The Dark Rose

By darkmagickwillow

Copyright © May 2003

Chapter 2 (A New Life)

Tara hurried across campus through the darkness. She was going to see the red-haired girl from the Wiccan group about a spell. It was important. She looked back over her shoulder, expecting to see something she couldn't quite remember, and tripped. As she reached down to pick up her books, she heard chains rattling behind her.

Tara looked up and saw two hunched figures in straightjackets accompanied by two horribly grinning creatures in long formal wear. She froze in fear at the sight, noting with a dreamlike terror that the gentlemen weren't touching the ground as they smoothly moved towards her.

She snapped out of her momentary paralysis and ran blindly towards the dormitory, her heart beating wildly with fear. The creatures chased her slowly as if they were certain to catch her no matter how fast she ran.

She ran into the dormitory and pounded frantically on door after door, hoping for someone, anyone, to help her. The sound of her hammering echoed through the strangely silent corridor but no one answered. It was as if she were the only person left in the world. The two grinning figures, eerily floating above the ground, entered the building. Tara tried to scream, but no sound came out of her mouth. She ran to the nearby stairs and raced up them.

Once upstairs, Tara pounded on doors again, pleading voicelessly for someone to help her. Finally a door opened. One of the floating monsters grinned out at her, holding a human heart in its hand.

Fleeing the terrible sight, she smashed wildly into another woman, knocking them both to the ground. The other woman yelped silently as she grabbed at her leg. As Tara helped her up, she realized that she was the red-haired wiccan. They ran down the nearby stairs and into the laundry room, Tara locking the door behind them.

Immediately, something outside began banging loudly on the door. The redhead limped to the soda machine. Tara followed her and they tried to push it against the door but it barely budged. Fear tightened its grip on her heart--the gentlemen were going to break down the door and there was nothing she could do to stop them. The redhead limped to the washing machines and slumped down against one, cradling her injured ankle. Had she given up hope?

Tara followed her friend and crouched down next to her. She saw the redhead concentrating with all her inner strength on the soda machine. It shuddered but didn't move an inch towards the door. Pushing down her fear and shyness, Tara reached for the red-haired girl's hand.

They clasped hands, their fingers interlocking. Tara felt a flood of energy rushing into her from their joined hands. A powerful feeling of warmth rose up through her arm into her body, filling her heart with light and love. They clasped hands more tightly and looked into each other's faces, her blue eyes meeting the redhead's green eyes for the first time.

They turned as one to look at the soda machine and threw it across the room to barricade the door with the force of their joined minds. Tara turned back to see her hand still clasped in the redhead's hand and realized how strong they were together. She could still feel the magic flowing through her veins, warming her blood and making her skin tingle. It had never felt this way for her alone, but together it was wonderful beyond description and she felt they could do anything.

Tara's alarm woke her from the dream. She blindly reached over the bedside table and turned off the alarm clock. Turning over, she sleepily thought back to her dream. It had been so vivid, so real, like it had really happened to her, but she'd never met anyone like the red-haired wiccan in her life.

She wished she had.

Tara wanted to return to sleep and discover what happened next, but she had promised to meet with the slayer and her watcher this morning at the library. Otherwise she could have slept in as she had finished her finals yesterday. Sometimes it was a lot of trouble being a cool monster fighter.

As she got up and found her robe and shower tote, she was still thinking about the dream. Tara wondered if it really felt so wonderful, so connected, to do a spell with another person or if there was something special about the red-haired girl. She could feel herself falling into those brilliant green eyes as she remembered looking into them, then shook her head.

It was only a dream.

She had to get moving if she was going to be there on time. She wondered for a moment if the watcher could identify the demons she'd seen in her dream, but then her mind returned to thoughts of red hair and green eyes, causing her to forget about the gentlemen before she even left her room.

Tara entered the school library and saw Spirit and Mr. Giles sparring in the center of the room as they always did in the early morning. Spirit was a marvel of fluid motion as she kicked at Mr. Giles's heavily padded hands then spun and launched a flurry of rapid punches at him. Tara was impressed as usual at how grey-haired Mr. Giles kept up with the young Asian woman even though Tara could tell that Spirit was always careful not to strike with her full strength. She'd seen what Spirit could do against vampires and knew that despite the watcher's deep knowledge of combat techniques, he wasn't a young man any longer.

Tara settled down in her usual chair to watch her friends. She always enjoyed watching them spar and wished she had someone with whom she could practice her craft like in her dream earlier this morning. There had been no one like her in high school. She had hoped university would be different, but so far it hadn't been.

At least Mr. Giles and Spirit knew about magic even if they didn't practice the art. She could talk with them about her spells and Mr. Giles was very knowledgeable, often recommending books to her though he never let her peruse his collection on her own. Her friends accepted her, magic and all, unlike the people she'd met at the campus Wicca group who thought she was strange even though she knew more about Wicca than any of them.

Still, it wasn't the same as having someone to share her art with. She had progressed so quickly after first meeting Spirit, expanding her command of her powers to fight the creatures of the night, but recently she felt like she was stagnating. She used the same spells over and over every night. She needed someone to learn from like Spirit had Mr. Giles, though she'd like someone more her own age like the redheaded girl from her dreams.

Tara wasn't sure how Mr. Giles had found Spirit, but she knew that he was now the slayer's legal guardian. She thought that was probably how all slayer/watcher relationships worked. It made a lot of sense. How could any parents let their daughter go out every night to fight vampires and demons? Still, Mr. Giles wasn't just Spirit's watcher--he truly acted as a parent towards her and to some extent even to Tara herself since her mother had died.

She wouldn't have made it through her semester without Mr. Giles and Spirit, emotionally or physically. She had started taking long walks at night after her mother had died to get away from everything. She could focus on school during the day but needed to get away from everyone at night when she would start remembering. At the time, she didn't know what Sunnydale was like.

Tara had been walking through the woods on campus that night as she had every night since her mother had died. It was a way to get away from everyone, to remember while surrounded by the quiet calming presence of the trees. She continued aimlessly through the woods, easily following the path with the aid of the light of the full moon above, as she heard rapid footsteps behind her.

She found it strange as there was never anyone else here in the woods this late at night. Tara looked over her shoulder down the path and gasped. The creature following her looked human until she looked up at its face. Its face was oddly ridged and worse, it was grinning at her, showing its fangs. Tara started running.

Her heart pounded out a panicked beat as she ran. Her mother had told her that the legendary creatures of the night were real, but that was quite different from actually being chased by one. Distracted by her thoughts, Tara tripped, skinning her knee. She quickly scrambled back up and started running again, but knew that the vampire, for that is what the creature had to be, was gaining on her. She also knew she couldn't outrun the monster for long.

She had to try a spell but what could she do that would stop a vampire? Suddenly Tara had an idea--if she could just change the fiat lux spell a bit, it would act just like sunlight. It was only a tiny tinkerbell light but it should at least slow down the vampire long enough for her to get away, at least if the legends she remembered about vampires and sunlight were right. Then she heard other footsteps coming from deep in the woods towards the path.

The situation was worsening. One vampire was dangerous, but two vampires would be too many to handle even if her spell worked. All she wanted to do was to run as fast as she could away from here, but she knew she would die if she did. She had to regain her equanimity and stop the closer one now.

Tara turned, startling but not stopping her pursuer, and gasped out "Fiat Lux!", casting the ball of light from her hand at the vampire who covered its face in an attempt to protect itself from the light. The small orb of sunlight struck the vampire's arms, causing them to burst into flame. The monster began running in circles, flailing its arms in a futile attempt to put out the fire. She had stopped one vampire, at least for the moment, but Tara knew she didn't have long before the other pursuer reached the path.

Tara glanced in the direction of the oncoming footsteps and saw a young Asian woman running towards the vampire, her black braid bouncing with her long stride. The tall slender woman performed an amazing flip, landing directly in front of the flailing vampire, and thrust a wooden stake through its chest. The vampire collapsed into dust, taking Tara aback. She hadn't read about that in her magic books.

The young woman looked up at Tara and smiled. "Hi, I'm Spirit," she said. "Neat trick with the ball of light there."

Tara was shocked by Spirit's nonchalant reaction to spells and vampires. She certainly didn't feel that calm. She was still panting from exertion and fear, but the other girl was already breathing normally. After a moment to regain her breath, Tara said "Thanks. I heard your footsteps and thought you were another vampire at first." Her mouth curled into a half smile as she added, "So you do this often?"

Spirit was clearly taken aback by the question she'd idly thrown out, meaning it more as a joke to lighten the mood than anything serious. "How did you know?"

Taking her own question seriously because of the other girl's reaction, Tara replied, "You didn't act surprised by my spell and you killed that vampire without a second thought." Looking closer at Spirit, Tara realized that the girl couldn't be old enough to be out of high school, yet she was clearly a vampire hunter of some expertise.

"You didn't look so surprised yourself," Spirit retorted.

"I certainly felt surprised!" Tara said wryly, then said "Ow!" as the pain from her knee finally registered as the adrenaline rush of the chase ebbed.

Spirit looked concerned, bending down to check out Tara's bleeding knee. "That doesn't look so good and I'd like to have you talk with Mr. Giles anyway."

"Who's Mr. Giles?" Tara asked.

"He's my watcher," Spirit answered. "A vampire slayer has to have a watcher." With that less than revealing comment, Spirit helped Tara walk through the woods to the watcher's house.

Tara's thoughts returned to the present as she saw Mr. Giles and Spirit finishing their sparring session. Mr. Giles hadn't been happy with Spirit for bringing Tara home initially and he'd had the oddest look on his face, like he'd seen a ghost, when she told him her name, but soon she was helping them researching prophecies and monsters.

Those sessions became the best part of her day. She had been so distracted with her mother's death that she hadn't made any friends at university, and to be honest with herself, she wasn't that good at making new friends anyway. It was good having not only friends, but also a job that provided meaning for her life again. That vampire attack had turned out to be the best thing that had happened to her that term.

While her friends were great, they didn't completely fill the emptiness in her heart. Spirit was too young and Mr. Giles was too old for her to talk about everything with them, and they were often so busy with the slaying to do anything but focus on the work.

The attack had also caused her to focus more strongly on her magic so she could help her friends more. Tara worked every night on her telekinetic control until she was sure she could stake a vampire. Then she talked Spirit into letting her go on patrol one night to observe and destroyed a vampire that same night.

After that night, she was a regular, going out with Spirit several times a week. Mr. Giles didn't think it was a good idea at first, but after Tara demonstrated what she could do with a stake in a practice session he quickly agreed that she could go patrolling with Spirit. Her train of thought broke off as she saw Giles walking towards the table.

Giles sat down at the table across from her, paused a moment to wipe his glasses, then asked "How did finals go, Tara?"

"I think they went really well," Tara answered. "I didn't think I was going to get any sleep after the thunderstorm woke me up Thursday night, but everything turned out fine."

He started to say something in response, but Spirit bounced down into the seat beside Tara and interrupted, "So are you still planning to stay with us over winter break, Tara? I've missed you since you've been all busy studying for exams."

"Sure, if it's still okay with Mr. Giles?" Tara said, looking uncertainly over at Giles. No one had ever invited her to stay with them for so long before and she wasn't sure that Mr. Giles really meant the invitation he'd given her when she let it slip that she had nowhere to go for Christmas.

"Of course it's still okay," Giles said. He looked warmly at Tara. "We'll be glad to have you for Christmas and not just for the help with research and slaying."

"Cool!" Spirit said excitedly. "It'll be great having a friend around all the time for a couple of weeks."

"Thank you, Mr. Giles," Tara replied, smiling. Tara knew that Spirit didn't have many friends at school either. It had to be hard being the slayer and having all that responsibility as a teenager.

Giles cleared his throat. "Now that that's all cleared up," he said. "Spirit discovered some worrying news on patrol last night. It appears that there's a master vampire in town. In fact, he calls himself 'The Master' though I don't think that can actually be the case as Buf...my previous slayer killed him and, well, smashed his bones to dust with a sledgehammer afterwards. Still, I think this vampire could be very dangerous and he appears to be gathering a following."

Tara saw that Mr. Giles was having trouble saying Buffy's name as he always did. He never mentioned anything about his former slayer. He'd only been able to say her full name once in Tara's presence. It had to be difficult being a watcher, knowing that your relationship with the slayer was only going to end one way. Shaking her head free of morbid thoughts, she asked, "So if he's not who he claims to be, who is he?"

"We don't know," Giles answered. "So we're going to be hitting the books this weekend."

"But I was hitting the books hard last week for finals...." Spirit grumbled.

"Don't worry," Giles responded. "We'll have time for some fun too this week, I know Christmas is important." He paused and looked at Tara before continuing. "And solstice too, but for now, the sooner we start the sooner we finish."

The three of them were soon buried in their research, oblivious to the outside world.

Continued...