A Dream of Love

Dream of Love

Sequel to 'The Edge Beckons'



Angel:

Safe.

'She's safe now.' I thought, blinking towards the dark ceiling. The silence so familiar to me suddenly began to unnerve me. She was safe, not me. I wouldn't hurt her again, I always sympathize, never judge but I would be a friend if someone let me. I knew no such thing of her, as she had said... things. Mercilessly. I swallowed as my mind began to drift towards the day's events and I shuddered when I thought of what she may think of me now.



And she was nice to you tonight. She understands not you, but that you are not someone to be attacked, Physically or with words, that you can be trusted. And you are her friend, perhaps her only friend. Whether I was reassured by this or Simply tired I managed to drift off for the first time in a long while, peacefully into the land of sleep.



Kate:

I woke up.



I didn't know where I was for the longest time, but I knew that I still felt really tired. I wasn't on my bed, the covers I laid under had an unfamiliar texture, and the window to the outside and the bright lights of the big city were missing.

I felt above my head, half-expecting there to be something blocking my view, but I only felt cold air, so I retreated my arm back under the blankets.

In one fluid motion, I swung my legs off of the strange bed, misjudging the distance to the floor, nearly crashing down.

As I found the wall and led myself to the door, I took a peak out of my room, squinting at the low soft light.

And remembered.

I was at his place, my obsession. Angel.

Rubbing my eyes, I continued down the hallway.



Angel:

She stood there before me, her raven black hair flying in the breeze, atop a grassy hill that must have looked beautiful in the sunshine with it's flowers, but I wouldn't know.

She tried to hide her fear, but it was no use. I felt it and it called out to me.

She held her cross out bravely, but part of her knew it wouldn't help, there was no way out now.

"Leanna..." I called out to her. She didn't move, she only stood there, pretty eyes wide now with terror as realization set in. No more games, I could waste no more time or it would drive me mad. "Come here, Leanna, I wont harm you."

She visibly fought with herself to ignore my calls. But she couldn't resist.

"How can I believe you?" She asked, speaking for the first time in a timid frightened voice that sent me pleasure in to me in merely hearing it.

"I have had plenty of opportunities, why would I kill you now?" I countered. "Come here, Leanna."

Though every part of her screamed against my soothing words, she came, dropping the cross, struggling every step of the way.

I welcomed her warm body in my arms. I slid my hand through her hair that glistened under the moon and planted kisses over her face. I felt her heart race with my skin as I pressed her body closer against mine. I brought my hand from her hair around to stroke her skin down her face. I drew two fingers under her chin to lift her head up to stare me in the eye.

Her brown eyes stared, teary, at me. But she couldn't cry, not about this after all I had done to her.

I had killed of her whole family and her friends, while she was helpless to watch. I was laughing when I did it.

"You said you wouldn't kill me." And so young, only a child really. But she would never get to live that long. So innocent and uncorrupt now she wouldn't ever lose innocence, she still was afraid to die. If she knew maybe she wouldn't waste her energy on that fear.

"I lied." And then, before she could struggle or even realize, I bit down on her neck, finishing the job, drinking her dry and eliminating once and for all the growing desire. She dropped softly onto the grass. I gazed down at her for a long moment. The scar on her neck had been healing, the one I had given her. Until I reopened it.

The bite. The Claiming.

I looked up at the moon, it was a crescent in the sky. it seemed to point down at me, label me as something evil, but I already knew that. I looked back down towards Leanna's remains.

But it wasn't Leanna.

Kate lay there, dead in the grass Her eyes were open and dull. As I continued watching she began to deteriorate, decompose before me. I tried to move or look away, but I couldn't. Bugs ate away at her, crawling in and out of her mouth, eating away at her tender parts slowly. I saw them moving underneath her clothing. Time sped up as she was eaten away to just a skeleton.

And then dust.

The wind picked it up and blew it into my eyes, stinging them. I was powerless to stop it. I waited only a moment before letting loose a mind-numbing scream.

Kate:

I finally located his room at the end of the hall.

The light from the hallway fell on him, he was tossing from side to side beneath the covers. I swallowed before stepping in.

"Angel?" I called softly. He began to thrash, the moving covers gave me glimpses of bare skin and I was well aware of the fact he was nude beneath the sheets, but I chose to ignore it. "Angel!" I yelled.

He finally shot up in bed, and promptly went into full vampire mode. I froze.

His eyes glared at me for the longest time, then he changed back, looking like a normal handsome, though bewildered Angel.

"Sorry." He muttered, looking away.

"Um, it's Ok." I hesitated, "You were having a dream?"

"A nightmare." He corrected, allowing himself to relax. "Someone from the past."

I nodded my head. He let his head hit the pillow as he looked up at the ceiling than brought his head up to look at me for only for a moment then look away.

"Do you want to, you know, talk?" I asked, gingerly.

"You probably don't want to hear about it." Angel said grimly, still not looking at me.

"No, I do. Please, just talk?" I expected him to reject me again. But instead he looked at me, actually looked at me, not just a quick glance. I drew in a quick breath and held it. My insides squirmed beneath his gaze.

"You might want to sit down." he instructed, but even he seemed surprised when I came to sit at the side of his bed. I couldn't believe I had been so bold under his eyes. He still stared at me for a long moment, serious, honest.

"A long time ago I bit a girl, but she got away. She became my obsession. I... needed her." His eyes betrayed no emotion now, not even the pain I heard in his voice.

"It's ok, it's the past." I said looking at him now, watching him squirm under my gaze. He was... Afraid? Of me? Why? "Angel..."

"It's not the past. It happened... with you." He said looking *up* at me, desperate to make me know him, understand him.

"Angel, please don't do this to yourself." I looked at him hard. he tried to look away but I shot out my hand and forced him by the chin, keeping his eyes on me. "It is NOT your fault, and... and I don't blame you."



Angel:

I choked as I looked at her. Had she truly said that? Was I imagining it? She had said it before, last night but I expected her to think about it, change her mind. But she truly believed it. For so long I ached for her to accept me, despite everything I had done. I was a catalyst for everything wrong in her life. Vampires, her father's death, her infatuation... with me.

I felt emotion that earlier in the week were no-existent. they surged through me, giving me a new feeling of *life.*

She trusted me and now... so much had changed in the past 24 hours. I could barely speak. "I asked you that day, if you trusted me..."

She held up her hands to prevent me from saying any more. "I still trust you Angel, I know that it probably means a lot to you that I do. But I have to ask you... if I trust you, than why are you still afraid?"

Afraid? I was very afraid, wasn't I? "I don't know, I guess I'm not used to the idea of you talking to me without any sarcasm. Actually being nice to me."

"I have been pretty cruel huh?" She looked away, finally releasing my chin. I was totally unprepared for what happened next. She pulled me into an embrace and I could hear her soft breathing against me. She rested her head against my chest and lay there for a moment. I merely held her there for a moment, playing with her hair before she pulled away.

"Sorry." She said, not for the first time.

"For what, Kate?"

She looked out across the room and just stared at the far wall.

"I don't know..." She never does.

***



Kate:

I woke up again, this time in his bed. I was alone in the room, a bright light was shining from the outside as I peeled away from the bed and found my way downstairs where Angel sat in the lobby of the hotel. Though the light from the outside, sunny as ever, the lights were off inside, giving it a slightly eerie affect.

I spotted Angel, sprawled out on the couch. He was lying, motionless, his eyes were open but he was staring at nothing. If I didn't know better I would have said he was dead.

But than again, he was.

"Angel." I said softly, almost poetically.

His eyes snapped to life as he blinked twice. He groaned. "Hi Kate."

"Hi." This awkward silence thing was getting old...

***



As Angel washed the dishes for breakfast I looked at him as I often did, studying him, struggling to understand him but he was truly... mysterious.

"Would you like something else to drink?" He asked, still in his dark soft voice.

"Um, no thanks." He looked at me and shrugged a strange gesture when performed by him. But somehow it seemed natural, everything he did was natural in fact.

When it looked like we were head for another period of silence I said, "There is so much you've never explained to me."

"I know." he said, simply when nothing was simple he made it seem that way.

"I don't mean to stir up any old wounds but... I read about how you were, why did you change? I thought that killers were killers and it doesn't ever change."

"It doesn't. I'm still a killer, Kate, because I have killed." I gasped and bit my lip, " I can't change it, no matter how much I've changed, it's still there taking pleasure in these horrid acts while the rest of me is repulsed by them. I can't get rid of it, it's part of me." My eyes were glued to him in his confession. "I just had to stop it. And I did. Of course it didn't happen over a day that I decided to actually be good. That took a century. But it's not important now. You probably don't see things that way but it's who I was."



Angel:

I swallowed and waited for her reaction. She just looked at me. "I can't say I'm not uncomfortable with this." She began carefully, "But I won't let it change any of this. Break this trust that I always feel for you. I know you Angel, probably better than I'd like to admit... you're not like Angelus."

She stood abruptly. "Kate?"

"I have to go." She said cryptically.

I nodded and watched as she left, walking out into the safety of the sunlight.

Where I could never follow.



Kate:

I don't know why I left, I just needed time to think I guess, think without him there distracting me. My mind was swirling from all that had happened to us.

Yesterday had also awakened the fact that I had... feelings... for Angel. That I cared. I would have probably gotten as far from him as possible by now if I didn't... or maybe not. Maybe if I didn't care for him so much I wouldn't have distanced him from me in the first place, vampire or not.

As I walked down the street I thought of how blissfully unaware all these people were. Sure this was LA, but most of these people I passed by didn't even worry about the human monsters out there.

Angel's job was easy, monsters defined by there physical appearance, not some desperate person who can't help themselves. Monsters who look like everyone else...

I tried to push the grim thoughts away. The sun was shining, it had chased all the evil things away. But it would set, relinquish it's rule and allow the monsters to roam free.

No matter what, I couldn't push them away.

I looked at the street as I reached my apartment. And I couldn't find one happy thought.



Angel:

I felt the sun go down and the feeling, the urge to go out into the darkness, to find prey, had returned. I couldn't stand it anymore, I had been cooped up in my own little prison for days now.

A walk wouldn't hurt, would it?

Before I set out into the darkness, I strapped spring-loaded stakes to my wrists and hid a sword on the hook in my coat.

Just in case.

Who was I kidding? I wanted to get out there and fight. I needed to do something. destroy something. And maybe... Help someone?

All of a sudden I wanted to care again, wanted to help again, what was it the had brought this out in me? Kate?

"It doesn't matter." I told myself.

I stepped out into the darkness and was greeted by a soft, cool breeze that caused my coat to flutter slightly. Though I heard the noise of the city, it didn't register, I merely let it pass by, absorbed in my own thought.

Only when a scream pierced the air along with the promise of a fight, did I come out of it.

One can only imagine my surprise as a teenage girl rushed past me and I was met by the sight of two large horse-like demons... if horses had fangs and retractable claws.

I roared and tore towards them.



Kate:

I sensed a presence... something was nearby, hiding outside of my apartment.

I cautiously looked out, movement on the floor caught my eye.

It was a cat, probably a stray, long dead thing, covered with icky crawlies. Maggots seemed to mock me from the empty eye sockets. What kind of sick joke was this?

It lay there on the ground right outside my apartment and where part of me was screaming to go back inside... something beckoned me out.

As soon a I took one step from my home and turned my head from side to side, I was hit by something heavy, it caught me across the jaw as my head snapped back and I flew backwards, out of my home.

I scrambled crab-style away and looked up to face my attacker.

Although the sun shone barely through a window the figure was completely shadowed. It's dark hair waved, but there wasn't any wind.

The one thing that stood out about it was it's golden glowing eyes, laughing cruelly at me.

It drew back the long staff it hit me with before and brought it down before I could react.



Angel:

I lay, panting next to the bodies of the two now headless demons. Struggling to my feet, I used the sword for balance for a few long moments, then returned it to the inside of my coat.

For the most part I was fine, I had gotten slashed across the cheek but it was fast healing.

Just when I thought I was OK I doubled over in pain that rocked through my body. I smelled blood beginning to flow and found it coming from my chin.

It didn't take me long to realize that this wasn't just my blood, it was Kate's.

Oh God...



Kate:

I awoke in chains, I seemed to be waking up in a lot of strange places lately, but this time I knew I couldn't possibly be with a friend, with Angel.

The thing that attacked me was there, I could tell it was female now because she wasn't shadowed anymore. She looked at me, amused by my expression which probably ranged from fear to hatred.

"So you're Angelus's new toy?" She sneered, speaking to me for the first time. "Hmm..."

Suddenly I felt a sharp pain, as if I was slashed across the cheek. I lifted a chained hand and felt cold blood dripping down my face from an unseen wound. "Whaa..." I started.

"Hmm? Oh that..." She threw back her head, laughing. "I bound you to your 'master.' Any pain he feels, you'll feel and vice versa."

I looked in horror, she merely laughed again. "Who are you?"

She stopped laughing, and looked at me, dead serious. "I'm no one, I just want revenge."

"Listen to me! Whatever he did to you... he's changed..." I said desperately, trying to reason with her.

"You really believe that?" She said. She walked up to me and pulled the hair from my neck. The wounds... "Looks like he almost had you for a snack too."

"He did it to save me." I protested.

She leaned over so she was in my face. "You just keep on telling yourself that, Hun."



Angel:

I ran to her home but I knew she wouldn't be there. But this was the first place to look.

I picked up a familiar scent... it confused me for a minute until I realized who it was.

Leanna. My claimed, now vampire, a sorceress. I never raised her like I did my other fledglings. She was always alone... but she grew powerful with the assistance of ancient magicks. She was supposed to be dead, she had disappeared for twenty years...

And now she was back.

"Oh Kate..." I murmured.

She had Kate, I had to find her before she did something to Kate. I wouldn't lose her now, I was so close...

Close? Close to what?



Ignore it, find her.

I inhaled deeply, tracking the scent, down the hallway.

"You know," A voice from behind me said. "You might just follow the note she left you."

I spun around, but before me was a shortish old man. He cocked a bushy eyebrow. "She left this for you."

He produced a note from one of his sleeves. I stared at it for a moment, then took it.

"Who are you?" I asked.

He merely looked at me, tilting his head to the side. "You better hurry if you want to save her.

I looked at the piece of paper, it had an address.

I looked back up to find he was gone.

I swallowed, then turned around and rushed off into the night.



Kate:

I inhaled sharply when a strange feeling hit me. He was coming. I felt it. I sighed in relief, everything would be fine.



As if you ever doubted it?

But what if he didn't win? I had been watching 'Leanna' as she called herself, for a while and from the looks of it she was preparing some sort of spell.



Have faith.

Yes. Have Faith. Angel was powerful enough, he would get me, save me.



He can't fail, not now because... because I care. I care too much.

Don't worry for him.

But part of me really did not just because of what it would mean to me if he failed. Because I... I...

Angel crashed through the painted widows of the warehouse.

Before I knew it my captor had me by the throat.

"Don't move, Angel, or I will kill her." She said simply, no 'I will destroy her' or 'Blondie her will get it' she just said what she meant. And she meant to kill me.

I looked up sharply as I heard Angel growl. He was not in his vampire face, but he still looked pretty scary. "What do you want Leanna? Me? It's been two hundred years. Why seek vengeance on me now?"

"You abandoned me, Angelus, left me, never trained me like the others, was I too weak? Didn't you care?"

"No, I didn't care; not about you or anybody. I didn't have a soul. But then... well you know. And it came back and I cared." He walked closer. "I wanted so bad to take it back. So yeah I did care at a time." He was right up to me. Leanna looked at him with the saddest eyes I've ever seen.

"I did." He extended his arms and welcomed her into them. For a moment I felt a pang of jealousy.



Jealousy? for what?

Oh don't even pretend, you know exactly what's going on. You love him.

He extended a stake from his wrist and stabbed her in the chest with it. She gave him a look of disbelief before disappearing into a cloud of dust.

He then turned to me, guilty looking as ever.



Angel:

I can't say that I wasn't sorry to stake her, she was so human like with her emotions she was almost...

But don't think of that now. She's dust.

We had the binding spell broken. And after it was done I looked at her, waiting.

"Angel..." She started.

"I know, It was my fault Kate, I take all the blame."

"No, Angel." She said looking at me, searching my face.

"I'm sorry Kate."

"Stop it Angel!" She exclaimed, I looked down. "Quit blaming yourself, it's not your fault."

I looked up at her, making eye contact. "She was from my past, Kate, she attacked you because of me."

"Angel, that's not what I was going to say." She continued.

"You weren't?"

"No, it's just... I had a lot of time to think about... things while I was down there and I realized..." She stopped.

"What is it?" I asked moving forward to take her in my arms.



Kate:

It was harder when he was holding me like this, to tell him, to admit...

"Angel I..." I heard my own voice waver.

He brushed the hair from my face and ran his fingers down the side of my head. It felt so right yet so wrong.

"Nothing... Angel, never mind it's nothing..." I said, pulling away. I turned and walked, bummed as Hell that I couldn't say it.

"Kate?" His voice called.

"Yeah?"

He looked at me seriously, searching me for a long moment. "I love you."

I stood there for a moment ten feet away from each other in the darkness of the streets of LA.

"I love you." I told him copying his phrase, then turning and walking home in the darkness.

I felt strange and for the first time in forever...

I smiled.

END