The Demon Detective

The Only Way Out

Angel froze. Humans. Controlled, maybe, but still human. Their minds were not their own. Hurting them felt wrong. Letting them hurt him would get Danny killed.

He dodged the first swing of a blue rod. The air near it crackled with cold. He shoved the guard back, but another was already there. A rod grazed his arm. Instantly, a wave of numbness shot up to his shoulder. His fingers tingled, going cold.

“Angel, your vitals are dipping!” Cordelia’s voice yelled in his ear.

“I’m fine,” he grunted, ducking another strike. He couldn’t fight them like vampires. He had to be smarter.

“Gunn, I’m in the basement!” Wesley’s voice hissed over the comms. “I found a reinforced door! Electronic lock. I can bypass it, but it will take time!”

“Hurry, Wes,” Gunn’s voice came, faint and echoing. “I’m in the walls, I can hear… something. Lots of somethings. Up above you, Angel. Be careful.”

Angel backed toward the grand staircase. The guards followed, their movements coordinated, emotionless. He needed to break their control. He remembered the crystal. It pulsed. These rods were like small versions of that.

He feinted left, then grabbed a dusty sheet from a covered statue. He flung it over two of the guards, tangling them. While they struggled, he turned and smashed his fist into a marble wall pillar. A large chunk broke off. He didn’t throw it at the guards. He threw it at the high, ornate glass window behind Lee.

The glass shattered with an enormous crash. The cold night wind rushed in, scattering papers and dust.

For just a second, the blank-faced guards flinched at the sudden noise and rush of air. Their perfect formation broke. Their eyes flickered, confused.

*The control needs focus*, Angel thought. *Break the focus.*

He charged the two untangled guards, not to punch, but to grab their rods. He wrenched them free and threw them out the broken window. The blue glow vanished into the night.

The guards blinked, looking around, dazed. “Wha… where am I?”

“Get out!” Angel yelled at them. They stumbled toward the exit, confused but free.

The two under the sheet got up. Angel grabbed the heavy fabric and yanked, pulling them off their feet. He kicked their rods away, skittering across the floor. “The door. Now.”

Lee’s smile was gone. “Annoying.”

“The boy, Lee,” Angel said, walking toward him.

“Is a bonus,” Lee sneered. He pressed a button on his watch. “The main objective was always you.”

From the ceiling above, panels slid open. Six figures dropped down, landing in a circle around Angel. Vampires. Their eyes glowed a steady, mindless green. Marked. Fully ascended. Lee’s perfect soldiers.

“They don’t feel. They don’t think. They just obey,” Lee said, backing toward the elevator. “Kill him.”

The six marked vampires attacked as one.

It was like being hit by a truck. Angel was fast, but they were faster. He was strong, but they were stronger. Fists and claws pounded him from all sides. He couldn’t block them all. He felt a rib c***k. He tasted his own blood.

“Angel!” Cordelia screamed in his ear.

He couldn’t answer. He fought in a frenzy of survival. He staked one through the heart as it leapt at him. It exploded into green-tinged dust. But another was there, its claws raking down his back. He threw it into a third, sending them both crashing into a wall.

“Wesley, now!” Gunn’s voice roared over the comms.

In the basement, Wesley finally got the electronic lock to beep green. The heavy door swung open. Inside a small, clean room, a teenage boy, Danny, was tied to a chair. He was scared but unhurt.

“It’s alright, Daniel! We’re friends of your grandmother!” Wesley said, rushing to untie him.

Above them, Angel was losing. Three marked vampires were still on him. One had him in a bear hug from behind, crushing his broken rib. Another was moving in for the kill.

“The elevator, Angel!” Gunn’s voice came through, clear and urgent. “Get to the elevator shaft!”

With a final burst of strength, Angel snapped his head back, breaking the nose of the vampire holding him. He dropped, rolled, and ran for the elevator doors where Lee had vanished. He jammed his fingers into the c***k and pried them apart. The elevator car wasn’t there. It was a dark, open shaft above and below.

He didn’t hesitate. He jumped into the blackness, not down, but up. He grabbed the heavy steel cables and began to climb, hand over hand, faster than any human could.

The marked vampires rushed to the shaft. They looked down, then up. They didn’t climb. They jumped. They used their powerful legs to leap and catch the cables further up, closing the distance.

Angel reached the rooftop access door and kicked it open. He stumbled out onto the windy, flat roof of the Ramsey Building. A second later, the three marked vampires landed behind him.

He was cornered. No way down. Three super-strong killers between him and the door.

Then, a shadow detached itself from the rooftop water tower.

“You called?” Penn said. He stood there, his blue eyes calm in the moonlight. He looked at the three marked vampires. “Oh. More of my failed brothers. How… dull.”

The marked vampires turned from Angel to this new threat. They didn’t see an individual. They saw a target.

“Penn, don’t!” Angel yelled.

But Penn smiled. “You brought me a gift, Lee? How thoughtful.” He launched himself at the three marked vampires.

It was not a fight. It was a s*******r. Penn moved with a grace and precision the mindless soldiers didn’t have. He was a scalpel; they were blunt hammers. He ducked under a wild swing, grabbed the vampire’s arm, and with a sickening twist, broke it, then staked it with its own bone. He vanished in a puff of dust.

The other two attacked together. Penn moved between them, a blur of motion. He took the head off one with a sharp kick. The last one he simply overpowered, grabbing its head and snapping its neck with a brutal jerk before staking it.

In less than a minute, it was over. Penn stood alone among three piles of dust. He brushed off his hands. “See? Flawed.”

Angel stood, bleeding, hurting. “The boy is safe. Lee is getting away.”

“Lee is in the elevator, going down,” Penn said, pointing. “He thinks he’s escaping. I damaged the cables on my way up. The car will stop between floors. He’s trapped.” He walked closer to Angel. “You didn’t bring me for him. You came to save the human child. Even knowing it was a trap.”

“Yes.”

Penn stared at him, that deep curiosity returning. “You are a puzzle.” He looked over the edge of the roof. Sirens wailed in the distance. Lockley. “Our game is not over, Angel. But tonight… I’ll let you have your win.”

He gave a small, mocking bow, and stepped off the edge of the roof. He didn’t fall. He seemed to glide down the side of the building, disappearing into the city’s darkness.

Angel limped to the roof door. It was over. Danny was safe. Lee was trapped. But Penn was still out there. And he was more interested than ever.

Downstairs, Gunn and Wesley led a shaking Danny out to a waiting Cordelia, who wrapped him in a blanket. In the lobby, the police found Lee screaming in a stuck elevator.

Detective Lockley arrived last. She saw Angel leaning against a wall, hurt but standing. She saw the dust, the broken windows, the dazed security guards.

She walked up to him. “The boy is with his grandmother. Lee is in custody. For now.” She looked him up and down. “You’re a mess.”

“It was a tough night.”

“I’ll bet.” She paused. “The… things that did this. The ones that turned to dust. They’re gone?”

“Yes.”

She nodded slowly. “Good.” She started to walk away, then stopped. “Get your wounds looked at. I might need you again.”

Angel watched her go. The team gathered around him, tired but whole. They won tonight. But the cost was high. They had made a powerful, unpredictable enemy in Penn. And Wolfram & Hart had just shown they would use anyone, do anything, to win.

The fight for the city was changing. The lines were getting blurrier. And the night felt longer than ever.