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

AN: My latest 'Angel' rewrite, which I hope will meet with your approval; shouldn't take too long to identify the original storyline…

The Love of a Vampire

Business might have been a bit slower since Wyatt's Wiccaning, but in a way Paige was glad for it; they'd lucked out with a couple of paying clients earlier- albeit tackling more conventional stalker and missing person cases- and with the underworld still reeling from the recent mass assault they'd unleashed while trying to clear the way for Wyatt's wiccaning, even the demons were being quiet for the moment.

As it was, with Angel having started doing irregular patrols of the city to investigate potential vampire activity- most vampires tended to avoid the city due to the Nexus being under the control of good, but there always a few that wandered in if things became quiet enough- Wesley working on his research, and Doyle going on the occasional date with Phoebe, it gave Paige enough time to work on catching up with some of the agency's paperwork. It might be a dull business, but Paige's experience with contracts at her old job at least gave her a better background in putting it all together; Angel and Wesley were currently sorting through some of their assembled demonology texts.

Speaking of her old job, she'd tried to take the opportunity to catch up with some of her old co-workers at a party the previous night, but it hadn't entirely worked out; Angel was just too socially awkward to feel comfortable at a party with so many people who didn't know the truth about his past. To his credit, he'd tried to be more than just the guy in the corner, and his relationship with her at least gave him an excuse to avoid requests to dance without appearing socially awkward, but when you spent over a century going to parties just to kill the guests, Paige supposed that his issues made sense.

Glancing up as the door opened, Paige smiled as Doyle walked in, a broad grin on his face that made it clear that the previous night had gone well. Since fully recovering from his injuries at the Beacon, and with his father continuing to be conspicuous by his absence, Doyle and Phoebe had begun having 'date nights' at least once a week, and it was clear that each of them were enjoying the chance to get to know each other (Paige hadn't asked how close they'd become, but it was something she wasn't going to bring up unless she had to; considering everything Doyle had done for them since he came here, it felt like she was thinking about her siblings having sex if she gave it too much thought).

"All well?" she asked.

"Great," he replied, grinning back at her as he sat down at his own desk. "Good night, good chat, good-"

Paige was saved from having to interrupt him when Doyle suddenly bent over with a yell of pain, clutching at his head as he pressed his face against his desk. Paige automatically moved over to help him even as Angel ran up from his apartment to check on his friend, both of them reaching Doyle's desk at practically the same time.

"Oh God…" Doyle muttered, gasping for air as he sat back in his seat as the vision faded. "That… was not pretty…"

"What?" Paige asked.

"Guy bein' burned alive," Doyle answered, looking shakily over at her. "I actually felt his eyeballs pop…"

"So we're dealing with something after the fact?" Angel asked.

"Most likely," Doyle confirmed. "You'll need to get to some ice factory out near the docks; don't know what did it, but something that hot's got to be trouble…"

"We'll hit it before it know we're there," Paige said, reaching out to place a hand on Angel's arm after running a quick check on ice factories in that area. "Just let Wesley know where we've gone."

Doyle nodded in response as Paige took Angel's arm and orbed out.


As they arrived in the ice factory indicated in Doyle's vision, it didn't take long to identify the location of the corpse that had been the subject of the vision in question; considering that the flesh had been torched, the clothing was in remarkably good condition, only a few singe-marks around the edges.

Crouching down, Angel quickly checked the victim's pockets and soon found a wallet, which contained a business card identifying the victim as a representative of a private security company. Passing the card to Paige, Angel put the wallet back and got back to his feet to examine the room that the victim had apparently been thrown from judging by the way he was lying, revealing a large container full of ice and various bags of the stuff around the shelves.

"People actually ship this stuff?" Paige said, looking at the contents in surprise. "Why would anyone need that much ice?"

"Amateurs trying for long-term storage, frozen food counters, people with a lot of things to keep cool and only so much fridge space…" Angel shrugged uncertainly. "You're asking the wrong guy, Paige; fridges have always been enough for…"

His voice trailed off his he tilted his head slightly, Paige quickly identifying what had caused him to pause; the sound of nearby footsteps. Turning towards a nearby doorway covered with plastic strips, Angel slowly moved towards the door, quickly putting his foot down on a crowbar lying on a nearby box as another figure reached towards it. The new arrival looked mostly human, wearing a long dark coat and trousers with a red trim around the coat, but he had a small ridge of spines running up the middle of his forehead that betrayed his real nature.

"Captain Inferno, I presume?" Angel asked, quickly kicking the bar into his hand and using it to pin the demon against the nearest wall, the sharp end of the bar aimed at his chest. "Close enough; I don't do well near an open flame…"

His voice trailed off as he noticed that the man's sleeve was damaged, a quick look at the area under the tear confirming that his arm had been recently burned by something.

"Only… you didn't burn him, did you?" Angel said in realisation.

"You didn't?" Paige said, looking at the man in surprise. "But… what are you doing here?"

The man stared silently back at the two of them for a moment, before Angel moved the crowbar to point at the man's chest.

"I'm not a big talker," the vampire said firmly. "I usually let others carry the conversation. I am pretty good at putting these through heads, though."

"I am called Tay," the man said after a moment's pause, a slight tremble in his voice. "I'm not from your dimension."

"We guessed that," Paige said grimly.

"I was sent by my people to stop it," Tay explained. "That is my cause here."

"Stop what?" Angel asked, still pressing the bar against his chest.

"The bringer of chaos," Tay responded.

"Which is… what?" Paige asked. "Some kind of demon?"

"More than a mere demon," Tay replied. "It is a vessel of pure rage. It has almost destroyed my world and now it is loose in yours."

"OK, so not great," Paige said briefly. "How do we stop it?"

"You won't be able to," Tay said. "It's stronger than two people. If you and your people wish to live, stay away."

As Tay turned around and walked off into the shadows of the warehouse, Angel and Paige exchanged grim glances with each other.

"We're not trusting him, huh?" Paige asked.

"I think we can both agree that we shouldn't completely trust someone who just shows up and talks about something being dangerous without telling us why," Angel said firmly, before he sighed in frustration as he looked back at where the victim was currently lying. "That said, we can't exactly ignore the evidence we've got either…"

"So, what have we got on hand regarding other dimensions?" Paige asked, deciding to focus on the practical issues at hand.

"We'll have to talk with Wesley about that one," Angel noted, before he glanced at the security card he'd taken from the victim's pocket earlier. "Get back to the office and see what you can dig up on Tay's people and similar deaths; I'll check out this guy's office and see who actually hired him to dig into this."

"You sure?" Paige asked.

"You're better at research and this looks like something done by a natural power rather than magic; I'll be fine," Angel said, giving Paige a brief reassuring smile before he turned to leave. Paige thought about offering to orb, but decided against it; for the moment, they had no reason to require speed, and she knew that Angel sometimes needed to keep on the move himself rather than rely too heavily on her and her sisters.

With faith that Angel would call her if he needed her, Paige orbed away as Angel vanished around a corner…


Arriving at his destination, Angel didn't need long to gain access to the office of their latest victim. After quickly climbing through the window- further confirming that their victim was the owner, although considering that this was his office it might not count as a pure place of residence- a quick search of the office soon revealed a shipping order from the ice company where the victim had been located, along with a large stack of twenties in an envelope that were probably payment, but nothing else that could explain what the guy was doing there…

His thoughts were interrupted when he felt something hot approaching him, sending him flying back as something powerful struck his arm. As he was sent flying, he saw his attacker; a woman with short dark hair and what looked like a tattoo around her left eye, dressed in a tight black leather top and a blood-red velvet coat.

"What are you doing here?" the woman asked, a hint of something in her accent that Angel couldn't immediately identify.

"I could ask you the same question," Angel answered; his arm hurt, but otherwise he felt like he was in fairly good shape…

"Working for them, is that it?" the woman asked. "How much do they pay you to hunt us?"

"I work for myself and I'm here because I'm looking for his killer," Angel said, standing back up and placing a hand on the back of the nearest chair. "Hard to forget, huh? Burnt alive. Know anyone who does that kind of thing?"

Instead of verbally responding, the woman charged towards him. Angel picked up the chair to drive her back, but she simply ducked underneath it and struck the vampire in the chest, sending him crashing through the office door. He was about to try and pick himself up when a telephone started to ring, prompting him to stay down as he listened to the woman say something about a location and time as she walked out of the office.

Angel might not know what this woman was doing here, but the fact that she had a plan and contacts at least suggested that Tay's story had been a lie; 'vessels of pure rage' didn't strike him as being capable of making that sort of plan. Hurrying to the window, Angel cursed as he saw the woman get into a car and drive away; he'd managed to get here with only sewer access, but he wasn't going to be able to pursue someone in a car like this. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his cellphone and quickly dialled the Halliwells' number, smiling in relief as Phoebe picked it up.

"Hello?" the middle Halliwell asked.

"Phoebe, it's Angel," the vampire replied. "We're tracking someone who incinerates their victims, but she just got away in a car; I need someone to try and scry for her."

"On it," Phoebe replied promptly, the sound of paper being unfolded over the phone confirming that she was preparing to go along with his request. "If she was just there, I can use that to get an impression of where she was and use it to work out where she's going; give me a moment…"

"If you're looking for them in the books, I can give you a description," Angel continued, as he heard the clinking of Phoebe removing her scrying crystals, but she suddenly stopped as she began to talk to someone. He couldn't quite hear the conversation, but he heard enough to recognise that Phoebe was talking to Paige even before Paige picked up the phone.

"Hi there," the part-Whitelighter said.

"Hi," Angel answered. "How's things?"

"Well, we've managed to find a few similar murders in the past year in other cities," Paige explained. "Doyle's checking with Darryl about anything else tying them together, but what have you got?"

"We seem to be dealing with a female, anyway," Angel explained. "Make sure you check up on Tay; I'm fairly sure he knows more than what he's saying. From what she said, she sounds like she's here on some kind of mission, and Tay may be the key to this."

"What does she look like?" Paige asked.

"Two raised ridges running down either cheek, violet eyes…" Angel said thoughtfully. "She seemed intelligent; very… attractive, for a demon?"

"Attractive?" Paige repeated sharply.

"From an objective perspective; you're much better than she is," Angel stated firmly.

"Got her!" Phoebe suddenly yelled, pausing for a moment before she took back the phone. "She's at the museum!"

Angel didn't even have the chance to respond before Paige suddenly appeared beside him in a whirl of orbs, the witch grabbing his arm before they vanished again.