Buffy looked over her shoulder at all the dead vampires and sighed. The gym was a mess, the decorations from the dance torn and strewn about, Lothos dead and shriveled in the center of the floor, the wooden stick from the chair leg rammed through his chest. Her legs quivered when she thought how close she'd come to letting him turn her. She looked down at her ruined dress and giggled. A few months ago, that would have been important. A few months ago that would have ruined her day. A few months ago she would have died.
She could hear the other kids from the dance screaming, the teachers and chaperones trying to pacify them out beyond the carnage of the upper parking lot. "Good luck there," she murmured. She was just glad they were out of her hair. If not for Merrick she'd have been one of those leading them in the wailing. She smiled ruefully and tossed another corpse on the pile, careful not to snag the stake that pierced the undead heart, then stepped back to observe her handiwork. A glance at her watch told her it was after four in the morning.
Pike dragged another corpse in from the parking lot. He was tall, thin and 17, his black hair slicked back and just starting to show the ravages of the night, sticking up and curling at the edges. "The first police car just turned onto Bristol." He was bent over and breathing hard as she walked up to him and put a hand on his back. "They should be here in a minute."
"Oh, boy, we're saved," she said, leaning her head against his shoulder. Her hair in a bun, in heels, she still barely cleared the top of his shoulder. Buffy felt his arm come up and around her shoulders, and cautiously slid an arm around his waist.
"And only about a two donut break too late. What are we going to do with all of them?" he asked, looking at the bodies of the newly dead undead.
"What do you mean?" Buffy asked. "Just leave them. Somebody else can do the rest of the cleanup."
"And what happens when some curious paramedic comes along and pulls out a stake?"
"Good point," Buffy said, looking over the bodies stacked like a cord of wood. "How many more are out there in the parking lot?"
"Two," he answered, his arm slipping off her. He started towards the double door that led to the parking lot. "I'll go get them." He stopped and turned to face her. "Do you have a plan?"
Buffy looked at the gym and nodded her head, then turned towards the back door that led to the school, pulling on Pike's leather jacket. In the inside pocket she felt a small box and pulled it out. It was a box of matches.
"What are you going to do?" he shouted at her retreating back.
"What I have to," she called back as she went through the door.
* * *
Pike saw the first response fire truck pull up to the police car as he stepped out of the gym. Down the road he could see the lights from more ambulances and police cars coming down Bristol Road towards the school. They were slowed, then stopped by the milling throng of students, chaperones and administrators from the dance who filled a good portion of the lower parking lot. He lifted the shoulders of a dead vampire and stopped, looking at her face. He knew her. He and Benny'd had her in their first hour. Her name was Heather. Benny'd had a crush on her.
He hefted her on his shoulder as the anger exploded in his chest again. He tossed her body unceremoniously into the gym and hustled out into the parking lot after the last of the vampires.
A man in a yellow firefighter's jacket stood over the staked body of the middle aged vampire. He bent over, his hand reaching out to touch the stake. Pike caught sight of his flowing black hair and grizzled chin as he approached at a run.
Pike tackled the man around his waist before he could withdraw the stake. "Don't touch him," Pike shouted as the man in the firefighter's jacket shrugged him off and grasped the stake.
Pike leaped to his feet and stopped short as the man rammed the stake completely through the body. The man's long dark hair blocked most of his face, but Pike could see the eerie yellow eyes and the flash of fangs as he turned to face him. "You won't save this one," the man said in a low menacing voice, "and you will follow him shortly."
Pike looked at the vampire in the yellow jacket walking towards him and screamed, "Buffy, I need you."
* * *
Buffy felt the cramp in her stomach as she heard Pike's shout. She dropped the bucket she was carrying and ran across the gym. A seam on the side of the bucket split and clear liquid started spilling out over the wooden floor of the gym behind her.
* * *
She burst through the door to the parking lot as Pike was tackled by a firefighter. "Let him go," she shouted, running towards them as Pike was pinned to the ground. She caught a glimpse of the man's glowing yellow eyes as she launched a flying kick at the vampire's head.
Buffy landed and rolled on the asphalt past the vampire, and was surprised to see him on his feet as she turned to face him.
"You must be Buffy," the vampire said, watching her with his cold yellow eyes. His body moved with deceptive speed as he dodged her kicks and punches, circling her.
When he moved, Buffy only saw a blur, and suddenly he was behind her. His arm reached out to wrap around her neck, but Buffy was moving with practiced ease to flip him over her shoulder. His hand grabbed at her bun, and she had to follow his fall. She slammed an elbow into his ribs to absorb the impact, and heard a satisfying grunt of surprise.
Buffy struggled as the vampire got an arm around her throat, then stopped. Looking up, she saw Pike standing with a three foot stake an inch from the vampire's chest. The cardboard sign that had announced the dance was torn from the stake and blew across the parking lot. "And you're toast," he said, plunging the stake down.
* * *
When the stake hit the ground, the vampire wasn't there.
Buffy rolled to her feet and faced the vampire. His eyes were normal, a light blue, and he seemed to be favoring his left side. A jagged slash in the yellow raincoat showed how close his escape had been.
"I'm not here to feed," the vampire said, holding up his hands. "I'm here to destroy Lothos."
"Stand in line," Buffy said, moving towards Pike. Pike passed the stake to her hands and stepped back, watching the vampire in its human guise. It was like no other vampire she'd ever seen. He stood just taller than Pike, thin but with an aura of strength about him. His face was angular, with a strong chin, high cheekbones and a warm smile. She didn't trust that smile, and it slowly faded.
"Where were you twenty minutes ago?" Pike asked. "Buffy's already set Lothos up for a shish-kabob." He walked over to pull another sign out of the grass.
"We'd be happy to let you join him," Buffy said with a leering smile and a flick of the stake in her hands.
"I have the feeling you mean that as something permanent," the vampire said with a small wave of his hand. Buffy flicked her stake towards him, just to be safe. "I assure you, I can run much faster than you can."
"Then why are you still here?" Pike asked as he walked back holding another stake.
"And who are you?" the vampire asked. "She's Buffy," he waved an arm negligently at her as she paced him. "At a guess I'd say she's a Slayer. And I'm Javier Vachon."
"At a guess I'd say you're a vampire," Buffy added, spinning the stake in her hand. She matched Vachon's slow move to the left, towards the school.
"But who are you?" Vachon asked, moving back to the right, shifting his eyes back to Pike.
"Does it matter?" Pike asked.
"No, I guess not," Vachon answered.
He blurred into motion and knocked Pike to the ground, ripping the stake from his hands. Buffy swung her stake through Vachon's jacket, catching his ribs on the left side and sending him tumbling to the ground. Before she could strike a second blow Vachon flowed to his feet and backed away, breaking Pike's stake into small pieces which he scattered on the ground. "It doesn't matter at all."
"If you've got something to say, say it," Buffy said, glancing at the blood on the end of the stake. "I've got things to do."
"How do you plan to rid yourself of Lothos?" Vachon asked.
"He's already dead."
"And his body?" Vachon asked. "Have you destroyed it as well?"
"Not yet," Pike answered.
"I was going to soak it in kerosene and burn it," Buffy answered.
"Good," Vachon answered, "It's the vessel for a demon, a vampire Master. If the body is not destroyed, some day it could return. I won't let that happen." His eyes started to glow an sickly yellow again, and his fangs once again showed themselves.
"Neither will I," Buffy said. She feinted to the right and pushed the stake towards Vachon's injured ribs. Vachon flowed right and stumbled, favoring his left side.
"Don't make me hurt you," Vachon called, backing away. "We have enough problems to deal with." He gestured at the crowd behind him.
"What are we going to do about them?" Pike asked, pointing at the crowd of students, administrators, police and firemen milling about at the entrance to the parking lot.
Buffy glanced at the crowd for a moment, and when she turned back, Vachon was running away, towards the gym door.
Buffy turned to Pike and pushed him towards the entrance of the parking lot. "You go confuse them. I'll take care of the vampire." She stepped over and hoisted the middle aged vampire corpse on her shoulder and walked towards the gym.
* * *
Buffy entered the door carefully, holding the stake in her right hand, pushing the door with her left. The body of the vampire was kicked through the door when she was sure the doorway was clear.
"I was brought across in the 16th century, by a woman who wanted someone to carry on in her duties," Vachon said, his voice echoing in the gym, the echoes confusing its direction. "I didn't want to be a vampire, but she didn't ask me. For four centuries I ran away from my responsibilities, but I recently learned even I have some obligations I have to live up to." He paused for a long moment as Buffy threw the vampire corpse on top of the others. "One of them is to destroy Lothos."
"You mean it only took you four hundred years to learn that?" Buffy asked, walking carefully into the gym, her stake held at ready. The yellow jacket of a firefighter had been discarded on the floor. Buffy tried desperately to remember what she'd seen underneath the jacket. "Kind of slow, aren't you?"
"You wound me," Vachon said. "I was young and scared."
"Becoming undead can do that to you," Buffy muttered to herself as she moved towards the bucket she'd left on the floor. She could smell the rich odor of kerosene emanating from it. "Oh, great," she muttered as she stepped into a puddle on the hardwood floor, "Now I'll need to buy new shoes."
* * *
Pike walked through the crowd of students to where Principal Murray was yelling at the crowd of students blocking the police cars and fire engines from getting into the school parking lot. In back of the vehicles he saw the uplink vans for two local TV stations, and an ambitious reporter and camera crew were running past the parked cars.
Pike grabbed Principal Murray's hand and shouted, "Principal Murray, the Channel 2 reporters want a word with you and the officer here."
Both men turned to him in mid-shout and followed his arm to where Pike was pointing. They glared at each other for a moment and straightened their hair and ties before turning to smile at the camera as the reporter held up a microphone.
"This is Channel 2 news, Reporter Merideth Maxwell on the scene at Hemery High School where many police and fire trucks have been called. With me now are an administrator from Hemery High and Police Lieutenant ..."
Pike backed away into the crowd and turned towards the paramedics who were advancing towards the school.
"I want three teams," the Captain of the Firefighters was saying to the gathered crew. "One will go into the gymnasium, one will go into the main entrance, and one will cover the grounds."
"What the hell was supposed to have happened here?" a firefighter asked, grabbing one end of a gurney.
"Gang fight," Pike said, walking up behind the Captain. "They moved over to the football field. I heard the screams there just a couple minutes ago."
"Then let's head over there first," the Captain said. He clapped Pike on the shoulder as he moved to follow his men.
"You might want to get the police over there first," Pike called out. "Several of them had knives, and I think I saw a gun."
At the word 'gun' the firefighters stopped and turned towards the policemen standing around by their cars. In a moment there was a flurry of police officers running to cars and grabbing riot gear, gas masks, batons, helmets, shields, shotguns and tear gas launchers.
He glanced over to where Principal Murray and the Lieutenant were arm in arm, beaming at the news camera, oblivious to what was going on behind them.
Pike watched the police settle into formation and file away from the school, moving towards the football stadium. The firemen pulled their gurneys behind them. Pike smiled and jogged back to the parking lot, towards his motorcycle, fumbling in his pocket for his keys.
* * *
Buffy glanced down at the bucket on the floor and knew where the puddle she was standing in had come from. Less than four inches of liquid was left in the bucket. She was glad Pike had accidentally ripped the bottom half of her dress off.
"Is that the kerosene?" Vachon asked, his voice still echoing. "I smelled it when I came in."
"What's left of it," Buffy answered, bending at the knees to grasp the handle. "It's all over the floor."
"Then it's a good thing we don't smoke," Vachon said. He slowly moved out of the shadows behind a fake palm tree and spread his arms where she could see him. He was of medium build, a little on the thin side, with sharp cheekbones and a slightly grizzled appearance, four days growth of stubble. "Listen, Buffy, I want to make a deal with you."
Buffy raised her hands, holding the improvised stake in her hands and faced him, feet spread for movement. "I don't deal with the undead."
"Just listen for a moment," Vachon said, his voice sounding strangely compelling. "I don't want to hurt you. We have to ..."
"Save that hypnosis crap for someone who'll listen to it," Buffy said, moving to the left. "I won't do anything you say." She felt the quaver in her voice, hoping Vachon wouldn't hear it. She'd almost obeyed him, too.
'Gods, she'll make a great Slayer,' Vachon thought. "I hope you never run into the enforcers," he said aloud as he approached her slowly. "They try to kill anyone who knows about vampires just on principle, especially those who are resisters."
Buffy stood still and watched his slow approach. "Hey, I won't tell if you won't. Can't a girl just do her job?" Outside she heard the unmistakable sound of a motorcycle revving up in the parking lot. She felt the inside pocket of Pike's jacket and pulled out the box of matches.
Vachon stopped several feet short of Lothos' body and looked at her carefully. "Only if she does it carefully. Is that who I think it is?" He pointed at the body in front of him.
"Uh huh," Buffy nodded.
"Shouldn't he be bathing in kerosene about now?" Vachon asked.
"If you want," Buffy said, taking a step towards the bucket and kicking it as hard as she could.
The bucket leaped into the air, liquid spraying out from it in an arc, spreading over the downed body of Lothos and beyond.
Vachon's eyes flashed yellow and fangs gleamed whitely as he leaped into the air to grab a cross member of the gym roof. Even so, his legs were drenched by the spray of kerosene.
Buffy dumped the single remaining match into her hand and struck it against the side of the box as she backed out of the puddle. It flared to life as she kicked off her shoes and tossed the match back into the puddle.
The flames leapt into the air as she pushed open the door, and air fought it's way in as she left the door open. She heard a window shatter as she sprinted out to where Pike sat on his motorcycle.
"Vachon?" he asked as she climbed on the back of the bike.
"Covered in kerosene and stuck on the ceiling," Buffy answered. "If he tries to come down, he'll get roasted."
Pike looked off to his left and saw the fire already up through the roof. "I'd say it's marshmallow time already."
Buffy glanced over at the school and shrugged. She didn't see the news cameras were already focused on the building, with her and Pike in the foreground. The flames leaped into the sky as firetrucks revved up and started towards the school, horns blaring, lights flashing as they edged by the reporters.
"Pike," Buffy asked as he revved up the motorcycle and started to drive towards the baseball field, "do you smoke?"
Pike was silent for a moment. "Do you remember when we first met?"
"The movie theater?" Buffy asked. She had to shout to be heard over the engine noise.
"No, the club. When you toasted Benny's hot dog," Pike said with a rueful laugh.
"Yeah," Buffy said, "and I asked you if you were trashed."
"I was," Pike answered. "But I met someone and swore it off. Why?"
"I found a matchbox in your jacket pocket," Buffy yelled.
"What'd you do with them?" Pike asked.
"I used it to light the fire," Buffy answered.
"Then it's a good thing I kept them," Pike said.
"Hmm, I guess," Buffy said and giggled, her arms wrapped around him. As they turned off the field onto a side street they had a last look at the gym, blazing like a beacon in the night. Firefighters swarmed around the building, trying to protect the school from going up with it.
They pulled up next to a helmeted motorcyclist who was also watching the flames. His plate said he was from Ontario.
Buffy nodded to him as he turned to look at them, but all she could see was his darkened face shield. He nodded back politely and turned back to watch the flames. She leaned forward against Pike and rested her head against his shoulder. She could still smell the kerosene.
For a few moments they sat there together, then the cyclist from Ontario started his motorcycle and walked it in a small circle. He flipped up his face shield and Vachon smiled at Buffy and Pike.
"Sort of gives the phrase "you light up my life" a new lease on life, huh?" Vachon slapped down his face shield and roared off into the night.
Pike and Buffy looked at each other and laughed nervously. There was nothing else they could do.
THE END
|
|
|
|
Rave
Barbie Girl (Becca)
biscuit07
Filmtheory (Jim)
Malice (Jess)
MebbtheScribe (MichaelB)
Reset (Allie)
Shay (Marrisa)
somnambulist29 (Shea)
Stephanie Loss
Wendyness (Wendy)
Questions?Contact Us
|
|
All stories on this site have been archived with the authors' consent. Do not copy these stories for your own uses without the express consent of the author themselves. Buffy the Vampire Slayer TM and Angel TM are © UPN, WB, Fox and its related entities. All photos on the site are © UPN, Fox, Warner Bros, and/or their respective owners. No profits are being made by use of these images.
Powered with the assitance of eFiction.
|
|
|
