PART ELEVEN:

Giles and Buffy stood close together, waiting for the vampires to attack them. Buffy was eying them closely. They were all injured, and were weak, but so was she. She didn't know how long she would be able to last against them all.

Giles was busy looking round. He saw the other entrance, that the cursed vampires had used to get in. "Buffy, come on," he grabbed his Slayer's arm, and dragged her towards the doorway.

The vampires followed them, but Giles managed to pull the door open, whilst Buffy fended them off. Sunlight streamed through the door, momentarily blinding Giles, and causing the vampires to once again shriek and shrink away into the shadows.

The two humans ran through the crypt, and out into the cemetery. "Well," Buffy panted, "that was exciting!"

Giles looked at her and shook his head, "We have to get back to the apartment, and find out how everyone is doing."

Buffy's face went pale as she remembered the events of the night before. "Angel," she said quietly, and set off after the retreating back of the Watcher quickly.

They charged into Giles' apartment, to find it serenely quiet. Looking round, they noticed half the books missing off one shelf. Buffy walked over to the weapons cabinet, and discovered that almost all of the weapons were gone as well.

"Looks like they were researching, but why not here?" Buffy asked.

Giles looked over at her from where he was investigating the bookshelf. "We might've come back," he explained.

Buffy winced, "Right, I keep forgetting. But where will they have gone?"

Giles shrugged, "The mansion, Angel's old apartment, Spike's place, or Nareia might have a place of her own."

Buffy shook her head, "They wouldn't have gone to a place we knew, so that leaves Spike's place, or Nareia's." She sat down, disheartened, "So, do we just wait?"

Giles moved into the kitchen and put the kettle on, "They must have found a way to reverse the curse, so I expect they'll be coming over here as soon as it's dark."

"Right, so we wait. I hate waiting," Buffy groaned.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Willow was inspecting Angel's burns. "I'm fine, Willow," he protested.

She glared at him, and he shut up, letting her put cream on his blisters, and ignoring the grins on Nareia and Spike's faces as they sat together on the sofa.

Once the redhead had finished pampering the vampire, they joined the others, Angel sitting on the sofa with Willow perching on the arm next to him.

"So, what do we do now?" Xander asked.

Nareia shrugged, "Assuming that Buffy and Giles got out of those damn sewers, they will have gone back to Giles' place, and are probably waiting for us there. So I suggest we go over there once the sun has set."

"Until then, we wait," Angel added.

They all sat there in an uncomfortable silence. Or, at least, the humans did. Nareia and Spike were in each other's arms, smiling contentedly, and Angel was sitting, thinking.

Willow fidgeted, and Angel absently put his hand on top of hers to calm her. Willow didn't seem to notice, but settled anyway. Nareia and Spike did, however, and shared a small smile.

"So," Xander said, trying to elicit conversation.

"So," Anya repeated, bored.

Spike got up, and faked a yawn. "I'm bloody knackered. I'm going to bed, you joining me, pet?" he asked Nareia, holding out his hand to help her up.

Nareia smiled slyly, and put her small hand into his strong one, "Sure, I'm feeling quite tired myself."

Angel got up as well. Willow, noticing that their hands had been touching, yanked hers back, thinking, Bad Willow, he's a vampire. Still, that never stopped Buffy. Hey, Willow, stop it! Angel noticed her uneasiness, but smiled softly at her, and said, "I'm tired as well, after my adventure in the midday sun. Maybe you three should go out and see if anyone escaped from the sewers."

Xander jumped up, "That's a good idea. Let's go, Wil." He dragged Anya up the stairs after him in his eagerness to escape the dreariness of the crypt. "That place is depressing in the daylight," he commented to Anya.

"Not as bad as your basement," Anya retorted.

"At least it's my own place, and it has electricity. But, if you hate it so much, go and live with Spike, I'm sure Nareia won't mind," Xander shot back.

Anya shook her head, "Spike might be sexy, but I love you," and she smiled at him.

Xander smiled back, "I love you too." Then he did a double take, "You think Spike's sexy?"

Anya shrugged, "Well, yeah."

"And, what about Angel?"

Anya paused before answering, considering, "He's got a certain sexy quality about him as well."

Xander just shook his head, tucked Anya's hand under his arm, and walked on, before stopping in the sunlight to wait for Willow.

Willow was still standing in the crypt, looking at Angel. He returned her hesitant look with steady brown eyes. Willow gulped, and looked away. "I'll see you later," she said, before dashing up the stairs into the sunlight.

Angel's eyes followed her, and then he lay down on the sofa again. He closed his eyes, and was drifting off to sleep, savouring the scent of Willow coming from the arm of the sofa above his head, when Spike's voice came from the bed, "Well, mate, you've gone and done it again. Fallen for a bloody mortal."

"Willow isn't just any mortal, she's different from even the Slayer," Nareia told him softly, but loud enough for Angel to hear her as well.

Angel smiled in response, and added in answer, "That she is," so quietly that no-one heard him, and soon the three vampires were asleep, Angel stretched out on the sofa, and Spike curled round Nareia on his silk sheets.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Ah, there she is," Xander said as Willow came walking up to them. "What took you so long?"

Willow shrugged, "I just had to figure something out with Angel." She wouldn't meet Xander's eyes, but he didn't seem to notice. "Concerning the spell," she added quickly, more for the benefit of Anya than Xander, who being his usual dense self.

Xander nodded, "Ok, well, shall we go and be investigative?"

Willow and Anya rolled theirs eyes at each other, but grinned, and followed the young man down the street.

~*~*~*~*~*~

When they returned to Spike's crypt, the sun was almost down.

"Good job you're back," Nareia remarked, when she heard them coming down the stairs.

"Yeah, because we were getting so bloody worried about you," Spike said condescendingly, and then tried to look contrite when Nareia elbowed him.

"We'd best be going, we'll want to be at Giles' as early as possible," Angel said, hefting an axe.

Willow's eyes went wide when she saw the weapon. "There are likely to be some majorly pissed vamps out there at the moment," Nareia explained.

"Are you up to some action?" Spike asked worriedly.

Nareia flexed her muscles, "Yeah. That extra sleep did a world of good, and your blood has definite healing properties." She eyed Spike with an insinuating look.

Spike smirked, "That's not the only part of me that's good for you, love."

Nareia grinned, "I know. Come on, let's bloody well get on, we're wasting time here."

She and Spike also grabbed weapons from the pile remaining that Xander had dropped on the floor the day before, and began to walk out, following Angel. Xander, Anya, and Willow quickly followed suit and dashed up the stairs after the fast retreating backs of the vampires.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Buffy was pacing, and Giles was trying not to get too dizzy watching her, "Buffy, will you please stop that? It's not helping time go any faster."

Buffy shot him a venomous look, and then stopped pacing, to sit down on the sofa beside him with a sigh, "It's gone sundown, they should be here by now."

"Buffy," Giles' voice indicated he was losing patience, "we don't know how far away they are to start off with."

Buffy grunted, and was about to reply, when she heard voices. "That's them," she leapt up, causing Giles to spill his cup of tea, and swear violently, "Bloody hell!"

The Watcher gave his Slayer a despairing look, before heading to the kitchen to get a cloth.

While he was wiping shirt, Buffy opened the door, and let everyone in. "I'm so glad you're safe," she gushed at everyone.

Anya was eying Buffy warily, "You're not still a vampire, then?"

"Anya!" Xander protested at his girlfriend's tactlessness, and then turned to Buffy, "You're not, are you?"

Buffy smiled slightly at her two friends' predictable reactions, but the smile faded, as she said, "No, perfectly normal, alive, non-bloodsucking Buffy. Giles is the same," and she pointed at the Watcher, who waved from the kitchen.

"Oh, thank goodness," Willow breathed out the breath she had been holding in, and came out from behind Angel, to give Buffy a hug.

Giles came out of the kitchen to greet them properly, "Hello, Willow."

The redhead eyed him hesitantly, and he returned the look gravely. Then Willow smiled broadly, let go of Buffy, and ran over to give Giles a hug, "I'm glad you're back."

"I am, too, Willow," he answered softly, his face lighting up with a smile.

"Well, while this is all so bloody heart-wrenching, there are important matters at hand," Spike interrupted.

"Like a bunch of hungry, pissed vampires," Nareia finished.

"Ah, yes," Giles let go of Willow, and sat down on the sofa. "We have to put up a resistance, before they think they can take over the town while the Slayer is weak."

"I'm not weak, I could take them," Buffy protested, but wavered under the questioning eyes of the three vampires and her Watcher. "Or not," she admitted, "but I'm not staying here tonight while all those lot are wandering round, creating mayhem."

"I wouldn't think of stopping you," Giles answered, "And we have to remember that they, too, are weak from the sunlight. There are quite a lot of them left, though, so we mustn't give them time to regroup."

"What do you mean, there's a lot of them left?" Willow frowned. "Didn't my spell work?"

Giles put his hand on Willow's arm. "It did work, perfectly, but there are a lot of dark corners in that amphitheatre that they could hide in, and not all the vampires were in there at the time," he explained.

Willow nodded, but she still looked disappointed. Angel walked over to her, and kneeled down in front of her, placing his hands on her knees, "Willow, don't feel bad. It worked, and we're all safe, and alive, so to speak."

Willow smiled at him in thanks, and cheered up slightly, "You'd best be going then, if you're going to kick some vampire ass. Bad vampire ass, that is. Not that there's anything wrong with bad vampires," she babbled as she looked from Angel to Nareia, and then on to Spike.

Spike just shook his head, and smiled at her, and then turned and walked out with Nareia beside him. Angel stood up and picked up his axe to follow them out. Buffy picked up her crossbow, and stopped at the doorway to say, "Don't wait up for us," before disappearing after them.

"Well, more waiting," Xander complained at the same time as Anya asked, "Have you got any food, Giles?" all the while moving to inspect the fridge.

"Um, yes," Giles said in his best patient voice, but Willow saw a flash of annoyance in his eyes, and smiled. She could see that Giles was truly back.

Part 12