Chapter 5
Angel and Spike were back at the Hyperion. Faith had called Angel the moment she had heard from Giles.
"Have you been able to reach your girls, Faith?" Angel asked.
Faith shook her head "Not yet." The Slayer said.
"I'll hit the streets." said Spike, putting on his coat, and heading towards the door.
At that moment, Laura burst through the doors of the hotel.
"Its Talia... The Order, they ambushed us, took her off in some van... we have to help her!"
"Crap!" shouted Faith. "That means whatever they are planning to do, its happening soon, and we got nothing to go on..."
"Laura," said Angel, "take us to the place you were attacked. I can try and track them from there."
The group arrived at the alleyway. Debris from the fight still littered the ground, and Angel noticed a fine layer of dust scattered around. The girls must have killed a fair few vampires before they were overpowered to leave this amount of dust. The alley stank of trash, and rotting food. But mixed into the smell was a familiar scent. Blood. He followed the scent for a few seconds, before spike called out from round a corner.
"Over here," The vampire said. "This must be where they grabbed the gal."
Angel scowled at the younger vampire. It may have been petty, but Angel hated seeing Spike beat him to things, and he just knew Spike was enjoying doing it. Spike noticed Angel looking at him, and gave him a smug look, and stuck his two fingers up at him.
"I can smell the van," said Spike. "I think its leaking fuel. I can follow it right to the hideout."
"Right then." said Angel. "Lets move out."
"Venator cruor nos tribuo, sic vos may orior oriri ortus"
Talia woke to hear the vampires standing round her chanting. She tried to move but realized she had been chained down to a large satanic symbol, and had also been gagged. As the vampires chanted, others started to hoist the symbol up into the air on a pulley.
"Vinco mos orior oriri ortus, quod orbis terrarum mos palpito"
Talia suddenly wished she had paid more attention when her Watcher had attempted to teach her Latin. She looked down and saw a mystic circle marked out on the floor. In the centre of the circle, was a heap of some kind of powder. Suddenly from the shadows emerged another vampire. He was wearing a different coloured robe to all the others, it was a dark red one, with fancy markings all over it. He also had in his left hand an ornate, and very vicious looking knife. Red Robe moved closer, muttering some words under his breath. He raised the dagger, and started to slowly cut runic symbols into Talia's body. She tried to scream, but they had been muffled by the gag across her mouth. Her blood began to drip down onto the circle below, and the symbols marked out in the dirt began to glow a sickly green. Red Robe began to speak. These words Talia could understand, although she wished she couldn't.
"Arise, Master Of Aurelius. Arise! We offer the blood of the hunter to you. Return to us!"
The powder on the ground began to swirl, as if hit by a strong gust of air. Soon the whole room was being whipped by the gale blowing inside. Talia squinted through the sandstorm being thrown up around her, to see a tall figure forming in the circle...
Angel and the rest of the group stood before the door to a large crypt. The door was bolted shut, but Angel made short work of the door with a swift kick. Angel and Spike took point, with Laura taking up the rear, her bow ready to fire. They made their way into the main room where they found a large satanic symbol hanging over a mystic circle on the ground. The symbol had shackles for hands and feet attached to it.
"Well," said Spike, "We either have the right place or we just crashed one hell of a bondage party..."
Suddenly a group of robed vamps stepped out of the shadows.
Angel looked at Spike.
"I think we have the right place..."
Spike charged in head first at the vampires. "Come on you nancys! That little Anointed One brat fought better than you pansies!" he screamed as he staked the first vamp.
Angel moved up to beside Spike, cutting down a vampire who came at him with a pair of daggers. He could see out of the corner of his eye Illyria and Faith fighting several vampires. He could also hear the faint twang of Laura's bow, as it spat death at the oncoming hordes. For a new Slayer, Laura could really use that bow.
As the mass of vampires started to thin out, Angel shouted out to the others. "We have to make our way deeper in! They are trying to delay us while they complete the ritual. We have to save Talia!"
Suddenly a body was thrown out of the shadows, and knocked Angel to the ground. He looked down at the corpse. Talia. Then a voice Angel had hoped he would never again hear spoke from the shadows.
"I think its a little late for that, wouldn't you say, Angelus?"