Nemesis
Chapter 12
"Can't stand it either, huh?" A voice came from behind him, and Angel spun around, ready to fight anything.
He hadn't been paying attention, normally he'd notice the other person the moment she had come out the door, but his thoughts were filled of other things. Angel smiled a sheepish smile and nodded.
"Yeah. I'm only here because B needed me," he answered. "I hate funerals."
She nodded, and Angel noticed something different with her. Her hair was much shorter than before, it only reached to her shoulders. And by a closer look, he saw that it wasn't very professionally done, she had probably just cut it of with a scissor.
"Cut your hair?" He asked.
"I grew tired of it," she answered and fingered on a dark brown link of it. "So I simply grabbed a knife and slashed if off."
"I suppose you can do it that way too," he said with something amused in his voice and shrugged his shoulders. "But you are going to get it to look more civil?"
She thought for a second and then shook her head.
"Nope. Why go with the flow?"
He didn't find anything to say at that, she was completely right.
"I like it, anyhow," he said, just to say something, and he knew that it wasn't a lie.
She did look good that way, very good, as a matter of fact. The way her green eyes sparkled when she looked at him told him a lot, like the fact of that she enjoyed his company, and the way she walked said him that she was aware of that she was beautiful in herself.
"So…" she said slowly, breaking the silence that grew – not that it was uncomfortable, just because she felt like saying something. "You care a lot about BonBon."
"She's my mother, Nyx."
He didn't need to say how much he cared – no – loved her, his acts proved it more than anything.
"I envy you," she said silently.
"Why?"
"You have a mother who loves you. Both my parents are dead, I never even got the chance to know my mother. She died giving birth to me."
Nyx had said it in such a low tone that if he hadn't been what he was, he wouldn't have heard it. He didn't know what to do, he just stood there dumbly.
"God, I'm so sorry for you," he just said, with an empathic look upon his face.
"Don't be. I am used to be alone. People dies, that's why I never spend any longer time with my relatives."
"That seems like a lonely life."
"There are some good things about it," she said and shrugged her shoulders.
"Like what?" He asked sceptically.
She looked at him for a moment and then shook her head.
"You wouldn't understand. To understand it, you'd have to walk a thousand miles in my shoes."
She lit a cigarette and stared straight ahead, hands deep down in her brown jacket. Angel watched her without saying anything, and after a long time he nodded.
"You're right. There are some things that I wouldn't understand about you, and the same goes to you when it comes to me. We all have our little secrets."
With those words he walked back into the church and up to the choir's gallery, to have a look over how far it had gone, and to have a little chat with his relatives.
* * *
He noticed them all the moment he came upstairs, and he did nothing to hide his presence, and he saw the surprised looks on both Elena's and Stefan's faces, and their eyes darted between Damon and him, Damon standing a little by the side, leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't need to look at the newcomer, he just studied the scenery with a bored look upon his face.
The other two stood nearby, and Angel nodded shortly at them all, and then walked to the railing to have a look around in the church.
He immediately saw Bonnie, she sat on a bench in her black dress. He sighed, both of relief and of sadness, as he knew all the pain inside of her, even though she did her best to hide it.
Oh how she must be feeling, knowing as well as he did – for she was no fool – that it was because of him that her sister was dead. A glint of something darker than black came to his eyes, and the next moment, when Bonnie's head jerked up, he understood that he had read her inner.
"Sorry, B, it wasn't my intention to intrude," he mumbled, sensing how she threw him an annoyed look and then shut him out mentally.
"So this is why Bonnie left," he heard Elena's voice whisper to Stefan from behind, and he found himself smiling bitterly. Another sacrifice that his mother had made. Giving up her youth, her family and friends all for him.
"I'm not the slightest surprised by her actions," Stefan answered in the same low tone as she had used.
Angel could feel the look that Elena gave him, it dug through his skin, trying to find out who he really was.
"Neither am I. Yet I have noticed that her family has accepted him as their long lost relative, which actually startles me quite a lot. The McCullough's are catholics and would never accept a child that wasn't born within marriage."
"There was a reason why I was accepted," Angel said in his normal tone, as if to point out that he had heard every word that they had said. "My family is very fond of Bonnie, as she have been a great joy for everyone. For their love for Bonnie, I was welcomed."
"What a sweet and noble reason."
Damon's sardonic voice wasn't unexpected, Angel had just waited for it. That condescending voice which none could conquer, sweeping like a tidal wave all over them, even though the words were uttered as if they were nothing at all. Just simple and worthless.
"More noble than you'll ever be," Angel muttered as he turned around to look at them, knowing that he had made a mistake the same moment he spoke those words. Though Damons reaction was not like he had expected.
His father simply laughed at him, a short and arrogant laughter that only increased his bad feelings about it all.
"Why should I give a damn about being noble? That's for whimps like my brother."
Angel saw how Stefan clenched his teeth, and then calmed down when he felt Elena's hand on his shoulder.
"Very well, then," Angel said, interrupting the battle that he felt would come soon. "Why did you kill Mary and Jaime?"
"I killed neither of them, actually," Damon said curtly. "Though I know that they were killed to get you here. Once you've entered the cemetery and seen your… shall we call it your 'other self'?" he stopped to throw a meaning glance at Angel. "You'd be awoken, and the process would begin. When the process is over, you'll be the demon that you really are, and will destroy the world."
"That will never happen," Angel protested.
"Oh, yes it will. It has already begun."
Damon watched how Angel unconsciously scratched his fingertips against his shirt, and when the younger one got aware of it, he felt the itching and tickling in them, which picked on all his senses. He stopped it abruptly, though he still could feel the pain inside his nails, that there was something that wanted to get out, something that he knew he could not master for long.
"It won't happen," Angel repeated in a determined tone, though the doubt in his voice was obvious, even for Elena who only had a slight clue of what they talked about.
Do as you wish," Damon said with a light shrug. "You'll know where to find me when the time is in. For it is, very soon."