Chapter 26

As Angel closed the bedroom door and went to the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee, she ran into Christine, literally ran into her almost knocking her to the floor.

"Ooomph." Christine said as they collided and she grabbed the counter to keep her from falling. "Holy cow, you're sure in a rush this morning, what's up?"

"OMG Christine, I didn't know you were up this early, sorry about that. Geez I almost knocked you into oblivion, I am so sorry. Are you okay?"

Christine was laughing as she said. "Yeah I'm fine. I'm a tough broad, you know that, look, not a scratch." Christine was twirling around showing Angel herself to prove to her she wasn't hurt in the least.

"Good thing, especially since you just had the baby. By the way how is she? Has she grown a lot?"

"OMG Angel, she was born yesterday, she can't have grown yet. You are so funny! That's why I love you so much; you lift my spirits when I'm down."

Angel was making a cup of coffee when she heard Christine say lift my spirits and it struck a nerve. Why was she saying that, was there something wrong that she didn't want to tell her?

"What's wrong?"

Christine stopped what she was doing , looked at Angel with a half-smile on her face and then murmured. "Nothing why?"

Angel stared at Christine for the longest time. She was holding something back, Angel could feel it, and she didn't know if she should insist on knowing and push the issue, or shut up and allow her to work it out on her own. She chose the latter of the two options and kept her mouth shut.

"Well if you ever need to talk, you know I'm here, right?"

Christine smiled and hugged Angel tightly, told her she loved her and continued to mix formula for the baby's bottle.

Angel was ready to leave the kitchen when she noticed what Christine was doing. "Formula? I thought you were breast feeding?"

"Oh yeah, my big dream to be like all the other mother's in the world, didn't work out. Lil Angel didn't latch on to my nipple as we had hoped, which meant she wasn't getting any nourishment. Tim suggested the bottle so that she didn't lose weight or have complications from not eating. "I have to say I'm disappointed in myself as all weredogs feed via the nipple. Well, all of them except me." Christine had tears in her eyes and though she tried very hard not to cry, this time, talking about this tender subject forced the tears to fall onto her cheeks. Soon, a waterfall cascaded down her cheeks.

Angel walked to where Christine was, blotted her cheeks with a tissue and then took her in her arms and hugged her as she cried. She didn't talk, she didn't move, she just allowed her friend to let the tears flow and get them out of the way so that her life could continue, and happiness could appear on her horizon again.

After her tears subsided, Christine apologized for her tears. "I'm sorry Angel, I guess even though I didn't want you to be burdened with what was going on, it was bound to come out. I'm so embarrassed about not being able to feed my baby as I'm supposed to."

"Christine, please don't put yourself down. A lot of babies don't latch on to the mothers nipple right away. I mean, that's what I've heard women from down stairs say when they are talking. You can't fault yourself for what your daughter does, even if she is an infant. Please don't cry. And, hey you know you can pump your breast so that she gets your milk, you don't have to use formula. And that is a plus to be sure."

Christine stopped crying and tried to smile. "I know, and you're right. Tim told me to expect some postpartum depression; I just never thought it would show itself this soon. You know?"

"I know. He told me you might suffer from some form of depression as well, but he also didn't tell me it would happen this fast. But Christine, you have so much on your plate, and I think it's time we empty your plate so you can enjoy your life and your new daughter. Agreed?"

"Agreed. Let me just feed the little one and then we can talk. Okay?"

"Yep. I'll call down to Maria and let her know I'll be a little late."

"Oh, don't do that, Angel, we can meet up sometime later. I know you have a lot of things going on lately.

Angel stopped dead in her tracks, turned her head toward Christine and said. "There are so many things in life that are important, aren't there?

Christine shrugged and agreed.

"What is the most important thing in life?" No." Angel raised her hand to her mouth and ran her fingers across her lips as if to zipper it closed. "Don't answer that, please allow me. Family! Family is the most important, and you my dear are family to me. If ever I had to choose, believe me, I'd chose my family. And you of all people, should know that by now. So now, that we have agreed on that, leave me alone please so I can call Maria and let her know that I'll be late. Okay?"

Christine laughed and motioned with her finger as though she were unzipping her mouth and she said. "OK! I'll only be a few minutes to feed the little one and then I'll be right back. Love you Angel!"

Christine almost skipped her way to the bedroom, which gave Angel reason to smile. After she finished talking to Maria and letting her know that she was going to be late and to push back all her meetings for the day, she asked her to call the kitchen and order an elaborate breakfast for the two of them. Then she asked her to call Amy at Lush Beauty salon and Jaime at the Palm Beach Spa and ask them to send over a couple of their employees for Angel's day of relaxation and beauty. One last request she asked Maria to do for her was to find a registered nurse to take care of the baby for a couple of hours so they wouldn't be disturbed. "Maria, you know to offer them whatever they want to come here, I don't want you to dicker and barter. I want them here! As for all my appointments, either cancel the morning meetings or make them for after breakfast, around 10:00 a.m." By the time Angel hung up with Maria, Christine was coming out of the bedroom, and saw the dining room table filled with food, fruits and drinks.

"Oh wow Angel, this looks fantastic, and I'm starving, thank you so much. One thing is for sure, this is soooo much better than dry dog food."

"OMG I forgot that you ate dog food for the entire time you lived with Mom and then me. You see, if you'd had told us, you would have been sleeping in a regular bed and eating regular food. I hope from now on, you don't hold shit back from me."

Christine had tears in her eyes and it looked as though she was ready to bawl again, so Angel cocked her head, crossed her eyes and said. "Hey, no crying, it's not allowed.

Christine stared at Angel and then burst out laughing. "OMG Angel you look horrible, but so funny. No crying, gotcha."

"Hey only the best for my family, you know me, go big or go home."

"Yeah right, remember the days when you had very little money and it was a choice between eating for the day or buying a new gun? I remember you eating PB&J every day for a month because you always said you could never have too many guns."

"OMG. I got so sick of those sandwiches, still can't eat them today, but, you're right, I did say that guns were more important. I don't know that I'd say that today though."

They sat and laughed so much their stomachs hurt but this was a much-needed time for them. They needed to get re-acquainted and this was the perfect way to do it.

When they had finished their breakfast, and were sitting on the couch reminiscing, there was a knock at the door. Angel got up to answer it and standing there was the four masseuses that Angel had requested.

"Please come on in, I hope you brought your tables with you." She whispered as they walked into the room.

"We did. We brought all we need. Where do you want us to set up?"

Angel showed them where and before long there was another knock on the door. When she opened the door, Amy was standing there with three of the hair stylists from her salon.

"Hey Amy, thank you so much for coming. Please give Christine your best beauty treatment."

Christine looked a bit confused. "Angel what have you done?"

"I decided that you needed a day of pampering. Don't you think you need a day of pampering?"

"Uh yeah, but, what about the baby? She'll be waking soon."

"Uh huh, I have that taken care of." Angel had just finished her sentence when there was another knock at the door. Angel opened the door to find Candace standing there. "Hey chickie, what's up?"

"Well Maria called me and asked me if I knew of a nurse that could come and watch the baby for a while as her mama got pampered. I figured that since Christine and I are friends, she'd be more comfortable with me taking care of the baby than a stranger."

"Good thinking." Angel said as she hugged Candace and looked at Christine with a questioning look on her face. "What do you think?"

"I think it's perfect, thank you Candace and thank you Angel, you've thought of everything."

Well, almost everything, the rest of your surprise is yet to come. When the doorbell rang, Angel said. "Ah wait a second, I do believe that your surprise has arrived."

Angel opened the door to find 10 women standing there, all of Christine's friends and neighbors from her Palm Springs neighborhood.

"Welcome, please come in." Angel said as the women invaded her penthouse, rushing to Christine to hug her and congratulate her on the birth of the baby.

"And now that you have all the company you could want, I have to go. I have meetings all day long. Lunch will be served at noon, please make use of all the amenities of the compound." As she walked to Christine, she took her in her arms and told her she loved her and would see her later. "Wish I could stay, but, I have too much to do today, I hate missing the fun, and I sure could use a day of pleasure, but, another time perhaps. I do want you to have fun okay?"

As Angel walked to the front door, the chatter of the women was so loud she could barely hear herself think. Still, she laughed as she walked out the door and closed it, shutting off the chatter. "Ah, maybe it's a good thing I'm not in the middle of that gaggle of women." She whispered as she walked to the elevator and rode it down to the ground floor, where her office was located.

It would have been nice to take the day off and relax, but with Christmas so close, she didn't have a choice but to go and take care of the last minute details of the gala.

As she rounded the corner of the hallway and walked into the alcove where Maria's desk was, Michael and David who were patiently waiting for her to arrive for their meeting greeted her.

When Michael saw Angel, his face lit up and he jumped out of his seat anxious to get their meeting going. "Hey Angel, good to see you. You ready for our meeting?"

"I am Michael. Anxious are ya?"

"Hell ya. David and I have everything figured out, we just need your approval."

"Well, come on in then so we can get started." Angel opened her office door and told Michael and David to go ahead as she held back to tell Maria to hold all her calls until her meeting was over.

When she walked into the office, she noticed Michael removing everything from the top of her desk. "What are you doing?"

"Oh hey, sorry Angel, but we needed room for the blueprints and with all that crap on your desk, there wasn't room for it. I'll put it all back, promise." Michael said breathlessly.

"Okay. Let's do this then. Who did the blueprints for you? You haven't called a contractor yet right?"

"Maria gave us the name of the man who did your blueprints for this building and the name of the contractor who built it. Hope you don't mind but, we figured that you wouldn't mind us calling them to help. Bryan Dickman said he would fax you a copy of the cost and materials paperwork sometime today."

"David." Angel laughed. "Are you the silent partner in all this?"

"Why no I'm not, but, as you can see Michael is quite animated over this project, so I figured I'd let him sell you on the idea."

"Oh, you don't have to sell me on it; I just need to know what it's going to cost. I'm sold already. So do we have a preliminary cost sheet yet?"

"We do, well for the equipment that is." Michael said as he handed Angel the paperwork.

Angel looked over the paperwork and then looked at the two men that sat waiting for her to speak.

"Are you sure this is the correct amount?" She inquired of them.

"Yes, why, is it too much?" David said in a quiet voice.

"No, not at all. Actually it doesn't seem like enough. You have less than a million dollars here for all this equipment. Have you ordered high quality equipment or second rate equipment?"

"I ah, I believe it's good quality." Michael said as he looked at David for help.

"Yeah." David said. "It's good quality, not the best, but good enough I think."

"Okay, there is one thing you both have to realize about me. I don't do second rate anything. If you buy second rate equipment, it's possible that it will break and not last. I'd rather spend the money and get the best, so that it lasts, and we don't have constant repair bills."

"Oh, well if that's what you want, yeah we can buy the best. You just never told us how much you wanted to spend, and we didn't know."

"I told you guys the other night, that I would put 2 million in an account for you, did you think I was kidding?"

Angel looked first at Michael and then at David. Both had their mouths hanging open. She had to laugh at the two of them; she never had more naïve men sitting in front of her than these two.

"Oh wow, sorry, we thought that was for everything, not just equipment. Okay duly noted. Wooo hoooooooo this is the first time I've had carte blanche for anything." Michael whooped.

"Okay, so I've set up the account at the bank for you, you both will be able to sign the checks to pay for the equipment. Receipts must be delivered to my accountant immediately with every purchase you make. This doesn't mean that either of you can go on a personal shopping spree. It is for equipment only. Clear?"

"Most definitely." David said as he laughed at Michael's enthusiasm.

"Let's talk payroll. Tell me what sort of compensation you both are looking for each week."

"Wow, we haven't even discussed pay. I don't know, do you David?"

David shrugged and shook his head back and forth. I never thought of it. "Angel you must have some number in mind for us, don't you?"

"Let me talk to Robert Silverton, he might know, I sure don't. I don't want to underpay you both, that's for sure. Do either of you need money?"

After they both said they were okay, Angel called an end to the meeting and thanked them both for coming. Then she called Maria and asked her to call Marcus and leave him a message to meet her at 7p.m. tonight for a meeting. She could talk to Alex face to face when he awoke. They had to get their plan in place for killing Bogdano during the Christmas Gala. His reign of terror had to end.

Finally, she took a break and sat back in her chair and relaxed for a few minutes, before the party planner arrived for the final decisions on the gala.

As she sat, she thought about how much she missed going out every night killing renegades. Even though she didn't have to go out because she had so many others to do that job, she missed it. As she sat and thought about her life and how much it has changed, she turned on the TV to listen to the news. The broadcaster was talking about the Moonfest party that was being held on Clematis Street in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach. Moonfest was the one night out of the year that lures the undead out for an evening's revelry. Human undead that is. People, young and old alike, are the Halloween aficionados that dress in costumes that are indicative of the devil's night, and the costumes are not lost on them, renegades dress up as well, to keep a human fooled.

"Shit, I forgot that Moonfest was tonight." Angel mused as she watch the broadcaster walking the street talking to the food and souvenir vendors as they set up and prepared their venue for the evening rush of ghouls and vampires. When the broadcaster showed a piece of meat that looked like a human brain it made her physically ill, but, she knew that it was all in good fun or what the vendor considered good fun. It really didn't matter to her what food the vendors served so long as she didn't have to eat it. Still to eat anything remotely resembling a human brain was disgusting and it leads one to wonder what kind of person would enjoy that type of fare.

The one thing that she remembered the most about last year's Moonfest was the fun that everyone had. It was a roaring success with all of the storeowners, restaurants and bars participating in the festivities. Everyone had a great time, but, it was what happened in the alleys behind the restaurants and stores, that not many people knew about. Of course, that was never written about, never talked about, and never on any news broadcast. It couldn't be because if it was, then there would be a melee of humans scared shitless from the revelation of what is really happening on a nightly basis. And those scared shitless humans would be demanding answers as to what happened to the people that were lying in the alleys with their throats slit open and bleeding all over the concrete.

"Shit shit." She yelled as she pounded her fists on her desk. It looked like she was going out tonight after all. It wasn't that she had to go out tonight that pissed her off, it was the fact that she was overlooking so many important events lately and not paying attention to what really mattered. Killing renegades really mattered and since she had forgotten that Halloween was this week, she was pissed off big time.

All vampire hunters know that certain holidays seem to draw renegades to the area like flies on white rice. Halloween was one of the nights, Christmas the other. For Halloween, they could dress up like a vampire, show their fangs and not a person would question them. They could have blood on their faces and not a person would question them. All of the variables that would put the fear of God in a human were forgotten on this night. On this night there was no fear. If one met a man or woman who dressed like a vampire, and really looked the part, it was a given that the person did a bang up job with the makeup. No one questioned if the makeup was real or fake, and why should they? They didn't know vampires existed.

Angel was thankful for the one gift that would help her discern real vampire from fake, her nose. Without being able to smell the renegade, she would have to sit back and watch the festivities and guess which vampire was real and which one was fake. The vampires that worked for her could tell real from costume so that was a plus as well.

As she sat and stewed about forgetting that Halloween was this week, she thought of things that she needed to do. One of which was getting a costume for the evening. She might as well go as a vampire as well since she had the fangs to go with the costume.

Angel picked up the phone and said. "Maria, can you please come in here for a minute?"

When Maria entered the office, Angel asked her to sit down. Angel had always considered Maria to be more of a friend than an employee since they've known each other since before her parent's death, and because of that she talked to Maria more on a personal level than she did any of the other employees at VPR. She loved Maria like she loved her mother and often thought of her as an aunt, rather than a friend.

"Hey, did you know that Moonfest is tonight?"

"OMG. I totally forgot. So much is going on lately; Halloween slipped my mind what with the other things that are so important. Are you going out tonight? Taking vampires with you?"

"Well yeah I was thinking of going out. Alexsander should be awake by 6:30 and ready to roll by 7:00. I do need a costume though. Can you call Ricky at the Costume store and ask him to send over some vampire costumes for me to try on? Oh for Alex too."

"Sure, black and white I guess right?" Maria was taking notes and not really looking at Angel and that was puzzling. And she kept looking around the office as if she was afraid that something was going to jump out at her and devour her.

"You okay?" Angel asked as she watched Maria's eye twitch.

"Yeah I'm fine, why?"

"I dunno, you seem preoccupied, and nervous. Is everything okay? Do you need to talk?"

"Nooooo I'm fine really. Just have some things I have to take care of, but, no, I don't need to talk. Thanks though Angel. Anything else?"

"Yeah, this year I think I want a black wig, and can you please tell all the vampires to meet me upstairs in conference room 2 at 7:00. Oh Maria I almost forgot, I don't remember if I thanked you for going shopping for me the other day, but thank you. I really appreciated that."

"You're welcome Angel, anything for you, you know that." Maria had a half smile on her face that just didn't seem genuine, but Angel let it go only because she thought Maria might just have a lot on her mind.

"Oh shit, one more thing. Who do we have setting up the nursery down here?"

"I asked a couple of the mothers to choose a room, like you said to do, and then asked them if they could help put the room together. Since they all have kids that need watching during the summer, they were more than willing to stay late and get the room together. Also, Apartment 4 is ready for Christine and Charlie, whenever you want them to move out of your penthouse. I also had the kitchen stock them up on food and drink."

"OMG Maria, whatever would I do without you to help me. Thank you so much, God I love you! I swear this place would fall apart without you." Angel said as she stood to leave the office, calling an end to her meeting with Maria.

After Maria agreed to let the vampires know about the meeting, she waited to see what Angel was going to do before standing.

"Thanks Maria. See you tomorrow. I'm going upstairs and lie down for a couple of hours. Call me if you need me okay?"

Maria stood when Angel did and together they walked out of the office, and hugged before they parted ways. Maria's hug was not like it usually was. Usually it was a tight hug and it had a warmth that made a person feel good. This hug was loose and cold. Something was wrong. Angel didn't know what it was that Maria needed help with, but, she hoped that she would open up and let her know so that she could help her.

In the meantime, she entered the elevator and pushed the button that would take her up to the penthouse. Alexsander would be asleep for a couple more hours and soon she would be right next to him.

.