|
|
Part Five: Sunnydale Library“Let go of me!” Xander said, struggling. Regan deftly removed the stake from his hand and Xander slowly quieted down. “Can I let him go now?” Emily asked.
“No! I know him better than I know myself. He’s faking. Just like in our tickle-fights.” Emily blinked. The idea of Ms. Rosenberg in a tickle-fight with anyone, much less this schizoid she was holding down, was something she did not need to hear.
“Alexander Harris,” Ms. Rosenberg said, “Calm down now. All Angel’s been doing is the cryptic-guy routine he first used with, way back when.”
“Will —”
Cordelia cut him off. “I’ll handle this.” She turned to the Watcher. “And you were planning to tell us this when? Hellooo — when did you go into full Watcher mode? You know, tell them only what they need to hear, and sometimes not that? That’s so not like you, Willow.” Throughout all of this Angel had just stood in the doorway, saying nothing.
Ms. Rosenberg calmly answered. “I needed to have you here. Both of you. If I’d told you Angel was helping us —”
“We wouldn’t have come.” Cordelia said. She settled back into thought. Cale very carefully concentrated on the book in front of him, while Regan leaned back to watch the proceedings, a cold grin on her face.
Emily whispered, “This isn’t fun, Reeg.” Xander stopped wriggling, and this time Ms. Rosenberg gave her the go-ahead to release him.
“’s what you say. I’m having a blast. See, this why I don’t have friends.”
Ms. Rosenberg glared at them. Xander spoke, “Will, how could you?” plaintively.
Cale said, “I’m not really sure what your problem is with Angel, Mr. Harris. He’s been a big help to us.”
Xander turned back to Ms. Rosenberg. “You never told them? Tell me, do they have special courses in Watcher training for ‘How to keep really big important secrets from people who ought to know them,’ or did you just pick it up on your own?”
Ms. Rosenberg, surprisingly, grinned. “Special courses. Got an A in every one.”
Xander sagged back deeper into the chair. “Of course you would,” he mumbled. “Look. If you trust him, well, I still don’t. But I trust you.” Looking up at Angel, he said, “And as for you, Deadboy, keep your fangs where I can see ’em.” Angel held up his hands in an “I surrender” gesture but said nothing.
“I’ll keep this as short as possible.” Ms. Rosenberg then read brother Mikos’ prophecy to the Harrises. “And then there’s this undecipherable nonsense,” holding up another book. “It’s in six languages and doesn’t make sense in any of them. But there are two references to the undefeatable one, and something about drawing the power from the Hellmouth into herself. It also mentions the Slayer’s Soul and the Companions’ sacrifice.”
“We’re the companions,” Regan said. “Time to get the hell out. Anyone wanna come with, I’m driving.” Five pairs of eyes turned to glare at her as one. “What?” She demanded. “I’m not gonna hang around here and become a vampkebab.”
“Running for our lives. Gee, Will, why didn’t we do that?” Xander asked sarcastically. “You know, Slayerette standards have really dropped recently. They’ll let anyone in these days.”
Cordelia added, “Besides, the way you drive, you’d kill us faster than the vampires would.”
Xander whooped and hugged his wife. “A little short-term memory loss, dear?” She hit him on the back of the head, which only made him laugh harder.
Ms. Rosenberg sighed. “She does this every time. Regan, we’ve had this argument before.”
“I know,” the pale blonde grumbled. “You can’t escape prophecy, prophecy, blah blah blah.” She lapsed into a disgruntled silence.
Emily chimed in, “Besides, where else are you going to get to break necks and not get in trouble?” She looked up at Angel. “And what about you, mystery-man?”
“Elsza’s the undefeatable one,” he answered, “That I’m sure of. She’s large, strong, and very old.” He hesitated. “One other thing I’ve noticed. Sunnydale hasn’t had problems with anything but vampires in the last few months. No lycanthropes, no witches, nothing. The forces leaking from the Hellmouth are changing somehow.”
“Like they’re being drawn into Elsza, maybe?” Cale asked. Angel nodded.
Ms. Rosenberg closed the book in front of her with a satisfying thump. “We’ll work on this more tomorrow.” She motioned for Angel to leave, and he did so silently. “Emily. One more patrol tonight ought to do it. Cale, we’ll take you home. Regan — you go do whatever the hell it is you want. You usually do anyway.”
The pale blonde rose, saying, “I think I’ll join you, Emily. I feel this pressing need to bash a few heads in.”
“Vampires?” Cordelia asked.
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Regan rose and Emily followed her out of the library.
Cale said, as the four of them went to the parking lot, “Just drop me at the Bronze. I’ll make it from there.” They all got into the tan station wagon and drove off.