Chapter 9
"Airaei?" I turned to see who said my name. Wait, was that my name? For a moment I wasn't sure, but I looked for the voice anyway.
He wasn't here. I know who it was, some part of me did anyway, but he wasn't here. I wasn't even sure of where here was.
I couldn't describe the place. While there wasn't exactly anything here, there was me. All of me. I filled it, every though, every memory. It was all me. Not my mind though,. No, my mind was still inside my body, which was at the center of everything. I stood in the middle of wherever I was, seeing nothing yet experiencing everything that past by.
"Airaei. . ." That name again, different voice this time, still male but it sounded older and disappointed. It was a fragment of something, a memory I couldn't hold onto.
Where was I?
*The Vault.*
An answer to my question, just a memory floating by, but my mind grabbed at it, knowing it would help me. The vault? Some part of me knew what it was, it was after all my memory. I couldn't hang onto the memories though. Perhaps if I thought about something else, maybe it would answer those questions.
Who am I?
*Airaei, Learian human.*
*Elisabeth, human, Slayer.*
Two answers? I couldn't be two people. Which one was I?
~
My eyes snapped open. Where was I? What just happened? Things had seemed strange and then- well, I couldn't remember what happened then.
Carefully I sat up, looking around. It was just a dream. Nothing important, I always remembered the important ones. Glancing out the window I saw that it was just getting light out. None of the Potentials were awake yet. I didn't need to get up, but I didn't feel like sleeping. Shrugging I got to my feet. Why should it matter?
It was only a dream.
~
If silence could echo it would have been bouncing of the walls. We were all considering the plan for tonight. It was logical, nothing that I had a problem with, but unusual for everyone else. After all, who ever heard of Buffy being the one to stay at home?
She couldn't come, we knew that. If she did we would be leaving the Potentials defenseless in a very dangerous situation. We couldn't trust Alucard not to be playing us. I didn't point out that my instincts said to trust him, they also said he was a lying lunatic.
But back to the point: Buffy wasn't going. Willow was. I had the joy of taking Willow and Spike on the rescue expedition. Alucard had actually called earlier, looked up the number in the phone book. All he needed to know is if we could use one of the scoobie's cars. We all voted on Xander's, against his wishes, but that's what we were taking.
Now we knew what we were doing, for the most part, and we were all waiting on Alucard, who was coming and would be here soon. Dawn had been staring out the window ever sense the sun set, making sure we knew when he was coming. Almost exactly a half hour after sunset the doorbell rang. Dawn looked up, surprised, not having seen anyone show up.
"Don't worry, Alucard has the ability to be invisible," I half joked, not knowing whether or not it was really a lie. While it was never proven there have been plenty of times were he was rather sneaky.
Buffy answered the door and we all trooped out, Willow taking the lead and Spike coming out behind me. We got into the car, Willow and me in the front seat while the vampires shared the back. Both vamps weren't happy and they kept sending glares to each other, it was kind of funny to watch.
Willow was driving, being the only one with a real license. We didn't want complications, so we were following the law, even if we could all drive.
Again there was the silence thing. It lasted around half an hour before Willow broke it. I don't think anyone else would have, no matter how uncomfortable or annoying it got.
"So, what exactly are we doing?" Willow asked.
Alucard shrugged, really looking at her for the first time since we got into the car. "Showing up at the house, going inside, grabbing the watchers and leaving."
Willow nodded. "Where are they staying?"
"With a bunch of Wiccas. Your type of people. You should get along great," he said dryly, turning back to the window.
Willow glanced back at him, frowning. "Fine, be a grump, just trying to start conversation.
"Ignore him, he's trying to get on your nerves," I stated, not returning the glance Alucard gave me. It was true and he knew it. If he wanted them to think something else he could have his own argument. He didn't disagree with me, though.
Instead he chose to change the topic. "So he's your brother?" Alucard asked me. I nodded. "How long did you know he was staying with Buffy?"
"Almost two days," I stated.
"Why do you care?" Spike muttered.
Alucard grinned at him with a shrug. "Be a grump, just trying to start conversation," he said, mimicking Willow. He actually sounded like her, in a male way. Somehow he had used the same tone and actually pulled it off.
Spike turned to glare at him. "Fine then, for conversations sake, how old are you?"
Alucard just continued grinning. "Older than you. Older than Anya," he glanced at me for a moment. "If you guess right I'll tell ya."
"You're over a thousand?" Willow asked, sounding surprised. I hadn't assumed any age for him, and it was easy to believe what he was saying. I had no reason not to. "Then why isn't he like the master was?" Willow asked Spike.
Spike shrugged slowly. "Got a few theories on vampires like him. Nothing proven though," he stated.
"Vampires like me?" Alucard asked.
Spiked nodded. "The really old annoying ones? Yeah, you guys," he stated.
Alucard wasn't grinning, but he wasn't glaring either. He knew Spike was trying to bug him and was trying not to let it work. "So how old are you?"
"145," Spike said simply, not having anything to hide.
Alucard nodded, as if it confirmed his suspicions to something. "So you were what, twenty-five when you died?" Spike nodded. "Eight years older than Beth, have any other brothers or sisters?"
"No," Spike answered.
"Why not?"
"Mum was sick a lot," I answered quickly, leaving it at that. It wasn't a happy topic, but a true one. She had gotten worse during the years when I was a Slayer, and I hadn't been home much to help her. Mostly it had been just her and William.
In any case, Alucard stopped asking questions and the car resumed its silence, with the exception of Alucard occasionally giving directions to Willow. I let myself fall asleep to kill time, and didn't wake up until someone was shoving me from the back seat.
"Hey Liz, time to get up. We're here at the witch's house," Alucard said as I blinked myself awake. Willow and Spike were getting out of the car already. Stretching I opened the door and took a look at the house.
It looked old and was going for a Victorian theme. While the house looked worn, it also looked neat and kept up. There was a very nice porch that circled the house, with seats and flowers all over the place on it. Window boxes with runes carved into them held flowers and herbs. All in all it looked like the sort of place you might meet up with a nice old witch. All it needed was to be painted black with a few bats and it would be perfect.
"So this is the place?" Spike asked, Alucard nodded. "You couldn't have just given us directions?"
"I'm supposed to show up to prove it's you," Alucard stated with a shrug. "Their rules, not mine."
I pushed past both of them, heading for the door. "Doesn't matter, we're here. Let's grab the watchers and go." They all followed me to the porch where I rang the door bell and waited.
The door opened to a plump older woman, dressed in an old flower print dress and an apron. She quickly grabbed her glasses and put them on before looking us over one by one. Her eyes rested on Alucard when she finished. "It's you again," she didn't sound too pleased.
"Hey sweet," Alucard teased. The woman all but rolled her eyes. "Brought the Slayer and her friends. Here to see the watchers and all that."
The lady looked from me to Willow then back to me. "That one?" She pointed to me. I nodded. The lady turned back to Willow. "You're a witch, not a Slayer."
Willow nodded with a smile. "It's nice to meet you. I was hoping maybe we could take a minute to talk? It's been awhile since I've been able to have a decent conversation with a coven."
The lady smiled. "Of course, if you'd come inside?" She glanced at Alucard with a frown. "All of you?" She resented having to ask him in. We all walked inside, following her, except for Spike, who hit an invisible wall before he came in.
"What the-wait!" Spike snapped. "You invited us all in!"
The woman looked back, her face flashing surprise for a moment before she calmed down. "Oh, yes, well, I didn't mean you. You're a vampire. It's bad enough having him here," She pointed to Alucard. "We don't need you too."
"He has a soul-" Willow started.
The lady shrugged. "He's a vampire. He's evil." I wasn't so sure that was the case, but it wasn't my place to argue at them moment.
I just watched her, something wasn't right. She invited us all in, Spike included. I turned to look back at Spike, and had the strangest feeling, one I couldn't quite place. I didn't have time to think about it, though. The woman was moving on, and Spike was stuck outside. I threw him an apologetic glance but kept walking, thinking about our situation while I did so.
When had I felt like that before? It was as if. . . there was no one here. That didn't make sense, why would there be no one here? There was us, the witch, Willow, Alucard and me. I turned around once more, trying to figure it out, and then I placed it.
Suddenly I froze, turning to face the others who were still walking towards the end of the hallway. "Alucard?"
He paused, glancing back at me. "Yeah?"
"How many witches are here?" I asked.
He shrugged, "At least a dozen. . . why?"
"You sure?"
He paused again, this time as if to check something, the woman turned around to look at him before he answered. "Funny. . . yeah, there was about a dozen, but. . ."
"No one's here." I answered for him.
"What are you talking about?" the woman asked. "Come on, they're just through this door," she stated. I didn't move. "What's wrong? What do you mean there's no one here?" I just stared at her, trying to figure out what was happening. "Do you have some sort of spell?" she continued. "Wait, that's it. You have a spell!" Suddenly she chuckled. "Oh, I'm sorry, I should have said something. We have so many protective spells that if you bring any more in they get fuzzled. Things just don't work right."
Alucard didn't look sure. I was watching him now, looking for an answer in his face. He wasn't looking at me though, but instead at the woman. What she said seemed to convince him. "Yeah, that's probably it, come on Liz."
Not that I actually knew what was going on, or had a decent theory for that matter, but I didn't feel that we were safe. I knew the spell, it had been used against me before. But we were in a house of witches, they might have a reason for the spell. I couldn't think of any at the moment, but then I wasn't a witch. Willow was, she wasn't seeing anything wrong. Alucard wasn't having any problems. It was just me.
I was a firm believer in nagging doubts though. They were there for a reason. So even when I caught up to the others I pulled Willow back, mainly to keep her behind me in case anything did show up. She gave me a questioning glance and I just shook my head. I'd explain later.
"The watcher's rooms are right over here," the lady was explaining to Alucard as she led him to a door. I watched every move she made, watching for her to slip up some way, to tell me that something was wrong. But she didn't. Alucard knew her so it wasn't like she was some fake thrown in.
Unless Alucard was working against us.
I didn't believe it. Back to the nagging doubt thing, it wasn't working against Alucard. Every instinct I had was saying to trust him, that he wasn't lying. But sense when did a vampire have that effect on a Slayer? The more I thought about it the worse I felt about this situation.
The lady was opening the door now. I tensed, waiting for something to jump out at us. Nothing did. The room was empty of people. Unless the furniture was planing to attack we were safe.
She motioned us in and Alucard went first. He glanced around the room casually before turning back to us. Willow walked in next and I followed her. There weren't any other doors and I didn't see anyone. Quickly I turned back to the lady, but the door had shut and she was still outside the room.
"Okay, something's wrong here," Willow said, reading my thoughts.
Alucard nodded. "Yeah, I'd agree with that."
"What's going on," I started, then everything shimmered. For a moment it was like I was seeing things under water, then things became too clear.
I didn't know who invited all these vampires in, but someone had a death wish. Either that or all these people lived here and they made the mistake of bringing in the wrong vampire. I shot a look at Alucard who wasn't paying attention to me while he stared at the vampires surrounding us.
"Oh boy," Willow murmured. "This is when we run right?"
"Problem: there's no where to run," I muttered. "Anyway to fix that?"
Willow didn't get a chance to answer because the vampires chose that moment to attack. For the first few minutes I just focused on avoiding getting eaten. After a few nicely placed punches though I managed to pull out a stake and lower the vampire population.
Then I saw Alucard doing the same thing. He had led us here, to an obvious trap, and now he was helping us. It didn't make sense, but nothing really did so that was okay.
I took the next moment to check on Willow, who had been thrown around the room but was now mostly being left alone. I looked closer to make sure she wasn't dead. She was only a little dazed so things were okay. If I brought back a dead Willow Buffy Would kill me. Best not to do that then.
"Okay, got a question," Alucard shouted as he kicked a vampire away.
I grabbed a vampire's arm and threw him into another one while shouting back, "Okay, what is it?"
"You knew something was up, right?"
Someone kicked me in the back, I fell to the ground. "Yeah, why?" I rolled over in time to avoid someone breaking a bone.
"How did you know? I couldn't sense anything wrong," Alucard said.
I rolled back onto my feet, getting my balance quickly before someone had a chance to knock me back down again. Someone kicked at me but I grabbed their leg and swung it around so that he hit another vampire. "Oh, the lady out there wasn't human. There was a reversal spell put on the place. You should know that though. I have a strong suspicion you helped to set this up."
I caught a glimpse of Alucard for a moment. He had stopped fighting long enough to let someone get a good hit on him, doubling him over. If I didn't know any better I'd think he was surprised that I said that. "I didn't set you up," he yelled above the fight. I ignored him.
When I heard Latin I turned to Willow, who was back on her feet. She was casting some spell that I couldn't understand. I really did need to learn Latin, if only to make out what all these annoying spells were for. What ever it meant it helped. After a few choice phrases on Willow's part the spell exploded outwards, knocking me off my feet, but doing the same to the vampires.
When it was over they weren't moving, but I was.
Slowly I stood up, looking around the room of frozen vampires. "What'd you do?"
"Quick, it only effects the vampires in the house," Willow explained. "And I don't know if it'll last."
I nodded, running over to her side of the room to look out of the window. Sure enough there were vampires outside, but from the looks of it they were guarding the front door, where Spike was. "Okay, enough said, follow me."
I took a few steps back, looking around the room. There wasn't any furniture left in tact to help me so I gave up on the idea of using it to break the window. Instead I just jumped through it, shattering the glass, but making an easier way out of the house. I took a second to check for any major cuts before calling for Willow to follow me. I helped her out the window before heading for the front of the house where Spike was dealing with his own group of vamps.
"Any chance of a repeat of that spell?" I asked.
Willow shook her head. "We have to be in an inclosed area."
I shrugged. "It was worth a shot. Guess I'll do this the old fashion way," I muttered as I pulled out a stake. Willow wasn't armed though so I tossed it to her as the first batch of vamps attacked. Clumsily she caught it, but at least she was armed now.
I blocked the first punch but took the second in the gut. Gasping in pain I ducked another punch before jumping to avoid being tripped. I took a second to get a feel for what was going on before punching back, nailing one of the vamps in the chin before doing a jump kick to knock another onto the ground. I glanced at Willow to make sure she was okay, then grabbed on of the vampires attacking her long enough for her to stab it. It burst into dust in my hands as another vamp kicked me forwards, knocking me into Willow. Luckily she had moved the stake else I would have been skewered.
"Stay down for a second," I requested as I grabbed the stake and hopped back to my feet, standing over her. She was too scared to move, which worked for me. At least I wouldn't have to worry about where she was.
Four vampires attacked at once. I threw the stake into one of their hearts, making him dust as I jumped up and flipped over the vampire coming from behind. I kicked him forward, making him trip over Willow, who flinched out of the way so that he didn't land on top of her. She was smart enough to grab the stake that was near her and kill the vamp before he could return the favor.
The other two had to quickly change directions for the charge to still work. I easily tripped one before the other picked me up and threw me into the nearby porch. Hissing in pain I climbed to my feet, or tried to. My entire right leg hurt, which made sense because it had cushioned the fall. Spike noticed my dilemma and took the time to help me to my feet.
"You okay?" he asked as he casually blocked an attacker.
I shrugged. "Could be worse, but the entire walking concept isn't looking too cheerful."
Spike nodded. "Stay here, don't get killed," he stated before running to help Willow, who was the main target for attack.
Unfortunately the vampires were after me, so I couldn't stay still for long. The same guy who had thrown me before decided it would be fun to pick me up and throw me again. This time I landed in the middle of the yard, again on my leg. I glanced up, looking around for something to help me. I didn't even have a stake. There wasn't anything, though. Nothing but advancing vampires.
I stood up anyway, ignoring the throbbing pain as I did so. There would be time to deal with that later.
"Liz, Duck!" I heard a shout from behind me. I didn't waste the time looking to see who had said it but dropped to the ground immediately, turning as I did so to catch a glimpse of what was going on behind me.
The vampires from the house were unfrozen, and one of them had a crossbow, aimed for where I had been standing, and the bolt already launched. It missed me though, and landed in the heart of another vampire. He burst into dust, but that didn't make me feel any better.
The vampires out numbered us and I had no clue by how much. All I knew is that they kept coming. Three against all of them weren't good odds, even if Alucard was helping us. He had been the one who warned me, and he was fighting the vampires. So while one would only assume he brought us here as a set up, I had to consider the fact that he was still helping us. That wouldn't be a ruse, too, would it?
There wasn't time for thinking about it though, I had to try to find a way out of this mess.
The obvious thought would be why not just take the car. All the lovely vampires had considered that option, and had been nice enough to trash it so there was no chance of us getting anywhere in it. Any teleporting spells Willow might use could be too risky, and I seriously doubted we'd be able to outrun everyone. We'd have a hard enough time getting to the road.
I didn't give the vampires any more opportunities to throw me across the yard, but was still stakeless so the numbers weren't going in my favor. While the vampires kept coming we were still holding our own, kind of, which caused me to wonder why they weren't throwing something else at us. Sure, the set up was nice, and the trap went rather well on their part, but why not have someone here to finish us off?
Didn't really have time to think about that, either. Spike had thrown me a stake and I easily dusted several of the vampires around me. The fight was starting to feel almost routine so even though it was difficult it was nothing I couldn't handle.
Suddenly the vampires pulled back, regrouping elsewhere. Some ran into the house, some ran into the woods around us. I wasn't sure whether or not to be happy or worried that they left so quickly.
"Spike, do you feel anything odd?" I asked, looking around for a threat.
Spike was shaking his head. "No, I don't, but we should be leaving, anyway."
"How?" Willow asked. "Xander's car is. . ."
"Trashed? Yeah, I know," I stated. "But we can't stay here."
Tires squealed on the road and we all turned to see a SUV speeding into the driveway. The crunch of gravel was the only sound and we all just kind of stood watching. Surely the Boss wouldn't send his secret weapon against us in a Honda.
When the SUV came to a stop right behind where Xander's car lay ruined. The doors opened and two people got out.
Todd looked around the yard before his eyes settled on me. "Beth! You're okay! What'd you go and kill them all for we were coming to rescue you."
Spike looked at them skeptically. "I take it you know them?"
I nodded, not moving forward to great them. "Yeah, the watchers I've been telling you about," I stated. "But they were supposed to be in there," I pointed to the house. "And if they were they're probably dead."
"Vampires?" Willow asked.
Lloyd was nodding. "Good, you're not taking risks. And if you even think of letting your guard down I'll have one of the buggers change me just so I can come back and bite you," he said dryly. "But I have the feeling the vampires aren't all dead, and we should get out of here before they come back."
He sounded like Lloyd, and Todd sounded like Todd. Chris was even still in the car looking like a scared mouse. For all I knew they could be humans, but that didn't explain them showing up right as the threat disappeared, or how they knew we'd be here.
Spike was thinking somewhere along those lines. "I'm not thinking it would be a good thing to trust them, pet," he stated.
"Don't slayers have some mystical ability to sense these kind of things?" Willow asked.
I only shrugged. "It hasn't been working to well," I stated.
"Okay, discuss this in the car," Todd said. "I'm not trusting the sudden silence, we need to get out of here."
He had a point, as did everyone here at the moment. The main points were simple. By all reason the watchers should be dead, and were probably vampires. We couldn't wait until sun light to come to tell us because Spike was a vampire. We couldn't hang around here because there were other vampires, and probably much bigger nasties that scared the vampires away. so we had to get out of here, and the watchers were the best way out, assuming that they weren't trying to kill us. Then again, if they were trying to kill us why not just have let the vampires finish us off? Hell, we'd be long dead in a million ways if they just wanted to kill us.
Which made me wonder if the watchers were here for another reason. Again with the no time to figure it out.
"Come on, let's get out of here," I muttered, walking towards the watchers. The others hesitated a little, but we all got in, including Lloyd and Todd, who took the front seats. Todd grinned back at me, kind of saying hello, before Lloyd started the car and pulled out of the drive way.
The ride was another one filled with awkward silence. I took the time to introduce everyone to each other, which went okay. Chris was sitting next to Spike, and the moment he found out that Spike was a vampire he tried to get further away. Which didn't work because we were all crammed together.
The two hours managed to seam longer than the first ride, even without Alucard tagging along. I couldn't wait until we got back to Buffy's house.
The living room lights were still on, even though it was late. My guess was that someone was waiting up for us. "Willow, head on in and tell everyone not to invite these guys into the house," I requested. Willow nodded and we all climbed out of the car, with her going inside immediately afterwards.
"So what are we doing about them," Spike asked, nodding towards the watchers.
Lloyd grinned. "You don't have to do anything, we're not going to be staying here," he stated. I shot him a questioning glance. "We don't have time to explain everything tonight. We're not vampires, I'll barge into that house to prove it, but for now we have to leave."
Okay, that was sudden. "Why? Buffy can make room for one night, I know it's crowded but-"
"Don't worry about it," Todd butted in. "We might not be supernatural but we've managed to take care of ourselves so far, right?"
He had a point, but where did they need to go? What was going on? Why were they alive? All good questions no one felt like answering. And there was nothing I could do about it.
"Fine, whatever. I'm going to assume you have our number. Jordan's not here right now, he's off with Giles. Call if you need help," I said with a sigh. I'd been up too late to think strait, but I wasn't tired. So I was just going to keep things simple until someone bothered to explain what was going on. With that in mind I wished them good bye, and followed Spike towards the house.
"So that's it?" Spike asked right outside the door. "The whole bloody fight to save those guys and then they just leave?"
I nodded. "Looks like it."
"Why'd we even bother with it?" Spike muttered.
"Because I had to," I stated. "Doesn't matter now, don't wanna think about it."
He shrugged. "Fine pet, but explain everything to me when you do."
I nodded and we walked inside.
Buffy and Xander were talking to Willow. They all turned and looked at us when we came in. "Where are the old guys?" Xander asked, somewhat cheerful. Willow must not have mentioned the car yet.
"They're not staying. Don't know the story, don't really understand anything from tonight. Willow can fill in the details." I stated with a shrug. "I'm going to go for a walk, maybe kill a vampire."
Buffy frowned. "You look kind of tired."
"I'm fine," I stated, taking a step towards the door. "I'll see all of you in a bit, just need some time to think." I all but ran from the door avoiding any further questions.
One outside I slowed down and took a breath. I needed to relax, take some time to cool down. I had lied to the scoobies. I didn't need any time to think. I needed time to stop thinking. To not worry. If any vampires were stupid enough to attack me then they deserved what was coming to them.
~
First of all, sorry I took so long. Truly was my fault and I can blame it on nothing other than the fact that I'm lazy. Well, I could come up with many plausible true excuses, but it all come down to me being lazy. I'll just leave it at that.
Next, this chapter we discussed age. Now, if you can figure out exactly how old Spike is I congratulate you because the show seems to be doing a great job of confusing it. The website says one thing, but I wasn't sure if it meant he died in a certain year or was born in it. So I simply choose that he was born in it. His age is actually brought up a few times in the series. In season two he's just under two hundred, in season four he actually say s that he's 'only 126' and in season seven Wood makes some reference to it. So I choose my own age and from now on in this story that's how old he is. Sorry for any confusion.
Hey, and one last thing before the thank you. I have a deadline for this story now. I need to have it finished early June because if I don't you're going to have to wait six weeks for the ending. So I'm going to try very hard to start keeping up with the shows on TV. If I don't then I'll try to e-mail them back to my sister, but I probably won't be able to sense I'll be in Japan. Anyway:
Beyondtheslence: Glad you liked it, you're my only reviewer this time so thanks a lot ^.^ Yeah, there will be a few mistakes here, too, I'm sure. As for the Anya/Alucard. to be mentioned later I'm sure. Not quite sure as to when. And the Buffy/Elisabeth talk. Yeah, that's coming, not next chapter but the one after I think. ::nodds:: sounds about right. Anyway, keep reading!
Thanks for reading!
~Rave
"Airaei?" I turned to see who said my name. Wait, was that my name? For a moment I wasn't sure, but I looked for the voice anyway.
He wasn't here. I know who it was, some part of me did anyway, but he wasn't here. I wasn't even sure of where here was.
I couldn't describe the place. While there wasn't exactly anything here, there was me. All of me. I filled it, every though, every memory. It was all me. Not my mind though,. No, my mind was still inside my body, which was at the center of everything. I stood in the middle of wherever I was, seeing nothing yet experiencing everything that past by.
"Airaei. . ." That name again, different voice this time, still male but it sounded older and disappointed. It was a fragment of something, a memory I couldn't hold onto.
Where was I?
*The Vault.*
An answer to my question, just a memory floating by, but my mind grabbed at it, knowing it would help me. The vault? Some part of me knew what it was, it was after all my memory. I couldn't hang onto the memories though. Perhaps if I thought about something else, maybe it would answer those questions.
Who am I?
*Airaei, Learian human.*
*Elisabeth, human, Slayer.*
Two answers? I couldn't be two people. Which one was I?
~
My eyes snapped open. Where was I? What just happened? Things had seemed strange and then- well, I couldn't remember what happened then.
Carefully I sat up, looking around. It was just a dream. Nothing important, I always remembered the important ones. Glancing out the window I saw that it was just getting light out. None of the Potentials were awake yet. I didn't need to get up, but I didn't feel like sleeping. Shrugging I got to my feet. Why should it matter?
It was only a dream.
~
If silence could echo it would have been bouncing of the walls. We were all considering the plan for tonight. It was logical, nothing that I had a problem with, but unusual for everyone else. After all, who ever heard of Buffy being the one to stay at home?
She couldn't come, we knew that. If she did we would be leaving the Potentials defenseless in a very dangerous situation. We couldn't trust Alucard not to be playing us. I didn't point out that my instincts said to trust him, they also said he was a lying lunatic.
But back to the point: Buffy wasn't going. Willow was. I had the joy of taking Willow and Spike on the rescue expedition. Alucard had actually called earlier, looked up the number in the phone book. All he needed to know is if we could use one of the scoobie's cars. We all voted on Xander's, against his wishes, but that's what we were taking.
Now we knew what we were doing, for the most part, and we were all waiting on Alucard, who was coming and would be here soon. Dawn had been staring out the window ever sense the sun set, making sure we knew when he was coming. Almost exactly a half hour after sunset the doorbell rang. Dawn looked up, surprised, not having seen anyone show up.
"Don't worry, Alucard has the ability to be invisible," I half joked, not knowing whether or not it was really a lie. While it was never proven there have been plenty of times were he was rather sneaky.
Buffy answered the door and we all trooped out, Willow taking the lead and Spike coming out behind me. We got into the car, Willow and me in the front seat while the vampires shared the back. Both vamps weren't happy and they kept sending glares to each other, it was kind of funny to watch.
Willow was driving, being the only one with a real license. We didn't want complications, so we were following the law, even if we could all drive.
Again there was the silence thing. It lasted around half an hour before Willow broke it. I don't think anyone else would have, no matter how uncomfortable or annoying it got.
"So, what exactly are we doing?" Willow asked.
Alucard shrugged, really looking at her for the first time since we got into the car. "Showing up at the house, going inside, grabbing the watchers and leaving."
Willow nodded. "Where are they staying?"
"With a bunch of Wiccas. Your type of people. You should get along great," he said dryly, turning back to the window.
Willow glanced back at him, frowning. "Fine, be a grump, just trying to start conversation.
"Ignore him, he's trying to get on your nerves," I stated, not returning the glance Alucard gave me. It was true and he knew it. If he wanted them to think something else he could have his own argument. He didn't disagree with me, though.
Instead he chose to change the topic. "So he's your brother?" Alucard asked me. I nodded. "How long did you know he was staying with Buffy?"
"Almost two days," I stated.
"Why do you care?" Spike muttered.
Alucard grinned at him with a shrug. "Be a grump, just trying to start conversation," he said, mimicking Willow. He actually sounded like her, in a male way. Somehow he had used the same tone and actually pulled it off.
Spike turned to glare at him. "Fine then, for conversations sake, how old are you?"
Alucard just continued grinning. "Older than you. Older than Anya," he glanced at me for a moment. "If you guess right I'll tell ya."
"You're over a thousand?" Willow asked, sounding surprised. I hadn't assumed any age for him, and it was easy to believe what he was saying. I had no reason not to. "Then why isn't he like the master was?" Willow asked Spike.
Spike shrugged slowly. "Got a few theories on vampires like him. Nothing proven though," he stated.
"Vampires like me?" Alucard asked.
Spiked nodded. "The really old annoying ones? Yeah, you guys," he stated.
Alucard wasn't grinning, but he wasn't glaring either. He knew Spike was trying to bug him and was trying not to let it work. "So how old are you?"
"145," Spike said simply, not having anything to hide.
Alucard nodded, as if it confirmed his suspicions to something. "So you were what, twenty-five when you died?" Spike nodded. "Eight years older than Beth, have any other brothers or sisters?"
"No," Spike answered.
"Why not?"
"Mum was sick a lot," I answered quickly, leaving it at that. It wasn't a happy topic, but a true one. She had gotten worse during the years when I was a Slayer, and I hadn't been home much to help her. Mostly it had been just her and William.
In any case, Alucard stopped asking questions and the car resumed its silence, with the exception of Alucard occasionally giving directions to Willow. I let myself fall asleep to kill time, and didn't wake up until someone was shoving me from the back seat.
"Hey Liz, time to get up. We're here at the witch's house," Alucard said as I blinked myself awake. Willow and Spike were getting out of the car already. Stretching I opened the door and took a look at the house.
It looked old and was going for a Victorian theme. While the house looked worn, it also looked neat and kept up. There was a very nice porch that circled the house, with seats and flowers all over the place on it. Window boxes with runes carved into them held flowers and herbs. All in all it looked like the sort of place you might meet up with a nice old witch. All it needed was to be painted black with a few bats and it would be perfect.
"So this is the place?" Spike asked, Alucard nodded. "You couldn't have just given us directions?"
"I'm supposed to show up to prove it's you," Alucard stated with a shrug. "Their rules, not mine."
I pushed past both of them, heading for the door. "Doesn't matter, we're here. Let's grab the watchers and go." They all followed me to the porch where I rang the door bell and waited.
The door opened to a plump older woman, dressed in an old flower print dress and an apron. She quickly grabbed her glasses and put them on before looking us over one by one. Her eyes rested on Alucard when she finished. "It's you again," she didn't sound too pleased.
"Hey sweet," Alucard teased. The woman all but rolled her eyes. "Brought the Slayer and her friends. Here to see the watchers and all that."
The lady looked from me to Willow then back to me. "That one?" She pointed to me. I nodded. The lady turned back to Willow. "You're a witch, not a Slayer."
Willow nodded with a smile. "It's nice to meet you. I was hoping maybe we could take a minute to talk? It's been awhile since I've been able to have a decent conversation with a coven."
The lady smiled. "Of course, if you'd come inside?" She glanced at Alucard with a frown. "All of you?" She resented having to ask him in. We all walked inside, following her, except for Spike, who hit an invisible wall before he came in.
"What the-wait!" Spike snapped. "You invited us all in!"
The woman looked back, her face flashing surprise for a moment before she calmed down. "Oh, yes, well, I didn't mean you. You're a vampire. It's bad enough having him here," She pointed to Alucard. "We don't need you too."
"He has a soul-" Willow started.
The lady shrugged. "He's a vampire. He's evil." I wasn't so sure that was the case, but it wasn't my place to argue at them moment.
I just watched her, something wasn't right. She invited us all in, Spike included. I turned to look back at Spike, and had the strangest feeling, one I couldn't quite place. I didn't have time to think about it, though. The woman was moving on, and Spike was stuck outside. I threw him an apologetic glance but kept walking, thinking about our situation while I did so.
When had I felt like that before? It was as if. . . there was no one here. That didn't make sense, why would there be no one here? There was us, the witch, Willow, Alucard and me. I turned around once more, trying to figure it out, and then I placed it.
Suddenly I froze, turning to face the others who were still walking towards the end of the hallway. "Alucard?"
He paused, glancing back at me. "Yeah?"
"How many witches are here?" I asked.
He shrugged, "At least a dozen. . . why?"
"You sure?"
He paused again, this time as if to check something, the woman turned around to look at him before he answered. "Funny. . . yeah, there was about a dozen, but. . ."
"No one's here." I answered for him.
"What are you talking about?" the woman asked. "Come on, they're just through this door," she stated. I didn't move. "What's wrong? What do you mean there's no one here?" I just stared at her, trying to figure out what was happening. "Do you have some sort of spell?" she continued. "Wait, that's it. You have a spell!" Suddenly she chuckled. "Oh, I'm sorry, I should have said something. We have so many protective spells that if you bring any more in they get fuzzled. Things just don't work right."
Alucard didn't look sure. I was watching him now, looking for an answer in his face. He wasn't looking at me though, but instead at the woman. What she said seemed to convince him. "Yeah, that's probably it, come on Liz."
Not that I actually knew what was going on, or had a decent theory for that matter, but I didn't feel that we were safe. I knew the spell, it had been used against me before. But we were in a house of witches, they might have a reason for the spell. I couldn't think of any at the moment, but then I wasn't a witch. Willow was, she wasn't seeing anything wrong. Alucard wasn't having any problems. It was just me.
I was a firm believer in nagging doubts though. They were there for a reason. So even when I caught up to the others I pulled Willow back, mainly to keep her behind me in case anything did show up. She gave me a questioning glance and I just shook my head. I'd explain later.
"The watcher's rooms are right over here," the lady was explaining to Alucard as she led him to a door. I watched every move she made, watching for her to slip up some way, to tell me that something was wrong. But she didn't. Alucard knew her so it wasn't like she was some fake thrown in.
Unless Alucard was working against us.
I didn't believe it. Back to the nagging doubt thing, it wasn't working against Alucard. Every instinct I had was saying to trust him, that he wasn't lying. But sense when did a vampire have that effect on a Slayer? The more I thought about it the worse I felt about this situation.
The lady was opening the door now. I tensed, waiting for something to jump out at us. Nothing did. The room was empty of people. Unless the furniture was planing to attack we were safe.
She motioned us in and Alucard went first. He glanced around the room casually before turning back to us. Willow walked in next and I followed her. There weren't any other doors and I didn't see anyone. Quickly I turned back to the lady, but the door had shut and she was still outside the room.
"Okay, something's wrong here," Willow said, reading my thoughts.
Alucard nodded. "Yeah, I'd agree with that."
"What's going on," I started, then everything shimmered. For a moment it was like I was seeing things under water, then things became too clear.
I didn't know who invited all these vampires in, but someone had a death wish. Either that or all these people lived here and they made the mistake of bringing in the wrong vampire. I shot a look at Alucard who wasn't paying attention to me while he stared at the vampires surrounding us.
"Oh boy," Willow murmured. "This is when we run right?"
"Problem: there's no where to run," I muttered. "Anyway to fix that?"
Willow didn't get a chance to answer because the vampires chose that moment to attack. For the first few minutes I just focused on avoiding getting eaten. After a few nicely placed punches though I managed to pull out a stake and lower the vampire population.
Then I saw Alucard doing the same thing. He had led us here, to an obvious trap, and now he was helping us. It didn't make sense, but nothing really did so that was okay.
I took the next moment to check on Willow, who had been thrown around the room but was now mostly being left alone. I looked closer to make sure she wasn't dead. She was only a little dazed so things were okay. If I brought back a dead Willow Buffy Would kill me. Best not to do that then.
"Okay, got a question," Alucard shouted as he kicked a vampire away.
I grabbed a vampire's arm and threw him into another one while shouting back, "Okay, what is it?"
"You knew something was up, right?"
Someone kicked me in the back, I fell to the ground. "Yeah, why?" I rolled over in time to avoid someone breaking a bone.
"How did you know? I couldn't sense anything wrong," Alucard said.
I rolled back onto my feet, getting my balance quickly before someone had a chance to knock me back down again. Someone kicked at me but I grabbed their leg and swung it around so that he hit another vampire. "Oh, the lady out there wasn't human. There was a reversal spell put on the place. You should know that though. I have a strong suspicion you helped to set this up."
I caught a glimpse of Alucard for a moment. He had stopped fighting long enough to let someone get a good hit on him, doubling him over. If I didn't know any better I'd think he was surprised that I said that. "I didn't set you up," he yelled above the fight. I ignored him.
When I heard Latin I turned to Willow, who was back on her feet. She was casting some spell that I couldn't understand. I really did need to learn Latin, if only to make out what all these annoying spells were for. What ever it meant it helped. After a few choice phrases on Willow's part the spell exploded outwards, knocking me off my feet, but doing the same to the vampires.
When it was over they weren't moving, but I was.
Slowly I stood up, looking around the room of frozen vampires. "What'd you do?"
"Quick, it only effects the vampires in the house," Willow explained. "And I don't know if it'll last."
I nodded, running over to her side of the room to look out of the window. Sure enough there were vampires outside, but from the looks of it they were guarding the front door, where Spike was. "Okay, enough said, follow me."
I took a few steps back, looking around the room. There wasn't any furniture left in tact to help me so I gave up on the idea of using it to break the window. Instead I just jumped through it, shattering the glass, but making an easier way out of the house. I took a second to check for any major cuts before calling for Willow to follow me. I helped her out the window before heading for the front of the house where Spike was dealing with his own group of vamps.
"Any chance of a repeat of that spell?" I asked.
Willow shook her head. "We have to be in an inclosed area."
I shrugged. "It was worth a shot. Guess I'll do this the old fashion way," I muttered as I pulled out a stake. Willow wasn't armed though so I tossed it to her as the first batch of vamps attacked. Clumsily she caught it, but at least she was armed now.
I blocked the first punch but took the second in the gut. Gasping in pain I ducked another punch before jumping to avoid being tripped. I took a second to get a feel for what was going on before punching back, nailing one of the vamps in the chin before doing a jump kick to knock another onto the ground. I glanced at Willow to make sure she was okay, then grabbed on of the vampires attacking her long enough for her to stab it. It burst into dust in my hands as another vamp kicked me forwards, knocking me into Willow. Luckily she had moved the stake else I would have been skewered.
"Stay down for a second," I requested as I grabbed the stake and hopped back to my feet, standing over her. She was too scared to move, which worked for me. At least I wouldn't have to worry about where she was.
Four vampires attacked at once. I threw the stake into one of their hearts, making him dust as I jumped up and flipped over the vampire coming from behind. I kicked him forward, making him trip over Willow, who flinched out of the way so that he didn't land on top of her. She was smart enough to grab the stake that was near her and kill the vamp before he could return the favor.
The other two had to quickly change directions for the charge to still work. I easily tripped one before the other picked me up and threw me into the nearby porch. Hissing in pain I climbed to my feet, or tried to. My entire right leg hurt, which made sense because it had cushioned the fall. Spike noticed my dilemma and took the time to help me to my feet.
"You okay?" he asked as he casually blocked an attacker.
I shrugged. "Could be worse, but the entire walking concept isn't looking too cheerful."
Spike nodded. "Stay here, don't get killed," he stated before running to help Willow, who was the main target for attack.
Unfortunately the vampires were after me, so I couldn't stay still for long. The same guy who had thrown me before decided it would be fun to pick me up and throw me again. This time I landed in the middle of the yard, again on my leg. I glanced up, looking around for something to help me. I didn't even have a stake. There wasn't anything, though. Nothing but advancing vampires.
I stood up anyway, ignoring the throbbing pain as I did so. There would be time to deal with that later.
"Liz, Duck!" I heard a shout from behind me. I didn't waste the time looking to see who had said it but dropped to the ground immediately, turning as I did so to catch a glimpse of what was going on behind me.
The vampires from the house were unfrozen, and one of them had a crossbow, aimed for where I had been standing, and the bolt already launched. It missed me though, and landed in the heart of another vampire. He burst into dust, but that didn't make me feel any better.
The vampires out numbered us and I had no clue by how much. All I knew is that they kept coming. Three against all of them weren't good odds, even if Alucard was helping us. He had been the one who warned me, and he was fighting the vampires. So while one would only assume he brought us here as a set up, I had to consider the fact that he was still helping us. That wouldn't be a ruse, too, would it?
There wasn't time for thinking about it though, I had to try to find a way out of this mess.
The obvious thought would be why not just take the car. All the lovely vampires had considered that option, and had been nice enough to trash it so there was no chance of us getting anywhere in it. Any teleporting spells Willow might use could be too risky, and I seriously doubted we'd be able to outrun everyone. We'd have a hard enough time getting to the road.
I didn't give the vampires any more opportunities to throw me across the yard, but was still stakeless so the numbers weren't going in my favor. While the vampires kept coming we were still holding our own, kind of, which caused me to wonder why they weren't throwing something else at us. Sure, the set up was nice, and the trap went rather well on their part, but why not have someone here to finish us off?
Didn't really have time to think about that, either. Spike had thrown me a stake and I easily dusted several of the vampires around me. The fight was starting to feel almost routine so even though it was difficult it was nothing I couldn't handle.
Suddenly the vampires pulled back, regrouping elsewhere. Some ran into the house, some ran into the woods around us. I wasn't sure whether or not to be happy or worried that they left so quickly.
"Spike, do you feel anything odd?" I asked, looking around for a threat.
Spike was shaking his head. "No, I don't, but we should be leaving, anyway."
"How?" Willow asked. "Xander's car is. . ."
"Trashed? Yeah, I know," I stated. "But we can't stay here."
Tires squealed on the road and we all turned to see a SUV speeding into the driveway. The crunch of gravel was the only sound and we all just kind of stood watching. Surely the Boss wouldn't send his secret weapon against us in a Honda.
When the SUV came to a stop right behind where Xander's car lay ruined. The doors opened and two people got out.
Todd looked around the yard before his eyes settled on me. "Beth! You're okay! What'd you go and kill them all for we were coming to rescue you."
Spike looked at them skeptically. "I take it you know them?"
I nodded, not moving forward to great them. "Yeah, the watchers I've been telling you about," I stated. "But they were supposed to be in there," I pointed to the house. "And if they were they're probably dead."
"Vampires?" Willow asked.
Lloyd was nodding. "Good, you're not taking risks. And if you even think of letting your guard down I'll have one of the buggers change me just so I can come back and bite you," he said dryly. "But I have the feeling the vampires aren't all dead, and we should get out of here before they come back."
He sounded like Lloyd, and Todd sounded like Todd. Chris was even still in the car looking like a scared mouse. For all I knew they could be humans, but that didn't explain them showing up right as the threat disappeared, or how they knew we'd be here.
Spike was thinking somewhere along those lines. "I'm not thinking it would be a good thing to trust them, pet," he stated.
"Don't slayers have some mystical ability to sense these kind of things?" Willow asked.
I only shrugged. "It hasn't been working to well," I stated.
"Okay, discuss this in the car," Todd said. "I'm not trusting the sudden silence, we need to get out of here."
He had a point, as did everyone here at the moment. The main points were simple. By all reason the watchers should be dead, and were probably vampires. We couldn't wait until sun light to come to tell us because Spike was a vampire. We couldn't hang around here because there were other vampires, and probably much bigger nasties that scared the vampires away. so we had to get out of here, and the watchers were the best way out, assuming that they weren't trying to kill us. Then again, if they were trying to kill us why not just have let the vampires finish us off? Hell, we'd be long dead in a million ways if they just wanted to kill us.
Which made me wonder if the watchers were here for another reason. Again with the no time to figure it out.
"Come on, let's get out of here," I muttered, walking towards the watchers. The others hesitated a little, but we all got in, including Lloyd and Todd, who took the front seats. Todd grinned back at me, kind of saying hello, before Lloyd started the car and pulled out of the drive way.
The ride was another one filled with awkward silence. I took the time to introduce everyone to each other, which went okay. Chris was sitting next to Spike, and the moment he found out that Spike was a vampire he tried to get further away. Which didn't work because we were all crammed together.
The two hours managed to seam longer than the first ride, even without Alucard tagging along. I couldn't wait until we got back to Buffy's house.
The living room lights were still on, even though it was late. My guess was that someone was waiting up for us. "Willow, head on in and tell everyone not to invite these guys into the house," I requested. Willow nodded and we all climbed out of the car, with her going inside immediately afterwards.
"So what are we doing about them," Spike asked, nodding towards the watchers.
Lloyd grinned. "You don't have to do anything, we're not going to be staying here," he stated. I shot him a questioning glance. "We don't have time to explain everything tonight. We're not vampires, I'll barge into that house to prove it, but for now we have to leave."
Okay, that was sudden. "Why? Buffy can make room for one night, I know it's crowded but-"
"Don't worry about it," Todd butted in. "We might not be supernatural but we've managed to take care of ourselves so far, right?"
He had a point, but where did they need to go? What was going on? Why were they alive? All good questions no one felt like answering. And there was nothing I could do about it.
"Fine, whatever. I'm going to assume you have our number. Jordan's not here right now, he's off with Giles. Call if you need help," I said with a sigh. I'd been up too late to think strait, but I wasn't tired. So I was just going to keep things simple until someone bothered to explain what was going on. With that in mind I wished them good bye, and followed Spike towards the house.
"So that's it?" Spike asked right outside the door. "The whole bloody fight to save those guys and then they just leave?"
I nodded. "Looks like it."
"Why'd we even bother with it?" Spike muttered.
"Because I had to," I stated. "Doesn't matter now, don't wanna think about it."
He shrugged. "Fine pet, but explain everything to me when you do."
I nodded and we walked inside.
Buffy and Xander were talking to Willow. They all turned and looked at us when we came in. "Where are the old guys?" Xander asked, somewhat cheerful. Willow must not have mentioned the car yet.
"They're not staying. Don't know the story, don't really understand anything from tonight. Willow can fill in the details." I stated with a shrug. "I'm going to go for a walk, maybe kill a vampire."
Buffy frowned. "You look kind of tired."
"I'm fine," I stated, taking a step towards the door. "I'll see all of you in a bit, just need some time to think." I all but ran from the door avoiding any further questions.
One outside I slowed down and took a breath. I needed to relax, take some time to cool down. I had lied to the scoobies. I didn't need any time to think. I needed time to stop thinking. To not worry. If any vampires were stupid enough to attack me then they deserved what was coming to them.
~
First of all, sorry I took so long. Truly was my fault and I can blame it on nothing other than the fact that I'm lazy. Well, I could come up with many plausible true excuses, but it all come down to me being lazy. I'll just leave it at that.
Next, this chapter we discussed age. Now, if you can figure out exactly how old Spike is I congratulate you because the show seems to be doing a great job of confusing it. The website says one thing, but I wasn't sure if it meant he died in a certain year or was born in it. So I simply choose that he was born in it. His age is actually brought up a few times in the series. In season two he's just under two hundred, in season four he actually say s that he's 'only 126' and in season seven Wood makes some reference to it. So I choose my own age and from now on in this story that's how old he is. Sorry for any confusion.
Hey, and one last thing before the thank you. I have a deadline for this story now. I need to have it finished early June because if I don't you're going to have to wait six weeks for the ending. So I'm going to try very hard to start keeping up with the shows on TV. If I don't then I'll try to e-mail them back to my sister, but I probably won't be able to sense I'll be in Japan. Anyway:
Beyondtheslence: Glad you liked it, you're my only reviewer this time so thanks a lot ^.^ Yeah, there will be a few mistakes here, too, I'm sure. As for the Anya/Alucard. to be mentioned later I'm sure. Not quite sure as to when. And the Buffy/Elisabeth talk. Yeah, that's coming, not next chapter but the one after I think. ::nodds:: sounds about right. Anyway, keep reading!
Thanks for reading!
~Rave