The Visitor

By Cordy Muffin

The knock on the door came as a surprise to the trio. Visitors to Angel Investigations were rare - visitors who knocked, at any rate. The visiting demons tended not so much to knock as to burst in.

When Cordelia opened the door, she, along with Angel and Wesley, were surprised to find a girl there. She looked about Cordelia’s age, or maybe slightly younger, with dark hair tied up in a high ponytail. Her face looked slightly familiar to both Angel and Cordelia, and when she spoke, her words as well as her Irish accent gave it away.

"Is Allen Francis Doyle here?" She sounded tired, as if she had been searching for hours, which indeed she had.

Cordelia bit her lip at the mention of his name, and even Angel looked uneasy.

The girl noticed their discomfort. "What is it?"

"You should come in," Cordy invited.

"Dead," the girl repeated, as if trying to make sense of it. "No. No. Please…" She turned first to Cordelia, then to Angel, as if begging to be told that it wasn’t true.

"I’m sorry," Cordelia said.

"How - how did it happen?" the girl asked, her voice shaking.

Cordelia felt tears welling up in her eyes as Angel outlined the circumstances of Doyle’s death. It had been so unfair - they had had so little time together. A strangled sob escaped from her throat, and to her humiliation she found herself crying in front of a complete stranger. Angel put his arm around her. After a few moments she composed herself.

"You must have cared about him a lot," the girl observed quietly.

Cordy nodded, not trusting herself to speak, while Angel said, "He was a good friend."

There was silence for a moment, and then the girl broke it. "I’m sorry - I haven’t introduced myself. Eve - Eve Doyle."

"You’re his sister," Cordy realised.

"Did he mention me?" Eve asked.

"Once, maybe twice," Cordy said. "He never talked much about his family."

Eve nodded. "He left when I was much younger. He couldn’t forgive our dad for not telling him about his demon heritage."

"So you know," Angel said. Well, that was a relief. He hadn’t relished the thought of explaining to this girl that she was a half-demon.

Eve smiled slightly. "After that my dad decided to be brutally honest with me. I know all about it. A few months ago, my dad died, and I decided to go looking for my brother." She bit her lip. "But I guess I’m never going to find him." She rubbed at her wet eyes.

"I’m Angel," the vampire decided that now would be a good time for him to introduce himself.

"And I’m Cordelia," Cordy said. "And the British guy out there, that’s Wesley. He’s a Rogue Demon Hunter," she added.

"Does that include me?" Eve wondered. "I mean, I don’t kill people," she said. "It’s too gross. All that blood…"

Cordy nodded in understanding. Angel sensed that she had found an ally in squeamishness.

Cordy invited Eve to stay with her in her apartment while she decided what to do next. With no money she didn’t know how she was going to cope.

Eve accompanied her into Angel Investigations the next day. Cordelia sat down suddenly, the familiar blinding pain taking over. A vision. She saw a demon. It looked like a Brachen demon, attacking Angel. That was all.

She described her vision to Angel, Wesley and Eve. Later, when Wesley and Eve were discussing demonic business, Cordelia confided in Angel.

"The demon in the vision - it was a Brachen demon."

"Do you think Eve could have anything to with it?" he said, as usual knowing what she was trying to say.

"She is half Brachen demon…" Cordy trailed off.

"Do you trust her?"

"I want to," she sighed. But, and it was left unsaid, after living in Sunnydale, it was hard to trust people.

That night, back at Cordy’s apartment, Eve picked up a framed picture and looked at it.

Cordelia noticed and went over to her. "That’s the gang," she smiled. "My friends." Funny of her to call them that - but Harmony and the others hadn’t been real friends, had they? "That’s me, Xander, Willow, Oz, and Buffy."

"Angel has a picture of her," Eve noted, pointing to Buffy.

Cordy rolled her eyes. "Starcrossed lovers. Made for each other. Except he’s a vampire and she’s a slayer and if they sleep together he turns evil."

"Aaah. It all makes sense now," Eve said drolly. "So, tell me about this Buffy."

At first Cordelia was suspicious of Eve’s interest in Buffy. Was she trying to collect information in order to attack the slayer?

When she found out the real reason why Eve was so interested, she laughed.

So Eve had a crush on Angel. It was understandable, Cordy supposed. He was undeniably attractive - especially if you went for the dark, brooding type.

Not me, though, she thought. She liked guys who were approachable, friendly, sweet. She thought of Xander, and then of Doyle. To her surprise, she didn’t feel like bursting into tears. She just remembered the good times. She smiled to herself.

Over the next few days, Eve helped out in Angel Investigations, although there wasn’t much to do.

Angel was fine with the idea of Eve being there - after all, they needed all the help they could get. He had spoken to Cordelia about her.

"Do you think Eve could be the Brachen demon in your vision?" he asked.

"No," Cordelia was definite. Eve and she were becoming to be really good friends, despite the two-year difference in their ages and the fact that Eve was half-demon. They talked about so much - Doyle, Cordy’s experiences in Sunnydale, what it was like for Eve coping with finding out she was a demon at a young age.

"Are you sure you’re not letting the fact that she’s Doyle’s sister cloud your judgement?" he asked.

"No! It’s not just that!" Cordy sighed. "Angel, I trust her. Please, try not to be so suspicious all the time!"

"Someone has to be around here."

She made a face at him, but he was smiling. Slightly.

The sun was shining and the sky was clear and blue. It would have been a perfect day if it wasn’t for the giant monster which had just jumped in the window.

Typically, Wesley was not of much use. Cordelia stayed back - if it was necessary she would join in. Angel jumped up to attack, but Eve got there first.

Her arms and legs were a blur as she speedily punched, jabbed and kicked, and finally flipped the monster over on its back and slammed her boot down on a sac on its shoulder. It disintegrated immediately.

"Wow," Cordelia said, extremely impressed.

"Impressive," Wesley nodded.

"How did you know how to kill it?" Angel inquired.

Cordelia hid a smile. No well-dones, just straight to the point. She knew he still wasn’t sure about Eve.

Eve smiled and shrugged. "It was a Tamoni demon - I helped Faith kill one once."

"Faith? The Slayer?" Wesley asked. It certainly was a small world.

"You know her?" Eve wanted to know.

"I was her Watcher," Wesley informed her. That was all he wished to say about the matter - the way he had been fired from the Council still rankled.

"I used to help her out a bit, before she went to Sunnydale," Eve said. "Where is she now?"

"In a coma," Wesley said, "after a fight with Buffy."

"She’s the other Slayer, right?" Eve sounded as if she hadn’t heard all about Buffy.

Wesley nodded.

When Cordelia finally got a moment alone with Angel, she asked, "Now do you believe that she’s on our side?"

"I never said I didn’t," he pointed out. "I just wanted to make sure."

"Well, could you please stop treating her so coldly?" Cordelia asked. She knew Eve wasn’t exactly crazy about the way Angel was practically ignoring her. Okay, so he wasn’t the most talkative of people - well, vampires - at the best of times, but his usual behaviour could be described as positively chatty compared to the way he was with Eve.

"I’m not," he protested.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right."

"Look, I just don’t know her that well. I’m not good with new people."

Cordelia looked at him sceptically. "Nearly two hundred and fifty years old and you’re not good with new people. Hmmmm. Do I detect a little lying here?"

"Angel, can I talk to you for a moment?" Eve requested.

They were the only two there. Cordelia was at an audition and Wesley was visiting a friend of his, another former member of the Watcher’s Council.

Angel shrugged. "Go ahead."

"Do you want me around?" Eve got straight to the point.

Angel hesitated. He wasn’t sure how to respond.

"I thought so," Eve replied quietly. She got up and picked up her bag and her jacket.

"Eve, don’t go," Angel said softly.

"What?" she turned around. "Angel, it’s obvious you don’t want me around. You’ve been ignoring me ever since I got here. So - I’m going."

"Eve -" Angel said. "God, how do I say this? I know I’ve kind of been, well, okay, ignoring you, but, well, it’s just that you remind me a lot of some people that I’ve lost - and it hurts."

"You mean Doyle," she realised.

"Yeah. And -" he paused, "Buffy."

"Your girlfriend. The Slayer." Eve wasn’t sure to be annoyed or pleased.

"How did you know that?"

"Cordy told me about the two of you."

"I had to leave Buffy. I loved her too much. When we - um - made love, I kind of, well, lost my soul - and turned against her, and the others." He shook his head. "I was a monster then." He noticed Eve wasn’t looking surprised or shocked at all. "Did Cordelia tell you about this as well?"

Eve nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, it’s nice to know I still have a bit of privacy," Angel remarked.

Eve smiled. "Do you still love her?"

"I hope you’re talking about Buffy and not Cordelia there," Angel told her.

She laughed. "Buffy. Do you?" She looked up into those eyes…those soulful, troubled eyes.

To his surprise Angel didn’t immediately respond with a yes. He looked down at Eve and their eyes met. "Until a few days ago I would have said yes," he admitted. "But now…"

"Now…" she echoed.

He cupped her face in his hands and pulled her towards him. Slowly, they moved together. Their lips were pressed against each others. His hands were travelling around her body. He wanted her.

Cordelia opened the door. "Hi guys, I’m back -" she began, then stopped abruptly when she saw Eve and Angel.

Angel and Eve broke apart.

"Did I interrupt anything?" Cordy enquired innocently.

"I’m crazy about him," Eve sighed.

Cordelia stretched out on the couch in her sitting room that night. "I think it’s great."

"Really?" Eve asked delightedly.

"Yeah! I mean, you’re perfect for each other!"

Eve sighed again, happily.

The doorbell rang, and Cordy went to get it.

"Hi, Angel," she said brightly. "Come to visit me, right?"

"Actually…"

"Eve’s inside." Cordy left the two love-birds alone for privacy.

Cordelia was in her bedroom, music playing to drown out the sounds of Angel and Eve. Oh, she was happy for them, of course. It still didn’t mean that she was willing to listen to them talking and giggling and sharing private in-jokes.

And then the vision came. She winced and tried not to scream with the agonising pain. It was the Brachen demon again, first, kissing Angel, then, killing him. She could see the demon clearly now. It did look a lot like Eve.

Her head stopped throbbing as the flashes of scenes in her mind ceased. The demon must be Eve. She had kissed Angel, now she would kill him.

Logically she knew it to be true, but emotionally it was a different story.

Eve had become her best friend. They could do girly stuff together, like pig out on ice-cream and watch a weepy movie, or shop, and they could talk, both about serious stuff and the more trivial.

Despite being incredibly popular in high school, she’d never had a friend like Eve before. There had been the Cordettes, people like Harmony, who had worshipped her, but who had never once had a serious conversation with her. And then there were Buffy, Xander, Willow, Angel and Oz. She had fallen for Xander, she had occasionally had bonding moments with Willow and Buffy, but never once had she had such a good friend as Eve.

If Eve was only here to kill Angel, Cordy didn’t know what she would do.

"Guys, I’m going out to see Wesley, okay?" Cordelia called to them five minutes later. She had to tell him about her vision.

Angel and Eve were so engrossed in each other that they barely noticed she had left.

"So you think Eve is here in order to kill Angel?" Wesley said.

"Well, duh! I’ve just been explaining that to you!" Cordy responded. Honestly, she thought in exasperation.

"Then we have to stop her," Wesley said decisively.

"Right. We can do that," Cordelia said sarcastically. "With your great strength, right? If we start a fight with her when Angel’s around - and it seems like they’ll be pretty much glued together from now on - he’ll fight against us. Yeah. Us two against them. Sure, that’ll work."

"There was no need for that much sarcasm," Wesley replied. "We’ll have to find proof that Eve is evil."

"Does this involve looking up anything in musty old books?" Cordy wanted to know.

Wesley nodded.

Cordelia groaned.

"Nothing! Zilch! We have nothing! Meanwhile, Eve could be stabbing Angel in the heart right now and we’ll just be looking up useless information in books!" Cordy paced up and down.

"Calm down," Wesley snapped.

"Calm? How can I be calm?" Cordy wanted to know. "I can’t remember having one calm, normal day ever since Buffy Summers entered my life and I was introduced to the world of vampires and demons and really gross stuff!"

"I mean," Cordy continued, getting into full swing now, "I was just a normal high-school girl. Happy, pretty, with a normal life. I never asked to become involved in the supernatural, but here I am!"

"The funny thing is, Brachen demons don’t go in for violence."

"My dreams of acting forced to take a backseat while I fight the dark forces of evil…"

Wesley rolled his eyes.

"No, Eve, we can’t," Angel pushed her away. Reluctantly.

"I know, I know," she sighed. "One moment of true happiness and all that."

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Let’s just talk for a bit," Eve suggested.

Cordelia had to sit down as she was struck by another vision. Wow, the Powers That Be were working overtime, sending her all these visions, she thought irritably.

It was a brief vision. It was the Brachen demon - Eve again - turning into . . . a VAMPIRE? There HAD to be something wrong with that. The vision ended.

"It’s possible she’s a vampire who’s part Brachen demon," Wesley said. "Or possibly - wait!" He thought for a moment. "There are legends about creatures who can transform into any kind of demon. I’m not sure of the details, but generally they’re very powerful. Their only purpose is to kill."

"And you think Eve is one of these . . . killing machines?" Cordelia asked.

"It’s very likely. Your visions aren’t ever - well, wrong, are they?"

Cordy shook her head.

Wesley sighed. "Didn’t think so."

They were talking. Eve knew she should be planning out her attack now, but instead she found herself listening to Angel. In fact, she was hanging on to his every word.

Stop! she ordered herself. Concentrate on what’s important!

Things were not going to plan. She was meant to make Angel love her. She was not meant to fall for him so hard that she couldn’t stop thinking about him. That when she was around him, all she wanted to do was to kiss him and make love to him, instead of what she was meant to do.

She reminded herself why she was here. Angel was a problem. He was destroying too many of her people. He needed to be stopped. She had been sent to kill him. She had never failed anything asked of her. She would not fail now.

"So how do you kill these things?" Cordy wanted to know. "And please do not tell me you can’t kill them, because I’ll just freak."

Wesley pushed his glasses up on his nose. "Fire. Fire kills them."

"Great. Let's just burn down the office then," Cordy muttered.

"We'll think of something," Wesley said determinedly.

Cordelia rolled her eyes.

Later, while Wesley continued to research, Cordelia's mind began to drift. She slipped into unconsciousness.

She was walking, walking down a street . . .

. . .and Doyle was there, leaning against a wall, waiting for her.

"Hear you need some help with that little sister of mine," he said.

"So she is who she says she is, at least?" Cordelia asked.

Doyle nodded. "Oh, yeah. Well, my half-sister, actually. She's half Brachen demon, half vampire…and one confused kid."

"Wesley thought she was a demon who could change into any form," Cordelia ventured.

Again, Doyle nodded. "That's what happens sometimes when you mix some types of demon blood . . . it can be dangerous. She's not aware how powerful she is . . . she doesn't understand what she can do…but still, she is strong." He began to fade away . . .

"Doyle, don't go!" she called.

"I'll be watching over you . . ." he replied . . .

Eve had fallen asleep. Angel watched her. She looked peaceful…and so young, so innocent.

He knew she wasn't. She'd seen a lot. She'd helped Faith slay, she knew that there was so much evil out there that the battle would never be won, only fought, continually fought.

He wasn't sure whether getting close to her was the right thing to do . . . but it felt like it. And as long as he didn't get that true happiness thing, things would be OK.

He wondered what exactly Cordelia and Wesley were doing. Cordelia had left to talk to Wesley hours ago, and they both should have been back by now. Not that there was much going on, but they usually didn't stay away from the office for this long.

He decided to call Wesley, just in case there was anything wrong. Wesley answered on the first ring.

"Angel. So you're OK," Wesley said.

"Why wouldn't I be? What's going on?" Angel demanded.

"It's Eve," Wesley explained. "Cordelia's had several visions of Eve trying to kill you. We believe that she is not just a demon, but a very powerful one. The only way to kill her is with fire."

"Are you sure about this?" Angel said.

Cordelia grabbed the phone. "Yes. Totally. Angel, you've got to destroy her. I had a vision…well, not like the normal ones, more like a dream. Doyle told me that she was dangerous. That she was very powerful. So unless you want to be dust, I would suggest that you burn her!"

Wesley regained control of the phone again. "Where is Eve now?" he asked.

"Here. She's asleep," Angel added. "You guys should come over. I'm not exactly fond of flames, you know?"

They dragged a sleeping Eve out into a dark alley. Cordelia and Wesley began to set up a fire.

Eve's eyes fluttered open. "What…what are you doing?" she asked.

"Having a barbecue," Cordy said sarcastically. "Grilled Eve…how does that sound?"

"Why are you doing this?" Eve asked shakily. "What did I do?"

"We know, Eve," Angel said. "We know you were sent here to kill me."

"That's not true!" Eve protested.

"You put on an act," Angel continued. "And you did a pretty good job. Unfortunately, you didn't count on Cordelia's visions. She saw you trying to kill me."

"Please, listen," Eve begged. "OK, so I was sent here to kill you. But the way I feel about you, Angel…that's real. I didn't pretend to love you . . . I really do."

Cordelia and Wesley looked worriedly at Angel. Was he feeling sorry for her?

"Angel . . . please . . . let me go," Eve pleaded. She looked around helplessly. She was in a dead end. There was no way she could climb over the walls, they were far too high, and the only way out was blocked by the fire.

He shook his head. "I can't do that, Eve. How do I know you won't

try to kill me?"

"Angel, just let me go, and you'll never see me again, I swear," she begged. She looked around again. She couldn't climb those walls . . . but what demon could? A Nontic demon… She felt herself transform, and she crouched down and then sprung over the wall. Once over, she transformed back into her usual form, a human, and ran.

"That was unexpected," Wesley said.

"Should we go after her?" Cordelia asked. "She's dangerous, right?"

Angel shook his head. "I don't think she'll bother us again."

He looked out over the city. Was Eve out there somewhere? he wondered. Was she really going to stay away from him, or would she be back?

"Thinking about her?" Cordelia came out and joined him.

He nodded. "Do you think she meant what she said?"

"About you never seeing her again?"

"No, the other thing."

"That she really did love you?" Cordelia said. "I don't know. I think she did. You spent so much time together, just the two of you. She could've killed you, but she didn't. Maybe because she couldn't do it. Maybe she never would have gone through with it."

"It's just so hard…finding out that she was only here to kill me . . . taken in by her act," he sighed.

"Maybe it wasn't an act," Cordelia suggested. "I'd like to think that she really did mean everything that she said, to both of us."

He nodded, and together they looked out over the city.

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