Chapter 6

Angel awoke from his very vivid dreaming of past memories. He abruptly sat up to take in his surroundings, slightly wincing at the pain in his abdomen from his injury. And then he remembered. This was his "enemy"s house. Enemy. Even now the word sounded funny to him. He could never call Buffy his enemy, despite her family name. But things can change. And that's the way the world unfolds.

He slowly pushed away the sheets and with one swift movement, his feet felt the coldness of the smooth granite flooring. He picked up a wife-beater lying around and walked out of the room.

Buffy was sitting alone at the breakfast island sipping coffee when she caught a glimpse of Angel coming down the stairs.

"Buon giorno," he greeted nonchalantly as he entered the kitchen .

"Morning. How's the wound?" she asked.

"Looks like shit. Feels like shit. Getting better all the same," he replied. He took a look around, then he asked, "Are we the only people awake?"

"Yup."

"So what was all that about earlier in the morning?"

She looked down at her mug of coffee before quickly answering, "It was nothing."

Angel pulled out a stool from under the counter and plopped down right next to her.

"Wanna' tell me about it?" he asked thoughtfully. One of the quirks that came with the Vitale boss was that he could be so sweet when he wanted to be. Buffy always loved his sincerity when they were together.

"Not really, no. I honestly don't think you'd want to listen to me go on and on about it."

"So anyway," she continued, quickly changing the subject. "What happened last night when you got shot?"

Angel scratched his chin before replying in a bitter tone, "So as it turns out, the Fasolas were working with that son of a bitch cardinal too." Buffy listened intently.

"Remember Virgilio? That shrimpy little boy that we used to always pick on?"

She nodded in response.

"Well he grew up to be not only a very small-made man, but a dim-witted one too. One that thought he could get away with trying to take me down." He scoffed. "And they made him Don!"

"What about the body?" she wondered.

"Rotting in an alley," he said simply.

Just then, his cell phone ran. The moment he picked it up he let out a huge sigh. "Si," he answered.

"What do you want Lorne?" he demanded into the phone.

"A letter's been sent here for you. It's got no return address or name attached to it. There is, however, a seal on it with a familiar mark. I can't seem to place it anywhere though. Also, there's blood on it." The man spoke from the other side of the line in a worrying tone.

"When did you get this letter?" Angel asked.

"Just this morning. Cathy woke up this morning and found this in the mailbox. What should I do with it? Are you gonna' give me permission to open it, or do you wanna' see it for yourself?"

"Bring it over here, to Los Angeles, in person, and take a few of the boys with you. Fred can come too. Ciao." And he ended the call.

"Who was that?" Buffy asked innocently with a questioning look.

"My boy Lorenzo, back at home in New York. I think we've got ourselves into more trouble than we thought." He stopped talking to think for a second.

"There's a letter addressed to me in New York with no return address. It's got a familiar seal on it. My sister found it this morning. My men are bringing it over here," he summarized.

"Okay. So what's the big deal? People get letters like that all the time. And how do you know it's important? Did you read it?"

"Like I said, my men are bringing it over here so I can see it with my own eyes and open it myself. It may or may not be significant, but when there's blood involved, it automatically is." He took a moment to think before adding sarcastically, "Or maybe the mailman just cut himself really badly and bled all over the letter, which, might I add, is highly unlikely."

"Come, Buff. Let's go workout. We should train and prepare just in case," he suggested. For once he actually was sort of interested in his job, in the sense of not being interested in the slightest, but it would keep his mind off his golden-haired beauty for a while.

Down in the training room, things were getting extremely intense. When Angel fought harder, Buffy fought harder, and vice-versa. They were perfectly in sync. They moved so gracefully together, it was like an art.

The moment Buffy threw a punch, she missed her target. Then she decided on a different move. She swung around and executed a perfect roundhouse kick -and Angel ducked, causing her to lose her balance. While she struggled to get back to her fighting stance, he punched her, kicked her, shoved her to the ground, and made his way on top of her... In a very awkward position. For moments that felt like hours they were breathing hard, staring at each other intensely, never losing focus. Angel suddenly found himself doing something that he once swore never to do again.

He kissed her.

He kissed the girl so sweetly that she felt intoxicated (in a good way). He was so warm all over. All he could smell was her. All he could see was her. All he could taste was her. All he could feel was her.

Her.

Buffy.

Feeling his lips on her lips, she couldn't think. Feeling his chest against her chest, she felt like she almost couldn't breathe. Feeling his arms around her, she felt so safe. For the first time in years, Buffy finally came home.

And all of a sudden, neither cared that they were supposed to be enemies, that he was a Vitale and she was a Marciano. The only thing that they cared about was how much time they had left in this heated kiss before they pulled away.

Cambridge, MA, near Boston

2002

Harvard University

North Campus

They had both just gotten back from the airport, where he was supposed to have left town on family business, when they had been ambushed and had ran away back to his dorm. That was when he first realized that they were going to be in grave danger, but he let it slide.

Sitting on the bed and sniffling from the cold, Buffy stiffly took off her sweater. She grimaced, a wound on her shoulder blade making its presence.

"What?" Angel worried.

"Oh...um...it's ok, I just have a cut or something," she answered.

He couldn't stand the thought of her in pain, so he just had to do something about it.

"Can I -Let me see."

"Ok," she said tentatively.

He slowly sat down on the bed beside her and gently slid a strap of her shirt down to take a look at the cut.

"It's already closed. You're fine."

Carefully, she leaned back on his chest. She sighed as he held her protectively.

"You almost went away today," she stated quietly.

"We both did," he clarified.

"Angel...I -I feel like I almost lost you." She felt tears coming to her eyes.

"Shhh," he hushed her up.

"I-," he started. She turned around to look him straight in the eye. "You what?"

He swallowed hard and went through ideas in his head on how to tell her this.

"I love you," he blurted out with no thought. "I try not to but I can't stop."

"Me -me too, I can't either," she stuttered.

She leaned her forehead against his. Slowly, she gave him a bittersweet kiss. They kissed each other as if it was the only thing keeping them going. Their lips danced together for a few moments before he slightly pulled away.

"Buffy maybe we shouldn't." She pulled his face to hers once more.

"Dammit! Just kiss me!" she chastised.

And he did. The kiss quickly grew more and more heated as they pulled each other closer. He kissed her so sweetly that she almost melted in his arms.

Screw it! he thought right before pulling her down onto the bed with him.

"Angel! Your men are here!" Dawn called from above, interrupting their heated moment. Angel quickly got up from his awkward position and jogged up the stairs as fast as possible.

"Lorne, Gunn, Doyle, Fred!" he exclaimed at the sight of them.

"Hey Boss," Doyle greeted.

"Hey Angel," Fred said perkily.

"Angel, man! What's up?" Gunn asked. Angel just shook his head in response.

"Alright, Angel Cakes. Here it is." Lorne handed him the mysterious letter. Angel took the letter from his hand, ignoring the name Lorne had given him. "Grazie," he thanked. Cautiously, he he opened it, breaking the seal. He pulled out the letter and read silently:

Godfather Angelo Dante Vitale,

You are such a disgrace to your family. What do you think your father would have said if he found out about your fooling about with the Marciano girl? I tried warning him about you, but he refused to listen. That's his loss. You think you are in possession of all the power. True, but not for long. When I take down your precious little empire and that of your sweetheart's, you will bow to me and beg for mercy. You've caused enough trouble. You have managed to escape my plans for you plenty a time. You destroyed every last bit of faith and hope that I had years ago. Now it's my turn. You cannot win this battle. Not this time. Now I'm stronger than all of you scum combined. I will destroy you. I suggest you hand everything to me before it's too late, and in return you will get to keep your life. Fasola and that wretched Cardinal chose to fight on my side, because everyone's lost hope in you.

It's your choice. I know you're smart, my boy.

As Angel finished reading the letter, written entirely in Italian, he looked up and clenched his teeth together. There was something so familiar in those neatly written words that he couldn't place. There was silence before he finally regained the will to speak.

"I... We need to go back to New York. We need to make sure everyone's alright." he said. "Buffy," he addressed the Dona, who looked up. "Don't let your family out of your sight. Make sure you analyse everything. Maybe consider looking for a traitor, even. Do NOT take any shortcuts and watch your back." She nodded in response.

"Dona! A letter came for you. It looks like there's blood on it. There's no return address," her mother yelled. Buffy looked pointedly at Angel.

"Change of plans. We can't stay here any longer. None of us can. We're going back home, to Italy. All of us," he spoke to everyone. "Spike, make a phone call to New York. Tell them to pack their bags and ready the jets.

"Angel what is happening to us?" Buffy asked worriedly.

"War is happenin' baby."