CHAPTER 17

There was a buzzing sound above his head. As if a fly was stuck in some cobweb in the ceiling. Xander raised his eyes. The class had been particularly boring that morning. Maybe it was due to the fact that two seats were empty. Nobody had asked, though. Not even the teacher which didn’t make sense at all. He had been wondering if it would be wise to talk to Mr. Wyndham… He felt from his seat when a high-pitched scream filled the silent room.

The girl from the first desk was shrieking like a police car and it didn’t matter how she was slapped by the more than pale teacher; she couldn’t seem to stop. Cordelia jumped from her seat and gave her a sudden blow that sent her to the floor.

Scrambling to his feet Xander rushed towards her with a pencil as a weapon. Cordelia had turned evil! More! Now she would force them to wear designer clothes or be banished from school if they weren’t cool enough. For her own cool standards, that’s it.

“Well, she had to be stopped, hadn’t she? It wasn’t like she was some famous soprano.” Cordelia explained at the stunned look in the teacher’s face. “She’s fine now. Look, her eyes are opened…”

“The red eyes, the red eyes…” The poor girl repeated in between gasps pointing at the class board.

Cordelia frowned and tugged Xander’s sleeve. Another scream from the next classroom. Then another. The whole school seemed to be screaming. Running steps filled the corridors. Frightened students and clueless teachers were racing towards the exit door.

“Where are you going!?” Cordelia grabbed Xander’s shirt splitting it in two.

“Out! Where else?” Something in her eyes told him that wasn’t what she’d expected to hear. “Oh, please! We can’t talk to that guy! Forget him, okay? We can find something by…”

“Ourselves? How? Fishing on witchcraft sites on the Internet? In your school textbooks? How!” Her mouth was curled in a wry line. Suddenly the line changed to a wide smile. Her arm was a fast fishing rod. “Look who I have found…”



Willow rejected the tray a fat vampire put on a table near the bed she was sitting on. Her gaze followed the man’s chubby fingers as they pointed to each dish on the silvery surface till she finally begged him to leave her alone.

She held her knees against her chest with trembling arms. She felt as if a hammer was rhythmically hitting each of her temples and she couldn’t even focus properly. Could be happy for the change in accommodation. But it wasn’t the case. She’d have welcomed the shining bars just to check on Spike. Why had she done such a thing? It felt that she had been guided by a remote control as those planes kids played with in the city square. Till they bumped on the hard land sending pieces of engine all over the place. Exactly how she felt. Deactivated. Shattered and yet… The forces that had taken her over had filled her with such undeniable and exquisite power… She had really enjoyed it.

Willow hid her face on the crook of her arms. So ashamed of herself she was! So splintered in parts she couldn’t begin to recognize. All she had in mind was the suffering on Spike’s face as the chains constricted his muscles. Buffy’s watery eyes and her endless tales of love, despite she had never pronounced that word aloud. Her friend… How was she going to forgive her? How could she possibly know? How long have they been left there to be played with? Nobody had come to rescue them. Nobody had made any attempt to set them free. Buffy deserved… Her sobs went deeper. Who was she? Who was that horrible creature that flailed her slackening chains within her inner flesh? Willow cried out loud and a bolt of energy from her hand sent the tray to fly. Spots of food decorated the opposite wall as new humidity stains. Terrified, she buried herself under the blanket.




Angelus jumped the last two steps of the long stairs. He had never known there were caves and caverns underneath the City Hall. Not even beyond. But that city from hell never ceased to amaze him. The Mayor stopped in front of a black door putting out a key from the right pocket of his blue navy suit. After blinking one eye he finally stepped inside a huge room lighted with four big braziers. Golden cherubs who held big round bowls where coal burnt furiously. Hieroglyphics covered the walls; black, hermetic drawings of a sort the vampire had never seen. Thin, white, shining lines separated them in columns. As if the walls were Venetian blinds partially hiding a bright sunlight.

The alabaster pedestal that stood on the middle of the place shone brightly under the firelight. The sceptre had been attached to its centre and the onyx headpiece spread a fan of yellow beams on the ceiling.

“Time is coming when the fabric of realms will open like an old net.” Wilkins stated with dark eyes. “It’s so near, my friend. Can’t you see them? Spying through the cracks that treasure is opening?”

Angelus swirled around. His eyes were trying to cope with the images that leapt from the cracks, crashing and fading into the yellow beams. All sort of creatures travelled briefly in that light. As slides running at incredible speed. Even his vampiric eyes couldn’t catch them all at once.

“They will feed the sceptre. Their energy will be ours to control each of those worlds that are now falling apart.” The Mayor’s voice had changed to a low and soft tone that seemed to come from a different being. “Doors are revealing their secrets. Doors will be soon completely opened. They are impatient. But it’s not time yet. Soon, very soon.” His tone changed again and he chuckled softly.

“I can’t understand how this could help us. I thought we were going to have some fun…” Angelus took his leather coat off. How in hell could he be feeling the heat?

“Maybe you haven’t paid attention to the sceptre’s name… Siva’s sceptre, that is. There’s always a reason for everything, my eager vampire.” Wilkins walked towards the door, slightly pushing a reluctant Angelus. “Erase old boundaries to trace new ones. To create new things you have to destroy old ones… Sad but so true! And this, my friend, is as a good world as any of those. You’ll have your bloodshed, don’t worry. Do you really think these humans will give in without a fight? I doubt it. Those demons that are trying to wrestle the power of the sceptre are fighting for their worlds. This, my friend, is as those lands… They’ll fight. And even without a Slayer there’s still a Council. Get out of that warehouse. You may have an amusing task in front of your very eyes…”

“Another Watcher?” Angelus’s smirk matched the Mayor’s. “Or maybe some snooping Scobbies?” He sighed with delight. Time has come… Yes. To take his revenge. To get rid of those that had spoilt his first attempt for a good apocalypse. But this one… This one was so different! A kingdom was waiting for him and no scrawny worms would stop him in his way to his well-deserved throne.



“So, you’ve been a naughty boy, they say? Trying to leave me when I’ve treated you so well…” Faith paced to and fro outside the cage in which Spike was chained to the bars. “Maybe if I get a blond wig…”

Spike snorted. “Don’t bother, brass. Won’t happen even if you pull out your bloody head out of your neck and trade it for hers.”

Faith fuming sigh flowed from her nostrils like from a sleeping dragon. “And I thought you liked Slayers…”

“Yeah, to drain them dead. Have you, by any chance, got a black leather coat?” He teased, unable to see her expression. The lights were a white heat wire over his head. “Mine is missing…”

“Buffy looked perfectly alive to me last time I saw her… If you don’t count her naked body hanging from a hook…” She recoiled, taken by surprise by his sudden leapt. His fingers tore the shoulder of her purple T-shirt.

“Still don’t get it, do you?” Spike clutched the bars in spite of the bolts of energy that shook him. “It’s not the Slayer thing. She could be anything else. A regular girl, a demon, a sodding cheerleader. I wouldn’t mind ‘cause it’s SHE who I want.”

Was that completely true? Would he cherish her the way he did if she wasn’t a perfect match for him? He’d liked her without strength… He’d wanted to… But he had turned to Cecily instead. He was a pathetic geek, granted. But… what would he have done if he hadn’t been human? He would have ripped her throat out without looking at her twice. Or maybe he would have shagged her while draining her out, enjoying her desperate gasps for staying alive a little more. That wasn’t a thing he was going to say to this crazy bint, though.

“This game is only starting, Spike. When I finish with you, you’ll be begging for me to stake you. And I will. I swear it.” Faith venomous ring only made him laugh. “In the meantime… enjoy your foodless days. Maybe you could drink from your own neck…”

“I’ll be soon drinking from yours, bitch…” He promised, changing to his demon visage. “Have anybody told you Slayers’ blood is aphrodisiac…? Hey, why don’t you come in here and let me have a taste? Who knows… maybe it could work. Maybe you could even get me hard…” His laughing roar followed Faith livid withdraw for long seconds. Oh, bollocks! He certainly had to figure how to get out of that place!

tbc...