Current mood:	sore
Current music:	Kiss - Detroit Rock City
Entry tags:	30 seconds to mars, btvs: xander harris, buffy the vampire slayer, hellfire tales, mcr: matt cortez, my chemical romance

Hellfire Tales: Could Have Been Worse--Adult. BtVS/MCR/30stm. Xander/Matt 1/7
title: Could Have Been Worse
author: lisa roquin
rating: adult
fandom: BtVS/MCR/30stm
series/sequel: Hellfire Tales
characters/pairings: Xander Harris/Matt Cortez, (past Matt/Jared Leto) The Dingoes (Oz/Devon, Mitch, Keith) Hellfire's residents, living and not as well as a few guests.
disclaimer: all copyrighted characters and their "universes" belong to their respective authors, writers, creators, production companies, producers and long lists of people that are so very much not me. Quite simply, if you recognize it, it isn't mine. No profit made, no harm intended, just having fun.
summary: Hey, at least the guy he ended up with was human even if the marriage was by way of a demonically cursed ruby. Considering he was the demon magnet, that was actually, really something.
warning: slash. het. language. spell-induced circumstantial dub-con off screen.
author's note: thanks to wolfenverde, gwionfawyr, saddle tramp, killing rose, TW & jiltanith for listening to my headdesking and unravelling tangles on this.
as if the last month hasn't been nuts enough with plumbing nightmares and insomnia streak. Muses decided Down the Rabbit Hole and this had to be written before I could write the SweetCharity fic that spawned this verse.
wordcount: 29, 710






“Never get used to that,” Tyson shuddered as they turned off the highway and Hellfire came into sight.

Matt gave the kid a confused look out of the corner of his eye. He wasn't asking. He probably didn't want to know. Sometimes Tyson seemed a little odd. Hellfire was just fucking weird. Yeah, he probably didn't want to know.

Tyson didn't stay on the main street but turned and then went down one of the maybe four “residential roads” which was just...more dirt track about two lanes wide rather than the main street rivaling a six-lane road for width.

Tyson pulled up in front of the adobe house at the very end of the “street” if it could be called that. “That's Xander's. He should be home. He was expecting you...”

Matt nodded and got out of the car, got his gear from the back seat, He'd already been told the door was going to be unlocked usually was during the day, to just walk in and shout. He didn't know what he was expecting inside the adobe house to be like but what he saw, really wasn't what he expected. At all. He couldn't have even imagined it. Walk straight in from outside onto a loft.

The scale of the adobe houses in Hellfire were a bit odd, or at least Matt thought so, probably forty foot from side to side and ran forty or fifty foot front to back. Big, low-ish, probably not more than ten foot high from ground to the top of the side of the house, and from what Matt could see windowless.

Inside...well yeah, big but with as relatively low as the walls were...he really didn't expect...Nope, he could never have imagined this in a million years. Dirt floor wouldn't have shocked him too much, a little because dirt but that would have been far easier to reconcile than what he did walk into.

It was fairly well lit, and all of the walls he could see were white painted adobe. Well lit with big lights affixed to the ceiling and assorted lamps below from what he could see...It was the below part that was the first bizarre thing.

He was standing on a landing a wood staircase went twenty feet down to a lower level with a fairly modern-ish looking kitchen. At least modern-ish looking appliances. Stove, fridge, sink, microwave, toaster, coffeepot. The standard that you'd expect though with gleaming wood custom cabinets. That was almost easy enough to take because he'd seen Xander's workshop.

The wood floor he was standing on seemed to be a kind of loft that was probably fifteen foot wide and the length of the house. An elaborate massive L shaped desk with no less than four monitors and god only knew what tucked into the cabinets underneath it for actual computers. Open-backed bookcases lined the walls from the wooden floor of the loft to the ceiling. Books, action figures, some seriously scary looking knives and just an assortment of crap including what looked to be a Castle Grayskull in fairly decent condition on one shelf. A riot of stuff crammed every which way with peeks of white-painted adobe here and there through them. There had to be some reason to it. It did seem organized but the amount of color and shapes and just sheer amount detracted from focusing on anything on the shelves much.

“Xander?” he called out, half expecting the place to echo. Not sure if he was relieved or weirded out more when it didn't.

“Yeah?” a voice drifted up and Xander came out from the archway that was kind of dark off the kitchen, almost directly from the bottom of the stairs Matt started down, carrying a laundry basket of clothes. “Hey.”

Matt was pretty sure he was staring like an idiot as he made his way down the stairs. The place was freaking insane. The roughly forty by fifty foot area was huge, the ceiling ridiculously high, close to twenty foot up in the area under the loft and another twelve beyond that in the rest making it seem even larger. No walls, though massive wooden support beams that went up to the ceiling and held up a crisscross of beams throughout at about ground level. Long solid posts easily a foot square that reached from floor to ceiling.

“Dude, that's-a fucking axe,” Matt stared as it registered what was on the one pole hung up like-decoration or something.

“Yeah, recreation of a Norse Battle axe from like the 900s. Careful. Blade's live. In fact probably safe to assume anything sharp or pointy around here has a live edge.”

“Live edge?”

“Uh yeah, as in don't touch if you like having all body parts attached, especially asking that.” Xander winced.

“ALEXANDER LAVELLE HARRIS!”

“Oh gods, I thought I told you to leave, Cordelia!”

Matt didn't make a sound or run. He was too damned spooked to move. She was gorgeous, if she wasn't kinda glowy and semi-transparent and looking pissed as hell.

“Oh. My. God.”

“You sound like Harmony,” Xander muttered.

“I will find a way to hit you,” She glared at Xander then turned back to Matt grinning. “So...Xan, who's your hottie and what's his name..”

“Cor-del-ia!”

She tapped her foot, somehow managing to make the tap of a high-heel on stone even if she wasn't exactly solid, and, well, dead.

“He might be hot but so not my hottie, Cordelia.”

She glared and tapped more.

“Fine. Matt, this is Cordelia Chase. Cordy, this is Matt Cortez. He's herding the two bands on the tour the Dingoes are heading out on Wednesday. Since he was in LA and Tyson was headed out here-he caught a ride with Tyson and is riding along with us to meet the two bands in Chicago.”

“Your house is haunted?”

“Nah. Cordy's not tied here. She just likes to come visit and especially harass me.” Xander sighed. “Cordy's type can pretty much go anywhere they want and do what they want. Not like Rose or Miss Vine or Hezekiah or Damnation or the Schuman brothers.”

“How do you meet a ghost if she's not haunting your house?” Matt managed to get out staring at Xander incredulously.

“I went to school with her. In first grade Willow was president of the I Hate Cordelia Club. In high school we had a thing for insulting each other and making out in the janitor's closet.”

“Ingrate. You were nothing until you dated me.”

“Oh yes, I should forever worship at your feet huh, Queen C?”

They were off bickering and bitching, snarking and trading insults, tossing back and forth names of, what had to be people they both knew. Too fast for Matt's panic frazzled mind to keep up with, and freaking him even more by kinda reminding him of his aunt and uncle who went around like cats and dogs incessantly and had been married thirty-seven years, supposedly happily or so they claimed.

“Cordelia, just go. Message delivered okay. There's nothing we can do about a damn thing yet. Go before Matt has a heart attack or something.”

“Nice meeting you, Matt.”

“Yeah, nice meeting you too.” he said reflexively, his voice only a little wavery and disbelieving. “Ex-girfriend huh...”

“Yep. Wes had the worst crush on her, and ended up taking her to our Senior prom. Wes was like maybe twenty five at the time. She worked with Wes for Angel for a few years in LA. Neurological condition, ended up in a coma with almost continuous strokes that finally killed her oh...six, seven years ago maybe? She gets bored and comes to visit. Andrew, Oz, Devon, Keith and Mitchell went to school with us. Hell she dated Devon for a while if I remember right.”

Matt nodded. Really what did you say to that? And...haunted by your ex-girlfriend from high school? That was freaky on a lot of levels, each more wrong than the last when the ghost in question was maybe haunting three ex-boyfriends who made up close to twenty percent of the population of the ghost town they lived in.

“A friend of hers, she worked with him for about a year in LA right after we got out of school and she headed down there. She intended to be an actress ended up working for Angel's PI firm. He's going to be moving here as soon as it can be managed.” Xander looked almost sick. “Willow struck again. I-might be leaving for a few days if Wes, Andrew and Tara figure out how we can deal with this before tours up. Since it's Willow, Oz would be hell of a lot more hindrance than help so there's nothing to worry about with them cutting out of the tour early or anything.”

Matt frowned.

Xander shook his head. “Don't worry about it. Willow's got problems. Thought she had them under control but she's...gone off the deepend. Taken at least one other friend with her. It's-complicated.” Xander sighed. He shifted the laundry basket in his grip. “Want the ten cent tour?”

“Uh sure.”

“Only one bedroom but pull out the one futon and add the cushion from the other you should be comfortable enough. And seriously, Cordelia doesn't show up all that often. She really can't. There's...rules how those things work.”

“Rules?”

“Exactly what and how is beyond me but the same thing that ties ghosts to certain things, makes it Cordy can only go visiting every so often. How that works is beyond me. Ghosts usually are bitter and angry and refusing to go on for reasons. Some accidentally end up tied certain places, like Dennis.”

“Dennis?”

“Yeah. He's a ghost from LA. His mother went batshit, controlling crazy old bitch. Dennis was kind of..an Andrew geek of a mama's boy. He up and got himself a girlfriend so his mom drugged him and bricked him in the wall. Cordelia ended up moving in that apartment. They found Dennis' body and got him buried but he was still stuck. Figured out which pieces of brick he was stuck to-those were moved out here, well actually Cordelia figured it out and moved his bricks and him out here last month. He's at Tara's place. Watches out for her. He's a poltergeisty type. You can't see him but he can pick shit up and move it, he's a real helpful guy-he used to clean and bring Cordy snacks and stuff, and took after a couple creeps with throwing books and heavy objects at their heads. Tara's really-able to sense things a lot more than most. So she at least can always sense Dennis is around even if she can't see him, no one can.”

Xander babbled.

Matt didn't mind. All he could do was stare at the things on the walls, the glyphs or characters drawn into the two archways of Xander's bedroom, which was huge, probably thirty feet square for fuck's sake.

That the bed was custom made was a given, it was probably ten foot square itself and actually managed to look like it belonged in the huge room. A couple dressers and old fashioned wardrobes near it that matched the headboard and the nightstands on either side of the bed. Actually all the wood work seemed to match. Three intricate trunks were lined up at the foot of the bed.

Some really weird shit hung on the wall above the bed. There was something that was maybe a dreamcatcher in the middle of the odd stuff though not like any Matt had seen at the gajillion tourist traps they ended up stopping at to stretch their legs or grab a bite over the years.

There was a couch and recliner with a long chest with a flat lid being used as a coffee table and a pair of smallish square trunks for end tables. An entertainment center made to match everything else with repeats of the TV, dvd, stereo and assorted game systems that were out in the main living area, at least in one grouping of furniture out there. There was a smallish desk and computer.

Shelves lined the wall between the two wide doorless archways that led into the bedroom from the floor to the ceiling. Kind of crazy rabbit warren type shelves, varying in length and height and almost made a jigsaw design with the different sized spaces, from little boxy cubbies to tall narrow slots and little squares that rolls of paper were shoved into along with regular shelves. The shelves were...almost, not quite, different colors. Like the same stain had been used on them but the difference in wood made the barely there difference?

Actually there were the faintest variations in the color of wood all around. Most noticeable in the shelves between the two archways.

“Different wood?” Matt murmured.

Xander's babble while he put his clothes away stopped for a second. Something about going to Andrew's that night because he had everyone over for supper on Fridays, he loved to cook and missed cooking for a big group.

“Yeah. Rowan and Oak.”

Matt's attention was caught by one of the shelves. Eight inches high and about two foot across and a tiny light affixed to the bottom of the shelf above it shining down on the arrangement of crystals and couple pieces of petrified wood.

Xander babbled on a bit more. Once the laundry was put away the tour of the rest of the house commenced. The third archway along the back wall led into an almost normal sized room Almost. There was absolutely nothing normal about a ten by thirty foot weapons closet which is what the room seemed. The walls were lined with ten foot tall cabinets, some of the cabinets had glass paned doors, revealing a wide array of guns, knives and swords. Matt wasn't sure he wanted to know what was behind the solid doors of the other cabinets or the walled off narrow section in the back that had a door with a lock.

The bathroom was just as huge as everything else with a sunken tub carved into the stone of the floor. The tub was damned elaborate with steps down into it probably four feet deep and easily could fit ten or more people on the bench carved into it. A more normal tub/shower was tucked into the corner.

The laundry room was a welcome sight, Matt sheepishly asked if he could use the washer and dryer-he'd pretty much been living out of his bags for the last two months. The guys had done a handful of single shows that ate up two weeks. The first trip to Hellfire he'd been dragged along on. Then three weeks for teching another band of Brian's, which Brian was told no fucking way in hell he was going near ever again. They were every bit as bad as the complaints about their shit that had gotten back to Brian and worse. Another handfull of shows, this time hitting Europe and Japan for a total of eight shows in four countries on two continents in two weeks.

The futon in the corner under the loft section was pulled out and cushion raided from the second one, identical, in the same grouping of furniture. It actually made up into a comfortable bed with the doubling of the cushions. He was left to wash his clothes and told he was free to watch whatever or listen to whatever. His laptop should have no trouble picking up the wireless signal from anywhere in the house...just don't mess with the weapons and hurt himself. Xander had to go talk to Wes about something and promised to join Faith for a workout. Raiding the kitchen was fine too, but it was best to be really hungry when going to Andrew's for supper. He was a damned good cook. He also made three times more than what could be possibly eaten then he pouted and wibbled that his food wasn't good if a dent wasn't made in the ton he'd cooked.

Xander reminded him to watch out for snakes if he went out wandering around the town. Snakes and ghosts. Yeah, he'd stay right where he was and hope that Xander's ex-girlfriend didn't come back looking for him.

~*~



Xander limped down the stairs. Faith had gotten in one hell of a crack to his hip with the staff. She was antsy sick of sitting around in Hellfire basically doing nothing. It was getting dangerous to spar with her.

Xander couldn't blame her. Even keeping busy with his workshop, he was getting restless. Sitting around doing nothing, effectively sidelined by circumstance was getting to them all, Wes, Andrew and Tara included. If Faith ventured out of Hellfire where Willow could get a bead on her, well, Xander didn't want to think what might happen. He really didn't want to believe Willow was that far gone even if Tara and Wes were kind of indisputable proof of that.

What worked once wasn't going to work twice. They'd gotten Tara and Wes loose and away. Xander had coordinated that. Despite what Buffy or Willow might believe, he was pretty damned good at tactics. Years of video games, years of avoiding bullies who grew up to be bigger bullies on the football team and his father and Uncle Rory's benders, years of staying in one piece in Africa in some of the areas he'd ended up in. He'd coordinated more than one assault strike, starting with the double date that was a fine foray into larceny getting Buffy the grenade launcher to take out the Judge. The largest had without a doubt been Graduation but it had hardly been the last.

Andrew had managed the spell work that hid Faith, Wes and Tara for forty eight hours from being found by magical means. Xander had “accidentally” read a spell from a book aloud and sent Willow into a two month coma. Wes was still researching the implications of that. Because the spell should have knocked her out for a maximum of sixty hours, not on the verge of dying coma for sixty days. At least, a human magic user it would only have drained and knocked out. Several demonic magic users that spell would have killed, something to do with purity of soul, or possession of soul even. The more contaminated with evil, the more possibly deadly the simple spell was. Tara it might knock out for a full eight hours Wes figured. Maybe. Thalia, who had volunteered to be the test subject, had only been out for twenty hours.

Xander almost beat Andrew. He could have killed Willow. He had held the stake Jesse crumbled to dust on, even if the motion of the panicking crowd had done what he couldn't bring himself to do and knocked Jesse forward onto the stake. Andrew had known there was more to the spell than Xander or Thalia had been told. When Andrew had flat out asked if Xander had known the effects of certain demonic taint and demonic magics would he have gone through with it, Xander had stopped cold.

It was Willow. She'd freaking resurrected Tara and Wes. And now it seemed Doyle. He didn't know he would have, even if it was the only way getting Tara and Wes safely away. It was Willow, and even if he hadn't pushed the stake into Jesse, he'd held it and Jesse crumbled to dust in front of him. He'd come within a bare miss of doing the same to Willow even if it was looking like that may be necessary.

Wes was convenient for practice. After all he knew about slayers and magic and demons, he might not be happy but he wouldn't have a nervous breakdown or go running to relatives and cause a massive backlash of problems. She'd brought Wes back not once but three times, trying to figure out what had gone wrong with Buffy. While none of them were willing to test it to find out, they were all 95% certain if Wes or Tara were killed again, they'd stay dead just like anyone else. Tara had already made them promise to put her in a room in one of the buildings in Hellfire and let Andrew cast a spell to do something for the smell and leave her for two full moon cycles to be sure before they buried her.

Buffy had been killed twice by demons and buried. The new moon after burial Buffy repeated digging her way out of the grave of her first resurrection. Buffy'd been a little more off and a little less sane after each incident. The third time she'd been killed by demons, they'd-well they'd put her in the freezer and brought her out to thaw the day of the new moon. A dead friend in the freezer had been more than a little wiggins-worthy for even them, especially Dawn, but sure enough, she'd resurrected again. The freezer method had been a lot less traumatizing on Buffy having woke up on the kitchen floor of the Council House in Devon with a nasty side of hypothermia rather than six foot under ground in a coffin. As for the rest of them it was a toss up which was more disturbing, but for Buffy's sake, it would be the freezer next time too.

Tara...

Xander shook away the thoughts.

He was safely banished. They weren't looking for him. Buffy declared him too stupid and dangerous to help anymore blaming him for Willow's accidental coma. Willow was happy to have him safely sitting on his ass and driving for Oz. He was safe. He was away from anything oogly. Or maybe he was safely far far away from her and supposedly out of the slaying business, not in contact with anyone in the slaying business and wouldn't see how far gone she was.

Dawn might suspect a few things but none of them wanted to give her any information. Buffy would protect Dawn, even against Willow. Dawn was one hell of a magical power source-research subject number three for Wes and Andrew. Dawn panicking might set Willow off into finding out exactly where they were and what they were trying to sort out. Hellfire's wards effectively made the town a magical blind spot to everything even the PTB according to Cordy. Which was one of the reasons the Mayor had extorted his way into the town and managed to get it in his possession. Willow wouldn't get in to Hellfire, but that wouldn't stop her from waiting just outside of town or doing gods only knew what outside of it.

Dawn disappearing off Willow's radar would have both her and Buffy after them, and if they didn't have everything in place, knew what they were facing, how to stop-and Xander was holding out faint hope for fix too-Willow. They were pretty well screwed with Darth Rosenburg on their ass and if anything she was stronger now than she had been up on Kingsman's Bluff.

They hadn't said anything to Giles. None of them were all that sure they trusted him. Andrew had managed to get the reports from the charred remains of the old council computers. Xander wasn't all that sure about the tech-magic hybrid thingy made to do that but he was pretty sure that it wasn't going to kill anyone. Giles initial reports about them to the council had been-kinda really unnerving. Giles hadn't seemed that Tweedy back then in Xander's memory. Not that skeezy and creepy, he'd been Tweedy but not skeezy and creepy Tweedy.

Unfortunately Xander had to believe the reports Andrew managed to pull from the old computers, including Travers personal record, which had a wet works team on standby-for Giles, for Buffy, for himself. In fact he rated higher on the wet works priority if they'd been sent than Giles or Buffy. Jesse had even made it for a minor blip, would have been on there if he hadn't been caught by Darla. Actually had been made a different priority, catch alive and retrieve when it was learned he'd been turned. They never knew what happened to him. Xander had never said to Giles or the girls. Willow-was ignored at least back then. Jesse had an affinity for Angelic magics, warped of course living on the Hellmouth, but a born affinity for Angelic magics. Which-meant just by his nature he would have been the one in a million vampire that kept his soul naturally. Nice little piece of info they didn't let out to the Slayers, there. Giles had gushed on and on about Xander with his affinities for both Elemental and Chaos magics-powerful ones. Giles thought Jesse was possibly a latent mage at the very least a latent high sorcerer according to whatever crazy ass 'level system' that Wes seemed to understand. Xander was definitely a High Mage and uncontrolled rather than untapped like Jesse, and “quite prone to magical accidents, for his safety and for his usefulness” Giles “pled to be allowed to at least teach him rudimentary spell work.” Willow was “an annoying little know it all who had a knack for computers no magical ability or any skill at being useful and quite the hanger on, very manipulative of the sorcerer and the mage. Jealous of the mage and seems to try her best to put herself between them or work them at odds if at all possible.”

Giles either hadn't had a damn clue of what he was talking about, or...well, or. He'd been dead on on Willow. How she'd get all insecure and pouty and clingy and he and Jesse were bestest friends and they didn't like her as much. She usually pulled that on him more than Jesse. Jesse claimed it was because he was a bigger sucker and fell for it every time and babied her rather than telling her it was crap and to knock it off like Jess did all exactly three times she'd tried that on him.

Xander didn't really credit he had any power. Magic went wrong around him. He'd set books on fire just by reading aloud and mispronouncing. Wesley had nearly crapped his pants over that. Wes then started going through all the “Xander+Magic=Bad.Wrong.Should NEVEREVERMix. Very much of the non-mixy.” things he remembered that supposedly meant Xander was supposed to have mojo.

When Wesley muttered how on earth was Xander still alive after all, he'd snarked back Willow nad Buffy were so convinced he was stupid, it must be he was just too stupid to die. Wes decided he was more clever than he looked, all things considered with her predilection for performing resurrections Willow would have brought him back.

Until they knew what they were dealing with exactly with Willow, they couldn't do a damned thing. Not without tipping their hand and setting things into motion they were totally unprepared for. Not without possibly risking Dawn caught in the crossfire. Dawn would be the first thing they went after when they were ready, and she was safely being tucked underground in Hellfire. Right now Faith was the one responsible for Wes and Tara's escape, and as far as Willow knew, Xander didn't have a clue about them. Xander had been banished and was 'pouting' with Andrew and Oz.

An ancient Shaman in Nairobi had blessed Xander with her dying breath to be safe from prying eyes using magic, especially Wiccan or Demonic magic, which kept him safely hid from the coven and Willow. Willow was still pissed over that five years later.

Andrew was easy to overlook, ignore and underestimate badly. How many years now he'd been involved in slaying and his magical abilities known-left untrained on both counts and to attempt to train himself. Wes and Tara were working with him on the magic, along with Tyson. Wes was working on fighting forms with him as well, having declared Faith and Xander lost causes, their habits too ingrained, too reflex to retrain without leaving them hesitating in the middle of a battle. They just could spar and not interfere with Andrew being trained properly.

Andrew actually seemed to think Hellfire was heaven on earth. He got fighting lessons. He had Wes and Tara to talk and work with as far as magic. Had Xander to geek out over comics and sci fi. He had Oz to rattle on with about computers and tech. And now he seemed to have a new best friend in Tyson.

How Andrew was overlooked for at least his magical abilities. The Geek Triad hadn't been all Jonathan as far as the magic went. They knew that and still even Giles had blithely ignored it.

That brought Xander right back around to Giles being 'lost' as well, too far under Willow's will and magic. Buffy and Dawn might be too, but grim fact was a seemingly now immortal or chronically resurrecting Slayer and a Dimensional Key had to be taken and kept safe. Taken from his best friend, and possible reduced to nothing more than Slayer and Key by the time it was all said and done.

Xander groaned and shook his head. There was no point driving himself half nuts. Andrew and Wes were no where near figuring anything out-and plan B at the moment was the fact Xander could get close enough, catch her unaware enough. Repeat the spell he'd memorized at Andrew's insistance and-well not much came back from decapitation and removal of heart. Xander never liked plan B. Plan B meant things had gone to hell faster than you could say fubar. This time interim all we got Plan B really really sucked.

“That bad of a day, man?”

Oh yeah. His company.

“Almost. Sorry I didn't mean to be gone so long. Sparring with Faith was only about an hour but that quick talk with Wes wasn't so quick.”

His company didn't look all that convinced. Xander wasn't convincing himself. It had been that bad of a day and more, but nothing he was going to tell Matt about. Matt didn't seem to have much clue of the weird other than being forced to admit ghosts existed by way of Whisky Rose, Miss Vine and Cordelia.

Xander frowned slightly. Matt looked kind of guilty and spooked. “Cordelia come back and entertain you?”

“Uh no..”

Xander smiled a little at the big eyes. “Dennis is going to be there tonight. So fair warning see things floating around, don't have a heart attack. It's just Dennis.”

Matt made a little squeak and nodded.

“Dennis is a good guy. He took care of Cordy when she was still alive. Takes care of Tara now. He's not one to get riled over. Trust me. I've ran across plenty of ghosts that the only thing for is exorcism but Dennis is a good guy.”

“This town is fucking nuts,” Matt mumbled.

“Yeah, it's...unique,” Xander snorted and walked over to where Matt was sitting. “Little light reading, huh?”

“It's got pictures. Almost as good as a comic,” Matt shot back.

Xander grinned at the smart ass answer. Matt looked like he freaked himself out looking at the book in his lap which was about six inches thick and eighteen tall. Part of a set of encyclopedia that belonged to Anya once upon a time. “Reminds me, Wes has three of that set he needs to give back. He's sneaky. He'll try to keep them on the basis he reads eleventh century Latin better than I do. I wouldn't care except they were Anya's.”

Anya had even told him the story of how she'd gotten possession of that particular library. A Watcher whose Slayer had called her up on him. The Slayer had turned books, spell ingredients and a good number of magical items over to Anya as a gift after the Watcher had been taken care of.

Xander glanced down at the page open. “Gem, huh.”

“Huh?”

“That's what that one is. Technically a mage-created elemental. The legend behind those is kinda interesting. Seven siblings, all mages and like born in the same decade by how the story seems to put em all pretty close in age. Their grandfather, or at least the one that passed himself off as his grandfather and really had them prisoner but they'd just been little kids and didn't realize the tower they were kept in was a prison cause it had been all they knew, depends on which version. One version tries to claim the seven weren't siblings just gathered up, stolen, dumped together , told they were siblings and none of them were old enough to remember any different. Anyway grandpa the jailer liked shiny things. He also manipulated the seven like crazy, had them competeing for his favor and attention. He'd present them with stuff and have them use their magic on the stuff. Each one of the Seven was locked up separately and given thirteen trunks of jewels and crystals, and couldn't get out of where they were locked up or see anyone especially not each other until all the jewels and crystals were mojo'd. Some legends of magic jewelry point the finger at that whether that's accurate or not. Gem of Amara was one attributed to the seven mages half the time. Those there are a magic created elemental bound to a jewel. Different ones do different things. About half of them are really nasty.”

“You believe in this shit?”

Xander shrugged. “Comes with the job.”

Matt looked at him like he was nuts.

“Historical Preservation and research group? Yeah, comes with the job. Crazy stories and cave paintings and things like that.”

“You really think I'm stupid enough to buy that shit?”

“Nope,” Xander said and shook his head. “You don't seem to want more than bullshit the way you're letting it slide, though.”

Matt's stomach rumbled.

Xander laughed. “It is time to head over to Andrew's.” His own stomach was empty and unhappy about that.

“A ghost is going to be there?”

“Yeah. Dennis. Clem's still in town, I think Tara convinced him to come over too. He's talked to Tyson through a door a couple times. He hasn't let Tyson see him but Tara's been working on convincing him it's okay, and that you won't freak out and stare or anything.”

“Why would I?” Matt asked warily.

“Genetic condition. Like almost Elephant Man levels of freaky not even really human looking.”

“Damn,” Matt breathed.

“He's not real big on stuff like this with people he doesn't know. He's-not the brightest guy around either. Kinda reminds you of an overgrown puppy. He's a good guy though. Loses badly at poker and gets into all sorts of trouble with that. He's on the outs with his family for the stupid with the poker that's why he ended up here with us. Regular clan of them. I've met three of his brothers, a sister, and about seventeen cousins, and there's more, no clue how many.”

Matt nodded. “I'm not gonna give the guy any crap.”

Xander smiled tiredly he really didn't think Matt would. Not when Tara was so certain of his aura.

“You really believe in this shit?” Matt repeated with a strange kind of intensity.

“I've seen a lot of weird shit. You've met Cordelia, saw Miss Vine, and I kinda think talked to Rose too. Work has, well, let's say landed me in all sorts of weird shit for years.” Xander shrugged. Matt could take that as he wanted. Ghosts at least were undeniable, well, they could have been denied by those with Sunnydale Syndrome but yeah, really hard to deny.


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