Chapter 23-Salvation

A/N I'm rating this section R because there's some language and some other stuff.

-Angel-

I'm out of places to look. I've sent the others to their homes. They need rest. I lean back against a tree and close my eyes. I let out a big sigh. I'm not sure where else to look. I've exhausted my knowledge of common vamp hideouts in Sunnydale. Buffy has been impeccably covering her tracks. We find no sign of her unless she wants it found. I shudder to think about the damage she and Angelus could do together, even Darla was not as ambitious as Buffy is.
I struggle to remember any clues that I might have missed during my one meeting with Buffy, or on the dead people she's left. I try to relax my body, open my mind and let miniscule details come to the forefront.

~"Hey, don't be a baby, I'm not gonna hurt you."~

~"It's not that. I-"~

~"What?"~

~"You shouldn't have to touch me when I'm like this."~

~"Oh, I didn't even notice."~

I wake up with a start. I didn't even realize I'd dozed off leaning against the tree. I remember now. She smelled like ice and used shoes. God, how could I have missed that? I dial Giles' number.

"I think I know where she is. Do you remember the Ice Rink, just outside the city limits?" I say when Giles answers the phone.

"I've never been there, but I believe I've seen it before." Giles says.

"Bring the others. Let Cordy and Fred stay with Dawn. Make sure you bring both tranq guns. I think we've got her this time. Now let me talk to Willow and Tara. I'm going to need their help."

*

I meet the cars out on the road. I don't want to tip her off that we're here. I can smell her. She's definitely here. I've kept my distance from the building. I don't want her to feel me coming.

"Willow, Tara, you brought the things I asked for?"

The redhead nods. "It's just a spell and a little bit of blessed sand. It might sting a little, but I think it will work."

"It'll sting, but it should be okay." I say.

Willow murmurs some words in Latin and then tosses a handful of blessed sand over me. I close my eyes against it and grimace as the blessed grains smoke and sizzle my skin wherever it touches. There is a faint blue glow and then it's gone.

"Ok, dampening spell done. She shouldn't feel you coming." Willow says.

"Good. I don't know where she is in there, but I can smell her. Let's go."

The smell of blood is ripe as we push open the broken front doors. Someone who doesn't care who knows has been here. The smell of blood leads us down in the basement.

I thought I was prepared for anything. Buffy has put me through hell this week. I wasn't prepared to see her crouched down next to Quentin calmly cutting tiny shallow cuts in his forearm with a piece of broken glass and licking the blood that seeps out. She leaps up into the air, hits Quentin in the chest with a kick and sends the chair sliding back against the wall, out of her way.

"Goody, you brought help last time was just too easy." She whips a stake from her waistband. "Now be a good boy, Angelus. I don't wanna use this, but I will."

I tackle her like a football player, slamming her against the wall. I can feel some of her ribs cracking under the blow and I wince. She laughs. "Oooo baby, I like it rough." I hear her teeth clack together when my uppercut catches her in the jaw. I've just got to give Wesley and Gunn clean shots. I grab her by the hair and pull her in front of me; at the last second she grabs my biceps and flips me over her head. I land with a grunt but kick up to my feet just in time to avoid a spinning half crescent kick. I grab her ankle and twist, sending her spinning through the air with a move I've seen her use a dozen times.
She lands in a half crouch and leaps into the air, launching a vicious side kick to my chest. I fly backwards and slam against the brick wall. She's on me before I have time to respond with a flying fury of punches, jabs, uppercuts, hooks and a big roundhouse that I stop with my hand. I twist her wrist and pull her body back into mine. I wrap one arm around her throat, the other around her waist.

"NOW!" I scream.

Gunn and Wes hit her with eight shots of tranquilizer in the chest. Her body goes limp and I catch her in my arms. Giles is untying Quentin. I look up to him for confirmation. He shakes his head. I try to find it in my heart to feel sorry for him. No one should die like that.

*

We chain her up at the mansion. Willow has magically enhanced the chains, manacles and the head and footboard Buffy is chained to. I don't know how long it will be until Buffy wakes up.

"Willow, when the book gets here, do you think you can do the spell?" I ask the little red head.

She nods. She hasn't spoken to me much since Buffy lost her soul. "I think so. I mean I haven't seen it. I don't speak Chinese, so if it's not translated I don't know what we'll do."

"I'm pretty sure Wes speaks Chinese, possibly Giles does also. We'll figure something out. If this works on Buffy, I want to try using it on myself." My eyes meet Willow's.
"Yeah, that would be good."
"Willow, I'm sorry about all this. Buffy and I discussed it. We didn't think either of us could come close to pure happiness with everything that's between us. I know I can't, apparently Buffy could."

"Angel, I know you didn't wake up one morning and say hey I'm going to turn my girlfriend into a murdering psycho, but did you really truly consider anything? I'm surprised Buffy hasn't felt perfect happiness just having you back here! God, do you not have a clue how much you were missed? That first summer, I thought she was going to starve to death, or collapse from exhaustion. She used to call me in the middle of the night sobbing because she'd had a nightmare that you were dead or dying and needed her."

"I had no idea. I thought she was doing exactly what I told her to do, moving on with her life, making a new one. She had Riley." I argued.

"She had Riley because she thought that was what she was supposed to have, a normal boyfriend. News flash, Buffy wasn't normal before she became vampire. Is it any surprise it didn't work? You know this is really pointless. This new spell has to work because I'm not doing the old one. I'm not going to sit at home and wait until this thing blows up in our faces again and we're faced with Hellbitch Buffy or Angelus." She turns and stalks out of the room.

*

Buffy is out for several hours. When she finally comes around I'm tempted to shoot her with the tranq gun again.

"No fun to be chained up to the bed by myself. Come play with me, Angel. We'll give perfect happiness another try. You can spank me. I've been a very naughty girl." She yells at me from the bedroom. I'm sitting in the main room, trying to read, trying to take my mind off the woman in the next room. It's only mid afternoon. The book with the spell won't be here until the morning.

"What's the matter, Angel? Things not working right? You know the saying, use it or lose it. Come on, Lover, I'll be gentle. Well, ok I won't but I'll make sure all the plumbing is working." Buffy yells again.

I continue to ignore her. Unfortunately it seems to just spur her on.

"Come on. I'm hungry. There was this sweet little blond girl working in The Espresso Pump last night. Go get her for me."

I don't want her hungry. She'll only get more irritable and difficult. I go into the kitchen and warm up a big plastic glass of blood. I put a bendy straw in it. She wrinkles her nose the minute I walk in the bedroom with the blood.

"I want something fresh and warm." She pouts.

"I got it from the butcher last night and I just heated it up." I reply, knowing that's not what she meant.

"Ok, rephrase. I want something human." She says petulantly, like a child asking for a pony.

"That's not going to happen, Buffy and you know it."

"Come on, Angel. I've seen the way you look at Dawn. You want to sink your teeth into her soft smooth flesh and rip out her throat. You want to feel her hot, young blood pulsing down your throat. You know she's made of me, my blood. I bet she tastes just like I did when you drank me."

"Buffy, if you're hungry you're going to have to settle for pig's blood." I lower the glass near her head and position the straw where she can reach it.

"No thanks, I'd rather starve." She glares at me. I set the glass on the nightstand and turn to leave. "Oh, come on, Lover. Go get Dawnie. She'd come with you. I'll even let you fuck her before we drain her."

"Buffy, shut up." I walk out of the room, shutting the door behind me. I've got at least 18 more hours of this.

She spends the next several hours yelling words at me I wasn't aware Buffy knew. Giles, Wes and Gunn offer to take a shift of "babysitting" as Gunn calls it. I finally let Gunn sit up with a tranquilizer gun while I sleep on the couch. I figure where Gunn grew up, he's heard everything, besides she doesn't know him. All her barbs will be impersonal and less hurtful. Somehow I tune her out and sleep for a few hours.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I open my eyes. I'm lying on the beach; waves are lapping at my bare feet. The sunlight is bright against my eyes. I panic and stand looking around franticly for shelter.

"It's okay; you don't have to be afraid here."

I turn toward the voice. It's Buffy. She's wearing a white slip of a sundress. One strap slides off her thin tanned shoulder. Her golden hair is loose and blows in the ocean breeze.

"Did you really think I'd let my paradise be someplace you couldn't be?" She smiles sadly and lays one hand on my cheek, warm little hand.

"Buffy, what are you doing?" I ask

"Waiting for you, and Willow, to bring me back." She says simply. She wraps her arms around me. I pull her close, cherishing the feel of her warm body against my cool one.

"It won't be easy when you get back." I warn her.

"I know." She looks sad. "You'll be there, won't you?"

"I'll always be here, Buffy. Forever, that's the whole point."

"You said that to me once before. It was in a place like this." She says.

"I don't remember." I say and I am sorry. I wish I could remember something like this.

"It's okay. I think it was in my mind that time. Sometimes I get confused, your mind, my mind. It's like our souls."

"What about our souls, Buffy?"

She smiles at me and explains patiently, as if I were a child. "They made mine out of yours. That's why we belong. We're not just soul mates, we're the same soul." She lays her head on my chest for a moment and then looks back up at me. "I've got to go get ready now."

She walks away from me. I turn to watch her go. She stops and looks over her shoulder. "Angel, no matter what happens when I get back, remember I love you"

"Buffy wait! Don't go."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Angel, man, you okay?" Gunn is shaking me awake.

I sit up and shove one hand through my hair. The room is quiet. "Huh?"

"You were saying her name over and over again. Decided I better wake you up."

I shake my head to clear it. "I'm okay. How's she doing?" I nod toward the bedroom.

"Checked on her a little bit ago. She fell asleep maybe three hours ago. I thought she was never gonna shut up." Gunn said shaking his head.

"Sorry about that. She doesn't know you, so she couldn't put in any personal jabs. I didn't want Giles or Wes hearing anything. She can be hurtful like this." I glance at the open door.

"Nah, Man it's cool. You're gonna need your sleep. She's got a long road ahead of her."

I step just inside the door and look at my beautiful girl. She looks like a child. No one would ever guess that less then 24 hours ago she tortured a man to death. "A very long road." I whisper.