Sowing the Dragon's Teeth by Jonathan E. Hernandez

Physical stuff, like the jaw and the cheekbones, but also some of how he was standing, the way he was talking. The real thing, even, not the one you guys have met. “Actually, I think I do know what it was… I looked at that bastard and he just… he was so much like Nick. “You know, that’s both the most unexpected and most appropriate thing I can think of.” “And there you have described the existential contradiction that is Buffy Summers, young Padawan. “Buffy’s majoring in Psych, you pick stuff up.” “She is?” A beat as he thought about it. Anxiety builds up slower, lasts longer, and has more obvious initiators.” He gave me a side-eye and I shrugged. Panic attacks are immediate, tend to appear to come out of nowhere, and only last a few minutes. Don’t really know what hit me- Craven’s usually the one with the anxiety issues.” “Panic attack, not anxiety.

Randy blew out a breath, staring at the decorative molding around the room’s ceiling.

The room had probably been a guest room, it had that kind of nondescript inoffensive design that said nobody actually lived in it- except an entire warren of dust bunnies these days, of course. “Yeah, sure, man, pull up a floorboard.” I did as he asked, sitting just close enough to feel without actually touching shoulders. It wasn’t a particularly strong laugh, but it was there. Is this a private panic attack, or do you want some company?” A blink, and then he laughed. His eyes were wide, but at least they looked like they were seeing me. He was sitting with his back against the far wall, curled up with arms around his knees, but he looked up at the knock. I followed the trail up to one of the old bedrooms and stopped outside, knocking gently on the wall to get his attention. From the spacing of the prints, he wasn’t running, just striding very fast, which was also good. Going further into the mansion, that was good- invitations don’t just hold against vampires, they’re also important in magic, and we hadn’t seen any sign that Nick’s teleportation would allow him to cross a threshold. That struck me as a distinctly bad situation right now, so I’d slipped out the closest room exit from where he’d been standing and was now following the sneaker prints. Tony had more than enough people around him at the moment, and a quick look as everybody else had closed in on him had told me Randy wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

Chapter Six Xander One upside of the level of dust in an abandoned mansion- it makes it really easy to track somebody.

Sowing the Dragon's Teeth by Jonathan E. Hernandez