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Gunn spoke for the first time. “How?”

“We tried to kill me.” Silence greeted this little revelation.

Giles took the reins at that point. “She came into the Council’s hospital wing and we hooked her up to a lot of monitors, to make sure…well, you know. And then I poisoned her.”

“He filled me with enough arsenic to kill a small elephant, and yet here I stand. But I still wasn’t convinced, so we tested it again.” I extended my right arm and gestured to a mark in the crook of my elbow. “I let a vampire drain me to the point I should have died of blood loss, and although I felt nauseas and loopy afterward, it was a far cry from dead. And we tried several other less…umm conventional ways as well.”

“It would appear that the only way of killing her now is to behead her.” Giles chimed in.

“I think that’s enough for now, Giles, thanks. We’ll call you with news of the girl.” Dawn interrupted and hung up the phone.

“Yeah, like a true immortal, I’m really not. There’s a way to kill everything. At least I’ll never have to worry about gray hair,” I quipped. The serious looks on the faces of the people around me brought my snarkiness to a halt. “Please don’t tell Spike. I’ll tell him on my own when the time is right.” I decided it was time to return to the task at hand. Now if I could only draw their open mouthed gapes to something else. I slid into a chair at the table. “So, this girl, Dana. Where would she go?”

“Why not start at the source?” Lorne asked.

Wesley looked confused. “The asylum?”

Lorne shook his head. “No. Where this started for her. She was abducted from home. Right?”

“That was over fifteen years ago.” Angel
interjected.

“Houses have long memories, Angel cakes. You just gotta know how to get 'em to talk.” Lorne winked at Dawn and she giggled.

Angel sighed in frustration. “All right. Fine. Set it up. We better involve one of the Watchers though. You, Dawn, and I will check out the house.” He turned toward the remaining group members. “You four. I want to find the guy who killed Dana's family. His name, his past, his whereabouts. Everything.”

Gunn stood in protest. “Police never caught him.”

Angel stared down at him. “Yeah, well, we're not the police. Search her files. Talk to her contacts. Raise the dead, if you have to. Just...find him.”

Dawn, Lorne and Angel headed out, leaving the rest of the group sitting around an empty table. Well, three of us anyway. Gunn was still standing. It was he that turned to address the group. “I’m gonna go get a map of L.A. and grab my laptop from my office.”

Wesley rose as well. “Buffy, if I remember correctly, you never were one for research. If you would prefer to go and find Spike, I’m sure we will all understand.” He smiled kindly.

This wasn’t the stuffy watcher from Sunnydale. This was like a totally different guy. A nice guy. I liked him. “If Spike wanted my help, he would have asked me to go along. I may not be a great scholar, but I’ll try to help you out.”

He nodded. “I’ll grab some books.”


When Angel, Lorne and Dawn returned from the house, we had found all the information on Dana’s kidnapper. It really had been easier than I had thought. Back in Sunnydale with the Scoobies, it might have taken months. With the entire staff of an evil law firm? Thirty-five minutes, tops. The police five years back had shot him when he was caught robbing a liquor store. The other group’s news was just as dead-ended.

“What did your psychic find out at the house?” I asked. I didn’t really think a psychic was the right way to go about finding this girl, but then again, I had never had the resources to call one in before. I could be wrong. It’s happened before.

“Cold, creepy basement, and it smells like molasses.” Dawn informed us.

“Yuh-huh, and where is that exactly?” I inquired letting my doubt color my voice.

Angel turned to the map Gunn had tacked to the wall and pointed at an area near where I had circled the asylum with a marker only thirty minutes before. “Tactical found the body here—Fourth and Camden. She's staying in the area. Let's get aerial surveillance up, thermal imaging. Have them go block to bloc, five-mile radius.”

Wesley got on the office phone to give the order as Gunn asked Angel ““What exactly are they looking for? I mean, this is an industrial area. Most of the buildings have a basement of some sort.”

Wesley looked up from the phone. “What about...” he laughed at himself, “I almost said the words "molasses factory" out loud.”

Fred jumped to her feet. “Whiskey.” We all looked at her like she had grown a tail. “I mean, when you're cookin' up whiskey, it makes the whole room smell like molasses.”

I stood walked around the table to squint at the map. “Look for a distillery. Get maps from ten years ago. Maybe it's…still…” Movement through the doors caught my eye and I turned towards it. Andrew, face battered and bloody stood catching his breath, staring at me intently.

“We were attacked. I think she got him. I think she got Spike.”

Dread shivered down my spine. I just got him back! I wasn’t about to lose him again. “Andrew,” I ran to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. “You have to think. You need to tell me exactly where you were when she attacked you.”

“We were down by the docks. She’s bleeding. Spike was tracking her blood. We followed the scent into an alley, but she jumped out and punched me. She knocked me out and when I came to, they were fighting. I tried to tranq her, but she dodged it and kicked me in the head. When I got back up, they were both gone,” he answered.

I turned to Angel. “You can do the same thing, right? Track her by her blood?”

“Spike was actually better at it, but I shouldn’t have a problem,” he responded sullenly.

I nodded and the two of us took off running for the elevator.





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