Teresa knew it was a vision, but the visions were real, now more than ever. When reality was so hard to grasp, when words were so hard to say the visions were all she could be sure was real. Of course that wasn't exactly a good thing right now. The beautiful vampire with the long dark hair was drinking from Conner. Another vampire was dragging Fred out of the crazy room where Teresa was lying dead on the bed no one had been able to untie her from, a wooden stake in her chest for a touch of irony. Anne was dead on the floor, two holes in her neck and blood on her lips. "Look boss, this one's not afraid." Fred stood there, uncomprehending. The dark haired vampire drew closer as behind her Angel and Spike were dragged into the room.
"Dru! Please Dru let Fred go! I'll be a good boy!" Spike begged
"Pretty little girl, want to be my little girl? Want to join my family?"
…
"I can't get her to calm down no matter what I do!" Anne shouted "She's been like this since before Willow and Wesley broke the spell!" Anne tried to hold Teresa down.
Teresa was thrashing about, screaming. "Don't give her any more dolls to play with! She won't be a good mum! Teddy bear will do wicked nasty things! Wood in my heart! He's not yours anymore! The storm died long ago! Can't resurrect the window! Stop! Broken china cuts up the world!" Teresa wept as her wrists began to bleed where her fabric bonds were cutting into her wrists from the thrashing about. "Stop it wicked girl!"
Angel and Lorne watched helplessly as Gunn helped Anne hold Teresa down. "What do we do?" Angel asked "We can't let her go on like this, she's in pain."
"What can we do?" Lorne sounded desperate. "Do we have any options?"
"So this started a couple of hours ago?" Angel asked
"Approximately," Anne said "She was like this when we… got back. She was loose of her restraints and lying on the floor screaming." Anne shook her head. "She hasn't stopped yet."
Angel looked back at Fred, still lying on her bed. "We should move Fred to a different room." Angel saw her move at the sound of her name, but it was probably a coincidence.
"All of the rooms are full." Gunn said
"Maybe she can stay with Buffy and Faith." Angel suggested "Are they both okay?"
"Yeah," Lorne said "They hugged it out, they're good."
"I'll take Fred over there. Let me know if the situation changes." Teresa continued to shout nonsense throughout their conversation. Angel walked over to Fred. "Fred," He held out his hand. "I need you to come with me." Fred took his hand and stood up. She followed him.
"Please sister golden hair! Peace for sister golden hair! You have to remember!"
Angel ushered Fred down the hall where the wreckage from the spell still remained. Most of the abbey's occupants weren't screaming and fighting anymore, but most weren't exactly over the experience either. A few people had locked themselves in their rooms and refused to come out. This caused some roommates no end of frustration. Angel knocked on Buffy's door. The blond slayer answered, looking tired. "Angel," Faith walked over upon hearing that name.
"Hey guys," Angel said "I brought you a new roommate. Fred, you know Faith, this is Buffy. Buffy, Faith, this is my friend Fred, she needs a new room."
Fred waved. "Buffy, Faith," She mimicked Angel though he was unsure if she knew why.
Buffy glared at Angel. "What happened to her room?"
"It got kind of dangerous what with the screaming and the thrashing about." Angel said
"We'll take care of her." Faith promised "Come in Fred." She beckoned the deranged physicist into the room. Buffy was confused. She had figured Faith would pitch a fit, or at least more of a fit that Buffy. Now she looked insensitive. "Don't worry Angel, we'll keep a close watch on her at all times. Won't we Buffy?" Faith looked at her fellow slayer.
"We sure will." Buffy agreed. Was Faith trying to make her look bad?
"Thanks guys, I appreciate it." Angel started on his way.
"Angel wait!" Buffy followed him. They fell into step together. "We haven't really had a chance to talk about anything except for business, not since the hotel."
"Sorry," Angel said "I've been busy with Conner and fighting ultimate evil. I know I should have taken the time to come see you before now. I'm sorry." Angel didn't exactly know where he was going, so he headed toward the room he had come from.
"I know things are crazy, I just want to know we're good." Buffy had showed up to save the world as well as her ex-boyfriends, and while she wasn't sure exactly what she had been expecting to find this wasn't it. All of their fears about Angel joining the dark side had turned out to be unwarranted, he had actually sacrificed a great deal to fight the forces of evil. While Buffy was ecstatic about this she was also feeling a little awkward. Faith had shown more confidence in Angel than Buffy had. Which begged another question. "So what's with you and Faith?"
"What?" Angel wasn't sure what line of thinking had brought Buffy from 'I just want us to be good' to 'what's with you and Faith' but he didn't really want to dwell on it.
"You guys are getting along pretty well huh?"
From down the hall they heard Teresa's screams. "There are monsters here! They wear human faces! It's Halloween and all my friends are pretending!" They could hear her sobbing, fighting to tell them something very important, but not lucid enough to speak clearly. "Stop pretending! So much has changed! It's not possible to stay the same!" As they approached the door Buffy's and Angel's superior senses allowed them to hear her voice drop to a whisper. "I see you. You're lying and your hands are warm. It's hard to tell a story with no voice."
"Wow," Buffy said "Poor girl,"
"Yeah," Angel agreed "I wish there were some way to help her."
"It's too dangerous for Willow-"
Angel waved the thought away. "I didn't mean that." He pushed the door open and looked at the demon with no color in her eyes. "I keep feeling like she's trying to tell me something. Isn't that strange? It's like she's trapped in her own mind."
Buffy walked into the room and was startled by Teresa's excited squeal. "You heard me sister golden hair! You came to bring me peace!"
Buffy started to back away. "I don't… I'm not… who is that?"
"He did things to her, but she did things to. We make our own hell, here on this earth. We surround ourselves with trinkets and keep them on high shelves away from our children. We don't want them to break, but the shelves fall and hit baby on the head. He's mad and wears the man's coat. Clouds are out now, and we do horrible things. Did we deserve it?"
Buffy stared at the girl, trying to wrap her mind around the words that had no meaning, but made a queer sense to Buffy. "I didn't know." She said "How could I know?"
The other occupants of the room shared troubled looks. The last thing they needed was for Buffy to catch the crazy, especially since they were all still reeling from the last plague of crazy. Teresa answered as though she and Buffy were discussing her dating life. "You saw them, you were at peace. Peace for sister golden hair. You left."
"Oh my God," Angel said "She's talking about when you died."
Buffy remembered, not Heaven; that memory had thankfully faded over time. She remembered how it felt to be on earth afterwards. Everything had been so grey and listless in comparison to that beautiful peace. "Share your peace with me?" Teresa held out her clawed and scaly hand. Buffy touched her and felt the hand wrap around her own, tugging.
Teresa gasped and tried to sit up, her restraints prevented her. "Teresa?" Lorne asked
"Untie me, I'm not crazy." Teresa seemed to consider this. "Well you know what I mean." She tugged at the restraints. "I'm as lucid as any of you."
She sounded sane. "What's the square root of fifty?" Angel asked
"Five roots of two," Teresa answered without batting an eye
"Is that right?" Buffy asked
"Oh uh…" Angel tried to work the problem out in his head.
"Sheesh Luis," Lorne rolled his eyes and undid Teresa's restraints.
Teresa stood up, massaging her wrist. "I had a vision." Angel's heart sank, something told him it hadn't been a vision of puppies and rainbows. "There's a hoard of bloodthirsty vampires on their way here right now." Angel hated being right.
"How many?" Buffy asked
"To many," Teresa felt calm, at peace. Although Buffy couldn't remember, paradise had affected her. There was a trace of the enlightenment she had achieved buried in the back of her mind. This was what had washed away the insanity of Illyria's memories. Yet even as the warmth and calm filled Teresa she could see the images from the vision Cordelia had sent her.
"How soon until they get here?" Angel asked
Teresa closed her eyes. She brought the image to mind of the vampire with the long dark hair that obviously knew Spike and Angel. "They are here."
…
Conner ran down the hall, knocking on doors, rousing occupants. "Everyone get to the basement or the front door!" He figured anyone who wasn't an idiot would be able to figure out the distinction between the two groups. Conner passed by his father, but there was no time for words. They had moments to prepare, it wasn't enough time. If only Buffy had gotten to Teresa sooner, or if the hybrid had been able to reclaim some lucidity for a few moments, they would have more time, more of a chance. Now a handful of warriors was going to take on a hoard of super-strong vampires. Conner saw Angel put his hands on Nina's shoulders.
"No Nina," Angel looked into her eyes, they almost looked like raccoon eyes with the dark circles around them. He saw fear and sadness, but also determination.
"I can help, I can control the wolf inside me. I can fight." Nina offered Angel a weary grin. It was so odd to be in this position with him, after all of the times she had wondered what it must be like to be a hero. Now she realized it was simpler than she had thought. Once a decision was made there was a kind of peace, a calmness that absorbed the being. This man who had seemed so far removed from simple human weaknesses was at the end of the day just a man.
"You could get hurt." Angel protested, as if this was a truth exclusive to her.
"That makes no difference." Her words rang with such truth that they stunned Angel. He felt his hands slip off her shoulders. Many of them could die, not just the soldiers. If the abbey fell they would all die. At the end of the day the value of all their lives was equal, there was no one here who deserved to be preserved above all others. Perhaps people like Conner, Buffy, Nina, and Fred Angel wanted kept alive more than others, but not because they deserved to live more than anyone else, because they meant more to him. There were others, Gunn, Lorne, Spike and Kate, as each person sprung to mind he thought of what he would give up to save them, of how much they meant to him. None of them were worth the world. It didn't make a difference who might die, because anyone who could contribute had to put their lives on the line. The people in this building were the last line of defense between the world and its end.
"Please be careful." Angel begged
"I will."
Angel found himself standing next to his son as they left the abbey. In front of the holy building, where the remains of the dead still lay, no one brave enough to go outside and risk attack by the wolf in order to pick them up, they saw the vampires running toward them. Angel was only surprised to see Drusilla for a moment. Of course Dru would be here. There were only a few of the core group not here to face this foe, Anne, Lorne, Teresa, and Fred. In combat they would be dead in an instant. Oz was changing now and on the other side of the group Nina was undergoing a similar transformation. The other werewolves would be no use to them, as they weren't trained, they were locked up in the basement. There was one other noticeable absence, but Angel didn't find it odd that Wesley had chosen not to be here. The idea of watching one's friends get ripped apart while having no power to effect the event at all was not an enticing one.
…
"I'm so glad you're here." The Wolf said, and she truly was. The Wolf loved playing with the ghost's brain, watching it slip away as he tried so hard to stay in this world. The Wolf remembered what that had been like when she fought her own much shorter battle against the ancient magics that banished her and all of her ilk from this world. The Ram and Hart had been sent with her to rule a dimension of their own, killing and devouring any of the other demons unfortunate enough to be sent to the same place. Of course their greatest enemy was already dead, Illyria residing in the deeper well. Now she was even deader, proof that this dimension truly was full of delightful things. Here people hurt and killed the ones they loved. Here people trusted and were betrayed. Here she had a delightful pet she could play with like a yo-yo, watching him slip away and reeling him back in.
"I couldn't stay." Wesley was sitting at his desk while the Wolf leaned in the doorway, smiling at him. Wesley wasn't doing anything, just sitting there, wallowing in hopeless despair.
"Perfectly understandable," The Wolf said
"Where did you find them all?" Wesley asked, surprised that he didn't really care
"I sang to them." She explained "I sang and they came, falling under the spell. My sister is close and she was able to loan me her power for a short time. I control all of them, except for Drusilla, who I want as she was. She will infect your friends, but I will not control them. I will strengthen Angelus, help him conquer the soul that keeps him captive. I will suppress Spike's soul as well, and take away him memories of the last six years."
"Reuniting the whirlwind gang," Wesley noted apathetically
The Wolf could feel him fading ever farther away, his delicious emotions losing some of their flavor. "I'm a big fan of their work, almost as big a fan as I am of yours." She felt the pain and guilt explode, saturate his mind, tie it to the world. She felt the memories race through his mind, betrayal, horrors, and losses he felt responsible for, things he should have prevented.
"We always thought you were too high up the food chain to be concerned with the daily grind, with people like us." Wesley said
"I just like to be entertained." The Wolf explained "A lot goes into planning an apocalypse, but we're great delegators. We had a lot of time on our hands for amusement. My sister liked to watch the most disgusting and depraved of humanity, rapists, serial killers, people who abuse their children- hey maybe she watched your dad a few times!" The Wolf snickered at Wesley's pained expression. "The Hart is very much a forward thinker, far more concerned with what will be than what it. For this reason she loves to watch great heroes, confident in their inevitable downfall. I like to watch the weak ones, watch them try to fight their fate. They always fail Wesley. You tried to become someone, something better than what you were, but you were slapped back down, shown your place. How dare you try to rise above your station?"
Wesley watched the beautiful grinning woman standing in his doorway. She was awful in her beauty, in her grace and charm. He wondered what she really looked like.
"Nothing," She said truthfully
That was a horrible idea to contemplate. No matter what form she took she was a formless thing, a concept. She was true evil. She was going to kill his friends, there was nothing he could do. He tried to remember their names, but it was hard. It was hard to even remember his own name, or why he was here. Why was he here? He should go home and get some sleep.
The Wolf hadn't used much of her speed and strength since her arrival, but she hadn't forgotten about them. She pounced on the ghost, or rather his chair. He was shocked, but he couldn't do anything as her power held him where he was. She had a knee on either side of his hips. Her hands rested on his shoulders. He felt that warm golden light entering him, making him feel alive, but in a horrible way. Her power was perverse, evil and shameless in it. He wanted to move away from the woman in a slinky blue dress straddling him, but he couldn't. The irony of the situation was not lost on him. She lowered her face close to his. "Are you afraid?"
He was afraid, Wesley was surprised to realize this but he was afraid of her. She had the power to sever his connection to this world. She had the power to touch him. He had no power.
"How does it feel?" She asked "How does it feel to be completely at someone else's mercy?" She sniffed his hair. "How does it feel dead boy?"
"Unpleasant," Wesley said pointlessly to the mind-reader "Not helped by the fact that the person who I'm at the mercy of is an evil bitch."
She put her lips on his and Wesley tasted something for the first time in a span of time he couldn't calculate because he couldn't remember taste. He tasted ashes and gasoline. He tasted copper and pus. He tasted sweat and pheromones. She was sensuality, she was death, and she was disgusting. Wesley wanted to tear himself away, but he couldn't. "Do you want to know what you taste like dead boy?" She whispered into his mouth "Like nothing,"
"Well I'm dead." Wesley could feel the deviant light flowing through him. It was getting stronger, infecting every part of him like the world's fastest acting STD. He felt pain and horror, he felt the world crumbling around him. His awareness continued to heighten, he could almost feel the chair he was sitting in. Yet all of that paled in comparison to her. She was true evil, and she was inside of him, reminding him of every horrible thing he had ever done.
"Not yet," She said "Not until I've had my fun." She snickered. "Not until the only thought you can have is how much you wish you were." She put her hands on either side of his face and forced his eyes to stare into her blue ones. He saw the moon in them, pregnant with unspeakable evil. "Do you want to watch your friends die?"
She blinked and Wesley could see through her. He saw Drusilla tackle Angel as he tried to pull a vampire away from Kate. Wesley saw her touch him and then he stopped for a moment, struggling. Then the vampire smiled, but Angel was gone, Angelus was all that remained. He could see the hopelessness of their situation, but he could see other things. He could see toiling slaves in Wolfram & Hart's hell dimension. He saw Holland Manners working as a tormenter, doing unspeakable acts to some young man. Wesley saw Lindsey standing on a rock, paralyzed as he was burned alive surrounded by a clear cool lake. Soon the fires would die and Lindsey would reach for the water only for the flames and paralysis to overtake him once more. This was only one of the many tortures he had to endure on a rotating cycle, so that he never grew complacent. Wesley saw Gunn drive a stake through a vampire and get thrown in the air by another, landing on the ground with a horrible thud. But there was little that could keep Charles Gunn down for long. Wesley saw demons herding twenty-one innocents toward the abbey, waiting for the ground to be won so the ritual could take place. Wesley saw Angelus hold down Spike while Drusilla worked the curse on him. Wesley saw a black woman in a savannah licking lime-green lips while she watched the fight go on. Wesley saw Rupert Giles sitting at his desk in England worrying about Buffy. Wesley saw himself, as he looked through her eyes. He saw prey, a mind in pain. He saw a noble soul being slowly dismantled by someone who took pleasure in such things. He saw his fate, to vanish when he could no longer remember who he was, but only when she'd had her fun. He saw the hopelessness of their situation.
'I just looked into the eyes of pure evil and do you know what I saw?' Angel, what would he say, if he could see what Wesley saw? 'We have a chance.' Did they? Did they ever have a chance? Were they just being played from day one, pawns in a cosmic game of chess?
"Yes," The Wolf kissed Wesley again, letting the evil flow through him. As he saw what she saw he wondered, but only for a moment and he let the thought fade, if this might interfere with her ability to read his mind. When she let him see inside of her how could she know which thoughts were his and which thoughts her own? He looked at the different pieces of her plan.
"Angel will stop you." But Angel couldn't, Wesley knew that.
"You're right." The Wolf was responding to his thoughts, not his words.
"Why are you here, why aren't you there reveling in the bloodshed?"
"I am. I see all." She licked the roof of his mouth, her marble white teeth slammed against his own. Her presence made him real, but only while she touched him, and only to her.
He could feel her, could probably reach up and touch her hair if he wanted to. He didn't.
"You don't think I'm pretty?" The Wolf spoke in a faux offended tone.
"What is it with the men of Angel investigations and blonds?"
The Wolf laughed again as she turned to see Cordelia. "You keep showing up here."
Cordelia smiled, and her smile was benevolence, it was safety and calm. "I admit there is little I can do to stop you, or influence the outcome of your plan, but I can save my friend from your disgusting molestation attempt. Get the hell away from him." Cordelia's voice was calm but firm. She spoke like a mother to a toddler and the Wolf took offense.
She stood up. "You may work for the powers, but we are far closer to my hell dimension than any of those ruled by your bosses. You have no power here."
"I have one." Cordelia said "I have an influence that overcomes yours."
The Wolf snickered. "Really? Tell me about this great power."
"Love," Cordelia said simply, without reservations or embarrassment
The Wolf laughed. "What can your love do here?"
Cordelia pointed behind the Wolf. The Wolf didn't have to turn around to see that Wesley wasn't there anymore, he had slipped away through the wall. The Wolf had awareness most humans couldn't comprehend. "You came here to distract me?" The Wolf was incredulous that this employee of the powers thought her efforts mattered. "To what end? He is a ghost. Do not tell me you came all this way to prevent the corruption of one so far gone."
Cordelia smiled and the Wolf wished she could see into her mind. Cordelia's state as an employee of the powers prevented this. "He's my friend."
"He's dead," The Wolf scoffed "Do you really have nothing better to do than save the soul of one already damned? Soon the world will be ours to light on fire and dance within, is one soul of any consequence to you with such things pending?"
Cordelia faded away into a white light, a light that would have burned the eyes of most evil creatures, but left the Wolf unfazed. The Wolf sighed and sat down at Wesley's desk. She hated that woman, for a variety of reasons. She was too good, the Wolf preferred her do-gooders falling apart at the seams, not content and enlightened. Furthermore, there had been many downfalls and moral corruptions prevented by the little bitch and the Wolf didn't appreciate that at all. Wesley had also played a part in preventing many of Angel's near moral corruptions, but exposure to such evil had taken its toll on him, so that had worked out. Wesley's abduction of Conner had pushed Angel closer to the edge than many of Wolfram & Hart's own efforts, so the Wolf had no problem with him. Well she had one problem, he had a tendency not to stay down, to hit rock bottom and then bounce back up like a super ball. That was irritating, but it drew out the fun, so she was content. Cordelia however, she had always been a good influence on Angel, a humanizing influence. She wasn't perfect, and unlike a certain slayer Angel was very aware of her flaws. But he found her flaws endearing (to an extent), further proof of her humanity. Every wedge Wolfram & Hart tried to drive between them drove them closer together. Now she was forever beyond their reach, safe in the employ of the powers with that annoying Irish hybrid and their former devoted employee. The Wolf was aware Darla was also working for the powers, but not with saint Cordy. It bothered her when she couldn't hurt people, especially people she'd had so much fun hurting before. These people were safe now, forever beyond her reach.
The Wolf stood up and headed out of the office, she needed to go kill something. She stopped, stunned by something she had just been made aware of. It was impossible.
…
Harmony shrieked as she ducked an attack by a vampire. Instead of trying another attack he went for the werewolf at her left. Harmony didn't know if it was Nina or Oz.
"Harmony," Wesley sounded exasperated as he walked through the battle.
"Wes! I could use your help!" She shrieked as a vampire ran by her.
"You're a super-strong creature of the night and I'm an incorporeal ghost."
"I was never good at the fighting, I couldn't even kill Xander!"
"I need you to do something Harmony." Wes said and the urgency in his voice gave her pause. She felt as though she needed to listen to him, needed to help him.
"What is it?"
"I need you to help me make sure the Wolf wins."
…
As Gunn lay on the ground with his 'broken' neck he wondered when the last time he had prayed was. It had been a while. Something about working for the devil made prayer feel hypocritical and Gunn didn't think he'd even considered saying a prayer since what had happened to Fred. Still, with so much hanging in the balance, unable to do much else, Gunn wondered if he should pray. He wondered if he should ask God for some assistance in making Wesley's insane plan work. It didn't feel like they had much hope. Angel and Spike were working for the big bad, all the warriors on the side of good were faking death, and the sacrifice was about to go down. As Gunn contemplated all of this he tried not to consider what would happen if a vampire walked by him and realized he wasn't dead. Gunn was helpless as he lay unarmed on the ground. A vamp could just pick him and take a big bite. Charles Gunn for the first time in a good while, decided to pray.
…
Willow didn't like Wesley's plan. Willow thought the ghost might have finally lost his mind. Wesley hadn't had a lot of time to explain the plan to her, and that might have contributed to the insanity, but Willow was having a hard time believing the plan made a lot more sense when fully explained. Buffy had already agreed though and with Angel out of commission she was the leader by default. Anyway Buffy was always Willow's leader, she followed her without question, even when someone else was in charge. Now Buffy wanted her to follow a ghost and Harmony, whose current morality status was up for debate, to the abbey's inner sanctum while Willow's girlfriend, friends, and allies pretended to be dead outside.
The Wolf had insured that the battle was unwinnable, so the only way to win was to allow her to take the earth. The magic at work here was complicated, but if they let her in, she hadn't won the ground. This only worked if none of them died, and indeed that was the case. In the basement below a crowd of innocents hid, but the Wolf's demon army had brought their own sacrifices. Willow and Harmony hid on the other side of the wall as demons poured into the inner sanctum. Drusilla, Angelus, and Spike were among them. Seven zombie vampires were the last to traipse in. "I almost feel bad for the poor bastards." Angelus said
"Soon," Drusilla said "One of our little family will kill the slayer." She clapped her hands together in excitement. "Yummy, yummy, warm slayer blood,"
Spike took Dru in his arms. "Ah China," He reminisced as he kissed his demented lover
"I don't have any fond memories of China myself." Angelus said "Souls ruin everything." The vampire approached the twenty-one carefully gathered innocents.
"Drink daddy drink," Drusilla said "But mustn't kill,"
"Right," Angelus said "Our kindly benefactor wouldn't take too kindly to that."
Willow was using a spell to spy on the demons. Her heart sank as she saw Angelus grab a young woman's neck. When this was over Willow could break the curse as she had before, but anything Angelus did now would be something Angel carried the guilt for later. "What's happening?" Harmony whispered loudly, if such a thing was possible, in Willow's ear
"Shhh," Willow said
"Don't be obstinate Daddy, soon we'll be a family again." Drusilla frowned "I see a sunny church ground." Drusilla made a hacking sound. "Yuchk,"
"No more churches," Spike kissed Dru. "No more sunshine, it's the end of the world and I feel fine." He spun Drusilla around.
"Woo! Faster, faster!" Drusilla giggled.
"I thought you were opposed to the end of the world." Angelus said
"You've got to change with the times." Spike said "Got to play for the winning team."
Angelus sniffed the neck of the potential sacrifice. "I'm not much of a team player." He pulled her head to the side and put his mouth against her throat.
The ground shuddered. Willow gasped as the Wolf entered. That her powers were weakened here was obvious, that she was still a force to be reckoned with was equally so. Her glow was diminished, the energy that rolled off of her had less of an impact. Her usual calm had disappeared, she looked furious. "I gave you a simple job." She whispered
"Did I anger you?" Drusilla asked
"Ever so much." The Wolf grabbed a piece of splintered wood from the ground.
Spike held Drusilla behind him. Angelus dropped the unharmed innocent to the ground, leaving her shaking and crying as he approached the Wolf. "So you're what everyone is so afraid of." He grinned. "You may intimidate Angel and his whiny friends, but I'm not quite so easy to cow." He reached out to touch the Wolf, sliding down one of the sleeve of her dress.
The Wolf grabbed him by the neck and lifted him in the air. She squeezed with enough pressure to close off the windpipe. This would kill a human, but as Angelus didn't need to breathe it only served as a gesture. "Find your friends, kill them."
She dropped him to the ground. "They're his friends not mine, and they're dead."
"You saw the bodies?" Angelus started to speak but she cut him off. "They're hiding you idiot. They let us in so that the sacrifice wouldn't work and I can't bring my sister over. This is the only place in the city where my strength is diminished from what it should be. If it weren't for that I'd kill you now. As is, if you're a good dog and bring me all your little friends with pretty red holes in their necks I'll let you live." The Wolf stared at the rising vampire. "Do you understand?" She didn't let him respond this time either, only pushed him toward the door.
Drusilla and Spike followed their sire while the Wolf sat down at one of the pews. "I miss Lilah." She complained to no one in particular "Her humanity and capacity for love were sickening, but she was so competent." The Wolf stretched and lied down. "Humph,"
Willow stood up and gestured for Wesley and Harmony to follow her. They had to warn Buffy and the others. They were part of the way down the hall when the remainder of the whirlwind gang rounded the corner. "Hey red," Spike said
"Daddy has such a lovely nose." Drusilla said followed by some exaggerated sniffing
Willow held out her hand and muttered a spell, throwing the vampires against the far wall. "That won't keep them down long!" Willow grabbed Harmony's hand and the two women ran for the front of the abbey. She briefly wondered where Wesley had disappeared to.
