bbb52

Chapter Fifty-Two

"Angel man, I know that we're on a time crunch here
but I think that our main objective is to make it
there alive." Gunn held on to the door handle as Angel
screeched around another corner sending the dark young
man slamming into Giles.

"Gee Gunn, would you like to walk?" Angel gritted
between clenched teeth, Lindsey prayed that Angel
wouldn't heed Gunn's warning feeling like every second
meant life or death to the girls.

"Not with you on the roads. 'Fraid that you'd run me
over on the sidewalk." Gunn pulled himself upright
into his own seat throwing an apologetic look in
Giles' direction.

"I could always let Spike drive." Angel took another
corner the back end of the black convertible
fishtailing from behind.

"Are you saying that *my* driving is bad Peaches? At
least I can keep all four tires on the ground." Spike
flipped Angel off.

"Will you all bloody well shut up!?! I swear if I hear
one more thing out of any of you I will personally rip
your spines out." Giles yelled out ceasing any more
remarks from the others.

After a few minutes of silence Lindsey started to
chuckle followed by Angel. Soon everyone but Giles was
laughing. "Boy if I ever had any doubts english here
was Doug's dad I'd have the proof just then." Gunn
wiped the tears from his eyes.

Lindsey smiled softly feeling a smidge of sanity
return. "So what's the plan?"

"There isn't one." Angel shrugged. "Thought we'd stick
to the basics. Get in, get the girls, get out."

"Plans are so overrated." Gunn rolled his eyes,
stopping at the cutting look Giles sent his way.

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

Cordelia slowly came to hearing a soft whimper to her
right. Trying to clear her head she looked over to
where the sound was coming from and nearly gasped out
loud. Willow was tied up next to her, blood oozing
from open cuts on her neck and face. The redhead's
head was slouched forward, her beautiful locks matted
around her face.

Looking around Cordelia noticed that they were alone.
Douglass also seemed to be out, tied to a bed about
ten feet away. The strawberry blonde witch was showing
signs of abuse as well, bruises and long cuts covered
her arms and legs, the bottom of one of her feet had
been branded again making Cordelia's stomach tighten
in sympathy.

They were going to die. There wasn't going to be a
last second rescue from their friends, no lessons
taught or evil butt getting kicked this time. They
were the losers. IT was going to happen one day, they
couldn't live like they did pushing luck to its limits
as they fought against the darkness that roamed at
night. They all knew that they'd all die someday and
not some peaceful death after a long fulfilling life
but at the hands of some evil. Their number was up.

Douglass moaned low and slightly moved only to moan
out slightly louder. "Douglass?" Cordelia whispered,
Douglass moved her head to the side but didn't open
her eyes. "Douglass, please wake up." Cordelia was on
the verge of a total mental breakdown.

After a few seconds Douglass cracked one of her eyes
open "Cordelia?"

"Right over here. Don't move your head anymore than
you need to or the ropes will cut into your skin
again." Cordelia looked to the door of the large empty
space afraid that their voices would bring their
captors back.

"Where's Willow?" Douglass licked her cracked lips,
tasting dried blood.

"She next to me. She's..." Cordelia looked over at her
friend again and swallowed back the tears. "She's
taking a nap."

Douglass was quiet for a moment and Cordelia was
afraid she had passed out again. "How bad is she?"

It was Cordelia's turn to pause. "Pretty bad. But
nothing that won't heal."

"Cordelia, I can hear the voices in my head again. The
ones before I heal someone but I'm so tired." Douglass
tried to pry her eyes open but found it close to
impossible. "She wants to turn me."

Cordelia fought back tears of fright, things were
getting worse by the second. "What will happen to..."
Douglass bit back a sob. "To my baby? If I get turned
what will happen to the baby? Does it die or will I
give birth to some half-breed?"

"We're going to get out of here." Cordelia tried to
sound confident but she knew her voice was more like a
scared child wishing for the impossible.

"There's no way that I can get out of these ropes."
Douglass started fading out again. Her head was
getting fuzzy, the voices getting stronger. "Cordy,
can you get out of yours?"

Cordelia wiggled her hands slightly seeing if there
was any room to squeeze one of her hands free. After a
few moments she felt the ropes give, her heart skipped
a beat, if she could just squeeze her hand out she'd
be free.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Where'd everybody go?" Buffy asked Aria as she looked
around the empty lobby.

"They got a lead on where the girls could be." Aria
paced back and forth wringing her hands in anxiety.

"So they left... without me?" Buffy stood hands on her
hips a perplexed expression glued to her face.

"Yes," Aria answered slowly wondering why the blonde
slayer was surprised, she hadn't been helping to
locate their missing friends, instead she had locked
herself in a room upstairs. No one had the time to
coddle the slayer and her hurt feelings, there were
lives on the line here. "Wesley stayed behind to keep
an eye on Dawn."

Buffy snorted and rolled her eyes. "Boy I bet she
feels safe now. "

Aria felt her severely worn nerves tighten at Buffy's
snide remark, too much was going on, too many lives in
danger and all that idiot of slayer could do was
insult one of her friends. Taking deep calming breaths
Aria told herself to relax.

"You know none of this would be happening if Douglass
hadn't come to town, Willow and Cordelia would be
safe, no evil psycho vampires coming after them.
Willow would've stayed in Sunnydale where she belongs
in the first place, then Angel would've never fallen
in love with her.

Aria felt her last nerve snap, she'd always wondered
about that. She'd heard about people losing the last
bit of control, even read about it but standing there
in the empty lobby worrying that her friends may not
come out of this crisis alive and hearing that little
idiot whine about who Angel was in love with did her
in. "Will you shut up!?! Three very important people
to me are in danger, as in they may not live through
this one. Do you not get that? You claim that Willow
is your best friend but you haven't once shown any
concern for her welfare. No. She may die or get
turned. Do you understand this?"

Aria could feel her blood boil in a fit of rage, her
heart pounded loudly into her rib cage. Buffy just
stood there staring at her as if she had a problem
comprehending english. "And for Douglass never coming
here? Do you even know how many lives she has
changed... for the good? Lindsey would still be
working for Evil Inc. Willow would still be stuck in
Sunnydale being ignored and Spike still being your
personal punching bag. Giles would never know that he
had a daughter and as for me, I would still be living
with my father putting up with his abuse! How I see it
Douglass actually has done a lot of good for us here.
She may be a slob, unorganized and easy to provoke but
she's our friend."

Buffy looked away from the redhead annoyed that Aria
was right on several things though the slayer would
never admit to any of it. She had lost Angel and Buffy
knew that if Douglass had never shown her face her
friend's lives wouldn't be in jeopardy.

"She's right Buffy and you're being a petty bitch."
Dawn walked out of the shadows glaring at her sister.
"Angel hasn't been *yours* for a long time now, Willow
may die, and you're acting like a two-year-old who had
her favorite toy taken away." Buffy looked sharply at
her little sister but when she saw that Dawn wasn't
backing down this time Buffy relented.

"You're right." Turning back to Aria Buffy forced a
half smile. "Fine, where did they go?"

Aria looked unsure, if the guys had wanted her help
they would have asked her but wanting and needing were
two different things. Walking over to the table she
wrote the address and directions on a piece of paper.
"Here. But I swear if your going there to start any
trouble instead of help save them, I will hunt you
down and kill you." Buffy started to smirk at the
small girl's comment until she saw the seriousness in
her eyes. Aria may not have any super powers but she
was one tough friend.