Resurrecting Ravana Read Online Free PDF Page A

assistant Slayers. It was unprecedented, and he had no doubt the council disapproved.
    Giles had been terribly worried about them at first, afraid they had no idea what they would be dealing with if they chose to help Buffy. Technically, his only responsibility was for his Slayer, but he felt responsible for her friends, too. He was surprised by how quickly they had accepted the nighttime world of evil that would come to make up so much of Buffy’s life. He found their resiliency and good humor refreshing . . . even if that good humor did include some ribbing of Giles’s very British mannerisms and personality. Although he sometimes found them frustrating, even exasperating, there had been times when their presence had been invaluable.
    And he enjoyed their company, being a part of their lives; in a line of work made up of darkness and unpredictable sinister forces and the Dewey decimal system, they helped keep things rather light, and even made him feel young. Well . . . at least younger.
    Giles picked up a stack of returned books and left the front desk to put them back on their proper shelves.
    Willow stepped into the library, one thumb hooked under her book bag’s shoulder strap, and was surprised by how quiet it was. Like any library, it was always quiet, but more so today than usual. There were no low voices, no stifled laughs, no shuffling chairs or sounds of movement. Even the front desk was abandoned. Farther inside, she heard quiet murmurings, followed the direction of the sound with her eyes, and saw Oz and Xander in the corner, heads down, a book open in front of Oz.
    Willow stepped up behind Oz, leaned down, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed the top of his head. Oz jerked beneath her, startled.
    “Hi, guys,” she said, smiling.
    Xander looked up at her, wincing slightly, as if annoyed. “Oh, uh . . . hi, Willow,” he said. He straightened in the chair, stretched, reached back, and massaged his neck.
    “We’re quizzing now,” Oz said.
    She let go of him and moved around to the side of the table. “Oh. I’m interrupting something?”
    “Kinda sorta,” Xander said.
    “Boy talk?” she asked with a smile.
    Xander shook his head. “Oh, no. We’re committing Beowulf to memory in Spanish.”
    Oz said. “Actually, studying.”
    “We’re taking turns quizzing each other,” Xander added. “And hard as it may be to believe, we’ve kinda gotten into it. So maybe we could, y’know . . . talk later?”
    Willow’s smile fell away. “Oh. Okay.” She tried to put it back on, but it was crooked and a little stiff. “Okay, then, I’ll . . . catch you later, I guess.” As she started back through the library, walking slower than before, Willow was about to sigh when she noticed Cordelia sitting alone at a table, reading a book. “Hi, Cordy,” she said as she passed.
    “This sucks,” Cordelia said.
    Willow stopped walking. “What?”
    “This book.”
    Willow looked over her shoulder at the open book and read the title at the top of the page. “Oh, I read that. It was good.”
    “It sucks. It takes place in the South, and all the people are so . . . Southern. Why are all books and movies about the South so depressing? Everyone’s either drunk, insane, or sleeping with their parents, or something. It’s like a soap opera, but without the charm.”
    “I’d suggest you see the movie, but —”
    “There’s a movie?” Cordelia asked excitedly. She pushed her chair back and turned to face Willow. “You mean, I could rent a tape instead of reading this whole thing?”
    “Um, I was about to say . . . none of the video stores in town carry it. I checked once a couple weeks ago. I don’t even know if it’s available on tape. But maybe you could —”
    “Great!” Cordelia huffed and turned back to her book and hunched forward. “I’m stuck reading this . . . this thing.”
    Willow let that sigh out as she walked away from Cordelia and took a seat at one of the computers. She put