Part 2

The floor was cold and damp, seeping through the thin material of her skirt. Cordelia knew she had to reconsider her wardrobe, ever since she found out she was a higher being she had opting for wearing thin, flowing materials in light colors. Very become of an angelic being, but not really very good when dealing with the dregs of demon society, or for laying on the floor of their lairs, something she did more often then she liked. She tried to sit up, but her stomach revolted at the idea and there was the ringing in her ears to not think about. She was sure she had just turned a pale shade of green, and fought the urge to throw up her lunch.

"Sorry if you're feeling a bit ill, side effect of sidestepping, if you're not me." Karktos looked down at Cordelia from the stone bench he sat on.

Cordelia looked down at her feet and found that they were tied together with a rope that extended to a small metal loop protruding from the floor. "You think you can hold me with rope?" She looked up at him scornfully, and began to glow. As the power traveled down her body to her feet, the rope began to smoke and burn. Within

moments the rope had completely dissintigrated, "You have no idea who you're dealing with buddy." She stood , a little shaky, but she wasn't about to stay on the floor, and show weakness to this jerk.

Karktos simply smiled. "Oh, I know exactly who I am dealing with, or should I say what I'm dealing with." He stood and walk confidently towards her, "A higher being, it's fascinating really. Your aura is so pure and bright. Almost blinding to look at. Breaking you to my will will bring me great pleasure. And don't try to escape, we are far underground and the only way in or out is sidestepping."

"My friends are so going to kick your ass when they find you."

"Ah yes, but first they have to find me, which they won't."

"What do you want!"

"You are going to be my little delivery girl."

"What! Not a chance you freak." Karktos laughed, "I admit you were not my first choice for this mission, I was going to use the witch."

"Willow?"

"Yes, her soul is tainted with past corruption, she would have been easy to break. I never expecting for you to show up. The challenge of darken the soul of a higher being was to much to pass up."

"I'll never work for you!"

"Yes, please resist, it wouldn't be nearly as fun if you made it easy." Karktos begins speaking in what sounds almost like Latin, and a circle begins to glow around Cordelia's feet. She trys to step away but her feet can't seem to move outside of the circle.

***********

"God, I'm sorry Angel, I should have done something, grabbed her or something. I quess I just freaked." Fred looks at the vampire who is still staring at the wall in the hallway.

"I just got her back."

"Cordelia is gone?" Buffy look curiously at Angel, never having seen him this upset before.

"What does he mean, he just got her back?" Willow looks over at the tall black man holding Fred's shoulders comfortingly.

"Princess has made a habit out of disappearing. Though I've never seen Angel get like this, it's usually more about breaking things and rushing head long into danger without thinking about the consequences."

" I just got her back, and I'm not losing her again damn it." Angel slams his fist into the wall suddenly, breaking through the plaster and jarring some pictures loose from their nails, causing everyone to jump.

"That's more like it."

"But is it a good thing or a bad thing?" Willows asks, not really expecting an answer.

"Okay, we have to find Cordy, and Mr. evil of the week guy." Buffy speaks up , and starts heading back to the living room. "We'll split up and swept the town. this guy has a plan and sooner or later he'll show himself. We'll split into two teams, start at the edges of town and work our way back into the middle and meet up later."

"How will we lat the others know if we find anything? We're not exactly telepathic you know." Xander completely serious, starts handing out weapons from the chest he had given to Buffy on her last birthday.

"Well, we've got our cell phones." Fred speaks up.

"Great," Buffy smiles at the girl from Texas, "We'll split you up bewteen the teams and can keep in touch that way. Let's see Xander, Fred and Spike come with me and we'll start on the north side of town. Willow, Anya and Gunn will go with Angel to the South. We'll meet back up at the Blessed Mother Cemetary in the middle of town.

We'll stop by some of Spike's old buddies and see if they know anything. Angel you go down to Willy's Place and see if you can beat some info outta him. I'm sure he'll e happy to see you again. If you see anything call the other team, and they'll come a running. Everybody got it?" All the group nods, "Alright, let's head out, we're burning moonlight."

The group starts heading for the door, Angel hangs back with Buffy.

"Sorry about the wall."

"It's alright, Xander can fix it up. This house has seen much worse then that." She smile up at him trying to lighten the tense mood and sees only frustration and anger on his face, "We'll find her."

"I know we will. And then I'm going to kill the bastard that took her." Angel heads out the door to join his team.

'He loves her' Buffy realises, 'he really loves her.'