Chapter 26

By Carycomic

MOJAVE DESERT,

SOUTH OF SUNNYDALE,

(JUNE 30, 1999)

The five of them sat before the cave that Marel N'ress, priestess of Ionia, called home,* with Violet sitting to Marel's right. While to the priestess' left sat Anyanka (a vengeance demon she had converted to Ionianism one year earlier); Sarah Nader (Dreamspeaker for the local Nuwisha); and Princess Jhiera, in that order.

"Unless they have the mixed blessing of being born into the aristocratic class," explained the latter, "the women of Odan-tel are basically slaves to their men. And, as I am the first female royal in the history of my world to actively seek to right that wrong, I basically committed treason! That's why the Garou Abomination I incinerated attacked you in the first place. She was a ronin, or mercenary, hired by Vigori woman-hunters to track me down. And, by extension, all the female refugees your priestess was kind enough to briefly shelter before sending them on to Los Angeles."

"You see," added Sarah. "...that Abomination was part-vampire. And she sought to bite you in order to control your mind and absorb your blood memories! Of course, as your people are non-Earthlings, you might have proven immune to that sort of enthrallment."

"But, I couldn't take that chance," resumed Jhiera. "Which is why I choose to be... impractical... and intervene on your behalf."

"For which I am most grateful," declared Marel. "Yet, at the same time, this incident has convinced me that we have become over-reliant on the Slayer and her human friends to protect us. That is why I have decided that _you_ must learn the same arts of combat that she was taught. So that, in case anything happens to her, you will be able to take over in her stead."

"I am at your service, priestess," replied Violet. "But, won't such training take a long time?"

"Yes and no. Anyanka tells me that there is a hellish world, in a parallel dimension, called Quor'toth, where time passes in a different fashion than it does here on Earth."

Anyanka nodded. "That's true. For example, three years there would only equal two or three days, here!"

"And three years is how long it will take me to teach you everything I know," Jhiera concluded. "It will not be easy, though."

Which is something Violet soon saw for herself after Anyanka teleported the both of them there, twenty-four hours later.

LANGLEY, VIRGINIA

SEPT. 27, 1999

(11:00 P. M./EDT)

"Dart Two is en route to Verdugo's place, even as we speak," explained Special Agent Jeffries from his side of the scrambled webcast. "With Lennox and Dart Six accompanying him as back-up. Just in case he might need any!"

"Good!" replied Deputy Director Benson. "What about Sil?"

"She's still on ice, along with Spike."

"Don't bother re-chipping him, then," said Benson. "He's proven more trouble than he's worth. Ship him out to the desert facility, instead. I'm sure Dr. Smith would just _love_ getting to work on a vampire! As for Sil? Make her chipping top priority! The sooner she's under our control, the better."

"Yes, sir."

Whereupon, Jeffries promptly signed off. Little knowing that his conversation with the CIA bureaucrat had been overheard from a most unexpected vantage point on his end! Namely...

...the ventilation shaft located behind his desk at the Initiative.

The black-and-white American short hair made it U-turn as stealthily as possible. It then hurried back toward the quarters occupied by its "owner" and her partner. Upon reaching its objective, it waited for the door to those quarters to open. A wait that, as it happened, only lasted ten minutes at most.

"Ms. Kitty?" Amy Madison called out. "Here Ms. Kitty-Kitty-Kitty!"

There was no response, however; which made Amy frown. She had been doing Wiccan magic way longer than her new life-partner. And, yet, ever since Tara had adopted that stray cat, and, even worse, given it that insipid name, "Ms. Kitty Fantastico", she had been catching on to the casting of spells it had taken Amy twice as long to study and master! It was getting to the point where Amy was beginning to think of herself and Tara as the witchly equivalent of Salieri and Mozart, respectively. And she did not like it.

That was when she heard it.

"Meow!"

"Ms. Kitty?!"

"Meow!"

There was a strange quality to the sound of those meows. Almost as if they were coming from some kind of echo chamber!

"Meow?"

As if to verify the old saying, about third times being the charm, Amy could now tell where the meows were coming from. So, she hurried to the nearest ventilation grate and dropped down on her stomach to look through the bar-like grill work.

"Ms. Kitty! How did you get in there?"

"Meow!"

Shaking her head over the ridiculousness of that rhetorical question, Amy sprang back on to her feet before going over to her dresser and rummaging around the top drawer. When she found the Swiss army knife she was looking for, she just as quickly ran back to the grate and started using the screwdriver attachment. And when all the screws had been removed, she lifted the grate up and out.

"Come here, you silly kitty!"

"Meow!"

A moment later, Amy was back on her feet, holding the contentedly purring cat in her arms. Which, in turn, made her smile... for all of thirty seconds.

"Ms. Kitty! Are you putting on weight?"

She said this as she maneuvered the cat in her arms, to see if the latter was developing a paunchy stomach. Consequently, her eyes bulged with amazement as she watched the white patches of fur disappear, from Ms. Kitty's chest and chin areas like invisible ink from a piece of paper! To be followed, a moment later, by Ms. Kitty suddenly transforming...

...into a half-grown melanistic jaguar.

"ROWR-ROWR!"

Amy could not even give audible voice to her terror and alarm as the jaguar's jaws closed around her mouth and nose.

Meanwhile, a Huey Iroquois med-evac helicopter took off from just outside the Air National Guard hangar at Sunnydale Commuter Airport. It was not, however, airlifting any patients. Strictly a mixed bag of passengers consisting of George Francisco, Kate Lockley, Alison Wonderland, and Angel. Each of them wearing a microphonic headset so they could hear each other over the thunderous sound of the rotors and converse, accordingly.

"I talked with Matthew, by cellphone, before we took off," said George. "He will meet us at the LAPD helipad when we land. That way, Kate, he and I can drive over to Russell Winters' house and demand that he rescinds the contract on William Harcourt's life."

"I'd better come with you," replied Alison. "If you try to gain leverage by threatening to out him as a vampire, he's liable to do whatever it takes to prevent that!"

Unfortunately, that prediction was already starting to come true, as Guillermo Gasol brought the body of the late Detective Sergeant Dobbs out of the morgue drawer at One Parker Place. Ostensibly, so Russell Winters could see whether or not this was the same Frederick W. Dobbs who had applied for a job as Winters' new head of security to replace the recently deceased Joseph Stacy Ingrassia.

But, all he really did was to bend down near Dobbs' right ear and whisper. "Time to wake up, Freddy-boy!"

Dobbs' eyes opened wide.

At the same time, back in Sunnydale, Lissa the Tlacique Setite had just finished ghouling Amy Madison.

"Now, repeat your instructions back to me."

"Yes, Mistress. I am to go the Initiative morgue... and release the one called Sil."

Lissa grinned like a Cheshire cat with rabies. "Good! Very good."

tbc

Marel N'ress: an in-joke reference to the character of "Mary Ellen Resse" in the 1990 made-for-TV court room thriller WEB OF DECEIT. She was played by Amy Bryson, who later portrayed the Eeno commune leader in the 1996 TV-movie ALIEN NATION: THE ENEMY WITHIN.

Nuwisha: North American were-coyotes.

Lissa: the sultry vampiress (played by singer/actress Ashanti) who almost turned Xander Harris into sacrificial shish kabob in the BTVS Season 7 episode, "First Date".