Chapter 3
The lobby of the Hyperion was silent when Cordelia clicked in on impossibly high heels. She spun around for effect, then stopped when she realized no one was there to appreciate her fine, fine genuine imitation Manalos.
She peered into the dark office, softly calling, “Wes? Gunn?” Hmm. She walked further into the lobby, looking around and listening to the silence. No one was here, exactly, but she heard something…..here. She listened a moment.
No, not a sound….a feeling. Kind of a hum. She looked around the room, trying to shake the feeling, like a prickling at the back of her neck. Well, not at the back exactly. More like….her fingers drifted up to touch the small marks left by Angel’s bite.
Oh for god’s sake. The bite was itchy. She gently stroked the slightly raised punctures and a shimmy raced through her blood. Great. She probably now had the equivalent of some weird vampire allergy thingy. She stopped suddenly.
Oh god. What if the itch was some kind of vampire STD? Did they even HAVE clinics for that? She caught her breath as she rubbed at the small wounds again. It wasn’t a bad itch, really…..
She turned and headed for the doors that lead to the garden and pushed them open, stepping out into the lush warm night. She stepped further out into the darkness, and stopped, looking around before softly saying, “Angel…..”
Her heels clicked softly as she stepped back, startled, as dim light suddenly flooded the courtyard. Angel straightened up from kneeling down where he had plugged in the small lights that flitted through the trees and shrubbery, making a soft glow about the garden.
Cordelia smiled widely, taking in the gentle lights, the small table set formally for two, and Angel. She had an angel, and he watched her with a solemn expression as he slowly stalked towards her.
“Cordelia.”
“Angel. Holy cow. This is gorgeous.” She stepped further into the garden and looked around at the canopy of small lights in the trees overhead, at the roses in the middle of the table, at the silver dish covers over the plates. Her grin grew wider. “You’ve been busy.”
“I had help.” He grinned a little, pleased that she was surprised. Wow. Score one for Lorne.
“Yeah. Larry, Moe and Curly really came through here. What’s the occasion?” she stopped and looked around. “They’re not here now, are they? Because, dating for an audience, not my idea of romance.”
Angel looked down at her, watching her look around into the shadows. He licked her taste on his mouth before answering. “Nope. No one here but us.”
“Yeah.” Her voice was relieved as she set her weekender bag down. “Good. I wondered when I came in…I mean, the lobby is all dark….”
“So, how’d you know to come out here?” Angel’s voice was casual, but he watched her intently. She nudged her bag out of the way with her foot and looked back up at him blankly.
“Oh. I don’t know. I saw the lights….”
“They weren’t on.”
“Oh.” Cordy looked confused. “Hmm. I guess I….just….um…” she cocked her head at him. “Jeeze, Angel, I don’t know, I just walked over to the garden. I was…”
“Looking for me.” His voice was calm.
“Well, yeah. You know, looking for the guy who asked me out? Jeeze.” She laughed slightly and turned to the table. “This is lovely. I can’t believe you guys dreamed this up. This is so sweet.” She leaned over and picked up one of the silver covers.
In the middle of the china plate was a crystal goblet, filled with thick, dark red blood. She wrinkled her nose a bit and grinned at him. “Um. Your dinner is served.”
Angel smiled a bit and took her elbow, leading her to the other chair and pulling it out. She grinned at him as she sat, tugging her short skirt down as he pushed her chair in a bit. She watched him walk around the table and sit opposite her. He seemed…preoccupied. A little nervous. Well, yeah, he hadn’t done anything like this in…well…..
“Hey. When’s the last time you…” she gestured with her hands “you know….did the wine and dine?”
“Oh.” He looked a little startled. “Uh. Let’s see, that would have been last……” He sat down, meeting her gaze across the table. “Last never.”
She looked down and tried to hide a grin, feeling pleased. Oh yeah. She could still be a first. Even for a guy who had a bicentennial. She picked up the cover off her dish and looked up at Angel, her eyes wide.
“Oh my god. Is this chicken kiev?” she leaned over the plate and inhaled the rich smell of the herbed chicken. Angel watched her.
“Yeah. I remember that time that we all went to that place…”
“The place where you wanted free refills on your food?”
“I thought it was all you could eat.”
“It was an upscale restaurant, Angel.”
“At those prices….”
“Oh, god, please.” Cordy laughed. “C’mon. We’re here now, in the garden, under the moonlight, just me and my guy, and his….his big ol’ goblet o’ goo.” She sighed and reached over to pick up a bottle out of the silver chiller.
She looked closely at the label. “Champagne? You bought champagne?” She grinned at him, delighted. Angel reached across the table and took the opened bottle from her, pouring a small amount into her glass. “OK. Who are you?” Angel looked at her as he set the bottle back. “Moonlight, a nice dinner, china plates, champagne.”
“It’s just me. And it’s for you.” Angel’s tone was quiet, and Cordy felt bad about teasing him. She smiled at him, a little sadly, and began to eat her dinner. They both relaxed, and time flew by as they talked.
Sated, Cordy finally leaned back in her chair and grinned at Angel. “Oh wow. I’m on a tryptophan high.”
“I think that’s just turkeys.”
“Oh. Then I have no excuse.” Cordy grinned at him tiredly. “This is so nice that you’d do this.” She rested her chin on her hand and leaned forward, pouring more champagne into a glass before lifting it and clinking it against Angel’s. Angel clinked back and took a careful sip before setting his glass back down.
He seemed to be thinking as he spoke, carefully.
“Cordy….” She looked at him, all happy and relaxed. He looked down at the table top and casually reached across to snag the dinner knife off her plate before placing it on his own, out of her immediate reach. “I wanted to kind of….clear the air….” He broke off, trying to think of what to say. “What I mean is…..”
“Are you breaking up with me?” Cordy’s voice was incredulous.
“NO. No, no, no….I mean, um….no.” Angel felt a flutter of panic. He should have used note cards. Except that hadn’t worked so well the last time. He grinned to himself. Actually, it had all worked out just fine, in the end.
Because, in the end, there was Cordy, in all her bare glory, asking him into her apartment…and then she had…” Suddenly Cordy’s voice, climbing higher, broke into his thoughts.
“…..STD? Because if you have, hell’s gonna be a pleasant memory compared to what I do…”
“What are you talking about?”
“This!” Cordy pointed to the small marks he had left on her throat. “This right here! This little momento of your midnight nibble! Is all this so you can tell me that you’ve given me some freaky deaky vampire slime?”
Angel stared at her a full moment before speaking through gritted teeth. “No. I have not given you a sexually transmitted disease. Thanks for asking.” Cordelia looked at him, trying to read him, then leaned back in her chair.
“Sorry. You have that expression.”
“What expression?”
“The ‘I’ve got bad news how do I break it without her breaking my balls’ face.”
“I don’t have that expression. I’m expressionless. Ask anyone.”
“You’ve got the expression, Angel.” Her voice was steady. “Tell me.”
“No expression. I have no expression.” He scowled at her. “Well, I didn’t.”
Cordelia looked at him seriously for a moment then leaned forward. “OK. Just say it.”
Angel leaned forward also, looking into her eyes. There was a determined set to him as he spoke. “Cordy. That night. The night. We first made love. Remember that?”
“Well, yeah, since it was just 2 weeks ago and it was the most incredible sex ever, yeah. I remember it.” Her voice was calm but bordering on sarcastic.
“Ok. Do you remember after? We talked? I told you I had claimed you….”
“…and how claiming me was some kind of vampire protection? Yeah, got that, too.”
“Well.” Angel cleared his throat a bit. “The thing is, there’s a little more to it than that. There’s a lot more. Cordelia….I want you to remember. That night. I asked you. I asked you some things.” He held her gaze. “I asked you…who owned you. And you said, you do.” He stopped, looking at her.
Cordy’s brow wrinkled. “Well, yeah, I thought you were being chatty.”
“I was. Chatty because the claiming requires it. I asked you to take me so I could take you. And you agreed.”
She had the expression of someone trying to figure out a foreign language. “Angel, don’t know what you remember, but we had sex, you were hot, and cute, and you got chatty. And then we both went to a place where angels sing and the earth shakes and that’s what happened.”
She rose up, agitated, and stalked to the edge of the garden. She stared off into the night before slowly turning back to face him, her expression unreadable.
“No, that’s not what happened.” Steel crept into Angel’s voice as he rose and followed her. “I went to your apartment. You invited me in. You took me to your bed. You accepted me as your own, and gave yourself to me. I bit you and I drank. And that sealed the deal.”
He reached out and stroked the soft skin under her eye, touching where shadows lined pale ivory flesh. “You haven’t been sleeping well. Know why? Because I’m not beside you. We’re not together at night.” Cordy shook her head and backed away slowly.
“Yes.” His voice became more firm. “You walked into the Hyperion and came straight to me in the dark. You knew where I was. I bet you could find me if you were blindfolded and I stood in a group of a hundred people. We….we know each other. We need each other.”
“No.” Her voice was a whisper. Angel stroked her face again.
“Would it be so bad….being with me?”
“It’s not…..We aren’t…..” Her voice tapered off. Angel cupped her face gently and lowered his mouth, not to her mouth but to her throat. He held her firmly as he breathed in her scent before licking softly at the marks of his bite. He held still as she trembled. His voice was low as he whispered into her ear. “See. It knows me. You know me. Cordy….” She held still and kept her head down.
“So. I belong to you.” Her voice was flat.
“Well, yeah.” He pressed his lips to the top of her head. “But the thing is, you kinda own me, too.”
“I just have one question.” Her voice was a low whisper.
“What, Cordy?” His voice was a tender whispering breath against her hair.
“Do your knuckles bleed from scraping the floor so much?” She pushed away from him and glared up at him. “You can’t really believe that crap.”
“Cordy…”
“No. Really. I mean, I’m on board with the whole demon in a time warp story as much as the next guy, but Jeeze, Angel, you cannot believe some old stupid vampire stories…”
“It’s not a story, Cordelia. It’s a fact.”
“Oh. Well. OK, then. It’s a fact. We have us some kind of stupid you Angel me Cordy thing going on. Fine. How do I break it? Just turn around three times and spit in the wind? Wait for a full moon and dance naked under the north star?”
“Actually, interesting story about the full moon and the north star….”
“Would you just shut up?” Her voice was a screech. They stared at each other. Cordelia drew deep breaths, trying to calm down. “OK. Are we the equivalent of…” her voice caught. “..married? I mean, in vampire lingo. Does this make me wonky? Am I going to…oh, I don’t know….suddenly want a bloody mary, emphasis on the bloody, for a cocktail?
Angel felt his stomach unclench. They could do this. “No. No, no. No, bloodthirst. Actually, the only thing is…”
“That you think you own me. Oh god.” Cordelia stood still. She seemed to be lost in thought. When she finally spoke, her voice was calm.
“I haven’t picked a thing about my life other than what I wear day to day for over three years. Only makes sense that I couldn’t pick this, either.” He started to speak and she waved her hand. “Don’t go there. Don’t talk about you asked and I answered. You know I didn’t realize what was going on.” She looked up at him, accusation in her face.
They held still, immobile, in the thick evening.
Angel felt the hairs on his neck lift a moment before a cool, dry voice floated out of the night.
“Goodness, Angel, dear, dear one. More girl trouble? You do seem to have a talent.” Angel and Cordy swung around to see Darla lounging in the doorway of the garden, looking bored and coolly watchful.
“Please tell me your technique has improved, or were you getting ready to have your famous ‘throw em through a door’ foreplay with her, too?”
Time seemed to freeze as Angel slowly turned to face Cordy, who held still, looking at Darla, her face going pale. Memories of broken wood and shattered glass cut at her jaggedly. She remembered.
“That door finally get in your way one too many times and you had to take it out?”
“I tripped.”
Only he hadn’t. And she was claimed, and the night was still, and there was still champagne, and it was all ruined. Darla’s voice was amused.
“Goodness, Angelus. You do have a way with the women.”