CHAPTER THIRTEEN
You see she's -
Turning the key, unlocking the door
Embracing the rollercoaster world
Stepping outside, with body and soul
Taking whatever future holds
The Corrs - Hurt Before
"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Aidan followed Dawn into the new high school.
Both of them carried clothing with them in a small duffle bags.
"Look, my sister would never let us go to the dance tonight but she'll be busy. She won't know I'm gone. Xander and Anya get so absorbed in pizza, movie and each other that the house could burn down and they won't notice, especially if I have the radio going upstairs." Dawn smiled triumphantly, tossing her long hair back. "They won't even think to look for us. I said I was working on that paper with your help."
"If you say so," Aidan said dubiously. He knew he had done something dreadfully wrong in going along with this. "This is probably a bad idea."
"It's fine. If there was any danger, they would have canceled the dance," Dawn replied but Aidan didn't look convinced.
"Why do I see myself getting grounded for life," he grumbled, heading of the men's room to change.
Dawn shot him a smile that made him forget all his worries and even how to put one foot in front of the other so he could go change. "Relax, Aidan. It'll be fun."
"I've never seen anything like this," Buffy said as the group surveyed the woodlands. Angel and Spike had found the bodies just after sun set, figuring if the killers had dumped bodies in the woods once, they might do it again. The vampires had called Buffy before the police.
"I've been to a lot of crime scenes and I've never seen anything like this," Ceara said, walking around the perimeter of the crime scene.
"You can almost feel the magic," Willow put in, looking at the four dead teens laid out heads towards each other like the cardinal points of a compass. The Moufyng symbol composed the face of that earthy compass.
"But it didn't work," Tara said, shuddering. "The evilness didn't come through but almost..."
"This is new," Giles said, his eyes narrowed intently. "They've never killed so many at once."
"Ceara, are you getting any impressions?" Wes asked.
She walked the perimeter a little more, nodding her head. "The sacrifice wasn't enough. They need more. I keep getting that. More is needed."
"How many people are they going to kill? Isn't this enough?" Tara asked plaintively. Willow put her arms around her.
"Wait a minute!" Buffy whirled on Giles. "We've been looking at this as a long string, one death at a time. What if we're wrong about them being separate? What if they don't need more singular deaths." Buffy stabbed a hand at the dead teens. "What if they've suddenly realized that taking a bunch of kids and killing them one at a time isn't working? What if more means they need to kill a bunch at one time?"
Giles' eyes widened behind his glasses. "Buffy, that's very good. We've been trying to find the missing piece and this could be it."
"You and the killers both have been looking for that missing piece," Angel interjected, putting more pieces together. "They're still stumbling their way through the ceremony."
"But this almost did it," Willow said, waving her hands at the four dead teens.
"And they needed more...we know they still have a few kids but if four isn't enough..." Cordy said, trailed off, a horrified look on her face.
"They'll need to do something bigger," Buffy finished grimly.
"They like that suggestion," Ceara said, gesturing to the dead teens. "Their spirits are happy with the suggestion. That's what they're trying to get us to see."
"So, what's bigger than this?" Spike pulled out his pack of cigarettes.
"The dance," Giles said, his face paling. "The school dance. If they can take over that, they'll have dozens of kids, certainly enough for the necessary slaughter."
Buffy's shoulders slumped. "At least I made Dawn stay home. She wasn't happy about it but she's there."
"Are you sure about that?" Ceara whirled on the Slayer. Her eyes went huge. "Teens are good at sneaking out."
"Buffy always was," Giles said, with a nod of his head.
"Xander and Anya are there," Buffy protested, but obviously losing her conviction. She was getting ready to run.
"Those two get to snogging and the circus could go through the house without them noticing. Trust me, I've seen it," Spike said.
Ceara took out her phone and called the Summers' residence. "Hi, Anya, it's Ceara. Yes, lot's of dead people but that's not what I'm calling. Please put Dawn or my son on the phone...upstairs? No, I don't care that the music is coming from the room please go check." Ceara studied Buffy's worried face as Anya went up the steps. "Door's locked? Okay, they're not in there. What? You sent Xander to go up the tree and look in? Okay, I'll wait."
"They're not there." Buffy kicked a tree killing a chunk of bark. "They're at that damn dance."
"Xander says the room's empty...okay...what? He fell out of the tree? Go check on him, Anya and if he doesn't need to go to the hospital meet us at the high school. You'll be needed to keep me and Buffy from killing them if the demon cult doesn't beat us to it," Ceara said grimly.
"I am going to kill her," Buffy snarled.
"Trust me, that boy will be thirty before he sees the light of day again," Ceara said, exchanging looks with Giles who looked close to cracking.
"Call the cops for these poor kids and get to the school?" Cordy asked.
Buffy nodded sharply. "Exactly."
"Wait until you hit a pay phone or else the cops will know who called and they'll have ugly questions for you," Ceara cautioned.
"I'm not sure that the cops in Sunnydale are that bright but I guess it's not going to hurt," Buffy said, her mind already on the high school.
"You really look nice," Aidan said, having gone from his not-so-quick change in the men's room to Dawn's locker where they planned to put their street clothes. Dawn's transformation took a little longer but she looked lovely.
Realizing she had his attention, Dawn pirouetted as she came down the hall, making the handkerchief hem of her forest green dress flare. Aidan's eyes were drawn to the empress bust that accentuated her small breasts then traveled down the green trail to where her hands disappeared under the angel sleeves. A hair clip of crystal holiday tinsel decorated Dawn's long hair. Aidan was suddenly very happy he opted for the tux he usually wore for the tv shoots.
Dawn's hand trembled a little as she took his hand and led him into the gym which had been decorated with red and green streamers. A large holiday tree dominated the corner furthest from the DJ and tables set with showy poinsettias lined the walls. A generous spread of punch and cookie had been laid out. From the festive mood blanketing the gym, it was hard to tell that several class members had gone missing.
"You do dance, don't you?" Dawn's eyes gleamed with hope.
Aidan beamed at her. "You bet."
Dawn pulled him toward the dance floor. "Prove it."
Aidan was very happy to do so. Dawn felt okay until the music slowed and Aidan slid his arms around her. She had never slow danced with a boy before. Aidan was younger than her so why wasn't he nervous, too? She had been wanting this and now it was a little scary. She mentally kicked herself. It was just a dance. She had no plans of getting serious tonight so what did she have to be nervous about? She'd kissed a guy before and that was a lot bigger step than this. Of course, that boy had been a vampire. Maybe that's what made her nervous. Still, there was no chance of bumpies and fangs with Aidan.
He smelled nice, she decided, felt nice. Besides he was just a kid, a whole year younger than her. At their age, that year might was well be a hundred given the chasm it made in the social arena. He was just someone safe and sweet to cover for the fact no one in school had asked her to the dance and it had hurt. Let the hotties of Sunnydale High see her with someone on tv and realize what they had missed out on.
Dawn moved her head from where it rested on his shoulder and, before she knew, it she was kissing Aidan. His warm mouth tasted like the punch they had been drinking. It was so different from the vampire she had kissed. Aidan's tongue pressed into her mouth. Who had taught him to kiss like this? Her mind flashed to the story his mom had told about his girlfriend who had got her lip ring stuck on his eyebrow ring.
Dawn's lips traveled to Aidan's earlobe sucking in the gold ring that dangled there. His hands explored her back as she did so. Dawn took a step away, feeling flushed. She didn't want to move too fast and this was definitely moving a little faster than she expected.
"Is something wrong?" he whispered.
"No," she lied. Dawn put her concerns on a shelf and kissed him again. She was still in control and they were in public. How far could things go?
Suddenly he stopped kissing her. Dawn looked at him, confused. He nodded over her shoulder. She turned and looked, seeing a group of people trying to push past the chaperones into the room. There had to be an easy dozen of them and they were all dressed alike, black jeans, black leather cross trainers and blue sweat shirts with Greek letters on them. All of them had their hair bleached not unlike Spike's and cut into a bob, both male and female.
"You don't think..." Dawn shook all over, her voice dying.
"The demon cultists have found us," Aidan finished for her, reaching for the cell phone in his tux to call for help.
He never got it out of his pocket. The cultists chanted something in unison and the entire gym full of people fell asleep where they stood.
Buffy's palms sweated badly as she had her companions divide up when they arrived at the high school. It was quiet, no music, no sounds of happy teens. They were too late. Buffy had to steel herself against the emotions that wanted to run rampant as she imagined Dawn dead with the Moufyng demon's symbol carved into her.
She went into the school with Angel, Willow, Tara, and Cordy on her side. Spike was leading in Xander, Anya, Giles, and Ceara from the other direction in hopes of achieving pincher action. Buffy saw Angel's face go bumpy as they prowled the halls and moments later even she could smell the blood. Her knees felt weak enough to be stirred with a spoon. It took sheer force of will to get herself moving. Dawn still had to be alive. She couldn't do this if she thought otherwise.
Angel loped ahead of her, heading for the gym. She knew his nose was taking him to where they needed to be. She had to trust Spike was doing the same. They burst through the gym doors almost simultaneously with Spike's crew. For a moment no one moved, not Buffy's team, not the cult members.
Buffy's eyes swept the room. They certainly were too late. Most of the kids were bound but alive, including Dawn and Aidan, who were nerve-wrackingly close to the killing field. They all looked groggy as if drugged. However, the cult members had started killing with the chaperones. Perhaps they had decided the moufyng didn't care about age or maybe they were taking out the adults, anticipating them to be harder to control, Buffy couldn't decide. The gym floor had been carved with the symbol, which was awash in blood from the chaperones. Sunnydale High was going to need several new teachers.
Buoyed by the fact that Dawn and Aidan were still alive, Buffy felt in her pocket for the taser they were all armed with, easy to take cultist down without killing them as much as she might like to. One of them whom Buffy assumed was the leader because he was the only one with sunglasses and had tattoos of teeth on his palms, stepped toward the carved symbol.
"Don't stop the ceremony," he barked to his companions. "And kill the intruders."
Those words were like the cracking of ice. Everything started moving. Dawn and Aidan were dragged onto the symbol at the same time as Buffy's team surged forth. Four cultists stepped forward and shouted something in a language Buffy didn't know. Giles' voice roared even as Tara and Willow started to react. The cultists' spell seemed to shattered into bright apple green light and washed over the casters. The backlash of Giles' spell nearly buried the cultists into the wall. Buffy occasionally forgot how formidable her Watcher could be.
Angel got to the cultist who was ready to sacrifice her sister and Aidan. He knocked the cultist aside before she could wield her weapon Another cultist ran the vampire through as Angel tried to pull Aidan and Dawn free of the symbol. Angel howled as the sword skewered him. Spike batted the human away then fell back screaming as his chip activated.
Buffy leapt over to Angel's side, punching the cultist still posing a threat to Dawn. The crunch of fist to bone was far more satisfying than using the taser. The man hit floorboards without so much as a whimper. "Spike, you can't help us against them. Help Anya and Ceara to get the kids to safety," Buffy ordered, moving to help Angel but he was already on the move, the sword still embedded in him where he couldn't quite reach it and pull it through. She didn't have to worry about Angel so she turned to cut her sister free but Giles was already there.
Buffy went to find more cultists to beat up. She quickly saw that against defenseless teens these guys were tough but against real competition they were like wet Kleenex. Tara and Willow had laid another five of them low with a spell while Xander and Cordy tagged teamed one of them. Buffy homed in on Mr. Sunglasses, who was bolting for the door. She slammed him into the metal gym doors. He crumpled instantly and didn't move. Blood poured from a broken nose. Buffy wanted him to get up so she could hurt him some more but had to settle for the battle being all too brief to satisfy her desire to make these killers of young people pay.
She turned to find Angel, to help him since she knew he couldn't reach the sword in his back. He was with Dawn and Aidan again, her sister clinging to Giles' son, not crying because sadly Dawn had seen far too much for that but Buffy could see she was shaken. Giles had his hand on the sword grip and yanked it free in one smooth movement. She heard Angel grunt in pain as she closed the gap. Her friends were busy tying up the cultists and freeing the kids so all she had to do was concentrate on her sister.
"Thanks," Angel said to Giles.
"Thank you for saving my children," Giles replied and it almost stopped Buffy in her tracks. She and Willow had talked on occasion about the fact that Giles had been more like a father to them than their own - or Xander or Tara's fathers, for that matter - had ever been. However, she had not often heard Giles refer to himself as part of the family, outside of the time he had given her a sizable chunk of money to keep her and Dawn afloat. Uncle, hell, he was their father and she couldn't hope for a better one.
Buffy paused to pick up two dress shawls draped over the folding chairs after the wearers realized they might look good but they were a pain on the dance floor. She tore shawl in half and without so much as a by your leave, shoved up Angel's shirt and started using the torn one to pad up either side of his bleeding wound. She put his hand over the one on his gut. "Hold it." Anchoring the one along his back, she tied them both in place with the second shawl. "Better and thank you."
He smirked. "You're welcome and thanks." His hand gently patting the makeshift dressing.
She resisted the urge to kiss him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Spike looking at them and felt the heat of his jealousy. She tried not to feel so guilty and torn. Buffy shoved both men from her mind and turned to Dawn. She wanted to yell but all she did was grab her sister and pull her close.
"I'm so sorry, Buffy," Dawn said, her voice muffled by Buffy's hair as she buried her face against her sister's neck.
Buffy rubbed her back. "I almost lost you," she whispered, choked, unable to find other words. Dawn simply shuddered in her arms, tears coming now, not many but Buffy felt a few leaking out, hot against her skin.
Beside her, Ceara swept her son into an embrace. She didn't say anything, kissing her son's cheek.
"I'm sorry, Mum," Aidan muttered, not meeting her eyes.
"Not as sorry as you're going to be," Ceara said, able to shift into stern motherhood more easily than Buffy.
Aidan didn't even look unhappy. "I'm just glad to be alive to be grounded."
"Remember that next month when you're sick of looking at me." Ceara smiled at her son.
Aidan pulled out of her arms and extended a hand to Angel. "Thank you for saving my life."
Angel shook his hand. "You're welcome."
Aidan turned to Giles. "And that was some cool magic, Dad."
Buffy didn't know how the room held a smile as big as Giles' at hearing the word 'dad.'
"It's been a while since I've done something like that," Giles admitted, puffing up proudly.
"Aidan's right. It was cool. You'll have to teach that to Tara and I," Willow piped up over the rising pitch of the cries of terrified teenagers, who were now moving from shock into grief.
"Yes, perhaps I should." Giles surveyed the room. "We had best call in the police."
"And a trauma counselor for the students," Ceara suggested. "I'm betting this place has someone on speed dial."
"I'm one of the counselor's," Buffy said, feeling odd about it. "I'm not sure how much I'll be able to help, not after they saw me kicking butt like that but I'll get started after we get everyone called."
"Anya, Xander, and I can guard the doors, make sure no one leaves because the cops will want to talk to everyone," Cordy said, practically.
"The Poof and I should probably get out of here," Spike said, looking a little shaken over what had nearly happened to Dawn. "We can double check to make sure no cultists were outside and more importantly if this lasts as long as I think it will, it'll be dawn before the cops are done."
Buffy nodded. "You two go. And Dawn, when this is all over with I'll be talking with Ceara. I'm sure she's got some good ideas for punishment."
Dawn quailed a bit as Ceara nodded. The sensitive brushed back her long hair, giving Buffy a knowing look. "I told you my son wasn't more sensible than your sister."
"I probably should have listened," Buffy said then settled in for what she knew as going to be a long night.