Atlee led Dinah wordlessly down the long corridor to his office. The walls were lined with trophy's and portraits of previous headmasters. Dinah was always surprised at how different each head look. Some smiled down kindly at they passer by, others glowered. One, Rudolph Manson 1958-1964, sat crossed legged on a purple bean bag. He beamed out from underneath his long dark hair shooting the students a 'peace' symbol. Dinah smiled back at the portrait, 'My kind of head teacher' she thought struggling to keep up.
She skidded slightly on the tiled floor as Atlee stopped abruptly and produced the key to his office.
The door to Atlee's office was surrounded by wooden shields bearing the names of every single head boy and girl since the school was first established three hundred years ago. Guiltily Dinah scanned the names. There were fifty seven Wyndam-Pryces on the shields, including her elder brother Wesley. She highly doubted that she's be joining him on the door somehow.
Despite the amount of times that she had been told off by Atlee Dinah had never actually been into his office. She had heard rumours that it was like some sort of torture chamber with hideous implements hanging off of the wall. But she had assumed that it was just something that the older students tell the new kids on their first day.
She was slightly disappointed to find that she couldn't see much as she slumped into the office after the Atlee. It was pitch black. She groped around for a seat and sank down into one of the comfortable leather chairs by the wall. Through the dim light Atlee shot her a look of contempt and flicked on an old projector screen. Dinah looked at him quizzically but he didn't explain. With a twisted grin he pulled open the letter and slammed it down onto the projector.
A black and white photograph filled the screen. It was a security camera shot of a London double Decker bus, Dinah groaned knowing what was coming.
"Would you care to explain this Wyndam-Pryce?" Atlee smirked evilly.
Dinah found that his triumphant expression had really annoyed her. Deciding to push her luck she smiled back as innocently as she could and replied:
"It's a picture of Knightsbridge sir. See, If you look carefully you can see Harrods."
"That's not all I can see." He snarled, eyes flashing dangerously "Tell me Wyndam-Pryce, who's that on top of the double Decker bus?"
There was nothing for it. "Erm.. It's me sir." Dinah sighed
"Care to explain why you and you friends were doing in London on a school night?"
'A bit of shopping? Sight seeing? What does it look like?' she screamed in her head. It was probably better that it stayed there "Fighting a vampire on a double Decker bus sir." She replied coolly
"You know that this is grounds to have you all expelled don't you?" He smiled moving opposite her and crouching down so that they were eye to eye.
Dinah would have invited this but she couldn't let her friends down, she was forced to do the one thing that she hated most, beg.
"Sir please." Dinah moaned "The others only came to make sure that I didn't get into trouble! You can't expel them."
"Yes I can" Atlee growled in her face. Dinah opened her mouth to protest but he cut across her "But I won't."
Atlee rose and switched off the projector. After a moment the lights came back on and Dinah could see the office in all of its horrific glory.
As with the corridor outside it was filled with placard, portraits and trophies. However these trophies were not like the golden cups and shields outside. The decapitated heads of a hundred various monsters screamed silently down at the rooms inhabitants. It was the most ghastly and horrific sight that Dinah had ever seen. It seemed that there was some truth behind the rumours then.
She gaped open mouthed at them for a moment before Atlee's voice pulled her attention back.
"You and your friends seem to have a knack for vampire slaying miss Wyndam-Pryce." He was saying. "There are very few Watchers capable of matching your achievements. You're a strong fighter girl, an excellent magician and your test scores are almost as high as your brothers. It's just a shame that you don't share his regard for the school rules."
"We can't all be perfect." Dinah shrugged "But he's making up for it now sir."
"Indeed" Atlee muttered, his lip curling in contempt
Dinah shuffled in her seat agitated, "This is all very flattering Mr Atlee but what has it got to do with you not kicking me out?"
Atlee reached into his desks draw and pulled out yet another photograph "We, that is the council and I, need you to run a small errand." He said in a business-like manner moving back around the desk so that they were once again face to face.
"Why can't they get a Watcher to do it?" Dinah sighed
"It is too trivial for them to waste resources on at the moment but without attention they feel that the situation could escalate."
"And the situation is..?"
"We just need you to retrieve something from the Tower of London."
"What?" Dinah laughed incredulously "Why don't you just ask them to hand it over?"
"Because the towers guards do not know about this object." He Atlee explained "You see miss Wyndam-Pryce, two hundred years ago Angelus.."
"Oh, I knew it!" Dinah cut across him angrily. She rose up and marched towards the door "This is just another Angel bashing exercise. How many times must I..."
"Don't interrupt girl!" Atlee bellowed angrily. Dinah stopped in her tracks and turned to face him wearing the darkest look that she could muster
The head teacher continued angrily "As I was saying, two hundred years ago Angelus, William the Bloody, Darla and Drusilla took over a dungeon in the tower. They preyed on anyone foolish enough to wander down there. The guards officials began to avoid it and soon it was forgotten. A distant and unpleasant memory that turned into an urban legend. Soon the vampires grew hungry and left their hideout in search of food. They sealed up their dungeon and all of the treasures that they collected and left."
"So you want me to get one of these 'treasures'?" Dinah demanded
"Indeed. Miss Wyndam-Pryce we need you to retrieve the amulet of Andvari." Atlee handed her the photograph. It was a copy of a sketch depicting a small star shaped amulet on a long fine chain. "It is an amulet powerful enough to give its owner control over the beasts of the underworlds. They are dark, evil creatures miss Wyndam-Pryce that once rose up to enslave humanity."
"But were banished by the gods and sent to live in a hell dimension. Yes sir, I know the story." Dinah replied impatiently as he scowled back "Sir, It's been down there for two hundred years and nothings happened. Why do I have to get it now?"
"Darla." Atlee replied simply.
Dinah shook her head despairingly and sighed "She's in L.A sir. Wes said that Wolfram and Heart have her."
"Therein lies the problem." Atlee explained moving to sit behind his desk "The council have received information that Darla has informed Wolfram and Heart of the amulets whereabouts and we feel that it is more than likely that they will be sending a member of their London branch to get it."
There was a long pause while Dinah decided what to do. Coming to a decision she replied "Okay, I'll get it. I'll need to talk to Angel first and find out how to get through the sealed door though."
Atlee shook his head "No." He said firmly "You are not to mention this to Angel and his team."
Dinah stared back incredulously. He didn't seriously expect her to do all of this behind Angels back did he? She didn't know Angel very well but Dinah knew how Wesley felt about him and it didn't feel right not at least warn him about this. "But they'll need to know that Wolfram and Heart are trying to raise up the beasts of the underworlds!" She protested.
"The council see no point in alerting them if we get the amulet first."
"What about the seal on the dungeon?" Dinah demanded angrily "I need to ask Angel how to get past it!"
"I believe that Miss Phillips is rather adept at magic, and that Mr Jules is an excellent researcher. They will be able to help you work it out. And I suggest that you take Mr Bruce, brains and magic are all well and good but sometimes you can't beat brute strength." His mouth had twisted into his familiar evil grin as he finished.
"You seem to have everything all worked out sir." Dinah replied levelly, attempting to disguise her anger. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he'd gotten to her. "When would we have to go?" She asked through gritted teeth.
"Tonight."
"I can't tonight sir." She shook her head "Amy and I are teaching the first year magic club some battle spells."
"I'm afraid that it must be tonight." Atlee snapped, his eyes flared dangerously "That is of course assuming that you and your friends wish to remain in this school."
"I can't answer for them sir."
"Of course not." Atlee grinned waving her out of the office "Let me know by the end of the lunch break."
Dinah slammed the door angrily and left the smirking teacher to make a very important phone call.
"She'll do it" He smiled into the receiver.
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Lindsey paced agitated by the window overlooking the city. It was dark outside and the streetlamps and headlights made it seem as though he were god, staring down at the stars. He didn't feel very godlike though, far from it.
He flopped down onto the leather couch by the window and ran his fingers through his long dark hair despairingly. A voice called soothingly from the shadows making his head jerk to attention. The pretty young woman with shining golden hair slinked towards him and handed him a brandy.
"Will you relax?" Darla sighed sitting down beside him.
"How can I?" He moaned "If I mess this up then the senior partners will have me killed."
A third voice made them both jump up. There was a woman sitting at his desk, feet up as though it were her own office She had even helped herself to a drink "What a shame that'd be." She smiled.
"Get out Lilah!" Lindsey snarled. How long had she been there, spying on him?
"Now Lindsey!" She laughed in a mock offended tone as she straightened herself up "is that anyway to speak to your partner?"
"What?" The young man breathed incredulously as the woman cackled.
"Oh didn't you hear? The senior partners would rather that this one didn't go horrifically wrong so I've been asked to step in."
"Nothing's going to go wrong." Lindsey snapped. He was annoyed that he hadn't even been told about this. Hid just come out of a meeting about it for goodness sake! He thought that someone might have at least mentioned it.. Lilah sneered at him, delighted to see that her involvement was annoying him so much.
"You sound very sure of yourself." She crowed "Haven' you learnt by now that when Angel's involved things have a nasty habit of getting tricky?"
"Angel isn't involved."
"Not yet," The woman shrugged "but do you really think he'll sit back while we unleash the big bads?! And Has it crossed your mind that things could go wrong in England?"
"What could go wrong?" Lindsey snapped impatiently "The girl gets our amulet our man gets the girl and we're done."
Lilah shook her head knowingly and said in a mock helpful tone "Which isn't going to help us much with the Angel situation. He's not going to be happy when you kill his friends sister is he?." Lilah downed the rest of her drink and walked over to the pair. Darla's lip curled in disgust. She hated this human.
"We can handle Angel." She growled
"Yeah," Lilah laughed "you've been doing just great up until now. "How is your hand by the way?" She asked viciously to Lindsey but kept her eyes fixed on Darla.
"Everything will work out." Lindsey snarled through gritted teeth as the girls glared at each other.
Lilah turned her attention back to Lindsey "And you know this for certain do you." She demanded sarcastically "Tell me do you know anything about this girl and her friends? She's not like her drip of a brother, she can fight. She'll be expecting an attack."
"But not from the inside." Darla smirked, glancing at Lindsey. He looked delighted to find that he'd caught Lilah by surprise. It seemed that she didn't know this part of the plan.
"What?" She asked totally bemused.
Darla turned to look at the tinkling lights of the midnight city and said softly "Miss Wyndam-Pryce is about to meet an old friend of mine."
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The students idle chat rang through the dining hall as Dinah, Mod, Olly and Amy took their usual table by the window. It was occupied by a giggling group of second year girls when they'd reached it but with the four of them scowling as they slouched towards them the poor second years soon got the message and changed tables.
Amy slammed her fork down after just one mouthful of her lasagne and turned to the others.
"We don't have a choice do we?" She said through gritted teeth
"Nope." Dinah shook her head sadly. She had spent the past half hour blaming herself and nothing that the others said had helped to ease her guilt. There was a long pause as they all glared moodily at there plates. Eventually Olly broke the silence
"How did he find out?" He moaned, jabbing his potato angrily "We're always leaving the school and hunting, we've never been caught before."
Dinah looked up darkly at the others "Oh, I reckon he knows that we go out." She growled "He just hasn't needed our help before. Now he needs us it's bribing time!"
"It sounds a little off to me." Mod said shaking his head "Sending students to do a Watchers job? And not letting you talk to Angel about it? Something stinks."
"Might be these fish fingers." Olly smiled, attempting to lighten the tone. He gave Mod's plate an overdramatic sniff and pretended to faint "Yuck!"
"Olly!" Amy sighed "This is serious! Were either facing a probable trap or certain expulsion."
"What do we do then?"
They all turned to Dinah but it was Mod that spoke first. "I say we do it! I'd rather face whatever Atlee has up his sleeve than explain why I was kicked out to my mum!"
A look of terror passed over all of their faces as they each imagined going home to their parents with the news.
"Yeah me to." Amy shivered turning back to her lunch. As she lifted her fork pandemonium broke out. Something big had landed on her plate spraying the four of them with lasagne. The all leapt up and stared wildly around to see what had caused it.
Across the hall several first years were running screaming away from the lunch line where a small purple figure was lobbing baked potatoes around the room. It cackled shrilly and bared it's pointed teeth at the students. Dinah recognised it instantly as an imp. It must have escaped from the demonology lab.
The four of the rolled up their sleeves and ducking down to avoid the rain of flying vegetables made their way across the room. Once they were near enough Amy leapt making a grab for the imp but it leapt up to the lampshade and she dived head first into counter. The imp shrieked with glee as the spluttering Amy straightened herself and brushed a large dollop of pasta from her blond hair.
Apoplectic with rage she summoned a fireball out of thin air and threw it with all her might at the taunting little imp. It shrieked as it hit him and sent him hurtling painfully onto the table bellow. Plates and tables went flying as she four of them sped after the creature and the other students fled.
"Ow!" Olly yelped suddenly "That was my shin you little.." He swung a kick at the imp who avoided it skilfully. It turned to gloat but instead found itself lifted off the floor. A glowering Dinah was holding the little purple monster at eyelevel as it twisted and kicked in an attempt to free itself.
The dining hall door suddenly slammed open. It appeared that the teachers had heard the commotion from the staff room and had come to investigate. Atlee was purple with rage as he stepped into the room. There was food and broken chairs everywhere. Several of the bookcases lining the walls had been topples and every single student had spaghetti in their hair. He cast around wildly to find the cause of all of this mess and found himself meeting Dinah's sheepish gaze. She skidded forward over the slimy floor with the imp still struggling under her arm and smiled
"We've been mulling over your proposal