Title: F*** Buddies
Author: DamnSkippy
Posted: 07-19-2003
Email: damnskippytoo@gmail.com
Rating: NC-17, Language and Sex
Category: Humor and Smut, Baby!
Content: C/A
Summary: Cordelia wishes for a fuck buddy and, boy howdy, does she get more than she bargained for.
Spoilers: Through Fredless of S3
Disclaimer: The characters in the Angelverse were created by JossWhedon & David Greenwalt. No infringement is intended, no profit is made.
Distribution: Anywhere, but please let me know, k?
Notes: For Angel his demon thoughts are surrounded by **asterisks**, while the soul’s thoughts are italicized. Everyone else’s thoughts are italicized.
Feedback: I find I need it. I tried to abstain, but I’m just a feedback whore. So, please tell me how pretty I am and how you want to bear my children, if only...
Thanks/Dedication:Chapter 7 Continued...
“Because you've got a skilled lover and because you're no saint, Cordy, and it’s time you realized it.”
His mouth surrounded an area on her right buttock and plumped it with suctioned blood. Pulling back, he admired the red spot before sinking his blunt teeth in and thrusting two fingers inside her. Cordy cried out in ecstasy and pumped herself madly on his invading digits.
“More! Please more inside me now!”
The sound of Angel's laughter and the sudden emptiness between her legs brought her crashing to earth. Her face flushed with fury at being denied and teased.
“What the hell? Angel, get your hands and cock back here right now and finish the job!” She thrashed at her bonds and flailed her hips as if the sight would force him to lose control and draw him back to her.
The angrier she became, the louder he laughed. “Cordy, Cordy, Cordy. My, aren't we the perverted little slut?”
Stiffening her spine, she rose and turned to face him. Statuesque and proud, had her eyes not been covered, he would have seen the lasered glare she pierced him with. “Slut? Well, I guess you should know. You specialize in them. What's the matter, Angel? Can't handle it unless it's tainted, crazy or messed up like you?”
Almost before the last word left her mouth he was on her, his hand around her throat, pushing her chin up, and pressing her head against the wall. His gravelly voice, spiked with a chilling mix of barely controlled passion and wicked chuckling, boomed next to her ear. “I can handle ALL of you, bitch. Especially the inner slut. It oozes from you, Cordy, which is why I can't get enough of you and you can't stay away from me.” He used his hard shaft as a spear, thrusting it roughly into her dress-covered mound and licked her throat from base to ear.
“Bullshit! Get off me, you freak.” Her only weapons were her hips and legs. His full body pinned her against the wall limiting her to writhing and attempting to beat his cock numb with her pubic bone.
“You mean a freak like you who loves pain? I'll take that as a compliment.” Every time her hardness connected with his sensitive head, a shot of exquisite pain traveled to his spine inflaming his desire.
“You would,” her voice hitched betraying her indignant façade and exposing her swelling need. A calloused hand lunged beneath the layer of her dress and gruffly squeezed her breast. “Get your smarmy paws off me!” Her head butted forward hoping for contact with his, but he was too busy sucking a path from her collarbone across her shoulder to be effected by it.
He stopped his kisses only long enough to blithely comment, “You liked my paws all over you last night,” and then continued his sipping in the opposite direction.
“I was drunk and much younger then. Let me go, or I'll…I'll…”
“Oh, yeah, baby. Tell me what you'll do,” he huskily whispered. Chills danced on her heated skin as his lips tickled her ear. He stilled her hips with his hands and began rhythmically rubbing his arousal between her thighs. His tongue snaked into her ear and stroked the skin below it.
The friction of his muscled pecks against her breasts and the constant battering at her sex drove her crazy with the need to move and touch. She could barely breathe let alone think.
“I'll...I’ll...Oh, God...I’ll pull your cock through your ass nail it to the wall.”
“Oh, God, that sounds hot. What else,” he hungrily asked as he moved down her throat to nuzzle at her shoulder. Opening her skirt, he pressed his erection against her curls and lacey garter. Grinding into her, a moan erupted from so deep in her chest that it sounded like thunder and sent a lightening bolt of lust to his core. Desperate to taste more of her, he shoved the fabric from her breast with his face and latched onto her with hungry teeth and lips.
“I'll stitch your balls to your knee caps and make you walk across the desert on your knees! Shit,” she screamed as he devoured her breast and hammered her labia.
“Holy fuck, you're an evil bitch!” He positioned his tip against her clit and rammed it into her over and over again.
Cordelia was reeling from conflicting emotions. The insults, the pain, the threats, the dirty talk - all of the nasty things she thought were filthy and appalling - were now making her so hot she felt she would combust. And yet she couldn’t help the shame she felt for feeling that way.
Then it all became clear and with clarity came acceptance.
What was blazingly clear to her at that moment was that she was possessed. Not just her but all of humanity was possessed by demons just as surely as goodness and light lived next to them. Evil is in each of us not inflicted upon us. Angel learned that lesson in an elevator on his side-trip to hell and now she had been shown the truth in her own elevator ride.
She’d never felt free enough to let her own demon out – her conscience always pushed any bad thoughts and desires deep, deep into their personal hell holes. Tonight Angelus had set her demon free and for the first time she truly felt she understood what Angel’s life was like and how tempting it would be to feel this free all the time.
The empathy and admiration she felt for Angel overwhelmed and filled her. She quaked with excitement at her discovery and the feeling that she now knew without doubt that Angel was hers and she was his.
The demon in her trembled and ached for his and didn’t judge or care if it was judged. It only felt - everything.
And right then her body was bursting with the feeling of need. The need to touch. To clutch. To scrape. To jab. To pound. To own. She felt she would explode if she couldn’t show him how much she just needed. Her mouth was useless to form the words but still powerful for communicating. Feeling his mouth on her ear, she turned her head quickly and bit, snagging his cheek between her teeth.
“Ow, shit!”
With one swift downward motion he tore open her dress and slammed unaided into her, diving deep into her sopping tunnel. The sheer joy of being filled by him overshadowed any pain at the abrupt tugging of her labia. Her uninhibited screams spurred his hands to seize her ass and hold her immobile against his merciless thrusts.
“Give me your mouth,” she screamed into his ear.
A stubbled, teeth-marked cheek abraded hers as it moved toward her yearning lips. Her tongue frantically searched for and finally wet his lips before diving helplessly into even more darkness.
The flames dancing in her womb were unparalleled to any sensation she’d ever felt. Their tongues battled, their lips bruised, their teeth nipped and all the while he pounded her and she took it. No mercy was granted and none was asked.
“Shit!” He pulled back from her mouth and tasted blood. His own. He roared and instantly his face was ridged and fanged. “You like biting, don’t you?”
She lacked the oxygen required to speak and was too shocked at realizing how much she had enjoyed that to form words anyway. She nodded yes and licked the copper liquid from her lip and her heart sped up even more.
His chest rumbled low and long at the sight of her tasting his blood. And, hearing her enjoy it started the bolts of electricity shooting to his groin. He ached to rip her body in two with just his cock and wanted to watch her eyes as he did it. He tugged the blindfold off and waited for her reaction to his morphed features.
Once her eyes adjusted and she realized he had vamped, an instant of fear passed through her followed immediately by the thrill of feral lust. She licked her lips and her pupils dilated inviting him in.
He watched her eyes. The once soft hazel orbs were now black with animal desire, dark welcoming lairs for his beast to make home. For a moment he stopped his thrusts amazed that she hadn’t turned away and had, in fact, craved him even more. His hands loosened from her rear and began to travel across her hips and waist, finally stopping to stroke and fondle her breasts.
The respite from his thrusts gave her a chance to slow her breathing. He entranced her when his eyes turned from bright yellow to warm gold and he resumed his movement, rocking smoothly and tenderly inside her. The back of his hands brushed her nipples, his barest touch forcing her eyes closed in concentration. He leaned forward and sniffed and laved her neck. Suddenly, she heard a deep purring emanating from the back of his throat.
The sound was astonishing but somehow not right. It sang to her female heart speeding up her mating motions. But it was soft and sweet and her newly released demon ached to be ravaged again. He had driven her up the side of Everest and she had to see the view from the top.
She thumped her head against his. He stared at her annoyed by the interruption. “Got a use for those fangs, or are you just happy to see me?”
Growling, he ignored her and went back to smelling the ambrosia of her heated blood just below the surface at the base of her neck.
She constricted her muscles around him, bucked hard and bit his ear to punctuate her meaning.
“Damn, woman, you’re about to break off my cock, and what’s with the ear biting?”
“Use it or lose it. And I thought you might need a lesson in biting, Professor, since you don’t seem to remember what these...” She lapped at his fangs. “...are for.”
He grabbed her shoulders and brought her face a hair’s breath away from his. “Don’t tempt me Cordelia. Once marked, you’re mine...forever.” He pumped into her harder and deeper, the thought of tasting her blood and claiming her body as his recharged his monster’s passion.
Cordy searched his eyes and saw the seriousness of his words and felt it. His body reached into hers, staking his claim with every stroke. The intimacy of his need to possess entwined with the same need in her and made her dizzy.
Her heart raced and forced blood to push against the surface of her face and neck, plumping her to the point of bursting. He moaned at the strong smell of her life so close to his mouth, his tongue, his jagged teeth. He closed his eyes and breathed her in. Picturing the moment he would puncture her skin and first taste her thick, creamy fluid, he hardened even more and he hammered into her womb.
She swooned at the feel of his cock so deep inside her. The base of his shaft lashed against her clit, each pummel transporting the message to her core to take him, keep him, claim him. Her body accepted his offer tightening around the embodiment of his desire. The more her body constricted and declared her ownership, the more she needed his claim. On the brink of falling, the full meaning of the words she merely spoke earlier became clear. Her lips grazed his ear and spoke them again as she fervently demanded, “Possess me.”
His eyes shot open at her words and his animal wailed with her want. His body thrilled at what was to come and his cock rammed into her brutally. He flung his arms gripping her body into his chest and felt her vaginal muscles lock him in as she panted over and over, “Mine, mine, mine.”
Her incredibly strong orgasm thrummed against his cock as her voice shouted his name again and again. The need to take this woman as his, and his alone was stronger than the soul’s voice in his head begging him no. He howled and plunged his fangs into her neck. The moment her hot essence coated his throat and infused his dead cells, she became his and she owned all he had to give when he exploded into her.
The sensation of his teeth in her, the pain of him taking her blood being followed by the ultimate pleasure of feeling him spill into her, was the most powerful moment of her life. The strength of the bond was beyond sex and beyond love. It was being filled by something she had known she lacked her whole life, but could never name. And he filled her again and again to the point of overflowing, and she came again.
He felt her second orgasm quiver over him as he plunged twice more dispelling his last few drops into her womb. Her fluttering heart and quaking center made her taste even sweeter and he fought his natural instinct to remain attached and drain her. Snarling at the loss, he retracted from her neck and gently washed the wound with his tongue, sealing it for all time with his scent.
As her senses floated down and anchored her to this world again, she folded into him unable to stand. He untied her wrists and laid her on the floor wrapping her dress around her. Reclining on his side next to her, he stroked her cheek until her eyes slowly opened.
He was still vamped and she brought her fingers up to caress his forehead ridges and around his eye to his cheek. He took her wrist and brought her palm to his lips and kissed it.
Looking up she saw herself reflected in the ceiling. She pulled her head up and finally got a good look at the interior of the elevator. They were surrounded by mirrors except for the window to the lobby.
“Mirrors? I guess you weren’t lying about your seventies porn addiction.”
“Have you ever watched yourself being fucked by a vampire?”
Her eyebrow shot up as the image of her body being invaded over and over again by an invisible cock played in her mind.
She sported a wicked grin and asked, “Have you ever watched your invisible ass being whipped by a seer?”
The soul was pissed and finally able to assert himself. This is just great! She was supposed to hate me and stop this bet tomorrow. Now, you’ve bonded us for life. What kind of a pussy demon are you?
**You’re right. I failed. I am a miserable excuse for a hell beast. But, look on the bright side. I’m getting spanked for it later.**
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter 8
Blind she had been a captive. Now she was a slave to sight. She was chattel to the image that surrounded her and left her breathless. It was illusion. It was magic.
She watched as her supple breasts rippled like water around an unseen dipped toe. Her body floated, a diaphanous ship sailing on ghostly waves of skin and sinew. He was an unreflected ocean whispering seductively in her ear of forever and always; while invisible palms washed her skin, smoothing and searing her flesh with his lust in the here and now.
Rough fingertips churned and thrashed against her lips' shores filling her mouth with salt and metal. Her spirit drifted on the fog of his heady male musk, bound to this plane only by a wisp of silk at his nape on her forearm.
Fixated at her core, hazel orbs widened in awe at the silky exposed folds glistening of moonlight on a black lake. Pink and plump, her labia surged and plunged slowly and smoothly on a fusion of their liquid passion. The dark entrance to her body opened and closed like a sea cave filled again and again with the tidal wave of his veiled sex.
In the mirror, nothing touched her but light. A dream of love so intoxicating the earth itself disappeared leaving only space and stars. But in his eyes she saw reflected a desire rooted deeply in dark, solid bone. And it was in these soulful mirrors that she finally came ashore, the light of his lips shining the way, crashing against the piles of his fangs, her voyage home complete.
Cordy zigzagged between the flaky LA lunchtime drivers. The vision of last night swam through her mind totally consuming her thoughts. Except for one. She had to know exactly what had happened. If it meant what she thought... She had to be sure. Staying up all night worrying hadn’t provided any answers, and she couldn’t stand not knowing one minute longer.
Be there. Please be there.
A screech of brakes and scent of burning rubber frightened her enough to concentrate on where she was going instead of where she had been. Only two blocks away but the glare of sun on smog burned her eyes and forced her to watch the ground instead of ahead.
The scarf whipped up as a Fed Ex truck sped by. Snagging the end from her face, she pulled too hard and flinched when the fabric around her neck abraded against the marks.
It wasn’t *what* it meant that bugged her. She knew that instinctively. What she had to know was if he...all of him...wanted it...wanted her.
She stopped for a moment, her fingers adjusting the covering to make sure the wound wasn’t exposed. Then she stepped into the street.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A fine mist filled the bathroom. Amazingly the water was still hot even though this was the second time since he’d stepped into the shower that he’d fisted his cock. Angel couldn’t get the vision of her out of his mind. But he had to. Today was the day he had to end it. If only Angelus hadn’t claimed her.
Whenever he thought about the look in her eyes as he’d bared his fangs and swooped for her neck, his hand began stroking. The dark acceptance, the heated desire, the light of welcome that burst from those gold-dipped hazel pools made his head spin and his body ache for her heat. How could he stop touching her - stop touching himself - with his scent and his mark caressing her neck every day teasing and taunting him?
He could almost smell her. She was close. His scent was buried deep in her, and it tugged at his mouth. Cold tile imprinted his back while he fondled his balls and pumped his hard shaft. As she got closer, his head fell back and his lips parted to capture her essence fully on his tongue. He took deep breaths and then swallowed her whole. A contented moan gave way to a hungry growl as his strokes got faster and stronger. Cordelia...
He could feel her skin, smooth and hot, and the texture of her blood, slick and thick on his throat. His tongue slipped out between his lips and fluttered tasting her sex, like milk and honey. Her guttural cries of need, desire, pleasure and pure joy filled his senses until his body trembled, his hips thrust madly and his hand rubbed his cock raw.
She was almost there. The aroma of their combined scents slammed him hard against the stall. Blunt teeth dug into his shoulder and powerful vaginal muscles strangled his cock. “Jesus, fuck. Cordelia!” He exploded again and again, his thick cream thinning with water and washing down the drain just as his body weakened and his knees met porcelain in prayer. His head in his hands, his body shook, chilled by what he knew he must do. How am I ever going to let her go?
Angel’s head jerked up at the sound of her cry. It was faint but it was her voice. “Oh, God. Cordelia!”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I swear to God, man. She just stepped out in front of me. Oh, shit, oh, shit, oh shit! Where’s the fuckin’ ambulance?” The kid paced in front of the bloody, dented fender and hood of his ’91 Colt nervously glancing from the car to the woman.
The policeman pushed the kid back. The last thing he needed was to see the body. He was a teenager and scared shitless. Not that he didn’t have the right.
Officer Stans and his partner had been coming out of the coffee shop. One second he was ogling a gorgeous woman crossing the street and the next she was flying through the air. She dropped with a thud, tumbled and stopped. Limbs akimbo and dark blood seeping from various wounds onto black tar, he had to close and open his eyes a few times to make sure it was real.
Finally realizing what he’d just witnessed, Stans told his partner to call for the ambulance while he checked the woman. Whoever she was, she was damn lucky to still be breathing. Getting her ID would have to wait until the meds could get her untwisted and on a gurney. Her shoulder bag had miraculously stayed put, and was now under her body and unreachable.
After his partner placed a blanket over her, he’d gone to deal with the driver. Good thing the kid had stopped and not made a run for it. At least he was smart enough not to do that. Or maybe there were just to many witnesses to risk it. Whatever. He wasn’t in the mood for a chase through busy city streets
The poor guy was shaking like an addict in withdrawal. Mumbling something about his mother killing him and Jesus and never fucking driving again, Stans grabbed his arm and made him stop. “Okay, take a deep breath, and tell me what happened exactly.” The kid looked into the cop’s detached gaze and threw up on his polished shoes.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Angel jumped over the banister and raced for the door. The position of the sun cast enough shadow for him to step a few feet outside. He raised his head and sniffed. Somewhere close was Cordy’s blood.
“Cordelia!”
He’d prayed he’d been wrong. The minute that it took him to bound from the tub and throw on some clothes had been spent entirely in prayer. But now there was no mistake.
Testing to make sure he was still a vampire he stepped forward beyond the shadows edge. The searing pain, sizzling skin, and smoke confirmed he hadn’t shanshued in the last ten seconds. “Damn it! Cordelia!” The cords of his throat almost snapped with the force of his yell.
When she failed to reply and the smell of blood got thicker, his frustration banded his muscles into coiled rockets. He propelled back into the hotel to comb every corner for signs of life. Coming up empty he stopped in the middle of the lobby and cried out. “Where the fuck is everybody?”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I don’t know why you think I care.” Wesley watched a homeless man pee in the alley strangely nonplussed. His fingers tapped nervously on the Plymouth’s steering wheel.
“I didn’t say you cared. I said you knew. But, you’ve gotta have some interest if you know crap like that.”
“Really, Gunn. Just because I’m aware of current events doesn’t make me a fanatic. One can know that Britney Spears has released a new album without caring that she has.”
“Humph. Not in my world,” Gunn said.
Ever the safe driver, Wesley inched forward carefully when the red Miata in front finally moved after seemingly hours.
“Hey, guys,” Fred chirped from the back seat, her mouth full. “These tacos are getting cold. Anybody mind if I start eatin’?”
Gunn twisted around and laughed at the site of Fred biting off a huge chunk of shell with most of the filling dribbling down her chin. “Seeing as how you’ve already got most of your lunch already in your mouth, I guess that was a rhetorical question.”
Wesley looked in the rearview mirror and watched her eyes brighten and cheeks blush from Gunn’s attention. He pressed on the horn.
“Why in the bloody hell aren’t we moving?”
“Uh, because there are cars stopped in front of us?”
Wesley tightened his lips while doing the same to his grip on the wheel and shot Gunn an icy glare. “*That* was a rhetorical question.”
Gunn lifted his hands in mock surrender. “Sorry. Just trying to lighten things up a bit. I’m guessing there’s a wreck or something up ahead. Maybe we should try the long way around before Fred here finishes all of our lunches.”
Wesley caught the wink and smile given to Fred from the man he currently wished had never joined Angel Investigations. He hated giving in to such a common emotion as jealousy, but Fred wasn’t just some woman. Fred was the woman and jealousy was just the tip of the flame.
Barely checking his mirrors or the position of his passengers, Wesley turned the wheel sharply and barreled through a parking lot and out the other end to get around whatever it was that was blocking his way. Unfortunately, he was sitting right next to him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Angel’s cries echoed and faded down the deserted halls. Rage boiled in his gut and raced through his dead veins. With an animal howl he gave over to his demon and lifted the red couch above his head. Hurling it against the elevator doors, the sound of breaking wood was not nearly enough to sate his frustration and fear.
Even before the heavy furniture thudded to the floor he was already in the office, his arms a tornado of destruction. Mindless of everything in the world but the need to hurt something...everything...he left a path of busted bookshelves, ripped ancient texts, dented metal, and a carpet of smashed objects that had once adorned desks, countertops and cozy nooks.
His chest heaved and his throat burned as he screamed her name over and over. His entire being ached to reach her, to touch her, to protect her. Slits of amber scanned the room for more right to make wrong and already bruised fists pounded holes into plaster when there was nothing left to hit.
The smell of her tangy blood hit him again. A strong waft pinned him and he quickly turned and realized where it was coming from. He jammed his fist through the glass of the weapons cabinet to grab a sword before he followed the copper trail into the basement.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The siren cut through his mood and blank stare. Pulling to the right, Wesley checked his mirror to assess the emergency vehicle’s proximity and its direction. When it went down the street they’d just abandoned, Gunn had to gloat.
“Did I not call accident? Must be a bad one and somewhere near the hotel looks like.”
“Yes, that was a brilliant guess. Traffic backed up, lights still working, no known special event in the area. My first thought was a Mothra attack, but I see now that an accident was the more cunning deduction.”
“Man, what is with you? You’ve had a stick up your tight British ass for days now. You want to let the common folk in on the problem?” Gunn bored a hole into the back of his head and Wesley felt it. He slowly turned to face him.
“My tight British ass and what is stuck up it is none of your concern.” Wesley yanked the wheel to the left and peeled from the curb. He’d had enough fun in the sun. Enough of the sickening sweet glances between Fred and Gunn. Enough of the traffic. But not nearly enough self-pity. He needed to be consumed in the fire of it and torch anyone who came near. More than anything he wanted to get back to the office and find that Cordelia was in the midst of a vision so he could torture, pound, and shred something to death.
Fred captured Gunn’s eyes, tilted her head and shrugged. Wesley’s behavior of late had her a little worried, but not so much that it overshadowed her newly blossomed feelings for Charles. He’d get over whatever was bothering him. He always did.
But, right now Gunn’s hand was gently squeezing her thigh in reassurance, and she couldn’t help imagining it slipping further up and cupping her increasingly wet mound. She’d never been so turned on by someone just touching her leg before. She was suddenly very grateful Angel wasn’t there to sense what was going on inside her.
That thought was like a pail of cold water dumped on her. She imagined Angel’s look when they walked into the hotel and the moment he would realize what she was feeling. She’d be embarrassed and he’d be embarrassed for knowing her secret and a lot of embarrassed dorkiness would ensue. Suddenly she was sober and dry.
She swallowed and shakily asked, “Are we there yet?”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The sewers were wet, filthy and smelled like crap. Neither Angel nor his demon noticed. Nostrils opened, head up, he sped through the underground maze using the scent of her blood as his guide.
A few wrong turns, some backtracking and then he stopped. Above was a manhole cover and a heartbeat. Angel leaped up the metal ladder in one bound. He placed his palm on the heavy metal surface barely controlling the urge to push it open and be with her. She was so close but never more far away.
He tried to peek through the small holes but could see nothing. A wet, sticky drop fell through a crack and landed on his cheek. He didn’t have to taste it to know it was her blood. Another frustrated wail was about to burst from his chest when he heard muffled voices.
“Who’s next on the rotation,” a male voice asked.
“St. Vinnie’s,” a woman replied.
“Okay, call it in. Looks like a broken leg, possible internal bleeding, concussion, and spinal trauma. Miss? Can you hear me? We’re going to roll you over onto the board and stabilize your back and neck. There may be some pain. Okay on three. One, two, three.”
Instantly rays of light tore through the manhole cover as her body was rolled away from it. Angel gasped with pain and lost his grip on the rung falling to the sewer floor.
Part of him wanted to tear into the day and rip that guy’s head off for touching her. Only the throbbing of his scorched hands and face kept him leashed. A loud, deep, threatening growl vibrated in his chest ending up as a pained cry of “Cordelia” as he sensed her moving quickly away from him. The piercing siren of the ambulance becoming more faint as it sped away finally jolted him to move.
“St. Vincent’s.” At least he knew where she would be, and he knew he could reach her. It was the first hope he’d had since waking up and he raced toward it.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Oh, my Lord.” The three stood in the garden doorway stunned.
“What the hell? Wasn’t this place in one piece when we left?” Gunn stepped down and turned around in a circle in the lobby unable to grasp the destruction.
Fred started to follow Gunn but Wesley pulled her back. “Don’t. Who or whatever did this may still be here.” Wesley instantly thrilled at the prospect of getting his wish fulfilled so soon. He tilted his head towards the weapon’s cabinet and Gunn took the hint. Both men quietly reached for their favorite tools. Wesley directed Gunn to go to the front entrance of his office while he moved in through Cordy’s office, hopefully trapping the culprit in the middle.
When the two met with no suspect to pummel, Fred joined them. “Um, maybe we should check on Angel. Ya know, make sure he’s all right. I doubt he coulda slept through whatever happened here and if he’s not down here, maybe whatever did this has him cornered upstairs.”
“Fred, you call Cordelia and make sure she’s okay.” Fred nodded and began searching through the wreckage for the phone. Wesley looked at Gunn. Both men steeled their resolve, nodded and headed upstairs.
The sound of a phone ringing made them all jump. Wesley looked toward the landing expecting the noise to rouse their unwelcome houseguest and bring it hurtling toward them in a rage. Carefully he slipped his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out his cell, never taking his eyes off the stairs.
“C’mon man, turn that thing off and let’s get upstairs.” Gunn was a firm believer in kill now, answer annoying telemarketers later.
Wesley ignored him. “Hello?” As the person on the other end spoke, Wesley’s attention left the staircase and moved inward. “Yes, I know Cordelia Chase.”
Gunn and Fred tensed at those words. Both their minds immediately associated the carnage in front of them with possible harm to their friend. Fred ran to Gunn’s side and clasped his hand as they waited for Wesley’s next words.
Wesley’s eyes closed in pain and then opened widely with comprehension. His shoulders drooped and his head bobbed up and down as everything clicked in his mind. “We’ll be right there.” Wesley folded his cell and looked into Gunn and Fred’s worried expressions, not sure how to tell them except straight out.
He took a deep breath and stiffened his spine. All thoughts of jealousy and inflicting pain skittered to his subconscious as concern, dread and the mantle of leadership came to the fore. “Cordelia’s been in an accident. She is being transported to St. Vincent’s.” Fred gasped and wrapped her fingers around Gunn’s arm, digging her nails into soft flesh. Gunn didn’t feel it.
“Oh, my God. Did they say how she is? What happened? Is she okay? God, we’ve got to get Angel.” Fred started up the stairs.
“Wait!” Wesley yelled. “We’ll all go just to make sure it’s safe, but something tells me he’s not here.”
Wesley feared he knew exactly who and what had ravaged their offices. Mostly, however, he feared he knew exactly why.
Continue on...