Chapter 12

A New Kind of Demon

Sunnydale – May 15th

            "Jornikof!" Willow exclaimed, looking up from her computer.

"God bless you," Xander replied.

"No, no. Look, see. It's a jornikof demon. That's what's behind the attacks. I'm sure of it." Willow smiled proudly, waiting for everyone to congratulate her.

"Never heard of one," Spike replied.

"Me neither," offered Anya.

"Nor, I must admit, have I," said Giles. "Where did you find this?"

"In my new book, The Basic Guide to Common Demons," Willow said, somewhat defensively. She was a little disappointed that no one was jumping up to offer her kudos.

"Um, Willow, not that I doubt you," said Giles cautiously, "but I've read that book a hundred times. I have several copies of it. And I do not ever recall any mention of a jornikof demon in it. Where, exactly, did you find it?"

"On the CD-ROM that came in the back," Willow supplied helpfully. She held up the book and flipped to the back cover, where there was a sleeve for a computer CD. "It has the full Basic Guide database, plus the Intermediate and Advanced databases, and several additional databases that I haven't figured out yet. This one was in the Really Rare Demons section of the Advanced database."

"CD-ROM?" Giles inquired quizzically.

"Yeah." Willow thought for a moment. "Say, Giles, how come we never used yours when doing this kind of research?" Willow asked a bit petulantly. "It would have really saved a lot of time."

"Well, those are a little after my time, actually," Giles replied, not sure of how to answer her. When had the council started issuing CD-ROM's?

"Hell, electricity is practically after your time, now isn't it?" Spike cracked sarcastically.

Giles cast him a cold stare. "Perhaps a bit of garlic in your blood supply would provide some manners," he offered nonchalantly.

"You wouldn't," Spike challenged.

"Wouldn't I?" Giles mocked back.

"Boys," Buffy stepped between them, holding them apart. "Let's not get all testosterony here when Willow thinks she has a lead."

"Mmmm, Testosteroni," exclaimed Xander. "The new meal-in-a-can for real men, from Chef Boy Ardee." No one even pretended to pay attention. "I'll just go back to my book now," he said with a self-depreciating shrug.

Giles and Spike looked warily away from one another and back to Willow. "Looks like Felix and Oscar aren't enjoying the togetherness," Buffy mumbled as she turned away from them. "Will?"

"Okay," began Willow. "You see, I looked in all the usual places and didn't find anything." She smiled as she began warming to her subject. "So, then I started checking these databases. Well, they have a pretty standard structure, see. So, I loaded them into Access and built a correlated subquery for any records referencing vampires as an enemy."

"Willow," prompted Buffy.

"Okay, I'm getting to it." She tapped a few keys on her computer to bring up the entry. "Let me read it to you. 'The jornikof demon is both extremely rare and extremely powerful. It has the unique ability to take over the form of a specific human given any sample of blood, hair or skin.'" She looked up at the surrounding faces. "Sounds like DNA replication. You know, it may create something like a magic retro-virus that rewrites the host with its own DNA. I read a paper about something like that for my last biology course. Or perhaps– "

"Willow!" said everyone simultaneously. Willow jumped slightly.

"Geez. Excuse me for being interested. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, 'The jornikof demon is detectable only by other body-inhabiting demons. The most common of these are vampires; however, since jornikof demons are so rare, only a few vampires have ever encountered one. None have survived the encounter.'"

"Swell," muttered Spike. "I hate odds like that."

"Anway," continued Willow, " 'The jornikof demon is otherwise undetectable by human means. Unlike vampires, which can be spotted through any number of normal observations, such as the lack of a reflection or the absence of a heartbeat, the jornikof has no observable difference from a normal human. Even most magical rites or spell components, common for detecting other forms of demonic possession, are powerless to expose or detect a jornikof.

"'The jornikof is the senior member of a genus strificus, or strife-causing demons. It exists to cause strife within groups of humans, and sometimes even other demons. A strife demon will manipulate one faction in a group against another, often driving them to violence. This demon does not act quickly or carelessly, though. It slowly builds a web of disharmony, often from a position of authority. They are known for their careful planning, and will often take preliminary steps of eliminating any perceived obstacles in their plans. This combination of stealth, patience, and remorselessness make it one of the most powerful and feared of all demons.'

"Okay, last part, so listen up. 'The jornikof demon is, however, very rare. It is always encountered having assumed some role of authority, usually of significance, such as a king or bishop.'"

"Or a rook," offered Xander drollishly.

"Or a congressman," added Buffy with deadly earnest.

"Let me finish," said Willow, shushing Xander with her hand. " 'The jornikof demon is incredibly strong, fast and vicious. It can be killed by mortal weapons, but since it possesses rapid healing powers, it must be dealt a single, fatal blow. However, its ability to avoid detection usually prevents this from happening. Those that have been detected and defeated by the forces of good …' That would be us. '… have done so through the Amulet of Arinoth. The amulet allows the wearer to see a jornikof demon for what it really is, and thus defeat him.'

"See? I think we have a match for our demon," Willow concluded.

"Well it certainly fits the M.O.," Anya commented, slamming her fist down. "Let's take'em down and throw the book at him. Only if it's a really big book, though."

"Anya's been watching TV cop shows," Xander explained, slightly chagrined. "She doesn't get all the slang quite yet." Anya had been human again for only a couple of years. In that time, she'd had a hard time adapting to modern life. She often confused the literal world and the entertainment world. She was also notorious for blurting out personal things, usually resulting in extreme embarrassment for Xander.

"Well, Anya is right, frightening as that may be," Giles commented. "This does fit the modus operendi of our mystery assailant quite well. But it seems like the only way to be really sure if it is who we think it is appears to be dependent on getting this Amulet of Arinoth. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with it, so I've no idea how to get it."

"And keep in mind, people," Buffy added firmly, "that if we're right about who it is, we only have ten days until his arrival here in Sunnydale." Each person in the room looked at the others, but nobody managed to make eye contact.

It had been three days since Buffy's interview with Vic. Three days since Buffy had torn open the newspaper machine, taken the Sunnydale Gazette, and read that Congressman Jackson Greene was coming to town in thirteen days. Thirteen – it had seemed an ominous portent then. Three days later, ten seemed much worse.

If what Willow had discovered was true, then they were in a desperate situation. While Congressman Greene was the most obvious candidate for the mysterious 'executive' who had apparently taken the contract out on Spike, they were by no means sure of that. And even if they were sure of it, they were still only acting on a theory that the contract was designed to leave Buffy vulnerable. There were only two ways they could really be sure – either get Spike close enough to the congressman to detect whether or not he was a demon, or get the Amulet of Arinoth.

The first option was immediately doable since they had Spike in hand, but it would require convincing Spike to risk his life to find out. Given the track record of previous encounters, it seemed that even if Spike was able to discover anything about the congressman, he was unlikely to live long enough to report the news to anyone else. The only option left was trying to find the Amulet of Arinoth. Normally, such a task would be relatively straightforward; but then, normally Giles had some inkling of what he was looking for. Willow had checked the databases on the CD-ROM that Madame LaFusce had given her, but there was no data on any magical items on that disk. The information it contained was strictly related to varieties of demons.

The worst part, though, was the gnawing fear of uncertainty. If Congressman Greene was a jornikof demon out to get her, then they had ten days left. But that was an awfully big 'if.' The real plot could be something altogether different. If that were the case, then Buffy could walk into a trap at any moment. And while Spike was still alive, and therefore technically capable of detecting whatever trap someone was laying in wait for her, they were forced to limit their use of the vampire in order to keep his survival a secret. But all that was only good if there was a plot against Buffy at all. If this was, in fact, a contract strictly on Spike and unrelated to her, then all their work was taking them in the wrong direction. They needed more information, and they needed it quickly.

"Willow," Buffy said, turning to her friend, "what's the status on the files from the Initiative?"

"The files were encrypted and I don't have the key, so I have the school's computers working on them," Willow said, a deep look of worry on her face. "I have to be careful not to use too much processing time or they might detect me; on the other hand, the University computers can do the work a lot faster than I could on my laptop. As soon as we're able to decrypt them, the mainframe will notify me automatically."

"Won't that take, like, months?" Buffy asked.

"Well, if I didn't have anything at all, it would," Willow replied. "But Riley gave me his encoding disk before he left. That will let me access the file with the main encryption keys in it. That's what the University computers are doing – trying Riley's key on all the files hoping one of them contains the master key."

"Okay, good. Not much else we can do about that right now," said Buffy. "Giles, any ideas on this Amulet of Arinoth?"

"A few," answered Giles. "I have a few friends back in England that I can ask. I can't officially make an information request to the watcher's council, but I still have a few unofficial channels. I'll see what I can do."

"Good. Spike, is there anyone else you can think of who might want to take a contract out on you?"

"Half a dozen, I'd say," Spike replied. "I'm not the most bloody popular fellow around, y'know. But I don't know of anyone who could pull it off – not like this. I could make a few inquiries, but that would ruin the whole Abbey Road motif we've got going on around here. Bloody well wouldn't want to do that." The fact that 'staying dead' meant that Spike wouldn't be asked to stick his neck out was a significant side benefit for Spike.

"Could somebody have invoked a vengeance wish?" Anya asked the room at large. "I mean, that's what I would've done if someone had wished on me to get rid of a loser like Spike. No offense."

"Oh, none taken, luv," Spike replied sarcastically.

"Anya, you were a vengeance demon for a thousand years," Buffy replied. "Would you have given up after one try?"

"Of course not," Anya said, somewhat offended.

"I didn't think so. There hasn't been another attempt on Spike, or anyone else. So, I think we can be pretty sure that it wasn't that."

"Well, excellent," replied a mollified Anya. "You know, vengeance is tough business. You gotta really stick to it in order to succeed. I doubt they'd put up with this sort of failure."

"That's my baby," Xander said with a mixture of admiration and embarrassment. "Real stick-to-it-iveness in the old maim and kill game."

"Okay," said Buffy with a deep breath. "Any other ideas?"

"Um …" a small voice murmured. Everyone looked over at shy Tara, who immediately responded with, "Never mind, it's probably stupid."

"No," said Willow, "it's not. C'mon baby, tell us what you're thinking."

"Okay, um …." Tara began and then looked down at her hands. With a little more encouragement from Willow, she spoke again. "Why don't we ask Madame LaFusce? When she gave Willow the book, she said we could call her if we came across anything we weren't sure about. And she said that she was going to be visiting her sister in L.A. for the month, so she'd be around. She even gave us her sister's number." Tara smiled weakly, waiting to see the reaction to her suggestion.

Spike was the first to react. "Oh bloody Hell, not that old witch. She practically killed me, remember." Everyone cast dark glances at him.

"While not the most pleasant person in the world, Madame LaFusce does seem to be quite skilled," Giles began, half-smiling through the painful memory of his own encounter with the woman. "And if we can convince her that there really is reason to believe that this is a jornikof demon, she would be able to make an official request to the watcher's council. That could prove invaluable."

"All right, you and Willow do that. Good thinking Tara," Buffy complimented. "Xander, can you and Anya continue to look through the books?"

"Just call me research boy," Xander replied.

"Well, research man might be more appropriate," Anya supplied suggestively. Everyone else grimaced.

"Okay, let's get to it," Buffy said, and the group began to disperse.

As he walked away, Spike muttered to himself, "I'm not sure I can meet up with that woman again and not kill her."

"You and me both," Giles added.