Part One
"Thank you so much." Wesley said to the waitress as he picked the sack up from the counter. He stepped out the door, balancing a drink container in one hand and carrying his and Cordelia's late supper in the other. A flash of lightning in the night sky made him regret his decision to walk, but at the time it had seemed silly to drive only four blocks. Nudged onward by the smell of the coming rain he quickened his pace, hoping to get back to Angel's office before he was soaked to the skin.
As he passed the small parking lot adjacent to the cafe he heard the clatter of metal accompanied by an exasperated "Come on!" Wesley slowed a bit, catching sight of a woman struggling to remove the lug nuts from her flat front tire.
Chivalry collided with the urge to stay dry as a cool gust brought a few heavy drops of rain splattering down the street. With a sigh he made a U and approached the woman. "Do you need some assistance?"
"Uh... no. I'm okay." She answered while scrambling to her feet.
Wesley caught her nervousness and stopped at the back bumper. "I would be happy to help."
She waved the tire iron at him and backed away. "Sure you would. That's the oldest trick in the book."
"What do you.."
"You flattened my tire then come and help me and then I'm found dead in the hills." She squeaked.
"Well I tried, suit yourself Madam." Wesley said, somewhat hurt that his offer had been rejected. He turned and began to walk away.
"Uh.... wait a minute." The woman said hesitantly. "Maybe it would be okay if I stood over by the wall while you just kinda got these loose? I can change a tire but I can't get those bolts... uh, you know...started."
Wesley looked back over his shoulder and smiled at her. "If you would feel comfortable with that arrangement, it is fine with me."
She nodded, laid the tire iron on the hood and took a couple of steps back. "No offense?"
"None taken." Wesley said while placing his sack and carrier on the trunk. "Your caution is very wise. Rest assured I have no intention of harming you, but in this day and age a lone woman cannot be too careful." He picked up the iron, knelt down and began to try to loosen the first nut. "Ummmm... these are on solid." He shut his eyes and strained with the effort, unaware that the woman was now directly behind him, oblivious to her proximity until she bent down and whispered in his ear. "I guess I shouldn't have put them on so tight."
In the same heartbeat as the coolness of her breath registered in Wesley's brain the vampire's fangs sank into his throat. He tried to swing the tire iron around but she locked her arms around him, drawing him tighter into the embrace of the dead. His vision began to blur as his blood pressure dropped and he began to quiver as all strength fled from his being. As if in slow motion he felt his body being released from her grip and he fell backward into the gravel. Random sensations fired in his dying brain, the weight of a form straddling him, the rain on his face as the heavens suddenly opened, the taste of the siring blood upon his tongue and the hissing laugh of the creature as she drew in to drain the last of his life.
Then the darkness came.
Rita allowed herself the luxury of licking the wound clean before she proceeded to place the body that would soon become a dark incarnation of Wesley into the car. "A Watcher!" She shouted to the empty street as her demon danced within her. "I've taken a Watcher as mine!"
As if in response, a bolt of lightning stabbed the earth a mere block away.
Leaning back into the car she carefully arranged Wesley into a sitting position and strapped the seat belt around his corpse. Opening the glove compartment she took out an aerosol can of "Flat Fixer" and reinflated the tire.
"They fall for it every time." She chuckled. " 'Every'-time."
****** Cordelia dropped the venetian blinds back into place. "Now, along with me being 'officially' starved, it's 'officially' pouring! Why didn't he drive? This is LA! Everybody drives! I know he's just sitting down there waiting for it to stop raining so he doesn't get wet." She crossed her arms and gave Angel a "do something about this" look.
"So he's smart enough to stay out of the rain." Angel answered without removing his attention from the book before him. "It won't last long, just keep looking..."
"Yeah, keep looking." Cordy snipped. "Keep looking thorough these dusty, musty old books for some dusty, slimy ax demon thing while I starve to death." She gave her head a toss. "Starve to death for free I might add. Not like this little crusade is going to pay any bills around here."
"They're usually not dusty 'and' slimy." Angel grumbled. "And if there is something demonic over there we..."
A simultaneous flash/crack of lightening and thunder shook the building causing both to startle. Angel stood and retrieved his keys. "That was close, maybe I should go down and get him."
"I see. Worry about him getting electrocuted but not a thought about me." Cordelia commented in true Cordy fashion. When there was no response she glanced up straight into her boss's annoyed expression and asked. "What?"
"You're not going to starve to... never mind. I'll be back in a minute." Angel snapped and went out the door giving it a slam to show his displeasure. Cordelia was driving him crazy, Wesley had been underfoot and this entire night had been wasted on futile research over a possible demon. A small story in the paper had reported that city workers had sighted a seven foot tall, ax wielding gorilla in the foothills. At first he had arched an eyebrow and laughed, sure that it was probably a six foot human prankster. But then Wesley had commented that this was almost the same description of a creature which had been sighted around Hamburg in the 1800's. Angel wrinkled his nose and mocked Wesley's understated comment, accent and inflection. "Nobody really paid much attention to it until it started axing up brides on their wedding night."
Angel opened the back door of the building and stepped into the covered tenant parking area. He came close to morphing into vampire as he saw the stream of rainwater which had found its way through an unseen hole in the roof, traveled down a beam and was pouring directly onto the driver's seat of his convertible. "Tonight just gets better and better." He groused.
It took a few minutes to close the top and wipe out the car enough so that he was not swimming and driving at the same time. As he finally pulled out he noticed that the rain had lessened considerably and even though it was probable that Wesley was most likely already on his way back, Angel decided to go ahead and pick him up anyway. Mumbling under his breath, the vampire slowly drove down the street and pulled into the restaurant lot. No Wesley to be seen, only an employee of Ed's Cafe cleaning up the days litter. He rolled down his window and shouted to the man. "Hey! You seen a tall, English guy wearing a tan coat?"
"Yeah! He was in here about twenty, thirty minutes ago, right before we closed."
Angel acknowledged the answer with a wave and returned to the office, sure that Wesley had taken refuge from the downpour in a sheltering doorway and by now had beaten him back.
Cordelia looked up as Angel came through the door alone. "Well? Where is he? And did you know your pants are wet?"
"He's not here?" Angel asked with immediate concern. "He left the cafe over a half hour ago."
"If he was here why would I have asked you where he was and..." Cordy stopped as Angel's words sunk in. "...it only takes about five minutes to walk down to Ed's." Her eyes went wide. "You don't think that something happened?"
"Stay here, lock the door." Angel ordered as he whirled around to backtrack on foot.
"No way! I'm coming too!" Cordy yelled as she grabbed her coat and followed on his heels. Angel did not even bother to argue with her as they ran down the steps to the front door. Once they reached the sidewalk Angel morphed. "Cordelia, don't say a word. Keep your eyes open for anything but don't distract me."
"Got it." She whispered with a gulp, for even after all this time the appearance of Angel's true self bothered her. Slowly and quietly they made their way through the drizzle until they came to Ed's. Cordelia peeked through the front window at the closing crew and confirmed that Wesley was nowhere to be seen. She joined Angel in the parking lot and found him kneeling with his face inches from a handful of gravel he had scooped up.
"Blood." He hissed, then he took a second then third deep inhale. "Human blood."
"Wesley?" Cordelia whispered. "Is it Wesley?"
"I don't know. It's faint." Angel sat back oh his heels. "The whole parking lot smells. Not long after I came to LA there was a stabbing here and a man bled to death." He stood and scanned the lot trying to get a feel for the origin of the blood. "The rain has muddled up the scents and I can't tell if it's a tiny amount of fresh blood or a large amount of old."
Cordelia began to pace back and forth. "He's okay, I know it. If he wasn't I would be having one of those vision things, right? I would have had a vision of calling for a pizza instead of asking for a tuna salad, right?" She stopped directly in front of Angel. "Right? That's right? Right? I mean, these things save strangers so they.. should.. save..." Her voice faded out as Angel wrapped his arms around her. "Yeah." He answered with as much hope as he could muster. "You're right. He's got to be okay."
****** Exhaustion overcame terror and with a whimper the young man curled into the corner to spend his second day in chains. Rita pursed her lips at the sound coming from the back room, but did not waver as she continued on with her work. Before her a scene that most mortals would consider fantasy, but what she knew as truth unfolded on the canvas. Entitled "The Rising, VI" the painting showed a newly animated vampire on it's knees before a demolished crypt with its head tossed back in a howl of triumph, announcing to the living and the dead that it was free. To the side stood the sire, watching his creation with cold satisfaction while above a wintry mist shrouded a crescent moon.
"You're lucky." Rita said the still figure on the bed. "You won't have to slog hell and gone through the countryside looking for your first vessel. I starved my first two nights because everything and everybody was locked up tighter than a drum. I'll say one thing about the old days, the peasants knew what was coming down and sometimes you would go for months before you got a good human kill. You're lucky in that respect too. Hunting is so much easier these days."
Rita stepped back, appraised her work and with a few final flicks of the brush added her signature. "You know, I wish I could show us as we are instead of the way the breathers imagine us, but that won't pay the bills. So I improvise a bit to keep all those adolescent, demon obsessed, vampire wanna'be punks happy. Isn't that a scream? They think my vampire art is so cool, but if I would flash them a little fang 99% of them would die of fright before I got the first bite in."
She walked over and sat down on the bed. "But not you. No, you're a Watcher, you know what's happening. You see, I was up in Sunnydale about a year or so ago doing sketches of the El Eliminati." Rita shook her head and laughed. "They were pretty vain vamps. Never seen such serious posturing and posing, but I was able to complete my Warrior series with them. But while I was hanging with them they pointed you out. Told me you were the new Watcher and I thought 'cool' and went on my way 'cause I wasn't going to mess with a Watcher, Slayer combo plate. No way, Jose. Learned my lesson on that 400 years ago, back in Barcelona."
"But then last week I see you in the Magic Eye buying some stuff. So I start following you. You were kind of a night owl..." With a grin she leaned over and stroked Wesley's cold cheek. "...and you definitely are one now. Anyway, I found out where you live and work and everything else. Found out that you don't hang with a Slayer anymore. I felt like I was getting close to making the kill, so night before last I went out and got you your very first vessel. Wasn't that nice of me?" Rita yawned and stretched, then laid down beside him. "Then tonight I see you heading down to that greasy spoon and said to myself, 'this could be it'... and it was... and the rest is history."
With a second yawn she scooted a bit closer to her new companion and drifted off to rest until the end of the day would bring his rising.
****** Angel barely beat the sunrise. That one last possibility had been a wash, the night's search had been an exercise in futility. Wesley was gone... gone without a trace, without a clue, without a sign. He stumbled into the office and collapsed into his chair.
"Did you find him?"
"No."
Cordelia bit her lip and tried to busy herself with making coffee. "You came in the front door, and the sun's up." She commented just to avoid the coming conversation concerning what might have happened.
"The tunnels are flooded." Angel muttered as he put his head into his hands. "It's going to be awhile before I can use them again."
"Yeah, the news this morning warned everyone to stay away from the river and the drains and everything because of the rain runoff thing." Cordy shuddered a bit. "You don't think that's what happened do you? Like maybe he saw something and followed it down into the sewer and then he got... got...."
Angel finished her sentence. "Swept away by the rising water? Yeah, it's possible. Wesley wouldn't have known about how fast the water can rise down there."
Cordy began to nod and a thin hopeful smile appeared on her face. "So he might just be trapped down there with rats... that's good."
"No." Angel disagreed. "The water is at least waist deep and moving fast. If he was down there he's..."
"Don't say that!" Cordelia shouted. "He's not.. you know, he's just NOT!" The coffee pot dropped from her hand and shattered into a million pieces. She grabbed her head and doubled over in pain as the vision came screaming into her mind. Angel leaped across the desk, wrapped his arms around her and helped her into a chair.
"What is it? What did you see?"
"A v-v-vampire." She whispered. "A real ugly one, a bunch of real ugly ones... coming out of the ground and out of these mausoleum things and caskets and... it's like they weren't real."
Angel's brow furrowed. "Not real?"
"Pictures, you know... like 'pictures' not like 'real'." Cordy shook her head. "I need some aspirin."
"Pictures, not real." Angel repeated as he went to get the medication out of his desk drawer. He was going to need clarification, but first Cordy needed to calm down.
"Yes, PICTURES!" She snapped. "Like those poster things they sell down at that gross incense and tacky jewelry store."
"Fantasy art?"
"Yeah, that wizard and demon and vampire and troll poster stuff." She said, taking the aspirin bottle from Angel's hand. "And they were all about vampires coming up out of the ground. But whoever drew them sure didn't do any homework because they didn't look like a real vampire."
"That stuff never does." Angel observed with a shrug. "I wonder if this >concerns Wesley's disappearance? Did you see Wesley in the vision?"
"Duh! If I would have saw him don't you think I would have said so?"
Angel felt the hope slip away. "So this is about something else. Damn."
"Damn is right." Cordy murmured as she put her head down on the desk and fought back tears.
****** A whisper cut through the blackness and fog which blanketed Wesley's mind."Awake, arise, feel, see, become."
The demon within him stirred.
"Awake, arise, feel, see, become." The words echoed seductively, pulling his consciousness back from the pit, restoring his senses, calling him to be.
He opened his eyes and focused on the face before him. Not a head turning beauty, but enticing with coal black hair and eyes. Her olive skin spoke of a Mediterranean heritage and within her voice was the trace of the ancient Catalan dialect of her youth centuries before.
"Welcome, I'm Rita and I know you find this confusing..."
"You turned me." Wesley interrupted as he rolled away and tried to stand. He stumbled, and grabbed onto the bedpost for support.
"That's a pleasant surprise." She commented in amazement while rubbing her hand across his shoulders. "It's been years since I've witnessed a rising where the new one was aware of what had happened. But still, you have so much to learn, so much for me to teach you."
Wesley slapped her hand away and turned on her with full vampire features. "Well, I'm not a bleedin' fool! And I will inform you from the start that I will not need you to 'teach' me a..."
The blow knocked him to the floor. Rita landed astride him and in the blink of an eye had his wrists pinned to the carpet. She lowered her face to his and hissed with vampire threat. "First lesson - I made you, I am your mistress, you 'will' obey me and give me my due."
Wesley struggled for a moment against her, then looked up with a twisted grin. "So shall we get on with the physical, mental and sexual domination? Let's say we do it in reverse order."
Rita released him from her hold and sat back on his stomach. "So you are a wicked boy. And here I thought you were all proper and dutiful and straight laced."
"Those aggravations seem to have been stripped away with my conscience. Damn shame wouldn't you say? And by the way, if you are going to sit on me why don't you move down a bit to a better spot?"
"Is that what you want?" Rita cooed. She shifted her weight around as if obliging the request then blindsided him with a second hard punch. Before Wesley could react she was off of him and landing a hard kick into his ribs. "First you will feed, then if... and I mean 'if'' I feel like screwing you then I will." She licked her lips and shot him an evil smile. "So you think you know everything? Let's make it a test and then we will see if you are just all talk. Show me that you really know the ways. Find the vessel, kill it well and drink you fill!"
At this command all defiance within Wesley was shoved aside as the need for warm blood mushroomed into a critical mass. He lurched to his feet, his very being zeroing in on a sound and an odor from another room. "I hear a heartbeat. I smell fear."
"Find it. Make the former stop, make the latter overwhelming." Rita hissed. "Hunt and taste eternity."
Wesley shivered in anticipation. "With pleasure, mistress. With pleasure." He focused on the sound and began to stalk straight toward a closed door on the other side of the room. With a roll of his shoulders he changed back into human guise. "Rule one..." He laughed. "...you never want to spook your supper beforehand." Then with deliberate slowness he turned the knob and entered. Hunched in the corner he found his prey. "Oh my! What happened to you?" He questioned with convincing horror as he crossed the room.
The stranger stood and held up his shackles for Wesley to see. "Get me out of here... that bitch is crazy. She's on something.... her face is all fucked up and.."
"Yes, yes.. I know. Terrible situation." Wesley interjected. "We must hurry before she returns. Now, do you know where she keeps the key to these restraints?"
The impending victim shook his head. "No man.. she put it in her pocket and left me here and.. oh hell! She's back!"
"So you are going to play first?" Rita said from the doorway. "It's cold and heartless... I like that. And the fact that you have this much control within minutes of you rising says volumes."
"Thank you for your approval." Wesley said sarcastically "But since I am starved I will end this charade a bit prematurely." As he spoke his vampire features came full bloom and he locked the man into death grip. With this, something Wesley found almost sexual in its appeal appeared on the unfortunate human's face. Terror, helplessness, blind fear all wound up in a whimpering petition for mercy. Instincts took the reins and with a snarl he bit and fed free of all human concern. The heat of an ending life poured into him and he savored both the flavor of the blood and the taste of the power. So intense was the pleasure that he drove his fangs deeper to try and bring up one last drop even though the vessel lay limp and drained in his embrace.
Rita smiled in approval. This one was good, much better than the ones she had sired over the past few decades. In silence she allowed him to take all of his first victim, watching as the strength flowed from living to dead. With a low hiss Wesley flung the drained shell to the floor and turned to her. "Did I pass?" Her eyes traveled to the trauma which he had inflicted upon the man's throat and her eyes lit up with delight. "Well I'll be damned! You're a 'J' cutter!"
Wesley's gaze followed hers. "So I am. Isn't that wonderful?" He blinked a couple of times and brought to memory his Watcher instruction. "When a vampire attacks in such a way that the laceration is in the form of a deep, jagged capital 'J' it is certain that this creature is unusually vicious. It attacks in a mindless blitz with complete disregard for stealth or deception. This fact allows it to be easily hunted down before it does extensive damage." The gallows humor of his quoting from the hallowed halls of the Watcher's Academy hit him and he broke out into laughter. "Vicious? Certainly! Mindless? I don't think so!"
"Neither do I." Rita chuckled darkly as the full prize to the vampire nation became obvious. "And you have kept your training! You will be a great asset to the clan." She walked up to him and ran a finger down his chest. "And I think you do deserve a little reward for a job well done."
"And that would be?" He inquired, moving a half step closer to her.
In response she dropped her hand and brought it back up along his inner thigh until she was cupping his masculinity within her hand. Neither Wesley or Rita averted their eyes from each other as she began to roughly fondle and stroke him through his clothing. The sensation caused Wesley to began to involuntary pump his hips forward, thrusting his erection into her hand. Through gritted teeth he groaned as the stimulation suddenly stopped only to be replaced a second later by the feel of her fingers partially undoing his belt.
"Now we'll see if you're all talk in other matters." She said in a low, earthy voice as she drew away from him. With a sultry look she walked across the room and leaned up against the doorjamb.
Wesley began to move toward her in the same manner as he had stalked his prey. "You are quite the cock tease."
"Oh you have not seen 'tease'." Rita whispered. "Stop where you are and come no closer. Show me your control."
With a mixture of suspicion and excitement Wesley stopped and watched as she began to unbutton her blouse revealing an exciting glimpse of the blood red lace which comprised her bra. Her hands then went to her paint splattered jeans and she slowly undid the button fly and slid one hand down to cup her own secrets while the other went upward and disappeared under her blouse.
Wesley did not need to see how she was pleasuring herself beneath her clothing, for he could smell it and taste it in the air. He ran his tongue over his bared fangs and growled in frustration. "I don't believe that I'm going to pass this test."
"Does it hurt?" She taunted.
"Not as much as it will hurt you when I knock you on your arse and take you hard."
"Sounds like fun... do it if you can."
"Bitch!" Wesley snapped as he came across the room and swung her to the floor. In the last split second Rita wound her fingers into his shirt and pulled him down with her, The hit hard in a tangle of savage biting kisses and ripping garments. Each taking, neither giving, each fighting for dominance until both were stripped of only enough clothing to expose their sex. Wesley grabbed her forearms, sank his fangs into her shoulder and leveraged his weight to shove her down under him. He jammed first one knee, then a second between her thighs and forced her legs apart. Rita screeched in anger over being in the subordinate position and brought her own razor sharp incisors into play drawing a skull exposing gash across the side of his head. Wesley released an arm, entwined his fingers in her hair and yanked her face away, he then screamed as her free hand found his cock and left a fivefold bloody scratch from base to head. He lurched upward to his knees pulling her with him by one arm. Rita kept the momentum and digging into his shoulder raised herself up so that her breasts brushed his face. Then in one motion she came back down and impaled herself upon his stone hardness while pushing him backwards.
With this one stoke the erotic mix of pleasure, pain, desire and violence exploded into a blinding orgasm for both. Hands, tongues and flesh collided as they collapsed into a blood smeared heap on the floor.
Rita ran her hand under the tatters of his shirt. "Not bad." She murmured, before standing up. "Not bad at all, you have promise."
Wesley put his hands behind his head and curled his lip into a half smile. "Thank you."
"You are certainly easy to compliment." She answered with her own sneer.
"Oh not for that, I know I'm much better than merely 'not bad'. And I also know very well that I've passed you little tests with flying colors." Wesley countered. "What I meant was 'thank you' for turning me."
Rita could not hide her satisfaction. "Yes Wesley, you did pass. And in celebration let's get cleaned up and acquaint you with the night."
"I think I would like that." He said as he stood. "Not as much as draining my sisters, but it will do."
With a nod of understanding Rita agreed with his want. "The mind always goes to family and friends who still breathe. Give it a few nights, increase your strength and decide who your first strike will be against."
Wesley's mind went to those he had recently stood beside. "Is it possible that my employer knows I have crossed over?" He asked as he followed her out the door. "Did you leave any signs or clues?"
Rita opened her closet and began to choose an outfit. "Nothing but a few drops of blood well mixed with rain."
"That could be bad."
"No way." She disagreed. "A bloodhound would not be able..."
Wesley interrupted her. "But a vampire could smell it and Angel is a vampire.... a vampire with a soul."
Rita arched an eyebrow. "Come again?"
"I would love to, but you said we are going out." Wesley quipped. As his mistress's mood darkened he waved his hand in a "calm down" motion. "Sorry, could not resist. While you get cleaned up let me entertain you with the tale of Sunnydale."
****** "Oh look. They're having a sale on nose rings. What... 'fun'." Cordelia said dryly as she and Angel entered the fifth Goth themed store of the evening.
Angel took her by the arm and led her toward the back of the store. "Right. Let's check out the posters and get out of here."
"Again, 'oh fun'." Cordy sniped. "This is not helping anything. Wesley's not here and none of these tacky posters look like the ones I saw."
"So whatcha lookin' for?"
Angel turned to the clerk. "A certain poster... uh, one with a vampire rising up."
"Cool. We've got a couple like that." Dave said as he went over to the rack and began to leaf through. "Here's one."
Cordelia shook her head.
"How 'bout this one?"
"Yuck."
"Okay... this one?"
Cordelia reached over and tapped it. "No. The moon is wrong. The one's I'm looking for have a little, tiny, fingernail moon."
"Crescent moon." Angel clarified.
Dave rubbed his scraggly goatee. "Like this?"
"Okay... yes there's the crescent moon, but the vampire is 'not' coming up our of the ground." Cordy crossed her arms and glared. "Do you think you can get 'both'?"
"El Eliminati." Angel whispered as he recognized the stance, sword and attire of the creature portrayed.
"Yeah man, that's close. This one's called 'The Eliminator', part of the Warrior series." Dave turned to the next. "Rita does a series every year or so. Six different scenes on a topic, these are from last year. We only have a few left of 'em and maybe one or two from the year before."
"Angel." Cordelia said with annoyance. "This isn't what we're looking for."
"Bear with me, okay?" He muttered to her before turning back to the clerk. "Is there any place where I can see all of these? Any other store that has..."
"Fat chance, buddy." Dave snorted. "Rita only does one printing and when they're gone they're gone. Sorry." He started to walk away then turned back. "But if you want to spend some serious money, I do have a signed 'and' illustrated copy of her artwork book in the back. I paid $400 for it at a si-fi convention, let you have it for six."
Angel gave a nod. "Let's see it first."
"Cool." Dave said with a grin. "Let me go get it."
As the clerk left them Angel and Cordy walked over to the counter. Cordelia let out an exasperated exhale and put her hands on her hips. "Okay, what's going on? We're wasting our time here because if you have not noticed this is not the..."
"I think it is." Angel disagreed. "Listen to me, that poster was of an El Eliminati cult vampire down to the last detail."
"Which meeeans what?"
"If you quit interrupting I'll tell you." Angel grumbled. "Wesley was involved with the fight against the El Eliminati. I'm beginning to think that your vision is about Wesley. That's why I want to take a look at this person's past work, maybe what you saw..."
"Got it!" Cordy piped in. "This Rita whoever draws vampires and she might be drawing one now that knows where Wesley is!"
Angel gave her a faint smile. "Yeah, maybe." He said reassuringly as his mind went to darker scenarios.
"Here it is." Dave said as he reappeared from the hallway. He came up beside them and gently laid the oversized book on the counter. "Oh yeah, and I dug this out too. It's a notice from the distributor that Rita's new series is coming out at the end of next month."
"That's it!" Cordy squealed as she caught sight of line drawing on the brochures' cover. "That's one of the pictures! I mean it's not in color but it's the same thing!"
Outloud Angel read the title. "The Rising Series, by Rita."
"You couldn't have seen this one." Dave countered with a shake of his head. "It ain't out yet."
Angel pulled the book over. "Makes no difference. Do you know where we can find..." His voice left him as the drawing on the inside cover met his eyes. A pen and ink of a woman standing before a window in contemplation of a crescent moon. She was dressed in a plain robe but tied around her waist was an ornate belt of embroidered cloth, the ends of which flowed down to brush the stone floor. Angel ran his fingers down the sash, his eyes seeing not a random pattern but instead reading the runes hidden in the decoration. "Awake, arise, feel, see, become." He mouthed the words twice before saying them out loud.
"Say what?" Dave asked, a little confused. "And by the way, don't mess that up by rubbing it. She drew that in there while we all watched."
"Awake, arise, feel, see, become - that's the ancient calling forth. How would a modern human know that? That's from centuries ago, way before my time!" Angel said incredulously.
"So she's way into this hanging around with vampires? Is that what your saying?" Cordelia asked. "Maybe I should find her, we could exchange tips on how to keep our bosses from bursting into flames whenever we open the drapes."
Dave's eyes darted back and forth between the two as the exchange registered in his mind. He slowly raised his gaze upward to the mirrored ceiling above the counter and.. "Uh, lady... do you know your friend doesn't have a reflection."
"Well Duh!" Cordy answered with a hair flip. "Vampires aren't very big on that whole reflecting thing."
Unconsciously Dave pulled his shirt collar up over his neck. "If he's a vampire, what are you?"
"Cordy demon." Angel answered without a trace of a smile. "They spit acid."
"I don't 'spit'." Cordelia snapped. "You know better than that!"
"And you thought vampires were frightening?" Angel deadpanned. "Now back to business. $600 is a little high, how much would it be to let me borrow this for a few nights? I will bring it back."
By now Dave had backed up hard against the back display case. "Take it! Just take it!"
"Well that's about what we can afford." Cordelia said as she picked the book up and headed out.
"I'll bring it back in a few nights." Angel repeated. "And I owe you one, deal?"
Dave nodded.
Angel stepped away with a simple "Thanks" and began to leave.
"Hey!" Dave called out in a voice that was a little too high. "Before you go... uh.."
"What?"
"Uh.. uh... was this for real, or was I just ripped-off?"
"No, you were not just 'ripped-off'." Angel told him as he came back toward the man. He leaned halfway across the counter and put on his game face. "You were just lucky."
"You just can't resist wigging people out can you?" Cordelia observed as Angel joined her on the sidewalk.
"He asked." Angel said with a shrug. "So I..."
"So you freaked him out. Got it. I heard his office door slam and lock all the way out here!"
Angel opened the car door for her. "I'm going to take you home."
"And where are you going?" She asked as he got in the driver's side.
"First I'm going to patrol around, someone has to know about Wesley. Then at dawn I'm going to start looking through this book and see what I can find out about this Rita." He started the engine looked over at Cordy. "Promise me something."
"Sure, what."
"Until we find out what's happened... don't... ah..." He went silent and stared out he windshield.
Cordelia gave him a couple of seconds then waved her hand toward him. "Hellooooo! Full sentence, okay?"
"If you see Wesley don't invite him in, allow him to get close to you or anything like that until he shows you his cross." Angel turned to her and took her hand. "Promise?"
"So you think...." She began.
"Vampires are involved. Probably a remnant of the El Eliminati and this Rita is in contact with them."
"I don't care about that, you think Wesley's been turned don't you?"
Angel gripped the steering wheel a bit tighter. "Vampires are involved. I just want you to be careful... you know as well as I do that the first place a vampire strikes is among its family and friends."
Cordelia swallowed hard. "I'll be careful, I promise." She pulled her hand away from his. "I'd really like to go home now."