The Bride of Dorvar: Part 1
by Amy Donegan
*Note: This is a working title, suggestions for a more appropriate name are welcomed.
Okay, this is my first fanfic attempt of any sort. I got the idea shortly after watching the pilot and determining Giles needed a hint of romance in his life (later, the appearance of Ms. Calendar led me to believe others thought so too). After seeing ANGEL, I broadened my idea a bit (still without writing anything down). I nearly gave it up after seeing IRYJ, but reading other fanfics inspired me to try…please be gentle, but all comments are welcome at DnADonegan.aol.com.
Chronology: First season sometime between ANGEL and IRYJ.
Legality: Except for Adriana and Dorvar (who belong to me, of course) - all characters and places belong to Warners and Joss Whedon (DUH). Thank you Joss for not being satisfied with the movie and bringing Buffy into our homes. Any similarity to others ideas and fanfics is strictly coincidental.
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Part One
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Giles didn't know why he felt so exhausted, unless it was the many sleepless nights of research finally weighing down on him. Still, things had been relatively quiet lately, so he had actually gone home for the night. That was the problem, of course, that things had been quiet. He felt tense with expectation and no matter how much he read in the prophecies at hand, he couldn't quite discern what was coming. So he was entering his office both tired and tense. He dropped his books instantly at what he saw.
Black leather boots propped on his desk, connected to well-turned calves and an enticing amount of shapely thigh revealed under a simple gray wool suit-skirt. He did not allow his gaze to linger, much, and quickly scanned the simple white with lace-trimmed shirt to her face. She had exotic, Mediterranean looks, dark eyes and jet black hair, which must have fallen well below her shoulders as it was plaited neatly around her head in a corona more reminiscent of Norse women, but somehow appropriate. She pursed her lips in amusement at his bemusement and swung her legs gracefully off the desk to stand.
"Mr. Giles?" She asked, though obviously sure of who he was.
"Uh...Yes," he replied, nervously pushing his spectacles up on his nose.
She smiled fully and reached one hand across the desk, making him realize that she had place herself in the position of power and authority. Even so, he met her gesture to shake hands.
"I am Adriana Carson, the History substitute," she introduced herself.
"Yes, of course," Giles replied absently, he wondered what had happened to the old History teacher -- if he had been eaten by hyena-humans, or murdered by an oversized insect. Lost in thought he turned toward the door of his office and noticed the keys still hanging from the knob. He *had* locked up last night, he turned back to his odd but beautiful visitor curious. She was still smiling.
"The bobby-pin is a wonderful and versatile tool," she answered his unspoken question then returned to a business like manner.
"One of my students in third hour mentioned how the library 'creeped her out' and that the librarian had brought a lot of musty old books of his own. I decided to check it out and now I know I'm in the right place." She held up one of his more useful prophetic references.
He snatched it from her unceremoniously and held it possessively to his chest before asking, "right place?"
"Right," she said as if it were obvious, "so I'm guessing Buffy Summers, right? Because the only other female student that spends a great deal of time with you is Willow Rosenburg and she does quite have that *Slayer* punch," she held up a fist for emphasis.
Giles felt panic welling up in his chest, but only half pretended confusion, "I beg your pardon, 'Slayer'?"
The woman was not fooled, "Oh right, you don't know anything. Maybe I should tell you my family name before they immigrated to America. Technically, I'm Adriana Karonovich...."
She let the name seep into his gray matter and even as tired as he was, it wasn't long before he looked at her with a start and backed quickly out of his office into the open space of the library.
Rolling her eyes with disgust she followed him out, "Oh for pity's sake, Giles, look!" She swung an arm out to the upper level windows where sunlight was streaming in. Then, for further proof she unbuttoned her blouse one button and pulled out a dainty silver crucifix.
"I'm not a vampire yet," she said with more foreboding than reassurance.
Giles managed to calm himself, nonetheless and asked stammeringly, "How...how soon."
"My *beloved* is coming for me soon," Adriana said sarcastically, then sobered, "I feel his approach thrumming in my blood -- I haven't more than a week."
"I see," Giles stared up at the windows, lost in thought for a moment, "I take it you're seeking the Slayer's protection?"
She smiled brightly, "Exactly, so, what do you say, Giles," she took his hand and squeezed it, "will you take my case?"
"So, Xander, what do you think of the History sub?" Buffy asked playfully nudging her friend before taking a bite out of her sandwich.
"You know me," Xander said, "I've sworn off beautiful substitutes."
Willow nudged him from the other side, "but you admit she's beautiful," she teased.
"And very chic," Buffy added, "in a Soho sort of way."
"And she's so smart!" Willow exclaimed with her usual innocent enthusiasm, "I've learned more in one week from her than I have all semester."
"She definitely has a sense of history," Buffy agreed, " I think even *I* picked up some knowledge from her...I wonder what she's doing in a place like Sunnydale?"
"Maybe she was broken hearted over some doomed love affair in New York and came here to get away from it all," Willow suggested.
Buffy's eyes lit with the idea, "tragic romance is good."
Xander, squirming between the two girls as they chatted fancifully about their new mystery-teacher stood suddenly and violently burst out.
"Or maybe she's some giant praying mantis come to avenge the death of her big-sister!"
The girls looked at him in surprise and then looked at each other for one silent moment before bursting out in a cascade of harmonizing giggles.
Openmouthed, Xander nodded in offense, "I see how it is. Excuse me ladies. I'm going to the library with Giles for some male-bonding...."
Still laughing, Buffy watched Xander storm across the courtyard, "poor Xander,"
"Do you think we should apologize?" Willow asked.
"No!" Buffy exclaimed reeling on her friend. Then, she saw Willows genuine concern and relented, "Oh all right, let's go."
Xander opened the door to the library and froze. There was Giles, typically poring over some massive book, but standing behind him, pointing at some apparently interesting passage, was the beautiful teacher in question.
"Xander, wait," Buffy exclaimed before she and Willow both ran into his back with a collective "oof."
The two adults looked up from the book then. Ms. Carson smiled and Giles rose to approach them.
"Buffy, I'm glad you're here," he began, "I would like you to meet...."
"Ms. Carson?" Buffy said, "we've met, I have her history class."
"Yes, well, there's more to Ms. Carson than meets the eye...."
Adriana came up beside him and gave him a mildly annoyed frown, "you say that as if there's not more to you than meets the eye...." she chastised.
She looked at Buffy inquiringly, "is he always so good at explaining himself?"
Buffy smiled, suddenly feeling an instant sort of kinship with the woman, "usually much worse...what's up?"
"By birthright, my name is Adriana Karonovich and I am a princess of a gypsy clan."
All sorts of warning bells went off in Buffy's head, " a gypsy princess?" she asked skeptically.
"Um, yes," Giles was speaking now, moving quickly to his open book, "the Karonovich clan has a far reaching ancient history. They were one of the minor clans of the dark ages until one resourceful Karonovich lord found a way to triumph over his enemies."
Ms. Carson was looking at Giles appreciatively, "*Resourceful*?" she asked, "that's quite a positive spin you put on my Great-great-great-great-great Grandfather's idea, may he rot in hell."
"He probably is," Giles murmured before continuing, "Yes, well, Karonovich found a powerful ally."
"He struck a bargain with the devil," Adriana interrupted, "he promised a vampire his oldest daughter's hand in marriage in return for the devastation of the neighboring clans."
By this point they were all sitting around the library table. Adriana continued the story of her sordid family history almost as if lecturing a class.
"The daughter was none too enthused with the bargain and ran -- to no avail. The vampire lord caught her finally and transformed her...." she shuddered, "it might have been the end of it except she was slain."
"I knew it!" Xander exclaimed standing up, "she's here to avenge her great-grandmother's death!"
"Xander sit down," Buffy ordered sternly, she looked at the woman closely, noticing the crucifix now dangling outside her blouse and nodding satisfactorily, "go on."
"She wasn't slain by a slayer, but by her brother -- upon their own agreement that if she was ever caught and turned vampire that he would slay her in honor of the memory of the human she once was.
"The vampire proclaimed that Karonovich had promised him the princess of his line and that any daughter of the house would be his until the end of time or the end of the family line -- whichever came first."
"Bummer," whispered Buffy.
"Yes, well, that end of the family line thing? You're looking at her... and I'm not too interested in becoming queen vampire so…"
"So you came here looking for the slayer to protect you?" Buffy realized.
"So I came here looking for the slayer to protect me," Adriana confirmed, "so what do you think, Slayer?"
Their eyes met for a moment. Then Buffy shrugged in a near carefree teen-age way.
"If he's coming here then I'll slay him -- that's what I do," she agreed.
"It's not exactly that simple," Giles said flipping a couple more pages in his book, "the Vampire in question is called Dorvar and he's extremely powerful."
"*How* powerful?" Xander voiced the question in all their minds.
"From everything I've read I think it's safe to say he's second only to 'The Master' -- in other words, the most powerful free moving Vampire on Earth..."
"...It's all the Gypsy blood he's absorbed through the ages, I'm afraid," Adriana added, "the Karonovich line had exceptionally strong seers, and any time he drank of one of my great-aunt's blood, he absorbed those gifts -- "
"You mean he'll know what we're going to do before we do?" Buffy asked.
"Not entirely -- even for an immortal Vampire, the seeing process takes a good deal of meditation and some contact with the people involved -- but he'll sense your presence here and he'll be expecting me to act against him."
"What about you?" Giles asked, "you said before that you could sense him coming -- what kind of gifts do you have?"
Adriana shook her head, "I have some limited potential, but nothing that I've ever developed -- I thought if I kept myself Psychically blind that he wouldn't find me -- a few years ago, it became obvious to me that it wasn't the case."
Buffy put up her hands to halt the conversation, "So basically you don't want me to kill just ANY Vampire, you want me to kill the most powerful Vampire around."
"Basically, yes -- I wasn't kidding about being queen of the Vampires. I don't suppose you've noticed a slight lull in the undead activity lately?"
"I was just thinking that there was a lull in activity this morning," Giles said surprised.
"Yeah, I haven't slayed a vampire in days…." Buffy agreed a thought coming to her mind, "in fact…."
"Not since I took the substitute job here?" Adriana suggested.
"Yes!" Buffy was excited and curious, "what's going on."
"It's the only benefit of being the Karonovich princess. Other vampires give you a wide berth so as not to incur the wrath of Dorvar."
"The *wrath* of Dorvar?" Xander asked, "isn't that a movie?"
The three women snorted with varying degrees of appreciation for the ill-timed joke. Giles looked confused.
"I'm afraid this is most definitely real-life," he commented.
Before his confusion could cause more amusement amongst the teens, Adriana cut in supporting his serious tone.
"I'm asking a lot here - a fight with Dorvar will no doubt weaken you, Buffy. Even if you succeed, the above-ground vampires will return in even greater force to take advantage. I can always keep running…"
"To what end?" Giles asked, "No one who has run before has managed to evade the ultimate conclusion of being transformed by Dorvar."
"I've done better than most," Adriana boasted.
"But you can't believe you can outrun Dorvar?" Giles asked.
Buffy watched the brief exchange between the two adults with some interest. She wondered how long they had been talking before she, Willow and Xander had arrived. Obviously there was some greater understanding between them. Giles seemed as concerned for her as he would be for an old friend. Buffy knew without question that they would help this Gypsy princess.
"Look, this is pointless. I know the risks, I know the consequences - if this Dorvar guy knows we're waiting for him, we're going to have to come up with a plan, so let's not waste time being noble and junk."
Adriana smiled at her appreciatively and seemed to size her up while speaking to Giles, "You were right, she is special."
She extended a hand to Buffy who accepted it. Buffy was surprised at the other woman's firm grip. Usually, even a strong handshake from a normal person didn't phase her. This Gypsy had a certain amount of inner strength that impressed even the Slayer.
"So what do we do now?" asked Willow, "research famous vampire traps?"
Adriana smiled and looked at her watch, "right about now you kids and I need to go to our fifth hour classes. Giles, I'll meet you here this afternoon."
"Of course," Giles agreed and Buffy watched him take her hand and grip it for a moment before Ms. Carson pulled away and herded the teens out of the library.
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