Disclaimer:  I don't own Angel or any of the characters from the show. I am just taking them off the shelf, dusting them off, and letting them play with some of the people from my shelf. I promise to put everything back where I found it when I am done.

Pairings:  I promise it will be Wes/Fred and C/A, you are just going to have to wait a bit.

Distribution:  As far as I know, Hello World: Fan Fiction Is Fun, WesleyFred mailing list, Angelfic mailing list, Fanfiction.net, Bookish, A Whole New World, and Majiks World of Fan Fic.  Anyone else, ask first, please!

Author’s Note:  Chapter 5 is a little longer than normal and is something I would not normally write.  I have rated this chapter PG-13 because well, you will find out.  FEEDBACK IS NEEDED!!!!

Want to know when the next chapter goes up?  I am thinking of starting a mailing list.  Let me know if you want to join through posted or e-mail feedback.

Thank yous: To my wonderful Beta Readers, MeriBeth and Hannahs_mom.  You guys are greatest and you keep me in check!  If you don’t like this chapter blame them, they said it was good enough to post.  Just kidding, it is my fault for writing it, but they did say that it was okay.

Yellow – Chapter 5: Preterit Forgotten

by Annabelle

Angel walked slowly up the back staircase; not really paying any attention to what he was doing. He had to get to Cordy.  He had to see her, had to touch her, had to taste her.  He walked up the stairs with determination; not noticing that Evie had changed into her demon form and was following him.

Once he reached the floor his room was on, Angel started to walk faster.  The only thing standing between him and his goal was the door.  Turning the knob he threw open his door.

“Wow,” Cordy rolled her eyes at him.  “Drama king much?”

Angel did not say anything to her.  He saw that she was holding Connor.  He went over and took the baby from her and placed in him in the crib.

“Angel,” said Cordelia, sounding a little worried.  “Is there something wrong?”

Angel paused for a moment.  Then he turned around and looked her in the eyes.  “Yeah,” he walked to her and took her hand.  Then he leaned closed to her ear and whispered in it, “You have too many clothes on.”

Cordelia felt her cheeks go red but it only lasted for a moment.  She backed away from him and glared at him, “I see.  Well I guess Evie is feeling better.  I think it is time you go tell the others.”

“You talk too much,” Angel gave her a hard kiss to keep her quiet but Cordelia pulled away.

Now she was really mad.  She slapped him across his face with every ounce of force in her body.  “Wake up Angel!  Stop flirting with me and go tell the others.”

Angel put his hand to his cheek.  It stung and was sore to the touch, “What did you do that for?”

“Don’t play mister innocent with me,” Cordelia grabbed his ear and started to drag him to the door.

“Ow, ow, ow,” Angel struggled to keep up with her.  He had no idea what was going on.

“Get out of here and don’t come back until you have cooled down,” Cordelia pushed him out the door and slammed it behind him.  Once she had done that she slumped against the door and let her body slide to the floor.  A small tear rolled down her face.  She was not sure why she was so sad, but she guessed that it had to do with Angel.  Maybe somewhere deep down inside she had wished that it really had been him that kissed her and not Evie’s pheromones.  Shaking her head she stood up tall.  This was not the time for thoughts like that.  She paced around the room for a few minutes trying to shake off the thoughts and feelings that were swirling through her head.

Angel stood there looking at the door that had just slammed into his face.  He was absolutely and completely confused by what just happened.  His cheek still hurt and he rubbed it a little.  Well Cordy did say to go downstairs and tell the others.  He looked at the door again and then turned away and headed for the lobby.

“Angel,” Fred started to ask him.  “Are you feeling alright?”

“Fine,” Angel sounded a little frizzled.  “Cordy slapped me.”

“What!” Fred and Wesley said at the same time.

Angel shrugged, “Yeah that’s what I said.  I don’t know why she slapped me?  She said that I was hitting on her.  Why would I hit on Cordy?”

Wesley and Fred looked at each other for a moment and they could tell they were thinking the same thing.  “Were you talking to Evie before you were talking to Cordelia?”

“I don’t remember,” Angel shook his head.  “The last thing I remember was Cordy taking Connor to give him his formula.”

“Giles never said anything about memory loss,” Wesley looked at Fred.  “He only said that…”

Fred nodded, “I don’t know.  He did say that people went crazy.  But you remember what happened this morning.”  The moment she said it she regretted it.

“What?” Angel looked at both of them.  They were blushing.  “What happened this morning?”

“Nothing,” Wesley covered quickly.  “I mean nothing that you should worry about.”  He looked at Fred for a moment but she was not looking at him.  Wesley sighed, “Do you remember anything before Cordy slapped you besides her taking Connor?”

“I, there was something,” the words were at the tip of his tongue.  “I thought there was something but now…”

“I’m sure you will remember,” Wesley smiled.  “Why don’t you sit down for a moment, you look a bit flushed.”

“Evie,” Fred muttered under her breath.  “Hey, have either of you seen Evie lately?”  Both men shook their heads.  “Well I am going to find her.  I think you two should probably stay here.”  Neither of them protested so Fred headed up the stairs.

“Evie,” She called out knocking on doors and poking her head in.  There was no response.  She went up and down the hallway of the third floor.  Nothing.  Evelyn was not in any of the rooms.  Fred was about to head back down the main staircase to let the guys know that they all need to start looking for Evie when she heard a noise coming from one of the other staircases.

Fred approached the staircase slowly, “Evie?  Are you in there?”  She did not hear any other noises though.  “Evie, please come out.”  Still there was no response.  Taking a deep breath Fred pushed the door to the staircase open.

When she walked through though she was instantly knocked over.  Fred found herself looking straight into a pair of yellow eyes which belonged to Evelyn’s demon form.  The half Bastlian started to mutter something in a language that Fred did not understand, holding down Fred by her arms.  Then she let her claws out and they pierced into Fred’s skin.  For a moment Fred panicked and did not know what to do.  Then her whole body started to itch and ache.  The eyes of her friend seemed to burn into her and caused her temperature to rise.  Just when Fred thought that she could no longer stand it, she blacked out.

“I am sorry Fred,” Evelyn spoke in ancient Egyptian.  “It is for the best.”  The demon smiled with her sharp teeth bared.  “Besides, you might even have a little fun.”  Standing up quickly she jumped over the railing of the stairs and landed on a set of paw-like hands and feet.  She sniffed the air for a moment and then headed toward the lobby of the hotel.

“Did you hear something?” Angel asked Wesley looking around the lobby.

Wesley looked up from the book that he was reading, “No, but then you do have much better hearing than I do.”

“I swear I heard something fall,” Angel got up and started to walk toward the door of the atrium.  “Or thump.  But I couldn’t pin-point where it came from.”

“Do you think someone’s after Connor?” Wesley put his book down.  He moved to the weapons cabinet but before he could pull anything out something dashed in front of him and nearly knocked him over.  “Angel, it’s inside!”

Angel whipped his head around him expecting to see some demon bounty hunter but instead he saw something that almost looked like a large panther but with silver stripes and slightly human features.  “Wait, Wesley.  Isn’t that?”

“Evie,” Wesley whispered.

The Bastlian let out a loud growl at the two men.  Then she stood straight up on her hind paws.  She moved toward them slowly her tail swaying behind her.  Knowing that neither one of them would be able to move she came so close to Wesley that she could feel his breath on her fur.  A smile started to cross her feline features and then she extended her claws.

In a quick move she scratched Wesley across his left arm and then pushed him aside with her tail as she lunged at Angel.  Angel just stood there and watched her injure his friend. He tried desperately to move but found nothing could make him.

Evelyn extended her hand and stroked Angel’s cheek.  He nuzzled his face into her hand, not noticing that Wesley lay on the ground motionless.  Then, in the next moment, he felt a razor sharp set of claws dig into his skin.  Evelyn used her tail and pushed him to the ground in the same manner she had done with Wesley.  As Angel felt blood begin to trickle down his cheek, he heard Evie begin to speak in an odd tongue. 

“You are under my spell vampire,” Evelyn spoke in her dead language.  “It is much easier for me to manipulate males.  I can have you do my bidding before I even invoke Bast.  But I choose neither of you.”  Angel simply stared at her not understanding a word of what she was saying.  “The women that live here will only get in my way and will not allow me to answer the call of my maker.  So I will trust you and the man to keep them busy while I go out to find my mate.  Now you will do this task and the women will comply because they too will taste the power of the great goddess Bast.” 

Angel wanted to get up but he found he could not move.  In the next moment a wave of heat took his body.  That was when he realized that this was not the first time that this heat had come over him; only now it was stronger.  His whole body felt like it was going to burn from the inside out and his skin crawled.  A powerful yearning washed over him and pained him so much that his head started to spin.  He saw two things before his blacked out.  The first was Evelyn grabbing him under his arms and dragging him somewhere.  The second was Cordelia’s face.

Fred started to stir.  Her head felt all fuzzy, but she managed to sit up right.  Trying hard to remember what happened to her she found that she could not.  Standing up right Fred felt something stir inside her.  A heat had taken over her body and was making very hard for her to focus on anything but Wesley.  She could see him in her mind’s eye and it made her long to be near him and to touch him.  Just as she was about to head off looking for him she swore she could smell him nearby.

The scent of his body filled her nostrils and she followed it.  Following his aroma, Fred headed down the stairs of the hotel down to the ground floor.  He was there, she was sure of it.  When she rounded the corner she was proven right.

Wesley was lying on the floor with his eyes closed.  A wicked smile came over Fred’s face and she crossed the room to stand above him.  She waited for a moment but started to pout when he did not even try to open his eyes.  Deciding that he was not going to get up of his own accord, Fred came up with a clever way to get him to come to consciousness.

Straddling his waist she lowered her body on him and started to trace his jaw line with her finger all the way up to his lips.  Her smile deepened when she noticed that he was starting to come around.  She started to trail small kisses on his chest that was slightly exposed by his shirt.  She went up his neck again and then started to nibble gently on his ear, and that was what finally caused him to come to life.

“Fred,” Wesley breathed her name hoarsely.

“Shh,” she pressed a finger against his lips.  Then she replaced her finger with her lips and started to kiss him softly.

For some reason Wesley was not in shock by her actions and returned her kiss.  He used his tongue to part her lips and started to explore her sweet mouth; Fred let out a small moan from deep in her throat.

Fred felt as though she couldn’t get close enough to Wesley.  The clothes that they were wearing were getting in the way and it annoyed her to no end.  She began to unbutton his shirt and ran her hands along his chest underneath it.  In response Wesley wrapped his arms around her and then pulled both of them into something that resembled a sitting position.  They did not break lip contact, for fear of suffocating if they did.

Wesley was starting to feel the same need that Fred did to get rid of their clothes but something dawned on him.  Angel and Cordelia were still in the hotel and Giles and Gunn would be returning soon.  He did not want to be interrupted again.  Slowly he started to stand up, pulling Fred with him and still kissing her, allowing his hands to roam her body.  As they rose he became entranced with a small soft spot at collarbone and when he kissed it Fred let out a squeal of delight.

“What are we doing?” Fred asked him between pants as he attacked her neck.

“Moving,” Wesley moved his assault back to her lips, enjoying the little moans that she made as he did so.  He picked her up and she started to giggle a little against his lips.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and legs around his waist.

“Hurry up then,” she whispered in his ear.  “The door does lock doesn’t it?”  She started to nibble on his ear again.

Wesley let out a low growl into her neck and carried her in a hurried walk to the office.  Opening the door quickly he let her slide down him as he closed and locked it.  The next second chaos broke in the office and clothes went flying in every which direction.

From her perch on the staircase Evie watched the shadows of the two humans for a moment then remembered that she had yet to turn Cordelia.  Angel would wake soon and find her and if that happened before Cordy was entranced it would mean that she would have to start everything from square one again.  She checked the door of the room that she had dragged Angel up to and made sure it was locked.  Then she raced up the stairs to where she knew Cordelia was.

Cordelia had been almost totally ignorant to happenings on the floors below her.  She knew that Evie had recovered for the most part.  Sighing, she half smiled.  For a moment she had thought that Angelus had come back but she now knew that everything was safe.  That was when she heard the door handle jiggle.

Picking up a weapon that lay nearby, Cordy stood in front of the door ready for whatever was on the other side.  She watched as the knob started to turn and felt her body tense up.  Nothing though could have prepared her for what came bursting through the door.

One moment she was on her feet then the next she was on the ground.  Looking up she saw a cat like creature, which she knew from her visions, was Evie.  The half Bastlian hissed a little at her and then dragged a single claw across her skin cutting her shirt.

“Hey,” Cordy struggled against the demon.  “We are supposed to be on the same side.”

Evelyn started to recite her invocation of the goddess Bast and watched as Cordelia’s body reacted in the same manner as the others.  Once the girl had stopped twitching, Evie stood up.  She looked down at the now unconscious Cordelia and let out a small chuckle.  Now the only two she had left to deal with were her father and the strange man.  They would pose no problem and would be the key to letting her out of this place.  After all she could not leave unless she was allowed to.  Part of the rules of the game.  A game that had been lost to people for generations, but Bastlians knew on instinct how to play it and how to trick others into allowing them to do so.

Cordy shook her head at first when she woke up.  Then she opened her eyes and looked into the darkened pair that belonged to Angel.  Her first instinct was to close the distance between them.  She stood and moved to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling his face closer to hers.  She paused for a moment when he pulled back.  Then he grasped her waist and pulled her to him and covered her mouth with his.

The world around them seemed to fade away; the only thing that mattered was them.  They kissed each other with a burning fever and passion.  They were dizzy from wanting each other so badly.  They moved as one toward the bed, clothes slowly falling to the floor.  Then something shook the world that they had moved into.  A small cry coming from outside the bubble that they created around them pierced their ears.

Connor was crying because something was trying to take him away.  Something had told him that he needed be very quiet because his dad was busy and he was going to be put somewhere so that his dad could have some private time.  But the something was a stranger.  The keen sense of smell that babies had, because their vision was not clear in the first few months in life, told him so.  This something was doing bad things.  So Connor cried.

Angel and Cordelia looked to the baby just in time to see the large cat demon race away from the cradle and out of the room.  At first they did not know what was going on.  They had no idea what they had been doing or what the creature was.  Then it hit them both at the same time.

“Evie,” Angel whispered.  “She was trying to get Connor out of the room so he wouldn’t…” Angel looked at Cordelia and together the realized the second thing that Evelyn had tried to do.  Blushing he averted his gaze quickly.  “Clothes, then we go after her.”  He heard Cordelia agree and they started to dress.

Evelyn raced downstairs to the lobby of the hotel room.  Jumping sometimes from floor to floor in order to move faster.  Once she was safely downstairs, she listened.  Angel and Cordelia had not followed her yet.  She still had time.  Wesley and Fred were still very much involved with each other and nothing was going to stop them.  Then the familiar scent of her father hit her.  He was just on the other side of the door.  She fled to hide so that she would not be in direct sight of the people standing at the door.

“We’re back,” Gunn called out as he stepped into the lobby.  Then he saw a flash of fur flying toward him.

Evie pounced on him and knocked him to the ground.  She knocked Giles over the head with her tail as she and Gunn fell to floor.  Once she sensed that her father was out cold she sniffed Gunn.  He was staring at her unmoving.

“You could be of some use to me,” Evie was still speaking in Egyptian.  “My mate will be able to find me more easily if I am excited.”  She smiled down at him and started to lick and nibble his lips.  Hearing Gunn let out a moan she laughed.  “You will find that I am very good at this.”

Gunn’s breathing started to become uneven.  Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew what he was doing was wrong but he could not stop himself.  He let her torture him and started to allow himself to relax.  His hands started to move across her body without him even willing them too.  He found the little purrs and growls that came from her excited him even more and made him lose total control over his thoughts.

Then he heard someone calling to him from the staircase.  Evie let out a roar and leaped off him and out the door.  Gunn wanted to follow her.  His body was now begging for her.  He almost started after her when he tripped over Giles who was starting to wake up.

“Gunn, Giles!” Cordy ran to help them.  “Are you guys alright?”

“Fine,” Giles muttered.  “Bloody fine.”

“I…” Gunn started to speak.  “I dunno.”

“Yeah,” Cordelia sympathized with him.  “Evie put her pheromone mojo on Angel and me too.”

“It was…” Angel tried to form words but they would not come.  Instead he shifted the weight of his son in his arms.

“Well, we’d better go after her,” Giles said.  “I don’t want her to get too far.  She will act on instinct and go to the safest place that she can find.”

“What do you mean?” Angel asked him.

“The Council,” Giles sighed.  “They trained her to seek out a safe place to mate.  Somewhere that will offer a lot of protection and privacy.  She will be able to locate any place like that just by her senses.  Then she can start calling for her mate.”

“Umm,” Gunn looked at Angel and Cordelia then back Giles.  “She wouldn’t be able to say sense a Sanctuary Spell, would she?”

“Yes,” Giles rubbed his head.  “And that is exactly the place that she would be head for.  Why?”

“Cause we know where she’d be going,” Gunn grimaced.

“Well where?” asked an impatient Giles.

Angel gave the group a worried look, “Caritas.  She would probably head straight for it.  It is the only place around here that has that kind of spell.”

“Let’s get going then,” Giles picked up the bag of magical items he had dropped when Evie knocked him over.

“Lorne is going to love this,” Cordelia rolled his eyes.  “Let’s just hope we don’t blow up his club again.”

“What?!” exclaimed Giles in a panicked voice.

“We have had a few run-ins with not so nice people there before,” Angel explained.  “It is a long story.  We’d better get going.”

They were just about to head out the door when Angel realized two things.  One he was still holding his son.  The other was that Wesley and Fred were not with them.  “We need to find Fred and Wes,” Angel told the others and they all froze in their tracks.

“Oh dear,” mumbled Giles.

“They are probably,” Gunn started speak but stopped.  “Well I am not going to find them.  Giles you go.  You got that magic stuff that will counter act the pheromones.”

“I’d rather not,” Giles shook his head.  “I’ve already walked in on them once.”

“Don’t look at me,” Angel protested.  “I have Connor.”

Cordelia shook her head.  “You men are such babies.  Give me the magic goo and I will throw it at them.”

Giles handed her a small bottle of liquid.  “You don’t really need to through it at them.  Just have it break some where near them so that they will be exposed to the fumes.”

Taking the bottle in hand Cordelia looked at Angel, “Where are they?”

“The office,” Angel’s eyes motioned toward it for a second and then he looked away.

Cordelia glared at him then marched over to the door.  Taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes she tried to turn the knob.  “It’s locked!” she called out to the others.

“Then uncork the bottle and roll it under the door,” Giles instructed her.

Cordelia did as she was told.  On the other side of the door she could hear soft moaning and an image started to come to her head but she quickly banished it.  All of sudden the moaning stopped.  Walking quickly to where the others were standing she waited to see what would happen next.

Out of the office came a rather flushed but full clothed Wesley and Fred.  They seemed a little confused but happy then they saw the crowd at the door and frowned.  Fred let out a little gasp and started to blush.

“Hello,” Wesley managed to say in an even tone.

“Come on Wesley,” Giles did not have time for them to be embarrassed.  “Evie is out and about and looking for a mate.  We have to go find her.”

“I’m going to then,” Fred spoke with assertion.

“But Fred,” Angel started.

“No,” said Fred.  “I have to be there for her.  Someone else can stay with Connor or you can take him to Lorne, but I have to try to help.”

“Well we are just going to Caritas,” Cordelia tried to offer some comfort to Angel.  “He will be safe there.”

“Decide now,” Giles was starting to panic again.  “We have to hurry.”

“Alright we will take him,” Angel gave him.  He knew that if it were Connor out there he would be just as worried as Giles.  They safely packed Connor into his car seat and rushed to Caritas; hoping that they could get there before Evie had a chance to find a mate.