Title: I Saved Yo Evil Ass part 7

Authors: Lilyana_Vamp & Sunscorched

Email: Lilyana_vamp@yahoo.com Aurora_plym_uk@yahoo.com

Rating: PG-15

Summary: Some vampires are just ungrateful.

Content: C/Aus

Spoilers: None

Disclaimer: We own nothing

Distribution: Just ask us if you want it

Part 7, Breaking

Cordelia tried to move as she woke but her body revolted and an ache coursed through her. She blinked as her eyes opened, the dim light from her bedside lamp singing her eyes, or was that due to her body shutting out all she had been through in the last. Cordelia had forgotten how long she had been holed up in her house with Angelus.

She rolled over onto her side, the piece of cloth round her neck making her skin itch, "Ouch" she hissed as she began to peel it away. The bite marks had healed somewhat and she prayed there wouldn't be a scare but what did it really matter if there was? She was just going to end up dead anyway. Cordelia touched the wounds on her throat with her fingertips and pulled them away, "Not bleeding then, that's a good sign" she commented sarcastically.

Angelus stood in her doorway, watching as his prized possession finally woke up, he doubted that she knew just how long she had slept. He was quite proud of himself and the fact that he had barely taken any of her blood, he had wanted too, but he had shown restraint. It was definitely a personal growth thing. His eyes tracked Cordelia's movements as she sat up and rubbed her eyes, "It's about time you woke up"

Cordelia turned to face him, still rubbing one eye, "Hi, what time is it?" she asked in confusion.

"It's near seven in the morning," he replied as he walked towards her slowly.

"Definitely missed school yesterday then. Oh well, saves on the Geometry how come you're still here and I'm still alive?" Cordelia asked bluntly then gasped. "You turned me? I'm a vampire? That's why you bit me, isn't it? What the hell have you done to me?"

Angelus let her finish her tirade before replying. "I'm still here because I'm not going anywhere, you're still alive only because I don't want you dead yet. No, you're not a vampire and that isn't why I bit you"

"On the plus side, I'm not dead and not a vampire. Good, I mean do you know how hard it would be to apply my eyeliner minus mirror?" Cordelia asked. "Can you say panda eyes? Not to mention putting my hair into French twists, but then if I was a vampire I could always make a cosmetologist into my eternal slave, right? Then I would have to have a hairdresser, and a good one at that. On the bad side of being a vampire, that would mean luring innocent, cute and young teenage girls into saving my ass. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Cordelia, shut up you're giving me another headache" Angelus sat beside her on her bed, reaching out to move her hair covering his bite marks. A smile of complete satisfaction crossed his face, he leaned closer to her and inhaled his scent all over and surrounding her. He nuzzled his nose against his mark and flicked his tongue out to taste her skin. He moved away to see her look of confusion, "What?" he asked.

Expressions showed clearly on Cordelia's face as she debated internally whether or not to ask him why he just sniffed and licked her neck like a dog would. The thought of Angelus with Labrador ears entered her mind and she quickly shook her head to get rid of the visual. "It's nothing, never mind" deciding not to ask him in case he hurt her again.

Now Angelus was a little confused, Cordelia had never not spoken to her mind to him before, he wondered why she was being cautious now. She had stood up to him, fully aware of the consequences and took what he had to give.

"Tell me" he encouraged, wondering why he didn't like her being cautious, he liked her better when she was annoying him.

"I was just wanting to know why you sniffed me" Cordelia told him bluntly, curiosity getting the better of her. "I thought you were a vampire not a sniffer dog... Hey if you were a dog you could be a blood hound"

"So why did you do that sniffing thing on me?"

"Because I like my scent on you" Angelus replied simply, ignoring her dog comment.

Cordelia gaped at him in horror as she tried to sniff herself. "Oh God, I cannot go to school smelling like a man, what will people think? That I wear CK-9?" she asked adding a little joke at the end.

"I need to shower, shower again, oh and shower again until I smell like good ol Cordy again. That's exactly what I'll do" she said matter of factly. She hopped off the bed and bounded to her shower, trying to stuff the vivid memories to the back of her brain.

Angelus watched her leave with a mixture of lust, possession and promises on his face. She had satisfied him last night more than he expected her too. He might want more but for now he was content to wait until later before taking her again.

He wondered what she thought about their actions, he honestly hadn't expected things between them to go so far so fast. Not that he was complaining of course, he was one very happy vampire.

******************************

Angelus absently noted the water shutting off from upstairs and waited to see what would come of her mouth when she got down. Sure she could babble but it was a funny kind of babble that nobody really understood. Well, it was a babble that he didn't understand anyway.

Feet pattering around in the room upstairs, a loud "A-ha, there you are" followed a jumping sound and a, "Oh yeah, I look good"

Shrugging, Angelus shook his head as he wandered to her refrigerator to see what was inside out of curiosity. What did Cordelia eat? He opened the fridge door and peered inside, what was all this crap? Where was the real food? There was nothing but...crap in there. There were pasta dishes waiting to be prepared, steak, lots of seafood and other top of the line brand named stuff.

Angelus was still peering into her fridge when he heard her enter the kitchen. "Don't you keep anything decent in here?" he asked, rummaging around the gourmet food waiting to be prepared.

"Oh sorry if $40 steak doesn't appeal to you" Cordelia replied easily, "We don't make a habit of keeping O positive around for the visiting vampires. We really don't invite your kind in very often"

"All right smartass. You're going to go out and get me some food," he informed her seriously.

"Okay, you must be delusional, because I am in no way going to enforce your incredibly grotesque, not to mention fatal, habit! Anyways, I have practice today" Cordelia told him as she leaned against the counter.

Angelus slammed the door, turned to her and his eyes widened as the onyx sparked. He ran his eyes over her tight-fitting cheerleader sweat shirt and floaty skirt that brushed her thighs airily. "You didn't have to play dress- up for me" Angelus purred as he continuously looked her up and down appreciatively.

"I didn't play dress-up for you, arrogant much" Cordelia retorted as she turned away in a huff.

"I have practice this afternoon so I can't miss school, there's no way the other girls know the new routine off by heart yet. I need to be there and guide them on their rightful way"

"Practice for what?"

"Cheerleading moron. Geez, and people accuse me of being an airhead" Cordelia scoffed lightly.

"What do you mean? Cheerleading practice?" Angelus asked quietly as he looked at her.

Cordelia tutted and rolled her eyes sarcastically, "Clean your ears out I am not a parrot. I go to school, do my work, shake my booty and teach the other girls how to work up a crowd. Is that too difficult for you to understand?"

"I already told you, you are not going back to school. I don't want you bringing home any slayers," he growled, gripping her wrist tightly.

"Okay, think about this for a second Einstein. Don't you think that they're going to get suspicious if I don't show back up to school? I'll cover, and I won't tell them you're here," she promised.

"Why wouldn't you tell them?"

"And suffer the wrath that is you when you're pissed? No thanks. Been there. Done that. Not looking to go back again." She picked up her backpack and winced as the heavy bag pulled at the wound on her neck.

"How are you going to explain that?" he inquired, fingering the bandage.

"I'll just tell them that a incredibly demanding vampire wouldn't take no for an answer," she smiled and walked towards the front door

"I didn't say you could leave," he said to her, standing in the hallway

Cordelia walked fully into the sunshine and shot him a huge smile. "Then come on out here and get me!" she called and twirled around, causing her short cheerleading skirt to float up and then back down as she bounced away to her car.

Cordelia sat in the solitude of her car, needing sometime to take everything in. What the hell had happened last night? One minute she had been determined to make him do something but that idea had flew out the window on a 747. She had made him do something all right, she had made him go from wanting to kill her to sniffing her.

Cordelia's thoughts were so jumbled that she just decided to do what she always did. Get over it and deal with it when she got home from practice.

Maybe he would have gotten bored sitting around all day and decided to leave. Yeah, and she was sure snakes could tie shoes and make popcorn.

As she walked into the student lounge, she was greeted with an army of stares. "What?" she asked innocently.

"Where have you been?" Xander asked with concern.

"I've been otherwise detained," she answered casually and shrugged. "Have I missed anything important?" she asked as she popped open a soda.

"Only that Angelus has been not around for a few days."

"Not that we're complaining," Xander finished for Buffy.

Cordelia winced at the smile he gave the slayer. 'If you only knew where Angelus has been,' she thought. "So, no Big Bad. That's good. Maybe he decided to ditch this hell hole for pastures new" Cordelia added carelessly.

"Cordelia? What happened to you?" Giles asked upon seeing her. He pointed to the bandage on her neck and took off his glasses.

"You won't believe what happened" Cordelia said as she tried to stall to come up with a good enough lie.

"Come sit and let me take a look," he led her to a chair and carefully removed the bandage. "This is rather nasty Cordelia. Why didn't you tell us that you'd been bitten?"

"No one asked," she snapped and pulled the bandage back on. "It's nothing."

"You were bitten?" Xander asked, rushing to her side. "I came over the other night, but no one answered. I shouldn't have left. What if you'd been dying or something?"

"You came over?" she asked in shock. She never remembered him coming over. She thought of Angelus answering the door and shuddered. That wouldn't have gone over well...and it wouldn't at any time. "You can't come over again Xander."

"What?"

"None of you can come over. I don't want any of you near my house," she ordered and stood up, ready to storm away. Xander grabbed her arm gently and she looked at his hand like it was a mutated object. It felt so strange. It was warm and soft and gentle. It didn't feel right.

"Leave me alone Xander," she whispered and walked out the door. She walked to her class, forcing herself to go through the motions of Geometry, cursing herself for coming back there. Dealing with Angelus was better than dealing with Geometry. She managed to avoid the gang between classes and found a quiet spot under a tree to run away during lunch. She couldn't handle the questions right now. This was turning out to be harder than the anticipated.

"Cordelia, are you certain you're okay?" Giles asked quietly, crouching beside her.

"Fine Giles, thanks," she smiled and hid her eyes behind her sunglasses.

"That's a mark Cordelia, not just a bite," he observed, nodding toward her neck. "Are you in trouble?"

"I'm a Sunnydale girl Giles, when am I not in trouble?" she joked, forcing her voice to sound light and carefree.

The Watcher looked at Cordelia with a lot of concern on his face. "How did you get this mark?" he asked curiously.

'Where do you want me to start?' she thought, "Is there a difference between a normal snacky bite and a mark?" Cordelia asked as she looked at him through the dark lenses.

"Quite a bit," Giles replied as he sat down next to her. "A bite insinuates the human as food for a vampire where as a mark insinuates the human as a possession of the vampire. Some lore indicates that a mark bestowed upon a human can mean that that human is claimed as a mate"

"A MATE?!!"

"Of sorts yes, mind telling me how you came to have a mark like this on your neck Cordelia? Or is there something you want to talk about?"

"Not particularly." She looked up at the watcher and smiled slightly. "Not gonna work, is it?"

"I sorry to say not in the least"

Cordelia knew she couldn't tell Giles the exact details of her marking so she forced her brain to tell him what she had told Angelus she would say. "I met a vampire who wouldn't take no for an answer and I didn't want to give him one" Cordelia replied. 'I'm lying to a Watcher, I'm going to hell'

Giles was understandably shocked by her little confession. "You mean to tell me that you willingly put yourself in a position with a vampire long enough for this to take place?" he asked as his voice went high pitched.

"Don't have a heard Giles" Cordelia told him with a scowl. "Buffy did it, why can't I?"

"Angel was different you know that" Giles reprimanded her. "Buffy didn't know what was going to happen after she and Angel had...uh, yes well" Giles cleared his throat. "This is extremely dangerous Cordelia, I cannot allow you to continue whatever it is that you have been doing"

"You have no say in what I do or don't do Giles, my private life is just that. Private" Cordelia responded. "Are we done now?"

"Are you insane?" he demanded hotly, "This vampire will turn on you in a heartbeat. I shall send Buffy round to your house tonight, I'm assuming she knows where you live. This matter shall be sorted soon enough"

"You won't do anything of the sort Giles, I'm not in any danger" Cordelia told him 'keep saying that and you might believe it one of these days' "Nothing that has happened between us has been anything I didn't want. I don't want to see Buffy, or Xander or Willow or even you anywhere near my house" she told him firmly and surely.

Giles picked up her arm and pointed at the bruises that peppered it. "I'm supposing that you wanted these to happen then?"

Cordelia snapped her arm back and was glad for the sunglasses so that Giles couldn't see the tears in her eyes. "Please Giles, it's better if you don't get involved. Any of you." She really didn't want any of them to get hurt.

"I can't just let this go Cordelia. You're in extreme danger. You need to let us help you. We care about you."

Cordelia snorted in disgust. "You maybe. Xander, my supposed boyfriend is too busy being Buffy's little puppy, Willow is always stuck in her books, and Buffy couldn't give a damn about what happens to me. Looks like your the Lone Ranger Giles. And believe me, you wouldn't stand five minutes against him."

"It doesn't take five minutes to fire a crossbow Cordelia, I'm sure I could manage that"

"Why are you protecting him?"

"I'm not protecting him Giles! I'm trying to protect you and everyone else!"

"Wouldn't we all be better protected with one less vampire to worry about?"

She slammed her lunch down on the ground and glared up at him. "Can't you just trust me Giles? I don't want him to hurt anyone else!"

"So he has hurt you?" Giles commented wryly.

"That's so not the point," she sighed and looked up at him.

"Then what is the point? Besides putting yourself in the line of danger for our sakes"

"Why can't I do something for everyone else's sake for once? Why can't I put myself in the line of danger? At least if he's busy with me, he's not killing any one else. I thought you guys were glad he hasn't been around lately." As soon as the words came out, Cordelia wished she could crawl into a hole and hide.

Giles world stopped as he looked at her, had she really just said what he thought she said. "I beg your pardon Cordelia, what did you just say?"

"Forget it," she answered a little too chipperly. "Everything's fine Giles, really. I'm alive. Everyone else is alive. Nothing new in Sunnyhell." She tried to get away from facing the reality that was the look of shock on Giles' face.

"Cordelia, do you mean to tell me that the vampire you in the throes of an illicit affair with is who I think it is?"

"Ew! It's not an affair!" She scrunched her nose up, trying to hide back behind her mask.

"Then explain to me what it is that you have been doing with this...vampire?" Giles tried, as his mind stumbled over her surprising, but not confirmed, indictment.

"Umm...well...let's see, there was the game of tag through my house, locking him in my basement, receiving a concussion courtesy of him, hypothermia also, an interesting shower....umm...yeah, enough details," she blushed.

Giles took his glasses off and rubbed his face, her words were just giving him more questions. The foremost being "Who exactly is this vampire?"

She raised an eyebrow at him and played with the edges of her bandages. "Would you believe me if I said no one you knew?"

"I'm not sure I would Cordelia" Giles replied truthfully as he looked at her.

"Look Giles, yeah, you know him. And you know who he is. Do we have to go into the nasty details? I'm just trying to do something right for once. I'm trying to save someone besides myself. Is that so wrong?" she told him seriously.

Giles sighed, "Cordelia, you know first hand how dangerous he is and by the looks of you, you know only too well. Please, let us help you. I cannot let this be"

"And I can't let any of you come to my house. If he finds out any of you knew, he'd kill me instantly. And then he'd kill all of you. Yeah, I know how dangerous he is. And I know that he's a sucker for a sappy cartoon. But at least I have some pull with him. I must if he hasn't killed me yet, right?" she asked hopefully.

"I know you're not bloody stupid Cordelia" Giles hissed angrily. "You cannot seriously think you have some-some control over him. Do you know anything at all about him and his past?"

"I know enough about him Giles. I know what he's capable of!" she snapped back as angrily as him. "You have no idea what he's done to me! You have no idea what I've been through the past couple of days! He's done more than just mark me! He's strangled me, he's thrown me against walls!" She pointed wildly to her neck and then began to shake with tears. "I know Giles," she added in barely more than a whisper.

"All the more reason for us to help you, you can't go on like this Cordelia. You're only 17 you shouldn't have to be going through this" Giles pleaded with her and held her hand reassuringly.

"Giles, you can't. You can't help me. None of you can," she told him sadly and pulled her hand away. "I'm in too deep."

"Of course we can help you Cordelia, all you have to do is let us and trust us. Can you do that? We'll make sure he doesn't hurt you anymore, I can promise you that"

"I'm sorry Giles," she whispered again. "I have to go."

"Cordelia please, you don't have to do this. Think of what could happen when you go back home, what do you think he will do?"

"I don't know Giles. I never know. I only wait for what comes next. I fight back, he makes it worse. At least he's promised when he does kill me, he'll make it fast." She ran her hand through her hair, revealing the bruises that peeked out from under her hairline.

Giles gasped when he saw these, "Dear lord Cordelia, I am by no means letting you go home to face anymore by that-that demon. I will take you directly to Buffy's house where you can be sufficiently protected and..."

"No Giles! Don't you get it! I can't go anywhere. I shouldn't have even come here. I need to get home before he gets mad again." She stood up and walked back to her car. She couldn't face any more school. She couldn't face anybody. She sat behind the wheel of her car and burst into tears.