RING RING!!!
The sound of the phone was a terrible alarm clock. How long had she slept? Half an hour?
“’lo?” Her sleepy voice was barely comprehensible.
“Giles?”“It’s Buffy,” she mumbled.
“What are you doing at Giles’ place?” Anya’s question wasn’t exactly the thing you wanted to hear first thing in the morning.
“ ’leeping,” she mumbled.
“With him?” The voice at the other end was shocked.
“Of course not!” Ok, this was enough to wake her. Just the thought made her shudder. “Anya what do you want?”
“I figured it out,” she simply answered.
“Anya, I’m tired. What are you talking about?”
“I know what’s up! The night’s coming, It’s worse than the end of world.”She looked towards the sleeping man in the room. Strangely he hadn’t heard the phone ring.
“Spike, wake up!”“Spike is there too? Are you sleeping with him? Again?”
“I’m not! Anya, just come here as soon as possible, teleport yourself.”
“I can’t. I’m not allowed to use it anymore. I’ll be quick.” Her sad tone was confusing Buffy.
“What?”“I don’t wanna talk about it.” The demon girl’s voice trembled badly.
“Anya?” But she had already put the phone down.
*
Buffy rose quickly. “Spike!” she called again, but he didn’t answer.
He was lying on the floor, his right arm bent under his head for a pillow, the rest of his body curled into a sort of relaxed foetal position.
Buffy moved closer to him, kneeling beside him. She couldn’t avoid noticing the almost childish and peaceful expression on his face. She couldn’t remember ever seeing him sleep in this position.
And then she realized she had never taken the time to watch him sleeping, during their sort of relationship. They simply shared a bed, when they were able to get to it, at least. She wondered how she could have been so close to him and yet so far. He was the first one she told about heaven. He was the one who probably knew her better than anyone. And still he was probably one of the people she tried to push the furthest away
Strange she wasn’t able to move away now, simply to stand up or to yell at him to wake up.
Buffy touched his arm, whispering his name. She had forgotten that his skin could be so warm, God, what was happening to her? Everything about him seemed to affect her so much. Just because now he was with someone else. Someone who loved him in the same way that she was loved back.
You must be careful what you wish for, now Spike has Lilea and no more crush on Buffy. Wasn’t this what she had wanted for so long? And then why did it keep hurting so much?
Spike opened his eyes wide at the contact. Her touch was overwhelming. She was bent, staring at him just a few inches away.
Buffy wondered if he had really moved back or if she had imagined it.
“What’s wrong?” he asked with a sleepy voice.
She shook her head. “Anya’s found out what’s happening. She’s coming here.”
She rose slowly. “I’d better draw the curtains in the other room, or you’ll have to stay here until noon.” And then she vanished through the door a little faster than normal, as if she was running away.
* * *
“… And Halfrek said that the night is coming, the night of the world I mean. She said we are living now in the day, but it’s sunset.” Anya finished her explanation.
“What does that mean, the night? And what is it like?” Buffy was standing not far from the table where all of them were sitting, pacing back and forth.
“Sorry, I haven’t a clue about that. She didn’t tell me. And the other demons didn’t speak about that. But I don’t think we’ll like it.”
Buffy and Lilea weren’t the only people in the room who noticed how sad Anya’s eyes were. She was living through something or she knew something she wasn’t ready to share. So when she said she didn’t know any more they accepted that. She seemed as worried as they were. And no one in the room thought that she was withholding information, rather they thought that there was something wrong with her.
Buffy thought it was related to what she had said about teleporting. The demon girl’s voice when she said she wasn’t allowed to do that was so hurt, but Buffy hadn’t realized it at that moment. She did just now, watching her almost apologizing for not knowing anything really helpful.
“It’s ok, Anya, at least now we know what’s happening, thanks. Not that it helps us, but… ” Buffy smiled at her, but she wasn’t sure her friend noticed.
Xander started to hit his head with his hand, lightly but repeatedly. “Why does this remind me of something? Ok... I know that I know this…” He repeated this a couple of times.
“That’s impossible,” was Spike’s answer.“No one was speaking to you.” Just rage in his voice. He always spoke to the vampire with this angry tone. Even though Spike had been back for more than two months.
And Lilea hated the tone Xander used with his friend. How could they be so blind? How could they not notice how changed Spike was? How could he not to notice how sweet and caring and sensitive a person he was now? Stupid arrogant human boy.
“Come on guys, this is not the time to fight like kids!” Giles shut them up before they started fighting again. The situation between them was really starting to degenerate. “What were you saying, Xander?”
“I said I remember that part.”
“Which part?”
“The night part.”
“Will you be able to end a bloody statement, sooner or later?” Spike got up, moving away from the table, while Lilea followed him with her eyes. Again, strange colors in him.
The human guy made him grimace. “The first time Giles told us about the vampires, he said that the beginning was different from what people think. He said there was a sort of Chaos, with demons and monsters, which could have been the last night we had.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Spike shrugged.
The Watcher looked at Xander with an astonished expression. “No, it’s not. You… you could be right.” Giles moved toward an old chest and started to look for something inside. “I thought it was false… exactly like the other one… What an idiot I am!”
Anya looked at the former librarian, and she hated that he was acting in this way again. Always when he thought he had the answer he started to speak loudly to himself, no one was able to understand until he calmed down. But this time she was too tired to wait for him to stop and share the knowledge.
“Giles? What are you talking about? We’re still in the room if you hadn’t noticed.”
The Watcher looked at them for a moment trying to figure out if his theory could be right. Then he moved toward a wooden chest. And he hid his head inside, starting to speak while he looked for a text.
“Do you remember the word of Valios?”
“What did he say?” Lilea asked with a quiet voice.
“It didn’t say anything. It was a talisman. I thought it was a fake, but it was authentic. One of my biggest mistakes. In the same sorcerer’s sale I bought this other book… I know it must be here somewhere!”
“And that’s today’s lesson, Lil. Watchers do make mistakes, all the time.” The vampire used his most ‘teacher-like’ tone of voice to explain.
“Spike! Shut up”
This time he bent toward Lilea’s ear but his voice was loud enough to be heard by anyone. “And they haven’t got any sense of humor.”
“That’s it!” The watcher blew the dust from an old book. ‘No more days after the night’ - well, not an optimistic title, certainly.”He started to read quickly, occasionally reading some passages out loud.
“The beginning will not be noticed. No one will believe the signs. An ancient race of demons will start to walk the Earth again, and they will remain unnoticed by humans. They will become stronger, grow in number and it will be too late to hope to defeat them. Almost all the human race will be erased from the world, the others, the less lucky ones will become hunted for the demons’ food, suffering eternal torments. They will be eaten until even the last humans will have become a legend. Until the day comes when no one will remember the humans.”
“That’s horrible for you! Hey, does it say anything about other demons, like me?” Anya again lost an occasion to stay silent. But that was the point the situation was not prospecting very well for no one.
“… the process will be gradual, and it will begin during the day. The air will be different. But nothing will be visible.”
“So, no hope, no future?” Lilea’s voice trembled at the prospect of an apocalypse. It was her first one. She wasn’t used to the idea of several of them. She looked instinctively toward Spike, but he wasn’t speaking.
“It’s one of the more pessimistic ideas of an apocalypse I can remember reading in ages.” The watcher kept reading his volume but did so silently for a little while.
“You must be wrong!” The official slayer interrupted the scared silence. “They always made prophecies and they’re so often wrong!”
“Buffy, I promise… I’ll make every search I can, I’ll ask the council to do the same… but…”
She looked toward her still unofficial colleague. “Giles, we wouldn’t have dreamt of Tara if there is no hope. Lilea & I can stop the night coming.”
The watcher started to clean his glasses for the umpteenth time. “I hope you’re right.”
*
They were around the thin table of the living room, Spike leaning against the wall, the watcher pacing and Buffy staring at them.Lilea didn’t really give much attention to Mr. Giles’ book. She was concentrating on trying to match the watcher’s words with her dream of Tara, the idea of more than one apocalypse. Then again, she didn’t usually need to look toward Giles. It was always useless. She couldn’t see him. So when she moved her gaze toward a faint sparkle walking back and forth, she was filled with doubt.
“Mr. Giles, can I have the your book, just for a moment, please?”
She missed Xander and Anya’s curious and doubtful looks. Xander had trouble keeping his thoughts on the girl to himself. He tried a couple of times to criticize her, but every time Buffy or Giles shut him up. Spike would probably kill him for what he was thinking about the girl. But he never hid his disgust for people who slept with the vampire. And while he loved Anya and Buffy, he felt nothing but revulsion toward this new slayer.
Lilea examined it carefully. The light wasn’t produced by the pages or the cover, so she opened the book and saw that inside the glowing was more intense, and the light seemed to become more powerful when she moved her hand closer. She tested the corner of the book’s spine, looking for something she couldn’t touch, but she traced the circular light she could see.“There’s something here.” Her voice again was uncertain. She couldn’t see Giles any more so she moved her gaze toward the only people she could see.
The former librarian cut the binding carefully. Inside he found some papers, maybe a dozen, and a very small talisman, as big as a 2 pence coin. [It might be better to use an American coin as an example, as this is set in America and written in American English.]
“How did you…?”
The girl blushed. “It was glowing… I mean, I saw it glow… ”
“Amazing”
Lilea rose from her chair, walking around the table toward the watcher, almost transfixed by that light.
Giles took the amulet in his hand. Just for a moment, but then he felt the energy of it flowing into him. And for a moment he felt the desire to have more. More power, probably more than Willow had the previous spring. That was too much.
A noise, and the amulet fell to the table. The watcher, breathless, let it fall before he became unable to stop himself.
“I can’t!” he gasped. “The power…” He seemed strangely confused. Buffy moved to help him. He was pale and he seemed have some difficulty in standing.
But Lilea didn’t move. She stared at the talisman on the table. Its colors were calling her. But she didn’t feel the danger that had scared Giles. The energy that the amulet was producing was not bad. She could see that. For a moment she thought she was staring at the essence of the universe. The feeble light of the talisman didn’t seem so powerful, but at the moment Giles had taken it into his hands earlier its color had changed and the light became dazzling. And it still had some of that energy.
She saw its effect on Giles: for the first time she could see him. For a couple of seconds before the noise of its fall onto the table interrupted her sight.
She saw Giles’ colors vanish slowly, now that he was keeping himself far from the Power.
Lilea hesitantly took the talisman into her hands. She wasn’t sure it was a wise thing to do, but she felt she had to. It wasn’t the hunger for power, but simply the calling of her instinct.
“Lilea, don’t! It’s too strong!” Giles cried out to her, trying to stop her, but she smiled, raising the other hand in order to calm him down.
She moved, as if she knew exactly how to contact the center of the energy of the amulet. She raised it to the height of her heart, then her throat, her mouth and her forehead, before putting it near her heart again.
Then new words started to flow in her mind and she didn’t realize she had started to say them aloud.
“mangin nia diama nio mia noagitzu ango aumaca niac dain miomyo niaka vala
nio miha noa
nio miha noa
nio miha noa”
Anya’s eyes opened wide, she could feel the stronger power in the girl. She could feel the connection with the day. Giles tried to move toward Lilea but still his equilibrium wasn’t normal, so Xander had to help him so that he didn’t fall.The slayer moved quickly toward the brunette, ignoring the chair she knocked over as she did so, while Spike jumped on the table to get there faster.
“Lil!!”
Buffy tried to take the amulet away from Lilea’s hand by simply attempting to grab it, but it burned her hands badly as if it was scorching hot. She cried out, taking a step back. Seeing that, Spike understood that he couldn’t take it from his friend’s hands, so the vampire hit her hands violently, so strongly that his chip sent an agonising bolt of pain deep inside his head, but this time the talisman fell on to the table again.
“Lil, look at me!” Spike took her shoulders firmly, shaking her without any gentleness.
“Nio miha noa,” she repeated.
Lilea seemed lost in a mystical trance, completely out of the world, her face filled with an indecipherable expression that seemed happy and worried at the same time. She raised her hands, with no hurry at all, as if she was moving in slow-motion, toward Spike’s face. “Nio miha noa.” She moved closer, as if she wanted to kiss him. Instead she closed her eyes, starting to caress his face with hers, in almost a feline gesture.
“Nio miha noa,” she breathed against his ear.
“Lil, what does this mean? Lil, luv, speak to me.”
Xander looked away, disgusted at seeing the girl move against the vampire’s body. The sexy way she was breathing against Spike’s face, the closeness of their bodies, the way the undead was holding her with his hand firmly pressed against her back in order to keep her standing, made the Scooby feel sick.
“She isn’t going to have sex with him just now, is she?” Anya voiced the question that was in everyone’s minds. Lilea, even though she acted quite affectionately with Spike, never acted in this way, or at least not when the Scoobies were present. She was sexy somehow, and also somehow creepy because it was obvious she wasn’t very aware of her actions. And even the vampire seemed confused by her.
Buffy couldn’t take her eyes off them and Spike seemed to realize that because he looked toward her with a helpless, and almost scared look in his eyes.
Then Lilea seemed to feel herself again. She stepped back, escaping from Spike’s hold, breathing deeply, then she swayed violently, just a moment before she lost her senses. The vampire took her in his arms before she could hit the floor. He walked off, carrying her, but before heading toward Giles’ bedroom he stopped near Buffy.
“Are you ok?” The girl looked at him: he didn’t take his eyes from her even when she looked toward the floor. He stopped closer, bending his knees a little in order to restore the eye contact.
“Buffy, are you ok?” he asked again.
Eventually she met his gaze just for a moment. This strange vampire with his unconscious lover in his arms, seemed to care so much, that it almost made her hurt. She could feel tickling tears coming and she had to fight hard to stop him from seeing it.
“Hey, back off!” Xander yelled from the other side of the room, playing the big brother.
The girl raised her eyes again, meeting Spike’s blue ones. “I’m ok,” she whispered in a gasping voice.
For the millionth time since he had come back to Sunnydale Spike thought that this could break his heart. Buffy was staring at him with an expression that seemed to be a mixture of pain and anger. Her eyes were glowing with the tears she was bravely holding back. And again he didn’t understand why. Usually the slayer was an open book for him, but not now he was back, not anymore.Xander was now near Buffy in order to protect her from the vampire, as if he was sure she needed him.
The human guy pointed to the unconscious girl coldly. “Are you going to stay with her in that position for the whole day?”
