Guardian Angel

Chapter 4

Part 1

The next morning Buffy walked into Lilah Morgan's office without being announced.

"What are you doing here? How did you get in here?" Lilah demanded as she stood to face her intruder. She tried paging her secretary but got no response. She tried the silent alarm that called security, still nothing.

"You're wasting your time; no one's coming to your rescue," Buffy told her calmly.

Lilah's normal cool and calm exterior was shaken, but she tried not to let it show. "The slayer. I thought you were dead."

"Sometimes death doesn't live up to its press; sometimes it far exceeds it," Buffy told her, not explaining what that meant. "Here's the deal; in case you don't know it, it's a whole new ball game."

Buffy spoke with an Angelus-like sneer. "We're in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded and we're the home team, we may be three runs down, but guess who's at bat? I am; and I'm the best batter in the league. I suggest you let the game play out the way it was scheduled, because if I perceive any interference from you or anybody else, I'll obliterate your entire team, starting with your precious oblivious mother."

Lilah lost the ability to breathe, she stood there, staring, not believing what she was hearing, she whispered a strangled "Noo!" as she slowly sank back into the chair she had been sitting in when Buffy arrived.

"Whom did you think you were dealing with? This isn't Faith, the rogue slayer that you hired to kill Angel. You're dealing with the slayer, and I don't take prisoners. Stay away from Angel and stay away from Angel's son. If I have to return or if I hear of any foul play from your side whatsoever, there will be nothing left of you for anyone to send to hell. I've already acquired your contract from Wolfram & Hart. I own your ass until the day that I decide that you die. You got that?"

Still unable to speak, Lilah nodded briefly.

"Respond." Buffy demanded.

"Yes, yes I got it. There will be no more interference from us."

Buffy gave a little smirk; her face was as cold as steel but her eyes burned like the fire of a blast furnace. "I was sure that we would reach an agreement. Have a nice day." She turned toward the door, then halted, but did not turn around. "Oh, and Lilah, get rid of the surveillance devices." She walked out as silently as she had entered.

Lilah rushed to the door. Her secretary, Jennifer, was busy at her desk. "Why didn't you announce that woman before you let her into my office? Who was she? Where did she go?"

"I-I don't know who you're talking about, Ms Morgan," Jennifer stammered; "nobody's been in here all morning."

"Don't lie to me," Lilah yelled at her secretary, "A woman walked out of my office not ten seconds ago."

Jennifer was afraid now, afraid of Lilah Morgan and afraid of losing her job. She had been warned about her boss' temper when she was hired less than a week ago. She knew that if she showed fear, she would be booted out in a second and this job paid too much to lose. She looked directly at Lilah when she said, "I assure you, ma'am, no one has passed my desk since you did an hour ago."

Lilah huffed and returned to her office as Jennifer breathed a sigh of relief.

"What the hell is going on here? What was she, some kind of ghost?" She placed her elbows up on her desk and buried her face in her hands. "Get a grip, Lilah, there are no such things as ghosts and slayers do not return from the dead." She thought for a moment and remembered which slayer she was dealing with. "Well not often they don't. Someone or some thing blasted us away from Connor last night and dumped us into the lobby downstairs and that was no ghost; it was a powerful being that did that and I want to know who it was."

She straightened up in her chair and hit the call button for her secretary. Jennifer answered right away. "Get the head magic user up here now, I want to see him at once," Lilah barked.

"Right away, Ms Morgan," Jennifer's voice came over the line.

Less than five minutes later a young boy, Christopher, who looked to be about thirteen or fourteen years old appeared at Jennifer's desk. When he spoke she could tell by his tone of voice that he was much older than he looked.

"Ms Morgan has requested my presence."

After Jennifer made Lilah aware that he was there and told him that Ms Morgan would see him, Christopher stepped into the office and immediately stopped, startled. He looked first left then right as if scenting the air. When at last he spoke it was with reverence. "You have had a visitor."

"I know that," an annoyed Lilah growled. "What I want to know is the visitor's identity."

"A holy being, one of supreme purity and light."

Lilah stared at him as if not understanding until he spoke again.

"You have been blessed by the presence of an angel," he said simply.

"You have got to be kidding me."

He raised an eyebrow, indicating his indignation at the possibility that she was questioning his abilities, but he did not speak.

"Get out. And keep your mouth shut about this."

Christopher nodded briefly with the air of one whose superiority and importance were obvious, then left the room.

Lilah was already plotting her next action. 'If she's an angel that means that the Powers have noticed our meddling with their champion. Damn. I can't risk her going after my mother; I'll just lay low for a while – stay under her radar. I can't let the Senior Partners know about this. I'm already skating on thin ice as it is and I know that they are already aware of my screw-up in retrieving the vampire's child. I don't want to end up like Lindsey; I know there would be no one coming to get me out.'

A/N: I know that in canon the Lindsey episode had not taken place at this point. I just threw that in to show that Lilah knew the danger of going against Buffy now that Buffy owned Lilah's W&H contract.

End of Chapter 4