Chapter 25

Spike lounged against the door, smirking as his childe sparred with Wesley. Wesley was gasping, and sweat clung to him like a second skin.

"If you don't even give him a chance, how's he going to learn," Cordelia asked from where she and Angel were taking a break from their sparring.

Spike opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off.

"No other vampire would take it easy on him, so a vampire who's not actually going to kill him, definitely shouldn't. We can't get complacent just because Xander doesn't want to eat him."

Everyone turned as Willow and Buffy strode into the room. Placing their stuff on the floor, they smiled. "Everyone else is still getting their stuff from the car, but we couldn't wait," Willow said.

Spike turned to Cordelia. "The Slayer's right. We can't be complacent."

Xander had moved to hug Willow, lifting her off the ground and swinging her in his arms as she giggled. He set her down and nodded to Buffy with a smile, unable to make himself hug her. His every instinct was telling him to kill her or run.

"Besides, Wesley should never assume I don't want to eat him."

Everyone stared at Xander.

Wesley cleared his throat. "I'd never think that, Xander."

Xander beamed playfully. "Good. Because I still have those instincts, Wesley."

"I know, Xander," Wesley assured him, smiling fondly.

Xander sighed, relieved. "Ready for another round?"

"I think perhaps we should greet our guests first," Wesley replied, still trying to catch his breath.

Xander smirked knowingly and shrugged. "Sure."

As the Sunnydale group trickled into the lobby, Angel, Cordelia, and Wesley greeted everyone and made introductions before Cordelia took over directing everyone to their rooms. While the vampires were all on the third floor, everyone else was on the newly refurbished first floor, far enough away that the Slayer and vampires wouldn't bother each other's instincts, but still close enough to move easily between the floors and chat if they wanted to.

When everyone was settled, they all moved back down to the main lobby, then into a rarely-used sitting room next to Angel's office. As Angel and Wesley caught everyone up on their plan, Spike and Xander settled next to one another on the sofa, and Willow sat next to Xander while Buffy and Giles and the rest of Angel's team sat in chairs around the room.

"So, I understand that you want Buffy there for backup, but what exactly is Willow going to be doing," Giles asked.

"Well, that's only partially true," Angel said. "We appreciate you all coming, and we're glad to have you all for backup."

"But Willow has a very special role," Spike added.

"Yep. I'm going to bring down the house," Willow said, smiling.

"What does that mean?" Giles was calmer than Xander had expected, considering the situation.

"It means they're never going to know what hit them," Xander said, grinning.

Giles found himself smiling in spite of himself. Xander was still…Xander, for all their worrying.

"While that is very good news, that still doesn't answer my question," Giles responded patiently.

Wesley picked up the conversation, explaining the roles they had envisioned for everyone.

"So, we'll just sneak in and take them out? That sounds too easy," Gunn said.

"It does," Buffy replied. "It'd be great if it worked, but…"

"But I learned a new spell," Willow said. "It'll give us a few hours of coverage to get set up. They won't know we're there until we want them to. It's the only improvement I made to the plan. Apparently when Angel and Spike did this before, it went down almost perfectly. But since there will be so many of us, and some of us are human, it's better if I give us a little leverage."

Spike nodded. "If Angel and I went in by ourselves—"

"Hey!" Xander's voice was indignant.

"If Angel and I went in by ourselves," Spike repeated, ignoring his childe. "Or if we went with Xander," he said, turning to wink at Xander, who smiled, satisfied he wasn't being left out. "We could probably catch them by surprise. But it'll be a lot more effective if we all go in under cover of Willow's spell."

"W-what do w-we gain by doing this," Tara asked cautiously.

Xander turned to stare at her as though she'd grown another head. "Revenge," he replied.

Tara smiled softly. "I-is th-that enough r-reason for us h-humans?"

Buffy and Willow both opened their mouths to answer, but surprisingly, it was Giles who replied. "Yes, it is," he said. "This was a deliberate attack against the Slayer, against very human members of our group. It is enough reason for me."

Tara nodded, satisfied.

Wesley and Angel nodded decisively while Spike and Xander settled back into the couch, saved from having to argue their point. It was all going according to plan.