Part 2
“Cordelia, my soul is secure.” Angel, expecting some excitement on his behalf, spun her around in a circle in the middle of the library.
She looked stunned by the news and then flashed that brilliant smile that always made him feel like a tight fist gripped at his dead heart. Then he watched it fade a bit as he added, “I thought Buffy might be here.”
“Congratulations. I guess we won’t be seeing you two for a few days,” Cordelia realized there was likely to be a lot of making up for lost time. “How did you manage it? That was fast. Maybe Buffy should’ve dealt out the ultimatums a lot sooner. Did Willow find a spell?”
“No,” Angel answered with a smile that reached his eyes and left her staring in wonder as his already handsome face doubled its appeal. “Cordy, it was actually something you said the other night.”
“The part where I called you impotent?” Cordelia was reminded that she hadn’t told him off for what he’d done. One eyebrow arched and her plush lips pursed in preparation for correcting that oversight.
“No!” Angel was quick to hold up his hands in surrender seeing clearly what was about to happen. Quickly, he attempted to steer her back to his important break-through. “You said something to Buffy about a relic in my sock drawer.”
Cordelia gave him a hard stare. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Shrugging, Angel admitted, “It was actually in a trunk packed up in the basement, but I’d forgotten that I had it. I put it away almost fifty years ago.”
“You’ve had the cure for your curse for fifty years and you forgot about it?”
Angel told her, “The amulet had nothing to do with my curse, but it gave me a way to contact those who could fix the problem. There’s just one hitch.”
That didn’t sound good. Cordelia let out a long sigh. “I’ll bite. So what’s the deal?”
“That would be me,” sounded Angel’s voice from the library doors causing her a moment of confusion. Obviously, it was not Angel since he was standing next to her, but for some reason that voice caused Cordelia’s heart rate to skyrocket.
Cordelia turned to find Angel’s exact double striding across the room with a swagger that could not be mistaken. Dressed in snug leather pants and a silk shirt of crimson red, this vampire’s style was all too familiar. A confident leer curled the corner of his mouth as he let his dark gaze travel over Cordelia taking in the exposed length of her supple legs beneath the short cheerleading skirt, the stretch of her thin sweater across her full breasts and the surprised circle of her soft lips.
“A-Angelus?” Cordelia managed to get out the name, but automatically moved closer into Angel’s protective reach. Then she made the connection. The things the souled vampire had been telling her had everything to do with this impossible phenomenon.
“What’s wrong, baby?” Angelus stopped short of coming too close, catching his double’s silent threat against doing so. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”
Ignoring the question, Cordelia whirled to face Angel. “What the hell have you done?”