TITLE: Darkest Before Dawn
#35 "Confession"
AUTHOR: Nmissi
PART: 35/?
DISCLAIMER: I own Nothing
and No one. Especially not Spike. If I did,
what makes you think I'd
share him with you?
DISTRIBUTION: Anybody, just
credit me and let me know where it's
going.
Feedback: Please.
Nmissi@aol.com
SUMMARY: The way the world
would work if I wrote the Buffyverse.
The front door slammed shut with a bang, and the trio
looked up as one. Slowly, and lastly, the blonde sitting alone turned around in
her seat.
Cordelia Chase stood in the doorway, hopping mad.
"What are they doing here?" she asked. She hadn't yet
noticed Harmon; her blazing brown eyes were trained sharply on the lawyers.
"Cordy. Won't you please come in?" Angel's monotone belied the fire behind his
eyes. He was none too pleased about this.
Behind Cordy, the door swung open once more, and her
partners entered the room. Gunn looked a little confused, and Wesley, a bit
embarrassed.
"Good evening, Angel," said Wes softly.
"Evening, Wesley. Gunn. Glad you three could stop by."
Except that he wasn't, and his face was stormy.
Harmony interrupted, jumping gleefully to her feet.
"Cordelia! Omigosh, HI! I didn't know you were in L.A.!"
Cordy's head swiveled that direction and she lost focus
on her anger, becoming perplexed.
"Harmony? What are you doing here?"
But she headed over to her anyway, and the two 'friends'
came in close to kiss the air alongside their cheeks.
"You look great! Love the hair!"
"You too. Black becomes you. But I thought you were-"
"A- HEM. If you two are done making goo goo eyes at each
other, maybe we can all get back to business. You were,"
Angel gestured at Cordelia.
"About to make a fool of yourself, I believe? And
Harmony, you were going to sit quietly and not get in the way, right?"
Harmony plopped back down in her seat with a pout.
"I want new ancestors. You suck."
He smiled at her benevolently.
"Yes, I do. And damn well, I might add. Now sit down and
shut up before I drain you."
She mumbled inarticulately and under her voice, so only
the dead could hear her.
"Prick."
Cordelia looked back at Angel, hurt in her eyes.
"Why are they here? What, are you working with them now?"
Lilah tried to intervene.
"There are things you don't understand, here."
"Damn Right I don't understand!" Cordelia was livid.
Behind her, Wes shifted uncomfortably on his feet. Gunn merely looked
interested.
Cordy continued.
"You tell us we can't be here. You make up some asinine
reason why, and send us on a wild goose chase to keep us out of your hair.
Meanwhile, you're hanging out here with them?"
She looked at Lindsay with disgust, watching as he took
his place at Angel's side. They were too close together, their arms nearly
touching, and the look in Lindsay's eyes disturbed her.
"And what is it with him? I saw him, hanging all over
you. You that hard up without Darla?"
Her comment was directed at Angel, but both men shrank
back from her hard allegation.
Lindsay moved forward, as
if to say something, but Angel placed a gentle hand on his arm.
"Take the girls upstairs, Lin. I'll handle this."
Lindsay shook him off.
"You need to come clean with them."
His eyes softened.
"Keeping secrets from them is tearing you up inside. I
know it, I hear it in your voice every time she calls. Let's get this out in
the open finally."
His voice dropped.
"Maybe they can help us. And surely they'll be safer with
all three of us to watch their backs."
Angel considered his words, and nodded.
"Okay. But I don't need to do this with an audience. Take
the girls upstairs. Take the laptop too, see if you can find what we need. We
don't know how much longer her password's going to get us in there."
Lindsay reached for his hand, and squeezed it.
"Okay."
Over his shoulder, he addressed Lilah.
"Get the laptop."
To Harmony, he added.
"And go grab something from the fridge, okay? We might be
in for a long night."
She headed into the kitchen, bitching all the way.
Cordelia sat down in a chair, looking up at Angel
insolently.
"Start talking." She demanded.
Wes and Gunn moved in protectively, taking the chairs
alongside her.
Angel sat down across from her, and sighed deeply.
"They're my children."
Cordy snickered, and Wesley choked. But Angel went on.
"Lindsay was an accident. I killed him. I know it was
wrong, and I did it anyway. I flat out killed the bastard, beat the shit out of
him and drained him. He'd come here and shot me, and I'd had enough. But that
doesn't excuse it, I know. There's no excuse for it."
They watched him blankly, waiting for more, so he
continued.
" As I was feeding on him, his mouth touched the bullet
wound in my shoulder. He tasted my blood, swallowed some of it."
Angel noted the horrified comprehension in Wesley's eyes.
"That's all it took. You know that. I should have staked
him, but I didn't. I waited. While you all were here, working with me on the
shooting at Caritas- he was chained upstairs, dead, waiting to rise. I don't
know why I didn't stake him. Maybe I wanted to punish him. Maybe I was curious.
I don't know exactly."
"Perhaps you were lonely," Wes said sadly. His eyes held
understanding, and a hint of compassion. It bolstered Angel's nerve, and he
went forward with his story.
"Something was wrong with Lindsay, though. He woke
weeping. He wouldn't speak, he wouldn't eat. It was days before I could make
him feed. He seemed to be broken, damaged. The nearest thing I'd ever seen to
it was Drusilla, right before I turned her. Or myself, after I got my soul back
the first time. When I realized what had happened , it blew me away."
He studied their faces closely for reactions to his
disclosure.
"Lindsay sold his soul as a condition of his contract at
Wolfram and Hart. When I turned him, he got it back. With everything that
entails. All the grief and remorse, the self-loathing. All of it."
Wesley leaned forward.
"He has a- a soul?" he enquired.
Angel nodded.
Cordy jumped in.
"How do you know he's not just saying that?"
She was belligerent and disbelieving. But Angel just
shook his head at her.
"I KNOW he's got a soul, Cordy. I can feel it. He's my
child, I just know."
He shrugged. How to make her understand the vagaries of
blood ties?
"It's like I can feel my bond with him- with all my kind.
But he feels different, he feels- I don't know. More like me."
"This is fascinating, Angel. Why didn't you tell us
before? We need to study this, to research-"
Wesley's excited words were cut off by Cordelia's angry
interjection.
"So you've got a 'kid' now. Great, I'm really happy for
you. Sorry I missed the shower and everything."
Angel ignored her. She'd come around. It was more
important to have Wesley's understanding, and Gunn's. Cordy was full of hurt
feminine pride right now, but he could sway her. Gunn was too calm for him,
however. The look of distrust in his face was painful.
"So you vamped Lindsay. That don't explain the other
lawyer, why she's working with you two."
Gunn's voice implied there was more to the story, and he
knew it. Angel nodded, resuming the narrative.
"We needed to know if it was a fluke, a one-time deal. Or
if it was something that could happen again. But more than that, we needed
inside of Wolfram and Hart."
He raised his hands to cut off the impending protests.
"It's not like that. I think
they were behind Caritas. I think it was an attempt to kill me, you know that.
Well, I think they ordered it, and I wanted to know why. They've got
information we don't have, they know something about me. Something that scares
them enough to quit trying to "Corrupt" me, and just flat out try to kill me.
I'm starting to put the pieces together, but I don't have them all just yet."
He raked a hand through fistfuls of his dark hair.
Cordelia noticed for the first time how unkempt it was tonight, a riot of
unregulated curls.
"Whatever it is, if affects not only me, but also my
relations. You guys got that yourselves, when you interviewed the Snitch. I
think they knew about Lin, before it happened. I think they might have
suspected it was possible, or that it was going to happen."
He leaned back in his seat, and tried to decide how best
to tell them about Lilah. Gunn's dark eyes were still on him, waiting
expectantly. They felt like weapons, aimed his way.
"We needed someone who could get into Wolfram and Hart,
an inside connection. Lindsay suggested Lilah. She's important enough to have
access to all the information he was no longer privy to. I debated a long time
whether we could do it, whether we should do it. But he pointed out to me that
she was really no more human than we are. None of them are, none of the
salaried contract players. It's part of the conditions of employment; your soul
is nonnegotiable. He went to her at home. He got inside her apartment. He
turned her. And she got her soul back."
He smiled over at them, this warm, wondrous sort of pride
in his face.
"It worked a second time. Instead of one vampire with a
human soul, there are now three."
He looked at them silently, trying to decipher their
feelings from the expressions on their faces.
Wesley was lost in thought, biting his lower lip as he
considered.
Cordy was hurt, but the anger had sort of wilted during
his confession.
Gunn was unreadable, his face stoic, his eyes
inscrutable. It was he who broke the silence.
"What about the other chick?"
Angel nodded.
"Harmony. She was turned by one of the Mayor's vamps at
Graduation in Sunnydale. I'm sure you've heard about it. It was a bloodbath.
Anyway, Wolfram and Hart were keeping her in a nice hotel room over at the
Radisson. She was present at a meeting yesterday, with the Senior Partners."
He gave them a moment to digest this, then added,
"She doesn't have any names to give us but one. And she
didn't pay attention to the meeting, doesn't really know what went on there."
"Then what good is she, and why isn't she dust yet?"
quarreled Cordy.
"Give me a minute, Delia. I'm getting there, okay? They
had her put up nice. Lilah got hold of the notes from the meeting, and found
out some very interesting details."
He stood up, and got the hard copies of the minutes off
the table. He carried them back over, and placed them into Wesley's hands.
"You can look them over, but basically it says there was
a motion put on the table to eliminate one of the seats on the board of
directors. It's been unoccupied for five years, belonging to a dead line of
demons. As I understand it, the Senior Partners are comprised of the heads of
various prestigious demonic lineages. They control vast wealth and resources in
the mortal plane. They seem preoccupied with the acquisition of human souls."
He waited a minute, watching Wesley turn pages.
"Angel, this says-"
" I know, Wes. It says the line of Aurelius is dead.
There are no descendants. No claimants to the seat."
He smiled bitterly.
"At the meeting, a woman referred to as Lady Maab
produced Harmony for the board's inspection. It seems her sire was one of my
descendants. She's of my blood."
"How's that?" Gunn's question came in clipped tones that
echoed his mood.
Angel faced him.
"Angelus reemerged in Sunnydale a few years ago, I'm sure
you've been told. I made a fair number of Vampires before Buffy ran me through.
Some of them might still live, I suppose it's possible. One or more of them
link Harmony to me. I don't know her generation because she doesn't know her
sire. She was orphaned.
"You say that like it's supposed to make me care, Angel.
I don't. Okay, let's say I believe you about Lilah and Lindsay. And By the Way.
…Ick. I sort of thought you were, I don't know , STRAIGHT. But then you make a
habit of doing your enemies, I guess."
Angel tried to shut Cordelia off, but she was having none
of it. She smacked at his hands as he tried to touch her.
" But Harmony WASN"T sired by 'you-with-a-soul'. So she's
a regular vamp, right? Again, Why not the stakeage?"
He sat back down, dejected.
"That's just it, Delia. She doesn't have a soul. Not that
I can prove. But she feels different to me, more like Lilah and Lindsay than
say, I don't know- Darla. But I don't know why. That's why I'm still
investigating Wolfram and Hart, guys. I think maybe they do."