Arezue; Desire

Chapter Eighteen: A Fair Deal

Summary: Lilah Morgan finally makes an appearance and a deal is struck.

The line in front of Club Infinity was enormous and chalk full of over weight men, women in just too much leather, teenagers with too much makeup on as they tried to seem older then they obviously were and people with absolutely no chance of ever getting in. Connor stared open mouthed at the line.

"We're going to wait that long?" His voice was full of disbelief. Arezue rolled her eyes at his ignorance, wishing that they were already so that she could just ditch the idiot.

"No." Her statement left no room for rebuttal as she pulled him to the front of the line. "We're going in right now." People unceremoniously booed and shouted at them as they passed by.

"Hey! Who the hell do you think you are?" The bouncer demanded, stepping Arezue's way as she was about to walk in.

"Get the fuck out of my way." She drawled, running her cold eyes over the balding man. He gawked at her and she rolled her eyes.

"For all that is unholy and evil - this is pathetic." She shook her head as her face morphed to that of demons. The man screamed in horror, falling back, his fear tangible in the air. Smirking at him, Arezue reached up, snapped his neck and tossed him away like a broken doll.

The moment they stepped inside, Connor grabbed her arm and spun her around so that she was facing him.

"What did you do to him?" He demanded angrily, scowling in such a way that it sent Arezue back to a time when Angel had scowled at her just the same. Her eyes narrowed into a glare.

"You might want to watch yourself, Sparky!" She spat at him, disgusted by his show of morals. "Keep going on like this and you'll be exactly like the old man." She started to turn away but Connor stopped her.

"What," He repeated. "did you do to him?" Arezue sighed, the lie coming easily to her.

"Just knocked him out for a while." Connor didn't look at all convinced but Arezue walked away anyways, not really caring whether he believed her or not. "Check on you in an hour loser. Avoid the prostitutes in the back unless you've got a sock handy."

She walked away, leaving a gaping Connor behind. Sauntering over to the bar, she smiled flirtatiously at the bartender.

"Bloody Mary with ice, please."

"Check on you in an hour loser. Avoid the prostitutes in the back unless you've got a sock handy." Connor watched Arezue walk in shock. What on earth was he supposed to do all alone in an adult club with – Connor frowned.

People with purple hair and metal spike bracelets? One of them brushed past Connor and he took a step back – it seemed to him that somehow these teenagers were much scarier then demons for some reason.

'Purple hair…' He frowned. 'Why would anyone want purple hair?' He wandered past the bar where Arezue was glaring angrily at the bartender and over to the back where everything was so much darker. He wanted to get as far as possible from the barzohai demon that was staring at him like it wanted to eat him.

"Hey gorgeous…" A blonde in dark makeup brushed his arm. "Looking for some fun?" Connor blinked.

"Um," He shrugged, not seeing anything wrong with her offer. "Sure. What do you want to do?" The blonde looked at him as if he was an idiot.

"Gee," She frowned as if deep in thought. "Well, I'm a prostitute so…" She gave him an annoyed look and Connor lit up, remembering what Arezue'd said.

((Avoid the prostitutes in the back unless you've got a sock handy))

He glanced down at his shoes and grinned. He had two socks which was one more than Arezue had said he'd need.

"What exactly do you need the sock for?" He couldn't help but ask as he started to pull his shoe off. The blonde laughed.

"You can leave your clothes on, just unzip your pants and I'll get the condom." Connor was mystified. Didn't the blonde prostitute woman need his sock? And what the hell was 'a condom'?

And Angel had never answered his question, what exactly was a prostitute?

((A long time ago, when I was human, I had a daughter)) The words rang through his head. ((That means he knocked up a prostitute at the local brothel))

"If I give you my sock does that mean I've 'knocked you up'?"

"Straight whiskey with ice, please." The bartender didn't move and Arezue scowled, annoyed with the human's incompliance. "I said please you prick, now move it." The man's eyebrow rose.

"I'd ask for an ID but I know better." He moved on to the next customer and Arezue blinked, momentarily shocked at being brushed off. Sure she was wearing a knee length yellow dress fit for a four year old in everyone's eyes but her father's – but nobody was allowed to just walk away from her and –

"One straight whiskey and one Bloody Mary with ice." A brunette woman in her early twenties told the bartender, sliding onto the stool beside Arezue and effectively breaking her out of her thoughts about how she was going to scream until she got what she wanted.

"Lilah Morgan." She introduced herself and Arezue scowled.

"Go away or I'll bite you, you stupid annoying –" It was an understatement to say that Arezue became irritable when she didn't have any alcohol in her system. And the fact that Angel had taken away her cigarettes did nothing to improve her attitude.

"It's on me." Lilah interrupted her, handing her the whiskey. Arezue took the drink from her then purposely let go of it, letting the glass fall and shatter into a million pieces on the floor. Much to Arezue's displeasure, the brunette didn't bat a lash, instead calmly taking a sip of her drink.

"Gee," Arezue smile sweetly. "I would but my daddy thought me never to drink with strangers." Smirking, she turned to go – she did have to go find that law firm - when the brunette spoke.

"I'm with Wolfram and Hart." Arezue froze. "And I was told you needed some help with a vampire known as Dracula…" Arezue turned to face the woman.

"What do you want?" The brunette signaled to the bartender for another drink as Arezue sat back down.

"Oh, just a little party." She glanced at Arezue over her glass. "I was told you might be willing to compromise." Arezue took the glass that Lilah offered her.

"Party…" She smiled sweetly. "Now you're talking my language." Lilah Morgan smirked; this was surely the deal that would put her at the top of the food chain at Wolfram and Hart.

"Tomorrow morning, 2 am. My firm is hosting a – welcoming party – for a few subspecies." The lawyer told her as if talking to an old friend. "Of course, we're afraid someone might just convince Angel to crash so it's your job to keep him busy at the time."

"I do this and you get rid of Dracula." Arezue surmised and Lilah nodded the affirmative.

"And, afterwards, you rid us of Angel" She shrugged. "Tomorrow night's just to test your loyalty, standard procedure." She paused. "It seems like a fair deal to me…" Arezue smirked.

"Done." The two clinked glasses, both their minds calculating and devising at the speed of light. Both women were evenly matched – except, maybe, perhaps, Arezue was much more cunning. Only time would tell.

Connor stared silently at the former doorman's cold dead body. Arezue had told him that she'd just knocked him out for a while so he'd figured he should go back and make sure it was nothing serious.

Arezue'd lied to him; she'd really killed the doorman. Just because she wanted to.