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Edges of My Mind
by Tami
Chapter 1
One Year Later, Los Angeles Branch of Wolfram & Hart
Lilah Morgan, attorney-at-law, and the firm’s current golden child, walked into a large room located in a sublevel of the basement filled with filing cabinets and presented herself to a mousy woman sitting behind a desk.
“Lilah Morgan, clearance 0-1-1-2-7-7-3,” Lilah rattled off her clearance code irritably. She’d find a way to get to Angel, even if it killed her. After all, with the contract she’d signed with the firm, she’d only come back until they felt her service to them was complete. She may not be able to kill Angel, but she could hurt him … maybe even succeed in turning him dark and onto their side where Lindsey had failed.
The woman entered the clearance code into her laptop then sat back and looked up at Lilah. “There you are. What can I do for you, Miss Morgan?"
"I want everything the firm has on Angel, the whole case file. His life history, un-life history, intercepted records, victim lists, transfers and accounts … everything. I'm looking for someone he crossed paths with probably a hundred years ago or more and make it fast. The boys upstairs are at Defcon like - a thousand."
Okay, so that was a lie. She was the only one working this angle. Yes, Linwood Murrow was breathing down her neck to make Angel’s un-life as much of a hell as possible, and she would, on her terms. While Gavin was only succeeding in pestering Angel and his team of do-gooders with building code violations, she’d use a different angle. Lindsey might have failed in using Darla and Drusilla against Angel, but there had to be some way to get to the vampire, and Lilah Morgan was going to find it.
“Sure thing, Miss Morgan, just a sec,” the records clerk said. She turned around and pulled a thick ring binder from the shelf behind her and dropped it on the table with a heavy thud.
Lilah looked surprised. She knew Angel had been around for 250 years, give or take, and had racked up a colorful history, both as a human and as a vampire, but the thick binder in front of her couldn’t possibly be Angel’s. The binder in front of her seemed way too thick. It lay there at least nearly a foot thick. "Everything is in there?” she asked, eyeing the woman suspiciously.
"Right down to releasing that kid in the box of fire from the hell dimension two months ago,” the records girl assured her.
"How do you know about that?" Lilah asked incredulously.
"I'm Files and Records. It's my job,” the girl said automatically.
“Great,” Lilah plastered on a fake smile, hefted the file into her arms and turned to leave. “I'll be back when I'm...”
The girl’s voice stopped her in her tracks. “Ah, Miss Morgan? There aren't any documents in there, you know. That's just the reference key to the full file.”
“The reference key?” Lilah squeaked. “So, where is the full file?” How could this humongous book not be the full file on Angel? It was heavy and thick enough to break her arm.
The woman flipped a switch and a whole section of file cabinets was awash in light. She turned back to Lilah and said, “The key is only helpful in locating which section of the file you'd like to look at.”
Lilah sighed. “That whole thing is Angel's file?" The woman had to be joking. That couldn’t possibly be Angel’s life, could it? She was Lilah Morgan, damn it. She didn’t do leg work like this. What possessed her to take on this project? Oh, yeah, Wolfram & Hart’s apocalypse. How dare she forget?
“Just the first 35 cabinets,” the woman said nonchalantly.
“Right.” Cause going through only one cabinet would be too easy. Lilah dropped the binder back on the desk. She looked pleadingly at the records girl. “Does China Palace deliver down here?”
**************************
Lilah sat cross-legged on the floor of the file room, surrounded by papers and folders. It seemed as though she had been there forever poring over the archives trying to find some shred of proof that Angel had close ties with any one that he had killed, maimed, or tortured in his long un-life. So far she had come up with zilch. It was like the guy – sorry, vampire – didn’t leave any witnesses behind. God, she wanted to scream.
“This is impossible. Two hundred seventy five years of the most inane . . .” she picked up a paper and looked at it, “What the hell kind of wussy name is Liam anyway?” She beat her head against the heel of her hand. “Okay. You’re in the greenhouse. Drusilla was waiting for Darla to rise and she mentions a name . . . Dagger? Lance? Fork?”
“Spike?” The records girl spoke up when she heard Lilah mumbling.
“What?” Lilah’s head shot up. She hadn’t realized she had spoken aloud.
“Spike, AKA William the Bloody due to his bloody awful poetry. A great debate has been had over the siring of William the Bloody. To this day, it still remains a mystery. Many have tried to reveal the truth of William’s siring. An attempt to attain a blood sample for research was attempted in 1963 by a group of watchers, but a majority of them were killed before the sample could be recovered. He became the paramour of Drusilla after he was turned. After staking his own mother, whom it was reported was in ill health before her turning, he joined up with Angelus and Darla and the four of them spent a century rampaging through Europe. It is said that he held Angelus in high esteem and became the vampire’s protégé,” the records girl rattled off nonstop.
“How did you . . . ?” Lilah started to ask, flabbergasted.
“I'm files and records. It's my job,” the girl’s voice was deadpan as she gave a false smile.
Lilah rose to her feet and stalked over to the desk, fuming after all the hours she had put in to read Angel’s file. “You mean to tell me that I’ve been here for the last fourteen hours . . .”
“Ah-hmm,” the girl agreed.
“Only to find out that you know everything that’s in this case file?” Lilah continued. Why didn’t the girl tell her this in the beginning and saved her the trouble of having to go through all the hassle?
“No, Miss Morgan,” the girl said.
“Oh.” Lilah stood there a bit relieved that her work hadn’t been for nothing.
“I know everything in every case file,” the girl said matter-of-factly. “I'm Files and Records, it's my..."
Lilah couldn’t take it anymore. If the clerk wasn’t a machine, she’d reach over the desk and strangle her with her bare hands. “...your job,” she finished. “Unbelievable.” She sat down on the edge of the clerk’s desk. “Why didn’t Lindsey find the connection between him and Angel?”
“Spike and Angelus always had a volatile relationship. Lindsey was concentrating on the connections most likely to bring an emotional lover type of moment, not taking into consideration the vampire's open attitude about sexual relationships,” the clerk informed Lilah.
“And you didn't feel the need to inform him?” Lilah asked, surprised.
“He didn't ask,” the clerk stated simply.
“So why were Spike and Angel estranged?” Lilah inquired.
“One moment, please,” the woman said. She sat back and her eyes flickered while she flipped through her memory bank for more information. “1898, Angelus was cursed with his soul and left the group.”
“Okay. That explains the estrangement and why Lindsey couldn’t see a connection, I suppose,” Lilah commented.
“Angelus showed up in China in 1900 with his soul in tact and met up with Darla, Spike and Drusilla. Spike killed his first Slayer during this time. After China, Angelus left the fold again and the foursome do not meet for another century.”
“Okay, so was Spike in Sunnydale when Angel was?” Lilah asked the clerk.
“One moment, please,” the woman said. She sat back again and her eyes flickered while she flipped through her memory banks for information on Angel’s life in Sunnydale. “1998, Angel was with the current Slayer, Summers, Buffy, when Spike and Drusilla showed up. After Angel lost his soul again, he returned to Spike and Drusilla briefly for a matter of months before disappearing again in May 1998, after which, Spike and Drusilla disappear.
“Then why did we find Drusilla in South America without Spike?”
“They went their separate ways shortly after arriving in South America. He returned to Sunnydale for a short period of time and then returned to Drusilla only to leave again and disappear until he turned up in Sunnydale again in 1999 looking for the Gem of Amara. Since then, Spike has teamed up with the Slayer in a volatile, working relationship,” the clerk said.
“Huh, that must drive Angel crazy,” Lilah mused.
“He knows and he hasn’t been happy about it,” the clerk said.
“Huh, well maybe I can still find a way to use it to my advantage,” Lilah said before leaving the clerk without a backward glance to clean up the mess she left.
**************************
Los Angeles, Hyperion Hotel
“Gunn, have you seen my broad sword?” Angel asked from the weapons cabinet where he was searching for his favorite weapon.
“Yeah, I think Wesley took it. He’s probably sharpening it for the umpteenth time. By the time he’s done, you’ll be able to slice through solid rock with one thrust,” Gunn quipped.
Angel rolled his eyes. He loved that sword but Wesley was getting on his nerves about sharpening the weapons before and after every fight. He knew he’d have to repent for firing his friends last year, but that didn’t include allowing Wesley near his favorite weaponry, did it? He closed the cabinet and went in search of the ex-watcher.
“Wes! I need my sword!” Angel yelled as he walked toward the office.
In the office, Wesley was researching demons from the last fight when Angel walked in. The vampire grabbed his sword from the desk and examined the blade. Wesley had changed since they ran into each other on a demon-theft case three years ago, but deep down the ex-watcher was still obsessive-compulsive if the shiny new surface of his sword was any indication.
“You can’t just let your weapon fall prey to Gorlack demon blood, Angel. It eats through the surface of the blade and handle,” Wesley pointed out without looking up from his research.
“I’ll remember that for next time, Wes,” Angel said.
Wesley made an affirmative sound and Angel left the office. Walking back into the lobby of the hotel he saw Gunn flipping through a weapons catalog and Fred and Cordelia were gathered around the computer. They were shopping online most likely.
“How are we on the evil law firm front, Cordy?” Angel inquired.
“They seem pretty quiet, which in layman’s terms means they are regrouping to strategize another way to corrupt the world,” Cordelia replied without looking away from the monitor.
Angel nodded and turned to the man beside him. “Hey, Gunn, let’s go,” Angel said loud enough to get the other man’s attention.
Gunn looked up from his perusal of the latest edition of “Medieval Weaponry – Mystical and Enchanted Weapons for All Your Demon Slaying Needs”. “Where are we going?”
“I figured we would go have a talk with Merl and then take care of that nest of vampires down by the pier,” Angel said.
Gunn nodded. “Okay.” He retrieved his homemade fighting axe and followed Angel down into the basement and out through the sewers to where his car was parked. |
