Title: Family: Wedding in LA

Author: victoriamartynne

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Spoilers: None, I think!

Summary: Sequel to Family: Back to Sunnydale, Family: Forward to LA, Family: Return to Sunnydale and Family: On to LA. As Cordelia and Angel's wedding approaches, old friends reunite.

Cordelia's suggestion of a quiet night turned out to be jinxed as she had a vision an hour later.

"There's a guy in a bar, he looks pretty tough. I think he owns the place. He's got some sort of demon thing going on with women; I don't know what it is. They come into the bar and he tricks them into thinking that the back room is some sort of private room for them and their friends. There's going to be a mass murder tonight. He's going to kill a lot of women, we have to stop him." She reported and the vision ended.

"What do we do then?" Willow asked.

"I think we need to get Buffy and Faith in there, pretend to be customers and then give the demon a bit of rough." Cordelia suggested.

"That sound like a good idea." Wes agreed. "Perhaps you might to go with them to give Buffy and Faith some idea of who they are looking for."

"I think that would be pretty clear to them, Cordelia doesn't have to get involved." Angel interrupted.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm not arguing with you on our first day of marriage. I'll go and I'll be fine. I'll even wear a wire if that's what you want."

He sighed. "Fine, but if you get killed it's your fault."

"Okay, we go now?" Buffy asked standing up.

"Not in that outfit girl, you're going to a bar, not a garden party." Faith sniggered, reminding Buffy she was wearing a pink floral dress. "Go and put your leather pants on or something, and take Cor with you."

Cordelia opened her mouth to protest at being told what to do but quickly realised that she couldn't go fight demons in a bar in her wedding dress. "Good point."

They both came back downstairs wearing more suitable clothes for a bar, Cordelia also wearing a wire. She'd taken her hair down from the way she'd worn it for the wedding and it was now tousled around her face.

"Are we ready to go?" Buffy asked.

Faith pulled on her denim jacket. "Ready."

"Behave yourself." Buffy told Dawn and then turned to Spike. "Watch her."

He nodded.

"I'll drive." Angel told them and picked up his keys. "Wes, you coming?"

He nodded and they left the hotel.

"Be careful." Were Angel's last words to Cordelia as the women left the car.

She nodded and kissed his cheek. "I always do."

"That's why you have a third scar on your waist!" Angel reminded her as he watched her retreating back. "And turn your wire on!"

"Three martinis." Faith told the bar man. "Extra strong, two olives each."

The bar man nodded, slightly intimidated. "I'll bring them over."

They went to sit at a table nearby.

"Do you think we caught his attention?" Buffy asked.

"From the way he checked out Cordelia's ass as we walked over here I'm going to go with yes." Faith told her.

Cordelia heard a growl coming from her earpiece.

"Calm down Angel." She whispered.

"I will not calm down!" He shouted back.

She rolled her eyes at the slayers. "Overprotective."

The bar man came to bring their drinks. Buffy went to hand him some money. "No need, these are on me."

They smiled their appreciation.

"Hey, if I give you a tip will you take it?" He told them quietly.

Faith nodded for them and leaned forwards, letting her breasts pop out a little further in the low cut top.

"Get the hell out of here before my boss sees you." He said quietly.

"And why is that?" She asked.

Cordelia leaned forwards slightly to make sure Angel could hear.

"He's got a thing for women like you, you know, pretty." He blushed. "You don't look like the usual kind so I'd get yourself out. He's got a room in the back where he likes to take the lady customers. You don't wanna go there; get yourself out while you can."

"Mike!" A loud voice boomed. "I see you're entertaining our new customers."

Mike shot them a warning look and turned to his boss. "Of course, I'll get back to my work now sir."

The owner strode over. The three women could see why women would do as he wanted them to. He was incredible looking with sandy blond hair and piercing blue eyes. He also looked nothing like a demon. Unless he was only half demon.

"Enjoying yourselves ladies?" He asked; his voice like honey.

They nodded and Faith spoke. "We're interested in your back room." She told him.

Buffy and Cordelia turned to glare at her but the owner couldn't see them.

He smiled. "That's very privileged information, how did you come to hear it?"

He turned to glance at his bar man.

"From the streets." Cordelia said swiftly. "I hear it's pretty good."

"Can we see it?" Faith asked, putting on her best seductive face.

He smiled and leaned in closer. "It's already full tonight ladies, but if you come tomorrow."

"We're leaving town tomorrow." Faith told him. "We're joining a convent out in Michigan. This is our last night of freedom and we heard that this is the best place to come for a little fun."

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose I could squeeze three more in."

Under the table Cordelia crossed her fingers. Please let us in, we need to save those people.

"Okay, come on through." He told them wit a smile. God, they were hot, he could squeeze three more in and boy was he hungry. "Follow me."

"Be careful." Angel's voice echoed in her ear again.

They picked up their drinks and followed him. Buffy and Cordelia clenched each other's hands while Faith strutted in front of them, seemingly confident.

He took them around the back of the bar and through a door. Inside was another door.

He opened it and waited until they'd gone through before closing it firmly. He smiled to himself, thirteen women, more than enough to fill him up.

Inside the room were ten women, all looking relaxed and happy. Overall the room was better decorated than the bar and there were comfy looking sofas against the walls. On closer inspection they saw stains on the carpet and on the sides of the sofas that could be clearly recognised to someone who was using to seeing them, as blood.

They perched on one of the sofas. "Okay, so what is the plan?" Cordelia asked the slayers.

Hearing her voice Angel spoke to her. "Where are you?"

"In the back room." She told him.

"I'm coming in."

"No, wait; we don't know what we're dealing with yet." She told him.

The man came into the room.

"But we might know sooner than we thought." She uttered as the man walked closer to them.

"Relax." He told them.

He started to unbutton his shirt and they began to get a little nervous.

"That's a. that's a second mouth." Faith laughed, but then stopped at the look on his face. "Not funny at all."

He growled and went to touch Cordelia's head with his hand.

Cordelia's head snapped back. Images began to flow through her head. Angel was running, Connor and Ashleigh in his arms. An arrow was fired at his heart and he turned to dusk. The children fell to the floor. A figure bent over them and sliced their necks, their cries echoing into the dark. Their blood falling onto the floor, their faces distorted in pain, their hearts still. She emerged from the power and fell gasping for breath on the floor, sobs breaking from her. It was her greatest fear.

The man's hand went to Buffy's forehead next, sending images of her greatest fear flowing into her head. A knife plunged into her stomach sending shock waves through her. Her heart stopping gradually until she was still, the light fading until she was in darkness. Waking up in a foreign place, darkness and fire and fighting. Hell.

Buffy broke from his grasp and threw herself away from him, she couldn't go to hell, he couldn't scare her.

Faith was last, his hand connecting with her forehead. Cordelia was gutted in front of her, Buffy was stabbed, and Angel was dusted. Everyone was disappearing. She wasn't helping, she was just stood there. The people she loved were dying and she was standing and watching, she wasn't helping them. She'd failed them.

The man was smiling as she forced his hand from her tear stained face. He was energised and more powerful.

He moved to the other women.

"You humans, you're all obsessed with death." He told the room. "Why don't you experience it first hand?"

He began the process on them

"What the hell just happened?" Faith asked, unable to move.

"He showed us our worst fear." Cordelia replied, turning her head so she could see Faith. "It must have drained us."

"We'd better get out strength back quick if we want to stop that from happening to us." Buffy told them.

They turned to see what she meant.

He lunged at one of the women, her screams echoing as he sucked the life from her with his second mouth, his teeth gorging at the flesh on her neck, shoulders and teeth.

"Faith, we have to get up." Buffy told her, still on the floor herself.

"I feel so weak." She gasped.

"That's what he does." Cordelia told them. "It makes sense now. He drains us by showing us our worst fears and then wile we're weak he kills us. That's what my vision was trying to tell me. We should have come in after the first stage, we're powerless now."

She could hear Angel's voice in her earpiece, he was clearly panicking but it was too much effort to reply.

"We have to get up!" Buffy said again as another woman was killed.

She managed to get herself on all fours. "How do we kill him, any ideas?"

"Stake through the heart?" Cordelia offered, trying to get herself off the floor.

"Might work." Faith considered and tossed Buffy a stake from her pocket.

"Why do I have to do it?" She complained but grabbed the stake.

"'Cause you're the only one that's half way strong enough." Faith told her helpfully.

Buffy groaned with the effort of getting herself on her feet. The man turned and glared at her before running towards her.

"Buffy, get him in the second mouth!" Cordelia suddenly thought of.

She held out her hand and the man ran into it.

With a scream he shrivelled into himself and disappeared. Buffy collapsed onto the floor. "That was easier than I thought."

"Slightly anticlimactic if you ask me." Cordelia added.

"For the love of God, someone get Wes and Angel in here to help us." Faith murmured and then fell asleep.

"Angel honey, come get us." Cordelia whispered but she knew he'd heard.

Her head sank to the floor in exhaustion.