Guardian Angel

Chapter 6

Part 1

The demon community wasted no time in coming after Connor. Lilah made sure that the word was spread within the demon community that the slayer was dead and no new slayer had been sent to cover the hellmouth, but she was always careful that no one could see her hand in the mix; she could not allow even the suspicion that she was involved in any dirty dealings concerning Angel and his son.

Once they got wind of the information about the slayer and the hellmouth, droves of all sorts of demons began to flock to Sunnydale and LA. Most of them were not after the baby, the pull of a hellmouth unguarded by a slayer was too attractive to ignore.

Once in Sunnydale and they heard about Connor some just wanted to see the offspring of two vampires for themselves; some went after the baby because they were working for more powerful demons; some were just looking to make a name for themselves by claiming the life of the only human child in history to be born of two vampire parents and, of course, some were sent specifically by Lilah to retrieve the child.

The first attempt on the baby came while Angel and the AI team were visiting Wesley and Buffy and Groo were the only adults in the hotel. A shape-shifter posing as Angel entered the hotel and went directly after the baby. Unfortunately for him he was working on out-of-date intel; not only was the slayer back, but Angel was now human. The demon in Angel form ran into the hotel with a leather coat over his head.

"Give me my son," it demanded.

Buffy handed the baby to Groo and told him to get behind the counter.

"Slayer?" The demon looked surprised; "but I thought .. but she said that you were dead," he stammered.

"She who said I was dead?" Buffy started to ask, but changed her mind. "Don't even bother; I already know."

The fight was over almost before it started and the demon in its true form lay dead on the Hyperion floor. Connor had slept through the whole thing.

Part 2

Two hours later Lilah was worried. 'Where is he? He should be back here with the kid by now.' For the fifth time in the past half hour she buzzed her secretary to ask if anyone had tried to get in to see her.

When Jennifer answered "No, ma'am." for the fifth time, Lilah didn't like her tone of voice and stormed to the door to tell her so. When she found Jennifer hard at work with an ear phone in her ear and a look a serious concentration on her face, Lilah lost her bluster and returned to her own desk.

In the middle of her desk on fourteen by eight and a half inch paper in large bold print she found the words 'STRIKE ONE' accompanied by a picture of the dead demon.

'Oh, no! She knows. How did she get in and out of here so quickly? Oh gods, I've got to check on mother. I've got to know that she's all right,'

After being reassured by the personnel at her mother's care facility that her mother was still there and resting comfortably, Lilah breathed a sigh of relief until she once again assessed her situation.

'How am I supposed to do my job if she keeps interfering. Wait a minute, I've been going about this all wrong. She has friends in Sunnydale, the other slayer, Faith, is there, plus I know for a fact that Faith has been to see Wesley on more than one occasion. Let's just see how much help old Wes can be.'

Lilah renewed her friendship with Wesley, slowly at first. She knew about his strained relationship with Angel after the original incident with Connor that resulted in Wesley's getting his throat cut. She actually felt sorry for him.

'What is the matter with me? I cannot be developing feelings for this man; he is the enemy, a means to an end, that's all,' she kept telling herself, but deep within herself, in her heart of hearts, in a place that she had locked away so long ago with intentions never to visit again, Lilah had to admit that she did find herself drawn to Wesley in more than just a 'means to an end' sort of way.

'It isn't like he isn't a very attractive man; and what's the harm in having a little fun and at the same time taking advantage of a very valuable resource. I just have to stay below both slayers' radar, the dead one and the ex-con.'

Lilah was very proud of herself; she could still accomplish her original goals even if she no longer had the hidden surveillance devices in the Hyperion; the new devices at the house on Revello Drive were proving to be most interesting. Why hadn't she thought of this before. This was how she learned about the early efforts to get Faith out of jail and about Wesley's plans to move to Sunnydale as Faith's watcher as soon as he had recovered.

She also found out that Buffy was back on earth as a mortal and had taken up residence in the Hyperion Hotel.

'Well, well, doesn't she ever stay dead? The Senior Partners are not going to like this at all. The Powers are interfering again and I know it was their idea to return the slayer to earth. The Partners probably knew this all along; that's why they agreed to let her have my contract. There must be some prophecy regarding Connor; why else would the Powers go to such lengths to have him protected. The Partners haven't told me anything, so I'll just take a look for myself.'

Lilah hit the call button for Jennifer; when she answered, Lilah's voice was demanding and demeaning, as usual. "Contact the head research librarian; have him get me all of the information available on the son of two vampires. Do it now."

Jennifer was polite and efficient as usual. "Right away, Miss Morgan." She was already dialing the number for the librarian before she hung up Lilah's line.

Less than an hour later the information was on Lilah's desk. "What is all this?" she demanded as Jennifer put the last stack of papers on her desk.

"This is the information that you requested from the librarian, ma'am," her secretary answered politely.

"Get him up here now."

"Yes, ma'am."

"And stop calling me ma'am, dammit; my name is Lilah."

Jennifer nodded and left the office smiling. 'Score one for me,' she thought to herself.

The news from the librarian was not what Lilah wanted to hear. According to him, Connor was originally prophesied to fight and destroy the demon Sahjahn; however, when Sahjahn was confined to a hell dimension by the slayer, prophesies were rewritten and Connor was now predicted to fight alongside his parents in the End of Days battle for life on this planet and together they were expected to win because there are now new prophesies concerning Connor and his sibling destined to take place after the death of his parents.

The librarian ended by saying, "Prophesies are tricky things and are often dependent upon what occurs before the events of the prophesy itself are destined to occur. Of course no one knows when the prophesies regarding Connor are destined to occur since he and his parents are supernatural beings and could live a good long time. You have your work cut out for you, Miss Morgan. I don't envy you."

With that he rose and left Lilah's office.

'Supernatural huh? I don't care what they are, human, vampire, slayer, angel, I don't care. I will not let them put me in that hellhole and I will not let them harm my mother.'

Lilah was determined to protect herself and her mother no matter the costs. She was also determined to move up in the Wolfram & Hart organization. What she didn't seem to realize was that her two major goals were in direct conflict with each other.

End of Chapter 6