Part 1
Consciousness returned as if a fog was slowly being lifted. Angelus threw a rat that was nibbling on his hand. It hit the wall with a satisfying crunch. He pulled himself to his feet.
The soul was gone. Memories started to flash through his brain. He tried to focus on how he ended up in this alley. Soulboy and the luscious Cordelia Chase were on their way to dinner. They stopped to make out like always…and now he was free.
*Cordy!*
Angelus frantically searched the alley. No heartbeat. No blood. No Cordelia. He sniffed the air. He pushed away the usual stench of the alley and concentrated on the lingering scents of humans. One of them was..familiar. A feral growl started from the tips of his toes and exploded throughout his body. Lawyers.
He clutched his keys as he raced to the plymouth.
***
“Angel.” Wesley rose when he saw Angel begin to rummage through the weapon’s cabinet. “What’s wrong? Where’s Cordelia?”
“Wolfram and Hart took her.”
“I’ll call Gunn and Fred.”
“Don’t bother.”
“Why? What’s your plan?”
“I’m going to barge in there and kill everything that stands between me and what’s mine.”
“Angel, I..”
Angelus’ yellow eyes glared at Wesley. “Look Watcher. I have no clue what those fucking lawyers are doing to her. I don’t have time to kill you properly right now. But if you call me Angel one more time, I’ll forego slow and painful and just snap your neck now! It’s not as much fun for me, but I’ll get over it. I have lawyers to kill.”
Wesley grabbed a taser and lunged. Angelus easily sidestepped and caught his wrist. The last thing Wesley heard was laughter as his world went dark.
***
“Where is she, Gavin?”
“Miss Morgan. So good to see you.”
“Cut the crap. Where is she?”
“She’s in the lab. The specialist is preparing to begin. Don’t worry. I already notified your mind reader. Plus the whole thing is being recorded. You can monitor it on channel 5.”
“Fabulous.” Lilah pressed a button and a big screen TV dropped from the ceiling. She switched it to the right channel. Cordelia was strapped to a table. She still wore her red dress. Just like Snow White, she was trapped in a waking death.
Although no Prince Charming was going to come to her rescue. Actually her Prince would enjoy watching this Snow White get carved up. *Mental note: Send Angelus a copy of the videotape.*
“Who says there’s never anything good on TV?”
“There’s Dr. Augerheim now.” A human-like man with gray skin entered the lab. He was followed by one of the company’s mind readers. Gavin absently noticed this was the first time he’d seen her without her identical twin sister nearby. “It won’t be long now.”
“Unfortunately you won’t be alive to enjoy it.” Angelus dropped the security guard’s body.
“How did you get in?”
“Oh, you mean the vampire detectors. Well they detected me right before I killed them. They make a really cool squealing noise. ‘Course it stops once you pull its heart out.”
Gavin and Lilah backed away from the furious vampire. Lilah tried to remain calm. She handled evil on a daily basis. “Is there something we can do for you, Angelus?”
“There seems to be some confusion. I’m guessin’ you thought I’d be grateful to you for freeing me. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk No matter how many files you have on me, you’ll never know me.” Angelus grabbed the man who’d been sneaking up on him and plunged his fangs in. “You’ll never be able to predict what I’ll do next.”
“Let me remind you. We are on the same side.”
Angelus started laughing. “You really are a stupid bitch. I’m going to enjoy killing you but first I need to deal with Gavin here.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. It seems you took something that belongs to me.” He pointed to the screen. “Do you know what happens to people who steal from me?”
“I was just following orders. I work for Miss Morgan. She ordered me to take Miss Chase for dissection and study. She wanted her alive so she’d feel every cut. She even insisted on a mind reader to make sure. My only goal was the removal of your soul. Lilah is the one who stole your fun. I advised her to let you kill your seer youself.”
“Gavin, you little worm!”
“Shut up! There’s no point in begging. No mercy. As someone once told me, there’s just first and second.” He had Gavin by the throat in a flash.
Lilah heard the snap as she ran. She had seriously misjudged Angelus and it was about to cost her her life.
Angelus helped himself to Gavin’s wallet before chasing Lilah. She didn’t get very far.
Lilah screamed when she was grabbed by her hair. “I can be of use to you, Angelus. I’m in charge now. Just tell me what you want and I can make it happen.”
“You ordered my property stolen and tortured. Actually even if you hadn’t, I still would have killed you. Why don’t you people understand? When you torture Soulboy, you torture me. I’m stuck inside. I know you were banking on me being grateful. Let me give you some insight into Angelus. I don’t like to feel indebted to anyone. It makes me cranky.
But you are right about one thing. You can be useful to me. You’re going to take me to Cordelia!”
***
“Wesley! What happened?”
“Angelus stopped by.”
Gunn helped the dazed Englishman over to the red couch. “Please tell me you meant Angel.” Wes shook his head. “Beige Angel?”
“Afraid not. It was Angelus.”
Fred returned with the first aid kit. “No. That can’t be. Cordy and Angel wouldn’t..”
“I don’t believe they did. Angelus came here to get weapons. He claimed Wolfram and Hart took her.” His horrified eyes looked up at his friends. “Dear Lord! Wolfram and Hart have Cordelia. Grab some weapons. We need to get over there.”
Gunn went to the weapon’s cabinet. “I don’t get it. Why does evil vamp care?” He tossed a crossbow to Wes. “Why do you think he left you alive?”
“I don’t know. I’ll think about it after we rescue Cordelia. Make sure you bring tasers and tranq darts. We should try to take Angelus alive.”
“We promised Angel we’d stake him if he ever went evil again. I don’t know about you, English, but I keep my promises.”
“Don’t lecture me. I know what I promised and I will keep it if I have to. Right now Cordelia is my priority and she happens to be very much in love with the vampire in question.”
“Y’all both need to stop worrin’ about what we may or may not need to do about Angelus. Either Wolfram and Hart have Cordy or Angelus does. I for one don’t really like either possibility. Now both of you get in the truck!”
The Texan stormed out of the hotel with two sheepish well-armed men trailing behind.
***
“Wake up sleepyhead.”
Cordelia groaned. She felt like her head had been run over by a truck. Repeatedly. “Angel?”
“How do you feel?”
“Like someone tried to detach my head. I had the worst nightmare.”
“Tell me all about it, baby.”
“I was captured by..some baddies. They were going to cut me open.” She shivered. “It felt so real. It was like I could feel the metal blade against my skin.” She smiled. “And then you came to my rescue. You killed the baddies and carried me away.” Cordelia finally managed to open her eyes. “Umm…Angel, where are we?”
“I rented this beautiful hotel suite for us. Don’t you like it?”
Her head hurt like crazy and now she was completely confused. She tried to recall how they got here. “The last thing I remember was kissing you in the alley. How did we get here?”
“I carried you here.”
“Huh?”
“After I killed the bastard who tried to cut you open, I brought you here.”
“Oh God! It wasn’t a dream?”
“Sorry baby. Don’t worry. I didn’t let them hurt you.”
“Who were they? What did they want?”
“Explanations later. It feels like I’ve been waiting forever to fuck you.”
“Excuse me? Are you insane? We can’t risk your soul and what’s with the crude?”
“Don’t have a soul and what’s wrong with fucking?”
Cordelia felt the air rush out of her lungs. “What?”
“Baby, I’m back!”
“How? Seeing me laid out and about to be cut open gave you a happy? This isn’t funny.”
Angelus jumped on the bed. “Who’s laughing?” He rolled his eyes at her dumbfounded look.
“Fine. Explanations now. Wolfram and Hart found a way to remove my soul. They were smart enough to leave me in the alley but they took you. They were going to dissect you for study. Not only that, Lilah wanted you to be alive so you could feel every cut. Dumb bitch thought I was just gonna let them have you. I came and got you. Now we’re here. Answers given. So..you ready to fuck yet.”
Cordelia clutched the covers. “Woah! Back up Fangboy. What the hell? Why would the evil lawyers want to dissect me?”
“Probably ’cause you’re a higher being. They don’t normally live in this realm.”
“That bitch! She wanted me to feel..”
“C’mon. You can’t really blame her for hating you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Cor, you stormed into the Watcher’s apartment, found them mid-fuck, grabbed her clothes, threw them in her face and told her to get out. Instead of telling you to go to hell, Wussley backed you up and kicked her to the curb.”
“Well she was using him. She took advantage of his dark time like another skanky ho we both knew.”
“Don’t start with that. Soulboy’s responsible for that fuck up. I was just sayin’ it’s understandable is all.”
“I can’t say I’m broken up about you killing her. I know that’s bad but I still hated her for the killer visions. I’m so not gonna miss her!”
“Umm..I didn’t kill her.”
“You let the bitch who tried to gut me go free? What kind of evil vamp are you? You were probably impressed by her creativity.”
“No! Maybe a little and I didn’t LET her go. She ran while I was busy killin’ the thing tryin’ to gut you. How was I supposed to know there was a secret passageway? I would have gone after her but I needed to get you out before the do-gooders showed up.”
“Who?”
“There weren’t enough weapons in the car. I had to stop at the hotel. I..”
“Oh God! What did you do? Was anyone there? Are they hurt?”
“Damn woman! Give a vampire a chance to answer. Just breathe. The baby snatcher was there. I told him who took you and what I planned to do to them. He tried to stop..”
“Wesley!”
“Quit your cryin’! I didn’t kill him.”
“You didn’t?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’ve been killin’ a long time now. I know the difference between unconscious and dead.”
“Not that I’m complaining but why would YOU leave him alive?” She wrinkled her brow in confusion. “You saved me. Why?”
“Killing him wasn’t the reason I went to the hotel. I didn’t have any time to waste.” Angelus stood up and began pacing.
“Why did you rescue me?”
“Because you’re mine.”
“Am I?”
“Yes.” He walked around the bed to sit in front of her. “I know you’re in love with soulboy but he’s gone.” He stroked her collarbone with his thumb. “I know how to please a woman. If you give me a chance, I could make you happy. You might even grow to love me.”
“Angelus, I can’t grow to love you.” She grabbed the hand that was stroking her. “You’ve heard me say how much I love my sweet manpire. Where do you think you fit in?” The bed shook as he jumped up.
He put his fist through the wall with a growl. “So that’s it? I resisted killing Wesley. I save you from being gutted. Do you even realize what I could have done to you while you were unconscious? I didn’t even tie you up and you won’t even give me a chance. You haven’t changed. You’re still a bitch!”
“Hey! Stop with the name calling and answer my question. Where do you fit in?”
“Don’t talk to me like that. I don’t put up with abuse. I give it. So stop. I get it. I don’t fit in. It doesn’t matter. You’re mine. I’m not letting you go.”
“With or without a soul you’re still a dumbass. You are the ‘pire’ in manpire.”
“Huh?”
“Listen carefully. I can’t grow to love you because I’m already IN love with you.”
“I told you not to play with me. I’m not a whipped puppy. I hit back. I’m a master vampire. A monster. A killer. I could snap your neck in an instant.”
“Yeah! Yeah! In case you forgot, let me remind you. I can use my super glowy power and dust you without even getting up from this bed.” She pat the spot he vacated. “Come here.” She grabbed his hand. “I do love you.”
“But I’m Angelus. You love the soul. I’m not him.”
“I know who you are and I plan to do whatever it takes to get your soul back. That doesn’t mean I don’t love you too.” He opened his mouth to argue.
“Angelus, I gave up the world of black and white a long time ago. I don’t need to think of you as two completely different people. I fell in love with Angel. Completely. Which means loving the man and the vampire.”
“How? Why?”
“How? Kicking and screaming. Falling in love with you was so not on my list of things to do. Believe me I fought against it. I clung to denial like it was a designer original. Why? That’s hard to explain. I don’t know when I stopped telling myself you were two completely different people. I just know I did.” She searched his eyes for understanding.
“Angelus, do you love me?”
“I’m a soulless vampire. I…”
“Don’t even think of giving me that crap. I know better. Do you love me?”
“I think so.”
Cordelia leaned forward to gently capture his lips. “Do you love me?”
“Yes.” He pulled her in for a deeper kiss. “I love you so much.” He pushed her onto her back. “I want you now.”
She pushed him up. “Are you sure you didn’t kill Wesley? When you say unconscious, are we talking coma or just out like a light? When you say alive, do you mean he may be missing some body parts but he’ll live?”
“Dammit woman! I don’t want to talk anymore. Now is the time for fucking.”
“You’re such a romantic. I need to know if our family is okay. Please!”
“Fine.” He walked over to wear his coat lay. “Here.” He tossed her his cell phone. “Call them but we are fu..having sex when you’re finished.”
She rolled her eyes. “We’ll fuck when I’m ready and not before.”