&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

Part 1

It was only moments after nearly skipping into the hotel that he noticed her. His smile froze on his face, even as his Seer-- and best friend again, finally-- said her name. He was stunned silent for a few non-existent heart beats, his mind spinning through worlds of denial, but... "It's Buffy," he said, his voice emotionless as stone. He met the redhead's sorrow-filled eyes as he sank to his knees. "Isn't it..."

Willow nodded slowly, tears welling in her eyes yet again. "She saved the world again, Angel," she said quietly, a small hitch in her voice, "But this time, she... she couldn't save herself." She saw tears matching her own beginning to course from his eyes, and she flew from the couch to stand before him, her arms wrapping tightly around his broad shoulders as he let go and sobbed against her shirt. She didn't pay much mind when Cordelia swiftly gathered the rest of her group and filed with them out of the big, dusty lobby. She just stood there, her own tears slipping down her cheeks and into his soft brown hair. "I'm so sorry, Angel," she whispered, knowing he wasn't hearing anything but the sound of his own heart breaking, "I'm so sorry..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"No, Giles," she said irritably into the phone, her eyes locked on the vampire tossing fitfully in his bed, "He's *not* okay! Are *you*?" She nodded to herself at the sudden silence on the other end of the line. "That's what I thought. *None* of us are okay. But... I'm worried about him." She rolled her eyes for a moment, reminding herself that the Watcher deserved a certain amount of respect. "It's been *three* *days*, Giles, and he *still* won't feed! At this rate, he'll starve himself to death... if vampires can *do* that, which... I don't know. I mean, starving isn't exactly a stake or holy water, is it? I wonder if..." She cut herself off, disgusted with her own babble. "Sorry. I'm just starting to get *scared*! I mean, he hasn't even gotten out of *bed* since he found out, and I feel like I should be *helping* him, but... I don't know how..." she finished in a very small, quiet voice.

Her eyes closed in disappointment when her mentor admitted his own lack of knowledge on the subject. "Well..." she sighed softly, "What about Spike? Maybe *he* knows..."

She sighed softly while Giles told her that Spike was still locked in his own cycle of grief and couldn't be reached. "No, it's okay; I should have expected it," she said, knowing she spoke the truth, "I mean, he still loves her. It can't be easy for him, especially with watching after Dawn like she asked... No, no, just... when you *do* see him, tell him..." Her voice trailed off. "Tell him to call me at Angel's if he needs to talk." She sighed again when the Watcher began sputtering, and cut him off. "I'm staying here for a while, Giles. Angel needs me, so I'm gonna be here for him. It's what Buffy would have wanted... No, I'm gonna call Tara next, maybe have her send me a few things. Oh, and would *you* send that magic book I was reading...?" Her eyes lit up slightly when he said he would, only to dim again when she looked at the tossing and turning figure on the bed. "Send it overnight mail," she instructed, hanging up the phone without even a good-bye.

The redhead crossed the room, and sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, her fingers gently stroking the vampire's furrowed brow. "You'll make it through this, Angel," she murmured, her voice thick with the pain of seeing him that way, "I'll make *sure* of that..." She sat there for a few minutes longer, trying to comfort him, and when he finally stilled, she rose, returning to the phone. She still had to call her girlfriend, after all.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Willow glanced around her, making sure everything was set up correctly. The circles were drawn with the sacred sand-- blessed by the High Priestess of the most powerful coven in LA-- the candles were lit, with the proper colours in the proper quadrants. The necessary herbs were strew in the required pattern, and... She just wished she could wait for the waxing moon.

Unfortunately, it had taken almost an entire day for the book to arrive from Giles, and the supplies the spell called for had taken another two days to gather. The result of which was-- she didn't have *time* to wait on the moon. With any luck, though, it wouldn't make too much of a difference.

She glanced at the bed one more time, her heart going out to the too-thin vampire still laying there. He hadn't fed in almost a week, and it definitely showed. His cheeks were hollowed, there were dark, deep circles under his closed eyes, and his skin was even paler than usual. No, she told herself sternly, there was just no *way* she could leave him like that for another week. It had to be done that night... it just *had* to!

That decided, she quickly stripped her skirt and top, blushing slightly at the fact that she was in the same room with a man-- well, *male*, anyway-- and she blushed even more when she shed the cotton bra and panties. It didn't matter, she told herself. He wasn't aware of anything going on around him, and by the time he was...? She'd be fully dressed again! She stepped quickly into the outer circle before jumping back out to snatch up the silk robe hanging on the back of the bedroom door and run from the room.

She was back, minutes later, with two mugs of just-heated blood, and she placed them carefully on the bedside table. When her spell took effect and he rejoined the world, she figured he'd be hungry and weak after fasting for so long... two pints of blood ought to give him enough strength to go down to the kitchen for more if the spell took too much out of her to do it for him. It wasn't easy, by any stretch, but... she owed this to her best friend; Buffy would have wanted her to help.

She dropped the robe from her shoulders and returned to the circle, stepping carefully over all the sand-drawn lines until she was positioned in the center. Her eyes closed for a moment once she was seated cross-legged on the floor, her hands open and resting on her knees, palm up, as she began to intone the words she'd memorized from the book.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

She'd done her best to stay out of the way once she'd understood that there was nothing she could do to help her boss and best friend. It was hard, of course, because Cordelia Chase had never been a 'sit back and see what happens' kind of girl!

No, her every instinct was crying out that she should be at the hotel, trying to do *something* to help Angel, but was she? She shook her head in disgust, even as she pulled yet another top from the sale rack. It wouldn't suit *her*, she thought critically, eyes narrowing slightly, but then again, it didn't have to. "Try this one, Fred," she said over her shoulder to the somewhat dazed-looking girl. 'Fred...?" she said again, her knees starting to tremble as she felt the beginnings of yet another vision piercing her skull. She *hated* it when those things struck her in public!

The other brunette's eyes were wide and scared behind her glasses, and her hands fluttered uselessly at her sides. "Co... Cordelia..." she said loudly, caught between the impulse to run before whatever was attacking her new friend came after *her*, too-- and the desire to jump forward to defend the younger girl. "Cordelia!" she said again, frozen in place by both fear and uncertainty. "He-he-Help... Somebody... *Please* help..." she managed to stammer, as her friend fell to the floor clutching her head.

Fortunately for both the Seer and the Physicist, the mind-numbing pain-- and it's accompanying slew of images-- didn't last long, and by the time the employees realized something was actually wrong, Cordelia had managed to force herself to her feet, the now-crumpled blouse still hanging from her hand. "I'm sorry," she said to the approaching sales clerk, "I slipped, and my friend... Well, she panicked a little..." She carefully replaced the top on the rack it had come from and turned back to the still frightened-looking brunette. "I'm fine, Fred," she said, voice deliberate and slow, "But we should be getting back to the *guys* now, anyway." She sighed slightly, wanting nothing more than to curl up and sob in one of the chairs by the dressing rooms, but... if what she'd seen was true-- and she didn't have any reason to think it *wasn't*-- they didn't have that kind of time. "Come on," she ordered, grabbing the former Librarian by the arm and dragging her from the store as quickly as her throbbing head would allow.

It was equally fortunate that they were only blocks from her apartment, and that Wes and Gunn were both there. It had become habit in the last six days for at least *one* of them to be by the phone in case Willow called, and as Cordelia's was the closest apartment to the hotel, of all of theirs, that had been the place they'd chosen to do their waiting. She might have been bothered by all the people wandering in and out, but... With Angel on the injured list-- in the mental sense, anyway-- and Fred staying in her spare room, she somehow couldn't bring herself to mind. She only wished, as she pulled her current room mate up the stairs, that she hadn't lost her cell phone in Pylea. "Guys," she said intently around her sigh of relief as she collapsed on her couch, "We've got a *problem*."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was the gaping, twisted mouth poised over his face that actually pulled him from his fitful sleep. Well, that and the stench of the thing's breath. The small splatters of sizzling saliva on his skin helped, too, and he opened his eyes, yelling loudly as he pushed the thing away. "What the *hell*...?" he shouted, even as he rolled from the bed and grabbed the ax he kept propped between the mattress and the night stand. He frowned slightly when shouldering the weapon took more effort than it should have, but chose to ignore that thought for the moment. He growled, features shifting, as the thing approached him, taking one lightning-fast swipe at him with one of its clawed hands.

He wasn't entirely sure of just what it was he was fighting, but the fact that it had struck at him was enough to tell him it didn't want to be friends, and he stepped back, out of range of its sharp claws, before swooping in and beheading the whatever-it-was with one swift stroke of his ax. He groaned slightly when the head flew across the room, flinging droplets of its thick, green blood in a wide arc. "Well, *that's* gonna be hell to clean up," he said out loud, before the sweet, coppery scent of *real* blood drew him to the two mugs he hadn't noticed at first.

His only defense for not noticing the eerily still, fully naked form of the smallish redhead on his floor-- and the obvious remains of whichever spell she'd been casting-- was that he wasn't quite himself yet. He still felt fuzzy, and unusually weak. He drained the first mug quickly, and it wasn't until he was reaching for the second that he stopped, staring at his own hand in confusion. The skin had shrunk around the bones. It was almost like looking at one of those mummified hands on the Discovery channel, but not quite as bad. He gazed at it in fascination, and reached up to touch his face, before the overwhelming hunger descended and he forgot all about it in an effort to feed the ravenous beast in his belly. Once again he didn't notice the naked girl on his floor as he ran from the room and down the hall. There was blood in the kitchen, he thought... or at least he remembered buying some not too long ago.

Eight pints later, he finally felt satisfied. He'd drank the first four cold while he waited for the rest to heat, which ordinarily wouldn't have appealed to him, but in the state he was in, blood was blood, warm or not. He looked at his hand again, relieved, somehow, to see that it had returned to its usual state, and started back to his room, only to stop when his four co-workers burst through the main lobby doors. "Uh... hi, guys..." he said, suddenly worried by the looks on their faces. He was completely unprepared for the group hug he was suddenly subjected to by three of them.

Fred watched from a few feet away as Wes, Gunn, and Cordelia almost smothered the vampire in their relief at seeing him up and moving. Not that she didn't understand their feelings, because she *did*, but... She couldn't be a part of the hugs and babbling voices. She'd known these people for less than two weeks, after all, and... while she appreciated the fact that they'd taken her in, so to speak, she still wasn't entirely sure they were real, and she wasn't going to let herself become too attached until she *was*. "Where's the girl..." she said slowly, after a few minutes, "The little redheaded girl..."

It wasn't until he heard her words that Angel realized what he'd seen from the corner of his eye as he'd flown from his room, and if it had been at all possible, he would have paled even more than his nature made necessary. "Upstairs," he answered, worry clear in his voice as he pulled away from his friends.

Cordelia gasped slightly, unable to believe she'd forgotten all about her vision in her relief to see him somewhere other than in his bed. "Oh, God. Angel. There's a *demon* coming! We have to keep its blood from touching her!" She darted towards the stairs, following the tense lines of his back, Wes, Gunn and Fred right behind her.

"What'll it do to her," he demanded, afraid it was already too late. He continued to move swiftly down the hall, hoping against hope, even as she answered.
"I don't know," she answered, slightly breathless from the pace he'd set, "We just need to stop it from happening." She almost ran into him when he stopped in the doorway, but managed to stop herself with one hand on the door jamb. "Angel?" she demanded of his broad back.

He could have cried when he stepped aside, allowing her and the others to see what *he* saw. A smallish, naked redhead, collapsed within a sacred circle, liberally splattered with drops of thick, green fluid. "It was there when I woke up," he said quietly, stepping into the room, and "I didn't know..." He sat down on the floor, just outside the sand outline, his head in his hands. "I didn't know..." he said again, unable to look at any of them.
 

next