Angel compulsively took in a breath as he looked down. At his feet was a slender young woman with black hair and a blood stained leg. She laid face down on the wood floor. Millions of scenarios started to race through the man's head. All those who would hurt him or those he loved suddenly seemed too many to count. His senses returning to him, Angel dropped to his hunches next to the girl. Looking the her over, the vampire felt himself sigh in relief. She was too short to be Cordellia, and Fred was safe upstairs. Angel relaxed immediately, but none of this did not change the fact that someone was dying or dead in his door.
Placing a cautionary hand the small back, the vampire could feel the counter tempos of breath and beat gently pressing against his large hands. The smell of blood was coming from a large gash in her leg that ran the length of her thigh at least. The vampire's nose knew she was bleeding from other places as well but not as badly. Ripping the bottom of her tattered pant leg, Angel wrapped her thigh hoping to stop some of the blood. Taking care not aggravate her injuries, he turned the girl over to survey the rest of her body. She wasn't heavy, less than 100 pounds. Her stomach was concave while she was on her back, falling back into her own body. Ropy muscles were the only flesh under her well tanned skin. Looking at her cut face, Angel thought she couldn't be a day over 16. Her body was ruined, but she still had the face of a child. The man put his hand on her check. It was nearly as cold as him. She had lost a lot of blood, and it was still flowing from her body. The vampire thought out his options; he had none left. He stood up a picked up the receiver.
The healer had arrived quickly and noisily. He had been so noisy that he had woken up Fred from two stories up. She now sat at the top of the stairs still in her pajamas and wrapped in a comforter watching the scene unfolding in the lobby. Fred looked like she was watching her best friend fight for her life, not some unknown girl that had stumbled upon their door. That was Fred, kind, gentle, and caring to the last.
The healer nervously worked on the girl in front of him, rocking back and forth on his clawed feet. He was a tall Gargaton Beast standing at about four feet. He was covered by large gray scales with a bird like beak and yellow eyes without pupils. His eyes had cause most of the ruckus when he first arrived. Without any pupils the beasts could not see. They could sense living beings and their states making them great healers, nonliving objects on the other hand escaped them. Nothing that had been broken was that expensive, but Angel still found himself wondering how they managed to get around at all.
The Beasts always seemed to walk around unnoticed by everyone who wasn't part of the super-natural circle. They could walk down the street running into to parking meters, and not one soccer mom would notice. Their kids did of course but never the adults. It was the same principal that kept people from believing in vampires in Sunnydale. If you didn't want to see it, it wasn't there. Angel was sure that they also had some spell they weren't sharing with the rest of the super-natural world, but he had no proof.
The beast seemed even smaller as hunch over the girl chanting. A low light passed back and forth between the two as the girls cuts come together on their own accord. The Gargaton was also simulating the girl's body to produce new blood. She had been lucky. Normally, Gargatons were no where to be found. Angel knew this one personally. Shortly after getting his soul back the first time, he had run across him in a street. A Lorgan Demon, a seven foot slobbering horned scaly man, was about to make him a midnight snack when the vampire intervened. The Beast had been grateful ever since. He announced his arrival in LA a few days back, offering his services to his savior without question or compensation; he was just leaving when Angel had called.
Angel wasn't sure if it was his or the girl's good karma that he hadn't left. Looking at the girl, she was probably behind in her share of the good karma. No one ever showed up on the vampire's step who didn't need saving. Helping the hopeless, not only a good tagline.
Finally, the Gargaton stood. He could do no more. Angel moved the girl into a bedroom; they would have to wait for morning to see what would happen.
