Chapter One: A New Player
Gregory paced around his lair, furious. His minions cowered by the walls, each hoping that he wouldn't take his anger out on them. They needn't have worried. Gregory wasn't the type of vampire to kill his troops needlessly, he only took their lives to make a point or to punish, usually both at once. Besides, the reason he was angry was that he'd already lost some of his minions. He certainly wasn't about to kill more.
A snarl graced his face, pulling his lips back to reveal bright fangs. Lost his minions to that damned Slayer! He couldn't figure out what to do about her. He needed to be at the Hellmouth for his plans to work, but why did she have to be here too? Slayers didn't stay in one place! They traveled, they hunted! But apparently, the demon population in this horrible little town was enough to warrant a full-time Slayer. And he'd heard rumors that there were two of the bitches now, so that was probably another reason she was allowed to stay.
Throwing himself into a nearby chair, Gregory's eyes burned as he pondered the situation he found himself in. He was a Master Vampire, over five hundred years old. Besides his large number of minions, he also had alliances with many other types of demons and an impressive knowledge of magic. When he had been human, Gregory had been a scholar, always curious about everything. That curiosity had stayed with him as a vampire and his Sire had encouraged it, knowing that the old adage knowledge is power was true, especially when it came to demons, magic, and the world they all shared, hidden from humans.
Unlike other demons who took up residence in Sunnydale, Gregory had not chosen an abandoned warehouse, sewers, or anything in a cemetery. He knew that those would be obvious places to look for his kind. Instead, he had used some of the vast wealth he had accumulated over the years to purchase an apartment building and retrofit it. Now, there was a new music store on the first floor. Gregory had leased the space to one of the large chains and allowed them to do what they wanted with the space, including hiring their own workers. The third and top floor had been remodeled into a twisting labyrinth, the center of which contained Gregory's own rooms. The second floor was kept as apartments in order to create a buffer between the first and third floors. This was where his minions lived as well as all his demon servants and a few of his demonic allies who didn't have anyplace else in town to live. No one was allowed to do anything on the second floor that would be heard and cause suspicion. If his followers needed to feed or torture, there were rooms in the labyrinth specifically for that purpose. There was even sound proofing to make sure the humans suspected nothing. Also, Gregory wouldn't allow any hunting within a two-block radius of his home and he enforced this with an iron hand and sharp fangs.
The cause of this extensive project had been two-fold. Gregory had lately become bored with the city that he'd been living in for the past half-century. Sure, Berlin was fun and all, but the Cold War was over and it was harder to cover up the sheer number of missing persons that a nest of vampires created. Plus, Gregory, always on the look out for more knowledge, had come across an intriguing rumor of a magical artifact. This item, in the shape of a bracelet, was rumored to provide protection from physical attacks. For an immortal vampire whose main weakness was the possibility of a wooden stick going through his heart, the idea itself was worth following up on.
Problems though, tend to occur on searches of this nature, and that remained true about this one. While there were rumors of this bracelet, indeed, there were even rumors that it was one of many, no one knew where to find it. At least, no one in demonic circles. Gregory had gotten the impression, while following up leads and vague hints, that the magic of this particular piece of jewelry did not come from the power of Hell, but from a different source entirely. This wasn't unheard of. Demonic magic certainly wasn't the only kind around. Human magicians used the power of the natural world all the time and some even drew power from other planes of existence. Yes, some of them used Hell energy but the Hell dimensions were certainly not the only world in contact with the Mortal plane, with Earth, and people could draw power from those other worlds as well. Rumor said that this bracelet was from one of those other worlds and so Gregory, while incredibly knowledgeable in the magics and powers of demons, did not know much about the other planes and, as a demon himself, would not be granted the opportunity to study them. Many of the denizens of those other worlds avoided demons, and with good cause.
Despite the problems inherent in his search, Gregory had found a few useful clues. The best of the bunch was a prophecy that appeared to be specifically about the bracelet itself. He had found this prophecy in a group of books and papers that had been sold as historic curiosities. The entire group had been found in the Globe, the theatre where Shakespeare had written and directed his famous plays. The assumption was that the writings had once belonged to the Bard himself and were sold on that basis. Of course, the fact that several of the papers and even a few of the books could be dated back centuries before Shakespeare's time didn't seem to matter to any of the collectors who had anxiously bid on the items. Gregory had been intrigued and had made sure that he was the one to obtain the entire group.
Purchasing the lot at the rather exorbitant amount he'd paid for it had, however, proved to be a wise decision. For he'd found, folded up in a rather decrepit copy of Midsummer Night's Dream, a yellowed paper with the prophecy written on it. The top half of the paper contained about a paragraph of text that was in no language Gregory knew or had heard of. But the second half was written in Latin and was fairly obviously a translation of the top. This was both fortunate and unfortunate for Gregory. As he could not read the first language, the translation was invaluable. At the same time, how was he to know if the translation was accurate if he was unable to check it himself?
The prophecy, translated correctly or not, proved to be irresistible to Gregory and so, on obtaining it, he had carefully set up plans to move to Sunnydale, California. Due to his cautious nature and the fact that the Slayer lived in the vicinity, the purchase, renovation, and actual settling in had taken slightly less than a year. But now the music store had been in place for several months, the apartments for a few weeks less, and Gregory himself had been in residence for three weeks. Now, he'd decided, it was finally time to start searching for his prize, or at the very least, for more clues to its whereabouts. But how would he be able to find out anything if the Slayer kept dusting his minions!?
Gregory sighed and, leaving his large audience room where he gave orders, was presented with information, and met with fellow demons, headed for his private study where he did much of his research. He sat down heavily on a padded chair. He'd lived for centuries without that kind of luxury. Now that it was available, why not take advantage? His desk was of fine quality, both well used and well cared for. Sitting on top of his desk was an open notepad, several pens and pencils, a computer printout and, mounted in a picture frame and under glass for protection, the original prophecy. The computer printout was something Gregory had done when he'd first found the prophecy. Due to the age of the paper, it had been deteriorating rather quickly. So he'd copied the words, both the original language and the Latin, and had added an English translation of the Latin for convenience. Then he'd protected the original copy. The notebook had pages of notes, speculation and dead ends, everything he'd thought of and tried in his quest. Now he needed some new ideas so he began to reread the prophecy.
Several hours of mental work had not helped him come up with anything new until he began to look at the original language the prophecy had been written in. His thought was that while he didn't understand it, perhaps he might recognize a word or two. His idea bore fruit when he suddenly shouted in triumph and stood up, going to the bookshelf and grabbing a small bound folder that looked like a report of some kind.
Before Gregory had come to the town in person, he'd deemed it good security to have an understanding of the power plays going on. Usually this meant which demons hunted where, what vampire controlled which territory, but in the case of the Hellmouth, Gregory had ordered his underlings to study the Slayer and her allies as well. In fact, that report was an entirely different one than the report on demon activities and would have been larger if not for the truly surprising number of demons living on the Hellmouth. This particular Slayer, unlike most of her kind, appeared to have a group of allies besides just her Watcher. But right now it was the Watcher Gregory was interested in and he turned to the appropriate part of the report.
The Watcher, one Rupert Giles, was from England, the same place the prophecy had been unearthed. He was extremely knowledgeable about both demonic and ancient human languages and what he didn't know he appeared to be extremely adept at finding out. Gregory smirked and looked back down at the prophecy, at one line in the original text: prin hosp'in kel swin rupert giles. Then he strode back to his audience chamber to order that the Watcher be brought to him, alive.