Eve sleeps beside him, her head pillowed on his shoulder, exhausted from their reunion sex. Lindsey stares at the glyphs decorating the walls of the room, feels them itching on his body, and strokes his hand along her shoulder, unable to sleep.
His plan is in motion, everything going well despite a few glitches. Spike's whole again and the thorn in Angel's side. Angel's stupidly right in the wrong place.
A few more nudges and twists and Lindsey knows everything will come together and he'll finally have the power he needs to survive.
He gave up the keys to the kingdom, tried running from Wolfram & Hart, was willing to live without the power, but the Senior Partners kept trying to kill him, so finally he decided to turn the tables on them, and take over.
That he gets to destroy Angel in the process is a great bonus.
~~~~~
Slumped into a corner of the dingy restroom in a deserted gas station, head pressed tightly back to the wall, Lindsey gasped harshly for air. The pain in his shoulder was only surpassed by that in his opposite thigh. That leg was stretched out in front of him, most of it numb and useless except for the site of the wound which burned and throbbed, making him want to scream. When he finally found the nerve to look at it, he hissed and flinched from the gory sight.
The deep scrapes down his shoulder wouldn't kill him, but the hole in his thigh might.
He knew enough to realize the demon missed his femoral artery or he'd be dead already, but he wouldn't last long without medical attention.
Fumbling in the pocket of his torn and faded jeans, he pulled out a cell phone and placed a call.
*****
"You were lucky, very lucky. A half inch this way..."
Lindsey glowered up at the unlicenced doctor, wincing as the needle poked in and out of his only half-anaesthetized flesh. "Yeah, I know." As the doctor fell silent, Lindsay flipped open his phone and thumbed through the list of contacts.
There was only one left after this guy.
He didn't dare meet anyone twice in case they were being followed. In three months he'd gone through three dozen beings who'd helped him hide, patched him up, or provided him with supplies. Lindsey never thought Wolfram & Hart would put this much effort into punishing him.
Actually, he never thought they'd come after him at all. Maybe it was impossibly naive, but he had believed they'd let him go free and clear.
He snorted indelicately at the thought, then grunted as the sutures in his leg pulled tight. "Will I be able to walk on that?"
The doctor's eyebrows went up in disbelief, then he sighed and dug in his bag for a small bottle of pills. "If you take these, one every four hours, you'll have twenty-four hours where the pain and weakness will be inconsequential, then you'll crash for a week to ten days."
"I don't have a week to ten days," Lindsey retorted, but took the pills and the bottle of water the doctor handed him. Swallowing one of the little red ovals, he waited impatiently for the pain to fade.
*****
Twenty-four hours later, Lindsey was near the Canadian border of Minnesota, holed up in a cheap motel on nearly the last twenty bucks to his name. The pain was back, he couldn't move his leg, and the porn on the television was well below his standards.
Mirthlessly he figured that if he was going to die in this flea- bitten hotel, he should at least die happy.
He'd paid for a week's use of the room, stocked up on non- perishable supplies, and thought he could make it for seven days.
Though it had dimmed a lot over the last few months, he still had hope that he would come out of this alive. Rationally, he knew the demons and sorcerers and god knows what else his former employers had sicced on his trail would find him sooner rather than later, but he swore he wouldn't go down without a fight and he'd do his damnedest to survive.
Anyway he could.
Eating a bite of ham and cheese sandwich, he thumbed to the final entry in his phone again and wondered if he should really risk contacting someone in the belly of the beast.
*****
Four days later when he got word through a rather interesting chain of humans and friendly demons and one spy in Chicago's branch of Wolfram & Hart, that he had less than a day before the bad guys closed in on him, he made the call and wondered if this was the end.
*****
She was...not what he expected. Petite, scrawny even, with an angular face and rather interesting eyes. Dressed in Marc Jacobs from head to toe--chiffon strapped dress, petite handbag, stiletto heels--with butterfly pins in her hair, she looked like she should be on Sex in the City.
Not be a liaison to the Senior Partners.
Warily he slipped into the booth at Dennys and waited for the waitress to pour a cup of coffee before speaking.
"Thanks for meeting me."
She smiled, all coral lips and white teeth and dead eyes. "You're welcome."
"So, just why did you come to meet me?"
"Why did you risk calling me?"
"You're my last hope," he replied cockily, hoping she couldn't see how desperate he really was.
"My employers want you dead. Actually, they want to make a very large example of you," she said conversationally, her fingers tapping lightly on her coffee cup. "Are you sure I won't turn you into them?"
"Nope."
At that, she laughed softly and sipped her coffee. "You intrigue me, Lindsey. First, that you'd actually say 'fuck you' to Wolfram & Hart and break your contract, and secondly, because you've actually gotten away with it for about seventy one days longer than anyone else in the history of time."
"Go me?"
"But you must be desperate to turn to me."
He didn't answer, simply sipped his coffee.
"So, what do you want from me?"
"Whatever you can give me. I need to hide. I need money. I need the demons off my back so I can heal, regain my strength."
She smiled again, this time her eyes twinkling. "Is that all?"
"That's enough."
"Is it?" Lifting her cup to her lips, the being known as Eve drank and watched him carefully over the porcelain lip.
"I don't want anything to do with Wolfram & Hart. I willingly gave it all up. They just won't leave me alone."
"No one gives it up, Lindsey, that's why they won't leave you alone. You can hide, sure, maybe even till your body gives out naturally, but what kind of life is that? I think I can offer you something else."
"Like what?"
"Take back the keys to the kingdom you threw away."
"I don't want that," he protested.
Eve cocked one eyebrow at him and smirked. "Oh, Lindsey, if you didn't want them you never would have lasted a day at Wolfram & Hart. They can be yours, the power can be yours. You were on the right track to running the L.A. branch and you turned that over to Lilah Morgan? She'll never make it. Oh, she has the ambition and the raw talent, but she has a weakness that will be her downfall. The seers already know her fate. And the others, both above and below her, may run things for a while, but you were the golden boy. You can be again."
Lindsey shook his head, though her words triggered something inside him that he wanted to deny. "I just want to survive."
"Well...I guess that's a start."
*****
Eve gave him the money to get out of the country, along with the name of a monastery where he could become stronger, faster, and more knowledgeable in the dark arts. The monks kept him hidden for nearly two years, and he healed and grew strong. He knew they'd let him stay there forever, but Eve's words were always at the back of his mind, teasing him with might yet be.
And her little notes of reminder never let him forget the possibilities.
It was early Spring when she arrived on his doorstep, still fresh and sweet looking, and Lindsey was a bit surprised at the passion that took them both.
Later, she told him about the Beast destroying the L.A. Branch, of all the deaths, of the Senior Partners' plans for Angel, and Lindsey felt something twist inside him.
"There's a void. You can step in."
"They're going to give the place to Angel?" he asked again, still unable to get past that.
Eve sighed and sat up, dragging the blanket around her shoulders as she turned to face him. "The apocalypse is nigh and all that. They want him positioned just so. You can turn the tables on that. It's time, Lindsey. Use everything you've learned in the last two years to bring him down and take over Wolfram & Hart's Los Angeles branch."
"I don't want that," he said, but knew his protestations were sounding more and more weak.
"You want to stay here for the rest of your life?"
"It's nice enough."
Eve snorted and dropped the blanket, baring her slender body. "I just can't see you as a monk, Lindsey."
He swallowed tightly and reached for her.
~~~~~
And so he gave in. Whether or not she seduced him into it, or he was bored, or wanted to get back at Angel, or really was lured in by the desire for power that never had gone totally away, it didn't really matter. When he magically painted the glyphs on his body and went through the rituals to hide himself from this world and all others, he knew he was committed.
Eve played her part. Hell, Lilah even played a role, delivering the amulet to Angel. True, Angel screwed that one up by giving it to Spike, but in the end it all worked out, and Angel is suffering, which is always a good thing.
The Senior Partners have no clue what was going on or who's behind it, and that's just the way Lindsey wants it to be until the time is right.
Soon he'll have what should have been his all along.
He just wishes he knew if he truly wants it.
End