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Coming Full
Circle
Chapter 9
by Tami
Los Angeles
“Where did Cassidy say that factory was?” Angel asked as he drove.
It felt like they had been at this forever. They had slept in the car, Angel and Spike hidden under a blanket in the back and Seeley up front. There was no sex to speak of the night before. No one could think of having sex, this close to their goal. So, they slept until Angel’s cell phone rang with a news update from Cassidy.
“Somewhere on Fourteenth Street,” Seeley replied, looking at a map of an old business district.
“This is only the twenty-fifth derelict building we’ve looked at,” Spike commented.
Every building they checked out so far had been vacant, which was either a good or a bad thing depending on how you looked at it. One on hand, they hadn’t found Drusilla yet, which meant she was still alive and not dust. On the other hand, they hadn’t found Drusilla yet, which meant she could be anywhere and they were wasting time while she was dying somewhere, alone.
“Aren’t you relieved that she’s not in them?” Seeley asked over his shoulder then returned to scanning the map.
“Well, yeah . . . but this is taking forever, if we had Wolfram & Hart’s resources, we would have found her by now,” Spike complained.
“Well, we don’t! There’s no use wishing for them now. There’s no easy button in life, Spike, even when you’re dead. You’re better off thinking that Wolfram & Hart was only a mirage and move on,” Angel retorted.
He gripped the steering wheel in frustration as he glared out the windshield. If he had to tear this entire business district apart piece by piece, then that’s what he’d do. God, he hated this town. Nothing good came out of living here. Doyle died, Cordelia died, Fred died, and Wesley and Gunn are both dead. He had to give Connor up completely. All because of this town and his fucked up mission for redemption that he foolishly hoped to gain. A vampire becoming human after proving his worth, that was a ridiculous notion. He should have read the fine print that came with that prophecy. The one where it said you’d lose everyone you ever cared about while trying to achieve it.
The only good thing that came out of the last horrible year was his relationship with Spike, tenuous as it was. Well that, and meeting Seeley . . . and Drusilla coming back not bent on torturing him for having Angelus trapped inside him.
“Angel, you missed the turn!” Seeley said loud enough to break through the vampire’s thoughts.
Angel’s reply was to do a U-turn in the middle of the street. The tires screeched and Spike and Seeley held on to the frame of the car for dear life. When the car straightened out, Seeley looked around to make sure he was still in the car and in one piece. Then, he looked at Angel.
“I think that was an illegal turn,” Seeley commented.
“You can write me a ticket after we get Drusilla back,” Angel said.
Angel made the appropriate turn, skidding around the corner on two wheels and the car screeched in protest.
“Okay, that’s it! The next time we get in the car, I’m driving!” Seeley declared.
“Why do you say that?” Angel asked casually as he steadily pressed on the gas pedal.
Seeley looked at him as if he had grown two heads. “Do I have to answer that with the reasons?” Angel glanced over at him innocently. “I’m human for one thing. I need air and circulating blood and my body in one piece to live! It’s going to be hard to do that when I’m thrown out of the car because you were reckless!”
“I’m still better than Spike,” Angel commented.
“Hey!” Spike said indignantly from the back seat.
“Wait! Stop! It’s here!” Seeley said.
Angel slammed on the brakes and skidded to a halt in front of another abandoned factory. It resembled the last twenty-five factories they investigated. Seeley grabbed the dashboard and his arm shot out to protect himself and Spike from going through the windshield when the car lurched to a stop.
Before Seeley could reprimand Angel for his reckless driving, the vampire had jumped out over the driver’s side door and was already heading towards the building. Seeley sighed as he and Spike got out of the car and followed.
“I thought you were the hotheaded one,” Seeley said as he fell into step with Spike.
They caught up with Angel who was examining a steel door, looking it over for a possible weakness. Seeley drew his gun as he walked up next to Angel and put his back against the wall beside the door.
“Now, I’ll go in first and . . .” Seeley started to say.
Just then, Angel backed up and took two steps forward before he kicked the door open and went inside, followed by Spike.
“Or we can just kick the door in and alert the suspect to our presence.” Seeley shrugged and went inside.
Booth carefully inspected each room they entered. He nearly ran into Angel’s back when the vampire stopped in front a door marked ‘Boiler Room’. Seeley prayed that Angel wouldn’t kick it in. Surprisingly, Angel grabbed the handle and opened the door to the glare from a wall of TV screens. He slowly reached in and flipped the light switch on as they walked into the room completely.
“Bloody hell, Angel,” Spike said as he looked at the screens in amazement.
Each screen had a different view. Some were snow, those were from the transmitters that Spike and Angel found and destroyed. Others were centered around the property and inside the building.
“Hey, guys,” Seeley said flatly as he stared in horror at one screen.
The vampires walked over to see what had caught the agent’s attention. There were four screens trained on one room at different angles. All of them had one focal point: a dark-haired, pale-skinned girl that was lying naked on a bare baseboard mattress.
“Jesus Christ,” Angel said as he recognized his baby girl.
“I’m with you there,” Seeley said.
Seeley continued to stare at the screen. He couldn’t look away. His eyes were transfixed on the screen so intently that he jumped when Spike grabbed a steel pole and smashed all of the other TVs in anger.
“Fucking son of a bitch!” Spike yelled as he bashed in another TV screen. “Bloody bastard, can’t believe we let her go off on her own! She’s dead and whoever did this will die too! I swear Angelus. This is the last straw! I’m going to,” Spike bashed in another TV, “rip them limb from limb,” he bashed in, yet, another TV.
Spike blindly took a swing at another TV when Angel raised his hand and caught the pole in mid-air. Spike glared up at him. Angel stared back for several long moments before he spoke.
“She’s not dead. She would have to be dust for her to be dead,” he said softly.
“I know, but look at the state of her,” Spike demanded, unshed tears shining in his eyes.
“I see it, Spike. I’ve lived it, being deprived without blood for so long is painful. It’s painful to see and feel. But she’s not dust,” Angel said.
“I bet you’re just --” Spike started to say.
“Which means,” Angel cut in, “That she can heal. Once we locate her, she can get better.”
Spike looked around the room, his eyes flickering to the smashed TV sets, the data center the person was keeping. He looked everywhere but the screens showing Drusilla.
“Something’s not right here. How could someone do that to a vampire as old as Drusilla? Even if she is insane, who could do that to her?” Spike asked, searching Angel’s face for answers the elder vampire wasn’t sure he had.
A slight female figure walked into the room and was surprised to find the door open. Then, she looked around to see the broken TV screens, and three men. Angel and Spike turned their heads to see who walked in and were stunned to see that it was a girl. Without a word, she turned around and ran with surprising speed. Seeley immediately ran after her. It took another moment for Spike and Angel to register what was going on before they ran out after Seeley.
When it looked like the girl had no place else to run, Seeley yelled, “Freeze!”
The girl never missed a beat as she jumped through a window, shattering the glass and ran down the alley.
“Why don’t they ever stop when I yell freeze?” Seeley wondered out loud as he ran to the window.
When he got there, he skidded to a halt and almost toppled out of the window himself when Angel caught hold of his coat to steady him. Spike was on the other side and all three men looked down at the pavement, five feet below. Nothing was there.
“Where’d she go? She couldn’t have gotten that far,” Seeley observed.
Angel and Spike jumped out the window and landed on the pavement with feline grace, leaving Seeley to climb down the fire escape.
“Fucking vampires always have to show off,” he grumbled as he dropped from the last bar in the ladder to the street below.
“About time you joined us. Were you having tea up there?” Spike said mockingly.
“Shut up, Spike,” Seeley said.
“Hey, the girl is getting away!” Angel growled.
They took off running again. Angel had the girl in his sights about two miles ahead of them when Seeley’s curiosity made him talk.
“This girl can’t be human. I mean, I ran the fifty-yard dash before, but she’s fast,” Seeley commented.
“She’s a slayer, mate,” Spike yelled back as he ran between his Sire and Seeley.
“She’s what?”
“A slayer. She kills us as a birthright,” Spike replied.
They ran faster until Seeley was close enough to take his shot. The sound of gunfire echoed off the buildings around them when he shot his target at a mile off. The girl jerked forward and stumbled when the bullet hit her in the back of the thigh.
The scent of slayer’s blood gave Angel and Spike an extra burst of speed. The primal demon instinct took hold and helped them to track their prey. The way they hunted reminded Seeley of the typical horror flick, where no matter how fast the victim ran the slow-walking predator was right behind them.
The vampires stopped for a moment, closed their eyes and scented the air. There was the smell that was uniquely Booth as he stood beside them. Then, the very distinct scent of slayer – rich, powerful, seductive – wafted the air. The scent made the vampires salivate, it made them hard. Neither Angel nor Spike could resist as the blood called to them. The scent of wounded slayer teased their senses. It wasn’t just the blood. They could smell her anxiety and her fear while they listened to her footfalls as she ran.
Angel and Spike had fallen on old hunting instincts, leaving Seeley to follow them. They split up and circled around the girl. When she glanced behind her, she only saw one of them. She was too scared to wonder about the whereabouts of the second one. She continued to hobble quickly, gritting her teeth through the pain of the bullet wound.
When she glanced back again, there was still the one following her. She turned around to see where she was going only to be brought up short by big hands grabbing her arms. She looked up and saw Special Agent Seeley Booth.
“Oh my God! You have to help me. They are coming after me,” she panted anxiously.
“Who’s coming?” Seeley asked innocently as gave a cursory glance around the vicinity.
“Demons! One of them shot me,” she stammered, glancing down at the wound in her thigh.
Seeley looked behind her and saw Angel slowly making his way towards them. The stealthy way Angel moved sent a frisson of heat straight to Seeley’s groin. Instead of calling out, Booth took the girl under his arm and escorted her away from Angel. He got as far as the mouth of another alley before Spike popped up out of the shadows startling the girl.
The girl’s eyes traveled up Spike’s body and she screamed when saw his face. There was a gleam of fangs, his ridges were visible and his eyes were yellow. She broke away from Seeley and punched Spike in the stomach before running blindly down the alley. By then, Angel had caught up with Spike and Seeley and they took off after her, the vampires’ long coats whipping in the wind behind them.
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