"Who are you?" Buffy asked her rudely.

"Oh, I'm Cora. I…didn't I introduce myself to you last night? I was a little out of it…" Cora's forehead wrinkled in confusion.

"No…I mean, you did, but I'm sorry, I'm just a little confused," Buffy confessed, desperately trying to stay polite with the girl despite how frustrated she was feeling.

"Yeah, I know," Cora made an effort to prop herself up on her arm and turn to face Spike. "Spike, do you want to give us some time?"

"Yeah, love. I'll just go, well I just won't go eat anything," he said. He crossed the crypt and then turned back to Buffy. "Keep an eye on her alright?" Then he went out the same way Angel had just left.

"I think he's still a little upset about the whole chip thing," Cora offered. She reached across to the table and took a sip of the coffee Angelus had left. "Hm, good," she said approvingly. She sat the cup back down.

"So," Buffy began, "you're feeling better?"

Cora let out a little snort. "Barely," she said. "I think it'll take a little while. It took a while to get this bad, so I guess it's not going to heal over night," she said simply.

"What happened?" Buffy asked sympathetically.

"Oh…" Cora considered Buffy. How much did the Slayer really want to know? "Well, my family kind of pissed off the wrong people…er, the wrong vampires I guess—a while ago actually." She looked up at Buffy. "Not that there's really a right kind of vampire either," she added as an afterthought.

"So, they took you?" Buffy pressed.

"Something like that. My parents worked together against vampires. I don't mean slaying them, like you do. They worked to bring down the big evils—the ones who had been working for centuries toward some ultimate evil, you know. You've fought them." Cora smiled at Buffy again. "Anyways, they got in a little too deep one time and found out some information that they really shouldn't have known, and they told me about it. But that's not really the only reason that the Grieshlin took me. For some insane reason they also thought that they could get to Angelus through me."

"The Grieshlin?"

"They're kind of like a coven of vampires. You know, the ones who try to act holy, long black robes and stuff? Working toward a big evil?"

"Right," Buffy paused a second while Cora took another drink of coffee. "So where is your family now? Aren't they looking for you?"

"Oh, no. My parents were killed a while ago, almost ten years I guess? I was nine."

"Oh," Buffy was caught off guard, "I…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"No, it's okay," Cora gave her a friendly smile. "Really, it was like ten years ago. It's kind of the curse in my family too, no one makes it for long." A sad expression crossed over Cora's face for a brief moment, but Cora quickly shook it off and offered Buffy a smile again.

Buffy was curious about the girl's expressions, but her face quickly changed again and became pained as she tried to readjust her position on the couch. "Why did they want to get to Angelus? And why would taking you bring him to them?" Buffy asked.

"Oh, well that's the other part of the story I guess. He kind of pissed them off three or four years ago when he blew up a compound they were using."

"You and Angelus," Buffy started, not quite sure how to ask, "you're…together?"

"It would look that way," Cora gave Buffy another one of those sad smiles. "I'm sorry, you know. I know about you and Angel—the real Angel. He loved you, I'm sure of that. With his entire soul, Angel loved you. Angelus, he's a completely different person. Remember that."

Buffy tried to dismiss what Cora told her. She didn't want to be reminded of her and Angel's time together. Cora noticed her discomfort and quickly moved on.

"Anyways, Angelus doesn't love me or anything, if that's what you were getting at. I don't think he's really capable of loving, anyone, except himself of course. Without a soul…I just don't know if I could bring myself to call it love. Besides, the situation with him is a much longer one."

"I've got time," Buffy said.

"Right," Cora smiled. "Well, about a century or so ago my family made a pact with him. My family, we're a branch off of a small group of Gypsies that originally had the power to curse him with his soul. When he realized it, he kidnapped the three daughters of the time. My great-great-whatevers. He was ready to kill them, said he'd kill us all so that the secret would die with us." Cora smiled at Buffy. "That's when your line came in. The current Slayer of the time, a girl named Annabelle, stood with our family and offered to fight him. When he saw what he was up against, Angelus decided against killing the daughters. Instead, he and my great-great-however many greats-grandmother, the mother of the daughters, offered to make a Gypsy pact with him—something that would save a lot of people at the time from death—and Angelus agreed."

"What was the agreement?"

"He couldn't harm us, any one in our family. He can't even allow us to be hurt if he can help it—that was the deal. On our side, we agreed to burn the knowledge of how to restore his soul, and we agreed to, as he put it 'be there for him'. He said he had to get a little fun out of the deal, sick bastard." Cora laughed again. "So, there you have it. He can't hurt me; he is physically incapable."

"But I saw him bite you last night," Buffy began.

Cora's hand immediately reached for her neck, searching the skin until she found two straight scabs at the base of her neck. "Hm," she said to herself. "Yeah, I guess he kind of did." She looked up to Buffy. "That doesn't really count as hurting me though. That's actually one of our sides to the deal—he gets to drink if he wants. Not enough to kill of course, and he generally doesn't do it without my permission. We have our own understanding."

"How long have you been doing this?" Buffy asked her in disbelief, staring at Cora's neck.

"When my parents died, when I was nine? There was no one else for me to stay with, and since my mother was dead—the pact fell on to my shoulders. I stayed with him pretty much from then on." Cora cringed. "It wasn't like that," she said after looking at Buffy's face. "I mean, I was nine. He wouldn't—do anything like that with me. He had a certain amount of respect for my mother and, well I kind of grew up around him. He was around my parents a lot. Actually," Cora scrunched up her face, "he kind of gave me the name Cora."

"He—he what?" Buffy was getting confused again. This was just too much information.

"Yeah. He has a sick sense of humor—Cora was the goddess of the underworld or something like that." Buffy looked confused. "Greek mythology?" Cora offered. "So yeah, to try and make the story short, Angelus has been a part of my life since I was born. He can't hurt me, and I don't really think he would if he could anyways. Like I said, we have our own understanding by now." She reached across the table again to drain the last sips of coffee from her cup.

The sound of stone grating against stone came from below the crypt.

"I guess Spike's back," Cora said, turning to see whom the noise had come from.

"You're still here? Damn, Slayer, get a life." Angelus' spiky brown hair became visible as he ascended the stairs.

Cora watched Buffy's body visibly tense as Angel came closer to the girls. He walked confidently around the Slayer and went to stand by where Cora's feet rested on the couch.

"Seriously, lover. Your time is coming—we'll have it out, I'll kick your ass. But right now, some respect please? I've got to nurse my girl here back to health. That means I'm gonna be here a lot, so it'd be great if you would make my life a hell of a lot easier and not be here a lot." Angel picked up Cora's feet so that he could sit down.

A gasp escaped Cora's mouth at the sudden adjustment of her body.

At the same time, Angel dropped her legs back to the sofa and clutched as his abdomen in pain.

"Damnit Cora. Stop being such a baby and suck it up. I'm not hurting you."

"Sorry, geez. Some warning next time?" Cora shook her head. "Go ahead, Angel." He picked up her feet again and sat at that end of the couch, placing her feet back onto his lap once he was situated.

"Are you leaving now Slayer or are you just going to leave your fat ass parked in front of the TV? Because I was just about to turn it on." He waved the remote around to make a point.

"Spike said to keep an eye on you…" Buffy looked unsure. Sure Cora had told her that Angelus couldn't hurt her, but would Spike be upset if Buffy left them alone? She suddenly made up her mind. "I guess I'm staying."

"God you're annoying." Angelus looked at her as if she were a fly he wanted to swat away. "Well get the hell out of the way if you're staying. Passions is on and Courtney's been kidnapped. She might be being tortured right now and we're missing it." Angelus turned the television on, and Buffy sat down in one of the recliners that were set on either side of the couch.

She didn't allow herself to relax. Her Slayer senses were on high alert, especially with a vampire as dangerous as Angelus in the room with her. In fact, she hadn't taken her eyes off of him since she had sat down. It was just too strange seeing the evil vampire sitting so casually on the couch with Cora. Her legs rested easily on his lap, and one of his arms was relaxed on top of her legs.

Buffy's tension hadn't gone unnoticed by Cora.

"Buffy," Cora said quietly, "you can relax. At least for now, Angel's not going anywhere. His soap opera will keep him thoroughly engaged for the next hour." Cora smiled at her. "Spike got him into it a couple of years ago. After he watched the first episode, Angelus made me stay with him and watch the first four seasons so he would be caught up with the show." Cora laughed at the memory. "Seriously, four seasons, straight. He wouldn't sleep, and he'd barely let me doze off because he didn't want me to miss anything."

"Cora…" Angel began. She raised her eyebrows at him questioningly. "Shut up," he finished with a menacing half smile. "You're missing it."

"Please tell the nice Slayer you'll keep your hands off of her for now," Cora instructed him.

"Fine." He moved his eyes from the screen to meet Buffy's. "I promise to keep my hands to myself, Slayer." He looked suggestively at Cora. "Or at least…" His hand began to rub up along the side of Cora's leg. "I'll keep my hands on the couch."

He slid his hand up along the inside of her leg, moving up from her ankle and on towards her calf, enjoying the look of discomfort that was on the Slayer's face. He didn't notice when he ran his hand over the indent on the inside of Cora's knee.

"Aghh," Cora complained. She flinched back as his hand grazed the sore spot.

"What the hell happened there baby?" He asked curiously. "Someone put a freakin' dent in your leg."

"I think someone took a bat to my leg actually, when they first grabbed me." She said, trying to shrug it off.

"It'll get better baby," Angel offered, moving his hand back down to her calf, while still continuing to caress it. He turned his attention back to Passions. "Don't worry, I ripped the heads off of some of them for you."

"You haven't told me about that yet," Cora reminded him. "How'd you manage? There were dozens of them from what I could tell."

"Yeah well I didn't go in unprepared. I took some fledglings with me. Left them to fight and to die in the entry way and then I fought my way back to where you were. Literally ripped their heads off for you. When I found you, chained to the wall and bleeding and broken, I got you and laid you down somewhere safe. Then I went back out and taught all the rest of them a lesson. No one can hurt you but me. I'm the only one with that right." He smiled possessively at her. "Then I threw you in the backseat and away I drove. You do owe me a new backseat by the way, you bled all over it, babe."

"Yeah, whatever," she replied with a smile. She reached down and grabbed his hand from where it was resting on her calf. She entwined her fingers with his, knowing the loving gesture would piss him off. "Thanks, babe."

He pulled his hand out from hers and gave it a quick shake before resting it on her calf again.

Despite her past with Angel, Buffy found herself inwardly laughing at the odd relationship Cora and Angelus shared. Sure Buffy would kill him eventually, but in the meantime, it was nice to see that someone annoyed him as much as he annoyed her.