To the Power Born: A Tale of the Slayers

Part 37: Opening Gambit

We ate an early supper, Diane assured me that it was okay to skip a therapy session in light of the situation, and Willow, bless her magical heart, was able to make sure that those fully-trained Slayers who'd graduated from school already and who would have the late-night patrols would be well rested come their turn to patrol by sending them into magical sleep. The early evening patrols would run from six in the evening to midnight, then the late-nighters would be out from midnight to six in the morning. We early-night-patrol people ate early, then broke up into teams and were driven to our patrol areas. We were fairly small teams, but pretty well balanced. I was on a five-person team, me, two other Slayers, Aunt Dawn for magical oomph, and Dad for Watcher knowledge. Xander observed from a Team Slayer mission control van. He had Ian Matthias and Judith with him, as both were very interested in what we were doing.

Also with the field team I was on were the pseudo dragons of those who had fully grown companions, which, okay, meant everyone but me. Ripley wasn't far off, though— she was with Judith in the control van.

My team was being run by Alina Sidorova, a native of Russia, and our third Slayer was Aamira Nazari. Alina and Aamira took point, and I got assigned to rear guard with Dad, behind Aunt Dawn, to make sure that nothing attacked her if she needed to cast a spell. We five started out near Miller Park, at Park Hill Cemetery, where Aunt Rose's father and sister had been buried. For the first two hours, nothing— then we walked into a group of five vampires in an abandoned, trashed out house a couple blocks west of Park Hill. They had been menacing a pair of kids my age, a boy and a girl, who seemed to have gone there to make out, judging by the lipstick smears around both their mouths.

We made short work of the five, Aunt Dawn treated the cut on the boy's arm (he'd taken a clawing from a vampire for refusing to move aside and let the vamp at the girl— there is hope for my generation!), and called it in to Xander in the control van.

Five minutes later, he called back and told us where to find the nest of vampires that pretty much had to be working this area, though we had no real idea of how he'd figured it out.

I had my suspicions about how he'd done it, though— and it turned out I was right.

Interlude: Team Slayer Control Van

"All right, Dawn, thanks," Xander said into the radio. "Good job, ladies and gentleman— not like that's a surprise, but it rates saying."

He entered the address of the attack into the computer, and it popped up on the screen, a red dot in a mess of other red dots. He looked for a moment, then sighed, sat back and said, "Still no pattern to the attacks, dammit."

Xander heard a small, abortive sound behind him, glanced back and saw Judith Holmes deliberately closing her mouth.

"Have you got something, Judith?" Xander asked.

"I— well, this is your specialty, Xander, so I'm very probably mistaken," Judith said.

"Judith, if you have an idea, spill it— I won't be mad whether you're right or wrong, my ego can more than take you being right, and my love of teaching will make me happy with explaining why if you're wrong," Xander said patiently. He grinned a little and added, "Trust me, after years of being surrounded by women who could kick my ass with barely an effort (including my wife, and now my thirteen year-old daughter), I'm not worried about finding out a woman is better at something than I am."

"Well, if I'm wrong, do explain, then," Judith said, moving closer on Xander's right, even as Ian moved up so he could see better on Xander's other side. She indicated the screen and said, "Those red dots are the sites of vampire attacks, or where people disappeared and left behind indications of violence, correct?"

"You got it," Xander said. "If there's a pattern there, I can't see it, and neither could anyone else."

"That's because there isn't a pattern," Judith said. "There are three patterns, Xander."

Xander blinked, looked again, and almost saw what she was talking about— but only almost. "Can you explain better?"

"I could if this were a paper map," Judith said. "I need to isolate the patterns to show you best, but I can't fold the irrelevant sections under."

"That's what zoom is for," Xander said. "What part do you want expanded?"

"You can do that?" Judith asked, surprised and pleased. He nodded and she said, "Then please expand the western sector, from that main road there— Market Street— up to Miller Park."

The map zoomed, and Judith muttered, "Damned useful that. All right… now look, but discount the one easternmost dot, it's the west edge of the eastern pattern. See the pattern of dots spreading south and east? I'd wager that there are only businesses, or at least mostly businesses, to the north of… Washington Street? And that looks like empty spaces to the southwest, there?"

"I see it," Xander said, looking at her and nodding in respect. "Good job. From the look of things, they're originating from somewhere in here… which means the most likely origin point is… oh, ow."

"What is it?" Ian asked, leaning over to look closer at the map. "The icon looks like a business is there, but it's awfully big."

"It's a former business," Xander said. "An old Cargill feed plant, was a Ralston-Purina feed plant before that. They made pet food, cattle feed, all that stuff. Closed down in twenty-sixteen. It's a nightmare, from a Slayer point of view. Huge buildings, lots of old machinery, big beams holding up high ceilings, interior and exterior catwalks… way too many places for a vampire to hide. This is not a job for three Slayers, a Watcher and a Guardian, even the Chief Guardian. I think I need to call for backup.

"Judith… good job. I'm going to pass on the sector-patterns thing to the other teams' Watchers before I holler for help."

"If you need me to look at them, I will," Judith said, smiling a little, glad to have been able to help.

"We may," Xander said. Then he spoke to his radio microphone. "Slayer HQ, this is van two, Giles, you there?"

Judith sat back and watched and learned while she basked in the waves of warmth and gratitude coming from Ripley, who sat on her crossed arms.

Jocelyn:

We were moving in a standard five-person pattern, two in front, witch in the middle, two behind, when Alina raised her hand for us to stop, and put her hand to her headset radio as Xander called her on the leader channel. After a moment, she switched to the team channel and said, "All right, people, we have a new objective. It seems that there is a pattern to the killings when you break it down to three sectors, and the origin point for our sector… I will not lie, it is bad, but we are meeting backup on site. We must go to the old Cargill feed plant near Euclid Avenue and Washington Street.

"The plan currently is for all active teams to meet there and clean out that spot, then move to the second and third origin points as a unit before splitting again and returning to patrol. So… let us walk quickly."

So we did walk quickly, and we met the others at the corner of Olive and Euclid. The we went in. Nine Slayers, three Guardians for magical oomph— Kimber Duncan, Aunt Elaine's old friend, now back in the area for a while, came along with Aunt Dawn and Aunt Sh'rin— and three Watchers, Daddy, Lydia and Vincent. Xander, Kelly and Brian Keller stayed outside in their vans, spaced around the place as best the roads would allow, monitored us and stayed ready to yell for backup. Six pseudo dragons went along, ready and willing to play scout and backup.

We went in, and we got pounded— because we never thought it through, never saw the trap before it sprang.

It started out fairly simple— we went in through the main entrance to the shipping area, where semi trailers had been loaded with pet food to ship around the country. The loading area, huge and dusty, had no vampires in it, big surprise. They'd all be out eating— except whatever was in charge, that we figured would be here still. Vampires didn't work the way these were working without being told to, so… something had to be in charge.

We cleared the loading bays, made sure they had nothing in them— and went into the manufacturing part of the plant. It was freaking huge, half the size of a football field, a little bigger. Sixty yards wide and seventy long, it had a big, cracked and greasy concrete floor with silent, dead machines and empty bins and vats all over the place, with conveyor belts, silent and rusty, running back and forth all over the place. About twenty feet up there hung a network of old, rickety, rusty catwalks.

"This," Kimber said softly, "is not going to be any fun, is it?"

"I doubt it," Alina Sidorova agreed. "In truth, it could be very bad. In fact… Rhonda, if I fall, you lead. After that, it defaults to Nadia. Nadia, if it gets to Rhonda, decide on your succession then— don't wait."

Nadia Szgany, a Hungarian Slayer with big, dark eyes and a very serious demeanor, said, "I understand— but do not make it necessary, Alina."

"I'll second that," said Rhonda McIntosh, a native of Glasgow. "I've nae love of bein' the leader, d'ye ken it? Stay breathin', girl."

"That is my intention— but it is best to be prepared." Alina hefted her sword and looked around. "My team works left from here, three and two, Whitey with Jocelyn and I, Dawn with Aamira. Nadia, send your team right, decide your disposition yourself. Rhonda, spread your team out here in the center to watch in all directions. We clear this room— and I mean clear it— before we go on. This place is too cluttered to take chances.

"Let's get it done."

We moved out, me staying fifteen feet to Alina's right when the floor-clutter permitted, since she was left handed, and Dad moving along about halfway between us and five feet back, his favorite longsword in one hand, a stake in the other. Alina had a pair of eighteen inch long stakes, longer than usual and heavy like nightsticks, and I had my trusty longsword in hand, a bandolier of crazy-discs (two explosive, the rest "normal"), a bandolier of throwing knives (half wooden, half metal), four of Dad's vamp-killing darts hanging from various points of my belt, and each of us had between four and ten stakes in pockets and secreted about our persons to boot.

Alina's pseudo dragon pal, a rather small, shiny-red male named Mig, flew high cover for us, while Aamira's gold-colored Saif (named for an Arabian sword by that name) did the same for her and Aunt Dawn. The other pseudo dragons from our group (except Ripley, off in the van with Judith) were flying scout outside the plant.

Some vampires are stupid. I don't know if it was a newbie, or just really dumb, but as Dad passed by this big machine— for bagging dog food, I think— one jumped off of the top of it at Dad. Thing is, it hissed at him first. Hello, dumb much? Dad had plenty of time to swing his sword up and behead the thing before it hit him thanks to the hiss, and poof! Dusted.

We reached the far wall with only one more attack, and Mig warned me in plenty of time to tumble out of the way as the vampire leapt out of the shadows in the rafters. It landed catlike where I'd been, I bounced back at it in a spinning kick, knocked it to land at Alina's feet, and she dusted it with barely a look. Smooth.

We went back on a different path, got back to Rhonda's team maybe thirty seconds before Nadia's team got back— they'd had one more vampire to deal with, giving us a total of five in the main plant. Not as many as we'd expected, really, or more than expected from Dad's point of view. He'd figured they would all be out hunting.

"The offices next," Alina decided. "Another warren of places to hide, we need to clear it before checking the old grain silos."

We did the same thing as with the plant, sort of. Nadia's team went straight to the top floor to work down, Rhonda's team worked from the ground up, and we stayed on the ground floor to watch for newcomers.

Everyone seemed fairly relaxed— except me. This felt like a trap, and I couldn't shake the feeling, so I just stayed hyper-alert. Nothing happened at all, if you don't count the sounds of several fights from above us. Both teams encountered several vamps each, but none of our team members were hurt.

We went to the first of the silos that had held grain to be ground for filler and feed, and that place sent shivers up my back. Huge, fifteen stories high at least— over a hundred and fifty feet— and rectangular, unlike the round silos you saw in most places, about a hundred feet by seventy-five feet. Once we pointed flashlight beams up that way, we could see the tangle of machinery and hoses that had been used to get the grain in and keep it loosely packed so that it would flow out easily.

Then it went bad, fast.

All the doors in the place slammed shut and steel plates dropped in front of them. While we were still reacting to that, hidden panels on the walls opened up, all of them up in the shadows where we couldn't see them or the clean places from their construction.

Monsters started to rain on us as the things jumped out of their hiding places, and squeals came from all our headset radios as something jammed them.

Vampires. Werewolves. Zombies. Demons of many sizes and shapes, all in numbers that left me scared half-silly— all these things dropped from the walls and attacked us.

"Defensive circle!" Alina yelled, and we Slayers got into a circle around the not-Slayers. "Dawn, Sh'rin, Kimber— ward us as best you can! Watchers, ID creatures and shout any banes or weak spots by name of closest Slayer and short description of demon!"

I fell into the circle Alina wanted, her on one side of me, Rhonda McIntosh on the other— and I started killing things.

Vampire in front of me, so I beheaded it. A werewolf came right after, and I ran it through, grateful as hell for the layer of silver on my sword. Another vampire, another beheading. Then I had something I'd never seen before in front of me, something that looked like a rat and a squid had been crossed, then the resultant nasty thing crossed with a human. It had tentacles and fur, all black, and it stood on two legs. The four tentacles had nests of smaller tentacles on their ends, and those looked to be tipped with razor-sharp metal blades.

I went into defensive mode, my sword spinning around me like a fan on overload, and it hung back a little, not wanting to lose a tentacle. I couldn't keep up that frantic speed for long, though, so when Daddy yelled "Jocelyn! Tentacle-thing, massive arteries in the tentacles on your left, its right!" I was damned glad to hear it.

I spun with the blade, let it pull me into the ginga of Capoeira, spun into an aerial kick that the demon dodged, just as I'd wanted it to, spun two steps past it and brought my sword down on the tentacles on the thing's right side, severing both close to the body. Dark blue blood fountained out, and it sank to the ground, already dying.

I killed another vampire, threw a metal knife into the face of some hideously ugly demon that looked sort of like a slightly humanized jellyfish that was giving Rhonda a hard time, saw her behead it, heard her shout her thanks, and went after a thing that looked like someone had crossed a gorilla and a bear, given it six inch long claws, then skinned it and sent it out to kill things. Daddy shouted at me to behead it, so I did, after chopping off one arm to get the decapitating shot. Three more vampires, then Aunt Dawn shouted, "We can't ward! Something's blocking us! Spells just don't take hold!"

"Shit!" I yelled. "This is them! Warren and Catherine, and maybe Dru saw how to pin us down!"

"We need an exit, NOW!" Lydia shouted. "Vincent's down, needs a healer and space to work on him!"

"Nadia's down, too!" one of her team shouted. "We need to get out of here!"

"ALINA, RHONDA!" I yelled. "Leaving the circle, take up the slack! I can maybe get us out!"

"MIG!" Alina yelled. "Call for backup, tell any dragon awake at the mansion or in the vans that we need backup NOW!"

"Dad, I'm turned around," I said, stepping back inside the circle. "Which wall is most likely to take us to a clear area, no place to ambush us from?"

"There!" Dad said, pointing behind us. "South wall— open space right outside us! What are you—?"

"Everyone, move towards the wall Alina's closest to!" I yelled. "Move, move! Half-circle perimeter, backs to the wall, watch for death-from-above attacks!"

"Jocelyn, what are you DOING!?" Alina asked.

"NO TIME!" I yelled. "TRUST ME, DAMMIT!"

She hesitated less than a second— then said, "DO IT! AS JOCELYN SAYS! BACK TO THE NORTH WALL!"

People fell back— and I went through the most hellish, horrible and frightening fifteen seconds of my life as I held my ground, fought to drive everything back enough to have the second or so I needed. If not for the Slayers and Watchers behind me risking everything for me by throwing their weapons at things as they charged me, I'd have very likely died.

As it was, I finally got in a good kick on an Urtulal demon, drove it back into the group of two vamps, some sort of ogre-looking thing and another of those gorilla-bears behind it— and there was my moment. I dropped my sword, snatched the top and bottom crazy-discs off of my bandolier, and flung them at the far wall, snapping my wrists inwards to flatten out their curving trajectory.

The two explosive crazy-discs hit just a tenth of a second or so apart, and the explosions sounded like one big one, not two. I got blown back into the arms of Rhonda McIntosh, and we went staggering backwards into Daddy and Lydia, who caught us and kept us upright.

There was a nice, big, eight-or-nine foot wide and six-foot high hole in the wall, blown out by the two explosive crazy-discs I'd brought from the dozen that Graham had gotten for me.

"GO!" Alina shouted. "RECOVER WEAPONS IF POSSIBLE, BUT DON'T GO OFF-PATH TO GET THEM!"

I pushed Daddy and Lydia ahead of me, made sure that the Slayer carrying Vincent didn't need help, got nauseous when I saw Nadia Szgany carried out past me, probably dead, scooped my sword up on the run, and charged outside, pausing only to slip an arm around Kimber Duncan and help her limp out (she had a big tear down one side just below her ribs, bloody and painful-looking).

As soon as we passed out into the welcome glare of headlights pointed right at the hole I'd made in the wall, we got grabbed and pulled aside, and I looked up into the welcome features of Aunt Elaine before she shoved us aside. I glanced around, saw her, Aunt Rose, Buffy, Mom, Vi, Piper and a couple of other Slayers I wasn't in any shape to recognize all take up positions outside the hole— and start killing everything that tried to come out after us.

"Uninjured Slayers!" Alina called. "Make a second line behind Buffy's team!"

I started that way, staggered, fell, and realized that my left leg hurt like hell. I glanced down, nearly fainted when I saw the bones below my knee and on the outside of my leg lying exposed to the air, a long strip of skin and muscle from the outside of my calf dragging in the dirt— then Daddy was beside me, yelling for a medical kit.

"Oh, shit," I said in a very small voice. "When did that happen?"

"About two seconds after the line retreated behind you, honey-girl," Daddy said, and leaned in close for a quick kiss on my temple. "Jocelyn, I'm proud of you. You saved us, kiddo."

"Not… not all of us, I don't think," I said, trying not to cry. "Nadia—"

"Nadia got hurt ten seconds in, honey," Daddy said. "That is not your fault— it's entirely the fault of whoever's behind this, probably Warren and Company, like you thought."

He did something to my leg, and every muscle I had tensed up in agony as I fought against the urge to scream or fight him or both. Then everything swelled to white— and I passed out.

I woke up… later, I didn't know how much later, to find Aunt Dawn sitting beside me as I lay in my own bed, bandaging my left leg slowly and with great care. The leg hurt, but not nearly so much as it had, and I found myself grateful for the wisdom that Aunt Sh'rin had brought forward to our time, taught Aunt Dawn and the other Guardians.

"Look who's awake," Mom said from beside my head. "How you feelin', sweetie?"

"Sore," I admitted, stroking Ripley as she crowded close to my head and peeped her relief. "But okay, mostly. Thanks, Aunt Dawn."

"No problem, Jocelyn," Aunt Dawn said, smiling but not looking up from the bandaging. "Thank you, sweetheart. You saved us all. We couldn't have stood against that mess for much longer."

"Yay for Graham's explosive crazy-discs," I said. "Can I have a drink, maybe?"

Mom moved into my field of vision again, handed me a bottle-cooler cup that had a bottle of Green River soda in it. Green River is a hard-to-find, not-exactly-cheap small-company-made soda that Aunt Rose learned to love as a little girl, and hooked most of the rest of the family on— it's a treat to have one, and I knew that Mom was as proud of me as Daddy was. I drank half the bottle in one swig, belched, excused myself, then said, "Nadia? Vincent? Kimber?"

"Honey, you shouldn't oughtta—" Mom started.

"Please, Mom," I said. "I need to know. I'm not blaming me— really, I'm not. But I need to know."

Mom looked at Aunt Dawn, got a small nod, then sat down and took my hands in hers. "Nadia died, sugar— some damned jellyfish-walkin' thing stung her about a dozen times in a couple-three seconds, the way Kimber told it. Kimber's fine, or will be in a few days— stitches and ointments is all. Dawn and Sh'rin were able to fix Vincent up, too— but it took magic to graft his arm back on. Somethin' looked like a scarab on two legs took his left arm off 'bout halfway between wrist and elbow. Lydia's on the sick list for a while, something got her in the gut and she didn't notice 'til it was all over. Aamira lost the little finger on her left hand, somethin' ate it, so we can't put it back on, and she may lose the vision in her left eye, but she'll live. Your Daddy'll be sleepin' on his stomach a few days, somethin' with a lot of claws ripped his back up pretty good, but Sh'rin says it shouldn't even scar.

"Willow's on the incapacitated list for a day or so— she had to teleport the back-up in, and teleportin', that still leaves her with one hell of a headache.

"That's it, I think, if we don't count a lot of little stuff wouldn't even lay up a normal girl."

"Okay," I said. "Nadia… they'll send her h-home for burial?"

"Yes, honey," Mom said, stroking my hair. "But we'll have a service for her here, too."

"Okay," I said. "If I'm not walking around yet, can I get carried to it? Please? I didn't know her all that well, b-but she was one of us."

"We'll get you there," Mom said, and kissed my cheek. "We will. Promise.

"Hey, you feel up to a couple visitors?"

"Sure," I said. Aunt Dawn finished, stood, kissed my cheek, then went to the door and called someone in.

Judith came in, looking pale and worried, with Aunt Dawn's friend Sunset on one shoulder and Mom's Tracer in her arms. As Judith moved quickly towards the bed, both pseudo dragons headed for their best human friends, who slipped quietly from the room.

"Thank heavens you're all right," Judith breathed, sitting down and taking my hands in hers. "Whitey said you'd be fine, but you were so very pale— I was quite worried."

"I'll be fine," I said, and leaned forward to kiss her cheek. "Makes me feel all warm and tingly that you were so worried, though, thank you."

"You're quite welcome," Judith said, and gave me a small smile. "However, do promise that you won't get yourself injured again in order to capture that 'warm and tingly' feeling again, if you would?"

"I promise," I said with a chuckle. It faded as I thought of Nadia Szgany. "I wish we'd all gotten out, though."

"Don't you go blaming yourself, Jocelyn Kelly Penobscot!" Judith said sternly. "Xander said you might try, and that I was to threaten to use his nickname for you if you started."

At that point, Ripley sent me a thought, and I shook my head in mild amazement. "You've got a lot of nerve, Judith, telling me not to blame myself when Ripley says you were trying to blame yourself for seeing the patterns that led us to the plant. You were helping, nothing more— you had no way of knowing that was a trap. None of us experienced people saw it, even, not before it was too late. Do I need to threaten to call you 'Judy,' young lady?"

Judith blanched at that and rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. "Oh, please, no. All right, I'll not blame myself— Xander already gave me quite the dressing down for it, and the threat of that nickname banishes all possibility. I shall behave— so long as you do."

"Okay, that's fair," I said. "Hey— I can't exactly go tromping downstairs tonight. Come bedtime, you think you might want to come up here? Not a night I want to be alone, now, and the sun'll come up on the other side of the house, you should be able to sleep."

Judith blushed, smiled and nodded. "I'd like that, yes. If your parents don't mind, I shall plan on it."

"Thanks," I said. I hesitated, then said, "It got… pretty intense, and there were some deeply disgusting critters in there. I may have nightmares."

"If you do, I shall endeavor to repay your comforting me when I suffer nightmares in a like coin," Jocelyn said, blushing but smiling. "Now… I did promise not to stay too long, as there are others waiting to see you, and Dawn says small numbers in the room, at least for tonight." She hugged me, long and firm, then kissed my cheek and said, "I'll be back at bedtime, if your parents allow it. In the meantime, do try not to act like my father— in short, do as the doctor tells you. Or, to forestall any attempts to get around this request, I suppose I should say 'do as the healer tells you,' Jocelyn."

"Yes, ma'am," I said, and saluted her, smiling.

Judith laughed, stood and slipped out, and instead of Colin and Piper (whom I'd expected to come in next), Giles and Buffy came in and sat on either side of my bed, each taking a hand.

"You, young lady," Giles said without preamble, "saved a great many lives tonight. Thank you, Jocelyn."

"Yes," Buffy said. "We lost one, some were hurt— but if you hadn't blown open that wall, it would have been worse. Warren or Catherine or— well, some-damn-body thought to harden the place from the outside. The Scythe wouldn't put a dent in the wall, not from the outside."

"Then we'd better be careful from here on out," I said, shivering. "Next time, they'll probably harden it inside and out."

"A valid point, thank you," Giles said. He squeezed my hand and said, "We shan't stay, there are others whose need to see you is stronger— but we both wanted to tell you that we're proud of you, and that you did very well."

"Thanks, Giles," I said. "Thanks, Buffy. I'm glad we didn't lose more people, and that everyone will be okay, or mostly okay. And… if Diane's worrying, or anyone else is, tell them that I'm not blaming myself for Nadia. Wish I could have saved her, but not blaming myself— just putting another entry on the list of reasons to kill Warren Mears as many times as I can."

"Thatta girl," Buffy said with a pleased nod. "That's the Jocelyn I remember."

They both hugged me, then got up to leave. At the door, Buffy stopped, looked back at me, and gave me the highest praise that she gives, when it comes to the job.

"You did it right, Slayer," she said, grinning at me. "Get some rest, Jocelyn."

I sat and I glowed for a while, didn't stop until long after my lovers had come in and kissed me and expressed their relief that I wasn't too badly hurt. When they left (and no one hurried, despite the hour), Daddy came in with Mom, and they sat and cuddled me a bit, told me again how happy with me they were, then said that they were going to bed, taking Richter with them so he wouldn't accidentally hurt my leg, and that it was fine for Judith to stay with me.

When they went out, Judith came in, dressed for bed. We snuggled close right away, and she held me with a tenderness that was both new and very welcome, almost as though she were cradling me.

I fell asleep quickly, and I only woke once from a nightmare. In the dream, I was surrounded by a bunch of those vaguely humanoid jellyfish-things (jellyfish have creeped me out since I first saw a picture of one), all of them lashing out at me with their thin, nerve-looking stinger-tendrils. I had my sword, and I managed to deflect the stings— but the stings kept eating away at the blade, making it shorter and shorter, leaving me less and less to defend myself with. Just as a stinger came at my face that I had no way to block— I jerked awake, found myself sitting up and gulping for air, and Judith sitting up and pulling me close.

"Ssh, just a dream," she said softly. "Just a dream, Jocelyn. It's all right, nothing will hurt you."

"Okay," I gulped, still breathing hard. "Okay, just a dream."

"Lie down, relax," Judith said, pulling me down with her. "I'll help you sleep again."

I don't know what I expected. Stroking my hair, rubbing my neck, maybe having me lie face down so she could rub my back. I should have known better. Judith sang, sang an old English lullaby (so she told me in the morning), and her voice and the light, soothing melody put me right to sleep.

"Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green,

"When I am king, dilly, dilly, you shall be queen.

"Who told you so, dilly, dilly, who told you so?

" 'Twas my own heart, dilly, dilly, that told me so.

"Call up your men, dilly, dilly, set them to work

"Some with a rake, dilly, dilly, some with a fork.

"Some to make hay, dilly, dilly, some to thresh corn.

"While you and I, dilly, dilly, keep ourselves warm.

"Lavender's green, dilly, dilly, Lavender's blue,

"If you love me, dilly, dilly, I will love you.

"Let the birds sing, dilly, dilly, And the lambs play;

"We shall be safe, dilly, dilly, Out of harm's way.

"I love to dance, dilly, dilly, I love to sing;

"When I am queen, dilly, dilly, You'll be my king.

"Who told me so, dilly, dilly, Who told me so?

"I told myself, dilly, dilly, I told me so."

(I fell asleep before she reached the end, but had her sing it for me again later so I could get all the words.)

I woke in the morning— late for me, almost eight— feeling fine, except for a pressing need to use the bathroom. Judith handed me the crutches Dad had left for me the night before, let me hug her before I went to the bathroom, then helped me downstairs for breakfast.

I did the e-school thing that Brian Keller had set up for situations like this years ago, attending classes via webcams (except for PE, of course), and spent the day being lazy. Uncle Ballard told me over lunch that the other two sites had been abandoned, that Aunt Dawn and Aunt Sh'rin thought that there'd been magical gateways at all three places to send all the critters from each one to whichever one we found first— scary, that meant Catherine Madison had some serious zap going. (Couldn't have been Warren's super-science— my aunts found the traces of Catherine's spells.)

"So… we're back down to standby, for the moment," he said as he took my empty plate to rinse it for me. "Light patrols tonight, and a rapid response team ready here for deployment to wherever they might be needed. But my money is we won't have any problems. Warren isn't the type to keep trying a trick that didn't work, he'll back off and think of something new."

"Yay," I muttered. "You think I could help play Watcher tonight? Sit with Giles and play research assistant, or something?"

"I'll bet he'd like that," Uncle Ballard said. "You can ask when he gets home."

I did ask, and Giles did like it— but Uncle Ballard called it right. Bunches of nothing much happened, and I got chased to bed at eleven. I went downstairs with Judith that night— one less flight of stairs by not going up to my room on the third floor— and slept the night through peacefully.

Friday I went to school, walked with a cane, but went. I sat out PE, but that wasn't too bad, I still got to watch.

Friday night, I got a bomb of the best kind dropped on me.