Galway 1753
Charlotte had expelled every single tear in her body for Angelus. He was gone....really and truly gone. It had been a week since she had visited his home. None of his friends, none of his enemies, not even a single tavern owner had heard from or seen him since then. Everyone believed him to be dead, but Charlotte refused to let that thought enter her mind. He must have just picked up and left without telling anyone, she told herself repeatedly, as though saying it many times might make it easier to believe. There were so many other things that could have happened to him.
"He wanted to see the world", Charlotte told her old china doll. Her chin wobbled and the tears she thought had dried up began to flow again. "But why didn't he want to see it with me?"
When the crying jag had passed, Charlotte pulled herself up off of her bed and straightened her skirts. It wouldn't do for her mother to come in and see her like this. Not that Lady Anna would have cared what was upsetting her daughter, but it would have embarassed her horribly to have the servants see Charlotte in such a state. She wiped away some leftover tears and smoothed down the bodice of her dress. Angelus had liked this dress....it was a deep midnight blue, the same shade as her eyes, he had noted.
"Oh God in heaven", she cried. "I don't want to live my life without him."
* * *
It took Angel a full minute to find his tongue. "Charlotte?", he asked again. "How can...how can you...I...I can't believe..."
She placed her hands on the back of the bench. "You look as though you're seeing a ghost, Angel. I assure you, I am not a ghost." To prove herself, she reached out and touched his arm. His slight recoil didn't appear to offend her. "See...I'm flesh and blood....like you."
Angel, beginning to recover from his initial shock, really looked at her for the first time in two hundred and forty-six years. Exactly the same face, hair as black as the night sky, eyes like the darkest of sapphires.....this was the image he had seen on that night before he turned around and walked to the pub....walked into immortality. And for all of those years, he had understood that he would never see this face again, yet...here she was. Standing before him, touching his arm,....alive. "I saw your body....you weren't bitten by a vampire. How can you be here?"
"It's a very long story, Angel", she said, quietly.
"I think I need to hear it."
* * *
Charlotte looked at the badly scribbled writing on the tiny piece of parchment paper, then looked up at the numbers over the door of the shop. This was definitely the place her maid had told her about. A gust of wind swept down the narrow street and Charlotte pulled her shawl around her shoulders even tighter. An omen, she thought to herself, a warning to leave.
"That's silly. I'm not afraid of you", she told the wind. "I have good cause to be here." With that resolved, Charlotte took a breath and knocked on the shop's heavy wooden door. After only a moment, the door creaked open to reveal a withered old woman.
"State your business", the woman instructed.
Charlotte swallowed. "I...I need help. I was told you could....help me."
The crone peered at her from behind the strings of grey hair that hung over her eyes. "You need a love spell."
"How did you know that?" Charlotte's eyes were wide.
"Why else would a girl like you come to me?" The woman ushered Charlotte inside and closed the door behind her. "I can help you."
Charlotte breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank you so much. I've been...." The woman cut her off.
"Heartsick", she finished for her. Charlotte nodded. "My help isn't free, you know."
"I can pay you...whatever you want", Charlotte reached into her reticule for a gold coin, but the crone shook her head.
"Your gold doesn't interest me", she said.
Charlotte closed the tiny bag. "Then...what do you...?"
"Why don't we just say that you owe me something? And someday, I'll collect on it."
After a moment's hesitation, Charlotte agreed. "Very well. I am in your debt."
The old woman began pulling a few bottles from various shelves. "What do you want this spell to do? Make him think of no one else? Ask for your hand in marriage?"
"No. All I want..." Charlotte paused. "All I want is for my soul to be with his....forever."
* * *
"If only I could have known...", Charlotte told Angel. "You didn't currently have a soul. But she did do her job as best she could....I got the forever end of the deal."
Angel sat down on the bench. "I did see your body...didn't I?"
"All for show." Charlotte came around to his side. "The potion she mixed gave me all the appearances of death for a day or so, then I awoke. Immortal. But without you."
"You've been looking for me....for over two hundred years?"
Charlotte nodded. "You were always one step ahead of me, Angel. I'd hear you were in Paris or London or Argentina and I'd go there....but you would have just left, sometimes only days earlier. When I heard you had moved to America and changed your name to Angel, I made plans to go, but then I heard it wasn't you....something about you having stopped killing. Then a year ago, I was in Germany and I heard from...an old friend that Angelus had resurfaced in California. By the time I had figured out which city you were in, you had left and moved here. But this time, I was quicker. I found you."
"And here you are." Angel didn't know what else to say.
She played with one of her silver rings. "Here I am. I have to say, I thought you'd be...happier to see me." Her voice quivered slightly and Angel thought he made out the shimmering path of a tear down her flawless cheek in the moonlight.
"I am...I am, really." Angel instinctively stood and took her hand in his. The feel of her cool, soft skin was still familiar. "I'm just surprised. You must have known who I...what I became....and yet you still looked for me. Why would you do that?"
Charlotte looked up at him, her eyes intense. "I think you know why."
"I was a monster", Angel said, dropping her hand. "I would have...I would have tried to kill you, Charlotte."
"I know."
He swallowed heavily. "And you still....loved me?"
Charlotte nodded. "My feelings haven't changed in all these years." She lifted her chin and touched her lips to his. When he didn't respond to the kiss, she backed away slowly. "But....yours have, I see."
Before he quite understood why, he reached for her, kissing her deeply. Charlotte responded positively, snaking her arms up his broad chest and around his neck and pressing her slender body against him. The embrace lasted for a minute before Charlotte pulled back. Smiling, she played with the short hairs at the collar of his coat. "Maybe not, though."
"I can't do this", Angel reached behind and grabbed her hands, bringing them back down to her sides.
She wasn't so easily dissuaded. "What's stopping you, Angel?" He looked away, but she took a hold of his chin, directing his look back to her.
"You don't understand...you can't understand...", Angel began, but Charlotte put a finger to his lips to quiet him.
"I didn't track you down for two hundred years for a roll in the hay, Angel. I want to get to know you again. There was a time when...we were close." He nodded in agreement. "Do you think we could get that back?", she asked.
* * *
"What did you tell her, man?" Doyle popped a sunflower seed into his mouth. "Didja tell her about the curse?"
Angel looked at his hands, helplessly. "I couldn't."
Doyle reached into the bag for another seed. "Are you going to see her again?"
"We made plans to meet...for dinner", Angel admitted.
"You don't eat, though."
"She does. I don't know...I'm still trying to take it all in." Angel stood up and walked into his kitchen. "Two hundred years, Doyle and all that time, I thought she was dead. And now, she's just walked back into my life."
Doyle chewed for a moment as he thought. "You have to tell her, man. Especially if you still have...you know...feelings for her." He looked at Angel. "Do you still have those kind of feelings for her?" The vampire lowered his head and nodded. "So, you explain it to her. She's been around; she'll understand."
"I know. I know she would. But...I can't let myself get too attached to her again...to anyone. Happy endings are not in my cards, Doyle." Angel picked up a salt shaker from the counter, rolling it between his fingertips before noticing what it was. "Why do I have a salt shaker?"
"Cordelia and I ate fries over here sometimes. Look, Angel, I know you've decided that your life has to be shadowed and lonely for all of eternity. But the way I see it, this girl....she could be your ticket into the sunlight", Doyle spoke with seriousness.
"Sunlight kills", Angel reminded him.
Doyle stood up. "I was speaking metaphorically."
"I got that."
Cordelia suddenly entered from the bedroom. "Are you guys *still* talking about Charlotte? Here's an idea...let's pick a new topic."
"When do we get to meet Charlotte?", Doyle asked, ignoring her.
"You won't have to wait very long. She mentioned something about coming over here", Angel told him.
"Why do we have to meet her?", Cordelia whined.
Doyle looked at her strangely. "Something the matter, Cordy? Why wouldn't you want to meet Charlotte?"
She shrugged. "You've seen one excessively brooding immortal, you've seen 'em all."
Angel shook his head, letting her comment pass. "If you really want to go, Cordelia, you can have the rest of the day off."
"Well...I don't want to be the only one who doesn't get to meet Stalker-girl", Cordelia said, sitting in Angel's big leather chair. "Can I ask you a question, Angel?"
"Why not?", he sighed.
She paused, looking down at her manicured fingernails. "I overheard that whole 'feelings' conversation you and Doyle just had and I was wondering....." Cordelia never got to finish her sentence. The elevator entrance to Angel's apartment suddenly opened. A pretty, dark haired girl stepped from it. Angel stood up straight upon seeing her.
"Charlotte", he said, crossing over to her. "I didn't expect you for awhile." Gently, he took ahold of her arm and led her over to Cordelia and Doyle.
"I wanted to get here before midday. The sun..it's a bit too much then." Charlotte looked up at him in a way that made Cordelia uncomfortable.
Angel made the introductions. "Doyle....Cordelia....this is Charlotte Emmeline of Leicester."
Charlotte extended one perfectly pale hand. "It's very nice to meet you", she told them. Cordelia ignored her hand, but Doyle took it and on a moment of impulse, kissed the back of it.
"We've heard a lot about you", he told the girl, truthfully. "Nice to put a face to the name. And such a lovely face, too." Charlotte blushed; Cordelia rolled her eyes.
"I think I'm going to take Charlotte on a little tour of the office", Angel announced, seemingly eager to get Charlotte away from Doyle's charm. "We won't be long." Together, the two immortals left.
Cordelia watched the couple leave the room. "I don't like her."
"Jealous, Cordy?" Doyle picked up his sunflower seeds.
"Please. Jealous of what? She....she's sickly! No color to her face at all and...." Cordelia stopped, unable to think of anything else.
Doyle crunched on a seed. "Ah ha! See, you don't know anything about her."
"I know that I don't like her. Did you see the way she looks at Angel?", Cordelia stood up and crossed her arms. "She looks at him like she's in love with him or something."
"And this would be a bad thing...why?"
Cordelia threw him a patronizing look. "You weren't around the last time someone fell in love with Angel and proved it to him. I was though, and let me tell you...it's a miracle I'm alive today to tell you the story."
"Yeah, but this time Angel knows better. He's not going to lose his soul again", Doyle said, confidently.
She looked doubtful. "I still don't like her." Suddenly, Cordelia thought of something. "Hey...what would you say to a little investigation on Charlotte? You know, just to make sure she's on the up and up."
Doyle sighed. "I won't hear the end of it until I agree...so why not? Where do we start?"
"We? What am I, Research-Girl?"
* * *
"It's a very nice office, Angel", Charlotte commented after the vampire had showed her Angel Investigations' headquaters. "But why do I get the feeling that you didn't bring me up here just to show me the new fax machine?"
Angel looked sheepish. "I could sense Cordelia slipping into tactless-mode. Figured I'd spare you."
"Well, thanks. I appreciate it." Charlotte held his glance for a minute.
He broke the glance and looked down at a silver ring around her right ring finger. "That ring", he said after examining it. "It's so familiar."
She slipped it off and handed it to him. "It should be....it belonged to your mother."
"My mother?", Angel whispered, fingering the small band. "How..how did you get it?"
"After you kill...after your father died, everything in his house was taken by the tax collectors and auctioned off. I managed to save this, hoping to give it to you someday. But somewhere around the American Civil War, I became very attached to it. I'd like to keep it, if that's all right."
He handed the ring back to her. "Of course it's all right. It looks better on you than it would on me." She slipped it back on her finger. "Where were you during the Civil War?"
"India. I heard there was a particurally vicious vampire in Bombay during the Great Mutiny....of course, it turned out not to be you."
"Particurally vicious....I can see why you would have thought it was me. I was in England...."
"Turning Drusilla", she finished.
Angel looked surprised. "You know Drusilla?"
"I know *of* her." Charlotte played with her ring. "I've met so many vamps, Angel....actually been bitten by one or two." She laughed. "They were quite surprised when I got right back up and walked away. I've also been shot, stabbed and had my neck broken."
"Being shot hurts the worst, doesn't it?", Angel commented.
Charlotte nodded. "It's like being licked by fire." She paused. "This is quite a comical conversation we're having."
He smiled. "I suppose it is." There was a moment of silence.
"Well", she finally said. "I had better be going. Will I see you tonight?"
Angel nodded. "I'm...looking forward to it."
Charlotte started to leave, but then turned around again. "I'm so glad I found you, Angel. For the first time in a very long time, I can't wait to wake up in the mornings." Angel watched with mixed feelings as she walked out of the office.
* * *
Cordelia sat down in one of the library's hard-as-a-rock chairs. "Okay...Buffy once told me that Angel turned all evil in 1750..something."
"1753", Doyle corrected her. She gave him a look. "What? It's common knowledge!"
"Anyways, if he turned in 1753, then that's the point we start looking for stuff about Charlotte. Right?"
Doyle nodded. "Not that I hadn't figured that out a moment ago, or anything", he muttered, under his breath. "All right....we're not going to find anything in the LA Public Library."
"So...what do you suggest we do?" Cordelia played with a lock of her hair.
"Do you have your cell-phone with you?"
She dropped the piece of hair. "Yes....why?"
Doyle cleared his throat. "Well.....she 'died' in Ireland....I know a guy in Ireland....several actually...."
Cordelia, apparently, read his mind. "Oh no. No, no, no. You are not calling Ireland on my cell-phone!"
"Cordy....this is your research mission. Personally, I like Charlotte. I think she'll be very good for Angel. But if you're determined to get the so called goods on her, then you're going to have to make some sacrifices." He held out his hand for the phone.
Cordelia gave him the evil eye for a moment, before reluctantly reaching into her bag and pulling out her phone. "All right. But when the bill comes...part of it is coming out of your paycheck."
"Fair enough", Doyle placated, dialing a long string of numbers. After a moment, he began to speak to an unheard friend on the other end. "Lionel! It's Doyle....yeah, it has been a long time.....doing good, doing good. You?....that's great. Listen, I have a favor to ask.....c'mon man, you owe me one.....well, that's true, but just hear me out first.....okay, I'm looking to find out about an immortal named Charlotte....yes, Charlotte.....she's about two hundred and fifty years old, dark hair and eyes....quite pretty..." Cordelia's eyes narrowed again. "I need to know everything you can find out about her.....yes, she lived in Ireland, Galway, but she's English....you will? Great....you can reach me at..." He rambled off Cordelia's cell-phone number from memory. "Thanks, man...now I owe you one." Doyle closed the phone. "He'll call back when he finds out anything."
Cordelia replaced her phone in her shoulder bag. "Good. In the meantime, I think we need to keep an eye on her and Angel. Just in case they decide to get all pelvic."
"I still think you're not giving Angel much credit. He managed to control himself with Buffy. Why should Charlotte be any different?"
* * *
Angel pulled his lips away from Charlotte's. "I can't", he told her, a little breathlessly. "I'm sorry."
Charlotte looked at him for a second. "Angel...have I done something wrong? Do you not want me?"
"You know I do....I just can't", Angel sat up and ran a hand through his short hair. "And..I can't explain it.....just know that it's not you...it's me."
"Is it....the Slayer?"
Angel whipped his head back around to see her. "How do you know about...that?"
She began to refasten all the things he had done such a good job unfastening only moments after they had returned from dinner. "I heard about her....and you. I heard that you loved her. Did you love her, Angel?"
There was a long pause. "Yes."
"I'm glad", Charlotte finally responded.
Angel blinked. "What?"
"I'm glad you loved her." Charlotte put a hand on his shoulder, relaxing him. "Is that crazy of me?"
He shook his head. "No."
Charlotte gently guided him back against the stack of pillows. She lay against him. "Tell me about her."
"Charlotte, I....", he began.
"Please? She was a part of your life, Angel. I'd like to know about her."
Angel relented. "Her name was...is Buffy. She's...in college now. I was asked to help her...she was just a kid when she was called. Before I knew it, I loved her."
Charlotte spoke quietly. "Then what happened?"
"We don't need to talk about these things, Charlotte. The past is the past." Angel brushed a strand of hair off her forehead.
She sat up suddenly. "The past....it's all I have, Angel. All I know of you is what I remember from over two hundred years ago and the bits and pieces I heard about your killings. And all I ask now is to know a little bit about the man who I became immortal for. The Slayer....everything about her was important to you. Can you blame for wanting to know about your relationship?"
Angel briefly closed his eyes. "We weren't meant to be."
"That's it? That's all you can tell me?", Charlotte asked. He looked away. "What did she do to you, Angel?"
"She gave me happiness."
Charlotte looked down at him for a long moment. "Could I make you happy?" Before he could answer, she kissed him, long and deep. Angel's arms circled her shoulders. Never breaking the kiss, Angel rolled her body underneath his. His kisses moved from her mouth, down her jawline. Angel ran his lips over the baby soft skin of her throat, making his way to the nape of her neck. The pale blue veins that most people wouldn't even notice immediately caught his attention. With every beat of her heart, every rush of blood through those veins, his head pounded. It would be so easy....just a little nick, a tiny sip. It wasn't as though she could be killed or even hurt. Charlotte bent her head back, almost as if she were offering her neck to him. So easy.....
Angel growled as he sat back on his knees. "No!", he said outloud. "I can't."
"Angel?", Charlotte asked, her voice small. She sat up. "What's wrong?" He shook his head. "Please....tell me. What scares you about this?"
"I'm not allowed to feel this way, Charlotte. Why are you making me feel this way?" Angel buried his face in his hands. He felt her cool palms slide over his knuckles, etwining her fingers with his own. Her lips planted a tender kiss on his hairline. Slowly, she brought his hands down and kissed his lips.
"I love you, Angel", she whispered. "I want to love you in every way possible."
He swallowed hard. "I can't."
"Why not?"
"The curse....", Angel began, before suddenly stopping.
Charlotte looked into his eyes. "What curse?"
"It's a very long story, Charlotte."
"I think I need to hear it."
Angel looked down at their etwined fingers. "I don't know why this is so hard to tell you. My soul...it was returned to me when I killed a gypsy girl and her clan exacted revenge on me." He paused as he got up from the bed. "But there was a condition to the curse."
Charlotte leaned forward, almost eagerly. "What was it?"
"I can't....I can't have a moment of true happiness. If I do, the curse is broken and I lose my soul." Angel walked to the doorway.
"A moment of true happiness....would making love to me make you happy?", she asked. Angel's silence answered for him. "What if I told you, that I already knew about the curse?"
"What?"
Charlotte got up and joined him at the doorway. "The curse....I knew about it. Now what if I told you, that it doesn't apply to us?"
Angel looked at her as though she had lost her mind. "What do you mean by that? How could it not apply to us?"
"I don't know why, Angel. I just know that your having a moment of happiness like that with another immortal....it won't take your soul." Charlotte gave a little shrug. "You must have...made love to other women before...Buffy. You didn't lose your soul to them."
"I didn't love them, though."
Charlotte took his hand. "Are you sure it wasn't just because...they were vampires, also?" Angel had no answer. Charlotte slowly pulled her silk top over her head, baring her pale, perfect breasts to the moonlight that streamed into the room. "Make love to me, Angel. And I promise...no harm will come to you....or anyone else."
* * *
"Cordy, your purse is ringing", Doyle pointed with his glass of whiskey.
Cordelia immediately reached into her bag for the device. Plastering a huge grin onto her face, she answered, "Cordelia Chase." After a moment, the grin dropped. She handed Doyle the phone. "It's that Irish guy."
"Lionel", Doyle said, setting down his drink onto the bar. "What can you tell me?.....okay.....uh-huh.......you're kidding, man......how many?.....oh god.....and you're sure she's the one......I see.....yeah, that's her.....I'll do that. Thanks again, man....yeah....the next time I'm in Dublin, I'm buying." Doyle closed the phone with a loud snap, his face grim.
"Well?", Cordelia asked, stirring her rum and Coke.
"He found her. Traced her all the way back to Galway."
"And....?", she prompted.
Doyle downed the rest of his drink in one gulp. "He traced her back by the trail of dead bodies she left in her wake."
Cordelia double-blinked. "What?"
"Dead bodies. Withered up, drained, dead bodies. Hundreds of them, following a very neat path all the way around the world and back."
"I don't think an 'I told you so' is even necessary here", Cordelia said, flatly.
Doyle contined, "The most recent body popped up in..." He paused. "Sunnydale, California."
"Sunnydale.....but, Charlotte's not a vampire."
He shook his head. "It wasn't blood that they were drained of....it was their life force. Their souls, so to speak."
"Their souls...", Cordelia sat up straight. "Angel!!"
|
|
|
|
Rave
Barbie Girl (Becca)
biscuit07
Filmtheory (Jim)
Malice (Jess)
MebbtheScribe (MichaelB)
Reset (Allie)
Shay (Marrisa)
somnambulist29 (Shea)
Stephanie Loss
Wendyness (Wendy)
Questions?Contact Us
|
|
All stories on this site have been archived with the authors' consent. Do not copy these stories for your own uses without the express consent of the author themselves. Buffy the Vampire Slayer TM and Angel TM are © UPN, WB, Fox and its related entities. All photos on the site are © UPN, Fox, Warner Bros, and/or their respective owners. No profits are being made by use of these images.
Powered with the assitance of eFiction.
|
|
|
