Blood Calls
Disclaimer: With the exceptions of Ann Grove and Gang Long all the characters featured in this story belong to Joss Whedon. Ann Grove and Gang Long belong to the author.
Chapter 13 - Not Waiting for the Sunrise
Ann stopped and backed the Jaguar to the turning. Yes, there it was. She had nearly missed it in the growing darkness. A silver Z-3. She turned in and parked
beside it. She touched the BMW's steering wheel, the driver's seat., the head rest. A vampire had used the car last, but that was all she could tell.
The terrain wasn't that much help. The area was parklike, lawn and trees, with rows of tall shrubs interrupting the view. If you lived here, you wouldn't know you
were in California at all, which was possibly the point.
The map indicated a house to the east. Ann went south-east, circling around the house. Just out of sight of the cars, she crossed a path, pine needles between bricks.
She followed it. While she had reservations about a flammable track, possibly one that could bring a wild fire right up to the house door, it was pleasant and silent to
walk or even run on.
She passed a teak bench under two lamp posts, and wondered if this place had utility tunnels under the grass.
Voices. She went more cautiously. Six men were coming down the path from the direction of the house. Correction: five men and one vampire. Ann faded back
behind a set of shrubs. "So be careful," the vampire said. He sat down on the bench, and the five men moved into the shadows around him.
Ann ported back to the cars, and started around the house again, clockwise this time. If the vampire on the bench was Charles, he was the bait and that set up was a
trap. Sarah wasn't to the south-east, where Ann had just been, she must be to the north-east; or due east, nearer the house. Since Charles had apparently just come
from the house, Sarah probably wasn't there. Ann was betting on north-east.
Ann hurried and soon intersected the path again. She ran lightly down it, heading around toward the bench Charles occupied.
There she was. A tall girl, about five ten, maybe a little more, muscular in the same way Gang Long was. She carried a stake in her right hand and walked the way
Tom Rivera had described her: busy, with things to do.
Ann followed, moving silently closer. Now what? Ann had told Nicholas Lovel all her sympathy was with Sarah, and that was true. The five human bodyguards
complicated the situation somewhat. She realized a bodyguard was moving down the path directly at Sarah just before the girl did. The bodyguard also carried a
stake. Charles had hired more than just bodyguards. Ann started running. She saw the man's arm, the one holding the stake, move. Ann sprinted up to the girl and
thrust her aside. The man thrust the stake into Ann's blocking hand.
Ann ignored the stake. She knocked the hired killer back, slept him, and let him fall to the ground. She listened carefully. No more noise than before. Good.
"Sarah Thompson?" Ann asked, very softly, pulling the stake out of her palm. She stuck the stake into her waistband, and smoothed the wound in her hand closed.
"Who are you?"
"You can call me Ann. He's human. Did you mean to kill him?"
"No, I just want to kill Charles."
"An understandable desire. Shush for a moment." Ann located the four other bodyguards and slept them all. Turning back to Sarah: "Charles hired a bunch of human
thugs and set this trap for you."
"Did I kill him?" the girl in the platinum wig was looking at the body on the ground.
"I put him to sleep. All the thugs are asleep." Ann moved them to the bench were Charles was sitting, surrounded by sleeping men. He came to his feet as he saw the
two women. As he recognized Sarah, he shifted to full vampire display.
"Charles is right over there." Ann watched Sarah walk over to Charles.
"Sarah, look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I killed you, I'm sorry I tried to have you staked." Charles held out a document to Sarah. "If you'll just sign this release, my parents
offer a substantial settlement." He showed the other vampire a pale green check.
"It's not so much that you killed me, it's what you did before," Sarah said.
Charles turned and started to run. Sarah chased him, quick as a greyhound, caught him by the arm and spun him to face her. "Sarah, please!"
"No," she said, and staked him.
>>>|||<<<
"Don't tell me," Ann said. "You're on the girls' soccer team." She reached out and removed the silver wig. "You don't need this anymore." She moved them both up
to the cars.
"The woman's soccer team. I was. He ruined that, too."
"You're still in shock," Ann told her. "Drink this."
"Lemonade?"
"A sort of sport drink for vampires."
"You knew I was a vampire," Sarah said.
"I talked to Nicholas Lovel."
"Oh. How is he?"
"Healing. He's worried about you. If you can call him soon, he'd feel better."
"I should give his car back."
"I'll do that. Get in the Jag."
"Are you arresting me?"
"No. I'm taking you to a safe place, where you can rest for as long as you want."
"I don't care."
"Have you eaten recently?"
"I ran out of blood about yesterday, I think."
Ann opened the trunk, then frowned at the picnic basket. This one was set to deliver human delicacies. She summoned the basket from Spike's Viper. Opening one
of the cans of Cambells, she warmed it between her hands. "Drink this." Sarah managed to drink half of it. Ann decided that was enough and disposed of the can.
She put Sarah in the passenger seat and helped her strap in. "Sleep," Ann said, reclining the back.
"I was going to watch the sun come up," Sarah murmured.
"You can do that anytime," Ann told her, covering her with the lap throw.
>>>|||<<<
Chapter 14 - Hate not, Fear not.
Spike heard the guardian lions roaring to each other. It was either an invasion or Ann was back. He slipped through the kitchen and left the house through the garage.
Ann, driving a BMW Z-3, came down the driveway and stopped.
"Cute car," the vampire said.
"Very," Ann agreed. "I think I'll make one for Tara when she graduates, if she still hasn't had an accident with the Saturn by then. How did your end go?"
"Well enough: Gang Long moved the mercenaries and their gear to separate locations when we were done with them; the Witches came through; and Buffy severely
intimidated the two humans who had hired the killers."
"Spike," Buffy said, from the walkway to the front door, "apparently arranged an introduction to an up-scale brothel for Jake the vampire, and everyone, except
possibly Harmony and Mrs. Sternwood, is happy."
"He may be vampire and a bit of a twit, but he's still a young man with real needs; one of which is to get away from his mother. There are worse things than being
disowned by your family, as it turns out, and she's definitely one of them."
Buffy sniffed. "How did Cordy's vision play out?" she asked Ann.
"Unpleasantly," Ann said. "The three vampires raped and murdered a girl, one of them let her feed from him. She tracked them down and killed them all. The silver
hair was just coincidental, she wasn't seriously trying to fool anyone into thinking she was you."
"So why don't you disapprove of her killing vampires?" Buffy asked.
"She wasn't killing all vampires, just the ones who had injured her. Buffy," Ann said, "if you think I disapprove of killing vampires who harm other people, you've
mistaken what I've been saying. I say that species killing, ethnic cleansing, killing beings simply because they are green or male or vampires, is evil. Equally evil, at
least in my opinion, is not punishing a wrong-doer because she's your cousin or is the same color you are or some other blanket reason. Vampires, like humans and
other beings, are individuals and should be treated as such."
"So where is she?" Buffy asked.
"I let her go," Ann said.
Spike looked up from the Z-3. "You gave her the Jag, didn't you?"
"It's not as if I can't make another. I will have to make you a new picnic basket, though. I was in a bit of a hurry and the one in the Jaguar wasn't set up for a vampire,
so I took yours."
>>>|||<<<
"Jake," Giles said. After they had made love, his mind returned to what had been bothering him. "James Sternwood, I should say. Actually, it's Spike."
"What is?" Ann asked, handing Giles a glass of her changeable wine and tossing the pillows to the foot of the bed. She lounged back on them, facing Giles, and
sipping her wine.
He described what had happened at the Sternwoods. "Why would Spike do something like that? Take that much trouble over a boy he had just met?"
"This is just a guess, mind you," she said. "I think he's lonely. Angel said something once about it being nice to have people around who aren't trying to kill him. I think
Spike feels the lack of friends."
"God knows he doesn't have any around here."
"Except me and Gang Long." She felt him stiffen slightly and sat up and looked at him seriously. "I am Spike's friend, Rupert."
"I think you are far too tender hearted where some people are concerned, but I hope I'm too wise to interfere."
"Your silence about Faith speaks volumes," Ann laughed, and kissed him.
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HATE NOT, FEAR NOT
Kill if you must, but never hate.
Man is but grass and hate is blight,
The sun will scorch you soon or late,
Die wholesome then, since you must fight.
Hate is a fear, and fear is rot
That cankers root and fruit alike.
Fight cleanly then, hate not, fear not,
Strike with no madness when you strike.
Fever and fear distract the world,
Be you calm though madmen shout,
Through blazing fires of battle hurled
Hate not, strike, fear not, stare Death out.
Robert Graves - Poems About War
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