"I saw something really weird last night after I left the Bronze." Buffy told the other teens and Giles. "After dropping Willow off at her place, I did a quick patrol. I spotted a vampire missing a hand, he had some sort of weird hook in place of it. Only thing is, he wasn't the weird thing."
"What's weirder than Captain Hook being vamped?" Alex asked.
"Something that looked like a human woman but clearly wasn't. The vamp ran up behind her and she turned just her head around and looked at him. Seriously, she didn't look over her shoulder at him, her face was directly over the back of her body. And the weirdest thing? She scared the crap out of the vampire, it practically ran away screaming. Unfortunately it ran right at me, so I had to deal with it. By the time I'd managed to dust him, the freaky lady was gone."
"Completely around you say?" Giles asked thoughtfully. "That gives me an idea of what to look for, I doubt many demons can actually do that, none I've ever heard of, so it must be something extremely rare. I'll see what I can find."
"You do that." Buffy agreed. "We all have class, not that I'm looking forward to them replacing Dr. Gregory, but I wonder when we'll get a sub? We'll fall behind in Science class if they wait too long."
"Since dad asked Principal Flutie to pay very close attention to the resumes and interviews it may take awhile." Cordelia answered. "And they have to replace two teachers, Dr. Gregory and the Driving Instructor, which means I still don't have my license or my own car!"
"I'm always happy to be your chauffeur, Cordy." Alex grinned at her.
"And it's such a nice car to be chauffeured around in." Cordelia agreed. "Takes the edge off, still I should have had my license before you, I am older then you!"
"Only by three weeks, hardly shows." He teased, which got a mock glare from Cordelia. The other teens laughed as they headed off to their various classes and left Giles to his research, which yielded something unexpected. The teens reconvened in the classroom his books were now stored in to hear the results of his research.
"It's quite possibly not a demon at all." He announced. "But a shape shifter, all though completely different from the Wolfbloods."
"That was a possibility that we considered too." Alex said. "Shape shifters are natural, not demonic and like us, rare. Not that we were always rare, in our case, mostly because we got caught in wolf purges. Which was because wolves were misunderstood animals for a long time. As full human population expanded, they run into various shape shifter populations and full humans tend to come out on top because they outnumbered the shifter population. So what kind of shifter do you think we're looking at?"
"An insect type, possibly a type of mantis, as they're capable of turning their heads 180°. The insect mantis can see for up to sixty feet, a human sized one might be able to see up to a hundred times as far given they're so much bigger."
"Okay, a bug shifter." Jesse said. "We can do a collective ewww later, what's she after? Because if I remember right, mantis' are known for biting the heads off their prey and eating them and lucky us, something bit Dr. Gregory's head off. I'd say that's not a coincidence."
"I sincerely doubt that it is." Giles agreed. "And it's not a mantis' prey that she bites the head off, it's a mate."
"You're saying this shifter wants to mate and eat people?" Alex asked.
"The shifter needs a specific type of prey." Giles informed them. "There are no male mantis shifters, whether there ever were is unknown. They mate with human males and they lay eggs. 99% of their eggs are nonviable, the rest are female. And it's not just any male she needs, but a virgin male. It's unknown why she seeks out only virgin males, but it does explain why she'd target Dr. Gregory in an effort to replace him. It would give her a chance to find virgin males."
Dead silence as the teens digested this truly horrifying news. "She wants to get a teenage boy to fertilize her eggs and then she plans to eat him." Alex stated. "Just so I'm clear on this. I've never been so glad to not be a virgin in my life. To experience one of the greatest things in life only to be eaten by your partner immediately after, simply because you're a virgin when she gets her claws into you. On the other hand, it's a teenage male's dream come true, not dying a virgin, if only just."
"Well, on that note." Cordelia said. "Are there any teenage boys missing? That's probably something the police would know, unless it hasn't been long enough for anyone to notice."
"Well, I did notice one person wasn't in class today, but it probably isn't him." Johnathan offered. "I mean he brags about having sex all the time, everyone knows that."
"Who?" Buffy asked, silently offering support to Willow, she seemed to be the only one who noticed that Alex's heartfelt declaration had upset her friend and was grateful for Johnathan's inadvertent distraction.
"Blaine Moll. We have two classes together and he wasn't in either one."
"The last time we saw him was at the Bronze last night." Alex said. "He left with a girl who ran into me earlier in the evening and introduced herself as Kami and said she went to Kent Prep, but if she was the mantis and was looking for a virgin, then I wouldn't be of any interest to her. She didn't smell any different than a normal human, but I have no idea if a mantis shifter would. Wolfbloods and werewolves do, but I have no idea if a bug shifter does. We need to talk to the police, Cordy's dad said they're checking for recent rentals or home purchases looking for the fake Natalie French, if there's one in the neighborhood where Buffy ran into Captain Hook, that might be where she's holed up. And possibly where Blaine is, if he's still alive."