Twice Lucky

Angels and Demons

Chapter 4: Only human

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He'd been following the man for a week, watching every move he'd made, every breath and every action he'd taken. He drew in a cigarette and let the smoke drift lazily up into the morning air, he breathed in the scent, so many people milling about, going about their daily lives without so much as even giving him a glance. Fine by Spike, he liked it that way, as he was being incognito.

God, he grinned as the man bought a newspaper, it made him feel good, like old times as he and Dru would pick a target, it sent a thrill up his spine, which was followed closely by guilt, he missed her, nutty as a fruit cake but good in the sack.

Spike listened to a conversation that was happening, the next on the list of subjects was a woman being followed, Melissa Burns, did indeed look stressed. From his vantage point he had a good clear view of what was going, Ronald Meltzer was supposedly an acclaimed neurosurgeon who performed critical surgery on an infected nerve behind her eye, he was very good at what he did and fell in love. The man had been stalking her ever since, using a means that most normal human beings couldn't do such as taking apart pieces of the body.

Disgusting, that was the word to use. Spike knew from personal experience that falling apart on a girl was not the way to get one, hell he remembered a certain gypsy he'd fallen for and even then she'd placed a curse on him. He started following the good doctor at a discreet pace; he didn't necessarily need him in eye contact as he could follow him by smell.

They were watching his every move, Angel had called up the short straw and had to trail the man at nighttime while Spike got the ring and followed him during the day. He thought about all the nasty things he could do with it, hell he was invincible, he could probably take on Buffy…but he wouldn't, not with Harris and two other slayers and that demon bitch lurking about.

Harris, one hell of a conundrum right there, knew stuff, stuff that Spike hadn't told anyone, stuff that Harris shouldn't know. And Harris had confronted him about it, his past actions, hell even his own mother. Spike felt the old pang of sorrow at what he had done and knew deep within his dead heart that the kid was right, he like Angel, whether or not he admitted it, was seeking redemption. This was the best step forward.

Literally, Spike followed the poor girl into a shop and smirked when she looked around, she couldn't spot him but Spike knew where the good Doctor was. Spike strolled past her and into the shop she was going in and she almost had a heart attack.

Interesting, he picked up a book and looked at the cover, it was one of JK Rowling's latest Potter books, he flipped through it, could be interesting. The bird nervously came in and walked past him, time to put on his acting hat.

He stood next to her as she hid by one of the book stands and very quietly said, "Love you won't know who I am, but I know you, I also happen to know that you're being followed by a man who has something of a crush on you."

She jerked visibly and started to say something and turned to face him but he told her not to, "We don't want to be noticed, he's got eyes everywhere."

She shivered and nodded.

"Is there a toilet in here?"

She nodded, "Good, go to it, I'll join you in a second."

The vampire took one of the assistants aside and spoke to him quietly, he handed the young man his card showing him that he was a P.I. and that he was helping a woman, he wanted the man to get a female co worker to follow him, discreetly. Seconds later a more mature looking woman walked in and introduced herself, Spike shook her hand and made it look as though they were talking about a book of some sort, a minute after that he made his move and ducked into the toilet with her a short distance behind.

"What exactly is going on?"

"Miss Burns is being followed by a Doctor who has got something of a crush on her; he literally falls to pieces thinking about her, in fact." Spike flashed a grin and with a flash pulled something from the top of the toilet door. "In fact…"

In a swift move Spike grabbed the hand that had been sitting on top of the toilet door just out of view, the older woman paled, but to Spike's surprise Melissa didn't.

He smiled and looked at the supervisor who looked like she wanted to up chuck everywhere, "Be a love and step outside for a moment."

The woman nodded. Spike turned around to Melissa and smiled, he then lifted the hand up to his eye. "Hiya Doc, my names Spike, as in William the Bloody, you may have heard of me, this, mate, is the only warning you get."

He placed the squirming hand down on the ground and crushed it, the eyeball squelched and the hand went flat as he crushed all of the bones. "Looks like he's gonna need a hand donor."

Melissa smiled grimly at Spike's humour.

Outside the man screamed loudly enough to draw attention from passers by.

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"And in here we have the bathroom, very modern everything a girl could want." Melissa didn't know what to say, the young brunette Angel's secretary was showing her around a new home that had only recently been built by XH services, whoever they were, they had paid for everything, furniture, clothes, food, you name it.

"Who are XH-services?"

"A privately owned company, a very big organisation, which you and I both have the privilege of working for." Melissa blinked.

"Miss Chase I thought you said."

"Please call me Cordellia, it sounds so formal," Melissa smiled and nodded, "I do work for Angel investigations, but they are a smaller branch of XH-Services."

"Oh."

"Mr Harris was very pleased with your CV," truth be told it was actually Giles who had looked it over, the old Watcher was the head of the company for the moment, a proxy until Xander came of age and could officially take over.

"XH-services have a very good dental plan, health insurance, pension scheme and medical plan, work hard and work well, and they'll look after you."

"What's going to happen to my old house?"

"Its going to suffer an accident, which is why we moved all of your stuff out of there today, and the insurance company will pay in full due to faulty wiring."

Melissa shivered, the day had started out bad, really bad, and then in a moment all of her prayers were answered in the form of a knight in shining armour. To top it off, he'd then offered her a job, she'd gone to see a very professional and stern looking woman, who'd looked over her CV and accepted her on the spot. It turned out they were looking for staff as they'd just opened a branch in LA.

Life, Melissa figured, was finally on the up.

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The man was tied up, bound and gagged with lots and lots of duct tape and was unable to fall apart to escape, they had researched his condition and had found out that the best way to stop him from doing this was by getting something that smelled strong and putting it in the house, that way he wouldn't be able to concentrate.

The man gurgled something in his gag.

"Sorry mate," Spike was standing over him, "No sympathies, if you'd just left her alone."

The man snarled something. Spike shrugged, "Been called worse."

Spike walked over to him and looked down into the one eye that showed fear, "You know, I asked Harris, told him about your condition and asked what the best way of dealing with you was, he said extreme heat, it would burn all of you and make sure nothing would survive."

"Do you know what he gave me?"

The man shook his head, "This," he held up a small canister with a ring attached to it, it looked like a grenade just not as deadly, "Is an incendiary Phosphorous grenade, very nasty."

Spike smiled.

"Say hi to the Devil for me, tell him I'll see him soon."

Spike pulled the pin and placed it between the guy's legs, the man shook himself but was unable to free his arms.

As Spike walked down the stairs he flexed his ears and heard the scream, hot potatoes, Spike thought with a smirk.

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"Why is Mr Harris doing this?"

Cordellia stopped at the question, opened her mouth to speak and then closed it. She shrugged, "Because he can."

"But why help me?"

"I don't know the answer to that," the ex cheerleader shook her head, "I don't know why he does what he does, or even why he helps people, he's one of the few souls around that actually gives a damn, I'll give you a piece of advice, don't kick a gift horse in the mouth."

With that advice, Melissa smiled and thanked whatever God or God's were looking out for her and unpacked.