After becoming well acquainted with each other, Angelus, Darla, Drusilla and Spike set up camp in Yorkshire, where they hunted as a disciplined pack. Although they were experiencing blood-drenched prosperity under the leadership of Angelus, Spike’s brazen attempt at gaining notoriety drew too much attention to the crafty predators, and they were forced to move on.

By 1898, Angelus, Darla, Spike and Drusilla had brought their whirlwind of slaughter to Borsa, Romania. It was on a fateful night during that year that Darla gave Angelus a young Gypsy girl to kill for his birthday. The girl turned out to be the favorite daughter of a Romany tribe called the Kalderash clan. The enraged tribe elders put a vengeance curse on Angelus, which restored his soul and forced him to live in anguish over the acts he had committed as a vampire. Darla, Drusilla and Spike attacked the Gypsy camp and slaughtered the entire tribe to avenge their fallen leader, but the damage had already been done. Upon regaining his humanity, Angelus deserted his comrades and attempted to redefine himself.

THE 1900’S Although Angelus’ thirst for butchery had been extinguished, his love for Darla had not. In 1900, he tracked her down in China, where she was feeding on townspeople with Spike and Drusilla during the Boxer Rebellion. In an attempt to win her back, Angelus hid the fact that he could no longer kill the innocent and faked his bloodlust to appease his lover. On the night that Spike killed a masterful Slayer in an abandoned temple, the reunited pack decided to leave China to seek victims in other parts of the world.

It didn’t take long for Darla to expose Angelus’ façade. She could tell that he had been killing vermin to satisfy his necessity for blood, and she realized that the few humans he killed in front of her were miscreants like murderers and rapists. Darla finally tested Angelus by bringing him a human baby, the personification of innocence and virtue. As Darla waited for her lover to feed on the infant, Angelus scooped up the child, jumped through the window, and left her for good.

During the 1910's, Angelus moved to America and

changed his name to Angel in an attempt to further

remove himself from his past. While repenting for

the acts he had committed as a vampire, he developed

an aversion towards other vampires and lived like a

transient, feeding on rats for nourishment. In the

1920's, Angel was living in Juarez when a barbaric

demon named Boone took offense to the brooding

outcast. The two warriors engaged in a brutal fight

over a girl that lasted three and a half hours and

ended without a victor. Boone was left with a bitter

grudge against Angel that would not be settled

until more than 75 years later.

By 1952, Angel had taken residence at the Hyperion

Hotel in Los Angeles. The human inhabitants were

intimidated by his fierce demeanor and avoided him

at all costs. During his stay, a Thesulac demon,

which feeds on paranoia, turned the hotel residents

into a bloodthirsty mob. The horde turned its wrath

on Angel and was able to overpower the vampire and

hang him from a rafter. Angel, still very much

alive, waited for the mob to lose interest and

wander off before he climbed down. He indignantly

left the Hyperion and its inhabitants at the mercy

of the Thesulac demon.

Angel later left Los Angeles and aimlessly roamed

across America until, consumed by self-pity, he hit

rock bottom and began living in an alleyway in New

York. But in 1996 his life was changed when he met

a street-wise demon named Whistler. The Powers That

Be, a force for good and order in the universe, sent

Whistler to guide Angel on a path to redemption.

The slick-tongued demon convinced Angel to help a

Vampire Slayer named Buffy fight the forces of evil

in California.

Angel first laid eyes on Buffy in Los Angeles and

followed her to Sunnydale when she and her mother

moved. In 1997, he began to help the slayer by

delivering cryptic advice about demonic activity.

One night, when Buffy was attacked by vampires

outside of the Bronze, the local hangout, Angel

saved her and Buffy invited him over to sleep in

her room. The two began to sense a mutual

attraction and when Buffy returned home from

school the next day they shared a passionate kiss.

But before they could revel in the afterglow,

Angel's vampire face came out and he dejectedly ran

away.

As both Buffy and Angel began to consider the

consequences of their ironic attraction, Darla

showed up in Sunnydale with the goal of winning

her "Darling Boy" back. The cunning Darla made it

look like Angel had attacked Buffy's mother, which

quickly pit the slayer against her soulmate. Angel

wasn't able to convince Buffy of the truth until he

destroyed his past by slaying Darla at the Bronze.

Although Buffy could accept the fact that Angel was

no longer evil, the two of them decided that their

poetic relationship could never work. As they kissed

one last time, the cross Buffy wore around her neck

burned an imprint onto Angel's chest, leaving a

permanent memento of their love.

Although the forces of good and evil separated

Buffy and Angel, fate brought them back together.

As they became deeply enamored with one another,

they decided to consummate their love on Buffy's

17th birthday. What they didn't know was that the

Romany curse was predicated on Angel remaining

tortured. Upon experiencing a moment of true

happiness, the curse was lifted and his soul removed

once again.

Angel quickly became the scourge of Sunnydale and

did everything in his power to torture Buffy. After

killing one of Buffy's allies and nearly claiming

her other friends, Willow was able to re-cast the

Romany spell and return Angel's soul to him for the

second time. But fate again made a radical turn and,

moments after he regained his soul, Buffy was

forced to impale Angel to seal the gateway to hell

he had opened. Angel was returned a few months

later, but he had spent the equivalent of over 100

years being tortured in hell. In time, he was able

to recover his sanity, but his psyche would never

fully heal. He knew that as long as he remained a

vampire, his relationship with Buffy would never

work, so he left Sunnydale to find a new life in

Los Angeles.

Upon arrival in the "City of Angels," a half-human

half-demon named Doyle approached Angel and

convinced him to help people through his visions.

Doyle, like Whistler, received images of people in

peril from The Powers That Be and would then

employ Angel to rescue them. It didn't take long for

Angel to run into Cordelia, who was struggling to

make a living as an actress. Along with Doyle, Angel

and Cordelia formed Angel Investigations in 1999 as

an outlet for supernatural P.I. work and the rescue

of the innocent.

When Angel dusted a rich and powerful vampire

named Russell Winters, Angel Investigations made its

first contact with what would become its most

powerful nemesis. Russell Winters was a client of a

law firm called Wolfram & Hart that catered to the

demon community, and they immediately recognized

Angel as a considerable threat to their depraved

organization. Their long list of crimes against

humanity included pimping vampires, organizing

demon fight clubs and harvesting humans for body

parts.

Although Wolfram & Hart kept Angel busy, his past

love still haunted him. Angel would never fully

recover from losing Buffy, but he did eventually

find himself smitten by another heroic blonde. While

hunting a Talamere demon, Angel crossed paths with

a skilled and beautiful LAPD detective named Kate

Lockley. Although Angel tried to pursue her

romantically, the strong-willed detective was not

able to give in to her feelings and fully accept

Angel being a vampire.

Shortly after Kate entered Angel's life, another

person was taken from it. During a daring rescue,

Doyle heroically sacrificed himself to save Angel,

Cordelia and a whole clan of half-demons. Before

leaping to his death, Doyle kissed Cordelia and

thereby passed on his connection to The Powers That

Be. As Cordelia began to adapt to her new role as

the Seer, an old ally from Sunnydale named Wesley

showed up on their doorstep. Wesley was Faith's

ex-Watcher and had since become a rogue

demon-hunter in search of a team. With his extensive

knowledge of demon lore and a bold ambition for

battle, Wesley became a key addition to Angel

Investigations.

2000 and Beyond

As Angel entered his fourth century, Angel

Investigations had developed into a well-oiled

demon-slaying machine. To further broaden their

scope, they found a new accomplice when Angel saved

the sister of a young independent demon-hunter

named Charles Gunn. Although his methods were

unorthodox, Gunn was a battle-hardened veteran and

became an essential ally to Angel Investigations.

It turned out Angel would need all the help he

could get when Wolfram & Hart summoned a demon

named Vocah, who stole the Scroll of Aberjian and

performed a ritual that resurrected Darla. Angel's

sire and first true love was returned as a mortal

rather than a vampire, and with her return dormant

feelings within Angel were awakened. Rather than

attempting to kill Darla once again, Angel tried to

return her to good and help her find salvation for

her deviant past. He turned out to be unsuccessful,

and she was re-sired by Drusilla when Wolfram &

Hart reunited the two ex-cronies.

But as these dark forces were stacking up against

Angel, he found yet another ally in the form of a

flashy karaoke bar owner. Lorne is the anagogic

green-skinned demon who runs The Caritas, which is

a safe haven for demons. His ability to tell the

future has helped Angel out of more than a few

jams, and he soon became an integral part of the

crew.

Cordelia's visions and Lorne's karaoke-inspired

messages had the Angel Investigations crew raking

in business. However, with Darla and Dru back in

the picture, Angel's workaholism kicked in. He spent

every second turning himself into a 21st-century

Rambo type. Angel had a meltdown and dismantled

Angel Investigations so he could go at it alone.

Despair and a lack of hope at ever putting an end

to his guilt and suffering gnawed at Angel's

remaining grip on reality until, in a moment of

weakness, he fell into the arms of Darla. A night of

passion (and unprotected sex) ensued. Consequently,

the couple's centuries-old co-dependency kicked in

big time. To deal, Angel wound up at the karaoke

bar again. This ultimately led him to a big-bang

moment of clarity, and Angel reunited with his crew.

Finally back together, the gang had to go on a

mission to save Cordelia in Pylea, Lorne's

home-world in another dimension. Perhaps their most

harrowing adventure to date, they not only rescued

Cordelia and saved a kingdom, but also located a

student physicist named Winifred who had been

trapped there for five years. Angel and "Fred"

connected instantly and she returned to Los Angeles

with him to try to rebuild her life.

All hell broke loose when Angel and friends caught

wind of the imminent arrival of a being rumored to

have a profound impact on the world. To make

matters worse, Darla turned up at the hotel

pregnant, and Angel was now faced with the biggest

job he'd dealt with in the hundreds of years he'd

been roaming the planet: fatherhood. Of course, this

put a major crimp in his style as well as his

relationship with Cordelia, but in essence, this was

the purpose Angel has been lacking for all those

years.

Angel set out to do everything in his power to

protect his unborn child from those nasty guys at

Wolfram & Hart as well as

blast-from-the-past-vamp-hunter-extraordinaire

Holtz. Angel's "day job" got more and more

complicated after Angel's son Connor was born.

Business simultaneously took off, causing the crew

to split up and take jobs on their own. In a moment

of what-the-heck impulsiveness, Cordelia and Angel

found themselves consumed with passion, which was

just fine until Cordelia's ex Groo turned up.

Meanwhile, Angel was not acting at all sensibly, and

Wesley took it upon himself to kidnap Connor to

keep him safe. Of course, Angel went totally mental

and took massive risks in order to get his son back.

Unfortunately neither Angel nor Wesley could

protect Connor when Holtz swooped in and nabbed the

child.

Wesley was gripped with guilt and Angel was made

to pay for all the dark magic he'd used to try to

bring his son back. Things went from desperate to

horrific when Angel's son returned as a feral

teenage warrior bent on killing his father. Connor's

terrible teen moments took their toll until father

and son found themselves fighting side by side.

Determined to set things right, Angel did

everything he could to bond with Connor. Not that

it matters. Their love-hate relationship is clearly

not temporary, a fact Angel must now admit.

This was made clear when, in a fit of revenge,

Connor captured Angel and, with the help of Holtz's

former sidekick, Justine, locked him in a box and

dropped it to the bottom of the ocean.

Although Angel has suffered unspeakably in his past

and lost lovers that most would never find in a

lifetime, he can look to the future with optimism.

The vampire with a soul must now grapple with the

demands of fatherhood. Still, he has friends who

have become family, and he has learned that The

Powers That Be have prophesized his full return to

mortality once he has saved enough innocent life.

The Gates of Hell are in constant danger of being

opened, but humanity at least has a fighting chance

with Angel as its guardian