"You ass!" she yelled, as the man woke up suddenly, a hand immediately reaching forward to rub where the stake had hit him.

"What the—"

Buffy realized who it was, and she tried to close her eyes as she realized the sleeping vampire didn't have any clothes on.

"You are the laziest freaking vampire I have ever met. Who the hell do you think you are sleeping in my apartment after just leaving Sunnydale like that?"

Angelus rubbed his head, which was throbbing from where Cora's stake had hit him.

"Will you be careful with those things?" he asked. "They're kinda dangerous you know."

"Yeah, I know," Cora said as she grabbed Buffy's steak out of her hand and threw it at Angelus as hard as she could. This time, the pointy end struck him in the shoulder, drawing blood.

"You're a bitch, you know that Cor?"

"Yeah, and you're an ass." Cora grabbed the sheets that were covering him and ripped them off.

"Hey—" Angelus began. He tried to cover his naked body up, and then he stopped. "Oh, you wanna play?" he grinned evilly.

"No, I want you to get your lazy ass up out of bed, put your clothes on, and get out of my apartment." With those final words, Cora went over to the window that was on the opposite side of her bedroom. She pulled open the blinds quickly, letting sunlight shine in directly on the bed. Angelus' body started to smoke and he jumped up quickly and, in one step, crossed the length of the room to seek shelter in the shadows.

"I'm going to kill you," he stated.

"Once again—I'd like to see you try," Cora said as she started to back out of the room.

"Oh, don't worry baby, I'm going to try really hard this time!"

"Come on, Buffy." Cora grabbed the handle on the door as she started to leave. "Hurry up, Angel. I need stuff out of here."

"Wait!" Angelus yelled as the girls turned to leave the bedroom. "I'm sure Buffy would like to play..."

Leaving the room, Cora shook her head at Angelus. The girls went to wait in the living room for the vampire to finish getting dressed. A few minutes later, Angelus walked out, with pants on but no shirt.

"I meant all of your clothes, Angel," Cora said.

"Sorry, Cora, but you kind of stabbed me. Got a towel or something?" Cora noticed for the first time that he was bleeding from where she had hit him.

"Don't use a—" she began, but Angelus had already grabbed a towel from the kitchen and was using it to wipe the blood off. "—towel," Cora finished.

"I'm going to go grab some stuff. I'll be right back," she told Buffy. As she walked by Angelus she ordered him under her breath, "Don't do anything I'll be mad at you for."

Cora went into her room and grabbed her big brown leather duffel bag out of the closet. She went to her dresser and started filling the bag with an assortment of clothes and shoes and other things. Finally, after giving the room a final glance, she left it and closed the door behind her.

As she passed through the living room to head for the bathroom, her duffel bag heavy on her shoulder, she looked at Buffy and Angelus. Angelus was still in the kitchen, leaning against the refrigerator. Buffy was standing in the opposite corner of the apartment, glaring at him. Cora laughed under her breath.

After grabbing a few things that she wanted out of her bathroom, she walked back into the living room, her bag nearly throwing her off balance. While she had been in the bathroom, Angelus must have gone back into the bedroom and put on his shirt, because he was finally fully clothed.

He walked over to Cora. "Here, let me take that for you, babe." He attempted to take the heavy bag away from her, but she let it drop to the floor instead.

"No," she said. "This doesn't work like that Angel. You don't get to walk out of Sunnydale and come live in my apartment. That's just a bit selfish don't you think?" She put her hands on her hips.

"Hello!" Angelus waved his hands at her and then pointed to himself. "Vampire, remember?"

"Yeah, that excuse worked when I was ten, Angel, not now. You're two hundred and fifty years old—vampire or not, you know what stupid is."

"Two forty-seven," Angelus interrupted.

Cora grabbed her head with her hands, pulling at her own hair. Angelus was giving her a headache. The vampire could feel, rather than see her frustration. He had practically raised the girl, and his vampire senses were extra attuned to her.

Angelus stepped behind Cora and put his hands over her wrists, gently yet firmly. He pulled them down from her head and set them at her sides. Then, after taking a handful of her hair and lying it over one of her shoulders, he started to give her a back massage.

Cora's eyes met Buffy's as Angelus started to work his hands up her shoulders. Cora rolled her eyes. It was so Angel to do something like that when she was so incredibly mad at him. After relaxing into his touch for just a moment, Cora brought her arm out to gain leverage and then elbowed him hard in the chest.

"Christ, Cora!" Angelus yelled as he doubled over. Cora spun around to face him.

She was about to remind him once again about how he had left Sunnydale even when he knew that she would need his help with whatever it was that would be coming. But before she had the chance to say anything, Angelus brought his fist back and hit Cora across the face.

Had she been in shape, not recovering from injuries, Cora could have taken the hit easily, probably returning it with one of her own almost immediately. But because of her condition, Angelus' strength literally knocked her backwards. Her back hit the corner of the coffee table as she fell. Buffy was already between her and Angelus, ready to strike.

Angelus' face was stern; his eyes narrowed at Buffy, but the Slayer saw a flash of something else in them too. Something almost similar to compassion. He hadn't expected to hit Cora that hard, Buffy realized. Something about that knowledge kept her from attacking him immediately, but she still stood ready in a fight stance.

"Buffy," Cora said as she gingerly used the coffee table to help lift herself back up. Buffy turned, expecting the girl to need her help, but she was already getting up on her own. "Don't," Cora said simply, referring to her taking action against Angelus.

Angelus just stared at Cora as she reached a standing position again, her one hand clutching where her back had hit the coffee table. A bruise was already forming on the side of her face.

She took a step towards him, but a gasp of pain shot through her before she could take her next step. She waited for the pain to subside, and then she went to stand in front of him.

It was the first time Buffy had realized how much taller Angelus was than her. Her eyes were just level with his chest.

"I need to talk to you." Cora's face was hard, her breathing heavy. "Now," she commanded.

Angelus' face was torn. He should rip the young girl's throat out. She was eighteen. He was a vampire with centuries' worth of experience and wisdom. No one, ever, vampire or human, demon or Slayer, ordered him around. And yet for some reason, the strange bond he had with this girl made him want to listen to her, want to do what she asked him.

He merely nodded, and she headed into the bedroom. Buffy watched the vampire follow her, his head hanging considerably lower than his normally cocky stance.

When they got into Cora's room again, she sat down on the bed, one hand still supporting her back, the other hand gently rubbing where Angelus' fist had hit her.

"I need you with me," she said. "You know what the thing with Buffy means." Cora's face turned grave, and she lifted one hand to Angelus' face to get his attention. "Something's coming," she continued, lifting his head up and locking her eyes with his, "Something big and something bad. I just need to know if you're with me or not. You know the curse won't bind you here—that's your decision. If you choose no, then I want you to leave, to be out of the way of the Slayer and out of my way. If you choose yes, then I need you here for me. I can't be worrying that you're going to leave the first time you have to take sides with Buffy."

"You can't ask me to do that," Angelus said, his face determined. "I can't …work…with…her," he said through clenched teeth.

"I'm not asking you to, Angelus. It's your choice. It has to be—you've never forced me to do a single thing my whole life, and you know I could never force you to either."

Angelus' eyes looked off across the room, seeing something that Cora couldn't. After a few moments, he spoke.

"Cora, I know what their doing. Grieshlin vamps. I found out last night, after I got here. There's a small sect of them in a place right outside Santa Maria. It is big, Cora. Way bigger than me or you…bigger than the Slayer has ever dealt with."

He paused to let his words sink in.

"Tur'el," Angelus said, and Cora's eyes grew wide. "They're resurrecting him, bringing him back. I don't know how…I never even knew it was possible, never had a reason to want him back myself, but that's what the Grieshlin are working towards."

"Tur'el," Cora repeated, her eyes blinking slowly as realization hit her. Her eyes met Angelus'. "Can it be done?"

"Can he be brought back?" Angelus asked, clarifying her question. "Yeah, Cora, he can. I don't know how soon, it's a pretty big deal, but it's gonna happen."

"Can we do it?" Cora asked.

"Take them down? Beat him? Stop the Grieshlin? Yeah, maybe. It'll be near freakin' impossible, but I don't think it's completely impossible."

"I want you with me," Cora said plainly. It wasn't a question, and she wasn't begging him. It was just what she knew.

"I know, kid," Angelus said, looking down again. "And this goes against everything in the world I've ever known, but I'm gonna be there. Only for you," he added, "and to keep Tur'el down. The whole world will go straight to Hell if he's risen…literally."

He reached out and, with his hand, lifted her chin up to see where the bruise had developed along her jawbone. He caressed the spot gently with his thumb.

"I'm sorry, baby," he said. Cora took his hand away from her face. Angelus dropped it and left it casually lying on her thigh.

"If I was better, it'd be fine," Cora said. She knew he felt bad. "You used to hit me all the time, Angelus."

"Yeah, when you'd fight back…it was fun. This…" he let his sentence falter as he looked at her face again.

"You're Angelus," Cora reminded him. "Demon with the angelic face," she whispered to herself. "I know who you are, and it's okay."

She took his hand, and for once he did not pull it away. She gave it a quick squeeze and then attempted to get up from her seat on the bed. Angelus saw her difficulty at rising and he quickly put a hand on her back to support her. He followed her out of the room again, one hand still pressed against her back.

Buffy had been waiting for them in the living room. As the couple returned, Buffy stood up from her seat on the couch. They looked like they had figured out their issues, she noticed. Angelus looked incredibly sincere as he led her out of her bedroom.

"He's coming back with us," Cora stated, hoping Buffy wouldn't be too upset at having to ride back with him. "If you're alright with that," she added quickly.

Buffy knew she had little choice in the matter. Even if she said no, Angelus would still return to Sunnydale, and Buffy would possibly lose an ally in Cora.

"Of course," Buffy agreed, nodding.

"We'll wait until sunset," Cora insisted, glancing at the windows. The light that shone in through the closed blinds told her that it wasn't long before sundown. "We just have an hour or so."

"Right," Buffy said, as she plopped back down into the couch. "So we wait."

Cora turned to Angelus. "Your car?" she questioned him.

"Yeah, funny story…" Angelus busied himself with looking at his hands. "I kinda left it parked outside that Grieshlin place, and when they uh, kinda noticed me, I didn't have time to get it."

Cora cocked a half smile at him. "Yeah, so you're stuck with me driving," she said.

Angelus snorted. "Yeah, if I want to die."

"You are dead," Buffy said, looking up at him.

"Slayer…" he began, but he rethought his words as he remembered that none of his threats could be carried out as long at they were both meant to help protect Cora.

"Just an hour or so…" Cora reminded herself as she sat down next to Buffy on the couch. And then a two hour drive back to Sunnydale, she added mentally, worrying already about the drive from Santa Maria to the Hellmouth.