Disclaimer: "Angel", along with all related characters and concepts, was created by Joss Whedon and Co., so they don't belong to me, while "Charmed" characters and concepts belong to Constance M Burge. Anyway, enjoy

Feedback: As always, I'd appreciate it

The Love of a Vampire

"She took our innocent?" Phoebe yelled in frustration at Piper as soon as she learned about the situation after returning from the courthouse (She hadn't actually mentioned how the divorce proceedings had gone, but so far none of them had had the opportunity to ask; they had more important matters to worry about right now). "How could you let that happen?"

"Believe me, I've been asking myself that question ever since it happened…" Angel muttered, looking grimly around at the Halliwells as he stood in one corner of the room; only a critical glare from Paige- now in a dry white dress that really looked good on her- prevented him from actually voicing his thoughts to avoid starting an argument at a time like this.

"I don't know," Piper protested, either not hearing or ignoring Angel's comment. "I-I think I had a panic attack; I couldn't breathe or move!"

"OK, but she took our innocent!" Phoebe countered, glaring

"Let's give Piper a break, OK?" Leo asked, looking around the room in a desperate attempt to restore order that Angel had little intention of participating in; for all his faults when it came to taking part in the fight against what he'd once been a part of, when he'd actually started to fight with the Halliwells he'd committed whole-heartedly to the cause, and yet Piper was having a panic attack after four years in the 'business'.

"No… she's right," Piper put in, shaking her head as she looked at her husband. "I froze up; Mylie's gone and it's my fault-"

"No, it's not your fault," Leo interjected, turning to address his wife. "It's your hormones; your maternal instincts are kicking in-"

"They're taking over, Leo; call it what it is," Angel interjected, glaring over at the Whitelighter with his arms folded. "We're trying to save lives here; the last thing we need is for our most powerful magical practitioner to have a panic attack!"

"It's natural for a mother to feel protective-" Leo began.

"Maybe, but Angel's got a point," Phoebe added, looking slightly uncomfortably at Angel- after her experience with Cole she was still slightly uncomfortable around Angel, even if she knew consciously that he and Angelus weren't as 'inter-connected' as Cole and the Source had been- but nevertheless continuing to speak. "Piper's been handling demons ever since she got pregnant; why the sudden change today?"

"I don't know…" Piper protested, her tone demonstrating her uncertainty. "I just… I don't…"

"Look, let's just focus on finding Mylie," Paige said, stepping forward slightly to draw attention to her before she looked at Piper. "Did you find anything useful about the Sea Hag?"

"Well… I found a vanquishing spell…" Piper answered, her uncertainty still clear even as she responded to the question; clearly her attack of 'nerves' wasn't going to go away any time soon.

"Right, so we've got something that can take her out; do we know where she is at the moment?" Angel asked, only to be met with an apologetic shrug from Piper.

"The Elders say she keeps a cavern on a remote island," Leo put in, glaring briefly over at Angel before he continued. "She keeps it hidden with charms and spells; the only way to track her is with a mermaid."

"Well, unfortunately, we're fresh out of those right now!" Phoebe pointed out, looking over at Leo in frustration.

"Yeah, well… where were you when this all went down?" Piper countered, glaring over at Phoebe.

"I had my own demon to deal with!" Phoebe retaliated, looking back at Piper with an equally intense glare.

"The good news," Paige cut in, in a clear attempt to end the obviously-near-imminent fight before it could start, "is that the sea hag can't steal Mylie's immortality unless she's willing to give it up…"

"Which, after Craig's rejection, could be sooner than we'd like if she's given up hope," Angel put in, his own expression grim as he and Paige exchanged brief glances; neither of them could ever forget how it felt to almost want to die because of the rejection of a loved one.

"I'll find Craig," Leo said, stepping forward to look around at the others. "We might still be able to win him over if we move fast enough."

"Try the airport; he was headed to New York when I found him," Paige added. Leo nodded briefly in response to Paige's information before he orbed out of the room.

"I'll try and locate the-" Piper began.

"No," Angel interrupted, looking critically over at Piper. "You've said it yourself; you're in no shape to deal with all this right now. Paige, Phoebe and I will see what we can find about the hag; you need to rest if you're going to be of use to anybody."

"He's got a point; if you're not going to rest for your sake, then rest for our niece's, OK?" Paige asked, looking over at Piper with a pointed glare.

After a moment's uncertain silence, Piper sighed and nodded.

"OK…" she said, nodding as she lay down on the couch.

"I'll join you two in a minute," Angel said, indicating the kitchen with a brief, uncomfortable expression on his face. "I have to… y'know…"

"Oh… uh, sure," Paige said, nodding in understanding as Angel headed into the kitchen, quickly understanding what he meant; he was starting to get 'hungry'.

It wasn't that she didn't want to see Angel feed- it could be a bit disturbing watching the guy she loved swallow down actual blood, of course, but she'd mostly gotten over it-; it was just that…

Well, after seeing the bodies Angelus had left during his brief little reign of terror during that period when his soul had been lost again, she supposed it was only natural that they'd take a little time feeling… comfortable… around Angel whenever he was doing… vamp things.

"C'mon," she said, turning to look at Phoebe as she indicated the stairs leading to the attic. "When I was drying off I came up with a couple of other potential spells we could use to get past anything the Sea Hag might try and throw at us; I'd appreciate it if you could take a quick check over them."


A few minutes later, Paige was beginning to regret her decision to ask Phoebe for advice; her sister seemed to be taking ages to come to any kind of decision about her spell-writing abilities, and they still had to come up with a decent plan to find the Sea Hag in the first place.

She wondered if that was one of the reasons she liked working with Angel on his vampire-hunting patrols so much; vampires might be physically tough, but taking them down was fairly straightforward once you knew what you were doing and had the right weapons.

With magic, on the other hand…

It was a lot cooler to just be able to chant a few words and vanquish the bad guy, don't get her wrong, but you still need to know the right words to pull it off, and then there were those demons who required more than just the simple spells to take them out of the running…

"This is reallygood," Phoebe commented at last, breaking into Paige's train of thought as she studied the spell. "Adding Eastern thinking to Western wicca; it should definitelybreak through the Sea Hag's protective charms…"

Further conversation was cut off as Paige's phone began to ring, prompting Phoebe to glance back at her sister when Paige didn't take the phone out. "Are you gonna answer that?"

"Uh, no, it's just my boss," Paige replied, sighing slightly in frustration. "I've been gone all afternoon trying to crack this mess."

"OK, then can we turn it off?" Phoebe prompted, indicating the phone with a slight wave of her hand as Paige pulled it out of her.

"Do you think it's possible to get promoted and fired on the same day?" she asked, looking uncertainly at her sister.

"Paige, please, just turn off the phone…" Phoebe countered, shaking her head as she indicated the mobile in her sister's hand.

"You know," Paige sighed, waving the phone in her hand as she looked at her immediately older sister, "maybe in our new destiny this job just isn't meant to be!"

"OK!" Phoebe said, grabbing the phone and slamming it to the table, frustration evident on her face even after the ringing finally stopped.

"Uh… right," Paige said, looking uncertainly at her sister before she sat down opposite her. "Is something… wrong, Phoebe?"

After a moment's silence, Phoebe finally spoke.

"He's back," she said simply.

"Who?" Paige asked, her mind already going over the possible identities of 'he'; Spike seemed the most likely candidate, but she didn't see Phoebe getting that worked up over him…

"Cole," Phoebe replied.

"What?" Paige said, staring incredulously at her sister.

Reaching into her purse, Phoebe pulled out a letter opener and showed it to Paige; it didn't take more than a cursory glance to confirm that the opener's blade had been slightly eaten away as though it had been dipped in acid, its formerly smooth edge rough and slightly jagged.

"This is his blood," Phoebe explained, looking urgently at her sister as she indicated the opener. "Blood is not supposed to do that!"

"You stabbed him?" Paige asked, looking at Phoebe in surprise.

"Yeah," Phoebe replied. For a moment Paige thought about congratulating her for that, but swiftly decided against it. After all the effort Angel had gone to before he'd lost his soul to give Cole another chance, she hardly felt like she was in any kind of position to offer Phoebe advice on what to do about him; given that she was torn between her dislike of Cole- the Source's powers might have corrupted him, but he'd still been fundamentally him- and her desire to at least try and see Angel's point of view- she wasn't sure what advice she'd give Phoebe even if she'd asked.

"He wants me back," Phoebe continued, looking urgently at her sister. "He wants me back and I just want to run, as fast and far as I can. I swear, if I had your power, Paige, I would… orb myself to a rock in the middle of the city. He has put me through so much and I just… I don't want to go through it again."

"OK, running is not the answer," Paige said, leaning over slightly to glare more pointedly at her older sister. "Did I run from Angelus? You shouldn't run from Cole; you've built a great life for yourself-"

"That doesn't matter," Phoebe protested, sounding like she was going to start crying at any moment. "I'm too tired to fight him…"

"Fight who?" a voice said from the stairs leading up to the attic. Spinning around to face the speaker, Paige wasn't sure whether to relax or tense up as she saw Angel standing there; while she was grateful that they wouldn't have to tell Piper about Cole's return just yet, telling Angel about his old friend's return was never going to be easy…

"Cole's back," she said at last, realising from Angel's prompting glare that she'd remained silent for too long already; their relationship was awkward enough after what Angelus had done to it without her lying to him.

"He's back?" Angel repeated, looking at Paige in surprise before he turned to look at Phoebe, an uncomfortable expression on his face as he studied her; it hardly took a genius to realise that Phoebe was far from thrilled at this latest development. "Uh… are you… OK?"

"OK?" Phoebe repeated, standing up to look at Angel with renewed hostility. "Of course I'm not OK, Angel; the guy who tried to impregnate me with his demon spawn is back-"

"Does the fact that the Source's powers would have been influencing his actions at that point mean anything-?" Angel began.

"DON'T try and… defend him, Angel!" Phoebe interrupted, jabbing her finger on Angel's chest as she seemed to come ever closer to breaking down. "Y'know, just because you can go on about how your demon isn't you doesn't mean everything's that simple, OK? Cole has all these… new demonic powers now; I don't know what he wants or what I could do to stop him getting it-"

"Look, can we just… I don't know, focus on the Sea Hag issue, then worry about Cole being back?" Paige asked, stepping forward to stand between her sister and her boyfriend, hands raised in what she hoped was a calming gesture. "Look, Phoebe, once we've dealt with this I'll test Cole's blood and try and come up with a magic way to keep him away-"

"Let me talk to him first," Angel said, cutting Paige off mid-sentence as he looked pointedly at her. "I know Cole; if he's any kind of threat, I'll figure it out."

"And why should we just… let you do that?" Phoebe asked, her arms folded as she directed her gaze to Angel, apparently bringing herself under control with a more immediate confrontation with a less personal 'foe'. "The last time you two met you were both trying to 'claim' me and Paige-"

"OK, do I have to say this again; Angel is not Angelus!" Paige yelled, spinning around to glare in frustration at her sister. "He has a soul now; Angelus is the demon who's in control of him when the soul isn't there! It's not the same!"

"It is," Angel stated.

Paige paused for a moment, confusion evident on her face as she turned to look at Angel.

"Huh?" she asked.

"Cole's soul might still have been in his body while my soul was completely banished from mine at that point, but that doesn't mean that it was completely in control of his actions at the time," Angel said, looking pointedly back at Paige as he folded his arms while continuing to speak, his attitude making it clear to Paige that he was speaking as Cole's friend rather than her lover at the moment. "The dark magic of the Source could exert its own influence over him even after the original Source died; if the Source had been alone in that body, do you really think he would have gone to so much effort to pretend to be Cole all that time when he could have just killed you?"

"He wanted a magical heir-" Phoebe began.

"He could have achieved that just by exerting enough control over you to make you receptive to his advances and then keep you somewhere secure until you gave birth; he didn't have to go to all the effort of winning you over," Angel countered, his glare shifting to Phoebe. "Cole wasn't himself back then, I get that, but there was still enough of him in there to want your love; hell, part of the reason Angelus felt confident enough to even make contact with the guy was because he felt that there was enough of Cole left there to make the Source not want to kill him because Angelus was all that was left of me."

Paige didn't even need to ask what Angel meant about that. Angel and Cole might not have acquired them in the same manner, but they'd still been the only two true demons with souls in the world (Angel had told her about a few of the more physical demons- similar to vampires, really; they used their fists rather than magic when they were fighting- who were so inclined towards pacifism that they'd even been known to have kids with humans, but Paige didn't consider them 'demons' in the same sense as the magic-based demons she and her sisters dealt with on a more regular basis; the tendency those guys had to hang around in the Underworld made them a bit… less human than those who lived up here, in Paige's opinion).

She might not exactly like the fact that Cole hadn't had the 'decency' to just be a straightforward bad guy even when he was the freakin' Source of All Evil, but she couldn't deny that Angel had a point; Cole hadn't been completely corrupted by the Source.

After Angel and Phoebe had glared at each for a few moments, Phoebe finally sighed in frustration.

"Just… don't make me talk to him, OK?" she said, looking in frustration at Angel. "I… look, I'm not saying I don't... kind of get your point, but I just…"

"You're not comfortable being alone with him right now; I get that," Angel said, nodding briefly in understanding. "Don't worry; when I go to him, I'll do it alone."

With that said, he turned to look at Paige, his expression making it clear that all Cole-related matters were being put to the side until further notice. "Anyway, right now we've got the Sea Hag to deal with; what's our strategy?"

"Well," Paige said, grateful for Angel's decision to focus on more immediate matters- things were complicated enough where Cole was concerned without them focusing on him when they had another crisis to deal with-, "I've got a spell that should let us find the Sea Hag; all we need is Piper…"

"And I'm here," Piper said, walking into the attic as she looked around at her sisters, clasping her hands together resolutely. "OK, let's go, we've got a job to do."

"Are you sure?" Angel asked, looking pointedly at Piper; Paige wasn't sure if she should feel touched or offended at Angel's concern for her, given that he was simultaneously criticising her sister.

"Well, I don't have a choice, do I?" Piper replied, shrugging as she indicated herself, Paige and Phoebe. "It's a Power of Three spell, right?"

Taking a deep breath, Piper stepped towards Phoebe and Paige, Angel stepping back slightly as the eldest sister moved into position; right now, this was a strictly 'Halliwell-only' case, rather than something where he could make any useful contribution. "Let's go; Mylie needs us now."

"OK," Paige said, as Phoebe passed out the copies of the spell she'd made to the other two, "if this works, it should take us straight to the Sea Hag."

As Angel stepped back slightly- his knowledge of the Halliwell's magic meant that he was never certain whether standing too close to them would disrupt the spell or something like that-, the three sisters raised the pieces of paper before them and began to read.

"Power of the witches rise,
Find the hag who speaks in lies,
Balanca chakra focus chi,
Lead us through the cruel cruel sea."

For a moment, there was silence, the three witches looking uncertainly around at each other as though waiting for something to happen, only for Phoebe to suddenly fall to the ground, letting out a brief yelp as she did so. Angel instinctively moved forward to try and help Phoebe get back onto her feet, only to realise as he stepped forward that such an action wouldn't accomplish anything; she no longer had feet.

What she did have was…

"A tail?" Phoebe yelled, looking incredulously at the long golden tail that had now replaced her legs, before redirecting her gaze to glare at her sisters. "You gave me a tail? What was the point of turning me into a mermaid?"

"Uh… look, I have an idea or two, but could we maybe get you to the beach before we start to talk about it; I'm really not sure if you have any actual need to be in water, but I'd rather not find out the hard way…" Paige said, hurrying over to crouch down beside Phoebe, beckoning Piper over to help her haul Phoebe to her… tail… before she glanced over at Angel. "Sorry, but, well… y'know, the beach-"

"Far from being somewhere I can go when you can't think of a convenient cave to orb us to; I understand," Angel said, reassuringly raising his hand as he nodded in acceptance at Paige's point. As much as he might want to be there when they went after the Sea Hag, if the spell had turned Phoebe into a mermaid to help them find her, than the search would have to begin somewhere where a vampire would be very out of place at this time of day.

"Hold on; the beach?" Phoebe yelled, looking over at Paige in frustration. "You are not just going to drag me off-"

Whatever Phoebe had been about to say was cut off mid-sentence as Paige orbed herself and her sisters away, leaving Angel standing alone in the attic as he stared at the space where they had been mere moments ago.

After waiting a few moments in case Paige came back- she might have spotted a convenient cave or something where he could stay in case they ended up needing his help-, Angel turned around and walked out of the attic, heading down to the kitchen to grab a quick glass of blood and take advantage of the silence to have a brief think.

To say that things had suddenly become 'interesting' in the last couple of days was a serious understatement…


AN: Abrupt ending, I know, but I just didn't think there was anything to be gained by having Angel tag along in the confrontation with the Sea Hag other than awkward questions as the Charmed Ones tried to explain why Craig shouldn't be worried about being in the same room as a vampire, to say nothing of how Angel could cope being on a beach (Carrying a blanket around might protect him, but he'd just look stupid standing there waiting and he wouldn't actually be able to contribute much to the fight in that kind of shape anyway). Next chapter jumps to after the events of this episode as the Charmed Ones try to find Phoebe and Necron, while Angel also tries to work out what he should do about Cole…