“Cordelia?” Wesley asked, sitting next to her. “Are you okay?”
“Headache.”
“Vision headache?”
Cordelia looked at Wesley and shrugged nervously. “Actually, since getting out of the coma, I can’t remember having a vision. I wonder if . . .”
“If they’re gone.”
Cordelia put her head on Wesley’s shoulder and began crying. Wes put his arm around her shoulders.
“Shhh. Cordelia, it’s okay. You helped so many people with your abilities. And if those abilities are gone, you’ll still be able to help. Gunn and I don’t have any extraordinary abilities. Yet, and I hope I don’t sound conceded, we’ve both been able to add substantially to the mission.”
Cordelia smiled and gave Wes a kiss on the cheek. “You’re sweet.”
“Perhaps if you’re uncertain about your purpose at the moment, you should see Lorne.”
“Which would help make sure I don’t have any evil hitchhikers this time, too.”
Wesley laughed. “Well, yes, I can’t say that wasn’t an ulterior motive.”
“Fair enough. I’ll go see our resident soul doctor.”
*
Connor moved slowly. His lips locked with Eve’s, his hips sliding softly and gently to meet hers. His tongue probed her warm mouth. Her thinner, more feminine tongue licked at his as she moaned.
Connor moved a hand form her hip to her breast. He touched it gently, then squeezed, pushing it upward. He lowered his head and licked at her nipple. She moaned and arched her back. Connor broke his mouth away and moaned himself, pleasure overwhelming his body. He moved his hips more urgently and she wrapped her arms around him.
“Oh, god, Connor, yes. Yes.”
Connor moaned loudly and collapsed on top of her. He kissed her shoulder. “There. What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing.” Eve kissed Connor deeply. “It’s a nice change of pace.”
“Why’s it have to be a change of pace? I thought maybe this could be our regular thing.”
Eve slid out from under Connor and sat up. Connor sat up next to her, pulling Eve’s silk sheets around his naked bottom. Eve, on the other hand, made no effort to cover her nudity.
“I told you before, Connor. I like a more adult relationship.”
“And what we just did was kiddie stuff?”
“You probably did that in high school, didn’t you?”
Connor rolled his eyes and nodded. “A little.”
“But with me, you’ve done things you’ve never done before. Haven’t you?”
Connor ran his hand gently over the black and blue marks on Eve’s back. “You have bruises.”
“Do I?” She sounded happy, almost proud. “Wicked.” She kissed Connor deeply and began pulling the sheet away. “Get rid of this thing.”
“But I’m naked.”
“I like you naked.” She ripped the sheet away and pushed Connor on his back. “Don’t move. Just lay there. I want to look at you.”
“This feels weird.”
“You can shower naked in front of all those other guys, but you don’t want a girl to look at you? Sounds gay to me.”
Connor laughed. Eve reached down and touched his somewhat hard member. She licked her hand and slid it under his balls, massaging him.
“I don’t know if I have time for this, baby,” Connor said, glancing at the clock. “Practice starts in an hour.”
Eve lowered her head and licked up the length of his prick. “You’re leading the league in assists. I’m sure they’ll wait for you.”
Connor slowly pushed Eve away. “It kills me to do this. Seriously. But if I want to keep leading the league in assists, I have to not be benched which means I have to make practice on time. But we can mess around in the shower if you want.”
“Ohhhh,” Eve said, rubbing his thigh and licking her lips. “I definitely want.”
*
“Yo chief,” Gunn said as he caught up to Angel. “Fred’s done like a statistical analysis thing and come up with a likely location for that urn we been looking for.”
“I think maybe we should handle this ourselves.”
“I think maybe you’re right,” Gunn concurred. “Can’t tell you how happy I am to hear you say that. Got a car waiting.”
*
“Connor!” The word had slipped out before she realized she shouldn’t have said it. It was just a surprise. Despite having been back close to a month, Cordelia still hadn’t seen him in the flesh.
Part of Cordelia wondered if the boy she saw on television and on magazine covers wasn’t some kind of golem created by Wolfram & Hart to placate Angel. But she’d felt Connor before she’d even seen him. It was the sense of his presence that made her turn and see the skinny boy with wet hair and a tote bag heading for the exit.
Connor turned and looked at Cordelia. She almost cried. She wanted to cry from sadness that he had no spark of recognition whatsoever in his eyes. And she wanted to cry from happiness. As Angel had said, he looked so well adjusted. The fire and anger and pain were gone. Even before Jasmine, Connor had always had that look of perpetual sorrow and torment in his eyes. It was so odd to see him without it.
“Hi,” Cordelia said.
“Hey. Let me guess. Hockey fan.”
“Not really. I have friends who work for Wolfram & Hart. I was just visiting one. Lorne.”
“Yeah. Right. Lorne. Tell me, what’s the deal with that green makeup?”
Cordy laughed. “I thought you had an apartment across town. Closer to the arena.”
“Oh, I do. I was just visiting a friend, too.”
Cordy smiled knowingly. “And during the visit you needed to take a shower.”
Connor laughed nervously, feeling stupid at getting caught in so bad a lie. “Look, don’t tell anyone. The press is going all crazy trying to figure out who my girlfriend is for some reason. There was even a rumor in a magazine I was dating Brittney Spears.”
Cordy laughed. “She’s so not your type.”
“Exactly! Wait. How would you even know that?”
“Lorne talks about you.” Cordy laughed nervously. It was a laugh to keep herself from crying. God it was good to see him. It was good to see him happy. She knew that the mind-wipe spell was wrong. She knew that boy she once knew deserved to live his life; deserved saving. But meeting this cute, charming, well-adjusted boy, Cordelia understood Angel’s dilemma. In a way, he too deserved his existence. The loss of him would be sad for the world. But in the end, his existence was unnatural.
Cordelia felt hypocritical talking to him when, in the back of her mind, her goal was to undo his very existence. But it was nice to see him again anyway.
“Look,” Connor interrupted her reverie. “I have to get to practice. But let Lorne know if you want any autographs or anything from me. Anything for a friend of his.”
“Thanks.” Cordelia’s voice was flat. It wasn’t until he left that she’d thought to ask him who exactly his girlfriend was.
A moment later, Cordelia knocked on Lorne’s door.
“Hey sugar!” Lorne hugged Cordelia tightly. “Sorry I haven’t been spending enough time with you. Come on in.” Lorne lead the way to his living room. “You know, you’ve always had a lot of style. Maybe you ought to join me in the Entertainment division.”
“I don’t think so. No offence, but I kind of think you’re all idiots for taking Wolfram & Hart’s offer.”
Lorne sat down uncomfortably. He couldn’t really argue with Cordy. Deep down, he thought she was right. “I guess that’s enough chit chat, then. Why don’t we get you singing, girl?”
After a brief but heartfelt rendition of Whitney Huston’s “The Greatest Love of All,” Lorne stood and began pacing.
“What is it? Am I evil?”
“No, no, sweet cheeks. You’re our Cordy. No doubts or reservations.”
“Lorne, what’s wrong?”
“Ever since I got here, to Wolfram & Hart, I’ve had a feeling that something isn’t right.”
“Duh. You’re working for the enemy.”
“No, not that. Well, yeah. That, too. But something different. Like I’m not me.” Lorne gave a forced laugh. “Maybe you should be the one doing my reading.”
“Tell me about the feeling, Lorne.”
“It’s nothing, sweetie. Probably just a result of the brain drain.”
“From when you got your memory sucked? That was almost a year ago.”
“More like a month. At my Halloween party, someone did it to me again. I don’t remember who.”
“Why?”
“How do I know? Fred says I was listening to people sing karaoke before it happened.”
“Then maybe someone didn’t want you remembering whatever you read. Who was singing when it happened?”
“That’s the thing. It wasn’t anyone special. Just a client of mine from the sports division.”
“Who?” Cordelia asked, despite already knowing the answer. She asked mostly because she wanted to follow through on her playing dumb, but partly because she hoped she wasn’t right.
“A hockey player. Connor Reilly.”
Cordelia gritted her teeth angrily.
*
“Are you going to be able to go in?” Gunn asked Angel.
“As long as the guy doesn’t have a host, I should be fine.”
“A host? Like Lorne?”
“No. A host is someone demons use; a human who technically owns their residence so vampires can’t enter uninvited.”
“Clever.”
“Actually, Darla and I were the ones who came up with using hosts. When we got into a home, we’d leave one of the residents alive while we stayed there so we’d be free from intrusion by rival vampires.”
“Rival vampires?”
“Mostly that meant Spike.” Angel kicked the backdoor that lead into the alley where they stood. Angel approached the door frame. “Gunn?”
“Yeah?”
“He has a host.”
Gunn raised a crossbow. “Luckily I don’t need an invite.” He entered the house and began carefully creeping through the house.
“Probably in the basement,” Angel called. “Or a safe in a . . . office or something.”
“Care to narrow it down anymore?” Gunn called back.
Angel glanced back down the alley. “Gunn, you better hurry.”
“Our demon’s coming home?”
“I don’t know whose demons they are, but they’re definitely coming here.”
“What the hell are you doing in my house?!” a voice shouted inside the house. The shout was followed by a shotgun blast.
“Angel!”
“What part of not without an invite do you not understand?”
“Figure it out!” Gunn shouted after another shotgun blast.
Angel frowned, then ran to the door. “Police!” he shouted through the door. “I think I heard gunfire, but I’m not sure I have probable cause. I need permission to enter.”
“I’m being robbed!” the man inside shouted as he reloaded his shotgun.
Angel rolled his eyes, angry at still not receiving a specific invitation. “So what do you want me to do about it?”
“You’re a cop, aren’t you?” the man yelled. “Come in here and help me!”
“My pleasure,” Angel smiled as he rushed in to the house. The man saw Angel approaching.
“Where’s the urn?!” Angel shouted.
In a panic, the man cocked his shotgun and fired into Angel’s chest. Angel grunted and grabbed his chest. He lunged forward and ripped the shotgun form the man’s hands. Struggling with the pain from the blast, Angel slammed the man against the wall.
“Angel, those demons are getting close!” Gunn warned.
“What the hell kind of cop are you?” the man whimpered.
“The kind that’s in a hurry,” Angel said, slipping into game face. “Now tell me where the urn is, or I start feeding.”
“There are worse fates than death,” the man said boldly.
Angel gripped the man’s testicles and squeezed hard. “Like castration?”
“It’s in a chest under the stairs in the basement.”
Angel smiled at Gunn. “See? Basement. What did I say?”
The two ran toward the basement when a group of vicious looking demons charged into the house. They had dark red skin with large white fangs protruding from the lower jaw. They wore black shirts with red vests.
Gunn fired his crossbow and nailed one of the demons in the forehead. It snarled as it pulled the arrow out and looked at it. Angel whipped out his sword and cut the demon’s head off. “Gunn, get the urn!”
Angel began hacking at the demons as Gunn ran into the basement. “Angel, we got demons down here, too!”
Angel broke off fighting the demons upstairs and ran into the basement. As he turned the corner coming off the stairs, he saw Gunn hit the wall beside him. Gunn slid down to the floor and looked up at Angel, blood running out of his mouth.
“Forget me,” Gunn said. “Get the urn!”
Angel ran after the demons who were pillaging the cabinet. Angel slashed his sword and downed two. A third punched Angel in the gut, right where he’d been shot. Angel groaned and almost doubled over, but he slammed his sword into the demon’s gut and twisted, cutting the demon in half. Two more moved up, almost sacrificing themselves to him, as another demon grabbed the urn.
Angel slashed one and tried to pursue the demon with the urn, but another tackled him. Angel slammed his sword in between the demon’s neck and shoulder, killing it. He jumped up and charged after the demon with the urn. Angel leapt up and pulled himself through the smashed basement window the demons had entered.
Angel got back into the alley and looked around. It was deserted.
Angel slipped back into the basement and helped Gunn to his feet.
“I’m good,” Gunn said, pulling away from Angel. “Just tell me you got that urn.”
Angel rolled his eyes and held his hands up. “Does it look like I’m holding an urn?”
“Don’t get bitchy with me ‘cuz you couldn’t catch some demons. I’m the one who got thrown across the damn basement.”
“Come on.” Angel led Gunn upstairs. He waved toward the wobbling severed head of a demon on the floor. “Grab the head. Maybe Wes can tell us what the hell these things are and why they’re interested in the urn.”
*
“Hey kid,” Lorne said as he ran up to Connor.
“Hey,” Connor responded distractedly. “Where’s the liaison’s office?”
“The what?”
“Liaison to the, um, to the senior partners.”
“Eve? Why would you need to see her?”
“It’s a, like a . . . she was going to help me with investments and stuff.”
“We have people for that.” Lorne patted Connor’s back and guided the young man toward the entertainment offices. “I’ll have you talk to them after we’re done.”
“We have things to do? I mean they’re not . . . I have a girlfriend. You know that, right?”
“Sure do. And isn’t she a lucky kitten. I wanted to talk to you about LA, baby. The great thing about being in LA is that this is where the action is. You put the NHL’s rookie of the year in LA, and what do you get?”
“Ahead of ourselves?”
“Endorsements!” Lorne pushed open the door of his office. “Gatorade. Five hundred grand for photos for a print ad campaign. Nike’s throwing a mil at you for a couple day’s work making TV spots. Plus, ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ wants you to guest star on an episode. The guy plays a sportswriter or something and he’s going to interview you, but he keeps having to break it off to answer phone calls from his mother about pie. You get it?! Pie !”
“Pie is funny?”
“Pie is worth another five hundred G’s for a day’s work.”
“Aren’t we getting a little . . . I don’t want to be all over the place. Like on billboards and TV shows. I don’t want people saying they hate me because I’m a rookie, I haven’t really done anything yet, and why am I all over the place.”
“Image control,” Lorne nodded. “We’re all about that here. Nobody understands image like I do.”
“Is that why you’re always in green makeup?”
“No. That’s why I’m always in nice suits. Here.” Lorne held out his arm. “Feel that. That’s genuine silk.”
“I’m not feeling your arm. But it does look nice.”
“Thanks. Anyway, we’re not taking all these offers. We’re going to sit down and decide which are consistent with your image. And those we’ll do.”
“Sounds cool. But can we maybe put this off until after the hockey season? Right now, my life is . . . I don’t know. Busy. I’m always at practice or there’s a game and I’m on the road half the season. And, hey, I’m not complaining. I get a ton of money to do something I love. But my life’s all about practice and I hardly have time for me or my girlfriend. I just kind of want some Connor time while I can grab it.”
Lorne smiled. “Tell you what? Can you do Raymond for me? That’s a TV show so they’ll do it during the season because that’s when they shoot the show. Everything else, we can put off until after you win the Stanley Cup and Rookie of the Year. We can charge more then, anyway.”
Connor laughed. “Sounds good.”
*
“Get that head down to Wesley,” Angel said to Gunn. “I want to know what the hell those things are and why they’re interested in Sahjhan.”
“Maybe they just like urns,” Gunn joked.
“I doubt it.”
“Angel!” Cordelia screamed angrily as she charged down the hallway.
“I tried to stop her, boss,” Harmony said as she trailed behind Cordy. “But she blackmailed me with embarrassing stories about this geeky guy I dated in high school.”
“Harmony, it’s okay. Cordy can see me anytime. Even when she’s angry.”
“Your office, Angel. Now!”
Gunn looked questioningly at Angel. Angel shrugged to convey his bewilderment. “Get that down to Wes.” He followed Cordy into his office.
“I can’t believe you did that to Lorne!” she shouted.
“What? What did I do? Because if you’re talking about the purple suit, that was all his doing.”
“Don’t crack wise with me, buster. I’m within an inch of kicking you in the butt and telling everyone what you did to them.”
Angel became instantly serious. “Cordy, relax. What’s this about?”
“Lorne read Connor at the Christmas party-”
“Halloween party,” Angel corrected her.
“That’s so not the point. The point is, Lorne read Connor and you had a brain suck thingy done so he couldn’t remember what he read; Connor’s real past.”
“Cordelia, that’s ridiculous.”
“More ridiculous than you joining Wolfram & Hart? More ridiculous than you engaging in dark magic to strip your son and your friends of their memories?”
“Yes! Because I would never intentionally hurt my friends. Lorne read Connor, then went off with Gunn.”
Cordy sat on Angel’s couch. “Sorry. It seemed . . . Angel, who else knew about Connor? Anyone at Wolfram & Hart.”
“As far as I know, just Eve.”
“Right.”
*
Cordelia continued hammering her fist on Eve’s door. Angel stood next to her with an expression that clearly indicated he was humoring her.
“Sorry, baby, I was asleep,” came the male voice from inside as the chain lock was pulled back. Connor opened the door and looked out. “Oh. Sorry. I thought you were-”
Angel’s expression suddenly grew serious. “Eve,” he said angrily.
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