"This has got to be a nightmare," Pike said. He could hear his voice, and the words. They made perfect sense, which didn't seem right. In nightmares, you weren't able to talk, or scream, or move, or do anything.

He felt like some big demon had a hand around his head and was slowly squeezing it. Any second now, his brains were going to pop out of his ears. The only things he could see were the knife at Cordelia's throat, Amanda standing alone and frozen off to the side, and Benny's face.

Benny was pacing in front of Pike with nervous, giddy energy. He'd been like that, when they hadn't been stoned. Stupidly, Pike remembered when they had gone to a drugstore to get lighters. Steal lighters, 'cause they were both broke. They had gotten thrown out on their asses because Benny couldn't keep still, and the security guard kept tailing them.

Nobody moved, except Benny. No one spoke. Waiting for him, Pike realized. He had to pick which way to jump. If he just stayed still, stayed quiet, nothing would happen, right? They'd all stay frozen here. The knife wouldn't slash Cordelia's neck, Amanda wouldn't be grabbed and dragged screaming into life as a demon.

Benny drifted to a stop, his face a foot from Pike's. That close, Pike could see it wasn't his friend. Not the goofy, idiot kid he'd hung out with. "You're not Benny," he said. Fear made his voice flat.

Without moving, Benny grinned. "You're not Pike, either. You, fight the good fight, warrior for truth and justice?" He laughed. His breath in Pike's face was foul. "I don't believe it."

"What do you want, Benny?"

"I dunno, a nice place to hang out, some blondes to eat, eternal life... no, wait, got that already." Benny cocked his head sharply to one side. The move made him look weird, alien. A vampire. "Oh, yeah, and your little girl."

"Leave her alone." He didn't have a weapon. Stupid, stupid, to not have a weapon on him. Stupid to have walked into this ambush.

Behind Benny, Kate and Angel exchanged a silent signal. Benny caught the flick of Pike's eyes over his shoulder, and whirled back as they attacked. In a moment, the vampire who was holding Cordelia was dust on the floor. But Benny had caught her wrist and pulled her into his arms, her wrist twisted sharply behind her back. Cordelia kicked back, connecting with Benny's knee, then cried out in pain when he yanked on her pinned arm.

"Now, where were we?" Benny dipped his head and sniffed along Cordelia's shoulder, up her neck. "Delish," he sighed happily. "Oh, yeah, my evil plan. It's your fault, you know. If you hadn't scooped up Slayer Spice over there, I never would have found her once she had gotten away from the Order of Contraria. They had kind of enslaved me at that point, but once they got their ashes canned by whoever it was who had her in the first place, I was free. Stop wiggling or I'll break your neck," Benny said, wrapping his hand under Cordelia's chin and jerking it up.

Cordelia contented herself with a muttered, "Spice Girls jokes are so nineties." Then she flicked her eyes up and met Pike's clearly.

It was like an electric pulse shot through him from soles to head, waking him up. Benny was having a ball torturing him. So use it. Use it to buy time. "Leave her alone," he said more forcefully, mouthing the words Benny would expect. The words of a thousand action heroes facing their arch nemesises. "It's me you want. Let them go."

"No, actually, it's Amanda I want. She's my ticket to power. The undead Slayer. It's perfect. You, I want dead. Or maybe vamped. Wouldn't that be just perfect irony? Vampire Hunter Pike, a bloodsucking member of the night crew. I'm the vamp in charge here, and you'd be my little follower. Gotta love it."

Pike could practically feel the energy vibrating off of Wesley, a few feet away. Suddenly, Wesley jumped one of the few remaining vampires left standing in the room.

Benny swung to face them, dragging Cordelia with him. "Stand still!" he bellowed. "I'll kill her, I swear to God I --"

His body jerked violently. He had just enough time to turn and stare at Amanda before it disintegrated into ash.

Amanda kept the crossbow up and aimed at where Benny had been. "Bad guys always talk too much," she said.

Pike crossed the lobby and knelt beside her, pushing the bow down to point at the ground. "It's over," he said quietly. "You did good, kid."

Shaking, Amanda dropped the crossbow and wrapped her arms around Pike's neck. "I thought he was going to kill Cordelia. Or you. And I saw the crossbow, but I didn't know how to get to it without them seeing me, until Wesley made him turn his back."

"Go, Wes," Cordelia said, shaken. She went to Amanda. "Hey," she said softly. "Thanks for my life."

Everyone was stunned enough to keep staring around at the piles of ash without moving, until Fred and Gunn came in. "Hey. We stopped for breakfast. Anyone want waffles?"

********

A week later, Pike, Gunn and Kate returned from fighting a Kalha demon in Malibu. "See, when you say that they take salt water and turn it to electricity, I wasn't expecting actual lightening bolts shooting out of its hands," Gunn said as they came through the lobby doors.

"Successful?" Wesley asked from his office.

"It is now safe to go back into the water," Pike reported. He grinned at Amanda, who was doing her typical high-perch thing, cross-legged on the check-in counter, a sharpening stone and a sword in her lap. He grabbed a soda out of the small refrigerator behind the counter, and leaned back. Cordelia had the laptop open and was frowning at the screen. "What's the matter?"

"Besides demons, monsters, and the fact that people still buy Cher's albums?" She tapped the screen. "Your flight's been rescheduled. It leaves at six, not nine."

"I'd better hurry up then, right? Wait, I don't own anything, so I've got nothing to pack." He settled back more comfortably against the counter and drained his can of soda.

Cordelia lowered the screen of the laptop. "Are you guys sure about this?"

Pike glanced at Amanda, who shrugged. "No," he answered for both of them. "But I don't want to hang around here to see if anyone puts Amanda together with the girl Benny was chasing all these years. And Wes seems to think that the Watcher Council can help us out."

"Okay, now, you see, in my limited experience, the Watcher Council isn't very good at helping. No offense, Wes," she called through the office door.

"None taken," he called back.

"It's a risk," Pike said. "But I don't want anything to happen to Amanda because I didn't know how to help her."

Amanda stuck her tongue out at him. "Oh, and you should spend all your time running from the cops because of me?"

"The two of you are so touching. Really." Cordelia rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, the Watcher Council managed to fake papers and passports and stuff so that I'm now officially Pike Willis, older brother and legal guardian of the brat here. If it doesn't work out, we can light out."

"In a foreign country," Cordelia pointed out.

"We'll be fine," Pike assured her.

Cordelia sighed and checked her watch. "Gunn, ready to drive them to the airport?"

"Yup. Stuff's all loaded." Gunn casually held out an arm and Amanda used it as leverage to jump off the check-in counter.

"I'm leaving you Merrick's books," Pike said. "Somehow I think that these guys will have all the ones they need."

"You think?" Gunn asked. "Not like Angel and English don't have enough books of their own."

Pike smiled at the byplay. The past week had been... fun. The occasional trips out to kick demon butt had been a blast, particularly since he hadn't had backup since Buffy had left LA. Hanging out with the group had been entertaining, to say the least. Amanda had soaked it all up, the attention, the company.

Pike shouldered his duffel bag, glancing up the stairs as he did. Angel was somewhere up there. Pike had gone up earlier to thank him for his help. He grinned wryly. He never thought he'd thank a vampire for anything. \ But his ability to kick demon ass had saved Amanda's life. Even more so his ability to gather friends around him.

Wesley emerged from the office. "Good luck," he said. "And may you do better with the Council than I did."

Pike shook his hand. "Thanks for convincing me. Anyone's life you particularly want made hell?"

Startled, Wesley laughed. "I can say with a certain amount of pleasure that your very existence will make anyone I care to displease very miserable."

"Translation, your ugly American ass will piss them off to no end," Kate added. She nodded briskly at Pike and shook Amanda's hand. "Good journey, guys. Don't forget to write."

Cordelia bent down and hugged Amanda, who squirmed with pleased embarrassment. "Thanks, kid. You look much better without glowy eyes and sharp teeth, you know." She straightened up and faced Pike. "Well," she said, and stopped.

"Well," he said. Shrugging, he couldn't think of anything else other than, "Bye," and turned to head out the front door.

Almost there, he stopped. "Oh, hell, I have to," he said, dropping his bag.

Turning, he strode across the lobby back to Cordelia. Before she could react he grabbed her, dipped her deep, and kissed her hard enough to have the bells ringing in his ears.

When he brought her upright again, she stumbled a bit, and blinked at him. "What the hell was that?" she demanded.

He grinned at her, and stole another quick kiss. "I have always wanted to do that." Behind him, he could hear Amanda dying of giggles. "See you around," he said casually.

Recovering his bag, he put his hand on Amanda's shoulder. He'd made sure she was safe, he was making sure she'd be taught, and he'd had the last word with Cordelia Chase.

All in all, Pike decided, it had been a good week.

THE END