I'll Be Your Mirror

Cordelia put down the grimoire she was holding, and sighed long and heavily. "Uh, Fred," she paused, biting her lip, "I hate to say this, but I think we're gonna need _ like everyone for the spell."

"Everyone?" squeaked Fred.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry. But if there's someone in the building not inside the circle, the whole spell could, uh, collapse." Cordelia's eyes went soft with a bequest of tenderness and she inclined her head toward the stairwell. Quietly, she added, "We can wait for Gunn and Connor to return. And I mean, I'd totally go myself only - "

"No. It's fine," retaliated Fred, too quickly. "She's a bitch, yeah. But she's not completely unmanageable. Besides, lesser of two evils, right?"

Cordelia smiled weakly at her, but Fred was so tied up inside the maelstrom of her feelings over the recent revelation to welcome any of Cordelia's pity. She turned and walked up the stairs. Her heart was beating too fast, but she couldn't tell if that was the anger fuelling her boiling blood or something else. Like a release, a final acknowledgement of facts, of the power the other woman had over her.

She finally found Lilah in one of the rooms on the second floor. It was the room that Wesley had used once or twice, back in the days when he was actually welcomed into the Hyperion hotel. Back in the days, Fred amended, when he wasn't doing it with Lilah and didn't need to seek her out as the alternative. There were a few of his shirts hanging in the closet, six books by the bed. Spartan, just the way Wes had been with the truth.

Lilah had her back to her as Fred walked through the opened door. The reflected light from the streetlamps cast an eerie shadow around Lilah's body as she contemplated the view.

"Seen enough?" Fred asked from the doorway.

"Awww. Didn't know you cared, Miss Science Queen," Lilah replied, her back still turned.

"I wouldn't be here, only Cordelia needs you. For the spell to get Angel back."

Lilah turned and a smile spread across her face. She made a rah-rah movement with her hand. "Yay! Go Team Angel. White hats cleaning up their own mess. That's the kind of thing I like to see. Reactive not proactive. How very becoming of you all."

She walked toward Fred, and stopped right in front of her so their bodies were almost touching. "So sorry. Didn't realise it wasn't you that cared. It was really Cordelia all along. Knew she had a thing for me." Lilah winked and walked past Fred to stand in the doorway.

Like a hammer hitting a knee, Fred reacted. "We all heard something different."

"You did?" inquired Lilah, mild interest filling her voice.

"Why did you come here?" asked Fred. "To this particular room?"

"Great view," Lilah replied, smooth as silk.

"Of what?" Fred questioned. She slitted her eyes, willing Lilah to locate the source of her inner bitch so they could really have it out.

"L.A., dummy. City of Angels - or Angelus. Take your pick." Lilah sniffed and sighed and looked along the corridor. "Thought you were the Grade A student who _"

She snapped her head back toward Fred and caught her glare. Their conversation went unspoken for several minutes, until Lilah broke the silent battle and stepped back inside the room. She walked toward the bed and picked up one of the books.

She began riffling through the pages, until she spoke once more, her voice soft and compelling. "He used to read to me, you know. After all that great sex. He's got such a sexy voice, when he's replete. All deep and liquid metal and hits you right in the fanny. Makes you all melty. Can really see what you saw in him." She snapped the book shut and dropped it on the pile with a loud thud. "What I could never understand was what he saw in you."

"Likewise," Fred replied, quick as she could.

Lilah laughed then, her head thrown back, her throat exposed and undulating. Then she lowered her head, and a devious smile crept across her face. In one moment, she had crossed to where Fred was. Taking Fred's shocked face in her hands, Lilah whispered against her lips, "Maybe we should both find out. The great mystery_"

She plunged in, fast and furious as if willing Fred to leap back with the animosity of the embrace. But it was unusual and unexpected and Fred felt herself swimming and soaring in the feeling of Lilah's cavorting tongue as it explored its way around her mouth.

Too soon _ no way _ not that - Lilah broke off the kiss and stepped away. "Well," she said, running her fingers across her lips. "Unexpected."

"I hate you," Fred finally found voice to say.

"Not too keen on you myself, sugar," Lilah said, her eyes hardening.

Fred walked further away from Lilah, putting as much distance between them as possible. "God, you're such a self-righteous bitch who thinks she came come in here and walk all over everyone's feelings. You've got this gaping wound in your stomach and you still think you're the Queen Bee. I can't stand the fact that - "

"Did you love him?" Lilah interrupted.

"What?" Fred asked, her head bouncing back against the impact of the question. "Geez. How dare you even think to ask me - "

"Shame, then," replied Lilah. And she walked back toward the window, turning her back on Fred once more. "Good kisser. You've got that going for you. But something else isn't it? Something else you've got hiding that he loves. Certainly not the appearance." Lilah stopped and let out a strangled giggle. "No, absolutely not the appearance. No boobs, cheese stringy legs, glasses. Oh wait, no. It's gotta be the glasses."

"Just_" Fred began, tiredness and frustration enthusing her voice, "come down and join the circle for the spell. And the less I have to do with you the better."

"Anyway you wanna play it, sweetheart," rejoined Lilah, but Fred was out the door and clomping down the corridor, to drown out the words. To drown out the emotions pounding around her body like a crazy hellcat on wheels.

"That awful woman," Fred muttered as she raced down the stairs, "she deserves_"

As she reached the bottom of the stairs, Cordelia stepped up to greet her, an even smile illuminating her face. "Thanks, Fred, I knew I could rely on you," she said, softly and Fred's words were swallowed, as was her body, into a smothering embrace from Cordelia.

Lilah was nearly lost, banished from Fred's mind. So she drew strength from the embrace wishing for once that everything would return to normal, willing the cessation of her beating, pounding heart against Cordelia's shoulder, craving a world where life was simple and, amongst all the other complications she faced, a hell beast didn't strive for their demise.

Finis