Kate slipped the phone back in her pocket and returned to the bathroom, picking up the abandoned robe. She took it to Cordy's bedroom, stealing herself for the sight she would see and the task ahead.
Cordy lay on the bed, entirely naked and lifeless. As Kate approached the body again, she mentally noted the bruises on her upper arms and face. Whatever had been done to her, it was violent. On her left arm there was a bloody handprint and Kate compared it against her own for size, and then picked up both Cordy's hands. They seemed completely clean, whereas the person, probably the woman, who made the print would have hands coated in blood.
The rest of the body was undamaged. There was no sign of a sexual motive, other than the body being naked. Kate turned Cordy's head from where it rested, lifting her right cheek from the pillow, knowing what she would see.
The right side of Cordy's neck was coated in congealed blood. A large, ferocious bite wound lay an inch and a half above her collarbone. Kate clasped her own throat, where a scar with the same shape still ached.
Wesley began, "My friend Angel here is a vampire. He has been suffering some strange symptoms recently, and we're concerned he may be ... poisoned."
The girl shook her head emphatically.
"Not poisoned."
"Then what's wrong with me?"
The girl sighed and looked at him as if he were a broken doll.
"Where to begin? Everything. Nothing. Compared to what?"
"I've imagined I am short of breath. Had a strange crawling in my chest. I don't usually feel these things. Why am I feeling them now?"
"Because you have taken steps."
Angel frowned at Wesley, who shook his head. "Steps?
"Started to live. They have always been there, within reach. You only had to move your hand to take them."
"Them?"
"These symptoms. Symptoms of your disease."
Angel shifted uncomfortably, and then said. "What is my disease?"
The girl turned to Wesley.
"You tell him."
Kate delicately draped Cordy's body with the robe, adjusting the angle so she was covered, neck to toe. With nothing else to do until Gunn arrived, she concentrated on pushing away any thought that she might cry, until steps sounded in the living room. Giving Cordy a last glance, she crept to the door and opened it an inch.
It was Gunn. Relieved, Kate went to meet him, closing the door to Cordy's bedroom softly behind her.
"What the hell happened?"
"Charles, it's Cordy. I'm sorry. She's been attacked."
Gunn looked around the room wildly. "Where is she? Is she OK? Did you call a doctor?"
"It's too late for that."
Gunn shook his head. "No."
Kate waited for a second and then took his hand and brought him with her to the room where Cordelia lay.
(I'm so sorry.)
(There was nothing I could do.)
(I know how you felt about her.)
Words loitered on the tip of Kate's tongue. Knowing how useless they would be, she bit her lip and quietly left him alone.
Wesley turned pink.
"Me?"
The girl nodded cheerfully. "You know more about vampires than anyone I've ever met."
"I do?"
"You know the most important things. Essence. Matter. Soul. Body. The indivisible divided." She put her palms together as if to pray, and then turned them through a quarter of a circle so one hand was hidden behind the other. "By a clever slight of hand."
"I'm lost." Angel climbed out of the car and walked a few paces away, kicking at the dust.
"You're just off the I15!" called the girl, helpfully.
Wesley's brow was puckered in thought. "Angel's disease is vampirism."
"Noooo!" A giggle. "That's just another symptom."
"That's nonsense. How can something as essential as being a vampire be described as a symptom? It's what he is."
"Is not." The girl's voice became petulant. "You could become a vampire very easily. Would you cease to be human then? Or is your humanity essential?"
"I don't get it."
Kate sat down close to Gunn on Cordelia's sofa, amid the wreckage.
"What don't you get? They got her. Seems pretty open and shut to me." Gunn stood and did a circuit of the room, for the tenth time since arriving. "All we can do now is wait."
"How did they get in?"
Gunn frowned. "You mean, the vampires?"
Kate nodded. "I'd say, one vampire. A woman. But Cordy wouldn't have invited a strange person in here, male or female. She knows too much."
"I think I agree with ya." Gunn stopped pacing and picked Cordy's answer phone from the wreckage. "Someone she knows, then? Or she thought she knew." He pressed the play button.
After a crackle of interference and static, followed by a loud beep, Wesley's voice filled the room.
"Cordelia? Are you there? Pick up if you can, it's Wesley." There was a pause. "Angel's not himself so we're going out of town for a while. We may be gone for a few hours. We've got the mobile, I'll switch it on every now and again and you can leave us a message if anything crops up. All right? See you anon. Bye."
"The soul," Wesley started to reply, but was cut off.
"You have the knowledge but you fight it. That's stupid."
Wesley slumped back into his seat. "Then, I may have the knowledge, but I don't know it."
The girl whispered. "Just stretch out your fingers."
"My humanity is essential." Wesley frowned. "At the moment. And will continue to be until I die."
"And if you become a vampire?"
"It's gone."
"And if you shanshu?"
"It's back again."
The girl sniffed. "It comes and goes a lot, your essence."
Gunn dropped the machine to the floor.
"Charles?"
Kate looked at him warily, and he gave her an indefinable stare.
"No. You can't possibly think ..."
"Oh?" Gunn grimaced. "If it's so unthinkable why is it the first thing you thought too?"
Kate shook her head. "I didn't. I didn't think that. I could just tell what you were thinking, and ..."
He laughed, bitterly, and turned his back on her.
"Yeah, right. You keep tellin' yourself that, lady, if it makes it any easier."
"Angel couldn't have done this. He wouldn't."
Gunn replied quietly, "You haven't seen him. When he's different. When he's not himself. Or when he really is himself. You don't know."
"Have you?" Kate demanded angrily.
Gunn shrugged. "Not completely. But I was with him when he was getting all confused over that shroud ..."
"You mean when he saved my life?"
Gunn ignored her. "And Cordelia knew. She's seen it. Looks to me like she's seen it once too often ..."
"Explain it to me." Wesley pleaded. "I don't understand."
The girl reached forward and placed a hand on Wesley's forehead. "You are, in essence, singular. Uncomplicated. Undivided. A simple species, untroubled. A human being." She smiled and placed her other hand on her own chest. "As am I."
Kneeling on the back seat, she looked out to where Angel was watching them, a few feet away. "What is he?"
Wesley gave Angel a worried look. "He's ..." he gestured with his hands, "... a vampire."
The girl groaned. "Pay attention! Vampirism is a symptom. He is, in essence, plural. Divided. In conflict. A demon and a ...?"
"Dead body?"
She tutted. "Did you read Christophe and learn nothing? He is a demon and a human being. A war zone. Vampirism is just a symptom of his duality."
"So the other symptoms, the breathlessness and so on, they are ... ?"
"Signs that the demon has lost a battle to the human."
"But not the war?" Angel came forward and gripped the side of the car.
The girl looked at him sadly and inclined her head. Climbing out of the car, she asked, "Why do you want the war to be over? Do you wish to throw half of yourself away?"
"OK," Kate took out her phone and handed it to him. "Phone Wesley. Let's prove it one way or the other."
Gunn looked at the phone and then at Kate.
"We're going to have to tell him ..." Kate bit her lip, "... them ... anyway. Make the call. Or I will."
Angel allowed the girl to find her feet again, and then implored her.
"I want to be human."
"I've explained. You already are."
"Exclusively human, not a vampire."
"You've already taken the first steps. Listen to what I've told you." The girl faded into the darkness, saying over her shoulder, "And learn to walk."