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For this chapter, a section of it was written by the lovely Tasha. Please welcome her to ImmortallySpuffy.

Chapter 14







“There’s someone out there poking at the wards,” Willow announced a few hours before dawn.







“Lookin’ for weaknesses, I suspect.” Spike stood at a window. His senses were on high alert.







Buffy paced the room. “I hate waiting,” she grumbled. “I’m action girl, not sit and wait girl.”







“Shouldn’t be too long now,” Willow said. “As soon as Lawson and Faith are back from recon we should be able to launch an attack.”







Buffy stopped moving to ask Willow a question that weighed heavily on her mind. Above all else, she wanted her mother and sister safe. “Are you sure that Harry Potter portkey thingie will work for Mom and Dawn?”







“I’m sure,” Willow assured her friend. “It’ll take both of them, Dolph, and Rosie to the Hyperion in Los Angeles if something goes wrong.”







“Good.” Buffy resumed her course around the room.







Faith burst into the room. “Some of those mercs aren’t oblivious about who we are. I saw a familiar face out there.”







“Really? Who?”







“That jackass who did the band candy magic.” Faith brushed a hand through her hair.







“Ethan Rayne,” Buffy growled. “Did you tell Giles?”







Faith nodded. “He’s not any happier about it than you are.”







“Who’s this Rayne bloke?” Spike looked towards the Slayers. They obviously weren’t happy about this Rayne felloe being there, and he wanted to know all of the real threats.







“Old friend of Giles’,” Willow answered the vampire’s question. “Now him, I think I can find.” She closed her eyes to concentrate on the chaos mage’s magical signature.







“Minions are ready.” Lawson entered the room. “So, is everyone else. If we want to do this, we should attack now. We have the advantage.”







“Got him!” Willow yelped. Her eyes opened, and they were completely black. “Everyone better be ready, because I’m dropping the wards.”







There was a mad scramble for weapons. As soon as the room’s occupants were armed, Willow brought down every ward surrounding the Aurelian mansions.







~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*







Travers stood across the street from where the Slayers were allegedly hiding out. Beside him stood Wolf Wilson and the mage. Travers thought the mage was vaguely familiar, but he decided now wasn’t the time to pursue the man’s identity. As long as he got the job done, Travers didn’t care who the mage was.







Ethan Rayne bent over in agony when a powerful force washed over him. He gritted his teeth with a suppressed groan. That’s not Ripper. What the hell happened?







“Rayne, what’s wrong?” Wilson demanded when he saw the mage’s pain.







“There’s a powerful witch in there,” Rayne gritted out. “Someone’s been holding out on me.”







Travers narrowed his eyes. “You’re Ethan Rayne. I knew you looked familiar.”







Wilson looked back and forth between the two Brits. “You know each other,” he stated.







“Ethan here is an old friend of someone in one of those houses.” Travers gestured towards the mansions.







Ethan let out a hiss. “The wards are down.”







“What did you do? I said dawn!”







“Wasn’t me.” Ethan put a hand on his head. He looked up in time to see an army of warriors pour out of both buildings.







~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*







Buffy and Faith grinned in anticipated delight as they dove straight into the mercenaries surrounding their hiding place. Faith loved a good fight, and Buffy had been tired of being locked inside. In Buffy’s book these guys were evil, and it didn’t matter if they were demon or human. They’d been hired specifically to kill her and her family. She would fight to her last dying breath to prevent that.







Ethan Rayne wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of the magical backlash that whipped through him and brought him to his knees. The first blast, before the wards went down, was not Rupert Giles. What he was feeling now though certainly was. He’d expended a lot of energy poking at the wards and isolating any supposed weaknesses. He wasn’t nearly rejuvenated enough to win a full on magical battle with Ripper.







Giles smirked in delight at the sight of Ethan on the ground. He knew the rest of their warriors could handle themselves. So, he focused only on his target. He quickly made his way across the street. He held out his hand in a gripped fist in Ethan’s direction. He twisted and turned the hand, causing more pain in Ethan’s chest. “I warned you not to return, Ethan. I won’t give you the option to be smart enough to stay away this time.”







Willow kept an eye on Giles and Ethan Rayne while casting spells to aid their side both defensively and offensively. She had to be careful not to use anything that might take out their vampire allies. So, she picked different mercenaries and demons off one by one instead.







Wolf Wilson darted into the throng of oncoming opponents shortly after they emerged from the buildings. He wasn’t getting paid to sit around on the sidelines, and he was mad that their plans were set off prematurely. He was capable of improvising, and he wouldn’t admit defeat easily. Minions were dusted left and right as he came upon them and attempted to thin out the opposition. His advance was thwarted by a game-faced Spike.







“Quentin, when will you learn that the Slayers are for us to help not dictate to?” Bernie strolled out of the shadows near Quentin Travers’ location. He was hoping that the element of surprise would completely unbalance the Head Watcher. He was right.







Quentin Travers spluttered and turned an ashen white. “This is a trick!”







“No trick, Travers.” Nikki followed Bernie. “You’re like a child throwing a temper tantrum when the Slayer doesn’t answer your every whim. As you can see, you can’t always get you way.”







“Impossible, you’re dead! There is now way that the vampire allowed you to live. I’m sure of it.” Quentin Travers couldn’t believe his eyes. He couldn’t fathom how it was possible for Nikki Wood to still be alive.







One of the mercenaries broke through the line of minions and attacked Nikki from behind. Only the quick thinking of her mate Marcus prevented her from being slashed shoulder to shoulder by a sword. Instead the sword cut his arm from shoulder to elbow.







The chaos that erupted around him during the attack allowed Quentin Travers to hightail it out of the area. He already saw that his forces were in ruin, and he was always smart enough to save his own hide. How could this be? There should have been no way for them to defeat me.







~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*







Spike surveyed the battle field. “Report, Lawson.”







“We lost most of the minions, chief.” The dark-haired vampire looked less than pleased. He liked all of the minions. Each one had been handpicked from all the fledglings Spike and he had run across during the past twenty years. “Marcus was hurt, but he’ll be okay. Nikki was less than pleased.”







“Don’t blame the bint.” Spike chuckled. “That Head Wanker was certainly surprised to see her though.” The look on Travers’ face when he realized that the Slayer he had tried to kill off decades before was still alive would stay with the bleached blond vampire for many years.







Lawson chuckled too. “Yeah, that was classic, chief.” He looked around at the bodies. “Where is that asshole, anyway?”







“The pillock ran like a yellow-bellied coward,” Giles growled. He joined the vampires. “I doubt he’ll get far though.”







Wesley came up from the other direction with a newspaper tucked under his arm. “Robin Wood suggested Travers should have an unfortunate holiday accident.”







Spike and Lawson both gave an evil smirk. As one they said, “That can be arranged.”







Wesley pulled the paper out from under his arm, unfolded it, and handed it to Giles. “Xander should have known better,” he said with a regretful click of his tongue.







Giles looked at the headline. “He really should have.” He looked up with a grin. “Remember, the girls are to never know.”







“The girls are never to know what?” Buffy came up behind Spike. She put her arms around the vampire.







“Nothing important, pet.” Spike grabbed the paper. He used the headline to distract Buffy from anymore questions. “It appears Harris won’t be bothering you again though.”







Buffy inwardly sighed. If Giles and Spike agreed that they shouldn’t know, perhaps it was best that she didn’t. She probably wouldn’t like it. She glanced at the headline of the paper. “Not again.” She shook her head. “Didn’t Ms. French and Impata teach Xander anything? It’s his own damned fault.”







“You’re not upset?” Giles looked at Buffy’s face as he tried to determine her true feelings.







Buffy shook her head. “He threatened Dawn. He should have known better.” She turned to Wesley. “Spike and I are getting married soon. You guys are invited.”







“Thanks, Buffy.”







“Hey guys, Joyce and Dawn made breakfast while we were fighting.” Faith sauntered up though her step bordered on bouncy. “Come on, B. You know fighting always makes me…”







“Hungry and horny.” Buffy moved to Faith’s side, and she slipped her arm through the dark-haired woman’s arm. “Let’s go eat, and later you can drag Lawson off to have your wicked way with him.”







~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*







Travers scurried towards his hotel room. He needed to get out of Sunnydale as soon as possible. He completely underestimated the Slayers and their compatriots. He had to figure out a way to salvage the operation, and his resources at the Council could help him with the task.







“Nikki Wood is still alive,” he muttered. “That shouldn’t be possible.” He unlocked the door to his room, and he slipped inside.







“Hello, Mr. Travers.”







Travers let out a startled, decidedly unmanly shriek. He whirled around to stare at the being sitting in one of the hotel armchairs. “How did you get in here?”







“Oh, I have my ways.” Razor leaned forward to give the Watcher a good view of his ugly face. For this task he wouldn’t be hiding his demonic visage. “Soon, you will be a footnote in history.”







Travers let out another small shriek. He had always been safe in the bosom of the Council Headquarters before. He groped behind him for the door knob. “Do you know who I am?” he tried to bluff. “If I die my death will be investigated thoroughly.”







“Not if it’s deemed a fatal holiday tragedy.” Razor gave an evil sounding laugh while he pulled out a gun. “Poor little man, shot and robbed while on vacation.”







“No!” Travers scrambled for the door. This was not the way he was supposed to be remembered. He was Quentin Travers! In his attempt to escape, he never felt the death blow when Razor whacked him over the head with the butt of the gun.







Razor dropped the gun next to the body. The only prints on the weapon were those of Wolf Wilson, mercenary for hire. Razor ransacked the room and stole all the valuables to make the robbery angle look real.







~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*







The man sniffed the air the mansion. There were a myriad of fresh scents that he didn’t recognize and a couple that he did. The predominant scent was from Xander. Xander and sex! Lots of sex!







The man wrinkled his nose. Those were two smells he hoped never smell together as long as he lived.







“I’ll go see Buffy at dark,” the man said softly. “Find out what is going on.” With that he went to find a place to sleep.





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