Chapter 15: Silent Snow
Swirls and eddies of white spun through the ancient forest, creating ghostly shades amidst the trees and obliterating all but the snow itself from the eyes of those trapped within it.
“Shit!” Tucker swore elegantly, wiping the wet crystals from his eyes as he scanned the wilds around him.
Behind him, Xel shivered. “Can you see any tracks?” he demanded.
“Irritating sonuvabitch’s taken to the trees,” Tucked countered. His attention focused on a spot which seemed to Xel just like any other, and he stalked through the rising ankle-deep snow toward it. “This way,” he instructed.
Xel shrugged and followed, human guise long since abandoned and antennae quivering slightly at the cold. He clutched the light jacket he’d brought to the ball tightly against him. He found it somewhat irritating that Tucker’s jacket appeared to be no thicker, but the hunter was exhibiting no signs of discomfort.
“What are we looking for?” Xel inquired when Tucker came to a halt again.
The other man scanned in both directions before veering off from their original path at a sharp right angle. “He’s knockin’ the snow from the branches as he goes,” he provided for Xel, indicating a recently fallen snow heap to the D’vorak Demon.
Xel shook his head. He never would’ve spotted the pattern in the near blinding conditions around them. “I don’t think we’re ever going to catch him this way,” Xel commented.
Tucker just shot him an annoyed look and trudged ahead. The snow was getting deeper now, and both men’s pants were getting drenched. Fighting their way through the snow was also slowing them down, allowing their quarry’s lead to increase.
“He won’t get away that easily,” Tucker insisted before freezing in his tracks.
Xel skidded to a sudden stop behind him, barely managing to keep himself from falling right over into a nearby snow pile. “What now?” he demanded with a bit of a whine in his voice.
“Shh!” Tucker hissed vehemently, cocking the rifle he’d had outside his room in preparation for any foul play that evening.
Xel shifted uncomfortably on wet feet and watched Tucker scan the forest around them with his rifle sight. He scuttled out of the way nervously when Tucker’s sweep turned in his direction, but the rifle froze in place only a foot or so to the left of where he’d been standing.
Tucker’s eyes narrowed for a second as he zeroed in on his target, and then he let out an annoyed sigh and dropped it. “Just what we need,” he grumbled under his breath, “uppity women to slow us down.”
Xel saw Dawn and Veronica materialize out of the falling snow around them and run over to their position.
“Have you seem him yet?” Dawn demanded instantly, handing Xel the extra crossbow she’d nabbed from her room. Veronica had her own long knife, while Dawn herself had always preferred a sword.
“He’s pulling further ahead,” Tucker informed her tersely. “Now, come on.”
No one protested the hunter’s instructions in this circumstance, and they all scrambled to keep up with his rigorous pace.
“Kayeri are to trees like mountain goats are to cliffs,” Veronica provided during a brief respite while Tucker picked up the trail once more. “If we’re ever going to catch him, we’re going to have to force him to the ground.”
“Or we could just shoot him outta the trees,” Tucker pointed out snidely.
“No shooting,” Dawn quickly reprimanded him. “We need him alive.”
She got several skeptical looks at that.
“Missing book? Creepy non-corporeal thing?” she provided. “I don’t know about you all, but I’d like to get some answers.”
Tucker snorted, but no one argued.
“I still don’t see how we’re ever going to catch him at this rate,” Xel complained, his feet squishing in his wet shoes uncomfortably. The snow was fast approaching knee-deep, and he was soggy and freezing. “He’s going much faster than us, and-“
“Kayeri are subtropical,” Veronica provided, squinting out into the swirling flakes. “He’ll be even worse off in this weather than we are. It shouldn’t take too long for him to slow down.”
“Good to know,” Tucker admitted grudgingly.
“All right,” Dawn said with a weary sigh, turning to Veronica, “it’s official. Until Spike shows up, you’re our expert on these Kayeri. Now, I want to know everything you do. It might help us understand what’s going on.”
Veronica, a bit stunned at being asked to keep talking for once, blinked a few times before she began. “W-Well, I’m not an expert.” she began somewhat hesitantly.
“More so than anyone else here,” Dawn countered, “so tell us all you know.”
Veronica bit her lip. “It’s not much,” she admitted. “I mean, I’ve only heard the rumors. They’re rather infamous down in South America.”
“Then why couldn’t he stay in South America?” Xel grumbled.
Veronica’s brow furrowed at that. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I’ve never heard of a Kayeri leaving its home territory before. They generally stick to the forests of the Amazon Basin and the foothills of the Andes. It’s rare for them even to venture into the cities of Brazil.”
“Fascinating,” Tucker said in a voice that indicated that he thought it was anything but. “This isn’t the Amazon, though, honey,” he gestured to the falling snow around them with a sarcastic sweep of his arms, “in case you haven’t noticed.”
Veronica scowled at him. “I’m just telling you all I know,” she snapped.
“And you’re doing a good job,” Dawn assured her, shooting a warning look in Tucker’s direction. “Go on,” she addressed Veronica. “What powers do these things have?”
“Well, they’re incredibly fast,” Veronica began, still scanning the tree trunks, “especially when they take to the trees. Can jump exceptionally far. There are rumors that they might have some sort of hypnotic powers.”
Dawn sighed. “Great. Rumors?”
“Well, it’s the standard Kayeri attack,” Veronica provided. “They live out in the forests and move around until they select a small village. They then pick off the local farmers – slice open the men for food and kidnap the women. The Kayeri females are incapable of carrying their young to term, see, so they use human females as hosts after the breeding season.”
Dawn’s face scrunched up in distaste, and a slight shiver ran through her. She could suddenly understand all too well why Spike had been furious to discover that a Kayeri had been sniffing around her. “Nice,” she said sarcastically.
Veronica curled her lip in agreement. “Then, after the children are born, they have a nice, handy food source in the human host and-“
Tucker’s hand cut her off mid-speech. “It’s watching,” he hissed in a low voice.
Nervously, the other three formed a defensive circle, looking nervously to the treetops.
“Oh yeah,” Tucker muttered low under his breath, “this is what was stalkin’ us through the forest before, all right.”
“Does anyone see it?” Xel whispered back nervously.
“Maybe he’s run-” Veronica began hopefully.
.and then shrieked.
Everyone spun to face her, only to find her lying in the snow and sputtering in distaste. “He jumped me!” she squealed in alarm. “Came out of nowhere! And he stole my knife!” She held up her now-empty hands.
The alarm of the other three increased at this unfortunate turn of events. Their enemy was now not only blindingly fast but armed as well.
“Did you see where he went?” Dawn demanded, searching the whiteout for their foe in vain.
“I was a bit busy freezing to death,” Veronica retorted icily, brushing the snow off of herself as she stood up.
“This is not good.” Xel murmured under his breath.
Tucker nodded with a grimace and then cocked his ear to one side. “He’s run off again,” he announced with a bit of relief.
“Guess he just wanted to even up the odds a bit,” Dawn agreed.
“Well, he didn’t entirely succeed,” Veronica revealed, pulling a back-up knife from the sheath at her hip.
“So, we’re going back now, right?” Xel demanded nervously. “I mean, it’s obvious we can’t fight-“
“We’re keeping after him,” Dawn insisted with grim determination. “Tucker?”
“On it.” The hunter took off into the woods once more. He came to a halt after only a few dozen yards, however. “Dammit!” he swore.
“What is it?” Dawn pushed forward until she was at his side.
“He’s circling around,” Tucker informed her. “We’ve been on this path before. He’s tryin’ to lose us.”
“He either doubled back to the inn, or he’s circled back into the woods,” Veronica agreed. “All the trails leading from this position are old.”
Dawn blinked at her in surprise. “You can follow these tracks?” she asked.
Veronica looked equally surprised. “You can’t?” she said, disbelieving.
Dawn shook her head. “All right, we’ll have to split up,” she determined. “Veronica, you follow the trail back to the inn. Take Xel with you, and remember that we’re trying to capture Rick alive.”
Veronica nodded.
Dawn turned to Tucker. “You’re with me,” she instructed. “We go back out into the woods.”
Tucker shrugged it off like it was no difficulty.
“Right, let’s go,” Dawn instructed, heading off after Tucker. “Oh,” she turned back to Xel and Veronica for one last order, “and if you see Buffy and Spike, will you tell them to hurry their asses up?”
Veronica shivered slightly. “It is so unfair that we’re all freezing out here by ourselves,” she agreed.
Dawn frowned slightly. “Can’t imagine where they’ve gotten off to,” she began before following Tucker through the snow.
* * *
The wind whipped waves of snow against the windowpane, creating a chilled rattling vibration.
Buffy murmured slightly in response and buried her head deeper into the chest of the man beside her, a soft smile on her face as his body continued to reflect her own body heat back at her. Unconsciously, one leg slipped over his waist, pulling him more tightly into her.
A brief trill escaped Spike’s throat when her fingers moved slightly to find one of his flat male nipples. In his sleep, he breathed deep of the soft perfume of her hair and continued to dream.
Buffy’s own dreams were the most contented in years, almost as if she knew whose arms she was in even in unconsciousness. Her sleeping thoughts not drifting any further than the man beside her, she remained safe, warm, and comfortable in bed, oblivious to all that was happening outside.
* * *
Xel and Veronica both let out audible sighs of relief when the dark outline of the lodge finally emerged from the snow-white night.
“Looks like Dawn and Tucker are stuck with our little Kayeri,” Veronica commented wryly, opening the patio doors and savoring the warmth of centralized heating as they entered the recreation room.
Xel shook the snow out of his antennae and agreed. “Hopefully, they’ll catch a bit of common sense and come back soon.”
Veronica shivered slightly, clothes still damp from when Rick had shoved her into that snow bank. “I’m hot shower bound,” she informed him. “Be a dear, and go make sure Dawn’s back-up is on the way, won’t you?”
Xel grumbled but let her proceed him down the hallways, stopping only briefing to knock on the doors of Buffy’s and then Dawn and Spike’s room. Neither yielded an answer.
With a resigned sigh and a last longing look at where Veronica’s dress clung to her lean thighs, he returned to his own room and collapsed on the bed. So tired was he that it didn’t even cross his mind as odd that Lena hadn’t come back yet.
* * *
“I don’t like bein’ toyed with,” Tucker grumbled as another of the false trails that led off into the woods came to a dead end. He quickly stalked back past Dawn, returning to the previous trail.
“He’s going to a lot of effort to lead us astray,” Dawn pointed out, biting her lip thoughtfully. “That’s got to mean that he’s headed somewhere – somewhere that he doesn’t want us to find.”
“Great,” Tucker said sarcastically. “That means he’ll get more and more desperate the closer we get.”
Dawn grimaced at that; the thought hadn’t occurred to her. And then, as if to prove that Tucker was right, a dark form suddenly leapt at her from the trees, its menacing red eyes boring right into her.
Only years of well-honed instincts allowed Dawn to roll to the side in time. She spat the snow from her mouth and wiped it from her eyes just as two shots from Tucker’s rifle sounded in the deathly silence of the forest.
“You hit him?” Dawn gasped, shakily gripping her blade with both hands and looking nervously around.
“No such luck.” Tucker reloaded with a snap of the barrel. “He’s coming back in, though.”
Dawn held herself ready but even still was shocked by the speed at which Rick dove at her. She swung with her blade, but he ducked it easily, rolling across the ground with knife bared to strike at Tucker. The other man fired mere inches from where Rick’s head had been, only to feel the demon’s blade in his flesh.
Tucker let out a roar and dropped his rifle. Immediately, Rick scooped it up and leapt up into the tree branches once more, invisible from their view.
Dawn instantly ran over to Tucker to see how badly wounded his was. The swirl of the wind meant that she hadn’t seen Rick’s strike and had no idea whether Tucker had been mortally injured. She was surprised, then, to see that the knife cut had just been a glancing blow to Tucker’s right hand. It was bleeding and undoubtedly painful, but not serious in the slightest.
“I’ll be fine,” Tucker confirmed her own opinion. “He just wanted me to drop the gun. Think you can cover me?” he inquired, pulling out a bandana and tying it around the bleeding cut on his hand.
Dawn held her blade up and scanned the near total whiteout around them. “Against a gun?” she pointed out ruefully. Although there was a lingering doubt in her mind. So far, all of Rick’s attacks against them had been defensive.
“Remind me to bring a net and a good dozen traps the next time I fight one of these things,” Tucker agreed, hand bound and knife from belt now firmly in hand.
Slowly, the two of them circled round back-to-back, each poised for another lightning-quick strike.
“I’m really starting to wish Buffy and Spike would hurry up,” Dawn agreed. “A little super-strength and super-speed would be nice right about now.”
Personal issues with the bleached pair aside, Tucker couldn’t do anything but nod. Facing a demon with just a girl as back-up and no gun wasn’t exactly his idea of a good time.
The two of them continued to circle warily and then froze.
Amidst the swirling cascade of snowflakes, a pinkish glow slowly emerged. It became brighter and brighter, the light turning red as it became less obscure and narrowing into the twin points of Rick’s eyes.
“If you do not wish to be hurt,” he began in his usual soft-spoken tones, “I suggest you drop your weapons.”
He was less than fifteen feet away now, just far enough out of range that he could instantly escape any attack. Dawn and Tucker merely turned their blades to face him, however, neither gaze leaving his blood-red eyes.
A frown furrowed Rick’s brow at their resistance, but then a swirling red light shone behind him as the Haunting alighted on the scene. The swirling red mist dove into Rick’s body, causing his entire form to shine with an unearthly crimson light.
“They’re working together!” Tucker shouted out. Recognizing their ultimate foe, he and Dawn both lunged.
Instantly, Rick leapt free of their attack, landing hard on Tucker’s back and forcing his face down into the snow. Tucker’s knife skittered off into a snow bank and vanished beneath the relentlessly falling snow.
Dawn dove at Rick, swinging her sword high. He leapt back from her attack, causing her to overswing and lose her balance on the slick ground that covered the site of their battle. Rick instantly caught her right wrist in his hand and gave it a painful twist that sent her blade plummeting to the ground.
Dawn’s foot struck out in retaliation, the heel of her boot just grazing his shoulder. He let out a yelp of pain and vanished back into the dark, leaving Dawn scrambling desperately in the white for a weapon and Tucker still trying to force the wind back into his lungs.
Just as Dawn uncovered the hilt of her sword, however, she was suddenly tackled from behind. She let out a screech and a vicious kick before Rick’s whispered voice murmured “Sleep” into her ear, and everything faded to blackness.
Swearing, Tucker leapt to his feet despite the pain in his ribs and tried to run off after the demon, but it was too late. Rick had vanished into the trees and taken Dawn with him.