"Okay," I said. "I'm coming closer."
"Come one, come all," Drusilla said. "It's not a party till the last guest arrives."
"I'll invite them in," I said.
She smiled. "Goody. And then we can all have a little chat about what you did today."
I turned and stepped outside. I could run. However Dru got inside, she wasn't ready to immediately chase me and there were a lot of places to get lost in.
Could being a term of practicality, of course. I wouldn't do it. Logan and Lynn would end up dead.
Three of the four people outside could be seen from the inside. So I called them, saying, "Mr. Echolls. Xander. Rae. Could you come inside for a minute?"
When Sheila stepped forward as well, I shook my head slightly and gestured, in front of my body, for her to stay out of line of sight of the door. She nodded and took a couple of steps back.
First Aaron, then Xander, then Rae walked in. Aaron hadn't figured out that anything was going on yes, but Rae and Xander had caught the tenseness in my voice and my subtle shooing away of Sheila as a sign that something was quite wrong.
"Sure, Veronica," Aaron said as he took a couple of steps inside. "What do you – hello. I didn't realize we had company."
Xander said, "That's not the kind of company you want."
"Why? Who is it?"
"Father," Logan said tightly. "This is the woman who killed all of those people a couple of days ago." Aaron's face went through a gamut of emotions: Confusion, anger and disgust. Finally he settled on confused anger.
"That's right!" Drusilla said gleefully. "I am, I am! I killed them all for my martian over there. She's been a very bad martian." I noticed that Lynn's eyes appeared glazed. This would be how she got into the house, then: She hypnotized Lynn into inviting her.
Again, I may seem calm. I'm not. But panic will absolutely not help right now.
Case in point: New action family man Aaron Echolls, who saw Drusilla holding something sharp at his estranged wife's throat, and before anyone could so much as yell "No!" went charging across the room at the vampire
Almost negligently, she backhanded him hard enough to knock him into the room's far wall – a good ten feet away. "Don't do that or I might have to get violent before I want to." Aaron got up and moved back towards where the rest of us were standing.
"How have I been a bad martian?" I asked, hoping (wildly, of course) that she had no idea what had happened at the depot and had been away because she was planning to find me anyway.
"You got my Spike killed."
Well, so much for hope. She seemed almost calm when she spoke. This was more worrying to me, oddly, than if she'd been in a murderous rage. Were she killing angry, it would have been a lot easier, figuring out what to do.
This? This was likely to inspire false hope that maybe we could all get through this alive. It was a false hope I wasn't going to buy, but everyone else in the room but Xander and maybe Rae might.
"Huh?" Aaron said. "What's she talking about?"
"Mr. Echolls," Xander said. "Now's the time for you to be quiet. If there's a later, we'll answer your questions then."
"If?"
"If," Xander said.
"I've been right here for the last hour and a half or so. Ask any of these people." Worth a shot, and the longer I could keep her talking, the more likely Sheila would be able to –
Well, to do something. I hoped by now Sheila was smart enough and cautious enough not to simply risk a frontal attack unless she absolutely had to. I wasn't expecting her to run.
"Silly martian," Drusilla said. "Of course you didn't do it yourself. Everyone knows martians aren't violent. They're all peaceful like an ice cream truck in winter. No, you had that nasty Slayer and my Angel do it for you. You're clever, like that, but I don't know why you'd want to kill my Spike. And after everything I did for you, too, all those people I killed. This is very, very rude of you, you know."
"How did you get in here?"
She pointed behind her. "May I look?"
"As long as you still have eyes, you may look," was the unsettling response. "But no running. I am not a coyote and you are not a roadrunner."
The Roadrunner always got away, but I wasn't about to go correcting her metaphor. Instead, I took a couple of steps forward and to the left –
She makes her own shade. Of course. A jumbo-sized parasol.
Stepping back, I said, "Thank you."
"Of course I didn't have to run all the way in the air. The tunnels were lovely, dark, and fun, and I had miles to go before the sun."
"Are you following this?" Aaron asked Xander.
"All I've heard, this is pretty clear, for her," Xander said.
"Why, thank you," Drusilla said, to Xander.
"Um – you're welcome?"
"See, martian? He's polite. He's a nice boy. I think I'll kill him last of all."
"You touch my mother -" Logan said.
"Your mother?" Drusilla said. "Why would I hurt her?"
"You have your fingernail at her throat." Her fingernails looked sharp enough to slice through bank vaults.
"Oh, silly, that's just to make sure no one tries any running or fighting or anything. After you're all nice and dead I promise I'll let her go. She's innocent like a lamb. A little baaing lamb, so cute and sweet and I'm not at all in the mood for lamb chops."
While everyone else dealt with the "nice and dead" part – and don't think I'm blasé about it – I said, "Why do you think it was me, Drusilla?"
She laughed, "Because I have ears. They're not long like a bunny's or fan-shaped like an elephant's but they're perfectly good enough to hear that nasty Slayer talk all about how she killed my Spike, and then she said I might come after you and I was thinking 'why would I want to hurt the martian,' but of course, I'd only want to hurt the martian if she'd had something to do with it. And she'd already said you were here so I came here to give you the punishment you deserve."
Surprisingly logical for Drusilla, though I might wish her burst of reasoning had come at another time. Buffy had asked me how things were going here at casa Echolls. I wouldn't have expected Drusilla to know where that was, necessarily, but fate probably dropped a phone book directly in her path.
And it was probably open to the right page.
"Okay," I said. "Give me the punishment I deserve."
"Veronica, no," Rae said.
I had no illusions that Drusilla would make any bargains, but I had to try. To delay, as long as possible, what was going to happen.
To give Sheila as much of a chance as possible.
"Oh, no," Drusilla said. "I couldn't do that, martian. Killing you wouldn't be punishment enough. You need lots and lots of discipline. Like a naughty schoolgirl. You need to watch."
Rae gasped slightly, while Xander and Logan's faces turned grim. Aaron said nothing.
"I thought you were afraid of what was behind me."
"Oh, I still am afraid," Drusilla said. "But fear is something to be overcome, not something to run away from, and I am not a gazelle or any kind of prey. I am the top of the food chain, after all, and nowhere near the bottom, and the top of the food chain should not be afraid."
Translation: Her fear of what's behind me is less important than her being pissed at me because I arranged for Spike's death.
Damn.
"If you think we're going to stand here and let you kill us, you've got another think coming," Aaron said. Oh. I see. He wasn't being stoic, it just took him this long to figure it out.
"You know, you're really quite unpleasant," Drusilla said.
"And imagine, father. She's only known you for ten minutes," Logan said. Well, if he could snark, the situation wasn't entirely hopeless.
"Yes," Drusilla said. "Your father is quite a bad man. He cheats and he steals and he kills, and he's very, very not nice to women. He's definitely going to die first and his death is going to be most fun. There'll be screaming and yelling and all that lovely, lovely blood."
"He – kills?"
Drusilla laughed, only this time her laugh wasn't nearly as pleasant. "Oh, not nearly as many people as I have, but after all killing one person and killing hundreds, it's all the same, really, when it comes down to it."
"Who did you kill?" Logan asked.
"What, you're going to believe the crazy woman who's trying to kill us all?"
"Drusilla," I said, "May I ask you for one favor before you start killing everyone?"
"You may ask, martian."
"Let me finish something. I promise you it has nothing to do with you." Nothing directly, anyway, though it was still part of the big stall.
"Because you asked nicely, you may. But I still haven't forgiven you and neither will Miss Manners and you are still going to die screaming ever so delightfully."
Well, it was good to have something to look forward to. "Thank you," I said. "Logan. You want to know who he killed?"
Aaron's head whipped around so far and so fast you''d have thought he was the girl from The Exorcist.
"Now, Veronica?"
"Now, Xander." I took a deep breath. "He killed Lilly."
"What?" This from Lynn Lester/Echolls, apparently coming out of her trance. "What's -"
"Shhh," Drusilla said, staring into her eyes. "Stay very still and I will let you listen."
Logan looked around the room like he didn't know who to focus on. Eventually he settled on me. "How the hell do you know this?"
"I've seen the tape."
"What tape?" Logan asked.
Xander said, "The tape Lilly saved. The tape your father killed her for. The tape of them having sex. That tape, Logan."
Angrily, Logan said, "Lilly wouldn't -"
"Lilly did," I said. "I love Lilly. But she did and she would." Drusilla was watching in fascination. Lynn was watching in abject horror. Rae was watching out of the corner of her eye as she slowly backed towards the rear door of the house.
Smart woman. If she could make it, more power to her. I certainly wasn't going to rat her out.
"Case in point, me," Xander said.
"Huh?"
"She was dating me, too. Right around the same time."
"And your father there -" Aaron still hadn't said a word – "Would sleep with anything that moved," I said. "Anything of the opposite gender. I think I'm the only woman in town he didn't hit on."
"Dad?" I think this is the first time I heard Logan call his father dad. "Tell me they're wrong."
And Aaron took a deep breath and said, "I can't, son. I wish I could, but I can't. I should have figured that you all knew about it, earlier, when you were rehearsing. I just couldn't bring myself to say it. I wish – I wish I had. I wish I hadn't. You know what I mean." I did, and he actually sounded remorseful. Due to the wish, of course. I wasn't giving him any leeway or credit.
And I didn't need to.
"Lilly took the tape. Where you shot it, I have no idea, but she took it and hid it, and you demanded it back, and she wouldn't give it to you." I did not phrase it as a question.
"No. She wouldn't. I have no idea what I was thinking at the time."
"But you took a stone from the Kane's rock garden, and you killed her." Once again, not a question.
He didn't get to respond, anyway. Logan said, "You son of a bitch!"
"Hear, hear," Xander said. "Not strong enough, though. You can do better." Xander was enjoying this. I could hardly blame him. I also noticed that he wasn't completely taking his eye off of Drusilla, either. Good.
Rae was almost at the back door, by this point.
"You want to see me do better, Harris? I'll show you better." Then he hit his father in the face as hard as he could, knocking him down.
Lynn gasped. Drusilla giggled. Xander smiled. I said nothing.
"Get up, Father dearest," Logan said.
Aaron didn't move. All he said was, "I deserved that, son."
"And more." Then, before Aaron could stand up, Logan kicked him in the side once and then a second time.
Rae quietly slipped out the back.
Before he could do it a third time, Drusilla said, loudly, "Now, that's quite enough!"
"I'm going to kill him," Logan said.
"And spoil my fun? I think not." She looked almost thoughtful for a second. "Though I believe you would make a very good vampire. How do you feel about eternal life?"
Logan? He'd make a horrible vampire.
"I'm against it," Logan said earnestly. "It sounds boring."
"Oh, but it isn't," Drusilla said. "It's fun, and you get to kill people and not care at all about it, and then there's all that delicious blood we get to drink. No, that quite settles it. I shall turn you, just as soon as I'm done killing the martian and everyone else for what they did to my Spike."
"No," Logan said. "It would never work. I'm much too big a fan of surfing. I'm also not interested in being your rebound guy."
"You wouldn't be. My guy is dead and he shouldn't be, he really shouldn't be, and it's all the martian's fault." She looked at me. I felt no fear about staring back. "Why?" She sounded betrayed. "I was going to be your Sephrenia and you were going to be my Sparhawk. I was going to guide you and you were going to be a champion. But you were never my Sparhawk. No, you were only Martel, and you killed my Vanion." After a second, she said, "And now it's time for someone to be punished. Come here, young man, and eternal life will be yours."
She gestured towards Logan, who didn't move. "I said I wasn't interested."
"Come here or -" she pressed her fingernail against Lynn's throat.
Logan hesitated, took a half step forward, stopped, and opened his mouth.
That was apparently the sign to the universe for all hell to break loose.
The front door came flying into the house as though a rhinoceros had hit it. Everyone turned to look, including Drusilla.
No one was standing there.
Find the Target. Distance Strike.
Sheila'd figured out how to combine them.
Aaron Echolls stepped forward quickly, yanked Lynn out of Drusilla's grasp, and shoved her towards the back door. "Run," he said.
"But –"
I said, "He's right. RUN!" and went to draw my holy water pistol.
Logan grabbed his mother's arm and fled towards the back door.
Drusilla recovered from the shock of seeing no one knock down the front door, spun around, and dove at inhuman speed past me towards Logan, smacking the pistol out of my hand as she went. Xander tried to get in her way and was knocked down.
She caught Logan at the cusp of the back door, right as he shoved Lynn through it.
"Naughty boy!" She threw him back into the house – and I mean literally threw. He sailed through the air and landed maybe fifteen feet away.
"Logan!" Lynn yelled.
"Keep going!" I said. She stopped, but at least she didn't come any closer to the house.
Xander, who along with me had been looking for something sharp and wooden, once again dove at Drusilla, and this time actually connected with a punch before she shoved him into a table. Me, she passed by – though she kicked the pistol into the living room as she went – heading right for Logan, who was trying to scramble to his feet.
Aaron, this time, wasn't going to be brushed off so easily. Blindsiding Drusilla with a tackle, he actually knocked her off of her feet, where he began hitting her.
Then Sheila came running down the stairs.
Spider Climb.
And probably another Find the Target when she broke one of the upstairs windows.
"Here comes the sun!" I yelled.
Xander and Logan, both now on their feet, looked at me in confusion for a second. Sheila shook her head no.
No?
Shit! It probably needed materials she didn't have on her today.
In the meantime, Xander turned to Logan and said, "We need a stake."
While Aaron struggled with Drusilla – who now had her game face on and was clawing away at him – Logan ran to the living room and smashed an end table against the floor, Hurriedly, he and Xander each took a jagged piece of wood.
Me? There were only the two ersatz stakes, so I scrambled to retrieve the pistol.
Sheila wasn't standing around doing nothing. Just because she couldn't cast the sunlight spell didn't mean she couldn't cast any spell.
Suddenly, the area around Drusilla was enveloped in darkness.
Darkness.
Darkness?
I looked at Sheila, who made a shoving motion and then pointed towards the back door.
Okay, I got it. I think.
Xander and Logan stopped, confused. I repeated Sheila's gestures and they nodded their head. I hoped it was because they got it, not because it was an automatic reflex.
The area of darkness shifted, slightly, and stood up. Aaron Echolls lay there on the floor, bleeding from his throat.
"Lovely darkness," Drusilla said. "Thanks ever so much to whoever did this."
"'re welcome," Sheila said, sarcastically.
"Oh, I know you weren't trying to be nice but you were nice and in the end it's the results that matter. Like there, with that horrid man who tried to kill me. But I showed him who the real killer is, didn't I?"
"I suppose you did," I said.
"Ah, martian, there you are," Drusilla said.
"Here I is," I said.
"Thank you for speaking," she said.
And then I was enveloped in darkness, as she beelined towards me. I shot the pistol towards her as she came; she yelped but didn't stop.
I felt my wrist being bent back and heard the pistol drop to the floor. "Bad martian!" she said. "The first thing you did was attack my Spike with that thing! I loathe that nasty gun, I do! And now it will be the last thing you do."
I took a step backwards in the general direction of the door.
"This is not a jailbreak!" she said, grabbing my wrist. I made it one more step backwards before she was able to stop me.
"A little help here!" I yelled, before Drusilla's hands made their way up my body to my neck.
"And those are your last words. You really should have thought more about what to say," she said.
Right then, I felt a couple of pairs of hands and then a good hard shove.
When I felt them again, though, Drusilla let go of my neck, after which I heard yowls of pain.
"Son of a bitch!" Logan said, while Xander muttered similar cuss words.
"Wait your turns," Drusilla said firmly.
No one touched us then, but suddenly we were pushed, hard.
Distance Strike.
I landed on patio bricks, not hardwood floor.
"We hurt together," Drusilla said.
"Not for long," I said. "Let There Be Light!"
And there was light -
Not from a spell; from the Sun.
I grabbed her as she yelled, starting to burn. I wasn't going to be able to hold her for more than a couple of seconds –
But it was a good couple of seconds.
Bereft of parasol, with nothing to shade her from the sunlight, she just couldn't pull free and get up and inside fast enough.
She was dust, two steps from the back door, which someone had pulled shut anyway.
It was over. I breathed a big sigh of relief and then stepped into the house.
No one was moving.
Not dead.
Frozen.
Then a voice said the words I'd been waiting to hear for three months:
"Game over."
X X X X X
Author's Note: The title of the next chapter is "The Bet."