Chapter 21

Information

"So want to go shopping?" Cordelia asked for what seemed like the twelfth time in as many minutes. The ticking of the clock greeted her words.

"Come on" she whined, hoping to get a rise out of any of the inhabitants of the library. Only the dust swirling in the beams of sunlight, entering the room, moved, or made any sign as if to answer. Moodily the brunette slammed the book in front of her shut. Even more dust was disturbed at the action, the swirling eddies twirling in the air.

"Is this really it? We're still teenagers, aren't we supposed to be off having fun and making poor life decisions that will haunt us in out later lives?"

Giles finally looked up from his own book, adjusting his glasses as he stared at her.

Tick, tick.

The clock hands seemed louder in the pressing silence, until finally Giles spoke. "Cordelia" he said, a exasperated and slightly annoyed lilt to his words. "You are the one girl in all the world with the destiny to rid this Earth of vampires and all the monsters that hide underneath your bed."

Cordelia feigned a yawn. "Yes so you like to keep reminding me. But we've been going through these books for hours, and we're still none the closer. All I'm asking for is a little down time"

"Down…time" Giles repeated as though the words were some alien language.

"Yes" the brunette girl said, slowly and as exaggerated as possible.

"Tell me Cordelia" Giles said, now placing his own book down, after carefully marking his place. "Tell me, do you think, that these vampires and demons are having this down time you speak of"

"Well they do have that bar" Xander put in from his place by the bookshelf. Cordelia beamed at him.

"Xander!" Willow scolded lightly.

"What, just saying, they do" nervously returning Cordelia's smile.

"Yes, thank-you Xander" Giles looked pointedly at the boy, until he buried his head in whatever dusty volume he had picked up.

Giles was now nearly directly in front of her. "No Cordelia. These creatures will stop at nothing to create their own personal hell on Earth. So unless you still want shopping malls to visit, I suggest you continue reading" Ending abruptly, Giles spun on his heel, heading straight back to the book and delving in once more.

Cordelia sighed sharing a look with both Willow and Xander. Willow merely shrugged, a what can you do look in her eyes before she to returned to scanning the computer in front of her. Xander gave her a lopsided smile, both mischievous and frustrated at the same time.

"Fine" she muttered, having the book she had before out of the way, so she could grab another.

"The Genie concept" was emblazoned on the front cover, in fancy gold lettering. Sounds like a bundle of fun, Cordelia thought, her mind becoming filled with wishful thoughts of malls and shoes and sunlight, as she scanned the through the contents.

I wonder if Harmony's in the mall right now, her mind continued. I could be with her right now, if it wasn't for stupid stuffy librarians. She raised her head to glare at the older man. Ever since that council member died, he's been a right stick in the mud.

The library doors banged opened, disturbing her and the rest of the group. Startled Cordelia's mind was wiped of all thoughts of shops and clothes as the smouldering blanket entered the room.

"Angel" Willow gasped, tipping over her chair as she rushed to the still aflame vampire.

Cordelia cocked her head as she studied the vampire who had entered, scrunching her nose a bit as the smell of burning flesh reached her.

"Angel" Giles now joined Willow, striding purposely over with a fire extinguisher that he kept in his study.

The blasts of CO2, put out the last lingering flames from both blanket and clothes alike.

Slowly the brunette appeared, as the lingering fog left by the extinguisher, dispersed into the air. Angel was left lying on the floor, panting and gasping for breath.

Gently Giles laid down the extinguisher, and grabbed the vampire by the shoulders. "What is it?" he asked urgently.

Angel let out another cough before his eyes found Giles. "The council" he wheezed. Willow snapped her head up to look worriedly at Giles. The older man returned the look, before returning his gaze back down to Angel's.

"What about the council Angel?" he asked calmly, yet Cordelia could see the his hands tightening on the vampire's shoulders, until his knuckles became white.

"It's been blown up"

Silence rang out through the library at his words, each person staring at the brunette as if he had lost his mind.

"Blown up?" Giles repeated slowly, eyes boring into the other's.

Angel nodded, still struggling to catch his breath.

"Cool" Xander spoke up, happy grin on his face.

"Really Xander" Cordelia turned away from Angel for the first time since he had entered, to glare at the boy.

Xander just gave her a half hearted shrug.

"Idiot" Cordelia muttered under her breath, turning back around.

"How do you know?" Giles was asking Angel, who was now managing to stand upright, what remained of the blanket pooled around his feet.

"Word travels fast with demons" Angel shrugged. "But there's more, Giles" here he stared imploringly at the man. "There was a trademark left at the scene, by a vampire I used to know"

"Who?"

"A guy named Harry, he's been trying to get rid of the council for years, decades even."

"You think we should go after him? How dangerous is he?" Giles rushed, nearly tripping over his words. Yet Angel slowly shook his head.

"The guy resides in London, hooks vampires and demons alike, up with places to crash" now finally recovered from his almost dusting, Angel started to pace. "He has no need to leave London, even with the Council finally gone. Even so-"

Abruptly, Angel stopped, turning to glance at each of them in turn. "Listen, I know him because we used to run with him back when- well a few centuries back."

"We?" Now Giles was started to sound angry.

Angel nodded. "Yeah we, him and Spike were great buddies"

Again another silence blanketed the library. Cordelia frowned. Whenever that name was mentioned, it seemed to put the whole group in a mood.

"You think Spike helped?" Giles finally broke the silence.

"I'm sure of it"

"Well what do we care?" Xander piped up again. "The council is gone, and so is Spike. He's a million miles away, which to be fair, not as good as dusted, but seems good to me"

"Yes Xander, but the question is why?" Giles answered, sparing the boy a glance before going back to looking deep in thought.

Xander shrugged. "Why does Spike do anything. The council doesn't like vampires, maybe he got sick of them and decided to do something about it. Or maybe he just decided it had been too long without a mass murder. Like I said, it's Spike, who knows how the creature gets his jollies"

"He has a point" Angel said slowly. "But can we afford not to look into it?"

"Is it all the council dead?"

"No, just Quentin Travers and his inner circle"

Some tension seemed to bleed out of Giles at the words, a heavy sigh of relief leaving his lips.

"But the whole council building is blown to smithereens, including all the information they had gathered on all known vampires and demons, not to mention the wealth of knowledge they held in that library of theirs"

Giles went to sit back down, leaning heavily on his desk. "What about this symbol you had us looking for." he asked, pointing to the intercepting lines that had been the reason they had all been in the library in the first place.

Angel shrugged. "Have you found anything?" he inquired back.

Giles shook his head. "Nothing even remotely looking like it."

"The I think we should concentrate on Spike. He's a loose canon, who knows what he could be up to, especially with Drusilla back by his side" Here Angel paused, and Cordelia could see the tension in his jaw as the vampire gritted his teeth. "And she's…Bu" another sigh escaped the vampire as he physically slumped against a wall. "Buffy's been gone too long, we should move on"

Cordelia clenched her fist, gripping and ripping the page of the book that had been in her hand. All around her, the group stared at Angel, varying expressions on their faces. Willow had tears gathering in her eyes, while Xander looked forlorn, jaw clenching as his own fist curled inwards. Giles was like a statue, eyes bearing no expression boring into the brunette vampire's.

Finally he let out a breath, causing both Xander and Willow to turn to look at him. "Okay" he said, fight draining out of tired muscles.

"Tell us what you know"

TBC...

A/N - Just to let you know, I may be publishing a book in the coming months. I will still be continuing with my fanfictions and this commission, however there may be some changes to my profile etc.. Shouldn't affect anything, but just incase it does, I thought I would let you guys know.

Thanks for all readers and reviewers, this story has over 12000 views now :O! Thank-you guys so much!