"My boy is coming."
Lindsey looked up from the paperwork on his desk to the couch across the room where Darla was lounging. "What’s that?"
"My boy. He’s on his way here. Right now."
Lindsey hit a button on his intercom. "Special case number 368-BK is on his way to my office for a personal interview." Good. Let the self-righteous bastard try to sneak in. He’d find them ready for him.
*
"Hey, Lindsey—or should I say Lefty?" Angelus said as he strode into the room a few minutes later. "I have a job for you." He stopped short. "Hm. Looks like you’ve got some company."
It did, indeed. Lilah Morgan and Bryce Hammond had joined Lindsey in his office, as had roughly half a dozen security guards.
"Your co-workers can stay," Angelus said. "I’m here to make a proposal, and they should hear it, too. But get rid of the rent-a-cops before I kill them all."
Bryce Hammond smiled his gentle old man’s smile. "Angel, I don’t think you quite understand the situation. Each of these men is trained to deal with supernatural intruders, and they’re armed with stakes, crosses, and bottles of holy water. They’re not the ones whose lives are in danger here."
"Crosses. Hm." Angelus began to pace, stroking his chin. "Stakes. Holy water. You humans have such faith in your crosses, stakes, and holy water. As long as you have them, you think you’re safe. It’s an understandable mistake, of course. All of the vampires you’ve encountered are stupid, primitive beasts, and you think we’re all like that. You’re wrong, of course. I’m planning to work with you, so I’m going to give you one last chance. Get them out of here, or you’re going to have to hire and train six new security guards."
"Take him," Hammond said negligently.
The guards took a step forward, pressing the buttons on their batons to release the spring-loaded stakes. Angelus’s hand blurred as he snatched something from his trench coat. The room suddenly exploded in sharp blasts of sound and light. The three lawyers threw themselves to the floor behind Lindsey’s large oaken desk.
The explosions ended as suddenly as they began, and all that remained was a sharp-smelling smoke hanging in the air.
Lindsey peeked out from under his desk. The six security guards lay on the floor, their blood soaking into his expensive carpet.
Angelus stood in the midst of them, blowing the smoke away from the barrel of a handgun. "I love this thing," he said gleefully as he holstered it back under his trench coat.
*Clap. Clap. Clap.*
"Bravo. *Bra*vo."
Angelus turned to the source of the clapping, and his eyes and his mouth both gaped. "Darla?"
"Quick, efficient, brutal—I’m impressed. Maybe there’s more hope for you than I thought."
"But…you’re dead."
"I was," she said, honey dripping from her words. "Now I’m back. These helpful little humans brought me back so I could see my boy again." She traced her fingers along his jawline. He stiffened at her touch.
"I’m not your boy anymore, Darla," he said, staring straight forward.
"I know, but you could be again. You’ve just shown that my boy’s still in you, closer to the surface than you ever—"
"Touch my mind, Darla. Then you’ll see why your boy is never coming back."
Lindsey had cautiously risen to his feet, and Bryce and Lilah were crouching, peering over the desk, so they all saw what happened next.
Darla touched her fingertips to both of Angelus’s temples and frowned in concentration for a moment. Then her eyes flew wide and she stumbled back away from him. "So-s-so *dark*!" She moaned. "S-so *cold*! What *are* you? *What are you*?"
"I am what is to come," Angelus said, spreading his arms grandly. "I am the Alpha, and the Omega. I am the beginning and the final product of the vampire race." Then he grinned coldly. "And I don’t need you anymore"
A gleaming black tentacle punched through Angelus’s wine-colored silk shirt and struck like a snake, spearing into Darla and hurling her across the room, pinning her to the wall.
Darla’s eyes bulged and her mouth opened and closed like a suffocating human, desperately sucking at air that won’t come. "Guchh…ughh" She gagged.
"Oh, yes," Angelus shouted in rapture. "I’ve had humans since I got free, but this—a master vampire—a twice-born, 400-year-old demon—this is…ambrosia! This is magnificent!"
Darla clutched spasmodically at the tentacle, hunching and gasping, trying to pull it free. Her face came up, and it was withering, aging, as if the lost 400 years were finally claiming her. The flesh melted off her bones and her dress flapped and billowed like a sail. Her limbs became skeletal and her eyes sunk into her skull.
"Yes!" Angelus cried. "Yes! Give it to me!"
Darla’s skin turned a dry, brittle gray and cracked. "No," she gasped. "Please. Don’t send me back there…not again."
Angelus laughed. "Pathetic. You heard those very words so many times yourself, and you laughed each time. I’d hoped that you’d show a little more guts when it was your turn."
She stared at him, across the room, stared into those burning cold eyes. "No…"
With a grin of pure, demonic hunger, Angelus lunged forward. The tentacle bit deeper, and Darla’s wail trailed off into forever as her dust crumbled to the floor a second time.
The three lawyers looked helplessly at each other. Darla had been their tool, their bargaining chip, their weapon. Now they were defenseless.
Angelus turned toward them. His shirt hung in shreds, and they could see what had been hidden beneath it.
"Oh, my God," Lilah gasped weakly, stumbling backward and staring in blind horror.
"I think it’s a bit late for you to call on Him, don’t you think Lilah?" Angelus said, as he started to advance.
"Y-you’re not Angel," Hammond said. "What the hell are you?"
"The name’s Angelus," he replied.
"Well, then," Lindsey said, stepping forward. "When you came in here, you said you had a job for us. Far be it from us to turn down a client. What can I do for you, Mr. Angelus?" He stood fast as the thing that looked like a larger man arrived and leaned across the desk toward him. Angelus was a predator. He could smell fear, and it excited him to the hunt. *Be strong, and we just might live through this.*
Angelus grinned in his face. "I like you, Lefty. You’ve got guts. They’ll take you far in the world." Two tentacles suddenly lashed out. Lindsey swallowed hard and steeled himself against Lilah and Bryce’s screams, and the hideous sucking sounds. He knew his own life depended on it. "See?" Angelus continued. "It got you the job while your two compatriots there were eliminated." He reached out—with a hand this time—and patted Lindsey on the cheek. "Now, there’s no need to stand on ceremony between us. Angelus is fine. The job is simple: I just need you to make a few phone calls while I run out real quick and send a message."
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