Chapter 6
Spike shifted nervously in his seat and sighed impatiently.
"She'll be alright," Angel said, quickly hazarding a glance at the restless vampire before turning his divided attention back to the road.
"You sound about as certain about that as I feel, mate," Spike growled, his eyes locked on the tarmac rushing by underneath the powerful automobile.
"If she's half the Slayer her mother is, she will be fine." Pride made Angel sound more sure of his daughter's precarious position.
Spike smiled, nodding. "She's good," he agreed, his chest puffing just a little bit with pride. "She's the best I've ever seen, including the Buff. Aurora outshines them all."
Angel watched Spike intently, warmed inwardly by the love and pride radiating from the immortal creature. Spike's smile faded a little, worry clouding over the beautiful face. "But she's still so young, so new to this world. When her mother was her age…."
"She'd already died once," Angel finished the thought. "And you…"
"Nearly killed Buffy more than once." Spike sighed heavily again. Aurora could take care of herself, but she's only been fighting the forces of darkness for six months. That's not a lot of time to prepare facing two Master vampires and a Raz'lah demon bent on sucking the world into Hell. Not even if she was the daughter of the Slayer and the Scourge of Europe.
"We'll find her and save her." This time the certainty in Angel's voice resounded so clearly, anyone hearing it would curse himself as a fool for trying to get in the man's way.
The car pulled into the dig site parking lot. The stench of horrifying death hung heavily in the air. Spike couldn't help but thrill at the scent. He was, after all, still a creature of evil. He sensed the human beside him echoing his feeling, and grinned at the idea of once again being able to hunt with his old teacher.
Angel remembered the smell of terror and the exhilaration his vampiric self had felt at some mortal cowering in his hands, begging for his life. His heart beat just a little bit faster now, pumping the adrenaline through his body. "Come on," he ordered, his voice gruff with barely suppressed hunger, and stalked off to the tented-off area.
Spike admired the predatory grace with which his old Sire still moved. He followed wordlessly, letting Angel take the lead in their hunt.
They walked into a nightmare of blood and death. Whatever humans the rampaging vampires had found, they had killed in various horrendous ways. Not all were drained. Some had their throats ripped out, their necks broken so viciously their heads were partly ripped off. There were no rhyme of reason to the death Spike and Angel were seeing.
And yet something in the scene before them rang terribly familiar. "Drusilla," Spike breathed, his quiet heart close to jumping in his chest.
"Could it be?" Angel wondered, knowing the answer all to well. He'd seen her massacre an entire church of terrified mothers and children in much the same fashion, never feeding, just killing, laughing her insane laugh all the while. Then, as Angelus still controlled his actions, he'd reveled in her evil play. Now he shivered as cold fear crawled up his spine to find his heart.
"It's her, Angel," Spike confirmed. "It's Drusilla. I can smell her. My blood recognizes her even after all these years."
Angel nodded, understanding. His blood, though human and alive, still recognized his immortal Childe, tugging at his will and his senses. "That means the other female is Darla."
The mention of Darla's name shifted Angel's senses to recognize the other aching in his blood. It was the unmistakable calling of a Childe for his Sire. He breathed in, catching her scent over the stench of spilled blood.
"Aurora's in more serious danger than we thought," Spike remarked. "They'll know who she is, just like I did."
Angel turned to exit the tent, following the scent of his Sire and Childe. "They won't kill her. Not until tomorrow night. We have until then."
Spike, having spend a century at the side of the dark, insane Drusilla, exploded furiously, "No! Dru won't kill her! She'll just enjoy torturing her to the point of death! She'll want to impress 'Daddy' with how well she'd learned her lessons!"
Angel recoiled as if struck. The truth hurt, he knew. If Drusilla hurt his baby girl, it would be his fault. He'd put the taste for pain in Drusilla and had nurtured that taste to a full-blown hunger while she was under his tutelage. And now she has the opportunity to sate that hunger on his daughter, not to mention repay him for deserting her twice and trying to slay her more than twice. Two birds, one stone. One blood-soaked stone.
"Oh, come on!" Spike growled angrily, stalking into the night. "We don't have time for you to go all 'guilty brooding guy' again. Aurora needs us!"
Angel grabbed a hold of Spike's arm, halting him in mid-stride. "This time there's no other way. Drusilla will have to die. Can you handle that?"
An anguished look crossed Spike's handsome face. He had loved Dru through a few lifetimes. Even when she trampled over his heart with her sharp-heeled shoes he had loved her, and he would probably never stop until the day he was dust himself. She was in his blood, but the young Slayer was in his soul. "If Dru hurt Aurora, I will stake her myself," he said with conviction. "And that goes for Darla too."
An identical anguished looked darkened Angel's features, but he nodded, his jaw set stubbornly.
"Well, alright then, now that we've cleared that up, can we go?" Angel followed the platinum blonde across the dig site to the parking area when a near-inaudible sound caught his attention.
Spike realized the broad-shouldered Warrior wasn't behind him. He spun around, rankled at yet another precious minute wasted. "What now, you bloody wanker?!"
"Shut up, Spike!" Angel shushed the vampire, pushing his anger back down. "Listen."
For once, Spike did as he was told. Silence assaulted their hyper-sensitive ears. Spike drew in a breath for a scathing remark when he heard it too. A whimper. Then his vampiric senses kicked in too. The smell of human terror, the pounding rush of human blood washed over the vampire, causing his body to cry out with need and want.
"Over there," he whispered. No ordinary human would have heard him, but Angel was no ordinary human. Silently, the two men glided to where their prey hid.
The long-haired boy shrieked, panic bubbling to the surface, when Spike grabbed him by the back of the neck, dragging him out of his makeshift hideyhole.
Angel grabbed him by the front of his dirty t-shirt, pulling him up to meet Angel's eyes. "Calm down, kid. It's okay. We're not going to hurt you."
Angel recognized the boy as the same young man who'd directed him to the now-deceased Lindy Rothchild earlier that same day. His eyes were stretched impossibly wide, the pupils black pits in the sky blue. His mouth was pulled open in an unending silent scream.
"The kid's in shock," Spike stated.
Angel rewarded Spike's remark with an annoyed glance and turned his attention back to the lost young man in his hands. "Kid! Look at me," Angel ordered.
The authority in the smooth voice pulled the boy's eyes to meet Angel's concerned gaze. "They're dead," he moaned, the young voice hitching. "They killed them all. Oh God! Oh God!"
He was starting to panic again. "It's okay. They're gone," Angel soothed, keeping eye contact with the deathly pale boy. "Tell me what happened."
"Oh God! Oh God! All dead!"
"This is useless!" Spike sighed frustratedly. "You're not going to get anything out of him."
Never breaking eye contact, Angel growled, "Shut up, Spike!"
The vampire stomped off, afraid he might just forget the chip lodged in his cerebral cortex and rip the dark-haired fucker's head off.
"The woman…" the survivor gulped. "She danced… while she …. she… She wasn't human! None of them were! What were they? Oh dear God, what were they?"
"It's alright. They're gone. You're safe now." Angel forced his voice to remain soft and even, even though he wanted to shake the long-haired kid until the information locked behind the staring eyes fell out of him.
"The rock! They stole it. A big truck. They had a big truck. Did they die over a big, stupid, goddamned rock?"
"Where did the truck go?" Spike asked urgently from behind the boy's head. He jumped, terror flashing high in the sky blue eyes, craning his neck to see the darkly clad man behind him.
Angel pulled his face back, reestablishing the calming eye contact with him. He repeated Spike's question, keeping his voice low and smooth.
The kid responded. His eyes focused on Angel. "I heard them talking. The Hills. Oceanfront Hills. That's what they said."
Angel met Spike's eyes. They had a location. Anticipation thrilled through them.
"Call the police. Tell them what happened here."
The trembling young man stared after the two departing men, calling desperately not to be left there by himself. The dark-haired man and his blonde companion ignored his pleas, their long coats billowing out behind them.