AN: This chapter get a little harsh, but things will get better before the end.
22: Share my pain
There had been a message on the machine when the vampires made it back from their hunting areas. Spike had been the first to return, just minutes too late by the smell of the blood. He had caught the last few words of the message, but had missed the chance to pick up the phone. Angel was next, and then Lawson. Spike told them who had given them the message.
"Eve." He said, and pushed the playback button so they could hear her full message.
"The girls are fine, for now. They won't stay that way unless Angel and Spike find Lindsey's killer. I know you two were involved, but it wasn't one of you who did it. I know it wasn't the new guy either. It was either Gunn, or it was Lorne. You have until tomorrow night, and then we're going to do a trade if you want the girls back. Someone is going to suffer for this, and if it's not the killer, or not you, Angel, then I will settle for the girls you seem to like so much. Find the killer if you can, then wait by the phone and tomorrow night I'll tell you where to come. If you try to track them, I'll start sending you body parts in the mail. You can figure it out for yourself which part belonged to whom. Ciao."
Angel shook his head. "She's lying. She's going to hurt them anyway. She'll do anything to hurt us, to hurt me, and she's going to use them to do it."
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'What is it with bad guys and warehouses?' Erica thought to herself as they arrived. 'Although, this was really a barn rather than a warehouse.'
They had driven for a couple of hours, and it was going to get light soon. There was an old barn with crosses on the doors. Vampires didn't seem to be welcome there. The girls were led inside, with the coats still over their shoulders. The driver moved the van out of sight once they'd left it. There was a young blonde woman sitting on top of a crate. She was wearing a long brown jacket, a long green skirt, brown high heels and a pale green lace shirt.
"No problems, Gregory?" she asked as they approached, getting up off the crate.
"None," the blonde guy replied, "they came quietly". The rest of the men started pulling off their masks.
It was never good when the bad guys let you see what they looked like. It usually meant that anyone who saw them was unlikely to be able to identify them later.
The girls were pushed forward to stand barefoot on the straw covered dirt ground. The woman stepped forward to get a closer look at Erica and Cordelia.
"What's going on?" Cordelia asked. "We haven't done anything."
"No," the woman agreed, "but rescuing the innocent is Angel's thing, isn't it? Why go after a preternaturally strong vampire when you can get him to come to you?"
"Told you," Erica muttered to Cordelia, "you owe me twenty."
Eve raised her eyebrows.
"They made a bet about which vampire got them in trouble," Gregory explained, "out of Angel or the one called Spike."
"You think this is some kind of joke?" Eve asked calmly.
"No," Erica answered, "it's just a little bit predictable, that's all. We're nothing; we're not fighters, we're just friends with people who easily manage to piss other people off. And you're right; it's easier to go after the humans than vampires. So what did he do to you?"
"He gave the order to kill the man I gave up my immortality for. Then he had the nerve to come back and throw it in my face; to tell me I had nothing left."
"Nothing left but your revenge, right?" Cordelia asked.
"Yeah," Eve said with a smile at them. It was a sweet little smile, but there was no humour in her eyes. "Nothing left to do but share my pain."
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The three souled vampires weren't going to bother trying to find Lorne. They weren't going to give him up, even if they could have tracked him down in time, and it wouldn't stop Eve from doing whatever she was going to do. They did call backup, though. Two of the people they called were unavailable, and others were out of town, but they did find someone to help.
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Eve had a thing for crosses. The girls weren't sure that she knew that the vampires were immune to them, but is she did she didn't seem to care. After a little while, Erica and Cordelia were past caring either.
Erica had been the one with the smart mouth, so she was the first to be branded. A cross-shaped brand had been heated up on a portable gas burner. Eve did the branding personally, while one of the men held Erica's head still. Erica couldn't help but scream when it was pushed up against her left cheek, and she jerked in the man's grip. Her skin was seared and clung to the metal as it was pulled away. The world went red, and the world was nothing but pain.
Eve hadn't even done it properly. She hadn't let the metal glow to red-hot, and she hadn't pushed it hard enough, but that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt, and there would still be a mark for the vampires to see what she'd done.
Eve faltered when the brand had stuck, but she set her mouth in a grim line and motioned for them to hold Cordelia still. She didn't have enough nerve to go for the face this time, so she went for a bare bit of skin just below Cordelia's left collarbone. Erica's mind had cleared just enough to register the smell of cooked meat, and she heard Cordelia's shrill crying.
Eve did it a few more times over the next hour, up and down their arms, then took a breath and threw the brand aside. "Bring it in," she said, and one of the men, the driver, got up to do as he was told. "One of you lucky girls is going to be left alone for the rest of the day. Except for one more thing."
Again with the cross, but this one was much bigger, and made of wood. In a flash, Erica knew what was going to happen. Eve thought the vampires would be deterred by it; she had to. In theory, they wouldn't be able to pull down the person they put up there; they would have to stand there just out of reach and watch her suffer. Well, she'd suffer, but at least, Erica was sure, they could help her once they arrived.
"Eenie, meenie…" Eve started, and then pointed at Cordelia. "You. You much of a Christian?" she asked.
Erica was pulled back out of the way and was punched in the stomach when she tried to struggle. She was left gasping on the floor as Cordelia's hands were freed. Cordelia realised what they were doing and started screaming, so they gagged her. Erica rolled over and over toward them and kicked at the one nearest to her, trying to distract them so they wouldn't hurt her roommate. Her face was still throbbing, and one of the men kicked her in the head, connecting with the same cheek. Erica slumped back to the ground, conscious but dazed. She couldn't do anything but listen.
Eve didn't do it herself this time; she let Gregory nail Cordelia's hands to the cross, but they tied the feet on. Eve did go over to Erica and roll her over so she could see what was happening to her friend. The entire point of the tortures was to show others, to let them know that Eve was hurting and that she was unforgiving. When they were finished they propped Cordelia up against the wall so she could see what happened to Erica. Cordy sobbed through her gag.
"You think you're getting away with something?" Eve asked Erica, kneeling down beside her but managing not to put her knees in the dirt. "Well, she's the one who's getting left alone for the rest of the day. Not you. If it makes you feel any better, I'm sure someone is going to manage to save her, and she'll be able to tell them everything that happened to you two. She'll be able to tell them that they were only just too late to save you."
She leaned closer to whisper in Erica's ear like a confidante. "I've got some more vampires coming after dark. They'll nearly drain you first, then make you feed, but before you die I'll let you drown first. Weighed down by lead crosses so that when you wake up you'll burn, even while you're soggy. You think one of your friends is going to chop you head off maybe?"
"This one's the fighter," Gregory said. "She had an axe with her when we found them."
"Hmm," Eve said. "You like being able to fight back, don't you?" she asked. "I've been watching you for a couple of nights, you know? Why don't you boys give her a fight?"
Erica was yanked to her feet by her hair. Eve stepped out of the way as someone freed Erica's hands. She didn't know what to do. She was surrounded, outnumbered, and weapon-less. She didn't have to pretend to be hurt, and she slumped to her knees, cradling her stomach and swaying forward a little, trying to stall so that she could figure something out, and deal with the pain. Someone behind her grabbed her under the armpits and hauled her back to her feet. She had nothing to lose so she smacked her head back.
Like Brad the vampire, the man behind her let her go. The pounding in Erica's head increased, and her vision blurred. Someone punched her in the stomach. "Nothing too permanent!" Eve called out. Great. They were allowed to brand her and eventually kill her, but for now they were only allowed to make her bruise and bleed.
She swung out her elbow but she still couldn't see and missed the blurry figure. Someone slapped her face. She wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, and it was bleeding, maybe from one of the earlier blows. Someone else tripped her over, and again her hair was grabbed and she was pulled back up.
This time when she was on her feet she grabbed the hand and finished the move she'd meant to use on Michaels last month. She spun around, stepping into him as she threw her weight into his arm. This time she heard something crack; she'd broken the arm. She spun around again as someone tried to grab at her and just missed her arm; she'd felt their fingers brush it.
She found the hair-puller's throat with her fingers and dug her nails in around his trachea. At the same time her leg had come up behind his head, despite her aching stomach, and she swung it down to sweep his foot out from under him. She pushed back with her hand at the same time and knocked him off his feet.
Someone grabbed her around the waist from behind and threw her away from the guy. She hit the ground and rolled, letting herself keep rolling away to try and give herself to time to get her vision clear. Someone grabbed her foot and dragged her back. She kicked but didn't seem to connect hard enough to make him stop. Someone stomped on her leg and she screamed, flailing out with her arms. She still couldn't see straight.
She could hear though, and she heard someone else come into the barn. It was only midmorning, and they hadn't yet taken the crosses down from the doors, so it couldn't have been Eve's vampires. It was one of her allies though, because he went to her and spoke in her ear while Erica got kicked again, all over her torso and limbs by the various men.
"Shit!" Eve exclaimed. "Drown her, do it now!"
Someone grabbed Erica's other foot and dragged her, causing the pain in her leg to overwhelm her and she cried out. They dragged her outside to the river. Erica's back got scratched up by weeds and sticks and small stones. They rolled her over and grabbed her arms, shoving her forward. Erica's face hit the cold, mid-morning water and she scrabbled with her fingers and nails to pull herself back ,to scratch someone; something. They shoved her in past her shoulders, almost up to her elbows, holding her down.
The cold had almost made her gasp, but by sheer force of will she held her breath, because the first lungful of water would mark the end of her life. She wouldn't survive for long if she let herself breathe in. They held her down, pushing her further into the water, up to her thighs so that her arms thrashed in the water. Something heavy was shoved into her back and onto her head, and an edge of it dug in painfully.
Erica gave another violent struggle for a few moments and then tried to be still. Tried to relax, and to let them think she'd swallowed water already. Tried to let them think she was already dying. It was so hard, because she felt immense pressure on her chest to suck in air. Her face was going numb from the cold, especially the cross brand. What vision she had left wasn't clearing. It was failing her.
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Vampires can't fly, but the three with souls seemed to bound out of the car. Their 'backup' had been Willow Rosenberg, the witch. Over the phone she'd done a spell to locate the Seer and the young Guardian. Erica's instinct to spill blood had been a good one, but the kidnappers had driven too far for the girls to be tracked down in time to prevent serious harm from happening. Angel knew they hadn't had enough time to track them properly on their own.
It was helpful now that they were close, though, as they could smell blood belonging to both girls, and a little that belonged to one of the men too. Most of the men were still in the barn, so both Lawson and Angel ran for it, to try and stop them from doing anything more to Cordelia. Without being ordered to Spike followed the third scent, ignoring the sound of gunfire that erupted as the other two stormed the barn.
The shallow stream went close to the back of the barn. The two men pushing the large metal cross down onto the girl jerked back when they saw the vampire coming. One ran for it, the other went for his handgun. Spike punched him in the face, broke his hand with a flick of his wrist and threw him into the side of the barn, and he fell heavily to the ground. He let the other man go, for now.
Spike went forward and stepped into the water beside Erica. Even he shuddered at the coldness of the water. He wanted to be careful lifting the heavy object away from her but he couldn't help jerking it up and throwing it away. He looped an arm around her waist and pulled her back, wincing as he felt her hang limply away from him, her hair straggling in the water. He scrambled back out of the water and lay her down on her back, pausing only half an instant to let his fingers hover over her cheek, over her brand. He tilted her head back by cupping her chin in one hand and her forehead in the other.
Being partially human didn't stop him from knowing that there was the faintest of pulses. She was a fighter, and she was fighting. He was going to fight for her too. He pushed her hair out of her face and pinched her nose with his fingers. He breathed into her mouth and watched her chest rise and fall. He totally ignored the blood that he could taste on her lower lip. He did it again, and again, giving her a breath every five seconds. If he had been a full vampire he could not have done it; he had required Life in order to return it via resuscitation.
Finally she choked and gagged on the air and she reflexively rolled herself over to spit on the ground. She drew in deep, grating breaths and panted, giving more coughs every few seconds, her arms shaking as she tried to support herself with them. She looked very tired and worn, ready to fall over. Spike drew her backwards into his arms and sat her on his lap to rest, pulling his coat around her to shield her from the cool air. He rubbed her back and held her against him as she relearned how to breathe. She let her head rest against his neck, and closed her eyes. "It's going to be all right now, luv," Spike said quietly.
"Pick me up, Spike," she whispered. She looked up at him. "They hurt my leg, and I need to see Cordelia." That they'd hurt her was an understatement. Her leg was lying limply and it was starting to swell and bruise over the shin, and Erica winced and gave a pitiable whimper every time it was shifted. Some of the bruising was already beginning to show up on her face, arms, one of her shoulders, her stomach, back and legs, and she was shaking from the cold. She looked like a mess, but Spike leaned froward and kissed a space of unbruised skin on her forehead. Hurt as she was, she was more worried about Cordelia, and he thought that was amazing.
Erica leaned her head back against him as he shifted his legs and manoeuvred himself to his knees while still holding onto her. He lifted her up and cradled her in his arms. He spared a glance for the still unconscious man on the ground, and carried her back around the corner. The gunfire had stopped, and there were fallen men scattered on the dirt floor within the barn.
They heard another shriek from Cordelia as the boys pulled her down as gingerly as they could. "Bloody hell!" Spike muttered when he saw that they'd crucified her.
"They thought you wouldn't be able to save her," Erica said softly, "and that you'd have to let her suffer while she told you that you were too late for me."
"Where's Eve?" Spike asked.
"Ran away," Erica answered. "Someone told her you were on your way - in the middle of the day - and she panicked."
The boys had one of Cordelia's arms each around their shoulders and she hung between them. Her legs were fine but she was weak with shock.
"Is she okay?" Lawson asked when he looked up and saw that Spike had Erica, dripping wet in his arms. Her livid cheek was facing away from them and she turned her head to look over toward them. Lawson hissed when he saw the mark on her face. He'd thought that Cordelia's arms were bad enough, and Erica already had an identical line of burns down her own arms. Angel saw it too and he winced, the gesture having nothing to do with a vampire's rejection of religion. They set Cordelia down to sit on the ground, and Lawson stayed kneeling beside her, running his fingers through her hair and touching the edge of her cheek.
"Sammy…" Cordelia whispered, with her eyes half-open and not looking at him.
"I'll live," Erica spoke up a little louder to answer Lawson's question. Spike set Erica down next to Cordelia.
"She drowned," he said softly to Angel and Lawson. "She's been burned and got a broken leg too, and I don't know what kind of damage she might have under those bruises."
"I'm right here, I can hear you," Erica said, as she turned Cordelia's face toward her to see her gaze blankly at a point past her head. She didn't have any matches or anything with her, and the gas burner had been turned off. "Screw it," she muttered; she was going to try nonetheless. The gas burner was a source of fire, it was a source of life, and she knew that and let the knowledge flow through her mind.
She pulled up one of Cordelia's hands by the wrist and kissed it near the wound. Nothing happened at first, but she felt the tingling awaken, perhaps a little sluggishly, and it flowed from her to Cordelia. The holes closed up, the burns faded and even Cordelia's eyes seemed to brighten after staring vacantly. Cordelia blinked and shivered. The tingling was a nice feeling.
It was too much for Erica though, and she fell back in a faint. She never even realised that someone had managed to stop her head from smacking into the ground.
AN: A couple more chapters in this Revenge segment, and then I'm starting it up as a new story, a sequel called "The other realms". I'll give you a teaser chapter at the end of "the blood of the ancients",to let you know what's going on.