Chapter Thirteen
“There’s no place like home; there’s no place like home; there’s no place like home.”
Buffy opened her eyes. Damn. It didn’t work.
She was still in the same dark world. In the same dark prison cell with a dirt floor, damp walls, a very leaky ceiling, no windows, and no toilet.
No toilet!
That was probably because the cells weren’t made to incarcerate humans.
Stephanie’s world sucked. At least, Stephan had had a toilet in his guest quarters.
And Angel. . . her Angel slept in blissful unconsciousness, unaware of the horrors going on around his resting body. She wished that she could wake him. Maybe he would have a better idea about how to get them out of this. To top it off, she had no clue what had happened to Spike.
Some trio of strength they were.
“You know, pumpkin, no matter how many times you might decide to try and do that, it’s not gonna work.”
Buffy turned to face Lorne, who sat a few feet away from her barred cell with the keys dangling from the tips of his fingers. She could swear that she saw something akin to empathy in his eyes. Following her intuition, she reached her hand toward him. “It would if you would just hand me the keys. We’d be out of your hair in no time. Well, as fast as possible, considering I’d have to carry Angel.”
Lorne wagged a finger back and forth. His voice was soft and gentle. “No way, kiddo. No can do.”
Buffy sighed. “You know something?”
“What’s that?” Lorne leaned his large frame forward in the chair, resting his forearms on his thighs. His red-tinged horns were a striking contrast against the strident green of his skin, and he seemed intrigued by her. She could work with that.
“I don’t know Lorne very well in my world, but I don’t think he’s evil. In fact, I’m pretty sure he isn’t.”
Lorne appeared genuinely surprised, leaning back a little and swinging the keys into his palm. “How do you know that I’m evil?”
“Hmmm. Let me think of what might have led me to that conclusion. Where am I again? Oh, yeah! In a prison cell with you standing guard over me with the keys! And what is it you’re doing? Let’s see. Conspiring with Stephanie, who’s only the evil vampire who wants to bring a whole city of vampires into my home dimension.”
“Look, little one. We’re just doing what’s best for our dimension. That’s always been our primary concern.” Lorne’s expression suggested that he had more to say, but the door to the prison area of Stephanie’s headquarters hissed open.
The sound of high heels clumped dully against the unpaved floor. A tall, slight female vampire with long dark hair and delicate features approached the cell. She was dressed in black leather pants and a matching jacket with sleeves that tapered to accentuate her narrow wrists. Buffy compared her to Drusilla and concluded that Drusilla had a softness that this creature would probably never possess.
“Lorne.” She held out her hand, and the green Pylean slapped the keys in her outstretched hand.
“Hey!” popped out of Buffy’s mouth before she could stop herself.
Lorne gave her a sympathetic shrug, as if they were on the playground and he was saying, “Sorry, but I don’t play with you.”
As the vampire worked with the keys, Buffy ran over strategies in her head. How could she attack the vampire, knock her and Lorne out, and escape with Angel?
Her brain betrayed her, and she came up empty. How many years had she fought demons and the forces of evil, and now she was blanking? No fair.
So, Buffy did the next best thing she knew. She tackled the vampire with all the energy she could muster, using the momentum from her efforts to roll away before her target could get a firm grasp on her. She bounced to her feet, whirled, and kicked her enemy to the ground.
The vampire responded by bringing a long leg up to catch Buffy in the abdomen, flinging her across the room to slam into the closest wall. Buffy pulled herself up just in time to block the fist coming at her face, and she ducked under the vampire’s arm as it contacted the wall.
The female swore, hugging her fist to her chest and turned to face Buffy. “Wait!” she shouted when Buffy almost sprang at her again.
Fists raised and legs in her comfortable fighting stance, Buffy’s eyes glinted in anger. “Why should I?”
“Because I’m here to help Angel.”
“Whatever.” Buffy glanced back at Lorne who was hovering in the background with a grim expression on his face. She could take the both of them if she had to.
“You want to know why he’s unconscious, don’t you?” The vampire was holding a hand up as if trying to talk down a rabid dog. And still, not even one of her hairs was out of place.
Buffy hesitated, her heart hammering. Angel had been unconscious an awfully long time. . . too long. He needed some sort of assistance; something she couldn’t give. She couldn’t count how many times in the last hours she’d gone over every inch of his body and been unable to detect any injuries.
Not relaxing her guard, she acquiesced, “Okay.”
The female vampire didn’t waste another second, striding past Buffy as if she wasn’t present. She knelt beside Angel’s prone form and put her hand on his chest for several seconds. “Hmmm. Nothing.”
“I could have told you that,” Buffy grumbled.
The vampire ignored her and rose, facing Lorne. “Send her in.”
Lorne nodded and headed for the doors, leaving Buffy alone with the vampire who turned to regard Buffy.
“I’m Stephanie. You’ve met my brother.”
“I figured,” Buffy said, even though she hadn’t been sure. “I don’t like you.”
Stephanie’s brown eyes were steady on Buffy’s green ones. “I know.”
“Where’s Spike?” Buffy was worried that Spike was tucked away in another holding cell or injured more than he already was or worst of all, dead.
Stephanie smirked. “Which one?”
Buffy huffed. “My Spike.”
“Not here. He’s lost out there in the other dimension with his counterpart. He won’t be disturbing us. Odds are the kranooks finished him off.”
Buffy felt her stomach seize, and for a second, she thought she might throw up again. She couldn’t lose him now. . . not when she was just discovering that the walls closing off her feelings for him were less stable than she thought even after three years.
The door hissed open again, and Lorne re-entered with another female figure in tow. Buffy wasn’t shocked by the new presence. In fact, she didn’t know if anything could surprise her anymore.
“Roxy,” she said, not bothering to keep the irony out of her tone.
“Hello, Buffy.” The tall blonde smiled almost shyly, tucking a stray strand behind her ear. “Heard you have a patient.”
Buffy lowered her guard enough to cross her arms. “You heard that, huh? How long have you been working both sides of the fence?”
Roxy didn’t reply and merely lifted one corner of her mouth before turning to Angel. With grace, she lowered herself next to his unconscious body, her hair a swath of gold dangling over his face. Buffy felt a twinge of jealousy at the way Roxy was touching Angel’s body.
After a few seconds, she announced, “I found it.”
Stephanie hovered at Roxy’s side. “What?”
Roxy kept her gaze on Angel’s thigh and at the tiny tear in his pants. “Looks like the kranooks are biting again.”
“Damn it.”
“What’s going on?” Buffy demanded despite her precarious position.
Stephanie regarded Buffy. “One of the kranooks bit him in that little encounter you had. They bite, inflicting their poison. The kranooks’ saliva seals the wound. The only indication that there is anything wrong is an extended period of unconsciousness.”
“Science can’t detect the poison. Only magic can,” Roxy added, running her open hand over Angel’s leg in what Buffy could swear was a seductive manner.
Buffy glared at Roxy even though the vampire witch wasn’t making eye contact. “So, what’s the cure?”
“Cure?” Stephanie laughed. The sound was melodious. On any other day and in other circumstances, Buffy would have called her beautiful, but today, the sound she made was creepy. “Why should we cure him?”
Buffy said pointblank, “Because you’re dead if you don’t.”
Stephanie laughed harder. “I highly doubt that.” She brushed Roxy’s hair off her shoulders, making Buffy wonder about their relationship. “But we have plans for him. So, he will be cured.”
That wasn’t what Buffy expected to hear. “Okay. Well, that’s good,” she said uncertainly.
Roxy nodded, making brief eye contact with Buffy. “It is.”
Buffy thought she detected another meaning behind Roxy’s words the way she had on Stephan’s tours, but she couldn’t fathom what it was. Buffy didn’t know when she’d encountered a group of people who had more secrets.
But Buffy didn’t have a chance to ask. Not in front of Lorne and certainly not in front of Stephanie. She wouldn’t make the mistake of underestimating Stephanie. “So, what will you do?”
Stephanie snapped her fingers. “Lorne.”
Lorne poked his head into the cell, pretending as if he hadn’t witnessed the entire exchange. “Hmm?”
“Carry Angel to my infirmary.”
Lorne didn’t argue, and Buffy kept her eyes on Angel as Lorne hefted his unmoving body.
Buffy suddenly felt terrified that she’d never see Angel again. “Can I come?”
Pausing in the doorway to the cell, Stephanie regarded her with amusement. “I suppose you want out of the cell.”
“Well, duh,” Buffy replied with a little too much sarcasm. She mentally chided herself for her impulsivity.
Stephanie narrowed her eyes but implied permission with her next words, “You should know that if you make a move to escape, there will be hundreds of vampires upon you before you have a chance to make it to the threshold.”
Buffy knew the statement was true. “Yes.”
But she also knew she’d faced worse odds.
* * *
The possibly evil Lorne positioned Angel’s body on the silver bed jutting up from the center of the tiled floor.
With a trained eye, Buffy took in her surroundings.
The stark white room was empty except for a blank countertop, a tiny cabinet, and a silver bed with no padding. A white door was almost indistinguishable against the far wall, and a two-way mirror next to the door reflected the fluorescent lights from above. Vampires dressed in black lined the walls, pointed wooden stakes with long metal handles cradled in their arms. Although their faces were impassive, Buffy thought she recognized some of them from the battle in Stephan’s domain, but she couldn’t be sure.
Human facial features tended to be distorted beneath the vampire mask, and when fighting, everything was a blur to Buffy. Slaying was kind of like driving, which she’d had to learn to be more proficient at in her world travels. At first, one paid attention to every detail on the road, but as one became more proficient at driving, the brain tended to neglect the nonessential details – like the color of the car in the right lane. The same occurred with vampires. Buffy didn’t tend to pay attention to anything but the fact that a vampire died with a stake in the heart. That worked fine in the Sunnydale and Cleveland cemeteries.
But she should really learn to pay better attention, especially if she was going to get captured by a huge faction of evil vampires in an inter-dimensional city run by vampires.
Eyeing the smallest of the guards, she decided that she could overtake him easily and wrestle his stake away. Then, escape was just a matter of fighting off hundreds of demons and carrying a very ill Angel out of Stephanie’s facility. . . something she was completely clueless about. What had she seen on the way from her cell to this room? Not much but closed doors and dark hallways branching out in every direction.
Oh, and she’d have to fight her way through most of the city. Her only ally (if she could call Stephan an ally) was now the resident of a dustpan. Stephanie could call on any vampire to do her bidding; all she had to do was snap her slender fingers. Plus, there was the little problem of the kranooks and the fact that Stephanie now possessed the entire dimensional key.
Buffy was in big trouble, and she and Stephanie both knew it.
But that didn’t mean Buffy would go down without a fight.
Buffy squared her shoulders and donned her best Willow resolve face.
A chuckle rose from the doorway. Buffy turned toward the source of the noise. Stephanie gave her a condescending smile.
“Don’t even think it. I have plans for you, too. And you’d never make it out of here alive.”
Buffy’s fists clenched. “Don’t bet on it. I’ve survived worse.”
“Ah, well, there will be no witch tinkering with dark magic to bring you back from the dead this time. I’d make sure it was a natural death and not a supernatural one. But hopefully, I won’t have to. I’d really like to have you working for me.”
Before Buffy could ask how the hell Stephanie knew so much about her or retort that she’d never consent to such a union, Roxy appeared at Stephanie’s elbow. “Is the room ready?”
Stephanie made way for Roxy, who gave Buffy a pointed glance that she couldn’t read, but it made her think. Could Roxy still be on her side? She had, after all, taken away Spike’s demon disguise for some reason, and she’d been the head of Stephan’s little vampire projects, no matter how horrific they’d been. Buffy wasn’t sure, but she would darn well take advantage of the possibility.
As Roxy busied herself with some sort of herbs and a large book at the countertop, a vampire dressed in black hurried up to Stephanie, panting as if he had been running a long way even though he didn’t need to breathe. He bent over at the waist, gripping the tops of his thighs.
Stephanie was annoyed. “What is it, Ryan?” Buffy noted that she knew the vampire’s name, the mark of a good leader.
“We tried to stop them,” he managed as if that would explain everything.
“What do you mean?” Stephanie asked. “I’m busy here. Can’t this wait until later?”
“T-the kranooks.”
Stephanie was instantly alert, and Buffy caught the crack in her confident demeanor. Yep, there was weakness, and Buffy’s hope soared. Maybe she had a fighting chance after all.
“What happened?” Stephanie’s voice was lower.
“T-they’re attacking the city.”
“Damn it!” Stephanie cursed for the second time regarding her demonic creations. “I thought I told you to set up the magic pools to distract them until we figured out how to contain them.”
“We did. We really did. I swear. But they aren’t. . . .” The vampire paused, as if trying to find a word that wouldn’t offend his mistress. “They weren’t fooled this time. A-and they attacked the city. We sent out three divisions, and they were all slaughtered. They’re burning the east side of the city as we speak. The streets are a mass of confusion, and riots are starting to break out. They sense the source, and they’re coming for it.”
Buffy was confused and asked without thinking, “Source?”
The minion, apparently ignorant of Buffy’s position as prisoner, explained, “The complete dimensional key. They want it.”
“So say all of us,” Buffy muttered under her breath.
Stephanie cleared her throat to declare that she was still in charge. “Okay, Ryan, let’s go. We’ll handle this. We’ve dealt with similar situations.”
The minion’s face was tight with fear and exhaustion. “But not on this sc – “
“We’ll handle it.” Stephanie turned to Buffy with a saccharine-filled smile. “I wanted to witness this, but I have other business to attend to. I’ll just enjoy the results.”
Buffy was rattled by this but tried valiantly to stay calm and not stammer. “What results?”
Almost gleefully, Stephanie replied, “You haven’t figured it out yet? Roxy is going to cure Angel, and then she’s going to take his soul. Human Angel is useful, but he’s not as powerful as Angelus, and well, I’m growing a bit tired of human Angel’s whining. And what would be better than a Slayer-turned-demon at his side?”
“You’re an idiot. You can’t control Angelus. . . just like you can’t control your kranooks. Your little kingdom is falling apart around you.”
Stephanie arched an eyebrow. “Don’t be so sure about that.”
And with that, she swept out of the white room, heels clicking confidently against the tiles. Her vampire messenger followed.
Buffy’s stomach sank. For the first time, she let herself think that maybe Stephanie was right. Her thoughts flashed to Spike again, and all she could think about was how he might be badly hurt or dead. She didn’t know if her heart could take losing him, not that way. There was so much more she needed to say to him.