Author Email: jackieb@kconline.com
Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own any of the characters. That pleasure belongs to Joss & Mutant Enemies.
Couples: Willow/Angel, sort of
Category: AU, Drama
Spoilers: Season 6/Season 3
Rating: R
Dedication: To Judy and Fiona who helped beta. All the wonderful people who have sent feedback.
Distribution: Just let me know where it's going
Summary: A very evil vampire is hunting Willow
Notes: This takes place after the end of S6/S3 and is going to be more of a dark fic.
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~Prologue~
"Wait! I just wanted to talk," a slim raven-haired woman called after a fleeing vampire. She began to casually stroll after him, knowing he wouldn’t get far.
Proving her confidence justified, a tall scar-faced man stepped out in front of the running vampire and stopped him by the expediency of a fist to the face.
"Is there something wrong with me?" The woman asked her companion, Luc, as she delicately sniffed at her arm. "I know I took a bath before we left."
"Believe me, Ari, you look beautiful. I think it’s more that our friend here didn’t buy your reassurances."
"Hey!" Protesting, she threw him a pouting look. "I’m a much better liar than that."
"Oh, the lie was fine. The problem is with your clothes."
Ari looked down at the tight, hip-hugging pants and cut-off top she was wearing. "I thought men, especially vampires, liked to see skin."
Ignoring the downed vampire, Luc swept her into his arms and gave her a very carnal kiss. "I can’t answer for men or vampires in general but I certainly do. What I was referring to were your weapons." He ran his hands over the knife and stake she had strapped to her hips.
She shrugged, still a little breathless from the kiss. "A girl can never have too much protection."
"Especially, when she’s out hunting."
"Speaking of which," Ari turned back to the vampire that was struggling to his feet. "Where’s your master?"
The vampire froze before giving her a surprised look. "There is no master here."
She kicked him in the chest, knocking him back to the ground. "Don’t play games with me! I can smell your blood, I know who your Sire is and there is no way he’d just cut you loose. Now tell me where he is."
Looking up into her face the vampire knew that continuing to claim ignorance would only earn him a painful death. His best option was to tell her what she wanted and then call his Master once they had left; he may even be rewarded if his information allowed his Sire to capture her. He almost smiled at his plan but quickly stopped himself. "He went to Sunnydale."
"What’s in Sunnydale?" Stepping back, Ari motioned for him to get up.
"A very powerful witch he wanted."
Having all the information she needed, Ari turned and started walking away.
"That’s it? I’m free to go?" The vampire looked after her; relieved he’d gotten off so easy.
"Not quite." She threw the answer over her shoulder, never breaking stride.
"What…?" The rest of his question was cut short by the stake Luc thrust threw his heart.
"Don’t worry, we’ll take care of letting the Marquis know about our discussion," he told the dusted vampire as he walked over to join his companion.
Chapter 1
"Angel Investigations, we help the helpless." Cordelia listened to the person on the other end of the phone. "You want to talk to who?" The shocked question drew the rest of the gang’s attention. "Alright, alright! Hang on a second."
Taking the phone away from her ear, she covered the mouthpiece and gestured at her boss. "Angel, it’s for you. It’s Xander."
Angel paused with his hand just above the other phone, his expression mirroring the same shock as his Seer. Of all the people he’d left behind in Sunnydale, Xander was the last one he’d expected to call him. Shaking off his surprise, he swiftly picked up the phone.
"Yes. What? When?" He listened as the boy explained everything that had happened. The rest of his friends stared at him, wondering what was going on. After several minutes the conversation wrapped up. "I’ll start looking right away. Yes, I’ll call you the minute I find out anything."
Hanging up the phone, he turned to find Cordelia standing in front of him with her arms crossed over her chest. "What happened that actually made Xander call *you* for help?"
"Willow’s missing." Angel’s voice was calm, not reflecting the turmoil inside him from what Xander had told him.
Cordelia paled and staggered back. They weren’t close friends but it hurt to think of anything happening to her.
Reaching out, Angel steadied her and helped her down into the chair beside them.
"Who’s Willow?" Gunn asked, as him, Fred and Connor gathered around them.
"A friend from Sunnydale."
Licking her dry lips, Cordelia looked up at Angel. "Is she…?" She couldn’t bring herself to say the word dead; it made everything far too real.
"No, at least she wasn’t. They managed to trace her to LA before she completely disappeared." Angel’s fist clenched as his mind conjured up all the things that could’ve happen to her since entering the city.
"She ran away? Why?"
"Four days ago she found her parents slaughtered by vampires. According to what Xander and Buffy were able to discover, she left the next night on a bus for LA."
"She’s been missing for *three* days?" Cordelia could feel herself starting to hyperventilate as her imagination began to provide her with gruesome pictures of Willow being tortured and killed. "But she should be okay, right? I mean she is a pretty powerful witch," she tried to reassure herself. Seeing the grim look on Angel’s face, she felt her heart sink.
"She hasn’t used magic in almost four months," Angel told her reluctantly. It had been hard enough hearing how far the cheerfully, friendly hacker he had known had fallen without having to tell it.
"Why not?"
"Her lover, Tara, was killed and she went crazy, almost ending the world with dark magic."
For the first time in her life, Cordelia was speechless. She was having a hard time believing that Willow, the sweetest, most even-tempered girl she’d known had almost destroyed the world.
"Good friends you have there, Angelus." Connor’s spine stiffened but he refused to back down from the angry glare his father threw at him.
"That’s enough," Cordy reprimanded him sharply. "I don’t know what happened to bring Willow to that point but none of us have the right to judge her. We have all made bad decisions with disastrous results." She didn’t say it but her pointed look told him she was referring to him locking his father in a cage and dropping it into the ocean.
"Hang on a second." Gunn held up his hand, drawing their attention. "I understand about her wanting to avoid magic after having gone all crazy and shit. But using it to defend yourself is different, right?"
The bleak look on her boss’ face frightened Cordelia, telling her there was something he hadn’t told them. "What else?" She demanded.
Sighing, Angel ran his hands through his hair, a clear indication of how upset he was. "About three weeks ago, Willow was attacked by a vampire. If Buffy hadn’t intervened and dusted it, she would’ve let it kill her."
No longer able to stand around and talk while Willow was out there defenseless, Angel grabbed his coat off the chair beside Cordy and left to go look for her.
As the door swung shut behind him the other four jumped up and got busy.
"Give me a description of your girl and I’ll check with my contacts. See if anyone’s spotted her," Gunn offered as he too grabbed up his coat.
"Me, too." Connor had his doubts about whether this girl was worth saving but was glad he volunteered when the woman he considered a mother flashed him a grateful smile.
Cordy quickly described Willow for them. Once the others had left, she grabbed the phone books off her desk, handing one of them to Fred. "Alright, while the men are out searching, we can start calling the hotels."
While Fred and her got busy, they both struggled to block out thoughts
of how much danger the redhead could be in.
Chapter 2
Willow stood on the porch and stared at the closed door to her childhood home. Though the word home wasn’t quite right. Oh, she didn’t have the bad memories like Xander did; she had been lucky in that aspect, but she didn’t have happy memories either. It was just the house she had spent her younger years in.
What difference did it make what she called it? She had been making her own decisions, right and wrong, long before she had ever left here. No, what she was doing was wasting time, trying to delay the inevitable. Wiping her sweaty palms on her jeans, Willow reached for the doorknob, ignoring the screaming voice inside her head telling her to turn around and run and not look back.
Pushing the door open, she slowly made her way towards the living room. Since she had decided to do this she wanted to hurry and get it over with but it felt like the time she had tried walking out into the ocean against the tide; ever step was a struggle just to lift her foot.
At the doorway to the living room, Willow stopped and looked intently at the floor, not wanting to see what was awaiting her. She could feel her breath coming in harsh, gasping pants as her eyes were drawn to the wall opposite her, despite all of her efforts to stop them.
She stared at her mother, pinned to the wall by stakes through her arms and legs, her face contorted in agony and terror at the pain of her last moments. Willow’s scream got trapped in her throat as her body began to shake.
Once again she wanted to turn and flee but her mind held her in place, knowing there was more to come. Her eyes slid down her mother’s tortured body and over to the corner. Where her father lay, disemboweled with his eyes cut out of their sockets.
"Do you like it, my love?" A silky voice asked her.
She froze, her senses going into overdrive, warning her that the creature sharing the dark with her was a deadly predator. As the realization of what his question meant made its way through her shock, she wanted to shout and rage at the stranger hiding in the shadows but like her scream, the words stayed trapped in her frozen throat.
"Don’t worry, little one." Willow’s shaking grew worse as whoever was in the room with her moved closer. "I won’t kill you. Not like that. You will be my mate. Once I turn you all that lovely darkness you hide within will be released." The speaker reached out and ran his fingers down her bare arm in a soft caress.
Whether it was his touch or his words, she didn’t know but the force holding her in place broke with a snap. This time she listened to the voice shouting inside her. Not looking back, Willow raced out of the house and down the steps of the porch.
She only made it a couple of steps away from the horror behind her when her legs gave out beneath her, dropping her down onto the sweet smelling grass, retching. A gentle hand touched her shoulder causing her to jerk away with a whimpering moan.
"Red?"
Recognizing the voice, Willow’s tear-filled eyes looked up into concerned blue ones. "S-Spike." For the first time since the incident several weeks ago, she was grateful one of the others trailed after her at night.
"Red, what’s wrong?" He drew the wildly trembling girl into his arms.
Willow tried to speak but couldn’t get the words out around the sobs tearing from her.
Spike felt a chill race up his spine as he looked back at the house; something very evil was in there. Turning back to the redhead, he decided his first priority was getting her somewhere safe; then Buffy and him could come back and check out what had happened. With that decided, he swept an arm under her legs and headed for Xander’s place.
Resting her wet face against Spike’s leather-clad shoulder, Willow heard the soft, accented voice waft over her, threateningly. "Run, for now, little one. But soon they will all be dead and you’ll be mine."
********
Sitting up in bed, Willow sat motionless, listening to the darkness surrounding her. Lowering her shields, she used the abilities she had been cursed with since trying to destroy the world. She flinched at the pain, despair and other dark emotions coming from the people staying in the sleazy motel. Detecting nothing out of the ordinary, at least not for her current surroundings, she slowly rebuilt the walls muting her new senses.
Reaching over to the nightstand, she turned on the light and watched calmly as several cockroaches scuttle away. She surveyed the room taking in the cracked mirror, the dingy gray carpet, not it’s original color she suspected, and a grim smile touched her lips. Under normal circumstances, she’d never even think about stepping inside the decrepit motel room, let alone staying.
Willow gave a quiet snort. Nothing was normal any longer, no sense in wasting her time on what use to be. As for the bugs and grimy room, they served their purposes, the only purpose her life had now, to hide from those hunting her.
She knew she should be worried about surviving. She had no delusions about what would happen to her when the vampire after her finally caught up with her. But once she finished what she was working on, she didn’t really care. Oh, she didn’t seek death, not like Buffy and Xander feared but she couldn’t find it in herself to care if she lived or died.
Enough wallowing in her morose thoughts! She had plenty to do tonight; she knew she only had one more day of grace, at the most. Standing up, she tugged her shirt down from where it had ridden up while she was sleeping and grabbed the bag that had been lying beside her. Flipping open the top, she rummaged through the assorted stakes, vials of holy water and crosses she had brought with her until she reached the packet she had sown to the inside.
Pulling out some money, she careful counted it to make sure she had enough to buy the supplies she needed before resealing the hidden pouch. Thankfully, she didn’t have to worry about money. Some judicious hacking and she’d been able to empty out the trust fund her parents had set-up for her college expenses; something else she should feel guilty about, instead she jut added it to her growing list of sins.
Sliding the money into the front pocket of her torn and dirty jeans, she grimaced. The two things she wanted the most at the moment were a long hot shower and clean clothes. Running a hand through her hair, she held up a strand in front of her face, grimacing at the muddy brown coloring. The only good thing she could say about the new color was at least it wasn’t permanent. Well, while she was wishing she might as well ask for her own hair color back, she was tired of changing it every day.
Willow shrugged, her worn clothes, dirty appearance and hair color was just one more price she had to pay for her anonymity. With her current appearance anyone who looked at her just saw another druggie living on the streets before turning away, ignoring her. And being unnoticed was more than what she wanted; it was what she needed with two vampires looking for her.
The demon that killed her parents was the least of her problems and after tonight she wouldn’t have any reason to hide from him anymore. The vampire she was worried about was Angel. She figured that Xander and the others would’ve traced her to LA; she hadn’t tried to hide where she was going. But between Xander not knowing the city that well and Buffy not being able to be away from the Hellmouth long enough, they would’ve had to give up fairly early in their search.
Unfortunately, all that meant was that they’d call Angel and have him start looking for her. Hopefully, it took the others a little while before they actual turned to him, she knew how volatile the feelings her three friends in Sunnydale had about the souled vampire. But she wasn’t counting on it, which was why all the elaborate efforts to blend into her surroundings.
She wasn’t worried that he would judge her; out of all her friends Angel would be the most understanding of what she had done. The problem was that once he found out she was in trouble there would be no way of stopping him from helping; tenacious was the best word she could come up with to describe how he would react. And that was something she couldn’t allow.
She had vowed never again to put any of her friends at risk. That’s why she’d come to LA, it put enough distance between her and the others so there were no chance one of them would get hurt trying to help. But it was close enough that she could make sure the vampire that had killed her parents followed her instead of turning on her friends.
There was no sense fretting over what she had done; it had been the right decision. She grabbed the spell book she was using off the stand, giving it a hard shake to expel any cockroaches before she stuck it into her pack and fastened it shut. Enough thinking, she had a lot of shopping to do tonight before she could find a new motel and complete the spell. Shouldering her bag, Willow headed out into the night.
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