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After Faith put the thought of Wesley in her mind, Lilah got out of Boston.
She had a department to staff, so she had Janet schedule her in to visit every top-flight law school in the States. She would crisscross the continent to every careers fair going, taking her pick of the best graduates and bringing them under her wing, exactly as Holland Manners had done with her.
The constant travelling kept her busy, even if Lilah did find herself missing Beast, as she’d come to call her guard dog. But what excited her more than seeing a new city every couple of days was the thrill of the hunt.
She had worked with newly-hired company warlocks to divine which seniors had the natural ability to thrive in her unique branch of the legal profession.
Once she tracked down these promising students, they received the five-star treatment from the head of Wickersham & Ropes’ supernatural department. Expensive dinners, the promise of paying off their student loan very quickly, and work that even the finest minds would find engaging.
Night after night schmoozing young co-eds and sounding them out for the right combination of talents had Lilah flexing her people skills. She wasn’t just a good attorney in the papers-and-case-law sense of the word. She knew her stuff alright, but she also knew that her ability to charm and manipulate was equally as important in getting her to the top.
She remembered when Holland Manners had chosen her, out of the whole of her graduating class at Mortonson, to be invited for an internship at Wolfram & Hart. Now she sat across the table from versions of herself, persuading other ambitious young people that she could offer what they wanted.
In city after city, it was always the same. Find them on campus, introduce herself, offer them the shiny brochure her department had whipped up, then discuss what she was offering them the next night over dinner.
She saved Harvard for last. After working her way around the Ivy League doing the same thing night after night, Lilah should have been bored, but she wasn’t. The enthusiasm she fired in the young law students was infectious. They wanted to know more about the firm and her work. They heard her say that she was building a new department from the ground up, and saw a chance to get in the first stage of something big.
She saw a look in their eyes that she remembered from the mirror. Hunger. They wanted what she was offering, and they were going to take it. One young man even confessed to her that he had been planning to drop out of law school right before his finals.
Bobby was a sandy-haired scholarship student with a natural aptitude for legal work. Over the entrée, he confided in Lilah that a string of dull internships over the summer vacation had him terrified of a boring life as a corporate drone.
He had almost turned down her invitation to dinner, but as he held her business card in his hand, he decided to Google her name before he called and cancelled. Wolfram & Hart came up, and two hours later he was still at his computer, having done some online detective work and discovered just what kind of cases Lilah specialised in.
When Lilah arrived at the restaurant at the given time, Bobby had already been there for twenty minutes and his rangy frame was vibrating with energy. He had brought with him not only questions about her work, but suggestions.
Lilah had a good feeling about the kid.
As he finished a cheese platter, he confessed “I can’t believe that I was going to run away to Honolulu and become a surf instructor, and now I’m going to be working for one of the oldest firms on the east coast – with demons!“
He showed her the ticket to Hawaii he’d booked – and tore it up.
“You’ve got me excited about law again. Sign me up, I’m in,” he had told her, as he dropped the pieces of paper on the tablecloth.
She’d smiled, and touched his arm. “That’s great, Bobby. I’ll have my assistant send you some paperwork over for you to sign, and when you’ve graduated, you can come straight to Wickersham & Ropes. We’re going to do great things together. I can feel it.”
Lilah paid the check and Bobby offered to walk her to her car. He was a true young gentleman and she thought he would fit right in at the ancient firm. Which was a shame, really, as his chivalry proved to be his downfall.
As they said goodbye, neither of them noticed the figure crouched in the shadow of the company car. When the vampire lunged for Bobby’s throat, the kid tried to fight him off, but it was useless.
Lilah’s gun was in her hand in seconds, but she struggled to get a clean shot. She had a choice: kill the vamp and kill the kid, or risk watching him get drained in front of her in the parking lot.
She didn’t have a stake. Why the hell didn’t she have a stake? She screamed in frustration, not terror, and the monster turned to look at her quizzically, mouth still clamped to Bobby’s throat.
Then he was dust.
Bobby collapsed to the floor, his attacker’s remains settling in his blood, and Lilah looked at the useless weapon in her hand. She hadn’t fired the gun.
She looked across the parking lot to see a familiar figure.
“Am I really going to have to keep saving you, Lilah? You of all people should know better than to use a gun against a vampire. ”
Wesley. Her Wesley. Dry as the Sahara and always quick to get a dig in, even as a teenager lie bleeding on the floor. Lilah wadded up her jacket and tried to staunch the wound as the Watcher lifted him into the back of her car.
"Keep pressing down on it, and keep talking to him. I'll drive us to the ER," he said.
It was going to be a strange ride.