Things get complicated

Meanwhile, in a crypt several miles away:

"The ceremony was a success," said the black-robed warlock to the gray-suited man standing before him. "Your mistress should be waking up any second now."

"Were there any problems?" said the man in the gray suit.

"Only one," said the warlock. "I had to remove her right arm to help with the whole resurrection process but then considering how little I had to work with and the fact that we weren't really working with your mistress's original body to begin with, the ceremony went relatively well. I'm quite sure what little pain she felt would have been minor compared to what she would have experienced during a more primitive ceremony."

"Your consideration will be much appreciated," said the man in gray.

The man in gray turned toward the body of a naked woman that lay on a stone altar in the center of the crypt. The body had once belonged to a young blonde college student who had had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time; now it belonged to his mistress. The blonde's body looked nothing like his mistress's original body but that was okay. If things went well tonight, his mistress would not be occupying it for long.

At that point, the man in gray heard a cough from the warlock. He turned in his direction and heard the warlock say, "Ahem! The supplies for this type of ceremony are not cheap and the preparations were very complicated. I trust I'll be rewarded quite handsomely for my troubles."

"As a matter of fact, you will be," said the man in gray.

And while the warlock was facing in another direction, the man in gray stabbed him in the back with one of his own knives.

Then the man in gray heard a voice behind him. "It would have been nice if you had waited until I was up before you did that."

The man in gray turned and saw that his mistress was awake and sitting up on the altar.

"I'm sorry, Mistress, but your instructions said --" the man in gray started to say.

"Yes, I know, Evans," said the woman on the altar. "But you don't always have to follow my instructions so literally. Anyway, I trust you brought me some clothes to fit this new body of mine."

"Yes, Mistress," said Evans, handing the woman a bundle of clothes.

"Ordinarily I'd ask you to turn your back right now, Evans," said the woman. "But with this missing arm of mine, I'm afraid I'm going to need your help getting dressed."

"Certainly, Mistress," said Evans.

As he hurriedly helped his mistress put on black underwear and a green dress, the woman kept asking him if he had gotten certain items that had been mentioned in her instructions.

"I got all of them, Mistress," said Evans. "Even the talisman."

"Good," said the woman. "That means I don't have to go through a big, complicated ritual when I swap this body out for a new one. Not this body I'm in right now is all that bad, mind you. But if I don't transfer to a new body by sunup, I'll be trapped inside a rotting corpse and then it's only a matter of time before I'm back in the underworld again. And quite frankly, I'd much rather have someone else make that trip for me, thank you very much."

"Do you have a particular person in mind for the body swap, Mistress?" asked Evans.

"As a matter of fact, I do," said the woman. "Two of them, in fact. But if I had to name a preference, I'd choose the blonde."

"I'm afraid I don't understand," said Evans.

"You don't have to, Evans, just as long as you back me up and follow my lead," said the woman once known as Gwendolyn Post. "Now let's move out. After all, dawn will be here in about nine hours and we still have a Slayer to bag."