* * * * The Banshee's Wail (Part 6) All three heads turned to Angel. Two with confused shock showing on their faces and the other with surprised suspicion. "Care to run that by me again?" Cordelia asked, a little miffed. "What do you mean by Doyle?" Angel stepped forward, and sat on a nearby chair as though the realization that had just hit him, was too much to take right then. "Not Doyle as in Doyle." "Huh?" "The Doyle family. Generations of his ancestors were and still are being protected by Nia. They are her charges." Angel's voice dropped to a whisper, so soft that if they hadn't been paying such close attention, the others would have missed what he said. "He was her charge." Cordelia breathed a soft "Oh" as the realization of what Angel had said dawned on her. She stepped forward to place a hand on the vampire's shoulder and Wesley came to stand beside them. They stood like that for a moment, each lost their own thoughts when suddenly the next words they heard gave them all a shock. "Actually, he still is." "I beg your pardon?" Wesley demanded. "I said, Doyle is still under my care." Nia said, a little impatiently. "Now listen here," Wesley started angrily, "You've said some mighty hurtful things today, but this by far surpasses them all. We are all quite aware of the fact that Doyle is…dead." His voice wavered. "So I don't see what pleasure you can gain from denying that fact." Nia glared at him again, she was beginning to dislike him more and more. "Don't call him that. Only his friends ever called him Doyle, and you could never be that to him." Her voice was very low and thick. She stood up and faced Wesley. "And as for what I get out of this, I don't know about your perverted sense of pleasure but I see nothing good in death, especially when it comes to one of my people. And I'm telling you the truth, Doyle is still alive." "How can you be so sure?" Cordelia's tone was unusually quiet, even fearful. Nia glanced at Cordelia, "We, as the banshees, know when a person's death is coming. We can feel it in our ancient bones. It screams at us, taunts us with the knowledge that we can't stop it. But the fact is that we *know*." "And?" Wesley asked simply. Nia did not acknowledge his question, but instead walked towards Angel, and knelt in front of where he sat. "When Doyle's supposed death took place I received no warning, there was no sign, no pain. There was nothing. The only way I even came to know of that night, is that word of the Scourge travels fast, even overseas." She looked into Angel's eyes. "You know that I'm right. You know it deep down, and you have to trust me. Doyle's in trouble, for real, and if we don't act soon we may lose him for good this time." But Angel stared blankly back at her, only her earlier words making it through to his head. _Doyle is still alive_. It couldn't be true, there was no way at all. He had seen it happen, he had seen him jump onto the beacon, seen him burn away, seen his ashes fall. Wait a minute, what ashes? There had been nothing at all. He had thought it was better that way, nothing to torment him with the memories of his first real friend, in a long time. Angel's eyes went past Nia and locked with Cordelia's. He could see that the same confusing questions were running through her mind. But there was something else. Though what Nia had said to her earlier had been harsh, it had been true. Cordelia knew it in her heart and it was just a matter of time before someone called her on it. She had let the painful thoughts of Doyle's death flee from her mind, along with all of the good memories that had been embedded there. She had tried so hard to forget him, just because it hurt so much to remember him. And although she may seriously dislike the demon, and she knew the feeling was mutual, she felt that Nia was telling the truth. Something about the way her voice wavered a little when she mentioned Doyle, or about the strength in her words when she spoke of her duties as a banshee, struck a deep chord in the brunette. It was the same way that Giles used to be about his being a watcher. It was a job that brought not just responsibility, but a sense of pride. It was their place in the world and they took the duties handed to them with vigour. It was something that Cordelia secretly envied and it was for these reasons that she believed that Nia was telling the truth. A simple nod of her head let Angel know of her feelings. Angel flashed Cordelia his famous half-smile and turned his attention back to Nia. "We're in." The banshee's eyes smiled at him, though her lips played in a smirk. "It's about time, at the rate this was going, I thought it'd take an apocalypse before you'd get off your arses." * * * * ~Skye Protector Banshee of True Heroes Doyle Denial Member #62 D.O.D. Member #37 Cordelia and Doyle Guardian Angel #192 "Run to the water and find me there burnt to the core but not broken we'll cut through the madness of these streets below the moon" --Live "Run to the Water" And one of the many gals who, when the mention of Doyle's *supposed* death comes around, sticks her fingers in her ears, and yells at the top of her lungs; "I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!" Get New Hotmail Notifications and Free Instant Messaging at http://messenger.msn.com ReplyReply AllForwardDeletePreviousNextClose (Move to Selected Folder) Inbox Sent Messages Drafts Trash Can Anime Naito Ever Wonder? 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