Free Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Buffy Season4 02 by The Lost Slayer 02 Dark Times # Christopher Golden

glanced once at Lucy, hoping that the ghost would have some way to remove The Prophet. But the specter only floated, a soul-haze and nothing more. She could not help. Willow swallowed hard and begin to inscribe arcane symbols upon the air with her fingers. Her lips moved silently as she mourned a spell that would lock them all in the room.
    With a guttural laugh, The Prophet backhanded Willow, who staggered backward and slammed into her desk before crumbling to the floor.
    Dazed, she dragged herself to her feet.
    But the door hung open, and The Prophet was gone. Buffy was gone.
    And if Willow did not catch up with her, she might never know what had truly become of her best friend.
    The car horn kept blaring. Parker, unconscious, was slumped over the wheel and Buffy could not spare even a moment to slide him off.
    Spike and Drusilla.
    “Well, well, Dru, look what we’ve got here,” Spike called happily, preening like a rooster as he took a few steps toward the car. His hair was longer now, almost shaggy, giving him a more feral aspect. “That Utile Summers girl, isn’t it? I thought she was a house pet now. Soft little kitten.” Drusilla’s mad eyes widened and she made tiny scratching motions in the air, then licked her lips.
    “Ooh, I love kittens. We know just what to do with kitties, don’t we, Spike?” There was bloodlust in Spike’s eyes. “Oh, we certainly do, pet. We certainly do.” Harmony stared at Drusilla. “You don’t hurt kittens. Tell me you don’t hurt kittens.” Dru seemed shocked. “Only when I’m hungry. I’m not a monster.” It took Buffy only a heartbeat to calculate the odds. These three behind her, three more in front. Parker’s Mercedes was hemmed in on both sides. Six of them. She’d killed six at once before. More than that, in fact.
    But not these six.
    Harmony and the stranger wouldn’t be a problem. But Buffy knew from experience that Clownface and Bulldog were tough enough. Spike and Drusilla, though, that was the final nail. I’m not ready. Not now. The world had changed and she had to find her place in it. At the same time, she knew that another world awaited her in the past, a place … a home … where she was desperately needed. She had to return there.
    What had she told Faith, so long ago? The first rule of slaying: Don’t die. Once the decision was made within her, Buffy acted in an instant. She ratcheted around, fired a crossbow bolt at Spike. He snatched it out of the air, and then glared at her as though his feelings were hurt.
    Buffy dove across the unconscious Parker, who slid off the horn. She popped open the door, then used her prodigious strength to shove him out onto the pavement. Her bag dropped onto the seat beside her with the crossbow, and she reached into it for one of the stakes she had made. The vampires saw that she intended to flee, and rushed at the car.
    “Dammit, Buffy! I never took you for a coward,” Spike snapped at her. “I’m disappointed.” Buffy slammed the Mercedes into reverse and floored the gas. Spike and Drusilla had learned to be fast. It was part of the reason they had stayed alive as long as they had. They split up, each diving out of the way of the car in opposite directions.
    Harmony stood frozen behind the car, her mouth open as though she were somehow offended. The Mercedes slammed into her, drove her back with all the horsepower the engine had. The car crashed broadside into the van with Harmony in the middle. There was a sickening crunch and she screamed, a shriek so wild and agonized that it seemed to be tearing her throat apart. Buffy spun the wheel to the right in order to avoid running over Parker, dropped it into drive, and floored it again. Spike and Drusilla had gotten up and were rushing at her from either side, but the tires spun under the Mercedes, laying a black rubber patch on the pavement, and the car lurched forward, away from them.
    Behind her, Harmony tumbled to the ground, the top and bottom of her