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Edges of My Mind
by Tami
Chapter 12
Los Angeles, Wolfram & Hart
Spike opened his eyes to a blurry room decorated in polished wood and deep reds. He waited for his vision to clear and saw book cases lined with law books and little knick knacks. The walls were lined with certificates congratulating someone named Lilah Morgan on her achievement of one thing or another. Then, he looked at his position. He was lying on a couch with dark gray suede fabric. Whoever this Lilah Morgan was, she had an ostentatious taste in fabrics. It couldn’t be any worse than Angel’s red couch and round settee in the Hyperion lobby.
“Ah, I see you’re finally awake,” a female voice commented.
Spike blinked and looked over to see a dark-haired woman in a skirt that was cut above the knee. He pulled himself upright and leaned back. Scowling at her, he massaged his rib cage where the Taser zapped him.
“Don’t you bloody gits have anything else better to do than zap me with Tasers? I’m not a friggin’ science experiment!” Spike growled.
Lilah looked at him with mild amusement. “I’m sorry that had to be done. You were uncooperative when we requested your presence.”
Spike scoffed. “There was no request. Your goons ambushed me.”
Lilah chewed on her fingernail. “I could have sworn I told them to ask you to come with them.” She waved her hand dismissively. “I swear they have no manners. Please forgive us for not asking you first.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure you’re all broken up about my welfare, lady,” Spike said irritably. Dropping his hand, he asked cynically, “What the hell do you want with me?”
“Would you like a glass of wine?” Lilah offered in pleasant voice.
“No,” he replied flatly.
“Hmm,” she mused as she poured herself a glass. “It’s a shame. I have the best Cabernet Sauvignon on hand.”
“You do realize you’ve abducted a vampire, right? I drink blood not wine,” Spike pointed out.
Lilah picked up her glass and turned to face him. “Oh, I know what you are. One should not have to live on blood alone. You should have a little variety in life.”
“I’ll try to remember that next time I drain someone. Can we skip the niceties and get to why the bloody hell I’m here?”
“You’re as broody as Angel, you know that?” Lilah commented with a smile.
Spike glared up at her. “I’m nothing like Angel.”
“Exactly how do you feel about him?” Lilah asked as she crossed over to her desk and leaned against it, drinking her wine.
Spike followed her with his eyes. “My personal life with the ponce is none of your concern.” He looked around the room and it finally occurred to him where he was. “Wolfram & Hart, and you must be the lackey assigned to drive Angel around the bend.”
Lilah pursed her lips. “I can assure you. I’m far from being a lackey.”
Spike nodded. “Uh-huh. You’re still not getting anything from me, lady.”
“Lilah. My name is Lilah Morgan,” she corrected.
Spike got to his feet and walked around the office, inspecting all the achievement medals and certificates. “A lot of awards for winning in court, yet you haven’t managed to get one for making Angel turn dark? Your bosses must be riding you hard to get him,” Spike eyed her short skirt and finished, “under your belt.”
Lilah fidgeted under his penetrating blue eyes. “Yes, well, Angel is long-term project. We have a lot invested in him.”
Spike slowly walked closer to her. “Is that why you used Darla and Dru?” When Lilah looked confused, he filled in the blanks. “Yeah, I know all about your scheming. Dru came back to Sunnyhell and told me. She wanted me to join in, be a happy family again.” He stopped in front of her, took her glass and drained the rest of the wine. Then, he looked into the empty glass. “It’s a little dry for my tastes.” He set the glass down on the desk. “I tend to like my wine a little thicker with a sweet copper taste. It makes it go down smooth.”
Lilah swallowed and watched him. He and Angel were so different from other vampires. They didn’t smell of rotting flesh. Angel had the scent of darkness around him mixed in with a hint of spice and the rustic outdoors. Spike’s scent was leather, cigarettes and forbidden seduction . . . if that had a scent.
“Maybe we can work out a deal,” Lilah breathed.
Spike raised a brow at that. “Maybe?”
“Wolfram & Hart has records on everything that goes on. I’ve read your file, so I know you and Angel have your . . . shall we say grievances . . . with each other. I can give you the opportunity to get even with him.”
“What’s in it for me?” Spike asked as he trailed his fingers over her collarbone.
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Los Angeles, Hyperion Hotel
Shortly after Spike walked out of the hotel, Angel got up off the basement floor and put the training mat away. He was confused as ever about what to do with Spike. He rationalized the sexual encounters as an exercise so that Spike wouldn’t withdraw any more than he already had. In the bathroom, the blonde vampire had said that Angelus told him that humans were nothing more than food. But, Spike had been getting along with the team lately, so he didn’t think that sentiment extended to Angel’s human friends.
He trudged up the basement steps and went up to his floor. He peeked into Spike’s room and found it empty. Shrugging, he went to his room and found that vacant as well. Where was Spike?
Closing the door, he went back downstairs and checked both entrances to the hotel. The blonde vampire wasn’t outside either of them. He turned and headed toward the reception desk when he spotted Fred. “Have you seen Spike anywhere?”
“The last time I saw him, he was shuffling toward the gardens,” Fred replied. She walked around the counter with an armload of books and dropped them on the desk. “He looked a little . . . did you two have an argument or something?”
“Or something,” Angel replied distractedly. “He’s not out there and he’s not in either his room or mine. There are four floors in this hotel, maybe he’s in one of the other rooms. But, I don’t see why he would be in any of the others. Get Cordy and Wes and we’ll each take a floor.”
Fred nodded and went off to do what he instructed. Locating, Wesley and Cordelia, they searched the hotel from top to bottom. They were in the lobby when Angel came jogging down the stairs from his own search of the top floor and the roof.
“Anything?” he asked anxiously.
“No, nothing,” Wes and Cordelia chorused.
“Damn, where could he have gone?” Then, Angel thought about something Spike said. “He told me he’d leave here once he was healed. But even then, he’s not well enough to do that yet.”
“Maybe he went for a walk?” Cordelia shrugged.
“Oh no,” Angel sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair.
“What?” Wesley asked.
“He doesn’t have a chip anymore. I don’t know how he’s going to react without it yet,” Angel said, trying not to imagine the damage Spike could wreak unimpeded by the chip. He had restored his childe back to the way he was . . . physically speaking and he didn’t regret his decision. Hopefully, his boy wouldn’t be so restless from the years of being ‘collared’ as to bite anyone innocent.
“You took his chip out?!” Wesley screeched.
“It was going to kill him!” Angel said in defense of his actions.
“You removed the one security humans had against a soulless vampire?! What were you thinking?” Wesley asked angrily.
“Honestly? I was thinking about his welfare. Don’t begin to tell me how to handle Spike! I raised him from a fledging. I knew what I was doing!” Angel yelled.
“He’s not safe, Angel! What if he attacks Fred or Cordelia?” Wesley asked.
“He won’t!”
“How can you be so sure of that?” Wesley inquired.
“I just know! Look, whether he’s a risk or not doesn’t matter now, does it? He’s missing. Right now, I could care less about what you think of him or how little you trust him. He’s my . . . he’s out there somewhere, possibly confused about what happened between us.” Angel ran his fingers through his hair again anxiously and then looked at Wesley. “Do I have to remind you that he was beaten and raped by a human when he staggered in the door two months ago?” Angel growled softly and grabbed his coat. “I’m going out to find him. Either help me or don’t, I don’t care. I’ll be back later.” With that, Angel walked out of the hotel and slammed the door.
Wesley watched him walk out; then, went to the phone and dialed a number.
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Sunnydale, Giles’ Apartment
Buffy and Giles were researching some foreign glyphs that she encountered on patrol when the phone rang. He blindly reached for the phone and picked up the receiver. “Hello?”
“Giles? This is Wesley Wyndham-Price, we have a bit of a situation down here,” the voice said.
“What sort of situation?” Giles brows furrowed. Why would Wesley be calling him for help?
“As I’m sure you know, Spike has set up residence down here and has been reluctantly helping us due to Angel’s persuasion,” Wesley said.
“Yes, I’m aware of that. Why are you calling me?” Giles asked irritated at the interruption for something so frivolous.
“Well, he showed up here chipped. It disheartens me to say this, but he no longer has that problem anymore,” Wesley said cryptically.
“What do you mean? Spit it out in plain English, Wesley!” Giles said angrily.
“Angel had the chip removed,” Wesley said.
“He did what?!” Giles shouted into the receiver. “What the bloody hell possessed him to do that?”
“He said it was for Spike’s welfare, that the chip would have killed him,” Wesley explained.
“Good Lord,” Giles groaned as he removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “A soulless, unchipped vampire hunting in a city as big as Los Angeles . . .” Giles tried to block the doomed images that statement brought to mind.
Buffy perked up when she heard Giles’ end of the conversation. Angel removed Spike’s chip? He really did it? Oh, God. Spike’s evil again. What do you mean by again?, her inner voice asked. He’s always been evil. You just thought he was safely evil with the chip. Hate to break it to you, honey. But, that was a false sense of security. Buffy gave Giles a questioning look when he hung up the phone.
“It seems Angel has removed Spike’s chip on the grounds that it would kill him if they left it in. Furthermore, he’s disappeared in the city and Angel’s gone looking for him,” Giles explained.
“How is that a bad thing? He’s an evil, soulless thing. Without the chip, he’ll be back to killing again. I warned Angel about that, but he wouldn’t listen to me,” Buffy said. She grabbed her bag, a few extra stakes and headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” Giles asked.
“To L.A.,” Buffy replied.
“I’m sure they can deal with the situation,” Giles said.
“Then, why did Wesley call you?” Buffy asked.
“To give me a head’s up in case he came back,” Giles replied.
Buffy nodded. “Right . . . I’m going. I’ll be back with his dust in an urn.” With that, she walked out the door, leaving a perplexed Giles staring after her.
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Los Angeles
Angel drove around every neighborhood within a 6 mile radius of the hotel and even stopped to check the sewer tunnels in a few places, but there was still no trace of his childe. Angel was starting to worry. He worried over what would happen if Spike encountered another human. He imagined gruesome results if Spike and Riley were to ever meet again. Then, he thought of the worst thing that could ever happen, other than dusting.
Wolfram & Hart.
The law firm had been pretty quiet ever since Gunn discovered their not-so-covert operation to plant spy-ware inside the hotel. He couldn’t imagine his Spike and Lilah having a meeting, or Spike even agreeing to meet with her for that matter. On Lilah’s side, Angel couldn’t picture her holding up well under the sexual onslaught that was his childe’s personality. Spike could be very charming and flirtatious when he wanted to be. Angel could imagine his childe doing just that for kicks.
Yes, Spike had been used by Buffy and raped by Riley, but if Angel knew Spike as well as he thought he did, his childe uses everything he has to his advantage. He turned the car toward the Wolfram & Hart offices and grew more apprehensive with every mile that brought him closer to the bane of his existence ever since he showed up in L.A.
Lorne told him that he couldn’t burn that damn law firm to the ground last year when they were using Darla to make him lose his soul. Angel scoffed at the idea that Lindsey thought that would ever happen. Just because he fell in love with the human Darla and she spared his life when she and Drusilla slaughtered those people in the wine cellar, Lindsey thought that she would make Angel happy enough to lose the soul.
The dark vampire smirked at the thought of Lindsey’s childish attempts. Darla never made him happy. Liam was just following a pretty girl’s skirt for the opportunity to fuck her and ended up vamped. There was no time for ‘perfect happiness’ to occur then. Now, that law firm had his childe, and God knows what the hell they were doing to him. For all Angel knew, they could be putting him through more torture than what Riley did. If they so much as attempt to stick another chip in his head, I’ll drain Lilah Morgan myself and tie her to that expensive desk of hers with her own intestines.
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