Flesh and Bloodlines
Disclaimer: The characters used from the television series, "Angel" are the property of Mutant Enemy, Inc. and Kuzui/Sandollar in association with Twentieth Century Fox Television. I do not profit in any way from their use.
Author's note: This started coming to me after watching the season one episode "The Prodigal" I saw how much Angel had cared for his little sister, even up to the end. Feel free to comment and I'm open to suggestions, although I do have an eventual ending forming in my mind already. But hey, half the fun is getting there!
Chapter 1 We called him Liam…
It had been a quiet night at Angel Investigations, relatively speaking. Cordelia Chase, a beautiful former May Queen in her early twenties with shoulder length auburn hair, was relishing in the silence and solitude of the empty office. She was sitting comfortably in large smooth black leather chair behind her employer's desk. Both Angel and Wesley were out on separate missions. Wesley was busy tracking down a rare species of demon he had come across during one of his wandering travels, and Angel was off to put a stop to a squabble between a bunch of street thugs and a demon clan. Nothing out of the ordinary for this office.
Why would anyone care what kind of demon it is or whether a bunch of them get killed in a back-alley brawl? thought Cordelia as she put the finishing touches on her French manicure. A demon is a demon in my mind, and they're all…ewww! Well, maybe not quite all. She remembered that Doyle, the first casualty of the "Good Fight" had been half demon.
She was cracking open the latest issue of Cosmo when Wesley came fumbling though the door in his usual ungraceful manner. Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, a strangely charming British man in his late thirties with an average height and build, had come to town a few months earlier after being kicked out to the Watcher's Council and a failed stint as a Rogue Demon Hunter. While he tended to yammer on endlessly, he did prove to be an excellent resource for research and had extensive knowledge for all things demon.
"I found it!" exclaimed Wesley with a huge grin. "It was quite an amazing creature."
"Oh yeah? What was it?" asked Cordelia. She really was not the least bit interested, but was in such a relaxed mood that she decided to be polite.
"Psycho Moliosis."
"Psycho WHAT?!" "You mean like Psycho psycho? Like get killed in the shower of a creep motel?" Cordelia jumped out of the chair and leaned toward Wesley over the desk.
Wesley chuckled to himself. He knew that would be the first thing Cordelia thought of. "No, silly, psycho as in dealing with the brain."
"Oh, so they kill you and eat your brain. Yeah, that's much better!" Cordelia sarcastically retorted as she rolled her eyes.
Wesley sighed. This girl never ceased to amaze him. "NO, they do not kill anyone. They are a peaceful species. The psycho part comes from their use of others' brains. They are psychic."
"So they are peaceful, yet they can hear what I'm thinking?" Codelia looked worried. "I don't know. I think that might be worse!"
"It's an amazing gift really. You see their cerebrum works like a receiver…"
Here we go. Cordelia sighed to herself and lowered herself back into Angel's desk chair. I had to ask and now I'm going to hear about it for the rest of the night.
"…they can only read certain things and have a maximum reading distance of…"
Cordelia looked at her watch. It was getting late. Wesley was still yammering on, and Angel should have been back by now. Stop it, Cordy she scolded herself, Angel probably just got caught up in something. He can take care of himself.
"…they have used this technique for centuries. They even knew that Brutus was planning on killing Caesar…"
But maybe he IS in trouble. It wouldn't be the first time he's gotten in over his head. Cordelia was just about to suggest to Wesley that they should go out and track down Angel, when she heard the soft click of the door being shut. She assumed Angel had returned, but was surprised to see a young girl standing in their office instead.
"Hi, welcome to Angel Investigates where we help the hopeless. How may we help you?" Cordelia recited the normal opening line she gave to clients after a moment. "I'm Cordelia Chase, and this is my associate Wesley Wyndam-Pryce."
"Hello, I sure hope you can help me," replied the girl sadly. She appeared to be about thirteen, and was about 5 feet tall with dark brown hair tied in a disheveled ponytail. She had thin pale features and intense dark brown eyes that seemed to absorb everything she gazed at, and was dressed in clothes that were obviously secondhand. Wesley thought he could almost see the beyond-her-years wisdom that lay behind those eyes and angelic-looking face. It was startling to him, and made him slightly suspicious of this girl.
"We'll try our best," smiled Cordelia. She only now noticed the girl's unkempt appearance. Well, I guess a pro bono gig every now and then couldn't hurt. She was doubtful this girl even had a home, let alone money to pay the bill. "I don't mean to pry, but where are your parents? Isn't it a little late for a girl your age to be out wandering alone?"
"My parents are dead," replied the girl curtly. Then she softened a bit. "They died a long time ago. I am looking for a man. I heard he might be he in L.A."
"I see," Cordelia said, reaching for a pen and a tablet. "Now could you tell me everything you can about him, what he looks like, etc?"
"Gosh, I hope I can remember. It's been so long since that…"
"So long since that what?" Wesley pressed. He still was not too sure about this mysterious girl.
"Never mind," she responded in the same curt manner as before. She thought for a moment. "He probably looks in his mid-twenties. He's fairly tall, has broad shoulders, dark brown hair…"
"Ok, that's a pretty good start," Cordelia said, writing down the description. "Anything else? A name maybe?"
"We called him Liam…," the girl said slowly.