Friendly Obligations
Title: Friendly Obligations
Author: kerrykhat
Fandom: Mercedes Thompson series
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Warren didn’t normally call, not unless something was wrong.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and related characters; Patricia Briggs owns "The Mercedes Thompson Series" and related characters; I own nothing.
Word Count: 687
Author's Notes: Part of the Breathe Again verse, and takes place after Out of the Woods.
The artificially cheerful jingle of her ringtone cut through the silence of Buffy’s hotel room. Not taking her eyes off the map and notes spread in front of her, Buffy flipped open her cell and raised it to her ear.
“Hello?” she asked, circling an area with red ink. If her intel was right, this was the seethe’s main nest. None of the vampires were strong enough to strike out without their master’s protection, which made her job a whole lot easier.
“It’s Warren,” a familiar voice answered.
Buffy frowned and put down the pen. “What’s up?” Warren didn’t normally call, not unless something was wrong. The last time had been a few decades ago when he’d been chased out of El Paso by the local pack and needed a safe place to stay and recover.
She heard him take a deep breath before replying, “My alpha would like to meet you once your’e done with whatever it is that you’re doing.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“I think it’s a good thing,” Warren said after a brief pause. “He’s a good alpha. He knows about me and doesn’t give a damn, and he let me into his pack when others would’ve happily chased me off.”
“Okay,” Buffy agreed, rubbing her forehead. “I should’ve checked with you to make sure that everything was fine after me blowing through town. I don’t want to fuck this up for you.”
Warren laughed and the tenseness in Buffy’s shoulders relaxed. If Warren was laughing like that, then it was all good. “Don’t worry about it. Just make sure you give me a heads up next time, so I can let Adam know.”
The name sounded familiar, but for the life of her, Buffy couldn’t place it right now. He was probably one of the wolves that had gone public in the last month or so. She’d paid cursory attention, but she’d been in the middle of writing her thesis and had blocked out everything but the most essential distractions.
“That’s good to know. This has taken a lot faster than I thought it would be, so I should be done in the next few days,” she told him. “I’ll call you once I’m off of the peninsula and headed back your way.”
“Don’t burn down the town,” Warren warned her, amusement coloring his voice.
“Damn, you ruin all my fun.”
“Take care, Buffy.”
“You too, Warren.”
Buffy hung up the phone and stared at it for a long moment. She didn’t like dealing with alphas. In her experience, they were massive chauvinist assholes, and she’d had enough of those to full three lifetimes. That, and the whole Slayer thing made for not so good encounters. If it weren’t for the fact that Warren vouched for the guy, she’d try to avoid it all together.
But Warren was one of her best friends and she wasn’t about to make life harder for him. She’d meet the alpha and hopefully they’d all get out unscathed. And, even more hopefully, she could get out of the Tri-Cities without running into Samuel again.
Resolutely pushing her ex out of her mind, Buffy leaned forward again and looked at her maps. It wouldn’t be too hard to burn the seethe to the ground in the middle of the day and make it look like an accident. She’d leave town tomorrow and loop back around before doing it, though. Forks was small enough where she would be remembered once they discovered the charred house. Hopefully, though, once the murder rate dropped, they’d be so relieved that they wouldn’t look too closely into the fire.
Buffy smiled grimly. These vampires should’ve been smarter if they wanted to escape her attention, even if they started their killing spree in the middle of nowhere. A dozen dead so far in a small town in a matter of weeks attracted attention, and if the vampires wouldn’t put a stop to it, she would.
It was time to remind the vampires that they should control themselves and that the Slayer was more than just an urban legend.
Author: kerrykhat
Fandom: Mercedes Thompson series
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Warren didn’t normally call, not unless something was wrong.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and related characters; Patricia Briggs owns "The Mercedes Thompson Series" and related characters; I own nothing.
Word Count: 687
Author's Notes: Part of the Breathe Again verse, and takes place after Out of the Woods.
The artificially cheerful jingle of her ringtone cut through the silence of Buffy’s hotel room. Not taking her eyes off the map and notes spread in front of her, Buffy flipped open her cell and raised it to her ear.
“Hello?” she asked, circling an area with red ink. If her intel was right, this was the seethe’s main nest. None of the vampires were strong enough to strike out without their master’s protection, which made her job a whole lot easier.
“It’s Warren,” a familiar voice answered.
Buffy frowned and put down the pen. “What’s up?” Warren didn’t normally call, not unless something was wrong. The last time had been a few decades ago when he’d been chased out of El Paso by the local pack and needed a safe place to stay and recover.
She heard him take a deep breath before replying, “My alpha would like to meet you once your’e done with whatever it is that you’re doing.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“I think it’s a good thing,” Warren said after a brief pause. “He’s a good alpha. He knows about me and doesn’t give a damn, and he let me into his pack when others would’ve happily chased me off.”
“Okay,” Buffy agreed, rubbing her forehead. “I should’ve checked with you to make sure that everything was fine after me blowing through town. I don’t want to fuck this up for you.”
Warren laughed and the tenseness in Buffy’s shoulders relaxed. If Warren was laughing like that, then it was all good. “Don’t worry about it. Just make sure you give me a heads up next time, so I can let Adam know.”
The name sounded familiar, but for the life of her, Buffy couldn’t place it right now. He was probably one of the wolves that had gone public in the last month or so. She’d paid cursory attention, but she’d been in the middle of writing her thesis and had blocked out everything but the most essential distractions.
“That’s good to know. This has taken a lot faster than I thought it would be, so I should be done in the next few days,” she told him. “I’ll call you once I’m off of the peninsula and headed back your way.”
“Don’t burn down the town,” Warren warned her, amusement coloring his voice.
“Damn, you ruin all my fun.”
“Take care, Buffy.”
“You too, Warren.”
Buffy hung up the phone and stared at it for a long moment. She didn’t like dealing with alphas. In her experience, they were massive chauvinist assholes, and she’d had enough of those to full three lifetimes. That, and the whole Slayer thing made for not so good encounters. If it weren’t for the fact that Warren vouched for the guy, she’d try to avoid it all together.
But Warren was one of her best friends and she wasn’t about to make life harder for him. She’d meet the alpha and hopefully they’d all get out unscathed. And, even more hopefully, she could get out of the Tri-Cities without running into Samuel again.
Resolutely pushing her ex out of her mind, Buffy leaned forward again and looked at her maps. It wouldn’t be too hard to burn the seethe to the ground in the middle of the day and make it look like an accident. She’d leave town tomorrow and loop back around before doing it, though. Forks was small enough where she would be remembered once they discovered the charred house. Hopefully, though, once the murder rate dropped, they’d be so relieved that they wouldn’t look too closely into the fire.
Buffy smiled grimly. These vampires should’ve been smarter if they wanted to escape her attention, even if they started their killing spree in the middle of nowhere. A dozen dead so far in a small town in a matter of weeks attracted attention, and if the vampires wouldn’t put a stop to it, she would.
It was time to remind the vampires that they should control themselves and that the Slayer was more than just an urban legend.