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Legacy Chapter 9 – Unmasked

It had only been a few minutes after I hung up with Giles before my phone rang again. Quickly spitting out a mouthful of toothpaste, I checked the caller ID and answered, "Hey, Willow," spitting again.

"Thanks, Xand," Willow chuckled. "That's just what I wanted to hear."

"That's what I'm here for," I insisted, rinsing out my toothbrush. "Grossing out female Scoobies all over the world."

Willow laughed again, and I realized suddenly how much I missed hearing that sound every day. Back in Sunnydale, before all the slayer craziness, we hung out almost every day. But recently? She'd been away training or busy with teaching and I'd been busy trying to run things more often than not. And now here I was, stupidly following a hallucinating vampire to a small town where something wasn't right. And I missed my best friend.

"Anyway," Willow began as I stepped out of the bathroom and into my tiny room at the bed and breakfast. Of course Angel would spring for a suite for him and Spike and stick me with the smallest room in the place. "I remembered a few more instructions for the spells Fred is going to do, but she's not picking up."

"Spells?" I asked.

"You…" Willow started, confused. "You didn't know about the spells?"

"No," I replied, making sure I had pants, a shirt, and my room key before leaving to go pound on Fred's door. "What kind of spells are we talkin' about here, Will? Happy fluffy puppy spells or …"

"Or," she answered, sighing. "Well, the first one's just a tracking spell, that's fine. But the other? It can be tricky to do right."

I pounded the door again and then tried Fred's door handle, finding it unlocked. "Shit, Willow," I said into the phone. "She's not here."

"Oh, goddess," Willow agreed. "See if she told the vamps where she was going?"

"I don't know," I replied. "They've been insisting on a lot of alone time lately. It's like they think they're on some sort of honeymoon or something. It's really getting on my nerves. Especially since it means we've been here a few days and have hardly gotten anywhere."

"Angel's been ignoring the mission?" Willow asked me, her voice all worried.

"Yeah, it's weird, right? I'm not just being paranoid?"

"I don't know…"

Sighing, I took one last glance around Fred's room before leaving and shutting the door behind me. Padding down the hallway in my socks, I told Willow, "I just talked to Giles about it. He thinks there's a territorial demon here in town, since most of the creatures of the night have skedaddled lately. Neil said there's an itchy vibe."

"Neil?"

"Lohgar demon. Nice guy," I replied, joining Willow when she chuckled softly.

"I suppose," she said as I got to Spike and Angel's room – room number seven. "Itchy feelings are usually weak warding spells. Someone there doesn't want to be found."

Knocking loudly on this door, I asked Willow, "Could a warding spell mess with vampires?"

"Depends on who made it," she replied. "Different strokes, you know?"

"Will," I said, knocking again. "I don't want to know." She laughed at the joke just as Angel swung open the door. Thankfully, he was dressed except for his shoes.

"What's wrong?" he asked, sparing a glance back toward the bed, where Spike appeared to be passed out, also blissfully dressed, duster and everything.

"You wanna tell him?" I asked Willow, handing over the phone when she agreed.

After a short litany of, "She what? When?" and assuring Angel that I'd already looked for Fred, he took my phone into the room, leaving the door open for me as he asked Willow a few more questions and tried to shake Spike awake. Finally, he just settled for smacking Spike's cheek a few times before the blonde came up swinging, missing Angel's gut l by just a fraction of an inch. Angel kept an eye on Spike as he spoke with Willow, eventually giving his boyfriend a hand up, when Spike had calmed down and realized what was going on.

If I wasn't so worried about where Fred might have gone and why, I would have laughed.

"We'll find her, Willow," Angel said into the phone, "I promise. No, it's not your fault. You didn't know."

Stepping into his boots and sauntering over towards me, loose shoelaces flipping manically around his feet, Spike asked me, "Betty Blue's gotten our Fred into trouble, eh?"

"Maybe," I answered. "All I know is that Willow gave Fred some spells and now she's gone."

"Sounds like somethin' Lyrie would do. Bint has no patience for the rest of us."

Hanging up, Angel joined us near the door and asked Spike, "You think it was Illyria?"

"Might have been," Spike nodded, threading one arm around Angel's waist.

"Willow said that the first spell was a tracking spell," I told the two vamps, trying not to roll my eye at the way Angel leaned into Spike as they stood. "We should figure out what she was tracking."

"Mm-hmm," Angel agreed, his eyes fluttering shut as Spike reached over to kiss his neck.

"Hey!" I shouted, clapping my hands near their faces to startle them. "Knock it off!"

"Sorry," Angel replied sheepishly, breaking away from Spike, while the blonde just sneered at me for interrupting. "This town …" Angel tried by way of explanation.

"Okay," I nodded. "So I'm not paranoid. Something weird is definitely going on."

"You'd like to think so, wouldn't you, whelp?" Spike asked, letting his tongue fall onto his lower lip obscenely. But then, Angel cleared his throat and glared, making Spike reign in his expression and stand up straighter.

"No, you're not paranoid," Angel told me, picking up a heavy blanket from the bed and folding it until he could carry it comfortably in his arms. "At least, not about this." Spike laughed and I shot them both a dirty look.

"Can we please just go after Fred?" I asked. "Search for her around town? I don't know…"

"Here," Angel said, taking the car keys out of his pocket and handing them to me. "Pull the car as close to the exit as you can, and open the doors. We'll have to run for it."

"Ah, hence the mobile bedding," I said, taking the keys and turning to leave the room. "But, I swear to God, if I have to come back in here to break you two up? I'm leaving without you."

"We'll be there," Angel told me, pushing the blanket at Spike and reaching for his coat. Stupid vampires and their stupid long, look-at-me-I'm-so-dangerous, coats. Well, I thought, leaving their room and hurtling down the stairs and out to the parking lot. Maybe now that I had the dangerous eye-patch look going, I could pull off one of those coats too. Not that I would want to look anything like those two! No sir-ee, Bob!


Angel and I managed to get into the car with a minimum degree of singeing, and Xander slammed the car door shut behind us, almost catching the tails of my duster, that bastard. It's like he's got an aversion to all things remotely cool. Or maybe he was just angry because some of us were getting laid (if these bloody visions would ever knock it the fuck off) and he wouldn't be anymore, since that Renee bit dumped him. Too bad, so sad, life goes on, yeah?

Xander drove and after the second time I tried to grope Angel, he pushed me up into the front seat next to the whelp, promising to do excitingly horrible things to me if I didn't behave. Yeah, so what if I love his Angelus side more than I ought? It's not like I'm human either. And, the more Angel threatened me, the paler Xander got, which had me up in stitches until Ange socked me on the jaw.

Problem was, I kept forgetting why we were in this car, all muddled about, and Xander had to remind me. "We're trying to find Fred, lame brain! Focus!"

"Sorry!" I cried, turning my eyes back out the window. Suddenly, I saw it. As we drove down the main thoroughfare of Peddleford, a little boy dropped his ice cream scoop, wailing. "Stop!" I cried, keeping my eyes peeled on the scene, especially when the car door next to the little boy slammed. "Stop the car, Harris!"

"What?" he asked, slamming on the brakes so that I had to grab the dash in order to stay in my seat.

"The visions," I said, pointing out the window as a pair of dead autumn leaves scurried down the sidewalk, pushed by a happy wind. "Go that way," I cried, pointing forward, "slowly."

Then, through the window of the diner, I saw a plate fall off the waitress' tray, shattering on the ground and splattering its piece of pie all over the floor, a spoon bouncing down after them. "Keep going, mate," I encouraged the boy, waving my hand forward, surrounded by all the images I'd seen before. Déjà vu to the nth degree, yeah?

Near the end of the block, a fire-engine roared past us, sirens screaming and lights flashing. Up ahead, a large cloud of smoke billowed up over the stand of trees growing there. "What's that?" Xander asked. "Did Fred do that?"

"No," I replied, watching as we passed a church, doors opening and closing as people entered for the service, revealing a line of school-aged girls all lined up kneeling in the pews. "It Sunday?" I asked.

"No," Angel replied, pulling on my shoulder so I would look back at him. Ugh, even just having him touch me innocently was almost too much to handle. Now, there's no doubt that Ange and I had some major chemistry back home, but this was getting ridiculous. "It's a Catholic School," Angel explained. "And you're sure we shouldn't worry about this fire?"

"None of our concern, luv," I said, making a big effort to keep searching for Fred, and not jumping back into the back seat to ravish Angel. "Firemen will handle that one. Lass didn't kill anyone yet."

"Is Illyria going to kill someone?" Xander screeched, swerving into the oncoming traffic for a brief second in surprise."

"Not Illyria," I insisted, thinking of that picture in my head of the little girl, her bigger sister wailing, as their next home burned to the ground as well. Right little firebug, that one. Maybe I should mention that to Ange?

But, oh wait! "There's Fred," I told them, pointing to her figure, posture Illyria-straight as she pushed open the door into Josh's Barber Salon. Without even consulting the angle of the sun, Xander put the car in park and hopped out, following her into the building. Good thing it was later in the morning hours and Angel was quick enough to throw himself over to my side of the car before he got burnt.

"Fuck," he muttered, shooting an angry glance toward Xander's retreating back and putting one hand on my shoulder to make sure I was okay.

"Run for it?" I asked.

"Yeah, crawl back here so we can both use this blanket."

I shrugged and followed Angel's instruction, having to invade quite a lot of his personal space to avoid the sunlight warming the upholstery on the far side of the car. And so, I ended up in Angel's lap, kissing the hell out of him for no relevant reason, because I couldn't help myself. More so than normal, I couldn't help myself.

And Angel didn't push me away right away, so I knew something was wrong. And that shocked me into pulling back. "We can't – " I said, cut off by Angel pulling me back against his lips, "do this – " another kiss, "right now, luv." Growling, I held him back, one arm pinning either shoulder. "Somethin's wrong! We have to go help Fred! Or have you forgotten about her?"

Ah, and there were Guilty and Mad, my least two favorite of Angel's moods. Clearing his throat and licking his lips nervously, Angel whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I know pet," I replied, trying to finagle a position where we could both hide under the blanket, but were our bits weren't in tempting positions either. "You're sorry. I'm sorry. Let's just get this sorry show on the road, yeah?"

"On three?"

"On three or after three?" I asked, mostly just to be obnoxious, but also because I didn't want to get torched on accident.

"On three," Angel nodded, his dark eyes on my lips. "Always on three." For fuck's sake, he was getting lost again.

"Oi! Angelus!" I shouted right in his face, surprising him into paying attention. "One…" I drawled out significantly, making sure he was with me as I caught the door handle. "Two…" I pulled on the handle, loosening the door and putting the blanket up over my head. "Three!"


Illyria and I followed the tracking spell to the barber's shop Angel and Spike had checked out the day before. Well, wasn't that interesting? I pushed my way into the shop, Illyria tilting our head at the curious tinkling of the bell over the doorway.

"Be right with you!" a voice sang out from the back room. There were two people in the waiting room, both elderly women who were flipping through magazines as they waited. Ignoring them, Illyria grabbed for my bag and the makings of the second spell.

Just as she found the last one, Xander burst in through the door, panting, "Hey, Lyrie. Glad I found you." The human grabbed our arm and Illyria was not pleased.

"Get out," she growled, looking first at the elderly ladies and then at Xander. "You do not wish to be here."

"You can't tell me what I wish, Illyria," Xander replied. Then, he turned to the ladies with a polite smile, "I'm sorry, ladies. But my friend and I are health inspectors, and we're going to have to ask you to leave."

"But," one of the ladies simpered, "I have an appointment!"

Illyria continued to put together the spell, while Xander opened his mouth to argue with the woman. However, his efforts were interrupted when Angel and Spike burst through the door, hiding under a blanket and smoking something fierce. Again, Illyria turned and this time shouted, "Get out!"

The women took one look at each other and scurried away while the vampires disentangled themselves from the bedspread and held onto each other, more like they were trying to keep separated rather than stick together.

"Hey there, duck," Spike greeted me, panting through a little grin. "Though you'd start the party without us, hmm?"

"None of you should be here," Illyria said, her voice a cold mockery of mine.

"Why?" Xander asked us, gently reaching out to me.

I shied away from his fingers and blew on the spell, awakening it as the barber came back into view. Or, he was wearing an apron, anyways, so I guessed he was the barber.

"Well," he began, eyes flicking over each of us in turn, "isn't this a surprise?"

"What did you do to them?" I asked him, my voice winning out over Illyria's as we blurred forward a few feet. The man started and stumbled backwards a step. "And why?"

I heard the boys follow me, three pairs of feet skittering up from behind. "I don't need you guys for this," I cried back at them, keeping my eyes on the demon before me as Illyria willed the spell in our hands to do its thing.

"Fred!" Angel barked, still holding Spike at arm's length. "What are you doing? Willow wouldn't tell me what the spell was for…"

"She wouldn't?" Xander asked, his voice chock-full of surprise.

"Hey," the barber said, holding up his hands defensively, "I'd kinda like to know what it is, too."

One more breath, and Illyria blew the powder from our hand, covering the barber in it. His form shivered and shifted, growing him about a foot taller, more muscular, and much less human. His clothes split a little at the seams, and his face grew even more beautiful, if that was possible. The only way you could tell he was a demon were the tiny horns spiraled out from his skull and his feet, which were now cloven hooves.

"Shit!" he cursed, looking down at his now big, meaty hands. "Why did you have to go and do that? It's gonna take me ten thousand dollars to put that glamour back in place!"

"I am Illyria, God-King," my resident demon crowed, blurring forward and slamming the demon down onto the ground by his neck. "You will no longer deceive these people and mix your bloodline with the humans'. It's disgusting, and there are already far too many half-breeds around," she sneered, throwing a baleful glance back at the vampires.

"Oh," the barber gurgled around our hand on his throat, "hi, guys!"

"Josh," Angel nodded, his jaw doing that angry clenching thing.

"I thought I put a curse on you two. You should be jumping each other like bunnies!"

"Ah," Spike nodded, letting go of Angel and crouching down beside us. "Thought you'd work your mojo on us, mate? Keep us occupied and outta your hair, so to speak?" The blonde cackled, tapping the demon's forehead.

"Knew you were vamps as soon as you came into town and breached my wards," Josh replied, frowning at Spike's insulting tap. "Didn't need you getting in my way. And that spell has worked on plenty of vampires before. It didn't work on you?"

"Nah," Spike replied, standing up and putting his arm around Angel's waist. "Don't worry mate, it's not that you're losin' your touch. See, we've got the guys upstairs lookin' out for us. Sent us here to stop you. If it is you've been the one killing all the ladies of this town."

"They weren't supposed to die!" he insisted, and with Illyria's help, I picked up his head and dropped it down against the floor again. "Ow!"

All of a sudden, he fought back, punching out at me as he turned over and catching me right across the jaw. He scrambled out from under me and stood, looking ready for a fight.

"Hey!" Xander cried, throwing at the demon one punch that landed and another that didn't before he got knocked to the side as well.

Spike got him a few good ones, but spun away to avoid being kicked in the face. Just as I thought about slowing time so I could get to the demon quickly, Angel picked him up and threw him against the back wall. Josh's body crunched against the mirror there with a sickening sound and before he could get up, Spike and I both had an arm twisted behind his back.

Angel walked up to us and punched the demon directly in the face, knocking him out. Then, he turned to Xander and asked, "Could you poke around for something to tie him up with?"

"Ah," the man nodded. "Your standard tie up the villain supplies. Got it." He hurried around the main room before pushing past a curtain to investigate whatever was in back.

"What is he?" Spike asked as we lowered the demon to the ground. Just in case, Illyria kept one of our boots on the demon and one hand in ours.

Illyria answered for me, because I had no clue, "Incubus."

"No kidding?" Angel laughed, tilting his head to study Josh's face. "Never met one before."

"Disgusting creatures," Illyria expanded. "Almost as bad as vampire."

Spike shuckled and put himself next to Angel again, his arm around Angel's back and one thumb hooked into the other vampire's belt loop. And then they were kissing again, so I looked away. And looked away. And looked away.

"Geez, you guys!" I cried, upon seeing Angel walk Spike into the nearest wall, pressing their bodies together. "You're sure there was no curse?"

"Oh," Angel said, his voice almost cracking as he stepped away from the blonde quickly.

"Yeah," Spike replied with a grin. "That was just a bluff. We're quite cursed, actually."

Xander came back into the room then, saying, "Well, let's get you guys all uncursed before Fred and I end up seeing things we'd rather not." He held up a length of rope in his hand and told us, "Also? There was a confused lady back there. In the secret basement."

"A…" I swallowed in horror as I realized what incubi were famous for. Sick, I released my hold on the demon and rushed back towards where Xander came from. Angel followed me, Xander close on his heels, so I guessed Spike had stayed behind to take care of the prisoner.

Xander pointed me toward an open panel next to the bathroom and I hurried down the stairs, finding a young woman, pretty, with red hair, sitting on a bed, rubbing the inside of one wrist with her thumb. "Where did Josh go?" she asked us almost stupidly. "My hair's not done yet."

"Shh," I whispered, sitting down next to her and taking her hand. Instantly, I felt Illyria grow bored and go dormant, just listening for now. "It's going to be okay. What's your name, sweetie?"

"Claire," she replied, smiling at me. "Claire Wilson. Does my hair look okay?"

"Beautiful," I grinned, brushing it away from her face. Looking up, I saw Angel frowning and furrowing his brow. "What?" I asked gently.

"It stinks down here," he growled.

"Well, yeah, sure," Xander agreed. "It is a secret basement. Most of them are somewhat musty. You know it all has to do with insula…" The man trailed off and smiled at Angel's annoyed look, knowing that he should just shut up.

"It's not just musty," Angel replied with disgust. "C'mon Claire," he said, holding out a hand toward the woman. "Josh is just upstairs, okay? He'll finish your hair right away."

"Alright," she smiled, letting Angel lead her up and into the main room of the barber shop, while Xander and I followed.


One more chapter to go!

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