Chapter 9

"So what’s the plan?" Xander asked, when Buffy had calmed down a bit.

"It’s the same old, same old. Riley wants me to come alone." Buffy answered, "But the good news is that the girls seem to be safe. I didn’t talk to Dawn, but Emily said she was okay." Buffy gave a rueful laugh, "Emily was mostly worried about missing the wedding."

"Do we have the address? We could go in early and take them by surprise, "said Tina, obviously eager for action.

"They obviously thought of that. The guy I talked to didn’t give me an address. He said he will call again right before we are to leave."

"But we can still do a locator spell and find them right now." said Willow.

"No." Buffy said firmly. "We have no idea how many people are holding them. We only know that the guy who took them was human. Riley could have a whole army of vampires over there. If we go charging in half cocked, they could just kill the girls before we could get to them."

"So he wants to talk to you alone, eh?" William asked.

"Yeah…your basic Harmony 101 plan. I would have expected better from Riley somehow."

"Hey," said William, insulted, "I’ll have you know that was a perfectly good plan! I gave Harmony that plan myself. Would have worked too, if she hadn’t been too bloody stupid to control her minions!"

"And this is helping, how?"

"Uh, sorry, love. Obviously I’m glad she didn’t succeed." William said hastily, then muttered, under his breath, "but no reason to blame the plan!"

"So, Mr. Dead and Loving it, can you come up with an equally brilliant plan to counteract this one?" Xander asked sarcastically.

"Matter of fact, I can. But I’ll need transport. I can’t rely on cabs and the train is too slow."

"I have a car." The voice was that of Pricilla Scott. "I will be willing to transport you wherever you need to go."

"How big is your trunk?" William asked. "We have to leave before the sun sets. Oh, and ladies...I’m going to need that locator spell. Just to know where to meet up with you later."

He explained his plan, and Willow and Tara contributed some ideas of their own. The Wiccas performed the locator spell, using the map of New York that Buffy kept around just in case. William got up and gathered a bag of demon restraints and weapons including a cattle prod that had come in fairly handy in the past year. William grabbed his jacket.

"Hey Norm Abrams, want to come with me? You’re looking way too fat and prosperous these days. I think you need some action!"

"You need a master carpenter?"

William looked toward Priscilla Scott who was putting on her coat and boots. He whispered, "Nah...I need a referee!" then louder he said, "Could use your help, Xander. And so far, as Best Man, you’ve really been falling down on the job. I mean I didn’t even get a proper bachelor party, no girls jumpin’ out of cakes, nothin'!"

Xander looked at Anya, who hesitated and then reluctantly nodded. "Sure Spi-William. Count me in!"

The longest afternoon of Dawn’s life dragged on interminably. Finch had brought Emily books and a puzzle to keep her occupied, plus Dawn told her stories, but the time crawled by. Some time after noon, Dawn guessed, Finch had been joined by two men in military fatigues. One was cute, with a blonde crew cut. He looked a bit like Matt Damon, she thought. The other was a tall, fastidious looking black man who looked around the sordid room with disgust. Dawn imagined that in full uniform, he would look like a Marine-recruiting poster. Were they humans or vampires, Dawn wondered? The blond one came over and looked her over, licking his lips, as if she were a roast beef hero with extra mayo. Okay...so that answered that question. The black man glared at him, and he backed off. Clearly, they had strict orders not to touch the merchandise. The blond guy gave Dawn the creeps, but the other one fascinated her. He must really hate being a vampire, surmised Dawn. It’s so…messy. And vampires were always hanging around in grungy crypts and places like this. Obviously, Riley had recruited a much better class of minions than Harmony had. This thought did not bring her comfort. As the afternoon wore on, Finch suddenly left, leaving Emily and Dawn with the two vampires. She was nervous at first, but they mostly just ignored her, and sat and played gin on a couple of overturned crates.

Riley was in a foul mood. He waited impatiently outside the terminal for Finch to pick him up. The sun had set moments before. Finally! If he never saw another frigging airport, it would be too soon. He climbed into the car. Finch reported on the status of his guests, and about his phone call to Buffy. "Good. At least something is going right. Remind me never to fly across country again!"

"Well, it could be worse, sir. It could be summer."

Riley snorted, "Finch…do you always have to look on the bright side? It’s very annoying."

"Sorry sir."

As they pulled up to the condemned building, Riley exploded, "This is it? This is the great hideout you found? This place is a dump!"

Finch sputtered, "R-Riley…do you have any idea how valuable the real estate is in this town? They just don’t have abandoned warehouses lying around, and you said no hotel rooms. Listen...I was lucky to get this. The guys had to clean out a whole nest of skells that were squatting here."

"Terrific. Just the place guaranteed to impress my old girlfriend. I told you this was a reunion, right?"

"We could move, sir. I didn’t tell her the address yet."

Riley thought about it. The place was awful. Just the kind of squalid place that she would expect from a vampire. But it was too late, now. Finding a new place would take time, and he just wanted to get this whole thing over with. Besides, who cared what the bitch thought? Before too long, she would be too dead to criticize.

"No, Finch. We’ll make do. Make the phone call." He said, and entered the basement. The inside was as bad as he had imagined from the outside. He looked at his prisoners.

"Hey Dawn. Look at you. All grown up," Riley said jovially as he stood over the trussed up girl.

"Hey Riley. You haven’t changed a bit. " Dawn answered, her voice heavy with irony. " I have to compliment you on your lair. Real classy. Never expect to find a vampire here, oh no."

Riley’s smile faded, "Finch, why isn’t she gagged?"

"Asthma, sir. She couldn’t breathe."

"Asthma, huh? I see. And what have we got here?" He looked down at Emily, who had fallen asleep against the pipe. Buffy’s little girl. He turned to Dawn, "So your sister really married that old goat, huh? She must have been pretty desperate. I guess not every guy was as tolerant of all that Slayer shit as I was, huh?"

Dawn looked up, "Finch, why isn’t he gagged?"

Hmmph, thought Dawn, as Riley tightened the gag around the back of her head, that whole wisecracks in the face of danger thing always seems to work for Buffy! She looked pleadingly at Finch, but he just shrugged. No mutiny here.

Drusilla stretched like a cat and looked out the window at the gathering dusk. She sighed, happily and did a little pirouette around the room. This was her favorite time of day; the humans were so…unwary. They didn’t think that the beasties came out until dark. Drusilla picked up her favorite doll, and kissed its painted bow mouth. "Miss Edith, my sweetie, mummy has to go out and find some special treats for tea. You be a good girl now, and mummy will bring you back something special."

Miss Edith was dressed in a beautiful Victorian gown, but she was also wearing an odd assortment of oversized necklaces, draped around her neck. "Maybe we’ll bring you back some pretty pearls tonight, but only if you’re good."

She kissed the doll again, and slipped out into the gloom. She looked around the quiet residential street, where she rented a room. She usually didn’t hunt close to home, but she would be leaving soon, so it didn’t matter. She had waited and waited for Spike to grow tired of the Slayer and come to her, but now it was time to move on.

An elderly woman was making her way down the street, assisted by a walking stick. Oh the poor old thing, thought Drusilla, so frail and so alone. It quite makes my heart go pitty pat. What’s that, Miss Edith? Would you like her to be your new Granny? Dru approached the woman. She put on her best pathetic look, "Please excuse me, kind lady. I’m terribly lost."

The woman looked at her and smiled, such a trusting soul. Drusilla put her hand on the woman’s shoulder, and looked her in the eye. "Can I come home with you?" she whispered.

Suddenly from behind the parked cars came two figures. Moving incredibly fast, before she could even react, one had slipped a cord of some kind around her, pinning her arms to her side. She tried to break free, but the cord had a metallic core and was as strong as iron. She hissed like a snake, and tried to bite her attackers, but they wrestled her to the ground. She looked up at the old woman, who was removing a grey wig, and who suddenly wasn’t old anymore, but merely middle aged. More cords were being wrapped around her, and as they rolled her over, she could at last see her attackers.

"Spike," she cried, "My darling boy…you came back!"

"Sorry, Love." William touched her with the cattle prod and she knew no more.

"Hey lady…are you sure you wanna get out here?" The cab driver said dubiously.

Buffy looked at the boarded up building. "Unfortunately, yes." She paid the man, and gave him a generous tip. "Could you come back here for me in, say, forty-five minutes? I’ll pay you double."

"Sure thing lady. It’s your funeral." He drove off. Buffy sighed. Been there, done that, she thought as she walked towards the basement entrance. There she was met by a policeman, human, according to her slayer sense. He must be the kidnapper.

"Sorry. But I’ve got to frisk you." He said apologetically.

"I wouldn’t expect anything else." Buffy said coldly, as he frisked her rapidly and efficiently. "I knew it was pointless to bring any stakes with me. Pointless, get it? Now bring me to my daughter!"

There was a Marine posted at the door. He was armed with a rifle and sword, and stood watching the street to make sure that Buffy had come alone. As she passed him Buffy looked him over and remarked, "You really should find a better boss. You are way too classy for this operation."

Washington smiled after her as she went in.

Buffy entered the basement. Directly in front of her were some overturned crates, which she kicked aside. The light from the bare light bulb overhead cast strange shadows, but Buffy could see Dawn and Emily over in the corner…Emily against the wall, near a pipe, and Dawn tied to a chair. Directly ahead of her were an old washer and dryer, as in Winnie’s vision. Riley was sitting on the washing machine. There was one more person in the room…a young soldier who looked a bit like Matt Damon. He was standing between her and the prisoners.

Buffy looked at Dawn and Emily longingly, but the soldier moved to block her way. Emily cried out when she saw her mother, but Dawn shook her head violently at her to warn her to be quiet, and the little girl obeyed. Buffy approached the washing machine.

"Riley."

"Buffy."

"You know…we could have done this on the phone, saved you all this trouble. I’ll tell you what you want to know, no problem. Drusilla, bless her heart, is at Creedmore. Have you ever heard of it? No? It’s a…pleasant place, I hear, upstate. I believe the visiting hours are from 1-3 on Sundays. Let the girls go, now."

"Still a wiseass, aren’t you?"

"If you remember that about me, you should also remember that I don’t take this sort of thing well. What do you want, Riley?"

"I want you, Buffy. In exchange for the girls. Simple, right?"

"I’m flattered, Riley, really, after all these years. But wouldn’t flowers have been a bit more romantic?"

"You know, Officer Finch here is a bit of a softy when it comes to kids, but Burke, here? Not so much." Burke went over to Emily and grabbed her hand to pull her up."

"Wait!" Said, Buffy, "Let them go. I’ll do what you want…after they are free."

"Good." Riley nodded to Burke, who started to untie Dawn.

Finch went over to help free the girls. He led Emily and Dawn over to the far corner of the basement.

"I said free!" Said Buffy. "That’s not free."

"Haven’t got you yet," said Riley. Burke came over to Buffy with the handcuffs that had been on Emily.

Buffy obediently stuck her hands out in front of her, stealing a glance at her watch.

"Behind you." Said Burke.

Buffy sighed and turned around, her hands behind her back. Burke snapped on the cuffs, and shoved Buffy over towards Riley.

At that moment there was a commotion, outside the door. Burke and Finch both headed towards the noise, when the door was flung open, and a figure strode into the basement. Riley hopped down off the washer in astonishment.

"Who the hell are you, and how did you get in here! Wait! Aren’t you…Spike? What the hell happened to your hair?"

Continue to Part 10