Chapter 10: Bargaining
By: Hope
"What do you have for me?" Buffy asked as she walked into the Hyperion with a new determination to find Dawn as quickly as possible.
When they were still in Buffy's hotel room, Angel had gotten a call on his cell phone, and after Buffy had shown him how to answer it he said that he had to go and for her to get to the hyperion as quickly as possible. Buffy had stayed in the room five minutes longer, changing into an outfit more fight-worthy and retrieving her birthday present from Giles.
A hand made, antique crossbow that Giles had had made back in England. He had forgotten to send it to Buffy due to the news that a local coven was sensing that a dark power would soon rise in Sunnydale. He had then spent most of his time researching what would happen, until it was too late, until Willow had fallen back to magic. He had shipped it to Buffy shortly after he had brought Willow back to England with him, along with a note of apology for not being able to say goodbye.
Buffy's eyes widened at the sight in front of her. Lilah Morgan was knocked unconscious and tied up in a chair in the middle of the lobby. "What the hell?" Buffy yelled, causing Lilah to begin to stir.
Buffy looked at the Fang Gang plus Spike for an explination. "She knows something." Fred said, not realizing that Buffy didn't know anything about Wolfram and Hart.
"She's the lawyer that Dawn's been shadowing!" Buffy yelled while walking up to the chair where Lilah was now awake and looking at her new surroundings.
Spike stepped in front of the chair, blocking Buffy's view of it. "The poof said she knows something and I believe him." Spike said calmly, using all of his willpower not to let the soul take over him and break down in apologies. He looked Buffy in the eyes and to his surprise she didn't kick him or throw him out of the way. She stopped walking and stood in front of him.
"Ok." Buffy said, accepting what he had just said. She may have had issues with Spike, but she knew that he loved Dawn and that whatever he would do would be in her best interest. Buffy turned to face the fang gang who were all sitting down a few feet away from Lilah. "What does she know?"
- - - - - -
"You drive like an old lady." Anya stated. She was
beginning to get jumpy, she didn't like having to sit in a car for so long,
especially when she could have just teleported to L.A. in less than a
second.
"Do not." Xander replied as he put his foot down on the pedal a bit more, noticing he was going kinda slow.
"Thank you." Anya said, looking out the window.
Xander smiled. He was back on talking terms with Anya. Talking that didn't include insults or anything about the wedding.
"We're here!" Xander announced as he pulled over to the side of the road, putting the car in park.
"Finally." Anya muttered. "I was about ready to teleport there." She half-lied. She did hate how long it took to get there, but she enjoyed Xander's company. She could never forgive him for what he did to her, but she felt that maybe she could move past it, if things kept up the way they were that is.
Anya opened her door and stepped out of the car, looking at the big building. Xander walked next to her and followed her gaze to the large hotel. "Wowzers." He said, amazed at how big it was. He had heard that Angel lived in a hotel now, but he figured that it was one of those small, low rent ones.
"C'mon." Anya said, walking up to the doors, Xander right behind her.
- - - - - -
"Stephen?" Justine called, walking into the apartment,
carefully closing the door behind her. "Stephen, are you here?" She asked again,
surprised that he wasn't home.
There had been times when he wouldn't return for a day or so, but he had never been gone this long before. Justine walked over to the couch, where she bent down and dragged a small duffle bag out from under it.
She placed the bag on the couch and carefully opened it, trying to decide which of the contents she would take with her. She had heard that Angel had been spotted with another vampire, a 'master' one is what the demon had referred to him as. It was very rare that demons would acknowledge vampires for being good at anything, they thought of them as the bottom of the food chain. But this one, along with Angelus, they feared.
So Justine took a stake, quickly slid it up the sleeve of her jacket, she had grown accustomed to wearing the jacket, even in the middle of summer in California. Then she grabbed her knife, Holtz had given her the knife before he had...before he had left with Stephen, it was the knife she had used to slit the englishman's throat.
She quickly closed the bag up and slid it back under the couch. If Stephen was in trouble, if for any reason he had gone back to the vampire, to Angelus, then she would fight for him. She had promised to protect him, and lucky for her, slaying vampires wasn't that hard.
- - - - -
"They represent demons?" Xander asked, not comprehending
everything that had happened to Angel and his friends in the past year.
"Oh, Xander. Its not that big of a surprise." Anya said, looking at her former lover. "Demons need representation just the same as humans. We have rights too."
While Xander and Anya talked to Gunn and Fred in the lobby, who were filling them in on everything that had happened, Buffy, Spike, Angel and Connor had gone into the office, with Lilah.
"Talk."
"What are they doing? Miss Summers?" Lilah asked, not knowing if they had told Buffy the whole story of Wolfram and Hart. "What? I'm tied up! why are they."
Lilah was interruped when Buffy punched her in the face. Connor looked at Buffy and how she was handling the situation, to him she had been such a sweet person, she had listened to him and convinced him that things would be fine, and now, she was going to beat the shit out of the lawyer.
Connor sensed that Angel was looking at him. Angel had been looking at his son since he had gotten there, but didn't want to say anything. He was afraid that if he tried to approach him now, he would lose him forever. He was even amazed that Buffy had been able to get him there, well he obviously hadn't known that Angel would be back, but getting him to come back to the Hyperion still must have taken alot of convincing...
Angel's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Buffy's fist hitting Lilah's face, again. "Buffy." Angel wanted to say. But Spike had beat him to it.
"She doesn't seem too tough." He said, looking at Lilah, her lip was swollen and blood was dripping down it. "If she knew anything, I think she woulda told by now, pet." He said, looking at Buffy again.
To both Angel and Connor's surprise, Buffy didn't continue to hit her, or even hit Spike. She just stood there and took a breath. "Alright."
"William the Bloody." Lilah began laughing, but then stopped when the vampire turned to look at her.
"That would be me." He said, struggling to not let the name affect him. When he had first become a vampire, he didn't mind the nickname, but when he had been human it was what haunted him even more than the many rejections that Cecily had given him and the glare he gave her was so intense that she was almost shivering from fear.
She had heard rumors that he had gone soft, helped the slayer and her friends on the hellmouth. But the creature that was standing in front of her, and protecting her, sort of, didn't sound like the 'soft 'n cuddly' Spike she had been hearing about. Although he did seem to show affection for the slayer, and her sister. Lilah didn't know that Dawn had been taken by anyone, but it made sense to her now.
"I'll help you." She said quietly, looking at the slayer. "If you promise to let me go." She said, trying to keep her eyes off of Spike.
"What do you know?" The slayer asked, walking closer to Lilah, her arms crossed.
"I got a call from one of my sources this morning." She began. "These ropes are really tight." She said, struggling with the ropes that tied her hands to the chair. "Do you think you could--"
"Don't push it." Spike said, beating Buffy to the words. "Now tell us what you know about who has the lil'bit or I swear..." He left the threat hanging.
"I got a call from one of my sources this morning..." She continued, no longer trying to hide her fear. "They said that two vampires, that came from Angelus, that they were back in town."
"Drusilla." Angel said.
"What would she want with Dawn?" Connor asked, speaking for the first time.
"Revenge." Spike answered almost immediately, his eyes fixed on Buffy.
- - - - -
"Now now dearie, don't be rude." Drusilla scolded her doll
and turned her to face the wall. "Do you like dolls?" The dark haired vampire
asked Dawn, who was sitting in a chair across from her, clearly afraid. But
Drusilla hadn't really done anything to Dawn, not anything that Dawn had been
expecting at least.
Dawn had heard stories of what had happened to Drusilla's family, things she had done, but she hadn't expected Drusilla to offer her tea and crumpets and scold her dolls in front of her. Maybe she had forgotten that Dawn was her hostage? "Y-yea." She stuttered, not sure how to answer. "They're great."
Drusilla smiled, pleased by Dawn's answer. "Miss Edith speaks to me. She speaks wonderful whispers." She said, now standing up and walking over to Dawn. Stopping when she was standing directly behind Dawn, Drusilla leaned down, placing her hands on Dawn's shivering shoulders. "They will come to us." She whispered to Dawn. "They will bring my Spike back to me."
- - - - -
"So whats the plan?" Angel asked Buffy, Spike and Connor
had gone out into the lobby to join the others.
"We go to the law firm." She started, "and we bring her." She said. Beyond that, she had no idea what they were going to do, or how they were going to find Dawn. "I figured that then you and Spike could use your vamp senses to see if Drusilla's anywhere near there." She shrugged.
- - - -
"Your shirt..." The voice echoed in her mind. Even in sleep
she now found that she could get no rest. Whenever she closed her eyes, if only
for a second, she would see her face. She didn't understand what was happening,
neither had Willow, not at first.
They had just gotten back together, things were supposed to be happy now. Things were supposed to be good....they weren't supposed to fall apart like that.
"Tara...no!" Willow screamed, awaking herself from the nightmare. She was shivering, cold sweat dripping down her face.
"How long has she been like this?" Willow heard a soft voice. First she thought it was her own mind, trying to play tricks on her again, but she was pretty sure this was real.
"Weeks. We haven't been able to get through, we thought that--" The voices were coming from the kitchen, it was Giles talking to someone else.
"I understand. Thanks for calling me." Willow had never thought she would hear that voice again.
"Oz?" Willow whispered to herself, getting up out of bed and walking out the door to greet him.
But when she walked out of the room, she wasn't in Giles's kitchen. She was back in her room in California. She could see herself holding onto Tara, screaming to the gods to bring her back. She was reliving the nightmare.
"No!" She screamed, realizing that along with the body of Tara, Oz's fresh corpse was laying on the other side of the room, his skin looked stretched and worn, as though someone had tried to rip it off.
"Willow?" Willow woke up, crying in Oz's arms. A double dream, something that was becoming quite common for her, but it seemed that part of her dream was right, Oz was there.
"Its so hard." She wailed, holding onto Oz tightly. Besides Tara, he was the only person that she had ever loved. "I just...I just miss her so much, I miss her so much...."
"Shh...." He stroked her hair, trying to calm her down.
"I loved her so much...and she's...she's gone."
"I know what you mean." Oz thought, still hugging Willow.
Giles had called him a week ago, telling him what had happened to Willow and thinking that he might be able to help. He was so happy that he had told him. He knew that Willow would never love him again, the way that he wanted her to, but he couldn't live on knowing that something had happened to her, without helping as much as he could.
As soon as Giles had called Oz, he sold the van and got a ticket to England, he had just arrived there a few hours ago, where Giles updated him on everything that had happened with the coven, with what they wanted to do to Willow, how they thought she would cope. Giles thought that Oz would be one of the only people that would be able to get through to her. Even though Xander, Buffy and everyone else loved her and wanted her to get better, Oz was the only one that sort of knew what she was going through, almost more than Giles or Buffy, who had both lost people that they loved.
Oz had lost the one woman he would ever love. He had lost Willow.