New Arrivals
Author-Laura Picken
Titles

Blessed Protector
by Laura Picken

Summary: Law enforcement in Sunnydale? Yes, it exists. And when they bring in some outside help to track down an unusual group of vampires, it turns out that some police officers have a set of prophecies all their own. Crossover with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Hi all! I know, the concept seems a bit contrived, but I guess you could see this story as an answer to a question seldom asked in the Buffyverse: "What do the police _really_ think about all these unsolved murders in Sunnydale?" Hopefully, this whole thing will make sense when I'm done and we'll have some fun along the way. The folks who've read my work frequently know that I spend most of my time in the Sentinel universe, but this is my first attempt at a BtVS fanfic. Hopefully I can do the kids and Giles justice : ).

Disclaimer: All Sentinel characters belong to Pet Fly and Paramount, all Buffy-related characters belong to Joss Whedon and company. I know you'll never get together and try anything like this for yourselves, so there's no possible way you'd sue me, right? Right? *gulp*

As sun-drenched darkness falls
over the cleansed land
demons who walk in daylight
will haunt the Slayer;
destroying those she has been chosen to protect
but forever escaping beyond her reach,
and the land will again
drown in the blood of the lambs.

Then a blessed protector
will descend from the clouds;
not of the hunters
yet separate from the hunted.
He is guided by wisdom and innocence
yet bound by duty and destiny.

His wisdom will guide them,
his gifts will hold them fast;
forcing the demons
to the Slayer's domain
and bringing the light once more.

* * *

It was a quiet night in Sunnydale. That alone was enough to make Buffy nervous.

She knew better than anyone else that there was no such thing as a quiet night in Sunnydale. Even after she defeated the Master, she still had to fight two, three, sometimes as many as five vampires a night. So a quiet night meant that, hopefully, there was nothing going on, no new prophecies were going to pass, and she could get on with the business of being a normal, average, everyday teenage girl whose greatest worry was about whether or not the boy she liked was going to call her to go out Saturday night.

Yeah. Right. And Elvis was a teenage werewolf.

Every bone in her body was telling her that a night this quiet meant that something was going to happen. Something not good. Something that, this time, she might not be able to go up against and win.

[Okay, time to shake off the morbid thoughts for the evening, Buffy,] she thought, [maybe you should get over to the Bronze and enjoy yourself for once?] She was dressed in her favorite party outfit: black boots, jeans, a white t-shirt, and her prized leather jacket. Xander and Willow, her two best friends, were waiting for her at the Bronze, and she moved quickly and with purpose, even while her mind was lost deep in thought.

In fact, her mind was lost so deep in thought that she didn't notice the body lying across the path to her intended destination until she literally stumbled on it. She tumbled into a forward roll and came up ready to fight.

Only she felt no cramps. If a vampire had been there, he was long gone.

She turned around and bent down to take a look at the body. She touched the skin, and noticed it was clammy and cold. [Yep, this one's been dead awhile,] she thought. Black hair, brown eyes, was probably Asian -- she tried to see if she recognized the girl, but she couldn't place her. She was around the same age as Buffy, though, so it was a good bet she went to Sunnydale. She turned the girl's head to get a look at her neck, and dropped the head in shock at what she saw. The girl had definitely been fed upon, but if it was a vampire, it was like none she had ever seen before.

Where two bite marks would have normally been on the girl's neck, there were three--one perfectly placed in between the marks, and just above them -- like a deadly triangle.

She jumped away from the body and ran in the opposite direction of the Bronze. She was heading, full blast, toward the Sunnydale High School library.

* * *

She ran through the school and burst through the library doors to find her watcher, a very shocked Rupert Giles sitting at the main table of the library, books open, looking at her as if she _was_ a vampire.

Before she could stop to read the expression on Giles' face, though, she blurted out, "Giles, you're never going to believe what just happened! I was heading to the Bronze, all right, 'cause I hadn't sensed any vampires out tonight, and it seemed really quiet, you know? So I thought I could have maybe a normal night hanging out with Willow and Xander for once, you know? Anyway, so I was walking toward the Bronze when I trip over this girl's body! And I look at her, and it looks like a vampire got to her, but there were three bite marks on her neck, Giles! What make three bite marks and sucks blood?!? Do you know, Giles, 'cause I don't have a clue! And why are you staring at me like I was a vampire and I was about to have you for dinner?"

Giles composed himself quickly in preparation to calm down the hysterical girl in front of him. "I'm terribly sorry, Buffy. I just wasn't expecting anyone tonight. You simply startled me, that's all. Now, please, just have a seat, take a deep breath, and start from the beginning, all right?"

She did as Giles requested, and told him the full story. When she was finished, Giles removed his glasses, as he always did when he was stalling for time, took a deep breath and cleaned the glassed thoroughly before replacing them on his face.

Buffy frowned at the use of the now-familiar tactic. "Giles?" What are you thinking?"

Instead of answering her, he got up and practically ran for the stacks. Finding the book he was looking for, he brought it back to the table and set it down. He then ran for his dry erase board and placed three dots on it, asking, "Buffy, were the marks on the girl's neck in this fashion?" She nodded. He then connected the three dots from the center out and sat down, opening the book and flipping through its pages. When he found what he was looking for, he leaned back, amazed.

Buffy looked at the title of the book, "Ancient Egyptian myths and mythology," and tried to read the pages that Giles had opened to. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a few to many 'technical' terms on the page, so she gave up. "Giles, what's going on?"

Giles ran a hand through his hair and sat up, looking at Buffy in shock. "We have a serious problem on our hands, and I haven't the slightest idea how to stop it."

Buffy sat down in a chair and stared at her Watcher, confused, as he explained, "you remember the curse that gave Angel back his soul?" Buffy nodded as Giles continued, "there is only one other documented case on record of a group of vampires receiving a similar curse. Only, this one wasn't a curse, it was a blessing."

He turned the book around, pointing to a picture that was apparently from a pyramid. It showed what looked to be vampires--only they were pictured as walking, unaffected, in bright sunlight, and on the far right of the picture, there was what looked like the throne of a Pharaoh.

As Buffy looked at the picture, Giles went on, "there was a group of slaves in Ancient Egypt that were planning an overthrow against the Pharaoh Tutankhamen. A group of officials loyal to Pharaoh went to assassinate the group one night, but instead stumbled upon a band of six vampires who were feeding on these so-called 'revolutionaries'. Thinking them to be the Pharaoh's guardians, sent from the gods, they fell at the feet of the vampires and worshipped them. This group of vampires liked the adulation so much that they decided not to feed on Pharaoh's officials, and agreed to meet with Pharaoh himself. When they met with Pharaoh, he recognized what they were, but, in return for the help they gave him, he struck a deal: he would find a way to disguise them from all possible enemies, and in return they would leave Egypt and never feed on its people again. In return for the blessing they were given, the group has called themselves the 'Order of Ra' ever since. After they feed, they pierce their victim a third time, so that the mark forms a pyramid shape."

Giles concluded, "Well, the blessing must have worked because no one has been recorded as having seen any member of the group since, including your predecessors. The only time you'll know they're around is when bodies like the one you found tonight start popping up."

Buffy asked, "but they're still vampires, right? A stake through the heart will still kill them?"

Giles nodded, but added, "yes, but you won't be able to use any of your normal means of tracking them. You won't get the cramps, their faces don't change when they feed--they may even be impervious to daylight."

Buffy sighed, "then they could be anyone, anywhere in Sunnydale?" Giles nodded.

* * *

"Just consider it a vacation, Jim," Blair tried once more to reassure his partner as waited for their rental car at the San Diego airport. "I mean, what could possibly happen in a place like Sunnydale, California?" He had been working on the older man ever since they were drafted for the Police Exchange Program by Chief Warren. The chief was good friends with the police chief in Sunnydale, and when the California chief asked if they could send their best team to learn from Cascade's finest and Cascade could send their best team to teach Sunnydale's force a thing or two, Warren agreed immediately, shipping his best team (at least on paper), Jim Ellison and Blair Sandburg, off to Sunnydale.

Jim replied, "I don't know, chief. I just keep getting a bad feeling about this whole thing." From the minute that Simon told him about their impending trip to Sunnydale, he had a feeling that this little 'exchange program' was going to be a lot more than just a 'vacation'. And having Blair continually try to reassure him that it was no big deal either was not helping. The older man found it a bit ironic, actually: when he was in the service, he saw enough to believe that there may be people who actually possessed a 'sixth sense', but his partner, the long-haired, neo-hippie, cultural anthropologist who studies heightened senses for a living, could pass off his 'bad feeling' as no big deal. He could almost chuckle about it.

If it weren't for the fact that he was feeling like they were about to dive head first into a war zone. "And what about all that stuff about Sunnydale you got off the Net? About the place being known as the 'Mouth of Hell'?"

Blair rolled his eyes. "That was just an expression the Indians used, Jim."

"Just remember that the Chief in Sunnydale thinks that you're a cop, so watch your step, okay?" Jim rolled his eyes as they got in the blue Ford pickup for the long drive. The question about the 'Mouth of Hell' was a strategic move, though, because it got Blair off of his 'reassurances' and into a prolonged lecture about the town that went from being known as the 'Mouth of Hell' to its current incarnation as Sunnydale, California.

* * *

Sunnydale Police Chief John Masterson was having a good day so far. First, he got a laugh from the morning newspaper's report that declared Washington, D.C. to be the "murder capital of the world". He had long ago formulated a theory as to why Sunnydale had never been factored into those 'studies' they do: the city was too small, so there were fewer people to kill.

If their studies had been accurate, however, Sunnydale would easily be labeled the 'murder capital of the world': sometimes he had to deal with two or three bodies a night. Once in a while, he would see a genuine massacre, sometimes ten or more bodies--usually at that teen club, The Bronze. The cause of death was always the same: exsanguination through two puncture wounds at the base of the neck, right into the jugular vein. It had gotten to the point where he would see the marks and tell the coroner to not even bother with an autopsy, just "write up the usual report".

At first he had been frustrated: thinking he had a serial killer on his hands, he called the FBI for help, but they only laughed in his face, calling him things like "Van Helsig" and asking him if he'd ever seen a vampire. After three or four calls, though, he stopped caring and simply left it to the coroner to "tag 'em and bag 'em", now listing what they affectionately called "death by Dracula's kiss" as a major cause of death in Sunnydale, right up there with heart attacks. So hearing another major city being called the "Murder Capital of the World" meant that Sunnydale was still considered the national crime statisticians' 'best kept secret', so to speak.

It didn't make it any easier, though, to see some poor high school kid come in with all the life literally sucked out of them. He was relieved to no end to see the number of bodies start to taper off over the past year, but then a bunch of them started coming in with three marks on their necks instead of just two. So he was extremely happy to see his friend Jack Warren come through again, letting him send Mitchell and Smithson to Cascade to see how their Homicide and Major Crimes divisions worked and sending him Jim Ellison and Blair Sandburg, who Jack promised had the "best cases solved record in the entire Department". Maybe they had some new insight that would help him find out who was killing these kids.

He noticed the two men walking in as he looked up from his desk. [So these two are Ellison and Sandburg? Man, if I paired two guys together like that they'd kill each other within fifteen minutes.] The two men couldn't have been more opposite from each other. One was taller, obviously several years older, and screamed ex-military from the build right down to the haircut. The other was younger, much smaller, and had dark curly hair so long that Masterson could have sworn the kid was born at least ten years too late to truly enjoy the sixties. And the kid's eyes made him think back to something his wife once told him when they were dating, something about the eyes being the window to the soul. [If the eyes are the window to the soul,] he thought, [this kid's eyes are a billboard.]

The older man made the introductions as Masterson got up to shake both their hands. "Chief Masterson? I'm Jim Ellison and this is my partner, Blair Sandburg. I was told that you would be expecting us."

"Yes, yes," replied Masterson, "have a seat." He motioned for the two men to sit in the chairs in front of his, and returned to his own seat. "Your Chief Warren told me very little about you two besides the fact that the two of you have the best case solved record in your Department." He also knew they thought they were going to be there to teach, but it would probably be better to just get right to the point. "Tell me, Detective Ellison, do you have any experience in dealing with serial killers?"

Blair looked at the man in confusion, and it was all Jim could do to keep his face expressionless, although [I knew it!] was repeatedly going through his mind. Out loud he replied, "actually, yes, we do, Chief Masterson. Why do you ask?"

Masterson pulled a thick and obviously well-worn file from his desk. As Jim opened the file, he noticed dozens of crime scene photos from a number of different murder scenes. Masterson explained, "exsanguination seems to be as common a cause of death here in Sunnydale as drunk driving. Hundreds of deaths here over the years, all unsolved. Many of the cases date back to before I came on here as Chief five years ago. I tried asking the Feds for help, but all I got back from them were a lot of jokes about arming my men with wooden stakes. I was hoping you two might have some suggestions, you know, give me a fresh insight into the case?"

Blair joked, "grab a cross and some garlic and see who runs away?"

Jim glared at his partner, who sometimes had the unfortunate habit of saying the wrong thing at precisely the wrong time. He then turned his attention back to the crime scene photos. "When was the latest murder?"

"Last night actually," Masterson fished through the more recent files on his desk until he found the one he was looking for, "Michelle Chen, 15 years old. She was a sophomore at the high school, on the track team, and an honor student. Well-liked, but not too popular. The kicker about this one though, is that it follows a pattern that's only been established in the last five or six murders or so."

Both Jim and Blair sat up, attentive. "Really?" asked Jim, "What's changed?"

Masterson handed both men photos of Michelle's neck. "With the other murders, the blood was drained through two holes in the victims' jugular. Hence, the vampire jokes. With this group of killings, though, there are three holes. Also, all of the other killings happened at night, usually between 10 p.m. and midnight. Michelle's time of death, as well as with the other three-hole killings, was around 6:30 p.m."

Blair's eyes grew wide. "In broad daylight?"

Masterson nodded. Jim asked, "that means there has to be witnesses, right?"

Masterson shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. As far as we know, no one saw a thing."

Blair thought out loud, "they're probably afraid of ending up like the other victims."

Jim nodded his head in agreement. "If we're going to get anywhere, we need to start asking around. I'd say the best thing would be to go to the High School first."

The other two men nodded in agreement, and Blair and Jim left to start the investigation.

As the two men left, John Masterson let out a huge sigh of relief. [They may not be able to find out who killed all these people,] he thought, [but maybe, just maybe, we can actually get some answers this time.]

* * *

It took a warrant and some smooth talking by Sandburg to get them past a rather annoying Principal Snyder, but Jim and Blair finally made it into the hallowed halls of Sunnydale High School. Blair whistled his approval as they walked across the courtyard to the computer room.

"Meets with your approval, chief?" "Definitely. Naomi often taught me at home when I was growing up, or I was in a school for such a short period of time that I never got a chance to really appreciate the place. These kids' parents must have some serious money to be able to afford to build a school like this."

Jim nodded his agreement, and made a mental note to see if there was a connection between the incomes of the parents of the murdered teens. They got to the computer room just as class was letting out. According to her schedule, this was Ms. Calendar's free period, which was why Jim and Blair went to interview her first. Jim knocked on her door just as she was gathering up papers from around the room and turning off lazy students' computers. "Ms. Calendar?"

The dark-haired young woman looked up from her task to greet the two men walking into her classroom. "Yes? Can I help you?"

Jim introduced them, "Ms. Calendar, my name is Jim Ellison, and this is my partner, Blair Sandburg." He flashed his badge, hoping she would assume it was from Sunnydale, and continued, "we'd like to ask you a couple of questions about one of your students, Michelle Chen."

Samantha recalled the girl immediately. Asian girl, dark hair--good student, great on the computer. She and Willow had worked closely on several projects that were of a more traditional nature, and the two had become close friends. [But just how close?] thought Samantha. Given Willow's often necessary hobby of illegally breaking into secured computer networks, if Michelle had been caught sneaking in where she wasn't supposed to..."She's not in any kind of trouble, is she?"

She noticed both men shifted their weight and looked at each other for a brief second, and she picked up immediately what kind of call this really was. She could feel the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach even before Jim replied, "no ma'am, unfortunately, Michelle died yesterday evening. Her body was found early this morning near the school athletic field."

[This part never gets any easier,] thought Samantha. She felt a desperate urge to sit down, so she pulled up a chair and, after motioning for Jim and Blair to join her, asked, "how did she die?", even though she had a feeling she already knew.

All business, Jim replied, "we're still trying to determine a cause of death, but we do have reason to believe that her death was not of natural causes."

When she heard the words "...not of natural causes...", Samantha drew in a deep breath, and her heart skipped a beat. [Did they know?]

Jim noticed the imperceptible change immediately, and also picked up on her attempt to quickly compose herself, or at least to compose herself to the level which she 'should' be composed when hearing about the death of a student. He gave her a minute to finish 'composing' herself, then asked, "how well did you know Michelle, Ms. Calendar?"

"She was one of my best students. I'm the faculty advisor for the school's computer club, so between class and the club projects, I had been able to spend quite a bit of time with her."

"Could we get a list of the students in the computer club?"

"Certainly." She went over to her desk and pulled out a copy of the requisite list, handing it to Jim before sitting down again. "She wasn't the type to hang out with a bad crowd or anything, really more of a quiet, shy student."

Blair asked, "when did you last see Michelle?"

Samantha stammered, "Last night. She was working on a project with myself and another one of my students, Willow Rosenberg. They were in the middle of designing a programmable flash card screen saver program. She must have left around six or so."

Jim then asked, "Ms. Calendar, we have reason to believe that Michelle's death may be connected to several other deaths in the area. Did you know any of the other students that have died recently?"

She lied, "No."

Jim picked up on the lie immediately, and ended the conversation. "Well, thank you, Ms. Calendar, you've been most helpful. If we have any more questions, do you have a number where we can contact you?"

"Certainly," she replied. She pulled out a piece of note paper and wrote down her beeper number. "This is my beeper. If you page me, I should respond within the hour. If I don't, it usually means I'm in a class."

Jim shook her hand briefly, thanked her again for the information, and left. Confused, Blair asked the older man the minute they were out of Ms. Calendar's earshot, "Jim, what was that about? Why was the conversation so short?"

"She's hiding something, chief, I know it. There were a couple of points where I could hear her get really nervous, then back off when I went a different route with the questioning than what she was expecting. And she out and out lied to me with that last answer."

Blair looked at his watch. They had thirty minutes before the next period. "All right, so we know who the last two people to see her alive. I take it we're going to go find this Willow Rosenberg next?"

Jim smiled, "you're catching on, chief. You're catching on."

* * *

As the bell rang for their free period to start, Willow Rosenberg walked down the hall with her best friend, Xander Harris, but her mind was most definitely not on where she was going. She was thinking about her friend Michelle. [I was just with her last night,] she thought, not for the first time. Actually, it was all she could think.

Willow had lost several friends since the vampires started making regular appearances around Sunnydale, but, thought Xander, she hasn't been this bad since Buffy defeated the Master. He had to gently guide his childhood friend by the shoulder to make sure the poor distraught girl didn't accidentally bump into a wall, locker or anything else as he led her to the library.

They had both heard rumors about Michelle's death that made them suspect a vampire attack, and Xander wanted to bring Willow to the Library so that Giles could confirm or deny those rumors. With all his heart he was hoping that the rumors were false, but, knowing his luck, they wouldn't be. [In that case,] thought Xander, [Giles will know what's going on, and he'll have a plan of how we're going to stop this thing. Giles always has a plan. It's a Giles thing.]

They walked into the Library and found what was, in Xander's opinion, the first great sign that the world was about to end: a frantic Giles. His tie was undone, his hair was a mess, and it seemed like every book he owned was on the Library table. At the sound of the opening door, Giles looked up briefly to see the two people Buffy affectionately called her "Slayerettes", walking in, Willow looking almost as distraught as he was feeling at the moment. He had grown to like the young girl whose thirst for knowledge mirrored his own, and she had become an invaluable help and resource to him in Buffy's (and his own) fight against the dark forces of Sunnydale. He knew without a doubt that the only thing that distressed the girl this badly was the loss of a friend, and he guessed that Willow knew the girl whose body Buffy had found last night. [The perfect thing to get her mind off things,] thought Giles, [will be for her to help me find information on this Order of Ra.] Smiling inwardly, he added to himself, [and Lord knows, I could use all the help I could get right now.]

"Ah Willow," declared Giles, "good, you're here. Listen, I could use your help. I need you to surf the Net and find me anything you can about a group called the Order of Ra."

Willow shook off her melancholy the minute she noticed Giles' state. If the normally prim and proper Englishman was in this bad a state of disarray, this was big. End of the world big. And it probably had to do with Michelle's death last night. She ran to the computer and pulled up Excite, joining in the search right away.

Willow was out of Xander's protective arms and in front of her prized computer before Xander even had a chance to blink. From the day he had first followed Buffy into the library, life seemed to have run right past Alexander Harris, and he always felt was working twice as hard as everyone else around him seemed to be just to keep up. Today was no exception, but he hoped that maybe he could get some help in coming up-to-speed. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Could someone _please_ tell me what is going on here?"

Buffy walked into the library at the same moment of Xander's semi-breakdown. She explained, "I'm sure you've heard about Michelle by now?"

Xander nodded. "She was killed by a vampire?"

Buffy nodded, "some hot-shot new sect called the Order of Ra. Apparently they were given some special blessing that gives them the power to hide from their enemies, including me. Giles has been working since last night trying to find a way for me to track them." It was then she noticed her Watcher's frantic, disheveled appearance. As she walked over to where Giles was helping Willow, she continued, "and it looks like there hasn't been a lot of progress in the search?"

Discouraged, Giles shook his head. "No. I don't know that much more about them than we did last night, other than the fact that they're probably here to vie for control of the Hellmouth."

Buffy muttered, "just like every other vampire sect in the world."

Giles nodded his agreement. Suddenly, a book caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. It was a well-worn, old volume, one of the books about Slayer prophecy he most often referred to. He knew every word in that book, as the American saying went, 'like the back of his hand'.

A prophecy from that book was working its way out of the back of his mind, and he grabbed the book, thumbing through it furiously, trying to remember where it was. Finally he found it, and, reading the prophecy over again in more detail, muttered, "could this be it? Could they possibly be referring to them?"

Buffy always hated it when Giles' mind went off on possibilities without taking them with him. "What? Who? Giles, you're being cryptic again."

Coming back to reality, he apologized, "Oh, sorry Buffy. I was just remembering a prophecy I had read once about 'demons who walk in daylight'. The prophecy was to happen sometime after the Master's defeat, so at the time I skimmed over it and put it aside. Now that's I've taken another look at the prophecy, though, I think it might have something to do with how we might be able to find the Order of Ra."

Excited, Buffy asked, "can I see it?"

Giles looked at the book, then thought out loud, "well, this prophecy is fairly straightforward, so I don't see why notO" The minute he said "Odon't see why notO", Buffy grabbed the book from his hands and read the prophecy for herself.

The young Slayer plopped the book on the table, confused. [This doesn't seem all that straightforward to me.] Out loud, she asked, "what does it mean, 'not of the hunters yet separate from the hunted'?

Giles replied, "I'm pretty sure that 'not of the hunters' means that the 'Blessed Protector' is not another vampire. The blessing the Order of Ra received probably encompasses the idea of protecting them from others of their own kind who would seek to do them harm."

Buffy thought out loud, "so it means the 'Blessed Protector' is a man."

Giles replied, "most likely."

"But what does 'separate from the hunted' mean?"

"I don't know. When we discover what that passage means, I have a feeling that's when we'll find our 'Blessed Protector'."

It was at that moment that two men walked into the library. The taller, stronger and obviously older of the two announced to the assembled group, "excuse me, but I was told we could find a Willow Rosenberg here?"

Willow looked up from behind the computer. "I'm Willow."

Giles interjected, "and you are--?"

The tall man replied, "Detective James Ellison, and this is my partner, Blair Sandburg. If you don't mind, we would like to ask you some questions about Michelle Chen."

Willow's first instinct was to panic. [Calm down, Willow. Deep breath. They're not here about you, and they're not here about Buffy. They're here about Michelle. Which of course could lead to questions about Buffy and that could lead to all the hacking I've done and I know that's illegal and they could send me to jail and I heard they do bad things to teenagers in jail...] She forced herself to take two more deep breaths to try again to calm down before she passed out.

Blair didn't need Jim's Sentinel abilities to pick up on the panic in the young woman's eyes when she found out that the two of them were with the police, although he stole a brief glance at his partner, whose eyes made it clear that he had indeed picked up on the girl's reaction to their presence. He then started into what had become his 'good cop' routine to try and get the girl to calm down. He pulled up a chair next to Willow, who instinctively backed away from him. He tried to reassure her, "whoa, whoa, take it easy! You're not in any trouble." He then went to his favorite tactic--taking her mind off of the questioning by starting on a favorite subject. "So I hear you're good with computers?"

That brought on another panic attack in Willow. Blair then realized what she was worried about and changed the subject immediately. "So tell me about this project you and Michelle were working on."

Willow took another deep breath, and took a good look at Blair, finally noticing the man's age and appearance. [He doesn't look like a cop,] she thought, [actually, he doesn't look much older than we are.] She briefly described the flash card program she had worked on with Michelle last night, then interjected at the end, "you don't look like a cop."

Blair smiled, wondering when that was going to come up. "Actually I'm not."

Curious, Willow nodded her head over to Jim, who was watching the whole proceedings, and asked, "well, if you're not a cop, then what are you doing with him?"

Blair replied, "I'm a graduate student in Anthropology. I'm studying the police force as part of my work for my Ph.D., and I work with Jim as a consultant to the department."

The prophecy he had just read echoed in Giles' mind, [...guided by wisdom and innocence...] He then shrugged off the stray thought, [a simple police officer? The Blessed Protector? Not likely.]

Jim then interrupted the little social chat Willow and Blair were having, asking, "what time did you last see Michelle, Willow?"

Looking over to Jim, who was still standing imposingly at the other end of the table, Willow replied, "she must have left at around 6. I stayed for another hour to work on the program and answer some e-mails, then Ms. Calendar gave me a ride home."

Jim then asked, "did Michelle leave with anyone? Did she get a ride from anyone?"

Willow shook her head, "no. As far as I know, she walked home alone. It was still light out, and she doesn't -- I mean didn't -- live far from school." The expression on her face turned sad again as she thought about the idea of never seeing her friend and lab partner again.

Blair looked at the girl sympathetically. "How well did you know Michelle?"

Willow seemed to brighten a bit as she thought good thoughts of her friend. "Pretty well. She and I met at the beginning of freshman year in Ms. Calendar's computer club. We worked on a lot of projects together, and we got to hang out a lot."

Jim asked, "what were her other friends like?"

Willow breathed a mental sigh of relief. [Good. So these two don't know about vampires. They're thinking another human being killed Michelle.] Sadly, she thought, [I almost wish that were the case,] then replied out loud, "she was mostly friends with the other people in the computer club. She was friends with a few girls on the track team, but no one who ran with a bad crowd or anything."

Blair asked, "Willow, we think this may be connected to some other deaths that have happened recently. Did Michelle know any of the other students who have died over the past month or so?"

Willow shook her head. "I don't think so."

Jim saw that continuing to talk to Willow was going to get them about as much information as they got from Ms. Calendar. Actually, he had gotten more interesting insights from the reactions questioning Willow had brought about in the other people in the room. [But,] he thought, [that can wait until Sandburg and I can talk later.] He looked at the clock. Five minutes before these kids needed to be in their next class. He concluded the interview, "Well, thank you for helping us out, Willow. If you can think of anything else you might want to tell us, just give us a call at the police station. Come on, chief, let's go."

* * *

As Jim and Blair left the Library, Jim asked, "so what do you think, chief?"

Blair reassured his partner, "well, I think the reason that Willow panicked initially is because she's probably a hacker and thought we were there to bust her or something. She does, after all, seem like the nervous type, Jim."

Jim nodded his agreement to that. "Yeah, she does, doesn't she? Do you think she knows what happened to Michelle?"

Blair shrugged, "it's possible." He then caught the look in his Sentinel's eyes and guessed, "you think she does, don't you?"

"I think it's possible. But if she does know, then everyone in that room knows too, and didn't want to tell us. I was watching our 'spectators' when Willow panicked, and they all started to become real protective of her--like they all shared some big secret. And they all jumped a bit when we started to ask about the other victims, like they had an idea of what happened to them. Something's going on here, chief, and I want to find out what it is."

"So what next, Jim?"

"I'd like to go back to the station and take a look at the full case files on the recent victims. See if there's any connection between them."

"Sounds good to me. Lead on, MacDuff."

Jim groaned at the obscure literary reference as he opened the door to the truck.

* * *

Buffy caught the brief look on Giles' face as the two cops [correction, the cop and that grad student] were questioning Willow. Whatever he was thinking, he blew it off, but she wasn't about to let it go that easily. The minute the two men left she questioned her mentor, "Giles?"

He roused himself from his thought on the prophecy he was re-reading and focused on Buffy. "Yes?"

"What's your opinion of those two?"

"Hmmm? They're with the police department, and they're a little nosy."

"Ohhh no. I saw the look that blared across your face while they were questioning Willow. Now, spill it."

"Oh that? It's nothing?"

"Yeah right. It may be nothing, but it's more than we've got right now. What is it?"

The Watcher took off his glasses and cleaned them, trying to gather his thoughts. As he replaced the glasses he commented, "there's a chance, albeit a very slim chance..."

Buffy urged him on, "yes?"

"Well, there's a chance that Detective Ellison may be our 'Blessed Protector', but I couldn't tell from just meeting him this one time."

"Giles, that _isn't_ nothing! You were thinking that because of his partner, right? '...guided by wisdom and innocence...'?"

"Well, yes, but that doesn't make him entirely 'separate from the hunted', does it?"

Xander added, "and he doesn't seem all that particularly gifted to me, either."

"Still," declared Buffy, "Giles, you yourself said you couldn't tell from just meeting him this one time, and he may already fulfill one part of the prophecy, so I say that this warrants further investigation. And Giles, you're always telling me to trust my hunches, so maybe now it's time for _us_ to trust yours." She then turned to her computer-genius best friend, who was still searching for information on the Order of Ra. "Willow?"

She looked up from her computer, "yeah, Buffy?"

"Can you pull up the files of the Sunnydale PD and find out what kind of information we can get on these guys?"

"Sure." She opened another window and typed in the now-familiar codes to get into the Police Department database without anyone knowing she was in there.

Buffy watched her friend's fingers fly over the keys in amazement. She didn't know how the girl did it, and frankly, she didn't really want to know, she was just grateful, at times like this, that she knew someone who knew how to pull any thing she could possibly want out of a computer.

Willow frowned as she repeated the search again on the database. [This can't be right,] she thought.

Buffy picked up immediately on her friend's confused expression. "What is it, Willow?"

"Well," replied Willow, "I checked the department records three times, and there's no record of a Jim Ellison or a Blair Sandburg anywhere in there."

The bell rang, and everyone looked at the clock. Xander and Willow gathered up their things and headed out for Math class, while Buffy gathered her stuff to get to Biology. As Willow pulled up the card-catalog program she had designed as a password-protected screen saver for her to hide her research behind, Giles told the group, "all right, why don't we meet back here after school. In the meantime, I'll keep looking for more on the Order of Ra and who this Blessed Protector chap might be."

The group agreed, and the three students left quickly to get to class.

* * *

Blair leaned back in his chair and threw a pen across the wall in frustration. There were apparently about as many connections between the hundreds of deaths in Sunnydale over the years as there were in the number of drunk driving cases in Cascade: none. Apparently, anyone who lived in Sunnydale could be at risk. The only link between the cases was the thin cord that tied them together--their unique cause of death. Jim was looking at the more recent cases, and Blair was wondering if his partner was having better luck. "I hope you're having better luck than I am right now, Jim."

"No connection between those cases, chief?"

"Nothing other than cause of death. I can see why the Feds would make all those vampire jokes. It seems like anyone could be a target in this town."

"True. Actually, I did find a few connections between the more recent deaths, although its slim. Come take a look at this." Blair got up to look over Jim's shoulder as the Sentinel explained, "the coroner's reports state that the victims were drained of their blood, just like the other ones, but that the third mark, the one on top, was made post-mortem." He pointed to the identifying mark on one of the neck photos to emphasize his point.

Blair commented, "like some sort of ritual." Already his mind was working on the possibilities.

Jim agreed, "Exactly. I'm beginning to think this vampire thing may not be far off--not so much as the idea of actual vampires..."

Blair completed the thought, "...but a vampire cult could be a possibility. Someone who is draining the blood for their own purposes and then dumping the bodies somewhere. You think that could be the case?"

"It's the best idea we have so far. The only hole I can poke in the theory is this new group."

"Yeah, man. A vampire group would never commit their murders in broad daylight. Plus, the murders would be messier--they would have to have spilled blood _somewhere_. But these killings are just too clean. And what would they use the victims' blood for? Why has none of it ever been found in a DNA typing somewhere, connected to another crime?"

"Beats me, chief. I would like to go take a look at the corpse, though. See if there's anything we can find that forensics here couldn't."

The two men packed up their files on the case and headed out to the Sunnydale funeral home, which doubled as the town morgue.

* * *

Within ten minutes of the bell sounding the end of last period, Buffy, Xander and Willow were back in the library to meet with Giles. All three teens had the same things on their minds: if those guys Ellison and Sandburg weren't cops, then what were they? And who was their "Blessed Protector"? Buffy was convinced it was Ellison, but if it was, then what was so different about him that he would be able to find the Order of Ra when the Slayer can't?

Once everyone had settled in, Willow behind the computer, Xander and Buffy at their customary spots at the table, Giles announced to the group, "I could find nothing new on the Order of Ra, so at this point we can only work with what we have right now: according to Egyptian legend this group of vampires received a blessing from the sun god Ra that allows them to be unaffected by daylight and undetectable by their enemies, including the Slayer. The only way to know they're around is by the triangle-shaped mark they leave on a body after a kill. The Slayer can still kill them, as they received no other special protections from Ra, but only the 'Blessed Protector' from the Slayer prophecies will have the abilities necessary to track them."

Buffy added, "and now we have two guys who say they're cops but who may or may not be cops snooping around asking about one of the people the Order of Ra have killed."

Willow hadn't found anything new on the Order of Ra during her search on the 'Net, but something told her that even though those two cops weren't Sunnydale PD, they were still on their side. She pulled up Excite in a second window and did a search on James Ellison. As the search results came up, she called to the group, "guys, I think this is something that you might want to see."

She pulled up one of the pages as the others crowded around her computer. It was an article from the Cascade Sun Times in Cascade, Washington, about the Prometheus arson investigation, and beside the article was a very flattering picture of Detective James Ellison of the Cascade Police Department, Major Crimes division and his partner, Blair Sandburg.

Buffy and Giles both muttered under their breath, "OThen a blessed protector will descend from the cloudsO"

* * *

It normally took about twenty minutes to get from the station to the Sunnydale Funeral Home. Unfortunately, Blair insisted on driving, so the pair made it to the Funeral Home in a little over an hour. Jim winced as his partner got out of the truck and cracked his knuckles rather audibly. "Do you really have to do that, Sandburg?"

"Sorry, Jim. I like to crack my knuckles after driving for a long stretch of time. I didn't realize it was that loud."

Jim let out a long sigh. "Usually it isn't, chief. I guess I'm just a little cranky after having spent forty minutes being lost in a town that's as small as Sunnydale."

"How many times do I have to apologize for making a wrong turn at the gas station, Jim ?!?"

Jim reassured his partner, "don't worry, all is forgiven--as long as you're buying dinner tonight."

Blair smiled briefly. "Deal."

The two walked into the funeral home, flashed their badges, and were quickly directed to the morgue. Once at the morgue, the local coroner, having expected them forty minutes earlier, steered them to the appropriate body, then left to take her dinner break.

Jim pulled down the cloth that was covering the head of the late Michelle Chen. In his line of work, he worked with dead bodies on a fairly frequent basis, but this one seemed distinctly different. He opened up his senses in an effort to determine just what was bothering him about Michelle's body.

* * *

Buffy got off the phone with the Sunnydale PD and sighed loud enough for everyone to look at her. She turned to her Watcher and announced, "Giles, we may have a problem. I just got off the phone with our local police department. According to them, our Mr. Ellison and Mr. Sandburg just went over to the morgue to have a look at Michelle Chen's body."

"Buffy, I hardly see that as cause for concern. It's only 6:00, there are several hours before sunset, and even if Michelle were to cross over, we have at least one or two days before that were to happen."

"I don't know, Giles, but my spider-sense is tingling. I have a bad feeling about this."

Just as Giles rolled his eyes at her awful comic-book metaphor, Willow interrupted them. "Guys, I think you should take a look at this."

As the group came to stand behind Willow, she explained, "I found out that the funeral home is now keeping track of their 'residents' by computer, so I was able to break into their system, and I found out that there have been six deaths that we could consider vampire-related killings, and three of those were from our friends in the Order of Ra."

Buffy urged her friend on, "yeah?"

Willow continued, "well, out of the six people who have died, all three from the Order of Ra are listed as having had their bodies stolen about twenty-four hours after they died."

Xander started to say out loud what everyone was thinking, "and we all know that bodies aren't just stolen from the Sunnydale Funeral Home..."

Buffy completed the thought, "...they usually walk out under their own power. And since Michelle died around 6:30 last nightO"

Giles completed her thought, "...she should be waking up any minute. Come along, Buffy. I'll drive."

* * *

Blair noticed as Jim's eyes focused in concentration and his jaw tensed up. No one else in the room would have picked up on the subtle change in the Sentinel's focus, but Blair knew all too well the consequences of what could happen if he was any more than one step right behind Jim Ellison. He used his voice to give Jim a balanced anchor to work from. "Jim? What is it, man?"

"There's something different about this body." The Sentinel drew in a deep breath, and noticed what it was that he smelled. "Chief, I don't think this body is starting to decay like it normally would." He started to take a look at the body, and his attention was immediately drawn to the triangle of marks on the girl's neck. He reached out to touch the marks, and traced along the skin between the marks in a formation that would look like a three-pointed star. It wasn't visible yet, but there seemed to be some sort of scar that was moving its way up to the surface. Which led him to realize something else about the girl's body: there were things that were _moving_ in her body that shouldn't be _moving_.

As Jim jerked his hand back, Blair looked questioningly at his partner. Jim hadn't zoned--or if he had, then the Sentinel is getting better at pulling himself out of his own zone-outs because Blair hadn't noticed a thing. He looked at the face of his partner, whose eyes seemed to be widening by the second. Considering the fact that nothing usually phased Jim Ellison, let alone caused him to freak out, he decided he absolutely needed to know what Jim felt when he touched the body. "Jim, what's going on? What did you find out from the body?"

Jim pointed a cautious finger at the body, and Blair's eyes followed Jim's arm until he was looking at the body himself.

A body whose eyes were blinking, a sinister yellow in color; who was smiling, showing pointed fangs; and who was getting up on what were supposedly dead legs to come walking toward them.

Blair, who was getting used to being able to hold conversations with raving lunatics in unusual situations, stammered out, "you're ssssupposed to be--?"

"dead?" replied the late Michelle Chen. "As they say, the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." She looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings and grinned wickedly, "or in this case, maybe they weren't so exaggerated."

Jim asked the only thing that could come to his mind. "What are you?"

Michelle laughed wickedly. "You mean you don't know? You two must be new in town."

"That's right," interrupted the new person in the conversation. "Didn't your mama teach you to be nice to visitors?"

Jim and Blair looked over to see Buffy Summers, one of Willow Rosenberg's friends from the high school, standing in the doorway of the morgue, looking every inch like she had one heck of a chip on her shoulder. If Jim weren't still in shock from seeing a dead teenager holding a conversation with a live one, he would have wondered if that attitude wasn't going to get the young woman killed.

Michelle hissed at Buffy, "didn't yours teach you it's not polite to interrupt?" She then rushed the Slayer, who promptly sent the young female vampire to the floor by stepping out of the way and hitting her across the neck with a clothesline strike. Buffy then took out what looked to Blair like a wooden circus tent spike and promptly shoved the spike into Michelle's heart.

The vampire convulsed for a instant, then turned to dust.

Buffy got up from her position next to where the vampire once was and looked to face the cop and the grad student. "We need to talk."

"I'll say," spat out Blair. It was all he could think of at the moment.

"Can you meet me back at the high school library in, say, fifteen minutes?"

Both men nodded, and Buffy turned and left, heading back to Giles' car. Jim ran to catch her, "just where do you think you're going?"

Buffy forced herself out of Jim's arm grip, and he was astounded by how much strength she had, particularly considering her size. She replied, "look, detective, I'm not going to try to skip town or anything. It's just that what happened back there is going to take some explanation and I'd rather not do it here." Satisfied that he at least seemed to believe her she continued, "Okay? So I'll see you in fifteen minutes at the library." She then turned and left, headed for Giles' car and what she hoped wouldn't be a lecture about killing vampires in front of 'innocents' again.

Blair found his way up to where his partner stood as they both watched the young woman get in a car with the high school librarian. As they watched the ancient car sputter and drive away, both men wondered how the young high school girl was going to 'explain' committing the murder of a formerly dead corpse in front of their eyes.

And why, and how, the body instantly turned to dust.

* * *

"So let me get this straight," commented Blair, "this place is known as the 'Mouth of Hell' because of some sort of supernatural gateway that draws mystical energy to it like a magnet. And because of this, your town is overrun with all sorts of monsters, demons, witches and creatures, but particularly with vampires?"

Giles, Buffy, Willow and Xander all nodded. Jim continued, "and you," nodding his head to Buffy, "are the 'chosen' Vampire Slayer, born with some sort of supernatural abilities that helps you to locate and kill vampires?"

Buffy nodded as Blair picked up, "and you three back her up by researching prophecies, helping her to train, finding things she might need through whatever means necessary, and giving her general moral support?" Giles, Willow and Xander nodded again.

Jim added, "and that thing that we encountered back there is a special type of vampire that has all the other vampire characteristics but is unaffected by daylight and Buffy's 'abilities' can't track them?" Giles and company nodded again as Jim sat back down next to his partner.

The Sentinel looked out the small library windows at the fading sunlight. He didn't know what to believe. He had been constantly checking the group from the time they started their outlandish story for any signs that they might be lying, but he found none. The librarian Giles had been working for almost two hours to explain the town's complex "history" to the two men. Not only was the man convinced he was telling the truth, as far as Jim could tell, he was, in fact, desperately trying to make the two men believe that the outlandish tale was what was really going on in Sunnydale. He laughed to himself as he realized that was how Blair first sounded to him when he first tried to explain what was going on with Jim's senses. He had to find out what Blair's impression of these guys was. He turned to his partner and whispered, "so what do you think, chief?"

Blair whispered back, "vampire myths and the like are rampant in all ancient cultures, Jim. The common belief is that those myths were created to come up with plausible reasons that bad things happenedO"

As his voice trailed off, Jim knew he was holding something back, "but...?"

Blair replied, "but then again, everyone told me Sentinels were just a myth too."

[Touche,] thought Jim.

Blair added, "and nothing I've ever seen could be classified in the same category of weird as what happened to us in the morgue today. At this point, I'm willing to believe them--at least, until a more plausible explanation comes along."

Jim let out a deep breath. He was hoping, at first, that maybe this whole setup was an elaborate reuse set up by the vampire cult to cover their tracks. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that Blair was right. [After all, it's a lot harder to discount myths and legends when you're the actual personification of one.] Jim turned to the group and announced, "okay, we believe you."

As they all visibly relaxed, Jim continued, "so what now?"

Giles replied, "actually, we were hoping you could tell us." The Watcher went over to the stacks and grabbed the book that the 'Blessed Protector' prophecy came from. He flipped to the prophecy and handed it to Blair to read.

The younger man read over the prophecy, his eyes growing wider as he first scanned the page, then read the text in more detail. He asked Giles, "you think this is talking about us?"

"I'm not exactly sure. I'm fairly certain that the first part is talking about the Order of Ra, and 'will descend from the clouds' and 'guided by wisdom and innocence' could certainly be talking about you two."

Blair nodded in agreement. That much he could see as well.

Giles went on, "however, as unique as your pairing may be, I don't see how it would fit into 'separate from the hunted'..."

Jim's attention drifted from Giles' explanation of the prophecy as it focused on the new person who had just entered the room. [If you could call it a person,] he thought. The man had a heartbeat, but it was slower than a human heartbeat, and quieter, almost as if it didn't need to pump quite as much blood as everyone else's did. He didn't breathe, as far as Jim could hear, but the strangest thing of all was the smell that pervaded the man's being like a subtle cologne. The Sentinel recognized it immediately, because he had smelled a similar scent that afternoon.

The man smelled like a corpse. Michelle's corpse.

He drew his gun and leveled it at the dark-haired 'man', which caused all conversation in the room to cease. He then asked, "who are you?"

The man looked at him with an absurd amount of calm and spoke with a gentle voice, "you can call me Angel, and you can put the gun away. Even if it were necessary, it's useless on me."

Buffy chimed in, "he's right, detective. Angel is a vampire. But don't worry--he's on our side."

Jim re-attached the safety on his gun and put it in the holster, allowing Angel to come into the room. After Buffy introduced the vampire to Jim and Blair, she explained the story of how Angel came to possess a soul, and how he, in turn, had been helping Buffy find and destroy the others of his kind ever since she came to Sunnydale. As the nervous tension in the room dissipated once again, Angel asked, "so, detective, out of curiosity, how could you tell I wasn't human?"

Jim looked at him with only half-surprise. "Excuse me?"

Angel replied, "one thing about vampires, detective, is that we can often detect strong emotion in people, sometimes to the point of reading minds. When I walked in the room, it was like something almost instinctive kicked in, and you drew the gun on me before you even really thought about it. I've never met a human who could pick up on my other nature before it revealed itself."

The rest of the group looked at Jim and Blair with renewed curiosity. Giles chimed in, "yes, detective, I think I'd like to know that information myself."

Jim wasn't about to tell them about his senses, so he decided to divert attention back to Angel. "What do you mean by your other nature?"

Instantly, Angel's face changed from his attractive human features to the twisted face of a demon. He hissed, "this is my other nature."

Jim and Blair jumped back from the table in shock. Angel turned his face to the floor, drew in a deep breath, and instantly his face returned to human form. After Jim got his voice back, he stammered out, "what was that?"

Buffy replied, surprised, "that was his 'vampire' face, detective."

Jim exclaimed, "but the one we saw this afternoon..."

Giles replied, "...was of a special sect called the Order of Ra. As I mentioned before, they have been given special abilities that allow them to hide their true nature. Evidently, that includes the removal of most demonic features from their appearance."

Before anyone else could speak up, Angel interjected, "and you still haven't answered my question, detective."

Jim wished for a moment that he was half as good at coming up with an on-the-spot lie as his partner was. He decided to try a truth that could be semi-plausible. "I couldn't hear you breathing. That, added to an incident we experienced earlier this evening and the conversation we were just having simply made me a little nervous, that's all." He then tried to add a little lie, "I didn't know you weren't human until Buffy said something."

Buffy, however, wasn't buying it. "Wait a second, you drew your gun while Angel was still a good ten, maybe fifteen feet away from you. No one could possibly hear anyone's breathing from that distance."

The second Buffy said, "...no one could possibly hear...", '...separate from the hunted...' finally clicked into place in Rupert Giles' mind. He voiced his realization, "unless that person was a Sentinel."

Blair and Jim looked at the librarian in shock, while Buffy looked simply confused. She asked, "Sentiwhat?"

Knowing that he would most likely need to explain the concept to Buffy, Giles had already formulated an explanation in his mind. "A Sentinel is someone who has one or more senses that are enhanced far beyond normal human function. In pre-civilized cultures, a Sentinel would warn the tribe of impending danger and help in the search for food. His skills would normally be honed by extensive periods of time in isolation, and he would be aided and advised by a Guide who would help him to use his skills in a way that best served the tribe." He hit his hand on the table and declared, "I can't believe I didn't think of this before!"

Buffy mumbled that part of the prophecy to herself, "...not of the hunters yet separate from the hunted...", as Jim grabbed the book out of Blair's hand to read this prophecy for himself.

Giles noticed the look on Blair's face. "I take it this information is nothing new to the two of you, Mr. Sandburg?"

Blair shook his head slightly. "No, but I'm wondering how you came across this information?"

"Before I came to this lovely town, Mr. Sandburg, I received my degree from Oxford and worked as an Assistant Curator at the British Museum. And considering my evening activities," nodding his head over to his Slayer, "I can pass nothing off as mere myth or superstition."

By this point, Jim had finished reading the prophecy, and rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. The prophecy was fairly obscure, but it was clear even to him that the two of them were a close match to the description of the "Blessed Protector" in the prophecy. And even though he still wasn't sure about this whole 'vampire' thing, the five people in front of them were definitely wrapped up in this somehow, and he was determined to find out how.

For some reason, Blair seemed to be swallowing this whole thing hook, line and sinker, and it bothered Jim. He decided he'd wait, though, and prod his partner for information once they had a chance to get away from these kids and their bizarre guardians and take the time to discuss things then. [In the meantime, Ellison,] he thought, [just play along. Even if these guys talked about your senses to anyone, who'd believe 'em?]

By this point, Buffy was just plain confused. Giles' explanation of what a 'Sentinel' was had gone way over her head. [Enhanced senses? Protect the tribe? Where does Giles think he is now, the Amazon jungle or something?] One look at poor Xander's face and she knew that he was undoubtedly just as lost, although Willow seemed to be following the discussion actively and with great interest. [Although who knows? With Willow, it's just as likely that she's developed a major crush on that grad student.] A second look at Willow's face cemented her opinion. [Yep, crush time. But for those of us who want a clue as to what's going on...] Buffy addressed the group, "Excuse me, but I think I lost you guys right around the part about him having 'enhanced senses'. Someone care to fill me in?"

Giles let out a long sigh. There were some days when he was convinced that in the hands of the girl sitting before him, the world was truly doomed. This was one of them.

Jim looked over at the young 'Slayer' and smiled. [Might as well play this to the hilt.] "What's confusing you, Buffy?"

"Well, first off, this 'enhanced senses' thing. That means that you have, like, superhuman hearing or something?"

Jim chuckled slightly at the 'superhero' analogy, and replied, "you could call it that, yeah."

"And your other senses are just as strong?"

Jim nodded.

Buffy wrinkled her forehead in thought for a moment. She wasn't quite sure how to prove Jim's claim was true. How could you test to see if someone has superhuman senses, when you don't? After all, when they give you a response, how can you tell they're not just making it up? She leaned over to Angel, who was sitting next to her, and whispered, "do you think they're telling the truth?"

Angel nodded, and whispered back, "I've known a couple of Sentinels over the years, and this guy fits the bill, all right. The ones I knew were both military, and they definitely fit the big, strong, soldier type."

Jim leaned in, curious, and asked Angel, "you know other Sentinels?"

Blair looked over at the trio. "You know another Sentinel? Where?"

Angel replied, "Blair, other than detective Ellison here, I don't know any _living_ Sentinels. The last one I encountered was about a hundred and fifty years ago. I tried to attack his village, but he could sense me coming and got the people in the village out before I could get there."

Blair asked, "Just how old _are_ you, Angel?"

"Around 225, give or take a couple of years."

Blair and Buffy both slumped back in their chairs in astonishment. While Blair was shocked at Angel's true age, Buffy was amazed that given the confused look on Giles' face, the only person who heard her whispered conversation with Angel was Detective Ellison. [UnlessO] She addressed the two men, "how did you know what Angel had whispered to me? No one else in the room heard it, and you two are sitting the furthest from us."

Jim pointed to his ear, while Blair replied casually, "unlike Jim here, all of my senses are 'normal'. I've just hung around Jim long enough to know that if Jim says he heard something, he heard it. I've never even known him to lie to me once in the three years we've known each other." Blair then remembered something about what Angel just told him. "You said that the Sentinel sensed you coming. Do you have any idea how?"

While Angel shook his head, Jim replied, "he probably smelled you."

Every human at the table sat up, attentive. This was definitely a new one. Buffy asked, "excuse me, but exactly _what_ do you mean by that?"

Giles chimed in, "yes, I've never heard anything about vampires _smelling_ different than the general population."

Jim noticed the look on Blair's face--it was one of his 'Guide looks' that meant he didn't smell it either, but he completely trusted and accepted the fact that Jim had noticed something unusual. Jim explained to the group, "when Angel first walked in, I did notice that he wasn't breathing, but at first, I just thought it was my senses short-circuiting on me or something. The most distinguishing thing about him, though, was that he smelled like a corpse."

Buffy almost looked worried. Two possibilities ran through her mind, and neither was good: one, either Angel was wasting away because his soul wasn't letting him feed, causing his body to decay; or two, he _was_

feeding and lying to Buffy about it, and if that were true, she'd probably have to kill him.

Remembering what little he knew about conventional vampire legends, "but I thought vampire's bodies don't decay, as long as they're feeding regularly."

Jim realized he needed to clarify the statement. "Wait a minute, chief. He didn't smell like a normal corpse." Suddenly he put two and two together. "He smelled like Michelle's corpse."

Angel, who had been listening to the proceedings with increasing interest, gawked at Jim's statement. "Your sense of smell is _that_ good?"

Jim nodded.

Giles needed a little clarification on the inside conversation Angel and Jim now seemed to be having. "Angel, would you care to explain what you mean by that?"

Angel replied, "I'm sure you're aware that the humans and animals give off pheromones to attract the opposite sex?" Giles nodded. "Vampires have a different type of 'pheromones', so to speak. This 'scent' helps us to distinguish between those of our kind and humans, so that we're not trying to feed off each other. My guess is, that's probably what the detective smelled from both Michelle and myself, right?"

Jim nodded. "I think so. I can sometimes smell human pheromones, so it would make sense that I would be able to smell something like that as well, right, chief?"

Blair nodded in agreement. He then asked Jim, "was there a difference between the smells you got from Angel and what you got from Michelle?"

Jim shook his head. "Not anything substantially significant."

Willow chimed in, "but even if the smells were different, we would have to find another vampire from the Order to see if the smell was a distinguishing characteristic, right?"

Jim, Angel and Blair all nodded. Xander spoke up, "so that brings us back to square one: how do we find the vamps in this Order of Ra?"

Jim replied, "good old fashioned police work. Blair and I will go over to the station tomorrow, see if we can find out who's just moved into town recently."

Buffy agreed, "good idea--once you're there, you can use that supernose of yours to tell us if any of those people smell like Michelle did."

Even Giles could see the Sentinel's reaction to Buffy's rather stupid remark, so he quickly interjected, "oh my, would you look at the time! If these children aren't home soon, their parents are going to get quite suspicious, so I suggest we adjourn this meeting for the evening."

One look at their watches forced all but Angel to agree. As long as it was dark out, Angel pretty much didn't care about time. It wasn't like he had anyone to answer to about his comings and goings, anyway.

* * *

As the group left the school and headed toward the parking lot and their respective cars, Jim picked up the now-recognizable scent of vampires on the wind. Blair noticed the familiar jaw clench immediately and asked, "Jim? What is it?"

Jim directed his answer not at Blair, but at Buffy. "Do you have any more of those stakes on you?"

Buffy shrugged, "always. Why?" Then she felt the cramps, and knew why he was asking. "Never mind, I just figured it out. Folks, we're about to have company." She distributed stakes to everyone in the group and directed Jim and Blair (the less experienced vampire hunters), "okay guys, remember, if one of these creeps attacks you, aim for the heart." Both men nodded.

A dozen male and female vampires came out of the darkness into the lamplight of the parking lot. Looking at the combined group of adults and teenagers the apparent leader of the group declared, "ooooh, look at these tasty morsels. I'll bet I could get my fill for the evening just drinking from the big guy."

Jim looked at the blond who had just spoken with a look of total disdain on his face. He focused his hearing on her, to look for the exact signature of her heartbeat. Then, following Buffy's lead from the previous night, he asked her, "I'll bet you're the type that likes to play with your food, right?"

She smiled broadly, showing her long fangs, and hissed out, "ohhh yeah."

Using his sight to focus on the exact location where his hearing picked up the heartbeat, Jim threw the stake straight for her heart.

She was dust before she even had a chance to scream.

Buffy replied to her remains, "well then, how 'bout a nice game of catch?" She then complimented him quickly, "nice work," and handed him another stake as the remaining group of vampires closed in around them.

Willow and Xander both knew better than to directly attack the vampires, preferring to let Buffy do her work instead. Tonight, however, the vampires had other ideas, and it was only due to Angel's quick dispatching of three of the vampires that the two Slayerettes were able to get out of the situation with their necks intact.

Buffy, was in rare form. Two vampires tried to hold her down while a third went straight for her throat. Buffy grabbed a stake from the ground with her feet and used the grip the two vampires had on her arms to counter-balance herself just enough to send the stake through the heart of the attacking vampire. Their comrade gone, the two vampires released their hold on the Slayer, letting their guard down just enough that Giles and Jim were able to stake each one through the heart from behind. She accepted both men's assistance in getting up, then pointed to her left in just enough time to allow herself and Giles to stake two more oncoming vampires.

They turned to check on the rest of the group just in time to see Blair hold an oncoming vampire at bay and stake him through the heart. As the dust scattered along the ground, Jim complemented him, "nice work, chief. Where'd you learn that?"

Blair simply smiled. "Sharon's been teaching me a few things, actually."

Jim raised an eyebrow in surprise. He had been trying to get the young anthropologist to take self-defense since they got back from Peru, and the younger man had always refused. Now he knew why. As they watched the young Slayer make quick work of the last two vampires, Blair added, "nothing like having a personal trainer, Jim."

Jim laughed, "I guess not, chief. I guess not."

As each member of the group got their bearings, Jim's protective Sentinel instincts calmed down and he was able to finally understand what had just happened. Vampires really were running rampant in Sunnydale--he and his partner alone had just killed three of them. That meant they were the most likely cause of death in all of the cases they were investigating. [Then, everything these kids told us in the library was the truth,] thought Jim.

The Sentinel was beginning to get a colossal headache. And his heightened senses, for once, were not the cause.

* * *

As Jim and Blair finally climbed into the truck, the young anthropologist was practically bouncing up and down with the excitement of discovery. "Jim, can you believe it? Vampires really exist!" Already Blair was going over every vampire legend he knew, trying to figure out which ones might be true and which ones probably weren't. After this was all over, he knew he _had_ to spend some time interviewing Angel, if only to get all of his questions answered...

Jim interrupted his partner's frenetic ramblings. "Wait a second, chief. We're talking about what is most likely an entire species of bloodthirsty serial killers, and you're acting like we just found the lost city of Atlantis or something. Don't forget, we're in the middle of a murder investigation here. What are we going to tell the families of those kids? 'Oh, I'm sorry ma'am. Your son wasn't murdered by a person. He was murdered by some demon vampire who's most likely been turned to dust by one of his high school classmates who just happens to possess supernatural talents.' "

Blair sighed. [Where have I heard this argument before? Would it have something to do with doing my dissertation on a cop with five heightened senses, by any chance?] But, as always, Jim was right. There was no way they were going to stop _all_ of the killings in Sunnydale now. If they went to Chief Masterson with what they now knew to be the truth, he would either laugh in their faces and tell them _they_ were crazy, or he would think that they were making fun of him, just like the Feds had done.

And as for bringing the killers to 'justice'? Locking them up would do no good. Vampires were immortal and possessed supernatural strength, so a prison wouldn't hold them. Even if you _could_ get someone else to believe that they were what they were, would they be able to handle the fight?

Which led his thoughts to the young girl who had helped them defend themselves tonight. Buffy. [What a name for a kid,] thought Blair, [but then, who am I to talk?] To know that you were the one person in the world with these gifts, and these responsibilities, at her ageO He marveled at how well-adjusted she seemed.[Must have something to do with those friends of hers.]

A jolting hand on his shoulder shook him out of his reverie. It was Jim. "You okay, chief? You're not learning to zone out on me, are you?"

Blair smiled. "Let's hope not, Jim. I'd hate to see the look on Simon's face if he had to pull us both out of zone-outs at the same time. Actually, I was just thinking about Buffy."

"The vampire slayer?"

"Yeah. Actually, she reminds me a lot of you."

Jim was curious to hear the explanation to this one. "Really?"

"Yeah, man. See, in a lot of ways, she's like a Sentinel for Sunnydale. Having to protect the tribe, blessed with special abilities to allow her to do her job..."

"Guided by a slightly eccentric bookworm?"

Blair had to smile at the obvious teasing. "Yeah, something like that. Gives me a whole new insight into the paper--maybe Burton's impression of Sentinels was too narrow-minded, and there are different types of Sentinels that he simply hadn't come acrossO" Remembering the other 'slightly eccentric bookworm' Jim was referring to, he asked, "oh, speaking of Giles, what do you think of that prophecy he showed us?"

As he pulled the truck into the hotel parking lot, Jim replied, "I don't know, chief. In some ways, it sounds like us. I guess we'll find out more tomorrow."

Blair agreed, and the Sentinel and his Guide went to their hotel room to get some much-needed rest after their eventful first day over the Hellmouth.

* * *

Under the streets of Sunnydale, a lone figure ran through the tunnels that traversed the city. Fear consumed his features for the first time in centuries. Ra-Fils had assigned him to watch over their new sister, Michelle, and welcome her to the fold when she awoke. It was a badge of honor to be chosen for the assignment, and he took great pride in it, particularly after having welcomed the other two newcomers. So he was horrified to see the humans who made it to her side shortly before she was to awaken. As he hid just outside, looking through a nearby window, he watched helplessly as Michelle, just as she was about to make her first kills, was ruthlessly taken by the Slayer. He had heard of the Slayer, and knew that their great blessing from Ra kept them just out of the reach of her awareness. So how had she known when Michelle was going to wake up? And then he watched as the two humans, the Slayer, and the Slayer's friends destroyed a dozen of their enemies. The large human male sensed the enemy coming before the Slayer did, he was certain of that. But how? No human other than the Slayer was supposed to have the ability to sense vampires--unless...

He doubled his pace until he came to the chamber of Ra-Fils. Once it held the one who was Master over the Hellmouth. Now, his own master awaited him there. He stumbled into the chamber and fell with his face to the ground, declaring, "Oh mighty servant and all-powerful son of the great God Ra, I bring urgent news."

Ra-Fils looked up from his position over the neck of a young college student. "What is news is so urgent that you must interrupt my dinner and risk a stake through your heart?"

The messenger swallowed hard as he replied, "my lord, the Blessed Protector has arrived in Sunnydale."

Ra-Fils threw his head back in laughter. "_This_ is your news?"

"But my Lord, he has allied himself with the Slayer! Together they took out a dozen of our enemies and our new sister!"

Ra-Fils' laughter changed to violent fury in a human's heartbeat. He backhanded the messenger, screaming, "you impudent fool! How could you lead the Blessed Protector straight to one of my children?!?" Before the messenger could get a chance to answer, Ra-Fils pointed to one of his lieutenants standing nearby, who promptly beheaded the foolish messenger.

Ra-Fils finished his dinner and sat back down upon his makeshift throne. "So the Blessed Protector and the Slayer have taken my precious Michelle from me? By the gods, I swear they will pay for what they have done."

* * *

It was not a surprise for Blair Sandburg to be awakened by someone loudly knocking on the door to his room. After all, his partner did it all the time in Cascade. He wasn't, however, expecting someone to do it in Sunnydale. He hauled himself out of bed and padded over to the door, squinting at the impact of the bright light on his barely opened eyes.

Before he could get a chance to answer (or even adjust his focus to see who the visitor was), he was greeted by the voice of the hotel manager, who abruptly (and far too cheerfully) announced, "ah, Detective Sandburg, good morning! This fax just came for you. Since I know you and your partner are working on important police work and all, I figured I best get this to you right away." The short, plump man gently slipped several pieces of paper through the open crack of space in the door, then noticed Blair's demeanor and apologized, "oh my goodness, I seem to have woken you up! I am terribly sorry, Detective. You were probably on an all-night stakeout or some other sort of important police business. Well, let me just leave you so you can get your rest. Good day."

And just as quickly as the jolly old man came, he left, leaving a squinting Blair with several pieces of paper in his hand and an extremely confused expression on his face. He dropped the pages on the table next to the door, and looked at the clock, rubbing his eyes. It was 10:00 am. Jim woke up an hour ago, telling Chief Masterson they had worked late on the case and would be in to the station by 11:00. The Sentinel then promptly went right back to sleep, a feat which Blair had been unable to do until about ten minutes before the manager delivered the fax. Since his blurred vision was unable to read the small print of the fax anyway, he decided to try and catch the first shower before Jim woke up. Just as he was about to close the bathroom door he heard the unmistakable rumbling voice of his partner warn him, "don't take too long in there, chief. I need to get in there too."

* * *

Despite the warning, Blair seemed to be taking his sweet old time in the shower, so Jim walked over to the table to see what was so important that the hotel manager rushed it right over to their rooms. The fax had a very official-looking coversheet, except for the words "IMPORTANT", "URGENT-PLEASE DELIVER IMMEDIATELY" and "CONFIDENTIAL" scrawled across the top. Jim smiled as he looked at the name of the person sending the fax--Willow Rosenburg. The message on the cover page read:

Hi Blair!

I couldn't sleep, so I started to search for some leads of people who might be new in town. You'll find the list of names and addresses on the next page. You might want to start with the first guy on the list. He just started as the new Assistant Principal at the High School. One thing about Sunnydale is that any really strange occurrence seems to start at the high school and work its way throughout the town from there.

Good luck!

Willow

Jim scanned the list and fairly extensive background information that Willow had faxed them. Part of his mind wondered exactly where and how Willow might have obtained this information, then he decided he was probably better off not knowing. He started looking over the information on the school's new Assistant Principal.

Steam clouds billowed from the bathroom as Blair came out in a clean pair of boxers, drying his hair with a towel. Jim lamented, "took you long enough, Sandburg. Any hot water left in California?"

Blair grinned, "ah, but it was definitely worth it, Jim. And yes, there's plenty of hot water left." He noticed that Jim was holding the fax in his hand. "So what is that thing, anyway?"

"Turns out our friendly neighborhood hacker started our work for us last night. She's compiled a pretty extensive list of the new people in town." As Blair walked toward the table and read the background details over Jim's shoulder Jim continued, "she suggested that we start with Sunnydale's new assistant principal, a guy by the name of Judas Filsdera."

As Blair looked again at the name, his jaw dropped. "Jim, do you know French?"

"Actually, no, chief, why do you ask?"

"This guy's last name is French. Translated, it means, Judas, son of Ra."

* * *

It was 8:00 am, and the halls of Sunnydale High were slowly starting to come to life. First period didn't start for another half hour yet, so the only people in school were the teachers who needed to come early for whatever administrative nightmare they were facing, overeager students who wanted to hit the computer lab before class, and the swim team, whose coach was the only one in the entire school who forced them into 6:30 am practices three times a week.

One of those overeager students, however, was not in the computer lab, but in the least visited room in all of Sunnydale High: the Library. Willow was still a bit keyed up from the events of the night before, so she came in early to help Giles try to pull up more information on the Order of Ra and the Blessed Protector prophecy. The last name of their new Assistant Principal did not escape her notice. [Three years of French should be good for something,] she mused. She hoped that someone as smart as Blair was would pick up on it as well.

She looked up from her computer to see Buffy walk in the door. It intrigued her to see the Slayer in so early--because the girl kept such late hours, she was usually lucky to slip into first period before the bell rang. Besides, Buffy's mother was usually her ride to school, so how did she talk the woman into dropping her off so early? Before she got a chance to ask her friend these questions, though, Giles emerged from the stacks and blurted out her thoughts before she got the opportunity. "Why Buffy, you're here early! Even having to face the Master didn't get you here before eight in the morning. Did the second coming occur while I was asleep or something?"

"Nah, I just wanted to see if you guys had anything new on the Order of Ra." Truth be told, the whole Blessed Protector thing had her a little wigged out. Ever since she defeated the Master, she had come to accept her chosen role as the Slayer. It had become normal to her to sense vampires, demons and all the other nasty things around her as she went hunting every night. But to know that there was an evil out there that could strike at any time, and one that she had no idea how to hunt -- she didn't like that concept for a minute. Every bone in her body wanted to do something, anything to help.

As she sat down near Willow, who was still working furiously in a detailed net search, the young hacker asked her, "and how did you get your Mom to drive you over here this morning?"

"Easy," replied Buffy, "I told her I had an important research paper I wanted to get a jump on and Mr. Giles was kind enough to open the library early for me so I could do the research. Not exactly the truth, but not a lie either. And Mom was so impressed that she jumped in the car and drove me right here. So what do we have?"

Since Giles was still researching, Willow started to fill her in. "I got that list of all the new people in town, along with as much background information as I could find on them. This is the most interesting person on the list." She handed Buffy copies of the background information on Judas Filsdera.

As she skimmed over the information she noticed the main part that caught Willow's eye. She thought out loud, "our newest Assistant Principal?"

As Willow nodded, Buffy asked, "I don't get it. What makes this guy such hot news?"

Giles replied, "His last name, translated from French to English, means son of Ra."

Buffy mouthed a silent "oh" then added, "guess I would have learned that if I stayed awake in French class, huh?"

Willow and Giles both nodded. Buffy complimented, "good work, Willow. I'll watch this guy today, see if anything suspicious happens."

Giles disagreed with that idea immediately. "I don't think that would be a good idea, Buffy. You can't track him like you normally do, so if you lose him, you could end up in serious trouble. Willow's already faxed a copy of her list to Professor Sandburg at their hotel, so I suggest, for once, that you let the police handle this, all right?"

Reluctantly, Buffy nodded. Giles then patted her on the shoulder and declared, "it's almost half past eight. Go. Your first period teacher will probably collapse from a heart attack when she sees you actually in class early."

Buffy smiled. "You're right, that should be fun. I'll come back during free. See you later Will!"

As Willow was closing up her work she called out to Buffy, "all right, I'll see you later!"

* * *

"Let the police handle it? Sure, fine, whatever..." mumbled Buffy as she quietly tried to melt into the confusion of the crowds in the hallway just before third period. She had noticed Blair and Jim pull up to the school as she was staring out the window in biology class, and was determined to eavesdrop on their interview with the new assistant principal. She slid behind open lockers, open doors, anything where she hoped she could avoid the man who could know her every move if she got his attention.

And prayed, every minute, that she wouldn't catch his attention.

In fact, she was so intent on not catching Jim's attention that she ran head-first into Xander, who promptly (and loudly) dropped the few books he was carrying. He looked up at the rather startled Buffy and commented, "so, what manner of demon is this that hath you so focused that you would be blind to me, m'lady?"

Buffy rolled her eyes at the bad attempt at humor and tried to get past him. When he wouldn't let her past, she whispered, "if you _don't_mind_, I'm trying to follow those cops and find out what they know." It took every ounce of self-control she had to not send him flying into one of the banks of lockers and out of his way.

A deep voice echoed behind her, "Buffy, I know you're trying to help, but maybe this time you should let us handle things?"

She turned around to see the rather imposing figure of Jim Ellison standing behind her. Before she could try to make up an excuse for what she was doing he commented, "don't even try it, Summers. I heard the entire conversation from the moment Xander dropped his books." As she shot dagger looks at Xander, he continued quietly, "Buffy, I know that you're not normally used to the police understanding exactly what's going on, but I do, so just let us handle this one, okay?" He knew that he was trying to fight a distrust of the police that she had lived with ever since she became the Slayer in L.A., but he refused to let her get in the way of the investigation. Even if she'd make one hell of a cop someday. He assured her, "I promise I'll let all of you know what we find out after school today, all right?"

As the bell for third period rang and the crowd of students dispersed to their classes, a commanding voice echoed, "excuse me, gentlemen, but is there something I can help you with?"

Jim, Buffy and Blair looked over to see a tall, dark man with a deep booming voice and powerful presence approaching them. Buffy could almost feel the strength of the presence radiating from him, setting her 'spider-sense' on edge.

The unmistakable smell that Jim had come to recognize as a vampire became stronger as the stranger approached, although it was unbelievably faint, like the lingering scent of Blair that hung in his room even after the anthropologist had been gone several days. It seemed clouded, too, and almost sweeter than the pungent odor that Angel had practically reeked of the night before. This had to be their man. He flashed his badge and asked the stranger, "I'm Detective Jim Ellison, and this is my partner, Blair Sandburg. We're here investigating the murder of Michelle Chen, and I was hoping to find Assistant Principal Filsdera and ask him a few questions."

In a condescending tone, the stranger turned to Xander and Buffy and directed them, "children, why don't you run along to class now?"

As the Slayer and Slayerette headed to the library, Jim heard Xander mutter under his breath, " 'run along'? 'run along'? What does he think we are, six-year-olds? I'd like to see Buffy knock him into next week and _then_ see who's telling us to 'run along'!"

Jim almost laughed before he caught himself and turned his attention to the stranger who was now introducing himself, declaring, "I'm sorry. I didn't want the children exposed to any of this unpleasant business. Now then, I'm Judas Filsdera. I assume that Ms. Chen was a student here at Sunnydale?"

Jim eyed the man suspiciously. By now Michelle's death had been public knowledge in the community, and, according to Buffy, the talk of the school for days now. But Mr. Filsdera, apparently, had never heard of the girl. Jim quickly focused in on the man's heartbeat, respiration and body temperature. This man was literally as cool as a cucumber -- he showed no signs of lying or even being nervous that he was being interviewed by the police, a fact with struck Jim as quite odd. That meant that either Mr. Filsdera was either deaf, dumb and blind to the world around him...

...or he was very good at hiding something. After all, from the time he had spent in Sunnydale, he realized that people had become very good at hiding secrets in this town. From what he could tell, it was more likely to be the latter suggestion than the former. But if this guy was a vampire, then why was the smell so weak? And what was that buzzing sound? He would have to ask Giles about that. He pushed that thought to the back of his mind. He needed to find a way to draw the guy out, get him to slip and say something that he would rather not have mentioned to a couple of cops.

Luckily, Blair was already working on the man, slowly trying to draw him out of his shell. "Yes, she was, Mr. Filsdera. I'm surprised you hadn't heard about it. From what the students have been telling us, it's been the talk of the school."

Abruptly, Judas commented, "yes, yes, well, I've only been in town for a couple of weeks, so I haven't exactly had the time to listen to hallway gossip."

Blair raised his eyebrows in well-faked surprise. "Really? And what were you doing before that, Mr. Filsdera?"

Judas replied flippantly, "oh, I was teaching at an all-boys school in LA."

Blair repeated his act. "Really? Which one was that?"

"L'Ecole de Fils de la Lumiere. It was a second language satellite school. We taught only in French."

Blair scribbled notes down furiously, knowing that anything he gave them could either be checked out for suspicious activity in the area or used against him later on, should that be necessary. Jim, on the other hand, having not expected Judas to give them such a straightforward answer, remained skeptical. He decided to try and see if the man would slip up, give him some names of people who could potentially be other vampires. "Have you gotten a chance to meet many people since you've been here, sir?"

Judas looked up at the larger man with disdain and scorn. [Clumsy pig. Who does he think he is? Does he think I'm going to slip up that easily?] He noticed, however, the protective emotions he had when it came to his partner, for they ran strong and deep in the big man's character. There was something else about him, though, something unique. He'd never seen it before, which puzzled him, but he shrugged it off as nothing.

The younger man, though, was fascinating. Here was a man possessed of great wisdom that he had such little comprehension of, yet his curiosity and energy seemed almost boundless. [Yes, yes, he would make such a fascinating addition to the family. I will bring it before the others tonight.] He then realized the big oaf was looking for an answer to his question, so he replied, "actually, no, Detective. I've been so busy moving in and getting adjusted to the new job and community I've barely had any time left after that."

Jim looked Judas over with renewed skepticism. He was convinced the man was lying, but he could pick up on none of the normal physical signs to prove it. And he did not like the way the man was looking Blair over one bit. [Like he was sizing up a future mate,] thought Jim, [either that, or a good T-bone steak.] Once he realized the conversation was not going to go anywhere from there, he stepped just a bit closer to his partner and pulled out a Sunnydale PD business card. "Well, thank you for your time, sir. I realize that you're a busy man, so we won't keep you any longer. However, if you do hear something that might help us in our case..."

Judas took the proffered card and interrupted him curtly, "...I won't hesitate to call you. Good day, gentlemen." And with one last look at Blair, Judas, son of Ra, quickly turned and left in the direction of his office. Before he reached the office, though, he hid in the recess next to a set of lockers and focused his keen vampire hearing on the conversation the two men were having behind him...

"Wow, Jim, this guy definitely sounds like a vampire! I wonder how old he is? Who he's killed? Who he's known? God, what an opportunity..." Blair sounded like he was on the verge of some sort of unbelievable anthropological discovery.

Jim could see this coming. "Chief, have you completely lost your mind?!?!? _If_ he's a vampire, then that means that he's _literally_ a bloodthirsty psycho killer who's not going to see you as some great academic researcher, but as lunch!"

Confused, Blair asked, "What do you mean by if, Jim?" Conspiratorially, he whispered, loud enough so only the Sentinel (and the vampire) could hear him, "you mean you couldn't...?"

Jim confessed, "I'm not sure. The smell was so faint I couldn't tell if it was him or someone he's been around recently. I didn't hear him breathing, though, so he's most likely a vampire, but I can't be one hundred percent certain."

Blair asked, "and your senses, they're not going haywire or anything?" The silence told Judas the bigger man's response was most likely nodding his head yes or shaking his head no. Judas then assumed the answer to be no, because Blair's response was, "well, since I'm far from being the expert on vampires, let's go see the man who is, shall we?" He then heard the two men walk away from the direction he had just retreated to, heading instead toward the Library.

Judas rested his head against the cold concrete wall and pondered the conversation in wonder. [That clumsy pig is the Blessed Protector? Well he certainly isn't the Slayer, so who else could...] Gratefully he shut off the tiny ozone-producing generator that his technological wizard, Merlin, had distributed to the family last night when they had received the news. He then thought again of the now-familiar prophecy. [...Guided by wisdom and innocence..] He realized that had to be a reference to that unique man Mr. Sandburg. [Perhaps we can incapacitate the Blessed Protector in more ways than by just throwing him off of our scent...]

After he realized that a freshmen had been staring at him for the past couple of minutes, he shooed the boy away with a curt, "what are you doing? Quit staring like an idiot and go to class!" As the boy hurried away in embarrassment, he turned and walked quickly to his office. [So many plans to be made...]

* * *

Giles looked up from the book of prophecy he was reading as he heard Blair Sandburg and Jim Ellison coming through the doors of the library. While he was grateful that he had the Slayer and her friends around him, sometimes it was good to have another college-educated male around to bounce ideas off of.

Even if that person _was_ Professor Sandburg, who still seemed to have one foot stuck in the teenage years himself. He greeted the gentlemen, "good morning! How did the interview go with the assistant principal?"

Jim noticed that Buffy and her friends had congregated here when the Assistant Principal had sent them away. He recounted the details of the interview to the group, adding as he concluded. "There was one thing I noticed about him that was a little strange, though. I couldn't hear him breathing, and I picked up a vampire's scent around him, but it was faint, like it was coming from someone far away instead of coming directly from him. I also heard a buzzing sound, like a small transistor radio, but again, that was very faint. I can't come to any definite conclusions as to whether or not our Mr. Filsdera is a vampire."

"Interesting," mused Giles.

Buffy asked, "could this 'blessing' of theirs mutate to help them adapt to their current danger?"

Giles replied, "it's possible, --"

Before he could finish the sentence, Blair replied, looking over Willow's shoulder, "but I don't think it's likely. Jim, come take a look at this."

Jim stood behind Blair, looking over his shoulder at the computer screen as his Guide explained, "we found a web site devoted to this school that Mr. Filsdera says he taught at before he came here to Sunnydale. The school exists, all right -- in fact it's a technical high school where students work on all sorts of inventions, including..." As Willow pulled up the information they had been looking at earlier Blair concluded his comments, "...a portable ozone generator."

Confused, Willow looked up at Blair and asked, "but why would someone want to carry around something that creates ozone? It's not like it's going to solve the greenhouse effect to have individual people carrying around something like this?"

"True," Blair replied, "but there is a more practical use for ozone down here on Earth." As an inside explanation for Jim, he stated, "Jim, think of ozone as white noise for your sense of smell." Realizing immediately what that meant, Jim sat down and sighed in frustration. While he could hear where a white noise bubble existed with his hearing, he couldn't hear _through_ white noise. And now he was going to have to try to train his sense of smell to react in the same way? He could already feel the headache coming on.

Realizing that he had totally lost the other people in the room, Blair continued his explanation. "Have you ever heard a sound that was painfully uncomfortable, either by being too high-pitched or too loud?" As every person in the room nodded, Blair continued, "white noise works by sending out a sound signal that cancels out the offending frequencies. The effect of ozone on your sense of smell is similar, but the way the effect is produced is different. Instead of working on the source of the offending odor itself, ozone works on your sense of smell, desensitizing it until the offending odor is virtually unnoticeable."

Buffy muttered under her breath, "...the wonders of modern technology..." Out loud, she asked Jim, "so if a vampire is wearing one of these, you couldn't be a hundred percent certain if the person was a vampire or not?"

Jim shook his head. "Not exactly, Buffy. Now that I know they might be using these things, I can check for other things that might be evidence that the person is wearing a portable ozone generator." He then turned and asked his Guide, "like the buzzing noise I heard?"

Blair nodded. "Right -- that was probably the sound the machine makes when it's operating. To anyone else, it would be silent, but since you had never heard anything like it before, your hearing probably picked up on it as unusual."

Xander then commented, "trouble is you can't go around and check everyone in Sunnydale to see if they're wearing an ozone generator."

Giles agreed, "true...but you _could_ use the fact that we know the last known location of the Order to track down some of the other people who might have moved to Sunnydale. Willow, out of the people who have just recently moved to Sunnydale, how many came from LA?"

Willow looked through the information she had gathered. "From what I can tellOat least six of them. There are six more that don't list any sort of previous background prior to their arrival in Sunnydale."

Giles thought out loud, "so if they're all vampires...that would mean that there are thirteen in the higher circle of the order."

Buffy asked, "how do you know they're in the higher circle of the order?"

Giles replied, "once the Order comes into a town, they usually entrench themselves in prominent positions in the schools, business, et cetera. They're often there for decades before they move on. Before they leave, though, they have a tremendous competition, fighting each other to the death, specifically to see which of the order will survive. Those who do become part of the inner circle; and that group moves on to another town. That way, only the strongest vampires are a part of the order at any given time."

Buffy commented sarcastically, "great. So that means we're not only fighting vampires we can't always tell are vampires, they're Sunnydale's best and brightest?"

Giles sighed. "Apparently so."

Jim thought for a minute about everything that he was hearing, and made a decision. "Okay, I'll go check out a few of the people on this list, see if I can connect them to Filsdera. Blair, can you stay here and help Willow and Giles try to pull up more information on the six we don't have a previous background for?"

Blair saw this maneuver exactly for what it was: Jim's overprotectiveness kicking in at full speed. But just because he wasn't going to be at Jim's side didn't mean that he wasn't in danger. And what about the danger Jim was about to face, anyway? The girl could handle herself here, and probably come up with more information than he ever could. "Un uh, Jim. I'm going with you."

"Whoa, chief," he replied, "I saw the way that Filsdera looked at you this morning, and I _don't_ want to take any chances that another one of his 'brothers' might have a little less control than he does. Apparently, this guy knows who we are, or he wouldn't have had the ozone generator on to distract me. But, he doesn't know who Buffy is, so he wouldn't go around trying to attack you here in the school with so many easily available witnesses. I think you'd be a lot safer right here."

Blair tried to argue, "but what about you, Jim--?"

The Sentinel cut him off. "Chief, I'll be fine. I promise I won't interview any of these people in a private room, or be alone with any of them for even a split second. Humor me just this once, okay?"

Blair sighed. There was no arguing with Jim when he got like this. "All right. But call me when you get out of each interview, okay?"

As he waved the cell phone to show that he had it, Jim replied as he walked out of the library, "I promise, chief. I promise."

* * *

After three hours of Net surfing and four calls from Jim, Blair was starting to feel very glad he didn't go with the older man. The more he found out about the men and women who were likely to be in the Order of Ra, the less time he wanted to be around any of them. Almost every one of them seemed to either have some sort of military background or martial arts training; the ones who didn't were usually 6'5", 280 lbs of pure muscle, and didn't need military or martial arts background to intimidate _anybody_. Jim could look someone like that in the eye and get answers out of them; however, Blair assured himself, he would have been little use to Jim tagging along behind him.

And he _was_ useful where he was. Once Willow had to go back to class, Blair discovered that Giles, for all his knowledge, was totally unable to use a computer. He did, however, have a machine that was stocked with every tool a good hacker needed to break into any computer that was less secure than the Pentagon's. [Most likely Willow wrote him a wish list and Giles simply bought all of it,] he thought. For all of his British stoicism, those kids definitely had Giles wrapped around their collective little finger.

With that much power behind him, Blair was easily able to find out all he needed to know about the six new residents of Sunnydale that Willow had not been able to gather much information on. Not only did they _all_ hail from LA, but they lived within a two-mile radius of each other. There was a definite connection there. Now all they had to do was find out what it was.

When he looked at his watch, he realized that neither he nor Jim had checked in with Chief Masterson that day, and, knowing this town, he was going to want to see one of them _in_person_ to be sure that the men were safe. Besides, the one thing Blair did _not_ have near the library computer was a phone, and he needed to make some calls to try and further determine the non-supernatural connection between the members of the Order of Ra. He walked over to the door to Giles' office, where the librarian was pouring all of his concentration into some huge tome of ancient prophecy, and stated, "Giles, I'm going to go back to the police station and finish up my work here. If Jim comes by, can you let him know where I'm going to be?"

"Mmmmph.." was the only response he received from Giles.

Convinced the man had not heard a word he had told him, Blair grabbed a piece of paper off of the circulation desk and scribbled a note to Jim. Quickly taping it to the door of Giles' office, he turned and left.

As he walked past the school's massive iron gate and headed toward the police station, he realized the one thing he had not considered when he decided to leave the library.

His track record for getting in trouble.

The minute he was out of sight of the school, two large, muscular men blocked his path. When Blair looked up to try to convince them to let him pass, he was greeted by two pairs of glowing red eyes and two sets of pointed fangs.

He began to fear for his life, and was about to break into a run for the school when Assistant Principal Filsdera came up behind him. "Well, well," hissed the Assistant Principal, "look who we have here? Let the pig go off to play on his own, did we Mr. Sandburg?"

In his usual I'm-about-to-die-so-I-might-as-well-say-something-totally-insane manner, he replied, "guess you figured your pack mules here couldn't take us on together, hmmm?"

The Son of Ra laughed loudly. "you're a very brave man, Mr. Sandburg." His tone darkened as he continued, "but you're a fool. I was going to bring you across right here, but now I think I'll wait. It'll be so much nicer to bring you across with the screams of the Blessed Protector echoing in my ears as he watches helplessly while you die." He ordered his two sons, "bring him below."

Blair turned around just in time to see the men he had just called "pack mules" knock him unconscious.

* * *

"He's not there? And you haven't seen him all day?" Frustrated, Jim signed loudly as he thanked the officer on the line, "all right then, thanks." Before he hung up the phone, he added, "if he does show up, though, could you have Chief Masterson contact me immediately at this number?OThank you again."

School had let out half an hour ago, and neither Giles nor the Slayer or her friends could remember having seen Blair any later than one in the afternoon, which was when Giles could faintly remember hearing Blair say something about heading to the police station. Yet, Jim had just called the police station, and, according to Officer Clarkston, no one there had seen Blair all day. Buffy's 'spider-sense' was tingling like mad when she heard that Blair had disappeared.

And she wasn't the only one.

Jim started to pace the width of the library, frustrated and angry that he had no idea who he was dealing with or where they were. The concern for his partner was obvious to all, and only spurred them on to try and help the desperate Sentinel.

"You know who's taken Blair, don't you?" asked Buffy. Her tone, though, belied the truth that they all understood.

Jim looked her straight in the eye and nodded. While he understood the implications behind Buffy's question, he flatly refused to think about them. After all, if Blair were dead, they would have found his body, wouldn't they?

Giles understood the other man's concerns all too well. He, too, was frustrated by how little they understood about their enemy. The only thing they had to go on to this point was the prophecyO

Giles practically jumped up from the chair he had been sitting in, and Buffy could tell by the look on his face that her watcher was on to something. By the time he had brought the well-worn book of prophecy back to the table, everyone was on edge, wondering just what the older man had figured out.

He turned to the Blessed Protector prophecy and skimmed through it again. A lightbulb went off in Giles' mind as he read, then re-read the last part of the prophecy.

By this point, Buffy was ready to inflict bodily harm on her mentor if that was what it took to find out exactly what he was thinking. Exasperated, she exclaimed, "Giles! You look like you just found the meaning of life! Now, will you _please_ tell us what's going on?"

Giles apologized, "Terribly sorry, Buffy. I'm convinced, though, that the key to finding Mr. Sandburg is in the second to last line of the prophecy: 'Oforcing the demons to the Slayer's domainO'. The Order forced us into chasing them when they kidnapped Mr. Sandburg--"

Buffy interjected, "but then what does the prophecy mean by 'the Slayer's domain'? I doubt it means the Library or the High School, because if it did Jim or I would have found them by now."

Patiently, Giles replied, "I'm not sure...but I do know that when we figure it out, we'll know where they're holding Mr. Sandburg."

Willow thought for a moment, then commented, "I think we can rule out the High School, the Library, and Buffy's house, because since they don't know Buffy as anyone other than the Slayer, they wouldn't connect those places to her."

Xander suggested, "well, what about the Bronze? Enough weird stuff has certainly happened there."

Buffy shook her head. "I don't think so. It's too public a place to stash somebody, let alone for them to tie it to me."

A few tense moments of silence fell over the group, as they racked their brains trying to come up with a solution. Suddenly, the silence was broken by Giles' hand loudly hitting the table. "Of course," he exclaimed, "why didn't I think of this before!"

Confused, Jim looked to Buffy as if to say, 'what's with him?'

Buffy simply shrugged.

Giles then grabbed the group's attention and explained, "for centuries before cash transactions for land were common place, there were only a handful of ways to acquire someone else's property: you could marry into the owner's family, inherit it from them when they died of natural causes, or taking it from them by force."

For once in her young life, Buffy was able to pick up on where this was headed. "So, since I killed the Master..."

Willow completed the thought, "then the underground caverns could now be considered her domain."

Encouraged that he now might have something to do, Xander exclaimed, "I still remember how to get there. So when do we leave?"

Buffy looked at her friend's enthusiastic face and immediately her protective Slayer instincts kicked in. She replied, "_we_ aren't. I still remember how to get there myself. I'll get him back," and started to open up the supply cabinet to arm herself from Giles' cache of weapons.

If Jim had had more time to think about it, he would have gawked at the impressive selection of medieval weaponry that Giles had locked away in the supply closet of a high school library. His entire focus, though, was on saving his Guide, so all he noticed was the crossbow that he knew he would need to fight the vampires. He ran over to the closet, grabbed the crossbow and started loading up a bag with the specially crafted wooden arrows nearby when Buffy grabbed him by the arm, squeezing with a surprising amount of strength. "Jim? What do you think you're doing?"

Jim grabbed Buffy's hand, and with a vise-like grip, pulled it off of his arm. Looking her straight in the eye, he stated simply, "I'm going with you," then returned to his task of putting arrows in the bag and loading every pocket he had with stakes.

Buffy eyed her hand, then the Sentinel with amazement. Being the Slayer, she possessed super-human strength, and had used all of it on Jim's arm. Yet he pulled her hand off his arm like she was a three-year-old throwing a temper tantrum. If she hadn't been the Slayer, she figured she might even be nursing two or three broken fingers right now. Considering the focused look on Jim's face, Buffy doubted that he understood the amount of strength that small action required. But she understood it fully, and immediately felt sorry for any vampire that would cross their path tonight. Out loud, all she could think to do was stammer out, "okay," and start loading up the weapons they would need for their attack.

Giles simply couldn't believe it. Buffy never accepted their help when it came to a vampire attack, preferring instead to try to keep them as far enough away from the danger as possible. Yet all it took was a few words from the Sentinel and they were off to rescue Blair together. In silent communication, Giles gave his Slayer a look that asked, "what just happened?"

Buffy looked back to Giles and shrugged. Her look said it all -- "I have _no_ idea, but we'll _definitely_ talk about it later." She then turned to Jim, who was waiting impatiently by the Library door. Surprised that she wasn't going to have to chase after the Sentinel, she urged him on, "Jim, let's go."

She didn't have to say it twice. As the two warriors walked out of the Library together, Giles prayed quickly that the three of them would return safely, and soon.

Then, not wanting to leave all of the legwork up to the Almighty, he decided to follow at a discreet distance.

* * *

Pain was the first thing that registered in Blair's mind as he woke up. That, and the weird lighting in the room. He heard some sort of dripping water, and used that to help focus his mind enough to rouse himself to consciousness. Only one eye opened fully, the other swollen from what apparently was a black eye that covered a good portion of his face. He looked around and saw that he was in some sort of underground cavern that was lit only by candles. Then he remembered: vampires. High School. The Assistant Principal and two big ugly guys with fangs. He wondered if they had made him into a vampire, and he tried to feel his neck to see if there were three holes in it.

It was at that point that a second realization hit him: he was tied to the wall, bound at the hands and feet with some kind of rope. He pulled at it, but it wouldn't budge. [Like that's a surprise,] he thought. Leaning his head back against the cold, damp wall, he sighed. If Jim got him out of this one alive, he would _never_ question the big man's instincts ever again.

He then stiffened nervously as he heard footsteps coming down the hall. The nerves did reassure him, though, that he probably hadn't been made into a vampire. Yet. In his mind, Blair screamed, [Jim, man, where are you? It's time to come and do the Blessed Protector to the rescue thing again!]

Judas appeared at the entrance to the cavern, smiling broadly and making no moves to try and hide his vampire appearance. Red eyes glowed as he looked over the man who would become their new brother soon. "Well, well, well," Judas declared to the vampires who were coming in behind him, "our new friend is awake! Good afternoon, Professor. How are you feeling?"

"Alive," Blair spat out in response, hoping it would come out as an insult. He regretted wishing he could get a chanc