Facing Death (Part 5 of 7)

Spike stood on the edge of the rooftop for a moment.  It is an image that will be forever seared into my brain.  The moon overhead illuminated him, his shoulders weary and slumped, his sorrow as he saw a man he'd come to know and admire pulled down and being buried beneath the enemy.  Then Spike lifted his head and let out a sound.  At first, I thought it was a cry, but it was a laugh, an unholy cackle of glee, and, wielding his axe, he leapt down from the building into the roiling mass of the Hellspawn below. 

                                                                        The Last Apocalypse

                                                                        by A. L. Harris

Part 5

It was not quite four in the morning when Father Murry pulled up next to the curb in front of the Bank of America building.  I extracted Drusilla from the car, helping her as she stumbled on the hem of the unfamiliar cloak covering her head and body.  I'd doped her up pretty good.  I knew that drugs and alcohol affected vampires.  Heck, I'd been around Spike enough times when he'd gone on a bender to be well aware of that fact.  But I hadn't been sure how much to use.  Since I figured there was no way a vampire could die from an overdose, I'd poured half of a bottle of tranquilizers down Drusilla's throat.  The other half was in my pocket, just in case.

Drusilla was awake, very weak, and considerably loopy.  I know, I know, she's always crazy.  But believe me, she was loopier than usual.    For one thing, she was absolutely fascinated with the cloak I'd forced her to wear.  She had this whole little black riding hood thing going. 

"Xander, are you sure you don't want me to stay?" asked Father Murry, still seated in his car.

"Wolfie, oh wolfie," sing-songed Drusilla.  "Going to eat you up, I am."

I leaned over to look in the window at my friend.

"You did everything you had to do this afternoon, right?" I asked.

Father Murry nodded his head as he eyed Drusilla warily. 

"Going to put your leftovers in a basket.  Let grandmother eat you, too."

"Then, you'd better go.  Spend the night with your buddy and I'll see you tomorrow," I added.

With a 'good luck' and another glance at Drusilla, Father Murry drove away.  As I watched his car disappear, I noticed a gorgeous black Porsche sitting less than a hundred yards away.  Pulling a still rambling Drusilla along, I walked up to it. 

"Dru, does this belong to Angelus?"

"Great big eyes you have…that will go pop in my mouth."

"Honey, this car.  Do you smell Angelus on it?"

She stopped talking to the Big Bad Wolf of her imagination, swayed a bit as she tried to focus, and then a large, pleased smile spread over her face.

"Daddy!"

Placing a finger against her lips, she shushed me, even though I hadn't said anything.

"Quiet.  Mustn't let wolfie know that Daddy's teeth are much bigger and sharper than his."

Scanning the empty street, I tried the driver's side door.  Locked.  Spinning Dru around, I grabbed the axe I had strapped to her back, and used it to smash in the window and pop the hood.  Quickly, I yanked as many wires as I could, before slamming the hood shut again.

Returning to the front of the B of A building, I entered through the large glass doors, dragging Drusilla behind me.  There was a security guard sitting at the desk.  As I got closer, I could see that his throat had been ripped out, and then he'd been propped back into his chair.  I added another body to the running tally that I kept in my head, under the label of 'Deaths I Was Responsible For'. 

Standing in the lobby, I considered my options.  We could take the stairs or the elevator.  Both ways would be a trap.  Since the High Life nightclub was on the seventeenth floor, I decided that I'd try the elevator.  Before I pressed the button to summon the car, I turned around to face Dru, holding her chin in my hand to force her to pay attention. 

"Do you remember that game we used to play?  Years ago, when I would point to someone and you would enthrall them as fast as you could?"

She blinked a little, then nodded her head.

"Can we play?  I get inside their head, then you lop it off?" she asked eagerly.

"Uh huh.  We're going to play right now.  When these doors open, I want you to enthrall whoever is inside.  I don't want to fight if I don't have to, so make him like me, okay?"

When Drusilla smiled and nodded again, I pressed the call button.  The rumbling grew as the elevator came closer, and the light showing that the elevator had arrived lit up.   I still had the axe in my hand and I readied myself, just in case Dru's enthrallment didn't work. 

The doors slid open and a huge demon emerged.  He had bright yellow scales, tusks that curved from his mouth, and claws at the end of his arms that looked like scimitars.  You always think, why should I take my bazooka?  I never use it.  Then, the one day you leave it at home, something like this happens. 

I backed up and yanked Drusilla with me.  She was concentrating hard, and the creature had taken only two steps out of the car when it stopped and became as still as stone.  Only seconds had passed while this silent standoff took place, when I heard noises coming from behind me.  A group of vampires, ten at least, were headed my way from the direction of the stairwell.  Damn, but that bazooka would've been useful.  

Shifting my grip on my axe, I decided that I would at least go out fighting.  I had one trick up my sleeve, but I'd been hoping to save it for Angelus.  Maybe I wouldn't get the chance.

Suddenly, the yellow demon roared 'Cowabunga' and took off at a run to attack the vampires who were closing in.  It began slashing the vampires, beheading three of them, before the rest of them got their wits together and began to fight back. 

Taking advantage of the change in the situation, I grabbed Drusilla, pulled her into the elevator, and breathed a sigh of relief as the it began to rise to the seventeenth floor.

"Dru, what did you do to that demon?" I asked, totally mystified.

"I did what you said," she answered in her little loopy voice.  "You wanted him like you.  Now he's almost exactly like you, but not so fluffy."

She hadn't made the demon friendly towards me, but made him in my image.  I thanked the stars that she'd gotten it wrong, but I had to wonder if that was how she saw me.  Attacking monsters despite overwhelming odds, saying… 'Cowabunga?'

I didn't get too much time to contemplate this, because the elevator halted and the doors slid open to reveal the waiting area of the nightclub.  I noted that the mood lighting was on, but the main lights were still off.   Slowly, I exited the elevator, one hand holding Drusilla's wrist, while the other one held my weapon.  The doors swished closed behind us. 

All hopes of creeping up on Angelus disappeared when Drusilla started calling in a high-pitched voice for him.

"Daddeee.  Where are you, Daddeee?"

"Crap," I muttered.                  

"Is that any way to talk in front of a lady?" I heard Angelus ask.

I saw him then, standing near a window with the city lights behind him.  He'd always had a flair for the dramatic.  My eyes flew to the figure in front of him.  Dawn!  One of his meaty paws covered her mouth, while the other one was wrapped around her waist, pulling her up against his body.  

"I have to say, Xander, I'm impressed that you made it here.  You've come a long way from the boy who used to hide behind the Slayer's skirt while wanting to get in her pants."

The hand at Dawn's waist moved, flitting up to caress one of her breasts.

"Got the next best thing, though."

The fingers stroking her breast suddenly squeezed it roughly.  I saw Dawn's eyes widen in pain and my fists tightened around the axe.  Angelus noted the movement. 

"Drop the axe, boy.  Now."

I tossed the axe to the side, then moved a few feet away, back towards the wall.  Drusilla's hand was still clasped in mine, though she struggled feebly to move towards her sire.  The drugs were still going strong in her system.  Good.  I set Dru behind me and moved farther back until she was pinned between the wall and my body, then released her wrist so that I had both hands free.  Angelus was smiling at my retreat, coming closer and hauling Dawn with him. 

"Let her go, Angelus."

"I'd rather not.  I like holding her, touching her, hearing her make those breathy little pants when she's trying not to scream."

"Dru and I are here.  You've got what you wanted."

He shook his head and faked a sad expression.

"Ah, but do we ever truly get what we want out of life?  You'd like your girlfriend back.  Me…I'd like to wallow in her blood.  Obviously, one of us is bound to be disappointed.  I just don't think that it's going to be me."

He yanked on Dawn's hair, then, giving his speech that extra little bit of emphasis of her accompanying cry.  I knew I couldn't wait any longer.  Reaching into my jacket pocket, I watched as Angelus pulled Dawn in front of him again in an effort to create a living barrier between him and any possible stakes I might produce.  His grip tightened on Dawn's jaw, and my mind raced back to Ms. Calendar's broken neck.  But I couldn't let my fear for her safety stop me from doing what I had to. 

I pulled a flare from my pocket and lit it, watching as he relaxed at my actions. 

"You think you can set me on fire with that, Xander? Well, you never were very bright," he smirked.

"Nope, I'm not smart.  I know that.  But one thing I do know is building codes."

It was then that the smoke of the flare was registered by the building's security center, and the sprinkler system went off.  As the fire alarm began to blare, water sprayed down from the ceiling.  Water from the pipes overhead, water from the standpipes throughout the building, water that Father Murry from St. Mary's had come by and blessed earlier that day.  It was now officially holy water.   

Dru's hood and coat were waterproof and protected her from the worst of it, but I thrust her under a table anyway.  Angelus didn't have any protection.  And he was screaming.  And burning.  Rushing forward, I grabbed Dawn out of his grip, as Angelus was in too much pain to pay any attention to his hostage.  He was trying to hold his coat over his head, trying to shield himself from the water still raining down.  I yelled for Dawn to take Drusilla out of there, then pulled my Xander special from my coat pocket and took aim. 

Angelus glared at me, hate emanating from him in waves.  With one last growl, he turned and ran at the window, crashing through the glass to fall to the pavement seventeen stories below.  I went to the casement and looked down, brushing rivulets of water that were streaming down my face from my eyes.  Angelus was getting up.  It takes more than a fall to kill a vampire.  But, as I watched him disappear around a corner, I noted he wasn't walking too well and I thought I spied some bone jutting out from his sleeve. 

I was about to turn away when a flash of yellow on the ground caught my eye.  The demon that Dru had enthralled earlier raced by, headed the same way Angelus had gone.  Looked like Angelus was about to have a little run-in with Demon Xander.  Cowabunga, indeed. 

TBC