Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Hope, Dominic, and Jocelyn.
CHAPTER 4-ANOTHER IS TAKEN
"Glad you could make it guys, we could really use your help on this one," Oz said with an appreciative smile on his face as he poured himself a cup of coffee.
"We'll forgive you as long as you never get us up this early ever again," Faith mumbled into her cup of coffee as she struggled to keep her eyes open and her slight hangover in check.
"Deal," Groo said with an amused smirk on his face as he pulled a few files out of a drawer and handed them to Wesley.
"As you can see all of these people are dead and so far not a single mark has been found on their bodies, at first we thought that they had all died of natural causes like a heart attack or something of that sort, then when the numbers started to add up Willow did a spell to see if they had died from magical causes…that came up as a big no as well," Oz explained with a calm tone to his voice as he walked back over to his desk and sat down while Wesley and Faith began to flip through the files. What Oz had said was true; none of the pictures showed any wounds and all of the autopsy reports appeared completely normal, with no discernable cause of death. In fact in most of the reports the coroner had written in that she had never seen anything like this and that she could see no medical reason why the people were not still alive.
"These autopsy reports don't really give us much to go on," Wesley said softly with a deep in thought frown on his face as he flipped through the different pages of the reports.
"Yeah and the pictures don't show anything out of the ordinary," Faith added with a tired yawn as she looked back and forth between pictures in two of the files.
"Which is why we're completely baffled, and afraid that we may have a serial killer on our hands, one that kills in some unknown way and doesn't leave a mark on the body, the perfect crime," Oz said with a very concerned frown on his face as he shook his head and then took a sip of his coffee.
"Do the victims have any sort of connection between them, they all attend the same school, same bus station or workplace," Wesley asked with a stifled yawn as he looked up from the files and looked to first Oz and then Groo.
"None that we could find, so far all of these attacks seem to be completely random," Groo answered with an unhappy frown on his face before the telephone rang and he went to answer it.
"Brought us in to help you solve the impossible eh," Faith joked with a very sarcastic smirk on her face as she shook her head and leaned back in her chair.
"Something like that, Angel said that he'd help to but you know how busy he can be with cases now that he's affiliated with the Governor's office," Oz said back with a sly wink and grin on his face as he shuffled some papers about a bit on his desk before Groo took the phone away from his ear and looked up.
"What is it," Wesley asked with a quickly serious look on his face as he noticed the look of frustration on Groo's face.
"What is it," Faith asked with a very serious look on her face as she looked up from the files and over to Groo.
"There's been another murder," Groo said with a very calm and serious look on his face before he scribbled down the address on a pad of paper and hung up the phone.
"Our car or yours," Wesley asked with a serious smirk on his face as he collected the files and then stood up.
"Ours, you don't have your badges yet," Oz replied with a nervous sigh as he opened up a drawer and pulled out his gun.
"Thought you didn't like guns," Faith stated with a slightly confused look on her face as her gaze fell fully on the weapon.
"I don't, but it was one of the things that I had to compromise on when I took this job," Oz replied with a somber and slightly anxious expression on his face as he began to strap the gun into place so as to hide it underneath his coat.
"Are they going to give us guns to," Wesley asked with a calm look on his face as he stood up and pushed his chair back in at the desk next to Groo's.
"Probably not, having a werewolf and a witch on staff is probably about as much as the chief can handle, I'm not sure how well it'd go over if the press found out that their local police force gave a convicted murderer and her accomplice a weapon," Oz replied with a sad but not angry expression on his face as he shook his head and pushed his chair in.
"It's cool, Wes has his own guns and I never really liked them anyway, I'd rather have a sword or a knife in my hands then any gun," Faith replied with a carefree smile on her face and shrug of her shoulders as she glanced briefly at Wesley before focusing her gaze on Oz.
"Good, though I wouldn't be so quick to let everyone know who you are at first, we need time for the two of you to build a reputation amongst the public, then they can learn more about you, at the moment they'd crucify both of you rather than give you a second glance," Oz said back with a nervous sigh as he turned away from his desk and fished his keys out of his pocket.
"Lucky us," Faith mumbled with a sarcastic scowl on her face as she shook her head in frustration and followed Wesley out of the squad room.
"About time you guys got here," Willow said with a frustrated and stern tone to her voice as she shook her head and stood up.
"I am sorry, I am still not fully accustomed to the lay of this land, it will not happen again," Groo said with a very apologetic look on his face as he ducked underneath the police tape and then held it up for the others.
"You let him drive again," Willow muttered softly under her breath to Oz as he could tell that she wasn't thrilled about it.
"He needs to learn his way around sooner or later Will," Oz said with a soft tone of voice as he did his best to try and calm Willow down.
"What happened," Faith asked with an impatient look on her face before she noticed the news cameras and lightly elbowed Wesley in the side and caught his attention and answered his unspoken question by glancing down at his guns. Wesley quickly shifted the sides of his coat around so that his guns were well covered.
"Nothing…and everything, okay everyone meet your new best friend, his name is Miguel Espinosa, up until about an hour ago he was just your average minimum wage earning member of society, and now he's victim number fifteen," Willow answered in a huff at first before she switched gears and introduced the motley crew to the newest victim.
"Anything new on this body that might help us," Wesley asked with a serious and calm expression on his face as he knelt down beside the body and carefully lifted the sheet up.
"With our luck Wes," Faith joked softly with an unhappy smile on her face as she squatted down beside her husband and joined him in looking underneath the sheet, with a hand on his arm for balance so that she could get a closer look.
"Sorry guys but it's just more of the same, seemingly perfectly healthy young male dead with no apparent reason why," Willow replied with a weary shrug of her shoulders as she turned away from the body and began to walk over towards her car.
"Were there any witnesses," Groo asked with a somber expression on his face as he turned his gaze away from the body long enough to scan the crowd around him.
"A few, but they all had the same story, the guy was just waiting for a bus on the corner when he just dropped dead, no warning or anything, they tried to administer c.p.r. but nothing worked, it was to late," Willow replied with an overworked frown on her face as she leaned up against her car and let out a sigh.
"He doesn't really look dead," Faith said with an odd frown on her face as she leaned in close to get a better look at then leaned back to look over at Wesley.
"You're right Faith, he doesn't…Willow, have you cast any spells on the bodies," Wesley somberly replied to Faith at first before he turned his head and looked over her shoulder at Willow.
"A spell…no, what good would that do, they're dead Wesley," Willow answered with a confused and surprised look on her face as he glanced over at an equally confused Oz before returning her gaze to Wesley.
"What are you getting at Wes," Faith asked with a very serious and interested expression on her face as she gave his thigh a light squeeze.
"I'm not sure yet, it could even turn out to be a wild goose chase, but I'm not completely convinced that these people, that Mr. Espinosa, is actually dead," Wesley replied with an unconvinced look on his face as he pulled his hand back from holding up the blanket on the body to scratch his chin as he struck a thoughtful pose.
"Care to run that by me again…but this time make sense," Oz said with a startled and confused look on his face as he stared oddly at Wesley, who slowly rose back up to his feet and pulled Faith along with him.
"There are demons that have the ability to steal the souls of their victims, leaving their victims bodies completely lifeless and effectively dead, I'm not saying that this is what we're dealing with here but I believe that it's a possibility that we should look into," Wesley replied with a unsure expression on his face as he turned first to Oz, then to Willow, and finally back to Faith, who looked deeply into his eyes, her way of judging if he was telling her the whole truth. She seemed to be satisfied and smiled slightly before silently nodding.
"I don't think that I've heard of those demons," Willow said with a deep in thought look on her face as she went back over in her head the demons that she knew of that had similar powers to the ones that Wesley was describing.
"Is there any way to reverse the attack of this demon," Groo asked with a very serious and concerned look on his face as he turned to Wesley.
"Fortunately for us there is, if this is the work of the species of demon that I'm thinking of then all that we have to do is find that demon and kill it, which though will be no small task, they have the ability to turn themselves completely invisible and then they only become visible just before they attack, and by then it'd be to late," Wesley answered with a grim look on his face as he and Faith walked towards Willow's car.
"These things got a name," Oz asked with a concerned frown on his face as he snapped the rubber band on his wrist to try and alleviate some of his nervousness and anxiety.
"Of course they do Oz, everything has a name," Wesley replied with a calm smile on his face as he pulled off his gloves and rolled them up into a ball.
"Care to enlighten us then dear," Faith joked with an impatient smirk on her face as she snapped her own gloves off and tossed them into a nearby trashcan.
"Do tell," Willow added with a softened look on her face as she let out a nervous sigh and edged a bit closer to Oz.
"They are called Tavivosh demons, they were thought to have become extinct two hundred years ago, but then about twenty years ago several of them were observed in the employ of a powerful vampire, since then though their whereabouts are a mystery," Wesley answered with a very serious tone to his voice as he recalled the entry in one of his texts about the mysterious demons.
"Were you scared," Connor asked with a nervous tone to his voice as he and Angel sat in what would become the baby's room of his and Jocelyn's small house.
"Like you wouldn't believe, having a son never entered my mind until I saw Darla standing there in the doorway, then when you were born and everyone tried to hurt you…I've never been more scared in my entire existence, not even the First or Wolfram and Hart scared me like the thought of losing you," Angel replied with a very scared look on his face as he recalled the terror that he had experienced when Connor was only a baby.
"Did the fear ever go away," Connor asked with a nervous and scared look on his face as he leaned back in his chair and stared out at the night sky.
"Nope, it never does," Angel replied with a somber smile on his face as he turned to Connor and tried not to depress him too much.
"I was afraid of that," Connor mumbled back with a deep sigh as he slowly shook his head and reached for his glass of iced tea.
"Though you're lucky Connor, you don't have the same worries that I did," Angel added with a confident expression on his face as he reached over and lightly punched Connor in the shoulder.
"Lucky…how so," Connor wondered aloud with a confused look on his face as inwardly he thought that perhaps Angel was playing a trick of some kind on him.
"Lucky because Wolfram and Hart and half a dozen other groups aren't going to be relentlessly hunting your child down, Jocelyn won't give birth in a urine soaked alley…she won't…," Angel started to answer with a proud smile on his face before at the end the memories became to painful and the smile disappeared from his face.
"Do you miss her, mom…I mean," Connor asked with an anxious look on his face as he sat up in his chair and looked over at his father.
"Every day, but not just because she was my sire, I miss…her," Angel replied softly after a few silent moments of pondering as he fought back the urge to tear up and stared out of the window at the stars in the night sky.
"Me to, it makes me mad that I never really got to know her…though given the circumstances I should be thankful that I got to know her as much as I did," Connor said back with a far off look in his eyes as he turned back to gaze out of the window.
"Darla could be…was, quite a handful," Angel said with a hint of sadness in his voice as he half turned to Connor before he was interrupted from behind by a soft voice.
"Not to mention completely evil and unredeemable until you were conceived," Jocelyn interjected softly with a tired look on her face as she walked up to the pair and then curled up on Connor's lap, with her head lying on his chest over his heart.
"Well now…okay, you got me there, but as Connor grew within her she changed, I just wish that you could have met her and gotten to know her," Angel replied with a far off look on his face before Connor reached over and turned on the radio, ending the conversation.
"I thought that Willow and Oz were together," Faith said with a tired yawn on her face as she walked back into the kitchen after putting Hope and Dominic down for the night.
"They are, but Tara's problems at daycare and this new rash of possibly magically caused killings has her on edge, she'll calm down once we find and stop the killer," Wesley replied with a tired yawn as he closed the section of the newspaper that he had been reading and set it down on the coffee table while Faith poured a couple cups of coffee.
"What problems, I thought that Willow said that Tara loved daycare," Faith asked with a surprised and concerned tone to her voice as she slowly walked into the living room, making sure to keep the two cups of coffee from overflowing, before she handed one to Wesley and carefully sat down beside him and then snuggled up close.
"Well…there really aren't any problems, they're all in Willow's head, you remember how it was when we tried to send Hope to that daycare downtown…you nearly started to sob when you had to leave her there," Wesley answered with a soft chuckle as he remembered the scene that day outside of the daycare.
"Hey now, I wasn't the only one…I remember there being tears in your eyes to," Faith shot back quickly with an impatient scowl on her face as she poked Wesley hard in the ribs before looking away and calmly taking a sip of her coffee.
"Only from…alright I'll admit it, I did tear up at the thought of letting someone else look after my little girl, the point is that we both got over it and so will Willow, we just need to give her some time," Wesley said back with at first a slightly hurt look on his face before a smile crept upon his lips and he relented.
"Meanwhile we hope that Oz has the good sense to stay out of her way, otherwise I don't even want to think of what a royally pissed off Willow would do," Faith said with a contemplative expression on her face as she stared at whatever portion of the news that was on at the moment.
"Whatever it would be it wouldn't be good I can tell you that, but enough about work, did the garage call back yet," Wesley added with a worried look on his face before he let out a sigh and changed the subject.
"No…they've had my car for over a week and every time that I call them they tell me that they're almost done and that I should be patient…I almost went down there yesterday and gave them more than a piece of my mind," Faith replied with a look of scorn on her face as she scowled heavily and almost crushed the coffee cup that she was holding before she half turned and looked up at Wesley.
"That's the last thing that you should do Faith, you'd probably put them all in the hospital before you were done, Lindsey can't keep your record clean if you keep lashing out like that," Wesley said with an almost smug smirk on his face before he brought the coffee cup up to his lips and took a small sip.
"You think that was bad, if we get a visit from the stork in about nine months I'll show you lashing," Faith threw back with an angry scowl on her face as she glared up at Wesley, though she couldn't keep the angry posture and stare for long because deep down there was a large part of her that wanted to have as many children as humanly possible, if only to undo some of the damage that had been done to her by her own mother.
"If it happens then it'll happen, we can only tempt fate so many times before we must…," Wesley started to say with a slightly uneasy tone to his voice before Faith cut in.
"Pay the piper, I love you Wesley…but sometimes you're just asking for it," Faith replied with a sarcastic scowl on her face that she couldn't hold for to long before she had to look up at Wesley. The instant that their eyes met the hilarity of the comment struck them both and they couldn't help but laugh, consequently spilling their cups of coffee onto their hands and laps.
END OF CHAPTER 4