Goodbye Cordelia
By WillowWood
Chapter 4
Quod perditum est, invenietur
"William! Angelus bit me!" those four words carried all of the pain, hatred and betrayal I imagine Cordelia was feeling at that very instance.
It's always hard to comprehend that you had been bitten by a vampire, but being bitten and almost killed by your consort, let alone your husband, must be a very excruciating revelation.
"Oh dear lord," I whispered, my throat feeling suddenly dry. I watched as Spike managed to untwine himself from the young, pale woman's grasp, she who was usually full of such vibrancy and life, as the paramedics carried her towards the garden.
After a moment, Spike moved to follow her outside. "Where the hell do you think your going?" I cried sternly.
He paused in the doorway and looked at me as though the answer was obvious. "Where do you think I'm bloody going? To find Baby, of course," he replied quickly,
I wasn't shocked at his reply, I really should have guessed that his main priority would have been Baby, but as much as I love her as well…I didn't agree. "Shouldn't Angelus be our main priority at the moment?" I asked, aware that Spike wouldn't take this statement lightly. As I had predicted, he unconsciously clenched his fists in a silent warning. I braced myself waiting for the attack, either physical or verbal, but nothing came and he simply glanced towards the upper level before replying
"From what Dru told us, I'd say find Baby, and Angelus won't be far away."
I followed his line of sight to see Drusilla standing at the top of the stairs her arms wrapped around herself protectively, much like a small child. I nodded my head in response, recalling what Drusilla had said about Daddy and the Dove. Every member of our little family was aware that Baby was undoubtedly Spike's Dove.
"What do you think has happened to revert Angel to his former self?" I asked.
Spike merely shrugged. "Haven't a clue. But what ever it is, I don't suppose Baby got away unscathed either from what René and Jean Claude told me. After all, she's got a soul as well." I guess deep down I suspected as much, after all Baby wouldn't have just taken off with out reason, and simply released the breath I hadn't realized I was holding.
Both of us were silent, until one of the paramedics walked back into the lobby, "Err…sir we're ready to leave now," he informed me and I suddenly realized I couldn't just leave, not with Dru in the state she was in.
"Erm, I'm afraid I'll have to make my own way there," I answered, glancing at Drusilla and then at Spike before turning back to the young man. "You see I have some things I need to sort out first." I expected some kind of retort from the boy, but he didn't say anything and turned and left without another word.
I waited a moment hearing the ambulance pull away, before turning to Spike once more. Too my surprise he was already gone. I shouldn't have predicted anything more, after all he never has been very patient. Without another thought I turned and raced up the stairs to where Drusilla still stood. Approaching her, I placed a hand on each of her shoulders.
"Daddy will be very cross. Poor, poor sister is broken and there's nothing we can do" she rambled. "All the blood, so much blood, crimson staining the white, never coming out," she continued, glancing around the room. She seemed more distant than usual and I placed a hand on her cheek guiding her face to look me in the eye.
"Drusilla?" I spoke to her softly, much like I would a child. "You have to listen to me." I paused as she nodded in understanding. "I've got to go and help sister." I shook my head realizing that I had used the pet name that Drusilla often used for Cordelia. "….Err, I mean I've got to go and help Cordelia, make sure she's all right." Drusilla nodded again
"I'm going to phone Fred and Gunn; get them to come over," I informed her. Although I was well aware that Drusilla could take care of herself, the thought of something happening to her continued to play on my mind. After all, nobody was sure that whatever had happened to, or whoever was after Angel and Baby, wouldn't happen, or come after the rest of us. Once I was sure she understood, I raced down the stairs and reached for the phone. Dialing Fred's number and informing them both to get to the Hyperion as quickly as possible, I ignored their constant questions and told them that I couldn't hang about, and that I'd tell them everything as soon as I got back. I was certain that there'd be endless questions when I returned from the hospital, but I'd just have to deal with them later. So without another thought, I slammed down the receiver and marched towards the door, casting a quick glance towards the top of the stairs but Drusilla was nowhere to be seen.
Once outside, I noticed that Angelus hadn't taken the car. I presumed that either he wasn't in any rush to get away or he hadn't gone very far. I glanced around studying the darkest shadows before unlocking my door, climbing in and pulling away from the sidewalk.
Eventually I arrived at the hospital, praying that Cordelia was going to be all right and that Spike had found her just in time. I approached the reception desk and the plump old woman who was busily typing up something on the computer turned to face me. "Yes sir, may I help you?" she greeted. I
smiled at her before replying. "Yes I'm looking for a friend of mine, Cordelia Chase." The elderly lady looked confused and so I explained further. "She was brought in not long ago. She was bitten and is suffering from severe blood-loss."
She nodded in understanding. "Ah yes…are you her husband?" she asked.
I shook my head. "No just a friend," I assured her but she didn't look convinced.
She nodded her head again nonetheless, before indicating towards the chairs that aligned the opposite wall. "If you'd take a seat, the doctor will be with you shortly," she instructed, indicating behind me.
I turned and took a seat, letting out an exasperated sigh. "How the hell did I let this happen," I thought to myself. Even though I was well aware that there wasn't anyway I could have done to stop the transformation from friend to fiend, even if I had wanted known. Instead of torturing myself with ways I could have prevented this from happening, I began to conduct a mental list of possible way this may have happened which would hopefully assist me later on while I was doing my research. I glanced around the annoyingly sterile reception area and watched as doctors, nurses and visitors milled around on their way to help people, or on their way to visit relatives and friends. To my dismay, I had taken a seat directly in front of the corridor that lead to the A & E department. Every time a doctor descended it, a rush went through me as my subconscious convinced me that this was the doctor who was about to tell me one of two things: either Cordelia was going to pull through and would be alright in a couple of days, or that we were too late and the next time any of us would see her would be in an open coffin right before there laid her six feet under the ground.
After about five minutes and six doctors getting my hopes up, a young man wearing a long white coat, with large black rimed glasses and a clipboard perched under his arm headed my way. At first I just dismissed him as simply going to see somebody else and wondered when someone would finally come and speak to me. He disappeared out of my line of sight for a moment, and I didn't bother to follow his actions. After a moment, a shadow washed over me and in the corner of my eye, I could see a figure standing to my right, as though waiting to be acknowledged. I turned to look at him. He wore a somber expression and I suspected the worse. "I believe you're a friend of Cordelia Chase?" he asked, I nodded my head and rose to my feet, towering over him slightly.
"How is she?" I asked.
He glanced down at the clipboard he had removed from under his arm, and studied it slightly as if to check that the small amount of information he was about to give me was correct.
"Well.." he began. "We've given her some iron. Aas expected her blood count was a little low rather like mild anemia, but she's gonna be okay," he stopped for a breath. "We'll need to keep her in for a couple of days to keep a check on her, but then she'll be fine to go home. You were very lucky to have found her when you did," he assured me. I just nodded not really knowing what else to do. "Would you like to go and see her?" he asked.
I nodded my head. He turned and I followed him back down the corridor. He stopped outside of a room about half way down the corridor and opened the door. I looked inside to see Cordelia lying on the bed. Her face wasn't as pale as it had been back at the Hyperion, and her eyes were closed, a large band-aid was placed across the bite mark. I took a step inside, nodding in thanks to the young doctor. With a smile he closed the door before leaving us alone.
I walked across to the bed. I tried to be as quiet as possible, but none the less Cordelia' eyes slowly opened and she turned to face me a weak smile gracing her features. I smiled in reply, and reached for her hand. "How are you?" I asked. She moved to sit up but I insisted she lie back down.
She smiled again before answering my question. "I'm good. A little weak but nothing some rest won't fix."
I nodded, contemplating my next question. "Can you remember anything that happened?" I asked her gently.
I could tell that she was considering my question carefully, eventually she replied, "I woke up and I couldn't find Angel, so I went looking for him. He was unconscious. I bent over him trying to wake him up when suddenly he just sprung up and bit me." She took in a shaky breath, in an attempt to steady her nervousness, tears glistening in her eyes. "I don't remember anything after that. Everything fell into darkness and the next thing I remember was being on the stretcher." Her voice was harsh and she was breathless. It was obvious that she was exhausted.
I nodded my head in understanding. "Angelus is back, Wesley," she began again. "I swore that if this ever happened again I'd kill him. He wanted me to but I was useless. I couldn't do anything to stop him." A single tear ran down her cheek and she used the back of her hand to wipe it away.
I let go of her hand. "You should rest, and I need to sort everything out…"
Before I could continue she interrupted me. "Wesley, promise me you'll stop him. Promise me that if the spell doesn't work you'll stake him. For me and for Angel. It's what he wants," she replied. She held my hand until I promised with a simple nod of my head. Once I was sure she was going to be ok, I left the room and headed back towards the entrance.
On my way back to the hotel I considered my next move, linking my earlier thoughts of ways and reasons to books from both Angel's and my collections that I thought would be of some use to me. When I reached a series of traffic lights, I spotted a group of students walking along the sidewalk, most likely heading towards a university lecture or on there way back to there dorms. Amongst them was a young man wearing a bright red suit with a lime green shirt underneath, and suddenly a new possibility dawned on me, so as soon as the traffic lights turned green. I turned my car left, heading completely in the opposite direction of the Hyperion. I reached my new destination in about five minutes, leaving the car on the street; I headed up the nearest alley on foot. I approached a large metal door; the faint sound of beating music could be heard from behind it.
I lifted my hand to knock on the door, creating a series of hollow sounding bangs. After a moment a large, bald man opened a hatch at the top of the door and stuck his head against it, his eyes peering around the ally, before finally focusing on me. The door man recognized me instantly; after all I was a regular, if not frequent visitor to Caritas.
He opened the door and waited as I walked inside. I nodded my thanks to him, before descending the staircase, the music growing louder with each step. At the bottom of the steps, I passed under the metal detector, and glanced around the dimly lit room. On the stage to my right, a Chaos demon was singing along to Tom Jones. If it hadn't have looked so funny, it would have been disturbing.
I glanced around the rest of the room, searching for the person, or rather demon that was the main cause of my coming here. I should have spotted him instantly after all he was wearing a suit the brightest shade of green, with a deep red shirt underneath. I couldn't help think that his outfit clashed slightly with his natural skin colour. God, I've been hanging around with Cordelia far too much.
After a moment he headed over to me, some concoction of a cocktail held in his grasp. "Hey Wes, what brings you down here??" he asked taking in my grim expression.
"Angelus' back, and Baby isn't far behind," I stated simply.
His face fell and he glanced around his club as though worried that someone else had heard what I'd said. He ushered me across to the bar before asking, "How the Hell'd that happen?" He knocked back the rest of his drink nervously before ordering both one for me and himself another.
"That's what I thought you'd help me with," I replied. "Saw anything that could maybe give us a clue?" I continued.
He shook his head. "No not a thing," he replied. Again he glanced around the club, his gaze coming to a stop on the far corner. "It's most likely to have been caused by magic though, right?" he asked handing me my drink. I nodded my head accepting it from him. "In that case old Benji's probably the one to ask." He nodded in the same direction he'd been staring in for the last couple of minutes.
I turned to see a small, elderly looking gentleman, hunched over in one of the booths. He wore a blue shirt with a brown cardigan wrapped around his shoulders and he was playing cards with a large scaly looking creature.
"He's the owner of most, if not all of the magic shops here in LA. Makes a point to know everything that's been sold. And if somebody's been buying the right equipment to perform a soul removal spell, he'll know about it," Lorne whispered to me. I nodded my head in agreement placing my now empty glass on the table before heading across to Benji's table.
As I approached the table, the scaly demon was the first to notice me. He barred a set of pointy metal like teeth but when I didn't seem perturbed he continued with the game he was playing with Benji. I came to a stop in front of the table and still Benji didn't notice me, either that or he was more interested in completing his game which he seemed to be winning. After a moment the scaly demon threw down his cards and stood up stalking away from the table, seemingly a bad loser. The faint traces of a chuckle could be heard from Benji and he eventually turned to me.
"Your one of Angelus' boys aren't you? Wesley something or other?" he asked, indicating for me to take a seat opposite him. I did and nodded in reply. It never really amazed me how well known our family was; it seemed everyone and everything had heard about us one way or another.
"I was told you're the owner of most of the magic shops here in LA," I began. He nodded and then began coughing frantically.
As he steadied himself, he waved a hand across to where Lorne was preparing the song for the next demon who had the courage, real or alcohol induced, to attempt a song. "So I heard" he replied simply. I had no idea what he was talking about because there was no way he could have heard what Lorne and I had discussed. After all, we were across the other side of the room, plus with the loud drumming of the music, you had to practically shout to be heard by some one standing next to you. He interrupted my thoughts and confused me even further when he continued, "But I can't help you, not unless your after a spell to restore their souls." His face fell. How did he know that was what I was after? My face must have said it all because he chuckled again. It was a soft soothing sound, much like the one made by a child's grandfather.
I expected him to inform me of how he knew all of this, and who'd told him but he didn't and simply continued to say, "Nobody brought the ingredients for a soul removal incantation, or if they have they didn't get it from my shops." He took a breath. "But if you want to restore their souls, your best to use the spell you used before." At that moment, another demon walked across to the table and Benji greeted him with a nod.
I took this as my hint to leave and suspected this Demon to be another contestant. I rose to my feet and moved to leave but Benji grabbed ahold of my arm. I turned to face him and caught the few glimpses of red that shone behind the usual blueness of his eyes. My face was a mask of shock and he let out a hearty laugh. I couldn't help but chuckle myself as I walked away, understanding finally why he was able to hear to the conversations across the other side of the room. Benji wasn't quite as human as he first appeared.
I arrived back at the hotel just before 5 o'clock and, as I had excepted, as soon as I was across the threshold I was bombarded with questions.
"What's happened?"
"Where's Angel?"
"Why's Cordelia in the hospital?"
"What does Drusilla mean, about the Dove? What's happened to Baby?"
Ignoring their questions, I headed into Angel's office. Pausing in the doorway, I called out to Fred. "I need your help in performing a soul restoration spell. If you do this for me, I'll tell you and Gunn everything that happened."
"Well sure, I'll be happy to help you in anyway I can. But a soul restoration spell? What on earth will I be able to do? Is this the same kind of spell you did when Baby was first turned?" she asked in her soft Texan drawl.
I nodded and walked in to Angel's office, immediately going to the cupboard and pulling out a large, locked metal box. I pulled out the keys from my pocket that I had collected from my apartment on my way over. Fred followed me into the room, closing the door behind her.
Inside the box lay an Orb of Thesulah, the Romanian incantation, a Latin book, some incense and various bones, and stones. I handed the book to Fred and she looked confused, opening it she studied the pages
"But I don't speak Latin" she informed timidly and I couldn't help but smile.
"You don't need to understand it you just have to say it," I replied as I began to set out the various objects, creating a sacred circle, and then surrounding that with the bones and candles. I lit a stick of incense and passed it to Fred instructing her to wave it around as I performed the incantation. I explained to her when and when not to read the Latin script I directed her to. She nodded in understanding and I completed setting up the equipment, placing the Orb inside the circle and taking a seat cross legged just in front of it, but still in the sacred circle, holding the incantation in front of me. Once I was ready, I threw down the stones, and nodded my head indicating to Fred that she could begin to read.
She cleared her throat nervously before she began:
"Quod perditum est, invenietur" she read out loud struggling with the pronunciation slightly.
"Not dead...nor not of the living. Spirits of the interregnum, I call," I then added. I could already feel the ancient magic began to wash over me, and as we continued the spell I could feel it getting stronger and stronger. As we neared the end, I felt something wash through me and my whole being began to tingle. My eyes grew wide and I tipped my head back, painfully, as the rest of the incantation spilled through me, automatically. "Te implor, Doamne, nu ignora aceasta rugaminte." I chanted as I threw my head forward staring into the Orb as it began to glow.
"Wesley are you okay?" Fred asked watching me nervously.
Unable to answer her, my chanting continued steadily. "Lasa orbita sa fie vasul care-i va transporta, sufletul la el." The glowing of the Orbs became brighter with each word, as I continued, "Asa sa fie! Asa sa fie! Acum!"
Fred cast a nervous glance to the door as though, she wasn't sure whether or not this should have been happening and if she should go for help. But she had nothing to worry about as I was soon to finish. "Acum!" I yelled eventually, my body going limp as the magic dissipated.
The orb glowed brightly for a brief moment and then fell into darkness. I relaxed, feeling slightly exhausted and panting wildly.
Fred stared at the orb and then turned to me, a luck of worry graced her features "Did it work?" she asked simply.
Unknown to the both of us, in an alley on downtown LA, a middle-aged woman with seemingly distorted features, suddenly dropped onto her knees gasping for unneeded breath. As a wave of light washed over her, and a small cry of pain escaped her blood red lips, her yellow eyes swiftly flashed a bright white.
TBC