Angel left Buffy's house with her promise to sleep ringing somewhat hollow in his ears. He headed for the park, hoping to find Lily moping over Spike at their favorite bench. What he found sent him rushing forward.
Spike lay slumped on the bench, his chest covered in blood. His hand moved feebly in his lap, then he started to slide off the bench. Angel caught him and lifted him back into a sitting position. Groaning in pain, Spike pulled away from Angel's hands and forced his eyes open.
"What the Hell happened to you?"
A dazed look crossed Spike's face. He shook his head as if to clear it, then glanced down at the blood on his chest. Angel probed at the hole in the t-shirt and found a slowly closing wound.
"Who shot you?"
Spike jerked, his eyes flashing in desperation. "Lily," he croaked.
Angel gave him a look of total disbelief. "Lily shot you?"
"No...Lily...she...Hellfire, this hurts." Spike closed his eyes for a moment, gathering his strength, then tried again. "Dru shot us...both...close range...didn't hear her coming." His eyes flew open again and, as panic swept him, he tried to rise to his feet. "Lily!"
Angel gently held the younger male down. "She's not here."
Grief mingled with pain in Spike's eyes. "Dru has her."
"There's a lot of dust here. Dru may have staked her," Angel replied hesitantly.
Spike shook his head, then groaned again at the pain and weakness that washed over him. "Slayers don't dust."
"Huh?"
"Slayers turned into vampires don't dust. Stakes'll kill 'em, but..." His words began to slur.
"Why would Dru take Lily?"
Spike shook his head again, his eyes drifting shut. Angel reached behind Spike and didn't feel an exit wound. If the bullet was lodged in his heart, it would take a lot longer than normal to heal internally. Angel briefly thought about leaving him there, then sighed and rose to his feet. Hoisting Spike's limp body over his shoulder, he strode quickly through the park.
*****
Spike woke slowly, feeling incredibly groggy and stiff. Forcing his eyes open, he took in unfamiliar surroundings. Realizations and memories began to come back, one at a time. He was laying on a soft bed under dim lights. His body hurt, most of the pain centering on his chest. Angel had been yammering at him about something.
Dru. Dru had shot him.
Spike made a startled sound at the memory. Dru had shot him and....Lily.
Spike sat up and agony lanced through his chest. Refusing to surrender to the pain, he swung his legs over the side of the bed, panting from the exertion. Angel appeared before him offering him a bag of blood.
"Take it. You need to replenish the blood you lost."
Spike made a face at the bagged blood, but greedily drank it down. Angel was right. He felt very weak.
More memories returned. Lily falling backwards, a stunned look on her beautiful face, blood blossoming from the large hole in her breast. Drusilla standing over them, fury in her eyes, a gun in her hand.
"She must have known," he blurted out, as the knowledge came. "Dru must have known about us, must have planned this. Why else carry a gun?"
Angel pulled a kitchen chair over to Spike, turned it around and straddled it, leaning against the back. "Well, you haven't exactly been overly discreet."
"Damn."
"Succinctly put."
"Are you going to quit with the sarcasm anytime soon?" Spike snapped. "We have to find Lily."
"Then you need to tell me what Drusilla is up to."
Spike attempted to glare at Angel, but just didn't have the heart for it.
"You need to decide to whom you owe the most loyalty," Angel continued.
Spike closed down, all emotion draining from his face. He didn't know if the pain in his heart came from the bullet or from its breaking. Loyalty. The one trait he had held onto with a vengeance...until the past week. His straying from Drusilla had forced her to this point. How long had she known?
"I betrayed Dru," he said in a low voice.
"So, out of guilt, you'll let her destroy Lily?" Angel questioned sharply.
Spike made an angry, frustrated noise, then pushed himself to his feet. For a moment, he swayed, then found the strength to stay upright. "I need to find Dru...try to explain. Maybe she'll let Lily go if I..."
Angel shook his head and stood up, shoving the chair aside. "She's not going to let Lily go!"
Spike gave him a confused look. "I'll go charm her, beg her forgiveness, anything. She wants me, not Lily."
"You really don't know what's going on, do you?" Angel asked, amazed.
"My former lover is probably torturing my current lover as we speak," Spike yelled as he tried to put one foot in front of the other.
Angel shoved Spike back onto the bed. "Sit down before you fall down," he said in disgust. "What is Dru up to? Surely you know that much."
Spike struggled back into a sitting position and glowered up at Angel. "I won't betray her any further."
"She's working on a spell? Reversing time? Virgin blood? Dark goddesses? Any of this ringing a bell, Spikey?"
Spike paled even further at Angel's sarcastic questions. How did Angel know all this? He managed to stammer that question out.
"I know all this because a prophecy is about to come true. It involves Lily, Drusilla, you, me and Willow, the girl you kidnapped."
Groaning and shaking his head, Spike tried to make sense of all this. "I didn't know. I mean, I knew she was working on a spell to reverse time and needed virgin blood, but..." His voice trailed off as he thought about the implications. If Lily was a part of the spell....Just how long *had* Drusilla known about them? How much had she been keeping from him?
Spike floundered, lost and very alone.
*****
They had uncovered the skylight again and the moon shown down into the dark room, lighting the cage. Willow sat in one corner, her knees drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped securely around them, as her mind drifted over the last approximately twenty-four hours.
Terror had petrified her the night before and she had cried and whimpered, trying not to think about her lack of a future. Near dawn, she had lapsed into an uneasy sleep. Her watch missing, she had no idea of how long she slept. When she woke up, the skylight was covered, the light was dim. Before she could get her bearings, a female vampire had dragged her kicking and screaming out of the cage and across the warehouse floor.
Willow had been sure that she was going to die any second. She had wanted to collapse in a gibbering heap, but her pride made her struggle and yell very un-Willow like words. When she realized the vampire was shoving her into a bathroom, she had the grace to blush and shut up while she used the facilities. She drank a few handfuls of water before the door opened and the vampire pulled her back out and over to the cage.
This had been repeated several hours later, although this time she hadn't fought. In the hours between bathroom visits, she had alternatively dozed, prayed and thought about the prophecy and the images from Buffy's and Lily's dreams. Her logical mind tried to put it all together.
Awakened from her most recent nap by bright lights and voices, Willow had opened her eyes and gasped. The body of a woman was being flung into the open cage, sending it rocking. The door slammed shut and the lock was reattached before Willow could even think about escape.
The woman was Lily. She lay on her back, one arm over her head, her hair tangled around her face. There was a gaping, oozing wound in her chest and her shirt was soaked with blood. She wasn't moving.
Willow had looked up to see Drusilla grinning in joy as she rifled through Lily's purse. Willow nearly burst into laughter at the sight of Drusilla's joy turning to pain as she pulled a cross from the purse. As her hand started to smoke, Drusilla shrieked and dropped the cross. Cradling her wounded hand, she stormed off, babbling about crazy Slayer vampire bitches.
The other vampires, except for the two left on guard, had followed their wounded leader and the lights had been turned off again.
A little sickened by the overpowering smell of blood, Willow had retreated to a corner of the cage. Worry and fear drove her into a tucked position, as she waited and prayed for Lily to awaken.
*****
Spike gathered his scattered thoughts and attempted to form a coherent sentence. "I need to see Dru, try to explain..."
"I'm guessing she isn't gonna listen. She did shoot you and leave you to bleed your rotten existence away."
"It wouldn't have killed me," Spike protested, annoyed at Angel's superior attitude. It reminded him too much of his sire in the bad old days.
"No, but it did incapacitate you. If Buffy had been with me, you'd be dust. God knows why *I* haven't staked you myself."
"Try it," Spike growled. Angel just grinned at Spike's weak taunting. "This isn't helping us find Lily."
"So, you do want to find her."
"Yes."
"Even if it means betraying Dru?"
Spike thought about that for a few minutes, then sighed in regret. "I don't want to hurt her anymore. I can't let her kill Lily. But, I can't stop her either. I can't hurt her like that." Spike's eyes fell to his bloody chest and he winced at the physical pain, then winced again at the bleakness of a future without Lily.
"Then, I'll stop her. Just tell me where she is."
"I don't know," Spike said honestly. "She may be at the warehouse, but that's not where she took the girl. I'm out of the loop," he finished with a snort.
"Does Dru have the power to reverse time, to destroy the world?"
Spike nodded wordlessly and Angel groaned, silently berating himself for ever turning her.
"You were right. She found a spell. It called for, among other things, two dark goddesses and..." Spike stopped as he remembered Drusilla's reaction to one of her visions.
"What?" Angel demanded.
Spike's voice dropped to a horrified whisper. "She saw one of the dark goddesses die...Lily."
"Buffy also had a vision of Lily dead," Angel said quietly.
Spike looked up in surprise. "You know a lot more than you're saying."
"Yeah and I'm not sharing. I don't trust you not to try to save your skin by giving Dru the information I have about the spell."
The two male vampires glared at each other.
*****
In the cage Lily stirred. As she struggled to consciousness, pain hit her and she moaned low in her throat. She tried to sit up and failed, falling back onto some hard structure that shook. That forced her to open her eyes, which slowly focused on the metal bars above her. Rolling her head to the side she saw more bars. Memories returned and she groaned. The bloody cage.
Gentle hands smoothed her tangled hair out of her eyes and Lily looked up into the pale, frightened face of Willow.
*****
Angel crouched on the roof outside Buffy's window debating over whether or not to awaken her. Finally he decided that she needed to know about Lily's probable capture. As usual her window was open and he slipped silently inside. With his preternatural sight he watched her fretful sleep. Buffy lay on her side facing him, her arms wrapped around a pillow. There was a frown marring her beautiful face and he knew her dreams were unhappy ones.
As Angel leaned down to touch her cheek, Buffy snapped awake and scrambled backwards.
"It's just me," he said softly.
Buffy sat up and turned on her bedside lamp. Blinking against the sudden glare, she looked up at him. "Angel?" It was apparent when her memories sorted themselves out by the frightened look that crossed her face. "What's happened now? Did you find Willow?"
Angel sat down on the bed and reached for her hand. Buffy started to tremble.
"You did find her, didn't you," she said in an empty voice, full of dread that Angel had found Willow's body.
"No, no. I haven't even had a chance to look for her. It's Lily."
Buffy was able to breathe again. "Did you find *her*?"
Angel shook his head and answered her slowly. "I found Spike, bleeding from a hole in his chest. He claims that Dru shot them both. There was no sign of Lily."
"Do you believe him?"
Angel thought about that for a moment, then nodded. "He was panicked about her."
"Will he help us find her and Willow?"
"No. He won't betray Dru, even to save Lily."
Buffy made a disgusted noise.
"I didn't know if I should wake you to tell you this..." Angel continued.
"No, you did the right thing. Just let me get dressed and we'll start searching again." Buffy glanced at her bedside clock which read a few minutes after ten o'clock, then started to climb off the bed. Angel gently pushed her back down.
"No, you go back to sleep."
"I can't sleep now," Buffy protested.
"There are black circles under your eyes. You'll never be able to stop Dru if you're exhausted."
Buffy made a face at him, then flopped down on her back. "Well, you can at least give me the good news that, in his weakened condition, you staked Spike."
Angel gave her a disgruntled look and she sighed. "A perfect opportunity to dust one of the two biggest pains in my ass and you...just what did you do? Feed him blood and tend his wounds?"
"Okay, okay, I thought he might be able to tell us something useful," Angel explained, holding up his hands in surrender.
Buffy snorted.
*****
His wound healed--at least externally--and wearing a white t-shirt of Angel's as a replacement for his torn and bloody one, Spike strolled nonchalantly into the large room in the warehouse. As usual, there wasn't a guard in sight. Bloody, stupid fledglings. The Slayer wasn't as dumb as she looked--she'd find this place pretty soon, especially since she was searching for her friend. He had a feeling that taking that young thing was going to cost Drusilla--surely any virgin would have done the job, whatever the job was.
The few vampires loitering in the main room eyed him, but left him alone as he walked across the floor, heading for the room he shared with Drusilla. Were they showing him respect or following Drusilla's orders? He wasn't sure he wanted to know.
Opening the door to their bedroom, he stepped inside to the sound of Fred Astaire crooning Cole Porter's "Night and Day". Drusilla swayed to the music, singing along as she rocked one of her dolls. This one didn't have a head.
"Night and day, why is it so, that this hunger for you follows wherever I go," she sang.
Spying Spike, Drusilla stopped singing and swaying and a frown eradicated the dreamy look on her face.
"You have been a very naughty boy," she scolded sharply, enunciating each word.
"Dru, we need to talk," he replied quietly.
Her lower lip began to stick out and she tossed the doll negligently onto the bed, so that she could cross her arms over her chest. "I don't want to talk to you. I've taken care of everything. Taken care of *her*," she snarled.
"If you want to hurt someone, hurt me, punish me. I was the one who betrayed you, not Lily."
"You, you're just a male, weak willed, led around by your private parts," Drusilla yelled, scornfully. "She, she seduced, she stole. And now, *she's paying*!"
Spike struggled to remain calm. "Where is she?"
"All you can think of is her?" she cried, passionately. "When did you forget that you were mine, Spike?"
There being no good answer to that question, Spike closed his mouth and waited for the next burst of outrage from her.
Drusilla stalked over to him, her arms flailing, her eyes snapping in fury. "You want to see the bitch? I want you to see her, too. I want you to see her suffer. I want you to see her die."
"And me?"
"Oh, once I take over the world, I think you'll make a nice doggie on a leash."
Spike winced at the intentional threat in her voice.
"She gets to die and her suffering ends," Drusilla said in a dreamy voice which began to harden as she reached up and grabbed the front of Spike's shirt. "Your suffering will be eternal," she finished in a deadly voice. Releasing his shirt and shoving him away, she began to twirl and sing again. "There's an oh such a hungry, yearning burning inside of me. And it's torment won't ever be through, till you let me spend my life making love to you. Day and night, night and day."
*****
Lily managed to hoist her weak body into a sitting position and leaned back against the uncomfortable bars. Unbuttoning a few buttons of the blood-stiffened shirt, she gingerly probed at the oozing, slowly closing hole in her chest. She could feel that the smaller entry wound on her back had closed.
"Are you okay?" Willow asked hesitantly.
"I'll live." Lily winced as her fingers found a particularly tender spot on her breast, then sighed. "Right through the heart. Bitch has good aim."
"She shot you?"
Lily nodded. "And Spike. The bullet went through me and into him." Her mind skittered away from thinking about what Drusilla might have done to Spike. "How are *you*?"
Willow was quiet for a moment, then spoke in a trembling voice. "Scared."
Lily gave the girl a sympathetic look. Actually, she was holding up better than Lily would have thought. "Were you hurt when they took you?"
"I have a bump on my head. It doesn't hurt very much anymore."
Guilt raced through Lily. "I'm sorry Spike did this to you."
"Spike?"
Lily nodded in confirmation. "He was doing Drusilla's bidding," she answered, bitter at the reminder of Spike's weak perfidy.
"Do you think she might have killed him?"
Lily answered with bleakness in her voice. "I don't know." Looking up she saw the slivered moon shining down on them. "Four more days," she murmured.
"How is everyone? Buffy, Xander, are they worried?"
"Of course they're worried. They're probably out searching right now. I would be too except....this had to be."
"What do you mean?" Willow asked, confused.
Lily shifted against the bars and moaned as pain lanced through her. "Damn. I hate getting shot. Where was I? Oh, yeah. I had a dream this afternoon. I saw Drusilla dancing around acting insane, chanting 'It has to be' over and over. It finally hit me. I have to be here, in this cage, with you. I just know it."
"But, that means the prophecy is coming true," Willow protested quietly, so the guards wouldn't overhear.
"Part of it, at least. It has to be," Lily answered with a quirky smile. "We have to let this play out, see how many of our visions come true, before we can figure out what to do to stop the final sacrifice."
Willow looked up at Lily with sadness and fear in her eyes. "Why me?"
"To punish Buffy. To punish me. I don't know. I have a really bad feeling that Drusilla has known about Spike and me for a lot longer than just tonight. Angel told me she gets visions. She may have been seeing the same things as Buffy and I and she also may know about the prophecy."
Willow sighed and drew her knees up to her chest again, letting her head rest face first on them. "Why a virgin? Why not a slut? Cordelia would be a much better sacrifice, but of course not, has to be the last virgin in Sunnydale," Willow muttered into her knees. Even in this dire situation, Lily couldn't help but smile.
*****
Buffy and Angel lay on her bed, their arms wrapped around each other, kissing. He couldn't stop touching her, his hands running from her shoulders to her waist, down her arms and back. Buffy clutched him to her as if she was afraid he would disappear. Although teenage passion threatened to consume her, a tiny part of her mind continued to worry about Willow.
Their kisses deepened, growing more hungry. Buffy's hands found their way under his shirt and she scratched playfully at Angel's back. He groaned and slid his mouth down to her throat and around to her ear. Buffy yelped as he nipped at her ear lobe, then shivered.
Suddenly, the front door opened and closed.
"Buffy, I'm home," her mom yelled.
The kissing couple broke apart, dazed. Angel scrambled to his feet, hastily tucking his shirt into his pants, before heading to the window.
"Let me know the minute you find out anything important," she hissed at him. Angel nodded and swung a leg over the window sill. "I'm up here, mom," she yelled.
Angel slipped off the roof to the sound of footsteps on the stairs.
*****
The song ended and Drusilla turned off her compact disk player. Spike stood against the wall where she had shoved him, watching her warily. Picking up a brush, she began to run it through her curls.
"She has black hair too...but hers is all sticky with blood now. Two dark goddesses....but she's the bad one. Nasty Slayer witch." Drusilla spun around and pointed the hairbrush at him. "Have you gone all goody two shoes on me like my Angel?"
"No," he answered in a flat tone.
"Good. No goody two shoes allowed in my new world!" Flinging the hairbrush aside, she straightened her bustier, then strolled towards him. "I'm going out to dinner with some of the boys. You can fend for yourself...?"
"Yes."
"Good." Drusilla stopped in front of him and reached up to gently caress his cheek. Spike's eyes slid away from her so he didn't see the blow that sent him flying to the floor. "Bastard," she said sweetly as she breezed out the door.
*****
Angel arrived at the bench at midnight on the dot. Spike was waiting for him.
"She let you out, I see," Angel quipped.
Spike scowled and jumped to his feet. "You're in a good mood. Your slut of a Slayer girlfriend put out?"
Spike's words wiped out the good feelings that Buffy's sad but sweet kisses had produced in Angel and he returned his adversary's scowl. They stared each other down for a few minutes, then Angel looked away with a sigh. "Okay, temporary truce, for Lily."
Spike thought about it for a moment, then nodded.
"So, what did Dru say?" Angel asked.
"Oh, babbled that Lily would pay for stealing her man, and that my future consisted of becoming a lap dog--don't really know if she's planning on turning me into an actual dog or not--don't really care," Spike ended, in a mumble.
"I warned you about screwing around on Dru. She's a lot more powerful than you have ever realized."
"What happened to our thirty second old truce?" Spike snapped at Angel.
"Sorry, you bring out the worst in me," Angel answered in a totally non-apologetic voice.
"Dru has Lily somewhere and she told me I would see her soon--see her suffer, see her die, etc. She didn't try to stop me from leaving. She knows I'll be back. She holds all the cards," Spike said in a depressed voice.
*****
In a swirl of scarlet silk, Drusilla breezed into the hidden room and over to the cage. "My lovely, lovely sacrifices."
"I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Lily St. James."
"No, you're the Slayer bitch who thought she could steal *my* lover," Drusilla answered with a glare.
Lily replied with a calm look and voice. "I *did* steal your lover."
Borrowed blood rushed into Drusilla's face as fury suffused her. She stamped her foot and shifted to her demonic form, hissing. "You are going to die and Spike will forget all about you," she promised, then grinned evilly. "And I am going to rule the world." She whirled away, heading for the door, but stopped about twenty feet from the cage to look over her shoulder. "Hungry yet?"
Lily glanced at Willow and saw the girl's face pale as the implications of Drusilla's words hit her. Just how long could a vampire go without feeding before madness took over? It certainly hadn't helped that Lily had lost so much blood from first feeding Spike then from the gunshot. She was already hungry.
*****
Morning came with electricity in the air and dark clouds that blotted out the sun. After spending several fruitless hours trying to find Drusilla's hiding place--with the agreement that if they succeeded, Angel would go in alone--Angel and Spike parted company, a fragile truce in existence between them. As the storm broke, Spike slipped into the warehouse and went unhindered straight to Drusilla's room.
His former goddess lay on the bed they had shared, draped across the pillows, wearing only a black satin chemise. As she languidly shrugged her shoulders, one strap slipped down her arm, baring the top of one white breast. She licked her lips and beckoned him with a crooked finger.
Warily Spike approached the bed. Her hand caught his coat and she slowly pulled him down until he sat beside her. Spike met her lustful gaze, then slipped the coat from his shoulders. Drusilla smiled.
"Baby's come home to mummy?"
"Don't I always?" he asked in reply.
Tossing the coat aside, Spike's hand traveled up her arm and leisurely tugged the strap lower. As his head bent to her bared breast, the fingers of Drusilla's other hand curled into his hair. With a moan she clutched him to her.
*****
As dawn approached, the guards covered the skylight, plunging the room into darkness. A creature of the light, Willow whimpered in her sleep and wrapped her arms more tightly around herself. But, even with the storm raging outside, diffused light began to filter in and she calmed.
Lily fought her own need for sleep. Rationally she knew the chances of Drusilla returning during the day were slim, but she didn't want to miss anything important. On a more uncomfortable note, while her wound had finally closed, she had lost a lot of blood. Unfortunately, most of it had soaked into her clothes and the smell made her more hungry than usual in a disgusting sort of way.
Her hair was also stiff with blood and she spent a while futilely trying to comb it with her fingers, wondering idly if they'd let her bathe.
Finally, she got tired of her own stink and decided to ask them. "Hey, you." The female vampire, sitting at a table that held the only lamp, looked over at her. "Yeah, you."
"What do you want?" the female asked in a distrustful voice.
"How about letting me wash up and maybe change into something clean?"
The female snorted. "Do I look stupid?"
"Come on, I'm harmless. I lost too much blood," Lily cajoled.
"You're some kind of disgusting Slayer/vampire. Who knows what kind of powers you have?"
Powers? Yeah, she wished. Lily shook her head. "No powers. There are two of you. I've lost several pints of blood. I'm not even sure I can stand."
The conversation had awakened Willow. "Please let her bathe. The smell of blood is making me nauseous."
"Shut up, meat," the male growled from his position beside the door.
Willow winced at his name for her, but bravely spoke again. "How about, you kill me if she tries anything?"
They appeared to think about that for a minute. Meanwhile, Willow whispered to Lily. "You weren't planning anything, were you?"
Lily shook her head. "No, I just want to bathe and change. They may like to wallow in blood, but not me," she replied in disgust.
The female came closer to the cage. "Our lady wouldn't like it if we had to kill the girl."
"Do you know what I am?" Lily asked.
The demonic visage twisted even more in disgust. "A Slayer/vampire. Some kind of bizarre hybrid."
Lily rolled her eyes. "I have a soul. I'm not a demon. I'm sworn to protect human life. You're not going to have to kill this girl," she finished in the voice one might use to try to explain something to a three year old.
The male came closer. "I don't know..." he prevaricated.
Lily began to lose her patience. These two were a couple of idiots. How could Spike stand having such morons as underlings? "Look, the smell of my own blood is making me hungry."
"So, the meat is there for you to eat," the male vampire explained.
"I really doubt I'm supposed to eat her yet," Lily stressed. "It's Monday morning. Drusilla's spell doesn't work until Thursday night."
"What do you know about the spell?" he asked in suspicion.
"Huh? Oh, not much, just rumors. Look, I'm right, aren't I?" Lily lied herself away from blabbing any more. She was a little more lightheaded than she had thought.
"Well....," he muttered, looking at his companion, who shrugged, obviously putting the decision in his hands. "Okay, but we'll both be there. Make one wrong move and the meat gets it."
Lily desperately fought rolling her eyes again at the B-movie language the male was spouting.
"I wish he'd stop calling me 'meat'," Willow mumbled.
"Do you have any clothes I can change into?" Lily asked.
The two vampires looked at each other, then the female shrugged out of the shirt she wore over her jumper. It was some hideous pink thing from the '70s, but beggars couldn't be choosers.
The vampires looked at each other again, then the male took a key out of his pocket.
*****
Angel walked into the Library, careful to avoid the daylight that was beginning to seep dimly through the windows. Giles came out of his office, stretching, his back creaking as he yawned. He did a double take at the sight of Angel.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Angel began. "Actually, I'm a little surprised to see you here so early. I was just going to leave you a note."
"Um, yes, well around midnight I went home and tried to sleep, but when I closed my eyes all I could see was Willow in a cage. So, I ended up wandering around the warehouse district until a few hours ago."
"Not exactly the safest thing to do in this town."
"True. I don't suppose you had any luck?" Giles asked with a hint of hope in his voice.
Angel shook his head and sank down into a chair. Giles joined him at the table. "Can you handle some more bad news?" Angel asked a little hesitantly.
Giles sighed and nodded.
"Lily took off last night before I woke up. When I went looking for her I found Spike in the park. He'd been shot."
"Oh?" Giles asked with interest.
Angel sighed. "No, I didn't stake him. I thought he might be of some help. Apparently Dru shot both him and Lily, but there was no sign of Lily. Spike and I searched for her until dawn."
"Do you think she's in the cage with Willow?"
"If the visions are true," Angel replied with a nod.
"Damn," Giles muttered under his breath.
Suddenly, Jenny came running into the Library, all rumpled from obviously sleeping in her clothes--if she had slept at all. She stopped short at the sight of Angel. "Where's Lily?" Jenny looked around.
Angel repeated what had happened to Lily.
"You say she left you a note saying 'it has to be'?" Jenny asked, slipping into a seat beside Giles. Angel nodded. "There's a new entry in the database Willow built to hold the visions. It's from Lily."
"She must have used my computer," Angel said.
Jenny took a sip from Giles' cup of ice cold tea, trying to organize her scattered thoughts. How long she could go on less than an hour of sleep a night, she didn't know. "Lily wrote that she saw Drusilla dancing around chanting 'it has to be'. Maybe, Lily realized that she had to be in the cage with Willow."
"That's a rather large leap," Giles protested.
"No, think about it Rupert. If the visions don't actually come true, how can we stop Drusilla?"
Giles rubbed his nose and straightened his spine, spoiling for a fight. "If the visions don't come true, the prophecy won't come true. That is a good thing."
"I've been up all night reading messages about this prophecy. They've been coming in almost non-stop since last evening. There are people who have been preparing for this prophecy for decades and apparently now was the time to answer my posts. There are also warnings being posted on the Internet to avoid Sunnydale. There are even some postings about the Dark Goddess who kills her own finally dying."
"Why are all these messages coming in now?" Giles asked, puzzled.
"I'm guessing Lily's capture set off something--an alert in the ethereal plane perhaps."
"Lily may have to be on the inside to stop Dru," Angel surmised
"You too," Jenny added. Angel looked at her in surprise. "Lily saw you again chained to a wall. You may be the next kidnapee."
*****
Hair wet and wearing the nasty pink shirt that was just a little too small across the chest, Lily allowed herself to be shoved back inside the cage. The only sign of her wounds had been the large amount of dried blood that covered her torso. She had been allowed to wash her upper body-- luckily the shirt had soaked up most of her blood so her jeans were clean--and they had even found a small bottle of shampoo so she was able to wash her hair. The unpleasant part had been the male vampire leering over her bare breasts. She had so wanted to punch him in the nose.
But, the reason for her restraint lay curled in a corner of the cage watching her warily.
As the guards walked back over to the table where they had been attempting to do the TV Guide crossword, Lily leaned back against the side of the cage, running her fingers through her long wet hair. A glance at the guards showed her that they weren't paying any attention to the pair in the cage. They must believe that she would do nothing to risk Willow's life. Lily turned back to the girl.
"How hungry are you?" Willow asked, a tremor in her voice betraying her fear.
"I could use a couple of pints," Lily answered honestly. "Willow, I have a large amount of willpower. I'll be okay." She paused for a moment. "Anyway, Buffy and the gang will find us soon."
"No they won't."
Lily grimaced at the too-mature look in the girl's eyes. She was too perceptive for her own good.
"I'm right, aren't I?" Willow correctly interpreted Lily's look. "They won't find us. The visions have to play out, you said that yourself."
Lily lowered her voice. "And if you remember, I fed off Spike, not you."
"Oh, right." Willow gave her such a relieved look, that Lily didn't have the heart to tell her how notoriously fickle dreams could be. She also didn't mention the really bad feeling she'd had since the latest dream, that she not only would drink from Spike, but also would drink from Willow.
*****
Spike lay awake under several yards of lacy sheets, staring at the gauze canopy above his head....wishing it was made of something a little more substantial that would come crashing down on him, squashing him flat. He had taken the first step towards getting back into Drusilla's good graces.
And he felt like shit.
Next to him, Drusilla rolled over and propped herself up to smile down on him. Her pale nude body did nothing for him, but he forced himself to return her smile. "That was wonderful," she crooned and leaned down to kiss him hungrily.
Spike returned her kiss, reaching up to pull her across his chest. As she moved to straddle him, her hands shoved his into the bedding, pinning him down. He couldn't help but compare it to his last night with Lily. With her it had been fun, erotic...with Drusilla...he no longer felt anything.
At that moment, if she wanted to rip his head off, he really didn't care.
His body did what it was supposed to do; he could respond physically, on automatic. He knew how to please a female even if his heart wasn't into the act--and his certainly wasn't.
He loved Lily. He truly loved her....As he once had loved the female who used his body.
And he prayed to a God he knew wouldn't listen--and to whom he, as a demon, had absolutely no right to pray--that the female he loved still lived...and would find it within her heart to forgive him.
End Chapter 13