CHAPTER
3: A MONSTER THAT LIVES IN HER DREAMS
Luckily, Giles had been able to catch enough of Buffy's call to learn where she was and that he was in a hurry. It didn't take long for him to arrive. As soon as he stepped inside the mansion, his gaze drifted to Angelus, who still lay unconscious on the floor. Not letting his eyes of the vampire, he hurried up to Buffy.
"Dear lord, Buffy. Are you alright? Did he touch you?" He spoke with his usual caring overtone of fatherly love and worry. Buffy smiled to reassure him.
"I'm okay." She made a motion to the back of her head. "He hit me, but it wasn't too bad as those things go. Otherwise the torment was only of the verbal kind. Think I got him back pretty well too, you know, with the head smacking" she said. Giles forced a thin smile, clearly relieved. When he turned his head back to Angelus, his expression instantly hardened.
"This is certainly something I didn't expect to see again," he said bitterly. "Do you know how it happened?"
"No, but something freaky is definitely going on. When I got to the phone I called LA to see if Cordelia and Wesley were okay. And you know who answered? Angel."
Giles frowned. "Are you sure it wasn't just the answering machine?"
"Positive. He said hello, then I said his name and he answered with my name. Then the damn phone went dead. How do you explain that? Not the phone part."
"Well I-I can't, not without more information," Giles admitted. He stared at Angelus. "Does he have a key on him?" Buffy shook her head.
"I couldn't find one. Figure it's gotta be nearby though."
It didn't take many minutes for Giles to locate the key that was hidden close to the door. He unchained Buffy and together they quickly moved Angelus in position and put him in the shackles instead.
"He was acting weird," Buffy mused, staring at the vampire that hung slumped against the wall. "He- well, I asked him how he lost his soul. He wouldn't tell me. That doesn't make any sense. If the curse was," Buffy hesitated, "you know, broken, he would want to try and hurt me by telling me."
"Yes," Giles agreed. "I must admit, I am rather flummoxed. I think we should call Los Angeles again, perhaps they can straighten matters out over there. Somehow, I doubt Angelus will provide us with any answers."
"Yeah. But like I said, his phone is dead, and I'm pretty sure the phone lines here are long gone. Yet another reason we should all carry cell phones," Buffy sighed.
After checking that Angelus was definitely still out cold Buffy did another check of his pockets and went out to look through his car while Giles guarded him. She found nothing of value. The car was probably not even his, she guessed by the things she found in it. In the glove compartment she found pictures of a young woman, a packet of cigarettes that was half full and a packet of condoms. She really hoped none of those things were Angel's…The locked suitcase in the trunk, labeled with a name she didn't recognize pretty much convinced her that Angelus had jut stolen the car before he drove to Sunnydale.
"Nothing," Buffy reported when she got back inside. "What now, should I go out and use a pay phone?"
Giles shook his head. "I think we should stay together for the time being. He should wake up soon, don't you think?"
"Yeah," Buffy agreed. "I didn't get to kick him that hard, unfortunately. Not from lack if wishing it, I assure you." Buffy sighed. "So I guess we wait."
They didn't have to wait for long; just a few minutes later Angelus started to move. Giles unconsciously back peddled a few steps. Buffy tensed. Soon the vampire felt his head and opened his eyes, glaring at Buffy and Giles.
"Well, how cute," he spat. "Buff and her sugardaddy."
Fear momentarily vanished, Giles took a few menacing steps forward, his hands clenching into fists. Seething with anger towards the demon in front of him, old and new fury could very well have driven him within Angelus' reach if Buffy hadn't been there. She grabbed Giles' arm and stopped him.
"Shut up Angelus," Buffy snapped. "I'm sick of your games. Now I suggest you tell us what you know."
Angelus gave her an amused look. "Or what? You'll kill me?"
"You can be sure we bloody well will," Giles sputtered. Angelus chuckled.
"Wait 'til they drop, Rupert, and try that line again." The smirk disappeared from his face. "Of course you won't. Buff wouldn't do that, not as long as there was a smidge of hope left to get her loved one back."
"You're not my loved one anymore," Buffy said, everything but the voice screaming otherwise. "Don't mistake me for the person I was two years ago."
"Right," Angelus dismissed. "At least agree it's not either of you two that usually do the killing when I'm in town. Isn't that right, Rupert?"
Buffy could see Giles starting to shake from anger. Luckily he kept a lid on his fury, but she didn't know how much of Angelus' taunts he could take. Angelus moved around as much as the chains would allow. He felt the back of his head and winced slightly.
"This has really got to stop happening to me. Getting smashed on the head is just fun that many times."
"Yes, well, if you wish to avoid another beating, perhaps you can explain how it is that you are here, and Angel apparently answered the phone over in Los Angeles," Giles said with a total lack of sympathy.
Angelus sighed. So he had heard correctly before. Pity. Well, this wasn't one of his theories of what could have happened when the demon used its weapon on him. Two of him? If that was right, that couldn't be good – at least not when one of them had the shitty soul to carry around.
"Being evil and all, I don't think I want to share anything with you," Angelus said, cocking his head. Something at the door caught his attention. "Why don't you ask him." Angelus glared at something behind them. Or someone.
Giles and Buffy turned to see Angel standing in the doorway, not exactly looking pleased. In fact, he looked grim enough for anyone who hadn't heard the shackled vampire speak question whether it was really the good version that just walked in the door.
Despite the situation, Buffy's heart made small leaps when she finally knew for sure that there was more to this situation than simply Angel loosing his soul. She was the first to speak. "Angel? How did you know we were here? Are Cordelia and Wesley okay?"
Angel kept his gaze fixed on his chained alter ego as he moved further inside the room. "They're both fine. I came because of your call, I was worried about you. I called your mother, and she didn't know where you were. Giles didn't answer, so I decided to get over here and see what was going on."
Buffy frowned. It was clearly Angel, complete with a soul standing in front of her, but something was wrong. He seemed short tempered and off balance. Then again, maybe it wasn't so strange – he was standing just feet away from his hated alter ego, after all. Not every day you get to stand face to face with everything you hate about yourself. Literally.
"How did you know where I was? I didn't really have the time to say anything on the phone."
"I'm not sure. When I came here, I felt something pulling me in this direction. Maybe him." Angel indicated his leering other self. "I don't know how the hell this happened, but I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. I've been waiting a long time for the opportunity to get rid of him once and for all." Clutching the stake in his pocket he lunched forward.
"No!" Buffy and Giles yelled.
Angel froze mere inches from Angelus who was still as calm as ever. Either someone had fed him sedatives upon arriving in Sunnydale, or he was very sure about the fact that Buffy wouldn't let him get killed.
"What do you mean, no?" Angel asked angrily, stake still raised. "This is the chance we've all been waiting for. Situations like this don't fall in our laps every day."
"That is exactly why we mustn't react too hastily" Giles stressed. "We don't know how you and Angelus came to be separated or what effect harming one of you might have on the other."
Reluctantly Angel relaxed his posture and put the stake back in his pocket. "All right, find out what you need to and then let me stake him.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Angelus addressed his souled version.
"Nothing would make me happier," Angel snarled.
"Well, you better hope it doesn't make you TOO happy then, Angel," Angelus said, uttering Angel's name with particular disgust. "Cause, talk about a win-win situation for me."
Angel furrowed his brow into a deep scowl. "That can't be right, can it?" He asked Giles. "He's there – I'm here. Kill him and he's GONE."
"Well, I, um…" Giles didn't exactly know how to answer. He had no idea what had caused the separation and therefore couldn't say much about the conditions. "If it is at all even possible to-to kill only one of you… Well, I'm not sure how it would work out. Technically speaking, he – the demon, is always a part of you."
Angelus tapped Angel on the shoulder.
"Psst, I'll help you out and translate to moron; that means you can never be rid of me." He flashed a smirk. "Got it?"
"We will have to do some research" Giles broke off, avoiding another almost-staking from Angel's side. "Can you tell me anything that might give us an indication of what caused this?"
"I was chasing a demon," Angel said. "In the sewers. I never caught it though, I ran into some other creature. It had a weapon that shot energy
Intrigued, Giles nodded. "What kind of demon?"
"Not sure," Angel answered vaguely. "It was dark, and it wore a cloak. Brownish, kinda tall I guess. Not much to go on."
"Indeed. What happened to it?"
"I killed it, took the body above ground to dispose of." Without even turning to look, Angel smacked Angelus in the face backhandedly, hearing that he was testing his chains. "If he had noticed him there would have been something else to dispose of," he muttered. Angelus glared.
"Very well," Giles said. "Clearly we need a closer look at this demon. You remember where you buried it, don't you Angel? You'll have to get back there and dig it up so we can try to identify the species."
Angel looked away. "I didn't bury it." Giles frowned.
"What was that"
Angel cleared his throat and met Giles' gaze again. "I said, I didn't exactly bury it, I burned the body instead."
"Angel" Buffy called out. "Why would you do that? What were you thinking"
"Definitely not that I would need to save it for identification," he answered. "It was just another demon – one of hundreds that I've killed since I moved to LA. You if anyone should know what a pain it is to bury every single one of them, Buffy. In L.A. it's even harder than it is here, since you'd have to drive outside the city or find a quiet solitary park for burying them. Not to mention the fact that a couple of times, an apparently dead demon has clawed its way out of its grave to cause even more trouble for me. It's more effective to just burn the bodies." Buffy nodded understandingly.
"Yeah, you have a point there. That method could save me a lot of work, too. What do you think, Giles"
"I think that in this case, Angel's disposal method is of harm to us. However, it's not much to do about it now." Giles crossed to the nearest window and pulled aside the curtain to look out. "It's rather sunny outside. Do you think you can come with us for some research at the Magic Box anyway, Angel?"
Angel shrugged. "Sure, I'll just pull the coat over my head. But what about him?" He indicated the captive Angelus.
"He'll be fine here for the day. These chains are magically enhanced and I have the key. We'll need your assistance if we're to get anywhere, Angel."
He hesitated, and then nodded. "I guess you're right. With any luck, our findings will give us the go-ahead to stake our evil friend right out of existence."
"Anya is probably already there, preparing to open the store," Giles mused. "Perhaps we should call the others as well."
"Good idea, we should see if Willow, Xander and Tara can come" Buffy agreed.
"Riley is busy? After all, he knows a few things about demons and weapons," Giles said bluntly.
"I don't want to bother him for this," Buffy said, a little too quickly. Both Angel and Angelus looked at her – something she noticed but refrained from commenting. "He's – it's just, he has other things to do besides hanging with us on patrol and research all the time." That wasn't really true. In fact, Riley had very little to do right now, being out of the Initiative, and he had even suggested that they would get together and do something later during the day, but she wasn't going to tell Giles or Angel that.
"Now, if only we had a phone," she continued quickly.
"You can use mine," Angel offered, handing Buffy his cell phone. Buffy glanced at the non-functioning phone at the floor. It was an exact duplicate. The same one? Well, that wasn't possible... Was it?
"If this thing works as badly as his did, it won't be of much help," she commented.
After checking Angelus' chains carefully, the three of them departed for the Magic Box.
A few minutes after Angelus had heard Angel's and Giles' car disappear down the hill, Angelus reached into the hidden pocket inside his shirt where he had a spare handcuff key hidden. The do-gooders had been foolish enough to think that he would actually leave the only key in plain sight – well, it was their loss. Buffy had been far to busy with moving overly stiffly, touching him as little as possible when she searched him.
It was amusing, really. At the same time the very same demon, although reduced to a fluffy kitten by a soul, stood right behind her and in that case, she was unable to even hide her urge to press herself against him. It was all just for the sake of appearances. She wouldn't admit to anyone, maybe especially herself, that the well-drilled Canada goose she was currently bringing to her bed didn't give her real any satisfaction at all – physical or otherwise. There was no danger, no heat. No passion.
She certainly wasn't going to show either Giles or Angel that she was still madly in love with him. Well, technically not HIM, more like Angel, but anyway. Of course, if the soul didn't come with a package complete with blindfold and raging stupidity, Angel knew just as well as him.
It wasn't hard to figure out all the reasons to why Buffy didn't want to call and ask for the farmboy's help. There was the matter of him and Angel hating each other, first of all. She was probably worried that her big-nosed poof would take matters into his own hands and make a fool of himself by confronting either him or Angel. It was quite doubtless that either of them would welcome the chance to kick the unholy shot out of Riley. Angel might not kill him though… Then again, seeing how angry and badly controlled his counterpart had been today, maybe he would. Angelus thought about it. Hmm. Interesting.
Free of his chains, Angelus spent most of the day resting. It wasn't the preferred activity, but there wasn't like he had much choice since he was pretty much stuck in the mansion until sunset. The stinking goodie-two-shoes Angel had asked Giles to drive Angelus' stolen car to the police station. Angelus knew that it wasn't so much about returning the car to its proper owner as making sure there was absolutely no way he could get away from the mansion. Such a nice thing to do…
As soon as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon, Angelus left the mansion.
He was still feeling – well, not less evil than usual in any way, but a little off. Strangely calm, the usual voracious bloodlust and strong predatory instinct slightly smothered. Not that he worried, exactly, but he did wonder if whatever split him from Angel maybe didn't do such a bang-up job after all. All of the soul's precious self-control in him, and bloodlust raging freely in Angel? Now, that was interesting, even though he would prefer to feel like he was used to. Not that it would actually hinder him in what he was going to do, but it was frustrating.
Where to begin? It had been so long since he had time for simple stalking and feeding. It was a simple pleasure, but a vampire's gotta eat. Seeing that the Bronze was closed this evening – which was a pity, it was usually inhabited by a good part of the younger, riper part of Sunnydale – he staked out a group of teenagers that were walking home, laughing and talking.
Dropping off one by one for their homes, Angelus kept following them until there was only a girl left. She would do fine as a meal. Maybe 15 years old, she was a redhead with an alluring, childish innocence to her. Doubtlessly a virgin. So cute. She reminded him a little of Willow, as she had been when he first met her. How he would enjoy their reunion. He followed the girl at just the right distance – close enough for her to feel uncomfortable and pursued, but not so near that she could see him when she threw worried glances over her shoulder.
Angelus had to restrain himself from laughing out loud when he saw that the stupid girl actually took a right turn and entered the Restfield Cemetery in a vain attempt to loose her stalker. Being a town with so many unsolved murders, one would think that they would at least teach the ignorant youth the basic rules in "how you don't turn yourself into a vampire meal". Oh well, all the better for him.
Deciding it was time to turn up the pace, Angelus made himself visible and deliberately stepped on a twig. It snapped audibly and the girl spun around.
Upon seeing the tall, dark figure following her, her heartbeat doubled and she broke into a run. Angelus loved a bit of a chase. Of course the girl, with her fashionable shoes and flapping short skirt, had no chance to outrun him. When she heard him right behind her, she switched tactics.
She threw herself on the ground, held her knees and started to cry. He would have preferred somewhat more abrupt ending to his chase, but then again, there was good things to get out of this as well. Ah, tears. He had missed tears. Tears of desperation, frustration, pain, fear – the simple tears of realizing that death was near.
"Don't worry," he said as softly as he could muster to the girl, helping her to her feet. She continued to sob, stupid human. "Shh, calm down," he soothed, putting on his most charming expression. "It's alright." She finally looked at him, her eyes red and puffy, badly applied make up trickling down her cheeks. He let off a charming smile, one that had made women crumble for centuries. It never failed – immediately the girl calmed down.
"Look at you, you're all muddy," Angelus said sweetly, brushing off the girl. "There. Now, shouldn't you get home to your bed?" Just as expected, the girl took no notice of what he said, just how he said it. She was completely relaxed, oblivious to the fact that she was standing inches from the greatest mass murderer she had ever met. He put his right arm over her shoulder and began leading her through the cemetery.
"Y-you're…"
"Angel." Another smile.
"I-I thought… There was someone following me. I, um, I just thought… someone was gonna hurt me."
"Don't worry about that. This won't hurt – much." His expression hardened. He used his grip to spin the girl around so that he faced him. He let his face change into its demonic appearance. She screamed.
He had missed screaming as well, it was an even bigger chapter than tears. The way a mother would scream when watching her child having its heart ripped out. The hysteric scream that was uttered by someone who had just found their entire family slaughtered. Children's screams were usually the best. So innocent, yet so aware of what was going to happen to them. Angelus savagely ripped the girl's shirt and sank his fangs into her soft, milky skin.
Pure ecstasy. That was the only way to describe the sensation of the sweet and salty blood that filled his mouth. It had been so long...
Unfortunately, the meal ended all too quickly. He let the lifeless body fall to the ground and then he arranged her so that his mark was clearly visible. If Buffy and Angel came looking for him here, they would knew immediately who had robbed the girl of her life. He looked at his work for a second before turning to leave.
"Hold it right there" an unpleasantly familiar voice called from behind him.
Angelus stopped dead in his tracks, wincing from disgust and recognition. He knew that voice very well, and he despised it. The intruder was Buffy's boyfriend, Riley Finn.
