Chapter 8
"Mom! Please, Mom, wake up!"
Aurora's frantic calls wormed their way through Buffy's numbed mind. "I'm up," Buffy mumbled. Her tongue felt thick and heavy in her mouth. "I'm up," she tried again, her speech sounding slurred to her ears.
'What happened last night?', Buffy strained to remember. It was only when she tried to sit up on the uncommonly hard bed, and found herself incapable of doing so, that the fog departed from her drug-addled mind.
"You stay the hell away from her! Mom!"
Buffy's eyes flew open, meeting the cold, soulless eyes of who used to be Riley Finn. "Well, look who's finally up," Riley smirked. "I thought you were going to sleep through the whole thing."
"What whole thing?" Buffy asked. The muscles in her shoulders screamed, but she found herself securely chained to a hard slab of marble. 'Altar?', the chained Slayer wondered, testing the chains.
Riley laughed cruelly. "Don't bother. The chains are quite unbreakable. I wonder why we never tried chains. We could have had so much fun."
"Oh, spare me!" Buffy rolled her eyes.
"Not a chance, babe!" Riley spat, hatred fresh and hot in his gaze. "I kinda wish you can watch when I kill your little brat, but we need a dress rehearsal." The vampire lifted the dagger just high enough to catch the reflected light of the candles off its vicious curved blade.
"Mom, no!"
Buffy heard the panic in her daughter's voice. "It's okay, baby," she soothed, twisting her neck to see her caged daughter. Tears were streaming down Aurora's face, making her appear so very young. "Don't worry, sweetheart. Mommy's right here."
"How sweet," Riley gagged. "But I have to disagree. Everything is very far from okay for you. Either of you." He lifted the dagger high over his head and started to chant.
Buffy knew it was now or never. She closed her eyes, forcing herself to be calm, to find the center of her being where she was absolutely still. The stillness spread through her being. All was silence. She breathed. Buffy felt the downward arc of the dagger. She exhaled, reached. The dagger was caught between her palms inches from her chest. Buffy opened her eyes.
"What the…?! That's impossible!" Riley roared.
"For you maybe," Buffy quipped, landing a solid punch against Riley's exposed chin.
He staggered back, stunned. "Get her!" he bellowed at the unsure minions melting into the shadows. Three attacked.
Buffy had no weapon, but that never stopped her before. She relieved an ax-wielding vampire of his weapon and then relieved him of his head, before jabbing the wooden handle, blunt end and all, through another's chest.
"This is the best you can do?" she taunted Riley. "Afraid you can't take me? Come on, Riley! Take me down! Maybe you'll finally get it right." Riley howled, insanely furious, and lunged at the small woman.
"Enough!" The shout froze everyone in their tracks. "Riley, back off! This is not the time for your games."
Buffy couldn't help herself. She just had to grin with pleasure at the once-proud good guy squirming in his combat boots under Darla's annoyed stare.
"Lock her in the cage," Darla ordered the cowering minions. "Please don't try anything heroic, my dear," the blonde vampire requested mock-sweetly of Buffy, who had taken a battle stance, eyeing the approaching vampires with a warrior's determination. "Or I'd be forced to rip his throat out."
Buffy glanced at Darla holding the near-catatonic Nate, his throat bared to her extended fangs. She considered letting Darla kill the Watcher, but Aurora's miserable cry of despair stopped her.
"Fine," Buffy surrendered, dropping the ax. "I give. For now."
The elder Slayer allowed herself to be grabbed by the arms and hurled into her daughter's cage. Aurora launched herself into her mother's waiting arms, crushing her in a ferocious hug.
"Enjoy your last few hours together. Come midnight tomorrow you both die," Darla crowed in victory.
Buffy glared at her old enemy over her crying daughter's blonde head. "You won't touch my daughter, Darla. I'll see you dead first," she promised. "Or should I say again?"
"Maybe I'll keep you alive," Darla growled menacingly. "I have so much to pay you back for, it would take an eternity to even the score. I'm sure Drusilla and Riley would be most pleased."
"Yeah," Drusilla cooed from her Childe's arms, Riley purring in her ear. "Play with the Daddy-thief until she screams."
Buffy snorted in disgust. "God, Riley! Your taste in mommy figures always sucked, hadn't it?" Drusilla hissed at Buffy. Riley only glared at his caged ex-girlfriend and nuzzled Drusilla's neck, making her purr.
"Don't, Mom. Please?" Buffy met her baby's begging, tear streaked gaze, reading the mortal terror emblazoned there. This was a first for her Slayer daughter, Buffy realized. This young Slayer had never faced vampires of Darla or Drusilla's caliber yet, nor has she faced death by ritual sacrifice. She was 15 years old and scared to death at the idea of dying in a few hours.
Buffy closed her arms tighter around the shaking girl, offering up her strength to ease her daughter's fear. "It's alright, baby. Everything will be alright. I promise," she comforted, offering up a quick prayer to Whoever was listening for salvation. 'Hurry, Angel', her heart implored.
***************
"What?" Spike watched Angel's face and didn't like what he was seeing.
Angel glanced at Spike from the driver's side of his parked car before turning his gaze back to the remote hilltop properties of Oceanfront Hills. "It's nothing," he said, a little muscle jumping in his clenched jaw.
Spike snorted. "Yeah, right! That's a 'nothing' face. Now spill!"
"Something's wrong," Angel offered vaguely.
"Can I have some detail to go with that 'something?" Spike prodded.
"With Buffy," Angel growled. "Something's wrong with Buffy. I don't know what, but I think it's bad."
Spike bounded out of the car. "Then I suggest we get a move-on before your bad feeling gets worse and breaks your damn jaw."
The full moon illuminated the two men's path through the underbrush. No sense in advertising their arrival by rolling up in a big BMW.
Angel halted, crouching down behind some brush cover, effectively disappearing into the shadows. "What now?" Spike hissed behind him, but also crouched down, just in case. Then he heard it too. Ahead and to their left, two goons were chatting their merry way up a walked-out path.
'I'll take left,' Spike indicated wordlessly. 'You take right.'
The vampire tensed, his muscles rippling with feline grace and raw power. Angel felt the energy flowing through Spike's body under his restraining hand. 'Always the predator', he smiled inward, taking pride in his part in creating this beautiful creature. "Don't kill them yet," he mouthed in answer to Spike's frown, lifting his hand to free Spike.
The two vampire guards had no idea what hit them. Spike, in full vamp-out, leaped from his hiding place, taking down Lefty with a growl and a rockhard fist. Righty jumped to his comrade's defense, only to find his teeth knocked loose by Angel's boot.
"Tell us what we want to know, and we'll make it quick," Spike growled into Lefty's face, nose to nose with the recovering vampire.
Lefty, by nature a tough guy, spat in the blonde vampire's face and sneered, "Up yours, asshole!"
"Fine. We do it the hard way," Spike snarled, landing three bone crunching punches into Lefty's face. Blood erupted from his nose, broken so badly the bone was poking through his skin. His one eye went red and glassy as the blood vessels in the orb burst and the nerves and muscles holding it severed.
Angel grabbed Righty by his scrawny neck, squeezing hard enough to bruise the pale flesh beneath his long fingers. "Be smart," Angel threatened, adding a little more pressure to Righty's throat. "Tell us where they are."
Righty's eyes bulged out, his face beet-red. He risked a glance to his partner and paled in spite of the block of flesh holding his neck in a spine crushing grip. He tried to nod, gurgling submission to the more powerful man.
Angel eased up slightly on his prisoner's throat, letting him squeak out, "Mansion… 2 miles south…"
Lefty's one good eye bugged out at Righty. Spike read the fear and anger there. Lefty was pissed his buddy gave in so easily, and terrified of what would happen to him when their masters found out.
Righty ignored Lefty's silent scream for silence, croaking out everything his captor could use. If it kept him alive, or even earned him a quick, painless death, he'd spill whatever beans he had. "Surrounded by electrified fence…" He coughed, wincing as shards of bone scraped against his larynx. "Guards, demon and vampire, all over…"
"Where's the Slayer being held?" Spike asked, not caring which one of the two wounded goons answered.
Lefty spat into Spike's face again, some teeth bouncing off his cheek. Spike uttered a guttural roar, his golden eyes flashing fire. He tightened his grip on Lefty's chin and hair and twisted violently. Lefty's neck snapped loudly, followed by the wet tearing of his skin as Spike ripped his head clean off his shoulders, letting the foolish vampire's dust sift to his boots.
Righty squawked, his knees collapsing under him. Only Angel's vise grip under his chin kept him upright. If he still had bowel functions, he would have needed clean underwear.
"See what your friend made me do?" Spike growled at Righty, getting right into his face to give the mortified vampire an extremely good look at his dripping fangs.
"Be a good minion and tell my friend what he wants to know," Angel hissed into Righty's ear. "Or I'll let him have his fun with you. My boy enjoys his fun."
Righty nodded so furiously, he nearly blacked out. "I'll talk! Please… I'll tell you everything!" Righty sobbed. "The Slayer… she's in the dungeon, underneath. A cavern under the main house. They're all being held there."
"All? Who else?" Angel demanded, already knowing the answer in his gut.
"The Slayer, the Watcher and the Slayer's mother. Please? Let me go," Righty begged, weeping openly.
Angel met Spike's gaze. "Buffy," he said simply, but Spike understood. The 'something' has been uncovered.
Righty was still wimpering, not really seeing Spike or Angel anymore. He didn't hear Angel's words as the stake pierced his undead heart, turning him to dust. "You're free to go."
"Yeah," Spike crowed, shaking dead-vamp-dust off his hands. "You're free to go to Hell!"
"Come on, Spike," Angel said, starting to walk up the moonlit path. "Our girls are waiting for us."