Part Three
Pain.
Her arm throbs with it, sending shocks all the way up through her shoulder. The vampire’s presence echoes behind her, its malevolent intentions clear from how it presses against her back now that she’s fallen. It wrenches her injured arm around cruelly, making her gasp and arch off the floor to minimize the pain.
Fight through the pain. Must… I can…
She flips around, catching the vampire off guard as she punches with her other arm and spins to her knees. The female vampire staggers away several steps, stunned.
A pause. They catch their breath, reevaluate the situation. Crouched, battle ready, she cradles the injured arm against her chest.
This vampire will not be the one to get the better of her. It will not.
She presses her advantage, kicking the vampire full in the face. The vampire goes spinning into the back of the couch. Battle instincts take over. She uses the armrest like a hurdle, grabs the vampire, flips her over the couch and onto the coffee table. The table nearly shatters – the echoing sound of breaking wood.
Move, fight. Grab a piece of the table with your foot. Kick, punch. Spare a move to keep the one vampire off your back, go back to raining blows on the first one.
She smiles. She knows she has won. It’s only seconds now.
‘Cause no one messes with her stuff.
Liz was determined to make herself useful, to show her appreciation for Angel Investigations taking her in, giving her a place to stay, and trying to find out who she was and why there were demons after her. Since she could not pay for their help, she tried to repay in other ways. Like helping with the cleanup of the old hotel. Sure, the majority of the rooms would never be used, but there was still the possibility of some other frightened soul needing a place to stay. A little bit at a time she made her helpful presence known.
She hadn’t felt this good in…well, ever, that she remembered. Her dreams were still haunted by visions of running and fighting, but her waking hours…. She was productive. She reveled in her newfound feeling of accomplishment. And while she was not a part of the group she’d abruptly found herself with, she had gone from a prisoner, a hunted thing, to being treated like a person who mattered just because she was alive. Liz could not go back to captivity again.
So she ensured her welcome would last by helping where she could.
That night Liz was doing her best to do some cleaning of the lobby as the evening came around. Cordelia was busy on the computer, occasionally bickering with Wesley who hovered over her shoulder despite her protests, and neither of them took much notice of Liz. Which was how Liz knew that the search for her identity through missing persons reports had been completely fruitless. That wouldn’t have bothered her a couple of weeks ago, when she was still running. Then she hadn’t known the importance of identity.
Now, she’d gotten to know Cordelia, the young woman her age who could be remarkably mature and immature at the same time, who had visions and loved shopping and had made it her responsibility to transform a frightened girl into a friend. There was Wesley; a serious British man who seemed to possess an amazing amount of knowledge and a surprising, half-buried uncertainty. Also Gunn, who’d originally rescued her, and now was in and out with his strong, serious presence.
And Angel… well, Angel was a lot of strength and even more of a mystery. Liz was still trying to figure out what to think about him.
As if thinking about him had summoned him, Angel appeared on the stairs of the lobby. All the others came and went throughout the day, but Angel lived there. Not that she ever saw him before mid afternoon. Tonight, the sun was fully set and by the time Angel appeared he was obviously prepared for action. He was dressed in his usual long black coat, and Liz thought she got a glimpse of some massive blade underneath.
From where Liz discreetly watched as she cleaned a corner of the office, she could see Angel stop for a moment to speak to his two present coworkers. Liz stopped her scrubbing to listen.
“Any luck?” Angel asked softly, leaning across the counter.
Cordelia’s voice was hushed, and Liz pretended she could hear nothing. “No,” Cordelia said. “I don’t understand it.”
Wesley looked seriously at Angel. “Where are you going?”
“To see if I can’t find answers on the demonic end of things,” Angel said calmly. “Maybe I’ll find one of Liz’s hunters and figure out why he’s after her.”
Wesley nodded. “Good luck.”
Angel nodded back, then swept out the front doors.
For a moment Liz stayed crouched where she was. She watched and waited for Cordelia or Wesley to glance her way, but neither did. Silent, unnoticed, she hurried out the door to follow Angel.
She needed answers, too.
“Yeah, I like this town,” the Korwitch demon said, pausing to down the last swallow of his drink. He was small, green, scaly, had a yellow horn emerging from the center of his forehead, and was quite thoroughly drunk. And not just slightly inebriated drunk – one step away from passing out drunk.
He also talked a lot when he was drunk.
“You’re new here, aren’t you?” the demon asked. His words were hard to understand through the slurring and thick demon accent, but Angel managed.
“Mmm, came two days ago,” he agreed. He nursed a glass of blood, his vampire face firmly in place. “Why don’t I buy you another glass?”
The demon shook his head. “I shouldn’t.”
“Sure you should,” Angel encouraged, his voice higher than normal as one more part of his identity for the evening. “Hey! Another drink for my friend!”
“Ah, you’re a good one,” the demon said, taking a sip of his new drink.
“So, you’re doing well in the city,” Angel said conversationally.
“Hell yeah!” the demon replied easily. “The killing is easy, the money is easy…I like it!”
Angel grinned. “Easy money? I could use some of that.”
The demon chuckled and took another sip. “I’ll bet you could.”
Angel turned away from his blood for a second to give the demon a pleading look. “I don’t suppose you could, you know, give me a hint to get started.”
Even drunk the demon wasn’t that easy going. “Why should I tell you? What’s in it for me?”
“Free drinks,” Angel pointed out with an easy grin.
The demon laughed. “Ah, you’re not even competition for this money, anyway.”
Angel frowned. “Then it doesn’t hurt to tell me, does it?”
“It won’t do you any good.”
“I like a challenge.”
The demon looked at him seriously. “It’ll be a waste of your time,” he said. “I’m a tracker. That’s what my kind is best at. You’re just a vampire.”
“So?” Angel retorted. “I’m pretty good at finding things, if that’s what you’re suggesting.”
Still the demon shook his head. “She’s eluded every vampire sent after her. They’re not recruiting your kind anymore. They need demons with more…specialized skills.”
“Like you,” Angel suggested. He knew this was the information he’d been searching all night for. Now he needed details. “Who? Who’s recruiting?” At the demon’s odd look, he shrugged. “Call it curiosity.”
“Curiosity will get you in trouble,” the demon pointed out. “Killed the cat, you know. Never said anything about the vampire.” The demon laughed at his own joke.
Angel laughed for a second with him. When the demon calmed down, he took another sip of his blood and shrugged. “Maybe I want to prove myself,” he said. “Come on, tell me who’s hiring.”
The demon laughed again. “You’re persistent, aren’t you?”
“It’s served me well,” Angel replied with a grin.
The demon grinned back. “It’s the Consortium.”
Angel had no clue as to whom he was referring to, but he didn’t say so. “And what’s the prey?”
“She’s not prey,” the demon said, shaking his head. “Not like you mean. She’s strictly non-kill.”
“They want her alive?” Angel asked in surprise. “Who is she?”
The demon shrugged. “Human girl. Young woman, light brown hair, on the run. Nothing special.” He paused and looked hopeful. “She’s supposed to be in L.A. Have you seen her?”
Angel shook his head. If he had any doubts that this demon – and the ‘Consortium’ – were after Liz, they were gone now. “Just a human?” he asked, keeping up his façade. “Why do they want her?”
“Hey,” the demon said easily. “I don’t ask, okay? I only know that they want her bad enough to dish out a whole lot of money to whoever can deliver her.”
“But don’t you think it’s weird that they’ve put so much effort into catching one ‘nothing special’ human girl?”
The demon’s fear of his employers was showing. He glanced around himself nervously, then leaned towards Angel. The alcohol was thick on his breath. “You shouldn’t ask so many questions,” he warned. “It’ll get you in trouble.”
“He’s right, vampire,” a harsh voice said from Angel’s right. “You ask way too many questions.”
Angel leaned back calmly to appraise his challenger. He was a large, shaggy demon, and Angel was surprised he’d managed to get English words to come from that snout. There were a handful of other demons behind him, including a couple of vampires. Angel did his best to delay a fight by pretending to be as harmless as possible. Not exactly easy, living as long as a vampire as he had – harmless was something he never was. But he tried. “I was just curious, boys. I like to know all of the facts before I sign up.”
One of the vampires hissed at him. No need to pretend anything resembling humanity in a demon bar. “I know him,” the vampire told Big-Shaggy angrily. “I knew he was trouble.”
“Angel,” one of the other vampires snarled. “Traitor. Souled one.”
There went any chance of not being recognized. Angel dropped the façade and looked at them with confidence. “Let’s take this outside,” he said calmly. “Wouldn’t want to wear out our welcome by destroying this nice man’s bar.”
Behind the counter, the bartender nodded vigorously.
One of the demons smiled coldly. “We won’t stop you from leaving. In fact, we’ll help you on your way.”
“No thanks,” Angel muttered. Calmly he stood from his seat, pulling his coat on as he went. He seemed to be ignoring the group of demons, but he was actually very aware of them. Even as he casually slid his money across the counter he was listening for the smallest movement from any one of them. He didn’t trust them not to attack him as soon as his back was turned, but he hoped they would wait until they’d exited the bar. Even as he walked towards the door he kept his attention on them, listening to how they moved and strategizing for the coming fight. The vampires first – if he could get them out of the way easily, then he’d have more time to deal with the bigger, stronger demons….
He went through the front door and only with all of his battle instincts coming into play did he manage not to freeze in surprise. Apparently Big-Shaggy had brought his entire family with him for back up. If the situation hadn’t been so dire he might have been flattered to be thought such a threat. Though perhaps it wasn’t him that was such a threat, but rather the information that he had learned.
What exactly had he learned that was so dangerous to them?
He did not stop, but moved quickly to find the best position from which to fight. He pulled the axe out he’d hidden under his coat and swung it menacingly for a second.
The rest of the demons emerged from the bar behind him and Angel was surrounded. He growled at them, his fangs still showing, and looked for the weakest place in his circle of opponents. If he could take out a couple of them he might be able to open up an escape route. He knew better than to try and fight this many demons single-handedly.
Unfortunately, the weaker demons of the group were standing with their backs to the walls of the bar and the building across from it, so there was no escape that way. Angel rushed towards the smallest of the shaggy demons – Mrs. Big-Shaggy, he was guessing. He caught the demon by surprise, but it was quicker than he expected. The axe ended up nicking its shoulder and it screamed in pain. It was an excruciating, high-pitched sound.
Seconds later, Angel was ducking a massive fist aimed for his face. Whoops – he’d guessed wrong. The injured demon was Baby-Shaggy. This was Mrs. Big-Shaggy, and boy was she pissed. She swung another blow at him, and this one connected firmly with his stomach, sending him falling to the hard cement. Now he had too close a view of the demon’s legs. If she decided to step on him, like it seemed she was contemplating, he’d be crushed. He went to roll out of the way and….
“Hey!”
For a second Angel had the strongest sense of déjà vu. His mind went back to three years in Sunnydale, and many nights spent patrolling. For a completely irrational second, he thought Buffy was there to rescue him.
She wasn’t Buffy, though. Which wasn’t to say the young woman rushing into battle wasn’t familiar.
Liz?
Even as Angel was rolling back to his feet, he could see Liz deliver a solid kick to his opponent. The demon blinked and staggered back a step. It was barely phased, but that was more than Angel expected. Hell, he wasn’t expecting her presence, let alone that she’d be able to fight.
The demon went to face its new opponent, and Liz scrambled backwards with an ‘eep.’ While the demon was distracted by the girl, Angel swung his axe around and buried it in the demon’s chest. The demon looked at him in surprise, then down at the axe in her chest. Angel yanked the axe out, and the demon sagged to the pavement. Fire licked the edges of its wound, then it abruptly burst into flame, consumed from within.
Its agonized scream seemed to be the cue for the fight to dissolve into chaos. Angel was suddenly very busy, keeping his axe moving just to keep his opponents at arm’s length. Occasionally the axe bit flesh; occasionally one of the demons managed to get through Angel’s guard and deliver a blow of its own.
Through it all, Angel could see Liz facing off against a vampire. She’d gotten a fragment of wood from somewhere and the vampire danced around her warily. She was holding her own much better than Angel had expected, but she was only aware of her most obvious and immediate danger. She had no way of knowing that this group of demons was directly from the group searching for her.
Angel tried to keep an eye on her, but he was having a hard time fighting his opponents at the same time. He saw a demon coming up behind her even as something’s claws dug into his side. He kicked the creature away from him, ignoring his injury, then dashed over to where Liz was fighting. He took out the demon that was coming for her unprotected back, and she spun around in shock at the sudden scream as it died.
Her eyes went wide when she saw Angel. It was only then that he realized that his vampire face was still to the fore. “Run,” he told her harshly, hoping she’d still listen to him. “Get out of here.”
Her gaze went past him to the infuriated gathering of demons. “Aren’t you going to take your own advice?”
Angel turned around to see the furious eyes of Big-Shaggy. He looked at Liz again. “Run,” he insisted, and this time he backed up his statement by taking off at a run as well.
He knew Liz could not keep up running for long, let alone even try and match his pace. And with both of them running the demons were right on their heels. Still, Liz surprised him, keeping up an almost inhuman pace. Adrenaline is an amazing thing.
They were out distancing the demons slightly, but not nearly enough. In time, they’d be caught if they didn’t manage to hide or jump in a taxi or something soon. Both Liz and Angel ducked in a side street, little more than an alley.
“Here!” Liz cried breathlessly, just around the corner. She was clambering over a chain-link gate behind the first building. She continued right on running on the other side, not glancing back to see if he was behind her.
No wonder she’s managed to elude them for as long as she has, Angel thought as he climbed the fence after her.
He caught up with her just as they heard their pursuers run into the side street. They froze. Angel could hear Liz’s heavy breathing, but beyond that he could hear the demons come thundering towards their hiding place…and keep moving right on down the street.
For several minutes they stayed silent, frozen, waiting to be discovered. At last Angel relaxed, and his face returned to its human semblance. Liz relaxed imperceptibly beside him, and he looked at her. “We should go back,” he said softly.
“Wait,” Liz said, just as softly but obviously upset.
“We don’t have time for this now, here,” Angel tried.
“Make time.”
“It’s not me. They could be back,” Angel tried to explain. She’d never been like this before. For that matter, he still didn’t know why she was out here. “What’s wrong?”
Liz’s expression was unreadable as she titled her head to look at him. “Was I wrong to trust you?” she asked.
“What do you think?”
“I think you’re a vampire,” she replied. “No, I know you’re a vampire.”
“I’m trying to help you,” Angel said seriously. “I haven’t lied to you.”
“No, you’ve just left out some major things.” At that Liz began to walk down the alley. After a couple of steps she stopped. “Well? I thought you said we needed to get going?”
Angel’s eyes went wide in surprise, then followed her.
“It’s not that big of a shock, you know,” she said to him, smiling slightly.
Shaking his head, Angel walked beside her, and the two of them headed back to the Hyperion.
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