Graegus closed the distance he had kept between himself and the vampire since he had arrived; he wanted to witness the action personally.
His experience turned out to be far more personal than he had imagined.
As Angelus lowered his fangs to the crying baby's throat, his foot shot up and kicked Graegus in the face, sending him sprawling to the ground.
As soon as Graegus hit the floor the chaos erupted.
Katie screamed as Angelus clutched her tightly against his chest, Graegus's men charging at him, enraged at his betrayal. He ducked a swing and returned a few with his free arm.
...
The magical hold on Buffy broke when Graegus lost consciousness and she used her new found freedom to shoot towards Angelus, he saw her coming and virtually threw the crying baby at her.
She caught her daughter, shocked beyond measure that Angelus, while completely soulless, was seemingly siding with her.
Although she still kept in the back of her mind he could be killing Graegus's men out of spite for Wolfram & Hart, and saving her for later.
He wasn't one to play by the rules, and he rarely played well with others.
She grabbed a piece of shattered table leg from the floor, just in-case.
She soothed the screaming baby as she hid behind the couch, being seven months pregnant severely limited her usefulness as a Slayer, at least if she wanted to birth a live baby.
If she started throwing punches and sending high kicks, she would either eventually receive a blow to the stomach or the rapid movements alone would kill her unborn; that wasn't a first choice option.
Katie quieted after a few moments, as Buffy checked her over. Thankfully she was uninjured; her tears had been entirely from fright, not pain.
She hugged her daughter in relief, kissing her small head and soothing her best she could while trying to figure out a way to get all of them out alive, her husband's untrustworthy demon included.
...
Angelus fought like a blur, Graegus's men had been unprepared for the assault since typically Graegus held their prey immobile for them, that made them weak over time.
Angelus noticed Graegus coming too, he quickly herded his victims in that direction, moments later, Graegus had a sword impaling him to the floor.
'Well that was anticlimactic' He thought, looking down at the dead Graegus. 'Why can't they all die that easily?'
Pain tore into Angelus's left front shoulder, he turned and backhanded that goon beside him.
"Missed the heart jackass." He growled as he pulled the stake from his shoulder and drove it into the goon's chest. "but I didn't" he said as the goon eyes widened in death.
A few minutes later, all ten of the lackeys were either dead, dying, or very close to both.
He looked down at his handwork, and wiped blood from his lips, some of it his, some not.
He closed his eyes a moment and just breathed, his hand holding the bleeding stake wound in his shoulder.
...
Buffy scooted from behind the couch, knowing if Angelus wanted to find her, she couldn't hide.
Katie had fallen back to sleep in her arms, she held the baby close and looked over at Angelus.
His back was to her, but she could tell from his stance he was injured.
His attention was drawn to the forgotten glass vessel that contained his soul.
He walked over to it and lifted the jar from the table, shook it, and watched in almost amusement as his soul swirl around.
"Angelus?" Buffy asked, afraid of what he was going to do with the jar.
She hated his unpredictability.
He turned to her, but kept his eyes on the jar, "Hard to believe this little thing causes me so much trouble."
She shifted uncomfortably, knowing she couldn't reach the vessel in time if he chose to smash it.
"Would be easy to just let it fall, send it back to the ether. But then you'd go and get that little witch bitch of yours…same ol' hocus pocus…an I'm buried back under the weight of this soul again. Funny, doesn't weigh anything out here, but inside…it's crushing."
Buffy inched forward, the gaping hole in the wall to the afternoon sun called to her, it would be welcomed safety from the evil demonic nature of her husband.
Except Angelus was directly blocking that escape.
She thought about running out the back door, but being pregnant greatly reduced her speed; and this late in the day, the backyard would be flooded in shadows, he could catch her in shadows.
Angelus finally looked at her, she couldn't read his eyes, but she could tell the gears were spinning in overdrive.
He didn't look particularly well.
"Have to admit Lover, Graegus's offer, wasn't hating it. Thought about it more than once, turning you. Making you eternally mine."
He stepped closer, she stepped back.
"Could turn the little ones too, be a big happy undead family."
As he spoke, he inched forward, and Buffy matched his advances in reverse.
"Although eternity as an infant would be rather un-fulfilling. I wonder if they would grow fangs, if they don't already have teeth…Ahh the questions of the universe."
She stepped back again and realized in horror she was against the wall, cornered. 'How did I let that happen! Stupid, stupid, stupid' she yelled in her head.
He caught sight of the stake in her hand; a swift kick on his part sent the potential weapon flying off, far out of reach.
"You're not going to be needing that, lover."
A moment later, Angelus was against her, she could feel his solid abs brush against her distended belly.
Instinctively she held Katie tighter, the child squirmed in defiance.
In a second, he snatched Katie from her arms, and dropped the baby on the chair next to them.
"Daddy needs to talk to Mommy, alone." He said as he did.
Buffy yelped in surprise and horror when she realized she wasn't holding her daughter, but Angelus trapped her against the wall.
A small part of her was happy their daughter wasn't between them, if he did kill her, maybe, just maybe he would forget the baby, or her friends would get here before he could get to her.
'Keep him distracted' she thought, 'Just keep his focus on me and not Katie.'
Angelus didn't seem to need a distraction to keep his focus on Buffy. His hand brushed against her cheek, "Wouldn't you love to stay like this, forever? Young and beautiful, we could rule the world together. "
Buffy replied by kneeing him in the groin.
Unfortunately the blow wasn't as hard as she would have liked, bad angle and swollen belly working against her.
His face contorted in pain but he kept his feet, he slammed her shoulder back against the wall as she tried to run past him.
Talking through gritted pointed fangs, "Way to spoil the mood Buff, could have just said no."
"NO!" she yelled into his face.
Katie cried in protest of the yelling.
"Fair enough" he replied. He pressed her back against the wall, moving his leg against her to prevent another groin shot.
She closed her eyes and waited for the bite.
She felt his lips on her neck, the wetness of his tongue.
"Besides, you wouldn't have that fire I love if you were cold." He whispered into her ear.
She felt his weight disappear, the bite never came.
When she opened her eyes, Angelus was across the room, picking up Graegus's fallen spell book, the Muo-Ping in his free hand.
Buffy couldn't think about anything else at the moment, she plucked Katie from the chair and ran as fast as she could out the front door and into the cold December sunlight.
Buffy jogged down the street, a neighbor there sometimes babysat Katie for them, so she knocked on the door and was relieved when they answered.
She used their phone, called Giles and told him what was going on, she then asked them to watch Katie until either her or one of her friends picked her up.
She quickly jogged back to her house, knowing full well that Angelus was probably using the book to destroy his soul right now.
She had no idea why Angelus had let her leave, actually that wasn't true, she guessed because he was going to destroy his soul anyways, why not add to her torture. Give her a, 'you could have stopped me but instead you ran away', complex.
Buffy reached the hole in the house and peaked inside.
As she expected, Angelus held the book, and was reading from a page.
On the table in front of him sat the Muo-Ping, empty.
Angel's soul was swirling above it in rhythm to the words Angelus spoke.
"NO!" she yelled, horrified Angel's soul was about to be destroyed.
...