Kin of the Soul

[lit_gal]

Once upon a time there was Kin of the Heart where Angel and Xander learned to be friends. Now we're working towards something entirely different.

Kin of the Soul
Slash: Angel/Xander, Angel/Spike
Rated: ADULT
banner by objectivelypink

I did warn about spurting!!  Two chapters in Two days... read 'em in the right order!!  Oh, and the next chapter is almost finished.

( Part One ) ( Part Two ) ( Part Three ) ( Part Four ) ( Part Five ) ( Part Six ) ( Part Seven ) ( Part Eight ) ( Part Nine ) ( Part Ten ) ( Part Eleven ) ( Part Twelve ) ( Part Thirteen ) ( Part Fourteen ) ( Part Fifteen ) ( Part Sixteen ) ( Part Seventeen ) ( Part Eighteen ) ( Part Nineteen ) ( Part Twenty ) ( Part Twenty-One ) ( Part Twenty-Two ) ( Part Twenty-Three ) ( Part Twenty-Four ) ( Part Twenty-Five ) ( Part Twenty-six ) ( Part Twenty-Seven ) ( Part Twenty-eight ) ( Part Twenty-nine ) ( Part thirty )  ( Part Thirty-one )  ( Part Thirty-Two )




"Oh, hello." Father Peter sounded confused when he opened the door to find them standing on his church steps.

"We need a place to use, and we were hoping to borrow the church," Xander said with his best charming smile. It wasn't easy when he was totally and completely freaking out. Spike hadn't done more than hiss the word "Angelus" before throwing pants at him and all but dragging him out of the hotel. Actually, Spike had dragged everyone out, so Xander could only hope that meant Angel had gone out. Or Angelus had gone out. And Xander was totally NOT going to think about what kind of chore Angelus might need to run.

"The church?" Now Father Peter sounded more confused.

"They want to borrow the church. I feel all icky here," Harmony complained softly. "I want to go home." Spike glared over and he might have hit her, only he had one hand on Cordelia's back, and with the other, he was still clutching Wesley's arm. Wesley had stopped protesting and just sort of gone along with the semi-kidnapping as Spike hurried him out of the hotel.

"You'll feel more icky if you get eviscerated by Angelus," Xander pointed out. Harmony got a pouting expression on her face, but she didn't disagree with that.

"Angelus?" Father Peter frowned.

"Bloody hell, either step aside so we can come inside or just shut the fucking door so we can go somewhere else," Spike snapped.

"No, of course I wouldn't shut the door. Come in." Father Peter stepped back to allow them into the church. Xander hurried in. When he held the door open for Faith, he exchanged a worried look with Graham. She was being way too quiet, which probably meant she was freaking out. Xander was feeling like doing a little freaking of his own, so he couldn't exactly blame her. It just felt wrong to see her so lost. She hadn't been this out of it since the whole confusion with the sex and the having sex with him and the guilt that followed.

Spike came through the door with a flash of yellow eyes, but Xander didn't realize why until Harmony trailed in at the end. "Ewwwww. I don't like how that makes me feel!" she said, pointing to the cross.

Father Peter looked up. "We do have quite a few of them."

"We'll deal with it," Spike said, giving Harmony a look that very clearly said she would deal with it or he would make her sorry.

"The basement!" Father Peter offered. "We're in the middle of remodeling, so the religious icons have been removed. He hurried to a side door and led them down a narrow stair into the basement where a hallway led into rooms full of folding chairs, stacks of drywall, and 1970's green carpeting. "What is going on? Where's Angel?"

"Good bloody question," Spike said under his breath.

"Someone cast a happiness spell to try and strip Angel's soul away from his demon," Cordelia explained.

"Dear Lord," Wesley breathed as he finally figured out why they'd fled the hotel.

"I'm pretty sure He didn't do it," Xander answered.

Father Peter stopped at a door at the end of the hallway right by the emergency exit sign. "I doubt He would," Father Peter agreed. "However, are you trying to say that someone intentionally tried to remove Angel's soul?"

"Looks like," Xander agreed.

"And we've got to do a little plannin' before we find ourselves nose deep in shite and trying to swim," Spike suggested, which was funny because he wasn't really big on planning. Then again, normally he just plowed through his enemies and took what he wanted. It was a little harder when the enemy you were trying to fight was also the person you loved. Xander could sympathize with that, because he was in exactly the same position. The thought of Angelus being on the loose was scaring the shit out of him, and he kept remembering that woman in the suckhouse with her wide, empty eyes after Angelus had drained her.

"How bad is this?" Graham asked. He took a seat on a long table set up at the side of the room. Carpet layers had set out samples on it, and Graham pushed those back. Faith stood next to him, her hip resting against his knee, but she just stared into space.

Spike snorted. "Plenty bad, mate. Didn't you read up on your history? I figured the Watcher up in Sunnyhell would have filled you full of stories of the Scourge of Europe."

"I didn't believe most of them," Graham answered.

"You bloody well should have. The Watcher is a bloody prick, but I've never heard him say anything that wasn't true," Spike said. Xander watched as a whole lot of the color fled from Graham's face.

"But Angelus was out once before, in Sunnydale."

"Yeah, but he still had that soul hanging around his neck like a soddin' albatross reminding him that if he fucked up again, the soul was going to make him pay for fair. Now, that soul's gone. He's really free." Spike leaned against one of the support pillars and Cordelia stood near him, her face twisted with worry.

"Free? His soul is gone?" Yep Father Peter was now freaking out with the rest of them.

"Flew the coop like a bird, although Angelus is actually the one who's free now. We don't actually know what happened with the soul," Xander confirmed.

"Right. And we have to figure out our next move before Angelus gets us on the run. If we don't think one step ahead of us, he'll get us chasing our tails and force us to react to his moves." Spike spoke confidently, but he looked at Cordelia for some sort of sign. She nodded slowly. "So, he's going to go for any vulnerable spots. Faith's da is dead, but how do you feel about your mum?" Spike turned to Faith. She looked up at him, too shocked to even understand the question for several seconds as she just stared at him.

"Faith, if Angelus took your mom prisoner, how would you feel?" Graham asked softly, his hand reaching out for her shoulder.

"Let him have her," Faith said with a half shrug. "She sold my ass often enough, so she's on her own." Graham flinched back from the words, but Spike looked pleased.

"Angelus is sure to know you feel that way, so we don't need to worry about her. Cordy's folks are safe for the same reason. Graham, you got any family for him to use against you?"

Graham looked away from Faith after a second. "Um... an older brother I'm not really close to. I never talked about him with Angel, so I don't think that's a security breach."

"So, it seems like the one in the most immediate danger is Blair," Spike said. Xander's guts dropped as he thought about Angelus targeting Blair.

"He wouldn't," Xander whispered, not because he believed Angelus wouldn't, but more because he didn't want Angelus to.

"We all bloody care about him, so he soddin' well would. His first goal is going to be to get us emotionally off-balance, so he'll play dirty. We need to make sure that he can't do that."

"Oh shit. My mom." Xander felt like he had just been punched again. His stomach was starting to physically hurt. "He knows he can get to me through my mom."

Spike's expression hardened, and for a half second, Xander was terrified that Spike was going to tell him some version of 'tough shit.' Instead he gave a short nod. "Right then, we can either go get the bird or send someone over to provide protection."

"Buffy?" Cordelia asked. From the sour look on Spike's face, that hadn't been his first choice.

"I suppose she'd work. It is her bloody job to protect the unprotected and all that rot." Spike reached into his coat and pulled out a cigarette. Normally he just played with them, letting one dangle from his lips unlit. This time he pulled out his lighter and lit it. Yep, stress abounded.

Xander cringed as another thought came to him. "Um, Spike, how do we keep Buffy from wanting to come up here and get her slay on?"

"Why would she?" Spike tilted his head like Xander had just said something particularly confusing.

"If we ask her to protect my mom from Angel, I think she's going to know something is up. I mean, she might believe that Angel would go after my father, and she would totally believe it if we said Angel was going after Faith's father, well, except for the part where he's dead, but if we say Angel is going after my mom, she's going to figure out that he's gone soulless. And she'll think slaying is the best way to protect the world from a potential Scourge of California."

Spike's eyes flashed yellow, so clearly he was still feeling more than a little left-over loyalty for his sire. "We don't bloody tell that chit anything. If she comes down here hunting, I'll take my fourth slayer."

"Which would be bad," Cordelia quickly interjected.

"Why?" Harmony looked at Spike with worshipful eyes. "I think it's totally awesome how strong you are." She blinked at Spike. From the look Cordelia was giving her, stakage was about to happen.

Xander interrupted before Harmony ended up dead because he was so betting on Cordelia in that fight. Even if Harmony was a demon, she was still Harmony. "That's feeling a little on the not-nice side, not telling them that someone let Angelus out of the soul. What if he goes after them?" Xander hated even saying the words, but he wasn't an idiot. He'd read all about the Angelus and William days when they'd tortured their way across a continent. Spike had always been more about following than getting creative with the torture, but Angelus had specialized in mind games and going after friends and relatives. It was feeling suddenly very odd that Xander knew what Angelus hands felt like skimming over his lust warm skin. Those same hands had tortured and murdered.

"He won't bother," Spike said with confidence.

"Um... you do remember his love for friends and family, and I do not mean the warm and fuzzy sort of love."

"Yeah, pet, I do." Spike's voice softened as he looked at Xander. "I remember every minute of what the bastard did, and I remember enjoying more than a few of those minutes. But he's all about fighting when he knows he can win. The slayer's a big bite and now that she's got a whole unit of soldier-boys backing her up, she's not an easy target."

"And Angelus goes for easy targets?"

"Every bloody time, pet. Penn was a fucking nancy-boy, Dru was helpless, hell, most of the humans he tortured didn't even know how to kill him. The slayer knows him, knows his fighting style, and she trusts him as far as she can throw him ever since the soulless one came out at her Christmas party. He won't go after her unless she challenges him. Bloody hell, even if she does challenge him, he'll probably find a way to go after everyone but her. When he had a vampire hunter target him, he just went for the bloke's family. He didn't fight the man with the stake; he ate the bugger's wife and kiddies instead. "

"Which is another reason why my mom is in danger," Xander said. His mom was a whole lot better than she had been during her marriage. She was sober and employed and even had friends who she made weird scrapbooks with, but she wasn't exactly healthy or strong or high on the able to defend herself list.

"Yeah, pet, she is. Angelus is going to want to prove that he isn't weak, so he'll want to force you back to his side, maybe even turn you."

Xander thought about how U'talaba had looked at Angel once he'd seen that Angel had a human slave. Among demons, vampires were the lowest ranking, and Angelus was going to remember how Angel had earned a little respect by controlling his bloodlust. "He won't turn me."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Spike advised him.

"I would." Xander looked right at Spike. "He'll try to get me back and I don't know what he's going to be like in bed now because I suspect I've always seen a lot more of the soul than the demon in bed, but he won't turn me and he won't do anything that would injure me seriously enough to keep me away from other demons."

"Xander..." Graham stopped after one word, but it was fairly clear that he was questioning Xander's sanity.

"Hey, I am not looking to test that theory. I say we just keep clear until we figure out what to do, because right now, I have no idea what I'm supposed to be hoping for. I just know that if Angelus does get me, he's not going to kill me unless I do something that makes me worthless as a slave." The silence that answered him made it pretty clear that the rest of them thought he had lost his mind.

"Boy might be right," Spike finally admitted. "Angelus usually killed humans before he figured out the advantages of keeping them around. Xander taught him a few things about how much pleasure humans can give. The bastard is going to follow his own pleasure, and if he gets pleasure out of having Xander human, he'll keep him that way."

Xander shook his head. "I'm not sure it's even that. He just gets pleasure out of having other demons see me. They know he's strong enough to control his blood lust and they respect him more when I'm around."

Spike might look convinced, but Graham was still looking not so sure. "Xander, I'm not suggesting you're wrong, but that is a lot of conjecture, and I would not want to risk your life on a long-shot like that."

"And I wouldn't want to risk your life or your soul. You're talking about taking a chance at being turned into a demon," Father Peter said. It was actually kind of sweet that the man was still worried after Xander had boycotted the church.

Graham turned to the priest. "If he were turned, his soul would just move on to heaven. Turning couldn't put his soul in any danger... could it?"

Father Peter's expression wasn't exactly comforting. "The church simply can't say. I can safely say that I have turned into one of the Vatican's most versed experts in demonology, and all I can say is that his soul might be in danger. Some experts believe the soul flees and the demon takes control. However, there are cases of an experienced sire attempting to turn a human and the human doesn't wake up. That has led some priests to speculate that the demon can't drive the soul out, but instead it corrupts the soul—brings out the worst in it. But that those who don't wake up as vampires have simply resisted the temptation."

"That's an unpleasant thought." Graham was looking mighty unhappy, but next to Angel and Father Peter, he was the most religious one of the bunch, so Xander could understand how the thought of his soul being vamped was worse than a vamp moving in after evicting his soul from the body.

"Wait a second. The gypsies cursed Angel with a soul. How could they have done that if he already had his soul?" Cordelia demanded.

"There are no easy answers. The gypsies may have cursed him with a conscience or simply returned his soul to its original state before the demon corrupted it. I truly don't know. I'm sorry. I wish I did. I don't have answers, and I truly believe that the cardinals at the Vatican are as uninformed as I am."

"Bloody worthless, the lot of you," Spike said, but he said it with a sigh instead of a snarl, so Xander didn't think he meant it.

"And we're still back to the original question," Xander said. They could debate souls and blame until cows came home from Mars in a rocket ship with little green guys, and that still didn't fix the mountain of problems they had just inherited. "What about my mom?"

"Let's give Buffy another explanation for why she needs protection," Graham said. Faith was still standing next to him silent and unnaturally still, but then Xander figured Angel had pretty much gone father-figure on her, and having one more father figure turn on you was therapy inducing.

"Such as?" Spike asked.

"We tell her that someone tortured information out of Harmony, and we need some assistance guarding potential targets while we focus on eliminating the threat."

"Um, newsflash." Xander held up his hand. "They don't know Harmony is the undead kind of dead."

"Exactly," Graham said with a smile. "Buffy and Giles will be so distracted with that new intel that they won't go looking any farther."

"Bloody hell, you'd make a fine vampire, pet."

Graham frowned at Spike. "Let's not test that hypothesis."

"Just sayin'," Spike said with a shrug, but then Xander didn't think Cordelia would let him turn anyone. It was just the nicest thing Spike could think of to say. Spike had told him that lots, and Xander was fairly sure Spike was lying about that one. "Right then, call the slayer up and ask her to put Xander's mum on the patrol schedule."

"Done." Graham stood up, but then he stopped and got that look on his face that meant he was about to say something that no one wanted to hear. For someone who was a big-bad army special ops guy, his poker face sucked like a really sucky thing.

"Spit it out," Spike ordered. Yep, Graham's poker face majorly sucked.

"I should give Riley a heads up."

Spike's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, and Graham hurried to continue. "I'm not saying that I should brief him on the issue. I just think he needs to know we have a potential problem. If I put the code word in with the intel about Harmony, he may even assume she's the potential danger."

"If you're not telling him about Angelus, what's the advantage of telling him anything at all?" Spike demanded.

"It will warn him to keep sharp. He'll increase patrols, and avoid this area for fear of getting in the middle of an active engagement."

Spike glanced over toward Cordelia. She might be quiet, but Xander figured she was the real power in the room because Spike would push everything and everyone to get her what she wanted. They exchanged a glance, and while Xander couldn't tell what either of them were thinking, they obviously came to some sort of agreement.

"What's the code word?" Spike asked.

For a brief second, Graham hesitated. "Cheerios."

Xander couldn't prevent a laugh from slipping past his lips. This whole situation was so fucked up, that the word just felt like a piece out of a Monty Python skit or something. Maybe Graham knew what Xander was thinking because he smiled, too.

"The whole point of a codeword is to sound innocuous," he defended himself with a grin.

"And what would you say if you needed him to come riding in with the cavalry?" Spike demanded. He was not grinning.

"Wheaties," Graham answered immediately. For some reason, that made Spike happy, and he nodded.

"Right then, give Captain Courageous a call and let him know we have some troubles. Just make sure he blames Harmony."

"Hey!" she protested loudly. However, when both Cordelia and Spike glared at her, she shrank back and shut up. Oddly, Xander was starting to feel some sympathy for her.

"Perhaps I can bring up an unrelated matter," Wesley suggested. Next to Faith, he looked like he had the biggest case of the wiggins, which was weird because Xander hadn't thought Wesley was all that close to Angel.

Spike looked over.

"I find myself in the uncomfortable position of having to go back."

"Whoa, okay, so not a good idea," Xander blurted out.

"Wesley?" Cordelia took a step forward like she was going to tackle him if he tried anything that insane, and Graham's mouth just about fell open. Spike was the only one who didn't look shocked.

"It getting bad?" he asked.

Wesley nodded. "I fear that I won't be able to hold out for much longer. I should go before I compromise any plans."

"No worries. You haven't heard anything that I wouldn't want Peaches to hear," Spike said. Xander thought his head was going to fall off because he kept looking back and forth from Wesley to Spike to Wesley and back to Spike, and yet there weren't many answers falling out of either one of them. Eventually it was Wesley who sighed.

"You might as well tell them. It's not as if I didn't bring this on myself. My father would say that I am coming to the end I deserve, but I do hope Xander is correct about Angelus wanting to prove his status by keeping humans around. I don't fancy becoming a vampire, and I suspect I would be as unsuccessful as a demon as I was as a Watcher."

Wesley turned to leave, but Father Peter moved to block his escape. "How can the rest of you let him go to his possible death?" he demanded, glaring at the group.

"As one of the rest, I'm just too confused to know what's going on," Xander defended himself.

"Father, while I appreciate the concern, this truly is out of their control. I signed a contract that bound me to a demon named U'talaba, not out of any sycophantic need to enslave myself, but rather because I mistranslated a rather important phrase. When U'talaba sold that contract to Angel, all the rights transferred to him. I had hoped that the spell would recognize Angel and Angelus as two distinct individuals, but from the compulsion I am currently experiencing, clearly that is not the case. So, I am left with either having to return to Angelus or asking Spike to simply kill me. I would rather avoid death," Wesley paused, "for now."

"Surely we can find some other solution." Father Peter turned to glare at Spike. Yeah, like that would work.

"Not before his head implodes from the force of the spell. And if his head is going to pop like an overripe cherry, we should probably move him to another room. Brains do make a mess when they get splattered over the carpet," Spike offered. Father Peter lost all his color, and there for a second Xander thought he might get sick. "I thought the spell might cut him some slack seeing as how I just grabbed him up without giving him a choice, so if that didn't work, he's right about his choices." Spike reached out and ground out the butt of his cigarette on an old coffee table, the smell of hot varnish rising as he burned the wood.

Father Peter turned to Graham. "Do you have any idea what he'll endure?" Graham didn't answer, but he'd gone all stone-faced, which was a sort of answer in itself.

"If he doesn't, I certainly do," Wesley straightened up and stood with his back stiff. "I am not a naïve child. Angelus shall certainly rape me in order to demonstrate his dominance. If I offer any sort of resistance, he will torture me, whip me, or simply kill me. However, if Xander is correct that Angelus has learned to appreciate the respect that human slaves afford him, then he may be willing to leave me in relative peace as I perform my work." Wesley spoke the words so matter-of-fact that the horror behind them seemed twice as bad. Xander cringed at the thought of Angelus doing any of that, but he had to admit it was likely.

"Wait. HE gets to have sex with Angel? I thought Angel was all weird about only having sex with Xander and Spike." Harmony crossed her arms and managed to look pissed and hurt all at the same time. Xander could only stare at her silently because the words to describe how very horrified he was didn't exist. He needed bigger words. He needed a stake, and he'd never felt that way about Harmony before.

"I hardly think that Angel is the same as Angelus," Wesley answered before the rest of them could recover. Until this moment, Xander hadn't realized just how much steel the ex-Watcher had in his backbone. Yeah, it took some nerve to be a Watcher, but Watchers weren't usually the ones doing the walking into vampire lairs. They were more the kind to stand back and point where other people should go. No wonder Wesley didn't fit in with them. For that matter, no wonder Giles was not big with the Watcher-love, either. "That being said, there are very few choices here, and I prefer to leave before my brains are in danger of staining the upholstery."

Again, Wesley turned to leave.

"So he gets to have sex with Angel AND he gets to go back to his own room? I want to be Wesley," Harmony said in a pout that rivaled any that human Harmony had ever used.

"So, go then," Spike said, jerking his head toward the door in an invitation for her to leave.

For a second, she froze. Slowly, a smile formed. "Really?"

"Go on. Keep Peaches happy, and if anything happens we should know about, call Cordelia on her cell."

For a second, Harmony just stood there, and then with a squeal and a bounce, she rushed over and grabbed at Wesley's arm like he was taking her to prom or something. "Can I tell Angelus that I captured you and I'm bringing you back? That would so impress him," she said as they started for the door.

"While I am not the best equipped fighter, I assure you that I am quite capable of pulling your hair and making you break a nail in any attempt to subdue me, so the answer to that would be no," Wesley said firmly.

"You don't have to be mean about it. It was only a question." Harmony sounded so hurt as they walked out of the church basement that Xander suspected Father Peter's priest sources might be right about there being some sort of soul or personality or something inside all vamps. Harmony was just a minion, but she was definitely Harmony. Xander watched Spike who had tilted his head like he was listening. He finally shook his head and held his hand out toward Cordelia. She put her own hand in his, and he pulled her close, taking a second to bury his face in her shoulder and just breathe. Xander could see Spike's back rise with each inhalation.

Angel was his sire, his creator in every way that counted. They'd been lovers and best friends and hunting partners, and Xander didn't want to think how much this was hurting Spike—all this having to plot against Angel. He didn't want to think about it because thinking just reminded him about how his own heart hurt. His chest ached with the loss of his lover and his friend, and Xander didn't know what to do about it. If Angelus started attacking nunneries and orphanages, they were going to have to try and take him out, but Xander could still feel the ghosts of Angel's hands over his body. He still loved him. When Angel had looked at him with that predatory look like he could barely restrain himself from ripping Xander's clothes off and pushing him into bed, Xander had known that was the demon looking at him, wanting to possess him and dominate him and ensure his loyalty. The problem was that Xander did love part of Angelus, so he didn't know how to deal with this.

"Was that safe?" Graham asked quietly.

"Probably safer than keeping her around here," Spike said, turning his head so he could see Graham without letting go of Cordelia.

"She isn't exactly loyal," Cordelia agreed. "If she thinks Angelus will give her give her more status, she'll side with him. She always was one to look for any advantage."

"And Wesley?" Graham asked. He was looking upset, and Faith reached out and slipped her own hand in his, moving closer. He put his hand around her shoulders, but he didn't stop glaring at Spike. Cordelia looked away, catching her lower lip between her teeth in an expression that usually meant she was trying not to cry.

"Boy's got brass knackers hidden under all that foppish talk," Spike said thoughtfully. "I wouldn't have guessed it, and as long as he manages to hide his strength, Angelus is likely to keep him around ta impress the other demons."

"And we're going to let him?" Graham sounded more worried than angry, but Xander could see Spike stiffen anyway, clearly not happy at the challenge.

"We don't have a choice unless you want me ta go after him and break his neck before the binding spell can torture him to death." Spike glared at Graham through narrowed eyes, and Graham dropped his own gaze to the ugly green carpet.

"Maybe I should go back, too," Faith said.

"If you go back, I do too," Graham said firmly.

"Faith would be dead in minutes," Spike said. He sniffed and pulled out another cigarette, but he didn't light it this time. He just stared down at it. It was Cordelia who answered.

"Angelus is going to want to kill or turn anyone who made him feel out like he didn't have all the power. Faith is a slayer, and I've given him a lot of grief about the finances—enough to force him to take in residents and go treasure hunting."

"He won't forgive you for that any time soon," Spike agreed. "And he won't forgive me for taking three slayers. He'll kill Faith just to prove he's the bigger, badder vampire."

"But—" Faith started.

"No. You don't go back." This time Spike snarled the words. "He'll bloody well kill you and hang your skinned body out to drive the rest of us 'round the twist with fury." The room fell silent. Faith pressed her lips into a thin line, but she didn't argue. For long minutes, they stood looking at each other, the broken remains of a family trying to figure out how to relate to each other. Xander wanted to make it all better, but he was so afraid of saying the wrong thing that he stood just as silent as the others.

"Xander?" Father Peter broke the uncomfortable silence. "I don't like the look on your face. Please tell me you aren't considering going back, as well."

Xander blinked. "Um, a little bit of me, sure. But then there's the raping and the dominating, which is not really my kink, so not so much."

Spike looked over, his head tilted as he considered Xander with a speculative expression. "Then what has your knickers in a twist, pet?"

"I'm just..." Xander looked around. Graham had his arms wrapped around Faith's waist. Spike was leaning into Cordelia and Father Peter just looked constipated. Oh yeah, he was about to cross a line he had never wanted to cross, but he couldn't help it. "I'm thinking that if someone put the big mojo on Angel's soul, there's exactly one suspect. And I've always been on the big no-killing-people bandwagon, only now I'm feeling like falling off that bandwagon for a certain witchy-type person."

"Jenny Giles." Spike's voice was unnaturally soft and made a shiver go down Xander's back. Oh yeah, he so would not want to be her right now.

"Vengeance is never the answer," Father Peter started counseling.

"No, but sometimes war is," Graham said firmly. Xander was a little surprised because he'd expected Graham to be on the no-killing-humans side of the moral aisle. "Long before the army told me about vampires and monsters, they trained me to deal with the sort of evil that comes in a human package. Killing is never an easy answer or a quick fix, but if a soldier has to kill in order to protect himself, his unit, his country or innocent civilians, he does it. Right now, I don't see a difference between Jenny Giles and a terrorist who has unloosed a nuclear weapon in downtown LA. If we can capture her, that's fine. If we need to kill her, that's fine, too."

Xander knew his mouth was open, but he was way past shocked and off into gobsmacked-land.

"Right then," Spike said, and he smiled with the sort of glee he got before going hunting. "We cover our flank by making sure Angelus can't go after anyone to hurt us, and then we find Jenny Giles and rip off body parts until she explains exactly what she did."

"Sounds like a plan," Graham agreed. He looked over toward Xander. In fact, Xander realized that all of them were looking at him.

"Maybe we could hold off on the pulling off of body parts, but the finding and potentially killing I'm oddly okay with," Xander said.

"We're set then. Graham, call Sunnyhell and get the soldier boys over to Xander's mum. Xander, you get Blair on the phone and tell him to either drop off the end of the earth or to get his arse back here, and Father Peter..." Spike looked over.

"Yes, as someone who regularly tells Angel to deny his vampire instincts, I do see the need for me to be elsewhere. I think an extended vacation in Vatican City comparing my notes with the archives might be in order."

"Good plan. We'll stay here until near dawn to make sure Angelus doesn't try to make a quick snatch," Spike offered.

"You can stay here," Cordelia said. "Even if Wesley tries to protect our location, Harmony is going to sing like a canary. Faith and I are going to find another lair—somewhere private enough to keep out of Angelus' way while we try to fix this mess." Cordelia held out her hand toward Faith. "Come on. If we leave the boys to this job, they'll have us living in sewers or someone's musky old basement."

Faith nodded without answering, but she also put her own hand in Cordelia's.

"And just remember," Cordelia said, "If we meet Angelus, we don't have to stake him. We just have to hit him hard enough to drive him off until we can decide how to handle this."

"I can do that," Faith said, and suddenly she straightened up and gave a lop-sided grin. "Spike taught me one or two really nasty tricks that I never had the nerve to try on him."

"Now's a good time to start using nasty tricks," Cordelia said. The girls headed for the door, and Xander realized he had to call Blair and they had to get moving before Angelus could make too many plans of his own. He only prayed that Angelus was too busy to spend too much time torturing Wesley.