:: Tremble ::
By
Rachel
Tremble: Part 4
"I didn't realize how trapped we
were in the house," Cordelia commented, her hair ruffled by the breeze as the car
coasted down Sunset boulevard.
"I know," He said,
glancing at her briefly before slowing the car as they came to a changing
light.
They rolled up to the
crosswalk and stopped, light red, the sounds of L.A. happening all around them.
Cross traffic started to move, and Cordelia raised her arms and stretched.
Angel watched the street signal.
All of a sudden
Cordelia's head started to feel fuzzy and she realized it was the start of a
vision. Angel looked over at her, his vampire senses sensing it, and just as
she'd started to brace herself for it, the feeling stopped as abruptly as it
had started.
'What? The PTB dialed
a wrong number?' She thought.
Angel touched her arm in question, and looking over at him
in shock, she started to shake her head. Suddenly they heard a cry for help.
"HELP ME!"
The two of them sat up
with a jerk and scanned the street.
"SOMEONE HELP ME!" It
was faint, and behind the sound of traffic, almost unnoticeable. But it was
there…someone was screaming for help.
'So that's what happened,'
she though. The powers had started to warn her, but they had already been here!
"It's coming from
there!" Angel pointed out, gripping the steering wheel as he glanced over into
the lanes of oncoming traffic. Cordelia turned her gaze in the direction he'd
motioned just as the car suddenly whipped around and made an illegal u-turn in
the middle of the street. Another car screeched to a halt, but Angel ignored it
and made a sharp right into an alleyway. Heading into the dark, the headlights
bounced across something big, and as he slammed on the brakes, whatever it was
had disappeared into the shadows.
Angel already had his
sights set on it.
Throwing the car into
park, he jumped over the door and broke into a run. Cordelia was a few steps
behind him.
They followed it to
the end of the alley where a woman was struggling to get free of group of gray
colored demons. Cordelia's eyes widened as she saw one's face. It had six eyes
where its mouth should have been and a small red hole in its forehead.
"What the hell IS
that!" She gasped.
"Get the woman!" Angel
instructed. He was already upon them, knocking two to the ground and kicking a
third in the face.
One of them grabbed
the woman by the throat and looked like he was ready to squeeze. Cordelia narrowed
her gaze and rushed him, her heels clicking like thunder on the pavement as she
went. She tackled the demon, knocking the woman loose from its grasp, and the
woman fled, screaming in terror back out towards the street. Cordelia was
thrown against a large dumpster, nearly getting the wind knocked out of her.
The demon had fallen a
few steps away, and Cordy was already struggling to get up and catch her breath
at the same time as she grabbed a long board from the ground and swung it at
the nearest moving thing. The demon Angel had been battling folded under her
attack and slammed into the ground. Just as Cordelia finished that swing, the
demon she'd tackled before had gotten to its feet and started to lunge at her.
With a resounding thwack, Cordelia spun around and slammed the backside of the
board into its big, weird forehead, and the demon went down for the count.
Another larger member of the group had taken Angel's attention away and now
they were fighting hand-to-hand, and foot-to-foot; the demon advancing blow
after blow and Angel reflecting them almost as quickly.
Cordelia made the
mistake of pausing to watch when something hit her from behind. She hit the
ground face first, wincing as she felt the burn as her skin scraped across the
asphalt. Something grabbed her by the neck and jerked her face up with hard
force. She blinked and realized she was staring into three pairs of black,
beady eyes…and a long, spiky thing coming out of a small red hole.
"AAAh!" She managed to
scream in a half choked yodel.
The sounds of Angel
getting his ass kicked meant he wasn't coming to rescue her.
Cordelia grit her
teeth and tried to push it away, and as she struggled against it, it pulled her
forward then slammed her back into the ground. Cordelia's body went tingly, the
pain ricocheting from the back of her head down her spine and into her limbs,
but she continued to claw, trying to get the thing off of her. She was pinned,
and that spiky thing was getting closer. Thinking quickly, she did the only
thing she could think of. She reached up and shoved her fingers into two of its
eyes.
It howled in utter
agony as white pus-like foam bubbled out of it. Cordelia's stomach did a
summersault as it splashed against her and soaked into her clothing. She barely
had to shove this time, and the demon went flying back, clawing at its face and
making the most horrible noise that Cordelia had ever heard. She struggled
quickly to her feet, and looked over to find Angel fighting not one of the
weird, gray demons, but four! And they had him pinned down on the ground.
More had come to help
their friends, and that just wasn't fair!
"Cordy!" Angel called
out when he caught sight of her; relieved that she was okay but at the same
time terrified that they were out numbered and he wasn't able to protect her.
He grunted as another strong foot landing in his back. He sputtered and rose
again.
He was still
struggling to get up.
"The eyes!" She
yelled, rushing forward.
He barely had enough
room to move, let alone strategically, and Cordelia prayed she could get the
demons attention away from him long enough to loosen their hold so he could be
freed. She was coming at them so fast, she barely had time to be afraid.
"LEAVE ANGEL ALONE!"
She screamed, grabbing the closest one by the jaw and pulling him back. It
twisted to fling her off of it, but Cordelia hung on, and sank her thumbs into
its outer eyes sockets. The same bubbling mess came out, and the demon went
into a fit of a convulsion.
Now with the remaining
three startled, Angel was able to gain ground and within seconds he was back in
action. He fought back once again, hitting hard and swinging faster. He slammed
his foot into one's gut while catching it by the face. He dug his fingers into
its eyes and then flung it across the alleyway. It screamed and hissed and
scrambled to crawl away.
That one definitely
wasn't coming back for more.
Cordelia rushed back
to the car and dove in for her purse. She fumbled, withdrawing the stake and
then lunged back towards the fight. Only two left, and Angel was almost
finished with them. Ignoring the goo on her fingers, Cordelia waited for one to
fall. She pounced on it and drove the stake into its face, taking out at least
one eye permanently and making a pretty nasty hole.
She withdrew the stake
and stabbed again. She watched the liquid froth over the wood. Better the stake
then her fingers.
With Cordy finishing
that one off, Angel was able to take the last one down. After maiming one eye,
he'd floored it. Now staring down at it while he pinned it to the earth with
his foot, Angel didn't bother with more eyes. He reached down, roughly grasping
its head, and twisted. With a snap and a jerk it went limp.
When Angel came away,
he was covered in ooze. He shook his hands to shake it off, but when the stuff
stuck, all he could do was grimace. He walked over to Cordy and helped her to
her feet.
"Look at us!" She
whined, trying to shed the pus off of her beautiful jacket. "God! Do they
always have to have something nasty to them??? Why can't they be non-disgusting
for once…clean and easy! Instead of gross and…GROSS!"
Angel tried to help
her wipe it off.
"Are you okay?" He
asked worriedly, noticing her scrapes and cuts before brushing his hands down
her jacket, and not even realizing that his hands were caressing her swells;
and not helping to clean it off really, if anything just tracking more of it in
streaks.
"Yeah," She sighed.
"You?" She glanced up into his face, halted and growled. She ran her sticky
fingers through the front of his hair, coming away with more stick. "EW! Angel!
Your hair! Those bastards messed up your hair!"
He smoothed it back
self consciously, turning to eye the empty alley.
He gripped her hand,
and started to pull. Finding suddenly that they were suddenly alone meant that
they were not.
"Let's get out of
here."
They'd killed at least
two, obviously, as Cordelia had stabbed one to death and Angel, after gouging
out it eye, had snapped its neck. All the others had been able to flee. And had
obviously come back to collect their dead undetected while Angel and Cordelia
were busy brushing themselves off. That meant they weren't as messed up as
Angel had originally thought. Which meant they might be strong enough to fight.
And as much pain as had been inflicted, they'd definitely come back pretty
pissed. It was doubtful they'd return so soon, but still… "Oh yeah, we gotta
go." He said.
Cordelia didn't argue.
"I'm with you."
"What happened to the
woman?" Angel asked as they both climbed into the car and he quickly started
the engine.
"She ran. Of course."
Cordy flipped down the passenger's side visor and peered into the mirror as
Angel backed the car out of the alley and then shot off into the street. "Ew…my
hair! Look at what they did to me! TO US!"
She stared over at
Angel so gravely that he suddenly had to laugh. He'd been so scared, and
thought she would have been too, but now…she was just angry…and not about the
fight, but about her appearance!
"This isn't funny!"
Cordy fumed, slamming the visor up and then unbuttoning her coat. She slipped
it off and tossed it into the back seat. At least her clothes underneath had
been spared. She looked down…except for her boots. "YUCK!"
"I'm not laughing at
you," Angel said, smiling despite the situation.
"Then what are you
laughing at?"
"I don't know."
"Well…alright then."
"I don't understand it
myself," Cordelia was saying. She and Angel had been discussing the
almost-vision.
"If you were going to
get it, you'd think they'd have given it to you before we even left the office.
Or the house for that matter. Why on the spot?"
"Don't know, don't
care. All that I know is I got out of a headache to get into a brawl.
Exchanging one pain for another doesn't seem like such a hot deal,"
Angel looked down at
her and smiled. "And what a brawl it was. You did great, Cordy."
"Thanks." She managed
a troubled smile.
"If you hadn't of been
there, I probably wouldn't have made it out,"
"I don't know, I
guess… It was hard. I don't how you do it, Angel."
"Practice?"
"Maybe."
"You know, Wesley's
going to be thrilled when he hears about those demons,"
"That's his problem...
God, I have got to get this crap off of me!" Cordelia stamped her foot
impatiently as she stood at the door waiting for Dennis to let them in.
"DENNIS!"
That ghost was getting
slow. Usually the door would have been half way opened before they got down the
hallway. Now he was barely unlocking it. Cordelia didn't wait for him to get
the knob, she turned and shoved it herself; the door coasting back wide,
hitting the wall as it let them in. She stomped into her apartment, dropping
her ruined coat on to the floor and then headed towards the bathroom. Angel
followed her, allowing Dennis to close the door behind them, and slipping off
his coat in the process. He left it on the floor near hers. They'd left the
stuff from the office in the trunk, too tired to bring it up, too tired to
care. It wasn't anything that couldn't wait until they were cleaned up and
comfortable.
Angel came up behind
Cordelia and stared into the mirror's reflection as she stood over the sink,
examining the scrapes on her head. She winced as she touched a finger to it,
the skin sizzling hot beneath.
"Ow!"
She jumped when she
felt Angel's cool fingers against it.
"It's not too bad, but
it needs to be cleaned."
She turned back and stared
at him as he reached past her and opened the medicine cabinet. When he closed
it again she was looked back to her own reflection; ready in the mirror with
his nowhere to be found. As she reached for the bottle of peroxide, she felt
him take her by the shoulders.
"Here, let me," He
gently guided her around to face him.
"I can do it," She
protested, reaching for the cotton ball in his hand. He retracted it.
"No way. How often is
it that I get to do you? It's always you doing me, I want to return the favor."
Cordelia blushed at
his choice of words.
"Well, you know what I
meant!" He said, suddenly embarrassed too. "I meant…patching up…"
"I know, Nurse Angel."
She teased. "It's okay, I got what you meant…now, go on."
"Right." He smiled
tightly, and then soaked the cotton in the medicated liquid.
As he touched it to
her forehead, she let out a whimper. The peroxide bubbled as it came in contact
with her skin, and with his free hand, Angel held her still. Cordelia gave in
and tried to relax, but it stung a little, and she couldn't help be antsy. She
closed her eyes tight, gritting her teeth, but then slighted in relief as the
cotton was pulled away, and was suddenly replaced with Angel's cool breath.
She peeked open an eye
and realized he was blowing on her cut.
"What are you doing?"
She asked.
"Isn't this what you
do to make it feel better?" He stopped blowing and looked down at her
sincerely. Cordelia eyed him strangely.
"I...guess,"
"I see moms doing it
on the Band-Aide commercials all the time."
"I thought you didn't
watch TV."
"I don't. But when I
do…I pick up stuff, tips…about the living."
"Oh." Cordelia
frowned. "Well...in that case, yeah, okay. Go ahead."
"Okay."
He blew on it again.
Cordelia closed her
eyes and enjoyed it.
"I think you should take
a shower," Cordelia said while Angel cleaned up the mess on the sink. She had a
small sterile smelling bandage just above her eyebrow, and her body suddenly
felt tired. She'd forgotten about getting slammed into the pavement, and rubbed
absentmindedly at the back of her head.
"Do I smell that bad?"
He asked, amused. She grinned.
"Yes…but then so do I,
what with all this demon pus on me."
"You take one first, I
know it's really bothering you."
"Nah," She said to his
surprise. "You take one first. I want to take a nice, long bath and I want to
take my time." Angel had started to nod, when she continued. "And YOU. While
I'm in the tub, I want you to make me a snack because all that fighting has
left me starved."
"Oh, really?" Angel
said, arching his brow at her.
"Yep." She said, quite
satisfied with herself and her demands. She started to leave the room. "And
make something good. None of that cheese and crackers stuff, k?"
"Demanding, aren't
you."
"Hey. I saved your ass
in that alley, the least you could is make me something nice!"
"I wasn't arguing!" He
said, quickly holding up his hands. "I swear, I'll make something special,"
"Good." She smiled.
He smiled too,
watching her go.
She swaggered out of
the room, but not before giving him a quick 'hurry up', and then closed the
door soundly. Angel listened to her footsteps pass through her bedroom and then
disappear into the living room before he turned and pulled back the shower
curtain. He turned on the water and slowly started to undress. When the water
was warm, and he was nude, Angel stepped into the shower and started to rinse
off.
As he ran his hands
through his hair, he realized just how sticky this crap really was. He eyed
Cordelia's shampoo bottle, hoping there'd be enough left over when he was done.
He squirted a handful into his palm and slowly started to lather. He'd have to
rinse and repeat six times before the gunk was all out. Angel smiled to himself
though as he now smelled like Cordelia's shampoo. It was that same heavenly
smell he'd fallen asleep to on her pillows.
Angel had taken longer
than she'd expected, and Cordelia had started to get restless. It wasn't fun
trying to perch on the couch without sitting all the way back and getting demon
pus on it. No, not fun at all, and now besides being tired and battered, she
was stiff from sitting weird. A nice, hot bath would fix that.
Except that Angel used
most of the hot water.
Cordy frowned as she
soaked in her cool tub. The cool tub was really just as good, but what really
irked her was that she was almost out of shampoo, and yet, she'd just bought
this bottle less than two weeks ago! This stuff was expensive! And eyeing it
calmly, Cordelia wondered just what it was that Angel had been doing with it
all. She shuddered to think…
She sank back into the
water, letting her knees rise to poke slightly above the surface, and closed
her tired eyes.
Angel was in the
kitchen, dressed in his pajamas although it was barely twelve am, not anywhere
near his bed time, as he made up a midnight snack for his seer. He mixed up a
special butter-garlic sauce as a pot of pasta cooked on the stove. He'd found
the bare essential ingredients to a quick Italian meal hidden within the
outwardly bare contents of Cordelia's kitchen. If there was one thing Angel
could do besides fight off ugly, pus-eyed demons, it was whip up a meal when
there was virtually nothing on hand to make it out of.
He wasn't a miracle
worker though; the pasta and that was it. Having used most of her food supply
earlier to make omelets, there weren't any greens in the fridge for salad, or
any bread in the closet for, well, bread. Cordy was gonna have to eat it
alone…well, that and a half empty bottle of red wine he found stored above the
sink. He stuck it in the icebox to chill so it'd be ready when she got out of
her bath.
Cordelia finished
shaving her legs and placed her feet squarely against the tile of the shower
wall on either sides of the faucet just above the water. She flexed her toes;
now starting to wrinkle, she'd been in here so long.
She sighed contently,
dipping her hands into the bath, scooping up some water, and then running her
hands through her damp hair one last time. She sat up, leaning forward to open
the drain. The water started to swirl, and the drain glug as it swallowed the
water down in big gulps. Cordelia started to rise when suddenly the lights went
out. She halted, completely still, and suddenly there was a rumbling.
"Shit," She hissed,
feeling completely vulnerable in the complete dark as a small earthquake
rumbled through the floors of her apartment building. She clutched the shower
curtain, not having anything else to hold onto, and when the walls swayed, the
curtain rod broke and Cordelia fell back into the tub with the plastic around
her. Her eyes widened in shock as she listened to the sounds the walls made
creaking back and forth. Before it stopped, Angel was pushing through the door
and scooping her out of the tub, shower curtain and all.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah,
just…surprised!"
"Okay, it was just a
little one."
"Okay."
Cordelia felt sort of
stupid wrapped up in her shower curtain in Angel's arms. She could barely even
see him now, where they stood in the bedroom doorway. Her eyes were adjusting
slowly, and he gently switched his grasp on her, letting her legs down to the
floor. Her bare feet met the polished wood floor and she took a slight step
back, glancing around in the shadows. His hands were still around her
shoulders, but he was releasing his grip.
"Stay here, I'm going
to get your robe…Dennis? The kitchen?" Without another word, the stove was
turned off, and the pot atop it was lifted to the counter. Angel left Cordelia
alone for only a few seconds as he went back into the bathroom and brought back
her robe. She thanked him as he held it out to her, and after finally making
the decision to just do it, she turned away and let the shower curtain drop and
quickly, most frantically, jumped into her robe. Tying the belt at her waist,
she turned back to face where she thought she could see him waiting, and reached
out a hand. He took it in his own, and then led her out into the living room,
careful to lead her around the furniture and over to the sofa where he had her
take a seat.
"We'll just wait here,
okay? The power should come back on any minute," He rubbed at her fingers, and
she smiled, feeling slightly better.
"Okay. Let's hope."