Drusilla...
PG-13
Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse, Cicelyverse page www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html , or direct to story at www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/Dru1.html
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...
Summary: An alternate Cicelyverse tale...In 1880 Cicely Addams Walthrop makes the right choice and saves her William on that fateful night. But Drusilla is not so easily cheated of her Prince...
A companion story to "Groom of Rosenberg" for Halloween, at the request of the Shes Who Must Be Obeyed...The musical touches are their idea...Sorry...they want a "Phantom-ish" story...
[the same old request for indulgence by G and S fans...This is an AU and the boys are working faster...]
Part XXXII...
March 1880, Night of the Mikado dress rehearsal...London, the Savoy Theater, ground floor...
"Wait, Miss Rosenberg..." Rathskeller put a hand to keep her back...A slight frown forming on Willow's lovely but grim face...As she prepared to advance on the door of the closet where the noble vampiral prince Angelis had taken temporary refuge from his pursuers...
In the interest of keeping his little 'family' of sorts undetected and safe, of course...
"I mean that for both of us...Even armed we're not a match for Angelis..." the Chairman noted in a whisper, looking at Willow's beautiful, somewhat angry face...Discretion is the better part of valor, he smiled...She calmed a bit, sighed, and nodded...
(Though given Angelis' cowering...Vladimir thought...Smiling blandly over at Willie...)
"But we can't leave him in there..." she eyed him...And his careworn but rather handsome, lean face...He looks tired, poor thing...Tired but gallantly determined...she thought...No, Arthur agreed... "But we've got to have help before we go charging that door..."
Gallantly determined to see this though...And...She resisted the overwhelming desire to beam at him...Protect me...
But Duty and the honor of the Van Helsing-Rosenberg family of vampire hunters being at stake, she focused on the task at hand...
And she had no intention of being sent off to find help like some helpless little...Arthur turned back to the door to the costumer's workroom, gently moved the poor woman's much abused corpse, and flung the door open...
Ummn...You're not leaving me here alone with Angelis?...she started a moment, staring at him...
"Help!...Get help!...A woman has been murdered!..." Rathskeller called out in a strong voice...And turned back to Willow...
Phew...Not that I couldn't have dealt with it, of course...Willow thought...
Several now in the hall off the main auditorium stared over...Among them the somewhat bewildered Sir Arthur Sullivan and the ever calm D'Oyly Carte...Who'd set out in search of their friend Rathskeller after he and his companion had raced off from them below...
"Murdered...?" Sir Arthur eyed Carte who offered a reassuringly calm expression and put up an experienced hand...Just a moment, lets look into this...
Was hoping to avoid this sort of thing, Carte sighed inwardly...Thank God, it's only the dress rehearsal...
"Rathskeller?...That you...?" he called...As he, Sullivan, and two others...Thankfully, his people Carte noted...Went to the door...
"Yes..." Arthur nodded...Waving them in...To see a tense-looking Miss Rosenberg in ball gown, a large pointed stick in one hand, a cross in the other...Facing the room's closet door...From behind which a sound as if someone were stumbling around in the dark inside...And on the floor...
"My God!..." Sullivan looked at the poor corpse... "Evie Sinclair...D'Oyly..." he turned to Carte...
"What has happened, Rathskeller...?" Carte looked at the Chairman...
"I'm afraid Carte...That I must regret to inform you that we have a vampire...Trapped in that closet..." he pointed...
"A what?..." Sullivan stared...
"A vampire, Arthur..." Carte told him quietly, turning back to Rathskeller... "I see...Another one, eh...?"
Sullivan blinked... "You believe..." he started...
"Our friend Rathskeller has other career interests besides his antiquarian researches, Arthur..." Carte coolly explained... "And was instrumental in helping us rid ourselves of a similar problem back at the old theater..."
Willow hearing, looking back in surprise...
"I'm afraid...To be honest...There are likely to be several involved here..." Rathskeller sighed to Carte... "But I assure you, Miss Rosenberg and I had no idea they were here when we came tonight..."
"Quite all right..." Carte nodded...Sullivan still staring...Vampires?...
Hmmn...Vampires...I wonder if Gilbert has ever considered...
"Well..." Carte eyed the Chairman... "What's to be done?...I assume we should refrain from summoning police just yet until our friend over there is dealt with...?"
"It might be best..." Rathskeller nodded...A crash from within the closet...Groan...
"What about Mrs. Walthrop?..." Willow suggested... "Is she near about?..."
"Cicely...?" Sullivan stared... Lovely girl but what the devil...?
"She is our current Slayer..." Rathskeller explained... "And might be the best person to deal with the brute in there..." Hmm-hmmn...Carte nodded...And turning to one of his two men, sent him off to seek the said lady...
Brute?...Angelis, a tad put out...Hardly a sporting choice of word to describe your adversary, sir...he thought...Still searching for some way out of his predicament other than a gallant charge back through the room...
Slayer?...Thought Sullivan...
"In any case, we will require more assistance before we deal with Angelis in there..."
'Deal with Angelis?'...The noble Angelis, listening from the closet, thought, somewhat annoyed... (The memory still rankling, obviously...Willie and Vladimir each noted to their mutual amusement...)
"Angelis...?" Sullivan asked politely...Interesting name...Must remember it for Gilbert...Hmmn...Ah, of course, he sighed, watching Rathskeller and Miss Rosenberg as they whisperingly debated their next move, Carte and his remaining man at their side...Vampires...Slayers of vampires...Magic and the occult...
Gilbert and his little jokes...And D'Oyly indulging him...Well, nice to see he's continuing his efforts to breathe some new life into his topsy-turvydom...Though this does sound a bit on the dark side for our usual audience...
***
Three blocks away from the Savoy...A narrow alleyway...
Henry, Jonathan, and Andrew...Gallant Slayer's assistants that they were...Charged on into the alley...Over several hapless, drunken or worse, wretches and past a rather annoyed streetwalker whose client had fled on Darla's and their appearance...In hot pursuit of a newly released from Dru's thrall and therefore rather confused, disoriented, and increasingly furious Darla...
"All right...!" she suddenly whirled back to face them as she neared the end of the alley...The three men halting and pulling back abruptly in some shock at her snarling demon face...
Not exactly the sort of "ladylike" behavior they'd come to expect from her in their recent encounters...
She resumed human face as they stood, stakes in hand, Henry and Jonathan holding forth crosses...
"What the devil do you three idiots want of me?...Because gentlemen, you've picked a bad night to become a plague to me..."
"We want Drusilla, Miss Darla..." Henry told her firmly... "Take us to her and we'll allow you to go..."
"What?..." she blinked...Amusement now taking hold...And perhaps just a trace of resentment, jealously, and buried far, far below...A trace...Just the faintest trace...Of despair...
Will no one ever come for me?...For my sake?...Does no one care?...
Genuine curiosity...A dutiful nineteenth century "grandparent's" insistence on maintaining good discipline...And her natural desire for revenge...Especially after the last week's humiliation serving as Dru's enthralled 'loving grandmother'...(Not to mention that miserable, worthless mate of hers ordering her around like some feeble human wife...)...Now included as well...
"You gentlemen seek Drusilla?...Whatever for...?"
"It hardly matters..." Henry shrugged... "Will you take us to her or...?"
"Or...What?..." she beamed sweetly...Looking them over...
Henry eyed his companions...Not a bad question thought Jonathan...Rather wishing he'd found a way to bring along his new crossbow...
"Well..." she waved a hand... "Leave that for now...The fact is, my dears..." she smiled... "I'm not unwilling to consider your request...If you give me more information as to why you should wish to meet with my gentle little 'gran...' Ummn... 'Cousin'..."
"We only wish to help save her soul...And protect those her demon would harm..." Henry began...
Oh...Darla nodded...
Only little humans would consider terminating one's Immortal existence with some dirty, foul little piece of wood to be...'helping'...she thought...
Hmmn...She eyed the bunch...Not exactly a formidable trio...
Still, if one of them got lucky with one of those stakes while she dealt with the others...Her likely luck given her fate these past few weeks...
"The Slayer would be grateful to hear you'd offered us assistance..." Jonathan now tried a new tack...Negotiation...As befitting an experienced and capable barrister...
"The...Slayer?..." Darla paused...Looking about...
"Am I to understand?...You gentlemen are associated with the Slayer...?"
"We assist her..." Jonathan nodded...As did Andrew...Though a bit out of our lines...he thought...Keeping his stake at the ready...
You're putting me on...Darla thought, blinking...
That poor girl...
Still...If they were telling the truth...And few pranksters would be likely to know of the Slayer...
"I might...Perhaps...Be able to give you some assistance in locating Drusilla..." she noted, smiling pleasantly... "But if we are to travel though the busy streets we must...I suggest you put away those things..."
"Once we get into those busy streets, Miss Darla...And you keeping ahead of us..." Henry nodded...
"And in return for this service?...You and your Slayer would allow me...And my mate?...A chance to depart in peace?..." (After all, I want the chance to rip him apart with my own hands...she thought)
"A few hours'...Perhaps a night's grace...So long as no human is harmed during that time..."
"Fair enough, sir..." she smiled, nodding... "Well then..." she beamed at Jonathan... "Shall we go?..."
"You first, Miss..." he eyed her...He, Henry, and Andrew carefully moving to allow her a chance to slip ahead...
"Naturally, sir..." she brushed off her dress a bit and proceeded past them and back up the alleyway to the street beyond...The three men cautiously following...
"What?...All three of 'em?...We are a forward lass..." the prostitute in the doorway at the head of the alleyway eyed the odd group as they passed...Darla giving her a slight frown...But for the sake of her temporary arrangement, refraining from what would have been her usual response...
"Yes, well...Perhaps if you developed a bit of class, girl, you'd do a reasonable trade..." she called back...Carefully noting the location for future reference if time should allow...
Trade?...Andrew hissed to Jonathan...Eyeing the woman in the doorway who leered at him...Need a better, love?...she laughed to him... "She doesn't seem the type to be in our line...Tucker's and mine, you know?..."
Jonathan whispering a hasty explanation as they continued on into the street after a pleasantly strolling Darla...
Oh...Andrew nodded...That trade...Yes...
"Bit out of my line..."
***
In the Savoy third floor dressing room, a wan-looking Cicely returning to consciousness stared round at the sea of faces hovering over her...The kindly large costumer patting her hands as she lay on a small settee...
"Doctor's on his way..." one man called from in back of the group...
"Clear back...Give the poor thing some air..." several suggested at once, to little avail...
"There, there girl..." the costumer told her... "See, the doctor will be here shortly...Here, now..." she frowned at a few shoving in for a close look... "Get back and let her be..."
"I..." Cicely gasped... "Doctor?...No..."
No...she groaned...Sensing...She looked up at the woman who read her thoughts...And shook her head...
"My dear...I am so sorry...But you're young yet..."
Such a dreadful thing to have happen on rehearsal night...A dignified-looking middle-age lady in kimono, one of several members of the chorus merciful spared Mr. Gilbert's wrath as not yet needed on stage, hissed to her companion... "Mr. G is surely to have a fit on hearing..."
"No...No..." Cicely shook her head, tears spilling over her face... "I haven't even told him yet...No..."
"Can I get him for you...?" the costumer asked gently... "Is he downstairs with the other guests?..."
"Simon?...Where's Simon?...The older gentleman?..." Cicely looked around...
"He was here, dear...But left just as you revived...I believe he went to fetch your..." the lady delicately paused...Glancing hastily...Ah...She noted the ring... "...husband..."
Yes...the Slayer sat up slowly...Dazedly staring at the concerned faces around her...Trying to hold back the raging thoughts...
Just as Simon warned me...I cannot protect the ones I love...Now our child is dead...And my husband may be worse than dead...She swayed a moment...
No...I am not ready to surrender Will to It...If we die, we die...she grabbed at the wall and steadied herself...But I will not let him die alone...
"I'm quite all right now..." she rose carefully... "Thank you for your kindness..." The costumer and several others staring at her... My dear...?
Did she really say she'd kill us all back on the stairs?...One gentleman in the forefront of the swelling group in the room and now spilling into the hallway asked a friend...Indeed...And looked like she'd do it, too...the other shook his head...
"Amazing thing that maternal instinct..."
Several moved to restrain her...The costumer taking her hand... "No, my dear...You must..."
She stared back at the woman, then the others immediately in her way...Nothing but cold Slayer in her eyes...Several involuntarily dropping back...
"Thank you...I'm fine....Please get out of my way..." she said in a low voice...Of steel...
"Now!..." she glared at the kindly lady who removed her hand, backing off...Blinking...
"Now, Miss..." one well-meaning gentleman tried to pull at her...She tossed him aside and plowed straight through the crowd without a word...Wasting no time on those moving to stop her...Gone in seconds...
The stunned group looked at each other...And the several now lying scattered about, in various sprawled poses, solely by chance none badly injured...
"The doctor..." an attendant just up from below...Fortunately for him from the opposite stairway to that which a grimly determined Cicely had just taken...Stared round at the groaning injured... "...is here..."
A good thing that too, he thought...But, the young lady?...he asked...Several among the crowd shrugging...
"Well..." one chipper young gentleman looking about...
"It appears she really was feeling better..."
***
Just a matter of staying the course now...Farris told himself as he descended the stairs, slipping past several idle theater hands and a few guests milling about either discussing the evening's extraordinary excitements or actively trying to reach the fourth floor and view the scene...
A matter of remembering where one's best interests lay and...Cicely's distraught face appeared before him, staring...Pleading...
Pleading for...he angrily brushed her image from his mind...
Her whole form now appeared suddenly, two steps below him...Looking surprisingly calm and composed...he blinked...Ah...
"Miss Halfreck?..." he eyed her as she looked up at him...
"I understand that condolences are to be offered..." she smiled...Finding herself rather startled by the harsh look he gave her in return...Impressive enough to even give a vengeance demon a strong desire to be elsewhere, quickly...she blinked...
"Is something...Well, apart from my thoughtless violation of your people's proprieties...For which I apologize...Wrong, Mr. Farris...?"
"No..." he shook his head curtly... "All quite well...Walthrop has been taken by our little friend...And Cicely..."
"Yes, I know...Again my apologies, sir...I should have put it more delicately..."
Several persons now moving up towards them...Farris hastily suggested they find a more isolated spot...
"The second floor here is practically deserted..." Haly pointed...They exited the stairway and quickly found an empty office which the demon unlocked...A gift, she smiled...Opening the door...
"I must be quick...Cicely sent me after Drusilla and Walthrop..."
Yes...Haly nodded...And she is seeking him again herself now, poor thing...
"A very devotedly loving creature, your Slayer..." she eyed him... "And though she has lost her child, Walthrop is not yet dead..."
"Well then..." Farris frowned... "Shouldn't you be seeing that Drusilla completes her little task?..."
"I intend to..." Haly smiled... "I merely wanted to coordinate matters with my ally..."
"And to see that you intend that our agreement be kept in full..." a slight edge in her voice...
He stared at her coldly...Sensed my hesitation, eh...?
"She might have died just then...If your Drusilla had done things properly..." he noted... "And I have every intention of keeping to my agreement with your Lord..."
Yes...Haly frowned, nodding... "I'm afraid that human soul of Drusilla's is attempting to make difficulties for us...It may have been a mistake to contact it in the first place..." she sighed... "But her demon alone was just too unfocused..."
"In any case...I am glad that you are not troubled by any doubts, sir..." she beamed... "Well, I should be about my business and get over to our Dru...I'll contact you as soon as the time and situation allow..."
Oh...she paused... "Drusilla has taken Walthrop to the tunnels below the buildings hereabouts..."
"If you could possibly keep Cicely from us for just a bit?...She's headed back to Dru's lair now...Just passing us now..." she pointed at the closed opposite stairway door... "At quite astounding speed..."
"Remarkable thing, love...Even given her Slayer recuperative powers..." she smiled at him...And vanished...
***
Drusilla...
PG-13
Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse, Cicelyverse page www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html , or direct to story at www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/Dru1.html
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...
Summary: An alternate Cicelyverse tale...In 1880 Cicely Addams Walthrop makes the right choice and saves her William on that fateful night. But Drusilla is not so easily cheated of her Prince...
A companion story to "Groom of Rosenberg" for Halloween, at the request of the Shes Who Must Be Obeyed...The musical touches are their idea...Sorry...they want a "Phantom-ish" story...
[the same old request for indulgence by G and S fans...This is an AU and the boys are working faster...]
Part XXXIII...
March, 1880...Just past 11 pm...
London...The network of underground tunnels running among several buildings around the Savoy theater...
Drusilla, her prize in tow, halted and gently set the battered William down beside her...He groggily stared round...A large tunnel chamber of one of the major sewers...Lit well by dozens of candles which she, with her enthralled 'grandmother' Darla's assistance, had spent the past week snatching or otherwise acquiring and setting here...
She sighed at his wanly furious face...Too soon, she admitted to herself...Both herselves...I have moved too quickly...It is not quite yet my time...If the visions hold true...
And yet...What was to be done?...
You lied to me...A thought asserted itself...You said he would choose us...Freely...And now, because of us...
She pushed the traitorous thought down...Foolish, weak sister...But could not repress the next which came to both herselves...
He must hate us forever...When he learns...
"We will take him, now...He will never hear of it..." she hissed...Audibly, she realized with a start as he stared at her...
"I'm sorry..." she smiled gently... "I sometimes talk with myself...It is lonely for me and sometimes there is only my sister for company..."
Your sister?...he looked about feebly...Slowly sitting up...Staring at the creature whose wan face now seemed so gentle as to be that of an kindly angel...
She waved a hand... "Call it imagination if you like...Mr.?.." she eyed him...
"Walthrop...I thought you knew..."
"I do..." she nodded... "But I thought we should be properly introduced..."
"And you?...Miss Drusilla...Who were you?..."
She blinked at him a moment...In all the years...No one...
"I..." she paused... "I was about...To...When Angelis killed me...But so many thoughts..." she paused... "So many years and days to remember...It's hard for me..."
And gently smiled... "My name is Legion...For we are many..."
So many...Voices...she murmured...As he watched...Yet, so alone...she sighed...
"There is someone, though..." he looked at her... "You called her... 'Bad Sister...Soul..'..."
"Ah...You're very attentive, sir..." she nodded...
"You have a contact?...Some kind of connection?...With your human soul?..."
"She and I talk...Some times...We are almost one...She is me, after all...And I sprang from her..."
"I can't believe your soul was ever evil, Miss..." he stared at her carefully...
She was silent...Staring at the wall a moment...He sensed something going on within...
"Why did you bring me here, Miss?..."
"I told you, sir...You are mine...Promised to me..." she hastily turned back to him, almost glad it seemed of the diversion from her own thoughts... "And I mean to show you what you will gain from being with me..."
"I am not yours, girl...Whoever's told you this is deceiving you...Listen to me..."
"Well then..." she glared... "Shall I finish you and we'll see what your demon has to say...?" she moved on him now...Staring...
He tried to back away as best he could...Then...Thinking quickly...
"You said...You were sorry to tell me...This way?..."
She stopped...
"What was it you were sorry to tell me, Miss Drusilla?..."
"Sir..." she shook her head... "You know very well what I meant...But I do regret...Spoiling what should..." she paused...A hand wave...
"This is all foolishness, silly human nonsense...You are mine and I will take you, now...Even if..."
"Your 'sister' objects?..."
"You want to do great things, William..." she began, ignoring his last question... "I can lead you to greatness...She never can...The dark world offers gifts you can't imagine...I can be your guide to a new world..." she pulled him over to some stairs, old and dank...Mind your step, sir...She lead him down...
"I don't equate killing a large number of innocent people with 'greatness', Miss...Though you are right, I'm vain enough to seek after 'great things'...One of which I've managed to find..."
She paused on a step and glared at him...Then sighed...William...
"Sir, I can take stronger measures with you...Your wife is in no condition to do battle with me and I spared her for your sake at our meeting just now...But I could go and seek her..."
"Do that, Miss...And if you survive I think you'll find even my demon does not appreciate you and all you have to offer..." he stared at her as firmly as his battered condition would allow...
Though my soul might appreciate having Cicely in Heaven with me...he noted...Eyeing her carefully as her face betrayed something...Uncertainty?...
So that's it...he thought...My demon isn't enough for her...That's why she's taking her time...
"I won't stay with you, Drusilla...I will seek her and all you'll get is my demon..."
"I could be content with that, sir...Never fear..." she frowningly replied...Then relaxed...Smiling again... "But you are a good man, concerned for your wife...It's admirable in you...Come now, William, come...See what I have for you down here..." she resumed pulling him down the stairs...
***
The Savoy, ground floor...
In the small workroom where Chairman Rathskeller and Miss Rosenberg prepared to do battle with the gallant vampire prince Angelis, currently trapped in the closet at the rear, another look at the twisted body of poor Evie Sinclair, costumer, had relieved Sir Arthur Sullivan of any notion that his old friend and manager, D'Oyly Carte was staging a little playlet to test out a new, somewhat darker than usual, Gilbert theme...
"It's true, isn't it D'Oyly?..." he stared at Carte... "You really do believe that the man in there is a vampire..."
"I'm afraid so, Arthur..." Carte nodded calmly... "But whatever the fiend in there is...He is certainly not a man..."
"Stand by, gentlemen..." Rathskeller called to them... "The creature may try a charge...Carte, can you get more men in here?...And have my man outside contact my people?..." He nodded and moving to the door, called to several staff outside the room, now engaged in keeping any curious guests away...
Within the back closet, the noble Angelis pondered his options...No way to be sure what those awaiting him just outside that door had in terms of weapons...And while his brave heart urged a gallant charge against his foes, his tender concern for his poor 'family' moved him to seek a less desperate course...
Perhaps it was time to utilize his most celebrated talent...
"Gentlemen...And lady?..." he called... "I think there has been a misunderstanding here...I am not the fiend you seek...Please allow me to come out...I have no weapon of any kind...And I can explain..."
"I was simply afraid when I came upon the creature attacking that woman...Surely you can understand that..."
"Take this...Ummn...Sir Arthur..." Willow handed Sullivan a stake which he took gingerly...Hmmn...He stared at it... "...and watch that door carefully...Be ready to defend yourself..."
"Angelis...I am Arthur Rathskeller, Chairman of the Council of Watchers..." Rathskeller replied firmly... "I will allow you to surrender...Intact...If you tell us where Drusilla has gone with Mr. Walthrop...At once..."
Arthur...? Willow stared at him...
"Angelis, sir?...I..."
"Please, Angelis...This is no time for your games...You can surrender and be granted existence under guard and study...Or you can be reduced to ashes as you deserve...What is your choice?..."
Hmmn...The noble vampiral prince faced a grim decision...Which must needs cleave even his stout heart...But there was nothing he could do for poor Drusilla should he be reduced to ashes...And she'd probably already found safely in the vast network of tunnels she and Darla had broken into from their cellar lair earlier that week...
"Very well, sir...If I have your solemn promise I will not be destroyed, I will tell you where you may seek her..."
("In enterprise of martial kind,
When there was any fighting,
He led his regiment from behind--
He found it less exciting.
But when away his regiment ran,
His place was at the fore, O--
That celebrated,
Cultivated,
Underrated
Nobleman,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
In the first and foremost flight, ha, ha!
You always found that knight, ha, ha!
That celebrated,
Cultivated,
Underrated
Nobleman,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
When, to evade Destruction's hand,
To hide they all proceeded,
No soldier in that gallant band
Hid half as well as he did.
He lay concealed throughout the war,
And so preserved his gore, O!
That unaffected,
Undetected,
Well-connected
Warrior,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
In every doughty deed, ha, ha!
He always took the lead, ha, ha!
That unaffected,
Undetected,
Well-connected
Warrior,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!"
- from "The Gondoliers", Gilbert and Sullivan...
Willie sang as he went to fetch his guests another round, Vladimir joining in with a grin as Angelis glared...Having paused in his tale to give his request to the little innkeeper...Mr. Stoker currently jotting a few notes, Angelis just previously graciously agreeing to his borrowing anything of use for his and Vladimir's tale...
"Sorry, my friend..." the younger Dracula smiled at his fellow vampire's narrow look... "But the setting of the current passage of your tale has given two devotees of your adopted country's famed musical comedy team license to indulge themselves..."
"But please, continue..." He gave an airy wave and toothy smile..."Your 'fabled ancestor' was trapped in a broom closet and about to surrender and betray his own offspring...?" )
***
Outside the Savoy theater...March 1880, 11:15pm...
Darla paused by a sewer manhole...Eyeing it, then her companions, and waiting pleasantly...
"Down there, you mean?..." Henry Foxcroft, cousin and assistant to the Slayer, looked at her...
"Indeed, sir..." she smiled... "And if you would be so kind..." She eyed the cover...
"Watch her, Jonathan...Andrew?..." he motioned to Mr. Fowler to assist him with the cover...
Hmmn...Jonathan stared at the smiling Darla, now patiently waiting...She could probably lift that cover off with one hand and toss it several blocks...
But I suppose the social proprieties remain...Even for the Undead...
"I must say, sir..." she beamed at him as Henry and Andrew tugged desperately at the cover... "I do respect your desire to assist the Slayer in such dangerous work..."
"Thank you, miss...Please keep several steps back..." Jonathan nodded, waving a cross and stake held in separate hands, at her...
"Will you and your friends come for me, one day?..." she eyed him...A sad look briefly on her face... "No one has, you know..." she smiled wanly... "In all the years since I died..."
Jonathan...Henry hissed, shaking his head...The cover now pried loose...
"I think you'd best start down, Miss..." Jonathan waved his stake... Darla giving a somewhat sour frown at the open hole, then him...
"Surely, sir...As a gentleman..." she began...
"Please, Miss...You first...Now..." he stared back...Foxcroft and Fowler pulling their stakes as well...
"Hardly the sort of behavior I'd've of expected from gentlemen in my human days..." she sighed, shaking her head...
***
The sub-basement of the Savoy...Within the recent lair of the Angelis pride...
"Cicely!..." Farris racing up, called to her as she frantically strode among the crates which had formed the artificial 'cavern' the pride had called home for the past two weeks...She gave him a brief, wild stare and resumed her prowl...Trying to focus and reach out, he realized...Skills she had acquired under his patient tutelage...
"Cicely, girl...You must stop..." he tried to put a restraining hand out to her, she stared a second, a harsh look in her face...
"Leave me...Or help me, Simon...But do not try to stop me..." she told him grimly...And resumed her efforts...
"Do you sense anything?..." She shook her head..."No...But I can't focus...I..."
"My dear...I am..." She waved a hand... "Not now...I've no time for that now..."
"Help me...Or go...Please..." she stared at him... "I can bury and mourn my child later...After I find him...And see Drusilla's smouldering ashes..."
"She wouldn't have remained here..." he eyed her... "She must have taken him outside, or into the tunnels below these buildings through someway...
Yes...she nodded...Touching one of the crates...Feeling the wood for some trace of her essence...Of his...She looked down at the floor...
"They passed this way..." she looked at her Watcher... He nodded gravely... "You have sensed her...?"
"Not really..." she gave the slightest smile...Picking up a gold ring...
"He's still alive...Left this for me...He knew I would come for him..." she passed the ring...
"Eternity is ours...Cicely..." Farris read...
"Unless of course he simply dropped it...He does have a habit of misplacing it..." she smiled again, a bit more warmly...
"They left the building from here, somehow...I..." her eyes fell on several crates...No dust on the floor around them whereas others nearby were surrounded by dust...She tore at them...A door behind, ajar...But only a closet of some...Farris eyeing her from behind as she peered in...
And tore at the faintly moving poster covering the exit...
***
"Of course, sir...You understand..." Angelis paused for a moment, turning back to his captors as the merry little band...Rathskeller, Miss Rosenberg, a hastily summoned Council operative, a rather insistent upon coming Sir Arthur Sullivan, a somewhat bemused but equally willing to assist D'Oyly Carte...And the mighty Angelis himself...Made their way down towards the sub-basement lair and the same passageway Cicely and Farris were currently entering...
"I am only agreeing to this for the sake of putting my poor Drusilla at rest...Even one so lost and tormented as I can desire to make amends..."
"Indeed..." Rathskeller replied drily... "Your feeling does you credit, vampire...And lives up to your fabled reputation...Move on now, please or I will take great comfort in giving you rest yourself..."
Hmmn...I see your point...the vampire noted the five stakes pointed his way...And continued on down the stairs...Pondering another tactic...
Here, he opened the sub-basement door...Politely offering the open door...
"After you..." Rathskeller sternly frowned...
"Of course, sir..." Angelis nodded, and entered, the others following...Just down back behind those crates...he pointed... "An entry to the local network of tunnels around the buildings here..."
"Show us...Move on..." "Yes, certainly, sir..." He hastened across the floor...The others just behind...
Pausing by the crates just pulled aside... "The closet..." , he pointed..."In back, behind the poster..." He paused again, allowing Sir Arthur and Carte, lagging a bit, to catch up to the rest...
"Is that our way...?" Sir Arthur eyed the torn poster... "It appears so, Sir Arthur..." Rathskeller nodded... "But we three can handle this, gentlemen..." Carte and Sullivan eyeing Willow now who nodded happily as well...Situation well in...
Well...She looked at Angelis, waiting patiently...Maybe a little more back-up couldn't hurt...
"Mr. Chairman...?...I should point out...A creature of my abilities and experience could be quite a valuable asset to your organization..."
What?...Now he wants a job?...Willow stared...
***
Drusilla...
PG-13
Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse, Cicelyverse page www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html , or direct to story at www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/Dru1.html
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...
Summary: An alternate Cicelyverse tale...In 1880 Cicely Addams Walthrop makes the right choice and saves her William on that fateful night. But Drusilla is not so easily cheated of her Prince...
A companion story to "Groom of Rosenberg" for Halloween, at the request of the Shes Who Must Be Obeyed...The musical touches are their idea...Sorry...they want a "Phantom-ish" story...
Part XXXIV...
In my day...Darla grimaced as she dodged several rats leaping about in panic from her scent...Pausing to wait for her human companions to catch up...Gentlemen would never allow even a vampiral lady to be put to such unpleasantness...Oh, they might beat her silly, take her meager earnings, and leave her infected and rotting away with syphilis...But let her face this sort of thing?...She eyed the dank sewer tunnel...Never...
Then again...Those lodgings my last lover dumped me in when he left me...Not so very different...I'd even say this thing was at least more spacious...
Hmmn...Now just where did my dear little mesmerizing bitch of a 'granddaughter' set up her little lovenest?...Ah, right...The scent of perfumed candles...
The candles I and my aching back spent a week purloining and setting up according to our own lil' Ophelia's dictates...
"This way, gentlemen..." she politely pointed to the left...Jonathan stumbling into view, a stake with rags wrapped round, burning as an improvised torch, in one hand, cross in the other...Andrew and Henry close on his heels, each with stake and cross out...
***
"In sleep you sang to me...In dreams you came...
Your voice has called to me, it speaks my name...And in this labyrinth where love is blind...
The phantom prince she promised us is you...You're in my mind...."
Dru sang softly as she pulled William along...
"Nice tune, Miss..." he noted...Groaning a bit as he scraped a rock...Sorry, Dru winced..."Are you all right, sir?..." Fine, Miss...She set him down...Eyeing him carefully as he struggled to sit up...A moment, sir...
"Let your eyes adjust to the light..."
He peered out...Into what he could gradually see was a huge cavern...Lit rather faintly apart from their immediate corner, by scattered candles and torches...
"This...As far as your eye can see...Is our new world...A world suited for a poet...With a dark, passionate heart to him..." she smiled to him... "An angry, yearning heart..."
"You'll dream your great dreams here, sir...Here in our new world..."
"I found this place...The castle I sensed for weeks...Our new home, William...Where we can dwell, together forever, forever dreaming...Never alone and lost again..."
"Dreaming of the past..." she murmured as he stared at her..."The lost past..." she came to herself and shook a bit...Eyeing him again...
"Can't you see that I love you, William, sir?...In ways your Slayer never could...She'll never be free to love, Slayers can't be...In the end she will abandon you..."
"The post of Mrs. Walthrop is taken, lass...And I am content as to the depth and sincerity of my wife's love..."
"Are you...?" she eyed him coolly... "She was ready to drive you off the other night, the night after your wedding...When I would have taken you...You may amuse her for now, but in fact...You're an encumbrance to her...And always will be..."
"She was afraid...If anything it only confirms how much she loves me...But I am sorry for you, Miss Drusilla..."
Sorry?...Sorry for me?...she eyed him coldly...But within a voice crying out...Pleading...For help...
"Whether you feel you can love me...Or not..." she frowned... "You are mine...And your demon will love me..."
"I beg to differ...I rather think having known my Cicely in whatever way he may...That he'll be inclined my way...But be a bit harsher in his response to you..." he tried to rise again... "Don't be a fool, Drusilla...You'll be destroyed for nothing if you don't let me go and leave while you can..."
"Haven't they?...Your Council friends and your Slayer...Told you, Mr. Walthrop?...I am insane as well as a monster..." she stared at him... "Appeals to reason aren't all that likely to work with me..."
"But you are a calming influence on me..." she smiled again...Warmth re-entering her voice...
"Why?..." he suddenly asked...
"Sir?..."
"Why me?...What am I to you that you should risk so much, Miss Drusilla?..."
"You were promised to me, sir...By my..." she grinned... "Godmother...You might say...We are meant to be together...My visions tell me so...They never lie, however clouded they may be..."
"I've told you...Whoever's promised me to you has deceived you..." No...she shook her head... "For you see, you are here...Just as she told me...And as I saw...To help me...And ease my..." she paused...Confused a moment...
"I want to help you, Drusilla...But not the way you're suggesting...Let me speak to my wife, the Council...They may be able to..."
"I am dead, Mr. Walthrop...To 'help' me as you're suggesting would be to send me to Hell...Forever...I decline your generous offer, thank you sir..." she bowed slightly...
"Your soul might think differ..." "My Sister is a fool!"...she shrieked at him... "She hides in Limbo weeping and praying forever to a God who abandoned her ages ago!...I will not give my place here up to the likes of her!..."
"But, if she behaves herself..." she suddenly calmed as quickly as she'd raged... "I will continue to let her help me...And your soul and she can find each other afterwards between the dimensions if you choose...I am not ungenerous to those who help me, sir..."
"And she is not so innocent as you might suppose...She wanted you too...And she is trapped wherever she is by her own guilt and shame..."
"Shame?...For what, Miss...Surely your soul was an innocent, she wasn't responsible for your crimes..."
"In cooperating with me..." she smiled at him, clearly preferring to ignore his last words... "You help her...Poor sufferer that she is..."
"Surely a kindly gentleman like you can see some good in that..."
***
This way...It has to be this way...Cicely felt along the walls of the sewer tunnel, 'Dickens' firmly clenched in right hand, the same hand on the fourth finger of which she'd placed Will's wedding band...She closed her eyes, concentrating...Yes...This way...
"Cicely!..." Farris was coming up from behind... "Quiet, Simon!..." she hissed back... "We're near...He's not far now..." He moved up to where she stood in the dim light...
"And Drusilla?..." he whispered... "Can you sense her?..." Not yet...she shook her head... "Please...Just let me concentrate..."
***
Drusilla to the bound William, enticing...
("Music of the Night..." from "The Phantom of the Opera...")
"Night-time sharpens, heightens each sensation...
Darkness stirs and wakes imagination...
Silently the senses abandon their defences...
Slowly, gently, night unfurls its splendour...
Grasp it, sense it - tremulous and tender...
Turn your face away
from the garish light of day,
turn your thoughts away from
cold, unfeeling light -
and listen to the music of the night...
Close your eyes and
surrender to your darkest dreams!
Purge your thoughts of the life you knew before!
Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar!
And you'll live
as you've never lived before...
Softly, deftly,
music shall surround you...
Feel it, hear it, closing in around you...
Open up your mind,
let your fantasies unwind,
in this darkness which you know
you cannot fight -
the darkness of the music
of the night...
Let your mind start a journey
through a strange, new world!
Leave all thoughts
of the world you knew before!
Let your soul take you where you long to be!
Only then can you belong to me...
Floating, falling, sweet intoxication!
Touch me, trust me,
savour each sensation!
Let the dream begin,
let your darker side give in
You alone can make my song take flight -
help me make the music of the night..."
(Not bad, one must admit...William sighed to himself...She does have talent...Like that Rossetti woman...And Eliot, the novelist...I really must revise my former opinion of female poets and literary types...)
She opened the eyes she'd closed in ecstasy during the song...Her face rapt..."Oh, sir..." she looked at him... "Can't you see..." she began...And stopped suddenly...
Hmmn...Dru frowned... Someone's coming she noted to Walthrop...From there...she pointed...And there...Another point...And there...Hmmn...Really thought the new lair would be secure...Oh!...Grandmother?...Father?...Humans with them, she sensed vaguely...
Leading humans to poor ole Dru?...And too many unless the hunt had gone exceptionally well and they were considering the benefits of keeping fresh meat stored at hand...
Not quite that ole family spirit...
Oh, well...Hmmn...And nearest of all...
The Slayer herself...And from the waves of fury and rage Dru was feeling...Clearly somewhat physically recovered from her recent sad event...
"Perhaps, sir...We should take our leave of this place for the moment...Else we seem about to be deluged with unwanted guests..."
"Cicely's coming for me...Leave me Drusilla, go while you can..." he told her...Looking over her face carefully...Yes...Judging by that anxious face and voice...She is coming...he thought with relief...But noted Dru's steadying of herself...A resumption of her former calm, as if she'd drawn on inner reserves of strength...
"That's very kind of you to be concerned for me, sir...But I think I will manage...Please come along now...Please..." she eyed him... "I don't wish to take you too soon or involuntarily...But if I must...It will not take much more of your blood to finish you..."
***
In the tunnel from the Savoy leading to Drusilla's cavern, the noble Angelis continued to modestly point out his excellent qualifications for work with the Council of Watchers...No doubt the manly remnants of his Humanity pushing him to seek to benefit his (former) fellow man even in the depths of his cursed existence...
(Willie eyed Vladimir...Vladimir, Willie...)
Sir Arthur Sullivan and D'Oyly Carte having insisted on accompanying the resolute Watcher Chairman, Arthur Rathskeller and his partner, Miss Willow Rosenberg, vampire hunter, and their Observer assistant...The group was nearing the place where Drusilla's attempts to win William's voluntary acquiescence in joining her in her dark existence had come to an abrupt, if temporary halt in part due to their approach...
As was the second group whose like approach had been a second cause of Dru's withdrawal, led currently by the vampiress Darla, comprising also Cicely's devoted cousin Henry Foxcroft, and her ex-would-be-suitors Jonathan Levinson and Andrew Fowler...
But it was the group nearest the chamber, that of Cicely the Vampire Slayer and her Watcher, Simon Farris, which served as the primary cause of Dru's anxiety, with rather good reason...
Shaking a gently restraining Farris off, the Slayer burst into the chamber... "Drusilla!!!..." She whirled round, 'Dickens' in hand... Dru's scent almost overpowering to one honed in the appropriate tracking skills...
Nothing...Followed by...A loud crash as Darla ripped off a grill barring entry from her tunnel...Not a difficult task, considering she and Dru had removed it and replaced it unsecured in the course of their renovations during the previous week...
"You?!..." Cicely looked at the blonde vampiress... "Darla!..." Farris called out...Cicely bracing for a quick charge...
"Wait, Slayer!..." Darla put up a hand... "I..." Cicely at her throat in a moment, knocking her back...
"Where is Drusilla, vampiress?!!...TELL ME !!..." "Help!!!..Gentlemen, please!...Slayer, I think there's been a misunder..."
"Cicely!!..." Jonathan, emerging from the tunnel into the chamber through the same grill, cried out to her... "Don't kill it yet!.."
Jonathan?!...she stared... "Keep back!!..."
It?!...Yet?!...Darla fumed a bit...After all I've done for these ungrateful...Whoops...She ducked as Cicely came up on her where she lay on the ground...
"Don't kill me, Slayer...I can help you find..." "Cicely, wait!..."
"Hello, Miss Addams...Er Mrs. Walthrop..." Andrew called cheerily as he and Henry entered as well... "How goes the..." he caught sight of Cicely raging over Darla's prostate form...
"Cicely!..." Henry called...
But for Mrs. Walthrop the only words she'd heard... "I can help you find..." had acted to spare Darla's existence...For the moment...She quieted and pulled 'Dickens' back
"Where...?" she eyed the vampiress coldly, motioning for her to rise...
"Darla?..." Angelis called, blinking in shock as he entered the chamber with his group at his heels...
Her harsh, angry, somewhat frightened gaze making him aware at once that Dru's hold had been broken...
Damn...So much for my week in Paradise...
Great...she thought, eyeing him back... As she rose slowly under Cicely's furious, cold glare...'Dickens' sharp point to her delicate throat...
Reunited with my mate...What joy...
***
Drusilla...
PG-13...
Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse, Cicelyverse page www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html , or direct to story at www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/Dru1.html
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...
Summary: An alternate Cicelyverse tale...In 1880 Cicely Addams Walthrop makes the right choice and saves her William on that fateful night. But Drusilla is not so easily cheated of her Prince...
A companion story to "Groom of Rosenberg" for Halloween, at the request of the Shes Who Must Be Obeyed...The musical touches are their idea...Sorry...they want a "Phantom-ish" story...
Part XXXV...
Transylvania...Midnight...
"Are we to begin now, Doctor?..." Old Dracula looked at his nemesis...and friend, Abraham Van Helsing...Who steadied a large metal urn on the altar which had been set up before them...
"We are, Count...Please step forward and extend your right arm..."
A slight thin smile appeared over Dracula's features as he complied... "At last...I am the one giving blood..." As Dr. Van Helsing opened a vein in his arm and forced drops of blood into the metal urn...
Which he mixed with the dust within...
"Doctor?...Do you think?..." Dracula eyed the urn... "I realize the remains of my Elisabete may have been disturbed across the centuries, even where I left them secure..."
"If even a small trace of her ashes remain here, Count..." Van Helsing cast a sympathetic eye on his greatest enemy, greatest friend... "Her soul will hear us..."
"I am content...Even if we fail...It will merely confirm her sweet soul has been freed..." Dracula sighed...
And I will keep my word to you, my friend...And embrace my peace at last...Once I know my Elisabete no longer roams this world in torment...
One of the younger members of the Van Helsing team, a blonde Dutch youth of twenty turns to a companion...Nudging as he whispers...Who'd of thought the mighty Dracula, a fool for love?...Not mention ole Abraham himself...Just on the strength of Dracula's pleaded tale...
"Yes..." Dracula turns to eye the young man who blinks at being heard across the distance... "Fools for love, my young friend...It is, after all, as even we two old...Men...can attest..." he smiled at Van Helsing now binding his arm...
"The strongest, greatest force in all existences..."
"And the finest cause to die for...Whether for one love...Or love of all Humanity..."
(Beautiful...Vladimir stared at Angelis...Who gave him a dignified nod...
But how the hell would he have heard what great-granddad said at the ceremony?...)
***
London...Drusilla's cavern and would-be lovenest...Midnight...
"We must hurry!...There's not a moment to lose!..." All the humans...Henry, Rathskeller, his Observer, Farris, Cicely, Jonathan, Andrew, Ms. Rosenberg, Carte, and Sir Arthur Sullivan staring at the noble Angelis who'd given the cry...Darla staring as well...
Ummn...Just wanted to demonstrate my sincere desire to assist...he noted...Cicely frowning as she waved her dear "Dickens" at him...Sharpened by Will himself to a fine hone the previous evening...
"Angelis...And you..." "Darla, Slayer?...The famous Darla?..." Darla glared slightly...Goddamn Queen of this goddamn pride, remember?...she fumed within...
"Right...Get moving and lead us to Drusilla and my husband...If we reach them before she can..."Cicely paused... "The only hope for you two is that we can reach her while my husband is alive...Go!!..."
Absolutely, Angelis nodded...Perhaps a bit hurt that his sincere enthusiasm for the hunt had gone unrecognized...After you, my love...he bowed to Darla who for the sake of family pride avoided a snarl in the presence of strangers and proceeded...
"What the hell were you doing just now?..." she hissed back to him as the humans followed them, Cicely keeping the others well back...
"What can I say?...I was caught up in the moment..." Angelis shrugged...
***
The sub-basement of the Savoy theater...Just past midnight...
Drusilla, having deposited a well-trussed and somewhat blood-drained William for a moment in a safe, hidden place near the pride's "emergency exit", moved cautiously into the main area...Still quite a few workers about...She nervously paused, considering...Probing back with her senses into the tunnel...Yes, the humans on their way...
What to do?...This had been too soon, just as her visions of her eventual triumph had suggested...He was not ready...If she was to have all of him...Forever...But now, if she took him...His words to her had been true, she knew...After what had happened even his demon, knowing as poor William did not yet, about the baby...Would hate her...Reject her...
Demons and their offspring...Very possessive...Still she had managed to stake a claim in him, secure her hold...If she had to wait a bit longer, at least now she could make use of that...
And if she hesitated much longer, if it was not too late already...The Slayer would put an end to her efforts permanently...But with all the humans still about, the rehearsal having dragged on in part due to her interruptions...Escaping the place, even if she abandoned Walthrop, would be no easy matter...
Sister...She appealed within...Sister, what can we do?...I...
Her eyes rolled suddenly as visions flamed through her mind...Ancient scenes, like portraits in a gallery...Scenes of joy, sorrow...Terror...And at the center, a man...Courageous, passionate, loving beyond the grave, and beyond all bounds she knew instinctively...
The same love she had sensed in Walthrop...Capable of transcending the grave...The quality that had been pulling her to the little poet ever since her first vision of the Prince who would come to her...
And damned attractive, whoever he was, she noted...Soul and demon in full agreement...
"My love...my love..." his voice called to her...She reached out...Into the room...Tears in her eyes...Several workers pausing to look at the strange new girl...Must be exhausted by the late schedule tonight, one kindly older woman noted to a mate...
Elisabete...The voice called...Elisabete, hear me...
She gave a faint cry...A gasp from the soul...The vision faded and she collapsed...
"Oh, dear...Oh, dear...Oh, dear..." the kindly worker, a large middle-aged seamstress, came over..."The poor thing's gone and fainted dead away...They're keeping us much too long on this one..." she noted to a fellow worker... "Get her over to the cot at the rear of the room..." she called to two others...
"Much much too long...Mr. Gilbert's quite impossible at times...No consideration at all..." she shook her head...
***
The Savoy theater...Ground floor...Two am...
"Truly a pity..." the noble Angelis gave vent to his Unmanly, generous sympathy for the bereft young Slayer now sitting for a moment at the others' insistence...There having been no sign or trace of Drusilla or William since their learning of Dru's collapse, followed by her cautious fleeing of the building on awakening shortly afterwards...
Darla frowning...Lummox...Stop performing and start figuring a way out of this...But maintaining her guard as did the humans surrounding her and her mate...Heavily armed humans...Rathskeller having summoned reinforcements who had arrived just as they had returned to the subbasement...
"Mr. Chairman..." Angelis turned to Rathskeller... "You will bear in mind that my mate and I have kept our word to the letter?...We have led you faithfully and would be prepared to continue the chase, should you require, if we can uncover our companion's scent...I hope our agreement still stands..."
"What 'agreement', vampire?..." Rathskeller eyed him coldly...Ummn...Angelis blinked...A bit startled...
Sir?...I clearly recall that we made a pact...he began...Rathskeller waving him off...Darla tensing, looking round the room...Ummn...Sirs?...She hopefully eyed Jonathan, then Henry...
"Take them to the Council holding facilities..." The Chairman turned to his men... Phew...Angelis thought...
Ummn...In terms of his shock at a gentleman potentially violating his pledged word, of course...
(Of course, Vladimir chuckled...Winking at Willie...)
"Wait!..." Cicely rose...A bit unsteadily...Henry, Jonathan, and Andrew rushing to her aid...Farris watching carefully...
"I want you to let them go, Mr. Rathskeller..." she looked at the Chairman...
What you say?...Willow, standing next to Arthur, stared at her...
"Drusilla will seek them out..." Cicely noted firmly... "Let them go...I'll maintain surveillance on them..."
Go?...Go where?...Darla thought...You people having just destroyed our latest home...
Still, a chance...She eyed Angelis...Give it your best performance, you ham...
"I think that's an excellent idea, Slayer...Drusilla is sure to try and seek us out..." he nodded... "And of course we will alert you at once..."
"Naturally providing you acknowledge our previous agreement...Especially the part about sparing us?..."
Ummn...He stared at the Slayer's hideous face...So terrifying in its repressed rage...
But rather attractive...Pity she's so focused on that foolish little man...
"That is not possible..." Rathskeller began... "Yes, it is possible..." Cicely replied curtly... "It will be done...Either by your consent...Or without it..." she stood, facing him...
"And these two, on pain of destruction, will refrain from any attacks on innocents...A law I will enforce..."
"One has to live Slayer..." Angelis cut in... "Make do with animals, or die now...I will then repeat the offer to your mate..."
Who will accept...With thanks...And gratitude...Darla thought...If it's really post-Angelis...
***
Drusilla...
PG-13...
Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse, Cicelyverse page www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html , or direct to story at
www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/Dru1.html...
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...
Summary: An alternate Cicelyverse tale...In 1880 Cicely Addams Walthrop makes the right choice and saves her William on that fateful night. But Drusilla is not so easily cheated of her Prince...
A companion story to "Groom of Rosenberg" for Halloween, at the request of the Shes Who Must Be Obeyed...The musical touches are their idea...Sorry...they want a "Phantom-ish" story...
Part XXXVI...
A fuming Darla continued to mutter under her breath as she and Angelis hurried down the London streets, searching as best they could for a secure, deserted shelter for the coming day...
Darling...Angelis tried... "Go to hell...At that...Girl's..." she hastily corrected, realizing Cicely must be hot on their trail... "...hands...You miserable bastard...Leaving me in Dru's grip all week..."
"There was nothing I knew of to break Dru's hold on you...She would've taken me too and where would we all have been then?...After all, we did just escape certain death at the Slayer's hands...Due to my skills at negotiation..." Angelis noted...
She halted and stared at him...Then shook her head...What's the point of trying to penetrate that ego?...
"Right...And now she's following our every move...And we're forced to live like humans, feeding on..." she grimaced as she lifted a bleeding cat to her mouth... "It's disgusting...If I can ever get my hands on that..."
Dear?...Slayer on our tail?...Not one in a forgiving mood towards our kind at the best of times...Angelis hissed quietly...
"Drusilla...I was going to say Drusilla..." Darla shrugged... "Though...If I could..." she raised her voice... "... 'help' that poor, kind Slayer...I would..."
To an early grave...she thought...But that'll come, regardless...As it does for them all...
***
At the Antiquarian Hall, seat of the Watchers' Council, Rathskeller eyed his rather bleary-eyed early morning breakfast companion... "Miss Rosenberg?..." Hmmn?... Willow blinked...
"I think it would be well for us both to get some rest this morning...Our people are out and keeping close after the Slayer and her decoys...And Darla, Angelis, and Drusilla herself must now be in hiding for the day...There's little more we can do and no reason for us to wear ourselves down futilely..."
"Oh..." she waved...Indefatigable scion of the Van Helsing-Rosenberg clan that she was... "I'm fine...Should probably try and get a little research done..." Hmmn...Sorry...She eyed the glass of juice she'd just knocked over...Attempting to suppress a yawn...
"Please my dear...Willow..." he hesitated over that hurdle but jumped... "It would make me feel better..." he eyed her lovely, exhausted face gently...
Ummn?...she stared at his sweet, though indomitable...And rather handsome face across the table...Really?...
He does look weary...she noted...And everything on his shoulders, sweet guy...Though bearing the past days' strain well...And although it only adds to his charm and worldliness, he isn't young...
"Indeed..." he nodded...Smiling...
Though certainly not...Too old...Ummn...she blinked...Hmmn...
Been hanging round that ridiculously romantic Slayer a mite too long I'd say...Still, he should get to bed...Wouldn't want to wear the Chairman...My client out...
Wonder what he wears to...Damnit, Rosenberg...Mind on business...What would Gramps say?!...
"Well...Arthur...Ummn...If it would make you feel better...And if you'll get some rest too..."
Hmmn...After a lecture on the need to be ever vigilant against Evil, Gramps would probably start on about wanting grandchildren to bounce on his knee...Damn...I wonder if he had any ideas along these lines when he passed this on to me, knowing Arthur as well as he does...she thought...You sly old fox...A slight frown...
Thanks, Gramps...Momentary beam immediately fading...
Yes...Rathskeller nodded, turning serious... "I will need it myself...For by tonight...Events may force me to make some hard decisions..." he eyed her coolly...
Arthur?...
"Willow...I've told you I cannot allow the matter of the Slayer to drift indefinitely...And while Mrs. Walthrop is clearly focused on the task of destroying Drusilla...When that is done..."
"I see..." a small voice...
"I wish there were some other way, any other way...But if Mr. Walthrop lives...She will go from us...And she may leave us, if only to pursue him, if he is lost..."
"And you must have..."
"Humanity must, Willow...Millions of lives and the future of human civilization rest on the Slayer's performance of her Duty..."
"I understand..." her voice was cold... "So...Will we be assassinating Walthrop or Cicely?...Or both?..."
"Cicely is our greatest Slayer..." Rathskeller answered impassively... "Though, if she learnt that Walthrop had died at our hands...I've little doubt she'd take a fearful vengeance on us and more importantly, the potential Slayer line...Either as human, or perhaps...With her transformed husband..."
Willow blinked at him... "You don't really think...?"
"She wouldn't be the first Slayer to join a transformed lover, Willow..." Rathskeller was solemn... "Love is a mighty force but it can do as much damage as good under the wrong circumstances..."
"What are you going to do, Arthur?..." she hesitated to look at him...
"My duty, Willow..." he sighed... "Whatever that turns out to be..."
***
The Savoy, early morning...
After taking her sincerely grateful leave of the kind people who'd tended her in her indisposition, Drusilla had decided it were best to make use of their assumption that she was simply another young worker brought in for the rehearsal and had kept industriously busy with the costumers till the humans had begun leaving, thus dodging the several Observers Rathskeller, with D'Oyly Carte's willing agreement, had left on duty to watch over the pride's former lair on the chance of her return there...
The departure of the night staff by about two in the morning had left her at some uncertainty, especially given her confusion over the visions she'd experienced earlier, but having slipped upstairs, she'd found several empty offices to conceal herself in...At least until the arrival of morning staff...Which arrival, with the dawn now past, she realized, was likely to be soon...If the humans guarding the old lair in the subbasement did not decide to search the building one last time before...
Having rejected the notion of a pre-emptive strike out of hand...Far too likely to merely advertize her presence to the Slayer while leaving her still trapped in the place...She sought to calm herself and consider her options...Turning to the one other she could for assistance...
But her 'sister' seemed even more preoccupied and confused than the demon itself...The visions of the night before having terribly upset and unsettled her...So that Dru found herself in the odd position of trying to comfort and steady her other self...
But the image of the man in her vision, too unclear to identify, yet somehow...So familiar...Who?...She queried herself, soul included...Someone from the past?...But he wasn't like anyone she could remember from the human days...Not even human Daddy had been so tall and commanding...Unless perhaps...Papa's spirit?...Calling to her...No...He'd called her...What?...She concentrated...
Elisa...
A sudden slam of doors below startled her out of her reverie...The day staff?...Or the Observers below, searching?...Or, no...She sighed, a bit relieved...Not the Slayer...
She wasn't quite ready to meet the Slayer again...Not yet, at least not under conditions where their final battle could not be avoided...Not before Mr. Walthrop, her Prince, was ready to accept his future...And her love...
No, this was not the place for their inevitable duel to the death...It would come, but in a place far from here...A forbidding, lost, indeed even for her, terrifying, place she...And her trapped soul...Could see in their mind's eye...
And her Prince must be made ready and willing to accept her...
For her visions were quite clear on the subject...When she and the Slayer at last met in battle, only one would survive...
Drusilla...
***
Drusilla...
PG-13...
Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse, Cicelyverse page www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html , or direct to story at www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/Dru1.html
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...
Summary: An alternate Cicelyverse tale...In 1880 Cicely Addams Walthrop makes the right choice and saves her William on that fateful night. But Drusilla is not so easily cheated of her Prince...
A companion story to "Groom of Rosenberg" for Halloween, at the request of the Shes Who Must Be Obeyed...The musical touches are their idea...Sorry...they want a "Phantom-ish" story...
Part XXXVII...
Transylvania...Morning...
Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, legendary vampire hunter to those in the know, eyed one of the younger members of his team across their inn breakfast table with a slight twinkle in his eye...
The young man having nervously put the question to the Great Man that most of the team had been wanted to ask since the abrupt end of their activities the night before...
"Sir...Are you sure it was wise?...Allowing Dracula to defer his destruction until this latest matter is settled?..."
"My boy...Don't you believe in the power of Love?...A young fellow like you should not be so cynical and worldly so soon..." A more serious tone... "We have confirmed, with the help of our religious aids...And Father Comensu..." a quick nod to the Orthodox priest beside him at table... "That Lord Dracula has, with the help of his Roma followers, driven back his demon and freed his tormented soul, despite retaining his vampiral body...We can, therefore, put some faith in his word...And he was willing to allow his destruction last night...It was left in my hands to decide his fate..."
"And learning, as we did, that his poor wife's soul is trapped, somewhere on Earth, probably in the England where he first sensed her presence...Chained to one that seems likely to be as hideous a creature as his own demon and facing the same threat of damnation should she merge completely with that monster...How can we refuse to attempt to assist him in her salvation?..."
"But if it all has been a deception?..." the young man, a tall blonde Dutch youth asked, in faltering voice...Fine potential lad for my granddaughter, if things don't work out as I hope between her and good ole Arthur Rathskeller, Van Helsing thought, giving the boy a carefully appraising look...
After all, while dear Arthur would be my preferred choice for her, given his excellent character, noble soul, intellect, worldly success, and vast experience...He is a bit old for her...And I want healthy great-grandchildren before I pass on...This young fellow seems quite capable in that department at least...
"A rather needlessly elaborate and lengthy one, my boy, as the Count could have killed me and later the rest of you the first night we confronted each other. If it turns out a deception...And I must point out that he allowed the destruction of all those he once held as dearly as he was capable of when he could have fought us with some chance of success...I will bear the responsibility...And the shame of being a gullible old fool..." the doctor grinned...
"But..." another, older and therefore cautiously waiting for the younger member to test the waters, eyed their leader... "If we do not know where the female Dracula is or what she looks like...Anything about her outside the tales of her human past Dracula has told us..."
"And the Count Dracule has been mistaken...He misidentified Mrs. Harker after all..."
"Lord Dracula is convinced that Mrs. Harker is a descendant of his wife's mortal form...He thought her wife's soul resided in her body...That her poor soul might have suffered a fate like his own..." a sad pause... "Was something even given his hideous past he'd not been able to conceive of...A fate and punishment which even I find hard to reconcile with my faith in a merciful God..." He was silent again a moment as all the team members looked at each other...
"Yet..." Father Comensu spoke up... "Almighty God has provided salvation for both...In our efforts..." "Yes..." Van Helsing nodded... "The one thing that has given the Count faith that God may have taken pity on him...And the reason we...Gentlemen..." he looked about the table... "Must succeed..."
"Dracula is using all his abilities to summon her to us..." he noted solemnly... "I believe, with the additional help we can give him in that regard, we can compel her to come to us...And bring this poor, wrongly condemned soul to peace..."
"And in addition to Dracula's ability to sense her soul, we have a living portrait of the Countess' current form...At least to some extent she must resemble her ancestor..."
"But was She not condemned as He was?...By her own choice...?" a third man, a hale and hearty fellow in his thirties, a medical student of the great physician who'd found himself irresistibly drawn into his mentor's "side career"...
The doctor looked to the priest who was pensive...But gave a slight shake of his dignified head, accentuated by long beard and formal headdress...
"It's our belief...The good Father's here and mine...That that is not the case...Her soul found rebirth at some point, but her grim and horrible fate, was not of her making or deserving..."
"The Lord of the Dracule embraced his curse...But his wife did not, we are convinced of that...Her remains, though mostly ashes, were those of a normal human...She must have been reborn human..."
"And therefore, it is our duty, gentlemen...As well as our pledge to Lord Dracula...To end this terrible cycle of pain and suffering...We must await the Lady Elisabete's coming, in whatever tormented form she is now trapped in...And do what we can to assist Dracula to free her..."
"After that, rest assured...Lord Dracula will gladly embrace peace...Else..." he paused solemnly...
"You gentlemen will have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of showing me in the wrong..."
***
London...The Savoy Theater...Early morning...
A blood-loss weakened, heavily trussed up with rope and wire filched from the theater basement, William tried to make out details of the place...Small room or closet from what he'd managed to feel as he'd struggled to free himself...Drusilla had hurriedly shoved him into while fleeing Cicely and the others earlier...
He tried shifting his position while working at his bonds...As well as to remove the cloth in his mouth, secured by a second cloth tied round his head...Nothing...Too narrow a space to allow him even to fall over and he was as yet far too weak to make any progress...
Well, what to do?...He thought a moment...Perhaps, if he could strike his shoes against what seemed either a wall or door of the place...Even if he couldn't hope to kick hard enough to open a door, the noise might attract attention...He began trying to get his feet to flex enough...
The brief thought of what Drusilla had said the night before again crossed his mind...Sorry to have told me this way...?
Almost certainly to do with their hopes regarding Cics' condition...But she'd sounded...No...Not the time to think such thoughts...After all, the creature, poor tormented maniac that she was, was demented...She might simply resent the whole idea of Cicely bearing...And they'd only had good hopes, nothing definite...Unless the doctor Cicely had seen that morning back at home had told her something...
No, not the same to think such thoughts...Just pray Cicely had the good sense to take care and hope for the best...For now, the focus had to be on survival...Something a boy from the wastelands of nineteenth century English poverty was well suited to deal with, he told himself...
It was not time to die, not just yet...Whatever insane ravings Drusilla chose to mutter, he was not ready to lose all he'd just won with so much labor and striving...
But oh God, if it were true...My poor Cicely...My poor, poor love...God, if you exist, protect her...And my child...
He returned to the task at hand and continued trying to get his foot closer to the nearest wall...Even a little noise might be enough to raise attention...
***
A cloudy morning had given Dru her chance to make her way out of the theater, leaving by way of a leap from the roof to the adjoining building...Though a hard thing to have to leave Walthrop behind, he was as secure as she could make him in his bonds and it would be some time before he recovered from her blood-draining...And even if he did, he'd not be able to break from her hideaway or attract attention to himself...At least she struggled to make herself believe that...There being no choice now, really...Survival had to come first...
A practical notion she was sensible of being indebted to her 'sister', the trapped soul, for...Whatever moans the Bad One might care to make about her counterpart's doings, she was clearly not quite ready to do the 'noble' thing and lead her to destruction...Not yet, anyway...
And equally clearly was as puzzled and troubled as her demon by the vision of last night...
She moved cautiously down the stairs from the roof access, having quietly smashed the locked door back...Always a chance the Watchers and Slayer might have thought to guard the buildings about in the area as well...She paused at the level of the first floor down from the roof, sensing humans further down and checking to confirm the cloudy sky, peered carefully out the large window which let light into the stairwell...Hmmn...A large funeral procession in the street...Coming to what was no doubt a brief halt...Hearse just below her now...
Well, as her soul would once have said...God's gifts should be accepted when offered...And Watchers or no on the floors below, she had to get away from the theater area...At least for now...Until the Slayer had given up any hope of finding her here and she could risk coming back for Walthrop...She forced the window open, and tensing, jumped...Aiming for a spot near the hearse but not in sight of the members of the procession...And with no signs of anything potentially lethally wooden to meet her on impact...
I do hope that coffin will be big enough...she thought as she fell...Be awful to have to scrunch to fit...
One floor below, the diligent Simon Farris, his offers to accompany Cicely in her surveillance of the noble Angelus and his mate, politely but firmly rejected, maintained his post, with his own trusted staff...Having been entrusted by Chairman Rathskeller with the task of supervising those doing all possible to keep the Savoy and surroundings under watch in case Dru remained hidden or returned there...
A task he'd been quite willing to accept after Cicely had set out...And Halfreck assured him Dru was indeed still in the Savoy and seeking a safe exit...
So that it was not entirely due to Dru's new-honed survival skills that she was able to make her leap for freedom undetected...Undetected by all but Farris and Halfreck watching with considerable interest from the window of their floor...
***
The offices of Sir Richard Addams, central London...Early morning...
On the one hand...Leaning back in his chair, Sir Richard frowned coldly at a rather nervously servile Smike and a reasonably uncaring, smirking Squears...Who'd awaited his arrival on the office doorstep with rather mixed news...
Two fools who had failed miserably in their assignment to bring his new son-in-law to him for a, of necessity, brief interview last night...
On the other hand...
Said troublesome new son-in-law had apparently gotten himself lost, if these two feeble-brained dolts had got the stories they'd picked up, hanging around the Savoy main and workers' entrances, correct...
But why would Walthrop have suddenly chosen to remove his problematic self from sight?...
Realized dear father-in-law meant what he'd threatened?...Panicked and fled, perhaps hearing rumors of the firm and decisive ways Sir Richard liked to employ in dealing with 'trouble'?...
Or maybe Fate and the Almighty had chosen to kindly intervene and remove a problem for him...
But Cicely...Ill, was it, the two had said?...He eyed the squirming Smike...Getting a bit greasy now with fear...
"You said my daughter was ill last night?...A doctor summoned?..."
Uhhh... "Well, Sir Richard..." Warren "Smike" Smithe squirmed a bit more...
"We didn't get much as to details..."
No, and best not to mention those details we did get, he thought...
"Girl who spoke to Smike on the steps said she'd lost one..." Squears cut in, grinning at his partner who fumed back...Idiot!...
"Lost...One...?" Sir Richard stared... "Lost...?"
"But she said our Cics was well enough..." even Squears a tad less relaxed at Addams' hard, icy stare... "And we both seed her come out, with Mr. Sullivan and some toffs later...Eh, Smike?..."
"The girl was an idiot, Sir Richard..." Smike anxiously cut in... "We don't know what she meant...Maybe it was Walthrop she was talkin' about..."
"Squears!..." Sir Richard turned to him, ignoring Smike's desperate attempt to tone things down... "What else?!..."
"Some toffs...Comin' out...Said a lady'd lost her baby on the stairs...Ummn...Smike, you heard 'em..."
"More idiots, Sir Richard...And they never mentioned Cicely by name..."
"A baby?...She lost..." Sir Richard's hands clenched...The two lout minions eyed each other...
"But she was right enough comin' out...Maybe it wasn't her after all..." Squears tried, considerably less spritely now...
"Where...Is...She...Now?..."
Uhhh, well... "We could only follow her so far, sir..." Warren smiled feebly...Addams staring at him a moment, then opening a desk drawer...
"Take this..." he tossed a bag of money which Squears caught as Smike trying, stumbled into him...Ow!...Ya stupid!... "Enough!..."
"Now...Get...Out...Use whatever means you have to...Find her...Or do not come back to my employ..." a quietly menacing tone... "And find out where Walthrop is...Within the day..."
"Ah, yes sir...Ah, certainly sir..."
"Get...Out...And send my assistant Barnes in here when you go..." he turned from them to look out the large window behind him, giving an impressive vista of the rising City...
My grandchild...he thought, as Smike nervously closed the door, Squears and he backing out...
***
Drusilla...
PG-13...
Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse, Cicelyverse page www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html , or direct to story at www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/Dru1.html...
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...
Summary: An alternate Cicelyverse tale...In 1880 Cicely Addams Walthrop makes the right choice and saves her William on that fateful night. But Drusilla is not so easily cheated of her Prince...
A companion story to "Groom of Rosenberg" for Halloween, at the request of the Shes Who Must Be Obeyed...The musical touches are their idea...Sorry...they want a "Phantom-ish" story...
Part XXXVIII...
Early morning...
In a building adjacent to the Savoy theater, Simon Farris and his recently summoned 'partner' vengeance demon Halfreck, in her guise as Cicely, watched in not a little shock as a leaping Drusilla rushed past their stairwell window on her way to the ground below...
"Great God!..." Farris pressed against the glass as Dru hit and rolled to the ground...Rising up almost immediately, seeming none the worse for wear...
My...Halfreck stared at her part of the window...That insane little maniac does make a unique exit...The two observers eyed each other...
"Has she lost her mind?..." Farris asked, immediately realizing the pointlessness of that question...
Dru slipped immediately round back of the halted hearse, apparently unnoticed by the driver of the following carriage...Though whether he'd been turned away and missed the sight, failed to see it for the fog hanging about, or stuck dumb with shock was open to question...
The funeral procession, having received a right of way, resumed its sad course...Farris and Halfreck glued to the window...Though Farris had recovered enough presence of mind to look back, peering down the hall of their floor and then below them on the stairs to see if any of his staff, or more importantly, any of the others in the Council's employ but not directly under his own control, had seen or heard enough to bring them out...Nothing...
Fools...He'd thought at least he'd trained his own better...Some prunings definitely called for...Later...
The procession moved on...Leaving an empty street...Not a sign of Drusilla...
"Halfreck?..." Farris turned to her... "I'll see..." she nodded... "Clearly she wasn't destroyed and those clouds and mist should be enough sun protection for now..." She vanished...
The tools one must employ at times...Farris sighed to himself...Looking up the road where the procession had vanished into early morning fog...
Still...A very resourceful and daring...Well, whatever Drusilla was...
And likely a worthy match for Cicely...When the time came...
***
Near the Thames docks...Same time...
Despite the grave risk...Of being trapped by day should the current friendly morning clouds and fogs chose to remove their kindly protection...And of invoking the implacable Slayer's wrath at halting, however briefly, their efforts to advertize their presence to Drusilla...The pleas of his weary, stricken mate had both melted and fortified the courageous, if it would not be incongruous to say, manly heart of the noble Angelis...And he had led his beloved Darla to a small, somewhat disreputable, but with the saving grace of opening quite early, tea shop/bakery...
("I won't go another step in this muck, you worthless Slayer's boot-licking coward!..."Darla hissed...."I don't care if the Slayer stakes us...She oughta know we can't go much further now anyway...")
Sadly his dark existence having limited his ability to acquire much in the way of human funds...(So he blew everything at that tavern, and forgot to clean the till on leaving, eh?...Vladimir thought, smiling at Willie...) Though he was determined, with the thought of his dearest mate's safety uppermost, of course, to keep his pledge to the Slayer to avoid violence or bloodshed against his instinctual prey...
"Sweetheart...I'm afraid I may be a bit short..." he noted quietly to Darla as they took rather worn and greasy...Urrgh... "Give me your coat..." Darla hissed...Seats...
"Since when have you ever not been?..." she glared...But well aware of the Slayer's close eye on them from wherever she'd secreted herself, she reluctantly pulled out her bag...
Just lucky she'd had the foresight not to throw away that last ten shillings on her elderly helper...
"Tea...And some of those fine crumpets you have on the counter..." Angelis beamed with his famed hearty good-humor at the rather pretty young girl who'd come to take their order...A teasing chuckle at her slight embarrassment in knocking the sugar pot a bit...
(A witheringly glaring Darla mentally noting the address of the place...For future reference...)
***
Parlor of the funeral home of Abercrombie and Son, not far from the Thames, same time...
"So it's my understanding the young lady coming in was taken sudden at home...?" One of the assistant undertakers tapped his fellow employee, an attractive brown-haired young woman in soberly respectable garb, busy in her work as a dresser... "Hold off, Sid!..." Brushing his hand away from her arm... "You'll make me muss the poor things..." "There now..." she looked over her handiwork, pleased... Twin girls, dead as a consequence of a drunken brutal father and a large loaded pistol...A matter the family had preferred not to mention in the death notice, identifying cause as "sudden illness"...
"Yes...The family requested for the work to be done there, Mr. Abercrombie himself went in...They're bringing her to the chapel here for services..." she frowned and wiped at makeup and hair artfully covering a hideous wound on the head of one of the girls...Looking up hastily at the sound of horses' hooves clicking and wheels grinding out front...A large shape distinguishable though the parlor curtains as it passed, heading for the driveway...Sounds of other carriages pulling up...
Abby...the assistant undertaker looked at her... "They're here, look sharp, Sid and go help the Mister...I'll let them in the chapel know..." He hurried to the driveway side entrance as she closed the lids of the little coffins and began clearing her things...
***
Outside the tea shop/bakery where Darla was being encouraged by her noble mate to partake of the refreshing, if in their case not exactly nutritive, food just brought (Darla fuming as he no doubt once again hit her up for the bill, Vladimir thought...) Cicely, Jonathan Levinson, and Andrew Fowler waited, watching from a reasonably secluded building entranceway...The Slayer's cousin, Henry, having been sent home to avert any concerns about his and the other gentlemen's whereabouts as well as determine what information the Council's agents round the Savoy and about the City in general might have acquired, to rejoin the others as soon as possible...
"What the devil are they doing in there?!..." an impatient Cicely fumed... "I gave them no leave to fiddle about like this..."
Rather surprised they can eat like people...Jonathan thought, Andrew echoing that thought aloud... "Thought those types ate only blood and so on..."
Bit out of my line, though...Fowler noted...
"We might do well to go on in ourselves..." Jonathan suggested, looking at poor Cicely's worn, exhausted face as Andrew scanned the street for the mysterious Miss...What was the name? Ah, right...Drusilla...Rather pretty name for a looney or vampire... "They may be planning some mischief to the people inside...And we could all use a cup of tea I'm sure..." Levinson smiled at her slight frown... "Well, at least I could...Afraid you keep rather difficult hours for me, Cicely..." She relaxed a hair and gave a faint return smile, nodding...
"I suppose we all could...And we may as well remind our... 'Friends'...That we're still right on their heels..." she wearily made her way forward...Straightening a bit as she approached the door, willing herself to a firm bearing...Though Jonathan noted her slight tremble as he and Andrew followed behind...
As did Andrew...Who paused at the door as Cicely opened and went through... "I say, Levinson...Don't you think she ought to rest?...See a doctor?..." he noted in a low voice... "After last night..." he delicately avoided the sad subject of what had been the cause of her exhaustion...Which Chairman Rathskeller had, with equal delicacy, informed them and Henry of to their mutual sorrow, just before they'd set out with her...
"I think it would do her more harm to have to be forced to do nothing now, Andrew..." Jonathan shook his head...Opening the door for his friend... "Just be on guard with this lot...That's the best thing we can do right now for her..." They entered...Cicely having nodded politely but coolly to Angelis' friendly wave and smile and Darla's guarded look...Though she gave Jonathan a slight, hopeful smile...Surely such a kind and dear gentleman would persuade the Slayer to continue to see reason...Which he returned with a nod...
"Try the crumpets, by all means, Mrs. Walthrop, gentlemen!..." Angelis cheerily called... "They're excellent..." he beamed again at the waitress pausing to inquire...More tea, sir?...
***
Darkness...All about her...The wind howling as it roared over the steep, shrouded mountains...Wolves howling in the distance...But ahead, the comforting glow of lights from a huge castle, the sounds of singing, even merriment notwithstanding the threatening night...Safety, contentment, love all lay in that place, she somehow knew...
Home...The thought came to her...This was home...And He was there, waiting...Her Prince...
No...Wait...Home was a mining town...Uncles and Mum and poor ole Dad who'd died so young in the mines...And her Prince was a slight, blonde-brown haired poet, currently locked and bound in a costume storage closet of the Savoy theater...Hope he wasn't too uncomfortable, poor thing...
And yet...Dru thought as she lay in the darkness of the reclosed coffin in which she'd hidden, apologizing once again to the slender young corpse beneath her, covered by the thick wrap she found in the hearse on breaking in by the back...Thank God for the ravages of consumption and the young lady's family's desire to have the poor dear buried in a rather nice and large casket...The hearse rattling to a stop as she mused...
And yet...Somehow...She knew that place, that vision...Was where she must go...And where she would meet and defeat her opponent...A place far to the east...Calling to her...
Though of course, first, she had to escape her current difficulties, determine some idea of where and how to go, and above all, secure her poet-Prince...
Ahhh!...She sat up in terror, pushing the coffin lid open a moment as Haly's Cicely head peered through the solid lid...Ummn, so sorry, dear...
Hmmn...This...Halfreck thought as she eyed the trembling Drusilla...Sitting in the open coffin atop a covered something that was no doubt the original occupant...Has got to be the strangest case I have taken yet...
***
"You have to persuade Cicely to stop this, Mr. Farris..." Henry pleaded to Farris whom he had sought out at the surveillance house on his return, seeking to give and receive information, but above all to have the Watcher's assistance in getting Cicely to hand her tracking operation over to others at least for a short time...
"She has to see a doctor...She's ill...If she continues on this course..."
My fondest wishes for her will be fulfilled?...Farris thought mockingly...
"My boy...We've all tried to get her to desist and let us track Angelis and Darla...You know her answer...We must trust in her strength and recuperative powers..."
Henry turned to the recently returned Chairman Rathskeller and his aide Miss...Rosenberg?...Yes... "Mr. Rathskeller...She'll be an easy prey for those two if she doesn't stop soon...Jonathan, Andrew, and I can't be much more than an encumbrance to her...Isn't there any way you can make her see reason?..."
"Mr. Farris is quite right, Mr. Foxcroft..." Arthur sighed... "We have tried...She is determined...And the Slayer...There's little we can do short of finding Mr. Walthrop ourselves...Or..." he eyed Simon...
My head is still spinning over all this...Sir Arthur Sullivan noted to D'Oyly Carte as they stood by... "One gets used to the new and strange surprisingly quickly, Arthur..." Carte pleasantly replied...They having insisted on accompanying Rathskeller and Miss Rosenberg after meeting them outside the Savoy enroute to Farris' surveillance team a short time before...Deeply concerned for both the lovely and increasingly tragic Mrs. Walthrop and her lost husband...And for the security of the coming grand opening of "The Mikado..." Scheduled for tonight in fact with too little time to change theaters though they'd been assured that the vampiral troublemakers had for now at least, departed for new locales...And that the theater would be kept under surveillance until the pride had been dealt with...
Thank God they'd not had to mention the details of the night's bizarre events to old Gilbert, Sullivan sighed...Thought the idea of a work based on these creatures does seem rather...he thought...
Must find a way sometime to present it to him as a sudden fancy of mine and see what he can do with it...Now that we're recaught some of the old fire with this "Mikado" who knows where our imagination might take us next...
***
A vision?...Haly stared at the insistent Dru...You want me to go off and chase after some vision you've had and figure out where the damned fairy land in your psychotic skull is...?
"A dark, mountainous place, Lady..." Dru noted eagerly, adjusting her seated position on the corpse below... "Yes...I can see it in your mind, child..." Haly sighed a bit...
Just wish you'd add a few details, I may be telepathic and in command of mighty occult powers but I have to have something tangible to go on...
Still it seems like a place suited for a vampiress...Hmmn...To the East, she said...
Would keep the Slayer hoppin'...And in her current state...
"Varna..." Dru suddenly whispered... "Yes...That's where I must go...The port of Varna...I can reach...The place...From there...Varna..." she repeated...
Hmmn...Helps to have a geographic marker...Varna...Ah...
"Romania..." Haly pondered... "Ah...Of course...Transylvania...Lovely place, I know it well..."
I cursed a lot of Romans, Byzantines, Turks, Russians, and others there...she happily noted...Yes, a hoppin' place in history...Once...
"I remember how Anyanka...Er...I..." she lied... "Once cursed this Wallachian Prince and his wife for the Turks, ages ago...And who do you think he ends up as but..."
The sound of busy activity from outside...The undertakers and pallbearers no doubt approaching...Haly stopped abruptly, waving Dru to resume her deception... "I'll be with you dear, invisible to these humans, don't lose heart..." she encouragingly called as Dru lay flat and reclosed the coffin lid...
Unnerving way to travel...Haly thought as the rear door opened and several men began pulling at the coffin...Still the lil' psycho's gotta be used to it...
Transylvania, eh?...Well perhaps the ole Grand Master of Vamps' Prince Vlad's influence was making itself felt on a sire descendant?...In any case though a roundabout means of getting the job done at last, not all that bad an idea if Cicely followed on some hopeless quest, ending in her finding herself too late and all lost, with her husband dead and transformed and she herself trapped by Dru in a land dominated by the Darkness...
A place where Dru had foreseen victory...Even as she had foreseen both Haly's and Walthrop's coming....
And Dru's visions while often confusing, had generally been reliable...
***
Drusilla...
PG-13...
Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse, Cicelyverse page www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html , or direct to story at www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/Dru1.html...
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...
Summary: An alternate Cicelyverse tale...In 1880 Cicely Addams Walthrop makes the right choice and saves her William on that fateful night. But Drusilla is not so easily cheated of her Prince...
A companion story to "Groom of Rosenberg" for Halloween, at the request of the Shes Who Must Be Obeyed...The musical touches are their idea...Sorry...they want a "Phantom-ish" story...
Part XXXIX...
Carriageway of the Abercrombie and Son funeral home...
"All right, lads..." Mr. Fulston Abercrombie, solidly heavy-set, mutton-chopped Abercrombie of Abercrombie and Sons...Eyed his rather loutish two sons, Leo, the hulking younger, again nervously eyeing the open hearse, clearly on the brink of again requesting another look at the pretty lady...Raymond, the heavy-browed elder, making a feeble attempt to stand erect in his utterly unsuitable mourning suit while trying vainly to read out the family's written instructions as to their daughter's final repose...
Lord, tell me the Missus cuckolded me...the mortician thought, taking the note from his heir... "Get 'er into the dressing room and leave Abby to her..." The two pulled at the casket, dragging it back from the hearse onto a wheeled carrier...
"You know, Drusilla...This is not too bad a hiding place for you..." Haly noted to her charge within the nick-of-time-resealed coffin ...Only the vengeance demon's lovely Cicely head visible where she faced the reclining Dru within, the rest of Halfreck's body outside and invisible to the carriers... Actually not at all bad, rather a pleasant place to rest in, minus the rotting hostess below us, Haly thought, looking at the delicate velvet and lace trim...One can see why these vampires are so fond of their abodes...
"And with the help of these people...Who must have the ability to make shipments to the Continent..." she eyed her client...Uhnn...Groaning a bit as the casket shook and bucked...
Dru, lying on top of her current resting place's true owner, nervously looked round, restrained from crying out at every jostling by Haly's calming presence...
This was not quite looking like so good a thought as a few minutes ago when she'd desperately boarded the hearse and entered into a dead-in arrangement with her co-occupant...
But there hadn't exactly been a lot of time to consider the situation...
"The only problem I foresee...Once you've made friends here...Is how..." Oh!...she gave a start as the casket, now inside the funeral home, dropped a bit onto a table... "Sorry...Anyway, the problem seems to me now to be...How to get Mr. Walthrop to travel with you?...If Mrs. Walthrop does not think to try the theater again and finds him despite what I've given you to conceal him..."
Unless...she smiled... "You think he's finished and will be joining you shortly..." Dru shook her head...Not yet...
"It was not time...He was not ready to join me...I was too hasty, Lady...I apologize..."
Bout time someone showed me a little courtesy, Halfreck thought, pleased, though a bit puzzled...
"I have been granted two opportunities...Only two...That is what my visions tell me..." Dru explained...
"The first night in London when your Slayer did not abandon him..." She gave a slight frown...
Hey not my fault, girl...Haly frowned back...
"The second, has not yet come...That is why I was not allowed to succeed the other night...But it will come...In the land of my dreams..." Dru smiled gently...Then winced as the casket made a particularly sharp bang...Shouts heard from outside... "Mind, you idiots...Get 'er on the table there gentle!..." Bang, thud... "I said, gentle!...Abby!..."
Sounds of fading bootsteps...A door slamming...Haly pulled head out of the coffin a moment...Hmmn...She returned... "Alls clear now...They've got you settled and left...Someone should be coming to have a look at you...er her..." she nodded to the corpse below... "In a short time..." Dru nodded...
The vengeance demon eyed her charge...Something almost disturbing about her calm...
"Drusilla?...How do you know you will succeed in Transylvania?...What exactly do your visions say?..."
"I see that I will be with my Prince..." she paused... "And the Slayer will die...At my hands..."
Hmmn...Now that's the kind of no-nonsense vision that really does it for me, Haly thought...
***
The tea room near the Thames...Same time...
Darla, seeing the clouds and fog beginning to lift, decided to try sweet reason with the Slayer, moving over carefully to the table where Cicely sat with her devoted aides, the barrister/ex-suitor Jonathan Levinson and more or less merchant/likewise ex-suitor Andrew Fowler...
She kept hands slightly from her sides in a peaceful gesture as Angelus watched from their table...Happily wolfing down the last crumpet...
Cicely eyeing her coldly, hand reaching to a concealed pocket in the jacket she wore over the everyday blouse and skirt Henry had brought her the night before at the theater from her traveling bag left at the Savoy...
"Slayer..." Darla hissed carefully, moving to block the view of the staff at the counter... "Mrs. Walthrop..." Cicely replied quietly...
"Mrs. Walthrop...Ma'am...You must see my mate and I can do no more today...We must seek shelter very soon or perish..." a respectfully earnest look, with quick, hopeful glance to Levinson...
"You've given me no clue as to my husband's or Drusilla's whereabouts..." Cicely shook her head... "Until you do there will be no rest for either of you today..."
"We can hardly help you if we're piles of..." Darla snapped, cutting off as the waitress passed on her way to Angelis with a new pot of tea...Thank you, dear...he beamed kindly...She curtsying slightly...
...Dust...the vampiress concluded...
"Then, to avoid that fate...Find my husband...Or find your male's...Other companion..." a cold stare...
And tell your mate he'll either bring his tea along or he can be swept up by that charming young girl...
Oh...Please do...Darla thought...She looked back where Angelis was contentedly looking over the morning Times, sipping tea...With polite nod to several new customers entering...
Hmmn...Tell him alls well and to take his time?...Nah...I may need him to keep the Slayer busy for a moment or two later...
***
Abercrombie and Sons Funeral Parlor...Dressing and prep room...
Abby, the dresser, alone in the room for final preparations before the memorial service had been gently restored to a tranquil state by Drusilla after experiencing near-fatal shock on opening the casket for inspection of the corpse...Corpses...
Dru patted her new minion gently...In deep hypnotic trance...She having preferred not to risk the danger of exposure via the strengthening but regrettably too easily spotted effect of thrall bite, a little kindness and positive reinforcement was called for...Not that it was not her nature to treat her victims with what gentleness time and circumstances allowed...Particularly now with the constant pressure of her 'sister' the soul's presence...
"Abby...I'll be staying here until we can find a way for me and my Prince to get where we need to go...But I'm sure with the help of you and the other good people here, we'll succeed..."
Yes, ma'am...Abby replied ...
"Well...I'll meet your employer and the others later when things settle down and time allows...And I shouldn't delay you in your work...I hope you'll be able to make the young lady ready in time for her service..." she eyed her traveling companion in the casket...Hmmn...A bit mussed but nothing not easily mended... "I'll just take a seat over here and leave you to it...If anyone should ask, I'm your cousin Dru...Waverly, just in visiting from the country a day or two earlier than you'd expected...Far too shy, innocent, and wary of our great London to be left alone... "
Yes, ma'am...the dresser quietly moved to her work... "Drusilla...Or Dru...Is fine, cousin Abby..."
"Though if I can help in any way..." Dru kindly noted...
***
Retired costume storage closet in the sub-basement of the Savoy Theater...
Morning...
An exhausted William fell back from the wall he'd been trying to bang against, hoping to attract attention...
No luck...Except the bad of cutting his wrist slightly...A little more blood loss to add to what Drusilla had taken already...Lovely...
He tried again with the gag in his mouth...Trying to use his tongue to push it aside, at least enough to get some kind of cry out, however muffled...
Again no good...This 'lady', Drusilla or whatever her name was...Knew her gaging as well as she did her hogtying...
Uh...He felt again the moment of her bite...The faint taste of the blood from her wrist she'd forced in his mouth before leaving...
She has her claws in me now, though God knows what that may mean...At least she wasn't ready to kill me just yet...
Unless I'm already...And don't realize...Hmmn...No, blood doesn't suddenly seem just the thing to make a meal...For whatever twisted reason she was not willing to take me involuntarily...
And as yet at least I don't feel any great desire to change spouses, thanks much...
Bit embarrassing to have her so obsessed with me...It seems more than just a challenge to Cics...
If time allowed I ought to be flattered I suppose...The two most unusual females in London are mad about me...Not bad for William the Bloody Awful, even if in both cases I can't understand what they see in me...Though dear Mr. Henderson is quite welcome to my new admirer...
Hmmn...A necklace she'd thrown round him just before leaving slipped a bit on his chest...Somehow I don't think this was quite meant as an engagement gift...Some kind of charm, perhaps?...
Or maybe it was just a token...Still it might do well to get it off...He tried moving his bound arms again, nothing...Then shaking himself...No good...
He paused, trying to slow slide down to a sitting or kneeling posture...Gather his strength a bit...
It can't be, God...He thought in spite of his best efforts to repress...Dear God, let it not be...He slid a bit further...Involuntarily now...
Arhh...Worse than ever...Well, nothing to do but try to collect oneself and think of some way out...Some way to make enough noise, perhaps...
The nightmare come to be, just as my poor girl'd feared...Her enemies striking at her through me...
And...No...I mustn't think of that now...Later, with her, when there is time and place for sorrow...
But the image of Dru's sad face came to him...Begging his forgiveness...
God, my Cicely...My poor, poor Cicely...
Pray God she isn't seeking that mad thing now...In her condition...
If she's even...No, the madwoman...Or whatever she is...Would have come, told me...Perhaps even with sincere regret for me, strange creature that she is...
This, Lord...Is truly unforgivable...And high proof of your non-existence...To let this happen...Leave Cicely to suffer alone...
Mourning our lost child alone...
No...That she is not doing...Even if I can't be with her, he thought...
And there is one thing...Whatever sympathy I may feel for that creature, the woman she once was...Whatever hold she may now have on me...I have my child's spirit to remind me that she is a monster...
***
Drusilla...
PG-13...
Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse, Cicelyverse page www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html , or direct to story at
www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/Dru1.html...
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer
series...
Summary: An alternate Cicelyverse tale...In 1880 Cicely Addams Walthrop makes the right choice and saves her William on that fateful night. But
Drusilla is not so easily cheated of her Prince...
A companion story to "Groom of Rosenberg" for Halloween, at the request of the Shes Who Must Be Obeyed...The musical touches are their
idea...Sorry...they want a "Phantom-ish" story...
Part XL...
A street near the
An inwardly fuming Darla attempting to maintain some degree of composure...As well as keeping the umbrella kindly provided her by Jonathan as they'd left the tea shop carefully aimed at the sun now peeking occasionally through the mostly cloudy sky as she walked along, trying to concentrate on any possible scent or aura of her lost 'granddaughter'...er 'cousin'...
Angelus beside her likewise with open umbrella...Against the threatening sky, he pleasantly noted to a passerby who likewise opened his own...Pneumonia's a dreadful thing to catch, the man nodded to the pleasant gentleman, who gave a friendly nod...
Cicely, the said Mr. Levinson, and Fowler following at close range...
***
The retired costume closet in the
What would one of Gilbert's heroes do now?...William sighed to himself...Burst into song, no doubt...he sighed to himself...Hearing music faintly filtering in from above, voices of several of the company...Hmmn, not a full orchestra must be rehearsal, possibly the morning session...
Right...he smiled as he made out the tune...
From "P'haps If You Address the Lady" ("Princess Ida")...
"For a month to dwell
In a dungeon cell:
Growing thin and wizen
In a solitary prison,
Is a poor look out
For a soldier stout,
Who is longing for the rattle
Of a complicated battle--
Who is longing for the rattle
Of a complicated battle--
For the rum - tum - tum
Of the military drum
And the guns that go boom! boom!
The rum -- tum -- tum
Of the military drum,
Rum -- tum -- tum -- tummy tummy tummy tummy tum
Who is longing for the rattle of a complicated battle --
For the rum tum tum
Of the military drum!
Prr, prr, prr, ra -- pum -- pum!
When Hilarion's bride
Has at length complied
With the just conditions
Of our requisitions,
You may go in haste
And indulge your taste
For the fascinating rattle
Of a complicated battle--
For the fascinating rattle
Of a complicated battle--
For the rum - tum - tum,
Of the military drum,
And the guns that go boom! boom!
All:
The rum -- tum -- tum
Of the military drum,
Rum -- tum -- tum -- tummy tummy tummy tummy tum!
Who is longing for the rattle
Of a complicated battle
For the rum -- tum -- tum
Of the military drum!
Tum, prr -- prr -- prr ra -- pum, pum!
But til that time you'll [we'll] here remain,
And bail we [they] will not entertain,
Should she our [his] mandate disobey,
Your [Our] lives the penalty will pay!
But till that time you'll [we'll] here remain,
And bail we [they] will not entertain.
Should she our [his] mandate disobey,
Your [Our] lives the penalty will pay!
Should she our [his] mandate disobey,
Your [Our] lives the penalty will pay!"
I think I know the feeling, gentlemen...Though I have no intention of spending a month in Miss Dru's prison cell...he tried to concentrate on the gag...If he could just get off a yell...No good...
Unfortunately, he ruefully thought...It's highly doubtful she plans to allow that much time in any case...
***
The Rakes of Mallow...
"Beauing, belling, dancing, drinking,
Breaking windows, cursing, sinking
Ever raking, never thinking,
Live the Rakes of Mallow;
Spending faster than it comes,
Beating waiter's bailiffs, duns,
Bacchus' true begotten sons,
Live the Rakes of Mallow.
One time naught but claret drinking,
Then like politicians, thinking
To raise the "sinking funds" when sinking.
Live the Rakes of Mallow.
When at home, with Da-da dying,
Still for mellow water crying;
But, where there's good claret plying
Live the Rakes of Mallow.
Living short but merry lives,
Going where the devil drives,
Having sweethearts, but no wives,
Live the rakes of Mallow.
Racking tenants, stewards teasing,
Swiftly spending, slowly raising,
Wishing to spend all their days in
Raking as at Mallow.
Then to end this raking life,
They get sober, take a wife,
Ever after live in strife,
And wish again for Mallow..."
"In good voice today, sir!..." an eagerly friendly tradesman called out as Angelus and Darla passed by his little stand...Angelus offering an appreciative nod...
Even for the unjustly and innocently condemned a pleasant
morning stroll watching the fog and mist lift (not too quickly, please God) still
can be a heartening experience...As humming and singing snatches of one of his
favorite tunes from the old days in the Old Sod, the noble Angelus continued
his kindly efforts to bolster his mate's spirits as they continued to make
their cautious way along
Cicely's group shadowing closely...From the frowning glare Angelus caught on turning back to view them, Cicely clearly not too pleased at the progress made so far...
(... 'Ever raking, never thinking'...Sounds like his perfect theme song...Darla cursed to herself... "Shut up and keep close to me, you moron...") "We've got to get out of this somehow, these damned things won't protect us much longer..."
Indeed the peril was growing for them, the gallant vampiral Prince (Prince, again?...And this time I'm sure he
meant capital P...Where the hell does he get off with "Prince"...
Action would have to be taken soon if no trace of Dru appeared...
("Throw Darla at Mrs. Walthrop
and run like Hell?..."
"Wait..." Darla paused, concentrating... "This way..." she waved toward a side street...
Darling?...I don't...Angelus began...
"Quiet...I think I know this street..." she hissed... "You sense Drusilla...Get me?..."
Ohhhh...
"Yes, darling...I do think it is this way!..." he called out...Looking back to the three following...
***
"Now..." Dru eyed the six-member staff of Abercrombie and Son, assembled in the prep room...Her staff now...Though she'd kindly allowed the morning funeral of her recent traveling companion to proceed without interruption, maintaining her role as 'Abby's shy country cousin Dru'...Rather nice to use the old Waverly last name again...Until the family had made its tearful farewells and headed off...
And she'd finally made her formal introductions to all the staff at hand...Only Mr. Abercrombie himself unavailable, busy with the deceased's family as he'd been...
"We will have to be ready to move quickly, my
friends...My Prince and I must be able to depart on the next suitable ship for
"
"Only Mr. Abercrombie can arrange a shipping like that, miss..." Sid, the young assistant undertaker noted...His face a bit wan...
"Yes...Only Mr. A...Ma'am..." Abby agreed faintly...
"Well, he will be returning shortly, won't he?...After he speaks to the poor young lady's father about the tally for the service?..."
Pretty lady...the hulking Leo thought, with perhaps a bit less dullness actually than usual...Hypnotic thrall having provided him a little focus...
"Well, ma'am..." Abby replied softly... "He'll be back...But he'll probably be a while calling on our other customers, then stopping by a few of his favorite places to see his business acquaintances...It might be hours as we've nothing scheduled for later today...
“The till's been cleaned...Dad's like to go off on a tear when there's no trade booked for a day or two..." the beetle-browed Raymond noted...Having been hopefully engaged in a raid on the till himself when Abby's lovely visiting cousin had come in after him seeking to get better acquainted...
"I see..." Dru frowned... "Well, is it so difficult to make out the orders without him?...If we have to leave tonight or early tomorrow?..."
"Sid did it once, when Mr. A was away on holiday...But that was under Mr. A's express order..." Abby's dazed face wore a slightly perturbed expression...
Thrall or no...To go and try something like this without Mr. A's approval...
"Well, then
"Bob and me..." Sid indicated the firm's young messenger/odd jobs boy, who sat staring blankly at Dru... "We generally head down to the shipping office when an order comes in, Miss...Mostly for folks visiting from the Continent who die here...Frenchies and the like...We could get a list..."
"Please..." Dru smiled... "But don't tell anyone why...Just say you've heard your employer might need to know for a possible rush order and you're trying to keep ahead of things..."
"Aye, miss..."
"And young man..." she eyed the young boy... "Try to look a bit sharper, please...We wouldn't want to raise any suspicions that might bring the Slayer down on us..."
"Yes, mum..." Robert nodded...
"And see if tickets can be purchased for passengers on
the same ship,
Very nice...Haly nodded, impressed...She has learned to focus...
"Remember my friends..." Dru eyed the group...And turned to Haly... "This is the one you must not let find me or my Prince..." she showed a now well-worn copy of the Times turned to the page with William's and Cicely's photos and a most disapproving editorial comment...
"Should my lady here...My fairy godmother..." Dru beamed at Haly...Who rolled eyes slightly as her client turned away... "Need to contact any one of us, she will reveal herself as...Ummn...?"
"Halfreck..." Haly noted, a bit brittlely... Geesh, after all I’ve been through for her, she can’t keep my name straight?...
"Halfreck..." Dru finished... "Else it is the Slayer, my mortal enemy...From whom you all must protect me, even with your very lives..."
"Best for your friends not to attract her attention, dear..." Haly hastily pointed out... "None of them is likely to be able to deal with her..."
"Yes...My lady is quite right...Don't do anything to make her suspect you should she come upon you when I am not in jeopardy...Only if she is upon me should you try to oppose her...You all understand?..."
A chorus of somewhat vacant nods...
"Really?..." Dru eyed Leo and Raymond... "Only if she's got you to rights, ma'am?..." Raymond suggested... "That's right..." she nodded, pleased... "All right, you'd all best go on about things..."
"I must go myself...Check on the Slayer's movements...And with our other friend..." Haly noted...
"Who is our other friend, lady?...You have not told me..." Dru regarded her...
"Best to let that come out in good time, my dear..." Haly waved a hand... "It must be enough for now for you to know that you have such a friend...In addition to me...But you will be pleased to learn who has taken such an interest in helping you..." a grin as the demon vanished...
"Always wanted to see the Continent..." Abby noted
wistfully as
"And perhaps you will, dear..." Dru patted her...Hmmn...She eyed the large embalming fluid pump by the table... "What is...?" she pointed...
"The fluid pump, ma'am...for the embalming..." Abby explained...
"Can't see how you can work every day with such things about you..." the vampiress shook her head, shuddering a little...
***
Drusilla...
PG-13...
Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse, Cicelyverse page www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html , or direct to story at www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/Dru1.html
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...
Summary: An alternate Cicelyverse tale...In 1880 Cicely Addams Walthrop makes the right choice and saves her William on that fateful night. But Drusilla is
not so easily cheated of her Prince...
A companion story to "Groom of Rosenberg" for Halloween, at the request of the Shes Who Must Be Obeyed...The musical touches are their idea...Sorry...they
want a "Phantom-ish" story...
Part XLI...
"When we reach the fourth building on the left, I'll make for the door...You run for the one on the right, if I remember correctly the cellars all exit in the next street...Just get back out to the next street and make for the waterfront, get into any safe building and wait for me there..." Darla hastily told her mate as they moved down the side street, each trying to maintain the look of an alert hunter who'd caught a scent...
Hmmn...If...she remembers correctly?...Angelus pondered...Still, splitting up would improve the odds for one of us...
But naturally I can't conceive of letting my Darla take such a risk...
("And weighed down as he is by all those crumpets and
tea..."
Of...Course...Angelus glared...)
"I think, dearest..." he began...
Darla?...He looked as she raced now for the fourth building on the left...
Her courageous heart doubtless unable to resist making the ultimate sacrifice for him...Though his chances of making the other, farther, building...Or heck, as he saw a furious Cicely bearing down on him...Even using Darla's escape route, impossible...
Well, nothing to do now except brace to gallantly meet his fate...He turned to Cicely who was on him now, stake in hand...Tossing him back against the pavement as Jonathan and Andrew came up...
(Bet 'tossing him down' wasn't that hard to do...Angelus no
doubt on his knees, whimpering in fear...
After Angelus has done a fair share of whimpering before me...)
"Bastard!!..." she raised 'Dickens' for a quick finish...
"Slayer?!...Darla's found her!..." he pointed to the building... "We've not betrayed you!..."
"Liar!..." she hissed...But hesitated...
"There's no trace of her...I feel nothing...!"
"I swear Mrs. Walthrop!..." Angelus did his manly best to buy time for his fleeing beloved...
(Yeah, right...Vladimir and Willie exchanged looks...Even
the quiet Stoker, though wearing an unfathomable expression, gave a slight grunt...
"As we were saying, my friend... 'Absolutely'..."
"Levinson!...Wait!...Cicely...er Mrs. Walthrop!..." Fowler called, she looking back... "Jonathan's gone in after her!..."
She spun fully around... "Please try something..." her growl to Angelus hanging in the air as she did...He rising, carefully considering his options...
And groaning as the sun broke through a cloud, sending a beam which scorched his hand...He looked wildly for the umbrella, dropped in his fall...Uh-oh...
Cicely turned back to him... "That building, if you don't want to burn, follow me, now!...And if you and your mate are lying!...Or Mr. Levinson is harmed!..."
He staggered after her, Fowler now throwing the door open and entering... "Wait, Andrew!..." she calling in vain...
***
In the cellar of the building Darla, followed by Jonathan and Andrew, had just entered...By deliberately dimmed lantern light...
"This it, Abercrombie?...Mighty slim trade these past days..." an annoyed, thin voice...From a small, stick-like figure in dark clothes and somewhat incongruous tall hat, addressing none other than Fulston Abercrombie of Abercrombie and Sons, still in his formal working uniform of mourning suit...
"That's the lot...Just a little jewelry...The dress is good material..." A large, patting hand on said "good" material...A white formal dress just removed from its nearby owner...
"Aye..." the other shrugged... "But not worth my coming out..."
"Well, the lass herself ought to fetch a good..." At the sound of a violent crash above, followed by running steps, both men turned from their consideration of a young woman's naked corpse in her casket...The same young woman...And the same casket, supposedly interred little more than an hour before, that Dru had traveled with earlier that morning...
***
"Darla!..." Jonathan called, looking round the grungy hall of the rather decrepit building his quarry had raced into...A couple of unspeakably meanly attired persons lying about...Movement suggesting they were alive, the reek of cheap liquor that they were not victims of either Drusilla or the fleeing Darla... "Pardon..." he stepped
carefully round them, one opening eyes and mumbling, grabbed at him...
Hey!...He kicked the man off...Spying stairs in back...
"Darla...!" he reached the flight of stairs just as Andrew entered...And loud cries was heard below...Accompanied by a hideous growl...
"I say, wait Levinson...!" Andrew cried...
"Jonathan!..." Cicely crashed through the front door, knocking Andrew to one side... "Stop!...They may both be down..."
"Ahhhh!!!..." More screams from below...Jonathan hurried down, stake in hand, Cicely racing for the stairs...Andrew following...
"Hello...?" Angelus called, stepping inside... "Mrs. Walthrop?...Gentlemen?!...Sweetheart?!..."
Hmmn...He listened to the screams from below, accompanied by ferocious growling and now, the sounds of shouted voices...The Slayer's among them...
Well...Perhaps best to wait and see, given that with the noon sun almost fully out now, a quick exit was impossible...He eyed the two humans on the floor...Hmmn...
No, perhaps not...Even if the Slayer didn't survive down there...Sounds of crashing, a distinct "Darla!..."...The thought of dining on these two...However merciful it might be to terminate their miserable existences...One let out a loud, drunken belch...
Rats...Of which there were several varieties engaged in various activities about the floor, considerably more appealing...
The belcher opening her?...Yes, vaguely female...Eyes... Blearly making him out in the dim light...
"Us wants some, love?..." she managed a vague gap-toothed smile...
No...Definitely not that hungry... "Another time, perhaps..." he noted politely... "F-off, toff bastard!..." she threw something rather horrible in his vague direction and returned to her slumbers...
Toff, eh?...he thought, pleased...Well, clothes do make the man, Darla always says...
Hmmn...Sounds of shouting now...Cicely's...And Darla's voice as well...
Well, not dust yet, eh?...The stairs below creaking...
"You see, Slayer..." Darla's voice drifting up, a tad placating... "I keep my word..."
"God have mercy on us..." a male voice whimpered, coming stronger...The party clearly coming up the stairs... "What is she?..."
"Quiet...Keep moving..." Cicely's voice...
Jonathan now appeared at the top of the stairs...Angelus giving a friendly wave...Just keeping my post, friends...All humans here alive and well...Andrew emerging a moment later...
"Miss...Or whatever you are...I am Fulston Abercrombie of Abercrombie and Sons, a respectable businessman..." a stronger male voice now took physical form as a large man in sober, even somber, attire, appeared, following up the stairs after Andrew...
"And I am Thaddaus MacNee...Likewise respectable...And you and your..." a wizened older man in somewhat less somber garb, possessor of the whimpering voice, appeared after Abercrombie... "Creature, here..." he looked behind him...A frightened, even terrified look as he went silent a moment...
"Interruptin' a respectable business transaction..." he finished in a considerably weaker voice...
"Abercrombie, the undertaker fellow?..." Andrew eyed him as MacNee was pushed from behind...Darla, to Angelus' surprise, doing the pushing...Cicely right behind her, stake in hand...
"A respectable undertaker?...Selling the clothes and jewelry of the dead?...If only that..." Cicely glared over at Abercrombie...MacNee silent again as Darla eyed him coldly...
"Now miss...I can assure you I had the family's full consent...Just tryin' to raise a few funds for the destitute left behind...Mr. MacNee here is a generous man and a philanthropist... He likes to do what he can..."
Darla giving Angelus a rather wry smile and shrug...Don't ask me how it played out this way...
"Darla?..." Cicely turned to her... "He's not in thrall, Slayer..." she shook her head...
"Where did you get this, sir?...Where is the other lady...er, corpse?..."
"Ma'am?..." Abercrombie eyed Cicely, honestly puzzled...
"We know there must have been another corpse...A young, dark-haired woman?...This..." she held up a piece of battered costume jewelry... "Belonged to her...Where did you take her?...Where is she now?!..." she motioned to Darla and pulled 'Dickens' up...
Darla smiling benignly at Abercrombie...Then, again taking demon face... "My God!..." he gasped...Looking at Cicely...
"Tell me where the other one is...Or I swear I'll leave you with her..." Cicely eyed Abercrombie, nodding at Darla...
"Ma'am...I swear...God's honest truth...There was only the one...I had no other trade today..."
Indeed...MacNee nodded, a tad wistfully...
Hardly worth coming out to meet the man today...Considering the risk of the business...Even if the medical part of the trade was a good one...
"This was hers...Either she was one of your corpses today or you must have seen her or taken her somewhere...Where is she?!...Tell me or..." she glanced at Darla...Who waited patiently...
"Taken her, ma'am...?" Abercrombie frowned...
"For God's sake, Abercrombie..." MacNee addressed him desperately as Darla, in human face, gave him an appraising glance...
True, not much meat there, but the terror alone in the little fellow...
"Tell her where you got the goods, man..." he plucked at Abercrombie's sleeve...
"Quiet, you fool!...Ma'am...Gentlemen, I don't know who the lady means....Truly...It was all from the young lass down there..." the large undertaker was in quite a sweat now as he nervously tried to avoid the two female faces...One glaring with icy rage...The other simply offering a pleasant, almost angelic beam on her human
face...Somehow even more terrifying than the demonic...
Ummn...Andrew eyeing Jonathan...Not exactly quite the right sort of thing?...Should we?...
"Give them a moment, old fellow..." Levinson raised a hand...
Hmmn...Protection from the Council...Slayer-sanctioned torture...And potential free food to follow...Joining the ranks of Good has its advantages...Angelus noted to himself, watching with interest...
***
Back at the surveillance building adjacent to the Savoy, in a room secure from prying eyes and ears, Farris listened carefully...And rather sourly... to Haly's report on Dru's travel plans...
"Transylvania?...
"Who knows..." a shrug... "But she's seen the final outcome and is convinced she will triumph over Cicely there..."
Hmmn...To put one's faith in the psychotic visions of an insane vampiress...Not exactly a thing breeding of confidence...
"She still has Walthrop under lock and key?..."
"Oh yes...And with my gift to cover his aura, Cicely
will have some little difficulty locating him even if she tries the
But still alive...A loose end most displeasing...He pondered a moment...
"Is there any chance you could locate him?...If I sent an operative..."
"I could..." Haly nodded... "But it would hardly fulfill our agreement...Cicely would know he'd simply been murdered...While no doubt she'd seek a hideous revenge, I don't think it would provide quite the measure of despair we're looking for here..."
And I do have to consider the best interests of my own Lord here...she noted with a pleasant smile...
"But you did say Walthrop has tasted her blood...He might transform, under the right circumstances..."
"Very iffy right now without Dru's active intervention...I'm afraid I would have to consult Lord D'Hoffryn on this..."
Farris raised a hand... "But, if the operative I mentioned was not my own...And not a complete stranger to Cicely...?"
Hmmn?...
"I've mentioned her father Sir Richard's interest here...And the lengths to which he might be willing to go..." he smiled...
"You'd expect Cicely's father to kill his own son-in-law...?"
"Hardly Sir Richard himself...But one of his own...If circumstances permitted...Without doubt..." Farris beamed...
And if Cicely's most loyal and committed friend...Were to uncover evidence to expose this sordid affair to her after Walthrop's
death...And possible transformation...
"Her own father?..." Haly's turn to ponder... Hmmn...That does smell like something involving despair and vengeance on a cosmic
scale...
"Might I speak with my Lord a moment?...I'll get right back to you...It's an interesting idea but if we're to proceed it's just
a bit too important for me to make the decision alone..."
By all means, my dear...a polite smile...
"But you will please stress the need to act quickly?...And my own uncertainty regarding Drusilla's current course of action..."
***
Drusilla...
PG-13...
Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse, Cicelyverse page, www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html, or direct to story at
www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/Dru1.html
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire
Slayer series...
Summary: An alternate Cicelyverse tale...In 1880 Cicely Addams Walthrop makes the right choice and saves her William on that fateful night. But Drusilla is not so easily cheated of her Prince...
A companion story to "Groom of Rosenberg" for Halloween, at the request of the Shes Who Must Be Obeyed...The musical touches are their idea...Sorry...they want a "Phantom-ish" story...
[The usual note to G&S fans...I've fiddled with dates a bit in this AU tale and moved the "Mikado" and the opening of the Savoy up a
few years...]
****
Part XLII...
At the building where Cicely and her assistants...And ex-suitors...Jonathan
Levinson,
A gruesome discovery which fortunately had also uncovered the first real clue as to Drusilla's whereabouts...
"I'm going to ask you one last time, sir..."
Cicely spoke in cold fury to the portly, distinguished pillar of
"Where did you get this piece?..." she waved the bit of costume jewelry they'd found with the pile of possessions looted from the poor corpse below...By scent and appearance, confirmed by Darla, a favorite of Drusilla's... "And more important, where is the body of the thing that wore it?..."
"Abercrombie, for God's sake..." his partner in crime, one Thaddaus MacNee, at his elbow...Barely reaching to it in fact...Hissed again...Imploring...
Angelus and Darla watching with some interest, just off to the side, under Jonathan's careful eye...Curious to see how the Slayer handles it...And hope...She having promised to leave the two humans to their tender care should the men's memories prove defective...
"By the way, sweetheart?..." Angelus asked quietly, whispering so as not to disturb the Slayer in her interrogation... "How did you?..."
"Don't be ridiculous..." Darla whispered back... "I hadn't the slightest idea...I only picked up the scent here by chance, just as I heard the others coming in after me, then I found those two below...I couldn't get out in time so I just made the most of the chance and told the Slayer I'd picked it up outside...Just thank the Master she felt something too...And there really was something of Dru's on them..."
Fortunate
Clearly the Almighty has His plans for us...Perhaps our meeting with the Slayer was intended...Ordained...
Yes, very likely God Himself wants Angelus on His team...At least as one of His hired...At generous compensation one would hope, mercenaries...
And of course, Darla, mate of Angelus...he gallantly noted to himself...
"Ma'am...I've told you..." Abercrombie sighed... "It was on the young lady below...Well, on her, she wasn't wearing it...But it must've been hers or placed there by a loved one at the service this morning...The casket's been at her home since yesterday and I just picked her up there early today..."
A difficult thing to repress one's nature in the cause of Good...However, to protect one's mate, ensure one's survival...Provide one with a rather more comfortable lifestyle, courtesy the Council of Watchers, than that which he currently enjoyed...Yes, the noble Angelus could rise to the challenge and...
"How did she die?...Jonathan, can you go and check the body?..."
Darla took note of her gallant mate's preoccupation as he pondered the possibility of a major existence-style change...
Angelus, among Light's fighters...The world's first...Hmmn, first...Like the sound of that...Vampiral hero....
What have you got turning those little wheels in that dead brain?...she hissed...
(Why, you posturing little...Everyone knows great-granduncle
Vlad was the world's first vamp hero...However
shameful to the family that might be...
"Might I note, my friend..." the current head of the Dracule, vampiral, coldly interjected... "I believe my own ancestor..."
"Yes, yes...But my 'ancestor'..." Angelus smiled... "Was considering taking an active role on the other side of the fight...Not just to seek personal redemption and save a loved one from her horrible fate..."
Severe narrowing of eyes by the representative of the noble Dracule clan...
Just...?
"In fact personal redemption was rather a low priority on his list...")
"Fever, mum...Two days ago..." Abercrombie noted as Jonathan reached the stairs...Wait...He turned back to the mortician...
"Did you say she was brought in today?...By you?..."
"Aye, sir...Early this morning...And opened only for our work and the service...Eh, the casket, I mean..." he noted to Jonathan's and Andrew's slightly perturbed looks... "Look, miss..." Abercrombie turned back to Cicely... "I can check with my people and see if the thing was with the girl before..." Cicely ignoring him as she stared at Jonathan...The same thought occurring to them...
"Cicely?...She's at the funeral parlor...She must have been in the casket somehow with the girl, hiding in there..." Jonathan noted...She nodded, pulling "Dickens" back...
Playing a corpse to hide out at a funeral parlor...Now that's my girl...Angelus proudly thought...
"Sir, there was only one in there..." Abercrombie insisted, a bit shocked and somewhat put out...What did these people take him for? On the other hand, an interesting idea...Stuff 'em all in one...Say, an extra-large, as you pick 'em up...
Before you stage the burial, raise and unload the casket, sell the body and all items on it of value, and polish up the box for the next one...
Well it's not like we make meat pies out of 'em like that nutty barber over in Fleet Street...
"Where's your establishment?..." Levinson demanded of Abercrombie...
"Well, sir..." the respectable bringer of peace to the departed hesitated... "I don't want my place mixed up in any..." he paused as Cicely held "Dickens" to his ample throat...The point sinking in to slightly depress the flesh...
"
"Andrew, get...No, wait..." Cicely paused... "You have a carriage?..." she eyed the two body-snatchers... "We've no time to waste trying find a cab..."
Well?...she raised "Dickens" to view...
"Out back, my hearse...Mr. MacNee has a wagon..." Abercrombie nodded...
"We'll take both...Andrew, Jonathan...You take the wagon with this gentleman..." she waved at MacNee...
"The rest of us will ride with you, sir..." she eyed Abercrombie...
By hearse...? Darla frowned...
Hmmn, always wanted to try one of those things...Angelus thought...
***
Office of
"I hope, Carte..." Arthur Rathskeller hesitated as he looked at the theater manager with a somewhat apologetic air...
Natural embarrassment given events, vampire hunteress Willow Rosenberg, seated beside him, out of her ball gown and back in her usual professional garb of black blouse, tweed skirt and jacket, spectacles, and, as a single concession to vanity, rather nicely arranged, firmly pinned, hat, noted to herself...At least one murder in
the theater on the night of "the Mikado"'s dress rehearsal...Several killer vampires in attendance, at least one, the worst of the lot, still on the loose...The Chairman of the Council of Watchers couldn't help feeling a certain degree of undeserved responsibility...
"I hope you can still see your way to cooperating with us...At least until this creature is taken..."
"I hardly think we have a choice, Arthur..." Carte eyed him... "But I'm aware you and your people have been doing their best..."
Though it is unfortunate to have the police investigating a murder and disappearance the day we open a new work, he noted..."Pity it couldn't have happened during the last week of "Princess Ida"...Gilbert, I'm afraid is quite upset..."
"You haven't told..."
"Certainly not..." Carte shook his head... "Sir Arthur, having a more romantic imagination, can deal with such things tolerably well, but WS would denounce us as idiot lunatics to the world and then try to put a comic take on the events into his next piece..."
Kinda like ta
see that...
As would Cicely, sure...
"No, Gilbert only knows what we've told the police...But he's still quite upset...He'd rather taken to young Mr. Walthrop...And Evie Sinclair was one of the few people on staff who could get on his better side...Occasionally...And of course, there's the opening...He's quite on edge, though poor Lucy is doing what she
can..."
He eyed the two...
"I suppose you are aware that despite what we told them regarding Miss Sinclair's killer, the police regard poor Walthrop's disappearance as somewhat suspicious...Only natural from their point of view..."
"We have people on the force...They'll do what they can to keep the poor boy from being falsely accused..." Rathskeller stated... "If necessary we have Angelus and could have him physically presented to them at the right time...Though we would have to stage his escape and a plausible death, they could never hold him for trial..."
"And Sir Arthur...?"
"As I indicated, I think he can accept such things as the supernatural a bit more easily...Though he is concerned for poor Mrs. Walthrop and her husband...As are we all...Any word on that score, Rathskeller?..."
"Cicely is still out hunting for the creature with her aides..."
Aides?...Those three?...
"Mr. Farris?...Have he or his
people reported in?..."
"Simon's staff has also seen nothing of Drusilla as yet...And Cicely has not tried to reach him with a report..."
However, as to your opening tonight...Rathskeller turned to Carte...
"I trust you're not recommending we cancel?...Of course, we will if you think it best..."
"No, no...We'd like you to go ahead...I doubt there'll be any problems but if Drusilla has been considering a return here, keeping things normal here will probably be an inducement..."
"You want her to return?...Arthur, my dear fellow...With all due respect..."
"Only for her to try, D'Oyly...We'll stop her long before she gets in...But if she would try, we'd be in position..."
"What would bring her back now?...We've
searched for Walthrop physically and magically
without luck so far in here..."
"I'm still convinced she deposited him somewhere in the vicinity..." Rathskeller said quietly... "She couldn't have fled very far with him last night...As for concealing him from us, perhaps in supernatural ways...I've seen her kind do similar things in the past...It only confirms she has great abilities..."
"Does Cicely agree?...Why is she out hunting, in her condition, if..."
"It's best for her...If he's alive, he's not likely to be found by having one more to assist our further searching the building...She needs to be doing something proactive...And if she can find Drusilla by day...Far better odds for her in her current state than encountering her later..."
"But have you told her what you think, that he's still here?...Or about here..."
"No...Though I would expect she's reached a similar conclusion...At least that he's in the area..."
"Alive, I trust?..." Carte cut in, a bit anxious...Not another corpse waiting to be found on the premises tonight of all nights...
"There is no way to be certain...Until we find him..."
A thought formed in
If Walthrop were to be found now...Without Cicely about...The solution to the Council's Slayer problem could be quite simple...
No...He wouldn't...Not this gentle man...Why do I even let the thought...?
"Well, Rathskeller...What do you propose?..."
"Carte, I'd like to have my staff discreetly resume the search of the theater and the surroundings...We may not be able to trace Walthrop, but if he is hidden somewhere about, we might just possibly stumble into him...At the same time we'll prepare for the possibility of Drusilla's attempt to return to collect him..."
But he told me...He would be forced to make a choice, soon...That Humanity must have a Slayer...
"We can do it without interfering with your business, I'm sure..."
"Well, whatever must be done..." Carte shrugged... "You have our full support..."
They rose, Rathskeller shaking
Carte's extended hand,
She silent as they entered the hall outside...
"Arthur..." she finally spoke... "What are you planning to do?..."
"Whatever we can...And must....Willow..." Allowing himself a faint smile on the "
Of all times to use my first name in personal conversation...she sighed inwardly...
"Yes, but...Arthur?...Are we attempting to rescue Walthrop?...Or..."
She stared at the Chairman's now impassive face…
"Good heavens, what the devil are you two doing about here?..." W.S. Gilbert burst in upon them from another room, Carte's personal assistant at his elbow taking notes feverishly... "This isn't a train station, we are engaged in preparations for an opening..." he glared at the two idiots...
Silly people ought to be minding their own silly business in their own silly homes...he muttered, banging at Carte's door... "Ah, Gilbert..." Carte's voice in greeting...He rushed in, the rather harried-looking female assistant just barely rushing in as he slammed the door behind him...
***
(More Coming)
