"Find anything yet?" Angel asked Willow as he walked into the office.
Willow had spent all night looking for anything dealing with the ring they'd
found on the internet. So far no one had been able to find anything yet. It
was as if no such thing existed. 'She looks exhausted' Angel thought,
looking closely at the witch.

      "Nothing yet," Willow replied. "It's frustrating. I can find pictures of
the exact ring on here, but no one seems to know who it belongs to. . .all
they'll tell me is that it's a myth; doesn't exist. Which we know isn't
true. Hello, we have the ring, you know?"

      "It's ok, Willow," Angel said. "We'll find something. In the meantime, you
should really eat something and get some sleep. . .Wesley, Cordelia, and I
can look some more for now. You're exhausted."

      "Hey guys, I found something," Gunn called from the main lobby of the
motel.

      Angel and Willow glanced at each other before joining the others. "What'd
you find, Gunn?" Wesley asked, still holding the book he was reading
through.

      "Well it has a picture of the ring in here. . .it says it's called a 'fire
ring'. It's about three-thousand years old. The last time the ring was worn
was about nine-hundred years ago; by a demon called Vasar. No clue what he.
. .it was, though."

      Wesley quickly flipped through the book he was holding. "There was a
mention of Vasar in here somewhere. . ." he muttered. "Ah, yes. Vasar was
known throughout Europe and Australia as a most feared demon. Seems he had
some kind of special power that vampires and other demons worshipped. The
ring was his. . .signature. When he was finally killed by a Slayer over
eight-hundred years ago, the ring was lost."

      "Someone found the ring then," Angel said, glancing at the ring. "Wesley,
what kind of demon was this Vasar?"

      "No clue," Wesley replied. "It doesn't say what he was exactly and there's
no picture of him in any of these books."

      "We need to find one then," Angel said. "Maybe we should talk to the Host?"

      "Yes, he. . ." Wesley started to say, but he was cut off by someone
clearing their throat.

      "Hey guys, is this a private meeting or is anyone invited?" a familiar
voice said.

      All five people turned around to find Xander Harris standing in the doorway
looking uncomfortable. 'Figures that they'd all look shocked' he thought
'They forgot that people still exist in Sunnydale'

      "Xander?" Willow said in surprise, going over to hug her best friend.

      "Will," Xander replied. "It's been awhile. I thought you were going to call
us." He was trying his hardest not to be angry at Willow. . .but he couldn't
keep the hurt out of his voice that his best friend hadn't been keeping in
touch; and hadn't even said good-bye to him.

      I'm sorry, Xand," Willow replied. "I just. . .I needed to figure things
out. I was going to call, I promise. And anyway, how'd you find me?"

      Xander shrugged. "I've been looking for you for a few days now. I thought
maybe Angel had seen you. . .seems like a lot of people run off to L.A to
get away from things."

      Willow looked at the floor, not saying a word. She couldn't. Then it hit
her that Xander had a reason for coming here. "What's wrong, Xand?
Something's wrong, isn't it?" 'I know him too well' she thought.

      "Yeah," Xander replied carefully. "It's. . .God, Will, I don't know how to
tell you this. Buffy and Anya told me not to worry about it, but you should
know. . ."

      "Just tell me," Willow answered, taking Xander's hand in hers and squeezing
it. "What happened?"

      "It's. . .Oz, Will," Xander finally said. "He came back to Sunnydale to
find you. But something happened. . .a vampire attack that me and Buffy
didn't get there in time for. . .and he's dead."

      The room grew silent as Willow tried to take this information in. The hotel
grew hot and it seemed like the walls were closing in on her fast. 'How did
this happen?' she thought. 'He came looking for me? Dead...Oz is dead' "I. .
.I need to get out of here," Willow stuttered as the tears finally came. She
heard Angel and Xander yell her name as she ran out the front door of the
hotel, but she didn't turn around. She just kept running.
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 

      Angel tried to focus on the words he was reading, but his mind was
elsewhere. He was trying to find anything he could about the demon Vasar,
but he kept wondering where Willow was and if she was ok.  'I would go
looking for her but I really don't think I could be much help to her dust'
he thought as he glanced at the stream of sunlight coming through the window
blinds.

      He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't even hear Cordelia come
in the room until she cleared her throat. He jumped as he looked at her.
"Cordelia," he said. "You scared me."

      "Gee, someone was in brood mode," she replied. "I just wanted to let you
know that the new client I lined up? Called and rescheduled for first thing
in the morning."

      Angel nodded, going back to reading the book in front of him.

      "Not to be nosy. . .but is Willow the reason you're so broody?" Cordelia
asked. 'And I swear if he says no I'll stake him and put him out of his
misery' she thought.

      The dark-haired vampire shrugged, not taking his eyes from the book.
"Maybe, but not really. I just wonder if she's ok. It bothers me that she's
still gone. I want to go look for her, see if there's anything I can do, but
I can't exactly do that since it's the middle of the afternoon."

      Cordelia sat down in the chair. 'Damn, he didn't deny it and he actually
said more than three words' she thought. 'I'm going to push my luck' "Angel?
Can I ask you something?"

      "What is it, Cordy?" Angel replied, looking at his secretary.

      "Do you love her?" Cordelia asked bluntly, not letting Angel's gaze leave
her own. 'He *will* answer this' she thought.

      Angel thought for a minute. 'Do I?' he wondered. But he knew the answer
without even having to think about it. He did. "Yeah, I do," he answered
sadly.

      "Oh my god!" Cordelia exclaimed. "Does she know?"

      "Um, no?" Angel answered.

      "Why not?!" Cordelia asked louder than she needed to. She just couldn't
believe that Angel was in love with Willow and she didn't know it.

      "Well let's see Cordelia. . .Willow deserves a lot more than I can ever
give her. She deserves more than a boyfriend who's almost 245 years old, a
vampire, and who can't go out in the sunlight. And the fact that I could
never give her what she needs. . .a normal life. Plus I could never make
love to her or give her children. It kind of defeats it all. She'd be
sheltered from the world and I can't put her through that. Cordy. It's just
not right. She could never love me."

      "So what you're saying is that you love her but won't chance her getting
hurt by telling her? Angel, she probably feels the same way you do. . .you
don't see the way she looks at you. But Willow deserves to hear the truth.
TELL HER. It'll make both of you happy," Cordelia said.

      "What about the curse?" Angel asked. He really couldn't believe he was
discussing this with Cordelia, but it felt good to get it off his chest.
"One thing leads to another, Cordy. We both know that. I don't. . .I don't
know if I could stop it if we ever started going that far."

      "Couldn't? Or wouldn't?" Cordelia asked with a grin.

      "Wouldn't," Angel admitted. "I just wouldn't want to stop it even though
I'd have to. . .it'd be too frustrating for us both."

      "Angel, life's too short to worry about little things like that. . .I'm
going to prove that to you if it's the last thing I do," Cordelia said. "But
do me a favor: go find Willow if she's not back by sunset and tell her how
you feel. Make her happy, Angel. You have that power, trust me." With that,
she stood up to leave.

      "Cordy?" Angel said as she left the office. "Thank you."
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

      Willow glanced at the sky as she left the magic store. 'Sunset' she
thought. After she'd left the hotel that afternoon, she'd just been walking
around L.A. The news of Oz's death had shocked her. . .but she was ok with
it now. She wasn't crying anymore and she was surprised at how quickly she'd
dealt with it. But there was one image she just couldn't get out of her
mind: Angel.

      'I wonder what it'd feel like to have him hold me or even better, kiss me?'
she wondered. 'Oh stop it. That's never going to happen' Willow had come to
accept the fact that she'd fallen for Angel in the months she'd been living
with with him. But it hurt because she knew the vampire could never feel the
same way. . .or that even if he did, they could never do anything about it
because of his curse. It was just doomed.

      'A girl can wish, though' she told herself. The red-head was so caught up
in her thoughts that she didn't see the vampire that had stepped out of the
alley by the magic shop. It recognized her as the girl who'd been in the
alley outside the dance club the night before and decided to follow her.

      Willow heard a twig snap and whirled around to find the vampire. 'Oh god'
she thought. 'This is not good' She glanced around for a place to duck into,
but there wasn't any.

      The vampire smiled, showing his fangs. Then he charged at her. Willow
screamed and started to run, but the vampire caught her easily and threw her
to the ground. She fought against him, but her strength couldn't compare to
hers. She flinched and moaned as the vampire sank his teeth into the flesh
of her neck.

      "Willow!" she heard Angel's voice yell. by then the world seemed to be
fuzzy through her eyes. She felt the vampire pulled off of her as Angel
grabbed it and sent it flying. She tried to move, but couldn't. She heard
the struggle between the vampire and Angel and then she heard the vamp turn
to dust.

      "Angel...." she said quietly. She felt him next to her and he pulled her
into his arms. "It's kind of hard to see....."

      "Willow?" Angel said, gently shaking her. "WILLOW!" he screamed as she
passed out from blood loss in his embrace.

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