- 3 -

The newly rescued female was sat in an armchair sipping at a mug of tea. Cordelia had sat herself on the arm of the chair and was hovering over their guest like a broody hen. Wesley was already sat at the PC hard at work. All three looked up when Angel walked in. As usual, it was Cordelia who voiced everyone's question.
"Did you get it?"
Angel removed his sword, laying it on the dining table.
"No."
At Angel's response, the new girl promptly began sobbing. Cordelia put an arm around the young woman's shoulders and the girl buried her head into Cordelia's side, still sniffling and sobbing. Cordelia's head tilted and she raised her eyebrows as she glared at Angel.
"But you will...Won't you!"
It wasn't a question and Angel had no trouble picking up on Cordelia's underlying warning. He framed his answer to project complete confidence for the benefit of the distraught stranger.
"Obviously...No problem."
The girl lifted her head out of Cordelia's side and turned her tear stained face to look at Angel. Cordelia stepped in.
"Maria, this is Angel. Angel, Maria. See? I told you we could help. Sadly, we're all used to dealing with this kind of thing...Not that this is my job! I'm actually an actress. I only work with these guys as a kind of...voluntary charity thing. More tea?"

Wesley beckoned Angel over.
"I think I've found what we're dealing with here, based on the description Maria has been able to provide. I think it's a..."
"Chimaera. I know."
Wesley looked a little deflated.
"Oh. Well then. In that case you won't need me to tell you how to defeat it."
Angel couldn't stop his small smile at Wesley's disappointment. He pulled up a chair and sat himself down at the opposite side of the computer desk to Wesley.
"Actually, I've never run into one before, so any information you've got will be useful."
Angel turned his head to Maria.
"Maria, have you any idea why this thing was stalking you? It might help us to track it down."
To the surprise of both Angel and Wesley, Maria turned a stunning shade of red and lowered her gaze.
"He...it...he said he wanted to...to...Oh God. It wanted to mate with me!"

Cordelia immediately stopped pouring milk into the fresh tea she was making for the girl and stared across at her.
"He wants to...? Eww!"
Cordelia hurriedly took Maria's fresh tea across to her, a look of fascinated curiosity now on her face.
"So...er...what did it look like?"
Maria shook her head." I don't know about this Cumorria thing..."
"Chimaera."
"Yeah, whatever. All I saw when he grabbed hold of me was a very large, very muscular and very naked man."
Cordelia's interest grew.
"Naked huh? Was he, you know...good looking?"
Maria frowned.
"Does it matter? The Psycho came out from behind a bush, got hold of my arm, sniffed me up and down for chrissake, then said he was going to mate with me! No way I was going to hang around to check out his...credentials! I told him I'd take him to my place if he let go of me. As soon as he did, I started running. Wanna know the really scary thing? He never seemed to move above walking pace, but no way could I shake him off."
Wesley hit a button on the PC.
"Whilst it may have been in the form of a man when you saw it, Chimaera's are shape shifters, similar to Werewolves except it's animal form looks like this."

Cordelia and Maria both went over to look at the sketched image which Wesley had put on screen. Cordelia's eyes opened wide as she looked from the picture to Maria and back again to the picture. Maria herself gasped and clamped a hand over her mouth as she staggered back. Thinking she was about to collapse, Angel was immediately at her side and supporting her with one arm around her waist.

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Thank you for reading. Next chapter asap.

Chick xx