Roomies

Disclaimer: The characters of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series Universes (Angel, Cordelia, Spike, Xander, Doyle, etc…) are the creation of Joss Whedon and are, therefore, the property of him, Mutant Enemy (Grr, Arg), and 20th Century Fox (and all other affiliated parties). No money is gained from this work as it is created purely for the enjoyment of others. Please do not sue.

AN: Constructive criticism and friendly fedback are always appreciated. Flames will be used to warm my toes.


~Part 5: My List of Things to Do~


Blue eyes shot open at the sounds that drifted to him from the main chamber. Little other then the sound of clashing claws and the snarling of two battling demons reached him. The stench of the sewer could not mask the smell of the vampire’s blood and the acid that acted as the demon’s life giving liquid. The sound of metal banging against concrete and a roar that only a truly pissed off vampire could utter gave him the strength to move.

Blue eyes locked on to the form strewn against the wall not far from him. Forcing air into century dead lungs to imitate a human’s sigh he used what little strength that war cry had given him and approached the human girl. After a moment he realized that the human must be as close to death as he was close to turning to dust. He sneered softly in the direction that the battle sounds were coming from, a human as near gone as this girl was would not provide enough strength to sustain a vampire for more than an hour.

Blue eyes took in the gash across her brow that was thanks to the way that the demon had dumped her. A strand of drying blood trailed out of the cut called to him. He forced back the urge to drop the girl and dragged his tongue across the liquid instead.

Blue eyes dilated, as he tasted his first bit of blood in weeks and virgin’s blood at that. The urge to tear open the girl’s neck and drink until she was dry was stronger then ever. In fact, the urge was so strong that he shifted her over his shoulder and tore into his right arm, causing beads of dark red blood to trail down his arm. His demon screamed in rage. The abomination of drinking his own cold, dead blood caused his demon to thrash wildly in an attempt to break free of its newly risen cage.

Blue eyes slowly registered the sight of the two still fighting figures as he rounded the outside of the chamber. One was covered in blood not its own and the other was slouched and only on the defense. A grin touched his lips as he watched the fight as it slowly drew to a standstill. Not paying attention, his foot caught on something. As he righted himself, he noticed the broadsword lay at his feet. The sound of his stumble alerted both demons and now he had two sets of eyes on him, one, bright amber the other misty, blood red. Without a second thought he placed the girl against the wall and grasped the weapon with his left hand. His right arm hung limply at his side as he walked towards the vampire.

Blue eyes turned golden as he raised the sword, handing it to the other vampire. With only a second’s hesitation, the vampire took the sword and braced himself as the demon came towards him. At the last moment he drew the sword up and pushed it clean through the hidden third eye that lay beneath grease laden locks. He pushed the sword until the hilt rested against the demon’s forehead. He tilted his head to one side and took a step back. Glowing purple acid poured out of the wound and the demon slumped to the ground.

Blue eyes met astonished brown before it all went black.

~~~

The soft slam of the trap door closing brought Cordelia out of her snooze. She pushed her hair back and blinked her eyes to clear them as she looked at the clock. Doing her best to cover a yawn she stood nervously and walked into the kitchen with the first aid kit in hand. As she waited for Angel to appear, she pulled out a bag of blood from the fridge and threw it into the microwave to heat it up.

When she turned her breath caught in her throat. Angel stood in the doorjamb looking as though he had just prevented another apocalypse. His shirt was in taters and his chest was covered in blood, dirt and some kind of purple liquid that was smoking slightly. Draped against his side was a lean body considerably dirtier than he was, though void of the smoking purple liquid.

With a groan, he dumped the body into the closest chair and went to the microwave to pull out the packet of blood. He, none too gently, threw the bag on the table. Cordelia took a cautious step towards the body slummed in the chair. As he started to slip forward, she rushed to grab him and make sure he was in a position that would make it near impossible for him to slide out of the chair again. She was trying to find the source of a trail of blood that was leading down his neck when it finally registered who she was looking at.

“That’s Spike!” she exclaimed. She winced at the high-pitched hysteria in her voice and said again in a stage whisper, “That is *Spike*!”

Without a word or glance in Cordelia’s direction, Angel shoved two more bags into the microwave before grabbing the bag off the table and tearing into it. As soon as he finished the blood, he opened the microwave and pulled out the other two bags. He just as quickly drained them before sitting down in the chair across from the vampire. Growling softly, he tore out his wrist. He pulled Spike into his lap and softly whispered, “Drink, William.” as he placed his bloodied wrist to the other vampire’s lips.

Cordelia watched, not quite sure what was going on. As if in a haze, she stood and brought out more blood that Angel didn’t even look at. When the vampire in his lap finally began to suckle his blood, Angel sighed in relief. He let the other vampire feed from him until he was pale again before he carried Spike to the couch.

Without a word to Cordelia, Angel turned and went to the shower. After a moment Cordelia heard the water running. Not wanting to be caught just standing around when Angel came back out, Cordelia went over to Spike and considered what she could do to help the vampire.

Even though she had no idea as to why Angel had brought Spike, an evil murdering vampire, into his apartment, she was not about to be a bad hostess. She pulled off Spike’s shoes and, after some struggling with the still only half-conscious man, managed to wrestle him out of his shirt before pulling the blankets up under his armpits. She knew how much Angel hated being cold while he slept and figured that Spike might fell the same way, so she tucked him in as snuggly as she could. She quickly went into the kitchen and came back with a mug of warm blood and, with the help of a straw, got him to drink some more.

The sound of the floorboards creaking told her that Angel was behind her but she didn’t move until the mug was nearly empty. A single look told her that Angel would not bother her about bandaging up his wounds. It was obvious to them both that he would not be able to clean himself or Spike up in his condition.

~~~

Replacing the phone on the hook Angel turned to Cordelia. He looked like he was about to say something before a shadow entered his eyes. He turned away from Cordelia to drop into one of his straight-backed kitchen chairs that were as uncomfortable as hell.

Cordelia gathered up all of the first aid supplies and threw all of the bloodied cloths into the garbage. She turned back to Angel and noticed a cut along his shoulder blade that she had missed. After some digging, she sighed and muttered, “Gunna need supplies. We’re out thanks to that damn Moo-Rage ripping you and Spike to pieces.”

Angel didn’t answer her; he just stared studiously at the stove. His eyes had a slightly glazed look and his body language screamed “I’m brooding, leave me alone.”

With a sigh, Cordelia walked around the chair so that she was right in Angel’s line of vision. “I made a mess with my dinner, I can admit that but it really isn’t all that brood worthy. A little bleach and some elbow grease and it’ll be back to its original shiny splendor.”

For a moment, Angel focused on her with a confused look before he shook his head and went back staring out at nothing, this time his gaze was directed at the linoleum. He shifted slightly, winced when the movement reopened one of his wounds, and took a small sip of his mug of blood.

“You know, Doyle’s probably out there having a drink. With his contacts, he already knows that you’ve killed the demon and decided to celebrate. Either that, or he’s mourning the fact that you didn’t let him go along so he could show his manly fighting powers.” Sipping at some lukewarm coffee Cordelia finally wrestled up the nerve to ask the question that had been tugging at her since she had seen Angel in the kitchen. “Angel, what happened out there?”

The vampire sighed and ran a hand through his still slightly damp hair. He winced as the movement caused yet another wound to reopen. Cursing himself silently, he drank deeply from his mug of blood. “I’m not sure.” The words seemed ripped out of him, as if he really did not want to be talking to her at all.

A sound of annoyance escaped the brunet and she violently tugged at the edge of the tablecloth. “Angel, how can you not know what happened? You were there, weren’t you? Here, I’ll start for you. ‘Spike showed up about the time I …’”

Angel fought the urge to glare at her but spoke non-the-less. “I got to the More-aff’s… chamber, I guess. We started out with insulting each other. I knew that there was a vampire there. I could feel their power. Spike and I aren’t exactly close enough to just *know* each other.

“He saved the girl that the More-aff had captured to feed him.” Angel stood and leaned against the doorframe to watch the blond that lay in Cordelia’s bed. He used the doorframe to support him so that he wouldn’t sway as he stood. “He had to’ve been starving. I don’t understand why he just didn’t eat.”

Cordelia frowned. Shaking her head, she took a sip from her coffee before saying, “He was starving? I thought Spike didn’t have any self-control? I mean… Not that it’s not a good thing that he didn’t eat the girl but I highly doubt that he knew you were coming to kill the demon. Why starve himself at the tiny possibility that you would be the one to save him?”

Throwing a look over his shoulder Angel walked out of the room. Cordelia followed him out of pure curiosity. Reaching the bedroom two steps behind him, she shut the door and waited for him to face her.

“Spike would rather I ignore him,” Angel said, contempt coloring his words. “He was probably just passing through LA on his way to gloomier places. I probably would have never known he was in town had he not gotten himself in trouble. He hates me more then anything, the less I know about him the happier he is.

“He looks at me and sees nothing more then the Sire that disappeared in the night and never came back. I failed him and because of that, he doesn’t want anything to do with me. Even so, had he been the Spike I knew, he would have eaten the girl and taken the More-aff out before he would sit back and wait for someone to come and get him. He isn’t the type to wait for reinforcements.”

Cordelia sat on the edge of Angel’s bed. Her mind was racing to try to fill in all the blanks. Nothing seemed to fit the way she saw it. “He hates you and from what you’re saying, I would think being rescued by you - anyone else for that matter - isn’t on his list of ‘Things To Do Before I End Up As Dust.’”

Angel shrugged. “All we can do is wait for him to wake up and tell us himself,” he said reluctantly.

Cordelia looked into Angel’s eyes and saw more then worry in them for his ailing Childe. There was a sorrow in his eyes that had nothing to do with the vampire lying on the pull out couch in the living room.

The brunet looked down at the ground as the silence stretched to unbearable measures, her toes suddenly becoming very interesting. “Angel… about what happened last night,” she started to say.

“It won’t happen again,” Angel said, interrupting her. His voice was self-deprecating as he muttered, “You won’t have to worry about that.”

Cordelia shook her head as she looked back up at Angel. She tugged on the bedspread and said, “I was going to ask why you left but I’ve suddenly got a pretty good idea why. I didn’t want you to stop. I would have sold my soul last night if only it would have gotten you to keep on going.”

A look of confusion and then astonishment crossed Angel face. As what she said sunk in, a small smile touched his lips. He walked over and sank down to his knees in front of her. Hesitating for only a moment his fingers touched her hair. Carefully, he said, “Next time… maybe I won’t stop then. Wouldn’t want you to have to sell your soul.”

Cordelia gasped softly at the look of undisguised lust in Angel’s eyes and leaned forward. A moan from the living room caused her to jump and she laughed nervously. A soft blush colored her cheeks and she broke away from his intense gaze. “You should… you should go and look in on him.”

With a nod and a soft brush of his lips against hers, Angel walked to the door. “Get some sleep Cordy,” he whispered before walking out.