Title: Torn part 10
Author: Neamh1
Disclaimer: Not mine
Warnings: NC-17 Please don't read if you are below this age
Feedback: Please?
In Sunnydale…
When Layla and Willow came out from one of the bedrooms everyone immediately stood up and faced them ready to go. Xander looked at Willow and was immediately worried, rushing towards his friend and waving his hand in front of her face until she took hold of it and put it back to his side.
"What the hell have you done to her?" he shouted at Layla, not caring that the woman he was yelling at was an ancient vampire capable of killing him with a single thought.
"Xander I'm fine, better than fine – I feel great, powerful." Willow said in her normal voice, Xander would have accepted her words had her eyes not been clouded completely white and her hair not been blonde.
He looked to Layla who was smiling at Willows remark. "What have you done?" he asked again and she turned her attention to the young man in front of her.
"I gave her magic, good magic so that she can keep the spell going. She's a natural witch but without time and experience she is still weak, I've just, moved things along for her. I'll put everything back to normal afterwards and she'll be fine. Its better that she tastes power this way, there's no chance of her becoming addicted as it's pure good magic." Layla said stroking Willows hair.
"Look we haven't got time for this, if Willows going to be fine then can we please get going?" Angel said in agitation. "Yes, everyone gather in a circle." Layla said and she joined them and instructed everyone to take each others hands. "Now, close your eyes and don't let go until I say." She said and chanted a small phrase. Within a matter of moments she told them to open their eyes and they found themselves in a back street in L.A. Giles and Xander fell to the floor whilst Angel swayed a little. Layla and Willow seemed unaffected by the transportation and they waited until everyone had regained their composure. A fourth person stood outside their circle, he was a middle aged man and would have looked completely human were it not for the blackness of his eyes. His were the complete opposite to Willows who were pure white and his focus was completely on her. Layla smiled as she looked at the form Aerias had chosen to take, it was one of his more attractive ones and she wondered what his original form had been. When she had first met him he had been in the form of a young buy, no more than ten years old but she had realised within seconds that he was much older than he seemed. She knew that he would take a liking to Willow as soon as she saw the young witch and it seemed that she had been right.
He held out his hand to Willow and she walked forward and placed her hand in his, the others looked unsurely at the newcomer but followed in silence as they made their way toward the Hyperion.
Faith continued to watch the hotel from her hiding place; she was ready to make her move. One of Angelus' childe had been very helpful in providing her with information on his whereabouts in L.A. and his most recent phone call on her cell had given her the final information she needed…the location of Angelus' whereabouts within the hotel and numbers of guards. She knew that he was the one to contact the council when Angelus had found Buffy but to her all demons should be killed and she hadn't wasted anytime in trying to eliminate him when she found him at the mansion on Crawford street. He had tried to talk his way out of it and in a way had managed to succeed. He had given her information of Angelus' plans, locations of places they might have been within Sunnydale and the address of the hotel she now stood in front of.
She had been around to the various addresses in Sunnydale but all of the residences had been vacated and so she had simply made her way back to the mansion to threaten him once more.
"Listen Ducks, I gave you all the right addresses, there isn't anywhere else they could be unless they have left Sunnydale. Why don't you go to the address I gave you in L.A. and I'll get hold of one of my informants there. I'll get him to work for Angelus and then he can call me with inside details that I'll pass on to you." Said Spike, he wanted things back to normal and the only way to do that was to have Buffy or Angelus out of the picture, he didn't really care which one of them died. Faith walked closer to him and pressed her stake sharply into his chest, "If you're playing me, vampire, I'll be back for you. I'll hunt you to the end of the world and dance in your ashes, we clear"
"Crystal pet." Spike replied and watched as she left, what was it was slayers and attitudes?
Setting up her crossbow she fired at the lone guard by the window, his body turning to ash instantly. Moving around the perimeter she made short work of the guards until there were none left. She peered in through the windows of the back doors and made a quick count of the number inside, she counted thirty two in the main lobby, mostly vampires but there were three hackler demons and what seemed to be an old man. If it weren't for Spike's help then she might have made a great error and thought the old man to be harmless. The freezing potion she had acquired with the help of the council had come at a great price but as she wasn't paying she didn't really care, as long as it kept the warlock out of her way long enough for her to get past the demons and kill Angelus and possibly Buffy then she was happy. The council had given her strict orders not to even bother trying to help Buffy but Faith wasn't going to just give up on her sister slayer without trying to save her first. If Buffy fought her then she would be left with little choice but to kill her, she was hoping it wouldn't come to that. 'Focus Faith' she chided herself and shifted her attention back to the warlock who was no where in sight. 'Damn' she thought, now she wouldn't know which way to expect him to come from once she attacked.
Faiths body dropped to the floor in an unconscious heap , the warlock smiled from above her at the light blue powder mixed in her hair. A simple sleeping powder was all it had taken to knock the girl out, he had felt her watching for days now but had waited for her to make the first move. He called one of the guards and got him to carry the slayer upstairs to Angelus' room, they knocked on the door and heard a scream before the sound of heavy footsteps approached the door and it was nearly pulled off its hinges by Angelus.
"What!" He bellowed at them, not pleased that his session with Buffy had been interrupted.
"The slayer." Recotrvok replied and gestured toward the unconscious girl, "What would you like me to do with her?" "Bring her in here and magic or whatever some chains opposite the bed, Buffy isn't learning her lesson, she needs some motivation." Angelus replied and moved aside to let them in the room. Recotrvok waved a hand towards the wall and two sets of chains appeared opposite the bed, the vampire hauled the girl against the wall and attached her wrists and legs to the chains. When he was finished he made the mistake of looking at Buffy lying on the bed, it was too tempting, the smell of her blood and tears mixed in the air.
Angelus walked over to the nightstand and picked up his small hand blade, walking back over to the vampire he plunged the knife into both of his eyes blinding him. "No one looks at my mate without my permission understood!" He shouted and the demon managed to nod despite his moans of agony, he backed out of the room and Recotrvok followed closing the door behind them.
"Where are all the guards?" Angel whispered to Layla as they stood outside the Hyperion.
"Something has happened recently, vampire ash surrounds the exterior, I believe that the slayer has attempted her attack and been captured. There seems to be the essence of two slayers in the upstairs room now, plus that of the vampire Angelus. "Said Aeries. "The warlock is on his way back to the lobby, we should make our move now." Willow said and everyone moved forward towards the doors of the hotel.
"Wake up Buff, we have a visitor." Angelus crooned as he sprinkled some of the healing powder over her abused skin. She had fainted from his last blow and he wanted her awake so he had to diminish her pain. There were ointments that he could have used but the powder was strong and worked quickly to numb the pain, he had used it often over the years when torturing people, it helped to keep them alive longer so that he could draw out his fun.
Untying Buffys legs he flipped her over on the bed so that she could see the other Slayer, "This is your sister slayer Buff, what do you think?" "What did you do to her?" she asked, the powder having numbed her pain enough for her to think clearly. The other girl didn't look in bad shape but she was unconscious none the less.
"Nothing, she's just sleeping. I thought we could play with her a little. Your own pain wasn't working so I thought we'd try putting her in some pain and see if that changes your mind on the whole issue of 'who your master is'." Angelus said laughing and then walked over to Faith and waved something beneath her noise which roused the girl.
"You sick bastard! You're not man enough to take me on your own; you have to bring innocent pawns into our game? Oh wait if forgot, you're not a man you're a fifthly disgusting demon." Buffy shouted from the bed, her head raised on the pillows so she could easily see what was happening.
"Damn it Buffy if you don't stop speaking to me like that we'll go another round with the whip, now shut the hell up!" Angelus shouted, his temper rising again at her vipers tongue.
"Welcome back Buffy, I knew that a sister slayer could never be turned completely evil, glad to know you're back on my side." Faith said, she knew that the scene in front of her didn't look good but surely two slayers against one vampire would be easy playing.
"Whilst you two are doing the slayer bonding thing, I think you seem to forget who is chained up here. Certainly isn't me, you know, over the years"
"Oh please spare us the history lesson." Faith drawled cutting Angelus off in mid sentence.
"No you'll like this one, really, it involves both of you. Anyway as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted. Over the years I killed a number of slayers and each one tasted different, Buff was the sweetest though, the power running through her blood is amazing, it's like…the greatest high anyone can ever experience. The council have been spreading rumours about you," he said pointing to Faith and leaning against the wall next to her. "They say that you're as powerful as Buffy and if that's true then I'm guessing you must taste just as good as she does." His face morphed to that of his demon and Faith and Buffy both struggled against their bonds knowing what Angelus was about to do. He grabbed a fist full of Faiths hair and savagely bit into her neck taking long deep mouthfuls of her blood until she stopped struggling and hung limply from her chains. He pulled back and looked into her eyes and smiled, "Nope, not half the power." He declared.
Downstairs Aerias was in the middle of a magical war, he was trying to protect Willow from Recotrvok's magic. Willow was holding all the Guards at bay whilst Layla and Angel went upstairs after Buffy, Giles and Xander were making quick work of killing the incapacitated demons. Before they had killed ten of them the door to the basement was thrown open and a hoard of other demons came rushing through.
"Xander, Giles!" Willow shouted as she attempted to incorporate the newcomers into her spells web but was struggling with the mass amount of demons that were spilling through the threshold. "There's too many!" Xander shouted as he and Giles fought for their lives against demons of all sorts.
"Giles!" Willow shouted as a demon lunged his sword through Giles chest, he bent over in agony and collapsed to the floor, a flock of demons surrounded him blocking him from her view.
"Willow…look out!" Aerias shouted as he saw her magic fail because of her distress and a group of demons charged at her.
Angelus walked away from Faith and went over to the bag at the bottom of the bed, he pulled out the remaining few items and set them to the side. "So many…which to use first." He muttered to himself.
"Don't do this Angelus…let her go and I'll do what ever you want, you have my word." Buffy pleaded, not willing to let both of them suffer if she could help it.
"See, now this is what I mean, you're always so willing to sacrifice yourself to save another, a doubt she would show you the same courtesy. And do you really think that I'm going to let her go? She'd be back once she'd had time to regroup and maybe that time I wouldn't be prepared. The only thing you can do is to shorten her suffering. Pledge in blood that you are mine, that you will never betray me again or try to run away or kill yourself and I'll make her death quick and painless. Say it Buffy now, say it to me and then we'll declare it to the world. Tell me." He urged her.
Buffy hesitated, struggling to find the words that would likely seal her fate.
Angelus was impatient and at her hesitancy he stormed over to Faith and stabbed her in the leg with his hand knife. Faith screamed as the knife slid through her flesh and Buffy winced knowing the pain the other girl was experiencing. "Tell me." Angelus said again and pulled the knife from Faith's leg and made two cuts on her right arm.
"I'm yours!" Buffy shouted, she wouldn't allow Faith to go through anymore because of her. "I'm yours, I belong to you"
"Like hell you do." a third voice said from the doorway.
Everyone's attention turned to Angel and Layla standing in the doorway, both had looks that could kill and Layla's eyes had turned to pure red with uncontrolled anger and magic. She stepped forward towards Angelus but Angel put a hand in front of her and stopped her.
"He's mine." Angel said and moved forward keeping his eyes locked on Angelus.
"Angel you're human, he'll kill you." Buffy shouted from the bed and pulled hard against her chains looking at Layla with a plea in her eyes to stop Angel before it was too late.
"I'm so going to enjoy this." Angelus said with a feral smile, "I don't know how you got past Recotrvok but I'm glad both of you are still in one peace. It will make it all that much more fun when I tear you apart!" Angelus shouted the last words and lunged for Angel.
Buffy's scream echoed throughout the whole hotel as she watched unable to help as Angelus attacked Angel.
"Willow!" Aeries shouted as he watched her fall to the floor after a vicious blow to the back of her head from one of Angelus' minions. Willow fell to the floor, pain shooting through her head from the blow, grief and anger filled her as she rose back to her feet. A wall of demons surrounding her every side closed in on her. "Abstineo." The wall of demons flew back from her landing in piles on the Hyperion lobby floor. She needed a quick way to be rid of the demons. "Abi in malam rem', adoleo!" she shouted, raising her hands in the air towards the demons. Fire erupted from the floor engulfing the demons, Xander barely managed to move out of the way in time before he became toast. The vampires erupted to ash almost immediately but other demons screamed in agony and ran about in wild pain setting fire to everything flammable in the hotel lobby before collapsing to the floor. Willow dropped to the floor exhausted from the power she had just used to kill the numerous amounts of demons. The fire spread quickly throughout the lobby making its way upstairs from room to room. She felt someone lift her from the floor and her eyes met with Aerias. "Where's Recotrvok?" she asked.
"He ran, never was one to stay around when the tables turned. You did good Willow, real good." She smiled to him and then closed her eyes and her body went limp in his arms.
"Is she okay?" Xander asked as he helped Giles to limp over to them. "She'll be fine, she's just exhausted. We need to get you two to the hospital." Aerias said looking over both of them. Giles was obviously the worst off with his gut wound but Xander had a number of cuts which would need to be treated as well as what seemed to be a fractured leg.
"What about the others? The place is burning down fast, we can't leave them." Xander said worrying that the others wouldn't be able to get out in time.
"Layla will look after them, she can teleport them to the outside of the building with no effort. If we don't move now we'll be burnt, we need to get outside." Aerias insisted and slowly they made their way through the flames, both Xander and Giles were coughing and spluttering by the time they reached the main road.
They all looked on at the hotel as the flames swept through the building taking everything in its path and they hoped that Layla and Angel could get Buffy and the slayer out in time, that is, if they were still alive…
Angelus lunged forward towards Angel forgetting everyone else in the room as he let his anger take control of him. He wanted to rip the pathetic soul limb from limb and watch as he bled to death, then he wanted to do it again and again. Angel tensed as Angelus came towards him, he knew that he stood no chance against him but he wanted to get in a few hits before he would ask for Layla's help. He hated the demon and this was the one and only chance he was going to have to be able to pay him back for all the pain and suffering that he had gone through over the years.
The first blow came from Angelus, his fist connected with Angel's jaw nearly knocking him off balance. Angel retaliated with a punch of his own which to everyone's surprise equalled the strength of Angelus' blow. They continued trading punches and kicks moving around the room oblivious to the fire that crept along the corridor towards their room.
"What the hell is going on? I thought he was supposed to be human?" Buffy squealed at Layla as she watched Angel and Angelus fight, every move equalled by the other, it was as though they were exactly the same- fighting their mirror image, which in a way they were.
"I'm not sure what's going on, Angel is human, his heart is beating. I can only think that when the spell went wrong it tore them into two separate beings and divided their strength but made one human and left Angelus as the sole demon. Where's the key to these?" she asked quickly knowing that she couldn't break the bonded metal.
"Try the drawer on the other side of the bed." Buffy quickly said, her attention focussed on the two men fighting as Layla moved to the other side and checked through the drawers in the bedside table. She found a set of keys and quickly tried the locks, one…two…three…four keys she tried before the lock on the cuffs finally opened and freed one of Buffy's wrists. She made quick work of freeing the other wrist and Buffy sat up and grabbed a pair of jeans from the drawer and a fresh top and quickly put them on over her bruised body whilst Layla was freeing a weak Faith from her restraints on the wall. The men were still fighting, destroying the room in the process, neither one gaining the upper hand for very long. She waited until Angel was on the attack and then made her move. Picking up Angelus' whip in one hand and his axe in the other she smashed the blunt end of the axe against his head knocking him to the floor, she placed her foot against his neck to effectively hold him in his place. She brought the whip down quickly across his chest cutting into his flesh, he hissed in pain. "That was for tying me to the bed." She brought the whip down again. "That was for whipping me." Crack! "And that was for using Faiths pain against me." She said to his unconscious form. The final blow had come from the blunt end of the axe to his head again.
"Buffy, Angel! The building is on fire, we need to get out now!" shouted Layla as she watched from the doorway the flames that were fast approaching.
"Finish it Buffy, stake him now, quickly." Angel said, wanting to watch as he turned to ash.
"No…he doesn't deserve to be staked, leave him here, let him burn." She said with no feeling, she felt numb. Numb from pain and exhaustion and heartbreak, Layla shouted at them again from the doorway and when Buffy didn't move Angel swept her up into his arms and carried her out of the room. "Angel is there another way down?" Layla asked.
"Nothing that leads through the lobby where the exits are except for the servants quarters which are on the other side of the building." Angel replied, coughing on the smoke as they backed along the hallway in the opposite direction of the flames.
"That will take too long, take my hand." Layla said and once they were all joined she used her power to teleport them outside the building.
"Over there!" Xander shouted when he noticed the others appear a short distance from them. Layla made her way over to Xander and the others and Xander threw his arms around Buffy who was now standing next to Angel with his arm placed around her shoulders. "We were so worried about you, did he hurt you? Where is he? Did you kill him?" Xander asked.
"I'm…I'm okay." Was all she said and at Xanders confused look Angel shook his head and indicated towards the building. "We left him unconscious to the fire." Angel answered. "We need to get everyone to the hospital to be checked out." Angel said looking worriedly at Buffy. He knew that she was in pain, not only emotional but physical as well. Angelus had her tied to the bed and when they had first walked into the room he had noticed traces of blood on her body.
"My cell." Faith said pulling a cell phone from her inner pocket and passing it to Xander. He dialled for an ambulance for Giles, who had now fallen unconscious from blood loss, and called the rest of them a taxi. He only hoped that they could get Giles to hospital in time before he bled to death.
TBC...
