Blood Calls
Disclaimer: See part 1.
Chapter 3 - Investigations and Questions
Spike and Ann appeared on one of the catwalks above the stage. Looking down, he saw the body. The rest of the stage was empty. Some customers were sitting around the edges of the Bronze, with a couple of uniformed police standing between them and the stage.
Ann whispered softly, then moved them down to the floor. No one noticed them. Spike glanced around, but he and Ann seemed totally invisible to everyone else. Silently, Ann knelt beside the body and started to search its pockets. She stopped, opened the jacket, then the shirt. The body wore a vest. Ann started again on the pockets.
Spike saw a number of chains around the body's neck. He fished them out from under the vest, revealing several saints' medals and a variety of other religious symbols. He looked at the head. He didn't know where the hole in the forehead had come from. He moved the head, carefully. The back was a mess, as was the floor beneath it. There was a hole in the floor. He lowered the head.
Ann looked up long enough to hand him a cloth. As he wiped his hands, she showed him a glass jar, filled with a clear fluid. He nodded, but didn't touch it. Ann put the jar back in the breast pocket of the jacket. Spike saw, before Ann put the jacket to rights, that the body had an automatic pistol under its left arm. He slipped a hand under the body, going for the back pocket. No wallet, just a clove of garlic. He put it back. In loops on the belt there were three wooden stakes. He moved down the body. There was an ankle gun on the right leg, and a white knife on the left.
There was a stir near the people at the door. He touched Ann's arm. She nodded and produced a very small crystal. Taking the body's left arm, she brushed back the sleeves. She pushed the crystal into the forearm. It disappeared, leaving no trace. Ann smoothed the clothing, rose, took Spike's hand, and moved them to the Viper.
"Drive," Ann said.
"I have never seen such an amateur vampire hunter," Spike exploded. "Garlic? Garlic, for god's sake!" He started the car and drove away from the Bronze.
"What was in the jar?"
"Probably holy water. That was sensible, not like that useless pawn shop around his neck. Where am I going?"
"Alvarado Boulevard. An amateur vampire hunter, but a slightly more professional assassin. I hate thugs."
"Why slightly more professional?"
"His gear. Did you see the crossbow? Ceramic knife. No ID. That's professional. Shooting up civilians, that's not."
"He was shot where he lay. I didn't see that part. Why are we going to Alvarado Boulevard?"
Ann displayed a motel keycard. "Creekside Motel."
"This is safe?"
"Probably. If I were doing this, I wouldn't go back anywhere after I got noticed. I'm betting they're professional enough to move to a fallback."
"So why are we going?"
"They might have un-professional enough to leave something behind."
"The crystal? The one you put in the body? Why?"
"If the body's claimed, I can track it. I don't think it will be."
"Professional doesn't begin to describe you."
"Is that a compliment, Spike, or a complaint?"
"Compliment, I guess."
>>>|||<<<
"Which one is it?" Spike asked.
Ann was holding the keycard, running her eyes over the row of doors. "Third from the left."
"It's dark," Spike said. He slowed the Viper down as they drove past the motel.
"OK, drive on and park somewhere out of sight," Ann said
"Like here?"
"Fine. I'll bring you in a minute." Ann disappeared.
Spike waited, then the Viper vanished and he was standing in a motel room.
"Nobody here," Ann said.
"Anything left?"
"Start looking."
Ann was neat and quick. She inspected places he didn't know were places. He finally had to ask: "Is this something you were born with or did you take lessons?"
"Lessons," she said. "There was a charming ex-burglar, a Mr. Fitzgerald, who worked for "F" section back in the nineteen forties. Before we went to France, he showed us were he had found items that their owners had tried to hide from him or any other burglar that might have come along. He always said, given enough time and enough searchers, there was nothing that could not be found, eventually."
"I sort of thought you could just witch the place and locate what we want."
"What do we want?"
"OK. I take your point."
"It's easy for me to find anything you or Tara lost, an unknown item is something else again. I think the place is clean. Put the drawers back while I filch the registration card for this room."
>>>|||<<<
"Set," Spike said, straightening up. A white card disappeared from Ann's hand as she nodded, then moved them back to the Viper.
Spike glanced over at Ann. "What were you doing in a purely human mess like that war, anyway?"
"I was assigned to look after a student of war, so where he went, I went."
"Who assigns you ?"
"I can't say," Ann said.
"Why not?"
"I stop breathing if I try."
"Sounds a little harsh," Spike said, heading for Los Robles Road, and Ann's house.
>>>|||<<<
Chapter 4 - Questions and Changes
"Xander and Anya went off to bed," Tara said. Her hair was neat, but damp.
Ann nodded. "We'll tell them about this before they go off to work in the morning."
"Where's Buffy?"
"Getting dressed; we swam a bit."
"When she comes in, I have a theory I want to put before her."
"About what?" Buffy asked from the doorway. Her hair was also damp, but curlier.
"Tonight," Ann said. She unfroze Harmony. "Now, I want you two to listen, and not interrupt."
"Why do I think I'm not going to like this?" Buffy said.
"Suppose this: You're a hired killer. You're assigned to kill someone, but there are no photographs and there may not even be a name. There's only a description," Ann said. "Twenty year old white female, graduate of Sunnydale High School, longish blonde hair, 5'3", about 107 pounds, very strong; frequently found in graveyards or in the company of vampires."
"Oh, hell," Spike said.
"Oh," Willow said.
"Now, in the absence of any photographs, if there happened to be two blondes, both very strong and so forth, in two different cemeteries tonight, some confusion could occur."
"No," Buffy declared.
"Absolutely not," Harmony stated.
"What we found at the Bronze," Ann said, "was a vampire hunter with a clove of garlic and a nine millimeter automatic. He also had a .22 strapped to one ankle and a knife he can get past metal detectors on the other."
"I don't look anything like Harmony."
"My hair is amber," Harmony said. "A rich, beautiful amber and she has no dress sense whatsoever."
"Spike called the body an amateur vampire hunter, and I rather agree. However, he was also attempting to be a professional assassin. I think what we may have is a mercenary who has been hired to kill a vampire."
"The solution's simple, then," Buffy said. "Turn Harmony loose. They kill her, they leave, we're fine."
"But I could be wrong," Ann said without any hesitation. "He may have been hired to kill the Slayer and thought he needed defenses against vampires, since you are frequently in the company of vampires. We could turn you both loose, and see which one of you they kill."
Everyone stared at Ann. Spike recovered in time to not say anything, but Willow said, "Hey!"
Buffy and Harmony both said, "What?" then glared at each other. Tara was silent, just looking at Ann with huge eyes.
"Then, they would leave, and we'd be fine," Ann finished.
"Very funny," Buffy said.
"After all, Buffy, I don't see much difference between you and Harmony."
"She's a vampire, she doesn't have a soul. I'm a human, I do."
"How do you know?"
There was a confused babble and much movement. Willow bounced up out of her seat. Buffy paced, one hand playing with her necklace. Harmony couldn't get up, since Ann had told her to sit, but she stamped her feet noisily.
>>>|||<<<
Spike picked up his glass, which had been refilled while he and Ann were gone, and sat down close to Tara. "What's she up to?" he asked the girl softly.
"I think it's something to do with the project Claire is working on. Those tests she ran on you, remember?"
"Oh, yes."
"Well, Claire has been testing other vampires. She says she's about ready to assemble a vocabulary, maybe formulate a theory, and then work on some experimental tests."
"Claire's been going after other vampires? That's not safe."
"Ann goes with her, or one of Claire's other friends. And Claire is very powerful herself."
>>>|||<<<
"It sounds to me like folk tales," Ann said. "Or maybe just plain black propaganda."
"It's not just the Council, all the vampires say so, too," Buffy retorted.
"I'm sure they all believe it. That doesn't make them any more right than you are. You and Faith are more experienced in the nature of the soul than any human or vampire in this room, Buffy. You might find it enlightening to put aside your dislike of her and consider what happened the last time you met."
As often happened when Faith was mentioned, Buffy stiffened. She wrapped her arms around her chest and turned away from Ann.
"But, ah, Angel," Willow said, covering the silence. "I brought back his soul, so at one point, he didn't have it."
Ann nodded. "I think you should talk to Claire about what you actually did, Willow. And I think you should go with her, Buffy."
"I haven't got time."
"At some point you will not be facing Glory or finals. I can bring Claire to you, remember."
"All right. I'll talk to Claire when I'm free."
"Excellent. Now, Harmony, tell us what you've been doing that might get people annoyed with you."
"Nothing," the vampire said.
"All right," Ann said. "Just tell us what you've been doing recently."
"Like what?"
"Where were you last month, Harm, for starters?"
Ann glanced over at Spike. "Thanks." He nodded.
"Oh, I've been in Palo Alto, around the campus there."
"And what did you do there?"
"Parties and stuff."
"Did you do anything else?" Ann demanded "Steal the wrong notebook? Break into the wrong laboratory? Catch the wrong teacher with the wrong student?"
"Why would I break into a lab?"
"Listen, you idiot girl! I'm trying to discover why, beyond terminal aggravation, someone may want you dead. Have you done or seen or overheard or taken anything worth killing you over? Think!"
"No, I haven't done anything like that," Harmony said.
"Notebook?" Spike asked
"From the Brookings Institute or SSRL or some proprietary research lab? Money or secrets," Ann said, "can make humans very nasty."
"No, I'm not interested in anything that dull," Harmony insisted. "I just do normal vampire stuff."
"Eating people," Willow said
"I'm a vampire, it's what I do."
"Bite anyone?" Ann asked.
"Well, yes."
"Kill anyone?" Buffy asked coldly.
"Not really."
"You turned them, didn't you?" Spike asked.
"What?" Ann asked him.
"She sired them. She changed them into vampires. She gets off on it."
"How many?" Buffy asked.
"Parties?"
"How many vampires did you create?"
"Zac, Eric, Marty, Carlo, Freddie, Andy, Jake, Max, Pedro, Ian, Jack, Tonio, Sam, and Denis."
"Stop, stop! Over a dozen? You created and released, into the screwy, precariously balanced, potentially explosive, social ecology of California, over a dozen climax predators? Are you crazy?" Ann was furious.
"She's stupid and she doesn't know what ecology means," Spike said.
"I do, too. It's about oil spills and sea gulls."
"How about lynch mob? Ethnic cleansing? Genocide? Spike, didn't you tell her anything?"
"She doesn't listen."
"That does not relieve you of all responsibility," Ann snapped. "Remember witch hunt?"
"That was before my time," Spike protested.
"The Salem ones, yes, but there were others," Ann said.
"How did you know?" Willow asked Spike.
"What?"
"How did you know she likes creating vampires? You were here, she's been doing it in Palo Alto."
"She did it in Los Angeles, too."
"How many there?" Ann asked.
"Probably three dozen in LA, maybe more."
"Harmony, I don't interfere with anyone's free will lightly, but enough is enough. You may panic the human population, with disastrous results for yourself and every other vampire, if not every other non-human, in California." Ann stood in front of the young vampire and said, in her voice of command: "You will not create any more vampires, unless an adult human specifically asks you to turn her into one. Do you understand?"
"Yes. But I like it."
"Too bad," Buffy snarled. She turned on Ann: "That's not harsh enough. She's killed over forty people and you're talking about climax predators and not letting her do it again!"
"This is all I am willing to do. After all, the people you say she killed are in fact going to and fro in the earth, Buffy. They're just alive by magic and not their original biochemistry."
"Except maybe Eric, Slayer," Spike said. "You killed him earlier this evening."
"Who?"
"Eric, out in Sylvandale, who was just back from Stanford. Gang Long and I were at the casino out there, and one of the gamblers told me."
"Harmony, remember your Eric? Was he from Sylvandale?" Ann asked.
"Yes, we laughed about that, having to go all the way to Stanford to meet each other, when we went to school down here. He's a junior..."
"Hold it," Buffy said. "I wasn't out in Sylvandale. Why would I go all the way out there?"
Ann frowned at the Slayer, then turned to Spike: "Your informant, trustworthy?"
"I would guess so. He was just talking, not trying to impress me or fool me," Spike said.
"Can you talk to him again?"
"Why?" Buffy asked.
"Unusual happenings are interesting," Ann said mildly. "Especially when they happen simultaneously with other interesting events."
"What time is it?" Spike asked.
"Nearly a quarter to eleven," Ann said.
"He was settling in at a slot machine. He may still be there."
"I'll go with you," Buffy said.
"No. He's a vampire, you'll scare him speechless. Shall I bring him here?" he asked Ann.
"If you think you need to," Ann said.
"Will he be safe if I do?"
"I promise that he will be."
"Right," Spike said, and went out to his car.
>>>|||<<<
On to Blood Calls Chapters 5-6
Go to Lynn's Archive
Go back to the Author's Archive
Send the author Feedback