Cordelia poked her head round the door to Angel's room.
"Look who we ran into!" She exclaimed, dragging Darcy into the room after her. Doyle followed them in and closed the door to prevent any accidents of the sun kind.
Angel looked up. "Darcy. Hi."
"Angel," Darcy nodded to the ensouled vampire, surreptitiously rubbing her arm where Cordy had encased it in a death grip she hadn't been able to shake off.
Angel looked down at the mug in his hand, discomforted.
"Is that…?" Darcy asked.
"Is what what?" Cordelia asked before she realised what Darcy was referring to. "Oh, the O neg! Yeah, that's the real stuff alright."
"Cordy," Angel growled.
"Okay, okay, I'm going. Jeez, sensitive much?" the brunette turned to leave, "C'mon Doyle."
"What!" the Irish half-demon exclaimed, "Me? What'd I do?"
"Doyle!" Cordelia warned.
"See you later Angel, man," Doyle shut the door behind them.
Angel put the mug down on a table and shifted uncomfortably before crossing to sit on one of the trio of armchairs on the other side of the room.
Darcy looked uncertainly at the mug and then back to Angel.
"May I?" she asked, gesturing to the mug.
Angel looked shocked but nodded.
Smiling gratefully, Darcy picked up the mug and sat nervously across from Angel. She took a tentative sip from the mug and then relaxed back into the armchair with a contented sigh.
"You have no idea how long it's been since I've had blood," she said comfortably, "I'm like most dhampirs, it goes straight to my hips. So I tend to avoid it. But every once in a while I break out the comfort food," she took another sip and grinned, "Mmmm, beef."
Angel smiled at her quickly and her grin widened even more in response before her vampire face slipped down and she began to drink the rest of the blood.
When she looked up, halfway through, she was surprised to find Angel watching her.
"I'm sorry," Darcy lisped around her elongated canines, "Did you want some?" She held the mug out to him but Angel shook his head so she returned the mug to her lips.
She looked at Angel before she began to drink again and saw the look on his face. Mentally cursing, she put the mug down on the floor next to her chair and shrugged out of her vampire face.
Angel mentally stored the fact that when she was in her vampire face, she didn't have to breathe and her heart didn't beat.
"So! What do you want to know?" Darcy asked.
"Why are we here?"
"I don't know but I would guess it has something to do with my father," Darcy matched his business-like tone.
"Your father's a vampire?"
"And my mother and sister. He turned them. He was my vampire parent," Darcy clarified.
"Who is he?" Angel asked.
Darcy watched Angel's face for any sign of emotion, "Ramiculus," she revealed.
Angel sat deep in thought for a few minutes and then got up and turned to one of the stacks of books on the floor. Picking one out he sat back down, holding the book idly in his right hand.
"Ramiculus is your father?"
"Yes."
"Ramiculus never gave a damn for anyone. Why's he after you?" Angel was suspicious.
"My mother probably wants me by her side," a hint of bitterness crept into Darcy's voice, "She wants to be one big happy family and Ramiculus could never resist her. She's the one person he's ever cared about."
"What ritual?"
"He wants to create another Hellmouth and open it,"
"Where?"
"Here. The harbour to be exact,"
"Where in the harbour?"
Darcy was getting a strange sense of déjà vu. "The middle, where the water is." She explained once more. "He plans to flood hell and rule humans and demons forever. Unfortunately, he never did get round to taking GCSE Science. If he succeeds it'll be like the Big Bang all over again. Only this time it's Planet Earth that's going boom, "
Angel flicked through some pages in the book, "The Big Bang never actually happened," he said dismissively.
"I know that." Darcy said, defending herself. "He doesn't. Heck, deep down the vampire still believes that the earth is flat and that the girls in The Sun were born looking like that!"
"They are!" Doyle cried through the door, "Ow. Cordy!"
"How do we stop him?" Angel asked, ignoring the couple blatantly eavesdropping outside the door.
Darcy sighed, "Ultimately, we kill him. If we can't do that then we prevent him from either creating or opening the Hellmouth. For both those rituals he needs all of his family members to be present. That means me and Basil."
"Basil's your brother?" Cordelia exclaimed.
"He died, I moved his soul," Darcy explained in a louder voice so that Cordelia would be able to hear without straining herself. "Perhaps this would work better if they were on the inside," she suggested to Angel.
Cordelia threw open the door and flung herself down on Angel's bed.
"So," she said, "When did you first find out you were a dhampir?"
Darcy smiled at the exuberant brunette, "I always knew. It was something mum made sure Basil and I knew." She informed her.
Angel passed the book he had been flicking idly through to Darcy.
"Is that the ritual?" he asked.
Darcy cast an experienced eye over the text, "Looks like!" she said flippantly.
Angel handed the book over to Doyle.
"So what do we do?" Cordelia asked.
Darcy thought about it, "I'll let you know," she said finally. "But I really have to get going. I'm supposed to be meeting friends and I need to do some stuff first so I'll see you soon?"
Cordelia nodded.
"Pop round anytime, day or night," Doyle offered.
"I'll walk you out," said Angel, walking to the bedroom door. Cordelia darted past him to shut the blinds in the other room thereby blocking out the sunlight.
He opened the hall door and Darcy walked past him. She stopped and turned to look at him.
"I'm glad you're here," she said softly, "It's strange, but it makes me feel safer knowing that you're watching my back." Angel looked at her and she stared at her feet. "I… I just want you to know, that you're always welcome in my home. I mean, I know that we don't really know one another all that well, but I'd like to be a friend to you. I don't make friends that well, my lifestyle kinda prohibited it but I feel like I've known you all my life. I grew up hearing the tales of my father and Angelus' exploits and how Angelus became Angel. I spent a great deal of my time reading about your deeds in Sunnydale but I'd like to get to know you." Darcy looked up at him, worried that her babbling might have scared him off. "I, I just thought it might be nice to be friends with someone who won't be dead in less than eighty years."
Angel half-smiled at her, "Look us up next time you're in Los Angeles," the vampire said.
Darcy grinned and turned to go, "Oh!" she said, spinning back round, "I meant to ask. How come you didn't ask me about dhampirs?"