Arezue; Desire

Chapter Nineteen: Wedding Preparations

Connor leaned back on the island frame, surveying the surrounding lobby where Wesley and Gunn were hanging up decorations. For what, he wasn't sure, but Cordelia had mentioned something about Arezue and…then he'd tuned out because he was too busy watching her lips move.

His hands instinctively curled into fists. He had no idea what was happening to him. Sometimes when Cordelia was in the room, he would start to feel funny. Sometimes, when she wasn't there, he'd miss her terribly. And for some reason – he couldn't stop thinking about her lips.

"Hey." His father's voice interrupted his deep brooding and he spun around, startled to see his father. "You okay, Con?" Connor nodded, struggling to keep from looking guilty. What his father would say if he ever found out about his son's morbid fascination with his secretary was one of his biggest nightmares.

"I'm fine." He hesitated. "Did you want – "

"Yeah." Angel cut him off, looking anxious. "I promised myself I wouldn't ask you this because, well – " His dad smiled. "I know you'd never do anything wrong." Connor nodded, feeling a bit resentful at being put down as a 'good kid' so quickly. "But, I have to know, where did you and Arezue go last night?"

"A Club." Connor answered without thinking and anger flashed across his father's face. Thinking quickly, he covered up with a laugh. "I'm just kidding, dad. Jeez," He laughed again and Angel calmed down.

"So, you guys didn't –"

"No way." Connor shook his head. "Arezue wanted to see this really boring musical down at the mall, Rent or something or the other –" Angel laughed.

"Arezue wanted to see this movie or you?" Connor played his part perfectly by blushing and Angel grinned. "Little secret, Connor," He leaned in. "I like ballet." Connor laughed.

"Cool." He paused, considering something. "Dad, if Arezue had taken me to a club – "

"I'd stake her." Angel replied without batting an eye, his expression darkening. "I'm not going to allow her to ruin your life, Connor." Connor scowled.

"She's my friend, dad." Angel shook his head.

"No, Connor, she's not. She's a twisted bi – " Connor's eyes widened at he realized where Angel was going.

"Dad!" Angel sighed.

"Just – " Angel paused, taking in the denial in Connor's eyes. "Don't trust her too much, okay?" Connor nodded and Angel started to walk away when Connor remembered something.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The man's body lay sprawled on the ground, his eyes still open; frozen in horror. His neck was twisted at a grotesque angle that Connor was sure the human body didn't bend at. The body felt cold to Connor's touch.

The body. The dead body. The body of the man that Arezue had killed. Oh god….

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Connor! Connor!" Connor snapped back to the present, struggling to breathe as the memory nearly suffocated him. "Connor?" Connor swallowed.

"I – it's nothing." He lied, avoiding his father's eyes. If Angel was willing to stake Arezue over taking him to some flashy club, then there was no telling what he'd do to Arezue if Connor told him the truth.

"Okay." According to Angel's eyes, he didn't exactly believe Connor. But Connor was the 'good kid' right? The kid that never did anything wrong?

"Arezue!" Angel called his daughter from the lobby. She walked in from the kitchen, dripping wet and holding an ice cream cone. He blinked.

"Why are you wet?" Arezue walked over to couch where he was seated addressing – envelopes? 'Hmm…probably early Christmas cards…' She mused. It was December already – although why any vampire in their right mind, especially Angelus, would celebrate a Christian holiday was beyond her.

"Tried to wash a bowl, sink wouldn't cooperate." She answered cheerfully, licking the bottom of her cone to insure she wasn't dripping all over herself. "Decided on a cone instead." Angel raised an eyebrow, wondering what 'the sink wouldn't cooperate' actually meant. He chose not to ask and instead reconciled himself with the thought that at least she hadn't gotten into any real mischief.

"Cordy and Fred are waiting for you in the office. They need you for something." One of her eyebrows rose at this but she didn't say anything. By the expression on his face, she could tell that he knew exactly why she was needed in the office but didn't want to tell her. Deciding to play along for the moment, Arezue walked to the office, strolled inside, and froze.

Every inch of the office was covered in dresses – wedding dresses to be more specific. And in the midst of it all sat Cordelia, Fred, and a man she realized was a tailor as he was holding cloth, a yardstick, a measuring tape and quite a bit of lace. A green demon that Angel had introduced earlier to her as Lorne sat in a corner, animatedly chatting away on his cell phone about something.

"No." Arezue finally managed to utter in shock as Cordelia began to usher her in. "No, no, noooooooo!" She tried to pull away but the seer had a death grip.

"Oh, quit being such a baby. This will be fun!" The woman snapped at her, rolling her eyes for emphasis and huffing angrily. "It's just in case Angel can't convince Dracula to forget about this whole wedding thing." Fred looked up, grinning from ear to ear.

"This is so fun," She beamed sweetly and Arezue had a sudden urge to eat her. "It's like playing dress up!" Cordelia nodded as she forced Arezue into a chair in front of the tailor.

"Yeah," She paused, tilting her head to the side. "Except, you know, this isn't pretend." Arezue's mouth fell open in shock as the tailor started taking measurements and everything suddenly clicked.

Wesley flipping through the yellow book, searching for phone numbers and addresses, Angel labeling envelopes, Wesley refusing to tell her where he'd gone off to – it all made sense now.

"Oh no!" She gasped out, mortified beyond belief. "Angelus is out there labeling invitations – wedding ones, nonetheless!" She attempted to make out the door but Cordelia grabbed her just in time.

"Oh, don't be ridiculous," She snapped at the vampire. "Angel had the invitations custom made this afternoon." She laughed. "Like he'd send handwritten invitations out for your wedding."

Everyone else in the room laughed at the suggestion and began to idly chat about the wedding. Cordelia wanted to know whether Arezue knew if Dracula would prefer a seven layer chocolate cake or vanilla, Lorne was worried over the fact that the furies had not returned his call about putting an anti-violence spell on the wedding hall, Fred was pondering over the subject as to how the vampire binding ritual and human weddings were and the tailor about how she ought to wear a sleeveless dress in order to direct most of attention to her petite frame and her well endowed breasts – a remark that caused Cordelia to reply that a person could not notice the C cups.

Arezue just listened silently to their chatter; she didn't really believe that this was happening to her. She rather felt as if this were all some elaborate nightmare that she would awaken from soon enough.

"This is insanity!" She finally bit out, pulling her hair away from Cordelia who was going on and on about what hairstyle she ought to choose. "I'm not getting married!" The tailor glanced inquisitively at Cordelia and Fred.

"Are you sure zat zhis one iz nought getting ze cold feetz?" He asked and Cordelia laughed.

"Oh no," Cordelia laughed, shaking her head for emphasis. "She's just off in denial land." The tailor nodded at this and turned to Arezue.

"What color would you prefer, my dear French-woman?" He asked and Arezue wrinkled her nose.

"I'm Irish, you idiot." The tailor shook his head at her.

"No, no, no! I can tell zat you 'ave French blood in you." Arezue shrugged at this.

"On my mother's side," She paused. "I'm not wearing white, by the way."" Cordelia held up a yellow dress and she emphasized, "Or any girly pastel, for that matter." Cordelia sighed.

"But yellow looks so cute on you." Arezue winced, disgusted at being referred to as 'cute'.

"I'm not cute – I'm scary!" The three people stared at her and she groaned, aggravated. "You know what, pick any color you want. It really won't matter because I'm not getting married." Cordelia rolled her eyes and began to chat away about preparation for the wedding that – according to Cordelia – would take place the following evening in the hotel lobby.

Arezue didn't bother paying any attention to the talk. She had no intention of being married at all. Vampire ritualistic weddings forced the bride to give up all their rights to their husbands – and she would never do such a thing. Angel could never force her to. She would make sure of it.

Well, at least she could laugh a little when Angel wandered into the kitchen and realized it was completely flooded.

Arezue; Desire

Chapter Twenty: Loyalties

At one thirty am, Arezue sat in Angel's car. She'd told everyone that she'd had a change of heart and wanted to prove it by celebrating her engagement. They were headed to an Italian restaurant on the high economy side of the city, that Angel insisted, wasn't all that.

Arezue was still hurting over the fact that he cared more about saving his precious money then making sure that her impromptu engagement dinner was perfect. She sighed, forcing herself to forget about something as stupid as Angel's preference of money over her.

She had to concentrate or her plan could – no, Arezue frowned. Her plans never failed, just Spike's. Whose plans sucked, she assured herself (wrinkling her nose at how she'd used the informal word 'sucks' – what had all those diction lessons been for again?).

Anyways, she forced her mind away from her ex, she had plans and she always got her way in the end.

Twenty five minutes later and the gang was seated at a table chatting about the wedding and everything else that needed to be done.

Arezue was, at the moment, glancing at the watch on her father's wrist anxiously. Lila had told her that the dimension hopping would take place at two o' clock and Arezue wasn't going to miss it. She planned on proving to Lilah exactly where her loyalties lay tonight.

"I heard that this place has a great ballroom," She started innocently, running her hand up and down Wesley's thigh under the table. "Do you think we could check it out?" There was a general acceptance from everyone except Wesley.

"I'm sorry to inform you of this, Arezue," Wesley said slowly, gently brushing Arezue's lingering hand away. "But according to the sign at the gate, the ballroom's closed for a private party tonight." Arezue formed her lips into a pout, sensing that this would be much harder then she'd expected.

"Please?" She asked Wesley pointedly, causing Angel's eyes to narrow suspiciously. She'd been acting much too agreeable lately – at first he'd assumed that she didn't want to be punished again – but this amount of sweetness from her usually meant she was up to something

"Tonight's my last night to do everything I've always wanted to do," Arezue told them all, feigning sadness. "Don't you suppose the rules could be bended just this once?"

Everyone exchanged looks of uneasiness so she tried again.

"It's not like we'd hurt anything. I just want to take a quick little peek." Angel sighed. He knew Arezue was up to something and the only way he would ever find out what it was would be if everyone played along in whatever twisted game she was playing.

"You know what," He finally said, putting his napkin on his plate. "My little girl's getting married tomorrow. Why the hell not?" Arezue smiled at his words. It was exactly one fifty nine at the moment. By the time they got there, everything would be started and it would look like a complete coincidence when everyone figured out what was going on.

2: 02 AM

The group wandered into the ballroom and froze. A portal sat in the middle of the room, spitting out demons at an alarming rate. Two humans that the group knew to be Lilah Morgan and the current Wolfram and Hart CEO stood next to the portal, talking amiably. Lilah looked up and froze.

"No!" She looked utterly shocked as Wesley, Connor, Gunn, and Angel began to fight the four demons just as the portal closed up and the girls (as well as Lorne) tried to keep out of harms way. Arezue pretended to be just as surprised as everyone else by the sight of the demons.

Lilah stared at Arezue in shock and Arezue smirked. She hadn't expected Arezue to betray her. Hadn't even considered the idea or the ramifications of it. After all, it wasn't as if someone being forced into a binding marriage would ever turn down an easy out.

Still smirking, Arezue grabbed Lilah's arm when she and her boss attempted to leave.

"It's too bad," She whispered when no one was looking. "That your daddy never thought you not to trust strangers." Arezue watched the woman angrily walk off.

Arezue stared out the window, straining to see the stars through the city lights.

"Why can't you make your own bed again?" Angel's voice demanded, breaking her out of her dream-like state. Arezue turned to him, smirk in full force.

You're not going to actually force me to make my own bed the night before my supposed wedding, are you?" She asked innocently and Angel groaned.

"There's no supposed wedding, Arezue. It's very real." Arezue rolled her eyes.

"I already told you that I'm not getting married and that's that." She paused. "Did you remember to fluff the pillows the right way?" Angel pressed his lips into a thin line and turned to go – then turned back around.

"Tonight," He hesitated. "You knew about them being there, didn't you?" Arezue considered telling him to fuck off but changed her mind.

"The brunette –" She started. "Lilah something, she offered to get me out of marrying Vlad." She told him haughtily. "But I turned her down." Angel smiled at this.

"Charlotte Jane," He sounded proud. "You chose to get married willingly." Arezue shook her head and he frowned, confused.

"No," She corrected softly. "I chose to protect my sire's honor by not betraying him." Angel smiled again.

"Goodnight, princess." He walked to the door and flipped the lights off. "Remember, tomorrow night is the first night of the rest of your life." As the door creaked shut behind him, Arezue sighed.

"No, daddy. Tomorrow night will be like any other night. I'm not getting married." Even though she felt sure of this, she tossed and turned all night long, plagued with visions of bowing at Dracula's feet and accepting him as her master.