Chapter 45.

* * * * *

PRESIDENTIAL SUITE,
S.F. AIRPORT HILTON,
MID-JUNE 1999
(8:35 A.M./PST)

MICK ST. JOHN'S P.O.V.

Sonny Toussaint was just activating his cellphone when it happened.

"Don't touch that dial!"

Everybody looked at the scantily-clad young woman who had uttered that command.

"C-C-C-Cordelia?" stammered Willow.

"It's pronounced 'Glordelia,' Little Miss Witchie-poo," snapped the new arrival: "But, I'm not here to talk to you. I'm here. . .for Xander."

Everybody looked at him, now, and he gulped as he slowly stepped forward.

"What can I do for you, Cordie? Before you answer, though, might I say that I _love_ this new look of yours! Sort of like Disney's Cindrella meets Slave-girl Leia."

"Quiet, Zeppo! This isn't a social call. It's a kidnapping!"

"A kidMMMMMMMPH?!"

Before he could utter another wisecrack, Glordelia had suddenly thrown her black cloak over Xander! After which, she then began to wrap foot after foot of black electrical tape around it! !

"Xander ! ! !" screamed Willow.

The first of us to spring into action was Nick Knight; the eight hundred-year-old warrior. Sonny, Angel, and I followed suit. As did Oz (after transforming into a dire wolf). But, our fight with her proved even more one-sided than our duel with Dracula! Glordelia stopped Nick's lunge with a simple outward thrust of her left arm. Clutching his throat in her left hand, while simultaneously swinging counter-clockwise, from right to left, before letting him go.

Nick crashed through one of the few windows of the suite that did _not_ open out onto a balcony. . .and into the broad daylight beyond.

The stomach-churning smell of burnt flesh reached my nostrils even as Ange, Sonny, and I tackled Glordelia from behind. Causing to land face-first on the carpeted floor. Yet, even as Angel was about to put her head in a sleeper hold, Glordelia was fighting back. Doing a reverse head-butt against the bottom of Angel's jaw. Followed by a left-to-right body roll that basically tossed Sonny over head and across her back, straight into Angel and me!

It was at this point that Oz tried to pin her back down, in his half-giant lupine form. But, as with Nick, Glordelia was able to keep him literally at arm's length, while simultaneously springing back on to her feet. She then grabbed the other side of his neck, with her right hand, before spinning three hundred sixty degrees, three times fast, and throwing him in the direction of Buffy and the others! Buffy, however, was already running forward when Glordelia released her double-handed hold on Oz. She then leaped up and over Oz, while the Green Lama muttered some kind of incantation that suspended Oz in mid-air. . .just two feet from Willow and Giles.

In the meantime, Buffy had used the momentum of her landing to somersault forward, spring back up in the air, and land a double-soled kick with her feet. . .straight into Glordelia's face!

Now, it was her turn to go flying through a window. Only, this time, it did open out onto part of the balcony. And, Buffy was quick to run out there after her. Trying to follow up on this current turn of the tables, by pummeling Glordelia with a series of head-snapping left and right hooks! As for me? I used that opportunity to get a still-stunned Sonny and Angel off from on top of me. Following which, I went over to where Xander was still struggling and writhing around. His whole body looking like an Egyptian mummy, spray-painted black.

Before I could even get one inch of that electrical tape removed, however, a new human projectile collided with me. It was Buffy, herself!

"Ha!" laughed Glordelia (as she straightened her tiara, her face hardly even bruised): "You don't how long my Cordelia side has been wanting to do that, Slayer! But, business before pleasure."

Whereupon, she strode over to the cape-wrapped Xander and threw him over her right shoulder in a fireman's carry.

"You want him back, alive and unharmed? You bring me the Dagon-sphere, in thirty minutes' time, atop the central tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. Or I throw Zeppo Lad off of there!"

At which point, she teleported away.

* * * * *

We were still dusting ourselves off when someone else came on the scene. This one, arriving in a series of bright white orbs of light. And he immediately stretched out both arms when he saw we were about to attack him!

"Whoa-whoa-WHOA! I'm not an enemy! My name's Leo Wyatt and I come in peace."

"He's telling the truth!" exclaimed the Green Lama: "He and I have crossed paths, before. He's a white-lighter; a sort of guardian angel to practitioners of white magic. And I think he's come here on behalf of the Charmed Ones."

"Who are they?" demanded Buffy: "Some Goth rock band?"

The Green Lama half-smiled: "No! They're the owners of that Prescott Street manor house I told you about."

* * * * *

OMNISCIENT AUTHOR P.O.V.

Julian Luna had just finished sipping his breakfast drink when his cellphone vibrated. Withdrawing it from his blazer's right pocket, he looked at the caller ID before answering.

"Sonny? How did everything turn out?"

He spent the next thirty minutes listening to his chief assistant's report. When Sonny had finished, it would have been an understatement to describe the Ventrue Prince of San Francisco as very grim.

"Are you sure about Nicholas?"

"As sure as I can be without getting third-degree sunburn, myself! Oz took on Glabro form and stuck his head out the window to look and sniff around. There were no lookey-Lou's gathering around down on the side walk, like they might with a conventional corpse. While there was all too _much_ cremation smell in the vicinity of the window sill!"

Julian shook his head. After Archon's Final Death, he had been succeeded as Ventrue Primogen, first, by Philippe D'Arcy. And, then, by the latter's eldest "childe," Marcus. It had come as quite a shock, however, to learn that not only had Marcus actually been Philippe's sire. But, that they had also been double-agents for the Sabbat, trying to foment a war between his Conclave and the local Legacy House!

It had been Nick Knight's acting as diplomatic go-between that had helped ease tensions between the two factions. Thereby legitimately earning him Archon's seat at the Conclave.

"You want me to notify his wife?" Sonny now asked, interrupting Julian's mournful introspection.

"No, I'll do that, myself. Thank you, anyway."

The two Kindred subconsciously hung up at the same time.

* * * * *
HALLIWELL MANOR,

(8:50 A.M./PST)

With the Green Lama having vouched for him, Leo was able to "orb" Willow, Buffy, and Jethro Dumont to the manor house of the Charmed Ones. The latter, after introducing themselves, then introduced Brother Demetrius and Magga.

"So, where do you want to cast these spells," asked Buffy.

"Right this way," replied Prue Halliwell.

She lead the entire entourage to the attic where the Charmed Ones kept their Book of Spells. Once there, Phoebe instructed Willow, Magga, the Green Lama, and Brother Demetrius to gather in a semi-circle around the other side of the podium. When they had done so, the Greek monk handed over the first of the two vellum pages. The one for the enjoining spell. Prue placed it atop the

Book, while Piper held the Dagon-sphere over it. Then, all seven of them began chanting, while Buffy merely watched from the top of the stairway. Mentally wishing she could be doing something more than that.

As if in response, the Ropen (in his "serpentaur" form) emerged from the sewer grating near the entrance to the manor's driveway.

tbc

FooTNotE -

Zeppo: stage name for Herbert Manfred Marx (1901-1979), who played the only normal one of the Marx Brothers in their first five comedy films for Paramount Studios. After retiring from acting, he went into business with his slightly older brother Milton (a.k.a. "Gummo") as partners in a theatrical agency.