WARNING - Character Death

CHAPTER NINE

"Okay, that was a mountain lion," Eve said, edging closer to the fire.

"Afraid of a little kitty?" Ethan snorted.

"You've never seen the one in the White Room," Eve shot back.

Sorcha didn't understand much of what they were saying. All she knew was it was cold, dark and she was scared. The loud cries of the cat made her shake. Where were Daddy and Aunt Buffy? They were supposed to be here by now. She was almost out of rocks to throw. She was so tired and her belly felt funny after eating all the snack bars in her back pack. She clutched the buffalo closer, trying to suck warmth from its soft body as she watched the flames. If she edged out on her ledge, she could feel the heat of the fire but then it was too easy for Eve and Ethan to try and get her. Grandmother Darla had come back just long enough to say Daddy was coming and then both grandmothers faded away. It made them tired showing themselves to her as Sorcha knew well.

"I'm almost ready. The question is what happens next?" Ethan's hawk-like eyes pinioned Eve. "If I hand her over, who gets sent to Quor-Toth with her? I'm half tempted to just leave her there and save my own skin."

"Think it's that easy? You made a deal with Wolfram and Hart. You don't get to just change your mind," Eve said. "There has to be a mage we can trick into going in Lindsey's place. Warriors to replace Justine are a dime a dozen."

"Amy Madison, I know her through a mutual acquaintance," Ethan said after a moment's contemplation. "She made it out of Sunnydale and she even has a score to settle with the Slayer's witch. Toss a little money on as the cherry and I think we can get her on board, at least long enough to whisk her into hell."

Sorcha listened and didn't understand but from the tone she knew it was bad. She picked up the biggest of her remaining rocks, setting her buffalo aside. She edged out into the cool wind listening to the coyotes sing. She took as best an aim as she could and waited to see if they were going to try and attack.

Ethan handed Eve back the notepad she had taken from her purse. Sorcha had watched him scribbling in it in the firelight. "We're going to cast a spell to bring her down and knock her out in one fell swoop. It takes two. When I point at you, you read from the pad. Got it?"

"Got it."

Sorcha listened to Ethan chant. It reminded her of Aunt Willow and Uncle Roo. She knew magic followed chanting. He pointed at Eve and she started reading. Sorcha winged her rock, hearing something break when it hit. Eve fell down, gagging and crying. Ethan knelt down, trying to pry her hands away from her mouth.

"Bloody hell. She knocked out your front teeth. You sure you don't want to leave her to the coyotes?" Ethan said and Eve just moaned.

Sorcha saw the look in Ethan's eye and became very afraid.

Buffy remembered why she never went on hikes with Giles, Sorcha and Connor. She didn't like the woods. Roots reached up and grabbed feet. Leaves could be like ice, slick and treacherous. And everything looked the same. Getting lost was too easy to do, so the bottom fell out of her stomach when Connor screamed for Lindsey to stop the vehicle inside of Custer Park.

He would have been out of the rental and into the woods in a heart beat if Angel hadn't restrained him. "We need the weapons," Angel told him. Buffy could see the irritation in Connor's eyes. She knew what he was thinking. He was a weapon and that was especially true against someone like Eve and Ethan. Of course, Ethan could have a magical trump card and Eve could be carrying a gun for all anyone knew.

"Where are they?" Cordy asked.

"In the forest," Connor said.

Angel nodded. "They went that way." He pointed. "The scent trail is strong here."

"We're going into the woods at night without a flash light?" Cordelia's incredulous tone grated on Buffy's raw nerves.

"Willow, think we can have a little foxfire?" Buffy popped open the weapons trunk.

"Way ahead of you." Willow waved her hands over head. "Lux."

Several balls of glowing light blossomed in the night. Angel let Connor go and the boy bolted into the woods, snagging the sword Buffy tossed to him. Angel and Spike loped off after him, Buffy right on their heels. She knew Wes, Willow, Gunn, Lindsey and Cordy couldn't keep up, not at the ground eating pace Connor was setting. She was barely able to stick to him. He moved like he was made for the woods and she remembered what Angel said about Quor-Toth being a wild place without urban settings. This was Connor's comfort zone as much as it was her nemesis.

Behind her, Willow chanted and she saw the others picking up the pace. Buffy had seen Willow do that once before, goosing the adrenal glands. The normals of the group would be able to run faster but they would burn out faster, too. She just hoped they didn't burn out before they found Sorcha.

Connor moved like the mountain goats they had seen in the park. He was the only one not tripping over rocks and roots, like he was anticipating them. Buffy feared he was too in the zone, that he was so concentrating on his daughter's scent that he wouldn't see danger until too late. Her lungs felt scraped raw and her legs burned as she forced herself up the mountainside. How had Sorcha gone so far? Her poor little niece, how terrified she had to be. The sounds of the coyotes were unnerving Buffy, as mundane a creature as coyotes were. She couldn't imagine how it was for the child. She knew they could hurt a three year old child.

She wondered if they would ever reach the top, especially since it was beginning to go grey out. Daybreak would be here soon. Suddenly the two vampires and Connor really started pouring on the speed. Buffy figured they had to be hearing something she couldn't. The rest of the group was lagging behind now, the path too steep for Willow's augmentative magic to help. Then she heard it, the sound of a man's voice chanting then a thud like something hitting ground. The man yelped and there was the crashing of someone moving through the woods away from them.

When she burst into a clearing, she saw Ethan, nursing a bleeding hand, running into the woods with Eve behind him. Buffy saw blood in the fire light then saw movement. She watched as Sorcha bounded back up the rocks as nimble as a baby mountain goat and shoved back into a crevice. At least she was safe. That left her free to worry about Eve and Ethan and she was torn between letting Angel and Connor tear them apart and doing some violence herself.

Before she could decide, Angel and Spike turned from the fight, grunting and sizzling. Buffy saw the bottles of holy water the couple had packed with them up the side of the mountain, in with stuff that Buffy knew from seeing Willow's bag of magical herbs, oils and whatnot's. She went for Eve and found herself rolling in the pine needles as Eve yanked out a pistol and shot at her. Buffy was instantly glad the others were still struggling up the mountain behind them. Eve might want Sorcha alive but Buffy had no illusions that she would kill her and anyone else in her way.

Buffy threw the stake she had out of habit, even as she went down. Her aim was off but it was enough to startle Eve. The other woman dropped the pistol, which was obviously too big for her to begin with. It landed near Spike. Ethan tossed the last of his holy water at Angel then shouted something that might have been in Latin.

As he dove for cover, the ground shook. Buffy had been through enough earthquakes to know what magic Ethan had just wrought. Her eyes canted up at the rocks her niece was hiding in. The granite shook and started to slide. Hunks fell, scattering the combatants, just as Spike snagged Eve's gun. Buffy jumped straight up, catching a tree branch as a boulder thundered down at her. She tried to ignore Sorcha's screaming but couldn't.

When the shaking stopped, Sorcha's hiding place was covered in rock. Screaming wild and wordless, Connor leapt over the camp fire and was on the fleeing Ethan. Buffy heard Connor shriek as blue lightning encased him. She knew that spell, too, and knew it could be deadly.

The magic died instantly as Ethan made a surprised and painful sound. Buffy saw Connor's fist was gone, his hand pushed into Ethan's chest up to his forearm. The look in the young man's eye rooted Buffy, terrified her by the purity of his fury. Eve picked up Connor's fallen sword to ram it into his back.

"Connor!" Buffy screamed. Picking herself up out of the pine needles, she launched herself at Eve, inadvertently getting between Eve and Spike's gun.

Connor twisted and the blade didn't hit his spine or his kidney, Buffy hoped, but it did catch his side and poked out through his belly. Connor collapsed on top of Ethan. Buffy grabbed Eve away, tossing her like a rag doll. Eve's arms windmilled as she sailed in an arc but she didn't hit ground. Buffy watched as Eve disappeared over the precipice. Her heart caught for a moment; in all likelihood she had just killed the woman. Spike ran to the edge and looked.

"Damn, that's a long way down. She exploded like a rotted melon," he said.

Buffy tried not to picture it, even though she couldn't imagine anyone more deserving. She went to her knees at Connor's side, trying to stop him from pulling the sword out of his body but she wasn't fast enough. "Oh, damn!" She looked at the two terrible wounds and tried to think of what to do next. She took off her windbreaker and jammed it over both wounds best she could.

"Get...Sorcha," he said.

"We'll get her. I have to stop this bleeding," Buffy said, watching Angel leap to the top of the rock formations in one smooth move. Spike joined him. Together they threw the dislodged boulders, uncovering the child's hiding spot. She heard Angel telling Sorcha it was all right and she felt the tears prick her eyes when he leapt back down with Sorcha who had a backpack in one hand and a stuffed buffalo in the other.

"Buffy, how is he?" Angel asked.

"Daddy?" Sorcha whimpered.

"Angel, don't let her look," Buffy said, hearing the rest of their friends finally cresting the hill.

Angel took Sorcha away and handed her off to Wes but only because Willow blew past him to look at Connor. Buffy watched as Willow cast a spell that would help slow the blood flow. It was spell she had learned in Wales and it had been a lifesaver previously.

"Where's Eve?" Lindsey asked.

"Over the cliff." Spike jerked thumb in the general direction. "Question is, that do we do with him?" He kicked Ethan's corpse.

Lindsey strode over and looked down at the dead man. He peeled off his shirt and picked up the sword carefully, wiping down the hilt. He put it in Ethan's hand and closed his fingers over it then tossed the sword over the cliff, too. "Put him over the edge. I'll come up with story to cover this."

"Are you sure?" Wesley asked.

"I used to do it for a living. We'd better call for search and rescue and get Connor off this mountain top." Lindsey nodded at Connor.

"Already on it," Cordy said, wiggling her cell phone. "Let's just pray for reception up here."

"Is she...okay?" Connor asked Buffy. She hadn't even realized he was holding her hand. His fingers felt like ice.

"She's fine. It's you we have to worry about." Buffy looked skyward. "And Angel and Spike."

"Buffy, take Sorcha. Spike, give me a hand with Ethan." Angel took the dead mage's feet. Spike grabbed his arms and together they chucked him after Eve.

"We can't wait for rescue," Buffy said. "I don't know that Connor can last that long. Willow's spell slowed the bleeding but it won't fix the wound. I know Connor heals like a Slayer but this is bad."

"I know," Angel said, grimly. "That's why I want you to take Sorcha. Spike and I have to get off this mountain before the sun comes up. I'll carry Connor out."

Buffy nodded and took her niece back from Wes. "Sorry to leave you guys with this mess."

"You just go. We'll work with Lindsey on the explanation for this," Wes said.

Buffy didn't wait for Angel and Spike. She saw Spike helping Angel lift Connor into a fireman's carry. They raced down the mountain. Buffy kept waiting for her foot to find that root or rock that would send her careening down the mountain, snapping Sorcha's neck in the process. Going down was even harder than going up. Her knees ached like someone had baseball batted them, her head felt like it was being jarred off but soon the SUV's were in sight. She was flying on pure adrenaline and by the time she got to the vehicles she was shaking. Angel laid Connor down on the grass. He and Spike had begun to smoke. They didn't have time to situate the blankets better. They piled into the cargo hold under the blankets together, nose to nose. Buffy laid Sorcha on the back seat.

"Stay here, baby, I'll be right back," she said and Sorcha just nodded.

Buffy slithered out of the vehicle and checked on Connor. He was unconscious and deadly white but he was still breathing. She yanked him closer to the other vehicle and opened the door. She propped his legs up, hooking his knees on the floorboards, hoping to slow blood flow to them, keeping it near his heart, hoping she was remembering right about how to treat shock.

She got back into the car, pulling her niece into her lap, just holding her. She couldn't make her mouth move. She jumped when Willow laid a hand on her arm. Her friend seemed too exhausted to even stand and she wondered if Willow had actually flown down off the mountain.

"We're going to tell the cops that it was a murder-suicide. Ethan threw Eve off the cliff then stabbed Connor when Connor tried to stop him. Then Ethan jumped himself. We were all friends out for a camping trip that went wrong," Willow said.

Buffy nodded. "Thanks. Connor?"

Willow looked over at the other rental. "I don't know. Oh, there's the ambulance."

Buffy got out as the police and ambulance arrived. She and Willow told their story, told the police where to find the rest of their friends and watched as the ambulance spirited Connor away. She wanted them to take Sorcha, too, to make sure she was all right but didn't know how to fit it into the lie. Sorcha just clung to her silently and Buffy had to trust she was okay. She told the police what little she knew, pretending she and her niece hadn't actually witnessed it. Told a lie about the two Good Samaritans who carried Connor down the cliff and disappeared before the cops arrived while Willow relaid that through her telepathy spell to those on the mountain. It was the only thing that made sense as to why none of them had Connor's blood on them but her.

The cops made Willow take them up the mountain and let Buffy take her niece home. Buffy gave Justine's address as a friend she was staying with then strapped Sorcha into the back seat the best she could without a car seat, grateful the cops had bigger things to worry about than noticing her lack of child restraint. She drove for Hot Springs as Sorcha snoozed. The vampires in her cargo area were spookily silent and Buffy could only imagine Angel's pain and fear wondering if Connor was still alive. She felt it herself.