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Hidden Agendas by angelic_amy
 
Ingenuity.
 
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Chapter 32: Ingenuity.


CRASH!

Glass shattered throughout the living room as a rock barreled into the room and landed on the floor.

“Get DOWN!” Spike shouted when a second missile torpedoed through another window to the side of the house.

“Someone get the lights!” Gunn said urgently.

Willow complied, scrambling for the switches and flicking the immediate ones in the living room and the entranceway off. The room was blanketed in darkness.

CRACK!

Heads swiveled towards the sound of the noise.

“The back door.” Xander hissed at Giles.

Keeping low to the floor the Watcher crept from the living room and towards the kitchen. Flicking off more lights as he went, the interior of the house fell to darkness. Another crack sounded and when he looked at the door Giles realized that whomever was out there was trying to break through the door. With an axe. As quietly as possible so as not to betray his position to anything outside, he returned to the living room.

“The doors locked.” He announced quietly. “They’re trying to break through it.”

“But vampires need an invite to get inside. What’s the point of that?” Cordelia hissed in response.

CRASH!

Another window in the dining room shattered.

“The money it is going to cost to replace all that glass…” Anya said quietly with a shake of her head as she moved closer to Xander’s side.

“I’m scared…” Dawn whispered, burying herself in the safety of Spike’s arms.

Spike winced at Dawn’s tight hold but kept quiet as he wrapped an arm around her, whispering promises in her ear. “Nothing’s going to get you niblet. They’ll have to go through me first.”

Dawn nodded knowing that he wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

“We’re sitting ducks here.” He threw Giles way. “How many of them are there?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Then we find out.”

Loosening himself from Dawn’s tight hold he inched towards one of the windows and peered out, careful to keep his position concealed as he counted the vampires on the front lawn.

~~~

Angel felt his anxiety grow as each cemetery turned up nothing, of any real worth anyhow. He had dusted a few stray vampires on his way, interrogating them about Darla yet none yielded any information. Either they hadn’t known anything or Darla had scared the un-life out of them to the point that death was a more pleasant alternative than her wrath.

Leaving the current cemetery he made tracks towards Restfield, hoping he would find them there.

~~~

Buffy dusted the vampire before her only to be tackled by another. The wind was knocked out of her lungs when she hit the ground at an odd angle. She struggled to free herself even as she gasped for breath.

Darla tipped her head back and laughed at the slayer’s struggles from her seated position perched atop a headstone.

When one of her lackey’s became a little enthused and opened his mouth to bare his fangs Darla made her authority known. With a flick of her wrist another under her command stepped forward and slammed a stake into the vampire’s back.

A shower of dust rained down on the slayer as the pressure of being pinned to the ground was released. She coughed as she inhaled some of the dust, striking out with her leg to topple the vampire responsible for the dusting and snatching his stake from his hand.

“Mistress…” He begged in Darla’s direction.

“I don’t want her dead yet. I want her to see the show I have planned for her sister.” Darla said with a smirk.

Buffy drove the stake home. “You won’t touch my sister.” She snarled as the vampires converged on her once more until she found herself surrounded again.

“I promise you that her death will be slow…” She drew the word out. “…and painful. Yours will follow in the same fashion.”

“You BITCH!” Buffy shouted as she slammed her fist into the face of a vampire before her, beginning a charge towards Darla only to he dragged back into the circle.

“How original.” Darla retorted with a roll of her eyes. “Spike called me that exact same thing…”

A fist shot out and connected with Buffy’s chin, blood spraying from her mouth.

“Now that’s more like it.” Darla purred.

~~~

“’Bout ten out front.” Spike counted as he moved away from the window.

“Half that many out the back.” Gunn announced as he returned from the living room.

“So we take the back first.” Xander suggested, lifting his sword from the floorboards.

“And face axe guy?” Anya replied incredulously. “I don’t think so. I like you in one piece.”

CRACK!

“What are they going to do once they bust that door down?” Cordelia asked as she gestured towards the back door with her thumb. “They need an invite.” She said pointing out the obvious for the second time.

“Cordelia they may not be able to enter but they can still deliver an attack.” Giles said as his worry magnified.

“Like what?”

WHOOOSH!

Glass smashed as a bottle was thrown through the kitchen door and shattered on the floor, the spreading liquid igniting on impact.

“Like that.” Xander pointed out.

Spike and Giles stood abruptly and quickly made their way to the kitchen.

“We need to put this out!” Willow said as she followed them, diving towards the sink and searching for a container to fill with water. She found a bucket and filled it before handing it to Spike.

“Wait!” Giles warned. “Water could accelerate the burning.”

Spike knew the Watcher was right, but they couldn’t just stand by and let the house burn down around them. “Find an extinguisher, fire blanket, anything.” He ordered as he began stamping his boots on the flames that were creeping across the floor towards them.

The room was quickly filling with smoke and both Giles and Willow began coughing, and they weren’t going to be able to remain in there too much longer. Spike however, could. When Dawn appeared at his side with a fire extinguisher, he took it from her before pushing her gently back into the dining room, not wanting her anywhere near the fire. But Dawn wouldn’t stay away.

Aiming the hose at the flames he pressed the trigger, slowly putting the fire out. “Get her out of here.” He shouted over the noise of the extinguisher.

With their mouths covered Giles and Dawn left the room, followed by a coughing Willow who carried the water filled bucket out from the kitchen.

~~~

“BUFFY!” Angel shouted as he ran out of Restfield.

He had checked all of the cemeteries and she had yet to turn up. Knowing that she wouldn’t venture as far as the docks or the bus station he tried to pinpoint where she could possible be. She would be somewhere close to the house. He didn’t think she would have strayed too far knowing that Dawn was still in danger.

The most obvious location was the Sunnydale High ruins. Angel sped up as he ran out onto the street and in the direction of the school. Deciding to check the places in between, he headed towards Hammersmith Park.

Only that, and Weatherly Park stood between him and the High School ruins.

~~~

“What’s this for?” Xander asked as he removed the bucket of water from Willow’s hand and placed it on the ground.

Between coughs she answered him. “I have an idea. Tara sweetie?” She called.

Tara came forth, spotted the bucket and a small smile curled at the edges of her mouth. The two Wiccan’s had debated whether or not this was possible just the previous night, and it looked like they were going to give it a test run tonight. Removing a small vial of holy water from her pocket she un-capped the lid and poured it into the bucket. If all went to plan, the blessed water in the vial would mix with the fresh water of the bucket, thus cleansing it, which would give them a bucket load of holy water.

Catching on with the idea a broad smile stretched across both Watchers’ faces.

“Ingenious!” Wesley proclaimed.

“Fingers crossed it works.” Willow said. With Tara’s help they lifted the bucket and stood near the front door. “Be ready.” Willow threw over her shoulder.

Wesley, Giles, Xander and Gunn took position, weapons in hand as Anya stepped forward and opened the door.

Willow and Tara ran out onto the porch and with one swing back first, threw the bucket forwards at the few vampires that charged at the door. Everyone waited with bated breath as the water rained down on four of the vampires on the lawn. The water had the desired effect, two of the vampires combusting instantaneously, whilst the other two that were doused began to smoke and sizzle slowly, screaming in agony as their faces and hands burned.

A cheer rose from within the house as Willow and Tara moved to the side to make way for the four men to run outside, before darting back through the open door.

“We have to make more!” Willow shouted excitedly as they moved through the house towards the bathroom.

Not to be left out Cordelia positioned herself at one of the smashed windows with a crossbow at the ready.

“Dawn.” She called over. “Can I get some help?”

Dawn considered rejecting the request, but this was her house and she knew they were all fighting to keep themselves, and her safe. Nodding once she gathered as many arrows as she could carry and brought them to Cordelia’s side.

Loading the first one up, Cordelia aimed and fired, striking a vampire that had been creeping up on Gunn in the shoulder.

~~~

“Think about it.” Darla called to Buffy as the slayer tried to fight her way out of the circle. “Think over the last few weeks. The attacks on the demon population. Surely you would have noticed the rise in deaths.”

“I’m a vampire slayer.” Buffy spat out as she threw an uppercut punch and knocked out a vampire to her left, before spinning a kick at the chest of one to her right. “A dead demon is just one less hassle for me to deal with.”

“What about Thorak?”

The name rang a bell and it took a few moments before Buffy remembered the demon weapon’s supplier for the magic box. He had been cut up by his own merchandise. Buffy treated all demons as a threat unless otherwise instructed by Giles, and she knew that Thorak’s breed was one of a few that were about as harmless as a puppy. Looks can sometimes be deceiving…

You killed him? Why?”

“His hardware didn’t work.” Darla said with a shrug. “I propositioned him for a blade and it didn’t do the job I wanted it to.” She threw her head back and sighed, running her fingers over her abdomen.

“Anything else?” Buffy demanded as she staked another. The group was thinning, but it was also wearing her out. And each moment she spent fighting here, was a moment that Dawn was in danger. The only thing she was thankful for was the fact that they attacked only in pairs, and had been instructed only to wound her, not go in for the kill. All fangs remained in jaws.

Although I could get beaten to death… she thought wryly.

Darla laughed. “You interrupted one of my plans. The Bornossiak demon.”

“The name means nothing.” Buffy spat at Darla as she flipped over the head of one vampire and staked it, only to be knocked to her knees by another.

“Stumpy little wings, brown hide, yellow boils all over its skin, claws.” Darla supplied.

“Again… could be anything.” Buffy snapped as she rolled to her feet and kicked out at another vampire.

Darla sighed with annoyance. “For a demon hunter you don’t know much about demons.” She mocked.

Buffy would have rolled her eyes if she’d been given the break to do so.

“The Bornossiak demon impregnates its victim, doesn’t kill them. The spawn incubates for about three months before it eats it’s way out of the host.”

Buffy remembered now. She saved a girl from one of those demons a couple of days after Thorak had been killed. I TOLD Giles those attacks were connected…

“What? You had a grudge against the girl’s family? She prettier than you?” Buffy quipped. “Because between you and me, you’re looking even worse for wear than the last time we fought. Few more wrinkles around those eyes.”

Darla growled at Buffy’s insolence, snapping her fingers and calling off her men. Dropping down from the headstone she prowled towards the slayer who was slowly lifting herself from her knees.

“It was a test. We needed to make sure the spell would work and the spawn could be removed.”

“Why?” Buffy demanded. “Why put that girl’s life in danger for a test?”

“I need to be sure.”

“Sure of what?” Buffy shouted. “Quit with the cryptic.”

Darla lifted her shirt and exposed her abdomen. “If the blades couldn’t cut it out, I needed another way and a spell was the best bet.”

“Get what out?” Buffy’s brow creased into a frown.

“The thing growing inside of me.”

Buffy’s jaw gaped.

“The baby.”



~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Tell me what you think!
 
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