A.N. Another chapter as promised when I last posted at stupid o'clock this morning, hope this keeps your hunger at bay Afan!
- 8 -
"How can you be so sure we'll be safe down here?"
Maria was following Cordelia further into the tunnels of the sewerage system. Her voice bounced back off the curved brick walls with a slight echo. No way had she expected the tunnels to be so roomy and relatively clean. Not that it wasn't a relief. Her image before actually getting down here had been of herself and Cordelia having to drag themselves on their stomachs through a constant stream of human effluence. Cordelia shone her torch left then right at an intersection, deciding which direction to take.
"Well. For one, Snakeass has to get past Angel and Wesley first, so we've got a good head start on him even if he does find the entrance and come after us. Also, if he did happen to come close, he'll find we're armed and mighty dangerous when I shoot his flea bitten hide full of brass."
"You sound pretty confident. Do you know how to even use that thing?"
Cordelia glanced back over her shoulder at Maria.
"Duhh!"
One more hit and Angel knew the door was going to surrender. Wesley's head suddenly popped up from behind the desk.
"I think I've got someth..."
The door gave up. As it tore away from it's hinges and flew inwards to crash land on the floor, Angel vaguely wondered how much it would cost to replace it with a nice, solid, metal one?
The Chimera stood in it's human form. It glared at Angel, bearing it's teeth before throwing it's head back and howling long and loud. In his peripheral vision Angel caught the movement of Wesley sticking his head slowly up from behind the desk again in order to get a look at the creature, then hurriedly retreating back down and out of view. Angel cocked his head to one side, his expression impassive as he met the Chimera's unblinking stare.
"You ready to play Tiddles?"
The Chimera bent at the knees a fraction, then leapt toward the vampire.
There was only a distance of around 15 yards from the doorway to where Angel grounded himself, but that's all it took for the creature to shift from human to it's animal form in mid-air. Angel sidestepped, ducking slightly as he realised that the creature's momentum was going to take it right over his head. He thrust his sword up, angling for the blurred gold of the creature's flank. He felt the tip of the sword brush along it's course pelt as the Chimera twisted in mid-air to avoid the blade. Angel grunted as something hit him on the back, hard enough to unbalance the Vampire. The Chimera landed sure footedly, whilst Angel stumbled, a fierce pain suddenly flooding through his right shoulder as something grabbed hold of it, yanking Angel towards the roaring creature - Shit...idiot move fella! - Angel internally berated himself as he half twisted towards the source of the pain, arcing the machete down across the neck of the Chimera's snake headed tail. With a high pitched scream the snake withdrew it's fangs from the vampire's shoulder and began to weave and thrash around, a deep gash across it's neck spurted dark green ichor. Angel didn't waste time watching, immediately turning his body back toward the front of the now furiously howling Chimera and, at the same time, sweeping his sword in a lateral arc, just in time to block an attack from one of the creatures front paws.
For a brief moment, Chimera and vampire stepped back away from one another; each eyeing the other, weighing up their adversary. The snake tail continued to screech and flail seemingly independently of the rest of the creature. Angel noticed blood beginning to mat the Chimera's fur on one foreleg where his blade had hit. He also noticed something else, he was beginning to feel decidedly dizzy, and a searing heat seemed to be spreading down the length of his sword arm and across his chest, emanating from the bite on his shoulder. Angel knew he was in trouble - Gimme something soon here Wes - as the venom from the snake bite began to spread through him.
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Pleeeease - Review? Just a little one? Or even a teeny weeny one? I'll accept totally microscopic if that's all anyone has time for! :O