The Vampire as Metaphor...Book III of the (Semi) Complete Works of William Soames Walthrop...
PG-13
Summary: A lost work of one William Soames Walthrop (...aka Spike) as it was delivered at one of Cicely (see my Cicelyverse notes at the included link) Addams' house parties, shortly before Will's demise. See the reference to it in "Drusilla".
Archived (soon) at the Buffy Rebecca verse, In Book III of the (Semi) Complete Works of William Walthrop...(direct link will be.. buffyrebecca/ )
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...
Contributions to the recovery of the lost works of England's third worst poet are always welcomed...
Part V...
Young Mr. Potter was a trifle taken aback by the forthright Miss Springs' proposal...Sleep in the same room with her? Miss Ana, the hotel clerk eyeing them both, while keeping a lookout for any of the staff who might raise objections...
"You must've had to sleep with other folks before, Peter." Elizabeth frowned at him. Geesh, pal...Any of those guys out there in the lobby would be thankin' the Lord on bended knee for a chance like this. "There's no big deal 'bout it. You take the bed, I take the sofa...It being your room and all...You guys do this all the time, right?" she turned to Ana...Who blinked a moment, the honor of her beloved hostelry impugned...
On the other hand, twenty bucks... She nodded slightly. "Long as it's kept decent. And you two are betrothed, right...?" she turned to delicately blow into a large embroidered handkerchief, partly from necessity, partly to conceal her mix of chagrin and amusement.
Absolutely...Elizabeth beamed. Grabbing at Potter's hand...A swift kick to his knee as her startled new life companion began a protest.
"Then it should be no problem at all. Ummn..." Ana eyed the lobby detective, now moving their way. "Just make sure he comes up the back way by the fire escape. Our dick knows you're not married..." she whispered.
Ok...Miss Springs nodded. But...Potter tried again, blinking.
"Shut up..." she hissed harshly. "Peter..." she added, changing to a sweetly earnest tone. "You have to have a place for tonight, right? Let me do this for you..." she patted his arm... "It'll be just fine...Don't worry. I'm not bothered by it."
So long as yer as respectable as ya look…Oh, I hear those wedding bells a-chimin'. She glanced over at the lobby dick...Who was again giving them a once-over.
Nast's lair in NYC Sewer tunnel #1...Evening...
Following their host's rather enthusiastic tour of the great tunnel he currently inhabited. And his guests having expressed praise and wonderment for this monument to engineering expertise...These humans...One noted, shaking his head. We must try to keep a few alive as pets. The distinguished visitors and host, along with his own minions, including Olive and the still somewhat embarrassed Gregor took seats to continue the planning mode of their operations...
"Gentlemen...And ladies." Nast smiled at Olive and the handful of mates about the conference table.
"Our objective..." he waved a hand and light from a projection device, a more advanced form of magic lantern, shone on the wall beyond him. An image came into focus...A rather ornately carved large disk or plaque.
"The Great Seal of the California Hellmouth. Closed for at least ten thousand years."
The source of limitless occult power, he continued. (Well, for 1869 fairly limitless...)
"And the gateway to allow more of our dear Gregor's kind to rise up and join us..." Gregor giving a slightly stiff but appropriately dignified nod.
And...He gave a frown. Waving for the next slide...
"The obstacle standing in our way...One Miss Elizabeth Anne Springs, Vampire-Slayer..."
[Why couldn't he be using 'vampire-destroyer', 'demon-hunter'? Cicely sighed to herself, looking nervously at the reading William...Slayer? This is just too...
On the other hand, is nice to see him looking so relaxed now...Really hitting his stride. She gave a kindly beam to him.
Maybe I let the term slip in conversation and it stuck in his mind? Yes...she reassured herself...That's got to be it...
Hmmn...she frowned...Blonde...American...
Damn...
Well, we'll see how things go this weekend...]
A picture of Miss Springs, somewhat younger by two or three years, and bearing a rather formidable aspect...Stake clenched in hand.
Several sighs rose about the room. Though one fellow spoke up...A young nobleman from Transylvania...Several casting him deferential looks of respect...
"Not to mention the other 'obstacle', my dear Nast. You do not even know the precise location of the Seal and Hellmouth."
"My dear Count..." Nast eyed the young-looking but poised fellow, Vladimir Dracula, grandnephew and treacherous betrayer of his great rival, Vlad the Impaler, vampiral Prince of the Dracule...
"The Slayer holds the secret of the Hellmouth's location. Thus all obstacles are centered in her. Take her in the appropriate way…Or let her uncover the Mouth's location before we destroy her...And the minor problem of locating the Seal is settled."
"Take her then..." one older fellow...the famed Hans of Strasbourg...Who, with his brother, now beside him...The equally famed Franz of Heidelberg...Glared at Nast.
"If you truly are destined to seize the power of the Hellmouth and rule over all." he sneered. "A mere Slayer should present no difficulties."
Olive turned in her chair, eyeing Hans, then to Nast with a questioning look...
"My friend..." Nast gave a charming smile. "I have explained that the Slayer is isolated now…We having disposed of her previous and new Watchers…And that she bears the secret of the Seal's location. I wish to proceed cautiously, lest she, in a moment of panic, destroy herself and her information before we can obtain it..."
"Or perhaps..." Hans eyed him coldly. "You find the Slayer to be a bit too difficult to deal..." he suddenly dusted...Franz staring in horror. Others about the conference table staring with variations in expression from mild horror to amusement...and pleasure.
How?...Franz looked about where his dearly departed brother had sat. No one, nothing. Olive now smiling at him from her seat...Straightening the hair under her rather stylish hat.
"In the same way as we will deal with Miss Springs when the time comes if I lose the pleasure of getting to know her personally." Nast gave another beaming smile. Mirrored by Olive and a surprising number of others about the room...Vladimir and Franz now looking a tad uncomfortable.
"I have heard...From my own agents." Vladimir quickly regaining his composure. Nast was capable, no doubt, but one must consider one's proper place in the hierarchy and act accordingly... "That Miss Springs has a new companion with her...British..."
"Not a Watcher..." Nast smiled. "Our dear Olive has assured us of that."
"Indeed?" Vladimir eyed the smiling Olive...Who nodded.
"Just a little fellow who met her Watcher en route from England." she explained.
"Who eluded Gregor's efforts to kill him?"
Gregor gave an audible sigh...Looking downcast...
Hmmn...Nast now frowned at young Dracula. No need to hurt the poor fellow...
"Effort..." he corrected coolly. "And it was Miss Springs who accomplished the eluding. No, this gentleman is no threat to us. Simply a means by which the Watcher, Mr. Merritt supplied the Slayer with his information..."
"Perhaps...And perhaps the Council has been more clever than you suspect. He is staying with her at her hotel tonight..."
Olive eyed Nast...Hmmn?
Apart from the shocking lack of propriety...
"He could be a second Watcher...The more knowledgeable of the two sent...Masquerading as a nobody to produce just the effect he has achieved."
Hmmn...Nast eyed Olive. Gregor sighed again...Brown-hair, no dead...Bad...he murmured...Catching the gist of the conversation and summarizing it in a rather efficient nutshell.
"Doubtful..." Nast shook his head. "But even if it were true...And we should have proof when and if they separate...Tomorrow..."
Tomorrow? Several of the European guests shook their heads...
These wild Americans...
"...A Watcher is only human, and we can deal with humans rather easily..." he concluded.
"And if he is the real agent, sent to destroy or permanently seal the Hellmouth? You set us chasing Miss Springs and he separates from her to go about his task unhindered..." Vladimir gave a hard stare...Befitting a Prince of the Blood.
Is he on our side or what? Olive frowned. Considering another reach for her hat and the wooden bullet-firing dart gun concealed in it...
Several around the table gave nods, hear-hears, or growls of support to Dracula...
"The Count makes a valid point..." Nast conceded. "But you are all here because I wanted your advice and support..." An expansive smile... "And so, I will take his advice and call upon him to maintain a watch over this fellow, should he and the Slayer separate...But not to take him...Yet..." he eyed Vladimir sternly...
"A task which perhaps may turn out to be essential...And one, I trust...For the good of us all...He will accept."
Damn...Rather would've preferred being on Miss Springs' surveillance team...Vladimir sighed inwardly as Nast and the others looked at him. Wonder if Nast and his bitch...He smiled gently at Olive who relaxed a bit, pausing from straightening her hair, and returned the smile...Guessed I'd hope to take Slayer and Mouth myself...
But then nearly everyone round this table is hoping to permanently cut Nast and co out of the action at the end...he noted to himself...
Still, it was my bright idea to have this moronic human placed under surveillance...I'm foxed.
And if he does turn out to be the key to the Seal...
"I shall be glad to do what I can...For Evil's common good." Vladimir nodded dutifully.
"Hear, hear…Ladies and gentlemen…The Prince Dracule…" Nast raised a glass at his hand in tribute, delicately slipping at the blood within.
…..
The lobby of the Germania Hotel, NYC...Evening...
Mr. Potter having gone to drop bags in the room and secure a dinner table for them in the hotel dining room at Miss Springs' innocently eager suggestion...Starved she'd assured him...Miss Springs had taken the opportunity to send out a note via one of the messenger boys kept in the lobby for just such purposes.
Clerk Ana eyeing her as she did so...Noting her maneuvering of Mr. Potter...
Don't tell me she's got another feller waiting as well...
Peter returned after fifteen minutes to announce that dinner would be ready shortly and found his new acquaintance in rather deep conversation with a short, shifty-eyed little man in respectable if slightly shabby clothes.
My cousin, Willie Smackles...I got in touch sos he wouldn't get worried about me...she explained by way of introduction. Willie offering a clammy hand...
"Mr. Patter...(Potter, Peter Potter...Peter corrected patiently)...Who's been helpin' me out today..."
Hmmn...She has family here and still needs...?
"Willie doesn't have any room for me at his lodgings. And they're too far from the station for my train tomorrow." she noted hastily. Willie eyeing the young man…
Sure looked like the Watcher type...
[Watcher again?...Cicely fretted. Well, must've been talking too much...Must watch myself better in future...]
"Mr. Patter's (Potter sighed faintly, giving up) going with me to California tomorrow." she eyed "cousin Willie"...Oh?
"San Francisco...A bit to the north of where Miss Springs is headed." Potter explained.
Thats what you think...she thought, smiling...
"Peter...er Mr. Patter...Willie needs to see the book unk gave you for me. Could ya get it for him?...If it's not too much..." Not at all...Potter smiled and headed for the stairs...
Well?...she eyed her contact, "cousin Willie"...A half-demon in Council employ...Who'd given her the earlier info to go to the NYC docks to find her new Watcher.
"I can tell you if it's The Book. But that's all...I can't read it..."
She frowned...Then brightened. "Then lucky I hooked up with somebody who can..."
"But, Miss..." Willie fidgeted. "The fella's not a Watcher...And the Council won't like you getting him involved..."
"They want me to do this one, they leave me to it." She waved a hand, frowning. "You just hang round like I tole ya till I need you tonight...Gotta have my 'cousin' close by to seal the deal."
"But?...You really gonna...?" he stared at her.
"They saw him...He fits the bill…Brit and all. He'll keep some of em off my back. And since he can read The Book, he's a perfect choice..."
Matrimonywise and all...she grinned.
"Less you're suggestin' we go out West together...Without a ring." she eyed the little half-demon...
God, no...If the Council ever found that one out...Canned for sure...Still, he had to try again.
"But he ain't Council..."
"All the better..." she nodded in Peter's direction...Just tell London...
And if...When...He bites it.
No great loss...
"I'm sure they'll see the practical in that…" she noted, shrugging.
…..
The offices of the Port of the City of New York...Evening...
Detective Harris eyed his agent...Who'd kept close watch on the couple he'd been assigned to follow since the incident of that afternoon...An incident still an unresolved mystery.
In the official report, at least...
"They're at the Germania...Near the station..."
Right enough, the California train...Harris nodded.
"...Seem to be staying..." the agent paused, delicately...
"Together?" the detective eyed him...Hmmn...
Sounds interestin'...
If not quite fittin' and all the more interestin' for that.
…