Disclaimer: Angel is owned by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt. I own nothing but the storyline and OC's.
Chapter 9 ~*
"Okay, we're getting down to the wire," Angel said, running his hand over his forehead and into his hair.
"You're telling us!" Cordelia responded. "This is the first time Wes has come up with absolutely nothing in the history of history!"
"Well it's not like I'm dealing with the normal every day creatures here!" Wesley said, shoving a stack of books to the side. "Apparently, we have in our midst a living fairy tale that has no tale."
Gunn huffed loudly as he continued his pacing on the other side of the room, his ax at his side. "Okay, can I please go-"
"No!" Angel said loudly for the tenth time. "Trying to intimidate the information from her will do nothing, and like I said, I'm pretty sure she gave us everything she had anyway."
Gunn groaned. "Then why did she have Mr. Green stay behind? What she gonna tell him that she can't tell you-"
"Her fears."
All heads turned to see Lorne walking down the stairs, his eyes aimed down. He made it to the landing and looked up, glancing to Gunn. "She's didn't want to come off too end of the world-y to the guy who's just trying to help." He shrugged as he took the final steps to the ground floor, putting his hands in his pockets. "We've got all we can get," he said tiredly.
Cordelia sighed and leaned her hands against the counter. "Okay, this sucks! What are we gonna do then? Ask them to play nice?"
Angel rested his hands on his hips as he looked to the floor. He shook his head. "Wes, you got any ideas based on what we do have?" he asked, looking up hopefully.
Wesley shook his head. "No. If the key really is fighting elements with elements, then we're rather stuck unless they decide not to use them. I mean, even with the knowledge that electricity trumps them all, we can't produce it in a controlled manner like Lilith can. We'd take out the whole building, maybe ourselves." He sighed. "And say they do use physical force instead of their natural abilities, it appears that, when they're paying attention, they seem to be far stronger and faster than even you," he said, looking to Angel. "Short of running or making a kamikaze stand, I'm not sure what our options really are."
Cordelia groaned loudly and rubbed her face with her hands. "There has to be something! There's no way they're this hard to deal with, I mean, there has to be something we can do!"
"You're right, Cordie."
All eyes turned to Gunn, who's eyes were focused squarely on Lorne.
"There has to be something," he said. "There is always something, doesn't matter what the enemy is." His eyes remained glued to Lorne as he spoke.
Lorne returned his stare with confusion. He glanced to either side of himself, making sure there wasn't some other object or person he was obstructing. He looked back to Gunn and shook his head. "Why are you looking at me?"
Gunn scoffed and shifted his weight to one leg. "Isn't it obvious?" At the continuous confused gaze he rolled his eyes. "You've been so stubborn this whole time about not wanting to be involved, not having anything to do with this case, and now you're right in the middle of it and you haven't even thought to tell us what you saw in her future." He looked at Lorne expectantly.
Lorne fought the instant nervousness that buzzed up his spine. "Well… it isn't what you would call helpful," he said, inwardly annoyed at how uncertain his voice had sounded.
"Look, Lorne," Cordelia bit her lip as she turned towards his direction, putting her hands on her back, "we know that… it was kinda personal what you saw. We kind of beat that part out of Angel, honestly," she said apologetically, glancing at Angel before looking back. "I think what Gunn is trying to say is, we just want to know how to get through this. We don't really need to know the personal stuff, obviously that's not our business." She took a deep breath and crossed her arms. "But, I think I speak for everyone right now when I say… we might could use a little guidance," she finished, looking at him earnestly.
Lorne held Cordelia's gaze before his eyes darted from her, to Angel, to Wes, Fred, and back to Gunn. He swallowed his nerves and averted his eyes. "I… Like I said… it isn't very helpful." He could feel their eyes on him as much as he could feel their disbelief in his words. He shook his head. "Look, all I know is that we make it out of this," he said, looking back up. "I know that we survive this encounter, we all do, but that's all I know."
Gunn huffed in annoyance. "Yo, I know you can't tell us everything, but-"
"No," Lorne cut in, starting to feel annoyance of his own, "that's not what I mean. That is actually all I know. I do not know how we get through this, it's all muddy in that particular area," he said, looking to Gunn pointedly.
"What do you mean muddy?" Wesley asked curiously, walking up from behind the counter.
Lorne rolled his eyes and looked away. "I mean it's muddy! I didn't see it, that part wasn't there."
Angel scrunched his eyebrows down and crossed his arms. "Well… that's not normal is it?"
Lorne pulled his hands from his pockets to run them over his face. "Guuhhh, none of it is normal," he said, his voice muffled by his hands. He removed his hands and rested them on his hips, looking to Angel then glancing to the others. "You told them, right?" At Angel's puppy dog look of apology he nodded. "Well, let me explain further then, so you little chickadees have a better idea of just how not normal this whole thing is," he said, now not even bothering to hide his aggravation.
"When she got up to sing, it was like a regular run of the mill. I opened my doors and waited for her to open up so I could delve in and see what was in store for her." He looked away and started pacing. "So, she started singing and I started doing my thing. Only, my thing didn't do like it was supposed to. Instead of my senses going through the door she opened, they reflected back off of her and instead went through my own door. And it wasn't any walk in the park, by the way, it felt like I was about to implode under my own psychic energy. Then," he brought his fingertips to his temples and pulled them away splaying his fingers, "boom! A conglomeration of this series of events exploded into existence in my head and I saw everything as if fast forwarding through a commercial!" He stopped and turned to look at them all. "Not normal!" he said, pointing at them. "And what's even better is some of it is clear, plain as day, but other parts are murky, like they got buried under the main events or something!" He pointed to Angel. "The bar, the attack on my club? Didn't see that! Not specifically. Her little episode after? Only saw the first part of that, somehow missed the lightning storm part. Her telling the story of her people, the story of how they're after her and why? Saw that. Her further breakdowns and us sharing life experiences? Missed that part."
Lorne shook his head and turned away from them, resting one hand on his hip and running the fingers of his other into his eyes, suddenly wishing he could go home and sleep the whole thing away. "The point is… I don't know what I would normally know. It's like…" he shook his head again. "It's like I was reliving memories I hadn't made yet. It's all from my point of view, and it's as if I wasn't there for all of it so I can't remember all of it." He turned back, looking at all of them with tired eyes. "I know that what we are about to go through won't be easy and it's going to be terrifying. I can feel that much. But I… I can't see what we do to get out of it. I don't know. All I know is that we make it."
The air over the whole gang became somber, all of them looking away or to the ground as the room was consumed by silence in the wake of his speech.
Fred twirled some of her hair around her finger before looking up with big eyes. "Does she make it?" she asked suddenly, a note of worry in her voice.
Lorne looked at Fred and bit the inside of his lip. He fought back the resurgence of nervousness and nodded. "Yeah. She makes it, too."
They all stood or sat in thought as silence settled back in. Lorne took a deep breath and shook his head, turning to the landing and sitting down heavily on the top step. He crossed his arms over his legs and leaned his head on his forearms, hardly caring of the slight pain caused in his horns at the pressure. He sighed. "A little guidance would be nice right now," he mumbled.
"Well gee, I didn't realize I was holding up progress."
Every head in the room snapped to the top of the stairs.
Lilith stood leaning heavily against a pillar, in her clothes from the night before. "Oh wait," she shrugged one shoulder weakly, "I did know that," she said, looking down with a small smile.
Lorne shot up from his spot, trailing up the stairs quicker than he'd thought possible. "What are you doing? I thought- are you alright?" he asked, at her side in moments.
Lilith looked at him with tired eyes and quirked a lopsided grin. "Yeah. But that's a lie."
Lorne reached for her arm. He pulled it over his shoulder as he wrapped one arm around her back and instinctively placed his other hand at her abdomen. He moved with her as she started down the stairs, sharing her weight as she took one slow step after another. "What… what are-"
"I'm getting off my ass," Lilith said, cutting him off.
As they made it to the landing she looked up to the others in the main hall. "I, um…" she looked back down and huffed a small laugh. "I'm sure he's already told you about the whole 'you're all gonna die' thing I said. And, honestly, I'm not going to take it back." She glanced back up, her eyes darting to and from each one of the whole team. "However, a little birdy told me that you guys are the best of the best. That you always find a way… that if anyone can do it, you all can," she said softly.
Lorne felt the corner of his mouth quirk up. Determination. He could feel it flickering oh-so-gently in her aura. She wasn't filled with it, but it was moving her. And what little light it had was shining bright.
Lilith nodded. "So I, um… I figure, even if you are that good, you probably need a bit of help every now and then just like anyone else."
"I thought you gave us all the info you had," Gunn said, leaning on his ax.
Lilith looked to him and smiled again. "I did give you all the info. But that doesn't mean I don't have a few tricks." She looked away and shrugged her free shoulder weakly. "And I do happen to have fifteen or so years dealing with Tarnassus. I figure if I can't predict his moves by now, I probably deserve to get caught," she said lowly.
She then looked up and around the atrium, then to either side of the stairs, her eyes narrowed in thought. "You got a few friends hanging around?" She looked to the crew with a raised brow. "A few buddies you can call who won't ask questions when you tell them you need help with wires and darts and heavy objects?" She looked at Angel. "You have all those things right?" she asked.
Angel stood straight. "Um, yeah. And whatever we don't have we can get quick."
Lilith smirked. "Good. Cuz you'll need them. Those and arrows. And throwing knives." She shrugged. "Guns wouldn't hurt either, but I have a feeling you all don't deal in those."
"Please!" Cordelia scoffed with a shrug. "Guns are dangerous."
Lilith snickered softly. "Yeah."
"So, am I making a call?" Gunn asked, looking form Lilith to Wesley.
Wesley tilted his head as a smile came to his lips. "I guess so."
"Ten-four." Gunn said, darting across the room to the counter.
"We'll also need floor plans," Lilith said. "Well, I will. The ground floor," she said, gesturing to the floor in a circle. "I need to see all entry points on this floor and lower."
"Got it," Angel said, turning towards the office.
Lorne smiled as he looked to Lilith. "Catch a little spring in your step?" he asked.
Lilith met his gaze and a small smile of her own sprouted. "I like the songs birds sing. We'll leave it at that."
XoXoX
"I don't know." Angel shook his head, crossing his arms. "That just seems risky. I don't like taking away options." He glanced to Wesley who nodded in agreement.
Lilith looked at him tiredly from the desk chair. She then leaned her elbows on the desk, looking over the floor plans again. She tapped the point marked as the basement door. "You said the only thing this really leads to is the sewers right?"
"Yeah," Angel answered. "And from the sewers we can get up to the surface."
"That's great and all, but, correct me if I'm wrong, it's a sewer right?" Lilith asked, crossing her arms as she leaned further over the desk.
Angel shook his head in confusion. "Yeah, it's the sewer."
"And in the sewer is water, right?" Lilith said, aiming her eyes upwards to him.
Angel stared at her. "Yeeah.
"Virtually unlimited amounts of water. In underground tunnels. With only so many places to go," Lilith said slowly.
Angel shifted his weight and sighed. "I see."
Lilith raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Devonn is a water element. One of the best that I've encountered. He'll drown us before we get the chance to get anywhere."
Angel nodded. "You know, this really isn't leaving us much to work with."
Lilith shook her head and looked back to the plans. "Yeah. We don't have much to work with anyway."
Wesley closed the distance to the desk and leaned his hands on the edge. "So, we basically have the entire building rigged as a death trap for them and then… wait till the survivors get to us and try to stick them before they stick us?" He looked to Lilith for affirmation.
Lilith nodded. "Basically." She looked back down, examining every sheet, hoping she hadn't missed anything. The throbbing in her temples was enough to convince her that she had. "I'll have to commend Gunn's friends when he gets back. They did an intricate job quick, and hopefully well."
"They've got experience in that area," Wesley put in.
Lilith nodded again. "I'll take your word for it."
"Okay. So, we hole up where exactly?" Cordelia asked curiously.
Lilith lifted a hand and ran her fingers over her forehead. "That's the question of the day," she said quietly. "The best place, honestly, is the main hall."
Wesley looked up in concern. "I've gathered that's what you've been leading towards, but that's awfully exposed-"
"Yeah, we need it that way," Lilith said.
"We need to be exposed?" Fred asked from her stool at the end of the desk.
Lilith glanced to her. "Mhm. The more exposed the better. They will be better able to do what they want in tight quarters and dark places. It'll be better to be in a large open area where everyone can see everything." She glanced in the direction of the front entrance. "That, and it'll be easier to get to the street if we stick to this area."
Angel shook his head. "Would the street be a good idea?"
"It would be the best idea second to miraculously catching them all off guard," Lilith said. "It's in the open and among civilian populace. They can't risk doing much in that event."
Lorne finally stood from the wall he'd been leaning against. "Well, if that's the case, why wouldn't we want to just high tail it? And I don't mean like out of town where we're sitting ducks, but I mean, just to the surface with people."
Lilith shook her head. "Honestly, that's a last resort option only. It'll deter them at first, but after a while they'll find a way around it," she said. "Last time I tried that, they effected a pretty believable earthquake and nearly got me in the mass confusion."
Cordelia eyed Lilith. "They made an earthquake?" she said incredulously.
Lilith looked to her and nodded. "Yeah." She then shrugged. "Though, that was done by Armon, one of the two you guys killed off. He was pretty powerful actually."
Cordelia made a face. "The blond one?"
Lilith shook her head. "No, the other one. The blond one was Tannon. He was water. They were brothers."
Cordelia nodded slowly. "Oooh… So Gunn's comment of them being boyfriends-"
"Tad inappropriate," Lilith said without looking up.
"So," Angel looked to Cordelia sternly, "back to the original conversation. We need to lock up the basement door then?"
Lilith nodded. "Yeah, it would be best," she said, leaning over further. "I don't think they'll come up through there, but if they try we should give them a hard time."
"So, that's it then," Wesley said, standing straight as he looked to Lilith. "We wait for them to come through the top levels and ground level entrances and pick them off after they get startled by the traps," he tilted his head, "and hope that they don't whip out any elemental trump cards?" He regarded her with an obvious hint of skepticism. "Is this all we can do then?" he asked.
Lilith raised a brow at him. She understood his reserve. She was laying out a pretty bleak scenario. She nodded slowly in affirmation. She then shrugged. "I have been putting more thought into their trump cards, though." She rubbed her temples with her thumb and forefinger. "As little as you have to work with, I think this situation plays far more to your advantage than theirs."
"Our advantage," Cordelia said with a smirk.
Lilith looked to her and quirked a brief smile in return. "Our advantage. You see," she gestured to the papers again, "there's hardly any water in here, and no earth to be found except for in the potted plants. Your only big issues are extensive open air and easily flammable materials. But…" she took a deep breath, her first real one since the night before. She nodded with a small huff of a laugh. "I forgot that Tarnassus has a dislike of air elements."
"Oh? Why is that?" Wesley questioned.
Lilith was quiet a moment as her eyes remained glued to the papers on the desk. "Because he used to be one."
"Used to be one?" Lorne said incredulously as the others looked at one another in surprise. "I didn't get the impression that this was something you guys grew out of."
Lilith looked up and met his eyes. "We don't." She leaned away from the desk and back into the chair. "Hence the key issue that started this whole fu-…" She stopped short and glanced up. She cleared her throat. "This whole mess."
Angel looked to her seriously. "And the key issue is?"
Lilith glanced to Angel before averting her eyes to the desk. "Tarnassus… he was an air element. One of the best. The most talented and experienced. He… he lived his element. It was everything to him. He understood the nuances of air and it's properties that even his elders had trouble comprehending." She shook her head slowly. "He was a good teacher too. He assisted many youths in his time. But then, one day… he lost his element. It was simply gone from him. He could no longer bend air to his will, couldn't effect the currents, couldn't feel it's flows. It was just gone." Lilith shook her head again. "That's where I came in. Well, not me specifically. Tarnassus came to my teacher, Llettagumo."
"Let-a-what-now?" Cordelia said in confusion.
Lilith glanced to her and let out a laugh. "Llettagumo. The name of my former teacher. He was a teacher to many, actually. Any who wanted his guidance, help, or even training could come to him. And that's what Tarnassus did." Lilith leaned her head back on the chair. "He came to Llettagumo and he begged, pleaded with him, to tell him what was wrong, what had happened, why he was suddenly broken, and how to fix it. But… Llettagumo had no answer. At least, not one that Tarnassus liked. He said he could do nothing for him, that this issue came from within him and therefore could only be fixed by him."
"This Llettagumo fellow sounds like quite the wise man," Wesley commented.
Lilith smiled lightly. "Yeah well, over six hundred years of life will do that for you."
Wesley went wide-eyed, as did the others. "Over six hundred years old? How?"
Lilith looked to him with a raised brow. "Simple. Average live-span of my kind is nine hundred to a thousand years."
The room went quiet.
"Holy cow!" Cordelia commented. "So he's only just gotten to be middle aged then?"
Lilith chuckled. "We don't age like you do," she said softly. "He wouldn't appear much older than me or you." She bit back more laughter at Cordelia's look of utter incredulity.
"Okay, that's just not fair," Cordelia said, crossing her arms.
"So," Lorne glanced to Cordelia before stepping to the desk, "back to the story then."
Lilith smirked. "Yeah. Long story short, he didn't like Llettagumo's answer. He spent several days trying to get some other words out of him, something else that would tell him what he wanted or thought he needed to hear. During those days, he encountered me. Now," Lilith's expression became more somber, "most knew of me. It's pretty much advertised through the whole of society when the new child of Blue Fire is born. But not many had ever seen me or knew me personally. Tarnassus saw me one day. He deduced who I was based on physical description and the fact that I appeared to be living with Llettagumo which was common knowledge at the time.
"He came up to me one day… asked if he could ask my opinion on something. I already knew who he was and why he was there. So it didn't surprise me when he asked if I trusted Llettagumo and his words, if I thought he spoke the truth at all times." Lilith stared blankly at nothing in particular, the memory of that day washing through her mind. She felt her eyes mist over as the remembered scent of garden flowers fluttered into existence. The warm rays of the sun and the humid feel of the air. Curious hazel eyes that held a hint of the pain that she could have only imagined at the time. She sighed softly. "I told him I did. And that he should trust him too. He seemed to think on my words. He then asked me… if I lost something dear to me, would I go to any lengths to reclaim it? I knew what he was referencing… but I wasn't sure why he was asking. Or why he was asking me." Lilith shrugged. "So, I told him what I thought at the time. I said, it depended on the situation, but, if I had the mind to do it, to reclaim it, I would do so within reason." She clenched her teeth at the vague memory of the end of their conversation. She had handed him a gold Asiatic Lily, their symbol of new beginnings. "I then told him a very Llettagumo-esque phrase. 'That all things sorted themselves out in time' and that he should take whatever Llettagumo had told him to heart," she said softly.
The gang became thoughtful as her words faded into the silence of the room.
Lorne tapped his fingers on the desk quietly before looking to her face. "Do you think you know now?" he asked. "Do you understand why he was asking you that?"
Lilith stared blankly for a moment longer before meeting those fiery red eyes. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I think… he was trying to validate himself. He seemed to have come to the conclusion that since he lost something, he could reclaim it in any way he saw fit. How taking my power from me is to facilitate that, I'm not sure." She looked away and scoffed. "It certainly doesn't fall into the categories of reason, patience, and listening to the one individual in our society considered most wise."
"Maybe it's power," Angel said. He looked up to all the sets of eyes that darted to him and ended at Lilith's. "Maybe it wasn't his element so much as his power. You said he was the best, the most talented, most experienced, right?"
Lilith nodded. "Yeah. Of our time, anyway."
Angel shrugged, uncrossing his arms and placing his hands in his pockets. "Maybe he feels worthless without his power, like he doesn't amount to anything," he mused. "So, he thinks he's allowed to do whatever he's capable of doing in order to bring his definition of meaning back to his life."
Lilith held his gaze. She then closed her eyes and shrugged. "Who knows," she said softly. She shook her head and flinched as a sharp pain shot through her temples. "Mmmm…"
Cordelia jolted and closed the distance to her side, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"
Lilith nodded, keeping her eyes closed as she raised her hands and massaged her temples with her fingers. "Yeah… just sore."
"Oh Sweetness, tell me about it," Lorne mumbled.
Lilith opened an eye to see him rubbing his own temples with one hand. She let out a laugh and closed it back.
Lorne looked up and jolted lightly at the gang's disbelieving gazes suddenly on him. "What? I'm not allowed to be sore? I've been through a lot too you know?"
Lilith chuckled, shaking her head. "You've been a kicking bag, a pin cushion, a fire extinguisher, and a security camera, I can't say I'm surprised," she said. "Oh yeah, and can't forget the landing pad." She opened her eyes again and looked at him.
Lorne locked eyes with her but looked away quickly, quirking a small smile.
Angel shook his head in confusion. "Okay… what?" he asked, looking between the two of them.
Lilith readjusted herself in the chair before answering. "Well, he was kicked by one of Tarnassus' guys, Tarnassus himself nearly ripped his throat out, he calmed me down from my not-so-little escapade, and hasn't gotten a lick of sleep since the whole thing began." Lilith looked to Angel and shrugged. "Oh, and he broke our landing."
Wesley mimicked Angel's action and shook his head in confusion. "Broke your landing?"
Lilith raised an eyebrow and glanced to Lorne. He met her gaze but again looked away quickly. She could see by the quirk of his lips that he was trying not to smile. "When I rescued him. I picked him up bridal style and ran over the rooftops-"
"Hey!" Lorne interrupted. "You didn't have to mention that part," he said, looking at her with feigned annoyance.
Lilith smirked, looking back to Angel. "I lost strength fast and tripped, stutter jumped, and finally fell. He," she gestured at him, "did this wrap around thing that kept me from cracking my scull open, but we landed squarely on his back. I'm surprised nothing broke, to be honest."
Lorne stood tall and straightened his blazer. "I'm a little sturdier than people give me credit for," he said haughtily.
Multiple giggles and snickers sounded through the room.
Lorne looked around at the lot of them. "Oh come on!" He shook his head. "Got my head cut off for you guys and you laugh at me. I see how you are."
Angel scoffed. "You didn't get your head cut off for us," he said.
"Wait," Lilith looked between them in confusion. "What?"
"Yo, yo, yo!"
All heads turned to see Gunn heading around the counter. "Guess who's back! Got some goodies too. Catch!" He tossed two of the four bundles in his arms to the crew.
Wesley caught the bundle that appeared to be dozens of arrows. Lorne caught the other one, only to promptly drop it with a yelp.
"Yah! What the!" He grasped his right hand, blood rapidly pooling in his palm. "What is that?"
Gunn rolled his eyes. "Good Lord, man! They're throwing knives. I happen to toss'em to you hilt first and covered in leather and you still manage to cut yourself," he said, depositing his other bundles into Angel's arms and heading to pick up the bundle at Lorne's feet. "You really are a piece of work, you know that?"
"Hey listen, Rambo, I don't do sharp and pointy!" Lorne said, pulling out his handkerchief from his blazer pocket and pushing it into his palm. "The sharpest and pointiest I handle is a toothpick," he said angrily.
"Yeah, yeah, calm down," Gunn said, handing the bundle to Wesley. "First aid kit's over here, come on."
Lorne shook his head, pulling the cloth away and wiping around the cut. He glanced to Gunn and followed him despite his annoyance.
Lilith looked back to the papers on the desk, resisting the urge to shake her head or roll her eyes in her own display of annoyance. She instead took a deep breath through her nose, trying to be quiet, only to feel her mouth spontaneously start to water. She immediately cupped her hand to her mouth and leaned forward, feeling a gnawing pain bloom to life in her stomach. "Mmm…" She closed her eyes tight and tried to breathe in again. She was suddenly aware of a hot, spicy scent, muddied with the smell earth of raw metal. Her eyes whipped open and her gaze shot to Lorne, now several steps into the public part of the office. His blood… She promptly closed her eyes again as the sickening pain of intense hunger caused her to curl into herself.
"Lilith, are you okay?" Cordelia asked in a panicked voice, her hand immediately at Lilith's back.
Lilith fought the sudden, intense urge to growl at the touch. She shook her head. "W… water," she managed. "Nnnd w-ter." She gripped her stomach tightly and felt her body tremble.
"Okay! Guys! Water!" Cordelia said, rounding the desk and heading to the fridge.
"What's going on?" Lorne asked, he and Gunn both looking up from the first aid kit.
Cordelia passed them without pause. "Don't worry, you do your thing, I've got her handled," she said, powerwalking to the fridge. She opened it and grabbed a bottle, paused, then grabbed two more. She closed it quickly and hurried back, placing two on the desk then opening the other. "Here," she said, wrapping an arm around Lilith's shoulders and holding it to her, the others looking on with concern.
Lilith took a moment to keep herself composed before grabbing the bottle. She kept her eyes shut tight as she forced herself to drink. She immediately growled on pure impulse, a deep angry noise, her instincts getting the better of her as she choked down the cold water. It wasn't what her body wanted, but she would be damned if she would allow it out of her control. She quickly forced down all of the water and finally stopped for air, gasping quickly as she continued to hold her eyes shut. She felt Cordelia leave her for a moment and heard the second bottle being opened.
"Here, if you need more," Cordelia said softly.
Lilith hung her head, her eyes still clenched shut tightly. She moved to place the first bottle on the desk but felt it being removed from her grip. She felt the fresh bottle replacing it and inwardly thanked Cordelia for being so attentive. She held it to her with both hands, still hunched over. She opened her mouth to breathe without scent and also inwardly thanked whoever would listen that her mouth had stopped watering enough that she didn't end up drooling all over herself.
"You alright," Cordelia asked, rubbing her shoulders. "What happened?"
Lilith shook her head slowly. "Nnn… nausea… intense… nausea," she lied.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Cordelia said. "Do you know what from? Do you need anything, medication, food-" she gasped. "Food, that's it, you need more blood don't you," she said, looking up to Angel. "I think we're out…"
Angel deposited the bundles Gunn had handed him onto the counter and shook his head. "Yeah. And it takes two, three days for a batch to get here."
Lilith closed her mouth and swallowed nervously. She was impressed with Cordelia's quick deduction, but she hoped against hope that they wouldn't put two and two together. She shook her head again. "Doesn't matter," she said.
"Of course it matters," Cordelia said.
Lilith forced herself to lean back and rested her head against the back of the chair. She grimaced as her abdominal muscles contracted impulsively and her temples started to throb. She shook her head, still keeping her eyes closed. "Nothing... we can do about it now," she uttered.
Cordelia bit her lip and looked up to Angel. "You sure you don't have anything else lying around?"
Angel raised his eyebrows and shook his head.
"Goah!" Cordelia shook her head angrily. "Is there really nowhere else we can go to get a few pints of pig's blood at this hour?"
Lilith couldn't help a snicker through the throbbing. She lifted the water bottle and balanced it against her temple.
"What'd I say?" Cordelia asked in confusion.
Lilith shook her head. "It'll take more than pig's blood to fix me up, Honey," she said quietly.
"But I thought it was working?" Fred piped up from her spot at the end of the desk.
Lilith took a measured breath and finally opened her eyes, glancing to the smaller girl. "Yeah… it works. But it's kinda low on the food chain as far as potent blood types are concerned."
Wesley leaned over the desk, resting his hands on the edge. "What do you mean by that?"
Lilith shook her head. "I mean what I said. Pigs blood isn't very powerful when talking about blood." She shrugged. "My kind don't actually sustain ourselves on blood, but sometimes it is necessary for health reasons or in situations of malnutrition, such as now," she said with another grimace.
Wesley glanced to Angel. "What kind would work better?"
"Don't tell me you need human blood," Cordelia suddenly interjected.
Lilith groaned as her grimace deepened. "Please, no joking about that…" she said, looking to her. "I've never drank human blood. Never drank from a sentient being actually. Or," she looked away, "directly from a living being I guess would be more accurate…"
Wesley raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"
Lilith leaned her head back up, taking the water from her temple and resting it in her lap. "While our kind don't need to drink blood regularly, the necessity for it at certain times has called for the use of blood farms. We cultivate blood from multiple stock including horses, pigs, sheep, cattle, deer, even llamas." She shrugged and quirked a smile. "We even cultivate ostriches." She shook her head and shivered. "Don't think I'll ever try that one…"
"How fascinating," Wesley said, standing up straight. "How does that work exactly?"
"Pretty simply," Lilith answered. "They just keep the herds in their own separate swatches of land, kind of like grazing acreage. Feed them well, usually with special bends of foods, keep them healthy and happy. Then, once a month per animal, meaning every animal has a monthly rotation, they bring it in, hook it up and siphon a seventh of it's blood volume. There's so much stock that they're siphoning almost constantly, so there isn't any need to siphon any more than that. They bag it up, label the blood type, consistency and status, then off it goes." Lilith shrugged nonchalantly, flinching lightly at the sharp pain in her temple. She took a generous swig from her water bottle.
"Again, quite fascinating," Wesley said thoughtfully. "How do you keep this, well," he crossed his arms and glanced around, "under wraps? I guess? From the rest of the world? Certainly that would look a tad conspicuous, wouldn't it?" he asked.
Lilith licked her lips before looking up to Wesley with a smirk, despite her tired eyes and still throbbing temples. "The quick answer is that these farms of ours aren't in the rest of the world. They're in ours."
Wesley raised an eyebrow then narrowed his eyes. "Well… that… raises more questions actually," he said, shaking his head.
Lilith snickered softly.
"Back on point," Angel said, "what blood type would work the best for you?"
Lilith couldn't stop herself from swallowing nervously. She did however look down pointedly, keeping her eyes aimed at the desk. She shook her head. "Nothing you have available to you."
"That doesn't answer the question," Angel retorted.
Lilith looked up at him with a raised brow. She sighed. "Horse blood always worked best for me when I was younger." She shook her head. "And the best possible was mare's blood, or blood from one that had been bred or was currently carrying."
"Why's that?" Fred asked curiously.
"Well," Lilith shrugged lightly, "I guess it would be more accurate to say the blood of any female animal that is pregnant is the best." She glanced to Fred. "The why is because of all the nutrients in the blood, mostly used for the baby. It makes for the richest blood you can get, the most beneficial to you, in most instances."
"And obviously we don't have any of that," Cordelia said lowly, crossing her own arms.
Lilith felt a slight shiver run through her body. "Obviously," she agreed quietly. She eyed the water bottle and kept herself still. In the blooming quiet of the room she suddenly got a tickling feeling at the back of her neck. She blinked and glanced up.
Her eyes immediately met fiery red irises regarding her from across the room.
Her eyes darted down quickly, but not quick enough. Well shit, she thought, making a point to keep her face composed. She forced calm over herself, as she was so practiced at doing. But she was sure that gave it away just as much as her eyes already had.
Lilith closed her eyes and took another deep breath, flinching at the sharp pain in her temple. She raised her water bottle and took another drink as she worked at keeping her emotions reined in.
That single glance had said it all. The Host of Caritas was as perceptive as always.
He knew it was his blood her body suddenly craved.
XxXxX
Thank you for the read! Have a good day or night and a wonderful time ~*
