Buffy sat looking terribly bored while absently twirling a wooden stake on the table in front of her. Giles stood in the corner in front of another bookshelf, a few tomes stacked as he thumbed through yet another book on mythology. "It occurs to me," Giles said, as if suddenly noticing how silent it had become in the shop. "That if during High School there had been a case where you were the prime target, convincing you to stay in a safe location would have been near impossible." He turned another page, "This is an improvement."
Buffy gave the stake one last twirl, "That's because maybe the only thing that's more boring than that kind of assignment," She said looking over to Giles, "Is watching you pour over the whole Encyclopedia Britanica. Are you sure I can't be doing something more useful?"
"Can you read ancient Greek?" Giles responded without looking up from his book.
Buffy rolled her eyes, finding that a little bit of High School was still in her afterall.
"Yes, then the most useful thing you can do right now is stay away from Bacchus until we have more in..." Giles trailed off as he reread over a passage. Buffy stood up and approached the quiet former Watcher.
"I believe this is a description of the Bacchae's abilities," He said, deeply focused on the book. "This passage here reads, "A single bite from a Bacchae can turn an innocent woman into a wild soulless creature, whose only allegiance is to Bacchus." Giles stopped and looked up to Buffy to exchange her ominous stare, "Once bitten, she's lured into his lair to drink his blood, if she does, there's no way to save her. She becomes a Bacchae, forever."
"That sounds too close to a vampire to be a coincidence," Buffy frowned.
Giles continued "The Bacchae women can take many forms, sometimes roaming the forest as wolves. Driven with an unquenchable thirst for blood they track their intended victim relentlessly, until they corner them and tear them apart, limb from limb...." Giles paused as he read ahead, "It goes into details about some of these incidents...then continues with the names of villages which Bacchus and his Bacchae razed to the ground." Giles placed the book down on the shelf.
After a moment of silence both Buffy and Giles' attention were drawn to the door as an out of breath Xander burst through, the door bell jangling loudly as it began to swing back closed.
"It's got Willow," Xander panted, catching his breath, "We were attacked...some kind of wild woman," the ever anxious wisecracker was deathly serious now, Buffy and Giles immediately sensing the reality of the situation.
"A Bacchae," Buffy declared, Giles nodded in confirmation.
"And it's got Willow," Xander repeated, "Grabbed her and flew off, literally flew."
"I'm going out," Buffy stated, her tone leaving no room for debate.
Concerned for Willow himself and respecting Buffy enough by this point, Giles didn't attempt to argue. "Be aware that these are not vampires," Giles instead focused his effort on arming Buffy with as much knowledge as he could, "Our best chance for finding a weakness to Bacchus and his followers will be in the missing mythology book, Xander and I will attempt to track it down."
Still not having regained his breath completely Xander looked to Giles and then back to Buffy, "Damn right," he offered in an attempt to muster back their confidence.
"I'll be back," Buffy stood in front of the Magic Box's door, "With Willow," She finished before striding out into the night.
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Dawn Summers stood waiting outside the entrance to the Bronze, Sunnydale's often plagued but still immensely popular night club. The High School student's expression brightened as she saw her friend Janice approach, also dressed for a night out.
"About time you showed up," Dawn chided her friend.
"Give me a break, I had to wait until my Mom fell asleep reading," Janice protested.
Dawn and Janice approached the door, the bouncer nodded and let them pass. Like always, this place let anyone in. Once the door opened they were exposed to the music playing from the club's stage.
"Is tonight some kind of theme night?" Dawn wondered aloud as they stepped in, strangely with each step in the music's volume and bass seemed to amplify. On stage an odd band was playing instruments not typically part of the average indie rock bands repertoire. Individuals dressed in tribal outfits were thumping rhythmically on bongos and drums, standing stringed instruments were strummed to produce bass notes and from nowhere in particular a fiddle was droning an eerie tune over it all. Normally the patrons of the Bronze were split between a crowd watching the stage act and the rest crowding the bar or engaged in conversations around one of the many standing tables, tonight most of the crowd it seemed was using most of the area as a dance floor.
Dawn and Janice exchanged a tentative look as they moved closer to the dancing club goers. The figures closest to them turned and moved, welcoming them unto the dance floor even as the two girls felt themselves drawn in. Janice had begun to start dancing as Dawn looked around herself and decided to join in. Dawn started dancing, against the rhythm of the music at first, awkward and unsure. She looked around her once more to try and sync up to the rest of the dancers. Dawn's gaze wandered over to the stage then down to the crowd in front of her, as if in response the crowd parted to reveal two exotically dressed women.
Their outfits fitting the music and whatever theme this night at the Bronze was supposed to be, short black skirts, opera gloves, lined capes and tops highlighting the women's slim and desirable figures, both of the women were staring intently at Dawn. In a few pulses of bass the women had swayed and sauntered, bare midriffs writhing through the dancing patrons and up to Dawn. They moved next to encircle her, dancing and swaying perfectly to the music as Dawn resumed dancing, now trying to match her new dance partners.
The fiddle's drone bathed the dance floor, Dawn looked to the woman behind her and found her look guided to her front once more by the beckoning hand of the woman facing her. Dawn followed the leading gloved hand swaying her forward and almost into a kiss with the hungry looking woman. The woman turned her head away at the last moment, averting Dawn away with her hand. The woman behind her leaned in over her shoulder and swayed beside her, Dawn looking back once more before being beckoned forward again, Dawn felt a tingle wash over her as throughout this she was being led into more and more of a synchronous rhythm with the music and her dance partners.
Entranced by the haunting song and the bewitching women, Dawn swayed and swooned on the dance floor, less aware of her surroundings but more pulled in to focus on the women writhing their body against hers. Dawn looked up to the lights in the ceiling, her gaze skimming the woman in front of her, seeing golden yellow eyes for a brief moment. She looked around absently in the trance, the figures around her a blur, Dawn swayed feeling the moment in song was right to bare her neck black talons brushing across her skin as she smiled lazily and closed her eyes.
*************************************************
In the catwalk area above Spike flipped his lighter open and shut, looking to his left and to his right, vampires, demons and the generally interesting people who attended the Bronze normally congregated up here. Tonight, nothing. Bored out of his mind, Spike stood up, "What a waste of time," He said to no one in particular, "And the music has been BOLLOCKS all night!" He shouted to the band on stage expressly in particular.
Spike scanned over the floor one last time before leaving. Not expecting to see what he did, Spike squinted and look closer. No mistake, it was The Slayer's sister. And hell, there were demons about her, a seconds glance away was all it took to notice that there were more of them spread about the dance floor. He couldn't tell the type, but evil knew evil... thinking back to it he should have known, there's no way any of these children would be enjoying music this bad otherwise.
Spike made the decision to act quickly. He was already rationalizing the decision even as he rushed down the steps to the dance floor. If the Slayer's sister was killed, captured, groped or made slightly to moderately uncomfortable the Slayer would be back here and any demon that was even present while it happened would be staked or otherwise dismembered. It was something Spike was keen to avoid.
Pushing his way through the dance floor Spike reached Dawn and the woman, all three swaying and writhing. The blonde vampire reached out and firmly gripped Dawn by the arm, yanking her out of the dance. The teenager seemed to snap out of whatever dancing frenzy she had been in, taking another second to recognize who had interrupted them. "Spike?" She said before becoming incredulous, "Hey what gives, let go!"
Spike didn't budge, "No can do little bit," He said matter of factly before pointing to the two women who had their arms crossed disapprovingly. "Demons," Spike said motioning with his eyebrows to the two women, one of whom wasn't bothering to hide her red framed yellow eyes.
"What?" Dawn replied in confusion.
"Come on, time for some fresh air," Spike said before pulling Dawn towards the exit.
"Hey!" Dawn protested. "I'm supposed to be here with my friend," Dawn scanned the dance floor for Janice and amidst the dancing bodies she thought she could make out her friend writhing and grinding against a woman dressed exactly like the two that had recently been dancing with her.
"Not my problem." Spike said nonchalantly, not looking back as he opened an exit and pulled Dawn out into the night, not noticing the bloodied wound on Dawn's free wrist.
The two Bacchae who had until recently been seducing Dawn, just one of the girls whom they hoped to convert to immortal Bacchae like themselves, watched as the two exited, before shrugging and resuming their dance and setting their sights on another as the music droned on.