There was just enough space in his arms, for me to turn in his embrace. I took my time, making sure that I didn�t wake him up as I moved. His arms were so warm, and I felt so cold for some reason.
Was it some deep sense of nervous anticipation that was chilling me down to the bone? Was I scared about what tomorrow may bring? Was I scared of being here with Angelus? Or maybe it was just that I was regretting this entire trip. But then, no. Not leaving the ball with Angelus, would have meant that I wouldn�t know what it felt like to be guarded. Protected. Safe from the world.
There was one, pale ray of moonlight streaking in to the bedroom, and it was conveniently dancing across Angelus� finely sculpted features. I watched him as he slept, and I found myself struck with awe about how even in sleep, his features could still be covered with a deep cloud of intensity that rolled over his form like drops of water.
His dark eyes were shut, and his brow was slightly furrowed as he slept, as if he was thinking of something extremely interesting. His lips-perfect, as they were-were set in a stiff pose that showed no passion or desire like they sent to me when he kissed me. It was like, when he slept, his soul of passion and obsession just left him, and all that was left behind, was the pale ghost of his spirit.
His body.
I suddenly wanted nothing more than to know that he was still around, and that the only thing left wasn�t just his perfect form. I couldn�t resist leaning forward, and applying a gentle kiss to his tender lips. Suddenly, it was as if all of my other problems or doubts about being with Angelus fled out the window.
Without opening his eyes, he seemed to know it was me by the taste of my kiss, and his arms slid up my back and he rolled over to pin me beneath him. His kiss left me breathless with mind-hazing desire, and I couldn�t think straight anymore. But what was there for me to think about besides being here in his arms?
His head lifted, and he gazed down at me in the faint light from the moon. His eyes seemed to be searching mine, as if he hadn�t just awakened. It was as if he had never been asleep. He looked at me with such life, and such awareness. His eyes bounced from side to side as he gazed down at me, and he leaned down to kiss me once again.
This kiss was gentler, and when it ended, he whispered softly in my ear in a husky-rough voice, �go somewhere with me.�
�Where?� I asked.
**
Angelus held my hand firmly in his own as he led me down the beach. I had dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, and tied my hair off my face. Angelus was keeping me close as we wandered. I didn�t know where he was taking me, but one thing was for sure�
I wanted to go.
As we walked, I moved closer to the water and let my bare feet splash through the surf as it bounced across the sand like rolling gusts of wind that cooled your skin and warmed your insides.
I glanced up at the stars, and couldn�t help smiling as they smiled back at me. They were shining down in all of their magnificent glory, and for a moment I felt sad to know that some of them had already burned out, though I was still seeing the reflection of the light that they had once shone down upon the earth.
Suddenly Angel stopped and turned to face me, holding my hands in his own, �look at me,� he whispered.
I did as he asked, and looked in to his eyes without hesitations. I waited patiently for him to say something.
He smiled after a moment and said, �I promise, one day you won�t be afraid of me.�
I started to protest. �Angel, I�m not afraid of you-"
�It�s okay,� he assured me with a smile. �You may not be afraid of ME. But you�re afraid of being around me.�
I looked down, not able to convince him that he was wrong. I looked up then and said, �well, there are a few things that make me wonder.�
�Then ask me,� he whispered, and leaned forward to place a kiss on the corner of my mouth.
I shut my eyes as he kissed me, wanting to savor the feeling of his lips pressed gently to my own. When he opened his eyes again, I took a moment to trail my tongue over my lips, tasting the salty sweetness of his kiss. I opened my eyes then and said, �I want to know.�
His eyes narrowed, but I knew he understood what I meant. He sighed and looked away from my powerfully scrutinizing gaze. He looked down, and then in to my eyes. �Come with me,� he whispered, and led me from where we stood, to somewhere that we could talk.
**
Angel and I found a soft patch of sand to settle on, and after confessing everything that I already knew, I let Angel know that I had overheard him talking to Faith. He had been a little uncomfortable with the situation then, but overall he had just been glad that I hadn�t run out in fear, or decided to give up on him for good.
After our long discussion of what had happened and what was going on, I cuddled in close to Angel, and found myself content to watch the waves rolling in towards us. They reached for us every time they crashed up the shore, but their fingers could never reach us. They were just too far. Too weak. Though waves have been the cause of many deaths and many pains, they couldn�t break through the bold barrier of protection that I felt around Angelus after he told me what was really going on.
After half an hour of silence, I noticed the sun was starting to rise. �Angel?� I questioned, as my mind began to think towards the approaching day and the events that it may bring.
�Hmm?� He answered, not lifting his gaze from where it rested on his fingers stroking the back of my hands.
�What�s going to happen today?� I asked after another moment of just listening to the world around us. The mutual silence that we could sit in for what seemed like forever, and never want for anything more. If I had an eternity to spend in my own way, I would spend it on this beach with Angelus, just existing together as the sun approached to bring the world hope for a better day.
Angelus lifted his head and gazed out across the ocean at the sun. His expression was grave and solemn, and after thinking for a while, he answered honestly, �I don�t know.�
He looked in to my eyes then and said, �but whatever it is�We can get through it together.� His lips trailed along mine for a brief instant in a teasing kiss that left me wanting more. But he didn�t seem to feel the need to give me more. It was as if he was trying to contain his passions. Contain his wants and his needs.
Angelus paused and then asked, �do you want to stay with me?�
I smiled softly, �I don�t have a choice.�
�But if you did?� he asked. �Would you want to stay with me? Or would you want to go home?�
�Angel,� I smiled slightly, �you are my home. I don�t know anything else. Don�t you understand that? I have nothing but you. I�m sacrificing safety and stature, just to be with you.�
�You�ll always be safe with me,� he said slowly.
�I don�t mean that, Angelus,� I whispered honestly. I looked down and explained, �I mean being safe FROM you.�
Angelus took a moment to think, and then he said, �I�m not going to lie about anything anymore, Buffy. I�m going to be honest with you. I�ve done horrible things. Said horrible things. But I�m putting all of that behind me for you. For us. I want�I never thought I�d say this, but I want you to be my whole world. My base of existence.�
I smiled softly. �You have no idea what thoughts go through my head when you say things like that.�
A sly smile played across his beautiful features as he decided to bate me and tempt me in to his little world of us. �Good thoughts?� he asked; genuinely intrigued.
�You know what thoughts,� I said back with a smile, teasing in my own way, nudging him slightly with my shoulder.
�But still, you should tell me,� he smiled. �Are they good thoughts?� his lips moved to my ear and he whispered in a breathy voice that made me smile, �bad thoughts?�
Before I could say anything, someone was behind us. I reacted instinctively, hiding in Angel�s arms. He was quick to reassure me by groaning outwardly and exclaiming, �Faith!�
She smiled, seemingly quite proud of her interruption. �Hey Rabbits, what�s up?� she smiled more then and said, �well, I can bet Angel has an answer for that one.�
�I have a few answers for you, Faith. Like why you-"
Before he could say anything, the earth toned with a large bang. The speed of sound caught up the explosion a second later, and we were all thrown back with the force of the house off in the distance, bursting in to a mushroom cloud of flames.
�Oh my God!� I sat up from where I�d fallen.
Angel scrambled to me as fast as he could, and pulled me in to his arms. He held me close and rocked me gently, assuring me that I was okay, and that I was safe. Then he hollered out, �Faith?!�
�It�s okay!� she assured him. �It�s just the guest house on the back of the property. My place is still standing.�
�Are you okay?� Angelus asked her.
She nodded, and pulled herself to sit next to us. There was a moment of silence as we all sat there panting and watched the flames sweeping up towards the sky from the guest house.
�Insurance is a bitch,� Faith sighed after a minute.
�I think they know we�re here,� Angel said in a low voice.
I found myself laugh out once as I asked, �what was your first clue? Could it be the exploding house?�
Angel was silent a moment, and then he nodded, �could be.�
**
Angel and I were thrust in to a panic of packing frenzy. We wanted to get gone as fast as we could, but we wanted to be prepared. Faith kept offering things that we may need, and Angel kept telling me that we had to wait and make sure that we had everything.
�What about taking some-� Faith started, but I cut her off.
�I�m sorry. But am I the only one here that seems to remember someone just blew up a house to try to kill us, or is that just me?� I asked in exasperation.
�Or perhaps frighten us in to leaving our hiding place,� Angel said.
�No offence to me or anything, but it�s a pretty crappy hiding place if they can find you and chase you out of it,� Faith pointed out.
�I know, Faith,� Angel growled, picking up the suitcase from the bed swiftly. �I just need to take Buffy, and get us out of here. I don�t know where in the Hell we�re going to go, but it needs to be a place that no one will ever think to look.�
Angel unceremoniously grabbed my hand as he headed for the bedroom door, and started all-but-dragging me down the hallway towards the front door.
�Sorry I couldn�t keep you safe, guys,� Faith said in resolution. �But you know how it is when you live in the middle of nowhere. Everyone seems to know where you are.�
Angel set the bag down and let go of my hand. He went over to Faith and said, �I�m sorry about all of this. I�ll send some people over to see to the guest house.�
She smiled, �thanks. That might help.�
Angel leaned down and kissed her forehead. �Thanks, Faith,� he said, and gave her a hug.
�Any time,� she assured him and hugged him back. �Now go on and get out of here before you make me cry or something.�
Angel stepped back and smiled. �See you around.�
She laughed, �yeah right.� Angel came back over to me, but before he could leave, Faith stopped us. �Hang on,� she said. She came over to me and said, �Buffy�Been a pleasure from what I�ve seen. I hope you guys make it through all of this alright�And I hope you live too.�
I smiled and laughed slightly, and Faith laughed as well. She hugged me gently, being careful of my shoulder, and then said, �now go take off, you two, before I lose my dignity, ask for cash, and report to your assassins that you�ve been here.�
Angel and I said our last goodbyes, and then he led me from the house, to the black Mercedes that Faith had lent us to drive to the airport or wherever we needed to go. Angel got me settled in the passenger�s seat, put the bag in the trunk, and waved once more to Faith.
Then we were off. The only problem, was that we found ourselves once again hiding, on the run, and without a single clue or care as to where in the world we were going to go.
**
Angel was forced to make a decision of where we would go once again, and he decided that taking a plane to somewhere in Europe and then abandoning all forms of extremely-monitored transportation was the best way to go, so we boarded the next flight to England, and I soon once again found myself asleep, high in the sky.
I awoke after a few hours of peaceful rest in the arms of my only friend, when the plane shook slightly from a bit of turbulence.
I glanced at Angel�s sleeping face, so close to my own. The VIP room window shades were drawn tightly, but it didn�t block out much of the bright day that shone outside the plane. With the light partially blocked, the room took on a softer, hazier glow that reminded me a bit of those nights when you�re sitting in a room with someone you love, just reading a book or watching television.
It dawned on me then for the first time, that every moment with Angel could feel like that when I let it. I always felt so safe, so comfortable, so�Home-like, around him. It was so hard to explain in my head, that after meeting someone just barely three weeks ago, I could feel that I�d never be able to live without them. I tried to rationalize that after my mother died, I was probably just waiting around for the first person to show an interest in me, and then attach to them.
But that didn�t work very well.
This feeling I had when I looked at Angel, or when Angel smiled at me�It was more than emotion. It was more than a natural passion. It wasn�t even barely described by obsession. The only way I could think of to describe it�Was love.
Love.
Oh how that word suddenly frightened me. I looked at Angel as the realization set in that I was in love with him. I wanted to remember this moment for the rest of my life. The day I fell in love. The second. The exact moment. I wanted to remember how the love of my life looked, felt, tasted, smiled...
As I lay there, silently etching in to my mind the memory of the man I adored with all my soul, it never entered my mind to think of how much danger I was in now that I knew this. And even if it were to, I probably wouldn�t be bothered to care, or even acknowledge any form of doubt or slight inhibition.
I just wanted Angel�s love forever.
I cuddled closer to him as he slept, and instinctively he wrapped his arms around me a bit tighter. It made me feel so wanted, how his body just knew what I needed, though the rest of him wasn�t directing it. It was like his entire being knew me.
And that was definitely a first.
**
Landing in England, Angel made sure that this time, we didn�t have any plans, and we didn�t let anyone stop us to talk. He led me straight out the doors of the airport, and in to the streets. He hailed down the first taxi that he saw, and without words he opened the door for me.
We changed taxi cabs in the middle of the streets three times in the next ten minutes, at Angel�s insistence. He told me that if we were being followed, that we had to make ourselves hard to find. Angel had also forewarned me on the plane, not to discuss any of our plans in public, where someone could hear or conveniently form their plans around our own.
Riding in the back of the cab, however, I found I needed to talk to Angel urgently. There was one man that had been following us as we changed from car to car. He was riding a bike, and he didn�t look too suspicious, but then again I didn�t know what suspicious men were supposed to look like.
We changed our yellow cab for the third time, and I noticed that the man moved his bike to follow us again. I had to talk to Angel about this. NOW. It couldn�t wait.
I didn�t want to disobey Angel, so I did the first thing I could think of. I wrote it down. I fished in my pocket for a piece of paper, and came up with nothing be a bill for the jacket I was wearing. I guess Faith was never one to worry all that much about wearing clothes she bought. This jacket was just brand new.
In my small purse, I looked for a pen. Finding nothing used for writing, I listened to my Last Resort Voice, and popped open my lip-liner. On the piece of paper, I wrote down my message.
Angel, who had been watching me scurry through my stuff in a frenzy, watched my writing closely to read what I wrote.
I wrote:
WE�RE BEING FOLLOWED. THERE�S A MAN ON A BIKE. BEEN FOLLOWING FOR ALL CAB RIDES FROM AIRPORT.
Angel�s eyes flashed to my own, and suddenly he called the driver to a stop. The cab stopped abruptly, Angel tossed the man more money than necessary, and he pulled me with him out of the cab.
The second we were in the streets, shots began to fire from what seemed like everywhere. In the down town of the city, it was almost impossible to know where they were coming from, because of the echoes from the buildings. The crowds were shrieking, dropping to the ground to avoid meeting their doom.
I glanced to the man on the bike, and he pulled out a gun. �Angel!� I screamed, and pushed him down.
We both went down to the ground in the middle of the cars, and stayed glued to the pavement as the shots went off.
~~
My only thought was to get Buffy out of the streets and in to safety. If only we could crawl in to one of these cars without being noticed�
Wait a second. We could.
I waited for the right moment of ceased fire in the shots, and then reached up and yanked open the car door in front of me, which belonged to a blue Taurus. I flung Buffy inside, and the owner of the car-a woman in her mid-thirties-started to scream for us to not hurt her.
�We won�t hurt you!� I assured her. �Just drive us out of here without causing a scene, and we�ll pay you ten grand.�
The woman didn�t need to be told twice when she got a good look at me. I had that effect on all women. It was my charm. And not to sound arrogant or anything, but you must admit that the name goes with it all too well at times.
The car pulled back in to the busy streets once more, and Buffy and I stayed down on the floor. Buffy kept crying softly, but most of all tried to stay calm. �It�s okay, baby,� I assured her, holding her hand tightly. �It�ll all be over soon.�
**
The woman kept driving for twenty minutes in circles, like I asked, and then she dropped us off at a small hotel near the train station. I paid her fifteen thousand, and scrambled out of the car with Buffy, in to the hotel waiting in front of us.
We checked in to a small room, and tried to attract as little attention as possible. However, being people like Buffy and myself, it was hard not to attract attention. It was pretty much what we were good at.
Once upstairs in our hotel room, I noticed Buffy was still crying. �What is it, baby?� I asked her.
She didn�t say anything, but reveal her hand to me. I knew she wouldn�t know what it was, but I knew.
It was a tracking dart imbedded in her skin.
**