Chapter 14: Ambush

Dawn and Buffy appeared in a flash of green at the motor lodge in the room that Dawn and Clay had found Leblanc's scrapbook in. No one was there.

"Gone," Dawn said. She looked at her sister. "This isn't the only room they would have been staying in. Marsten wouldn't be caught dead camping out on anyone's floor." They teleported out of the room and onto the balcony.

Buffy watched as Dawn moved down the hall, pausing at each door and trying to pick up Cain's or Marsten's scent. Three rooms past LeBlanc's, she stopped.

"Cain," Dawn said. She waited for Buffy and then teleported them inside. "Check it. I'll check for Marsten's." She teleported back out to the balcony.

Marsten had the next room down. Dawn teleported inside. She didn't find anything and then was about to rejoin Buffy when she caught a familiar scent. She teleported to Buffy and brought her sister back. "Sniff," she said as Buffy sniffed. "Jeremy," she said.

"He must have been here checking things out," Buffy said. "Can you track him, magically?"

"If this was before I was bitten, no," Dawn said. "I couldn't tell he was a werewolf then. Since the only one I had ever met was Oz. Yes, now I can track him." She took Buffy's hand and they disappeared in a flash of green.

Buffy and Dawn appeared in an alley. They instantly found a puddle of blood near a corner.

Dawn bent, put a finger to the blood, and then lifted it to her nose.

"Well?" Buffy asked.

"Jeremy's," Dawn whispered.

"And there's plenty more here if you'd like a closer look," a deep voice said.

Buffy and Dawn looked around, and then saw a loading dock to their right. Buffy hopped onto the three-foot-high ledge and disappeared into the darkness of the opening. Dawn followed. At the back of the loading dock, Jeremy sat in the corner, propping his right leg on a broken crate as Antonio tore strips from his shirt. As the sisters approached, Jeremy lifted his left arm to push his bangs back from his face, then winced and used his right hand instead, letting the left fall awkwardly to his side.

"Are you okay?" Buffy asked.

"Peter's dead," Jeremy said. "We were ambushed."

"We were heading back to the car," Antonio said. "I took off to find a bathroom. Five minutes. I must have barely turned the corner and—Less than five minutes. While I'm taking a damned piss-break—"

"They were waiting for an opportunity," Jeremy said. "Any of us could have turned our back for a moment and they would have attacked the other two."

Antonio glanced over his shoulder. "The new one, the mutt that killed Logan, attacked Jeremy with a knife. They jumped Peter and Jeremy. No one had time to react. When I showed up they took off. I'd have gone after them, but Jeremy was bleeding pretty badly."

"Not that I would have let you go after them anyway," Jeremy said. "We don't have time to rehash events now. We need to get things cleaned up and go." He started getting to his feet. Clay hopped over a crate and helped him up. "We left Peter at the scene."

"In the garbage," Antonio said. "That wasn't right. I'm sorry, but Jeremy was bleeding and I—"

"You needed to find a quick hiding spot," Jeremy finished. "No one's blaming you for that. We'll get him now and take him home. Where are Nick and Clay?"

"Probably on their way to town," Dawn said. "Cain met us out in the woods. Nick hadn't Changed so we went a few miles away and Cain followed us. Tried distracting us."

"From what was going on here," Antonio said.

"When we realized, I grabbed Buffy's arm and I teleported us straight to Bear Valley looking for you. Since becoming a wolf I can magically track people by their scent. Once I picked up your scent at the motel, Jeremy. I was able to teleport us here."

"I am glad you are not only one of us, Dawn," Jeremy said, "but a witch as well."

Buffy helped Jeremy down from the dock. Antonio gave Dawn his car keys and told Dawn where it was. She teleported to it to back up the car to the end of the alley. When Jeremy, Antonio and Buffy got to the garbage heap, Antonio uncovered Peter and cleaned him off.

"Since it wasn't Cain," Buffy said. "That mean's it was Marsten. Since you are injured and I'm a Slayer. Once we get you back to the house. I will track Marsten down."

"Marsten didn't kill Peter. Daniel did," Jeremy said.

When they reached the house, they found Clay and Nick waiting, both men furious at being left behind. Antonio filled them in as Jeremy asked the sisters to help dress his wounds. Normally, Jeremy would be the one doing the nursing. He was the Pack doctor; he had even treated Buffy a time or two when she had come back from a patrol after a bout with rather nasty vampire.

"Leg first?" Dawn asked Jeremy as he took his box of medical supplies from the bathroom closet.

"Arm. Buffy, you get the bone in place. Dawn, you splint it."

Jeremy sat on the toilet seat and Dawn crouched beside him as they worked. It was a clean break, not an open fracture, so there wasn't any of that nasty pulling the bone back under the skin stuff required. She remembered one time she had to do that for Buffy about sixty years ago. She had not relished the task and neither had Buffy.

After Buffy got it realigned, Dawn placed the padded splint under Jeremy's arm. Then she got the bandage roll out. She bound it first below his elbow, then above his wrist. Then she fashioned a sling to keep his arm elevated. It took a while, but it was fairly easy … compared to what he wanted them to do next.

"One of you will need to stitch up my leg," he said. "I can't do it with one hand,"

"I'll do it," Buffy replied. "We don't want Dawn fainting."

The three of them laughed. Buffy knew her sister was not one to faint at the sight of blood. Still she was used to seeing it more than Dawn was.

"Grab the facecloth," he said as Dawn wet a cloth, cleaned the wound, and then applied antiseptic. "Get the tape."

Using the tape and some fancy maneuvering, they got the blood flow stopped before Jeremy passed out. He took something that looked remarkably like a needle and thread from the kit and handed it to Buffy.

Buffy was nearly done when Dawn felt a rush of anger that this had happened to Jeremy. She glanced at her sister noticing Dawn's face, which made herself think about how everything had happened. First her being bitten, then Logan being killed and now Peter.

"So we're up against three experienced mutts," Jeremy said.

"Plus at least one new one," Dawn said, thankful for the distraction.

"I haven't forgotten, though I'm more concerned about the experienced ones," Jeremy said. "Yes, they're good—my arm and leg prove that—but they're not on the same playing field as Daniel."

Dawn broke off the thread. "That's because you know Daniel. And even if you don't know Marsten and Cain equally well, you know what to expect from them because they're like you. They think like you, they react like you, they kill like you. These new ones don't. Werewolves don't strangle people. That's how LeBlanc killed Logan and he succeeded because it's the last thing Logan would have expected. I think the only thing that saved Buffy from LeBlanc that night was that he had seen her bite and thought she was likely dead, not knowing that either of us can't die. Then he pulled a knife on you. You'd expect that as much as a samurai would expect a kick in the balls. That's why LeBlanc is still alive. He threw you off balance. If—"

"We've dug the grave," Antonio said, coming into the bathroom. "I'm sorry. Did I interrupt something?"

"Nothing that can't be finished later," Jeremy said, getting to his. "I'll get dressed and we'll go out."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Dawn and Buffy went to Peter's burial site with Jeremy. It wasn't something either sister particularly wanted to do; they had been to too many funerals in the last two hundred years. Most of them for people they had known, personally. Buffy helped support Jeremy as they walked thankful she still had access to her Slayer strength.

Although Jeremy had to be in tremendous pain, he never showed it. He accepted Buffy's arm going to and from the grave site, but never put more than the minimum amount of weight on it. Only when they were heading back to the house did he pause for a second, presumably to catch his breath, though he pretended to be checking a crumbling stone in the garden wall.

"I guess we should grab some sleep now," Dawn said, feigning a yawn. "I know I could use it."

"Go on, you two," Jeremy said. "You both have had a rough couple of days. Especially you, Buffy, with the fact…" he left the sentence unfinished. "I want to discuss what we found in Bear Valley before we were ambushed, but I can fill you both in tomorrow."

"Everyone's probably exhausted. We can meet in the morning, can't we? I wouldn't want to miss anything," Dawn said.

"I'd like to get through it tonight. If you two want to be there, claim the couch and you both can doze while we talk."

"You need to sleep," Dawn said. "Your leg has to be killing you, not to mention your arm. No one's going to think anything's wrong if you delay the meeting until tomorrow."

"I can handle it. But if you want to help, you can round up the others and get them into the study, if they're not already there."

"If you'd like us to really help, I can knock you unconscious until morning," Buffy said.

He gave the sisters a wry half smile that said Buffy's suggestion sounded more tempting than he cared to admit. "How about a compromise? Dawn you can help by rounding up the others and Buffy can fix me a drink, preferably a double."

Buffy watched as Dawn raced off to get the others. She then looked at Jeremy. "This is orchestrated isn't it?"

"I believe so," Jeremy replied. "Everything including your being bitten. Remember Daniel was at one time part of the Pack. He would have known of your immortality as the rest of the Pack does. So he told Marsten, who told Brandon."

"Marsten?" Buffy asked.

Jeremy nodded. "According to the desk clerk, Brandon visited Marsten in his room before the others had even shown up. According to the desk clerk, Marsten has been in town three days. Remember the conversation you said you had with Brandon?"

"Yeah I remember what he said. At the time I thought he was referring to me as the Slayer," Buffy agreed.

"The plan was very likely intended to bite you then and there. And what bought you time was his fear induced Change," Jeremy said. "If you had not grabbed for him, he may not have bit you as he tried to escape."

During the meeting, Jeremy told everyone what he had just told Buffy in private and more. He had also found out that Cain and LeBlanc had checked into the Big Bear the night Brandon died. Presumably they'd either followed Logan from Los Angeles or met him at the airport. Waylaying him in Bear Valley would have been next to impossible. So he had already been dead when the sisters and Clay had been chasing Brandon.

It wasn't quite seven when the doorbell rang. They all looked up, startled by the sound. Jeremy got to his feet and left the room as the sisters followed. From the dining room window they could see a police cruiser parked in the driveway.

"We don't need this," Dawn said as Buffy nodded in agreement. "We really don't need this."

Jeremy shrugged off his arm sling and tucked it into the hall stand, then grabbed Clay's sweatshirt from the hooks. Buffy helped him into it. The bulky shirt hid his splint and his pants covered his leg bandages.

"Get the others upstairs to dress," Jeremy said. "Tell Clay, Antonio, and Nick to stay up there. You two can join me on the back porch."

"It's going to look suspicious if you usher them around the house for a second time," said Dawn.

Jeremy nodded. "I know."

"Invite them in and offer them coffee," Buffy suggested. "There's nothing here for them to see."

Jeremy nodded. "I know."

"We'll meet you in the study, then?" asked Dawn.

"The living room," he said as the doorbell rang a third time. "We'll be in the living room."

"I'll make coffee," Dawn said, and she and Buffy left before he could change his mind.

When Buffy and Dawn got back to the living room, there were two police officers with Jeremy. The older one was the town police chief, a burly, balding man named Morgan. The other officer was young and bland-faced, O'Neil. Jeremy and Morgan were discussing some local native land claim.

Conversation stopped when the sisters entered. Dawn set up the tray on an end table and started pouring coffee like a perfect hostess as Buffy handed out the cups.

"Oh, I don't drink tea," Morgan said, eyeing the silver coffeepot as if it might bite.

"It's coffee," Jeremy said with a self-effacing smile. "You'll have to excuse us. We don't have many guests, so Dawn and Buffy have to use the teapot."

O'Neil leaned forward to take his coffee from the sisters. "Dawn. That's a pretty name."

Dawn smiled. "Cream and sugar?"

"Three sugars. I didn't see your husband around. Is he sleeping in?" Morgan asked Dawn as she handed him a cup.

"Yes, he's sleeping in," Jeremy said before either sister could refute the fact that Dawn and Clay weren't married. "Dawn is always up early to get his breakfast ready."

Dawn and Buffy shot him a glare to say he'd pay for that. He pretended not to notice. Buffy smirked as she dumped five sugars in his coffee. He'd have to drink it. After all, it would be impolite not to partake of social beverages with his visitors.

"Like I said," Morgan began. "I apologize for coming to see you folks so early in the morning, but I thought you'd want to know. Mike Braxton wasn't killed on your property. Coroner's one hundred percent certain on that. Somebody killed him elsewhere and dumped him on your land."

"Somebody?" Jeremy said. "Do you mean a person, not an animal?"

"Well, I'd still say it was an animal, but one of the human variety," Morgan said. "Doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense to us. The other two were definitely animal kills, but the coroner says Mike's throat was slashed with a knife, not teeth."

"What about the paw prints?" Dawn asked.

"We figure they're fake," Morgan said. "Whoever planted the body stamped them into the ground to make it look like another dog kill. Guy made a mistake, though. They were too big. That was the tip-off. Dogs don't get that big. Well, my son says there's some kind of dog, a mastiff or something, that might leave a print like that, but we don't have any of those around here. Our hounds and shepherds don't grow that big, no matter how much we feed them. You'll recall I said yesterday that Mike left a message with someone saying he was coming here. Turns out, he left it with the fellow's wife, who now says she thought Mike sounded 'funny,' not like himself, but she figured maybe it was a bad phone connection. Seems fair to assume Mike didn't leave the message at all. Whoever killed him must have left it to make sure we hightailed it out to your place and found the body. Put all that together and I'm damned—sorry, ma'ams—darned sure we've got a human killer."

Buffy glared at the police chief as Dawn bit her lip to keep from laughing. Dawn knew how Buffy hated being called ma'am.

"So we don't have wild dogs in our forest," Jeremy said. "That's a relief, though I can't say I prefer the idea of a human killer on the loose. Do you have any leads?"

"We're working on it. Likely someone Mike knew. Mike was a great guy and all but—" Morgan paused. "We've all got our problems, don't we? Enemies and such. How about you folks? Any idea why someone would dump Mike's body on your property?"

"No," Jeremy said. "I was wondering about that myself."

"You haven't made any enemies in town?" Morgan asked. "Maybe had a falling out with someone?"

Jeremy gave a small smile. "As I'm sure you're aware, we aren't the most sociable bunch in Granton County. We don't have enough contact with any of our neighbors to have a falling out with them. Either the killer thought blaming it on the 'outsiders' would divert attention from himself or he had no intention of involving us at all and simply thought this was a good place to dump the body."

"You're sure there's no one you folks have pissed off?" Morgan said. "Maybe someone who thinks you owe him money? Maybe a jealous husband or wife?"

"No and no," Jeremy said as Buffy and Dawn shook their heads. "We don't gamble or do any business in credit. As for the other, Buffy and I as well as Dawn and Clayton have neither the inclination nor the energy to seek extramarital excitement. Bear Valley is a small town. If there were any rumors about us, you'd be asking more pointed questions."

Morgan didn't answer. Instead, he stared at Jeremy for two full minutes.

After a few minutes, Jeremy said, "I'm sorry you had to make the drive out here two days in a row, but I appreciate you coming this morning to tell us. If that's everything …"

"We'll want to search the property some more," Morgan said.

Jeremy nodded. "By all means."

"We may want to question your guests," Morgan said. "A killer dumped that body on your property. If I were you, I'd be trying damned hard to think of who might have done it and I'd be calling us if you come up with any answers."

"I wouldn't hesitate," Jeremy said. "I hope whoever dumped Mr. Braxton's body here hadn't any grudge against us, but if he did, I wouldn't want to ignore it and wait for his next move. No one here has any desire to tangle with a killer. We're more than happy to let the police do that."

Morgan grunted and swigged the last of his coffee.

"Anything else?" Jeremy asked.

"I wouldn't be hiking in those woods for a while," Morgan said.

"We've already stopped," Jeremy said. "But thank you for the warning. Buffy, Dawn, would you see our guests to the door?"

Buffy and Dawn did. Neither cop said a word to them, beyond Morgan's gruff good-bye.

After the police left, they realized Clay, Nick, and Antonio were gone. Had it been just Clay or even Clay and Nick, they would have worried. Since Antonio had gone with them, though, they knew they weren't planning any impromptu revenge in Bear Valley.

While they waited for Clay, Nick and Antonio to return Buffy walked over to Jeremy. "Let me guess now you and I are supposed to be married?" she asked as she glared at him.

"Buffy, think about it for a moment," Jeremy replied. "Two unmarried women even visiting would draw suspicion. Especially if it was found out that neither of you were related to us. They might want to know why you would be visiting. And as two people, unrelated to us, visiting, you would be suspects in Braxton's murder."

"I see your point," Buffy said with a sigh.

It was ten minutes later when the Mercedes turned into the drive. Nick hopped out from the passenger side with a large paper bag in his hand. Breakfast. Not exactly hot and steaming after the drive from the highway diner, but the sisters were too hungry to care.

Fifteen minutes later, the bag was empty, its contents reduced to the ghosts of crumbs and grease marks on plates scattered across the sunroom table. After the meal, Jeremy explained what the police had said.

It took exactly three minutes for Clay to hunt the sisters down after breakfast. He walked into the study and closed the door behind him.

"Okay, you didn't kill the man," Dawn said. "For once, you were innocent. But if you expect Buffy or I to apologize for thinking you were capable of doing it—"

"I don't," Clay said. "I don't expect you two to apologize for thinking I could do it. Of course I could do it. If the guy saw us running or Changing or threatened us, I would have killed him, I would have risked what you, Buffy, would do to me. But I would have told you, Dawn. And Buffy the more I thought about it the more I knew I would have told you also. Anyways that's what I'm pissed off about. That you two thought I'd sneak behind your backs, hide the evidence, and lie about it."

"I know Clay," Buffy said with a sigh. "My first inclination is to think the worst and hope I'm wrong. You are supernatural and if you did something like that it would fall under my jurisdiction as the Slayer to take matters into my own hands. Even if it meant angering Jeremy. But you know that."

Clay nodded. "I know."

"I guess it wouldn't occur to you that I might not want to know you did it," Dawn said finally. "The thought of sparing me wouldn't enter your head."

"Sparing you?" Clay gave a harsh laugh. "You know what I am, Dawn. If I pretended otherwise, you'd accuse me of trying to deceive you. I don't want you to come back to me because you think I've changed. I want you to come back because you accept what I am. If I could change, don't you think I'd have done it for you by now? I want you back. Not for a night or a few weeks or even a couple of months. I want you back for good. I'm miserable when you are not here—"

"You're miserable because you don't have what you want. Not because you want me," Dawn said.

"Dawn is right," Buffy agreed.

"Goddamn it!" Clay said. "You two won't listen! You two won't listen and neither of you will see. You know I love you, Dawn. Now if I just wanted a partner, any partner, do you think I'd have spent the last four years trying to get you both back? Why haven't I just given up and found someone else? And I know since Buffy is your sister that the two of you are a packaged, deal."

"Because you're stubborn," Buffy said.

Clay shook his head. "Oh, no. I'm not the stubborn one. You two are the ones who can't get past what I did no matter how much—"

Buffy stood up and glared at Clay with a low growl. Clay looked at Buffy and then turned and strode from the room, slamming the door behind him.

Later Buffy and Dawn had gone upstairs for a nap. A couple of hours later, they awoke and headed downstairs for lunch. The house was silent, all the upstairs doors closed as if everyone else was catching up on sleep, too. As the sisters headed for the kitchen, Clay walked out from the study. He stepped in front of the sisters. When they tried to squeeze past him, he braced his hands on either side of the corridor.

"Truce?" he said.

"Whatever," said Dawn and Buffy.

"Love those definitive answers," Clay said. "I'll take that as a yes. Not that we're done with our little discussion, but I'll let it ride for now. Tell me when you want to pick it up again."

"Tell us when the First Evil starts a snowball fight," Dawn said.

"I'll do that. Lunch?" Clay said.

Dawn and Buffy nodded, and he stepped back motioning for them to go into the kitchen. They gathered a cold meal from the kitchen, filling platters with meats and breads and fruits, knowing the others would wake up hungry. Then Dawn and Buffy sat down in the sunroom and loaded a plate. Clay did the same. None of them spoke as they ate. They were halfway through their meal when Jeremy and Antonio walked in.

"We need groceries," Dawn said. "I'm sure that's the last thing on everyone's mind, but it won't be when we run out. Buffy and I'll run into town and grab some."

"I'll call in an order," Jeremy said. "Assuming this mess with the police hasn't changed that arrangement. You'd best pick up cash, in case my checks aren't as welcome these days. Someone will have to go with you two, of course."

"I'll go with her," Buffy said as Jeremy nodded. Even though Buffy was new to being a wolf she was still a Slayer and that part of her could deal with anything that came.

"Anyways," Jeremy said, "no one's leaving the house alone or staying here alone anymore."

"I'll go with them," Clay said around a mouthful of cantaloupe. "I've got a package waiting at the post office."

"I'm sure you do," Dawn said.

"He does," Jeremy said. "The postman left a card the other day."

"Books I ordered from the U.K.," Clay said.

"Which you need right now," Dawn said. "For a little light reading between maiming and killing."

"They shouldn't sit at the post office," Clay said. "Someone might get suspicious."

"Of anthropology texts?" Dawn asked.

Antonio leaned over the table and grabbed a handful of grapes. "I've got a couple things to fax. I'll go with the three of you and run interference."

Dawn pushed back her chair as she and Buffy stood. "Well, then there's no need for Buffy and I to go, is there? I'm sure you guys can handle the groceries."

"But you're the one who wanted to go," Clay said.

"I changed my mind," Dawn said.

"You're going," Jeremy said. "All four of you. You all could use the diversion."

Antonio grinned. "And Jeremy could use a couple hours of peace and quiet."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

The bank was right across from the post office. Since Antonio was able to get a parking spot right in front of the bank, Dawn and Buffy went to the bank while Clay went to the post office.

Jeremy's bank account was also in Dawn, Buffy and even Clay's name, allowing any of them to withdraw money for household needs. Not that Dawn or Buffy really needed access to Jeremy's account. They had their own bank accounts scattered around the world. They had accumulated quite a bit of money in two hundred years. A few moments later Dawn shoved the money into her pocket as she and Buffy headed for the door. They saw a brown pickup in the front parking spot. Thinking they must have been mistaken about where Antonio parked, they walked outside and looked around. The spot behind the pickup was empty. In front of it was a Buick. The sisters searched up and down the road. There was no sign of the Mercedes.