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Chapter 10

The Mansion: 10:00 AM

Angelus wakes. It is more Angelus at this point. The longer the soul is gone the more of his old self he becomes. Taking Buffy only escalated his descent; he has never felt more powerful. Buffy lay unmoving beside him. He would like nothing more than to stay with her through the day. Like a male lion, Angelus has always enjoyed sleeping like lying curled in energy waiting to strike.

Unfortunately, he must take care of a few things before anymore time passes. He calls Joyce on her cell phone. Using a bit of glamour he is able to make he believe that she is talking to Buffy. Yes, she'll be at Willow's the rest of the weekend. Yes, she'll take care. He calls Willow with the same trick. This is a bit trickier; the girl is full of questions about him nonetheless. He makes plans with her to see Buffy tonight at the Bronze and yeah, bring Harris too. Kill two birds with one stone.

After he hangs up, he showers and dresses. He takes care to choose items that Angel has worn previously, he doesn't want to risk anything that might tip anyone off in the least. He checks on Buffy one last time and drives to the Watcher's home. He has been invited in many times so it won't be a problem. When he arrives he senses that Rupert is not home. He decides to try the library. Getting into the library in board daylight is easy. Angel has had this school scooped out for months - no challenge here. The challenge will be offing the Watcher.

The Library: Noon

Before walking through the doors to the library he counsels himself to appear as downcast as he can - he likes to play with his food. After the repeated exchanges with Buffy the previous night, he feels like he knows that Watcher better than ever before.

"Giles, you here?" he says as he slowly enters. Angel was always careful not to sneak up on anyone despite his predatory skills. He always made an effort to appear as harmless as possible.

"Angel, is that you." Rupert calls out from the stacks.

"Yeah, its me. I'm looking for Buffy. Is she here? She wasn't at home." Angelus thought it best to stay as near the truth as possible.

The Watcher rounds the corner with a stack of huge books. "No, as a matter- of-fact, I thought that she could possibility be with you."

"I haven't talked to her since last night." Again, not another lie, he hasn't talked to her today.

"Well, no need to worry. I'm sure she's up to handling herself in the middle of the day no doubt." Rupert says distractedly. "Actually, while you are here there is something of some importance that I would like to speak to you about." At this declaration, Rupert takes his glasses off and begins to clean them on his shirt. From what Angelus knows from his Buffy- knowledge, this means the old guy is nervous.

"Sure, what can I do?"

"Well, given your, um - relationship - with Buffy - seemingly increasing in - um - seriousness, I thought it would be prudent to um - look into - um - your curse again." The last three words the Watcher says very fast after stammering around.

It is hard for Angelus not to laugh at the turn of event. Sure, he was game to talk about the curse, why not - moot point but sure. This should be fun.

Angelus grabs a chair from around the table where Giles has placed his books. Without thinking, he quickly spins it around and straddles it, placing his elbows up on the back of the chair. He looks up inquisitively. "So shoot."

Immediately, Angelus checks himself as Giles looks on. He reminds himself head down, eyes down, voice soft and serious. "I mean, what is it?" he says this time with hesitancy. He looks up to the Watcher's face as he takes a seat on the table in front of Angel, Angelus provides him with a subtle, nonverbal suggestion to ease his uneasy mind.

Rupert suddenly feels a bit off, not usual being around a vampire he guessed though as of late, he had been less on edge with Angel. He imagined that reading these texts regarding the potential ramifications of the curse had brought Angel's potential for violence back to the fore. When he looks up again at Angel whatever was bothering him seems to have pasted.

"Well, then, I'll just get to it. What do you know about the curse, the permanency of it?"

"After one hundred and twenty-two years, it seems pretty permanent to me."

"I've found two separate pieces of literature that suggest that there might be a way to break the curse," Giles states as he carefully gauges Angel's reaction. To his surprise, Angel takes the news quite calmly.

"Break the curse? I've never come across anything to that effect but then again I haven't exactly been running around looking for one, now have I?" Truer words were never spoken, he wasn't looking for one but he found one. He must have been living right.

"It would seem that perhaps some sort of gift from a loved one - if I'm translating this correctly - could break the curse - if it's of the origin that I assume."

Oh this was too funny - a gift - well, he guessed Buff's virginity counted as a gift. Still he thought it was more the happiness thing - whatever - it was pretty much water under the bridge at this point.

Giles continued, "It may be a good idea for you and Buffy to refrain from any sort of exchanges until we can sort this out."

That was it, it was just too precious. He couldn't hold back any longer. Looking up with a worried expression on his face, Angel says "Buffy has already given me some stuff - gifts I mean and I feel fine." He says this as he slowly rises. It would be bad taste to chase this prey and mess up all the kiddies' books.

Giles is too caught up in the information to notice the golden gleam in Angel's eyes. "I say what kind of gifts - perhaps we can rule some things out."

By now Angel is directly in front of him as close as he can get without being rude. Angel answers in an almost teasing manner. "Oh left me think - a CD or two - a sweater last Christmas - a picture of herself - " He leans in closer toward the Watcher's ear and speaks softly, "her virginity - 8 pints or so of the most powerful blood I have ever tasted." At that he pulls back. He wants to see the expression on the old guy's face.

Giles feels as he is in a nightmare. Dear God, where was Buffy? Was he face to face with Angelus? He tries to move from his perch but fails.

Angelus catches his attempt and laughs. "That's right Watcher." He steps back and takes a bow. "The Scourge of Europe at your service." With that his face morphs into a mask of his former self.

Giles continues to struggle. Angelus laughs, "You think I don't have a few tricks up my sleeve, Watcher. You're good and caught. I'm not your run of the mill idiot vampire." With that he moves like quicksilver, this teeth sinking deep. The man is out in 10 seconds, dead within the minute. It is almost too easy but if you play with your food too long you slip up.

After he finishes, Angelus recites a spell and the Watcher's body turns to so much dust - just like a vamp. He wipes the dust off the table for the janitor to find and takes the Watcher's books with him. You never know that you might be up for some bedtime reading. Whistling a tune, he heads home. Not bad for a day's work.
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