After Buffy had dried off and put on clean jeans and a t-shirt, she walked
downstairs to meet with Giles and have breakfast. She found him on the
living room sofa, reading a dusty book. He looked up as she came in.
"What do we know?" She asked crisply.
"De Vincint is incredibly old, at least 600 years older than Spike. He's a
vampire lord from an alternate dimension who has a, well, a history of
sorts with slayers." Giles stopped and looked at her.
"What history with slayers?" Buffy asked, not sure she wanted to know.
"He kills them." Giles went on without looking at her. "He tortures them
with dreams, nightmares and visions until their worst fear kills them. Once
they die in their visions, they die in real life. Afterwards, he collects
their blood."
"Collects?" buffy asked, "Like in a glass to drink because he's too refined
to use his teeth?"
"Not at all." Giles looked up at her. "Like a collection of baseball cards
or classic cars. He shows it off, sometimes even selling it to the highest
bidder."
"So there's a black market in the dream world now? God this will get old
fast." Buffy tried to hide the fact that she was worried, but didn't do a
very good job. So many demons had tried to kill her, that she had lost
count. The only thing that made this De Vincint any different was that
Spike was in the middle.
"Giles, can this vampire lord be killed?"
"Hmm? Oh, yes, one could assume so."
"Good. Let's get ready to rumble. And wake up Willow, we might need her
help opening the Hellmouth. Something tells me that we're not gonna get an
all-access pass."
Giles nodded and went upstairs. Buffy walked up to her room and pulled out
the weapons trunk that Xander had made for her. She took out 5 stakes, holy
water, brass knuckles, an axe and crosses in her slayer gig bag. She headed
downstairs and found Giles quietly informing Willow of the situation. Buffy
left a vague note for Dawn, and threw her bag in the backseat of the Giles
Mobile. As they started driving, she said, "Brace yourselves, guys. We're
going back to high school."
