Eliza came to, groggily aware of sitting upright with both wrists and ankles tied to the arms and legs of the chair. She squinted in the dim light. She was in an office somewhere, that much was clear to her. A large desk dominated the far corner of the room, and the light came from the banker's lamp switched on its lowest setting. A very large figure was cloaked in shadows behind the desk.
"Ah, you're awake. Very good. Saves me the bother of doing it myself."
Eliza shivered at the deep voice that seemed like it was hissing out of the depths of hell itself.
"Mayor Black, I presume?" Eliza rasped, her mouth thick and throat dry from her voyage into and out of unconsciousness. Sore too, she discovered as she swallowed. Spike could've crushed my windpipe if he'd wanted to, Eliza thought.
"Very good. I'm impressed. Spike said you were quick. Pity we can't have that." The figure rose from his chair and walked around to the front of his desk. Into view came the face that fit the hazy shadow she had seen before. Over six feet tall, he was firmly, powerfully built. His suit, expensively cut, molded to the muscles in his shoulders and arms. Immaculate, this creature. Dark hair brushed the his collar, and streaks of grey adorned his temples. Black eyebrows arched over intelligent and unreadable eyes, thickly lashed, all the more stark against his translucent white skin. Gideon leaned against the desk and viewed his captive, his black gaze pinning her like a butterfly in an entomologist's collection.
"Why are you doing this? Didn't Snyder tell you that I promised to stop teaching the class?"
Eliza heard a groan from the other side of the room. She turned to look as best she could. In a chair similar to her own sat the Principal of Sunnydale High School, bruised and bloodied. His punishment had started much earlier, she realized. Sympathy for the man welled up inside her. He was an unpleasant little person, but he didn't deserve this.
"Yes, you have company. And you have just sealed his fate. Arden, Arden. Didn't I tell you that lying would mean your death?" Gideon grinned evilly, evidently looking forward to seeing Snyder's demise. Arden hung his head in despair. "You, my dear, will share his fate. . . eventually."
"I'm not without friends, you know." She had to do something to bolster her courage, and a touch of bravado never hurt. Besides, thinking of Giles, remembering what they shared, did give her some peace. At least they'd had that.
"We know. Apparently Spike saw the Slayer heading his way when he put you into the car. I have my lieutenants watching all the entrances. So, should they figure out where you are, they'll have to move heaven and hell to get to you. Well, more hell than heaven, of course." Her captor took out a cigarette from a pack on his desk. He tapped both ends on his thumbnail and then lit it, drawing deeply and exhaling a thin line of smoke. Betting on the slim chance that Buffy and Giles would be able to beat the odds, Eliza decided to get a little information out of him.
"So. What's your deal?"
"Deal? I'm not making you any deals, my dear."
"Well, obviously. I mean, why are you doing all of this? What do you ultimately hope to gain?"
"Why, domination of this little corner of hell. Open domination, that is. I've had to work in secret these many years. I was here when this town was but a single street and a bunch of wooden buildings. No, I am in control here, but tenuously. And only during the night. I want it all." He took another drag off the cigarette.
"You know, those really aren't good for you. They'll kill ya," remarked Eliza. Gideon laughed.
"A sense of humor. Good. We vampires tend to lose most of ours once we've changed. But back to what we were discussing. At least you'll amuse me for a while. Others have tried to dominate here. The so-called Master. Bumbling idiot, that's what he was. Got himself stuck at the wrong time. I had a very long laugh over that one. And all those little fledglings of his. How pathetic. But they did serve one very good purpose, though. They distracted attention from my own maneuvering."
"And that was?"
"Now, why should I tell you?" Gideon grinned, enjoying this verbal game of cat-and-mouse.
"You've already made it clear that I'm going to die. Why not enlighten me and then let me take your secret to the grave? It'd be amusing for you, I'm sure, letting me completely understand everything and then pfft! No more Eliza."
"Good point. You're not going anywhere. Well then, to continue. While he was fooling about in his miserable prison with the lesser beings, I was securing my own future through networking in the human arena. My representatives worked for me in the affairs of the town and state during the day, while my own crew took care to subtly keep the other vampires not working for me, the 'renegades,' in line."
"Ingenious, and very modern."
"Yes, that's it precisely. Modern. The Master was an old-fashioned, time-logged, superstitious fool. Conquer and destroy the humans, indeed. He should have tried ruling them by ruling through them. Using their government against them. Take what allegory you will out of it, but I find it poetic.
"Everything was fine until the Slayer showed up. Unbalanced everything. Killing the Master. Got to give her credit, though. She's the only one I've seen with the guts to pull it off. When the wild dog pack, or whatever it was, killed off that weakling they had as principal, it gave me the chance to place my own man in there to keep watch over everything. I apparently chose the wrong man."
"I thought he did well," replied Eliza.
"Fool. He is as weak as his predecessor. He fell for you, blinded by your youth and vitality. Hah! Love and lust are for the weak. He babbled everything to you, assuming you would follow his instructions. I've not met a woman yet who will take direction. And it always ends the same. The woman who doesn't know her place dies."
Eliza fought the chill she felt inside. She half-hoped Buffy and Giles wouldn't come now. She hoped they would stay out of this being's way.
"Oh, they'll come. They have no choice. Too noble of them, really. And in vain."
Eliza raised her eyes to his in shock. This was no ordinary vampire. He was a telepath.
"Yes. A nice little trick when I can pull it off. Usually it works best when humans are at an ebb in their strength and energy. You and Snyder here fit the bill at this point."
Eliza strove to think of inane stuff, aware of what the vampire now knew. Damn.
"Yes, my little witch. I knew it was you who intruded into my affairs. When you began to teach that damnable class of yours, you created a danger, both to me and to yourself. Had you listened to Snyder in the first place, you probably wouldn't be in this mess. Then you caught me off guard with your puny scrying spell. Harmless in and of itself, because you didn't learn much. But it proved that you and your class were a potential danger. Shame, really."
"But what was the problem? Everyone takes the literature as fiction."
"The Hellmouth's magic works if they aren't consistently exposed, night and day, to the supernatural. Your class was giving them the kind of awareness that made them more observant, more aware of what was going on around them. We simply couldn't have that, now could we?"
"No, I suppose not," Eliza said dully, and began to pray.
"You know, that's really not going to help," Gideon remarked casually as he stubbed out his cigarette. When she looked again, his game face was on. More frightening than any of the other vamps she'd seen, he was evil incarnate. Eliza looked away, and a tear slipped down her cheek.
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