Rating: R for language
Archive: anywhere you like, just let me know
Spoilers: everything up to and including "To Shanshu in L.A."
Summary: Angel's attempt to keep his friends safe forever may lead them into the greatest danger of all.
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Captive of the Soul
by Yahtzee
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CHAPTER 6
"What's the plan?" Cordelia whispered as she grabbed the duffle bag of supplies from the back seat.
"I wish we had anything so elaborate as a plan," Wesley answered, glancing over at Kate's police car in front of their battered former building, as though his repeated looks would be enough to summon her back to it, safe and sound. "I suppose we're just going to find Officer Lockley and tell her --"
"Tell her what?" Cordelia said. "The truth? She'll kill Angel in ten seconds flat, assuming she doesn't get herself killed trying."
"And the latter's far more likely," Wesley sighed. He took the tranquilizer gun from the duffle bag, felt the reassuring weight of it, the trigger against his finger. "Point taken. We'll tell her that a demon's loose nearby and we think it might enter the building. That's true, so far as it goes."
"And when Angelus jumps out all evil, then what?"
"Then I hit him with this," Wesley said, lifting the gun slightly for emphasis, "and Officer Lockley can ask all the questions she likes. I doubt even she would stake him when he was unconscious and obviously harmless."
"I'm not so sure," Cordelia said. She lifted up a pair of handcuffs from the bag. "Then again, if she won't listen to reason, I am bondage girl."
******
Kate sat on her heels and traced a line through the soot with her finger. Oily, acrid, strangely smooth -- in other words, plain old ordinary soot.
She'd been wondering if this were some kind of supernatural fire, something born of spells or shamans. Instead, she didn't see much of anything that couldn't have been caused by a faulty popcorn popper.
Well, okay. A faulty popcorn popper that had been strapped to some TNT. But the explosive traces the lab team had picked up were all easily categorized. The fire had burned wood and been doused by water. Everything had been normal, as explosions go.
"A supernatural assassin," she muttered, and frowned. Leave it to Angel to have Satan put a hit on him. Then again, if Angel were telling the truth about this evil thing from beyond, then why wasn't this place -- oh, glowing green or sucked into another dimension or something? What does a supernatural creature need with TNT?
Then again, what did a supernatural creature need with an office? With business cards? With human friends?
With her?
Her ears pricked as she heard a door close by swing open. Kate sprang to her feet, put one hand on her weapon. "Angel?"
*****
Angelus smiled. He was ready now, his body tense, his face relaxed into his hunter's visage. He imagined he could feel his prey's proximity on his skin, a borrowed heat second only to the stolen fire that would sink into his body with the blood he drank.
And now he could hear three heartbeats, each one hammering with terror he could smell even amid the smoke, sweeter all the time.
*****
Cordelia inched her way up the stairs. She and Wesley had split up, which was not necessarily the safest way to go, but would probably let them find Kate quicker. Their old office building wasn't huge, but it covered more ground than Cordelia had ever realized before.
Wesley, who had better aim than she ever would, had taken the gun. This left Cordelia with a big duffle bag of stakes and handcuffs, which seemed to be clacking and clanking against each other louder every second. She peered inside for a moment to see what was rolling around -- then took up a tranquilizer gun cartridge, complete with pointed dart.
Oh, shit, she thought. Is Wesley's gun even loaded? Even as she thought this, she realized that it was; she'd watched him load it herself. But in her present panic, she couldn't remember if he'd carried extra ammunition with him.
Not like it matters, she consoled herself as she hugged the bag tightly against her body. He's only gonna get one shot as it is.
She had only the stakes to protect herself. She knew she might fail to stake him in the one try she'd get, a prospect that terrified her only slightly more than the thought of succeeding. Because however much she didn't want to die, she knew she wasn't ready to see Angel turning to dust at her hands. But she'd do it if she had to; she owed it to herself, and to Angel.
Cordelia thought, I don't know what else I'm feeling, Angel, but at least, as your friend, I love you. Enough to keep my promise. Enough to kill you.
*****
Wesley kept moving through the first floor, crouching low, going stealthily, he hoped. His world seemed to have narrowed to the sights of the tranquilizer gun and the feel of his finger on the trigger.
He knew he was a failure at a lot of things, but dammit, he could shoot. And maybe, this once, that's all that was needed. That one good thing was going to outweigh all the rest, save Cordelia, save Kate, maybe even save Angel himself.
The floorboards creaked, and Wesley tensed. A slight shifting, clothes against clothes, confirmed his suspicion. Yes, that was close. The next room. He pushed the door open with his shoulder, ignoring the sound -- as best to bring his target closer now, and oh, yes, closer, footsteps approaching --
Wesley spun around the corner and brought his gun even with -- Kate's.
She was standing in a mirror of his own position, but with both her hands wrapped around a handgun. "What the hell are you doing here?" she said, her voice almost a growl.
"I -- I --" Good God, what was he going to tell her again? He straightened up, tried to look relaxed. "I might ask you the same question. Don't you need a warrant or something?"
"Take this as your first lesson in American criminal justice," Kate said dryly. "Major explosions usually constitute probable cause. Can't help but notice you've got a gun. That thing licensed?"
"It's a tranquilizer gun," Wesley hastily explained, his voice sounding unnaturally loud. If Angelus were in the building, he had to have heard them by now.
"So why are you trying to knock me out?"
"Oh, no, no. You're not -- I mean, I was looking for someone else. Something else."
Kate frowned and tightened her grip on her gun. "That would be what?"
Wesley looked at her for a long moment. "Officer Lockley, do you trust me?"
"I don't have a real good track record with that question," Kate said. "But I'll hear you out."
Above them, Wesley heard another set of footsteps -- too heavy to be Cordelia's. He saw Kate's eyes flicker upwards, following the sound. "I need you to search this building. If you see anyone or anything that isn't me or Cordelia, and I mean anyone, I want you to fire until you've immobilized -- what you saw. And then stop. Just stop. Don't do anything else. Will you promise to do that, and only that?"
"Where's Angel?" Kate said slowly.
Wesley found he couldn't answer. He turned on his heel and headed toward the stairs.
She'd cooperate or she wouldn't. Either way, he'd done his duty; Kate had been warned.
*****
"Son of a bitch," Kate muttered, getting her back against the most-intact wall she could find. Something was going on here, something that had that meek little Englishman ready to fight, something that involved Angel in a very real, very bad way.
From now on, she thought, I am trusting my instincts.
She heard something fall -- jump? -- in the next hallway, and whirled toward the noise.
*****
Cordelia could hear voices, just voices, not words. And that shivery little sound -- almost out of earshot -- made her shake all the way through. Who the hell was talking? Had Wesley found Kate? Had Angelus found her? What was going on? She wanted to call out, knew it was the worst thing she could possibly do.
When she hadn't been as deep within the building, the city lights had provided some illumination; enough spaces had been taken out of the walls to let in enough of the streetlamps' glow to see by. But now it was almost pitch dark, and this idea was seeming dumber by the second.
She slid halfway behind a support beam and tried to catch her breath. She was freaking out now, pure and simple, and she wasn't any good to anyone freaking out. So she would just go back and find Wesley, and they'd stick together from now on.
She'd go as soon as she could be sure she wouldn't start screaming.
*****
Angelus grinned. How often did you get an opportunity like this? The opportunity to feast on this much terror, this much disappointed hope, all in the same moment?
Not often enough.
He dropped lightly from the rafters, only a few feet in front of his victim.
"Miss me?" Angelus said, smiling at the startled figure of Wesley Wyndham-Pryce.
Wesley fired -- at the same instant that one of the charred floorboards beneath his feet gave way. He stumbled, and Angelus didn't even have to duck. His one shot had been wasted.
"You did miss me," Angelus said. He stepped closer even as Wesley struggled to pry himself loose from the broken boards. "Why am I not surprised?"
Wesley got himself free one instant too late; Angelus' hands twisted around his coat lapels and pulled him close, bringing them face to face. "This was your big night, Wes. Your night to prove you could actually do something. And see how much you've accomplished. I'm proud of you, son."
On the word "son," Angelus flung Wesley across the room, delighting in the stifled cry of pain he heard as Wesley's body hit the floor. "You could't just let it go, could you? Couldn't just let me have my fun. I think by now it's obvious that you don't know who you're dealing with. Maybe it's time I taught you."
"We know exactly who we're dealing with."
Angelus turned around to see Cordelia in the corner, shaking violently but standing her ground. "If you knew who you were dealing with, Cordy, you wouldn't have come out of your little hidey-hole. I was kind of looking forward to prying you out myself."
"Cordelia!" Wesley gasped, obviously breathless from his tumble to the ground. "For God's sake, run --"
"Could be fun," Angelus said with a shrug, wondering idly if her human eyes could see his smile in the darkness. "Haven't you wanted me to chase you, Cordy? Get my hands on you, pull you close?"
"We know exactly who we're dealing with," Cordelia repeated, her voice a little stronger. "The only one who doesn't know is Angel."
"What are you on about?" Angelus said.
"You've got him fooled," Cordelia said. "The only reason we went through all this is because he's so scared of you. Of how strong you are, of how weak he thinks he is. He said -- he said he was your captive."
Angelus watched as she actually stepped forward, staring him down; however dark it was to her, he knew now that she could see his eyes. "But the thing is, anytime both of you are in that body -- you're never the one in control. The only way you can take over is when he gets thrown out by that curse or this stupid hypnotism thing. He's the strong one. And you? You're the captive."
"You'll lose your throat for that," Angelus snarled, leaping forward to grab Cordelia in his arms. She cried out as his hands closed over her shoulders and he pulled her roughly against him. "But not until I've made you scream --"
And that was when he felt it -- a tiny little jab in his side. He glanced down, saw Cordelia's fist jammed against his ribs -- and saw her pull it away, open up her fingers to reveal a tranquilizer dart.
"Bitch," he growled, shoving her down to the ground so hard her body went limp. Damn her to hell; yeah, he could do it, he could still take her. Angelus lowered himself over her, brought his fangs to her throat -- as the butt of the tranquilizer gun slammed into the side of his face.
"Get away from her," Wesley said, holding the gun in one hand and his side in the other. And Angelus could think of a million things to say that would make that guy crumple right over -- both of him -- all three --
And unconsciousness swam up to swallow him.
*****
Kate took the stairs three at a time and sprang into the room to see -- Wesley, Cordelia and Angel, the latter two lying on the floor, the former looking as though he might topple over to join them any second. "What the hell is going on?" she said.
"Officer Lockley," Wesley said, with a sense of wonder as though he'd never really seen her before. Then he shook his head and repeated, "Officer Lockley. You're -- you're just in time."
"In time for what?"
"Owwww," Cordelia groaned from her place on the floor. "My head hurts. Oh, wait, that means I'm alive. Yay for pain."
"Cordelia, I was just about to tell Officer Lockely about the -- Wulxey demon -- that attacked all three of us."
"Whatsy demon?"
"Exactly," Wesley said.
Kate glared at him, then at the prone figure of Angel on the floor. "You were chasing a demon?"
"Yes. Precisely. We had reason to believe it would, ah, seek out our former headquarters. Revenge. We'd foiled its plans before, you see."
"Revenge," Kate repeated.
"Yeah," Cordelia said, sounding much more confident than she had a moment ago, although she made no effort to sit up. "Yeah. He was -- real bitter."
"It just jumped all three of us. Afraid I missed my shot," Wesley said. "Knocked Cordelia out for a moment and, ah, appears to have knocked Angel out rather soundly."
"So where is it?" Kate said, glancing around the room.
After a moment, Wesley said, "Went out the window, I think. I confess I was so worried about Cordelia and Angel that I -- lost sight of it for a moment."
"What does it look like?" Kate said, heading for the window, gun still at the ready.
"It, ah -- it takes on the appearance of someone you trust," Wesley said in a rush, as if pleased to be telling her this. "It can look like anyone. Anything. Very tricky, the Wuxley."
"Whatsy," Cordelia said.
"Exactly," Wesley replied.
Kate looked at the street below. In the predawn hush, all she could see was the homeless woman from earlier, tiredly trudging toward another corner, another street. "I think it got away."
"Well, darn," Cordelia said.
"Don't fret, Cordelia!" Wesley said brightly. "We'll get that demon another day. Officer, would you mind doing us a favor?"
"Probably." When Wesley looked back at her, she sighed. "What?"
"Take Cordelia to the hospital, make certain she's all right."
"I'm fine," Cordelia protested, propping up on one elbow for a moment, then sinking back to the floor. "On the other hand, why turn down a chance for prescription painkillers?"
"That's as close to the line of duty as I've gotten in a while, so, okay. What about your boss?" Kate gestured toward Angel, still motionless on the floor.
Wesley quietly said, "Leave him to me."
Kate holstered her weapon and moved to Cordelia's side. As she helped the younger woman to her feet, she kept her eyes on Wesley. "I'm not stupid. I know you're not telling me everything."
"Forgive me, Officer, but I very much had the impression there were things you didn't want to know."
Kate raised an eyebrow at that. "Fair enough."
But, even as she guided Cordelia to the stairs, her eyes were hard.
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CONCLUDED IN CHAPTER SEVEN