Hey guys, ya miss me? No? Nah, didn't think so. Well here we are with the next and either second-to-last or third-to-last chapter of this fic. I can't believe I've actually got to the end of the wretched thing… well, I did my best. If you want more Doyle stories by the way I would recommend robinyj's story, To Catch a Thief if you haven't already read it. It was actually what inspired me to start writing this in the first place although it's much better than mine. Now normally I would answer reviews at this point but apparently we're not allowed to (EAE: IF YOU GET THE PETITION THAT'S GOING AROUND THEN SIGN IT) and I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to write this much (EAE: If they delete this, let us just say I will be EXTREMELY annoyed). So I'll just write a general I LOVE YOU ALL THANK YOU SO MUCH. Seriously I'm drowning in compliments I don't deserve. I just hope you enjoyed reading this and sorry about the whole review thing. It's just that I've already been "cautioned" once so if they catch me doing something they don't like again it's bye bye Shikani (EAE: hisssss). The best thanks I can give you is… well… the next chapter. Enjoy!
Angel may not have received the award for "Intuition of the Century" but even he knew something was seriously screwed up about this (aside from the obvious). For one thing, the two warlocks who had been up until about five seconds previous attempting to smash each other into tiny little pieces, were standing side by side looking perfectly relaxed. For another, the black mist that had gathered around Doyle was definitely NOT disappearing. Oh it was dispersing and looking decidedly less solid than before but Angel was really starting to wonder whether that was a good thing after all. When he tried to sweep it away from his friend's twitching form, his hand passed through it as though it were not there. Doyle was writing in pain, clutching his head, no longer screaming but moaning softly, breath rattled through his clenched teeth.
"Doyle! Hey Doyle! Damn it!"
He glared at the two warlocks.
"You bastard, you betrayed us!"
Kaeden grinned cheerfully.
"Guilty."
Angel snarled, "What did you do!"
Zariel smiled pleasantly at the livid vampire, crouching over his friend.
"Really, I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity. It amazed me more than once at just how dense people can be. Did you not stop to think, that if Kaeden could so easily betray me for his own benefit, he could do just the same to you?"
Kaeden stepped forward and bowed, "I would like to thank you for making my job so much easier Angel. You see, our little plan would have fallen through if it hadn't been for your help. Confused? Hm… they say a magician should never reveal his secrets but, well, for such a wonderful audience, I think I'll make an exception. You see, there's a little trick to this ritual. Ordinarily, summoning this kind of power would require at least one hundred warlocks of incredibly strength, but thanks to this little beauty, that was not necessary."
The warlock pointed a slender finger to the small plinth where that weird knife still stood, his blood gleaming across one razor sharp edge.
"Okay, "Ages Old Evil for Dummies", basically the blade on that knife is a condensed or I supposed you could call it "dead" version of that stuff," he gestured to the sinister mist that clung like sinuous cobwebs to Doyle's increasingly pale skin. "So we were able to use it for a medium to summon what is basically the essence of the devil, with the blade acting as a channel from hell to earth. Now that's all well and good, but we need another channel to get it from earth to "heaven" or happy harpy land or wherever those bastards who think they have the right to decide our fates live."
That irritating smile was back. Angel's feeling of dread slowly increased, heightened by how weak Doyle's cries were becoming with every passing second.
"Ironically enough," Kaeden continued thoughtfully, "we couldn't actually have done it without said bastards. Who'd have thought that the one who they used to send us to our downfall, we would use to send them to theirs." He gave a sort, sharp laugh, "Those arrogant bastards forged a mental link between themselves and the seers, thinking that we wouldn't be able to exploit it."
"If…" three pairs of eyes flicked to wear Cordy was sitting up shakily, clutching her shoulder, her eyes hard, "If that's all true… then how come you dragged us this far out? Why not just take Doyle and be done with it?"
Kaeden raised an eyebrow, "She asked an intelligent question. I'm not used to that."
Zariel laughed, "Interesting you should ask that my dear. After we brought Doyle back to our little cubby hole here, we had to have some way to test our theory. Well, the quickest way was to see if the energy would actually integrate with the seer's body. Meaning that we had to stick Brankata into his chest. Because the energy was dead it had no lasting effects and his body did repel it eventually. However, the dead essence is nothing compared to the sheer potency of the living one, hence our problem."
Angel's eyes narrowed. "Problem?"
In the same way that vampires cannot enter a house without permission, this energy bound by a sacred blood ritual, cannot enter a body without permission. In other words, unless the subject willingly gave his blood to Brankata, the energy would be unable to enter and would solidify into a physical form and die. Thanks to an ancient warlock who tried to create a devil on earth by manifesting this energy into a dead body, we knew that beforehand." Zariel smiled conceitedly, "It was a simple matter of figuring out a new method based on the blood contract that forbade entry."
The silver haired old man here patted his companion on the shoulder, "I must admit, this had me stumped as I could never understand you strange, so-called "honourable" people. Kaeden however has incredible insight into your strange little minds, even if he detests them."
Kaeden's eyes darkened, "That was more thanks to my sister actually. With her childish logic she helped me figure out what very few adults could understand. By the way," he turned one steely eye on Zariel, "I thought we had agreed that she would not be killed."
"Prarl was always a disobedient fool."
"So you won't be missing him then?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Not anymore."
Angel's eyes narrowed. Apparently the scream they had heard had been real. Kaeden turned back to him, almost like a school master introducing a class to a new topic.
"As with vampires (your kind are so useful for examples) the way to pass on the demon was an exchange of blood, you suck their blood, they suck your blood, everybody's happy, so the demon passes on. That's why a vampire's victim simply dies if the vampire does not offer its blood. However, people are linked in other ways than blood. For example… trust."
Kaeden's face twisted in an odd sneer at the word, "Two people who would trust each other with their lives form an indestructible link between each other that exceeds the identifying ability of the blood contract. In other words, if two people were to trust each other absolutely, the magic wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the pair."
Angel's fist slowly clenched as the meaning of the treacherous warlock's words sank into his brain like a malignant little bug inching into his consciousness and twittering in gleeful triumph.
"Then… you needed…"
Kaeden's waspish smile said it all.
"We needed some ignorant moron to willingly give his blood to Brankata at the time of the spell."
Angel's eyes were hidden in shadow.
"So… that paper was just nothing?"
Zariel shook his head.
"Not entirely, that was a series of seals I drew up. When you added your blood, you made the spell irreversible. That paper now acts as a barrier between the energy and the place from which it came. It can't go back now."
"Er, hey, this is just a stab in the dark but, does that mean that if I were to rip this in half, that whole irreversible thing you guys were on about would be cancelled?"
Angel froze, he didn't want to turn around in case this was just another spell, an illusion sent to mock him and his hope only to disappear in a flash and leave him weak and despairing. Zariel's eyes widened.
"Who the hell are you! How did you get in here!"
Bloodstained, spikey haired, crossbow in one hand and a scruffy piece of paper in the other. Oz shrugged, picking his way carefully over the debris.
"Walked."
Angel, startled, found himself grinning. Zariel snarled and conjured a disc of energy.
"Drop it," he commanded, eyes darkening to deepest black, "now."
Oz blinked slowly, "You do know that if you hit me with that you're just going to get this too?" he waved the scrap of paper. Zariel froze, his face contorted in fury. Oz raised an eyebrow.
"I'm gonna take that as a yes."
Crushing the paper into a tight ball, he threw it into the air. Raising the crossbow in one fluid motion, he fired a single bolt.
Kaeden's eyes widened and he barely managed to conjure a shield in time. The bolt, with his master's spell impaled on its sharp metal point, burst into flames, disintegrating right inches from his eyes. Oz lowered the crossbow.
"Not that I know much about this sorta stuff, but smashing a guy's head in doesn't make a good first impression."
Kaeden regarded the young wolf with an inscrutable gaze.
"I'll remember that."
"Angel!"
The vampire was rudely brought back to reality from the fuzzy pink land the recent events had thrown him to for some bizarre reason, to snap his dazed gaze from the warlocks to Cordelia. She was leaning over Doyle's still form. Doyle's far too still for his liking form. Lingering strands of black mist were curling gently around his pale body. Angel jumped over to her, leaning down to press his fingers against the half-demon's neck. He could feel a faint, sluggish beating and sighed with relief. Now all they had to do was reverse the spell. Now all they needed was Giles…
Zariel laughed mockingly at the small group, his confident smile returning.
"What will you do now? What can you do? He's going to die whatev – "
He was cut off when Angel lunged at him with inhuman speed, throwing him backwards into the wall. His teeth were bared, his eyes flashing gold and the wall cracked as he pressed his forearm against the man's neck.
"Reverse it."
Zariel gritted his teeth in a deranged grin and said nothing. Angel growled in frustration.
"Angel!"
"What?" Angel looked around just in time to see Oz duck an energy bolt sent his way by Kaeden who seemed to have missed throwing things at him.
"You need to fight it off!"
Angel frowned, bewildered, "What are you talking about?" With his guard down, he had temporarily forgotten about Zariel until said warlock threw him away with a burst of dark magic.
"He said the blood contract thought you were Doyle right?" Oz was trying desperately to stop Kaeden from backing him into a corner and failing miserably. Angel effortlessly avoided Zariel's attack, bringing his hand down sharply on the man's shoulder and breaking his collar bone.
"What about it?"
Oz gritted his teeth as an energy bolt came within inches of taking his nose off.
"If both of you can fight it off – "
He was cut off as the ground in front of him exploded. Angel turned just in time to see a large shimmering mass of dark magic flying his way. It caught him in the head and sent him flying backwards into the wall.
Oz gritted his teeth, shaking his head in an attempt to clear it. Really, getting knocked out time and time again was going to put a big dent in his IQ. In fact it probably already had he thought detachedly as he got shakily back to his feet. He had completely lost track of what he had been saying and he knew it was important. This had to be some long built in conspiracy between their enemies from the start: knock out the werewolf so he can't think when it could actually make a difference. He shrugged mentally. Oh well.
The werewolf scrambled free of the chipped rock only to feel a cold presence behind him, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. Very slowly, he turned around. Kaeden smiled ruefully at him.
"Nothing personal kid."
Angel hissed as one of Zariel's spells grazed his arm, putting yet another rip in his coat, not to mention staining it with blood. Lunging, he managed to land a smart right hook to the side of the silver haired warlock's head, that would have sent him flying, which was probably the more attractive option in the long run as he was halted only by Angel's heavy booted foot being wedged strategically under his ribcage, lifting him into the air where he was met with a roundhouse kick straight to the nose. He fell to the ground, ruby red running down over his chin, dribbling down his neck. Angel towered over him, trying to fight off the heavy scent of blood.
"Reverse it."
Zariel glared up at him and croaked some strange words, waving a hand at the vampire. A strange tingling sensation began in his feet and then spread with alarming speed up his legs, leaving a horrible, chilling numbness in its wake. His knees buckled and he collapsed into a motionless heap on the floor, realising that he had absolutely no control over his body.
Zariel clambered laboriously to his feet, wiping blood from his nose. Angel could only watch as the old man conjured a long, glittering sword into existence.
"Tell me Angel, do you object to losing your head?"
Yes, I like it where it is.
Angel found that not only was he unable to move but he was also devoid of speech. Somewhere, some part of him (he suspected it was related to Angelus in some way) grumbled that it was unfair to ask a question related to loss of limbs if you didn't at least give your victim the ability to beg for mercy. Not that Angel would have but it was the principle of the thing.
The sword swung down.
You can tell I'm back. It's the screaming. Sorry I haven't updated in a while, the next one will either be within the week or not for another two weeks so you can stew for a while. Aren't I so considerate? Oh and if the bit about the ritual when Kaeden was explaining it all was confusing just let me know. I'll try to get Oz to explain it, he's much better at that sort of thing. I love you all (in a philos way). REVIEW!