Lycanthrope, Vampirism, and Magick

“Hey!”

Xander figured he had two choices; either go back in and get Piper and Phoebe, which would give the demon time, or confront it right away. It looked like a human, a woman in her mid-twenties, but the scent was defiantly a demon.

The woman turned, saw Xander and immediately went into a damsel in distress act. “Excuse me, I was supposed to meet my best friend near the club but I can’t find her and I don’t have the money for a cover charge. Is there any way you’ll let me sneak in through the back?”

Sure, like he was going to fall for that old line. Okay so he looked nineteen still, weres didn’t really age all that much, but still were there anyone out there who was that stupid?

“Sorry miss, everyone has to go in through the front.”

She turned up the charm, pheromones oozing off of her. “But I’m sure we can work something out, see my friend is one of the owners, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind, in fact she’d probably reward you for helping me.”

Now he was sure she was up to no good, Phoebe would have said something. Stit wit wouldn’t be polite to kill her in the alley, plus he couldn’t help but wonder what she wanted. Most regular demons steered clear of P3, they knew the Charmed Ones ran the place and hunted elsewhere.

“Sure, come on in.” As soon as the woman’s back was turned, he raised his arm and pinched a nerve in her neck, knocking her unconscious. He stuck his head out of the backroom and hollered at one of the other bartenders. “Hey Jack! Can you ask Piper of Phoebe to come back here for a sec?”

“Sure thing Xan, no problem.”

Xander dug through the miscellaneous odds and ends in the backroom till he came up with an old shirt someone had left. It might have been the future version of Chris, he wasn’t sure, thinking about time shifting made his head hurt. Mentally shrugging he tore the shirt into strips and tied the woman up. He was pretty sure she was a lower demon, one with more power wouldn’t have tried to talk their way in, they would have attacked.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Piper came in just as the woman, demon, started to stir.

“She followed me home Mom, can I keep her?”

Piper just rolled her eyes, “That only works with werewolves, not women you have tied up in the back room, and why is she tied up back here anyhow?”

“She’s a demon of some type, was trying to s in in the back. Thought you might wanna ask her why, that sort of thing.”

“Good, as long as it’s not some sort of weird wolf bondage then.”

This time it was Xander who rolled his eyes, “Well maybe if she was a he, might be fun, but as she is, no I don’t think so. I’ll go out front, cover for you and tell Phoebe.”

He made his way to the main part of the club, through the smoke and crowd till he caught Phoebe’s scent and followed it to her. was was talking to a good-looking man, near thirties with dark hair. He hated to do this to her, but it had to be done.

”Ms. Halliwell, your sister needs you in the back.” This was their signal for demon trouble, Xander had gotten tired of the ‘Piper needs you to help with a thing, you know a De thing’ dance they’d been doing, it was just too silly.

“Oh, okay, um can you get Greg here a drink on me Xander while I check and see what she needs?”

”Sure”

Xander got the man a drink, and went started back to work. If the sisters needed him, they’d call.

Five minuets later they both came out of the back. Phoebe didn’t even stop to talk to the guy she had picked up, and Piper came over and started dragging Xander out of the back, telling Jack he was in charge for the rest of the night.

He didn’t fight Piper’s pull on his arm either; he picked up his pace and followed them out. Both sisters smelled of intense fear, whatever was happening was bad.

“Can you run faster than the car?”

“Huh? Maybe as fast, but I can go through places your SUV can’t.” Piper’s question threw him off.

“Good, go, we’ll follow.”

Xander started stripping, the sisters were used to seeing him starkers anymore, no reason to ruin a good pair of pants by shifting forms in them. Besides he started morphing already and had the hair to cover most of the important bits. He threw his clothes to Phoebe, turned around and by the time he had reached the alley he was running on all fours.

Things always looked different from this angle, everything felt taller somehow. Xander raced through back alleys, sidewalks and then finally backyards and even over a roof, trying to get to the manor.

When he finally got to the house, it seemed quiet from the outside, but when he shifted to a more human form and slipped in through the back door he could hear the sounds of a fight, Paige using her unique blend of orbing and telekinesis to call for books, lamps, other heavy items and throwing them at her attackers.

Xander stayed in his upright form and quietly slipped into the living room where Paige was pinned down. Both children were crying, Wyatt in his playpen and Chris in a bassinet, a force shield protecting both of them.

The demons were smallish, about four feet, but lethal looking with long fangs and claws. There were about seven of them, four near the entrance to the kitchen and the other three trying for the stairs that led to the upper floors including where the sister’s Book of Shadows, their family spell book, was kept.

Xander used his speed and stealth to sneak up behind the four in front of him, twisting their necks cleanly, the sound of bones and cartilage snapping filling his ears. The other three turned to see what was happening and Paige used their distraction to orb in one of Xander’s swords from the basement and used the skills he’d been teaching her to quickly finish them off, two loosing their heads and the third being given a fatal wound in the gut.

“Ewwww! Gods, I hate using pointy objects, they leave a mess to clean up and it’s hard to get demon blood out of the rug.”

“Don’t look at me, you made the mess you clean it.”

Both witch and werewolf were making their way to check on the children as they bantered. A hug and a cuddle were all that they needed really, although Wyatt was practicing his new found ability to speak.

”Bad! Bad de!”

“Yes Wyatt, bad demon, they’re not gonna get you, promise.” Paige had returned Chris to his sleeping spot but kept the toddler on her hip, rocking him gently.

“Hey you keep and eye on them Paige, I’ll check the house and the yard. Piper and Phoebe should be here any miniute too.”

“How did you guys know I needed help? I tried to call for Leo but he didn’t come.”

“Bar, demon, the usual.”

Xander switched to his wolf form, it was good camouflage, his coat a deep brown color that almost matched the shadows he was moving through. The second floor was clear, no demons hiding in closets or under the bed or any other clichéd places.

He made his way into the attic. There were more hiding places up here, but because the Book was in this room there were also more magickal defenses. Still he checked around, his nose to the floor trying to catch any scent that didn’t belong.

Finding nothing he went back downstairs, stopping to nuzzle both Piper and Phoebe’s hands to make sure they were safe before going outside, checking the backyard and the neighboring yards for any signs of demons. Across the street there was signs that someone had been watching the house, a human. Cigarette butts and indentations in the grass indicating that whoever it was had been there for some time.

They were gone now. Xander tried tracking the scent but it ended at an empty parking space. In a smaller town he might have a chance at tracking the car, but never in a city as big as San Francisco. He made his way back to the house, slipping in the back door again but this time making sure it was locked. He then checked out the basement. Nothing there but he grabbed a pair of sweatpants and shifted into his human form. Time to figure out what was going on.

An hour later they still didn’t know much, the Book of Shadows not having any information on the “munchkin demons” as Paige called them, and not being able to contact Leo. The White Lighter wasn’t usually this hard to call, always keeping an ear open to his family, so everyone was worried, especially Piper.

Finally, after tensions in the house was reaching an all time high and Xander was ready to run in circles out of frustration, Leo orbed in, sparkling lights marking his appearance.


“Everybody okay?”

“Leo what the hell is going on here? Why didn’t you come what Paige called you?”

“There was some sort of masking spell, I didn’t hear anything until after the attack. I checked with the Elders to see what was going on before coming down here, it’s not good.”

The Elders were the ones in charge of the White Lighters, part of the Powers that Be. Leo had once been one of them, but in saving the world from spell gone bad and saving Wyatt he had killed, something no Elder should ever do. He was lucky that he was just demoted to being the Charmed Ones White Lighter once again, it could have been so much worse.

Xander sighed, hands running through his hair, pulling at it. It was getting close to morning, they’d been up all night and everyone was tired, their nerves strained to the breaking point. All three sisters looked like they were about to fall over and Leo wasn’t much better. “Just give us a summary and we’ll get into the details more tomorrow once we’ve all had some sleep? Okay?”

“Here goes. Thanks to Xander we all know a bit about the Hellmouth. Well last year a souled vampire sacrificed his life to close it, half of Sunnydale turning into a giant sinkhole in the process. Someone, well several someone it seems, wants to re-open the Hellmouth, this time in L.A. They are gathering sacred items to do this with, but they also need sacrifices of great power. That being said they are looking to get their hands on both the Book of Shadows and the boys.”



Angel listened from the basement of the Hyperion as the others came back from wherever it was they had been. He tried not to care. It hurt when you cared. All he cared about was how many times he could hit a bull’s-eye with the throwing knives he was practicing with. Aim, throw, and thunk. Aim, throw, and thunk. Over and over again until the sound of the knives entering the wood was like the sound of a heartbeat, pausing only to retrieve them when he was out, starting again.

He had made his way downstairs as soon as the others had left, unable to sit up there on the same floor as Cordelia slept. It was like some twisted fairy tale, except she would never be woke by a kiss. They had tried many different things, healers, mages, spells, and nothing seemed to work. He didn’t even love her any more really, the guilt he felt over not noticing what was happening with her overwhelming anything else, even though part of that time he had spent as Angelus. She had been his responsibility, his seer, so it was his fault she was in a coma.

Then there was the guilt over Connor his son. His beautiful baby boy. Every time he closed his eyes anymore he saw him two ways. As a baby, all sweet smelling and new, a wonder to be seen. Little hands grabbing his, eyes looking at him with no fear or hatred.

Then he sees him at the end. Angel had turned down Wolfram & Hart’s offer, killing Lilah and taking the amulet Buffy needed to defeat the first. He had figured time would help them all overcome what had happened, with Cordy and Jasmine.

Problem was he didn’t take into account how broken the boy was without Jasmine. He had truly been twisted by whatever magicks had been used to bring her evil into this world. Three ms tos to the day Connor had taken hostages at Century City Mall, three months since Angel turned down the deal to give his boy a normal life, even if it was without him, Connor killed himself, leaving a note blaming Angel for all his pain and hurt.

Angel figured the boy was right. It was his fault. One of the people he cared most about was dead, the other in a coma. What right did he have to act or call himself a hero? Spike at least got things right. He only had his soul for a year and did something wonderful with it. Angel wandered around for nearly a century before Whistler found him, gave him a purpose. Spike did things for himself; maybe because he needed the fight, or he believed, either way it was more than Angel did when he was going through the first years is sis soul.

Speak of the devil. Angle heard his childe’s footsteps coming down to the basement, Doc Martins clomping. Spike was furious, he could tell from both his sounds and his scent. Whatever happened with their crusade it had not gone well, and Angel could tell Spike was blaming him for not being there. Didn’t he understand that it was for the better? Nothing Angel did made any difference.

Spike walked right up to him, fangs and ridges showing. Angel didn’t see the arm pulled back, or the fist that came flying towards his face. All he knew is one moment he was looking into the furious eyes of his childe one moment, and being thrown across the basement workout room the next, taking the heavy punching bag down with him. He had never seen Spike so livid.

“It’s time we had a little talk about your behavior Angelus. And how it’s going to change.”