THE BLUE BOY
by Lynn K. Hollander
Chapter 17 - Bar None
SUNNYDALE
Kailea walked down the shady alley between Willy's and the Flamingo Lodge. She entered Willy's through the back door in the north wall, ordered a beer from Jesse and sat down at a dim table between the end of the bar and the rear door, across from a strange metallic and glowing table. Every few minutes, the lights on the upright portion of the table rippled. This was a strange place. She sighed and drank her beer.
Two lumpy looking persons, bundled up despite the clement weather entered the bar and went directly over to a booth, where a strange purple being tried unsuccessfully to slip away from them.
A blond young man at the bar glanced at the booth, then caught the bartender's eye. The bartender looked over at the trio, then spoke quietly to the man at the bar, who shrugged, but still watched the booth.
A human male, wearing a strange billed cap entered and handed the bartender a board, with some paper held down on it.
***
Magal's locator showed the target, now a fuzzy blue blur, north and west of him. He turned toward the ocean. The orange dot had disappeared again.
***
Jesse took the invoice from the delivery man and nodded. "I'll open the storage room for and see you out back."
The delivery man went out and Jesse locked the cash register and went through the door behind the bar.
***
Magal saw an old car just ahead of him. The car's progress was erratic and Magal stayed a safe distance back. Suddenly, the old car U-turned and stopped in front of a gray stone building. Magal watched as the purple haired target exited the car and enter the building. Magal had a vague impression that the target was not alone. He frowned. The boy could not drive the car, someone must be with him. Concentrating, Magal managed to notice a woman wearing a long blue skirt and a man wearing a long coat. The woman was holding the boy's hand. Magal had no idea who these people could be. His amulet jumped slightly on his chest, then was still. He turned at the corner and parked the car. He didn't bother checking the locator again, since he had a visual on the target, so he missed the fact that the blur was more pronounced and the target's marker had disappeared.
Carrying his duffel, Magal continued around the block on foot. He saw a truck parked in the alley. From the truck three men were unloading brown or white cartons and shiny barrels. Watching carefully, he waited until the three men were at the front of the truck, then slipped through the open door.
He found himself in a storage room. Fine. He saw a door at the far end, and headed for it. If there were only the two adults with the target and the three men out back and he killed all of them, the target would probably be ignored in the general carnage. He drew the 9mm and checked the silencer. His amulet started to heat up, slowly at first.
***
"Who is he?" Xiuling asked.
"I don't know his name, but he's a gofer and a snitch. I hope he's not in over his head with those two."
"And what are they?"
"Uneands. Despite their looks, they're vegetarians. The worst I know about their dietary habits is that they eat oak trees. Doesn't mean they can't be nasty other ways, though."
The front door opened again.
"Spike's here! See, Spike! I found Traggy, but she's lost, too and doesn't know how to get home and Roujin will worry."
"Come here, Darcy," Spike said at once, standing up. He entered full display as he moved quickly to the boy.
***
Mante saw Ingelram pull free of Antrag and run towards the strange blond man. "Hey!" he yelled. "We found him. We're supposed to have him. He's ours."
"We found him first," Spike said. "And we're keeping him." He picked up Darcy and took a step back.
"Is that the hostage?" Kailea asked, leaving her table near the back door and approaching the main room.
"Who are you?" Spike and Mante asked.
Kailea answered Mante. "Kailea, from the College of Witches. There may be another attempt to take the boy," she said, rushing her message. "We should get back as soon as we can."
Spike recognized the woman from Cerro Reynaldo.
Xiuling rose and stood near Spike. "The woman."
"Yeah," Spike said.
"Give me the boy!" Kailea ordered.
Spike shook his head. Compared to Ann's command voice, this girl was a beginner.
Kailea gestured at him. Xiuling took up her mirror. It quickly grew to its normal size, about six inches in diameter. She held it with both hands and flashed it in the witch's eyes. Kailea blinked and her hand fell.
"Hey," Mante said, stepping up to Spike.
Darcy shifted to the blue baby, swamped in clothes too big for him. His shoes fell off as Spike avoided Mante's sudden grab. Holding Darcy firmly with his right arm, the vampire hit Mante, knocking him into the table against the west wall.
***
Entering the main room via the same door behind the bar as Jesse had used, Magal emerged from the storage room.
Behind him, Jesse yelled: "You! What are you doing there?"
Magal ignored him. One swift look around revealed many more people than he had expected. His amulet started to be uncomfortable. Looking down at it, he saw that it was flickering with changing glows and flashes.
He located the target, or tried to. The target must be that thing over there, the blue baby, his other form. Well, that tore it. That corpse would be noticed. There was no way to complete his mission here. He decided to leave. A glance behind him took in the delivery men and the bartender crossing the storage room. He pulled the door shut and slid the bolt. The delivery men started to pound the door. Jesse turned and opened the loading door, then went around through the alley to the north door.
Baudier, seeing the bartender enter the north door, wondered what was happening. Following Jesse, he held the door for Gries, then went in himself.
***
In the back room, next to the storage room, the taldis demon, hearing the pounding, had the jitters. "What was that?"
"Don't move, don't talk," Ann said. "This is a fairly delicate point."
***
"Kailea?" Gries called, as she peered around Jesse.
"This man has the hostage," Kailea said, trying to indicate Spike. Xiuling's mirror flashed again.
"What was that?" Gries asked.
"The woman with him, she's a witch."
Antrag, seeing Ingelram turn blue, called: "Ingelram! Stop that!"
The two strange vampires approached Dawn. "Listen, we're going out the side door, want to come?"
"Uh, no thanks, I'll wait here."
"Come on," the female vampire said, taking Dawn's arm.
***
"There," Ann said, looking at the chip in her hand.
***
"You," Jesse said. "Get out from behind my bar." He reached for the assassin.
Magal shot him, knocking the bartender towards the back door, where he collapsed on the floor.
Gries chanted and gestured at Magal. "Who's this?" she asked Kailea.
"No idea. I think he may have arrived yesterday, when I did, but I don't know from where. He's somewhat immune to us. Concentrate on the man holding the hostage."
***
"How do you feel?" Ann asked.
"Gravid," the demon said, eyeing her. "I need to lay my eggs. I prefer males, but you'll do."
"No, I won't. You agreed to leave."
"Home is so crowded. The competition for food is ..."
"Don't come back," Ann, hearing the muffled shot from the main bar, interrupted the taldis. She froze it temporarily and opened a passage to the correct dimension. She freed the demon as she pushed it home. She closed the passage, ported the chip she had just removed to a safe place in her library, and opened the door to the main bar.
***
"No!" Dawn yelled, trying to jerk her arm free. Filis had showed her some releases, but she couldn't remember any of them right now. "Spike!"
The first thing that caught Ann's eye was Dawn Summers, wriggling in the grip of a female vampire at the corner booth, directly across the room from the paneled door. Ann noted the fright in the brown eyes and the beer and shot on the table.
"Release the girl," Ann ordered. The two vampires looked up. Ann waved one hand at them, pressing them flat up against the ceiling. "Remain," Ann said.
"Dawn!" she continued. "Stay right there!" Ann whispered quickly, holding up one hand, palm out toward Dawn. Suddenly, there was a gray stone wall surrounding the back booth, the same gray stone as the rest of the building. Ann glanced around, saw Xiuling and Spike, and Darcy in his blue baby form.
Magal's amulet rose off his chest at the full extension of its chain and flashed.
The booth changed around Dawn. She was in a round stone hut, with one tiny window, where the south wall of Willy's had been, and no door. There was a cot, a table and chair, and that was all. Dawn had the strangest premonition she was seeing her future.
When he heard first, Dawn's voice, and then Ann's, Spike risked a look back toward the corner booth. There was a new wall in the corner, Dawn was not visible and Ann was walking quickly up to him, looking around. With his back covered, Spike turned to the Grayman, the witch and the two strangers in back of her.
Magal looked beyond the two witches. There was a man with a sword under his coat behind the second witch. Magal decided to use the front door. He staggered as the mirror the black haired woman beside the target carried flashed. His amulet flashed in reply. Another witch! He had not expected so many witches. Blinking, he tried to aim at Xiuling.
Ann came up behind Spike and Xiuling, noting Mante, crushed against the table on the west wall; Antrag, dithering just inside the front door; Kailea, Gries and Baudier in an almost straight line from the end of the bar to the back door, and Jesse on the floor beyond them.
"I'm here," Ann said. "I'll take the Grayman." She stepped around Xiuling's right and faced the assassin. She put her left hand over the gun and forced it down until it pointed it at the floor. Her right hand snared the amulet, now dancing and jerking on the end of its chain. A crystal globe enclosed the amulet and its lights started to die. She pinched the chain in two and slid the amulet down the length of the bar. She touched Magal's head, freezing the assassin.
"Give us the boy!" Kailea ordered again. Xiuling's mirror flashed at the two witches.
Ann moved behind Xiuling to Spike's side. "Hi," she said over the vampire's shoulder to Darcy. "I'm going to send you home and I need you to do something for me. Please? Tell Gang Long to come help me and Spike, would you?"
Darcy shifted to the blond kindergartner. "Jingwu?"
"It'll be fine," she reassured the boy. Darcy disappeared from Willy's.
Cham and Tivon finished parking the Vega and entered the front door. "What is this?" the scholar whispered.
Antrag answered him: "It's a fight. I knew this wasn't a respectable place."
Baudier, drawing his sword, stepped around Gries and approached Xiuling. Spike stepped in front of Xiuling, who moved to her left, keeping a clear view of Kailea and Gries. Baudier, who hadn't seen Spike knock Mante across the room, dismissed the smaller man and struck at Xiuling's mirror. Spike twisted and kicked, sending Baudier back against the
screen in front of the table where Kailea's beer still stood. Baudier shifted his stroke, managing to slice across Spike's thigh with the tip of his sword before he and the screen landed on top of the beer.
Ann, turning to the front door, couldn't tell if Cham, Tivon and Antrag were opponents or by-standers, so she only froze them and moved them to the west wall, near Mante.
The two uneands harassing the magenta gofer started to get up. Ann glanced at them and froze all three of them.
Spike fell to the floor, looking at his ruined jeans and the wound in his thigh.
Ann glanced at Mante, left him for later and joined Xiuling as she stepped forward, facing Kailea and Gries. "No more," she warned the witches. Kailea ignored her and Xiuling's mirror flashed again. Kailea stopped moving. Ann stepped around her, facing Gries, who managed to make one final gesture before Ann froze her.
Baudier's eyes widened. Catching Ann's gaze, he let his sword drop to the floor. Ann nodded, then moved to Jesse and knelt beside him. She put a hand over his gunshot wound and began to whisper. She and the bartender started to glow with a soft golden light.
Baudier tried to sit up, then suddenly grabbed his ribs, where Spike had kicked him.
Xiuling dropped down by Spike. "Spike!"
"Don't worry," the vampire said. "Hey, I mean it, don't worry. It hurts, but it's not too serious." He returned to human and lay flat on the floor.
In the main bar, Gang Long, Jiding and Liangde appeared. Gang Long was wearing only a pair of loose black silk pants, Jiding was in her leathers and Liangde was wearing a long cream silk tunic with slit sides over a pair of pants similar to Gang Long's. The yunü carried their full sized mirrors ready in both hands. "Jingwu! Spike!" the young dragon called.
"Hi," Spike said, not moving.
"It's over?" Jiding asked.
"More or less. How's Jesse?" Spike asked.
"Getting better," Ann said. "Check the man on the table over here and the one on the west wall."
"Probably a concussion," Liangde said, looking at Mante's eyes.
"Hey, the Grayman," Jiding said, passing the frozen Magal as she went to Baudier. "Hi."
"Ribs," the man said softly.
"Now," Ann said. "How did Darcy get here?"
"The woman, over there," Spike waved at the statue against the west wall, "Darcy called her Traggy, came in with Darcy. The man with the concussion came in with her and the other two statues came in later and joined her. Did I hear Dawn?"
"She's safe. I'll deal with her later."
"The woman from the hill, came in the back door, I guess, bought a beer and sat down just out of sight around the corner of the bar," Xiuling said. "When Darcy came in and ran to Spike, she came out of the shadows and tried to order Spike to give him to her. The last two, the third woman and the man with the broken ribs, came in the back door and spoke with her."
"Why didn't you tell us about these guys?" Spike asked, as Jesse, leaning on Ann, walked a little carefully over to a chair at the table above the man with the concussion.
"I thought they were Chicano. Raquel said that they were, that they speak Spanish. I thought they were hiding from Immigration."
"No, these are the ones we were looking for."
"I told Willy letting him back in was a mistake," Jesse said to Ann as she helped him sit.
"Did he shoot you? Did I shoot you? Be rational, Jesse. You would have been shot today no matter where Spike and I were. We had nothing to do with bringing them here, either to Earth or to Willy's. Drink this," Ann said, handing Jesse a glass of her wine.
"There are two vampires on the ceiling," Jesse complained.
"I'll take care of them before I go."
"And those three customers were just innocent by-standers."
"Not bloody likely," Spike snarled up from the floor. "They just don't seem to be involved in our current problem. Ah, Ann? Let the magenta guy go first, I think the other two were bracing him about something."
Ann nodded and unfroze the slender gofer, who wriggled under the table and out the door without a backward glance. "Gang Long? Come here a moment, please." Ann and the young dragon stepped out of hearing. She spoke briefly, then Gang Long nodded. Willy's disappeared from Spike's vision and the foyer at 3 Los Robles Road appeared around him, the dragon, the yunü, the statues, the wounded out-worlders and Darcy's shoes.
***