Chapter 26: Guests

"Miss me?" Clay asked, grinning up at Buffy.

Buffy smiled and got off Clay. As he got up, she grabbed him and flipped him over her and into a stack of firewood. The wood toppled over him, knocking his breath out.

"Guess not," he wheezed.

"Can I kill him?" Buffy asked Jeremy. "Please."

"Maim, but don't kill. We may still need him." Jeremy offered Clay a hand and yanked him to his feet with a bit more force than necessary. "I'm glad to see you got my message, but I didn't think you'd be here this fast. Did you have any trouble getting out of your course?"

Clay had been in Detroit at the University of Michigan doing a short lecture series. He told them he had no problem getting out of it.

"You left Clay a message on my cell phone, which he took with him to Detroit, right?" Dawn asked as Jeremy nodded. "And when did you leave that message?"

"Before dinner. After you and Buffy sat at your table. I used the pay phone in the lobby."

"Uh-huh," Dawn said. "About four hours ago, then. So, assuming Clay took the shortest route from Detroit, through Ontario, into Quebec and down, that's well over six hundred miles. A Porsche traveling at, say, ninety miles an hour, with no stops or slowdowns, would take at least seven hours to make the trip. Anyone see a problem with this math?"

"I wasn't actually in Detroit when Jer called," Clay said.

"Uh-huh," Buffy and Dawn both said.

"I was a bit … closer."

"How close?" Buffy inquired.

"Ummm, say … Vermont."

"You sneaky son of a bitch!" Dawn said. "You've been here the whole time, haven't you? What did you do, follow us around?"

"I was protecting my wife and my sister," Clay said.

"Dawn and I don't need protection," Buffy said. She looked at Dawn. "How many scrapes have we been in?" Dawn shrugged. "Too many to count, and no one's killed us yet, have they?"

"Of course not, Buffy, short of decapitation, you both can't die," Clay reminded the sisters. "But maybe I should wait until someone does. Then I'm allowed to protect you both? Guard your graves maybe?"

"I ordered you to stay in Detroit, Clayton," Jeremy said.

"You said I didn't need to come along," Clay said. "You didn't say couldn't."

"You knew what I meant," Jeremy said. "We'll discuss this later. Come back to the cottage now and we'll fill you in on anything you don't already know."

They headed back toward the cabin. When they were nearly out of the woods, Jeremy noticed Buffy tense. He turned his hearing as he stopped and raised a hand, silencing them. He saw what she saw, a pickup.

"Did you rent a pickup?" he whispered to Clay.

"Nah, some little shit-box. Figured the Boxster might be a bit conspicuous in these parts. Why?" He followed Jeremy and Buffy's gaze. "That's not mine. What time is it?"

"Too late for making out," Dawn said.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Speak for yourself, Dawn."

"I was right," Dawn said. "You and Rei were making out after long patrols!" Buffy nodded. She noticed Clay and Jeremy looking at her. "When I was a kid. I heard Buffy and Rei slip into the house trying to not make any noise. Anyways that's a discussion for later. Right now, it's too late for most people, and it is too early for hunting or fishing."

"I'd say we have company," Jeremy said. "I'll stand watch. You three circle the cottage and greet our guests."

"I have a better idea," Dawn said as she took her sister and husband's hands. They disappeared in a flash of green. They reappeared on the lake side of the cabin where Dawn and Buffy left Clay. Then the sisters disappeared again and reappeared on the other side of the cabin. They immediately saw a single man standing lookout, carrying a gun. Buffy looked to Dawn and motioned toward the house.

Dawn nodded in understanding as she disappeared in a flash of green.

Buffy crept through the trees until she was beside him.

Clay stepped from the forest, coming out behind the gunman. Some drunken lout across the lake yelled causing the lookout to spin around. Buffy and Clay leapt at him in that instant. Buffy knocked the gun from the man's hand as Clay grabbed him around the neck and broke it.

Buffy opened the gun chamber. The bullets inside shone too brightly for lead. She flashed them to Clay as he dragged the body into the woods. "Silver bullets," she whispered. "Not standard equipment for a B&E. I sent Dawn to check the cabin. She teleported in, not sure where. I'll go in the front door; you make your way around back."

Clay nodded as he began to circle back around the house.

Buffy headed for the front door, she saw that the door was cracked open, which meant there was likely someone inside. She used her toe and prodded the door open farther. She crouched and crept through, staying low enough that she wouldn't catch anyone's attention.

Clay came through the back door and he and Buffy stepped into the main room. Then Clay pointed overhead and mouthed 'light.'

Upstairs Dawn was in the back bedroom, where the light was coming from. She heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She met her sister and Clay at the top of the stairs. Dawn shook her head to indicate there was no one up there. It was then that they heard footsteps sound on the main level.

"That's it," a man's voice said. "They're not here."

"Then we'll wait," another said. "Get Brant and we'll leave."

Footfalls on the front porch. "Brant's gone."

"Probably taking a piss. Fucking wonderful lookout. Go start the truck, then. He'll figure it out."

Clay whispered, "I'll head them off at the back. You two take the front. Get them into the woods. Away from their truck—and Jeremy."

Buffy and Dawn hurried down the stairs and out the front door. Just then a second-story bathroom window smashed. A shower of glass rained down on the men. As the men looked up, Clay dropped to the ground in front of them.

"Going somewhere?" he said.

Before either man could react, Clay kicked the pistol from the hand of the man on the left. The man on the right spun, saw Dawn and Buffy and aimed his gun toward them. They disappeared in a flash of green just as he fired. They reappeared and he fired again, and they teleported again.

The first man ducked Clay's next kick and thundered into the forest. Clay followed. The other man stood watching for Buffy and Dawn. When they reappeared, he aimed again, Buffy dove for his legs, caught them and jerked backward, pulling him down with her. The gun sailed to the side. "I got him, go, help Clay," she told Dawn who ran off into the forest.

His hand flew up, not toward her, but left, reaching out across the ground toward the other gun. The real gun.

Buffy rolled sideways and knocked the gun out of his reach. He got to his knees, raised his fist, then paused which gave Buffy time to duck. She brought her fist up into his gut. He doubled over. Buffy grabbed his hair and slammed his face into the ground. He recovered fast, though as his gaze went straight for the gun. As he lunged forward, Buffy snatched it out of his reach and plowed the barrel into his heart as he toppled backward, dead.

Dawn and Clay stepped from the forest, looked down at the man, and then looked at Buffy. They knew how she felt about killing humans.

"Hey, Buffy," Clay said. "That's cheating. Werewolves don't use guns."

"I know," Buffy said. "And you know I don't like killing humans."

"I know, sis," Clay said as he and Dawn pulled Buffy into an embrace. "But you had to, he was trying to kill us."

"It was self-defense," Dawn added. "Our guy headed into the bog. Figured we'd come back and see if you needed help before we gave chase. He won't get far."

"Change, then," Jeremy said, walking up behind them. "It's safer. Buffy, are your arms all right?"

Buffy looked down at her arms. She peeled off the bandages, wincing as they came free. "Almost healed. God, I love having werewolf enhanced Slayer healing."

"Rub it in, Buffy," Dawn said with a roll of her eyes. If Dawn, Clay or even Jeremy had the same injury it would have taken them longer than it did Buffy to heal.

"Good," Jeremy said. "Go on, then. I'll look after these two."

Buffy, Dawn and Clay left to find places to Change.

When the sisters finished their Change, they rested, then stood and stretched.

Since Dawn and Clay left him, the man had covered a lot of ground. He'd run at least two miles—all in the same quarter-mile radius, circling and zigzagging endlessly. As they drew close, they could hear he was still circling, obviously lost.

At this point, they should have finished the guy off—gone down into the bog, coming at him from three sides, trapping him in the middle, jumped him, tore out his throat, and called it a day. But that wouldn't have been very fun. Still, there was one problem. Mud. Mud oozed between their toes, and the cold water inched up their forelegs. Dawn lifted one front paw. It came up a thick, black club, mud coating every hair. As she put her paw down, it shot forward on the slick ground. It wasn't safe. There was only one option. They had to get the guy out of the bog. Which meant they had to chase him.

They split up, Clay circling north around the man. Buffy and Dawn went south around the man and found the ground was still marshy. When they met up at the far side with Clay, he swung his head north, telling them the ground there was dry. They paused then and audibly located the man again. Southwest, maybe fifty feet away. Clay moved between the sisters and rubbed against their sides and growled softly. He circled them, brushing along their flanks, tail tickling across their muzzles, and then walked around the other side.

"Ready?" Dawn asked with a glance.

The only response from Clay was a grin and then he was gone.

Buffy and Dawn slogged through the mud after Clay. They came within a dozen feet of the man and stopped. Clay brushed against the sisters to get their attention. When they looked over, he lifted his muzzle to the sky, miming a howl. Buffy snorted and shook her head. Warning their prey had its attractions, but she wanted to try something different.

Buffy inched through the scrubby brush. When the man's scent hit gagging intensity, she paused and checked his direction. She ducked her head, eased her belly to the mud and crept along until she could see the man pushing through a sumac. Other than the sumac, the area surrounding him was clear. Buffy backed up—much tougher to coordinate as a wolf than a human. Dawn and Clay slid forward to meet her. When they were alongside, Buffy, she dropped her forequarters to the ground and waggled her rear in the air. Clay grunted and tilted his head to one side, a clear "What the hell are you doing?" Buffy snorted, stood, and repeated the performance, this time bouncing back and forth. It took a second, but Clay and Dawn finally got it. Then Clay and Dawn turned and loped northwest.

Buffy went north again, creeping only a few feet farther before seeing the man. He was plowing through ankle-deep water. She swiveled her ears right and caught the sound of Dawn and Clay's paws clumping through the mud. When they were parallel to Buffy, they stopped. She crouched, forequarters down, rear in the air, wiggling as she shifted position and tested her back legs. She moved her concentration to her front legs, coiling the muscles.

Buffy sailed through the air. The undergrowth crackled on takeoff. The man heard it, turned, and lifted his hands to ward her off, not noticing that her trajectory wouldn't bring her within a yard of him. She landed to his right, dropped her head between her shoulders and growled. His eyes flashed from surprise to comprehension. That was what she wanted, why she hadn't let Clay or Dawn warn him. She wanted to see his expression when he realized exactly what he was facing, for once not being mistaken for a wolf or wild dog. Buffy wanted to see the understanding, the horror, and, finally, the bladder-releasing panic. He gaped for one long moment, jaws open, no part of him moving, not even breathing. Then the panic hit. He whirled around and almost tripped over Clay and Dawn. He shrieked then, a rabbity squeal of terror. Dawn and Clay drew back their lips, fangs flashing in the moonlight. They growled, and the man bolted for the clearest opening, north toward the dry ground.

It wasn't much of a chase in the bog, but once they hit dry ground, the man broke into a headlong run. Buffy, Dawn and Clay loped after him for a good mile across an open field. The stink of his panic rushed back at them, filling their noses and saturating their brains.

Then they smelt a new scent on the breeze. Diesel fumes. There was a road ahead. They knew it was approximately 3:00 A.M. on a Monday morning in the middle of cottage country. The chances of hitting traffic congestion ahead were zero. The chances of encountering even one car was nearly as low. All they had to do was get this guy across the road and keep going.

They crested a small rise and saw the road ahead, an empty ribbon of brown weaving through the hills. The man clambered up the ditch on the near side. As they leaped off the hillock, a flash of light illuminated the road for one second, then vanished. Buffy and Dawn paused. For a moment, all was dark. Then the light flashed again. Two round lights in the distance, bobbing over the hills. The man saw it too. He found a last burst of speed and ran toward the oncoming vehicle, arms waving. Clay shot out from behind the sisters. As the car dipped into the last valley, Clay vaulted across the road, sprang at the man, and knocked him flying into the ditch. A pickup came over the last hill, motorboat rumbling behind it. It cruised up alongside them and kept going.

Buffy and Dawn raced across the road. Clay and the man were at the bottom of the ditch, tumbling together, Clay snapping, trying to get a good hold as the man squirmed to escape. Both were covered in mud, making Clay's job tougher and the man's easier. The man contorted sideways and reached for the bottom of his pant leg. In a flash, the sisters realized what he was after. They yelped a warning to Clay. The man's hand clamped on something under his cuff. As he yanked it out, Clay dove for his hand. A flash of light. A crack of thunder. A shower of blood. Clay's blood.

The sisters flew down the ditch, Buffy knocked the gun from the man's hand, and she and Dawn turned on him. His eyes widened. Dawn leapt at him, grabbed his throat, and tore. The man convulsed. She flung him from side to side until his throat tore away and his body sailed into the bushes. Dawn and Buffy turned to face Clay and saw blood stream from the back of his fore-haunch.

Buffy licked the wound clean, and examined it. The bullet had passed through the skin and muscle connecting Clay's front leg to his chest. As soon as she was done, it filled with blood again. Dawn knelt down next to her sister and helped her to clean it again, and then the sisters gauged the flow of blood. No longer streaming, it had slowed to a steady drip. As Buffy and Dawn pulled back for another look, Clay licked the side of their muzzles and then burrowed his nose against their cheeks. A low rumble, like a growling purr, vibrated through him. Dawn and Buffy bent to check his wound again, but he blocked their view and nudged them both backward into the woods. Mission accomplished. No mortal injuries. Time to Change back.

After the sisters Changed, they returned to where the corpse lay on the ground. Clay leapt out behind them, swatting Dawn's rear, he grabbed Dawn around the waist before she could retaliate.

Clay bent to kiss Dawn, she let him so to give Buffy a chance to look at the wound. Buffy saw that blood oozed from the hole.

"You need to get that checked," Buffy said as Clay broke the kiss with Dawn and looked at her.

"Buffy's right, you really need to—" Dawn said. "Jeremy should look—"

"I take it with the way you are going after Dawn that the arm's fine," Buffy said.

"Don't care if it isn't," Clay said.

"Good. Then you won't mind working for it," Dawn said as she spun and bolted.

Buffy smiled as she watched Clay take off after Dawn as they reminded her of herself and Rei. She turned and walked off heading back to find Jeremy. She found him as he crossed the road. "He's back there, dead. I expect Dawn and Clay will dispose of the body when their done with their romp. God, I miss, Rei."

"Seeing them together reminds you of you and Rei?" Jeremy asked as he and Buffy turned and headed back toward the clearing, the body and Dawn and Clay. "And makes you miss her all the more."

"Yeah," Buffy said. "I just have to remind myself only a few more years and she and I will be back together."

Back in the clearing Dawn struggled to get up, Clay's hands pinning hers to the ground. They slipped and slid across it, grappling and laughing and kissing and groping. He kissed Dawn. "Miss me?" he said.

Dawn tilted her head back to look up at him and grinned. "In ways."

"Ouch. Cruel. Very cruel."

"At least I appreciate you for one thing," Dawn said.

"Only one thing?"

"Or maybe several things," Dawn murmured. "Want to compile a list?"

He chuckled.

"No list, please," said a deep voice somewhere to their right. "Buffy and I'll be waiting here all night. We already had to wait through round one."

Dawn turned her head to see Jeremy and Buffy walk through the trees.

"Sorry," Dawn said.

"Don't be. But I'd like to get this cleaned up before dawn."

Clay groaned and lifted himself onto his elbows, still lying on Dawn.

"Yes," Jeremy continued. "Terribly inconsiderate of me, expecting you to dispose of the corpses you created before you finished your reunion romp. I apologize most sincerely. Now get off your ass, Clayton, and get to work."

Clay sighed, gave Dawn one last kiss, and got to his feet. Dawn stood and walked over to the body of the dead man.

Buffy looked to Jeremy. "I don't suppose you brought our clothes?" she said. "Shouldn't matter, so long as we don't meet any early morning anglers on the way back."

"Actually, I did bring them, but considering the amount of mud and blood on all three of you, I think we'd better stick to nudity for a while longer. You'll be clean soon enough."

"How about the two of us share the shower when we get back?" Dawn asked as she looked at Clay who readily agreed.

"Hey that sounds like a good idea," Buffy agreed. "Me first. If you two get in there you will use up all the hot water." She dropped to her knees beside the dead man and searched for a wallet or ID. Jeremy walked back to the ditch and returned with a spade, which he tossed to Clay.

"Bury him here?" Clay asked.

"No. Dig a hole by his neck, turn him over, and drain the blood. We'll take him back to the cottage for disposal. It's about a half-mile back. I was hoping for a closer kill."

"No choice in the matter," Buffy said. "We found him in a bog, chased him here to dry ground, then he pulled a gun. Shot Clay in the arm."

Jeremy frowned, walked over to Clay, and examined the wound. "Clean shot," he said. "Does it hurt?"

Clay lifted his arm above shoulder level. "Only if I do this."

"Then don't do that," Jeremy said.

"Couldn't resist, could you?" Buffy said as Clay grinned.

Jeremy's lips curved in the barest smile, then he clapped Clay on the back. "Get to it, then. Drain the body so we can move him."

"There's no ID," Buffy said. "Not that I expected to find any. The guy in Pittsburgh didn't have one either."

Jeremy nodded. As Clay lifted the shovel to dig, Jeremy, Buffy and Dawn jumped in at the same time, realizing it wasn't something he should do with a bad arm. After a brief argument—Buffy and Dawn argued, Jeremy held the shovel and refused to release it—the sisters let Jeremy dig the hole, then Buffy tipped the body over it. Once the blood had drained, they filled in the hole with the surrounding blood-soaked leaves, then covered it with soil and took the corpse back to the cottage.

It was still deep night when they returned to the cabin. Buffy and Dawn carried two corpses as Jeremy led them to a treed strip of bank along the lake. Clay stayed back with the third, saying he had to "do something" with it.

The sisters stood on the embankment, still naked. They'd tied thick rope around the neck and legs of each corpse and weighted them with concrete blocks from a cottage demolition up the road.

"Wow," Dawn said as she lowered herself to the ground and dipped her legs into the icy water. "I get to make someone 'swim with the fishes.' This is cool. My first Mafia-style disposal. You realize what this means. If I get caught, I'm going to have to turn state's witness against all you guys. Then I'll sell my story for a million bucks. But I'll never get to enjoy it, 'cause I'll live out the rest of my miserable existence in a shanty in the Appalachians, eating muskrat stew, jumping every time I hear a noise, waiting for the day when one of you hunts me down like the traitorous bitch I am." She paused. "Hold on. Maybe this isn't so cool after all. Can't we just bury him?"

"Get in the water, Dawn," Buffy said.

Dawn sighed. "Being a gangster isn't what it used to be. Al Capone, where have you gone?"

"We know what happened to him," Buffy said. "He died of a heart attack in 1947 about five days after my birthday, remember?"

"Oh, that's right," Dawn said.

Jeremy bit down a laugh as he remembered that the sisters knew a lot of such tidbits, having lived over two hundred and forty years. He watched as Buffy waded into the water with one of the bodies. She swam out. He turned his attention to Dawn and pushed her off the bank. She hit the water with a splash. "And try to be quiet," he said.

"I didn't—" Dawn said.

He threw the man down to Dawn, dunking her underwater with the weight. When Dawn resurfaced, Jeremy was gone. She spotted Buffy out in the middle of the lake, having already dumped the first corpse. She swam to her sister, dragging the second corpse behind her.

"About fifty feet," Buffy whispered when Dawn arrived. "I dropped mine a hundred feet to the west. Made sure he was tangled in the underwater plants to be sure he wouldn't resurface anytime soon."

Dawn nodded as she dove with her corpse and did the same thing as Buffy had done. When Dawn resurfaced, she found Buffy was gone, probably to beat her and Clay to the shower. She found someone else had been waiting though as arms grabbed her around the waist and jettisoned her out of the lake. Coming down she hit the water with a tidal-wave splash. She grabbed Clay by the neck and dragged him under, holding him there for a second—maybe longer—before releasing him.

"Did Jeremy tell you the part about being quiet?" Dawn hissed as he came up for air.

He grinned. "I am being quiet. You're the one splashing around."

Dawn lunged for him. He grabbed her, pulled her against him and kissed her as she wrapped her arms and legs around him, then ducking him under the water again.

"I did miss you," Dawn said as he surfaced.

He tilted his head and knocked his open palm against one ear. "Sorry, darling. Water in the ears, I think. I could of sworn you admitted that you missed me."

"I did," Dawn replied.

Back at the cottage, Buffy stood on the porch dripping wet from the lake. "Jeremy, do you think that those witches will try and force Dawn to join their Coven?"

Jeremy sighed; he knew that she like Dawn had been worrying about that since the meeting. "Just as I said before, Buffy. She is a member of the Pack just as you are. That will never change even when you go to Sunnydale in a few years. We will protect Dawn from them if it came down to it. As I told you and Dawn before dinner, I tried negotiating with Ruth, mainly to ease yours and Dawn's minds. But when you got burned and our leaving that ended those negotiations. But don't worry Dawn will not be joining their Coven unless she chooses too."

By the time Clay and Dawn returned to the cabin, Jeremy already had the Explorer packed. Buffy was exiting the shower just at Clay and Dawn came up. Buffy smiled at her sister and started for the stairs. When Buffy got downstairs, she heard Jeremy talking to Ruth. Without mentioning their guests, he discovered the group was convening again in the morning. When he hung up, he looked to Buffy.

"Someone had told those men where to find us," Buffy said. "And the only way they knew we were even in Vermont was the witches and their group. You want to try and see if you can find out which of them is possibly a traitor."

"Yes," Jeremy said.