Chapter 25

***

"This is just sad," Elizabeth said dejectedly as she watched her Sire's failed attempt to ambush the Slayer and the redheaded vampire from a few blocks down. She watched for a few more minutes as Thomas now traded blows with her Uncle Spike, both vampires fumbling around on the pavement as the childe they were all after defended herself against a small group of much large vampires, her unbelievable strength showing through as she effortlessly dusted one vampire after another.

Turning her attention to a few of her minions who were dressed in regular street garb, "Go help him get the Masters Childe," she huffed out. "And if possible, grab me the witch." Running her tongue slowly over her top teeth, "I haven't had one in ages."

"Yes, ma'am," said one of the minions she was referring to before he darted down the street, seven other vampires hot on his heels.

"The Hemlock demons are circling back around," Officer Lambert said coming to stand next to Elizabeth. "He tried to grab her but apparently the childe is much faster then we expected. I'll have them … help when they get here."

"Bunch of fucking idiots," she growled out as she continued to watch the fight display out before her. Spike and Thomas both fumbling around on the ground for dominance, her grandsire Angel defending the one thing in the world he was meant to kill with vigor, the witch struggling with all her might against Thomas's right-hand man's fierce grasp, and most importantly the newly turned fledgling that was toying with the dismembered arm of a rather muscular vampire as she sleekly walked towards the blonde witch. This inexperience vampire was going to ruin her chance at rising to the top of the ranks among the Masters flock and that just didn't bode well with the much older demon.

***

Whispering softly, Tara started to conjure together another fireball, the tips of her fingers humming with electricity. The warm mystical ball of energy slowly starting to form in her right hand as she stared intently into the redheads golden eyes, trying to keep a constant contact. Just as the fireball had completely formed her eyes jerked to the right over the bloody vampires bare shoulder, spying two snarling vampires that were quickly rushing towards them.

With a decision she hardly had time to think over, she sent the ball of mystical fire spiraling over the redheads shoulder, impacting squarely into the closes rushing vampires exposed chest. As soon as the flame left her finger tips, the female vampire known as Willow hissed in anger as the mystical flame zoomed over her shoulder singeing the exposed flesh.

Snarling in anger, the demon looked from her sizzling shoulder to the blonde before snapping her head around to the right to view the scene that was taking place behind them. With a smile that seemed to slowly paint its way up her mouth she watched as the male demon flung backwards with the force of the spell in mere seconds of being hit. Slowly turning her neck back around so she could face the blonde once again her golden irises somehow managed to burn brighter then they where before, the smile still plastered against her disfigured features.

With a sense of intangible fear, she watched with wide, doe like eyes, as the male demon flung backwards with the force of the spell in mere seconds before the redheaded vampire once again resumed her sadistic focus upon her once again. With a audible gulp, she took in the sight of the redheaded vampires eyes, not thinking it was possible for them to shine any brighter then she remembered them being upon their first encounter.

"Ta-tara, you got to do something," Xander squeaked out as he came to huddle behind the blonde, his hands gripping tightly around her biceps. He kept his eyes glued to his ex-best friend who was just standing there, looking at the blonde brazenly.

"I… I can't," Tara admitted feebly, her mouth going dry as she watched the second vampire advance on them. "I n-need time t-to recuperate." She flicked her eyes from the disheveled vampire standing stoically before her to that of the vampire in everyday grungy street cloths only ten feet away from them. "Is he w-with her?" Tara asked meekly, her jaw trembling slightly as she prepared herself for the upcoming death that would most likely end in blood, guts, and slaughter.

As the male vampire got within two feet of them, Willow hefted the bloody dismembered arm in her left hand slightly, grasping the lifeless limb by the wrist with her right hand. Rotating her wrists, until they both stopped cracking from the vigorous movement, she lifted the motionless arm above her right shoulder as if it where a baseball bat, swinging it hard in a long upwards arch until the detached muscular appendage contacted squarely with the running vampires face.

"Apparently not," Xander said bewildered as he watched Willow swing the makeshift bat at the other snarling vampire as if she herself was the reincarnation of Babe Ruth. He stared slack jawed, half in amazement and half in terror as the force of improvised bat connected with the underside of the vampires jaw, the momentum causing his brown Timberlands to life off of the ground, sending him sprawling into a sloppy half back flip. As his cranium connected with the concrete, his feet dangled up in the air for a few agonizing seconds before thudding to the ground with the rest of his body.

Twirling the arm around in her right hand by its wrist as if it was a baton, Willow took a few steps closer to the sprawled out demon. With one final twirl of the arm, she re-gripped the appendage between both hands before swinging downwards in one swift motion, smashing in the demonic face staring up at her.

Dropping the now completely mangled arm atop of the unconscious vampire, Willow cocked her head to the right, taking in the sight of Xander and the Blonde huddled together for support. Stepping over the limp body, she took two slow strides towards the petrified teenagers.

"D-don't come a-any closer." Tara warned as she lifted her right arm up quickly, Xander's hand still firmly clasped to her bicep. "I'll k-kill you."

Ever so slowly she straightened out her head, a small smile gracing her lips as she did so. "No you wont." She replied back in a smooth and eerie tone, her right foot taking another step closer. "You have nothing left to give. You're all tapped out."

"Maybe," Tara said as she started taking steps backwards, ushering Xander with her. "B-but I d-doubt he is." She jutted her chin upwards, indicating the presence of someone else standing behind the redhead.

Whirling around on the balls of her feet, she looked up into the face of the beady eye demon whom she ran into in the alley only a short while beforehand. "Ah sh…" she started to say but was abruptly cut off by the overly wrinkled hand wrapping tightly around her thin neck.

As the muscles in her neck tightened by the shear force of the Hemlock demons fierce grip, she looked around widely for something, or someone, preferably her maker to save her undead life. As her wavering gaze scanned the block that they claimed as their boxing ring, her eyes briefly landed on Angel, the Slayer carefully cradled in his arms as he warned off three new vampires who seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Not caring much about how that scene would pan out she switched her gaze a few feet over to where her Sire was now back on his feet, his upper body hunched in a contorted condition, making him look like a wolf about to pounce on a unsuspecting lamb. Except in this case, that lamb happened to be Thomas and two stalwart new comber vampires, who all looked like they were ready to tare the bleach blonde vampire limb from limb.

Knowing there was no way her Sire was going to make it to her before one of them more then likely died, she did the first thing that came to mind, briskly she sank all ten of her razor sharp nails into the flabby hand holding her a good foot and a half off of the ground. As soon as her sharpened nails ripped through the Hemlocks exoskeleton, the demon hissed in pain, his grip around her neck only crushing tighter.

With a unique gurgle sound that just barely escaped her lips, she extracted her fingertips from out of his hand before slamming her right forearm into his, hoping to dislodge his death lock. With a feral snarl, he wrapped his free hand around the wrist banging into his outstretched arm, twisting it harshly behind her back until they both heard a sickening pop.

As peripheral nerve fibers carried information regarding the state of the body to the spinal cord, hot flashes of pain shot throughout her sensory receptors to her dislocated shoulder. Blinking rapidly in disbelief, it took a few moments before a gut wrenching scream emerged from deep within her, the noise even sounding foreign to her own demonic ears that have been privileged to many brutal screams in the past few months.

"We need to help her," Tara said as she took a shaky step forward.

"Wooh," Xander gasped, grasping the blonde around the waist with both hands. "Tara are you nuts?"

"She needs help Xander," the blonde said again, gently removing his hands from off of her stomach. Taking another tentative step forward, she quickly racked her mind for a spell that would be useful on a demon of the non-vampire variety. With a deep sigh, she lifted both arms chest level, aiming them directly at the larger demon who was still slowly twisting the vampires right arm upwards. With a frustrated growl she let both of her tired limbs fall back down, her fingers fidgeting nervously by her side while she chewed her bottom lip in contemplation.

"Tara?" Xander questioned dubiously as he stared at the back of the wiccans slumped shoulders.
"She was right," Tara admitted in a low tone, her head turning to the right just enough so she could see Xander out of the corner of her eyes. "I really am all tapped out."

Shaking his head in disbelief, he looked around them nervously. No matter where he looked there seemed to be bloodshed, fighting, and among all vampires or a demon blocking the only logical routes to leave through. The chance for just him and the blonde to escape was looking bleak, and the opportunity for Angel and the unconscious form of Buffy cradled in his tight embrace to run along with them was long over.

"I really hate SunnyDale," Xander muttered as he took one fluid step backwards. As the tip of his worn out tennis shoe hit the concrete he spun around on the rubber toe cap, propelling him into a trot as he jogged over to the immobilized form of one of the many bodies the redhead took out of commission.

Leaning down, Xander quickly studied the body of the demon who only a short while ago had him in a rather uncomfortable headlock. None to gently, he grasped the handle of the medium size butterfly knife, yanking out the smooth metal bald and the vampires left eye in the process.

"Ah, gross," Xander gagged as he stared down into the now hazelnut colored eye dripping bodily fluids. Leaning completely over as if to pick something up off of the floor, he scrapped the knife against the ruff texture of the ground, his left shoe placing pressure against the squishy substance as he tried to remove it from off of the weapon. Once the eye was off of the knife he ran towards the blonde, "Tara! I need you to summon up what ever strength you have left."

Looking at the brunette fully, she saw the knife gripped firmly in his grasp. "Alright, but make it quick. What I can do won't last long."

"Alright," Xander said as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. "On the count of three." Taking in a deep breath he began to count. "One. Two…. Three!"

As soon as he shouted three the wiry teen bolted forwards, the knife raised in a striking manner at ear level. Quickly Tara started chanting, the low hum of her voice mingling in with the thudding foot steps of Xander's pounding feet, growls of anger, and cries of pain. With what little strength she has left, she conjured up a fog of protection spell, a very minor defense spell that would momentarily disorient the demon.

As the smoke wafted up around the demon, his thoughts started to jumble together haphazardly, a state of disarray overcoming his facial features as he looked down at the redhead in his grasp with a bewildered look. Ever so slowly his grip around the young vampires throat loosened, his large frame taking a few unsteady steps backwards as he swayed from side to side.

"Xander now!" Tara huffed out, sweat beading heavily down her face as she struggled to uphold the strenuous spell.

With a burst of speed he didn't think was possible to muster, he traveled across the last few feet to the Hemlock demon, the entire weight of his body springing off of his left foot as it landed heavily on the pavement in order to strike the knife downwards into the looming demons thick muscular neck. He hung off of the blade of the knife for a few agonizing seconds before falling backwards to the asphalt, his body rolling into a backwards summersault from the momentum of the impact.

As the knife dug deeply into the demons yellowish flesh colored skin, he let out a loud blood curdling howl, his grip on the captured vampire completely letting go. He took a few more hesitant steps backwards, his body wobbling as his eyes roamed the immediate scene for his attacker, the effects of the spell gradually starting to dissipate. Yanking the blade out of his neck, he looked down at the offending object, his eyes completely glazed over.

"Witch." The Hemlock demon growled out, the effects of the spell haven know completely worn off.

"Tara?" Xander uttered the name full of concern from his position on the ground. The blonde was completely drenched in sweat and shaking feverishly. Bolting upright from his position sprawled out on the floor, he dashed passed the monster over to the shaking witch, catching her limp form just in the nick of time as her drained body crumbled to the ground. He ran a gentle hand over her forehead, pushing aside her sweat drenched bangs while looking back over at the two demons, the redhead still sitting on the ground, her wide, bewildered, eyes going back and forth between the humans and the demon.

With the dull ache in her torn rotator cuff almost completely forgotten, the fledgling vamp sprung back to her feet, her right arm hanging stiff at her side. With her good arm she rubbed at her bruised clad neck, the demons claw prints leaving distinctive markings in her pale flesh. "You're a big bloody bloke, aren't ya," Willow said in a tired husk as she stared up into the demons beady red eyes. "Alright, let's go," she said with a rhy grin, waving the larger creature of the night on with the hand that was just recently rubbing her bruised neck.

Letting loose a guttural roar, the Hemlock demon raced forwards, the knife still clutched in his right hand. Swiping his meaty claw forward, Willow ducked down, the blade of the weapon grazing over the top of her scalp. Raising both hands up quickly she took hold of his arm, holding in a silent yelp as searing hot pain jolted through her fractured shoulder. With a quick twist, she rotated her body around his left side, bring his arm to rest uncomfortably in the middle of his own back. Releasing the grip of her left hand on his arm, she moved it down to the hem of his dingy hunter green cargo pants.

With the strength of her Sire coursing through her veins, she hefted up the demon five times her size and threw him a good fifteen feet, effectively colliding him into the two new vampires that were assaulting her maker. Once she was good and sure the Hemlock along with the brawny vamps were out of commission for the time being, she made her way over to Xander who was carefully cradling the panting blonde in his lap.

"Get up," She hissed out. "We need to leave."

Looking up into his childhood friends eyes he watched as they rapidly changed back and forth from emerald green to honey golden, "Yuh… yeah." Scurrying out from behind the blonde, he scrambled onto his hands and knees then jumped quickly to his feet. Leaning down he scooped up the incapacitated women and followed feebly behind the blood sucking feign that he once called his best friend.

"Go help Angel," she barked out before taking off in the opposite direction.

Briskly the redhead vampire ran towards her savior, quickly closing the gap between her and the vampire vehemently trading blows for blows with her Sire and steadily gaining the upper hand. As soon as she was close enough she launched herself at the vampire, tackling the demon from off of Spike and to the ground. From her position on top of the struggling demon, she rapped her hand into his medium length shaggy brown locks before smashing his face down repeatedly into the cement.

As she was about to strike the vampires face against the floor once more a sharp tug from under her armpits pulled her backwards. "Come on little bit. We gotta get moving," Spike husked out through his bruised battered mouth as he yanked his childe from off of the nearly unconscious vampire. Stumbling backwards with her Sire, she took in the sight of her own handy work, the Hemlock demon tangled together with two of the minion vampire, and Thomas ever so slowly rising to his knees from where she just clambered off of him.

With a shake of her head she darted towards her grandsire, the shocked calls of her own Sire reverberating loudly behind her as he took chase to catch up to her. "Willow! What the bloody hell are you doing?" He yelled as he caught up to her, his hand gripping tightly on her injured shoulder.

"Helping," she said bluntly as she took hold of a sinewy vampire, tossing him aside as if he weighed nothing more then a sack of wet laundry.
Rolling his eyes upwards in frustration, Spike let out a long growl of his own, before stepping once again into the fray. Grasping tight onto the back of one of the three vampires grimy black crew neck shirts, he spun around in a half circle before releasing the monster, sending the demon flying through one of the storefront windows. With a satisfied snicker he sauntered over to the next vampire, tapping the unsuspecting vampire on the shoulder, then nailing him straight in the face with a closed fist once he turned around.

With a look of unreadable contemplation, Angel casted his glance from the blood drench redhead to his grandchilde. Shifting the blonde in his arm to a more comfortable position he glared at the peroxide vampire. "What are you doing?" He croaked out.

"Helping," Spike said nonchalantly, mimicking the same thing his childe said only moments before. Flagging his childe over with a wave of his arm. "But, we best be moving," Spike said in a stoic voice as he looked directly into Angels tired old eyes. "They'll be up and mobile in no time."

"Angel?" Xander asked in a scared, squeaky little voice. "I think we should run too." As the words left his mouth, all three creatures of the nights turned their heads to view what Xander was looking at. From a few blocks down a hoard of angry Hemlock demons were quickly approaching, a few measly vampires where also thrown into the mix to provide assistance.

"Willow! Run," Spike shouted as he and his childe took off at a sprint down the street.

"Xander," Angel said sternly as he started to quickly backup. "Go. Get Tara out of here."

vigorously nodding his head, he took a few quick steps in the direction of safety before stumbling, the extra weight of the blonde on his tired frame causing him to tumble to the ground. The sound of the two body's groaning as they impacted the cement caused the redhead to skid to a stop. Swirling around, Willow watched as Xander tried to pull the blonde and himself up off of the ground, the tedious task of lifting the hundred and thirty pound women proving to be more of a challenge then he could face.

"Willow!" Spike barked as his childe stopped running besides him. Coming to a dead stop, he turned around and watched as his young charge turned around and marked over towards the fallen teens.

"Move," she growled as she shoved the boy out of the way. Leaning down, she effortlessly scooped the cataleptic witch from off of the street. "Let's go." She twitched her head to the side, indicating she wanted the teenager to lead the way.

With a nervous head gesture, not quite sure whether or not to trust the blonde with the vampire, he started to jog in the direction Angel took off in. The redhead following close behind him and her Sire angrily bringing up the rear. The small mismatched group of friends and foes ran for a good ten minutes before stopping abruptly outside a two story house in a well lit neighborhood, the slayer now standing on her own shaky legs with the help of her boyfriend.

"Put her down," The blonde demanded as she pushed herself off of the two decade old vampires broad shoulder.

"You're really in no position to be demanding anything," Willow snickered, her grasp on the dirty haired blonde not loosening in the slightest. "Look at the lot of you, you all wouldn't last another round."

"You want to test that theory?" Buffy ask hotly, the limp in her step not going unnoticed by anyone.

"Now calm down slayer," Spike spoke up as he stepped between his childe and the nearly defeated Warrior. "You know damn well you're in no shape to fight. And although I'd love to see my lil Willow nip herself a Slayer ... that defeat would be just to easy."

"Bite me." Buffy retorted back in shear anger, her hands placed firmly on her hips.

"Oh I plan on it." Spike shot back with a wicked smile. "But not right now I need to get Willow and myself out of here. And you would be all the wise to help us."

"And why would I do that," hissed Buffy, pain from the two previous fights evident on her facial features.

"Because you have no clue what you are going up against." Spike stated, the smile no longer gracing his lips.

"Vampires," Buffy stressed. "Wood. Heart. Dust. It's quite simple, care to test it out? "

He let out a boisterous chuckle at the Slayers naivety. "Try two of the most ruthless vampire's you'll ever meet. Thomas is a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. Elizabeth on the other hand, she's," Spike faltered as he talked about his niece, his lip curling upwards in a snarl. "…. I hate to admit this but she's stronger then me. Us." He pointed two digits back and forth between himself and Angel. "And she's had nearly a hundred years to perfect her fighting skills."

"What do they want?" Buffy asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

"Besides my head?" he chuckled, as he riffled though the pockets in his leather duster for his packet of smokes. "Willow"

"Why?"

"Because she is the one Shantou wants." He said absently as he produced a cigarette from the crumpled pack. "It pisses Thomas off that his childe wasn't the one." Taking a break from his speech he flipped open the Zippo that was previously nestled into his pant pockets, flicking the flame to life and lighting his cancer stick. Taking a long drag from the cigarette, he exhaled slowly, letting the smoke come out in small puffs. "… it urks her even more to know that she will never be anything more then a subordinate to 'our' master."

"And what do you want?" Buffy asked, her arms crossing over her chest in a mock show of strength.

"Hospitality," Spike answered matter-of-factly, his chin raised high. "You help us, and we'll help you."