“ Hello Oswald, where’s Kerri? I have to talk to her,” Cirrus said, pushing past Oz into the house.
“ Well, you see, that’s the thing. She was asleep on the couch a little bit after you left, so I went to bed. Then I woke up and she wasn’t there,” he explained, setting the guitar on one of the chairs. He had just arrived from the Bronze as well.
“ What?!?” Cirrus screamed. Oz backed up slightly when she whirled to face him. Her eyes were glowing brightly, electric blue.
“ I didn’t even see her leave, she was just gone,” Oz told her, his voice remaining calm, but he himself experiencing the ‘interesting’ feeling of fear.
Cirrus took a moment to calm herself, breathing deeply and growling a few key explatives under her breath. “ First Faith and now Kerri... Why didn’t you tell me?”
“ I didn’t see you until the Bronze, and then I was playing and you were moping. It didn’t really seem like the right time,” he answered with a shrug.
The female werewolf sighed. “ I better go out and look for her then. I’ll see you later Oswald,” Cirrus said, heading out the door.
Oz caught her by the shoulder. “ I could help you look,” he offered. She could see in his eyes and feel in his touch that the boy was truly concerned.
But though she was grateful, she refused.
“ No thank you brother, you’re tired and this is my problem. Goodnight!” she called as she jogged away into the night.
“ You made the necklace to do what to her?!” Willow shrieked into the phone.
“ Well I was standing right in front of her!” Xander shouted in his defense. “ I thought I’d be the first thing she saw!”
“ I thought you wanted a working spell this time, I mean, you’re lucky that it wasn’t Buffy or Cirrus or... eww... me coming through that door!”
“ Okay! Beat on Xander Harris day is offically over! Don’t you think I feel bad enough already? And to Angel of all people!! This is the second time he’s stolen my dream girl!!” There was a long pause after he said ‘dream girl’.
“ Cordelia? Cordelia’s your dream girl?” Willow asked, astonished. She had known that the icy beauty had felt strongly towards her friend, but it came as somewhat of a surprise that he felt the same. He had hid his pain well.
“ Well yeah Will, I love her...” Xander replied, and the redhead knew it was true. Just as she had her Resolved Face that made it known that what she decided was etched into stone, Xander had its mate, his Resolved Voice. And he had just used it.
“ Then we’ll have to do something else,” she decided aloud. “ Something that will get her back for good.”
Xander’s voice brightened. “ Thanks Will!”
“ What the hell do you want?” the Slayer growled fiercely through her tears, leaping up from the top of the tombstone to her feet.
“ Oh Faith, can’t we be friends?” the blonde said slowly, suggestively, gliding up to her with a hypnotic sway in her hips.
“ No.”
Kerri slid palms, starting at the dark woman’s stomach and moving, cupping her breasts for a second then drifting around her neck. She pressed her body closer and kissed the taller woman’s chin, causing Faith the stiffen. “ C’mon Faith... Let’s try to get along, for Cirrus’ sake... She was so confused last night she almost didn’t fuck me...”
Faith let out a scream of rage rivaling any that all the deities of war combined could ever muster, and would have flung Kerri off of her at that moment, but the second she had finished, Kerri slid her fangs cleanly into the Slayer’s throat. Kerri latched on with both her mouth and her hands, using her full unnatural strength. Faith couldn’t break free, and would have been destroyed then if the vampire hadn’t heard Cirrus stomping and crashing through the nearby hedges.
“ Kerri!” the werewolf exclaimed when she emerged. “ What happened? Why didn’t you stay with Oswald?”
If anyone had witnessed it, they would have been dazzled with her ability. In a matter of a few seconds, where there once stood a powerful and seductive vampire, there stood a weak, broken, confused, and very sweet looking teenager. Cirrus was taken in by the performance of course. She believed that the blood trickling from the corner of Kerri’s mouth was her’s.
“ Your friend from last night... she broke in... knocked me out... when I woke up I was here... she was hitting me so hard...” The girl rushed to Cirrus, sobbing, secretly trying to keep her from the tombstone and the unconscious body hidden behind it.
“ Faith? I thought I heard her scream. Where is she?” Cirrus asked, finally wrapping her arms around Kerri.
“ S-she ran when she heard you coming...”
Sigh. “ I have to find her. Go back to Oswald, do you know the way?”
Kerri nodded and Cirrus darted off.
“ Some big bad wolf,” the vampire scoffed. “ Can’t even smell her bitch when she’s twenty feet away.” She picked up the body of Faith, slung it over her shoulders, and carried it away.
Buffy couldn’t sleep. She crawled out her window and jumped to the ground. At least, she thought, Monday begins Christmas Vacation. Plenty of time straighten things out. Angel. He started to push past her other problems, Cirrus’ depression, Xander’s newly aquired self-loathing, the recent increase in demonic activity, and he took center stage. His dull eyes, too full of pain to shine. Buffy closed her own eyes. Why? she questioned. Why must love hurt so much?
Her queries received only one nagging answer from her aching heart.
Go to him. Go to him. Go to him.
“ Yes,” she said aloud, turning on her heels and walking back in the direction of the mansion.
“ What are you doing here? I thought you were going home.”
“ I couldn’t stay away from you. I told you already, I love you.” Slowly Cordelia wheeled herself into the firelight.
“ We both agreed that this was only to make Buffy and Xander jealous,” Angel pointed out. “ Remember?”
“ But then I saw you tonight, walking in, like a panther ready to pounce. I looked in your eyes and I knew I was in love with you. We’re meant to be Angel,” she persuaded, edging closer and finally taking both of his warm, calloused hands.
“ Cordelia... I...” he stuttered.
“ Shh... just kiss me...”
And for some strange reason that even the vampire himself couldn’t explain, Angel did as she requested. Unnoticed beside them, the flames in the fireplace shrank and dimmed.
“ Angel! I...” Buffy started as she jogged happily into the room, but she stopped abruptly.
They had pulled apart when she had first entered, but not fast enough. Buffy knew what she had just witnessed; Angel and Cordelia lip-locked.
“ Buffy...” the dark vampire stammered.
“ What is that freaky whore doing here Angel?” Cordelia spat jealously.
“ God... I couldn’t find Faith. Did Kerri show up here?” Cirrus asked, huffing and puffing.
Oz shook his head. “ No. Haven’t seen her at all.”
“ Shit...” Cirrus muttered. “ Oz, could you give me a ride to the motel? I’m dead tired.”
“ Sure.”
They sullenly, both dragging their feet, got into Oz’s monsterous van and drove in silence to the motel. Oz walked his friend to the door and walked just barely inside. Cirrus noticed immediately, for it was hard not to see the note written in blood on the wall, the message: Faith is yummy, it was hard for me to not just drink this blood. Going back to Daddy’s, say hi to my brother.
“ Oh fuck...” Cirrus muttered.
“ What does it mean? Who’s it from?” Oz asked. There was fire in his voice.
“ Kerri... she took Faith back to San Francisco... How could I have been so blind!!!” Cirrus screamed, her extreme emotion causing her to make her first involuntary change into the black werewolf.
“ Who’s her brother?”
“ Well... you are. Biologically this time. The man I trained with sent me to teach you because your his son... He didn't want you to know, he was ashamed... He also had a daughter, Kerri. That’s how I met her. And shit, now she’s taken Faith and is going to kill her!!” Cirrus collapsed to her knees, shaking violently.
Oz went to her, changing as well, and he pulled her to her feet. “ Do you have gas money?” he asked.
“ What?”
“ We’re going after them.” And he pulled her to the van.
“ Are they gone?”
“ I just saw them drive out of town. They’re chasing Kerri up to San Francisco, like we planned.”
“ Excellent. Are all the components prepared?”
“ Of course Overlord. All is ready for transferrence.”
“ Good. Have the sages begin the spell. We well be having so much fun with this little town by the time the sun sets next.”
“ By your command Overlord.”