Part 4
The first month of Angelus’ involvement with the Scooby Gang came with uneasy feelings, suspicions and visible anger.
Giles had every reason to hate Angelus and though he worked with the vampire and started to relax in his presence, they were never in danger of becoming friends. The fact that Angelus had killed Jenny Calendar was one that could not be forgiven.
Angelus had more success with Xander, Willow and Oz simply because the wily vampire’s sense of humor kept them amused, but while the vampire worked hard to ingratiate himself with the gang, they remained fearful of him.
Not that he cared a whit about them. It was all about Cordelia. Make the nice-nice with her friends and then pull out the big guns. Angelus had a plan and it was all about the slow seduction of Cordelia Chase. He’d told her that she belonged to him and he certainly believed that. Every word. One day soon, he’d prove it.
Cordelia remained terrified of the vampire for the first couple of weeks until she started to see his advances as being a skilled version of what she was already used to. Whenever the group was together, Angel was always around to prevent Angelus from coming on too strong. Then Angelus had stepped back and seemed to focus on building up a friendship, something Cordelia found highly suspicious.
It was the second half of the month that confounded her. Angelus saved Cordelia from an attack one night she had been acting as Bait Girl. The others were all in their places, but Angelus had somehow been close and keeping an eye on her. Something she later found out he did a lot. Cordelia expected the vampire to demand some kind of reward, probably of a sexual nature, but Angelus reacted only with concern over her wellbeing.
After that, Cordelia started to feel a little guilty for always riding the vamp for his behavior when it appeared that he was attempting to be nice. Angel had warned her not to trust his brother, as Cordelia had taken to calling him that. The two of them were like twins and it appeared more and more that Angelus was a lot like Angel, only funnier. Certainly just as sexy and he wasn’t attached at the lips to a certain slayer, which was always a plus in her book.
She would have almost been convinced that Angelus had forgotten his vow to make her his if it wasn’t for overhearing the two vampires arguing one night when she had dared to come over to the mansion under the pretence of needing to ask them both a question about her history homework. It never failed that Angel and Angelus had differing opinions and viewpoints of situations and Cordelia liked to listen to them both argue over things, even stuff as boring as history.
“I saw you sniffing after Cordelia again tonight,” Angel commented as his brother lounged on the stone bench in the mansion’s huge garden. He’d come out here just to have another chat and make sure Angelus knew to keep his paws off.
Cordelia heard him chuckle in response. She’d cut through the garden because she loved the walk through the park, all moonlight and shadows. The rustling trees and the direction of the wind kept her hidden, apparently, because neither vampire had a clue she was there listening.
“Was not.” Angelus denied. “It was that boy I was trailing. The one who thought he had the right to touch her.”
“The football player?” Now Angel sounded incensed. “I hope you corrected his way of thinking.”
Angelus, his head resting in the palm of his hand as he stretched out on the bench, gave a wide grin. His teeth flashed white in the moonlight. “Absofuckinlutely. Bastard won’t go near her now.”
Knowing that he could only be speaking of Larry who had been bothering her lately, trying to convince her to go out with him, Cordelia found it extremely funny. Larry was obviously not playing on the right team and she wasn’t talking football. Though a good football player, Cordelia wasn’t about to go out with him just to give the guy a front. Nobody used Cordelia Chase and got away with it.
“He’s obviously alive and well,” Angel assumed knowing that Angelus’ only real weapon against the human population was his caustic tongue.
“Unfortunately so, the little prick. Too bad I couldn’t have carved him up a little just as a reminder not to touch what’s mine,” sighed Angelus. He missed the torturing.
Angel’s shoulders stiffened at the words. Not the mention of torture. That was not exactly a shocking surprise. “Stop referring to Cordelia as being yours, dammit! She’s not ever going to grace your bed, so forget it. I know you only want her for one thing and the only way I’d ever let her get near you is if she’s begging for it.”
Sitting up, Angelus glared at Angel for trying to deny him the pleasure of imagining Cordelia where she belonged— in his arms. “Pretend to ignore my feelings, Angel. I know what I want and you know as well as I do what Cordelia Chase means to us. Maybe I don’t have a bleeding heart or soul, but I do know passion and desire. I know what I want even when I can’t have it.”
“What exactly do you want, Angelus?” came the question. Angel figured he knew the answer, but wanted to hear it straight from his brother’s mouth.
“Cordelia would have been my queen,” Angelus’ face took on a far away look as if he imagined himself in a Sunnydale ripe for the picking and completely under his thumb as he ruled over the squabbling rabble. “Beautiful, sensuous and deadly. A killer like us. A vampire with the instincts born of the night.”
In the shadows, Cordelia cringed. That’s what he had promised her that night in the graveyard as he pinned her to the ground. It was something she feared. Something she never wanted to happen no matter how poetically Angelus phrased it, because she knew that it would not really be her afterward.
“It will never happen,” Angel vowed. “Never. Cordelia won’t be turned. Certainly not by you since you can’t even sink your fangs into her.”
“You can,” Angelus pointed out.
“Never,” Angel shuddered at the thought, but not in disgust at the idea. The thought of feeling his fangs in the buttery softness of Cordelia’s flesh and tasting the coppery tint of her blood made his mouth water. Biting Cordelia was a concept that made him hard. Fantasies numbered one, two and three.
Angelus laughed at his reaction. “Wuss. Ignore your instincts and sit around and jack off all day if that’s what it takes.”
“Don’t have too,” Angel reminded him with a smirk.
“I’m sure the slayer loves being used,” Angelus returned drolly. “Blonde bitch might not care as long as you keep putting it to her so often.”
“Don’t talk about Buffy that way,” warned Angel very seriously. He wasn’t happy with the way his relationship with the slayer was going these days. What little friendship they had had become all about sex, but she was still his girlfriend.
“What? Not mention the fact that you have to shut up and take it like a man when she comes in demanding your attention?” That always gave Angelus a good laugh. The tiny powerhouse liked it rough, but she preferred to be on top. Constantly. He’d often listened in just for the hell of it. Better than cable.
That was interesting, Cordelia’s eyes widened. Buffy hadn’t said much about the sex, except that they’d all gotten the impression that she was certainly satisfied by it. The slayer took to humming during patrols. At least for the first few weeks, but lately the pair had seemed to get into little snits even in public and either Buffy or Angel would walk off angry. Cordelia wasn’t certain what to make of that.
“My relationship with Buffy is none of your business,” Angel barked and it seemed to Cordelia that he might as well have been talking to her as to Angelus.
“What about Cordelia?”
Yeah, thought Cordy wondering where Angelus was taking this. What about me?
Angel remained silent, which only caused Cordelia to glare at him from the shadows. Stupid broody vamp. Had to keep stuff close to his chest. It was a good thing that Angelus was nothing like him because he filled up the silence with words that left Cordelia thrumming in response and fuming with anger in a way that Angel would soon learn was not an emotion he wanted to be on the receiving end of.
“I know you want her, Angel,” his brother commented. “Can’t hide it from me. I was you for a while, remember?”
“Shut up, Angelus.”
“Why? So you can go off somewhere dark and brood about wanting what you don’t have the balls to take?” Angelus growled. “Not that you’ll have her before I do. She’s mine. Maybe I can’t turn her, bite her, torture her, but there are many other things I can do to Cordelia Chase.”
Angel wasn’t about to let it happen. “In your dreams, maybe,”
“Gotta face reality sometime,” Angelus told him. “It’s gonna happen. Sooner rather than later. The path of blood, pain and death may be denied me, but I can get off just as easily with pleasure, too. That’s what I’ll give her.”
“Not if I stop you.”
Reminding him of his comment that he would allow it if Cordelia admitted to wanting him, Angelus felt certain he could get her to that point. “I want her beneath me, her hair spread out on black…no, red silk sheets; nude in all her golden skinned glory and open to me. I want to taste every inch of her on my tongue and drink in that tangy honey.”
Angel swallowed reflexively as he pictured himself in place of Angelus in that fantasy. He’d take her slowly, fill her up and let her muscles squeeze him like a hand in a too tight glove.
“Then I’d give it to her hard, banging that sweet pussy until she couldn’t stand for a week. That would be starters,” leered Angelus as he let his hand fall to his thigh so close to his stirring sex. “Bet she gives good head. Cheerleaders usually do.”
“You ought to know,” Angel commented knowing that his brother had been working off some of his tension with Cordelia’s teammates. “She’ll find out soon enough. The girls may not worship at Cor’s feet like they used to, but she still has their ear.”
“Counting on it. A little word of mouth is always a good thing.” Then Angelus said, “Speaking of mouths…”
Cordelia listened as Angelus went on to describe the way he imagined she might use her mouth on him. When was he gonna start beating the crap out of his brother for saying such things, she wondered. Even if they sounded really, really hot and Cordy was just as caught up in the description.
Then suddenly she realized that he had Angel talking. Apparently, she’d hit on Angel fantasy number four.
“How many times have you imagined Cordelia’s mouth on you?”
Angel answered, “Too many.”
Hidden away, Cordelia gaped at the answer. More confirmation of what Angelus had hinted at that first day in the library. She wondered just how long Angel had feelings for her and if they were only sexual or if their friendship was somehow tied into them as well.
“You kissed her too,” Angelus reminded him. “Those lips were so soft, so full.”
“Pliant and warm,” nodded Angel. “Her mouth is wide…just look at that smile. Large enough t—”
Urging him for an answer, “To what?”
“To open up and take me in,” answered Angel caught up in the simple thought of it, “surround me and taste me with that hot tongue.”
Licking her lips, Cordelia’s thoughts were turned precisely in that direction imagining herself on her knees with Angel’s hands buried in her hair. She’d felt him with her hand and knew exactly why Angel would say what he did. The vamp was hung in a way that made her knees quake just thinking about it.
“Looks like we’ll both have to hit the showers,” growled Angelus irritated. “I am so fucking tired of silly blond twits. Oops! I forgot about yours.”
“Buffy’s not a twit,” Angel defended his girlfriend. Quite used to sharing his thoughts with Angelus, saying them aloud had become something of a habit between the two of them because it was basically like talking to himself. Angel crudely added, “The girl has control of muscles you wouldn’t believe.”
Outraged, Cordelia barely controlled the urge to reveal her presence. Not only had Angel openly fantasized about her using her mouth to pleasure him, he apparently found it easy to switch gears and talk about Buffy within two breaths of imagining her. That really, really pissed her off.
At least Angelus was honest about what he wanted. Angel had seemed to want it all and that was one thing that wasn’t going to happen. The vamp was gonna be lucky if she didn’t stake his ass the next time she saw him.
Cordelia waited until the two vampires returned to the mansion before moving out of the trees.
A little friendly game of revenge was in order. “Just you wait, Angel. We’ll see how you like looking at something you can’t have.”
