Title: Pleasure Rush
Author: Scorch
Email: FR21
Category: Crossover
Content: Cordelia/Asher
Summary: Who says danger can't be good?
Disclaimer: I own nixies.
Distribution: TTH, Lea's place, anywhere else just ask.
Notes: Enjoy!

Chapter 1...

The grass crunching under her feet was a welcome distraction from setting herself up as bait. It was wet and slippy from yesterday's down pour, and her shoes kept sliding. It was chilly yet muggy with unspent electricity, providing the night with an uncomfortable atmosphere that didn't sit well with naturally wavy hair, and she thanked the heavens she'd had the good sense to tie it up before leaving the library.

Cordelia shivered, her arms coming up to rub away the cold slowly seeping into her skin. If only she'd had the good sense to remember her jacket. Of course, they weren't supposed to be out long.

Not out long. Ha! They'd been roaming Restfield for well over an hour now and her last nerve was starting to wither under the strain of putting up with the two love birds behind her. God, it was almost enough to make her sick, and she'd often come close to having an unwanted pukeathon.

The conversation between her royal slayerness and her dog was oh so scintilliating, it left her speechless and awed. One moment, they were quietly discussing how they have to be friends and not lovers, then in the next breath they were silently staring into each other's eyes.

One word fit the bill and that was gross. Oh, and boring. Technically, that was two words, not one, but who really cared? She certainly didn't. All she cared about was them being too distracted to save her from the big, scary demon heading towards her at an increasingly rapid pace.

Its roar was loud and high pitched, sending an acute, searing pain through her ear drums and she screamed, slamming her hands over her ears to prevent them from bursting. The pain was blinding, shooting right through her, piercing her skull and burning her brain.

That pain was replaced by one much, much worse. Having a seven hundred pound demon ram into you at full pelt was bound to take your mind off a bit of earache. Her back colliding with the wet ground, and claw-like nails scraped down her bare arms, allowing her blood to turn the green grass a sickly shade of brown.

Tears trickled down her face. Cordelia couldn't help it. She was staring death in the face and it terrified her. Closing her eyes, she pretended she was in a far off place. A place that was warm and safe and completely free of hellmouths, monsters, and slayers who gave a damn about more than the love toy she spent her life staring at.

She patiently waited to be eaten by teeth that she never felt. Huh. Weird. If she didn't feel teeth, then one of two things had happened. Either she was already dead, or Buffy and Angel had snapped out of their little love bubble and saved her.

If they saved her, then surely one of them would be helping her off a ground she couldn't feel. Not feeling teeth was weird, but not feeling ground? It was cause enough for some serious panicking.

There was movement under her back, but it felt like a pair of arms. Obviously someone was carrying her, which would explain why she couldn't feel ground under her. Good. She was worried for a moment there.

Thinking it was Buffy or Angel, Cordelia snapped her eyes open and prepared to let which ever one it was have it. There was no Buffy or Angel in sight, only hair that looked gold. Not golden blonde or brassy gingery blonde or yellow, but honest to goodness gold. Unless the demon was really Goldilocks in disguise, she was being carried by a stranger.

She wasn't sure what was worse. Being kidnapped by a demon or a stranger. At least with the demon, there would be two people moderately trying to rescue her.

The hair moved and Cordelia felt her breath forced from her body in a harsh, painful breath. A stunning blue eye greeted her.

"Be still," he said, his voice thick with a French accent. "You see, we are quite high and I've no wish to drop you."

High? Drop? "What?" She glanced over her shoulder and saw the ground far, far beneath her. She did the only thing a human could when being so high without a parachute and screamed.

"Put me down!" She screeched and wiggled and squirmed in the stranger's arms. "Put me down, I said! Down!" From the D to the O, what did he not understand?

A blue eye blinked again. "You want to go down?"

Cordelia thought about it for a split second. "Us! I want you to put us down! Not me! For God's sake, don't put me down! I'll go splat if you put me down!"

His head cocked to one side, the quizzical expression not hard to miss. "It is dangerous."

"Dangerous?" She stated with a hysterical giggle. "Dangerous is not being on solid ground. Dangerous is being a thousand miles from Earth without a parachute. Dangerous is being dangled over a bunch of trees with nasty, prickly branches that will stick in parts unknown. Dangerous is being in the arms of a stranger with gold hair, which is beautiful by the way."

He had absolutely no idea what she just said. One moment she was yelling of dangers and the next she stated his hair was beautiful. It had been a long time since he had been told that. "My thanks," he replied eventually, a hint of shyness in his blue eyes.

"Uh-huh, and you'll have more of my thanks if you put us down!"

"You do not like heights?"

Who was this lunatic? "I like heights just fine," Cordelia commented in a casually sarcastic tone. "When it's safe to admire them, which it's not."

"Then we shall go down," was the courteous response. "You will be protected, mon cherie."

Oh. Great. "Protected from what? Flying..." What kind of demon was he? "What are you? A wing demon?" She couldn't see any, so how was he flying?

"A vampire."

She nodded like what he said made sense, which it really didn't. She'd been around vampires for two years now and not one of them had been able to fly. She waited patiently for her feet to touch down and dusted herself off, hissing when her fingers rasped over the scratches on her arms. Only then did she turn to the vampire.

"You're a vampire?" Cordelia asked and he nodded, careful to keep his hair in front of his face, something she found to be strange since most vampires didn't care about their over hanging foreheads and fangs. Well, except Angel, who only did that in front of Buffy. "And you can fly?"

He made a grand, sweeping gesture that signalled yes. "And I was flying with you? As in up, up, and away?"

"We flew." She blinked and promptly passed out.