A young girl no older then sixteen wandered the streets of Los Angeles long after the sun had set, paying no attention to the constant spine tingling rise of hairs at the nape of her neck. She lived in constant danger, but never in fear. It was too late for fear.
Glancing once more at the small white business card, she double checked the name of the street she was navigating. If the address on the piece of card stock was accurate, she should be reaching her destination soon, that is, if nothing went wrong.
As if on cue, to her slight left, no more then six feet away, a sputtering street light gave way and died with a little "pop".
"Great." she muttered, squinting in the darkness, feeling her way along the dim path, supported by a small iron gate.
Up ahead, like some one was expecting her, a light flickered on and guided her to a porch. Walking up the worn grassy steps, she stopped and confirmed the business card with the address on the door. Yes, this was it, the Angel Private Investigation Agency.
As she reached out to rap softly on the door with a small, thin, careworn hand, it swung open and she was bathed with a warn glow of natural candle light. Standing in the doorway, with a caring smile and slightly sunken eyes was a tall handsome man who looked to be in his mid-twenties.
"You must be Ashley," he said, taking her coat and placing it on a black polished stand.
"And you must be Angel. Thank you so much for meeting with me so late."
"It's quiet alright." Chimed in an attractive woman who had just entered the room carrying a large stack of papers. "Nobody sleeps around here. Can I get you some coffee?"
"No thank you." Ashley said politely, sinking into the oak chair in front of Angels desk, where he had seated himself silently. He could not help but notice how tired the young girl seemed, how frail. She was thin, and had dark circle beneath her luminous hazel-green eyes, like she hadn't sleep in months. Her face was also very mature, very stern, to match the soft liquid voice that surprised him coming from behind such small lips.
She sat huddled, slumped over, lithe arms rapped around her self in a tight embrace. She fiddled with a silver bracelet, around her tiny wrist, linked with little hearts, and adorned with a charm of the letter A.
After taking a moment to soak in the small office she sighed and began to speak. "Your advertisement in the news paper says you take unusual cases."
"We hardly get anything but unusual." Quipped the woman seated in the corner at her own desk, thumbing through a popular fashion magazine instead of the large stack of newspapers and case material beside her.
"Cordellia, would you mind letting me talk?" Angel said shaking his head, and throwing a piece of crumpled paper in her direction.
"You're the boss." She responded, propping her feet onto the desk and flipping of her Barbie pink pumps. "But don't expect to get anymore phone messages from me tonight."
Angel, choosing to ignore this last remark, hardly impressed with Cordie's normal secretarial skills, turned his attention back to Ashley.
"We don't judge here. Just tell me your problem and we will help the best we can."
"It's about my boyfriend, he disappeared a couple days ago, and I'm worried."
"That he might be dead?" Angel said sympathetically.
"um, no," she said, "he's already dead. I'm just afraid he might be in danger another wise."
Angel choked on his coffee and Cordie gave a little snort, as if to say, "Are you surprised?"
"He's already dead how? Zombie, ghoul? Do you know what you're dealing with?"
"Yes, he's a vampire." She stated matter oh factly. "And I know what you're thinking, but it really has no affect on our relationship. He was a little different after he first was changed, before he got his soul back. But now everything is fine."
Angel, tried not to act surprised for his clients sake, as not to alarm her that her boyfriend had probably been lying. "Do you know how he got his soul back?" Angel said calmly, humoring her. "That's a very rare condition indeed."
"My mother thinks it was because of me. I died shortly after he was changed, maybe a couple of weeks."
Cordie came over from her corner and sat on the edge of Angel's desk, closing his open mouth as she motioned for Ashley to continue.
"He had been seeing me regularly, any at night, promising to make me better somehow. You see, I had leukemia. When my condition got worse, he would appear beside my hospital bed, like an angel, and hold my hand until I feel asleep. One night I remember waking up and he was kissing my wrist, the monitor was flat, and I could no longer breathe, but I was in no pain. It was like a dream. He looked up at me with yellow demons eyes and a hard face, not moving his mouth from my wrist.
Then I could hear his voice inside my head. 'I'm taking the bad blood my sunshine, I'm making you all better, sleep now, and when you wake, my heart will beat in you.'
Then I remember him having a look of pain on his features, and in a flash of light, his face was like it had been, soft, with sky blue eyes, then little he kissed my forehead, and collapsed on the floor.
When I woke up he was gone. The next day I was discharged, fully recovered, Doctors claiming left and right my cancer had gone into rumination, when really they could find no evidence in my body of the disease ever existing at all."