The scream sends her running inside, Angel right beside her. The vampires that have taken over the establishment are startled by the sudden invasion, and that’s just how it’s supposed to be. Rushing into the room, she rolls over the pool table in front of her, grabbing one of the pool cues on her way over. Perfect.

One of the vampires is running at her. She raises the pool cue, blocking his first punch. In retaliation, she strikes him in the chest, then spins to hit another vampire coming at her from behind. The vampire doubles over in pain from her strike, and she knocks him over the head. Yeah, she likes using this as a weapon.

She loses the weapon, though, when the first vampire catches it mid-stroke and tears it right out of her hands. His own momentum sends him crashing to the floor.

Her ears ring for a second as another vampire manages to hit her in the head. She shakes it off, punches him twice, and kicks him twice in the face. He tries to punch her again. She grabs his arm and throws him across the room into the rack of pool cues.

She can hear other groups of fighting in the club. In the corner of her eye, she can see Angel fighting another vampire. Then the first vampire she’d fought is back on his feet, swinging the pool cue at her. Turn about is fair play, and she takes it back from him again. She kicks him, sending him back to the floor.

That scream again. Must be quick now.

She doesn’t hold back, and sends the vampire flying across the room. There is the sound of breaking glass as she turns her back on him. She does not need to look to know that he’s up and following again. Nor does she need to look to end that fight. She swings the pool cue back and is rewarded by the sound of a vampire turning to dust.

She doesn’t stop. Her help is needed on stage now. Running by, she breaks the pool cue on a vampire’s head. Yes, a much better stake now.

The vampire that has caused all of these problems is attacking her friend. Jumping onto the stage, she swings the makeshift stake towards the vampire’s back.

“Buffy, no!”

She stops the stroke just short of killing the vampire. Instead, she grabs the vampire and yanks her away. The vampire is weaker than she is and knows it. The fighting elsewhere is coming to a close as well now, too. Angel has joined the small group of them on the stage. The vampire looks at them all...and gives up.

“Nice reflexes,” her friend says.

She shrugs, joking. “Well, I work out.”

Another battle done.

Days went by, and Liz was starting to feel something that she didn't remember ever having felt before. Not that she had a long basis of memory to compare against, but this was special. It came as a total surprise the morning she realized it, so huge that she couldn't believe she had overlooked it until then.

She felt safe.

It was subtle, commonplace...normal. She no longer awoke each evening with her heart pounding in her chest, ready to run. She didn't expect vampires around every corner anymore. She was as happy as she could be while her past was still unknown; content and welcome.

She belonged somewhere.

"I still don't see why I had a vision of this guy," Cordelia was muttering as she slowly typed on the office computer.

"Hey, there was the girl-" Gunn started.

Cordelia looked up at him and made a dismissive noise. "Oh, please. She was seconds away from saving herself. You're just lucky she missed you with the pepper spray.

Gunn smirked slightly at that.

"Perhaps the demon..." Wesley tried.

"Small fry," Cordelia disagreed. "Like he could have possibly been a 'threat to the world' type."

"I only meant that perhaps he was a part of something larger," Wesley continued. "Your visions are rarely simple."

Cordelia just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, he'd better be part of something pretty important."

"He knew me," Liz blurted. All eyes were instantly on her. "What? That's pretty important to me!"

"It is important," Angel agreed, speaking for the first time. He stepped out of the office corner, giving her just the hint of a reassuring smile.

Liz met his eyes and grinned widely back.

Wesley and Gunn exchanged an odd look. Cordelia gave an exaggerated roll of her eyes.

Angel broke Liz's gaze. "What?" he asked, perplexed.

"You two," Cordelia said by way of explanation. "Before you go back to that 'touching-with-eyes' thing, let me just say...ew, no."

Both Angel and Liz were instantly flustered, talking one right over the other.

"Touching with...?"

"God, no... I..."

"Cordy, I..."

"...mean, he's a..."

"...would never..."

Liz's stumbling tongue stopped in wounded surprise. "Never?" she asked before she could help herself.

Gunn chuckled.

"Cordy," Angel said sternly, stopping all further conversation on that topic, "aren't you supposed to be looking this guy up?"

She smiled at him slightly. "Oh, him? I found him a while ago."

Though he didn't show it much, Liz knew Angel was exasperated. "Well?"

Cordy shrugged. "Nothing very interesting. I told you this guy was nothing special."

"Just read it, Cordelia."

She sighed and complied, reading off her screen. "'Patna demons have no outstanding powers on their own, needing to work together to accomplish their evil tasks. For this reason they have formed a complex criminal society' - these guys sound like they've watched too many gangster movies - 'called the Consortium. They-'"

"Consortium," Angel muttered.

"Well, yeah, that's what I said."

Angel looked pensive, like he was trying to remember something.

"Angel?" Liz asked softly.

He looked at her, losing his distraction. "The tracker demon I found," he said, "said he worked for someone called the Consortium."

Liz swallowed. "You mean...these are the guys that are after me?"

Angel's expression was sympathetic. "They're most likely the ones you escaped from in the first place."

The old fear came back unbidden. "What do they want from me?" Her voice emerged as barely above a whisper.

"I don't know," he replied. "Cordy?"

Still at the computer, Cordelia shrugged. "Don't have any clue here why they're kidnapping young women," she said. "All it says is 'They gather annually on the winter solstice to best combine their energies.'"

"The solstice," Wesley spoke up. "That's tonight."

Angel looked worried. "We'll never find out where they're gathered in time."

Liz's shiver of fear joined with a sense of hopelessness. Sullen, she sank into one of the office chairs.

"Why not?" Gunn asked abruptly.

Everyone's attention was instantly on him.

"They can't be too far," he explained. "Liz escaped from somewhere near here, right? And the guy last night didn't seem to be making any last minute travel plans."

Liz's hopes were rising quickly.

"Hey, and if it's a big enough group, I mean...a hundred orange skinned mobsters are going to be hard to miss."

Angel looked from Gunn to Liz and back again. "Tonight then...I think it's time we had a confrontation with the Consortium."

"I am coming with you," Liz declared loudly.

"Of course. Cordy, see if you can find us a Patna demon. Wesley, any clue what they're going to attempt tonight so that we can stop it..."

And Liz just sat in her chair and smiled.

Cordelia really wasn't big on the whole sneaking around, fighting battles element of her job. Not that she couldn't take care of herself, she just liked it better when her life wasn't so conceivably at stake.

Though, sneaking into Consortium headquarters, she still couldn't see how these demons could be that dangerous. "Looks like someone dumped a bad batch of self-tanning lotion on this place," she muttered after a group of the orange skinned criminals passed.

"Shh." Liz, slightly crouched next to her, was quick to hush her.

Cordelia didn't know quite what to make of Liz anymore. On the one hand, she was another woman in the company, and was actually pretty close to Cordelia's own age. That was nice for a change. In the hotel, she tended to be unobtrusive, shy and quiet most of the time. And sometimes, when she opened up, Cordelia really had the feeling that she could be a friend.

Then came battle situations. Liz was suddenly both serious and confident. She also seemed on some level to enjoy the battle, like it was the only place she really felt comfortable. Nowhere had she seemed quite so whole in and of herself as she did now, facing danger. Then again, she had probably spent more time that she could remember on guard for danger than she had in the relative safety of Angel Investigations. But this sort of confidence in battle was not something Cordelia was prepared to interact with.

Not to mention whatever this thing was between Liz and Angel...

So Cordelia interacted with her the only way she knew how. "Come on. No one's around to hear me."

She almost let out an indignant squawk as Angel grabbed her arm and pulled her into a side room. Wesley and Gunn were already there; Liz quickly closed the door behind them.

Seconds later, muffled voices came from the other side of the door as several demons passed where they had just been standing.

"Sorry," Cordelia muttered.

She caught a glare to hush again, and fought the urge to snap back...or maybe to sulk. Why shouldn't she talk? It's not like anyone could overhear them-

"...has not been found..."

Cordelia froze, and saw the others doing the same. Angel was instantly alert, listening closely. Near at hand, the same voice continued. It rose and fell silent for odd stretches. Someone on the telephone, obviously.

"We did not let her go," the voice was saying. He sounded annoyed and defensive. "She ran to them... Yes, I know that could be... but they will not interfere with the sacrifice. It's already set."

Another lengthy pause, and Angel began to move slowly towards the source of the voice. Liz was right behind him, a dark expression on her face. Beside her was Gunn, ready for battle, with Wesley and Cordelia right behind.

"The ritual is continuing as planned. All will be set in motion for..." The five of them came around the corner, and the phone talker froze. He was orange-skinned like the rest of them, and red ritual robes had been hastily thrown on over a business suit. "I...I'll call you back," he stammered into the phone, and disconnected. He looked at his uninvited guests with wide eyes. "You..." he began.

Angel shook his head to himself, and picked up the dropped phone. "The boss is probably going to be mad you hung up on him," he scolded. "Maybe I should hit redial..."

"No!" the demon yelped, making a wild reach for the phone. He collected himself a moment later. "I don't know what you're talking about," he tried. "I'm in charge here."

"Really?" Angel reached for the redial button again.

The demon nodded frantically.

"Good." Angel dropped the phone, and grabbed him by his tie. "Then you're the one I talk to."

The demon didn't even come up to Angel's shoulder, and with his throat being closed off by the tightening tie he quickly started to try and back out of his previous statements. "Uh, did I say I was in charge?" eh squeaked. "I meant-"

Angel pulled the tie tighter. "Guys?" he asked.

"Yeah, I heard him," Cordelia offered.

"Heard something about a sacrifice, too," Gunn added.

The demon's expression of panic grew with each statement, and then Liz spoke.

"I think I heard you talking about me," she said, brandishing the axe she'd borrowed.

Then the demon did the last thing that Cordelia, and probably the rest of them, expected. Completely ignoring the hold Angel had on him, he made a desperate grab for Liz...and nearly choked himself in the process.

"Guess that was an answer," Gunn remarked.

Cordelia looked at the demon, coughing for air but never once taking his eyes off of Liz. "I thought you said these guys were supposed to be smart?" she remarked.

Angel shifted his grip on the demon's throat. "What do you want with her?" he snarled.

"She's needed," he gasped. "The sacrifice..."

"You said the sacrifice was already prepared," Angel reminded him. "We heard you."

His expression was panicked, and his eyes wide. "She's...out of the way. The other..."

"The other what?"

And suddenly, the demon smiled. "You don't know," he said in realization. He looked past Angel and at Liz once again. "You don't know who you are!"

Liz opened her mouth to answer, but Angel beat her to it. "Then tell us!" he said darkly.

But the demon now knew how in the dark they were. "Why should I tell you?" he asked.

Cordelia couldn't help but shake her head in mock dismay. "Ooh, wrong answer," she said, slightly amused. Yup, the intelligence of these demons was definitely overrated. Typical Hollywood - demon hype.

And then Angel threw him against the wall and into a heavy curtain.

Except instead of crashing into the wall and sliding to the floor, the demon went right through the curtain, tearing the fabric down around him. There was revealed a massive room, lit by torch light and filled with robe-clad demons. At their sudden entrance, the demons froze mid-ritual.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

Then the demon thrashed, fighting his way free of the curtain. "Stop them!" he yelled at the other demons. "They have the girl!"

One of the other demons was quick to respond, grabbing a huge iron candle stand and making a swing at Angel. The lit pillar candle on the top went flying even as Angel blocked the blow, and fire began to creep along the fallen curtain.

Cordelia took aim with her crossbow at the attacking demon, but the others quickly caught the cue. They were rushing at them with every weapon available. Ritual knives and other implements went to immediate use. Within moments, Angel was flinging off unarmed demons heading for Liz, Gunn was fighting off one demon that had gone at him with a ritual sword, and Cordelia was running out of crossbow bolts.

And the fire was spreading.

Liz was doing her best, and she was good in a fight, but most of the demons were going after her. A hit from one of the demons that had gotten past Angel sent her axe flying from her hand. Angel was there in a second, hitting the demon in the side of the head. Liz kicked another demon hard enough to send him sprawling, but still more demons were coming.

"Get out of here!" he yelled over the battle, though whether it was at her or at all of them wasn't quite clear.

There was a sudden rush of heat as the fire found the furniture. A couple of the demons started to flee, but not nearly enough.

"You're leaving too!" Liz yelled back. "The fire-"

"They're after you," Angel said, sounding a bit breathless even though he had no need to breathe. "Get her out of here!" he yelled at the rest of them. "I'll hold them off."

Gunn didn't hesitate in following those instructions, grabbing Liz's arm in an attempt to drag her away. "Come on!" he urged.

"No!" she struggled. "But...Angel!"

Then Cordelia and Wesley were herding her away as well. "He'll be okay," Cordelia tried to reassure her. She was starting to sound like Buffy at her worst.

"I'll be right behind you," Angel yelled, and finally Liz relaxed enough for them to get her out of there.

Liz was hardly the only one desperate for Angel to get out of there, though she was most obvious about it. Backing off, trying to head out the way they came, Cordelia looked back at Angel, still fighting. The fire was starting to creep between them, soon to cut off Angel's way out. And the fire was just as deadly to Angel as to the rest of them, if not more so.

"The fire!" Cordelia yelled out in warning. It was getting hard to breathe, and that was all the warning she could manage.

"Go!" Angel yelled back again. "I'll keep them from following!"

There was nothing more Cordelia could do, and she took off after the others. The fire had begun to spread through the rest of the building, and their flight now seemed to be only a step ahead of it. Demons ran right beside them, far more worried about the fire than about the intruders. One of them ran into Cordelia, sending her stumbling to the ground. As she went to catch herself, the crossbow went flying across the floor. She gave it only a passing thought as she clambered back to her feet and kept running.

The demons kept right on running once they were out the front doors, swarming past the few who would not go farther than safety required. Cordelia stumbled to a stop, coughing in the clearer air outside. There, Liz was yelling at Gunn and Wesley and acting as if she was going to run back in.

"How could you leave him behind!" she was screaming.

Gunn was trying to stand between her and the door with its encroaching flames. "Guy didn't live two centuries without being able to take care of himself," he said.

Wesley noticed Cordelia then, and called out to her questioningly. "Cordelia, Angel...?"

Cordy coughed a little more of the smoke from her throat. "He was holding them off. He said he was coming..."

Wesley's gaze flicked back to the doorway. "Good lord," he gasped.

Cordelia looked back for the first time and felt a clutch of dread. Flames licked the doorframe, and nothing could be seen beyond but fire. The chances of something surviving that...

"Angel..." Liz whispered, giving up her struggles to go back inside. Her voice emerged like a moan.

The flames leapt higher, obscuring the doorway. Nothing but fire moved that Cordelia could see. The demons that had made it out had long since fled. The fire was completely out of control. All that was left was them, waiting anxiously, and Angel...

...came crashing through the fire, his coat flung over his head. He emerged from the doorway at a stumbling run, trailing smoke. Several steps from the building, he rolled to put out the touch of fire on his clothing. He rolled for a few feet, then stopped and lay still.

"Angel!"

Cordelia wasn't sure who said it first - her or Liz - but it was Liz that was first to run to his side. After a couple of heartbeats, he pushed himself to a kneeling position, shrugging the coat off of him. His shirt beneath was torn in places, but he seemed to be in relatively one piece.

Abruptly, he coughed violently. With a gasp and a wild, wide-eyed expression he scrambled back to his feet, turned his face towards his friends running towards him, and laughed. The sound almost made Cordelia trip in surprise, or stop where she was and fear for her life.

She'd never really heard Angel laugh before.

Even as images of Angelus assaulted her, Liz crossed the distance to his side. Before Cordelia could cry out a warning, he caught Liz on the run, lifted her from her feet, and...

Kissed her?

It was only for a moment, and as soon as it was over he was putting her down and backing off with embarrassed apologies. His smile did not fade, though, and Liz was now wearing a ridiculous grin as well.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Cordelia finally blurted, completely baffled by his behavior.

Angel laughed again, softer this time, and Liz answered.

"He's alive!"

The expression on Angel's face quickly told her that she didn't just mean that in a survived-the-fire sense. Cordelia was absolutely floored. "What...huh?" How in the world this had happened was really the question she wanted to ask, but she couldn't seem to put the words together to do it.

"Extraordinary," Wesley declared, obviously more coherent than she was.

Liz had a huge, stupid grin on her face, and clung to Angel's arm as if she could take credit for his transformation. Finally, Cordelia smiled too. She just couldn't not smile, as Angel's expression changed into one of dazed wonder.

"That mean I get a kiss, too?" she teased.

Angel blushed - Oh my god, he blushed! - as sirens began to wail in the distance.

"I think we'd better get out here before we get blamed for this," Gunn interrupted at last.

Angel nodded, still smiling, and freed his arm from Liz's grasp only to wrap it around her shoulder. "So...anyone want to go out for dinner? I'm thinking Italian..."

Please, let me know if you're reading this!
Back to Cynamin's Fan Fiction ------------0xKhTmLbOuNdArY Content-Disposition: form-data; name="userfile"; filename=""