*CHAPTER 2: LURKING IN THE SHADOWS*
Lilah learns about patience in the long hours that she spends quietly sitting and waiting, watching the hotel from the shadows in the street. This is where it all began, this is where it all will end, and this is where it all will happen.
The night drags on and Lilah still waits. And finally, she gets a break. Five shadowy figures, three men and two women, leave the hotel, heavily armed and huddled together. Lilah counts the seconds until they turn a corner, then slips into the Hyperion through the front door.
She heads over to the computer and goes online, checking a news website. It has been ten days since she has died. Lilah does not understand how ten days could have passed, it seems as if only hours ago she had been on the third floor with a dagger to her throat. She must have been dead, as in really dead, for a while.
The website tells of the abandoning of Los Angeles, and the evacuation of those who would not leave voluntarily. A murderous serial killer is on the loose, a man who is bold enough to attack large groups and leave a bath of blood wherever he goes. It must be Angelus, thinks Lilah.
Lilah pokes around the office, but does not find anything interesting. She makes her way up the stairs and walks to Cordelia's room. Maybe there is something Cordelia needs desperately that she can steal. The door is locked, but a well-placed kick opens it.
She goes over to the chest of drawers and begins throwing clothes all over the floor. Nothing unusual is found in the drawers, save for a bizarre pair of neon green panties.
Lilah pulls up the mattress and rips up the pillows, and scatters feathers on the carpet. In frustration, she pulls a large picture off the bare wall, and tosses it to the floor.
Glaring at the sparse, messy room, she cannot think of where else to look. Angrily, she steps on the painting, and notices a glint of gold. She bends down and pulls the back off the frame, and discovers a large ruby on a gold chain and a piece of parchment covered in runes.
"I don't think this is a gift and letter from her ex-boyfriend," Lilah dryly says to the empty tomb of a room.
A sudden noise startles her and she hears voices from downstairs. Hastily, she runs out into the hall and opens a large window, and jumps. She's dead already, jumping out of a window won't do any more harm she presumes. The landing in the bushes produces a few more scratches to add to her multitude of bruises.
She returns to her car and decides to leave the area, study her discoveries and decide on a course of action.
~
Lilah considers the parchment and necklace in her hands. She needs to have these runes translated. Wesley could do it, but how would she retrieve the translation? Longingly, she remembers the spy devices that Gavin had installed in the Hyperion a year ago. Angel has never found out about them. Maybe she can reactivate them somehow, or install new ones?
The cameras and recorders had been purchased from a small, discreet shop tucked in a corner of Melrose. Lilah finds herself there in a matter of minutes. With no one on the roads, she goes well over fifty miles, just because she can. Speeding through yet another meaningless stoplight, she neatly stops the car and exits. The shop is still there, untouched by looters, and she breaks open the window and enters.
The cameras are easy to find, and the instructions are surprisingly comprehensible. They are combination camera/sound recorders, the size of a walnut, with a handheld screen to transmit data to. Just what she is looking for. Her next stop is a pharmacy. Lilah is experienced in the way of drugs, and finds the tranquilizers without any effort. She selects a liquid form guaranteed to knock someone out quickly, similar to the type used in mental asylums. She fills a few syringes and takes the rest of the bottle along with some extra needles.
From Home Depot, Lilah lugs long chains out to her car, some locks and a fine toothed saw. On the counter here she spots a loaded gun, in the hands of a rotting corpse and takes it along as an afterthought.
Mission complete, Lilah drives back to her shelter in the shadow of the Hyperion. She pens a note to the Fang Gang, written in a different handwriting to make sure Wesley cannot recognize it. In clear block letters the note reads "Angelus was spotted in a bar in West LA and will be there for another hour at least. Hurry."
She places the note on a step and throws a rock at the glass door. It shatters with a startlingly sharp sound, so loud in the silence of the shadows. Lilah retreats into the darkness and watches as the door opens and a crossbow is shoved out, then Lorne's head appears. He notices the note, picks it up, and with a quick muffled conversation, all of the group leaves, hurrying towards their SUV, and drive away. Lilah watches the disappearing exhaust fumes from the car with satisfaction and enters the hotel alone.
Efficiently she assembles the cameras, placing one above Wesley's desk, one in the corner of Cordelia's room and the last by the front entrance. Lilah doubts that anyone will suspect listening devices when Angelus is on the loose. She places the parchment on Wesley's desk and goes upstairs to check out the status of Cordelia's room again.
It has been cleaned up. Lilah deliberately ransacks the room again.Maybe someone will wonder why Cordelia's room is being searched, and wonder what she has to hide.
She leaves the hotel and slips into the shadows, idly waiting for them to return. But they do not return first.
Lilah watches as a dark haired man strolls over to the hotel and notices the note.
"I'm at a bar in West LA? Funny, it seems like I have a lookalike buddy."
Lilah freezes momentarily as she realizes it is Angelus. He is holding a human head by its long black hair, blood still dripping from the neck. She stands completely still. She has no heartbeat or breathing and she smells like a dead body, so hopefully he will not notice her. Angelus opens the door and enters without a glance in her direction. Lilah flees to her car and pretends to be a lifeless corpse.
A couple of minutes later he leaves the hotel, without the head, and casually heads down the street. Lilah waits until he is a block away, and turns the car on. She steps on the gas and catches up to him within seconds. Angelus turns his head at the roar of the engine, but he is caught unaware. Blinded by the high beams, he tries to run, but Lilah hits him at forty miles head-on. The car ploughs into a wall, crushing Angelus between metal and brick.
Lilah reverses the car and prepares to run him over again. Sure, the front of her car is totaled and she is in pain from the collision, but it is all worth it just to hurt Angelus.
But Angelus does not appear to need to be run over again. He is lying on the floor, seemingly unconscious, bleeding heavily. Just to make sure he really is unconscious, Lilah shoots him through the chest. There is no reaction. Lilah grins and exits the car to check on her victim. Finally she has Angel in the position she has wanted him for ages: defenseless and injured. She can stake him right now and visit him in Hell. Or, she decides, she can wrap him up and give him to Wesley as a gift. Lilah decides on the latter.
As a precaution, she ties him up with the chains that had been meant for Cordelia, and injects him with enough tranquilizers that would kill a human. He will not be waking up for a long time.
Then she drags his limp body into the Hyperion and deposits him on the circular couch. She stands back to survey her work. Angelus looks like someone has beaten the hell out of him. And she has done it all by herself. Being able to hurt Angelus in this way makes her feel just a little bit better about being dead.
Lilah cannot wait to hear what they will say when they walk in and discover Angelus trussed up like an animal.
She turns to vacate the hotel, leaving behind her gifts to Wesley, and melts into the shadows again. Now officially a creature of the night, she lurks in the darkness, waiting for his return.
Lilah learns about patience in the long hours that she spends quietly sitting and waiting, watching the hotel from the shadows in the street. This is where it all began, this is where it all will end, and this is where it all will happen.
The night drags on and Lilah still waits. And finally, she gets a break. Five shadowy figures, three men and two women, leave the hotel, heavily armed and huddled together. Lilah counts the seconds until they turn a corner, then slips into the Hyperion through the front door.
She heads over to the computer and goes online, checking a news website. It has been ten days since she has died. Lilah does not understand how ten days could have passed, it seems as if only hours ago she had been on the third floor with a dagger to her throat. She must have been dead, as in really dead, for a while.
The website tells of the abandoning of Los Angeles, and the evacuation of those who would not leave voluntarily. A murderous serial killer is on the loose, a man who is bold enough to attack large groups and leave a bath of blood wherever he goes. It must be Angelus, thinks Lilah.
Lilah pokes around the office, but does not find anything interesting. She makes her way up the stairs and walks to Cordelia's room. Maybe there is something Cordelia needs desperately that she can steal. The door is locked, but a well-placed kick opens it.
She goes over to the chest of drawers and begins throwing clothes all over the floor. Nothing unusual is found in the drawers, save for a bizarre pair of neon green panties.
Lilah pulls up the mattress and rips up the pillows, and scatters feathers on the carpet. In frustration, she pulls a large picture off the bare wall, and tosses it to the floor.
Glaring at the sparse, messy room, she cannot think of where else to look. Angrily, she steps on the painting, and notices a glint of gold. She bends down and pulls the back off the frame, and discovers a large ruby on a gold chain and a piece of parchment covered in runes.
"I don't think this is a gift and letter from her ex-boyfriend," Lilah dryly says to the empty tomb of a room.
A sudden noise startles her and she hears voices from downstairs. Hastily, she runs out into the hall and opens a large window, and jumps. She's dead already, jumping out of a window won't do any more harm she presumes. The landing in the bushes produces a few more scratches to add to her multitude of bruises.
She returns to her car and decides to leave the area, study her discoveries and decide on a course of action.
~
Lilah considers the parchment and necklace in her hands. She needs to have these runes translated. Wesley could do it, but how would she retrieve the translation? Longingly, she remembers the spy devices that Gavin had installed in the Hyperion a year ago. Angel has never found out about them. Maybe she can reactivate them somehow, or install new ones?
The cameras and recorders had been purchased from a small, discreet shop tucked in a corner of Melrose. Lilah finds herself there in a matter of minutes. With no one on the roads, she goes well over fifty miles, just because she can. Speeding through yet another meaningless stoplight, she neatly stops the car and exits. The shop is still there, untouched by looters, and she breaks open the window and enters.
The cameras are easy to find, and the instructions are surprisingly comprehensible. They are combination camera/sound recorders, the size of a walnut, with a handheld screen to transmit data to. Just what she is looking for. Her next stop is a pharmacy. Lilah is experienced in the way of drugs, and finds the tranquilizers without any effort. She selects a liquid form guaranteed to knock someone out quickly, similar to the type used in mental asylums. She fills a few syringes and takes the rest of the bottle along with some extra needles.
From Home Depot, Lilah lugs long chains out to her car, some locks and a fine toothed saw. On the counter here she spots a loaded gun, in the hands of a rotting corpse and takes it along as an afterthought.
Mission complete, Lilah drives back to her shelter in the shadow of the Hyperion. She pens a note to the Fang Gang, written in a different handwriting to make sure Wesley cannot recognize it. In clear block letters the note reads "Angelus was spotted in a bar in West LA and will be there for another hour at least. Hurry."
She places the note on a step and throws a rock at the glass door. It shatters with a startlingly sharp sound, so loud in the silence of the shadows. Lilah retreats into the darkness and watches as the door opens and a crossbow is shoved out, then Lorne's head appears. He notices the note, picks it up, and with a quick muffled conversation, all of the group leaves, hurrying towards their SUV, and drive away. Lilah watches the disappearing exhaust fumes from the car with satisfaction and enters the hotel alone.
Efficiently she assembles the cameras, placing one above Wesley's desk, one in the corner of Cordelia's room and the last by the front entrance. Lilah doubts that anyone will suspect listening devices when Angelus is on the loose. She places the parchment on Wesley's desk and goes upstairs to check out the status of Cordelia's room again.
It has been cleaned up. Lilah deliberately ransacks the room again.Maybe someone will wonder why Cordelia's room is being searched, and wonder what she has to hide.
She leaves the hotel and slips into the shadows, idly waiting for them to return. But they do not return first.
Lilah watches as a dark haired man strolls over to the hotel and notices the note.
"I'm at a bar in West LA? Funny, it seems like I have a lookalike buddy."
Lilah freezes momentarily as she realizes it is Angelus. He is holding a human head by its long black hair, blood still dripping from the neck. She stands completely still. She has no heartbeat or breathing and she smells like a dead body, so hopefully he will not notice her. Angelus opens the door and enters without a glance in her direction. Lilah flees to her car and pretends to be a lifeless corpse.
A couple of minutes later he leaves the hotel, without the head, and casually heads down the street. Lilah waits until he is a block away, and turns the car on. She steps on the gas and catches up to him within seconds. Angelus turns his head at the roar of the engine, but he is caught unaware. Blinded by the high beams, he tries to run, but Lilah hits him at forty miles head-on. The car ploughs into a wall, crushing Angelus between metal and brick.
Lilah reverses the car and prepares to run him over again. Sure, the front of her car is totaled and she is in pain from the collision, but it is all worth it just to hurt Angelus.
But Angelus does not appear to need to be run over again. He is lying on the floor, seemingly unconscious, bleeding heavily. Just to make sure he really is unconscious, Lilah shoots him through the chest. There is no reaction. Lilah grins and exits the car to check on her victim. Finally she has Angel in the position she has wanted him for ages: defenseless and injured. She can stake him right now and visit him in Hell. Or, she decides, she can wrap him up and give him to Wesley as a gift. Lilah decides on the latter.
As a precaution, she ties him up with the chains that had been meant for Cordelia, and injects him with enough tranquilizers that would kill a human. He will not be waking up for a long time.
Then she drags his limp body into the Hyperion and deposits him on the circular couch. She stands back to survey her work. Angelus looks like someone has beaten the hell out of him. And she has done it all by herself. Being able to hurt Angelus in this way makes her feel just a little bit better about being dead.
Lilah cannot wait to hear what they will say when they walk in and discover Angelus trussed up like an animal.
She turns to vacate the hotel, leaving behind her gifts to Wesley, and melts into the shadows again. Now officially a creature of the night, she lurks in the darkness, waiting for his return.
