About thirty minutes after being given the command to pack, I found myself in my bedroom with two bags on my bed, packed as lightly as possible with jeans, T-shirts, sweaters, socks, underwear, bras, and any cosmetic necessities. I had no idea if we'd be going anywhere dressy, but I decided we wouldn't, and didn't bother to pack stilettos or a dress.
Giles knocked on the partially-open door, and peaked his head in. "Are you almost done in here, Buffy? Angelus is quite anxious to get out of LA before midnight." Giles came over to stand next to me as he watched me packing up my life.
"Why? Does he turn into a werewolf too?" I asked sarcastically. I wasn't at all pleased that within five minutes of meeting someone, they could uproot my entire life. At the saddened look on Giles' face, I realized I was taking out my frustrations on him. He was only doing what he thought was best for me. I shouldn't be venting to him like he's my hacky sack.
I sighed as I laid out a pair of jeans a white tank top, and a white, see-through turtleneck to change in to. "I'm sorry, Giles. I'm just a little stressed. Anyways, I'll be ready in just a few minutes. I guess I should give Willow and Xander a call and let them know I might not be around for graduation," my voice couldn't hide my disappointment. I was going to miss them so much.
Giles was about to say something, when the door shot open. "You'll make no calls," Angelus informed me ina manner that expressed there was no room for questions or exceptions.
"Why not?" I asked anyways, wondering why on earth I couldn't say good-bye to the people I loved that I may never see again.
"It kind of diminishes the purpose of running without anyone knowing, when you tell people, Buffy. Are you almost done here?" he crossed his arms, showing no mercy.
I felt like I wanted to cry. What had I ever done to deserve this? My mother dies at birth. My father doesn't want me. I spend seventeen years growing up with someone and suddenly I have to leave everything I know because the father I never knew, has passed away, and left a trail of doubts to be extracted from my skin, as his only living heir. Now, I have to run like a rabbit with some gorgeous wacko who tells me I can't even say good-bye to my best friends!
Life offically sucks.
"Can't I just tell them I have to leave, and not answer their questions?" I asked, fighting to keep my voice from breaking as it tightened and choked with the tears I was hiding.
Angelus sighed, as if he was giving in to a child who wanted ice cream. "You can write them a letter. I'll mail it to someone I know overseas and they can mail it to Giles. He'll give the letter to your friends. There. Satisfied yet?"
I turned to look at him, anger seeping through my being. "You don't have to be such a prick about all of this. You could try saying please when you ask me to hurry my ass up!"
He grinned at my outburst, as if he was thoroughly pleased that I had a temper. "Okay, Buffy. Hurry your ass up...Please," he quirked an eyebrow, "was that good?"
"Didn't they teach you manners in the 1800's?" I asked, a scowl glued to my features and a sarcastic nip to my voice as I glared at the man before me.
~~
It took me less than five minutes to finish packing and get dressed after Angelus made the threat of not letting me send the letter to Willow and Xander. I dropped my two bags in the livingroom, standing before the two men that were intent upon destroying my life for a "good cause".
"I'm ready," I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest protectively, as I noticed Angelus sizing me up again. Maybe I should have thought a bit more about this see-through top and all of it's form-fitting features. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now.
"Excellent," Angelus almost smiled a sincere smile. He grabbed the two bags I had dropped down and walked to the door. "Seeing as how my life will be miserable for the next little while if I don't, I might as well give you two a moment to say your good-byes." With that, he went out the door.
"He's a real find, isn't he?" I rolled my eyes.
"Yes, well...He's good at what he does," Giles told me, taking off his glasses and cleaning them like he always did when he was feeling emotional or nervous.
"What's that?" I asked. "Pissing me off?"
Giles ignored my comment, stepped up to me and saying, "Buffy, there's a few things I need you to know about Angelus. Despite what I said before, he's not to be trusted. He'll protect you above everything, but that doesn't mean he can't have a hidden agenda of his own. I honestly believe you'll be home in a few weeks, safe as can be...But in the evnt that he tries anything, you remember your training. Yes?"
I nodded, waiting to hear more. Giles was looking so emotional, so fragile. It was a new look for the man that I occasionally thought to have no emotions.
"And in the event that anything happens to you, or to me, I want you to know I love you very much. Like you were my own daughter, Buffy. I've always seen you that way, and I always will," he smiled despite the tears forming behind his eyes.
I lifted one hand and placed it on the side of his face. "I've always felt that way. Thank-you."
**
I glanced at my watch, willing it to speed up to make it look like I had more patience than I really did. If only they could damn-well hurry up! I hated waiting outside for Giles to bash my name and confess his fatherly love and respect for Buffy like I knew he would.
Cordelia had been deeply impressed at the amount of money the agency would have at the end of this mission, despite how long I said it might take. Personally, I think she and the rest of the 'gang' would sleep better when I wasn't around. Not that I particularily cared, but it was a little disconcerting to live around such two-faced individuals, who tell you they trust you and then sleep with stakes under their pillows.
Finally, the door to the house opened again, and Buffy stepped out. I couldn't deny that she looked simply edible in her form-fitting jeans and skimpy top. My only concern was how much attention she would attract from the men on this trip. It only made me realize I'd have to speed up my plans with her to make sure that I could glare at them and break their necks when they stared, without Buffy rushing to stop me from being so overly protective.
The turtleneck selection made me wonder. Had she simply just decided to wear it for the sake of liking it, or was there a deeper meaning to keeping her neck covered?...Like perhaps she was warding me off with a fabric shield that said she didn't want anything to do with me. I passed it off as that she knew she looked good in that top, and left it at that.
"Okay, take me to Hell," she announced with a bright smile.
I went over to her and bowed, "it'll be my pleasure." I succesfully unnerved her. She looked from me, to Giles, a little unsure of herself and her new situation. So now she knew her flippant behavior could bring her loads of sarcastic truth in response. Good. Better she learn it now, the easy way, than later, the hard way.
~~
"Can we stop soon?" Buffy asked with a sigh, turning her head to look at me. "We've been driving for hours already, and we haven't stopped once!"
"We left LA just two hours ago. We'll be at our first stop soon. You can wait," I told her firmly, keeping myself from looking over at her as I spoke. She'd barely said two words to me since we left LA, and I was starting to wonder if this was the start of a vicious trend.
"Two hours? Is that all?" she asked with a sigh. Then, glancing out the window again she said, "feels like a lot longer."
I sighed, hating that I felt guilty and cruel for making her leave like that. I'm a demon! Why the Hell am I caring so much that she's pining for her friends? Finally, I just gave in and surprised us both by asking, "have you ever been out of Los Angeles?"
She turned to look at me, eyeing me suspiciously for signs that I was joking with her, or making fun of her. When she was satisfied that I was being sincere, she looked down at her hands and answered, "when I was five, I went to Disneyland with Giles. And my two friends, Willow and Xander, they took me to Palm Springs last year for Spring Break."
"Did you enjoy it?" I asked, further surprising us both.
She shrugged. "It was okay. I don't know. It was beautiful, warm, exotic, and fun, but...There was just something missing. But maybe I just wasn't opening my eyes enough."
I decided it was time to change the subject before she got too emotional by thinking about her friends and her past. I didn't think I'd have the knowledge to deal with Buffy's emotional outbursts right now. She was your basic, crying, teenage girl, but at the same time she seemed to be so much more. And after over two hundred years, I'm pretty good at being able to tell when someone has more to them than what meets the eye...Not that I'm complaining about what's meeting my eye.
"We'll be entering Sunnydale soon," I told her. "It's a small town, verging on a city. Not all that much to it. I have a mansion on the outskirts that we'll stay in for a day or so until I've had some time to asess the situation a bit."
"Okay," she nodded softly, turning her head once more to watch the night as it passed her by; flying all around her at a rate too fast for her to catch up to.
**
Angelus wasn't kidding when he said he had a mansion for us to stay in. The place was so big that I almost started to shake when he pulled in the driveway, stopping to punch in the 10-digit code that unlocked the gates all around the property. I soon found another reason to shake, as the decorations of the mansion were particularly cold. Everything was done in grey, black, and brown base tones. It was so masuline and harsh. It fit Angelus so well.
There were fireplaces to offer a warmer temperature to me, but there was no other heat. A splash of blood-red decorations here and there added some form of life to the castle, but mostly it was dark and cold. I felt like I'd walked in to the uncolored pages of a child's coloring book. I kept thinking: Where are my crayons when I need them?
The town of Sunnydale, itself, was nothing to make a big deal about. Apparently it was on a Hellmouth. Yippee for me. I get to spend a few days on the mouth of Hell. As if having demons chasing after me to get their money's worth isn't bad enough, now I have some that want to kill me simply for the fun of it! Oh what a joy it is to be Buffy Summers.
Finishing the tour outside of a door upstairs, Angelus told me, "this is the master bedroom. You may want your own room, but while you're under my protection you'll find I like to keep an eye on things at all times. There's a double-king-sized bed, and a couch nearby. I'll be on the couch while you sleep. Just to let you know, I'm an extremely light sleeper. Keep that in mind if you decide to escape." He smiled at me, as if to let me know that he was entirely serious and that I had been caught in my thoughts.
But I was never one to back down without a fight, so I raised an eyebrow and asked, "is this room grey too?"
He laughed. An actualy laugh. A little menacing, mind you, but still an actual laugh! He had a sense of humor! "Not everything is as it seems, Buffy," he informed me, opening the door and stepping to the side and motioning with his hand, for me to go inside.
The room shocked me. It wasn't grey, or black, or brown, or blood red...But royal blue. There were thick, dark blue rugs scattered about on the marble floors to provide some comfort to your feet in the morning, rather than just the cold marble. The drapes on the windows, thick to block the sun, were royal blue. There was a bed in the center of the room, big enough to sleep a third world country. It had a canopy top, with royal blue, see-through curtains held back with sashes at each of the four bed posts. With a tug of each sash, you could be in your own world surrounded by blue lace. The idea made me smile.
As far as decorations went, the room was held to the basics, but every peice was carved out of the same dark, mahagony wood that the bed was carved from. The dressers, closet doors, desk, chairs, and picture frames had the same celtic knot design carved in to them as I found on the bed. There was a huge fireplace at the end of the room, with a rich, glowing fire already blazing and heating the room.
"It's beautiful," I breathed in awe, forgetting for a moment that I was with someone who could easily mawk my words and thoughts to make me feel as insignificant as a lamp shade.
Setting down my two bags on a chair, Angelus came over to me, his face as serious as any face could be. His eyes were hooded and shadowed since the only light of the room was from the fireplace, which was currently to his back. "I'm glad you like it," he whispered in a deep, rough voice that immediatly set my nerves on fire.
Looking in to his eyes, I was overwhelmed with sensations that I knew were entirely new to me. He was bringing out a thirst in me that I had never felt before, and had no idea how to sate. I licked over my lips as they suddenly became dry. What was that growing throb between my legs?
Willow and I had talked about the 'tingles' before, and I thought this was as far as arousal could go...But this was different. I was suddenly wanting things from this man that I'd just met four hours ago, that I never thought I could actually long for. An image flashing through my head of me laying on that big bed, on my back, Angelus pushing in to me with an increasingly passionate rhythm, his beautifully sculpted, muscled back rippling under my hands as I urged him on, lips meeting in an intesnity that no one had ever brought out in me, and a pleasure coursing through my veins with every stroke of his thick manhood.
I shook my head, blinking and looking in to his eyes again. It dawned on me that I'd just been holding his gaze, and not actually making love to him. That realization, along with the realization that he probably didn't want to make love to me, made me drop my head and avert my gaze.
**
I wanted to growl. How could she drop her head like that? I had almost seen the reflection of the two of us locked in a driving rhythm, reflected in her eyes. But now she looked unsure. What was she unsure of? Did she not know I was already being driven purely by my lusts for her?
It dawned on me that perhaps she didn't, and rather than blurting it out and acting like a complete fool, I spoke. "You can get changed. I'll turn my back."
"I can't go in to the bathroom?" she asked, looking up at me again with surprise on her features.
I smiled wryly at her, remembering an earlier comment she made to me. "No...I haven't checked the windows yet."
**
Laying under the covers in the gigantic bed about twenty minutes later, I felt extremely awkward. Angelus wasn't laying down with his eyes shut, trying to get some sleep. He was sitting there with his eyes open, staring in to the darker corner of the room. I could see the light from the fireplace flickering off his shadowed features. There was such an intense darkness over his face that it almost made me shiver. For someone who could make me so hot, he looked so...cold.
At that moment, his gaze caught my own, signalling that I had just been caught staring at him again. I buried my face in the pillow as I felt my features blush a bright red.
"Can't sleep?" he asked, his voice rough, making me tremble yet again. I was beginning to feel like I was on one of those paint-shaking machines when I was around Angelus. It felt like at any moment I could be shaken in to oblivion.
"It's kind of hard to sleep with someone breathing down your neck," I confessed, lifting my head from the pillow to look at him.
"I don't breathe. And if I did, I'm not close enough to breathe down your neck." He then tossed me one of those oh-so-sexy smirks and said, "but if you'd like me to be...I think that can be arranged."
I felt my blush returning. Dammit! I'd just spent all that time fighting it away! "Maybe I should try again," I said, turning on to my other side so that I didn't have to look at his beautiful face while I tried to sleep. I knew I'd never be able to shut my eyes if I could look at him instead.
**
Buffy finally fell into an exhausted slumber about half an hour later, and I was left with the simple silence that was only disrupted by the gentle beating of her heart, and the occasional crackle of the fire as it burned throughout the night.
It was almost dawn when I heard Buffy speak. She spoke my name in a breathy voice that made me suddenly curious. Her heartbeat hadn't increased to singal that she was awake, so she must have been dreaming...About me?
I leaned forward to hear more. I heard her sigh ever so softly, and I smiled to myself. Was she sighing about me? I slid to my feet with the acquired grace and stealth of over 200 years of practice. I listened to Buffy as I moved closer to the bed that looked like an ocean around her. The royal blue contrasted with her beautiful, blonde hair and tanned skin so well. It made her features stand out like lightning against the dark blue sky of the night.
"Please Angel," she whispered in that same breathy voice that made my groin instinctively tighten in desire. Oh that honey voice. That sweet, pure voice. It was then that this fantasy world I was in, improved ten times. Her arousal flooded the air, sweet enough to make me cry out my prayers of thanks to the heavens, for giving me this assignment.
Suddenly she turned on to her back, her top rising to give me a view of her perfectly scultped stomach. Her heartbeat began to speed, signalling that she was approaching the field of consciousness. Hearing this warning alarm, I slid back to my couch, and sat again.
She moaned softly, and yawned, stretching her arms above her head. As she blinked herself to being fully awake, she looked confused. Then it seemed she remembered, and the confusion left her features. She turned to look to where I was, and for some reason, I shut my eyes to make it look like I was asleep and unaware.
I heard her stomach growl, and she sighed, "great. Imprisoned and starved." She pulled back the covers, obviously not taking in to consideration just how light of a sleeper I really was...Or could pretend to be. The plan forming in my mind was all too sweet, and it was all I could do to keep from grinning from ear to ear and giving myself away.
**
Sliding my feet to the floor, I wiggled my toes and looked to where Angelus was sleeping. Seeing that he didn't move as my big toe cracked, I smiled. Light sleeper? Yeah right.
I made my big mistake then.
Figuring that he wasn't anywhere close to being awake, and that it would take him a while to get to his feet anyways, I slid off the bed. The moment that the bed made the slightest noise from my movements, my world became a blur as Angelus launched from where he slept, and tackled me back on to the bed.
I laid there, completely shocked and surprised as I gazed up in to his eyes. His face was only an inch from my own. It was all I could do to keep from molesting his lips with my own.
He smirked then, holding himself off me a little by bracing his weight on his hands, on either side of my head. "Told you I was a light sleeper. Where exactly would you be going, Buffy?"
I sighed and admitted, "I'm hungry."
He smiled, "really? Me too."
The double meaning to his words made me blush again. The heat from my cheeks, however, wasn't the hottest part of me right now. I felt my nipples puckering against the feeling of him being so close. I knew he could probably feel them through my small tank top, and his silk shirt. Plus he could undoubtedly smell how aroused I suddenly was.
The gleam of knowledge in his eyes made me blush to an even deeper shade of red...If that was possible. "Perhaps I should get you something to eat. Hmm?"
I nodded rather numbly. "Uh huh."
With that he slid off me, and offered his hand. I looked at it for a moment, momentarily not knowing what it was. Then I took it, and he pulled me to my feet, knocking me rather roughly in to his chest with the strength of his pull. I looked down, and he smiled.
Yeah, he knew.