See disclaimer in the first part!
.-~*~-.
Cordelia woke in the middle of the night to a nightmare… 'Or vision,' she thought warily. The dream was puzzling though, she couldn't see clearly.
'That would be from the pounding headache,' she noted, and groped in her nightstand drawer for aspirin. She took an aspirin, followed by a sip of water from the glass that was now always by her bed.
After tossing and turning for a few minutes, Cordelia quickly surmised that she wasn't going to be able to sleep until she sorted out her nightmare. Slowly she got out of bed and put on her robe before heading towards the kitchen and sitting down. She could see better in the kitchen, and get more water if it was required.
Satisfied that her headache would soon be receding, Cordelia set to the task of remembering her nightmare. But the words being spoken were indistinct, and the people who were speaking remained steadily blurry. Cordy rubbed her temples, and this time she was able to see the surroundings. "The Hyperion was in my dream?" Cordelia jumped at the sound of her own voice.
"Now I'm scaring myself!" she shook her head sadly and looked at her clock. It read four am. "Having a nightmare and trying to convince myself it's a vision. That's it, I've officially been dealing with the powers too long!"
Slowly, because of the sill present headache, Cordy made her way back to bed and tried unsuccessfully to get back to sleep. 'It was just a nightmare.'
.-~*~-.
Darla pushed herself into a sitting position on the bed and looked around; her lover was nowhere in sight. She got out of bed and wondered back to the playroom, "Angelus?"
Then she saw him, seated on a couch, brooding. It was a horrible habit that the soul had really become fond of, much more so then Angelus ever had. And it was so annoyingly hard to snap him out of it once he was set into brooding! "Precious, come back to bed."
Angelus jerked out of his thoughts and looked up at his sire. "I've been trying to decide how to kill the Slayer."
Darla smiled and came to sit down next to her childe, "And what have you come up with?"
Angelus pounded his fist so hard on the table that it snapped. "Damn it!"
Darla snuggled closer to Angelus, hoping that her presence would calm him slightly. "There are lots of ways to kill a Slayer, you know that."
"Darla," he began, noting her lack of attire with a raised eyebrow, "nothing I can think of will cause her enough pain. I've spent the last three years planning her torture and death, and yet I still can't come up with something worth what her and the soul did to us!"
Darla sighed and stoked Angelus' hair lightly. "There are many people to kill before we have to go after the Slayer, precious. Together we'll think of something. Come back to bed."
Angelus stayed silent for a moment; he could still remember when the soul killed her, while he screamed in his cage, unable to do anything. Finally, he looked back to Darla and grinned, knowing how his brooding always irritated her. "Is that an order darlin?"
Darla growled at his joking manor, "Damn right it is, my boy."
Angelus wrapped his arms around his sire's waist and held her as firmly as he dared, Darla was still his sire after all, and if pushed she did assert her dominance in most unappealing ways. "Make me."
Darla escaped his vice-like grip with little trouble and rose to her feet. Angelus caught a muttered "Insolent childe!" before she had grabbed his hand and hauled him to his feet, dragging him towards the bedroom.
Angelus put up a little fight, but he knew from long experience that nothing would deter Darla, and the more he pressed the more he was punished. Of course, she wasn't as strong now as before. 'No matter,' Angelus thought 'She would be angry if I affirmed that I'm stronger then her.' Having decided to go along and prove his strength in bed rather then in battle, Angelus was hardly surprised when she tossed him on said bed and announced with a raised eyebrow, crawling after him. "You are wearing far too much clothing."
He captured her hands before she could rip his favorite shirt and took it off himself, "I agree, darlin."
Darla let out a little gasp of surprise when he flipped her over and pinned her on the bed. "Bastard!" she hissed, but her anger was short lived as his mouth captured hers.
.-~*~-.
Gunn entered the hotel first, the stark contrast from the bright outdoors and the gloomy building causing him to blink. Next came Cordy and Wesley, more on the side of talking things out with Angel, and less on the shoot Angelus side. Gunn looked around, expectant of an attack. "Where do we start?"
Wesley stated matter-of-factly, "The bedroom."
Gunn simply raised an eyebrow. Cordy hastily explained, "Cause, it's like daytime, and that's when vampires sleep… right? Wesley?"
Wesley was startled out of his examination of the extremely dark room by her voice. "What? Oh, yes, of course!"
The three cautiously made their way throughout the building. Cordy took extra pain in finding that all the things she had done to brighten the place up had been torn down. "He wouldn't be expecting us, right?"
Gunn shrugged as best he could while holding the crossbow. "He won't be expecting this, for sure."
Cordy hissed unhappily, "You don't even know that we are dealing with Angelus, Gunn!"
Gunn sighed, "Look, if he's nice, then I won't shoot him. Okay?"
Wesley stopped abruptly in his tracks, causing the others, to stop also. "Uh, guys…"
Cordy and Gunn turned back to Wesley and looked past him, into the living room. The furniture had been tossed aside, tables smashed, and in its place was a large chest, its contents spilling out over the floor. Shackles, whips, chains and knives were just some of the things tossed out of the chest. Cordy looked farther into the shadows of the room and gasped, was that blood she saw on the walls?! Gunn said, no trace of humor in his voice. "Now, can we talk about shooting on site?"
Cordy turned away from the scene, grabbing Wesley by his arm and determinedly striding towards Angel's room. "No. Not until we know what's going on."
Gunn simply shrugged and followed her, his crossbow loading with a click. When they reached the room, Gunn readied to kick in the door. Wesley stopped him by turning the handle and pushing the door open, with the simple explanation of "Why would a vampire use locks?"
The only occupant of the room was lying on the bed, her blond hair sprayed out over the pillows with blood-covered sheets tangled around her. Cordy put her hands over her mouth in shock, and whispered one word "Darla!"
Gunn asked, entering the room slowly, his crossbow loaded and in front of him. "Is she dead?" he circled the room, carefully staying away from the bed.
Wesley stated, "She's a vampire, remember…" he stayed in the doorway warily, "I won't be the one checking her pulse."
Gunn questioned, not wanting to move too near the bed. "Shouldn't we open the curtains?"
Cordy shook her head "But what if Angel comes in or something?"
Finally, Wesley and Cordy cautiously entered the room, their eyes locked on the figure in the bed. The door closed behind them with a click and they spun around… nobody was there. Gunn stated quickly "Look, dead or undead. I don't want to be locked in a room with that thing."
"My name is Darla."
The group once again spun around, to find Darla standing in front of the bed, the blood stained sheet casually wrapped around her form. Gunn aimed the crossbow level to her heart "Don't move, demon."
Cordy turned around and tried the door, finding it most definitely locked. Darla laughed, "Ooh, locked in a room with me, how terrifying!"
Wesley whispered to Gunn "I think it's safe to assume she's a bad guy, Gunn."
Gunn nodded and pulled the trigger; at the same moment, Darla moved up and grabbed his hand twisting the weapon up, so it shot into the ceiling. Darla let go, snapping the crossbow in half before taking a step back. "I wouldn't be trying anything, if I were you. After all, the party's just getting started, right my precious?"
A voice behind them announced darkly "That's right, darlin."
Only Cordy dared to turn around, coming face-to-face with Angelus, clad only in black leather pants. "Oh, god, no, Angel!"
Angelus stalked around them, Cordy following his every move, before he came to stand beside Darla. "Oh, come now. Don't tell me you expected to find me unprepared for your arrival?" he paused long enough to wrap an arm around Darla's bare shoulders. "Or without my sire?"
Darla laughed at the shocked expressions on all their faces. "Angelus and I led a massacre through Europe for a hundred and fifty years… Did you think my plans to bring my childe back to me were so futile?" she stopped to stroke Angelus' cheek. "But enough talk, darling boy. Deal with them."
In a blink of an eye, Angelus punched Gunn, Wesley, and Cordy hard enough to knock them out without doing major damage. After all, what would be the point of causing them pain when they wouldn't feel the maximum extent of it?
.-~*~-.
The first thing that Cordy was really aware of was that she had a throbbing headache. Slowly, as consciousness returned to her, Cordy became aware that she was chained up, and then it all came flooding back to her; the room, Darla, Angelus… She quickly decided to pretend to still be asleep. Angelus' voice easily cut through her headache like a knife, "Now that everyone's awake, I think it's time we played a little game."
Darla's laughter eerily reminded Cordy of a child, clapping her hands and bouncing on her toes, having just been given a treat. Cordy tried to get rid of the ridiculous image, but simply couldn't resist opening her eyes to see.
Darla lounged on a couch; manacles on her wrists and her long, red, dress askew. She did look pleased but also sated, and other then that Cordy had been all off.
Angelus moved to stand behind Darla; he reached over and undid the chains, massaging her wrists. Darla's hands snaked up and she twisted around, pulling his head down to hers for a long kiss.
Cordy half-heartedly hoped that Darla was suffocating, before she remembered that duh, vampires don't breathe. "Okay, that's just… eww!"
Angelus shifted out of his sire's grasp and grinned at his captives. "My sire's much better at torture," he paused for a moment to hand Darla a mean looking knife. "She did teach me almost everything."
Darla rose to her feet, straightening her dress with her free hand, and took long strides towards their captives. She stopped at Wesley first, and ran the blade under his chin, watching the little red welts that followed the knife trail. Keeping her human mask, she bent her head to lick the blood welling from his throat, listening to his startled whimpers. Darla lifted her head and announced, "Tastes a little too salty, I think."
She slipped away from him, laughing as he tried to make out words behind his gag, and pressed her body flush against Gunn's, rubbing against him subtly, "Mmm, I think you'll taste better…"
Gunn spat at her, and struggled with his blindfold, "Get away from me, whore."
Darla wiped the spit off her arm as though it burned, as her gaze turned steely. "You'll pay for that."
She cupped his cheeks in her hand, bending his head and stood on her tiptoes, forcing his mouth to hers in a brutal and punishing kiss. Pulling his tongue into her mouth, she bit down with blunt teeth; hard enough to take a large chunk out of his it, which she pushed back into his mouth. Darla sucked at the blood flowing from the wound, Gameface never appearing, even though her eyes flashed saffron.
Angelus felt himself grinning, he knew that kiss well; it hurt like hell. 'Of course,' he reasoned, 'she's had enough time to practice.'
Finally, Darla pulled away, swallowing the rest of the blood in her mouth, and wiping at the blood that had dribbled down her chin with her free hand. "Mmm," she laughed as Gunn squirmed, "what's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"
He spat out blood and that chunk of his tongue and made strangled gurgling noises of pain and disgust. Cordelia and Wesley turned away in revulsion. Cordelia looked about ready to faint, "Oh, god."
Angelus smiled at Darla, refraining the urge to pull her to him and kiss her just as brutally. "What about Cordy, darlin?"
Darla moved to the next spot, where Cordy was chained, slashing open the top of her shirt and placing the point of the knife against her bare chest, where every time Cordy took a breath in the tip dug deeper in her skin. Darla leaned close and whispered against Cordy's ear, "I would like to reach into your skin with my bare hand and pull out your beating heart…" she paused to lick her lips and wink at Angelus, "but then there's plenty of time for that, why rush the inevitable?"
She twisted the knife a little for good measure, enjoying the gasp that slipped through Cordelia's pursed lips. Darla pulled the knife back, and lifted it up to where her captive's hand was chained. She thinly sliced one of Cordelia's fingertips and let the blood drip down to her waiting palm. Tasting the blood she announced, "Too sweet," Darla took a step back and addressed Angelus, "Why don't you taste them, precious, and then the fun can begin."
Angelus picked up another dagger and stepped up to Wesley, who was still trying not to look at Gunn. "Oh, yeah, this'll be fun."
.-~*~-.
When the screams finally ceased, it was not because of impending daylight, not because of the deaths of captives or captors, not from lack of inventive torture methods, and not from ineffective torture.
It was boredom. Well, that and the fact Angelus had made some perfect incisions into the throat, stopping the victim's ability for speech.
Darla and Angelus hadn't particularly been expecting their group of prisoners, they had been prepared, but that was mostly out of caution. The fact was, neither had a grudge against any of the imprisoned group that reasoned torture for more then twenty-four hours.
'Torture is fun, to a point, then it's just overkill. Pun intended.' Darla mused, idly twisting the blade of a dagger into her palm and watching the red well up around the metal. "Precious," she motioned to the blood covered bodies hanging weakly from chains, "do you suppose we should get it over with?"
Angelus looked up from where he had been carving vampiric symbols into Cordelia's exposed thigh, and spared his sire a questioning glance before resuming his pastime. "Are you bored, darlin?"
Darla tugged absently at one of the metal bars spearing Wesley's palms, eliciting a strangled gurgle of discomfort from the former Watcher. "Of course not," she let the dagger drop from her hand and moved towards Gunn, eyeing him up and down. Blood covered, in excruciating pain, and unable to voice any protest, just the way she liked her captives. "It's just, if we're going to kill them, we'll have to do it soon or the effect will be lost."
Angelus saw Darla slide over to Gunn out of the corner of his eye, recognizing that she was deeply enjoying the mental torture she inflected upon the man. "I don't know, darlin," he grinned wickedly up at a teary-eyed Cordelia, "I was thinking we let them back into the herd."
"Mmm," Darla rested her body against Gunn's; knowing the pain it caused him, enjoying the look of fear in the once powerful man's eyes. Broken, she liked them broken; of course, after they broke she usually killed them, weak creatures. "Is that why you're carving up the pretty one so? Well, I suppose, so long as I get to keep this one. He might be fun to play with for a couple centuries."
Angelus turned to look at his sire square on, trying to determine if she was joking or serious. After a moment of appraising her mood and manors, Angelus decided it was neither; Darla was playing more mind games. 'Who am I to let her captive in on that little secret,' Angelus thought as he turned back to a wildly squirming Cordelia. "Tis fine with me, Darla."
Darla settled flashing eyes on Gunn as she took in her lover's response, noticing the man once again struggling, for all it was worth. "And what do you think, Charles?" she ran her hand over his throat in a sickeningly sweet gesture, "What would you say to that, if you could still speak?"
The deep voice of Angelus boomed out from the corner conversationally, "I can tell what he'd say from here, darlin."
Her eyes stared straight into Gunn's, unblinking, flashing with the promises of things that could come in centuries unexplored. "Oh, yes, I see it now. The stunning righteousness, even in the face of death and torment, virtue and morality for all the poor souls that would suffer." She took a deep breath, breathing in the sent of pain and fear all over the man, "But you would taste so good, wouldn't you? Such a shame you can't tell me not to turn you… I might have listened if you could."
Her bubbly laughter echoed throughout the room and was soon joined by Angelus' deeper mirth, leaving the human's in the room only guessing at what was to come next. Finally, Darla pulled away from Gunn with a sigh, moving towards Wesley and yanking out the spears embedded in his body with a heartless tug. Flinging herself carelessly back upon the couch, she announced, "Angelus, take them all down from there, will you? I want to get packing, it's time to finish some plans, precious."
Angelus set his knife down and snapped Cordelia's chains with a flick of his wrist; enjoying her gasp when he caught her roughly, some of her closed wounds reopening. Moving quickly across the room, he dropped Cordelia below her friends, on her head, and grinned as she blacked out. Without removing the males' chains, Angelus knocked them out each with a swift punch. Turning back to Darla he considered his options, "I was thinking I'd ship Wesley to Faith, and Cordelia to the Scooby Gang, can't quite figure out where to put Gunn, though."
Darla raised an eyebrow in vague amusement as she got up and began to ascend the stairs, sparing a brief glance at the wounded bodies. "Leave them, lover, a package is so impersonal. I'd much rather discuss the details of persecuting the Slayer in person."
A wicked grin crossed Angelus' face as he raced up the stairs to his sire, pulling her into a brutal kiss, "In person, then, darlin."
.-~*~-.
Sunlight streaming through broken windows and a cold wind whipping around her naked body woke Cordelia. Her first instinct was to move, but the pain that caused made her scream out. Except no sound broke the silence of the room, no sound came out of her throat.
Looking frantically around, even with limited movement, Cordelia found herself dumped on the floor, a floor covered in blood and littered with torture devices. Straining her head upwards, Cordy saw her two male companions, still strung up and apparently still out cold. The seer couldn't help but flinch when she got her first good look at their injuries, since she had been moved away from them early in the previous night. 'Or was it two nights ago? Ohhhh,' even thoughts in her head hurt.
Cordy was just trying to figure out where her captors might be hiding this time, when she noticed a message scrolled on the walls in blood, with very intricate writing. 'And so the moon shall have an epiphany, a different epiphany, and she shall destroy through the night, making the world her own. So when the sun does rise, it is too late, and the whirlwind has passed through the night, slaughter and mayhem reign. Feel the whirlwind?'
A moan echoed through her head at the eccentric message undoubtedly left by the blonde vampiress. The fancy curling script was the first indication, even scrawled in blood it was definitely feminine, but the sheer insanity of the message was all Darla, and Cordy found herself wondering if maybe Darla had spent too much time with Drusilla in the past. She recognized that it was irony and the effort of making a point she was sure not to miss, but surely, it could have been done in a less dramatic way.
All the thought required to read the message left Cordy's head aching and a sigh filtered through her mind as she remembered hearing the two vampires discussing Sunnydale and the Slayer the previous night. She felt a sting of emotion at the thought at what was planned for her friends, but right now, her own existence was first in her thoughts.
They were alone, left to fend for themselves, survival a very unlikely outcome. And the Scooby Gang had no clue what was coming their way, the whirlwind in the night that was sure to destroy them. A vision rocked Cordy's head as she saw the destruction and mayhem that was to reign in Sunnydale, saw the full moon rise high in the sky, and the seas bathed in red.
And when Cordelia blacked out from the pain of the vision, this time was the last, finally giving her broken body a respite from the world, and allowing her battered soul to take up its place in oblivion.
The End
Cordelia woke in the middle of the night to a nightmare… 'Or vision,' she thought warily. The dream was puzzling though, she couldn't see clearly.
'That would be from the pounding headache,' she noted, and groped in her nightstand drawer for aspirin. She took an aspirin, followed by a sip of water from the glass that was now always by her bed.
After tossing and turning for a few minutes, Cordelia quickly surmised that she wasn't going to be able to sleep until she sorted out her nightmare. Slowly she got out of bed and put on her robe before heading towards the kitchen and sitting down. She could see better in the kitchen, and get more water if it was required.
Satisfied that her headache would soon be receding, Cordelia set to the task of remembering her nightmare. But the words being spoken were indistinct, and the people who were speaking remained steadily blurry. Cordy rubbed her temples, and this time she was able to see the surroundings. "The Hyperion was in my dream?" Cordelia jumped at the sound of her own voice.
"Now I'm scaring myself!" she shook her head sadly and looked at her clock. It read four am. "Having a nightmare and trying to convince myself it's a vision. That's it, I've officially been dealing with the powers too long!"
Slowly, because of the sill present headache, Cordy made her way back to bed and tried unsuccessfully to get back to sleep. 'It was just a nightmare.'
Darla pushed herself into a sitting position on the bed and looked around; her lover was nowhere in sight. She got out of bed and wondered back to the playroom, "Angelus?"
Then she saw him, seated on a couch, brooding. It was a horrible habit that the soul had really become fond of, much more so then Angelus ever had. And it was so annoyingly hard to snap him out of it once he was set into brooding! "Precious, come back to bed."
Angelus jerked out of his thoughts and looked up at his sire. "I've been trying to decide how to kill the Slayer."
Darla smiled and came to sit down next to her childe, "And what have you come up with?"
Angelus pounded his fist so hard on the table that it snapped. "Damn it!"
Darla snuggled closer to Angelus, hoping that her presence would calm him slightly. "There are lots of ways to kill a Slayer, you know that."
"Darla," he began, noting her lack of attire with a raised eyebrow, "nothing I can think of will cause her enough pain. I've spent the last three years planning her torture and death, and yet I still can't come up with something worth what her and the soul did to us!"
Darla sighed and stoked Angelus' hair lightly. "There are many people to kill before we have to go after the Slayer, precious. Together we'll think of something. Come back to bed."
Angelus stayed silent for a moment; he could still remember when the soul killed her, while he screamed in his cage, unable to do anything. Finally, he looked back to Darla and grinned, knowing how his brooding always irritated her. "Is that an order darlin?"
Darla growled at his joking manor, "Damn right it is, my boy."
Angelus wrapped his arms around his sire's waist and held her as firmly as he dared, Darla was still his sire after all, and if pushed she did assert her dominance in most unappealing ways. "Make me."
Darla escaped his vice-like grip with little trouble and rose to her feet. Angelus caught a muttered "Insolent childe!" before she had grabbed his hand and hauled him to his feet, dragging him towards the bedroom.
Angelus put up a little fight, but he knew from long experience that nothing would deter Darla, and the more he pressed the more he was punished. Of course, she wasn't as strong now as before. 'No matter,' Angelus thought 'She would be angry if I affirmed that I'm stronger then her.' Having decided to go along and prove his strength in bed rather then in battle, Angelus was hardly surprised when she tossed him on said bed and announced with a raised eyebrow, crawling after him. "You are wearing far too much clothing."
He captured her hands before she could rip his favorite shirt and took it off himself, "I agree, darlin."
Darla let out a little gasp of surprise when he flipped her over and pinned her on the bed. "Bastard!" she hissed, but her anger was short lived as his mouth captured hers.
Gunn entered the hotel first, the stark contrast from the bright outdoors and the gloomy building causing him to blink. Next came Cordy and Wesley, more on the side of talking things out with Angel, and less on the shoot Angelus side. Gunn looked around, expectant of an attack. "Where do we start?"
Wesley stated matter-of-factly, "The bedroom."
Gunn simply raised an eyebrow. Cordy hastily explained, "Cause, it's like daytime, and that's when vampires sleep… right? Wesley?"
Wesley was startled out of his examination of the extremely dark room by her voice. "What? Oh, yes, of course!"
The three cautiously made their way throughout the building. Cordy took extra pain in finding that all the things she had done to brighten the place up had been torn down. "He wouldn't be expecting us, right?"
Gunn shrugged as best he could while holding the crossbow. "He won't be expecting this, for sure."
Cordy hissed unhappily, "You don't even know that we are dealing with Angelus, Gunn!"
Gunn sighed, "Look, if he's nice, then I won't shoot him. Okay?"
Wesley stopped abruptly in his tracks, causing the others, to stop also. "Uh, guys…"
Cordy and Gunn turned back to Wesley and looked past him, into the living room. The furniture had been tossed aside, tables smashed, and in its place was a large chest, its contents spilling out over the floor. Shackles, whips, chains and knives were just some of the things tossed out of the chest. Cordy looked farther into the shadows of the room and gasped, was that blood she saw on the walls?! Gunn said, no trace of humor in his voice. "Now, can we talk about shooting on site?"
Cordy turned away from the scene, grabbing Wesley by his arm and determinedly striding towards Angel's room. "No. Not until we know what's going on."
Gunn simply shrugged and followed her, his crossbow loading with a click. When they reached the room, Gunn readied to kick in the door. Wesley stopped him by turning the handle and pushing the door open, with the simple explanation of "Why would a vampire use locks?"
The only occupant of the room was lying on the bed, her blond hair sprayed out over the pillows with blood-covered sheets tangled around her. Cordy put her hands over her mouth in shock, and whispered one word "Darla!"
Gunn asked, entering the room slowly, his crossbow loaded and in front of him. "Is she dead?" he circled the room, carefully staying away from the bed.
Wesley stated, "She's a vampire, remember…" he stayed in the doorway warily, "I won't be the one checking her pulse."
Gunn questioned, not wanting to move too near the bed. "Shouldn't we open the curtains?"
Cordy shook her head "But what if Angel comes in or something?"
Finally, Wesley and Cordy cautiously entered the room, their eyes locked on the figure in the bed. The door closed behind them with a click and they spun around… nobody was there. Gunn stated quickly "Look, dead or undead. I don't want to be locked in a room with that thing."
"My name is Darla."
The group once again spun around, to find Darla standing in front of the bed, the blood stained sheet casually wrapped around her form. Gunn aimed the crossbow level to her heart "Don't move, demon."
Cordy turned around and tried the door, finding it most definitely locked. Darla laughed, "Ooh, locked in a room with me, how terrifying!"
Wesley whispered to Gunn "I think it's safe to assume she's a bad guy, Gunn."
Gunn nodded and pulled the trigger; at the same moment, Darla moved up and grabbed his hand twisting the weapon up, so it shot into the ceiling. Darla let go, snapping the crossbow in half before taking a step back. "I wouldn't be trying anything, if I were you. After all, the party's just getting started, right my precious?"
A voice behind them announced darkly "That's right, darlin."
Only Cordy dared to turn around, coming face-to-face with Angelus, clad only in black leather pants. "Oh, god, no, Angel!"
Angelus stalked around them, Cordy following his every move, before he came to stand beside Darla. "Oh, come now. Don't tell me you expected to find me unprepared for your arrival?" he paused long enough to wrap an arm around Darla's bare shoulders. "Or without my sire?"
Darla laughed at the shocked expressions on all their faces. "Angelus and I led a massacre through Europe for a hundred and fifty years… Did you think my plans to bring my childe back to me were so futile?" she stopped to stroke Angelus' cheek. "But enough talk, darling boy. Deal with them."
In a blink of an eye, Angelus punched Gunn, Wesley, and Cordy hard enough to knock them out without doing major damage. After all, what would be the point of causing them pain when they wouldn't feel the maximum extent of it?
The first thing that Cordy was really aware of was that she had a throbbing headache. Slowly, as consciousness returned to her, Cordy became aware that she was chained up, and then it all came flooding back to her; the room, Darla, Angelus… She quickly decided to pretend to still be asleep. Angelus' voice easily cut through her headache like a knife, "Now that everyone's awake, I think it's time we played a little game."
Darla's laughter eerily reminded Cordy of a child, clapping her hands and bouncing on her toes, having just been given a treat. Cordy tried to get rid of the ridiculous image, but simply couldn't resist opening her eyes to see.
Darla lounged on a couch; manacles on her wrists and her long, red, dress askew. She did look pleased but also sated, and other then that Cordy had been all off.
Angelus moved to stand behind Darla; he reached over and undid the chains, massaging her wrists. Darla's hands snaked up and she twisted around, pulling his head down to hers for a long kiss.
Cordy half-heartedly hoped that Darla was suffocating, before she remembered that duh, vampires don't breathe. "Okay, that's just… eww!"
Angelus shifted out of his sire's grasp and grinned at his captives. "My sire's much better at torture," he paused for a moment to hand Darla a mean looking knife. "She did teach me almost everything."
Darla rose to her feet, straightening her dress with her free hand, and took long strides towards their captives. She stopped at Wesley first, and ran the blade under his chin, watching the little red welts that followed the knife trail. Keeping her human mask, she bent her head to lick the blood welling from his throat, listening to his startled whimpers. Darla lifted her head and announced, "Tastes a little too salty, I think."
She slipped away from him, laughing as he tried to make out words behind his gag, and pressed her body flush against Gunn's, rubbing against him subtly, "Mmm, I think you'll taste better…"
Gunn spat at her, and struggled with his blindfold, "Get away from me, whore."
Darla wiped the spit off her arm as though it burned, as her gaze turned steely. "You'll pay for that."
She cupped his cheeks in her hand, bending his head and stood on her tiptoes, forcing his mouth to hers in a brutal and punishing kiss. Pulling his tongue into her mouth, she bit down with blunt teeth; hard enough to take a large chunk out of his it, which she pushed back into his mouth. Darla sucked at the blood flowing from the wound, Gameface never appearing, even though her eyes flashed saffron.
Angelus felt himself grinning, he knew that kiss well; it hurt like hell. 'Of course,' he reasoned, 'she's had enough time to practice.'
Finally, Darla pulled away, swallowing the rest of the blood in her mouth, and wiping at the blood that had dribbled down her chin with her free hand. "Mmm," she laughed as Gunn squirmed, "what's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"
He spat out blood and that chunk of his tongue and made strangled gurgling noises of pain and disgust. Cordelia and Wesley turned away in revulsion. Cordelia looked about ready to faint, "Oh, god."
Angelus smiled at Darla, refraining the urge to pull her to him and kiss her just as brutally. "What about Cordy, darlin?"
Darla moved to the next spot, where Cordy was chained, slashing open the top of her shirt and placing the point of the knife against her bare chest, where every time Cordy took a breath in the tip dug deeper in her skin. Darla leaned close and whispered against Cordy's ear, "I would like to reach into your skin with my bare hand and pull out your beating heart…" she paused to lick her lips and wink at Angelus, "but then there's plenty of time for that, why rush the inevitable?"
She twisted the knife a little for good measure, enjoying the gasp that slipped through Cordelia's pursed lips. Darla pulled the knife back, and lifted it up to where her captive's hand was chained. She thinly sliced one of Cordelia's fingertips and let the blood drip down to her waiting palm. Tasting the blood she announced, "Too sweet," Darla took a step back and addressed Angelus, "Why don't you taste them, precious, and then the fun can begin."
Angelus picked up another dagger and stepped up to Wesley, who was still trying not to look at Gunn. "Oh, yeah, this'll be fun."
When the screams finally ceased, it was not because of impending daylight, not because of the deaths of captives or captors, not from lack of inventive torture methods, and not from ineffective torture.
It was boredom. Well, that and the fact Angelus had made some perfect incisions into the throat, stopping the victim's ability for speech.
Darla and Angelus hadn't particularly been expecting their group of prisoners, they had been prepared, but that was mostly out of caution. The fact was, neither had a grudge against any of the imprisoned group that reasoned torture for more then twenty-four hours.
'Torture is fun, to a point, then it's just overkill. Pun intended.' Darla mused, idly twisting the blade of a dagger into her palm and watching the red well up around the metal. "Precious," she motioned to the blood covered bodies hanging weakly from chains, "do you suppose we should get it over with?"
Angelus looked up from where he had been carving vampiric symbols into Cordelia's exposed thigh, and spared his sire a questioning glance before resuming his pastime. "Are you bored, darlin?"
Darla tugged absently at one of the metal bars spearing Wesley's palms, eliciting a strangled gurgle of discomfort from the former Watcher. "Of course not," she let the dagger drop from her hand and moved towards Gunn, eyeing him up and down. Blood covered, in excruciating pain, and unable to voice any protest, just the way she liked her captives. "It's just, if we're going to kill them, we'll have to do it soon or the effect will be lost."
Angelus saw Darla slide over to Gunn out of the corner of his eye, recognizing that she was deeply enjoying the mental torture she inflected upon the man. "I don't know, darlin," he grinned wickedly up at a teary-eyed Cordelia, "I was thinking we let them back into the herd."
"Mmm," Darla rested her body against Gunn's; knowing the pain it caused him, enjoying the look of fear in the once powerful man's eyes. Broken, she liked them broken; of course, after they broke she usually killed them, weak creatures. "Is that why you're carving up the pretty one so? Well, I suppose, so long as I get to keep this one. He might be fun to play with for a couple centuries."
Angelus turned to look at his sire square on, trying to determine if she was joking or serious. After a moment of appraising her mood and manors, Angelus decided it was neither; Darla was playing more mind games. 'Who am I to let her captive in on that little secret,' Angelus thought as he turned back to a wildly squirming Cordelia. "Tis fine with me, Darla."
Darla settled flashing eyes on Gunn as she took in her lover's response, noticing the man once again struggling, for all it was worth. "And what do you think, Charles?" she ran her hand over his throat in a sickeningly sweet gesture, "What would you say to that, if you could still speak?"
The deep voice of Angelus boomed out from the corner conversationally, "I can tell what he'd say from here, darlin."
Her eyes stared straight into Gunn's, unblinking, flashing with the promises of things that could come in centuries unexplored. "Oh, yes, I see it now. The stunning righteousness, even in the face of death and torment, virtue and morality for all the poor souls that would suffer." She took a deep breath, breathing in the sent of pain and fear all over the man, "But you would taste so good, wouldn't you? Such a shame you can't tell me not to turn you… I might have listened if you could."
Her bubbly laughter echoed throughout the room and was soon joined by Angelus' deeper mirth, leaving the human's in the room only guessing at what was to come next. Finally, Darla pulled away from Gunn with a sigh, moving towards Wesley and yanking out the spears embedded in his body with a heartless tug. Flinging herself carelessly back upon the couch, she announced, "Angelus, take them all down from there, will you? I want to get packing, it's time to finish some plans, precious."
Angelus set his knife down and snapped Cordelia's chains with a flick of his wrist; enjoying her gasp when he caught her roughly, some of her closed wounds reopening. Moving quickly across the room, he dropped Cordelia below her friends, on her head, and grinned as she blacked out. Without removing the males' chains, Angelus knocked them out each with a swift punch. Turning back to Darla he considered his options, "I was thinking I'd ship Wesley to Faith, and Cordelia to the Scooby Gang, can't quite figure out where to put Gunn, though."
Darla raised an eyebrow in vague amusement as she got up and began to ascend the stairs, sparing a brief glance at the wounded bodies. "Leave them, lover, a package is so impersonal. I'd much rather discuss the details of persecuting the Slayer in person."
A wicked grin crossed Angelus' face as he raced up the stairs to his sire, pulling her into a brutal kiss, "In person, then, darlin."
Sunlight streaming through broken windows and a cold wind whipping around her naked body woke Cordelia. Her first instinct was to move, but the pain that caused made her scream out. Except no sound broke the silence of the room, no sound came out of her throat.
Looking frantically around, even with limited movement, Cordelia found herself dumped on the floor, a floor covered in blood and littered with torture devices. Straining her head upwards, Cordy saw her two male companions, still strung up and apparently still out cold. The seer couldn't help but flinch when she got her first good look at their injuries, since she had been moved away from them early in the previous night. 'Or was it two nights ago? Ohhhh,' even thoughts in her head hurt.
Cordy was just trying to figure out where her captors might be hiding this time, when she noticed a message scrolled on the walls in blood, with very intricate writing. 'And so the moon shall have an epiphany, a different epiphany, and she shall destroy through the night, making the world her own. So when the sun does rise, it is too late, and the whirlwind has passed through the night, slaughter and mayhem reign. Feel the whirlwind?'
A moan echoed through her head at the eccentric message undoubtedly left by the blonde vampiress. The fancy curling script was the first indication, even scrawled in blood it was definitely feminine, but the sheer insanity of the message was all Darla, and Cordy found herself wondering if maybe Darla had spent too much time with Drusilla in the past. She recognized that it was irony and the effort of making a point she was sure not to miss, but surely, it could have been done in a less dramatic way.
All the thought required to read the message left Cordy's head aching and a sigh filtered through her mind as she remembered hearing the two vampires discussing Sunnydale and the Slayer the previous night. She felt a sting of emotion at the thought at what was planned for her friends, but right now, her own existence was first in her thoughts.
They were alone, left to fend for themselves, survival a very unlikely outcome. And the Scooby Gang had no clue what was coming their way, the whirlwind in the night that was sure to destroy them. A vision rocked Cordy's head as she saw the destruction and mayhem that was to reign in Sunnydale, saw the full moon rise high in the sky, and the seas bathed in red.
And when Cordelia blacked out from the pain of the vision, this time was the last, finally giving her broken body a respite from the world, and allowing her battered soul to take up its place in oblivion.