CHAPTER FOUR

Angel wanted to find Lilah's grave, dig her up and kill her all over again. When his son had blind-sided him the night before, Angel had been stunned. There was no signs of the boy Lilah had shown him in that house with the happy family. The boy who had attacked him showed no hints of the happy college kid; he wasn't living a good life; there hadn't been even a glimmer of sanity or even recognition that Angel was his father other than he was a vampire, nothing Angel had been promised was visible in Connor. Angel didn't now if Lilah was responsible for what his son had reverted to. For all he knew, Lilah had been dropped back into the hell from which she was dragged the moment Angel had signed on the dotted line.

Angel knew he'd be better off talking to Eve. If anyone knew what had happened to Connor - had the spell broken? Had his mind? Had Wolfram and Hart lied? - it would be Eve. However, he didn't have the energy for a confrontation. He felt defeated and he knew he wouldn't get the truth out of Eve. He had always felt like a puppet on a string since the moment he had been granted his wish and now, he was beginning to realize just how true that was.

Angel pulled a book down off the library shelf. He kept the room dark but he wasn't sure why. True, the library was Wesley's domain but Angel was the head of the organization and he had every right to be there. Still, he felt like he was sneaking around where he didn't belong. "Resurrection spells," he whispered then opened the book.

He couldn't focus on the spells scrawling over the pages. All he saw was the feral look in his son's empty eyes, the lack of any higher reasoning. Connor reminded Angel of what he must have been like when he returned from hell, more animal than man. If not for Buffy, he might still be roaming the woods of Sunnydale hunting like a wolf.

He hadn't see much of Connor before the boy hit him in the face with a balloon full of holy water. He only survived the attack because he had fled, blinded after smashing his son into a wall. He didn't know what Connor was doing other than he had been hunting down some other vampires. Angel had heard the confrontation and had gone to investigate. The holy water hit him before he could even say anything but he was grateful in a perverse way. Connor was using a non-lethal way- to humans, at any rate- of culling vampires from the herd. Or maybe he had learned to scent the subtle differences between vampire and human or hear the lack of a heart beat. Angel didn't know.

And now Faith was suggesting Connor was cutting up college kids and draining their blood. He couldn't bear to think about it. The only saving grace was he didn't believe it for a moment. His son wouldn't do that and in the feral state Connor had been in, Angel doubted he had the capacity to commit the ritualistic, highly organized murders.

Worse, he hadn't known Daniel was back somehow from the grave, not until the picture Simeon had drawn from Spike's description. Angel had no doubt that it was Holtz and that Wolfram and Hart was responsible for him being alive once more. Only he didn't know what the firm had to gain by putting kidnapper and victim back together again. Was that what caused Connor to descend into whatever hell he was in now? Had Holtz done something to him or had he been brought back to try and control the boy? Angel didn't doubt that Connor had loved Holtz, despite the boy's plaintive accusations in the mall about Angel letting Holtz get him. Angel even felt pity for Daniel. He remembered how confused and afraid Darla had been when she was brought back. The same went for Buffy and even himself when he returned from hell. There was more mystery here than Angel felt up to dealing with.

The vampire stiffened as he caught a whiff of cigarettes. "Magical party favors," he whispered to the book knowing he wasn't likely to get rid of Spike quickly and he didn't want him prying into this. Spike would want to know why Angel was looking at resurrection spells. It was bad enough that Faith was having dreams about him. Angel knew he should be grateful that either Faith was that connected to him or that the Powers That Be's were in action trying to protect him but there was nothing they could do to help. He didn't need Spike poking around in his business, to top it off. Spike could be persistent and he was good at rooting out weaknesses and secrets and exploiting them. He didn't want to have Spike exposing anything until he could find a way to help his son.

He needed to look up ways to reverse Wolfram and Hart's spell and for his own sake, he wanted to know how Holtz had come back and why. Angel knew he could ask Wes and Giles for help, even if it meant confessing to tampering with all of his friends' minds. At this point, the anger he knew he'd face didn't matter. All that did was Wolfram and Hart had apparently reneged on their deal and his son was suffering, and his friends might, too, if he tried to make a break with the law firm.

"Shouldn't you be in bed, Peaches?" Spike sat on the desk and cast a glance at the book. "Surely party favors could wait until you're healed up."

"What do you want, Spike?" Angel couldn't keep the irritation out of his voice but was fairly confident that he was so regularly annoyed with Spike that he doubted the other vampire would give it a second thought.

"I think you know what's going on, Angel." Spike lifted his chin arrogantly.

Angel scowled. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You might be able to pull the wool over your friends' eyes but I've known you too long. You know who fucked you up." Spike's eyes narrowed.

Angel knew there'd be little he could say that would dissuade Dru's momentarily lapse of judgement, but he'd try. "I don't know what you think is going on, Spike, but it isn't. I got a face full of holy water. I nearly lost an eye and I took off. I didn't see who did it."

"Funny, you looked like you might have recognized the sketch of the boy, Angel, and I'm sure he's the one who did this to you. I saw him fight those vampires. He moved like Faith or Buffy." Spike snorted. "Or should I say like you and me? Only the kid's got a heartbeat so he's not another do-gooder vampire, like we needed another. That leaves us with all that power in someone Faith's ready to swear is not only nuts but is cutting up teenagers.

"He's not!" Angel clamped his jaw shut. Spike looked delighted. Angel knew he had made a mistake. "We can't say he killed those kids. Faith said the boy was like an animal. I wouldn't expect him to carefully arrange the scenes those kids were left in."

"There was nothing insane about the man with the kid," Spike said. "They're a team. He could be getting off an arranging those scenes after the kid kills them. The boy did have blood on him. And I know you recognized that picture of the man. You nearly shit your pit, Peaches."

"You're full of it." Angel knew that wouldn't put Spike off. He'd have to try harder to throw Spike off the trail.

Spike leaned close. "Who's Daniel, Angel?"

Angel felt something catch inside of him like he still had a heart that could skip a beat. "Who?"

"I think you know who." Spike's voice was sibilant, soft like a snake's hiss.

"You think that's the man in the picture," Angel said, wondering where Spike had gotten the name and came up with the sad realization that Spike might know more about what was going on than he did.

"I'm positive of it." Spike grinned, reaching for his cigarettes.

Angel grabbed them, crushed them and handed them back. "No smoking in here. What makes you so sure?"

"I have my ways." Spike tossed himself off the desk and strutted around the library. "I've been going over in my head trying to remember any Daniels that would want to do you harm. I don't remember you siring anyone by that name but I'm sure I don't know half of the ones you raised. Still, I know this man isn't a vampire. He sure as hell knows what we are though. He's quick with that crossbow and he has some kind of control on the kid. I don't know what that's all about." Spike spun on heel and gave Angel a look. "Then I remembered you and Darla laughing about someone named Daniel, what you had done to him and some of the things he had done to you. He was some kind of Van Helsing." Spike's brow furrowed. "Of course Van Helsing came a century later." Spike waved that off. "Whatever. I remember you telling those tales over a nice bit of young blood or after a good ravishing and pillaging night but he was only human. He'd be bones long ago but I was thinking, what if he was like those bloody gypsies and decided to punish you? He could have trained his descendants and they trained theirs, handing the hatred down the generations along with the name."

"Nice little theory, Spike, but I have no idea what you're talking about." Angel felt cold. Spike was closer than he knew. "The Daniel you mean was someone Darla and I entertained ourselves with two hundred years ago. He's gone. His family is gone. We killed them all."

Spike shrugged. "Still, I know it's something. You know those two and I'm of half a mind to tell the others you're protecting a pair of murderers."

Angel had his hand around Spike's throat before he even knew he was doing it. He shoved Spike against the wall so hard, three book shelves cracked and spilled books with a deafening crash. "You have no idea what you're messing with, Spike. Just leave it alone."

Spike broke Angel's grip. He had his signature cocky smile on his face. "You just proved me right, Angel. Faith knows it, too. She's still having the dreams. She knows you're still in danger and she knows you know more than you're telling. It's only a matter of time until we figure it out."

"Leave it alone, Spike. And you can tell Faith to do the same." Angel's fists curled, wanting to shove them through Spike's smirking face.

"Can't do that, Peaches. They might kill more innocent kids. How will I ever get to play a part in that prophecy if I'm not a good enough guy to stop the slaughter of innocents?" Spike's smile went particularly oily but Angel refused to rise to the bait.

"You're wrong about this, Spike." Angel uncurled his fingers and buried them in his hair, regretting the move as they hit the burned and raw spots of his scalp. "I'll tell Faith she can stop worrying about me."

"Angel, you're the only man I know who could have the hook so deep in his belly and still not know that he's been caught. Are you going to wake up before they have you skinned and filleted and in the frying pan?" Spike looked serious for a moment. "Someone's out to kill you. There are people who'd miss you. Not me, mind, but I don't want to have to deal with their grief over you."

"This Daniel was here, wasn't he?" Angel asked, realizing that had to be how Spike had learned of him.

Spike shrugged. "Actually, I'd miss you, too, Angel. My life would be a lot more boring without having you around to annoy."

Angel actually grinned briefly. "Why don't I doubt that?"

"He's going to come for you, Angel. If you're not worried about that, worry about the people who might accidently be in the way when it happens, like Fred or Faith," Spike said and sauntered toward the door.

Angel let him go. He wanted to ask what Spike knew but that's what the vampire wanted. Spike couldn't know all that much and he had already given Angel what he needed to know. Angel put the book back. Researching spells could wait. It was still night so he went outside and thought briefly about using his cell phone to call someone. What if they could listen in? He could go to The Next Dimension Over, Lorne's new Wolfram and Hart sponsored club but that was probably bugged, too, and Lorne would want to know why Angel wanted to use the land line. In the end he went to Anne's shelter and gave her a wad of twenties to pay for the call overseas and to buy her silence on the matter.

"Hello, Willow. I need to ask a big favor....thanks, I need you to do a background check on someone who works for Wolfram and Hart because I can't do it here. And if you can tell if she's transacting business outside of Wolfram and Hart, that would be good to know. " Angel listened to Willow bubble on for a few moments about something particularly exciting that had happened that day then she settled and he gave her Eve's name. He knew that was the place to start. He'd run through Wolfram and Hart's real estate dealings himself, just like he had when they were looking for Darla. Holtz would need a place to stay and he didn't have the means to get one himself. Now if he could only figure out what he'd do once he located Holtz and Connor.

* * *

Holtz managed to coerce Steven back into the small homestead Eve had secured for them. Holtz may have been out of the world for a long time but he could see this was a bad neighborhood. The advantages were that it was a house and a little more isolated than an apartment so if Steven started crying in his sleep, he wouldn't attract attention. And in this neighborhood no one paid attention to screams.

Steven jumped on his creaky little bed, rocking back and forth. He held something to his nose. Holtz could only see that it was dark in color but whatever it was,6 the boy was fascinated by it. Holtz set down his weapons except for the taser he had been given to keep Steven under control. He sat on the bed and reached for whatever it was Steven had. "May I see it, son?"

Steven clutched it tighter giving him a fierce look. Holtz raised an eyebrow and Steven relented. Holtz saw it was part of a woman's shirt and bra. The woman who had joined the fight against the vampires had worn a deep purple shirt. This must be hers. He tossed it in the garbage can praying Steven hadn't hurt the girl. There didn't appear to be any blood on the shirt but there was a lot on Steven. He wished the boy would get off the bed. He'd have to strip the bedding as it was.

Steven mewed when Holtz tossed away his prize. He dropped off the bed into a squat. He rescued the cloth and put it to his nose again. Holtz stroked his hair. "Steven, that's very improper. Put it back in the garbage."

Steven shook his head and scampered just out of arms reach. Holtz sighed. He didn't believe Angel had done this to his son. He didn't know what had gone wrong. He had been so sure that Steven would avenge his death and kill the vampire. He never dreamt Steven would fail. Once the horrible disorientation and fear faded after he had been brought back, the sly woman, Eve, had come to him and told him they needed his help to bring Steven back to himself, that Angel had so damaged his son that they were desperate to help and felt someone close to the boy would comfort him and aid him. Holtz didn't know why he didn't believe her but he didn't. If anything, he felt he was working with the people who had fractured his adopted child. A better biblical name for her would be Jezebel. He knew better than to trust Eve and he knew she had plans for him and Steven that he couldn't guess at.

"Steven, let's get you clean, please. You're getting blood and dirt everywhere."

Steven looked up at him then went into the bathroom without a word. He did not drop the shirt piece. Holtz waited until he heard the shower going before turning his attention to remaking the bed and cleaning his weaponry, making sure it was all in working order. He didn't realize how much he had loved hearing his son's voice. Steven had never been a talker but now he seemed almost unable to form words. Occasionally he managed a few monosyllables but mostly he communicated with grunts, facial expressions and gestures. Holtz pulled out the taser and made sure it still had a full charge. He had only had to use it twice. Once when Steven was so agitated that he was throwing himself around the house, hurting himself and once more when he tried to stop the boy from chasing down more demons that Holtz felt he could handle in this state. He kept it close though, not trusting Steven's fragile hold on reality. He'd never survive if the boy turned on him.

He was tempted to find Angel and just tell him what had happened, provided he could do so before the vampire killed him. Of course, he thought, going into the kitchen, Angel had been willing to listen to him. That had been a surprise. He might just listen now since Holtz was clever enough to stalk Eve. He knew the woman worked, in theory, for Angel but he could easily see she was a traitor. He started frying some sausages for dinner. He wondered if he could approach the others that worked with the vampire. Holtz thought they would be even riskier especially after Justine had taken one of their own. He wondered about the blond vampire who had been accompanying the girl Steven had tussled with.

He had seen the vampire at Wolfram and Hart's but only just barely. The demon hadn't wanted to be seen. He didn't know why a girl who killed other vampires would be with one. It made no sense. Putting it out of mind, Holtz finished making dinner then drugged Steven's orange juice because it was the only way he could guarantee the boy would sleep and not leave the house when he himself had to rest and it made the boy more manageable.

"You look much better," he said as Steven reappeared, hair wet and his face scrubbed pink.

The boy smiled and ate. It still took longer than Eve said it would for the drugs to work. Steven eventually tired and went to bed. Holtz tucked him in and kissed the boy's forehead. Steven smiled blearily and curled up with the shirt piece still in his hands.

"Can I have that now, son?"

"Smells good," the boy said, surprising Holtz with his clarity and with the implications of that statement. He feared what would happen if he took it away again.

"All right, son."

Holtz found Steven had neatly folded up his soiled clothes. He took them and removed his own, tossing them into the washer. They had almost captured the demon making young men kill other teens tonight but the demon had no substance and he didn't want Steven attacking the boys. He couldn't have him killing humans. Then that pack of vampires had struck, tearing them away from the prey they had been after for two weeks. He had no idea how to stop such a demon but vampires he knew how to handle. He would get Steven back after the demon controlling the boys tomorrow. He would ask Eve if she knew anything that might help stop the demon. She might even tell him if she did. But he wouldn't tell Eve about the blond vampire, not until he knew more. It was time for patience and careful observation. Now, if he could only do something to help Steven.