Amanda kept one ear open as she prowled the lobby, listening to Pike's patter. He'd been worried about a couple of close calls they'd had over the last few months, and said that they had to go to LA. Go *back* to LA, he'd said absently.

It was the first time he'd ever indicated anything about his pre-her past. Amanda wasn't terribly curious, but it did make her wonder. He'd been there for her since she was little, just a kid. Over the last four years he'd been everything to her. He could have come from LA or New York or the moon for all she cared. He'd always taught her to focus on the future, not the past.

He was telling the story they agreed on; he was her older brother, something creepy seemed to be following them, they'd heard that Angel Investigations dealt well with creeps. The place had filled up as people filed out of the office, and with a final check down to the lobby, Amanda started climbing the stairs. She wasn't used to a lot of people around, at least not ones that might pay attention to her. Pike saw her go up and signaled her that it was okay, and she kept going.

"This is so cool," she said to herself, grinning. There'd been a lot of motels over the last four years, but nothing as big as this. And the echoing emptiness just rocked. She loved the thought she could just start madly twirling, or practice one of the katas Pike had taught her, and no one would stare. No one would *see*.

Once up from the main lobby, the stairs stopped being decorative and became functional. Amanda opened a door to get to the third level, and even the faint voices from the lobby got cut off. Once she hit the hallway, Amanda closed her eyes and just reveled in the quiet.

"Hey," a voice said, and Amanda started violently.

He was tall guy dressed all in black, but he didn't look like the Goths Pike sometimes hit up for information. He looked as startled to see her as she was to have someone pop out. Amanda sized up his expression and his attitude, classified him as a non-threat, and relaxed. A bit.

"Do you live here?" she asked.

"Huh?"

She tilted her head to indicate the hallway. "Do you live here?"

"Yeah, I do."

"That's so cool. I'd love to have a whole hotel to myself."

The guy hunkered down to her eye level. She was pretty tall for her age, so he ended up a little shorter than her. "I don't exactly have it to myself."

"Oh. Are those your friends downstairs?"

"Yeah. They... work with me."

"Oh, I get it. Angel Investigations. Who's Angel? Or is it, like, a guardian angel thing?"

"Kinda. But I'm Angel."

"I'm Amanda. Pike brought me here because someone's trying to get me." She shrugged as she said it. She wasn't stupid enough to not worry about it -- she remembered being kidnapped from her parents way too well -- but she figured Pike was taking care of the worrying bit.

The guy seemed frozen. There wasn't the false smile on his face that a lot of adults wore when they talked to kids. She liked him for that, but was starting to get freaked by his total stillness. There was something weird here she didn't understand. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Come on. We should go back downstairs and find out what's going on."

"I already know what's going on. You can go back downstairs," she offered.

"Fine, I'll go back downstairs to find out what's going on, and you go back downstairs because..."

"Because I'll get into trouble? Because I'll hurt myself? Please. I can take care of myself, at least, in a completely deserted building."

"It's not completely deserted," Angel said, getting to his feet. "I'm here."

"Oh, yeah, and you're so scary." She grinned at him, totally aware she was being a brat.

He didn't exactly smile, but he seemed less... glowery. "Come on," he said again, putting his hand between her shoulder blades and pushing her toward the stairs. His wrist pressed against her bare neck, and Amanda froze.

Totally cold. In this never-even-heard-of-air-conditioning place. Vampire. Shit.

Her brain clicked into gear. "If you see or sense a vampire, run. If you can't run, fight until you can." Pike's voice echoed in her ears. "Don't try to kill it. Someday you're going to be able to kick my butt at this, kid, but for now, run, find me. Got it?"

"Got it," Amanda breathed. The vampire behind her wasn't holding her, so she gathered herself, kicked back at his kneecap to slow him down, and took off for the stairs at a dead run. She heard him grunt and fall behind her, and then the connecting door was shut between them and she was rattling down the stairs so fast that her vision looked like The Blair Witch Project.

She burst into the second floor hallway, heading for the main staircase, screaming, "Pike! Pike!" at the top of her lungs. He met her at the top of the staircase, face set in furious determination, crossbow out and aimed over her shoulder. She ducked behind him, and then turned to face down into the lobby, watching his back.

Given how fast vampires could move, it seemed to take a long time before she heard the footsteps. "It's okay," the vampire said steadily. "I'm not going to hurt the girl. Or anyone."

"Uh-huh," Pike said, and Amanda felt the vibration as the crossbow went off.

She peered around Pike, keeping one eye on the group below, to see that the vampire -- was that really Angel? -- had ducked aside, but come no closer.

"I mean it. I'm not going to hurt anyone."

"Reinforcements!" Amanda shouted, warning Pike of the crew downstairs.

"Hey! Do *not* shoot the guy who's going to help you." The dark-haired woman -- Cordelia, she'd said her name was -- was bounding up the stairs without a weapon. The black guy following her more than made up for it with the weird ax he was carrying. The rest of the group stayed below.

"He's a vampire," Amanda told her. "Duh."

"Easy for you to say, kid," Cordelia shot back.

Pike turned to stare at the woman as she came even with him. "You mean, *this* is Angel? It's not just some stray undead bastard who's broken in? Angel's a *vampire*?"

"This is Angel. Short version, good guy, vampire with a soul, helping the helpless. No kill. You get the long version when you put the crossbow down. Got it?"

Pike kept half his attention on her and half on Angel. Amanda focused all her attention on the guy with the ax. And waited.

Finally, Pike lowered the crossbow. "I'm trusting a lot to what I've heard of you guys," he said quietly. "I'm trusting everything. That's a vampire. You say he's good. I need help, so I'll believe you. But I'll tell you this, if anything goes wrong, if anything happens to Amanda, I'll take you out, any way I can."

Amanda pressed herself harder against Pike's back. He didn't go for the mushy stuff very often, but she always knew what she meant to him. Hearing it out loud embarrassed her, and pleased her.

Cordelia blew out a relieved breath. "Okay, got it. You don't kill us, we don't kill you. This is of the good. Now, can we all go downstairs and discuss this like normal people?"

"Who's normal?" Pike murmured as he descended the stairs, his body between Angel and Amanda.

"If everybody spends all day picking apart everything I say, we're never going to get anywhere...."