Chapter 12
Wesley looked up when he heard someone coming down the stairs. Shannon was scowling, and he turned back to talk to Natalie some more, and blinked. The demon was gone. "Where'd she go?"
"Elsewhere, as soon as your attention was off her," Shannon snapped. The door opened a moment later, letting in a laughing Alexa and grinning Spike, both with a bottle in hand.
"That was a blast! Did you see the expression on the guy's face?" Alexa was looking over at Spike, and didn't notice the tension in the room, or the annoyed expression on Shannon's face.
"Where the hell have you been?"
Alexa's laughter died, and she turned to look at Shannon in confusion. "Out bar hopping with Spike." She glanced over, and saw Wesley. "Wait a minute, what's he doing here? I destroyed the machine..."
"And your brother rebuilt it." Shannon was glaring at Alexa. "And he let Lindsey go through it."
"Lindsey?" Alexa's expression brightened a moment, before she glanced at the angry expression on Shannon's face. "Um. You don't want him here."
"You can send him back. Do so." Shannon's voice was flat.
"It's not that easy, Shay. I don't have any images of back home. I couldn't get him back." Alexa backed away from Shannon slowly, using Spike as a shield between her and her friend.
"Actually, if the 'Stargate theory', as James and Jillian kept calling it, works, we could return him without an image." Wesley smiled, then blanched at the glare from Alexa. "It does have several problems still to work out, though. It may not be feasible for several months, possibly years." Now he was getting a glare from Shannon, and he yelped, heading for the stairs. It had to be safer elsewhere.
"You have a lot of nerve, fucking Shannon and then treating her like that," Lindsey snarled as he slammed Angel against the wall. He had taken the vampire by surprise, and was stronger than his counterpart here.
Angel grabbed Lindsey by the wrists. "Wait a minute. First off, I'm not the one that fucked her. Second, who the hell are you to say what I can or can't do? You don't even belong here."
"Not the one who fucked her?" Lindsey snorted. "What, is there someone else in the room that's invisible? I don't buy it." He pulled his wrists free of Angel's grasp, one hand falling on the hilt of his knife. "Besides, if I don't belong here, neither does Shannon. And I'll make sure we both get home."
Angel snorted. "Fine by me. I'm not sure what she's doing here anyway, other than making my life miserable and dregging up certain aspects of my personality I would prefer not the be dredged up." He moved away from Lindsey.
An arrow slammed into Angel's shoulder before Lindsey had a chance to reply to that. At the end of the hall, the golden demon from earlier was watching him with an unblinking gaze as she reloaded the crossbow. "Angelus."
"Who the fuck is that?" Lindsey was staring at Natalie. "What the fuck is that?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," Angle hissed. He grabbed Lindsay by the back of the shirt and through him towards the staricase.
Natalie ignored the mortal, aiming the crossbow at the center of Angel's chest. "I'll give your regards to those who attend your funeral, Angelus." She pulled the trigger, a slight smile on her face anticipating a clean kill.
Angel reached out and grabbed the arrow before it could come within inches of his heart. "Who are you?" he asked, snapping the arrow in two.
Natalie's eyes narrowed in anger. "My name is irrelavent. All that matters is that I am collecting something taken from my boss's collection." She pulled another gem-tipped arrow from her quiver, loading the crossbow again. "And you can't run forever, Angelus."
Shannon appeared behind Natalie, a finger to her lips. She reached out, her hands on either side of the woman's head. "Drop the weapon, demon."
Natalie froze, her expression going blank. "And if I don't?"
Shannon slowly smiled and watched as the woman's hands lowered. She could feel the demon fighting her, but she kept going until the crossbow clattered to the floor. Natalie's fingers were numb, pain shooting up her arms. "That. Be happy I didn't kill you." She took a step forward. "Now walk."
Natalie snarled, her eyes darting around, looking for an escape route. She made a note to call John when she escaped, and have him send backup. Mortal, human backup to deal with the demon caller.
Shannon slipped past Angel without looking at him, ignoring Lindsey as she followed Natalie down the stairs. "Are you boys coming?"
Lindsey picked himself up, shooting an dark glare at Angel before he followed Shannon downstairs. Alexa was perched up on the railing, watching Spike warily, and Wesley was peering out from one of the other hallways.
"Look who I caught trying to stake Angel," Shannon announced as she steered Natalie towards a chair.
"Natalie?" Wesley looked at the demon in confusion. "Why would you do that?"
Natalie kept her expression blank. "It's in the job description."
"What job description?" Angel asked. He leaned against the counter, his arms folded over his chest.
Natalie snorted, shaking her head. "You can't expect me to believe you haven't heard of me." She looked over at Angel. "After all, something about me bothers you."
Alexa came down the stairs cautiously, curling in a chair herself. "All the more reference we have is from 1735. And that isn't very helpful."
Shannon took a deep breath and closed her eyes, concentrating on gaining control of Natalie's mind. She exhaled slowly. "Tell them who you are and stop playing games.
"My name is Natalie Wolfe in this century. I was originally called Isobel Willow, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I work for John MacInnis, collecting the souls of those who have been made vampires. My current assignment is to retrieve two stolen items from his collection. The soul of the vampire called Angelus, and the soul of the vampire called William the Bloody."
"Shit on a shingle," Shannon hissed as sweat began to soak her blouse. "Keep going. The locket. Tell us about the locket."
"I don't know anything about the locket. I've had it since I was created in 1730, and I don't know where it came from, what is in it, or why it was given to me."
Shannon's hands began to shake. "Who is John MacInnis?"
"Hey, how is she supposed to collect the souls, exactly?" Alexa's voice was deceptively calm.
Shannon heard Alexa's questions. "Who is John MacInnis and how do you collect the souls?" Her eyes were squeezed shut tight as she kept control over Natalie.
"John MacInnis is my creator and my employer. The only way I know of to collect their souls is to kill them. Normally this would be not be a problem, as I could collect it as the vampire is created. But since they are already vampires, I have had special stakes and arrows created for the purpose of destroying them, and capturing their souls once more."
Shannon's body quaked. "Someone tie her up," she called. "TIE HER UP!!!"
Shannon's grip on the demon was suddenly shattered and she fell to the floor in an exhausted heap, unconscious.