| Have A Little Faith, Chapter 18 | |
Every once in a while, Lindsey could not take the pressure of being involved with Wolfram and Hart and Angelus. He would lock himself in his office and stare at nothing. They had cameras in the office, but he knew one place where the cameras could not directly see him. That was facing the window. He kept a file on his lap so they would think he was working and would not be able to see the tears running down his cheeks.
He was better now. He wanted to bring Angelus back in the light, but he could just not take the pain and the suffering that went with it. A year ago, he would have not even thought about it. He wished for some miracle. Someone out there had to know about the curse.
He had just gotten over his fit, when they were a knock at the door. He wiped his eyes but did not get a chance to say anything, because the door opened. Lilah stood at the doorway and did not seem surprised he was still there.
“Don’t you have to wait until I can tell you to come in?”
“I’m not a vampire,” she said, but Lindsey could tell she was distressed. There was no humor in her voice. “And you don’t live here.”
“Come in,” he said. Lilah moved only a few feet forward and let the door close behind her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked him.
“Nothing, why do you ask?”
“Your eyes are all bloodshot.”
“I haven’t been sleeping much. What’s wrong with you?” he said. She seemed stressed
“That lead I had on Drusilla—“
“Did it pan out?” he said and tried to sound interesting, but he wanted to cover up his crying fit. The spell worked against mind readers, but not against his facial expressions. He did not consider himself the best actor.
Lilah shook her head. Lindsey could tell she had found the evidence Giles had left that Drusilla had been killed.
“I think she’s—I think she was staked—“
“Are you sure?”
Lilah nodded. “My source says that a vampire fitting Drusilla’s description was staked by an angry mob fifty miles outside Halifax. Apparently a slayer had lived there about 30 years ago and they knew all about vampires.”
“Jesus.”
“You’re telling me,” she said, panicked.
Lindsey suddenly felt guilty. He realized that if Lilah told Angelus about Drusilla, he might kill her out of rage. Then he would be responsible for killing her.
Part of him wanted to save her, the other part knew that this was her own responsibility. She knew what kind of law firm Wolfram and Hart was.
“So who’s going to tell him?” she asked.
Lindsey thought for a moment, but could not think of a way to get Lilah off the hook by not making himself look suspicious.
“Let’s tell Mr. Manners first,” he suggested,
hoping that Holland may be able to think of a better idea.
“Dead?” Holland asked. “Are you sure?”
“Well neither of us is really sure, sir,” Lindsey replied. “Reports say it’s true. I can send someone to Halifax to authenticate what Lilah has learned.”
“This isn’t good. There aren’t many things we can hold over Angelus. He’s a true terror unless he wants something. He wants Drusilla.”
They were interrupted suddenly by Angelus pushing the door of Holland’s office so hard, it broke one of the hinges. Lindsey got scared and half thought he had learned about Drusilla. He was not afraid of death, but that he would die with work undone. However, Angelus looked ecstatic not angry.
“The slayer is in the hospital,” he said and laughed like a demented hyena. “She got the shit beaten out of her by the Scourge.”
“How is she doing?” Lindsey said, then quickly added. “Is she critical, near dead?” he smiled. “Or perhaps just dead?”
“Don’t know, just know from my sources that she decided to take on the Scourge. What a stupid bitch. I doubt she’s dead. Slayers have to be killed in one shot. Even if they are given what should be a mortal wound, if they aren’t dead, they usually won’t die.”
“Now’s your chance,” Holland said. “You don’t need to get invited into a hospital.”
Angelus smiled.
“I agree,” Lindsey said, a little nervous. “It’s time to stop these games and finish her off. Go later around 3am. There will be less security there and her friends would have probably headed home.”
Angelus smiled. Lindsey was glad.
He knew that Angelus would want her friends to find her dead. He
liked to torture people like that. It was a weakness, but Lindsey
was glad for it now.
After Angelus left, Lindsey ran to the office. He turned the radio on. He pulled out his cell phone and dial Faith’s number. He prayed that someone would pick up, but the three times he called only the answering service picked up. “God damn it,” he muttered under his breath. Faith was a sitting duck.
Lindsey half wanted to get himself killed
by rushing to the hospital. Instead he dialed another number.
“You have reached Alexandra Taylor investigations. Office hours are from 10am to 4pm. In cases of emergency please dial 555-0239,” said a Cordelia’s bright chipper voice.
Lindsey sighed, then hung up the phone. It was nice to hear Cordelia’s voice, but right now, it was Faith that was more important. He quickly dialed the emergency number.
“Alex Taylor,” said a human voice.
“Listen carefully,” he said. “Faith’s in danger. At around 3am, Angelus is going to the hospital—“ he stopped for a moment when he saw the door open. He quickly lowered the radio.
“Who is this?” Alex questioned.
Lilah was standing in front of the door. She still looked distressed.
“You heard me,” Lindsey said, with anger in his voice. “Dead.” He quickly ended the call and shoved the phone into his pocket.
“What was that?”
“Oh, just a problem with a client. What do you want?”
“We never did discuss Drusilla?”
“We can’t tell him, not yet.”
“He’s bound to find out about her.”
“Then we’ll have to think of something else
to hold over him. Look, he’s going to be happy about killing the
slayer. Maybe he won’t be so mad over Drusilla getting staked.”
Alex hung up her phone. “That was some guy I didn’t know. He had an accent that sounded like Texas or Oklahoma. Do either of you know anyone with an accent like that?”
Alex picked up that both Wesley and Cordelia looked stunned when they both shook their head in unison. It obvious that they both knew who the mystery caller was. Alex wanted to know why they wouldn’t tell her.
“He told me that Angelus is heading here to kill Faith at around 3am tonight,” she said. “He sounded like he was in a place that he couldn’t talk. He cut off abruptly. Who could it have been?”
“My God, we can’t move her. She’s in ICU,” Wesley replied and Alex noted he wasn’t surprised or did he question the inside information.
“We need to protect Faith,” Alex commented.
“Against Angelus?” Cordelia said, looking a little scared.
Alex nodded. “There’s the three of us,” she explained. “And I know how to fight.”
“I do too,” Wesley said a little nervous, “but I don’t think you can take on Angelus. Faith can barely take him on. He’s stronger and faster than all of us put together. He’s a vampire from the Order of Aurelius. The most powerful vampires known.”
“What else are we going to do? Let him kill Faith?”
Wesley did not reply.
“Angelus will kill all of us quickly,” Cordelia explained. “He’s a big nasty vampire who murdered Ms. Calendar and tried to get the earth sucked into Hell. Wesley’s right. Even together we can’t do it.”
Alex looked down. “We have to move her then.”
“We can’t,” Wesley replied. “She has broken bones.”
“So we just got to keep him out of her room, right?” Cordelia asked.
“Yes, but I don’t think the three of us can handle it. Even if we had Kate, Angelus could probably kill the four of us.”
“Forget about that. We gotta make her room her home.”
“And how do you suppose we’re going to do that?” Alex questioned. “Put up a home sweet home sign.”
“Oh no, we don’t need that. We just need a spell. Willow knows it. We can probably conjure up something before he gets here.”
Wesley smiled. “Cordelia, you’re a genius.”
She smiled back. “That’s why
I got into every college I applied too.” She was happy. Lindsey
would be so proud in the way she was helping Faith.