"Kegan, I need- Kegan?"

Angel stared around the empty room.

"Hello?" he asked.

He could hear noises from the next room and made his way over to the door.


Kegan's head appeared from beneath the covers on her bed.

"Ah, Angel, so glad you could walk in. Say hello to Angel boys."

Two male heads poked out and grunted hellos. Angel shuddered slightly and turned around.

"I can come back."

"No, I can multi-task," said Kegan as the other heads disappeared again.

"Look, there are a lot of disturbing things that you do that I can put up with, but I am not talking business with you while you're clearly in the middle of...pleasure."

Kegan smirked.

"Why don't you join us then?" she asked. "Pleasure first, business later."

Angel rolled his eyes and turned around.

"I'll come back."

Kegan clambered out bed and grabbed hold of his arm. Angel closed his eyes tightly to avoid looking at her.

"Open your eyes you fool and get me out of here!" Kegan hissed. "You know that old 'big hands' saying? It's not true."

Angel snorted and averted his eyes away from her naked body.

"Oh for god's sake Angel, it's not as if you haven't seen it before! What's the job?"

Angel looked uncomfortable.

"Um...well...please put some clothes on."

"How much are you gonna pay me?" asked Kegan, smirking.

Angel scowled and Kegan sighed, snatching up a large shirt from the floor and pushing him out of the room.

"They won't even know I'm gone. I'm fairly sure they're gay. So, do tell. What do you need me to do for you this time?"

"You'll like this one," said Angel.

"I doubt that," said Kegan darkly, disappearing into another room and reappearing with a bottle of whiskey. "So what makes you think I'll like this one? If it's anything like any of the others, I won't."

"Oh come on, you liked the Wolfram and Hart one."

"Only because I got to steal more than one thing," said Kegan. "Anyway?"

"I...kind of need you to uh...be a prostitute," said Angel, biting his lip.

Kegan stared at him for a moment, her mouth slightly open in shock, before a grin curled her lips.

"Oh really?" she asked.

Angel shifted uncomfortably.

"So not only do you want me to mix business with pleasure, but you want me to be the whore that you personally condemned?" she asked, ghosting her fingers over his chest. "Don't you think that's going against most of your...morals?"

"I said I'm sorry," said Angel through gritted teeth.

Kegan took a swig from her bottle and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Angel, you haven't even begun to experience sorry," she said dangerously. "But luckily for you, I've had sex recently, or...I've had what the two in there think is sex, so I'm feeling forgiving. Why am I being a whore?"

"So that we can get into a haunted mansion and-"

"No," said Kegan at once. "I'm not doing it."

Angel stared at her.

"Why not?"

"Doesn't matter. I'm not. Goodbye."

Angel grinned.

"You're afraid of ghosts," he said.

"No," said Kegan truthfully. "Ghosts I am not afraid of."

"Then why won't you come to a haunted mansion with me?" asked Angel.

"Wait. So not only did you want me to be whore, but you wanted me to be your whore? Angel, I think you're slipping."

Angel wouldn't meet her eye as she got right up close to him.

"I thought you couldn't do that sort of stuff," she said. "And that even if you could, you wouldn't, because apparently, you have standards that I don't meet. I notice that the last time I met you, your standards were a fair bit lower."

"I was young and stupid."

"You were old and stupid!" Kegan scolded. "Just like you are now. You are passing up an amazing opportunity, and you know it."

"So are you. Why won't you come kill ghosts with us?"

"Because ghosts are a waste of time," Kegan snapped. "Everyone knows that. The moment you kill one, another one will pop up somewhere else because whenever someone dies, they are always either angry, or they have something they really need to do."

Angel eyed her curiously.

"If it's not the ghosts themselves, it's something about getting rid of them. I know you're not opposed to salt or most of the things used in a cleansing ritual, so I'm going with something that repels them."

Kegan scowled at him and took another swig of whiskey before turning away and shifting through glass jars on a shelf, searching for something she could cut.

"Holy water repels anything with a drop of demon blood so it can't really be what you're so scared of. You walk in and out of blessed buildings all the time, so it's not that."

"How can you possibly know which buildings are blessed or not?" asked Kegan. "I mean,I know, because I have The Sight, but how do you know?"

"I can't go in," said Angel. "It's not salt so...iron."

Kegan didn't say anything, just took down one of the jars and opened the lid. Angel nearly choked on the smell inside, and it only got worse when she pulled out the brains of some form of animal.

"Why can't you just be normal?" he groaned.

"Because I live to cause you discomfort," she said, examining the grey matter as she sat down in the large coal pit in the middle of the room. "And because normal is boring and not very brain straining."

"Brain straining? You strain your brain?" asked Angel skeptically.

"If I lost 50 IQ points, I'd still be smarter than most of the people in MENSA," said Kegan matter-of-factly.

"Well...good for you," Angel snapped. "So, how badly does iron affect you?"

"We're not having this conversation," said Kegan firmly.

"No, I think we are," said Angel, smirking and leaning against the wall. "You know, I always thought you were basically immune to everything but a deadly shot. Guess I was wrong about that."

Kegan glared at him.

"Iron doesn't affect me," she said shortly.

Angel shrugged.

"Okay then. So you'll be coming then?"

Kegan paused. Angel could clearly see the 'ah crap' moment she was having, and watched happily as she tried to think of some other excuse as to why she wasn't coming. However, despite her apparently 'higher than any MENSA member' IQ, she didn't get very far.

"Fine," she hissed.

"Good. See you tomorrow."

Kegan picked a burning coal from her fire pit and threw it at him, hard. Angel ducked and moved to the door.

"Have fun with your boys in there."

"YOU'RE A BASTARD!" Kegan yelled through the door.

"Yeah, tell me something I don't know," Angel muttered as he walked away.


Kegan grunted as her back hit the floor and grinned up at the angry, very drunk, man.

"Hey, just because I'm better at poker than you doesn't mean we have to get physical about it," she said. "After all, you'll lose at this too. I'm better at fighting than you."

She rolled out of the way of his fist as he brought it down towards her face. He howled in pain when his knuckles instead slammed into the concrete floor and she rockets upwards, locking her forearms around his neck and driving him backwards.

"Now, are we going to be friendly, or will your friend have to call you an ambulance?" she asked, catching his fist as he tried to swing at her again.

The man spat at her. Kegan blinked, scowling, and wiped off the spittle.

"Ambulance then," she muttered.

She was still holding onto the man's fist and now she squeezed tightly. The man gave a strangled sort of cry as the bones in his hand gave way to Kegan's fingers and he struggled out from under Kegan, scrambling to his feet and snarling in her face like a wounded bear. Kegan smirked and gestured him forward.

"Come on then big guy. Show me what you got."

The man would have, but his friend held him back and dragged him away from Kegan before she could cause any permanent damage. Kegan sighed.

"Too bad," she muttered, snatching up the money she had, well, 'won' probably wasn't the right word to use to describe her downright cheating.

She slipped back onto her bar stool and took up her whiskey again. The person sitting next to her began to clap slowly.

"Well done. If it hadn't been for his friend, I can assume he would be near death, correct?"

Kegan glared at Lindsay.

"What are you doing out here? Alone?" she asked pointedly.

"Oh Kegan, I'm not alone. In fact, now that the other guy and his friend are gone, you're the only person in this bar who doesn't earn a Wolfram and Hart pay cheque."

"And I'm not going to now, so fuck off," Kegan snapped, turning bodily to face in the opposite direction.

Lindasy got to his feet and came around to sit on the other side of her.

"You're not going to get me to go away without a fight," he said.

Kegan sighed.


Her hand lit up as she rested her head in it, watching him expectantly.

"You've got two minutes before that invitation to hit you really, really hard is far too appealing to pass up," she growled.

"What's Angel paying for you for this job?" asked Lindsay.

"I don't know, but it had better be a very pretty penny," Kegan muttered.

"What if I were to double it and you stayed at home?" asked Lindsay. "Or beat up people in a bar instead?"

Kegan eyed him suspiciously.

"Why would you do that?" she asked.

"Well, I figure you don't really want to get anywhere near iron, and I have a few...interests in that particular place."

"How did you even know what we were doing?"

"Oh Kegan, did you really believe that we wouldn't be watching your every move after you stole from us?" asked Lindsay. "You took some valuable items that we kind of wanted back. Unfortunately, you made fairly certain we weren't getting them back any time soon."

"The sword's gone McDoofus. No amount of money is going to get it back."

"I don't want the sword. To tell you the truth, I was glad you got rid of it because it destroyed my colleague's plan, which meant that I got the promotion instead. No, I just want to give you the opportunity to avoid fighting ghosts, because, undoubtedly, there will be iron involved and we both know that the last thing you want to do is go anywhere near the metal. Surely you don't really care what business I have by keeping you away."

"You're absolutely right. I don't care."


Kegan considered him.

"You'll double whatever Fang Face gives me?"

"Absolutely," said Lindsay, offering his hand. "Do we have a deal?"

Kegan smirked and took his hand with her flame free one.



"Kegan, you said you were coming," Angel growled.

"And now I'm not," said Kegan. "So unless you can offer me something that I might actually want on this job, I'm not going."

"Would five thousand change your mind?" asked Angel.

"No. I made that much off poker last night and I didn't risk my life doing it."

"I doubt that."

Kegan scowled at him.

"I'm not coming unless you offer me what I actually want," she said. "You know what my price is, you make your decision."

Angel glared at her.

"You're not coming," he said firmly.

"Well, I wouldn't be quite so sure about that Angel," said Kegan, smirking.

"Speaking of, don't ever let me walk in on you having a three-some again," said Angel.

"Why? Did it not turn you on, the thought of me and those two rut-"

"I don't need a recap!" Angel snapped and Kegan grinned.

"Are you jealous that I'm getting some and you're still stuck in 'I'll lose my soul' denial?" she asked. "Or maybe your jealousy has a little more direction. Maybe you're jealous of the two in my bed last night. After all, you have to remember the times we-"

"I swear to God Kegan, shut up or I'll make you," Angel growled.

"Ooh, now I'm scared," said Kegan sarcastically.

"Well, if you're not going to help, you might as well clear out," Angel growled.

"With pleasure," said Kegan coolly, leaving the office. "Have fun tonight vampire. I will."


"Five thou," said Kegan.

"That's it? You couldn't more out of him? I'm disappointed in you Kegan."

"If I tried, he would have thought I was still coming," Kegan said into the phone. "When'll I get the money?"

"Swing by my office, I'll have it for you."

"No, that's not how this works," said Kegan simply. "I'm doing something for you already, that's why you're paying me. I don't collect my money, you bring it to me."

"I'm sorry Kegan, you should have told me that when we made our deal," said Lindsay calmly. "I'm afraid if you want to money today, you're going to have to come and get it because I'm expecting some important calls today and I'll probably be taking an all-nighter. I can't leave this office."

Kegan scowled. She didn't have any desire to set foot in that building again, even if it meant she'd get ten-thousand large for it. What exactly was in this deal for Lindsay anyway? Why didn't he want her there? He was fine with Angel being there. Maybe there was nothing special about the hauntings, at least, nothing special enough for Lindsay. Maybe this was about baiting her. Maybe she was just paranoid and reading into the situation too much.


"I'll see you soon."


"I knew it," Kegan muttered, glaring at Lindsay. "You're a bastard."

"You know, I was almost hoping you were smart enough not to come," said Lindsay. "To any normal person, it would basically scream trap."

Kegan glared at him as the fire demon pushed her roughly into a chair.

"What do you want?"

Lindsay leant casually against his desk, considering her.

"I have a job for you."

"You gonna pay me?"

"Uh, no," said Lindsay, smirking. "You see, you're kind of at my mercy here so I figured, you do this for me, I won't ask my boy here to kill you."

Kegan glanced up at the thuggish fire demon. She could take him, but it would take some serious effort and injury to do so.

"Fair enough," she muttered. "What's the job?"

"It's your lucky day," said Lindsay, smirking. "I have an item I need you to steal."

Kegan raised an eyebrow.

"You can't lawyer it out of someone's hands?"

"No," said Lindsay. "It's a very special item that only people immune to fire can hold. I need you to go in, steal it, and give it to your chaperone for this evening."

He gestured at the demon and Kegan growled her distaste.

"Well, you didn't expect me to just let you go with no one keeping an eye on you, did you?" asked Lindsay. "No. You get this for me, you'll never have to see Crusher again."

"Crusher?" Kegan asked the demon.

"Nickname in the ring," he grunted.

Kegan swallowed. She herself had spent a few fights in demon fighting rings, none of which she had particularly fond memories of. They were always fights to the death, and none of the competitors were wimps. They all held their own very, very well. Fire had been her saviour in those rings, but fire wasn't going to work on this demon any time soon.

"What am I stealing? From where?" she asked.

"A staff dubbed the Staff of Flame. Easy to remember since it's covered in flames," said Lindsay. "And...you're stealing it from the house that Angel is about to rid of ghosts."

Kegan stared at him.

"What?" she snapped.

"You heard," said Lindsay. "Oh, I should mention, there is one teensie, tiny clause to this deal. If Angel finds out you're there, Crusher here is going to have to cut any loose ends immediately."

"I'm guessing I'm a loose end," Kegan muttered.

"Putting that brain to use already. Good job."

Kegan frowned at the lawyer, who flashed his trademark 'trust me' smile at her.

Lawyers. Blech.

"This one job?" asked Kegan.

"Just the one. And you won't even have to come back here to finish it."

"What do you want the staff for?"

"That is none of your concern."

"Is if you're gonna use it against me."

"You're a fire demon, the staff's powers range from little fire to big fire. I think you're safe," said Lindsay coolly.

Kegan sighed and looked back up at Crusher.

"Guess we better get going then big guy."

"Do be swift," said Lindsay. "I don't have all night."

Kegan glared at him again she passed.

"Oh, don't be like that. I do wish we could have been civil about this, but you won't talk to me," said Lindsay, smirking. "Have fun."

The demon took hold of Kegan's arm and steered her out of the room.


Kegan surveyed the house from the back, taking in as much of the detail as possible. She could hear the sounds of people laughing and yelling in the house, and there was a window on the side of the house that was filled with a bright, flickering light, and the shadows cast through the window depicted acts Kegan had trouble believing was even possible for the human body to achieve. She immediately abandoned any hopes she had had for not running into Angel in the house however. It was large, but certainly not large enough that he wouldn't sense her presence.

"You wouldn't happen to have any clue where this staff might be located within the place, would you?" she asked Crusher, who stood statue-like just behind her.

"Inside," he grunted.

Kegan turned to raise an eyebrow at him.

"You're not really a talker are you?" she asked.

Crusher didn't reply, just gestured at the house again.

"Yeah, didn't think so," Kegan muttered. "Well, best get to it then."

She moved up to the fence line and examined the metallic spikes. Wrought iron.


"Alright big guy, let's put your muscles to use. I'm gonna need a boost."

Crusher stepped forward and hooked his sausage-like fingers together. Kegan backed as far away as possible from him without touching the fence before dashing towards him. She leapt into his hands and was sent rocketing upwards and over the fence by the demon, rolling off her momentum as she hit the ground on the other side. She straightened up, smirking.

"Well now, would you look at that. We make such a great team," she told the demon.

"Get the staff," Crusher grunted.

Kegan scowled.

"You just can't enjoy the moment, can you?" she asked, rolling her eyes and turning to the house. "Alright. If I was a staff made of fire, where would I be?"

She grabbed hold a drain pipe and used it to scale the wall and pull herself up to the window in the attic. Putting her fist through the glass panes, she knocked out the rest of the glass and slipped into the darkened room.

Basement. Gotta be in the basement.

Kegan kicked open the door and slid down the ladder, landing on the third floor of the large house and listening. She could hear Angel's voice already. He had to be on this floor, and she listened more closely. He was speaking Latin. He was cleansing the building. Kegan smirked. She doubted that any ghost in this building would put up with that. Angel was about to have his hands very full. She stepped towards the stairs and heard him falter slightly. He knew she was here.

Kegan didn't waste any time. She had no desire to become one of Lindsay's loose ends. She sped down the three flights of stairs to the main hall and stared around. There was no basement access.

"How can a place like this not have a basement?" she muttered.

She flinched as a wind started to kick up in building. Angel's ghosts were aware of what he was doing, and he was going to get flattened. Kegan sighed. She had, in a way, hoped that he wouldn't go ahead with the job when she had pulled out. Ghosts were dangerous, and powerful, and Angel was going to be pulled to pieces.

"Damn it. Alright, I help you, you help me, no one has to know that you know I'm here."

She took to the stairs again, dashing back up towards Angel's voice. In the few seconds it took her to get back up to the third floor, the wind had reached gale level and the lights right through the building had all blown. Kegan could hear yells of shock and fright from the people downstairs, and they sounded light years away.

"ANGEL! I THINK YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE GHOST!" Kegan yelled into the room as she barged in.

"I THINK I GOT THAT PART!" Angel yelled back. "WHY ARE YOU HERE?"




Angel looked at me, confused, but turned back to his exorcism.


Angel shook his head.






Angel scowled and shoved a book into her hands.


Kegan immediately began yelling the Latin phrases above the racket, ducking to avoid dangerous flying objects. She heard Angel swear and looked around just in time to avoid him as he was thrown off his feet by a ghost as it appeared.

"And to think you actually wanted to come and do this yourself," she muttered.


Kegan huffed and continued to chant from the book, but the ghost did not like that idea, neither did his friend, who appeared a moment later.

"Oh good, there are two of you," Kegan winced. "ANGEL! NOW WOULD BE A REALLY GOOD TIME TO START SWINGING SOME IRON!"

On cue, Angel dived back at the ghosts, brandishing a fire poker. The ghosts disappeared before he could reach them however and reappeared on either side of Kegan.

"Uh oh."

Kegan was lifted into the air by invisible forces and sent rocketing into the ceiling. She dropped the book, which whipped out of sight in the wind.

Ow. And damn. Oh wait, what comes up...

She was sent slamming into the floor. The floorboards beneath her gave way and she ended up falling to the floor below. Allowing herself to take a moment to groan and check for broken limbs, she rolled over and stared up through the hole. Angel's circle of exorcising item had been broken, his ritual had been lost in the wind, and he himself couldn't even poke the damn ghosts with a stick. All in all, things were not looking too good.

"Well, in that case, maybe it's time for a different approach," Kegan muttered. "ANGEL GET DOWN HERE!"

"ARE YOU INSANE?" Angel yelled back through the hole, swinging wildly at thin air to prevent the ghosts from getting near enough to him to cause the same sort of damage. "I'M KINDA NEEDED UP HERE!"




Angel dropped down through the hole, landing beside her.


"The ghosts are stuck here, they can't get away from this place, which means that this had to be where they first rose. Ghosts rise over their bodies, and ghosts die when their bodies are set fire. Ergo, I'm setting this place on fire. If you want to play the hero tonight, go get people out before they're covered in flames."

"Got it."

Angel took off and Kegan let herself transform.

"And this is why you don't play with fire," she muttered through the hole. "I'LL SHOW YOU JUST HOW MUCH YOU'VE PISSED ME OFF!"

Fire erupted right over her body, turning her into one huge ball of flame and she raced off through the hallway and into every room, setting anything she could touch alight. In seconds, the whole of the second floor was on fire, and not even the wind, stronger than anything she'd ever felt before, could blow it out. In fact, the ghosts were only speeding on their demise as the gale spread the flames higher and further. She dashed downstairs and saw Angel all but wrestling the last few people out of the house and she immediately set about burning up the first floor as efficiently as the second. One the whole house was alight, she sat down in the middle of the entrance hall and watched happily as her fire made quick work of the house. She knew the moment the bodies of the ghosts had caught alight. The wind died at once, and eerie shrieks could be heard, but there was nothing the ghosts could do other than scream. Satisfied with the outcome of her job, she changed back to normal and slipped out of the house before the whole thing could collapse on her.

"I guess I owe you a thank you, even though you deserted me to begin with," Angel muttered as she stepped over to him.

"You're welcome," said Kegan coolly. "But our work here is not done."

"Oh, so you're not here for me?"

Kegan snorted.

"Don't flatter yourself. I'm here because otherwise I'd be lying dead on Lindsay McDonald's office floor," she said coolly.

"What business does Wolfram and Hart have here?" asked Angel.

"He wants a staff made of flames for some reason," Kegan said. "I didn't ask. I was just told to get it and I wouldn't have to hear from them again."

"You believe that?"

"No, but it's better than dying at the hands of a lawyer from East Texas," Kegan spat.

"You said you had help."

"Oh yeah, fire demon, goes by the name of Crusher. I don't like him, he doesn't like me. He was my chaperone. I need him gone if I want to live and that's where you come in."

"Kegan, I have enough trouble keeping you from setting me on fire. What on earth makes you think that a demon under Wolfram and Hart's employ won't set me alight the moment it sees me?"

"Because he won't be seeing you. I need you to find a bucket or something, fill it in the pond over there, go around the back, and douse him. Then I can kill him."

Angel sighed.

"You better not be pulling my leg."

"Angel, there are a thousand better ways I could pull you leg. I'm one hundred percent serious right now. I need him gone if I want to keep breathing."

"And we all want that," Angel muttered sarcastically, opening the fence and slipping out. "Alright."

Kegan looked back at the burning building. She could come back for the staff later, and she could do the deal with Lindsay on her terms. Right now, Crusher was the main priority. She went around the side of the building and found Crusher waiting, now somehow on the inside of the fence. That was good. Kegan had had a moment of pause as to how she was going to get over the fence to grab hold of the demon, but it appeared that the fire had gotten the demon's attention.

"Where's the staff?" he grunted angrily the moment he saw her.

"Don't worry big guy. I'm just waiting for the flames to die down a little so I can distinguish a flaming staff from a flaming building," Kegan explained. "I had to set the place alight. There were ghosts and they were really pissing me off."

"Did the vampire-?"

"Angel didn't see me, hear me, smell me, or in any other way know I was there. I'm pretty sure he believes it was a couple of the thousand candles in there that started the fire."

The demon frowned but accepted the story.

Oh thank god I'm a good liar.

Kegan saw Angel coming soundlessly up towards the demon from behind and turned to look at the fire again.

"You know, I always love creating something as beautiful as this, but I just don't do it often enough," she remarked. "I think I'm a little rusty. Had a moment there when I realised it might have been better to start at the top than the middle, but there you go. What do you reckon?"

"It's a good job," said the demon. "Better than some of the crappy stuff the other guys at W.H. do."

"Oh yeah? How many of you are there?"

"Enough," said the demon simply.

Angel threw the water he had collected at the demon, who snarled as the liquid cooled his skin and put out the mane of fire he had running down his back. Kegan pounced on him at once, hitting him hard in the face and latching her legs around his neck. The demon, disorientated and weakened, swung wildly at her and she narrowly avoided his fist, causing him to hit himself in the side of the head. She flung herself backwards, legs still firmly locked around Crusher's neck and slammed him hard into the ground. Before he could so much as think about getting back to his feet, she pulled a knife from her belt and ran it home through his chest. The demon spasmed underneath her, then went limp.

"Good job," Angel commented.

"He was big and slow," Kegan muttered. "Doesn't take much to bring down a tank."

She looked back at the house then at Angel again.

"How about I meet you at the bar near your offices in an hour. There's something I want to do first."

Angel nodded slowly, frowning slightly at her.

"I can't stop you from meddling with Wolfram and Hart, and the tell you the truth, I don't really care unless it threatens my team, but you should be careful. They're a lot more powerful than they seem. Lindsay may only look like he just graduated from high school but...he has some very powerful beings behind him. I'd try to steer clear if I were you."

"See you in an hour Angel," said Kegan pointedly.


"I really do owe you a thanks," said Angel. "As much as I hate to admit it, I actually did need you, and it sounds to me like helping me was going to cause you more grief than it was worth."

"It did, I got thrown through a floor," Kegan growled. "But, I managed to get through it without any major injury, from ghosts and demons, so I guess it wasn't as bad as it could have been."

"So, how did Lindsay even get you to his office in the first place?" asked Angel.

"Lies and deceit. Turns out I'm not the only person in LA who uses them," Kegan muttered.

Angel snorted slightly.

"You know what, I think you owe me more than a thanks," said Kegan. "I saved your unlife. The least you could do is-"

"Kegan, Jesus Christ, I'm not sleeping with you!"

Kegan smirked.

"Careful. I don't think you're allowed to use such language as a vampire. And why not? I promise you, the likelihood of you ever achieving true happiness again is next to none. And besides, you could never be truly happy with me and we both know it, no matter what I was doing. You don't trust me enough for that."

"I'm not having sex with you. I've been there, I've done that, and I've since developed standards."

Kegan rolled her eyes.

"Some blonde little bimbo in Sunnydale who had the IQ of a chihuahua and the emotional range to match is not standards."

Angel growled.

"Don't you dare talk about Buffy like that," he snarled. "How do you even know about that?"

"Because Cordelia is an open book if you either offer her a new pair of shoes of threaten to burn off her hair," said Kegan coolly. "And I'll talk about the slut any way I want because that's what she is. Do you have any idea the number of guys she at least tried to hook up with when she wasn't fawning over you?"

Angel looked about ready to kill her but he didn't reply.

"You don't, do you?" asked Kegan, smirking slightly. "Well, I won't go into actually statistics, but there were a fair few. If your standards are nothing more than seventeen-year-old whores, then I should think you'd be perfectly fine with spending a night with me. Okay, so I look nineteen and not seventeen, but you can't have every-"

Angel grabbed her by the throat and rammed her into the wall behind her.

"Shut up," he growled. "You have no right to talk about her, and you certainly have no right to talk about her like that."

Kegan glared at him and he recoiled from her at once as his hand blistered on her skin.

"I'm simply making a point Fang Face. Your standards don't exist, and you're craving that interaction," she hissed at him. "You hide it behind strength and fighting, but you know as well as I do it's all a mask to cover that you need that feeling, that satisfaction. You're a vampire, that's how you're built. Your need the heat of passion, even if it doesn't exist outside the bed. So if you do change your mind about those standards of yours, you give me a call. You're not the only demon here who craves that touch."

Angel stared after her as she left the bar. He didn't know how she knew, but that she did...that truly scared him.


Lindsay did not look at all pleased as Kegan smiled at him.

"I thought it was only fair that you got to visit my office, since I've visited yours," she said sweetly.

Lindsay jerked against the ropes tying him to the chair.

"You little b-"

"Uh uh, no name calling," Kegan said, smirking as she leant against the wall. "Now, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way."

She picked up the flaming staff and spun it round in her fingers.

"In other words, little fire, or big fire," she said.

Lindsay glared at her.

"All for one little betrayal?" he asked.

Kegan raised an eyebrow at him.

"And that one wouldn't have stemmed into further 'deals'?" she asked. "I don't give second chances McDonald."

"Yes you do."

Kegan's smirk slid off her face.

"What?" she hissed.

"Angel. The biggest second chance you've ever given. The only second chance you've ever given."

Kegan stared at him.

"That's different."

"How?" asked Lindsay.

"He's not a son of a bitch evil lawyer," Kegan growled, slashing at him with the staff.

Lindsay hissed in pain as flame burst across his chest, then died away. Through the burnt gash in his clothing, Kegan saw a very satisfying, ugly looking, burn. He took a minute to compose himself before glaring back up at her.

"You love him."

"I'm. A. Demon. I. Can't. Love!"

With each word, Kegan slashed again, and Lindsay let out shaking cried of pain with every contact.

"You're torturing Lindsay and you didn't invite me?" asked Angel. "I'm insulted."

Kegan turned to grin at him. Angel could see the pure pleasure she was taking from this act in her eyes.

"Angel. Care to join me?"

She tossed the staff to him and Angel yelped and dodged it before he could catch it. Lindsay snickered.

"Shut up!"

Kegan hit him hard in the face with a flaming hand and Lindsay fell very silent in fear of being burnt further.

"Let him go," said Angel. "Or else I'll have to fight you and, well, you don't wanna fight me."

Kegan raised an eyebrow at him.

"Is that a challenge?" she asked.

"No," said Angel. "It's an order and a threat."

Kegan glared at him as she picked up the staff again.

"I don't take orders. Especially not from you," she growled, moving back over to Lindsay and hovering the staff barely an inch away from his crotch. "Now either you can join in or go away."

"Let him go Kegan," Angel growled.

"Yeah, you heard him, let me go," said Lindsay desperately.

Kegan raised an eyebrow at him and dipped the staff slightly. Lindsay flinched but she caught the staff before it could touch him.

"I told you to shut up," she said.

"Shutting up."

"Kegan, I want to take up your offer."

Kegan whipped around to stare at him, an evil grin on her face.


Angel swallowed. Kegan's grin increased.

"You're off the hook," she told Lindsay, taking a knife from a bench nearby and slashing the ropes around his ankles and wrists. "Get outta here before he changes his mind."

When Lindsay didn't move, instead opting to watch the two of them closely, trying to figure out exactly what is was that Kegan had offered, Kegan growled and grabbed him by the back of the collar, all but throwing him through the door and slamming it behind him. She turned back to Angel.

"Blood as well?"


Kegan grinned and took hold of his shirt, walking backwards into her bedroom and pulling Angel with her.

"You'll come to love these nights Angel. Trust me."


Hope you enjoyed this one. Sorry it took so long to post for those of you who might have been waiting. I'll start another one right away. Don't forget to review!