Pivotal Chapter 14: Trap

This first part of this chapter with Spike being a baby hog was the first thing I wrote. I usually don’t work that way– I type from the first scene to the last, chronologically. Figuring out plot is fun, but writing is funner. I hadn’t figured out the plot yet, and was walking around and around and around my backyard trying to work through it in my head when this scene kept coming back to me. Before long, it was completely written in my head, so I had to type it before I lost it. After that, I was a good girl, and figured out at least generally what all was going to happen before I wrote again.

Months ago, when I had the first thoughts on Pivotal II going, I hadn’t planned on the end of this scene going quite the way it did. But then Spike just kept getting so dang attached to Hope as the story went along, that I knew this was the way it should be.

There is a deleted scene from this chapter. I wanted to include it, but no matter where I put it, it messed with the pacing. This was it:

***

Lord Valak walked into the room, and the thirty vampires it contained all stopped talking immediately and bowed. He was right to choose the title Lord when The First called him. The title brought instant respect. The kind of respect he knew he always deserved.

"You all know why you are here. You are my best soldiers. Ten of you will lie in wait to attack the vampire. Kill him!

"The rest of you will go to the church. Bring me the slayer. The First has promised her blood to me. She will give me the strength I need to make you all unkillable! We will take this earth for our own, and we will all live on in glory forever!"

He took a moment to appreciate the roar of the battle cry that came from his team. He knew all of them wouldn't survive. He didn't care.

***

I liked the scene. I was able to cover most of what was included here in other parts (like Lord Valak giving the speech that Tammy overheard). But I was kind of sad I couldn’t include that first and last paragraph, just to let you know more about Lord Valak.

I wrote a lot of the trap parts in Taco Amigo. And another part on another day as well. I had a few free hours, kidless, and I needed a place to go where no one would bug me that was air conditioned and had a table and a chair. I went into one of the booths, and wrote and wrote and wrote. The employees there didn't even give me any grief about it. Gotta love em!

And I liked that Spike’s being beaten to a bloody pulp didn’t stop him from running off to rescue Tammy and Hope. Ahhh. Love Spike.