+    The Test - Part Two    +

Title: "The Test"
Author: Sadira Jewelsten
Summary: A enemy of Angel's from the past, comes back in search of the Gem of Amara. He takes Cordy hostage and an old friend of Cordy's saves her life.
Rating: PG
Feedback: Feedback is greatly encouraged! E-mail me at: anyacordyemchase@yahoo.com
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT own any of the characters from "Angel". They belong to Warner Bros. The only character I own is Amy who is Angel's daughter.

* * *

"Fine. Have it your way then," Daniel replied. He turned towards Cordy and said, "You're coming with us, young lady."

"Angel!" Cordy screamed in terror as the vampires dragged her to the window. "Do something!"

"Cordy, hang on!" Angel replied as he raced towards her, but he was too late. The vampires had disappeared and they had taken Cordy with them. Meanwhile, Fred had come to.

"What happened?" She whispered. "Is Amy okay?" Angel nodded and rushed over to her.

"Yeah. Amy's fine. Let's get you cleaned up."

"Where's Cordy?" Fred asked in concern. Angel didn't answer her. He didn't want Fred worrying about Cordy and herself at the same time. After he had inspected Fred's wounds, he carried her downstairs and laid her on the couch.

"Where's Cordelia?" Wes asked in concern as Angel handed Amy to Gunn.

"They took her as a hostage," Angel said finally. "And it's all my fault."

"Don't say that," Gunn assured him. "It wasn't your fault." Angel sighed as he took a look at Fred's wounds and tried to fix them as much as possible. He applied ointment to one of her many cuts and put a band-aid on one of them. As he put the ointment back on the shelf, he slammed his fist on the table.

"Hey, hey," Gunn said gently. "Don't worry, man. We'll get Cordy back. And besides, you taught her how to defend herself. She'll give them a run for their blood." Angel didn't laugh.

"Not with her ankle sprained," Angel reminded him. Gunn nodded.

"Oh. I forgot about that."

"What if she has a vision?" Fred asked, realizing that was the wrong thing to say.

"Cordy is more than capable of taking care of herself," Wes assured the rest of the gang. "She'll be all right."

"I sure hope you're right," Angel said quietly. "For her sake, I hope you're right."

* * *

Meanwhile on the other side of town in an abandoned building, Cordy sat on the floor, shivering and hoping that the gang would come to her rescue soon. She was in pain and more scared than she had been in Pylea. At least in Pylea she was known as a princess and could dictate orders to others, which was kind of fun. But here, she was under their control.

"When do you we eat the girl?" Morris asked eagerly.

"We DON'T eat the girl," he said sternly. "At least not yet. We wait for Angelus to come to save her, then while I fight him, you can eat the girl."

Morris snickered happily. He hadn't eaten all day and he was VERY hungry.

"Hey!" Said a familiar voice which Cordy recognized almost at once, "When do I get to eat the girl?"

"You," Daniel said testily, "aren't one of us. You will NEVER be one of us."

"Can't I prove myself?" She asked hopefully.

"There may be one way for you to prove yourself." Daniel replied.

The female vampire growled and came out of the shadows and showed herself. From her room-like cage, Cordy could make out her features well and she almost screamed with reassurance when she saw her face. There in a blue and pink striped outfit was Harmony Kendall.

Harmony was Cordelia's best friend from high school. She had come to LA before and Cordelia had told her to get out after they had had a big fight. Then she apologized and they became friends again. When Darla had come to the hotel and attacked Cordy, Harmony had come back to be Cordy's protector and it had turned out great. They had rekindled their friendship and stayed up all hours of the night talking and giggling which had left Cordy tired for work the next day.

Now she had apparently come back for some reason. But why? Cordy could tell that Harmony wasn't with them. The reason was, she had appeared from another part of the woods and Cordy had not seen or heard her since she come to this building. Now here was her chance for freedom.

"So how do I prove myself?" Harmony asked again, sounding interested.

"You can watch the girl for us until we get back from the hotel," Daniel replied.

"Oh goody!" Harmony said, while clapping her hands. "Guard duty." She growled in a playful way, which made Cordy giggle softly.

"I wanna watch the girl!" Another female vampire whined.

"No!" Daniel said sharply. This one," he said, pointing to Harmony, "will watch the girl. And that's final!"

The other female vamp nodded and frowned, obviously not happy with Daniel's decision.

After Daniel had led the others back to the hotel, Harmony made her way closer to the room where Cordy was. As she got closer, Cordelia shrunk back a little.

"Don't worry," Harmony assured her. "I'm full from lunch. I'm not gonna hurt you."

Cordy sighed with relief. Then she said in a shaky voice, "Go get Angel."

"Angel?" Harmony asked. "How do you know An-huh! Cordelia! Is that you?" Cordy nodded and came out of the shadows, trying to walk on one knee.

"Yes. It's me. Go get Angel, please."

"I didn't know they captured you. I was thinking of coming back to the hotel to see you before I left for Sunnydale."

"You were?" Cordy asked. Harmony nodded.

"So did Marilyn Monroe Went Wrong have her baby yet?" Harmony asked, referring to Darla. Cordy nodded and giggled.

"Yes she did. She had a perfectly healthy happy baby girl. Angel named her Amy." Harmony nodded.

"Well good for him." Cordy nodded.

"Yup. Amy's a cute one all right. She loves me to death."

"I'm sure," Harmony agreed. "I wanna meet her."

"You can if you get me out of here," Cordy said. "So how did you know what was going on?" Harmony shrugged.

"I was looking for the train station and I overheard some vamps talking about crashing a hotel. I listened in to see if they were talking about the Hyperion, but I didn't hear them mention your name or Fred's so I stopped eavesdropping. Then I figured out I had to come this way to get the train and that's when I saw them around the fire talking about how they had tricked some vampire with a soul and stolen one of his friends. That's when I was sure it was either you or Fred."

"So when you said when do I get to eat the girl . . ." Cordy guessed.

"I was just playing around so they would think I really was part of their group."

Cordy nodded, remembering how the other vampres had treated Harmony before when she had first deceived them. They knew she wasn't their kind and had almost chased her through the streets of LA.

"Come on," Harmony said, getting up. "I have an idea." Cordy nodded, ready to try anything. Just then, Harmony heard Daniel's voice coming from the outside.

"Well did you do your job?" He asked, his head poking in the doorway.

"Yes," Harmony lied. "She's right here and she's looking tasty." Just then, Cordy started feeling dizzy. Her hand flew up to her forehead and she screamed out of pain. "It's okay," Harmony whispered. "Hang in there. What do you see?" Cordy didn't answer at first.

Then a few minutes later, she said breathlessly, "We have to get out of here now! They're not only gonna kill me, they're gonna kill you too."

* * *

The gang sat quietly back at the hotel, planning an attack.

"I say we barge in." Gunn said looking around.

"No," Wes said. "And besides, we don't even know where they've taken her."

"So, the first thing we should do is find out where they took Cordy then work out an attack." Fred said calmly.

"There's one thing I forgot to tell you about Daniel," Angel said grabbing their attention. "I won't be able to fight him alone."

"You won't have to," Gunn told him with a smile. "We're here."

"You don't understand," Angel continued. "Daniel is much stronger than me already because he's a warlock."

"Warlock?" Gunn whispered to Wesley.

"Male witch." Wes replied.

"So even with you guys, we still won't be able to fight him-"

"Especially with all his vamp buddies." Gunn said finishing his sentance. "So where are we gonna find someone who is as strong as you, and who will be willing to help us?" Gunn asked sighing. The gang fell silent. Then Wesley broke the silence.

"I think I know someone who might be able to help." Wes replied.

"Who?" Fred asked.

About a half an hour later, the gang entered Caritas to find Lorne eating potato skins and drinking punch from a goblet. Fred followed the boys with Amy in her arms.

"Hey you guys! What's up?" He asked.

"Nothing much," Gunn replied.

"Except for the fact that Cordelia got kidnapped and there's an evil warlock-vampire after Angel." Fred said with a worried look on her face.

"What happened?" Lorne asked, fearing for his friend's life.

They told him the story and then Angel said, "So can you help us?"

"I'll try," Lorne said. "So where did they take Cordy?"

"That's something we are still trying to figure out." Wes replied. "I'm assuming somewhere abandoned and not so obvious." Lorne gasped.

"I got the place," he said. "Follow me." The gang nodded and followed Lorne out of the karaoke bar and down a street. Angel was following after Gunn hoping that they would find Cordy in time.

* * *

Back at the abandoned bulding, Harmony was trying her best not to panic. Cordy's vision had revealed a scary but suspected truth. The vamp-gang didn't like Harmony from the beginning because she was on the good side now and had helped the Scooby Gang kill some of their kind. Harmony knew this, but it wasn't going to stop her from saving Cordelia.

"What are we going to do?" Cordelia asked. Harmony shook her head.

"No. Not at the moment."

"I think I have an idea," Cordy said. "Follow my lead." Harmony nodded. "You good for nothing two sided vampire creep!" Cordy shouted, pretending to be angry. "Just try and sink your teeth into me."

"What am I supposed to do?" Harmony asked.

"Just play along," Cordy whispered. Harmony nodded and growled the kind of growl that made Cordy giggle. She did it again, and Cordy got back down to business. Outside the door, Daniel was pleased, but the other vampires were angry.

"She's trying to eat the girl for herself," the female vampire said. "Stop her!"

"She is not with us," Daniel concluded angrily. "I knew it from the beginning."

"How did you?" The male vamp asked.

"I stayed behind and watched how she interacted with the girl. They are friends. Long time friends."

The vampires nodded and soon they were angry as well. Meanwhile inside the building, Harmony and Cordelia were now giggling like crazy. The plan had worked. Now the only thing left was to get Cordy out of there.

"I think they fell for it," Cordy said with a giggle. Harmony nodded.

"Yup. And why do you giggle every time I growl like that?"

Cordy shook her head.

"I don't know. I guess it's because when you're playing around, it sounds like soda is gonna come out of your nose." Harmony nodded and then started laughing.

"I guess you're right."

"Now it's time to get out of here."

"Think again," Daniel said with a growl. "Nobody's going anywhere." Then he turned to Harmony. "You were never one of us. But it was wrong to trick us. Now you have made us VERY angry." Harmony nodded.

"Yeah, well you wanna know why I did it? I did it because you guys will believe anything. And one more thing, if you touch her-" She vamped out. "You'll have to deal with me." Daniel nodded and smiled. This amused him. Harmony wasn't a challenge for him at all.

"You are no challenge for me," he said with a grin. "I can kill you like that." This made Harmony shiver a little bit. Just then, another vampire came in looking scared.

"Daniel, sir, Angelus is here. And he has friends with him. They killed three of us already." Daniel nodded.

"I'll be right back. I have to go greet some very special guests." Cordy shuddered and hoped and prayed that they didn't bring Amy with them because Angel couldn't find a baby-sitter.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .