| Have a Little Faith, Chapter 26 |
|
Chapter 26
“He wants me to come alone,” Faith said as she paced back and forth in the front room of the office.
“No way,” Cordelia said, teary eye. “You’re not getting Lindsey out alone. Angelus will kill him.”
“If he sees you,” Faith retorted. “Any of you, he may kill Lindsey right away—If Lindsey is still alive--”
“He is, darling,” Doyle said. “He was in the vision. It’s obviously something Angelus is going to do to him when you get there. He’s setting a trap for you darling and Lindsey’s the bait. We have the information to help you, I don’t think Angelus knows that. You need us.”
“If I have to choose between saving Lindsey or Angelus, I’m saving Lindsey, I’m staking Angelus.”
“Faith—“ Doyle warned.
“I don’t care. I can take care of myself,” she said, defensively. I ain’t a child. I can take Angel’s place. Why do so many people have to die to save this psychopath? Lindsey’s the most important person here. He did his time for what he’s done. He don’t deserve to die.”
“I agree,” Alex said. “I know that I’m new at this, but I agree with Faith. How many people has Angelus killed? It’s not like we already have those transliteration annals. They might not even exist."
“This is not the point,” Wesley said. He paused for a moment and took a breath. He was hesitant about what he was about to say. “Lindsey means a great deal to all of us. He has been a great help to us these past months. We do not anything happening to him or you. That is why we want to help you.”
“I’m staking Angelus and saving Lindsey. That’s the plan,” Faith said. She was glad that Wesley was concerned about Lindsey’s welfare.
"Angelus and Penn killed my sister,“ Gunn started. “They don’t deserve to be saved for this bull.”
“They vamped her—“ Faith said.
“What?” Gunn demanded.
“Lindsey was gonna try and save her, but it was too late. She had already been turned. I didn’t want to tell you because I was keeping Lindsey a secret. He tried, Gunn, honest. He didn’t like people dying. He hated doing this work. He was the one who warned me about Angelus going after your group. Only Angelus went off on his own without telling him.”
Gunn did not say anything.
She looked around at them. “All the more reasons I don’t want any of you going. Can you take on Penn, Drusilla, Lee and Alonna?”
“You can’t kill him,” Doyle said. “You told me what the Oracles said. Angel’s gonna save you.”
“I don’t need saving, Lindsey does,” she explained. I don’t want the rest of you getting hurt.”
“You cannot go alone,” Wesley commented. “That is exactly what Angelus wants.”
“But I—“
“I have an idea,” Alex brought up to end the argument. “Doyle, you said Lindsey was hanging off a building?”
Doyle nodded.
“Not with a broken neck right?” Alex questioned.
He shook his head. “He was hanging off a roof, but he was still moving. His hands were tied, but his body was still moving.”
“Then he is going to be lowered off the roof,” Wesley explained. “Which means he has about five to ten minutes to be rescued, which you will not be able to do fighting Angelus.”
“It might be the same building you’re supposed to be meeting tonight.” Alex went over to the internet terminal on Cordelia’s desk. She typed a little bit and used the mouse for about 30 seconds, then looked back up.
“All right, 345 West Hollywood Blvd is the former Columbia packing warehouse, it’s closed down. It’s a five story building.”
“How’d she do that?” Doyle whispered to Gunn. Gunn was did not care or was to mad to respond.
“And?” Faith said, impatient.
“If Lindsey’s hanging off the roof, maybe we can save him while you fight Angelus.”
“How?”
“He’ll be hanging off the roof. We’ll rescue him from the next floor.”
“I can’t risk you guys.”
“You can and you will,” Wesley said. “You go alone by cab. We will follow. Angelus will not know.”
“No. What if those four other vampires are there?”
“Faith,” Wesley said. “I’m being your watcher right now. You will go there and fight Angelus. You fight the others if they are there. We will save Lindsey. All of our efforts will go to saving him,” then he added. “I promise.”
Faith looked like she was about to protest.
“Faith, I am putting my foot down. I am not allowing you to go alone. You and Lindsey will die without our help.”
Faith finally relented. “Okay—“ she said.
“Now, go downstairs and get ready. You’re going to need a lot of weapons to fight Angelus. We need weapons too.”
Faith nodded, then headed downstairs. When Wesley saw she was gone, he went to Alex’s office and the phone.
“Wesley,” she said. “What are you doing?”
“Something that I hope will help us.
I hope there is enough time.”
“Is everything going according to plan?” Alex asked. They were in her car heading to Hollywood Blvd. Wesley was sitting next to her. Gunn, Cordelia and Doyle were following in Gunn’s car. Faith had taken a cab to the building, so Angelus would not be suspicious.
“Yes. I could not tell Faith. She would never allow this, but she absolutely cannot do this alone.” Wesley explained. Alex put her hand on Wesley’s knee when he looked down. “Faith will be devastated if anything happened to Lindsey. She has grown quite attached to him despite their lack of contact outside the telephone. I was always worried about that because I know what a dangerous life he led.”
“If anything happened to him, it will hurt us all, especially Faith and Cordelia.”
“Yes, that would hurt Cordelia, badly, but Faith much worse, but you do not understand how much Lindsey means to Faith. He entrusted her with his morals. That is a far greater gift than any of our friendships. Yes, she is close to me and Doyle, but without Lindsey, I do not know if she can go on.”
“You really think he means that much to her?”
“You said it yourself,” Wesley replied.
“Lindsey is the person keeping her going.”
Faith entered the first floor of the warehouse. It was dark and she could barely see. She was glad to not see Angelus’ vampire pals. This meant the others would have less trouble with saving Lindsey. Of course they could all be waiting for her on the roof and she doubted she could take them all on.
The warehouse was five stories. She grudgingly made her way up the stairs. She breathed in the musty air. She was not tired when she finally made to the door to the roof. She laughed half thinking it was locked, but when she pushed the doorknob it opened. She took a deep breath before fully opening the door.
The night air was crisp and cold. She felt it across her skin. The cool night desert air. She looked across the roof. There were two men by the edge. One was sitting at the edge, the other standing about three feet away.
Faith got closer and saw that the man who was sitting was Lindsey. Lindsey’s hands and feet were tied. There was a rope around his chest. The other end of the rope was tied to a heating duct about 10 feet from her and about the same amount away from him. He had gray duct tape on his mouth. Half his face was covered in blood, both dried and fresh, the other half was badly bruised. His suit, now missing the jacket had a huge stain of blood in the front by his stomach.
“Hello Faith,” said the standing man.
It was Angelus.
“What the hell are you doing?” she demanded.
“I know about everything. How Lindsey warned you about me. How he’s been telling you how to stop me. I know about all of it. How close you are to him. How he means everything to you. Will you die to save him or will you kill me or will you let him die and spare me?”
“Don’t you hurt him. This is between you and me and—“ she said and paused. ”I have no qualms killing you to save Lindsey.”
Angelus smiled.
“This is a game I like to play called how long can you breathe with a rope around your neck,” he explained. He grabbed Lindsey and held him over the edge. Faith came closer. “I’ll drop him Faith and his neck will break and you won’t have a chance to save him.” Faith stopped in her tracks. Angelus grabbed the rope and began lowering him down. “I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to break his neck, it’s far too quick for him. I really wanted to give him a long and painful death, but I did just torture him for the last five hours. So if the rope just slips, he’ll strangle instead. He’ll have five minutes tops. That means you have five minutes to not only defeat me, but to get to him.”
“Stop it. Let him go—take me.”
“How noble,” Angelus said. “Sorry and,”
he said, looking at his wrist although there was no watch there.
“I’m afraid that the fight begins now. You have five minutes before the
lack of oxygen leaves him brain dead.” He smiled then dropped
Lindsey the rest of the way. Angelus pulled hard on the rope so it
would slip around Lindsey’s neck. “Lindsey!” Faith screamed.