Willow and Oz had already climbed into Cordelia’s Corvette, so that left both Giles and Xander sitting in the back with Angelus who thoroughly enjoyed their discomfort at his close presence.
Passing through the main downtown area, Angel pulled over a couple of blocks away from their destination. There was no reason to give their prey a heads up that they were coming. “We’ll let Angelus take the lead,” Buffy announced to the group. “But I want us to stick together in pairs. There is no telling how many vamps we’ll be up against.”
“Excellent idea, Buffy” Giles nodded his consent for the Slayer’s plan. From a purely observational standpoint, this was actually an interesting prospect. A souled vampire and his evil alter ego existing as two separate beings. If it wasn’t for the fact that Giles found it difficult not to stake Angelus every time he looked in the vampire’s direction, this might actually be amusing to watch.
Angel suggested that they split up the group by pairing the weaker fighters with the stronger ones. “What do you think, Angelus? Set up the teams.”
He got to pick? That surprised the vampire who perked up a bit at the idea. “Buff, you can stick with Harris. He needs all the help he can get. The witch can team up with Angel while the Watcher and the werewolf back each other up.”
Realizing that her name hadn’t been called, Cordelia asked with a growing sense of dread, “What about me?”
Angelus’ mouth curled into a leer as his eyes wandered down her taut frame. “Babe, you’re with me. You always did make great vamp bait. That hot little body and your big…,” he dragged his eye up from her breasts, “smile.”
Catching her angry glare, Angelus changed his comment at the last second. Cordelia was not happy with this assignment. Sure, she’d been bait before, but never had she strolled into a vampire lair with the master of evil at her side. Sending a pleading glance in Buffy and Angel’s direction, Cordelia waited for one of them to get the hint. Then she realized they were too busy staring into each other’s eyes.
Cordelia’s irritation overshadowed her fear and she grabbed the sleeve of Angelus’ black leather jacket in order to drag him down the sidewalk at a faster pace. He willingly allowed her to move him. “Let’s get one thing straight, vampire. Part of being one of the good guys means that you look out for your responsibilities. When we walk into that place together just keep in mind that I’m yours.”
Quirking an eyebrow, Angelus responded, “Mine. I could go for that.”
“Your responsibility, dumbass! I’m not ‘YOURS’ yours,” Cordelia let go of his sleeve in disgust.
“There was a time you might have been mine,” Angelus reminded her. “If the Slayer had been late in arriving, I might have had time to do those things we talked about that night.”
“Don’t ever mention that to me again, Angelus, because I will make you regret it.” Cordelia trembled at the memory of it. When he had told her in vivid detail how he planned to take her and when and where he was going to bury his fangs in her tender flesh. Then he had considered turning her, but had taken too much time weighing his options. Buffy’s arrival brought an end to his plotting and she had saved Cordelia from the vampire.
“Yes, I know,” Angelus sounded a little bored. “You already warned me about staking my evil ass. Surely you could be a little more imaginative than that. Later on, maybe we can arrange a little mutual punishment session.”
Cordelia shuddered. “Pervert!”
“What the heck are you two talking about?” Buffy strolled up beside them. She had a few words to say to the vampire before they got any closer to their destination.
“He’s a perv,” Cordelia told the blonde trying not to picture what Angelus might have in mind.
Angelus noted the flush of Cordelia’s cheeks. “We were just discussing the fact that Cordelia would love to get her hands on my ass.”
“Was not!”
“Oh, yeah. You were thinking about it,” the vampire retorted knowingly.
“Was not!”
“Liar.”
Buffy gritted her teeth. This was a nightmare. How in the world were they going to live with Angelus around? Maybe they would only have to see him during major battles. Then they could call him up, he could kill a few demons and that would fulfill his agreement with the Fates.
Unfortunately, that would also leave the evil vampire a lot of free time to wander around Sunnydale causing all kinds of havoc. Between Angel and the Scoobies, they were going to have their work cut out to keep an eye on him. “Angelus, if anyone is going to get their hands on your ass it will be me and that won’t be in any way, shape or form something you’ll enjoy. Try to hurt my friends and I’ll kick you into next week.”
The Slayer stared at him with those huge eyes that carried the seriousness of her words behind their unblinking gaze. Angelus squared off and stared back. He felt the pull of her supernatural being. It called to the demon half of his vampire nature that recognized its ancient enemy. Visions of breaking her neck danced in his head as he looked at her.
“Save the threats, Buff,” he suggested. “I’ll try to save mine. They’re just words.”
“Words can hurt. So I highly suggest you control your nasty tongue before I gag you and chain you to the wall in my basement.”
“Sounds like fun,” Angelus let out a laugh. He loved it. Even the Slayer was stirred up enough to threaten him, but no one could touch him. At least not to kill. Not if they were going to let their precious Angel stick around. He said as much causing Buffy to remind him, “I already sent Angel to hell because of you Angelus. Trust me, there’s one helluva payback coming and I’ll happily provide it.”
Angelus’ amusement died. The Slayer was not joking and the vampire knew that she was capable of following through with her threat. “Just stay out of my way, Slayer. I’ll try to leave your little Scooby Gang alone.”
Satisfied for the moment, Buffy cast a glance in Cordelia’s direction and noted that she actually appeared grateful for the support. Though they had never been the best of friends both teenagers respected that they had their own place in the world. According to Cordelia, the blonde Slayer was the super-chick freak of nature. Buffy still thought of her as the defending champion for the Bitch-of-the-Year Award. It just came so naturally that it was hard to think of Cordelia as having other qualities.
Moving on to the warehouse containing the vampire lair, Angelus assessed the situation with a sharp eye before issuing orders to the various teams. They moved into position as ordered and were to wait until Angelus returned. Facing Cordelia, the vampire told her, “When we go in there, I want you to be that saucy temptation that came into the library the other day. Distract them. I want you practically hanging on to me. Your job is to act like you can’t get enough of me. You’re my pet. Got it?”
“I’m nobody’s pet.” Scrunching up her nose, Cordelia complained, “I usually just bait the trap and run, Angelus. You’re asking for an Oscar-worthy performance.”
“That’s what this is gonna take,” Angelus gave her a low growl. None of the others had questioned his orders. Why was Cordelia mouthing off at him? “If you want to come out of that building alive, I suggest you do as I say. Just try not to scream when I touch you.”
“What do you mean when touch me?” Cordelia’s hazel eyes popped open wide at the idea of Angelus touching her even if she was acting as bait. God, she really hated that. Why did it always have to be her? “There’ll be no touching. Remember what I told you.”
Amused at her mewling threat, “Are we discussing my ass again?”
“My stake is ready,” she warned holding up her weapon to prove she was ready.
Grabbing it out of her hand, Angelus told her, “You can’t go in there with that.”
He tucked her stake into the pocket of his jacket and watched Cordelia start to look a little panicky. Angelus moved them behind the shadowed cover of a stack of old crates placing them out of view of the rest of the gang. Cordelia was looking far too nervous and wouldn’t fool a fledgling into thinking that she would die without his touch.
“This is the part where you don’t scream,” Angelus told her as his hand pressed her back against the brick wall of the warehouse.
Cordelia had only a second to react to the warning before the vampire’s mouth came down to cover hers in a hard, demanding kiss. She was grabbing onto his shoulders and beating her fists against him trying to get him to stop. There were no warning bells going off in his head despite the fact that he had sprung this on Cordelia, so Angelus continued.
“Mmph!” Her muffled protest accompanied the stomping of her foot against his. Angelus just changed tactics.
His hands curved around her to hold her body up close to his, running them slowly up and down her back. Without lifting his mouth away, the vampire altered the tempo of the kiss making it softer feeling her lips swell beneath his. The struggling slowed and Cordelia opened her mouth to take in a breath of air finding that it only gave him the opportunity to move his tongue inside her mouth.
Cordelia’s head was spinning at the sensation of his kiss, of his tongue massaging hers. Then remembering who he was, she bit down in complaint. Angelus only let out a low growl of combined pain and pleasure that made him carry on a little longer than he had planned. Cordelia tasted the coppery tint of blood, but the sensual kisses continued until she was nearly shaking with her response to them.
“That’s better,” Angelus pulled back.
Cordelia punched him in the gut, which only seemed to hurt her hand as it came into contact with his hard body. Whispering madly, she let out a soft complaint, “Ouch! What the hell was that for? Eew! I have vampire blood in my mouth. Gross! Eew!”
“You needed my scent on you before we go in there,” Angelus told her. “Otherwise they’ll figure out we’re lying. I can take out quite a few on my own, but I can’t handle all of them and protect you at the same time.”
“Couldn’t you let me wear your jacket for a couple of minutes? That would have done the same thing.” The vampire shrugged replying that this was just as effective and way more fun. She retorted, “For you.”
Cordelia still felt more than just a little nervous to be standing alone in the shadows with Angelus after he just had his tongue in her mouth. Then there was no more time to think or worry about it as Angelus led them into the building. Doing her part, Cordelia walked close to the vampire and added a sashay to her hips.
Almost immediately they were stopped by a vamp in jeans and a faded t-shirt. “Who the hell are you?”
His eyes left the male vampire to wander distractedly over Cordelia’s curves. Only when his question was answered did his head jerk back up.
“Angelus,” the vampire noted with satisfaction that his name was recognized. A look of awe came over the other vamp’s face. “I’m here to see your master.”
Within a couple of minutes, the entire cadre of vampires had gathered in the room. When their leader entered, it was apparent to Angelus that this would be easier than he thought. He formulated a new plan within seconds of watching his approach. “I am Angelus. Forgive the intrusion, but I’m thinking of moving into the neighborhood and happened upon your lair.”
“I am Trudzinski. This is my territory,” claimed the other vamp. Angelus noted that he continually stole glances at Cordelia who stood with her hands on her hips making her chest stick out even more prominently than usual. “You won’t be moving in on my turf.”
“We should negotiate.” Angelus suggested and reached out to pull Cordelia closer to his side. He heard her heartbeat increase, but outwardly she snuggled closer into his embrace.
“So is she your pet or your peace offering?” the master vampire let his gaze travel across her from head to toe. He even licked his lips in anticipation at the thought. Suddenly, Cordelia was feeling even more nervous and dropped the fake smile. She shifted to look up at Angelus. What the hell was he doing?
Angelus lifted his other hand to curl around Cordelia’s jaw keeping her there so she could not turn her gaze away. Those mercenary eyes were trimmed with gold and stared back at her with hidden depths. She had no clue what he was thinking except that he seemed to be considering the leader’s question.
“I think Cordelia is anything I want her to be,” Angelus commented adding an evil laugh that made her skin crawl.
Trudzinski suggested, “Well I think she’d make a tasty snack.”
Angelus eyed the vampires standing on either side of their master acting as bodyguards. The other fledglings were scattered around the room. “Would you like a taste?”
“What?” Cordelia gasped aloud. “Angelus, are you crazy?”
He yanked her hard against him. “Don’t disrespect your master. You do as I say, got it, babe? If I want you to bare your neck or go down on your knees for me or anyone I say, that is exactly what you will do.”
The master vampire of the warehouse cadre seemed amused by Angelus’ need to control his curvaceous pet. Trudzinski watched as the great vampire had to temper her with soft caresses. These humans were such malleable creatures. With Angelus’ reputation with the ladies, he figured the brunette was so into her master that she didn’t want to be shared. It was certain that she was a succulent specimen.
“No!” Denial screamed from Cordelia’s throat. Angelus seemed determined to throw his chance at a separate existence out the window. This wasn’t part of the plan. This wasn’t in any way, shape or form him being good. “I-I don’t want too.”
Angelus used his strength to pull her struggling form toward Trudzinski. There were tears on her face and fear in her eyes as they got closer. The other vampire scented her fear and his lips curled into a smile. He also scented Angelus on her clothes and smooth skin. Her lips were bruised and swollen, but he noted nothing to indicate recent sex. Maybe the Scourge of Europe wasn’t as much of a stud as his reputation suggested. If this was his pet, Trudzinski figured he wouldn’t even let her get out of bed.
“Please, Angelus,” she was gripping at the edge of his jacket. “Let’s go. Don’t do this.”
Fisting her hair in his hand, Angelus shushed her. “It will all be over soon, Cordelia. Just relax.”
As he vamped out in front of her, Cordelia refused to whimper. Tilting her head, Angelus pressed a trail of cool kisses along her heated neck pausing to lick at the thrumming pulse point. She could feel the pointed scrape of his fangs on her flesh. Cordelia gripped at his jacket and then moved her hand down into his pocket extracting the stake he had tucked away. A large hand covered hers as Angelus wrested it from her before suddenly turning to plunge the stake into Trudzinski’s heart.
Sputtering, Cordelia waved a hand in front of her face as the cloud of vampire dust settled around her. “Eew! Why didn’t you just tell me that was the plan?”
Angelus pulled Cordelia behind him as he took out two more of the vampires that had been standing close by as bodyguards. The other vampires were slowly surrounding them. “This is so not good,” he heard Cordelia whisper as she saw the encroaching vamps.
“Stay where you are,” ordered Angelus in a commanding tone that had the others taking notice. “If your master was worth his salt, then you’ll know who I am. Who was second in charge around here?”
“You dusted him too,” one vamp pointed out.
“That makes it easier on the rest of you,” Angelus commented. “If you’re interested in a chance of surviving the Hellmouth, then you’ll do as I say. This is my town and I know the Slayer’s little tricks all too well.”
After a couple more minutes, the remaining vampires agreed to join Angelus. “Since your leaders are dust, I’ll need an opportunity to evaluate the rest of you to see if you deserve to be in my crew. I don’t tolerate weakness. My fighters need to be strong.”
A female vampire sauntered up to Angelus and sent a glare in Cordelia’s direction. “Are there any other skills you’re interested in testing? I bet I could please you better than that human bitch.”
Angelus backhanded her causing the vamp to fall to the ground. Addressing the entire group, he told them, “As your new master, I will set down rules for you to follow. The most important of which is— do not interfere with my pet. Cordelia is mine. Your old master was fool enough to believe that I would share her. So don’t presume to want her or to take her place in my bed.”
His bed? Talk about presuming too much.
Listening to Angelus’ speech, Cordelia found herself swimming in confusion. She no longer knew whether this was still part of some plan to take out this vampire nest or if Angelus was setting himself up as the vampire kingpin of the warehouse district. If that was the case, Angel was gonna be pissed. His evil alter ego was not playing by the rules.
With the entire room focused on her, Cordelia figured that she wasn’t going to be seen cowering in the corner. She took a confident stance a little closer to the vampire. At least Angelus acted as though he didn’t want her hurt. Unless he was just saving her up as his own tasty dessert. If Angelus was really setting himself up as their new leader, he would be leaving the building with seventeen vampires to back him up.
Could the others handle that? Buffy and Angel could take out a lot on their own, but a whole cadre of vampires swarming around? With Angelus leading them? Cordelia was getting nervous again.
“Everyone outside,” Angelus clapped his hands loudly to usher them along. “Let’s find out who is worthy of being linked to the Order of Aurelius.”
Almost eagerly, the vampires filed out of the building with Angelus and Cordelia waiting until the last vamp had passed through the door. Before she could pass through, Angelus held her back. Noting her worried look, he winked and held out the stake he had taken. A relieved sigh left her lips as Cordelia realized he wasn’t going to betray Angel or the deal they had made with the Fates.
While Cordelia reached for the weapon, Angelus used the distraction to push her back into the room. Stumbling back, she landed on her bottom on the hard cement floor. The door shut soundly behind Angelus as he followed the vampires out of the building. “What are you doing?”
Jumping up, Cordelia ran to the door and tugged at the handle. It was jammed. Angelus had jammed the door shut preventing her from joining the fight. Already, she could hear the sounds of the battle outside. Not that she wanted to fight for her life against a large group of evil vampires, but Cordelia didn’t want her friends to be out there without her.
Cordelia had learned a lot about fighting vampires the summer that Buffy ran away. The Scooby Gang conducted their organized bait and trap missions. It was mostly one vamp at a time and usually by group dusting, but it was more than Cordelia had done before. Until then, her job had simply been cheerleading from the sidelines.
She supposed that was all Angelus remembered. Angel hadn’t really seen her involved in any big vampire dustings or demon battles since the Slayer had returned to pick up the slack. Truthfully, Cordelia was happy to hand over the mission to its rightful owner. She thought the Good Fight was important, but it still interfered with her social life.
“Stubborn vamp,” Cordelia muttered under her breath as she kicked futilely at the steel door. “Just see if I don’t stake you when I get out there.”
Tucking the stake into the belt loop of her pants, Cordelia trudged over to the nearby windows which had been painted black. She couldn’t see outside, but they had handles on them so she figured to try to squeeze outside. “Dammit! They’re painted shut.”
As Cordelia wandered around the warehouse looking for another way out, the group outside was in the thick of battle against the Trudzinski vampires. Angelus had actually thought about trying to convince Angel to let him keep the vamps under his leadership, but figured the Soul wouldn’t go for that one. Reasoning that he had gotten himself into this deal with the Fates by agreeing to be spilt away from Angel, the vampire saw that he had little choice but to comply. Besides, his little show had actually been rather fun.
Half of the vamps were already dust. The working pairs shifted around during the actual melee. Giles and Oz continued to fight together and were quite effective against a duo of the vampires considering that the Watcher was heavily armed with crossbow and stakes. Willow gravitated over toward Xander who found himself the target of a larger number because he was paired up with the Slayer. She used her levitation spell to dust one of the vamps while Xander accidentally fell on a second with his stake after Buffy had knocked him to the ground.
Buffy, Angel and Angelus were more effective as solitary fighters against the crowd. The Slayer tucked, twisted, flipped and quipped her way through four vampires in succession without more than a bruised cheek. The presence of Angel and Angelus cast confusion into the midst of their foes. Legends said a lot about Angelus. Recent rumors down at the demon bars had even suggested he had a soul. Neither legend nor rumor said anything about him having a twin.
The distraction proved deadly as they laid waste to the remaining vamps that dared to stay behind. Two or three of them had opted to escape. Angelus saw one running down the alley between the warehouse and the building next door. He considered going after him when the fleeing vampire suddenly tripped and fell flat on his face. Cordelia appeared from behind a stack of crates and staked the vamp.
Angel stepped up next to Angelus to watch the brunette jog up the alley to meet them. A perturbed look settled on her face as she realized that the battle was over. As the rest of her friends gathered in a haphazard circle, Cordelia heard Buffy ask, “Where have you been?”
“Having a manicure,” Cordelia responded sourly still glaring at Angelus.
Sensing an argument coming, Angel quickly commented, “Looks like the test worked, Angelus. You passed with flying colors.”
“Hah!” Cordelia countered as she glared at Angelus. “You don’t know how close he came to deciding differently.”
As she watched, the corners of Angelus’ mouth quirked up for a brief moment. Oh, yeah. Cordelia knew it. “You’re nothing but a wolf in Angel’s clothing. Evil scum of the vamp world. Don’t ever do that to me again. I’ll be bait if I have too, but don’t ever pretend to want to bite me again.”
“I do want to bite you,” Angelus told her truthfully. “I only pretended I was going to let Trudzinski have a taste.”
“What?” Outraged, Angel turned to his double with a fierce stare.
“I had to get close enough to the master vampire to stake him,” shrugged Angelus as if the fact was nothing to be concerned about.
Even Buffy sounded concerned, asking, “Are you okay, Cor?” She knew what Angelus could be like. Although it was interesting that the evil vampire had locked Cordelia up rather than letting her join the fray.
“She’s fine,” Angelus barked at the Slayer. Then he stepped up to make certain of the fact for himself. “Aren’t you?”
Cordelia nodded, but flinched slightly as his hand came up to her face. It was smudged with dirt from the duct she had used to escape. Turning her head, Angelus saw a thin line of blood where his fangs had superficially scraped against her throat. It must have welled up afterward because he hadn’t even gotten a chance to taste her.
His tongue swept across his lips in a subconscious reaction. One that wasn’t lost on Cordelia.
“Get your vamp paws off me,” she slapped his hands away. “I’m going home now. I’m going to take a long hot shower and scrub every inch of skin that you touched.”
Pushing past the vampire, she headed off in the direction they had parked the cars. Since there were still a couple of unaccounted for vampires on the loose, the group followed behind her. Willow called out, “Cor, don’t forget us. You’re our ride.”
Oz and Willow ran to catch up since Cordelia was setting a fast pace down the sidewalk.
“You’ve got some nerve, vampire,” Xander frowned at Angelus. “You’re here because of a deal you set and have specific rules to follow, yet you push the edge.”
“That’s what existence is all about,” the vampire answered him before walking away. He called over his shoulder to Angel, “I’ll be back at the mansion before sunrise.”
Giles let out a long sigh as Angelus departed. “Thank goodness he’s gone. That was the most nerve-wracking experience.”
As Xander and Giles walked ahead, the Slayer and her souled vampire boyfriend lagged behind. Angel was quite pleased with Angelus performance with the exception of how he had used Cordelia as bait. No doubt this was going to be a challenge to manage, but he would rather deal with Angelus face to face knowing that he had behavioral restraints than going back to the way it was before.
“I still can’t believe that you did this,” Buffy ranted at Angel. “You’ve given Angelus his own life. Do you have any idea what babysitting him is going to be like? He’s out there right now doing who knows what.”
Angel took her hand. Reminding her, “I did this for us, Buffy. There are risks, but I hope it’s worth it. We can be together without the pressure of losing my soul.”
“There’s a difference?” Buffy huffed. “I suppose there is. I still get to have you around, but I get the torture of Angelus at the same time.”
“Angelus won’t be back home until the last minute,” guessed Angel. “He’ll want to check things out. Make contact down at Willy’s place.”
“So not a good idea to let him loose like this. We should lock him up and throw away the key.”
Angel almost laughed. “That was what Cordelia told me.”
“When was that?”
“In the library,” Angel admitted seeing nothing wrong with telling her the truth. “She was there while I was researching the curse.”
“Oh?”
Noting the fact that Buffy had stopped cold and was facing him, Angel realized that she was looking a little jealous. “What’s that look for?”
“Nothing. It’s just… Angelus seems to have taken an unhealthy interest in Cordelia rather quickly. He’s barely looked at me except to snarl at me,” Buffy pointed out.
“Angelus thinks of you as the enemy.”
“He paid a lot more attention to me the last time he got loose,” she frowned at the thought of it. “God, I sound jealous of Angelus. See how wrong that is? He’s not even you. Never was. Just looked like you.”
Angel watched her inner struggle as it showed in her face. “Angelus has my memories as I have his. He was obsessed with you, Buffy. All he thought about was revenge.”
She asked, “What’s to stop him from trying it again? The last time wasn’t pleasant.”
As they started walking again, Angel had to admit, “I can’t predict his behavior. There are a few things I can guess at because I remember how he thinks, but as to what he’ll do now that he has a totally separate life from mine— I just don’t know.”
Buffy wondered, “Do you think we should follow him?”
“I have a better idea,” Angel suddenly realized, “we have the mansion to ourselves until dawn.”
Now that her anger over Angelus was subsiding a bit, Buffy realized that her body was still singing its post-Slayage song. “How fast can we dump Giles and Xander?”
“Fast.”