Chapter 27: Confrontation

The meeting was due to start at eight. They got up at seven but were still late. An hour wasn't enough time for four people in the tiny motel room to shower, dress, leave, grab takeout, eat, and drive to Sparta. They arrived at the Legion Hall at nine-thirty. Again, the witches used a spell to lock the door, but this time they didn't knock, Dawn just teleported them inside. As they arrived in a flash of green, Ruth stopped talking and everyone looked up.

"Where have you been?" Ruth asked.

Dawn grinned, baring her teeth. "Hunting."

"Want to see what we caught?" Clay asked from behind Dawn. He strode to the table and tossed a garbage bag on it. Everybody else stared at the bag. No one moved to take it. Then Cassandra reached forward, lifted one side of the bag, and looked in. After a second, she let the plastic fall from her hand and sat back in her chair. Her eyes moved from Clay to Dawn and Buffy and back to Clay, face blank, no shock, no disgust, nothing.

Typical vampire attitude, Buffy thought.

Paige peeled back the plastic and recoiled fast. The third man's head lay on its side, eyes wide and dull. She jumped to her feet and tried to yank the plastic back over it. The head rolled with the sudden movement. She bit off a scream.

"Interesting form of introduction," Cassandra said, looking at Clay. "May I ask who you might be?"

"Clayton Danvers," Paige muttered between her teeth. "The werewolf Pack's guard dog."

"The question isn't who Clay is," Buffy said, "but who's that guy in the bag? Anyone up for volunteering information?"

"We found this man at our cottage last night," Jeremy said. "He was with two others who, I can assure you, are equally dead. They came armed with silver bullets."

"Silver—" Adam began. "Shit, isn't that supposed to—" He stopped and looked around at the others. "You think we sent these guys?"

"Look at him," Paige said, turning to me. "Clean-shaven, military brush cut. Just like the guys in Pittsburgh. Obviously—"

"Obviously nothing," Clay said. "Either the whole Pittsburgh thing was a setup or you dressed these guys to look like Dawn and Buffy's stalker so, if it backfired, we'd draw the obvious conclusion. If these men were part of this kidnapping scheme, why would they come after Jeremy, Buffy and Dawn when you guys were all holed up here in a late-night meeting? You'd be the obvious choice."

"Maybe they wanted a werewolf," Paige said. "Besides, we always cast protective spells around our meetings. They wouldn't have been able to get to us."

"Wrong," Dawn said. "Someone powerful enough could get to you. Just like I did. I bypassed your wards and teleported us straight in."

Buffy held up her hand, silencing her sister. "So, you expected trouble? Thanks for warning us. But that doesn't explain how they got here. First, they show up in Pittsburgh, then here. How?"

"They must have followed"—Paige stopped, then murmured— "someone."

"They followed you," Cassandra said, turning on Ruth. "You led them right to us."

"Perhaps you weren't behind last night's attack," Jeremy said, "but you can hardly be absolved of blame. Ensuring you weren't followed from Pittsburgh is an elementary safety precaution. If that's how this group operates, then I have no interest in aligning my Pack with you, even temporarily. As you can see"—he gestured at the bag—"we can take care of ourselves. We will continue to do so without your help. Anyone who comes after us or interferes with us again will be treated the same as those three men last night. Anyone. For any reason." He said the last as he looked first at Dawn and then at Ruth telling Ruth that if they tried to come after Dawn for not joining their Coven that they would be dead.

Ruth nodded in understanding.

And then Dawn teleported herself, Jeremy, Clay and Buffy back to the Explorer in a flash of green.

Dawn drove the Explorer back to the motel. It was packed and ready to go. All they had to do was pick up Clay's rental car.

"Where to next?" Buffy asked as they stood in the motel parking lot.

"Montreal," Clay said. "We need to return the car."

Dawn turned to the econo-box rental, noticing the Quebec license plates. "Why the hell did you leave your car in Montreal?"

"You think I was gonna cruise Vermont looking for a rental agency when I was driving right past a big city?"

"How about Buffy and I drive straight home and you guys meet us there?" Dawn asked.

"You two are coming to Montreal," Jeremy said.

Jeremy headed to the econo-box and folded himself into the tiny passenger seat. Once Jeremy was in the car, Clay walked over, wrapped his hands around the sisters' waists, and pulled them against him.

"I'll make it up to you both," he said. "Tonight. We'll go for a run."

"In the city?" Buffy asked.

He grinned. "You arguing, Buffy?"

"You know Jeremy will," Buffy said.

Clay nodded. "We'll take him along. I'll talk him into it on the drive. Speaking of which, you two want to liven the ride up a bit?"

"Race?" Dawn asked.

"You read my mind, darling."

"A four-banger verses a V6?" Dawn said.

"It's the driver, not the car."

"You're on," Dawn said. "First one to Montreal gets to pick where we run tonight."

"One catch," Clay said. "We have to play safe and stay in sight. If I can't see you in my rearview mirror, I'm slowing down."

"Rearview mirror?" Buffy said as Dawn grinned. "Clay, you aren't seeing us through nothing but the windshield."

He grinned. "We'll see about that." He turned and walked toward the rental.

After about a half-hour, Dawn and Buffy were stuck behind Clay who was behind a fifth-wheeler with a camper on the back. Finally after several miles of dogging the fifth-wheeler and Clay, Dawn noticed a straightaway long enough to pass. But Clay didn't pull out, and it was obvious he couldn't see around the fifth-wheeler. But Dawn could, the advantages of driving an SUV. So on the next suitable straightaway, Dawn pulled out and passed. Once around the truck, she zipped past a car and a tractor trailer. Then floored it. Clay's subcompact vanished amid an unending stream of tourist traffic.

"Dawn, I swear since becoming a werewolf you drive worse than I did back in Sunnydale," Buffy said.

Dawn laughed as she glanced over at her sister. "Well that's possible. But at least I have a license to do so. You still haven't gotten yours or learned to drive. Why is that?"

Buffy shrugged. Truth be told she didn't know why she had put off learning to drive.

They burned up ten miles with no sign of Clay in the rearview mirror, and then slowed. No sense pushing their luck or have Jeremy on their backs, too. Jeremy let Dawn and Clay play their games, but if they went too far, then it Jeremy would be likely to tear a strip from the both of them and likely Buffy as well for allowing it.

Despite her sister's' objections to the contrary, Dawn knew who the Alpha was and always would be, Buffy. She was sure that Jeremy would eventually pick Buffy to be his successor. The question was when that time came, would Buffy be ready? Dawn knew that Buffy's experiences as leader during the battle with the First Evil had scarred her.

As the sisters were cruising along enjoying the scenery, waiting for Clay and Jeremy to catch up, something appeared in front of them. Something big. Right in front of them. So close neither sister had time to see if it was a moose or a deer or a person. Nor did they have time to think. Dawn reacted jerking the steering wheel and hitting the brakes. Too hard on both counts. They saw the flash of a face on the roadway. Then the Explorer spun left and slammed into a ditch. The airbags exploded, knocking Dawn and Buffy in the face like a punching bag. Before either sister could recover, the driver's door clicked open.

"Are you both okay?" a woman's voice asked. She pulled the airbag from Dawn's face and frowned. "Are you both okay? That man ran right in front of you. I couldn't believe it."

Dawn shook her head. "A man? Did I hit him?"

"No. Would have served him right if you had." The woman shook her head. "I guess I shouldn't say that. Let's get you two out of there."

"Come sit in the back of my car," she said as she helped the sisters out of the Explorer. "I've called an ambulance."

"Our friends are coming," Buffy said.

"Good." She guided the sisters to her car, opened the back door, and helped both of them inside. "We'll wait here for them. How do you two feel?"

"Like someone KO'd me in round one," Dawn said as Buffy nodded in agreement.

She laughed. "Can't say I know what that feels like, but I can imagine. You two are pale, but the color's coming back. Pulse feels fine."

The sisters each felt someone's fingers against their wrists. For Dawn it was a woman, for Buffy it was a man. Then they felt something else. A prick. A rush of icy cold as the sisters yanked their hands back. The man that had held Buffy's wrist closed Buffy's door and got in the driver's seat. He turned to grin back at the sisters.

"Just couldn't wait for another sparring match, huh?"

His face flashed in their memories, but the sisters' brains were fogging fast and they couldn't place him. Then, as their muscles went slack, Buffy and Dawn remembered.

The half-demon from Pittsburgh. Houdini.

Their heads head hit the seat and everything went black.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

For hours, Dawn and Buffy fought to regain consciousness. When they finally managed to open their eyes and kept them open, they saw they were in a room staring at the ceiling, As the sedative wore off they were able to sit up and take notice of the room they were in. Four walls. Three taupe. The fourth mirrored. One-way glass.

"Hello?" Dawn said. Then louder. "Hello?"

They heard scratching. Scratch, scratch, pause, scratch, scratch, scratch, swoosh. The swoosh of paper. Someone lifting a page, shuffling it, then scratch, scratch—pen on paper. Someone writing outside their cell. Buffy and Dawn stood, turned away from the hallway, walked three steps, then whirled to face the door. The noise stopped. They bared their teeth, snarled, then inclined their open mouth closer to the mirrored wall and picked at a piece of imaginary food caught between their teeth. Frenzied scribbling ensued. Okay, now they knew what the note-taker was watching.

Buffy strode to the door and pounded on the glass. Though it didn't budge under the onslaught, her fists boomed with each strike. Then the intercom above her head buzzed.

"Yes?" a woman's voice.

"We want to speak to someone in charge," Buffy said.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible," she said, pen scribbling.

Buffy pounded harder.

"Please don't do that." Calm, approaching boredom. Pen still scratching.

Dawn moved next to Buffy and they drew their fists back and slammed it into the glass. The blow shuddered through the glass and their arms. The pen stopped.

"I understand you both are upset, but that won't help. Violence never solves anything."

Dawn knew they could just teleport out. But to tell the truth she was curious who had them and she knew Buffy was as well, that had been why Buffy hadn't said anything about teleporting out.

Buffy and Dawn turned away, as if backing down, then whammed a roundhouse kick against the side wall. One chunk of plaster flew free, revealing a strip of solid metal. Buffy hooked her fingertips behind the metal and gave an experimental tug. No give.

Heavy footsteps clomped outside the cell.

The intercom clicked.

"Please step away from the wall," a male voice intoned.

They did not step away from the wall. Buffy and Dawn smashed their fists into the plaster between the metal brackets, leaving a nice hole into the adjoining cell. The door flew open. A man's face flashed into the room, then withdrew. The door slammed shut. A radio squawked.

"Base one, this is alpha. Request immediate backup to cell-block one, unit eight."

"You messing with my girls?" a lazy Midwest drawl asked, voice hissing with static. Houdini. "You sound a wee mite panicked there, soldier-boy. Want me to come down and hold your hand?"

"Reese? What the hell are you doing in the—Never mind."

Click. End of static.

"Cocky bastard."

"No kidding," Dawn said.

Silence. Then "Shit," and a snap as the intercom died.

"Get us someone in charge," Buffy said with a glance at Dawn. "Now. Or we will be gone before you can turn around."

A muttered exchange, indecipherable through the glass. Then boots stalking away. They hunkered down and peered through the hole. They saw a reverse image of their own cell. Only that one appeared to be empty.

Buffy and Dawn turned and looked at each other and silently agreed to wait and gather information before they risked teleporting out. They didn't want to discuss plans as long as someone was watching them.

Twenty minutes passed. Then the intercom clicked on.

"My name is Doctor Lawrence Matasumi," a man said. "I would like to speak to you now, Ms. Danvers and Ms. Danvers. Please step up against the wall, facing the wall itself, away from the door, place your hands outstretched behind you, and do not turn your heads until instructed."

While the sisters did as they were told the door behind them opened. Footsteps entered.

"Please do not turn your heads," Matasumi said, though they hadn't moved. "Keep your hands outstretched. A guard will secure your hands behind your back. Please do not resist."

Someone walked over to the sisters and grasped first Buffy's hands and then Dawn's pulling their arms as cold metal bands were clapped around their wrists.

"You both may take a seat on the chairs provided. When you both are seated comfortably, the guard will secure your feet."

"You sure you don't want him to secure our feet first?" Dawn asked. "Throw us over his shoulder and carry us to the chair?"

"Please do as you're told."

"Can we look now?" Dawn asked with a sideways glance at Buffy who was trying to keep from laughing. "Maybe you should blindfold us."

"Please do as you're told," he repeated.

Buffy and Dawn turned around and saw one of the men from Paige's picture. To his left was a young woman. Both were seated in chairs that hadn't been in the room five minutes ago, flanking them stood two guards.

Once Buffy and Dawn were seated, their escort secured them to the chair with arm restraints and leg irons.

"Please do not use this opportunity to attempt escape," Matasumi said.

"Really?" Buffy said with a roll of her eyes. "Dawn, would you show him how futile it is for him to hold us?"

Dawn smiled and disappeared in a flash of green as the cuffs and leg irons fell to the floor. She reappeared next to Buffy.

"A witch!" he said. "No one said we had a crossbreed."

"We are just making a point," Dawn said as she sat back down and let the guard restrain her again.

"Good. Now we will skip the denial phase and begin our discussion based on the premise that you are werewolves and that you ..." Matasumi looked to Dawn. "Are also a witch."

"And if we refuse the premise that we're werewolves? Though I won't dispute the witch, kind of hard to dispute it when I just gave you a hint of my power." Dawn said as Matasumi opened a teal box filled with bottles and syringes and tools. "You got us. We're werewolves."

Matasumi hesitated. The young woman lifted her pen from the pad, glancing at Dawn and Buffy for the first time. He ran through some baseline lie-detection questions, the sort of things anyone who'd done the most basic research would know: their names, age, place of birth, current occupation.

The thing was Buffy and Dawn had two hundred years to perfect their ability to lie. They had to, to keep the fact they were immortal a secret.

"Let me begin by telling you two that we already have a werewolf in custody. Your answers will be compared against information he has already provided. So I would suggest you both tell the truth," he said as Buffy and Dawn glanced at each other. "How many werewolves are in this … Pack?"

Buffy shrugged. "It depends. It's not static or anything. They come and go. It's not a close-knit group. Kind of arbitrary, actually, who the Alpha lets in and kicks out, depending on his mood. He's a very temperamental guy."

"Alpha," his assistant interjected. "Like the alpha in a wolf pack. You use the same terminology."

"Guess so," answered Buffy.

"Interesting," Matasumi said. "My knowledge of zoology isn't what it should be."

Behind them, the door clicked and opened as Buffy and Dawn turned to see the woman who'd lured them into the car. "Tucker told me you'd started early," she said. "I'm glad to see you two are up and about so quickly. No lasting effects from the tranquilizers, I hope."

"Feeling peachy," Buffy quipped.

"With a side of keen," Dawn added and the sisters laughed at their own private little joke.

The woman turned back to Matasumi. "I'd like Doctor Carmichael to check them out."

Matasumi nodded. "Tess, please call Doctor Carmichael from the hall phone. Tell her to bring her equipment down for a checkup at seven o'clock. That should give us sufficient time with the subjects."

"The subjects?" the older woman laughed and glanced at Buffy and Dawn. "Please excuse us. Our terminology isn't the most civil, I'm afraid. I'm Sondra Bauer."

"So pleased to meet you," Buffy and Dawn said.

Bauer laughed again. "I'm sure you two are. Hold on, Tess," she said as the assistant headed for the door. "No need to buzz Doctor Carmichael. She's expecting us in the infirmary."

"Infirmary?" Matasumi frowned. "I don't believe these subjects—"

"Their names are Buffy and Dawn," Bauer said.

"We prefer Ms. Danvers," Dawn said. "Though it will get tad confusing which of us you will be speaking to."

"I'd like Buffy and Dawn checked by Doctor Carmichael immediately," Bauer continued. "I'm sure they'd appreciate the chance to stretch their legs and have a look around. We can continue our discussion with them upstairs. They'll get tired of these four walls soon enough."

"May I speak to you privately?" Matasumi asked.

"Yes, yes. You're concerned about security. I can see that," she said. "Don't worry, Lawrence. We'll make sure Buffy and Dawn are properly restrained, but I don't see the need for excess. Handcuffs and armed guards should be quite sufficient."

"I don't think that is going to work, not with these two?" Matasumi told Bauer.

"Why not?" Bauer asked.

Matasumi waved at Dawn who sighed and she disappeared again in another flash of green as her handcuffs and leg irons fell to the floor. She reappeared next to Buffy.

Bauer frowned. "You're a witch?"

"Just as I'm a Slayer," Buffy said and she flexed her wrists and broke the handcuffs.

"A Slayer?" Bauer asked her eyes wide. She remembered her sister. "How did you manage to …"

"Become a werewolf?" Buffy asked. "Well it was an accident really. We were dealing with another werewolf. I was still human at the time and he bit me."

"I see," Bauer said. "Given what we've seen. I would say armed guard only. And I will talk to Katzen about a spell to block Dawn's power to teleport."

"He'd have to be pretty powerful to block me," Dawn said. "I'm the most powerful witch on the planet. I was given my powers by an actual goddess. And yes there is more than just the Christian god out there."

Matasumi looked to Bauer and saw she of course would not be told no in this. He reluctantly agreed.

Bauer headed for the door. The guards removed Buffy's leg irons, then herded her and Dawn into the corridor. Their cell was the last one on the end, across from a recessed metal door with two red lights above it. At the other end was a matching door with matching red lights. Twin rows of one-way glass flanked the hall.

"This way, Buffy, Dawn," Bauer said, walking right.

Matasumi gestured to the nearer door. "This route would be quicker."

"I know." Bauer gestured Buffy and Dawn forward. "This way please, Buffy, Dawn. I'd like to show you both around."

Buffy and Dawn glanced at each other and hid a smile, just what they wanted a layout of the place along with information to give Jeremy.