Title: Perfectly Happy part 7 -- Through a Lens Darkly
Author: Anna
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Not mine. I wish.
Pairing: Angelus/Cordelia (W/L)
Distribution: Anyone who has already, then you have it again. Anyone else, please let me know.
Feedback: Please! niannah@hotmail.com
Notes: This has torture in it. It may not be to everyone's taste. And if you like fluff, I think maybe look elsewhere! Please do not read if squeamish.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, it is, as always, much appreciated. A special thanks to my homie Ando who beta read when she could have been writing her own fic and who bugged me… er, inspired me to keep writing! And to Pato, who also inspires me! Thanks guys.
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He tied Lilah while she slept. Her arms and legs to the bedposts with chains. Then he woke her with a long, rough lick from collarbone to earlobe.
She came to with a laugh.
"What are you going to do, tongue me to death?" she said. Angelus heard the smugness in her voice and raised his eyes to hers.
"Oh, baby," he growled. "Don't you just wish."
Lilah raised her head and looked around. The bed was covered in white linen. It smelled fresh. He had brought several lamps on stands into the room, their spots aimed at her. She was bathed in light. On the bed stand she saw a camera. An old Polaroid. Black and white.
Her face fell slowly. Angelus smiled in inverse proportion.
"Don't worry," he told her. "You're not going to die soon. And you never know. You might enjoy some of the parts in between."
He watched Lilah force a smile.
"Maybe I will," she said. Her voice belied her fear.
Angelus laughed.
"In fact," he said, "because you're such a brave little puppy, I'll make sure you do." He watched her watch him as he stood at the foot of the bed, thumbs nonchalantly hooked in leather pockets. "What do you think would hurt Wesley more, Lilah? Knowing you were in pain, or knowing you were in pleasure?"
"Ah," said Lilah, her eyes narrowing. "This is about Wesley."
Angelus shrugged.
"Well, yeah," he replied. "What did you think, that it was about you? About Wolfram and Hart?"
"Might have been," she countered.
"Fuck Wolfram and Hart," said Angel impassively. "Corporate evil. That's just so yesterday."
He began to walk slowly around the bed, his eyes roaming over her body.
"Though you know, Lilah, if it was about your childishly evil law firm, I'd be really glad it was you in charge there. Doing this to any of your former bosses would just not be as much fun." He came to a halt about level with her waist. "Your well built womanly form. It's nicer, you know?" He frowned in mock concentration. "Of course, usually I prefer finer bone structure. And the hair, your hair is all wrong. However –" He took a hold of her dress at the neckline and ripped it right down the middle. "You'll do."
He stood back and looked at her, the shreds of her dress still underneath her, her splayed body, still clad in her sexiest lingerie, squirming in an effort to hide itself. Angelus reached for the camera.
The flash blinded her momentarily. When she opened her eyes again he was standing holding the paper, waiting for the picture to appear. He glanced at her.
"I'm sure you'll look great," he said. "Hey, look! There you are!" He held the photograph near her face so she could see clearly. Angelus saw her muscles tense as she stopped herself wincing at the image before her. Humility was not Lilah's strong point.
Angelus had to hand it to her, though. She was holding up well. Her heart was not yet racing, and he could not smell a trace of sweat. She was tough, for a human. He was really going to get a kick out of this.
"Lilah," he said to her, drawing her name out, letting it roll in the back of his throat. "What's that I smell?"
Ah, that got a reaction. She blushed. She knew what he smelled.
"Don't be embarrassed," he said. "I've been told I'm a pretty handsome guy. I've seen pictures, you know. And I am, if you'll forgive my immodesty." He smiled at her. He tried for genuine, but fuck it, he knew his heart was not in it.
So he ripped off her panties.
~*~
"Cordelia!" Wesley greeted her from the bottom of the stairs. "Cordelia, I may have good news."
"Yeah?" she replied noncommittally. "What?" She walked past him towards the coffee machine. It was too early for anything to be better than coffee.
"I may have a lead on an orb," he said. Cheerfulness bubbled in his voice.
Cordelia turned to him, coffee in hand.
"May have? You're awfully cheerful for may have."
Wesley looked away, a smile still on his face.
"I know. It's a vague lead, but it might mean…" Wesley looked in her eyes again. "It might mean that Angel could come back. Cordelia. Aren't you happy?"
"I'm going to keep my overjoyedness till I see the orb, Wes. Right now, I'm going to finish my coffee, then go out to buy more. We've done no shopping since… since Angel left."
She knocked back her coffee without looking at him. She did not want to see his wounded face. She took her bag and left, throwing a goodbye over her shoulder as she left the Hyperion.
God, it was so dark in there, she was never quite prepared for the Californian sun.
~*~
Angelus had the curtains of Cordelia's bedroom well sealed. Lilah was not sure of the time. It could have been midnight or midday or any time in between.
He stood at the foot of the bed, looking between her legs with a cold, almost clinical eye. Lilah squirmed involuntarily then mentally kicked herself for it. She tried to disguise it as an attempt to lie comfortably splayed, as if she welcomed his gaze. She knew she failed.
Angelus held up the camera and took another picture.
"You know, I think this one's gonna be arty," he said. "That's what they call porn if you shoot it in black and white, right?" He looked at her earnestly, his eyes glinting at her under the light of the spots. Then he sighed. "Wesley's gonna really treasure these."
"I doubt it," said Lilah, scathingly. "You really don't know him very well, do you? Then how could you. You haven't spoken to him since you tried to kill him. Or was that Angel? Sometimes I really can't tell the difference."
Angelus smiled, watching the image appear on the Polaroid paper.
"Angel's the one who feels guilty," he said quietly.
"Oh yeah, I forgot. A soul. And he still tried to kill Wesley. What did you do? Kill the brat and the skinny girl. Seriously, was there actually any blood in her to drink? Because I could never even see any flesh." Lilah laughed, warming to her theme. "And now you're, what, hanging out with the sexy Seer and taking pictures of me naked? Wow, real evil, Angelus. And the sad thing is, whatever you do to me, Wesley's not even going to care. And me? Evil. There's nothing you can do that I haven't already seen. And probably done." She laughed.
Angelus said nothing, but walked around the bed towards her. Again he held the picture up close to her face for her to see. It was not her splayed legs that bothered her, when she looked. It was not the fact that she could see her own swollen clitoris, turned on by the creature that was going to kill her. It was her face. He had caught her in a split second of fear. And he knew it.
He took the picture away.
"Now tell me all that again," he said.
She could not.
~*~
Cordelia took to the streets with a song in her heart. She felt giddily free. The sun shone gloriously, baking the pavement. She put her pale rose anti-uv glasses on, feeling confident and cool. The air smelled of hot concrete. A gentle breeze blew in from the ocean, clearing away all the mugginess of the city.
She was going to buy coffee. She really was. But first, she would go shopping. Proper shopping. Spending real money in large amounts. She wanted clothes. Gorgeous, elegant clothes that would make her look more beautiful than he had ever seen her before.
She strode ahead, unable to take the smile from her face.
~*~
Lilah lay naked under the lights, and under a half-naked Angelus. He kissed her neck, biting with human teeth, toying with her racing pulse. Lilah gritted her teeth.
"Are you going to bite or just keep promising?"
Angelus pushed himself up and looked at her.
"I gotta hand it to you, Lilah. You're doing very well." He sighed. "I'll be honest. Right now, I'm just having fun. I just love the smell of your wet pussy, it turns me on, you know? But maybe you're right." He flicked into vamp face. "It might be time to up the stakes."
He leant down and dug in his fangs just under her supersternal notch. Lilah gasped with the pain. He dragged his teeth down her chest, in the hollow between her breasts, scraping against the bone, and on down, deeper once he passed the sternum, down her belly and right to her pubic hair. This was no kinky scratch. He had ripped her flesh, and her skin was torn and bloody. He lapped it up before reaching for the camera.
He knelt between her legs, the leather on his own legs rubbing against the delicate skin above her knees, eliciting more irrepressible reactions from the gasping woman.
"Wow, this one's good," he said. "I got the focus just right, you know? Yup, Wes is gonna love that one." He laid it with the others on the bed stand, and the camera beside it. "Now," he said. "What next?"
~*~
Cordelia trailed her fingers along a rack of dresses. They were expensive and elegant. She could see herself in every one of them. But she would only choose the best. And then there were all the other clothes she wanted.
She sighed. It had been a long time since she had taken so much pleasure in clothes shopping. She gathered dresses up in her arms and took them to the fitting room.
"Can I help you?" asked the smiling assistant.
"Yeah, I'm going to want more, but I'm starting with these," said Cordelia airily.
"Oh, of course," said the assistant, her false smile becoming real.
Commission, thought Cordelia. Wonderful incentive.
~*~
Lilah bit her tongue to keep from screaming. Angelus looked up at her from between her thighs.
"How you holding up, Lilah? Having fun?"
"Sure," she bit out through gritted teeth.
"Really? Good." He looked down at her thighs. The inside of one was ripped to shreds. He was about to start on the second. There was now a little pile of photographs on the bed stand, some of them close-ups of the injuries he was inflicting, some of them of her face, and some of her increasingly bloodied body. He was particularly fond of the close-up of his fang marks on her right breast. He took two of that, so he could keep one.
He bent down to her left thigh.
"I love this part," he said through his fangs. "Skin's all white and perfect. And may I say I love a girl who keeps the bikini line so well waxed. But soon, blood, torn flesh, and hardly any skin left at all. It's kinda poetic, don't you think? Existential. The human condition, and so on."
"Oh, shut up!" she cried, immediately regretting it. She shut her eyes. She could feel him perfectly still between her legs.
He waited. Then he crawled up along the bed till he was face to face with her. She opened her eyes to see his human face looming over her. The air from his mouth smelled rankly of blood. She gasped. His eyes burned with black flame.
She felt herself crumple inside. She tried to stop it, to hold herself together. She had seen worse. She had seen the senior partners. What was one vampire?
Thing was, this was the vampire that was going to kill her. Very, very painfully. With the senior partners it did not matter what she did. She was human, and therefore a footnote. She had never been the centre of attention before. And she had certainly never been the buffet lunch.
Angelus watched her eyes, saw the fear grow. He smiled again, slowly, lazily.
"I know you didn't mean that, right?"
Lilah shut her eyes again.
"Because if you did, it might have to hurt more. So think carefully. Did you mean that?"
Yes! She screamed inside her head.
"No," she whimpered. "No."
Angelus licked her neck.
"Good," he whispered in reply. He reached out for the camera. She saw the flash through her eyelids.
Then he returned his attention to her thigh.
~*~
Cordelia looked at herself in the mirror. It was perfect. A one-off, venomous green chiffon piece, feminine and stunning. She smoothed the dress over her hips as she turned to look at it from all angles. A beautiful diagonal cut across the knees revealing perfectly tanned leg, and a bust tight enough to lift her breasts. Spaghetti straps over her shapely shoulders.
Yes. It was perfect.
"Excuse me?" she called. "I'll take this one. Now, could you bring me something more casual?"
The assistant ran to help.
~*~
Angelus tore into her belly. She could no longer stop the screaming. She was covered in sweat and blood.
"I used to use torture implements, you know. I preferred blades and whips." He looked at her again, her eyes wet with tears and pain. "But with you I realise, I got fangs right here in my mouth. Who needs blades? And that way I get to drink all your lovely blood too. I mean, why waste it?" He stopped and looked around at the sheets. They were red. "Well. I wasted some." He laughed. She turned away from him, her wrists red and bleeding where she fought against the manacles.
The pain was quite simply unbelievable. She could not believe she was in so much agony and that it had not yet killed her. She screamed, wishing that it would. But she would not say it. No. He would never wring that from her. Lilah Morgan did not ask for death.
His face was smeared in blood. Sometimes he would spit flesh that stuck in his fangs. She did not know if she had any skin left and could not bear to look. She shut her eyes now when he held out the photos for her to see. There was a pile of them beside the bed, maybe sixty or seventy. Most of them had bloody thumbprints on them. Angelus was bathed in blood.
"You know what, I'm gonna need a shower after this." He licked at the gaping hole in her belly. "You're never gonna need a shower again. Kinda funny." He lay on top of her, pressing the skin of his torso against her bleeding flesh. He liked the feel of it on his skin.
She clamped her jaw shut with the pain of his weight.
"What's wrong? You not having fun anymore?"
Lilah thrashed futilely against the manacles and against his muscular bulk. Angelus laughed.
"Aw, Lilah, honey! You should have said." He shifted on her, slipping a hand down between them. "Let's see what we can do… Oh. I see I went too far with the foreplay, huh? You're not wet for me anymore." He watched Lilah retreat inside herself as his fingers stroked her unaroused clitoris.
She managed to speak.
"Women usually love foreplay, Angelus. But sometimes we get bored." She opened her heavy eyes and looked into his. The worst thing was that he always looked amused. If only he would stop looking amused.
"Hmm. See, Lilah, the women I've been with have always been the strong kind. Darla. Buffy. They're not afraid to say what they want. If I'd known you were so submissive…" His voice trailed away. She heard him unzip his fly.
"What was your Seer like in bed, Angelus? She take it any way you gave it because she was in love with Angel?" Lilah attempted to taunt. If only she had more energy. If only he had not taken so much.
"Cordy… well, Cordy's unique. Cordy doesn't even have to ask. She just takes. And I love that in a woman." He smiled, showing bloody teeth. "But the question now is, what do you want, Lilah? What will you take?"
"Anything you can give," she replied as harshly as she could.
She felt him run his hand over her bloody skin, and then slip it back down between her legs. He coated her with her own blood. She could feel his penis against her. She closed her eyes against this final indignity before he pushed inside her and she screamed.
She opened her eyes wide with the shock as he entered her. A smile played around his mouth. He still looked amused.
~*~
It was the fourth skirt she tried on that she liked best. It was very short. So short she knew it was an excuse to buy new underwear. Pleated khaki, again with a diagonal cut. She knew that made her legs look even longer. A delicate pink satin top with appliquéd sequins to feminise it. Beautiful.
"Hey, excuse me? I'll take these two. Along with all of those." Cordelia pointed to six or seven other garments on the rack outside her dressing room. The assistant looked at her with delight and began to ferry the clothes out to the till.
Cordelia sighed with a smile as she put her clothes on.
Now came the next fun part. Accessories, lingerie, and shoes.
~*~
She wished he did not have such goddamned stamina. He could fuck for Ireland, or wherever the fuck he was from. She just lay there and took it. What else could she do?
Angelus growled as he thrust into her.
"Lilah," he panted. "You enjoying this, honey? Because I want you to know that I am. You're one tight screw, you know that?" He moaned as he pushed harder and harder inside her.
She gritted her teeth. Soon it would be over. Soon it had to be over. Please. God.
~*~
Cordelia tried on pair after pair of shoes. She finally went for thong stilettos with encrusted green rhinestones to go with the dress. When she stood in them she felt invincible. No one could touch her. She got slightly less impractical footwear to go with her other clothes. Screw it, she told herself. She was going to fight this fight her own way. And this time, maybe fighting did not always have to involve actual fighting. Maybe there was more here. If they were all going to die anyway.
Kitten heels to go with the pink suit with a very low flat-fronted waist and zip pockets on the jacket. Strappy sandals to go with the three quarter length combats. Cute trainers meant for anything but training to go with the hipster jeans that showed off her butt so nicely.
Then accessories. A wide sequinned belt, a narrow chain-link one. Jewellery to match her shoes; a narrow old-gold chain with a drop pendant studded with white gems. Earrings and an anklet to match. Silver for the more casual clothes.
And all on plastic. The boss of Angel Investigations had enough money. She smiled to herself at the thought.
~*~
It was over. He stood in the shower, the water running red down his skin. He licked it thoughtfully from his arm as he contemplated the body in the next room.
Yes. That was satisfying.
Her face towards the end. So scrunched up with pain. He laughed. She had begged in the final minutes, just as they all did. End it! Please! But he did not. He just kept fucking and flaying her till she died. It really was very satisfying.
He poured shampoo into his hand and lathered it in his hair. Blood poured away down the drain.
~*~
Cordelia waltzed in the door of the Hyperion, humming. Her arms were laden down with bags and boxes. In her left hand she held coffee.
"Wes?" she called. "I got coffee!"
"Yes," said Wesley, appearing from the office. "So I see." His hair was bedraggled and his eyes were deep in black sockets. He held a scroll in his hand.
"Yeah. Well, I got some other stuff too." Cordelia looked at her arms.
"Indeed," replied Wesley. "That's good, it's good that you're… more cheerful." He smiled through his exhaustion.
Cordelia grinned.
"Yeah! Thanks, Wes!" she said chirpily. "Come on, I'll show you what I got. And I'll make you a coffee."
Wesley smiled again. A weight seemed to fall from his shoulders as he looked at her. His eyes smiled for the first time in a long time.
"That sounds perfect," he said, laughing. He left the scroll down on the reception desk and walked to Cordelia. "It really is good to see you back to yourself," he said.
"Yeah, well, retail therapy. It'll cure anything." She turned quickly and dumped her bags on the couch. "I'll put on the coffee."
~*~
Angelus packed the photographs very neatly and in order into a box. He did not forget the handwritten note. He prided himself in his attention to detail.
He just could not decide whether or not to include a finger or two. Perhaps a whole hand.
He looked back into the tightly packed box.
Damn. They would not fit.
~*~
Wesley laughed as she turned this way and that, showing off in her low-cut suit. She strutted from the stairs and back again, her hips swinging and heels clicking.
"You look so beautiful, Cordelia," he said. "You really do."
She looked at him, tilting her head slightly.
"Thanks, Wes," she said, after a moment. "Wait here and I'll change into something else."
She ran up the stairs. Wesley sighed and sipped his coffee. He smiled to himself. It was as if time had been rolled back. He thought of the time Angel bought her clothes. He had not seen her like this since then. He shook his head, the thought of Angel dulling his mood for a moment.
As he took another mouthful of cooling coffee, there came a knock at the door. He looked up in surprise and went to open it. A courier. Wesley duly signed and took the package. It was heavy. He took it to the counter to unwrap it.
When Cordelia came down the stairs in her green dress she saw Wesley crumpled on the ground beside the desk, surrounded by photographs. He did not cry. He simply stared at the pictures, uncomprehending.
Cordelia picked one up.
"Oh my God." She knelt beside the stricken man. "Oh my God, Wesley."
There was a bloody thumbprint on the picture she held. She placed her own thumb over it, holding it as he had held it. She looked at the image. It was a full-length of Lilah, her body ripped to shreds. He had stood, waiting for the photo to develop, and he had held it like this.
She turned back to Wesley. She watched as his face fell, and creased, and collapsed into intense, wracking sobs. Tears began to fall. He could not wrest his gaze from the photos spread around him. She had been in such pain. Such agony. He leafed his shaking hands through the pictures, picking one up here and there, watching as her face became more and more twisted in pain.
And then there were the truly horrific ones. Sometimes, even as her skin was eaten away, sometimes she looked as though pain was not the primary sensation.
Cordelia stood. She felt far away, as if the scene before her had little to do with her. She knew she had helped bring Lilah to this end. And yet, she cared nothing. Nothing at all.
"Wesley?" she said quietly. Then again, "Wesley?"
He looked up from her, his body trembling.
"Cordy," he gasped. "Please. Go. I… need to –" He stopped, before taking a ragged breath. "I need to see her alone."
"Okay," she whispered. "Okay."
Cordelia stepped back. Leave Wesley room to grieve, she said to herself. Gunn is here if he needs anything.
~*~
She took her coat and left. He would be waiting for her.
~*~ ~*~
TBC
Author: Anna
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Not mine. I wish.
Pairing: Angelus/Cordelia (W/L)
Distribution: Anyone who has already, then you have it again. Anyone else, please let me know.
Feedback: Please! niannah@hotmail.com
Notes: This has torture in it. It may not be to everyone's taste. And if you like fluff, I think maybe look elsewhere! Please do not read if squeamish.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, it is, as always, much appreciated. A special thanks to my homie Ando who beta read when she could have been writing her own fic and who bugged me… er, inspired me to keep writing! And to Pato, who also inspires me! Thanks guys.
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He tied Lilah while she slept. Her arms and legs to the bedposts with chains. Then he woke her with a long, rough lick from collarbone to earlobe.
She came to with a laugh.
"What are you going to do, tongue me to death?" she said. Angelus heard the smugness in her voice and raised his eyes to hers.
"Oh, baby," he growled. "Don't you just wish."
Lilah raised her head and looked around. The bed was covered in white linen. It smelled fresh. He had brought several lamps on stands into the room, their spots aimed at her. She was bathed in light. On the bed stand she saw a camera. An old Polaroid. Black and white.
Her face fell slowly. Angelus smiled in inverse proportion.
"Don't worry," he told her. "You're not going to die soon. And you never know. You might enjoy some of the parts in between."
He watched Lilah force a smile.
"Maybe I will," she said. Her voice belied her fear.
Angelus laughed.
"In fact," he said, "because you're such a brave little puppy, I'll make sure you do." He watched her watch him as he stood at the foot of the bed, thumbs nonchalantly hooked in leather pockets. "What do you think would hurt Wesley more, Lilah? Knowing you were in pain, or knowing you were in pleasure?"
"Ah," said Lilah, her eyes narrowing. "This is about Wesley."
Angelus shrugged.
"Well, yeah," he replied. "What did you think, that it was about you? About Wolfram and Hart?"
"Might have been," she countered.
"Fuck Wolfram and Hart," said Angel impassively. "Corporate evil. That's just so yesterday."
He began to walk slowly around the bed, his eyes roaming over her body.
"Though you know, Lilah, if it was about your childishly evil law firm, I'd be really glad it was you in charge there. Doing this to any of your former bosses would just not be as much fun." He came to a halt about level with her waist. "Your well built womanly form. It's nicer, you know?" He frowned in mock concentration. "Of course, usually I prefer finer bone structure. And the hair, your hair is all wrong. However –" He took a hold of her dress at the neckline and ripped it right down the middle. "You'll do."
He stood back and looked at her, the shreds of her dress still underneath her, her splayed body, still clad in her sexiest lingerie, squirming in an effort to hide itself. Angelus reached for the camera.
The flash blinded her momentarily. When she opened her eyes again he was standing holding the paper, waiting for the picture to appear. He glanced at her.
"I'm sure you'll look great," he said. "Hey, look! There you are!" He held the photograph near her face so she could see clearly. Angelus saw her muscles tense as she stopped herself wincing at the image before her. Humility was not Lilah's strong point.
Angelus had to hand it to her, though. She was holding up well. Her heart was not yet racing, and he could not smell a trace of sweat. She was tough, for a human. He was really going to get a kick out of this.
"Lilah," he said to her, drawing her name out, letting it roll in the back of his throat. "What's that I smell?"
Ah, that got a reaction. She blushed. She knew what he smelled.
"Don't be embarrassed," he said. "I've been told I'm a pretty handsome guy. I've seen pictures, you know. And I am, if you'll forgive my immodesty." He smiled at her. He tried for genuine, but fuck it, he knew his heart was not in it.
So he ripped off her panties.
~*~
"Cordelia!" Wesley greeted her from the bottom of the stairs. "Cordelia, I may have good news."
"Yeah?" she replied noncommittally. "What?" She walked past him towards the coffee machine. It was too early for anything to be better than coffee.
"I may have a lead on an orb," he said. Cheerfulness bubbled in his voice.
Cordelia turned to him, coffee in hand.
"May have? You're awfully cheerful for may have."
Wesley looked away, a smile still on his face.
"I know. It's a vague lead, but it might mean…" Wesley looked in her eyes again. "It might mean that Angel could come back. Cordelia. Aren't you happy?"
"I'm going to keep my overjoyedness till I see the orb, Wes. Right now, I'm going to finish my coffee, then go out to buy more. We've done no shopping since… since Angel left."
She knocked back her coffee without looking at him. She did not want to see his wounded face. She took her bag and left, throwing a goodbye over her shoulder as she left the Hyperion.
God, it was so dark in there, she was never quite prepared for the Californian sun.
~*~
Angelus had the curtains of Cordelia's bedroom well sealed. Lilah was not sure of the time. It could have been midnight or midday or any time in between.
He stood at the foot of the bed, looking between her legs with a cold, almost clinical eye. Lilah squirmed involuntarily then mentally kicked herself for it. She tried to disguise it as an attempt to lie comfortably splayed, as if she welcomed his gaze. She knew she failed.
Angelus held up the camera and took another picture.
"You know, I think this one's gonna be arty," he said. "That's what they call porn if you shoot it in black and white, right?" He looked at her earnestly, his eyes glinting at her under the light of the spots. Then he sighed. "Wesley's gonna really treasure these."
"I doubt it," said Lilah, scathingly. "You really don't know him very well, do you? Then how could you. You haven't spoken to him since you tried to kill him. Or was that Angel? Sometimes I really can't tell the difference."
Angelus smiled, watching the image appear on the Polaroid paper.
"Angel's the one who feels guilty," he said quietly.
"Oh yeah, I forgot. A soul. And he still tried to kill Wesley. What did you do? Kill the brat and the skinny girl. Seriously, was there actually any blood in her to drink? Because I could never even see any flesh." Lilah laughed, warming to her theme. "And now you're, what, hanging out with the sexy Seer and taking pictures of me naked? Wow, real evil, Angelus. And the sad thing is, whatever you do to me, Wesley's not even going to care. And me? Evil. There's nothing you can do that I haven't already seen. And probably done." She laughed.
Angelus said nothing, but walked around the bed towards her. Again he held the picture up close to her face for her to see. It was not her splayed legs that bothered her, when she looked. It was not the fact that she could see her own swollen clitoris, turned on by the creature that was going to kill her. It was her face. He had caught her in a split second of fear. And he knew it.
He took the picture away.
"Now tell me all that again," he said.
She could not.
~*~
Cordelia took to the streets with a song in her heart. She felt giddily free. The sun shone gloriously, baking the pavement. She put her pale rose anti-uv glasses on, feeling confident and cool. The air smelled of hot concrete. A gentle breeze blew in from the ocean, clearing away all the mugginess of the city.
She was going to buy coffee. She really was. But first, she would go shopping. Proper shopping. Spending real money in large amounts. She wanted clothes. Gorgeous, elegant clothes that would make her look more beautiful than he had ever seen her before.
She strode ahead, unable to take the smile from her face.
~*~
Lilah lay naked under the lights, and under a half-naked Angelus. He kissed her neck, biting with human teeth, toying with her racing pulse. Lilah gritted her teeth.
"Are you going to bite or just keep promising?"
Angelus pushed himself up and looked at her.
"I gotta hand it to you, Lilah. You're doing very well." He sighed. "I'll be honest. Right now, I'm just having fun. I just love the smell of your wet pussy, it turns me on, you know? But maybe you're right." He flicked into vamp face. "It might be time to up the stakes."
He leant down and dug in his fangs just under her supersternal notch. Lilah gasped with the pain. He dragged his teeth down her chest, in the hollow between her breasts, scraping against the bone, and on down, deeper once he passed the sternum, down her belly and right to her pubic hair. This was no kinky scratch. He had ripped her flesh, and her skin was torn and bloody. He lapped it up before reaching for the camera.
He knelt between her legs, the leather on his own legs rubbing against the delicate skin above her knees, eliciting more irrepressible reactions from the gasping woman.
"Wow, this one's good," he said. "I got the focus just right, you know? Yup, Wes is gonna love that one." He laid it with the others on the bed stand, and the camera beside it. "Now," he said. "What next?"
~*~
Cordelia trailed her fingers along a rack of dresses. They were expensive and elegant. She could see herself in every one of them. But she would only choose the best. And then there were all the other clothes she wanted.
She sighed. It had been a long time since she had taken so much pleasure in clothes shopping. She gathered dresses up in her arms and took them to the fitting room.
"Can I help you?" asked the smiling assistant.
"Yeah, I'm going to want more, but I'm starting with these," said Cordelia airily.
"Oh, of course," said the assistant, her false smile becoming real.
Commission, thought Cordelia. Wonderful incentive.
~*~
Lilah bit her tongue to keep from screaming. Angelus looked up at her from between her thighs.
"How you holding up, Lilah? Having fun?"
"Sure," she bit out through gritted teeth.
"Really? Good." He looked down at her thighs. The inside of one was ripped to shreds. He was about to start on the second. There was now a little pile of photographs on the bed stand, some of them close-ups of the injuries he was inflicting, some of them of her face, and some of her increasingly bloodied body. He was particularly fond of the close-up of his fang marks on her right breast. He took two of that, so he could keep one.
He bent down to her left thigh.
"I love this part," he said through his fangs. "Skin's all white and perfect. And may I say I love a girl who keeps the bikini line so well waxed. But soon, blood, torn flesh, and hardly any skin left at all. It's kinda poetic, don't you think? Existential. The human condition, and so on."
"Oh, shut up!" she cried, immediately regretting it. She shut her eyes. She could feel him perfectly still between her legs.
He waited. Then he crawled up along the bed till he was face to face with her. She opened her eyes to see his human face looming over her. The air from his mouth smelled rankly of blood. She gasped. His eyes burned with black flame.
She felt herself crumple inside. She tried to stop it, to hold herself together. She had seen worse. She had seen the senior partners. What was one vampire?
Thing was, this was the vampire that was going to kill her. Very, very painfully. With the senior partners it did not matter what she did. She was human, and therefore a footnote. She had never been the centre of attention before. And she had certainly never been the buffet lunch.
Angelus watched her eyes, saw the fear grow. He smiled again, slowly, lazily.
"I know you didn't mean that, right?"
Lilah shut her eyes again.
"Because if you did, it might have to hurt more. So think carefully. Did you mean that?"
Yes! She screamed inside her head.
"No," she whimpered. "No."
Angelus licked her neck.
"Good," he whispered in reply. He reached out for the camera. She saw the flash through her eyelids.
Then he returned his attention to her thigh.
~*~
Cordelia looked at herself in the mirror. It was perfect. A one-off, venomous green chiffon piece, feminine and stunning. She smoothed the dress over her hips as she turned to look at it from all angles. A beautiful diagonal cut across the knees revealing perfectly tanned leg, and a bust tight enough to lift her breasts. Spaghetti straps over her shapely shoulders.
Yes. It was perfect.
"Excuse me?" she called. "I'll take this one. Now, could you bring me something more casual?"
The assistant ran to help.
~*~
Angelus tore into her belly. She could no longer stop the screaming. She was covered in sweat and blood.
"I used to use torture implements, you know. I preferred blades and whips." He looked at her again, her eyes wet with tears and pain. "But with you I realise, I got fangs right here in my mouth. Who needs blades? And that way I get to drink all your lovely blood too. I mean, why waste it?" He stopped and looked around at the sheets. They were red. "Well. I wasted some." He laughed. She turned away from him, her wrists red and bleeding where she fought against the manacles.
The pain was quite simply unbelievable. She could not believe she was in so much agony and that it had not yet killed her. She screamed, wishing that it would. But she would not say it. No. He would never wring that from her. Lilah Morgan did not ask for death.
His face was smeared in blood. Sometimes he would spit flesh that stuck in his fangs. She did not know if she had any skin left and could not bear to look. She shut her eyes now when he held out the photos for her to see. There was a pile of them beside the bed, maybe sixty or seventy. Most of them had bloody thumbprints on them. Angelus was bathed in blood.
"You know what, I'm gonna need a shower after this." He licked at the gaping hole in her belly. "You're never gonna need a shower again. Kinda funny." He lay on top of her, pressing the skin of his torso against her bleeding flesh. He liked the feel of it on his skin.
She clamped her jaw shut with the pain of his weight.
"What's wrong? You not having fun anymore?"
Lilah thrashed futilely against the manacles and against his muscular bulk. Angelus laughed.
"Aw, Lilah, honey! You should have said." He shifted on her, slipping a hand down between them. "Let's see what we can do… Oh. I see I went too far with the foreplay, huh? You're not wet for me anymore." He watched Lilah retreat inside herself as his fingers stroked her unaroused clitoris.
She managed to speak.
"Women usually love foreplay, Angelus. But sometimes we get bored." She opened her heavy eyes and looked into his. The worst thing was that he always looked amused. If only he would stop looking amused.
"Hmm. See, Lilah, the women I've been with have always been the strong kind. Darla. Buffy. They're not afraid to say what they want. If I'd known you were so submissive…" His voice trailed away. She heard him unzip his fly.
"What was your Seer like in bed, Angelus? She take it any way you gave it because she was in love with Angel?" Lilah attempted to taunt. If only she had more energy. If only he had not taken so much.
"Cordy… well, Cordy's unique. Cordy doesn't even have to ask. She just takes. And I love that in a woman." He smiled, showing bloody teeth. "But the question now is, what do you want, Lilah? What will you take?"
"Anything you can give," she replied as harshly as she could.
She felt him run his hand over her bloody skin, and then slip it back down between her legs. He coated her with her own blood. She could feel his penis against her. She closed her eyes against this final indignity before he pushed inside her and she screamed.
She opened her eyes wide with the shock as he entered her. A smile played around his mouth. He still looked amused.
~*~
It was the fourth skirt she tried on that she liked best. It was very short. So short she knew it was an excuse to buy new underwear. Pleated khaki, again with a diagonal cut. She knew that made her legs look even longer. A delicate pink satin top with appliquéd sequins to feminise it. Beautiful.
"Hey, excuse me? I'll take these two. Along with all of those." Cordelia pointed to six or seven other garments on the rack outside her dressing room. The assistant looked at her with delight and began to ferry the clothes out to the till.
Cordelia sighed with a smile as she put her clothes on.
Now came the next fun part. Accessories, lingerie, and shoes.
~*~
She wished he did not have such goddamned stamina. He could fuck for Ireland, or wherever the fuck he was from. She just lay there and took it. What else could she do?
Angelus growled as he thrust into her.
"Lilah," he panted. "You enjoying this, honey? Because I want you to know that I am. You're one tight screw, you know that?" He moaned as he pushed harder and harder inside her.
She gritted her teeth. Soon it would be over. Soon it had to be over. Please. God.
~*~
Cordelia tried on pair after pair of shoes. She finally went for thong stilettos with encrusted green rhinestones to go with the dress. When she stood in them she felt invincible. No one could touch her. She got slightly less impractical footwear to go with her other clothes. Screw it, she told herself. She was going to fight this fight her own way. And this time, maybe fighting did not always have to involve actual fighting. Maybe there was more here. If they were all going to die anyway.
Kitten heels to go with the pink suit with a very low flat-fronted waist and zip pockets on the jacket. Strappy sandals to go with the three quarter length combats. Cute trainers meant for anything but training to go with the hipster jeans that showed off her butt so nicely.
Then accessories. A wide sequinned belt, a narrow chain-link one. Jewellery to match her shoes; a narrow old-gold chain with a drop pendant studded with white gems. Earrings and an anklet to match. Silver for the more casual clothes.
And all on plastic. The boss of Angel Investigations had enough money. She smiled to herself at the thought.
~*~
It was over. He stood in the shower, the water running red down his skin. He licked it thoughtfully from his arm as he contemplated the body in the next room.
Yes. That was satisfying.
Her face towards the end. So scrunched up with pain. He laughed. She had begged in the final minutes, just as they all did. End it! Please! But he did not. He just kept fucking and flaying her till she died. It really was very satisfying.
He poured shampoo into his hand and lathered it in his hair. Blood poured away down the drain.
~*~
Cordelia waltzed in the door of the Hyperion, humming. Her arms were laden down with bags and boxes. In her left hand she held coffee.
"Wes?" she called. "I got coffee!"
"Yes," said Wesley, appearing from the office. "So I see." His hair was bedraggled and his eyes were deep in black sockets. He held a scroll in his hand.
"Yeah. Well, I got some other stuff too." Cordelia looked at her arms.
"Indeed," replied Wesley. "That's good, it's good that you're… more cheerful." He smiled through his exhaustion.
Cordelia grinned.
"Yeah! Thanks, Wes!" she said chirpily. "Come on, I'll show you what I got. And I'll make you a coffee."
Wesley smiled again. A weight seemed to fall from his shoulders as he looked at her. His eyes smiled for the first time in a long time.
"That sounds perfect," he said, laughing. He left the scroll down on the reception desk and walked to Cordelia. "It really is good to see you back to yourself," he said.
"Yeah, well, retail therapy. It'll cure anything." She turned quickly and dumped her bags on the couch. "I'll put on the coffee."
~*~
Angelus packed the photographs very neatly and in order into a box. He did not forget the handwritten note. He prided himself in his attention to detail.
He just could not decide whether or not to include a finger or two. Perhaps a whole hand.
He looked back into the tightly packed box.
Damn. They would not fit.
~*~
Wesley laughed as she turned this way and that, showing off in her low-cut suit. She strutted from the stairs and back again, her hips swinging and heels clicking.
"You look so beautiful, Cordelia," he said. "You really do."
She looked at him, tilting her head slightly.
"Thanks, Wes," she said, after a moment. "Wait here and I'll change into something else."
She ran up the stairs. Wesley sighed and sipped his coffee. He smiled to himself. It was as if time had been rolled back. He thought of the time Angel bought her clothes. He had not seen her like this since then. He shook his head, the thought of Angel dulling his mood for a moment.
As he took another mouthful of cooling coffee, there came a knock at the door. He looked up in surprise and went to open it. A courier. Wesley duly signed and took the package. It was heavy. He took it to the counter to unwrap it.
When Cordelia came down the stairs in her green dress she saw Wesley crumpled on the ground beside the desk, surrounded by photographs. He did not cry. He simply stared at the pictures, uncomprehending.
Cordelia picked one up.
"Oh my God." She knelt beside the stricken man. "Oh my God, Wesley."
There was a bloody thumbprint on the picture she held. She placed her own thumb over it, holding it as he had held it. She looked at the image. It was a full-length of Lilah, her body ripped to shreds. He had stood, waiting for the photo to develop, and he had held it like this.
She turned back to Wesley. She watched as his face fell, and creased, and collapsed into intense, wracking sobs. Tears began to fall. He could not wrest his gaze from the photos spread around him. She had been in such pain. Such agony. He leafed his shaking hands through the pictures, picking one up here and there, watching as her face became more and more twisted in pain.
And then there were the truly horrific ones. Sometimes, even as her skin was eaten away, sometimes she looked as though pain was not the primary sensation.
Cordelia stood. She felt far away, as if the scene before her had little to do with her. She knew she had helped bring Lilah to this end. And yet, she cared nothing. Nothing at all.
"Wesley?" she said quietly. Then again, "Wesley?"
He looked up from her, his body trembling.
"Cordy," he gasped. "Please. Go. I… need to –" He stopped, before taking a ragged breath. "I need to see her alone."
"Okay," she whispered. "Okay."
Cordelia stepped back. Leave Wesley room to grieve, she said to herself. Gunn is here if he needs anything.
~*~
She took her coat and left. He would be waiting for her.
~*~ ~*~
TBC