Chapter 58: Missing

Jeremy insisted on walking Tolliver out. After promising Clay she'd stick close to Jeremy, Dawn tagged along, using the excuse of grabbing breakfast so she could speak to Jeremy without Clay overhearing. Before they had reached the elevator, Buffy had joined them, knowing something was wrong. Nick hadn't said anything to her other than Jeremy being in Dawn and Clay's room. She had to find out what was wrong.

When they reached the lobby, Tolliver stopped to answer his cell phone, and they stepped aside to give him privacy.

"I can see Antonio from here," Jeremy murmured to me. "Both of you go get something to eat. I'll see Dr. Tolliver off."

Dawn's cell phone buzzed. Rita calling to say that she'd confirmed Lyle Sanderson's disappearance. "Three people missing from one neighborhood," she said. "Something's going on. When I mentioned it in the newsroom, we laid bets on how long it takes someone to connect these disappearances to our dead girl from last night."

Dawn looked to Buffy as they stopped walking. "You think there's a link?" Dawn asked as she held the phone out for Buffy to hear.

"Hell, no. I'm taking criminology classes at the uni—figured it can't hurt, right?—and from everything I've learned there, and working here, I can't imagine a connection. On the one hand, you have people disappearing without a trace. No letters or calls to the press. Not even ransom notes. Then you've got this ballsy SOB who not only displayed his work in public, but did it within screaming distance of people. You could argue that he killed the others and didn't enjoy it enough, so he went public, but that's a big step to take so quickly. My opinion, at least."

"Can we quote you on that?" Buffy asked.

She laughed. "Like to see you two try. Speaking of tips, I've got a few you two can have. The crackpots are really coming out of the woodwork on this one. Just this morning we had a guy report seeing a walking corpse downtown."

"The core is pretty dead these days," Dawn said.

Rita snorted a laugh. "Unbelievable. Take a heat wave, add a health scare and people's common sense takes a holiday. Zombies, killer rats, signs of the apocalypse…I'm just waiting for someone to say they've spotted sasquatches on Spadina. Or vampires in the Don Valley."

Dawn and Buffy glanced at each other. "I'd believe vampires," Buffy said.

"I'm sure you would, Buffy. Listen, someone's waving me into a meeting. You two give me a call later. I want to get together before you both leave town." Her hand went over the mouthpiece as she yelled a muffled "hold on," then came back to them. "Gotta run. You two take care. And watch out for those vampires."

"We will," Dawn said as she hung up. She and Buffy sensed something, and turned to see Clay coming up the steps.

"Back up to bed," Dawn said. "You heard the doctor."

"Yeah, and he also said to eat. At this rate, I'd have starved before you two brought breakfast.

"Clay, please…" Dawn said as she noticed her sister's puzzled expression. She mouthed toward Buffy, "Tell you later."

Buffy nodded.

Clay stepped beside them, hand dipping to Dawn's. "I'll go nuts in bed, darling. You know that. I'll just take it easy."

Dawn hesitated, and then nodded as Nick came up beside them. They headed over to the table, where everyone, including Zoe, was laughing as Jaime regaled them with a story.

"—and I've seen fake tears before, but these were so bad the entire crew was snorting, trying not to laugh. So, the woman's wailing her heart out, practically rolling on the stage, and the ghost says—" She saw them and stopped. "Is everything okay?" she asked Clay. "You look okay."

"I am," he said, pulling out a chair for me. "Just an infection. Fever's gone; doc dosed me up. I'm fine. But we need to get these two some food." His grin broke through. "Seems Dawn is eating for three."

Congratulations ensued, infused with shock from all but one person at the table, though he tried to feign it.

Dawn turned to Antonio. "You knew, didn't you? Jeremy told you."

A small smile. "He said he suspected—"

Dawn waved off the rest. "Payback for the conspiracy later. First, food."

"And Buffy …" Clay started as he looked at Nick.

Nick smiled as he looked at Antonio. "And Buffy is eating for two. Seems she has the same accelerated pregnancy Dawn does. In the last couple days, she is already almost a week along according to Tolliver."

"How?" Antonio wondered.

"Your son and I had an arrangement. I get to give Savannah a little brother or sister. And you get to have a grandchild," Buffy said.

Congratulations ensued again, infused with shock from everyone including Antonio who stood and pulled Buffy into an embrace. Just as he let Buffy go, Savannah was there hugging her mother.

"Jaime was just telling us about a show she did last month." Antonio said.

"Zoe's a fan," Savannah said as she set a heaping plate in front of her mother.

"Big fan," Zoe said. "I was telling her that I know someone who's an even bigger fan. Producer friend of mine. I used to do some work for him when he was starting out in Toronto—needed equipment but couldn't quite afford to pay retail. He's in L.A. now, and he just got the go-ahead to do a TV special next year. They're going to try to contact Marilyn Monroe, find out how she died. Huge, splashy production." She looked at Jaime. "It'd be a blast. You know it would."

Jaime laughed. "Cheesy as hell. Right up my alley."

"So, is that a yes?"

"It's a maybe."

They brought Zoe up to date on the killing the night before.

Zoe tapped her nails against her champagne flute. "You know, I might be able to round up a witness for you. Not sure how much good it would do, but if you're waiting around for Randy to call back anyway…"

"A witness? Working girl?" Buffy said.

"No, a supernatural who haunts—and hunts—in that neighborhood."

Nick leaned forward. "I thought you were the only vampire in Toronto."

Buffy shook her head. "Nick, despite Zoe's claims to the contrary. She's one of hundreds in the city. I'm not even sure how many I dusted when Dawn and I were living here."

"This isn't a vamp. Or a were. She's…well, we're not quite sure what she is, but—" Zoe said.

A cell phone rang. At the first note, Jaime, Zoe, Nick, Antonio and Dawn all jumped, ready to grab theirs. Clay rolled his eyes and muttered something about electronic leashes. As the tone began, Dawn said, "That's mine."

"Never even got the damned thing back in your pocket," Buffy said as Dawn rolled her eyes.

"It's … oh, it's Anita Barrington," Dawn said.

Buffy and Clay growled. Buffy since Anita had tried to steal the letter not once but twice from them had jumped on Clay's I hate Anita bandwagon. Clay went to pluck the phone from Dawn, but she pulled it out of his reach.

"Don't answer—" he began.

Too late. A minute later, Dawn hung up.

"Let me guess," Jaime said. "She has urgent information and wants to come over right away."

"Nah," Clay said. "She's back to wanting us to go there."

"But it is urgent, as always," Buffy said, sneaking a wedge of cantaloupe from Nick's plate. "She did sound pretty freaked out, though."

"How did you guys—?" Jaime began. "Oh, enhanced hearing, right? Nice trick."

"Just be sure you never whisper anything in front of them," Zoe said. "So, what's up with Anita?"

"She won't say," Dawn said. "Just that it's extremely urgent this time, and she has critical information we absolutely must have right away, because we're making a very big mistake."

"Uh-huh. So, when you said you'll be there, you were just blowing her off, right?" Buffy said.

"That's up to Jeremy. And here he comes now, with Matthew Hull in tow."

Zoe sipped her mimosa. "If you want, we can pop by Anita's place on the way to visit that friend of mine. She lives near there."

"Thought you wanted to steer clear of Anita Barrington," Clay said.

"Steering clear of a curious old woman is one thing. But an immortality-questing witch who's obsessed enough to tackle werewolves? Time to put a face to a name before I end up on the wrong end of a binding spell."

Jeremy sent the sisters and Clay to see Anita, but with Antonio, Savannah and Nick in tow for backup. When they arrived, the beaded curtain was still drawn over the front display, the sign proclaiming the shop closed. They knocked there, rang the bell for the apartment and even found—and banged on—the rear door. No answer.

Savannah using Slayer strength, at the insistence of Buffy, broke the lock and opened the back door.

"Do you want me to wait out here with Mom and Aunt Dawn?" Savannah whispered.

Clay nodded. "With Nick, too."

"Savannah and I'll stay with Buffy and Dawn," Nick said. "Make sure nothing happens to yours or my baby."

Dawn laughed. She had never thought she would ever hear those words come out of Nick's mouth.

Ten minutes later, Clay and Antonio came out.

"She's gone," Antonio said. "We found traces of blood—"

Dawn and Buffy pushed past Clay and went inside. Clay waved Nick around to cover the front, while Antonio stayed and watched the back door. Savannah came in with them.

The shop was dark and quiet. Buffy flipped on a light.

Savannah inhaled and turned, instantly cursing her above normal Slayer smell. As she turned away from what she saw, a pool of blood, covering several tiles. To the left was a sneaker print—large and wide, probably male.

Buffy crouched beside the blood. She sniffed, then looked up at Clay. "It's hers."

"Do you think that much be fatal?" Savannah asked finally turning back toward the blood and her mother.

Buffy shook her head. "No, sweetie. To be fatal would have to be ten times that much."

As Buffy pushed to her feet, she saw another bloody print a couple of feet away. A small handprint, almost certainly not belonging to the same person who'd left the footprint. To the left of the print was a smear. Upon closer inspection it was a line, drawn by a bloody finger. On one side of the top was a diagonal, as if someone had started drawing an arrow, then been interrupted.

They followed the direction the arrow was pointing—the same as the outstretched handprint.

"Should we look through the books?" Savannah asked.

"Forget it," Clay said. "No time for games."

Dawn examined the shelf. "How about a quick round of 'what in this picture doesn't belong?'" She reached down and took Anita's cookie plate off a stack of books. A folded piece of paper tucked under it fluttered to the floor. She unfolded the note and read it with Buffy and Clay looking over her shoulders.

Dawn and Buffy,

I know I should have delivered this message in person, but I don't dare. I'm an old woman and if I can't find the answers I seek, the least I can do is preserve what little time I have left. Patrick Shanahan has been here. He didn't get what he wanted, but he won't give up so easily. You need to know that—

The ink smeared there, the pen sliding across the page. Then, below it, a hastily added line, the handwriting cramped and rushed.

Dawn, you are the key to the ritual and Patrick will say—do—anything to get to—

The note ended there.

Buffy and Dawn cursed when Dawn had read the line that Dawn was the key to the ritual.

They called Jeremy. After much discussion, he agreed Clay, Buffy, Savannah and Dawn should push on and still visit Zoe's contact. He'd bring Jaime over to the bookstore, meet up with Antonio and Nick and see whether Jaime could figure out what had happened to Anita.

They headed toward the address that Zoe had given them for her contact. Since it was daytime, Zoe had phone to tell the contact to expect them. They came out on a street that straddled Cabbagetown and Regent Park. Like the portal street, this one was lined with Victorian homes.

"Here," Savannah said, swinging open a rusted gate, when she spotted the house number that led into a yard of weeds.

They circled around the back of the house; Zoe had said the only entrance was through the cellar at the back of the house. Clay had wanted to go in alone with Savannah watching Buffy and Dawn. He didn't think the sisters should be going down rickety stairs.

"We'll be fine," Dawn and Buffy said.

The moment the sisters reached the bottom step, they gagged. Clay knocked his head on the low ceiling frame in his rush to get to them.

"We're okay," Dawn said, trying to speak without swallowing or closing her mouth. She motioned for Clay and Savannah to wait as Buffy and Dawn hurried up the steps and spat outside. When they came back down, the gag reflex kicked in again and they hesitated on the lowest step.

"Come on," he said, taking Dawn's arm. "We're getting out—"

"No," Dawn said as she pried his fingers free, and then walked into the room followed by Buffy, taking shallow breaths, acclimating themselves to the smell.

"Uncle Clay and I can talk to this Tee," Savannah said. "Aunt Dawn, you and mom go outside, get some fresh air, maybe something to settle your stomachs—"

Buffy smiled at how thoughtful Savannah was. "We're fine, sweetie. Just give us a moment to … get used to it."

The sisters peered around the room. It was midday and sunny outside, but only a faint glow shone through the window above, illuminating a scant few feet of dust motes. As their noses adjusted, their eyes did too, and they could see that they were in a hallway, barren except for neatly stacked crates. The hall was tidy, clean even. The smell seemed to come from a closed door down the hall, opposite the stairs leading up to the second level.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Savannah led Buffy and Dawn up the stairs with Clay bringing up the rear. She had memorized Zoe's directions to the letter, along with exactly what to do and where to do it. To the left was the back door, which was bricked over on the inside.

They followed Savannah to the interior door. She did a fast-patterned knock and then eased open the door just enough for her to slide through sideways. Dawn grabbed the handle to push, but the door didn't budge.

"Savannah, honey, there's no way I can fit—" Dawn began.

"Hold on, Aunt Dawn," Savannah said as she grunted, as if moving something. Another grunt, and the door opened.

Dawn, Buffy and Clay stepped in to see her restacking a pile of books. As their eyes adjusted, they saw they were in a labyrinth of books. Savannah led them through trying to remember exactly where Zoe said to go.

Another few steps and the maze opened up into a second book-lined room. Dawn tripped. Clay caught her arm, and she looked down to realize that the floor was carpeted with open books.

A small noise to their left drew their attention. There stood what looked like a giant white nest. Moving closer, Dawn and Buffy saw that it was a pile of pages ripped from books. It was at least three feet high and twice that wide. Somewhere at the bottom, a happy mouse squeaked and burrowed deeper.

Buffy stepped back at the sight the mouse as Dawn squinted at the stack of dismembered book spines beside the pile.

"The answer is in there," a voice whispered somewhere behind them.

Dawn, Buffy, Savannah and Clay spun, but saw only books and darkness.

"It's there," the voice said, as harsh and scratchy as sandpaper rasping against metal. "I haven't found it, but it's there. I know it is."

Dawn stared down at the pile of papers, but the voice said, "It isn't in those pages. That is, I don't think it is. It's hard to tell, isn't it? How do you know if you've found the answer, when you aren't quite certain of the question? Better to keep it all, just in case."

They followed the voice to a shadow-wrapped corner. Something moved, and then reared up, long, thin appendages unwrapping. A face appeared in the darkness, a tangle of white hair nearly hiding the gaunt oval beneath. The head swayed from side to side, bobbing, weaving and snuffling, as the skeletal arms waved. Male or female? The thing reminded the sisters of the Preying Mantis Lady that had almost mated with Xander.

"Oh, oh my," the woman breathed. "Yes, yes, I see. It is indeed. Or so it…" Tee's head cocked, sunken dark eyes darting to an empty spot beside her. "Are you quite sure?" She squinted at Dawn and Buffy. "No, of course it isn't. I know a wolf when I see one, and that is two women—" She paused, then hissed. "Yes, of course. I see that now. Human form. I was confused. No need to mock me."

"Are you Tee?" Savannah said.

A scrabbling noise. Tee's head moved higher, looming above theirs, jutting forward and sniffing the air. "Ah a Slayer, though something different about you aren't there. Smell of magic but that's not all. Smell of hereditary. Smell of your wolf mother."

"Zoe sent us. We have a favor to ask of you," Buffy said.

More smacking, then a nauseating gurgling sound. Tee's face moved back and forth, as if she was rocking.

"Oh yes, yes. Zoe's good to me, Zoe. She never tried to trick old Tee. Give and take. That's the way the world works. Give and take. As soon as it came, I knew my Zoe would send you here."

"It?" Dawn said.

Another cackle. "The gate opened, and out it came."

Clay opened his mouth, but Savannah cut him off remembering Zoe's instructions. Tee would be interested in Dawn and Buffy enough to allow them to address her. But Savannah was the one that had to do the talking. "Something has come out of that gate, Tee, Aunt Dawn is in trouble. Zoe said you could help us."

"The bitch." A high-pitched, spine-grating giggle, and her gaze flicked to that empty spot at her side. "Oh, I know it isn't nice to call our poor momma wolves that, but they forgive Tee, don't they? Know they're just having a little fun. Momma wolves need a little fun right now. All that trouble closing in, and the other wolves keep circling around her and now her sister, leaving no one."

Tee's head jerked, eyes narrowing as she stared at that empty space. "Sheep? What sheep? I'm talking about wolves. Don't confuse—Stop that. You're—" Her head whipped around, eyes going wide. "No! Not you. I said I won't talk to you." Her gaze darted about, then her head pulled back into the shadows. "I won't—I'm busy, can't you see that? No! Stop!"

Her long arms wrapped around her head and she crouched, cradling herself. An eerie noise, somewhere between keening and humming, filled the room.

"Zoe said it could go like this," Savannah said.

The noise rose, and Savannah motioned everyone into the mouth of the book labyrinth, where the stacks insulated against the sound.

"Maybe if Buffy or I try—" Dawn began.

Savannah shook her head. "Remember Zoe said once she's like that she's gone. And she said if that happened to call her and she would swing by later and try to pull her out again."

They walked a few blocks in the bright sunlight and found a café patio. Clay ordered while Dawn called first Zoe to tell her about Tee and then Jeremy. She phoned Nick's cell first, but Jeremy was back at the bookstore with Jaime. She wondered why Antonio and Nick weren't with them, but found out as soon as she got hold of Jaime.

"Matthew's clinging like a barnacle," she said. "He was terrified of being left behind at the hotel, and Jeremy agreed it might not be wise, so we took him along, and sent him with the guys for a coffee while I worked here."

"What have you found?" Dawn asked.

"Nothing. Either her spirit has already left or the wound wasn't fatal but…" A small pause. "I think she's gone. Jeremy's been trying to pick up a recent trail of hers leading out of the apartment or the shop, and there isn't one."

"Meaning she was probably carried out," Buffy said.

"Maybe to dispose of the body … or maybe because they've figured out you guys have a necro working for you. Either way, I'm useless here, I'm afraid. How'd Zoe's lead go?"

They told her what was happening, leaving out the less palatable details of their encounter.

"A clairvoyant?" Jaime said. "Now that I can help with."

"Zoe has things under—" Buffy said. Zoe had said there was sewer access in the house and would go straight there and see what she could do with Tee.

"No, seriously. I've had experience with older clairvoyants. There's one Lucas knows—used to work for his dad—and I've visited her a few times. Great old gal, but she…has her problems. I'm used to stuff like that. My Nan…well, it happens to necros, too, and I've been around a lot of them, so you learn the tricks. Same things work with clairvoyants."

"I'm not sure—" Dawn said.

"Is she catatonic?"

"Umm, no, not exactly…" Dawn said.

"That's okay. I'm sure I could get her to talk. Faye—that's Lucas's friend—her nurses say no one can get through to her like I can."

Beside the sisters and Savannah, Clay shrugged and said, "Can't hurt."

"She's pretty far gone, Jaime," Buffy said. "It's not…it's not something—"

"Too much for the celeb necro to handle?" She laughed, but an edge crept into her voice. "I know, you guys are looking out for me. And I appreciate that. Really, I do. Been a long time since anyone didn't just want to get whatever they could…" The sentence slid off into silence.

"Here's Jeremy," Jaime said. "Let me run it by him, and I'll phone you back."

Twenty minutes later, they were back at the hatch to cellar, with Jaime. Zoe had come out to meet them and then Zoe had gone ahead to check on Tee.

Jaime stepped into the basement. "Dark, huh? And it smells…kind of like my apartment when I run off for a week and forget to clean first. Only this place is cleaner than mine, which is pretty sad. We should speak to this Tee about relocating. I'm sure that Dr. Tolliver has some connections. He could probably get her into a decent nursing home."

"Um, maybe," Buffy said.

At Tee's door, the sisters and Savannah paused. This wasn't right. They had to warn her.

"About this—" Dawn began.

Jaime jumped and clutched Dawn's arm. A small laugh, and she released her grip, and patted Dawn's arm in apology. "A little tense, I guess. Seems there are a few spooks here. Old houses. Always a few, it seems."

"Oh? Maybe you shouldn't go in then—" Savannah suggested.

"It's okay. Oddly, they don't seem to be interested in me." She reached around Savannah and opened the door.

Savannah led them once again through the maze of books, with Clay once again bringing up the rear. Jaime took in her surroundings with the occasional "hmm," but didn't comment.

Finally, they found Zoe, talking to Tee, who was still hunched in her corner, enshrouded in shadow.

"Zoe," Dawn said as she walked in. "Here's—"

But Zoe's gaze was fixed behind the sisters and Savannah, brow furrowed in concern. They turned. Jaime was still in the mouth of the maze, with Clay barely visible behind her. She was rigid and pale, her gaze flitting about the room. Then she flinched, as if a bird had swooped toward her.

"Jaime?" Buffy said.

"Sh-she's not a clairvoyant," Jaime whispered.

As she spoke, her eyes never stopped moving, landing and focusing on one thing, then another, then another. Ghosts. A room filled with ghosts.

"Shit," Dawn murmured as she swung around. "Let's get you out—"

"N-no. They aren't interested in me. Not while there's a stronger necromancer around."

Stronger?

Buffy and Dawn looked to Savannah who hadn't even thought to open her magical senses to detect magical energies in the room. Savannah looked toward Tee and then nodded indicating she thought Jaime was correct.

Dawn frantically motioned for Clay to grab Jaime's arm, yank her out if necessary. As he reached for her, though, she darted out of his reach and around Dawn.

At a rustling from the corner, Jaime stopped dead.

"Yes, yes, I see," Tee's voice rasped out, barely above a whisper. "A timid thing, isn't she? Afraid of ghosts perhaps?" A cackle of a laugh. "Come in, sister. They won't bother you."

Tee's face moved forward, but it was too dark for Jaime, who kept squinting. Dawn and Buffy moved up beside her, blocking her from getting a closer look.

"Who are your people, sister?"

"P-people?" Jaime said.

An exasperated growl. "Your kin. Your family. What line are you?" She stopped, the pale oval of her face tilting up as she listened to what I'd thought were voices in her head, and now realized were ghosts. "Really? Don't tease. It cannot be."

Her face swiveled back to us and craned forward; her body still wrapped in her long limbs. "Oh, yes, yes, I see it. I do see it. Molly O'Casey's granddaughter. Poor Molly. What must she think, having such a timid girl?"

Some of Jaime's fear fell away and she edged closer.

"You knew Jaime's grandmother?" Savannah said quickly.

"Knew? Yes, yes. I haven't seen her in—" A pause, as she looked to her right. Then a sharp hiss that sent Zoe, Jaime, Dawn, Savannah and Buffy all jumping backward. "Gone? Gone? You lie. Molly O'Casey is not—"

She stopped; face swinging in the other direction. Then she started to keen, a razor-edged howl that had all five of them backing up again, until Jaime, Buffy, Savannah and Dawn bumped into Clay.

"Lost," Tee wailed. "Oh, the fool. I tried to warn her. Tried. And now she's lost. A slave for eternity."

Tee reared up then, limbs unwrapping, as she moved out of the shadows. Jaime got her first real look at the necromancer, and let out a whimper, stifled fast, but her face white with horror and disbelief that this…thing had been human, let alone one of her own kind.

"You'll listen to me, won't you, girl? You won't stop up your ears to the truth."

Tatters of clothing hung off her larvae-pale body, limbs so thin and white they seemed bone not flesh.

"They tell us we'll be free after they die," she whispered, "but it's a trick. The great lie. We think we are slaves in life—bending to the will of others, hounded by the living, hounded by the dead? It's nothing compared to what happens when we pass over." She waved her spindly arms over her head, as if shooing off flies, lips twisting in a guttural snarl. "No, I won't listen. You lie. I know you lie. You want to trap me. Trick me into your world. But I know the secret. I know how to stay alive until I've found the answer."

Her skull-like face dove toward Jaime's. "Do you want to know the secret, Molly's girl?"

"No," Zoe said, leaping between them. "I…I don't think she's ready, Tee. Better wait until she—"

Tee swung an arm at Zoe, who ducked and darted to the side. Then she advanced another step toward Jaime, the smell of her so strong I gagged again.

"I will tell you, sister, but I don't think you're strong enough to do it."

Jaime stiffened, eyes blazing, mouth opening.

Tee cut her short with a cackle. "Don't like that, do you? Maybe there is some of your grandmother in you. Tell me, sister, if you wanted the key to long life, where would you look?"

"I…" Jaime paused, obviously thinking, not wanting to appear the fool in front of this woman. "In the ancient texts—"

Tee's laugh roared out on a blast of breath so foul even Jaime blanched.

"Closer, sister. Look closer." She waved an arm around. "In this very room we see long life—three kinds of it—do we not?"

"Vampires, werewolves, and true immortals," Jaime said.

"What does the Slayer, vampires and werewolves have in common?"

Jaime looked from Zoe to Dawn, Savannah and Buffy. "Um, they all…" Her eyes widened as she made a connection. "They hunt. Hunt their prey."

"And what do they hunt?"

Dawn could see where this was going, and she took hold of Jaime's arm. "I think—"

"Slayers hunt supernatural threats. Vampires hunt people," Jaime said. "But werewolves only hunt…well, I guess some of them hunt—" Her face paled. "People."

"That, sister, is the key. Imbibe the flesh of the living, and ye shall live." She stretched her neck out, voice lowering to a whisper. "It's quite simple. You take a knife, and slice off a strip of—"

Dawn coughed. Tee only cackled and reached out her hand, her bony fingers caressing Dawn's arm. Dawn could see that Buffy was on the verge of pulling her away and she shook her head. She turned to meet Tee's gaze as she saw something there, something human and almost tender. Her bloodless lips twisted into a smile.

"Momma wolves tummies are a bit sensitive, aren't they?" Her eyes flickering between Buffy and Dawn. "We'll speak no more on that, then." She looked at Jaime and lowered her voice. "Come to me later, and I'll tell you the rest."

With that, she retreated, scuttling backward to the safety of her corner.

"About the…what we came here for?" Jaime managed. "This killer. The one who came through the portal. You said you know something about that?"

"Something?" Tee sounded offended. "Everything. My friends tell me everything."

"Then we'd like to know—"

"Smoke," she spat. "Smoke and mirrors. Sound and fury. Signifies nothing. Do not waste your time."

They looked at one another.

"Perhaps," Buffy said. "But still we'd like to catch—"

"The killer?" Tee made a rude noise. "Foolishness. Another spirit crosses over? It happens every second. Happening now, all around you. Will you catch all their killers too? Cancer and rage and loneliness? Catch those and lock them up?" She turned her head and spat into the darkness. "Foolishness, and you have no time for it." Her eyes peered at mine. "Your babies have no time for it."

"If it's connected, though—"

"Smoke and mirrors. Sound and fury," she grumbled. "You want to stop him? Why bother me? Ask her." Tee waved one arm at Jaime. "Or do you tell me Molly O'Casey's granddaughter doesn't know how to call a zombie?"

"Call?" Jaime said. "Summon a zombie, you mean? Sure, if I raised a zombie, I'd know how to call it to me, but these aren't my—"

"Oh, so it's beyond you, then, sister, is it? Not so simple as chatting with ghosts." She flapped her arms, mumbling to herself. "No, no, you're right. Wouldn't help. They aren't the problem. Smoke and mirrors. Sound and fury."

Dawn's cell phone vibrated, spooking her enough to jump. She pulled it out, thinking—hoping—it was Jeremy.

"Dawn? Buffy? It's me. Rita."

"Oh. Um, Rita. Right. Can I call you back?" Dawn said.

"If you do, you'll regret it. There's been another murder."

That stopped Dawn as she held the phone out so Buffy could hear. "You mean from last night? They found another—?"

"Body. And this just happened. Broad daylight. Downtown, a few blocks from the last one. Near Regent Park."

Dawn and Buffy thanked her and hung up.

"Another one," Clay said before the sisters could speak. "Right here. Right now."

"Maybe it's a coincidence—" Savannah said.

"It isn't. It's a message," Buffy said.

Tee had completely retreated, pulling herself into her cocoon and going silent.

"We should check it out right away," Dawn said after telling Jaime and Zoe about the call. "While it's still fresh. Maybe see if we can pick up a scent this time."

Jaime nodded. "I'll stay here—" A quick look over her shoulder, into Tee's corner. "See if I can get her talking…"

"We'll need you there," Dawn said. "In case the victim's ghost is still around."

Relief flooded her face. "Yes, of course. I'll come."

"I'll work on Tee," Zoe said. "If I get anything from her, I'll call you."