Anne watched from the window of her room, her prison, as the warriors returned from battle. She hadn't wanted to wait, but she needed to see what the damages were. Where was Rodney? Where were the kids? "Oh God," She put both hands over her mouth to stifle her gasping sobs. She felt like she couldn't breathe. "Please God no," Anne fell to her hands and knees. She crawled over to her nightstand and pulled out the drawer. Inside was the vial of drugs the blond vampire had given her. Anne grabbed the vial and squeezed. Glass shattered, imbedding itself in her flesh. She picked the biggest piece and gritted her teeth.
…
The hotel was so quiet. Gunn wanted to shout, to break the silence, but he felt like someone had opened a container of Elmer's glue and poured the contents down his throat. He wanted to do something, but the glue had reached his bloodstream and was shutting him down piece by piece. Rodney, he'd been one of the gang's first members, back when they were a bunch of stupid kids with stakes and gigantic chips on their shoulders.
Angel couldn't get it out of his head. All of that blood, it was the smell that was the worst of it. The smell had been so… appetizing. Angel's hands began to shake. He looked at the sword in his right hand, looked at the puss and blood that stained the blade. He threw the sword at the weapon's cabinet. The glass shattered. Knives, axes, and swords clattered to the ground with a deafening sound. Shards of glass reflected light from the candles someone had lit.
In the complete silence the echoes of their memories deafened them. First the cabinet, then the fight, then the sight, the smell, the terrible silence. Kate managed to speak. "Who's going to clean that up?" Angel felt a terrible fury rise in him, but when he turned to face Kate to tell her off he saw that she was crying. She was trying so hard to hold the tears in her face was turning red, but the hot water droplets escaped anyway.
Gunn remembered a stupid teenager who got thrown across the alley by a vampire. He remembered Rodney standing over him, holding out his hand. 'Let's dust this sucker.'
"Something isn't right." Kate whispered
"I'd bloody well say it isn't." Spike muttered
"No," Kate said "Something doesn't fit." She looked at Wesley. "You tricked us."
Wesley looked at Kate as if he hadn't noticed her standing there until now. "What?"
"You took us inside, so they could kill the kids. You tricked us, it was a trap."
Gunn and Spike shared looks of disbelief. Angel stared at Kate in shock. Wesley just laughed. "I found out where the sacrifice was going to be. We went to stop it-"
"We went to stop it." Kate said "You just sat there."
"I'm a ghost you twat." Wesley said "What did you want me to do, moan at them?" Kate started to reply, but she never got a syllable in. "Listen you ungrateful bitch," Wesley said "You haven't been here for very long, so let me get you up to speed. I've done a lot of things I can be ashamed of. I can't think of a person I give a damn about who I've never betrayed. But I never betrayed you. I didn't lead you into a trap, I led you on a rescue mission. I told Lilah I was going to keep my mouth shut, I had no idea she was going to send the cleaning crew in before the sacrifice." Wesley looked at the ground, his shoulders heavy with an unseen burden. "But it doesn't matter, we won." He whispered "We stopped the Wolf from crossing over. We won the ground, but we lost the…"
"The lambs," Spike said "We lost the lambs, but we won the ground."
"Score one for the good guys." Gunn's voice was empty of any emotion.
Something occurred to Wesley. "Illyria,"
"I guess I should let her out." Angel reached into his pocket for the key.
"Don't." Wesley said "We were going to have to lock her up eventually anyway."
"Why?" Kate asked
"We're gonna kill the bloody bitch is why." Spike said, forgoing delicacy.
"We're going to save Fred." Angel explained
"With the file Lilah gave Wesley for not betraying us." Kate said sarcastically "I remember." Her shoulders drooped and she seemed to lose all energy. "I'm going to bed, let me know if someone else has to die today."
Kate headed upstairs and Wes head for the door. "We don't have a lot of time until the full moon, they'll need a new spot for the sacrifice. I'll see what I can find out."
"Good luck," Angel said before realizing how stupid that sounded. "Wesley,"
"What?" Angel's old friend looked so tired.
"I never got to tell you." Angel looked at Wesley and saw a ghost. Wesley was dead yes, but he was also dead to the world. There was only one thing keeping him here, keeping him in this fight. Wesley's body died the night they took on the circle, and so did much of his soul.
"Tell me what?"
"I'm so sorry for what I did to you." Angel didn't need to explain.
Wesley processed this. "I'm not. There are parts of me that still remember… things that make me not sorry. I don't think my life could ever have really been any better than it was."
Wesley left with those words and Angel swore to himself that one way or another he would save the man's soul. Shouting from upstairs drew his attention and he headed to the first floor with Spike and Gunn.
…
Kate passed by Anne's room on the way to her own and saw Conner's father standing guard by the door. "Have you seen Conner?" The man asked
Kate shook her head. "Not since we left." Kate could hear the words, but she didn't say them. Her body was on auto-pilot. Her brain was shutting down.
"He ran off after asking me to guard this young lady's room." He explained
Kate looked at the door. "Twenty-two," She whispered
Conner's father didn't understand, but he sensed it was best not to ask Kate any more questions. She was clearly upset. "If you see Conner would you tell him his mother is looking for him?" He requested "She seemed upset."
Kate nodded. She turned back toward the direction of her room and screamed. "Jesus!"
Teresa was an inch away, staring into Kate's eyes with her demon ones. "She's dying."
Kate took several steps back and let her heartbeat slow. "What?"
Teresa pointed at Anne's door. "I can speak, Anne dies."
It clicked in Kate's head and she reached for the doorknob, but it wouldn't turn. "Where is the key?" She demanded of Conner's father. She pounded on the door. "Anne!"
"Conner has it-" Conner's dad quit midsentence when Kate slammed herself into the door. It only took her a couple tries to break one of the old hinges. Kate slammed her foot into the space between the other two and the wood of the old door snapped, the door leaving its frame completely. Kate walked over the broken piece of wood and rushed over to Anne who was digging into her veins with a sharp piece of glass.
Kate grabbed Anne by the shoulders and threw her against the wall. "What are you doing?!" Kate felt a rabid fury within herself. "How dare you?! How fucking dare you?!"
Anne wept, she wept in sorrow and in fear. "Please let me die."
"You want to die! Huh? Do you want to die?!"
Anne nodded. "Please, please let me die."
Kate grabbed a clump of Anne's hair and dragged her over to the vanity. "Look!" She gripped Anne's chin with her hand and forced her face toward the mirror. "Look at yourself!"
Anne screamed. "Why? Why? Just let me di-i-i." She could barely get the last word out between labored tearful breaths. "Please let me go."
"No!" Kate screamed as Gunn and the two vampires entered the room.
"Kate!" Angel said "Stop it!"
Kate threw Anne back against the wall. "You don't get to die!" She slammed her fist into the wall next to Anne's head, bruising her knuckles. Anne yelped in terror. "Every morning I want you to get up and look in that mirror! I want you to look at what you are and what you've done! You want to die?" Kate grabbed Anne's hair and yanked her down to the floor. "Earn it,"
Anne curled into the fetal position among the tiny shards of glass and continued to sob.
"You're pathetic," Kate said as she headed out of the room.
Gunn knelt down next to Anne and gently pulled her up, letting her collapse into his chest where tears and snot soaked his shirt. "Can you ask your wife to bandage her arms?" Gunn whispered to Conner's dad. The man left to find his wife.
As Kate passed by Spike he brought his hands together in a thunderous clap. "Bloody brilliant love, excellent performance."
Angel shoved Spike back as he followed Kate, who was ignoring them both. "Kate,"
"No," She said "You don't get to speak."
"Why?" Angel asked "What did I do to you that was so terrible?"
"You're a killer!" Kate screamed "We're all killers," she whispered
"We tried to save them." Angel said
Kate stopped walking away, having realized she'd already passed her room. Kate turned around and walked toward Angel. "Angel I want to live." She walked up to him and stopped close enough to count his pores. "I want to live." She lay her head on his chest. "I want to live."
"I know." Angel wrapped his arms around her. "I know."
"I want to live." She began to cry. "I don't want to die. I want to live."
"Shhhh," Angel held her and let her cry it out. When she was done he walked her to her room. "Are you going to be okay?" He asked, surveying her cuts and bruises. "Maybe someone should take a look at that." But he knew her most dire wounds were internal.
Kate took off her shirt and touched a large purple bruise on her abdomen. "Do you think it's serious?" She asked "Feel it." She took his hand and placed it over the bruise.
"Kate," Angel stepped back
"I hated you." Kate said "I can't do it anymore. I wanted the world to make sense. I wanted good and evil to be neat categories with clear definitions. Anne betrayed us."
"I know this is hard on you."
"Of all the people here she seemed the most good, she was like an-" Kate snickered.
Angel smiled, unsure how he managed it. "Nothing is what it seems."
"She's responsible for the deaths of twenty-two people." Kate said
"I've killed a lot more than that." Angel said
"Then why can't I hate you right now? I feel like I should hate you, because you're the thing I despise. You plunged my home into hell and let those people die. I should hate you, but all I want is for you to hold me." Kate walked by him and closed the door. She stepped up to him and removed her bra. "I need you to hold me."
"I shouldn't." Angel said, but to his shame he wanted to.
"Are you even close to happy, even close to content?" Kate asked
In response Angel put his mouth to hers, slid his tongue into her mouth and clutched her body. He wanted to take comfort in her. He remembered tasting her blood in the museum. He wanted to taste the other parts of her. She wanted to be a part of something, and they became one. She felt her fear fall away and let her mind close shop. Her body knew what to do.
…
The first time Conner went to the beach he stood in front of the waves and thought about what it must be like to be under them, to be held by the darkness from which there was no escape. He wondered what it would be like to suffocate on the cold. In the background he had heard Fred and Gunn talking and when he heard Holtz's name he began to pay attention. They didn't know that he could hear them, didn't know he could hear things no normal human would be able to. Like now, as he sat in the basement with his back to the bars of the cage. Illyria sat in a similar way. Their shoulders touched, her hair brushed his neck. They were connected, but separated by the metal bars. He had told her everything that was being said upstairs. He had told her what his father planned to do. He felt ice spread over his heart.
"Will you help me Conner?"
"Yes," His breath was cold.
"Will you help me escape?"
"Yes,"
"Will you help me to kill Angel?"
Conner remembered what his father had said to him before he pushed him into the cold, dark ocean. 'Never forget that I'm your father and that I love you.' Conner had pushed him into the cold darkness for a murder he had nothing to do with. Yet all he had to say were words of love. "Maybe there is another way." Conner said
"There is no other way to save me. You said that you would help me. I trust you."
"I trust you to." Conner felt numb.
"Conner,"
"I'll be right back." Conner stood up. "I promise,"
…
Wesley entered Lilah's office.
"It's customary to knock." Lilah didn't even look up from her files.
"I can't, noncorporeal."
"Good point," She finally glanced up and gave him a smile. "Have a seat."
Wesley sat down where she had gestured. He watched her for a few moments, her smooth skin, her voluminous hair. He traced the lines of her body with his eyes, filling in the parts her clothes concealed with old memories. He looked at the line around her neck from where he had chopped off her head. He remembered how hard it had been, but he had to make sure she wouldn't return to join the ranks of the undead. "Wasted effort," He muttered
"Don't say that." Lilah said "You stopped the Wolf from crossing over."
"That's not what I was talking about." Wesley said "We won."
"Just think of them as collateral damage." Lilah suggested flippantly
Wesley didn't even have it in him to be angry. "I can't. I know how it feels."
"Right," Lilah remembered "I almost forgot you've had your throat cut."
"It's not an experience one quickly forgets." Wesley looked around the office. "Not much decoration." He noted "I guess you weren't planning on staying long."
"I've been so busy." Lilah said "No time to go shopping even if there was anywhere left to shop. Besides, wall decorations are so fake, it's us trying to show an image that isn't real."
"I've been thinking." Wesley said "About what I could have missed. I've been turning everything over in my mind trying to figure out what I overlooked."
"You didn't overlook anything." Lilah said "We just overpowered you."
"The killing moon," Wesley spoke as though Lilah hadn't. "It's worshipped by werewolf cults, people who celebrate their condition instead of hating it. Those who gain the power to control the transformation turn on days they shouldn't have and make sacrifices to the moon. The moon transforms into something even more powerful than the full moon and gives the werewolves power. That's who the acolytes are. Werewolves serve the Wolf."
Lilah said nothing, just looked at him.
Wesley grinned. For a moment he looked like the man he was three years ago. "I was right. I wasn't sure; I had to test you." He got up to go.
"I'm starting to miss it." Lilah said
"What?" Wesley asked, surprised to find he really did want to know.
Lilah held out her hand, palm facing upward. There was a ballpoint pen on it. "I can touch this. I can hold it. I can't feel Wesley." She put down the pen then picked up a file and dropped it on her desk. "I can't feel anything. I can touch, but not be touched. I could put a picture on my desk, and I'd be able to see it but the image would have no meaning."
Wesley tried to squash the pity he felt for her by reminding himself she was responsible for twenty-two deaths. He was disgusted with himself when it didn't work. "I know."
"I'm losing touch Wes, I don't know how long I have."
"Me neither," Wesley admitted "I'm trying to hold on. There's so much to hold on to, but I'm forgetting. I'm forgetting what I was. There's a boy locked under the stairs. Is he me? I don't remember Lilah. There's a man in Sunnydale making a fool of himself in the library with a beautiful girl. Who is that man? I'm forgetting the glue that holds the pieces together and they're falling away. I'm afraid that soon I'll forget them, the ones that I love."
Lilah stared at him like she was trying to see him through a fog. "I'm glad you're not there to touch, otherwise I wouldn't be able to resist. Not being able to feel you would drive me crazy. Feeling you is the last thing I have to hold onto. There is someone very important to me, someone I love so much. I think she's my mother, but I can't remember. I just remember touching you. I wish I hadn't torn it in half." Lilah reached in a drawer and pulled out the two halves of the dollar bill. "But I can't remember why. It was so important."
Wesley wanted to reach out and touch her, comfort her. He was glad he couldn't and therefore didn't have to resist the temptation to. He knew what Lilah was talking about. "You chose this. You signed a piece of paper and chose this for designer shoes."
"It's not just that Wesley." Lilah sighed and leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling. "This is what I'm good at. This was the only way for me to have power. I knocked the big strong men down a few pegs. I turned cocky narcissists into my bitches. I had to do this job Wesley because I can do this job. I wanted to be somebody."
"But you're not." Wesley said "You're a figment."
"Would you go back and change it if you could?" Lilah asked "Leave California and never look back? Live a completely different life?"
Wesley shook his head. "No, not anymore."
"Because you love them?"
Wesley nodded.
"It keeps you alive."
"For now,"
Lilah laid her hand flat on her desk. "Maybe if you hover your hand over mine I can pretend I feel it. We can both pretend. We'll pretend we remember what human skin feels like and that we're feeling it right now." Lilah's eyes begged him to consent.
"I have to go Lilah, but it was nice talking to you." Lilah watched him go and when he was gone she burst into tears. She looked for something to hurl at the wall that would give a nice satisfying shatter, like a picture frame or a coffee mug. But Lilah couldn't look at pictures or drink coffee so she just kept crying instead.
…
Conner sat on his mother's bed while she massaged his temples. He remembered she used to do this for him when he was a little boy and used to get bad headaches. He remembered it even though when he was a little boy he lived in a hell dimension with his kidnapper.
"Tell me what's going on Conner."
"If I tell you, things will only get worse. You guys are the only normal thing I have left."
"If you tell me, maybe I can help." Conner thought about the stake in his nightstand, he thought about going into Angel's room while he was sleeping and plunging it into his heart. Was he still capable of such a thing? Had he ever not been?
"Tell me a story from when I was a little boy."
"All right," She continued to massage his head. "Do you remember when you were nine and everyone thought you got lost in the woods playing hide and seek while we were visiting grandpa? We looked for you for five hours. Then the sun started to go down and we went inside to get some flashlights out of the hall closet and there you were, fast asleep. Your grandma almost had a heart attack when she saw you curled up next to the vacuum."
"She screamed like a banshee." Conner recalled
His mother started to play with his hair. "We were so glad you were all right."
"I'm lost in the woods mom." Conner confessed. "I'm lost and I can't find the path."
Conner felt his mother wrap her arms around him. "I'm here baby. Whenever you feel lost just know I'm here. Home is wherever I am."
…
Spike was taking his turn guarding Illyria's cage. Angel had suggested it when he finished boning Kate. Nobody else suspected, but Spike could smell it on them, the heat. Angel had declared that Spike would take the first four hour shift. Spike had done so. The time had dragged on forever as Illyria stood silently in the corner. The twenty hours he had off had passed much more quickly. Spike was almost tempted to strike up a conversation with Illyria.
"Do you think that he will not betray you?"
"What was that love?" Spike had heard her very clearly and they both knew it.
"He is loyal only to his own desires, such is the weakness of man."
"You made some progress in your humanity studies I see." Spike commented
"I learned something interesting from the shell's memories." Illyria said
Spike knew that listening to what came next would be a mistake, he needed to get her away from this topic. But he couldn't help himself. "What?"
"Humanity's greatest weakness is its sentiment. I have been infected by it. The shell has left me her memories of love and friendship, these meaningless feelings that are only symptoms of base urges and instinctual needs. Wesley's treachery against your leader was born of love. His fear of pursuing the woman he desired was caused by his love for her and his desire not to harm her. Gunn's love for his sister allowed for others to weaken him by taking her. Fred's love of learning and of her fellow humans made her curious and trusting. This is what allowed her to be infected by me. Cordelia left this plane to fight elsewhere because she loved Angel and wanted to look after him. Angel loved all four of these people, and all of them hurt him."
"You think you know things huh?" Spike asked "You don't know anything about love."
"What have I left out?" Illyria asked
"All of those people did hurt Angel, but he still loves them."
"Because he is weak." Illyria said matter-of-factly
"Because they're worth it. You're not."
Illyria reacted to this like a slap in the face. "I am a god." She protested
"You're a parasite." Spike rebuffed "You're an infection."
"I was loyal to your cause. I fought by your side, protected your weak points! I comforted Wesley as he lay dying and he betrayed me! I followed your rules! I obeyed your laws! I attempted to learn humanity but humans have revealed themselves to be no more than what I thought they were, scum. You are worms wriggling and blind. Your lives know no meaning and are over before they begin. Even you half breed will have a short life compared to the millennia during which I reigned over all things."
"But your time is up sweetheart, and you can't handle it can you?"
"The keeper told me I did not belong in this world." Illyria said "He told me I should never have returned. The world belongs to the humans now."
"That's right." Spike said
"So I must die because I am not human?" Illyria questioned
"No," Spike explained "You must die so that Fred can live."
"And you must find reasons to hate me in order to ease your guilty conscience."
Her statement took Spike by surprise. Maybe Illyria really had learned something about humanity. Not that it mattered, soon she would be gone.
"You truly are weak." Illyria said as though she could read his mind.
…
Lorne watched Angel pack. "Wesley has no idea where the real sacrifice is taking place?"
"No, but he's fairly sure the fake one is still on. Wolfram & Hart never cancel a good sacrifice if they can help it. Wes is on full research mode at W&H and he's also trying to pump Lilah for information. You stay here and look after everyone. Kate is guarding Illyria. Make sure Spike, Conner, and Gunn are ready to leave at a moment's notice if Wes shows up with information." Angel grabbed the bag of weapons and headed for the door.
"Are you sure you can handle this by yourself?" Lorne asked
"I have to." Angel answered
...
Gunn sat on the edge of Anne's bed. She had been in a near catatonic state for the last two days. She never moved or spoke. The only action she took was eating when someone fed her, but they would actually have to spoon the food into her mouth and then she would chew and swallow. This task always fell to Gunn. "Anne,"
Silence as usual. She stared straight ahead. Gunn wondered what she saw.
"Anne you need to wake up now, you hear?"
Anne's bandaged arms lay on the sheets. Conner's mother had tucked her in after changing them. They were a stainless white with no sign of what lay beneath.
"Things aren't so great around here. Wesley's been working full time at Wolfram and Hart trying to figure out how to stop them. Conner won't talk to anyone but his family. Illyria keeps making a big fuss down in her cage. I hate when I have to guard her, it's miserable." Gunn sighed. "I hope things are better where you are Anne. I hope you're happy."
Gunn gripped Anne's limp hand and might as well have been touching a corpse. Part of him wondered why he still bothered. If Anne had checked out, what could he do?
"I have nice dreams sometimes. There was this ballet," Gunn explained "We all got dressed up and Lorne stayed here with the baby. I had on this snazzy tux, the girls were wearing these fabulous dresses. We sat down and the show started, Anne, it was beautiful, watching these people dance was like, there's no cool way to say it, it was like watching human emotion in its purest form. I wish we could have stayed there forever. I wish we could have gone onstage and become just pure emotion. We could have put away the messy details and just loved each other."
Gunn picked Anne's hand off the sheet and gripped it in both of his. "That's over now Anne. I have to move on. I can't keep thinking of the way things were. Every morning I get up, I look at myself, I think 'I killed someone I love' and I start my day. I don't let a day go by without reminding myself that I'm responsible for killing Fred. You see I loved Fred and knowing what I did to her feels like dying every day. You've got that times twenty-two and it's enough to make anyone want to not wake up. You have to wake up though Anne."
No movement, no sound. "We can do it together. I'll let go of what I did to Fred; you let go of Rodney and the kids. You don't have to forget them, just acknowledge it was a mistake and move on. There's still a lot of good you can do."
Shouts and screams erupted from throughout the Hyperion. Gunn dropped Anne's hand and opened the door to the hall. An enormous Werewolf pounced on him, sinking its teeth into his arm. Gunn screamed in pain. His arm still wasn't fully healed from the acidic puss burns of two days ago. The wolf increased the pressure, seconds away from snapping bone.
With a crash the vanity mirror landed on the wolf, startling it enough to allow Gunn to free his arm. Anne stood over the pair, having thrown the mirror down on the wolf, but she wasn't done. She picked up a large shard of glass and planted it in the wolf's neck, cutting her freshly bandaged hand in the process. Gunn staggered to his feet and watched the wolf revert to the form of a naked young man. Anne fainted, but Gunn caught her.
Another wolf bounded toward the door and Gunn slammed it shut. He pushed the mirrorless vanity in front of the door and laid Anne on the bed. When every other stick of furniture was in front of the door Gunn climbed out the window and worked his way over to the next room, tumbling inside to the scene of a wolf dragging a boy away.
"Bad dog," Gunn said as he smashed a chair, turning one of its legs into a handy club.
…
Wesley observed Harmony run into the lobby from the stairwell. "You found it?"
"Yep," Harmony said as she ran behind her desk to get the duffle bag Wesley had helped her prepare yesterday. "Let's go,"
Wes was pleasantly surprised Harmony had actually come through. "We'll swing by the Hyperion to collect Gunn, Conner, and Spike; then we head straight to the sacrifice."
"Oh yeah," Harmony said "I probably should have said the Hyperion is where I followed Lilah to as soon as I came through the door huh?"
Wesley broke into a run. For every pleasant surprise there was a nightmarish catastrophe to counterbalance. Wesley prayed Angel wouldn't come back from halting the fake sacrifice to find his home destroyed and everyone he loved dead.
…
Spike threw the werewolf into one of its brethren. The world was coming apart around him, and he couldn't keep up. Every person he snatched away from the wolves revealed two more, and the initial person fell into danger again.
"Spike!" Gunn tossed him a sword.
"No!" Lorne shouted. "These are innocent people!"
"Innocent people that want to kill us!" Kate kicked a wolf in the ribs and punched it in the jaw. She slammed a knife into one paw.
Spike slashed a wolf in the face. "No killing, yes maiming." He compromised
A wolf pounced on Spike. He struggled with the creature and then felt it be pulled off of him. He looked up to see a beautiful blond slayer. "You don't call, you don't write." Spike grinned as Buffy extended a hand to help him to his feet. "Maim don't kill you said?"
"Right,"
"Let's put on a show."
…
Wesley and Harmony closed in on the Hyperion to see Lilah with an empty glass jar in her hand. "We're too late." Wesley said, unable to quite believe it
"That you are lover boy." Lilah agreed "But stick around and enjoy the show."
Wes ran for the door but was repelled by the mystical barrier Lilah had just completed putting the finishing touches to. He ran to another section of the wall and achieved the same results. "Wesley I don't think that's going to work!" Harmony shouted unhelpfully
"You don't even know the best part yet." Lilah said in her sing-song voice "Guess who went in just before the barrier went up?" Lilah's lovely grin now looked grotesque.
"The sacrifices have to be innocent." Wesley said "Vampires and demons won't do."
"No that's true," Lilah conceded "But maybe the wolves will grab a slayer or two."
Wesley stared at the Hyperion. 'This is a house of evil.' 'Not anymore.' Now it was again. Wesley thought about Gunn and Kate. Were they innocent enough for the sacrifice?
"Cheer up Wes," Lilah said "You're being afforded a rare opportunity. Few get to meet the Wolf and even fewer live to tell of it. You're already dead so it's zero risk." Lilah put her hands on her hips and surveyed the scene with pride. "This is going to be great."
