She fell back one more step, her feet now firmly planted to give her extra balance. She rose up to meet the charging vampire, grabbing one of his lunging arms. She pulled the arm forward, letting the vampire’s own weight flip him into the air and over her head. He landed on his back.
An instant later, Buffy’s stake was in his heart.
“Wow,” Ian said.
Buffy gave an all-in-a-day’s-work kind of shrug. “Hey, without the Druid stuff, he was nothing special at all.”
Chapter 25
JOYCE WOKE UP.
Over the last few days she’d had the strangest dreams; dreams that all seemed to mean something.
This last one, though, really took the cake.
She’d meant to talk to Buffy about them, see if her daughter had any insight into the dream images. Not that her daughter would ever take the time to listen to her, especially lately. But after that last dream, it was probably just as well.
It was about one of Buffy’s friends, one of the boys. Except, in the dream, he wasn’t so much a boy as a—dog, maybe?
It could have even been a wolf.
Joyce could see the symbolism of this dream right away. A boy as a wolf? This was one mother’s worry—and a pretty typical one, too—that her daughter didn’t need to hear.
Oh, well. This last one had been a much quieter dream, without all the sinister shadow figures talking about the end of Sunnydale. Maybe it meant those earlier, upsetting dreams were over. Joyce would be just as glad if they were gone.
The earlier dreams had felt all too real, but this new one—a boy who was also an animal—
Who ever heard of such a thing?
It was almost morning.
They had all gathered back at the library one more time—all of the gang, and the three younger Druids, too.
“Well,” Giles admitted, “it may not have worked out exactly as we planned, but we did succeed.”
“Was there ever any doubt?” Buffy asked. At everyone’s look, she went on. “All right, so there was a lot of doubt. But we always pull through in the end.”
“That’s our Buffy,” Willow agreed.
“Ian and I have discussed this,” Giles continued, “and we can see no ill side effects of the spells Willow and Cordelia were placed under.”
“So I’m good as new?” Willow said.
“Maybe even better,” Oz agreed.
“I’m glad that’s over with, too,” Cordelia added, “even if I did have to miss the Spring Formal.” She smiled. “Of course, Xander’s promised to make up for that.”
“For the rest of my natural life, apparently,” Xander agreed. “Formal dances when we’re ninety.”
“We can only hope,” Cordelia added.
“Now, I’ve got a question,” Buffy asked. “Why did you guys turn your backs on us when the Druids were first around?”
Xander grinned a bit sheepishly. “I thought I’d go off and help them, they’d teach me some moves—I could become, you know, like a Slayer’s assistant.”
Buffy shook her head. “Unfortunately, the only job opening I have is for Slayer’s friend.”
“That reminds me,” Ian said. “I’ve got to apologize to Oz. Without our uncle here, I’m afraid we can’t do much for your lycanthropy.”
Oz shrugged. “Oh, well, If you’re ever back in town . . .”
“Which reminds me,” Buffy interjected, “now that you guys have helped us save the world, what are you going to do next? Take a little vacation in Sunnydale?”
Ian shook his head. “I wish that we could. But we have to go home and report to the elders. Eric’s influence might go far beyond my Uncle George. And we may have to search for others of his kind.”
“Oh,” Buffy said in a very small voice.
“But before we go, Buffy,” Ian continued, “I have to show you something.”
“Oh?” she asked on a more hopeful note.
“Yes. I’m afraid I left it out in the hall.” He walked across the room and took Buffy by the arm. His brothers turned to follow but he held up his hand. “Give us a minute here, people.”
He guided her outside the library. Buffy didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
“What do you want to show me?” she asked.
“I’m afraid it’s only me . . .” He put his hands gently on her shoulders. “If you don’t mind?”
Mind? What was there to mind?
They kissed.
Ian smiled at her. “I would never have forgiven myself if I hadn’t done that once.”
“I won’t forgive you if you don’t do it again,” Buffy replied, leaning into him.
“I’m sorry we have to leave so soon,” Ian said when they were done. “Maybe I can get back here and see you some time.”
Buffy smiled. “Hey. Maybe I can go to Druid summer school.”
“Look,” Ian pointed at the golden light filling the windows down the hall. “The sun’s coming up. And it will keep coming up, thanks to what we did last night.”
Buffy nodded her head. “Yeah. It almost makes up for the fact that, in about an hour and a half, I have to be back in school.”
Ian nodded. “And my brothers and I really have to go.”
They looked to each other, leaning in close enough to—
Cordelia burst from the library.
“Xander Harris! I don’t know if I ever want to speak to you again!”
Xander came trailing after her. “So I suggested we do a few things without a tux? What were you thinking about? Formal swimming?”
Ian waved to Buffy and went into the library to fetch his brothers.
Buffy sighed. But it was a good sigh.
It was the beginning of just another day in Sunnydale.
Return to normal.
About the Author
Craig Shaw Gardner has written twenty-odd novels and perhaps one or two that are not so odd, including the Dragon Circle series (Dragon Sleeping, Dragon Waking, and Dragon Burning), A Malady of Magicks, A Bad Day for Ali Baba, and Revenge of the Fluffy Bunnies, as well as the novelizations of such films as The Lost Boys and Batman (a New York Times bestseller).
Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Craig managed to escape and currently lives very close to Boston, Massachusetts.
Werewolves. Trolls. Cattle mutilations. Rain of toads. Skyquakes. Another day in Sunnydale.
But even with Buffy Summers providing her unique style of damage control whiles Giles is hospitalized out of town, it’s more than one Slayer can handle—especially since the abominations appear to be coming from a centuries-old portal through time and space.
Now Angel, Oz, and the rest of the gang are drawn into her search which will take them to Boston, Europe, and points in limbo, and bring Buffy face-to-face with the most nefarious forces in hell and on earth—forces bent on horrific plans far worse than the Slayer ever imagined....
Book One:
OUT of the MADHOUSE
By Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder
Published by Pocket Books
RETURN to CHAOS Page 21
