~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Is it safe to come out?” Angel asked, stepping hesitantly into the Hyperion’s lobby. “Is anybody going to shoot me?”
“They’ve gone back to Sunnydale,” Wesley replied. “Cordelia… Kathleen its at an audition, Xander needed to get some things from his apartment in Sunnydale, he’ll be back in a few days. Anya, have you met Anya yet? She’ll be staying here along with Xander.”
“And those were my friends?” Angel asked. “My Father always said my friends were trouble. Still the one that shot me actually reminded me of my father, he couldn’t have been my friend.”
“He’s not, you tortured him and killed his girlfriend,” Anya commented. “Giles told us all about it when we heard you’d gone evil again.”
“I don’t remember that,” Angel’s voice was strained.
“I guess it was some sort of prelude to your trying to have the world sucked into Hell,” Anya continued. “I suppose you were making up for lost time or something. Cramming a hundred years of chaos and destruction into four months. You know I never met you pre-curse, but I passed through Galway about two months after you rose. No one had gotten up the nerve to bury the bodies yet. Galway was a real ghost town, rotting bodies everywhere. I was impressed, a fledgling vampire who took out a whole town, your kind are usually much less ambitious.”
“You’re lying, I didn’t hurt anybody,” Angel said angrily, jerking the door open then reeling back from the burning rays of the sun.
“Angel!” Wesley called as the vampire hurried past him to the stairs.
“I didn’t kill them,” Angel yelled, running up the stairs, the bang of his door slamming shut echoed down the hall.
“Wow,” Anya commented. “That was new, Spike likes reminiscing about slaughtering and maiming.”
“Spike is still soulless,” Wesley said tersely. “He sees nothing wrong with what he’s done.”
______________________________________________________________
Angel paced restlessly about his apartment, Anya’s words stirred up ugly nightmares.
Memories of nights with his friends that seemed like any other, staggering homeward drunkenly, singing, laughing. Only he wasn’t drunk, he was watching them with a predator’s eyes, soothing their fears when they remembered that he was supposed to be dead. Most didn’t even question his presence, the scene was so familiar to them that it never occurred to their whiskey sodden brains that something was wrong. He remembered watching the game play out with dark satisfaction as they invited him into their homes. Then flashes of those same friends and their families lying dead, scattered about their homes like discarded dolls.
“No,” Angel groaned. “It’s not true, it’s not!”
Kathy’s face lighting up when she recognized him standing outside of her window.
“Liam, you came back!” she had exclaimed.
“I promised you I would. When have I not kept my promises to you?”
“Are you an angel?”
“Aye, sweet Kathy, your Angel. May I come in?”
Slowly Angel collapsed to the floor, curling into a protective ball, eyes tightly closed, the heels of his hands pressed against them, trying to block the images out.
______________________________________________________________
“Angel, you wouldn’t believe…” Cordelia began indignantly, bursting into Angel’s rooms. Seeing him on the floor, curled into fetal position Cordelia forgot her aggravation at the stupidity of the people who she had auditioned for.
“Angel, what happened, what’s wrong?” Cordelia asked, dropping to her knees beside the distraught vampire.
“Kathy?” Angel asked uncertainly, looking up at her, blood tears streaking his face. “My Kathy, you’re alive,” he said pulling Cordelia into a painfully powerful embrace.
“Angel… Liam, ease up, you’re going to leave bruises. It’s okay. It’s okay. Don’t worry, I’m okay,” Cordelia babbled nervously.
Angel tangled his fingers in her hair; he buried his face against her shoulder, rocking her to the comforting rhythm of her heartbeat. Kathleen’s living presence forced the nightmares back into the dark corner of his mind. Gradually he relaxed enough to allow Cordelia to slide out of his arms. Stubbornly Angel kept hold of her wrist, keeping his magic talisman near by. Kathleen was the proof that the nightmares were nothing more than nightmares.
“You’re okay now?” Cordelia asked. “You’re not going to freak out on me or anything?”
“I’m all right, just nightmares, nothing real,” Angel replied.
“Okay, that’s good,” Cordelia replied. “You can let go of me now.”
Reluctantly Angel released Cordelia’s wrist. “I’m sorry.”
Cordelia examined the bloodstains Angel’s tears had left on her shirt with a critical eye. “Buy me a new top and we’re even,” Cordelia suggested.
“For cert’s Kathy. I made a mess of your hair too. Here, let me fix it for you,” Angel offered. “Remember when you were little, I used to comb your hair for you because Anna always pulled it?”
“Uh, sure,” Cordelia said, giving Angel a skeptical glance as she fished a comb out of her pocket book.
Cordelia remembered her parent’s maid, Consquela, impatiently jerking a brush through her hair when she’d been in grade school, mutter angrily about how this wasn’t her job and why couldn’t Cordelia’s parents just take fifteen damn minutes to see that their daughter was ready for school.
Angel took the comb and started at the bottom, carefully working the knots loose, his touch was hypnotically soothing to Cordelia and she found herself sitting perfectly still, eyes closed focusing on the sensation. “You’re really good at this,” she said, after a few minutes. “My mom never did this for me, just Consquela and she hated doing it.
“Your mum was raised a lady,” Angel said reprovingly. “She couldn’t help being useless, but she loved you. She was even nice to me. Rachael had a kind soul, despite everything. She was too well bred to ever raise her voice to Father or laugh or play, and she was sick so often, it wasn’t her fault. Still I wish you’d know my mother.”
“She was almost as much of an embarrassment to Father as I was, but he loved her anyway, at least for awhile. She could get the old bastard to laugh and have fun with us. He called her his beautiful, wild girl and they loved each other once. I can’t see why she loved him but she did. She gave up everything she’d know to marry him.”
“What happened?” Cordelia asked.
“Mum was showing me how to fly a kite, it got away from us, ended up tangled in a tree. Mum climbed up to get it back and a branch broke under her, she fell,” Angel explained tonelessly. “Her family wouldn’t take her back and the priest wouldn’t bury her in the churchyard because she was a heathen. She tried so hard to be what Father wanted, she would go to church with him and I think she believed in God, but she couldn’t stop believing in her family’s gods as well. She would do little things by habit that told the priest she still believed in the Old Ones. He couldn’t abide her, called her a corrupting influence. He said it was God’s judgment on her as a pagan that the branch broke, that God had removed an evil from our village in taking her. I hated him so much.”
“How old were you?” Cordelia asked.
“Eight,” Angel replied. “If I’d been older I would have killed that self-righteous fraud for saying those things about her. I would have made him beg to die.”
“Enough Angel,” Cordelia interrupted. “Please don’t talk about wanting to kill people, it gives me the wiggins.”
A light knock at the door heralded Wesley’s arrival. “Um, excuse me, we have a client.”
“Paying?” Cordelia asked.
“Parents, their six year old son disappeared three nights ago. They found what appeared to be claw marks in the boy’s room,” Wesley replied.
“Let’s get to work,” Cordelia said, standing up. When Angel didn’t move to follow she said, “Come on, if you were healthy enough to freak everyone out with Miss Model, your healthy enough to do some work.”
“What do you want me to do?” Angel asked.
“Come down stairs, listen to the clients, look all serious and broody, it makes them feel better. Then we all do research, find the demon, Wesley gets knocked around a little, you kill the demon, we take the kid back to his parents, then we get paid.” Cordelia explained.
“Sure,” Angel replied. “I do this all the time right? And I get impaled on a regular basis.”
“You heal right up,” Cordelia pointed out.
“You’re quite good at this kind of thing,” Wesley added.
“I’m not good at anything, excepting getting into trouble,” Angel said. “This is real, a child’s life is at stake, you don’t want me involved.”
“Begging your pardon, Angel, but this is what you do, and there is no one I would rather work with,” Wesley said.
“Maybe your Angel does, but I’m not him,” Angel insisted.
“Then go fake it until you remember,” Cordelia instructed. “I know you can do it and a little kid needs you.”
Angel stared into Cordelia’s eyes for a long moment before sighing, “For you Kathleen, I’ll try.”
Together the three of them headed down to the lobby and the concerned parents waiting there.
“You have to call me Cordelia,” the girl whispered to Angel as they descended the stairs. “And you’re Angel.”
The couple sat together on the couch holding each other for support.
“I promise we’ll do everything possible to get your son back,” Angel said, taking a seat across for the couple. Cordelia perched on the coffee table and Wesley pulled a chair up to join the circle.
“You’ve already met Wesley,” Cordelia said. “This is Angel, and I’m Cordelia. Could you tell up what happened?”
“Richard LaCroy,” The man introduced himself, “This is my wife, Debra. Something took our son, Tyler from his room three nights ago. We found claw marks scratched in the hardwood floor and these scales near the window, I thought maybe the creature scraped them off coming through it.”
LaCroy handed the fingernail sized purplish scales to Angel. With a hint of uncertainty the vampire rubbed the scales between his fingers.
“These will be most useful,” Wesley said, taking the scales from Angel. “We can almost certainly identify the demon from these, which will provide us with a probable habitat.”
“Thank you,” Debra said softly, “You helped a friend of mine, Melissa Burns, she couldn’t say enough about how much she appreciated your assistance.”
“Melissa Burns?” Wesley said questioningly. “I don’t remember…”
“The lady with the creepy-takes-his-body-apart-stalker,” Cordelia exclaimed. “That was before your time Wesley.”
“Of course,” Wesley replied. “We shall begin investigating your case immediately Mr. and Mrs. LaCroy. As soon as we have any information we’ll contact you.”
“Thank you,” Richard LaCroy repeated, as he and his wife left the hotel.
“Demon database, here I come,” Cordelia said.
______________________________________________________________
“Well I have it narrowed down to five species,” Cordelia said. “A lesser draconian, a greater draconian, a sarcosie, a cleep or a jocnon.”
I doubt it was a greater draconian, they’re simply too large to picture them clambering through windows,” Wesley said. “And the jocnon is a slow moving creature, it catches its victims by setting traps not by hunting them down.”
“So that leaves the cleep, the lesser draconian and the sarcosie,” Cordelia said. “The sarcosie has to remain near water, we could have Gunn’s people scout the ocean fronts for demonic activities.”
“The cleep has fairly specialized feeding habits,” Wesley said. “It consumes marble as a vital part of its diet. Cordelia, you can check with businesses that might sell marble. See if they’ve had any unusual customers lately. That leaves Angel and I with the task of locating a lesser draconian. Unlike the others, it has no obvious tells, I believe we should check Caritas’ for any rumors.”
“What’s that?” Angel asked.
“Trust me, you’ll love it,” Wesley said.
______________________________________________________________
“I don’t know any of these songs,” Angel commented.
“You don’t know them normally either,” Wesley stated.
“Even if you did, it still wouldn’t be pretty,” The Host remarked. “Just pick something, anything.”
“How ‘bout I just sing something I know,” Angel volunteered.
“It would be novel,” the green skinned demon remark, then took the stage. “Okay folks here’s out good friend Angel, singing a song he actually knows.”
Angel took the mike without his normal reluctance. // “A match was made here last night, to a girl I neither loved nor liked.”// Angel sang, his long forgotten brogue coloring his words.
“He looks less miserable up there than usual,” The Host commented. “Doesn’t help the audience any, and the static hurts more than his normal embarrassment.”
//“But I’ll take my own advice and leave here tonight to rove the wide world over,”// Angel continued.
When the song was finished Angel rejoined Wesley and the Host. “You still can’t sing, but an A for effort,” The host said.
“Normally I only sing when I’m too drunk to realize how bad I sound,” Angel replied with a grin.
“I didn’t get anything about your case,” The Host said regretfully. “But a word of advice, you can’t unmake what’s gone before, and if you don’t stop trying it’s going to screw you up royally. You’re not that boy anymore, Angel.”
______________________________________________________________
Cordelia glanced around at the glum gathering in the Hyperion’s lobby with a smug smile. “We have someone ordering a whole bunch of cleep munchies,” she announced. “And an address where they’re being shipped to.”
“Excellent Cordelia,” Wesley exclaimed.
______________________________________________________________
“It’s empty,” Angel reported as he and Gunn returned to the car after checking out Cordelia’s address.
“Oh dear,” Wesley said fiddling awkwardly with his glasses.
“Could be a drop point,” Gunn suggested. “If so, our boy’s probably close.”
“So do we split up or check the surrounding buildings as a group?” Cordelia asked.
“Time may be of the essence,” Wesley said. “However, we should regroup before moving on our target.”
“Each of us takes a different street,” Gunn said. “We meet back at the car in fifteen minutes, if it’s no luck all around we move the car a few blocks and start again.”
______________________________________________________________
After two hours of searching, Wesley spotted both the boy and the cleep in a run-down office building. He hurried back to the car and waited impatiently for the others to return.
Cordelia arrived shortly before the agreed upon time, Gunn shortly after.
“It was an office building,” Wesley said. “Tyler LaCroy was looking out a fourth story window in the north-east corner of the building, the cleep was prowling about the ground floor. I’m still not certain what a cleep would want with a child, but I’m loath to delay. Where is Angel?”
“Late,” Gunn said irritably. “Well at least the kid’s out of the line of fire when we attack.”
“So we’re doing the all out frontal assault thing?” Cordelia asked.
“No, the kid’s the priority,” Gunn replied. “You see any way we could by-pass the demon, Wes?”
“The building had a fire escape, but the ladder was removed from the ground level landing.”
“Could the kid make it down if we use the car as a step?” Gunn asked.
“Yes, I believe so,” Wesley replied.
“Well we have our plan,” Gunn said. “As soon as Angel gets his butt back here, the two of us go through the front door and hit the cleep. Meanwhile, you two get the kid then pull back.”
“It sounds like a workable plan,” Wesley confirmed.
Twenty minutes after the deadline, with still no sign of Angel, Wesley and Gunn decided that they would go after the demon while Cordelia rescued the boy on her own. They’d worry about Angel after they’d rescued Tyler.
“Best of Luck” Wesley said as Cordelia scrambled from the hood of the car to the second story landing of the building.
“Go kick some demon ass,” Cordy called back down as she started up the rickety metal staircase.
As soon as Cordelia was on her way, Wesley and Gunn headed for the front door.
Cordelia broke a fourth story window and gingerly slipped into the building.
_____________________________________________________________
“What do you want?” the cleep growled as Wesley and Gunn squared off against it.
“We came for the boy,” Wesley proclaimed.
“Get your own sacrifice,” the demon said. “The boy’s mine.”
“Enough blabber,” Gunn said disgustedly. “Let’s just kill the thing.”
______________________________________________________________
“Tyler!” Cordelia called softly, peering down the dimly lit hall.
______________________________________________________________
The cleep charged the two men with a bellow, Gunn nimbly ducked under its outstretched claws and brought his sword around to land a blow against the cleep’s unprotected back, only to have the sword bounce harmlessly off it’s scaly armor.
The cleep ripped Wesley’s ax from his hands and smashed a ridged fist into the ex-Watcher’s face. Wesley dropped to the floor in a daze as the cleep turned to deal with Gunn.
_____________________________________________________________
“Tyler,” Cordelia said in relief, spotting the small boy huddled in the corner of the room. “You wanna go home?” she asked holding out her hand to the dark haired child.
“I want my mom and dad,” Tyler cried.
“They sent me to get you,” Cordelia said. “Or you could stay here and wait for the next rescuer to come along.”
Tyler reached out and took the proffered hand. “There’s a monster downstairs,” the boy confided.
“Which is why we’re leaving by the window,” Cordelia replied.
______________________________________________________________
As the cleep turned toward Gunn, Wesley lunged forward and grabbed its ankle.
The cleep toppled to the ground and Gunn lunged forward, driving the point of his sword through the creature by leaning his weight onto the pommel.
______________________________________________________________
Cordelia lay on her stomach on the last landing of the fire escape, using both hands to lower Tyler down to the hood of Angel’s car.
Wesley, returning from the fight with the cleep, reached up to take the boy from Cordelia.
“You took care of the cleep?” Cordelia asked.
“Killed him dead,” Gunn replied.
“See Tyler, no fears about monsters,” Cordelia said sitting on the edge to the landing. Gunn climbed onto the car to lift her down. “So what now?” she asked.
“Someone takes Tyler home, the other two will go look for Angel,” Wesley said.
“I’m not a babysitting service,” Gunn said.
“Okay, I’ll take Tyler,” Cordelia said.
______________________________________________________________
Cordelia was sitting in the lobby four hours later when Wesley staggered through the door supporting Angel.
“What happened?” Cordelia asked standing up. “Is he hurt?”
“He’s drunk,” Wesley said dropping Angel on to the couch.
“Oh come on, this is Angel we’re talking about. Maybe it’s a spell or something,” Cordelia said leaning over the pasted out vampire. “Okay he’s drunk,” she admitted gagging. “I’m getting loaded just off the fumes.”
“We might as well go home,” Wesley stated. “There’s no point in talking to him until he’s slept it off.”
______________________________________________________________
Angel woke up still on the couch in the lobby. Cordelia and Wesley were sitting on the other side of the table waiting for him.
“Hey guys,” Angel said groggily.
“Good morning Liam, Tyler LaCroy is back with his parents, the cleep was destroyed and none of us are dead… no thanks to you,” Wesley said.
“Doesn’t look like you needed me then,” Angel replied.
“That is hardly the point,” Wesley said coldly. “We were counting on you.”
“Then you’re insane, no one depends on me,” Angel said.
“Given your current behavior I can certainly see why,” said Wesley angrily. “I know you can be better than this. Who ever you were Liam, you have the potential to become someone whom I respect. When you’re ready to try to be the person you were, contact me, until then I’ll be going back to solo demon hunting.”
Angel watched numbly as Wesley walked out. “Kathy, I’m sorry,” he said turning to Cordelia.
“Don’t talk to me right now Liam,” Cordelia said. “I trusted you and you flaked on me major big time. I’m going home, we’ll talk when I have control over this incredible desire I have to dump a bucket of holy water on you.”
“I’ll make it up to you Kathy,” Angel promised.
“I don’t think you can,” Cordelia replied, stepping through the sunlit doorway.
Angel caught her arm. “Please Kathy, don’t leave,” he begged.
“Let me go,” Cordelia said coolly.
“I need you,” Angel said, not releasing her arm.
Cordelia took a small cross from her pocket and pressed it onto Angel’s hand, when he jerked back in pain she turned and walked out.
______________________________________________________________
“Are you an Angel?” Kathy asked.
“Invite me in,” the two-week-old vampire demanded.
“Meet me at the kitchen door,” Kathy instructed.
When Kathy saw her older brother’s form rounding the corner she abandoned the safety of the house with a happy squeal. Without hesitation the girl threw herself into his arms. “They said you were gone forever” Kathy whispered, clinging to him with all her strength.
“Invite me in Kathy.”
“Of course you can come in silly,” Kathy reprimanded him. “You live here.”
“Just what I wanted to hear,” the vampire replied, wrapping his fist in her hair and jerking her head to the side.
“Liam, you’re hurting me,” Kathy protested.
“You asked if I were an Angel,” he said. “And I am, a fallen one.”
“Li?” Kathy whimpered using her baby name for him as the vampire’s fangs sank into her throat. He could taste confusion and betrayal and love in her blood, in only a few minutes her body hung limp in his arms, an empty shell.
The vampire walked into his former home, carelessly dropping his sister’s body as he moved on to the night’s main event.
______________________________________________________________
Angel grabbed the phone, his hands shaking as the memories washed over him. Kathleen had taught him the right combination of numbers to reach her.
He sighed with relief as her voice fill the line, pushing back the memories. “Kathy, I’m sorry, please come back,” Angel begged.
“Please leave a message after the beep,” Cordelia’s voice instructed.
“I don’t understand,” Angel said, then jerked the phone away from his ear as a loud, obnoxious buzzing assaulted his ears. “Kathy?”
Only silence answered his questions.
After several minutes of pleading for Kathleen to talk to him Angel dropped the phone.
Concentrating he immersed himself in older, happier memories of his sister.
______________________________________________________________
“Li!” Kathy screamed happily, the three year-old stretched her tiny hands up to him.
With a grin the fifteen-year-old scooped up his baby sister. “Good day to you my sweet Kathy,” Liam said.
“Oh Liam, you’re always so good with her,” Kathy’s mother, Rachael sighed. “She’s been so exuberant all day and Margot’s had her hands full preparing for your father’s associates tonight. I swear I was never so rambunctious when I was her age.”
Kathy tugged at Liam’s shoulder length hair, demanding her rightful share of her brother’s attention.
“What is it, Kat?” Liam asked.
“Saw a mousy!” Kathy exclaimed.
“Did ya now? Did ya pounce on it, my little Kat?” Liam asked.
“I’m not a cat,” Kathy protested seriously.
“She chased it all over the house,” Rachael said. “Even stuck her hand in its nasty nest in the wall. I haven’t been able to turn my back on her for a minute. I need to dress for company, Liam would you be a dear and watch her for a few hours?”
“Of course Rachael,” Liam replied. His father wanted him to call her Mother, but Liam wouldn’t do that. Rachael never minded, she wasn’t his mother after all. His father might want to forget that Rachael was only a replacement, but Liam wouldn’t.
“Wanted to pet the mousy,” Kathy pouted. “It ranned away.”
“Mousies have nasty fur,” Liam told the girl seriously. “He was most likely ashamed to have you compare his coat to Mr. Samuel’s”
Kathy’s face lit up at the mention of the big tomcat that hunted the barn. “Kitty!” she demanded.
Why did I bring up the cat, Liam wondered. He knew he’d be a mess and probably sporting a few scratches by the time he’d captured the bad tempered tom for Kathy’s pleasure. With company expected, Liam knew what his father’s response would be if he were less than presentable.
“Please, kitty?” Kathy requested prettily.
“Aye, I’ll get you the kitty,” Liam promised. He was do for a whipping anyway on account of his poor performance on his lessons, he might as well go for broke. It wasn’t as if he ever pleased his father.
______________________________________________________________
“You told me I was nothing and I believed you. You said I’d never amount to anything. Well you were wrong,” the young vampire said, allowing the change to come over his features. “You see Father, I have made something of myself after all.”
______________________________________________________________
His father had tasted of fury and grief and terror, Angel remembered, but not love or betrayed trust that had been only Kathy.
“No, it didn’t happen,” Angel insisted. “Kathleen’s well and here and angry with me.”
“What’s happened to my darling boy?” a slight blond woman asked, entering the lobby.
“Who are you?” Angel asked.
“Who am I?” the blond purred. “You’ve forgotten Darla? You’re sire? Maybe the lawyers should have given Danny more credit, or was it the detective that’s done this to you?”
A flash of memory showed Angel this woman, standing in the pool of light cast by a street lamp, her long hair piled in a mass of ringlets on her head, wearing an old fashion dress, glancing over her shoulder beckoningly.
“I don’t know you,” Angel insisted.
“We’ll just have to become reacquainted,” Darla said resting a delicate hand on his chest. “This could be fun.”
Despite the woman’s desirability Angel found himself flinching away from her touch. Somehow this woman, Darla, called to all the ugly, half-remembered nightmares he’d experienced since awaking in this time. The scent of death and blood clung to her like a perfume.
“You’re afraid of it,” Darla said, pressing against him. “You don’t know how to control it anymore, so you’ve locked it away. It’s nothing to fear, it will make you glorious. Just let it free, the darkness will take all your fears, all your doubt, all your pain.”
“It’s evil,” Angel protested backing away from Darla.
“You always make things so difficult,” Darla sighed, pulling a dart gun from her bag and firing it at Angel. As the vampire collapsed Darla leaned out the door and waved for her confederates to help her move Angel’s unconscious body to the van.
As she turned to follow the two men out, Darla noticed the phone still off its hook, absently she hung it back up.
Note: The song Angel sings is “My true love” by Irish Heartbeat.
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