Blank faces stared at Wesley after he had made his pronouncement. "Now what," Spike snapped tiredly.

"Angel's missing," Wesley told the group. "His coat is here, but he and the car are missing."

"Yeah? Well maybe he suddenly remembered he ran out of that hair gel he likes so much and wanted to get to the mall before it closed," Spike snarked disinterestedly.

Buffy glared at her boyfriend and turned back to Wesley. "Do you think something happened to him? I mean, what could have happened? Maybe he just felt the need to get away for a bit. Xander said he was having Watcher issues."

Cordelia shook her head. "Look, maybe Spike runs out on you without warning, but Angel wouldn't do that to us, not when we may need him."

Buffy shot Cordelia a withering look, but ignored her comment. "Did you guys look for a note or anything?" Entering the training room closely followed by Spike she stopped and looked around. Nothing seemed disturbed with the exception of Angel's coat haphazardly thrown across her exercise horse. Xander had followed along more out of curiosity than concern and noticed the tranquilizer gun lying on the floor by the basement door. Going over to it, he picked it up and headed to the cabinet where it was usually kept. Breaking it open, he went to remove the unused dart. The gun was empty. Turning, he looked over the area where the gun had lain, but saw nothing. Opening the cabinet, he checked the supply of darts remaining.

"Uh, Houston, I think we have a problem."

Four faces turned their attention to him. "What, Xander?" Buffy asked, walking towards him.

"We're missing a tranq dart," he told his friend. "I loaded the gun with another dart just to be on the safe side, you know, in case one didn't take Faith down. I only needed one, which means there was still one in the gun. Now there's not. And it's not in the cabinet. We had exactly twelve darts, and there are only ten here now."

"Okay, everyone look to see if Angel unloaded the gun and dropped the dart somewhere."

Buffy carefully checked the pockets of Angel's coat as the others conducted a thorough search of the room. Meanwhile, Spike was sniffing around, scenting the air. Something wasn't right here, a smell that was slightly off. Going to the training room door, he yelled out, "Willow, come here a minute."
Tara helped a wobbly Willow into the room and over to the vampire. Willow jerked back a bit when Spike lowered his head and inhaled deeply. "Hey, what're you doing?" she asked, taken aback.

Ignoring her question, he turned on his heel and walked back over to the basement door. Sniffing lightly, he moved around the area slowly, then opened the basement door and stepped inside. By now everyone had stopped their own searches and watched the vampire's odd actions. The sound of Spike first descending and then ascending the steps was followed quickly by his reappearance. He then went to Angel's coat, picked it up, smelled it, made a face of disgust, "Angel b.o.," he snorted and then went back over to Willow and smelled her again.

Finally finished, he turned to Buffy and asked, "You remember Xander tellin' you about the vampire he saw that looked just like Willow?" At Buffy's slow nod, he said, "Well, she doesn't just look like Willow, she smells like her too except for the scent of old dried blood, and she was here."

***

Angel's head was thrown back and a grimace of pain distorted his features as the young vampire drew the knife blade down his body.

"Why are you doing this?" he gasped, trying hard to control the pain.

"Lots of reasons," she drawled. Leaning in to lick at the welling blood, she said, "I'm doing it because it's fun." Another cut, another lick. "I'm doing it because you tried to fight against The Master." Another cut.

"The Master's dust," Angel ground out. "Buffy dusted him and then pounded his bones into sand."

She shoved the knife straight into his stomach and twisted. Angel cried out at the agony. "Not where I'm from," she snarled. "He owns Sunnydale and everyone in it. Including you." Pulling out the knife, she leaned into him whispering, "He lets me play with you all I want." Drawing the blunt side of the knife down his body and past the waistband of his trousers, she held the point of the knife to the bulge of his semi-hard cock. "But you wanna know mostly why I do this?" she purred. "It's because you're an abomination." With that she shoved the knife through the material of his slacks and straight into his penis.

Angel screamed and passed out.

Standing back away from her victim, Willow slowly licked the blood from the knife and then once again began methodically slapping him until she had brought him back to consciousness. She didn't want him to miss a second of the pain she brought him.

Thirty minutes later, she stepped back and wiped the blood from her mouth. With a sigh, she droned, "Bored now."

As she turned and walked away from him, Angel let his head fall forward trying his best to control the waves of anguish that radiated through him. He wondered now that she was tired of her play if she would just stake him. Somehow, he didn't think he would be that lucky. She took too much pleasure in his torture.

Turning back to look at him, she said, "This just isn't as much fun as it is when Xander helps me." She grinned at Angel, a malevolent gleam in her eye. "He hates you even more than I do." Walking slowly back over to him, she leaned close, reached up, grabbed his chains and gave a strong tug. The chains stayed firmly attached to the wall. Angel knew they would. He had placed them there himself.
"I think it's time I found Xander," Willow said. "You behave yourself, puppy. I'll be back."

As soon as she was out of sight, Angel began pulling at his chains, but all he accomplished was splitting open the half-healed cuts on his chest. Hissing in pain, he could only hope that Buffy would find him before Willow's return. And he hoped that Xander stayed close to Buffy. It was the boy's only hope.

***

"Are you sure, Willow?" Buffy asked anxiously. Once again the young witch had performed a location spell, this time attempting to find the missing vampire.

"You can see for yourself, Buffy," Willow answered, indicating the glow on the Sunnydale map. "He's somewhere in this area." Spike looked at the map and declared, "That's the old factory."

Buffy nodded. She wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but was positive that Angel was in trouble. The missing tranquilizer dart coupled with the scent of Willow's twin spelled bad news for Angel.
Although why Willow, even a vampire Willow, would kidnap Angel was a mystery.

"Okay, Spike and I will go to the factory and see if we can find Angel. The rest of you might as well go home. Cordelia and Wesley can go with mom, and..."

"I'm coming with you," Wesley interrupted.

"Look Wes," Buffy said. "I know you're worried about Angel, but Spike and I can handle it on our own. We..."

"No, Buffy," Wesley replied firmly. "I'm afraid I must insist on accompanying you."

Buffy's eyes narrowed. "We don't have time to baby-sit you, Wesley," she stated coldly.

"You don't need to worry about Wesley," Cordelia interjected. "And if Spike is going, Wesley should go too. Just to make sure that Angel doesn't accidentally fall on a stake."

"Hey!" Buffy protested.

"Let it go, pet," Spike said. "And if we're mounting this rescue mission, can we get on with it?"

"Worried about Angel, Spike?" Cordelia scoffed.

"Don't give two flips about Angel, luv," Spike told her. "But the sooner we find him, the sooner you lot can leave. Then everyone's happy." Turning away, he headed for the shop door.

Buffy shook her head at her lover's remark and followed him out of the shop.

"Don't worry, Cordelia," Wesley told the brunette. "We'll find him." Taking the tranquilizer gun and darts, he too left the shop.

"Okay," Xander said, "What say we take Buffy's advice and head home." Making a sweeping gesture, he indicated the doorway and bowing slightly said, "Ladies." Joyce, Cordelia, Tara and Willow filed out of the shop. Since Spike had borrowed Giles' car to get to the factory, Anya had offered to drive Giles home. After checking to see that everything was locked up, Giles and Anya also left.

***

Willow was just driving down the street as everyone left the store. Pulling over out of sight, she decided to follow Xander. At some point she was sure she would be able to get him alone. She knew better than to try to take on the White Hats on her own, but Xander by himself wouldn't be a problem. Once she sired him, things would get interesting again. Everything was more fun with Xander.