Buffy led Wesley and Gunn through the hallways, following Angelus' trail. Wesley was focused on finding Lilah. Angelus had shown up back at the hotel just like Buffy had predicted. He'd attacked Cordelia and Fred and gone after the lawyer.
"Lilah!" Wesley called.
He and Gunn almost ran into Buffy when she stopped abruptly. Angelus was near the end of the hallway holding a very dead Lilah in his arms. His face was buried in her neck until the three had come around the corner.
His eyes focused on Buffy. "Oh, geez, Buffy, this isn't what it looks like." Gunn threw the battle-axe at Angelus, but missed and it buried in the wall next to Angelus' head. "A little too tart for me, anyway. You know what I mean, Wes?" He dropped Lilah's body just as Buffy took a step towards him. "Catch ya later." He turned and ran away, hurling himself out the window at the end of the hallway. Buffy tried to go after him, but Gunn grabbed her before she could jump.
"I could've made it!" Buffy snapped.
"I wasn't sure. Sorry." Gunn said, letting go of her waist.
"Buffy's a Slayer." Wesley said, not taking his eyes off Lilah's bloody neck wound. "She has abilities that match and excel most vampires. Gunn, get something to cover her up in."
Gunn shrugged. "Sure." He headed down the hallway, leaving Buffy and Wesley to stand over Lilah's body.
Buffy knelt down to examine the neck wound. Something was off about it. "Look at the wound." Buffy said.
"It's Angeuls' bite. I don't need to look any closer." Wesley said.
"I see his bite, but there's something else. Something deeper." She moved closer to inspect it more, but Wesley grabbed her shoulder. "You used to be a Watcher, Wes. How about acting like it? The Slayer is telling you this isn't just a vampire bite. You should probably listen to her."
"What difference does it make how Angelus killed her?"
"Because she was dead when he got to her. Couldn't you tell from the way her body looked in his arms? It was…. Awkward." Wesley sighed and knelt down next to her. Sure enough, there was a deeper wound in the middle of Angelus' bite mark. "Angelus doesn't kill with a knife. Especially not one that's as….. unelegant as this one is."
"Inelegant."
"You know what I meant. This isn't his MO."
"Is it one of the Harbingers' daggers?"
"No. This is too messy…. Jagged. And not big enough. Their daggers are curved and not serrated at all. This wound was made by a straight dagger. Besides, they're after Potentials and Watchers, not ex-lawyers."
"Do you think it's the thing controlling the Beast?"
"Most likely." Buffy stood up as she heard Gunn approaching. Cordelia, Connor, Lorne, and Fred had come with him and they all watched as Wesley and Gunn wrapped Lilah's dead body in the plastic sheeting. Connor walked over to the broken window and looked angrily out the window.
Suddenly he broke the silence, banging his hands on the window sill. "What are we waiting for?" Connor demanded. "Why aren't we going after him?"
"No need. He'll be back." Wesley said.
"How do you know?" Fred asked.
"We're the ones he wants to hurt." Cordelia said before Buffy could speak up. "The people closest to Angel." She added with a quick glare towards Buffy.
"I say we dust him before he gets the chance." Connor snapped.
"No one is dusting him." Buffy snapped back. "I'm going on patrol. Everyone else, stay close to the hotel."
"And do what?" Fred asked. "If Angelus is coming back for us, we can't just be waiting for him to drop by. We need to do something. Board up the windows, make it safe somehow. Don't you think?"
"If he wants in, nothing's going to stop him."
"The birth of a notion, kids." Lorne said. "We use the sanctuary spell." He looked at Buffy and clarified, "An anti-demon-violence charm I used down at Caritas. It won't keep Angelus from making a house call, but it should keep carnage down to a minimum."
"Sounds like a solid plan. Will it take long?"
"I'll go put a call into the Furies. Maybe they could tech-support me through a quickie version."
"Magic again." Connor growled. "You people rely way too much on that junk."
"We use whatever tools we have." Wesley said.
"Yeah, only it never really works the way it's supposed to. It's why we're here, isn't it? Why he's loose?"
"No, the reason he's loose is because someone used the wrong spell." Buffy turned on Cordelia. "Why didn't it work, Cordy?"
"I don't know." Cordelia said defensively.
"You don't? Because according to one of the most powerful witches on this planet, that spell wasn't to bring Angel's soul back."
"Then what was it for Miss All-Knowing-Slayer? What did your best friend who's always on your side say it was for?"
"Those ingredients are used in a few spells, all dark magic, and none of them good. But the only one it could've been in this circumstance was to block Lorne's empathy power. He can't properly read Angelus, it makes everyone believe the spell actually brought Angel back. And you were sure adamant that I have one of the talisman. Sounds like you were trying to block me from knowing the difference between Angel and Angelus."
"What?!" Lorne cried. Everyone turned to Cordelia.
"The Powers sent that spell to me…." Cordelia said.
"Are you sure?" Buffy asked, moving threateningly towards the brunette. "Are you sure you're not being controlled?"
"The answer is among you." Fred said.
"Are you kidding me?" Cordelia cried. "Angel's ex-girlfriend that he dumped waltzes in here and everyone just starts kissing her ass? Listening to every absurd thing she says? For all we know, she's the one being controlled."
"She wasn't among us when the girl in the White Room told us that." Wesley said.
"Then she's jealous of me! I don't know. All I know is that that spell was sent to me by the Powers That Be…."
"Maybe her visions got hacked like they did that one time?" Gunn asked.
"Possibly." Wesley said. "I'm sorry, Cordelia, but either way you look at it, the evidence is against you."
"Are you kidding me?"
"We need to confine her to her room." Buffy said. "Keep a guard on her door at all times. Maybe get your friends to put a spell on her room to keep her there, Lorne?"
"I'll ask them." Lorne said.
"You can't be serious right now!" Cordelia cried.
"I'll take her." Connor offered. He walked over to Cordelia and took her arm. He glanced down at Lilah. "We should destroy her."
"What?" Wesley asked.
"The body. She could have been turned."
"Sired, you mean? No, there wasn't enough time." Gunn said.
"You don't know that."
"Lilah was already dead by the time Angelus got to her." Buffy said. "Someone stabbed her in the neck with a jagged knife."
"Seriously?" Gunn asked.
"Just look at the wound. It's pretty obvious."
Connor, still holding onto Cordelia's arm, looked at the wound for a moment. "It does look…. Different."
"Another mark against you, Cordy. Connor, please lock her in her room."
Connor nodded and led a protesting Cordelia off.
Buffy walked downstairs into the lobby where Gunn and Fred were bringing spices to Lorne. Lorne was at the front desk on the phone. Buffy had checked on Connor before coming down. He was diligently standing guard in front of Cordelia's door. Before leaving Angel's room, Buffy had debated on calling Willow in. She'd decided against it, wanting to capture Angelus and bring him back to his cage first.
"Cloves?" Lorne was saying. "That'll work? Oh, got it. Beautiful. Hey, soon as FTD's delivering in the city again, expect a big 'Thanks a Bunch' bouquet from me, girls. Ciao!" He hung up.
"Sounds like you've got your home security spell." Buffy said.
"Right you are, missy. As soon as we sprinkle burnt clove dust around the perimeter, light a few candles, incant a few choice phrases, we'll be safe as houses in here."
"Good." She set down her weapons' bag and inspected the sparse contents as Lorne and Fred started setting up the spell. "You guys mind if I take a couple of things from your stash? I didn't expect to be needing anything major."
"Go ahead." Gunn said.
"Thanks." She took a couple of swords and a smaller crossbow, grabbing the silver tipped bolts made of hard, carbon fiber instead of wood.
Fred lit white candles as Lorne began to read off the incantation. "Violence restrained, demons disarmed. For mortals within these walls, no harm. Protection and safety this charm doth endow to make this shelter a sanctuary now."
Buffy and Gunn exchanged looks. "That it?" He asked.
"Well, if we followed the recipe…. Should be cake. A demon violence-free zone cake."
"I don't know, Lorne." Fred said. "It doesn't feel like anything's different."
"Well, only one way to find out." Buffy said. "Lorne, I give you permission to hit me."
"Are you sure?" Lorne asked. Buffy shrugged and waited. Lorne walked over to her, braced himself, and sent his fist towards her face. A bright forcefield appeared and sent Lorne skidding back across the floor. "Ahh! It works." Fred helped Lorne to his feet. "Oh. It also smarts like the dickens."
Wesley walked into the lobby from the basement. "Sanctuary spell's working?"
"Yeah, like a charm. Literally."
"Good."
"It'll make this easier." Buffy said, tossing Wesley the tranq gun.
"Make what easier?" Gunn asked.
"Bringing Angelus in alive."
"I still don't see how that's the smartest option."
"Look, I've got an apocalypse back home I've got to get back to before it decides to open the Hellmouth and end life as we know it. There's still the Beast that no one knows how to kill. We've all accepted by now that it's working for something worse, but we don't know exactly what. Might be connected with my apocalypse, might not be. Either way, both teams need their champions. We have to save Angel." Buffy turned to Wesley. "You're with me. Gunn, you're staying here. Switch with Connnor in a few hours to keep watch over Cordelia. Feel free to use violence to restrain her."
"Damn." Gunn said. "You really think it'll be necessary?"
"I don't know. These days, I'm prepared for anything." She hefted her bag and looked at Wesley. "Ready?"
Wesley and Buffy walked side by side, keeping their eyes peeled. They'd taken out plenty of random vamps in the three hours they'd been out looking for Angelus. The place was a playground for the undead and the demonic.
"It's too bad Caritas isn't open." Wesley lamented. "We could've gotten some information out of something."
Buffy shrugged. "Caritas can't be the only demon bar around, right? We could always hit up one of them and start asking around. Or," She stopped at a chain link fence. "We follow my Slayer instincts."
"Have you been following them all along?"
"Little bit. I spent time getting more in touch with my Slayer side so those instincts are a little more honed than they used to be." They both moved through a hole in the fence and walked into an old industrial facility. She shook her head at their surroundings. "Seems about right."
"What does?"
"The first time I faced Angelus he was living in an old warehouse with Spike and Drusilla."
"Do you think he's here?"
They rounded a corner of one of the warehouses and saw a big sign painted in what smelled like blood, 'HELLO LOVER'. Buffy looked at Wesley with a grim smirk. "I'm thinking yes."
"So much for the element of surprise."
"I had no chance at a surprise. He always knew I was coming for him." She sighed and handed Wesley her weapon's bag, taking a sword for herself. "Our best bet is probably to come at him from two sides. I would suggest you use tranq darts or the silver crossbow bolts. Stay low. I'll go high." She started to move off, but turned and gripped Wesley's arms. "Hey, be careful, ok?"
He smiled gratefully at her. "You too."
Buffy hefted her sword and took off, jumping on some large dumpsters and then up to the roof. There was an open window large enough for her to climb through, so she headed for it and wiggled through. There were some crates just below the window and she dropped down silently on top of them.
"Kinda like old times, isn't it?" Angelus asked from the shadows.
"Not really." She replied.
"How so?"
"You were trying to kill me back then. Now you want to screw me three ways from Sunday."
"Is that a bad thing?"
She decided not to answer. Honestly, she wasn't sure which was worse. Instead she said, "You weren't keen on playing hide and seek last time either."
"I'm just waiting for you to come to me. You're getting warmer. Warmer…. warmer. You're smoking hot." Buffy turned to see him standing there in his signature leather pants and silk shirt with Angel's long duster on. "But then again, you probably knew that. Did you like my sign?"
"Are you going to make this easy or hard?"
"Well, you know me." His eyes moved behind Buffy. "Never one for the easy road."
Buffy turned to find the Beast standing behind her. "What is this, Angelus?" It demanded.
"This is a Slayer. Say 'hi' to the nice Beast, Buff. This is the first time you're actually meeting him."
"You dare to bring a Slayer here?"
"Not just any Slayer, Stonehenge. This is the Slayer. The one that messes up everyone's plans on a regular basis. I'm pretty sure right now that includes you and your boss's plans. So, question is, what do you do, hot shot? Hmm? What do you do?"
Buffy decided Angelus was the least dangerous one of the two bad guys, so she rounded on the Beast and aimed her sword for its throat where Angel had stabbed it in the fantasy. The sword's tip just broke off, leaving a jagged edge. "This is going to suck." She muttered to herself, dropping the sword to the ground. She put her all into hitting the thing, but it only broke the skin on her knuckles and broke one of her fingers.
"Watch yourself, big guy, the girl's on fire." Angelus said.
Finally the Beast got tired of Buffy's ineffective punches and lashed out, sending Buffy flying. She hit a crate and the thing splintered around her.
"That's gonna sting in the morning." Angelus said.
"The running commentary isn't necessary." Buffy growled at him, getting to her feet.
The Beast decided not to give her a chance to fight back. As soon as she attacked, he was on her. She felt the bruises form on top of the almost healed bruises from the Turok-Han. She felt her skin break in multiple places and the blood begin to flow. She felt a couple of her ribs break as the thing picked her up over its head and slammed her to the floor at Angelus' feet.
He knelt down next to her. "Come on, Buff. You're not even trying." She felt him press something into her hand and her fingers gripped the hilt of a weirdly shaped dagger.
The Beast moved towards her as Angelus backed away. "This is all you are?" It said. "I had heard the Slayer possessed great strength, but there's no real power here. My master's power is beyond all limits, beyond your petty imagining. You are weak. You're nothing. You could not even defeat me." It reached down and grabbed her by the neck, lifting her off the ground.
"Ain't that the truth." Angelus said. "I mean, look at this guy, huh? Pretty much the only thing that could do damage to that thick, stony hide is himself. Or, maybe, I don't know, a piece of himself."
Buffy realized the dagger he'd given her was the weapon to kill the Beast. With spots starting to form in her vision, she brought her arm up and shoved the dagger into the Beast's neck. Angelus grabbed her around the waist and pulled her out of the Beast's grip. They rolled and she landed underneath him as the Beast began to thrash at the dagger. The wound began to glow around the dagger until the light consumed the Beast and suddenly shot up from its body toward the sky.
"I knew it!" Angelus cried.
Buffy groaned and pushed him off of her. She hurt everywhere, blood was seeping out of numerous wounds, and her broken ribs throbbed. Angelus stood up and glared at the crumbled remains of the Beast.
"Aw, crap!" He said, looking at the hole in the roof where the sun was streaming in. "You mean, killing the Beast really does bring back the sun? I thought that was Angel's retarded fantasy. Oh, well, what're you gonna do? Take the bad with the good, I always say." He turned back to her. "Are you ok?"
She rolled on her side and coughed up some blood. "Why did you help me?"
"Can't very well make you mine if you're dead. Didn't really intend to let the Beastie boy here soften you up this much, though. Are you sure you're not losing your touch?" He knelt down and swiped his thumb tenderly across her forehead, wiping off some of the blood under one of the wounds on her forehead. "You should probably get yourself checked out."
"Stop being nice to me."
"Why? You don't like it?" His hand drifted down her neck, trailing fingers heading for her chest. She knew she didn't have the strength to fight him off just then. And his fingers felt too much like Angel's gentle touch. She suddenly reached out and grabbed her broken sword, throwing it behind her with what strength she could. The large window behind her broke and glass rained down. The sun streamed in and washed over Buffy and Angelus. He growled and darted away as Buffy sat in the sunlight and glared at him. He glared back for a moment before he started to laugh. "That was a bit dramatic, lover."
"Get bent." She growled at him.
He sighed. "You'll come around eventually. I guess we'll just have to take a rain check on that whole making you mine thing." He blew her a kiss. "Catch you later."
Buffy watched him leave before she let herself collapse to the ground. That's how Wesley found her. "Good lord!" He cried. "Buffy!" He ran over to her.
"Looks better than it feels." She groaned, keeping her eyes closed.
"Do you want to go to the hospital?"
She contemplated it for a long moment, but decided against it. "Nah. They're probably full up with vampire and demon attacks. Just take me back to the hotel."
"Buffy, I don't think you quite understand the severity. There might be internal bleeding."
"I can say without a doubt that there's definitely internal bleeding, but that hasn't stopped me before." She lifted her hand and Wesley gripped it. She groaned and tried not to cry out in pain as he helped her to her feet. Angelus might still be within ear shot and she wasn't giving him the satisfaction.
Wesley didn't miss the look of pain on her face. "I may not be your Watcher anymore, but I think I know when a Slayer…. Even one as extraordinary as yourself…. Needs medical attention."
"Good thing Watchers are trained in that stuff." She gave him a slight grin as he helped her limp out of the warehouse.