1Chapter 7
After everyone in the Scooby gang was revived and treated and the lobby was put back in recognizable order, Wesley showed Xander, Willow, Riley and Giles to their rooms. Cordelia was cleaning and bandaging the already healing lacerations on Angel's chest, when Riley came back down scowling darkly at the wounded Vampire.
Angel closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the circle couch he was lounging in, as Cordelia got up to put away and dispose of the used supplies. "What do you want now Finn? Tonight's not the best night to fuck with me." When Riley remained silent, Angel opened his eyes to look at the other man.
Riley was pissed, seething as he paced the lobby. His jaw clenched so tight Angel could see the muscles jump every so often. Angel would have bet his immortal existence that Riley had witnessed what transpired between himself and Buffy.
Who gives a damn, she's mine anyway. Angel thought, amazed at how much of Angelus's character embedded in him.
What was he thinking, he basically was Angelus, only with a little more patience and tolerance. Key words being 'a little more' Angel thought as Riley stopped pacing to stand ten feet away from him.
"She's still mine, you know." Riley spoke calmly. Angel cocked his head, slightly, to the side and raised an inquiring eyebrow. "Is she?" He asked raising slowly to his feet.
Riley stood his ground. "Yes she is." "She's a vampire." Angel pointed out his expression falsely calm. "She's still Buffy," Angel's humorless laugh cut Riley off.
"If you think that, kid, your as good as dead." Angel said walking over to the lobby's entrance. "Wait. I'm going with you." Riley shot forward grabbing Angel's arm and found himself pinned to a nearby wall.
"Listen here, boy," Angel snarled through sharp fangs. "And listen well, because I'm only going to say this once. The Buffy you saw walk out those doors is not the Buffy we all knew. She's dangerous. I'm going to go find out how dangerous, so don't have time to babysit you." He punched out the last words and shoved Riley away.
"What are you gonna do when you find her, huh? Kill her? You got enough balls for that?" Riley taunted as Angel walked out the doors. Angel paused at the exit, not bothering to look back, then walked out.
Riley sighed heavily and turned to see Cordelia standing by the office doors. "He's right you know," Cordelia said after a moment. "but what Angel forgot to say was that Buffy just might be the most dangerous thing we've seen up to this point."
"She's still Buffy." Riley insisted. Cordelia heaved a sigh at his shear idiocy. "Look, I know you love her or what ever, but did you see what she's capable of? Now, instead of just kicking our ass-es, all she has to do is flick her dainty wrist and 'bam' we go flying."
"I'm aware of that. Believe me," Riley said remembering the force of being thrown and shuddered. "But I don't think we should just dust her." "And what do you propose we do?" She asked. "Give her soul back like with you did with Angel." Riley replied thinking of the conversation he had with Walsh upstairs.
She said she had wanted to study Buffy before, when she was just a Slayer, but now she wanted to study her even more. Walsh wanted to see if they could learn anything from Buffy's genetic make up that would help them in their mission to destroy Hostels. Plus he loved Buffy and maybe Prof. Walsh could fix her.
Cordelia watched Riley with suspicion after he'd made that last comment he seemed to have drifted into space or something. "Well maybe, Willow could do it." She said cautiously. Her voice brought Riley out of his thoughts. "Uh, Willow? Oh yeah, maybe." Riley said absently walking around Cordelia to the staircase.
Riley paused on the first stair looking back at Cordy. "Sorry, um- I'm just gonna go up to bed. Night." Cordelia watched him until he was out of sight. She'd have to keep an eye on him.
She let the thought go as Gunn walked through the doors, Angel left walked out of over half an hour ago. Gunn offered her a ride home saying it was too dangerous because of their newest threat.
She excepted wondering if Angel could handle it if he had to kill Buffy. Buffy had done it, maybe that would give him enough leverage to complete the deed.
Angel stalked through the night. Sticking to the inky shadows, as he tracked Buffy. Jumping up onto a building he looked over the city. He stilled, his nostrils flaring, as the breeze picked up her scent.
Vanilla and jasmine. That was her alright. Her being a vampire didn't change her scent. Thank the gods. It only added to it's potency. Tainting it with a slight coppery tang of death.
Angel inhaled deeply, dragging the sent into him, before scaling another building fallowing the scent. He stopped on the ledge of a building, peering into the dark alley below. Seeing a flash of blonde, he leaped silently to the ground staying to the shadows.
The alley was relatively clean, as far as alleys went in L.A. Angel observed. Hardly any trash littered the pavement, the smell wasn't too bad. Could be worse. Angel thought as he crept further into the dank alley way, stopping when he met up with a chainlink fence.
Angel jumped back when a door was thrown open on the opposite side of the fence. A guy came out, of what seemed like an underground club, with a box of trash. "'Take out the trash, Brent' he says." The guy grumbled, then startled when he saw Angel.
Brent, though very pale, looked to be in his early twenties. He was dressed in skin tight, black leather pants, and a black, long-sleeved fishnet shirt with black boots and a spiked choker to top it off. Great, a vamp wanna-be. Angel though darkly.
"H-hey buddy what are you doing here?" Brent stammered eyeing Angel through the fence. Angel inwardly sighed and started to reply when a familiar voice answered for him.
"He's looking for me." The guy jumped and screamed in surprise when a familiar red tipped hand appeared out of nowhere caressing across Brent's chest, slashing open his shirt.
Buffy stepped out from behind him. Brent eyed the women on the side of him. She was knock-out gorgeous. From the top of her red streaked blonde hair, to the tips of her chunky black heels. "Buffy." The dark haired man said, warning clear in his voice.
Buffy looked over at where Angel was standing, fifteen feet away on the opposite side of the fence, and smiled. "Yes?" "Step away from the guy." He all but growled.
"But I don't wanna." Buffy pouted lightly raking her nails down Brent's chest, effectively backing him into the rough brick wall of the club. "I wanna play." She purred looking over at Angel.
Angel took a menacing step toward them. Buffy looked up into Brent's crystalline blue eyes, and smiled seductively. "You want to play with me," She whispered, trailing her hands up his chest pushing the ruined shirt off his lean shoulders. "Don't you Brent?"
Brent let out a shaky breath, tying to clear his fuzzy head, but then Buffy leaned into him slowly rolling her tongue over her glossy ruby colored lips and he was lost.
Buffy smiled in triumph and looked over at Angel, he was closer, as she placed and open mouth kiss over Brents nipple. "Oh shit," Brent groaned as Buffy began sucking.
Buffy smiled around his nipple when his hand tunneled trough her hair, then viciously bit down. "Oh fuck. Oh shit. Christ."Brent screamed, arching up under the onslaught. Blood flowed freely as Buffy's fangs ripped at his chest. She gulped it down greedily.
In a blur of motion Angel scaled the fence and ripped Buffy from the nearly translucent Brent. Buffy hit the opposite wall, then was pined to it by Angel hard body.
"So this is what they mean when they said being caught between a rock and a hard place." Buffy purred wrapping her leg high on Angel's hip. Angel ground his teeth together, fighting his bodies immediate response to having Buffy's hot body so intimately wrapped around his.
"Angel," Buffy moaned, grinding down on the bulge straining his pants. "It's been so long." Understatement of the this millennium. Angel thought,his body betraying him. Buffy hissed in pleasure as Angel pelvis ground hard into hers. A groggy whimper slammed Angel back to reality, only to be flung across the alley landing ungracefully to the groung by Buffy.
Shaking his head to clear it, Angel looked up to see Buffy pick up Brent's limp body and viciously slam the man into the wall. The body hit the wall with a sick wet crack. Blood splattered everywhere as the body crumbled to the floor.
Angel moved with supernatural speed hitting Buffy full force, sending them both tumbling in to traffic. Horns blared as cars swerved around barely missing them. Buffy swung out landing a solid punch to Angel's jaw, splitting his lip.
Buffy kicked out knocking Angel a few feet away and stood up. Dazed, Angel got to his feet. "Come on lover, don't give up on me now. We used to play like this all the time." She taunted as they circled each other. "That is before you left me." Buffy flipped landing a spin kick to Angel's mid-section.
Angel staggered back gripping his stomach and smirked. "I remember Buff, we were so good together." He retaliated blocked her next series of punches and kicks before landing his own hit. They danced together, blocking and kicking, punching and dodging, until Angel sent Buffy flying into a bunch of wooden crates across the street.
Buffy whimpered, Angel was by her side in an instant. A moment later he was pinned to the wall unable to move. "I can't believe you fell for one of your own tricks." Buffy said dusting herself off. Angel scowled at her. "Oh come on Angel don't be like that." Buffy purred sliding her hands up chest, smirking when he flinched.
"Poor baby, was I too rough with you last time?" She asked leaning in to kiss the place over his heart where the healing lacerations were. "Unfreeze me and I'll show you rough." Angel growled. Buffy laughed mercilessly. "I don't wanna fight you lover," Angel looked at her skeptically. "You don't?" He said doubtfully.
"No. I was actually hoping we could get back together. You know like old times." She taunted, throwing his words from a few years ago in his face. Angel snarled straining against the invisible force holding him back. "Your beginning to piss me off Buff." He warned. Buffy laughed. "Oh and what are you gonna do?" She asked.
Angel broke the hold on him and sent her flying further into the alley. He didn't give her a chance to recover before he pounced, kicking her over to her back. He placed the heel of his boot on her sternum as her aimed the crossbow at her heart. Buffy grabbed his boot looking up at him with glowing green eyes.
Angel hesitated. "You can't do it can you? You can't kill me." The taunt sent a sharp pain ripped through him, as well as a streak of pride, hearing it.
He leaned in closer to her face. "Are you going to keep quoting me?" He asked curious. Buffy smiled. "So your finally admitting you and Angelus are one person? Well I knew it would dawn on you some day. Or night."
"I asked you a question, fledgling." Hel said his voice taking on sire dominance. "Oh, I just love it when you get all demanding, and I'm not a fledgling darling." Buffy purred. Angel applied more pressure on her chest in warning.
Explain. Angel's voice rang in her head. We'll get to that and as for the 'quoting you' I've done more than that. You'd be surprised at how astute I was during your soulless period,
"Not to mention the hundreds of things I've seen done to the human body. Why don't you ask the people I've tortured and see what they think? Buffy finished out loud, then looked thoughtful for a minuet.
"Oh wait you can't they're kinda dead, but you can bet you leather clad ass they were glad to have their miserable lives ended once I was through... the ones I actually shed that mercy upon anyway." Angel looked down at his little dark goddess with a mixture of horror and pride. Knowing he had contributed to her present position both pleased and horrified him.
"Yeah kinda confusing isn't? Not knowing whether congratulate or damn yourself." before he could reply, once again he was sent flying into the opposite wall by an electric shock. Angel looked up to see Buffy gone. He sat there for a while conte plating the situation, when a light went off in his brain.
Angel stood looking up at the brightening sky. He started back to the hotel, he had a lot to do before night fall over the city again. When he saw Buffy next time he'd be ready. Till tomorrow night love. Angel thought into the darkness.