***
The too-bright light of morning filtered in through Cordelia’s closed Venetian blinds. Clamping her eyes closed immediately after opening them, she let out a grumpy moan realizing that her head pounded when she tried to move.
With the exception of the awful headache, for some reason, her body felt deliciously sore in a way that her normal cheerleading workouts never managed.
With her eyes closed, Cordelia slowly started to drift back to sleep. Images played in her mind of hard muscle, broad shoulders and the handsome face she’d often found in her dreams. Only now the images seemed more real and far more detailed. She’d certainly never dreamt about Angel’s package being quite so impressive.
Surely that’s what imaginations were for. Letting out a little throaty chuckle, she snuggled deeper into the covers barely acknowledging the fact that the sheets slid across bare skin instead of the surface of a nightgown or her favorite pajamas.
Flexing her hips to curl her legs up caused Cordelia to let out a little yelp. “Ow!”
Awake again, she flopped over onto her back. The sudden pain went away for the most part, but her hand came into contact with something heavy and covered with the sheets lying next to her in her queen-sized bed.
“Omigodomigodomigod! Please tell me that’s not who I think it is,” Cordelia curled her fingers around the covers and inched them back to reveal…a foot.
Throwing back the covers to the end of the bed, Cordelia saw: a) she was naked, b) so was he and c) the he in question was definitely Angelus. The vampire did not appear to be moving. In fact, he looked like he’d passed out and never got up again.
Cordelia leapt out of bed, ignoring the twinge of pain as she did so. “Eew, eew, eew! There’s a dead vampire in my bed.”
Reasoning that Angelus couldn’t really be dead dead since he wasn’t a pile of dust. Guess he was no more dead than usual, so Cordelia figured he had to be sleeping. Pacing naked across her bedroom floor, she tried to piece together how he came to be there.
“I brought him here. I invited him in. Then we…we…,” she suddenly recalled the reason for her sore muscles.
He’d touched her in ways no one else ever had, promised her pleasure and delivered it in spades eking out every bit of wanton response she possessed. Cordelia stared down at the sleeping vampire, his long frame stretched out as he lay prone.
Angelus actually looked rather innocent this way, she thought, almost angelic. When in reality he was anything but.
It suddenly occurred to her that she’d been lucky. Angelus wasn’t the type to let lust get in the way of revenge against the Slayer. Not when he’d made such a big deal about it. He’d been drunk last night and while Cordelia couldn’t easily explain her behavior, the fact that she seemed to have a hangover suggested those margaritas were not as virgin as they should’ve been.
“What do I do now? Think, Chase! You have a naked manpire in your bed. How do you get out of this one?”
She paused, a smirk forming on her mouth. Too bad it was the evil version of Angel cos she’d certainly have no qualms about coming up with a few more interesting ideas.
“Bad thoughts. Evil vampire,” she reminded herself. “No stakes available. There’s always sunlight. Open up the blinds and presto chango…ball of fire in my bed. So not a great idea.”
Good thing Angelus slept like the dead, cos she couldn’t seem to stop talking aloud. No parents in the house today. Maybe that was a good thing too. Unfortunately, that left only one option in the way of getting out of her potential role as the vampire’s morning snack.
Grabbing the phone, she punched in a couple of numbers and when the sleepy male voice issued the usual greeting, Cordelia commented sourly, “It’s not a good thing that I have you on speed dial, Giles.”
“C-Cordelia? It’s rather early…,” he started only to be cut off.
“There is a naked, evil vampire in my bed. Come now,” Cordelia figured it was best to get straight to the point. It wasn’t as if Giles wouldn’t see the truth for himself when he got here.
Giles fumbled for the phone having dropped it after Cordelia’s announcement. He put his glasses on bringing the room into focus as if that would also help clear up the issue. “C-could you repeat that? I thought you said…”
“Angleus is here. Now. Naked. What more do you need to know?” Cordelia huffed. “I think I also said to come immediately. Y’know, before he wakes up and eats me.”
“How did th—?”
Cordelia did the only thing she could to prompt him to get going. She hung up the phone. Deciding clothes might be a good idea, Cordelia first headed into the bathroom. Nature was calling no matter the vampire-sized problem in her bed. Sitting down caused her to let out another yelp of pain.
Though she couldn’t recall exactly when it had happened, Cordelia had a sneaking suspicion she knew the reason.
Finishing up, she turned her back to her floor-length mirror. Just along the full curve of her right buttock was a visible set of fang-marks. Hazel eyes widened instantly in disbelief and anger. That playful, lying bastard out there had bit her on the ass.
Fuming, Cordelia forgot all about clothes or waiting for the cavalry to show up. She stormed back into the bedroom letting every tiny twinge add to her fury. Standing at the foot of her bed, Cordelia poked her finger at Angelus’ shoulder. “Get up! What the hell is this?”
Pointing at her marked butt cheek did nothing since the vampire didn’t budge from his sleeping state. Cordelia reached down with both hands to shake his shoulders, but it only bounced the bed a little causing Angelus to mutter unintelligibly.
“Fine. Be that way. Just wait until Giles gets here and we’ll see if you have something else to say.”
Cordelia quickly dressed in a comfortable pair of her workout clothes and put her hair up into a ponytail. The cotton felt tolerable against her sore bottom. Figuring it wouldn’t do to leave Angelus in all his hot, naked glory, she attempted to slide his leather pants back on. She tugged and pulled, but the pants would not go on.
And it wasn’t like she was going to reach underneath and tuck any body parts into place if she could avoid it; not unless she had to, anyway.
The deadweight vampire made the task impossible and finally Cordelia took a pair of black sweatpants from her father’s room and managed to get them onto Angelus without too much effort.
Surveying her work, Cordelia had her hands on her hips and gave a short nod of approval. “Okay.”
No sooner had she gone downstairs to open the security gate and unlock the door than Rupert Giles arrived carting a set of manacles and chains. He wasn’t alone. Why Cordelia thought he would show up by himself was a mystery. Jenny Calendar, Buffy, Willow and Xander were all standing on her doorstep.
Most of them looking like they thought she was either insane or pond scum.
“Hi guys,” Cordelia flashed them a bright smile silently telling them all that they could take their opinions and shove them. “Welcome to my nightmare.”
***
Angelus awoke to a cacophony of noise in the distance, a constant low rumbling of chattering familiar voices. Even before opening up his eyes his senses took in his immediate surroundings. Most noticeable was the scent of sex and Cordelia.
Lots of sex and the feeling that he was covered in her scent. It was all around him.
Then he remembered why. He’d found the cheerleader outside the Bronze and had brought her home. Then he’d taken that luscious body more ways than he could even recall. Angelus knew the hot little minx loved every second of it. Her screams of pleasure still rattled around in his head.
Without a doubt, Cordelia had given Angelus equal pleasure despite her comparative inexperience. She’d made up for it with pure enthusiasm. That last time must’ve been amazing because he couldn’t remember a damn thing about the rest of the night.
He vaguely wondered if he’d gotten a chance to make her before the lights of consciousness went out.
I definitely remember biting her, Angelus couldn’t quite recall what type of bite.
The noise outside his immediate presence continued and was enough to irritate him. His head hurt and it was apparently still daylight outside. He wanted to sleep.
One by one he separated the voices he was hearing and then his eyes opened with an amber hue as he recognized the normally dulcet tones of the Slayer raised in anger.
Taking instant stock of his whereabouts, Angelus realized he was stretched out face down on Cordelia’s bed, shackled there by two sets of heavy manacles that bound him to the immovable frame of her bed.
Roaring in anger, he attempted to break free of the shackles, but even his strength proved too little. The damn things had to be magically enhanced.
His little tiff apparently caught the notice of those downstairs. They argued amongst themselves which one of them would get to interrogate him first. Giles suggested that he be the one to go, but Cordelia argued that it was her house and she’d be the one to decide. Buffy apparently tried to head straight up for a confrontation only to be held back by the Watcher.
Then Xander got into it stating that it was his girlfriend who had been taken advantage of and so he ought to be the one to go.
“Ex-girlfriend,” Cordelia stressed, “and don’t give me the story about using magic to make me love you. I’ve already heard it twice this morning.”
“Cor,” whined Xander pleadingly.
“Later,” she put him off. “I’m going up there and none of you are coming in until I’m finished having a few words with Angelus.”
A few minutes later, Angelus saw the door open to admit Cordelia carrying a large coffee mug with a straw and a small bottle, which she tucked into the pocket of her sweatpants. “Hey there, brown eyes. How’s the head?”
Considering that Cordelia looked awful chipper for having a hangover of her own, he figured he wasn’t going to let her knew his head was hurting. “Fine,” he growled.
“Comfy?”
“Drop the Happy Hostess routine,” he suggested. “Why are you looking so fresh and alive this morning?”
“You fell asleep, dumbass.”
Angelus denied it. “Not until after I bit you.”
“Kinda hard to drain all of my blood from biting my ass,” she commented with a smirk.
“What? Did not.” Angelus frowned. Maybe he’d just imagined it. “That was just a little lovebite.”
“Pfft! Yeah. The kind I can do without.” She knelt on the floor next to the bed holding out the mug with the straw pointing in his direction. “Drink up. Vampire hangover remedy.”
Angelus hesitantly sipped at the straw tasting warm blood, something spicy and a hint of synthetic drugs. “You put something in my blood?”
“Eew! No, I let Miss Calendar do it,” Cordelia admitted. “It was Giles who suggested the Tabasco and aspirin, though he would as soon let you suffer a little.”
He asked, “What about you?”
“A grumpy vampire makes for a pain in the ass prisoner,” she answered as Angelus drained the mug of its contents. Setting it aside, she pulled the little plastic bottle with its little blue twist-on cap out of her pocket and tossed it onto the bed where he couldn’t see it.
“Speaking of which, your little lovebite isn’t exactly pleasant. I really think the deal included no biting, dammit.”
Giving her a surprised look, Angelus asked, “What deal?”
Leaning as close as she could without being in striking distance should he decide to bite her somewhere else, Cordelia told him, “Guess the deal’s off. The others are all downstairs and now it’s time for a little payback.”
Angelus wondered what the cheerleader had in mind. She rose to her feet and he saw her wince at the move. “Tender? I’ll kiss it better.”
Saying nothing, Cordelia edged down the bed and yanked on the waistband of his sweats to reveal the firm lines of his bottom to her view. “It stings right there,” she smacked her hand down hard on his right cheek.
A rumbling sound emerged from Angelus’ throat at the sensation of her smooth hand on his flesh. It did sting a little…deliciously. He couldn’t decide if this was her version of revenge or if she wanted to play games. Always the optimist, Angelus went for giving her some encouragement, “Oh wow! Hey you’re good at that… do it again, see if it feels the same!”
Gritting her teeth, Cordelia reminded herself that vampires actually got off on a little pain. That had not been her intention at all. “Let’s try something else, hmm?”
Figuring this could be fun especially with the Slayer and her precious Scoobies just a few yards away, he ignored his suspicions and chuckled in agreement. Angelus felt his sex stir from its trapped location against the mattress. Whatever she did to him, he knew he’d find an opportunity to have her in his arms again. Then there would be no more games until he did what he wanted.
Sidetracked by his own thoughts and his lustful imaginings of sinking his fangs into Cordelia’s jugular, Angelus didn’t realize what she was doing until she’d climbed onto the bed and straddled his back. Leaning over, Cordelia chomped down hard on the still red flesh of his bottom.
“Ow! You little bitch that hurt.” Angelus growled in anger that she would dare use that as a form of revenge. He bucked against his shackles, but her thighs were clamped tightly around him.
“Oh, did that hurt?” Cordelia reached for the bottle she’d brought with her. “My teeth marks will fade out in a few hours. Yours will have me sitting on cushions for days. Not to mention the likelihood of a scar.”
Angelus growled at the humiliation of it all. Fuck, she’d make a damn good vampire. He was about to tell her so when Cordelia informed him that she wasn’t finished. “Do I get matching bites?”
“No such luck,” Cordelia said untwisting the cap off of the garlic powder. She’d made sure to bite down hard enough to pierce his skin. “This might sting a little.”
Letting out a yell as his skin reacted to the irritant, Angelus demanded Cordelia wash it off. She merely patted his ass and pulled up the sweat pants before climbing off of him. Her hand trailed up his spine to ruffle his spiky bed-hair. “Now we’re even.”
“Come over here where I can see you,” Angelus kept tight control over his anger. He knew the bite mark wouldn’t heal until he washed away the garlic. In the meantime, it would hurt like hell. Damned if her little act hadn’t impressed him and now Angelus wanted her more than ever.
Cordelia moved to the foot of the bed kneeling so that she was eye to eye with him, a satisfied little smirk on her beautiful face and a wicked glint in her eyes. “The others are gonna come bursting through the door soon if I don’t get back out there.”
Curious, Angelus asked, “Why didn’t they just dust me while they had the chance?”
“We don’t want you dead,” she told him. “Not when Miss Calendar is so close to finding way to return your soul.”
“I don’t want it,” Angelus snapped. “This is all because of you. I had to have you last night. Couldn’t just snap your neck and leave you on the Slayer’s doorstep.”
A deep sigh left her throat, almost silent. She’d come so close to death and chosen to embrace it rather than give in. “I wanted you too,” Cordelia admitted. “Personally, I like my neck intact.”
“That won’t ever be your destiny,” he promised in that deep sounding way that made her shudder. “I should have claimed you last night instead of giving you that little lovebite.”
“That’ll never happen,” Cordelia assured him. “Those manacles are made especially for you. They won’t come off until your soul is safe and secure right where it belongs.”
Maybe it was inevitable. The thought of the soul returning sickened him, but Angelus knew one thing wouldn’t change. “We started something last night and as far as I’m concerned, it isn’t finished. Soul or no soul, you will be mine. Even if it means that you get to cling to your humanity.”
“Human works for me,” Cordelia agreed getting back to her feet.
Angelus figured he had an option or two that Cordelia Chase knew nothing about. “Besides, I like you warm and willing.”
“Things change,” Cordelia doubted he would feel the same once the soul returned no matter his vehemence now. “You’re in love with Buffy.”
That silenced his arguments. Angelus had feeling for the Slayer, but they all involved her mental and physical torture resulting in her eventual death. That wouldn’t be the case when all those touchy-feely emotions came back, he realized.
So how come he felt so strongly about the idea that it would cost him Cordelia? A tight fist gripped at his chest as denial raged inside him.
She was moving toward the door, but he stopped her needing to know if Cordelia had gotten more from her experience with him than a bite on the ass and a need for revenge. “Did I keep my promise, Cordelia? Was it a night to remember?”
Capturing her lower lip between her teeth, Cordelia realized that despite the patchy memories brought on by her inebriated state, being with him was something she would never forget. Especially since Buffy was unlikely to let her.
“When that soul comes back and if you can get over the guilt-trip you’ll no doubt be taking,” Cordelia began, “look me up. You’ve already got an invitation, Angelus.”
The End