In the Space of a Journey
Chapter Nine
England -- Aidan's Flat
The flat was dark, but Aidan didn't bother opening the windows. He didn't need the light anyway -- it would conflict with his dark thoughts.
Aidan didn't know what he was supposed to do. He kept going over and over the fight with Doyle in his head. How had it gotten so out of control? Doyle might be messy and irresponsible, but he was Aidan's oldest friend. Or at least he used to be. Had they really changed that much over the years?
He walked over to his antique crystal brandy container and poured some into a snifter. The bitter, fiery liquid burned all the way down to his stomach.
Aidan tried to push his guilt about Doyle out of his mind, and immediately thoughts about his meeting at the Compound that he hadn't had time to deal with took over. He took another swig of the brandy.
What was he supposed to do? Barrows had as good as said that further association with Doyle, and Giles, too, would cost him his job. In the battle of friends vs. job, the job was theoretically supposed to take second place to friends and/or loved ones. Aidan knew that, and if his job was counting beans for some local firm or clerking in a shop, he'd throw it over in an instant. Even if it were just his museum position on the line, Aidan would almost cheerfully give it away for either Doyle or his former mentor, Giles. After all, he'd put his reputation on the line letting Giles's vampire agent into the Compound on that night several months back, hadn't he? But where did individual relationships come into play against the thousands, or even millions, of innocents the Watchers were duty and honor-bound to protect?
Until just recently, Aidan had been part of the team training Faith and her group of modern-day warriors. And now, those warriors were all that stood between the demons of hell and the lives of innocents in Sunnydale. And the Council had more plans like that in the works all the time, not to mention the Council's duties toward the Slayer herself. Were his paltry relationships -- no matter how very important they were to Aidan personally -- really worth losing all the good he could do with the Council?
Aidan still couldn't believe the rumors flitting about the Compound that Giles had committed treason. He knew Giles, and Aidan was sure that the tribunal would clear him. The man had defied tradition, there was no question about that, but was whatever he had done really so bad? Though Aidan would have to wait for the proceedings to find out, he sincerely doubted it. Giles was a good man, through and through.
In fact, the only thing Giles had ever done that Aidan hadn't whole-heartedly approved of was this afternoon when the man had actually given a bit of credence to Doyle's insane idea that the Council sent the assassin to the airport. It couldn't be the Council. Aidan was positive. An organization honor-bound to do good, could never do something so horribly wrong... could it?
And that brought Aidan's thoughts around full circle, back to Doyle. He sincerely regretted how he had behaved earlier. Though he thought Doyle was wrong in accusing the Council, Aidan felt guilty for some of the mean-spirited things he'd said.
Finishing off his brandy, Aidan decided that the only right thing to do was to call Doyle and apologize. Maybe he could even find a way to tell Doyle about the Council's problem with him, and perhaps together they could find a way to make the Council see that Doyle wasn't a bad guy, and that his visions were worth listening to.
Aidan picked up the phone and turned on a small table lamp so he could read the number Giles had given him before he left. It wasn't long before he was waiting for someone to pick up the phone on the other end.
"Sonya?" a male voice demanded after barely one ring.
"No," Aidan said, "this is..."
"Sorry," the voice interrupted. "Gotta keep the line open."
And then Aidan was listening to dial tone. He stared at the phone a moment, wondering what was going on. He thought about calling back to find out, but the boy had seemed very insistent on keeping the line open. But there was one other place he could call, though he didn't know what good it would do. Pulling out the bit of paper on which Cordelia had written her phone number the night they met, Aidan placed the second call.
A moment later the hotel operator came on the line. "I'm sorry, sir, but the room you called is busy. Would you like to leave a message?"
"Er..." Aidan hesitated. "I supposed you could say that Aidan called looking for Doyle, and for Miss Chase to call me back if she knows where he is."
"Yes, sir. I'll do that."
"Thank you. Good night."
"Good night, sir."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
England -- the Ritz
Buffy burst out of the stairwell, gasping for breath, her Slayer body having just been strained to its limits. Her weapons bag banged against her hips as she stopped to suck in a little air before heading into the fray. A minute later, an even more exhausted Xander burst out behind her.
"Stupid... Cordelia... would... have... a suite... on... the... fifteenth floor," Xander panted.
"Good thing... Giles waited for... the elevator," Buffy replied. "He never would... have made it." She felt the much needed oxygen bringing relief to her strained muscles as she popped open the bag for easy access. She pulled out two stakes and tossed one to Xander. "Ready?"
"As I'll ever be."
They crept up to the door of room #1575, careful not to make a sound. Buffy reached for the door knob, when Xander touched her shoulder.
(I don't hear anything) he mouthed silently.
Buffy's eyes darkened with fear as she realized the same thing. Immediately, she burst through the door into the suite. The former Pseudo-Slayer followed. The room was empty.
"Cordelia?" Buffy called. She and Xander began walking around the perimeter of the room, skirting piles of luggage and battle debris, like the remains of several once-lovely potted plants, looking for evidence of what had happened to their friends. "Doyle?"
"Sonya!" Xander cried. "Buffy! Look at this!"
Buffy turned to see Xander standing in front of the open balcony doors holding a white backpack purse with a broken strap. "It's Sonya's."
Xander nodded. "It was lying out there."
Behind them, the door to the hallway opened with a loud bang.
"Freeze, minions of Hell!"
Buffy and Xander spun around to see Giles standing in the doorway with his tie askew holding a stake.
"They're not here, Giles," Buffy pointed out unnecessarily.
Giles stepped into the room. "Where..."
"Shhh!" Buffy gestured for him to be quiet. "I heard something."
They stood in silence, waiting. Then, just as Buffy was about to give up, she heard it again -- a quiet moaning. This time Xander and Giles heard it, too. They followed the noise around the room to the corner by the piano. Stretching out from underneath the piano was a pair of shapely legs encased in ripped nylons.
"Cordelia?" Buffy knelt down and peered under the large, black instrument. "Can you hear me?"
"Is she OK?" Xander asked, straining to see over Buffy's head. "Ask her what happened to the others."
With Buffy's help, the semi-conscious Cordelia managed to make it out from under the piano. Then Xander took her other arm, and they guided her over to the couch where she could lay down more comfortably.
"Cordelia?" Buffy repeated gently. "Can you tell us what happened?"
The dazed look lifted from Cordelia's eyes and they filled with tears. "There were vampires..." She broke into sobbing.
Buffy let Cordelia cry on her shoulder. The Slayer rubbed her formal arch rival's back as she shuddered. Buffy felt a sudden sense of understanding for the trauma Cordelia was going through. Yes, the girl might have known of the existence of vampires before tonight, but she'd never before faced one of them one-on-one, or had one target her specifically. Buffy could easily recall the terror she felt after her first encounter with a vampire that wanted her neck, a vampire named Linus, and that remembrance gave her empathy for Cordelia. Buffy glanced at Cordelia's neck, relieved that there weren't any puncture wounds, only a couple of scratches that bespoke an attempted bite.
But time was of the essence, so after a few minutes, she said, "Cordelia, we really need you to tell us what happened. Sonya and Doyle may need our help. Do you know where they went?"
Cordelia moaned a little. "There was this big one, in white leather pants. He tried to bite me... but Doyle... Doyle punched the one that attacked him and got me away from the other one..."
"So there were two?" Buffy asked, trying to clarify the girl's muddled story.
"They could handle two," Xander murmured hopefully.
"There were four!" Cordelia wailed. "And I couldn't do anything... Sonya had two, and Doyle had to save me... Then one of them knocked me into the piano and I blacked out..."
"You don't know where they went?" Buffy asked.
Cordelia just shook her head, weeping quietly.
Buffy looked to Giles. "What should we do?"
The somber-faced Watcher said, "Leave Miss Chase with me. I will call the hotel doctor. We have to make sure she doesn't have a concussion. You two go out into the streets and see if you can pick up their trail... though it's probably cold by now."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Twenty minutes later, Xander found himself back inside the Ritz, taking the elevator up to the fifteenth floor. If he hadn't been so upset that he and Buffy's search of the surrounding area had come up empty, he would have been glad that they weren't running up the stairs again. Buffy put her hand on his arm and he looked over at her concerned face.
"We did all we could, Xander," she said softly. "I was hoping just as much as you were that they didn't have much of a head start on us, but obviously they are long gone."
"Without a trace," Xander muttered in frustration.
"So far," Buffy agreed, but her face was determined. "But we're going to find them somehow. No matter what we have to do, we'll find them."
Xander nodded. He felt Buffy staring at him. Finally, he asked, "What?"
Hesitantly, she replied, "I haven't seen you this concerned about Sonya in a long time. It just goes to show what a loyal and loving friend you are."
He looked at her in surprise. He almost didn't say anything, but Buffy was the one person he'd always felt he could tell anything, and he wasn't going to ruin their new start with lies or half-truths. "Just because we weren't really talking much lately doesn't mean I don't care about her."
"I know."
Xander gazed deeply into her eyes. "And it doesn't bother you?"
"If you didn't care about her, you wouldn't be the Xander I love," Buffy replied in a calm voice. "I'll admit that the idea of you and her makes me uneasy sometimes, but I know with my head that I can trust you both, and I'm going to keep working on the rest of me until all the doubts are gone. I'm not going to run from you again, Xander."
Despite his fear, Xander felt a small rush of joy. He pulled Buffy into a tight hug. She squeezed him back just as tight.
"I just wish that I'd talked to her the other day in the library," he whispered, his voice full of repressed regret. "What if we never..."
"Don't say that!" Buffy pulled back and looked at him with a fierce gaze. "We WILL get them back!"
There was a soft ding as the elevator came to a stop on the fifteenth floor. The couple stepped out and walked down to Cordelia's suite. The door was ajar, so they walked inside. Giles and Cordelia were walking around, putting things into suitcases.
"What's going on?" Buffy asked.
Giles put down the silk shirt he'd been trying, rather unsuccessfully, to fold and walked over to Buffy and Xander. "She's coming back with us. She can't stay here."
"Did she see the doctor?" Xander asked, noticing the girl's unusually pale cheeks as she packed.
"He said it wasn't a concussion," Giles replied. "She should be fine. Tell me what you found."
"A big nothing!" Xander exclaimed, feeling the frustration well up inside again. "No clues at all. No one saw anything out of the ordinary, there were no disturbances out there... nothing."
"They must've had a good head start on us," Buffy added. "We're going to have to find some other way to track them down." She paused for a second, and then said, "C'mon. Let's help Cordelia finish packing."
"I wish my daddy would come back," Buffy heard Cordelia murmur as the Slayer walked past her and into the bedroom.
"I'll check the closet to make sure that nobody missed anything," Buffy called back. She walked into the spacious bedroom and wondered what it would be like to live in such luxury. The room held a king-sized bed and an antique desk, chest of drawers and armoire. Then something white on the pillow caught her eye. Buffy walked over to investigate and found an envelope. There was no name on the envelope. A spurt of hope buoyed her spirit as she snatched the envelope and tore it open.
"Guys!" she yelled, "come in here. I think I found a ransom note!"
She scanned the note quickly, and her heart dropped. Not only was it not a ransom note, it was bad news. It said:
Cordelia, I had to go to a business meeting in Belgium. Sorry I can't take you with me, but it has to do with the European contracts. You understand, I'm sure. Buy anything you want in the shops, and I'll make it up to you next time. I left my forwarding address at the front desk, and I will see you at the airport on Saturday for our flight home. Warmest wishes, Prescott Wildman Chase III
"What is it?" Xander exclaimed excitedly, skidding to a stop in the middle of the bedroom. Giles and Cordelia walked in behind him.
Buffy looked sadly at Cordelia. "Would you two give us a moment, please. It's not a ransom note."
Giles and Xander exchanged a confused look, but they did as she asked.
"Cordelia," Buffy said, handing her the letter. "It's for you. I'm sorry I read it, but I thought it was a clue..."
Cordelia took the letter with reluctance, as if she already knew what it said. Her face grew paler, if such a thing were possible, as she skimmed its contents. She was silent for a long moment.
"Are you... OK?" Buffy asked, unsure how the girl would receive her sympathy. "It must've been a really important meeting..."
Cordelia met Buffy's eyes with a bleak gaze. "It's always an important meeting."
Buffy felt a rush of pity for the other girl. Who knew they had so much in common? The thought of her last birthday flashed into Buffy's mind -- the birthday when her father stood her up for their traditional ice show to take a trip to Reno with his new girlfriend Sophie.
"I know how you feel..." Buffy started.
"How could you know!" Cordelia snapped. "You have great parents! Look at your mom. She wasn't too busy with trips to plastic surgeons, beauty spas and the Betty Ford Clinic to come with you on this trip. And I'm sure your father never abandoned you in a foreign country."
"That's true," Buffy admitted. "My mom is great. My dad, on the other hand... well, he's never abandoned me in a foreign country, but he did abandon my mother and I, and he's abandoned me to go to a foreign country!"
"Well, maybe you do understand a tiny bit of what I'm feeling..." Cordelia grudgingly admitted, as if even that small concession were too much to make.
Buffy thought of a good comeback, but restrained herself. She didn't know whether Cordelia was taking her pain out on her, or if she were just being her normal, snobby self, but either way fighting about it wouldn't be very productive.
Instead, she asked, "How much stuff do you have left to pack, and how can I help?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
England: The Scooby Gang's Hotel
Joyce and Oz looked up when the door to the boy's room burst open to reveal Xander and Giles.
"Did you find her?" Oz asked before they had even gotten the door closed behind them.
"Where's Buffy?" Joyce added.
"Buffy's helping Cordelia and the bellhop get all her luggage into the other room," Xander explained, taking the easy question first. "She's staying with us now. Her other place was way to dangerous for us to leave her there."
Oz's face paled, and he stared at Giles. The older man had an answering haggard expression on his face.
Giles laid a hand on Oz's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Oz, but when we got there Sonya and Doyle were gone. Cordelia remembers four vampires, but there was no trail, no clue to tell us where to mount a rescue. We're just going to have to wait. Perhaps there will be a ransom note."
"That's it!" Oz stared at Giles incredulously. "You're supposed to be her father, and all you want to do is wait? We've got to start looking! Leave no stone unturned and all that sh..." His eyes flashed to Joyce and he changed it to, "stuff!"
He hadn't heard the door open again, and Buffy walk into the room, followed by an uncharacteristically quiet and somber Cordelia. He pushed off Giles's hand and began struggling to get to his feet. "Where are my crutches? If you all won't do anything, I will!"
Hearing her friend's outburst, Buffy made her way over to Oz. Placing her hands on his shoulders, she shoved him gently back into his chair. Then she knelt before him, and looked into his wild eyes as she spoke. "Oz, this is killing us, too, but what good is it for us to go off with no plan, no clues? We *will* find them, I promise you that, but we've got to have a starting point..." Her mind worked busily for a moment, as it had been ever since the elevator ride with Xander, then she looked toward Giles. "Maybe Xander and I should do a sweep of the sewer systems. Or the Metro tunnels. Those might be good vampire hideouts."
Giles sighed. "The tunnels go on for miles. There's no possible way you could comb them all before we have to be at the Compound tomorrow. The more I think about it, the best solution I can come up with is for us to ask the Council for help. They have resources beyond our imaginings, and they will know where vampires tend to go in this country. When I lived here and worked with them, I knew, but it's been awhile and my knowledge is out of date."
"I hate to say this," Xander spoke up, his face somber. "I really hate to say this... but how do we know they're still alive? Or still human?"
"I thought of that," Giles admitted, "and I came to the conclusion that the attack must've been meant for either Doyle or Sonya or both of them. Perhaps they were followed. If it had just been random vampires looking for a snack, they would have killed Miss Chase. Doyle will not have been turned into a vampire. More than one demon cannot have possession of the same body. Sonya, however, I suppose it is possible. We will just have to pray that she was wanted, intact and human, as a hostage. It's our only hope, but a realistic one, I think."
"Speaking of being followed," Buffy said, "We've all got to take care tonight. If Doyle and Sonya were followed to Cordelia's, someone might have followed us back here. No one invite anyone into your room without knowing who it is. And maybe we should take turns standing watch."
"We're on the seventh floor," Xander said, "without balconies. I think we're safe in that regards. As long as we don't let anyone in the rooms..."
Cordelia cleared her throat, and everyone looked at her. "So if I hadn't said 'come in' when those creatures knocked on my door, none of this would have happened?"
"Don't think that way!" Buffy said quickly, going to Cordelia's side and sitting next to her on the bed. "It won't do any good now." She looked at Cordelia, and decided, now that the girl wasn't too hysterical, to ask if she remembered any more details about the vampires that had attacked. "Cordelia, have you thought of anything else... anything at all about what happened that might give us a clue to where they took Sonya and Doyle?"
Cordelia licked her lips nervously. "There was one thing, but I didn't understand it."
"Tell us anyway," Buffy urged. "Maybe we'll know what it meant."
"Well, this one vampire, wearing these hideous, white leather pants, came up and grabbed me," Cordelia replied. "He said I was going to be supper. And then, right before Doyle pulled him off of me, he said, 'Spike's gonna wish he'd come with us. He's missing out on both fun and profit.' The vampire had more of an accent, of course, but I sort of wondered who Spike was..."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
England: Parts Unknown...
Sonya woke up with a start, eyes darting around her, trying to ascertain where she was. It was dark, only one light bulb cast any illumination and it did little to clear up the shadows in the corners of the room. But it did give Sonya enough light to make out the small, barred window that was positioned up high on the wall. She judged that, from the lack of light coming from the window, it was still night outside and they were far enough away from any civilization to prevent the city lights from shining through. She turned her head and wasn't surprised to see bars over the room's only door. Whoever had locked her in here had obviously wanted to prevent her from escaping.
Then a soft moan caught her attention. Tearing her eyes away from the door that led to freedom, she saw a form laying a few feet away, obscured by the darkness. Inching closer to it, she realized that it was a man. Once she reached his side, his identity became clear in an instant.
"Doyle?" she whispered, giving the Irishman's shoulder a light shake.
The dark haired man didn't move, though he moaned again softly.
"Doyle!" This time she whispered it a bit louder and gave his shoulder a rougher shake.
He still didn't register her presence. And upon closer inspection, he appeared to be badly injured. His face, though still in its demon persona, was bruised and bloody. And his neck was bent at an odd angle. Had he been human, Sonya was sure that he would be dead right now. But luckily enough, for him and for her as well, he was not entirely human.
Sonya sat back, tucking her knees beneath her chin. She wished that there was something she could do for him, but nothing came to mind. The room, or perhaps cell was a more appropriate term, had nothing in it that might serve any useful purpose. She sighed, looking Doyle's injuries over with a critical eye. He would heal eventually. She was sure of it. Sonya just hoped it was soon. Patience was so not her forte.
Chapter Nine
England -- Aidan's Flat
The flat was dark, but Aidan didn't bother opening the windows. He didn't need the light anyway -- it would conflict with his dark thoughts.
Aidan didn't know what he was supposed to do. He kept going over and over the fight with Doyle in his head. How had it gotten so out of control? Doyle might be messy and irresponsible, but he was Aidan's oldest friend. Or at least he used to be. Had they really changed that much over the years?
He walked over to his antique crystal brandy container and poured some into a snifter. The bitter, fiery liquid burned all the way down to his stomach.
Aidan tried to push his guilt about Doyle out of his mind, and immediately thoughts about his meeting at the Compound that he hadn't had time to deal with took over. He took another swig of the brandy.
What was he supposed to do? Barrows had as good as said that further association with Doyle, and Giles, too, would cost him his job. In the battle of friends vs. job, the job was theoretically supposed to take second place to friends and/or loved ones. Aidan knew that, and if his job was counting beans for some local firm or clerking in a shop, he'd throw it over in an instant. Even if it were just his museum position on the line, Aidan would almost cheerfully give it away for either Doyle or his former mentor, Giles. After all, he'd put his reputation on the line letting Giles's vampire agent into the Compound on that night several months back, hadn't he? But where did individual relationships come into play against the thousands, or even millions, of innocents the Watchers were duty and honor-bound to protect?
Until just recently, Aidan had been part of the team training Faith and her group of modern-day warriors. And now, those warriors were all that stood between the demons of hell and the lives of innocents in Sunnydale. And the Council had more plans like that in the works all the time, not to mention the Council's duties toward the Slayer herself. Were his paltry relationships -- no matter how very important they were to Aidan personally -- really worth losing all the good he could do with the Council?
Aidan still couldn't believe the rumors flitting about the Compound that Giles had committed treason. He knew Giles, and Aidan was sure that the tribunal would clear him. The man had defied tradition, there was no question about that, but was whatever he had done really so bad? Though Aidan would have to wait for the proceedings to find out, he sincerely doubted it. Giles was a good man, through and through.
In fact, the only thing Giles had ever done that Aidan hadn't whole-heartedly approved of was this afternoon when the man had actually given a bit of credence to Doyle's insane idea that the Council sent the assassin to the airport. It couldn't be the Council. Aidan was positive. An organization honor-bound to do good, could never do something so horribly wrong... could it?
And that brought Aidan's thoughts around full circle, back to Doyle. He sincerely regretted how he had behaved earlier. Though he thought Doyle was wrong in accusing the Council, Aidan felt guilty for some of the mean-spirited things he'd said.
Finishing off his brandy, Aidan decided that the only right thing to do was to call Doyle and apologize. Maybe he could even find a way to tell Doyle about the Council's problem with him, and perhaps together they could find a way to make the Council see that Doyle wasn't a bad guy, and that his visions were worth listening to.
Aidan picked up the phone and turned on a small table lamp so he could read the number Giles had given him before he left. It wasn't long before he was waiting for someone to pick up the phone on the other end.
"Sonya?" a male voice demanded after barely one ring.
"No," Aidan said, "this is..."
"Sorry," the voice interrupted. "Gotta keep the line open."
And then Aidan was listening to dial tone. He stared at the phone a moment, wondering what was going on. He thought about calling back to find out, but the boy had seemed very insistent on keeping the line open. But there was one other place he could call, though he didn't know what good it would do. Pulling out the bit of paper on which Cordelia had written her phone number the night they met, Aidan placed the second call.
A moment later the hotel operator came on the line. "I'm sorry, sir, but the room you called is busy. Would you like to leave a message?"
"Er..." Aidan hesitated. "I supposed you could say that Aidan called looking for Doyle, and for Miss Chase to call me back if she knows where he is."
"Yes, sir. I'll do that."
"Thank you. Good night."
"Good night, sir."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
England -- the Ritz
Buffy burst out of the stairwell, gasping for breath, her Slayer body having just been strained to its limits. Her weapons bag banged against her hips as she stopped to suck in a little air before heading into the fray. A minute later, an even more exhausted Xander burst out behind her.
"Stupid... Cordelia... would... have... a suite... on... the... fifteenth floor," Xander panted.
"Good thing... Giles waited for... the elevator," Buffy replied. "He never would... have made it." She felt the much needed oxygen bringing relief to her strained muscles as she popped open the bag for easy access. She pulled out two stakes and tossed one to Xander. "Ready?"
"As I'll ever be."
They crept up to the door of room #1575, careful not to make a sound. Buffy reached for the door knob, when Xander touched her shoulder.
(I don't hear anything) he mouthed silently.
Buffy's eyes darkened with fear as she realized the same thing. Immediately, she burst through the door into the suite. The former Pseudo-Slayer followed. The room was empty.
"Cordelia?" Buffy called. She and Xander began walking around the perimeter of the room, skirting piles of luggage and battle debris, like the remains of several once-lovely potted plants, looking for evidence of what had happened to their friends. "Doyle?"
"Sonya!" Xander cried. "Buffy! Look at this!"
Buffy turned to see Xander standing in front of the open balcony doors holding a white backpack purse with a broken strap. "It's Sonya's."
Xander nodded. "It was lying out there."
Behind them, the door to the hallway opened with a loud bang.
"Freeze, minions of Hell!"
Buffy and Xander spun around to see Giles standing in the doorway with his tie askew holding a stake.
"They're not here, Giles," Buffy pointed out unnecessarily.
Giles stepped into the room. "Where..."
"Shhh!" Buffy gestured for him to be quiet. "I heard something."
They stood in silence, waiting. Then, just as Buffy was about to give up, she heard it again -- a quiet moaning. This time Xander and Giles heard it, too. They followed the noise around the room to the corner by the piano. Stretching out from underneath the piano was a pair of shapely legs encased in ripped nylons.
"Cordelia?" Buffy knelt down and peered under the large, black instrument. "Can you hear me?"
"Is she OK?" Xander asked, straining to see over Buffy's head. "Ask her what happened to the others."
With Buffy's help, the semi-conscious Cordelia managed to make it out from under the piano. Then Xander took her other arm, and they guided her over to the couch where she could lay down more comfortably.
"Cordelia?" Buffy repeated gently. "Can you tell us what happened?"
The dazed look lifted from Cordelia's eyes and they filled with tears. "There were vampires..." She broke into sobbing.
Buffy let Cordelia cry on her shoulder. The Slayer rubbed her formal arch rival's back as she shuddered. Buffy felt a sudden sense of understanding for the trauma Cordelia was going through. Yes, the girl might have known of the existence of vampires before tonight, but she'd never before faced one of them one-on-one, or had one target her specifically. Buffy could easily recall the terror she felt after her first encounter with a vampire that wanted her neck, a vampire named Linus, and that remembrance gave her empathy for Cordelia. Buffy glanced at Cordelia's neck, relieved that there weren't any puncture wounds, only a couple of scratches that bespoke an attempted bite.
But time was of the essence, so after a few minutes, she said, "Cordelia, we really need you to tell us what happened. Sonya and Doyle may need our help. Do you know where they went?"
Cordelia moaned a little. "There was this big one, in white leather pants. He tried to bite me... but Doyle... Doyle punched the one that attacked him and got me away from the other one..."
"So there were two?" Buffy asked, trying to clarify the girl's muddled story.
"They could handle two," Xander murmured hopefully.
"There were four!" Cordelia wailed. "And I couldn't do anything... Sonya had two, and Doyle had to save me... Then one of them knocked me into the piano and I blacked out..."
"You don't know where they went?" Buffy asked.
Cordelia just shook her head, weeping quietly.
Buffy looked to Giles. "What should we do?"
The somber-faced Watcher said, "Leave Miss Chase with me. I will call the hotel doctor. We have to make sure she doesn't have a concussion. You two go out into the streets and see if you can pick up their trail... though it's probably cold by now."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Twenty minutes later, Xander found himself back inside the Ritz, taking the elevator up to the fifteenth floor. If he hadn't been so upset that he and Buffy's search of the surrounding area had come up empty, he would have been glad that they weren't running up the stairs again. Buffy put her hand on his arm and he looked over at her concerned face.
"We did all we could, Xander," she said softly. "I was hoping just as much as you were that they didn't have much of a head start on us, but obviously they are long gone."
"Without a trace," Xander muttered in frustration.
"So far," Buffy agreed, but her face was determined. "But we're going to find them somehow. No matter what we have to do, we'll find them."
Xander nodded. He felt Buffy staring at him. Finally, he asked, "What?"
Hesitantly, she replied, "I haven't seen you this concerned about Sonya in a long time. It just goes to show what a loyal and loving friend you are."
He looked at her in surprise. He almost didn't say anything, but Buffy was the one person he'd always felt he could tell anything, and he wasn't going to ruin their new start with lies or half-truths. "Just because we weren't really talking much lately doesn't mean I don't care about her."
"I know."
Xander gazed deeply into her eyes. "And it doesn't bother you?"
"If you didn't care about her, you wouldn't be the Xander I love," Buffy replied in a calm voice. "I'll admit that the idea of you and her makes me uneasy sometimes, but I know with my head that I can trust you both, and I'm going to keep working on the rest of me until all the doubts are gone. I'm not going to run from you again, Xander."
Despite his fear, Xander felt a small rush of joy. He pulled Buffy into a tight hug. She squeezed him back just as tight.
"I just wish that I'd talked to her the other day in the library," he whispered, his voice full of repressed regret. "What if we never..."
"Don't say that!" Buffy pulled back and looked at him with a fierce gaze. "We WILL get them back!"
There was a soft ding as the elevator came to a stop on the fifteenth floor. The couple stepped out and walked down to Cordelia's suite. The door was ajar, so they walked inside. Giles and Cordelia were walking around, putting things into suitcases.
"What's going on?" Buffy asked.
Giles put down the silk shirt he'd been trying, rather unsuccessfully, to fold and walked over to Buffy and Xander. "She's coming back with us. She can't stay here."
"Did she see the doctor?" Xander asked, noticing the girl's unusually pale cheeks as she packed.
"He said it wasn't a concussion," Giles replied. "She should be fine. Tell me what you found."
"A big nothing!" Xander exclaimed, feeling the frustration well up inside again. "No clues at all. No one saw anything out of the ordinary, there were no disturbances out there... nothing."
"They must've had a good head start on us," Buffy added. "We're going to have to find some other way to track them down." She paused for a second, and then said, "C'mon. Let's help Cordelia finish packing."
"I wish my daddy would come back," Buffy heard Cordelia murmur as the Slayer walked past her and into the bedroom.
"I'll check the closet to make sure that nobody missed anything," Buffy called back. She walked into the spacious bedroom and wondered what it would be like to live in such luxury. The room held a king-sized bed and an antique desk, chest of drawers and armoire. Then something white on the pillow caught her eye. Buffy walked over to investigate and found an envelope. There was no name on the envelope. A spurt of hope buoyed her spirit as she snatched the envelope and tore it open.
"Guys!" she yelled, "come in here. I think I found a ransom note!"
She scanned the note quickly, and her heart dropped. Not only was it not a ransom note, it was bad news. It said:
Cordelia, I had to go to a business meeting in Belgium. Sorry I can't take you with me, but it has to do with the European contracts. You understand, I'm sure. Buy anything you want in the shops, and I'll make it up to you next time. I left my forwarding address at the front desk, and I will see you at the airport on Saturday for our flight home. Warmest wishes, Prescott Wildman Chase III
"What is it?" Xander exclaimed excitedly, skidding to a stop in the middle of the bedroom. Giles and Cordelia walked in behind him.
Buffy looked sadly at Cordelia. "Would you two give us a moment, please. It's not a ransom note."
Giles and Xander exchanged a confused look, but they did as she asked.
"Cordelia," Buffy said, handing her the letter. "It's for you. I'm sorry I read it, but I thought it was a clue..."
Cordelia took the letter with reluctance, as if she already knew what it said. Her face grew paler, if such a thing were possible, as she skimmed its contents. She was silent for a long moment.
"Are you... OK?" Buffy asked, unsure how the girl would receive her sympathy. "It must've been a really important meeting..."
Cordelia met Buffy's eyes with a bleak gaze. "It's always an important meeting."
Buffy felt a rush of pity for the other girl. Who knew they had so much in common? The thought of her last birthday flashed into Buffy's mind -- the birthday when her father stood her up for their traditional ice show to take a trip to Reno with his new girlfriend Sophie.
"I know how you feel..." Buffy started.
"How could you know!" Cordelia snapped. "You have great parents! Look at your mom. She wasn't too busy with trips to plastic surgeons, beauty spas and the Betty Ford Clinic to come with you on this trip. And I'm sure your father never abandoned you in a foreign country."
"That's true," Buffy admitted. "My mom is great. My dad, on the other hand... well, he's never abandoned me in a foreign country, but he did abandon my mother and I, and he's abandoned me to go to a foreign country!"
"Well, maybe you do understand a tiny bit of what I'm feeling..." Cordelia grudgingly admitted, as if even that small concession were too much to make.
Buffy thought of a good comeback, but restrained herself. She didn't know whether Cordelia was taking her pain out on her, or if she were just being her normal, snobby self, but either way fighting about it wouldn't be very productive.
Instead, she asked, "How much stuff do you have left to pack, and how can I help?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
England: The Scooby Gang's Hotel
Joyce and Oz looked up when the door to the boy's room burst open to reveal Xander and Giles.
"Did you find her?" Oz asked before they had even gotten the door closed behind them.
"Where's Buffy?" Joyce added.
"Buffy's helping Cordelia and the bellhop get all her luggage into the other room," Xander explained, taking the easy question first. "She's staying with us now. Her other place was way to dangerous for us to leave her there."
Oz's face paled, and he stared at Giles. The older man had an answering haggard expression on his face.
Giles laid a hand on Oz's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Oz, but when we got there Sonya and Doyle were gone. Cordelia remembers four vampires, but there was no trail, no clue to tell us where to mount a rescue. We're just going to have to wait. Perhaps there will be a ransom note."
"That's it!" Oz stared at Giles incredulously. "You're supposed to be her father, and all you want to do is wait? We've got to start looking! Leave no stone unturned and all that sh..." His eyes flashed to Joyce and he changed it to, "stuff!"
He hadn't heard the door open again, and Buffy walk into the room, followed by an uncharacteristically quiet and somber Cordelia. He pushed off Giles's hand and began struggling to get to his feet. "Where are my crutches? If you all won't do anything, I will!"
Hearing her friend's outburst, Buffy made her way over to Oz. Placing her hands on his shoulders, she shoved him gently back into his chair. Then she knelt before him, and looked into his wild eyes as she spoke. "Oz, this is killing us, too, but what good is it for us to go off with no plan, no clues? We *will* find them, I promise you that, but we've got to have a starting point..." Her mind worked busily for a moment, as it had been ever since the elevator ride with Xander, then she looked toward Giles. "Maybe Xander and I should do a sweep of the sewer systems. Or the Metro tunnels. Those might be good vampire hideouts."
Giles sighed. "The tunnels go on for miles. There's no possible way you could comb them all before we have to be at the Compound tomorrow. The more I think about it, the best solution I can come up with is for us to ask the Council for help. They have resources beyond our imaginings, and they will know where vampires tend to go in this country. When I lived here and worked with them, I knew, but it's been awhile and my knowledge is out of date."
"I hate to say this," Xander spoke up, his face somber. "I really hate to say this... but how do we know they're still alive? Or still human?"
"I thought of that," Giles admitted, "and I came to the conclusion that the attack must've been meant for either Doyle or Sonya or both of them. Perhaps they were followed. If it had just been random vampires looking for a snack, they would have killed Miss Chase. Doyle will not have been turned into a vampire. More than one demon cannot have possession of the same body. Sonya, however, I suppose it is possible. We will just have to pray that she was wanted, intact and human, as a hostage. It's our only hope, but a realistic one, I think."
"Speaking of being followed," Buffy said, "We've all got to take care tonight. If Doyle and Sonya were followed to Cordelia's, someone might have followed us back here. No one invite anyone into your room without knowing who it is. And maybe we should take turns standing watch."
"We're on the seventh floor," Xander said, "without balconies. I think we're safe in that regards. As long as we don't let anyone in the rooms..."
Cordelia cleared her throat, and everyone looked at her. "So if I hadn't said 'come in' when those creatures knocked on my door, none of this would have happened?"
"Don't think that way!" Buffy said quickly, going to Cordelia's side and sitting next to her on the bed. "It won't do any good now." She looked at Cordelia, and decided, now that the girl wasn't too hysterical, to ask if she remembered any more details about the vampires that had attacked. "Cordelia, have you thought of anything else... anything at all about what happened that might give us a clue to where they took Sonya and Doyle?"
Cordelia licked her lips nervously. "There was one thing, but I didn't understand it."
"Tell us anyway," Buffy urged. "Maybe we'll know what it meant."
"Well, this one vampire, wearing these hideous, white leather pants, came up and grabbed me," Cordelia replied. "He said I was going to be supper. And then, right before Doyle pulled him off of me, he said, 'Spike's gonna wish he'd come with us. He's missing out on both fun and profit.' The vampire had more of an accent, of course, but I sort of wondered who Spike was..."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
England: Parts Unknown...
Sonya woke up with a start, eyes darting around her, trying to ascertain where she was. It was dark, only one light bulb cast any illumination and it did little to clear up the shadows in the corners of the room. But it did give Sonya enough light to make out the small, barred window that was positioned up high on the wall. She judged that, from the lack of light coming from the window, it was still night outside and they were far enough away from any civilization to prevent the city lights from shining through. She turned her head and wasn't surprised to see bars over the room's only door. Whoever had locked her in here had obviously wanted to prevent her from escaping.
Then a soft moan caught her attention. Tearing her eyes away from the door that led to freedom, she saw a form laying a few feet away, obscured by the darkness. Inching closer to it, she realized that it was a man. Once she reached his side, his identity became clear in an instant.
"Doyle?" she whispered, giving the Irishman's shoulder a light shake.
The dark haired man didn't move, though he moaned again softly.
"Doyle!" This time she whispered it a bit louder and gave his shoulder a rougher shake.
He still didn't register her presence. And upon closer inspection, he appeared to be badly injured. His face, though still in its demon persona, was bruised and bloody. And his neck was bent at an odd angle. Had he been human, Sonya was sure that he would be dead right now. But luckily enough, for him and for her as well, he was not entirely human.
Sonya sat back, tucking her knees beneath her chin. She wished that there was something she could do for him, but nothing came to mind. The room, or perhaps cell was a more appropriate term, had nothing in it that might serve any useful purpose. She sighed, looking Doyle's injuries over with a critical eye. He would heal eventually. She was sure of it. Sonya just hoped it was soon. Patience was so not her forte.