Part Two
"There he is." Rita snorted.
"Yes, the one and only Angel. A total waste of a perfectly good demon." Wesley answered. He glanced up from his book for a moment and gave his head a toss toward the scene. "And the woman is Cordelia, I'd rather not turn her if that's all right with you."
"That is for the best, you should resist the urge to turn a vessel until you have more control." Rita said with approval.
Wesley curled his lip. "Oh this not due to any instintive following of the rules. It's just I would rather not have to listen to her mindless babbling for all eternity. That dear Mistress, would constitute true hell on Earth."
Rita leaned back into the driver's seat and gave Wesley a sidelong glance. Then she turned her attention forward and watched as Angel followed Cordy into her apartment. "Will he stay the night with her?"
"No, that whole brooding for the Slayer, can't risk a good pop, etceteras keeps him chaste." He held the book over to her and tapped on a page. "Here it is, the spell to destroy a soul."
"So you really think they would try to restore you?" She questioned. "I had the feeling that Sunnydale was over the top, but this is ridiculous."
"Oh without a doubt, on both counts." Wesley snotted. "I can guarantee that as soon as my condition becomes common knowledge my former colleagues will be down here posthaste armed with the Orb of Thesulah to make me all better." He chuckled under his breath at the mental image. "I will have to thank that Mr. Giles for being so concise in his additions to the Watcher Diaries. It would have been a shame for me to have been taken off guard."
Rita laughed. "A terrible shame. I like you the way you are."
"So do I." Wesley agreed. "And to think I spent all those years being a... There! He's leaving."
"How much time do we have?"
"If he's going to my flat to check for my reappearance, about twenty minutes. If he's going back to the office we have about fifteen. Either way he will realize the game is afoot when he sees what has been taken from both places." Wesley cast a glance into the backseat. "Reference material, spellbooks, casting supplies and the like, along with the lion's share of my clothing. Not something that a common sneak thief would hook."
Rita got out of the car and stood by the open door waiting on Wesley to exit from his side and come to her. She reached up and pulled his face downward to hers and drew him into an open mouthed kiss. Her tongue flicked over his lips as they parted. "Go now, and bring me back the taste of sweet blood on your lips."
Wesley raised a fingertip and touched his lips, then hers, then left to walk the short block to Cordelia's apartment. As he approached he morphed into vampire and ran his fangs down the side of his arm drawing his own blood which he smeared across the filthy remains of his shirt. Standing on her porch he changed back into mortal mask and considered his ploy. "Oh poor me, poor me, poor me. Oh help me Cordelia for I've been kidnapped and beaten and tortured. Yes that should work." He composed himself and began to beat on the door.
Within the apartment Cordelia startled at the sound. For a heartbeat she hesitated at the doorway between the kitchen and dining room but then she heard it... a familiar voice.
"Cordelia! For the love of God, help me!"
She flung open the door and found Wesley teetering on his feet before her. Before she could say a word he leaned up onto the outside doorframe, clutched his chest and shouted. "They're here.. they followed.. Oh God! Get me a stake.. a weapon... hurry!"
Cordy began the take a step toward Wesley but was suddenly pulled back into the apartment. The door flew out of her hand, slammed and locked. "DENNIS!" She screamed. "HE NEEDS HELP!" She grabbed the doorknob with both hands and began to twist it. "Come on, OPEN IT OR I'LL..."
With a crack a leg snapped off the coffee table and rolled across the room coming to a stop at Cordy's feet.
Outside Wesley smashed his fist against the door. "GOD DAMN YOU CORDELIA! OPEN THE DOOR!"
Cordelia froze. The voice was Wesley, but she had never hear that tone before. Fearfully her eyes darted between the door and the improvised stake at her feet. "Dennis, are you trying to tell me something?" She picked up the stake and put her hand back on the knob. "Okay Dennis, I'm not inviting him in and I'm not going out there until we see for sure, okay?"
The force holding the door shut vanished, Cordelia swung it open and held her weapon up. "Run this by me again. You want me to what? And by the way, I don't like being cussed at."
"Is that all you have? Give it to me.. hurry!" Wesley barked as he held his hand out.
"Don't yell at me!" She barked right back. "So where are these guys that are chasing you? There's nobody chasing you, is there? Phantom Dennis knew it because if there really was someone chasing you he would have let me let you in but he didn't want you to come in and..." Cordelia's throat suddenly went dry as she felt the cold hate emitting from Wesley's eyes stab into her.
"Congratulations, you're not as stupid as I believed."
Cordelia dropped the stake as Wesley morphed before her. "Oh...n-n-nooooo."
"Oh yes." Wesley corrected. "And since you will not let me in to kill you, perhaps you would take Angel a message for me? " He paused and chuckled at the stunned figure before him. "Tell him that soul or not, he is an idiot to give up the pleasure of the kill."
Cordelia began to shake and again Dennis slammed the door in Wesley's face.
****** Rupert involuntarily gasped in shock at the sight coming toward him. Cordelia Chase, sans makeup, her hair pulled back into a careless ponytail and her eyes red from crying came running from her desk and wrapped her arms around him.
"Oh Giles! It's awful! I'm so glad you're here! I can't take this!"
"Yes, yes... I know." He murmured as he returned the hug. "I came as soon as possible."
"First Doyle has to go be a hero and die, now Wesley had to go after a vampire and die!" She sobbed. "Why can't people just not do that? I can't take anymore of this get noble and die!"
Giles felt her shudder within his arms as she pulled away. Something in Cordelia's eyes reminded him of a cornered gazelle... she was scared. Cordelia was scared halfway out of her mind. "Cordelia? Did he harm you? The truth.. I need to know the truth."
"He tried to lure her outside."
"Angel." Giles said with a nod, greeting the vampire as he came out of his office.
"He said he wants to kill me, so now I have this whole undead stalker thing going. And his eyes.. his eyes were... j-just... and he said that Angel was an idiot." Cordy crossed her arms and shivered as if the room temperature had just dropped twenty degrees. "I called Angel right away but he couldn't find him."
"Have you uncovered anything else?" Giles asked them.
Angel crossed the room and relocked the front door. "Maybe, mostly speculation but I might have something. Come on in the office and I'll show you."
With Rupert escorting Cordelia the three entered the ajoining room and seated themselves around the vampire's desk. Angel began to shuffle some papers. "Ah, is... is anyone else coming down?"
"No." Giles said a bit too quickly. "Just me. Everyone else has been warned of Wesley's turning and if he is sighted in Sunnydale his appearance will be dealt with appropriately." He placed a canvas sack on the desk and unzipped the top. "Hopefully, it will not come to that."
Giles dug around and removed two books and a small wooden box and laid them on the desk. "I brought the Orb of Thesulah."
"You're going to change him back?!" Cordy shouted. "Oh that's great! Of course that means they'll be two gloomy vampires hanging around but at least I won't be a blood lite."
"Yeah, that's great." Angel said without conviction.
Giles peered over his glasses. "I take it you don't care much for this plan?"
Angel looked away.
"Do you have a better..."
"We only have two options: one - give him his soul back, or two - hunt him down and stake him." Angel interrupted. "I know that.. but.."
"But you disagree with both.. I see." Giles said with obvious annoyance. "Well then we will just have to sit here and do nothing until we think of something that meets your specifications."
Angel leaned over the desk and met Rupert's dark stare. "I don't disagree with the option of hunting him down. Like I said on the phone, even though his first attack was on Cordelia 'we' would make better bait. All we have to do is wait on him to make a move."
"And while we wait... innocence people will die." Rupert tapped the Orb. "Much better for him to be reunited with his soul as quickly as possible. Then he will return as a remorseful penitent, not as a monster." He narrowed his eyes as a thought hit him. "Why don't you want him restored? Some personal reason? Jealousy perhaps? Or is the cold, hard fact that you cannot face spending eternity in the company of yet another person you have damned to the pit?"
"That's uncalled for." Angel growled through gritted teeth.
"Then answer me. Why don't you want to try this?"
Angel picked up the Orb and stared into its depths. Okay, we give him his soul. Just tell me what happens in a hundred years when the spell is broken and a century's worth of suppressed demon is unleashed?"
Rupert's voice became pure ice. "Oh let's see.. I think I know the answer to this one."
Cordelia slammed her palm down on the desk. "STOP IT! Just stop it right now and check out the big picture! He wants to kill ME! ME! And then I'll be Cordelia Chase, creature of the night!"
An oddly terrifying mental image of Cordelia as a vampire blossomed in both men's brains. Angel reluctantly handed the Orb of Thesulah back to Giles. "Let's do it your way. Then we can root out whoever sired him."
Giles carefully centered the stone before himself. "Do you know who did this?"
"I know who does." Angel answered with a glance toward Rita's book. "All I have to do is find her."
****** Wesley awoke to the sound of a door shutting. Even though it had not been slammed in anger the noise still jarred his brain into a state of awareness. He sat up in the bed and scanned the studio, wondering why he was alone in what he instinctively knew was mid-morning. "Where in the hell did she go?" He muttered as his eyes took a second sweep around the room and came to rest on the empty easel. At this he relaxed. "Oh yes, they were coming for that horrid picture today."
He lay back down, stretched out and shut his eyes, enjoying the feel of the silk sheets caressing his naked body. A smile appeared on his face as he tested his heightened senses. Like the predator he had become he sniffed the air analyzing the dominant scents which filled the room; paint and charred magics, blood and sex. He pulled a double handfull of sheet up to his nose and inhaled deeply. In delight he licked his lips upon the discovery that he could taste as well as smell the odors of their actions. Exciting, so very exciting. His hand curled around his hardening cock and he roughly pumped himself into a full erection while replaying in his mind the violent couplings of the pre-dawn hours.
Without warning his enjoyment was shattered by a sharp stab of pain.
Snarling he grabbed his chest and lurched out of the bed. He drew in a hissing breath and with venomous hate spit it back out. "You BASTARD!" A second spearing pain seemed to tear him apart. He landed on his knees and screeched. "FUCK YOU GILES! Rip me open all you want but the soul WILL NOT come back because it is no more!" With a demon born roar he sliced his palm with his fangs and held it up as if for Rupert to witness. "See this?" Wesley hissed as he turned his hand to allow a stream of black blood to flow from the gash. "You will taste this! I swear on all that is unholy... you are mine!"
Shaking with rage Wesley stood and braced himself for the third blow to his being. It hit with an agony that was square the other two combined as the sorcery opened his essence to receive the blessing of a soul. But what came was not a psyche of light and moral conscience. Instead the demon within reached out and brought in a shade fully vested in the treacherous cunning which lies within the mortal race.
Wesley felt it come, he welcomed it, he worshipped it, he embraced it. And in turn it embraced him sending him face down onto the floor in a convulsive blackout.
He lay there drifting in and out of consciousness as this new demon settled into place inside him. As the pain lessened Wesley rolled over onto his back and stared at the ceiling while cautiously searching within himself for any sign of human compassion. Finding not the first iota of remorse or contrition he drew in a long hissing breath. "Mr. Giles..." He whispered to the empty room. "...I do believe you have just made an extremely serious mistake."
Rita signed the check and handed it back to the courier. "Tell Mr. Wolfram that I want this deposited in the usual manner and that I would like to re-negotiate the details of the printing and distribution of my next series."
"Yes Ma'am. And he asked me to give you this." He held out an unmarked white envelope which Rita accepted. She tore it open and read the small handwritten note:
---------------------------------------------- Mistress Rita,
At four this morning a man claiming to be interested in your services appeared at Westfall Distributing. Our security man identified him as a fellow vampire and from the general description we believe that he is same one who has caused some recent difficulty. In his possession was one of the brochures which announced the coming release of "The Rising" series. Perhaps you should consider taking your trip a few weeks early, for we do not want to risk losing your experience or services. Please contact me if you wish to make arrangements.
Sincerely,
Karl Wolfram
---------------------------------------------- "Interesting." She commented outloud.
"Do you need me to take another message back?"
"No, that is all." Rita answered. "Just deliver "Rising VI"... without banging up the edge this time I might add." She stopped and gave the courier a hard look.
The human lackey fidgeted with his shirt collar. "You have my word, and by the way the guy that dropped the last one is no longer with us."
Rita dismissed him with a wave of her hand and leaned against the lobby wall to watch until the truck was loaded. As they pulled away she went to the service elevator and returned to her basement lair. She felt the charge in the air as soon as she opened the door - magic had entered this place. Wesley stood naked at her drawing board leafing through her sketchpad. She closed the door, seated herself on the stool beside him and waited on him to speak.
"When did you draw these?"
"Yesterday, while waiting on you to rise and this morning before the courier arrived."
Wesley paged back through offering a short commentary on each portrait. "My angst ridden death in the rain, my angry rising and here a bit of erotica that captures our first 'moment'." He stepped away from the board and posed. "Would you like to do a classical nude?"
The tip of her tongue swept across her upper lip as she appraised his form. "Yes I would, but not at the moment. Right now I'd like you to tell me what happened."
"They tried... they failed."
"I can see that. Your hunger is obvious."
Wesley shook his head. "Not really. I completely drained that sniveling..."
"Not for blood." Rita corrected. "You are hungry for it all. I can feel that in you. You want it all and you want it now."
"So?" He growled. "Isn't that the name of the game?" He tilted his head back and hissed. "And tonight I'm going to find my old compatriot Giles and drain him so nicely that he wrinkles up half size."
"Control."
The one word command came so softly that Wesley dismissed it as nonsense. "I 'am' in control and I don't need your advice."
Rita picked up a charcoal pencil and began to sketch as she slowly and deliberately laid out a warning. "Control, you have the seeds of it, but not the ability. Last night's rage proves that."
"Yes, it made me angry that she would not leave her threshold." Wesley said in rising ire. "If it wasn't for that damned ghost I would have broken that bitch's neck!"
"Let me ask you a question. How many of our kind kissed the stake because they succumbed to an ego driven desire to beat the Slayer?"
"Too many to count." Wesley shot back. "Get on with your lecture Mistress and if you would be so kind, please say it without the riddles."
"Do you know what our power is? Time. We have 'time'. Use it." Rita glanced up from her sketchpad. "End of lecture. Any questions?"
Wesley stood there in silence as all snide comments faded from his lips. After a few minutes consideration, he came over to her and sat down on an adjoining stool. "I know one is not suppose to ask this question of a lady, but... how old are you?"
"I don't know exactly." Rita answered. "Let's just say I've been around for a long, long time. I remember many things, like 1066, the year of the comet." She quit her drawing as a faraway look crossed her face. "It was a beautiful sight as it lit up the night. I heard that people could even see it during the daytime." She shrugged and went back to her portrait of Wesley. "But I had to take that story on face value."
Wesley's curiosity was tweaked. "So you are at least 934."
"Much, much more than that. I was turned not long after the Romans came. I've though about it and as near as I can figure I was turned in the Winter of approximately the year 180." She paused for a second and smiled. "180... B.C.E."
"Old One." Wesley said under his breath. He felt like he should be offering a tribute for there were only a scattering of vampires who survived the purges of the mid to late middle ages, and even fewer made it through the age of discovery. "How? How did you.."
"Control." She answered harshly. "Haven't you been listening to me? Or are you going to be like the others and be destroyed within a decade because you act like a 'fucking idiot'?"
Wesley flinched as his ego yelped. "But the others did not have my training, I do know what I'm doing and gives me a leg up in this game."
"And the same thing can be said of your enemy. Reel in the revenge because they know you're coming and they 'will' be ready." She went back to her drawing. "It's something that the newly turned always wants, to drink the blood of those who 'morn' us. My own brother turned me and I eventually turned my husband as punishment because he did not keep me safe."
"So you know the lust for revenge." Wesley said as a statement.
"There is a difference between hunting down a farmer and hunting down a Watcher." She pointed out. "I stalked you for a month before I made my move. Waited and watched. I let you come to me instead of forcing you into whatever plan I could cook up."
Wesley slightly bowed his head. "Teach me, Mistress."
"You want to be my acolyte? Fine with me." She chuckled darkly. "Just keep this hunger!" She turned the drawing toward him.
Wesley raised his head and stared at his likeness on the page. A simple portrait in charcoal showing him from shoulders up with the first two buttons of a dress shirt undone. With one hand he held the earpiece of his glasses up to his lips which held the barest trace of a smile. At first glance it seemed to be a conventional portrait, but upon further study something far more than a simple representation of his features came forth from the paper, for Rita had captured the demon within. Though the features were pure human, in the eyes could be seen a warning that there was no soul in this man and in the faint smile was the message "beware".
"Is that my expression?" Wesley asked softly. "If so, I am quite unnerving."
"Some people would say that, but I think you're beautiful." Came the whispered response. She laid the pad down, picked up an exacto knife and made a small slice on the tip of her finger. As a bead of blood welled out of the cut she reached over and brought it to his lips. With a shudder he kissed the drop off and then took her hand and held it to his mouth softly running his tongue over the tip of her fingers as he coaxed another drop of blood from the wound. Rita allowed him this pleasure then pulled her hand back and around to cup his jaw and cheek. "Now go." She told him in a low voice. "Shower... dress... return to me and we will begin."
As Wesley left the room she picked up her phone and dialed her old friend Karl Wolfram. "Karl dear, I got your note and I know what's going on."
Across town Karl's face went into a frown. "Which is?"
"I took one of their own. Bad Rita, going around turning Watchers into kinsmen."
"Congratulations Mistress!" Karl said with sincerity. "But now it is imperative that you.."
Rita cut him off with a laugh. "Oh I know, they are a little upset at me. So, I think you are right about it being for the best that I take my vacation early. Would you arrange for my belongings to be put into storage and find passage for two to Spain? Myself and our new clansman, Wesley, who by the way will need the usual paperwork."
Karl picked up a pen. "Ship?"
"Of course. I would like to leave as soon as possible. We have a few loose ends to tie up, but we will be finished by sunrise."
"Very good." Karl told her. "Just be careful Mistress. This troublemaker and his cohorts are not to be underestimated."
"Oh I know that. I've been told about him and have no intention of going head to head. Fix it so that he finds this place after we have gone."
Karl smiled. "Then we will exterminate him."
"Oh don't do that. Between the message my new acolyte will give him tonight and the gift that I will leave for him to find here - his torture will be pure hell." Rita paused to gaze at the drawing of Wesley. "Believe me Karl, it's much better to end this one my way."
"As you wish." Karl said with a shrug. "You do have a knack for toying with them."
"I've had a lot of practice and I have the feeling that Wesley will be a quick study. I guarantee you Karl that within a year we will have this disgrace to our kind so upset that he will probably walk out into the sun just to end his pain." She laughed under her breath. "Call me when you have the arrangements made. Good-bye."
"I'm on it as we speak. Good-bye Mistress Rita." Karl hung up and sat beck with an approving nod. "I would not want to be in that Angel's shoes."
****** "I... I?" Rupert frowned. "Is it 'I' or does that mean 'my'.... could possibly... depends on the context. Blast, I need my copy of 'Lost Voices'." He pushed the book back an inch and began to clean his glasses as if the invisible speck on one of the lenses was blocking his divination of the runes. There was something bothersome in this artwork that he could not put his finger on. Angel had pointed out the "calling forth" text, the verbatim illustration of the El Eliminati cultist and the precise rendering of Baal's sword in the hands of another vampire soldier. In one way or another he had found in the ten years worth of artwork and the additional drawing, sixty-one scenes with sixty-one unsettling hints.
But the one that bothered Rupert the most was this one - "The Sires, II" Astride a horse a male vampire attired as a Moorish soldier, on the ground before him a woman stood with one hand on her breast and the other raised in as if in supplication. At first Giles had read this image as that of a female victim submitting to her sire but then he had looked closer. Her body posture was not one of subservience, in matter of fact it seemed as if she was biding him farewell. Beside her an overturned chest spilled out its contents one of which was a parchment scroll and this had caught his attention.
Rupert replaced the glasses on his nose, picked up a magnifying glass and reexamined the scroll. "I am.. I may? My sight... sight or does it mean 'visions'?" He ran the glass upward to the face of the male vampire. Angel had pointed out that this was one of only two true representations of a vampire in the entire book and had speculated that it was a portrait. Rupert gave the image a second study and snorted. "Well, you are an evil looking bastard. But that goes without saying." He focused in on the expression. "You do not seem upset at whatever it is she is telling you. In matter of fact you seem quite pleased at.."
"Well Giles, it just got worse."
"Oh joy." Giles deadpanned peering over the top of his glasses at Angel. The vampire passed by the kitchen alcove and went straight to his weapons collection. "Cordelia is safe with Kate for the night.... but I had to play quid pro quo thanks to Wesley's message." Angel chose a sword from the wall and brought it over to the table, sliding it toward Rupert. "I had to tell Kate everything that's happened; about Wesley's turning, the El Eliminati, the missing spellbooks." He shook his head grimly. "Then she told me that a body was found this morning over at the beach, drained of blood. She showed me a copy of the victim's picture.. Giles, Wesley's a 'J' cutter and he's taken a page from my book by marking the face."
"Are you sure it was Wesley who did this?"
"Oh yeah... the symbol on his cheek was the 'angel' logo that Cordelia designed." Angel said as he went back to choose a crossbow. "But him being a 'J' will give us the edge. I know how we can lure him in."
"He'll be out of control." Giles surmised. "You're thinking about a blood trail?"
Angel sighted down the crossbow. "Straight to us, I stopped at the butcher's and got a half gallon of fresh blood. That should make him crazy. Then we can find this Rita and stop her from dealing with vampires before it's too late."
"I believe that it is too late for that, much too late." Rupert said as he pushed the art book toward Angel. "Can you read the inscription on the parchment? Without my references I'm a little rusty."
"What parchment?" Angel asked. Rupert handed him the magnifying glass and pointed at the scroll. "Oh..." The vampire muttered. "Let me look..it says.. uh... 'I am your escort."
Rupert arched an eyebrow. "Interesting."
"So are the rest of the items in this treasure chest. "A cross wrapped up in cloth and an hourglass..." Angel picked up the book and held it in better light. "...a talisman of some kind in the shape of a crescent moon, lamp, paintbrushes." He shrugged. "I noticed the chest but didn't examine it closely because this vampire caught my attention."
"A shrouded cross." Rupert whispered to himself, then asked Angel for a secondary translation. "I am your escort... escort, or could the word be 'guide'?"
"It could be..." Angel stopped and stared at Rupert. "...guide. A cross bound and hidden. Sign of a vampire sired before the Christian Era." He slowly lowered the book. "An Old One, a Guide.. here in LA? That's bad, real bad. We have to find this Rita and warn her. A Guide? Damn. I just can't believe it.. there's only three of these guys."
"Two are male, one is female." Rupert corrected. "Things are beginning to fall into place. The bound cross says 'I am an Old One', same with the hourglass. The words on the parchment are a blazing confession of her station and the paintbrushes allude to her profession. Without question, Rita is a Guide."
Angel sat down and wordlessly nodded his agreement.
Giles ran his finger down Angel's handwritten notes. "In retrospect almost everything you found 'odd' in that book confirms this." He looked across the table at Angel's thousand-yard stare. "Angel, will your vampire nature allow you to face a Old One?"
"No problem."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. Don't worry about it, that whole 'Old One' and 'Guide' scenario doesn't hold much value with me." Angel said quietly. "She has to be destroyed. And if she is a Guide she knows every vamp for a hundred miles so before I stake her, I guarantee she 'will' tell us where the El Eliminati remnants are holed up."
Rupert removed his glasses and laid them on the table. "Guides are the hellish mirror reverse of a Holy Saint. In addition to their store of knowledge and base evil, they are protected and revered by the entire vampire realm." He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I understand your lack of respect for their station but Angel, if you merely cross, let alone destroy this creature you are doomed. The price that will be put upon your head will.."
"I already have a price on my head, so what's one more?" Angel snorted as he picked up the blackened and cracked Orb of Thesulah. "But first things first Giles, we have to get Wesley off the streets and out of the service of those Duelists vampires."
"That 'creature' is not Wesley. Wesley is dead." Rupert said as he stood and removed his jacket from the back of the chair.
Angel held the Orb up to his face and gazed into the ruins. "And he wants to stay that way."
Giles adjusted his jacket and picked up the sword. "Well, shall we go and grant his wish?"
****** Wesley's voice was dripping in sarcasm. "Well, imagine my surprise."
The guard continued to shake his head as he viewed the monitor. "Straight up the side of the building. Who's he think he is 'Spidervamp'?"
"Oh, Stephen... only God knows what he thinks his calling is. A knight errant, a dark champion of the oppressed, a shining light in the darkness, a.."
"Pain in the ass." The guard snorted.
"Well, that also." Wesley laughed. He slid his chair over and tapped another monitor. "And speaking of the same, it seems my old friend is going to stay outside and keep the car at ready for a 'fast getaway'."
Stephen's face curled into a vampire sneer. "I still think we should just kill them both."
"Are you second-guessing Mistress Rita?" Wesley coolly asked, enjoying the semi-panicked look that this question produced in the other vampire.
"No way... Mistress was right that they would come back here."
Wesley stood and smoothed his coat. "I'm going to be on my way. Remember your orders my good man. Keep your men away from Angel until he finds Mistress Rita's information then put on a good show."
"Don't worry." Stephen muttered. He turned back to the security screens and with the click of a button froze one of the views. "Your prey is parked in the alley on the East side. If it goes sour you can get away from him by going toward the back of the building, over the fence and down to the tracks. You can make it over the fence, but the human won't be able to because of the razor wire. Then head West.. there's an utility tunnel about fifty yards away where you can stop and heal. Good luck."
"Thank you for your council but 'Luck' has nothing to do with it." Wesley arrogantly responded.
Stephen curled a corner of his mouth. "Whatever. Okay, Angel is coming through a window on the fifth floor.... that means 'you're on'." The guard waited for a response then turned around in his seat to repeat himself, but Wesley had already vanished without a sound.
Giles backed the car up against a towering stack of shipping containers, turned off the headlights and waited. Biting his lip he thought back over the previous eight hours. They had set a trap in a small basketball court a block from where Wesley had been taken but nothing had appeared. Rupert shifted in his seat a bit as he mentally corrected that last thought. Nothing had been drawn to the blood bait except a series of rats masquerading as ponies. "Nasty buggers." He muttered. "Never seen anything that vile."
So they had called the stakeout a bust for the evening. In all likelihood Wesley's El Eliminati sire was keeping him under control for this night. Rupert rubbed his chin and checked the time. "Well 4:00 is gone."
"Time flies does it not?" Wesley deadpanned as he landed in the backseat of the convertible. Within a flash the vampire reached forward and wound his fingers into Rupert's shirt and jacket collar and pulled him back, hard up against the driver's seat. Giles grabbed the sword at his side and made a blind stab toward his antagonist.
"That was not polite!" Wesley hissed as he dodged the strike and caught Rupert's wrist in an iron grip. "Let go, Mr. Giles." He said in an even tone as he began to twist Rupert's wrist in ways that the body does not move. Giles pulled against the pressure Wesley was applying to his neck and wrist, wheezing as his air dwindled from the tightening stranglehold of his own clothing. His free hand went to a bottle of Holy Water in his pocket and with his own choking hiss he opened it and doused the hand at his neck.
Wesley howled as the Sacramental raised smoking blisters across his hand. In the confinement of the front seat Giles whirled around to splash the remaining water onto his pinned sword hand. Wesley saw it coming and with his blistered hand he grabbed for the sword while with his other hand he twisted. The sound of Rupert's wrist breaking combined with human scream and vampire laugh into a macabre concerto from hell.
On his knees in the front seat Rupert swung the bottle in an arc to splatter it into Wesley's face. His motion came to a screeching halt as the tip of the sword came to rest above his Adam's apple. From the back seat Wesley glared at him in warning. "Yes Mr. Giles, that will burn me, but I will heal in no time. You on the other hand, will have the much more difficult task of replacing your head." He pressed the tip into Rupert's throat, opening a small slit in the skin. "This is what you could call a classic standoff, wouldn't you say?"
Wesley smiled at having the upper hand. "So how have you been Mr. Giles? Still watching over Buffy? How is she? Not that I miss the little bitch, but I have to ask just to be polite."
Except for his ragged breathing, Rupert was silent.
"Oh, yes.. I forgot." Wesley chuckled. "It is imperative that you do not allow yourself to be drawn into a conversation with your undead foe. For this will give it the advantage of distracting you from your goal. You must remain focused if you ever find yourself in a perilous situation, for that will save you." His features morphed back into human. "Don't fret Mr. Giles, you are not in any danger. Well not at the moment, for this is just that part of the game where I inform you of my plan. Would you care to hear it?"
"Sod off."
Wesley gasped in mock amazement. "Oh my! You spoke.. spoke to a vampire! But why am I so shocked? I knew from the beginning that you did not give a fig for the wisdom imparted upon us during training.
Rupert tensed and prepared himself to make his move. Wesley was enjoying being in control and sooner or later he would relax his guard enough for Rupert to knock the sword away. He pulled back a fraction of an inch from the sword, masking his motion by laying his broken wrist on the seatback.
"Wager that smarts." Wesley sniped with a nod toward the injury. "So back to the topic at hand. I'll make it fast so you can get that tended to. Like I said you are not in any danger... tonight. Unless of course you act like a jackass, then I will have to kill you. Since a word to the wise is sufficient, let's be civilized about this." Wesley said as he quickly pulled the sword away from Rupert's throat and held it just so, so out of reach of the human.
Giles felt a chill. The pain from his shattered wrist was making him nauseous and his only defense was a third of a bottle of Holy Water. He was expecting to face a half-unhinged Wesley, not this cool incarnation of evil.
"Simply stated my goal is to cause so much unbearable pain and suffering to be heaped upon Buffy and Angel that they commit suicide." Wesley said as if he was commenting on the weather. "A perfect scenario would be that they do it with mutual agreement in fulfillment of an angst ridden pact, but I will take what I can get. Now I know you are wondering, 'what would spur them into such a terrible act of self destruction?'. My theory is that both will not be able to deal with the unfortunate events which are about to transpire. Firstly; Xander, Oz and Cordelia will die before their time. How tragic. I'm not going to turn them.. just break their necks for the pleasure of hearing that snapping sound. I might allow myself a quick bite as they flop around, but that is yet to be seen. That will be the opening number. Then on to act two."
Wesley sat back and put on his game face. He ran his tongue over his fangs and snapped into the air to announce his intentions. Then with one word he divulged his mark. "Willow."
Rupert's temper hit flashpoint. He flung himself toward the smirking evil in the backseat. Wesley came up and met him halfway with a headbutt that knocked Rupert half senseless. Reeling he regained his footing but not before Wesley leaped clear of the confines of the car. The vampire stood by the driver's door and bared his fangs in threat. "That was stupid, Mr. Giles. Are you trying to make me kill you tonight?" Giles made a lunge for the crossbow on the floorboard and brought it up in a one handed aim toward Wesley.
As he fired the bolt Wesley dropped and screamed. The vampire came back to his feet, dark dead blood staining his coat inches above his nonbeating heart. Rupert jumped from passenger side and jammed the crossbow between his body and the door as he fumbled to load a second bolt.
"You have just upped the stakes Mr. Giles." Wesley snarled. "When I sire Willow, you will watch. And then I will violate her body in every way I can imagine, and believe me Mr. Giles, I can imagine some very creative fucking. And when I tire of her, you will be next in line. Mark my words."
Rupert swore in frustration, the bolt clicked into place, he raised the weapon... gone. Wesley was gone. Sweat poured down his face as he ran into the alleyway trying to discern which way the vampire had went. A slamming door and running footsteps echoed down the alley. Rupert whirled toward the sound and fired.
A security alarm blared drowning out Angel's shouted profanity as he hit the dirt. Angel scrambled back to his feet and took in the sight of Giles reeling on his feet. "Get in! Hurry!"
"He was here... he's going to..."
"I've figured it out Giles." Angel barked. "We have to go! NOW!"
Giles staggered back to the passenger door and fell in. "Be careful, there's Holy Water splashed all over."
Angel tossed the car into drive and floored it. "How bad are you hurt?"
"Wrist is broken... but I bloodied him... the bastard is..." Rupert grimaced as Angel took a corner with a lurch. "Slow down a bit. That was painful to the point of passing out." He leaned back and cradled his arm. "Did you find anything?"
"Got her address, It was in some paperwork about her paintings. I lucked out, found it in the second file cabinet. Then I got company." Angel glanced over at Giles. "I'm getting you to the hospital. Then I'm going to wait until sunrise and go visit Rita."
"By then she should be bedded down for the day. But wait for me, I'm going too."
"I don't think you're in any shape to..."
"I'M GOING!"