Mad Bad & Dangerous To KnowBy DM Evans
By the dismal tarns and pools Where dwell the Ghouls,- By each spot the most unholy-
In each nook most melancholy- There the traveler meets aghast Sheeted Memories of the Past- Shrouded forms that start and sigh As they pass the wanderer by- White-robed forms of friends long given, In agony, to the Earth- and Heaven.
Dreamland - Edgar Allen Poe
"What's going on?" Connor shrank back, terror in his eyes. I wasn't used to that. My son was brash, cocky, headstrong and reckless. He sometimes reminded me of Spike in that respect. I didn't know how to handle this timidness.
"Don't know, son." I took off toward the RV. Connor was in no shape to fight so I was going to take him home first.
"Dad, the screams are that way." Connor pointed toward the historic down town of Deadwood.
He called me 'dad' and for once, it didn't sound like a curse. I couldn't help but smile. "You need to go back to..."
"I can do this," he said without confidence.
I decided not to argue. He might need to do battle for his own self esteem and sanity. As he pelted towards the downtown, I worried that he hadn't fought since he went up against me in the mall. Every time Wolfram and Hart had sent something against us, he had remained in his fugue. He was nearly carted off by an Amarok, a gigantic wolf-creature in Colorado and he hadn't even appeared to notice.
I nearly ran over Fred when we hit Main Street. She had been racing back toward the campsite, probably because she was unarmed.
"Oh, Angel." She stumbled back in surprise. "You found him."
"Yes, what's going on?"
"I don't know. Screaming, lots of it. I heard someone saying huge, scary humans grabbed some tourists and head for the tree line." Fred flipped her long hair back. "I'm not sure, giants maybe?"
"But they went for tourists and not us?" I asked. I hated the idea that innocents had gotten caught in the cross hairs. I'm not lucky enough for this to be some random thing. This wasn't Sunnydale, after all.
"I don't know. They might have gone to our camp first." Fred's brow beetled, giving her face an even more rattish appearance.
"I can't get through on the phone to Lorne but the giants came from the bottom of the hill."
"Head back to the RV. Connor, go with her," I said and neither of them moved.
Before I could snap out another order, I heard my name being called. I turned and saw Faith frantically waving me down. I headed down the hill, Fred and Connor in my wake.
"They went back down the hill. I was going after them but they have a huge head start," Faith said then flung her arm westward. "Wes is that way, questioning the people who saw the tourists get grabbed."
"Fred, go find Wes and help him. I'll go with Faith," I said. "Connor, you..."
My son was already loping down the hill with Faith. So much for protecting him. He was his own life's wrecking crew. I caught up with them, what else could I do?
"I see the kid is doing better," Faith said, with a wide, excited grin.
"I have a name," Connor said but he didn't sound angry. Of course, he was busy concentrating on Faith's leather-clad butt. If he wasn't directly behind her, I'd be afraid he'd run over a tourist since he wasn't looking where he was going.
"I know, kid," she shot back.
"She never says my name," he said, looking at me. "But she fights good."
"Good, kid? I'm great." Faith looked over her shoulder at him. "And how would you know?"
"We've fought," he said solemnly, dodging around a pack of gamblers heading off the streets into Miss Kitty's at a high rate of speed.
"When?" Faith looked confused. "Why?"
"She doesn't remember, son, thanks to Wolfram and Hart's spell."
He wrinkled his nose at me then looked back over at Faith. "I had to prove to you I could handle myself." His lips twisted into a smirk. "I won."
"Why don't I believe that?" Faith asked, dodging a gray-haired couple who looked too scared by the turmoil on the streets to move.
I didn't either. Connor was lying. He did it well but I was used to that. It scared me, always had. Growing up with no humans around but Holtz, why and how had Connor gotten so good at lying?
Connor paused and I nearly plowed into him. He sniffed the air. "What smells?"
I took a deep breath in and wished I hadn't. It smelled horribly of feces, blood and sweat. "I don't know."
"It's getting stronger," Faith said. "I think it's whatever took the tourists. There was a strong smell in the area."
"Good to know."
We continued on. The smell grew steadily worse but there were no signs of the giants. We saw deep, heavy footprints in the yellowish dirt as we headed into the woods. From the size of the prints, these creatures had to be well over eight feet tall.
"How fast are they?" Faith asked. "They're carrying victims."
"Fast," I stated the obvious. We pressed on but the ground grew rocky. We lost the prints but not the scent. Still, there were thousands of acres to get lost in and all too soon I had to turn around before the sun rose. We had rediscovered the prints by then.
"The kid and I can continue to hunt them," Faith said.
I looked at Connor. His eyes were tired and hollow. Fine tremors ran through him; exhaustion or his illness getting hold of him again. He needed a rest. "Connor needs to come back with me. No arguments, son. You need some sleep."
Connor didn't argue. He didn't even speak, just nodding weakly. We started back with Faith following the prints only to find we've been going in a circle. We could see the taller buildings of Main Street through the trees.
"Son of a bitch." Faith kicked at a tree root.
"I wonder what they're playing at," I said then sniffed the air. The blood scent had grown suddenly thicker. We started walking again.
Connor paused, casting about. On his pale cheek a red blossom appeared, then another, running down like a crimson tear. I reached out and caught it on my finger, feeling the stickiness of it.
Connor looked up then stumbled back against me, his whole body shaking like he was coming apart. The look in his eyes said that could be a reality. Faith uttered a particularly foul obscenity. I looked up into the trees. Hanging there, waving in the breeze, were four bodies. The flesh of their upper body was gnawed nearly to bone and the rest hung there like cached meat, which I'm sure it was. From some of the remaining clothing, I guessed they were two women, a man and an older child.
"They ate a family," Connor said past chattering teeth.
"Don't look at it, Connor." I roughly pulled him away. He tried to break free. "Connor, no. There's nothing you can do to help them. Faith can bring the police here. They'll take good care of them now."
"Send Fred." Faith grabbed Connor's other arm and helped propel him along. "I'm not eager for the police to see me with dead bodies."
"Good point," I said as Connor craned his neck, keeping his eyes on the cannibalized people.
We left Faith at the tree line and I tried to hurry Connor along. I could almost feel him retreating back into his shell. I finally prodded him into a trot.
"The family....my fault," he said, his gait going unsteady.
"You can't think that way, Connor." I grabbed his arm, shaking it. "It is not your fault."
He yanked free, nearly falling. "They're after me."
"No!" I snapped. "It's my fault. I gave you to Wolfram and Hart. I made the bad deal. Don't try to carry my burden." Stumbling to a halt, he looked at me, tears silently rolling down his face. I wiped them away. "This is not your fault, Connor and we're going to make Wolfram and Hart pay for this, I promise."
He sniffled, rubbing at his eyes then started running uphill. Wes and Fred were back at the RV when we got there. I was surprised to see Lindsey was still there.
"Fred, can you go meet Faith at the bottom of Main Street? We found the tourists or what's left of them. She'll need your help with the police. Wes, you and I can do some research, you, too, Lorne. Lindsey, maybe you could help Fred or us. I know I have no right to ask you and put you in the path of these things more than I already have," I said.
"Why do I get the impression it's already too late? I do know something about how Wolfram and Hart operates and delegates. I can stay here and help you," he said, surprising me.
"Thank you."
"I'll go with Fred," Lorne said. "No one should be alone out there."
Lorne and Fred left, while Wesley pulled out some of his books from the RV cabinets. Lindsey came over to Connor. I was going to tell him to leave the boy alone but Connor seemed to be just as curious about the lawyer as Lindsey obviously was about him. "Connor, this is Lindsey McDonald. He's here to help us. Lindsey, this is my son, Connor."
"Nice to meet you, Connor." Lindsey held out his hand. Connor didn't shake it, merely mumbling a hello, ducking away shyly.
"I don't think he knows about shaking hands," I whispered to Lindsey then put a hand on Connor's shoulder. "Son, you need to get some rest."
He didn't argue with me. He kicked off his shoes, and grabbed the soft cotton shorts he had been sleeping in. They were too big. Wes might be slim but he wasn't Connor-skinny. We should have taken the time to find where my son had his clothing stashed before we left instead of giving him some of Wes'. I had bought Connor some new stuff but not enough. He disappeared into the tiny bathroom and quickly reappeared wearing only the shorts. He tossed his dirty clothing into the pile he was accumulating by his bed. He climbed into his berth, rested his cheek on the plush buffalo toy and shut his eyes.
"Will we bother him?" Lindsey asked, sitting at the kitchen table where Wes was shoveling his mystical tomes.
"Connor has vampiric hearing," I said. "He'll hear us but I think he's gotten used to sleeping with noise. It's pretty close in here."
"So I see. Are you all sleeping here?" Lindsey asked.
"No, some of us are in hotels." I didn't tell Lindsey where and who. The less he knew the safer he was. Fred, Lorne and Wes were staying in a B&B. We figured there was less chance of Wolfram and Hart finding them that way. Faith stayed with me and Connor in the RV because she was the only one who had a prayer of dealing with Connor if he got physical. Besides, Connor responded best to her. But perhaps I had misunderstood why he responded to her so well, even while still in his fugue. He was obviously attracted to her but I was sure he hadn't been faking his recent psychosis. This new level of response was just that, new.
"So where do we start?" Lindsey asked.
"Tell me what you learned, Angel," Wes said.
I stayed with them until the sun forced me into my bed where the window had been blacked out with cardboard and a curtain hung across the opening of the berth. Lindsey confirmed one of Wes' suspicions; Wolfram and Hart liked to use local talent. Wes had some ideas and was busy re-questioning Faith who had returned long before Fred and Lorne who I assumed were still with the cops. They would likely report here before retiring to their B&B.
I paused on the way to my bed to check on Connor. He was in a deep sleep. I was happy to see it. I laid down, the curtain closed and my light on. I started pouring through the tome Wes had given me, looking for man-eating giants.