Chapter 5 Home
Monday-Tuesday: 12:00 a.m.
On her way home, Buffy sat in the passenger seat of the car, feeling introspective. In her lifetime, there had only been a few instances when she actually encountered true evil. It would take days, even weeks, before she could get that smell out of her nose.
"What do you think happened out there?" asked Victor shivering slightly. He shouldn't be afraid, he admitted to himself. He was a werewolf. He was the boogeyman to millions of people. They were the ones that should be afraid. But if Buffy, who had lived all these years, was afraid then it was definitely serious.
"I don't know," she said bleakly.
Silence descended in the car for the next few miles. "How did I do that?" he burst out. The question had been weighing on his mind for awhile.
"Do what?" Buffy asked looking at him in a mildly puzzled manner.
"Earlier," Victor mumbled avoiding her gaze, "when you helped me focus."
"Oh that," she said shrugging as if it wasn't a big deal. "You see, the magic left a signature, and because you are a supernatural being, I was able to focus your mind's eye to be able to see it."
"Can anyone do that?" Victor asked. The idea of having this great gift to see beyond the obvious was great.
"Do what?" Buffy asked absentmindedly. She wasn't really paying attention. What could this mean, she thought. Since entering this dimension, she had accomplished a lot, both as a person and as the Slayer. This was not the first time she had encountered a vampire doing evil works, but she sensed that this time there was a difference. Almost as if someone or something was out to get her. "Why her? Why now," she kept asking herself. The killing had started in different states, and it wouldn't have come to her attention if she didn't work for A.D.A.P. Am I being paranoid? she asked herself.
"Buffy? Buffy?" Victor called sharply.
"Mmm," she murmured.
"Are you listening to me?" Victor said giving Buffy a sidelong glance.
Buffy blinked, shaken out of her reverie. She turned her body towards Victor in the driver's side of the car. "I'm sorry," she said with a delicate blush tinting her golden skin.
"I was just asking if anyone could do what I did," Victor said, his eyes gentle and understanding as he gazed at her.
"Sure, if they have a conduit to work with," she said, sighing in relief. She could answer this question. "I was your conduit."
"Okay," he said with apparent satisfaction as he drove through the gate of the Luna mansion. He stopped the car and she got out. "See you tomorrow," he called.
Buffy hesitated a moment, her hand on the door handle. She gave a huge sigh and nodded. At that moment, she felt tired. As if the weight of the world had suddenly descended on her shoulders. She was tired, right down to the bone. As she entered the building, her physical appearance changed. Over the years, she had learned to separate her two lives, one as Elisabeth Luna, wife and mother, and the other as Buffy Summers, F.B.I agent and Vampire Slayer. But with each separate identity, her appearance had to change. If the bad guys who knew her as Buffy Summers knew where she lived, then she would have no peace. Because of that fact, she had used the blonde, five-foot persona as Buffy Summers. Now she was using a glamour to appear as a five-ten, auburn-haired woman with emerald green eyes. Just her inner circle of friends and family knew that Buffy and Lissa were actually the same person.
Since she had started using the glamour, not once had she let her guard down. There was a time when in the privacy of her bedroom she would release the glamour, but because of an incident, she had stopped. It took several years before Julian got used to making love to her in this form. Now it was automatic. Whenever she entered the house each night, she was Lissa Luna, auburn hair, and in the mornings, she was Buffy Summers, blonde. It was getting tiresome because it was like having a ménage à trois, where sometimes she was a blonde and sometimes she was a redhead.
Buffy walked quickly up the steps, eager to see Julian. They had been married for over five hundred years and still the romance was still there. The need to hold Julian, to breathe in the rich scent of his skin, had become so strong that she ached. Physically they hadn't changed. She still looked about twenty-three or younger, and Julian looked like a man in his early thirties. And their two sons, Jordan and Alain, both looked enough like Julian to be his doppelgangers. It seemed weird to Buffy that two men looking physically older than she did called her mom. But it was just as Whistler had said, both boys would grow normally, but upon their 3oth birthdays, they had stopped aging. Jordan was the Prince of Los Angeles and owned several retail stores. Julian and Buffy's second son, Alain, was Prince of his own city in San Diego.
As she walked wearily up the steps, she automatically opened the metaphysical link between herself and Julian. She paused momentarily at the door to her room. Julian Luna, Prince of San Francisco, father of two and consort to Elisabeth, laid on his bed reading the paper. Their gazes connected as Buffy crossed the threshold of the room. In their earlier years of communication, it had been disconcerting to be in each other's minds like that, now it was commonplace. 'How are you darling?'
Ignoring the query, Buffy ran towards him, jumping into the bed and giving him a big hug.
"Hey, that bad, huh?" he said feeling the rush of emotion through their link.
"Just hold me," she said, burrowing into him, inhaling his natural scent. "I had a trying day. I am tired of chasing vamps gone bad, tired of killing them, and most of all, I'm tired of them killing innocent people."
Julian gazed with tenderness at her face. "Darling, you don't have to fight anymore. You have everything you'll ever need as my wife."
"Julian," she said exasperatedly. "I can't just sit back and see injustice being done."
"I know you can't, Lissa. I am just worried for you." He frowned. "After 1000 years of searching for my heart's desire, you cannot blame me for wanting to pamper you." He would always worry about her, since that incident several years ago when she had almost died. He had to share his life force with her. Because of that she was different. She was no longer an ordinary Slayer, if you could call a Slayer ordinary. But Buffy Summers was always different; she had always marched to a different drummer. Couple of years ago in Sunnydale, a sixteen-year-old girl named Vivian Chou was the resident Slayer. She had it hard. Since she and Buffy's paths were different, Buffy wasn't able to save her when she died fighting Remnants. Since then, no other Slayer had been called.
One of Buffy's differences was that she had become psychic. Julian thought that perhaps she had been born with psychic ability, but the Hellmouth had blocked it. What was a Slayer anyway, but a mixture of magical and psychic being? But ever since Buffy and Julian had merged their essences, she had grown in power. How much had she grown? He wasn't sure. However, it was enough to hold the city. He hated to see her stretch herself like this, being two people, but he grew to understand that the Slayerness was a part of her. He wouldn't love her being anything less.
"Darling," she said staring up at him. She knew of his concern; she could feel it in his unspoken thoughts. "I've been a soldier since I was fifteen years old. I can't imagine doing anything else. It is ingrained in me. Remember when we first met?"
"Of course," he said with a smile, his eyes alight with remembrance.
"For two years before that, I thought I could give up my calling. I didn't want to care. I went about ignoring killings, robberies, and whatever crimes that were happening around me. But I couldn't ignore it, no matter how I tried. When I first met Kendra, I was happy. Here was another Slayer, I thought. She could take over my job, and I could go on dates, vacations, and party without worrying that the world was going to end and I wouldn't be there to stop it. I had it all planned. But do you know what she said to me?"
"What?"
"She said being a Slayer was not a job, it was who I was. At the time, I didn't understand or want to understand, and it took me this long to finally figure it out. I am Slayer and I will always be one. I may be weary of the killings, but…"
"But you don't have to make it your life mission."
"I know," she said sighing. "After we catch the bad guys, we're going on a vacation," she said cheerfully. "Everyone. That means the whole family."
"Good," he said, his voice a tender caress on her skin. "We all need the rest. In the meanwhile, let's forget about the cares of the world," he said nuzzling her neck.
"Not now, I have a bone to pick with you," she argued, leaning into the caress. A delightful shiver of want ran through her.
"Later darling," said Julian, his voice a husky whisper as he kissed the pulse at the base of her throat. "You rile me up; you have to deal with the consequences."
"What's with you vampires?" she said giggling, as her soft curves molded to the contours of his lean body. "Always going for the neck."
It was a long time before she slept, and when she did, she had no dreams at all.
Concealed in the shadows with eyes glowing an eerie silver-gray, a shadow stood staring at the mansion Buffy had just entered. Buffy had haunted the shadow's life for years. This person had studied Buffy, her habits, her likes and dislikes. Even her strengths and her weaknesses were examined. It was time. Time to even the playing field. The shadow imagined that Buffy was cozily snuggled with her husband in the house, not thinking that soon everything would change. It's all about the game, and no one could stop the game once it started. There was no choice. Buffy needed to suffer. If it took a lifetime, that bitch was going to get it.
The Shadow watched the house for several more minutes before cloaking itself within the night and disappearing. "Watch out, Buffy Summers, you are not going to know what hit you."
Tuesday: 4:00 a.m.
Buffy had barely slept when the telephone by the bed rang. She groped for the phone, frowning as she heard the different ring tone. By the tone, Buffy knew it was work calling. "Yeah," she murmured, speaking sleepily into the handset.
"You got your wish," said a voice on the other line.
"Uh," she said, taking the handset from her ears to look at it in disbelief. She shook her head as if to clear cobwebs from her brain. She sat up, putting the receiver back to her ear. "What?" she questioned.
"The new victim is a woman," the voice continued.
Buffy jerked up startled, the silk sheets pooling around her naked waist. 'They would be killing women too,' Buffy remembered saying.
"A couple walking in the park found the body last night," Connor said without preamble. "This one they made no effort to hide."
"Where?" she asked, now wide awake, a sick feeling settling in her stomach. She now knows that this was just the beginning.
"Two miles from where we found the other one."
"What!" she said, astonishment making her voice squeak.
Julian having awakened when the telephone had rang, jerked up in surprise at Buffy's shrill voice. "What is it?" he asked, watching her intently, although his Kindred hearing had heard the conversation.
"We went back to the crime scene; we didn't see anyone," she said. And I didn't sense anyone, she thought. What use is having psychic ability when it doesn't work when you want. But her mind flickered back to the sensation that she was being watched and the smell. She had thought it was Cash, but now she wasn't quite sure. She didn't take time to search the area. At one time, she would have done that. Maybe she was getting careless. But what Buffy didn't know was that someone was influencing her actions.
"It must have happened after you left. Summers?" Connor said his voice edged with tension.
Buffy could hear the hesitation in his voice.
"This one is different."
"How different?" Buffy asked her own voice quiet.
Connor let out a long, audible breath. "First, this one is female, and there are half a dozen puncture wounds on the body."
She paled. Then more than one fed from her, she said to herself. Oh God no, Buffy moaned inside. Her heart started to race a mile a minute and her breath hitched. She felt as if she was on fire.
An uncomfortable silence descended.
"Summers?" Connor called, giving an anxious little cough, trying to lessen the tension in the air.
She cleared her throat and, as casually as she could manage, she said, "That's unusual; a vampire doesn't like to share." Her mind was racing, trying to figure out how all this had happened.
"Yeah, that is just what the first viewing revealed." Connor hesitated wondering if he should tell her or let her see for herself. Then he rationalized to himself that nobody should see what he had seen. "These vamps didn't just feed; they mutilated her. Her hair was cut off into chunks; her body hacked by some sort of weapon. Doc thinks it was a small ax."
"They used weapons?" she moaned, her mind's eye trying to visualize the terribleness of the act.
"Yeah, they did," he said bleakly. "It was even hard to find teeth marks in the midst of the other wounds," Connor admitted. With a slight hesitation, he said in a strained voice, "She was also sodomized and raped."
"Oh dear God," she said with a wince as she tried to swallow convulsively. Her voice grew tight as she asked, "Did you call Victor?"
"Yes, he will meet you at the crime scene," he said quietly.
"Okay," she said slowly hanging up the phone. A stab of guilt laid buried in her breast. "There was another killing," Buffy said to Julian. She closed her eyes feeling miserable.
"I heard," Julian said giving her a commiserating smile. "You felt you should have done something," he said thoughtfully, reading the answer on her face.
Buffy gave Julian a telling glance.
He shook his head. "I am sorry, my darling,but you can't save everyone. Did you know the woman that was killed?"
"No," she muttered.
"No, you didn't," he agreed. "Of course, I care that someone has died, but I am not going to beat myself up over something that I couldn't control," Julian said gently, taking her into his arms. "You shouldn't either."
"But that's just it," Buffy cried shrugging out of his arms. "I had sensed that someone was at the crime scene. I thought it was Cash, but maybe it was the killer bringing this new body."
His eyes regarded her thoughtfully. "Bebe, I think I understand. But you still have no control over what this person is doing. You can't watch this city twenty-four/seven," he said gently. "What are you planning to do?" he asked, as Buffy got out of the bed to walk to the closet door.
"I am going to find this vampire and slay it," she said while dressing in dark blue jeans and an olive green cotton shirt.
"It can't be one of my people," Julian said with a frown. "They wouldn't dare break the masquerade."
"Are you sure?" she demanded, turning to give him an inscrutable glance.
Julian hesitated. "I'm sure," he said. "It couldn't be one of my people."
"If you are sure," Buffy said giving him a long searching look. "Then it must be someone new," she said with reflection. "They wouldn't care about the masquerade."
"All Kindred care about the masquerade," Julian said with such arrogance that Buffy wanted to smack him.
She was trying to give him an out because he said it wasn't one of his people. She was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. "How about this new Kindred Cash said you are worried about? They have entered the city without your permission, I might add. How about them? Do they care about the masquerade?"
Julian shrugged, a worried frown on his face.
"Darling, you know I don't meddle in your Kindred business, but it is obvious that you are worried. Why didn't you tell me about this new threat?"
"I don't know if they are a threat," Julian admitted.
Buffy turned worried eyes to him. "Don't be naïve. Of course, they are a threat. Did they acknowledge you as the prince? Did they come to you asking permission to enter your city?"
After each question, Julian shook his head 'no'.
"Then they are a threat."
Julian sighed. "You are right. I guess I just buried my head in the sand. I wanted to believe the best. But I'm not so naïve that I didn't order a full investigation."
"Darling, we need to communicate more," said Buffy walking over to the bed to sit beside Julian. "I know I am not Cash, or Daedalus."
"Definitely not," he said smiling, taking in the obvious feminine shape in t-shirt and jeans.
"But I am your wife, your helpmate," she said as if Julian hadn't interrupted. "If you have a problem, at least let me know," she scolded, "so that I can help solve it with you."
"I know Lissa; it's just a lifetime of bad habits. But you are not Kindred."
Buffy felt a twinge in the region of her heart. She was tired of people thinking she didn't understand because she wasn't Kindred. "You are right," she said annoyed. "I am not Kindred, but my friends, my family, and most of all, my children are. I may never be Kindred, but that doesn't mean I don't understand. We both know that some 'seul' lone Kindred are killing mortals, and they aren't worried about the masquerade."
"We have laws," he said arrogantly. "This law is to protect us from mortals. All Kindred know this law. Anyone caught breaking masquerade and his or her life will be forfeit.
"Well, you tell it to this person who killed college boys and a woman," Buffy retort. She was getting angry. Julian and his stubbornness. "They weren't worried about the masquerade. These 'violateur de la loi' are calling attention to themselves by killing mortals. Now it seems like more than one Kindred is involve with this new killing."
"What do you mean?"
"The person who was killed was drained by several vampires."
He sighed. "It has to be Rogue Kindred," Julian said stubbornly. Not willing to admit that there was something in his beloved city that he couldn't control. "Like those who entered the city."
She looked at him for a moment and sighed as well. She loved him so much. But in this instance he was being naïve. Julian was not a naïve person, but anything to do with his beloved city and he turned a blind eye. His wave of black hair kept falling onto his face. Julian was never less than perfect. Only Buffy got to see this side of him. "Darling, you cannot control everything or everyone around you. There will always be a rotten apple in the bunch. What we need is new laws."
"New laws?" he said taken aback. "Bu-but, the laws we have have been with us for generations and generations. We cannot just create new laws."
"We have to. The Kindred created those laws years ago, when mortals overran the Kindred, so that the Kindred could blend in and not be hurt, but now the Kindred are powerful with gifts. They are stronger, both psychically and physically. They are using these gifts to hurt humanity. I am a protector of the weak, and right now humans are weak. We must protect them all, or we both will die out. And without humans, Kindred cannot exist. We need them, because without them, we will be unable to renew the species. We need to coexist with humans, and they should never know we are part of their world. The select few that know both hate and fear us."
Julian nodded thoughtfully. "Darling, I understand. Maybe I am selfish because I don't like change. But it's going to be hard to change centuries of tradition."
"I know," said Buffy. "But if we don't change the laws, at least come up with some ideas that reflect us and mortals living in this new era."
"Okay bebe, I will think about it," Julian said, his voice resigned. "Go to your crime scene. We will talk more about the Kindred laws when you get back."
Buffy gave him a quick kiss and hurriedly walked out of the room.
'Be careful,' Julian said through their link.
Buffy smiled, sending back a wave of love through the link. 'I will,' she said.