| TITLE: Knightsfall (1/?) SERIES: Nobility AUTHOR: Tisienne Blue E-MAIL: [email protected] DISCLAIMER: Joss owns everyone you know from TV... I am NOT Joss; I am illicitly playing in his sandbox, and boy!!! Is it fun!!!*G* SPOILERS: Everything to date... through 'The Body' for Buffy, and umm... 'Epiphany'(???) for Angel... RATING: All the way to NC-17 eventually... PAIRING: You'll see...*giggle* DISTRIBUTION: Want it??? Just ask. FEEDBACK: makes the world go round... oh, OK, MONEY makes... no, that's not right either, ummm... LOVE!!! That's it!!! So show me some love, and send me some FEEDBACK!!!*G* DEDICATIONS: to Di, for getting me thinking about this one; Mystra, for thinking of the title; Nat and Salice, for trying so hard, and the rest of the orgy, just because!!! NOTES: Set 6 years in the future, and in New Orleans. The Hellmouth is closed, and everyone's pretty much left Sunnyhell. * *= emphasis. &*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&* She stood silently in the darkened doorway, watching with glittering eyes as her targets homed in on their own. She had been in this town for almost five years, and she still couldn't believe that the tourists were stupid enough to wander around Jackson Square at three and four o'clock in the morning. Of course, if they knew about the things crawling the night, they'd probably... She shook her head almost motionlessly-- they'd probably *still* cruise the city, looking for adventure; some strange, dangerous happenstance they could tell all their friends about when, and if, they got home. It was an odd sort of city, she knew, somehow giving off a vibe of safe danger to most visitors. She didn't understand how danger could be safe, because danger was mostly just *dangerous* to her, but... maybe that was because of the life she'd led. It had been over ten years, after all, and with some of what she'd seen; hell, *most* of it really, she should have been dead long ago. But these tourists... She sighed, watching the young couple the vampires had chosen. These tourists were just plain stupid! She doubted that any of them would have wandered drunk through their own hometowns at this time of night, but... set them down in the city with the highest murder rate per capita of anywhere in the country, and they thought nothing of doing just that! Honestly, it was surprising that more of them didn't end up missing or dead. The dead ones didn't concern her as much as the missing, though. She watched as the three vampires silently stalked their prey, and sighed to herself when she recognized two of them from the 'Have You Seen-' posters that were plastered all over the French Quarter. She waited in the doorway of the old church, and stuck to the shadows as she followed them all-- tourists and vampires-- down Chartres, toward Canal Street. Maybe there wouldn't be so much 'night-life' if the Mayor would just shut the streetcar down at night. That wasn't going to happen, she knew, but it would have been a help. She groaned to herself as she followed the hunters and the hunted up Iberville, a slight smile creasing her face when they turned, like some sick parade, down Exchange Alley. It was an interesting place in the daytime, with the hot afternoon sun beating down on a few odd little shops, and a few more little restaurants with umbrella shielded outside tables. It buzzed in the spring and fall, when the humidity wasn't quite enough to leave a person gasping for air. But at night? Oh, at night it was so *not* the place to be. The shops, the eateries, were all closed and dark, and she honestly wondered for a moment if the young drunken couple up ahead were only pretending to be impaired... if they were maybe leading the vampires into some kind of an ambush. They weren't, she realized, as the man walked straight into a street sign and fell on his ass, laughing loudly. She wasn't the only one who saw it, of course, and she drew herself up to her full height and pulled the weapon from beneath her lightweight jacket. "Funny," she said quietly, knowing the vampires would hear her, "I could have *sworn* the sign said 'Exchange Alley', not 'All-night Buffet Way'... Or maybe I'm wrong?" The head vampire spun furiously at the voice that interrupted his hunt, and grinned hugely, his fangs gleaming slightly in the reflected light of the full moon. "Well, well," he said, trying to sound menacing, "Looks like we won't have to share tonight, after all..." He glanced back at his two companions. "You can have those two," he said, gesturing at the drunken couple who were still blissfully unaware of what was happening just a few feet behind them. "I'll take the girl." He turned back to the young woman he'd just set his sights on, and smiled an ugly smile when he saw the weapon she was holding. "That's not going to do you much good, little snack," he said smoothly as he began to move towards her. She stared back at him, completely unfazed by the menace he was trying to project. "Oh, I don't know," she said, as she lined up her shot, "I've found it to be rather effective." "You're going to *die*, little girl," the vampire growled, wanting to taste her fear when he drank her. "True," she said lazily, one corner of her mouth twitching slightly in a suppressed grin, "But not tonight; after all, I'm hardly dressed for it. I think death requires a certain formality, and as you can *see*," she gestured to herself with her free hand, "Tonight is a strictly casual event." She grinned to herself as the vampire and his two companions took in her black jeans and hooded jacket. The vampire growled again, and started quickly towards her. "Die!" he said angrily, his hands reaching out towards her throat. She watched him coming, and gently squeezed the trigger. "You first," she said calmly as he exploded into a cloud of dust. Her focus shifted then, and she caught the eyes of the other two vampires. One of them followed the first immediately, but she actually had to run after the third, a flying kick to its back slamming it into the wall. She stood staring down into its eyes as she aimed. "But..." the vampire said shakily, "That... that's a *gun*... bullets can't kill us..." She sighed to herself as she pulled the trigger, once again glad for the silencer Giles had insisted upon getting her. "Not *metal* ones, anyway," she murmured to the softly drifting dust, before turning and striding confidently from the alley, heading for home. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Giles!" she called out, as she pulled the clips from both her Gloks, "I'm ho-ome!" She sat down wearily at the kitchen table, shoulders slumping slightly. It had been a busy night for her. After the three in the alley, she'd taken down another four vamps just on her way home, and one of them had actually managed to touch her! That wasn't good, she knew, but... The pistols were a big step up from the stakes and crossbows of five years earlier, and she supposed that if she was still using standard Council gear, she would have been *touched* much more often since she'd come to New Orleans with the 'retired' Watcher. Rupert Giles stepped quickly into the kitchen, noting the tired posture of his blonde-headed charge. "Are you all right?" he asked quietly as he turned the gas on under the full kettle of water, "You're a bit later than usual." She nodded slowly. "Yeah, Giles," she replied, glancing at him for a moment before looking away, "I'm fine. It was just a bit... *busier* than usual tonight." She nodded gratefully when he held up the box of her favourite raspberry tea. "Please." "A count?" the former Watcher demanded kindly as he pulled her mug from the cupboard and got a spoon from the drawer. She sighed deeply then. "Two when I first left, then three over by Jax Brewery; four more on the way back here." She nodded tightly when he stared at her in surprise. Giles was shocked to say the least. "Nine, then... that's a bit much for a Tuesday night, isn't it? Usually you only get close to double digits on the weekends..." He cut himself off as the tea kettle started to whistle, and poured the hot water carefully over the tea bag in her mug. He took the milk from the refrigerator, and carried it and the cup to the table, setting them down in front of her before moving behind her. "You poor girl," he said softly, rubbing her shoulders, "You must be exhausted!" She leaned back into his hands, smiling as he worked the knots of tension from her shoulders. "Yeah. I'm gonna finish my tea and turn in, I think... This is *one* night when I can honestly say that sleep is my friend!" She sighed again when he took his hands from her much more relaxed shoulders. "Thanks, Giles," she said softly, sipping from her mug, "But you'd better get to bed, yourself... Unless you want that wife of yours to come looking for you? Which would be *fine*, by the way, if she'd just put some *clothes* on first!" Giles laughed softly, glancing down at the robe he wore over nothing. "Yes, well.. you know how these voodoo priestesses are... not terribly shy about showing their skin..." The girl snorted softly. "Yeah... you could say that. Now, *go*!" She giggled to herself as he started from the room even more quickly than he'd entered. "Oh, and Giles," she called out, stopping him, "We need to make more bullets tomorrow, so I'll need you to call for more mahogany in the morning..." She glanced out the window at the brightening sky, "Or afternoon..." she said sheepishly, turning back to her tea when he just nodded and headed up the stairs. She barely smothered a huge yawn, and didn't bother to try when the next one came along-- she hadn't been kidding about being tired; she wasn't sure if she could even keep her eyes open long enough to finish her drink. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * It was only ten pm, but she felt like it had already been a long day. She'd gotten up around two o'clock that afternoon, and she and Giles had spent a good six hours carefully carving the mahogany to the proper shape and size, while Gabriella, Giles' wife, had blessed the holy water they got from the church down the street. She didn't know if the voudoun blessing helped any, but it sure didn't seem to hurt, and it made the woman feel like she was involved in her husband's life, which was all to the good... Especially after the two or three relationships he'd had that had failed because he hadn't wanted to show the true extent of the darkness to those ignorant of it. But Gabriella knew all about the dark, and the things that crawled through it as though they had the right, and... she loved the former Watcher, and he loved her. She was happy that Giles finally had someone to share his life with, and it certainly didn't hurt that Gabriella had some truly... interesting contacts throughout the city, as she and Giles had found out their third year there. They'd needed to find some way to get her into the Bacchus Mardi Gras Ball, and crashing just wouldn't work, not with the security the Crewe of Bacchus posted. Giles had been seeing Gabriella for almost four months then, and when the sultry creole woman had found out what they needed and why-- there was a particularly nasty old vamp who was planning to turn the King of Bacchus for some unknown reason-- she'd made a few phone calls, and there had been an invitation on their front porch the next morning, along with a truly delicious formal gown. Yes, Gabriella was very handy to have around, and it didn't hurt that the woman had become a very good friend, too. Once the bullets were carved, Giles had begun the equally tedious process of drilling out their centers and filling them with the holy water. A thin shell of wax over the hollow, and the job was done. While the Watcher and his wife re-loaded her clips, she'd gone through her usual routine in the back room of the house. Stretching exercises first, then punching at the heavy bag for a while, followed by her karate katas and sword practice. It wasn't easy for her to do it all alone, but she didn't have much choice. Giles wasn't getting any younger, and regardless of how powerful and useful Gabriella was, the other woman just didn't have the training... She supposed she couldn't really complain, though... after all, no vampire had even come *close* to beating her since they'd moved to the 'Crescent City'. She'd showered, as usual, after she'd finished training, and dressed in what she thought of as her 'uniform'-- black jeans, black tank top, black hooded jacket-- after binding her blonde hair into a tight braid. She hated wearing it that way, if the truth be known, but she couldn't take the chance of some stray gleam of moonlight against it giving her away, and once she'd laced up her-- black, of course-- Doc Marten's, she'd left the house, pausing only to grab her guns and the spare clips from the kitchen table. The upshot of it all was that she'd been wandering through the streets of the French Quarter for almost an hour, and she had yet to see one single vamp! It didn't make sense to her, especially after the way they'd been all over the place the night before. Maybe there was some sort of a prophecy, she thought, or some sacred day for the undead coming up... She'd have to get Giles to research it when she got home. She sighed then, and leaned against the wall outside the Alibi Bar, wondering what she was supposed to do. It wasn't like it had been in Sunnydale; she didn't have a group of friends ready and willing to amuse her on the slow nights, and... she was bored. Or she was until she saw the two vampires slinking through the intersection of Iberville and Bourbon. They were walking at exactly the pace of the people in front of them, trying to blend in; pass for human. And it was working, for the most part, but she doubted they were expecting to be spotted by someone who could sense their kind, and she *could*, so... she followed them carefully, staying a good ten feet back, making sure to keep as many people as possible between them and her, just in case they looked behind them. The two vampires wandered aimlessly, as far as she could tell, going up Conti to Burgundy, down Burgundy to Toulouse, down Toulouse to Royal... She followed them the whole way, not even noticing that they were leading her out of the Quarter until they were on Elysian Fields, passing Checkpoint Charlie's... and that was when the worry started to creep up her spine. Unfortunately, she realized as she rounded yet another corner, by then it was much too late. She glanced around her, her mind quickly adding up the number of foes she now faced. The two vamps had been the lure, she finally understood, and their random travels had been anything but. They'd set her up, and as she gazed once again at the twelve vampires surrounding her, she admitted to herself that they'd done a damned fine job. "O...K..." she said tentatively, while subtly reaching for her guns, "Wha... what's going on here?" One tall, dark vampire stepped forward, smirking through his fangs at her. "You've been killing my *clan*, little girl," he said smoothly, his yellow eyes glittering dangerously, "And we're not going to take it anymore." She sighed deeply, relaxing just a bit as her palms closed around the familiar grips of the pistols strapped to the small of her back. "All right," she said resignedly, meeting his angry glare with her own calm gaze, "First off, I'm not a 'little girl', and if I am, then it certainly doesn't say much for the caliber of your... group. And second..." She didn't get to share her second point, because that was when the one who'd been talking snarled furiously and started to charge her. She had her guns out in less than a second, and even that was almost too long, but her first bullet caught him in the ribs as he dove at her. She didn't have time to watch him starting to burn as the holy water ate away his insides, but she could hear him screaming as she calmly aimed and squeezed off shot after shot. Eventually, though, both her guns clicked empty. She looked wildly around her then, mildly surprised to see only four of the original twelve still standing. She wasn't sure whether she'd shot the other eight, or if some of them had maybe run, but one thing was sure... she didn't have time to re-load. "OK," she said, panting slightly as she tried to bluff the remaining four, "I'm tired, and it's been a really *suck* night so far, so... why don't you all just... leave?" She sighed as two of them started edging closer to her, and dropped her Gloks, taking up a fighting stance. "Why don't they ever take the easy way out?" she asked herself out loud. The first one ran at her, head down. "What?" she said, sounding almost amused as she side-stepped his rush. "You're a *bull*, now? Fine, then... Ole!" She spun out of his way, lashing out with a swift round kick at the other attacking vampire. She didn't watch as he spun to the ground, her attention still on the one who'd rushed her. She stood still for a moment, her hand slipping into her back pocket, and as he ran for her again, she plunged her fist directly at his chest, pulling it back as he burst into ash and dust. She continued her spin, using the momentum to drive the same clenched hand hard into the other vampire who'd been attacking. She did stop then, as his dust settled, and she watched the last two run off into the night. "Well, *that* was fun," she said sarcastically to no one. She glanced at the yellow number two pencil in her hand and smiled slightly. "And thank you, Willow!" she murmured, slipping it back into her pocket as she retrieved her guns. She popped the clips from them and reloaded with her spares, chambering rounds in each of them. Finally, she was ready, and she started back the way she'd come. She was only a few blocks inside the Quarter when she felt it. There was a vampire nearby. She grinned to herself; maybe it was one of the two who'd run off, and somehow she felt just a little more willing to face them now that she was armed once again. She strolled silently down the dimly lit street, listening intently, and turned in to the small courtyard of what appeared to have been, in better times, a very nice little apartment building. This was the place; she could *feel* it! She slipped stealthily through the open area, stopping when she saw the figure sitting on the edge of the fountain. It appeared to be staring into the still water, but she had no idea of why... after all, it wasn't like it had a reflection or anything, but... She shook her head. It didn't matter what it was doing, it was a vampire, and... it needed to die. She slipped one gun from where she'd been holding it under her jacket, and drew a bead on the back of the creature's head, after discovering that the bushes were a bit too dense to guarantee a heart shot, aiming for the reflection of the moon in its glossy black hair. One shot to the head to incapacitate it, then she'd go closer, and take it through the heart... She didn't want it to suffer, after all... She could hear it mumbling to itself as she began to squeeze off her shot, but she couldn't quite make out what it was saying. It didn't matter, anyway. It was a vampire, and it was her job to kill it. She closed her eyes briefly then, sending out a prayer for the soul that had once lived within the body, and tightened her finger on the trigger, smiling slightly at the sound the bullet made leaving the silencer. She slipped the Glok into its holster, and approached the fountain, her other gun still clenched in her fist. Her eyes widened in shock when she reached her goal, mostly because she could still hear the mumbled words coming from the vampire's mouth. The head shot should have incapacitated him, at the very least! She looked at the vampire laying face down on the slate stones, and noticed the empty bottles scattered around him; then she noticed the *smell*. He wasn't unconscious, she realized, because he'd fallen, drunk, from the edge of the fountain just as she'd taken her shot. She aimed again, at the spot on his back that lay just above his heart. Somehow, it just seemed too easy, but... who was she to refuse a gift from the Powers? "I'm sorry," she said softly, ready to do what she had to do. It was then that one of his words caught her attention, and she eased off the trigger, listening closely to him. "Slayer..." he mumbled, slurring slightly, "So sorry, Slayer... wasn't fair, pet, was it?" He rolled onto his back, spitting dirt from his mouth, and he focused blearily on what had to be an hallucination. "I tried... I tried so hard, but..." he shook his head, ignoring the slight pain as the uneven stone cut his scalp, "I couldn't... I just... couldn't..." He shook his head again, pressing back against the rocks as he relished the pain this time. "Should've been me, luv... should've been me..." he was still repeating that one thought as the darkness swam up and overtook him. She stared down, wide-eyed, at his still form, knowing that in adequate light she'd be seeing sharply defined cheekbones, and smooth, pale skin; if his eyes had been open, she'd have seen twin orbs of the bluest sky... Had his hair still been the violent white she remembered from Sunnydale, she would have known him immediately, but... he'd dyed it black, and she hadn't remembered... But she did *now*, and she thanked every Power she could think of, even Gabriella's gods, for letting him fall away from her bullet, and... there was no way she could just leave him there. She sighed and bent down, taking him by the shoulders and dragging him from the courtyard and into the street. With any luck, there'd be a cab she could flag down sometime before sunrise. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Giles ran, panicked, to the door as her shouting voice reached him from the street. He flung the metal security grate wide and rushed out to meet her. "What..." he forced himself to stop when he saw her struggling with a limp, dark-haired form on the sidewalk, and dashed to her side. "Help me get him inside, Giles," the girl demanded, still trying to lift the man's body. She smiled slightly in thanks when the former Watcher grabbed hold of the other arm, and between them, they managed to get the almost bonelessly loose drunk up the stairs. "Come in, Spike," she muttered, very softly, as they reached the threshold, and she sighed in relief when they all passed through without any problem. She hadn't been entirely sure of whether the invitation would work on the passed-out vampire, but apparently it had. "Come on, we have to get him into my room." Giles stared, completely shocked, at the girl he thought of as a daughter. "What?" he demanded, "Are you *insane*? You don't really expect me to allow you to have some strange man in your... *bedroom*, do you?" She sighed deeply, knowing he wasn't going to like what she was about to say. "It's the only room that's completely sun-proof, Giles..." She could see him working out what that meant, and rushed on before she lost her nerve. "And he's not 'some strange man'..." She sighed again, and lifted the vampire's head so that Giles could see his face. "It's *Spike*, Giles... and... I couldn't just leave him out there like this..." The former watcher stared at the vampire's slack face for a moment before his eyes returned to the girl's. "Fine," he said, after another moment. He helped her manoeuver the limp body down the hallway to her room, and sighed when they finally deposited him on the bed. "Fine," he said again, pinching the bridge of his nose as he felt the headache coming on, "But we're going to talk about this, Dawn..." Dawn Summers, the mystical key, sighed yet again, and pulled her gaze away from her adoptive father's. "I know, Giles," she said softly, "I know..." End-- pt 1 |