***

Buffy's Tale

"Melfis"

"Sonja"

When Sonja mentioned seeing a demon, I had my doubts. They only increased when she mentioned meeting him at a place like The Monastery. When we met him, he looked like Lenny Kravitz with a beard and moustache shaved to a finely maintained goatee and dreads that flowed off his head in waves.

The decor was in a church motif with pews for seats, a Madonna and Child over the bar religious icons scattered around the room and a stained glass skylight.

Sonja had taken another stab at explaining the unique properties of the bar. There's door in New Orleans, Sunnydale, New York, Toronto, anywhere it has to be. You walk in to the bar from wherever you are.

Xander had asked the obvious question. How does it know where to take you back? I mean what's to stop you from using the bar as a means to travel anywhere in the world you might want to go. "

One," Sonja had answered " its never a good idea to ask Melfis anything other then what is absolutely needed and Two …well lets just say that Melfis charges pretty hefty prices just to give you information. I don't want to know what he would charge for transport."

Xander headed to the sparsely populated bar to grab us drinks. He struck up a conversation with a young waitress with short streaked hair. Sonja and I slid into a booth. I figured this would be her show but I had not counted on my celebrity.

"I love who you hang with Sonja; Buffy Summers, The Vampire Slayer."

Sonja winced and looked at me "She's Ok Melfis."

"Of course she's ok, Ms. Summers there are quite a few of people who are very impressed with your body of work. The Initiative affair, the whole thing at graduation…amazing!"

"Thank you, Mr. Melfis."

"Please, its just Melfis and the honor is mine; imagine the personifications of mayhem and chaos at my table."

I was all set to be insulted when Sonja dropped a hand on my arm. Melfis seemed to be aware of my reaction.

"Please don't be insulted, but you have to realize where I come from you two are talked about like the mortals refer to Pompeii or the San Francisco earthquake, an awesome force of nature to behold. "

Xander came back at the table he plopped my drink in front of me and slid into the booth on our side. "What a place." he muttered "Remind me not to bring Dawn here the next time I have to baby-sit."

I nodded carefully "Xander if you ever brought my sister here I would break every bone in your body starting with the one Anya likes the most."

Melfis was looking at me weird when I focused back on him I would have asked what the problem was but Sonja decided it was time to start negotiating.

"Melfis we're looking for Antonio the Defiler and if you could get us some idea of who's behind him that would be good."

"Shouldn't be too difficult." He said looking at Sonja expectantly.

Sonja seemed stressed. "Sorry Mel, I didn't bring my usual stash."

"Girl-chick you know the deal I like payment up front. What do you have?"

"It's really important you could have the inside track on a major bit of mayhem shaping up" I said trying to be helpful.

"I know more about the mayhem shaping up then you do. That's why Sonja comes to me and that's why she pays the prices I charge."

"How much does he cost" I asked her

"He doesn't charge money. Money is meaningless to his kind he goes for something a little more…"

"I'm not trading my soul for information, I don't believe you did either." I said.

"Not souls missy miss I prefer a more down to earth pleasure the emanations of evil contained in objects."

"Objects like-"

"Hair, finger nails, objects involved in particularly brutal crimes. I even go for that skunkweed that's connected to tragedies in fact I'll lower my prices just this once cause its the my favorite customer and The Slayer."

"That's sick, how come I've never met you before?"

You never needed my services, nor would it occur to you to ask for me. Trust me, I have always been here. Angel has visited many times over the years. I see less of him since he moved to LA; still he comes by about once a month.

"Look I'll pay double next time, Mel just give me a freebie this once."

Sonja, honey I give to you and soon nobody wants to pay, then where am I?

"I've got something." Xander spoke up "It's kind of small."

"Depends what it is."

"It belonged to my Grandfather and apparently dad got it from him." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys attached to a pocketknife that I had seen hundreds of times before. He pulled it off the key ring and handed it to the demon. He took it and sniffed it, than he took a huge long sniff, as if it was the sweetest flower.

"This I some massively vile shit."

I looked at Xander, over the years he has hinted that his life at home was like but never for a second would I have believed it would be anything like this. Melfis caught me looking at Xander and reacted jovially

"Kid, I am impressed; you mean they don't know what kind of a monster you live with or what his old man was like?"

"This is not share-Xander's-pain time, Ok, now give with the info you're being paid for. "

Melfis leaned back and took another deep pull on the pocketknife then stowed it away somewhere. Then his eyes rolled back into his head; he began a low grunting to himself.

I looked at Sonja who was staring at Xander as if he had grown a second head. I started to say something, but he looked at me with a "Buffy don't" in his eye. I turned to Sonja, who chose to answer my unasked question.

"I have seen him turn up his nose at bullet casings from the Manendez family home. Whatever's on that knife… "

"It has been a long time since it was that bad, but yeah moving out is big on my to-do list."

"Do willow or Anya know about this?"

"They know what I want them to know. You say nothing about what you saw today, nothing. Lying to Willow is bad enough, but having to lie to Anya would kill me." Xander said quietly.

"Why would you carry something like that around with you?"

"Cause it's a great reminder that not all the demons I face in this town have horns and growl."

Melfis snapped out of his mystic abstraction. "Ok here it is Sonja, Antonio has Morgan backing him and paying the bills Wolfram and Hart are observing, so to speak "

"What is he after? Eternal night is the popular theory."

"They are hazy on the why and where-art-thou but thy did give me his current location and turned me on to the popular theories."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The rumor mill has it that there is a hunt on for anyone who can duplicate Sonja's powers. Big money in it too." Melfis explained, gesturing to Sonja. "See, when our girl here, popped up most pretenders thought that she was a super noble doing some in your face conflict. Sonja, as I'm sure you know, is immune to most of the stuff that kills other vampires and she's stronger than most of them as well."

"This I know." I whined

"But why kidnap Anya."

"The vengeance demons blood would swing the weight of luck in his favour I mean, it is a miracle that Sonja wasn't killed during her being brought across."

"So he's doing this so some master vampire can have pet slayer on the pay roll?" I asked him

"Babe, they try stuff like this every other week, your own council used to pull crap like this." Thing I can't figure out is why the First Hierarchy is so hot for you to stop them."

I didn't react much to that off hand remark but it got Sonja all excited I stared quizzically. She looked at me

"First Hierarchy are the major players in hell. The guys who got kicked out when heaven put the kibosh on their extra-dimensional fun."

"Yeah apparently, they wanted you to have this."

He scribbled an address down and slid it across the table at me.

"By the way, this part is a freebie, watch your back Slayer. The delicate balance that runs this place is fragile enough without Antonio messing this up with his tenpenny hedge magic."

We rose to leave.

"Buffy take care of that sister of yours; she's quite the special child. You should really reconsider bringing her by here."

Truth is, I keep Dawn away from this part of my life, and I didn't plan to see Melfis again.

On the way back to Giles', Sonja kept looking back at the bar and muttering to herself I couldn't catch all the words, but it sounded as though she whispering to someone. "He never takes personal interest …and since when does the Monastery have a waitress?"

***

Melfis settled back into the shadows of the bar. His work finished, he was off the hook. He looked forward to getting out of this town especially with his hide intact. The bartender smiled prettily and headed toward his table with a drink in hand. He had noticed her come in just before Buffy and Sonja. Melfis knew this personal appearance was a bad sign. He was just glad Sonja had not noticed the presence. God only knew what she and The Slayer might have done, had they known who was serving them drinks.

The angel slid into the booth. She had added hair to her head since the last time Melfis had seen her. It was now a brown pixie cut with steaks of gold and red running through it. She wore basic black. The only splashes of colour being a John Lennon T-shirt and a button near the collar that read "Born to Burn". Her eyes fixed on Melfis, smooth looking orbs that were colored gold.

"Hello Cousin" he said weakly to the new arrival.

"Melfis so nice to see you, tell me, was that the Blue Woman and The Slayer leaving?"

It always began with a few innocent questions; the cruel tricks and tortures started after she had grown bored with needling you with her sense of humor. Melfis made a small sound as he contemplated the eternity of punishment he could look forward to if he had screwed up in anyway.

"Can I assume from that tortured squeak that you did what you were told and The Slayer and her friends are on their way to take care of the Antonio Problem." Mel nodded and his guest smiled "And your pop said you couldn't be counted on to handle a big job like this. Good for you,"

"Can I ask why you wanted to talk to the Slayer's Pet Jester."

"Why Melfis, I'm shocked you need to ask. I'm all about future investment and that boy has quite a future in front of him."

"But he is on the restricted lists. No interference in his destiny."

The Sarcastic smile that flashed at that comment covered over half of her face. "And my track record on following rules is just so exemplary isn't It." she reached across the table and pinched his cheeks, very, very hard. "Now one last little detail to take care of." Melfis listened as if his soul depended on it, which in hindsight it most likely did.

***