96
Amazons
Spike saw Lorne safely to Gunn's office, leaving the demon to explain the situation to the lawyer. Then, a quick trip up to the flat to change. If Rose could catch the scent of the kids on him, then a vampire would have no trouble with it. He was about to toss his shirt in the laundry hamper when he stopped and brought it up to his nose for a sniff. A sad smile broke over his features. It did smell like the kids. He hoped they'd get Angelus all sorted out soon. He didn't like the thought of the twins being away for too long, and he knew it would be a trial for Rose as well. Another smile. For someone who had never had any emotions whatsoever before they'd met, that little woman had more love in her than anyone he knew. Absolutely bloody amazing.
&&&&&&
Stenslow and Drusilla watched as the vault attendant brought out the steel box. Once he had left them, Stenslow pried open the lid of the box, pushed aside the padding. There, still glowing, was the crystal cube where Angel's soul lay in repose.
"Who would have thought that something that can cause so much trouble could be so pretty?" Drusilla remarked. "Still, I do believe that I shall take it along with me."
"I'm afraid that I can't allow you to do that," Stenslow replied. His voice sounded more uncertain than he would have liked.
"I think I'm going to have to insist," Drusilla said, coming so close to Stenslow that their bodies were touching. She slid her hands up under the lapels of his suit jacket, then wrapped her hands around the fabric and yanked his face nearer to hers. Her features distorted, wrinkled, and she pressed her lips to his neck.
&&&&&&
"Are you going to be all right, Rose?" Wesley asked. Her deadline for making a decision was nearly up, and he was sure that this was an occasion upon which Angelus would be on the dot punctual.
"I'll be fine," Rose fibbed, even though her ashen hue proclaimed otherwise. Her heart was already starting to thump uncontrollably too. She tried to inject a slightly lighter note. "Would you believe that my hand still hurts?" Probably not the best distraction.
"Let me see." Wesley took her hand in both of his and scrutinized it carefully. It appeared to be somewhat swollen, and when he gently prodded it with a finger, it elicited a gasp of pain. "You should have said something sooner, Rose," he scolded. "Once we've dealt with Angelus, I'm taking you straight to medical."
Before Rose could even open her mouth to protest, the door opened, and Angelus entered.
"Holding hands with Wes," Angelus observed in mocking tones. "Does Spike know?"
"He will," Rose answered. "Because I'll tell him. Before you can give him your twisted version of it."
"I wouldn't worry too much about that, Rose," Wesley said quietly. "Spike knows better than to listen to him."
Angelus gave them a disbelieving look. "I've know Spike since he was turned. I know which buttons to push," he bragged. "And I know how to get him to believe exactly what I want him to believe."
"And precisely what purpose would it serve for you to get Spike to believe that Rose and I were holding hands?" Wesley inquired.
Angelus shrugged. "Shits and giggles," he replied. He leered at Rose. "I already have cause to know what a little tease she is."
"If that's how you chose to interpret it," Rose muttered. She was pretty sure he was making references to the years past love spell, which was certainly no fault of hers. And she'd decided that she wasn't going to play along with him. Let him find his amusements elsewhere.
Angelus pretended to shiver. "Is it just me, or did it get cold in here?" he queried. When he got no reaction, he went on. "Tough room. You two got sticks up your asses or something?" He didn't really expect an answer to that one, but there was one question that he did expect an answer to. "Well, you know why I'm here, Rose. Are you willing to give me what I want to save your little demon's life?"
"Do I look stupid enough to trust that you would keep your word even if I were willing to.., to.., do what you want?" Rose demanded. She hoped that they were able to restore Angel's soul soon, if for no other reason than if he kept this up, it wouldn't be long until her oldest friend had nearly the same effect on her as the mention of a certain demon-mage. She could see it putting a definite strain on their friendship if she got queasy every time she saw him.
"If that's the way you want it, Rosie girl," Angelus said. "You're about to find out that there are some times when I can absolutely be counted on to keep my word. And when I've said that I'm going to kill someone is one of them." He moved towards the door slowly, as if expecting Rose to change her mind at the last minute. When she didn't, he turned in the doorway for one parting shot. "I'll save the ears for you, baby, how about that?"
&&&&&&&
Dru pulled away from Stenslow reluctantly, licking the last few drops of blood from her lips. But Angelus had been very specific on this point. A taste, enough to scare him, no more. She sighed. If she couldn't leave tonight, she hoped Angelus would take her out hunting again. She picked up the box containing the cube that imprisoned Angel's soul. She gave a little giggle. It was almost like a children's song that added something else every verse. She started to make her way out of the vault's antechamber, sidestepping Stenslow's unconscious body.
The vault attendant saw her emerging without Stenslow, but with an item that belonged in the vault. He moved to block her path, but she knocked him out of her way with a casual gesture and continued on without another glance at him.
&&&&&&&
Spike waited around the corner from Wes' office, waiting for Angelus to emerge. Since he didn't have the first notion of where the ponce met the Q'xlzr, he was just going to have to tail the big pouf and, if necessary, fight him off so the little snitch could make good its escape.
As he followed his grandsire, to the parking garage, as expected, not to one of his not so modest fleet of vehicles, but down a manhole into the storm sewer. Spike sighed. This was going to hold him up a bit. He'd have to give Angelus a good lead before he touched that cover. Couldn't the stupid git have left it off? If he tried moving it before Angelus got too far, the soulless bugger'd hear him for sure. He didn't know whether it would help the demon or not. And Rose would be very upset if the Q'xlzr were killed. Come to that, he owed the little devil himself. If it hadn't been for the Q'xlzr demon, the strangely mixed personage of Aubrey Morrison and Ahmed Al-Shere might have managed to wipe out all of L.A. And, more importantly, at least in Spike's eyes, it had tracked the bastard and found where he was holding Rose.
Spike gritted his teeth and waited until he was sure that Angelus had moved out of earshot. Then, he lifted the manhole cover and disappeared within. Have to track the big wanker by scent now.
&&&&&&&
Wesley and Rose were heading back to the office. Despite Rose's protestations, the Watcher had hustled her off to medical.
Rose's arm was now in a sling, and her hand in an awkward-looking brace.
"I knew you hit him pretty hard," Wesley remarked. "But I had no idea that you'd actually managed to break a couple of the little bones in your hand, not to mention the deep bruising. I think that's going to hurt for a while."
"I don't see why I have to put up with all this nonsense," Rose grumbled. "The doctor said they were hairline fractures. Barely broken at all. Just cracked, really."
"Still," Wesley persisted. "It must have been quite painful. Why didn't you say something about it?"
Rose looked a little shamefaced. "I just slapped him," she muttered, embarrassed. "I honestly didn't think I could do any real damage to either of us that way." She slipped a plastic bottle out of the sling where she'd put it for safe-keeping, and read the label. "These pain pills are going to be worse than useless anyway," she remarked. "I can't be taking something that's going to make me sleepy when I'm working."
"Now more than ever," Wesley agreed. "I think we all need to be on our toes until we get the current situation sorted out."
Since they were in the area, the pair stopped into Gunn's office.
"Just who I wanted to see," Gunn said when he saw who had entered. Lorne was off in a corner of the office, deep in a phone conversation. "I've got the kid's passports, and I already booked their flights to make sure they could get right off tonight."
"So soon?" Rose's face was a picture of woe. She knew that it was important to get her children to safety, which meant far from Angelus. And with all the Slayers at the council's beck and call, there was hardly a place on earth that they'd be safer. But her mother's heart still cried out against having her offspring so far away from her.
"Have you called Oz so that he'll have everything ready to go?" Wesley asked. He didn't like the thought of the twins being shipped so far away any better than anyone else, but being eminently practical, he saw it as the best of all their current possibilities.
Gunn nodded. "He'll have everything set to go," he replied. He was trying not to get caught up in Rose's emotions, and keep it all businesslike. He wasn't doing too great on that score. "Given how much time it will take to get through security, Spike and Rose ought to hit over to Oz' right after work to take them to the airport." He turned to Rose. "You should have a couple of hours with them at least."
Rose thought of spending two hours with her children in the airport, then sending them away for an indeterminate amount of time, and she broke down. What the pain in her hand hadn't been able to accomplish, the pain in her heart did.
Lorne finished his conversation, which he'd only been half paying attention too anyway. As he saw the tears begin to trickle down Rose's face, he went over and, seeing the sling, carefully took her in his arms. "Poor little lamb," he murmured. He looked at his companions, and they looked back, unable to supply comfort. They simply didn't know how long the twins would have to be gone. And with the senior partners backing his plays, getting rid of Angelus was going to be an extremely sticky proposition.
&&&&&&
Spike followed Angelus' scent through the twisting sewers. Keeping just far enough behind not to be noticed, but pushing the boundaries. If he lagged too far behind, the Q'xlzr would be dead before he could even shout a warning. Although, on the whole, Spike doubted that. Angelus always liked to do a bit of bragging and showing off beforehand. Bloody stupid ponce.
He heard Angelus' footsteps stop up ahead, and halted himself, straining his ears for the sound of the blue-gray demon's arrival. He almost jumped out of his coat and his skin when spindly little fingers tugged at his sleeve. He turned abruptly and silently, and the first thing he saw was a pair of pointed, twitching ears. He grinned.
The Q'xlzr saw the one it would always think of as Rose's vampire as it was on its way to meet the boss vampire. Intrigued by the fact that the former was following the latter, it decided on an impromptu conference to find out what was going on. That something was going on would have been obvious even to someone not as well skilled at information gathering as it was.
Vampire and demon took one side passage, and then another, until they had put a decent amount of distance between themselves and Angelus.
"Why you here?" the Q'xlzr demanded. "I be meeting with boss vampire. I not invite you."
"There's been a little change in plan," Spike commented. "And you'd better bloody well be glad you talked to me first. You see, we're one up on you now. We know what Havoc & Associates are up to. Unfortunately, we found out too late. Bastards took Angel's soul."
The little demon shrugged. "Soul a big deal, then?" it queried. It had heard the word, but wasn't quite sure what a soul was. The terminology wasn't compatible with Q'xlzr language.
"Very big deal," Spike agreed. "It's what keeps me, and kept him, from being evil. That's the reason I was tracking him. To warn you off, mate. He came here to off you."
The orange eyes widened, and the cat-like pupils grew until they nearly filled all available space. "Boss vampire kill I?"
"That was his plan," Spike replied. "My advice to you is to take a nice long vacation or some such. It isn't safe for you around here right now."
The Q'xlzr eyed him curiously. "Why you help I?" it inquired. "Because Rose I friend?"
"Thought I was your friend too," Spike remarked. "Seein' how you helped me rescue her that time. Kinda feel like I still owe you on that one."
"That for Rose, not you," the little demon averred.
"Doesn't matter why you did it," Spike answered. "Point is, you helped me get her back. I won't forget that, not ever. Now, why don't you disappear for a couple of weeks? Hopefully, we'll have this all sorted out by then."
The Q'xlzr gave him an unfathomable look. "Rose and offspring okay?" it asked.
"Rose is under guard," Spike informed it. "And the kids are going off to England until the coast is clear." He heard the approaching footsteps, and guessed, quite correctly, that Angelus was now tracking his scent. "Enough of the gossip. He's on his way. Best you get missing right smartly."
"I gone." The demon was as good as its word, and melted away into the shadows.
&&&&&&
Drusilla sat at Angelus' desk, staring into the depths of the glowing, pulsing cube. She found it almost hypnotic. She could hear it speaking to her, but couldn't quite make out the words. She thought maybe that if she sat quiet and listened carefully, that maybe, sooner or later, she'd understand what it was saying.
Eve strode into the office, expecting to find Angelus. It was a bit of a jolt to see Drusilla. As far as she knew, Angelus' mad childe hadn't been released from the psych ward.
"Hello," Drusilla greeted the newcomer without taking her eyes off the cube.
"Hello," Eve echoed cautiously. She wasn't sure what to make of this development. "Do you know where Angelus is?"
"He's gone to kill a demon," Dru replied with a giggle. "He still sounds like stuffy old Angel, doesn't he?" She looked up at Eve. "Do I know you?"
"I'm Eve," she introduced herself. "I'm Angelus' liaison with the senior partners." She looked curiously at the cube that had so enrapt Drusilla. "What's that?"
"It's him," Drusilla answered in a dramatic whisper. "Angel. It's the soul." She cocked her head, a considering expression on her face. "It's speaking to me, but I can't understand what it's saying."
"If that's his soul," Eve commented. "Then why don't we destroy it once and for all?" She made a move for the cube.
"Ah-ah," Dru cautioned, drawing the cube closer to her. "We don't know as what we can destroy it. Maybe if we broke this, Angelus would get his soul back. Then he'd just be Angel again. We don't want that, do we?"
"Damn." Eve stopped in her tracks. The fantastic sex aside, she had no desire to have Angel back, now or ever.
Drusilla rose from her seat, and in the blink of an eye, was around the desk and next to Eve. She whipped the scarf from the liaison's neck.
"How selfish of him," she murmured. "He's been tasting and didn't even offer to share. Greedy Angelus." Her eyes turned yellow. "I guess I shall just have to help myself."
"Keep your fangs to yourself, sister," Eve hissed. "I don't do girls."
Drusilla advanced anyway, and despite her feelings that Angelus might not care to see Dru roughed up, she wasn't about to become fast food. She knocked the crazy vampire across the room.
Drusilla picked herself back up. "She's a lot stronger than she looks, Miss Edith," she remarked. "I'll bet she tastes almost as good as a Slayer." She launched herself at Eve.
Eve fought carefully. She didn't want to piss Angelus off by dusting Drusilla, but she wasn't going to be anyone's happy meal. They tussled around the office, oblivious to all else. Including the office door opening.
&&&&&&&
Angelus was pissed off. The Q'xlzr had never shown for the meeting. Then, when he'd finally given up on it and started back, he'd caught Spike's scent. But that lead had crapped out on him too. Spike had disappeared before he could catch up to him. Tomorrow, he'd have to reinstate the daily sparring sessions. He was definitely in the right mood to kick Spike's ass.
He stalked on up to his office, and before he reached it, he heard the sounds of a struggle. What in the hell, he wondered. He opened the door to see Dru and Eve going at it hammer and tongs. Furniture was in disarray, and there were dents in the walls. He barely ducked out of the way as Eve sailed past him. Then, he saw the glowing receptacle containing his soul, sitting bare and unprotected on the desktop while the brawl raged on around it, and his ire peaked. That cat-fight was in danger of giving him back that which he didn't want.
"Stop that," he snarled, making sure that his voice was loud enough to carry over their fighting. Dumb broads. "I think you two ladies." He accented the last word with a large dose of sarcasm. "Had better explain why you're fighting. And why you're doing it where you could break that." He waved his hand towards the crystal cube.
Drusilla and Eve both looked at him with identical expressions of chagrin.