Author's Note: Okay, sorry about the long delay. I know it's been almost a
month, but I've been sick and busy. This chapter has been one of the
hardest to write. For some reason, I opted to be more descriptive this time
around instead of lots of dialogue. I don't know why I wrote this chapter
this way, but I like it and I hope you will too. From here on out, this
story will be on the downhill slope… meaning that it's almost over. By
chapter 20, this story will be completed.. and hopefully, I'll have
"Journey" done by the time the new Angel's start airing.
Thanks for any and all feedback. And thanks for reading. :)
Chapter 14: Death, Blood, and Family
"Caden?" Cordelia choked out, struggling to free herself from his grip.
"The one and only." He kissed her cheek lightly. "Did you miss me?" He spun her around so that she was now facing him. A light came on from somewhere in the apartment.
"You—You're supposed to be d-dead." Cordelia sputtered.
"You're supposed to be de-ad." Caden mocked. "Cordelia, you of all people should believe in the supernatural, what with your line of work and all."
Cordelia wished she wasn't alone. "How'd you get in here?"
Caden shrugged. "I'm a quarter demon. I can do whatever I want to. Plus, I had a little scuffle with your ol' pal, Dennis. Probably won't be seeing him much again."
"Wait a minute—you're part demon?"
"Yep." Noticing the astounded look on Cordelia's face, he added, "You know, it really should be a question you ask your boyfriend before you decide to marry him. Like, do you want kids? What kind of toothpaste do you prefer? Are you totally human or just half?"
"What the hell do you want?"
"Ooh! No need to take that tone with me, Princess."
"Don't' call me 'Princess.' Ever!" Cordelia told him, her voice rising slightly. "That name is reserved to come from the lips of real men."
"Oh, so I'm not a 'real man'? Well, neither was Doyle or the Groosalugg, for that matter."
"How---"
"Isn't it wonderful how I know EVERYthing about you, yet you know nothing about me?"
"Stop it! Okay? And get out of my house!"
"Oh, I intend to, precious. Right after you do everything I tell you to do."
"And what's that?"
Caden pulled a small vial out of his coat pocket. "Give Baby Angel this elixir, will you?'
"No." Cordelia said firmly. "You'll not hurt a hair on Journey's head. You won't get near him with that stuff."
Caden just looked at her. "Well, duh." He smiled evilly. "Besides, that's what I have YOU for, sweetheart."
Cordelia started to back away from him. "No. Over my dead body."
"Oh, I'm sure that can be arranged." He stepped towards her. "Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. You're all alone. You don't have a knight in shining armor to rescue you now. You've been too busy being a royal bitch to him the last two years."
Cordelia closed her eyes and whispered, "Angel."
"Yes. Your wonderful hero." He leaned in close and whispered, "You should have went with him when he confessed his feelings for you. At least you would have been married to someone who actually loved you."
Cordelia drew her breath in sharply. God, how did she get in such a mess? Journey was right.. Caden WAS evil. But she hadn't realized it until it was too late. Maybe too late for all of them. Cordelia looked around the room. If only she could stop him.. but the only weapons she had were to kill vampires. She was pretty much defenseless. And besides, Caden was a demon. Who knew what all it took to kill him? All she could do was hope for a miracle. And stall until that miracle arrived.
"So, uh.. why do you want to kill Journey?"
"My, my, aren't we chatty today?" Caden sneered. "If you must know, he's a threat. To all of us."
"How?"
"Look at it this way, baby. Angel will shanshu someday. And before, the demon world was to rejoice and go back to doing what they did before Angel went on his redemption crusade. Now, however, thanks to that snotty-nosed brat of a child, he'll take over the fight once Angel shanshus. And we won't get the party that we very much deserve. We'll never get to go back to our normal lives."
"You're a demon, Caden. You're anything BUT normal."
"Right you are." Caden sighed. "I'm tired of this. It's killing time, Princess."
"Well, kill away then, starting with me. And I hope you enjoy it too, because I can promise you that's about as far as you're going to get."
"Oh, can you?" She saw a flash of light to her left and realized just what he was holding. A dark-handled knife with a 10-inch blade was gleaming in the moonlight. She shuddered involuntarily as he clamped a hand over her mouth and slammed her head against a nearby wall. The room seemed to get darker and she felt the coolness of the blade beneath her skin as well as the sharpness of it as it cut through her neck. The sticky blood trickled down her body and she thought she saw Caden stick his finger in the warm blood and taste it.
He cut her again. The slit was wider than the first one on her neck, and more blood spilled out. She knew she should fight back, but she was so tired. So very tired. All she wanted… was to sleep. To lay down and never open her eyes again, ever. She closed her eyes.. only to open them again. She had to stay awake, had to stay conscious. But the pain was SO much. And it was so much easier to close her eyes and just forget what was happening to her.
She left her eyes open, staring as he slit her skin in a few more places, and feeling the blood bubble out. The urge to close her eyes from this all was stronger than ever, and after a minute of holding out, Cordelia closed her eyes. The darkness overtook her quickly, leaving behind the cuts, pain, blood, and the betrayal that is Caden.
Her body went limp in his arms. He threw the knife aside, and laid her gently on the floor, the blood forming a puddle around her. Caden looked at her a moment, beautiful even in the first stages of death. He bent down and brushed his lips against her cheek softly. "Night, Princess."
* * *
Angel came to an abrupt stop across the street from Cordelia's apartment building after speeding down the back-roads of L.A. He hurriedly glanced at the windows to Cordy's apartment and noticed no lights. Perhaps, he'd beaten her home. Perhaps, he hadn't, since he could feel in his gut that he was a little too late.
He sprinted across the eerily quiet street and into the building. He opted for the stairs instead of the always-slow elevator that was prone to stop in between floors. He took the stairs two at a time. In less than a minute, he was on Cordelia's floor, and from the stairwell, he could see that her door was slightly open. He made his way quietly but quickly to her door, listening. It was quiet, except for the sound of water running and the light hum of a happy someone.
He peered into the apartment through the slightly open door and seeing no one, he pushed it open. He stepped inside, noting no resistance from Dennis. For some reason, Dennis had never taken kindly to Angel and always tried to prevent him from entering Cordy's home. Angel has had to duck flying objects on occasion. But not this night. He entered with no problem.
The lights were off, but that was okay with him. He could see much better in the dark anyhow. He crept through the apartment silently, still hearing the humming which seem to be coming from the kitchen. He started towards the kitchen, but he tripped on something lying on the floor and down he went. He tried to fall quietly, but you can't always pick how loud you fall. Fortunately, not a sound was made as he fell to the floor. Thankful for that, he looked at the intrusive object that had caused this. He saw a shoe.. which was attached to foot, that was attached to a leg. Angel's eyes widened as he sat up. He could Cordelia's weakened, bloody body laying on the floor. She looked… dead. He moved soundlessly to her head, and he felt for a pulse by laying two fingers to the left side of her neck. He found a pulse.. a weak pulse, but a pulse nonetheless. Looking over her, assessing the wounds, he noticed that there was so much blood. Too much blood. He looked away because it was making him sick. And he was a vampire! He drank blood on a day to day basis.
But this was different. It was different when someone you love is mortally wounded.
The humming grew louder. Angel felt such rage for Caden. He couldn't wait to break the guy's neck over everything he'd done.. to all of them, but most of all, what he'd done to Cordy. But, he also couldn't fight Caden knowing that Cordelia would probably die in about ten minutes if she wasn't gotten the help she needed. So, he picked up her phone that was lying nearby and called the paramedics. Hopefully they wouldn't be too long.
He looked at her one last time before standing up. She looked so weak, so vulnerable. He didn't want to leave her. He wanted to grab her and hold her in his arms until help arrived. But he had to deal with Caden. Before standing, he gently bent and kissed her on the forehead. "Don't worry, Cordy." He whispered. "Everything will be all right."
He stood up and continued towards the kitchen. When he got outside the doorway, he peeked inside. Caden was in there, rinsing the blood off his knife and cleaning the blood off the handle. He had gloves on now, keeping his fingerprints from replacing the very ones he was washing away.
Caden suddenly threw the knife down and looked away. "You know, for a creature of the night, you're not all that sneaky."
Angel stepped into the kitchen. "Apparently. And you're not nearly as evil as you think you are."
"Excuse me?" Caden said, taking off his gloves. "Did someone just ask me to stake 'em?"
Angel took a step forward. "Caden, why are you here?"
"To kill your son. And you, if you'd like." Caden replied, matter-of- factly. "What are you doing here?"
"Fulfilling a promise." Angel took another step forward.
"And what promise might that be? You're a little too late to save your true love, if that's what it is."
Sirens began to wail quietly in the distance. "Oh, no. That's not it. It's a promise, that I made to you, oh, about four years ago."
Caden frowned. "What are you talking about?"
Angel took one final step forward, so that now they were face to face. He whispered, " If you ever, in any way, hurt her, under any circumstances, I will kill you. Make no mistake about that." Before Caden could react, Angel's fist slammed into Caden's nose, crushing it. "Does that jog your memory?"
Caden let the blood run freely down his face. He touched a hand gently to his broken nose. "That's not exactly a crack I like to hear."
"Well, get used to it." His fist made contact with Caden's chest, bruising the ribs and knocking the air out of the quarter-demon. Angel whirled around, allowing a fan kick to fly into Caden's face, which knocked him to the floor. Angel grabbed a frying pan that was lying on the countertop and began whaling into Caden, hitting him in the back, stomach, neck, and head repeatedly.
Caden, choking on his own blood, spit out a tooth. "Hey.. no fair! You didn't say 'Ready, Set, Go.'"
"Contrary to how you were raised, Caden, you don't get a heads-up on everything." Angel said, as the frying pan smacked into Caden's chest. "But here's a tip—I'm gonna kill you. Now, you can either tell me if there's a specific trick to killing a scoundrel like yourself, OR I'll just keep on beating you up like I'm some schoolyard bully after your lunch money."
Caden laughed. "I'll tell you. But you'll never kill me, so maybe I should just let you wear yourself out."
"Tell me." Angel growled.
"You… have to make me cry. Otherwise, you'll just beat the human out of me at the rate you're going."
"Make you cry? That's all I have to do?"
"It's not as easy as it sounds." Caden rolled over on his side. "We could be here ALL night."
Angel glanced around the room and noticed one of Cordelia's purses lying on the table. "I don't think so. 'Cause I have this, you see."
Caden looked up to see Angel holding a purse. Caden started to laugh, but blood came out of his mouth and he coughed instead. He looked at Angel with amusement in his eyes. "And just what do you think you're going to do with that? Beat me over the head a few times? Make me wear it? Do you not realize that it's just a purse?"
"Oh, I can see how you might think that it's just a purse. But it's because you don't have x-ray vision like I do."
"X-ray vision? That was never in the reports about you. You made that up!"
"Did I? Because I happen to know that there's something in here to make you cry. It makes everyone cry." Angel shook the purse. "And besides, haven't you ever heard that saying, 'Don't believe everything you read'?"
"Well, I still don't think you have x-ray vision. Who are you trying to be? Superman?"
Angel sighed. "Do you want to know what's in the purse or not?"
"By all means, yes! Show us what's behind zipper number one, Houdini!"
"Are you always this sarcastic?" Angel asked. "Wait—don't answer that. Okay, close your eyes and I'll tell you when to open them."
"You know, it'd be pretty stupid for me to just close my eyes because you told me to, but since I'm so sure that you can't make me cry, I'm going to do it anyway."
"Well, ducky for you." Angel waited for Caden to close his eyes and then he pulled out a can of pepper spray that he knew Cordy always carried in her purse. Bending down to Caden's eye level, he aimed the sprayer at Caden's eyes and told him to open his eyes.
Caden complied, and Angel doused his eyes with the pepper spray. He used the entire contents of the can before he paused to see if it had worked. Hopefully it had. Otherwise, he'd have one pissed off Caden.
Angel stood up and watched as Caden disintegrated before his eyes. It had almost seemed too easy… but he didn't have time to sit and contemplate if Caden was truly dead. He could hear Cordelia stirring in the other room. "Angel…"
He ran to her. "Cordelia…"
Her eyes fluttered. "Angel.. Angel.."
"It's okay. I'm right here. You're not alone."
"Don't…. leave me, Angel. …..Please…. don't leave… me." She managed to get out.
"I won't. I promise I won't leave you. Not today or any day after."
She nodded slowly. "Angel… I'm sorry."
"For what?"
She paused. "For.. everything."
He took her hand. "Don't worry about it, all right. Just concentrate on getting better from all this. Think of the future, not the past."
A tear slipped slowly down Cordelia's face. "It hurts. It .. hurts.. so bad."
"I know. I know it does." He listened, straining his ears for any sound of the sirens getting closer. He couldn't wait any longer. "Okay, Cordy. I'm going to pick you up, all right? I'll try not to make it hurt any more than it already does, but if I do, I'm sorry."
She nodded. He gently slid his arm underneath her head, and one underneath her legs and lifted her up off the floor. Grabbing a blanket off the couch, he draped it over her body, and headed downstairs.
He stepped out into the cold night air just as the rain began to fall. The paramedics arrived a few minutes later, and they took Cordelia from his arms and strapped her to a stretcher. She wasn't conscious any more; she'd slipped out of it again as he'd taken her downstairs. There was blood all over him, her blood soaking his shirt, her blood on his hands. His car sat across the street, top down, droplet after droplet of rain splashing on the seats and puddling in the floor. But all he could think was one thing.
He grabbed the nearest paramedic. "Is she going to be okay? Is she going to live?"
"It's hard to say. She's lost a lot of blood. Her vitals are dropping. What happened in there?"
"I don't know. I.. uh, found her like that."
The paramedic looked at Cordelia who was being loaded into the ambulance. He turned back to Angel. "Look, if your girlfriend makes it through the night, she'll be extremely lucky. If she doesn't…" He trailed off.
Angel stared at Cordelia. "Thanks.. but.. she's not my girlfriend."
"How can we contact her family? We'll need someone to fill out the necessary paperwork."
Angel paused. "I.. I'm her only family. I'll fill out all the paperwork you need."
TBC
Thanks for any and all feedback. And thanks for reading. :)
Chapter 14: Death, Blood, and Family
"Caden?" Cordelia choked out, struggling to free herself from his grip.
"The one and only." He kissed her cheek lightly. "Did you miss me?" He spun her around so that she was now facing him. A light came on from somewhere in the apartment.
"You—You're supposed to be d-dead." Cordelia sputtered.
"You're supposed to be de-ad." Caden mocked. "Cordelia, you of all people should believe in the supernatural, what with your line of work and all."
Cordelia wished she wasn't alone. "How'd you get in here?"
Caden shrugged. "I'm a quarter demon. I can do whatever I want to. Plus, I had a little scuffle with your ol' pal, Dennis. Probably won't be seeing him much again."
"Wait a minute—you're part demon?"
"Yep." Noticing the astounded look on Cordelia's face, he added, "You know, it really should be a question you ask your boyfriend before you decide to marry him. Like, do you want kids? What kind of toothpaste do you prefer? Are you totally human or just half?"
"What the hell do you want?"
"Ooh! No need to take that tone with me, Princess."
"Don't' call me 'Princess.' Ever!" Cordelia told him, her voice rising slightly. "That name is reserved to come from the lips of real men."
"Oh, so I'm not a 'real man'? Well, neither was Doyle or the Groosalugg, for that matter."
"How---"
"Isn't it wonderful how I know EVERYthing about you, yet you know nothing about me?"
"Stop it! Okay? And get out of my house!"
"Oh, I intend to, precious. Right after you do everything I tell you to do."
"And what's that?"
Caden pulled a small vial out of his coat pocket. "Give Baby Angel this elixir, will you?'
"No." Cordelia said firmly. "You'll not hurt a hair on Journey's head. You won't get near him with that stuff."
Caden just looked at her. "Well, duh." He smiled evilly. "Besides, that's what I have YOU for, sweetheart."
Cordelia started to back away from him. "No. Over my dead body."
"Oh, I'm sure that can be arranged." He stepped towards her. "Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. You're all alone. You don't have a knight in shining armor to rescue you now. You've been too busy being a royal bitch to him the last two years."
Cordelia closed her eyes and whispered, "Angel."
"Yes. Your wonderful hero." He leaned in close and whispered, "You should have went with him when he confessed his feelings for you. At least you would have been married to someone who actually loved you."
Cordelia drew her breath in sharply. God, how did she get in such a mess? Journey was right.. Caden WAS evil. But she hadn't realized it until it was too late. Maybe too late for all of them. Cordelia looked around the room. If only she could stop him.. but the only weapons she had were to kill vampires. She was pretty much defenseless. And besides, Caden was a demon. Who knew what all it took to kill him? All she could do was hope for a miracle. And stall until that miracle arrived.
"So, uh.. why do you want to kill Journey?"
"My, my, aren't we chatty today?" Caden sneered. "If you must know, he's a threat. To all of us."
"How?"
"Look at it this way, baby. Angel will shanshu someday. And before, the demon world was to rejoice and go back to doing what they did before Angel went on his redemption crusade. Now, however, thanks to that snotty-nosed brat of a child, he'll take over the fight once Angel shanshus. And we won't get the party that we very much deserve. We'll never get to go back to our normal lives."
"You're a demon, Caden. You're anything BUT normal."
"Right you are." Caden sighed. "I'm tired of this. It's killing time, Princess."
"Well, kill away then, starting with me. And I hope you enjoy it too, because I can promise you that's about as far as you're going to get."
"Oh, can you?" She saw a flash of light to her left and realized just what he was holding. A dark-handled knife with a 10-inch blade was gleaming in the moonlight. She shuddered involuntarily as he clamped a hand over her mouth and slammed her head against a nearby wall. The room seemed to get darker and she felt the coolness of the blade beneath her skin as well as the sharpness of it as it cut through her neck. The sticky blood trickled down her body and she thought she saw Caden stick his finger in the warm blood and taste it.
He cut her again. The slit was wider than the first one on her neck, and more blood spilled out. She knew she should fight back, but she was so tired. So very tired. All she wanted… was to sleep. To lay down and never open her eyes again, ever. She closed her eyes.. only to open them again. She had to stay awake, had to stay conscious. But the pain was SO much. And it was so much easier to close her eyes and just forget what was happening to her.
She left her eyes open, staring as he slit her skin in a few more places, and feeling the blood bubble out. The urge to close her eyes from this all was stronger than ever, and after a minute of holding out, Cordelia closed her eyes. The darkness overtook her quickly, leaving behind the cuts, pain, blood, and the betrayal that is Caden.
Her body went limp in his arms. He threw the knife aside, and laid her gently on the floor, the blood forming a puddle around her. Caden looked at her a moment, beautiful even in the first stages of death. He bent down and brushed his lips against her cheek softly. "Night, Princess."
* * *
Angel came to an abrupt stop across the street from Cordelia's apartment building after speeding down the back-roads of L.A. He hurriedly glanced at the windows to Cordy's apartment and noticed no lights. Perhaps, he'd beaten her home. Perhaps, he hadn't, since he could feel in his gut that he was a little too late.
He sprinted across the eerily quiet street and into the building. He opted for the stairs instead of the always-slow elevator that was prone to stop in between floors. He took the stairs two at a time. In less than a minute, he was on Cordelia's floor, and from the stairwell, he could see that her door was slightly open. He made his way quietly but quickly to her door, listening. It was quiet, except for the sound of water running and the light hum of a happy someone.
He peered into the apartment through the slightly open door and seeing no one, he pushed it open. He stepped inside, noting no resistance from Dennis. For some reason, Dennis had never taken kindly to Angel and always tried to prevent him from entering Cordy's home. Angel has had to duck flying objects on occasion. But not this night. He entered with no problem.
The lights were off, but that was okay with him. He could see much better in the dark anyhow. He crept through the apartment silently, still hearing the humming which seem to be coming from the kitchen. He started towards the kitchen, but he tripped on something lying on the floor and down he went. He tried to fall quietly, but you can't always pick how loud you fall. Fortunately, not a sound was made as he fell to the floor. Thankful for that, he looked at the intrusive object that had caused this. He saw a shoe.. which was attached to foot, that was attached to a leg. Angel's eyes widened as he sat up. He could Cordelia's weakened, bloody body laying on the floor. She looked… dead. He moved soundlessly to her head, and he felt for a pulse by laying two fingers to the left side of her neck. He found a pulse.. a weak pulse, but a pulse nonetheless. Looking over her, assessing the wounds, he noticed that there was so much blood. Too much blood. He looked away because it was making him sick. And he was a vampire! He drank blood on a day to day basis.
But this was different. It was different when someone you love is mortally wounded.
The humming grew louder. Angel felt such rage for Caden. He couldn't wait to break the guy's neck over everything he'd done.. to all of them, but most of all, what he'd done to Cordy. But, he also couldn't fight Caden knowing that Cordelia would probably die in about ten minutes if she wasn't gotten the help she needed. So, he picked up her phone that was lying nearby and called the paramedics. Hopefully they wouldn't be too long.
He looked at her one last time before standing up. She looked so weak, so vulnerable. He didn't want to leave her. He wanted to grab her and hold her in his arms until help arrived. But he had to deal with Caden. Before standing, he gently bent and kissed her on the forehead. "Don't worry, Cordy." He whispered. "Everything will be all right."
He stood up and continued towards the kitchen. When he got outside the doorway, he peeked inside. Caden was in there, rinsing the blood off his knife and cleaning the blood off the handle. He had gloves on now, keeping his fingerprints from replacing the very ones he was washing away.
Caden suddenly threw the knife down and looked away. "You know, for a creature of the night, you're not all that sneaky."
Angel stepped into the kitchen. "Apparently. And you're not nearly as evil as you think you are."
"Excuse me?" Caden said, taking off his gloves. "Did someone just ask me to stake 'em?"
Angel took a step forward. "Caden, why are you here?"
"To kill your son. And you, if you'd like." Caden replied, matter-of- factly. "What are you doing here?"
"Fulfilling a promise." Angel took another step forward.
"And what promise might that be? You're a little too late to save your true love, if that's what it is."
Sirens began to wail quietly in the distance. "Oh, no. That's not it. It's a promise, that I made to you, oh, about four years ago."
Caden frowned. "What are you talking about?"
Angel took one final step forward, so that now they were face to face. He whispered, " If you ever, in any way, hurt her, under any circumstances, I will kill you. Make no mistake about that." Before Caden could react, Angel's fist slammed into Caden's nose, crushing it. "Does that jog your memory?"
Caden let the blood run freely down his face. He touched a hand gently to his broken nose. "That's not exactly a crack I like to hear."
"Well, get used to it." His fist made contact with Caden's chest, bruising the ribs and knocking the air out of the quarter-demon. Angel whirled around, allowing a fan kick to fly into Caden's face, which knocked him to the floor. Angel grabbed a frying pan that was lying on the countertop and began whaling into Caden, hitting him in the back, stomach, neck, and head repeatedly.
Caden, choking on his own blood, spit out a tooth. "Hey.. no fair! You didn't say 'Ready, Set, Go.'"
"Contrary to how you were raised, Caden, you don't get a heads-up on everything." Angel said, as the frying pan smacked into Caden's chest. "But here's a tip—I'm gonna kill you. Now, you can either tell me if there's a specific trick to killing a scoundrel like yourself, OR I'll just keep on beating you up like I'm some schoolyard bully after your lunch money."
Caden laughed. "I'll tell you. But you'll never kill me, so maybe I should just let you wear yourself out."
"Tell me." Angel growled.
"You… have to make me cry. Otherwise, you'll just beat the human out of me at the rate you're going."
"Make you cry? That's all I have to do?"
"It's not as easy as it sounds." Caden rolled over on his side. "We could be here ALL night."
Angel glanced around the room and noticed one of Cordelia's purses lying on the table. "I don't think so. 'Cause I have this, you see."
Caden looked up to see Angel holding a purse. Caden started to laugh, but blood came out of his mouth and he coughed instead. He looked at Angel with amusement in his eyes. "And just what do you think you're going to do with that? Beat me over the head a few times? Make me wear it? Do you not realize that it's just a purse?"
"Oh, I can see how you might think that it's just a purse. But it's because you don't have x-ray vision like I do."
"X-ray vision? That was never in the reports about you. You made that up!"
"Did I? Because I happen to know that there's something in here to make you cry. It makes everyone cry." Angel shook the purse. "And besides, haven't you ever heard that saying, 'Don't believe everything you read'?"
"Well, I still don't think you have x-ray vision. Who are you trying to be? Superman?"
Angel sighed. "Do you want to know what's in the purse or not?"
"By all means, yes! Show us what's behind zipper number one, Houdini!"
"Are you always this sarcastic?" Angel asked. "Wait—don't answer that. Okay, close your eyes and I'll tell you when to open them."
"You know, it'd be pretty stupid for me to just close my eyes because you told me to, but since I'm so sure that you can't make me cry, I'm going to do it anyway."
"Well, ducky for you." Angel waited for Caden to close his eyes and then he pulled out a can of pepper spray that he knew Cordy always carried in her purse. Bending down to Caden's eye level, he aimed the sprayer at Caden's eyes and told him to open his eyes.
Caden complied, and Angel doused his eyes with the pepper spray. He used the entire contents of the can before he paused to see if it had worked. Hopefully it had. Otherwise, he'd have one pissed off Caden.
Angel stood up and watched as Caden disintegrated before his eyes. It had almost seemed too easy… but he didn't have time to sit and contemplate if Caden was truly dead. He could hear Cordelia stirring in the other room. "Angel…"
He ran to her. "Cordelia…"
Her eyes fluttered. "Angel.. Angel.."
"It's okay. I'm right here. You're not alone."
"Don't…. leave me, Angel. …..Please…. don't leave… me." She managed to get out.
"I won't. I promise I won't leave you. Not today or any day after."
She nodded slowly. "Angel… I'm sorry."
"For what?"
She paused. "For.. everything."
He took her hand. "Don't worry about it, all right. Just concentrate on getting better from all this. Think of the future, not the past."
A tear slipped slowly down Cordelia's face. "It hurts. It .. hurts.. so bad."
"I know. I know it does." He listened, straining his ears for any sound of the sirens getting closer. He couldn't wait any longer. "Okay, Cordy. I'm going to pick you up, all right? I'll try not to make it hurt any more than it already does, but if I do, I'm sorry."
She nodded. He gently slid his arm underneath her head, and one underneath her legs and lifted her up off the floor. Grabbing a blanket off the couch, he draped it over her body, and headed downstairs.
He stepped out into the cold night air just as the rain began to fall. The paramedics arrived a few minutes later, and they took Cordelia from his arms and strapped her to a stretcher. She wasn't conscious any more; she'd slipped out of it again as he'd taken her downstairs. There was blood all over him, her blood soaking his shirt, her blood on his hands. His car sat across the street, top down, droplet after droplet of rain splashing on the seats and puddling in the floor. But all he could think was one thing.
He grabbed the nearest paramedic. "Is she going to be okay? Is she going to live?"
"It's hard to say. She's lost a lot of blood. Her vitals are dropping. What happened in there?"
"I don't know. I.. uh, found her like that."
The paramedic looked at Cordelia who was being loaded into the ambulance. He turned back to Angel. "Look, if your girlfriend makes it through the night, she'll be extremely lucky. If she doesn't…" He trailed off.
Angel stared at Cordelia. "Thanks.. but.. she's not my girlfriend."
"How can we contact her family? We'll need someone to fill out the necessary paperwork."
Angel paused. "I.. I'm her only family. I'll fill out all the paperwork you need."
TBC