The Library—
“Oh that is like so beyond gross I don’t even want to contemplate it,” Cordelia gasped out. “Ick.”
“Ah, you *ate* him?” Giles asked tentatively.
“Um, could you fill in us rookies who don’t exactly get what this conversation is currently about,” Oz interrupted, his features clouded in confusion.
“I drained my father of his blood, technically eating him. But a vampire that has been drained of blood doesn’t turn to dust—they just sort of dry up. Kind of like a mummy. He was just as dead as if I’d staked him, but it also allows for how Li got her hands on his bones—whatever ones weren’t pounded into dust when the castle fell on him.”
“I repeat: *ICK*!” Cordelia’s lovely features were scrunched into a grimace.
“It would appear Li only needs a piece of the Duke’s bones—even a small one would suit her purposes. She certainly could have collected one in time to make her escape.” Giles began to pace. “She’s probably been looking for a spell to restore him all of these years, possibly even stealing other grimoires before this last one.”
“She’s goal-oriented. You’ve got to give her that,” Xander commented from where he stood looking over Willow’s shoulder.
“Uh huh. And psychotic, demented, and otherwise a complete freak,” Buffy enumerated from her chair.
“People, people,” Willow interrupted. “We’ve got the how and the why, but we still don’t have the where.”
All eyes turned to Leonora. “She’s not a natural magician and I’m betting that a ritual of this magnitude is going to require a lot of power. So she’s going to need to draw it from another source.”
“The Hellmouth,” Giles breathed.
“The Master’s Lair,” Buffy amended, her voice hollow. The place where she had died.
“Then that’s where we’ll need to go,” Leonora answered, meeting everyone’s eyes.
The Next Day:
The Ex-Master’s Lair (Subterranean Sunnydale)—
Li sat cross-legged before the altar she had erected in the abandoned underground cavern that had once served as the Master’s lair. The pulsing of the Hellmouth’s energy was all around her. In order for the spell to be a success, Li had to attune herself to it, so that she might be better able to control the energies after their release. She had left the others back at their hideout to prepare for the coming ritual, which basically meant that they were all hanging about, killing time until full dark. That was fine with Li; it kept them out of her way.
She contemplated which of them she would allow to live once the spell was completed. The younger vampires of the brood would certainly have to go; they were too simple to be allowed continued existence. Angelus would die. He was far too power hungry and focused on his own obsessions to ever be fully trusted. Plus his insolence annoyed her. Drusilla was out too; while she was extremely powerful, she was also highly unstable, not to mention irritating. Besides, her father had always had a weakness for brunettes and the idea of Drusilla usurping *her* rightful place at her father’s right hand, even if only for a few decades, was unthinkable.
That left Spike. He was brash, to be sure, but he was also intelligent. He would make a fine lieutenant in the new order to come. Minus the wheelchair, of course. Li would see to that after the resurrection spell was complete. And if he proved intractable over the death of Drusilla, well, he could always join her.
Li opened her eyes to survey the chamber, then went back to her meditations. she thought to herself, before falling back into communion with the Hellmouth’s energy. And all Hell would break loose.
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