Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Prime Evil

Shugra's gaze narrowed and

her

mouth set as she unleashed the

storm.

A bitter wind tore through the forest, whipping black ash into a blinding, swirling cloud. Thunder rolled

and rumbled.

“Buffy —” Joyce started toward her. Giles pulled her back.

Xander struggled to his feet, his hands raw and bleeding from the wooden pikes he had pulled out with

his teeth.

“Imperium iussu una!” Angel strode forward to stand by Buffy.

In the sky, streaks of red lightning coalesced into a single bolt. Shugra glared and sent the deadly shaft of

primal magick driving down toward the Slayer.

“Reversus pravus unde iacia!” Buffy gasped the last word of the spell. Out of oxygen, her heart no

longer pumping, she slumped into Angel's arms.

“Buffy?” Angel lowered her to the ground and put his ear on her chest. “Giles! She's not breathing!”

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's

imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or

dead, is entirely coincidental.

POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.

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POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.

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For Lloyd Dixon,

with affection and gratitude

for all his support across the Atlantic

PRIME EVIL

Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges the following people for their assistance: my agent, Ricia Mainhardt,

and her partner, A. J. Janschewitz, for always being there when I need them; my mother, Beryl M.

Turner, and Betsey Wilcox for proofreading and keeping me on track; my husband, Martin R. Burke, for

providing foreign language translations; my editor, Lisa Clancy, for her guidance, support, and

confidence; and Lisa's assistant, Micol Ostow, for answering questions promptly and efficiently. I am

especially grateful to Joss Whedon and the cast and crew ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer for their creative

efforts and inspiration.

Diana G. Gallagher

October 8, 1999

PRIME EVIL

Chapter 1

BUFFY'S WANDERING MIND SNAPPED BACK TO THE PRESENT. Cornered and blindsided

by the low, husky voice, her throat constricted with an oppressive dread. All eyes were on her. She

wasn't ready and cringed under the penetrating scrutiny.

How could she be prepared for this unexpected peril when she was coping with so many other

distractions? Vampire attacks, demons with delusions of universal omnipotence, the verbal state of war

between Xander and Cordelia, Oz's monthly episodes of hairy-hound guy syndrome, and the heartache

of loving Angel combined with a grueling training schedule and nightly patrols had become matters of

routine, but the cumulative effect was wearing. Even more so now that she was determined to improve

her GPA. She rarely slept more than four hours a night, which made it difficult to study and even harder

to concentrate in school, especially since surviving her Slayer duties often depended on catching a few

daytime Zs.

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And now this!

The new menace was female and attractively packaged in a tall, slim body with classic facial features,

bruising brown eyes, and blond hair cut stylishly short.

Buffy's hopes of graduating with the rest of the senior class dwindled as Crystal Gordon's stare bore into

her. The pressure in her throat spread into her chest and her heart lurched as though shocked by an

electric prod. The realization that she was experiencing the symptoms of a major anxiety attack was more

unnerving than the antagonistic source. She was the Slayer. She didn't panic, wasnot panicked now.

Then again, how to escape an embarrassing situation instigated by a belligerent authority figure with the

power to pass or fail her wasn't covered in the Slayer manual. In the classroom, Mr. Pointy was as useful

as a limp noodle against an undead mob.

Buffy breathed in slowly, convinced the new history teacher was a protégé of Principal Snyder, whose

stony glare could petrify a student at fifty paces. However, whereas Snyder openly despised all

teenagers, Ms. Gordon's animosity had been focused entirely on Buffy since her arrival at Sunnydale

High two weeks ago. Or so it seemed.

“Whenever you're ready, Ms. Summers.” Ms. Gordon made no effort to mask her annoyed impatience.

She looked at her watch and sighed.

The pressure in Buffy's throat eased and her pound ing pulse slowed, but the sound of shuffling feet, the

stares, and the collective anticipation gripping the classroom kept the tension level at a crushing high.

Willow winced, sympathetic with Buffy's plight but helpless to assist with the academic emergency.

Xander studied the ceiling as though how many dots there were in a twelve-by-twelve square was

guaranteed to be a crucial question on the next exam.

Anya raised her hand to answer. For a supernatural being who had suddenly been trapped in the body

and persona of a teenaged girl, she was adapting remarkably well. Although her inhuman longevity and

power to grant the vindictive wishes of jilted women had been lost, she was quickly catching on to

established methods of mortal survival specific to teens, like being the teacher's pet.

Anya's enthusiasm solicited a warm smile from Ms. Gordon, but the frosty female in charge was not

about to let Buffy slip from her grasp. The teacher impaled her with another scathing look, a perfectly

plucked eyebrow arched in challenge.

Buffy straightened and coughed to clear her throat. “What was the question?”

“Article Nineteen,” Ms. Gordon said flatly.

“Gave women the right to vote. Nineteen-twenty.” Buffy silently thanked the forces of fate that had

prompted her to read the assignment on the Constitution of the United States before she had finally

dozed off at three A.M. last night.

“Yes. Quite so.” Ms. Gordon held Buffy with her barbed gaze a moment before abruptly turning away.

Buffy knew her answer was correct. What she didn't know was why the young woman had taken an

immediate dislike to her. But she could guess.

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Snyder sabotage.

The principal had hired Ms. Gordon to replace Dan Coltrane, the history teacher who had been killed

by the jaguar incarnation of the Aztec god, Tezcatlipoca. Snyder had obviously warned his newest faculty

member about Buffy Summers, the notorious troublemaker he had expelled and then readmitted under

duress. Then, in spite of her sincere desire to do better, she had missed several classes and barely passed

last Friday's test. Habitual inattentiveness and late assignments had cemented the unsavory image Snyder

had planted in the new teacher's mind.

Ms. Gordon paused at the front of the room. Stunning in a tailored, sea-green suit that gently hugged her

distinctly feminine curves, she exuded a commanding confidence that arrested adolescent rebellion before

it started. With the possible exception of Xander, whose mouth often operated independent of his better

judgment, no one even contemplated disrupting her class. She held everyone's silent attention when she

started to speak.

“The Nineteenth Amendment was the most important legal affirmation of women's rights since the

seventeenth century, when Ireland was incorporated into the United Kingdom and forced to abandon the

ancient Brehon Laws in favor of a male-dominated English judiciary.”

“What were the Brehon Laws?” Michael Czajak asked.

“Excellent question, Michael,” Ms. Gordon said. The boy flushed as her approving gaze swept over him.

“The ancient Celtic legal system isn't covered in most history courses, but it should be.”

Buffy watched and listened attentively, but not because she was inspired by Crystal Gordon's

impassioned discourse. She had had to cope with hostile teachers before, but none of them, including

Snyder, had ever bullied her into a breathless bundle of jangled nerves.

“Brehon Law was unique in many ways,” Ms. Gordon continued, “including the right of women to own

property and divorce husbands who humiliated, lied or in any way dishonored them.”

“Since when is male-bashing part of the curriculum?” Oblivious to the danger of cutting rebuke, Xander

huffed indignantly, then glanced at Anya. “No wonder she likes you.”

“Those were the days.” Anya withered Xander with a superior smile.

Unable to let a slings-and-arrows moment pass, Xander countered. “Plenty of fodder for the revenge

mill, huh?”

Anya just nodded and sighed.

The teasing exchange did not prompt the disciplinary retort Buffy expected. Instead, Ms. Gordon's eyes

mirrored Anya's wistful look, giving the impression she shared the girl's longing for the past. Except, Buffy

reflected, Anya had been around for a thousand years and had probably lived in old Erin at one time or

another. Unless Ms. Gordon was centuries older than she looked, she had not.

Since nothing supernatural registered on her Slayer sonar, Buffy had to conclude that Crystal Gordon

was human and merely felt a wishful attachment to events and times she could study, but never

experience. Even so, her uneasiness was not dispelled. History teemed with unspeakable horrors

conceived and perpetuated by evils that were wholly human in origin.

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“So women were equal with men?” Willow asked. “Back then — in Ireland, I mean.”

“Almost, but not quite. It wasn't until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that —” Cut off by the bell, the

teacher surrendered control to the unstoppable stampede of students fixated on food and the midday

break from educational tedium.

Buffy leaned toward Willow as everyone began stuffing papers and books into bags. “Did this period

seem longer than usual to you?”

“The class before lunch always seems longer.” Xander loomed over them with one hand shoved into the

pocket of his baggy pants and a quirky grin on his face.

“Especially when you're famished.” Pulling a blue denim hat with a turned-up brim over her auburn hair,

Willow stood up as Buffy eased into the aisle. “Which I am.”

“Not hungry, but I can use the break,” Buffy said.

“I'm free.” Anya shoved between Xander and Willow's desk.

“And since one always gets what one pays for —” Xander wrinkled his nose. “— I'll pass.”

“I meant for lunch.” Anya slumped despondently. “I hate sitting in the cafeteria by myself. Everyone

stares like I'm some kind of freak.”

“You are. Were,” Xander corrected himself.

“Not that we hold that against you, Anya,” Willow quickly interjected. “It's just that after you almost,

you know, condemned us to a Sunnydale that was overrun by vampires —”

“Including yours truly,” Xander said pointedly.

“Right.” Willow shuddered. She had had the distinct displeasure of meeting her vampire self when Anya,

hoping to retrieve her lost wish-necklace, had tricked her into trying a temporal-fold spell. Fortunately for

all concerned, Willow the vamp was returned to her proper reality and Anya's power center was not

recovered. “So it's not easy to just, well, forgive and forget.”

“That was Cordelia's idea, not mine.” Anya shrugged self-consciously. “Believe me, if I could take back

that wish I would.”

“And believe me,” Xander added emphatically, “the male half of the species isso glad that's not

possible.”

Buffy had misgivings about Anya, too, but the grounded Patron Saint of Scorned Women had seen,

heard and experienced a lot over the past millennium, some of which might prove useful. Besides, she

knew what it was like to be singled out and ostracized for weirdness and felt a certain empathy with the

displaced entity. She waved Anya to follow as they fell into line behind the student horde pressing toward

the door.

Xander whispered in Buffy's ear. “Why do I have the feeling I'm going to regret this?”

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“I don't know,” Buffy whispered back, amused. That was a lie. Although Xander hadn't noticed or was

in denial, it was obvious to everyone else that Anya was developing a serious interest in him.

“Excuse me —”

Buffy halted as Rebecca Sullivan shoved into line ahead of her.

Xander bumped into Buffy and muttered, “Some people think they own the aisles.”

“Sorry, but I've —” Rebecca glanced back, her voice muffled with a sob. Short, with straight dark hair

and a round, freckled face, she nervously adjusted her glasses.

“Forget it, Rebecca.” Xander shrugged apologetically. “Just pre-lunch classroom rage. I'm over it now.”

Rebecca's smile was as lame as Xander's joke. She sighed and started to cry.

“What's wrong?” Buffy had hardly spoken to the shy girl during her three years at Sunnydale, but she

couldn't ignore Rebecca's distress. Not when it was dripping on her notebook.

“Nothing. I just —” Rebecca's gaze darted toward the far front corner of the room where Kari Stark

and Michael were speaking with Ms. Gordon.

There was nothing unusual or sinister about the conference huddle, and yet, Buffy's apprehension

intensified as she watched. Michael, who practiced witchcraft and wore heavy make-up to ensure his

isolation from the mainstream, and Kari, a plain but pleasant and intelligent girl with no occult connections

that Buffy knew of, werenot uncomfortable. They nodded in response to something Ms. Gordon said

and waved as they turned toward the door. The warm sparkle in the teacher's brown eyes hardened as

her gaze followed them out of the classroom.

Buffy shivered, disturbed by the malice evident in the woman's shifting demeanor. Or was she imagining

trouble where there wasn't any?

“Kari!” Rebecca called out.

Kari cast an annoyed glance over her shoulder, rolled her eyes, then took Michael's arm and turned

down the hall.

Hurt by the blatant snub, Rebecca shoved through the student bodies ahead of her, bolted through the

door, and ran in the opposite direction.

“What was that all about?” Anya asked.

“Being human hint for the day,” Xander said dryly. “Never ditch your best friend since fourth grade for a

guy.”

“Kari and Michael?” Willow frowned, then sighed. “Not hard to understand, I guess. Considering what

happened to Amy. I mean, they were pretty close, but —”

“Rodents with naked tails aren't exactly a turn-on,” Xander said as they filed into the corridor.

Buffy elaborated for Anya's benefit. “Amy Madison turned herself into a rat so she wouldn't be burned

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at the stake.”

“Which perfectly illustrates the old saying 'the lesser of two evils,'” Xander added.

Buffy nodded. “But Willow's taking good care of her.”

“Only until I figure out how to change her back,” Willow added. “Which isn't as easy as I —”

“Willow!” Ms. Gordon appeared in the doorway. “I'd like to speak with you for a moment, please.”

“Uh — sure.” Willow hesitated, obviously bewildered.

“Wait —” Suddenly anxious when she caught the teacher's eye, Buffy moved forward as Willow

stepped into the classroom. She stopped just as suddenly, her frantic gaze shifting from Willow's

questioning baby blues to Ms. Gordon's curious, brown-eyed stare. “Never mind. It's … nothing.”

But it wasn't nothing, Buffy thought as the teacher smiled and closed the door. She had no idea why she

had been overwhelmed by another surge of chilling dread.

Or why she wanted to run.

“Are we going to the cafeteria or not?” Anya's patience bottomed out thirty seconds into Willow's

impromptu conference with Ms. Gordon.

“As soon as Willow comes out.” Xander answered without looking at Anya. He watched Buffy, waiting

for her to do or say something, anything to assure him she hadn't totally and inexplicably checked out.

Anya fixed him with a petulant pout, silently intimating that her gastric cravings were somehow his fault.

“I wasnever this hungry before I … changed.”

While Xander was thrilled to the bottom of his nifty new high-tops that Anya was powerless and

preoccupied with her stomach rather than him, Buffy's vacant stare was a troubling development. The

odds of surviving Sunnydale would plummet from fighting chance to not a prayer if the Slayer went over

the edge. He leaned closer, ignoring the subtle traces of scented shampoo that teased his deprived male

hormones via his nose. “Xander to Buffy —”

“Hmmm?” Buffy blinked, then turned to stare blankly at him. “What?”

“Well, either you're into some kind of Zen meditation involving the spiritual depth of classroom doors or

something's wrong,” Xander pressed. “I'm guessing something's wrong.”

“Just tired.” Buffy's wan smile amplified the worry in her eyes. “Whoever decided teenaged girls should

burn the midnight oil dusting vampires didn't take modern lifestyles into account. Like homework, having

to graduate from high school, getting into college, not to mention the occasional date, which I don't have

… much. Anyway, there's only so many hours in a night, and I don't spend enough of them sleeping.”

“Right.” Xander nodded, opting to be relieved. Even with her enhanced strength and reflexes, he often

wondered how Buffy managed to function without suffering the debilitating effects of sleep deprivation.

“But take my advice, Buff, anddon't take your morning nap in Ice Woman's class again.”

“Ice Woman?” Anya looked at him askance. “Are you referring to Ms. Gordon?”

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“As in gorgeous with a heart of cold? Yes.” Xander faked an exaggerated shiver. “If looks could freeze,

Buffy would be an icicle.”

Buffy's expression clouded again, and Xander instantly regretted the remark. The fate of the world

rested on her shoulders, a responsibility she accepted and managed against outrageous odds with no

recognition from the student body or faculty. Not surprising, since no one knew about the sacrifices she

made to keep Sunnydale safe. Relatively speaking. Crystal Gordon was no exception. It was bad enough

the stern, new teacher had stewed her on the humiliation hot plate and then served her up as an example

for class consumption. Although Buffy had handled it with cool and collected Slayer aplomb, she could

have done without the sting of his thoughtless reminder.

“Well, I like her,” Anya said defensively. “Mr. Coltrane didn't even know my name. Crystal offered to

help me work out my problems. Adjusting to — whatever.”

“Crystal?” Xander gavethat a surprised two eyebrows up. “On a first name basis with the teacher, huh?

I guess ice water is thicker than blood.”

“It is?”

Xander hid his disappointment when the slur zoomed over Anya's head. He was just grateful the uptight,

humorless Ms. Gordon neither favored nor despised him. Not often, but sometimes, being nondescript

and easy to ignore was a good thing. He wished Anya would take the hint. Cordelia's sarcastic rejection

was a balm for the soul compared to the prospect of being the object of Anya's affections. He was

romantically desperate, not emotionally suicidal.

“Crystal is a strong, independent woman who has total control of her life. She's an ideal female role

model. Right?” Anya looked to Buffy for support, which was just more evidence that she hadn't quite yet

tuned in to the subtleties of teenaged trauma.

“You're asking me?” Buffy hesitated, incredulous. “The creepy lady's designated victim of the day?”

“Who's creepy?” Oz sauntered up looking casually freaky in faded jeans, a plaid shirt, and platinum

blond, spiked hair. It was a look only a musician could wear without fear of being laughed out of school

by the fashionably correct.

“Attention shoppers!” Xander jerked backward, his hand shielding his eyes from the imagined glare

radiating off nearly-neon hair tint.

“Crystal Gordon.” Anya tentatively reached up to touch the gelled points covering Oz's head, then pulled

back with a grimace. “Only she's not creepy.”

Xander made a mental note. Icky hair was an effective Anya repellent.

“And Crystal Gordon is?” Oz asked.

“Is what?” Willow popped back into the hall. The perpetual perky sparkle Xander had foolishly taken

for granted since kindergarten brightened several degrees when she saw Oz. “Hey! Cool hair!”

“Blinding even,” Xander quipped for cover, just in case anyone had noticed his momentary lapse into

Willow lust.

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