Title: Lockdown

Timeline: Directly after Angel fires the Batpack in Season 2.

Disclaimer: Sadly not mine but willing to submit a reasonable offer for the use of Lindsey and the boys at the Hypernion.

Feedback: Much appreciated as it’s my first fic to be submitted for general consumption and I’m nervous!

Dedication: To Chrissy for being so nice and helping out a complete stranger and to Sunny(?) for her encouraging comments and giving me my first ever feedback.

Rating: Have no idea as I am new to this but around a film 12/15 at the mo and progressing to an 18 later. (God and Cordy and Lindsey willing)

Archive: If you want it all you have to do is ask!

Written in response to a challenge on the fan page to have Lindsey and one of the white hats trapped in Wolfram and Hart for the night.

Part 1.

Cordelia froze as the overhead lights flicked on and spun round in a quick movement to face the doorway.

‘Oh crap.’

She closed her eyes, counted to three and opened them again. Nope, no good. Lindsey McDonald was still standing blocking her way with a big ole shit-eating grin on his face and a pair of handcuffs dangling from his raised hand. She backed up a few graceful steps and flicked her eyes around the room searching for inspiration. Nothing. She sighed deeply. Could she say screwed?

Lindsey’s grin stretched and he followed her into the room and deftly kicked and locked the door behind him, Cordy’s eyes widened and she moved to put the large wooden desk between the lawyer and herself. Breaking into Wolfram and Hart’s offices had seemed like such a good idea earlier that evening.

Gunn and Wes had left her at their new offices with strict instructions not to move until they got back from killing whatever the thing was that her latest mind numbing vision had shown her. The demon or whatever had been big, ugly and had smelled really bad so she hadn’t made too much protest when they had strode heroically out into the night although she had to admit the pair of them bickering over who got to use the big axe this time probably didn’t help their bad ass personas any. Two hours went by and the boys hadn’t bothered to return and slowly Cordy had begun to sink into a funk. Oh hell, who was she kidding? She started to brood a la Angel and the more she thought about the situation the more she became convinced that the solution lay in Evil Lawyer Mecca.

She didn’t dwell on the personal issues they all had with Angel. She was after all a professional and Angel could go ram his perfect, gel covered head up his tortured ass for all she cared. The prospect of evil Angel, syphilis crazed Darla, plain old crazed Druscilla and the legions of hell that the evil lawyers had at their command were her problem, being a warrior of the light and all. She was willing to stake her life on their being some kind of information lying around at the offices that the white hats might be able to use. The more she thought about it the more she became convinced that she was right and the more she convinced herself the stronger the feeling became that she had to go right now. Kinda like when the mall had a blue cross 75% off everything day and she still had a good six hours of the workday ahead of her.

Breaking in was easy she’d stood enough times as Angel’s lookout that she made it through the sewers and up through the traps in the basement and on to the main stairwell in under twenty minutes and then it was just a matter of going up. She checked every floor she came too methodically keeping an eye out for the more obvious security measures, cameras, telepaths, vampires, and magical symbols lying around for no apparent reason and then on the twenty-first floor she found it. A huge double door with the words ‘Lindsey McDonald’ on a bright shiny plaque right next to it.

Cordy had nearly whooped out loud before she remembered she was meant to be stealthy cat-burglar girl and instead contented herself with skipping through the door and sticking her tongue out at the nameplate as she went past. In thirty minutes she had gone through every draw and cupboard in the place and had kept half an ear open for the sound of approaching footsteps but she had gradually become so engrossed in what she had found that all thoughts of covering her ass had fled. And now she was trapped in a locked office with one of the people she hated most in the world and he was smiling. And tutting. Don’t forget the incredibly annoying and patronising tutting. She scowled as he raised his good hand and wagged a finger at her. Oh yeah, she was so gonna stuff that down his throat before this was over.

‘Ms Chase, this is unexpected.’

Cordelia snorted, the man had definitely watched one too many Bond films she half expected a fluffy white cat to be jumping into his arms. Or he’d grow one of those long mustaches that all the villains on Bravo seemed to have just so they could twirl them, she smirked as he raised one eyebrow in a move so Acme School of Villainy it was truly ridiculous; any minute now he’d be telling her he liked a girl with spirit and leering down her top. She kept the desk between them and drew herself up to her full height

‘Bite me’.

He looked disappointed for a moment and then his face settled into the carefully neutral expression she knew and would love rip off his skull. With her teeth.

‘I don’t have to tell you how much trouble you’re in. Breaking and entering, unlawful damage..’

Cordelia interrupted with her patented Queen C sneer

‘Assault and Battery.’

She folded her arms and looked down her nose adding icily

‘Pending.’

He grinned back at her and for a brief second she caught a glimpse of the wholesome farm boy he might have been once and then the evil lawyer face came down again.

‘Actually I was going for murder one, why restrict yourself?’

Cordelia placed her hands on her slim hips, tapped her foot and continued to look supremely unimpressed

‘Sweetie I have been threatened and tortured by the very best and trust me when I say you aren’t even in the top twenty when it comes to idle threats.’

She flicked her newly cut and streaked hair from her face and continued with contempt

‘Hell, I scare me more than you do.’

Her gaze raked over him from head to foot and she sniffed with disdain

‘And if you don’t mind me saying so for the money you sold out for you’d think that you might make a little bit more effort with your wardrobe, that suit is so last year it’s not funny. I know dead guys with more taste than you.’

She casually rested one hip one the corner of the desk and began to swing her foot

‘Considering Angel has spent over half his time on this planet a completely guilt ridden manic depressive you really might want to take that advice on board.’

She grinned as she watched his face cloud in confusion at her surprisingly upbeat attitude to getting caught deep behind enemy lines and leaned forward just enough to allow a small amount of cleavage to show as her typically low cut top gaped open. His eyes widened fractionally and his breathing sped up just a tad. Oh yeah, she still had it.

‘Now we both know that you aren’t going to do anything to me or set me up to take the fall for whatever unfortunate mistake you guys have made this time cos’ Angel will come down on you so fast you won’t even see him coming.’

She leaned forward a little bit more and wondered briefly if she should write this conversation down for him to go over later the way his eyes were focused on her chest she doubted he was even aware she was speaking. This was even easier than persuading Wes and Gunn they really did want to watch ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ again for the fourth night in a row and she didn’t even have her uplift bra on! She watched as he dragged his tongue over suddenly dry lips and then tried to focus on her face again. Cordy sighed and took pity on the guy and leaned back so the tantalising cleft between her breasts was removed from his line of sight and after that he seemed to find it much easier to collect his thoughts.

Lindsey drew in another ragged breath and managed to drag his mind forcibly out of the gutter and focus on the matter in hand. Cordelia Chase dropped into his lap like a gift from the gods…well considering whom he worked for that wasn’t very likely but it was definitely a lucky break. He focused determinedly on her face and worked up a fairly convincing sneer

‘I have it on good authority that you’re on your own. Angel cut you loose without a second thought and walked away, what makes you think that he’ll give a damn now?’

He felt a glow of satisfaction at the shocked look on her face and then realised it wasn’t pain at his cruel words but genuine surprise and then she did the unexpected and laughed. Long, loud completely genuine laughter and she showed no signs of stopping, he scowled and waited for her to finish and eventually the very unladylike snorts and guffaws slowed to hiccups and then faint intermittent giggles.

Cordelia wiped her eyes and shook her head and then Lindsey stared as she eyed him with something almost like pity

‘Lindsey in all the time you’ve worked for this company are you telling me you never took Vampire 101? It doesn’t matter whether Angel can’t stand the sight of me and never wants to see me again for the rest of his un-life, which, by the way, is going to be incredibly short unless he stops with this Darla crap pretty soon because I’ll stake his ass myself. In his head and in all the other undead people’s heads I belong to him.’

She stood and swayed across the room to stand in front of the lawyer and briefly enjoyed being able to look into someone’s eyes rather than up their nose thanks to the incredibly tall men she did hang around with

‘He claimed me as his when I first hooked up with him after that Russell Winters guy. It’s not about friends or family any more, if you lay one finger on me you’ve messed with his possession and vampires do not deal well with that.’

She grinned and flicked his nose with one perfectly manicured nail

‘Think of me as a mint condition, first edition White Album and you’ll get some idea of how pissed he’ll be if you break me.’

She stepped back and tipped her head to one side to look at him considering

‘Of course you’ve actually made things a whole lot worse by driving him completely round the twist. Last time you saw him he fed you and all your little evil lawyer friends to his insane ex-honeys, imagine what he’ll do if you break his album and don’t give it back.’

She sighed dramatically

‘ I’ve met Angelus and believe me; he is not a laugh a minute guy. The things that guy can do with a puppy and some fish…do you have any pets Lindsey?’

Cordelia cocked her head innocently to one side and ended her sentence on a perky note even Willow would be proud of. She smiled as Lindsey blinked down at her and she realised he was in fact two or three inches above her in height which was kinda nice, just right in fact. She shook her self mentally, focus Cordy we don’t care how cute the evil lawyer is the key word here is evil. Although he does have the prettiest blue eyes. She blinked and took another step back and watched him suck in some deep breaths and felt the need for some serious respiratory aid herself. Lindsey McDonald was not cute he tried to kill her and her friends on a semi-regular, almost recreational, basis this was so not a man she could get jiggy with.

Lindsey for his part was wondering if the seer had some other gifts from The Powers that his sources had failed to inform him of. What were those things called that ensnared men? Suckas…something. Demons he knew they were demons, whatever you do, do not focus on Cordelia Chase sucking anything. That was not a good place to go if you needed to concentrate on being arch-villain guy. Which he did. Gifts like having a direct link to The Powers in his grip did not come along every day and he needed to focus on that rather than the vessel it came in.

Succubus that was it! She was obviously a Succubus.

Cordy watched in fascination as the young man stumbled back a few paces and began eyeing her warily she suppressed a triumphant grin and sent a brief prayer of thanks to Angel for the whole claiming thing. The big, anguished, self-centred, hair shirt wearing weenie.

At the time she had been less than impressed when he’d told her what he had done. Just arrived in L.A. and about to embark on a glittering career as star of the stage and screen and glamorous consort to whatever young actor was this week’s next big thing the absolute last thing she needed was to be tied down to a two hundred and change year old vamp with personality issues and a face like a permanent rainstorm. Then Doyle had died and she’d become pregnant and then Wolfram and Hart had tried to kill her and then it was… nice. Belonging to someone like that. Someone who would come after her no matter what it took and whoever he had to go through, she’d never had that before and it was nice to finally feel like someone’s family and to be loved just because she was herself and couldn’t be used for anything. She blinked back tears as she thought of Angel when he had fired them all and the Angel that had taken a frightened displaced ex-May queen under his wing and given her a family. The big doofus.

Lindsey felt something clutch at his heart as he watched the sudden tears fill her eyes and made a move towards her before it clicked he was meant to be torturing the girl for information not comforting as she struggled for composure. Her eyes flicked up at his movement and in a move so fast he could have sworn he imagined it she wiped her eyes, ran practised fingers through her hair and pasted the ‘come bite me’ smile on her face again. She moved back against the desk and cocked her head to one side waiting for him to make the next move. Right then he would. Right. As soon as he figured out what it would be. Damned if the little bitch’s grin hadn’t widened knowingly as he stood undecided before her. She shrugged and said sympathetically

‘I get that a lot.’

Lindsey shook off his body’s spontaneous reaction to the flash of perfect white teeth and said

‘Excuse me?’

Cordelia smiled again and hitched up so she sat on the desk with both legs swinging looking for the entire world like a six-year old at her father’s office.

‘Gunn calls it the ‘kill me or kiss me dilemma’’

She frowned in sudden thought and then fixed her brown eyes on him again

‘Actually he calls it the ‘screw me or beat me bloody dilemma’ but I like my phrasing better.’

Lindsey shook his head slightly to clear it and stared back in confusion as Cordelia sighed

‘Look I’ll make it real simple for you. I look good. I dress to look good. What you see is something that I spent a lot of years getting just right so I have the advantage over men.’

She inclined her head

‘Men like you. Now you see a girl in front of you that you find attractive.’

She held up a hand to stall his instinctive denial and added hurriedly

‘Nothing wrong with that it’s the way it is, the way its meant to be. The thing is you can’t see past that to who, or what, I am. To you I’m Angel’s sidekick, the mouthy secretary with the chest.’

She slid off the desk slowly and helplessly Lindsey followed the line of her body as it slid bonelessly forward and glided across the room towards him. Cordelia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She had just laid it out for him that her moves were as calculated as they come and still the big idiot fell for it. She kicked out suddenly and took his legs out from under him. In one swift controlled move she followed him down flipped him over and used his own handcuffs to secure his hands behind his back, another quick tug and he lay on the floor staring up at her as she rose above him and placed her hands on her hips to say flatly

‘It never occurred to you to think that’s a girl who grew up on a hell mouth, has been fighting assorted creatures of the night for the last four and a half years and has had an active role in saving the world at least three times that she knows of.’

She sniffed and walked away to listen at the door feeling his incredulous gaze on her, satisfied that they were in no danger of being discovered she paced around the office again continuing her search and saying in an even tone

‘Or that Angel, Gunn and Wes can’t be there every second of the day to protect me so maybe, just maybe, there’s a reason that girl is still alive other than her men folk are really good at riding to her rescue.’

She sank to her haunches in front of him and half-smiled

‘Did you really think the visions were the only reason they kept me around?’

Lindsey stared up wordlessly as she patted him on the head and with great relish mimicked his own sorrowful tutting from just a few short minutes before

‘Lindsey, Lindsey, Lindsey how little you know.’

She came to her feet again and moved back to his desk and continued to speak as she glanced through the files that she had abandoned when he had entered.

‘Now the way I see it you are totally at my mercy so we can go through the whole pointless, and might I say boring, ritual of me threatening you and you being all heroic and martyr like or we can cut to the chase and you can give me any helpful information you might have on Darla and any other evil schemes you got abrewin’. What do you say?’

The bright friendly smile she tossed him was so completely at odds with her hard tone that Lindsey was unsure for a moment that he had heard her correctly and then he watched as she drew a very long, sharp knife from behind her back and slammed it point first into his antique, incredibly expensive, desk. He pushed himself into a sitting position and opened his mouth

‘You don’t have the guts.’

Cordelia grabbed the knife handle and pulled and then was around the desk and in front of him so fast that he didn’t have time to draw a breath.

He did however find time to give a startled yelp as her hand slashed out and very deliberately cut his earlobe, Cordy leant in so her nose was an inch from his own and hissed

‘You tried to kill me; you tried to kill my friends. When that didn’t work you raised one of the most evil creatures that ever lived from the dead and used her to torment a person I care a lot about. Every day that thing is alive more innocent’s die. Every day Angel isn’t with us feeling the connection to his humanity more people die. You, just by sitting here having this stupid pissing contest with me, are condemning more people to a terrifying and needless death and you think I don’t have the guts to do what needs to be done?’

The knife slammed down between Lindsey’s legs just grazing the cloth covering his groin and quivered as it stood point first in the carpet she ignored his panicked scream and grabbed a fistful of his hair yanking so he met her eyes

‘Think again Perry Mason. Tell me what I need to know, now, and I’ll let you go. Don’t and I forget I’m a lady and start remembering all the things I read about Angelus and Darla and spent a lot of money in therapy trying to forget.’

She shoved his head away and flashed another blinding grin

‘ ‘K?’

Lindsey could not believe how swiftly the tables had turned on him and just how dangerous this girl, woman, was. All the information he had on her indicated she was nothing more than a wannabe actress with delusions of grandeur. He knew about her father’s fall from grace and how she had taken herself out of her hometown before the fire at her graduation had time to cool down and headed for L.A. without looking back. He knew about the few abortive relationships she had had in the time she had been in town, he even knew that she shared an apartment with a restless spirit but he had never known just how strong she had made herself with her experiences. The girl before him was just twenty but had the poise and confidence of a woman twice her age and the steady stare from those deep brown eyes had him hastily re-evaluating his opinion on just who was the most dangerous of Angel’s supporters. Those eyes promised pain and retribution in unheard of quantities and she would do it all without flinching he had no doubt. The chance to save innocents and bury Darla would not be passed up by Cordelia Chase because he had a pesky case of humanititis.

He flinched as she gripped the knife by its handle and pulled it free once again then stood, she reached down and pulled him to his feet with a grunt of effort and pushed him into the deep, blood coloured sofa that ran along one wall.

‘Spill stumpy or I start by cutting off something a lot more important than your hand.’

Her gaze rested pointedly for a moment at groin level and then fixed with deadly intent on terrified blue eyes, Cordy raised one eyebrow and waited.

She didn’t know how much longer she could keep this up. The minute the knife flashed to his ear she knew she had made a big mistake and when the bottom of his earlobe flew across the room she very nearly tossed her cookies in his lap. The blood streaming from his ear was threatening the well being of her stomach again and the white terrified look on his face when she slammed the knife between his legs cut deep into her soul. She had to stop herself glancing over her shoulder almost expecting The Powers or their representatives standing behind her shaking their heads in disapproval. She was counting on a few especially vicious visions, at least, as punishment for the whole crazed Druscilla impersonation. She tightened her grip on the knife as she felt her knees begin to weaken and made herself focus on the piece of skin between his eyes and not on the bright red fountain that sprayed from his ear. Jesus it wasn’t possible to bleed to death from a nick to the ear was it? Oh she was so going to hell.

Lindsey watched as her grip on the knife tightened until her knuckles turned white, her eyes fixed with malevolent intent between his eyes and he could almost see her review the torture procedures she had at her disposal. He watched as she licked her lip in an unconscious gesture of hunger and she swayed as she fought against the urge to kill him. Oh god after all the things he had seen and done he was going to die in his own office at the hand of a mere human girl.

Cordy spoke calmly to herself in the privacy of her own head

‘For god’s sake its not like he doesn’t have another earlobe I didn’t lop off his other hand did I? And you have seen blood before, lots of it. Just because this wasn’t done in the heat of battle and he’s helpless and you know him doesn’t mean this wasn’t in the name of Light. Don’t look at his ear! Don’t look at his ear!’

Buzzing sounded loudly in her own ears and she felt herself sway as she focused unwillingly on his still bleeding ear

‘Stay away from the ear Cordy. Just don’t look.’

A thought rose unbidden in her head

‘God he’s gonna think every time he runs into one of us and we want information its company policy to amputate first and ask questions later. Must send in-house memo: When encountering Lindsey McDonald it is imperative that Angel Investigations operatives only remove body parts that come as a pair, on no account remove anything vital or in the singular. Let’s leave the man a spare people.’

She giggled slightly hysterically as the image of a severely imbalanced Lindsey entered her head stomping round in a circle on one leg and a crutch waving a stumpy arm in the air directing legions of hell every which way and cursing Angel as he went.

Lindsey winced at the unhinged giggle that escaped Cordelia’s lips as she stared at him. He was reminded unpleasantly of Druscilla and the psycho slayer Faith at the sound and he found himself shivering as he mentally reviewed their case histories. The girl seemed to be going into a trance as she stared at him and her eyes were glazed with what appeared to be bloodlust, she couldn’t take her eyes off his ear for more than a second!

‘Any minute now I’m gonna start yakking and I’m not going to be able to stop’

thought Cordelia

‘Demon blood I can handle. Any of the guys bleeding I can deal and patch ‘em up. Lindsey goddamn McDonald has a little accident and its like I’m seeing my first vamp victim all over again. Jeez, pathetic much?’

She ignored the voice in her head that whispered that she was finding it hard to deal because she had intentionally hurt a helpless human and paid some attention to the voice that yelled slightly hysterically that she didn’t even know how to go about torturing someone. Pretty soon the lawyer was going to realise he had been sitting unmolested for a good five minutes and then realise she was holding it together by the barest thread and then she had a problem. A major problem. Even ignoring the smell of blood that was getting more cloying as the tense seconds went by.

I’m going to hurl!

Oh no, her mistake. What she was actually going to do was fall bone-jarringly to the floor and clutch her head in her hands as it threatened to explode under the force of her second freight train vision of the night. Cordy writhed on the floor as she sank under the immense pressure of the images flooding her mind. Flashing images of Lindsey and herself rampaged through her mind with searing intensity. In a dark tunnel, the smell of blood and decay, the sound of pursuers, Lindsey’s terrified face as he went down beneath a dark, unidentifiable form, her own body flying to smash into a roughly carved stone wall and finally a starkly vivid picture of them surrounded by vampires closing in from every direction and Lindsey clutching to his chest a battered brown briefcase. Abruptly the vision left and the pain left behind coupled with the scent of Lindsey’s blood had her abruptly rolling to vomit helplessly onto the hundred dollar a square foot carpet. She brought up everything she had and then dry heaved for a few seconds before coming to her knees and dragging a shaking hand across her mouth. Her head felt ten times too heavy for her body and the aftermath of the pain ran insidiously from the top of her skull in crashing rivers down to the base of her neck and it was hard to form a coherent thought. She took several deep breaths and then staggered to her feet, swayed for a moment and then turned to face Lindsey.

He stared at Cordelia and then the mess on his carpet and then back to Cordelia she waited until her lungs felt capable of supplying oxygen and then spoke in a low rasp

‘We need to get out of here. Where are the keys for the cuffs?’

He opened his mouth but seemed incapable of speech, Cordelia shook her head in a desperate attempt to clear away the fog that always seemed to cloud her mind after a visit from The Powers and tried again

‘Lindsey we’re in danger and we need to move now. Where the hell are the keys?’

She took a few unsteady steps towards him and that was enough to upset her precarious motor system and she fell in an ungainly heap at his feet. The small, almost inaudible

‘ Crap.’

seemed to jolt Lindsey from his stricken silence and he leaned forward to stare at the top of her head

What the hell was that about?’

Cordelia lifted her head grimacing in pain as she did so

‘That was the Powers telling me in their usual subtle, and incredibly helpful, way that we are in mortal danger. Again.’

She braced her hands on his knees and dragged herself to her feet again and then hooked a hand under his arm and dragged him up to face her

‘Where are the keys?’

Lindsey gave a small grin

‘Three floors down in the corner conference room.’

Cordy cursed fluently and impressively for a few brief moments and then spun him to stare at the cuffs binding him. She thought for a few seconds and then spun him back again

‘If I take off your hand is there any way you can squeeze your wrist out?’

His eyebrows went up for a second at the casual way she spoke of his disfigurement and then he remembered that this was the girl that not ten minutes before had drawn his blood and had coldly informed him that his manhood was going to be the next thing to go. To her taking off artificial limbs would be as unimportant in the scheme of things as sneezing. Although, come to think of it, she hadn’t actually specified that it was his false hand she wanted to remove. Lindsey stepped away from her hurriedly and eyed her with a sudden terrifying suspicion and then thought of her face as she had lashed out with her knife and backed away a few steps more.

Cordy stared at the lawyer as he stumbled away from her with a look of revulsion on his face and, despite herself, felt a faint pang of rejection deep inside. Her forthright way with words had gotten her into trouble all her life and the last few years had honed her skills for cutting right to the heart of the matter in communicating with other people. It was hard trying for small talk when you spent most of your waking hours fighting for your life and covered in the insides of otherworldly species and so she learned to budget her words with ruthless precision that she never quite managed to apply to her cash flow. She reached out a hand and saw the young lawyer wince in response

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so callous but we need to get you out of those cuffs.’

She took a breath

‘We’re going to have to fight our way out of here and I can take care of myself but I won’t be able to protect you as well.’

She watched as he frowned at her and then abruptly tensed his arms and tested the give of the cuffs, he shook his head

‘No good. The skin is caught up I can’t turn my wrists.’

He watched as conflicting emotions streaked across the young girl’s face and a small part of him was stunned that the savage of a few moments ago would offer him more compassion in a couple of seconds than he had ever received from his supposed friends and co-workers over his lost appendage. He cocked his head to the side and realised with amazement that he also felt the tiniest bit guilty for his reaction to her offer to help him out of the handcuffs then he felt the drying blood crack on the side of his neck with his head’s movement and the guilt was abruptly swallowed in white hot fury. What the hell was he thinking? The bitch cut him and had threatened to Bobitt him in his own offices; she deserved every bit of pain that came her way!

Cordelia’s eyes fell on her knife that still lay on the floor and she gave a small triumphant exclamation, that thing wouldn’t do the job but the sturdy little throwing axe in the antique display case by the window would. She crossed quickly to the cabinet and flung it open. Perfect! She grabbed the two-foot long axe and it felt pleasantly familiar in her hand as she turned to Lindsey and said

‘Come over here and stretch your arms back and as far apart as you can on the desk.’

She wasn’t altogether surprised at the outraged yell that followed a short amazed silence

‘Are you insane?’

Lindsey almost fell in the pool of vomit as he turned towards the door and began to run. Cordy had been expecting an extreme reaction and almost before Lindsey had begun to turn she was moving and caught him in four strides. She gave him no chance to find his balance but yanked him hard and kept hold of him until she could shove him up against the desk.

‘Look it’s very simple McDonald; we are going to die unless we get moving soon. I can’t go out that door with you as a liability and I can’t leave you here as monster fodder; the guy’s I work for really frown on that sort of thing, I have to take you with me.’

She raised the axe

‘The cuffs have to come off. Lean back against the desk, stretch and spread your arms and don’t move!’

She fixed him with a hard chocolate glare and gave him another abrupt shove as she moved around the desk; Lindsey swallowed in an effort to bring some moisture back to his barren mouth and then cautiously allowed his arms to go back across the surface of the desk. He was acutely aware of Cordelia behind him and flinched as she shifted into position

‘Lindsey stretch your wrists as far apart as you can.’

The gentle tone of voice Cordy used was a direct contrast to the fear churning through her; she took a better grip on the axe handle and consciously focused on his false hand. If she misjudged her swing she at least intended to make sure of severing his falsie rather than the pink and helpless one at the end of the other arm. She took a sudden deep breath and then swung with everything she had and watched as the blade slammed through the sturdy metal chain joining the two metal bracelets. She allowed herself a brief moment to slump with bone-deep relief and then she turned away and crossed to the cabinet again in search of more usable weapons. Lindsey watched her back for a moment and contemplated just how easy it would be walk up behind her and knock her out and then he remembered her screaming in agony and fear on the floor and the helpless and desperate way she had vomited when the visions had passed and he spoke

‘You aren’t kidding are you? We really are in danger?’

Cordy turned to face him and winced as the movement caused her headache to swell and break against the wall of her skull with the force of a tidal wave

‘Yes. I don’t know what the things are that are that are out there but I know they want us dead.’

She paused for a moment and then said hesitantly as though she were testing an idea

‘At least…. they want you dead. I don’t think they care about me one way or the other.’

Her face creased with puzzlement as she stared at him in bemusement

‘I can’t explain it but I think its you they want.’

With a brisk shrug she turned her back on him again and stuck her head back inside the wooden cupboard her muffled voice floating back to him

‘Anyway we can’t worry about that now. My ass is on the line with yours and I am much too pretty to die young.’

She turned back to him with a grin and threw a short handled sword to him

‘Saddle up Lord of Evil, you’re about to have a first hand experience of life on the front line as a soldier of light.’

They both stared at the sword, which lay where it had fallen on the floor as he completely failed to catch it, Cordy sighed

‘So being a lawyer and all; you can do wills right?’

‘I wasn’t expecting it!’

Coredelia’s lips twitched in a wry grin

‘Lindsey, at the risk of sounding patronising, the legions of the undead do not give you a five second heads up before they try to severe you from the mortal plane, they pretty much just do it.’

She walked to where she had dropped her knife as the vision had struck grabbing her axe and wrinkling her nose at the vomit on the floor as she did so

‘Just stay behind me and watch our tails and I’ll try to keep us out of as much trouble as I can.’

She bent and picked the knife up and Lindsey had a glimpse of a thin leather sheath as she casually tucked it behind her back and under her sweater and then she turned with the axe held casually over one shoulder

‘So, sorry about your carpet and the blood-letting and everything but can we please get the hell out of here?’

Lindsey kept his eyes fixed on hers as he bent to retrieve his own weapon

‘This isn’t over Coredelia. I won’t forget what happened here tonight and when we get out of here you better watch your back.’

Cordy grinned in genuine amusement

‘So do you practise being evil arch-villain guy in front of the mirror? It must be hell trying to get the right menacing look and tone with those freckles and that nose.’

She turned and walked towards the door with an infuriating lack of concern at his threats and pressed her ear to it before easing it open and waving for him to follow her out. Lindsey gritted his teeth and stomped after her promising himself before long he would have Cordelier Chase helpless and in his power and begging for mercy.

And then she could damn well explain that comment about his nose. What the hell was wrong with it anyway? He lifted hand to check it just at the moment Cordy turned to make sure he had followed her out and the damn girl snorted as she saw the gentle and confused probing of his face.

Yep, helpless, begging for mercy and, if there was any justice in this world, buck naked and then he’d see just how many body parts Ms. Chase had that he could poke fun at. Or hot pokers. Whatever was handy.

Author: Karen

Title: Lockdown

Timeline: Directly after Angel fires the Batpack in Season 2.

Disclaimer: Sadly not mine but willing to submit a reasonable offer for the use of Lindsey and the boys at the Hypernion.

Feedback: Much appreciated as it’s my first fic to be submitted for general consumption and I’m nervous!

Dedication: To Chrissy for being so nice and helping out a complete stranger and to Sunny(?) for her encouraging comments and giving me my first ever feedback.

Rating: Have no idea as I am new to this but around a film 12/15 at the mo and progressing to an 18 later. (God and Cordy and Lindsey willing)

Archive: If you want it all you have to do is ask!

Written in response to a challenge on the fan page to have Lindsey and one of the white hats trapped in Wolfram and Hart for the night.

Chapter 2.

Ten minutes later and Lindsey was ready to scream. They had crept down two floors without seeing a single soul and he was seriously considering the possibility that Cordelia had put on the performance of a lifetime as part of a devious plot to lull him into a false sense of security and weasel information out of him. The girl stalked ahead of him, her battle axe gripped in her hand scanning around every bend with a look of fierce concentration on her face and her body held in a rigid posture. Every sense and muscle of her body seemed to be tuned to pick up the presence of a threat and, unless he was much mistaken, she seemed almost eager for a fight.

“So do you do this a lot?”

His voice echoed unnaturally loud in the deserted corridor and he was rewarded with a furious look over her shoulder

“Gee Lindsey why don’t you just jump up and down and yell ‘come and get us’ that way the bad guys will find us so much quicker!”

Her voice was lowered to the slightest whisper but was laced with venom as she froze in place as the wall came to an end and she leaned slowly around the corner to check all was silent before proceeding.

He opened his mouth to deliver a scathing retort and frowned as her hand clamped across his face and she shook her head frantically, he had reached up to push her wrist down when he heard the voices float down the corridor towards them. They were too far away to pick out distinct words but there were definitely more than two and one in particular caused an outbreak of goose bumps to spring all over his body. The tone was low and slow but with an intensity of pitch that bypassed the thin veneer of genetically inherited civility of two thousand or more years and went straight to the vestiges of primal instinct that lurked in every human soul. The message was clear, stay and die or flee and hide. Cordelia met his eyes with perfect understanding and jerked her head to indicate retreat was the only way to go, he nodded and they began to silently edge back down the passageway hardly daring to breath for fear of alerting the other beings to their presence.

A few minutes later they stood on the stairwell and trying to come up with a plan, Cordy was all for finding the most direct route out of the building and getting the hell out of Dodge but Lindsey on the other hand…

”Look we just find some security guards and have them escort them out, that’s what they get paid for after all!”

Cordelia groaned and slapped a hand to her forehead and winced as her headache popped up to say hello again

“Lindsey we don’t know if we can trust the guards! They could be hunting round the building as we speak desperate to get their hands on your high priced ass.”

She tried for a reasonable tone

“My vision is an indication of what might happen if we can’t prevent it not a preview to what we can expect to see in a couple of hours. If we act sensibly we can probably avoid a lot of trouble and keep ourselves alive till sunup which, I don’t have to tell you, is a damn good plan!”

She reached out and laid a hand on his arm and squeezed gently

“I’ve been here before, many times, and as much fun as it is being chased around deserted buildings at night by the big bad of the moment after the sixth or twentieth time it gets really old. I’ve stayed alive this long because I know when to lay low and beat a strategic if undignified retreat. Please, if you want to live listen to me.”

Lindsey stared down at the ridiculously earnest face lifted to his and saw underneath the veneer of capability a very real fear, his ego rather than his brain made him say with a sneer

“ I thought you could take care of yourself. You remember, hell mouth survivor and all. Not so brave without your demon boss and muscle boys when it comes down to it are you?”

Cordy reared back as though she had been slapped and then hauled off and slapped Lindsey

“How dare you?”

She took an unsteady breath and said in a low, furious voice

“How dare you judge me? I live like this every night of my life. You…you sit on your rich, pampered ass day after day and never give a thought to the creatures you unleash on thousands of innocents and now you dare to judge me because I’m trying to get us out of here without getting either one of us killed? You sicken me.”

She slammed her hand flat against his shoulder and slammed him against the wall “This is how it’s gonna go. You are going to do exactly as I say or I will leave you where you stand and you can take your chances on your own and I hope when the end comes your last thought is of me and the deaths you have caused over the years and maybe you might feel a tenth of the fear and horror they felt as they died by your order.”

She stepped back and wiped her hand unconsciously on her pants leg as though it had something unclean on it

“If you want to live follow me if not say hi to your lawyer buddies in hell.”

She turned without another word and headed down the stairs to the next level, Lindsey’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly for a moment as he tried to assimilate the almost forgotten emotion that had stolen his voice and then it came to him in a flash of clarity. Shame, his entire body was writhing within its skin as shame flooded every cell of his being. The girl had looked at him as though he had crawled out of a pit and had crapped on her shoes. She had no time for his power or his position the only thing she saw was a weak man who had made him self anew by using and destroying the lives of others. He shook his head and followed her down the stairs his gaze slightly unfocused with the unpleasant thought that when it came to it that was all there was to him, no real substance just a puppet master being operated by the strings of others.

They proceeded in silence for a few minutes, Cordelia still clearly vibrating with repressed fury until they came to level twelve and behind the doors leading to the floor came the sound of singing. Cordy held up a hand in silence and Lindsey ground to halt still reeling from the ticking off he had just received, they listened for a few minutes as a very loud and slurred voice sang the same two lines over again.

“Uptown girl, she’s bin livin’ in her up town world,

Bet she neva had a back street guy, bet her mama neva told her why,

I’m gonna try for an uptown girl.”

Cordy winced

“I changed my mind, start yelling for the bad guys.”

Lindsey gave an involuntary smile at her pained whisper and then frowned as she eased the heavy door open a notch and a balding overweight security guard came into view slumped in a chair waving a bottle of whisky in the air several beats out on the song. Cordelia exchanged confused looks with Lindsey and stared at the man as he kicked up the volume on his song a notch and his voice cracked with the effort, Lindsey had just reached out to push past Cordelia and find out what the hell was going on when a glistening silver spike erupted from the man’s chest and pieces of heart and bone flew across the floor. The two in the doorway sucked in shocked breaths as the spike disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared and a figure stepped forward to catch the bottle of whiskey as it fell from the dead fingers

“I hate to waste good single-malt.”

He shoved carelessly at the man in the chair and as the body fell forward onto it’s face and dropped gracefully onto the seat in his place. Tall, at least as tall as Gunn, the man’s face was handsome with a slight sheen to it as though he had been dipped in a vat of olive oil. He looked vaguely Latino but his accent was pure California and he dressed in casual, lightweight clothes that Cordelia, veteran of a hundred battles, recognised as ideal battle attire. Particularly when you seemed capable of carrying your weaponry inside your body, which is where, unless she was very much mistaken, that lethal spike had disappeared to. She thought furiously for a moment unsure whether to ease back into the stairwell and hope they could pass unnoticed or attack and hope to take at least one threat out while he was unprepared. The decision was taken out of her hands for the moment when another figure stepped into view and glanced down at the body on the floor with disdain, she felt Lindsey stiffen beside her and then hiss

“Lilah.”

Cordelia frowned in confusion for a moment and then realised where she knew the name from, the woman that normally joined in with Lindsey on the whole ‘tormenting Angel till he snapped’ gig. Wait a minute. . .

”Isn’t she meant to be dead?”

Lindsey rolled his eyes and grimaced as Lilah stepped over the man on the floor and walked to a bank of security screens on the wall before and scanned them briefly before snapping,

“This is stupid! I need to be able to see the inside of the building to pinpoint his location, for all we know he left hours ago and is at home right now mooning over that vapid blonde corpse.”

She whipped around and stabbed a blood red talon at the man on the chair

“Stop sitting there and do what I’m paying you to do and find him.”

The man on the chair appeared unmoved by the harsh tone of voice and instead chugged some more whiskey before saying casually

“You know I have people on every floor of the building. We have three telepaths here and our own guards at every exit. He’s still here. We looped the security camera’s because you wanted no evidence of our presence so although that works in our favour for a clean getaway it also means we can’t use them to locate the prey.”

He stood and stretched casually

“To add to that we also have to avoid the Wolfram and Hart guards you weren’t able to buy off so that limits us slightly but Lindsey McDonald will be dead by morning.” Lilah glared at him for a moment and then turned to stare at the useless screens again, she turned again as a phone went off in the pocket of the man and put it gracefully to his ear

“Yes?”

He listened in silence and then terminated the call without speaking again

“He’s not alone.”

Lilah’s eyes widened with shock

“What?”

The man shrugged and took another slug of his whiskey before putting the bottle carefully onto the desk behind him

“He’s not alone. There is someone in this building with him.”

His eyes crinkled as he smirked

“From the sounds of it there was quite a party in your friend’s office, blood everywhere, vomit, signs of sharp blades being used and a small piece of flesh was found that looked like an earlobe.”

His mouth stretched to a full-blown grin

“I would have it brought to you to see if you could maybe identify it as his but my tracker lost hold of himself temporarily at the smell of the blood and ate it.”

Lilah stared in disbelief and then gave an exultant laugh

“So it looks like someone did the job for me?”

She clapped her hands together in childish exuberance

“What are the chances?”

The man stared at her for a moment and then grinned again

“My guy said the room stank of the Powers.”

Lilah frowned in confusion and he heaved an exasperated sigh

“The Powers That Be? Whoever was in that room with your guy works for the light.”

Lilah continued to frown in confusion for a moment and then blanched in horror

“Angel! It’s got to be Angel.”

The man opposite her shook his head slowly as he thought,

“No, I don’t think so. From what you told me its uncertain who’s side the guy is on these days, if it were him I don’t think that they would have picked up the scent of light so strongly.”

Lilah shook her head

“But he has worked for The Powers for a long time there would still be some trace of them on him.”

She glanced around her panic-stricken

“I have to get out of here. If it is him then he won’t stop at Lindsey if he finds out I’m in the building. He’s trying to finish what he started in Holland’s cellar.”

She snatched up a sleek leather bag from the floor and hurried out of Cordy’s line of sight

“You have take me downstairs and out of the building, you can call me when you find Lindsey’s body.”

The man stood still for a moment and then reached out and snagged the bottle of whisky again and strolled out after Lilah.

Cordy sagged with relief and then stepped out cautiously into the hall holding the door open for Lindsey as she did so. She turned to face him and saw the look of pure rage on his face

“Lindsey are you alright?”

She was alarmed to see his fists opening and closing at his sides and his eyes glazed with fury

“Hey it’s ok. We’re safe for a moment and I promise you I’ll get you out of here alive.”

She smiled reassuringly at him but that faded when he spat

“But not in one piece, right Cordelia?”

Her face fell in confusion and then she suddenly realised what he was mad about

“Oh. Oh. Lindsey I’m so sorry. It was an accident I swear!”

She backed away as he advanced on her trembling with hate and fury and yelped as she fell over the body on the floor and landed on her butt

“You cut off my ear!”

“Not all of it! Just the bottom of the lobe, you can hardly see it.”

Lindsey stood frozen by the sheer audacity of the girl, she really thought that made it so much better that it was only a piece of him rather than the whole?

“Somebody ate my ear!”

Cordy scrambled to her feet and placed her hands on her hips

“Yeah, well somebody ate half my graduating class. Life sucks, deal with it.”

She scowled and stepped back over the body to get up in his face

“Buddy, after the scams you’ve pulled in recent years and all the cosmic retribution you’ve got coming you think you’d be a little more forgiving when you get trespassed against. I said I was sorry and it truly was an accident and if you’ll let me I’ll give it my all to stop that skanky not-dead girl killing you to make it up.”

She broke off her speech to flash a blinding grin

“What do you say? One nearly whole body in exchange for one measly earlobe deals like that don’t come along everyday you know.”

Despite himself Lindsey felt his lips twitch as she smiled up at him

“You really think that will make alright what you did to me?”

Cordy looked troubled for a moment and Lindsey caught a glimpse of genuine regret flash across her face

“Not even close but if you think I ‘m gonna let you cut bits off me when we make it out of here to even up the score you’re even loopier than Druscilla.”

Lindsey laughed out loud then and Cordelia caught another glimpse of the man he might have been if he hadn’t gotten caught up with Wolfram and Hart, he smiled into her eyes and said

“I think you owe me for more than an earlobe Cordelia.”

She frowned until he lifted his hand in front of her eyes and then watched the light glint off the plastic.

“You blame me for that?”

Her voice was husky with the remembered pain of being trapped screaming in her own head with the forgotten, troubled souls of the city. Lindsey opened his mouth and then paused for a moment

“Are the visions always like that?”

Cordy met his eyes and very slowly dropped her habitual cloaking so her eyes and soul lay as naked to his gaze as a newborn child

“Every time.”

Lindsey swallowed at the pain, fear and weariness that lay before him and that hung heavily on every syllable of the two words she spoke. He shook his head and spoke through a suddenly dry mouth

“We never thought what it would do to you.”

He half expected to have his uncertain words flung back in his face but she nodded and said simply

“Thank you.”

They held each other’s gaze for a second longer and then broke apart and uncomfortable silence coming between them. Cordy swallowed and looked down at the body on the floor and then knelt and pressed a gentle hand to the pulse point on the neck, Lindsey frowned and said

“Cordelia he’s dead there’s nothing you can do for him.”

She stared up at him for a moment suddenly looking a lot younger than her years and then spoke

“I know I just had to check.”

She came to her feet in one graceful move and looked down for another brief moment

“I stood there and watched him die and did nothing. If there was any chance he survived then I owe to him to do what I could.”

She shrugged and turned away

“As it turns out he’s just another human shish-kabob.”

Lindsey stared at her in genuine bafflement

“If you’d have tried to do something you’d be dead.”

It was his turn to stare at the body on the floor

“You can’t save them all.”

Cordelia gave a bitter smile

“Congratulations Lindsey you just summed up in one sentence the glaring differences between us.”

She looked at him with deep disgust

“I don’t want to save the world I just have to save the person in front of me. Even if that means that one day I die trying.”

She shook her head and turned away

“Come on we need to get moving.”

Lindsey followed her without a word and nearly crashed into her back as she froze in place staring ahead of her, he looked past her and saw two vampires, one in a long coat and Stetson, staring back at them with wide grins.

“Slayer.”

Cordelia frowned for a moment and then exclaimed in surprised recognition

“Lyle Gorch!”

She made sure she was squarely in front of Lindsey and raised one eyebrow

“What rock did you crawl out from under?”

She pointedly hefted the axe over her shoulder and said calmly

“Didn’t I cream your ass enough for you last time?”

The vampire looked momentarily discomfited and then gave a shrug and stabbed a finger at her

“Last time you had help. I only see one Slayer tonight and two of us. The human doesn’t look like good back-up to me.”

Cordelia risked a quick glance over her shoulder and took in Lindsey’s pale face covered in a light sheen of nervous sweat

“We both know I don’t need help to take you Gorch.”

She gave a confident grin

“Just so you know Buffy’s two floors up dusting up a storm as we speak. I wouldn’t want you thinking I don’t play fair after all.”

She took a measured step towards the two vampires and said in a hard tone

“Now introduce me to your friend so I know who’s ashes I gonna be washing out of my hair come morning and we’ll get this show on the road.”

The vampire with Gorch flinched back and then was shoved forward, Cordelia had time to get the impression of a young guy who couldn’t have been more than twenty when he died then she took a step back for balance swung her axe and neatly took his head off. Lindsey had taken a deep breath to shout a warning and unfortunately got a mouthful of vampire dust and promptly choked leaving Cordelia to face Gorch again with an eyebrow raised in query, the vamp blinked in disbelief suddenly looking worried

“You have two choices John Wayne get the hell out of my way or be prepared to spend the rest of the night being trodden into the carpet.”

Cordelia’s voice was harsh with fear and anger and the demon before her visibly flinched before saying

“If you give me the human you can get out of here Slayer nobody needs to get hurt.”

Despite herself Cordelia took a small amount of genuine pleasure in the tremor of fear in his voice

“I think you mean you don’t need to get dead honey, but just so we’re clear the man is under our protection and when have you ever known a Slayer back down from a fight?”

The demon stared for a second and then turned tail and ran hell for leather back down the corridor, Cordy yelled after him

“You’d better run Gorch! I’ll tell Buffy to keep an eye out for you!”

She turned to Lindsey and shoved him in the opposite direction

“Move!”

Lindsey obediently began to run alongside her managing to pant out

“Slayer?”

Cordelia shot him a smile as they pelted down a seemingly endless corridor

“ Really dumb vamp. Met him in high school, long story explain later.”

She stopped abruptly and gave a small whoop of delight at the discreet sign by a large oak panelled door she opened it and shoved him inside and locked the door behind them. It took a few moments to locate the lights but eventually she found them and then Lindsey found himself standing in the Partner’s private lounge, Cordy hurried to the bar that ran the length of the room and began examining bottles and selecting ones to stand on the bar in front of her. Lindsey crossed to her and said curiously

“What are you doing?”

Cordelia glanced up and waved a twenty-year-old bottle of scotch under his nose

“Weapons.”

She gave an exclamation of delight and threw a pile of cotton napkins beside her bottles, Lindsey looked more confused

“You’re going to bartend them to death?”

Cordelia stopped for a moment and stared at him with amused pity

“And you call yourself a demon lover.”

She held up the whisky and poured it over the pile of napkins and then cracked another bottle when that ran out and repeated the procedure

“You soak the cloth with alcohol and if you need an edge before a fight you light it and throw, the cloth sticks to the vamp if it hits skin and hey presto! Vampire fondue.”

She gave him another blinding smile and continued throwing piles of napkins on the counter and saturating them with three hundred dollar a pop bottles of scotch.

“Where did you learn all this?”

Lindsey asked in fascinated horror, Cordy grinned again

“Oh please like you don’t know everything there is to know about me down to my bra size.”

She ducked down under the counter to search for a bag or container to put the ruined cloths in

“I went to school on a hell mouth with a vampire slayer you pick these things up as you go along. I once killed a demon with superglue and the heel of my foot.”

She saw the revolted look that crossed his face and laughed

“He had transformed into thousands of maggoty things at the time and it was all we could think of. It got the job done.”

She stared down at the top of the bar for a moment and then said quietly

“And it helped save Buffy and Angel’s life.”

Lindsey watched as she carelessly began to stuff the saturated cotton in a tote bag that she first emptied of soiled bar aprons,

“Do you do that a lot?”

She flicked him a puzzled look

“Save Angel’s life I mean.”

She worked her way down the bar examining under the counter for anything that could be used as a weapon

“Sometimes. We failed horribly once and he went to hell and Buffy died when she fought the Master but other than that we pretty much made it unscathed through high school.”

She gave a short laugh as she remembered a few highlights of her chequered school career

“Sure made for a hell of an education I know that much.”

Lindsey frowned as he saw an almost wistful expression cross her face

“You look like you almost miss it.”

Cordy shook her head and opened her mouth and then paused for a moment “Sometimes I do. Not just because I had a whole life and money and everything but I was a part of something.”

She grinned at Lindsey

“I telling you, you want to be glad you never came up against the Sunnydale crew we would have cleaned your clocks.”

Lindsey snorted

“Hardly likely Cordelia, a bunch of school kids who fought a few vampires on the side? I don’t think we were in the same league.”

He gestured with his good hand to the door

“And if that’s an indication of the level of evil you were facing I’d hardly say you were challenged with or without a Slayer.”

Far from looking angry or hurt at his casual dismissal of the dangers Cordelia and her friends had faced on the hell mouth she looked amused

“Gorch? I agree totally a total embarrassment to vampires the world over. Nah, an average week for us was dust a few vamps, kill a couple of demons, usually snakes for some bizarre reason, and then stop the apocalypse in time for Saturday night down at the local club.”

She pushed her hair back from her face and fixed him with a level look

“And just for the record Lindsey a Slayer, a Watcher, a witch, a werewolf, a vampire with a soul and two humans does not a bunch of school kids make.”

She came out from behind the bar with the bag lung across her torso

“And that was just the core. Over the years we’ve had another two Slayers, another witch, a techno-pagan gypsy, occasional demon allies, the Council and now I understand they run with a thousand year old demon and have yet another powerful witch and another vamp. By anyone’s standards that’s not a force to dismiss.”

She eyed him up and down

“You might want to lose the jacket and tie suit boy. The less you give ‘em to grab hold of the better your chances of getting out of here alive.”

Lindsey eyed her right back

“That explains your outfit then.”

Cordelia’s mouth dropped open and she glanced down at herself. Low heeled black boots, black trousers and a green sweater she positively screamed taste and class “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Lindsey grinned and swept a dismissive hand up and down her body

“What did you do spray your clothes on this morning?”

Cordelia gasped in outrage

“Excuse me? This happens to be a one of a kind sweater buddy and pants by this designer don’t exactly come cheap you know. . . “

“Oh right, you couldn’t afford clothes in the right size? I know how it is trying to stretch a budget.”

“I do not have a budget!”

“Look Cordelia it’s nothing to be ashamed of…”

“I am not ashamed!”

Cordy yelled almost stamping her foot in rage. The goddamn son of a bitch, who the hell did he think he was? Through the red haze floating in front of her eyes she saw Lindsey giving her what could only be described as a smug grin

“Now, now no need to lose your temper.”

Her teeth snapped together with a painful sounding click and she glared at him furiously

“I’ll bow to your superior judgement on this and shed all unnecessary clothing.”

He waited a beat and then sniggered

“Just the jacket and tie or should I lose the shirt and pants as well?”

Cordy snorted

“I thought we agreed I’d be saving your sagging ass this evening not getting up and personal with it.”

“Touché.”

Cordelia stared at him for a moment and then her lips twitched in an involuntary smile “Hurry up we need to keep moving.”

She crossed to the door and pressed her ear to it to listen for approaching footsteps. Lindsey shook his head and began to shrug out of his jacket

‘Are you always so serious?’

Cordy turned her head in amazement

“Me? Serious?”

Lindsey pulled on his tie and nodded

“Yeah, you seem so focused all the time. So…intense.”

“Hello paging denial boy. You have noticed that we seem to have half the demons in LA hunting us down like dogs? One of us needs to know what to do in this situation wouldn’t you say?”

Lindsey nodded and crossed to stand behind her as she eased the door open and peered into the hallway and stepped out

“Absolutely but do you need to be quite so Xena all the time?”

Cordelia glanced back and then reached down and took his hand in hers to keep him close as they moved cautiously to the next flight of stairs

“Ok Gabrielle follow me and I promise I’ll try to remember to whistle while I work.” Lindsey grinned again and wisely kept his mouth shut as he enjoyed the first gentle touch from another human in a longer than he could remember.

Author: Karen

Title: Lockdown

Timeline: Directly after Angel fires the Batpack in Season 2.

Disclaimer: Sadly not mine but willing to submit a reasonable offer for the use of Lindsey and the boys at the Hypernion.

Feedback: Much appreciated as it’s my first fic to be submitted for general consumption and I’m nervous!

Dedication: To Chrissy for being so nice and helping out a complete stranger and to Sunny(?) for her encouraging comments and giving me my first ever feedback.

Rating: Have no idea as I am new to this but around a film 12/15 at the mo and progressing to an 18 later. (God and Cordy and Lindsey willing)

Archive: If you want it all you have to do is ask!

Written in response to a challenge on the fan page to have Lindsey and one of the white hats trapped in Wolfram and Hart for the night.

Chapter 3.

One hour, two vamps and a small demon with teeth as long as its head later and the pair were finding it increasingly difficult to find anything humorous and Cordelia’s one of a kind sweater was now in two distinct pieces. She held the ragged pieces of material in her hands and was torn between relief she’d worn a vest top underneath and misery that yet another item of her wardrobe wasn’t good enough for dusters anymore. Lindsey was torn between sheer blind panic at the sheer numbers of the opposition they faced to get out of the building and pity at the look of sadness on Cordelia’s face. On reflection he was leaning more towards blind panic.

“What are we going to do?”

“Mmm?”

“Cordelia what are we going to do?”

Cordelia held up the two pieces of the sweater and squinted dubiously

“Do you think I could get this repaired?”

She held the sweater to the light

“I mean it looks like a clean break right?”

Lindsey’s mouth dropped open and he made a faint clucking noise in the back of his throat. Cordy frowned up at him from where she was seated on the floor.

“Lindsey what’s wrong?”

He took a deep breath and made an effort to control his temper

“Cordelia I realise you have a real code ten clothing crisis going on at the moment but you could you please focus on the problem in hand?”

Cordy manfully struggled to keep a straight face at his choice of words and fixed an expression of bright interest on her face as he continued

“We need to think of something. I can’t go on like this all night.”

Cordy waved her hand dismissively one eye back on her ruined sweater

“Pfft. We’ve got a few minutes grace. The bad guys are down four men and they think they have two Slayers on the loose in the building. Trust me things will be a lot more sedate from now on.”

Lindsey dragged his hands through his hair in frustration

“How can you be so sure?”

“Hello? Do pretty much this whole thing every night of my life remember?”

She finally gave up on the material and shoved it in the bag beside her on the floor

“I let that cowboy Gorch run for one reason and one reason only, he thinks I’m a Slayer and he thinks Buffy is here with me.”

She gave a smug grin

“Once he changed his trousers, figuratively speaking, he would have given the four one one to his demon commando buddies and they would have suddenly become a lot more careful about peeking into dark rooms. If the leader has any sense he’ll have the telepaths focusing on trying to locate any supernatural aura’s that don’t belong to their guys so that takes the pressure of us a little.”

She came to feet in one lithe movement and casually hooked the bag over her head once again

“Our priority is finding a safe way out of here and taking out as many of the psychics as we can.”

She turned and began to inch her way silently down the stairwell they had taken refuge in not bothering to see if Lindsey followed her.

He did but with increasingly bad grace. He was running mainly on adrenalin, fear and anger at the moment and the ease that Cordelia had taken on the role of commander bothered him considerably. He was at least eight years her senior and had a lot more experience of giving orders and planning strategies and, not to put too fine a point on it, she was a girl. A confident and amazingly sexy girl, albeit, but a girl nonetheless.

Cordy for her part was beginning to wonder if Lindsey had ever seen a demon outside of the controlled and well-protected offices of Wolfram and Hart. When she had taken the head off the vamp that was with Gorch she had not given any thought to his unwillingness to attack but when they had run into their next opponent with the amazingly long teeth he had done everything but scream and wet his expensive pants. Admittedly hacking something’s tooth off and then stabbing it repeatedly with it until it died wasn’t the most pleasant way to spend five minutes out of your life but she expected a little more help than the lawyer watching the corridors to make sure they weren’t caught by surprise. She sneaked a look back over her shoulder and saw his face creased in a dark scowl of concentration and then shook her head in amazement as she recalled the details of the fight that had seen the demise of her favourite green sweater.

‘Cordelia watch out!’

Cordy turned and saw the demon right before it crashed into her taking her to the floor. She twisted her head to the side to avoid the wildly gnashing teeth and concentrated on putting everything she had into the knee that she brought sharply up between the thing’s legs. She grinned as it gave a pained woof of surprise and crashed sideways leaving her clear to scramble clear and give it a quick kick to the ribs on the way up.

‘Don’t seem to matter what dimension they come from or how they get made, the ball basher gets ‘em every time!’

Cordy’s triumphant exclamation put Lindsey’s teeth on edge and he found himself fighting down a crimson tide of rage at the casual way she pushed her hair back. He was about to make a comment when the young girl suddenly dropped like a sack of coal and disappeared under the body of the small stocky demon. He backed away in horror as Cordelia yelled out and then turned to the bag that had fallen on the floor and pulled out the alcohol soaked rags and a lighter. Cordelia’s face when she managed to roll on top of the demon managed to state in no uncertain terms what she thought of that plan and then just in case Lindsey was in any doubt the shrill

‘Are you nuts?!’ managed to clear things up nicely.

He stood staring at the at the two rolling on the floor but it was only when Cordelia shrieked again that he really began to see what was going on in front of his face. To his relief she didn’t appear to be injured but her green sweater hung in two separate halves from her shoulders and her face for the first time was flushed with sheer fury.

‘You son of a bitch!’

Cordelia stared down at her sweater and then her hands rose in a double fist to smash under the creature’s jaw and into its throat. As its hands rose in a reflex action she sprang to her feet and then jumping into the air brought her knees under her and smashed into the thing’s belly the air left in a rush and it made some interesting wheezing noises. Cordy looked up at Lindsey standing still grasping the useless equipment he had snatched from the bag and rolled her eyes

‘Hey Forrest Gump, you wanna throw me that axe?’

Lindsey started and then when Cordelia gave an impatient huff he carelessly emptied his hands onto the floor and threw her the axe. She caught it by the handle and then swung it at the creature’s head. The demon twisted at the last moment and the axe sheered through one of its teeth sending the piece of discoloured bone ricocheting off from the wall. The demon screamed in agony and in reflex shoved Cordelia away knocking her axe hand as it did so and sending the weapon flying past Lindsey’s head. The high-pitched scream that erupted from the lawyer’s throat had Cordy’s head snapping round and unfortunately left her wide open as the creature flailed in anger and agony. She took a clenched demon fist to the side of her face and crashed into the wall groaning as her headache flooded back. She lay stunned for a few seconds and then began to focus on Lindsey backing away from the demon ineffectually flapping his hands in a shooing motion. Cordy rolled her eyes.

“Jesus Lindsey, it’s a demon not a damn cat.”

Groaning the girl pushed to her feet again and snatched up the first sharp and pointy object that came to hand. The demon’s tooth. Shrugging and at the same time emitting her own patented battle cry of “Eww eww eww!” Cordelia ran at the back of the demon and leaped bringing her arm around sharply to plunge the thing’s tooth into its eye. The creature shrieked and Cordelia cursed as Lindsey tripped over his own feet in his hurry to get away from the carnage and then she managed to get a grip on the now very slippery tooth and yank it from the creature’s eye and plunge it into its neck. The pain crazed screaming cut off immediately to be replaced by a wet bubbling and the thing sank to the floor scrabbling weakly at Cordelia’s grip on its neck. She pushed away neatly as they hit the floor and then without taking her hand from the bloody wound at the demon’s neck rolled it onto its back and knelt on its stomach further constricting its air supply. With a face like stone and eyes cold with purpose she tore the tooth from the bloody wound and hacked down again and again anywhere that gave before the shard of bone.

When all that was left beneath her was a bloody pile of gore and torn skin she pushed away and climbed unsteadily to her feet. She stood for a moment staring down at the life that she had just taken and then her eyes met Lindsey’s. He flinched away from the blank look she gave him and stared at the blood-drenched woman still clutching the bloody piece of bone in her fist. Cordy slowly opened her hand and let it fall to the floor and without taking her eyes from Lindsey bent to collect her bag and tattered shirt from the floor. She stalked towards him and spun him with one hand and bent to retrieve the axe with the other.

“We have to go.”

She walked ahead of him with a rigid stride that said clearer than any words just how pissed she was and Lindsey for the first time wondered whether he might not be better off taking his chances with Lilah’s team than staying with the teenager with the centrefold body and the eyes of a killer.

“Where do you think is gonna be a safe place to regroup for a few minutes?”

Lindsey started at the sound of her voice and stared at the back of her head until she glanced back over her shoulder impatiently.

“Lindsey! Pay attention here. Where can we go to chill out for a few minutes while I plan our next move?”

His lip curled at the clipped tone of her voice and his eyes flashed

“I actually get a say in this then? I thought we were just playing a slightly bloodier than usual version of follow-my-leader.”

Cordelia swung round on the stairs

“Excuse me? What did you just say to me?”

“I said I actually get a say in this then?”

Cordy stared into his eyes and for one glorious moment contemplated smacking him over the head with the handle of the axe and leaving him for the next demon to come along and then with a great deal of effort her better nature surfaced and she took a deep calming breath.

“Lindsey I know you have to be scared and that’s pretty much all you can focus on right now so I’m going to ignore your tone of voice and sucky attitude and cut you some slack. I am saving your life and that doesn’t give me a whole lot of time to focus on the social niceties. I fight every night. I have done since I turned sixteen years old and that has made me in to the person that I am now. Everyday that I wake up I get to be responsible for the greater good. Every day. In general the people I save are usually too traumatised and freaked to worry about anything other than that someone is there to save them and tell them what to do so I kinda fall into the habit of taking charge and keeping people alive.”

Her eyes raked over him from head to toe in one scathing glance.

“You would have been dead in under five minutes if I hadn’t picked tonight of all nights to come down here and burgle your ass and I am not going to keep having this conversation with you the whole night long.”

She placed her hands on her hips and planted her feet wide apart.

“ So here’s your choice. You can follow me and live for as long as I can keep you alive or you can walk away now and die pretty much as soon as you run into the next big uglie that comes your way. What’s it gonna be?”

Lindsey unconsciously drew his body up to mimic her own ‘kiss my ass’ stance and stared back at her.

“You think I can’t take care of myself?”

Cordelia’s level look told him all he needed to know.

“I have been watching my own back for the last five years in this company and you think I can’t take care of myself for the next couple of hours?”

Cordelia continued to watch him and say nothing and suddenly the look on her face was too much to take. He clenched his hand into a fist and swung out at her feeling with dark satisfaction the power of the hit as it ploughed into her chin. Cordy made no noise as she went down and Lindsey made the most of the moment to follow her to the floor and straddle her body pinning her wrists to the floor. He had a brief glimpse of bitter chocolate eyes before he remembered how she dealt with the demon that had held her down in a similar way a short while before and then her sharp knee crashed between his legs and pushed his balls so far into his body it felt like they met with his stomach.

Cordy waited until he collapsed against her in a sudden boneless surrender before she pushed at him and rolled neatly to her feet. She rubbed a hand over her face and satisfied there was no lasting damage left Lindsey to his own private agony for a few moments to scout down the corridor. She was back in under a minute and without a word grabbed the stricken lawyer’s collar and with a few sharp kicks had him on his feet and moving after her. She paused before a large dark double door and with a quick scan in both directions for any enemy sightings pushed open the door and threw Lindsey inside and watched him curl to the floor in breathless agony again. She flicked the lock and then spread her legs and placed her hands on her hips

“Get up.”

Lindsey lifted his head and stared through eyes filled with tears at Cordelia. The girl stared back down at him and with a contemptuous shake of her head poked at his shoulder with her foot.

“I said get up.”

Lindsey redoubled his grip on himself and fought to bring his breathing under control. He understood she was talking to him but in his own private world of pain he had no idea of what those words meant.

Cordy shook her head again and reaching down got a handful of that thick dark hair and yanked until he had no choice but to follow her hand up or have his scalp torn away.

“Get up Lindsey and fight me.”

Lindsey blinked at the furious face inches from his own and weakly shook his head praying for enough air to form some words.

Cordy released him and watched him stumble and sway until he managed to find his balance and remain upright and then she spoke in a low, hard voice.

“C’mon tough guy let’s see what you’ve got.”

Her arm snaked out almost casually and his head snapped back from a stinging slap to the cheek.

“Lindsey we don’t have all night. Once I kick your ass I have to go out and kick all the other bad guy’s asses and I really need to get a jump on that. So can we get the crushing of your male pride underway please?”

Lindsey stared at her in disbelief and shook his head again and then watched as she sighed and spun on one foot in a move the Slayer herself would have been proud of and kicked him in the chest like a mule.

He fell back and the precious amount of air he managed to suck into his lungs was promptly expelled in a big woof. Cordelia stalked after him and dragged him up again grunting with effort

“Cm’on Tyson. Put ‘em up,”

Lindsey shook his head as she cuffed him around the ear again

“Cordelia, I don’t want to fight you.”

She snorted and gave him an abrupt shove

“Yeah now I’m winning. Cm’on Lindsey you’ve been jonesing for a good ass kicking ever since you found me tonight. I can take five seconds out of my busy schedule holding back an entire army of demons, by myself, to teach you a lesson.”

She spun and kicked him again and knocked him back against a desk

“Come on!”

Lindsey lost it. He’d been beaten up, semi-tortured, had demonic assassins all over his ass and Cordelia Chase alternately laughing at him and beating him to a pulp. And she’d ruined his carpet.

He gave a roar like a ruined animal and charged and took a small crumb of satisfaction in the startled look on Cordelia’s face before she crashed down beneath him. He didn’t give her a chance to try any of her tricks this time but ruthlessly pinned her legs together and beneath his and took her slim supple wrists and slammed them to the floor above her head stretching and immobilising her beneath him. Cordelia struggled briefly for a few moments writhing against the hard body above her and then stilled, staring up into the azure blue eyes above her and waited for his next move

“Never, never, hit me again Cordelia.”

She felt a chill slither down her spine at the cold command and much to her disgust a spark of something much lower in the pit of her stomach went zing! at the feel of his firm fingers clutching her arms and the hard thighs pressing against her.

I gotta get laid. The day I get turned on by having a psychopath overpower me and pin me to a grubby office floor is a day closer to turning into Loopscilla.

Her eyes focused on him again as he leaned forward and spoke in a voice low with menace into her ear

“You don’t want me as an enemy Cordelia.”

She shivered with reaction as his breath warmed her skin and pulled futilely at his grip

“Lindsey, you’re hurting me.”

She cringed at the breathy sound and turned her head to find his eyes an inch from her own

“And in case it’s escaped your notice we are enemies. Have been since day one. Not a lot going on in the friendship department here.”

Their eyes held as he slowly leaned back still keeping a tight hold on her and settled himself firmly at the apex of her thighs. His face was unreadable as he looked down at her and Cordelia worked to keep her own expression carefully blank as she met his eyes.

“Things are going to change. When I let you up, I’m in charge. We play this my way and when I say jump the only sound I want to hear from you is the bouncing of your feet on the floor as you try to get higher. Is that clear?”

Cordy bit her tongue and nodded sharply and allowed herself a preview of exactly how she was going to dismember him to run behind her eyes.

There went his hand; there went the real one. Oops I’m sorry Lindsey was that your leg? Here let me get that for you, well goddamn! There goes the other one! Lindsey smirked at the expression of naked hostility on her face and ground her wrists into the floor forcing a small groan out of her.

“Don’t think it Cordy. You have me mad but still willing to work with you. I could leave you here all helpless for the big bad to find. Slayer meat remember?”

Cordelia forced her eyes to calm as she stared into his and concentrated on focusing on anything but her current predicament. Wesley and Gunn trying to cook British soul food, Angel singing Manilow, Phantom Dennis and the loofer anything but Lindsey McDonald looming over her and looking as though he could eat her up.

Nice one Cor, there’s an image to keep you up at night.

She nodded again and hated herself for the small gasp that exploded from her as he suddenly swooped down and went almost nose to nose

“You need to remember I’m a man and not one of your pussy whipped white hats falling over themselves to stay in the Chase good books. You’re playing with the grown ups now little girl and you need to be more careful who you treat like a house broken pet.”

He pushed up and stood over her and then reached down and grasped her wrist pulling her to her feet. She felt the warmth from his body for a brief moment and then he shoved her away to stumble against the wall. She took a moment to steady herself and try to calm her racing heartbeat.

She had never, never, been spoken to or held down like that in her life and was deeply ashamed of the fact that her frantically pumping heart wasn’t entirely due to anger over Lindsey’s treatment of her. God help her she had actually enjoyed someone saying no for once. Her whole life she was used to people dancing to her tune and following her lead, even a two hundred and fifty year old vampire for gods sake, and never in all that time had someone held her and told her no. She shivered as she remembered the cold way he had told her, no ordered her, to show him respect found herself looking at him as he moved around in a whole new way.

The evil lawyer façade slipped away and she saw a man beneath. Strong and virile, flawed yes but with incredible self-possession and confidence that was evident in every line in his hard body. This was not a man to take lightly under any circumstances and she winced as she replayed the events of the evening so far in her mind. She had treated him with less respect than she did the average vamp or demon and suddenly that seemed very wrong. He was a human being, regardless of his moral choices in life, and had stuck with her through all of the night’s events so far even when he had been so scared he had to force himself to move and despite his threat of tying her up and leaving her here she didn’t believe that he would.

Cordelia opened her mouth and just as she was about to speak there was a tremendous crash against the locked door. They both whirled and stared at the door and then Cordelia moved to pick up her axe from where it lay on the floor and stood braced to face whatever came through. Lindsey watched her for a moment and then satisfied that the door would hold scanned the office they found themselves in for inspiration. Still more than eighteen floors up the window wasn’t an option but unfortunately neither was the door. He stared at the desk and considered its potential for a barricade unwillingly deciding that the aged antique oak would snap like kindling before a concentrated otherworldly attack. He eyes scanned desperately around the office again and then returned to Cordelia as the wood of the door cracked and the light from the corridor began to shine through

“Lindsey they’re coming. Stay behind me.”

Her voice was calm and resigned and betrayed none of the terror that ate like acid at her insides. The hairs on the back of her neck and arms rose as through the cracks in the wood a wet pestilent voice sounded

“Slayer. Slayer coming for you. Going to make you scream.”

Cordy shuddered as she heard the demonic delight in the voice and unhappily contemplated the pictures that rose unbidden in her minds of the unfortunate victims of demon attacks she’d seen. They wanted to hurt her every which way and the thought of being meat and passed around to be used as they wanted was not the way she was going out. She took two steps back and prepared to fight as long as she could for Lindsey and then if she lost to be as close to the windows as she could to remove herself from their reach permanently.

From behind her she heard a sharp exclamation from Lindsey and then from the side of her eye saw the wall fall away. She turned her head to look and the door crashed in revealing a mass of bodies all fighting to be the first in and at her. She tensed as they flooded towards her sending out mental goodbyes and messages of love to Wes, Gunn and even Angel and then…

“Cordy duck!”

Years of fighting alongside Buffy and Angel had her dropping to the floor and rolling to one side and she heard a wretched scream as something flew over her head and smashed into the demons before her. Lindsey’s hand came down and pulled her to her feet and pushed her before him into the darkness of a tunnel behind the wall. She whirled as he let her go and then even as she took in the sight of two vamps and a demon spinning in the middle of the office flaming wildly and the others trying desperately to stay out of the way and follow the humans at the same time Lindsey raised his hand and depressed a small button in his hand. She opened her mouth to shout but it was too late. The false wall slammed back into place and they were in the dark and trapped in the tunnel from her vision.

Author: Karen

Title: Lockdown

Timeline: Directly after Angel fires the Batpack in Season 2.

Disclaimer: Sadly not mine but willing to submit a reasonable offer for the use of Lindsey and the boys at the Hypernion.

Feedback: Much appreciated as it’s my first fic to be submitted for general consumption and I’m nervous!

Dedication: To Chrissy for being so nice and helping out a complete stranger and to Sunny(?) for her encouraging comments and giving me my first ever feedback.

Rating: Have no idea as I am new to this but around a film 12/15 at the mo and progressing to an 18 later. (God and Cordy and Lindsey willing)

Archive: If you want it all you have to do is ask!

Written in response to a challenge on the fan page to have Lindsey and one of the white hats trapped in Wolfram and Hart for the night.

Lockdown Part 4.

Cordelia jumped as the confined space she found herself in suddenly echoed with the furious pounding of the demons on the other side. She took an involuntary step back and Lindsey yelled into her ear.

“My foot! Jesus watch where you’re standing!”

Cordelia scowled as his voice dipped down towards the floor

“Some seer you are.”

“Suck it up whiny. And for your information that’s seer not seeing eye dog!”

She reached out a cautious hand and touched a cool, damp wall and then reached out with the opposite arm and brushed the opposite side of the tunnel with her fingertips. So, trapped in a pitch black confined space with someone she didn’t like and the screaming hordes of the underworld after her blood. She felt sixteen all over again.

“Any idea where we are Mr trap us in the place where we’re most likely to meet our horrible agonising deaths?”

Lindsey frowned at the sarcastic tone of Cordelia’s voice and wished he could see her face as he snapped

“Really, no thanks necessary for saving your life. Please don’t mention it.”

Cordelia rolled her eyes and stretched out her leg to feel around for her bag as she answered

“Way to go Lindsey. We can’t see, we don’t know where we are, we have no idea where to get out and to top it all off we have no idea what’s down here with us. Really I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.”

Her foot brushed something soft and hoping it was her leather tote and not something that was going to rip her arm off, she bent to retrieve it. She snagged the material and breathed a sigh of relief. Arm and fingers all attached and accounted for. Things were looking up.

They both jumped as the demons renewed their efforts to get in by hammering at the false wall with what sounded like a battering ram. They spoke at the same time

“We need to get out of here!”

Cordelia shoved her hand into the bag and felt around

“I can’t find the lighter.”

She heard Lindsey’s clothes rustle and then yelped as a flame appeared an inch away from her nose

“Watch it!”

She stepped backwards and closed her eyes wincing at the pain caused by the unexpected flash. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Lindsey’s face seemingly bobbing in mid air as he held the lighter before him

“Ok we need to move now.”

They both turned towards the door as another particularly loud crash sounded, Lindsey peered around him raising the lighter as he did so and then made a triumphant sound. He reached over Cordelia’s shoulder and flicked a switch and suddenly they were bathed in soft golden light. He let the lighter go out and then glanced around. They stood in a tunnel with a very low ceiling and a dirt floor not more than two metres wide. A row of tubed lighting stretched away around the corner following the tunnel’s path and the reflections glinted from the slightly damp walls. He glanced back to Cordelia and took in her apprehensive expression and felt fairly sure it mirrored his own. He shrugged

“Well we still have pulses and a heartbeat that’s gotta be a plus right?”

Cordy shrugged

“Normally I’d agree but this all looks very familiar. I think I saw this in my vision and I’m definitely sure that we’re not on our own down here.”

She gestured to the floor and Lindsey looked down and saw what was unmistakeably some kind of animal droppings. He saw with dismay not only were they large but also very fresh.

“Shit!”

Cordy grinned

“My point exactly.”

She glanced back as the rhythmic pounding began to pick up

“Well whatever, we can’t stay here.”

Lindsey nodded in agreement and moved in front of Cordelia

“I’ll go first, follow me.”

Cordelia obediently fell in behind him grinning at the authority in the tone. If he wanted to be first choice out of a fresh delivery of human meat so much the better. She planned to stay well back and concentrate on looking as gristly and flavourless as possible.

They reached the curve of the tunnel and realised that the light would get much dimmer as they went on thanks to the lighting paring down to one solitary strip of tubing that flickered uncertainly. Lindsey felt Cordelia take a deep breath behind him and without thinking reached back to squeeze her hand to reassure her. Much to his amazement his fingers were grasped in her slightly calloused hand and he smiled as she held on as he set out into the gloom. His grin widened as she whispered

“Don’t for one minute think I like you Lindsey. I just don’t wanna take a fall and ruin my three thousand dollar dental work.”

The sounds of the demons trying to follow them faded behind them as they progressed down the tunnel but slowly their eyes began to water as the most incredible stench rose around them.

“Christ, what the hell is that?”

Lindsey moaned through his fingers fighting the urge to follow Cordelia’s earlier example and hurl all over the floor. Her voice came from behind him betraying no emotion

“Dead bodies. Lots of ‘em and a long time a rottin’ judging from the smell.”

Lindsey paused in mid step and glanced back at his unwilling companion in this nightmare

“What?”

Cordelia stared into his frightened eyes grimly

“Dead rotting corpses. Probably human. Killed fairly recently judging from the smell.”

“What you can tell how long something’s been dead from the smell now?”

Cordelia eyed him in condescendingly

“No but if they’d have been down here years they wouldn’t still be smelling. They’d be bones and dust and all we’d have to worry about is how long it had been since somebody vacuumed. Duh!”

Lindsey opened his mouth and then closed it when no suitable rejoinder came to him. Cordelia looked away from him down the tunnel and he felt a tide of shame flood over him again. Whilst obviously concerned with not being eaten Cordelia was also deeply distressed at the fate of the beings whose remains were now choking them with noxious gases.

Lindsey felt minor, very minor, curiosity as to who they were but his first thought definitely hadn’t been poor souls may they rest in peace. Maybe a brief thought as to what they’d done to deserve their fates but that was it.

He grasped her hand more firmly in his and set off again breathing through his mouth and trying to stay away from the thought that the smell was clinging onto his clothes and seeping into his pores.

They rounded another corner and the tunnel suddenly widened out and became a small round cavern. The source of the smell was evident as dismembered and very dead bodies littered the gore-drenched floor atop older remains and bones that looked like they could have been there for decades.

Lindsey felt cold drops of sweat spring out on his forehead as he stared around helplessly and he pressed a hand to his stomach trying to suppress the heaving of the contents. He had never seen anything like it not even in the cellar when he woke to the special contracts division spread out like meat at market and suddenly the reality of the world he dealt in daily came crashing home to him. He turned from Cordelia and helplessly threw up wave after wave of vomit wishing he could purge himself of his past so easily.

Cordelia watched the young lawyer throw up in the corner and then turned back to the horror before her. She felt nauseous but numb as though this was the horror that finally broke her. She walked slowly out among the dead staring down at them determined to bear witness to their passing. Here a young man ripped in two, there a middle-aged woman her face forever frozen in horror and the back of her head bitten clean off.

Cordy paused in the middle and slowly spun in a circle fixing the images in her mind forever and vowing silently to avenge their deaths if she could. She froze suddenly and her mind screamed as she tried to assimilate what her eyes told her. There on the ground was a tiny pink foot no bigger than her palm with the tattered remains of a blue romper suit hanging around it. Cordelia traced an unwilling path up the infant’s leg and it’s body until finally she saw the head of a young baby pillowed on an equally dead breast. She took a deep breath and then another and slowly bent to lay a hand on the side of the child’s face. The skin was cold and rubbery under her touch and was colouring into the deep purple of decomposition but she could still see the sweet curve of the lip and cheeks and the delicate bones in the chin. It didn’t appear to be injured but then she saw the savage marks on it’s chest half hidden by the body it lay on and then she knew that it had been eaten whilst alive and then tossed away like so much trash when it’s attacker had found something more nourishing.

She straightened and turned her head towards Lindsey who leant weakly against the wall wiping a shaking hand across his mouth and staring in horror at the innocent child on the floor. His eyes came up to meet Cordelia’s and he flinched at the bitter fury and purpose he saw there

“ We don’t leave here until this thing is dead. You get to be bait.”

Across town Gunn was staring in bemusement at Wesley as he paced the small area of their office floor and ranted

“I ask you! Was it too much to hope the girl could obey one simple instruction and stay put? That’s all I asked of her. Who’s meant to be in charge here?”

Gunn wisely refrained from answering any of Wes’ questions and instead posed one of his own

“Wes man, what’s the big? It’s not like we’ve got a note saying give us some cash and we’ll give you the girl.”

Wesley snorted and snatched the thin piece of paper Cordelia had left them and read in a high voice

“Guys, had a thought and went to follow it up. Check in later.”

He flung the piece of paper down on the desk in disgust

“Unless the local boutiques now routinely open at three in the morning the only thought that girl’s had is involving the Angel situation. God alone knows where she’s gone and who she’s mixed up with.”

He flung himself into a chair and put his head in his hands

“She’s not answering her pager or cell and we have absolutely no idea where to start looking for her. Honestly this is beyond the pale.”

Gunn perched his long frame on the corner of the desk and frowned down at the top of his friend’s head. He hated to admit it but his own sense of disquiet at Cordelia’s absence had grown in the face of Wesley’s certainty of bad things afoot and he now had images flashing in his head of Cordelia’s drained and lifeless corpse lying in a darkened street somewhere. Her image kept fading to be overlaid by the face of his dead sister and he shook it off with difficulty. Not this time. This time he was going to make damn sure he did whatever it took to get his girl. He reached down to clap a reassuring hand to Wesley’s shoulder

“Cm’on I got an idea.”

Back in the depths of Wolfram and Hart Lindsey was trying without success to reassert his briefly held authority over Cordelia and for the first time found himself empathising with Angel.

“Cordelia I’m telling you we’re moving now! No questions, no arguments. Now move.”

Cordy stared at him calmly and idly swung her axe in one hand and then without taking her eyes from Lindsey smashed it twice into the wall sending echoes crashing down the tunnel.

Lindsey sprang forward to snatch the axe from her hand but it was too late. Deep within the gloom they heard a roar. A bloodcurdling, terrifying and above all hungry roar.

“Christ!”

He froze inches from Cordelia’s cold set face and stared into eyes that were black with hard purpose

“What have you done?”

The terrified whisper hissed from his lips and he began to shake as from deep within the tunnels the sound came of something moving fast towards them. Cordelia raised an eyebrow and stared into the terrified blue eyes above her

“What I have to.”

She shoved at him suddenly and he fell back onto the remains on the floor in clear view of whatever came through the opening. Lindsey cried out again in disgust and fear as he tried to find firm purchase on a floor soaked in the remains and gore of countless victims. Cordelia reached up with one hand and drew her knife from the sheath on her back and then took a firm grip on the axe with her other hand. She moved to one side of the tunnel opening so that she would be hidden from view for a few crucial seconds and Lindsey saw her in the dim light for what she really was. A slim figure still covered in the blood and dust of her slayings earlier in the evening body held with confidence and relaxed before battle eyes calm and deadly with the knowledge she was soon to kill again. A warrior and a champion; someone who would give her life without hesitation for the cause of light. He scrambled to his feet his eyes on her and his mouth opening to beg, plead, scream; anything before it was too late. Then suddenly it was. He saw a massive, dark figure move impossibly fast towards him through the tunnel mouth and then it smashed into him sending him to the floor with a painful bang and then he was fighting and screaming for just one more breath.

“Run, run, run, run, runaway,

My run,run,run,run,runawaaay!”

Lorne winced as Gunn and Wesley joined their voices together in what they clearly believed was harmony and then before the closing bars of the song had chance to die away they were before him and glaring

“Where is she?”

He stared between the two faces so different and yet so similar united as they were in common purpose. Their bodies radiated tension and muscles were clenched under the skin with fear and anger.

“Now, now kiddies lets not ruin the little seer’s party. She’s safe, for now, and on a solo flight for the PTB.”

His eyes widened as Wesley’s arm shot out and gripped his throat

“I don’t give a damn about the Powers. Where. Is. Cordelia.”

Lorne’s eyes cut to Gunn in the hope of some aid in controlling his obviously deranged friend but the tall black man merely glared back and pointedly flexed his own muscles. Wesley shook the Host by the throat to draw his attention back from Gunn and smiled grimly as the tall green demon said

“Wes, come on. You know there’s no violence in Caritas.”

“Lorne there’s no demon violence allowed in Caritas.”

He allowed his cold smile to widen

“I’m human.”

Lorne quickly weighed up his fast diminishing options and made a choice

“She’s with that little lawyer boy you all dislike so much. Fightin’ the fight and all.”

Wesley frowned in confusion and then Lorne yelped as his fingers clenched and the knuckles turned white in fury

“Lindsey McDonald has her? You tell me she’s safe and then that Lindsey bloody McDonald has her? Where?”

Lorne scrabbled at the fingers on his throat and Gunn stepped forward with a sigh to pull his friend off the green man

“Wes, chill. He can’t tell us nothin’ if you rip his throat out.”

Wesley loosened his hold and then with a disgusted sigh shoved the Host away from him. Gunn stepped in front of his friend and co-worker

and allowed a grim smile to grace his own face

“He can however tell us what we need to know if we just cut bits off.”

He unconsciously mimicked Cordelia’s threat from earlier in the evening as he drew the twin of the knife he had given her

“Spill or I get chop happy real quick.”

He stared into worried red eyes and waited.

.-

Read Part 6 -8