Chapter 5: Caffeine Fix

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Unbearable heat?

Check.

Fruitless searching?

Check.

Sweaty, cranky Buffy?

Double check.

Buffy had started the day with a bounce in her step, but the late summer Louisiana humidity quickly had her practically dragging herself down the streets of Shreveport. It never ceased to amaze her that she could kick demon ass without breaking a sweat, but something as natural as humidity could turn her into a freakin' Slip N' Slide. As if on cue, she felt yet another bead of sweat trickling down her back. This was so not the look she was going for.

To add insult to injury, she had a big, fat nothing to show for her efforts for the second day in a row. Soon she would have to consider the possibility that Vi was either never there or that she had left for another town before she disappeared. Then it would be 'good bye haystack, hello even bigger haystack'. Although, on the bright side, it meant that she wouldn't have to deal with Fangtasia's very own Ken and Barbie anymore.

Buffy sighed. As happy as that would make her, she wasn't ready to give up on Shreveport yet. She just wished there was an easier way to get this legwork done. Hell, she would have tea and cookies in Fangtasia if it meant she could have access to all the occupancy records in town. And why did walking from place to place seem like such a good idea?

At that moment, she happened to catch sight of a coffee shop out of the corner of her eye. An air-conditioned one. She was tempted to go in, but Shreveport was a huge city and she still had a lot of ground to cover. Then she noticed that it also had an internet café inside.

Hmm… I should check my e-mail, just in case, she thought hesitantly. And considering that I probably lost half my water weight on the streets of Shreveport, a drink wouldn't be a bad idea. Ooh, maybe I could even get an iced mochaccino.

She gave a shiver of anticipation at the thought of all that sugar and caffeine rolled into one cold drink.

Fifteen minutes later, she managed to snag an open computer with a large iced mochaccino with two extra shots of espresso in hand. She quickly logged into her e-mail account and reached for her drink as she waited for her inbox to load. Her hand froze midway, however, as she stared at the screen in astonishment.

Her inbox had popped up, and there at the top was an e-mail from Xander. Drink forgotten, she held her breath as she clicked to open it. She hadn't heard from him since he left after the collapse of Sunnydale. He was obviously replying to the SOS e-mail she sent just before she left for Shreveport.

Hey Buff,

All the potentials are missing? Yep, that sure sounds like our kind of trouble. Who says only the really fun parties happen on the Hellmouth? I'm out of the country, but I'm heading to NY to check the sitch with Kennedy. I'll be in touch.

I've missed you.

Love,
X

PS. I've got a surprise for you, too. Oh, but the good kind, not a 'this will bring the apocalypse' kind. I don't think.

Buffy read and reread the message several times. Xander was going to look into Kennedy's disappearance. He wasn't going to come to Shreveport. Wait. He was 'out of the country'? And he had a surprise? What was with the cryptic?

She took a deep breath. This was good. The longer she stayed in Shreveport, the colder the trail got everywhere else. And until they knew who was behind this, they needed to gather as much information as they could.

She quickly wrote him back, giving him a brief rundown of her time Shreveport, Twilight Zone experience and all. It felt nice to have some sort of connection with Xander again, even if things weren't totally the same between them.

Since she was already sitting at the computer, Buffy decided to reread Vi's e-mail to see if there were any clues she missed. Nope, just unrestrained curiosity about these new kinds of vampires and the hype surrounding them…

"Oh, Vi, you didn't," Buffy whispered, her eyes wide with horror.

Vi was curious about everything surrounding these new vampires, including humans' fascination with them. And what better way to see how the other half lived than at a vamp-themed motel, complete with complimentary fake fangs on the pillow?

It was just a hunch, but it felt right. She had been searching the places near the bar and working outward, and she had found nothing except for places like the Love Bites Motel. She didn't even bother going in to these places, seeing as they catered towards 'casual encounters' between humans and vamps and only charged by the hour.

So where did the tourists stay, the ones that came to the bar in loud, flashy tour groups?

Buffy did a quick internet search of all the area hotels catering to the fang-happy tourists. There was a handful or so, all a fair distance from Fangtasia. It made sense, once she stopped to think about it. From what she could tell last night in the bar, most tourists wanted a vanilla experience, a very safe and controlled walk on the wild side. And that did not include going to sleep each night knowing that a bar full of hungry and awake vampires was just a few blocks away. And although Vi was curious, she was also smart. Sticking with large groups of tourists was a pretty safe bet.

She jotted down all the names and addresses of the motels, unable to keep from snickering as she did so. Everything was 'fang' this and 'blood' that. Her personal favorite was Fangri La.

How the owners weren't killed on the spot for such ridiculous names, she wasn't sure. Then again, the motels brought in the tourists, so the overlord of Fangtasia probably protected them.

Buffy suddenly broke out into a wide grin. "I decked the Godfather," she said aloud, not caring at the stares she was receiving. How cool was that?

She quickly downed her mochaccino and headed toward the door. Maybe today wasn't such a bad day, after all.

The sign 'Hotel Transylvania' stood out against the darkening sky. It was obviously going for the dark and vampy look with the castle and bats in the background, but neon pink lighting could only be so foreboding.

Buffy entered the main door, photo in hand, and looked around. The décor wasn't half bad for a budget motel trying to imitate Dracula's castle. Sure, the stone walls were fake, the candelabra were obviously plastic, and the prints of the Vlad the Impaler everywhere were a bit much…

Okay, so it redefined the word 'tacky', but she was trying not to be judgmental. She needed their help, and insulting their sense of style wasn't the way to get it. At least this place wasn't trying to make vampires out to be Zen-like beings on the path to Enlightenment like Fangri La did.

The lobby was empty, so Buffy made a beeline to the front desk, which of course was shaped like a coffin. The woman behind the counter looked a lot like Elvira, right down (or should she say up?) to the excessive cleavage. As Buffy reached the woman, she saw that her name tag actually said 'Elvira'. Oh boy.

Luckily, Buffy was feeling more than a little hyped from the mochaccino. This meant that bubbly Buffy came out, holding snarky Buffy in a firm yet chipper chokehold.

"Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania," the woman greeted in a low, affected voice.

"Hi, I-" Buffy stopped short, as she recognized the play on words with the Eagles' song.

Elvira just gave her a small smile. Buffy could've sworn she saw the woman's tongue lodged firmly in cheek. Suddenly, she saw the motel's interior design in a whole new light. Elvira, too.

"How may I be of service to you?" Elvira asked. "Do you need a room for the night? Or perhaps you would like to join one of our tours?"

Buffy shook her head politely. "No, thank you. My name's Anne, and I wanted to ask you about my friend," she explained as she held out the photo.

The woman looked at the picture. Her kohl-rimmed eyes widened in surprise and she immediately dropped the Mistress of Dark routine. "Oh! Violet Davies!" she exclaimed in what was her natural, higher-pitched voice.

Buffy had to restrain herself from climbing over the counter and hugging the woman. As it was, she was two seconds away from declaring that her first born would be named Elvira. Before she could act on either impulse, however, the woman of the hour continued to talk.

"You haven't found her yet? I thought for sure that you would've by now," she said sadly. "It looks less likely that she just continued on her road trip, doesn't it? Violet's uncle must be devastated!"

Alarm bells started ringing in Buffy's head. Uncle?

Someone else was looking for Vi, too, and it definitely wasn't her uncle, if she even had one. Vi was identified as a Potential by the Council long before the final showdown in Sunnydale. She had been under the care of her Watcher and had little ties to her family. Who then would be asking about a missing Potential at a vamp-themed motel right when all the other Potentials went missing?

Someone from the Watcher's Council was in Shreveport. They had to be.

When the First destroyed Council headquarters and went after Watchers with a vengeance, there was the possibility that it didn't get all of them. And if any did survive, it would make sense that they would regroup and try to keep tabs on the Potentials once again. It was their job, their raison d'être, even.

"Uh, yeah, he's… all stricken with the grief," she managed to get out as she tried to determine the best way to handle this.

Historically speaking, she sucked at cover stories, which was funny considering how often she had to have one. Between the caffeine and the excitement of finally having a solid lead, however, her mind was working overtime and all her instincts were sharp. Seriously, she felt like a squirrel on speed. And at Elvira's look of compassion, she knew that she could play on the woman's sympathy without raising too much suspicion.

"Actually, he hasn't been too big on the details, being upset at all. But I need to know what happened. I can't stand not knowing," she said emphatically.

That last part was true, and she hoped it came across. She held her breath as she silently willed the woman to believe her.

To Buffy's immense relief, Elvira nodded in understanding. "I can certainly understand that. I would probably do the same thing. I'm just sorry I don't have much to tell you," she said regretfully. "Violet came here almost two weeks ago and checked in for a full two weeks. She would stop by to chat before she went out each day, but then I didn't see her again after the first week. I was worried at first, but then housekeeping said that she had cleared out."

"'Cleared out'? You mean, without checking out?" Buffy asked, frowning slightly when the woman nodded.

"It happens more than you'd think, especially with that damned Fellowship of the Sun harassing our guests as they go out for the night," Elvira explained with a scowl.

Fellowship of the Sun? She would have to look into that. It sounded familiar, but all she could think of was Andrew and his action figures. Buffy was going to go out on a limb and guess that this fellowship had nothing to do with hobbits.

"Do you think Vi could've run into problems with them? Or with anyone else?" Buffy hedged.

What she really wanted to ask was whether any vamps were seen lurking about. It was a delicate question to ask someone who worked in a business that thrived on vampires not killing humans. Elvira was one sharp cookie, though.

"You don't think this has something to do with vampires, do you? Nothing has ever happened to one of our guests before!" the woman said, aghast, looking around to make sure no other guests had come into the lobby. "What do the police think? I'm surprised they haven't come by yet."

Oh right, most sane people would call the police. Only people with something to hide wouldn't, like her and Vi's mystery uncle/potential Watcher.

"Yeah, they didn't take us seriously after we told them what had happened here. They think Vi just took off, but I know she didn't," she replied earnestly. She looked at the woman beseechingly. "Has anything out of the ordinary happened, anything at all?"

Elvira shook her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't even know Violet was missing until her uncle stopped by."

Elvira obviously didn't have any more information to give, and any more questions would probably raise suspicions. It was doubtful that Vi would come back here anyway. Still, she needed to dig just a little more about the mystery 'uncle'.

"OK, thank you for going over all this with me. It looks like we might have to try New Orleans then," Buffy said in mock resignation. She paused, pretending to think this over. "Oh, wait! Did Vi's uncle leave his cell phone number or the hotel's?"

She had taken an educated guess that the 'uncle' left a contact number, and from the way Elvira began rifling through some papers in search of it, it was a good one. Really, she was on a roll.

Elvira soon found what she was looking for. "Here it is," she announced, squinting at the paper as she read what was written on it. "It's definitely a local number."

Buffy needed to see that paper. "Then let me give you my cell, too, in case you think of something or see something after we leave," she offered, quickly picking up a pen that was lying on the counter and reaching for the paper.

The woman obligingly handed it over, and Buffy saw the name 'Alastair Davies' printed neatly on the paper.

Obviously, the mystery uncle was using Vi's last name to up the credibility factor. The first name could be made up, too – wasn't she at that very moment scribbling down 'Anne'? – but she doubted it. Honestly, who the hell would pick Alastair as a cover name? And wow, it just screamed 'I'm British', which bolstered her Watcher theory.

She then moved her focus to the number underneath the name, trying to commit it to memory as she wrote a fake number down. She doubted Elvira would ever call it, and she didn't want to risk the wrong person getting a hold of her real number and finding out she was there.

"This has been a big help. Thank you," Buffy said sincerely, handing the paper back as she turned to leave.

"I hope you find her!" Elvira called out as she walked away.

Buffy nodded and left, repeating the phone number in her mind like a mantra. As soon as she was out of sight, she pulled out her cell and quickly dialed the number.

"Good evening, St. Charles Hotel. How may I help you?"

"Hi," Buffy said. "Could you please connect me to Alastair Davies' room?" Seeing as he gave Elvira this assumed name, she figured that he must've checked in under it as well or else he would never get any messages.

There was a pause, presumably to look up the room number, and then, "Hold please."

Buffy hung up as her call was put through. She had just wanted to confirm that he was still there, which he clearly was. She knew that it would be in Vi's best interest if they shared knowledge and maybe even worked together. From what Elvira said, Vi had been missing for about a week, and she either left in a rush or someone cleared out her room to avoid suspicion. Either way, it spelled trouble with a capital T.

Nevertheless, she wanted to think this through before she approached Uncle Alastair directly. She had no idea how the Council thought of her, seeing as their relationship had been anything but idyllic, and she still had less than fond feelings for them.

Great. First I saved a vampire and now I have to deal with the Council, she sighed. Vi is so gonna owe me for this.