CHAPTER TWO
"What did you find out?" Gwen stretched out on the couch and kicked up her feet in her husband's lap.
Connor looked away from the plasma tv where he'd been watching The Simpsons reruns. "I'm liking this less," he admitted as he started to massage her feet. "The Alatyr stone is Russian in origin. It's an omphalos, a healing stone. It was protected on Booyan Island. The rivers that flowed over it were blessed and just mentioning the stone in spells drew on its power. The World Tree grew from it. How anyone got it from its guardians, Gagana, a bird creature and Garafena, a snake, I have no idea."
"You're afraid of what?" Gwen arched her back as he hit a particularly good spot in the center of her feet.
"That moral streak of mine, the one you're always worry about..."
"It's not making a come back, is it?" Gwen shot him a warning look.
He looked back at the TV, unable to meet her color-change eyes. Their grey was darkening to her angry near brown. "A little. This is something very powerful, Gwen. What if the World Tree dies without it, which I'm not sure I believe in, but what if? I'm not sure I like just giving something this powerful to an anonymous buyer."
"You get like this every time we deal with something magically," she chided.
He kissed the top of her foot. "I can't help it, Gwen. I think about the really horrible things that could be done with the stone and I'm not sure I want to be responsible for a giant evil."
"You're the one who picked this assignment," she reminded him. "We can forget it and move on."
"Thought about it. I think we should do it. I mean, it's a healing stone. I don't see how it could be used wrongly, which I know I just said I could but really, I'm not sure it's possible. Still, I have this weird feeling." He shrugged, squirming on the butter soft Corinthian leather. "Maybe the buyer wants to return it to Booyan Island."
"Well, let's see what happens. You might want to change your mind after you see what Wolfram and Hart has for security." Gwen sat up, shifting so she was leaning against him.
"That bad?" He raised an eyebrow as Gambit shoved his face between him like the jealous child he was. Connor tapped the beast's nose, pushing him back from the couch.
"Not for us?" She pulled open his shirt, kissing the glyph he had tattooed onto him. Her tongue lathed the path of light brown hair that bisected his belly. She sat back, business like again. "The tatts will get us past the security systems but there are magical sensors it might not get us passed. I need to do more research to make sure we have all our bases covered. I've worked for them before Angel took over, back in the old building. He has a lot of demons working for him."
"Demons." Connor's brow furrowed. "Are you sure? I wonder if my parents had a clue."
"I doubt non-clients would know." Gwen patted his knee, shoving Gambit back again. The dogs weren't allowed on the Italian leather.
"Like I said, the Alatyr is an omphalos, looks like a river rock like the things in the bad Indiana Jones movie, the second one. It should be easy enough to smuggle it out of there," Connor said.
"Trust you to find a geek reference for it." A smile touched her generous lips. "I'll do more recon on the building if you're sure you want to do this."
He nodded. "Moral crisis averted."
"I can do this," Andrew told Xander as he looked at Giles' email from an operative that he had openly surreptitiously having gotten the elder Watcher's password.
"I still think you should talk to Giles," Xander said, looking over Andrew's shoulder. "He doesn't like us to act on our own."
"That was before. We've got years of experience now," Andrew said. "Besides, Giles wouldn't approve pf this powerful stone being in the hands of vampires."
"It's Angel, Andrew. All we need to do is ask for it. Angel would do anything for Buffy," Xander argued, looking a little well used to it, if unhappy about that truth.
Andrew gave him a pitying look. "No one trusts a vampire, least of all Buffy. And Giles, Willow and Buffy are all in Palatka, Florida, looking to see if it is true that a hellmouth is opening there. Ar you coming to L.A. with me?"
Xander took another gander at the computer screen. "No, I think it's a bad idea. We should just contact them first."
Andrew shook his head. "You need to learn to take risks, Xander."
Xander suppressed the urge to slap the monster he had helped create. "Do what you think you have to."
"Don't you worry." Andrew's eyes gleamed with excitement. "This is a perfect assignment for me."
"What are you going to do with this?" Wes turned the cool, smooth 'river' stone over in his hands.
"Be grateful that we discovered it in our client's estate before the state seized everything." Gunn shook his head. "When will people get over their fear of making a will? Do they really want the government to get it all?"
"Wes, email Giles. I think the Watchers would be a better repository for something like this," Angel said, taking the stone from Wes. It flared brightly, touching him with warmth. He set it aside. "It tried to heal me."
Wes scooped the stone back up. "I wonder if it would destroy the stone if you continued to hold it. I can't imagine it could drive out the demon and restore you to life."
"Let's not find out," Gunn said. "No offense, but wasting this power to save a vampire, even you...."
"I know what you're saying, Gunn. I can't deplete something that could save thousands on the off chance it might make me live." Angel knew they'd be able to hear the regret in his voice. There would be so much he could do if he were alive, a lot of wrongs he could make right. "The Watchers will know what to do with this."
"I ain't ready to make that bet." Gunn shot Wes a hostile glance. Angel sighed, knowing the thing between them and Fred still was unresolved even though Fred, or the demoness Illyria, had been dead for three years. "This thing is the property of Wolfram and Hart. We could do something with it. We're supposed to be a force for good, remember? Why give something like this away?"
"What do you think we could do with it?" Wes arched an eyebrow. "I'm willing to listen to your ideas, Gunn. With Giles in charge of the Watchers, we know they'll be more than willing to work with us, that spot of trouble with Dana aside. We've patched things up in the years since that event. It's different now than it was under Travers, when they were just as likely to bully their way into ownership or outright steal it."
"I get that. All I'm saying is maybe hold off a day or two to think about our options," Gunn said.
"All right, we all can work out a plan for the proper use to this thing but keep in mind, Gunn, with Eve dead and no obvious replacement for her doesn't mean the Senior Partners aren't still trying to use this branch to their own ends. Eve tried to betray us and she died. Knox betrayed us and he and Fred died. I'm not willing to bet they were the only traitors. If we can't find a good use for the Alatyr, I'd be happier with Giles in control of it," Angel said.
"Fair enough. In the mean time, we'll keep it here in your safe," Gunn said and Wes obliged by putting it away in Angel's wall safe.
"Did we miss something?" Spike sauntered in without knocking. Kate was behind him, looking irritated at his rudeness. Angel had been shocked last year when Kate returned and hired on to head the investigations department. He hadn't wanted to hire her at first, still unsure if they were making any headway in the whole "using Wolfram and Hart for good" arena but he saw something fragile and needy in her eyes. She needed to be back in this world as much as he wanted to keep her out of it. She was even willing to work with a one-time adversary, more the firm than him, in order to do it.
"Just boring business," Angel said with a cautionary look at Gunn and Wes. Spike was a complication no one needed. Kate already knew about the Alatyr. Spike's eyes narrowed and Angel should have known he couldn't easily deceive the other vampire.
"We're going to the Whiskey Lullaby. You guys want to come with?" Kate asked.
"Not going to Lorne's new place?" Gunn asked.
"Too touristy," Spike replied.
"And there's only so many fru-fru drinks a girl can handle." Kate flipped a lock of blonde hair out of her eyes.
"Why not?" Angel had made a resolution to try to take his friends up on invites more often, more of a reaction to Harmony's attempt to get him involved in their lives. It had ended badly. Still, he couldn't help thinking it was a mistake not to email Giles about the Alatyr. A little voice told him this mystical object needed to go home and not languish either in the vaults of Wolfram and Hart or the Watchers' complex. Even as they collected Harmony and headed for the bar, he couldn't get that out of his mind.