Part Twenty Three

"Interesting."

Ethan laughed.

"Maniacal" would be the best description of the sound.

He whirled back to the tourist information map and flicked a ghostly finger at the "you are here" arrow and then drew the digit down to the mileage information box at the bottom of the sign. "Rutland, fifty-four miles."

Then he soundly cursed both his luck and his muddled sense of direction.

Spent of his anger Rayne mimed a deep head clearing breath and paced over to the cashier to tell her his difficulty. "Four cars and a truck. Five chances to hitch a ride and they all went off on detours! Each one worse than the last! Can you believe it? Now I'm stranded in Iraville, Vermont in this sodding tourist eatery!"

Unaware of the specter at her elbow, the woman handed the change to the departing patron. "Have a nice day."

"Oh, Luv.. I'm having a wonderful day." Ethan sneered

"Thanks." the customer answered stuffing the change into his wallet. He stretched a bit and walked over to the map and studied it for a moment before calling out to the cashier. "Which would be the best way to get to Burlington, Route 17 or Route 100?"

"Route 100 would be the fastest."

Ethan's head pivoted back and forth between the two. "So you are also the 'giver of directions'?" He crossed his arms and allowed his gaze to travel across the full dining room. "Someone in this crowd has to be on their way to Rutland." Uncrossing his arms he noted the time on the wall clock and with a sigh made his way toward the tables. "Six-thirty. I don't dare stay here, but I can't be going off in the wrong direction. Better start eavesdropping to find the perfect ride."

******

A movement crossing the backyard caught Joyce's attention. "That Caroline, seems to be a nice girl." She commented as she let the curtain slip back into place.

Giles finished wiping the counter and hung the dishtowel back on its rack. "Just what Xander needs."

"I think we'll be invited to another wedding soon."

Giles chuckled under his breath. "Xander has matured in the last five months, but I don't think he's ready for that sort of responsibility."

"We'll see." Joyce smiled. "But he's head over heels in love, and so is she. You can tell by looking at them."

Wrapping his arms around her waist he pulled her near. "There's quite a bit of that 'head over heels' feeling around here." He brushed a fingertip down her cheek and then lowered his head for a gentle kiss as she ran her palm across his shoulders and back.

"See why I had to come all the way to Vermont with you two? You can't even do the dishes without falling into a clutch."

Pulling back a fraction Rupert sighed and murmured the obvious. "We have company."

With a grin Buffy continued through the kitchen, opened the refrigerator and stuck her head in. "Does Karen's dad have any soda?"

"I don't know, honey." Joyce answered with a slight sigh.

Buffy's voice echoed from the 'fridge. "Willow found a Monopoly game and..." She shut the door and turned back around with a sly grin. "....Darn it, nothing good. But we can all have a beer."

Joyce shook her head and then wagged a finger toward her daughter who was now going through the cupboards. "No beer and I don't think it's a good idea for you to be rummaging through Ray's kitchen.

"Just looking for some munchies." Buffy sighed. "Will and I thought that since we're stuck here in the big house until that Alliance dinner thing is over we could have our own party. You know, play Monopoly and eat junk."

"I want the race car." Giles deadpanned.

Joyce snickered. "And I get the shoe."

Willow appeared in the doorway. "I've already got dibs on the shoe!" She piped in holding up the game token. "It's the lucky one."

"That's why I always take it." Joyce crossed her arms and did her best to pout. "So I'll just have to use the iron."

"If you really want the shoe..." Willow sighed, and held it out.

"No, you take it."

Willow grinned. "Thanks! I'll go finish setting up the board. Who's going to be the banker?"

"I think Rupert should be the banker." Joyce raised her hand. "All in favor say 'aye'."

Two more hands went up in the air accompanied by a chorus of "ayes".

"Was I just railroaded?" Rupert asked in mock annoyance.

"All Right.!" Buffy did a small happy dance and pointed toward a carton of soda on the pantry floor . "I found the pop stash now all we need is the chips."

Giles retrieved his coat from the hook and headed for the back door. "We have a bag of pretzels over in the guesthouse. I'll get them."

"Be careful." Joyce warned.

"I believe I can walk thirty yards without any problem." Rupert said back over his shoulder as he went out. For a moment he stood on the back step taking in the frosty air. "It's going to be absolutely frigid tonight."

"Mr. Giles, where you gon, hein?"

"Just back to the guesthouse for a moment." He answered, stepping off the stoop. "Are you and Xander going to be all right in this weather?"

"A, yes." Caroline nodded. "We know how bad the cold is up da bayou." She stepped out of the shadows. "But, nex year da meeting will be in New Mexico. Beaucoup better."

"I've never been there." Giles commented. "Besides this trip to Rutland, I've only seen a bit of the West Coast."

Caroline fell in step with him. "Dat's too bad. Lots of places to see between here and Cali." She paused to chuckle a bit. "Maybe you and your amoureause should come to New Orleans for da Carnival?"

Rupert worked up a frown. "I've heard about Madi Grais and don't know if my heart could take it."

Her laugh danced across the snow. "Á ca oui! Don t'ink dat yous would have any problem getting into Carnival." She nudged him with her elbow. "See, I've heard all about you and..."

"Oh Lord."

"Not a bad t'ing." She explained. "I just meant you have 'joie de vivre', joy of life, yes?" Her mood darkened a touch. "We all do. We have to, 'cause you never know."

"Especially in this line of work." Giles added. He stopped and looked back toward the main house. "We've all had our close calls."

"Dat's why we all live like we are couillon."

"I don't think anyone acts 'insane'." Giles disagreed.

"Ha! You don know us." Caroline countered. "But, you can't. No one knows us." She eyed him for a moment. "Just like no one knows da Council. So why dey doin' dis to you?"

"I'm not their favorite person." Giles shook his head and let out a frosted breath. "And neither is Buffy."

"We all grew up hearin' da stories." She flatly stated. "What da Council did to da Alliance and how yous better not trust any of dem farther den yous can throw dem. And I guess dis mess proves it, hein? Be better if da Council just chewed each other up like a tass of crabs in a trap." Giving her head a hard nod she continued to parrot the words she had heard since childhood. "Anyways, dey have been around for too long. Time for the Alliance to take over da Slayer and do it right."

Giles felt himself bristle at her words. How dare this 'child' dismiss centuries of service. How dare she reject with a wave of her hand the countless Slayers and Watchers who fell in the line of duty? "The Slayer, her calling and her training is bequeathed to... and 'only' to The Council of Watchers."

He rolled his shoulders and began to walk away, then with a snort turned back to her and added. "And, while we're on the subject of being untrustworthy, perhaps I should remind you that the Alliance was founded on the twin pillars of thievery and fraud." His eyes narrowed as he dredged up a bit more wretched history. "Then there was the incident in 1870 where, thanks to Alliance interference, the Council lost both a Slayer and a Watcher. Given the number of missteps The Alliance has laid on our doorstep over the years it's a miracle we allowed them to continue to exist."

Crossing her arms, Caroline returned his look dagger for dagger. "And I thought you were bon. Now I see, you just like da rest."

"Since we seem to have reached an impasse, would you please excuse me." Giles said and without waiting for a response continued on to the guesthouse.

******

With a click and a whoosh the ancient furnace ignited, belching out its usual gust of fuel oil fumes.

For the fifth time Wesley moved a few feet away from the massive contraption.

"Sit."

"Just trying to avoid asphyxiation." Wesley snapped toward his guard. "I happen to need oxygen. You do remember that whole breathing scenario?"

From his perch on the cellar steps, Travers repeated his command. "Sit."

Wesley allowed himself a stretch of his cramped muscles and then lowered his frame back onto the hardpacked dirt floor. With a mental sigh he resumed his inspection of his basement prison.

For the first few instances the faint glow from the furnace had shown him nothing more than bloodsplattered walls and the remains of some furbearing creature. But the last time the furnace had kicked on he had noticed something which had brought to mind the seed of a suicidal plan.

"Yes." He mouthed the word as he again caught sight of the pipe leading from the outside fuel tank to the furnace. "Now, to find a join or a weak spot and bring that entire line down."

His heartbeat began to sound in his ears as he worked through the strategy. "The spill will have to ignite immediately." He gave Travers a sidelong glance. "And the fire will have to envelope him in the same split second. That will destroy one of their melded vampires and hopefully consume Keith and Mark's corpses before they rise."

"Some will escape." His sense of duty sadly noted. "But destroying three creatures along with their base of operations is your only option."

With a long breath Wesley stood, went over to the furnace and opened the grate.

"Shut that!"

"I'm just warming my hands!" Wesley snipped back, crouching down before the firebox and holding his palms toward the heat. He turned back toward the flames and savored the last minute of life.

With a creak the basement door opened and Aaron began to descend the stairs. "Has our guest thawed out yet?"

Out of the corner of his eye Wesley saw Travers turn toward his master. Without a second thought he was on his feet. His fingers found and tightened around the fuel pipe and then he dropped pitting his full weight against the rusty nails holding the bracing strips.

A holding strap gave way and the pipe bent into a "U" shape. The metal groaned, underscoring the sound of his captors racing toward him. Wesley found his footing and gave the pipe a solid wrench pulling it free from its connection to the furnace. He twisted the length of pipe trying to aim the wild gush of fuel oil directly into the open grate.

Literally diving across the basement, Aaron caught the free end of the line, clamped both hands over the flow and forced the pipe down into the dirt floor. Travers wrapped his arms around Wesley's middle, heaved him off the pipe and threw him into the corner.

"Find the shut off!" Aaron screamed. "Shut this off before the whole place goes up!"

Heeding the command Quentin ran his hand up the pipe searching for the turn knob. He found it within seconds and shut off the main flow.

The flames shining through the open grate flickered, then brightened and then ebbed as the remaining fuel fed through the internal line. The furnace began to sputter as the oily smoke of half combusted oil poured out of both the open firebox and through the cellar and upward through every register in the farmhouse.

Wesley pulled himself up and sprinted toward Aaron intent on wrestling the line from the vampire's grasp while there was still a slim chance of setting the lair ablaze. Gagging on the smoke he crashed into his adversary and they both went down in a pool of oil.

Fighting blind, Wesley gave it all he could, but for every blow he landed three came back on him. He felt a rib crack sending waves of pain radiating across his chest. Then cold hands tightened on jaw and pushed his head to the side. With a snarl Aaron bit and drained the man to the point where Wesley felt his consciousness flicker at the edge of merciful blackout.

"WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Conrad-Chaney bellowed down the stairs.

Aaron jerked his fangs free and came to his feet pausing to give a final kick to Wesley's already battered ribs. "Oh, 'nothing'! Everything is under control!" Serpent-like he flexed his body to lesson the rush of the fight and then smiled in approval at the moan that wafted up from the body his feet.

"I ASKED YOU A QUESTION!"

"Quentin, drag our guest upstairs and toss him on the couch." Aaron spoke into the darkness as he paced toward the steps. "Well, Douglas old friend, you can say your nephew has balls. He tried to torch this place."

"That idiot! And how in the hell did he think he was going to escape?"

"He wasn't planning on escaping." Aaron divulged, passing Douglas on the stairs. "Noble sacrifice and all that."

"Whatever." Douglas grumbled. "All I care about is whether or not this pit is going to explode."

"I don't think so. But it's going to be a long cold night."

******

"Park Place with three houses. $1,300 - pay up."

Buffy shot her mother a pitiful look. "But, I don't have that much."

Joyce cocked her head to one side and smiled wickedly. "Then mortgage."

"All I have left that isn't mortgaged is the waterworks." She grimaced at the card. "And that's only worth $75."

"Guess what honey? You just lost." Joyce held out her hand. "Now you have to turn all your properties over to me."

The banker peered over his glasses. "No. Now she has to shuffle and deal out her property cards out to the three of us. The loser's assets are split up by the luck of..."

"Ut-uh..." Willow interrupted. "...all her properties go back to the bank and whoever lands on them can buy it."

Joyce crossed her arms. "We never played it either of those ways."

Buffy turned a set of cards back over and offered them to her mother. "How about I just give you my three red properties instead of the $1,300?"

"No bartering." Giles admonished.

"Unless the barter and the barteree agree." Joyce countered, glancing at the board. "If I take those properties instead of the money..."

Giles finished the statement. "You'll own the entire side of the board with enough money to put hotels on every space! Willow and I won't have a chance!"

"Right!" Joyce said with a clap of her hand. "Okay, Buffy.. it's a deal."

"Sorry, Luv. But according to the rules, as banker I have the last say in any transaction and I say 'no'."

Buffy wrinkled up her forehead. "Rules?"

Willow began to giggle. "Has anyone ever really read the rules?"

"I glanced at them... once." Rupert confessed.

Joyce tried to suppress a snicker. "That's once more than I ever have. I always played it the way my cousins played it."

"Xander and I used to play it using all the dice out of the Yatzee game." Willow added. "You could really zip around the board. And when there was four of us playing we would play partners."

Rupert arched an eyebrow. "Partners?"

"Two people would gang up on the other two." Willow explained. "And if you landed on your partner's property you didn't pay."

Buffy put her property cards back in front of her. "So, I could say, 'hey Willow, hey Giles... you loan me the money to pay off mom and then we can all gang up on her'?"

Joyce's jaw dropped. "Buffy!"

Willow counted her money. "I can loan you half."

"Willow!"

"She does own almost half the board as it is, plus more money than she can count." Giles pointed out. "So that would be merely evening up the odds."

"Rupert!"

The door opened and in came Matthew and Karen. Rupert turned around in his chair and greeted them. "Welcome back. Wasn't expecting you so soon."

Matt shrugged off his coat. "Has either Keith or Mark swung in here?"

"No... why?"

"They didn't show up for the dinner meeting."

Karen glanced out the window. "Dad, Sam and Renée just pulled in."

"Okay, let me get my gear." Matt said to her then turned back to his dad. "Hurricane saw them leaving the Inn at about fourteen hundred. They drove off without checking out."

The game forgotten, Giles came over to the pair. "Is this unlike them?"

"Yeah, sort of." Karen answered. "But it's hard to tell since they are Feds and they think they know everything." She twisted her frown a tad deeper.

Joyce left her seat. "So what is going to happen?"

"Couple of crews are already out looking. I'm going out too." Matt said then turned to give Karen a quick kiss goodbye. "Stay inside, Babe." He then headed for the hall closet to retrieve his equipment.

Willow blew out an upward puff of air that sent her bangs fluttering. "I hope they're okay."

"Yeah, Red. They're okay." Matt guaranteed as he passed by. "They probably went off on some wild goose chase."

"It just seems weird that Keith would pass up a chance to tell us what we're doing wrong." Karen disagreed.

Matt opened his mouth to reassure his fiancee but decided against it as voices began to filter from the kitchen. "I'm going to go see if the rookie saw anything."

Rupert felt the unease in his future daughter-in-law's voice and pressed a bit further. "Where do you think they disappeared to?"

"I just have a bad feeling."

Joyce reached out and patted her shoulder. "That's normal. When you're expecting anything can set you on edge." She forced a thin smile. "They'll find them and then you'll see it was nothing."

Giles caught Buffy's eye and gave a barely perceivable motion for her to follow him as he too headed for the kitchen.

Using his pen as a pointer Ray Karn directed everyone's attention to the map he had spread across the kitchen island. "Luis wants us to take the South side of town. Sam... you, Renée and Harris run your dogs on a sweep through the area where we picked up the trail on Tuesday night."

Sam ran his finger over the map. "We get a hit, yous want us to track it or call it in, hein?"

"I'll trust your judgment, you know the drill." He glanced up at Matt. "Giles, we're going to grid patrol the sector. Each of us will take a car. If you see anything call backup, don't go in solo. Caroline, you'll stay here with an open line back to headquarters."

"How serious is this?" Rupert interrupted.

"It's under control." Ray muttered.

Rupert went over and peered at the map. "Where do you want Buffy and I to patrol?"

"What makes you think you're leaving this house?"

"Because you need all the help you can get."

"This is Alliance business."

Buffy make a snorting noise. "Looks like vampire business to me and guess what? I'm a vampire Slayer."

Karn's jaw tightened. "No."

Xander rubbed his head for a second then added his two cents. "Uh... Ray... Mr. Karn... before this goes all the way downhill..."

"What?!"

"...They know what they're doing and we could use..."

"Rookie." Ray grumbled. "They're staying here and that's final."

"Old Man...." Matt said with a wave of the hand. "....you can't go. You gotta stay here with Karen. Someone's gotta watch the house and I trust you guys to hold the fort."

Rupert's stance softened a bit as he heard the appeal in Matt's voice.

"I would like dat, too." Sam said with a glance toward Caroline.

"Pere!" Caroline huffed. "I can take care of myself. Don need a baby-sitter."

"I don't believe anyone here needs a 'baby-sitter'." Giles said evenly. "I recognize everyone's expertise and all I ask is the same recognition in return." His gaze swept back and forth between the elders finally centering on Karn. "Well?"

For a pregnant moment Ray met the questioning stare. He understood how Rupert felt and also knew deep down that he would be just the same way, champing at the bit like a old-time fire horse locked in its stall as the alarm bells rang.

Just in the same way he knew that with or without permission the Watchers were going to patrol. So he relented... somewhat. "You and your crew can go out on the second sweep... if one's necessary. Until then secure the perimeter around the house." He gestured toward the kitchen door. "There's gear in the hall closet, enough for you and Buffy and Wesley to outfit..." Karn stopped mid-sentence and took a mental count of everyone in the room. "...Where's Wesley?"

"I'm assuming he's on his way back." Giles answered.

"Back from where?" Renée asked.

"He left at about 2:30 to go see you."

Renée inhaled sharply. "He din... I haven't seen him today."

Giles took a half step toward her. "Are you sure?"

"Damn, yes! I'm sure!" She swung her attention toward Xander. "Rookie! What da hell was you t'inking letting him..."

"He was gone when I got here!"

"Middle of the afternoon, fifteen minute drive!" Rupert interjected. "No reason to believe that he would..."

"Get snatched?!" Ray barked, picking up the phone. "Settle down! I'm calling back to the Inn and to headquarters to see if anyone has seen him today!"

Joyce, Willow and Karen clustered in the doorway. Before they even voiced it, Buffy turned and answered their question. "Wesley's missing, too."