Madrid, 1486

The stench of blood was in his nostrils as he strolled through the dungeon, its darkness illuminated by the lantern wielding guards to his front and rear, the slap of their boots on the cold stone floor lost beneath the tumult of anguished cries coming from the cells, the last refuge of the godless and unholy.

He stopped, curiosity and his own avaricious desire to revel in the agony of the others compelling him to turn and walk into the cells. Oh the pleasures within it its darkened walls, he scarcely knew where to direct his attention!

A man lay tied across a blood soaked table. Sweat slicked off the restrained captive as he screamed his agony, his eyes bulging as the monk standing over him poured alcohol onto his body and then pressed a red-hot poker into the poured fluid, igniting his skin.

To the left sat a naked woman, her once smooth-skin now covered in welts as a monk whipped mercilessly, a turcas having pulped the fingers of her right hand, and even as he hungrily watched was being applied to her left. Unfortunately she had passed out, but when she awoke she would do so to a world of pain.

Another man was shrieking his pain as the rack was applied to him, his muscles writhing continually as the machine forced his limbs to pull and tear. Others hung from the ceiling, whipped and welted, red hot pokers forced into unnatural holes.

All this, all this was his creation. Pride filled him as he ignored his victims’ pleas for a mercy he was incapable of giving, turned on his heal and strode out.

* * *

"Kay," Faith tore her eyes from peering out of the window and out into the clouds surrounding them as their rented private jet glided through the air, "how ‘bout you tell us ‘bout this mutant Prof X has recced to you?"

"Sure," Xander nodded with all the obedience of a well-trained boyfriend. "Alejandro Montoya goes by the name of El Aguila, and has the power to shoot bio-generated electricity through his sword for ranges of about thirty feet."

Faith’s brow wrinkled. "So he can electrocute people?"

"Like Gwen?" Tara added.

"Well a little more controlled than Gwen, he can touch people and control when he’s releasing energy, but also unlike Gwen he needs metal to focus his power through," Xander explained.

"Does he know we’re coming?" Kennedy queried.

"Eh no," Xander shook his head, "I’ve tried to get in touch with him, but nothing."

"So what’s the plan, honey?" Faith queried.

"Well we’ll go to our hotel, book ourselves in, then Lorne will be in his Madrid club tonight, so we’ll pop in and see him," Xander replied. "Then look for Aguila tomorrow."

Faith wrinkled her nose as Tara shuddered at the mention of Lorne’s name. "What’s the sitch, sis?" she queried.

Tara grinned. "Still thinking of him naked."

"Ugh," Faith shivered. "If that’d been the first guy I saw naked, I might be gay myself."

Xander grinned. "You’re not gonna let him live that down are you?"

"You know us right?" Faith queried. "’Course not."

* * *

Faith whistled as she started down the ramp leading to the runway’s tarmac. The skyline of Madrid, like all European cities, was a mixture of the medieval old and the modern new, middle-age castles and spires together with modern skyscrapers giving it a feeling of age and history that no American city could match. In the background she could hear the ever-present hum of traffic, while the sun blasted down on them.

"We best get a cab," Xander sighed.

"What’s up?" Faith queried as she and the others carried the carry-ons they always took with them for show.

"I was talking to Mr. -, Tony the other day about coming to Spain, and he said the scariest thing he’s ever faced are the roads and drivers in Spain."

"Sounds fun," Tara commented.

Xander paused then grinned. "Apparently there’s a higher than average percentage of women drivers."

"Asshole," Faith growled.

* * *

"Jeez," Faith shook her head as she climbed out of the cab, "I thought youse were kiddin’ ‘bout the drivers but you’d be safer walkin’ naked cross the track at the Indy 500!" Faith paused and reconsidered what she’d just said. "Well obviously you’d be safer, me I’d cause a massive pile-up, but the drivers here are certifiable!"

"It’s," Kennedy panted as she came up from the cab she and Tara had taken, "like a demolition derby out there!"

"Relax," Xander said with a beatific smile. "This is our oasis of calm."

"Yeah," Faith whistled as she craned her neck and looked up, "this is nice."

A neon sign flickered on top of the hotel, proudly proclaiming it as ‘The Palace Hotel’, and not a word of that was a lie. Its white-washed walls seemed to almost gleam and there wasn’t a speck of dust on any of its many windows, while the old-fashioned architecture only added to the place’s intimidating grandeur. The lobby inside was more of the same, polished marble floors, artfully mosaiced walls, and chandeliers gracefully dangling from the ceiling, all complimented by a helpful and tidily-attired staff.

In no time at all, they were making their way into their bedroom, Faith spinning around and dropping onto the edge of the bed in the lotus position. "This room is pretty sweet," Faith’s eyes narrowed, "now why don’t you tell me what’s buggin’ you?" Faith raised hand as Xander’s mouth opened. "And don’t try denyin’ it, I know you. If I was all sullen and broodin’ like you’ve been these past few weeks, you’d say I was on the rag." Xander’s mouth opened. "And don’t try any smart mouthing, just the facts boy."

Finally Xander spoke. "Whatever the Brotherhood’s meant to face, it’s getting closer. It’s almost as if the air’s tightening around us, we don’t have much time left to get ready. And I don’t know if we’re gonna be enough."

Rocked by her boy-friend’s worried voice, but determined not to show it, Faith forced a cocksure grin. "Hey, remember who you’re talkin’ to honey, I don’t back losers." Faith cracked her knuckles. "So you best win, otherwise," she winked, "it’s your knees."

Xander half-smiled. "I love your pep-talks."

"Yep," Faith nodded, "I’m a regular Vince Lombardi."

"He’s mellower."

"Here’s a question," Faith growled as they strode through downtown Madrid, ducking in and out of a maze of independent movie houses, street coffee bars, and blaring night-clubs, the streets choking with a variety of tourists and , "how come tourists don’t stumble into Lorne’s clubs? And by tourists I mean people who don’t know about the crawling beasties?"

"It’s something to do with the Protection Spells," Tara explained as they took their lives into their own hands by darting across a busy road, "not only does it prevent physical violence inside the club, it also shields the club from the eyes of people who are unaware of the existence of demons and vampires."

"Oh?" Kennedy glanced towards her girl-friend. "What do they see then?"

"Naked Lorne?" Faith shuddered theatrically. "That’d be enough to send ‘em runnin’ and screamin’."

"No," Tara giggled and shook her head. "It’s a little more subtle than that. Their eyes just shy away from it, never really focusing."

"Cool," Faith nodded approvingly. Made a sorta sense. "Xan," she glanced at her boyfriend, "you sure you’ve got them directions right?"

"Yeah, yeah," Xander replied. "I checked on the-."

Her boyfriend stopped suddenly, Kennedy crashing into him and almost falling on her ass. "Hey!" the potential yelled.

Faith snorted. "Yeah, sorry," Xander turned right, to an arched road entrance, a neon sign flashing inside and to the left of the entrance, some Euro-pop blaring out. "And here we are."

"Jeez," Faith shook her head, "first Minnelli, show tunes, and Jackson, now this? Is there no end to the crap Lorne’ll listen to?"

"Oh yeah," Xander scoffed, "this from the girl who drags me into a heavy metal or grunge club every chance she gets. You’re a real musical connoisseur."

"Shut it Johnny Cash," Faith warned. "Else I’ll stuff your Stetson up your ass."

"It’s like watching Fred and Ginger," Tara commented.

"Or Romeo & Juliet," Kennedy added.

Xander looked at the potential. "I’m no expert, but didn’t they kill one another?"

"Here’s hoping," Kennedy replied before glancing at the club entrance. "Are we going in?"

"Yeah, yeah," Xander stepped back, "lady, Faith, and Kennedy first."

"Funny guy," Faith grumbled as she started down the steps that led into a bar, decorated with Lorne’s usual garish flourish and filled with the usual mixture of demons and humans. Something else certainly wasn’t normal though.

"Oh," Xander gasped.

"My," Tara added.

"God," Kennedy finished.

"I didn’t think it could get any worse than seein’ him naked," Faith shook her head. "Boy, was I ever wrong!"

"Well hello tourists," the green-skinned demon pulled off his golden-brocaded sombrero and waved it extravagantly before bowing, his matador’s outfit of bright pink also brocaded with gold. "It’s always a pleasure to see you."

"I’d like to say the same," Faith rubbed at her eyes. "I’m not havin’ a bad acid trip am I? I am seein’ what I think I’m seein’?"

"Yeah," Xander nodded woefully, "Lorne’s joined the circus."

"Well, really!" Lorne looked miffed. "I could always strip."

"NOOOO!" They all yelled in unison.

Lorne sniffed. "I suppose you’ll be wanting drinks on the house. As usual."

"Lorne," Xander shot the demon the goofy grin that secretly warmed her insides when it was directed at her, "who bought the house?"

"Oh very well," Lorne said. "Just find a table and I’ll bring your usuals over." Lorne glanced over to Kennedy. "Remind me what your drink is Pear Drop?"

"Um," the potential looked briefly nonplussed by her nickname, but to her credit rallied quickly, "I’ll have a Long Island Iced Tea, please."

"Of course you will," Lorne beamed before turning to the bar. "Alessandro, I need freshening up, and for my guests…"

A few minutes later and the in costume demon sauntered over to them and sat down, careful to keep facing towards the stage so he could watch and read his customers. "How’s business Lorne?" Xander asked as the demon began passing out drinks

"Business is going swimmingly, sixteen clubs in the US, three in South America, five in Europe, and three in Asia," Lorne beamed. "If things keep going the way they are, I’ll be richer than Britney!"

"And with about as good musical taste," Faith muttered.

"What was that chocolate bun?" Lorne queried.

"Nothing," Faith smiled innocently.

"Any more clubs in the pipeline?" Xander queried.

"I’m looking at opening a club in Montreal, one in Barcelona, Athens, Rome, and maybe a club in Cairo," Lore replied. "After that, Sydney or Melbourne I expect."

"We need more intelligence in Africa and the Middle East, Lorne," Xander commented as he sipped at his coke.

"We don’t even have any teams in Africa and the Middle East," Faith pointed out.

"That’s why we need more intelligence so we have enough advance warning to react quickly if there’s a problem." Xander replied.

Lorne sighed before nodding reluctantly. "I’ll start looking for locations in Lagos, Riyadh, and Cape Town." The demon leaned forward. "Oh boss of all he surveys, if you need these clubs setting up fast, I’ll need financing."

"Find the locations, I’ll find the cash."

Lorne relaxed, sitting back in his seat. "And what brings you here?"

"We’re trying to set up a new team," Tara said. "Xander’s found out about this man called Aguila who might be useful."

"Heard of him," Lorne nodded. "Good man." The demon hesitated. "While you’re here I wonder if I could prevail on you for assistance with a problem?"

"What sort of problem?" Xander queried.

"The man I used to set up the protection spells on this place has disappeared," Lorne said. "I’m really quite worried."

"We can have a look," Xander agreed. "Just give me the address."

"Lorne, can I ask you something?"

Lorne beamed at Tara. "Why of course you can, my little shrinking violet. For you, the world!"

"Well," Tara blushed. "I don’t want the world, just for you to do a reading for Kennedy."

For a second it seemed to Faith that the demon deflated, but then his beaming smile was back at full wattage. "Why I’d love to," Lorne glanced at Kennedy, "get your song chosen, sweetcakes, I have a feeling I’m going to see a star being born!"

* * *

"I was made for lovin you baby
You were made for lovin me
And I can give it all to you baby"

"Every time one of them sings." Lorne muttered, his head throbbing and belly somersaulting as Kennedy finished off her song to a smattering of applause. "Every time I finish the night with a head as pounded as Keith Moon’s drum kit!" The girl had a decent although unremarkable voice, but what he saw was a whole kaleidoscope of a different colour. "I should just sit with a bucket on the next stool. It’d save me the run to the toilet to throw up." Lorne shook his head as he noticed the eagerly approaching brunette then winced. How could he tell the girl she was fated to be a Slayer and yet she’d fight as a Slayer next to the current active Slayer and with others with the same powers?

And what happened to the world when millennia-old laws were broken with such casual disregard?

Like any big city Madrid was a confusing maze of streets, alleys, parks, and historical buildings to the uninitiated, and as a result it took them almost an hour to cover the twenty minutes separating Lorne’s club from his friend’s house. Still, Faith reflected as they crept up on the tidy but otherwise nondescript two-storey house, the outside air was refreshing after the night-spot’s smoky closeness. "This is it," Xander muttered as he climbed over the rear wall, Faith squatting on top and reaching down to help first Tar and then the brat over.

"You sure?" Faith shot her boyfriend a smirk as she rather showily back-flipped off the wall and into the haphazardly cut rear garden. "’Cause this is like the fourth place," Faith winked at Xander’s glare. "Just sayin’, hon."

"I’m sure," Xander scowled before creeping up to the back door and pushing on it. "Damn," Xander started passing around pairs of gloves, "put them on, the door’s open. If something happened here we don’t want to leave any fingerprints."

"Oh this is just gonna end so well," Faith groused as she pulled the leather gloves on and followed Xander into the darkened kitchen. "Tar, you and Ken check upside, me and Xan’ll look down here."

Xander shone his torchlight at the door jamb. "Look at the scratching at the keyhole," her boy-friend muttered. "He didn’t just forget to lock the door, someone actually broke in."

"Yeah," Faith cast her own torchlight around the darkened kitchen, noting the unwashed pots in the sink and table still with a tablecloth on it. The house owner either was a house-keeping slob on her level, or more likely something had happened to h-.

"Xander," Tara’s voice crackled over the radio, "we’ve found him, upstairs second door on the left."

Faith grimaced at Xander. The tension had been notable in their friend’s voice, even over the radio. "Looks like we’ve got our answer," Xander grimly commented before starting through the house’s shadows, floorboards breaking the taut silence with the occasional creak.

"Oh yeah," Faith muttered as she crouched by the corpse in the office, the back of the head of what had been a kindly looking man in his mid forties splattered all over the room’s desk and back wall, blood soaked into the carpet under him, "I’d say he’s dead."

"How dead?" Kennedy sighed as they all turned towards her. "You know what I mean, how long?"

"Yeah, ‘cause we’re just chock-ful of medical degrees here," Faith snarked before returning her eyes to the corpse. "Couple of days maybe."

"That’s weird," Kennedy glanced out of the window.

"What are you looking at?" Tara asked.

"The group of men watching the house from a café," Kennedy said. "Seems strange that they’d still have an eye on the house two nights later."

"I didn’t see any surveillance on the way in," Xander protested as he hurried to the Potential’s side.

"Yeah, but we came in a different way," Faith commented as she stalked to the window’s other side, eye narrowing as she noted the four hard cases sat to outside a roadside café in a busy street to the right, the streetlight they were sat under drinking coffee illuminating faces that life had left scarred with the evil they’d done, sullen eyes, creased foreheads, and actual physical scars. "And shit she’s right."

Kennedy smiled tightly in the darkness. "Of course."

Faith looked over to see Tara dismantling the room’s computer. "What are you doing?"

"There might be something on the hard drive about why he was killed," Tara replied without looking up.

"If there was anything tying him to his killers, they’d have took it," Faith commented.

"Maybe whoever killed him was told just to kill him," Tara replied. "Maybe they forgot. It’s worth trying anyway."

Faith shrugged and nodded.

"What we are going to do about those men?" Kennedy asked.

Xander grimaced. "They might not of noticed us."

"Nah," Faith shook her head, eyes hardening, "they’ll have noticed people moving around in the house. Tell you what," Faith smirked as her blood began to hum with the promise of action, "I’ll go out the front and lead them away, you go through the rear and back to the hotel."

"Faith, no-." Xander shook his head.

"Just weapon me up Harris," Faith interrupted her boy-friend’s protests, "I’ll meet you back at the hotel in no time."

* * *

Xander stared at his girl-friend’s unflinching face for a long moment before sighing and nodding. "Okay, what weapons do you want?"

Faith’s nose wrinkled as she pulled off her leather jacket. "Give me a shoulder holster with a Beretta in it, a set of brass knuckles, and a Ka-Bar for my inner pocket."

"Okay," Xander reached into the Always Pocket, pulled out the requested items and passed them over.

Faith nodded her thanks before slipping the shoulder holster on, putting the knife in her inner pocket, pulled the jacket on, and placed the brass knuckles in her right palm. "Kay," Faith flipped her long locks out of her upturned collar before glancing across to the others, "watch me leave, the moment the four get up to follow me, you scoot out of the back and head back to the hotel. I’ll see you there."

"Are you sure?" Xander asked, heart tight.

Faith winked cockily. "There’s only four of them, right? Let’s get gone."

* * *

Faith strutted out of the house, hips swinging and a smile pulling at her full lips as she made her way through the busy street, conscious of the admiring gazes she got. Faith missed a step in her swagger as she reached the near end of the café, her heart skipping a beat as the hairs on her neck began to prickle as her eyes fell on the quartet sat at the table. "Oh crap," she hissed as she noticed another couple across the road that had to be with the others.

They just had to be. Seeing as both groups were definitely vampires, and if they were hired muscle, not newbies either.

"Man, I’ll be the decoy, Xan, ‘only four of them’," Faith muttered as she strode past the quartet, the sound of their chairs scraping back on the pavement grinding in her ears, "me and my big mouth gettin’ me in trouble again."

Faith considered her options as she strode down the street, ducking in and out of the pedestrians. There weren’t many, she could ring Harris to come runnin’, but her boytoy was headin’ in the opposite direction and so it’d take him time to get here, she could start a fight, but the two from across the road had already starting crossing over and six to one was not good odds. "Gotta lose them," she decided as she cast a casual glance across the chock-filled with vehicles road.

"Ah to hell with it!" Faith twisted at the waist and leapt to her left, leaping onto the roof of a motoring sedan, the impact of her landing denting the roof. Faith swallowed as she balanced effortlessly, the wind pulling at her as she leaped across the road and into the path of a horn-blaring truck. Her hand shot up to grab a hold of the cab’s dirty roof, grinning slightly at the driver’s shocked expression.

He probably hadn’t dreamed of Tarzan’s hotter sister swinging by when he set off for work this morning.

Forcing herself to focus, she used her grip’s leverage and her arm as a fulcrum to swing across the front of the cab and release her grip, swinging across the road to land in a crouch on the opposite side of the street, people scattering before her. "Damn it," Faith grimaced as she looked over her shoulder to see all six vampires had met up in the centre of the road and were now charging after her, ducking in and out of the blaring traffic.

Faith turned on her heel and ran, ducking in and out of the people, hurdling over a couple of tables at another side café and then ducking into a narrow alley, her boot heels slapping against the cobbles as she raced through the murky passageway.

Faith grimaced as she heard feet padding on the surrounding rooftops. Fuck, they were out-flanking her. Faith briefly looked around as she burst out through the other side of the alleyway, her feet still thumping down on the pavement. Gone was the glitz of the tourist end, now she appeared to be a more homey section of Madrid, a maze of more traditional houses interspersed with the occasional small business, yellowed streetlights flickering overhead.

If they were human, she could lose them easy here. But they were vamps and they were sure to have her scent now.

Faith grimaced as she turned into an upwards sloping alley to her left, the reek of sewage sluicing down it from a broken drain at the top. Faith’s nose wrinkled as she raced up it, it stunk to holy hell, but maybe like dogs, the vamps would lose her scent in the stench.

Faith spun at a footfall behind her, left foot snaking out at a kick that her suited follower slid away from as he darted inside to grab Faith around the waist and fling her to the wet ground. "Fuck," Faith grunted as she hit the ground on her shoulder, sewage rushing over her as she drove a knee up into the demon’s midsection, knocking it off her.

Faith rolled up to a crouch, up in time to bring her forearm up and block a kick from another vampire that had just raced in. Faith gritted her teeth at the impact, but forced away the pain to dart a hand into her leather jacket to pull out her automatic and fire at the first vampire. The alley boomed and shook to her automatic’s discharge as fire blazed from its muzzle, the round catching her target high on the shoulder, spinning him around, and flinging him back to the ground. "Shit!" Faith cursed as she spun to face the other vampire, its hand slashing at her neck, but catching her shirt instead, ripping her T-shirt from the collar to half-way down, bloody furrows lancing down the right side of her chest. Faith ducked a haymaker and stepped into the vampire, rammed her gun’s muzzle under its chin, and pulled the trigger.

The monster grabbed her wrist even as she pulled her trigger. "Ahh!" Faith roared as the creature’s face exploded in a bony spray and fell backwards, its clawing fingers twisting her wrist and wrenching the gun from her hand. "Shit!" Faith started after the weapon as it rattled down the hill only to turn on her heel and run when she spied four figures at the bottom of the hill. The vampire she’d shot in the shoulder lunged at her, only to burst into dust when she slid her Ka-Bar across its throat.

"Only four of them!" Faith shook her head as she burst out of the shadowy alleyway and darted across the narrow street. "Idiot!" Faith cursed as she looked up at the several storey tenement building looming over her. It was grey stoned and derelict, its windows dirty and an air of depressing disrepair hanging over it.

In other words, it was the perfect place for a desperate stand.

"Jesus!" Faith shook her head; she was turnin’ into a real gloomy Gus, kicked the graffitied door open, and raced in.

The tenement building’s lobby was unlit and the desk cobwebbed, its floor strewn with yellowed newspapers, discarded shopping bags, and empty soda pop cans. A bleary-eyed tramp stumbled out into the corridor from a room by the stairs, his clothes stinking, although probably not as much as hers, and the food entangled in his straggly beard probably could have fed a family for a week. The man raised a dirty hand and yelled something in Spanish at her.

"Sorry old timer," Faith raced over to the man, placed a hand on his chest and pushed him back into the room, slamming the door behind him, "but you’ll be safer in there." Faith started up the stairs, leaping up the threadbare-carpeted steps two at a time, conscious of the sound of the front door crashing open behind her.

Man, it was on now.

Faith’s thighs and calves writhed and flexed as she charged up the steps, two, three steps at a time, no real plan in her mind as made the fourth floor landing. "Think! Think!" Faith muttered between gasps. "What would Xander do?" Faith slapped her forehead. "Oh yeah, he’d pull somethin’ out of the Always Pocket, but you left yours at home with the laundry! Jesus!"

"Hey miel," a drunk stumbled out of the landing door, the meths bottle in his hand sloshing as he offered it at arms-length to her, "dame un beso y me voy a dar un trago."

"Yeah, thanks," Faith snatched the bottle off the wino before continuing on her run, ignoring his slurred shouts. "Catch you on the way down!" Faith lied as she sliced through the bottom few inches of her T-shirt then stuffed it into the bottle’s narrow neck as she screeched to a halt on the fifth floor landing and peered over, the lighter she habitually carried igniting the rag. "Surprise, boys."

Faith dropped the makeshift bomb on the quartet of vampires charging up the steps two flights below. The first two vampires leapt to the stairs’ side, the bottle missing them to shatter on the step below, flames igniting and engulfing the two demons behind, their screams quickly extinguished when they burst into dust.

"Now we’re talkin’!" Faith punched the air as she leapt onto the plastic railing and ‘surfed’ down the railing, her knife slashing left to right as she decapitated the remaining vampire nearest the railing.

Faith halted and twisted to face the other, dark eyes widening as she belatedly registered the last vampire leaping through the air at her. "Crap!" Faith brought her knee up into the demon’s chest, but her blow wasn’t enough to knock the vampire off momentum, crashing shoulder-first into her gut. "Oooof," Faith grunted as the air drove out of her lungs, her legs buckling and feet sliding backwards off the railing.

Faith wrestled desperately with the vampire as they fell through the air. "Aaaah!" Faith grunted, back arching as her head cracked against the third landing, her knee driving up into the demon’s midsection, forcing the demon to fall off her The demon snarled and leapt at her, only to fall back again when she caught it with a heel to the chest. "It’s not the fall that’s the bitch," Faith groaned as she rolled to her feet, head still ringing, "it’s the fucking landing!"

The vampire leapt at her as she reached her feet, its demonic visage showing. "Oww!" Faith grunted as she threw a right, hurting shoulder muscles protesting and slowing her blow so that her punch missed the demon’s jaw and flew over his shoulder.

The demon crashed into her, the two of them falling into and through the door behind, crashing down to the dirty floor, dust rising off them. Faith locked her legs around the demon’s waist and twisted, flinging it off her.

Faith reached for and pulled herself up on the wall, her other hand reaching up to wipe blood from her mouth, her temper heating. She’d been chased, fallen in sewage, accosted by winos, and thrown off stairs. Now she was seriously pissed. "Aaaaah!" Jaw clenched, she charged the vampire as he reached his feet, her brass-knuckles crashing into his jaw, her thumb hitting the release button a half-second before impact, the three blessed silver studs popping out of the top of the knuckles to crack against his face.

The vampire’s head snapped to one side as Faith collided into him, the impact lifting them both from their feet and flinging them through the window behind. "Oh shit!" Faith screamed as they fell through the night air, wind whistling around them and tugging her fist repeatedly punching the demon in his face, her legs locking around him in a violent embrace, "I should really have thought this through!"

Faith gasped as they hit not the unyielding ground but water, Faith gurgling as it splashed over them, her head driving downwards into her rival’s nose, the bone shattering under the impact. Faith wheezed as the vampire somehow flipped her on the back and wrapped his hands around her throat, choking her even as she drowned, open mouth filling with water, the world seemingly slowing as she battled for air.

The vampire reared back, his fanged mouth opening in shock when Faith jammed a thumb deep in his left eye. The moment her rival’s stranglehold loosened, Faith pulled her head back and then up, bursting free of the water to slam the top of her head into the bottom of his jaw. Through her throbbing ears she heard the demon’s pained shriek as his head snapped back, eyes rolling back in his head.

Faith twisted her hips, taking advantage of her rival’s stunned state to flip him onto the bottom of their brawling duo, water splashing over the vampire as Faith grabbed his chin and forced his head under the water, twisting his neck back as she reached through her pockets. "Shit!" Faith cursed. "I dropped my kn-. Aaaaa!" Pain exploded through her side, knocking her off her rival when he swung a fist sized rock into her ribs.

"Shit!" Faith grunted as she splashed down onto her side, instinctively rolling into rather than away from her hastily risen adversary, grabbing and pulling on his grounded leg as he pulled his other one back for a kick.

"Mierda!" the vampire let out a hoarse yell as he fell onto his back, fury and frustration filling his voice.

Faith panted and groaned as she forced her aching, battered body to crawl through the waist-high pool and towards the shore, eyes fixed on a fallen branch she’d noticed there. "Yes," Faith groaned as she reached out for the branch, just a couple of more inches. "Shit!" Her heart thundered when the vampire grabbed at her right ankle and started dragging her back in the water. Desperation coursed through her as her left leg kicked out at the clawing hands, knocking the demon off. "Yes!" Faith let out a victorious yell as she dived forwards, fingers finally grabbing the stick.

"PUTA!"

Pain lanced through her head when the vampire grabbed her by hair and started pulling her back. Faith gritted her teeth as she twisted in his grip, spinning in his arms as he pulled her off the ground so that she was facing him, and driving her makeshift stake up and into his chest. "Aaaah!" Faith squealed as the vampire exploded into dust, his sudden disappearance forcing her to fall back onto the muddy shore, once again jarring her already aching body.

"Fuck," Faith groaned, "what a crappy day."

"Okay, so it appears from this hard drive that Lorne’s contact was a brujo," Tara excitedly commented as she glanced from the laptop now plugged into the stolen hard drive and to him.

"Right," Xander distractedly replied.

"That’s a Spanish witch, or rather in his case wizard," Tara continued. "I’ve got several spells and charm recipes off his hard drive. And I’ve found his diary-."

"Right," Xander nodded as he paced the floor.

"It says he was worried about some of his friends in the area, fellow brujos and brujas disappearing, not answering his phone calls." Tara cast him a worried look. "I think we should try and track down his friends and see if they know anything about a threat to them."

"Sounds like a plan," Xander sighed as he sank back onto the bed, nerves ensuring he was unable to stay still.

"Xander," Tara peered worriedly at him, "are you alright?"

Xander forced a strained smile. "Just worried about Faith."

"I’m sure she’ll be alright," Kennedy comforted. "After all, she’s a lot of things-." Xander raised an eyebrow. "I was going to say determined and resourceful," the Potential protested. "Honest!"

"Sure you were," Xander muttered as he glanced at his watch, worry creasing his brow. It had been almost two hours, she should be back by now.

* * *

Andres Santos looked up, leaning over his reception desk to see the apparent commotion at the hotel’s entrance. His jaw dropped at the sight of what would have been an otherwise devastatingly beautiful brunette striding towards him, the guests hurrying to wide detours before her cold eyed gaze, wet footprints trailing behind her, marring the previously gleaming marble floor. In all the years working at Madrid’s most esteemed hotel he’d never seen the like before.

The beauty gave off the stench of sewage, almost as if she’d been grappling in one of the great city’s underground tunnels, her bedraggled mane sticking to her heart-shaped, alabaster-skinned face, while the back of her otherwise very stylish leather jacket was covered in mud and her denims were drenched tight to her muscled legs. Most scandalous of all though, was the lack of a shirt, the young woman wearing only a bra and what appeared to be the collar of a white t-shirt under her jacket, a trio of recently-healed bruises running down from her collar-bone to her breast.

"Eyes up sailor," the woman grated. "That is if you wanna keep ‘em." Andres paled as his head snapped up to meet the brunette’s burning eyes. "I need a key for Floor 8, Room 12."

Andres licked his lips. "I’m afraid-."

He gasped as the woman grabbed him by his tie and effortlessly pulled him over the table. "Did I sound as if I was asking?" the woman demanded. "The name’s Lehane, I’m booked in with Harris. Now get me the damn key."

Andres scooted back when the female released her grip. "At once," he babbled before turning to the keys hung up behind him. "If I might ask-."

"Don’t," the woman warned, "just don’t."

"As you say," he found the key and passed it over the desk, hand shaking as he did so.

"Thanks." The woman nodded curtly before turning on her heel and heading towards the elevator, barking at the unfortunate bellhop as she entered. "Floor 8, don’t say a damn word!"

* * *

"Faith!" Xander glanced up, a smile creasing his face as the door opened and his girl-friend strode in. Leaping up with arms out-stretched, he raced to hug her then reared back as he smelt her. "Ughhh," his nose wrinkled at the foul stench, "Faith, what happened?"

Kennedy whafted her hand in front of her nose. "Did Faithie had an accident?"

"Weren’t four, there were six, and they were vamps not humans," Faith grunted. "I killed most of them and the last one lost me. Now I’m gonna have a shower."

"Faith," Tara said, "don’t you want to find out what was on the hard drive?"

"Do I look like I give a shit right now!" Faith snapped as she slammed the bathroom door behind her.

"So mood’s the same as usual," Kennedy commented.

"Little less grumpy I thought," Tara disagreed.

Xander sighed as he heard the sound of the shower being turned on. "For god’s sake, don’t wind her up, you have your own bedroom, I don’t."

"Who’s fault is that?" Kennedy teased with a smirk.

* * *

"Hello Director-General."

The Director-General’s blood froze as the lean figure who’d been blighting his existence for the last few months stepped out of the shadows of his office. "Tomas," he croaked, voice shaking as the blood fled from his face.

"Now Gonzalo," his unwelcome guest’s cavernous face rearranged itself in a ghastly copy of a smile, "you don’t seem pleased to see me."

The Director-General steeled himself, forcing a note of hardness into his voice. "What do you want, Tomas?"

"Ah, to business it is," Tomas dropped a quartet of photos of three women and one man all in their early twenties onto his desk. "These four are attempting to involve themselves in my business, I want them expelling from the country."

Gonzalo snorted. "They’re just kids, what sort of threat can a group of kids be to the mighty Tomas?"

"I did not say they were a threat!" Gonzalo recoiled at the sudden malignancy in Tomas’ stare, gone was the genteel visage, replaced by the prowling predator that lay underneath. "I said, they were in my way, an inconvenience." Tomas’ eyes bored into him. "And since when has it been your right to question me?" Before he could reply. "Don’t forget, I know how you made your career, the falsified evidence, the forced confessions. I could ruin you, but I would not do to that to a friend. After all, that is what we are, and friends do other friends favours don’t they?"

Gonzalo stared mutely at Tomas before nodding meekly, resisting would cost him his career and possibly his family, obeying would mean some foreigners he had never even met would be kicked out of the country. It was an easy choice to make. "Give me the information?"

Andres Santos let out a groan as over twenty policemen strode into his hotel’s lobby, all imposingly clad in riot gear. The great and the good guests scattered nervously before them, their veneer of luxurious superiority fleeing in the wake of the real world’s shocking intrusion on their ivory towers. Clearly it was going to be one of those nights.

The apparent officer in charge, a short but thick-limbed man with hard grey eyes and a lantern jaw that went perfectly with his air of efficiency, strode over to the desk and imperiously rattled his knuckles on its polished surface. "I understand these four people," the officer, according to the insignia adorning his sleeve an Inspector Jefe, spread a quartet of glossy photos on the desk, "are staying here?"

"Yes." Andreas managed a dazed nod and croak. The Inspector Jefe’s words were phrased as a statement rather than a question but Andreas answered anyway, eyes bulging as he recognised the amazingly powerful brunette who’d accosted him just two hours earlier. "Yes, they’re here."

The Inspector Jefe’s eyes narrowed, perhaps surprised by his heated reply. "They’re wanted for questioning-."

"I’m not surprised," Andres muttered, the young beauty had had a strength and demeanour of the truly insane.

Andres clamped his mouth shut at the Inspector Jefe’s glare. "So I’ll have their room numbers now."

"Gladly," Andres agreed. The faster she was out of his hotel, the better.

Americans, they all thought they were John or Janet Wayne.

* * *

The Inspector Jefe looked around the men and women under his command as the second elevator emptied and the rest of his subordinates spilled out onto the darkened landing, the tension thick in the air as each and every one of them wondered if this would be the night a supposedly simple arrest would go wrong and would they be the one to pay the price. His own unease was only multiplied by the nagging feeling they shouldn’t be here at all, there was something very off about this assignment. "Remember, numbers are on our side, but these Americans are considered dangerous, be wary, but professional." He nodded. "You know your positions, nightsticks only. Let’s go."

* * *

Faith blinked, unease filling her as she sat up in the bed and grabbed Xander’s arm. "Honey," she hissed as her heart began thumping, "troub-."

Her eyes flashed towards the door a half-second before it burst open, her hand flying to the lamp on the nightstand, tearing it from its wall socket and flinging it at the helmeted head of the first man through the door. The ceramic light exploded on impact, but the blow was still enough to buckle the man’s legs, sending him crashing to his knees, just in time to allow the hefty wooden nightstand she’d snatched up fly over his head and crash into the chests of the two men following him.

Then both she and Xander were up and confronting the next three through the door, Faith sidestepping a downwards swinging nightstick, snatching hold of the weapon and then reversing its momentum until it crashed into the front of the officer’s helmet with enough force to lift him from his feet and fling him out of the room, already unconscious when he left his feet.

Another of the cops lunged at her, his nightstick swinging down, frightened eyes clearly visible behind his visor.

"Screw this!" Faith growled as her temper snapped and she glided inside the man’s swing, grabbed him by the front of his flack-jacket and crotch of his pants, and in one smooth movement lifted him overhead and threw him backwards into the two men who’d just now started climbing to their feet, knocking all three to the ground. Another snarl bubbled up from her lips as she sidestepped to the man she’d downed with the lamp, grabbed the kneeling cop by his shoulder, lifted, and one-hand flung him into the others.

* * *

The Inspector Jefe’s eyes widened in disbelief when one of his men flew out of one of the rooms he’d sent men into, past him, and crashed into the wall behind, hitting with enough force to crack the plaster behind. All around was chaos, his men had managed to grab two of the women, but not without losses, and some of his other men were holding back onlookers on either side, not that any one but the utterly insane would think to involve themselves in this bone-shattering carnage.

The Inspector Jefe looked towards his reinforcements and gathered his nerve. He’d been told how important this mission was, how failure and disappointing his superiors was not an option if he wished to have a career. "Stun grenade, then in."

* * *

"Oh shit!" Faith had just begun to look towards her boyfriend when a grenade landed in the centre of the hallway. "Grenade!" Spinning around, she leapt at Xander, grabbing him around the waist and flinging him and her over the far side of the bed. Even as they hit the ground, Faith slammed her palms over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut.

Despite her precautions, light still blazed before her screwed-shut eyes and the room still shook to the grenade’s blast. Faith opened her eyes and blinked, her equilibrium utterly disrupted as lights danced before her eyes and her ears pounded like she was at the encore of a Metallica concert.

Seeing a group of blurred figures charging at her, Faith forced herself to her feet and swung a roundhouse right that hit nothing but air. "Shit!" The wind gusted from her lungs as a nightstick crashed into her stomach, doubling her up. Legs even shakier than before, Faith sunk to her knees, helpless to resist when hands grabbed at her wrists, forcing her rubbery arms behind her back.

Faith smirked suddenly as everything cleared, the strength returning to her limbs and focus returning to her senses. The man behind her let out a surprised yelp as she surged to her feet toe-kicking the man in front of her in her in the nuts as she pulled her arms apart, and reached up to lock her hands around the back of his helmet, lean forward and fling him into the man now kneeling in agony in front of her.

Another guard came in swinging a baton that she caught and reversed, crashing it into his helmeted head even as she side heel-kicked him in the knee, bone shattering like dropped porcelain. Another coming at her seemed to stop, then step back as realising the stupidity of attack, but Faith wasn’t in the mood for second chances. Her leap took her over the bed and to the man’s side, her swinging clothesline catching him on the neck, lifting him from his feet and 360ing out of the room.

"Xan," Faith glanced over her shoulder to see her boy-friend flinging aside the second of two men, his eyes somewhat glazed but his balance apparently alright, "you ready to see if Tar’s okay?"

Xander nodded, face hardening. "Let’s," he agreed.

The Inspector Jefe’s eyes bulged behind his visor as once again the body of one of his men flew past him to crash into the wall behind and slide limply to the floor. What in god’s name were his men facing?

Shaking off his growing trepidation, he glanced towards his men, the last six, the others either left escorting the two lesbianas out, or having being summarily defeated by whatever typhoon occupied the hotel room. "Form up into two shield walls," he was grateful his roar didn’t shake. "Get ready-." He gasped as a grenade fell at his feet and one at his men’s.

Then his entire world turned bright and noisy.

* * *

"They’re down X!" Faith excitedly reported as she peeked out of the hotel room to see the remaining cops stumbling blindly around.

Xander nodded as he finished tugging on his sweater. "I’ll check the room for Tara and Ken, you deal with the police."

"No probs," Faith agreed as she darted out of the room, catching the nearest and from the most looks of him most senior of the police officers with a kick to the chest that laid him out on top of two already unconscious cops. Then Faith spun to face the remaining six, grabbed the nearest two by the outside of their helmets and drove their heads together, their heads cracking together like a pair of billiard balls.

Faith leapt over the falling men, catching a pair of officers, one man and one woman, across the upper chest with a double crowbar-stiff clothesline to the chest. The two hadn’t finished falling when Faith caught one of the last two cops with a back-heel kick to the lower back that knocked him into the other remaining cop then she leapt into the air, moving seamlessly into a spin kick that took down first one, then the second of the men.

Faith’s eyes narrowed as she noticed the senior officer staggering to his feet, hand dazedly struggling to his holster. "No," she leapt through the air, her lead foot smashing into the man’s chest with all the subtlety of the battering ram they’d used to open their hotel room door. The man left the floor with a gasp, flying on until he tore through the cordon tape three doors down and crashed to earth in an unmoving huddle. Faith spun around at a sensed threat behind her, stepped forward, grabbed the back of the neck of a police officer struggling to his knees and drove him down and onto a knee to the chest before flinging him away.

"Faith," Xander poked his head out of the girls’ room, "stop playing, the others they’re gone."

"Oh hell," Faith growled, her temper burning just a little hotter. "Then let’s get them back." Faith grabbed the senior copper by his jacket and lifted him up to scare some answers out of him, then paused. "Ah hell, he’ll be out for some time."

* * *

Andres Santos quaked in his boots when the dark-eyed beauty and her powerfully-built yet somehow not quite as imposing lover charged down the steps. He had to get out of here before they saw him, yes he should go in the inner office and work on his resume. Either that or hide under the desk. Yes, he glanced at and turned towards the door behind him, that sounded like such a good idea.

"Don’t move a fuckin’ inch!"

He froze at the growl and turned back to face to the brunette, his smile wavering on his lips. "Hello, how may I help yo-."

"Cut the crap!" the buxom brunette snarled. Andres belatedly noted that even as she spoke she was still pulling on her shoes. "Where did the pigs go with our friends?"

"Out the back, to the car park," Andres quickly replied. He was no hero, and if these two had gotten past the fifteen other officers upstairs, he wasn’t getting in their way.

"Thanks." The dark-eyed lovely glanced at her companion. "Tip the man, lover."

"Okay," the brown-haired man smiled, "never invite anyone into your house after dark."

"Not quite what I meant," the woman growled as she started towards the hotel’s rear, "but it’ll do."

Yes definitely work on his resume. The duty receptionist at one of Madrid’s most famed hotels shouldn’t have a problem getting a job at a smaller hotel in a less touristy town. Preferably one with no Americans at all.

* * *

Kennedy stared at her girl-friend, eyes filling with worry as they sat in the back of the dark police van, the men who’d brought them out now sat in the cab or lurking outside the van. Tara had caught a pretty hard nightstick to the head, a blow that had been exacerbated by her cracking her head against the nightstand when she fell. She’d been out mostly cold since then.

And what was going on anyway? Tara had barely begun to wake, her wards going off, when the cops had burst into their room, clubbing them unconscious before they had chance to resist.

Kennedy forced a smile. But Xander and Faith weren’t here yet, so that probably meant their captors were soon gonna find themselves in a world of hurt.

* * *

Xander peered through his infra-red binoculars. "Hard to say how many are on the van’s far side, but there’s two in the cab, one by the rear doors, and one on the near side. I think it’s safe to assume there’ll be one on the far side."

"Why are they still here anyway?" Faith hissed as they crouched behind the hotel’s trash cans.

"My guess is, they’re waiting for orders from their superior," Xander replied as he glanced around the illuminated mostly full car park.

Faith chuckled lowly. "Those sons of bitches will be waitin’ a while then." Faith looked towards him. "What’s it gonna be?"

Xander pursed his lips. "Can you get around the far side of the van?"

"Like a freakin’ ghost," Faith replied.

"Good," Xander nodded. He couldn’t see how his girl-friend could traverse the well-lit lot without being noticed, but it was strange, for such a beautiful woman who revelled in being seen most of the time, she could be damn near invisible when she wanted to be.

Some times he suspected it was sheer force of will. "In that case," he continued, "I want you to sneak over to the far end of the lot, and turn over one of the cars nearest the entrance. When they go to investigate, I’ll move in. As soon as you’ve done that, I want you out of here and heading towards that all-night café we went to earlier on before we went to Lorne’s."

"Seriously? Turn over a car?" Faith grinned at his nod. "That is so cool, Bill Kazmier look out!"

And with that Faith melted away, leaving Xander shaking his head. "Bill Kazmier? Where does she hear these names?"

The next few minutes passed in torturously slow silence, Xander half-worrying if the police upstairs would come around while he was waiting for Faith to-. He jumped slightly at the sound of a ground-shaking crash. "That’s my girl," he smiled as the cops at the rear and near side of the van rushed off, "subtle as an elep-." He groaned as another police officer leapt out of the van’s cab and started hurrying to the back.

"Ah hell."

Xander cursed as he hurried forward, his hand raising as he summonsed a tranquiliser gun into his hand. He saw the officer’s eyes widen and his hand drop to his gun. "Damn!" Xander tugged on the tranq gun’s trigger, a dart sailing out to fly past the man’s ear and slap against the van’s side and fall to the ground. Xander’s eyes widened as the man’s gun cleared his holster. "Not good, not good," Xander muttered as he dropped to one knee behind a car, aimed, and fired.

The dart burst out of his gun’s muzzle even as the car’s rear window exploded, showering him with glass. "Oh hell!" Xander cursed even as he kept one eye open to watch his dart fly through the black night and slam into the man’s neck, the officer’s legs buckling under him as he fell to the ground. "Sorry about that," Xander muttered as he rose and raced towards the van.

He’d just reached the van’s rear doors when another cop appeared and dropped into a pistol-shooting stance. "Helar!" the thick-set man barked, his eyes dancing everywhere even as sweat beaded down both sides of his square face.

"Easy now," Xander forced a smile as he raised his hands and stepped towards the man, "why don’t we talk-." He gulped as the man pulled the hammer back and stopped immediately. "Or I could just stay here."

"Jesus Harris," he breathed again when Faith ghosted out of the shadows, stuck a gun in the man’s ear, and reached around him to snatch his gun off him. "Can you do like anything without me to hold ya hand?"

"I thought I told you to get out of here?" Xander snapped.

"Lucky for you I didn’t," Faith beamed at his grunt. "Say, thank you Faith."

"Thank you Faith," he muttered.

"There you go," Faith wrapped her arm around the cop’s neck and effortlessly choked him out, "that wasn’t hard was it?" Faith queried as she lowered the man to the ground. "Why aren’t you unlocking the door?"

Xander forced a smile. "I thought I’d let you do it."

"Jeez," Faith stepped forward, grabbed the door handles, and yanked the doors apart and open, the door handles snapping under a Slayer’s determined onslaught, "woman’s work is never done and all that."

"All hail Emily Pankhurst," Xander muttered. "And what sorta mini-skirts is she wearing this year?"

"Thanks," Kennedy exclaimed as she helped a glaze-eyed Tara out of the back of the van, "Tara banged her head, but she’s just coming around."

"Wicked," Faith nodded towards the now-partially blocked by a car exit, the bodies of unconscious cops strewn throughout the lot’s tarmac, "let’s hustle ‘fore anyone else turns up."

"Yeah," Xander nodded. "We need to head for the nearest car rental or better yet car lot and grab us some wheels."

"Why were they after us anyway?" Kennedy asked as Xander took over supporting the still slightly dazed-looking Tara. "We haven’t broken any laws since we got here have we?"

"Not that I know of," Xander replied as they hurried out of the car lot, "anything happen to you while you were fighting those vampires, Faith?"

"Nothing, illegal." Faith shrugged. "Well okay," Faith pursed her lips, a rare look of embarrassment on his girl-friend’s beautiful features, "thing is I, um, stole a bottle of meths from a wino."

Kennedy sighed and shook her head. "Just when you think she can’t sink any lower."

"There’s groups that can help with alcohol-related problems," Tara added.

"We’ll be very supportive," Xander added, just about controlling the urge to laugh at the steam he could see coming out of his girl-friend’s ears.

"Count me out," Kennedy grinned.

"It was to make a Molotov cocktail!" Faith protested.

Kennedy shook her head. "Sure it was, Faith."

"I swear I’m gonna punch someone!" Faith snarled.

"Drunks are frequently aggressive," Tara ruminated.

"Yeah," Xander nodded, "but how would anyone notice the difference?"

"I fucking hate you guys!" Faith snarled as she strode off into the night, her butt doing that rather appealing swinging bounce it always did when she was angry or in a hurry. Well, Xander grinned, all the time really.

"And often anti-social," Tara added with a gleeful giggle.

"Yeah," Xander nodded again, "but how would anyone notice the difference?"

* * *

Xander grimaced as he finished hot-wiring the dark blue 4 by 4. He hated to steal, but he’d decided against his initial plan of hiring a car in case the police tracked them down. "Faith," he leaned out of the car’s window and whispered, "how’s that change of licence plate going?"

"Oh I’m not sure they’re on straight, I’m such a drunk apparently I can’t see straight," Faith growled from the rear of the car.

"Do you want me to check?" Tara asked. "I mean if you’re still hung-over."

"Come near me and I’ll stab you with the screwdriver," Faith warned.

"It’s amazing how well her memory functions considering the you know what problem," Kennedy chuckled.

"Fuckers," Faith grunted. "It’s on."

"Okay," Xander nodded, "get in."

"What are we going to do?" Tara asked, her expression suddenly grave.

"You know your plan for tracking down the names on the hard drive of Lorne’s friend?" Xander replied. "Let’s start there."

Tara kept her face pressed to the 4 by 4’s passenger window, her eyes wide open as she drunk in all of a gradually lightening Madrid’s many attractions as they criss-crossed the city in search of a contact. The Calle de Alcalá, Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, Plaza de Oriente, and of course the Palacio Real.

It was a life undreamed of when growing up in New Meixco, under her pa’s bullying fists. The countries she’d visited, the famous and powerful people she’d met, and the amazing things she’d done. No longer did she wonder if anyone could ever love her, she had three of the most amazing friends anyone could ever wish for, as well as the respect of warriors and heroes across the globe.

Her happy reverie was interrupted by the sound of the driver’s door opening and Xander climbing in, slamming it shut behind him. "Five down, one to go."

"Nothing?" Faith queried.

"House is empty," Xander tersely replied. "I suppose there’s no point going to the last, but we might as well be thorough."

* * *

Considerably more cars were on the road by the time they made the address on Madrid’s outskirts, a white-washed cottage sitting on a neatly looked after garden. "Bout an hour to dawn," Faith commented as she climbed into the driving seat. "Holler if you need me."

Xander nodded as he started towards the isolated house, teeth grinding together. For all their good-natured ribbing of Faith, Xander was worried. If Tara was right and these people were mages, one being murdered and five maybe six going missing was indicative of something going on the supernatural world.

Unfortunately, Xander stopped at the door, grimacing as he noticed the broken window pane and slightly ajar door, he still didn’t have a clue what it was. Xander turned back to the car and motioned Faith towards him. In seconds the Slayer was stalking down the path to stand beside him, dark eyes intent. "What’s the sitch?"

"Broken window," Xander curtly replied, all the other houses had been locked up, just empty.

"Yeah," Faith grimaced, "and I can hear something through the back, come on."

* * *

His head crashed into the wall, his attackers swarming around him, too many, too fast, too strong for him.

Just too much.

He tried to duck but a right caught his eye, blood bursting from a cut below it. His attacker didn’t move away fast enough though, his rapier thrusting through his belly, the electricity flinging the man across the kitchen and into the cupboard opposite, then falling to the ground, the cupboard crashing down on top of him. "Ahh!" he cursed as another of the men swarming around grabbed his sword-arm, yanked, and twisted hard on it, forcing his weapon to fall from his grip, even as he managed to catch another attacker with a kick to the crotch.

And then the kitchen door burst open, and rescue in the shape of a very capable-looking young man and a curvy brunette bombshell stormed in.

Two of his assailants spun to face the duo, but the man blocked a right hook on his left arm, stepped into his attacker, and shattered his nose with a headbutt then in basically the same motion hooked his arm around the man’s arm, twisted at the waist, and flung him over his shoulder and into the man he’d just felled.

But it was the girl…

The thick-set bruiser, an easy twice her weight, reached out to grab her shoulder, only to fold to his knees, a hoarse, pain-filled cry filling the air as she grabbed his fingers and yanked them back with bone-breaking viciousness, a crack like billiard balls hitting together likewise filling the air when her knee came up and crashed into his jaw. Another of the men lunged at the girl, grave intent in his eyes.

Only for her to slide around the man despite the kitchen’s relatively narrow confines, grab a cupboard door and open it up into the man’s face, snapping his head back with the blow’s collision. A kick to the knee, a grab of his hair as he doubled up, and head driving down onto the cooker, and he was sliding to the ground.

One of the men holding him threw a right that he managed to duck before punching his adversary in the gut. The man grunted and stepped backwards.

Right into the brunette beauty who hooked him around the waist and belly-to-back suplexed him over her and into the far wall.

That just about broke his attackers, sending them racing out of the back door. He rotated his jaw for a second as he took a moment to regain his poise. "Thank you for-."

"Oh my god!" the man’s jaw dropped. "You’re El Águila!"

He stared at his rescuers, surprised both by their nationality and their recognition of him. While his exploits were a big deal in Spain, he barely made a ripple in the rather vaster pond of America. But if the man recognised him…. "Indeed," he bowed and on the way down picked up his rapier, "if I might ask who are you?"

"Sure."

Aguila listened in bemusement as the young man stumbled through an explanation about prophecy, legacy, and a mystical army, all the while the brunette bombshell alternating between shooting him suspicious looks and her companion adoring ones. A silence fell after the young man finally spluttered to a halt. "You said I could check with Professor Xavier?"

"Oh yeah," the girl introduced as Faith drawled, "Chuck and us are tight."

"I don’t doubt it," Aguila smiled in a probably vain attempt to hide his bemusement.

"Yeah," Xander looked around. "Look, there’s a car parked outside. We’ll be in it for the next ten minutes, then gone."

* * *

Aguila waited until the two had left, then pulled out his cell and dialled the number of the mutant community’s foremost spokesman. "Hello," a cultured and instantly recognisable voice answered on the eighth ring.

"Hello, Professor, it’s Aguila," he said. "I ran into a couple of friends of yours, a Xander Harris and Faith Lehane."

"Ah," warmth filled the professor’s voice, "a quite remarkable pair. Whatever they told you, I can only vouch it’s for veracity. They are to be trusted."

"And their group?" Aguila pressed.

"That," the Professor’s voice became rather more guarded, "is a matter for your own conscience and judgement. I can only vouch for Mr. Harris’ word."

"Thank you," Aguila hung up and pursed his lips. What to do next?

"Damn," Faith glanced at her watch, "what’s takin’ him for long?"

"It’s a big decision to make," Tara softly counselled. "Give him time."

Faith scowled. "Yeah, ‘pose it is." Faith glanced at Xander. "Getting Spain signed up will be a big deal though, right?"

"Yeah," Xander nodded. "I was just looking at our records last night, well-," Xander looked at the lightening sky, "the night before last," he corrected, "and each of the big six cities have between a dozen and two dozen hunters in them. It could be a big player."

"Reading computer files instead of seeing to his girl-friend’s needs," Faith sighed dramatically.

"Trouble in paradise?" Kennedy teased.

"Well I’d hardly call us paradise," Faith shot Xander a sultry wink while flashing him a dimple-deepening smirk, "but now he ain’t even makin’ like a Flintstone."

"Making like a Flintstone?" asked a blushing Tara.

"Makin’ my bed rock!" Faith chortled at her own joke before sobering. "Xan, how come it was vamps watchin’ the house we were at earlier, but vamps here?"

"Look at the time," Xander replied with a glance out of the window, "it’s probably too light for vampires."

"Or perhaps Lorne’s friend is the only one who’s dead, the others are just kidnapped, so their houses can only be entered by humans?" Kennedy threw in.

"Yeah," Faith nodded. "Either makes sense, I guess."

"How come there weren’t guards on the other houses we went to?" Tara asked.

Xander shrugged. "Perhaps whatever happened at these two houses happened most recently. Either that or there were guards on all the houses, and we didn’t see them-."

"Hey," Faith commented as the house’s front door swung open. "He’s comin’."

The man who stepped out of the house was tall and slim, but with wide shoulders and ripcord limbs. He wore tight-fitting red pants with a matching sash across the waist and a black silk shirt with red gloves and a crimson tied behind cowl covering his eyes and nose, but not his mouth or his twirling moustache.

Faith guessed he sorta stood out in a crowd.

"Hey," Xander greeted as he opened the car door and got out, "have you spoken to the Professor?"

"I have," the Spaniard nodded.

"And?" Faith poked her head out of the car to demand.

"And," Aguila smiled slightly. "I thank you for your assistance and will work with you to find my friend’s killers. As for joining your group," Aguila’s smile disappeared. "One feels it wise that such decisions be left until after the current crisis is dealt with."

Faith raised an eyebrow as she glanced at her boyfriend. So this guy figured to give them a trial run before coming to any decision. Not especially flattering but she guessed it made a certain amount of sense.

"Okay," Xander nodded, Faith guessed that her boyfriend had figured out the meaning hidden behind the mutant’s words, but was diplomatic enough not to press the matter. "Would you like to get in the car?"

"Thank you," Aguila bowed and beamed into the back seat. "It is always a pleasure to spend some time in the company of such beautiful women."

"We’re gay," Kennedy flatly warned.

The Spaniard smiled. "A man should always enjoy a challenge. Otherwise can he consider himself truly a man?"

Faith snorted. Oh this was gonna be wicked fun.

* * *

"If I might make a suggestion," Aguila said as he climbed into the car.

"Oh god," Faith drawled. "He’s with us five minutes and he’s makin’ suggestions." The Slayer shot him an amused glance. "Now we got a male Kennedy or what?"

"Ignore her," Xander shot the brunette beauty a fond glance, "if we throw her raw meat once or twice a day, her bark’s generally worse than her bite. Generally."

Aguila’s eyes shot between the two, struggling to marry Xavier’s glowing words with the duo’s slapstick behaviour. "If I may continue?"

"Sure," Xander said.

"I recognised two of the thugs who attacked me as working for an old enemy of mine, a Barcelona crime-lord, Antonio Cabeza. Perhaps he has knowledge of what is happening here?"

Xander stared at him for a second. "Sounds like a plan. Do you know directions?"

"Eh," Aguila glanced between his hosts. "It is a considerable distance to Barcelona. It would be advisable to perhaps catch a plane there."

"It might be advisable, but it ain’t feasible," Faith replied, the brunette’s brow furrowing, "for some reason the police are on our tail, gotta be cars."

"Then," Aguila sat back with a sigh. "We are in for a long drive."

"Lucky," Faith glanced into the back and looked pointedly at Aguila’s beautiful companions, "we provided you with scenery then."

Aguila felt a smile pulling on his lips at the young beauty’s teasing. "Indeed."

* * *

Faith cricked her neck as she climbed out of the car, stiff and okay, a little cranky, after an entire day spent in the car they were now outside a white-washed hacienda with a wall around three sides of it, its rear pressed into an orange-treed hill, Faith yawned as she glanced at her watch, just past seven in the evening. Shit, she hoped it wasn’t far to the nearest hotel. "Are we going to see Cabeza now or in the morning?"

"Oh," Faith glanced across at Xander, noting his hard voice as her honey stared through his binoculars, "we’re going in now."

"Why the urgency?" Kennedy asked a moment before she could.

"Because the two security guards at the front gates are lying dead on the ground, and there’s men climbing over the wall."

Faith raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like a good reason."

Cabeza’s eyes shot open as his hacienda’s internal alarms began blaring out, signifying someone had breached his compound’s grounds and in doing so had triggered his sensors. For a moment he lay in the darkness of his opulent bedroom, heart thundering as the alarm’s wail pounded in his ears. Then he struggled to a sitting position, his bulky body groaning with the effort, reached into his bedside cabinet’s drawer and pulled out his nickel-plated Glock. Then he rose and pulled on his robe.

* * *

"Right?" Faith glanced at Xander. "Are we gonna do this, is he worth risking our lives for?"

Xander grimaced at his girl-friend’s question. "Of himself no, but we need the information he might have."

"How many attackers are there?" Aguila queried.

"Xander grimaced. "Six to eight, unless there’s more already in the house."

"Human?" Faith queried.

"They’ll kind have to be," Xander said, "they’re giving off infra-red signatures."

"Kay," Faith nodded. "Let’s sweep ‘em up."

"Xander," Tara spoke up from the car, "Kennedy and I will stay here. Can I have the laptop?"

"If we’re staying here, at least give me an automatic or something," Kennedy added.

"Sure," Xander passed the laptop and a Beretta over before looking towards her and Aguila, "do you two need any equipment?"

* * *

"Tara," Kennedy whined as she turned to her girl-friend, "why did we have to stay behind?"

"Because," Tara opened up the computer and stuck a CD in its drive, "I need to research."

* * *

Faith split from Xander and Aguila, leaving it for the others to take the right side while she went left. Faith glided through the shadows, her Slayer senses and grace allowing her to sneak up behind a pair of men stalking towards the looming mansion.

She had an arm around the neck of one before he knew she was there, cinching in tight while driving the knuckles of her other hand into his kidneys. The man let out a hoarse cry, his legs folding as his companion spun to face them, a swing kick taking his automatic out of his hand.

Faith released her grip on the already unconscious man and lunged at his partner, sliding into him before he had a chance snatching at his arm, grabbing his wrist, and pulling him onto a bone-cracking elbow to the face. Faith grinned as the man fell to the ground, blood spurting from his mouth as she drove a foot into his crotch. "Just don’t build hoods like the good old days."

Satisfied both men were out, she continued to the house.

* * *

Xander looked towards the trio, his eyes narrowing. "Is it me," his companion whispered, "but did there seem to be more of them before?"

"Yes," Aguila agreed. "I would suggest the others have broken off and made for the house."

"Damn it." Xander grimaced at his reply. "See that thick bush ahead and to their right? Can you get there ahead of them so we can catch them in an ambush?" Aguila nodded. "Don’t move until I make my move."

"As you say." Tense seconds passed as Aguila crept around the oblivious trio and settled into place behind the dense shrubbery, his head shaking in surprise at how readily he’d accepted the younger man’s orders. For all his outward jokiness, there was something about Xander Harris that just demanded if not obedience than at least respect. Strange that the youth did not seem to realise it himself.

His musings came to an end when the young man in question stalked out of the shadows and put the furthest away of the trio down with a rabbit punch to the neck and a knee to the back, a punch to the side of the head hastening the man’s fall. The middle of the trio spun to face Harris, but was met by a side thrust to kick the belly that folded him up into an uppercut to the face that sent him flopping onto his back. Not fancy, but very effective.

Seeing the third man spinning towards Harris, backing away from Harris and unmindfully towards him, thug reaching into his jacket for some weapon or other, Aguila rose and raised his blade. Electricity sparked out of his rapier and into the man, the man convulsing wildly before dropping to the ground.

"Neat trick," Aguila only just managed to keep his calm when the Slayer materialised by his side, her husky tone filling his ear, "must be a real winner with the ladies. Now we gonna go into the house or not?"

"Yeah," Xander rose from his crouch beside the second man he’d dealt with, absently rubbing at his knuckles, "these two are out, let’s move it."

* * *

Cabeza hurried down his sweeping staircase, heart pounding and sweaty hand squeezing his gun until his knuckles whitened. He stopped as he entered the darkened hallway, the hairs on the back of his neck rising as the shadows seemed to move. He relaxed when nothing happened. "Jumping at shadows," he shook his head in disgust. For years he’d been a feared man, a man who ran drugs, whores, loan sharks, and protection rackets throughout Barcelona and the Catalonia region, but in the last few months he’d been slowly but surely shoved out, his men deserting him to join another, his once feared threats seemingly useless to prevent their treachery. Eventually he’d been forced to scurry into retirement, his operation stolen from under him.

And now, someone dared attack him in his own home.

No more, he decided with a scowl. Tonight was the night everything changed, tonight was the night he began his comeback-.

His legs shook under him, a great weakness enveloping him. His mouth opened, but only blood spilt out. He fell to his knees, stunned eyes falling to the knife lodged in his throat. A hooded man stepped out of the shadows, dispassionate eyes fixed on his convulsing body as he leant down and pulled his dagger out. "Let’s get out of here."

"Our orders were to kill everyone-."

The man shook his head. "Our orders are changed. It’s more important that none of us get caught rather than kill some cleaner that knows nothing anyway. Let’s go."

"What about the others?" Another voice demanded in the ever increasing distance.

"We’re the only three who know who our employer is and why we’re here, they won’t learn anything from them."

Madrid

Gonzalo strode out of his office and into the well-lit underground car park, his shoulders slumped and face somehow having aged a decade in the past 48 hours. What an utter mess, over a dozen police officers in hospital, and questions being asked over what should have been a simple, discreet pick-up. Most worryingly, questions being directed at him for just why the men had been sent in. There were even rumours of the hotel complaining, and worse, an official investigation. All he’d sought to conceal being put under a probing spotlight.

"You have disappointed me."

Gonzalo felt the sweat form on his forehead as he forced his suddenly shaky legs to turn to face the figure leaning in the shadows. "I did as you told me!" he hissed.

"Hardly," his blackmailer replied. "They’re still free, still irritating me."

"Well if you’d warned me that they were mutants I’d have sent more men!" he snapped.

"Don’t take that tone with me," his blackmailer warned. "Now what plans do you have to apprehend them?"

"Maybe," he licked his lips, wild courage spurting through him. This group had caused his tormenter enough trouble so far, maybe the best course of action was leaving them alone to deal with him. "Maybe I shouldn’t do anything at all."

All at once Tomas was out of the shadows, his hand around his neck, lifting him off the ground with terrifying ease. "Do not think to get brave now," Tomas hissed, an inhuman light in his eyes, the hand choking him chillingly cold. "That would be a grave mistake." Goncalo hit the floor when Tomas contemptuously tossed him away, his head bouncing off the dirty concrete. "I want them gone, I don’t care how you achieve it, just do it."

* * *

"Hey," Kennedy spoke up, "someone’s coming outta the mansion." After a second her girl-friend relaxed. "It’s okay, it’s them."

"Right," Tara nodded, eyes fixed on the laptop screen, illuminated by the car’s light.

Kennedy looked across at her. "Have you found what you were looking for?"

Tara nodded again. "I think so."

"Good, because Faith looks pissed," Kennedy replied.

"She always looks pissed," Tara giggled.

"Well unless she’s in a fight or ‘gettin’ some," Kennedy giggled back before pulling the window down. "What happened?"

"We kicked their asses, but the main assassins had already killed Cabeza," Faith replied.

"The hired muscle they’d left behind didn’t know anything," Xander added. "Back to stage one."

"Nice," Faith whistled through her teeth as Bilbao came into sight, their car motoring from the leafy hills surrounding the seven hundred year old city, centuries-old churches and buildings beside modern buildings and of course the coastal city’s harbour.

"Their base is in an inn in Casco Viejo," Tara said.

"Caso what?" Xander queried.

"Old Town," Aguila replied before Tara could. "A medieval neighbourhood of Bilbao."

"I thought we could dump the stolen car, go to a hotel, and get showered," Tara continued. "Rest, then go to the headquarters tonight."

"Yeah," Faith blinked her heavy eyes, two days on the run, she was whacked, she could only guess how the others felt, "sounds like a plan."

* * *

Faith yawned as she awoke. Eyes fluttering open, she looked around the simple B&B they’d booked into. It was a lot less luxurious than their normal place, but still a hell of a lot nicer than the hovels she’d grown up in, and like Xander said, they needed to stay low-key for as long as possible. And hey, it had a shower, a roof, and a comfy bed, girl didn’t need much more than that. "Hiya Faith."

"Hey," Faith pressed her back into Xander’s chest as his arm encircled her, holding her against him, Faith luxuriated in lying in his arms before looking over her shoulder to him, "whadda you think ‘bout Aguila?"

Xander raised an eyebrow and sighed. "We’re lying here in bed, do you have to bring other men into our relationship?"

"Hey," Faith winked, "if you can’t get the business done what’s a girl to do?"

"Hey!" Xander protested. "Can’t get the business done?"

"But seriously," Faith grinned at Xander’s outraged look, "adding Spain will be major news right?"

"Yeah it would and Aguila seems like a good guy," Xander commented. "Seems like he can handle himself in a sticky situation."

"Yeah, he did alright last night. Think he’ll accept?" Faith pressed as she curled up in Xander’s arms.

"That depends," Faith purred as Xander kissed her neck. "on how this all turns out." Xander grinned at her. "Now there was some question of me not being able to get the business done?"

"Oh yeah, there was wasn’t there?" Faith didn’t think of Aguila, vampires, missing mages, or much of anything for quite some time after that.

Faith whistled as she looked around the Plaza Nueva, her dark eyes taking in the monumental square. It was bordered on each side by looming, neo-classical arcaded buildings, her gaze drawn to the arches at the buildings’ bottom, noting the tourists hurrying in and out of the taverns, restaurants, and souvenir shops there. "This is pretty." Faith’s eyes narrowed as she took in a performance on a stage at the square’s paving-stoned centre. "What are they doing?"

"They are enacting a story from Bilbao’s history," Aguila replied, the man dressed in rather more conservative jeans and a white shirt with the top couple of buttons undone instead of his flamboyant superhero attire. "This city has had a turbulent history."

"Yeah," Faith flicked her hair back, "turbulent histories are kinda goin’ around." Faith looked towards Tara. "Which way is it, Sis?"

Tara glanced up from her guidebook. "The third arch on the right, I think."

"Kay," Faith set off at the head of their group, Tara falling in by her shoulder, Kennedy in the middle, and the two guys just behind. Soon they were ducking through the arch and into a darkened passageway. Faith dipped in and out of the grasping street-vendors with ease, coming out of the other side of the tunnel to find a narrow, cobbled street with houses that could be anything from a century to three centuries old on either side.

"Come on," Tara muttered as they strode around winding corner, stopping suddenly as a battered, decades-old mini sped around with the seemingly universal disregard Spanish drivers appeared to have for pedestrians, drivers, and even themselves, almost mounting the kerb in front of them.

"Hijo de puta!" Faith let out an angry howl as the car careered on, then shrugging as the others looked towards her. "What? I learn the important local phrases."

"You mean the foul ones," Kennedy grunted.

"Xactly," Faith beamed, "the important ones."

Tara shook her head. "See that crossroads up there?" Tara pointed to the left and up a sloping hill. "It’s across the street."

"Kay," Faith glanced up the slope. "’Fore you ask Harris, I ain’t carryin’ your lazy, fat ass up the hill."

"Fat?" Xander huffed. "I burnt more than a few calories off this morning."

"Yeah," Tara nudged her with a hip and winked, "we heard."

Faith returned her sister’s wink before starting up the steep slope, eyes always moving as she stalked up the cracked pavement, the aging houses around casting looming shadows, coming to a halt as she cleared the top of the hill. The cantina was just where Tara had said, to the right and across the road.

Its red painted walls had long since started to flake and the wooden door between its dirty windows didn’t look in the best condition. Faith glanced up at the sign above the door, forehead furrowed as she struggled to make out the faded writing on it. "La Feliz Estancia," Faith glanced at Aguila, eyebrow rising. "And that means what exactly?"

"The Happy Stay," the mutant translated.

"Yeah," Faith nodded, "that’s the first thing I thought when I saw this place ‘The Happy Stay’." Faith looked towards Xander. "How we gonna play this?"

"Just follow my lead."

Faith’s shoulders slumped. "Words to fill me with confidence."

* * *

Xander smirked at his girl-friend as he crossed the street. "Tara, I want you with me. Faith, you and the others stay by the door."

Xander pushed the door open and walked in, the witch by his side. It took a couple of steps for his eyes to get used to the dimly-lit, smoke-filled atmosphere, but then he could see everything. There were two bars, the larger ground one with a jukebox apparently playing a selection of traditional Spanish folk music, and another slightly elevated bar where a variety of traditional dishes including tapas and paella were served, the menu itself on a chalk board by the steps leading up to the eatery.

Everything stopped upon their entry, suspicious eyes turning as one towards them. Xander forced a smile as he returned their gazes, clearly this was a local’s bar. Everyone appeared working class, some even wearing mud caked clothes still dirty from some job or other, the vast majority of the faces staring back at him belonging to people aged between thirty and seventy. "Tara," Xander whispered from the side of his mouth, "see anyone with magical talent in here?"

"They’re all around us," Tara whispered back. "Not at one table, there’s six no seven tables with at least one person with magical power sat at them, and I can’t sense anyone in the upper reaches."

"This sounds like the place alright," Xander glanced over his shoulder to Aguila. "If you don’t mind, translate." Aguila nodded. "Hello," Xander stepped away from Tara and looked around, "my name is Xander Harris. I am of the Mithras Brotherhood and I understand the Brujería, honoured and wise people of Spain, need help. I am here to assist in any way I can."

Muttered indifference was his own reply. "Alrighty then," Xander smiled tightly as he looked towards Tara and shrugged, "let’s back out of here."

Faith spoke in a hiss the moment the bar’s door had shut behind them. "That’s it? We go to all the trouble of trackin’ em down, gettin’ hunted, travelling across the country, and that’s the best you can do?"

"Just think of me as a pebble," Xander decided to be as obtuse as possible, "I’ve thrown myself into the pond, let’s just see what ripples come out of it." Xander grinned. "I think we’ll take the scenic route back to the hotel, give things time to develop."

Faith stared blankly at him. "Say what?" Faith looked towards the others for help. "Tell me none of you got that either?"

* * *

Alejo waited until the door had shut behind the American, the bar still hushed by his intrusion, but the waitresses returning to their duties. "Could it be?" he hissed. "Could it really be him? He seems so young!"

"And yet the girl with him had power, the sort of power that makes us look like candles next to a forest fire," muttered Jazmin. "And the girl by the door," his wife chuckled hoarsely, "don’t try and deny it husband, I noticed you noticing her. She had power too, but of a somehow different kind." Jazmin shook her head as the others rose and started towards them. "But if it is him, dare we act?"

"Dare we not?" commented Ramiro, a thick-set man with the look of a labourer, but the keenest mind amongst them all if not the most gifted in the arts. "This might be our last, our only chance to escape."

Those words halted conversation for a moment. "We need more information," Jazmin decided.

Fernando’s heart thundered as he crept after the group, mouth dry. It wasn’t his first time trailing tourists, he’d frequently snatched purses or wallets from foreigners but never locals, that wasn’t allowed, but never had his ‘victims’ perhaps been the notorious Mithras Quartet. His eyes narrowed as he noted the group dip under a shadowy bridge, picking up his pace, he hurried into the tunnel, intent on keeping track of his targets.

And then a hand grabbed him by his shirt, lifted him off the ground, and slammed him into the wall behind him. His eyes bulged as he beheld the girl, little more than his size, effortlessly holding him a foot off the ground and at arm’s length. "Hey kid," the brunette husked, "we’ve been followed by experts and you ain’t one." The ebony-eyed woman scowled and shook him. "Quit wrigglin’ and hittin’ my arm, I’ll get pissed in a minute."

"Faith," a honey-blonde said, "he’s just scared."

"Good," ‘Faith’ shot him an assassin’s grin, "scared’s what I was aimin’ for." ‘Faith’ looked towards one of the quintet’s two males. "This what you mean when you were yammerin’ on ‘bout ripples?"

"I wasn’t yammering, but yes." The man shot the girl a patient look before looking towards him. "Keep a hold, but lower him to the ground."

"Fine," Faith scowled at him, "run and I will catch you, and I will not be happy." He nodded a frightened understanding and then the denim-clad brunette lowered him to the ground, her hand changing grip from his throat to his shoulder. "Jeeez, don’t shake so damn much, I won’t hurt you less you give me reason."

"Notice how good she is with kids," muttered the group’s other brunette. "That’s the future mother of your kids right there, Xander."

Faith’s mouth opened, but she was pre-empted by the group’s apparent leader. "Who sent you to follow us?"

"Our people’s leaders have all gone missing over the past few months," Fernando wiped at what could only be grit in his tearing eyes, "including my mother. A dark power-."

"Wait," the young man looked towards the group’s older male, "translate as he goes on." The young man looked back towards him and nodded encouragingly. "Go on."

"Your approach in the open scared them, they dare not move. I was told to follow you, find out where you were staying, and return with the information to what remains of our people, then we would approach you in secret."

The young man looked towards the honey-blonde who nodded. "He’s telling the truth."

"Well you’ve approached us now," the man’s eyes seemed to bore through him. "Wanna tell us what’s going on?"

"A man arrived in Spain, three – four months ago, no-one knows who he is or where he came from, but he had incriminating information on government, police, and business leaders, they all do as he tells them," Fernando said. "And then he struck at the Brujera, kidnapping their children and parents to give him a hold over them. And then he uses his thugs to kill any one who tries to resist."

"Sounds like a sweet set-up, pigs and the government under one heel, the mages under another, hired hoods to back his play," ‘Faith’ commented.

"Yeah," the young man’s eyes looked troubled. "You’ve told me what you don’t know, what do you know?"

"Our people cast a spell to see where he lived and another to see where our people are being held," Fernando babbled. "We couldn’t find where he has the hostages. But we could find where his headquarters are."

The young man grinned. "I think we should go to the headquarters and find out ourselves." The man looked around. "We’ll take the boy with us, Tara, you take the others, get to the car, and head for wherever we send you as soon as we phone in an address."

Tara nodded. "Okay, good luck."

* * *

"I don’t like bringin’ a kid with us," Faith grunted as she peered through the rental’s window to the hillside hacienda, some three hundred yards away.

"I’m not keen myself," Xander admitted. "But we need someone who speaks the lingo to help us out here."

"Yeah," Faith glanced at the pale-faced boy sat in the back, "you sure this is the place?" The boy nodded jerkily. "If he’s wrong, this is gonna be real embarrassing."

"There’s two guards and a CCTV at the front gate that says he’s right," Xander pointed out."

Faith sighed and rubbed at her forehead. "Yeah, fair enough. How we gonna play it?"

"The lost tourists gag?" Xander suggested.

Faith shrugged. "Get us down there then, I’ll take ‘em out."

* * *

Manuel leered at Jose as the car blaring out American rock music screeched to a halt and a brunette wearing impossibly tight jeans that hugged every heavenly curve and an implausibly tiny black gym vest that just barely managed to contain her lush, pert breasts. "God damn!" the 4 by 4 seem to sway under the girl’s furious back-heel kick of its door as she leapt from the door, dust scuffling as she landed. "You’re such a fuckin’ idiot!"

"You try reading the map then!" the woman’s companion yelled.

"I’ll do better than that!" the brunette’s eyes blazed as she looked towards him and Jose stood sheltering under the tree by the side of the gates. "I’ll do somethin’ your male ego wouldn’t let you and ask directions." Suddenly the brunette’s rose-red lips parted in a beguiling smile, her hips starting a hypnotic sway as she stalked towards them. "Don’t suppose you boys could help a lost girl out could you?"

The older of the two men leered at her, golden fillings glinting as he started forward, and walked straight into a kick to the balls that lifted him off his feet, not even a pained gasp able to escape his bluing face. Faith raced past the falling man, driving an uppercut into his companion’s jaw, even as she grabbed at the arm diving inside his weathered jacket for some weapon or other and held it fast. The man gurgled and heaved as she drove her fingers into the man’s throat, his legs buckling under him as the search for air got too much.

"Faith, get back."

Faith glanced over her shoulder at Xander’s taut request, noting the C4 now stuck to the iron gates. "Sure hon," Faith rushed back to the car, diving through its open passenger window as Xander raced around the far side of the car and pressed down on the detonator.

The ground shook as the grilled gates flew inward as if kicked in by an invisible yet gigantic foot. Xander leapt in beside her, his hand darting down to the brake and his foot hitting the accelerator. "Fernando, down on the floor, Faith, hold on!"

A yank of the steering wheel sent them hurtling through the forcibly opened gates, tyres screeching as they speeded up the driveway, hurtling towards the doorway. "Xan," Faith drawled, "see those men streaming outta the front door? Those aren’t bouquets they’re wav-." Faith beamed as Xander wordlessly dropped a concussion grenade in her lap. "Honey," she cooed as she leaned out of the window and lobbed the grenade at the men 200 feet away, "you always know just what to get me."

Even as the men levelled their guns at them, the grenade landed in front of them at the top of the steps. The explosion rang out, blood pounding in her ears as her eyes sparked orange with the explosion’s blaze, the force of the explosion flinging the men everywhere as Xander screeched the car to a halt. "Fernando, hands-."

"Over my eyes, yes!" the pale-faced boy obeyed.

Faith nodded approvingly as she leapt out of the car. "Smart kid," she flung open the passenger door and pulled him out, tucking him under her arm, and taking a mini-uzi from X who’d pulled out his trademark Mossberg. "Xan, you first."

Xander nodded before starting up the blood and smoke covered steps, cracks running through the marble after the explosion. "Look for an office or a computer," Xander instructed as he walked into the house, eyes flitting left then right as he took in the vast, sweeping front room.

"Yeah," Faith stalked to the left and kicked a door open, "whadda ya know." Faith glanced at the mahogany desk with a laptop on it, the closed curtains giving the room a grim feel. "Found it."

Xander nodded. "Well done. Fernando and I will deal with this," Xander pulled out his cell and called up a number, "Ang, it’s Xander. I need that help I asked for." Xander looked towards her. "You-."

"Stay on guard, gotcha." Faith’s brow furrowed as she heard the sound of people at the far end of the house, but then relaxed slightly when they didn’t get any closer. Still, she glanced down at her gun, grabbed a near-by wooden cabinet filled with all sort of medals and pulled it in front of her, and between her and the rest of the house, it didn’t do to take any chances.

A taut half an hour later and the door behind her creaked open. "Hey, find anything?" Faith queried.

"Tomas has a delivery sent every week with enough food for about thirty people to an address on the city’s outskirts," Xander tersely reported. "I’ve sent the address to Tara’s group."

"Wicked," Faith replied as she peeked around the cabinet.

"No trouble?" Xander queried.

"Nah," Faith shook her head, brow furrowing, "weird tho’, you’d think they’d put up more a fight."

"This Tomas is trying to get control a country," Xander commented. "Perhaps his resources are spread thin. Plus, don’t forget you took out six of his men."

"Yeah," Faith nodded. "Makes sense. We motorin’ or makin’ more of a search to see if there’s anything else to find?" Faith glanced over her shoulder at Xander’s chuckle. "What?"

"There is nothing else to find," Xander pulled out a pair of DVDs, "his blackmail information and his computer is trashed."

"Hah," Faith chuckled. "Guess he’s screwed then."

"Yeah," Xander nodded. "Let’s get to the others."

* * *

Kennedy hooked arms with the mutant as they strode across the busy street and up a cobbled alley, his rapier replaced by a discreetly sheathed dagger. Their destination was an apparently derelict inn at Bilbao’s harbour, salt-water’s taste and the sound of sloshing water competing for dominance in the air. "You see it," Kennedy said through a faked smile.

"I see it," Aguila replied. "I only hope your lover knows what she’s doing."

"Tara always knows what’s doing," Kennedy defended her girl-friend as they reached the pavement in front of the inn.

Aguila nodded before yanking out his knife, leaping forward, and pressing it into the CCTV camera just above the door. The camera’s light died instantly, the power soaring through the camera destroying the entire system.

"Now!" Kennedy heard Tara’s shout and dived to the ground as the Brujería Tara had coaxed\bullied into coming with them to help with the rescue of their family, released the spell they’d been holding and blew the locked doors open while Tara herself released another spell.

Kennedy scrambled to her feet and raced inside, screeching to a halt as she found the crumpled bodies of gunmen littering the floor. Her jaw dropped as she glanced over her shoulder to see a smug looking Tara walking in. "You did this?"

"It’s amazing what a witch can do if you give her time," Tara smiled. "Although I had help. The only problem is everyone, the hostages and their captors will all be out cold. I couldn’t get the spell to tell between the two."

Kennedy sighed. "Lucky we brought help to carry them out then."

* * *

"A Slayer," Tomas paced his house’s basement, his rage growing by the second. He’d been in the study when the Americans had attacked, and escaped here via a secret passageway. But he’d not had the time to grab his information and from the sounds of it, it was in his enemies’ hands now, all his plans ruined.

Tomas smiled, eyes flashing yellow. But he had the bitch’s distinctive scent now and he’d be able to track her.

And kill her.

Faith glanced at Xander as they pulled up outside the harbour-side hotel they’d moved to upon leaving their B&B in the morning. "You gonna make Aguila an offer?" Xander nodded, as usual getting the dry-mouth he always got before making the pitch. "Wicked," Faith leaned over and gave him a gentle peck on the cheek before glancing up at the darkening sky, "I’m sure you’ll do great honey, but I’m gonna have to go up and take a shower, I’m bushed."

"Yeah," Xander nodded. It had been a hard few days.

"But," Faith squeezed his hand, shot him a dimpled smile, and winked, "if I’m asleep when you come in, you can wake me."

Xander grinned at his girl-friend as he stared into her twinkling eyes. "You mean to boast about my triumph?"

"Triumph?" Faith’s eyes sparkled as he fell into her trap. "Man, you guys have the weirdest names for your pricks."

Xander’s cheeks flushed and mouth opened in retort but then his girl-friend was gone, her husky laughter lurking in the air as she stalked through the car park, hips swaying in that magnetic way that was uniquely her. Xander chuckled to himself as he climbed out of the car and started into the discreet three star hotel they’d booked into. The Spanish mutant was sat in the hotel’s reception area, and rose out of his leather-upholstered chair. "Please," Xander shook his head as he sunk into the chair opposite, "no need to be formal."

Aguila smiled before sitting back down and motioning to a hovering waitress. "Would you like a drink?"

"Yeah, thanks." Xander nodded. "I’ll have a coke."

The mutant smiled at the waitress and ordered drinks. The moment she walked away, he looked back towards him. "The magus are very interested in joining with you."

"Yeah," Xander forced a smile. "And what about you?"

"This Brotherhood," Aguila’s brow furrowed. "It has teams on four continents?"

"North and Central America, Asia, and Europe," Xander replied. "I really hope to expand a lot more over the next few years."

"And you have no problem employing one such as I?"

"I know you’re Spanish, but I try not to hold it against you," Xander joked before shaking his head. "I already employ several mutants. My Russian, German, Indian, and Japanese branches are all run by mutants." Xander paused. "You’ve spoken to the Professor, you know I don’t care about this, all I care is if I can trust someone."

"An enlightened view," Aguila praised, "however should the Brotherhood’s existence become public knowledge, some might be alarmed to find mutants leading para-military units-."

"Some can kiss my hairy ass," Xander flatly replied.

"A tempting offer," Aguila smirked. "But I would rather look over the Brotherood’s membership paperwork."

"We can do that instead," Xander grinned.

* * *

Faith groaned as she turned on her room’s light and made her way into the simplistic but clean motel room, pulling her jacket off and dropping it on the bed. Because of the police looking after them they couldn’t just fly out of here, they’d have to catch a boat and head north into France, then catching a plane back to the good ol’ US of A.

But that was tomorrow.

Faith rolled her neck from side to side as she strode into the bathroom and turned on the shower as she pulled her top off and dropped it on the tiled floor, her sneakers and jeans hurriedly following suit. "Damn, I need this," Faith reached behind her neck to unclasp her bra then stopped, brow furrowing as she heard the hotel room’s door click open and then shut again. "Damn," Faith scowled, Xan was up awful quick, that probably meant Aguila had turned him down. Anger grew as she turned to the door, who the hell did this asshole think he was turnin’ Xan’s great offer down? Forcing a smile, Faith started opening the door. "Hey Xan, wanna get-."

"Ah!" Faith saw stars as the door crashed back into her face, the impact’s force lifting her from her feet and flinging her into the bathroom’s far wall, the back of her head crashing painfully against the mosaiced tiles as she slid down it, curtain ripping and falling on her. Faith blinked, desperately trying to clear her teared eyes as a short, wizened man strode in with a grace that belied his years, the shower’s warm water gushing down on her partially clothed body as she struggled to throw the curtain off herself.

"Ah Slayer," the man’s teeth glinted suddenly, Faith’s heart dropping as she realised he was in fact a vampire. Suddenly he was by her side, his fist smashing against her temple. "I am Tomás de Torquemada," the vampire caught her with a jarring backhand that knocked her to her knees, blood flowing from her bottom lip, "Spain’s Grand Inquisitor five hundred years ago and for so very long I planned to take this land for my own." His knee crashed into her chest, robbing her of her air. "And now I will take my vengeance on your body and leave you as a torn apart receipt for your lover’s actions."

Faith yanked her head to the side, the vampire’s downward flying right shattering tiles where her head had been even as she pushed up, bounding up to meet his attacker.

At least that was the plan.

"Shit!" Faith cursed as her right foot slipped on the soaked shower curtain, knee wrenching in protest. Her jump up turned into a haphazard baseball slide, feet slamming into her attacker at the shins, the demon flying up into the air and over her as she slid out of the walk-in shower and into the door, hitting it with enough force to first slam it back shut and then kick through the bottom half, trapping her there. "Shit! Shit!" Fear gnawed at Faith as she looked behind her to see the vampire struggling to her feet, shaking his head clear as she reached up, grabbed the bathroom door handle and yanked it open.

The moment her legs were free, she leapt up and spun to face her rival, just in time to duck an overhand right and drive her own left into the demon’s belly. Faith grunted as he took her blow without comment, responding with a slap to her right ear that set it to ringing. Faith staggered as she sought to regain her balance, ducking in and out of the demon’s lashing claws while looking for an opening of her own then stepping in and driving her foot down hard on the vampire’s foot. Faith feinted with a left hook that had the demon leaning back then left the ground in a leap, her hand looping behind the vampire’s head and yanking his face down into her rising knees.

Except he caught her with a blow to the left leg that flung her over the bed and crashing into the bedside cabinet, the furniture and her crashing to the ground. "Ooooo," Faith grunted as the demon leapt over the bed in a two-footed stomp that would have caved her ribs in if she hadn’t rolled away from it. Seeing the monster advancing on her, Faith reached up, grabbed the bottom of the curtain and ripped it off the curtain rail, the patterned yellow drapes dropping onto the vampire.

Faith grinned at the demon’s frustrated wails as he struggled to throw or shred the curtain off, taking the opportunity to dive back to the demolished cabinet, grab a splinter, leap up, and drive it through his back.

"Wow," she spun to see Tara and Kennedy rushing into the room, eyes wide at her semi-nakedness and the state of the room, "broken bathroom door, ripped off shower curtain, demolished bedside cabinet, and ripped balcony curtain, we’re definitely losing our deposit," Kennedy commented.

"Or to be asked back," Tara added.

"Good," Faith grimaced as she wiped blood away from her mouth, "who the hell wants to come back to a hotel that comes complete with its own vampire?"