Chapter 11

Angel was exhausted. Will did not look much better. Leaning against the car outside a large structure almost three hours outside the city, they both took deep breaths away from the smell of carnage and bloodshed.

They had worked together in their operation. It hadn't taken them very long to gain access to the house, the cameras watching the perimeter weren't fast enough to catch them on video. Even if they had, all the people watching the monitors would have seen were two men dressed all in black with face masks hiding their identities. There was no need to announce their presence until they were ready to do so.

Angel was recognized quickly once he took the suffocating mask off. He didn't care if they knew it was him. Will was an unexpected opponent, and the guards were poorly equipped to deal with two people who possessed the strength and speed of highly trained vampires.

It wasn't until every guard in the house was dead that Will removed the mask. He didn't need word getting out that he hadn't died, but had changed his identity. It was better to be a secret weapon.

Lepysis, a cousin of the dead Archduke Sebassis, was somewhere in the complex. Angel had known that Sebassis had a few family members he hadn't murdered for his title, but he hadn't really considered any of them a threat. He was regretting that mistaken now.

The two hybrids moved quickly through the complex, killing any guard they encountered. Lepysis, unlike his cousin, did not only employ only demons of his own race. The guards were big, of varying colors and textures, and very violent. Angel had started to enjoy himself somewhere around the fifth or sixth guard.

They moved quickly, wasting no time; there was no need to give Lepysis room to escape. When they reached the aging demon, he was indeed on his way out the back door.

They took turns trying to make him talk. He was not being very forthcoming.

Grabbing his long, thin horns, Angel bent the left one back slowly. The demon howled after it was almost at a ninety degree angle from his head. "Tell me what you want from Wesley. Money? A favor? What do you want from him?"

The demon alternated between laughing and howling in pain. This made Angel mad. He twisted the already bent horn until he heard cracking. This caused a new level of screaming.

"Still laughing? Why don't you answer my question?"

"Narsesim is coming." An incessant and maddening laugh came from the demon's throat.

Nothing either Angel or Will did could stop him from laughing. Even when he screamed in agony, he quickly started laughing again. Seeing they were going to get no further, they abandoned their quest for information and killed the white skinned creature.

Angel looked at Will as they watched the sun come up over the horizon. Lepysis's blood was rank, it smelled like blood that had sat for too long in a room with dead bodies. They were both covered with it, and Angel was sure he was never going to get the smell out of his nostrils. Will didn't look too pleased at their situation either.

"Normally, I would go to Wes to ask him who Narcissism is, but I don't think that's an option right now."

"It's Narsesim, Will, not narcissism. And I know who he is. Xander discovered a cult in the Dubai branch that was trying to resurrect him. They called him Narsysic, though. Probably a translation error." Turning to the trunk of the car, he pulled out the extra clothes Will had brought.

They wiped most of the muck from themselves and changed into cleaner garb, but they still smelled, and Angel was pretty sure he had the blood of one of the guards stuck in his hair. Will climbed tiredly into the passenger seat. It had been a long couple of days. Turning his phone on, he looked at his missed calls and swore. He would have called Dawn back, but he knew he would be seeing her in a few hours. She was going to start work today.

That gave him an idea. "Can Dawn research this guy? This Narsesim, or whatever his name is. I mean, what do you know from Xander's report?"

He hesitated. He knew more than he wanted to think about. His brain didn't really want to believe what he already knew to be true. Swallowing hard, he tried to choose his words carefully. "The cult in Dubai sacrificed children to this hell god. He demands innocent blood to be resurrected. Xander never looked into what this demon god would do once he was brought into our dimension."

Stunned, Will stayed silent for a few minutes. His brain was screaming obscenities. When he finally found his voice, he notices Angel was driving at almost a ninety miles an hour. "We're going to Fred."

He nodded. Bile was rising in his throat and he wasn't sure he could speak without his voice wavering. He wanted to believe Allyson would be spared, but he thought of Connor and knew that children, even babies, were targets for evil. If Connor could be kidnapped and taken to a hell dimension to be raised by an abusive and obsessive freak of a man, Allie could be sacrificed to raise a hell god. There were few beings more innocent than newborns.

Pushing the car as much as he could, he asked whatever power that would listen to please protect that baby girl. He pleaded mentally with Cordy, hoping she would have some pull somewhere. He just needed time to get there and get them to safety.

Will was already calling Wes's apartment. Fred answered, sounding none to happy to woken up at the crack of dawn.

He skipped all preliminaries. "Get out of the apartment. Grab Ally and Wesley and go to Angel's house. Go now. Don't pack anything. Just go."

The fear in her voice was evident. She was hardened, but not so much that she wouldn't fear for her baby. "What's going on? Will, what's wrong?"

"I'll explain, but right now there isn't any time. Get to Angel's house." He hung up before she could press him for information and hit the speed dial button for Angel's house.

It took Buffy a little longer to pick up the phone than it had taken Fred.

"What?" She sounded like she could strangle him through the connection.

"Don't go to work. Stay there, Fred and Wes and the baby are on their way. Don't leave the house, Angel and I are on our way." He hung up abruptly and met Angel's furious stare.

"A pregnant slayer is better protection than no protection at all."

Angel stopped himself from backhanding Will. "You're putting her in danger."

"And? What about Allie and Fred? They're not in danger? At least Buffy could hold the fort until we got there. On their own, they're toast."

He held his tongue. What was done was done and hopefully Fred was already in the car with Wesley and the baby and heading for the hills. Gripping the steel wheel so tight he thought it might break, he barked a command to call Dawn and get her to start researching.

Will didn't give Dawn a chance to say anything when she answered. He told her to get to Angel's and gave her the name of the god she was to research. Angel repeated the name the cult in Dubai had used so Will could give her both names to research. Will hung up before Dawn had a chance to say anything.

Will couldn't decide if he wanted to beat Wesley to a pulp now or later. Checking his anger, he deciding now was not the time to put Wes in the hospital. He would satisfy that need when this mess was sorted.