12: Parkdale Cemetery, Central Sunnydale
“Ooh! Look out,” Cordelia’s muttered warning was far too soft for either Angel or his foes to hear as she fell into the familiar role of sideline cheerleader. “Ha! Go Angel! Take him out. Dust him! Dust him!”
There was a fluid grace to his movements despite the fury of the battle. Angel kept moving, forcing the other vampires to adjust their positions. He had dusted one and blocked a punch in one smooth motion of his arms.
The fearful butterflies swirling in her stomach dissipated as Cordelia’s confidence grew with each passing moment. Angel was enjoying this fight. He had them right where he wanted them, at his mercy. Only he had none for them and they knew it.
“Get him. Watch out for the— ouch, that had to hurt,” Cordelia cringed as one of the vampires got in a hard upper cut to Angel’s jaw. What did that guy think he was doing? Now Angel looked pissed. The vampire exploded into a cloud of dust a moment later. “Duh, dead guy. You should’ve run when you had the chance.”
Bass tones sounded a warning in her ear, “Perhaps you should heed your own advice,” just before a hand closed over her shoulder.
Cordelia let out a scream that caused Angel and his two remaining opponents to pause in the middle of their fight to look her way. It was on again in seconds, and as Cordelia was swung around, she could no longer see Angel, only the very evil-looking face of the vampire who had her in his clutches.
He looked huge, as tall as Angel and just as broad-shouldered, though he had nothing on him in the hottie department. There was a green tint to his dead flesh, a sinful sneer on his face as he wrapped his hand around her throat and lifted her up onto her toes.
“Angelus is foolish to leave his pet alone in such a place.” He leaned in close to rub his cheek against her hair and buried his nose into its silken depths to scent her. He used his free hand to squeeze her ass, moving it up before she could do more than squirm against him to test the weight of a breast. “Mmm, you are perfection. My master will be pleased to sire you into our ranks.”
Whether his words or his touch acted to jolt her into action, Cordelia had no idea. She simply reacted. Her knee lifted sharply connecting with the vampire’s groin. Like any human male, he shouted in pain and fury, instantly releasing her as he doubled over.
Cordelia forgot about the stake in her hand. Instinct took her directly toward Angel despite the fact that he was still grappling with his last two opponents. She looked back over her shoulder expecting the creepy vampire to come after her, but he was not there. Panicking, Cordelia whirled around again, still moving, trying to see where he had gone.
Her foot caught on something. She was falling and the sound of her cry pierced the air. Cordelia heard Angel call out her name, but she could not see him. Dirt and darkness surrounded her as she lay stunned. Horror rose up as déjà vu hit: lying under the stairs in that small dark space.
“Angel?” Her voice was hoarse from where the vampire had held her throat. Oh, God this was not happening.
Cordelia realized she was in a grave. The broken lid of a coffin lay shattered amid the torn satin lining. She moved her hands, somehow knowing that the occupant of the coffin was already gone. Actually relieved by that thought, she stood on the exposed edge of the coffin and struggled to pull herself up out of the grave.
“Are you okay?” Angel moved over to help her up despite the fact that he was still in the middle of the fight.
“Behind you!”
As if he had known the vampire was there all along, Angel whirled, stake in hand, to plunge it deep into his chest with perfect accuracy. It crumbled into dusty ashes that fluttered to the ground. Cordelia waved at the air trying to stop the dust from settling into her hair.
Angel lifted her to her feet and stepped back to check her out for injuries. She was making an awful lot of noise for someone who was not physically hurt.
“Eew! Oh God. Yuck. I’m covered in grave dirt,” Cordelia was close to tears as she held out the corner of her silk blouse for his inspection. There was a dark smudge just below her right breast. “Is that a blood stain?”
Glancing down, he realized she was right. A sick feeling swept over him at the thought that she had been injured and Angel swiftly moved her hands aside, no longer settling for a visual inspection. His fingers slipped beneath the edge of the blouse, spreading out in search of her injury. When the heat of her skin touched him, Angel nearly jerked away. The little gasp in his ear should have told him he was taking his concern too far, but it did not stop him.
“You’re okay,” his relief was apparent, as he found no broken skin. His thumb brushed softly against the edge of her scar before his hands dropped back down to his side.
Cordelia appeared annoyed by rather personal inspection. “I didn’t say the blood was mine, dumbass. That creep touched me. He must’ve had blood on his hands.”
Considering the location of the smudge, it was not hard for Angel to guess what he had been touching. His jaw tightened in anger. He had heard her scream, but been unable to get to her. The bastard must have groped her right before she kneed him in the groin.
“You should’ve staked him,” Angel counseled despite a strange sense of pride in the fact that she had done well to escape him at all.
“If I ever see that guy again, he’s dust,” Cordelia said as she spotted her stake lying on the ground next to the edge of the grave. “He obviously doesn’t know how much it costs to get stains out of clothes like this.”
Angel was not about to go there. He had had a difficult enough time a couple of hours ago trying to change the subject when Cordelia had started talking about Vera Wang’s Fall Collection. Apparently, clothing was a big thing.
Luckily, she changed it herself by focusing in on something the vampire had said to her. “Hey, he recognized you, called you Angelus.”
That did not really surprise him. There were a few loosely formed vampire clans here in Sunnydale, some of which had links back to Europe. Anyone who was still around from a year ago had probably heard all about his soulless stint, and so it was just as likely that rumors of his return were already widespread.
“That suggests he’s been around for a while,” Angel commented as he inspected the grave at their feet. There was no relic inside the open coffin.
Cordelia added sourly, “He called me your pet.”
Angel quickly hid his amusement behind a blank expression and chose to search the gravesite for any sign that it had a link to the prophecy.
“No one ever calls Buffy your pet,” she complained.
Glancing at her from the corner of his eyes, Angel kept silent on the subject. It was probably better not to tell her that most vampires had a very different kind of reaction when faced with the slayer. Finding a beautiful, curvaceous young woman like Cordelia in his company probably led to a few natural assumptions even if they had no basis in reality.
“Try to stay focused,” Angel said when she did not seem to want to drop the subject. “This is the closest we’ve come tonight to meeting the prophecy criteria.”
The translation was pretty rough, or so Giles told them, but the gist of it seemed clear enough.
Walking dead amongst the stones,
the hour of darkness is at hand.
A bloodied relic made of bones;
Awakening followers throughout the land.
Cordelia jumped back on board with a quick comment, “Hey, that new vamp you dusted could be considered an awakening.”
“I never touched him.” Angel realized he had been wrong in assuming that Cordelia’s fall had pushed the rising fledgling against one of the coffin shards. “He must have gotten out before you fell.”
Gripping her stake a little tighter, Cordelia looked around at the edge of the graveyard trying to spot the vampire that got away. The deep gong of the clock tower at City Hall caught their attention as it began to sound out twelve strokes. “There he is!”
Angel turned to see the lone figure opening up the front door to the building to walk inside. City Hall should have been locked up, but it was not. The only lights came from the tower itself. “This is it,” he told Cordelia and grasped her hand to pull her along behind him.
“Too fast! Watch the super-speed,” Cordelia reminded him. He let go, but warned her to stay close. He did not want anything else to happen to her tonight.
They caught up with the fledgling vampire despite his head start. He turned back from his climb up the tower stairs when Angel and Cordelia made their entrance. The call of human blood was too much of a temptation. One strong-armed move was all it took for Angel to smash him face-first into the stone wall.
Demanding answers, Angel questioned him about the relic they were seeking, but he knew nothing. The vampire hissed its fury as it tried to escape, but it had the strength of a spitting kitten compared to Angel. “Upstairs. I am called to the altar of my master.”
“Could that be the creepy guy who grabbed me?” Cordelia asked as Angel ended the struggle permanently. They walked away from the dust cloud and proceeded up the stairs toward the top of the tower.
“Let’s find out.” Then he added, “Just remember to—”
“I know, I know,” Cordelia huffed as her heels clicked on the steps. “Stay out of the way. Let you handle it.”
Angel was glad to hear that she was catching on. To his surprise, Cordelia seemed just as determined to get to the bottom of this, and was actually cooperating with him. She even kept her mouth shut as they crept upstairs, which for her had to take considerable effort.
The stairs opened directly into the space containing the clock mechanism. There was a wooden railing around it leaving an open area along the floor. It was hard to miss the pentagram drawn there or the object at its center. Pieced together with bits of bone and flesh, the carved relic was anointed with blood. From the shadows of the bronze clock face stepped the elder vampire.
Cordelia recognized him immediately. “Whatever you’re doing here is so over.”
“You are mistaken, human. I am but one of many,” the vampire announced far too calmly. “The first rite is already complete. Vampires and demons of all kind will answer its calling. Soon, the time will come to herald the arrival of one who shall rule this Earth for ten thousand years.”
Angel stepped closer, edging the pentagram as he moved forward. “Just who is it you’re summoning?”
“All will be known in time.”
“Cryptic much?” Cordelia planted her knuckles on her hips, still holding onto her stake.
The vampire crouched low as he faced off against Angel. They circled each other for a moment before leaping at each other with a fury that left Cordelia gaping. For one heart-stopping moment, the other vampire had Angel pinned to the wall. Angel kicked back throwing off his opponent. They grappled and punched their way across the room.
The relic went scooting across the floor sliding to a halt near Cordelia’s foot. She yelped as the blood splattered within an inch of her toes.
“Cordelia,” she glanced up to see Angel struggling with the vampire. Now behind him, Angel reached under his arms, pinning his shoulders back. One hand on the back of his neck held him in place while the other twisted his wrist pulling it back up at a painful angle.
“It missed me,” Cordelia told him she was relieved to escape a blood bath. “I’m okay.”
Angel growled in response as the vampire managed to kick his shin. He barely kept his hold. Grinding out her name again, “Cor-de-lia,” he glared meaningfully.
“Oh!” Cordelia finally got it. She darted across the room, held the stake high and aimed carefully.
“Now,” Angel ordered as he felt his hold slipping.
Cordelia plunged the stake home as hard as she could. Before the vampire crumbled to dust, it stared deep into Cordelia’s eyes and promised her, “My master will devour your heart for this.”
“Too bad you won’t be around to tell him,” she smirked as his body crumbled.
The dust had not even cleared before Cordelia thrust herself into Angel’s arms hugging him tight. “Next time just tell me to stake him.”
Angel did not have time to enjoy the warm body pressed against his. Only seconds later, she pushed away and playfully poked at his belly with her stake. “Told you I could help. Hah! I got him. You needed me after all.”
“Watch the shirt,” he complained. Angel yanked the stake out of her grasp when those random pokes started to do more than just set off his pain receptors.
Cordelia just grinned triumphantly. “We did it. And we have the yucky relic to prove it. You are so going to be the one carrying it back to the library.”