Master’s Lair—
Xander and the others traded looks as the sound of fighting erupted in the cavern ahead of them. “Looks like they’ve started the party without us,” he said before heading towards the disturbance.
The sight that greeted Xander’s eyes was one of complete chaos. Buffy had her hands full with four vampires, and Leonora was busy fending off six. Angel and Drusilla looked on, but Xander didn’t think it would be long before they joined the fun. Spike sat in his wheelchair, directing the other vampire’s movements like a conductor with an orchestra.
Leonora picked up two vampires by their throats and threw them into a knot of five more before they could reach Buffy. She slammed a fist in another’s face and back kicked one who was circling behind her. She noticed Xander staring, obviously at a loss for what to do, and decided that a little guidance was in order.
“Xander! Now would be good!” She ducked a punch, springing back up with an uppercut.
“What setting?” Vampires were moving towards him now and he was getting a little nervous.
“It’s on full burn!” Leonora rolled out of the way and hunched down behind an outcrop.
“Rock and roll! Let’s make toast!” He pointed, hit the trigger, and a gout of flame spewed forth, enveloping the approaching vampires in fiery death. “Woo hoo!”
A crossbow bolt whizzed past his head and buried itself in the vampire that had managed to avoid Xander’s flames. She exploded into dust. Giles came up alongside the young man and admonished him as he reloaded the crossbow. “It would behoove you to pay attention, Mr. Harris, lest you wind up a greasy spot on the floor below.”
“A little less talking and a little more Slaying might be useful,” Buffy called out from where she struggled with a female vampire. Then the vampire disappeared into dust, and Buffy was set upon by two more.
“Right,” Xander agreed, bringing his weapon to bear again. Cordelia flanked him on one side and Giles had the other. Willow and Oz brought up the rear with crosses and stakes.
“Stop them!” Li shrieked, grabbing Angelus by the collar and turning him around to face her. “I thought you said you could handle them,” she accused.
“I can!” he yelled, breaking her hold.
“Then do so.” With a kick to the chest, Li sent Angel sailing across the room to land in the middle of the battle.
Drusilla moved to help Angel, but Spike restrained her. “Ah, ah, ah, now luv. This whole thing is crashing down around our ears. It’s time for us to make a hasty retreat.” He knew that Li wasn’t going to get her little plan to work, not with the Slayer, her groupies, and that damned brunette who was scything through his vampires like wheat at the harvest.
“But Angel…?” the vampiress whispered, looking for her dark-haired sire.
“Will be fine. He can take care of himself. Now what say you and me go topside and do a bit of hunting together. With the Slayer otherwise occupied, I can guarantee that there won’t be anybody around to break up our fun.” Spike smiled up at his Dark Queen.
“Oooh, Spike. You know just what a girl likes to hear.” She turned away from the rampant destruction on the floor and pushed Spike towards the exit.
Angelus opened his eyes, focusing on the ceiling above him. The lovely but angry face of Buffy Summers hove into view, followed by something sharp, wooden, and pointy, and he rolled out of the way. Climbing to his feet, he dodged a kick to the face, retaliating with a punch to Buffy’s midsection. Buffy backed away, sizing him up.
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” Angel hissed. “Tongues are beginning to wag.”
“Let’s dance, fang boy.”
And so they did.
Cordelia sprayed another vampire full in the face with her SuperSoaker. “Oh, that is definitely going to leave a mark,” she said, shaking her head. Xander let loose with the flame-thrower and set the vampire ablaze.
“Not for long it won’t.” He looked around to see how the others were doing. Willow, Oz, and Giles had ganged up on one vampire and were in the process of driving a stake through him. Buffy was currently engaged in a violent waltz with Angel, but she seemed to be holding her own. Leonora was batting cleanup, and the remaining vampires seemed to be rethinking their course of action. As he watched, the dhampir ripped off a vampire’s arm and proceeded to beat the poor creature into unconsciousness with it. The only person not engaged in the fighting was a strange woman with huge eyes and an even larger forehead. That had to be Li.
Cordelia’s voice rang out. “Oh my God, would you look at that girl’s forehead! I mean, it’s huge! What, has she got like a tumor in there or something?”
Xander agreed. “It’s like an orange on a toothpick! Hey, Leonora! You were really accurate with the whole forehead thing!”
Leonora growled at the last vampire and gave him a roundhouse to the face that knocked him out cold. “Uh guys, she’s kind of sensitive about that…” she said, trailing off when Li broke off her chanting and glared at them.
“What is it with you people and my forehead!” The petite dhampir shrieked. “A high forehead is a sign of the aristocracy!”
Cordelia raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “Yeah, okay, whatever you say. And what color is the sky in your dimension?”
Li screamed in rage and leaped over the altar, intent on ripping out the pretty human’s heart and feeding it to her, when Leonora intercepted her. Leonora hit her with a front kick that knocked her half-sister back over the altar. Li was on her feet before Leonora rounded the altar. She blocked the next series of kicks and hit the other dhampir with a punch that sent her flying into the wall. Li grabbed the silver knife from its place on the velvet-covered altar and advanced on Leonora.
Leonora stood up shakily, barely dodging Li’s wild slash with the knife. Li reversed her stroke, stabbing at her face, but Leonora spun away from the wall and the knife connected with nothing but rock. Li snarled and backhanded Leonora, managing to slice open her sister’s arm from shoulder to elbow as Leonora reeled. Shaking her head to clear it, the green-eyed dhampir clapped a hand to the wound and watched Li circle her like a predator. The next time Li drove in with the knife, Leonora kicked her sister’s wrist and the knife went flying.
“Give it up, Li,” Leonora panted, putting the altar between them. “It’s time you got over this whole Electra complex that you’ve got going.”
Li’s response was swift and violent. Her eyes burned molten blue as she vaulted over the altar and slammed into Leonora, knocking her down. Then she grabbed the sides of Leonora’s head and began to pound it into the rock floor.
Buffy wasn’t faring much better. She had been able to hold her own, but as the fight with Angelus wore on, she began to tire. She was having trouble blocking the vampire’s attacks as her reflexes slowed with exhaustion. It had been a very long night.
She dodged a fist, ducking low, then tried to sweep Angel’s feet out from under him. He jumped up, avoiding her leg sweep and attempted to stomp on her. The Slayer rolled forward and out of his way, relying on instinct. She came to her feet in time to block his next attack.
“Aw, c’mon Buffy. Don’t tell me you don’t have the stamina for this anymore! Why, I remember when you could go all night.”
The innuendo in his voice made her angry. “Bite me,” she snarled, trying to regain her breath.
“Gladly,” Angelus smirked, then lunged for her.
The Slayer danced out of his way, lashing out in a kick that forced his head around. He grinned and spat out blood. “Oh baby, you *know* I like the rough stuff.” Moving faster than Buffy thought possible, Angel reached out and grabbed her head in his hands, forcing her head down and smashing his knee into her face. Buffy reeled backwards, hitting the ground hard.
Angel moved closer, then paused as he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. The rest of the damned Scooby Gang had finished off his cannon fodder and now advanced on him. And who the hell had decided to give that idiot Xander a flame-thrower? Effortlessly he picked up the dazed Slayer and threw her at them.
He headed out the back, but not before he got a glimpse of Li engaged in a brawl with the woman who had shot him. He paused to watch. Li was slamming the other woman’s head into the floor. That had to hurt. But then this Leonora reached up and grabbed a hold of Li’s dark braid, wrapping the hair around her hand until Li’s head was immobilized. It seemed the tables had turned, and Angel was nothing if not a smart vampire; he knew when to get the hell out of there.
Leonora sat up, jerking Li’s head even farther back. She ignored the punches that Li kept throwing at her, most of them ineffectual because of the angle. Her half-sister’s neck stretched out before her, long and white. “Sorry, sis,” Leonora murmured before burying her fangs in Li’s neck.
Giles helped a groggy Slayer to her feet. “Buffy, are you okay?” Willow asked for the entire group.
Buffy nodded, rubbing her head. “Nothing that a week of solid pampering won’t cure. I *really* hate it when he does that.” She looked around, her eyes widening when she saw Leonora rise from behind the altar. Li’s legs were sprawled out to the side, but the altar blocked a full view of her body. Buffy was very glad she couldn’t see what had happened to the dhampir’s half-sister.
Leonora looked down at the desiccated relic that she had once called family and wiped the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. The glow in her eyes was fading and her canines had already returned to their normal size. The dhampir could feel the itch in her side that meant that she was finally healing; her sister’s blood may have been bitter, but it had been good for something. She was back to full strength and more.
Leonora looked at the altar and at the bone covered in blood. She raised her fist high, then brought it down with all of her considerable strength. The black-shrouded stone altar cracked in two from the force of her blow. Only one thing was left to do.
“Come over here, Xander,” she called to the young man, who dutifully trekked over to her. She pointed at the altar and the surrounding area. “Torch it.”
“But…” he began to protest, trailing off at the hard steel in her gaze. “Sure thing.” He aimed the flame-thrower and pulled the trigger. A line of fire engulfed cloth, bones, and book, hungrily devouring all. He played the flames over the area indicated, then stepped back to join the others, leaving Leonora to watch while the remains of her father and sister burned to ash before her dry eyes.
“Finally,” she breathed as the flames slowly flickered to nothing but embers. She kicked at the lumps of ashes scattering them throughout the cavern. “It is finished.”
She turned to the others and led them away in silence.
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