Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey, who yes will show up soon.
CHAPTER 19-FANCY MEETING YOU HERE
Though she was used to the best of everything she was far from her norm on this night. Slipping from one shadow to another she kept out of sight and watched from the darkness, hoping that someone or something would slip up and lead her to Angel and the others, or at least someone that knew where they were. She tapped a light bulb with her finger and used her ability to overload the filament and blow it, casting her surrounding area into darkness. She waited for a few moments and watched and waited. After nothing happened she was about to move on when she saw a trio of vampires, wearing their game faces, slip out of an alley and start to follow after a couple of homeless men. Shaking her head she stood up and started to make her way towards the end of the alley before stopping suddenly as someone leapt out of the shadows from the other side of the street, directly in between the two homeless men and the vampires.
"Come on boys, the nights still young and you're still standing," Gwen announced with a confidant and combative tone to her voice as she straightened up and leaned back up against a light pole, licking her lips to further sell the act.
"What the bloody," One of the vampires exclaimed with a confused and surprised look on his face as he turned from looking at Gwen to looking at one of the other vampires.
"Beats me," One of the other two vampires growled with a perplexed stutter in his voice as he shrugged his shoulders and leered at Gwen.
"Okay boys this is how this is going to work, you're going to tell me what I need to know…or else I'm going to get upset," Gwen interjected with an annoyed scowl on her face as she started to slide one of her gloves off, making sure that all three vampires were closely watching her every move.
"Get out of our way bitch," The biggest vampire of the three growled with an angry scowl on his face as he drew a knife and turned it just enough so that the light from the streetlight would reflect off of the blade.
"That's not the way you talk to a lady…pal," Gwen spat back with a fair amount of venom in her voice as she squinted her eyes into a glare while readying herself for a fight.
"Heh, I don't see any ladies around here, just a stuck up bitch with a big mouth," The smallest of the three vampires snickered out with a daring grin on his face as he licked his lips and stared hungrily at Gwen's neck.
"Then perhaps you should look a little harder," A voice barked out of the darkness before the voice was followed up by the sight of a late twenty something blonde woman walking out of the darkness carrying a stake in her hands.
"Slayer," The smallest vampire asked the knife-wielding leader with an apprehensive look on his face as he slid his game face off and reverted back to his human visage, which didn't look much better.
"Can't be, they're all holed up at that hotel, the boss said that none of them would be going out tonight, she's not a slayer," The knife-wielding vampire snarled back with an angry sneer on his face before he turned away from Gwen and started to walk towards the blonde woman.
"Take one more step and you'll be sorry," The blonde woman said with a very determined look on her face as she set her feet and readied the stake.
"What you gonna do little miss, stake us," The other vampire joked with an amused grin on his face as he walked out in front of the main vampire a mere two seconds before a short wooden stake flew out of the darkness like it had been fired from a gun and drilled straight through his chest. He didn't even have time to scream or shout before he dissolved into a cloud of dust.
"What the fuck," The vampire with a knife exclaimed with a look of shock and fear on his face before two figures stepped out of the darkness behind the blonde woman with the stake.
"Please step aside Kate, we will take it from here," The older bearded man stated with a chivalrous tone to his voice as he pulled an axe from behind his back.
"Wait a minute here, who the hell are you guys," Gwen snapped with an irritated scowl on her face after having her thunder stolen.
"The damned," Connor grumbled back with a stern look of lost happiness on his face before he raised his arm and fired off another assault at the nearest vampire to him.
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She almost didn't wait for the hospital doors to open fully before rushing through them. The lady at the front desk thought that she was having a heart attack when she rushed up to the front desk and demanded to know where Kristine was. Kennedy no more than got the number, claiming to be a younger sister, before she raced off towards the elevators. She tapped her feet nervously in the elevator as she waited for it to rise up to the correct floor. Once the doors open she tore out of it as fast as she could go, almost crashing headlong into a gurney in the act. She used the railing along the wall to keep herself from slipping and sliding out of control before she arrived at Kristine's room and threw open the door. Her heart nearly broke in two as she first laid eyes on the woman that she had just had sex with a few hours earlier.
Had Kennedy not known her as intimately as she did she probably wouldn't have recognized her. With a staggered step and shaking hands Kennedy made her way over to the chair beside the bed. She slumped down into it and tried to compose herself. Failing to come up with any way to do that she shook her gaze from Kristine's face and instead focused on the various machines that she was hooked up to, hoping that one of them would give her some answers. She didn't recognize any of the machines and had no clue what any of them did. She was just about to start ripping them all out of Kristine when an old doctor calmly walked in, his face lined with wrinkles and his hair gray with white highlights.
"Last patient on the…oh hello, I didn't know that Ms. Johansson's family had arrived yet," The doctor started to say with a soft hum to his voice before he walked in and Kennedy looked up.
"I…I'm not her family, I'm her…partner," Kennedy stammered out with a terrified and confused look on her face as she tried to come up with an answer that at the same time would satisfy the doctor as well as not get herself thrown out of the hospital for not being Kristine's family.
"I see, do you know how she received these injuries," The doctor asked softly without changing the look on his face as he appeared to have taken Kennedy's comment in stride and just kept right on going. Kennedy tried to answer but more tears came to her eyes and so she resorted to hanging her head a bit and shaking it back and forth. "Well then…I am sorry to say that right now things do not look very promising, the injuries that she received were severe, whoever did this to her did not want her to live I'm afraid," The doctor continued with a sickened and upset right down to his core look in his eyes as he tried to keep his composure.
"Is she in pain," Kennedy asked with a scared silly look on her face as she wiped away a tear and then looked back up at the doctor. He started to answer her back before a none to pleased voice from the doorway interrupted him.
"No, but you're going to be unless you start giving me some answers," Buffy stated with a very cold and serious look on her face as she stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips and her glare aimed straight over at Kennedy.
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"Care to share," Nina said softly with an amused smirk on her face as she sat down on the couch and looked to Faith, who was trying to get around through the house's half finished living room without stepping on a nail.
"About," Faith asked back with a slightly irritated growl to her voice as she glanced up briefly before returning her gaze to the floor.
"You and Wesley," Nina added with a warm smile on her face at first that slowly grew into a sly grin as Faith entered the room and tried not to admit that she had lost the stay cool war.
"What about us," Faith asked softly with an unhappy scowl on her face before she scrunched up her face in annoyance as she realized that she had slipped up.
"So it's us now…interesting," Nina quipped back with a happy smile on her face as she turned around away from Faith and stared at an old painting that was hanging on the wall.
"Hey, what happens between me and Wes is our business…no one else's, got it," Faith growled back with an attack dog tone to her voice as she balled up her fists in rage and had to steel herself against bashing Nina's face in.
"Got it," Nina started to say back with a slightly scared look on her face as she tensed up before being interrupted.
"Your body warms with thoughts of Wesley, you crave him," Illyria stated softly, as if it were as casual of a thing to say as that Angel and Spike were vampires, as she walked into the room and began to stare at its contents after having stared intently at Faith.
"What…I don't crave," Faith started to snap back with a guilty glare in her eyes before she realized that she couldn't say anymore without admitting everything and bit her bottom lip almost hard enough to make it bleed, silently praying for something or someone to come and save her.
"Could have fooled me," Angel started to say with a sour frown on his face before he stopped suddenly in the middle of the room and cocked his head to one side, sniffing quickly and then waiting and listening as everyone else held their breaths.
"Someone's here," Mercedes announced with a cold and serious look on her face as she walked into the room, pulling a tight black short sleeved shirt on over her head along the way. Faith caught sight of a piece of trashy lingerie, that she had passed over earlier peeking out of Mercedes' jeans and under the shirt, as she slid the shirt on but before she could make a sarcastic comment Spike walked in behind her.
"It's…the Niblet," Spike said with a relieved smile on his face as he started past Mercedes as she pulled her dripping wet hair clear of the collar of the shirt and began to look for a comb.
"What's she doing here, how did she find us," Angel stated with a very concerned frown on his face as he turned back around and everyone could see that he was upset.
"I called her remember Angel, well I called Willow but since Dawn knows what's going on she probably found out and came along, I had to tell them where to find us, besides I'm starving and they said that they'd bring food," Nina interjected with a timid half smile on her face as she expected Angel to be angry with her and didn't want to cause him any more of a hassle than she already had.
"You told us remember Angelus, Willow was going to get the book that you needed to kill that mother fucker," Mercedes started to say back with a bored look on her face before the edges of her mouth curled up into a sneer at the end as she spoke of The Immortal.
"Who are we going to kill," Dawn asked with a good natured grin on her face as she walked into the room with an arm around Spike's shoulders, as the former looked rested and excited and the latter looked a bit stunned.
"You if you weren't careful, did anyone see you, were you followed," Faith grumbled with an impatient look on her face as she hurried over the covered up window and peered out through a small hole in the covering.
"Relax Faith, I told Buffy that I had to go check on one of my contacts, I brought Dawn with me to further convince Buffy and Giles that I wasn't going anywhere to dangerous," Willow replied with a soft smile on her face as she followed Spike and Dawn into the room with her arms full of bags of food and other supplies.
"Someone should still check it out, make sure," Wesley interjected with a calm but yet serious look on his face as he walked into the room and stopped just behind Faith, still looking a little pale and tired but otherwise none the worse for wear, aside from his cuts and bruises that were starting to heal.
"Are you sure that you should be out of the hospital Wesley, you still look a little pale," Dawn asked softly with a worried look on her face as she paused briefly before taking a bite out of her turkey sandwich.
"I," Wesley started to reply with a calm and serious look on his face as he slid past Faith and sat down on the far end of the couch before Mercedes jumped in.
"He'll be fine, provided that he doesn't overdo it," Mercedes interjected with a slight grin on her face before she made eye contact with Willow and then took a step back and seemed to grow suddenly timid.
"Who are you again," Dawn asked with a confused look on her face as she first looked to Spike and then to Angel.
"A…friend," Spike stammered out with a hurried frown on his face before he glanced up to Angel just as the latter spoke.
"That remains to be seen, Faith…go check it out, make sure that they weren't followed, take Illyria with you," Angel grumbled back with an unhappy scowl on his face before Illyria walked into the room, blew off the glare from Willow and the look of surprise from Dawn and then followed a grumpy Faith out of the room.
"What the hell is she doing here," Willow demanded with a very upset look on her face as she had to hold herself back from striking out at Illyria.
"Helping us, it was wrong of her to kill those young slayers, but to her they were the enemy and trying to hold her against her will, she sees things differently," Angel said slowly with an unsure look on his face as he tried to come up with an answer that would further disrupt the situation.
"That's putting it mildly, she's been around since the beginning of time, she makes it up as she goes along," Wesley added with an impatient and anxious scowl on his face before Dawn half turned and dropped a wrapped sandwich in his lap.
"You can sugar coat it however you want Angel, she killed those slayers back at the hotel, first Fred…then the new slayers, who next Angel…you, Wesley," Willow demanded with an unhappy scowl on her face as she continued to hand out the food before Nina spoke up.
"She won't kill Wesley, she won't even lay a finger on him, apparently she still has some of Fred's memories and feelings left over, before the battle in LA she'd follow him around everywhere…like a lost puppy, he was the only one that she'd even come close to listening to," Nina interjected with a slightly amused smirk on her face before she suddenly felt the room grown very cold and in response she took a very large bite of her sandwich.
"How touching…really, now can we please get back to what we're going to do to The Immortal, he almost killed Kristine, remember," Mercedes grumbled with an unhappy scowl on her face before growled loudly, turned and left the room.
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"Buffy what…what are you doing here," Kennedy asked with a very surprised and nervous look on her face as she let go of Kristine's hand and wiped away a tear.
"I came here to figure out who beat up one of my boyfriend's lawyers, and big surprise I find you…getting all weepy," Buffy replied with a very serious and upset frown on her face as she tried to keep her emotions in check before she smiled to the doctor as he guessed that he should come back later.
"It's not what you think," Kennedy stuttered out with an overwhelmed look on her face as she slowly stood up and tried to compose herself.
"It had better not be, because to me it looks like you've been cheating on Willow, I don't like it when people hurt my best friend," Buffy shot back with an accusing tone to her voice and look on her face as she slowly shut the door and turned back to Kennedy.
"I didn't…it wasn't supposed to, I know what I did was wrong, but she," Kennedy started to utter back in a staggered reply with a frantic expression on her face before there was a knock at the door. Buffy started to open her mouth to snap back at Kennedy but she quickly closed it before she opened the door a peek and saw that it was Xander and Giles.
"Hello Buffy…Kennedy, what are you doing here," Giles asked with a surprised look on his face as he stepped into the room and caught sight of a noticeably upset Kennedy almost hiding in one of the corners of the room.
"I…uh," Kennedy started to stammer out with a terrified look on her face before Buffy saved her.
"I bumped into her on my way out of the hotel and asked her to come," Buffy stated with a very calm and almost bored tone of voice, perfectly lying for Kennedy.
"Alright then," Giles replied with a satisfied expression on his face as he believed Buffy and didn't give Kennedy's appearance another thought.
"Hey Buff, so is this the…whoa…damn," Xander said softly with a warm smile on his face as he entered the room before his gaze fell onto Kristine and he nearly tripped over his feet before he stopped himself and scowled.
"Poor girl, no one deserves this," Giles mumbled softly with a heartfelt look of sympathy on his face as he sat down in the chair beside Kristine's bed.
"Got that right, when I find the bastard that," Xander agreed with a determined expression on his face at first before he turned as the door opened.
"Buffy…are you in here," The Immortal asked with a nervous look on his face as he took a couple of steps into the room and then spotted Buffy, his face lighting up when he did.
"Yeah I'm…what are you doing here," Buffy replied with a relieved smile on her face before she walked over and gave The Immortal a kiss. As she pulled back she took on a thoughtful expression and stared oddly at him until he spoke.
"I heard that Kristine had been attacked and I came right over to see how she was doing, I don't know who could have done this, everyone loved Kristine," The Immortal answered with a very sad and worried look on his face as he walked to the foot of Kristine's bed and gazed sadly down at her.
"You can't think of anyone that could have done this, anyone at all," Giles asked with a serious tone to his voice as he looked up from his chair.
"No I…well there is one person, a vampire…she might have, her name is Mercedes, she's capable of doing this, if you find her don't listen to her, she lies constantly, I don't even know why I pay her," The Immortal replied with a flabbergasted look of exhaustion on his face as he did his best to sell the lie.
"Alright, we'll find her and make her pay for what she's done," Buffy said softly with a very determined look on her face as she, Giles, and Xander turned and stared straight at Kristine.
"Excellent," The Immortal thought to himself with an arrogant grin on his face as he began to plot his next move.
END OF CHAPTER 19