The room fell silent.
"Your floor, Ace," she said.
"What the hell is going on?" Xander asked. Giles, Willow, Wesley and Fred all started talking at the same time. "Bzzt!" Xander yelled, cutting them off. "Right, I forgot. I don't care. Willow, I need you. The rest of you… do whatever it was you were doing."
He strode out of the conference room, trusting that his best friend would follow, and walked into Angel's office. Angel was on the telephone, and Buffy was sitting across from him, looking very bored. Angel looked up and held up a finger to delay Xander speaking for a second.
"Uh huh," Angel said. "Right. Okay. Thanks, that would be very helpful." Angel shook his head as he hung up. "You know, you'd think a place like this would keep some pig's blood around, just in case. I mean, it's not just for drinking, there are a lot of rituals –"
"Chris Sanchez's daughter got kidnapped," Xander interrupted. Buffy and Angel stood up at the same time.
"I'll drive," Angel said as they walked out of his office. Faith, Willow, Giles, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, Dawn, Oz, and even Lorne were standing there, weapons in hand and ready to go.
"Guys," Xander said, shaking his head. "We don't all need –"
"Faith filled us in," Gunn said, hefting his axe. "Tell us what we can do."
"Seriously, the best thing you can do is find out more about this guy, and his group. Where they might be headquartered, who else is involved, what… what their hat size is, anything. A few of us can handle the situation at Chris's house. Please. The more we know, the better prepared we are for whatever this guy's going to do."
The entire group looked at each other.
"Of course," Wesley said, stepping forward. "We'll get on it right away. Call if you need anything."
Xander nodded. "Will, Faith, let's go." The group of them walked over to the elevators, and Xander noticed somebody else still with them
"Buff," he said, pulling her aside. "I need you to stick around here."
"What?" she asked. "You're sidelining me?"
"I'm not," he said. "I couldn't if I tried. But Oz shouldn't be left alone right now, just in case this is a ruse to get to him. You can guard him better than anybody."
"What about Faith?" she asked.
"She's coming with," Xander said. "The guys know her, they're at least somewhat comfortable around her. And more than one Slayer can get too-many-cooks-ish."
"But I –"
"Buffy," Xander said as the elevator dinged and the door opened. "Please."
Buffy frowned, but nodded. Xander pulled her forward and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Thanks," he said. Xander backed up into the elevator, clearing the threshold just as the doors slid shut.
Deke looked out the window, waiting for Harris and his friends to show up. For the umpteenth time, they weren't there. He glanced back to the living room, where Street was still consoling Sanchez. She was crying into his shoulder. Deke felt horrible for her. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to have your only child kidnapped.
And at the same time, he was elated. This was the second home invasion on their team, and all they'd done to him was write on his walls with blood and scare the crap out of his family. Shit, Deke thought. He'd gotten off light.
He heard a deep, deep growl coming down the road and looked back out the window. Some banger's GTO was cruisin' down the street, glass tinted like nobody's business. Deke shook his head. People always had to be flashin' their street cred when nobody cared.
Deke watched with interest as the GTO rolled down the street and pulled up right in front of the house. The passenger door opened and Xander got out, followed by Faith and… that redheaded chick who said she was a witch.
Deke turned back to the living room, knowing it would take the group a minute to get to the door. Sanchez had stopped crying. That was good, Deke thought. Chris was a tough lady, but Xander's people would probably be asking some hard questions. Kidnappings were like that. He turned back to the window and saw Xander and the redhead about to reach the door. Faith was nowhere to be seen.
Deke opened the door before they could knock.
"Hey, man," Deke said.
"Deke, hey," said Xander. He nodded to his companion. "This is Willow."
"I remember," Deke said – half-truthfully. He remembered the girl, just not her name. "Witch, right?"
Willow smiled. "If ever a witch there was," Xander said.
Deke stepped back from the door and let them inside. "They're down the hall in the living room," he said, turning as they walked past him.
"Block's clear," announced a voice from behind him. Deke turned in time to see Faith jog into the house.
"Thanks," Xander said, looking back over his shoulder. "Keep a look out? This shouldn't take too long."
Faith nodded and headed back outside.
"Shouldn't take long?" Deke asked her.
Faith shook her head. "Findin' the kid ain't gonna be the problem," she said. "Gettin' her back is."
Deke started to turn around, when Faith called out to him.
"Hey," she said.
"Yeah?" Deke asked.
"You wanna see something cool?"
Deke nodded.
Faith grinned, stepped back once and looked up at the roof. She turned her back towards the building and jumped, flipping as she soared through the air. Deke heard her boots land on the roof. It was a single story house, but still. Damn. He closed the door.
Deke walked back to the living room.
"So what's the plan?" he asked. Jim just shrugged and shook his head as Willow began to unfold a map of the greater Los Angeles area.
"I'm going to cast a location spell," she said, as Xander walked back into the room carrying a hairbrush.
"This the one?" he asked. It was a small pink plastic hair brush with little hearts on it.
"Yeah," said Chris. "That's hers."
Xander handed the brush to his friend, and she plucked a few hairs from it. The front door opened and Deke turned to see Hondo and Boxer coming inside.
"What's going on here?" Boxer asked.
"Magic," said Deke.
"Yeah?" asked Hondo. "That's gotta be some weird stuff."
Willow shushed them.
"Sorry," Boxer said, backing up a step. "Is the… what, spell?"
Xander nodded.
"Is it gonna explode on us if we don't keep quiet?"
"No," Willow said, "you're just distracting me."
Boxer looked up at Xander, and Xander just held his hand up, signaling for patience. Willow chanted a few words in Latin, and a pinprick of a hole burned itself in the map. She held it up to Xander.
"Where's my baby?" Chris asked, reaching for the map.
"Downtown," Xander said. He handed Chris the map and helped Willow from the floor.
"Let's go, then," said Hondo.
"Guys," Xander said, warningly. "This is –"
"Chris's daughter," Jim said, stepping up. "And we're a team."
Xander looked around at them and nodded. "Follow our lead," he said. "And make sure you're carrying."
"What do we think?" Angel asked.
"Not sure," said Xander, looking through the windshield. There were about a half dozen possibilities on the street, and two or three really likely suspects. It was a rundown area of the city, and suddenly Xander wished Gunn were with them. It was pretty close to his old neighborhood, and he might know somebody to talk to, but getting him out there would take too long.
"No use waiting in here," Faith said. Without a word, Xander and Angel got out of the car, Faith and Willow following them. Behind them, Xander's teammates were doing the same.
"Your call," Angel said to Xander.
"Hey, when did he show up?" Deke asked.
"He was with us the whole time," Xander said. "But when we were at Chris's place, the sun hadn't set yet."
"Joining in would have been a little fatal," Angel said.
"Will?" Xander asked. The redhead was concentrating.
"I can feel something," she said. "There's definitely a magic user in the area. They're shielding themselves pretty well, though."
"Maybe it's our guy," said Faith, elbowing Xander.
"Too much to hope for," he said. All eyes were on Willow as her irises flared with power.
"Damn," said Boxer. "Remind me not to get on her bad side."
"There," Willow said, pointing across the street. "We need to go in there."
"They expecting us?" Xander asked.
"I think I got their attention," said Willow.
Xander nodded and led them across the street. He tested the front door, and it opened. The group walked inside cautiously, and were met with a hallway that split off in two directions.
Faith hated to think it, but she was a little bored. There was nothing going on, except they had driven around some, and Red had done her mojo. Now they were in a ratty-ass building lookin' for the little girl, and Xander had just let his sort-of-ex-boss pass out assignments, so here she was, with Willow and three cops with their guns out, searching through one side of a building.
And the best part? Willow was nervous, now. Not because of the kid, not because of the other magic user. Because of the guns. Faith had seen how she flinched away when Xander's SWAT buddies all whipped out their pistols with, she had to admit, some pretty wicked synchronism.
Not that she blamed the witch. Faith figured that if the love of her life – as foreign a concept as that was to her – had got shot by some evil fuckwad, she wouldn't be too happy to see guns either.
They finished clearing the east side of the second floor when that guy Street came running up to them. Faith still didn't like Street, for tryin' to arrest her. But she saw the way he was handlin' Sanchez about her little girl, and figured maybe the guy wasn't all scum.
"What's up?" Hondo asked.
"Witches," said Street, shaking his head in disbelief. "Plastered them all to the wall, and said they were waiting for the other."
"Other what?" Deke asked.
"No idea. All I know is everyone else is stuck against a wall, and they're not moving anytime soon. Xander and I got a couple shots off, but they bounced off a force field or something."
"What about the girl?" Faith asked.
"Behind the force field," said Street. "They only let me go to come find you. Said they knew you were here."
Witches, Faith thought. That meant not O'Toole. Probably one of his lackeys from that stupid-ass cult, or whatever it was.
"Show me," said Willow, all traces of nervousness gone from her voice. Faith felt a surge of power from her. "Show me who's put Xander in danger."
Everyone took a step back from her. Apparently Faith wasn't the only one who could feel the power.
"Uh, right," said Street, pointing back the way he came. "This way."
As they jogged back to whatever room it was, Faith was a little freaked out. Willow had turned a little pale and gasped out two words.
"She's back."
Xander watched as the door burst in off its hinges. It was pretty cool, how the door just flew across the room like that.. What was also cool was how Willow had talked to him in his head. He didn't know she could do that. Not that he was surprised, of course. The woman had activated every single Slayer on the planet; a little telepathy was probably nothing.
"You," Willow said as she strode into the room. The rest of the group, including Faith, had followed her in, and were quickly attempting to release their teammates from the gooey stuff currently sticking them to the wall. The truth was, their lives were all pretty much in Willow's hands.
As he watched, the two witches across the room waved their hands again, and before he could shout a warning, a mass of the sticky goo flew towards them again, intent on sticking the rest of them to the wall. Willow waved her hand in response, dissolving the goo in front of her, and Faith dived back out of the room. Everyone else was bound.
"Why did you do this?" Willow asked, her voice calm and steady. "Why did you involve these people?"
"Ah my dear," said Catherine Madison, as Faith poked her head back in. "It was the only way we could be sure to draw you out. We saw an opportunity and we took it."
"Yeah," said Amy Madison. "Xander's pretty predictable. Always calling on Willow when he's in over his head, whether it's in school or at work."
Amy made a motion with her hand, and Xander suddenly found himself free. He fell to the ground, but was immediately helped up by Faith. He nodded his thanks and joined Willow in front of the force field. Apparently he was wrong about being forgettable.
"The only disappointment," said Catherine, "is that he didn't bring that little bitch of a Slayer."
"Not to worry," said Amy. "The other will do just fine."
"So, what?" Xander said. "You're just gonna stand there behind your force field and snark at us all night? That sounds like fun."
Both Catherine and Amy raised their hands, and Xander flew back, spinning in the air, slamming against the wall. He felt at least one rib crack.
"You don't touch him!" Willow shouted. She raised her hands and muttered an incantation. Flame shot forth from her fingers, impacted against the magical wall and died.
"Your paltry little tricks can't hurt us," Amy said with a snarl. "We're your betters."
"I thought you hated each other," Xander said, rising back to his feet and spitting some blood on the floor.
Amy and Catherine considered each other.
"We had a… meeting of minds," said Catherine.
"Yeah?" Faith asked. "Around what? Being psycho bitches with a death wish?"
"So cocky," Amy said. "So sure of yourself. Let's see how you feel with a door through your stomach."
Amy waved her hand to one side, and a large piece of the door Willow had splintered earlier flew towards Faith.
"Protego!" Willow shouted. A field of her own sprang to life, knocking the wood to the floor. Xander, still behind her, saw Willow making motions with her fingers behind her back, and heard her voice in his head. Xander looked across the room at the two witches, and saw they, too, were subtly but surely moving their fingers. And they were sweating.
He drew his gun.
"What do you hope to do with that?" asked Catherine.
Xander smiled, aimed at the window and fired. The glass shattered and the bullet flew outside. As Amy and Catherine turned to look, more glass shattered and the bullet flew back into the building on the other side of the magical wall. It struck Amy in the arm, breaking her concentration.
The wall flickered and Willow struck. She reached out her hands, pressing her fingers against the field. Lightning crackled from all ten digits and the wall fell, just as a spell from Catherine hit Willow dead in the chest, sending her flying against the wall and knocking her unconscious.
As the wall fell, Xander raised his gun, and Faith dove. The metal on Xander's gun became too hot to hold as Amy, her concentration at least partially back, yelled an incantation. He flung it from his hands and sent it skittering across the floor. Amy was silenced as Faith's fist slammed into her head, rending her immediately unconscious.
Catherine snarled and flung her hand up towards Faith, yelling "Avolate!" The slayer flew out the window.
Xander dove for his gun, hoping against hope that the metal was cool enough to hold. He grabbed the gun and rolled to his knees, his barrel aimed directly at –
Eliza. Chris's daughter. She was sobbing softly, fear evident in all her features.
"Don't!" Chris yelled.
"You heard her," said Catherine. She was holding the terrified, crying little girl up as a shield with one arm, protecting her torso and most of her head. Energy crackled from the other hand. "One wrong movement and the little girl gets it."
"One wrong move and so do you," said Xander, rising to his feet. "Why did you do this?"
"Why?" asked Catherine, taking slow steps towards the door. With every movement, Eliza released another small sob. "You have the gall to ask me why? You imprisoned me in that statue! Because of you I lived for three years in a trophy case!"
"You took your daughter's body!" Xander said, stepping directly in time with the witch. "You were killing people to get on the cheerleading squad! How does that idea even suggest itself?"
"You don't know what I lived through!" said Catherine. "You don't know what it was like, growing old, seeing my daughter wasting her body when she could have been perfecting it. Using it to do great things."
"It was her body to use," Xander said.
"You trapped me in that prison," said Catherine. "If it hadn't been for Alan, I would have died in the explosion."
"For the record," said Xander, "we didn't even know you were in there."
"It doesn't matter," Catherine said, her eyes darkening. "Alan rescued me. And you took his only descendant from him. And now I will prove myself to him by taking your life."
Catherine's eyes turned solid black, Eliza screamed and Xander dove. Lightning shot from the tips of her fingers and scorched the floor where Xander had stood. Again the magical electricity spouted from her fingertips, energizing the air and heating it, just as it hit the concrete directly behind him. Xander popped to his feet and executed a tight backflip.
With every move, Catherine fired again, each time a short burst. Xander kept moving from place to place as fast as he could, random movements of varying lengths. In the split-second glances he spared, he could see the anger growing on Catherine's face. After about a minute of dancing around, Catherine made the mistake he was hoping for. She let her anger get the better of her.
She dropped Eliza.
Xander sprung to his feet, raising his gun as he moved, lined up his shot and fired.
Catherine Madison fell to the floor, dead.
End Chapter 28