, but then he looked back at Giles. The latter had removed his glasses and was massaging his temples.
"I don't know much," said Giles finally. "But we need to get back and look for answers because Buffy, Xander and Anya all had the same dream."
"We'll follow you," said Angel, starting back to his car. Time was of the essence.
Cordelia gawked, unbelieving. "Anya's a part of the Scooby Gang?!"
When Buffy woke up, she was in the basement of an abandoned building. Her head was throbbing, and it took a few seconds for her to be able to focus her eyes. Slowly, she stood up and tried to get her bearings.
Drusilla. The last thing she remembered was the insane vampire hypnotizing her long enough to put a cloth over her mouth--a cloth soaked in something meant to knock her out.
But she wasn't dead, and that surprised her. But there was something else ...
Xander! Buffy frantically scanned the room for him and saw his body piled in a corner. She ran to him.
"Xander!" she called as she reached out for a pulse. Thankfully, she found one easily, but he was still unconscious. Buffy lifted him up and laid him carefully onto a table in the middle of the room.
Not only was Buffy extremely surprised that Spike's ex was back in town, she also didn't have a clue what Drusilla could possibly hope to accomplish. Buffy scolded herself for not being alert enough. She and Xander could both have easily been killed. But they weren't. That meant that the vampire had something else in mind, but what?
About ten minutes after Buffy had woken up, she got an answer to her questions. Drusilla walked calmly in through the door at the top of the stairs. The slayer started to come forward, but her captor held up a hand, and something in her manner made Buffy stop.
"Naughty, naughty Slayer," Drusilla said, wagging her finger at Buffy. A group of about a dozen vampires streamed through the door behind her and crowded the steps below her. "You come for me and my friends kill your friend," she added simply, indicating the still-unconscious Xander.
"What do you want?" asked Buffy angrily. She didn't like being unable to fight, but there was no way she was sacrificing Xander for a chance to kill a half-wit vampire.
"Only what you stole from me," replied Drusilla.
Buffy raised an eyebrow. "And that would be ..."
"Angel."
After several seconds of staring, Buffy burst out laughing. She could hardly contain herself. "What does he have to do with me? In case you haven't heard, we aren't exactly an item anymore."
Drusilla might have been surprised to learn this, but it didn't shake her determination. "He'll come." With that, she turned and left the room, her lackeys following.
Buffy waited until she was gone and then frowned. Drusilla didn't scare
her much, except where Xander was currently concerned. What did scare her
was that, no matter how crazy, Drusilla was probably right.
By the time they reached Buffy's house, it was after eleven. They were surprised to find the house empty.
"There's a note for you," said Joyce, coming out of the kitchen and handing Giles a piece of paper.
He took it from her and skimmed over it, a worried look in his eyes. Reaching the end after a second perusal, he read it out loud:
Giles-
I'm short on time, so I'll make this to the point. Tara is a demon, or half-demon or possessed by a demon or something. She attacked Willow (who is OK and resting at home), which you know is totally uncharacteristic, and ran off before we could do anything. Anya seems to know what it is, but she didn't say much. She did mention something about a demon called "bye-shah" or something like that. No, wait! She said THE bye-shah, like it was important. Anyway, Anya ran off shortly after we found Willow hurt, and Xander's afraid she went after Tara for some dumb reason. X and I have gone after Anya. We'll swing by your place ASAP and see if you've found anything out.
B--
PS- Willow's description--reddish skin, 3 horns and a symbol like an 'X' with a star above it
The message didn't really mean that much to anyone but Joyce and Giles, as the others didn't know Tara, but those two were quite disturbed by it.
"Does that name ring a bell?" Angel asked as he watched Giles read the note again.
"I'm afraid not," replied the watcher. "Though it probably should."
"It does sound vaguely familiar," said Wesley, brow furrowed. "But I don't think the name's exactly right." He looked at Giles.
"We had better go to my house," he replied. "Do you think you can hunt down the reference you're thinking of?"
Wesley nodded.
"I'll go try and find Buffy and Xander," said Angel. "If Cordelia's vision was accurate-"
"Which they always are," she interjected.
"Then they might need my help," he finished.
"I'll come with you," said Gunn. "It's too late to go to Aunt Holly's anyway."
Cordelia looked at the group, trying to figure out where her place should be. "Umm, the note said Willow's at home, right? Maybe I could go check on her. If she's feeling OK, she'd be a good research helper."
"Good idea," said Giles with a nod. He turned to Mrs. Summers. "You'd better stay here in case any of them come here. You can tell them how to find us."
"That's what I do best," said Joyce with a sincere smiling. "That and cleaning," she added with a grim face, surveying the mess from the party.
"I'll try and keep you updated," Giles said as he and the rest of the group filed out the door.
Angel was the last one out, and everyone else was halfway to the cars when he stopped. Something in the air caught his attention.
"What is it?" Cordelia asked, noticing her employer's worried face. At her question, the others stopped and looked back as well.
Angel stooped and surveyed the steps leading up to the door. He reached his hand down and brushed the concrete with it. Then he brought his finger up to his nose and smelled it.
"Blood."