The golden light of the lamp reflected on the glasses of her spectacles. Her voice was steady and calm, as if unfazed by what she read out to him, though it concerned her personally. It even was a matter of life and death to her.

"A necromancer who consumes the souls of the living does so to unnaturally prolong his own life and become more powerful. After his death - should he be able prevent his essence from passing over to the realm of the dead - he can become corporeal again and restore himself to a more powerful existence. And there comes the hitch…," she briefly looked up at him. He had stopped pacing like a caged panther and listened attentively.

"He has to find seven souls: the child, the young men, the lovers, the martyr, the old woman, the sinner and the high priestess. I'm guessing that would be me, " Lisa took off her glasses to massage the bridge of her nose tiredly.

"And Charlie was the martyr," Spike concluded.

"Yes," she answered darkly. Her neck hurt from sitting bent over a book for hours. Lisa stood up from her chair to walk around the desk and lean against its edge casually, her arms crossed over her chest. Her black hair was tighed back in a strict bun.

Her outward appearance suggested that she was calm and under control, but inside of her raged a battle of conflicting emotions: fear, happiness, worry, sadness…every shade of the palette.

"I suppose I'm the only one left….We have to work out something," she briefly paused, to mentally brace herself for the discussion her next words would surely provoke,"I've already had some ideas, though you probably won't like any of them. Just don't forget we at least have to consider all options."

He gestured her wordlessly to continue.

"Once a soul passes over to the realm of the dead it is very difficult to bring it back. He doesn't have the capabilities to perform the spell. Very few people do."

"How could he get Charlie then?"

"A long time ago Charlie promised to always watch out for me. He still had unfinished business to do, so he stuck around," melancholy shone in her eyes. Lisa shook her head as if to rid herself from those dismal thoughts that threatened to resurface again. This was neither the place nor the time for them. "Anyways…if my soul was out of his reach..."

"Bugger! You'd better not implied what I think you just did…," barely suppressed anger let his voice rise. "Suicide!"

"No, murder. If I killed myself my soul would be stuck between two plains of existence," Lisa explained matter-of-factly. If everything else failed they would well have to make their peace with this solution. She was at least desperate enough to consider it an option.

"Rubbish," Spike started pacing again, shooting daggers at her with his eyes. "Absolutely unacceptable. You better had something else in store that didn't involve your death…"

"Then you won't like the idea of turning me into a vampire either," her fingers were drumming a nervous beat on the desktop.

"Not the least bit," Spike snarled ill-humouredly.

"There might be another way…," she frowned pensively. "If I were able to create an astral projection of myself, I would be able to fight him, but it would still be very risky. I'm not a warrior. The only weapon I can wield is a can of pepper spray, which, let's face it, is not very helpful against a necromancer on a power rush. And the spell would weaken me too much to use magic against him."

"Better, but it will still be like fighting windmills. I'm not at least happy to have to propose this, but how about we asked Peaches for help?" Spike looked as if he was about to choke on his own words.

Angel was sitting behind the conference table looking at them pensively, while he was busy processing the huge amount of information, just revealed to him.

Lisa and Spike were sitting opposite of him. She had stopped talking only moments ago. Her own words kept resounding in her head over and over again. Lisa's eyes landed on the untouched glass of water in front of her. As she grabbed it, its surface got into wavy motion, threatening to spill. Lisa put it down again in defeat. She felt Spike's eyes on her and briefly turned her head to flash him a weak smile. He winked at her reassuringly, then reached for her hand to give it a brief, but affectionate squeeze.

"Just out of curiosity. What will happen if Baku is able to complete his plan?" Angel asked, leaning forward, while he rested his folded hands on the surface of the table.

"He would become godlike. Not only would he have his old powers back, which means absolute control over anything dead, undead and ghost-like, but also the power over life and death. I think you can easily deduce what I'm trying to imply here," Lisa answered mirroring his posture.

"Evil necromancer equals apocalypse. I get your drift."

"So, Peaches, are you going to help us or what?" Spike interjected impatiently.

"Us," the other vampire let out an ironic laugh, "So she's your girlfriend…I should probably be glad then. Not that you ever were any competition…," whatever Angel was implying was lost to Lisa, but Spike did clearly get it. She could see his chipped black nails digging in the arms of his chair, yet he wisely refrained from answering anything, for which she was very grateful. Knowing the two of them they would be happily beating each other to bloody bulbs at the slightest provocation.

Angel briefly hesitated before he continued, "I'm going to help you, Lisa," he gave her a friendly smile that lacked any falsity, "You obviously already have enough to deal with," he quickly shot Spike a pointed glance. "What do you need?"

She cleared her throat insecurely, "The problem is the bit with the astral projection. I can't do it on my own or else it will leave me much too weakened to fight Baku."

"I think Lorne would be able to give you a hand with that. Anything else?"

"I'll need full excess to all books on necromancy as well as magic supplies in order to prepare adequately… And there's something else. I can't go back to my place, it's not save anymore…"

"You can stay here at Wolfram&Harts.…Oh, by the way, should I have Wesley assist you with your research?"

"I hardly think he has any experience with practising necromancy… no offence, sir. It's not that I doubt his capabilities, but single mistake can easily kill you or cost you 20 years of your life. I've been doing this for years. Better let me handle this alone. "

Angel looked at her with a concerned frown, his hand stroke his chin pensively. "Then the only question left to answer is: Can we trust you?"

Spike growled, angrily pushing his armchair back so it rammed into the wall behind him, as he shot to his feet.

Angel continued unflinchingly, "You have to understand my concern. After all you could have dished us a big bunch of bull and we wouldn't even know. All the while you'd comfortably have full excess to those spell books…It just smells off back-stabbing."

"Oh, suddenly so suspicious? She's asking for you help, you big old poof! Didn't you boast with helping the helpless or something?" Spike shot at him, barely keeping his temper in check.

"Look," Lisa voice strangely sounded absolutely calm, as if unfazed by the whole commotion around her, "Lorne read me when I started working here…He said I'm not evil. In addition to that…why should I have started an exorcize-a-ton on your command, if I wasn't trustworthy?"

"Alright, I see your point…., but I like to be informed about every step you taking. I'm sure you won't be offended, if we'll conduct our own research to verify your version of the story," Angel leaned back in his chair, folding his hands over his chest.

"Not at all, sir."