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Chapter 5


“Have you got your clan Aurelius seal?” Wesley asked, and Angel said he had.

“I don’t want to take it with us though…I know it’s only symbolic, but it really shouldn’t fall into another clan’s hands,




“Typical, had to be a big full moon didn’t it!” Angel groused

“Shush, keep low and get on with it” Spike said testily

“All right! Give me the – “

Spike was already passing him Giles’ field-glasses.

“See anything?”

“Give me a chance! Angel looked through the binoculars, adjusted the range gauge and looked through them again, towards the circle of stones.

“Well, there’s a big entrance way…it’s going underground!”

“Let me see” Wesley held out his hand for the binoculars.

Angel noticed that Spike had morphed into his demon, he could see better with his preternatural eyesight…

“There’s more arriving…I can’t see properly, those big stones are blocking my view, that’s the problem with them being in a circle”

“More arriving, what do you mean – more what, soldiers?”

“Don’t know…see if you can see anything” Wesley passed Giles the glasses

“Well I don’t like it…if that’s the only entrance and exit…then it’ll be very awkward to get out if anything starts” Angel said

“I think mate, that’s the whole bleedin’ idea – we are talking Initiative here, not a boy-scout jamboree”

Angel shot Spike a look

Spike shook his demon away and glared back at his grandsire.

“Quick, get DOWN! - HIDE” Buffy said, crouching

“Wha-“ Wesley started, then he heard the ‘wacka-wacka’ noise of rotor-blades on a helicopter passing overhead

It was making straight for the stones that were almost a mile away

“Do you think they saw us?”

“I think that’s a given pet, six of us, all wearing dark clothing, against pale sand, with bright moonlight – we must stick out like sore thumbs”

“So what are we going to do?”

Giles asked, looking at each person in turn.

“Well…there’s only one thing for it – we go there” Spike said

“WE? – But I thought you said you were only here ‘observing’” Angel made hand gestured inverted comma’s in the air.

“Look, that chopper couldn’t have failed to spot us just then, and if only a couple of us turn up down there, they’ll know where to find the rest of us anyway, so we might as well all go, and stick together, that way we have a better chance I reckon, we don’t know how big this underground place is, it could be huge – and a search and rescue could turn out to be like looking for a needle in the proverbial bloody haystack” Spike said

“Yeah, I agree, but we MUST stick together okay?” Buffy said, and everyone nodded

“Oh hey guys………looks like somebody important’s arriving” Gunn said, looking through the binoculars.

“Oh, why – oh yes” Squinting down to the stones Wesley and the others could make out a couple of rather large cars turning off the roadway towards the stones. They had a escort of motorcycle out-riders who veered off and parked in front of the stones when the limo’s had gone down the tunnel entrance way.

“Come on then, let’s get this over with, quicker we get there, the quicker we can all get home”

“Are we going to walk or take the bus, coz the walks about the same distance either way”

“We go back for the bus, then at least we have a means of transport out of there” Spike said over his shoulder, traipsing through the sand.

*****************

Giles slowed the bus about 200 yards from the stones and asked

“Are we all sure about this?”

“Yes…we can’t back out now – let’s just go get it over with, whatever ‘it’ is” Spike said, holding Buffy’s hand, and tugging it gently to get her attention

“Babe”

“Hmm?”

“Look, kitten, I just want to say, if anything happens, and I don’t come out of this, well, being with you, and being married to you has meant the everything in the world to me – don’t put yourself in any danger if things get rough for me, and always remember I love you”

Buffy teared up and cupped his cheek, leaned forward and gave him a soft kiss

“Same with me, and I love you too, and stick to me like glue – I won’t let them do anything to you, not again”

Spike pulled her close and gave her a big passionate kiss.

The inside of the bus got lighter as they entered the tunnel, and Giles rolled the bus to a stop at a barrier

“And you are?” a uniformed guard with a clipboard asked

“Um…Clan Aurelius delegation” Giles said

The guard ticked them off on his sheet, and speaking into a chattering radio that was attached to his collar he said,

“Final Clan are here, just sending them on down”

Rather looking at what was going on, Gunn was looking out the back of the bus and he noticed that some big sliding door was closing off the entrance

“The entrance is closing guys”

Wesley and Giles turned and looked, feeling more than a little apprehensive.

“Okay………that’s it, cut the engine now” The guard banged on the side of the bus when Giles had parked up.

“Well, good luck, folks” Gunn said and Giles opened the doors.

***************

“Follow me”

The six of them dutifully followed the guard to a door, he opened it, and stood to one side to allow them through.

Two absolutely huge soldiers covered in the latest hardware of weapons scanned them, with what looked like a yellow ‘night-sick’ starting with Angel, then Gunn.

“You’re not a vampire”

“Yeah, I know”

“Then why are you here?”

“I’m with him” Gunn pointed to Angel

When Wesley and Giles showed that they too were not demons, the soldiers began to question them again.

Spike was scanned and Buffy, the soldier ran the ‘wand’ over her and he frowned

“What are you – some sort of hybrid? – it doesn’t show if you are or are not a demon”

“Trust me, you don’t wanna find out”

Buffy followed the others into what looked like a function room of all things

“Champagne?”

“Wha – what oh um…n-no, no thankyou!” Buffy frowned and the white jacketed waiter turned away and proffered the tray to Giles and then the others.

Everyone declined, and was frowning, there was hundreds of vampires standing round in groups, drinking champagne.

“Help yourself to party snacks” a passing waiter said

“PARTY snacks – where the bleedin hell are we…this is a strange - BLOODY HELL!”

“What, what?” Buffy grabbed Spike’s arm and glanced around wide eyed.

“Lazarus…from Clan Nero – Angel, remember him in Prague?”

“What, who, where – oh god HIM!”

“Just keep your eyes peeled, this isn’t a reunion, you know” Wesley whispered

“Do you know him over there, with the long frock-coat, looks like an undertaker?” Angel asked Spike in a quiet aside

When Spike shook his head, Angel said,

“Crippenwald, from Clan Caligula, he was the one who used to take Darla and Dru on the rampages through the orphanages in the Old Country”

Spike pulled a face, he hated it when Dru used to take children for food, he’d never do it, even when she taunted him saying he was weak and pathetic, that was one thing he wouldn’t do, feed from a child.

Suddenly Chinese music began to play, and the lights were dimmed

A Chinese woman’s voice came over a speaker system and curtains drew back on a stage at the front of the room. Everybody stopped talking and watched.

Suddenly, the room was bathed in purple light, and anything white showed up as luminous. Spike felt the flesh on his forehead and cheek begin to sizzle, and he shouted to Angel to ‘take cover’ both immediately threw off their leather dusters and put them over their heads and ducked down, Wes, Giles and Gunn of course were totally unaffected, opened their jackets and stood round the crouching pair to shield them more – all around was chaos, screams and vampires exploding to dust in the ultraviolet light.

Buffy ran to the door that they had came through, and punched the soldier on the jaw, hardly ‘pulling’ it, the size he was. He didn’t flinch, he didn’t even raise his head

To her surprise and great pain, her fist connected with not flesh and bone as expected, but solid, hardened carbon steel.

“OW, OW FUCK!” Grimacing she waggled her hand and was nearly doubled over with the sick feeling that hit her stomach. She flexed her fingers and heard all the joints click back into place

“BUFFY, GET THE DOOR OPEN!”

“I’m trying – fuck – he’s NOT human!”

Mayhem all around, soldiers came running off the stage, and ran into the room, upending tables that vampires were trying to hide under so the light would hit them.

Suddenly the soldier that Buffy had hit became activated, and he raised his head and strode into the room, ignoring Buffy and the others, he took one of the weapons from the arsenal he was carrying on his back and fired into the room.

Buffy wasted no time and grabbing the door handle she twisted as hard as she could, there was a sound of metal crunching and springs being sprung and the lock gave way and she pulled the door open………………





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