Drusilla had no fear that the slayers would find her. She'd killed a Slayer before, and her psychic powers made her more prepared. She left the rose on step outside the dormitory. Attached to it with a ribbon was a folded piece of parchment with Cassiopeia written on it in red calligraphy. She knew it would get to her.
Friday
Friday sneaked up behind Tiffany and yelled in her ear, sending Tiffany screaming out of the dorm door. Friday chuckled and followed her.
"Gotcha," she smirked.
"Argh! You suck!" Tiffany screamed.
Friday was about to respond with a smart alec remark, when she paused and sniffed the air.
"Can you smell that?" she asked.
"Smell what? Your BO? Yes. Why don't you go shower, you -"
"Oh shush," Friday replied, figuring maybe only her enhanced senses could smell the lingering whiff of vampire. "Aha!"
Friday bent down and found the rose with the parchment. Tiffany forgot what she was going to say and looked over Friday's shoulder.
"Cassiopeia? Who's that?"
"Never you mind. I'll give it to her."
"Whatever."
Tiffany went to the cafeteria, while Friday headed back into the dorms and to Cassie's room, hoping to bump into her on the way there.
Cassie
Cassie was walking down the hallway when she smelled flowers, blood, and her mother's scent.
"Hey Friday. What do you have there?" She asked, her eyes darting around the room.
Friday
"It was sitting outside the dorm," Friday replied.
She held it out for Cassie to take.
"Anyway, it's none of my business. If you want to chat, you can, but I'm not going to ask questions."
Cassie
"My Mum left it," Cassie said, taking the rose. "I can smell her on it. And that's not red ink. It's blood. Young, probably a toddler." She opened the note, and read it softly, but loud enough Friday could hear.
"My darling daughter,
I love you dearly, my sweet, but you dance with the enemy.
You are not safe.
Beware.
'The dead man cares not what die is cast, for not even the stars and breathe life into dust.'" Cassie swallowed
deeply, stumbled over to the lounge area, and sat down on the couch,
tears in her eyes.
Friday
Friday followed, and sat down next to her on the couch, figuring that it was best not to leave Cassie alone right now. A letter written in the blood of a child? That was gross. And, although the contents of the letter sparked her curiousity, Friday remained by her promise not to ask questions about it.
She picked up a box of tissues on the nearby coffee table and held them out to Cassie in case she wanted one.
Cassie
"Something bad is going to happen. Something so terrible that not even the stars can stop it." Cassie said, taking the tissue and blotting her eyes.
Friday
"I see," Friday frowned.
This sounded a little too big for her.
"Would you like me to find Willow or Giles? Or both?"
The Vampire Kitties
"Could you grab Willow?" Cassie asked, as she made a psychic plea to her brothers. Within moments, a portal opened up in the lounge room floor, and her three brothers appeared.
"Cass, what's wrong?" Orion asked. She showed them the note.
"Shite," Percy swore.
"This is not good," Draco asked. "She's here? In town?"
"Can't you sense her?" Percy replied. "She's definitely around. her and Drac, and some very uncool things are gonna happen." The four siblings turned into kittens and curled up around each other on the sofa, debating things telepathically until Friday and Willow returned.
Friday
Friday hurried to the caf, and the staff lunch room. She opened the door and stuck her head in.
"Willow here?"
It being breakfast time and all, she figured it was a good place to start.
Willow
"Hey Friday," Willow asked, getting up from the table. "What's up?"
Friday
"Oh, nothing much," Friday replied casually. "Cassie just got a rose, and a letter written in the blood of a toddler from her mother about some impending trouble that not even the stars can stop. Not that I thought stars were actually capable of solving problems, mind you, but they must be great problem solvers after all if their inability to solve this is something of note."
She nodded.
"She'd like to see you about it."
Willow and Vampire kittens
"Okay, thank you Friday, I'll take care of it. I really don't think Dru will harm any of the girls tonight, but could you please go and find Kate and John, and have them call all the girl in on their mobile, just in case? After that, you should get to bed," Willow suggested. She nodded to Friday, and headed toward Cass's room.
"Cass? It's Willow." She eased the door open to see Cass on her bed with a brother on each side and one on her lap in cat form. "Let's see this note," Willow took the note and scanned it
"Okay, well, it may be a prophesy, so we'll keep our eyes peeled for that. I'm more concerned about your mom showing up. Are you guys okay?"
"Well, our mother doesn't exactly have a strong grasp of her maternal instincts," Orion said, "We raise ourselves,"
"And we raise each other," Draco finished.
"Listen, I'm from Sunnydale, where we tended to have a lot of dysfunctional families. Our parents weren't usually very good and being parents, but, I'd like to think we kids turned out okay, you know why?"
"Why?" Cass asked.
"We had a Giles. So, boys, I'm going to bend the rules for tonight, but please don't make a habit of it, and I don't want to see you in any of the other girls' rooms. Come talk to me later, if you need to, kay?" Willow stood up and left, leaving the sibling alone for a bit.