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

might be. Thinking about it made his head ache, but once he started, it was impossible to turn the flow of thoughts off. Ironic, he thought, given that his girlfriend was curled up naked under the sheets, half asleep with her head on his chest and one leg thrown over his torso.
    “Mmm,” Anya purred.
    Xander sighed. Between his general dissatisfaction with the way his life was headed and the fact that despite her vow to rescue Giles, Buffy hadn’t done a damn thing to get him away from the demon Camazotz, he could barely concentrate on Anya. Buffy was acting so weird, that they were all going to go after Giles tonight, to rescue him themselves. He and Anya had even done a Utile old-fashioned trespassing at the ex-Watcher’s house to gather up the weapons they’d need. It’s not fair, he thought sullenly.
    His eyes fluttered closed. Anya snuggled up closer and Xander felt himself at last begin to relax. Though he knew Willow and Oz were due in the next hour or so, sleep seemed to be his only escape from the confusion and worry that plagued him.
    Bamm! Bamm! Bamm!
    His eyes snapped open and he stared at the ceiling for a minute, wondering if he had dreamed the knocking. Anya had not stirred at all. Then it came again, a hard rapping at the door that led out into the backyard, the door people used if they wanted to visit him. Willow was early. Anya shifted, moaned a bit, and one eye slitted open. “Make them go away or I’ll put a pox on them.”
    Xander smiled down at her uncertainly. “You’re not a demon anymore, sweetie, remember?” She sighed. “There are times …”
    But Anya did not finish the thought. Xander climbed out of bed and pulled on sweatpants and a tee shirt as he went to open the door. As soon as it was open a crack, Willow pushed her way in. She had an enormous red welt on the side of her face, and a crazed look in her eyes.
    “Xander, we have to find Buffy. She’s not Buffy. I think she’s going to try to leave town and we have to stop her.”
    Oz followed her at a more leisurely pace. Xander stared at Willow for a second, then glanced at Oz.
    “Hey,” Xander said.
    “Hey.”
    “What’s all this about not-Buffy?”
    Oz nodded. “Possessed, apparently. Body thief, I’m guessing.” Anya sat up in bed, covers clutched at her throat, and glared daggers at all of them. “You are early.” Willow shot her a hard look, then rolled her eyes and looked at Xander again. “Come on. Saddle up. We’re not gonna let this happen. If Buffy—or whoever hijacked her—gives us the slip, we may never get our friend back.”
    “Okay, okay, we just need to get dressed. But what about Giles? I mean, not that I was looking forward to sashaying into the lair of the ancient bat-god with a passel of vampires running around the place, but someone’s gotta get him out.”
    Oz raised an eyebrow. “Sashaying?”
    Willow rounded on Xander then, but there was no anger in her eyes, just fear and a lingering sadness. “Confession? Always kinda hoped I’d leak our plan to Buffy and she’d feel all guilty and go do the rescuing herself. Apparently no longer in the cards. I don’t even want to think about Giles right now, Xander. I can’t, because then I’ll remember how I’m thinking, hey, he’s probably dead, and I can’t handle that grief. It would paralyze me, you understand?”
    It was as though, with Buffy and Giles out of action, Willow had just stepped right up to the plate. She was in charge, all of a sudden, and Xander was surprised with how all right with that he was.
    “Poor Giles,” Anya said. “It’s Buffy’s fault, you know. If she hadn’t been all high and mighty—”
    ” If Giles is still alive, we have to pray he lasts until morning,” Willow went on. “Whatever this thing is that’s taken Buffy over, Lucy Hanover is following it. Following … her. Right now, that’s our priority. We’re going to find a way to expel this thing out of Buffy. You and Oz may have to hold her