Chapter 10

A moan was heard from the other side of the room as Angel pushed himself up.

"I fell like I just had an out of body experience. Somebody please get these things out of my back." He said standing to his feet. "OW! OW!" He yelped as he felt the darts yanked out of his back. "Carefully."

"Hey, you should have said that before I pulled 'em out." Faith told him. He turned to face her and saw eleven very confused, worried, and angry people.

"Is she ok?" he asked.

"You should have thought of that before you threw her into a wall. Come on Dawn, let's go see what you can do with that sword." Branna said walking out of the room and out the back door with Dawn following.

"Are you ok Angel? You really scared us." Neala asked stepping over to him. Angel looked at her and his eyes widened when he saw the blood in hair.

"Did I do that?" He asked with fear in his voice.

"The weapons case did. I'm ok. I've had worse." She told him. "What happened Angel? Why did you go all 'GRR' on us?"

"I don't know. It's like-It's like my soul left and I didn't care what I was doing or who I was hurting. It felt like I was Angelus." He told her looking at the floor. He saw her feet move as she stepped backwards away from him. "I think someone somewhere is trying to bring Angelus back." He looked up at her and saw that her eyes blazing with fear and anger.

"I need to go consult some spell books. Willow will you help me?" Neala asked the redheaded witch.

"Sure." The two left the room headed for Wesley's library. The stopped in the kitchen first to see how Buffy was doing.

"Are you ok, Buffy?" Willow asked her. Buffy was sitting next to Spike, leaning against the counter as he held a cloth and ice
pack to her head.

"Yeah I'm fine. I've had worse, remember? How are you, Neala? I'm sorry I took you with me as I flew threw the air." Buffy said, carefully trying not to move her head too much.

"It's no big deal. I'm fine. Just a few cuts, but I know I'm probably going to be sore in the morning. But don't worry about it. I think the worse that's happened to me was being drained and unconscious for two weeks." Neala told her as she felt herself involuntarily shutter. "We've got research to do, so we need to get to it." She pulled Willow out of the kitchen and into where Wes kept his books.

"I hope he's got what were looking for." Neala said pulling a spell book off one of the many shelves. A figure flashed by the window followed by another one.

"What was that?" Willow stood up and went to the window.

"It was probably just Branna and Dawn." Neala said joining her at the window. "Or maybe not." She said as two more figures ran by. "Back!" She yelled as one came fling through the window.

The two women jumped away from the window and ran out of the room as more came through. They were vampires, and as Neala looked of them she recognized a few of them as the ones she, Branna, and Faith hadn't stopped the other night.

"I don't understand. How'd they get in? We didn't invite them." Willow said as they closed the vamps in the room.

"I don't know. Go get help. I'll hold the door." Neala said pushing her back against the door. Willow nodded and ran off without an argument. The door flew off its hinges, throwing Neala to the end of the hall, the door landing on top of her, causing her to blackout.

Spike and Gunn ran through the hotel to Neala's rescue. Gunn pulled the door off her while Spike took out the vamps that were trying to eat her. Someone screamed outside the hotel and Spike recognized it as Dawn. He snapped the last vampires' neck and ran out through the broken window. The sun was about to rise so Spike had to hurry.

He rounded the corner to the front of the Hyperion and saw two vamps trying to drag Dawn away. Though they weren't getting very far, with all Dawn's kicking and flailing, she was making it hard for them to get her a foot. Her sword had been knocked a few feet away from her and Branna's lay next to it but, unlike Dawn, Branna was no where to be seen.

He picked up one sword and sliced both the demons heads off in one swift motion. He grabbed Dawn and pulled her into the hotel just as the sun lifted over the buildings. Buffy jumped up from her seat on the couch next to Neala, who was massaging her head trying to keep away the massive headache that was coming on, and threw her arms around her sister.

"Dawn are you ok?" She asked pushing her back to check her over for any wounds.

"I'm fine but they took Branna. They got some chain around her and she wasn't able to move. I tried to help her but I wasn't strong enough." Dawn said looking mostly at Neala.

"It's ok Dawn. We'll find her." The Huntress told her.

"Hey. Where's Angel?" Spike asked looking around the room. Angel was no longer there.

"He was just here. Before you ran in. He was standing right here next to me." Willow said pointing to her left.

"He was right. She did get her stealthiest from him." Neala said leaving the room and going back to her research.