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How to Treat Your
Lover
by Tami
Chapter 42
Chapter 42-B: Step 3 – Estrangement (Part
9)
Los Angeles, Cordelia’s Apartment
Cordelia opened the front door with her key and walked into her apartment kicking the door shut. Glancing around, she didn’t see anything amiss. She dropped her keys on a small table and headed towards her bedroom as she pulled her shirt over her head. Routinely going to her closet, she dropped her shirt in the laundry basket on the floor of her closet. She kicked her shoes off and pulled her jeans down with her back turned to her bed.
“Mmm, now there's a sight to make a vampire want to sink his . . . fangs in and stay awhile,” commented a cool, British cockney voice behind her.
Cordelia jumped and shrieked then spun around and gawked at Spike lying on her bed with his arms folded behind his head on the pillow and his booted feet crossed at the ankles on her grandmother’s antique quilt folded at the bottom of the bed.
“Spike! Why are you there on the bed? How long have you been here? Why aren’t you . . .” she glanced at the closed curtains, “dust?” Then, she remembered her state of near nakedness and crossed her arms over her semi-sheer bra, thinking they showed more than the matching panties with the satin covering the important parts. “Who knew you couldn’t be in your own house without a fear of peeping tom?”
“I thought someone like you would be used to having men ogle your . . . assets,” Spike said with a raised brow and a lecherous smirk. “Besides, with your arms crossed like that, it only pushes your tits up more.”
Cordelia chanced to look down and saw that her crossed arms did indeed push her breasts up and together. “God, Spike! You’re the crudest vampire I ever met!” She grabbed his feet and slung them off the side of the bed. “Get your muddy feet off my grandmother’s antique quilt. Where were you raised, a barn?”
“I died in one,” Spike replied as he sat up. He leaned over and wiped the dirt onto her clean bedroom floor.
Cordelia let out at outraged gasp at what he was doing. “Oh my God, I can’t even . . . Spike, that floor was clean!”
“They’re hardwood floors, who’s going to know?” Spike asked flippantly.
Still covering her breasts with her arms, Cordelia turned on her heel, stormed out of the room muttering to herself about despicable, bleached brained vampires and that maybe by the time she’s out of the shower, he’ll be gone.
Spike smirked when he heard the shower part and called out patronizingly, “Do you need any help washing those hard-to-reach places?!”
“NO!” Cordelia yelled back and slammed the bathroom door.
Spike chuckled when he heard the shower spray and the curtain rings slide over the pole. He went into the bathroom and immediately his mischievous smile turned into a scowl when he saw that the shower curtain wasn’t see-through. Shrugging off the loss of a great view, he sat on the clothes hamper in the corner and waited for the mirror to fog up before he started drawing on the condensation that formed.
Twenty minutes later, Spike was in the living room with the curtains closed. Cordelia had put them up way back when he and Angel stayed that summer after Angel’s apartment was bombed. He was flipping through the channels when he heard another shriek echo from the bathroom and started laughing to himself.
Cordelia stared incredulously at her fogged up mirror. Spike had snuck in when she was busy in the shower and decided to finger paint with the condensation. There was an outlined image of a full-bodied female about the same height as her mirror. She was sporting medium sized breasts with the nipples visible, but she was sitting on her heels so there was only the outline of her thighs pressed together, and – lest she forget – a big arrow pointing to the figure’s breasts with a caption that read: ‘Nice Tits! — Spike’.
Cordelia quickly dried off and rushed to wipe the crude image off her mirror. Spike was going to be a pile of dust for this. First, she felt sorry for him because he and Angel were separated. But now, she was going to dust him with the next available piece of wood she got her hands on. She went into her bedroom and changed into clean clothes before storming out to the living room with her hands on her hips.
“Why did you do that?” she demanded, trying to look as stern as she possibly could.
“Because I can?” Spike shrugged.
Cordelia went over and tried to smack him upside the head like she’d seen Angel do a thousand times. However, she wasn’t quick enough and Spike’s hand shot out to grab her wrist to stop her.
“Are you going to tell me why you’re holed up in my apartment and not in Sunnydale or – heaven forbid – at the hotel?” Cordelia asked as she gently pried herself out of his grasp and sat down beside him.
“Can’t go back to the hotel, Angel’s there,” Spike said casually.
Cordelia rolled her eyes at the obvious statement. “Okay. Sixty-eight rooms in the place and you can’t pick one farthest from him?”
Spike shrugged, “He’s a pig-headed, selfish bastard who needs to straighten out his priorities which, I’m sad to say, doesn’t include me.” He flashed her with his sexiest smile. “So, I need a place to stay when I’m in L.A.”
“How am I going to explain a horribly dressed Billy Idol wannabe sneaking in and out of my apartment at all hours of the night to my neighbors?” Cordelia asked as her brows furrowed thoughtfully.
“Just tell them I’m your sex toy and come over to rev up your engine after a late shift,” Spike smirked.
“Oh my God, Spike . . . that’s disgusting!” Cordelia cried, smacking him with a pillow.
“Fine! Fine!” he said, holding her pillow at bay. “Tell them I’m your estranged cousin who has an aversion to the sun.”
“Okay, but you’re sleeping on the couch and no shoes on the cushions,” she admonished.
**************************
Somewhere in an L.A. Cemetery, Night
Holtz watched from the shadows beneath a tree as Justine fought a vampire. The vampire kicked her in Holtz’s direction and he caught her before she fell.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded never taking her eyes off her opponent.
“Watching you fight,” Holtz commented.
He pushed her away from him and she resumed her fight. She raised a stake for the kill, but the vampire knocked it out of her hand and then kicked her to the ground. The vampire pounced on Justine and was about to sink his teeth into her neck when it immediately dissolved into a cloud of dust revealing Holtz, holding a stake.
At the opposite side of the cemetery Spike was strolling along patrolling around Cordelia’s block. She had gone back to the Hyperion after they’d talked about his sleeping arrangements. Just then, he spotted a man in an oversize trench coat offer someone up off the ground – a girl it looked like. Spike stopped and concentrated on the pair. He saw the man dust the vampire that was attacking the girl, but his hair was too shaggy to be Angel’s poufy style. From his great ability of deduction, the man had to be Holtz. But who was the girl and what would Holtz want with her?
“Why did you wait so long?” Justine asked as she brushed herself off.
“I wanted to see if you could win,” Holtz replied.
“Always,” Justine stated with a self-satisfied smirk. “I would have kicked his ass if you hadn’t distracted me.”
Holtz hummed thoughtfully, giving her a measuring glance. “I wasn’t your problem.”
“Really?” Justine challenged.
“You fight well, but you lack strategy. Your passion works against you,” he criticized.
“And you’re here to teach me about passion?” she scoffed.
Holtz shook his head. “I’m here to teach you how to fight.”
“What’s in it for you?” she asked, eying him skeptically.
“You help me kill a vampire,” Holtz said simply.
“You don’t need me for that,” Justine said as she turned and walked away from him.
“But I do,” Holtz countered, following her, “This vampire is strong.”
“What are we talking about? Some kind of Karate Kid Mr. Miyagi groove thing?” she asked over her shoulder.
“You’ll find that your references to modern popular culture tend to be lost on me,” he confessed.
“What a shocker,” she said flippantly.
Holtz grabbed her by the upper arm and spun her around to face him. “But I know you’re interested in more than the trivial. Your life has been ruined. You can’t sleep. Instead you wander the streets, making others pay for what happened to your sister. That’s where I can help. I see your talent. And I see your hate. And I know that I can shape and hone you into an instrument of vengeance,” Holtz said confidently.
Justine smirked. “Sounds like fun.”
“I can assure you: it won’t be,” Holtz said then turned and walked away. Justine took a moment to think about his offer before following him, sparing a glance over her shoulder.
Spike saw her look in his direction and slunk back into the shadows before she noticed him. He didn’t catch the entire conversation between Holtz and the girl. He was too far away. But, he caught enough of the highlights in the discussion. Holtz had recruited her to help him kill Angel.
Spike finished his patrol near Cordelia’s apartment lost in thought, deciding what to do. Sure, he was upset with his Sire, but he didn’t want Angel dead. And even if he did, he could do it himself. He didn’t need a vampire hunter from the Dark Ages to do it for him. Maybe he could intervene with Holtz’s plans – once he figured out how he was going to do that without attracting attention.
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Los Angeles, Hyperion Hotel
Taking a cue from Lorne’s tip earlier about the closet, Angel stepped into one and shifted to his demon to read the message the Pylean demon had slipped into his shirt pocket.
I investigated that buzzing sound I heard earlier. I’m surprised you, being a vampire with heightened senses, didn’t detect them yourself. You must have been distracted with Spike. But, I digress! Anyway, I checked out the hotel and the humble abode has bugs. There are microphone cameras transmitting from here. And there’s only one place I could think where it could be going . . .
“Damn it,” Angel cursed. He destroyed the paper and stepped out of the closet, tossing the scraps into a trash can as he passed.
Glancing out of the windows in the front entrance doors, he saw figures dressed in hooded cloaks chanting.
Gunn, who stood by watching the whole fiasco unfold outside the hotel, turned and walked down the steps to the lobby. “Guys, those Lilliad demons are starting their mojo on the force field.” Grabbing a bigger weapon, he resumed his post at the window while Wesley and Fred picked up crossbows.
Still looking out the window, Gunn scoffed, “Ah, right, sun’s down. That means the vamps can come out, too. Oh, wait. They’re headed towards the bikers.”
“What are they up to?” Cordelia asked as she stepped closer with weapon in hand.
Gunn retreated down the stairs to join the others in an alliance. “They’re, ah, having a brawl over who gets to kill us first.”
“We have to hold our ground,” Wesley said in his best Braveheart impersonation.
“What if we can’t?” Cordelia asked.
Wesley nodded. “If we’re forced to fall back we’ll do so towards the cellar. We can make a retreat through the sewer.” He exchanged his crossbow for a flame thrower.
Angel stood back and weighed the odds. “This isn’t going to work.”
Wesley examined his weapon with a critical eye. “I checked it. It’s primed and ready.”
“Not the weapon, the plan,” Angel commented.
Lorne glanced heavenward with a sigh of relief. “I’m so glad somebody finally said that, because sitting here waiting to die never was much of a plan. Sorry. So, what kind of genius idea have you got hidden up that well-tailored sleeve of yours, huh?’
“We’re going, all of us,” Angel stated.
“What?” Cordelia asked surprised.
“What happened to ‘We’re in a war’?” Wesley asked.
“And now we’re in a retreat,” Angel said as he grabbed the bag of weapons Gunn had brought earlier and went over to the cabinet to get more.
“What happened to taking them out?” Wesley asked confused about the new direction the plan was taking.
“Look out there, Wes. There’s too many of them. We can get out through the sewers. With any luck, we’ll get a couple of miles away before they barge in here and find us gone,” Angel explained.
“I like the retreating part. I’m good with the running away,” Fred said as she looked at the others uncertainly.
“What are we waiting for, a starter pistol?” Lorne asked, already inching towards escape.
They all grabbed what they could carry in weaponry and rushed towards the basement and the sewers beyond.
**************************
Los Angeles, Wolfram & Hart
Gavin and Linwood watched the big screen TV transmitting the scene from the hotel as Angel and his team escaped into the cellar.
“He’s running away,” Gavin observed as if he were watching mice in a maze.
“He’s sneaking away,” Linwood clarified, “and giving us the chance to get the jump on everyone.”
Gavin punched the button on his handheld two-way radio. “Alpha team he’s heading into the sewers.”
“Copy that,” a static voice replied.
Linwood continued to watch Angel’s retreat on the screen as he said thoughtfully, “Today the world is different. Souled vampires running away from a fight . . . tell me, have we found this Daniel Boone character yet?”
“No sir,” Gavin said then hurried to assure his boss, “We’re still searching for his whereabouts.”
Lilah scoffed at Gavin’s rushed reply. “We have the utmost confidence that we’ll find him, sir.”
“And Angel’s new companion? What do we have on him?” Linwood asked in general.
Lilah flashed a self-satisfied smirk at Gavin. It seemed he had no clue about the blonde vampire that had been frequently seen around the hotel from time to time. It meant that she had one up on her colleague. That meant she got to keep Lindsey’s office as her own for another six months and possibly another raise in her paycheck.
“Um, his name is William the Bloody, but he goes by Spike now. His siring is unclear, but he’s been a companion of Angelus since 1873. They have been at odds until the last few years when Spike found the Ring of Amarra. Angel destroyed it. Spike has been traveling back and forth between L.A. and Sunnydale ever since. He hasn’t been seen around the hotel in last few weeks,” Lilah reported.
“Does he have a soul as well?” Linwood asked.
“No sir, he’s evil, but he’s of no consequence to our plans for Angel,” Lilah informed him.
“Hmm, maybe we could use him when and if we need him,” Linwood suggested casually.
Lilah didn’t think that Spike would be of any use, but to her boss she smiled, “Yes sir.”
Linwood turned to look at her, giving her a slight smile, “Good work, Lilah.”
Gavin grimaced at the praise of his co-worker.
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Los Angeles Sewers
Angel and the team rushed through the sewers as a Hum-Vee drove down the street directly above them.
“Alpha team, where are you? Over,” Lilah’s static voice demanded over the two-way radio.
“We’re here,” the driver replied.
Beneath the street Angel climbed up a ladder and pushed aside the metal lid covering the manhole. He climbed up to street beside his parked car and helped the others out of the sewer. After scanning the area with a quick glance, they got into the car. A tactical team member from Wolfram & Hart watched them through night-vision binoculars from a Hum-vee across the street.
“Got him and he has a party with him,” he reported over the two-way radio. He lowered the binoculars and started the car. Pulling into traffic, he followed Angel’s car.
Back at the Hyperion, two demons and men broke free of the fight outside the front doors and just walked inside. The demons removed their hoods and searched the lobby.
“Where are they?” the leader demanded.
“They seem to have vanished,” one of the men said.
Outside the mosh pit-type brawl was still in progress when a vampire looked up from his own fight to see Angel’s car drive by. The vampire knocked down his opponent as a wagon train of Hum-vees followed Angel’s car in pursuit. Knocking down another opponent, the vampire ran inside the hotel.
“Master, it’s a trick!” the vampire said just as one of the demons inside found a gift-wrapped box near the door. The Lilliad demon picked it up and started to open it just as it exploded in his hands. The bomb was large enough to kill the demon holding the package and the two others standing next to him, including the vampire that ran in to warn them.
The two men left standing ran outside and joined the remaining fighters as they all hurried to their vehicles to pursue Angel and the Hum-vees.
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“I don’t think the little surprise I left behind stalled them long,” Gunn said as he watched the train of hum-vees and additional cars follow them.
“I can’t believe I came back to the hotel to help with research only to be in a car chase,” Cordelia added. “I just hope that if the traffic helicopter sees this and it ends up on the news, that they get footage from my good side.”
“Angel, can’t you go any faster. They’re gaining on us!” Fred spoke up from her seat between Angel and Wesley.
Wesley sat in the passenger seat and held onto the door for dear life as Angel fishtailed the car around a corner with the Hum-vees, bikers, cars of the vampire cult from the hospital and the van of Lilliad demons in hot pursuit.
Another Hum-vee pulled out of an alley to cut him off and Angel wrenched the car aside to turn into another street. He drove through a tunnel, down a highway and past a sign reading LANCASTER 16 / MOJAVE DESERT 42.
Angel glanced at his pursuers’ progress from the side mirror. “How are we doing back there?”
“Still got a trail behind us,” Cordelia replied as she watched the headlights of the posse’s vehicles.
Just then, the lead car rammed into the back of the car, jolting Cordelia nearly off the back seat and onto the floor of the car. She picked herself up just as the lead car rammed into them again, jarring her into the back of Angel’s seat. Angel sped up as he drove by a ‘Danger Abandoned Mine No Trespassing’ sign.
“Cordy, just stay down and cover your head,” Angel suggested as he turned the car and drove a latched wooden gate.
“He’s breaking left,” the driver of the lead Hum-vee alerted his team.
Angel drove past an abandoned shake and through the boards that closed off the entrance of the mine. Outside the other vehicles pulled up in front of the mine entrance. Everyone held on for dear life as Angel descended into the main shaft.
Outside everyone piled out of the vehicles and moved closer to the shaft. Inside, Angel met up with a boarded up tunnel entrance. As the first wave of pursuers descended into the pit of the main shaft, Angel tossed something into the shaft. Then, the tires squealed in protest as he backed up at full speed, causing his pursuers to run for safety or get run over. His car hit the Hum-vee blocking the entrance, jolting his passengers. Angel turned the wheel and squealed the tires as he sped away.
The pursuers still left in the shaft tried to get their bearings before going after Angel. A second later, a huge explosion reverberated in the cavernous mine and a fireball rolled out of the mineshaft.
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Los Angeles, Cordelia’s Apartment
Cordelia walked into her apartment and tossed her keys on an end table in the walkway. Grabbing her mail off the table she sifted through it on the way to the kitchen, pitching the junk mail in the trash. She set the bills aside and made herself a cup of hot tea.
“How was your night, dear?” Spike mocked as she walked into the living room.
“You know the usual: being held hostage in the hotel by a mass of bikers, demons and vampires intent on starting an apocalypse,” she said as she sat down and curled her feet under her. “Oh, and the car chase into an abandoned mine, with said demons and Wolfram & Hart’s goons chasing us was just loads of fun. Especially when we barely escaped just before Angel blew up the mine.”
“Sounds more exciting than my night,” Spike commented.
“Why, what did you do?” she asked incredulously expecting to get some flippant remark about rearranging her underwear drawer. On second thought . . . “You didn’t go through my things did you?”
Spike looked at her with wide innocent eyes. “Moi? I would never disrespect you by going through your unmentionables.” When she just stared at him, he nodded in affirmation. “Okay, well, I would. But I didn’t! I stayed in like a good vampire and . . .” He shook his head when she didn’t say anything and her expression turned to one of disbelief. “Didn’t really do that either. I prowled the neighborhood for a couple of hours.”
“I live in a quiet unassuming neighborhood. Nothing goes on here,” Cordelia said.
“Yeah, one would think so,” Spike said cryptically. There was no point in telling her what he witnessed in the cemetery yet. All he knew was that Holtz was meeting some girl. There was no use getting her worried over a trivial matter until he figured out what exactly Holtz was up to. To her he added, “But then, Sunnydale’s an unassuming town and it’s on a Hellmouth.”
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Los Angeles, Wolfram & Hart
Linwood stood in the conference room with Gavin and Lilah flanking him as he reviewed the encounter between Lorne and Angel that morning. The firm had gotten word about the mine explosion from the surviving members of the tactical team moments after it occurred.
Lorne draped an arm over Angel’s shoulder as he leaned closer, chuckling, “I can never see her in anything other than pristine and pressed clothes. She’s not the type to shop at the Gap, y’know. Looks like you could have dug through your own closet . . .”
“Back it up,” Linwood said.
Lilah rewound the video and played it again.
Lorne draped an arm over Angel’s shoulder as he leaned closer, chuckling, “I can never see her in anything other than pristine and pressed clothes.”
“Stop it right there!” Linwood said. The scene paused. “Magnify one hundred times.” The picture zoomed in. “Again.” The whole screen now showed Lorne’s hand slipping a nearly-concealed piece of paper into the breast pocket of Angel’s shirt. “Right there,” Linwood pointed out. “That is when he gives Angel the note.”
“Looks like you could have dug through your own closet for a clean shirt,” Lorne was saying on the screen.
Angel looked down at his shirt pocket. “Thanks for the tip,” Angel said, walking away from the demon.
“And tells him where to read it,” Linwood commented disapprovingly. “The closet, where we don’t have surveillance.”
“The green houseguest could hear the hum of your transmit frequency. What are the odds?” Lilah sneered at Gavin.
Linwood waved away the bickering. “Either way it worked – for us. Angel’s little escape thinned the herd. Now, what about that Daniel Boone character?”
“No reports yet that he was among Angel’s pursuers,” Gavin said.
“I was hoping he’d be among the casualties. What do we know about him?” Linwood said distractedly.
Lilah opened a folder and narrated, “His name is actually Daniel Holtz. He is a vampire hunter. Angel killed his family and he spent the rest of his life seeking revenge. Oh, and one more thing . . . this all happened two hundred years ago.”
“I thought Holtz was human,” Linwood said thoughtfully.
“He is,” Lilah assured him.
“A time traveler,” Linwood pondered.
“His arrival was foretold in the Nyazian Scrolls. He is a player,” Gavin added.
“Yeah, he’s a cog in the machine, and aren’t we all? What do you suppose it is that he wants?” Linwood asked his companions.
“We need more information. How he got here, who he works with, where he lives,” Linwood said as he paced in front of Lilah and Gavin. “It’s only a matter of time before our needs and his come into conflict. Maybe sooner than we think.”
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Los Angeles, Hyperion Hotel
Angel slouched in his wingback chair in the sitting room of his suite with his sketchpad balanced on his lap. He wasn’t intent on drawing anything, but his subconscious had taken the initiative and drew the outline of a person’s bust.
Nothing was said when they came back from the destroyed mine, or if there was, he wasn’t paying attention. He remembered driving back to the hotel and immediately going into the lobby to put his weapons away. Then he went up to Fred’s room to search for and break the connection on the CCTV camera that Wolfram & Hart had broken in to install before going to his own room and doing the same.
He didn’t care that the rest of the hotel was being watched by them, but the bedrooms were off limits. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t concerned about Wolfram & Hart spying on his team. It was just that Angel had other things on his mind than Lilah spying on him to get her rocks off.
The outline on the page was steadily turning into a drawing of a male with angular features, sharp cheekbones, slicked back hair and clear eyes.
When Cordelia came back to the hotel earlier, she smelled distinctly like Spike; as if she were in intimate quarters with his boy recently. Angel sighed. Was Spike still his boy? Or had he moved on to Cordelia?
Angel’s pencil strokes took on angry motions the more he thought about Spike with someone else. They were connected, mated. He could still feel the link itching beneath his skin. Why didn’t Spike go back to Sunnydale? Then again, why was he with Cordelia instead of staying in the hotel if he was going to be in L.A.? Did Spike hate him that much?
Angel finished the sketch he was working on and looked at it with a critical eye. The shaded, detailed bust drawing of Spike stared back at him. The picture took up the entire height and width of the eleven-and-a-half by nine-inch sketch pad. He put the pencil down and ran his fingertips over the drawn angles of Spike’s face.
What am I going to do about my relationship with Spike? All he wanted to do was protect Spike from Holtz. Maybe if he could hide the deep connection between them from Holtz, so the hunter couldn’t use Spike against him. Maybe then Spike would be safe. A painful ache throbbed in chest as he stared at the drawing. He missed his boy.
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