Part 56
Duncan pulled at Methos’ arms, holding him back from following Wesley and the others into the office.
“What does Cassandra have to do with Cordelia being in danger?”
Methos sighed. “I’d hoped that my suspicion was wrong. I asked Wesley to interpret one of the spells in the book she sent you for. Obviously, he came to the same conclusion, a lot quicker than I did, but then again, he didn’t want to be wrong.”
“What?”
“He’ll explain better than I can, I imagine, and possibly you’ll believe him.”
***
Wesley pushed at the papers on his desk, pulling out a legal pad from the stack.
“Methos asked me to translate a spell of Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga was an Eastern European witch, attributed to myth…”
“Wesley,” Angel’s patience was riding thin. He needed hear the part where he could go find Cordelia not a lecture on witches.
Wesley nodded seeing the balance the vampire was trying to maintain. “The spell once performed would not only give the enchanter immortality but ultimate power over the day and night, or in other words everything, the world and beyond. In most tales, she commands the ‘Other World’ as well as the day and night.”
Angel interrupted Wesley. “I don’t have time for this. I have to find Cordelia.”
“Wes, man, I got agree, what’s a wicked witch got to do with Cordy?”
“Baba Yaga’s wickedness is the fabrication of folklore, in fact…Right,” Wesley stopped at Angel’s growl. “The spell requires certain ingredients, one the eyes of a seer…”
“My eyes,” Gabriel squealed. “Angel, you have to save me.” She lurched onto his jacket.
“Get her off me,” he shoved the woman. Fred happily tugged at the woman’s arm.
“If you don’t shut up right now, I AM going to lock you in a closet. This is about Cordy, not you, so be quiet.” Fred gave another yank for good measure.
“I’m Angel’s seer, not Cordelia, I’m the one in danger, not her, she just got herself killed by vampires, I’m the one that could lose my eyes.”
“GET HER OUT.” Angel growled ready to take his anger out on the woman.
“Happily.” Fred dragged the blonde seer out of the office, her slight form hiding a surprising strength. “I warned you.” Fred pushed the blonde towards the utility closet.
“You wouldn’t.” Gabriel squealed digging her feet in.
“No, but I will, if you so much as look in that office again.” Fred glared her arms crossed against her chest.
“Everyone is so mean to me.” Gabriel ran up the stairs crying.
“God, she just isn’t normal.” Fred mumbled and hurried back into the office to hear the rest of what Wesley had to say.
***
“Gabby’s got a point,” Gunn backed up. “Not about Cordy being killed, whoa.” He said quickly at Angel’s growl. “But, Gabby is the seer in this picture, not Cordy, which is cool – so no one will be wanting her eyes.”
Wesley shook his head. “That was my first thought, but these words CHIJIa, ObJierYeHHe, OrHeBaR MOIlLb, fire power, lightening, power,” Wesley translated for the room. “Their placement in the spell emphasizes their importance. It’s describing a Quickening.” Wesley shot a look at Methos. “You had to realize this.”
“I could’ve been wrong. My familiarity with ancient Slavic languages and spells is limited and I hoped I was wrong.”
“Quick what?” Gunn asked.
“A Quickening- it happens when one Immortal takes the head of another. A surge of power that leaves the decapitated Immortal and effuses the winner, it’s best understood as an Immortal’s life force, energy. It’s his or hers power. It’s transferred at the moment of death. And it’s a phenomenon that only occurs when an Immortal kills another Immortal. Taking Gabriel’s eyes then killing her would not create the requisite Quickening needed for the spell to be successful.”
Duncan shook his head, “You’re not suggesting Cassandra wanted to use that spell? No. Hell, she could be the one in danger, she has the sight. She doesn’t need a spell to be Immortal, she already is.”
“She does to be all-powerful,” Methos said quietly.
“I thought about that to,” Wesley responded. “But this word, IiyXoBHblH, other worldly. As both you and Methos pointed out, Cassandra’s gift isn’t from the Power’s- which could be classified as ‘other worldly’, Cordy’s was, and Cassandra did want this book.” He held up the Baba Yaga text.
Duncan’s shaking head became more aggressive. “She wanted it for research, she had no idea that we would even find Cordelia here in LA and Cordy’s isn’t a seer any more. It’s just a coincidence.”
“One that we can’t afford, one that Cordy can’t. We need to know where Cassandra is. The fact that Cordelia is no longer Angel’s seer may not matter. Her experience as one is embedded in her being, it is part of her life essence, her power.”
“She’s in Russia, half the world away.” Duncan refused to believe what he was hearing.
“Mac, we don’t know that.”
“You believe this.”
“I don’t like coincidences, Duncan, and if it’s true then all Immortal’s are in danger, not just Cordelia. She’s cheating.”
“I don’t care about any other Immortals, just Cordy.” Angel swung around to face Methos. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner. I would’ve never allowed Cordy to leave this hotel.” He growled. “You put her in danger.”
“Angel.” Wesley held out his hand, a weak gesture to be sure in preventing the vampire from attacking but Wesley wasn’t up to full strength. “We need to find Cordy and Cassandra. Duncan, I would suggest calling Joe again, find out if his search has come up with anything.” Wesley braced his arms against the desk lowering his body back into the chair. “Why would vampires take Cordelia, would Cassandra employ vampires?” saying out loud his one unanswered question.
“We don’t know that Cass….”
Methos laid a hand on Duncan’s arm. “Call Joe again, find her then we’ll know.”
Duncan shook his head and stormed out of the office.
“Humans, also.” Angel said suddenly.
“Pardon me.” Wesley adjusted his glasses looking at the vampire.
“I followed Cordy’s scent to an upper level of the sewers, there the scents were a mixture of human, vampires and Cordy. It led to another room, closer to the surface there I found dust, headless human bodies and no Cordy. I lost her to the daylight.”
“It wasn’t vampires that shot us up.” Methos commented. “But, I can’t see Cassandra working with vampires.”
“Humans with guns, vampires, all powerful potential baddie, danger to Cordy, leave out the live forever bitch, I’d be saying it screams of the evil ass lawyers.” Gunn slumped on the edge of Wesley’s desk.
Wesley considered. “It could be possible, maybe they’re working together. Angel.” But the vampire was already gone.
“Gunn?”
“I’ll take the car, you coming,” the black man nodded to Methos.
The Immortal jerked his head up and down.
Gunn and Methos stopped as Duncan came back in. “Where’s Angel going?”
“Evil lawyers, it seems.” Methos shrugged. “Joe?”
“He heard from the watcher he sent to Russia. Cassandra’s watcher has been located- in a morgue. Found headless in the woods, a victim of bizarre hunting accident. No one knows where Cassandra is.” His brain finally accepting what his feelings were still fighting.
Wesley rubbed his forehead. “Go, Gunn.”
“I’m going.” Duncan grabbed his bloodied jacket and Cordelia’s sword as he followed Methos and Gunn out of the hotel.
Fred chewed on her lips. “Wesley, you really should lie down, there’s nothing more you can do.”
“I can still worry.”
Fred shrugged. “You can do that in bed, right?” The paleness of Wesley’s complexion made Fred uneasy.
Part 57
Lilah knocked her head on her desk.
“A sign of weakness, not attractive.” Lindsay leaned up in the doorway.
“Did you read this?” She held up the folder.
Lindsay waved an identical folder. “Got it and the memo.”
“What are the chances that this isn’t going to come back and bite us in the ass.”
Lindsay settled in the chair. “We should be okay, there’s nothing to link us to the Immortal.”
Lilah nodded. “So, we’re just pulling out.”
“That’s what the memo from the higher ups says, after we prevent the spell from occurring. No body wants an all powerful Immortal, that’s too much of crossing the lines for the senior partners.” Lindsay threw a piece of paper on the desk. “We found her.”
Lilah knocked her head on the desk again. “I can’t believe that we’re going to save Cordelia Chase.”
“I do. But leave the saving to me. Good choice, pulling out otherwise it would’ve been regretful, thanks for the hand,” Angel nodded to Lindsay. The vampire strode in snatching the address from the desk. Angel was gone as quickly and silently as he appeared.
“God damn, do the vampire detectors ever work?” Lilah pounded her head on the surface again.
“Doesn’t that give you an headache?” Lindsay concentrated on flexing his Playtex fingers. “Look on the bright side, bad joke, minimum implied threat, the all powerful out of our hands and into Angel’s, Gabriel still in position, her cover solid as long as the big headed freak keeps the brain juice flowing. We’re golden.”
“You are sick, you know that,” Lilah peered up from the desk.
“Oh, come on, Lilah, the glass is always half full.”
“Until someone drinks it.”
***
Cordelia struggled for consciousness, a buzzing penetrating the fog the clouded her brain. What the hell? She winced. She felt like she was swimming a losing battle against mud. Cordelia groaned raising her hand to her head.
She squinted open her eyes, her hands weren’t moving. She squirmed. Now what? It took her mind a minute to identify the problem. Her hands were tied behind her back. The return of her ability to think didn’t make her jump for joy. It only upgraded the now what to What the Fuck?
Cordelia searched for the source of buzzing, hoping to see Duncan or Methos. “Who are you?” She stared at the woman before her.
“Hello.”
“Yeah, hi, nice to meet you, blah, blah, and all the hypocritical BS pleasantries.”
“You don’t think I’m happy to see you.”
Cordelia squirmed again, jerking her back up against the wall. “I guess that depends, are you happy that I’m tied up and most likely your prisoner.”
“Actually, yes.”
“Then I guess you are.” Cordelia sighed. “How many rules are you breaking?” Cordelia eyed the sword in the woman’s hand.
“This isn’t holy ground and we’re not fighting.”
“You seem to know me, I don’t know you. Who are you and what did you give me?”
“The name’s Cassandra and just a little drug to keep you immobilized, it seems to be wearing off.” The woman smiled going over to a long table.
“Cassandra? Duncan and Methos’ friend?”
“Methos, never.”
“Sorry, heard about your history. Why am I here?”
“Well, you see there’s this spell and I need your head and your eyes, not exactly in that order.”
“That’s got to be against the rules.”
Cassandra shrugged. “I’ve been alive for a long time. I’ve come to learn that the only rules that should be followed are your own. Methos was the first one that taught me that as he killed my family, raped me, kept me as his slave and then gave me to Chronos.” Cassandra poured a bag full of power into a clay colander.
“You’re just stock full with issues aren’t you. Have you tried therapy?” Cordelia’s fingers tugged at her shirt, grateful for the paranoid, overprotective, obsessive vampire that she loved. If it weren’t for his insistent nagging and need to always be prepared her fingers wouldn’t have found the small blade tucked in the waistband of her jeans.
“Don’t analyze or try to chat,” Cassandra shot over her shoulder. “You won’t be alive long enough for us to be friends.”
“I don’t think that’s an option. I tend to like friends that don’t want my eyes or me dead.” Cordelia’s nimble fingers worked overtime trying to pull the blade from its holster. She kept her face blank as the blade slid out. Cordelia sawed at the ropes that made her helpless. Now all she needed was her sword but she’d settle for getting the fuck out of there.
Part 58
Gunn slammed on the brakes pulling half on, half off the curb in the circular drive in front of the Wolfram & Hart building.
“Now what? Just walk in and ask where the vampire happens to be threatening a bunch of evil lawyers.” Methos leaned up over the seat, studying the imposing multi-story high-rise.
Gunn shrugged. “Sounds like a plan,” vaulting over the driver’s door.
“That’s not a plan.” Methos followed Duncan out.
Gunn stood in the doorway of the big glassed in lobby. “I’m saying Angel’s come and gone.” He jerked his head towards the security guards armed with guns and crossbows that poured into lobby, most going to the elevators, the others heading towards the front glassed in doors.
“Sir, we’re going to have to ask you to leave,” a guard pushed at Gunn. “We’re closed.” The guard slammed the door, initiating a metal door that clanked down over the glass securing the lobby.
“I think your plan is no longer an option.” Methos watched the building become a metal fortress. He half expected the drive to disappear into a moat equipped with the requisite flesh eating fish.
“Plan B,” Gunn pulled out his cell phone. “Let’s just hope the vamp remembered his.”
“Surprise, he did, cool.” Gunn nodded to the Immortals, turning back to the phone. “Angel, Whatcha got.”
“Done.” Gunn flipped his phone closed. “He’s got an address. We’ll meet him there. He’s sticking to the sewers. Let’s go.”
***
Angel clenched the small piece of paper tightly in his fist. The address was burnt into his brain as soon as he saw the letters that made up the words, just as the path along the sewers he would need to take was flashing along with those words guiding his feet to his destination.
But the crumpled paper gave him assurance. The feel of the paper was real in his palm. It was a tangible link to finding Cordelia. And Angel would find her. She would be alive, he would eradicate the threat, and he would take her home.
There was no other option. Except, Angel would have to make a return visit to Wolfram & Hart, he hadn’t wanted to waste the time to emphasize to the lawyers that putting Cordelia in harms way, would result in an equal and opposite harm to them.
Once Cordelia was safe, he would make sure they realized the inevitability of his own particular law of nature.
Part 59
Cordelia kept her fingers working. Soon she would be free- then what? She glanced at the other Immortal. Duncan never mentioned that his friend was insane. She scrunched up her nose at the pungent sweetness of the incense that was burning. Cordelia wasn’t an expert on spells, but incense and candles always seemed to signal the final stage.
Well, the Immortal said she needed Cordy’s eyes and they were still in her head, so Cassandra wasn’t quite at the final stage.
Cordelia inwardly groaned, eyeing the nasty looking thin dagger and forceps resting near the candles. It wasn’t fair. She wasn’t Angel’s seer anymore but people still wanted her eyes. Cordelia quickened the pace of the blade, hiding her wince as the sharp edge sliced into her wrist.
Cordelia studied the layout of the room as she worked. She had no idea where she was. Obviously, the dirty floor, the bare walls, the big industrial windows broken through years of disuse, the crisscross metal beams creating a make shift second floor indicated that she was being held prisoner in abandoned warehouse. But, that really didn’t help her; LA was filled with dilapidated old buildings. Well, she would worry about where she was once she got out of there.
Cordelia glanced up at the high windows. It would be really wonderful to see Angel crashing through. She frowned. Actually, that would be horrifying as she saw the beams of sunlight dancing along the ground. Angel would be a crashing fireball before he even landed.
Cordelia took a deep breath. She would just have to save herself this time. There was no possible way Angel could even know where she had been taken. God, she hoped Angel got Wesley out of the sewers in time. Please God, let Wesley be alive.
“You’re awful quiet.”
Cordelia blinked away her worry and raised her brows in an elegant question. “Now you want to chat?”
Cassandra chuckled. “Quiet means thinking, thinking means plans of escape.”
“If you have any ideas, I’m listening. But, actually, I was thinking that I’m definitely letting my hair grow out, get it back to its natural color.” Cordelia jerked her chin to Cassandra’s long thick dark hair. “I used to have great hair. Short, highlights, I don’t know what I was thinking, it had to be that damn migraine medicine, you should’ve seen some of the outfits I was wearing. Embarrassing.”
“You were thinking about your hair?” Cassandra was momentarily flabbergasted.
“Got to think about something.” Cordelia shrugged.
“How about your death?”
“No, don’t like to think about that. Anyway, I’m not going to die.”
“Taking that Immortality thing a little to seriously, aren’t you. Don’t you even care why I want your eyes and your head?”
“No to both. I haven’t been an Immortal long enough to rely on it, but I have been threatened, tortured, and kidnapped more times than I can count for more reasons than I can count, it gets old after awhile. I used to ask, scream, and yell a lot, but the answers never seemed to help, and the screaming only worked when someone could hear me, or my kidnappers have a low tolerance for such stuff. I don’t think either would help too much now and you don’t want to chat, so talking you out of it doesn’t seem to be an option, so I’m left with thinking about my hair.”
“You’re serious, you were thinking about your hair.”
“Yeah, well, that and escaping.” Cordelia snapped the remaining thin pieces of rope as she rolled to her feet.
Cassandra had her sword out in an instant.
“Killing me before you get my eyes, I don’t think the spell works that way.” Cordelia dropped to the ground swinging out her legs. Cassandra was knocked to the ground only to jump back to her feet, her sword held high ready to attack. But, Cordelia was already running, she dodged past the Immortal, knocking the long table over destroying Cassandra’s careful preparations.
“Damn you.” Cassandra glared at the useless, meaningless ingredients of her spell littering the floor.
Cordelia didn’t even bother to stop running.
