Oracle hunting
ooc: Apologies again to everyone for being kind of absent lately. I don't have much of an excuse this time, other than the kittens are still demanding most of my attention. But Cordy has a storyline to wrap up soon, so it's time to shake myself out of this funk and get to writing!
An oracle shouldn't be this hard to find. Angel had been to them in LA lots of times in the past, hadn't he? Cordelia wished he'd taken her along at least once, so she would know better what to look for, but she supposed it didn't really matter. The oracles he used to talk to weren't there now, anyway. Thanks in part to her and her whole Beastmaster period, those oracles were dead.
Who knew you could kill an oracle? She'd always thought they were kind of like spirit guides or something else equally already-dead.
Whatever they were, they were impossible to find. Cordelia had been asking around everywhere she could think - even in some of the scrungier demon bars in town. That was something she'd be keeping to herself. She had a feeling most of the overprotective men in her life would have a fit if they knew she was going to those places alone. Her reasoning was, she was dying anyway, so why worry? In a weird sort of way, it was kind of freeing, to treat life like that. What was that song she was always hearing on Lindsey's country station? "Live Like You Were Dying" or something like that? It really wasn't a bad principle.
It had been a few days since her last dive bar expedition. She'd gotten a good tip from some horny demon (double meaning fully intended) about a possible oracle location, but hadn't had a chance to check it out yet. While she wasn't actively trying to keep it a secret that she was looking for oracles, there were some things she wasn't going full disclosure with Lindsey about. Like how she was following leads by herself. She knew he'd get all disapprovey and man-like and insist on going with her, and while she didn't have a problem with him helping her out, she wasn't sure taking a former employee of Wolfram & Hart to chat up an oracle would be her best move. Besides, part of her was still determined to fix this on her own.
This latest tip had Cordelia going to a part of town that made the bad part of town look like Beverly Hills. Not really an area she would normally wander into alone. At night. Unarmed.
She probably hadn't thought this through very well.
Too late to change her mind now. She was there, so she might as well get it over with. The demon's instructions had been clear enough, so all she had to do was find the bricked-up stone archway he'd described, then count ten rows down and five bricks over from the left, push on it (it was supposed to be loose) and some secret passage would open.
This was where not reading much was a disadvantage. Her lack of interest in books had caused her to miss the Harry Potter bandwagon, so she didn't notice how this supposed oracle doorway was awfully similar to the way people got to Diagon Alley in the Potter stories. If she had, she might have been more careful. Or caught on that maybe it was some kind of trap. The demon had been weirdly helpful, even drawing out a map for her on his cocktail napkin and asking more than once if she had any really expensive jewelry she could bring as an offering. Because everyone knew the oracles likes shiny things. Problem was, so do skeezy demons that hang out in skeezy bars.
Yeah, if she only read more, she might have avoided this whole sordid mess. She'd never imagined Harry Potter might one day get her killed. Or almost killed.
Oblivious to the setup, Cordelia hurried down the street, searching the walls on her napkin map for the one the demon told her about. She was doing a good job of staying alert... until she found the doorway. Setup or not, there really WAS a bricked-in stone arch on one wall of the dank, shadowy alley. Excited at the find, she let her guard down a moment too long, so engrossed in counting those damn bricks that she forgot where she was.
The demon was fast. Before she had time to sense that she wasn't alone anymore, there was a knife at her throat and warm, fishy breath blasting across her face as he nearly pressed his lips to her ear.
"Man, you must be one dumb broad. No one ever falls for the 'I know how you can find an oracle' line anymore!"
She winced at the rough voice in her ear and mentally kicked herself for being so stupid. She usually knew better than to trust guys like that. It just went to show how desperate she was getting for a solution to her problem. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Now she was going to die in this disgusting alley and no one would know where to look for her because she's been too pigheaded to share what she was doing with anyone. She hadn't even left Lindsey a note.
"Fine, you got me. But I'm warning you, if you kill me, you're going to regret it. Everyone knows where I am, and who sent me there, and trust me, you don't want my friends coming after you."
A total lie, of course. She may not be the best actress in the world, but she can do some damn fine lying if her life is at stake.
"Bullshit."
Okay, maybe she wasn't that good at it.
"Lady, you think I'm an idiot? If you had told anyone about this, you wouldn't be here right now, cause no way anyone with any common sense woulda let you come out here alone. Not unless they were the worst friends ever. So I'm thinking whatever it is got you so hot to find yourself an oracle is big and messy, and you're trying to fix it on your own. What you say, am I right?" He let out a soft laugh and she had to hold her breath to keep from gagging at the stench. "Yeah, I think I am. So why don't we knock off the lame threats and get down to business. I believe you have an offering with you that's of some... value?"
For a second, she had no idea what he was talking about. She was so wrapped up in trying to figure out how not to die tonight that she'd never considered he wasn't there to kill her.
"Offering? What... oh! You mean the necklace?" It was Harry Winston, and worth almost $20,000. She hadn't been too thrilled at the thought of giving it up, but the demon had been very insistent that she bring her most valuable item, otherwise the oracles would know she was holding out on them and wouldn't help her. Looking back, she really was an idiot. How could she not have seen through him?
"Yeah. Come on, give it over. Nice and slow now, I don't want to have to cut you. All I want is the diamonds. You did say it was diamonds, right?"
She closed her eyes and groaned inwardly. She really needed to watch how chatty she got.
"Right. Diamonds." She slid a hand into her pocket, moving slowly so she wouldn't freak him out, and pulled out the necklace. God, this sucked. Giving it to an oracle would have been bad enough, but losing it because she let herself walk right into a mugging was just too much.
This was when she got stupid. Again.
"Here," she said, holding the necklace out in front of her, just enough to the side that he'd have to lean forward to reach for it with his free hand. Hoping that meant he would have to move the knife away from her neck, so held her breath and waited. When he leaned, she made her move. The stupid one.
She thrust her elbow back, as hard as possible, hoping the surprise would make him lose his hold on her long enough for her to get away. All because she didn't want to lose that stupid necklace. It didn't even have sentimental value or anything - it was just really expensive.
The demon let out a surprised grunt at her sudden jab, but she'd underestimated him. His skin was thicker than a human's, almost like a kind of body armor, so her elbow didn't hurt him. No, instead it pissed him off.
"Bitch!" He lunged for the necklace again, tightening his hold on her enough that the knife sliced across part of her throat. Not enough to cut anything major, but it still hurt like hell. Lucky for her, all he really cared about were her diamonds, so once he had them in his hand, he shoved her to the ground and ran out of the alley.
"Ugh. Could I be any more of an idiot?" Cordelia grumbled under her breath as she staggered back to her feet, one hand clamped over her neck. She pulled it back once she was standing and let out a sign of relief. There wasn't much blood, which was good. The cut was probably superficial. She wasn't going to die tonight. There was a little bit of an adrenaline rush with that thought, but mostly she just felt stupid. Really, really stupid.
She would still have to explain it to people, but at least she wouldn't be lying when she told them she got mugged. And next time, she wasn't going to get her oracle information from demon dive bars. Or go anywhere without a weapon or two. Or maybe five.
An oracle shouldn't be this hard to find. Angel had been to them in LA lots of times in the past, hadn't he? Cordelia wished he'd taken her along at least once, so she would know better what to look for, but she supposed it didn't really matter. The oracles he used to talk to weren't there now, anyway. Thanks in part to her and her whole Beastmaster period, those oracles were dead.
Who knew you could kill an oracle? She'd always thought they were kind of like spirit guides or something else equally already-dead.
Whatever they were, they were impossible to find. Cordelia had been asking around everywhere she could think - even in some of the scrungier demon bars in town. That was something she'd be keeping to herself. She had a feeling most of the overprotective men in her life would have a fit if they knew she was going to those places alone. Her reasoning was, she was dying anyway, so why worry? In a weird sort of way, it was kind of freeing, to treat life like that. What was that song she was always hearing on Lindsey's country station? "Live Like You Were Dying" or something like that? It really wasn't a bad principle.
It had been a few days since her last dive bar expedition. She'd gotten a good tip from some horny demon (double meaning fully intended) about a possible oracle location, but hadn't had a chance to check it out yet. While she wasn't actively trying to keep it a secret that she was looking for oracles, there were some things she wasn't going full disclosure with Lindsey about. Like how she was following leads by herself. She knew he'd get all disapprovey and man-like and insist on going with her, and while she didn't have a problem with him helping her out, she wasn't sure taking a former employee of Wolfram & Hart to chat up an oracle would be her best move. Besides, part of her was still determined to fix this on her own.
This latest tip had Cordelia going to a part of town that made the bad part of town look like Beverly Hills. Not really an area she would normally wander into alone. At night. Unarmed.
She probably hadn't thought this through very well.
Too late to change her mind now. She was there, so she might as well get it over with. The demon's instructions had been clear enough, so all she had to do was find the bricked-up stone archway he'd described, then count ten rows down and five bricks over from the left, push on it (it was supposed to be loose) and some secret passage would open.
This was where not reading much was a disadvantage. Her lack of interest in books had caused her to miss the Harry Potter bandwagon, so she didn't notice how this supposed oracle doorway was awfully similar to the way people got to Diagon Alley in the Potter stories. If she had, she might have been more careful. Or caught on that maybe it was some kind of trap. The demon had been weirdly helpful, even drawing out a map for her on his cocktail napkin and asking more than once if she had any really expensive jewelry she could bring as an offering. Because everyone knew the oracles likes shiny things. Problem was, so do skeezy demons that hang out in skeezy bars.
Yeah, if she only read more, she might have avoided this whole sordid mess. She'd never imagined Harry Potter might one day get her killed. Or almost killed.
Oblivious to the setup, Cordelia hurried down the street, searching the walls on her napkin map for the one the demon told her about. She was doing a good job of staying alert... until she found the doorway. Setup or not, there really WAS a bricked-in stone arch on one wall of the dank, shadowy alley. Excited at the find, she let her guard down a moment too long, so engrossed in counting those damn bricks that she forgot where she was.
The demon was fast. Before she had time to sense that she wasn't alone anymore, there was a knife at her throat and warm, fishy breath blasting across her face as he nearly pressed his lips to her ear.
"Man, you must be one dumb broad. No one ever falls for the 'I know how you can find an oracle' line anymore!"
She winced at the rough voice in her ear and mentally kicked herself for being so stupid. She usually knew better than to trust guys like that. It just went to show how desperate she was getting for a solution to her problem. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Now she was going to die in this disgusting alley and no one would know where to look for her because she's been too pigheaded to share what she was doing with anyone. She hadn't even left Lindsey a note.
"Fine, you got me. But I'm warning you, if you kill me, you're going to regret it. Everyone knows where I am, and who sent me there, and trust me, you don't want my friends coming after you."
A total lie, of course. She may not be the best actress in the world, but she can do some damn fine lying if her life is at stake.
"Bullshit."
Okay, maybe she wasn't that good at it.
"Lady, you think I'm an idiot? If you had told anyone about this, you wouldn't be here right now, cause no way anyone with any common sense woulda let you come out here alone. Not unless they were the worst friends ever. So I'm thinking whatever it is got you so hot to find yourself an oracle is big and messy, and you're trying to fix it on your own. What you say, am I right?" He let out a soft laugh and she had to hold her breath to keep from gagging at the stench. "Yeah, I think I am. So why don't we knock off the lame threats and get down to business. I believe you have an offering with you that's of some... value?"
For a second, she had no idea what he was talking about. She was so wrapped up in trying to figure out how not to die tonight that she'd never considered he wasn't there to kill her.
"Offering? What... oh! You mean the necklace?" It was Harry Winston, and worth almost $20,000. She hadn't been too thrilled at the thought of giving it up, but the demon had been very insistent that she bring her most valuable item, otherwise the oracles would know she was holding out on them and wouldn't help her. Looking back, she really was an idiot. How could she not have seen through him?
"Yeah. Come on, give it over. Nice and slow now, I don't want to have to cut you. All I want is the diamonds. You did say it was diamonds, right?"
She closed her eyes and groaned inwardly. She really needed to watch how chatty she got.
"Right. Diamonds." She slid a hand into her pocket, moving slowly so she wouldn't freak him out, and pulled out the necklace. God, this sucked. Giving it to an oracle would have been bad enough, but losing it because she let herself walk right into a mugging was just too much.
This was when she got stupid. Again.
"Here," she said, holding the necklace out in front of her, just enough to the side that he'd have to lean forward to reach for it with his free hand. Hoping that meant he would have to move the knife away from her neck, so held her breath and waited. When he leaned, she made her move. The stupid one.
She thrust her elbow back, as hard as possible, hoping the surprise would make him lose his hold on her long enough for her to get away. All because she didn't want to lose that stupid necklace. It didn't even have sentimental value or anything - it was just really expensive.
The demon let out a surprised grunt at her sudden jab, but she'd underestimated him. His skin was thicker than a human's, almost like a kind of body armor, so her elbow didn't hurt him. No, instead it pissed him off.
"Bitch!" He lunged for the necklace again, tightening his hold on her enough that the knife sliced across part of her throat. Not enough to cut anything major, but it still hurt like hell. Lucky for her, all he really cared about were her diamonds, so once he had them in his hand, he shoved her to the ground and ran out of the alley.
"Ugh. Could I be any more of an idiot?" Cordelia grumbled under her breath as she staggered back to her feet, one hand clamped over her neck. She pulled it back once she was standing and let out a sign of relief. There wasn't much blood, which was good. The cut was probably superficial. She wasn't going to die tonight. There was a little bit of an adrenaline rush with that thought, but mostly she just felt stupid. Really, really stupid.
She would still have to explain it to people, but at least she wouldn't be lying when she told them she got mugged. And next time, she wasn't going to get her oracle information from demon dive bars. Or go anywhere without a weapon or two. Or maybe five.