| Have a Little Faith, Part 43 | |
“Hey!” Merl said when Faith slammed him against the wall. “It’s to early for thrashing.”
“I want to know where Angelus and his gang are holed up,” she said, pulling him hard by his blue and white striped pajamas.
“Hey careful with my silk pajamas, I got them half price.”
“You’re head’s gonna be half price you don’t tell me where Angelus is.”
“I wouldn’t know—“
Faith slammed him against the wall again.
“What the hell is the matter with you?” Merl demanded. “Angelus is a bigot. He’s a vampires only type of guy. He won’t have anything to do with me.”
“I don’t care about you and Angelus’ social relationship,” Faith said. “I want to know where he’s holed up outside of Wolfram and Hart offices. That goes for him and all his companions.”
“That’s quite a lengthy number,” Merl said.
“What?”
“Angelus’ vampire companions.”
“There are only four.”
Merl snorted “Try 40.”
“Forty?” Faith questioned, letting go of Merl. He turned around and faced the two of them.
“Yep, word out on the street is Angelus is raising a vampire army.”
“What?” Faith asked and slammed Merl again.
“Hey,” Merl complained. “Don’t kill the messenger. I just know that the blond guy, lawyer vamp and the Druizla vamp have been recruiting vampires to head to Sunnydale to bring about the new glory days of vampires.”
“Where is he?” she demanded.
“They are living in style,” Merl explained. “In an apartment in Beverly Hills. With a balcony and everything. They have a few more places I hear, but that’s the only one I know about.”
“Thanks,” she said and slammed him against the wall again. Lindsey pulled a twenty out of his pocket and tossed it to the floor.
Merl watched both of them leave before he
went to pick up the twenty.
“No, they aren’t at the cemetery,” Alex said from her cell phone. Doyle had to take care of all of this. He had promised himself that he would watch them. Alex had gone to the cemetery. Kate and Gunn were canvasing the streets.
He sighed. They were cut down to only four. He stayed here in case they came back. He wished Cordelia was here. She could man the office alone. She never needed help. That would have left him free to help the others. Of course she was not here and she was never coming back.
“Doyle?” Alex asked when he did not talk for a long time.
“What? Did anyone see them?”
“I asked a few people, one guy told me to fuck off, but it’s a big cemetery. Doyle, my gut instinct says they are gunning for Angelus.”
Doyle did not say anything for a moment.
“Doyle—“ Alex repeated. “Come on, stay with me. We have to find them before Angelus does.”
“You better help Gunn and Kate. I don’t
know how desperate Faith and Lindsey are, but they might go after to Angelus
and that means they also have to deal with Wolfram and Hart.” Despite
Faith’s strength, he doubted that either of them would survive.
Faith and Lindsey were taking a lunch break before they would scoop out Angelus’s apartment. They were eating in a diner near Merl’s place.
“This is like my old days,” Lindsey commented. “A diner was a big expensive treat.”
Faith laughed. “I bet you useta have to eat those noodle soups that were like 10 for a dollar.”
Lindsey chuckled. “There were 90 percent salt and 10 percent cardboard. That was all that were in my cabinets. And ramen noodles. My scholarship covered tuition and room. But I had to forage for food. I particularly lived off a hot plate. I used to get jobs at fast food places not for the salary but for the leftovers.”
“Well I didn’t go to school, so I had to find money to live and eat—“ she stopped for a moment.
“To painful?” he asked. “Even before I started with Wolfram and Hart I did some things I wasn’t proud of for money.”
“It’s not that. I did those things. A lot of shoplifting, stealing hubcaps, most of the time stealing the cars. You don’t get the slayer strength until you’re called, but I was still in good physical shape,” she paused and took a bite of a french fry. “You know Wesley asked me if I wanted to get my GED? Can you believe that? He’s always been one that Slayers shouldn’t worry about college. They need to train and learn what they need to know from their watcher. They die to young to be wasting time worrying about college. He even said maybe I could take a college course once a week. He was a really nice guy Wesley. He shouldn’t die in vain.”
Lindsey suddenly looked a little concerned. “How long do slayers usually live?”
“They ain’t expected to live to 18,” she said.
“But you did and isn’t Buffy 19 already?”
Faith nodded. “I got called late,” she explained. “And Buffy,” she said and smiled. “Buffy’s just special.”
“She is.”
“And I’m a little different. Most of us just randomly kill vamps, I spend most of my time going after Angelus. I think that if you aren’t a slayer 24-7, you live longer.”
Lindsey did not say anything. Cordelia—She was barely 19 when she died. She could have been a slayer. Destined to die so young—
“Lindsey—“
“I’m going to lose you too, aren’t I?” he said. He felt numb when he thought about it. He did not want to care about her knowing he would lose her.
She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know anything about Slayers, so I don’t know. I’ve lasted two years, Buffy’s lasted four. The girl before me lasted about a year. I’m tough. I was made not to die easily.”
Lindsey looked down.
“We’re both destined to die young,” he said.
Faith did not say anything, she just reached over the table and kissed him. She wanted a moment before anything happened.
Lindsey kissed her back. He pulled her closer. “I want to be with you. It doesn’t matter about rights or wrongs.”
She nodded. She knew it was wrong,
but as it seemed that Angelus would eventually be killing them both, it
did not matter.
Alex held the 20 dollar bill in front of Merl’s face. When he went to reach it, she pulled it away.
“You want this and a lot more?”
“What for?”
“Faith and Lindsey come by here recently?”
“Never heard of them.”
Alex snorted. “You met all of us at Cartias a few weeks ago, remember?”
“I don’t have a good memory.”
Alex gave him a five.
“You mean slick and the slayer?”
“You seen them.”
“I don’t know.”
Alex gave him the twenty.
“They were here, this morning. Damn idiots woke me up. She started thrashing me. I would have told her the information for only $50.”
Alex handed him another twenty and a ten. “What did you tell them?”
“They were nuts—both of them. I could tell. They’re going after Angelus and his army alone.”
“Army?” Alex questioned.
Merl nodded. “Angelus has been recruiting.”
“To do what?”
“God knows what that psycho wants to do.”
“And you sent them after them.”
"Hey, I had no choice in the matter. She kept slamming me against the wall.”
“What else did you tell them?”
“I only knew one place Angelus was holed
up.”
Faith and Lindsey were waiting in the car outside the apartment that Wolfram and Hart apparently gave to Angelus for the last hour.
It was getting dark. No one had come in or out of the apartment, but then again it had only become dark.
Lindsey sat in the driver’s seat, Faith in the passenger one. She held on to his hand, but they said nothing to each other. Faith perked up when she saw the door to the apartment building garage open and a dark car drive out. Lee was in the driver’s seat. She did not see Angelus.
Faith smiled. Not the man they wanted, but certainly a good place to start.
“We got company,” she explained to Lindsey.
Lindsey nodded. He saw Lee and Penn. He started up the car and followed them.
What they did not know was that someone was following them.
“They are heading to the office,” Lindsey explained.
“We have to stop them before they get there,” she replied.
Faith looked around and saw there were few cars on the road.
“Hit them?”
“What?”
“Hit them. It will be an accident. It’s LA, no one will stop.”
Two years ago, Lindsey would have never done that to his car, but when Lee and Penn went down a seemingly deserted road, he hit the gas and rear ended Lee and Penn.
A moment later they both got out of the car. They both looked angry and Faith knew they would kill whoever hit them.
When they saw Faith and Lindsey get out of the car, they put their vampire faces on.
“Slayer,” Penn said and smiled. “Angelus will be proud when we kill you.”
“Or he’ll be pissed off that I staked you.”
Penn smiled again.
Faith slammed him against his car. Lindsey threw holy water in this face. Penn started screaming. Lee grabbed Lindsey and threw him away from Penn. Lee ignored Lindsey and concentrated on Faith who was slamming Penn repeatedly against a wall.
Lee ripped Faith off of Penn and slammed her against the car hood. Suddenly he heard a whooshing sound from behind him.
“Fuckin- A,” Lee said and looked at his chest. He saw the tip of an arrow sticking out of it. A moment later he turned to dust. Lindsey was standing behind him with the crossbow. Faith got up and ran to Penn who had just gotten up. She slammed into the same wall and resumed her repeated slammings.
“Fucking bitch!” Penn said and punched her.
Lindsey watched her with the crossbow still in hand. He started to reload it in case Faith needed his help. He felt a hand on his shoulder. He swung around and smacked the person with the crossbow.
“Bloody hell!” said Doyle’s voice. Lindsey turned around and saw he had actually hit Doyle. Alex and Lilith were standing next to him. Doyle touched his face, which was bleeding slightly.
“Oh god, Doyle,” Lindsey said and he was legitimately concerned. He touched his friend where he had hit him. “I’m sorry.”
Doyle quickly regained himself. “It’s okay,” he said, but he was still mad. He tried to keep it under control. Lindsey noticed that Alex and Lilith were with Doyle.
No one said anything while Faith beat the crap out of Penn for about five minutes. Penn was not doing well against her. The four of them stood there and watched her. She hit Penn repeatedly. She could have staked him already.
Finally she pulled out the stake and finished the job. Penn screamed then turned to dust. After the dust fell to the floor, Faith went back to Lindsey’s car. She ignored Alex, Lilith and Doyle.
“Faith—“ Lilith started.
“Didn’t I tell you to go away?” Faith said, not looking at her. She opened the car door and got out two plastic bags that she got from the diner. She first went to where Lindsey had killed Lee. She scooped up the ashes and put them in a bag.
“Darling,” Doyle said. “What are you doing?”
“Sending Angelus a present,” she retorted. “And I’m not your darling.”
Doyle went over to her and touched her shoulder. “Darl-- it’s time to come home. This is unhealthy. You need to grieve.”
Faith did not respond. She finished scooping up Lee’s ashes. She knotted the bag and then while pushing Doyle’s hand off her shoulder, moved up to where she staked Penn.
“Faith—“ Doyle said moving towards her again.
Faith quickly scooped up the ashes. Then turned around to face Doyle.
“You got me into this.” she said, coldly. “You and your fucking stupid visions and your fucking stupid powers that be. I should’ve staked Angelus when I first came to LA.”
“Faith—“ Doyle said and was unsure what else to say.
“You stopped me from staking Angelus,” she screamed at him. “I should have staked him!”
“Hey, I’m just the messenger. You got that same message from the Oracles.”
“Fuck them,” she said and once she finished scooping up the ashes, she headed back to Lindsey’s car. “They are fucking dead and they deserve to be.”
“Faith,” Alex said. “Let’s go home. I know what you are going through.”
Faith stopped for a moment and looked at her.
“You don’t. You think you miss Wesley cause you want out on a few dates? Cause you fucked? You didn’t know a thing about him.”
Alex started getting a little teary eyed, but she also got a little angry. “You don’t think I knew him? There are a million scenarios in my mind on what I could have changed. How I could have save them, but all I know is that we have to finish what we’ve started.”
“I have finished,” Faith said. “Come on, Lindsey, let’s go.”
Lindsey moved to the car and Alex who was closest to him grabbed his arm. “Lindsey, please,” she said. “You’re not thinking right.”
“I’m thinking just fine,” he said, pulling away. “I’m going to find my wife’s killers and I’m going to take care of them.”
He got into the car.
“Faith,” Doyle said, grabbing her right before she entered the passengers side. “You can’t do this. This is wrong. You know it is. Don’t bring Lindsey down with you. I care about both of them too. I miss them—you need to miss them too. Come on home, doll, we’re your friends, we’ll take care of you.”
Faith did not say anything. She just shoved Doyle. Not hard enough to hurt him, but enough for him to fall to the floor and to show she was not budging.
“Faith—“ Doyle said, but it was more shock than trying to stop her. No one stopped them as they got into the car and sped off.