“Angel, I’m going with you and that’s final. Don’t argue with me,” Buffy shouted as she followed him up the stairs to their bedroom.
“No,” he hissed and reached for a duffel bag, throwing weapons in at random.
“Yes,” she growled, grabbing her own bag and filling it with clothing.
“I don’t have time for this, Buffy! This is my fight. You’re staying.”
She gave a short laugh. “I don’t think so. And if you try to stop me…well, just try to stop me.” She continued packing.
“If you go I’ll have to worry about you too…Laren’s here for me…and probably for our child…even though we don’t have one yet…” he told her, looking mildly confused for a moment.
Her eyebrows almost shot off her forehead. “Worry about me?” she snapped. “Since when do you have to worry about me? Slayer, remember? Eleven years and counting.”
“And I’d like to see you make twelve,” he said quietly, stopping the mad packing for a moment.
She quieted as well. “Angel,” she said, taking his hand. “I’m going. Nothing is going to happen to me. Besides…if she wants you in LA, how safe am I here? Without you? The minute you leave town she could be here…or send someone…I’m no safer here than in LA.”
He still didn’t look convinced but resumed his packing. Moments later they were downstairs to find their extended family waiting for them.
“What are you guys doing?” Buffy asked suspiciously, noting that each of them was dressed to go out.
“We’re coming with you,” Willow informed her.
Buffy rolled her eyes while Angel silently fumed. “Oh no you’re not,” the Slayer told them. “No, absolutely not.”
Spike stepped up. “’Fraid you don’t have a choice here, missy.”
“You don’t,” Xander chimed in. “We’re the Ten. We’re going.”
“No,” Buffy said, “you’re the five. You, Giles, Will, Anya and Oz. Five.”
“You know what I mean,” Xander said, exasperated. “We’re a part of this whole mystical friendship circle thingy…and guardians of the Triumphant. We go.”
Willow assumed her Resolve Face.
“Besides,” Oz said, “even if you say no, we’re following you in my van. I know how to get to LA…and to the hotel. Not much of a chance you can lose us.”
Angel growled and threw a stake across the room, embedding it in a wall. “You’re fixing that when we get back,” Buffy told him, then turned to face her friends again. “Fine…whatever. Let’s just go already. They need us.”
The others nodded and filed out the door, climbing into Oz’s van. Moments later they were on the road.
***
“Cordy? ‘Delia…hey! Cordy!”
The voice would not go away. And her head was pounding…worse than any vision-hangover. Opening her eyes she found herself staring into the eyes of her husband, worry on his brow.
“Cordy…you okay?” he asked, moving to cradle her head in his lap.
She moaned and tried to sit up.
“Just sit still…you’ve been out for a while now,” he murmured, brushing a kiss over her forehead.
“Where are we?” she asked weakly.
He looked around. “I don’t know. They took us somewhere. Wes and I woke up in here…looks like a dungeon. All big stones and stuff…no windows. Kinda like Pylea.”
She moaned at the mention of the demon world. “Great. No chance of them making me queen, huh?”
He grinned in spite of himself. “Don’t think so this time, kid.”
She moved to sit up again. “I’m okay,” she insisted when Gunn objected.
Wesley was seated across the dim room, back to the wall, staring ahead. “Wesley?” Cordelia asked, concerned.
Wesley met her eyes and tried to smile. “Chelsea’s at home…she doesn’t know where I am. And she can’t move, with the ankle and all.”
Cordelia was instantly sympathetic at the mention of his wife and her dear friend. “Oh, Wes…I’m sure she’ll be fine. And Angel knows we’re here…or at least he knows we’ve been duped. He’ll find her.”
Wesley looked up in shock. “Angel? He knows about Laren?”
Cordelia nodded then winced at the pain of the movement. “Yeah…after she knocked you two out she placed a person-to-person call to Angel. It’s him she wants. Once again we get the honor of being bait.”
“What’s she want with Angel?” Gunn asked, anger clouding his eyes.
“Something about…he took something from her a long time ago…something precious, and she wants to make him pay.”
“I assume this is all in the days of Angelus,” Wesley said thoughtfully, the new development taking his mind off his wife for the moment.
“Revenge? Hatred? Hurting of his friends? Pissed off vamp-woman? Sounds like Angelus to me,” Cordelia agreed, standing up. She walked the length of the room working out the kinks from lying on the hard floor.
“So, Angel knows Laren…and he knows we got jacked…he and the crew are probably on their way,” Gunn mused.
“I’m sure Buffy will be with him…you know how well she takes to being left out,” Cordy noted. “What I don’t understand is why I didn’t get a vision about this,” she grumbled.
“Maybe it’s not going to be that big of a deal…you know, we get taken, Angel comes in in one fell-swoop and kills her…bam! We’re outta here,” Gunn suggested. “Like it’s not worth the Powers time ‘cause we’re not really in that much danger.”
Cordy rolled her eyes and flipped her long hair over her shoulder. “Please. You know what I think? I think the Powers are just getting lazy. It’s too much work to send Cordy a vision these days! So what if it gets her killed, or her friends? So what if it inconveniences her? They’re probably up there, watching the Friday night movie or something, sitting back in their Barcalounger, having a grand old time while once again we’re stuck in the tiny, cramped, dingy, stinking dungeon-place!” she shouted to the ceiling.
“Shhh!” Gunn and Wesley both hissed. Gunn walked to his wife and put his arms around her. “It’ll be okay, Cor…promise. We’ve been in worse situations.”
“Oh, I doubt it,” Laren said as she opened the door. She strode in and looked around. “It is a bit cramped isn’t it? Well, don’t worry. We’ll be moving you to your new quarters soon.”
“We’re moving again?” Cordelia asked, still huddled in Gunn’s arms.
“Just downstairs. This may look like a dungeon, but trust me, it’s not. Downstairs is the dungeon,” Laren said, smiling at them evilly.
“Oh…great,” Cordelia said faintly.
“By now I assume Angel and his little tramp are well on their way…if not here already, combing the city for you three,” the vampire went on. “I’m sure their first stop will be the hotel…luckily, I’ve arranged for a little welcoming party. Tell me…do you think that place will burn as quickly as I hope? In the office pool I’ve got that it’s down to cinders in just over an hour.”
All three of them gasped. “You’re going to torch the place?” Gunn asked, his voice strained.
“In a manner of speaking,” Laren said grandly. “First I’m going to blow it up…that should take care of the fire part as well, don’t you think?”
Cordelia moaned. “And Angel and Buffy will be inside, looking for clues to find us.”
“Aren’t you guys just supposed to bite and feed?” Gunn asked, his temper rising.
Laren glanced at him. “Traditionally, yes…but I’m moving up in the world.”
Gunn snorted. “Yeah, you’re a mover and a shaker.” Cordelia elbowed him in his side and he exhaled loudly from the pain.
Laren laughed, a high tinkly sound. “Your wife is the smarter one of you two, my boy. I’d take her advice and keep your mouth shut.”
“Why?” he asked anyway. “You are going to kill us, am I right? The minute Angel and Buffy enter that hotel…we’re dead.”
She raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
“Gunn…” Wesley said, his tone warning.
“Oh, let him speak. It amuses me, even if his bravado will do you three no good,” Laren said, walking back to the door. “I’m afraid, children, that I must leave you now. I have another guest waiting for me. Do be good now. I don’t want to hear any more shouting…it makes me cranky,” she warned, and left the room, leaving the three captives with heavy hearts.
“Another guest?” Wesley asked after she was gone. “Who else has she captured?”
***
The Sunnydale caravan pulled into Los Angeles in under two hours, breaking land-speed records, at least in Buffy’s mind. They headed straight for the hotel.
The Hyperion was dark and quiet when they entered, all seven of them cautious. “Stay close,” Angel told them, though his eyes were only on Buffy. She nodded and began to look around.
“What are we looking for?” Willow whispered. Even that small sound echoed throughout the hotel’s giant lobby.
Oz shrugged. “Clues,” he said, not very helpfully.
Willow sighed. “Oh…right. Clues.”
Angel went straight to their offices, located behind what was once the hotel’s courtesy counter. He rummaged through papers, throwing objects across the room if they got in his way. Buffy watched him in silence as he grabbed Cordelia’s notebook and scanned the pages.
“Here,” he said, thrusting the pad in her face. “Kara Dade. This is Cordelia’s last entry before they left.”
“How do you know?” Buffy asked, scanning the paper.
“Carbon copies. I insisted…we’ve had trouble before…not knowing where she went.” He glanced at the weapons cabinet. “There’s a crossbow in the basement…I need to get it, then we move.”
Buffy nodded and joined him in the lobby where the others were milling around.
“Nice digs you got here,” Spike told Angel appreciatively. Angel spared him a nod before heading to the basement, Buffy hot on his heels.
“Be right back,” she called as they sailed down the steps. The basement was dark and massive, but luckily Angel Investigations used only a small portion of it located near the stairs. Angel moved to the weapons closet and began rummaging through it as Buffy looked around.
The bottom level itself was filled with newspapers and old furniture, remnants of the hotel’s glory days. While Angel located his weapon she began leafing through a scrapbook. //Can anyone say “The Shining?”// she thought with a shudder, throwing the scrapbook back onto the table where she’d found it. //All we need now is for the shrubbery to come to life…maybe for Jack Nickleson to attack us with an ax…oh and for the hotel to blow up…// Her last thought was cut off as she looked up to see boxes and wires above her head. New boxes and wires…free of dust and painted in red, black, blue and yellow.
“A-Angel?” she called softly.
“What?” came his muffled response from the depths of the closet.
“Angel…we gotta go…we gotta go…”
He appeared in the doorway and stared at her. “What?” he repeated, confused.
She glanced once again at the wires above their heads. His gaze followed hers up and over, his eyes sliding over the wires until they reached several boxes and the glowing LED reading of the timer that was quickly counting backwards. His eyes widened. “Oh shit.”
“Run!” Buffy shrieked taking the stairs two at a time. The couple came barreling up from the basement at full speed.
“Run!” Buffy screamed again, grabbing Willow by the arm and pulling her towards the front door.
“Buffy! What?!” Willow asked, running.
“Get out get out get out!” was the Slayer’s only reply as the group ran up the stairs and to the double doors that led to the street.
Buffy stopped at the front door and hustled them outside. “Go, go!” Angel stood at her side, making sure everyone got to safety.
“Wait! Anya!” Xander shouted, turning back.
“No! Xander! Go!” Angel cried, pushing him out into the night.
“ANYA!” Xander bellowed. “Buffy! She’s still inside! Bathroom!”
Buffy glanced at him and turned, despite Angel’s cry of her name, running across the lobby, hurtling over furniture, shrieking the ex-demon’s name. She burst through the door of the women’s bathroom to find Anya calmly washing her hands.
“Buffy!” Anya gasped. “Jeez…you scared—“ she was cut off by Buffy grabbing her arm and flinging her out of the bathroom. “What’s your…?” Anya started to ask when the building exploded around them.
***
Laren answered the phone, listened for a moment, then hung up with a smile. “Mission accomplished,” she congratulated herself. She turned to her dinner companion. “Now then…where we were?”
Her guest frowned. “Are you sure they were in there?”
Laren cocked her head to one side. “Now dear…after all I’ve done for you…are you starting to doubt me?”
The guest gave a short smile. “I don’t doubt you…but Angelus and that Slayer have a tendency to…how shall I say this? Live.”
Laren sat back. “I wouldn’t worry about that. Now, shall we have some dessert?” She picked up a bell and rang it. Moment later a guard appeared, a beautiful blonde in tow. Thrusting the girl inside the room Laren and her guest smiled, their faces morphing.