The First Connection

Chapter 4

Our Seer-to-Be is caught up in a web of emotion as the ties that bind her to the Vampire grow tighter. It is what the Powers want, yet not as was foreseen. Interference by one who seeks to cause her heartache has prematurely escalated a relationship that should not yet exist. Only time may reveal the final outcome of such desperate treachery. Watch and remember.

Standing on the front steps of the Summers’ house, Cordelia watched Angelus take up a secure position in a copse of trees on the corner. Somehow she knew he would wait long enough to make certain she went inside. There was no turning back. She’d made a deal and had to stick to it.

Besides, she would do anything for him.

With a sigh of resignation, she lifted her finger to the doorbell. There were no lights on in the house. It was long past Buffy’s usual slaying hours. Voices sounded from upstairs. It was impossible to make out who was saying what, but they didn’t sound very pleased at having their sleep interrupted.

Cordelia felt cold, tired and achy. She wanted this over with. The sooner they got down there to let her in the better.

A loud knock now accompanied the persistent sound of the doorbell ringing. Poor Buffy had only just managed to drift to sleep, the ever-watchful Willow long-since crashed out next to her. Emerging bleary-eyed from the bedroom both girls found Joyce Summers at the top of the stairs knotting the belt of her robe.

“Who could that be at this hour?” Joyce yawned.

Buffy flipped the light switch for the stairs, descending down the passage with as much worry as her mother. Though vampires normally didn’t knock, she wouldn’t put it past evil Angel to pay a pre-dawn visit. Grasping the stake she had brought with her out of the bedroom, she opened the door letting it swing wide.

Standing before her was the most shocking sight. Cordelia Chase. Dressed like something out of a police station lineup, hair tussled and sticking out from its clip. Her makeup was smeared, lips swollen and bare of lipstick. It looked like she’d been crying. There were bruises forming on her neck, where a large vampire bite showed clearly on her throat.

“You’ve been attacked.” Buffy dropped her stake and pulled Cordelia into the foyer. She glanced quickly out the door, but saw nothing and shut it tight.

“Cordelia, are you okay?” Joyce Summer gasped at the horrific sight. Though the girl had never been to her home before, they had met briefly on a few occasions. Everyone in Sunnydale knew the high school May Queen. “You poor thing! Are your parents out of town again?”

Realizing that Mrs. Summers had just given her the perfect excuse for coming over, she jumped on it. “I-I couldn’t go home to an empty house. Not after tonight.”

With an arm around her shoulder, Buffy’s mother led her into the living room. “I should call the police.”

“No, Mom,” said Buffy quickly. A random vampire attack wouldn’t exactly be easy to report. “Let’s find out what happened first.”

“What did happened?” Willow was at her side gazing at the wound on her neck. That much was obvious, but she had other things on her mind. The most important was to find out why Cor was alone in the first place. “Where is Xander? I thought you two were— doing your thing.”

Though she tried to be cryptic, Willow’s words made Joyce even more concerned. “What thing is that?” She looked down at the girl’s scandalous clothes. “Is Xander involved?”

Remembering that Mrs. Summers did not know that Buffy was the Slayer nor about the existence of vampires, Cordelia didn’t see how she was going to get through this without her finding out the truth. “Uh— it was just a party, Mrs. Summers. We even got the stuff we needed, Willow. You know…the thing for the Judge.”

“Oh, right!”

Joyce Summers’ concern continued to grow. “Judge? Are you in legal trouble, Cordelia?”

“What? N-no.” Cordelia realized that she could not do this in front of Buffy’s mother. “I just need a place to stay for a while, Mrs. Summers. Staying alone at my house is not an option right now. It-It’s not safe.”

“You’re welcome to stay here,” responded Joyce while crossing her arms and giving her a concerned look, “but I think I deserve to know why it’s necessary. You look— pale and I think you’ve been injured.”

Taking a quick glance at the wounds, Joyce stepped back suddenly. A frown came over her face. As she said, “Buffy can help you get cleaned up and find you some pajamas,” she reached for an almost imperceptible, but similar scar on her own neck.

Seeing what was happening, Buffy herded Cordelia and Willow back up the stairs. “Get inside,” she shoved them both into the bathroom and closed the door.

“Mom still thinks she had an accident with a barbecue fork,” Buffy reminded Willow of the time the vampire Darla had bitten her mother. “This is not the time to open that can of worms.”

Cordy agreed, but she had a much larger and much wormier can of her own than Buffy could ever imagine. Sitting down on the closed toilet seat lid, she slowly reached down to remove her high heeled sandals releasing a sigh as her bare feet touched the cool floor. She was so tired, but there was a job to do here.

Getting back to her original question, Willow asked, “Where is Xander?”

“Home safe,” Cordelia assured the redhead. “We got what we needed from the Army Depot. Xander tricked a guy into thinking he was a soldier. I was there as the trashy girlfriend.”

Willow’s mouth twisted as she corralled the sudden urge to respond. Trashy girlfriend—Huh! She figured it wasn’t much of an act. “Were you two attacked?”

“No, I was alone. On my way to my car.”

“Well, you do look like vamp bait,” Buffy pointed out. “You’re lucky you escaped.”

Cordelia took the cool washcloth she held out to her. “Do I look like I escaped? It was Angelus.”

“What?!” Willow looked like she’d swallowed a lemon. Cordelia and Angel crossing paths was not of the good. If her spell worked the way it was supposed to work then Cor would be obsessed with him. Now that Angel was soulless, it was a good guess that he wasn’t going to do the gentlemanly thing and turn her down.

She gulped and sank to her knees at the side of the tub and waited for the rest of the story to come out. It gave her an eye level view of Cordelia’s bare legs where her miniskirt had ridden up dramatically. Though her head quickly noted and filed away how silky smooth Cordelia’s legs looked up close, her eyes were drawn to something red on her inner thigh.

Slower to react to the news that her now evil boyfriend attacked Cordelia, Buffy quietly muttered, “Angel.”

“Not Angel.” Cordelia tried to reinforce the difference. She got the feeling that it was the only way Buffy was going to be able to accept what happened. “He’s Angelus now.”

“You’ve been bitten,” Buffy made the obvious connection between the bite and Angelus. Nausea hit suddenly and she had to swallow down the bile that rose in her throat. “H-he said he was going to kill my friends.”

Before Cordelia could respond, Willow gasped with horror as she realized what she was looking at. There were signs of another injury. “Is that— b-blood on your thighs?”

Glancing, down at herself, Cordelia noticed that the skirt of the mini-dress had ridden up. Her inner thighs were coated by a thin layer of crusting blood and semen. The memory of how it got there made the aching flesh a little more tolerable. “Eew! I never realized that sex could be so messy. It was Angelus. He—”

“Raped you?” Buffy pressed her shoulders against the bathroom door, forcing herself to stay conscious. Angel— he could never do such a thing. It was evil. Pure evil. The things he had done to her in love less than twelve hours ago, he had taken from Cordelia.

Shaking her head, “No, it wasn’t like that,” Cordelia tried to deny it even though Angelus wouldn’t have cared if the Slayer thought she’d been forced.

“I’m sorry!” Willow squeaked, crying. Her face was red as tears flowed down her cheeks. This was her worst nightmare and entirely her fault. “You did nothing wrong, Cordy. I-it’s—,” she found she could not admit the truth.

Willow knew that she was somehow responsible. “Did you— uh, what I mean is— How did you find him?” She imagined Cordelia tracking the vampire down and offering him anything he wanted. Angel would have kept her at arm’s length, but without his soul to tell him right from wrong there was nothing to stop him.

“Angelus found me,” Cordelia countered with a frown. “He was waiting for Xander. To kill him, so he says, but he got me instead.”

“You look like vamp bait,” Buffy was uncertain if that sounded like an accusation or not. Maybe Angel wouldn’t have touched the girl if she hadn’t dressed like a slut.

“What happened?” Some eerie fascination hit Willow. She wanted to know. Was this her spell or just an evil vampire at play?

If she was a vampire and ran into a curvy brunette like Cordelia, she’d probably forget about Xander, too. The idea troubled her, especially when she thought about her vampire self licking the inside of Cordy’s thigh. She rubbed her eyes tiredly and willed the image to go away. It was late and she missed seeing Oz tonight and there was all the weirdness with Cordelia & Xander and now Angelus.

“So…,” she prompted Cordelia again.

Cordelia didn’t want to share the details, but knew that this was precisely what Angelus had commanded her to do. He would know if she left anything out because there was no way Buffy wouldn’t confront him about it. Discovering that someone she knew just screwed her former boyfriend wasn’t going to make her very happy, especially since Cordelia was less a friend to her than a rival.

Easing into it, Cordelia told them, “He talked to me about his concerns about Spike and Dru. They’re planning to take the Judge somewhere public to test him out. Sunnydale Mall, I think.”

“Angelus was giving you helpful tips?”

Shrugging, Cordelia admitted, “He wasn’t thrilled with their plot to destroy humanity. It might interfere with what he’s got planned for us.”

Buffy’s gaze narrowed. “Meaning you and me, or the plans he mentioned for leaving my friends’ corpses on my doorstep?”

“Both. I think he hates you now, Buffy. It’s really not healthy to obsess like that,” Cordy shook her head. “He sent me here with a message. I warned him to leave you alone. After all, Angelus belongs to me now. We’re together.”

“Eep!” A tiny sound squeaked from Willow’s throat.

Staring at her for a minute, Buffy finally blinked. “Say what?”

“Not as together as I’d like because obviously I’m here with you. It’s just that he wants me safe and figures you’re the best one for the job under the circumstances. You weren’t my first choice. After all, I can’t blame you for being upset just because Angelus wants me instead of you.”

“What?” Buffy couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

Willow could and knew that she was responsible. It had to be the spell. Whatever had happened she was just happy that Cordelia was alive and here instead of lying dead on the front porch. “Uh, Cor, maybe you shouldn’t take this thing with Angelus so seriously. He’s an evil—,” she saw the pain on Buffy’s face and decided to push on, “demon now. It’s probably better if you stay away from him.”

“It’s not his fault that he is who he is,” Cordelia pointed out others were to blame. “Isn’t there enough hatred in the world? You two are just jealous that Angelus wants me.”

“Whatever sense you had is gone,” Buffy wished she would stop talking about Angelus like she was a groupie. “You’re lucky to be alive. Look at you—bitten, bruised and God knows what else—and yet you’re defending him.”

Cordelia rubbed at her sore boob. “It’s not as bad as it looks, really.”

“H-he forced you.”

“No!” The denial was out of her mouth before Cordelia remembered she wasn’t supposed to put a romantic twist on the night’s events.

“What do you mean by ‘no’?” Willow gulped.

“I wanted him.” Maybe it wasn’t candlelight and a five-star hotel, but she hadn’t been forced to have sex with him. Cordelia couldn’t remember wanting anyone so desperately before.

Slowly, Buffy moved a step away from the door, standing up straight and looking down at Cordelia Chase like she was a butterfly trapped in her net. “Y-y-you let him?”

Thoughts of Angel touching Cordelia made her see red, but there was too much evidence that this was not lovemaking. It was sex, vampire style— the stuff in books that Giles had hidden away in his office rather than let her read. That was precisely what had happened to the other girl.

“You let him bite you.”

“Yeah,” Cordelia sounded surprised about it herself. Grazing her fingertips along the edge of the wound, she admitted, “It hurt a little at first, but the things he did with his mouth only made me hotter. Try not to pout about it, Buffy. Just because he didn’t bite you—”

“You slut!” Suddenly, she didn’t care if this was the evil version of Angel. Cordelia Chase just admitted that she willingly allowed a vampire to suck down her blood. “Why would I want that? It’s sick. Angel would never bite me—or want to.”

Cordelia let out a soft, “Pfft.” Someone had conveniently forgotten what he’d done to her at the Bronze.

Willow felt like throwing up, not because she thought it was sick, but because she felt like it was her fault. “This was Angelus. No soul. No conscience. Of course he would try to bite Cordy. That’s what vampires do.”

“That doesn’t excuse Cordelia’s behavior,” Buffy responded angrily. “And Angel did more than just bite. Didn’t he? What else happened?”

This was playing right into the hand Angelus had dealt her. “What? You want details?” It was part of the deal. Make Buffy suffer a little and he’d let her live.

“He’s my boyfriend, Cordelia. What do you think?”

“N-no, Buffy,” Willow jumped in. “I just told you. It was Angelus, not Angel.”

“I want to hear it, Will,” Buffy steeled herself for the truth. Determined to hear the full story, “If Angelus sent me a message, I want to hear it.”

Licking her tender lips, Cordelia began, “I’m the message. He wants you to see that he’s claimed me. That I belong to him.”

“That’s a load of crap. You don’t belong to anyone.”

“Yes, I’m his,” Cordelia was quick to say so. “He’ll kill all of you if you try to make me deny his claim—which I’ll never do, by the way, so save your breath.”

Buffy looked like she wanted to strangle her for a moment and Cordelia shrank back a bit. After gritting her teeth, she said, “Cor, you’re here and you’re safe. I’m not going to let him get away with any of this. If he hadn’t touched you, I might’ve had a hard time realizing that he’s not my Angel anymore, but he’s obviously not.”

“I don’t want to be here. I’d rather be with him.”

“That’s insane,” Buffy threw up her hands and paced from one side of the bathroom to the other.

“Oh, come on,” Cordelia gave her a hard, knowing stare. “You can’t tell me that you wouldn’t give everything you’ve got to be back in his bed. Two centuries of experience go a long way. That thing he does with his tongue…”

Willow was curious. “What thing?”

“Nothing,” snapped Buffy.

Cordelia wasn’t so closed-mouthed. It was part of her assignment to tell it all and she got a strange sense of satisfaction from making certain that Buffy knew how much pleasure Angelus had given her. “I’ve never actually let anyone do that before. My fingers are just not going to be the same again.”

“You mean…,” Willow went wide-eyed and blushed again.

For a moment Cordelia had forgotten that this wasn’t like talking to the rest of the cheerleading squad. They were pretty open about everything—especially if the topic of conversation required stretching the truth a little or a lot.

“Oh, c’mon. Like you don’t do it?”

“Maybe we should skip the details,” Buffy cut in before Willow exploded from further embarrassment. “It’s late and I really don’t want to talk about it. I’ll find something for you to wear.”

When Buffy stepped out into her bedroom, Cordelia turned back to Willow. “Well, you do, don’t you?”

There was a long pause before she answered meekly, “Yeah, sure.”

“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Gulping, Willow realized that this conversation was wrong on so many levels. “So what he did to you tonight was…good?” In a tiny voice she made the inquiry hoping that her rash decision to cast that spell hadn’t brought any real harm. Misery and heartbreak were one thing, rape and pain quite another.

Without waiting for Cordelia’s answer, afraid of what she might hear, Willow leaned over to turn on the tap letting the bathwater pour into the tub. “Hot?”

“Yeah—and lots of bubbles,” sighed Cordelia longingly, picking up the bubble bath and handing it over. Only after a generous amount of the scented mix was poured into the stream of water did she answer the question. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that it was better than good.

Cordelia decided to pour it on thick. That’s what Angelus wanted, so that’s what he’d get. She figured a future career as a world famous starlet might be in order if she pulled this off.

“When Angelus spotted me outside of Xander’s house, I didn’t run.”

That surprised Buffy who knew that Cordelia was an expert in the running and screaming department. “You didn’t?”

The lack of running didn’t surprise Willow at all. She sank down onto the edge of the bathtub waiting for Cordelia to reveal what happened next.

“No. It was almost like I wanted to get caught.”

Willow gulped.

“I couldn’t resist talking to him, touching him, almost like there was some kind of vampire magetism at work. If you thought Angel was a hottie before, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen him in black leather.”

Realizing that Cordelia assumed Angelus had used some kind of thrall on her eased Willow’s worries a tiny fraction. The guilt was still there, but at least she knew that Cor wasn’t going to look in her direction.

The more she described about her encounter with Angelus the larger Willow’s eyes got until they were wide saucers of shock and horror. Especially when Cordelia was heavy on details which no one really wanted, but hung on every description.

“His kisses were so good I wanted to eat him up, too. I remember trying not to cut myself on his fangs,” Cordelia commented thoughtfully.

More shock from Buffy who was obviously making comparisons just as Angelus intended her to. “He was in game face?”

“Well, duh! Vampire!”

“Oh.” Wide-eyed, Buffy remembered the first time Angel kissed her. Just across the hall in her bedroom. When Angel’s vampiric mask slipped into view, she had screamed at the top of her lungs. Of course, she hadn’t known he was a vampire then, but Buffy could not imagining kissing Angel when he looked— so evil.

“We couldn’t stop kissing or touching each other. It happened so fast. One second we were in Xander’s front yard and the next I was on the hood of my car.” Cordelia’s eyes looked a little hazy as she told the two girls what happened next. “One minute he was holding me down. My panties were gone. Then he was just holding me, pushing into me.”

Breathing rapidly, Cordelia placed a hand on Buffy’s arm. Instead of jerking away, she stood statue still, her lips drawn into a tight line.

“He was HUGE, I mean— it was so big and hard. Like nothing you ever see in Health Ed or the flashers on the football team. I’d never gone that far, all the way, but he had me worked up in a way I’ve never felt before. It hurt at first, but then it was so, so good that I didn’t want it to end.”

“You were a v-virgin?” Willow’s jaw dropped as Buffy asked the question. The evidence appeared to be on the cheerleader’s thighs. “I thought he didn’t like inexperienced girls.”

Cordelia’s attention refocused. The shaky tone to the Slayer’s voice revealed a lot. “Is that what he told you, Buffy? Don’t believe it. Just read Giles’ Watcher Diaries one of these days. You’ll learn a lot.”

“Giles let you read the Watcher Diaries?” Jealousy coated Willow’s question.

“Stole them. Read them. Returned them,” Cordelia shrugged as if it was nothing. “Virgin blood is like vampire catnip. They love it. Something about sexual innocence making it taste better.”

“Eww!” Willow responded, recalling that the vampire pinched her cheek as he called her cute and helpless. Calling it a turn-on. Guess he meant it. Gulp!

“Angelus bit you,” Buffy pointed out, “but he didn’t bite me. Neither did Angel.”

“Hello, Slayer!”

Willow had to agree. “Bite neck of Slayer. Meet Mr. Pointy. Besides, Angel loves— he loved you, Buffy.”

“I-I think he did,” Buffy looked at them with sadness in her tear-glistened eyes. “He said he loved me. I believed him.”

Cordelia wanted to tell the blonde it was her Angel wanted. That the bite on her neck was not just a sign of a late-night snack, but a warning to other vampires: stay away from what’s mine. It seemed strange, but Cordelia felt the same way.

“I know Angel loved you,” Cordelia told the Slayer, “so don’t think of him that way now. This is not your vampire, Buffy.”

He’s mine.

“I can tell,” Buffy answered bitterly as she glared at the mark on the cheerleader’s throat. “When did he do it? When did he bite you? Did you provoke him?”

“No.” She had already told Buffy about the bite thing. “He wanted to taste me. I let him.”

“When, Cordy?” Somehow, the answer seemed important.

Shifting on the seat, Cordelia glanced nervously around the room, settling on Willow for a moment. The redhead was looking paler than Cordelia and did not have the excuse of blood loss. “Why are you so curious?”

“I just wanna know.”

“Which time?”

Willow practically whinnied as she asked, “W-wh-what do you mean? It was more that one bite?” Her eyes dropped down from the obvious spot on Cordelia’s neck lingering on other places that might draw a vampire’s attention.

“The first time was kinda playful.”

“Just like a vamp. Toying with his food.” Buffy wanted to keep things in perspective. This was a vampire who had seduced Cordelia, who had bitten her.

Cordelia’s palm grazed over the curve of her breast softly rubbing the tender spot where his fangs had superficially pierced her.

“The second time I think I would’ve let him do anything he wanted. Everything I’ve ever read about how it feels to have someone go down on you just doesn’t do it justice.”

“He did that to you?”

“God, yes, and I have to tell you that vampire knows exactly what he’s doing.” Cordelia realized the memory was making her wet again. This whole revelation business was kind of a turn on because she knew it was what Angelus wanted.

Asking about the bite on her neck was part necessity and part curiosity on Willow’s part. “When did that happen?”

“We were doing it. He was inside me, fucking me,” she paused at the little thrill that rushed through her when voicing those words. Feeling naughty about it, yet buzzed at the same time. “God, it was so good having him there, so deep, so big and hard.”

“Yeah.” Buffy grumbled thunderously. “I think you said that.”

“Well, it was,” Cordelia was still awestruck. “You know I’m not exaggerating. Though how you could take it— you’re so tiny.”

“Get on with it,” ordered the Slayer. She was not going to recount her experience with the other teen, though that part had surprised her, too.

“I don’t know exactly what happened after that. Somewhere in the middle of this mind-blowing orgasm I felt this deep sting, and then it was like I was flying and falling all at once.”

Willow gaped openly at the details. She knew for a fact that Cordelia Chase would never have let Angelus seduce her, much less bite her, under normal circumstances. The cheerleader would have screamed to the high heavens and tried to run. Then the vamp would have caught her and tortured her and left her corpse on Buffy’s front porch.

In fact, it seemed strange that he had not done that anyway. Cordelia’s magically-affected feelings had nothing to do with how Angelus behaved. The fact that Cordelia wasn’t dead now was a very lucky thing. Willow couldn’t imagine how guilty she would feel if that had happened. Bad enough that her best friend’s now evil boyfriend had seduced her, taken her virginity and bitten her.

Figuring that Cordelia’s night was just as traumatic as Buffy’s, the witch suggested that she get on with her bubble bath. “I’ll get you some jammies. I know where Buffy keeps them.”

Nodding, the cheerleader walked over to the tub and turned on the water so that it ran hot. She had her back to Buffy, but knew that the girl was watching her every move. “What is it, Buffy?”

“There is more, isn’t there?”

This was what Cordelia had wanted to avoid. She started to undress, releasing her hair from its clip and undoing the zipper to her tight red minidress. As a cheerleader, Cordy was used to showering in front of other girls after games or practice sessons and had developed an unconscious ease with her body. As the tiny dress fell to the floor, Buffy let out a startled gasp.

There were bruises on Cordelia’s hips and legs in addition to the blood on her thighs. The evidence showing all too clearly. Despite the betrayal she felt from both Angel and Cordelia, and the fact that she’d prefer to pretend none of this had ever happened between them, she was appalled by the visual evidence.

“Are you really okay?”

Turning off the taps, she noticed that Buffy was staring at her bruises. “I’m just sore.”

After a pause, Buffy admitted, “Me too.”

“At least you have super-duper healing. I’m gonna be sore for days.” Cordelia’s generous mouth quirked as she tried not to smile. This was definitely not the bonding moment she imagined she might have with Buffy Summers. Her smile fell away as she remembered her task.

Willow returned suddenly with the night wear only to find Buffy talking to a very naked Cordelia Chase who seemed oblivious of the fact. “I— uh, Buffy’s pajamas are gonna be too short on you. So I brought you a long nightie.”

“Thanks. Can I borrow a brush? And how about some towels?” Willow jumped swiftly to the task. Eep! Naked Cordy. No wonder the Y-chromosome didn’t think with its brain. It was certain that Angelus was not immune.

“There is one more thing,” Cordelia said as she stepped into the tub, lowering herself into the water. “Angelus wants me to stay here with you.”

“Huh?”

“When he dropped me off at your house, he told me that he would be back.”

“Back? As in return to collect you?”

“Yeah.”

“Why does he think I’ll let him anywhere near you, me, or my house?”

“He wants me again. Maybe Giles can explain it. I thought Angelus would turn me into a vampire, but he didn’t kill me. He let me come here instead because he didn’t want me to get hurt.”

“He expects me to protect you,” Buffy realized with a strangled gasp.

“Won’t you?”

“Yeah, I suppose.”

“Good.”

“Buffy?” Cordelia queried as she moved her soapy hands over her skin. “This has been a strange night. I’ve been afraid of vamps since I learned they existed, but I didn’t feel any fear tonight. Even after reading what I’ve read about Angelus back in the day. His touch made me burn, I just wanted him. Even if he is evil, he’s still a hottie.”

My hottie, Buffy wanted to say, but didn’t.

“For a guy who doesn’t talk much, Angel sure has a way with words.”

Seconds ticked by as Buffy tried to resist asking, but she failed to resist the temptation. “W-what did he say?”

Cordelia’s heart pounded a little faster as Buffy fell into the trap she’d set. Though it had been thrilling to remember the details of the night, she couldn’t understand why it meant so much to her to do Angelus’ bidding. Normally, she would’ve kept those details close. She would’ve spun a hot little story for her friends that made them green with envy, but gave away nothing.

Swirling a finger amid the bubbles, Cordelia bided her time before giving Buffy one opportunity to avoid the worst news of the night. “I don’t think you want to hear it.”

Obstinate as ever, Buffy answered quickly, “Yes, I do.”

She scooped up a handful of bubbles and blew gently. They floated up and then dropped on the air back into the bathtub. “He told me that I was his favorite virgin. The others were all just a good time. Not exactly the fireworks he felt with me. That’s why he wants me again, Buffy, and not you.”

The door suddenly slammed shut and Cordelia looked up to see that she was now alone in the bathroom. Message delivered.

With a sigh, she leaned back in the tub and felt the tears well in her eyes. It wasn’t a pleasant task that she’d accomplished, but it would keep her friends alive. Even Buffy, she hoped, although Cordelia somehow doubted that the Slayer would ever think of her as a friend. Not after today.

SOULBOUND – BOOK ONE – THE FIRST CONNECTION: CHAPTER LINKS

Book One Chapter 3                    Book One Home                    Book One Chapter5