Oz had tried for hours to drop off to sleep but found it impossible to sleep in a strange house on a strange bed. With a strange but vaguely familiar scent wafting up the stairs. He padded downstairs in his bare feet being lead by his nose to the kitchen. It was pitch black except for a small glow by the wall then the smoke became more pungent.

"Welcome Lycanthrope. Join me?" Oz sat down by Giles.

"Jack doesn’t like me smoking. Help yourself." Giles studied Oz as he took a joint from the tin on the table. He was very quiet.

"You know don’t you?" Giles asked. Oz nodded as he searched his clothing for a lighter.

"Yes." He knew when he first saw Giles; the veil of death surrounded him. Like an old stag fearing a wolf. "How long have you been ill Giles?"

The older man sighed with relief. Someone he could be honest with at last.

"About five years. My doctor says the cancer started within a week of Willow’s death. It seems I can’t tolerate life without her." He gave Oz a light.

"This" He held the joint upright in his fingers. "Helps but it’s not prescribed so Jack doesn’t like it. He keeps asking me why I have to rebel all the time." Oz shared the Watcher’s amusement. "I’m only allowed oral painkillers and I get so fed up of drinking."

"Do you know when?" Oz asked meaning if Giles knew how long he had to live.

"I’ve always known. It’s Christmas Day. That’s why I called you here to say goodbye and to give you all a present. What do you want for Christmas Oz?"

Oz tried to return Giles’ steady gaze and failed miserably. "Have you got a silver bullet? ’Cause I’ve been sent to kill you. I don’t want to, I was sent before, but Ethan stopped me. Now I don’t have a choice." His tears stained silver down his cheeks in the moonlight.

Giles was surprised by the werewolf’s admission; he was convinced he was going to die naturally. Who would want to assassinate a dying man?

"What happened to you Oz, we all wondered."

"The government found a way to control the wolf and release him at times other than the full moon. I kill who they programme me to kill then I’m left alone with that knowledge until they need me again. I don’t want to see another full moon Giles. I’ve had enough."

"Very well, a silver bullet for you." He handed the werewolf a handkerchief Oz accepted with a nod of thanks.

"Would you like to hear how I lost control over some magic?" Oz nodded in the darkness. A story to himself without the others! Giles began.

It was two years into my course at Oxford and Ethan and I had enlarged our circle of friends to include Philip, Thomas and Dierdre five for a pentagram. During the summer break, I had a job as a labourer on a local building site. I enjoyed it. It was hard physical work in the sun for the most part and by the end of the summer I looked pretty good. (I was very vain in those days) It stood me in good stead for the next job I was forced to take to meet the rent on the house we all shared.

Ethan had been the breadwinner. We didn’t know how he came up with the money. He just did I think I was the only one he trusted with the truth and he made me promise I wouldn’t tell anyone until after his death. He was an escort of sorts to anyone who would pay. Sometimes he would come home and I would sense his revulsion at what he had to do. I think that was the beginning of the change in his character.

It was the first week back and the first weekend when we had any spare cash. On Saturday morning Ethan offered to make us all breakfast, we had a huge mushroom omelette with toast. Ethan had gathered the mushrooms on his way home on Friday night.

All I can remember of that day is waking up naked in the middle of Salisbury plain with artillery shells exploding over-head. Ethan had used *magic* mushrooms in the omelette!

Luckily, someone spotted us and the weapons test was halted while they got us off the field. We were arrested of course. The army thought we were peace protesters. We were all put in the same cell. I rattled the bars. Solid. Ethan looked at the floor and drew lines with his foot in the dust.

"It’s not my fault!" He yelled as the other’s looked accusingly at him. "How was I supposed to know the mushrooms were funny?" Only I caught his secret smile.

"You knew Ethan! You probably didn’t know how they would affect us but you knew. How do you propose to get us out of this mess?" I looked at him he was sitting on the floor with his hands in his lap. He shrugged.

I studied the lines Ethan had drawn on the floor and made my decision. If I didn’t get out us out of here, I would be on the next train to the Watcher’s compound. I drew a rough circle in the dust and a pentagram inside the circle. Ethan looked on in amazement.

"That’s my Ripper, love the way your mind works, man." I smiled at his use of my nickname.

We took up our positions at the points of the pentagram. It was so natural and I called on the elemental spirits to help us. It went a little haywire probably the proximity of Stonehenge I never really gave it much thought. The sky darkened, thunder rumbled overhead and lightning ripped the heavens jaggedly, it arced through our cell window and struck the locked door, it opened and we fled.

When we got outside I realised I had left the circle open and that it should be closed in order to restore balance. Ethan suggested that I cast another spell to balance the last one. I foolishly agreed. The opposite of rain is fire I muttered another invocation and snapped my fingers and the headquarters went up in flames. That’s when I panicked.

I was out of control. I couldn’t stop the spells spilling out of me. The others were looking at me like I’d grown two heads suddenly. I shook with magic in the midst of howling gales and licking flames, being lashed with icy cold rain. Ethan crouched beside me where we had taken refuge in the chaos and calmed me just by holding me. I was so grateful. The rain stopped and the wind died down. In the lull that he created for me we made good our escape.

Some soldiers pursued us. The others escaped through a gate in the perimeter fence but by the time Ethan and I got there, that exit was blocked. We turned and headed toward some nearby woods. I shot a quick glance over my shoulder and saw Philip and the others get in our van and speed up the road in our direction. We only had to get out the woods and we’d be safe.

I leapt over a dip in the hedge hardly breaking my stride. The van pulled up beside me.

"Ripper!" Ethan screamed.

I turned at the agonised sound. When I got to his side Ethan was on the grass verge of the road his knees drawn up to his chest. His thighs were covered in blood. As I picked Ethan up I saw some fresh blood on the barbed wire where he had clambered over the fence. I lifted him to my shoulder and hurried to the van.

"Hospital! Quick." Philip didn’t have to told twice. Dierdre checked Ethan’s pulse. It was still strong but he was losing a lot of blood. My hands were slick with his blood and I couldn’t get a grip on the zip fastener. So I grasped either side of the zip and pulled ripping his jeans down the centre seam to reveal the source of the blood. I gasped and clamped my hand round the wound on his penis and again shouted for Philip to hurry. I sat astride Ethan all the way to hospital keeping him steady. While his blood warmed my fist, I noticed with growing alarm that his body was getting colder.

Finally, after what seemed like hours Philip squealed the van to a halt in the ambulance bay of the nearest hospital. Doctors appeared from all directions and helped me get Ethan’s limp body on to a gurney. I ran along side with them until they packed the wound in the theatre. I drifted outside and leant against the wall feeling drained. I smiled suddenly I’d held Ethan in my hand for how long? Half an hour and the bastard had been unconscious the whole time. He’d never live it down. If he lived. I was serious again.

"You saved his life by doing that." Oz interrupted.

"Yeah, must have looked pretty comical though." He smiled in the darkness.

Ethan needed a transfusion urgently. I volunteered because I was the same blood group. He woke up during the transfusion and murmured something that bound me to him until his death last year.

"You are mine, I am yours blood and soul to soul forever." Spells like that are the most powerful because the caster believes that they are near to death.

Ethan recovered and I began to feel the effects of his enchantment on the very same day he was released from hospital. As I said at the beginning Ethan was out of action "Escort wise" for at least six weeks so I had to step into the breach.

"You didn’t *escort* anyone did you?"

"Good God no, I became a film stunt man. Ethan liked that. He took great delight in mispronouncing it *Studman.* He still called me Ripper this time explaining that I could make Lightning rip through the skies."

Oz smiled at Giles they could see each other in the early morning light.

"I’ll miss you, Giles."

"Hey, not for long Oz!"

End of Pt.3

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