| A Little Angel Genre - ?? Rating - PG 13 Time-Line - Angel Series before Doyle's death Disclaimer - Buffy the Vampire Slayer , its characters and related indica are copyright to 20th Century Fox, the WB network, Mutant Enemy (Grrr Arrgh) and Joss Whedon. I am in no way affiliated with any of these companies or individuals. Anything not belonging to the above belongs to me, unless otherwise stated. This fanfic belongs to me and is not to be taken or distributed without my permission. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PART 1 Angel sighed as he dropped onto the chair in front of Cordelia’s desk. Their last case had completely worn him out. Cordelia was examining the cheque she had procured from their last client, ever chipper when it came to incoming funds. "Too bad the bank is closed, this will make a nice addition to our balance." She said brightly. Angel stared at her silently. "Well until you take out my salary, and my bonus." She continued. "Bonus?" Doyle asked, eyebrows raised. "What bonus?" Angel queried not really wanting to hear Cordelia’s flimsy excuse. "My bonus" Cordelia repeated as though it was obvious to everyone but them what she was talking about, "My reward for constantly risking my life, and considerable talent battling evil every week. I deserve to be compensated." "With certain expensive items?" Doyle smiled at Cordelia. "Well they would make my life more comfortable, attractive…and an actress needs nice things." Angel tuned out as Cordelia and Doyle began to argue over the possessions an actress requires to be successful. Angel didn’t mind giving people money, so much as discussing it. He was more the anonymous donation sort of person. He had no problem giving Cordelia and Doyle more money, as long as he had it to give. But relenting too fast would only make Cordelia worse so he had only one choice, argue. "Look Cordelia, I know you’ve been putting yourself in the line of fire lately but…" Angel was interrupted by the shrill ringing of the phone. Cordelia stood behind her desk, making no attempt to answer the phone she folded her arms over her chest defiantly. "Aren’t you going to answer that?" Angel asked "Machine’ll get it." Cordelia replied. Sure enough Cordelia’s recorded voice filled the room and told the caller to leave message. There was a moment of silence as they waited for the caller to respond. "Angel, this is Kate. We need to talk…" Angel reached across the desk and picked up the receiver. "I’m here." ***** Angel shuffled through the stack of photos Kate had given him. He was now seated behind his large oak desk, Kate sat facing him waiting patiently. "So what do you think?" She ask as Angel placed the photo’s on the desk. "I think I see a lot of pictures of dead senior citizens, which makes me wonder why you would come to me with these. What aren’t you telling me?" Kate grabbed the picture on top of the pile. It was of a frail old man, obviously taken post mortem. Angel cringed inwardly as he looked at the shrivelled, lifeless body lying on the cold metal slab in the morgue. The old man had probably been lifeless long before he’d died, Angel was silently grateful he would never suffer that indignity. "Monday morning Patsy Nield went into her six year old son Nigel’s bedroom to wake him up. What she found was this man, dead, in her son’s bed. Nigel was reported missing. During preliminary exams, the coroner came up with a fingerprint match on his ID. We are still waiting for the results of the DNA tests, but as far as we can tell this" Kate indicated the picture "is six year old Nigel Nield." Angel was silent as he let his mind process this information. A six-year-old ages rapidly overnight and dies. This was undoubtedly the result of some supernatural force. Angel indicated the remaining pictures, "All kids?" "The ones we could identify. A lot of them were street kids, none over ten. 16 unidentified elderly people have been found dead in the last seven months. Eleven of them have identical fingerprints as missing children, some were very similar to the Nield case, only no one told us about it until it popped up on our doorstep." Kate had an edge to her voice, Angel guessed this was directed at the incompetence in the LAPD and not at him. "And they all died of what, old age?" "That was the coroner’s conclusion. ‘Natural Causes’". Angel frowned, he’d never heard of a demon that caused rapid ageing, that didn’t mean one didn’t exist, he’d have to peruse the library. The other logical conclusion was that this was the work of a warlock. Warlocks were known to use the body fluids of humans, particularly children, in their more powerful spells. "This is the part where you tell me that this is all impossible." Kate’s voice broke into Angel’s thoughts. "That depends what you believe in." "That’s why I called you. You always seem to have a Fox Mulder-esque take on these weird cases, and you usually turn out to be right." ***** "And here I was thinking I’d be able to give this up when I graduated high school." Cordelia grumbled as she flipped through a 400 year old demon encyclopedia. Doyle piped up from his place behind the computer, "But you’re getting paid for this, Princess." "That doesn’t make it any less boring." They had been researching all day and had so far come up with bup-kiss. Angel was beginning to get agitated, not just with Cordelia’s whining, but with the prospect they may not find what they were looking for. "Look. I know this is boring but we need to find something so we can stop these kids from dying." Angel tried to convince himself as much as Cordelia and Doyle. Cordelia started at him for a beat then returned to her book. "Aright," She said, speaking into the book, "but after you save everyone we’re gonna talk about my bonus." Before Angel had a chance to respond Doyle announced he’d found something, Angel and Cordelia joined him at the computer. On the screen in front of Doyle was an article about an obscure cult, Kimla, who’s member’s believed they could achieve immortality by taking ‘the essence of youth’ from children. The article listed the accounts of villagers who’d found their children aged and dead in their beds, there were accounts dating back to the dark ages but there had not been a case reported since the late eighteenth century. According to the article the cult had dissolved and was now extinct. "What’s the ‘essence of youth’?" Cordelia asked. "Souls." Doyle replied. Cordelia stared at him blankly. Angel felt compelled to explain. "They are taking the souls of children, their innocence and vitality, effectively sucking the life right out of them, literally." "And that’s why they get old?" "It would appear so." "Ok ewww. You don’t mean like vampire sucking do you, cuz that’s gross." Angel ignored the slight against him and turned his attention back to the computer screen. "There’s no mention of how the ritual is performed, what’s required in the victim, you guys keep digging." Angel said as he grabbed his duster. "Wait! Where are you going?" Cordelia demanded. "To see Kate, maybe she has some useful information I missed." To be continued… -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |