| Have a Little Faith, Chapter 49 | |
When Lindsey and Faith came downstairs, they found Lilah Morgan sitting alone at the hotel’s restaurant. She was staring at the coffee she ordered, but not drinking it.
“Lilah?” Lindsey asked, concerned. He sat down next to her. “What’s wrong?”
“I should go back,” she said, not looking up. “If they are going to kill me, they might as well do it right away. Maybe I can get back into their good graces.”
“Lilah, you could kill all of us and you won’t get back into their good graces,” he touched her hand. “They won’t forgive you, but I will. I promise we will do our best to make sure you stay safe.”
Lilah looked him over. “Why are you so concerned about me?”
“I told you. Because you need to be saved.”
This got a smile out of Lilah. “The Reverend Lindsey McDonald,” she joked, then she looked down as tears began to fill her eyes.
Lindsey touched her shoulder. “Come on—“
“No,” she said. “They’ll find me. They’ll find me and kill me. One day I’ll think they won’t and—“ she put her finger across her neck.
Lindsey looked down. He did not know what to say.
“At least you know you screwed them by taking Angelus away,” Faith said. That only made Lilah get more teary eyed.
Lindsey did not know what to do.
He looked at Faith. She only shrugged her shoulders.
“So your pals gonna get the chip out?” Spike asked. The three of them were sitting in Spike’s crypt.
The rest of Angelus’ vampires were scattered until the doorway was to be open tomorrow. Many vampires from Sunnydale had joined up with Angelus. They also wanted an end to the slayers. Tomorrow there would be at least 50 vampires for Buffy to take on.
Angelus nodded. “Tomorrow, we do the ritual then we can head back to LA and get your chip out.”
“They are very cross with us,” Drusilla said and laughed.
“What?” Spike asked, confused.
“Oh, I killed one of their honchos, but don’t worry,” Angelus said. “They apparently really need me to stay happy and do some kind of bad thing for them. They’ll get your chip out.”
“Make sure it happens,” Spike said. “I’ve been double crossed before and I didn’t like it much. In fact I may kill the next one who does it.”
“Spike,” Angelus said and smiled. “Relax.”
“You’ve been nice to her,” Drusilla said, a little annoyed. “Helping her and all. Be all nice and sweet like chocolate. At least that’s what I remembered.”
“That’s what you told me to do love. The slayer doesn’t suspect that I’m working with you.”
“You didn’t do it to help us. You wanted to kill her, yet—I don’t like what you feel. You can’t get this slayer out of your system.”
“He will by tomorrow,” Angelus said and laughed.
“Because she’ll be very dead.”
“So when do you think he’ll do it?” Buffy asked Giles. They were in the library. Giles was looking over some books that might give him a clue when Angelus planned to open up the gate. Faith was also there, sitting on the back of a chair like she used to. It almost seemed like nothing had changed.
Giles looked through a book. “I’m not certain. We don’t have the actual book.”
“That woman—Lilah Morgan said that he would be doing it soon and that he had to do it at the Hellmouth.”
“It may be prudent to keep a watch on it from now on. I would suggest Faith and you switch off. She can be there during the day, you can take the evening. This way Synder won’t see you.”
“Synder is a troll. I think he sleeps at the school.”
“Oh dear,” Giles said, looking over a page.
“What?”
“I do think Angelus is going to do the spell in two days.”
“What?” Faith asked. They weren’t ready. Willow hadn’t worked out the language yet. They hadn’t gotten the Orb yet.
“Relax,” Buffy said. “I’ve been in worse
situations before.” Then she looked down. She wondered what
would happen if Angel did get back his soul. How would he feel about
all the harm he had done.
Lilah Morgan sat on the patio. The others were inside while she was getting some air. She hated being in this position. All she wanted out of life was to be successful. She had that until—She tried to realize what had put her in this position. She used to never question her orders. She would have never gone to Lindsey, never tried to kill Angelus. Where did she go wrong?
It was what Lindsey had said to her that first time. That he was willing to do a lot to help her without asking anything in return. For the first time in her life, she felt as someone was being sincere and not lying to her. Lindsey had become happy before his wife’s death. Despite that he wasn’t making any money, despite that he wasn’t out the top, he was still happy.
However, she wondered if his sincerity caused her to make a lapse in judgment. She was not happy now.
She wondered if there was a way she could
make things right again.
They had split up into three groups. Giles, Tara, Anya and Xander went to get the supplies necessary to do the spell; Buffy, Faith, Riley, Gunn and Alex went to the library to keep an eye out for Angelus, while Willow, Lindsey and Doyle helped Willow with the language prep.
Lindsey looked out the shade. Lilah was still sitting at the patio. He felt bad for her. He was hoping that she was starting to feel the guilt of her actions. Maybe that would help her not feel so depressed over the loss of her position.
Lindsey looked back at Willow practicing Romany. It was different than what he had learned while working with Wolfram and Hart, it was probably older. They had spent all night practicing. It had to be done by tonight. The sooner the better. They were cutting it close. If the spell did not work tonight, then Lindsey had no choice. Angelus had to be staked.
Lindsey sighed. He walked back to the window and looked through the blinds.
Lilah Morgan was gone.
“Hold on for a minute,” he told Willow and Doyle. He rushed out the door.
“Lilah?” he called out, but she did not respond.
Lindsey looked down. She had run off. He did not know where
she would go. No one knew where Angelus was.
Angelus did not like what was going on. Drusilla was reading cards all day while Spike was getting increasingly nervous. Angelus did not like that either. He had not let Spike out of his sight out of fear the vampire would warn Buffy again.
It was not like he was bringing about the end of the world. There just would be a lot more vampires on the planet. The Slayers, even if there were two of them, would never be able to keep them down.
“Dear,” Angelus said, walking over to Drusilla. She seemed to have gotten anxious in the last few moments. “What’s wrong?”
“Again and again,” she said. “It is the same thing.”
“What?”
“You will start your plan, you will not fail, but everything will end—“
“Once the spell started, it does not end I think. It might close after a few hours. I don’t know. I just know it will be long enough to allow hundreds or maybe thousands of vampires back on the earth,” Angel said, proudly “but even if they stake me, it won’t end.”
“It will end,” she explained.
“Any human who tries to pull the gem out of the magick field will be killed instantly, I don’t think there will be anyone willing to do that. Right Spike?”
“What? Yeah, what about this chip?”
“I promised that I would have it taken out and I will.”
“You better.”
“What you gonna do?” Angelus said. “Glare at me.”
Spike got up. “I can kill you,” he explained.
“What?”
“I can’t hurt humans,” Spike said and smiled. “But I can hurt demons and other vampires. Don’t get on my bad side, Angelus, I can still be just as nasty.”
Angelus smiled. “I know. I know that no others will be willing to work with you, which is why you have become the lap dog of the slayer.”
“You take that back,” he snapped. “I played them all for fools.”
“Then you helped her so she wouldn’t stake you?” Dru said, condescending.
“That’s right, love,” he replied. “I hate that bitch. She destroyed the gem of Amara, and she got me into this mess with the chip.”
“Yet she is still around you,” Dru said and smiled. “All around you.”
“You told me to stay and your Wolfie and Hart pals would take the chip out. That was our agreement.”
“That is true,” Angelus said and smiled.
They were interrupted by someone knocking at the door of the crypt.
“You have to hide. Buffy can’t know we are work—I mean I don’t know who that could be.”
“Nice try, Spike,” Angelus said and chuckled. He and Drusilla got up to move to another room. Spike went to the door and opened it. Outside was a tall, thin and very attractive woman.
“Well, hello,” he said. and smiled
“Hello,” she said. “You must be Spike.
I’m Lilah Morgan. I’m looking for Angelus.”