Chapter 13

Buffy's team

Spike and Dawn walked behind Buffy and Willow, just in case Angelus decided to come up from behind. He could sense him better and faster then Buffy could so she put him behind them and let Dawn walk next to him. His senses were on full alert since Gunn had told them Angelus was near. His eyes were darting from place to place and his ears were open to any and all suspicious sound. He sniffed the air every so often to see if he could pick up and trace of his Grandsire.

Every time Spike sniffed Dawn couldn't help but look at him just to make sure he didn't smell Angelus. Even though she was slightly scared she felt safer with Buffy, Willow and Spike then she would have felt if she had stayed at the hotel, protection spell or not. Her heart sank when Spike stopped suddenly in his tracks and spun around. She heard a growl rumble in his throat and turned and saw him switch into his game face.

Buffy heard him growl too. She spun on her heal and saw Angelus standing at the other end of the street, a smirk plastered on his face. She heard two pairs of feet running up from the direction they were heading a moment before.

"Buffy. Neala sent us to--Oh god there he is." Xander said as he and Gunn joined them.

"Where is Neala?" Dawn asked as she drew her sword and moved to position herself behind Spike and Buffy.

"She's trying to locate Angel and Branna's souls." Gunn told her. Angelus took a few steps toward them. He could smell the fear Dawn, Willow and Xander had dripping off them, while Buffy and Gunn had very little. He knew Spike wasn't afraid. He never was, that he knew of anyway.

"Hello Slayer. Long time no see. Well, for me anyway. For Angel it's only been what? A couple of hours?" Angelus said as he
walked closer to them with his hand in his coat pocket.

"Go to hell." Was Buffy reply. It was the first thing that came to her mind.

"Yeah. What she said." A voice came from behind Angelus. He spun around and came nose to nose with Faith.

"Faith! How's it going sweetheart?" He asked in his sarcastic-cheerful-Angelus voice. She slammed her fist into his stomach causing his to double over.

"Don't call me sweetheart." She walked around him and he grabbed her leg and pulled her to the ground. He pulled her up to his mouth and let his demon vintage take over.

"I'll call you what ever I want." He went to bite her and was pulled back by an invisible force and throw into a tree. He growled and stood back up. Neala stood in front of him and smiled.

"Miss me?" She asked pushing back down with magic. "I brought you a present." She held up her hand and the bottle containing his soul appeared. "It took me a while, but I finally found where you hid them." She held up her other hand and Branna's bottled soul appeared.

"What'ch'ya waiting for? Go ahead put them back." Neala didn't have to turn around to know it was her daughter that had said that. "Oh, that's right. You can't. You're not powerful enough." Branna materialized next to Angelus and went to swipe the bottles out of her mother's hand but hit an invisible barrier. Branna scowled in confusion. "How--"

"I always come prepared." Neala told her. Skye floated down from the tree they were standing under. "You see, I knew you would try to do what you just did, and I know that I can't put a protection spell on myself so, Skye did it for me." Neala opened the bottles and Skye started to chant. Swirls of light and energy circled both Angelus and Branna as Neala stepped back away from them.

"We have company!" Spike shouted. A bunch of vampire jumped out of the shadows and encircled him and the others that
were standing in the street.

"Keep them away from Skye!" Neala yelled back. "A protection spell on a person can only withstand so many hits!"

Another figure emerged from the shadows causing Spike to freeze in shock.

"My Spike's been a very bad boy." Drusilla said. Buffy spun around at the voice hoping her ears were wrong. Her eyes widened when she realized her ears were right.

Dru walked over to Spike, who was still unable to move from the shock of seeing his sire, and stood in front of him.

"Spike, I thought we dusted her." Buffy said as she cut the head off a vamp with her ax. Spike didn't say anything. His voice was caught in his throat as Dru walked in a circle around him. He heard Angelus laugh as the chanting continued. Spike eyebrows narrowed as he realized the spell was taking a long time to complete.

"It's not working!" Skye said stopping the chant but returning the souls to the bottles and making them vanish. Angelus stood up and cracked his neck.

"The gangs all here. Let's have some fun." He jumped at Neala, who's back was to him, and knocked her to the ground. "Ironic isn't it?" he switched to his game face. "I get to drain you twice." He leaned down to bite her but was hit in the head with the end of a sword.

"Not with me here." Dawn said helping Neala up and pointing her sword at him. Angelus's eyes widened when he saw who had hit him, then he smiled.

"Then we're just going to have to fit that, now aren't we." Branna said, knocking the sword out of Dawn's hands and backhanding her across the face. Dawn went spiraling to the ground and laid there, unmoving.

Branna smiled evilly at her work and looked up at her mother. Neala saw the look in her eyes and decided it was time to run. She took off away from Branna and Angelus toward a nearby cemetery. Branna started to go after her but was stopped by a large hand on her arm.

"I'll get 'er. You stay here make sure these idiotic minions of Dru's get the job done." Angelus told her before jogging away in the direction Neala had gone.

Branna looked around at the fight going on and went to go after Skye when she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her stomach. She looked up and saw Dru turning to dust and the bottle that contained her soul reappearing and shattered. Her soul quickly found it's body and her eye returned to their normal color. Branna took a few shaky breaths before looking up and see Dawn standing in front of her.

"How. . ." Branna trailed off. Dawn smirked sliding her sword into its case on her back.

"What? You didn't think I would let those magic books just sit there when nobody was using them, do you? I figured when Drusilla showed up she was probably the one controlling the spell that wouldn't let your souls return so I cut off her head, and Skye soul back. You should have seen the look on Spike face when he saw who dusted his sire." Dawn explained. Branna looked around at the people fighting of the rest of the vamps.

"Las!" she called. The vampires, excluding Spike, burst into flames and turned to dust. Buffy looked up from where she lay on the ground on her back as she waved her hand in the air to keep from inhaling dust. Spike pulled her to her feet and kissed her full on the lips. She pulled away from him and smiled before running over to Dawn and Branna and pulling both the girls into a hug.

"Are you ok?" She asked Branna. Branna flashed the slayer a genuine Branna smile.

"I'm fine now. Oh my god! My mom! I gotta go help her." Branna turned to run but Buffy grabbed her arms.

"He's going to notice you have your soul. Your eyes were black when you were evil." Buffy reminded her. Branna closed her eyes for a minute and opened them again; this time they were pitch black instead of brown.

"This good?" She asked. Buffy smiled and nodded and let go of the young Huntress. Branna took off in the direction of the
cemetery, hoping she wasn't to late.


Irish word :
Las - ignite