Chapter 2

Los Angeles - Present time

The sound of a shriek echoed off the walls of the Hyperion hotel and into Charles Gunn's ears, jerking him out of his semi peaceful sleep. He looked at his clock. 5:45. Who in their right mind would be up before sunrise? He asked himself. He jumped out of his bed and ran down the stairs of the hotel to the lobby where he thought the scream had originated and came to an halt. He had to stop himself from laughing at the sight. Cordelia Chase was standing on a chair looking franticly at the ground. A dark haired man was standing next to her trying to get her to come down.

"I'm telling you Angel, I saw a rat. A huge one." Cordy was saying.

"Cordy, we fight vampires and other demons and you're afraid of a rat?" Angel asked turning towards Gunn, rolling his eyes and shaking his head.

"I am not coming down until you find it." She crossed her arms and gave Angel a look that said she was serious.

"Fine." Angel said. He picked her up off the chair and carried her to the stairs and set her down. "I'm to tired to argue right now." He walked back over to plush chair she had been standing on and knelt down and stuck his hand quickly under it and pulled it back out. Only when he pulled it out he had a small rodent in it. "Is this your 'huge rat' Cordy?" He asked annoyed and amused.

"It looked bigger before." She replied. Angel opened the door and put the mouse outside.

"Cordy," he said coming back in and closing the door. "go to bed." He walked past her up the stairs heading towards his room. "You're lucky you didn't wake Connor up, because you're putting him back to sleep if he does."

The doors crashing open stopped him from going any farther up the stairs. He whipped around just in time to see a young girl go fling into the far wall and crumbling to the ground. He was about to go help her when another girl flew in, this one landing closer to the stairs. Her long black hair spilled over her face as she lifted her head slowly. She jumped to her feet and ran back out the door only to get thrown back in. The girl that had hit the wall stood up slowly and shook her head to clear it.

Angel ran to the opening where the door use to be and looked out to see what it was that had thrown these two girls into the hotel. His eyebrows raised when he saw their assailant. It was a extremely large vampire, around seven feet tall. He turned back to the girls to see them both now standing with crossbows in their hands aimed at the evil one. Angel jumped back as they both shot their arrows into the soulless beast and watched it turn to dust. He turned back and was now able to have a good look at them. The first one that had flown in looked like she was about 20, and the second looked about 15.

"Sorry about your door." The older one said. Before he could say anything the sound of a baby crying came from up stairs. Angel looked at Cordelia.

"I know, I know. I'm going." She said turning and heading up the stairs. Angel turned back to the girls and smiled slightly.

"It's no problem. It happens all the time. We were due for it to happen any way." He told the oldest.

"I'm Neala (A/N: pronounced nee-la) and this is my daughter Branna (A/N: pronounced bran-na)." She told him. Angel's eyebrows went up for a second time that night. Branna rolled her eyes and brushed herself off.

"Umm. . .how is she your daughter? You two look like sisters." Gunn asked, voicing Angel's thoughts. Neala laughed slightly.

"Yeah we get that a lot. I'm actually a lot older than I look." She told them. She pulled her hair out of its messy bun and shook her hair out. It was about waist length and the same color as Branna's. Raven-black. She pulled it back and into a ponytail. She wore a sleeveless deep blue turtleneck shirt and tight black leather pants. Branna wore a black tank top and tight blue jeans. She leaned over and whispered to her mom.

"Mom, that guy is a vampire." She said.

"Look closer and you'll see a soul." Neala whispered back.

"Oh. I knew that." Branna said looking Angel up and down.

"And he's also your father." Branna's eyes shot open wider. Angel wiped his head away from his conversation with Gunn in their direction when he heard the word 'father' used in their whispers.

"What did you say?" He asked stepping closer to them.

"I guess we should have been whispering quieter." Branna said sarcastically .

"I said you're her father." Neala said bluntly. Angel was speechless. He didn't understand how he could be her father. He was, after all, a vampire, and Connor was prophesied.

"Don't tell me you don't recognize me." He shook his head. "Maybe this will jog your memory." She pulled down the neck of her shirt to reveal a bite mark. His eyebrow narrowed. "No? Perhaps my accent will help." She spoke in her old thick Irish accent. Memories came rushing back to Angel. His eyes widened when he looked into her bright blazing green eyes. What he saw scared and surprised him. "The last time I saw you, you were leaning down to bite my neck."

"Huntress?" He whispered, his eyes welling up with tears. He sat down on the last step of the stairs, rubbed his face and ran his fingers through his hair. Then something hit him. "But I killed you." Branna snorted and sat down. Neala shot her a look.

"What, it was funny." Branna stated. Neala shook her head and turned back to Angel.

"Immortals can only die if you cut off their heads." She told him dropping her accent, noticing Gunn shutter. "You only added to my scars."

"You're immortal?" A British male voice said behind her. She turned the man and nodded.

"And a witch." Angel said without missing a beat.

"OK. So, how old exactly are you?" Gunn spoke up. Neala smiled.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's not polite to ask a woman her age." She teased him. Gunn blushed slightly. "I'm kidding. My exact age is 439. Branna is 150. The women in our family age every ten years. When Branna turns 200 her body will stop ageing and she'll, like me, look twenty for however long after that she lives." The Huntress said sitting down next to her daughter.

"Ok," Cordelia said coming down the stairs with Connor in her arms. "what'd I miss?" Angel groaned and put his head in his hands.

"Everything." He said standing up. He held out his arms and she put Connor in them.

"So. . .explain." Cordy said walking the rest of the way down the stairs.

"Maybe we should start from the beginning." Angel said. He walked toward the couch and chairs in the middle of the room where Neala and Branna were sitting and sat down.

"Good, 'cause, we're confused." Another voice said. Everybody looked up to the second floor to see who 'we' were. A demon with green skin and red horns and a pretty, young woman were walking down the stairs.

"Ok. Introductions first I guess." Angel said placing Connor on his knee and bouncing him slightly. " This is Connor, my son. I'll explain later. That's Cordelia, Wes, and Gunn, and these two," He said as the demon and the woman sat down, "are Lorne and Fred. Lorne is the demon."

"I guessed that." Neala told him. "I'm Neala and this is my daughter Branna. I guess you could call us, immortal Slayers. The demon's we hunt call us Huntresses. We also can do magic." Neala explained.

"Yeah I've heard of Huntresses. They've been around for centuries, right?" Lorne asked.

"Right. I've only been alive for a little over four centuries. My mother however has been around for about eight." Neala answered. "But she doesn't look a day over twenty."

"Huntresses are supposedly the most powerful witches known in all the dimensions. They posses powers only imagined by the lesser witches in the world." Lorne told them. Neala and Branna nodded in unison.

"So. . .how do you know Angel?" Gunn asked.

"Well, actually I don't know Angel, I knew the monster he was before he was cursed with his soul." Neala told them looking over at Angel. He avoided her eyes, looking everywhere but at her. Neala went on to explain how she met Angelus and what he had done to her.

"So, what you're saying is that Angelus captured you, raped you, drained you of almost all your blood and dumped you in some ditch?" Cory asked bluntly.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Angelus left just enough blood in me for my body to make more. I must have been in that ditch for about two weeks cause when I woke up I had morning sickness." Everybody, with the exception of Angel and Branna, were dumbfounded. Wes was the first to speak.

"Extraordinary." He said quietly. "How long did it take Branna to develop and be born?"

"Oh I think I was about.three to four months. In my family, babies develop a lot faster then they do in normal humans." Neala told him.

"I'm hungry." Branna spoke up.

"If that's not a teenager, I don't know what is. I'll get you something, sweetness. What would you like? I think there might be pizza in the fridge if you want to follow me to the kitchen." Lorne offered. Branna stood up and looked at her mother as if to ask if it was alright that she go with the green demon.

"Don't look at me. If you're hungry, go with the man. If not, don't." Neala told her, shooing her away. Branna turned and followed Lorne out of the room to the kitchen.

"I'll take Connor up stairs and change him. Fred, can you give me a hand?" Cordy asked her standing up and taking Connor from Angel.

"Sure." Fred answered. The two women left the lobby and, rather quickly, went up the stairs.

"Gunn and I are going to do a quick patrol before the sun comes up." Wes told Angel as he and Gunn stood and left through the broken entrance.

"Why does it feel like they all left us alone purposely?" Angel asked Neala, finally making eye contact with her.

"Because they did." Neala smiled at him.

"I never knew your name was Neala. I only knew you as The Huntress." Angel said leaning forward in his chair.

"Well, if you had asked, I would have told you."

"No you wouldn't've." Angel said in a 'as matter of fact' voice.

"Ok, no I wouldn't've, but still, you never asked. But it means 'female champion'. I'm named after my grandmother." Neala stated standing to her feet and stretching her arms above her head.

"It suits you. So. Branna huh? Neat name. It's Irish right? How'd you come up with it?" Angel asked looking up at her.

"Well, it means 'raven', and she had a full head of nice thick black hair, so that's what I named her. Believe it or not, I almost named her Angel." She said sitting back down next to him. Angel laughed.

"That probably would have been just a little strange." He said shaking his head.

"Yeah, well, she was my angel. She saved me." Neala said crossing her arms over her chest.

"I'm sure she did." He said looking at the broken door. "You know, she does kinda look like me." It was Neala's turn to laugh.

"Yep, she's got your eyes. And now that I've talked to you, I've noticed that she's got your charm." She said smiling. He laughed and smiled back. "And your smile."

"She looks more like you than me."

"Good. We wouldn't want her looking to much like her father, now would we?" Neala kicked off her shoes and leaned back. "So. You planning on fixing your door before the sun comes up, or do I have to do it?" She rolled her head to the side to look at him.

"I'm still waiting to see your magic. I didn't get to see it 239 years ago." He told her standing up and pulling her to her feet.

"And whose fault is that? I'm not the one who put magic repelling cuffs on me. That was your soulless form." She turned away from him and lifted her hands toward the door. Its hinges reattached, the pieces that lay all over the floor went back to their original place on the door and the knobs when back to where they were.

"That was child's play. Wait 'till you see her in action." Branna's voice came from behind them.

"Ah, I see she must have gotten my great stealthiest, because I know she didn't get it from you." Angel said turning around and walking out of the lobby and into the kitchen where Branna had just come from.

"That's not funny." Neala called after him.

"Yes it is." He called back.

"Now I know who you got your need to argue from." Neala told her daughter. Branna smiled and took a bite of the pizza she was carrying. Neala went over to a window and looked out. "Sun's comin' up." She called to anyone listening. At that moment Wes and Gunn walked in.

"How'd you guys fix the door so fast?" Gunn asked looking it over.

"Magic." Angel said coming back into the room carrying a mug, with what Neala knew was blood in it.

"Magic? Who's magic?" Wes asked.

"Does it really matter?" Angel retorted.

"I'd like to know."

"It was mine. It's not like that was something hard to do. As Branna would say, 'It was child's play.'" Neala told him. "Do guys have any rooms we could use? I'm exhausted."

"Sure, follow me." Angel said heading for the stairs.

"You coming Bra?" Neala asked the young Huntress before following him.

"Nah, I'm not tired." Branna answered.

"Ok, but you really should get some sleep. But don't listen to me. You never do." Neala said turning on her heal to join Angel on the stairs.

"Playing the guilt card's not going to work, Mom." Branna called after her.

"I know. Can't say I didn't try though." Came the response as she disappeared around the corner.