Part 5
Spike was now consoling Drusilla out in the garden, the vampiress had taken more than she deserved from Angelus and he was pissed. Darla had gone to kill the Pixie, his Dru’s little Princess, and the cute, little kid had been made to cry. So yeah, Spike was pissed at both Darla and Angelus.
The little girl hadn’t done anything wrong and Darla had to push it, she couldn’t have just tried to put up with the kid for Dru’s sake. No, the blonde whore had to try and get rid of her in the only way she knew how. Spike genuinely liked Cordelia around, sure she was a little squirt, but she was sweet all the same and was never too much trouble.
He really didn’t like to see either his Dru or his little girl upset and he planned to have a few words in his grandsire’s ear about the whole situation. But as for right now, he had to save Drusilla from the damned birds in her head.
***
Cordelia shot up in bed, her heart hammering against her ribcage from her bad dream. Darla was going to really kill her again and again, she was going to make her so ugly no-one would ever want to love her. A solitary tear rolled down her puffed up cheek as she climbed out of bed and pulled on some Tinkerbell socks that matched her Tinkerbell pyjamas and began a slow, unsure walk to the stairs.
She walked on her tiptoes, not wanting to be heard being out of bed after her bedtime but she couldn’t go back to sleep after that bad dream. All she saw was Darla holding the dagger to her face, threatening to scar her forever then make her into a Dracula to be forever ugly.
It had taken Spike an hour to calm her down and stop her from crying anymore, her face was red and blotchy, the skin under her eyes was oily. Cordelia walked past the room where Darla had held her hostage and choked back a little sob as she peered into the empty room, trying to assure herself she wasn’t in there waiting for her.
She hurried down the stairs, no longer caring if she got wrong off her mother for being out of bed, she needed her mommy and daddy so they would just have to deal. Cordelia stopped suddenly when she saw Mister Angel sitting on the couch in the living room, he was sitting there with his usual expression and she didn’t know what it meant.
“Where’s mommy and daddy?” she asked in a timid, squeaky voice that made him turn to her with a little glare.
“What are you doing up kid?” Angelus asked carelessly, “It’s past your bedtime, you should be asleep”
Walking unsurely to stand next to the couch, Cordelia bit her lip and forced herself not to run away from him. “I had a bad dream Mister Angel, I couldn’t sleep”
“Well it’s over now you can go back to bed” he replied abruptly while his eyes scanned her red, puffy face and smirked slightly when she turned to leave him in peace. “Hey kid, c’mere”
“Why? So you can kill me now?” Cordelia asked in a little voice as she looked back to him.
“No I won’t kill you kid, just c’mere will ya?”
“Promise not to kill me?”
“For fuck’s sake” Angelus muttered quietly, “I promise I won’t kill you okay? That good enough for Princess?”
“I guess so” Cordelia walked back next to the couch and just stood there, waiting for whatever he would say to her.
“Was your dream about Darla?” he asked lightly, enjoying the sudden hit of fear from the little girl.
She nodded emphatically, “Yeah, she was gonna make me ugly and turn me into a Dracula so I would be forever ugly and nobody would love me”
“She really scared ya didn’t she?” Angelus enquired with a raised eyebrow. “Why were you scared of her and not me?” he asked with genuine interest.
Cordelia shrugged and replied in the tiniest voice he had ever heard. “I don’t know mister, maybe it’s because you’re not all that scary really. I mean, I know you and mommy and daddy are all Draculases but you don’t wanna eat me really. That old hag did, but she was just jealous though”
“You said to Darla she was jealous of what?” okay, now this was getting interesting.
“Because you let me call you Mister Angel and not her, and how my mommy doesn’t listen to her anymore. She got real angry with me and then she hurt me” Cordelia rolled up her sleeve to show him the bruising on her upper arm. “See?”
“You said that to Darla?” Angelus laughed, full-blown delighted laughter came from his throat making his shoulders shake with the idea of what that conversation had entailed.
“Mm-hmm” she nodded again, “I tried to be brave Mister Angel and I tried to fight her like daddy does with you sometimes downstairs but she was too strong and I couldn’t get away”
“You’re not that bad kid, now go to bed before ‘Mommy’ or ‘Daddy’ sees you out of it” Angelus told her, not being able to resist the sarcastic way in which he said those words. He shook his head, still unable to believe the way both Spike and Drusilla had taken to the little girl with the ballsy attitude. If he was honest, then he’d admit to starting to fall for the big, too-large-for-her-head hazel eyes.
“I can’t, I had a bad dream remember?” Cordelia reminded him as she twisted her shoulders back and forth as contemplating on asking him something.
“Spit it out kid, what d’ya want?”
“Can I have a hug? I saw my daddy playing mommy outside in the garden but I don’t wanna play outside with them” she began and turned those, large, face-eating hazel eyes on him and Angelus felt his stomach curl up in dread of what was coming.
However, he didn’t have a chance to answer because Cordelia had already crawled into his side and was trying to lift his heavy arm around her with great difficulty. “Stupid arm” he heard, “It won’t move!”
Angelus relaxed his arm a little more just to see if she could budge him slightly. It was quite funny by all accounts, watching a six and three quarter year old girl going red in the face trying to lift his arm. “Having trouble there kid?” he asked lightly.
“No… I can… do it…” Cordelia huffed and continued to try and lift his arm a few more times before finally giving up. “Okay so I can’t, but that’s only because I’m tired. If I was wide awake I could do it” she bragged to him.
“I’m sure you could, try again” Angelus urged and this time he moved his arm with her movements and lodged it around her. Cordelia looked up at him triumphantly. “There see? You can do it even if you’re tired” God, what was he? A demon or a fucking mouse?!
“Thank you Mister Angel” were the last words before she scooted into his lap and falling asleep much to his horror.
***
Shortly after Spike had guided Drusilla back into the mansion, he found an unimpressed Angelus staring at a wall, his face clear of all expressions and mouth set in a tight line. Cordelia was literally curled up in a ball on his lap, her hands laying limply on his chest and her head tucked under his chin.
“She fell asleep eh mate?” Spike asked as he continued to observe the little scene.
“Get her off me” Angelus spoke quietly in a subconscious effort not to wake Cordelia up or disturb her in the slightest.
“Sure mate? Look quite comfortable to me. Did you tell her a bedtime story?”
“Get. Her. Off. Me” Angelus demanded abruptly, voice volume increased a little and Cordelia stirred, causing him to lower his voice back down. If she wasn’t taken off him, he was gonna-gonna… Sit here until she woke up and then he was gonna do something.
“Aww mate, look at the little Pixie” Spike cooed mockingly and lit up a cigarette, “Be back in a minute. Just going for a fag” and with that, he left a very quietly snarling, furious Angelus with a six and three quarter year old curled up asleep on his lap.
“Spike” Angelus hissed, vengeance coating the other vampire’s name. Looking down at the sleeping child, her impish face looked innocent when she was asleep. It was an innocence he knew that didn’t exist, she was a smaller version of hell and the little squirt knew it too. He was sure that if the Devil was a female, Cordelia was her; she was the world’s littlest con artist.
The vampire ground his teeth together in frustration, he didn’t want to be sat here with the devil child on his lap, he wanted to be out and killing something. He needed to be out killing something since he wasn’t allowed to bring anyone back to kill. God, all he wanted was to kill someone in the comfort of his own home because of the damn hell spawn asleep on him!
“Great, fucking great. What the hell am I supposed to do now?” Angelus seethed quietly, his body ached from sitting still for the last three hours but if he moved then he’d wake her up and it was peaceful when she was asleep so waking her up was not an option. Another option was taking her to bed but if she woke up then he’d have to tuck her in and read her a bedtime story, also not an option. He could kill her, that was an appealing option but he didn’t want to end up dust like his sire so that option was null and void.
It didn’t take long for him to decide, picking up her tiny body easily Angelus couldn’t help but notice she weighed nothing, he had weapons and weights heavier than her! His entire hand covered her face and her waist was smaller than his thigh… Realising he was marvelling at how small the child was, Angelus shook his head and carried on up the stairs, walking smoothly and gracefully towards her bedroom before pausing.
What if she woke up and had another nightmare? He’d get woken up by her, only this time she’d be crying and he’d have to act all fatherly with her and he felt nothing paternal for her. What if she woke up from a nightmare and went out into the garden to look at the flowers? She’d be outside and alone in the dark where anything could get her…
“Fuck!” Angelus swore quietly and doubled back towards his bedroom, cursing non-stop until he gently laid Cordelia down and covered her with his sheets, hoping she didn’t wet the bed.
***
Cordelia yawned as she slowly woke up, she stretched her arms wide and kicked her legs out, limbs thumping into a brick wall. “Where am I?” she asked sleepily, blinking away the final vestiges of the hours of sleep. She was in a much darker room than hers, there was heavy curtains covering the windows and the bed she was in was much more comfortable than hers. How come someone had a better bed than she did? She was supposed to be a princess!
Angelus had the worst possible night’s sleep of his existence, every time he got comfortable he would wake up twenty minutes later with the kid’s head under his shoulder. So, he would move over slightly and another twenty minutes later he would find her head back under his shoulder. Eventually he had gotten out of bed, grabbed some of the top sheets and had gone to sleep on his floor!
It was one thing to be kicked out of bed by your woman but it was another to be kicked out of bed by a sleeping child. His neck was aching, his back was hurting and he was just not impressed.
“I know where I am now” came the little, squeaky voice of the devil child herself. “I’m in Mister Angel’s room… What am I doing in Mister Angel’s room? Maybe he wanted to eat me for breakfast but he said he wouldn’t do that so I guess I shouldn’t scream for mommy or daddy”
“Where is Mister Angel? He’s probably in my room” Cordelia’s eyes snaked around the room and no thoughts of checking the floor entered her head. She nibbled on her lip before squealing with childish laughter. Jumping up onto her feet, the blankets going everywhere including on top of Angelus. The little girl began bouncing on the bed, giggling in pure delight.
The irate vampire on the floor wanted so much to sink his fangs into her neck and drain her if only to save his very expensive bed. He settled for scaring Cordelia out of her wits.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Angelus bolted up from the floor to shoot her with a death glare.
“AARRGGHH!” Cordelia immediately stopped bouncing and dropped to the bed; her heart was bouncing hard through her chest and she just stared at Angelus with wide, frightened eyes. This was getting to be habit, her bouncing on his bed and him scaring her half to death. “M-Mister Angel… Why are you on the floor?”
“Because some little hell spawn took my bed, now stop bouncing on it or I will eat you” he snarled at her. He got off the floor, a pair of sweats kept him covered but his arms and chest were bare.
“Wow. You look really big and strong Mister Angel, you have bigger muscles than the incredible hulk!” Cordelia stated thoughtfully. “Have you seen my muscles?” she curled up one arm and Angelus blinked. He saw nothing but skin and bone.
“Very impressive” he commented wryly.
“Mm-hmm” Cordelia nodded emphatically, “See? I’m big and strong like you and daddy. I could have beat that horrible lady but it wouldn’t have been fair because I’m younger and prettier than she was. Do all Draculases make a mess when they die?”
Angelus blinked again, trying to keep up with the changes of conversation she made; so far he counted three different topics in that one intake of breath. “Vampires Cordelia, not Draculases” he corrected her, carefully keeping his tolerance level in check. “And yes, we all turn to dust when we get staked”
“Steak? Isn’t that what I had for dinner yesterday?” Cordelia asked confused.
Why oh why was he the one answering her questions?
“Not food steak, wooden stake” he corrected, “Ask your parents Squirt, they’ll tell you everything you wanna know about vampires” he wanted to get away from her, she was annoying!
“Okay… Will you make me some Wheeties please Mister Angel? Or will you let me have some chocolate before mommy and daddy get up?!”