Chapter 4
Buffy stared
up at the crystal blue sky, laying on her back, fingers idly sifting through
sand on the shores of Al Saman she felt largely at peace for the first time in
as many years as she could remember.
Even
if she was surrounded by armed Djinn guards’ intent on protecting her from
unknown assailants.
She knew if
she lifted her head even slightly and glanced around she would see the ten
guards that had followed her on her daily sabbatical to her favorite place.
It was
almost enough to make her scream that her brother didn’t think her strong
enough to protect herself. And it was true that it was taking a while for the
energies of Al Abar
to sate the thirst her body’d had acquired for
it.
After being
gone for 400 hundred years her powers were at the lowest they had ever been. If
her Angel were to summon her to grant his wish she wasn’t even sure that she
would be able to manage the port.
It had been
a week since she had gifted him with a ring and a wish and she was becoming
extremely more frustrated as days passed and he didn’t use the ring to summon
her.
Of course
her frustration was all moot at the moment. William had all but forbade her
from journeying back to the mortal realm that housed her reincarnated mate
until his sources were sure that Darla and her followers had finally left.
“The guards
kind of ruin the low profile you know,” an amused voice came from behind her.
Oz… A wide smile crossed her face as she recognized it
and it took almost all her willpower to keep from leaping to her feet and
racing to his arms. She had wondered when he would seek her out, she’d been
home for a little over a week and he’d not been to see her.
“William
insists that I take the group wherever I go… I hesitate to think what would
happen if I wanted to go swimming in the waters… would they go with me?” she
said her voice equally amused as she rolled onto her stomach to face one of her
closest friends.
He was her closest male friend, William not
counting after all since he was a blood relative; he’d taken her to her first
coming out party over 475 years ago.
As he moved
to sit near her, his legs stretched out before him as he glanced around.
“They’re not all yours,” he commented.
“I didn’t think I needed an entire
regiment. I thought my personal
guards would be sufficient so I embarked today with just Gunn and Riley,” she
nodded her head towards each. The black Djinn leaning in what appeared to be a
casual pose on a rock, the tall sandy haired Djinn standing as close to
attention as he could get and still be relaxed, neithers
eyes wavering from their scans of the perimeter.
“So where’d
the others come from?” Oz asked as he counted an extra eight. Squinting he
attempted to determine the family amulets worn around necks.
At the same
time they both spoke. “William.”
Sharing a
bemused grin between them he leaned back on his elbows as Buffy rolled onto her
back once more.
“He worries
that I’ll be attacked when I walk in the garden of my quarters alone… you
should have seen him when I told him I was planning on journeying for the day
to Al Saman with
just Gunn and Riley,” her eyes sparkled with glee.
“You think
he worries needlessly?”
“Darla and
her followers won’t attack here… not while William still holds his seat of
power firmly,” Buffy said with a sigh. “But I still have to lug around a
contingent of soldiers, all hell bent on being the one to take the fall if
someone should choose to strike against our family.”
In silence
they sat, enjoying the others company for the first time since Buffy had been
confined to her bottle years earlier.
Oz was the
first to break the silence, his guilt pressing on him.
“I tried to
protect him you know,” he said softly. His voice low so the guards wouldn’t
hear. “I went against William on that, he thought we should just let things
fall the way they were meant to but…”
“Its okay,”
she murmured, her hand reaching out she touched his lightly. “I… he was happy,
he didn’t have the memories of us blocking his path and he went on with his
life and I’m okay with that…”
Oz glanced
at her in disbelief his eyebrows arching as the stared at her.
“I am,” she
protested weakly.
“Uh-huh.”
“Okay I’m
not,” she muttered glaring at the sky instead of her friend. “And it’s not
because he shared his body with someone else, that someone else had his
children…”
“Then
what…?” Oz started staring at her in confusion before realization dawned
suddenly. “It’s because he didn’t remember.”
“I thought
we had this great love you know… I felt closer to him than I had to anyone
else… ever… even William,” Buffy said softly. “I thought that even with
William’s decree that he would retain something, A
tiny fragment of what we had been. I thought that he would remember regardless of what was done, but he didn’t. He forgot me and went on with his life like I had
never existed.”
“He had no
choice Buffy,” Oz whispered. “William made his decree, he wiped his mind of
every memory, every moment that the two of you had ever shared… a Djinn might have been able to fight to retain some tiny
bit of your past but he was only a mortal.”
“I know…
Logically I know that, but my heart… it protests, it says that he should have
remembered us.”
“But luckily
our hearts don’t rule us,” Oz smiled gently. “And if he had remembered you know
William would have done it over and over again until the memories were gone.”
“He never
liked Liam.”
“Might be
why he turned him into a Llama,” he winked at her.
“That was an
accident.”
“Keep
telling yourself that… course if I remember correctly he was trying to turn him into a Saran mosquito
but was to angry to concentrate fully. Should count yourself
lucky there I guess.”
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Angel paced
the length of his room ignoring the prying eyes that stood leaning against the
doorway to his private sanctuary.
Sometimes
his sister could forget that this was his
room, not hers and she was not welcome in it without an invitation. Of course
when he’d issued that directive it had been because she’d walked in on him and
Faith almost… well they hadn’t been totally
naked but if uninterrupted much longer they most assuredly would have been.
Cordy
bursting in on them had put a damper on the moment quite quickly. While Faith
had been raring to go after his sister had been tossed out he’d had some
difficulty… especially knowing that his baby sister was right down the hall and
the walls weren’t that thick.
Faith had
left in a huff after that and it had taken a week of sweet talking to calm her
down. Now he had to wonder why he’d expended the energy at all.
Their breaking
up had absolutely nothing to do with her not having been a virgin when she’d
insisted that she was, or the fact that he’d caught her with Devon (the head
singer of a local band) twice… it didn’t even have anything to do with the fact
that she and Cordy loathed each other with every fiber of their beings.
It had more
to do with just a feeling that there was someone else waiting for him… and all
he had to do was find her.
And he had…
although she wasn’t exactly what he’d envisioned when he’d thought there was
someone else out there for him.
He had to
wonder if he would have been better of with Faith.
“Have you
decided what to do with your wish yet?” Cordy asked from the door her eyes
bright with barely concealed amusement.
“Not a clue,”
Angel muttered glancing down at his left hand. The emerald that he’d been
gifted with, that Buffy had gifted
him with sat firmly on the tip of his pinky finger. His love had the smallest
hands.
He frowned
at that thought.
She wasn’t
his anything. And he had a feeling
that once he made his wish she would vanish into thin air never to be seen
again.
“I’m sure if
you’re having problems coming up with something suitable that Xander would lend
a hand, he was practically foaming at the mouth when you left the shop. If I
have to listen to one more ‘has he decided yet, has he decided yet?’ I’m having
“I just have
this feeling…” Angel shook his head to clear his head. “Never
mind.”
“This have anything to do with why Faith has been shooting
lasers out of her eyes at me every time I see her?”
“What?”
“Because
you’ve been Mr. Hide In My Room And Brood for the last
week she’s resorted to glaring at me to alleviate her anger towards you… it’s
fine though, I just ignore her and she stalks off in anger,” Cordy grinned.
“Now if only Anya would do that.”
“You know if
you were just honest with Xander…”
“No! No
honesty with Xander, last time I was honest with Xander I found him necking
with
“I don’t hate him so much as I don’t understand
what you see in him… I mean he’s… Xander.”
“Great
conversationalist you are Angel,” Cordy snorted as she eyed the photos
haphazardly taped to the mirror of her brothers’ dresser. “Is that how you’re
going to sound when she finally comes back? All hesitating
and shy? Because that’s so not you.”
“Don’t need
advice from you Cor. Besides it’s not like that… I mean
I’ll make the wish she’ll leave, we’re all good.”
“With
the exception that you want her to stay.”
“What? How?” Angel sputtered as Cordy laughed with glee. The
expression on her brothers’ face was priceless and not for the first time did
she wish she had a camera.
This was
perfect blackmail material.
“Come on
Angel been your sister forever. And I’ve never, ever seen you look at anyone the way that you looked at that tiny
blonde genie…”
“Djinn,”
Angel interrupted.
“Whatever…
you wanted her. And if I saw it you can bet that Faith saw it too.”
“It’s just,”
he frowned, rubbing at his forehead. “I could have sworn I knew her, when she
was coming out of her bottle I had this vision… or something and it was of her
and me, but, well not me…”
“You know if
I didn’t know you so well I would have no clue what the hell you were talking
about,” Cordy shook her head in mock frustration. “But after spending the last
seven years helping you decipher the most obscure of prophetic dreams… have you
thought of reincarnation?”
“Reincarnation?”
“Yeah… you
know past life’s and stuff.”
“You know I
don’t believe in that stuff.”
“You don’t
believe in past lives and reincarnation but you do believe in vampires, demons
and genies.”
“Djinn.”
“Do you know
how whacked that is?”
**************************************************************************************
The first
clue that he wasn’t alone came from the faint whiff of vanilla that he got as
he was rinsing his hair.
He’d had the
feeling there was someone in the bathroom with him for quite some time but
chalked it up to his extremely overactive imagination.
Then the
vanilla had hit him and he knew it wasn’t from him… he preferred his soap to
smell a bit more manly than vanilla.
Shutting of
the water he hesitated in the shower. This wasn’t how he had imagined his next
meeting with his little Djinn going.
He at the
very least thought he’d be wearing clothing and not be buck naked within the
shower.
With a heavy
sigh he reached a hand out of shower and grabbed for his towel. Rubbing his
body down quickly to dispel most of the water clinging to his skin he wrapped
it around his waist before pulling the etched glass door open.
Depending on
how long she’d been there she’d seen most of the package he didn’t even know
why he bothered covering himself beside some small sense of modesty that he
hadn’t thought he had left.
“Buffy,” he
nodded trying to seem as if he wasn’t fazed by the fact that there was a Djinn
princess sitting cross-legged on his sink smiling at him while he was naked
save for the towel loosely wrapped around his hips.
“Angel,” his
heart caught in his chest at the sound of her voice. Now he knew with certainty
that he knew this woman.
“Have you
decided on your wish yet?”
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