Chapter 18. A meeting of the clans.
Spreading out for the gargoyles had meant that no one slept too near someone else. The gargoyles had a sophisticated way of ensuring that. They made a list of all the best places to sleep then they drew cards to see who picked first. High card won and the rest picked their spot in order of their card's value. Each night they would pick again so that no one trying to track them could ever know who would sleep where what night.
Amy won the inaugural round and got first pick. She picked Kingman's Bluff. It was on the west side of town. Close to town, but far enough away and steep enough that it didn't have many visitors. Being high also meant Amy only had to leap up and then glide all the way to the Summers' house. The path to that house from the bluff happened to pass very close by both the butcher's on 49th and then Sam and Kendra's apartment. When she landed, she waited impatiently for the rest of the clan. She had seen that Sam and Kendra were staking out the butcher shop from a blind that looked like it was designed to hide them from above. Which was too bad for them, because Amy had been south and not really above them when she spotted their hideout.
Angel bought an extra gallon of blood when he got to the butcher. He had to make do with cow's blood this time, as all the fresh pig's blood was sold out by the time he got there. Three days of rain meant there was a rush for blood tonight, and it was hardly surprising, but it was still disappointing. At least he had a peaceful walk home to enjoy, along with the smell of fresh rain. The rule was, technically, that there was no fighting at the butcher's. By unspoken agreement, this also included walking home with your bags in plain sight. You couldn't attack or be attacked as long as you were holding those bags.
Except that someone didn't tell this chick. She tackled him and tried to stake him. Angel was forced to drop his bags so he could block her stake. He then rolled with the attack and used her own momentum to kick her off him. "You're going to pay for that," he snarled angrily. Really what he meant was that she needed to reimburse him for the blood she'd just spilled. He was going to be lucky if there was even a pint of fresh anything left when he got back to the store.
Instead of pulling out her wallet, she lunged at him again. The attack never made it. A new human came from the left and clocked the woman he'd been fighting/about to fight. A roundhouse kick drove her backwards several yards from him. And suddenly, there were five humans standing between him and a girl who clearly wasn't human. With Buffy... changed—he wasn't sure if Buffy was dead or really a monster—a part of him wondered if this new girl was the new Slayer. It was awfully quick for her to get here if she was, but transportation today wasn't the same as in his day.
"Back off, Slayer," one of the humans—a female—spoke, confirming Angel's guess. "This one is under our protection. He lives. He suffers. No slaying."
"Gypsy," Angel whispered. Her accent was fairly clean, but anyone interested in him living and suffering had to be of that tribe.
"Sort of," Jenny shot over her shoulder.
"No slaying," came a voice from above. "But beat up on him all you want. You need the practice after all," Xander added as he landed behind Kendra. "Miss Calendar?"
"Do I know you?" Jenny asked. She could count the number of demons she knew by name on one hand, and there were five demons landing behind the Slayer right now. The odds were tipping distinctly against her even if Angel fought the new Slayer on her clan's side, she wasn't sure if her clan could take this unknown demon clan.
Another demon tutted. Actually Tutted! "Kendra, we're very disappointed in you. I believe we made it clear that you were not to harm Angel. And yet you're attacking him with a stake. Explain yourself."
"She doesn't explain herself to you," a dark man stepped out of the night carrying a crossbow. It was leveled at Angel.
Angel put his arms up a bit as if to say he gave up. But it wasn't to actually give up, it was to get his arms close to his heart to make a grab for the bolt if and when it flew.
The black man went on, "He's a vampire. He dies."
"He's my vampire. My tribe cursed him," Jenny laid her claim on him.
"He's our informant," Willow said much more bravely than she felt. "And- and we had a deal!"
"We had no deal. We had you giving my Slayer orders, something you had no business doing," the black man spat.
A crunching sound came from Angel's right, drawing everyone's attention. Two of the gargoyles were leaning against a tree. The purple one was chewing and handed his half-eaten apple to the golden colored one. "No, no. Go on. You guys were busy with the posturing and the threatening," Xander said around his snack. A few pieces of apple were spit into the night air as he spoke. He waved them on in a 'go forward' gesture. "Please continue. It was very entertaining."
Amy took a large bite of the apple to hide the smile that was trying to break out on her face.
"This is a no-win situation for you Sam. If Angel dies, then you've angered two groups of supernatural fighters," Giles looked at the other group to try and size them up. But he really hadn't seen enough of them, just the fact that they had blindsided a Slayer who was focused on another target. "One vampire who was bringing home..." he dipped his finger in the blood on the ground and tasted it, "cow's blood. Is it really worth the risk for one vampire?"
Sam growled but put up his crossbow. He motioned for Kendra, who stepped out from between the two groups. "This isn't over."
"Indeed not," Giles promised. "We'll stop by the apartment tonight."
The sound of Xander taking another large bite of apple echoed through the night as Sam and Kendra turned and left. He stage whispered to Amy as he handed back the apple, "I think there's about to be more threatening for information."
Jenny smiled. "Oh, I don't know about that, Xander Harris. It took me a minute to recognize your voice, mostly because you've changed so much since you died. Or since you were declared dead, at any rate. And I recognize Willow Rosenberg's voice as well. Which would make the other two Buffy Summers and Amy Madison, I believe. And at a guess, you would be 'something Giles'. I forgot your first name, since we only met once."
"It's Rupert," Giles supplied. "And do you think we could do the meet-and-greet elsewhere? I would rather not share overmuch with the vampire."
Angel frowned at being called 'the vampire' but held his tongue. They may have just saved his life after all. Fighting a slayer was no joke. At least a thousand vampires tried it each year and almost all failed, usually to their permanent demise. "I'm just going to go back to the butcher for some more blood." No one said anything or tried to stop him, so he left.
"And who are you?" Giles tried again.
"I got that." Xander said and pointed to each in turn. "Miss Calendar, the computer teacher. Then we have Kyle, Tor, Heidi, and Rhonda. Collectively known as the Idiot Patrol."
The four in question chuckled and giggled at that. Jenny managed to keep her face straight.
Rhonda sniffed at the three gargoyles in front of her. "What happened to you guys? What are you?"
"They're gargoyles," Jenny answered. She knew gargoyles from growing up. Every gypsy clan had at least one clan of gargoyles that they protected and vice-versa.
"And what are you?" Giles challenged, he was getting fed up at not getting an answer from them. "You are clearly not fully human yourselves."
Jenny thought for a moment. "Alright. One freebie, as a show of good faith. We got hit with a spirit possession. Hyena."
"Good lord," Giles stepped forward automatically. "You must get it out! Those things are dangerous."
"Relax, English," Jenny said. "I made sure it was under control before I did anything else. Tonight was supposed to be a game of show and tell. Show the kids a vampire or two and tell them how to kill it. Not Angel, of course."
"And why not Angel? You said your 'tribe' cursed him? What does that mean?" Giles fired off questions rapidly.
"Nah, uh, uh. Your turn there, bucko," Jenny countered.
"Ooh! I know!" Willow raised her hand as if she were still in class. "Angel said he was cursed by Gypsies. That makes you a Gypsy, right?"
"We prefer the term 'Romany'," Jenny replied glumly. One less piece of information to trade. "Our turn now. How did you get turned into gargoyles?"
Amy stepped forward, with Xander right behind her as he chucked his apple core into the bushes. "My mom was a witch. She cast a spell that sounded like it would turn us to stone. Instead we woke up like this at sunset."
"And killing her clearly didn't work," Jenny said more to herself. She knew the easiest way to undo a curse was usually to kill the witch in question. Which was why she was very careful about who she cursed and how.
"And what are your plans now? Outside of Angel, that is. I dare say we could use some allies who are also trying to keep the denizens of the night in check. It seems we may have just broken our ties with the watchers council," Giles said. That was a bit of an understatement. They'd be lucky if Kendra wasn't actively hunting for them tomorrow.
Jenny's eyes flicked involuntarily to Buffy at the mention of the council. Giles caught the movement, and his lips thinned, but he said nothing at the moment. Jenny's eyes then flicked over her own group. "Our clan is new. This is our first night hunting, actually," she admitted. "We could use some backup ourselves."
"Hey, whatdaya know? Our clan is pretty darn new too," Xander said cheerfully.
"Yeah, I figured it formed right about the time you guys disappeared. That was, what? A little less than a month ago. And I want you to know, Rupert, that I never believed a word about you kidnapping and eating the kids."
"Oh. Why thank you," Giles said through clenched fangs. He knew, he just knew that the American media would-
"Sorry," Jenny chuckled and the Hyena clan laughed as well. "No one's saying that. I was just messing with you, Papa Smurf," she lied. Plenty were saying that, it was the second most popular rumor, right after Willow pulling a 'Carrie' and killing everyone with her mind, which was just silly in her opinion.
Giles sighed heavily, but did relax.
"So now what?" Jenny asked.
Giles looked around his clan and got either nods or shrugs from everyone. "Now, we question Angel again. A very powerful vampire called The Master is trying to raise, or may already have raised, a champion called the Anointed One."
"Annoying One is more like it," Buffy muttered.
Giles shot her a glance but went on. "We'd like to be very open with information about vampires and demons with you. The more we all know about our enemies, the better." Unsaid was: the less others—and, for now, each other—know about us and our weaknesses, the better.
"I agree," Jenny agreed with both points. "Alright, clan. Your first assignment tonight: I want you to track down Angel again and find his lair." Technically, Jenny already knew where Angel lived, but she wanted to see how her new clan did. It was also a show of good faith to the gargoyles, since she already knew quite a bit about them, their strengths, and their weaknesses. Showing them a bit about her own clan's powers was a trade for what she'd teach her clan about them later.
"Don't you know that you're supposed to leave a guy alone if he's carrying a butcher's bag?" Angel asked when he was accosted for a second time that night.
"Relax," Jenny comforted. "We're not going to kill you. We just want to ask you some questions. Tell us what you know about the Annoying One."
"Anointed," Giles corrected automatically.
"Anointed One. Whichever."
Angel smiled. He actually had heard a few things. If there was one thing that demons loved more than causing suffering and pain, it was gossiping about suffering and pain. And the suffering and pain of the Master was as good to most demons as the suffering and pain of humans. The reason that the Master would put up with the things that this Anointed One were doing to him just had to be part of the gossip. "It was supposed to be a man. But it turned out it was a woman, and she's been driving the Master up the wall. Other than the prophecy that 'she will lead the Slayer to the Master'," his eyes flicked to Buffy, "there's no way he'd put up with her otherwise. But that's a moot point for you guys anyway. And that's really all I know."
"Wait. What?" Buffy said.
Angel shrugged. "I thought you knew. The Master called the Anointed One to try to get rid of the Slayer. I mean I can check some other-"
"Check them," Buffy ordered, her muscles going taught, which cause her wings to rise above her automatically, making her appear taller and more intimidating.
"Okay, okay. Settle." Angel looked around to see if anyone else looked ready to tear his heart out and was gladdened to see that everyone else looked calmer than Buffy did right now.
"We shall have to inform Sam of this," Giles said.
"We should probably tell Kendra first," Amy said. "We don't want Sam trying to keep this from her."
Giles nodded. "Quite right."
"Can I go now?" Angel asked. He was incredibly uncomfortable surrounded by people who didn't like him, but he couldn't kill.
"Very well. But first we need to know how to get in touch with you should we need more information," Giles agreed.
Angel took out a pen and a slip of paper. "Here's my number. Try not to call during the day. I usually sleep then."
"We'll try not to," Giles said, his voice betraying a hint of humor.
"What's this?" David Xanatos asked as a bill of lading from an unfamiliar company was laid on his desk.
"I've been making inquiries into that gargoyle clan in California. A little over a week ago, five large pieces of granite were delivered to the residence of one Joyce Summers of Sunnydale, California. She had a short history of art sales back in the 70's, though nothing recent. The name, the location, and the stones could be all a coincidence, but it's unlikely," Owen dutifully reported his findings. He had wanted to wait a few more weeks, but the evidence came to him and he had to report it.
David thought for only a moment. "Cancel my appointments for tomorrow afternoon. Have my jet prepped and ready so that we'll land in Sunnydale shortly before sunset tomorrow."
"As you wish." Owen gathered up his papers and went to make the necessary preparations. And to call off the emergency prep of the jet he'd ordered thinking Xanatos would want to fly out immediately. He just hoped his 'children' were ready.