Disclaimer: A Sequel to Anya's Gone. The Characters mentioned and named in this story are the property of J. Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Warner Bros..etc, etc. No infringement is intended.
Willow didn't quite duck fast enough as a fist came flying toward her stopping inches from her perspiring face.
"You've got to make sure that you're watching out for your blind side. Vampires don't exactly fight fair," Angel warned shaking his head. He relaxed his fighting stance dropping his fist harmlessly from her face.
Several months ago Willow had begun Vampires 101- all the survival skills that "good" vampires needed to know. Angel taught her everything he could to prepare her for the kind of life that she would be leading as a vampire. That included learning how to fight.
Tonight had been one of their more exhausting training sessions. For the last four hours they had been honing Willow's self-defense skills. When Angel first began helping Willow learn the extent of the changes within herself, her strengths and weaknesses, it had come as a surprise to both of them to discover that she was stronger than your ordinary run-of-the-mill vampire. It was just another one of those awful, fascinating characteristics about Willow which separated her from other vampires. She had made huge leaps and bounds in adjusting to her vampire body. Despite this though she was beginning to feel the strain of the strenuous work out.
"Angel," Willow groaned, "I swear if we go for much longer I'm gonna scream."
"O.k., you wimp," he teased, his eyes laughing, "we'll call it a night."
"Wimp! Oh…never mind I know you're doing that thing-y where you tease me and I'm supposed to respond by saying something like 'I'm not a wimp, bring it on!' Well this wimp has finished for the evening." She dropped to the floor of the workout room in a mock collapse.
Angel gave a chuckle at Willow's antics. There was still a part of her that could be silly despite everything she had gone through. < Thank god for that, > he thought fondly.
It had been a difficult nine months since Brother Lugo had agreed to help them. While the monk had been meticulous in going through his massive store of books that had been collected by his order for centuries, he had not yet found anything in reference to Willow's situation. Willow knew there were books in his possession which Giles, or any Watcher worth his salt, would have given his eye-teeth to own. She often spent time researching with Brother Lugo. But it was just as well that Willow was now immortal because there were books enough to keep her searching for a life time.
She hadn't lost hope though. Besides researching with Brother Lugo, she had been extremely busy adjusting to her new life in Rome. She and Angel were living in a house that he had kept over the years. Willow had always been curious about the mundane part of how Angel and other vampires lived. Now she knew.
It had surprised her to find out that Angel had more than one house scattered around the world. Home for him merely meant a sanctuary - completely safe from daylight and the world outside. So the house had started out as a stark place. But once Willow had started to feel accustomed to living there, she changed all that. She added her own personal touches that added warmth and the sense of a real home. It was funny but she had begun to think of this as home and not, as she had first felt after leaving Sunnydale, the place to which she had been exiled.
Angel went into the kitchen and brought out a snack. "Here," he tossed over a bag of blood to her.
She caught it automatically. Willow sighed gratefully after taking a long drink, "You know, I didn't think that anything could be more thirst-quenching than Gatorade, but it sure hits the spot. Gatorade for vampires? Hmmm. Do you think we could get them to market that?"
That she could joke, even a little, about drinking blood was a testament of how far Willow had come in learning to live with what she was. In the beginning, she loathed her need for blood but now she saw it merely as a part of her subsistence. Now it was only the vampire instinct to go for the warm blood pulsing in the body of a person that she loathed.
After slaking her thirst, Willow became aware of how sweaty and gross she felt from the long hours of physical activity. She cringed slightly, "Ugh! I have got to take a shower."
"Yes, now that you've shattered my illusions about the whole men sweat and women only glisten thing," Angel said in a mock serious tone.
She swatted him with a pillow as she padded to her room to shower and change. Once done she went to the living room and opened the thick shutters to the balcony doors and stepped outside. It was one of her favorite times of the night, when there was a hush of quiet stillness over everything. There was a kind of serenity to it that she liked. She stood gazing at the misty light of the crescent moon when a childhood memory flashed through her mind.
When they were about ten, she and Xander had camped outside in Willow's backyard one summer night. They had both thought it was such an adventure. Xander had delighted in telling spooky camp stories to her. Willow had been so frightened that she wouldn't sleep, hearing a monster in every breath of wind. When he realized that she was really scared, Xander simply told her that nothing could happen to her as long as they stayed together. It had comforted her as nothing else could and in a contented silence, they had both laid in their sleeping bags looking up at the crescent moon peaking in and out of the clouds until they fell asleep.
Willow brushed away a errant tear. < God, I miss him. >
Xander's absence from her life after long years of loving him, of seeing him practically everyday had been hard to deal with. It had gotten easier but at times like this when something sparked a memory of their times together, it pained her all over again. Willow often wondered about Xander. About how he felt reading the letter she had left for him. She hoped it was comforting since she knew that her "death" would have been hardest on him.
She had wrote that letter long before she had been captured by the Anointed One. It was one of those things that someone living on the Hellmouth should do - fill out a donor card, make a will, write a letter to your best friend telling him of your secret love for him. In a fit of cowardice she had almost destroyed the letter before she left. She wasn't really dead, yet Willow knew that it had to be a clean break. She would never be coming back. So in the end she just couldn't leave him without so much as a word of how much he meant to her.
She had long decided that maybe it was for the best that Xander hadn't clued in on her feelings and reciprocated them. < It had been so hard leaving him as it was. If I knew that Xander loved me too would I have been able to leave him then? Would I have been able to do what Angel did? >
She understood the magnitude of Angel's sacrifice. Leaving Buffy couldn't have been easy, yet Willow just didn't know how she would have been able to go through all this without him. There were some days when she had felt tormented with her longings. It was as if she were overcoming an unrelenting addiction and all she could do was seclude herself to keep from acting on her bloodlust. Those times when she had felt out of control, Angel's presence, his understanding of what she was fighting against kept her from teetering over the edge. His friendship and wonderful support of her through everything was one part in her chaotic life that had remained constant.
"Hey."
Willow was startled. She hadn't even been aware that Angel had joined her on the balcony. "Oh, hi. I didn't hear you come out." Not wanting him to see that she had been upset she turned away as she said this looking intently at the moon.
But Angel was too sensitive to her moods. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"Yah," Willow gave a gusty sigh. "I was just remembering a time when Xander and I were kids and we had camped out under a moon like this one."
"Oh." Angel didn't know what else to say.
They had both spoken about Buffy and Xander a couple of times. However, it was a subject that was often avoided, as if they were trying not to pick at the scabs of a healing wound. But unable to help it now, Willow questioned him hesitantly. "Angel? Since we've been here, have you thought about going back to Sunnydale at all?"
The question implicit within the question was about whether he thought about being back with Buffy. < I wonder what brought this on? > Angel thought curiously. Carefully he answered her, "No, not anymore. There's nothing back there for me."
"That's not true. You'd still be there with Buffy if it hadn't been for..."
Angel cut her off, "No Willow. Don't even go there."
"But, Angel!" She tried to argue but again he hushed her.
"There are no buts. Besides you, better than anyone, would know that it could never have worked out."
"It doesn't have to be that way. Not for you."
"Why do you think there can ever be a future for me and Buffy when you absolutely refuse to even allow a possibility of one for you and Xander?"
With quiet resignation Willow said, "Because Xander never loved me the way Buffy loved you."
It was at that moment when the phone rang inside. They looked at one another. Angel didn't want to leave the conversation as it was, but it wasn't often that they got calls. Usually it meant something important. Still Angel hesitated before going inside to answer it. Willow used the few moments alone to compose herself before joining him just as he hung up the phone.
"That was Brother Lugo." There was a tense note in Angel's voice that told her it was more than just a social call. "We have to go over there right away."
*~*~*~*
"I'm glad you're both here," Brother Lugo said as Willow and Angel entered his library. "I finally found something. There's a source that refers to the fact that there has been at least one other kind of your change."
Willow glowed with eagerness. "Where?"
He showed them a ragged, ancient-looking book. "In the late 10th century there was a powerful vampire named Rapano who lived in Ravenna. He evidently possessed great power and had nearly obtained the status of a Master. Well this Rapano became obsessed with a young girl. He tried to make her into a vampire. But like you Willow, this girl refused to take his blood."
Brother Lugo stopped and explained almost admiringly, "You must understand that the reason that there are not more cases like yours, Willow, is that it is impossibly rare for a person to resist becoming a vampire. It takes a pure soul and an extraordinary will."
Willow blushed at this.
He resumed the story. "On the verge of death, the girl seemed about to escape Rapano's plans for her. Enraged, the vampire cut into her stomach, poured his blood into her and she awoke as a vampire. The reason we know anything of her is that she escaped Rapano and went to a priest for help. The priest only wrote a brief part of her story, but he did say that, like you, this girl retained her soul. It seems that she later, and this part is somewhat unclear, it seems she ended up killing herself after destroying Rapano."
This did nothing to hearten Willow, "She killed herself? I was kinda hoping for the happy ending to this story."
He paused as if troubled, "The priest included this warning or rather a prophesy of sorts:
'There shall be another like her who striking down the evil of Rapano, died by her own hand. Although unnatural and tainted by the presence of the foul demon, for the one not damned by soullessness whose soul is innocent, there is yet hope. The beast may be destroyed from within by the purest font. O Innocent One - vanquish the demon lest thy soul succumb and be destroyed by the evil of thy sire. For then un-ending darkness shall fall.' "
There was a tension filled silence as they each pondered the words of warning and prophesy. Willow took the manuscript from him and read over the words again.
"I've double checked the translation. I've also tried to corroborate this with other sources. But this is the only thing that I could find that mentions this girl, Rapano or this prophesy. You must certainly be the 'innocent soul' that this predicts. And-and," Brother Lugo cleared his throat, "It does not seem to be all THAT enigmatic for a prophesy, but well..." his voice trailed off.
< 'Destroy from within'? > Realization dawned on Willow and she slowly sank into a chair. "Its holy water, isn't it?" she looked up at Brother Lugo. "The 'purest font'? I have to drink holy water."
Brother Lugo nodded in agreement.
Aghast Angel shook his head, "Willow! You know what holy water would do to you." He dropped down on one knee next to her chair and looking up into her face he said earnestly, "You need to think this through. Prophesies are never as straight forward as they seem. 'Saving' yourself is probably a-a euphemism for killing yourself like that other girl did. By drinking holy water you'll destroy the demon and the bloodlust all right, but YOU might be destroyed along with them. You can't risk your life based on that prophecy."
Willow looked at him mutely, fear warring with hope in her eyes. She looked over at Brother Lugo. The apprehensive look on his face reflected the fact that he shared Angel's concerns.
Willow faltered. Staring sightlessly at the floor she weighed her options. It was a horrible chance that she would be taking. She would be gambling her life, such as it was, on the questionable words of a prophesy. If this ended up killing her, it wouldn't be a quick stab in the heart with a stake. Ingesting the holy water would be an agonizing death. However, Willow took very seriously the prophecy's words of warning. While she had learned a little more discipline now, taping down on the demon and her yearnings with a ruthless self-control, it seemed to her that there was a constant battle between her soul and her demon. Thus far her soul was dominant, but she could never afford to become complacent. Ever.
Despite everything, beyond the desire to live, beyond the will to survive, she felt that if this killed her perhaps it was for the best. < If this DID work I won't ever have to wonder if my demon might break free and someday take over my soul. I would rather die than let that happen! > It was something she would never say aloud to Angel, something that she hadn't considered for a long time.
Willow made her decision. "I can't take the chance that what that prophecy says will come true, that I will lose what control I have over my demon. I have to do it." She looked first to Angel and then Brother Lugo. "Now."
Angel was speechless. He looked for some way to try and convince her that this was madness. But her set face told him that he would be wasting his breath.
Brother Lugo poured some holy water into a small cup placing it on the table before her. Then he took Willow's hand, squeezed it for luck before leaving them in the room alone. He had come to care for and respect her. He never thought he would say that about a vampire. If this worked it would indeed be a miracle. If not he didn't wish to be present to see it. Brother Lugo went to pray for a miracle.
Angel stood staring at the cup on the table in front of Willow in disbelief that she was going to go through with this.
Willow's voice brought his gaze back to her as she came to his side. "I have to try this," she said begging for understanding. "But if-if it doesn't work, I don't want you here. I want you to leave while I do this."
Angel nodded mutely in consent of her wishes. < This must work. If anyone can get through it, it's Willow, > he thought to himself as he pulled her close, hugging her fiercely.
Willow felt an immeasurable calm descend on her. Drawing back from him a little, her luminous blue eyes locked on his black ones. She put her palm against his cheek, and then she drew him into a kiss. Soft, tender and chaste, it was a kiss of pure friendship. It lasted less than a heartbeat before she pulled away.
"I'm not going to say good-bye," Angel said hoarsely. "I'll be right outside. Call me when its through," he said reassuringly, although unsure if it was for her benefit or his own.
As he reluctantly left the room, Willow gave him a wavering smile. She waited a few minutes and then she took a deep breath and brought the cup to her lips.
Part 6
Angel paced in the hallway outside the room. His hands raking through his dark hair in frustration and anxiety. He was almost thankful that Willow asked him not to be in there for this. He didn't know if he could have born it if he had to watch her die. But as her first tormented screams issued from within the room, he battled the desire to run inside with the desire to be as far away from the gut wrenching sounds as possible.
Images of Willow dying assailed Angel and he could barely restrain himself from doing *something*. But he forced himself to stay where he was - his hands clenching and unclenching, his face stony with the need to control himself. Angel shared something of her agony in his helplessness.
It seemed to last forever. Then suddenly it was silent. And if possible, that was even more terrifying.
Angel approached the door slowly. He stood with his hand on the knob in fearful indecision. He metaphorically held his breath, straining to hear anything from within the room. It was eerily silent.
The abrupt end of her cries, and the total silence from inside devastated Angel with its implications. He couldn't bring himself to open the door. He didn't want the proof of his fears before him. He didn't want go in and find whatever remained of Willow. He laid he forehead against the door in a tired gesture, already feeling the weight of grief.
*~*~*~*
As soon as Willow had swallowed the holy water, the sensation of it within her made her drop to the floor in convulsions. The burning agony was nearly indescribable. She shrieked uncontrollably, her whole body being wracked in pain. Writhing, she had felt herself being turned inside out. Willow had blindly sought only a release, any release at all. Whatever coherent thoughts that were running through her mind were about the fact that surely by now she should have been dust.
And then she had a moment of utter clarity. She would die. She would die if she didn't do what she had always done - separate herself from her demon. Mentally she grasped onto the very substance of her soul. It was her shield, her anchor. This is what made her unlike other vampires. And it would be what would allow her to survive what other vampires couldn't. She concentrated on disassociating the destruction of her demon from herself. She had to keep fighting. Fight as long as she could to not let her body and soul surrender.
The pain which had been so absolute, the pain which seemed to be the only part of her existence, began to separate from her consciousness and it was as if she was feeling and experiencing the pain from a great distance. Finally after what felt like an eternity Willow felt the ebbing of the mindless pain. She opened her eyes which had been closed tight.
< I survived! It worked?!?! > Willow felt a palpable difference within herself. She searched for that dark presence within her being which she normally tried to bury and hide from even herself. She had come to visualize her demon as being trapped in a cage, raging to get out and destroy her soul. But now the cage was empty, the struggle was over. Her demon had been destroyed! < It's gone. I can feel that it just isn't there anymore. > She lay there for a moment exalting in this miracle.
Shaking, Willow didn't even attempt to pick herself off the floor. She was so tired. < I have to let Angel know it's alright. That I'm all right. > Just as she passed out, she called out Angel's name. It was as loud as she could manage. Although as injured as she was from the holy water, it was only a whisper.
But it was loud enough.
As he heard her faint call, outside the room Angel raised his head. With incredible joy he realized she was alive and he was galvanized into action. He threw open the door nearly taking it off its hinges in his hurry. Inside the room Willow lay in a crumpled heap. Seeing the state she was in, Angel was again filled with anxiety.
Lying on the floor, her body looked as if it had just endured some horrific battle. Her lips were swollen from the burns of the holy water and blood streaked her face. The tears of blood which she had wept contrasted sharply with the chalky grey-white quality of her skin.
He picked her up off the floor as gently as he could. Her body was limp and felt disturbingly frail in his arms. He set her on a couch and began to tend to her, wiping away at the blood on her face. At his touch on her cheeks, Willow stirred. She moaned softly. Her eyes fluttered open and weakly she tried to speak, her lips forming his name.
"I'm right here," Angel smiled a beatific smile just for her.
Seemingly satisfied in that knowledge, she closed her eyes again and this time submitted easily to blessed unconsciousness.
*~*~*~*
It took Willow nearly a month to fully recover from her ordeal. It was at least three full weeks of Angel mothering her until she scolded him for hovering over her constantly. He would grin, promise not to, then do it anyway. They both were giddy with relief and happiness. Willow was still a vampire, nothing would change that, but she had done the impossible. As Brother Lugo commented - it was indeed a miracle. And while Willow healed, she felt more contentment than she could ever have dreamed possible since leaving Sunnydale.
At the end of the fourth week, when Willow felt she was finally back to full strength, she persuaded Angel to take a stroll through Rome. It was so lovely out that they ended up walking and walking until they reached a small piazza. The night was quiet and the piazza deserted, so they could hear the delicate splashing of water in a fountain at the center of it. The moon shone down on the fountain making the water glow silvery. The fountain was ringed by benches and they ended up sitting there just taking in the enchanting solitude of the evening.
< This has to be one of the most romantic spots on earth. At least I'm here with a tall, dark, handsome, and charmingly sweet vampire. > She glanced at Angel with a smile playing about her lips at the whimsy of her thoughts.
Angel returned her smile with one of his own rare smiles that transformed his whole face. And Willow suddenly felt her heart do the kind of flip-flop that Xander used to inspire. She turned away instantly, her eyes widened with shock. < Used to? NO! I-I couldn't have possibly fallen for… > She sucked in her breath sharply. < …Angel? >
Mistaking her gasp for a sigh Angel asked, "What are you thinking about?"
Willow suddenly experienced blind panic. "Uh, nothing," she squeaked.
He knew her too well. "You sighed. You sigh when you're thinking about something," he observed.
< Oh no, oh no, oh no! > She needed time, time to process this abrupt revelation. But there was no way she could just bolt as she desperately wanted to. Her mind raced to come up with something. "I was thinking that I, ah, I just want walk a little bit more," she stuttered, desperately trying to act casually. "You know, its getting close to dawn. I could just meet you back at home. O.K?"
"Well, o.k. I guess I'll see you at home." Angel agreed staring after her a little puzzled.
Willow didn't look back to see. She walked not really seeing where she was going. < This is soooo not good! Why did this have to happen. I was just starting to feel I could be happy again. >
A sarcastic voice responded in her head, < Yah and Angel had absolutely nothing to do with feeling that way. Uh huh, sure! >
Since coming to Rome, she and Angel had become good friends. More than good friends, the best of friends. She had known, even before tonight, that she cared as deeply for Angel as anyone she had cared for in her entire life. Maybe it was inevitable that she fell in love with him, for no one understood or knew her better than he did now. They could talk to one another about everything. There was nothing that she couldn't tell him.
< Except this, > she thought despondently.
She thought about that one kiss that she had given him before drinking the holy water and blushed as she turned that memory over and over again, replaying it in her mind. She tried to recapture what his lips had felt like against hers. It had felt so right to do it at the time. Deep in her heart, she must have realized then that if she died, she wanted to have experienced his lips on hers at least that once. She must have known then that she loved him.
She had to face facts though. Angel, like Xander, was in love with Buffy. Willow felt a wave of jealousy go through her. < Buffy. Oh god I'm jealous of my best friend… again. And this is even worse than with Xander! I have got to have some major masochist streak to keep falling in love with guys who are in love with her. >
When she finally turned her footsteps homeward, she gave thought to how she wanted to deal with this. As with Xander, she would never have the courage to tell Angel of her feelings. And since Xander had never noticed her feelings for him, Willow had no reason to think that Angel would know that anything was wrong.
*~*~*~*
Angel knew there was something wrong. Something was bothering Willow. That was exceptionally obvious. He had immediately felt the distance that she had unwittingly put between them. But he didn't know what it was exactly that caused this, she had been avoiding him for a week. And although they were together now, since they were heading home after a visit with Brother Lugo, Angel hesitated bringing it up. It looked as if she had gone to great lengths to keep this to herself and if Willow wanted to speak to him about it she would. He didn't want to pressure her. So he stayed silent.
Willow too was silent, deep in her own conflicted thoughts. Peaking over at him and drinking in his handsome face, all she wanted to do was throw herself at him. Sometimes she'd hear a wicked little voice in her head telling her that Buffy wasn't here and she was. She could make him happy, make him love her. But Xander had taught her that no matter how much you wished and longed for it, you couldn't change how another person felt.
< I have to just put aside these stupid, inconvenient feelings I have about him, > Willow thought.
She had been fairly good at hiding her feelings with Xander, but it was different with Angel. It was so much harder. And since there were less things to hide behind, Willow had begun to going out alone for 'walks' coming home at all hours. But now she decided to stop running away from Angel.
< I can't take it anymore. I'm miserable! > she admitted to herself. Because despite everything, after only a week of this she was even more unhappy not being able to just be with him.
They were almost back home when she finally worked up the courage to apologize to him for the way that she'd been acting because her blatant avoidance of him had to have hurt him. She stopped and turned to him. "Angel?" she started hesitantly.
Angel turned to her and focused on her expressive face. It showed him such uncertainty and forlornness that he ached to reach out to her. He silently willed her to keep going, to talk to him. He nodded in encouragement.
"Angel, I know that, uhm, this last week I've been a little, well, preoccupied. I just want you to know that I wasn't trying to…"
Willow never got a chance to finish because they were suddenly surrounded by four vampires. A fifth vampire, their leader appeared. It was not only his distinct size and strength that made it obvious he was the leader. Rather he had an arrogant gleam in his eyes that, louder than any words, pronounced he was a force to be reckoned with.
As he stepped forward out of the shadows, he said in a voice that sent shivers up Willow's spine, "Well Angelus, the rumors were true then. You are back. How long has it been old friend?"
Willow felt Angel perceptibly tense up. She had the feeling that this particular vampire never had been anyone's friend. "Angel, who is he?" Willow asked quietly, her eyes never leaving the vampire who had spoken.
Hearing her, the strange vampire answered her, "I am Dante. I'm surprised, and oh so hurt that he's never mentioned me. We used to be such pals." He said this with an odd twist of his lips that Willow decided was supposed to be a smile.
Angel was uncertain of what Dante knew about his having regained his soul. He could maybe play real vampire for a while to see if it would get them out of this jam. But before Angel could say anything, it was as if Dante had been reading his mind.
"Oh Angelus, I know all about you." Dante jeered as if disappointed. "You seemed to have gone soft, consorting with the slayer. Being a regular goody-two-shoes I hear. The rumors fly more fast and furious these days. And are much more accurately too. Technology you know," Dante grinned evilly. He then turned to Willow. "I've heard of you too my dear. The Unslayable one. Or so the Anointed One tells me."
Just hearing of HIM made Willow bristle in fear and hate.
"Leave her alone," Angel said through his teeth.
Dante continued speaking to Willow as if he hadn't heard Angel. "But he didn't say how lovely you are. He'll be very happy with me to know that I've captured you."
"Over my dead body," Angel hissed. His game face was on, having changed in murderous fury.
"Yes, Angelus I'm getting to that," Dante laughed. "Kill him, but I need her alive," he ordered the other vampires. "She'll make a wonderful present to the Anointed One."
"Don't bet on it," Willow snapped back. She might not be able to vamp out like other vampires but she certainly felt her body tighten into a coiled, unnatural tension.
Willow and Angel stood back to back. They fought the group of four vampires as Dante stood as an observer in the background. It was the first real fight for Willow. She was having an easier time of it than Angel since their goal was to capture and not kill her. As she dusted the one she had been fighting, she glanced to see how Angel was faring and saw that he was in trouble.
Angel had quickly killed one vampire before being overpowered by two others. One of the vampires holding a wicked looking knife had stabbed Angel, who was now slumping to the ground. Willow's breath caught in her throat as she saw the other one approach withdrawing a stake to finish Angel.
Willow didn't think, just vaulting herself in front of Angel. She stood as if a lioness fiercely protecting her territory. Trying desperately to remember everything that Angel had ever taught her, she also drew on her own fear and rage.
She kicked out at the vampire holding the stake, who dropped to the ground howling. Simultaneously she punched the knife-welding one, sending him staggering backward. Her unusual strength helped her as nothing else could, because she used the moment the force of her blows gave, to focus on using the stake against the first vampire. He had started to get up and instead landed on the ground again, this time as a pile of fine dust. Then, as if by instinct, Willow whirled around with unerring aim, staking the second vampire coming up from behind her. His knife clattered on the ground next to his ashes.
But it was far from over. Abandoning his detachment from the fighting, Dante advanced on her with his eyes narrowed and intense. His game-face now in place, he sighed, "Stupid underlings. I guess I'll have to take care of this, myself." Then with a unearthly growl he flew at her.
They fought furiously. As his every blow was parried or dodged by her, Dante said almost appreciatively, "Impressive. I've underestimated you."
"I'm not really used to battle banter," Willow panted, "but I think this is where I say 'And that's the last thing you'll ever do'."
The older vampire was experienced, but Willow's strength and her quickness were too much. Realizing that she was going to beat him, Dante didn't back down. It wasn't in his nature. Defiantly, he taunted her, "I won't be the last one to come for you, Unslayable One. Colin wants you too much. You WILL be taken to him eventually." Perceptive, Dante had seen her panic and protectiveness of Angel and pressed cruelly, "Nor will I be the last one to come after Angelus as long as he's with you. He's as good as dead."
"No!" she cried out in denial and in a red haze of fury she plunged a stake into Dante's heart.
Willow struggled to calm herself before turning to where Angel was still lying unconscious on the ground. She dropped down beside him and used her lap as a pillow for his head. "Angel? Angel, are you all right?" She caressed his face gently trying to wake him.
Responding he said groggily, "We've got to get out of here." He struggled to get up.
"Shhh, its o.k. They're all gone." Willow calmed him.
Dazed he asked, "How...?"
"I dusted the rest of them. Including Dante. Don't worry." She paused and then she continued in a voice that trembled, "When I saw you on the ground and thought that..that you would be..."
The distress he discerned in her voice cleared the fog from his mind. "Hey, its o.k. I'm alright." He gave a lopsided smile wanting to add weight to his words.
Love and relief overwhelmed Willow. She bent down and lingeringly kissed his forehead. Remembering herself, she pulled away embarrassed.
When he felt able, Willow helped him up, supporting him all the way home. Once there, Willow silently dressed his wounds. Her hands trembled a little thinking how close to being destroyed he had come. He would be alright now of course, if not sore as hell.
"You did a great job you know," Angel said trying to lighten the mood. He inwardly marveled that for all the fragility Willow projected, she was able to defeat a powerful vampire like Dante without batting an eyelash.
"I had a good teacher." Willow put the finishing touches on the bandages.
"It's a good thing too, I didn't even see the last one coming at me." Angel frowned slightly as he tested his wounds with the bandages on.
"I seem to remember telling you sometime back about that blindside. Vampires don't fight fair you know Angel." Willow teased half- heartedly.
"I'll have to remember that for next time."
Willow shuddered.
She followed him as he made his way gingerly to bed. Willow sat down next to him but Angel pulled her down to him, holding her as tightly as his wounds would allow. "When Dante said he was going to take you to the Anointed One, I lost it. I wish I had been the one to stake the bastard," Angel growled.
Even as she thrilled at his words and reveled in being close to him, Dante's last words echoed in her mind. < 'I won't be the last to come for you...Nor will I be the last one to come after Angelus as long as he's with you. He's as good as dead.' > She stared wide- eyed into the darkness, long after Angel fell asleep. < I won't let there be a next time, Angel. >
*~*~*~*
When Angel awoke there was no sign of Willow. Still stiff from his wounds, he nevertheless went through the silent house looking for her. When he saw an envelope on the mantle with his name on it, he experienced a kind of un-named dread. Angel picked it up and read the letter inside.
Dear Angel,
I have decided to leave Rome. By the time you get this letter I will have gone. You have to trust that I know what I'm doing. Please, don't worry about me. I couldn't face you since I know you would probably try to talk me out of any reasons I have for leaving. Almost a year ago you rescued me from Colin, saved me again when I tried to kill myself. You came with me to Rome to help me, to watch over me. Is there anything that I don't owe you? Without you Angel, I would have died or gone insane a long time ago. There is more than just gratitude though, because most importantly you have been my friend. We've grown so close and the last thing I'd ever want to do is hurt you. You sacrificed so much to be here for me and although you don't talk about her often, I know that you still love Buffy. Go to her now. I can't ever repay you for all you've done for me, can't ever show you how much you mean to me except by giving you the freedom to go where you're heart truly is.
Love always,
Willow