Thus the Siren of Blood Was Born
Chapter Eleven
Los Angeles, Halloween, 1999.
"Tonight's my birthday," thought Kandyl aloud as she walked down the dark dank alleyways of Los Angeles, California. She'd been back in the states for about three months--having ended her stay in Hawaii. Something had pulled her to LA, though she wasn't entirely sure as of yet. Tonight was indeed the female vampires' birthday, she'd be 127 years old, born in 1872. It was also her vampire birthday--she's been a vampire for 111 years.
Being a witch gave Kandyl a few perks--such as the necklace she'd fashioned to allow herself to walk in the sunlight.. even if it was only for a few short hours a day. It also came with the perk that she could see herself within mirrors. Just today, Kandyl gazed at herself in the reflection of a store front.. she looked sixteen still--but with the modern clothes she wore... she looked as if she could be twenty-one.
That's what her drivers license said--her fake birth certificate gave the birth year 1978--this would be her twenty-first birthday. In a few years, as she got a little older and her looks didn't change... she'd have to fudge a new one, but that worry was far from her head tonight. The en-souled vampire walked the alleyways of LA to go to a real bar, a real club.
Not one for the vampires of LA, not one for those who didn't have a soul--those who were bloodthirsty monsters. As she walked those dark alleyways... she felt something tug at her once more, turning her in a completely different direction than she'd previously been walking. It tugged her towards Sunset Boulevard--which wasn't a bad thing to her.. since that's where the best clubs to be seen at in LA were located.
But it wasn't the clubs or bars or alcohol that was drawing Kandyl closer. It was something deeper, stronger. It wasn't blood-lust, it was something more... before she could find the source of the heart-tugging, it stopped abruptly. Whatever trail she was following, so to speak, went cold. Chewing at her lower lip, Kandyl shook her head somewhat--the thought of Angelus slipping into her mind for only half a second before she dismissed it--following the trail on to the Strip through the darkness and eventually finding a satisfactory club.
Leaving Buffy was probably the hardest thing Angel had ever had to do. Perhaps the only things it could rank up next to would be the guilt of killing his family--namely his younger sister...and the way that he left so abruptly, leaving his sire Darla (though since then he's killed her), leaving his prodigy (and since then nearly having killed him), leaving his favorite play thing (and he's nearly killed her too....) and then leaving her...
Angel couldn't say that it had been many moons since Crystal entered his thoughts last. Drucilla had been entirely dependent on him at one time or another--until Spike had come along into her life. Darla, well, it was no secret she'd never been quite dependent on him. But Crystal, Angel knew he was her entire world and then some...leaving her behind was worse than the trail of blood he'd left behind once he gained his soul.
It pained him still today--that he hadn't been able to find her and make amends. The one time Angel had felt her presence since 1898--was shortly after first meeting Buffy a few years ago... and at that point, he figured it was just guilt. Buffy was the Slayer--strong, beautiful, sassy when she wanted to be--and innocent. Everything that Crystal was when she was human... though Angel would more say strong-willed, since Crystal had been weak physically, maybe not mentally. But Crystal most certainly was beautiful, and sassy after she was turned and her true personality began to show.
Crystal had indeed been innocent...the most innocent blood he'd ever tasted next to Buffy's. Buffy had a bit of darkness to her though, which Angel always guessed was part of tasting Slayer blood--which he never had. He hadn't killed Slayers in the past like Spike, though he'd come across them a time or two before and after his en-souling. The fact was; he and Buffy would never truly be together. True love, which is what Angel believed he had with Buffy--was what inevitably kept them apart. They couldn't truly love, even though they did, because Angelus came back.. That one moment of pure happiness...sent Angel over the edge and spiraling back down into his former evil self.
But did Angelus ever truly go away, even when he was Angel? That was a question he found himself asking quite often within his mind. The impulses, they're still there... but with the soul comes guilt and the want to do good--the want to be human-like. But Angel wasn't human... he was far from it. He couldn't go out during the day... he couldn't see himself in the mirror... he didn't show up in photographs... he couldn't even really leave Buffy with a true memory of him--other than her memories and the Claddagh ring...and the necklace. He hoped that was enough.
What did he ever leave Crystal with? Besides an eternal life... and an eternal blood-lust. Through Buffy's watcher Giles, Angel heard about Crystal's turn for the worst after he disappeared in 1898... she'd become the Siren of Blood. Part of him couldn't help but smirk--pleased she became the very thing Angelus desperately wanted her to become.... but Angel had no idea that Kandyl, as she went by now, had a soul as well. He had no idea that she'd stopped her carnage--well... obviously she had, or he'd still hear about her. He figured she'd finally been dusted...
but that's when he felt it. He hadn't been in Los Angeles but a month or so when he felt that familiar tug at his heart-string... the same one he felt when Drucilla was near..and Darla. It was the bond between the sired and the sire... Naturally, in LA, Angel believed it was probably Dru he was sensing--Dru and Spike having fled Sunnydale, they could have come here...knowing the Slayer had no use coming to LA besides her Father living here. It had been her previous stomping ground after all.
The feeling was faint and it got stronger and stronger--until it disappeared all together. He didn't like the fact it disappeared, no; it left him with a sense of longing almost... He put it out of his mind and continued on with what he was meant to do tonight. His mission tonight? Honestly? It was just to get as rip roaring drunk as he possibly could... and to that... he achieved his goal.
But considering alcohol burned out of the system of a vampire relatively quickly--thirty minutes later when he saw three guys--vampires most obviously, leave the bar with two females... he was sober enough to pursue them, out into the alleyway.
It was around midnight as Kandyl began once more walking the streets of Los Angeles after partying since around dusk-fall on the Strip. Just like Angel, the alcohol in her bloodstream as she walked down the sidewalk and alley-paths began to disappear...leaving her getting soberer and soberer. It was about that time--Kandyl peaking at her sobriety and wishing she was back at the club drinking more heartily than ever, that she heard a scream.
With her agility--Kandyl appeared at the seen of the scream in just a few seconds.. the alleyway hadn't been too far away to begin with. A vampire, freshly risen by the smell of him, was taking one of his first feeds--two other vamps with him, and another victim about to be ripped into. "Drop her," Kandyl's still slight British accent said in a stern but all too natural husky sounding voice.
The vampires' eyes went from the victim at hand to Kandyl--whom he most certainly didn't recognize as a vampire, without the distorted face. "Oh, would you like to play save your friend or something doll face?" He asked, causing Kandyl to snort a laugh, rolling her eyes.
"You new ones get denser and denser--isn't your spidey sense tingling that I'm the same thing you are? Just older, and better." Kandyl's face slowly distorted causing the vampire to drop the girl to the ground, the other girl shrieking at the fact there was now a fourth (unbeknownst to Kandyl, a fifth) vampire in the alleyway.
"Nice try lil' girl. I'm sure we've been at the game much longer than you," he snarled and Kandyl just let out a soft giggle of superiority. "Mmm, I'm doubting it. 111 years definitely trumps your eleven nights."
The three vampire males chuckled, looking between themselves. "You may have age on us--but I'm sure you still aren't better." At that moment, Kandyl shoved her hand towards him--without even touching him, a burst of energy pushed him into the brick wall--hard. It cracked a few bricks, shook the building, and people started running out the front screaming earthquake. Kandyl smirked, watching the shocked faces of the vampires.
"You aren't a vampire." One had the audacity to say and she looked in his direction, eyes red instead of the usual golden color of a vampire. Her eyes were red--the color of the devil.. To Kandyl, she was a demon and she was a servant of the devil--Angelus. Soul or no soul, that's what she believed. She wasn't a vampire, she wasn't a witch--she was a demon.
"No. I'm a fairy fucking Godmother. I'm a vampire, you nit. I'm just better than you." She hissed through clenched teeth and shoved her hand out again--this time, she'd used so much energy... he dissolved into nothing... not even dust--tinier than that. The eyes got wide of the other two vampires--including the vampire she'd thrown against the brick wall.
"You're a goddamn demon." He stuttered just before she silenced him--giving the two other vampire males the same fate their other friend mate--dissolution. Looking towards the girls in the corner, huddled together shaking in fear... she smirked a bit--her face distorting back to normal but her eyes remaining red as fire.
"You aren't a demon, are you?" One asked in a quivering voice. "Yes, I am," Kandyl said with a slight smirk, closing her eyes for a moment or two and opened them, they'd returned to their kinder blue hue. "Surely a demon couldn't have saved our life... she'd take it..." the other whispered, standing up and walking closer to Kandyl--wanting to thank her.
"I'm a demon and you'll do good to remember it," the blonde said firmly and with a little ball of her energy, she shoved the girls lightly out from the alleyway, "go straight home. It's not safe for humans this time of night. Not in this town anyway." The two girls disappeared into the night.
Having watched the spectacle unfold before his eyes--Angel knew precisely who it was talking, the voice ringing clear through his head... he recognized her and how she hadn't changed in over a hundred years. Her long luscious blonde hair, her tan skin even for a British woman back in the day was marvelous--now even more so.. And the minute she showed the red eyes that he'd only known Crystal to have... and the witch-like abilities... he knew he'd found her at last...
or rather, she'd found him. Stepping out from the shadows, Angel not only felt that familiar heart string once more...but Kandyl felt it as well--turning her head backwards and seeing him, truly seeing him for the first time in years... since he'd been with Buffy in that cemetery in Sunnydale... and before then.. well... Kandyl preferred not to think about the past too much.
Chewing on her lower lip, she turned her body completely around--it was a nervous habit of hers... that's what Angel thought when he saw her doing it... she'd always done it... even after being turned. He was certain she probably did it while torturing those she murdered in Europe years ago.. he was most certainly right.
"You haven't changed a bit," his voice was soft, calm, collected, and smooth just as it always had been to her ears. He'd lost his Irish accent--something she'd loved so dearly. "Neither have you... except the long hair is gone," she pouted somewhat--her British accent was still there, just barely... but there.
Stepping closer to one another, Kandyl found herself still shorter than her sire but nonetheless looking right up into his dark eyes... So many questions he had for her...and so many answers she wanted from him...
"Tonight's my birthday," thought Kandyl aloud as she walked down the dark dank alleyways of Los Angeles, California. She'd been back in the states for about three months--having ended her stay in Hawaii. Something had pulled her to LA, though she wasn't entirely sure as of yet. Tonight was indeed the female vampires' birthday, she'd be 127 years old, born in 1872. It was also her vampire birthday--she's been a vampire for 111 years.
Being a witch gave Kandyl a few perks--such as the necklace she'd fashioned to allow herself to walk in the sunlight.. even if it was only for a few short hours a day. It also came with the perk that she could see herself within mirrors. Just today, Kandyl gazed at herself in the reflection of a store front.. she looked sixteen still--but with the modern clothes she wore... she looked as if she could be twenty-one.
That's what her drivers license said--her fake birth certificate gave the birth year 1978--this would be her twenty-first birthday. In a few years, as she got a little older and her looks didn't change... she'd have to fudge a new one, but that worry was far from her head tonight. The en-souled vampire walked the alleyways of LA to go to a real bar, a real club.
Not one for the vampires of LA, not one for those who didn't have a soul--those who were bloodthirsty monsters. As she walked those dark alleyways... she felt something tug at her once more, turning her in a completely different direction than she'd previously been walking. It tugged her towards Sunset Boulevard--which wasn't a bad thing to her.. since that's where the best clubs to be seen at in LA were located.
But it wasn't the clubs or bars or alcohol that was drawing Kandyl closer. It was something deeper, stronger. It wasn't blood-lust, it was something more... before she could find the source of the heart-tugging, it stopped abruptly. Whatever trail she was following, so to speak, went cold. Chewing at her lower lip, Kandyl shook her head somewhat--the thought of Angelus slipping into her mind for only half a second before she dismissed it--following the trail on to the Strip through the darkness and eventually finding a satisfactory club.
Leaving Buffy was probably the hardest thing Angel had ever had to do. Perhaps the only things it could rank up next to would be the guilt of killing his family--namely his younger sister...and the way that he left so abruptly, leaving his sire Darla (though since then he's killed her), leaving his prodigy (and since then nearly having killed him), leaving his favorite play thing (and he's nearly killed her too....) and then leaving her...
Angel couldn't say that it had been many moons since Crystal entered his thoughts last. Drucilla had been entirely dependent on him at one time or another--until Spike had come along into her life. Darla, well, it was no secret she'd never been quite dependent on him. But Crystal, Angel knew he was her entire world and then some...leaving her behind was worse than the trail of blood he'd left behind once he gained his soul.
It pained him still today--that he hadn't been able to find her and make amends. The one time Angel had felt her presence since 1898--was shortly after first meeting Buffy a few years ago... and at that point, he figured it was just guilt. Buffy was the Slayer--strong, beautiful, sassy when she wanted to be--and innocent. Everything that Crystal was when she was human... though Angel would more say strong-willed, since Crystal had been weak physically, maybe not mentally. But Crystal most certainly was beautiful, and sassy after she was turned and her true personality began to show.
Crystal had indeed been innocent...the most innocent blood he'd ever tasted next to Buffy's. Buffy had a bit of darkness to her though, which Angel always guessed was part of tasting Slayer blood--which he never had. He hadn't killed Slayers in the past like Spike, though he'd come across them a time or two before and after his en-souling. The fact was; he and Buffy would never truly be together. True love, which is what Angel believed he had with Buffy--was what inevitably kept them apart. They couldn't truly love, even though they did, because Angelus came back.. That one moment of pure happiness...sent Angel over the edge and spiraling back down into his former evil self.
But did Angelus ever truly go away, even when he was Angel? That was a question he found himself asking quite often within his mind. The impulses, they're still there... but with the soul comes guilt and the want to do good--the want to be human-like. But Angel wasn't human... he was far from it. He couldn't go out during the day... he couldn't see himself in the mirror... he didn't show up in photographs... he couldn't even really leave Buffy with a true memory of him--other than her memories and the Claddagh ring...and the necklace. He hoped that was enough.
What did he ever leave Crystal with? Besides an eternal life... and an eternal blood-lust. Through Buffy's watcher Giles, Angel heard about Crystal's turn for the worst after he disappeared in 1898... she'd become the Siren of Blood. Part of him couldn't help but smirk--pleased she became the very thing Angelus desperately wanted her to become.... but Angel had no idea that Kandyl, as she went by now, had a soul as well. He had no idea that she'd stopped her carnage--well... obviously she had, or he'd still hear about her. He figured she'd finally been dusted...
but that's when he felt it. He hadn't been in Los Angeles but a month or so when he felt that familiar tug at his heart-string... the same one he felt when Drucilla was near..and Darla. It was the bond between the sired and the sire... Naturally, in LA, Angel believed it was probably Dru he was sensing--Dru and Spike having fled Sunnydale, they could have come here...knowing the Slayer had no use coming to LA besides her Father living here. It had been her previous stomping ground after all.
The feeling was faint and it got stronger and stronger--until it disappeared all together. He didn't like the fact it disappeared, no; it left him with a sense of longing almost... He put it out of his mind and continued on with what he was meant to do tonight. His mission tonight? Honestly? It was just to get as rip roaring drunk as he possibly could... and to that... he achieved his goal.
But considering alcohol burned out of the system of a vampire relatively quickly--thirty minutes later when he saw three guys--vampires most obviously, leave the bar with two females... he was sober enough to pursue them, out into the alleyway.
It was around midnight as Kandyl began once more walking the streets of Los Angeles after partying since around dusk-fall on the Strip. Just like Angel, the alcohol in her bloodstream as she walked down the sidewalk and alley-paths began to disappear...leaving her getting soberer and soberer. It was about that time--Kandyl peaking at her sobriety and wishing she was back at the club drinking more heartily than ever, that she heard a scream.
With her agility--Kandyl appeared at the seen of the scream in just a few seconds.. the alleyway hadn't been too far away to begin with. A vampire, freshly risen by the smell of him, was taking one of his first feeds--two other vamps with him, and another victim about to be ripped into. "Drop her," Kandyl's still slight British accent said in a stern but all too natural husky sounding voice.
The vampires' eyes went from the victim at hand to Kandyl--whom he most certainly didn't recognize as a vampire, without the distorted face. "Oh, would you like to play save your friend or something doll face?" He asked, causing Kandyl to snort a laugh, rolling her eyes.
"You new ones get denser and denser--isn't your spidey sense tingling that I'm the same thing you are? Just older, and better." Kandyl's face slowly distorted causing the vampire to drop the girl to the ground, the other girl shrieking at the fact there was now a fourth (unbeknownst to Kandyl, a fifth) vampire in the alleyway.
"Nice try lil' girl. I'm sure we've been at the game much longer than you," he snarled and Kandyl just let out a soft giggle of superiority. "Mmm, I'm doubting it. 111 years definitely trumps your eleven nights."
The three vampire males chuckled, looking between themselves. "You may have age on us--but I'm sure you still aren't better." At that moment, Kandyl shoved her hand towards him--without even touching him, a burst of energy pushed him into the brick wall--hard. It cracked a few bricks, shook the building, and people started running out the front screaming earthquake. Kandyl smirked, watching the shocked faces of the vampires.
"You aren't a vampire." One had the audacity to say and she looked in his direction, eyes red instead of the usual golden color of a vampire. Her eyes were red--the color of the devil.. To Kandyl, she was a demon and she was a servant of the devil--Angelus. Soul or no soul, that's what she believed. She wasn't a vampire, she wasn't a witch--she was a demon.
"No. I'm a fairy fucking Godmother. I'm a vampire, you nit. I'm just better than you." She hissed through clenched teeth and shoved her hand out again--this time, she'd used so much energy... he dissolved into nothing... not even dust--tinier than that. The eyes got wide of the other two vampires--including the vampire she'd thrown against the brick wall.
"You're a goddamn demon." He stuttered just before she silenced him--giving the two other vampire males the same fate their other friend mate--dissolution. Looking towards the girls in the corner, huddled together shaking in fear... she smirked a bit--her face distorting back to normal but her eyes remaining red as fire.
"You aren't a demon, are you?" One asked in a quivering voice. "Yes, I am," Kandyl said with a slight smirk, closing her eyes for a moment or two and opened them, they'd returned to their kinder blue hue. "Surely a demon couldn't have saved our life... she'd take it..." the other whispered, standing up and walking closer to Kandyl--wanting to thank her.
"I'm a demon and you'll do good to remember it," the blonde said firmly and with a little ball of her energy, she shoved the girls lightly out from the alleyway, "go straight home. It's not safe for humans this time of night. Not in this town anyway." The two girls disappeared into the night.
Having watched the spectacle unfold before his eyes--Angel knew precisely who it was talking, the voice ringing clear through his head... he recognized her and how she hadn't changed in over a hundred years. Her long luscious blonde hair, her tan skin even for a British woman back in the day was marvelous--now even more so.. And the minute she showed the red eyes that he'd only known Crystal to have... and the witch-like abilities... he knew he'd found her at last...
or rather, she'd found him. Stepping out from the shadows, Angel not only felt that familiar heart string once more...but Kandyl felt it as well--turning her head backwards and seeing him, truly seeing him for the first time in years... since he'd been with Buffy in that cemetery in Sunnydale... and before then.. well... Kandyl preferred not to think about the past too much.
Chewing on her lower lip, she turned her body completely around--it was a nervous habit of hers... that's what Angel thought when he saw her doing it... she'd always done it... even after being turned. He was certain she probably did it while torturing those she murdered in Europe years ago.. he was most certainly right.
"You haven't changed a bit," his voice was soft, calm, collected, and smooth just as it always had been to her ears. He'd lost his Irish accent--something she'd loved so dearly. "Neither have you... except the long hair is gone," she pouted somewhat--her British accent was still there, just barely... but there.
Stepping closer to one another, Kandyl found herself still shorter than her sire but nonetheless looking right up into his dark eyes... So many questions he had for her...and so many answers she wanted from him...
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