Impressions by Doranna Durgin

usual.”
    With all the deftness of a hippo on ice, he sidestepped the unasked question, still looking at Fred. “Okay, you tried to wake me, but you were afraid. Still…you had to have seen whoever came in here.”
    “Or whatever, ” Cordelia added.
    Fred squirmed slightly. “I’m not sure.”
    “This is such a great morning so far,” Angel said. “Isn’t it a great morning?”
    “Ignore him,” Cordelia told Fred, and finally found the pills she wanted. She did a quick calculation of headache intensity against need for consciousness and broke the pill in half with her hands in her purse. Hardly subtle. But it was amazing what people didn’t see when you didn’t act like whatever you were up to was any big deal.
    “It’s just that it was still kinda dark. And I was up here. Trying to wake Angel, you know. I guess I didn’t knock loud enough, but usually…you know, he hears everything. And then I was preferring to be not seen, and that kinda meant not being where it could see me…” She hesitated, and her voice took on the unaccustomed note of certainty that reared up every now and then and made Cordelia wonder if there wasn’t more to Fred than frightened and traumatized little cave girl after all. “Not Muppetish,” she said firmly. “Big. And it knew what it wanted. It went right over to the counter and then it left.”
    “Demon chases man, demon dies,” Angel muttered. “Leaves behind the ugly stone. Demon Two steals the ugly stone. Way too many things we don’t know about here.”
    “Okay,” Cordelia said, thinking more of Fred’s remarks than Angel’s mumbling. “We can work with that.” They wouldn’t get much from it, but it was more than they’d known before. “Meanwhile, let’s not forget about Terminal Market, okay? Vision Girl is not to be ignored.”
    “Call Gunn and Wesley,” Angel said, and then gave her a second glance from beneath a brow that seemed to be warring between concerned and preoccupied. “Or do you need to go lie down?”
    “I’m sure I’ll be fine,” she said, proving that she was just as good as he, in her own way, of dodging direct answers. “Just go get dressed. And hurry. We’ll solve the mystery of the missing ugly stone thing when I don’t have screaming people in my head, okay?”
    Vision Girl was not to be argued with either.

Chapter Five
    W esley and Gunn headed down Seventh Street in the getting-uncomfortable warmth of mid-morning. Angel himself ran the underground, ever in consideration of how bursting into flame could ruin his day. This particular day already had enough strikes against it…the dreams, the lingering sense of constant prodding by someone else’s emotions…Cordelia’s questions. She knew him best, and while he might fool the others for a while…
    He’d stay out of Cordelia’s way.
    He knew of several exits into the warehouses of the produce district; Wesley and Gunn found him lurking in the slightly arched truck drive-through of a warehouse, staring across sunlight asphalt to the neighboring warehouse. There, perched on the upper corner of a stack of metal melon crates, was the very Slith demon who had taunted him in Caritas.
    “Odd,” Wesley said, squinting out at the demon with a thoughtful frown. “The Slith don’t usually come out in daylight. They’re very shy. And they certainly don’t cause trouble or draw attention to themselves. Are we sure this is what Cordelia meant?”
    “Terminal Market, Muppetish demon,” Angel said. “What part have we got wrong so far?”
    “None, I’m sorry to say.”
    Gunn moved uneasily beside them. “Look,” he said. “Even if this isn’t from Cordy’s vision, it’s not right . We need to do something about it before someone gets hurt.”
    “I should think the only one in real danger is the Slith demon.” Wesley let his crossbow drop. “Without a blowgun, they’re virtually harmless—unless you count bad table manners.”
    “Tell me about it,” Angel said.