Settling in L.A. 4-5

Chapter 4

Paradise Beach Exclusive Members Club – Storeroom

Angel came round to find himself bound and gagged and lying on the floor in a dark room. His eyes soon adjusted to the darkness and as he looked round he spotted more bodies in the room. He rolled over and up onto his knees and set about getting free of the ropes tying him.

The gag was no problem his fangs soon ripped it apart, and as he vamped up his extra strength was easily able to break the ropes binding his hands; once they were free, he ripped off the ropes binding his feet and stood up. He heard sounds coming from the other bodies and went over. He was not surprised to find it was Wesley and Xander, he had recognised their scent, and he set about freeing them.

When they were free they told him how they’d been abducted from the club and had already been in the room when Angel had been brought in. They had been waiting for him to come round so he could free them. After they’d tried and failed to free themselves.

Angel made a quick circuit round the small room, there was no way out except through the door. He growled, he was feeling hungry; the after effects of all the whiskey, the drug and a bash on the head weren’t helping either. Xander looked towards Angel eyes wide, in the dark room, ‘you’re not evil, right?’ he asked shakily.

‘No, just pissed off’ Angel growled back ‘I should have smelt something was in that drink. It had an odd taste. Do you know where we are?’

‘Not really’ said Wesley ‘not far from the club we were only in the car for about 15mins’

Angel looked at his wrist only to find his watch missing, thank goodness it was only a cheap one, watches to him were like mobile phones always getting lost or wrecked. ‘I estimate it’s about 3am, how long was I out for?’ he asked.

‘Quite a while, but neither of us have watches’ replied Wesley.

‘We have to try and get out of here, when they open the door let me rush them while you two get away and if necessary bring reinforcements’ said Angel ‘they don’t know what I am, otherwise they would have chained me, so they won’t be expecting us to be free.’

He sat down on the floor holding his head. ‘I knew it was a bad idea, going to that club, I should have learned by now, never to listen to Spike when he wants some fun’ he grumbled to himself.

‘What do you think they want us for?’ asked Xander

‘I’ve no idea, but I could smell those sex starved women who were hanging around the bar were giving off heavy frustrated signals’ replied Angel.

‘I don’t envy you that trait’ mused Xander; ‘Wesley, can you imagine being able to smell everyone, yuck?’

‘I’m sure it’s useful sometimes’ said Wesley, smiling at Xander obvious distaste.

Just then Angel listened intently, ‘quiet someone’s coming.’ They stood and put themselves beside the door.

When the door opened, before the person had time to notice anything more than the pile of ropes, he was yanked into the room by Wesley and knocked unconscious by Angel.

‘Have you killed him?’ asked Xander fearfully.

‘No, just put him out for a while, lets get going’ replied Angel.

They moved out of the room and along a corridor until they came to junction, ‘which way?’ said Wes.

‘Right’ said Xander. ‘Left’ said Angel. Wesley agreed with Angel, also that corridor didn’t look as long, so they went left. At the end there was another corridor at right angles and a room, the door was ajar, as they passed it they could hear footsteps coming from round the corner, so they slipped into the room..

‘There’s a window over here’ said Xander going over and looking out ‘but we’re one floor up.’

‘Not a problem’ said Angel forcing the catch. Thankfully it wasn’t alarmed. He looked at Wesley. ‘You go first, I’ll lower you down, and then Xander, I’ll jump afterwards’

Wesley climbed on to the sill and Angel grabbed his arms and lowered him as far as he could with out overbalancing. ‘Ok’ said Wes ‘drop me.’

It was a fall of about eight foot Wesley discovered when he landed. ‘I’m down, come on Xander’ he whispered up to the window.

Xander climbed on to the sill he really didn’t want to accept help from Angel but realised it would be stupid to refuse. ‘Ok I’m ready’ he said as Angel caught hold of his arms and lowered him. Angel let him go and almost before Xander had landed, leapt out of the window himself not being at all concerned by the height. They went to the corner of the building and looked out across a large expanse of concrete with no cover, towards some iron gates.

‘That looks the way out’ said Wes. ‘Let’s make a run for it; no alarms have been raised yet, so we stand a good chance of getting out.

‘If they come after us, concentrate on getting away rather than fighting’ said Angel.

They started running across the concrete towards the gates, they’d just reached them when they heard a shout behind them.

‘Quick, get the gates’ said Wes. Angel grabbed them and pulled them back on themselves to try and break the locks, but they stood firm.

‘We’ll have to climb over’ said Xander, Angel helped him to jump up and grab the top rail and pulling himself up, as there were no cross braces, except at the top. Then he did the same for Wesley. As soon as Angel saw they were over he ran back a few paces and prepared to jump the gates.

‘Angel, look out’ said Wesley and watched in horror as a bolt of what looked like electricity struck the vampire in the back and sent him sprawling to his knees.

‘Go, get away….’ gasped Angel.

With a last frightened glance at Angel, both men turn and began running away from the gates not knowing which direction to go, but anywhere was better than there.

Angel felt another blast in his head and screamed out ‘Cordy’ as his mind disintegrated and everything caved in on him and he fell into an unconscious darkness.

Wesley and Xander ran for ages until they realised no one was following them, and then they got lucky and spotted a cruising cab. Wesley flagged it down. ‘Don’t say a word’ he said to Xander.

‘Can you take us to the Hyperion hotel?’ Wes asked the driver ‘we can’t pay until we get there as we’ve been robbed and dumped here, but I’ve got money back at the hotel.’

The driver looked at them, they looked scruffy and rumpled, but their cloths looked of good quality. He felt sorry for them, he’d heard on the news about British tourists being robbed, it had been a quiet night so he was glad to help them out, ‘Yeah hop in, do you know which street it’s on? I haven’t heard of that one.’

Wes gave him the address and they sat in the back. It wasn’t a long drive and as soon as they arrived back the driver was getting a bit unsure, he thought it didn’t look like a proper hotel, there were very few lights and no sign of life.

‘My friend will wait here while I go and get your fare’ Wesley said to the cab driver. He jumped out and ran up the steps. He went to the cash box and took enough money for the fare and added a generous tip then went back outside to pay the man. The cabbie was relieved to get his money and drove of to the thanks of Wesley.

‘Why didn’t you want me to speak?’ asked Xander puzzled. ‘Because if he heard your accent he wouldn’t have thought we were tourists and may not have picked us up’ replied Wesley.

They made there way back into the hotel and up the stairs. Cordelia ran out of her suite, hastily trying her robe. ‘Where’s Angel, what happened to you?’ she asked.

Wesley told her what had happened. ‘We have to go and get him’ she said ‘where is this place?’ Xander and Wesley looked at each other ‘we’re not quite sure, I think we need to go back to the club to get information first, so we may as well go to bed for what remains of the night’ said Wesley.

‘Call your self a detective,’ she scoffed.

‘Yeah well it was dark’ whined Xander, as they went to their rooms.

Cordy sighed and realised there was nothing more to do that night. She would try to sort it out in the morning.


Chapter 5

The next day as soon as Cordy had settled Liam playing in the TV room, she went to talk to Wesley.

‘Wes, I’m going back to that club, there should be someone around during the day’ she said.
Wesley wasn’t so sure. He knew Angel would probable kill him if he let anything happen to Cordy, he had been lucky to be forgiven when he had taken Connor.

‘Do you think that’s wise?’ he questioned.

‘Well I can’t just sit around here and do nothing’ she replied.

Wesley sighed; he just knew he was going to lose. ‘Well at least let me come with you’ he said.

‘No, they might remember you, I’ll take Connor or Gunn’ she said.

‘Gunn has gone over to his old hood to see if he can find anything out’ replied Wes.

‘Oh well that just leaves Connor’ said Cordy, walking out into the foyer.

‘Conner, where are you?’ she called. He soon appeared from the direction of the basement. He was dressed in a white vest and black sweat pants, and had obviously been working out, judging by the sheen of sweat on his exposed flesh.

Cordy felt her breath catch by how much he looked like Angel, he seemed to get more like him ever day, apart from his blue eyes and slightly lighter and longer hair, he had the same build, now that he had filled out with the good food in LA. Angel had shown her photos of a skinny Connor when he and Wesley had first returned from Quortoth.

‘I’m here, what’s up’ he said, breathing deeply after his exertions.

‘Would you like to come with me back to that club?’ Cordy asked.

‘Sure, when do you want to go’ Connor replied.

‘Now would be good’ she said.

‘Ok, give me 10, to shower and change’ he said, racing up the stairs two at a time.

Cordy asked if Willow would mind looking after Liam while she was out. Willow didn’t mind at all. She really liked the little boy and was feeling decidedly broody since Cordy and Liam had come to live in the hotel.

Cordy and Connor set off shortly after he reappeared, taking one of the smaller cars from the motor pool rather than Angel’s Plymouth. When they arrived they hung about for a while, looking in the windows of the store next-door, until someone left the club, Connor quickly grabbed the door before it shut and they slipped in. They went straight to the back of the club and into the office, where Cordy had gone to previous night.

After knocking on the door and then pushing it open on not receiving a reply, only to find it empty. Cordy went to the large desk and hurriedly looked through the papers and files, carelessly slung about on it.

She had just moved over to a filing cabinet when the door was opened and a man walked in.

‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ he asked, not noticing Connor behind the door.

The man grabbed Cordy’s arm and dragged her away from the cabinet.

‘Are you the manager?’ she asked.

‘Yes, you’re got some explaining to do, lady, I’m calling the cops’ replied the manager.

‘Yes, you do that, I’m sure they’ll be interested to hear about the disappearance of patrons of this club’ said Cordy, wrenching her arm away from his grip, and giving him one of Angel’s business cards.

‘What are you on about?’ said the manager, not looking at the card.

‘Don’t’ give me that you know what I mean; my husband was abducted from here last night, along with two other friends. We want to know where they were taken and what for’ she said.

The manager went to grab Cordy again just as Connor decided to make his presence known.

‘Leave her alone, or you’ll have me to deal with’ Connor said.

The manager looked at Connor, with his longish hair he didn’t look much of a threat, so he decided to leave the room the call security and have these two thrown out.

As soon as he took one step towards the door Connor had him pinned against the wall, so fast he didn’t feel himself move.

‘The lady asked you a question, now where did you take my father?’ snarled Connor.

The manager seemed to collapse into himself as he saw the very real threat in Connor’s eyes.

‘Very well, I’ll tell you what I know. For a while now there have been reports of men missing after visiting this club. Mostly it has been the unattached ones, who have nobody with them. I’m surprised if they took your husband, he must have been special’ he said.

“The man must be middle aged to have a son that old. What on earth was he doing in this club and fancy snagging the hottie who stood before him, some men have all the luck” he mused, thinking about his own ageing wife.

‘I don’t know any more, just the fact that the staff like working here, they seem to get a lot of tips.’ He managed to read the card Cordy had given him. ‘Angel Investigations, who are you people?’ he added.

‘We’re investigators’ said Cordy, simply.

The manager thought fast ‘Well perhaps you could do a little investigating and find out what’s happening.’

“The bosses had been concerned about the rumours going round the club. If I can solve it without them being bothered, I might get to keep my job,” he thought.

‘Tell us all you know’ said Connor, stepping back a little.

‘There’s not much more to tell, it seems there are a group of women who frequent this club just looking to pickup men. Some of them disappear, it’s usually a while before anyone notices and so far the cops haven’t traced any of them’ said the manager. ‘If you want to do some snooping, I’ll get you a pass to get in for free.’

‘Well, we can come back tonight…’ began Cordy.

‘No you can’t we’re closed on a Sunday, but open tomorrow’ said the manager.

They discussed the case, until Connor & Cordy were sure they had all the information the manager knew. He gave them a pass to get in on Monday, and with that they left.

When they returned to the Hyperion, everyone else was up or back from wherever they’d been, so they had a group meeting, to bring them all up to speed.

It was decided that Cordelia and Spike would go to the club. Spike would able to sense Angel easier than Connor. Buffy was annoyed when Wesley suggested Cordy go with Spike, rather than her.

‘It would be better if I went, cos, hello, slayer strength here’ she said.

‘Buffy, get over yourself, Angel’s my husband, so I’m going, get used to it’ said Cordy.

Willow had to hide a smirk behind her hand at Cordy’s treatment of the slayer. Not many people stood up to Buffy, so she was used to having her own way with everything.

‘When’s Daddy coming home?’ asked Liam, he missed his father even though he’d only known him a few weeks.

‘Hopefully soon, Honey, your Uncle Spike and I will go to get him tonight’ she said cuddling the child, praying she was right.

Spike preened at being called ‘Uncle’, even though by rights Liam was his uncle! The child still didn’t know about his father and Spike being demons and Cordy wanted to keep it that way until he was old enough to understand. Dennis had strict instructions not to do anything that would frighten the child as well.

‘Come on Shrimp, I’ll show you some new moves’ Spike said to Liam and they went off to the basement hand in hand.

Cordy smiled after them, she was pleased Liam had settled in so well with this extended family. She knew eventually he would have to find out about his father being a vampire, but hoped that day was a while away.

Paradise Beach Exclusive Members Club

Luxury bedroom suite

He woke up and wondered where the hell he was. His head was thumping and he couldn’t remember what the hell he had done last night. He opened his eyes and the first thing he noticed was he was laying on a bed in a strange white room with very odd-looking furniture. He lifted the covers and saw he was naked.

‘I wonder what or who I did last night’ he thought to himself. It wasn’t unusual for him to wake up and not know what had happened or where he was, but he didn’t think he’d had that much to drink last night! He sat up and ran his hand through his hair and was shocked to find it was short, he was getting more and more confused. He lay back down and tried to still his racing thoughts. He was quiet and after a while he realised it was totally quiet he couldn’t even feel his heartbeat. He felt around for his pulse and was dismayed not to find one.

Now he was really worried, ‘am I dead?’ he wondered out loud.

After a while he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He was about to stand up when suddenly the door opened and in walked a beautiful young woman. He pulled the sheet back over his lap and looked at her, he’d never seen anyone dressed as she was. She was wearing a pair of fawn men’s breeches and a white silk blouse.

‘Where am I, who are you?’ he said.

‘You don’t remember?’ she replied.

‘No, what did I do?’ he said, noticing for the first time he was wearing a wedding ring. His headache suddenly got much worse. “Had he somehow got married?” he thought he couldn’t remember anything after being thrown out of that third tavern.

She smiled at him ‘well Angel, you’ve been here for 2 days unconscious, my name’s Arianne, I’ve got some clothes for you, your shirt was ruined so we found you a t-shirt instead.’

He looked at her ‘lass, my name’s Liam, why d’ you call me Angel, only my sister calls me her Angel?’ he said.

‘Your friends called you Angel in the bar, and you have a tattoo on your back with an “A” on it’ she said ‘I’ll leave you to get dressed; there’s a shower through there. I’ll come back later and bring you some food.’ She pointed to a door flush to the wall that he hadn’t noticed before, and left the room.

Liam went exploring he was amazed by the shower he’d never seen anything like it and it took him a while to work out how to turn it on. When it came through warm he thought it was marvellous, imagine no boiling pots of water. There were various bottles and tubes beside the shower. He took the top off one that had “shower gel” written on the side, it smelt of soap so he figured he’d use some. He stood under the spray his mind in overdrive trying to absorb all the new things he could see. After a while his head had stopped thumping so he turned the shower off and dried himself on the large fluffy towel he found on a warm metal rail. It was then he had his first major shock when he went to the mirror to comb his hair, he couldn’t see his reflection.

‘There’s something very odd going on’ he thought. He walked back to the main room and started to put on the clothes Arianne had left. He pulled on the leather breeches he found and marvelled at how well they fitted; they could have been made for him, even though they were a strange style. It took him a while to work out how the zip worked, but when it came to the zip up boots he had mastered the zips. He stood up and went back into the bathroom, still no reflection. So puzzled he went back and sat on the bed. He put his hand in his back pocket and pulled out a square of thick parchment. He read it and his confusion grew, he couldn’t understand most of the writing on it, apart from a strange address, a peculiar drawing and the name ‘Angel Investigations’, there seemed to be lots of random letters and numbers and squiggles he’d never seen. He put it back in his pocket.

Liam stood up and went to stand by the window, the bright light hurt his eyes so he couldn’t see what was outside and when he put his hand on the sill in the sun shine his flesh started to burn. He pulled his hand back with a yelp, and went back to the bathroom to run his burnt hand under the cold tap.

Arianne returned after a while carrying a tray of food. ‘I forgot to ask you what you liked so I just brought streak, fries and salad,’ she said putting the tray on the table.

He went over to it he felt very hungry, his mouth watered when he looked at the meat.
He looked at her ‘where am I, what is this place?’ he asked for the second time.

‘It’s an exclusive escort club on the outskirts of LA’ she replied.

‘Where’s LA, and what’s that strange dialect you have?’ he asked.

‘California, and it’s you that has the accent’ she smiled at him ‘English right?’

He scowled ‘I’m Irish not English, am I not in Ireland?’

‘No, this is good old US of A’ she laughed at his puzzled expression ‘America’ she added.

‘Oh in the New World, how did I get here?’ he wondered, he’d read about it but never dreamt he would go there, what a tale he would have to tell his sister Kathy.

‘Come, eat your food before it goes cold’ she said.

He lifted the clear lid off the plate and sat down to eat, ‘will you not be joining me, then?’ he asked.

‘No, I had mine earlier, before you woke up’ she replied ‘I’ll leave you to eat, be back soon.’

He wolfed down the steak, he was starving it felt as though he hadn’t eaten in days. He thought it didn’t taste of much, but he was used to the rich taste of locally reared beef, his family only had the best, his father insisted. He ate some of the fries and poked at the vegetables unsure of what most of them were and not fancying them he pushed the plate away after a few mouthfuls.

He leaned back in the chair drinking the wine provided. All of a sudden he groaned as his stomach rebelled at the food, he rushed to the bathroom and threw up.

“Jesus, whatever’s the matter with me?” he thought as he made his way unsteadily back to the table. He could usually eat anything at any time of the day or night. He poured another glass of wine and sipped it thoughtfully. He heard Arianne coming back.

‘I take it you don’t like salad’ she asked when she looked at the tray.

‘Looks like rabbit food to me, I don’t know what half of it is anyway’ he replied glad he hadn’t eaten it as well as everything else. He found himself looking at her neck fascinated by the way her pulse throbbed as she spoke. He tore his eyes away and listened to what she had to say.

‘You have to go before the chairwoman, tonight to see if she likes you’ she said ‘if she does you’ll be instructed how to behave and given tests, if you’re OK you’ll be assigned to an assistant who’ll be your guide.’

Liam looked at the wedding ring, twisting it round his finger.

‘Do you know anything about this?’ He asked ‘also what year is this?’

‘No I don’t know about your ring, but the year is 2006, why do you ask?’ she replied.

‘What!!?’ he said shocked ‘It was 1752 last I knew’

Arianne looked at him in confusion, then decided that he was joking, so laughed collected the tray and left the room saying she would be back later and he was to get some rest.

He lay back on the bed feeling drained and confused. He fell into an uneasy sleep with bewildering dreams and nightmares. He dreamt about killing people something he knew was rubbish, he’d never killed anyone he was too much of a coward and anyway was a fun lover, preferring to enjoy life’s pleasures rather than the pain.

He also kept seeing a beautiful dark haired woman who seemed to be trying to reach out to him, but faded before he could respond. He woke up feeling even more confused and unrefreshed. He went into the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face trying to clear his fogged brain. He was still amazed that he couldn’t see himself in the mirror.

Liam wandered restlessly about the room, still trying to work out the whole concept of where he was and how he got there.

Chapter 6

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