Sins of an Angel
but you're going to be a good friend and let me drink your blood and I won't hunt down that pretty little girlfriend of yours and rape her to death...how does that sound?'
Faith was nearly unconscious from the sheer pain. Karen ran her fingers through Faith's hair soothingly as Frank cleaned and redressed the wound. Cleaning it had been the hardest part. Charles Gunn and the boy, Connor had to hold her down. Karen was in tears hearing her shouts of pain, even with the cloth she bit down on. At least she let him redress it with Karen there.
They'd taken her to one of the rooms on the second floor. She lay slumped over with her head in Karen's lap as Connor and Gunn tried to explain the situation the best they could. What really made it hit home for both of them, was the green man. He now wore a robe and had a drink in his hand.
"Aww Kitten," He shook his head sympathetically at her.
Karen stared in shock her eyes studying him, and for a second the green man stared back silently with his red eyes squinted just a bit.
"I see why she likes you," he said after a moment, "Call me Lorne."
but you're going to be a good friend and let me drink your blood and I won't hunt down that pretty little girlfriend of yours and rape her to death...how does that sound?
Faith came too with a start sitting up and gasping, it was probably the pain that made her wheeze as if she couldn't breathe. "Oh God, Karen...no no no you can't be here, you've got to go, you've got to...Where's Angelus?" Faith's eyes darted around wildly her hand frantically grabbed for her knife that was usually at the small of her back but it had been removed...just in case.
"Hey...easy Faith, we got Angelus, everything's okay we've been filling in the details..." Gunn said carefully, "We got this girl...you just work on healin' up."
"No, no, you don't understand," She was struggling to get up now even when Frank put a firm hand on her shoulder to hold her down.
"Faith...just...take it easy, it's okay, It's unbelievably weird but it's okay," Karen tried to reassure her, even if she was skeptical, her mind was automatically searching for a more rational explanation.
Frank could barely hold her down, they'd already informed him, if she wasn't so weak, she'd probably have thrown him across the room.
"No, you don't..." Faith insisted.
Lorne frowned, she didn't have to sing for him to read her. Right now, she was an open book. The horror floated over his face and he took a long drink, "Hey there...tall dark and muscles can I talk to you for a minute?"
Frank gave him an odd look, waiting only until Faith stopped struggling with him to let her go. Karen helped her into a sitting position, "Just take it easy, it's okay, Maybe I can see if I can get you something for the pain," Karen told her pressing her lips to Faith's temple.
Lorne stepped outside with Frank, "Look...did she...tell you anything about Angelus?"
Frank pushed the door closed and crossed his arms, "He was her boss, Angel, I'm gathering the Angelus is...the evil version..." he quirked his eyebrow as he felt it was more complicated than that.
"Calling Angelus evil is like...saying...Beethoven played a little piano. If evil was an art, Angelus is it's DaVinci," Lorne all but scoffed the concern and fear written on his face, "Look, she's scared that he's going to hurt, that lovely young woman and...rightly so...after a few choice words Angelus had with her."
"...how do you...?" Frank started.
"I'm an empath and she's broadcasting her feelings like casino signs in Vegas let me tell you," Lorne gestured for Frank to follow him downstairs.
"What did he say?" Frank demanded following behind The Host.
"Look...just...know she needs to be far away from here okay?" Lorne gulped down the rest of his drink as the returned to the first floor.
"What did he say?" Frank repeated more firmly.
Lorne was running his fingers over spines of books on the shelf before he pulled one out, "The first thing you need to understand is Angel is like a brother to Faith, he's not just her boss, Faith trusts him with her life, and that woman...she doesn't trust anyone, Angelus, however, is a nightmare," he handed him the book, "I'd skim over a few pages, get an idea of what you're dealing with."
The book was old, the pages were yellowed, it wasn't written in English but someone had gone through and wrote translations down, "Nails puppy to a..." his voice trailed off and he looked up at Lorne, "What is this shit?" flipping through a few more pages and skimming over them.
"That's Angelus, and your friend is in danger," Lorne told him.
"He can't move, I broke his neck, if it heals break his neck again," Frank shrugged a little, "Or...better yet...kill him."
"It's not quite that simple, sugar puff, Angel is a good man, the exact opposite of what's sitting in there...well...kinda I'm a little shaky on just who that is up there," Lorne paused, "His soul is there...it's just, damaged."
"Look, if he's such a good person, wouldn't he want you to kill him?" Frank asked setting the book aside deciding he'd read enough.
"Look Angel is a champion for The Powers that Be, more importantly, Faith won't let you kill him," Lorne sighed.
"You said Karen was in danger," he said flatly.
"Yeah, he may have made a threat to her person that has really gotten under Faith's skin and it's for good reason, the best thing you can do, is take that endearingly lovely woman and grab the first bus out of this town until we get this thing sorted out," Lorne told him lowly.
"Run?" he arched an eyebrow, "Karen won't do that."
"Maybe if you told her that he's going to rape her to death, that might change her mind," Lorne shook his head, "Look Puddin' Pop, this ain't no joke, Angelus is as dangerous and sadistic as Angel is brave and heroic."
Frank froze and stared at Lorne for a moment, and without a word, he was stalking up the stairs with a purpose.
"Oh...crap...no no no no...Buddy...Pal? Hey, wait!" Lorne rushed to try and catch him.
Gunn emerged from the room, a concerned looking Karen in the doorway, "Lorne...What's going on?"
"He's gonna kill Angel someone stop him," Lorne said quickly.
"Frank!" Karen called after him.
Faith was up rather swiftly blood loss be damned. She met Frank at the door of the room Angelus was in, the only one with the light on.
"Frank...I thought his name was Pete?" Gunn frowned.
Karen hesitated and muttered, "It is."
Gunn gestured with his hands but decided to deal with that in a minute.
"Back off," Faith told him firmly gripping his arm tightly.
He went to jerk away but was surprised when he grip didn't budge, he looked from her hand up to her eyes and back again several times before speaking, "You're just gonna leave him alive? Leave Karen in danger like that? That's reckless, you're tellin' me you kill these things for a livin' and you're gonna leave this one alive because he's your friend sometimes even though he raped and slaughtered his way through Europe way back when?"
Faith's eyes turned sharply to Lorne who winced, "Well, I figured he should know what he was getting into, I knew his reaction might be strong but..."
"He's not that monster anymore," Faith said sharply, "It's way more complicated than that, look I don't walk up in your shit and tell you how to off criminals don't walk up in my shit and tell me how to off vamps."
"I would have been MORE than happy to leave you to deal with this shit up until the point where he threatened Karen and you didn't do SHIT about it!" Frank countered still pulling away from her but she still held fast tugging him back and placing herself in front of the door.
"Wait...what's going on?" Karen asked frowning.
"Look we're gonna get Angel back, that is doing something about it," Gunn tried to interject.
"For what? So this can happen again? How many more innocent people have to die every time he has a goddamned mood swing?" Frank demanded.
"Now I find that to be offensive," Angel's voice chimed through the room dripping with an Angelus like sarcasm.
"Angel shut up," Faith said flatly.
"Yes dear..." he replied his head lulling to the side awkwardly from his spot on the bed. He was chained down to it in a manner that looked excessive...it certainly wasn't.
"Angel is a good person, Angelus is a monster, I OWE Angel...so much, I'm not going to let you kill him," Faith said firmly, he wasn't sure if Frank knew how to kill him but she certainly wouldn't put it past him to figure it out.
After a long moment of silence, Connor spoke, "If we can't figure out how to fix this, then we'll kill him, but he's MY father and if anyone is going to kill him, it'll be me," his tone was so much like Angel's it was startling. It was firm and decisive and the look on his face matched.
Frank stared at him for a long time, the statement was fair enough, but that didn't mean he was happy about it. After a moment he stared at Faith, "If anything happens to Karen because of this...that's on you."
"Frank...that's not fair," Karen said after a moment.
"No, he's right, take her and go somewhere with her," Faith said quietly, "I've gotten enough people killed."
"I'm not going anywhere," Karen frowned deeply.
Faith was limping back towards the stairs, clutching at her wound the adrenaline now subsiding reminding her of the pain and exhaustion.
"I'm not going..." Karen repeated glaring at Frank and then at Faith's back.
Frank was quiet now, perhaps the statement he'd made was a bit harsh. He knew Karen, Karen wouldn't back away from this. She didn't back down from anything. As long as she was in danger he wasn't going anywhere, "Yeah...I know..." his eyes followed Faith for a moment.
"I'll get her," Karen said flicking her eyes to the younger boy, Connor as he pulled the door to Angelus's room shut.
"No one goes in there for any reason alone," Connor said firmly, then glanced at Frank, "You and her, don't go in there without one of us who's familiar with him."
"I don't plan on going in there at all if I can help it," Karen muttered, the entire situation freaked her out a little, even if she was admittedly curious.
"Probably the best idea," Gunn nodded.
She followed quickly behind Faith, who was stumbling over some of the stairs. She looped her arm around her waist, "Hey, Where are you going?" she held her still and steady and shifted her body to face her.
"I need to get somethings from my motel room," she muttered.
"Yeah...okay, you're not doing that right now, I can go myself, please lay down and get some rest okay?" Karen insisted.
Faith sighed heavily and relented, she was exhausted. She allowed Karen to lead her back upstairs and to a bed. Taking off her shoes and tucking her in. Before she closed the door and left her to rest.
"I'm gonna go get Faith's stuff from her motel room," Karen told Frank.
Of course Frank insisted that he go with her. She needed a little time to process everything that had gone on. She was sure Frank probably did too.