Part Thirty

He looked down from the rafters, careful not to make too much noise. The last thing he wanted to do was alert Willow and her friends to his presence. Hiding in the roof was the only place Angel was certain they wouldn’t find him.

Angel had to confess, he had underestimated them - considerably.

They had made it to the theatre, where Willow had chosen to wait out the demons, in an impressive amount of time. Once they arrived, they worked fast to search the immediate area, set up barricades to alert them of the demons arrival, and lay out their own escape.

Angel hadn’t known what to expect from them, but it wasn’t this.

SR-1 moved with a skill only a well established team could. They moved without saying a word, constantly communicating with each other using hand signals, and even then it sometimes appeared unnecessary. Each of them knew their place and what they had to do - and they did it with a seriousness Angel wasn’t used to seeing. It was only when they had set everything up that they relaxed slightly.

Angel hadn’t relaxed at all. Their search, while thorough, hadn’t been wide enough. There were so many places where demons could hide. Not the demons Willow was trying to lure here, but vampires and other breeds.

Still, he was impressed by them. They didn’t have much time, and they made good use of the time they had. Angel had seen more of the ‘real’ Willow in the last twenty minutes than he had since she had returned.

And he wasn’t at all sure he liked what he saw… or what he had heard so far.

For people who hadn’t encountered demons until today - with the exception of Hayes - they were taking things a little too well. Even Willow’s detailed description of the demons hadn’t thrown them - nor had her confession that this was an apocalypse.

As far as Angel could work out, Willow had only filled them in on what was happening here. Angel hadn’t heard mention of Faith, Buffy, or anything about Sunnydale - unless she had told them in the ten minutes it had taken Angel to catch up to them. Which Angel doubted, Sunnydale wasn’t a topic that could be discussed in a short time.

“Well, Sir, the place is as secure as we can make it,” Willow informed them. “There are only four main entrances into this room. One from the tunnels, the way we came, and the others from the barricaded doors. When the demons reach us, we should know.”

Kawalsky nodded. “What about exits, will we be able to make a quick getaway if we have to?”

“If our plan fails, we could use the tunnels or the fire exit near the stage, depending on where the attack comes from,” Grogan answered. “The exit near the stage leads directly to an outside alley and is the only exit we haven’t barricaded. The street it takes us to is pretty busy, so it’s highly doubtful the demons will use that exit, unless they’re willing to bring a lot of attention to themselves.”

“Which I don’t think they want to do,” Willow said. “They’re intelligent, Sir. When I encountered them, I couldn’t see any obvious signs of how they communicated, but they clearly know what they’re doing and what their objective is. Every location for the rituals and every person they have taken or attempted to take has been very specific. Even when they followed Cordy and me they were careful, each time they appeared there was never anyone around to see them. They won’t want to bring undue attention to themselves now.”

Angel frowned, not happy that Willow was jumping to conclusions. It sounded logical, but these demons weren’t the every day demons they were used to coming up against. They were from the pits of hell, Angel doubted they cared about people seeing them.

Besides, the people in LA were almost as bad as the people in Sunnydale. They tended to rationalize what they saw - or they just didn’t say anything.

Kawalsky seemed satisfied by their report. “What about the demons themselves? How much time do we have left?”

Willow made a face. “It’s hard to tell. I re-established the links when we first got here, and they didn’t feel any closer. It’s possible that they had to hold off the attack until it’s full dark,” she looked at her watch. “Which should be about now. Hopefully I’ll be able to track their movements better when they start moving again.”

Again, Angel wasn’t too happy about what Willow was saying. The demons should be closer by now, Angel doubted they would be traveling above ground… not during the day.

Why was he suddenly getting a bad feeling about this?

“So, until then, we wait?”

Willow nodded. “I’m afraid, so, Sir.”

“Rosenberg, did you want to go over the demons again?” Hayes asked, his expression tense. “I don’t want to be surprised by these guys.”

“Yeah,” Grogan agreed, looking nervous for the first time. “They don’t sound like the friendliest people we’ve come up against.”

“They’re not,” Willow told them. “Remember the rescue on P3X-252? They make the local wildlife there seem like kittens.”

P3X-252? Whatever the numbers and letters meant, it was enough to cause the blood to drain from Grogan’s face.

“You’re shitting me? And we’re fighting them with fucking swords? Christ, where’s a zat when you need one.”

Willow smiled slightly at his words. “I could do with a zat right now, maybe even a staff weapon.”

Zat? Staff weapon?

“Fuck that, give me an ion cannon.”

What the hell was an ion cannon?

** ** **

Daniel looked around the hospital room nervously. He still couldn’t understand how they could be so blasé about this. They weren’t really taking any lengths to hide what they were doing, they didn’t even seem to be worried about how they were going to get Mr Giles out of the hospital without drawing too much attention.

Kyle, who had come with them at his insistence, was organizing the paperwork for Mr Giles to be released, but how were they going to explain how it was possible for a seriously injured man to walk out of here - or even be conscious?

“Relax,” Faith said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “We do this shit all the time.”

Yes, Daniel was getting that impression. “Won’t the nurses and doctors notice something when Mr Giles wakes up and walks out of here?”

Tara and Annabelle had already done the healing spell on Giles, now all they were waiting for was for him to wake up. It was taking longer than anyone had expected. Willow hadn’t been unconscious for this long after she had been healed, but Annabelle had explained that Mr Giles’ condition had been worse - and that they had already expended a lot of energy healing Willow.

“Nah,” the Slayer replied. “Kyle isn’t the only contact we have in the hospital. Most of the nurses here know us, they’ll turn a blind eye.”

Really?

“Besides, they’ve probably seen weirder shit than this.”

Daniel wasn’t all that reassured by that. “Will he be asleep much longer?” Every minute that passed made him more anxious. It was killing him not knowing how Willow was, if she was okay.

Faith studied him for a minute before squeezing his shoulder. “She’ll be okay. Fang won’t let anything happen to her or her friends.”

Neither of them really believed that, but he appreciated the sentiment behind her words. “I know, it’s just that…”

“You love her,” Faith finished for him.

He shifted awkwardly, both Annabelle and Tara were listening to their conversation. “Yes,” he admitted. “And I know she’s good at what she does, and she can take care of herself but I still worry.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Daniel was surprised, he hadn’t expected that confession from Faith.

“She’s been through a lot, but she’s still going and…” Faith shrugged. “She’s strong, in her own way.”

Yes, she was.

“But if you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”

Daniel wasn’t sure if she was kidding or not.

“If you hurt her badly, I’ll let Angel kill you,” Faith said with a smile. “And trust me when I tell you that wouldn’t be a good thing.”

No, she wasn’t kidding.

“So, now that’s out of the way, why don’t you fill us in on how you and Red met?” Faith pulled up the chair beside the hospital bed and sat down, giving him all of her attention. “Just until Giles wakes up.”

He floundered for a moment, not sure what to say. “We, ah, met at a bar.”

“A bar? Go Red!”

Willow had the strangest friends.

** ** **

“Well?”

Willow opened her eyes and the connection she had with the links faded. “They’re no closer, Sir.”

Kawalsky’s face mirrored her own concern. The demons should be closer by now. They moved slowly, but not that slowly. Far too much time had passed, they should be close or here by now.

“Are you reading the links right?” Hayes asked, equally as worried. “Maybe you’re not feeling the demons, maybe -”

“No, Sir, it’s them. I could feel their essence, well, sort of. They had been moving towards us when we left the hotel.” But they had stopped after that, and her story about them waiting it out until full dark wasn’t holding much weight anymore. “I don’t know why they haven’t moved, maybe I am reading the links wrong. My magic is considerably different, Sir. I could have made a mistake.”

Just admitting that had cost her.

Kawalsky thought for a moment. “Okay, I say we check in with the others, make sure they’re all right and see if there have been any sightings.”

Willow tried to fight the feeling of dread that began building inside her as she pulled her cell phone from her pocket. “I’ll try Daniel’s -”

“What the hell was that?” Grogan asked, looking around the room nervously.

Willow’s heart slammed into her chest. “What?”

He shook his head. “I thought I heard something.”

Shit. All four of them formed a circle, so they could see the room from every angle. Willow’s hand shook as she held the crossbow out in front of her. “What did it sound like?” Oh god, was it the demons?

“I’m not sure, it sounded like…” His words trailed off as a man - or what looked like a man - stepped out from behind the curtain on the stage.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

Trouble. Willow doubted their guest was a man. Shit! Where the fuck had he come from? Willow mentally cursed herself, they must have missed an entrance of some sort. Damn it, they hadn’t been thorough enough.

Willow opened her mouth to speak to the man, but it slammed shut when more men walked out… no, not men, vampires. The first man was the only one who had bothered to hide his true visage.

Willow felt, more than saw, her teammates tense at the sight of the intruders. Willow quickly looked around the room. Other vampires were coming out from behind chairs, and from under the stage.

SHIT! Under the stage! They hadn’t checked under the stage! The vampires must have hid under there when they heard SR-1 arrive…laying in wait. Sweet Jesus. Willow counted twelve vampires now surrounding them. Far too many for them to take out on their own. Three to one were not good odds.

“Rosenberg?”

“Vampires, Sir,” she answered his unasked question. Damn it, it never occurred to her that this could be a lair of some sort. Shit. “Stake to the heart, beheading and fire will kill them.”

The vampires chuckled at what she was saying.

Then they attacked.

** ** **

“Bloody hell!”

Yes! Finally! Faith jumped up from the seat and raced to the bed. She found herself swamped with emotions as Giles finally opened his eyes. Faith couldn’t really convey how close she and Giles had gotten over the years, and almost losing him had scared the shit out of her.

“Hey watcher,” she greeted her watcher with a huge smile. The wounds on his face and arms had faded. Damn, the witches had done good. Faith owed them. “How are you feeling?”

He blinked at her. “A little tired and confused.”

“The fatigue should pass shortly,” Annabelle told him. “We were able to heal most of your wounds, but because you have been unconscious for so long, it will take longer for your body to recover from the spell.”

Faith wasn’t impressed. “You just decided to tell us this now?”

Annabelle wasn’t deterred by Faith’s threatening glare. “Healing magics work differently on different people. Willow had healed so quickly and thoroughly because of her power. It will take Mr Giles longer because he is not as powerful as Willow.”

“Willow?” Giles let out a painful grunt as he tried to sit up. He looked at the witches, then at Daniel. “Did she just say Willow?”

Damn. Faith had hoped that Giles would have a minute or two to get his bearing before she filled him in on everything. “We got trouble. The demon cult is on its way to the hotel… well, sort of, the witches here healed you enough so we could get you out of here.”

“Witches?”

“Annabelle, Tara.” Faith pointed to the two witches. “And this is Dr Daniel Jackson, Red’s honey.”

“Nice to meet you,” Daniel greeted him with a small nod.

“Red… Willow’s boyfriend?” Giles sat up completely now, scanning the room. “Willow is here?”

Faith grimaced. “She’s, ah, with Fang at the moment, but yeah, she’s here, helping us.”

The look on Giles’ face was exactly how Faith pictured it would be, shocked as hell. “Helping? Willow’s helping us?”

“Yeah,” Faith replied, helping Giles out of bed. “It’s a long story, and we’ll explain it once we get to Caritas. Daniel, go find Kyle, tell him Giles is awake. We need to get out of here - ”

The door opened, interrupting Faith, and Kyle walked through the door.

“Good timing, Kyle,” Faith waved the doctor over. “We’re leaving.”

Kyle shook his head. “Not until I examine Rupert quickly, just to make sure the magic healed him enough.”

Faith had to give Giles credit, for someone as confused as he was, he was handling it pretty well.

** ** **

FUCK! Grogan cried out as he slammed into the chair, pain shooting up his back. They were screwed! The vampires were hitting them hard and fast. None of SR-1 had gone down yet, but it wouldn’t be too long.

Grogan wasn’t sure how much more damage he could take.

The attack had only started moments ago, and they were already in trouble. Rosenberg had been fast, dusting one of them with her crossbow, but that had been their only victory so far.

Rosenberg was right, fighting Anubis was easier than this.

“Giving up so easy?” the vampire who was responsible for his condition asked.

Grogan tried to get away, but was stopped when another vampire grabbed him from behind, pulling him off the floor. NO! Grogan struggled against its grip, but he couldn’t break free. Shit. It wasn’t going to be this easy, was it? They weren’t going to go down this quickly, were they?

Actually, yes. Both Rosenberg and Hayes had said vampires were FAR stronger than they were… and since it was a three to one ratio, they didn’t stand a fucking chance.

With a last ditch attempt at freeing himself, Grogan swung his leg, kicking the vampire advancing towards him in the stomach. Which… really didn’t do that much. Shit! Shit! He was dead.

A third vampire helped hold him down, effectively destroying any chance he had of getting away. Grogan struggled vainly, refusing to give up without a fight. But it was no use, the vampire in front of him kept coming and he was…

Holy shit! He was looking at his neck! Grogan cursed himself for dropping his sword. No! No! He wasn’t going to be bitten, he wasn’t going to be -

“FUCK!” he screamed as the vampire sunk its fangs into his neck. The pain was excruciating, agonizing and… gone?

Before Grogan could react, he was dropped unceremoniously onto the floor. Reaching up, he covered the gushing wound on his neck, and looked up, expecting to see one of his team members coming to his rescue.

Instead, Angel was fighting off the vampires.

** ** **

Willow swung her crossbow and smashed it across the vampire’s head. Not wanting to waste the precious seconds it had given her, Willow ran from the vampire, towards Kawalsky, who was fighting two of his own.

It was only her team’s welfare that was stopping her from losing it on the spot. She couldn’t believe what was happening, but she refused to let her team die without a fight.

Scanning the floor around her for a better weapon, she spotted an abandoned sword. Willow sprinted towards it, picked it up and abandoned her crossbow. Weighing it carefully, Willow ran towards the vampire holding Kawalsky and sliced off its head.

That was two down… just ten to go.

** ** **

“Are you okay?” Angel asked, reaching out to help Grogan off the floor.

The Lieutenant was clutching the wound on the side of his neck. “Oh shit.” He shakily got to feet.

“You’ll be all right,” Angel assured him. “Can you still fight?”

Grogan stared at him, his face pale.

“Lieutenant Grogan, can you still fight?” Willow had just dusted another vamp, which meant the odds were beginning to tip in their favour, but they still needed every man to fight. Seven vampires remained.

“Yeah, I think so.”

Pulling a stake from his duster, he handed it to Grogan. “Then lets go. Hayes is in trouble.”

** ** **

Holy crap.

He couldn’t believe it! Kawalsky let out a shout of joy as the vampire in front of him crumbled to dust, right before he fell to the floor. Okay, dusting the vamp had been an accident but he wasn’t going to complain. The vampire that had been holding him from behind had let him go suddenly, giving him a chance to fire his crossbow.

“Sir, are you all right?” Willow asked, helping him from the floor.

Well, that explained what happened to the vampire behind him. “I’m good.” He quickly gave his Lieutenant the once over. “You?”

“Still alive, Sir.”

Thank Christ. But he wasn’t sure for how long. The vamps were too good. “The others?” Kawalsky started searching the room, looking for the other two members of SR-1 when Rosenberg swore. “Rosenberg, what is it - ” He followed her line of sight, stunned to see Grogan and Hayes fighting six vampires…

With Angel.

** ** **

“Hayes, down!”

Hayes dropped to the ground at Kawalsky’s command, and a crossbow bolt flew over the top of his head, into the heart of a vampire. Shit! For the first time since the attack, Hayes thought they actually might win this.

Hayes jumped back onto his feet, and continued fighting. To his surprise, it didn’t take long for the five of them to kill the remaining vamps.

Correction, for SR-1 to kill three, and for Angel to kill the rest.

** ** **

“Is he good to go, Doc?” Faith asked, feeling anxious. She wasn’t sure why she was on edge all of a sudden, she just couldn’t seem to stand still.

Kyle stepped back from Giles and nodded. “Aside from his fatigue, I would say he is in perfect health.” He looked to the witches. “You did a better job than I ever could have.”

Annabelle smiled and Tara blushed.

“Okay, so, we can leave? Now?” Faith knew she sounded guilty but she couldn’t shake the feeling that they had to get out of here, NOW.

“As soon as Giles gets changed, we can go.”

** ** **

She was mad.

Angel could tell from the look on her face - the punch to his stomach had just been confirmation.

“Rosenberg!” Kawalsky shouted, Willow’s attack on Angel catching him by surprise.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Willow demanded, furious.

Angel looked into her eyes, not at all deterred by her anger. Frankly, he didn’t give a shit if she didn’t talk to him again. He was getting tired of this. “Saving your lives,” he spat out, bitterly.

Logic, not surprisingly, did nothing to calm her down. “I thought I told you I didn’t need your protection?”

Angel couldn’t help it, he had to laugh at her outrage. He had just saved their lives, they would have died if he hadn’t helped them fight the vampires, and she was still angry at him. Still convinced she didn’t need his protection. “You didn’t? Well, it sure as hell didn’t look that way.” He looked pointedly to Grogan, who was still clutching his neck.

“God damn it, Angel!” Willow ignored his point. “I told you to stay with Faith and Daniel for a reason. You weren’t supposed to risk yourself here.”

For Christ sake! What would it take to make Willow happy? “I don’t take orders from you, Willow. You can’t order me around like I’m one of your subordinates, you’re not in charge of this. This is my town, not yours.”

“Rosenberg,” Kawalsky cut off Willow’s next remark. “Ease up, we wouldn’t be standing here if Angel hadn’t saved us.”

Thank you!

“That’s not the point, Sir.”

“That’s exactly the point,” Angel snapped. “This is exactly what I was afraid would happen. Willow, you set up a trap in a god damn vampire lair.” He didn’t mention that even he had been surprised by the vampires… but then, he had been too busy hiding from Willow and the others to look for any dangers here. “If you hadn’t too busy being a brat, and listened to me, then you wouldn’t have almost cost three people their lives.”

Willow reeled back like she had been hit.

“Hey,” Kawalsky stood between Willow and Angel. “Enough. When we get to Caritas, we can talk about this… but until then, we have to worry about the demons.”

Angel mentally kicked himself for his stupidity. Willow didn’t react to her CO’s command, she was too busy staring at the ground, looking horrified. Angel could smell the pain and fear coming off her.

Willow had so much guilt already, and now he had inadvertently added to it.

Shit.

“Kawalsky’s right,” Angel wanted nothing more than to talk to Willow - not apologize, talk - but Kawalsky was right. The vampire attack had distracted them all. For all they knew, the demons could be in here right now. “We need to know where the demons are.”

Everyone looked to Willow, who was still guilt stricken.

“Lieutenant!” Willow’s head snapped up at Kawalsky’s shout. “Rosenberg, we need to know where the demons are? How close are they?”

Willow stared at him, and for a second Angel panicked that he had pushed Willow over the edge with his comment, but she finally pulled herself together. He watched as she closed her eyes and re-established the link. When she opened her eyes, a bad feeling washed over him.

“What is it, Rosenberg?” Hayes asked, picking up on Willow’s fear.

She shook her head. “I-I’m not sure, Sir, they’re not here…they actually feel further away.”

Further away?

“I have to be reading the links wrong.” She tried again, and opened her eyes a moment later. “It’s the same. Sir, something’s wrong. The demons should be here, they should have been here a while ago.”

Grogan stood, grimacing in pain as he did so. “If they’re not here, then where the hell are they?”

** ** **

“Easy does it,” Faith slipped under Giles arm, helping him stand. “You okay?”

“Willow was a little weak after she was healed, as well,” Daniel reminded Faith. “It only lasted for a minute. Did you want to wait until it wears off?” He didn’t like the thought of waiting, but they wouldn’t get far with Giles like this.

Faith shook her head. “No, we should get going. I…”

Faith’s words were drowned out by an inhuman howl that came from outside the hospital doorway.

“What was that?”

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