•••

Moving through the sewers to reach the art gallery took longer than Angel and Wil would have liked. Unfortunately, there wasn't a direct route from the Hyperion; as much as they would have preferred a well-networked underground tunnel system, Los Angeles hadn't been too accommodating, leaving some areas almost inaccessible.

"Well, at least the building's got a basement," Wil muttered as they crawled through a removable grate in the gallery's boiler room. Angel swore when his coat caught on one of the grate's hinges as he crawled through.

"Just find them, ok?" Angel snarled to Wil. He wasn't in the mood for chitchat. All the way over to the gallery, Angel had been trying to convince himself that they'd arrive to find the gang still partying on and not, for once, involved in some sort of bad thing. He wished he'd gone with them; he really did love art of all kinds. If he'd been here, maybe he could've stopped whatever had happened to his friends. He'd refused to go mostly out of stubbornness—he'd wanted some time away from the constant vigilance that his job required. Now he was regretting being so contrary; he'd tried to avoid his work, so it had come to him.

"This place is deserted," Wil said quietly. Angel couldn't help but agree. The building was empty of people—and everything else. There was no way it had ever been a gallery, or anything else for that matter. "We are in the right place, aren't we?"

"Yes, this is the address Cordelia left us," Angel replied, looking around. It wasn't difficult for the vampires to do so; the windows were boarded up, keeping all sunlight out.

"A setup?" Wil asked quietly.

"That's what I'm thinking," Angel said, frowning. He had a really bad feeling about this situation. If there was no gallery, and hence no gallery opening, then their friends hadn't been missing for a couple of hours—they'd been gone, maybe hurt, all night. That just decreased the likelihood that he and Wil would find relevant clues. "Find everything you can here," He ordered Wil, who was already searching intently.

Angel did the same, pouring over various crates and boxes, looking for anything that might lead to their friends' whereabouts. There wasn't much to see; dust coated every surface. "Angel?" Wil called out.

"What?" Angel said, moving over to where Wil was. The blonde pointed to the dusty floor. "Footprints?"

"Cordelia, Wesley, Xander, Oz, and at least a dozen other people," Wil explained. "You can tell which are which—and…" He stopped as he bent down closer to the wooden floor. "Someone just shined their shoes—navy. There's shoe polish residue, fresh enough to smell. Cordelia was wearing navy shoes."

"Anything else?" Angel asked. He hadn't found a single thing.

"Yeah, there is. There's some sort of blood on the door frame and floor near the main entrance. Demon, not human," Wil said, pointing toward the door. They went over to investigate. "Definitely not human."

"And none of our people are human either," Angel reminded him.

"But this isn't any of them," Wil replied. "Besides, what human, or even several humans, could bring down those four? It would have to take demons, and strong ones—Eraen demons."

"Wolfram & Hart," Angel said darkly.

"It would be my first thought," Wil agreed. "Even though they haven't really tried the outright kidnapping approach lately."

"No, they usually just go for the kill," Angel said. "But then again, maybe they've gotten smarter."

"Between the four of them, they know everything about you," Wil stated.

Angel shook his head. "No, it's more than that. This is what they've been trying to do all along—if they get rid of them, what good are we? Seriously, Wil, what would you do if they died? What would Fred and Gunn do?"

Wil stared at the floor. He knew exactly what Angel was talking about—he'd go mad, and that would make him an easy target. "But they're not just going to kill them, or we'd be looking at bodies."

"No, they've probably got some sort of harebrained scheme to torture them, or turn them against us, or something like that. Wolfram & Hart's motives aren't ever simple, or clear," Angel said. "We need to find out where they took them."

"Makla Diesh or Lorne?" Wil asked Angel.

"Both," Angel replied as he headed for the sewers. "You go to Lorne. He has other contacts in the city. I'll shake down Makla Diesh."

•••

"What brings you…" Lorne began, his voice fading as he saw the look on Wil's face. "What happened?"

"They've been kidnapped—Cordelia, Wesley, Xander and Oz," Wil replied in a broken voice. "I need names, contacts, anything."

"You think it's them again, don't you?" Lorne asked.

Wil raised an eyebrow. "You have a better idea?"

"No, and you're probably right. Look, there's an old Ibne demon north of campus that knows a lot about what goes on around here. Why don't you ask him?" Lorne said. "Other than him, I can't think of anyone that can help you."

"Thanks," Wil said as he ran back out the door.

Frank, the Ibne demon, didn't have much to offer. "Eraen demons? Yeah, a clan of them moved in a while back—heard they were going to open a gallery. Not a bad crowd, but you've got to keep an eye on them," Frank said thoughtfully. "I'm trying to remember where they came from…was it Miami, or maybe Atlanta?"

Wil hummed in frustration. "Did they have any connections to Wolfram & Hart?" He asked impatiently.

"The law firm? Maybe, I don't know. It's none of my business who you hire to keep your forms filled out right," Frank replied. "They could do worse than Wolfram & Hart—that Gavin fellow got me a great deal on this property, you know."

The vampire swore at himself as he ran out of Frank's store. He should've known…after all, not everyone in the city thought Wolfram & Hart was a bad place. Hells, a lot of good people used them for legitimate things. At least he knew now that an entire clan of the demons had moved in.

When he got back to the hotel, Angel was waiting. "What did you get?" He asked Wil.

"Not much," Wil replied. "There's a whole clan of Eraen demons, but I don't know if they're connected to Wolfram & Hart or not."

"They are," Angel said angrily. "Makla Diesh knew that one—the 'gallery owner' was seen meeting with some of their lawyers a few weeks ago."

"That doesn't tell us much," Wil stated. "Like where they are."

"Actually, I got an address for at least one of the demons," Angel said, holding up a piece of paper. "It's not all that far away."

"Let's go," Wil growled, heading for the sewers.

•••

The address turned out to be in a rather upscale neighborhood—completely inaccessible by sewer. Angel swore vehemently when he found himself blocked—it was still daylight out, and would be for several hours. They were stuck until sundown.

"What about going to visit Lilah?" Wil asked. "She might just know something."

"We have, what, about five hours until sunset?" Angel asked.

"At least that," Wil replied. "We can get there and back here in less than that amount of time."

"Fine," Angel agreed and off they went.

Lilah wasn't nearly as surprised to see them as they would have liked. When she was expecting them, it usually meant she was neck-deep in whatever trouble they were fighting. "Long time, no see," She murmured as Angel and Wil stormed into her office. "Were you this rude around Lindsey?"

"Where are they?" Angel asked harshly. He wasn't in the mood for Lilah's shit.

Lilah shrugged. "Who?"

"You know," Wil replied. "Tell us."

A brief smile flitted across her face. "Tell you what?"

Angel reached across the desk to pick Lilah up by the neck. "Where are Cordelia, Wesley, Xander and Oz?"

Lilah waved her hands toward Angel in a placating manner. Once he set her down, she answered. "Fine, fine. The demons took them to their house. Honestly, I would have figured you'd have been there by now. Oh, wait; it's still all sunny out, isn't it?" Lilah said, reaching for a control panel on her desk. Wil spun around when he heard the door lock, and then turned around again when the window shades began to open.

Angel grabbed Wil and backed toward the door. Both vampires pushed on it, but found that it was solid steel and unmovable. Lilah cackled as sunlight began to creep across the floor, getting closer and closer to the vampires. There wasn't any place to hide in the office, so if they didn’t find a way out, they were dust. Wil looked over to one side of the door, thinking quickly. After a second, he began to tap on the wall. A few taps later, he reared back and punched one fist through the wall. Angel looked over and frowned. What was Wil doing? A second punch told him—Wil had found the studs in the wall and was punching through the wall between them. The dark vampire moved to help him, kicking below where Wil was punching. They opened a hole large enough to get through just as the sunlight reached them. Wil climbed through first, pulling Angel behind him.

They could hear Lilah laughing in her office as they patted out any small fires that had started on them. "That was…" Wil began, glaring at the hole in the wall. Angel was so furious a vein stood out on his forehead.

"We should go," He said, pushing Wil toward the hallway. Wil started walking, only to stop when he saw that Angel hadn't followed. He turned just in time to see Angel pull a pin from a hand grenade and toss the explosive into the hole in Lilah's office wall.

"Angel!" Will hissed, pulling at the vampire. Now was not the time to be playing around for vengeance! Besides, Lilah was human!

"It won't kill her," Angel snarled. "But she won't try that again for a long time."

Wil shuddered as he rushed Angel through the halls. A couple of seconds later, the floor shook as the grenade exploded. The vampires ran down the hall despite the commotion; after that little stunt they'd be hard pressed to make it out of the building alive.

Just as Wil had suspected, a large contingent of guards came after them down the stairwell they'd taken. The vampires ran even faster, heading for the lobby. The law firm wasn't stupid; by now all sewer access would be blocked. "Wil, we can't go through the lobby; it's still daylight," Angel reminded the blonde as they neared the ground floor.

"We don't have much of a choice, do we?" Wil shouted back as they hit the door leading out of the stairwell. The lobby was brightly lit, but most of it was from fluorescent bulbs and not sunlight. The vampires ran out into the lobby proper, Wil leading with Angel following behind. The dark vampire was about to ask Wil just what he had planned when the blonde grabbed a passing onlooker and ripped his coat off. Wil tossed the long garment to Angel before finding another victim. The two vampires covered themselves and darted out of the lobby and toward the street just as several contingents of security guards poured into the lobby.

Wil ran down a side street, hugging the side of a tall building that provided much-needed shade. He wished, and not for the first time, that Angel had chosen a less sunny city to use as his base for fighting evil. After a few minutes of searching, the vampires found a usable manhole cover and dropped down into the protective dankness of the sewers.

"That went well," Wil murmured as he checked Angel for injuries.

"Don't even start," Angel spat as he returned the favor for Wil. "That got us nowhere."

Wil pushed Angel against the sewer wall before leaning against it himself. "We know for sure that Wolfram & Hart are involved," He said calmly. "Although I'm not sure what that's going to get us. I doubt Lilah would tell us the truth about what they did with the gang."

"Probably not, but we don't have many options," Angel replied. "Even if they're not there, searching the house may get us some sort of clue—anything to tell us where to go."

"True," Wil said. After a moment of silence, he rolled onto his side and looked at Angel. "And what the hell were you thinking, throwing a grenade in Lilah's office?"

Angel flinched. "Like I said, it won't kill her. Maybe, though, she'll think twice before messing with us again."

"Or maybe she'll get fed up with playing with us and just hire a sniper to take all of us out. It doesn't take much to fire a wooden dart at one of us from twenty meters, you know," Wil retorted. "It was stupid, Angel, and I don't ever want to see you doing that again."

"The sun will be down soon. Let's get back to that house," Angel said, ignoring Wil's attack. The blonde stared hard at Angel's back for a minute before following.

•••

"They haven't been in here," Wil said as he and Angel prowled through the sprawling mansion that the Eraen demons had inhabited. The place reeked of demon, but there wasn't a trace of any of their friends.

"Same as before, Wil; look for something to tell us where they are," Angel said, studying the foyer.

Wil walked down one hall, entering the first room on his left. It turned out to be a bathroom—and held no clues whatsoever. His searches of the kitchen, living room and den also produced nothing. Angel was busy upstairs and didn't seem to have found anything.

The last room Wil entered before going upstairs to join up with Angel was the study. "This might prove interesting," Wil murmured as he booted up the computer he found in desk cabinet. Once the computer had finished booting up, the vampire began to search through its hard drive, glad for all the computer lessons Fred had forced upon him. At least he knew how to find things that people didn't want him to see.

"Find anything?" Angel asked from the doorway. Wil looked up, startled.

"Maybe. It's hard to tell, though. Most of what's on here is garbage—grocery bills, games and pornography. I'm going through the temp folders now," Wil replied, his eyes glued once more on the screen. Angel took a seat next to him and watched as the vampire poured through files and folders.

"Hmm…" Wil hummed at one point.

"What?" Angel asked.

"Our demons spent a lot of time online—reading the news. Most of what's in here is news stories and junk from newspaper sites. And, of course, a lot of naked…things," Wil said. "And Disneyland."

"Disneyland?" Angel said disbelievingly.

"Maybe they like rollercoasters," Wil said, shrugging. "There's nothing in here. Maybe Lorne knows someone else we can ask, or something."

"Let's hope," Angel said, leading Wil out of the house. It was going to take them a while to get back to the hotel.

•••

"Lorne," Angel called out as they entered the lobby. The green demon was standing just outside the entrance to Caritas.

"You're back already?" Lorne replied, frowning. "You haven't found them yet, have you?"

Wil shook his head. "Not a damned clue, other than confirmation that Wolfram & Hart has something to do with it."

"Come on in, sit down. Maybe we can think of something," Lorne said, waving them into the club.

The vampires took a seat, accepting the drinks Lorne served them. "There's nothing at all, Lorne. Nothing."

Lorne looked up from the muted television he was watching. "Hmm? Nothing? Didn't Frank have anything for you?"

Wil scowled. "He likes Wolfram & Hart."

"Hmm? Oh, I didn't know that. Sorry," Lorne said distractedly.

"What's so bloody interesting on the telly?" Wil asked the demon.

Lorne looked back at them. "Oh, nothing, just some sort of domestic-terrorism biological warfare scare at Disneyland."

Angel looked at Wil. "Come again?" The dark vampire murmured.

The demon gestured toward the television, which was showing images of people being carried around on stretchers. "It's been on the news all day, but then again you guys have been awfully busy trying to find the others. It seems that someone let loose some sort of nerve gas or something at Disneyland—people just started dropping like flies, blood running out their ears and all. Now the city's trying to deal with a few thousand seriously injured people—and of course the army's all over it."

"Disney…" Wil jumped off the barstool, heading for the door.

"What?" Lorne asked, watching the vampires leave.

Angel stopped. "It's not nerve gas, it's a clan of Eraen demons—and Cordy and the others are probably at Disneyland right now." Lorne nodded and jumped the bar, barking an order to one of his employees to cover the club for the evening. He was just in time to jump into the back of Angel's convertible as the vampires raced down the street.