Chapter 1
The Beginning… Running Away and Being Found.
Dawn stood outside the huge hotel, she bit her lip for what must have been the hundredth time, worried about what his reaction will be when he sees her. Looking in through the wrought iron gated door that led into a quaint courtyard she felt nervous for the first time. ‘What if he tells me to hit the pavement back to good old Sunnydale? Or worse… What if he calls Buffy?’ Taking a deep breath Dawn shoved aside her fear, (she wasn’t a coward… She wasn’t dammit!) and pushed through the old fashioned gate. Rehearsing in her head what she was going to say to him as she walked down the path that led to the doors to the Hotel itself.
Angel heard the front door of the hotel open from upstairs in his bed as he was trying to sleep. (Yes, vamp hearing was wonderful sometimes… And then NOT, too) He frowned; WHO now? It was Late afternoon, but the sun was still out, so it couldn’t… hopefully his visitor wasn’t Darla. Fuck! He threw the covers off and rose naked out of bed. His pale muscular body rippled with muscle as he stalked across the room. He grabbed some sweats and a tank top. He wasn’t in the mood for her mind games and sadistic bullshit right now. He just wanted to sleep and forget the utter emptiness that was his life right now. Which Darla didn’t help… If anything she added to the deep gaping hole that was tearing into his soul. ‘Why was he fucking her again?’ He asked himself for at least the hundredth time since the first time they’d slept together nearly a month ago.
Dawn walked into the lobby of the Hyperion. She looked around slowly. Turning in a circle, she smiled. It was very pretty actually. ‘If you forgot about the ugly gray round couch that dominated the center of the room that is!’ she thought, eyeing the monstrosity with distaste. But everything else was very classical, elegant and stylish… Like Angel. This place suited him. She noticed the beautiful dual curved staircase, the old-fashioned reception desk…though… She noticed the run down look of the place, it looked neglected. Unused. This wasn’t typical for Angel. He was fastidiously clean.
‘Shit, it looks abandoned in here’ she thought. Eyeing the dust covering the front desk and the stacks of papers and files strewn about here and there and on the couch, desk and the floor. ‘Maybe Angel’s not even here…’ she hadn’t even finished the thought when she heard a noise at the top of the staircase.
Her blue eyes shot to the stairs and followed the tall figure coming down them. She took in the wide broad shoulders and sculpted muscular chest that was only partially concealed in the thin, white wife beater tank he was wearing. It also emphasized his trim flat belly and narrow waist and hips. ‘Very sexy…’ she thought as her gaze roamed over his legs, obscured by black sweats, but when he moved she could see the power in his thighs. His movements were graceful, unhurried and erotic.
Dawn shivered as her gaze moved up to his face…That FACE… It was truly the face of a fallen Angel. Sinfully beautiful. Endless entries in the Watcher’s Journal’s were written about that face and how he had used it to lure his victims into him. Used their lust for him to entangle them in his web… She’d spent hours pouring over Giles’ books on Angelus, due to the crush she’d developed while Buffy was with him. He had the face of an Angel… Angelus did. Now Angel, but still…
"GOD!!" she whispered. She’s almost forgotten how breathtaking he was.
Dawn drank him in, a bit amazed that he really did affect her like this. As far as she knew this was actually the first time she was ever REALLY meeting him, though her memories said it had been roughly two years yet she now knew that wasn’t true. But still she had all these memories of him. She briefly wondered where or more importantly WHY she had those memories when she knew they hadn’t happened. Weird, but no more weird than finding out your whole existence is a sham and you’re not even a real person. A "Mystical ball of Energy" that’s what they called her. Can you get any weirder than that?
She didn’t speak for a moment as she reacquainted herself with every sharp plane and soft curve on his face. She gazed admiringly over the strong forehead and thick slashing brows that drew your attention to deep mesmerizing chocolate colored eyes. His hair was mussed and not it’s usual gelled style. Actually, it looked like he just got out of bed and it was very, very sexy. Dawn took in his defining, well-shaped aquiline nose, and the full sensual lips that just begged you to taste them. Imagining his reaction if she just grabbed him and did just that. Dawn giggled as she imagined his response. Baffled, confused and embarrassed would probably cover it. She shook herself free from her stupor, seeing he was staring at her strangely and not at all with a "Hi, how ya doin Dawn" look.
"Uh hi…" she said softly. "I know you’re probably wondering what I’m doing here?… But… well…" She looked into his surprised and almost angry chocolate eyes and tried to smile, (more to boost her own confidence than his) but failed. She took a deep breath. Her pulse was rioting and ‘why did he just keep staring at her like that?’
"Uh Angel, you told me if I ever needed you well then…" she let the sentence hang there. Hoping he’d alleviate her awkwardness by saying or doing something, but he didn’t. He just stared like he had no idea who she was.
"Well anyhow I was here in LA and I just thought I’d drop in, ya know say hi and see how you were…"
His voice was husky as he whispered, "Dawn?"
Dawn breathed a sigh of relief. At least he knows me. "Yeah… Look Angel I’m…"
"What are you doing here? In LA… or here? I mean why come and see me. I know it’s not to say hi."
Dawn shrugged, "Fine. I’m actually here to ask for your help."
He raised a brow. "With what?"
He definitely was NOT making this easy for her, so she decided to go for the flippant answer. "Oh, you know, the typical Hell God in Sunnydale kind of thing. Only this one wants to kill me, use my blood to open a portal…You know? Just the normal Hellmouth sitch. You know that hell mouth….!"
When he didn’t respond right away, her face fell. "Look it’s no big. I’m sorry I even bothered you" She turned to leave, but Angel’s voice stopped her.
"Dawn! Stop. You’re here now… Don’t… Don’t go." He didn’t know why he stopped her. He really, really didn’t want company right now, but maybe it was something in her face. It reminded him of… Well him really.
She felt her heart stop. God, that voice… He’d sounded so… Vulnerable almost.
She turned to face him. "Angel…I’m really, really sorry to just do a drop in, but… I need your help. I can’t be in Sunnydale right now. Please…"
Angel’s eyes softened at the pleading quality to her voice. "Okay, let’s take it a step at a time. First… Tell me what’s going on and what Hell God is trying to open a dimensional portal?"
"Her name is Glory. Seems I’m the key to opening the portal. Anyway, if I’m not there. She can’t open the portal huh? Maybe she’ll just slink her skanky ass back to whatever hell portal she slinked out of and leave me alone!"
Angel’s head spun at all that information. No one from Buffy’s crew had even bothered to call him to let him know they were facing a Hell God! Why the hell not?
He crossed the huge lobby and led her to the gray couch to sit. Kneeling in front of her he took her hands in his. "Dawn, why don’t you sit down and start at the beginning. Okay?" His voice was deep, yet tender and reassuring.
Just like Dawn remembered. Well, at least just like the Monk’s provided for her to remember, she corrected ready to cry again.
He smiled. His lips curving into that small, sexy little half smile Buffy had always mooned over, "Dawn…Tell me. Okay?" he asked softly.
Suddenly she was in his arms…"Angel… I don’t know how… I mean…" she sobbed, gripping his shoulders tightly. "I’m… I don’t know what the hell I am… Angel… I don’t… I don’t even exist!"
After getting the whole story out of her a bit at a time Angel was surprised and more than a bit hurt Buffy hadn’t called him about all this. He tried to smile at Dawn, wanting to reassure her that it would be okay, but found he couldn’t cause he honestly couldn’t say that it would. Evil was everywhere. Hadn’t he just been shown that to be true.
‘Wasn’t he fucking an evil thing almost every night now? Trying to find warmth in a creature that hadn’t felt warmth, (except very, very briefly) in a long, long time?’ his brain whispered to him as he thought of Darla and the constant screwing they were engaging in. Yes! Evil was everywhere and sometimes it DID take good people and eat them up. Just swallowed them whole and that was it. So how was he supposed to help her when he couldn’t save himself. When a part of him didn’t even believe in salvation or the possibility of redemption anymore? Simple he couldn’t. But he could give her a place to crash and hide out, away from her demons. After all that’s what he was doing too. Wasn’t it? Hiding out, ignoring his demons, except when they showed up nightly to fuck his brains out!
He stood up. Suddenly very tired. "You can stay here if you want Dawn. Stay as long as you need to. I have plenty of room, but you should call Buffy and let her know where you are." He said softly, heading for the stairs and his room.
Dawn saw the way his shoulders had sagged as if he carried the weight of the world on them. She’d seen Buffy get that look too. But the difference between her sister and Angel had always been Buffy looked at her Slayer gig as a job, a chore, a responsibility and burden she had to shoulder. She had the whole woe is me, I was born a Slayer thing down pat.
Angel on the other hand, though broody and quiet looked at or HAD looked at his destiny to be a champion and a second chance as a gift. She wondered what had changed his view so drastically.
Instead of asking what his malfunction was, she decided to keep quiet and just be grateful he was letting her stay and not ordering her to call Buffy.
"Thanks Angel. I won’t be in your way… I’ll even…uh… help out if you want. Y’ know… Helping the helpless or whatever.. Answering phones… Cleaning…" She finished, looking around. She smiled at him and was hurt that he only frowned back.
"I…Well I’ve kind of…" He sighed deeply. "Don’t worry about helping Dawn, just find yourself a room and I’ll see you tonight."
She watched him drag himself up the stairs with a sadness that was as deep as her own. ‘What happened to him?’ she wondered and just like that Dawn had a new mission. Getting Angel out of his funk… No matter what! Who knows maybe by helping him, she could make herself feel better too? ‘Well, you never know’ she thought. ‘Stranger things have happened right?’
She hadn’t seen or heard from him since he left her alone in the lobby. After finding herself a room and putting her things away she explored the huge hotel. It really was old world elegant. ‘Just like him’ she thought with a smile. She was coming up from the basement when she saw a petite blonde making her way up the winding staircase to the upper floors. She had on a slinky black dress that was made to knock a man’s socks off. Dawn immediately hated her.
Busying herself by cleaning up all the stacks of folders and files littered about the lobby, she tried NOT to think about who the blond was and what Angel was doing with her upstairs for so long. ‘I’m jealous!’ she realized and immediately told herself to stop it. What or whom he did was NONE of her business… She would have stuck to that too had she not heard the screams and the sound of things breaking upstairs.
Thinking the woman was doing something terrible to Angel she rushed up the stairs and followed the cries of what definitely sounded like pain to her. Flinging open his door, she stopped dead, totally unprepared for what she saw. There was Angel, completely naked, with the blond (naked too) on the floor obviously having the most intense animalistic sex she’d ever seen. As the blond turned to face her Dawn gasped as she saw her eyes flash golden and she snarled.
"Oh! Oh God! I’m… I’m sorry!" she blurted and rushed out the door, slamming it shut.
Angel was frozen for a moment more. When he’d heard that door open… Damn, he’d never meant to have Dawn see this. He looked at Darla who was still writhing under him. Suddenly disgusted with himself he pulled out of her and rolled away from her clinging body. "Get out" he said flatly, staring at the ceiling.
Darla rolled over on her side. Her hand played across his pale, marble like chest. "Oh please darling. You can’t possible mean that. You’re going to let that little girl…"
He gripped her arm tightly and stood. Angry at her, himself, Dawn and the whole fucking world in general. He swung her around and flung her towards the door he ordered again. "I said… Get the fuck out of here Darla. Now!"
Darla laughed at him, she knew he felt guilty. "What has your conscience suddenly returned Angel?" She jeered as she sashayed over to the chair and grabbed her dress. She pulled it over her head and shimmied into it. She flashed him a malicious smile. "What is it precious? All upset because someone saw you’re dirty little secret? Afraid all your little pet humans are going to know what you’ve been doing?" She giggled, slinking up to him and running a small pale hand down his belly. He grabbed her hand stopping her from grabbing his still hard cock.
Darla flashed him a teasing smile. "Don’t worry lover. I won’t tell as long as you can keep me happy and shut up the child in the other room…After all to tell would spoil our fun now wouldn’t it?" She kissed his sensual, yet unresponsive mouth. "See you tomorrow night lover" she called over her shoulder as she sauntered out the door.
Angel clenched and unclenched his fists. He closed his eyes and willed his himself to let loose of his rage. ‘What the hell am I doing?’ he wondered for what had to be the thousandth time. He had no idea, nor did he have a clue how to get off this downward spiral of loathing and despair that had him in it’s grip. He really didn’t give a shit if anyone found out about him and Darla, well he did, but he’d deal with it if it ever came out. But… Tonight had been a new low.
When Darla had showed up, he’d been pissed, they’d fought, tore apart his room, then he’d somehow ended up naked and pounding her into the floor, ripping at her body with his fangs as he fucked her senseless! How that had Happened was kind of a blur, but, that wasn’t the worst… No, to add to that nice little unhealthy scene, Dawn had burst in on them literally "in the act!" He was embarrassed, yet at the same time it felt good to actually feel something besides emptiness. Even if it was burning shame at being caught indulging in this new darker nature he’d let overwhelm him.
He thought of her flushed face and to his disgust got hard. Fuck! He’d just thoroughly corrupted Buffy’s baby sister and he was actually getting excited thinking about it. He was sick. She was just a child… Never mind that she was actually not a child anymore as his cock had been telling him ever since he’d laid eyes on her, but still… "Shit!" he muttered as he threw on a pair of sweats and went to find her.
Dawn sat on the bed trembling. She wasn’t sure if it was from shock or something else.. Something more insidious and confusing like… desire. She felt her face flame. ‘God! That had been… Oh my God!! He had been so… Hot!’ she thought. All growling and animal like as he thrust into the blond woman on the floor. Blood dripped from his chin and she got a real good view of the package that had kept Buffy comparing every man she’d ever been with after him to him! Dawn’s face flushed even hotter, ‘No wonder Buffy never forgot him!’ She couldn’t believe she just thought that, but… Gods! He was huge!! And… Beautiful and… So, so sexy!
The door opened and the very demon she’d been thinking about walked in…
<lj-cut text "Breaking The Rules">
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