Lycanthrope, Vampirism, and Magick

Lycanthrope, Vampirism and Magick Chapter Fourteen

“Xander was right, you are a world class brooder.”

Angel had felt the witch come in earlier but had stayed silent in the corner hoping she would go away. With the addition of Lindsey to the equation he wasn’t entirely sure it was Wolfram & Hart that was attempting to capture the children. It could be a power play between the former lawyer and the Firm with the Halliwell Children was being pulled into the middle.

Piper crossed the room and sat in the chair opposite him. The eldest witch seemed determined to wait him out. He recognized something in Piper, something he was used to seeing in himself. She was the Matriarch of her family, the one who worried about everything from whether or not her children were safe to grilling Gunn on his intentions towards her middle sister. For that reason alone Angel figured that if anyone would understand, it would be her.

“Did he talk about us a lot?”

She snorted. “You’re kidding, right? Until this mess started Xander wouldn’t say five words in a row about his past. It ‘s hard on him; coming back here to face everyone all at once and under battle conditions. I’m glad you and Spike are there for him.”

“I know, for all that he says he’s fine the way they reacted hurt him. He’ll just joke and deal with it later, that’s what he’s always done.”

The witch looked him straight in the eye. “It might be what he’s done, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Right now he’s avoiding everyone from Sunnydale. I can understand it, but it’s not good. After we stop the lawyers from hell from taking my kids, if things haven’t gotten better I’m going to lock Xander in a room with that Willow girl at least. We’ve only known Xander for a short time, but he’s family. I think you know what happens to people who hurt family right?”

Angel merely nodded. While the Halliwells hasn’t used their powers that much as of yet, he’d asked Wesley to find out information. They were powerful enough to take on the entire San Francisco underworld. He was sure that if he ever let something happen to Xander he’d be a pile of dust within minutes.

“I understand. I feel the same about my people, Gunn included.”

“Good. Now that we’ve gotten the threats out of the way, mind telling me why you’re hiding out in here?”

Angel shifted uncomfortably under her stare. “I’m not hiding, I’m just…taking some time to think.”

“Uh huh. Right.”

Angel found himself squirming even more under her look. Piper reminded him a bit of his Mother, able to read him like a book no matter what he did.

“All right, I’m sitting here wondering how I could have prevented this. If we had been more vigilant about the Hellmouth, if I had blow up Wolfram & Hart when I had the chance, hell I could have taken it over and then your children wouldn’t be in danger.”

“Yeah, try again Angel. You and I both know that might have beens suck but there isn’t much you can do about it. Who knows, you could have turned back into Angelus under their roof; you can’t know what would have happened. You’re smart enough to know that. So what’s really got you in here?”

Angel got up and started pacing in the darkened room. He was in one of the rooms of the hotel near the others, but it had only two chairs and a small table in the room. No bed, no clothes, only a small light on the wall. Wesley called it his study, while Spike had more colorful terms for it, wanking room being just one of them.

“Spike followed Eve last night. She’s Wolfram & Hart’s top lawyer. Found out she was spending time with someone that used to work for them, a man named Lindsey. He hates me as much as he hates the Senior Partners and I wouldn’t put it past him to wait for either the Senior Partners to take me out or vice versa and then take on who’s left. Pit us against each other.”

Piper sat ignored his pacing. She had her eyes closed as if she were in deep thought. “I see what you mean, even if we stop one, we’ll still have the other to deal with and they’ll swoop in while we’re trying to get reorganized. We need to find a way to stop both of them at once.” She opened her eyes and stood up, meeting his gaze directly. “Lucky for you we’ve put together the beginning of a plan, and now that you’ve got your head out of your ass maybe we can use your knowledge to see if it will work. We just need to adapt it to this new information.”

Immediately Angel was hit with a wave of guilt. While he was…thinking, other people were working on the problem.

“Hey, stop that!”

“What?”

“Guilting. It’s just giving you more problems. You sit and worry and then something happens which makes you worry more. It’s a destructive circle and its not helping things. Now come on, I want to get my sisters, Wesley and the magick people from Sunnydale together to see if this will work.”

Before he could answer her Piper swept out of the room and Angel found himself following. It was rather disconcerting, that a young woman only a tenth of his age had such insight into his thought process. He found himself glad that Piper would be going back to San Francisco, having her in the same area as his Childe would leave him with no time to…think at all.

*****

The plan was simple on paper, but Spike thought it was the most stupid thing of his unlife. The witches and two Watchers were pooling the different types of magicks into one big project. The first part to put a magickal “padlock” on the Hellmouth so no amount of sacrifices or offgs wgs would open the sodding thing until doomsday finally came.

The second part was to put a binding spell on both Wolfram & Hart and that Lindsey bloke that had his Sire’s hair falling out. To do that they needed blood of someone connected to both parties.

Which was why he was left with the two Slayers, Giles, Paige and Xander to guard the hotel while the majority of the muscle went to find Little Miss Hot Britches Eve and get a…cell sample. She was the only being they knew of that had connections to both parties and Angel had said if they had to storm the office building they’d do it.

Only it sounded too easy. Get some blood, or better yet a finger or two, from the stupid bint and everything would be fine. He didn’t trust it.

Adding to his tension was the fact that he and Xander were left with mostly the Sunnydale people as backup. He didn’t know what the hell Angel and Piper were thinking, unless they were trying to make the former friends build fences. It worked to a certain point, Xander and Giles had had a civilize conversation before moonrise, mainly about the different techniques the pup had learned to control his beast.

Xander had tried to make meaningless small talk with Buffy, but while she’d answered back it was mostly one and two word answers. He’d given up before even trying Kennedy, changing to his halfling form as soon as the sunset. He had retreated to the roof while Spike had set up shop in the lobby. The others mainly walked around the hotel, keeping an eye out while Paige and Fred looked after the kiddies.

Spike found himself shifting nervously in his chair. He knew he wasn’t being paranoid; there were plenty of people out to get them. But there was an undercurrent of something unnamable in the air that had him on edge, as if soing ing was scraping down his spine.

The others had to stake out the lawyers offices and wait for Eve to leave on her own, if she ever did. They had been gone an hour before sunset, Angel leaving through the tunnels, and had been gone three hours now. They could be gone another three or walk in the door any minute. It couldn’t be soon enough for his tastes.

“You really expect me to believe that the three of you are going to live happily ever after?”

“No pet, but I do expect you to give us some respect.” He did not need to be having a heart to heart with Buffy while trying to watch the front of the hotel. Buffy spun around on her heel from where she’d been standing by the window with him and threw herself onto one of the lobby’s couches.

“I just don’t get it. I mean…Xander wasn’t gay when I knew him, and both you and Angel slept with me, so what Xander comes back and you all shack up together? It just doesn’t make sense.”

Spike fought to keep a chuckle in. He remembered a night long ago when his Sire had tried to fool him and the brown eyed mortal had given off a scent of not just anger but of arousal as well. Like many lads Xander had probably been unsure of what his sexuality was at the time. He’d been so distracted by the memory of Xander’s scent and the man-child that had been brave enough to swear at Angelus that he’d let the Slayer’s Mother of all people get jumpjump on him. Not that Joyce hadn’t been right fierce in protecting her children.

But he knew Buffy probably wouldn’t understand that.

“Don’t know about Xander ducks, but you’ve never really thought about what happens between a Sire and his Childer have you? I’ve always belonged to Angelus, just when Peaches went and got the soul he was a little balmy. We’ve always been fighting or fucking, sometime both.” Her little nose had wrinkles in it from the way it was squinched up and he was reminded of why he’d fallen in love for her. It wasn’t a good kind of love but it had been love none-the-less.

Spike tensed. He could hear Xander running down the stairs at top speed. Spike went to meet him and Xander morphed into human form, ignoring Buffy’s stare.

“Spike!! The blocks all around us have been blacked out and there isn’t any traffic, at all. No one walking or driving.”

Bugger. “Run and warn everyone pet, and get Paige to pop in on the others and let them know we’re gonna have company. Come back down here and help me watch the front, have Kennedy and Giles keep an eye on the back door.”

Xander didn’t argue, just turned and ran, morphing again in between strides and apparently unashamed of his nudity. If he had more time he would have enjoyed the view and Spike made a mental note to do just that later on. Right now he had a hotel to protect.

*****

Xander fought off his attackers, trying to keep from giving mortal wounds to the three humans that were trying to keep him away from the others. They had barely enough time to get positioned in the hotel before the front windows and doors were smashed and a group of humans, vampires, and demons tried to fight their way to the stairs; all of them heavily armed.

What made matters worse is Paige reported that Angel and the others were in a similar situation and would come as quickly as they could. Xander just hoped it would be soon.

Buffy was also facing humans, and not even doing as good a job as he was. He knew she was afraid to hurt them. Finally with a growl Xander stopped being nice and used his strength to throw off his attackers and slam them against the wall, one of them had claw marks down his middle and Xander didn’t regret it for a moment.

Spike had competently handling a trio of vamps, and Paige was using her powers to orb heavy objects and letting them fall on her opponents heads, usually using the weapons she’d taken away from them. He could hear fighting from Giles and Willow’s girlfriend but he hadn’t heard Giles say “bugger” yet, in High School that had always been the sign the Watcher was in over his head.

They were winning, just slowly. One of Spike’s vamps turned into dust and Xander made his way over to stop the gransla demon that was trying to sneak up on his lover.

“Ta Xan.”

He just nodded and looked to see where else he could help. A human had a rifle aimed at Buffy and he moved to block, jerking when the bullet hit his shoulder. It hurt like hell but wouldn’t do much permanent damage.

He didn’t even see the other shooter from the other side of the lobby. The one with a tranq gun rather than bullets. He felt something hit him in the stomach area and all of a sudden he howled and fell to the floor in convulsions.

It was as if his insides had been turned into fire; more painful than anything he had felt in a long time. He vaguely heard Spike’s roar of anger and the sound of bodies hitting the floor.

“Fuck, he’s gonna swallow his tongue. Hold his legs Slayer!”

Xander felt hands holding him down, keeping him from twisting in pain on the floor, while acid ran through his veins. He couldn’t even control his form, he could feel himself flickering between human and wolf, and he heard the conversation around him disjointedly.

“What…”

“He…saved me…”

“Fucking silver nitrate, it’s in his blood stream, poisoning…”

“Paige we need Leo…”

“…only can heal humans…”

And through it all the only two things Xander was truly aware of was the pain and Spike’s worried face. He barely had enough presence of mind to hear Paige as she fell to the floor beside him, Book of Shadows closed beside her.

“I have an idea.”

Then there were white sparking lights around him and the pain, the acid, which had been eating away at his insides felt like it was being pulled through his skin. He barely heard Spike’s sigh olieflief as darkness overtook him.