A/N: Sorry for the, um—extremely long—delay! Doncha hate it when crap is
worked out in your brain but you don't know how to put in on paper?
Anyways… GRR. Sorry, I hope this chapter was worth the wait!
–MissKitie
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Chapter Nine
New Horizons
==++==++==++==++==
I don't think I've ever seen him wigg that bad.
I don't have a clue what set him off, one minute he was fine, the next he's screaming bloody murder trying to find his way—somewhere—and he actually punched Groo. It wasn't intentional of course, but it scared me.
I followed him out into the hallway, preparing myself to run after him out into the pre-dawn haze, but he was just slumped against the opposite wall right in front of the door. I immediately collapsed at his side, drawing him into me, trying to shield whatever it was that scared him so bad, away from him. He shuddered and twitched and whimpered in my arms for what felt like forever, and I tried as hard as I could not to break down with him. I whispered to him, kissed his forehead reassuringly, and smoothed down his hair. The tears in my eyes burned so bad, but I refused to let them go. I held on to them as tightly as I did to the vampire in my arms. By the time he looked up at me, my black sweater was soaked through with his tears.
"It's alright, Angel. I'm here. What happened?" I gently tried to get him to talk about what had happened in there, what was going on with him, but he just stared at me for a few seconds before shaking his head.
"I'm fine. We need to get this over with." His voice was heavy with sadness, maybe even pain. But I didn't push him anymore. He'd tell me if he wanted to. He will tell me, he always does.
Slowly he pulled away from me, and stood, bracing himself with the wall. I was still scared for him, and scared about what we were about to go through with. We didn't really have a plan when we left LA, more of a 'we have a lead so we'll just go with it, and see where it takes us' sort of half- assed plan. Now I'm thinking not the best idea in the world that we've come up with as of yet.
I realize I'm still on the floor, just staring up at Angel who's slumped against the wall, eyes closed, when I hear someone clear their throat. I look up to see Wesley standing in the doorway and I smile.
"I think we're ready." I can see him looking at Angel, a bit uneasy, he probably thinks he'll freak out again and go after him.
"Can I get the once-over just one more time, Wes? I mean, how's this gonna work exactly?" I say as I pull myself up off the hardwood floor to lean back against the wall, arms crossing over my chest.
"Well, there is the ritual. Which is almost complete. Acathla acts much like the center of a 'mystical convergence', or div-ergence as the case may be, and it creates a temporary rift in the dimensions it's linked to in order for us to step through. Much like walking through a doorway. Once we're through, it closes."
"Oh. Don't we have to be all bind-y like with Pylea?" I really don't want to end up like one-seventh of a freaky Siamese twin, as Gunn so eloquently put it last time.
"No. This is a dimension that was CREATED by a rift in time. It's tainted so-to-speak, very different from Pylea." Wes said in all certainty. Well, if he believes what he's saying, who am I to disagree?
"Great. No threat of merging into one grotesque monster on the other side of the air-quote 'portal'. But how do we get back?" That's the real clincher there. Yeah, we get through all fine and dandy, but how the hell do we get OUT?
"Much in the same respect. Via Acathla."
"Gotcha. Good enough for me… So, Angel," I say, turning to him. He was totally out of it, 'cause he didn't even hear me. I touch his forearm gently, and his head snaps up so fast, if he were human he probably would've broken his neck.
"Are you ready?"
"Yeah." His voice is shaky, but he moves forward and Wesley stumbles back into the room to avoid him, and I silently follow. Who was it just a few hours ago that was talking about walls? If there's any sort of metaphor for him at this very moment, he wouldn't just be a regular wall, he'd be the Great Wall of China. You know, the one you can see from outer space?
Angel steps off to the side and I get a good look at the room. It's completely bare, except for the big hunk of ugly demon-stone in the middle of the room, and there's seven candles surrounding him in the shape of a circle. The flames from the candles throws an eerie light on Acathla and I shudder when I look at his closed eyes.
Totally creepy.
Fred's finishing creating a circle, with some black powder from a pouch Wesley brought, around Acathla, just inside the candles. She stands and hands the pouch back to Wesley and he stuffs it into his satchel.
He removes a small black book from his bag and flips through the pages until he finds the one he wants.
"Alright. I think we're ready. The room has been purified, candles lit, binding salts poured. Now I read from this book and our doorway should open. But, and I cannot stress this enough, once the flames on the candles turn blue, we MUST all step forward and into the light at the same time, or one or many of us will be left behind. It's imperative we enter at the same moment." Wesley finishes his speech and looks at each of us. Without another word, we gather around Acathla in a circle. I have Angel on my right, and Wesley on my left.
My two manly men.
Wesley begins to read in another language, and I feel the air in the room start to almost shift. Not like how the wind blows, it's just… moving… All around us now.
I look frantically back and forth between Wesley, Lorne, and Fred, who's clutching onto Gunn's hand as tight as she possibly can, and my eyes snap to Angel's. He's looking at me, and he must see the fear in my eyes because his hand immediately seeks mine out and I hold on to him for dear life.
The air seems to have stopped moving, but now it's heavy, and I can feel my knees trying to give way under the pressure, and all of a sudden the candles all go out at once, completely blanketing the entire room in black before re-lighting all on their own. But it's not yellow anymore, it's a bright blue, and it's not even a second after my eyes adjust to the blue tint to the room, that a white light shoots up from the circle of black powder and I hear Wesley scream, "NOW!"
I don't know how I get my heavy legs to move, but I step forward, closing my eyes tight against the blinding light and I feel a rush of hot air all around me.
And then it stops.
I crack one eye open, and then the other and I breathe a sigh of relief as I feel Angel's hand still in mine, and I see everyone standing all around me. I look to my left, and thank god, Wesley's there.
I'm about to let out a great big laugh, when I notice the one thing missing is…
"Acathla." I hear Angel breathe out next to me.
Acathla isn't there. I take a good look at the room, and it's still the same room that we were just in, except it's different.
Still bare of all furniture, but the walls and the floor look almost rotted away, graffiti of some otherworldly kind sprayed all over the them, and the ceiling.
And that light.
A deep red light is filtering in from the broken shutters on the massive windows.
Angel registers the light and with a growl, attempts to shield himself from it, trying to find a corner to sink into, but he realizes at the same time as I race to cover him, that he's not on fire.
~*~
We moved through the abandoned mansion in complete silence, trying to make our way to the bottom floor. All the walls are covered either in that strange graffiti, or blood, or… other… things.
Things I don't even want to know about.
By the time we reach the entryway, we're certain the mansion hasn't been lived in for quite a while, and when we reach the door, we all stop. I don't know about anyone else, but my major thought is, if it's this disgusting in here, what's it like out there?
Who knows what kind of dimension we've landed ourselves in!
Not to mention that freaky light. I don't know what's up with that, but it really does nothing for my complexion to say the least.
"Angel?" My voice is completely unsure, just that one word is asking him so many questions I know I wouldn't be able to form into coherent sentences.
He understands and gives my hand a small squeeze before letting it go, and he steps forward to the door. We all wait. In silence. I don't even think any of us are breathing.
When he opens it, that red light floods into the room and I shield my eyes from it before they adjust to the light change.
~*~
We made our way down the driveway and down the street in complete silence before Gunn finally broke it.
"Alright. Anyone else officially freaked?" He looks between all of us, I don't think he was expecting an actual response, he just needed to break our silent trudging.
"Um, I'll go with yeah. This isn't good kiddies." Lorne pipes in.
"This is so not right." I look up at the sky, which in MY world, would've been blue, but that's the source of the red. The entire sky is the color of blood. Everything around us is tinted with it. There doesn't even seem to be a real source of it, like… No sun.
Just red.
"Thank you, Barbi. For stating the obvious."
"Hey, no need to get snippy with me…" I glance back at him, shooting him an irritated glare. I just want to find Connor, find Acathla and get out. I could care less about the particulars of this dimension. I just want OUT.
Our tight group swiftly makes its way into downtown, and as we turn the corner to Main Street, we all stop dead in our tracks.
I hear Wesley gasp behind me, but I don't even bother to turn around.
Until now we hadn't seen any signs of life, I was starting to worry. Now I wish we hadn't found any. We humans seem to be the minority here. My jaw literally drops open as I take in my surroundings. Most of the shops are the same, except there's almost nothing but random demon's just milling about.
Shopping. Talking. Fighting. You name it.
There's a few human-ish looking faces amongst the throngs of demons, but there's no telling if they're human-human or if they're vampire-human or some other form of demon-human. I feel like we're sticking out like a sore thumb here. I glance around at everyone else, and they're just staring wide- eyed like me.
"Dear lord…" Wesley whispers. He blinks his eyes a few times before he takes his glasses off. Deciding that it's not his glasses that are making him see these things, he replaces them.
"Uh, guys… I think we need to double-time it." Angel's voice breaks us from our daze, and all eyes are on him.
"Double-time it where exactly?" Gunn throws back at him. "He could be anywhere." Fred nods in confirmation, still clutching onto Gunn's side as if she didn't she'd be sucked away. Poor girl, just got back from a demon dimension and here she is again. Albeit, different dimension, but I don't think she's makes the distinction.
"Wait." Angel holds a hand out to me as I start to step forward, and I freeze mid-step. "Do you feel that?"
I shake my head in confusion. I… something's… it's not not-right, just something. Then I nod absently, knowing that I DO feel something, but I'm trying to figure out what it is.
"What? What is it Angel?" Wes steps forward, his voice deeply concerned, eyes searching Angel's face for his answer.
"It's a, I feel…" Angel's eyes dart around us, and I can see him sniffing at the air, trying to figure it out.
"This way." I blurt it out without thinking, and point to my right, down a side street. Before anyone can ask any questions, or before I can even ask myself any questions, my feet are moving on the cement.
Angel catches up to me, but doesn't attempt to stop me, just follows my stride. "You felt it. I can feel it. Something's pulling us isn't it?"
"Yeah." I say, out of breath.
"Hold up, yo. Where are we going?" Gunn jogs up next to us, and turns around, backpedaling in front of us.
"I don't know. We're just going. We'll know when we get there." Angel's response is clipped and no-nonsense. They'll follow, and they won't ask questions.
Before I even know what's going on, I stop in front of an old abandoned warehouse. It looks oddly familiar, but I don't know why.
"This is it. Here." Angel looks back at the group, just staring up at the building.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let us get back your son, Angel." Groo steps forward, and draws his sword.
Everyone else follows suit. Gunn pulls his crossbow off his back, Fred and Lorne pull out stakes, and Angel hands me a small throwing axe, while pulling out his sword, tossing another smaller one to Wes, which he had on his back inside his leather jacket.
"Here goes nothing."
I nod at Angel and he slides open the metal door to the warehouse.
It takes a second to adjust to the darkness, and I try to stifle a cough from the stale air. We start to move forward into the massive room, but Angel's growl stops us dead.
I follow his line of sight across the room and I squint to see what he's looking at. At first I don't see anything, but then something moves.
Fast.
Out from behind a crate, tumbling silently behind another one.
"Wait here." He whispers back at us.
Yeah, like I'm gonna listen. Not.
I move forward with him, but he doesn't even notice.
I spare a glance back at the guys, who've fanned out across the room behind us, eyes wandering everywhere, waiting, visibly tensed for battle.
I turn around in time to see the shadow dart once again from a crate at the back of the warehouse, only to jump up, cat-like, onto another taller one a good twenty feet away from it. Then it jumps again, landing silently on the concrete floor, behind a pillar out of my sight.
Angel holds a hand out to me, ushering me to keep behind him as he follows the direction our phantom was last seen. I follow behind him, slower this time, my heart pounding in my ears now, throat so tight I can barely get air in and out of my lungs.
I gasp when Angel spins around suddenly, sword drawn up, and I stumble off to the left and lose my balance.
I hit the floor hard, a pain shooting up my spine from landing on my ass. I lose the grip on my axe and it clangs to the ground before skidding just out of my reach.
My eyes immediately shoot up to the figure towering right above me.
I see Angel coil out of the corner of my eye, like a spring ready to explode with tension, but the figure holds a hand up to him and speaks.
"Wait." Our phantom is a she. A very British she, but I can't make any of her out because of all the gloom.
"Who are you." Angel's face, which I just now noticed had been replaced by his demon visage, contorted in anger as he ground out his words.
"A friend." For being obviously surrounded by a group of well-equipped, very angry fighters, she sure was nonchalant about it.
She slowly takes a step forward into a patch of faint red light streaming in from a high window, and I get a good look at her.
In a word, she's beautiful.
Tall. Long hair, looks like a deep red (although that could be from the overabundance of red sunlight), flowing down her back. Black leather pants. High-heeled boots. Black turtle-necked sweater.
I suddenly feel frumpy in my blue jeans, tennis shoes and black sweater. She's very feminine GQ. How I USED to look. Way back when before I knew any better.
She reaches down, extending her hand, and I look into her eyes for a second. Even her eyes are beautiful. They shine sky blue, almost clear, even in the shadows. And they're so… warm. Compassionate. Pick any word out of a thesaurus you want and it was in her eyes.
Against my better judgement I take her hand and she pulls me up effortlessly.
I hear Angel growl again, "Get away from her."
"Angel. Please. We work for the same." She steps past me and picks up my axe, handing it to me handle-first and I take it. I can't seem to move my legs though. Everything inside me is telling me to get away from her as pure instinct, but my heart says no.
So I watch her.
"The same? I work for no one." His voice is still menacing. He can't see her eyes, I know that, because if he did, he'd be a puddle of goo like I am right now.
"Do not let your employer hear that, dear Angel." She laughed a bit, like an angel, her voice light and sweet. "But that is not who I meant." She smiles at me, and points up to the ceiling.
"The Powers?" I ask, shaking my head in complete disbelief.
She smiles wider, a beautiful, almost heavenly smile, and she nods. "If you will all lower your weapons, and come with me, I will tell you everything you need to know."
*TBC*
–MissKitie
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Chapter Nine
New Horizons
==++==++==++==++==
I don't think I've ever seen him wigg that bad.
I don't have a clue what set him off, one minute he was fine, the next he's screaming bloody murder trying to find his way—somewhere—and he actually punched Groo. It wasn't intentional of course, but it scared me.
I followed him out into the hallway, preparing myself to run after him out into the pre-dawn haze, but he was just slumped against the opposite wall right in front of the door. I immediately collapsed at his side, drawing him into me, trying to shield whatever it was that scared him so bad, away from him. He shuddered and twitched and whimpered in my arms for what felt like forever, and I tried as hard as I could not to break down with him. I whispered to him, kissed his forehead reassuringly, and smoothed down his hair. The tears in my eyes burned so bad, but I refused to let them go. I held on to them as tightly as I did to the vampire in my arms. By the time he looked up at me, my black sweater was soaked through with his tears.
"It's alright, Angel. I'm here. What happened?" I gently tried to get him to talk about what had happened in there, what was going on with him, but he just stared at me for a few seconds before shaking his head.
"I'm fine. We need to get this over with." His voice was heavy with sadness, maybe even pain. But I didn't push him anymore. He'd tell me if he wanted to. He will tell me, he always does.
Slowly he pulled away from me, and stood, bracing himself with the wall. I was still scared for him, and scared about what we were about to go through with. We didn't really have a plan when we left LA, more of a 'we have a lead so we'll just go with it, and see where it takes us' sort of half- assed plan. Now I'm thinking not the best idea in the world that we've come up with as of yet.
I realize I'm still on the floor, just staring up at Angel who's slumped against the wall, eyes closed, when I hear someone clear their throat. I look up to see Wesley standing in the doorway and I smile.
"I think we're ready." I can see him looking at Angel, a bit uneasy, he probably thinks he'll freak out again and go after him.
"Can I get the once-over just one more time, Wes? I mean, how's this gonna work exactly?" I say as I pull myself up off the hardwood floor to lean back against the wall, arms crossing over my chest.
"Well, there is the ritual. Which is almost complete. Acathla acts much like the center of a 'mystical convergence', or div-ergence as the case may be, and it creates a temporary rift in the dimensions it's linked to in order for us to step through. Much like walking through a doorway. Once we're through, it closes."
"Oh. Don't we have to be all bind-y like with Pylea?" I really don't want to end up like one-seventh of a freaky Siamese twin, as Gunn so eloquently put it last time.
"No. This is a dimension that was CREATED by a rift in time. It's tainted so-to-speak, very different from Pylea." Wes said in all certainty. Well, if he believes what he's saying, who am I to disagree?
"Great. No threat of merging into one grotesque monster on the other side of the air-quote 'portal'. But how do we get back?" That's the real clincher there. Yeah, we get through all fine and dandy, but how the hell do we get OUT?
"Much in the same respect. Via Acathla."
"Gotcha. Good enough for me… So, Angel," I say, turning to him. He was totally out of it, 'cause he didn't even hear me. I touch his forearm gently, and his head snaps up so fast, if he were human he probably would've broken his neck.
"Are you ready?"
"Yeah." His voice is shaky, but he moves forward and Wesley stumbles back into the room to avoid him, and I silently follow. Who was it just a few hours ago that was talking about walls? If there's any sort of metaphor for him at this very moment, he wouldn't just be a regular wall, he'd be the Great Wall of China. You know, the one you can see from outer space?
Angel steps off to the side and I get a good look at the room. It's completely bare, except for the big hunk of ugly demon-stone in the middle of the room, and there's seven candles surrounding him in the shape of a circle. The flames from the candles throws an eerie light on Acathla and I shudder when I look at his closed eyes.
Totally creepy.
Fred's finishing creating a circle, with some black powder from a pouch Wesley brought, around Acathla, just inside the candles. She stands and hands the pouch back to Wesley and he stuffs it into his satchel.
He removes a small black book from his bag and flips through the pages until he finds the one he wants.
"Alright. I think we're ready. The room has been purified, candles lit, binding salts poured. Now I read from this book and our doorway should open. But, and I cannot stress this enough, once the flames on the candles turn blue, we MUST all step forward and into the light at the same time, or one or many of us will be left behind. It's imperative we enter at the same moment." Wesley finishes his speech and looks at each of us. Without another word, we gather around Acathla in a circle. I have Angel on my right, and Wesley on my left.
My two manly men.
Wesley begins to read in another language, and I feel the air in the room start to almost shift. Not like how the wind blows, it's just… moving… All around us now.
I look frantically back and forth between Wesley, Lorne, and Fred, who's clutching onto Gunn's hand as tight as she possibly can, and my eyes snap to Angel's. He's looking at me, and he must see the fear in my eyes because his hand immediately seeks mine out and I hold on to him for dear life.
The air seems to have stopped moving, but now it's heavy, and I can feel my knees trying to give way under the pressure, and all of a sudden the candles all go out at once, completely blanketing the entire room in black before re-lighting all on their own. But it's not yellow anymore, it's a bright blue, and it's not even a second after my eyes adjust to the blue tint to the room, that a white light shoots up from the circle of black powder and I hear Wesley scream, "NOW!"
I don't know how I get my heavy legs to move, but I step forward, closing my eyes tight against the blinding light and I feel a rush of hot air all around me.
And then it stops.
I crack one eye open, and then the other and I breathe a sigh of relief as I feel Angel's hand still in mine, and I see everyone standing all around me. I look to my left, and thank god, Wesley's there.
I'm about to let out a great big laugh, when I notice the one thing missing is…
"Acathla." I hear Angel breathe out next to me.
Acathla isn't there. I take a good look at the room, and it's still the same room that we were just in, except it's different.
Still bare of all furniture, but the walls and the floor look almost rotted away, graffiti of some otherworldly kind sprayed all over the them, and the ceiling.
And that light.
A deep red light is filtering in from the broken shutters on the massive windows.
Angel registers the light and with a growl, attempts to shield himself from it, trying to find a corner to sink into, but he realizes at the same time as I race to cover him, that he's not on fire.
~*~
We moved through the abandoned mansion in complete silence, trying to make our way to the bottom floor. All the walls are covered either in that strange graffiti, or blood, or… other… things.
Things I don't even want to know about.
By the time we reach the entryway, we're certain the mansion hasn't been lived in for quite a while, and when we reach the door, we all stop. I don't know about anyone else, but my major thought is, if it's this disgusting in here, what's it like out there?
Who knows what kind of dimension we've landed ourselves in!
Not to mention that freaky light. I don't know what's up with that, but it really does nothing for my complexion to say the least.
"Angel?" My voice is completely unsure, just that one word is asking him so many questions I know I wouldn't be able to form into coherent sentences.
He understands and gives my hand a small squeeze before letting it go, and he steps forward to the door. We all wait. In silence. I don't even think any of us are breathing.
When he opens it, that red light floods into the room and I shield my eyes from it before they adjust to the light change.
~*~
We made our way down the driveway and down the street in complete silence before Gunn finally broke it.
"Alright. Anyone else officially freaked?" He looks between all of us, I don't think he was expecting an actual response, he just needed to break our silent trudging.
"Um, I'll go with yeah. This isn't good kiddies." Lorne pipes in.
"This is so not right." I look up at the sky, which in MY world, would've been blue, but that's the source of the red. The entire sky is the color of blood. Everything around us is tinted with it. There doesn't even seem to be a real source of it, like… No sun.
Just red.
"Thank you, Barbi. For stating the obvious."
"Hey, no need to get snippy with me…" I glance back at him, shooting him an irritated glare. I just want to find Connor, find Acathla and get out. I could care less about the particulars of this dimension. I just want OUT.
Our tight group swiftly makes its way into downtown, and as we turn the corner to Main Street, we all stop dead in our tracks.
I hear Wesley gasp behind me, but I don't even bother to turn around.
Until now we hadn't seen any signs of life, I was starting to worry. Now I wish we hadn't found any. We humans seem to be the minority here. My jaw literally drops open as I take in my surroundings. Most of the shops are the same, except there's almost nothing but random demon's just milling about.
Shopping. Talking. Fighting. You name it.
There's a few human-ish looking faces amongst the throngs of demons, but there's no telling if they're human-human or if they're vampire-human or some other form of demon-human. I feel like we're sticking out like a sore thumb here. I glance around at everyone else, and they're just staring wide- eyed like me.
"Dear lord…" Wesley whispers. He blinks his eyes a few times before he takes his glasses off. Deciding that it's not his glasses that are making him see these things, he replaces them.
"Uh, guys… I think we need to double-time it." Angel's voice breaks us from our daze, and all eyes are on him.
"Double-time it where exactly?" Gunn throws back at him. "He could be anywhere." Fred nods in confirmation, still clutching onto Gunn's side as if she didn't she'd be sucked away. Poor girl, just got back from a demon dimension and here she is again. Albeit, different dimension, but I don't think she's makes the distinction.
"Wait." Angel holds a hand out to me as I start to step forward, and I freeze mid-step. "Do you feel that?"
I shake my head in confusion. I… something's… it's not not-right, just something. Then I nod absently, knowing that I DO feel something, but I'm trying to figure out what it is.
"What? What is it Angel?" Wes steps forward, his voice deeply concerned, eyes searching Angel's face for his answer.
"It's a, I feel…" Angel's eyes dart around us, and I can see him sniffing at the air, trying to figure it out.
"This way." I blurt it out without thinking, and point to my right, down a side street. Before anyone can ask any questions, or before I can even ask myself any questions, my feet are moving on the cement.
Angel catches up to me, but doesn't attempt to stop me, just follows my stride. "You felt it. I can feel it. Something's pulling us isn't it?"
"Yeah." I say, out of breath.
"Hold up, yo. Where are we going?" Gunn jogs up next to us, and turns around, backpedaling in front of us.
"I don't know. We're just going. We'll know when we get there." Angel's response is clipped and no-nonsense. They'll follow, and they won't ask questions.
Before I even know what's going on, I stop in front of an old abandoned warehouse. It looks oddly familiar, but I don't know why.
"This is it. Here." Angel looks back at the group, just staring up at the building.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let us get back your son, Angel." Groo steps forward, and draws his sword.
Everyone else follows suit. Gunn pulls his crossbow off his back, Fred and Lorne pull out stakes, and Angel hands me a small throwing axe, while pulling out his sword, tossing another smaller one to Wes, which he had on his back inside his leather jacket.
"Here goes nothing."
I nod at Angel and he slides open the metal door to the warehouse.
It takes a second to adjust to the darkness, and I try to stifle a cough from the stale air. We start to move forward into the massive room, but Angel's growl stops us dead.
I follow his line of sight across the room and I squint to see what he's looking at. At first I don't see anything, but then something moves.
Fast.
Out from behind a crate, tumbling silently behind another one.
"Wait here." He whispers back at us.
Yeah, like I'm gonna listen. Not.
I move forward with him, but he doesn't even notice.
I spare a glance back at the guys, who've fanned out across the room behind us, eyes wandering everywhere, waiting, visibly tensed for battle.
I turn around in time to see the shadow dart once again from a crate at the back of the warehouse, only to jump up, cat-like, onto another taller one a good twenty feet away from it. Then it jumps again, landing silently on the concrete floor, behind a pillar out of my sight.
Angel holds a hand out to me, ushering me to keep behind him as he follows the direction our phantom was last seen. I follow behind him, slower this time, my heart pounding in my ears now, throat so tight I can barely get air in and out of my lungs.
I gasp when Angel spins around suddenly, sword drawn up, and I stumble off to the left and lose my balance.
I hit the floor hard, a pain shooting up my spine from landing on my ass. I lose the grip on my axe and it clangs to the ground before skidding just out of my reach.
My eyes immediately shoot up to the figure towering right above me.
I see Angel coil out of the corner of my eye, like a spring ready to explode with tension, but the figure holds a hand up to him and speaks.
"Wait." Our phantom is a she. A very British she, but I can't make any of her out because of all the gloom.
"Who are you." Angel's face, which I just now noticed had been replaced by his demon visage, contorted in anger as he ground out his words.
"A friend." For being obviously surrounded by a group of well-equipped, very angry fighters, she sure was nonchalant about it.
She slowly takes a step forward into a patch of faint red light streaming in from a high window, and I get a good look at her.
In a word, she's beautiful.
Tall. Long hair, looks like a deep red (although that could be from the overabundance of red sunlight), flowing down her back. Black leather pants. High-heeled boots. Black turtle-necked sweater.
I suddenly feel frumpy in my blue jeans, tennis shoes and black sweater. She's very feminine GQ. How I USED to look. Way back when before I knew any better.
She reaches down, extending her hand, and I look into her eyes for a second. Even her eyes are beautiful. They shine sky blue, almost clear, even in the shadows. And they're so… warm. Compassionate. Pick any word out of a thesaurus you want and it was in her eyes.
Against my better judgement I take her hand and she pulls me up effortlessly.
I hear Angel growl again, "Get away from her."
"Angel. Please. We work for the same." She steps past me and picks up my axe, handing it to me handle-first and I take it. I can't seem to move my legs though. Everything inside me is telling me to get away from her as pure instinct, but my heart says no.
So I watch her.
"The same? I work for no one." His voice is still menacing. He can't see her eyes, I know that, because if he did, he'd be a puddle of goo like I am right now.
"Do not let your employer hear that, dear Angel." She laughed a bit, like an angel, her voice light and sweet. "But that is not who I meant." She smiles at me, and points up to the ceiling.
"The Powers?" I ask, shaking my head in complete disbelief.
She smiles wider, a beautiful, almost heavenly smile, and she nods. "If you will all lower your weapons, and come with me, I will tell you everything you need to know."
*TBC*