The Strength of the Righteous

An Angel fanfic by Sisiutil

This fanfic takes place early in the first season of Angel and features Angel, Cordelia, and Doyle.

This story is fictional and does not contain any references to any actual persons living or dead. All characters contained in this story who appeared in Angel are the property of Mutant Enemy, etc.

Chapter 1

Before he saw the nest, Angel could smell it.

As he emerged from the dank sewer tunnel into the basement of the building Doyle had described, Angel reflected—not for the first time—on the mixed blessing, if that was the appropriate word, of possessing enhanced vampire senses. The acute hearing and scent capabilities were, of course, ideal for any predator. In the animal world, though, an enhanced sense of smell was usually accompanied by sensitive taste buds, but not in a vampire. To a creature such as himself, nothing but blood, human blood in particular, carried any sort of a taste; everything else was like vanilla ice cream, but without the vanilla. Or the cream.

But a vampire's sense of smell was potent. Angel could detect and distinguish the scents of people and other creatures. It's how he'd known, within seconds after first meeting Doyle, that the Irishman wasn't entirely human. Not only that, Angel could also gather clues about a person's emotional state from their scent—whether they were under stress, angry, afraid…yes, like a dog, he could smell fear.

Now that was a sure-fire conversation-killer at parties.

Angel emerged silently into the basement of the abandoned apartment block. His dark eyes glanced around warily as the smell hit him full-force. The scent of a vampire nest was distinguished not so much by the vampires themselves, but by their victims. Since vampires didn't breathe or sweat, they didn't have much of a scent. Humans confronted my demonic monsters and a gruesome, violent death, however, left a particularly pungent and almost overwhelming odor behind. As Angelus, he had relished the smell of human fear for nearly two hundred years: the cold, terrified sweat, the loss of bowel control, and the heart pumping all that luscious blood through the arteries, faster and faster as he leaned forward, mouth agape, to…

Angel shook his head to clear it. He was still a vampire, ensouled or not, and the hunger lingered within him. No one could possibly understand the tremendous force of will it required, day after day, to resist the urge to feed.

The dark-featured Champion shrugged his shoulders and glared into the darkness of the basement. He could hear, at the far end of the long, concrete-lined cellar, the shuffling sound of the vampires who'd made this place their home. He could also hear—and, of course, smell—the disconsolate and pathetic whimpering of the vampire's intended victim. He couldn't see the person, but he could already smell him. Male, early middle age, slightly overweight…and terrified. Then Angel frowned. There was something else. Another scent, not strong, but there. A human female. Quite young, too. He shook his head. Probably that of a previous victim of the nest, lingering in the dank air.

Angel walked forward into the basement, his long, dark coat waving around his lower body and legs. He could see five…no, six vampires, four males and two females. A bit of a challenge, but nothing he couldn't handle. He kept his appearance human. His strategy was simple: sneak into their midst quietly, throw them off by appearing human, get close and, before they detected his true nature, stake them all with the spring-loaded weapons attached to his wrists. He eyed the largest male vampire, who projected an air of command. Probably the most dangerous of the bunch. Angel pegged him as the first one to dust.

He was within a few yards of them now, and could see the victim, who was tied to a chair and was surrounded by the six vampires. He was white, slightly overweight, his dark hair balding, though he sported a sad-looking comb-over to try to hide that fact. He had two-day-old stubble on his face. He was dressed in loose-fitting jeans, a white t-shirt, and a plaid long-sleeve shirt. Typical L.A. street trash. Evidently the nest didn't have very high standards for its meals.

Angel was almost upon them, and still they hadn't detected him. They seemed intent on their victim. They were talking to him in low, hushed tones—taunting him with details of his impending death, no doubt. Angelus used to love doing that. The memory of his own sadistic past made Angel all the more determined to wipe the nest out.

But then he finally heard what the lead vampire was saying, and it stopped him dead in his tracks.

"…you have been found guilty of perpetrating evil crimes against your fellow humans. You must be punished, and stopped. Thus, we will…"

The leader, his features distorted by his vampire features, stopped speaking as his predatory eyes finally detected Angel standing nearby. His dark hair was long and loose; his lanky body was clothed in a pale blue denim shirt and jeans. He stared at Angel, his nose twitching slightly as he strained to detect the scent of his fellow vampire. A moment later, his nest-mates turned to look at the dark-clothed interloper.

"Who are you and what do you want?" the leader challenged him.

Angel glanced at each of the other vampires in turn, his heavy brows furrowed into a frown, then spoke. "I'm confused and I want an explanation."

The leader of the group smiled slightly, revealing his elongated fangs. "Of course you're confused by what you just heard. You're a vampire. An evil, blood-sucking demon that must be destroyed." Angel watched as two of the other vampires pulled wooden stakes from beneath their clothing. They couldn't have surprised him more if they'd pulled out crosses.

"Okay, that's supposed to be my line," Angel muttered as he eyed the suddenly-hostile vampires.

The lead vamp held up his hand, signaling his compatriots to hold off their attack. His bulbous, distorted brow creased slightly into a frown. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, not to steal your thunder or anything," Angel said, "but…I'm the vampire that usually goes around punishing the wicked, protecting the innocent, and all that. It's kind of my job. I have business cards and everything."

One of the female vampires, a slender one with short red hair, gasped, then looked at the leader, her demonic features curling into a delighted smile. "It's him!" she declared. "He's the one!"

The leader signaled to her to be silent. His eyes never left their wary study of Angel's tall, powerful form. "What is your name, stranger?" he asked.

"I'm Angel," the Champion responded.

"The ensouled one!" the leader whispered reverently, his dark, predatory eyes opening wide.

His followers gasped, and delighted smiles lit their faces. Almost as one, their vampire faces faded, leaving their human features displayed. They all looked at him as though their favorite rock star had just walked into their midst. Angel shifted his weight, feeling more than just a little embarrassed—not to mention confused—by their rapturous regard.

"Uh, well, yeah," Angel admitted. "Though that fact isn't usually greeted with this sort of enthusiasm by, um, our kind. You guys do know you're vampires, right?"

"Of course!" the leader, his features human now but still enthused, admitted readily. "But that doesn't mean we have to be evil!"

Angel's frown grew more furrowed. He shifted his weight again. "Uh, well, actually, it does. I mean, usually. Unless…you all have souls too?" he asked dubiously.

"Unfortunately, no," the lead vamp answered sadly. His nest-mates' heads lowered shamefully. "But we have minds of our own. We have free will. We have chosen to do good rather than evil. It is a difficult path for us. But you…you have a soul! You can guide us!"

Angel stared at them in shock. Was this a trick, he wondered? He quickly glanced behind himself, expecting to see another vamp creeping up for a sucker punch, but saw no one. He was tempted to look around for the hidden camera and half-expected Alan Funt to pop out at any moment.

"Okay, wait a minute, wait a minute," Angel grumbled, shaking his head in agitation. "You are about to kill this guy, aren't you?"

"Why, yes," the lead vamp admitted.

"Please, mister, help me!" the victim finally spoke up, his voice tight with fear.

"Silence, evil-doer!" the female vamp who'd first regarded Angel with enthusiasm snarled at him. She drew back her arm as if to slap the man; he whimpered and fell silent.

Angel raised his right hand and began to rub the bridge of his nose. He could feel a headache starting, right behind his eyes. Had he crossed a dimensional portal into some sort of bizarro, twisted universe?

"I just know I'm going to regret asking this," Angel muttered, "but why are you going to kill him?"

"He has done terrible evil, ensouled one!" the red-headed female vampire explained. "Can't you smell the stench of his sin? It's all over him!"

"I don't know what…" Angel began to say, then the words froze in his throat as he suddenly identified the other human scent he'd detected earlier. A young human female—a child. Only she wasn't here. Yet her scent—the scent of her blood, and of her terror—was all over the man tied to the chair. Mingled with it was not just his own scent, but the unmistakable smell of the man's sweat and…other bodily fluids. Angel's face suddenly roiled with disgust.

"Yes, you smell it now, don't you?" the leader said. "We found him with her. We returned her to her family, alive, but not before he'd had his way with her. He's evil. He must be punished."

"Well…yes, but…" Angel stammered. He could never have imagined this scenario, not in his wildest dreams. He was thrown for a loop about the size of Pluto's orbit.

"Then we are in agreement," the leader said with satisfaction. Accompanied by a crunching sound of folding bone and stretching skin, his demonic visage reappeared. His followers also went back into vamp-face. "Carry out the sentence," the leader said to his nest-mates.

As one, the other five vampires fell upon the child molester. Their fangs tore at his throat and shoulders, then they slurped the blood from his body as his heavy body writhed in its death throes. A horrified scream erupted from the man's mouth, then faded to a whimper, then silence. Their leader watched the man's gruesome death with righteous satisfaction.

And Angel watched them kill the man without moving a muscle.