-
Xander said very little as he drove up to the address. There were several feelings on his mind. The first was how cool it was that he was going to party with Regine. The second part was that he was worried that the younger ones were going to get in trouble at the party, despite the fact that they were invited. The third thought that went through his mind was that they still hadn’t found out who the Big Bad was. They only know she was a female vampire and that she lived closer to the downtown area.
“I hate to quote Star Wars,” Xander said as he pulled the car up to the curb. “But I got a bad feeling about this.”
“Lighten up, X-Man,” Faith said. She and Tyler had been chatting through out the ride, mostly about the different fighting styles and the weapons Tyler helped create for them. It was his idea to use water balloons filled with holy water and to be carried in small plastic cups. They had dubbed them Holy Hand Grenades.
“I am lightened up,” Xander said. “Would Giles say okay to the party? Would Willow or Buffy? If I lighten up any more I would be floating.”
“I would have said glowing,” Tyler said.
“Glowing is good,” Xander agreed. “Of course I would have used glowing for something else, although there is the light part of lightening up.”
“Why are we discussing this?” Faith asked. “There is a party in that house.”
“She’s right,” Tyler said. “The last party before school starts.”
“Remember Tyler, do not mention anything about vampires to Lyra’s brother or Ace,” Xander cautioned. He had already told Lyra’s friends that they had to keep mum about the whole Slayer business. He just felt like reminded them.
“Not a word,” Tyler agreed. “Although I would like to go with the two Slayer’s next time.”
“Talk later,” Faith told him. “Faith wants to party and what Faith wants she gets.”
The rest of the group rode with Ace in his Kia , or possibly his parent’s Kia. Tony spoke with Lyra, something Xander couldn’t hear, but he was certain he was telling her to be careful and stay out of trouble and other basic things an older brother would tell his little sister.
“I can’t believe this,” Ace whooped as he nearly skipped ahead on the walkway leading up to the front of the house. “We get to party with Regine. Can that get any cooler?”
“Well if you threw in Emma Watson, Morena Baccarin and Kirsten Dunst into the mix and then it would be perfect,” Tyler said. Xander had thought he would have asked for Cheryl to still be alive but as far as his friend Ace knew she was still missing, even though her family had been found, dead and drained of their blood.
“Not on my list,” Ronnie said.
“Can we just be happy that we are here?” Ace asked.
“I’m happy I’m here,” Faith told him. “I’d be even happier when I’m inside.”
They did not dawdle any longer. The seven of them approached the door and rang the bell.
“Are you certain we are all invited?” Tony asked.
“We got the personal invitation from Regine herself,” Faith said. She turned to the face the house when the door opened.
The guy answering the door was nondescript. He also didn’t seem bored with the fact that he was given the doorman patrol. “I’d love to let you in.” He did not stop bopping along and grooving to the music. “I just need to see some I.D.”
“No problem,” Xander said as he showed both his driver’s license and passport. He stepped back to let the others inside and let them show their ID. The doorman placed red rubber band bracelets on the wrists of Tony and the other kids, mostly to signify they were under drinking age.
“So where is the party?” Ace asked as he had entered the house.
“Everywhere,” the doorman said. “On the first floor that is. Just stick to the first floor.”
He was not kidding. People were everywhere either talking or dancing. A few large rooms were chiefly for dancing. Xander thought about asking Faith if she wanted to cut the rug when he saw that the older Slayer had dragged off Tony and the two of them were dancing together. He turned to Lyra and her friends and he saw the four of them stuck together as they danced around.
“And once again I have entered the town of odd man out,” Xander said to no one in particular. He felt like he was in high school again. He could at least survey the place, at least the first floor. There were a few people sitting on the bottom steps with glasses in their hands and in the hallways people had gathered around to speak. He found a side door that led out to the large driveway and a back door. He also found out where the rest rooms were. That was useful information.
Looking up he could see the second floor and a second set of stairs that led to a third landing with two doors. He could see there was sort of a third story from outside but he wasn’t sure how much what he saw from outside but now that he saw the third story from within.
“I might as well get something to drink,” Xander said as he made it to the kitchen and dining area. There were a variety of snacks on the table and breakfast nook was set up as a bar. There was a small line leading to it.
“What can I get you?” The guy behind the bar said when Xander reached him. He was a tall guy with muscular arms and a strong jaw. There was something familiar about him.
“Just beer me for now,” Xander said as he held out his wrists.
“What kind?”
“Any will do.”
“Miller?”
“Actually it’s Harris,” Xander chuckled. “Sorry bad joke. I’ll take a Miller.”
“No problem.” The tall guy poured the beer into a red Solo cup and handed it to him.
“Have we met?” Xander asked as he continued to study the guy.
“I don’t think we have.”
“You just seem to be so familiar.” Xander took a long sip.
“I look like Arnie.” The bar tender smiled. “I get it all the time.”
“Ah. Well thanks for the beer my friend.” He took another sip wand walked out into a large room that is full of people dancing and nearly bumped into someone. “Whoops.”
“I’m sorry,” the woman said.
“My fault. I should have looked better to where I was going.” Did he just say that? Yes he did. He still hadn’t grown out of saying stupid things in front of pretty women. “I know my depth perception is a little bit shot, but I still should have looked better.”
“I don’t think you could look better,” the woman said. “Or should that be better looking.”
“Yeah well.” He started to nod in agreement until he realized what she had said. “What?”
“I think you are good looking.”
“Well you are also looking good and I better stop talking before I actually do say something stupid.” He took a long drink from his glass.
The woman laughed. “You are good looking and you are funny.” How much did she have to drink?
“I am a man of many talents,” Xander said. “My dance is fun to watch and can also make people laugh.”
“I might not be laughing if I’m dancing with you.”
“Okay,” Xander said. He took another sip from his glass and started to dance. He moved to the music, at first trying to mimic the other dancers before he shifted back to the famous Xander Harris style of dancing. When he glanced over to the woman he saw that she was also dancing next to him and she seemed to try to match him perfectly. Why did he have a bad feeling about this night again?
“You certainly dance better than that one,” the woman said as she singled out some kid in the crowd that was dancing like he stuck a finger in an electric outlet.
“That used to be my style,” Xander said. It took him a second look to realize that was Ace.
“What happened?”
Xander shrugged. “I guess I got better.”
-
The fruit platter was almost empty and Charley had the task of refilling it. He cleaned a knife and sliced up more apples and pears and pineapple. He cut another cantaloupe in half and used the melon baler to carve out perfect little pale orange spheres. The last fruit he added were the grapes, both red and pale green and the cherries.
“The ranch dip is also getting low,” Bosworth told him as he brought out the plate. “There is another in the fridge.”
“I can only do one thing at a time,” Charley said. He brought out the dish and replaced all the eaten fruit with the ones he had just cut up.
“I had no idea you were also brining out cherries,” Lyra said. She had used a hair clip to put up her hair and she was wearing a light blue shiny shirt. She was standing at the buffet table, nibbling a cracker with some cheese on it.
“They seem to be popular tonight,” Charley said. He smiled at her. “I’m glad you made it.”
“I couldn’t pass it up for anything,” She said before she finished her cracker. She followed him back to the kitchen. “Need help with anything?”
“You are one of the guests and I am one of the hosts,” Charley said. He reached into the fridge and pulled out another container of ranch dip. “I should be asking you if you want anything or need any help.”
“All I need is a Sprite,” Lyra told him. She glanced at the line. “But I don’t mind waiting.”
“If you insist,” he told her.
“It would only be fair.”
Charley replaced the dip and came back to wait with Lyra. A citrus flavored drink did sound about right. “Don’t mind if I wait with you?”
“Of course not,” Lyra said. “What is it like living with Regine?”
“It has it’s good and it’s bad days,” Charley said. Most of them were bad, but he could not tell her that. He couldn’t tell anyone that. One of Regine’s orders was that he could not tell anyone about his condition. “I don’t think I could even leave this place, even if I wanted too, even if I tried. Regine has that kind of power over you.”
Lyra shrugged. “I understand.”
‘No you don’t,’ Charley thought. ‘You have no idea what she can do and I hope you never do. I do not wish anyone would go through what I did’
“You seem to be deep in thought,” Lyra told him. “What’s on your mind?”
He shrugged. “Not much.” He looked up when he saw they were ahead of the line. “Two Sprites, Bosworth.”
Bosworth stared at him coldly. “Coming right up.” He filled the two cups with the clear drink. “One for you.” He nearly slammed it down in front of Charley. “And one for the little lady.” He set that one down more gently and smiled at Lyra. “Enjoy the party.”
“Thank you,” Lyra said as they walked away. “I take it you two don’t like each other?” She paused by the buffet table to grab a few of the cherries.
“Not much,” Charley agreed. He took a sip from his glass. “So did you brother finally get a night off?”
“That he did,” Lyra said. She popped the cherries into her mouth one by one. Charey couldn’t help but watch her chew on the dark red fruits.
“How many more of your friends came with you?” He looked out into the crowd, trying to see if he found any familiar face that wasn’t someone from the show and set. His gaze was drawn to a young woman who moved to the music in a sensual way. He blinked twice before he realized it was Faith. “I see your cousin has made it.”
“Oh?” Lyra blinked before she stared at the direction he was looking at. “Oh Big F.”
“She dances in an interesting way.”
“Yeah she does,” Lyra agreed. “Faith does everything in an interesting way. At first you want to know where it came from and how she does it, then you wonder if you should feel embarrassed or even intimidated for what she does and the way she does it, and finally you want to be her and wish you were more like her, or be more like her and be allowed to get away with it.”
“I have a feeling that even if she weren’t allowed to get away with she would still do it.”
“That does seem to be Faith in a nutshell.”
Charley nodded and took another sip from his glass. “How often do the two of you go around looking for those demon things to kill?”
“We go vampire hunting every night,” Lyra said, making her voice even lower when she said vampire.
“You call those things vampires.” Charley shuffled his feet nervously. He shouldn’t. She had no idea he was a vampire, a real vampire. She only killed those creatures with the deformed faces.
“Those are vampires.”
“I guess they could be a kind of vampire since they can be killed with stakes and holy water and sunlight I take it?” Charley had to ask. If there were other ways to kill those creatures he wanted to learn it.
“And beheading and fire,” Lyra said. She blinked. “You really want to talk about this here?”
“Not here. This isn’t a good place. Maybe over a cup of coffee.”
“I know the perfect place,” Lyra said. “Don’t know when though.”
“Next Tuesday around nine?”
“Morning or evening?”
“Evening. I’m pretty preoccupied during the day.”
“I think I can get that time off.” She popped the last cherry into her mouth. After she swallowed her eyes widened. “Did you just ask me out?”
“A friend date.” Charley did not want to intimidate her. “Just to get to know each other a little better.”
“A friend date,” Lyra said. “I like that.”
“We should go over the details. I mean I think we should exchange numbers.”
“And my address,” Lyra said. She took another sip from her cup. “I should tell my broth-“ The lights went out and the music stopped. Several people gasped. “Er about this. Hello.”
“Don’t worry.” This was all part of her act.
The music resumed but the lights did not come on. Several people were talking amongst themselves in small almost whisper like tones of voices.
A single light was turned on and shone down at one of the entrances in the form of a spotlight. Regine glided into the room a second later. She was dressed in a pale blue gown that hugged her entire body. The sleeves were long and nearly dragged along the ground. She moved like water as she danced around the room. Her sleeves and the scarf like attachments to her dress swirled around like smoke around her body.
Not a single person in the room spoke a word. Everyone was staring at her. Charley felt himself longing for her. He forced himself to close his eyes. He did not truly love her. The longing was pure lust and that was because of her hold on him. When he had opened his eyes he made sure he was looking at Lyra.
Like the others, Lyra was fascinated by Regine’s performance. Her eyes were wide opened and she did not move.
Charley turned his gaze back to Regine just as the vampire had singled someone out with her lacquered bronze fingernail. She curled her finger back and forth, beckoning the one she had sought.
The person she had chosen was Xander. The man with the eye patch walked up to her with his mouth hanging open.
“Dance with me, Xander,” Regine commanded in her most alluring tone of voice.
“I guh,” Xander sputtered.
“Take my hand,” Regine said as she offered her hand to him.
“Ya.” Xander grabbed onto her hand and was pulled to Regine’s chest.
Regine smiled and whispered something into his ear before she led him into a dance. It was a smooth tango. The two of them danced across the floor together alone while keeping the beat to the music. When their dance ended the music stopped and all the lights came on. Everyone in room applauded.
Someone shouted. “You’re so cool, Mr. Harris.”
“He’s cool?” Lyra snickered. “He kept tripping over his own words.”
“Regine has that effect on people,” Charley said. He smiled at her and she smiled back. He felt a little odd about the flirting and the date. She was young enough to be his daughter technically and she was a vampire hunter, his enemy. He still thought of vampires as being his enemy again.
“Something wrong?” Lyra asked.
“Nothing,” Charley said as the music resumed. “Would you like to dance?”
“Sure, I guess we can talk about date details while we dance.”
“Yeah. We can do that.” He took her hands and they moved together across the floor. He kept his eye open for Regine and saw that she was dancing with Lyra’s brother. He looked over and found Xander. He didn’t seem disappointed. He was happily dancing with Faith.
-
Maxine glared the minion on the floor. She had just backhanded him across his face with enough force to send him toppling to the ground. She did not break a single nail and it didn’t hurt, actually it felt kind of good. She should be able to slap them around for fun and not when they were being incompetent like they were.
“Can’t any of you do your damn jobs?” Maxine asked as she went to grab a cigarette. “None of you can take down the Slayer? None of you can even find me some strong demon grunts that will actually get the job done since you obviously aren’t going to do it?”
“I’m sorry, Mistress,” one of the minions who were still standing said.
“Don’t call me that,” Maxine said as she slapped him. She held back a little on the force and instead of sending him tumbling to the ground she made him stumble a little. “Strix aint around. You can call him master but I am just Maxine.”
“I’m sorry, Mis—Maxine,” the minion said while he rubbed his cheek.
“That’s better.” She stuck the cigarette in her mouth and fished around for her lighter. It wasn’t where she had left it.
“Allow me,” a male voice that had a thick Eastern European accent said. A hand covered in a fingerless glove appeared and held a lighter that looked like a rock of blue crystal in front of her.
Maxine allowed him to light her cigarette. She took a puff before she addressed him. “Hello Mullo.”
“You are stressed,” the tall man said as he flicked off the flame of his lighter. He had his long blond hair tied back. He wore a leather vest and pants. Tribal tattoos were easy to see on his sculpted muscles. He stared at her with his cold blue eyes. “You are working yourself over nothing.”
“Nothing?” Maxine asked. “We have a Slayer in the city killing all our underlings.”
He waved a finger. “Two Slayers.”
“Shit.”
“Do not trouble yourself,” Mullo said.
“Why shouldn’t I?” Maxine said before she took another long drag. “We have two Slayers in town that’s going to bring us nothing but trouble.”
“You need to relax.” He stood behind her and Maxine knew he was going to try and knead her muscles.
“Oh no,” she stepped away from him. “You can think it’s no big deal and play with your magic tricks. Nobody is going to suspect the truth about you. They will be going after me.”
“You need to order the underlings to lie low, do not sire within the city.”
“We need an army.”
“No,” he pointed at her. “We will keep things low and when they think they have killed all the vampires they will move on. This is an order.” He walked out of her penthouse.
“An order.” She rolled her eyes. She might have the idiots that were loyal to him follow his commands but she still had those who served her first. They will find the Slayers and kill them.