Big Bad

Lily Anderson

All rights reserved. Published by Hyperion Avenue, an imprint of Buena Vista Books, Inc. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information address Hyperion Avenue, 77 West 66th Street, New York, New York 10023.

First Edition, September 2022

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Anderson, Lily, 1988– author.

Title: Big bad / by Lily Anderson.

Description: First edition. • Los Angeles; New York : Hyperion Avenue, 2022. • Summary: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Suicide Squad in this dark, rompy novel in which the show’s most beloved villains must team together to stop the Slayer from ending their world”—Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021049149 • ISBN 9781368075466 (hardcover) • ISBN 9781368075695 (ebook)

Subjects: LCGFT: Vampire fiction. • Novels.

Classification: LCC PS3601.N54429 B54 2022 • DDC 813/.6—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021049149

Visit www.HyperionAvenueBooks.com

Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

About the Author

For Laura, my Watcher

“But someone could wish the whole world to be different, right? That’s possible?”

“Sure, alternate realities. You could have, like, a world without shrimp. Or with, you know, nothing but shrimp. You could even make, like, a freaky world where Jonathan’s, like, some kind of not-perfect mouth-breather, if that’s what’s blowing up your skirt these days. Just don’t ask me to live there.”

—Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Superstar”

SINCE THE MAYOR had gotten rid of the sun, there was no reason to wait till nightfall to throw a party. Or a demon Ascension. Starting at noon meant that the Trio would have plenty of time to cast their final spell and watch the newest episode of Doctor Who. All before Andrew got the ten p.m. sleepies.

In the Docktown district, bass rattled the metal walls of an abandoned warehouse. Strobe lights pulsed their best impression of the Tron opening credits, cutting multicolored lines through the cloyingly scented fog-machine smoke.

Filming the proceedings for posterity was aspiring supervillain Jonathan Levinson. Armed with a handheld video camera, he did his best to capture the partygoers’ swaying limbs. Dutch angles and quick pans helped obscure their oddly vacant expressions. The crowd wasn’t the real focus of the video, anyway. Warren’s transformation ritual was.

Jonathan had always been called “short for his age.” Although, now that he was nineteen, it seemed like it was going to be a permanent affliction. He had to climb onto a folding chair to get an unobstructed view of the makeshift dais Warren was standing on. Through the zoomed-in camera lens and copious faux fog, you could barely tell that the dais was actually a stack of wooden pallets that Jonathan and Andrew had painted black and inexpertly nailed together. The heavy oak lectern Warren stood behind lent the scene necessary gravitas. Jonathan was glad that Warren had demanded that they use a real pulpit. Andrew had complained that stealing from a church felt wrong, but it wasn’t like anyone was going to miss it. Since the congregation of the Eternal Night had arrived, all the human churches had been abandoned. There weren’t many humans left in Demondale.

Big Bad

Contents