Part 5
The two vampires watched with keen interest as a black body bag was hauled out of the house on a gurney. Clinging to the shadows, Angel and Spike were able to watch the scene before them without drawing unwanted attention.
They watched as an old woman pulled up in a late model Oldsmobile and rushed over to a small child. The police officer relented his grip on the girl as the woman approached.
“Poor girl,” Spike murmured. “That must be a grandmother or something.” Angel nodded his agreement. “How do you think Grandmum will tell her that she will never see mommy again? Or do you think she already realizes?”
“I think kids are a lot smarter than they are given credit for,” Angel answered softly. “She knows something is wrong. At that age, I don’t know if a child understands the concept of dead.”
Spike remained silent for several long moments. “Do you ever think about all the kids that lost their moms and dads because you killed them?”
Angel cast a glance at his grandchilde. This was actually hurting Spike to talk about. “Yeah,” he answered. “I do. After what I’ve done, there is no way not to think about all the families I wrecked throughout the centuries. But you learn to exist with it.”
“Do you?” Spike asked. He lit a cigarette and took a long drag from it. He offered another to Angel, and was slightly surprised when he accepted.
As Angel lit his, Spike continued to stare at the flashing lights on the police cruisers.
“We’re fucking monsters, you know that?” Angel blew a puff of smoke and murmured his agreement. “No matter how many horrible things this bloke here does, you and me have done thousands of times worse. Soul or not, we’re going to hell. So why the fuck should we bother? When in the grand scheme of things nothing that we do will matter. Not to the big man upstairs.”
Angel took a puff from his cigarette before answering. “Because in the grand scheme of things, the grand scheme doesn’t matter. Not to us. Because you’re right, we’ve earned a one-way ticket to hell. But we can’t be concerned with that. The only thing we can be concerned about is the here and now and the people that surround us. It’s all about the moment, Spike. That hopefully we can protect the ones we care about, and maybe if we’ve extraordinarily lucky, we can find a little love on the way. And maybe by doing so, we can make the next moment a little bit better than the one before it.”
Spike chuckled slightly as he tossed his cigarette stub away. “Since when have you been a philosopher?”
“Around the same time you became someone I could relate to.” The vampires fell into silence as they watched the crime scene.
Only after the final police car left did they risk entering the taped off home.
***
“I mean, where the hell does he get off giving us orders?” Buffy continued to rant. “This is our pond. We make the rules here. You don’t see me going to Los Angeles and giving him orders.”
“What about that whole Faith thing a few years back?” Willow asked.
Buffy quickly waved that off. “That’s different. Faith is a killer and she was totally playing him. She got him to feel sorry for her so that Angel would protect her.”
“Well, Angel was only trying to connect with her,” Giles reminded. “Angel and Faith share several similarities. In all honesty, he was the best man, er, vampire for the job. Besides, I told you to not make a scene. I’m confident that Angel’s insight will prove fruitful.”
The five continued to make their slow loop around Jacobsen Park. They had been like this for a couple hours. The group would listen to Buffy’s ranting, and then they would have a full fledge discussion on the seeming evolution of Angel’s character, as well as his actions toward Cordelia.
“And what is that about?” Buffy asked again. “I mean, he’s all moony eyed over Cordelia Chase, and he’s barely spoken two sentences to me. I thought I was the one he had this big love affair thing with.”
“Maybe he’s afraid to stir up old feelings,” Xander offered.
“Maybe he just likes Cordelia more than you,” Dawn suggested. And from the death glare Buffy sent her, that was entirely the wrong thing to say.
But then again, Dawn was a teenager and didn’t know when to shut up. “It’s really sweet the way he’s so attentive of her and always at the hospital by her side. For a minute you can almost believe romanticism isn’t dead.”
A large grin came across her face. “Man, I wish I could have seen the whole ‘BUFFY! VAMPIRE!’ thing.”
A vampire sprang from some nearby bushes. Dawn whipped out a stake and jammed it in his heart without looking. She smiled in satisfaction at the dust floating in the breeze. “Angel with a sense of humor,” she concluded. “So cool.”
“Yeah, it was a riot,” Buffy deadpanned. The group would make one final loop around the park before heading back to the Magic Box.
***
Angel watched as a frustrated and nervous Lana entered the house. “What’s wrong, Lana?” He held a sleeping Jordan in his arms as Joshua played with his GI Joes on the floor.
“He showed up at work today,” Lana said. “He was asking my co-workers a bunch of questions.” Angel immediately understood the only ‘He’ it could be was Jeremy. “I saw his car in the supermarket parking lot when I got groceries. And I swear that he followed me most of the way here.”
Angel gently laid Jordan’s sleeping form on the couch and stood up. “Are you sure?” he asked. He moved over to a window and peered out, mindful not to be in the sunlight. “He shouldn’t be around you. When the sun goes down, I’m going to go pay him a little visit.”
“Angel, I don’t want you hurting him,” Lana pleaded.
“Don’t worry, Lana,” Angel assured her. “I won’t hurt him. I wouldn’t risk your case like that. Besides, I need to be invited in to hurt him, and I seriously doubt he’ll invite me in.” Lana nodded slightly in agreement. Angel did have to be invited in since he was a…well, not normal.
“Okay,” Lana sighed. “But be careful.”
Angel smiled slightly at her. “I will,” he promised. “I’m not going to allow him to intimidate you. I promise to keep you and the kids safe.”
Joshua looked up from his GI Joes. Who was he supposed to keep them safe from? Oh well, Angel was big and strong and brave. He wouldn’t let anything happen to them or mommy.
***
Spike was the first one to enter the woman’s bedroom. Angel followed a few steps behind as he shuffled through some mail. “Her name was Kayla Kurtis,” Angel observed as he read an envelope. He tossed the mail on top of a dresser and began to survey the room.
“No message on the wall,” Spike noted. “Why do you think that? Certainly doesn’t fit the MO. Copycat maybe?”
Angel opened up Kayla’s closet and poked around. “They didn’t need to leave a message this time. By now, they must know I’m here.”
“This isn’t a demon, is it mate?” Spike asked. “You know something, but you haven’t talked to Giles about it.”
Angel sighed and shut the closet. “Cordelia woke up during my last visit. She said that two humans are behind this.”
“Is she sure?” Spike stared at the bloody sheets that still adorned the bed. “So instead of some demon running around doing this, it’s a human monster. Well, isn’t the Hellmouth full of surprises?”
“Just goes to show that you don’t need horns, fangs, or a tail to be evil.”
“A-bloody-men,” Spike agreed. He followed Angel as his grandsire crossed the hall into the child’s room. The walls were painted in a soft pink. Stuffed animals adorned the cabinets and bed. In wooden block letters above the bed was the name ‘Amanda’. “Amanda Kurtis,” Spike murmured. He grabbed a small picture frame off the wall. “Pretty girl.”
Angel looked at the photo and nodded his agreement. The child was wrapped in the loving arms of her mother, a wide toothy smile gracing her face. “Do you smell that?” Angel asked.
Spike looked at his sire curiously before taking a long whiff of air. His eyes widened in recognition at the scent. “Tears,” Spike answered. “The little girl was crying.” His hand went to the doorknob. “Angel, look at this.”
Angel knelt down and looked. “The door was jimmied open. They must have locked Amanda in here to keep her out of the way. The police had to break the lock to get in.”
“Why would they do that?” Spike asked. “Why not just kill the girl? Leaving her alive increases the chance of being caught.”
“Because they don’t care,” Angel said. “They don’t want to hurt the girl. They just want to hurt me.”
“Angel, you said you haven’t used the name Liam in centuries. If the killers are human, then how could they know your true name?”
“I don’t know,” Angel sighed. Both vampires startled when Angel’s cell phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and answered.
“Yeah? Hi Fred. Did you do that research for me? Great. Can you send the information to my e-mail address? No, I’m not close to a computer right now. I’m at a crime scene. Another woman was killed today. I’ll check the files when I get back to the Magic Box. I’m sure Willow won’t mind me using her laptop. Thanks Fred.”
“Your girl found something?”
“So she says. Let’s go to the Magic Box so we can see what it is.”
Spike followed his grandsire from the bedroom. “If you think it’ll be easy to pry Willow away from her laptop, you got another thing coming,” Spike informed him. “I had to beg to the chit for half an hour just so I could get online for a Formula One race update.”
Angel gave him a strange look. “You think I’m kidding? The girl would probably sacrifice her scanner to the computer gods for a higher speed processor.”
“Well, Spike my boy, you got to know how to sweet talk a lady. It’s all in the eyes and lips. You know, the puppy dog look. I work it over on Cordelia all the time.”
“Need I remind you that Willow’s gay?”
“So? Spike, you’re talking to the mack daddy of the puppy look. When we get back, just watch and learn. Maybe you can work it on Buffy.”
“Mack daddy? Since when the bloody hell have you been from the hood?” It was then that Spike realized what Angel said. “Hey! How did you know about Buffy?” Angel grinned in amusement as Spike followed him out of the building.
“Hey Poof! I’m talking to you! Hey!”