Part 7
“Who is Jeremy Tyler?” Giles asked again.
“A loser,” Angel answered solemnly. “A drunkard. A womanizer. Basically the same way I was as a human. Worthless.” A dark look crossed his eyes. “I should have killed him when I had the chance. But I didn’t do it until it was already too late.”
Baltimore, Maryland ~ 1984
Jeremy Tyler delivered a vicious punch that sent Lana crashing into the bedroom wall. The plaster behind her cracked and left an impression of a human body on its surface.
“You fucking bitch! You think you can take them away from me? Not a fucking chance! But you know what? I was actually gonna let you live,” Jeremy Tyler snarled. “But then I find out you’re shacking up with another man. What’s a matter, Lana? The secretary thing not working for you? Decide maybe you should sell your body like the whore you are? Look at me when I talk to you!”
Jeremy reached down and grabbed a fistful of Lana’s blonde hair. He pulled her to a standing position. Tears flowed down her face, even from the eye that was rapidly swelling shut. A small trickle of blood dripped from her cut lip. Somehow she knew it would only get worse.
“But like I said bitch, I had been planning on letting you live. But not now.” Jeremy pulled a blade from his belt as he tossed her violently to the bed. Before she could move, Jeremy pounced and straddled her. “Where’s your boy, now?” Jeremy taunted. “Out looking for me maybe? Well I’m right here. Too bad you won’t be.”
With a quick jerk, Jeremy used the blade to slice through Lana’s neck. She released a strangled cry, but with the blood rapidly leaving her body, she couldn’t do any more than that. Jeremy watched in grim satisfaction as the life left her body. When she stopped struggling, he slipped from the bed and sheathed the knife back into his belt.
As he exited the bedroom, Jeremy saw Jordan staring at him down the hallway. She quivered in fear as she saw the blood matting his hands. “Don’t go anywhere, Baby,” Jeremy ordered. “I’ll be back for you in a minute.” Jeremy turned away and headed for the living room. When he was gone, Jordan silently entered her mother’s bedroom. Joshua followed moments later.
“Joshua,” Jordan cried. “Why won’t mommy wake up?”
“I don’t think mom is going to wake up,” Joshua answered.
Jeremy startled as the front door crashed open to reveal a very furious Angel. Jeremy smirked when he saw the blinding hatred the other man held. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t Lana’s White Knight. Come on his majestic horse to save the day.” Jeremy’s smirk turned even more sinister as he pulled the bloody knife from his belt. “Little late for that,” he drawled. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have my children to attend to.”
Jeremy turned away from Angel, intent on retrieving his children. It was the last mistake he ever made. A burst of vampire speed later and Angel was right behind Jeremy. Angel grabbed the hand that Jeremy held the knife in. With a quick snap, Jeremy’s wrist shattered, but Angel made sure that he didn’t drop the knife.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Angel growled, “but I have to kill you now.” Angel buried the knife blade deep into the lower belly of the man he despised. “Say hello to the devil for me.”
Jeremy’s eyes widened in the same fear that Lana’s held only a minute earlier. He couldn’t stop it as Angel manipulated his own hand that held the knife. The blade cleanly sliced open his stomach as it traveled in a lightning fast stroke up to his sternum. Before Jeremy could pass out from the pain, he had the distinct pleasure of feeling his intestines spill onto his feet.
Angel tossed the rapidly dying body aside and sprinted back to Lana’s bedroom. It was there that he saw her dead body resting on the bed. Joshua stood before him. Never before had Angel seen a look of such hatred on a child.
“Why?” Joshua shouted. “Why did you do it?”
“Joshua,” Angel said softly. “I’m so sorry. I…”
“You promised you would keep mommy safe! But you lied! You’re just like daddy!”
A horrified look passed over Angel’s face. It was true. He had lied. He wasn’t any better than Jeremy.
***
“So if Jeremy Tyler is dead, then how the hell is he committing these murders?” Xander asked.
Angel clicked on a new link inside the Tyler file. Photographs of a young Jordan and Joshua Tyler appeared on screen. He turned the laptop around for all to see.
“That’s how. The boy blamed me for Lana’s death. I promised to protect them from Jeremy, but I made a stupid mistake and it cost Lana her life.”
Buffy stared at the computer screen in shock. This was too freaking weird. “Um, Angel? How old would those kids be today?”
“The boy would be about 24. The girl would be a year younger. Why?”
Willow and Dawn both saw exactly what Buffy was driving at. “And their names would be Joshua and Jordan?” Angel nodded. As sick look came to Willow’s face. “Isn’t that just…nice.”
“Meaning?” Angel demanded.
“Meaning,” an embarrassed Buffy said, “that Jordan and Joshua Tyler kind of live next door to us.”
“What?” There was absolutely no emotion in Angel’s voice. “How long?”
“About three weeks now,” Buffy croaked.
“Three weeks. As in a few days before the first murder occurred? You mean three weeks in that sense?”
“Uh huh,” the three girls nodded. Angel pinched his nose in frustration. It did very little to relieve the pressure building inside him.
“Um, as much as I’d love to see you whip Buffy’s ass,” Spike interrupted, “don’t you think we should be paying the neighbors a visit?”
Angel turned to Spike and nodded his agreement. The one person in this group he was supposed to hate was the one person keeping him from going insane. Maybe Spike wasn’t as big a mistake as Angel thought he was.
“Yes, we should. Everybody get moving. We’re going to find them.”
“And then what?” Spike asked. “You’re not going to kill them.” Although Spike couldn’t fault him if Angel did.
“No, he won’t,” Buffy emphasized. “We don’t kill humans.”
Angel glared at her coldly. “We’ll see how much I calm down on the way over. But I make no promises.”
“I won’t let you kill them,” Buffy answered.
“You wouldn’t be able to stop me if I wanted to. Don’t cross me Buffy. You get in my way, and you’ll just be a casualty. You have no idea of the power I can unleash on you. I may have a soul, but I’m still the biggest bad ass in either hemisphere So don’t do anything stupid.”
***
“Are you sure about this, Joshua?” Jordan nervously clenched her fists as she watched Joshua placed a loaded shotgun in a duffle bag. “I mean, aren’t there other ways that we could have him find us?” Joshua reached into a bureau and pulled out a pistol. It joined the shotgun in the duffle.
“I’m sorry, Jordy. I don’t see another way.” Several stakes were tossed in the bag. “Trust me, Jordy. This will work.”
“I trust you, Joshua. It’s just that I don’t like people getting hurt that don’t need to. I mean, these women that you…well, you know, they served their purpose. But the other people at the hospital…”
“It’s just so that he will see our resolve. A show of force so that he will respond. Don’t worry, Jordy. No one will be hurt that doesn’t deserve to be.”
“I guess it’s time to go then?”
Joshua slung the duffle over his shoulder. “Yeah. It’s time to go.” Joshua ushered his sister outside into their rusty old pickup. Only two minutes after they left, another vehicle pulled into the drive.
A black convertible with a very angry occupant.
***
The front door flew off the hinges as Angel delivered it a sharp kick. “Angel,” Buffy started, “you can’t go in without an…” Her words were quickly stopped as Angel entered the premises without being invited in. “How the bloody hell?”
“Somebody must like me,” was all he said. Angel swept into the building and was quickly followed by Spike.
“I’m with him,” he smirked. Buffy wanted to stake the both of them, but the look Giles shot her said she couldn’t. She settled for following them inside. The rest of the gang was right behind her.
“Spike, upstairs,” Angel ordered. Spike nodded and raced up the stairs. “The rest of you stay out of my way.”
“Okay,” Willow smiled. Buffy buried her face in her hands. Her gay best friend had the hots for Angel still. Willow continued to grin as Angel raced into the kitchen and kicked down the basement doors.
“Mmm, Angel. He’s so strong.”
“Willow, it was less freaky when you were smooching girls and werewolves,” Xander said.
“I don’t know,” Dawn disagreed. “I can see the attraction. He’s strong and assertive, yet caring and romantic. He’s unafraid to allow the demon to show itself. It proves an interesting combination of force and honesty.”
Buffy stared at her sister in shock. Chalk up a second groupie. “Dawn. You’re grounded.”
“Angel!” Spike yelled from upstairs.
Angel reappeared at the basement steps and quickly crossed the living room and up the stairs to the second floor. When the gang finally caught up to him, they found Angel taking an empty strong box from Spike. The impression of a pistol and a spare magazine was still imprinted in the foam.
“Looks like Joshua likes to play with guns,” Spike observed. “Where would he go with one?”
Angel examined the strong box. A nagging feeling began to overtake his conscience. “Maybe the one place where he knows I’ll be forced to confront him.”
Realization dawned on Spike. “A man with a loaded gun at a hospital. That’s not good.”
“You think he’ll go after Cordelia?” Giles asked.
“Not if I can get there first.”
***
Nurses and doctors alike dropped to the floor as the man blasted the security camera with his shotgun. “Now listen up!” Joshua yelled. “I know this may sound cliché, but I don’t want to hurt anybody! So everybody just stay cool and go with the flow! Everything will be okay!”
He handed the pistol to Jordan. “Be careful with that,” he advised. “Now go and lock the doors.” Jordan quickly obeyed her brother.
“Now,” he muttered to himself, “we just have to wait for Angel to show up.”
