the deep moans round with many voices

Todd's still doing a lot of exposition, but I cut out some irrelevant bits of information and he now at least has something of a personality mixed in with the long-winded explanations. *sigh* I realize exposition is necessary when dealing with a main character who knows nothing, but it's still irritating.

So here were are:

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More or Less the Same: Chapter Three
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Juliana led us to a street corner one block from the ruins, and we lounged around for a few minutes, waiting. She checked her watch. "Damn idiots, setting up meetings right in prime hunting hours."

"Hunting hours?"

"Think about it, girl! We can't get into houses without invitations, so we got to hunt while people are outdoors. Once they go to bed, there's no point waiting for meals to dance down the street." Juliana frowned. "The Slayer knows that, too -- she quits by one, usually, except on weekends -- so the best time to meet is two or three in the morning. Nobody's gonna interrupt you then, and you're not missing any good hunting."

"So why are we meeting Tyler so early?" I asked.

"Because Tyler's a piss-head," Juliana grumbled, "always wants to shove it in your face that he's got the power. And Fang says Murchison says this'll make him feel safe, make him feel good that he's getting his way, so he's more willing to listen to us."

She spat contemptuously. "Maybe that works with people, Anna, but not us. Big scary lawyer Murchison forgets we're vampires -- the only thing Tyler's gonna be thinking is we're soft, easy prey. That can be handy in a fight -- make him underestimate you -- but we're trying not to have a fight here."

"Exactly," a new voice said, and I jumped. Murchison had snuck up behind us while Juliana was talking, and she was smiling a cold smile that made me want to check if her teeth were fangs even though she wasn't in game face.

"We don't want to fight Tyler," she said. "Not yet. But we don't like him either. This meeting is a sham, Juliana; whatever terms we agree to, we won't hold them. We're simply lulling Tyler into a false sense of security so he won't suspect us when we start picking off his minions in a week or two."

"That's the plan?" Jaycee asked, sliding lazily into the circle of light cast by the street lamp; Todd strolled up beside her. "Cool beans -- I been wantin' to twist that skanky ho-bag Jenny's head off for months."

"No, it isn't the plan!" Juliana said, hands on her hips. "Not unless I agree to it. Tyler asked us here under blood truce and he's my kin through the Master. He's a piss-head fuckwit, but I won't break my word to him."

"Not for anything?" Murchison asked slyly.

I faded back -- I wasn't getting caught in the middle of old family arguments. Todd tossed me a wink and went back to watching the face-off.

"Maybe for something," Juliana said. "But it better be a damn good something."

"Oh, it is," Murchison said, all business once again. "You set me looking into who sent Lena and Miguel against the Slayer just after the Master died -- and guess whose name I found?"

There was a moment of tense silence, and then Juliana's eyes bled gold. "I'm gonna tear his guts out and play cat's cradle with them."

"I'll help!" Jaycee chimed in.

Juliana shot her a poisonous glare. "No you damn well won't -- Tyler's my meat. He got my baby sister killed, he owes me. But not yet. First we got to whittle away his gang."

"Which we can't do unless he doesn't suspect us; hence, this meeting, in which we pretend to sue for peace." Murchison let that cold smile out again. "Do you think you can control yourself enough to talk with him, Juliana?"

Juliana flipped her the bird. "I'm not stupid, little miss Sunsparkle Murchison. And I'm Order of Aurelius, which is more than you'll ever be, no-man's get. Tyler'll listen to me -- you keep your stinking mouth shut and I might not rip your teeth out for disrespect."

"Chill," said Jaycee, breaking in and putting her hands between Murchison and Juliana. "The boys are coming."

Juliana drew a deep breath. "Right. We'll finish this later." She turned and waved to the approaching group. "Hey, lover! What kept you?"

"Idiot from New Jersey -- didn't know how to pump his own gas and had the attendant hanging around for ages. Had to wait half an hour for another chance." Fang jerked his head sideways, cracking his neck, and slung a leather-clad arm around Juliana. She leaned up against him, running her fingers through his short hair.

Love's a funny thing, y'know? 'Cause I couldn't figure out what on god's green earth someone like Juliana saw in Fang, what made her go soft on him. He didn't even kiss her hello.

Instead, he went game face and looked at the gang. "Tyler's waiting in the old library -- form up behind me and Julie and hang back while we're talking. Jaycee, fade left. Todd, you go right. Anyone sneaks around, grab them, but no dusting. We clear?"

"Yeah, boss, we're clear," Todd said.

Jaycee pouted. "No dusting? Not even Jenny the Slut?"

"Not even. Now shut up. Game faces, people, and let's go."

Danny and Scuzz slid up on either side of me, Jaycee and Todd fanned out into the darkness, and Murchison hung a couple steps back from Juliana and Fang, keeping distance between them and us.

"Are you sure there won't be a fight?" I muttered to the boys.

Scuzz shrugged. Danny grinned and said, "Probably not. But if they start one, go for dust -- twist off heads or rip out hearts. You'll like that, because watching people explode? So cool."

"Shut up back there," Fang called over his shoulder, and we subsided. Besides, we'd hit the old school walls and I had more important things to think about.

Juliana was right; I could feel the Hellmouth as we scrambled through and over the rubble. I don't think I'd have noticed it when I was alive, but it sort of itched at the back of my mind, made me want to smash things, which, y'know, I wanted to do anyway, but now it was like something was whispering at me to ignore my mind and just let the bloodlust run free.

It's funny. I can remember being human, remember having a conscience and a set of things that I just knew were wrong, remember wanting to help people just 'cause that's what you do. I can't feel that way now. I don't want to, 'cause who'd want to have some little nagging sense always telling you to put yourself out for slobs you don't know? -- but I tried once to feel altruism, and I just don't know how to do it anymore.

So it's not that I have anything against violence and bloodlust. But I have a sense of self-preservation, and most times smashing things for the hell of it is, y'know, dumb. It just gets you in trouble.

The Hellmouth was trying to make me forget that, trying to make me want chaos more than my own life. Well, unlife, but hey. You get my point.

I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all. And the old Master used to hold court down here? He wanted to open this thing? Man, he deserved to be dusted.

We reached the old library. It looked innocuous enough, for part of a blasted ruin, but if I paid attention I could feel the Hellmouth under the floor, a big jagged channel right to Ultimate Evil.

Tyler, the jerk, was standing right up next to it, just on the other side of a cleared bit of floor. He was tall and good-looking, all wavy brown hair and chiseled jaw and big smile -- which, y'know, is an interesting look in game face -- but when you looked close, you could see that he wasn't happy 'cause he was a nice guy. He was happy 'cause he was an asshole and he knew he had the upper hand. He knew the Hellmouth was giving us the creeps.

And he knew he had fourteen in his gang, and we only had nine.

"Welcome, Fang. Welcome, Juliana of Aurelius. Welcome to the Hellmouth."

Juliana stopped about ten feet back from Tyler and the spot where the Hellmouth would be if it opened. "Nice to see you too, Tyler of Aurelius. You gonna hold to our blood truce?"

Tyler's eyes narrowed in irritation, which looked kind of funny in game face. "Yes, the truce holds. Now, I believe you wanted to discuss the terms of a more permanent truce, to determine our respective borders and hunting grounds. Shall we begin?"

"Yeah," Fang said, stepping up beside Juliana. "Murchison, the map."

Murchison dragged a bunch of cinderblocks to Fang's side and piled them into a rough cube. She drew a city map from her suit pocket and spread it flat on the makeshift table.

"You have the bigger gang," Fang said to Tyler. "You know it, we know it, and we aren't going to fight a losing battle. So we're willing to make a few concessions, keep us out of each other's way. I have a map. Let's get down to brass tacks."

Tyler frowned, 'cause setting up the map on our side of the Hellmouth was a power play and he knew it, but he waved a couple of his minions forward and crossed the line.

I'm not going to go into details about the negotiation, 'cause first of all, it's boring, second, we broke the deal a couple weeks later, and third, it all got knocked to hell by the Initiative anyway. Let's just say they settled some borders, Juliana haggled out some hunting times for the open parts of town -- the central districts didn't belong to anyone in particular, 'cause nobody was strong enough to hold them -- and they worked out a few signals in case somebody needed to cross territories on business.

Then, when Murchison was folding up the map and putting away the pens, Tyler cleared his throat. "There's one last issue we need to address."

"Yeah?" Juliana said, hands on her hips.

Tyler pointed at me. "You made a new minion. One of the points in our blood truce was that you wouldn't attempt to increase your clan before this meeting."

Juliana looked smug. "Yeah, I know. I made her the night before Fang set up the meeting -- she just rose slow. Tyler of Aurelius, meet Anna of Aurelius, childe of Juliana, childe of Magdalena, childe of Miguel, childe of Darla, childe of the Master. Anna, say hello to Tyler."

What the hell? I hung onto game face as hard as I could, and bowed. "Greetings, Tyler of Aurelius." Man, that sounded hokey, but Tyler seemed to like that ceremonial stuff so I figured I should go with it.

He folded his arms and glowered. "Fine. Greetings, Anna of Aurelius, childe of Juliana. Welcome to the Order, to the darkness, and to eternal life." Yeah, Tyler liked ceremonial all right. He turned back to Juliana and Fang. "I accept that she doesn't break the blood truce. However, I insist that you not make any other new minions. I'll take that as a declaration of war, and you can expect full reprisals."

Juliana and Fang traded speaking glances. "Right, no new minions," Fang said. "Wouldn't want to upset the balance of power. We done now?"

Tyler glared some more. "Yes, our business is concluded. Fang, Juliana of Aurelius, my blood truce with you and yours will hold so long as you keep the terms we have here agreed upon."

"Tyler of Aurelius, our blood truce with you and yours will hold so long as you keep the same terms," Juliana said formally. Then she raked her nails across her wrist, opening the veins, and held her arm out to Tyler. "Seal it."

Tyler licked the dripping blood, and then opened his own wrist. Juliana practically French kissed his arm, tongue moving all over his wrist. She pulled back and winked at him. "You remember that, big boy."

Fang growled. "Enough of this shit. Tyler, we're done. You hold your side, we'll hold ours. We're getting out of here."

"Go and do evil, Fang. Go and do evil, Juliana of Aurelius," Tyler said, hanging onto formality to the last. He snapped his fingers, and his gang pulled together around him as he climbed over the rubble.

Juliana watched him for a couple seconds. "Crazy fuckwit. Wants to be the new Master, with all that ritual shit. Come on, people. Let's go home."

She wrapped her arm around Fang and the two of them headed out of the ruins.

I hurried up to Todd's side, since I figured he'd know more than the boys and he'd be more willing to tell me stuff than Jaycee or Murchison. "Hey. What was all that about before the meeting, with Juliana and Murchison?"

Todd stretched his arms out, rolling his shoulders, and sighed. "Jaycee, tell the boss I have to explain some things to Anna," he called.

"Sure thing, white boy," Jaycee said over her shoulder, dropping us a wink. "You listen good to my boy, little Jersey girl. Todd knows his way around."

"And you couldn't find your own head if it weren't stuck to your shoulders," Todd said, smiling.

"Damn straight," said Jaycee, and waved us off.

Todd turned down a side street, toward one of Sunnydale's mysteriously abundant cemeteries. I remember thinking, when we first moved to town, that they must date back to some Spanish mission that had incredibly bad luck with plagues and earthquakes, 'cause otherwise that was just way too much death for a town this size. Well, I was right about too much death. I just had the wrong reason.

Todd sat down on a gravestone and waved me over to one across from him. "So, do you want to know about Juliana and Murchison, or do you want to know about Lena and Miguel?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Lena and Miguel, of course."

Todd rolled his eyes back at me, grinning. "'Of course,' she says. Well, how am I supposed to know what you want to ask about? Jaycee tells me I'll never understand women so I shouldn't ever assume I know what you're asking."

Jerk. "Whatever. So spill."

"Okay. First off, you remember what I told you about the Order of Aurelius?" Todd asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, old vampire clan, descended from the Master, wanted to open the Hellmouth."

"Yeah. Anyway, Juliana and Tyler are both part of the Order, and since Juliana's your sire, so are you. It's a little mark of status -- normally it won't mean much, but some people, like Tyler, take all that genealogy really seriously. If anyone but Juliana had turned you, Tyler might have insisted we dust you as part of the truce, but he's more careful about the Order."

Todd shifted on his tombstone, leaning back and resting one ankle across his other knee. "Back to Lena and Miguel. Darla, who was the Master's favorite, used to turn men for company. Then she'd get bored and dump them in with the other minions. Miguel was one of her toys, and when he got free of her, he turned his old girlfriend. That was Lena, Juliana's sister. And Lena turned Juliana.

"They were together for a long time, until Juliana hooked up with Fang and moved out of the main court. She and Lena stayed close, though, since they were family twice over. After the Slayer killed the Master two years ago, someone in the Order sent Lena and Miguel to kill the Slayer in revenge. It went wrong, of course, and they died. Now Juliana wants revenge, and Murchison just found out that Tyler gave the orders."

I thought about that. "It makes sense. If anyone killed Bridget -- that's my sister -- I'd want to kill him too." Then I grinned at him. "So, why doesn't Juliana like Murchison?"

Todd rolled his eyes elaborately and faked a wince. "Oh, chick stuff. Now, remember I don't understand any of this, by definition, since I'm not a woman. Jaycee tells me it's because Juliana thinks Fang listens to Murchison instead of her, and Murchison thinks Juliana's an uneducated disgrace to the cause of feminism or something like that." He grinned. "Juliana always pulls rank on Murchison and Fang backs her up, but someday she might forget and we'll see one hell of a catfight."

Double jerk. Human or vampire, guys are jerks. It has to be genetic.

We got back up and Todd led me off through the cemetery. I can't see why people think vampires always hang out in cemeteries -- I wouldn't if I were on my own or ran a gang, 'cause first of all, no utilities, and second, why be in the obvious place hunters are going to target if they find out about you? But this graveyard did have some cool ambience, very gothic yet restful, and the gargoyles perched on either side of the wrought-iron entry gates were a nice touch. Actually, they were kind of cute -- the gargoyles, not the gates.

I thought of one last question as we walked back onto regular town streets. "Is Murchison's name really Sunsparkle, or was that some weird vampire insult?"

"She really is named Sunsparkle -- I think her parents were flower children -- but don't ever call her that," Todd said. "I've seen her rip fledglings' heads off for that."

Talk about your overreactions. Then again, if I had a name like Sunsparkle, I might try really hard to ditch it too.

"Don't think about it too much," Todd advised. "You'll pick up on family quirks as you go, and so long as you keep your mouth shut, you shouldn't set anyone off badly enough to dust you. If you make it through your first year as a vampire, odds are pretty good you'll last at least a couple decades, so keep your head down and learn the tricks of the trade."

That was pretty much what I'd already decided to do -- and, y'know, he'd told me the same damn thing last night -- so I just made agreeable noises and let Todd lead me home.

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End of Chapter Three

Back to Chapter 2

Continue to Chapter 4

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