Part Five
Angel rushes at her, and she is instantly ready to fight. She ducks the punch he throws at her, whirls around and comes up to stand behind him. She returns his punch, but he knows her moves and turns quickly to block it.
Besides, a part of her does not want to hurt him.
She tries again, and this time his return blow catches her in the face. It hurts, but not as much as the punch that comes right after it. Her balance is off. She stumbles, and is about to fall when he grabs her by the back of her coat and throws her across the grass. She rolls, and lays there for a moment, looking up at him.
In her mind, there is the tiniest bit of hope, and she holds on to in tenaciously. Hope that there might be some way out of this fight.
“Come on, Willow.”
She is back on her feet in a moment, ready to continue fighting. But she doesn’t...could never...want to hurt him.
She goes to punch him once again, yet it does not faze him. Again...and he catches her arm in its swing, holding it. Other arm...he catches that, too. Holding both of her arms, he shoves her away.
“Jeez, is it me, or is your heart not in this?” Angel taunts.
She makes herself smile, and pulls out a stake.
The sun was setting outside, and the Hyperion Hotel was a completely usual bustle of non-crisis activity. The lobby was filled with the sounds of life. Angel couldn’t help but feel a small rush of pleasure at seeing these people – his friends – going about their lives around him. It was moments like this that, if he allowed himself, he could forget what set him apart from the rest of them. It was an unaccustomed sense of belonging.
Angel watched for a second from the stairs before he made his presence known. Cordelia was sitting at the front desk, absently stirring a cup of coffee long since turned cold as she read a fashion magazine. Wesley sat a bit behind her, seriously bent over one of Angel’s many obscure books, frequently taking notes on a pad of paper. A radio played in the background; current pop music. Liz, cleaning off the file cabinet, sang along exuberantly.
Her eyes brightened when she noticed Angel on the stairs. “Good afternoon,” she called over the music.
Angel smiled and joined the loosely formed group in the lobby. “Hey,” he said simply in greeting. He poured himself a cup of coffee and leaned against the counter. “Anything happening?” he asked.
“Sweater coats are in for winter,” Cordelia said, not looking up.
Liz chuckled.
“Besides that?” Angel prompted.
Cordelia put down her magazine and shrugged. “Nothing here,” she said.
“Wesley?”
The ex-Watcher looked up, clearly not having heard the brief conversation right in front of him. “Prophecy about an invasion of pendarnak demons,” he said a bit distractedly.
Everyone suddenly focused on him. He blinked at them, looking startled at everyone’s attention. “It was fulfilled two centuries ago,” he finished explaining, a bit embarrassed.
Cordelia was obviously amused. “And I was so looking forward to it,” she said sarcastically.
“Yes, well, the text isn’t exactly dated,” Wesley replied, a bit flustered.
Angel put his coffee cup down and turned to the newest addition to the residence. “Liz?” he asked.
“Hmm?”
“Anything new?”
She looked back at him quizzically, holding up her feather duster. “Uh, dust?”
Angel shook his head. “I meant with you. Memories, dreams, anything?”
Liz’s smile slipped. “Uh...no. Nothing.”
An odd look crossed her face, and Angel had the feeling she was covering something up. Like there was something she didn’t want to mention. “Are you sure?” he prompted.
“I...” Liz started, only to be interrupted by a cry from Cordelia.
“Vision!” Wesley yelled, just in case the rest of them hadn’t noticed.
And yet another evening at Angel Investigations had begun.
“You guys do this a lot?” Liz asked Cordelia softly.
Entering the darkened office building, Cordelia flashed her a smile. “Oh, yeah, all the time.”
Liz chuckled.
“Stealthy entrance,” Cordelia reminded her. “No laughing.”
In front of them, Angel was silent as he moved along in the shadows of the corridor. It was so strange to be in the office building after hours; silent, dark, and just a bit creepy.
Actually, that described Angel pretty well at the moment, too.
He came to an abrupt stop at an intersection of the corridors. “Where now?” he asked.
“Uh,” Cordelia muttered, looking uncertain.
“Well?”
“It was a vision, Angel, not a road map,” she protested.
He glanced back at her expectantly.
“Right,” Cordelia said at last. “Go right. End of the hall, I think.”
Angel nodded and led them on down the hallway.
Their footsteps were the only sounds down the empty corridor. A fluorescent light overhead flickered. It all made Liz quite nervous...and surprisingly eager for a fight. It was something she never expected to find in herself. Of course, she really didn’t know *what* to expect of herself.
There was a muffled sound abruptly from the end of the hall that cut off sharply. Liz’s heartbeat sped up. Angel was battle ready; she could feel it. The sound again, a little louder. Still unidentifiable.
Without a word, Angel shouldered his way through an office door. The clatter of the door slamming open was sudden and startling – to those hovering outside the office as well as the one inside.
He looked nearly human, if one ignored the strange red-orange cast to his skin. That, and his cat-slit eyes, which were wide with shock.
“Who...?” he yelled. “What are you doing here? You don’t belong here! This is a private office, you know. I’ll call the police.”
Angel alone entered the room. “Sure you will,” he muttered sarcastically. He did not look at the man – demon, whatever – and paced the edge of the room.
“That’s it, I’m calling the police,” the man declared, reaching for the phone.
“You don’t want to do that,” Angel said calmly...and yanked the phone cord out of the wall.
The man backed away from his desk, and Angel while he was at it. His anxiety was palpable.
“You wouldn’t have called, anyway,” Angel said certainly.
“Wh...why not?” the demon choked out.
“Because you don’t want them here any more than we do,” Angel retorted. He scanned the room, alert for anything. He suddenly flashed the demon a cold smile. Without another word, he looked at one of the desk cabinets, reached for it....
“No!” the demon screamed. With a furious yell and inhuman speed he leaped over the desk at Angel.
The vampire was caught off guard by the sudden aggression. He doubled over the blow to his stomach, growling.
Liz saw a flash of blood and panicked. Before any of her companions in the hallway could stop her, she ran into the room. She tackled the demon, screaming. He flailed backwards, crashing into the cabinet. An odd yelp came from inside, startling Liz.
In the corner of her eye, Liz could see Angel and his wound. The demon had stabbed him in the stomach with a letter opener. Angel flung the offending piece of metal away. “Get out of here, Liz!” he yelled, advancing on the demon.
“But you’re hurt!” she protested.
The demon suddenly looked at her. Really looked at her. His expression was one of shocked recognition. “You!” he cried. “Lost one.”
Liz couldn’t have been more surprised. “You know me?”
He wasn’t exchanging pleasantries, though. He was absolutely panicked. “You shouldn’t be here!” he yelled. “Not with them!” And with that the demon attacked. “I won’t let you....”
His voice was choked off as Angel grabbed him by the tie. He gasped for breath for a moment. Angel yanked him backwards. The demon fell flat on his back, hard. His eyes went wide...and then he unexpectedly stilled.
“What the hell...?” Gunn demanded, coming in from the hall. “You killed him? He didn’t look like the ‘threat to the world’ type.”
Angel looked shocked at the corpse. “I just....”
Gunn knelt by the demon. He rolled the body over to reveal the discarded letter opener sticking straight through his back. “Now that’s a trick,” he commented. Abruptly, the flesh around the wound began to dissolve. “Shit!” Gunn scrambled back as the demon disintegrated into the thick carpet. “Man, I’d hate to be the janitor.”
Angel pressed a hand to his wound. With the other hand he lightly touched Liz’s shoulder. “Are you okay?” he asked.
Liz was staring at the spot where the demon had been just moments before. She blinked, then looked up at Angel feeling dazed and lost. She didn’t know how to respond. She’d just seen her answers...disappear.
“He knew me,” was all she could say.
“So she’s okay?”
Wesley nodded. “I don’t know why he had that woman tied up under his desk. She wasn’t hurt, though. Gunn’s making sure she gets home safely.”
Angel nodded.
“Hold still for a second,” Cordelia said gently. She was leaning over to treat the wound in Angel’s stomach. “It’s pretty deep,” she said as she cleaned away blood.
“Ow! Hey!”
Cordelia chuckled. “Don’t be such a baby,” she teased. “There. You’re not bleeding anymore.” She taped a gauze pad in place. “All done.”
Angel reached for his clean shirt, ignoring the pain as his wound pulled. It would be healed by tomorrow. Slipping the shirt over his shoulders, his gaze fell on Liz. She was staring distractedly across the lobby. “Liz?”
She looked at him sharply, startled out of her thoughts. “Huh?”
“Are you okay?”
She seemed to consciously shake off whatever it was that was bothering her. “Yeah...I, uh, I’m fine. You? You’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” Angel said quickly. There was obviously something still on her mind, and he wasn’t just going to let it go. “We will find out who they are,” he insisted earnestly, “and why they’re after you.”
Liz just looked at him. There was neither certainty nor hope in her expression. Her reply was barely audible. “And who I am?”
Angel didn’t know what to say to that. They hadn’t had much luck so far.
Cordelia replied before he could think of something. “Of course we will!” she declared. “Come on, only one brooder is allowed in this group. And you can’t compete with the master.”
“I’m not that bad!” Angel defended himself.
Their banter brought a brief chuckle out of Liz.
Angel couldn’t help but smile very slightly. Thanks, Cordelia. “Alright. There had to be more to tonight than saving that woman.”
“Especially considering that he recognized Liz,” Wesley added.
Angel nodded. “Research,” he declared.
“Tomorrow.”
Liz nodded her agreement to Cordelia’s interruption.
Angel looked at them both.
“We’re not all nocturnal,” Cordelia pointed out.
Angel smiled very slightly. “Tomorrow, then.”
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