ANGEL

Chapter Twelve SHE

At a party in cordilias beautiful new apartment, wesly participates with unself-conscious enjoyment, but when Cordelia's friend asks angel to dance, a mental flash of the wackiness that could ensue prevents him from saying yes. Angel mopes into retreat in the kitchen, where he finds he can converse comfortably with his silent friend, phantom dennis, who offers him a cold beverage. Meanwhile, a man standing watch at an ice factory has just popped open and taken a sip from his own cold one, when he hears spooky voices crying from inside the coffin-sized crate he's guarding. Believing there is someone alive and suffering inside, he breaks open the box, then stands staring in shock at its contents.

In the office the next morning, Cordelia informs Angel that he wasn't any fun at the party and that Wes was "cooler." Oblivious, Wesley checks the office fridge for leftover canapés. Realizing his friend is short on cash, Angel offers Wesley a staff position at angel investigations, a move which Cordelia heartily approves—once Angel reassures her that hiring the formerly rogue demon hunter will not entail a cut in her own paycheck. However, Cordelia's enthusiasm turns to agony as she suddenly receives a graphic vision of a man being burned alive from the inside. With no sewer access to the Jericho Ice Factory, Wesley's first job is to drive Angel to the scene indicated by Cordelia's vision. Inside the facility, Angel finds the incinerated corpse as well as the crate he was guarding, now containing only ice. Hearing a noise from another section of the factory, Angel discovers the presence of a humanoid demon named Tae, who reveals that he is from another dimension, sent to bring back the vicious demon, a "vessel of pure rage," which has escaped from his realm into an unsuspecting L.A.

Angel begins his search for more information by breaking into Wilkers' office and pulling the ice factory files. Jimmying open the desk's top drawer, Angel finds an envelope containing an invoice for Jericho Ice (which he pockets) and a large amount of cash (which he doesn't). Apparently not realizing he is being observed, Angel is surprised by the sudden appearance of an exotic-looking female demon who, belying her small size, effortlessly knocks him out of the way with a powerful blow that scorches his arm. Receiving a call on her cell phone, the demon hardly spares Angel another glance before leaving in haste, pulling up the hood and wrapping her calf-length cardigan around her before she climbs into her vehicle. Recovering quickly enough to give chase, Angel calls Cordelia on a bad cell phone connection and describes the demon's appearance so she and Wesley can begin their research. Angel follows the attractive demon to an art gallery but she makes him and sets museum security after him. As cover, Angel removes his black coat and begins to lecture about one of the paintings to a group of people who stand rapt. After the security guards move past, Angel sees his quarry head toward the back of the building. Wrapping up his presentation to the appreciative applause of his unsuspecting audience, Angel follows.

In a storage room at the back of the gallery, the demon stands staring into space, then turns when Angel comes in behind her. Realizing he is a vampire (a human would have remained unconscious for hours from the force of her blow), she impatiently, imperiously, orders him to leave, but clearly has no attention to spare to forcibly eject him. At that moment, wind and lightning and thunder spring from nowhere, and there is a disturbance in the air near the room's back wall. A swirling portal forms, the shrieking coming from it seeming to draw rapidly closer. A naked humanoid girl drops out of the portal and hits the floor hard. As Angel pulls over a tarp to cover her, he gets a brief but clear glimpse of the girl's smooth forehead and of the raised ridges running along her upper spine. At that moment, Tae and his all-male team break into the room armed with kama weapons. The female demon and Angel battle furiously, but Tae abducts the newly arrived girl and drives away with her. Looking helplessly after the speeding vehicle, Angel asks the female demon what will happen to the girl and learns that she will be "unmade." The male demons take the frightened girl to their base where, without further ado, they use a special clamping tool to cut out the raised ridges extending down from the girl's nape to between her shoulder blades. Gone breathless with fear, the girl screams in agony at the first cut.