Zoey was literally bouncing on the back seat of Erykah's car. Wesley retreated to his corner and watched her from there.
"That was so much fun!" the redhead gushed. "Where are we going now?"
"Home," Giles and Erykah both muttered. Their eyes locked and they traded rueful grins.
"Oh, please, can't we find another party?"
Concentrating on her driving, Erykah said, "I didn't know you were such a fan of the nightlife, dear."
Zoey blushed. "This is all very new to me. I don't get out much."
"Well, then," Wesley rallied, "we shall have to do our best to show you a good time." Giles turned his head to stare in disbelief. Wesley gave him a resolved look. "Far be it for us to deny a guest to our fair city her fun."
Giles glared.
Wesley went on, "There must be something exciting happening here tonight."
Giles' eyebrows lifted. He stared a moment longer then turned to face front again.
Only Erykah saw him mouth the word, "Prat."
The streets were nearly deserted. Giles began to breathe easier. If they could just make it back to the house without further incident...
"Stop the car!" Zoey shrieked.
Erykah stood on the brake and the car fishtailed to a stop.
"What's wrong?" she asked, but Zoey had the door open and was out, running down the street. Wesley shot out after her.
"Wait!" Erykah yelled after them. She gave Giles a puzzled look.
He shook his head. "I hope she's a really good secretary," he commented, his hand on the door handle. "We'd better go after them."
"We'll take the car," Erykah said in a clipped tone that informed Giles she was getting thoroughly pissed off. He sat back and let her do as she wished. He knew better than to argue with her when she was in this mood.
They followed the pair for about a block and a half, until they couldn't drive any further. They had reached a barrier at the intersection of the side street they were on that t-boned a major thoroughfare. There were several dozen cars lined up behind the barricade and people were walking around the brightly lit area on the other side. Erykah parked the car and they got out.
"Where are they?" Giles searched over heads. "And what's going on here?"
Pointing to a sign on a shop window, Erykah read, "'Sunnydale Fringe Festival'. Let's hope it's the regular human fringe element and not the Sunnydale version."
"It'd be too much to expect that," Giles grumbled, digging in his jacket pockets. He handed her half of the tree branch with which he'd staked the vampires back at the mansion. It was short but both ends were pointy. It would do.
Taking it, she said, "Thank you," and sounded like she meant it. Then she gripped Giles' hand in hers and they set out to look for their friends.
Three blocks of the street had been cut off from automobile traffic, allowing pedestrians to wander freely among the many tents and booths set up in the area. They encountered mimes who were going around annoying people, hotdog vendors, games of chance and skill, bingo tents, men filling yellow, red and blue balloons with helium, and artists using human canvases. There were also children with painted faces and balloons, clowns with painted faces and more balloons, and unpainted adults with balloons, children and clowns.
"Xander would hate this," Giles said, trying not to smile.
"Why is that?"
"He suffers from clown phobia." At Erykah's inquiring look, he explained, "it goes back to his childhood. I'm not clear on the details."
"I've heard of children being traumatized by jolly old St. Nick, but I suppose clowns would be even more frightening with all that garish makeup and the big floppy feet."
"Especially if they've read Stephen King."
She gave him a nudge in the ribs with her elbow. "How many little kids would have read Stephen King?"
He conceded that one with a tiny smile.
"Why on earth are they holding this at night anyway?" Erykah asked. Giles didn't have an answer. "I mean, this is something that should be put on in the middle of a bright sunny afternoon. Does no one know what goes on in this town after dark?"
"It's a veil of ignorance. If they believe they don't see it, then it doesn't exist."
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"Yes," he sighed. "Yes, it is."
"But the children..." Erykah shuddered. Giles put his arm around her shoulders and drew her close to his side.
They walked in silence, still looking for their wayward friends.
"There they are." Giles indicated the pair heading toward a tent made from bright purple material with yellow stars scattered over it. "Please tell me that's not a fortune teller's tent."
Erykah shook her head. "Can't do that, darling."
"Let's go see if Madam..." he squinted at the sign over the entrance, "...Zaremba is talented enough to know that Zoey's stay in Sunnydale is going to be cut short. I just hope that Wesley hasn't grown too fond of her."
"Rupert! That's not very nice."
"I never claimed to be nice."
"I'll just let you hold onto your little delusion." Stifling a smile, Erykah followed him to the tent.
When they entered, Wesley greeted them with, "Oh, there you are. We were wondering what kept you."
"We had to decide whether or not to bring the car, or just leave it out there on the street where you left us."
Wesley frowned at Giles' tone, but then Erykah grabbed him by the sleeve of his jacket and tugged until he went with her the few steps behind Giles to the entrance of the tent.
Speaking in a low voice that only the two of them and Giles could hear, she said, "Zoey seems to respect you. Get her under control or you'll both be walking home. And you can bloody well walk her back to Los Angeles yourself, or she just might be out of a job. Do I make myself clear?"
Wesley gulped. "Yes, ma'am."
"Good." She gave his sleeve an extra pull then released it. She returned to Giles' side and studiously ignored Wesley.
He hesitated, then said tremulously in a whisper, "However, she is your employee. Perhaps it would be best if you said something to her..."
Giles hauled him out through the tent flap.
Walking a short distance away from the tent so that they were surely out of earshot of the women, he said, "Erykah has very little control over her temper at the moment. She doesn't want to hear reason from you. What she wants is for you to comply with her wishes."
Wesley began to protest.
Giles held up a hand. "Trust me. Now is not a good time to begin to grow a spine. When Ery loses that last little bit of control, it's best to get as far away from her as possible." He smiled coldly, looking Wesley straight in the eye. "She makes the Mayor in demonic form look like a child's stuffed toy."
Wesley swallowed noisily.
They went back inside the tent. Giles stood next to Erykah, but Wesley moved closer to Zoey.
The gypsy, who to Giles' eye looked like she might actually be Rom, studied a set of cards spread out before her on the dark blue tablecloth. Zoey sat across from her, listening eagerly to what the woman had to say. A crystal ball rested on a pedestal, but so far Madam Zaremba disregarded it.
"The spirits speak to me," she said. It sounded like a spiel, because even as she spoke her tone was bored. "They say great things about you..." she broke off, sitting up straighter. She looked long and hard at Zoey.
"Is something wrong?" Zoey asked.
Zaremba hesitated, frowning at the cards. She passed a hand over them, picked up one and moved it. Doing the same to another apparently failed to achieve the desired results. Finally she gathered the cards, squared them off into a deck and dealt them out again.
"Madam Zaremba?"
The gypsy glanced at Zoey and paled. "I'm sorry. I cannot give you what you ask."
"But I only wanted my fortune read. Is it that bad?"
"It is difficult to say. The cards can be imprecise. It is a matter of interpretation."
"So interpret them," Zoey insisted.
"Yes," Wesley stepped up beside her. "The lady paid you to tell her fortune. Please do so."
Zaremba looked briefly from one to the other and then to the cards again. "It could be...indeterminate... Very well." She cleared her throat and seemed to come to a decision.
Her entire demeanor changed. Tapping the cards one by one with a hard, painted nail, she spoke in a rapid-fire manner.
"You will have a very short lifespan. You will become fodder for evil and a plaything for mayhem."
Alarmed, Zoey sat back in the chair. "What does that mean?"
The fortune teller was already clearing away the cards. "As I said, it is open to interpretation." Then she bellowed, "Now!"
A pair of vampires, one male, one female, dressed as clowns, their demonic visages clashing with the brightly painted happy smiles, burst through the curtains behind Madam Zaremba. As they did, her face also became that of the undead. The trio rushed the two couples. The female grabbed Wesley in a headlock, her fangs snapping at his carotid artery. He jerked his head to the side, his face contorted in his effort to keep his lifeblood safely contained in his body. He struggled but her strength was superior.
In the meanwhile, the male vamp had Giles in his clutches. The Watcher wound his foot around the creature's leg, causing it to lose its balance and together they crashed heavily to the sawdust-covered floor. Giles spread his fingers across the vampire's face, pushing it away from himself.
Madam Zaremba held Erykah locked in a steely embrace from behind. Their fight was practically devoid of movement for a moment or two until Erykah smashed her head into Zaremba's nose. Blood spurted as the gypsy howled in pain, clutching her face. Erykah used the advantage to duck out of the way then turned and staked Zaremba.
Giles extracted the stake from his pocket once more and was, quite abruptly, free of his attacker.
The remaining vampire had her hands full with Wesley who seemed to realize just how much danger he was in and was now hysterical, adrenaline adding to his fear. He squirmed so vigorously that the vampire had difficulty maintaining her hold on him, and by now, her mouth was nowhere near his neck. He slipped free and half-ran, half-crawled to the far side of the tent. She turned to attack Zoey, but must have realized she was vastly outnumbered, and that both Giles and Erykah held stakes, and that they knew how to use them.
As soon as she turned to flee, Giles lunged forward and drove the branch through her back. She disintegrated into a shower of dust.
"Zoey." Wesley picked himself off the ground and held out a trembling hand. She looked at it then at him. She let him lead her out of the tent. Giles and Erykah followed silently.
Once outside, Zoey's expression turned glum.
"That wasn't much fun. At first, I didn't know what she meant. And then, when I did..." she trailed off into silence.
Wesley moved to put an arm around Zoey's shoulders. "Shall we go home?" he asked looking at her hopefully.
She smiled up at him, bouncing right back from her disappointing encounter with a gypsy. Snuggling closer, she wound her arms around his waist and leaned into his embrace. "Sounds good."
"The car is over there," Giles said. As the pair moved off, he hung back to speak with Erykah.
"Are you all right?" His fingers slid through her hair, feeling her skull where she'd connected with Madam Zaremba's nose. "There's no bump back here."
Erykah felt for herself. "There is on the inside." At his look of concern she amended, "I'm fine. Really. Just a bit shaken by our close encounter of the latest kind."
Giles touched his lips to her forehead and asked, "Can we go now?"
"Worse than a little boy. I don't know why I keep coming round to see you." Before Giles could become properly indignant, she said, "Oh, wait. I remember. It's because you can cook. It's so hard to find a man who can cook a decent meal."
"Is that the only reason?"
"Well, let me think. Maybe you have other talents. Yes, you do. You make great tea."
"Tea? Cooking? You can hire someone to do those things."
"Why, yes. I can." The expression on her face made his heart turn somersaults.
"You have the most goofy smile right now," Erykah observed. "What are you thinking?"
Gathering her into his arms, he explained it without words.
They drove up in front of Wesley's house. Erykah parked the car. Zoey and Wesley got out immediately, heading up the walk.
"What a night!" she exclaimed, stretching her arms over her head and then back as best she could in the cramped space.
Kneeling on the seat, Giles reached around and put both hands on her shoulders, lightly kneading the tight muscles in her neck.
"Ohh, that's good. I'll get you to do it properly when we get inside."
"Gladly." Giles looked into her eyes as he leaned in closer. Their lips met, touching briefly and gently. He felt her eyelashes flutter against his cheek right before he pressed his mouth to hers once more. Erykah's lips were softly inviting, opening under his. She allowed his tongue to wander into her mouth and greeted it with hers. Giles happily indulged himself by drawing her down against the leather seats and lying on top of her. Erykah held him in place, her legs parting as he settled between them. He rubbed his hands over her thighs and stomach, encountering only her dress, frustrated in his search for bare skin.
Zoey screamed.
They sat up and, as one, instinctively went for the stakes they still had in their coat pockets, then they disentangled and hastily exited the car. The woman was backed up against the front door of the house. A vampire was between her and Wesley who lay sprawled on the ground. Even as they registered the scene, the younger man climbed back to his feet and was scouring the ground for something to use as a weapon. The vampire stayed on the steps, seemingly seriously conflicted between going after Zoey and dealing with Wesley. Finally it chose Wesley and leapt through the air, throwing itself on him.
The young Watcher twisted, but couldn't get completely out of the way, and they went down in a heap with Wesley on the bottom. They rolled over and over. The vampire pulled his fist back to strike, but Wesley managed to block the blow and even returned it, cracking the vamp solidly on the jaw.
Giles ran up with his tree branch in hand and, with a single thrust, dusted the demon. He reached down and helped Wesley to his feet. As the other man stood, ash fell from his hair and clothing. He brushed off the remainder in disgust.
Giles regarded Erykah. "You were saying something about tonight?"
"Are vampires always this active?" she asked.
"Not as a general rule, no. Something has them stirred up."
"Maybe that party was to celebrate some kind of vampire holiday?" Zoey suggested.
Giles nodded thoughtfully. "That's an interesting idea. I'll have to consult the books."
Erykah marched up to him and grabbed his arm, taking him with her into the house. "Oh no you don't, mister. Not tonight. I want a cup of hot tea and a hot shower and then it's bedtime. No books involved anywhere."
Before they got past the vestibule, Zoey screamed again.
They turned and raced back out.
"Oh for pity's sake!" Giles exclaimed.
Yet another vampire was attacking their two friends. Like the first one, it also seemed confused about choices, but after a moment picked Wesley as the target. He fought with it while Zoey dashed past them to a nearby tree. She broke off an ineffectual looking branch and rushed toward the pair. The vampire saw her coming and, amazingly, shoved Wesley away from himself. He faced her down but when she got closer, yelling like a crazy woman, the vampire hesitated, looked around, saw Giles and Erykah coming out of the house, turned and ran.
Zoey rushed up to Wesley. "Are you all right?" she asked.
"Y-yes. I'm fine. Thank you for saving my life."
"Well, you're mine and all the scary demons in this town just better realize it," she declared forcefully. "Let's get you inside where it's safe."
"Y-yes." Wesley replied shakily. "Let's do that."
This time Giles and Erykah waited until the other two were inside the house before they followed.