bbb51

Chapter Fifty-One

"What about this one?" Gunn pointed out another
address on the list Spike and Aria had recently
arrived with. Lindsey leaned over the counter to take
a look and sadly shook his head.

"No, Wolfram and Hart uses that one to house some of
its more unknown associates." Lindsey replied, defeat
in his voice, looking back at his own copy of the list
he fought the urge to ball up the paper in a fit of
rage. He was holding on by a thread and if they didn't
get a lead on Douglass soon he was going to take Angel
up on his original plan of showing up at Wolfram and
Hart with weapon in hand.

"This is a bloody waste of time!" Giles slipped his
glasses off and rubbed at his temples, the older
englishman wished that they had just a glimmer of
where the girls could be. Angel's sire had efficiently
taken three very important people from him within a
matter of seconds, after all the good each girl had
done in their short lives he thought the Powers would
at least cut them a break and not let some twisted
bitch have her way with them.

"We can't just sit here all night staring at these
addresses." Angel muttered under his breath, he looked
over at Lindsey and knew the other man felt the same
as he did at that moment. Desperation. It was like
some horrid disease that was gnawing at the inside of
him.

Looking around the room at the stressed expressions
Dawn wished there were something that she could do for
her friends. It was going on four hours since
Douglass, Willow and Cordelia were taken and with
every minute that passed the more danger they were in,
Dawn slumped back in her chair and wished for a way to
*make* Lilah talk, perhaps if they were the type of
people that would use violence to get what they wanted
they'd have the girls home and safe. If they could
just hook the woman up to some lie detector machine
then maybe they could figure out the location of the
missing girls.

Pausing for a moment Dawn straightened in her chair.
Didn't the heart rate increase or something like that
when a person lied? And who better to know if a
person's heart rate increased than a vampire? "Spike?"

Spike stopped his pacing and looked over at the
adolescent. "Yes Nibblet?"

"I was just thinking, wouldn't you be able to tell if
Lilah was lying because her heart rate increased?"
Dawn bit her lower lip as the room stilled and
everyone looked at her.

"Yes."

"Well, why can't we ask Lilah about these addresses?
If we read them off to her we'd know the right one
when her heartbeat increased." Dawn watched as Spike
looked over at Angel.

"Why didn't we think of this?" Spike arched a brow in
Angel's direction, already heading toward the stairs.

"This is fascinating. You're saying that you can tell
when someone's lying just from his or her heart rate?"
Wesley stared at Angel, his face colored after a
moment. "So the when I told you I couldn't go on
patrol those times..."

"I knew you were lying." Angle shrugged. Wesley
straightened, his face masked in shame.

"What about that time I told you that Cordy knocked
your coffee mug off the counter?" Angel looked over at
Gunn and rolled his eyes.

"Didn't need to hear your heartbeat to know you were
lying. Cordy would've bought a new mug and never told
me." His gaze swung toward the swooping stairs the
moment Spike and Lilah made their descent, this was
the one chance they had all been praying for. If they
could play this right, within moments they'd know the
location that the girls were being kept.

Lilah looked around at the angry and concerned faces
and knew that it was probably safer for her to be
locked up in the dingy room that she had been placed
in. Angel's face was one of determination, that in the
end he would get his way. Lindsey's blood shot eyes
bore holes into her and he looked ready for murder,
his hands clenching and unclenching into tight balls.
She was almost positive her name was close to the top
of Lindsey's 'who-should-I-kill-today?' list at that
moment.

Feeling strong hands grip her by the shoulders and
force her into a chair, Lilah watched as Angel nodded
over to Wesley. Lilah prepared herself for the worst
but when the englishman started reading off addresses
she almost laughed in relief. Some of the streets and
locations sounded familiar, after about the fifth one
it dawned on her that these were some of the
properties that Wolfram and Hart owned. Did these
fools really think that she'd tell which address
they'd find Darla and their friends at?

Sooner or later they'd get the right address, and with
practices ease she'd bluff her way through it. "1600 E
Colorado...115 Broadway.... 1756 E Travers-."

"That's it." Angel and Spike said in unison, each
jumping from their spots and grabbing their jackets
and weapons. "Wes, get her back to her room." Angel
nodded at Lilah. "Then I need you to stay behind, keep
an eye on Dawn."

Lilah looked around puzzled. How did they know? She
had barely batted an eye to betray the location. How
could they know? She watched in confusion as Wesley
stood and headed in her direction, this wasn't good.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Daddy's coming. We've been so naughty and he is so
angry." Dru started to shiver and pulled the lace
shawl closer to her.

"Dru honey, are you sure?" Darla left Douglass's
unconscious form to join Dru, gently brushing the inky
black strands of hair from the younger vampire's face.

"Oh yes. Daddy is very angry." Dru grinned evilly and
started to sway. "We took his witch and he's coming to
get her back." Spreading her arms out wide Dru
sashayed around the room dancing to music only she
could hear. Darla watched for a moment wondering of
the world that Dru was stuck in. Talking stars,
whispering plants, at times Darla could swear Dru knew
exactly what was going on, no nuttiness or little
voices running through her dark head but at times like
these the insane vampire was definetly off her rocker.

Darla looked over at Willow's slumped form and
growled, she narrowed her eyes in disgust at the human
that had caught her 'Boy's attention. What was it with
Angel and useless weak humans? At least this time he
had chosen better, the little redhead was better than
that whining twit of a slayer was but she was still a
human.

"Well then, we need to make sure that he doesn't get
here before our plan is achieved ." Darla looked back
over at Douglass and wondered when she'd be waking.
The blonde vampire had hoped to have had more time to
play, to hear the screams that could be drawn out of
each of the female captives but time was now an issue
and it had to be first things first.

Walking to the redhead's side she yanked the young
woman roughly by the hair slapping Willow across the
face. Willow woke up dazed looking back at Darla
unsure what was going on. Darla watched as the girl's
eyes focused on her then shifting around to get a view
of her surroundings.

Willow knew the moment she saw Darla in front of her
that the length of her life had shortened
considerably, looking around knowing that her friends
would be near by, Willow choked back a whimper.

"Thought we'd have a little chat before your friends
woke up." Darla purred letting go of the red strands
of hair.

Willow nodded slightly unsure Darla wanted her to
respond or not. "I hear that you and my 'Boy' have
some kind of *thing* going on between the two of you.
I thought I should be the one to tell you that I plan
on getting my childe back, so far he's been a little
reluctant but perhaps with you out of the way he'll
remember that his rightful place is by my side." Darla
gave Willow a thorough look and snarled as she found
Willow lacking.

"What makes you think that you could keep someone like
Angelus's attention? You're scrawny, not much to look
at and don't get me started on how weak you are. He
needs a woman not a little girl. Look at me, I'm
everything a man, or vampire should we say, wants in a
woman. Do you really believe that you can compete with
me? Do you really think you know my Angelus like I
do?" Willow looked away telling herself not to listen
to Darla, that the vampire was just playing on her
insecurities, Angel had proven that he wanted her.

"Do you even know about sex with a vampire? The pain,
the blood that heightens the pleasure. Angelus and I
would go on for hours, he never walked away from an
experience with me unsatisfied." Darla leaned forward
her mouth inches from Willow's ear. "You wouldn't last
five minutes, he'd have to be gentle with you to the
point that he'd get nothing out of being with you.
Never being able to get what he really needs, always
wanting more. Do you really wish that on him, virgin?"
Darla placed her hand under Willow's chin and forced
the girl to look at her. "Not that you'll ever have
the chance mind you, you'll be dead and he'll be
mine."

Willow yanked herself free from Darla's grasp and
glared back. "Well at least you have some fire in you,
unlike that disgusting slayer. If Angel wasn't so
obsessed with you I might turn you as well."

Darla smiled at Willow before grasping a dagger that
had been tucked up her flowing sleeve, taking a step
closer to the redhead Darla traced the curve of
Willow's neck with the tip of the sharp knife, blood
beaded at the small cut she made. "Oh we are going to
have so much fun."