Chapter 2

Clutching the rolodex card in her hand Anna crouched outside of the office building, watching the thin brunette walking around inside. She had too assume that this was Cordelia, as no one else had entered or left the building since she had gotten there at 7 am this morning, and it was now close to 8 at night.

Anna rubbed her eyes; she didn't remember missions being this boring. Her ass hurt, her legs ached, and the only thing she had learned was that this Courtney likes Chinese food.

Anna's attention was brought back to what was occurring in the office as she saw Courtney hang up the receiver of the phone and switch the light off as she headed for the office door. Getting up and stretching her limbs Anna shadowed her as she walked down the street.

"Stupid girl," she muttered, "don't you know what kind of nasties are lurking in the streets of L.A.?" Movement to in the alley to the right caught Anna's eyes. She picked up her pace so she was closer to Cordelia, who was unaware of the possible danger nearby.

Courtney stifled a yawn as she hurried towards the bus stop. It was another uneventful day at work, ever since they had parted ways with the resident vampire, business had been unbearably slow. All she wanted to do now was to go home, take a shower, and curl up and watch a movie. A strangle feeling came over her as she walked. Someone was watching her, was it Angel? Slightly bolstered by the idea she picked up her pace, scanning the area around her.

But then she heard something growl to her right, and that wasn't an Angel growl, that was a you're my dinner growl, and as far as she knew Angel hadn't gotten all 'grr' on them.

"Hello?" She peered into the alley, to her dismay she saw a pair of yellow eyes staring back at her from the darkness.

"Hellloooo my prettyyy." It hissed back, "are you reaaaddyy to playyyy with meee?"

"Uh, no thanks, maybe later." She turned to run, but she never got the chance as it jumped out of the alley and locked a powerful hand around her forearm. It turned to stair her in the face, and she saw that it had an elongated nose, scaly skin, and deep-set angled eyes. The hand that was locked around her upper arm hand long sharp claws designed for ripping into its prey.

"Nooo, stayyy." It hissed, a serpentine tongue whisking in a and out of it's mouth.

"Ewww," Cordelia whined as the tongue brushed against her cheek, "what a way to go." She was reaching for the long knife she kept in her purse.

"Heh, ugly!" Both turned to look at a petite blond woman standing a few feet away. "Didn't anyone teach you not to play with your food?"

Unlike Cordelia, the demon knew what Anna was on sight and hissed at her. "Nooo! Leave her to meee, she is none of your concern." Cordelia raised a brow, that hiss sounding very much like a demon whine.

"Not happening, now you know the rules, back off or be vanquished. Your choice." Anna watched the demon, who seemed fearsome on sight but was really nothing more than a vulture of the nether realms. She saw the demon's eyes flash defiantly and knew that it wasn't going to be smart enough to heed her advice and leave.

True to her assumption the demon pushed Cordelia aside and rushed Anna, who without much trouble moved to the side and tripped the demon, using its awkward gait against it. As it fell she jumped onto it's back, locking an arm around its neck, pulling its head off of the ground.

"I warned you." She said simply before she broke the demon's neck with a sickening snap and dropped it's head limply onto the ground. Brushing her hands off she turned to Cordelia who was kneeling where she fell and watching Anna uneasily.

Anna held out her hand, "Well? Are you coming?"

Cordelia didn't move, instead she studied to woman in front of her. She didn't appear to be a vampire, her skin wasn't pale enough, but yet she moved faster than a human, and she had known the demon had been there and how to deal with it.

"Are you a good guy or a bad guy?"

Anna smiled wryly, "I guess that depends who you are."

"That's not very reassuring." Cordelia gave Anna a disgusted look.

Anna shrugged, "well I don't really care if reassured. I just care if you know what I want to know."

"Oh. Well why should I tell you anything?"

Anna looked at the demon, "well, I saved your butt, so you owe me. Plus, I know where a hundred more just like that one are who would love to know where you are." Anna wouldn't really give the mortal up to the demons, that was defiantly against the rules, however letting her think that she would wasn't.

"Well, that's a good a reason as any," Cordelia took Anna's proffered hand grudgingly and allowed her to pull her to her feet. "We can go somewhere to talk, there's a diner down the street, why don't we go there?"

Cordelia sat across from the strange blond woman in the diner, and she wasn't sure that weird was even an accurate description. She hadn't touched the food placed in front of her or drank any of the coffee she ordered, she just fired questions at her like it was an inquisition.

"So you haven't had contact with Angel in a while then?" Anna asked her, using the fork to push the runny eggs around on her plate.

"Like I told you the first three times, NO. We haven't seen him since his darling Darla came back and he fired us all." She looked at Anna's plate with a look of disgust. "Are you gonna eat that or just play with it?"

Anna gave the brunette a deadpan look, "Would you want to eat it?"

"No," she tucked her hair behind her ear, "but I wouldn't have ordered it in the first place."

"Yeah, well there are probably a lot of things that I do that you never would." She dropped the fork with a wet plop in the middle of her plate.

"Ohh-kay then. Don't want to go there, so if you don't mind, thanks for saving me and all, but I need to get home."

"Yeah, one more thing. Where is Darla now?"

Cordelia thought for a second, "She's probably with the one handed wonder." At Anna's blank stare she added, "One of the lawyers who was trying to kill Angel. Find him and you can probably find Darla."

Cordelia turned to walk away, but stopped to add, "I hope you kill the bitch, she deserves it."

Anna gave a chilling smile, "I'll put it on my list of things to do."

Cordelia turned and quickly left the diner, Anna might be one of the good guys, but she had some major creepiness going on in there. She was defiantly not someone she would want to meet in a dark alley, well again anyway. On the way home she made a mental note to talk to her partners about Anna tomorrow.

Inside the diner, Anna was leaving money on the table for the untouched food. She thought it was a waste, but she needed to appear at least semi-normal, although she wasn't sure that egg like substance was normal under any circumstances.

She left the diner and walked down the street, heading in the directions of the law office. She wanted to find Darla so she could get to Angel, and apparently the only way to do so was to find this so called one hand wonder. She could feel the beginning of a headache forming between her eyes as she thought about all of the possible complications that could occur.

In heaven, some of the other angels were watching her.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Michael asked Gabrielle.

"She is going to find Angel isn't she, what is the worst that can happen?" He smiled at his friend, who just stared back in horror.

"You do realize that the last time she was sent out on a mission the Spanish inquisition happened?"

Gabrielle pondered this for a moment before replying, "Surely your mistaken, she couldn't be responsible for the whole inquisition."

"One would think that, but they would be wrong! She thought it would be the easiest way to get rid of all the demons that had invaded the mortal population!" Michael's arms were now waving wildly above his head. "Do you know how many of us it took to straighten that mess out? Since then she has had to go through extensive training but I don't think that she is ready to play by the rules."

Gabrielle stopped, "You mean to tell me we sent a loose cannon in to deal with a situation that has the apocalypse riding on it?"

Michael sighed, glad that his companion finally saw the light, "yes."

"Well whose bright idea was that?"

"The chiefs."

"Oh. Well he must know what he's doing right?"

"That's what I said the first time, look what happened there." Michael grumbled, turning back to Anna's image. They watched anxiously as she crept into the law offices in search of Darla.