Part II
It was nearly 11am when she finally appeared at the headquarters. Angel was not in the office, so she went down into his flat, where she found him sitting at the table, reading the newspaper.
"So? You two had fun yesterday?"
Cordelia nodded, smiling. "Yes, it was nice… what about you? Let me take a look at your wounds."
In fact, there were few open wounds left. The skin on his face was still red and sore, but it was nothing compared to the state in which he was when they returned from the harbour – at least there was skin.
"I'm fine. I'm still a bit weak when I stand up, but I guess that'll be alright by tomorrow. And the skin… well, it itches like mad."
"Oh, itching's a good sign. My nanny always said it's a vital part of the healing process. You're still weak, you say? Weird…"
"It's not only the skin and the burns, you know. Where's Doyle, by the way?"
She shrugged. "It's not even eleven yet, and you know that he seldom shows up before noon."
"Yes, but I thought…" He couldn't finish the sentence, because he was interrupted by Doyle, who just entered the flat.
"Morning. You alright, Angel? Your face is a wee bit red. Too much booze yesterday?"
"How funny."
"Angel said he's still a bit weak, so let's hope L.A. will manage one day without Mr save-the-day."
"…or is satisfied with us."
"Exactly!"
Angel smiled another of his little, sad smiles.
They spent the rest of the day together. Angel convinced Cordelia to use the time to sort files and to tidy up the filling cabinet, while Doyle went on a shopping tour, filling their demon fighting resources, and made a check on the weapons with Angel's help. Both of them were alarmed when they saw how feeble Angel appeared as soon as he stood on his legs. He could hardly stand alone and had to keep a hand at something solid, or he'd topple over.
After having stored the last file in the filling cabinet, Cordelia went downstairs again and occupied the nearest chair at the table, where Angel and Doyle were sorting bolts for the crossbow.
"Listen guys… as we already neglected you yesterday, I thought we could order some Chinese food and have a great evening together – I mean Doyle and I could order some Chinese food. I guess you're happy with liquid nutrition from the fridge."
"Come on. I don't need baby-sitters. Go out and have some fun."
"If you really think so… okay! Let's go!" Cordelia nudged Doyle, who just looked from Cordelia to Angel and back and shook his head, smiling.
"Wait a second, I'll just uargh!"
"You'll just what?"
She turned around and saw him sitting on his chair, pressing the palm of his hand against his eyes and forehead, and then she understood: He had a vision.
"Oh please, not now…"
She ran towards him, supporting him, while Angel prepared pencil and a paper. When the vision was over and the pain ebbed away, Doyle took paper and pencil and noted some quick words, and then he sat up again.
"I have to go."
"No, you don't. Angel can hardly walk."
"Yeah, I know, that's why I have to go."
"Don't be silly."
"Silly? Are we back at thinking I'm just some pathetic kind of weak loser, yeah? Thank you very much." He got up.
"Doyle… please!" Cordelia had a worried sound in her voice. "Angel, say something!"
Angel turned to Doyle.
"Wait a second. What did you see?"
Doyle was impatient.
"Two things. A girl tied up and left to starve and to do whatever with her corpse afterwards, in what seems to be the closed mall not far from here. The one they're going to tear down to build a new office building. Second is some demon in his squat, which seems to be at the other side of the town. I've noted down the parts of the address I got and what the demon looks like." He pushed the note towards Angel. "You can go research and then deal with that tomorrow; I'll go and get the girl. If I hurry, I can get there before the demon even realizes what's happening."
Angel nodded.
"Okay, be careful."
Doyle's gaze met Cordelia's.
"Don't worry – I'll be back soon."
He grabbed his jacket and the little bag with emergency supplies, which was always within reach near the door, and left the room, leaving Angel and Cordelia in silence.
Five minutes later, while they were checking computer and books for information, they found his cell phone on the desk.
# # #
"Angel…"
Cordelia looked up from the computer screen. Alarmed by the sound of Cordelia's voice, Angel closed his book and looked at her.
"The PTB wouldn't send a message when it's pretty clear that we're not able to interfere, would they? They wouldn't send you or Doyle on a mission you can't fulfil?"
Angel froze.
"I mean… the PTB are the Powers That Be. They know that you're not really able to do anything at the moment and that it would be suicide to go fighting like this, right? So yeah, fine, they send a vision consisting of two parts, one saying: 'Go save the girl, that's easy, because nobody's near to guard her.' Second is: 'Go find the bastard that holds her captive and give him what he deserves. You've got the address, go as soon as you can.'"
Angel nodded slowly.
By now Cordelia's face was as white as a sheet.
"The demon's a teleporter."
# # #
Outside, Doyle decided not to take the car – maybe Cordelia would need it for research matter. It wasn't far anyway, so he might be faster walking. He hurried down four or five blocks, turned right, walked down the street for another five minutes and then he could see the building. It was completely empty, and naked concrete walls were visible through dirty glass doors and display windows. He didn't want to break them, so he checked the sides of the building for an entrance. On the far end of one side he discovered a metal-framed side door which he managed to break open. He switched on the flashlight and checked in every direction before he finally entered.
He had to search almost the entire building. At first he didn't find anything suspicious and was close to giving up, until he heard low scratching noises and muted sobbing behind one of the walls in the darkest corner of an empty shop. Then he saw something that didn't strike him when he first looked into the room: At the back was a little door of the same colour than the wall, presumably leading to some kind of lumber-room. When he tried to open it, the sobbing changed to muffled yells.
"Wait, I'll get you out, don't be afraid!"
Doyle couldn't open the door, and he didn't dare to kick it open, as he didn't know how big the room behind was – he didn't want to hurt the girl. Instead, he kept on talking to soothe her, and looked around in the room. In another corner he found an iron rod which he quickly grabbed. With its help, he managed to break the rusty lock, and then he opened the door.
Inside, he found a fair-haired young woman, a few years younger than Cordelia, who stared at him with huge eyes. She was tied up to a chair and gagged with some old and dirty cloth.
"It's alright; you'll be free in a minute."
The first thing he released her from was the gag – carefully he undid the knot at the back of her head since it was too tight to simply take it out of her mouth. The girl coughed violently and obviously she had problems breathing. Doyle took his pocket knife and started to cut the ropes that tied her arms at her back.
"Please don't move; I don't want to hurt you now. I'm Doyle."
The girl was too shocked to speak as she couldn't stop staring at him without saying a word, and she didn't move anyway. Doyle looked up at her again before he cut the ropes that tied her legs to the chair.
"Keep up, it won't be long anymore, I nearly… now!"
The last streaks of the rope tore, and the girl could finally move again, but suddenly she flinched and started to whimper.
"It's okay… we'll be right out of here, and…"
"I don't think so."
For a moment Doyle froze. Then he turned around.
In another dark corner, a pair of red eyes was staring at him.
# # #
"…it's not that bad?! Have you ever heard of Nightcrawler?"
Cordelia walked to the car with Angel, who heavily leaned on her, and she almost panicked.
"No. But you have to see that teleporting isn't that easy, not even for demons. It's rather exhausting and he has to concentrate a lot. It's not something you can do every two seconds in the middle of a fight. And remember that Doyle's half brachen. If he transforms, he's gonna be a lot faster and stronger. But you're right, we shouldn't lose any time, someone has to warn him."
Cordelia suppressed a hysteric laughter.
"I should go alone. You won't be helpful anyway and we're just losing time!"
"I won't let you go alone. Period."
They reached the car and Angel sped down the road towards the old mall.
# # #
The demon leaped towards Doyle, and the girl just crept deeper into the lumber room, tucked up her legs and pressed her arms around them, whimpering silently, while tears streamed down her face. Doyle reluctantly changed into his demon form.
"How I hate this…" he mumbled, but he couldn't even finish the sentence before he had to duck down under the demon. In the dim light of his torch he still couldn't really figure out how the demon looked like, but so far it didn't really matter. The demon seemed to be highly versatile, because he managed to push off the wall again without crashing into it, and used the additional speed to knock Doyle over. This time, he didn't manage to escape the attack.
Doyle got hit by a hard blow and rolled over the floor together with the demon, who had slimy green-brown skin with warts all over his body which resembled that of a toad, as Doyle could see and feel now. Unfortunately, Doyle lost his knife, so he had to keep the demon busy in a dirty fist fight. He was not a bad fighter, but the demon was not, either. Both landed heavy blows: Doyle's lower lip soon burst open and his temple bled heavily, too, but due to the spikes the demon generally avoided to hit him directly into his face.
Doyle knew that he wouldn't survive a fist fight with that quite huge demon for long, so he had to get his knife back. He kicked his knee into the area between the demon's legs, jumped to the right and tried to grab it, but unfortunately the demon's body structure was different – he was hardly impressed. Instead, he seized Doyle's right hand in a heavy grip, turned it around until the wrist broke, and grabbed his throat with his other claw. Doyle, lying on the floor again, could hardly breathe and hardly move, but he got one arm free and felt around for the knife. He didn't have much time since by now the strangling was so bad he was almost passing out – but he couldn't find it anywhere.
Suddenly, the demon made strangling noises by himself, and the grip around Doyle's throat loosened – the girl was clutching on the demon's back, her elbow around his neck. Doyle's fingers finally found the knife and he thrust the blade deeply into the demon's neck at the only spot that wasn't covered by the girl's arm.
The demon straightened up once more in a powerful movement, and the girl lost her grip and flew into the opposite corner, but Doyle didn't lose his hold; he turned the blade in the wound, pulled it out and stuck it in again. Exhaling thick greenish-yellow blood, the demon broke down. Doyle changed his face again.
Two seconds later, Cordelia and Angel appeared in the door. Cordelia carried a battle-axe and Angel had his crossbow ready to fire.
"You're late, you missed the fun part."
Cordelia ran towards Doyle and flung her arms around him.
"What happened? Are you alright?"
Angel, who still could hardly walk, stayed in the door frame, breathing heavily.
"Everything's fine, I killed the bastard. But where's…"
He looked around, and then found the girl lying near the wall on the other side of the room. Doyle and Cordelia both ran towards her, Cordelia was a little faster. She knelt beside her, taking her hand. Fortunately, she was conscious and not too badly hurt by the strike.
"Hey… everything's gonna be alright, we'll take you out now."
The girl rubbed her forehead.
"Thank you so much… I thought I'd die in there, I was so afraid! What… was this?"
"Don't think about it anymore. He's dead. I killed him," Doyle said.
Cordelia took her hand and helped her up.
The first movement was too fast for anyone to notice. Then several things happened almost at once.
Two people shouted.
"No!"
With a yell, Doyle pushed Cordelia and the girl with his back against the wall behind them and jerked to a stop directly in front of them. Then two arrows stroke his breast.
Angel, still waiting in the doorframe and trying to recover from the run through the mall, couldn't see it happen as the corpse lay with its back towards the door.
In his death struggle, the demon had managed to draw a small double-crossbow out of some part of his cloak. Angel had seen it too late; the demon was already aiming when Angel could react. Not until the demon pulled the trigger twice could he take his own crossbow and fire. Too late he pierced the demon's heart through his back. Then he dropped the crossbow and ran as fast as possible towards his friend.
Cordelia screamed as Doyle first sank to his knees, and then started to fall over. With a choked scream she caught him and helped him lie down on the floor.
"Doyle," she whispered, "No…"
"I… I'm sorry." He coughed, while blood leaked from his breast and built a little puddle on the floor.
Angel arrived and sank onto his knees next to Cordelia, who held Doyle's head in her lap, one hand on his face and one on his breast. The girl stood helplessly next to them, tears streaming down her face.
"I'll get help!" She turned around and ran out of the room.
"Do something!" Cordelia desperately screamed at Angel, who shook his head, helpless and distressed. He knew that the bolts had been poisoned. It was too late.
"Cordy…" Doyle's voice was weak.
Cordelia concentrated on him again, tears streaming down her face.
"Yes… don't leave us now, everything will be alright, I promise!"
"Sh… I…" he had to cough again, but he was too weak. One of the bolts had harmed the trachea.
"Don't talk. We'll get help. Just hold out!" Her hand caressed his face. "Don't leave me…"
He grabbed her other hand lying on his breast and squeezed it a little. Then he gathered the last of his strength.
"I had… to do it. Remember… remember what I told you. The good fight… you never know 'til you're tested. I got that… that day… the Beacon."
Angel felt a sudden, piercing ache in his stomach and closed his eyes.
"I do remember…" she smiled, her eyes filled with tears."You did it … you are a hero."
Then she bent over and kissed him.
She raised her head again when he let go of her hand to take Angel's instead. They looked at each other, and Angel simply nodded, sad and thankful.
Then Doyle looked at Cordelia again.
"Cordy, I…"
"I know," she whispered.
Then he closed his eyes.
"Remember," Angel heard the Oracles say in his mind's eye, "do not try to trick fate or negotiate with it; this would be vain endeavour."