Author's Note - The original version of this story was rated for mature adults. If you are of age and would like to see it in that format, you can find it under my pen name at foreverfandom dot net.

CHAPTER TWO

"So, what is this place?" Faith glanced around the packed bar. "I don't see a dance floor." She sounded disappointed.

"Caritas. It's a popular place with Wolfram and Hart. The owner is a seer. He can read you personally. He's usually fairly accurate and the best part, Angel doesn't know about this place yet." Lindsey studied his date's outfit, a flirty, 'barely-there' black slip dress and ebon sandals. Faith was lovely.

"A seer? I'm not sure I want anyone reading my future." Faith made a face, shuddering. "I don't buy into that junk anyhow."

Lindsey smirked. "The Host won't just read you randomly. He can only do it if you sing."

Faith's lip curled. "Sing?"

Lindsey's smirk deepened. "Did I mention that this is a Karaoke bar?" For a moment, he thought she might pop him one.

"Karaoke? I hate that shit." She started to turn and head for the door.

Lindsey caught her hand and she jerked away. "You'll like this. It gets a little surreal, especially when some of the demons get singing."

Faith's eyes bugged. "Demons?"

"Must have forgotten to mention the Host is a demon, and so are a lot of his clients, some good, some bad and they all get along. No violence is allowed." Lindsey shrugged. "I think he has it spelled that way, sort of like some of the safe houses."

"You're making less sense by the minute. I thought we were going to have fun." Faith crossed her arms, tilting back in her chair.

This was another reason Lindsey knew he and Faith would never progress past the animal sex part of the relationship. She was too crude. He had grown up poor, too, but unlike her, he had learned to appreciate the finer things in life. Faith might want them, but it was like giving a glass sculpture to a toddler. "Just give it a chance, Faith. If you're not having fun, we can leave after I get my turn on stage."

She laughed, reaching for her beer. "You're going to sing?"

"I do it a lot actually. It helps in the business," he assured her.

Faith nodded. "Fair enough. I want to hear you sing." She slugged back some beer. "When are you going to talk to me about our new assignment? It's a bad one. I can tell from the look in your eye."

Lindsey shook his head. "It's actually not that bad. It's a little different."

Faith's red lips thinned, her eyes going dangerous. "Different how?"

"It's body guard work." He held up a finger to hold back her protests. "It's more difficult than you might think. We don't know what we're on the look out for."

Faith snorted. "Sounds dull. Guess I could be asked to do worse things."

She had no idea, he thought bitterly. "Put it this way, Faith, the next best assignment was dealing with the Adlin demons, and they're covered with something that looks like free-running pustules." He smirked.

"Eww." Faith squeezed her eyes shut then snapped her head around, hearing the Host taking the stage, welcoming everyone to Caritas. She looked at the Host's dapper electric blue suit and lemony shirt then back at Lindsey with a grin on her face. "Should someone that green wear those colors?"

Lindsey swallowed a laugh. "For the Host, that's sedate."

"Wonder if he's related to Xander," Faith mused.

Lindsey tried to place the name. He thought it might be in the Sunnydale file. Wolfram and Hart liked to keep track of Slayers just to be sure they weren't doing business where a Slayer could get in the way. They all couldn't be counted on like Faith.

Faith started in on her second beer while a Getajab demon started singing My Way, sounding a lot like a steam heater on the fritz. She seemed to be enjoying herself as much as she could. Lindsey knew sitting quietly wasn't Faith's strong point. Suddenly he felt something under the table. Lindsey's eyes opened wide as he felt toes rubbing his crotch. He looked across the table in shock. Faith just smiled prettily.

"Faith," he whispered.

"Yeah?" Her toes kept caressing him.

"You can't do that here."

"Why not? Live a little, Lindsey." Her foot dropped away as she sat up, pulling her chair around a bit.

Damn, it felt good. He didn't want her to stop. "I mean it, Faith, please." His voice dropped low, husky with desire.

"I think you like this." She licked her painted lips. "You'd love to take me right under this table."

Leave it to Faith to test his limits, his good sense, the depths of his passions. Yes, he did want that very much. He caught her hand, bringing it up, pinning it gently against the table. "I can't, Faith. Not here. I have no idea if the Host can sense that sort of thing. The Senior Partners depend on me getting input from the Host, and I can't do that if I've been kicked out of here."

She pulled her hand away, kicking back to her side of the table. She gave him a disgusted look as she slipped her sandals back on. "Do you do anything not approved by them first?"

Lindsey sat up, leaning over the table. He caught her face, pulling her in for a kiss. "I do, but some things aren't negotiable."

"Why?" she asked airily and he was fairly sure she honestly didn't get it.

He sat back, his hand fumbling for his highball. He let the whiskey burn down his throat. "Because I'm in no hurry to go to hell, Faith, and trust me when I say they could send us both there, dead or alive."

Faith sucked in her bottom lip, considering that. "You have a point. But next time, you give in," she ordered.

"If it won't get us both killed, you have my word," he said, giving her the limits to which she could test him. He hoped she wasn't thinking of taking it into the bathroom or someplace near by just out of the Host's line of sight. He'd stick with his claims of Wolfram and Hart's displeasure.

Faith settled back and turned her eyes back to the stage. Lindsey watched her suck at the neck of the beer bottle, her tongue lapping around the top, probing into it, all designed to arouse and punish him at the same time. It was one of those moments where he wondered who was in charge, him or her.

The Host startled them both by appearing suddenly at Lindsey's side. He put a hand on Lindsey's shoulder. "No guitar tonight, Blue Eyes?"

Lindsey caught Faith's amused look at that. "Not tonight. Faith and I have plans for later, and it just would have been in the way."

The Host gave them a knowing look and a wide smile. "Understood. We'll miss your talented fingers. Will your friend be singing, too?"

Faith waved her hands. "No, no, we don't want that."

"Pity. I'll be you have the perfect whiskey voice." The Host favored her with a warm look. "You ready to go on up, Linds?"

Lindsey nodded, thankful his body was back under his control. He threaded his way through the crowded bar to the stage. He saw the Host talking to Faith, and she seemed to be getting more amused by the moment. He plugged in numbers of the song he wanted and joined in smoothly with Brooks & Dunn's lyrics. They were some of his favorite performers. He felt naked without his guitar, and it was all he could do to not strum along on an 'air guitar.'

"You picked me up, you shot me down
You're stepping out all over town
Drove me back to drinking in this bar
I found myself a brand new friend
I'm headed down that road again
Working on my next broken heart

Happy or sad it's hard to tell
You taught me how to hurt so well
But when it comes to love I know my part
I'll play this game that I can't win
I'll be somebody's fool again

Working on my next broken heart

Even as he was heading back to the table, Lindsey knew whatever it was the Host had seen was going to be bad. The demon stepped back so Lindsey could reclaim his spot at the table. He canted his eyes up, meeting the Host's fiery ones. "What's wrong?"

The Host's lips pursed. "I hate giving this kind of news, Blue Eyes. Something big and bad is heading your way. You need to be on guard or there'll be more than one death."

Lindsey's mind flashed to young Dante. "More than one? Then there'll be one regardless?"

"Maybe," the Host said. "Sorry." He headed off to his next customer.

"Well, that was ever so helpful," Faith sniffed, watching the Host's peacock coloring getting swallowed by the shadows.

Lindsey grimaced. "I don't like the sound of that."

Faith waved a hand. "Forget him, Lindsey. I could have mumbled the same thing after looking at the crud in your mug, or however it's done. You and I are on guard duty, right? Nothing's getting past me."

Lindsey wished he had her confidence. No, actually he didn't. Faith was overconfident. It would get someone killed. He just hoped it wasn't Dante because that would sign their death warrants, too; D'Amato would see to it.

Faith grabbed his hand and pulled. "Let's jet."

He didn't argue with her, his mood soured.

"You know, you have a nice voice," she said, leading him to his baby, a pristine, deep green, 1975 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce It was the kind of car that could make a guy hard just thinking about sitting in it, testing its horsepower on a beautiful stretch of road.

"Thanks."

"So." She flashed a cat smile at him. "Do you have talented fingers?"

He pulled her against him, nuzzling her hair. "Very much so."

"And am I your next broken heart?" She nipped his collar bone.

He figured there was little doubt of it. "Could be."

Faith shoved him into the convertible, her lips devouring his. She climbed in after him. His zipper was down before he knew what was happening.

He pushed her away gently. "Uh, Faith, this parking lot's not very private."

She wiggled free of his hands. "That's the point."

Lindsey didn't argue as she grabbed him roughly, There was no slow and easy tonight with Faith. Her mouth and lips were insistent. Lindsey forgot to be worried about getting caught in public. All the sounds from outside the car blurred into a white noise so there was no sounds until the night was shattered by his cell phone.

"Damn it."

"Don't you dare answer it." Faith turned her attention back to the matter at hand, and the phone kept ringing. He reached for it, and she swatted it against the dashboard.

"I was just turning it off," he said.

"You'd dodge my calls?" Holland's voice floated up out of the phone.

"Fuck," Lindsey whispered, realizing the whack off the dashboard had turned it on. He leaned over Faith who refused to let him go and picked up his phone. "No, sir. I was talking about the radio." Lindsey paused, sheltering the speaker end as he gasped when Faith reached into his pants. His voice cracked as he asked, "What can I do for you, sir?"

Lindsey listened, his hand clamped over one end of the phone as Faith pushed the limits. The longer he listened to Holland, the harder Faith worked him, fingers, hair, tongue, lips and teeth getting into the act. His brain only half-registered things Holland was saying until he managed to drop the phone. Faith sat back, and handed him the phone.

"Yes? Sorry, sir, I dropped the phone. What was that?" Lindsey asked, barely able to get words out as Faith made a big show of licking her lips.

"I said you only have about a half hour to reach our associates before Angel's crew gets there. You had best hurry, and it would benefit you to take our Slayer with you," Holland repeated, and Lindsey heard the annoyance in his tone.

"Faith's with me, sir. We'll get right over there."

"Yes, I thought she might be," Holland's voice shifted to amusement. "Don't disappoint me, Lindsey."

"I won't, sir." Lindsey rang off and tucked his phone away. "Damn."

"Damn that was good or just damn?"

"Both." He leaned over and kissed her. "And thank you, by the way. It's your turn next."

"But first?" She rolled the mints over her teeth noisily.

"But first we need to get to the cemetery and warn this little gang of vampires that Wolfram and Hart likes to use that they need to get out of Dodge because Angel and company are heading their way."

"To make a lot of dust." Faith bobbed her head.

"Exactly."

Lindsey turned over the engine of the Spider and let his baby open up as they ripped through town to rescue some vampires when all he really wanted was to take Faith home and continue what she had started in the car.

"You know, somehow it feels really wrong to just let vampires go," Faith said, watching the inhabitants of a large, cool white, mausoleum scattering into its depths and into whatever tunnels they had dug or taken over.

"Probably part of your Slayer nature. You are hard-wired to kill them, after all," Lindsey said, satisfied that they had beaten Angel to the vampire gang. They'd have to relocate but they'd be safe. He knew they'd contact Wolfram and Hart as soon as they were settled. The firm took too good a care of them in return for their services for them not to. However, Lindsey despised these kind of vampires, living in tombs like vermin. At least Russell Winters had had brains enough to do well for himself, to live like a human. The same went for Angel.

"It's just laughable that they're that scared of Angel." Faith snorted, heading out of the crypt.

"Don't ever underestimate, Angel, Faith. I shouldn't have to tell you that," he said sharply. He didn't want Faith's overconfidence getting her killed. More importantly, he didn't want it getting him killed.

Faith just rolled her eyes. She suddenly stopped and pointed. Lindsey followed her hand and saw Angel's land-barge weaving its way up to where they were. Faith nodded her head, indicating an escape path. Lindsey let her lead the way through the cemetery, her eyesight more adapted to the dark than his. The cemetery was large and they had parked his Spider nowhere near the crypt just in case of this. He didn't want in a car chase with his little sports car and Angel's muscle-mobile. If they wrecked, Angel would be fine. Lindsey'd be fitting into a coffin, what was left of him. More importantly, he didn't want Angel to know he had been around at all.

Finally, he and Faith ducked down behind another crypt, this one more modest, older than the other. Behind it were two long slabs covering the graves that lay below them, the words barely decipherable. This was the less traveled portion of the graveyard, Lindsey realized, less amenable he supposed to vampire's living there. As they hunkered down, Faith started toying with the skin of his back just above the waist line, her fingers light and teasing. He looked at her bemused.

"What are you doing?" he whispered.

"Finishing what we started in the car."

Lindsey's first thought, selfish in the extreme, was that they had finished that. "Here? Now? With Angel in the cemetery?"

Faith's teeth shone in the moonlight as the smile threatened to consume her face. "What are you afraid of?"

"My obituary saying, he was found with no pants murdered in a graveyard," Lindsey replied and Faith laughed softly.

"Chicken."

"Very much so, yes." He grinned, but Faith didn't stop. Her finger went up and down his spine.

"Come on," she purred. "You only live once."

"That's the problem," he replied, not sure it was entirely true of Wolfram and Hart employees. He heard Angel and Gunn's voices. "Shhh."

Faith bowled him over backwards onto one of the gravestone slabs. "Oh Alex!" she panted loudly. "Yes, just like that. Oh, baby, yes!"

Lindsey froze as her voice boomed through the night air then he heard Cordelia saying something about graveyard pervs not being only in Sunnydale. Gunn chimed in with a 'I don't want to see that.' Angel called out a warning to get out of the cemetery because it wasn't safe, and then nothing but the sounds of Angel's gang deciding the vampire nest was empty and them heading out.

"See?" Faith said, as if her plan had been a great one.

Lindsey figured as long as it worked, he wasn't going to complain. "You were right."

"I'm right about lots of stuff." She nipped his ear, pulling off his shirt.

"Uh, Faith, they're gone. We can leave."

"Who wants to leave?" She stripped off her shirt. Her bra looked grey in the moonlight as Lindsey's hands fumbled with it. He knew this was a battle he'd lose.

He just hoped Angel wasn't going to be perverse and drive around looking to warn the 'kids' more sternly. Faith nearly ruined his zipper yanking his pants down. Afterwards, as she let him rest, Lindsey looked up at the stars, wondering how he had gotten this messed up and why he loved it so much.