Chapter Fourteen

"Doyle..", I said. Both Angel and Toby looked at me. I didn't mean to cause a commotion, which I obviously did. "Yeah, the half brachen demon you must've read about", oops.

Shit, I'm not stealthy, even when I want to be. Out of regret I stared at the floor. Angel turned his attention from me to Toby and narrowed his eyes. "Harriet never mentioned you to Doyle or us", Angel said. Toby smirked. "My mother figured it out a bit to late to get rid of me. For some reason, she didn't want my father to know and raised me on her own".

I wasn't sure what to say. It sounded really sad on Toby's part, but why was Angel seemingly angry at him?

"Why are you mad at Toby?", I asked. It all seemed unfair to say the least. Toby smiled warmly at me. I kept my focus on Angel, just to stay serious in this matter. Angel turned to me and walked over to me, grabbing my arm. "Listen Kaily. This guy is dangerous",

My eyes widen. Dangerous? Because he's 1/4 brachen? Was he a criminal? Did he murder someone? Okay, he'd still be a criminal.

"Aren't we?", I wondered, "You've killed half the human population as far as I'm concerned", I told Angel. Angel narrowed his eyes at me again. "This guy isn't working for the good guys", he said sharply at me. One look in Angel's eyes and I knew not to open my mouth to defend Toby in any way. Toby just simply shrugged and smirked. Okay, now knowing this guy wasn't as nice as I took him for, that smirk he had on his face now looked... maniacal.

"We're going to retrieve the head", Spike suddenly brought the conversation back to the order of the day. Erh, night. Angel nodded. His gaze was still locked on Toby, he didn't seem to care much. Angel then turned to face me. "I need you to stay here", I wanted to protest but knew how badly we needed the head. And I was not capable of fighting.

Well, I am. But not good enough against demons.

I wished Spike and Angel luck and when they closed the door behind them, I sat down on the couch again. Toby kept standing there, processing what just happend. He shrugged and sat down next to me on the couch. A million thoughts ran through my head. Such as; am I able to kill him if I need to? How strong would he be? What organistation does he work for?

My thoughts were interrupted by a sound. It was subtle, yet I heard it. Toby got up from the couch again and walked over to the window. It was still night out, perfect for a head retrieving mission. "So, you work for Angel?", Toby broke the silence with a question. A pretty obvious one too. I got up as well and walked over to the window where Toby was standing.

"Who do you work for?", I asked him in return. Toby chuckled. When he was alone with me he seemed nicer than when Angel was around. Either this was a trick to win my trust or he had some sort of disorder. He turned to face me and one of his hands reached out towards my face. I don't know why, but I didn't move nor pushed his hand away.

It was almost sweet. Almost. I glared daggers, causing Toby to retract his hand back. "I work for Higher Beings",

My eyebrows went in a frown. Higher Beings? Wow, Angel really told me anything. Toby chuckled at my clueless expression. "Higher Beings are powerful demons worshipped by inhabitants of earth and other dimensions",

I blinked. It still didn't make much sense to me, but alright. My world was getting weirder and weirder by the minute, so this could be added to the list as well. "Okay. You worship demons. Cool and all, but why do you have beef with Angel?", I questioned. He sure as hell wasn't the only one, I figured. But this would be the youngest person I've met to hate him.

Toby's happily expression turned darker by the mentioning of Angel's name. Still didn't understand why. Hopefully Toby was so kind to tell me. "Well, I'm convinced Angel is to blame for my fathers death".

Okay.. I don't know the story of Doyle's death, but I do think that there's two side to this story. I felt uneasy to ask, but I had to, to hopefully clear Angel's name. "What exactly happend to your father?", I asked. Here it went.

Toby sighed as he told the story. "My father is -was- a half-breed demon. There are organisations of full-breed demons who despise those who don't have the whole demon DNA. Those groups are set out to kill the half-breeds. My father sacrificed himself to save a group of half-breeds by disableing the beacon. He got disintegrated by it's energy".

I felt chills down my spine as I heard the story. I might never see my own father again, but I wouldn't want to lose him in any way close to that. I walked over to Toby and out of the blue hugged him. He felt warm, nicely warm. He was a bit surpised to me hugging him. I could feel his body tense. He relaxed a few seconds later and hugged me back.

It felt good, a bit of attention. "Listen Toby. I'm so, so sorry for what happend to your father. And I get it that you want to blame someone for his death. Angel doesn't seem like it, but I'm sure he mourned a lot after Doyle died. I've read something about him and Angel cared deeply for him", I explained. Toby tighted his grip on me and sighed.

The sigh sounded like one of relief. At least I hope my words kinda got through to him. Toby was actually a nice guy, but didn't know the story of his fathers death. This talk about fathers made me realize I should visit my own. Hopefully they can understand at least a little bit.