Chapter 59: Negotiation

Clay had insisted on meeting the others halfway, mumbling something about being careful with his arm. In other words, if it was a setup, he didn't feel comfortable protecting the sisters alone with only Savannah as backup.

Dawn and Buffy took Jeremy aside and told him what happened with Jaime.

"I'm really sorry," Dawn said. "If I'd known this woman was a necromancer—"

"Dawn as long you're not using magic there was no way you could have. Even if you had sensed what she was, I doubt we could have dissuaded Jaime. She's—" Jeremy brushed back his hair. "She wants to help, and the uglier it gets, the more insistent she becomes. I'll speak to her. The rest of you continue on to the crime scene."

Fifteen minutes later, they were huddled a half block from the crime scene, waiting for Jeremy, having seen and heard all they needed.

"I'm sorry," Hull said as they huddled to the side of the scene. "I've tried to keep quiet, but I cannot. This—" He waved an agitated hand toward the taped-off alley. "Surely, I can't be the only one who sees this for what it is. The girl in there, the pregnancy, the physical resemblance—"

"We saw," Clay said.

"Then you understand the significance—"

"I said—"

"We understand that it's a message," Antonio said slowly.

"Could it not be more than that? The resemblance, the location, the timing." He looked at Clay. "If Shanahan sent this beast here, on orders, knowing your wife was near, and he saw that young woman, is it not possible that he mistook—"

"Enough," Antonio said, voice hard.

"I'm only saying she should be kept safe. If Shanahan gets hold of her—"

"No one needs to remind me of that," Clay snarled. "I'm taking care of my wife and—"

"But you're injured, are you not? If you can't protect her—"

Savannah caught Hull's arm and propelled him backward as she growled a warning.

"I think—" Dawn began, then noticed a familiar face bobbing through the crowd. "Oh, here comes—" She didn't even get Jeremy's name out before Hull had wriggled out of Savannah's grasp and was scampering across the road to his protector.

"Where's Jaime?" Dawn asked as Jeremy reached us.

"She went back to the hotel. She insisted on coming to the end of the road, but when she found the victim was—" A quick glance at Hull, as he realized he had to be careful what he said. "—gone, I persuaded her to head back for a rest."

Dawn's cell phone went off. She glanced at it and saw a hospital name flash across the screen.

"Hold on," she said. "It could be Tolliver."

A moment later, Dawn returned to the group. "It's him," she said.

"And?" Jeremy prompted.

"He has Shanahan," Dawn said, and handed Jeremy the phone.

"You cannot be serious," Hull said, staring at Jeremy as if he'd just announced plans for a mission to Mars. "After—after this?" He waved in the direction of the crime scene. "You cannot negotiate with these people. They aren't people at all. They—they're monsters. In league with Satan. Go to that meeting if you must, but I pray to God it's to kill them."

"If it comes to that, yes," Jeremy said. "But we gave our word to Tolliver that we would negotiate in good faith."

Hull's eyes bulged. "Faith? You're a good man, Mr. Danvers, but creatures such as that will never act nobly. They will lie to you, and cast magics against you. Negotiation? Annihilation is the only way to treat such beasts."

"Antonio, please call a taxi for Matthew. I want to be sure he arrives back at the hotel safely."

Hull shook his head. "No, if you go, I go—"

"That isn't open for negotiation. This is dangerous business, and you need to keep out. You deserve to live long enough to enjoy your new life."

Antonio left to hail a cab.

"But that madman could come after—" Hull began.

"Dawn," Buffy said. "That's what we just finished discussing, right? That this murder suggests my sister is still the primary target. So, you'll be a whole lot safer at that hotel than hanging out with us."

Hull looked from Dawn to Buffy and Jeremy, openmouthed and wide-eyed. "Surely you don't plan to take her to this meeting? After what just happened? If you need any further proof that she's in danger—"

"I don't," Jeremy said. "And I didn't before. But the safest place for her is with us."

Jeremy had wanted a private, wide-open place, to avoid the possibility of being ambushed by the zombies. Tolliver still insisted that Shanahan wouldn't know how to control a zombie if someone handed him a user's manual, but he'd suggested a small community center where he coached an after-school soccer program. It was closed for the summer, but he had access.

The community center was indeed tiny—little more than a gymnasium, changing rooms and a meeting room. The property was a decent size, though, with basketball courts, soccer fields and a thickly wooded strip in the back. When Jeremy saw that small forest, he was much happier with Tolliver's choice. If things went bad, they could get Shanahan to their turf quickly.

As they circled the block, getting a wider lay of the land, Jeremy and Antonio took the lead, discussing the final details. Nick started in the rear with them, but when his few attempts to start a conversation with Clay failed—about the joys of expectant fatherhood—he jogged up to Jeremy and his father.

"You okay?" Dawn whispered to Clay.

His tanned face was flushed, eyes brighter than usual. When Dawn reached for his forehead, he shook his head, and then jerked his chin at Jeremy.

"He doesn't need to worry about that right now," he said. "I took some pills. They'll kick in before the meeting."

Dawn nodded as she looked at Buffy and Savannah and saw the same concern in their eyes as was in their own.

Once at the community center, they watched from the woods. Tolliver and Shanahan arrived ten minutes early. They went straight in the main door.

Savannah and Nick loped across the field to watch them through the hall window. Antonio followed at a distance. Once Nick was done, he headed back to them while his father stood watch.

"The doctor checked the meeting room and the bathrooms," Nick said. "Just flipping on lights and taking a look. Then they went to the gym."

"I could detect no signs they were casting a spell," Savannah said. "But it's possible he cast one wordlessly."

"Good. Let's go then," Jeremy said.

They entered the gym, Antonio in the lead, followed by Jeremy, Buffy and Dawn, with Clay, Savannah and Nick covering their backs. As they approached, Shanahan looked anxiously at his friend, but Tolliver laid a hand on his arm and whispered something that seemed to reassure the bigger man.

Antonio veered to Jeremy's left. Dawn and Buffy stood on his right, and Nick and Clay moved up to flank Buffy and Dawn. Behind them, Savannah turned around to watch the exit.

Shanahan began to speak even before we stopped moving. "Randy told me—"

Tolliver cut his friend short with a squeeze on his forearm and a look that said they'd discussed earlier how they'd proceed.

"I've updated Patrick on the situation," Tolliver said. "Both with the zombies, the disappearances and yesterday's killing."

"The first of two killings," Jeremy said. "We were at the second crime scene when you called. A woman, killed in the same way, in a nearby neighborhood. A young, brunette, pregnant woman."

Shanahan's brow furrowed, then his gaze shot to me. He paled. "Christ, no—I'd never. A pregnant—? You can't think—" Tolliver squeezed his arm again, but this time, Shanahan shook him off. "No, I know you want to stay calm and present our facts, but this is ridiculous. I can set this whole thing straight myself, starting with this Jack the Ripper nonsense. That letter—"

The lights went out, plunging them into darkness. Buffy and Dawn swung around to cover Jeremy, but his hand closed on their arms first. Clay and Nick caught their other arms, and they hustled Dawn and Buffy both to the exit.

Savannah pushed open the heavy gym doors. Jeremy propelled them all the way to the main entrance. Then he propped the doors open and waved for Nick and Clay to take a look outside.

A banging erupted from inside the gym. Antonio strode to the gym doors and swung them open.

Shanahan's voice was shrill. "I told you it was a trap."

"You!" Tolliver's voice boomed. "Tell your boss to open this door immediately, because if he doesn't, I have two Cabals on speed dial—"

"Jer? They're at the rear exit," Antonio called. "They can't get the door open."

Motioning for the sisters and Savannah to follow, Jeremy returned to the gym entrance. In the dim light, they could see Tolliver and Shanahan whaling on the exit door.

"It must be jammed—" Jeremy began.

"It wasn't jammed when we got here," Tolliver shouted back. "I checked it."

"Tonio?" Jeremy murmured. "Go help Clay get that door open. Send Nick back in." He caught his friend's arm before he left, and lowered his voice. "Be careful."

"I suspect we're going to find it's been spell-locked, not jammed," Jeremy called to Tolliver.

"Spell—?"

"The same thing I believe responsible for the blackout," Jeremy said. "Either that or we have a zombie in the basement who tripped the breaker. Not quite so dramatic as a spell, but equally effective."

"Savannah?" Buffy asked turning toward her daughter.

Savannah cast out her magical senses. "I can't be one hundred percent certain but I believe there is a spell here. But I'm not sure."

As Nick came up behind Buffy, she could hear someone yanking on the outside door.

"You think I turned off the lights?" Tolliver said with a tight laugh. "On werewolves? Who can see in the dark? And I locked myself in with them?"

"We can't see in complete darkness," Jeremy said, making sure not to look at Buffy who was able to see in total darkness thanks to her werewolf enhanced Slayer vision. "No more than you can. As a doctor, I'm sure you figured that out."

Clay's footsteps thundered down the hall. His face was red, as if he'd run six miles instead of feet.

"It's not jammed," he said, breathing hard. "Doesn't seem locked either. Antonio can snap the hinges…"

"Not yet," Jeremy murmured. "Tell him to stand by."

"It's spell-locked," Jeremy called to Tolliver and Shanahan. "A backup plan to distract us when the power outage didn't do the trick, I suspect. You have two choices. Either we relocate this meeting—quickly—or I will make that Cabal call for you, to Benicio Cortez, whom I suspect will handle this in a much less diplomatic way."

Tolliver was silent.

"Quickly was the key word in that offer," Jeremy said, voice still calm. "In sixty seconds, I'm going to declare this a potential ambush and instruct—"

"There's a room down the hall. A meeting room. Smaller than this, but it has windows. It'll be light enough to talk."

Tolliver turned and led them to the meeting room and pause at the door as if expecting a wolf to lunge out from behind it. When Antonio closed the door behind them, Shanahan jumped, fingers flying up in a spell.

"If you finish that cast, this meeting is over," Jeremy said.

As we moved to the center of the room, Clay whispered weakly, "Nicky? Savannah?"

Nick started—surprised by Clay's tone, the childhood nickname or both, so out of place here. Clay's face was still as flushed as when he'd come running in from outside, and now neither heat nor exertion could be blamed.

"You're—" Dawn began.

Clay silenced Dawn with a meaningful nod at Jeremy. Frowning, Nick moved up beside Clay as did Savannah.

"You two watch Dawn and Buffy, 'kay?" Clay whispered; voice hoarse as if speaking cost more effort than he could afford.

"Are you—?"

"No, I'm not. So, watch them. Please." Clay said. While Dawn was the one the zombies were after her. He could foresee that they might go after Buffy to get at Dawn.

Jeremy caught Dawn and Buffy's eyes, but Clay had turned away, as if still talking to Nick and Savannah. Jeremy waved the sisters up beside him. Dawn glanced at Clay again, but his eyes warned her to stay quiet.

Jeremy began, "I'll presume Dr. Tolliver has told you what's happened this week, and your suspected role in it."

"I—" Shanahan said.

"Then you know the charges are serious. These negotiations are equally serious. If you claim to have played no role in these events, and I discover otherwise, I will claim justice as our jurisdiction, to be decided by me—"

"But—"

"A member of my Pack is under direct threat, and neither the interracial council nor the Cabals will deny me justice if I demand it."

Shanahan swallowed. His gaze shot to Tolliver, who said nothing.

"If you admit to your role in this," Jeremy continued, "and help us close this portal, you will be turned over to the Cortez Cabal or the interracial council—your choice, but you have my word that I will attend any proceedings, and ensure that your cooperation here is noted and considered."

"And if I played no role in any of this?"

"Then you'd be well advised to tell us anything that will help exonerate you, and anything that will help us close this portal … and to pray that we don't find out you've lied."

Shanahan pulled himself straight and met Jeremy's gaze. "I played only one role in all of this." He enunciated each word as if such gravity would prove his sincerity. "And that is as the original owner of that letter. If I failed to properly safeguard it, then my only defense is that I had no reason—absolutely no reason—to believe it wasn't what my grandfather claimed."

"A fake?" Jeremy said.

"Not a fake. A dud. A failed experiment. A supernatural curiosity with an interesting story attached. That's what my grandfather collected: stories."

Jeremy's gaze veered toward the windows, and his nostrils flared. The windows were closed, and he gave a slight head shake, as if the sniff had been instinctive.

Dawn began to wonder if her magic more than her blood had activated the portal then. Her magic was a residual of the Key after all after Calypso had transformed it.

"And the story behind this particular artifact?" Jeremy said. "You called it a dud."

Shanahan nodded, emphatically, as if seeing a sign that his story was being believed. "It is supposed to be a portal. A holding cell."

"For the man known as Jack the Ripper."

"No, there's no—"

"We'll get to that," Tolliver said. "Back to the letter and its intended purpose."

They told them a story very similar to the one Anita Barrington knew, with the sorcerer creating a portal to hide from those wanting to take or stop his immortality experiment.

"Only either he wasn't as good as he thought he was, or he rushed the last few steps while his enemies were closing in…"

"And the portal failed," Jeremy said. "The sorcerer couldn't get inside in time."

"That wasn't the problem. He—"

Shanahan went rigid, then stumbled back, hands going to his stomach. His mouth opened as if to scream, but no sound came out, just a wisp of something gray, like smoke, and he collapsed backward to the floor.

Tolliver shot forward. Nick and Savannah pulled Buffy and Dawn back. Clay tried to lunge for Jeremy, but it was more of a lurch, his face shiny with exertion. Antonio spun on Tolliver, and the sorcerer flicked his fingers in a knockback spell, but Antonio grabbed his hands before he could finish.

Jeremy rushed to Shanahan, who was writhing on the floor, letting out what was probably a howl of pain, but came out only as a mewling whisper carried on a stream of breath that stunk of burnt flesh.

"Let me help—" Tolliver said, struggling against Antonio.

"Help what?" Buffy said. "Finish him off?"

Tolliver's eyes shot to Buffy's, blasting her with cold fury. She walked over to him, Nick sticking so close his arm brushed hers as they moved. At that point the werewolf in Buffy had gone silent. The Slayer was in charge.

"Are you going to blame us for that too?" Buffy said. "Maybe we could flip off a power breaker, but neither of our witches could do that. They don't know the spell for it. That leaves the only other magic-users here. Was he about to say something you didn't want us to hear?"

"You think I did this?"

Shanahan had gone still, eyes open and blank. As Jeremy closed Shanahan's eyes, Tolliver let out a roar and started struggling again.

"You just let him die? I could have—"

"Helped?" Buffy said. "No one could have helped him … by curing it or hastening it along. But I'm sure that's no surprise to you."

"I didn't—"

"I don't know very much about magic, beyond what my sister and niece can do. I've been told magic is my blood but it's inaccessible to me so. But one thing I do know is there's nothing else that would do that—burn a man from the inside. And as I said Savannah and Dawn couldn't do it. And even if they could they wouldn't." She walked over to Tolliver. "He was about to tell us something about the portal spell, something you didn't want him to say. What—"

A shout from outside cut Buffy short. They all froze. When Tolliver opened his mouth, Antonio clapped his hand over it.

Another shout came, then a laugh, followed by the slap-slap of a ball hitting the pavement. Teens setting up for a game of hoops.

"How close?" Jeremy murmured as Dawn slipped over to the window for a look.

"Too close," Dawn said.

"Nick? Clay? Move Shanahan," Jeremy said. "Dawn? Buffy? Find them a place to hide his body. We'll meet you in the gym, Savannah you're with me and Antonio."

"The gym?" Dawn said. "It's still dark in—"

"We're only using the exit."

The hall closet door was locked, but Buffy broke the lock and opened it and Dawn cleared a place inside.

Clay moved in to help Nick drag Shanahan to the closet, but he was barely able to stand without toppling. Nick waved him back.

"Is it just the fever?" Dawn said. "What about your arm?"

He hooked his left arm over Dawn's shoulder in an awkward, furnace-hot embrace. He leaned in to her, lips going to her ear. She could feel the heat radiating from him. "Don't—don't worry 'bout me, 'kay?" he whispered. "Get this done, I'll be fine. Keep going. You and Buffy need cover?" Dawn realized why he kept including Buffy in the protection. Not just because she was now pregnant. But because whoever was controlling the zombies would use Buffy to get to her. Just as she at one time had been used as bait for Faith and Buffy. "Savannah and Nicky, 'kay?" A small sound, like a choked growl. "Not me. Can't count on me."

"I'll cover them," Nick said. "You know I will."

Clay motioned for them to get moving to the gym.

Savannah cast a binding spell so that Tolliver couldn't cast while they bound his hands with a skipping rope. They took him into the forest.

Jeremy sent Nick, Savannah, Buffy, Clay and Dawn ahead to look around. Out of Jeremy's sight, Nick and Dawn sat Clay down on a fallen tree, never going so far that they couldn't look back and make sure he was still okay. When they found a small clearing a safe distance from the path, they collected Clay, and returned to the others.

Antonio sat Tolliver on the ground and they surrounded him.

"Think about this," Tolliver said, struggling to keep his voice calm as a vein in his forehead pulsed. "How could I possibly be responsible for all this? I haven't seen Patrick in years. The letter was in his possession, then it was stolen and this portal—" His head shot up. "You think I stole the letter and activated the portal?"

"No. We know who stole the letter," Buffy said.

"Then why aren't you questioning—?" His gaze flicked across our faces, and the vein started pulsing again. "You stole it? Let me get this straight. You stole the portal letter. You activated that portal. And somehow this is all our fault?"

"The theft of the letter had nothing to do with the portal," Buffy said. "The person who wanted the letter had no idea what it supposedly contained—"

"And you believed that?"

"Yes, I do," Buffy said. "It was a separate matter, with a human purchaser interested only in the letter's historical value. We did steal it, in return for information that helped us to stop another set of crimes."

Tolliver's dark eyes still fumed.

Buffy continued. "Perhaps Shanahan did believe that the portal was a failed experiment—in fact, I'll wager he did. But when those zombies came to his door, looking for their master, he saw an opportunity. He knew the story behind the letter, that his great-grandfather had created it and trapped a killer within, a killer whose work was pivotal in those immortality experiments."

"Jack the Ripper?" Tolliver's lip twisted. "Don't you get it? There is no Jack the Ripper." He shook his head sharply. "Yes, I'm sure there was one, once, but he has nothing to do with the letter. That's what Patrick was trying to tell you. I stopped him because I didn't want to go off on an unnecessary tangent. Whoever killed those young women is not Jack the Ripper."

Buffy studied Tolliver's face, and let him continue.

"The whole From Hell thing was a ruse used by the sorcerer who created that portal. He wrote the letter. He arranged for it to be sent, with the kidney, to the…" A sharp shake of his head. "Whoever it was sent to. It's all in the file. I don't remember—"

"Where's the file?" Buffy asked.

Tolliver hesitated, then said, "I can take you to it. Patrick showed it to me this morning, and we put it someplace safe. If you let me take you—"

"Not now. So, this sorcerer—Patrick's great-grandfather—" Buffy said.

"Maybe," Tolliver said. "There's nothing in the file about the creator being a Shanahan, but if that's what you heard, okay, we'll go with that. Whoever this sorcerer was, he created the portal as a holding place, as Patrick said, to escape supernaturals who wanted to steal or stop his experiment—an experiment unconnected to Jack the Ripper. He sacrificed two petty criminals to create the portal, then put the portal trigger into a piece of paper. At the same time, the police are investigating a string of homicides in Whitechapel. Letters are flowing in, claiming to be from the killer, all being carefully collected and stored in the police station. So he uses the paper to write a fake letter, figuring there's no safer place in London than that police file…"

Tolliver continued explaining, as Jeremy's gaze swung out over the forest, eyes narrowed, nostrils flaring as he tried to catch a breeze. He saw me watching but, instead of waving it off as nothing, he motioned Tolliver to silence.

"Antonio?" Jeremy murmured. "Take over. Dawn, Buffy, I need your noses. Clay? Savannah?"

Near-panic crossed through Clay's eyes, as he realized Jeremy wanted him to cover Dawn, leaving Nick behind with Antonio.

"Keep him talking," Jeremy said to Antonio, not noticing Clay's hesitation. "We'll be right back."

Clay's mouth opened, probably to suggest Nick go in his place. First, though, he looked at Dawn. She shook her head, jerking her chin toward Antonio and Tolliver. If Clay stayed behind, he'd be the only one protecting Antonio, whose attention would be on questioning Tolliver. Better to have Nick doing that.

Clay followed them into the forest.