A/N: To ka-mia2286 and S.., you have no idea how much your words meant to me. I was truly touched. Thank you.

A/N 2: Thanks to all who reviewed, Spygrrl, paige, General Mac, axlgroupie91, and Nina.

Chapter 7

She hadn't believed him. She hadn't believed him when he told her that there was a problem. She had looked around and accepted the lies that they had been told by the officer at the front desk, never noticing his shifting eyes or tapping hands, never looking beyond the surface. After all she had seen she still didn't understand. Some things were just known. There was no explanation for them.

Like that police officer. He hadn't smelt of ignorance, but at the same time he didn't know everything. He was protecting someone, probably someone higher up. Like the officer in charge. Someone here knew something, and while he was being jacked around Buffy was in trouble.

It was unacceptable.

The air in the office had been thick with magics, and it had taken everything in him to resist the whispers of the demon. He could hear the heartbeat of another person in the adjoining room, he could smell faint traces of incense burning. He knew this was where he needed to be.

The only reason he had held at all back was that little spark of conscious that had returned with her return that told him that Kate would likely lose her job it he did what he really wanted to do. That and the fact that he wasn't actually sure that this was where he needed to be.

He had to bite down ruthlessly on the urges that had been telling him to obliterate anything that stood in his way. The desire to hunt and kill was there, urged on by Angelus. The demon thought little of the human loss. He only thought about his obsession in danger.

It was Kate who insisted they leave, that there was nothing there for them. He had nodded and followed, ignoring the increasing danger to his mate, and made sure that Kate got away safely before turning on his heel and heading back.

This time he bypassed all formality and decked the officer at the front desk before he could stand. The sudden violence did little to sate is darker desires which were screaming for blood.

He moved quickly and didn't bother knocking on the door to the captain's office. They burst open to reveal the Captain setting down his radio, a shocked look on his face. He recovered quickly and fingered the gun on the underside of the desk before glairing at the intruder, "Can I help you?"

Angel ignored him and tapped down on his base instinct to rip the man to shreds. He nonchalantly glanced at the décor, ignoring the captain, searching for anything that could raise zombies, that could tell him why he felt so wrong.

The captain bristled, "Excuse me, what are you doing?"

A shrug was the only answer he received.

"Who are you?"

"Angel," the simple response didn't help the captain. He had heard whispers, but never anything concrete about the man in front of him. He never realized that in blocking his precinct off he had kept information that could have helped him away.

Angel never looked over to the other man, only picked up a medal case off the desk, turning it in his hands, looking it over. He knew the captain's temper was shortening, by ignoring the man in charge he was disregarding him. A slight that someone in charge, like the captain, would not be able to ignore for long.

A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. Bating hapless humans like this was something the demon had loved to do. The fact that Angel was enjoying his actions spoke highly of his demon's influence over the soul. Deep within him Angelus smiled and quieted. Biding his time to see what would happen.

The captain stood, at patience's end, walked around the desk, and took the case from him, still not understanding the danger he was in, "Well, Angel, if you need something I'm sure someone downstairs would be willing to help you."

He sat the case down and Angel smiled. The scents coming off him told him one important thing. This was the man he needed to talk to. This was the man who put Buffy in danger. A small snarl sounded in his head. "Actually," he said softly, "I need to talk to you."

"About what?"

Angel finally gazed at him, "About some of your more…dead cops?"

The captain chuckled, not understanding, secure in his feelings of superiority and delusions of safety. "Maybe we should talk about you instead."

He pulled his gun and fired at Angel twice. The impact of the bullets caused him to curl up around the wounds for a moment before straightening, game face to the fore. "How do I stop them?"

The shock that immobilized the captain cost him any advantage he might have thought he had. Before he could get any more shots off Angel grabbed his hand and effortlessly tossed him across the room. While he was still reeling from the impact, Angel grabbed him by the throat and slammed him up against the wall.

"I'll repeat the question."

xoxox

They had surrounded the shelter in minutes.

Gunn brushed aside a delicate looking lace curtain to peer outside at the cops. They didn't have much hope. What little he knew of zombies could be found in movies and well…Hollywood's track record with realistic depictions of monsters had been sadly inaccurate. But from what he had seen so far, it was going to take a lot to do any type of damage, and all he had backing him was a scared group of kids.

Not to mention the fact that with all the jostling they had done to Buffy had reopened her wounds and the dangers of her dying of blood loss had risen. He shook his head to clear it from the distracting thought and stepped away from the window. He needed to focus on the task at hand. He was no help to anyone if he broke down now, but it wasn't looking good.

Things couldn't get much worse.

The kids were troupers though. They had listened to him and Anne and had quickly and efficiently barricaded the doors and windows at their demands. He looked over the motley group of teens, waiting for the attack to come. They were scared. It was clear in their stance, in the fear in their eyes. They couldn't hide it. But they stood strong, and that gave him some small hope.

The sound of screeching tires came from outside where more cop cars pulled up. The sound was quickly followed by pounding on the bars of the windows. They wouldn't hold long. Already the glass had shattered and arms were reaching inside to grab at anything within range.

The zombie cops pried the bars covering the windows of the shelter open while Gunn, Anne, and Wesley helped the kids move to different parts of the shelter to guard against all entrances.

"Take this bat," Gunn yelled, stopping one of the kids. "I want you to use it, all right?" The kid nodded before running off to the other end of the shelter, "Come on. Everything against the windows! Move! Move! Do this quick."

"Cordelia, use the phone, call for help," Wesley shouted as he helped one of the kids move a bookshelf in front of a window a cop had almost entered.

She quickly dialed but only got a recorded message, "All circuits are busy. Please hang up and try your call again."

"This is no time for circuits busy!" she yelled into the phone. "So, don't tell me circuits are busy. If the circuits are busy…get some new circuits now!"

Screaming could be heard from the back and three of the teens came through the hallway, "It's not holdin'!"

"Come on," Anne directed some them, "push this over there, we can block the hall," they moved to help her and the couch was quickly tipped on it's end and jammed through the narrow hallway. She paused to catch her breath and turned to one of the kids who had helped her, "Did everyone make it out?"

The young girl only had time to nod before screaming sounded at the front. They turned in time to see one of the boys being pulled through the window by a cop.

The cries abruptly cut off and there was a brief silence before more cops pulled at the bars covering the windows.

Anne pushed sweat dampened hair out of her face and her eyes found Gunn's from across the room. The worry and fear was clearly etched in each face and Gunn came to a quick decision, "Alright. Get the kids in the back," he shouted.

"Get them upstairs."

xoxox

"How do I stop them?" Angel growled, gripping his neck tighter. His only thought was Buffy, and helping her the quickest he could. And if that meant he beat this cop into a bloody pulp, so be it.

"These are good cops," he spat out. "They put their lives on the line. They died on the streets."

"You should have left them that way," Angel growled, "Do you have any idea what you've done?" he slammed the captain against the wall again.

"I won't betray them!" the cop gasped out.

This was getting him nowhere. Buffy was running out of time and he couldn't just kill the cop, no matter how much he wanted to, a darker voice whispered in his ear. He swallowed his rage and loosened his grip on the captain's throat.

The captain knocked Angel's hand away and ran to the back of his office, throwing a file cabinet aside to reveal a hidden door behind it. He slipped through and Angel growled. Now they were getting somewhere.

It was only a short walkway that had been carved into the wall and led into a wider opening.

Angel ignored the huddled figure of the captain digging through a chest at the other side of the room while he took in his surroundings. He glanced around the hidden room and noted the black candles lining the walls, the pictures of dead cops with candles next to them in a perversion of honor, and the table sitting in the middle holding several bowls and an idol.

The captain rose from his crouch, cross and holy water in hand. As if that could help him.

"How are you controlling them, hmm?" He lifted the contents of a bowl, "Is it the entrails?" With a quick swipe of his hand the bowl was sailing through the room to shatter against the far wall, splatters of blood and guts making a morbid pattern.

The captain was starting to shake in true fear, the smell was pouring off him in waves, but he still held tightly to the holy objects in his hands.

Angel was about to move on to the icons of the fallen officers when something caught his eyes, "Here we go. It's the idol of Granath. The Zombie god."

The captain let out a shriek and ran at Angel, a cross raised to strike him, and what little patience Angel had evaporated with the cop's new bout of stupidity. Right before he would impact, Angel picked up the idol and smashed it against the captain's head, shattering it and knocking him out.

xoxox

He swung the bat one last time before exhaustion overtook him and was thrown off balance when he impacted with nothing but air. They were gone. The bodies of the cops had disappeared. The only evidence they had ever been there was the destruction of the shelter and the bruises everyone was sporting.

"Buffy!" Gunn dropped his bat and jumped over fallen debris to reach his friend. The paramedic was kneeling beside her, pressing a gauze pad to her stomach, "She needs a hospital now."

Wesley, Anne, and Cordelia rushed over, hoping that everything was alright.

"Wesley! Get the ambulance ready," Gunn shouted as he picked up the frail, limp, and bloodied body of his friend. He stood to face Cordelia and Anne, "You comin' Anne?"

She was torn, but in the end she had no choice. She had a duty to the teens. Buffy would understand that, "I can't. The kids need me here. As soon as I get everything together I'll be there."

He nodded then glanced at Cordelia. "Lets go," he said.

Tbc…