The Prophet
by Rainne
Part Two
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I opened the door of the Magic Box and stepped inside. It was quiet, sunny and smelled of herbs and incense. I liked it immediately. It reminded me of a library, but without the dark and the mustiness and the "Shh!"
The shopkeeper, a bright-faced young blonde woman, hurried over to me. "Hello, welcome to the Magic Box. May I help you acquire anything?"
I shook my head, smiling my disarming little smile. I practiced that smile a lot. "No, thanks. I'm actually here to talk to her." I indicated Willow, who was at a table in the corner with her back to us. The woman nodded once and walked away. I watched her for a moment, wondering what it was about her that was not quite right. She held herself too stiffly, maybe, or could it have been in her speech? I wasn't sure and, when I couldn't immediately put my finger on it, I dismissed her from my mind and focused on the young woman who had once been my best friend.
I cleared my throat as I came up behind her. She turned and looked at me blankly, and I grinned weakly and gave a little wave. "Uh, hiya, Willow."
She blinked at me for a long moment, cogs turning behind her eyes. I saw the recognition the instant it came onto her face. "Dakota!" She jumped up and hugged me with a startling fierceness. "Where have you been?"
"Long story," I said and sighed. "Would you, um, like to go for some coffee?"
She nodded, her eyes bright with excitement and the lovely smile I'd missed so much on her face. She gathered up her things and then walked over to the counter to speak to the shopkeeper. "Anya, this is my friend Dakota. We're going to go get some coffee. If Buffy comes looking for me, will you tell her we're at the Espresso Pump?"
Anya agreed and we left the store, Willow chattering all the while about how excited Xander was going to be to see me and how great it was to have me back. I realized quickly that I hadn't truly realized how much I missed Willow Rosenberg. She was just so... so... Willow.
The coffee shop was not far away and we settled onto armchairs in a back corner, nursing mochaccinos as I tried to figure out how to tell her what I was now. She saved me the trouble by asking me directly. "Something bad happened to you that night," she stated, staring me in the face. "Didn't it?" When I nodded, she leaned forward as though to take my hand. I pulled it away quickly before she could feel my skin. I knew she would notice it was colder than a live person's skin would be, and I didn't want her to freak out. She gave me what I used to call the Patented Willow Encouragement Look ô. "Tell me, Dakota."
I sighed. "I know you know about the things that go on here," I told her. "I know you're friends with the Slayer. So I know you'll believe me. But I don't want you to freak out, Willow, and I don't want you to be afraid or anything. Please don't hold it against me. I didn't want it to happen, I really didn't. But I've made the best of it that I could. I've done my best."
She was staring at me now, eyes round as saucers and glistening. "Tell me, Dakota. What happened?"
I made sure no one was looking our direction and I gamefaced for just a brief second, then I put it away again. She gasped in shock. "Oh, no!" Then something seemed to cross her mind, and she glanced down at the large patch of sunlight I was sitting in, then at the copious amounts of sunshine streaming in through the wooden blinds, then back at me. "But...?"
I shrugged. "Don't know. It's never affected me. I can't explain it."
She looked bewildered but intrigued at the same time. "Well, what- what about crosses? And, and holy water? And stakes?"
"Crosses don't affect me," I informed her, showing her the gold one I was wearing. "I haven't been to church since it happened so I couldn't tell you about holy water. And stakes, well, I must say I've been fortunate enough not to have had the misfortune."
"Well, then, let me see if I can't rectify that situation for you," said a new voice from behind me, one with an undercurrent of ice and steel.
I turned to find a skinny blonde girl behind me holding a small stake in her hand. I smiled. "Ah. You must be Buffy Summers. I've heard about you. Why don't you put that thing away before you frighten the civilians and sit down for some coffee with us." When she didn't seem inclined to take me up on my suggestion, I added acidly, "I'm hardly going to eat anyone in broad daylight in a crowded coffee shop, now am I? Honestly, Slayer, just put it away and sit down before you alarm someone!"
"Buffy? Please? Sit down?" Willow asked gently. "Can we at least hear her out?"
Obviously against her better judgment, Buffy took the armchair next to Willow's. "Fine," she said flatly to me. So talk." And she proceeded to glare at me.
I made a couple of false starts in an attempt to pick back up where I'd left off, but with her looking daggers at me every time I opened my mouth, I couldn't get the coherency together to string three words into a sentence, much less explain myself. Finally, disgusted, I set my coffee cup on the end table beside me and stood. I shouldn't have come back. I might have known the Slayer would be too much of a Neanderthal to have anything but a knee-jerk reaction to a vampire, no matter what kind of vampire said vampire actually was." And without pausing to see if that last bit had made any sense, since I strongly suspected it hadn't, I turned and made my way out of the shop.
Willow caught up to me on the sidewalk. "No, wait, Dakota, please, don't go!"
I smiled at her, fondly remembering the little geek she had once been and warmed to the bottom of my undead heart to see the strong, lovely, compassionate young woman she had become. "Will, do you know how special you really are? I believe you still care about me, even though..."
She held my wrist tightly. "Of course I care about you, Dakota, you're my friend! Of course I care."
I shook my head, trying to get my hand away without hurting her. "I can't stay, Will. She'll just stake me at the first opportunity."
"I won't stake you." Her voice came from the doorway. Willow and I both turned to see her standing there just behind us and I took a step forward, coming nose-to-nose with her and deliberately looking her dead in the eyes.
"Don't make promises you won't keep, Slayer," I murmured, low enough so Willow couldn't hear me. "She wouldn't like it."
"I'll keep that promise," she murmured back, "until and unless you hurt her. If that happens, though-" and suddenly the point of her stake was against my chest.
I grinned easily, showing no fear, and then delivered my parting blow. "Don't be so quick to discount me as just another demon, Buffy Anne Summers," I warned her, grinning more to see her eyes widen in shock. "I could just be a valuable ally to you. Oh, and don't worry — I won't tell her about the dreams. Won't breathe a word of it."
I stepped away from her then, nodded sharply in farewell, and turned to Willow, who smiled at me. "I'll- I'll call you later, Buffy, okay?"
"Sure, okay," Buffy replied, obviously on autopilot as she continued to stare at me, dumbfounded. I gave her a little wink and then turned away to walk off down the street with Willow.
--- * ---
Buffy watched in shock as Willow and her friend, the vampire, strolled off down the street in the midday sunlight, chatting like old friends. She suddenly knew what that phrase meant that Giles sometimes said: "The mind boggles."
She turned away from them at the thought of Giles, heading toward her Watcher's house and pondering the vampire's little parting shot. How had she known Buffy's real name? More importantly, how had she known about the dreams?
Buffy's palms began to sweat. She wiped them on her jeans and kept walking. How had that vampire known about the dreams? Nobody knew about the dreams. Not Giles. Not Xander. Not Spike. Not even Willow, her best friend. Especially not Willow. After all, how do you explain to your best friend that you've been in love with her since the day you first met her, and that in the last year or so, you've begun having extremely graphic sex dreams about her? Buffy grimaced at the awkwardness of even the contemplation of the thought of telling Willow.
She wandered down to the park across from the middle school and watched the children as they were dismissed. She didn't see Dawn, but Dawn could've been anywhere in the crowd.
A gaggle of girls came across the street and into the park, near enough to Buffy that she, sitting quietly as she was, could hear their entire conversation.
"Oh, my God. Did you see the new girl? She's so, like, ick."
"I know! And that hair!"
"And those clothes."
Hmm. Buffy mused. Shades of Cordelia.
"I wonder where she's from?"
"Las Vegas. I heard her say she moved here with her sister."
Buffy's ears pricked up. She listened actively now.
"What's her name, anyway?"
"Mercedes Walsh. She's in my reading class. Mrs. Johnson sat her next to me and made me share my book with her."
Walsh. The vampire had introduced herself to Spike as Dakota Walsh. Was the little sister a daywalker, too? She couldn't imagine a vampire in a familial situation.
"Mercedes? What a weird name."
"She knows too much. I think she's gifted or something. She's too smart."
"I asked her where she lives, she says they're living in a hotel."
"Her sister picked her up. There was some other woman in the car with her."
"Really? I bet they're lesbians."
"I don't know. She was hanging out with Dawn Summers. Dawn knew the other woman. Called her by name. I was standing there. I heard the whole thing."
"Really?"
Buffy was now sitting bolt upright and breathing hard. The next sentence she heard sent her flying though the park.
"Yeah. Dawn left with them. They must be friends or something." The girl who was speaking looked up as a blonde haired woman went racing through the park and down the sidewalk. "What a weirdo. Hey, did you hear about Devon McMichael's party this weekend?"
---*---
Giles looked up from his research books as Xander came through his front door. "Hey Giles! You called and here I am."
"Ah, Xander, so glad you could make it. Please, sit- sit down." As the young man took the indicated seat, Giles pulled his glasses off and cleaned them on the tail of his shirt. "Xander, tell me please about Dakota Walsh."
Xander looked blank for a moment, then registered the name. "Oh, yeah, Dakota. I remember her. She was cool. Very nice." He thought for a second. "She came here from Silicon Valley in sixth grade. She was a computer geek just like Willow and they bonded instantly. Disappeared during the summer after ninth grade. The cops said she ran away, but I figure the vamps got her. Why?"
"Do you recall," Giles inquired, "whether she had any special abilities or talents?"
Xander thought for a moment and then shook his head. "Nah. Just the computer thing. Look, what's this about? What's going on?"
Giles sighed. "Dakota Walsh has returned to Sunnydale," he began.
Xander interrupted him. "What? That's awesome!"
Giles shook his head. "Not so much as you might think. Spike ran into her in the sewers earlier today. Your postulation that the vampires had gotten her was quite right. But the frightening thing, Xander, is that as Spike watched, she exited the sewer through a manhole onto the street at eleven-thirty in the morning. Broad daylight."
"But then - " Xander stopped. "Wait. Are you telling me we have a vampire that can walk in the broad daylight?"
"Indeed I am," Giles confirmed. "And apparently she hasn't forgotten her good friend Willow."
Just as Xander was attempting to wrap his mind around that bit of unwelcome news, Buffy burst into the house. "Giles! She's got Dawn. The new vampire. She's Willow's friend. She's got Dawn!"