Lost Slayer #3 - King Of The Dead by Golden Christopher

Author:Golden, Christopher [Golden, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

They agreed to return to their rooms to wash up, and then reconvene in the conference room in half an hour, just the three of them.

But when Buffy got back to her quarters, Giles was waiting.

Chapter 4

A ripple of disquiet went through Buffy as she pushed open the door to her room. It was dark within, and the feeling that some peril lurked there was instant and certain. Buffy stepped inside and reached for the light switch, but she hesitated. Something moved in the dark, then, a figure unfolding from the shadows, silhouetted only by the starlight from outside the window.

The window where there was no longer any screen.

"Shut the door," whispered the figure in a voice so familiar that Buffy forgot to breathe.

Her hand fell away from the light switch and her eyes began to adjust to the dark. "Why would I want to do that?"

"So we can talk. I think it's time, don't you? Time we talk?"

Despite the glare of the lights from the hall, she could see enough now to know that it really was him.

Rupert Giles made no attempt to remain in the shadows. He slipped away from the wall and leaned, instead, on the sill of the open window. There was still a smattering of gray in his brown hair. He wore tan pants and a rust-colored V-neck sweater pushed up at the sleeves. In short, he looked for all the world like the man she had abandoned to Camazotz years before, save for one detail.

He no longer wore glasses.

Guilt cut Buffy deeply, for she had blamed herself from the moment Willow had told her Giles was a vampire. Though she had been following every lesson he had ever taught her by doing so, she had left Giles behind five years ago. This was the result.

Not just the monster he had become, but the nightmare he had made of what had once been her world.

"Oh, come now, Buffy," Giles said, his tone as impatient as she remembered. "Far be it for me to tell you not to feel badly, but at least try to focus, please? Now, why don't you close the door so we can have a civil conversation without being interrupted."

Buffy's throat was dry. She swallowed, stood up a bit straighter. It isn't Giles anymore, she reminded herself. This is not him, not any more than Angelus was Angel. It's just a parasite, a thing living inside his remains, making it walk and talk, like a marionette.

She had to remember that. In some ways, she knew, the vampire even thought it was Giles. It had his memories, his personality traits, but it was not him.

"All right," she said, blinking as though waking from a dream. "Let's talk."

Buffy stepped aside and closed the door, casting the room into deeper darkness for a moment. The eyes of the vampire flickered orange in that darkness, cruel pinpoints like poisoned stars in the night sky.

Then she turned on the light.

Giles smiled sheepishly. "Well, that's better, isn't

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