Chapter 22: Killed by Death

Buffy

Mom was waiting downstairs when Buffy got home a few hours after sunrise. Buffy looked at her and shook her head.

Mom collapsed onto the couch and buried her face in her hands. "Where could she be?"

Buffy shook her head again. She had been looking for Lucy for two days. Oz had seen Angelus grab her from the back of the Bronze on Saturday and since then, nothing. Even Willy didn't have any information, and he knew everything that went on in Sunnydale's demonic parts. Well, apparently not everything. He didn't know where Lucy was.

"Willow wants to try the resouling spell," Buffy said. "Giles and Ms. Calendar think it's too dangerous." Dark spots danced across her vision and she firmly blinked them away. "What do you think?" Since all the other adults had already weighed in it was only fair that Mom got to voice her opinion.

Mom looked up, blinking. "I...I don't know. Mr. Giles and Ms. Calendar are the ones who do magic. Does Willow want to do the spell on her own?"

She did. Something about parallels and maidens that Giles and Ms. Calendar agreed with but didn't want Willow to risk her safety for. Buffy was all on their side when it came to not making with the risky, but if Willow could give Angel his soul back, and now with Lucy being in danger...

They'd know if Lucy was dead. Angelus would make sure they knew.

Buffy sat down next to her mom. "I'm not going to school today."

"I already called and told them you have that flu that's been going around," Mom said.

Maybe that had been a bad idea, because Buffy got the flu. She ended up in the hospital, which was so not of the good. One, she couldn't look for Lucy if she was in the hospital, and two, she was in the hospital. She hated being in the hospital. It had been bad enough when Lucy was there and she was only visiting. Lucy didn't mind being in hospital. She didn't feel like she was trapped and in danger, not in hospital anyway. Buffy hated hospitals.

Buffy's fever was so high that she was delirious and hallucinating. Except that demon she saw walking past her room didn't feel like a hallucination. Her Slaydar was pinging.

When Giles, Willow, Cordelia and Xander came to visit the next day she told them what she had seen. Xander thought that she was hallucinating, but Cordelia saying that if the Slayer thought she'd seen a demon then it was probably a demon made him change his mind. Being thankful for Cordelia was such a weird feeling.

"I will attempt to find any creature that matches your description," Giles said. "It may take some time. I'm afraid my usual assistant will be otherwise occupied." He looked at Willow.

"Giles is letting me try the resouling spell," Willow said with a smile.

"I am letting you deliberate with Ms. Calendar and her online coven. If you cannot come up with a way to enact the curse safely then we will come up with another plan." Giles looked at Willow sternly. "This is very powerful magic, Willow. We can't go off half-cocked."

It was the same argument Giles had been using since Saturday. Buffy was pretty sure that they could all recite it word-for-word.

Since she apparently wasn't fully recovered yet, Giles wheeled Buffy back to her room from the small garden they'd escaped to for another night at Sunnydale General. When she sat on the bed there was a crinkling sound. Buffy frowned and searched the bed until she found the sheet of paper that was half under the pillow. She looked at it and then held it out for Giles and her friends (and Cordelia) to see. "I think we need to talk to some of the kids."

Giles studied the crayon drawing of a sharp-toothed, hook-nosed monster looming over a small child. "I believe you may be correct."

They found the children's ward easily enough. All of the kids seemed to have gotten the same flu that Buffy had. Most of them were lying in their beds, but one boy was sitting at a child-sized table with crayons and paper spread out in front of him.

"I think there are too many of us to talk to one kid," Xander whispered. "We'll be outside. Maybe breaking into the records room." He, Cordelia and Willow retreated back to the door.

Buffy sat down next to the boy. He was drawing another picture of the demon that she'd seen the night before. Buffy took out the drawing she'd found on her bed and flattened it out on the table. The boy looked at it for a moment before silently turning towards Buffy.

"Did you draw this?" Buffy asked.

The boy nodded. "Can you see it?"

Buffy guessed that he meant the actual demon and not the drawing. "It went past my room last night."

"Adults can't see it," the boy said. "It's scary."

"I know." Buffy tried to smile. "Tell me if you see it again, okay?"

The boy nodded. He picked up a black crayon and started colouring in the demon's coat. After a few seconds he whispered so quietly that Buffy would have never heard him if she hadn't been a Slayer. "I'm scared."

The tightening in Buffy's chest had nothing to do with her flu. She managed an actual smile, though it was strained. "I'll protect you."

The boy looked up at her with big, almost pleading, eyes. "Promise?"

Buffy nodded. "I promise."

She couldn't save Lucy yet, but she could save these kids.

Then she would save her cousin. This wouldn't end like it had with Celia.

The demon was called Der Kindestod. It sucked the life out of healing children and apparently had no problem killing doctors who were helping them get better faster. Buffy knew that it was what had killed her cousin Celia years ago while she was in the room and could do nothing to save her. Not this time.

Buffy was sitting up in her bed watching the hallway through the open door. Giles was in the chair next to her. They'd gotten sent back to her room after a nurse had caught them lurking in the hallway. Xander, Willow and Cordelia had stationed themselves in the waiting room after Giles had come back to the hospital with information on the demon. The children's ward was between them, closer to Buffy and Giles than Willow, Xander and Cordelia.

"I can just break its neck?" Buffy checked again.

Giles nodded. "Anything that separates its head from its body will kill it. Just remember that its spine goes up both sides of its neck."

Buffy would have liked to have a nice battle axe, but it was a little hard to sneak weapons into the hospital.

There were footsteps in the hallway. Buffy was frantically running through excuses for the nurse coming by on her rounds when the sight of peroxide blond hair made her jump out of bed. Giles leapt to his feet second later.

"Easy, Slayer," Spike said. "Watcher. I'm not here to cause trouble."

Buffy scowled. "You're walking. How are you walking? Lucy said—" Her voice cracked and she broke off the sentence.

A muscle twitched in Spike's jaw. "Angelus has been walking 'round practically dressed in her blood with that stupid smile on his face." A low growl filled the room and Spike's game face snapped into place. "He's got Dru twisted 'round his finger, hanging off his every word. And he thinks I can't do anything about it."

"Get to the point," Buffy told him.

Spike took a deep breath and shook off his game face. "Help me get Lucy back. One of us fights Angelus, the other gets her out."

"What are you talking about?" Buffy asked. What Spike was saying did not compute.

"Working together to save your cousin from your Boyfriend of the Year." Spike drew his lips back from his human-shaped teeth in a snarl. "Do you think I'd be asking for your help if I could do it on my own, Slayer?"

A shrill scream sounded from the direction of the children's ward before Buffy could reply. Spike turned to look and Buffy pushed him out into the hallway and ran past him, Giles following after her.

In the children's ward, a little girl was screaming and staring in horror at the invisible force pinning her to her bed. One of the other girls was throwing wooden blocks that seemed to bounce off of thin air but otherwise weren't doing anything.

Buffy froze. She couldn't see the demon. She was supposed to be able to see the demon. How could she break its neck if she couldn't see it?

"That's a right ugly bugger," Spike said. Apparently he'd followed Buffy too.

Buffy shook off her hesitation and aimed a full body tackle at the air that the girl's blocks were bouncing off of. She collided with a heavy object covered in something rough that she hoped was the demon's coat. The girl on the bed scrambled away into the arms of the girl who had been defending her while Buffy and the demon crashed into the floor. The demon twisted in Buffy's grip and then Buffy was flying back across the room. She landed on the floor next to Spike with a crack that knocked the air out of her lungs. That was going to bruise. At least none of her ribs were broken. She knew what broken ribs felt like.

Spike scoffed. "Didn't you see that punch it threw at you, Slayer?"

"Kind of hard when it's invisible," Buffy grumbled as she pushed herself to her feet. She almost missed seeing Spike's raised eyebrow before she was knocked over again.

"Hey, ugly!" Spike swung his fist at the air above Buffy's head and the force holding her down went away. "Why don't you fight someone your own size?"

Buffy got back on her feet and quickly jumped out of the way when Spike said the demon was coming at her from her left. He punched the air again and there was a crash as the demon collided with one of the empty beds. A tangle of sheets took the form of what looked like an arm and a leg.

Buffy grinned.

One cleverly thrown bedsheet later, the demon was visible enough that Buffy had no trouble beating it into the ground and twisting its head around until she heard its neck snap twice. She stepped back from the corpse and blew a strand of her hair out of her face. Giles looked in from the doorway. At some point during the fight he'd gathered up the children and ushered them out of the room. A boy and a girl were also peering around the door frame.

"We're good," Buffy said to her Watcher. Then she turned to Spike. "What did you say about Lucy?"

They had to clean up the dead demon first. Xander and Giles lugged it outside to a dumpster while Cordelia kept watch and Buffy and Willow got the kids tucked back into bed. The floor was wobbling under Buffy's feet. She wasn't sick enough to see the demon but she was sick enough that fighting it made her head spin. It figured.

Spike lurked in a corner where Buffy could keep an eye on him. At one point he stepped out of the room and Buffy heard him heading off some nurses who'd come to see what was going on. He was shockingly polite when he told them not to worry, some of the kids had nightmares and everything was fine now. Then he asked one of the nurses how his daughter was. Buffy glared at him when he came back into the room. Spike glared back.

"No more monsters?" the girl who the demon had been trying to kill asked Buffy.

Buffy swallowed to get rid of the lump forming in her throat. "No more monsters. Get some sleep, okay? I bet you'll be going home in the morning."

"'kay." The girl yawned and almost immediately fell asleep. The death grip she'd had on Buffy's hand went slack.

"That the last of them, Slayer?" Spike asked.

Buffy stood up and crossed her arms. "It wouldn't kill you to have some sympathy, Spike. You're already dead."

"Uh, Buffy?" Willow spoke quietly even though she knew as well as Buffy did that Spike could hear every word she said. "What's he doing here?"

"He knows where Lucy is," Buffy said. "He's going to tell us."

Willow's eyes went wide. She looked from Buffy to Spike and back again. "But...but...Not that that's a bad thing because of course it isn't a bad thing to find Lucy but what if he's lying? And why does he care?"

"I have my reasons." Spike looked at Buffy. "And I'm not telling you, I'm going with you. You really think I'm going to risk you screwing this up?"

Buffy wanted to yell at him for saying that. How could he think that she would ever do anything to hurt her family? He was a soulless monster, but he wasn't stupid. She didn't yell though. It wouldn't be fair to the kids who'd finally gotten to sleep after being attacked by a life-draining demon.

"Tonight," Buffy said. "We're going to save her tonight."

Willow pointed out that Buffy was still sick. Spike said that they didn't have time to waste. The three of them moved out to the hallway to have an argument that was cut short by Giles, Xander, and Cordelia returning from disposing of the body.

"Doesn't being the Slayer come with, like, super healing?" Cordelia asked. "Buffy will be fine by tomorrow."

Giles nodded slowly. "Though I wouldn't have put it quite in those terms, Cordelia is correct."

"Tomorrow then," Spike grumbled. "We'll have a stronger trail to follow anyway." He stalked away from them without another word.

"What exactly were you talking about?" Giles asked.

Cordelia scoffed. "A rescue mission, obviously. Can we go home now? I need to take at least five showers."

"You didn't even touch the dumpster," Xander said.

"I can't help it if watching you bury a dead demon in garbage makes me feel gross," Cordelia said. "So?"

"You are free to go," Giles said. "Get home safely." He waited until Cordelia was gone before turning to Buffy with the look on his face that always came before a lecture.

"I have some ideas for the spell, Giles," Willow said before Giles's lecture could get started. "But shouldn't we go back to Buffy's room first so we don't get in trouble?"

"I should probably get some sleep," Buffy admitted. Her eyelids were beginning to feel heavy and she was getting dizzy again. Maybe agreeing to mount the rescue mission tomorrow night had been a good idea.

Buffy wasn't surprised when Spike showed up at her house. He didn't even knock, just opened the back door while they were having dinner. The three crosses nailed to the door didn't seem to faze him at all, though it was good to know that the uninvite spell definitely worked.

"Come on, Slayer. We're burning moonlight." Spike looked towards Mom for a second. "'lo, Joyce."

"William," Mom said evenly. "Or do you prefer Spike?"

Buffy stood up, leaving her meal half finished. "I'll be back soon, Mom. With Lucy."

She took a stake, a knife and a sword with her. Light armaments for what would hopefully be an in-and-out rescue. She wouldn't have to kill Angelus, only keep him busy long enough for Spike to get Lucy out and hurt him enough that he wouldn't come after them. Maybe Willow would even convince Giles and Ms. Calendar that she should do the resouling spell tonight and Buffy wouldn't have to fight Angelus at all.

Buffy kept her stake within easy reach.

Spike led the way through the streets. At intersections he'd pause and breathe in through his nose before choosing a direction and continuing. Buffy didn't know what scent he was tracking. Angelus's, maybe, or Lucy's. They crossed a good chunk of Sunnydale before Spike gestured for her to stop.

"There," he whispered, pointing to the very end of Crawford Street. "Scent's strongest that way."

"There's a lot of abandoned houses there," Buffy muttered. If she'd been on her own she would have had to search every one of them. Instead, Spike went straight to the mansion at the end of the street and they started looking for a way in. A sturdy tree and a handy open window on the second floor let them into an empty room with a layer of dust covering the floor. The floorboards creaked as they stepped into the hallway. Buffy winched.

When Angelus didn't immediately appear out of the shadows and attack them, Buffy could breathe a little easier. But only a little.

They walked down the hallway in silence. Buffy held her sword at the ready. She paid close attention to the rooms they passed by, waiting for Angelus to step out of one of the doors. Spike didn't appear to be paying attention to their surroundings at all, charging ahead with a single-mindedness that she almost envied.

The hallway turned into stairs that went down into large room with a high ceiling and an empty fireplace. The floor and walls were stone and there were French doors on either side of the room that led outside. It would have been a nice room if it weren't so cold and if Angelus weren't standing in the middle of it carrying a bloody knife in one hand.

Angelus grinned. "Spike and the Slayer. This is a surprise. Shouldn't you be begging Drusilla to take you back, William?"

Spike growled and stepped into the room. "Listen here you bleein'—"

"Spike," Buffy said. Spike went silent.

Angelus laughed. "She's got you whipped! How long did that take, Buffy? You moved on so fast. I'm hurt."

A drop of blood fell off Angelus's knife and hit the floor. Buffy advanced with her sword raised. "Where's Lucy?"

"Do you really think you're going to save her?" Angelus smirked. "Poor, deluded little Buffy. Didn't Rupert tell you that I always win?"

Buffy bared her teeth. "Didn't anyone ever tell you that overconfidence is unattractive?"

Buffy swung her sword at Angelus, aiming for his left arm. He stopped the blade with his knife and then Buffy was fighting for her life. If she hadn't been fighting her soulless boyfriend (they'd never actually broken up) with weapons on both sides then it would have been a normal Wednesday night.

Angelus's strength and speed meant that Buffy had to work to stop him from getting inside her guard, even though she had the longer blade and should have had an advantage. She cut into his arm a few times but he didn't even seem to notice.

A twist of Buffy's wrist sent Angelus's knife flying across the room. It landed near the spot where Spike had been standing when the fight started. Buffy could only hope that Spike had found Lucy and was getting her out of the mansion.

Angelus growled and put on his game face. "You shouldn't have done that."

He leapt towards her with his fangs bared and his hands contorted into claws. Buffy batted aside one of his arms but was unable to block the swipe he was taking at her with the other hand. He came within an inch of grabbing her arm before she whipped out her knife and stabbed the blade straight through his hand. That injury got his attention. He screamed and stumbled backwards. Then Buffy saw the burning white light gathering in his chest. Maybe that had more to do with Angelus screaming in pain than a measly knife wound.

Buffy knew magic when she saw it. She stepped back and watched as the light grew brighter for a moment before going out. Angelus was left kneeling on the floor, breathing hard despite his lack of needing to breathe.

The vampire looked up, and Buffy knew even before he spoke what the magic had done. His eyes were Angel's again.

"Buffy?" Angel said. "What happened? I feel like it's been months since I've seen you."

Buffy blinked rapidly. She was too choked up to say anything. She shook her head.

A distant look crossed Angel's face. Then he doubled over like he'd been shot in the stomach, his eyes squeezed shut and his un-knifed arm wrapped around his torso like it was the only thing holding him together. "Oh god. What have I done?"

Buffy crouched down and yanked her knife out of his hand. "Where's Lucy?"

"Downstairs." Angel pushed himself to his feet, seeming to completely ignore his injured hand and the smears of blood it left on the floor. "Hurry."

Downstairs was a cellar with a wooden door that was wide open. Buffy ran in ahead of Angel and froze while her brain processed the scene in front of her.

Lucy was lying on the floor. She was breathing in short, sharp pants that made her entire body shutter. The chains around her wrists had clearly been torn out of the wall. Her skin and what little was left of her clothing was covered in blood. The injuries that drew Buffy's eye most were the railroad spike pinning her legs together below the knee and what was probably a stab wound between her ribs that bubbled blood with every breath. There were more injuries that were harder to see because of the blood, but even all of those together wouldn't have been enough to make Buffy pause for more than a moment. It was Spike, kneeling next to Lucy and pressing his bleeding wrist to her lips, which kept Buffy frozen in place.

"Spike, no," Angel groaned. "Why?"

Spike didn't look up from Lucy's face when he replied. "You know why. Got your soul back, have you? Thought I smelled magic. Bit too late to regret what you've done."

Lucy made a small sound and Buffy was finally able to move. She crossed the space between her and Lucy and sent Spike flying into the opposite wall with a kick to his chest. She dropped to the floor at Lucy's side. Her cousin's mouth was stained red.

"Lucy?" Buffy said.

Lucy blinked at her and whimpered. Her breath hitched.

"Hey, you're gonna be okay. We'll get you to the hospital, you'll be okay." Buffy reached out to hold Lucy's hand but quickly drew her own hand back when she saw that Lucy's hand had a lot of obvious broken bones. "It's okay."

Lucy blinked again.

"Buffy," Angel said, "it's too late."

"No, it isn't," Buffy snapped. Her vision grew blurry. She blinked rapidly. Tears ran down her cheeks.

Lucy wasn't breathing. Her eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. Buffy brushed her hand over Lucy's face and closed her eyes.

Across the room, Spike got to his feet. Buffy zeroed in on the movement. Her instincts were screaming at her to turn him to dust, but she didn't get up. Once she staked him there would be one more vampire in the room that she would have to slay, and she didn't want to do that yet.

A heavy sigh cemented her certainty that Angel was all soulful again. "Spike, go home."

"But—" Spike said.

"Now." Angel didn't growl or raise his voice, but his tone made it clear that he expected Spike to follow his orders.

Spike stood very still, watching them. "I'm taking Lucy with me."

"No," Angel said. "You've done enough damage."

Spike still didn't move. "You're going to kill her. She wanted it, in the end. Said she wasn't done yet."

Buffy's stomach did a few dozen cartwheels. She looked down at Lucy's face. Would she really have chosen to become a vampire? She was terrified of the idea of losing her soul.

"We're not going to kill her." Buffy look over her shoulder and saw that Angel looked completely serious. He was even glaring at Spike a little. "Go home."

Spike backed away from Angel, but he didn't stop protesting. "I promised I'd stay with her."

The two vampires stayed locked in their stand-off for a few more seconds. Then Angel sighed. "Fine, you can stay until she wakes up. And you walk in front of us."

Angel covered Lucy with his jacket before picking her up. Cradled in his arms, Lucy looked almost like she was sleeping.

"Where we going?" Spike asked.

"My place," Angel said.

Spike walked ahead of Buffy and Angel, looking over his shoulder frequently like he was checking that they were still there. Buffy lagged behind to put some distance between them.

"What are you doing?" she whispered to Angel when she was sure they were far enough away that Spike couldn't hear.

Angel looked down at the burden he was carrying. "Fixing this."

It took three days for Lucy to wake up. Buffy was at Angel's apartment every day when she wasn't patrolling or at school. She would have skipped school if Mom would let her get away with it. She didn't, even though Mom knew about Spike turning Lucy into a vampire. Buffy had only told her and Giles about that. Willow, Ms. Calendar and Xander were distracted enough by Willow's successful resouling of Angel that they bought the story of Lucy needing quiet time to recover from Angelus kidnapping her.

Giles was the only one Buffy had told Angel's plan. Angel's totally crazy, absolutely ridiculous, desperate plan that Lucy would probably have approved of if she'd had a say. If it worked then Buffy wouldn't have to destroy what was left of her cousin.

When Lucy opened her eyes, Buffy was sitting at the end of Angel's bed with one eye on her cousin and the other on Spike, who seemingly hadn't moved from the corner of the room he was standing in since Wednesday. Buffy nearly missed the fluttering eyelids, but she jumped to her feet as soon as Lucy moved her head. Spike appeared at Lucy's side before she could decide if she was going to get closer or not.

"Easy, luv," Spike murmured. "Take it slow. Don't want the Slayer to get spooked."

Buffy winced when Lucy sat up and she saw her game face. Lucy rubbed her eyes on the sleeve of the pajamas Buffy had dressed her in. Then she held her hands up in front of her and studied them for several seconds. They were unbroken. All her injuries had healed.

"Spike," Lucy said, "I'm hungry."