Thanks to Melissa. What could I do without you?

CHAPTER 23

A jam of all sort of carriages queued in front of the Opera House as a cold drizzle began to pour again from the dark sky. Buffy showed her head through the small window, trying to observe every face that passed by, running and slithering on the muddy streets. All her muscles were tied up in a knot. How could she possibly know who the man was? It wasn’t that he was going to have a label glued on his forehead just for her to read it. And the most important thing, how on earth was she going to convince him she was speaking the truth? Her first idea had been of saving him from Angelus’s claws just to show the poor man the undeniable reality. But that had been quickly discarded after finding out she was as powerless as a fly. Improvising. One of her best skills.



“Poor Daddy, burnt so badly by a distant, diminished sun…” Dru traced the healing scars on Angelus’s arms. “She’s stolen my pretty William from us. Has veiled his eyes.”

“Darn veiled he is. I’m goin’ to rip his head off.” Sitting on the bed, he started to put on his shirt when Dru’s next words stopped his arms in the air.

“She is the killer of killers.” Her thin fingers opened the heavy curtains. Raindrops glided along the glasses like tiny crystal balls. “Love has bent her path. Love will straighten it again. And she will leave poor William’s heart bleeding in the sands of Egypt.”

Angelus forgot the buttons and crossed the room with two big steps. Her rambling had always given him a headache. Those stupid things about love and Egypt… He quickly discarded them. Her first words were firmly printed in his mind. Killer of killers… Only one thing was powerful enough to receive that title. And he had sniffed it. Indefinable. But there. So she could be only one thing. He couldn’t but grit his teeth at it. That damned idiot was falling for a Slayer… Could he be more pathetic? What if he told her where they were? His own family thrown to a pile of dust by an irresponsible brat. He had to be stopped.

“Are they leaving? Is that what you mean? Dru…” He sighed, trying hard to control his rage. She brushed past him in her way to the door. “Dru! Are they leaving?” Every word was marked by a heaving pause.

Her watery eyes looked at him from a long distance. As if she were wandering among those stars she loved so much. “She is leaving… Far, far away… While the Pharaoh sings in victory on a stage. Listen to the trumpets and the clamour of triumph! Save my William…” She begged, grabbing his shirt with a twisted claw. Her long nails raked his chest while her mysterious prattle made sense in his head. Egypt… Trumpets… Stage… Opera!



Buffy strode along the corridors, with the crimson train of the dress crushed in one fist. In the middle of the second act, she had begun to cough heavily, just to make up some sorry excuse as fetching a glass of water. William had wanted to escort her but she had assured him she was going to be fine. After all it was only a glass and they didn’t need to bother all the people around only for that, did they? So he had stayed, a squinted gaze in his eyes, something that had pierced her guts as a seething wave, and had ran across the empty hallways looking for the theatre boxes. Apparently, they weren’t any place near ‘cause, wasn’t that the same sculpture she had seen three times?

“Madame…” A light, whispering voice stopped her race. She turned round to face the young man holding a lamp. “May I help you?”

She offered her better shining smile in spite of the dimly light of the corridor. “Oh, I’m sure you can. I’m so silly! I’m completely lost! Lord Carrington Giles must be thinking I’ve left him…”

The bait worked so wonderfully! The guy guided her to a pair of drawn deep red curtains and quickly disappeared into the shadows. Buffy sighed, straightened her back and opened a crack. A man was sitting in a golden chair, a pair of binoculars on his eyes. He was humming and carrying the rhythm with one of his foot. A big leather bag was near it. She had to shout his name to make him hear her above the booming sound that spun from the orchestra pit. Without giving him time to react, she slinked into the box and sat in the opposite chair. His grey eyes were as round as moons. They ran from the far end of her velvet dress to the cascade of hair William had tried to arrange without a comb.

“I know you don’t know me and believe me, it’d be wonderful, but we don’t have time.” Words squirted from her mouth in a swift stream. “I’m sure you know what a Slayer is?” As he nodded, she continued frantically. “Well, I’m one. You’re in great danger. You and your bag there. Bet it’s the Jade Chest, am I wrong? No? Great! So, somebody is going to steal it from you and… well…” Buffy bit her lower lip and shook her head. There was no time for euphemisms… “You’re going to die. Unless you come with me right now.” A long rivulet of air escaped from her mouth. Her hand clutched the pendant as she waited for the man to react.

She never expected a wild laugh. “Oh, my goodness! This is an excellent joke! Travers sent you? I know my last one was really wicked but…”

“Have you listened to me? You’re going to die! And that chest of yours is going to ruin my entire life if I don’t stop them! And I don’t fucking know how to do it and I need your help!”

His grin was suddenly made of stone. A nervous hand looked for the bag and put it on his lap. His arms cradled it as a fragile baby. “The chest? How if… if it’s here?” He peeped inside the leather sack.

“Okay, I’ve no time for this. A vampire will appear in your house, here or I don’t know where and will kidnap you and your little treasure. And all of you will take a little trip to the future were he’s going to kill you in front of my eyes. And just like that, - she clapped her hands like an actor in a mute film. No sound at all, - my own Watcher will vanish in the air only ‘cause he’ll have the bad luck of being your great grandson. Now, I don’t care if you want to die or not but I care about him. And my people. And my city. And my world. And that fucking artefact is going to erase everything I know. So just tell me how I stop it and…”

As confused as he was, there was such suffering passion in the lady’s voice that he had started to think this might not be a stupid joke. She knew too much. He had only presented the chest and its treasures to a few colleagues in a private meeting before the conference and they had all come to the conclusion it would be extraordinarily dangerous to show it to the wide concurrence. In no way she could have known… “You can’t.”

“That’s not what I want to hear…”

“If they have use the sceptre, which I deem that’s the case… You can’t unless you have the real sceptre. And the exact ritual to balance things again.”

“Balance? I don’t really know what that thing does but…”

“I assume we’re talking about evil hands here? Well, the sceptre simply destroys barriers among worlds and gives you the power to control them all.” His shaking hands scratched his head, leaving his hair in a dark mess.

“Great! So really great!” She fretted on the velvet upholstery as if it was full of needles. On the stage Aida’s father sang about revenge. “You know the ritual? Please, don’t tell me you don’t…”

“It’s a thing nobody has ever attempt.” His voice quivered with fear. “It takes too much power…”

“I don’t mind what it takes as long as we can stop them.” Buffy jumped to her feet, grabbing the man’s sleeve. “Sorry, Lord Hanley but it’s time for our blinding journey…”

She almost pushed the man out of the box, fighting the urge to look down at the row of seats in which William was waiting for her. There was no turning point. There was no chance of saying him goodbye. It’d only tear her apart. And him. Swallowing her tears she wondered if there were restrooms in those days at the theatres. If not, any of those dark corridors would do. Fast. Before William decided to go for her.



William fidgeted in his seat, looking over his shoulder for the tenth time since she had gone outside. That was a very long glass of water. So many odours waved around that it was impossible for him to sniff her approaching scent. Taking advantage of the darkness in which the rows of stalls were wrapped in, he morphed to enhance his sight. Nobody was coming along the corridor. No curtain swung briefly. The corner of his eye caught a crimson spot when he was turning round to face the stage again. His yellow gaze climbed to one of the boxes on his right. What the hell was she doing there? She seemed to be extremely upset. Perhaps she had found a relative? Somebody who had brought back her memory in a more than disturbing moment? He should leave her alone, then. But the way she was squirming… Her beautiful features were bathed in a nervous gleam. He stood up as soon as she disappeared from his sight.



The man standing at one of the front doors of the theatre never saw the speedy figure that crossed the foyer, running into the corridors. Angelus stopped for a second, sniffing the air deeply. His amber eyes pierced the shadows on his right. That damned bitch was somewhere around… The young fellow that had guided Buffy minutes before appeared suddenly from behind a curtain. He didn’t have time to react. He hit one black corner with an eternal horrified expression in his face. Angelus quickened his pace. William’s shape was striding the hallway a few steps ahead. The little frame of that whore came into view after the second curve. A young, well-attired man was with her and he was reeking of fear. Just as her.

“William!” Her voice reverberated in that corridor with a surprised and dreadful ring. “What are you…?”

“I thought you might need me… Seeing that you’ve found a relative…” So many words were hidden underneath those he had spoken aloud… She had behaved in such a strange way in their trip to the theatre… Not as a shy, repentant girl but there was something there… A nervousness that had nothing to do with the bliss they had shared. Something in her eyes. As if he were looking for somebody who was going to say goodbye in every minute. As somebody who held all the guilt in the world only in one pair of green eyes. Those smiles she had given to him… They had shone with such sadness that he had felt his guts revolting at its sight.

“Yes, sure.” Buffy licked her lips fretfully. Her heartbeat matched the faded sounds of the drums. “Lord Carrington Giles… William…”

“William the bloody idiot!” To everybody’s surprise, Angelus appeared from nowhere just to shove his grandson to the wall. His hand held him there while he turned to the shocked couple. “Have you already told him you’re the Slayer? The one who kills his kind? Needed some fun and all you could do was shagging a damned prick like this to cheer your lonely nights? Should have chosen better, missy. I’d have showed you fun…”

Buffy’s eyes jumped from one vampire to the other. The horrified and betrayed expression that washed William’s features sank a carving knife in her heart. She had nearly forgotten the man standing behind her. All she wanted to do was to kneel and beg him to just listen to her first. Her flooded eyes were fixed in his blue ones as she started to mumble the spell. A well-known bright and blue light swathed the dark wooden panels of the hallway, the carpets of the floor, the hated shape of Angelus. Taking one step back, she seized the man’s arm and pushed him into the portal that glimmered at his back.

He had thought that Cecily’s rejection was the most painful thing he had gone through. That and his Sire shagging that lunatic bastard who was glaring at him. But this was worst… She had used him so badly that he couldn’t even begin to… Lurching he reached her arm before she could cross that light from hell. A profound, sorrowful growl rumbled in his chest as his head flew to her neck. Her little hands seized his hair.

“Spike, no!” Buffy yelled when the sharp points of his fangs scratched her skin. “SPIKE!”

William stumbled back, a bewildered gaze in his yellow depths. Spike? Spike? The railroad spikes in his pocket seemed to get heavier. How could she possibly know…?

“Listen to me…” Her tears were running so freely that she couldn’t focus properly. Maybe it was better. Last thing she wanted to see last was the agony in his face.

“NO! You’re a Slayer! You used me! Betrayed me!” And even so, he couldn’t comply with the twisting and raging desire to kill.

“No! Yes! I have to… I have to save you! You’ll understand one day…” Her hand caressed his cheek, so gently that he released her hair, shook to the core. “I love you…” She whispered before jumping through the portal. The light closed on itself swallowing not only her shape but her last words as well.

tbc...