Chapter Two
She entered the large warehouse just after 2:00a.m Tuesday morning. After sliding the large door shut, she made her way past the large collection of 60's muscle cars. The cars were parked along both sides of the warehouse in such a way that not one blocked the other, and that any or all could be driven straight out the front sliding doors' with no difficulty.
"For such a quiet person, he certainly does favour loud and obnoxiously powerful cars." Her comment went unheard, as expected at this hour the person she was here to see was probably in the upstairs loft.
She entered the lift that was located at the back wall and after pulling the gate closed began her ascent to the second and final floor. The lift stopped with a faint "Clank" even before she opened the gate on the lift, she saw the well lit and beautiful living area. It was like the floor beneath it and was all open with no walls except for the brick that made up the exterior of the building. The size of the warehouse was a comfortable thirty feet wide by one hundred feet in length with only an occasional steel "I" beam running through the floor to the ceiling and connecting to the frame that supported the building. Stepping out of the lift she took a moment to survey her surroundings. The floors were all hardwood coated with a varnish that made it look like it was covered in glass. To her right was a stunning kitchen with a stainless steel fridge and matching oven, in the centre of the kitchen stood a five by four-foot counter, the counter top was solid wood and well worn by many years of meal preparation.
On the left was a solid oak bookshelf that stood from the floor up the wall and to the roof twelve feet above her head, the shelf ran a length of what looked to be at least thirty feet and was filled with leather and hard back books. The light in the loft was provided by flourescent lights that hung from the roof to a height of eight feet above the floor. She walked at a casual pace so she could take in the rest of the loft's details, next to the kitchen was a glass dining room set with a set of black carbon fiber high-backed chairs. On her left after the bookshelf was a training area, which consisted of a heavy bag, weights and painted on the floor was what looked to be a set of swordsman circles.
"The last time I saw those were in the movie Zorro" She commented to no one in particular.
Looking to the end wall she saw a modest bedroom set with a king-sized bed and a rather large wardrobe closet. To her right just after the dinning area was the most advanced computer station she had ever seen in her un-life, mounted on the wall two by two were four wide screen plasma displays. The black leather recliner that sat in front of the monitors had an integrated speaker system, the wireless keyboard and mouse sat on a small fold away surface that was mounted on the side of the recliner. The computer itself, was more like a mainframe super computer that only IBM could produce and at no small cost. Looking to the screens she saw what looked to be a custom built operating system, a Dos/Linux style command console system with a GUI interface if needed.
Looking around she finally asked the empty room.
"Okay, where are you?"
To answer her question a section of wall in the back left corner of the loft slid open, Walking to the opening she saw what was missing from the rest of the loft. The bathroom. The black tile room was fifteen feet deep and ran the entire width of the warehouse, it had two stainless steel sinks sitting in a black marble counter with a sliding glass cupboard underneath. Just next to the sink counter was a stainless steel toilet and past that was a small wall separating it from the large multi-headed shower stall. Walking past the showers to the far end of the room is where she found her quiet partner.
Soaking leisurely in a rather large black marble bathtub with his hands behind his head looking up at the ceiling was the man she only knew as Quintin, he looked to be about 24 but she knew he was far older. He probably stood about five foot 11 inches a lean and trim 190 pounds with short light brown hair that had a golden streak that ran from his right temple to the back of his head. Shifting his gaze from the ceiling to look at her. His green eyes asked a silent question.
"It's been done. The Watchers library and all of its contents have been destroyed. They put up one hell of a fight, if I had been like any other god fearing vampire I would have been ashes inside of a minute. Unfortunately for them I'm not god fearing."
Quintin silently nodded and for the first time in a long while he let her hear his true voice.
"The backups, the individual who stole the backups and the people who handled the contract?"
Reaching into her inside jacket pocket Remi produced the back-up DVD's. "As for the people you mentioned, the thief and the people who hired her are gone."
Off of his look she added "I saw to it personally and might I add they tasted really bad."
Quintin replied with only silence to the last remark and then indicated to the vampire to leave the backups on the towel rack behind her before returning his gaze to the ceiling.
After placing the DVD's on the towels behind her, Remi looked back at Quintin and a small smile tugged at her mouth.
He didn't even look away from the ceiling when Remi slipped out of her clothes and into the water beside him. Laying against him with her head on his chest she let her fingers idly slide up and down his ABS all the while listening to the steady rhythm of his heart, after about five minutes of silence Quintin took a deep breath and finally asked.
"What is it you are looking for?"
Without looking up at him Remi responded quietly "A reaction."
"I'm a little too old to react the way you want and quite frankly you can't do anything I haven't already done at least a hundred times."
After hearing that she looked up at him and asked "So what do you see when you look at me?"
Still looking at the ceiling Quintin responded "Five feet eleven inches, red hair, 120 pounds, 36c, well-muscled body and above all else a competent fighter with no fear of any sort of religious icon or power. If I was a young man, I would find the power that you posses very attractive but I'm not so I don't know what your game is, so why even bother trying to get a rise out of me?" After a pause "Not that it really matters."
With a smile that could turn every head in a room she answered.
"I like a good challenge and so far. You are providing a delicious one."
And with that she stood up, leaned over giving him a kiss on the forehead and exited the tub, two minutes later she was dressed and headed for the door.
As Remi left Quintin shook his head and uttered with a voice of total disgust.
"The day I fall for your simple wiles, will be the day I allow you and your allies to walk the earth unchallenged."
After draining the tub, drying off and putting on some silk boxers, Quintin sat in the recliner observing the four displays in front of him. On the top two monitors eight beds from LA General Hospital video feed where displayed, on the left was the group from Sunnydale on the right were the detectives from Angel investigations.
The bottom two monitors displayed the readouts from each individual's daily file, but one in particular concerned him.
"Cordelia Chase, C'mon sweetheart why are you not stabilizing?"
Bringing up the file marked: Chase, Cordelia up so that it was the only file that was displayed. After glancing through most of her medical history finding nothing really unusual other than the fact of her getting a breast augmentation at 17, he reached the medical report dated late May of 2000. After reading the report five times trying to figure out what had happened during that 36-hour span, he did something he rarely did anymore: Think out-loud.
"Ok Cordelia, tell me. Why would a woman with no history of mental illness, drug abuse or any type of medical condition in the family background have a psychotic episode?"
With his mind still on the problem, Quintin rose from his seat and made his way to the training area.
Hyperion Hotel
2:30am
Spike sauntered into the hotel lobby, cigarette in one hand a beer in the other.
"Angel you big Wanker, where the bloody 'ell are you! We've got trouble."
Looking around and seeing nobody in the main lobby Spike stopped took a drag off his smoke and was about to leave when from the top of the stairs an overly cheerful voice stopped him.
"Hey there, now if I'm not mistaken (And I never am) you must be Spike. I was wondering how long it would take for the B-team to show up."
Walking up the stairs to the green demon Spike sneered as he passed.
"Well keep wondering, because they're not with me. Now where's Angel?"
Walking down the hallway to Angels suite and not even stopping to knock Spike walked right in.
"C'mon you lazy sod get your soulful ass out of bed, there's trouble a brew . . . "
Seeing Angels unmoving form on the bed Spike stopped and with a low voice said.
" Angel?"
Turning from his sire to the horned demon, Spike demanded.
"What the hell is wrong with him? Who the hell are you? And where's What's-her-tush?"
Stunned by the look in the blonde's eye, the horned demon took two steps back and calmly answered.
"Whoa there fella, one question at a time. First I don't know second I'm Lorne and third. Cordelia and the rest of the gang are at LA General. It seems the entire crew with the exception of Gunn are suffering from an acute case of food poisoning."
Spike just glared at the demon and with barely contained fury uttered.
"Angels a damn vampire. He does not get food poisoning you bloody Peacock!"
At that comment Lorne let some of his irritation slip into his voice.
"Gee are you sure? I thought he was just . . . "
Spike didn't let the demon finish his sentence before punching the man in the mouth with a quick left jab. Turning on his heel Spike stalked out of the room and headed for the stairs, taking the last pull from his beer Spike threw the empty bottle over his shoulder. The crash of the bottle shattering barely registered in his mind as he reached the main floor and walked out of the hotel.
Gunn was at the teen shelter talking to Anne. He was having trouble keeping his mind off his friends at the hospital and it showed on his face and in his voice.
"Please Anne if you hear anything call me, and if that street crew of mine show up please have them call in The Hunter." Off her look he added. "They know who I mean, after all the streets are going to get a lot meaner if word breaks out that Angel and Co. are out of the game."
"Of course Charles, if you need anything just call. I'll keep trying to contact Buffy for you as well."
"Thank you Anne. You do so much, but I don't have many friends to turn to right now so it's appreciated." Tuning to leave the front foyer Gunn stopped turned and with a quiet voice "Be careful it could get a lot worse before it gets better."
Climbing into his beat up '76, Ford F-100 Gunn was about to turn the ignition when his phone started to beep.
"This is Gunn speak."
" Charles' I'm glad I caught you." Came the voice of the Host " I thought you should know that Spike is here in LA."
"Is he at the hotel right now?"
"No. He came in positively reeking of booze took a look at Angel and punched me before leaving to go gods knows where."
"Great. That's all we need that twit running around drunk but that's not important right now. Where is Buffy? Did she come with him?"
"Sorry sweet-cheeks the B-team is still MIA and I cannot get through to Wesley's former employers either."
"Lovely, Just great, no . . . perfect." Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath "Okay. Lorne I'm going to the hospital to check up on the gang then I'll be back to see how Angel is doing. Also can you keep your ear to the ground and if you see anything no matter how small tell me."
"Gunn my boy I've been looking so hard my eyes feel like they are going to fall out. But so far all I see is a storm with all of us in it."
TBC . . .