Sunnydale Cemeteries, Out on Patrol
Buffy outsmarted herself. Convincing Giles to come along meant that he spent the majority part of patrol monopolizing her time with slaying talk. That left Angel free to keep Cordelia company since Xander and Willow had their heads together debating about whether their school principle might actually be a demon.
Walking apart from the others, Angel and Cordelia talked about the Scooby Gang’s reactions to her arrival. “Nothing less than I expected,” Cordelia laughed wryly as she tugged her brown leather jacket closer around her.
“Do you want to be here?” he decided he had to ask. Last night, he really hadn’t given her a choice, just told her that she needed to come.
Cordelia lifted her gaze back to his, “You’re here. I want to be with you.”
Silence followed those starkly truthful words. They mirrored his own feelings to the extent that Angel recognized it instantly. Things weren’t quite so simple. There was Buffy. He owed it to her to try to work things out. “W-we can be friends, Cordelia.”
“Can we?” Even she sounded hopeful, though the doubt in her eyes grated across his flesh leaving him raw.
“We will,” Angel clasped her hand feeling her fingers thread through his. Touching her was a mistake, he discovered a moment later, as his body responded to that simple move. When his other hand came up to the nape of her neck, his thumb automatically swept across her jawline in a soothing motion, one touch educing the need for more.
Resolutely nodding, Cordelia repeated that vow of determination, “We will.”
Two cemeteries later, patrol had basically been uneventful with the exception of a single fledgling quickly staked by the slayer. Angel and Cordelia spent most of the time talking. It was something that Cordelia was comfortable with and the vampire found himself doing most of the listening as she chatted about an array of subjects that made his head spin just to think about.
It wasn’t what Cordelia said, but the way she said things that kept his rapt attention. Her openness in talking to him just like he was any other man and not the demon who backed the group up on patrol was something he’d never experienced before, except from Buffy who tried to ignore the fact that he was a vampire.
Cordelia knew him fangs and all, yet wanted to be with him. Not only to be in his physical sphere, but more than that, as lovers instead of just friends. There was no hiding that and she made no attempt to do so.
Angel wanted that too. He wanted it so badly, the need rattled inside him. More than one reason existed for it, he was beginning to realize, but he could not act upon them as long as he was still technically tied to the slayer. Tamping down his need, Angel suggested they catch up with the others. They were lagging behind and he could tell by glancing at Buffy that she was onto something.
Focusing, he could sense it himself. “Trouble.”
After a few more minutes of walking deeper into Restfield Cemetery, they discovered things were anything but restful there tonight. Buffy turned to the group, her bright eyes sharp and focused. “Enough chitty-chat,” she narrowed that gaze on Angel long enough to note he still had hold of Cordelia’s hand. “Time to get down to business. Vampire business.”
Several vampires were gathered outside of a large crypt. They were in the process of carrying furniture into the stone building, obviously setting up their nest. Positioned downwind, the gang had the added advantage of being hidden behind an iron fence with shrubbery lined along the borders. Buffy tallied up their adversaries and knew who was going to come out on top in this scenario…and it wasn’t the vamps.
Still, it would be better to draw them out into the open rather than take the chance of someone getting trapped in a corner of the crypt. Glancing over her shoulder, she gave Cordelia an expectant stare. “Time to do your thing, Cor.”
“Bait Girl at your service,” chirped Cordelia without hesitation. She knew what would happen on patrol. Other than keeping Xander company, this was her major role with the group and she didn’t shirk from it.
“Forget it,” growled Angel stepping between Cordelia and Buffy. “It’s too dangerous. We’re not talking one or two vampires, Buffy. She’ll have to get pretty damn close to get them all to follow her.”
Buffy wondered if she’d ever heard Angel talk more than he had tonight. Realizing that he had never protested Cordelia’s appointed task before now, she knew that it had everything to do with the fact that they’d slept together. He was all protective over her. Wanted her with him because it was where she ‘belonged’…and Buffy figured he wasn’t only saying that Cor had been part of the Scooby Gang. Not that Buffy had ever really counted her as one of them.
“Whoa, Big Guy,” Cordelia moved from behind him. “This is what I do. It may suck in comparison to being a Chosen One, but I’m great vampire bait.”
Angel had to agree with that assessment, but he still didn’t want her out there. “You stay here. Buffy and I will take the lead.”
“Nuh-uh! You asked me to be here, Angel. I’m doing my part,” Cordelia insisted with an irritated expression on her face. While the protective vibes gave her a soft, mushy feminine feeling, they also set off her independence radar. “Mister Macho Vamp and Little Miss Likes to Fight will have to wait their turns.”
Reprimanded, Angel flashed her a look that reminded her of a kicked puppy dog all cute and cuddly, in pain, but still loving the one who’d hurt it. The frown on her face vanished instantaneously into a quick smile. Angel figured he could have taken care of the vampires already if they hadn’t been standing around trying to decide on the plan. “Just be careful.”
Angel circled around, keeping to the shadows and seeking out a better position. He noted that the others were doing the same as Cordelia waited until they found a spot before heading toward the crypt. A knot of discontent tightened up in his gut as he watched her approach. When she called out to the vampires, making up a completely ridiculous excuse for being in the cemetery, they wasted no time in dropping what they were doing.
Cordelia was still talking at a hundred miles an hour when Angel noticed that a stray vampire was headed directly for her from a different angle. Though Xander was in a better position, the boy was too busy watching Cordelia to notice the other vamp, so Angel darted out from the shadows running at full speed to reach her just as Cordelia was grabbed from behind.
A scream sounded from Cordelia as she hit the ground right along with Angel and her attacker. Vamped out and growling, Angel yanked the other vampire off of her and proceeded to make him extremely sorry he ever laid a finger on Cordelia Chase. The other vampires moved to intervene, but Buffy and the gang jumped into the fray before they could reach them.
With her ultra-awareness skills, Buffy kept up with her own opponents, the position of her friends as they fought and from the periphery of her vision noted that Angel was pummeling Cordelia’s attacker into a bloody pulp. She had no time to say what was on her mind during the melee, but Buffy filed the thoughts away promising herself a little one-on-one time with Angel as soon as patrol came to an end.
After a flurry of punches, Angel swept his leg out to knock the vamp to the ground where he attempted to scramble away. Grabbing the young vampire with two hands fisted into the lapels of his denim jacket and yanking him to his feet again, Angel put his face within two inches of the broken nose and bruised jaw to snarl, “Going somewhere?”
Seeing only that he wasn’t about to be rescued by his brethren, the vampire tried to make a deal. “Hey, dude, I’m willing to share.”
“I’m not,” Angel returned as he wrapped a thickly muscled arm around the scrawny neck. Twisting it until the bones shattered, the vampire exploded into a cloud of dark dust.
Still in shock from the surprise attack and being knocked to the ground, Cordelia hadn’t moved except to hold a hand to her throat. Then Angel was on his knees next to her prying her hand away so he could see what damage had been done. “Cordy, let me see it. Did he bite you?”
Thinking about it for a second, Cordelia shook her head, “No, but he slimed me with his gross, evil tongue.”
Angel couldn’t help but laugh as he gathered her into his arms, tucking her head into his shoulder and hugging tight. After a few seconds, he reluctantly moved back to help her to her feet. “Sorry about the tackle. It was the only way to get him off you.”
“That’s okay. I wasn’t up for a new set of fang marks tonight,” Cordelia’s comment made him think of the ones she already possessed.
“My bite scarred?” he asked curiously. Actually, it was more that mere curiosity. It was just seeking confirmation of something he already suspected.
Cordelia felt the slid of his hand over the curve of her bottom and his touch seemed to burn through the surface of her pants. “Duh! Of course it did.”
A yelp sounded closer to the crypt where Xander and Willow were tag-teaming one of the vampires, but having a rough time. Having been distracted with watching Angel, the slayer hadn’t dusted her usual quota. She and Giles were occupied too far away to intervene. Realizing that he’d all but forgotten the rest of them because he was so caught up in ensuring that Cordelia was safe, Angel told her to stay put and ran to the rescue.
“That,” Giles told them after the fight was over, “was hardly a well-executed attack. Buffy, consider what went wrong here and we’ll discuss it tomorrow.”
“Yes,” Buffy sighed while tucking her stake back into her pocket. Her green eyes on Angel who was back at Cordelia’s side this time with Xander and Willow, she added, “Lots of stuff wrong stuff here tonight.”
Striding over to them, Buffy tugged at the elbow of Angel’s jacket to get his attention as he was still focused on the brunette. “Walk me home. Now.”
Buffy wasn’t taking no for an answer. She half expected him to protest saying that he needed to make sure Cordelia arrived home and was tucked safely into her bed before he did anything else. To her surprise, Angel readily agreed. “Okay, Buffy. I think Rupert can make sure Cordy gets back to her car. We can cut across the cemetery and take Greystone Avenue to get to Revello Drive.”
“Uh, good,” Buffy frowned at the fast response.
Then Angel turned back to Cordelia, “That okay with you?”
Seeing the expression on Buffy’s face, Cordelia figured she didn’t want to be within a hundred yards of the slayer when she said whatever was brewing behind that intense gaze. “Absolutely. Guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
Xander took the opportunity to ask Cordelia, “You okay, Cor? I didn’t see that vamp coming. Good thing Angel got to you first.”
“Yeah,” she agreed trying not to peek over her shoulder to see what Buffy and Angel were doing.
“I thought you were a goner,” Willow sucked in a deep breath and let it all out. “Then we were fighting and I screamed and Angel came and then it was fine after that, so gosh am I glad that he was here tonight.”
Cordelia commented, “I’m sure Buffy would have saved you.”
“Sure,” agreed Xander in quick defense of the slayer. “We shouldn’t have let him lead us back toward the crypt like that.”
“That was just one of our mistakes,” Giles pointed out as they walked toward the edge of the cemetery. “Mine was in allowing Cordelia to put herself in danger before we established a better perimeter.”
“Live and learn,” quipped Cordelia. “I’m especially partial to the living part.”
***
1630 Revello Drive
They’d walked in silence all the way back to Buffy’s house. Not anything unusual. A lot of their time together was spent without saying a word. It had been quiet and comforting just being in each other’s presence. Now it simply felt like the calm before the storm, a build-up of something that had been brewing over the past month.
Buffy stopped on the front lawn and swerving around abruptly demanded answers to her questions. The first of which was, “What the heck were you doing back there? It wasn’t necessary to tenderize that vamp like raw meat before dusting him.”
“He was attacking Cordy.” What other reason did he need except that? “Maybe I got a little angry.”
“A little,” Buffy barked at the understatement. “If I didn’t know better, I would have thought it was Angelus. You went all fang face and demony.”
Angel’s voice dipped low, “Just me. That’s who I am, Buffy. The soul doesn’t change the fact that I’m a vampire. Would you rather I have let the creep bite Cordelia?”
Quiet for a moment as she digested that response, Buffy pointed out, “Xander was closer. He could have saved her.”
“Harris needed to move his ass a little faster or at least take his eyes off Cordelia to realize that the attack was coming,” he tried to swallow the growl that rose from his chest at the idea the boy had been staring a little too closely.
With her arms crossed over her chest, Buffy countered, “Like you could keep your eyes to yourself? Or your hands, for that matter. I saw you groping Cordelia’s butt.”
Angel didn’t have an explanation to give her other than the obvious and it probably wouldn’t go over well to tell her that he’d marked Cordelia, especially considering the location. He could only apologize for letting her see that. “I’m sorry, Buffy. This isn’t anything I ever imagined happening, but Cordelia and I share a connection that isn’t going away.”
“A connection,” Buffy clenched her teeth. “Is that what you call it?”
“You don’t understand.”
The hard gleam in her eyes softened as tears welled up glistening in their unshed form. “So tell me. I need to hear it, Angel. I think I deserve that much.”
“Yes, you do,” he agreed softly still feeling the need to protect her even from his own words. Especially considering how much his words had hurt her in the recent past. “I can’t pretend that I don’t have feelings for Cordelia. Things have been conflicted the past couple of days. I don’t know where we stand anymore, Buffy. The things I said to you when the soul was gone and the way you reacted, I’m not sure if we can get back to where we were before.”
Surprising him with her equal candor Buffy admitted, “Neither am I. Angel, I’m not even sure that I want too.”
Her words shook him. Angel hadn’t been expecting Buffy to say that. He felt a flash of anger that she would even think about ending their relationship, his demon nature kicking in to hold onto anything remotely his own. Relief followed just as swiftly as he realized what it might allow if Buffy decided to release him from his promise to her.
Speechless, he tried to come up with something appropriate to say, but Buffy beat him to the punch. “If I really thought Angelus was someone else…a totally separate person from you, I don’t think it would matter. I could deal somehow. Pretend that everything you said and did was someone else.”
“The thing I said to you…I wish I could take them back,” he told her.
“They weren’t lies,” Buffy realized. “The truth hurt more. I’d give anything to have it all go back to the way it was, but I can’t forget what happened. I can’t just brush it off.”
“You’ve never accepted the fact that I’m a vampire,” Angel told her. “Not really. I’m only sorry you had to deal with me at my worst.”
With a nod of agreement, Buffy said, “Me too.”
Staring at each other for a drawn-out moment, Angel finally got out a plea, “Buffy… end it.”
“Angel, it’s already over,” Buffy’s tears finally started to fall. Feeling guilty, he moved to hug her, but the slayer held him off with a hand pressed against his chest. “Don’t. I can’t deal with it right now. Later. Tomorrow.”
“You still want me to come tomorrow?” Frankly, that surprised him. Reminding her, “I won’t be alone.”
Buffy nodded, “Oh, I remember the terms. You stay and so does Cordelia. I won’t pretend to like it, Angel, but I’m not stupid. You’re the best fighter I’ve got when you’re not distracted and despite everything I know you’re still on my side.”
***
Chase Residence, Cordelia’s Private Sitting Room
Wearing a pair of her comfy pajamas, Cordelia was curled up on the couch in her en-suite sitting room. With the exception of a kitchen, the second-story wing was nearly a self-sufficient living space. Randomly flipping through the television channels, she finally settled on a rerun on Nick at Night and tossed the remote onto the cushion next to her.
The program with its boisterous laugh track did nothing to grab her interest. Cordelia was too hyped up by the events during patrol. Thinking about Angel came as natural as breathing now and her thoughts all too easily turned to him. Her body tensed up, shivered and ached all at once, responding like he was there in front of her.
Then Cordelia realized the feeling wasn’t going away and the sudden urge to look over her shoulder creeped her out a little, but she followed her instincts looking toward the door. Finding Angel leaning against the doorframe should have shocked her, but it didn’t feel that way. She was actually a little relieved to find him standing there.
“I couldn’t stay away any longer,” Angel told her before she could say anything.
Nice to know that he wanted her, but Cordelia already knew that. “What about B—?”
“It’s over,” he answered simply as he straightened up and stepped further into the room.
Cordelia tucked her legs a little closer to her body. Reeling, her mind repeated that word like a broken record until it tripped from her lips, “Over? So you came here.”
“Yes.”
Over. What did that mean, exactly? Cordelia needed clarification. Like now. “Am I supposed to comfort you? Help you get over it? Just so you know up front, Cordelia Chase is nobody’s second best. I’m not the consolation prize.”
Rumbling in protest, Angel told her, “There’s nothing further from the truth. And you know it.”
“Do I?”
“What does your heart say, Cordy? I know your body has something to tell you because it speaks to mine.” Standing by the couch, Angel picked up the remote and pushed a button turning the television off. “I recall you left me an invitation.”
“So…you’re here.” Cordelia’s heart picked up speed as she realized that Angel would never lie to her about breaking up with Buffy. Nor was he exaggerating the fact that she ached for him. It was a feeling that had only grown stronger since the night his soul was returned and they came face to face again.
Angel felt his groin tighten at the anticipation brightening Cordelia’s face. “I’m here.”
“What happens next?” Cordelia had to ask. She wondered if this was just going to be a repeat of the night she spent with Angelus or if it meant something more. There were a thousand questions buzzing around in her head.
“We talk.”
Talking hadn’t really been on her list of expectations, Cordelia admitted to herself as he sat down next to her. Angel put his arm on the back of the couch; she instantly scooted to his side snuggling against him and tilting her face up to his. They shared a soft, slow kiss tender and full of emotion and when Cordelia moved to deepen it, Angel reluctantly pulled back.
“I don’t want there to be surprises between us, Cordy,” he said caressing the line of her collar bone peeking from her pajama tank top.
Not really certain where he was going with that, Cordelia assured him, “I kinda like surprises.”
“I’m a vampire,” he stressed. “There are things you need to know if this is going to go any further. Once I make love to you again, there’s no turning back.”
“Angel, I already know that want to be with you. I think that I…It’s more than just wanting you,” Cordelia admitted without fully understanding exactly what it was she was feeling. She was still stuck on the thought that Angel planned to make love to her.
Wondering what her reaction would be, Angel knew he needed to tell her there was a reason for it. “Cordelia that bite wasn’t just a nibble.”
“You said it was a love bite,” she remembered Angelus looking confused about it.
“It was,” he told her. “I claimed you as mine. Left my mark.”
Cordelia’s brow furrowed, “Oh.” This was supposed to upset her? Besides the leaving of a scar part, that is.
Continuing, Angel informed her of the conclusion he had come to over the last couple of days. “Normally, my tasting your blood in such a small way wouldn’t do anything, but you also bit me.”
“So?” Cordelia commented, “You so deserved that. We had a no biting deal.”
“You thought you had a deal,” Angel smirked at the memory then realized it wasn’t so funny.
Insisting, she huffed, “Did too.”
“Angelus would never make that deal,” he told her quite honestly. Then realizing he was talking about himself in the third person, corrected, “I wouldn’t.”
“What’s with the cryptic, Angel? You bit me, I bit you. Are you trying to tell me that means something more than the fact that I won’t be wearing a thong bikini any time soon?” Arching an eyebrow, she waited for his response.
Nodding, Angel explained, “We have a connection, Cordelia. The more time we spend together, the stronger it’s going to get. Every instinct I have tells me that you’re mine and I want it to stay that way.”
Cordelia sat back a little, staring at him with equal parts excitement, wonderment and fear. This was a little…or a lot…beyond what she was expecting. Dump the slayer and start dating her was more along the lines of her imagination. Honestly, she had not expected that much.
Once the initial shock was over, Cordelia confessed, “Me too. I want that too, Angel.”
“Be sure, Cordy,” he pleaded with a soft groan. “Understand that I’m not talking about one more night of pleasure. I want you at my side. Tonight, tomorrow and all the days and nights to follow.”
A sunny grin lit her face as Cordelia flung her arms around his shoulders. Then she laughed softly in his ear telling him, “That’s a little heavy considering this is only going to be our second time together.”
Angel felt her warmth seep into his skin wrapping him up and surrounding him in her scent. “Is it? I thought I counted a few more times than that.”
Brushing her cheek along side his, Cordelia met Angel’s melting gaze confessing with a mischievous laugh, “I’m tired of talking, Angel. Show me what it’s like to be yours. Again.”