| Have A Little Faith Part 13 |
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Faith showed up at home around two. She patrolled for about an hour after she dropped Wesley off. She killed two vampires, and decided that was enough to make up to Wesley the fact she had already broken her side of the agreement.
She did not see the lights on from the street and was glad Wesley didn’t wait up. He must have work the next day. She didn’t like it when he waited up for her, she felt like a kid. She was going to be 18 next year and she had more responsibilities than some 30-year-olds. She decided not to mention the patrolling and she promised herself that tomorrow she would stick to the original agreement. Tonight was an emergency. She was not going to let Doyle rot in jail for the night. Maybe she would even do an extra hour of patrolling tomorrow.
She crept to the first floor where the apartment was located. She did not see the lights under the door. She opened the door. The lights were not on, but she was startled to see Wesley sitting on the couch. He did not have his glasses on. Even in the dark, she could tell he was pissed.
“Hello, Faith,” he said, calmly. “Did you have a good patrol?”
“Oh yeah, great, dusted a bunch of vamps.”
Wesley smiled, but it was more of a smile of contempt. “I know you didn’t go patrolling.”
Faith decided not to lie. She did not care how Wesley learned the information. “It was an emergency.”
“We made a promise and already you’re breaking it.”
“You know,” she said. “I’m sick of this crap. I have a life outside of what you want me to do. I’m an adult. You’re not my father.”
“But I am responsible for you. I’ve tried to put up with this, but this has got to stop. You made a promise to me and it was not a difficult one to keep. I could have made it so that you spent no time with Doyle.”
“Fuck you, I can spend time with who I want. And you wanna talk about promises. You promised me that you would research the curse and you haven’t cause you want me to fail in the stuff I do with Doyle.”
Wesley stood up. “I’ve been very good to you. I’ve let you walk all over me, but you’re the slayer—“
“Buffy’s the slayer,” she retorted. “I’m just a very strong girl who likes to hunt vampires."
Wesley did not say anything for a moment. His anger faded. He looked surprised. “You’re jealous of Buffy?” he finally said.
“I talked to the guys who talk for the Powers that Be—Oracles or something. I’ve been feeling down, so Doyle showed me where they were. He wanted me to know that I am helping. They said that I had a potential to be evil. I know it. I’m so jealous of Buffy being the Slayer. If I were evil, I might be even able to kill her, even though I love her cause we’re the slayers—“
Faith sat down on the couch.
“I had no idea,” he said. His anger was completely gone. “You do know that you are very special Faith.”
Faith seemed shock for a moment. Wesley had been her Watcher for 7 months. He had never said a nice word to her.
“And by the way, I have looked up information on the curse. What we need for the curse is the transliteration annals for the ritual of the undead. Those were lost. I can get a Thesulan Orb no problem. If you can believe it, some Occult shops sell them as new age paperweights.” He sighed. “But without the annals, no one can do the ritual. If there is still a copy around, no one will part with it. No one will help because I’m not a gypsy. No one wants to help Angelus. Sorry I did not tell you. I did not want to be too disappointed or get your hopes up until I had more concrete evidence.”
Faith did not say anything.
“Which is why I think you need to kill him. It’s unfortunate, I understand. It’s quite obvious that this Angel fellow would have been a good force against the darkness, but he’s gone now. He’s going to keep killing.”
“Without him everyone is doomed,” she explained. “That’s what the oracles said. Angel was supposed to be a fighting force in the coming darkness. Something I can’t handle without him.”
“I don’t know what we can do.”
“I need to take his place and do as much as I can. Do you understand that Wesley? For the first time in my life, I want to do something important. Until I was called as a slayer I did nothing; I accomplished nothing. And yeah, killing vamps is great and all, but I want to do more. Not just kill or save Angelus, but save people too. I want to make something of the short life I’ll have.”
“All right, but I still expect you to some amount of training and patrolling. I guess we don’t have to have such a rigorous schedule.”
Faith nodded, then looked down.
“What’s the matter?”
“Right now I only want to save one person and he won’t let me.”
“You mean Lindsey.”
Faith was surprised at Wesley foresight. She nodded.
“This is a special case. He’s done some bad things, only he can be the one that makes up for it.”
“That’s what Doyle said.”
“Well I guess that’s the first and only time I would have to agree with him.”
They were interrupted by Faith’s cell phone. She pulled it out of her pocket.
“Hey, shortcake.”
“Hey, shortie. I’m on my way home, so I don’t have long. Penn is here; Holland is trying to send an assassin after you. Her name is Vanessa Brewer. She’s already killed several times. I’m supposed to be defending her in court in a few months for something she did last month. She’s in jail now, but I’m working on her bail. I may have to spring her, okay. When she’s free then she’s coming after you.”
“All right, you know anything about her?”
“Nope. But she’s good, very good. She’s only been caught 3 times, but she’s killed about 50 people.”
“Jes—“ Faith said. Wesley gave her an odd look.
“And she’s blind.”
“Blind?”
“Yeah, I think she has some kind of sensory thing done. I think because she’s blind, she can see and do other things with the other senses.”
“Okay.”
“I have no clue how to stop her. They don’t give you pointers about strengths and weaknesses.”
“I’m sure I can handle her.”
“Don’t underestimate her, okay?”
“I won’t. So tell me about Penn?”
“Younger and less brazen version of Angelus. I think you can easily stake him. Holland has assigned Lilah Morgan to help me find Drusilla.”
“Damn.”
“The one thing Lilah can do is find people. But I’ve been thinking that maybe we can set up some kind of evidence that she can find that Dru was staked.”
“I can talk to Giles about it.”
“Listen, I’m pulling up to my apartment. I’ll tell you if I have any news of Brewer, Dru and Penn.”
“Keep yourself alive, Shortcake.”
“I’ll try.” Faith hung up. She
really wanted to tell him to get out, but she knew he wouldn’t listen.
Lindsey was tired when he got home. It was a little passt 2 and he had to be up at 10 to prepare for a court case.
All he planned to do was to fall down in bed. Even though he expected his sleep to be troubled as it was every night.
When he entered the apartment he realized someone was in it. The lights for the living room were on. He was sure he had shut them off before he left. He wondered if he should call the police. He looked around the room. Someone was in his bedroom. He could see the light on, but not who was actually there. He decided to look before calling the police. Angelus could not get into his apartment. He had never been invited in.
“It’s about time you got home,” said a voice
from the bedroom. Lindsey went into the bedroom.
Sitting on his bed, wearing a revealing
nightgown was Cordelia.
“Cordelia, what are you—“
“Oh shut up and come over here.”
Lindsey obeyed but he was still disturbed. “This is to dangerous.”
“Don’t think about that now,” she said. She got up and pulled him to the bed. “Please kiss me.”
Lindsey could not resist. Only because he wanted to do it for months and it made him feel human.
He kissed her deeply on the mouth. Cordelia wrapped her hands around him. When the kiss was over, she moved away slightly. She still wanted to be near him, but she wanted room to talk.
“See that wasn’t so bad.”
“It was beautiful,” he said.
“I know,” she said and smiled.
“How did you get in here?”
“Never mind that. I know that we can’t be together, oh with Angelus going to kill you and all and that I can’t be seen with you, but I thought we could at least have one night together.”
He looked her over; she was so beautiful. He wanted to be with her so badly it hurt. He touched the side of her hair and let a little of it curl around his finger. He pulled her close. Her hair smelled fresh and beautiful just like her.
“Just for one night,” he said. “I would love to spend the rest of my life with you, but you have to understand.”
“I do,” she said and she pulled him onto the bed. She grabbed him and kissed him, while pulling his shirt off.
And for a little while, he forgot about dying and for a few hours he felt alive again.
Continue to Part 14