CHAPTER 8
From neck to breast. The flesh was as red as the blood oozing from the gash. The split open skin, showing sternum and heart. Erratic and panting. The hazy growls, the blood like a cheap red dress hugging the fullness of her left breast.
Sharp talons holding the soft mahogany curls in an iron grip, head bent back enough to break the neck, lolling. Lifeless.
Dead.
“Crap!” The young girl sat up; panting as hard as the heart she’d seen. Gasping and stumbling she fell from the couch, stumbling over the prone vampire in the way as she scurried to the bathroom.
Angelus got the undead air kicked out of his when the brunette’s heel landed in the middle of his ribs. Grunting and twisting on his perch on the floor he heard the sounds of retching and coughing.
Rubbing the sore spot on his chest he easily rolled to his feet and sauntered to the bathroom door, leaning there as the pale figure stood trembling over the sink; knuckles white with the effort to stay standing.
Scratching the back of his head, still groggy, he regarded her suspiciously. It had been weeks since he’d had a comfortable few hours of sleep and on the floor with the cushion was the closest he’d had to comfort lately.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
Shuddering and still brimming with disgust, Cordelia lifted her bloodshot eyes to see nothing but her own sick face staring back at her. With a muffled groan she bent down and turned on the water, splashing her face and the sink clean. “Nothing.”
“Nothing my ass Chase. I don’t get stampeded everyday. What the hell happened?”
“Bad dream.” Wiping her mouth after the thorough rinse and mouthwash, Cordelia ran the back of her hand against her forehead and turned to dry her face with a towel.
“Enough to make you retch? They always like that?”
She looked up to see him leaning disinterestedly in the doorway, frowning at her in confusion.
“What do you care?”
“I don’t.”
“Great.” She tried to walk past him but he stood in her way. Lifting her flashing hazel eyes she glared. “What?”
Brown eyes were narrowed on her. Skimming over the surface, but searching for something underneath her skin. Like they always did. “Tell me about your nightmare.”
Scowling she shoved him out of the way and padded back into the dark living room. “Go walk off a cliff; I’m not feeding your morbid ego this early in the morning.”
He grinned at her over his shoulder. “Later in the evening then? Over a bottle of blood and brandy maybe?”
“Angelus?”
“What?”
“Hold my hand.”
The demon snorted with laughter. “Gotta admit Chase, your sense of humor is…WHOA!”
He reached out more on instinct as her hand shot out to grab his bicep, his own arms wrapping around her waist as the girl’s knees suddenly gave way.
Angelus stared down into her eyes, the hazel blurred and unfocused and then she screamed.
Long, hard and painfully.
He was still trying to calm her down, push her to sit on the couch, while she clutched and writhed in his arms. True though, as much as he would have liked to see her undulation under his body, this isn’t want he had in mind. And he was a demon. He figured the pleasure would match the pain.
“What the bloody hell are you doing! Get away from her!”
Angelus scowled over his shoulder at the thundering Englishman stumbling down the stairs. “I didn’t fucking do anything! She just started yelling like a mad cow!”
“Get your hands off her!”
“Fine.” Pulling his hands off he stepped out of the way.
When the fist connected with Rupert’s jaw, sending his glasses askew, he held the flailing arms of the brunette before letting out a whimpering request. “Hold her!”
Angelus stood back, arms crossed, watching the man get clawed as he held back a grin. “I don’t know; if she nicks a little blood off you I might not have to bite.”
“Angelus!”
The demon rolled his eyes. “Christ, you’re pathetic.” Shoving the watcher away, Angelus half climbed on top of the struggling girl, sat down hard on her thighs, enough to keep her steady before he grabbed her wrists firmly with one hand and her jaw with the other.
“Cordelia! Look at me!”
The sharp snap of his tone seemed to set off some sort of switch in the girl, because her wide hazel eyes blinked open to stare up into his with precision, almost like she knew he’d be there. Shaking and disoriented, her mouth parted with labored breaths.
Lips dry and Angelus had to clamp down the need to moisten them. With his mouth.
The watcher sat up from where he’d landed against his coffee table and straightened his spectacles. The room had suddenly gone deathly still.
The brunette lay under Angelus, silent, panting and unmoving. Rupert Giles took a moment to contemplate the fusion of their gazes and the curling of Angelus’ brow as he drew back, just as taken aback by the young woman’s compliance.
Clearing his throat Giles took a step closer. “Yes well…um…good work.”
Angelus couldn’t shake the feeling. The feeling that this slip of a girl was looking right down into the soul he didn’t have and he didn’t like the clarity that came the longer he looked into her eyes.
“What’s wrong with her?”
Giles peered over the vampire’s shoulder. “She seems….entranced.”
Scowling at the perceptive deduction, Angelus sat back slightly, his hands still wrapped around her wrists. “No shit. Even I can see that. What the hell is she so entranced with?”
“Ahem. You?”
Angelus’ eyes snapped back down to the brunette who lay prone under him. “It’s not me,” he muttered gruffly, glaring down into her eyes.
“Speak now Chase, this is your cue.”
She blinked.
Her voice was raw from screaming and the two men had to strain to hear it. Giles frowned at her curiously before asking. “What was that?”
“Get your fat ass off me fangbreath.”
“That’s what I thought she said.” Giles cleared his throat, almost expecting the demon to rise to the bait. But oddly. He didn’t.
If the girl still wasn’t shaking the way she was Angelus might have picked up on the fat comment, but for now. He just wanted to get away from the liquid of her eyes. They unsettled the demon.
Swinging his leg off her, Angelus rolled away from her, dropping her wrists as he gave her room to sit up.
With a groan, she rubbed the cramping muscle in her thigh before her head swayed, one shaking hand coming to touch her temple. “Oh god!”
Giles took the opportunity to sit down beside her, one hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay Cordelia?”
She shook her head almost imperceptibly before dropping her head between her knees, her mahogany pony tail sliding down over her head as she whined. “Oh eyow! It was horrible.” She straightened suddenly, her hazel eyes wide and panicked.
“Horrible!” She clutched Giles’ tugging on the sleeve of his robe. “There were like, all theses vampires! And they were….wearing…plaid!” She shook the bewildered watcher as her voice rose up a pitch.
“Plaid! Like that is so last generation! And I always thought the undead had good fashion sense you know, look at leather and chains over there, but no! Not these suckers! All with the stripes and squares and…”
Then almost when he thought her eyes couldn’t get wider, he saw her pupils dilate and she suddenly went still again. “They had a girl…”
Giles leaned closer, his hand sliding down to cover hers in her lap. “What girl Cordelia?”
Almost like she could still see it Cordelia shivered. “About six years old. And her mother. Dead.” She let out a whimper, eyes close, almost to shake off the image. “Torn. Vampires.”
She turned suddenly, her hands grabbing Giles’ shoulders. “They’re going to kill the little girl! They are! I just know it! You have to stop them.”
“Easy Cordelia.” The watcher gently pushed her back before she nearly climbed into his lap. “It’s okay. It was just a nightmare.”
“Nightmare!” She snapped, jerking out of his grasp, jumping to her feet, irate hazel eyes flashing with fire as she poked around emphatically with one finger.
“No nightmare was when I woke up in huffy! THIS was like I was there! This was different. And HE was there.” She pointed to Angelus accusingly.
At the chastising look from the watcher Angelus snorted. “What the fuck are you lookin’ at me for? I didn’t do anything. Although, the rather graphic picture she’s painting is enticing. Where’s this happening? Maybe there’s some left.”
Cordelia spun on Angelus, hands on her hips, glaring. “You weren’t eating her buster! You were saving her!”
And then the room went silent again while Angelus stood there gawking at the irate young woman. Right before he burst out laughing.
“Ha ha ha! Hades Chase, Biteless I might be… hee hee… but soft I ain’t. Heh! That was good though. You always were good for a…” Angelus nearly choked on his laughter when he was bodily grabbed by his collar and one snarling human glared at him almost nose to nose.
Again Angelus wondered exactly what kind of vampire this woman would make. She had the lunge and grab down pat. Maybe he was rubbing off on her.
“Does it LOOK like I’m joking fangboy? I have a headache the size of a football stadium and for the record; I am in NO mood to get crap from you. I know what I saw.”
Prying her fists from the collar of his shirt, he pushed her away and frowned down at her. “You’re out of your goddamn tree Chase if you think I’m going to go save some pathetic bite from possible friends. Still a vampire.”
For a moment Cordelia nearly bit back the insane urge to deck the arrogant demon in front of her, then she figured he’d only hit back. She’d already had her blind beginner’s lucky bite.
Flinching, she stepped away from him and grabbed her coat.
“Cordelia?” Giles watched in panic as the willful brunette stalked to his front door doggedly. “Where are you going?”
“It’s not everyday I wake up with the possibility of saving lives Giles, not the slayer. So when I have a feeling my head will keep from exploding if I do this, I got with the flow.” She yanked the door opened, her resolute hazel eyes falling on the watcher.
“Coming?”
Angelus stood back as the watcher went tripping over his books to catch up with Cordelia before she ventured out into the night by herself. A muscle worked in his jaw as he saw the young woman throw back an accusing glare before the door slid shut.
What the hell!? Why the hell did they assume he’d be their do-gooder kick puppy!
He snarled and kicked a stack of books clear across the room, the volumes flying open like wings before landing with a crash.
Damn it all to hell!
Dropping into the couch, the demon ran a hand over his face only to wince and pull it away. Blood streaked his fingers and for a moment he held them in the moonlight before he turned his hands over and found the wounds Cordelia had spent the last two days healing start to open and ooze.
“Awww fucking hell!” Growling to keep his anger in check he glowered up at the ceiling.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”