Have a little Faith Part 6

It was 3am and Faith had made her way alone to the park.  It was filled with homeless. It was a perfect
feeding ground for vampires.  She had killed two already, but she had not met the vampire she was
looking for.  Even though she could not stand Wesley and wanted to go back to Sunnydale, it was nice to be in Los Angeles, on her own, outside of Buffy's shadow. Granted she liked Buffy; she had tried her best to help Faith fit in, but she had never felt like she was part of the gang.  It was nice to be out here, alone and slaying.

Most of the homeless ignored her.  A few drug dealers glanced her way probably because she seemed
dangerous.

"Hey!" a voice cried out.

Faith turned around and nearly staked a regular human, well part human.  She could not smell
vampire, but she could smell demon.  The man was medium height, but still taller than Faith.  He had
short dark hair, nice eyes and looked Irish.

"Oh man," he said, holding his chest.  "I'm sorry."

"What do you want?" she said, a little angered that she nearly killed him.

"You're Faith, right, the vampire slayer?" he said.

She was right, he was Irish. She could hear a slight trace of accent in his voice.

"Yeah, who are you?"

"Doyle."

"Doyle?"

"Yep."

"And you're talking to me why?" she said, a little surprised that he knew her name.

"The powers that be sent me."

"The powers that be what?"

"You know the people upstairs who help good and things like that."

"All right," she said, a little confused.  "So why did they send you and what do they want with me?"

"You're here to stop Angelus."

"I'm here to kill Angelus."

"You can't."

"I can't?" she replied, condescending.  "Why can't I?" After all this man came out of nowhere, knew who she was and was now telling her she was not to kill one of the most blood thirsty vampires.

"Nope.  Angel has lost his way.  We need to get him back."

"You're talking about that prophecy thing.  Something about there being a vampire with a soul that will help save the world."

Doyle nodded.  "That's Angel.  We have to restore his soul some how."

"The original curse is lost and I don't really care about prophecies."

"Angel is the savior, you can't kill him.  He's soul was supposed to be restored?"

"Doyle," she said, stressing his name.  "Do you know what Angelus does?  How cruel and evil he can be?  He has to be stopped, before he kills any more innocent people, especially the ones that I like."

"Lindsey McDonald has his own path to redemption," Doyle said.  Faith was surprised that Doyle knew all about Lindsey. At least now she knew he was not working with Wolfram and Hart. "If you kill Angelus, he won't be able to do it.  He won't find peace until he is sure he has helped."

Faith did not say anything.

"Unless we get Angel back, the scale will tip to the side of evil and all of us won't have long to live.
Angel is a warrior in the approaching darkness-and so are you."

"So what I am supposed to do?" Faith demanded, a little upset, but not at Doyle.  "Go back to  Sunnydale and spend my day in the library all day long?  I'm a slayer for fuck's sake."

"There are plenty of helpless people here in LA," Doyle explained.  "Angel was supposed to be here to be helping them, but until we can get him back, you need to take his place."

"Alright, I got no problem slaying the vamps."

"It's more than just vamps.  There's a lot of hurting people in this city."

"And how am I supposed to help them?" Faith said, looking down.  She just wanted to slay vamps, not
actually deal with-people.

Doyle smiled.  "Well you see-" Doyle didn't get a chance to continue because he cried out in pain,
shook, briefly turned into demon form and then turned back to human.

"Are you okay?" Faith said.  Her senses had been right; Doyle was part demon.

"It's just these vision things I get."

"Vision things?"

"Yep, I see people in trouble, that's why they call me a seer.  There's a bunch of kids fighting vampires
not to far from here.  They aren't doing to well-"
 

"You seem different," Lilah purred at Lindsey while they waiting in the limousine while Angelus hunted.

"Different in what way?" Lindsey asked.  He had spent the last month not acting suspicious.  He was a little shaken up because Faith had arrived in town and may be meeting with Angelus tonight.

"I don't know, more sure of yourself."

Lee did not say anything; he just chuckled.

"Don't you think Lindsey seems cockier?" Lilah said, coolly.

"You just act that way," Lee said, "because Angelus seems to like you now."

Lee and Lilah were right; ever since he came back from Sunnydale, he had accepted that Angelus would
eventually kill him.  Once that was out of the way, he no longer showed fear while Angelus was around.
Angelus seemed to respect that. An alarm went off in the limousine.  None of them liked to hear it.  It meant that if Angelus was not back yet, one of them had to find him.  Lindsey did not want to go.  This was the reason he saw the dead child, who still haunted him even after three months.

They called Angelus on the cell, but he did not respond.  He liked to do this.  He liked to tease the
three of them.

"I went last time," Lilah said.

"I went before," Lee added.  "Angelus nearly sliced my head off."

"Could one of you go tonight?" he said.  He would go, but he was afraid that running into Faith may unnerve her and himself.  "I promise that I'll go the next two times."

"Sorry, Lindsey," Lilah said.  "It just isn't worth it."

"I agree with Lilah," Lee added.  "Hit the road cock boy."

Lindsey sighed.  He opened the limousine door and stepped out.
 

Faith found them on the other side of the park.  It was a set of about 7 teens against about 17 vampires. The teens were doing a good job, but they were no match against 17 vampires.  Faith jumped into the fight with out introducing herself, while Doyle stood on the sideline.

"Who the hell are you?" one of the teens asked.  He was a dark skinned, attractive, had a shaved head and definitely had an attitude as he dusted one of the vampires.  At closer look, he seemed more in his
twenties, then teens.

"I'm Faith," she said and dusted two at once.  "I'm the vampire Slayer."

The man with the attitude did not say anything else until they had eliminated the remaining vampires.  The teens were okay except for some scrapes.
 
"So the famous slayer pays little the bad part of town a visit?" the guy with the attitude asked.

"She ain't the vampire slayer," another teen said. "It's some girl named Buffy or something. A blondie."

"It's true about Buffy," Faith said, trying not to be jealous.  "It's a long story, but now there are two
slayers, Buffy and me."

"People call me Gunn," the black teen said.  "We take care of the vampires in this part of town."

"There's a lot of vampires in this town."
     
"We can take care of ourselves."

"I really only want one.  His name is Angelus.  Know anything about him?"

Gunn shook his head.

"If you see him, don't kill him, he's mine."

"If it's a vamp, we kill it, we don't ask their names."

"This one you can't kill."

"We can," Gunn said, annoyed.

"He's one of the worst vampires you will ever deal with," she replied.

"We'll keep an eye out," he said and began to walk away.  When the teens were gone, Doyle came back to Faith's side.

"You see," she said to him.  "No one's going to listen to me.  They ain't going to let Angelus live.
And come to think about it, I'm not too sure I want him to live either."

"You have to," Doyle replied.  "The powers that be made it very clear.  Angelus must get back his soul or all will be lost."

Faith sighed.

"Faith-"

"Okay, okay, I won't kill him unless I really have too.  So what were you sayin' before you had that
vision thing."

"I'm here to help you."

"I don't need any help."

"You see I get visions of people in trouble.  You'rethe slayer, you help people in trouble."

"Just remember, I'm not watching your ass and I'm here primarily to stop Angelus and kill vamps."

"That's okay," he replied.  "I watch pretty-" He did not get a chance to finish, because again, he cried
out, shook, turn to demon form, then back to human form.

"What?" Faith asked, holding on to him.

"A man in a suit on the other side of the park is about to be attacked by a vampire."

Faith went off running.  Doyle who was still out of breath from before, decided to stay for a few moments to catch his breath.  He also know who was going to be attacked.

Lindsey entered the park and searched the area where Angelus was supposed to be hunting.  Of course Angelus was nowhere to be found.  Holland had laughed at Lindsey's suggestion of putting a tracer on him.

"Angelus," he whispered.

He got a response, but not the one he expected.

A vampire jumped out at him, Lindsey did not have time to pull out his cross, holy water or stake.  He
struggled with the vampire and tried to keep him from biting his neck.  Great, of all the stupid ways to
die.  Here he was trying to make amends by stopping  Angelus and a run of the mill vampire kills him.

A moment later he did not worry about it.  Someone had pulled the vampire off of him.  He thought it was Angelus, but then again Angelus would think this was a source of amusement.

Then he realized it had been Faith who pulled him off.

Faith quickly dusted the vampire.

"Thanks," he said, "um-- miss.  What was that thing?"

"Are you okay?" she asked, showing only a little recognition.  "You shouldn't be in the park so late at
night."

"I was looking for someone," he said, coolly.  He was glad that Faith realized that Angelus could be around and watching him.

"There are a lot of muggers out here," she replied.

"Muggers?" he questioned.

Faith nodded. "Perhaps you should head home."

"I have to find my friend first."

"I'll help you, then.  Neither of you should be alone in the park, it isn't safe."

"This doesn't concern you," Lindsey said, pretending to get angry.  "It would be best if you leave."

"Best that I leave?" Faith said and laughed.  She could sense something was lurking, watching.  She bet
it was Angelus.  "I know why a rich white boy in an expensive suit would be wondering around a park in a bad part of town."

"I have to wonder that myself about a short little girl."

"You're not so tall yourself short cake,"

Lindsey nearly laughed, but instead he kept up his demeanor.

"Thank you so much for saving me, but I need to find my friend."

"Good luck in me saving you again, short cake," Faith said, leaving.  She flashed him a secret smile when
she left.

Lindsey did not move from his spot.  He watched Faith leave and knew what he had to do.

"Lindsey," said a voice from behind him.  Lindsey turned around and there was Angelus.  He looked well
kept despite that he probably just killed several people.

"There you are," Lindsey replied.  "Have we taken to lurking in the bushes now?"

"She looked like one, she smelled like one, she moved like one."

"What?" Lindsey said, confused.

"She's a slayer."

Lindsey acted shocked, yet calm. "Let's get back to the limousine, we need to tell Mr. Manners about
this."

Part 7

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