And now, the story continues.
An Eternal War
Chapter Fifteen
By IceWing (icewing@one.net)
Chapter 15
The shattered and bleeding form of a vampire landed on the floor with a sickening splat. The dark robed figure looked up from the copy of the Wall Street Journal which hid most of his face. "I am assuming that there is a reason for this spawn to be bleeding on my floor?"
"Yes Lord," spoke what appeared to be no more than an animated suit of armor. "We found this vampire, along with several others in the caverns to the north of town. They were wandering about in the caves and made the mistake of trying to attack us for dinner. We decided to bring one back when one of the undead dispelled a warrior with this weapon." The gauntleted hand offered up what on first glance looked like a small stalagmite.
"This was the weapon? Are you sure?"
"Yes Lord Ezekial. I personally broke the vampires arm off and took it from the resulting dust pile. This is what it used."
Zeke calmly folded up his paper and pulled out a set of bifocals, putting them on as he took the object. He hefted it first, then held it up and closely examined the grain and structure. "Don't see many like this around." He turned his attention to the vampire bleeding on his floor. "Do you have a name or do I just call you mulch?" The vampire moaned incoherently in response. Zeke sighed then focused his concentration.
The air between him and the battered wreck of a corpse seemed to shimmer and almost spark, then with a loud pop, the most grievous wounds on the vampire closed and vanished from sight. The vampire screamed in pain, then passed out. "Wake that up please, and without inflicting to much more damage if you could."
The suit of armor picked the vampire up, and carried it to a nearby aquarium, where it proceeded to resuscitate the vampire by the tried and true method of dunking its head in the water until it sputtered awake. The now conscious but disoriented creature was dragged back across the room and stood in front of Ezekial.
"So glad that you could join us this evening."
"Get stuffed!" snarled the vampire, as it was regaining its not so formidable wits. One of the two armored beings who were currently holding the vampire upright decided to end said disrespect quickly and grabbed the vampire's forearm and snapped the bone with a quick twist downwards.
"Speak politely to our Lord or I shall remove your foul tongue from your head!"
The vampire nodded dumbly as he looked at the bone sticking out of a tear in his sleeve.
"Now, as I was saying," Zeke continued as if nothing had occurred. "You have been brought before me because the item you used against my minions intrigues me. Could you be so kind as to enlighten me as to where exactly, and I do mean exactly, you found this particular curiosity."
Seeing bone sticking out of your arm can be a very good motivator for conversation, under the proper circumstances. The vampire was quite willing to inform his host that he had found the rock in question in the cavern in which they had attacked the scouting party. The vampire who had been leading them, and was now a pile of dust eighty feet underground, had assumed they were a bunch of humans doing some live action role playing or something similar. So he had picked up a rock, cuz the helmet the guy now holding him was wearing looked pretty damn thick.
Zeke thanked the vampire, handed him an envelope from the desk and told him he was free to go, providing he left the continent within 24 hours. The confused undead was hustled out of the room as Zeke turned the object over in his hands. One of his lieutenants came into the room a few moments later to inform him that the vampire had been booked on a flight to Japan and would be off the ground in three hours.
"Excellent," replied Zeke as he stroked the smooth surface of the object.
"Lord, may I ask as to what is so interesting about that rock you are holding?"
The magic user laughed softly. "This is no rock. It's a pointer to what I am searching for. No rock could dispel a spirit. But a dragon's talon could."
Faith sat on the edge of Xander's couch, lost in the sheaf of papers she was reading through. "Six houses?" she said incredulously. "Man, this is just to much" Glancing over at Xander, she saw he was staring off into space, somewhere between infinity and a hamper of dirty laundry. "Xan? You ok?" she said softly. There was no response. Her gaze softened for a moment as she watched him. He was so still. As if he were lost in his thoughts and nobody would ever know him on a deep enough level for him to reveal those thoughts. Faith knew how much this never ending struggle had cost Xander, and how little he had had in the first place from which to draw. But none of that ever had stopped him from stepping up to the line and fighting for what he stood for, no matter the cost.
Silently, she stepped up beside him and gently lay her hand on top of his. He turned his head and their eyes met. "Xander, what would you say if I asked you to move out of this basement and into one of the rooms of the mansion. I don't think I could handle being there alone all of the time."
Xander silently considered this proposal then nodded slowly. Faith smiled softly then looked away. "Xander, did you mean what you said to Buffy earlier? About not wanting to open your heart again?" Her eyes focused on the floor, as she knew she was coming dangerously close to that territory where neither of them knew what would happen.
The Zeppo chuckled sadly. "Ask me to move into your new house, then asking me about my heart. Geez, Faith, not one to ask tough questions are you?" He looked over and saw regret appearing on her face. His hand wrapped around her's and he squeezed it gently. "What I said to Buffy was regarding her. I loved her with all of my heart once, but she just used me, time and time again. All it would have taken was a single time when she could have smiled at me and asked me out, or just let me know that my love hadn't been wasted on barren soil. I would have done anything for her, but she didn't care. I wasn't as suave as her boys in LA, or as dangerous as DeadBoy. I was just me. Plain old me."
"There's nothing plain about you Xander, and if Buffy is too dense to see how great you are, she doesn't deserve you."
"Thanks Faith." He squeezed her hand again and looked down at it. "Maybe the best way to clarify what I said to her would be to just say that Buffy stomped on me one time to many and I moved on. Hell, I think I actually moved on a while ago, but I felt so empty inside that I have been clinging to what I felt for her for so long, even though its been over for a while." He let go of her hand and carefully, almost timidly, lifted her chin so their eyes met once more. "But none of that answers what I think you are really asking me. And that would be would I be willing to let you into my heart. Faith, that time out of time that we spent together in limbo, I." He stopped, unsure of how to continue, doubting if he should continue at all.
"Please Xander, finish," she pleaded.
"All those months, I felt myself getting closer to you. All the distrust and skepticism slowly fading away as we got to know each other and I got to know the real you. The you that you keep hidden under all of that armor you have built up over yourself. And you, you have seen parts of me that nobody, not even Willow or my folks, know. And what makes it weird or special or whatever is that the very fact that you do know everything about me makes things a little bit better. So I was telling the truth, that I can't offer my heart up to anyone else, because somewhere along the way, somehow, you found my heart when I wasn't even looking for someone to fill the emptiness I had come to take for granted."
Together, the leaned in, their lips softly pressed against one another in an
innocent kiss which in its infinite depths promised so much more.
After a moment, they separated and Xander grinned. "My only conditions
are that I get my own room, and I don't do windows."
The resulting pillow fight left feathers everywhere.
* Tap Tap Tap *
Giles was amazed at the fact that somebody, anybody, had actually had the courtesy to knock on the door to his flat as opposed to simply barging in as if they owned the place. He walked calmly to the door, think the entire way that it had to be some evil creature, perhaps an Amway salesman or Jehovah's Witnesses. He opened the door, ready to shoo away whoever, or whatever, was waiting, when instead he found Xander and Faith standing there. He managed to cover his surprise by sipping his tea for a moment before asking what the purpose of their visit was.
"Aren't you going to invite us in?" asked Xander.
"In this town, I bloody well think not!" But he did step out of the doorway to allow them entry.
They entered and he closed the door behind them. He realized that there was something different about both of them. Xander seemed more composed and focused while Faith had taken some of her emotional armor off in the fact that she no longer seemed to be rebelling for the sake of rebellion. "Please, both of you, take a seat. Could I offer you some tea?" Both opted for soda instead. After a few moments of silence, Giles eyed them carefully. After a moment of observation, he determined for himself that the two of them had not slept together but were now intimate on a far deeper level. Indeed, both had realized that the walls, which they each had so carefully built and strengthened, had turned from a defense to a prison for their hearts and souls. And both had taken that first step in tearing the walls down. "Well, what can I do for the two of you this morning?"
"We just wanted to let you know that we're going to be moving out of Xander's basement." Faith said.
"Might I inquire as to where you shall be relocating to and how you came into whatever domicile this would be?"
"Well," Faith started acting more insecure than Giles could ever remember. "The mayor kinda left me a mansion here in town."
"A mansion? From the mayor?"
"Plus a whole bunch of other stuff. Including more books than I have any kind of clue what to deal with. Which is where you come in. We discussed it last night and we want you to help us. We're going to stick around town, at least for a while and we kinda thought we could trade services. You can use the books as much as you want, kinda be our Watcher, and help us. The Council isn't exactly going to be willing to help a psychotic slayer and a normal human, but we still want to fight. Plus, we can pay you."
"You keep saying we. Are you two, how shall I put it"
"An item?" said Xander.
"Sleeping together?" chimed in Faith. "No we're not sleeping together"
"Different bedrooms in fact," chuckled Xander. "But we do have feelings for one another. And if you would be so kind as to not broadcast that information to the rest of the well, to anybody else, at this point, we would appreciate it."
"So, to make sure I understand this, you want me to become a kind of watcher and trainer to both of you, in return I will be able to use all the books the mayor had, receive a salary and irritate the Council." Giles laughed. "That's simple. I would be happy to provide such services." He paused. "This may mean some contact between the both of you and Buffy and Willow. Will working and interacting with those two cause problems?"
The two renegade Scooby gang members looked at each other then back to Giles. "No, we won't start anything as long as."
The door swung open and Buffy and Willow came in, talking to each other about how they could best get Xander to listen to them. Neither noticed the participants of the interrupted conversation until they were standing in the front of the kitchen.
"Xander!" exclaimed Willow just as Buffy was snarling Faith's name.
"Oh My Here we go again," said Giles in an exasperated tone.
But before the fireworks could truly begin, a huge hulking figure stooped and entered through the still open front door. Chaos broke out in the apartment as the occupants took in this new figure and reacted. It had horns sprouting from its head that brushed the ceiling, a massive frame and radiated an awesome strength.
"Oh Boy!" muttered Xander in his best Sam Beckett voice, just as two seemingly normal humans stepped through the door behind the monstrosity currently taking up a good chunk of Giles' living room.
"Die Demon!" Buffy yelled as she spun, grabbing a sword from the display case and moved to attack.