Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Angel characters, they are owned by Joss Wheadon, David Greenwalt and 20th Century Fox, so don't sue because I'm broke and have no money.
Author's Notes: Please send all feedback to Elf, Jennifer, at slaybrat@aye.net, and slayerbrat@yahoo.com. Thanks!
Alpha Moon
His senses were focused on everything, but nothing. His body moved fluidly throughout the movements. His body formed a dance as he moved. He was quick and graceful, different from the savage movements that he used in combat. These exercises were for focus only.
Angel slipped from the Ti Chi stretches to the fuller, intenser Kata. He picked up the pace as he spun a roundhouse kick to an imaginary opponent's head. Lighting fast punches followed the movement before he kicked again. He turned his body to complete a difficult throw of another imaginary opponent.
Angel didn't even notice that the door to Cordelia's apartment opened and that he was being watched. Quickly, he sensed the other person in the room, and it wasn't Cordelia or Wesley. He slowly turned to see Amanda Wallace looking at him at the doorway.
She said, "Please don't stop. I'm sorry if I interrupted."
Angel asked her, "How did you get in here?"
"The door opened by itself," she answered curiously as she looked at the door.
"Denis," Angel warned the spirt.
"Who?" Amanda asked as she looked around.
"The ghost that lives here, so to speak," Angel answered her as she looked around the apartment. Then he asked, "How did you find out about this place?"
"Kate Lockley, she didn't tell me, but I hacked into her police files," Amanda answered as she lowered her backpack to the floor. Her boots clicked on the wooden floor as she walked over to Angel. She was smiling just a bit, and she was nervous. Not afraid, but nervous.
He knew the feeling. There was a sort of tension in the room. How this girl kept on finding him was beyond Angel. He asked her, "Why are you here then?"
Amanda rubbed her hands together nervously. He found himself thinking it was an adorable gesture, then he looked around the room, focusing on Cordy's stereo system. She answered, "Well, there's been this strain of attacks last night."
"What?" Angel asked, looking back into her wide green eyes.
She nodded as she pulled her hair back from her face. She was definitely a pretty thing. She answered, "Yeah, it was really strange. Luckily, I know the corner and got these photos." She dug into her backpack and produced a slightly crinkled manilla folder. She handed it to Angel.
She went on, "We got a couple of cases like that at the ER last night as well." Angel looked at the folder and was shocked to see mauled bodies, like an animal attack.
Amanda asked, "Question, what sort of animal would be large enough to attack a human in Los Angeles?"
"These are wolf bites," Angel told her, looking at her face.
Amanda looked puzzled and said, "Wolves don't go around attacking people. They're predators, but they don't go around looking for humans. Besides, where are you going to find a wolf in Los Angeles?"
"People keep them as pets," Angel said as he studied the bites. They were wolf bites, but not a normal wolf bite. Then he handed her the folders and said, "Werewolf. We have a rouge werewolf in Los Angeles, great."
"Werewolf, you mean a person did this?" Amanda asked in shock.
"Not a person, a werewolf. The wolf and the person are two different entities. Trust me," Angel told her.
She asked, "What am I going to do about it?"
"Are the people who came in alive last night still alive?" Angel asked her.
Amanda nodded, tucking a red curl behind her ear. Her hair always seemed to be tumbling into her face whenever he saw her. She answered, "Yeah, they are. And they're still at the hospital."
"Wait a moment, something's not right . . ." Angel said as he stroked his chin.
Amanda said it, "Last night wasn't a full moon. Wasn't even an almost full moon. It was three quarters full. Tonight's the almost full moon."
"Then how could it be a werewolf attack then?" Angel asked himself, because Amanda proababaly wouldn't know. Then a loud buzzing sound filled the room.
"Damn it," she cursed as she pulled a beeper from her pocket. "It's the hospital. I've got to go."
"Amanda, if people start getting fuzzy tonight, let me know," Angel told her as the redhead jetted out of the door.
Her reply was, "I will, but you can't let them hurt anyone."
"I wasn't planning on it," Angel replied as the door shut. He called out to the ghost, "Okay, Denis, don't let a pretty girl into the house without Cordelia's or my permission."
The stereo flickered on, playing some classical music. "Understand?" Angel asked him. The song switched to something alternative. He groaned as the familiar strains hit his ears:
The World is a vampire,
sent here to drainainn . . .
"No Smashing Pumpkins either," Angel told the ghost sharply.
The station changed.
He comes out at night,
that's where the energy comes.
Where the dark side's light
and the vampires roam.
"Well, at least it could have been that other song," Angel sighed to himself as he began to work out again.
******
"Another attack, but not as serious," Dr. Anderson was telling her.
Amanda slipped into her lab coat, fully aware that she was still in her street clothes. She pulled back her hair with a scrunchi as Jason lead her into Exam Room 2. She was surprised to see a young man, a couple of years younger than she was sitting there on the bed.
He was short and compact with his hair dyed black with blue streaks. His finger nails were painted dark blue. Amanda thought he was sort of cute in a thrasher sort of way. He was wearing a blue and brown bowling shirt on top of a black T-shirt with SMASH written in big bold letters.
He looked up at her with an unflappable gaze and said, "Hey."
"Hello, my name's Dr. Amanda Wallace. What seems to be the problem . . ." She flipped through her chart, "Daniel?"
"Oz, just call me Oz," he replied in a laconic tone. "And I was attacked by a really big dog."
"The chart said that you were brought in here," Amanda told him as she looked at the short boy with the laconic voice. Blue-green eyes looked at her steadily as he nodded.
He replied, "I have some place I need to be."
"Take off your shirts so I can have a look at you," Amanda instructed.
He did. He had four large scratches ranging from his left shoulder to his right hip. Amanda looked at them and gasped. Jason had told her that the scratches were a lot worse when they brought him in here. He's healing as almost as fast as Angel did, Amanda thought as she looked at Oz's wounds.
He stood up and said, "They're good. Now I've got to go."
Amanda pressed him down on the bed and replied, "You're not going anywhere. I have a friend you might want to talk too." It seemed strange to call Angel a friend, but it also seemed right. But Amanda wanted more in her heart of hearts of the dark-eyed vampire who entered her life like a whirlwind one night.
She took the phone off the wall and hit 99 to get an outside connection. She quickly dialed in the number for the apartment that Angel was staying at. He was staying with a friend named Cordelia Chase. I hope she's not a girlfriend, Amanda thought unsteadily as the phone rang.
An answering machine picked up and a chirpy, female voice picked up: "Hi, this is Cordelia Chase's place. That sounded corny, didn't it? Well, leave a message after the tone, and I'll get back to you. Okay?"
It beeped.
Amanda said, "Angel, I have someone that you might want to meet at the hospital."
"Amanda?" Angel's voice asked as the phone picked up.
"Angel?" Oz asked from the table.
"Oz?" Angel asked.
"Yeah, it's me, and I need to see you quick, man," Oz said simply.
"You can hear him from across the room?" Amanda asked in disbelief to both the boy and the vampire.
Both answered, "Yeah."
"Great, both men of few words," Amanda grumbled to herself.
"I'll be over as soon as I can, Oz," Angel said as the phone went dead.
Scowling, Amanda put the phone back into its cradle. Oz asked her, "How do you know Angel?"
"It's sort of a long story," Amanda replied as she looked back at the boy. He didn't even say five words to her. For some reason, that just ticked her off.
Then she asked, "How do you know him?" She tapped her foot on the tile floor, making sure it made an annoying Clicking sound.
Oz answered, "I was a boyfriend to the best friend of his ex-girlfriend." The answer was simple and matter of fact. He added, "Angel's cool though. If a little tense."
"What's Angel like?" Amanda asked as she looked at him, finally getting some answers on Angel, not Angelus.
"Brooding and intense," Oz simply answered.
"What are you then? Because you can't be a vampire because there's sunlight getting into this room," Amanda said to him.
"Werewolf, but I don't bite people," Oz answered.
Great, can't get answers out of the vampire nor the werewolf, Amanda thought as she sighed and sat on the stool by the table.
******
Angel walked into the hospital through the basement. He didn't look as he passed the morgue and the blood bank. He walked strait into the ER. The smell of blood almost overpowered the vampire as he walked up to an authorative man with unruly blond hair.
He asked, "Can I see a patent?"
"Who?" the doctor asked him, looking at Angel questioningly. Yeah, I know I look dangerous, because I AM dangerous, Angel thought grimly to himself as the doctor asked, "Who?"
"His name's Daniel Osborne," Angel answered, using the name no one knew for Oz until he high tailed it out of Sunnydale. Sounds familiar, he thought ironically. He and the werewolf boy had no trouble seeing where the other came from. They were both cursed, just differently.
"Exam Room 2, but I think Dr. Wallace is still with him," the doctor answered.
Angel smiled to himself. It didn't surprise him that Amanda would stay with Oz until she got some answers of some kind. He told the doctor, "Thank you, sir." With that, he went into the exam room.
Oz was a familiar face from Sunnydale that didn't bring him any memories of pain or regret, maybe because they sensed each other as something not human, or because Angelus didn't get a chance to torture him. It brought a quick pang to see Willow and Giles, definitely, but he ignored it and got on with any business he had with them.
Buffy, on the other hand, was an endless ache that made him angry and irritable.
A cranky vampire is not good to be around.
Oz nodded his blue and black head. "Hey," Oz said.
"Hey," Angel replied.
"Hello, it's nice to see you again," Amanda said sarcastically from where she sat. She looked angry. Her eyes were two shades darker and glittering as she looked up at Angel, and her ususal smile was replaced by a scowl. Scottish temperament, Angel found himself thinking amusingly to himself.
Angel asked, "What is it Oz?"
"Bad," the laconic werewolf answered.
"Got that E-9 diminished flat cord down yet?" Angel asked.
Oz smiled and answered, "Yeah, a Mexican taught me. Finally. That's a man's cord." The werewolf's expression was one of pure focus as he looked at Angel. The vampire smiled, amused, as he pulled out a stool from under the examining table.
He asked, "What is it?"
"Maybe you should go tell Dr. Quinn to leave the room," Oz replied.
Must be really serious then, Angel thought to himself as he looked at Amanda. "Could you give us a minute, Amanda?" She glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Sure, gotta let the supernatural have their little gathering," Amanda sputtered as she left the room.
"She's a very strange person," Oz said as he watched her go. "Girlfriend?"
"No, damn it, why does everyone keep asking me that?" Angel asked even more annoyed than before.
"Well, she does have something about her," Oz said as he looked out the window. For Oz that was high praise.
"She keeps popping up at the strangest places," Angel told him, running his hands through his hair in frustration.
"Hey, Buffy has Riley, maybe you should move on as well," Oz suggested simply.
"I can't," Angel told him fiercely. Then he added, "I thought something really bad was going to happen. If you were here to talk about my life, I could have picked a better subject."
"Like how your office was blown up?" Oz asked laconically.
"Exactly," Angel replied.
"Her name is Luna," Oz said, instantly changing subjects.
"What?" Angel asked in surprise.
"Her name's Luna, and she's a werewolf, sorta. Except she can control the change. She's been attacking people and gathering up other werewolves," Oz told him.
"Why?" Angel asked him.
"Because she has this thing planned with an army of werewolves. She's planning to take over the world, or something," Oz answered. With a shutter, the boy added, "And she has full control over other werewolves as well."
"An Alpha," Angel said in sort of amazement.
"What?" Oz asked.
"We're dealing with an Alpha werewolf. A leader among werewolves. Very powerful and very nasty. Let me guess, Luna has a male flunky, doesn't she?" Angel answered.
"Yeah," Oz answered. Then he asked, "What are you going to do?"
"Stopping her would be a good . . ." There was a loud crash and a scream outside. Then a rich growl that turned to a howl. Both men ran out of the room.
Amanda and the blond doctor were protecting a little girl from a big, snarling, white werewolf. Obviously female from the longer hair. Oz whispered, "That's Luna." He looked afraid, and that was rare for Oz. He showed no fear during the Mayor's Ascension, but now he was afraid.
The werewolf sniffed the air and ran to the other direction. Oz asked, "Was she scared of you, man?"
Angel's laugh was bitter as he answered, "She's an Alpha werewolf, one vampire on sight and smell isn't going to scare her." In fact, why didn't she try to kill me. I'm another predator, a threat . . . The other patents brought here yesterday, the ones that will change tonight. Damn it, Angel thought as he took off running after it, shouting, "Oz, Amanda, stay here!"
He heard screams down the hall and was about to slip into Game Face as he remembered that there was a lot of people here. The werewolf threw back her head and howled. She ran into a room. Angel chased after her.
She picked up a burly man wrapped up in bandages. The man's head rolled limply as she carefully draped him over her broad shoulder. She was also a big werewolf, Angel noted. He growled, "Get away from him, you bitch."
Well, she was, technically, a bitch.
She snarled at him, and her body changed to a half transformation stage. She had wolf and human features, and she could talk. Damn, only the most powerful Alphas could do this. What the hell am I getting into now? Angel thought as she looked at him with yellowish-green eyes.
"Vampire. You won't stop me," she snarled at him with a horse voice.
"Yeah, I will," Angel snarled back, changing his face. He felt his brow become heavier, his eyes became more sensitive to the light around them and more focused. His canine teeth elongated and became more sensitive as he ran his tongue over a fang to bluff the werewolf out.
She snarled, "I don't have time for you, fiend."
"Come on, didn't your mother ever tell you to be more polite," Angel quipped as he threw a punch. She changed to the full Beast and slung Angel across the room. Werewolves were already strong, but an Alpha would be almost impossible to fight without silver.
Angel hit the opposite wall with a bone jarring crack. Snarling, the vampire stood up and faced the wolf. She already ran out of the door. He heard Oz shout, "No, stay back!"
Angel ran out into the hall, breathing, getting control, letting his features shift back to normal. He snarled as the white werewolf picked an unconscious Oz up and gently laid him over her shoulder. "Let him go," Amanda shouted as she shoved a chair into the werewolf's way.
The wolf snarled at her among the chaos. People were running away, screaming, hiding. Angel charged at her. He saw Amanda's worried expression as he charged the wolf head on. He managed to slam into the werewolf.
He stood up, but the werewolf was faster, grabbing him in a hold that was all too familiar to Angel. With a sharp twist, his neck snapped and he was plunged into darkness.
******
Angel awoke lying on a cold, concrete floor. He was in some warehouse somewhere. Slowly he sat up, seeing a multitude of different people around him, including Oz. Oz said, "Sorry man."
"I can see why you were afraid of her," Angel sneered as he stood up in one fluid motion. He looked up to the cat walk to see a beautiful young woman with a fall of long white hair and golden-green eyes. She was dressed in a burgundy tank top and velvet blue jeans. She was wearing a long pendent with a wolf carved sitting and howling in a moon.
"Luna," Oz whispered.
"Somehow, it doesn't surprise me that her name means 'moon'," Angel told him as he glared.
Luna glared right back. She said in a falsely charming voice, "Ah, the vampire is awake."
"The name's Angel," he replied hotly as he felt his face began to change.
"Angel, Angelus?" she asked.
"Yeah," Angel answered.
She smiled and said, "Well, I would become a sort of heroine in the demonic community if I killed you. I could get a nice sum of money from Wolfram and Hart."
"You could," Angel replied with a devil-may-care grin.
"Don't piss her off, Angel," Oz whispered as he placed his hand on Angel's sleeve.
Angel looked down into Oz's face. He was almost a foot taller than the boy, but Oz wasn't disabled by his lack of height, in fact, it gave him more stature. He whispered, "I know what I'm doing. Trust me."
"You have a natural talent for pissing people off, man," Oz told him.
Angel chuckled despite he knew that every person in this warehouse was a werewolf. He replied, "It comes in handy once and a while."
Luna went on, "But why would I wanna ally myself to some human and demon filth? We werewolves have been shut away too long! That's why I left you alive long enough to bring you here, Angel."
"Why?" Angel asked curiously.
Oz nervously rubbed the back of his neck with his hand as he walked away from Angel. Then the vampire knew. The full moon would be up soon. At least I know I can get out of here without frying, he thought as he looked at the Alpha Wolf.
Luna went on, "The full moon's in a few moments. Tonight I'll let my children play, changing as many as they can to introduce into my thrall. And, as a start of our new beginning, they'll kill a vampire with their bear fangs and claws."
Angel looked around, time was running out. He replied, "You'll kill more humans than you'll change, you know."
"That works just as well. We'll rule the human race," Luna said with a wicked smile.
"Your company looks like it doesn't wanna be President," Angel replied.
"They don't have a choice as the moon rises," Luna said with a predatory grin.
"Angel . . . Run," Oz whispered as he was crouched on the ground, holding his stomach. His face and hands were growing fur. As were most of the room's occupants.
His time had just run out.
******
Amanda parked her motorcycle in front of Cordelia Chase's apartment building. She took a deep breath of air before she walked into the building and knocked on Cordelia Chase's door. She waited a moment and knocked again.
"Hold on. I'm coming!" the same chirpy voice from the answering machine called out.
The door opened to reveal a lovely girl with long, dark hair, dressed in a red peasant blouse and a long, denim skirt. She had curves galore and a bright flashing smile that contrasted greatly with her dark eyes and tanned skin.
"Hi," the girl said with a smile as she looked Amanda over curiously.
"Hello, are you Cordelia Chase?" she asked.
"Yeah, but you're not some salesperson, freak, aren't you?" Cordelia asked tactlessly.
Amanda smiled and answered, "No, my name's Dr. Amanda Wallace, and I want to talk to you about Angel."
"Hey, Wesley, its Angel's doctor!" Cordelia shouted into the room.
Amanda jumped just a bit and smiled as Cordelia flashed her a brilliant smile. She said, "Come in, come in."
"Thanks," Amanda said as she walked in.
There was a tall, slender man just a few years older than she was standing in the living room. He was handsome in a harmless sort of way with black hair and blue eyes framed by wire-rimmed glasses. He smiled brightly as he looked at Amanda. "So this is the mysterious doctor that Angel mentioned," he said with a British accent as he walked over to her.
Great, an Englishman. Damn, she thought wirily as he held out his hand. He said, "I am Wesely Wyndom-Price, and it is a pleasure to meet you."
"Thank you, I'm Amanda Wallace," Amanda replied as they shook hands. He wasn't so bad, just stuck in what her ole Da would like to refer to as, "Stuffy, Manx manners."
He asked, "Where are you from, Dr. Wallace?"
Cordelia chirped protectively, "Where's Angel? You didn't sleep with him, did you?"
Amanda flushed bright red as Wesley scolded, "Cordelia."
"What? Angel isn't here right now, but she is. There has to be a reason," Cordelia said.
Amanda managed, "No, I didn't sleep with him, and I know that Angel's been taken." Not that I would want to have sex with him, which I most certainly would, but why would that be a problem? Amanda thought as she looked into Cordelia and Wesely's worried faces.
"By who?" Wesley asked.
Amanda ran her hands through her hair and answered, "A werewolf, that can, apparently, change whenever she wants. This kid named Oz really wanted to talk to Angel badly about her today. You see, we got this huge number of animal attacks last night in the ER. They were really werewolf attacks. The werewolf got all of the people that were attacked out."
"An Alpha werewolf," Wesley said in a thoughtful manner as he took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Do you know where they took him?" Cordelia asked in a hyperly worried manner, grasping Amanda's shoulders.
Amanda looked down at her hands, and the other woman dropped her hands, but still managed to glare. "I dinna know. I just got out of the hospital." Then she asked, "What's an Alpha werewolf?"
"Very powerful, has full control of the change and can only be harmed by silver even in their human form," Wesley said as he picked up a book and paged through it.
Amanda looked out the window and said, "Nightfall, moon rise."
Cordelia said, "Yep, Angel's in big trouble."
"We gotta look for him then!" Amanda shouted, worried about the vampire.
"It would be like finding a needle in a haystack without any information," Wesley said, "We need to find out where these attacks have been taking place."
Amanda glared. She couldn't handle it. She said, "You do that, I'm going to find Angel." She stormed out of the apartment.
******
Cordelia smiled as Amanda ran out of the apartment. She said, "Okay, I like her." That was the kind of girl that Angel needed to be with, fiery, smart, independent, and snappy enough to keep him on his toes. Not like that blonde Bimbo from Sunnydale known as Buffy Summers.
Okay, the doctor didn't dress the best, but she was a DOCTOR. Which meant she had money, which meant that made up for a lot of things.
She said, "You know, I'm with the Scottish Chick. Let's go find Angel."
Wesley smiled and nodded. He said, "I was only testing the girl."
"Did she pass?" Cordelia asked as she slipped into her jacket, which Denis was so kindly holding for her. "Thanks, Denis. Now be a good ghost while I'm gone."
Together, the pair walked out of the apartment.
******
"Oh, shit," was the only thing that could come from Angel's mouth. He was surrounded by at least a hundred snarling, hungry werewolves. I can't fight them head on, but I'll give them a merry hunt first, Angel thought as he ran out into the frey, pushing down werewolves as he went.
Until a giant, clawed hand caught him right across the back. Angel snarled as claws scratched his flesh. He felt cold blood trickle from the burning pain. "Okay, doggie, big mistake," Angel snarled at it as he smashed his fist into his nuzzle.
While he spun around to run, another wolf sank his teeth into Angel's arm. The vampire cried out in pain. Wolves had an average bite power of 15,000 pounds per square inch. Werewolves probably had more.
The teeth scraped into the bone. With a shout, Angel rammed the fingers of his free hand into the wolf's golden eyes. The wolf let him go and the vampire saw a door. Climbing over werewolves who were snipping at his heels, Angel ran to the door. He opened it and ran outside, slamming the door behind him.
He fumbled with a lock, gritting his teeth against the pain, and somehow managed to lock the door. If they don't decapitate me, I should be able to live through all of this, the vampire thought as he took off running. Thank the Powers that Be that his legs had came through this unscathed.
The door flew open right as Angel cleared the ally. The vampire recognized where he was at: the docks. He hoped that werewolves didn't like water as he ran towards the ocean. If he could get underwater and get the wolves away from his scent, he should be all right.
Well, except for the three werewolves that blocked his way. His back burning from the claw marks, Angel dodged a swipe of a clawed hand. Another wolf pushed him from behind, the claws making contact.
He snarled with pain as his chest was slashed open. Faintly he heard the sound of a motorcycle coming closer. In a blur, strong arms lifted him up and placed him on the back of the bike. "What?" he managed as he looked at the driver.
It was Amanda Wallace. The redhead told him, "Hold on, this is going to be rough."
"What are you planning to do?" Angel asked her.
"Get you out of here. Your arm's probably chewed past the bone. You need attention," she told him.
"I'll heal," he told her as he gritted his teeth from the pain.
Amanda grumbled in Gaelic, "Men are idiots."
Angel smirked and replied, in the same language, "And redheads have tempers."
She grunted and leaned against the front of the bike, gunning the engine. She sped towards the werewolves. Surprised, Angel nearly fell off the bike. He reached around with his good arm and wrapped it around Amanda's slender waist.
She was well toned under the material, he could feel the muscles coiled under the skin. In typical hunting fashion, a werewolf was running at them at each side. Angel said, "Amanda . . ."
"I know, that's part of my plan," she told him in the thickest accent that she had used yet.
"You're mortal," he reminded her.
She ignored him and slid the motorcycle on the ground, sending the two wolves crashing into each other. One of Angel's many scrapes hit the wooden planks and he cried out and hissed in pain. Vampires took more time to heal from wooden injuries than any others, even holy items.
She turned her head back to sneak a look at him. Her face was shadowed by the helmet she wore so Angel couldn't tell her expression. She looked to her front and gunned the bike.
The wolves were fast, but the bike was faster. Except that the wolves had begun a hunt. They had formed four groups that were waiting for them at different spots on the docks, ready to spring. A wolf was running on all floors after them.
It jumped up, nipping Angel on the heel. Angel snarled and kicked it off of his leg, sending the wolf rolling to the ground in a whimpering, furry mass. Amanda swerved and avoided another werewolf leaping at them. Angel leaned up to her ear.
He said, "They're hunting me."
"Not just you, us," Amanda answered as she took off. Angel's left arm was lying useless at his side. It had gone numb, and that wasn't a good sign. He was getting light headed from blood loss, and it would be too easy just too . . .
No, never, not in this or any life time, he thought hard with a mental shake. But still, he could see her slender, white neck just over the collar of her leather Bomber jacket. The artery pumping blood, throbbing. His face began to change.
"Angel . . ." she shouted nervously. His head snapped up, the white werewolf was standing in their way.
"Amanda, I'm getting off. It's me they're after, not you," he told her, getting ready to jump.
"Like hell you're not," she told him with utter conviction. She revved up the engine, and started playing a deadly game of chicken with a werewolf. Angel tensed up and was about to roll off when Amanda did something utterly impossible.
She skitted right as she came up to the giant, white werewolf, sending her leg flying out. She caught the werewolf's knees and swerved to the driving position in an eye blink. The white wolf rolled to the ground with a vicious howl and Amanda flew off.
Angel turned his head and blinked. "How . . ." he stuttered as they flew like some creature made of metal and flesh through the docks.
Amanda didn't answer. Instead, they flew on the freeway, and within a matter of moments, they were at Cordelia's apartment building. The engine turned off and Amanda stepped off the bike. She yanked her helmet from her face, sending a torrent of red curls tumbling around her head. She glared as she grabbed her saddle bag.
Angel held his arm as he eased off the bike. It was a mass of burning pain now. He could feel it healing, but that wasn't good enough. He hissed softly as they walked into Cordelia's apartment.
Dennis automatically opened the door and they stepped in. Amanda said, "Get on the kitchen counter and take off your shirt and jacket."
Angel looked at her. She had taken off her leather jacket. She was pulling her hair up into a pony tail and slipping latex gloves on her hands. She looked at him with her dark green eyes. She said, "Your arm. Your chest. I know you heal fast, but you may loose your arm if someone doesn't do anything about it."
Angel winced as he took off the duster. It was soaked in his blood. He faintly thought of how furious Cordelia would be when she saw the blood stain on the floor. He hissed as he removed his shirt, it was ripped to shreds, not even worth attempting to save.
The air hit his open wounds like a thousand pricking needles as he hissed in pain. He perched on top of the counter and watched Amanda. There were medical supplies in the saddle bag. She walked over to him.
Her touch was clenicle, gentle, but sexless. She cleaned the wounds off with precision and with a very buissness like effcentcy. He watched her, her expression was concentrated, thoughtful. Then she touched his arm.
He growled and automatically jerked his arm away in an animalistic response. He didn't know her. He didn't trust her. She looked at him with fathomless dark green eyes. She gently took his arm and said, "Don't move."
She looked at it carefully.
******
Amanda carefully held his ruined arm in her hand. It was already healing. She watched as the muscles reknitted themselves over flesh. His skin was cool to the touch. She gently probed the healing wound with her fingers.
He hissed but didn't draw away this time. He asked, "How did you know where to find me?"
She smiled up at him, at his intense expression. He seemed a bit angry at her. She leaned back and answered, "Where people found people who were attacked in that area. I just put two and two together."
"And got four," he said bitterly as she began to bind the wound. He told her, "It'll be healed in less than an hour."
She nodded and said, "Probably even quicker than that. The scratches on your chest and back are almost gone. You won't even scar." She was amazed by his ability to heal, but she had some remote idea of the sort of price he had to pay. She had read his history, well, a brief telling about this horrible vampire who was the terror of Europe. The Scourge of Europe.
She didn't make eye contact as she tore some gauze out of its sterile packaging. Slowly, carefully, she bound the wound in the soft cloth. It turned bright crimson with blood in a matter of moments. He's lost so much blood. How does one help a vampire who's lost so much blood? Absently, her hand traced her Carotid artery.
Angel's attention was snapped to her neck before he quickly looked away. He shook his head and took a deep breath. She wrapped the wound quickly and noticed a cell phone lying on the ground. She picked it up and asked, "Why dinna you call anyone?"
Angel's dark brown eyes were amused as he answered, "It never works."
She had to laugh at that as she peeled off her gloves and threw them in the trash. He couldn't carry diseases if he was dead. He was sort of a medical marvel.
He asked, "Why the hell did you go after me?"
She grinned and leaned against the kitchen sink as she answered, "You were in trouble. So was my patent."
"Damn it, Oz," Angel cursed as he reached for Cordelia's cordless phone. He dialed it and said, "Cordy, it's Angel. I'm back at your place. I'm fine. It was Amanda. Don't do that. It's not like that." His tone became defensive. "I do not. Quit saying that. I'm NOT GOING TO SLEEP WITH HER. Thank you very much."
Amanda froze. What was all this about Angel not having sex? Was celbecy part of the curse? Or did he just refrain from that at all? She looked at him. He looked over at her with a surprised look on his face. He must have forgotten that she was here.
Cordelia Chase seemed like the kind of person who could do that.
Amanda blushed and looked away. "See you in a few minutes," Angel said as he hung up the phone. He awkwardly said, "Amanda . . . That was . . . Um . . . A . . . Long . . . Story."
She looked back at him and shrugged. She said, "Just surprised me, thats all." Angel nervously looked down and away from her. She looked at his arm. It was almost healed now. It was amazing. She wanted to touch the flesh, to see if it was really real.
She said, "Your arm. That's amazing."
He shrugged and looked down at it. He said, "Well, thank you."
Amanda asked, "What was that? The werewolf?"
"An Alpha," Angel told her.
She was confused. The Alpha wolf was the leader of the pack. She asked, "A sort of head werewolf then?"
******
Logic, questions, just to get his mind off the bloodlust. He was starving, the hunger pulling like a hand in his gut. He had lost a lot of blood because of the arm. Amanda stood there, in the kitchen, a few feet away from him.
The demonic half of him was whispering, telling him how easily he could take her. She innocently rubbed the back of her neck as she waited for his answer. He shook himself out of it and answered, "Something like that. They're also a whole lot more powerful than a normal wolf."
"How?" Amanda asked curiously. This girl craved knowledge and companionship. Maybe that's why she had sook him out. She was sort of an outcast. Strong-willed, beautiful, intelligent, and compassionate. Stubborn. He had almost forgotten about her being stubborn.
He answered, "They can change at will, and, apparently, control other wolves."
"Why did she want to kill you?" Amanda asked as she watched him, more curiosity in her dark eyes.
"Because I'm a vampire," he told her, hoping to scare her off.
She asked, "So, the whole thing about werewolves and vampires being rivals is true then?"
Angel smirked and told her, "You've seen too many movies."
"Read too many books, really," she replied with a small smile.
He smiled just a bit as he answered her, "Yeah, it's true. Only when they're in wolf form though." Sure, a vampire might be able to smell a werewolf in its human form, but it wasn't a threat then. It was only during the Full Moon that it was.
"How do you kill one?" she asked.
"Silver," he answered her.
Cordelia and Wesley walked into the apartment. She looked down at the pile of bloody garments with disgust. She snorted and said, "You know, you're cleaning this up."
Angel looked at her. Wesley asked, "Is it a true Alpha?"
"Yeah, she is," Angel answered as he walked into the other room and slipped into a black sweater.
Amanda asked, "How do we kill her?"
"I thought you were a doctor. You're supoce to help people, not kill them," Cordelia said.
Amanda smiled. Angel was beginning to really like that smile. She said, "This person is a danger. She'll keep killing and cruising people as she goes. To keep people from getting hurt, she needs to be killed."
"How are we going to kill her then?" Wesley asked.
The loud buzzing sound filled the room again. Amanda cursed as she turned on her beeper. She called a number and her face went even whiter as she spoke to the person on the other line. "Good god," she murmured as her eyes found Angel's.
He knew something was wrong. He said, "We're going to the hospital, now."
******
The four walked into the Emergency Room. It was pure chaos. Amanda swore, "Holy shit." Werewolves were everywhere. Doctors and nurses were running from the half human creatures, some trying to protect the patents.
Cordelia said, "All You Can Eat Werewolf Buffet. Damn, they're everywhere."
Wesley said, "We must act quickly."
Angel ran out into the frey. He ignored them as he ripped a werewolf off a young girl. The child wasn't bitten, but she was clawed across her gamine features. He slammed it against the wall with a snarl. It was predator against predator.
Wesley shouted, "Angel, they're innocent people."
Angel glared as he punched another werewolf. He shouted, "I know that. They'll be fine." He was methodically knocking them out.
Amanda ran the opposite direction. She wasn't afraid. She was focused, looking for something. Angel didn't have time to wonder what she was doing when the Luna's hand backhanded him across the room.
He tumbled to the ground and looked up at the white werewolf. Angel told her, "You know, I'm still here." The wolf growled and lifted him up. Angel slapped her in the ears.
The wolf whimpered in pain as she dropped him. Angel kicked her directly in the nuzzle. The wolf snarled as she tried to find purchase with her muzzle. He jumped back, not letting the teeth touch his skin.
Suddenly, the werewolf jerked. It snarled in pain and crumpled to the ground in a spasming mass. Angel saw the needle sticking out of her pelt as the werewolf completed her death throws.
Amanda was standing there, breathing hard. She said, "Silver nitrate. I had to give it a try."
He asked her, "Can you get a sedative for all of these werewolves?"
She smiled and asked, "What do you have in mind?"
******
Oz was heavily sedated, chained up in Cordelia's apartment so heavily he couldn't move. He wasn't going to do much moving anyway. The werewolf was asleep.
Cordelia and Wesley left the room, leaving Amanda and Angel alone. Amanda said, "Most of these werewolves were out of town. They're going home after the full moon."
They had found most of the werewolves the previous night and drugged them. They were chained up and drugged at this moment, sleeping off the change. The doctor and Oz had talked to them during the day. Luna had been recruiting werewolves for a long time, apparently.
Angel rubbed the back of his neck. He wasn't ready for another woman in his life like this. Hell, he'd probably never be ready, but he did like the doctor. She walked over and looked at Oz.
She said, "He's an odd kid."
"He was like that before he was a werewolf," Angel informed her. She flashed him a teasing smile.
She said, "We made a good team."
Something had been bothering Angel for the last few days. He asked her, "Doesn't this all bother you one bit?"
She laughed and answered, "No, it doesn't. It exsplanes a lot, really. I haven't met a demon yet, but I don't think that will really bother me either."
Then he asked, "Do you know who I am?"
She smiled again, this time kindly. She said, "You're Angel. A former evil fiend who's changed his ways. What's in the past is in the past. I've seen some pretty horrible things as a doctor, Angel. Somethings that make me cringe at the thought of them, give me nightmares even. You don't. Maybe you're just too good a guy"
Angel snorted at that. Her beeper went off. She cursed and said, "I'm needed." She turned to go.
Angel sighed and said, "Amanda." She turned to face him, her green eyes wide. He said, "Thank you."
She smiled and said, "You'll never know when a doctor will come in handy. We'll keep in touch." She waved at him as she exited the apartment. She called out, in Gaelic, "Until next time, Angel."
Angel smiled and said, in Gaelic, "Until next time, healer."
Cordelia walked into the room. She said, "Spill."
Angel smiled faintly as he took a book from the shelf and began to read. She grunted and walked away from him, saying something about undead empyolers' choices in girlfriends. Angel only kept reading.
THE END!