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Sympathy for the Devil
(part three)
by Lamech
Fee, fie, foe, fum.
I smell the blood of an Englishman.
The simple fairy tale verse was running through Wesley's head and refused to be still. He didn't know why it was there or how it came into being but it spooked him completely. And this was the last thing he needed.
Sitting on his dime store couch with the remote control in his hand, the young man turned the volume of his television set louder. He didn't know why he was bothering to do so. After all he was watching an old Chaplin film. What was expecting? Louder silence? Still it was something to do. Something to occupy his mind.
The night had been a strange one. Though strange was not the word he wanted to use. But the word he wanted to use had not been invented yet. And even if it did exist it would probably be a word that one would not use in polite society. Hunting demons, vampires to be exact was nothing new to him. He had been fighting for over a year now and with great results. Before that he had been reading and studying about the undead for as long as he could recall. But tonight, that vampire had unnerved him. Wesley had let his guard down for a brief second and the creature had escaped.
But what if he hadn't run? He could have murdered you.
Murdered.
His epitaph came into focus.
Here lies Wesley Wyndhm-Price.
A coward to the end.
All the confidence that the young man had been building for the past few months with Angel leading him and Cordelia by his side had been destroy in one foolish move. And now that moment was haunting Wesley.
What if he ran in order to regroup with others of his kind? What if there are hundreds in his nest? All of them are now getting ready to repay me for the favour that I gave that vampire.
The young man turned the volume even louder. He could now hear the buzzing of the television as it dealt with the still silent movie. Leaning over on his couch he grabbed the phone off of one of the end tables. Wesley had only left Angel's place half an hour ago. Angel had kept the young man behind in order to get a better description of vampire that had attacked the prostitute.
Just half an hour. Perhaps he is still awake. Maybe I should call him and say that I've forgotten to tell him a very important detail about the creature.
He picked up the receiver and started to dial only to slam the receiver back down.
No. I can't do that. He'd see through that tissue paper lie in a second. He'll realize that I'm scared and I'll look like even a bigger fool then I already am.
But I have to talk to someone. Anyone.
He thought of Anna. A vision of her smiling at him made his heart race. He wondered if she was still up. If this was so, Anna and him could carry on with their earlier conversation on what was going on in Bosnia. She was such a brilliant woman. The smartest person he had met in America since Giles. The two of them made the young man feel good to be European. And right now he felt he needed to get that feeling again. He lifted the receiver again. And again slammed it down. A vision of Cordelia, complete with a forked tongue and horns jutting out from her temples, scolding him for even thinking about calling her place at such an indecent hour popped into his head.
Best just to leave that viper's nest alone.
The young man sighed. He needed more friends. A whole bunch of them to swarm around him and fill his mind with thoughts other than vampires, spells and dead bodies.
Suddenly his stomach growled. Wesley rejoiced.
The diner down the block! I can go to Joe's Dinner and gorge until the sun comes up. I can talk to the waitresses and the cooks. I can have regular conversations about regular topics.
Logic told him that he didn't have to go to the diner in order to eat. There was plenty of food in the flat for him to appease his hunger. But then logic also told him that there were no such things as ghosts, vampires and monsters that went bump in the night. After a night like the one he just had, logic was not going to win with Wesley.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Cordelia yawned as she fished the keys her bag. She had waited in the cab as Anna made a brief stop in the corner market in order to get orange juice and muselix for her morning meal. That little detour between the wait and the different route home had cost Cordelia half-hour worth of sleep. But to tell the truth, the young girl did not mind. Anna had paid the cab fair and offered to pay in the morning for the cab fair back to work.
Cordelia smiled at the thought. No bus for me, no, sir. I won't have to sit next to Mr. Chain Smoker with the stinky clothing or Mrs. Ignore the baby while she screams her head off. Just a nice, calm cab ride to work.
Cordelia remembered when she had her own car and the freedom that went along with it. But that went away when the IRS got their grubby mitts on her father's expenses. But that was then and this was now. She unlocked the door and walked into her apartment. Anna followed suit carrying some plastic grocery bags. With a flip of the light switch Anna was exposed to the beauty that was Cordelia's apartment. The décor was strictly American down to the southwestern colored walls.
"This is huge!" Anna gasped without giving it another thought.
Cordelia scrunched her eyebrows. "You think so?" She dropped her bag on the coffee table nearly knocking over a vase that overflowed with fresh sunflowers. Giving her place a quick once over, she added, "Yeah, I guess it is."
Following Cordelia to the kitchen Anna explained that her home back in Hungary was not quite as large but it was costing her through the nose. Anna settled the bags on the counter top and suddenly looked over her shoulder to the open air behind her. A puzzled look crossed her face. Gingerly she rubbed her cheek; "Do you feel a draft?"
Cordelia looked at the woman. "A draft?" She took a carton of juice from one of the bags and placed it in the fridge. "No, why do you ask?"
"Because it suddenly became cold in here."
"Oh, that's because of De-" Cordelia began and realized where she was heading with the conversation. Quickly she improvised, "Deeeeents, yeah, dents along the air conditioning ducts. An earthquake a few years ago damaged them and now the apartment gets funny drafts all the time." She smiled, "This place may look great but it's really falling apart at the seams."
Anna gave the girl a deadpan stare.
Cordelia was still flashing a movie star grin and she kept on smiling until her cheeks were aching.
With a shrug of the shoulders Anna continued unpacking her groceries. Cordelia sighed in relief and turned away from the woman's sight. She mouthed the words, "Go away, Dennis!" to the empty space around her and hoped the ghost would obey.
"You don't know how much in debt I am to you for taking me in, Cordelia," Anna said as she discarded the grocery bag into the trashcan. " Americans are friendliest people I have ever met. Such hospitality. Such warmth."
"Now there are two words that I thought I'd never hear in L. A.," laughed Cordelia as she led the woman to the linen closet.
"No, I am being honest." The woman protested as she was handed a large comforter. "If the roles were reversed I don't know if I would have done the same."
"Well, to tell the truth, you can thank Angel for this little slumber party. He suggested it and I just went along."
Anna stared at the wall before her. Her face fell and became stern. "He's a good man, Angel, that is. Isn't he?"
"Yeah, he is."
A rash of red started spread across Anna's cheeks. "And Wesley…"
"What about him?"
"Is he with anyone?"
Cordelia scrunched up her brow and then smirked when she understood what Anna was implying. "Him? No. He's not much of Mr. Date-guy."
"So, you're not. And he's not."
The girl roared with laughter only to remember that she and him were once an item. "We were once. A looonnng time ago. But then something happened."
Anna cocked her head and asked what.
"He became family. I date and dump guys like nobody's business. But family, I never abandon." She smiled as thoughts of the awkward young British man danced in her head. "Wesley is a nice guy. A total geek, but he'd lay his life down for you in a New York minute."
"I know." Anna sighed as rested against the hallway wall. "In many ways he reminds me of my Peter. A bit clumsy but was charming none the less. A prince in a court jester's body."
"I wouldn't have put it that way," the girl said as she placed a pillow on top of the comforter, "But basically it's the same thing."
With ten pounds of linen in her arms, Anna was given the choice of sleeping on the couch or Cordelia's bed, with Cordelia taking the couch. In all fairness, Cordelia really did not want the couch but offered it anyway because of two reasons. One being Anna was a client after all and such an act would be sure to impress her. And the other one being Cordelia was always taught to be the gracious host. Guests came first.
In the end Anna chose the couch. Cordelia didn't protest.
Anna dropped the linen on the couch and suddenly noticed something. "Your purse," she began as she pointed at the coffee table, "Your purse is gone."
The purse was indeed gone but the woman spotted it a moment later on one of the coat hooks on the far end of the room. She then realized that the flower vase, which had been nudged a little from when Cordelia had thrown her purse down, was back in its resting-place. Scratching her head Anna proclaimed that this could not be so. She had followed Cordelia around the whole apartment like a puppy and never once did she see the girl put her purse away and tidy up the vase. So the whole sight before her was impossible. And yet there it was.
With eyes widening, Cordelia found herself at a loss for words. She couldn't bluff her way out of this one. Maybe if she fainted or suddenly claimed she was having a heart attack she could escape from her painted corner.
Suddenly Anna swirled around. She rubbed her cheek again. "There it is again," she hissed. "That draft."
Cordelia closed her eyes. If there was any way on Earth to bring Dennis back from the dead and make him mortal again, Cordelia was going to find it. This was just for the sole reason so she could kill him with her own bare hands.
Anna screamed. Cordelia screamed. It was a gut reaction on her part. She opened her eyes in time to see Anna coming at her. The woman grabbed Cordelia's arm and held it tight.
"What? What is it!" Cordelia gasped as she looked over towards the couch.
There on the couch was the linen, all neatly unfolded and laid out. The edge of the comforter had been rolled down and the pillow was propped up against the left armrest. A small Andes mint was resting on the pillow. Anna's bed had been made but not by her.
The girl winced. Dennis was making sure that Anna would know that something was wrong.
"What is going on!?" Anna demanded.
Suddenly a single sunflower floated out from the vase and flew towards Anna. It stopped a few inches short of her. With wide, unblinking eyes, the woman didn't know how to handle this other than to let out a scared whimper.
Sighing as she shook her head Cordelia gestured to the flower. "Anna, this is Dennis. He is my roommate who just happens to be a ghost. And, oh, yeah, as you can tell he hates to be ignored."
Anna looked at the flower, then at the girl, then back to the flower and then back at the girl.
"Take the flower. He's harmless. Annoying but harmless."
Anna smiled weakly as she took the flower. A cold breeze engulfed her. Her eyes darted about not sure where to look. "I knew I felt something. I felt it the moment I walked into this place. That comes from being around the supernatural for so long." With her empty hand she felt the air around her. "Can he talk?"
"No," Cordelia said with a yawn. "But he can sure make a racket when he wants to."
"Dennis, what happened to you?" Anna looked Cordelia with sad eyes. "Why is he here?"
"His mother offed him," the girl answered with a deadpan tone. "Real Edgar Allen Poe style. But thanks to him I've got the place rent controlled. And he's not half bad. Like an invisible puppy, minus the fur all over the couch."
"You poor thing," whispered Anna as she looked at her flower. "I hope someday you will find your peace."
"So, you don't mind it that I have a ghost?"
Anna shook her head. She placed the flower back in the vase. "Cordelia, I felt Dennis. I knew something supernatural was here."
"Yeah? And?"
The woman walked around the coffee table and sat down. She looked at the mint on her pillow and picked it up. Her fingers played with the foil wrapper. "Angel. What is he?"
The girl took a step back. The color raced from her skin. "Huh?"
"Angel is a vampire, isn't he?"
Cordelia felt the weight of her body overpowering her knees and all at once they buckled. But Dennis was quick with a chair and was able to catch her before she crashed to the floor. Sometimes it was good having a ghost for a roommate.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Joshua puffed on a cigarette as he and Cully walked down the street. His face had almost completely healed but the pain was somewhat still there whenever he sucked the smoke into his lungs. Still his habit won out to his pain. The heroin had worn off and he needed another fix of something. Walking down the street the two of them looked like a brother and sister pair of common street kids. Joshua had changed his bloody outfit for a pair of cargo pants and a skater shirt and Cully had chosen a dark blue cotton dress with boots. Brightly colored rubber bracelets and Hello Kitty rings graced her fingers and wrists. Such a cute and innocent thing was to throw people off. No mortal would have ever guessed that she was pushing three hundred.
"This way," Joshua said as he took the girl by the wrist and led her down an alleyway. He was leading Cully to where he last saw the hunter. Hopefully he had left a clue to who he was and where he was from. The two of them stopped a block away from the murder site only to see about four police cars and twice as many cops surrounding the space.
"He called the cops?" hissed Joshua. He groaned, "My prints are all over that body. Dammit."
Cully told the vampire to calm down. "We have a friend here."
Joshua looked up to see what the girl was talking about. Leaning against a squad car was one of the detectives, a tall, fairly aged man with peppered black hair. He didn't look any different from anyone else on the force. No gentle eyes or brooding glare. Nothing that would give away his true nature. But Cully knew Detective Ingles better than that. She whistled. The man turned his head in her direction and smiled. He said something to the plain-clothes cop next to him about attending to some insider business. The cop nodded as if he understood what the man was talking about.
Ingles walked up to Cully as if it was the most casual thing in the world. But then he cocked his head to the side, folded his arms and said, "A whore with a slashed throat. A whore who also happens to be light a quart of blood. Ok, who was it? You?"
The small vampire smiled as she ran her fingers along the sleeves of the detective's shirt. "How can you say that, Henry? You know I'm not that sloppy."
A scowl crossed the man's face as he took hold of the girl's tiny hand and shoved it away from him. He didn't like to be touched by her kind. The feeling was eerie and cold. And it all but reminded him that he was being touched by something dead and evil. Cully looked at her hand and shrugged. She could not care less if her flesh disgusted the man. Many men weren't disgusted.
"It was Joshua." The girl pointed to the young man who was trying to hide behind a lamppost. It only resulted with him looking like a male prostitute. "But it wasn't his fault. He would have disposed of the body better if he had not been attacked."
Ingles' ears perked up. "Attacked?"
"Yes. A hunter. He attacked Joshua with some Holy Water and nearly burned his face off. Luckily, Joshua escaped before he could get staked."
"Damn shame," hissed Ingles.
Joshua heard the remark and his faced changed to demon. It had a horrible night for him and the last thing he needed was some crooked cop making jokes about his life. Still the vampire remained where he was and allowed Cully to continue with her work.
"Oh, you don't mean that," the girl cooed as she reached out to the man. Ingles backed away. Cully shrugged. "It's not like we kill the respectable people of this city. We only take the junkies and whores. The trash that people wish would disappear anyway. We beautify the city."
Ingles wasn't buying it. Every inch of him told that fact. "She was a kid, Cully. Barely out of the highchair."
"And yet there she was. In every back seat going down on men old enough to be her grandfather all the while high on every drug known to man. I bet you she made mother proud." Cully gave the man a cold sneer. She did not like being scolded by anyone like she was still a child. Especially by a mortal who was barely over one tenth of her age. "Why should you care anyway, Henry? You not having a bout of conscience on me, are you?"
Ingles shook his head and smiled. "Guilt is only for those who can afford it. What do you want, Cully? You already know I'm turning my back on this case. It's not like I can tell my boss that vampires are the reason for all the whore deaths in L.A.. And my connection to your precious absinthe was just sent up this morning."
The little vampire's face fell. "Joey's gone?"
"Yes. Three years in prison. And with that sweet face of his, he isn't going to last long." Amusement suddenly danced in the man's eyes. He never cared for Joey. Too whiney. The only reason he worked with the drug dealer was for the money. But now since he is gone it was one less stain on his soul to worry about. "So now that the well has run dry why don't you pack up your things and leave. I never liked your kind. And the reason why I allowed for these murders to go unchecked is because I hate whores and junkies even more. You're all a headache for me."
Cully was trying with all her might to keep her temper in check. If this had been any other man, even with the cops crawling all over the place like ants at a picnic she would killed him at once. But she needed him. Years have told her that some mortals were more useful alive than dead. "I want to leave. And we were going to leave for Mexico tomorrow but not any more." Narrowed, angry eyes sized the man up. She so wanted to slit his throat. The feeling was a fire in her veins. She covered her face with her tiny hands as her appearance changed from human to demon. Her throat burned and her body trembled. Christ, she needed a drink. No, she needed the whole Goddamn bottle.
Ingles instinctively place his hand on his gun even though he wasn't sure on what effect bullets had on Cully's kind. When the girl looked up her face was back to human. But even with a human face staring back at him, Ingles could see the wildness in the girl's eyes. His skin began to crawl. "Why can't you leave?"
"I want to kill that son of a bitch who tried to murder my Joshua." She grabbed the man by the arm but this time he didn't flinch or jerk back. He was too scared to. "The person who called you. Was it man or woman?"
"Man. But he was with a woman."
"She is of no concern of mine. He is."
Ingles could not deny that. His eyes gazed down at the girl's hand. Watching it as the fingers pulled at the fabric of his shirt, he wondered how long it was until sunrise.
Cully's voice became a whisper as she gestured for the detective to bend down to her height. He obeyed. "Tell me about this man. Was he a fairly tall brunette with glasses and a blue shirt?"
The man nodded. "Late twenties. English."
"English?" Cully hissed. She had no love for the English. So much the better that this man was one of them. His death was going to be a grand luxury for her. "Do you have his address?"
"My fee," the man hissed back. He had no idea where that boldness came from. But it was quickly gone as the girl's face changed.
Yellow eyes, monster's eyes glared back into his. "This one will be a freebie. A going away present for Joshua and me." Her eyes became human again. "After we get this man you will never hear from us again."
Not sure whether rejoice or remain surly, Ingles instead stood up and shook free from the girl's grasp. He dug into his shirt pocket for his notebook. He opened it and ripped out a page. "Here's his name, address and home phone number. The number underneath it is his work number."
Cully read the name that proceeded the work number. "'Angel Investigations'? What are they? Christian detectives?"
Shrugging his shoulders, Ingles laughed, "It would explain that whole attack. Those Holy Rollers know everything when it comes to you guys."
The detective's humor fell flat on the girl. She turned away from the man without saying a word and left. He remained silent glad to see that there would be two less monsters in the city. Still, in his heart he had wished that Cully had paid his fee.
The small vampire walked up to Joshua. She nuzzled his arm for a bit, purring like a kitten all the while. Joshua cupped her cheeks and smiled. "I take it you got the information."
Cully answered this by swinging the sheet of paper in the air. The young man took the sheet and gave it the once over. His face scrunched up. "Wesley?" Not much of a name. Not by American standards.
"He's English," Cully said as he took the boy by the hand. She kissed the top of it.
Joshua smiled. His feelings on the English were same as Cully's. "I can't wait to meet him."
END OF PART THREE