3
The time was 11:30 in the evening. Wesley was again seated on the sofa, in the living room of Winifred’s apartment. A lamp was on, filling the entire room with a soft yellow light. Harmony sat in an easy chair, across the room from him. She was fidgeting; rubbing the palm of her hand, that had touched Wesley’s Crucifix.
“It still hurts Wes.”
“I wouldn’t have used it,” he told her, “if it wasn’t necessary.”
“You know that wasn’t really me, don’t you?”
He nodded. “It was Illyria.”
“What a snobby bitch!” Harmony fumed, “I’m ‘An unworthy vessel of corrupt flesh’? Me? Okay, I’m a vampire; an animated corpse. I suppose that makes me corrupt; but how does that make me an ‘unworthy’ vessel? She wasn’t expecting to possess a virgin, was she?”
Wesley asked, “So you’re beginning to remember things?”
“Just vaguely.” She told him, “But what a bitch, and I think she’s got an awfully ungrateful attitude. Don’t you, Wes?”
“What else do you remember about Illyria?”
“All I remember are the things she said to you, while she was using my mouth. I don’t know what was going on in her mind. Do you know anything about her Wes?”
“I’ll have to look it up.” He told the Demonic employee of Wolfram and Hart, “What I know off hand, is that ‘Illyria’ was the name of a Roman Province, in the region that was, until recently, known as Yugoslavia.”
“I was possessed by a Yugoslavian goddess?”
“That was the name of a Roman Province. It could not have had anything to do with her. She was sealed inside a sarcophagus, more than 1,000 years before the Romans came to power. The inscriptions on the sarcophagus are undoubtedly Egyptian, Middle Kingdom.”
“Okay Wes, that’s all very interesting, but what I want to know, is if she’s gonna come back and possess me again?”
“Have you purged all the infected blood, that you drank from Fred?”
“Oh yeah.” She told him, “I grabbed that bottle of Maalox all right. I puked it all up, and flushed it down the toilet.”
“Then you probably won’t need to worry about it happening to you again.”
“Do you think this Illyria’ll possess some guy who works in a Waste Treatment Plant?” She laughed, “That’d be one ‘Unworthy Vessel’ wouldn’t it?”
He chuckled. “It might teach her some humility.”
“There’s just one thing Wes. Fred’s still got a lot of that inflected blood in her.”
“You mean you didn’t drain her totally?”
“No!” She made a face. “With the way she tasted? Eeew yuck! I only sucked out enough to kill her. Once her heart stopped pumping, I stopped sucking. In her condition it didn’t take all that long. That was a relief!”
“Harmony! You’re talking about Fred!”
“Sorry Wes. What I meant to say, is that there’s still a good amount of infected blood left inside her corpse.”
“Then there’s a good amount of Illyria left in her.”
Wesley rose up from the sofa and went over the desk in a corner of the room, where Winifred’s home computer was set up.
He sat in the chair and switched the computer on.
He told Harmony, “I’m going to check with google. I’ll see if there’s any information, in regards to a Divinity named Illyria. I want to see if there’s anything I can learn, about how to deal with her.”
He typed in the words “Goddess named Illyria” and hit the “google search” button. Then he sat staring at the screen, with his arms folded, and a frown on his face.
Harmony asked, “Find anything?”
“7,384,926 entries.”
“Gonna take a while, huh?”
“Apparently.”
“Well I hate to say it Wes, but now that I’ve puked up everything, my stomach is empty, and I’m getting hungry.”
He reached in his jacket pocket, at took out the crucifix again.
“It’s okay Wes!” She spoke sharply. “I’m not Illyria anymore! You can put that thing away!”
He lay the object on the desk, beside the keyboard.
“I’ll keep it here, just to play it safe.”
“Okay. You stay your side of the room, I’ll stay here. You don’t know if there’s any bottled pigs’ blood in the fridge do you?”
He took his eyes off the screen and looked at Harmony. “Bottled pigs’ blood? Fred wasn’t a vampire yet.”
“But she will be, so you should have been prepared.”
“You said I’d have three days. That’ll give me plenty of time to purchase every-thing that’s necessary.”
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He returned his attention to the screen.
“Right.” She asked, “You don’t really need me here, do you Wes? I’d like to go out and get something to eat.”
He looked at her again, “Harmony?”
“Don’t worry Wes!” She again spoke with annoyance. “I’m not gonna bite anyone. There are establishments that cater to vampires, where you can get all the pigs’ blood you want for a reasonable price.”
“Yes. I’ve heard of them. I’m glad to know you’re being a responsible citizen Harmony.”
“Thank you Mr. Wyndham-Pryce the Third.”
She got up and headed for the door. When she reached it she turned around.
“I also know some places,” she told him, “where for a much higher price, you can get the good stuff. I’ll bring some back for Fred.”
Then she went out the door.
Wesley now sat alone, working at the computer on the desk in the apartment of the late Winifred Berkel. Her bedroom door was open. Through the corner of his eye, he was aware of her lifeless body lying stretched out on the bed, while he waited for her to become a vampire.
She’ll be undead in three days. “‘Beautiful, strong and healthy, with a pair of brand new fangs, for the two of you to play with.’”
Poor judgment indeed, he thought. Yes. I am a fool. I cannot argue with that. But...
But lose the woman I love? I can do nothing but fight against that!
Whoever said, “All you need is love.” didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all”? Whoever said that, was also a fool. Not as big a fool as I.
He tried to focus his attention on the computer screen in front of him. What he was discovering about a Divinity named Illyria was disturbing.
According to Ancient Mythology, Illyria was a Daughter of the Darkest Ones; who caused a wasting death to afflict all mortals, who encountered her true essence. This Illyria raised up mighty armies, that waged war upon the inhabitants of Earth, causing total death and devastation wherever she led them.
After many centuries of warfare, bloodshed, death, destruction and untold suffering, her armies were finally vanquished. She was captured and sealed within a sarcophagus, upon which a mighty curse was placed. Then the accursed sarcophagus, containing the accursed Being was interred in a location that was never revealed.
Wesley wondered, And this Accursed Being thought that Harmony was an “Unworthy Vessel” for herself?
He returned to what he was learning about the “Accursed” Illyria’s undiscovered...
But, he thought, the sarcophagus was discovered, several months ago. It arrived at the Wolfram & Hart Research Department, about two months ago. They’d only been able to get around to checking it out at the beginning of this week; and the woman I love was the one who just happened to be the researcher who opened the lid.
That was how she encountered the “True Essence” of Illyria, and why she would have died from a wasting disease, if he and Harmony hadn’t intervened.
Would have died? He looked back into the bedroom.
Illyria didn’t kill her. Harmony and I did. But Winifred will come back as a vam-pire. “With a brand new pair of fangs.” For the two of us to play with?
Or she will come back as Illyria, a Vampire Goddess, and who knows how she will play with us?
Horrid judgment on my part indeed!
He heard a creaking sound, coming through the open bedroom door.
He looked into the darkness of the room. He saw the dim form of Winifred’s body, lying stretched out on the bed. She hadn’t moved.
She’s only been dead about four hours. Much too early for her to become undead. Probably a sound from outside, coming through her bedroom window. It has to be. She can’t be reviving now! I’m not ready! Harmony hasn’t returned with the good stu...I mean pigs’ blood yet!
He returned his attention to the screen, and heard creaking again. This time he didn’t look.
It’s too early for Winifred the Vampire to arise, he thought, but not too early for Illyria.
He reached over to the side of the keyboard, and put his hand on the crucifix.
Then he definitely heard the bed creaking. The sound had not come through her bedroom window.
He now turned and gazed through the open doorway, into the darkened bedroom. The body of Winifred Berkel, stood in the darkness beside the bed, gazing back at him.