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Wordsmith
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Gunn sat in awe as the tiny brunette polished off her third roast beef sandwich.
She licked her fingers and flirted shamelessly, asking if he had said something
about dessert. Faith seemed less defensive once she had
showered and changed. Or maybe it was just seeing old friends, although there
was something up with her and the Sunnydale crew. He was glad he had overheard
Tara briefing Dawn on Faith and Xander's history. It put the
awkwardness he sensed into perspective. Gunn mused that Harris had been really
chancing it to send his current to pick up his ex, but apparently no harm had
come from it. He still wasn't sure where Xander had sent the vampire, having
skirted the muted muttering coming from the library when he had been hunting
up some food for their guest. He hoped that Faith was going to stick around
once Xander had taken care of this Glory. Since Xander seemed to have gotten
custody of the friends after their break-up, maybe Faith could be persuaded
to join the agency.
~~~~~
Lorne disconnected the call on his cell phone . He looked at Spike, sitting next to him at the darkened conference table, and said, "She is expecting you at 10:30. Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Spike," Angel interjected before the blonde could answer, "this isn't a game. This firm is made up of, and deals with, demons of all natures, including vampires. The building has unimaginable wards and security systems-"
"Covered, Deadboy," Xander said and nodded to Willow.
Willow set down her mocha and started to tap out a key sequence on her laptop.
A wire ran from the computer to a slide projector and schematics appeared on
a screen fastened to the front of the far set of bookshelves.
She bounced in her chair as she outlined the information she had borrowed from
the firm and added the addendums Lindsey had supplied. "Fortunately for
us, they had some sort of accident last night."
"Accident?" Angel asked.
"Glory is notoriously hard on property," Xander said.
"I've been tweaking their system, both magically and software-wise, off and on. It appears to them as if the problems are improving, but I can control the level of surveillance their system will offer and shut it down entirely if you need," she said.
As she reached for the coffee again her hand encountered Tara's. "I think you've had enough for now," the blonde said, having slipped in during Willow's rapid fire lecture.
"How's Dawn?" Willow, Xander and Spike said in unison.
"She fine," Dawn said from her seat near the door.
Angel chuckled and smirked at his Childe. Spike growled and said, "You shouldn't be here, Nibblet. What say the Seer takes you to her place?"
"I'm staying. It's bad enough you're walking right in there... I can't be expected to just not think about it. I want to be here so I'll know... if anything..."
Spike was by her side in a instant. He knelt next to her and whispered, "Hush, now. None of that."
A few tears had slipped out and she wiped them away and said, "I saw what she did... before. You were... God, you couldn't see, you could hardly move... she ... "
Xander left his lists and rose from his seat. He crossed cautiously to Dawn and looked down at the frightened girl. "I swear to you, I won't let anything happen to him... Dawnie, I ... " He cupped her cheek and she threw her arms around him, pressing her face to his stomach.
"It's all right, luv. I'm not taking her on alone this time. Got Red watching my back, " Spike said. "You trust us, Nibblet. We'll make sure the nasty bitch never frightens you again."
"It's just... when I thought about you using the Olaf maneuver on her, I never thought you would be up close and personal. This," she said and gestured to the projection, "all seems too real."
~~~~~
When the time came, there was organized chaos. Last minute instructions from the witch, Xander going over the plan one more time, Spike wrapping Dawn in his duster even though it was almost ninety degrees outside. Gunn pulled back his people and he, Angel, Miller, and Finn each took a compass point one block from the firm and waited. Faith followed Xander and Spike, hoping they had a chance in hell to pull this off without someone dying. Riley hadn't so much as looked her in the eye and his friend looked ready to kill her.
They walked swiftly down the sidewalk. Outwardly, she guessed she looked as if she were being protected, flanked as she was by the two larger men. They ducked down into the entrance of the parking garage. Xander bounced and babbled about calling the Triple A while Spike took the guard out, snapping his neck with a eerie calm. The vampire buttoned up the shirt of the blood-free uniform over Xander's broad chest. While the corpse cooled, he looked deep into the young man's eyes and whispered, "No heroics, eh? Generals're supposed to think up the plans, not die on the field of battle."
Faith got the shock of her life when the lethal blond pulled Xander's face down to his and kissed him with an intensity that could melt asphalt.
Xander laughed and said, "Don't do that - you know my brain shuts down for sex." He was still smiling when he traced the angular line of the vampire's cheek. He sighed and said, "Okay, from here on in it's by the numbers. Give me 20 minutes - that'll make you 10 minutes late for your meeting and she'll expect at least that - then go in the front. I'll be back here in 30 and let Faith in. You stall, be annoying, pretend she's Angel, but keep her talking. Wait for the signal-"
"What signal?" Faith said.
"The scent of my blood. He can sense it... well, pretty far," Xander said.
"I can't give that signal. What if something happens to you?" Faith said.
"Don't let anything happen to him, Slayer," Spike hissed, shifting to gameface.
"Do I have to separate the two of you? Because I will. I mean it, I'll turn this car right around." Xander poked Spike in the chest as he spoke.
Spike gave him a rueful smile and said, "You're not indestructible, Pet."
"I'm a hell of a lot harder to kill than I used to be, and I survived
fine before I became your snuggle bunny," Xander said. "I need you
two to work together. If I come down here and find one of you dead or dusted,
the one
still standing is going to wish Glory was all they had to worry about."
Faith nodded and looked down. Peeking up under her lashes she saw William the Bloody capitulate to please his human lover and be rewarded with a deep kiss, heedless of his fangs. They broke apart, eyes wide and lips kiss- bruised. Spike had shifted to his human guise during the kiss. Xander seemed to waver for the first time since she saw him in heated debate with Angel, but shook off whatever doubts he had and stepped through the service access to the building.
She wished she had more information. Which, when she thought about it, was pretty amusing. She had spent most of her career as a Slayer just wanting to be told what to kill and how. Now, basically that was how she was being treated, and surprise, she didn't like being treated like a weapon.
Patience was not one of the vampire's virtues, if he had any. Spike paced and smoked and whirled on her suddenly and hissed, "Slayer, quit your wool-gathering. You be ready when my boy comes back. Anything happens to him and I'll make you beg to die."
"Some of us have never fought hellgods. I'm just trying to be prepared,
okay?" Faith was feeling cornered. In the past, running had always solved
that problem, but she doubted she would be able to run from the witches who
had basically erased her existence. Willow's girlfriend had provided the clearest
translation of Sunnydale-speak to explain that although everyone in the Scoobies
and Angel's little family would remember her, only those
carefully warded would remember any previous encounters. That might cover some
of the Watchers; Willow wasn't sure. Lindsey thought it might cover some of
Wolfram and Hart's upper echelons.
Spike seemed to be considering her closely. She doubted it was pity. More likely he felt the knowledge would protect Xander, but he began to detail Glory's strengths--she was like Superman in drag--and weaknesses-she had none. He told her how she fed and what the results were.
Soon it was time, and he left to enter the building through the front entrance.
~~~~
Willow sat in front of her laptop, her hand phased into the keyboard. Images flashed across the screen, reflected in her mirror-like eyes. Her hair lifted in a gentle breeze that blew from the screen. Tara stood behind her. The blond held her palms inches away from her lover's temples and a soft blue-green glow surrounded her fingertips. Wesley turned way from the images frantically flashing across the screen when Willow whispered in an unearthly voice, "They're in."
~~~~
Xander opened the door to the deserted office with his pass key. He closed and locked it as soon as Faith slipped in behind him. Lindsey had been sure that that the firm's 'guests' would be held on the next floor up. Above that one, only the senior partners had space. After the Darla incident, Lindsey had been sure they wouldn't let any acquisitions out of the building's most secure areas. Which, Xander thought, didn't explain the shopping. He jumped on a desk and removed the air conditioning vent cover. Cupping his hands, Xander silently offered Faith a boost. She gave him an odd look before placing her foot in them and pulling herself up into the vent. Turning around, she had the same puzzled look when Xander handed her up the vent cover. He then climbed up after her and used a few precious minutes reattaching the cover. They followed the vent to a vertical shaft and began the grueling climb up to the next floor. The sides were smooth and slick and the only way to move was by keeping pressure on either side of the vent as they slowly shimmied up. Faith reached the next floor's ceiling long before Xander and when he pulled himself up she was already down at the access a good fifty feet away, laying in a glow of light. He slowly crept closer and heard voices before he reached the light.
"Oy, I am not bleeding Drusilla. You cannot pay me off with dolls and ribbons. If I help you on this, the poof is mine." Spike growled.
"Master...Spike. Be reasonable. The firm can't have you dusting Angel - that would defeat the purpose," a woman's voice said.
"Dust him? Who said I want to dust him? What kind of monster do you take me for? He's my Sire. I'm not some soul-having poofter, nancing about doing good for puppies and children and sugar plum fairies. Just want to tie him up, burn his hair and beat him senseless... 'til he loves me again." Spike ended by putting his feet up on an expensive desk. His back was to the vent the woman who was facing him looked as if she didn't like her job at the moment.
Faith was stifling a snicker. Whether it was at the mental image of Spike beating
Angel, or of Angel with burnt hair, Xander wasn't sure, but he nudged her and
they moved on down the vent. So far the plan was holding
together - that had Xander worried.
The sight of Spike's lean form lounging with his back to the vent had gone a long way to relaxing Xander's screaming nerves. With a practiced eye he had evaluated the well-dressed lawyer meeting with his lover. She looked old. Older that Lindsey had made her sound, if this was the Morgan woman who had scheduled the meeting with Spike. Not that he would have bet on Lara Croft against William the Bloody, but then Willow didn't look all that dangerous either.
~~~~
Gavin dismissed the Anubian demons and shut the door. Glorificus lounged on a backless couch, her eyes unfocused and her features slack. She was humming tunelessly. That was new; something was wrong. He wouldn't have been concerned if he could have been certain that Lilah would get the blame, but Lilah had an irritating habit of coming out of these debacles smelling like a rose. After all the time and resources the firm had invested in this project, he shuddered to think what would happen if the senior partners found out they had a malfunctioning hellgod.
When he had stumbled onto Lilah's plan, it had seemed well worth weaseling his way onboard. Although the window of opportunity for Glorificus to return to her own realm was forever gone, her ability to access other worlds was invaluable. From the files he had pilfered it seemed that the cost in keeping the hellgod fed had been deemed a fiscally sound investment. The shopping incident was unfortunate, not in the mundane people who had served as lunch, but in this unexpected result.
The dossier that Wolfram and Hart had on Glorificus indicated that without draining the minds of mortals she would become weakened and disoriented, but after feeding she was strong and in control of her not inconsiderable power. Yet this feeding had seemed as painful for Glorificus as it was for the worthless humans. Glory had neither moved nor spoken since feeding. This deficit was not something Lilah could sweep under the rug, and Gavin was here to make sure he didn't take the fall.
Glory's couch was surrounded by fresh flowers and a fruit basket was on a low table next to it. She showed no recognition of the lawyer and did not acknowledge his presence. She sat, still in the short blue shift from earlier.
"Well now," Gavin attempted to sound unconcerned, "I hope everything
is to your liking." He crossed to her and lifted a chilled bottle of champagne
from its icy home in an ornate silver holder. "If there is anything you
need, you must let me know and it will immediately be provided." He filled
a glass and gently placed in next to her lax hand.
He started in shock when the fingers twitched and for just an instant blurred.
The hand that lifted the glass from his was smaller and lacked Glory's red lacquered
nails. Gavin looked up, stunned, into now-hazel eyes.
This blond was unexpected. Glory had hidden for years in the mortal she had
been bound to, but that one had been male. Confident that the pretty young girl
was no threat, he pulled out his phone, intent on informing the upper echelons
of this development. The shock of seeing the stranger in place of the hellgod
was nothing compared to the astonishment he experienced when that slender young
woman's hand moved like a striking cobra to first grab and then crush his phone
to fragments in her delicate grip.
"This place..." The woman spoke hesitantly. Looking around with dazed eyes, her forehead scrunched up confusion. "This place feels...bad." She turned hard eyes on Gavin and looked as if she would say more but cocked her head at the sounds of a scuffle outside.
~~~~
"Er, hello?" A distinctly British voice called out from the lobby.
"Giles!" Dawn jumped up and rushed to the Watcher.
Cordelia turned in astonishment from the show Willow was still putting on and followed her out of the library. "Giles?"
Wesley was in his office and looked up from his phone call to nod a greeting.
"Not that we're not happy to see you, but what are you doing here?" Cordelia asked.
"I called him. He brought the thing. In case, well, it looks like the thing that worked on Glory before... and... I was worried, all right?" Dawn stomped her foot and sat down heavily. Fred crept out from a dim corridor that lead off the lobby and sat next to her.
"Hi," Fred waved. Cordelia did the introductions and was in the middle of bringing Giles up to speed on Xander's plan. It wasn't long before Fred and Dawn brought in a tray of tea.
Wesley joined them and confirmed that the warehouse where they planned to do the transport spell was set up and secure. It was only two blocks away and they would move the witches as soon as they had confirmation that their people had left the Wolfram and Hart's building.
~~~~~
So much for the plan, Xander thought. Faith was in her element, waling away on some dog-headed guard. A slam into the wall had given Xander a nose bleed, which had brought Spike barreling down the hall. His overprotective lover had remembered enough of the plan to bring his lawyer friend with him, but apparently the sight of Xander fighting of one of the dog-demons had Spike embracing his inner demon. He dove into the fray.
The lawyer woman was turning gray. Xander wasn't sure if it was the sight of the carnage, or the fact that until the last second, even Xander hadn't thought Spike was going to let go of her arm before engaging the guards.
The door that the demon-guards had been stationed at was the most likely place to find Glory. The melee left the door unguarded and Xander kicked it open. Pushing the lawyer in ahead of him, he figured that at least it would be out of the bloodbath in the corridor.
~~~~~
Gunn kept the binoculars trained on the entrance to the parking garage. Miller and Finn had a van, rented for the transport to the warehouse. If everything went according to Harris' plan he would call them for the pick up and that tiny girl and the vamp would help shove the hellgod into the back. The witches had put up a field that had contained the god briefly before and they hoped it would work until they could teleport her to another dimension. Xander had mumbled "without the van, please" when detailing that part of the plan since he had rented it with his credit card and was not looking forward to reporting it stolen.
~~~~~
Lilah wished she had time to savor the smug look on Gavin's face turn to shock
as she was hurled though the doorway to the floor to his feet. He had no time
to enjoy her submissive position before the tall, dark-haired
security guard followed her into the room.
"What is the meaning of..." As Gavin stood, the sounds of fighting in the corridor consisted of low grunts and the unmistakable sound of flesh against flesh. Dark blood splattered the door and continued to splurt in decreasing arcs. A severed limb of one of the demons dropped into view in the partially open door way.
"Sit down, shut up and don't move," the guard said.
Lilah tried to reach for her phone and had it kicked out of her hand by the
guard's heavy boot. There was a cracking sound when her fingers broke. Gavin
tried to use the distraction to reach for his gun. He fell back onto the couch
with a scream of indescribable pain. Lilah had been told once that a broken
kneecap felt like your leg from the knee down had been dipped in molten metal.
His gun had landed on the floor over by the wall, there was no way she was going
to try and get it. She hadn't seen the man kick, hadn't seen that heavily-booted
foot connect with Gavin's knee cap, but the result was apparent. As the sobbing
lawyer lay on the floor, she idly
wondered if he would ever walk again; provided, of course, he lived though this
- whatever this was.
"I thought lawyers were supposed to develop listening skills?" the guard asked.
Gavin could only manage to whimper. Lilah was in pain but she wasn't as afraid of the hard-eyed young man as she was the vampire who strolled into the room. William the Bloody. She had reviewed the file on him - first when they had contacted Drusilla and then again when she had set up her meeting. In the hallway, Lilah had thought that the Lady Drusilla had accompanied her paramour on this invasion. But Drusilla had barely consented to modern fashion, and then only long dresses, and the tiny blood-covered brunette who followed the vampire in from the battle was in skin-tight leather pants and a black camisole.
"Oh, God. Faith," Lilah whispered.
Gavin had thankfully missed the firm's venture into contracting a Slayer, but
Lilah was willing to bet he had heard the tales. The night had just gotten worse,
she thought, and it took a lot to make a shattered kneecap the
upside of the evening.
"B., is that you?" Faith said.
The tiny blond turned toward the dark slayer. Gavin's crushed cell phone was still in her hand. She held out the remnants, palm up, like a child with a sticky candy. The guard, who was obviously not a guard, took the shattered pieces and stroked the side of the girl's face. "What have they done to you?" he asked, before turning hard eyes onto the lawyers.
The girl moaned softly and was replaced by the Glorificus. The guard drew back quickly and ended up on his ass, swearing under his breath. Glory's eyes were still unfocused. The vampire helped the human stand and the dark Slayer stepped close to them. "This changes the plan, right? What do you want me to do?" Before the man could answer, Lilah watched the god's strong, delicate fingers grab Gavin's head and his face contort with excruciating pain as they slipped inside.
Glory's scream drowned out Gavin's and Lilah tried to crawl away as his corpse
hit the floor. This was not in the profile. They had expected have to living
beings after she fed on their minds. Her proposal had shown that
Glory could feed off of those individuals scheduled to be deposited into the
now-reestablished body bank. The fiscal viability of this venture would change
drastically if they couldn't recycle the victims. First the shopkeeper and the
old woman, and now Gavin. Not only was her feeding changing styles but it was
more rapid than predicted. Glorificus' body convulsed. The 'feedings' were hurting
her as much as her prey. Suddenly the
host was back, panting and blinking in confusion.
"Spike, carry her. Do not let her hands near your head, drop her if you
have to. Faith, grab the lawyer." The two killers followed the human's
orders. As they headed down the service corridors, he continued, "Stealth
is out.
Spike, take them both to the pick-up site. Faith, try and keep the lawyer conscious.
I want her to deliver a message."
"Xan..." the vampire whispered and leaned into the human, seeming to ignore the almost catatonic host in his arms.
They crowded into a service elevator and the human dressed as a guard used a passkey to control it. Lilah wasn't sure which was more frightening; the fact that William the Bloody was not only obeying but concerned for this human, or the fact that her only hope of escaping Faith's homicidal tendencies was to hope that she would listen to this Xan.
"Let the Slayer take..."
"Once these two are in the witches' care - make sure you tell Wills the
change in the plan," he said, pausing to brush back the long hair of the
new host, "... just get them out of here and see that Gunn gets everyone
out of
the area. Now go, I have a building to level." Lilah didn't have time to
gasp as he shoved them out into the parking garage before taking the elevator
back up.
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