FicWad

The vampire stirred in his sleep then suddenly, he sat up. He looked around, wild-eyed. It hurt and he knew what was happening. Then the pain was over and he relaxed. He brought his hands up and looked at them, flexing them. He got out of bed and stretched. "Man, how good can it get?" He headed for the closet, opening it and looking for something in particular. "What to wear...what to wear?" he said as he stepped on in. Finally, he stepped out, dressed. "I am so going shopping."

Cordelia thought she had heard Angel talking to himself. That was kind of strange. He usually didn't do that. She got out of the tub, reaching for her bathrobe and a towel to put her hair up in. She reached over to turn off her radio, calling out to Angel. "Baby? Are the twins home?" She could normally hear them though. Ian at least, was so boisterous and loud. She imagined a lot of time that is what Angel was like when he was a young boy in Ireland.

Angelus grinned when he heard that voice. Oh, he knew a set of twins he'd like to get hold of. "Nobody here but you and me, sweetheart," he called to her.

She unlocked the bathroom door and poked her head out. "Who on Earth were you talking to?" She looked him over, frowning slightly. She thought they had gotten rid of all the leather pants once Wes took care of the curse. Angel probably hid one pair. So like him, the secret keeping, even if it was with pants. Why should she instantly think leather pants equals Angelus? She hadn't had to worry about him for years.

"Uh, no, I just had the radio on a moment," he said as he stepped toward her.

She stepped out of the bathroom now. She had to get dressed, brush out her hair, and figure out what sort of ready meal she was going to make for the twins and her. Green Giant was a God in her world. Toss it in a pan, even she couldn't screw that up. "Don't forget tomorrow, you have to go pick Lorne up at the airport. I know your memory is all...woodeedoo."

"I tell you what," he said, though looking at her he was thinking what a delicious main course she would be. "I'm going to go see if the twins are back yet."

"Can you please make sure that Ian washes his hands? Tell him that he is killing small demons or something. Oh! And tell Connor and Lillian they can come down for dinner too. The kids and I never eat one of those meals all by ourselves."

"I think I can handle that," he said as he backed away, reaching for the door with his hand behind him. He was nearly free to go out and have fun. "Have one big family dinner."

"Uh...aren't you forgetting something here?" She stood there with her hands on her hips. Even in a bathrobe and towel around her head, she still managed to look pretty menacing. She was sporting the sort of look would usually send Angel back to her and apologetic.

"Forget?" he said with a raised brow. "Yeah, yeah, forget to..." And he moved to her to give her a quick kiss on the cheek. He had to make with the business as usual or he would be downstairs in that cage faster than you could say bloodbath. He was out and he wanted time to play. He could take down each member of this "family" one at a time. Then he'd be free for good.

"Much better." That menacing look faded away. It was replaced by a smile. She didn't even wait for him to leave before she went to her closet to get dressed. She yawned though and peeked out to check the clock. She still had time for a nap before dinner.

Angelus left the room and stood in the hall a moment. He got that shit-eating grin on his face. Oh, he'll have his way with Cordelia and her twins, plus every other part of her before it was all over with but he liked to savor things. And he wanted his freedom. The longer he was out of the cage, the stronger he got and the more difficult it was to pull that white, fluffy soul from the ether. This was a different world from where he and Angel had come from and he was going to make it his, one victim at a time. He moved down that short hall that was left to the stairs. He went down them, whistling as he did. Down in the lobby he stopped and his gaze went out to the garden where he saw a young woman sitting. She was pretty and she smelled....smelled of Connor. "My, my," he said, "my boy is finally looking to woman who's not a mother figure." That was the memory from the dimension he and Angel were from: Connor and Cordelia. That was even..almost to sick for him...almost. Angelus stepped on to that door. The sun had gone down enough that the garden was shaded completely. He walked out to the young lady.

Lillian had been granted a momentary reprieve from babysitting the twins with Connor while he took them out for some ice cream. She had passed in favor of staying at the hotel and recharging for a few minutes. She had no idea how Cordelia and Angel did it. Kat, well she pretty much took care of herself but Ian's energy more than made up for the two of them combined. At least Connor had been the one to oblige him with his wrestling and climbing games. But the simple fact was that just watching the kid had exhausted her. She yawned, covering her mouth, when she saw Angel standing there. She quickly lowered her hand, smiling softly. "Angel, hi..."

Angelus stepped forward. "Lillian, or Lily," he said, "I don't know which you prefer."

"I've gone by both of them. Grams was pretty strict with the names so it was always Lillian. But I let people get away with Lily. Whatever people feel like at the time, I guess. I am easy like that." She grinned at him as she shrugged her shoulders. She pulled her legs up to sit with them crossed on the bench in the garden.

"I knew a girl back in the day named Lily," he stopped in front of her and looked up. "She was a sweet thing." Though his head was tilted up, his eyes glanced down at her.

At least Angel was being a bit more sociable towards her. It was a step in the right direction towards the old Angel. She smiled at him. "Well, I bet you knew someone with every name in this place at some time. Being so old." Her tone was just a gentle teasing though, about his age. She was feeling rather...uncomfortable. She couldn't place why. Just an overall feeling of unwellness.

"Does my age bother you?" he asked as he lowered his head. "I know age doesn't disturb Connor."

"Why would it..." She paused for a moment. What was that comment suppose to mean? She looked confused for a moment there. "Huh? Connor and I are the same age. What do you mean?"

The vampire raised a brow. "Oh, wow," he said. Oh, this was so sweet. It was going to be so fun. Soul gone for less than a half-hour and he already found a delicious victim. "You mean you didn't know?"

"Don't know about what?" She looked completely out of the loop at this point. Was there something Connor hadn't told her? They hadn't done much of the past relationship talk before. Mostly when they were sneaking around, it was gropefest. It didn't leave a lot of openings for talking.

"I would really hate for you to go into a relationship with my son and him not tell you everything," Angelus put on such a look of concern on his face. He reached for her hands and sat down on the garden bench next to her.

She let him take her hands as her eyes searched his face. He was really putting her in a state now. What could Connor possibly be hiding from her? It sounded like it was something really terrible. "What do you mean?"

"Lily," one only had to listen to the sympathy in his voice to be convinced of his "concern". "Lily, Connor has had a thing for his step mother for like, ever. Its been really hard at times, especially when we've sat at the same dinner table and he casts those looks at her."

"What?" She gave a nervous chuckle. There is no way that was true. "Connor doesn't feel that way about Cordelia...there's no way." But there was the faintest hint of doubt in her voice. Especially after what Connor said last night. That he was only nice to Angel for Cordy. She gave it no thought then but now...it was stuck in her mind.

Angelus caught the hint of doubt in her voice and had to suppress his smile. He nodded, concerned look still on his face. "Yes, yes, I'm afraid it is. I so hate it that he wasn't honest with you about this. Now when you are in his bed you will ask yourself, am I what he wants or is it his mother?"

She got up from that bench, yanking her hand free from his. "No. You are wrong. He...he doesn't feel that way. There is no way that he feels like that. He isn't..." She was going to say that he wasn't that messed up but she knew that was a lie. Connor had a very rough life. He wasn't normal by any stretch of the imagination but neither was she. He had...his moments where she doubted his sanity for a brief second.

Angelus was in his element now. He loved the mental torture as much as the physical. Drusilla was a testament to that. He moved up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. "And truthfully, I think the same night...after night..after night because I've seen her returning his wanton gazes."

She pulled away from him and turned around to face him. "Now I know that is a lot of crap. I've heard the stories, I've seen the pictures, and I have seen you two around each other. There is no way that Cordy is even remotely interested in Connor like that." He had tipped his hand. He didn't have the knowledge that both Cordy and Angel had taught at the school. That Lily had seen them act around each other. And that she had seen Connor and Cordy. She could buy that sometimes Connor looked a bit strangely at his mom but not that it was returned.

"Lily, I wished it were. I just don't think you know him or Cordy as well as you think you do."

"If you doubt your wife that much, that is your problem. I don't know what is going on in that head of yours so maybe you just think you remember things you don't." She went to move past him. She knew the ice cream place that Connor took the twins. She didn't want to let this sit and fester. She wanted to ask him about it right now.

As she moved past, he grabbed her and spun her around to him. His face vamped out and a maniacal grin parted his lips, showing those sharp and lethal fangs. "I remember a helluva lot, especially the taste of slayer blood." He pulled her closer and his head was down at her neck.

There was that first bit of shock as she got spun around and pulled towards Angelus. Just a brief 'what the hell is going on here' before her instinct kicked in. She used her free hand to punch him in the stomach, causing him to stumble back and away from her neck.

Angelus straightened up. "I wish I could say you knocked the wind out of me, but hey, I don't have any." Quickly grabbing her, he head-butted her with his ridged brow then tossed her. "You just really don't want to make this easy, do you, Lily? I was going to go easy on you, because, truthfully, I like you and I just want to put you out of your misery of having to be with that weird fruit of The Soul's loins."

The head-butt was enough to make Lillian dizzy so she didn't have a chance to fight him off when he picked her up and tossed her. She landed in a rose brush, the thorns tearing her clothes and flesh. The scent of her blood in the air would just be yet another incentive. She got up quickly, grabbing a stake from against her ankle. She was a Slayer; she had to be prepared. "I really don't do the cheesy fight conversation." She came at him with three hard and fast punches to his face to knock him back once more.

Angelus stumbled back but he was laughing. "Oh, man, I see why he likes you in his bed. You can fight and you are dingy. Are you sure you and Jessica Simpson weren't separated at birth?"

Now she resented that. She went to college. She got a degree. While he was busy laughing, she brought her leg up to kick him in the stomach. If she could get him on his back, it would be easier for her to stake him. She was the stake first, ask questions later type of Slayer.

When her leg came up, he got it and held her there for a moment. "No thanks, I'm a breast man." Then he made a sharp twist of her leg wanting to hear that rewarding snap sound.

She managed to pull her leg out of his grasp before he could break her ankle. At least all of those training sessions at the Academy might be starting to pay off. Granted, she had never faced down a vampire as old as Angel...or whoever this was in Angel's body. She took a more defensive stance, waiting on his next move.

"Niiiiice," he said. "Oh, I guess I better properly introduce myself. See, Cordelia kept believing that Angel's mind was swiss cheese from something messing with him," he walked around her slowly, like a tiger stalking its prey. "When, in fact, we're from another dimension. A place where, yes, Connor bumped uglies with Cordelia and an Apocalypse destroyed everything...it was glorious. And now, thanks to Cordy, I'm free because whoa, man...was it perfect last night!"

She watched him as he started to circle her. At this point, she didn't believe a word that he was saying. She was quick to turn so that he never had her back. "Now is this where you keep monologuing at me and tell me your big evil plan?"

"I just wanted you to know who's going to kill you," the vampire said. "I like to always toot my own horn, you know?" He lunged for her.

She jumped out of the way when he lunged at her. While he was in the motion of moving, she brought the stake down into his back. She missed his heart though. She was never good with the hitting on target from the back. The stake lodged in and now, now she was weaponless. When in doubt...she took off like a shot, trying to get to the street. She had no idea that it was just the hotel proper protected by the anti-violence spell. If she knew that, she would have turned and headed inside.

Angelus got up. His demon faced screwed in a wince and his hand reached around behind him to pull out the stake. "Damn, that really puts me in a bad mood." He was off after her. He went over the wall and then came down in front of her. He grabbed her, then quickly sunk his teeth into her neck.

Lillian had enough time to scream out one name in a cry for help. "CONNOR!" She felt that sharp prick as Angelus sunk his fangs into her. She never imagined that the pain would be so intense. She struggled as best as she could. She would not give up. She had to get away from him. He would kill her if she didn't. She knew that.

He fed greedily on her. He had to heal that stake wound. And she was a Slayer. He suddenly stopped. He raised his head, hearing something. He looked back down at her. "Sorry, babe," Angelus said, "we'll have to continue this later." He dropped her and took off, disappearing into the night.

Angelus had taken so much from her already. When he dropped her, she didn't even have the strength to help herself from slamming against the sidewalk. Her head smashed against the concrete, her limbs bent at odd angles. She looked like a broken Barbie doll.

Connor came running from the street and then into the garden. He told the twins to get inside and upstairs now. He could sense the danger and smell the blood. He paused a moment, looking around, and then he saw her. "LILLIAN!" He was at her side instantly.

She was too weak to speak. Her pulse was faint as she tried to fight for her life. She was just bleeding out from too many places. She had the scratches from the rose brush, the puncture wounds, and now the head wound. She was unresponsive. She couldn't even hear Connor's voice.

Picking her up, he rushed her into the hotel. "MOM! FRED!" He called for anybody at this point. Where was everyone?!

She was limp in his arms. Her head fell back over his arm. She was starting to turn cold and pale. Her heart was fighting hard, each beat sounding more and more desperate.

Pulling out his phone, he called 911. He gave all the information to the operator, trying to make the bored-sounding woman realize the gravity of the situation. He hung up and looked back down at Lillian. Then he noticed her neck. "Nooo...." But his voice was drowned out by the wail of sirens.

Upstairs, Cordelia had woken up from a nap. She had slept through the sirens, the commotion in the garden. Then again, she could sleep through a nuclear blast. She even slept through the twins coming upstairs and ruining their dinner by raiding the Hostess cupcake stash. But now, several hours later, Cordelia was beginning to get very worried. The family dinner she planned had ended up just being her and the twins. Connor and Lillian were no place to be found. Angel was gone as well. She had fed the twins, spent some time watching television and coloring with them before she put them to bed. Now it was just the long wait until someone came back to either watch the kids so she could go fight or get a vision or wait for someone to drop by the hotel to say hello. She flipped channels, sighing. She was bored. She looked upwards. "Powers...Vision would be good. Or something at least."

And as if someone had heard her, the phone rang. It was the hotel line. Better for her to watch the twins and still take calls for the business when no one was around. Fred was usually fine at manning the front desk. She was more than a little worried that neither her nor Wes had checked in. She answered the phone, muting the television. "Angel Investigations. We help the helpless."

"Mom," Connor said as he paced in Lillian's hospital room. He was using the hospital room phone and the only number he could remember in his state was the office number.

"Connor? What on Earth is going on? When I woke up, the twins were here alone, covered in ice cream and stuffing their faces with junk food. Everyone else was gone." She paused for only a beat. Her first instinct was that the demons attacked the Slayer Academy again. "Was there another attack on the school?"

"Lillian," he said, his voice choked. "Vampire..."

She sat up straighter on the couch. "Oh honey...Is she...?" Her voice trailed off. She didn't want to ask if she was dead. That meant they were going to have to cut off her head, make sure she didn't rise again. And Connor wasn't strong enough to do that. She didn't think any of them were.

"We're at the hospital," he said. "She's alive. She was attacked in the alley behind the hotel."

Now the vampires were moving in on their turf? Maybe it was some group after the twins. They only ever had a problem with Wolfram and Hart for the first year, trying to get the twins. But you beat them up enough; they learn which battles to stay away from. "You just stay there with her. Is she conscious? Can she tell you what the vampire looked like?"

"No. She's asleep," he said. "The doctors want her to stay that way for a few hours yet." He paused then continued, "I'm going to go, she needs me. If you can, let Dad know?"

"I am going to make sure he gets back here and he investigates around. Maybe he can pick up on a smell or something. Just stay with her, honey. When we can, we will come to the hospital."

"Thanks," he hung the phone up and looked back to Lillian. He sat down next to her, taking her hand. He brought it to his forehead as he closed his eyes.

Cordelia hung up the hotel phone after Connor hung up. She reached for her cellphone. She had been so on Angel about answering his phone the past few years. So many emergencies could happen with the twins. She passed him off one of the hotel spares since he didn't have his when he got back. She dialed that one, hoping it wouldn't ring out of the bedroom.

Angelus strode through the streets of L.A. enjoying the freedom of being out. As he walked, he heard something. He stopped and reached into the pocket of his duster. Grinning, he answered the cell phone. "Well, heelloo, lucky you to be talking to me."

She couldn't even joke at a time like this. She frowned. "Angel, where are you?"

"Well, that's a good question, babe," he said. "As far as I know floating around in the Ether where he belongs."

"Haha, very funny. Come on now, cut it out. We have a serious situation here at the hotel. I need you to come home. Now."

"Serious," Angelus gave a mock tone. "Serious as in Connor's little bitch was made a snack? Oh, yeah, been a while since I had Slayer for dinner. Though the last time I did, the Slayer was spiked. Have to get Faith back for that. Man, how unfair can that be, I tell you? I wanted to yell date rape."

The initial urgency had waned and she was able to really listen, to really hear that tone. She knew that tone. It was all too familiar. They had to let Angelus out once before so that they could resoul Angel permanently. It took them nearly a week to catch him again after he managed to get free of the cage. She swallowed hard. "How?"

"Well, do I have to tell you?" he asked. "Are you into phone sex, Cordy, babe? Can you recreate the moans you made? Hmmm, when you came and how you tightened on my hard cock in you," Angelus recounted, "Well, Angel's but I was there. Waiting...and enjoying."

'Why now?' was all Cordelia could ask herself. The resoulling had been fine for years and years. There was no curse. She had to get him back to the hotel, back to where she had tranqs and there was an anti-violence spell. She tried very hard not to sound disgusted. "Why should I fake it? Why don't you come back here and make me moan yourself?" Why did she ALWAYS end up as baitgirl?!

He chuckled. "Oh, it would be so tempting but I have so many people to do and babies to eat."

Think, Cordelia...think. What does Angelus like more than anything? That was easy, sticking it to Angel. "Yeah, but Angel doesn't care as much about those random people as he does about the ones in this hotel." Why couldn't he be stupid like just about every other vampire in the world?

"Hmmm, interesting point," Angelus said as he leaned on the wall of a building. "But I remember once before that your pet horny demon put that antiviolence spell on the place." He glanced around. He watched a couple of skaters go by and was thinking Meals on Wheels. "Now if I were stupid, which I'm not, I'd consider it. But as beautiful and all that you are and last night...I can stay out here in the city and find all the pleasure I can handle and then some."

She paused for a moment. Okay, change of plans. Insult him. Always seems to work when you go right for his masculinity. "What's wrong? Don't think you can handle me? Just worried that Angel was more of a man that you are?"

"Again, babe, how stupid to you take me for?" He started walking again. Could she hear the carousel now? Where there are painted ponies, there are kiddies. And children make such divine snacks. "I'm not Spike, Cordy. I thought you'd learned that by now. The big difference between me and that pussywhipped Angel is in the end...you'd be dead. No can do as long as you're in the hotel."

"Can't blame a girl for trying, now can you?" She heard the sounds in the background. He was down by the boardwalk. She had to warn Gunn and Faith. Her fingers were already on the landline phone upstairs, dialing the number for the school. She kept him on the phone, then she kept him away from killing things. "What, you aren't going to turn me? Not even worth being around for eternity. I'm hurt."

"Well, you got the looks, babe, but the mouth," Angelus commented, "yak, yak, yak...Gotta look at the picture in the long run. So, I think I'll find me a happy meal here and I really don't like to talk while I'm eating. Maybe I'll catch you around town."

She couldn't let him get off the phone. She pushes the hotel phone into the couch as she heard the machine for the school pick up. She didn't want his vampire hearing to catch it. Once it beeped, she put it to her other ear. "Angelus, I am the only one that knows you are out. Which makes me a serious threat to you getting to stay and play. You tell me where you are and we can settle this once and for all."

"Yes, babe, you make a good argument there," he admitted. "But how do I know you won't broadcast it all over the 11 o'clock news as soon as I hang up? And settling this, you know what that will mean, which doesn't necessarily mean I have to drink you dry to do it. There are so many other ways to hurt you I just can't count them. Thinking of them, ah, well, I start to get a hard on."

"Who's to say you are going to win? Get right down to the matter, you are nothing more than a coward. And why would I tell anyone else? You don't think I know I can take you on myself. In that big empty head of yours, I know you are more than aware that I do like to run headlong into danger alone." Which, when she paused to think about it, was sadly the truth.

Now he laughed. "Oh, man, Cordelia, you are making my pants so uncomfortable." Angelus paused in his walk. "And telling you where I am, uh, I don't think so. You see, I have serious trust issues going. I think I need to really see somebody on that but I just don't have time right now." The sounds of the amusement park are loud now. The games, the rides, it was a perfect hunting ground.

"Glad to know I could help. I'll be seeing you soon." Just to further piss him off, she hung up on him. She turned her attention to the phone that was picking up her conversation at the Slayer Academy. "He's near an amusement park or something. He already attacked Lillian. Don't take any of the girls, this is our kind of a mission. I will meet you guys there." She hung up that phone as well.

Angelus looked at his phone. "Bitch," he said then he tossed it over his shoulder and moved on. The midway was always a good place to find a snack, no matter what century. Seems the amusement parks of this time were...well, far better because they didn't pack up and were much...much...much bigger. Angelus walked among the crowds, studying each of them he passed. He was looking for that one in the herd that needed to be culled out. But what a stupid herd humans made. They moved oblivious to the fact that one or more of them were going to be eaten tonight. He always enjoyed the thought of this, and again, humans had changed very little in that respect through the ages.

Off in one of the darkened corners, away from the thoroughfare and the commotion of the seaside boardwalk at night was a group of three vampires. They were surrounding something or rather, someone. Demon faces on as they pushed and pulled at the young woman. She couldn't have been more than seventeen if that. Painted up to look older, she pinballed between the three vampiric thugs as they taunted her. The vamp that had the girl now laughed as he turned her to face him. "Watch the tears, lil' one, your make-up will run," he said. "Wanted to come out and play where you didn't belong and well, we want to play too. Benny! Catch." He shoved the girl to one of the group.

Benny caught the girl and he grinned at her. His lips pulled back to reveal his menacing fangs. He leaned down, just barely gracing the girl's neck. It was enough to scratch the surface and draw blood from her delicate skin. The girl screamed out before she dissolved into sobs and pleads. "Please, please...just let me go...Here..." She pushed her purse at them, as if these were ordinary muggers.

Angelus paused as he listened to what was happening in that dark corner of the park and then he smelled the blood. It was like a dinner bell and his stomach reminded him how hungry he was. Lillian was just an appetizer. He started moving up the alley and stopped on seeing the party. "My, my," he said, "this really isn't right."

Benny looked up from the girl's neck and he growled. Any vampire in Los Angeles knew who Angel was. He started to back up with the girl while his two buddies took the front positions. He would keep the girl safe, or kill her, while the other two fought Angel off.

Martin, not the sharpest tool in the shed, looked back a moment at Benny. But then, Benny probably picked the poor dumb country boy to turn because he wasn't smart. Martin looked back at the approaching vampire. He'd fight. He liked a good fight. He always had. He busted up quite a few saloons back in the day. "Don't remember puttin' out the invites," he said.

Angelus only shrugged. "Don't remember asking for one."

Benny held onto the girl who was struggling to get away from his vice like grip. All she was doing was going to wear herself out. He called out. "You going to let some filthy souled do-gooder talk to you like that, Marty?!"

"Like hell I will," Martin said and charged. Benny knew just the right words to get what he wanted out of Martin. Martin sprung for Angelus. The other vampire just side stepped the dumb farmer boy turned vamp and tripped him as Martin went past. Martin went headfirst into a pile of old crates. He impaled on one of the sharpest, broken pieces of the crate, dusting instantly.

Benny made a mental note that if he got of this, which he planned to, no more alleys with crates. He grabbed the girl and tossed her over his shoulder. There was no loyalty in this gang. Ed saw Benny run and then turned back to Angelus. He grinned and pulled a knife out of leather jacket. He wanted to really cut into the girl. And once he caught up with Benny that is what he was going to do.

Angelus sprang for Ed and landed square on him. In the same fluid motion, he had a stake out and it went right for Ed. Leave it to the soul to put stakes in every single one of his jackets.

The stake connected but it was with Ed's shoulder as the vampire shifted. He stabbed upward into Angelus' stomach, twisting the blade in. The pain in his shoulder was going to be nothing compared to the pain he was going to inflict on the guy who had the balls to ruin his meal.

Angelus' mouth turned up as he felt the blade. The pain was there but pain was a good thing. He grabbed the other's wrist as he kept his eyes locked with his. He gave just a slight scoffing chuckle. "To clue you in, asshole," he said through his teeth. "Angel is gone...Angelus is back out to play." He rammed that stake again into Ed.

The surprise that Angel was gone might have been enough to catch Ed off guard but he had been at this for a long time. He scrambled out and away from Angelus, leaving his knife still buried in the other vampire's stomach. Did he care of the hows and whys? Not particularly. He grabbed up a full trashcan and threw it towards Angelus as he started to get up.

He pulled the blade out and looked at it. "If you were going to stab me, wood would have done more..." his voice trailed off and he knocked the can aside. "Now you're just pissin' me off."

Ed looked for any other sort of weapon. The crates had been Marty's downfall. Marty had barely lasted five minutes in this fight. He broke off a piece of jagged wood from the crate, the same on that killed his gang-mate. It would do well enough. He lunged once again for Angelus; makeshift stake raised and ready to hit his heart.

Angelus had had enough of this game. This vampire was stupid enough to keep at it after he told him who he was, well, then he deserved what he had coming to him. He leaped up and over the charging Ed, coming down in time to place a foot in the back of the other's head. All those martial arts lessons Angel got into were actually paying off.

The kick to the back of the skull sent Ed flying forward and coupled with his own movement forward. He stumbled in an effort to catch himself. That would be his death as his body flailed. He fell, impaling himself on his own weapon. "Isn't this ironic?" He said right before his body exploded into a cloud of dust.

Now for the last one and then dinner, Angelus turned and started to follow the scent of the blood as he played with the knife as he walked. As he neared, he started to whistle, and it wasn't a sorry, suckass Barry Manilow tune.

Benny had pinned the girl up against the wall of one of the buildings. He was too eager. She was just so young and ripe. The smell of her blood was driving him insane as tried to go for her neck. But she was a fighter, punching and kicking against him. Anything to keep those horrible looking teeth away from her. She slapped him but Benny only grabbed her wrists and used his body to once more shove her against the wall.

Suddenly, Benny was yanked back by the hair and then pulled to the side. His head rammed into the side of the building. Angelus followed through and repeated the process. After two or three times, Angelus pulled the other vamp back looking at this bloody, battered face. "What do you say, boy?"

Benny was in a daze as most of his face now looked like ground meat. For an answer, all Benny could do was gurgle. The blood spilled out over his lips as a wet sound escaped his lips. It sounded like a wad of wet paper towels hitting a brick wall. He was fairly sure he had swallowed some of his own teeth during the skull bashing.

"That's what I was afraid of," Angelus sounded disappointed. He pulled out his stake and it found its mark. He put his human face back on, that face of an Angel.

Benny, like his other two friends before him, disappeared into a poof of dust. The young girl watched the whole scene. The man, the one who had saved her, he was just like them though. His face was at the very least until she watched it change back. He saved her though so maybe he was a good one. She moved away from the wall. She was a trembling wisp of a thing. "T-t-thank you" she stammered.

"I just couldn't stand by and let those three treat you like just a side dish," he said to her. "It wasn't right or fair. You're much better then that." Putting his arm around the girl, he acted like he would comfort her. "There, there now," Angelus said to her, "It's all over now." Angelus then started to walk her away from this exposed place.

She sniffled when Angelus put his arm around her. She merely nodded. He had saved her. Why would he go through all that trouble if he were going to kill her? She paused through. "You are bleeding!" She just now noticed the gut wound he was sporting.

He looked down at his blood soaked shirt. Goddamn mother....ruined another good, expensive shirt. First, Lillian with the stake, now this. "Don't worry," he told her. "It's not as bad as it looks. Nothing vital was hit." He kept walking her further away from the crowds and sounds of the midway. The sounds were becoming distant to the human ear if paying attention. "What we need to do is get you relaxed." Yes, relaxed so we can work you up all over again. But you can trust him, look at that face. How could somebody so good looking be bad?

She merely nodded her head as she sniffled once more. The fear and adrenaline she felt earlier was fading and she was starting to let the shock wear off. She still wasn't aware of the fact that they were getting further and further away. "What were those things? What are you?" She had seen his true face when he was fighting. Again, he saved her though.

"There's a whole other side of things...I didn't catch you name, " he said as they walked and he held her to his side. "One that most don't even know about or believe in." This one was going to be tasty when that fear is released again.

"Karli." She just noticed that they were getting further away from the boardwalk and people. She was further and further away from her car. She turned around then looked back to him. "My car is actually the other way. Thanks for your help though." She started to pull away from Angelus

"Karli," he said her name. "Actually, Karli, you won't be needing your car. See, what they were, were vampires. What you were to them was a snack. Since there were three and a lot of times traveling like, that they share. Me, I'm a vampire," he said with a shrug. "Actually I'm the most badass vampire to ever walk and instead of a snack, you're dinner because see, just one of me." And then his demon face came to surface. The ridged brow, sharp cheekbones, broader nose, yellow eyes and those lethal, sharp teeth were all on display.

She tried once more to pull away from his grip. "But...no...you...you saved me..." She was struggling against him now. She kicked him in the knee, hoping it would be enough so she could get free and run.

"I don't like to share," he said as he slammed her against the warehouse wall after that kick. "I've never been good at it, you know? Besides I like to season my own meal the way I like it. Makes for a better dining experience."

She was seventeen years old but her nails were still done from Prom. She reached up and scratched at his face with both hands while she screamed. Karli was a screamer. She yelled high, using all her lung capacity to holler the word out into the night. "HELP!!"

A growl came from him when she scratched him. He pulled that blade and cut her barely above that low neckline. He put the point up under her chin. "Nobody can hear you except a few bums and they don't give a big rat's ass what happens to a prima donna like you, babe."

She trembled now, her entire body shaking with fear. Huge hot tears rolled down and over her cheeks. "Please..." She pleaded with him, her voice hoarse from screaming so loudly. She winced as the tears rolled off her cheeks and into the bleeding wound across her chest.

Angelus leaned to her. He smelled her and chuckled. The fear was so tangy sweet. He cut her cheek and when it bled, he licked it.

"Why are you doing this?" She had never in her life experienced true fear or true hate before. They were foreign concepts to her. She sobbed harder as he cut into her cheek and then licked it.

"Did you believe in vampires before tonight, Karli?" he said in a whisper in her ear.

She just shook her head. She was too scared to speak. There was a part of her that hoped and prayed to God that he was just going to let her go with a few scratches. She would take a rape and release at this point, as long as he didn't kill her.

"Don't worry, I'm not cutting you too deep," he said to her as he let the blade slice her up her thigh. "I don't want to waste much." He then grabbed her and pulled her to the door of the warehouse, kicking it open. Inside was stored equipment for the rides.

The cut along her leg didn't hurt while he was doing but it was starting to hurt as he grabbed her. The air whipped across it, making it sting and burn at the same thing. She was losing her will to live slowly. Her legs were weak. She stumbled over her own two feet, as she was drug inside. She had already endured so much and her body was succumbing to fear and shock.

Angelus sensed this and so he plunged his fangs into her neck. He drank slowly from her. When he finished he picked her up and carried her to a merry-go-round pony. He propped her up on it. "What goes up, must come down. Spinning wheel got to go 'round."

Karli could feel the life slipping out of her. She was near death as Angelus propped her up on the pony. She slumped forward, her head slamming against the ceramic mane of the horse. It dented into her forehead before her body slipped off and fell with a sickening wet thud to the floor. Her limbs sprawled out in every direction, skin pale, eyes wide open and staring into nothing.

He just shook his head. He knelt down and with that blade, he carved the cross in her left cheek. Standing, he walked for the door while wiping the blade clean. Children wanting to play big games is such a shame when they find out they can't. He'd have to find not only some more tasty meals but a new shirt as well.

It had been a few hours since he killed Karli and left her, along with a few others, in the warehouse. He was building up a nice pile of bodies for Cordelia and the rest of those morons to find. Now, Angelus was bent over a teenage girl, his fangs in her neck. She was just another victim. He drank deeply from her, that hot, thick fluid that gave her life so it could in turn gave him unlife and pleasure. When she was drained he dropped her like the wrapper off a Taco Bell Burrito, not a supreme though. He licked his lips as he looked down at the dead girl. "My luck, virgin," he said. "Well, as in no alcohol. Would a little Jack Daniels have hurt? Teenagers and no rebellion, it's just not right."

The old carney warehouse was silent, but for the distant, hollow echo of the carousel. But then something, he heard something. It was a faint sound and a familiar scent. "Hiding isn't going to work, you know," he said. "I can smell you and man, you need to change that cologne." The vampire slowly turned. "I mean, c'me on now, that was one thing Angel did have was taste. But, hey, he got that from moi."

Gunn had received the message from Cordelia and he just couldn't believe that Angelus was loose. He told Wes when he was getting ready to do the funky chicken or whatever it was that he had to do to resoul Angel the first round that messing with magic, never turned out well. It was like a damn ticking time bomb. And now it went off. He had his tranq gun in a holster under his jacket and he carried with him his axe. Faith was out with the girls but he left a message for her. If anyone would want to help him take down Angelus, it was going to be his girl. He ran his hands up the handle of the axe, ready for Angelus, as he moved through the abandoned warehouse. This place gave him the creeps. It looked like the same place that he and Fred had killed some vamps in during the whole Holtz ordeal. Speaking though, dumbass gave away where he was. Shame that Gunn didn't get here in time to save all those people. He'd have to take care of them later, just in case Angelus turned any of them. He wouldn't put it past the rat bastard. He was hardly hiding from the soulless demon. He was just gauging the right plan of attack to come at him. He muttered low and to himself. "Just keep talking, asshole."

"I heard that," Angelus said as he looked back down at the dead girl. "Yes, wondering how I got free, I imagine, Chocolate Wonder. Long story. However, in mine, you're dead along with all the rest of Team Angel. But I don't think I'll bore you with it. Let's just say that Cordy couldn't take no for an answer and...WOW...here I am." He kept his senses tuned, listening for the human and smelling him. "Now my next question is, are you black all over? I guess I'll find out when I gut you open." With that, he leaped up into the beams just over head and landed on the balls of his feet. His yellow eyes searched the dim shadows for Gunn. He crouched down on the narrow beam.

Gunn had no idea what the hell the demon was going on about. His hands tightened around his weapon. He stopped for the moment. He was trying to hear any sounds that could give away Angelus' location. His voice, a creak of wood, anything could do it. Something. He stuck to the shadows, circling around the center of the warehouse where the poor dead girl was now put on display with the others. "Sorry I interrupted your date." He was hoping that Angelus would answer him back. The way that the girl's clothes were, he had no doubt that Angelus was about to have his way with the corpse. He pushed down the vomit that rose up in his throat. He knew the guy was sick but this was a whole new level. He was about to screw a corpse in front of a small audience of other corpses. It was clear that he had already done it a few times before tonight.

Angelus had invented many levels of sick. "What's the matter, Gunn, don't you like your women submissive?" his voice seemed to come from all sides.

"Like my girls to be a little active." He answered, like Faith and Gwen. Two of them were more than happy to share and join in. Kind of occurred by happenstance but he wasn't going to start complaining about being with two beautiful and strong brunettes. All sides, he noted, that meant it was echoing off the walls. Angelus wasn't on the ground so...Gunn turned his attentions up towards the ceiling, trying to spot him.

He waited for Gunn to turn and then down he came with that trademark growl.

Gunn heard Angelus jump. Someone hadn't dusted this place in a while. The dust falling from the beam was enough to alert him, that shuffle. He spun around and without waiting for invitation, swung his axe across Angelus' middle. Cordy didn't say anything about not hurting him first. It was enough to cut through his shirt and into the flesh of his stomach. Yet another ruined shirt for Angelus.

The vampire landed easily and looked down a moment. Okay, that pissed him off. That was the second shirt of the night to get destroyed. He grabbed an old metal support rod for some ride; about six-foot in length and in a fluid motion he swung it below Gunn's waist. He was aiming for the back of the legs to take the other man down.

The metal rod caught him in one leg, causing him to take a knee. Vampire speed coupled with a metal weapon wield with vampire strength, he hardly stood a chance of getting out of the way. He still had one good leg and he used it to kick Angelus in the kneecap. He could bring the guy down to his level. He was thanking Faith for her Christmas present of heavy Walker police issue boots right about now.

Angelus bought that rod down to block that kick then brought one up of his own. "Stupid human pet tricks," he said. "Let's take it to Letterman, huh, Gunn?"

He rolled out of the way of that kick. He had just enough time since Angelus was too busy running his fool mouth. He reached in for the tranq gun, yanking it out of his holster. He took aim and fired from the floor, up at Angelus.

Angelus leaped and rolled to one side dodging the pesky dart from the gun. He came up and looked at the man, his features going back to human. "Another time, Gunn," he said. He then leaped up for the beams again to travel through them.

Gunn laid there on the floor of the warehouse after Angelus ran off. Once a coward, always a coward. He reached into his jacket to get his cellphone now. He tried to work himself up to sit as the phone rang Faith. "He's on the move." Someone was going to have to get a tracking chip on him so they could plan a better ambush.

Angelus made it out then he paused by Gunn's truck. He chuckled as he glanced back to the warehouse. He stepped back just a bit and raised his foot. Angelus kicked out the headlight on one side then the other. After that he headed on off. He had a lot to do before sunrise.

It took about a half-hour before the pain in his legs subsided enough for him to get up. He was still limping as he left the warehouse. He knew. He just knew that Angelus had messed with his Girl. It was a feeling deep in the pit of his stomach. That instinct. He frowned when he saw the damage. No headlights meant no driving in LA at night. And the bastard messed with his truck. No more tranqing. He was dust. He climbed into the back flatbed. Nothing he could do until dawn. And that was fast approaching. Once it did, he would take care of all those bodies in the warehouse.

-TBC-