Part 8
Buffy Summers glanced one way down the hall and then the other noting with a sense of satisfaction that it was empty. Everyone was in their classes and the hall monitor was not in sight. Stealthily, she made her way to the library.
Giles had been late arriving at school this morning. A tardy Giles was a sign of a forthcoming apocalypse to be certain, but he had not been there this morning when Buffy stopped in to talk to him about what she saw last night.
Not that she planned to give her Watcher all of the shocking details, but just enough to let him know that Cordelia was back in town. No doubt she brought trouble with her. Angel had wasted no time falling under her spell.
It hurt to think about it. Really hurt. After all of the love and care she had given Angel upon his return and despite his determination to be just friends, the fact that he was making love to Cordelia within five minutes of seeing her again was like a stake through the heart— her own crumbling broken one.
Entering the library, she realized that Giles had to be in his office. Calling out to him, she sighed in relief as he appeared. God, she had to get this off her chest.
“Giles—,” she began only to notice that, “you look like hell.”
Her Watcher looked rumpled and sleepy-eyed, holding his glasses in his hand and rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Thank you for pointing out the obvious, Buffy.”
“What’s wrong with you?” She approached him cautiously hoping that this was not the result of another set-back in mourning Jenny Calendar. Though it had been over a year, Giles occasionally fell back into periods of depression. Buffy knew that Angel’s return had set off the latest bout although she thought that had subsided.
“The most damnable thing,” Giles began, his puzzled expression revealing this was not a Jenny-related issue. “I’ve been awake half of the night.”
“Researching?”
“No. Answering crank calls,” he admitted with a shrug. “Every time I got back to sleep the telephone would ring and it would be some giggling idiot saying the most insane things.”
Buffy was curious. School librarians weren’t normally the targets of prank callers. Mr. Snyder the school principle— definitely, but not Giles. “What kind of things?”
“Things that are not worth repeating they are in such bad taste,” Giles popped his glasses back on. As the room and Buffy came back into focus, he realized, “Shouldn’t you be in class?”
“Hmm. Is that the place you go when the bell rings and a teacher tries to force you to learn things you’ll never need to know again?” Buffy paused at his irritated look although that might simply be left over from his sleepless night. “Yeah, but I have a hall pass to the bathroom.”
“Which you used to sneak in here,” Giles nodded his understanding even if it did not meet with his approval.
Nodding, Buffy admitted it. “We need to talk.”
“It couldn’t wait until lunchtime?”
Giles didn’t stop long enough to wait for her response. He turned and went back into his office with Buffy following behind. “There’s stuff I have to tell you. It’s about—.”
“Mr. Giles! Are you in here?” The overly loud sound of Principle Snyder’s voice echoed from the doorway.
Buffy didn’t want to be caught outside class even if she did have a hall pass. She waved Giles out of the office and crouched under his desk. Though the action seemed a little like overkill to the librarian, Giles stepped out to the main section of the library to greet his odiously irksome boss. The man once told Buffy that he was judge, jury and executioner as far as she was concerned. No doubt Snyder would pull out all the stops to give Buffy detention or suspension if he found her out of class.
Trying to sound chipper, Giles greeted the man. “Good morning, Principle Snyder.”
“Wipe the grin off your face,” Snyder returned with a tight-lipped expression. “I have received three very disturbing calls from concerned parents this morning.”
“Oh?” Surprised, Giles wondered if any of the demonology books had slipped out of the library when he wasn’t looking. Parents tended to be a bit off-put about them. Normally, they remained in the school purely for reference.
“What can you tell me about your relationship with Cordelia Chase?”
Giles blinked, reminding the principle, “Cordelia went missing nearly a year ago. It was rumored that her parents took her out of the country.”
What was Giles supposed to say? That Cordy was a vampire whose sire had nearly killed him and sucked the world into hell?
“That tells me nothing. I asked about your relationship to her while she was a student here at Sunnydale High,” Snyder gave Giles the full in-your-face intimidation mode despite his smaller stature. There was just something about the man that reminded him of a Nazi commandant with trollish tendencies.
“Cordelia was a student who rarely checked out a book.”
“I meant your personal relationship.”
Giles was getting wary. He was suddenly connecting this interrogation with the crank calls he received last night. Someone was out there spreading rumors about him and— Cordelia Chase. “That is a ridiculous notion! C-Cordelia Chase? She was the girlfriend of one of my— uh, research assistants.”
“I know all about your after school activities,” Snyder told him. “Late nights here in the library with your little Crime Club. I should put an end to that. It’s not an official school club and its members seem to have dwindled over the past year. Down to two, if I’m not mistaken.”
Giles wondered, did the man have eyes in the back of his knobby little head? He had to admit, “Yes, just Buffy and Willow.”
“Summers and Rosenberg.” The principle actually bared his teeth with a semblance of a snarl. “The trouble-maker and her eager sidekick.”
Giles was going to protest that description when Snyder added with another sneer, “Both young impressionable girls like Cordelia Chase.”
That wasn’t exactly how Giles would describe any of them, but Snyder was obviously on a tear. “Just hold on one minute, Mr. Snyder. I get the feeling that you are accusing me of something terrible. Tell me what it is so I can get back to work.”
“The calls I received indicated that you were involved with Ms Chase.”
“Involved?”
“Sexually involved,” the principle lifted an eyebrow. Then he added, “With a minor. A student.”
Giles was flabbergasted. As he stumbled around for an answer, Snyder heard a sound coming from the office. He started to move around the librarian to check it out, but Giles backpedaled into the small room and sat down in his chair. Buffy leaned back as far as she could get seeing Giles lower legs swivel the chair around so that his body blocked her from the principle’s view.
“I can assure you, Mr. Snyder,” Giles tossed his glasses down on his desk and was back at rubbing away the tension gathered between his eyes, “that I have never touched any student that way. Certainly not Cordelia Chase.”
Snyder continued to poke about the office looking at the books and piles of notes atop the desk. His gaze moved to the floor which was equally covered in piles of books. Then he noticed a brightly colored piece of laminated paper recognizable as a hall pass caught under the wheels of the librarian’s desk chair.
“That’s not what she had to say,” Snyder revealed.
“What? Cordelia is in town?” Surprise sounded in his voice, but it only made Snyder more suspicious. As he leaned down to take the hall pass— which the librarian should not have— he added, “Several students saw her at the Bronze last night. She is apparently here to see you.”
Letting out a long sigh, Giles told the principle, “I received several crank calls last night which could be related. I’m thinking that someone’s bad prank has developed into a bad situation.”
With an indeterminate grunt, Snyder thought about the possibilities. There were quite a few bad apples he could think of that might be capable of pulling this off. If it was only a prank, he would track down the jokester and have the kid out on his ear. He’d just bypass suspension altogether and go straight for expulsion. Maybe there would even be more than one. Snyder was almost smiling at the thought as he bent down to pick up the hall pass.
Catching sight of soft blonde hair in the shadows under the desk, Snyder recognized the girl it was attached to. Then he was smiling with the grim knowledge that he had been right all along. There was add apple involved, just not how Rupert Giles had suggested. “
“Well, well, well,” Snyder sounded almost smug, “if it isn’t Miss Summers.”
“Buffy,” Giles gasped aloud having almost forgotten her presence due to the shock he had just received. Now he knew why she was so anxious to see him. No doubt she had gotten the news that Cordelia was back in town.
“That is an interesting position you’re in, Missy,” Snyder commented then looked up at Giles with disgust. “What is that you were saying about never touching students?”
“No, no! You have it all wrong,” Giles was turning red and looking guilty at the same time, which wasn’t helping his case.
Buffy crawled out from under the desk instantly taking on a defensive stance in front of her Watcher. “Giles would never do that. He’s a good man, not some letch that preys on high school girls.”
“Of course you’d deny it, Summers,” Synder pointed out. “If this is so innocent, tell me why you are under the desk.”
“…”
“Ha!”
Grabbing the laminated card from his hand, Buffy waved it in his face, “I had a hall pass. I was skipping class and then ran in here to hide from you.”
“Get back to class, Summers,” ordered Snyder not believing a word of it. “We will talk later. As for you, Mr. Giles, I think it’s time we took this discussion to my office.”
***
“I think Giles is in major trouble,” Buffy told Willow at lunchtime.
Willow sipped at her chocolate milk. “Why do you say that? Has the Council complained about his training techniques again?”
“No. It’s nothing to do with them,” Buffy pushed the food around on her plate having not taken a single bite. “Principle Snyder dragged him to his office this morning after some ridiculous accusations of sleeping with students.”
Willow choked on a bite of her food and managed to cough out, “What?!”
“Yeah. I’m one of them,” the Slayer wondered how she was going to get out of this one without her mother finding out. Though it was probable that her mom would believe her, if Snyder got hold of her first there was no telling what she would do.
“That’s stupid,” Willow set her milk carton down on the table. “I mean you do spend a lot of time alone with Giles, but he’s not the type to take advantage or anything. Who put that idea into Snyder’s head?”
“I have my suspicions,” Buffy grumbled. “Snyder kept mentioning Cordelia as the prime victim.”
“Cordy?” That came as a shock to Willow. Just going on rumors and innuendo, she’d have to believe that Giles and Buffy would be doing it long before Cordelia ever got into the picture. Not that she believed it. As Buffy’s Watcher, Giles had a uniquely special relationship with the Slayer and Willow knew that he was just not Cordelia’s type.
No, Willow knew exactly what type Cordelia Chase preferred and it was currently tall, dark, handsome and brooding.
“How did that rumor get started?” Willow asked tentatively. She wasn’t really certain that she wanted the blame placed in the direction it was likely to go.
“Cordelia is back in Sunnydale. Vamp Superbitch showed up at the Bronze last night not long after you left,” an angry flush crept over Buffy’s cheeks.
Willow gasped at the reference. “I know, but it’s not very nice to say that about Cordy.”
Buffy stared at her friend like she had suddenly grown two heads. “Cordelia murdered Xander and tried to kill me. Why the hell would I want to be nice to her?”
“You went after her, Buffy,” countered Willow as though it was obvious. “Besides, you told me that Cordy was only defending herself against Xander. That he had a crossbow. It was Xander’s fault that he got killed.”
Grabbing up Willow’s half-empty milk carton, Buffy asked, “What drug have you been drinking?”
“Chocolate?”
“Lay off the stuff,” suggested Buffy. “It’s giving me the wiggins hearing you talk about Queen Slut that way. You should have seen her last night with Angel.”
“I did see them.”
Buffy doubted they were talking about the same thing. There was no indication of a blush on Willow’s ivory skin. Even now, Buffy felt herself getting angry. Not only at the two vampires, but at herself for getting aroused by the sight.
“When was that?” Buffy had gotten out of the alley as soon as her brain freeze ended.
“Last night at the mansion.”
Sitting up straight, Buffy was agape at the news that Willow had gone over there without her. Then the implication hit. “Cordelia was at Angel’s house?”
Willow shrugged, “Where else would she be? I don’t think Community Property Laws apply to vampires, but it’s sort of her house too.”
“Is Angel trying to lose his soul?” From what she saw in the alley, Buffy figured Angel didn’t really care. If Cordelia was at the mansion, she doubted that it was to borrow the couch. “So why were you at my ex’s house?”
“Cordy asked me to help her set up her computer network,” Willow explained as she scoffed down the last of her lunch. The bell was about to ring and she had a test the next period.
Buffy let out a laugh. “Cordelia owns a computer? Do you think she remembers how to turn it on?”
“Oh, she won’t be using it,” Willow told her standing and picking up her tray. “Jude told me that was his job. He’s really smart, but networking apparently isn’t his thing.”
“Who’s Jude?”
Buffy was following Willow back to the tray disposal area of the cafeteria. “Hmm? Jude is one of Cordy’s minions. She has five— all hunks of course. Cordelia always had good taste in men. Well— vamps in this case.”
As her full lunch tray dropped to the ground covering her shoes in macaroni and cheese, Buffy stared at the redhead. “Cordelia has minions?”
The bell sounded ending the lunch period. Willow glanced down at Buffy’s shoes. “Sorry Buffy, but I have to run.”
“I’ll see you after school, okay?” Buffy bent down to pick up the spilled food. “We can talk to Giles about all this and see what Snyder told him.”
Willow shook her head. “Uh. I can’t.”
“This is Giles we’re talking about,” Buffy ignored the food and her shoes and stood up to face Willow who kept looking over her shoulder like she wanted to escape. “We can’t let Cordelia sweep into town and steal Angel or ruin Giles’ reputation without getting back at her.”
“…”
“Willow?”
“Test. Now. Going now.”
***
It was mid-afternoon when Cordelia opened her eyes. She was lying sideways on the couch half on top of Angel, both of them stretched out naked. After what must have been her fifth orgasm time last night they had fallen asleep in each other’s arms too exhausted to climb the stairs.
Angel was already awake and watching her, she sensed his attention directed upon her. Was he brooding about what happened or as delighted to have her back as she was to have him in her arms? It could go either way with that pesky soul in place. Why hadn’t the stupid curse kicked in? There was definite bliss going on if the look on that roguishly handsome face had anything to say about it.
Try and try again, an inward giggle sounded in her head. Oh, yeah. She could definitely handle that. Cordelia looked up to see a sparkle in his warm chocolate gaze that actually surprised her. She would have bet on the brooding. Her mate greeted her with a soft kiss on her forehead, “Hello, tigress.”
“Hello, my Angel,” Cordelia smiled taking a line from Dru’s book. That was how the other vampiress liked to refer to their sire. My Angel. It sounded right. Good thing Dru was a thousand miles away right now. Throwing her leg over his, Cordy curled her arm around his chest and lowered her face back into the comfortable crook of his shoulder.
“Are we going to get up anytime soon?” Angel asked her as he ran a hand along the arm that held him.
“No,” Cordy refused to be rushed away from this as she snuggled closer into his chest.
They lay together in silence for a while until Cordelia suddenly started to laugh. It started out with only a hint of a giggle and then rolled into an endless stream of amusement. She lifted her head again and Angel caught the megawatt grin that always jolted him from his solar plexus to his groin. Warily, he asked, “What’s so funny?”
“Something you said to me last night,” Cordelia leaned over to nibble on his earlobe.
“What were we doing when I said this?” His frown deepened. “Hopefully not having sex, because that would just be too much on my fragile ego.”
Snort! “You’ve never had a fragile ego, Angel. Alter-ego or otherwise. Besides, the way you make me cum— you’ve got nothing to worry about in that department.”
“Glad you admit it,” he smirked.
“Dumbass.” Swinging herself on top of Angel so that she was sitting back on his upper thighs with his stirring loins in front of her, Cordelia traced her fingers over his sculpted torso. Then she reminded him before they got sidetracked, “Back to the funny. We were arguing about Willow last night.”
Angel vaguely remembered the conversation. He was too busy thinking about the feel of Cordelia’s hands on him again and the direction those wandering fingers were taking. “I said something?”
“Uh huh.” Cordelia leaned her body down across his letting out a sigh at the sensation of her breasts pressing down against his hard chest. It combined with the upward thrust of his rapidly growing erection beneath the soft curve of her belly. “You told me my place was in your bed— with you. That neither one of us would be sleeping on this couch.”
“How was I to know the couch had such good possibilities?” Angel grinned back at her. “We’ll try out the bed later.”
***
“Mom!” Buffy called out after opening the studio door with more strength than it called for. The door banged loudly against the back panel shaking the shatterproof glass in the frame.
Startled by the noise and the sound of her daughter’s distressed voice, Joyce Summers held a hand to her chest and met the equally surprised faces of the two clients she was with. Offering them a smile of apology, she asked, “Would you excuse me for just a moment?”
The two looked rather irritated that their discussion had been interrupted, but did they really have a choice in the matter? The female rolled her eyes, “Teenagers.”
“Buffy, what is going on? School isn’t over for the day. Are you okay?” Joyce took hold of Buffy’s shoulders and gave her the once over. It was a little early in the day for Slayer problems. No signs of bruises or other nasty wounds.
“No, I’m not okay. I need to talk to someone,” Buffy’s eyes were pleading.
Joyce felt her throat tighten up. “You’re coming to me?”
A flash of guilt racked Buffy at the sound of her mother’s astonishment. So the two of them had never been much for sharing. In fact, Buffy had gone out of her way to keep secrets from her mother until she no longer had a choice in the matter. With both Giles and Willow not only out of the picture this afternoon, but part of the problem, her mom was the only one left to confide in. Telling her that she was the last option was so not the thing to do right now.
“Yeah, Mom. Do you have time?”
“I always have time for you, Buffy,” Joyce told her hoping that her daughter realized it was the truth.
Turning to her clients, Joyce told them that there was an emergency and she needed to close the studio for the rest of the afternoon. “If you come back tomorrow, I’m certain that I can evaluate the artifact then.”
The man gazed down at the box in his hands, “Maybe I should leave it here so you can look at it later tonight?”
“No,” Joyce told him. “The studio can’t take on that liability without signed documents and I’m afraid that I don’t have time for that at the moment. Please come back tomorrow. My partner is also going to be here then, so if I can’t help you he will be happy to do so.”
The clients exchanged a look that was missed by Joyce, but her daughter stared at them suspiciously. Her Slayer instincts were tingling. Then again, she had the wiggins all day long, so it could have been overkill. Meeting her gaze, the two made a quick exit out the front door.
“They were creepy,” Buffy commented glad they were gone.
Joyce sighed as she watched the two disappear out the door. “Just a couple of foreign art dealers— from Mexico, I think.”
“Have they been around before?”
“No,” Joyce told her. Refocusing her thoughts, she closed and locked the door flipping over the sign that indicated the studio was no longer open for business. Asking Buffy to tell her what was troubling her, Joyce took her back to the office.
“I-I don’t know where to start.”
Buffy let it all spill out in one long confusing sentence, “Cordy is back, Angel is all over her, Giles’ job is down the toilet, Willow is weird and now I’m gonna have to stake her minions.”
“Willow has minions?” Joyce asked catching on to the last thing Buffy had said. “What exactly are minions?”
Grmph! “Cordelia’s minions not Willow’s,” she clarified. “Cordelia is back in Sunnydale and brought her fledgling vampires with her. They’re the minions— her formerly human now undead followers.”
“Oh.” Joyce let that sink in a moment. Yes, she had forgotten for a moment that Cordelia Chase was now a vampire. There were just some things Joyce tried really hard to forget. “What does that have to do with Willow?”
“She can’t stop jabbering about Cordelia.”
That didn’t seem unusual. “Willow tends to jabber.”
“Not in a nice way about the evil vampire who killed her lifelong friend,” Buffy pointed out. “She’s going over to the mansion to help Cordelia with her computer thingy.”
Joyce was still somewhat confused about the whole Slayer/Vampire reality. “That seems odd, unless Cordelia has turned over a new leaf. Maybe she is like Angel and has a soul now.”
How long had Buffy spent trying to convince her mother that Angel was a good vampire even though he took her virginity and was evil for a time? Joyce knew that Angelus had been the one stalking Buffy and killing her friends. She had never liked the tall handsome man— vampire. Sometimes a mother’s instincts were on-target. Recently, after nearly a year, Angel had returned to Sunnydale with his soul intact and was back in Buffy’s good graces. That left knots in her stomach.
“No! Cordelia doesn’t have a soul,” Buffy assured her, “she’s just evil. And Angel won’t have one much longer if the bastard keeps it up.”
Literally, she added with a silent scowl.
Thinking back to what little information Buffy had explained to her at the time, Joyce knew that her daughter’s former boyfriend had become evil again once his soul left his body. He had killed Cordelia Chase and turned her into a vampire like himself. The pair left a bloody trail of victims across Sunnydale including one of Buffy’s teachers and Xander Harris. One night, Buffy had returned home both triumphant and somewhat sad while revealing that she had defeated the vampiress. Misery followed soon after when Angel disappeared from Buffy’s life. It was a subject that Buffy would not talk about and Joyce had decided to respect her daughter’s wish thinking that the vampire had left town.
Now both vampires were back in Sunnydale causing her daughter anguish. Joyce felt the anger rise up in her at the thought that Buffy had to be mixed up in this dark, dangerous underworld.
“So are you suggesting that Cordelia came back for Angel?”
“What?! No.” Buffy stopped suddenly. “How would she know he was back?”
Joyce looked startled. “You’re asking me? I know nothing about the creatures other than seeing Interview with a Vampire. Maybe they have some psychic mental connection or powers like Dracula.”
“Get real, Mom.” Buffy rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “This is just Sunnydale, not a movie theater. Dracula doesn’t exist and while Tom and Brad make very hot vampires, I haven’t seen much of their kind around these parts— except Angel.”
“It always comes back to him, doesn’t it?” Joyce covered her daughter’s hand giving it a gentle squeeze. First love was supposed to be sweet, tender and memorable not twisted and wrong and evil. She would never forgive Angel for that no matter that he had a soul.
“After all I’ve done to help him, Angel ran off last night with Cordelia. She had the nerve to come to the Bronze. Can you believe it?” Buffy looked incensed at the idea.
Joyce had no opinion on the vampiress appearing at the club, although she supposed that Buffy considered that her territory. She did have words to say about Angel, though Joyce figured she had better keep her opinion to herself on being thrilled at the idea that there was someone else to distract the vampire away from her daughter.
“Maybe Angel and Cordelia are supposed to be together,” Joyce dared to suggest. “They are both vampires, after all. When he didn’t have his soul, weren’t they together?”
“She is Angelus’ childe,” Buffy ground her teeth together. “His creation. His mate.”
Oh, that actually sounded promising. Joyce couldn’t find fault with that. “So Angel is just back with his— wife?”
“Vampires don’t marry,” Buffy pointed out. “They mate through blood rituals. They claim each other for as long as the dominant vampire wants to keep the relationship.”
“What happens when it’s over?” Joyce was suddenly curious. Her daughter learned so much about these creatures. Most of it was downright scary and straight out of a horror film, but her personal interest in ancient art and cultures found a few tidbits fascinating.
“One of the vamps— usually the female— is given to the lower ranking members of the clan, kicked out of the lair or staked.”
Joyce sat there with a strange look on her face. “And I thought divorcing your father was horrible, but that would be hell.”
Snorting, Buffy knew that her mother didn’t know half of it. “Vamp Cordy is evil and she deserves what she gets for her part in Xander’s death.”
“What about Angel’s part?”
“That was Angelus!” Buffy snapped then lowered her voice as she remembered it was her mom that she was yelling at. “Angel has a soul.”
“Humans with souls do evil things everyday,” Joyce pointed out.
“Not Angel.”
No, apparently Buffy thought he ran around town with wings and a halo. Joyce decided that it was time to ask her daughter, “What are you so concerned about, Buffy? That you will have to face Cordelia again and bring an end her existence for good? Or that Angel wants to be with his mate instead of you?”
Launching herself out of the chair, Buffy never noticed as it hit the floor behind her. The stinging sound of her mother’s words kept ringing in her ears. Without responding, Buffy ran out of the office and struggled with the locked door. Throwing it open, she dashed out into the street and kept running.
Back in the studio office, Joyce Summers let out a long sigh and then realized there was one subject they had not gotten around to discussing. What was it that Buffy had said about Rupert Giles? Something about his job being in jeopardy? While Mr. Giles was not particularly on her list of favorite people as he constantly kept pushing Buffy into danger, he did his best to keep her safe as well. Not to mention the fact that Buffy treated him like a father-figure in the absence of her own.
She was about to pick up the phone and call Mr. Giles when it rang beneath her hand. It gave her a start causing Joyce to lurch dangerously in her chair. “Haven’t I had enough torment today?”
Answering the telephone with the usual opening greeting for the studio, she added, “This is Joyce Summers. How may I help you?”
“Ah, Mrs. Summers,” the voice was instantly recognizable as the principle of Sunnydale High School.
“Mr. Snyder.” Her stomach clenched into knots in reaction to his voice.
“There is something we need to discuss right away concerning your daughter.”
It was probably the fact that Buffy had skipped out on her afternoon classes. Still, Joyce wasn’t going to give away the fact that she had seen her. Snyder would give his eyeteeth to catch Buffy in doing something wrong. Joyce tried to sound clueless, “Her history grades?”
“No.”
“Chemistry?”
“Not the kind of chemistry a teenager should be learning from one of her teachers, Mrs. Summers,” Snyder added with a sneer in his voice. “I think you should come down to the school right away. I know that it is still during your business hours, but this is important.”
“Actually, I have already closed up shop for the afternoon.” Joyce told him. “I’ll be at the school in about twenty minutes.”
“Good. I’ll be waiting.”
