Gift of a Family chapter 19. Violet Eyes.
As always, thanks to Sulien for being my beta reader. (All is well thank you.) Also, thank you to everyone who is reading and reviewing, I really appreciate it, and hey it is my birthday today...please give me reviews. (Bright smile but I am not gonna admit how old I am.)
"Daniel!" Jack yelled at his best friend, "get your lips off of my daughter!"
Buffy and Daniel froze and looked into each others eyes in shock.
"Did he say..." Daniel started to ask, but stopped speaking as he turned to look at a very angry Jack, who was still chained to a stone obelisk.
"Daughter?" Buffy asked in shock, looking at the man she had found herself wishing was her father ever since she had heard from Daniel that he had come to Sunnydale to look up his daughter.
Buffy's mind was racing a mile a minute, but couldn't seem to add one and one together to make two. He's my father? Why did he wait so long to tell me? Was he ever going to tell me? What if he came to find a nice normal daughter, took one look at me and decided I was a freak and was planning to get out of town before I could find out? Her mind froze at that thought and she was surprised at how badly it hurt to think it. She desperately tried to rethink to see if she could come up with any other conclusion. It made sense, though. With her life, it was somehow poetic. Morbid and depressing, but poetic. It's better this way, now I wont' get attached to him only to have him leave.
Daniel froze in shock and looked at his friend, bewildered. He had been imagining a young girl with pigtails to be Jacks daughter. She would be a hellion, climbing trees and getting into all kinds of trouble. She wasn't supposed to be a mysterious and sexy Vampire Slayer, he certainly wasn't supposed to be attracted to her. Daniel scrambled away from Buffy, not quite ready for an angry shotgun wielding Jack, intent on protecting his daughter from amorous suitors. The pang of loss struck a resonant chord within him, though, as he pulled away. From the way she responded to his kiss, he was certain that his interest was not one sided.
Jack realized what he had said and winced. This was so not how he wanted Buffy to find out that he was her father. He had been waiting for the right moment to tell her. He was going to show up on her porch with a bouquet of flowers and the letter she had sent him. The right moment was certainly not in the middle of a vampires lair while he was chained to a sacrificial rock.
"Surprise," he stated whimsically. "Listen, that wasn't how I wanted you to find out," he quickly told Buffy on seeing the pained look that was rising in her eyes. Damn, this really isn't working out too well, he thought.
Buffy forced the pain away and hid it behind her anger and the Slayer within her. "Did you even want me to find out?" Buffy asked coldly as she sat up. She was sitting partly in a growing pool of blood and her head was spinning when she realized that her blood was adding to the pool. She cursed mentally and tore a small clean part of her shirt to staunch the blood she was losing.
"What?" Jack asked in shock. "Of course I did! Everything has just been a little crazy and I was waiting for the right time." Buffy cast Jack a look that clearly said she didn't believe him.
Wesley and the remaining soldiers hurried over to release Jack and help Buffy. "I think the family reunion needs to wait. We've got to get the blood off of this seal before it activates and releases the Hell beast." Wesley looked over her wounds and pulled out bandages and tape from his pockets to patch her up.
"Once I get off this seal it will take care of half the problem right there," Buffy growled, indicating her hair and back that were covered in blood. "This is so gross."
"Take it slowly. You have lost a lot of blood," Wesley advised as he held out his hand to help her to her feet.
Buffy had just gotten to her feet when the seal below her started glowing a blood red.
"This is so not good," Buffy stated, just as an earthquake started rocking the cavern and nearly sent Wesley sprawling. Only Buffy's grip kept him from falling.
"Get out!" Buffy shouted as the ground above started caving in and falling all around them. Together, they rushed from the cavern toward the tunnels that led back out to the surface. Buffy paused only briefly to collect her shiny new sword. They were nearly to the entrance of the tunnel when it collapsed, trapping them in the enormous cavern.
"Get against the walls!" Jack shouted the command as he threw himself protectively over Buffy.
The crashing of the falling earth seemed to subside shortly, though the ground beneath them continued to rumble and shake. It no longer felt like an earthquake, but like something was moving underneath the ground below them.
A fearsome roar announced the arrival of the Hell beast, which Jack could feel deep within his very bones. It was as unsettling as nails across a chalkboard and filled his body with dread. A blazing burst of fire preceded the creature from the now open Seal of Danzathar. The fire was followed by a pair of violet eyes and white fangs that would put a dinosaur to shame.
The creature didn't even look at them as it continued up a little hill towards the gaping hole that had opened up in the cave in, where Sunnydale lay helpless above. Its body was enormous and seemed to go on forever, and was the color of smoke and shadows on the darkest night, and it had wings folded protectively cross it's back.
"Is it just me, or does that thing look just like a dragon?" Jack asked, not believing his eyes.
"It is a dragon," Wesley stated and looked over at Buffy with fear and worry in his eyes.
Buffy's eyes were vacant, as if her mind and spirit were in some far away land, and she took several steps in the direction of the dragon. There was a smile shining upon her face with a look of rapture and ecstacy.
Buffy was lost, she couldn't remember where she was or what she was supposed to be doing. The creature before her at first filled her with dread and she was determined to kill it. She had to in order to save the world. Then she looked at his violet eyes and she could hear his unearthly music that filled her with a great longing and pleasure. It was spiritual and sexual all at once and she could feel herself spiraling into the heavens on a wave of rapture. She was filled with love and the desire to be near to the creature that seemed to call out to her. She knew that there was something that she was supposed to kill to save the world, but the only thing before her was this heavenly creature whose song reminded her so much of heaven, but with a dark passion mixed in. It wasn't exactly like heaven, but it really reminded her of it. Suddenly, someone grabbed her arm, pulling her away from the heavenly creature. She was about to pull her arm away and continue forward when she was slapped across the face.
"Buffy, it's the dragon's thrall! Snap out of it!" Wesley's voice cried out to her.
"What are you doing?" Jack growled at the man who had just slapped his daughter.
"Dragons are very rare and very hard to kill, especially for Slayers. I'm sure you are aware of the legends of dragons carrying off maidens. Dragons love women, especially strong women like Slayers, and they have something like a hypnotic power that they use to lure them to it. It is far more powerful than any vampire's thrall. Buffy was just lost in it and I was trying to get her out of it."
Together, they turned to look at Buffy, who was shaking as she tried to throw off the thrall and had been from the instant that she had heard Wesley say "thrall." She had dreaded thrall ever since losing Merrick because of it and didn't even realize that she had sunk to her knees as she tried to fight it.
"Wes, I don't think I can do this," she whispered shakily.
"Yes, you can, Buffy. You are our only hope. You are the only one who can wield that sword and that means that you are the only one who can kill that creature," Wesley responded.
"The music is so...it reminds me of heaven," Buffy whispered, a look of longing upon her face.
Jack sucked in a breath of air in shock. It wasn't that she could hear music that no one else could that had him reeling, it was the heaven comment. How could it remind her of heaven unless she had been there and remembered it?
"Buffy, whatever you do, don't look in its eyes," Wesley commanded her.
Shakily, like someone suffering from withdrawal, Buffy raised her head and looked at her father. She hadn't believed him when he said that he wanted to be her father in truth, even after finding out about her being the slayer. She didn't believe that he wouldn't leave her hurting and alone, the way that everyone else had. But she wanted to believe him. She wanted to believe him more than she could say. Grabbing her sword, she filled herself with determination and conviction. She would slay the creature and then she would find out the truth.
Turning, Buffy noticed that the creature was almost outside and knew that it would be impossible to defeat if it took flight. Crawling to her feet, she raced through what seemed like a dust storm towards the creature of darkest shadow that even now still gleamed like the light of heaven and she knew that the thrall wasn't completely thrown off. Because she didn't want to kill it. Killing it would be like sending Angel to hell, losing her mother, sister and friends and being torn out of Heaven all over again.
Buffy was almost to it when it emerged from the tunnel onto the streets of Sunnydale. She reached the end of the tunnel to see it spread its wings, preparing to take flight. With a final burst of speed, she jumped onto its back and lashed out with her sword at the creature's right wing. Diamond hard scales deflected her sword and she could feel the vibrations all up her arm, deep into her body and even in her teeth. The dragon leapt into the air and she fell to its hard and scaly back.
Buffy clung to the dragon with all of her strength, she did not want to fall from it's back to the ground that seemed so very far below. She wondered desperately how she was going to get out of this mess without getting herself killed in the process. She had really wanted to keep the dragon on the ground, because she didn't have much hope with it airborne.
Looking over, she eyed the dragon's wing. Hoping to wound it so that it would have to land, she lashed her sword out at it's wing again. Once again, the sword was repelled by the creature's armor, but this time her sword rebounded back towards her, the flat of the blade impacting her back where the Dragon (vampire), had scratched her with his Tiger's Claw.
Buffy gritted her teeth from the pain, and although it was the flat of the sword that had hit her, it opened the scratches that ran down her back. Blood flowed out from her wounds and onto the runes etched into the blade. It was her blood that woke the sword from it's long slumber and activated the latent magic in its blade. Buffy could feel its power flow into her, through her and back to the blade again. She was one with the blade and it felt like an extension of her own being. Looking at the blade, she could see it glowing with the powers of life, death, Heaven and Hell.
Buffy lashed out at the dragon's wing once again. This time, the blade cut through the scales like a hot knife through warm butter. The creature's cry of pain was agony to her heart even as they fell from the sky like a shooting star.
The dragon landed close to the cavern as if it was returning to its lair to seek safety. Its impact with the ground threw Buffy from its back to roll in the grass. Looking up, she realized that the Seal of Danzathar was not far from the Hellmouth. They were in the middle of the football field of her old high school, a gaping hole was in the ground where the end zone should be.
Pulling herself to her feet, Buffy turned to kill the dragon and was met with a pair of violet eyes that pierced her to her very soul. Once again, the sensual, heavenly music filled her and she walked toward those eyes that beckoned to her like siren's song. She could sense the power of this creature, its wisdom and years. It was older than the moon and stars, from a time before time. Its beauty was a thing beyond the Earth and she longed to surrender herself to it. Tears filled her eyes as she neared the creature. How could she kill this beast? Who was she to say that it should die while she lived? Her duty to the world was like a millstone around her neck. She would rather die than kill this creature of light and shadows.
Buffy stood before the dragon, her sword in hand, and its music crescendoed. Like a tsunami, the music washed over and around her and she could feel her resistance to it washing away like sand in the tides. For a moment, her mind merged with the dragon before her, such wisdom and beauty should not be parted from this world. To kill this creature would be a sin beyond sins. She could feel her love for this creature start to blossom under its violet gaze.
From the darkened depths below, Jack, Daniel, Wesley and the soldiers emerged to find Buffy standing right before the dragon. Well within chomping distance.
"Buffy!" Jack cried out, knowing that his daughter was lost to the thrall that Wesley had described.
The dragon stirred and turned to growl at the men. Buffy could feel its intention even as it drew breath to pour out its deadly fire upon her father and friends. The protector within her acted without thought and she launched herself at the dragon. Thrusting her sword into the creature, she could feel it absorb the dragon's magic and powers. With one final, majestic cry, the dragon died, taking a part of her heart and soul with it.
"No!" Buffy cried out, realizing what she had done. She threw her sword from her and wrapped her arms around the creature, pleading with it to take her with it, to Heaven or Hell, she didn't care which. She only wanted to stay by its side, but now the heavenly music was fading, leaving her in a hell of her own creation. She had killed it. Like everything she touched, it seemed to wither and die. She was being left behind, shattered and broken. Come with me The dragon seemed to whisper directly to her heart.
She wouldn't be left behind, she refused to be separated from Heaven again. Scrambling to the creature's claws, she took one, ready to kill herself in order to stay within its heavenly presence.
"Buffy, no!" she heard Jack and Daniel cry out, and suddenly warm hands pulled her away from the dragon's claws. She found herself being embraced by Jack and Daniel. She could feel the thrall slowly clearing from her mind, and with this clearing came the realization that she could sense something else that reminded her of Heaven. Turning to Daniel, she whispered, "I miss it so much, Daniel. It's hell being here and remembering what it was like, and I just killed the closest thing I have had to it since I was pulled back."
"God, Buffy, I'm so sorry," Daniel whispered back. "You have to know though, that we are here for you. You aren't alone anymore." He wanted to tell her that he could understand more than anybody what she was feeling, but he knew that it was worse for her. She remembered it. For all his hidden longings to return to that state of being, at least he didn't fully remember what he was missing.
"We're here for you, kid. You're not gonna get rid of me," Jack stated soothingly as he gently rubbed circles over the unwounded part of her back.
These words were like a balm to Buffy's broken spirit. Though she didn't dare believe them, they opened the way for her heart to be cleansed and just as the heavens opened up to wash the Earth with rain, Buffy let her tears fall, and the tears she cried were cleansing.
I hope you liked it, there is more to come.