Fic info.
Holiday
Part One
The school was completely decimated. Completely, utterly, absolutely demolished.

Figures this would be where the Mouth of Hell was. A High School library. God, why did I decide to do this?

"You...you expect us to...to crawl through all this...rubble?" That's Thressafille. Her whining had begun to grate on my nerves a couple of days ago. Now it's like a high pitched buzz in the background all the time.

"Yes," I answer flatly. "And you won't be crawling, Thressie. We're walking." I clench my teeth as she begins complaining to the Duke. "Although crawling can be arranged...."

"What was that, mother?" Gatty asks, taking my arm and linking it with his as I make my way through the debris.

I sigh. "Nothing, sweet. Where's your father?"

"Probably back at Castle Purgatory, watching us struggle." My son grins at me, his blue eyes sparkling. "And he'll show up just as we reach our destination and exclaim what a wonderful time he's had so far."

"Imp," I growl. "You're enjoying this."

"It's a holiday, mother. Aren't I supposed to be?" he asks, his face the perfect imitation of innocence. But imitation is all it is.

After all, he is half Demon.

"And not only that...his father is Satan himself," a tiny voice sibilantly whispers in my ear.

"Darkeena," I murmur, turning my head only slightly to see her perched on my shoulder. One thing you simply must understand about my familiar, she's ugly as sin. And not the good kind of sin that makes you all warm and fuzzy afterwards, but the bad kind that's icky and scary. She's about four inches tall, has black-gray leathery skin, a huge nose, pointy teeth, straggly white hair, and eyes that glow. I've had her for about seventeen years and I still don't know what color they are.

"Hello, Aunty," Gatty greets the tiny woman, holding out his palm flat for her. When she steps onto his hand, he carries her to his own shoulder. "To what do we owe the honor?"

While they chat, I look back to see the Duke attempting to convince Thressafille to move past the rubble of the stacks and towards what looks like part of a hallway. I shake my head. She had once been human like me, but had been turned as a favor to one of my husband's friends. She should have stayed human.

When he sees that the Duke is about to lose his temper, Leukos finally takes charge and forcibly moves the Viscountess forward. As they pass me, I hear his low voice saying, "As soon as we get to our destination, you may feel free to complain. At this moment, however, you are upsetting the Queen."

Thressafille shoots a wary look over her shoulder at me and then turns and quickly exits what is left of the library.

Good old Leukos. He's always able to break through the pampered brat persona Thress usually exhibits, to the personality that had been there before she'd been Demonized. He's one of the few pure Demons in my court. Since I'm a Demonized human, I prefer other half Demons.

Leukos' full name is actually Leukos-nephele-nephele-kathemai-homoios-huios-anthropos-echo-epi-kephale-chruseos-stephanos-cheir-oxus-drepanon which means "white cloud and on the cloud sits one like the son of man having on his head a golden crown and in his hand a sharp sickle". I have no idea what that means.

Jezebel scrambles out of the opening to hell next and brushes the dust off her gown. Of course, out of all of us, she is the only one with any dirt on her. She likes to crawl around in dark places and scare the scary things away. And, no, she's not the original Jezebel. She's just named after her.

"Wow, there are creatures down there that I didn't even know existed!" she exclaims, catching me watching her. "Their hell sure is different from home, huh?"

I sigh. "Yes. Their hell is extremely underdeveloped. No tourism board, no environmental regulations...." I shake my head, rolling my eyes in exasperation. "I mean, for God's sake, they torture the people who get sent there."

Jez makes a face. "Torture? As in ‘whips and chains and not for enjoyment' kind of torture?" I nod. "That's...barbaric."

Gatty laughs, setting Darkeena back on my shoulder. "What do you expect from a place where, when you get turned into a Vampire, you lose your soul?" He turns to me, a frown marring his perfect face. "Mother, how can someone exist without a soul?"

I wave my hand dismissively. "It all depends on your definition, dear." I look back towards the opening where the Duke is still standing. "Where is the rest of the court?"

He's crouched near the entrance, peering into the darkened hole uneasily. "I think they may've been detained by something, my Queen. Like Lady Jezebel said, there are many creatures we're unfamiliar with down there."

My head drops back and I stare at the sky above us. There's no ceiling. Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I roll my head to look at Jezebel and Gatty. "Feel like joining the Duke on a rescue mission?"

Their eyes glow an unholy red. Gatty's mouth falls open to reveal lengthening teeth and his horns begin to protrude from his forehead. "Absolutely," he hisses.

"Go on, then. But try not to kill anything. We don't want to upset their ecological balance."

As the trio scampers back into the Mouth of Hell, I turn and go in search of the Viscountess and her escort.

"Why'd you choose Sunnydale?" Darkeena whines.

"Shut up," I murmur pleasantly. I sigh again. I can tell I'll be doing that a lot this holiday. "Sunnydale is as good as any other number of places. Besides, we might be entertained. Something called a Vampire Slayer lives here. We may enjoy it."

"Not likely."

"Darkeena, what don't you understand about ‘shut up'?"