SquidgeWorld Archive

Autumn's Eve
by Chris Kenworthy

Prolog

Late after midnight, Giles strode through the hallway of the vampire hideout. Queen Kaliya had left word with Hsartac that Giles should go to Kaliya's room as soon as he got in from hunting, and so Giles pushed the door open, stepped through...

And stopped dead. Kaliya was reclining on her antique four-poster bed, with nothing covering her but a tucked corner of bedsheet that didn't stray far beyond the essentials. Her eyes had been closed, but one opened and looked towards him. Blushing, Giles stammered, "I'm sorry, I'll... be outside. When you need me."

A voice sounded from within the bed. "Vous devez vous relaxer, Monsieur Giles!" To Giles' utter mortification, Michelle crawled out from underneath the bedspread, dressed only in a low-cut, translucent nightie. "Ça fait rien a Madame Kali qui qui la voit," she concluded, a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Perhaps, ma chere," Kaliya answered the young girl, "but it does seem to matter to Giles." She turned her attention back to Giles. "Go to my study and begin your relaxation exercises there. I will join you momentarily; today we will complete that psychic mergeance."

Thus dismissed, Giles beat a hasty retreat from the room.

* * * *

The bell rang. It was the next morning at Sunnydale High school. The last straggling students slowly wandered their way into their classrooms.

And Buffy Summers burst through the main doors at full speed. Things had been busy on patrol last night, and she had been kept up well after midnight trying to tie up loose ends. Which was why she had overslept, which in turn was why she was running down the hallway and past Mister Snyder on her way to Advanced Geometry.

Mister Snyder?

"Hold it right there, Summers," the voice came from behind her, and Buffy reluctantly paced her way to a full stop. Calmly, ever so calmly, Snyder walked over to her.

"Tardiness, running in the halls, and a dress code violation," he intoned almost gleefully. Buffy looked uncomfortably down at the skirt she had thrown on... it was a little short, and she wasn't at all surprised if it busted the dress code Snyder had gotten through the school board for this year.

"Tell me, Summers," Snyder continued, "are you really trying to follow up your expulsion by breaking your own record for most disciplinary actions in the first month of term, or did you just get forget what it was like having me look over your shoulder while you were romping around in summer school?"

"Oh, knock it off," Buffy growled angrily. "It's an afternoon's detention, and you can't make it any more than that."

"But you just did," Snyder replied with a delighted sneer. "Insolence to a school official. That makes it two terms of detention, this afternoon and tomorrow morning. Now get to your class, Summers," he finished disgustedly, turning away.

* * * *

Willow caught up to Buffy after Advanced Geometry and pulled her towards the student lounge. "So, you're coming, right?" Willow asked her once they had sat down. "Right after school?"

"What? Oh, no," Buffy moaned. Oz, now a freshman at the nearby Crestwood Community College, had invited Willow to escort him to the Harvest Moon formal, being thrown at Sunnydale's fanciest hotel that night, and Buffy had agreed to come over and help Willow get dressed up to the nines.

"No?"

"Um, yes," Buffy stammered, "I'll be there. But Snyder caught me late to class; I've got detention this afternoon. You should probably go home first and get started without me; it would be tight otherwise, time-wise."

"Okay," Willow said. "Um, Buffy?"

"Yeah?"

"Oh," Willow hesitated. "Never mind."

Buffy looked at her shy friend sincerely. "What is it Will?"

"Well, you know, Oz and I have been dating for eight months now..."

Sudddenly Buffy realized what Willow was trying to convey. "Has he been pressuring you to go too far, Will?"

"Oh, no," Willow assured her. "But we've already been a ways, and I have to admit I think of going the rest of the way, and I'm sure he does to..."

"And you're going to a dance together in a beautiful and romantic hotel that will have fancy rooms upstairs..." Buffy continued.

Willow blushed. "Oh, am I crazy for even thinking this way Buffy? I mean, you..." Willow trailed off again, obviously unwilling to finish her thought because it would require mentioning Angel's name. No-one had yet gotten the details from Buffy about her final confrontation from Angel, but she was obviously still sensitive about him.

"Come on," Buffy said in a low voice. "You are not dating a vampire, you are dating a werewolf, and that's a completely different thing! You don't need to worry about him losing his soul; if you just make sure that you don't get bit, you'll be fine." Willow giggled at that. "Just make sure you're sure about it, okay?"

"Did you see Xander's face when Oz asked him..." Willow continued, happily babbling on about the dance. At a nearby table in the student lounge, an individual who looked like a twenty-something man, but in reality was neither, slowly shook his head behind a magazine.

"She's not ready," Whistler muttered to himself.

Act One

"My mind to your mind," Kaliya whispered softly, holding a sculpted hand over the right side of Giles' face. It was noon already, and neither of them had gotten any sleep so far that day. "Your thoughts to my thoughts. Your experience to be added to my prowess. Your reflexes to augment my own." She concentrated for many seconds before crying out "There!" and releasing Giles.

"Sucess, m'lady?" Giles inquired groggily.

"Yes, Giles," the vampire leader affirmed exultantly. "Your combat and training experiences with Buffy are now a subordinate resource of my martial reactions center. Within a few hours, they will be processed, and then, when I meet her in combat, I be able to counter every aspect of her fighting style and counter with attacks she will not be able to anticipate. And only just in time..."

"Why is that?" Giles asked, as he knew she wanted her to.

"Tomorrow, as you may know, is the Autumnal equinox, an astrologically significant convergence. As it happens, the feast of Samael also falls tomorrow, beginning at sunset. My reasearches on the Hellmouth gateway indicate that this confluence will cause the inner nexus to react with a significant increase in paranormal energy. It will be a grand night for magic!"

"And I trust my lady already has a spell prepared," Giles intoned.

"I do." Kaliya handed him an ornate scroll. "The Samaelic ritual of Strengthening." There was a pause as Giles opened the scroll and started to read it. "I believe you are competent to assume the role of principle caster," Kaliya added suddenly.

"Me? What about you?"

"Well, since I shall subjected to the effects of the spell, I cannot take any part in casting it. Varigon will be available to serve as your second."

"Varigon is not competent for such a dweomer as this. He would send us all to Samael's domain for the demon to feed on!"

Kaliya considered Giles' strong words. "Have you another choice, then?"

"I think so, perhaps. Allow me to make some inquiries, m'lady."

"One more thing," Kaliya said as Giles turned to go. "About this morning. As you doubtless concluded, Miche is my consort." She pronounced the diminutive softly, as "Meeshah". "She has been ever since I made her into our kind. This does not mean that the two of us," she pointed from Giles to herself, "could not, ah, know each other, if you are interested, as I believe you are. But Michelle would still be my first."

"Understood," Giles replied.

"In the pleasures of the body, that is," Kaliya qualified. "In our plans to destroy Summers, you are my first; you are my strong right hand and the chiefest of my lieutenants." She smiled at him. "Now you may go, to make your..." She suddenly broke off, falling back into her chair. "No!" she groaned weakly.

"What is it?" Giles asked, concerned.

"A psychic intrusion," she answered. "A mortal, no, a balancer demon has been lurking, spying out our plans. He plans to reveal them to the Slayer tonight! Michelle!"

"Oui Madame?" Within seconds the slayer-vamp was at the door of the study.

"Une diable de bilan va chez Buffie ce soir. Eliminet-lui!"

"D'accord, Madame," Michelle replied, and then left.

"I do hope she doesn't head out before the sun sets," Giles muttered, chuckling to himself."

* * * *

"Okay, just one more second," Buffy muttered. "Just checking, okay?" She turned Willow towards the mirror. "Take a look!"

Willow did, gazing at her own reflected image. She was wearing a silky violet dress, fairly low-cut, with spaghetti straps venturing up and around her shoulders. The hemline was reasonably short too, but not extreme, and she was wearing two-inch pumps, also violet. Her face had been carefully made over with what Buffy called 'natural beauty-type makeup.'

But it was her hair that was perhaps the most different. Most of it was lifted up, a few stray locks braided and bound close to her head in an attractive pattern. But some of it was let out all the way around the side of her head, falling straight down in a cylindrical curtain about her neck, masking but not completely hiding the golden earings and necklace she wore. She looked magically lovely, like a fantasy princess.

"So, what's the word?" Buffy asked. "And it had better be 'great,' because we've got to head out in two minutes to meet Oz at the library."

"Well, it's better than that outfit you had me in on Halloween!" Willow said critically. Then both girls burst out laughing at once.

"Hey, don't knock that outfit," Buffy said amidst giggles. "You know, Oz saw you in it, just after the spell got broken. You blew him away!"

"Really?" Willow replied as they headed down the stairs. "He never told me about that."

"Hey, now," Mrs Rosenberg said as Buffy reached for the front doorknob. "Let me have a look at you, sweetie." She walked around Willow critically. "Oh, honey, you look SO pretty. It's too bad you're Dad isn't here to see you."

"Probably just as well," Willow said. "We've got to head out."

"Isn't Oz picking you up?" Leah Rosenberg frowned to herself slightly at that.

"Yeah, just, he's picking me up at the high school," Willow explained. "He's got a class, and it's a shorter drive to and from the college..."

"Oh, okay," Mrs Rosenberg said, sounding like it was far from okay. "I see." Willow brushed past Buffy to open the door and walk out of the house. Buffy followed her.

* * * *

Oz was already at the library by the time Buffy and Willow got there, and Xander Harris was there too. Xander's jaw dropped when he saw Willow.

"Whoa!" he muttered, staring for just a second. "You look great, Willow," he said, standing up from the table and walking over to them. "I love the hair! Oz is a lucky guy!"

"I'd have to agree," Oz said, as he also came up to Willow, who was grinning happily at Xander. Suddenly Willow turned over to Oz. "Is that what you're wearing?" she said, frowning just slightly.

Oz looked down at his clothes. He had on a slightly dressy button-down shirt and a necktie, but he was also wearing blue jeans and running shoes. "Hey, this as formal as I get, babe," he muttered quietly.

Willow's mouth drew close for a second, as if she was considering whether to pursue it further, but in the end she said "Your tie isn't even on straight. Is it okay if I fix it?" Oz nodded, and they headed over to a corner of the library.

"So, what are you doin' here, Xander?" Buffy asked, wandering over to the war council table.

"Oh, Mister Tojo asked me to help with his research on Cordy's... situation," Xander said reluctantly. A little over a month ago, Tojo had discovered that Cordelia had unexplained paranormal powers that were somehow linked into an undisciplined 'alternate personality.' Tojo had promised the two of them that he would figure out a way to reverse Cordelia's condition, since it was forcing them to be very careful what they said or did around her or risk a devastating attack, but he had had no luck yet.

"Bye," Willow called out as she and Oz headed out the door. Buffy and Xander waved and called farewells after them.

"Any progress?" Buffy said, returning to business.

"No, damn it," Xander said, slamming shut the book that he had been reading. "I've had enough of this. I'm just gonna do it; after all, she can't just kill me, right?"

"I wouldn't be so sure," Buffy said. "You remember what she did to those ghouls, and she was at least as hostile to me when Donny spilled the beans in that fantasy sequence. We can't go that route," she whispered to him.

Cordelia came up to the library door, noticed Buffy and Xander talking through the small windows on the swinging doors, and pushed one door in the tiniest amount so that she could hear without being noticed.

"Okay, then, I've got a question," Xander said, a faint flush of anger starting to rise in his face. "If you're the believing-what-Tojo-says girl, and you don't want me to even try cutting it off with Cordy, what's with the way you've been coming on to me lately?"

"What?" Buffy burst out.

"Come on, you know what I mean. The sexy wardrobe choices, the flirting, the teasing. There's only one explanation that I can see."

"And what would that be?" Buffy hissed dangerously, but Xander didn't even seem to notice.

"You're making sure I'm still on the fence. You're too scared to let me come to you, but you can't stand to see me happy with Cordelia. Because you admitted that you want me, you feel rejected if I don't make it obvious that I want you, every second of every day."

"That's --" Buffy's mouth hung open for a few seconds, then snapped shut. "See you later, honey," she snapped, pouring the snide sarcasm onto the last word. Cordelia quickly dashed to the side of the doorway as Buffy rushed out of the library. A sudden stiff breeze brushed against Cordelia's clothes. Then she walked away, in the opposite direction from the way Buffy had turned.

Act Two

Buffy screamed in sheer exasperation. "I can't TAKE it any more, Akira," she complained, and then stopped short. "Um, can I call you Akira? Do you mind?"

"As you wish," Akira Tojo said mildly.

"He drives me so crazy!" Buffy continued, gesturing expansively and knocking her hand into the greenboard of Mister Tojo's sociology room. "And in a weird and spooky way, I like him even more that way!"

"I suspect that that is the way of the human heart, my dear," Akira told her.

"Yeah, maybe," Buffy mumbled. "I'll tell you one thing though, at the rate things are goin', if we don't find some kind of solution to the 'Cordelia Problem,' there's gonna be trouble. I don't know what kind, but there'll be trouble."

"There's gonna be trouble anyways, honey," a voice said from the classroom door. Buffy and Tojo looked to see who the new person was.

"Whistler," Buffy breathed. "What are you doing here?"

"Not diggin' on your new hairdo, that's for sure," the manlike demon quipped. "There's a lot that I have to fill you in on, in a very short time. Nice to make your acquaintance, Watcher Tojo, by the way." Tojo bowed gravely at him.

"If you've got things to say, get started," Buffy said crisply.

"Okay," Whistler said, shrugging. "Do you understand what happened to you in the Master's Lair? Just before he came up to the surface?"

Buffy shook her head, caught off guard by this topic. "He drew a bit of my blood, enough to give him the strength to break free of the mystic wall that trapped him at the Hellmouth. Then he pushed me into the pool and drowned. Kendra was called as the next Slayer when I died. Xander found me and brought me back to life with CPR."

Now it was Whistler's turn to shake his head. "All true, as far as it goes, but there's a lot that can't be explained by that. From the earliest days, it has been "THE" vampire slayer, not the two. It's not just a calling, it's a role - a role that can never be taken by more than one person at a time. So, the question is, did you stop being the Slayer when Kendra started, or did something else happen?"

"What are you talking about, Whistler?" Buffy yelled at him.

"I'm trying to tell you your own story in a way that you'll understand. When you died in the Master's lair, it wasn't a technically-dead-but-the-soul-still-waiting-around kind of thing. Your soul had taken possession of its ethereal body and it was outta there. The Slayer spirit moved on to Kendra. But your death had fufilled an ancient prophecy."

"Another one?" Buffy muttered.

"The Second Slayer spirit was stranded in the ether, waiting for a Slayer to die who yet could live. That was you, Buffy. Slayer's don't tend to drown... they tend to get their blood completely drained, or get crushed or eaten or maybe even vampirized... deaths from which there's no way back. But you could live again; and so the Second slayer met your soul and brought it back to your body. Xander's CPR was helpful, but not the key element."

"Okay, cool," Buffy said boredly. "But what does this have to do with trouble coming?"

* * * *

Cordelia drove up to the hotel and handed the keys to her red car over to the valet. A breeze brushed against her dress again; she knew exactly what she had to do. Reminded, she looked around to make sure no-one was in sight, then snapped her fingers. A vaporous mirror swirled into existence floating in front of her, and she checked her appearance carefully.

She was wearing black leather pumps and a tight black dress, with a neckline that plunged just low enough to show the slightest trace of her cleavage, and a short enough hem to reveal a lot of her smooth thighs. Her hair fell down onto her shoulders voluminously. She looked quite apropriate, both for the first phase of the plan, (though she didn't expect many people to remember what she really looked like from that part,) and more importantly, for when Xander showed up. With a wave of her hand the mirror vanished. Cordelia walked purposefully into the hotel lobby.

Within a few seconds she had spotted what she wanted; a thirty-ish man in a suit leaving the hotel bar. She adjusted her course to intercept him, and stared into his eyes with just that special effort required.

"Do only what I tell you to, and speak only to answer my questions," she murmured. "Nod or shake your head for yes-no questions. Where do you live?"

"Los Angeles."

"Why are you in Sunnydale?"

"Business: a marketing pitch."

"Have you finished your business?" Nod. "Planning on heading back to L.A. tonight?" Nod. "How well-off are you financially?"

"I pull in at the upper end of six figures."

"Married?" Shake. "Romantically involved with anyone?" Shake. "Anyone else with reason to be personally interested in your finances?" Shake. "Okay, you'll do fine. What is your name?"

"Anthony Collins."

"Okay, Tony. We're going to go over to the front desk. You will ask for a luxury suite, and a single bedroom nearby. You'll offer your best credit card for payment, and authorize room service and other expenses on it. You'll smile at the desk girl, and then walk with me over to the elevator. Understood?"

Anthony nodded; Cordelia had already been walking them towards the desk. After Anthony asked for the rooms and passed over the credit card, Cordelia used the hypnotic stare on the desk girl. "You will process this registration just as you would normally, and you will remember it. But you will not remember it as it is happening." She pulled a small photograph from her tiny purse; Harmony in a black dress slightly like the one she was wearing right now. "Instead of me, you will remember this girl as checking in with this man. You will remember being surprised that they he asked for a single room as well as the suite, and wondering why..."

Only a few minutes later Cordelia was in the single room with Anthony. She fixed him with another dose of the mesmeric stare. "You will remain in this room all night, Anthony. You will close the door as soon as I leave; you will then set the alarm for 6:30 AM, lie down, and sleep deeply until the alarm goes off. When it does, you will go down the elevator and leave the hotel. Once you have left the hotel, you will remember a very different night."

She pulled out the picture of Harmony again. "You will remember being approached in the hotel bar by this girl, Harmony, after your marketing meeting. But she was with a friend, a girl you didn't get a good look at, who was drunk, and Harmony was supposed to drive this girl, Kate, home. So you got one room for yourself and Harmony and another for Kate to sleep it off in. You had a nice fancy meal from room service, and then had a fabulous night with Harmony. You won't remember anything about me. You'll go back home to L.A., always remember that night, but you'll never try to track Harmony down again. Understood?" Anthony nodded.

Cordelia crossed over to the suite, smiling as she head the door of Anthony's room click shut behind her. In the suite, she picked up the room service menu and went to the phone. "Hi. Suite 912. I'd like to order a bottle of dry champagne... what's your best year? Yes, that will be quite good. The beluga caviar and toast points, two sauteed frog's legs, the baked bluepoint oysters on the half shell, and the turkey risotto a la perigourdine. Thank you!" She clicked the reciever and dialed again.

* * * *

The phone in Giles' office in the library rang, and Xander dashed over to pick it up. "Oh, hey Cordelia," he said. "Um, okay," he continued, grabbing a pen and paper off of the desk, "Suite 912... Yeah, I should be able to get there by then. What's this... oh!" He hung up the phone. He doodled a smiley-face on the paper and then dashed out of the library, dropping the sheet of paper as he went.

Act Three

"So, what did you think of him?" Oz asked as he and Willow started to dance again.

"Um, he was okay," Willow said of the new friend Oz had introduced her to.

"I'm thinking of asking him to join the band. 'Dingoes ate my Baby' is a little bit short-handed lately, and... what's wrong?" Willow was staring fixedly over Oz's shoulder.

"Um, tall dark-haired guy in a black shirt talking with a half-dozen other people near the punchbowl," Willow whispered. "Have you ever seen him before?" She danced them around in a half-circle so that Oz could see.

"Um, he was around during the frosh week parties," Oz told her. "Kevin something, his name is."

"Fosh week parties, as in 'at night?'" Willow clarified. "You haven't seen this guy during the day?"

"Um, no; why?"

"Well, I don't know why, but something about the way he's acting says 'vampire,'" Willow answered him quietly.

"Really? Hmm, you know, you could be right. Well, if you are, what do we do?"

"We need to get him taken out before he feeds tonight. Plan A is to get in touch with Buffy. Plan B is to do it ourselves."

"Plan A is better," Oz stated flatly. They quickly left the dance floor to find a payphone.

"No answer at her home or the library," Willow muttered. "Damn!"

"Okay, well, before we go thrusting stakes through anyone's heart, is there any way to be sure?" Oz pressed her.

"Hmm... Garlic! There was some garlic bread at the refreshments table... If he can't take the smell of that, wait, there are plenty of humans who can't stand garlic either." Oz nodded in agreement. "We'll have to try to find a cross... I don't have one with me."

"I don't either," Oz said. "But there should be some cross necklaces for sale in the gift shop."

* * * *

"Queen Kaliya is planning something," Whistler told Buffy. "A big spell, the Ritual of Samaelic Strengthening. If she's able to complete the spell, she'll be able to kill you, almost certainly.

"Okay, when and where does this thing go down, then?" Buffy asked him.

"Midnight..." Whistler hardly even had time to break off as something whizzed through the air towards him. Before Buffy could see what it was, it had sliced through Whistler's neck. His head tumbled to the ground, followed by a clattering metal disk, the weapon of his doom. Whistler's body slowly fell down, and both it and the head started to dissolve into gray smoke. Buffy dashed forward to see where the deadly discus had come from.

In the corridor, exactly where the line of sight from Whistler led through the door, stood the slayer-vampire, Michelle. "C'est coup!" she crowed, laughing, and dashed off down the school hallway. Buffy chased after her, but Michelle turned around and tossed a throwing star back at her, and Buffy had to throw herself to the side to avoid it. By the time she picked herself back up, the vampire assasin was gone.

Akira ran out into the corridor to check on her. "I'm fine," Buffy said. "Whistler?"

"There is no more trace of him. May whatever powers relate have mercy on his soul."

"If he has one," Buffy qualified. "Well, Michelle's well and truly away by now. I guess we should go to the library and start researching this Samaelic ritual. Xander should be able to help."

* * * *

"More caviar, Xander?" Cordelia asked, holding out a well-pasted toast point towards him.

"Um, sure," he said uncertainly, taking it from her and biting into it. "I didn't expect caviar to taste like this." He finished it off. "Good though."

Cordelia smiled, taking an oyster off of the tray of crushed salt and swallowing the meat of it in a single gulp.

Xander smiled back, only slightly nervous, and took a bite of the risotto. "Say, do you know what these dark things are?"

"Truffles," Cordy said simply, and took a mouthful of the champagne, encouraging Xander to do the same.

"No, thanks," Xander said several minutes later when Cordelia invited him to have another oyster. "I'm full, and a little dizzy... I think I may have had too much of the wine."

"I think it may be something else," Cordy murmured softly, rising from the table. "Excuse me just a moment, will you?" She walked off to the bedroom, Xander's eyes tracking the movement of her ass in the tight dress as she walked.

A few minutes later, Cordelia's voice called out to Xander from the bedroom. "Could you come in here, please Xander?" Xander walked towards the doorway, and stopped in his tracks.

The sheets were turned all the way back on the bed. Cordy's dress was hanging over a chair on the far side of the room, and the shoes put carefully on the chair's seat. Cordelia herself was standing by the wall stereo, wearing only a see-through chiffon sky-blue top, fastened with three buttons, light blue stockings held up by a royal blue garter belt, and a royal blue lace bra and panties. Her body seemed to be enveloped all around by a soft blue radiance, like an aura cloaking her, making her seem more beautiful than Xander had ever seen her.

Seeing him, she smiled, and hit a button on the stereo. The twangy strains of Patty Loveless's "Like Water Into Wine" filled the room. Cordy began moving, gliding slowly and gracefully through the room towards him. "Trust me, baby," she whispered provocatively, "We were meant for each other." She kept slinking towards Xander. "I'm the only one you love, the only one you want," she continued, keeping the alluring tone in her voice. "Nothing else matters but you and me."

Xander had been trying to stay in control despite the buzzing in his head (not to mention the phenomena taking place in his crotch,) but somehow he couldn't even think of disagreeing with these statements. His sphere of reality suddenly changed. Suddenly he wasn't a nervous teenager, stuck in a hotel room with a girlfriend he didn't think he loved and thinking too much of another girl that he might. He was now simply a man who was with the woman he loved; he wasn't aware of anything beyond that.

"So, what do you wanna do now, honey?" Cordelia asked him, teasingly. Without waiting for an answer she wrapped her arms around Xander and dragged him, very willingly, towards the bed.

* * * *

"Okay, let's keep this simple," Willow whispered to Oz.

"Relax," Oz muttered back. "The joy-buzzer routine will do just fine."

"Joy-buzzer routine?" Willow responded. But Oz was already heading towards Kevin.

"Hey, man," Oz said. "Kevin, right? I'm Oz... we met back at Frosh." He extended his hand for Kevin to shake. Suddenly Willow realized what Oz was up to...

"Cool, man," Kevin responded. "Crestwood forever." Grinning, he brought his hand to Oz's.

And cried out in pain as his skin touched the cross that Oz had kept in his palm. Instantly his other hand lashed out, catching Oz with a right hook that knocked him to the ground. He made as if to dive after Oz with a further attack, but another brawny Junior held him back. "Hey, come on, you can't fight here. Whatever he did to you, man, it ain't worth it!"

Kevin hesitated. Oz realized that whatever reasons for not fighting the other guy was thinking of, they wouldn't matter to Kevin, who couldn't even be a real student. But Kevin made a show of relaxing, and Mister Brawn moved on. Kevin stared preditorially at Oz for a few seconds, then moved on.

Willow was moving towards Oz, but Oz didn't want Kevin to see them together, so he walked away into another room. "Well, he seems to be a vampire, all right," Willow whispered in his ear as she came up behind him.

"Not only that, but I get the feeling that he's a vampire who has his eye on me for his next meal!" Oz moaned back. "Things have just gone from bad to worse!"

Act Four

"Arghh!" Buffy groaned. "We're not getting anywhere here." They had been researching Samaelic rituals in a curiously Xander-less library for about an hour at this point.

"Not so," Tojo said, "we have made made clear certain basics. The day of the autumnal equinox goes from midnight tonight to midnight tomorrow, and that is a period of mystical importance. For this ritual, though, the more important item is the sacred day of the sponsoring power, in this case, the demon Samael. However, although the feast day of Samael is indicated to be in this time of the year, the references to the actual date are contradictory, and I am not quite sure how to calculate it with certainty for this year."

"So we're stuck in a dead end," Buffy interpreted. "We don't know when this thing is going down, or where, or how. Whistler said midnight... if the day of the Atomic Equinox starts at midnight tonight, what if it's then? Or Autumnal Equinox or whatever. We've only got about an hour then."

"But, should that be true, what then could we do?"

"I'm not sure," Buffy said. "It would help if Willow was here. There's probably plenty about this ritual and the feast day of Samael in her electronic spellbook, but she's got it password-locked up."

"I attempted to call her at her house," Tojo commented. "I would have thought she and Oz would have been home by now, but there was no answer."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Buffy said. "But if she's not home yet, there's too many places she could be... still lost in a crowd at the dance, off at a post-dance party at the Bronze, gone with Oz to catch a soda at the ice cream bar..." Buffy shook her head, her dark curls flying. "We don't have the time to track her down."

"That was my conclusion as well," Tojo said.

"Unless," Buffy continued, her eyes fixed on a scrap of paper on the library floor. "I wonder what that is." She climbed up from her chair and went over to it. "Well, now! Sunnydale Crossings Hotel, suite 912, 10:30 pm. And there's a little smiley-face."

"Yes?" Tojo said uncertainly. "And what does that mean?"

"That we know where to find Willow!" Akira Tojo looked back at her doubtfully. "The dance is at the Sunnydale Crossings. Oz must have handed this to Willow when we came, as a way of proposing that they, uh, spend the night together. And Willow put the happy-face on, as a way of saying yes!"

"That seems to be an untested hypothesis, Buffy. The paper could have been discarded here by anyone."

"It wasn't there when we first came into the library earlier this evening, Tojo," Buffy insisted. "I'm sure of that."

"So, you are proposing that we we go to the hotel, and just burst into their room? Even if it should be Willow and Oz, that seems scarcely appropriate."

Buffy frowned at him. "Well, it isn't something I'd usually do, but this is a special situation. We can try calling first, but they'll probably have put a do not disturb on their phone at the front desk..."

* * * *

Xander rolled over, looked into Cordelia's eyes, smiling, and brushed a lock of her hair back. "What do you know," he muttered. "Not all country music is of the pain..."

* * * *

"This is a good thing, Oz," Willow told her boyfriend as earnestly as she could. "Now we don't have to worry about tailing Kevin until he goes somewhere private to make his own kill before we slay him."

"Um, okay," Oz said uncertainly, nodding.

"Now that he wants to get you," Willow continued, "all you have to do it let him know that you're going somewhere where he can take you out." Oz stared at his girlfriend with offended shock. "And then, I come at him from behind, you pull a stake out of your pocket, and between the two of us we get the job done. Sound good?"

"Sounds like the best chance we got, at this point," Oz agreed glumly.

They set out putting the plan into action, makeshifting some stakes for weapons before Oz set the scene for their little play.

"Hey, Ryan," Oz said to a classmate who happened to be standing not too far away from Kevin. "If anyone wants me, I'm outside getting some air, okay?" The classmate nodded, and so did Kevin, very slightly, Oz noticed. He did his best not to let Kevin notice him looking, but headed from the dance hall towards a side door. He noticed someone following him a ways back, but made a point of not looking behind him.

Outside the door, he walked out into the night air and breathed deeply, recharging his body. Internally, though, he keyed himself up, trying to tune intentionally into the reflexes of his wolf-self, to command them in the fight that was about to start.

"There's just one thing I want to know," Kevin said jokingly, stepping out into the night after him. "Are you just an unlucky idiot, or a suicidal one?"

Oz turned to look right back at him. "Well, there's no really good answers to give to that question, now are there?" Willow was stalking up behind Kevin, wooden stake in her right hand, preparing for the first strike. Suddenly Kevin turned slightly, whipping his left hand back to strike Willow's face, staggering her. Oz's hand was already in his pocket, reaching for his own stake. He charged Kevin, but the vampire, (his face now left now doubt as to his nature,) ducked, leaving Oz to tumble over his massive body, falling into Willow, knocking her down again.

Oz climbed back to his feet and helped Willow partway up, but they were bracketed between Kevin, the hotel wall, and a long narrow stretch of grass. Somehow Oz knew that if they tried to run away in that direction, Kevin would catch up with them much too quickly.

"Hmm, looks like I've caught myself a pair of vampire hunters. You wouldn't be two of the Slayerettes I've heard of, would you?" Kevin laughed, sending a chill through Oz's heart.

* * * *

Buffy charged through the hotel lobby, Tojo following after her, and swept into an elevator.

"We have only ten minutes left before midnight," Tojo observed. "If it is tonight, Willow may not be able to help us."

"Yeah," Buffy agreed morosely. "Damn traffic cop. But it's still worth a try. If things start getting weird once midnight hits, she may be able to find out enough for me to minimize the damage." Buffy patted the laptop she was carrying under her arm tentatively.

"So, you're still commited to going through with this?" Buffy nodded as the elevator door sprang open at the ninth floor, and led the way through the corridors to Suite 912. The hallway was quiet in an almost unearthly way. Buffy reached up and knocked on the door.

No response. Buffy tried again, and waited longer. Finally, she tried the knob, and the door swung open. Buffy crept into the room, and Mister Tojo awkwardly followed her and swung the door shut.

The parlor of the suite was richly furnished. A room service cart was drawn up next to the table, which was still covered with dishes, including a plate with a few toast points and a bowl with some caviar still in it sitting on the center of the plate, a tray of salt with some oysters sitting on it, a casserole that had, from what Buffy could tell, a risotto with pieces of turkey and chunks of something dark in it. A bottle of champagne sat in ice on the room-service tray.

"Wow, talk about doing it right, Oz!" Buffy breathed to herself.

"Or whoever," Tojo muttered.

"Well, we're in for this far, might as well cross the Rubicon," Buffy grunted. She crossed over to the bedroom door and cautiously opened it. "Willow? Oz?"

"Buffy?" a male voice came back, and Buffy had opened the door and came through before she realized it hadn't been Oz. Sitting up on the bed and staring at her was --

"Xander?"

"Buffy?" another voice repeated, and Cordelia surfaced, holding the bedsheet awkwardly over herself. "Xander?"

"Cordelia??" Buffy called out with just a touch of shriek in her voice.

A tinny double beep came from the parlor. "It is midnight," Mister Tojo announced unneccesarily. "The Autumnal Equinox has begun."

Buffy stood stock still and listened, as if whatever evil magic Kaliya might be loosing would undoubtedly give off a roar that anyone could hear, if they only opened their ears for it...

TO BE CONTINUED (In Episode 7: "Equinox")