She struggled, but she couldn’t move.
Faith was strapped down, arms, hands, legs and feet. Strangely enough, she wasn’t bound to a
table, but to a floor. Looking around,
Faith saw that wherever she was must have been vacant for a long time.
Garbage was strewn about, cobwebs hung from the ceiling and
doorframes and what little furniture that was in the room was broken into
pieces. Her gaze found the doorway, she
saw someone moving towards her. What was
he holding? Who the hell is he?
Faith shot straight up in bed, startled into total
consciousness. “Enough of the whacked
dreams already,” she spat.
Faith had been in L.A. for just over a week and her dreams
had gotten worse. At first, she couldn’t
remember them. She just woke up all
anxious-like.
If her dreams were of the Prophetic-Slayer-Type variety,
that would have been one thing, but they weren’t, at least she didn’t think
they were. Faith hadn’t had enough
prophetic dreams to know the difference.
On rare occasions, Faith wished she had an actual Watcher,
this being one of those times. Wesley
flashed through her mind briefly but after seeing him lately, she figured he
didn’t need anymore stress in his life.
She reached instinctively for her smokes, and realizing
they weren’t there, chuckled to herself. “Smoke-fricken’-free,” she said
throwing her covers back.
Since arriving here, she’d made a patrol of downtown L.A.
part of her nightly routine. More often
then not, Spike showed up. Sometimes
earlier, sometimes later, but he was always there, keeping her company, helping
her out, not that she needed it. She supposed
tonight wouldn’t be any different.
After dressing and grabbing a snack from the vending
machine, Faith headed out the front entrance of the hotel.
As Faith was getting ready to cross the street, a car came
screeching to a halt in front of her. She
jumped back, staring at the Dodge Viper.
“Watch it ass…” Her voice trailed off when she realized it
was Spike. “Damn! Nice wheels!”
Spike grinning, opened the passenger door and stated
wickedly, “Get in.”
Who was she to argue?
“So what gives? What’s with the sporty car?” she inquired
taking it all in.
“Figured you needed a change of scenery, a fact, innit?”
Spike asked shifting. “The car comes
compliments of Wolfram and Hart.”
“Perks, always good.
So what’s my change of scenery anyway?”
“Crypts, headstones, vamps?” he asked.
Faith’s face lit up. “About time.“
“Knew it! Hang on.”
Spike sped up with a quick shift and a squeal of tires.
They hadn’t been driving long when Faith saw it, a cemetery
just off the beaten path.
“This is the first one I’ve seen here. Why is it that Sunnydale had so many
cemeteries anyway?” She caught Spike’s expression. “Never mind.” Hellmouth.
Not waiting for the car to stop, Faith opened the door,
leapt out and hurried up the steps leading to the gated entrance.
“Locks?” she asked Spike, who had finally joined her.
Faith chewed her lip indecisively. She could either break the lock or climb over
the eight-foot brick wall that surrounded the place. She chose the latter. After making sure her weapons were in place
she climbed up and over the wall, landing safely on other side.
“I would of wagered a broken lock,” Spike volunteered, his
feet thumping down on the ground next to her.
“Crossed my mind,” shrugging her shoulders. “They’d have to
replace it tomorrow. Kind of a waste.”
She walked away, not catching the surprised look that briefly flickered across
Spike’s face.
Faith felt it. The
vamp was there. She heard Spike close
behind. The Slayer didn’t slow her pace;
she did however, signal Spike to stop. When she glanced back, she saw he had
ducked behind a tree.
Faith continued on, alone.
That was part of the deal they made.
When it came to the hunt, Faith went solo. If she suspected something was close, she
wanted to find it herself. The fight
they’d share, the hunt was hers. Spike
didn’t seem to mind. She figured he was
just glad to be away from Wolfram and Hart, especially away from Angel.
Could those two argue!
Up ahead was an old crumbling crypt. “In there,” she whispered to no one in
particular. “They’re always in there.”
She barely made it through the door.
“You gotta be The Slayer,” the demon stated cockily.
“That would be A Slayer, not The Slayer. Guess you haven’t heard?” Seeing the confusion in his eyes continued,
“Big-Magic-Mojo. All Potential Slayers
are now actual Slayers? There are hundreds of us now, maybe even
thousands.” Faith smiled. “You just happened to be lucky enough to get
me.” She moved closer to her target.
He smiled at her, his brown teeth barely visible in the
moonlight. “I knew it was you,
Faith. Word spreads fast, crazy Slayer
in town. What is it with L.A.? We get
all the crazies around here.”
Faith did her best to contain her surprise. “No offense, but you are one nasty looking
dude.”
He moved in closer to her. She took her battle stance and
raised her stake.
“I’m not going to kill you Slayer,” he said, mockingly.
Faith laughed. “You
got that right.” Motioning towards her stake.
“I’m going to kill you.”
Game face now on, he made a move towards Faith. She grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and
pushed him away just enough to bring up her elbow and hit him in the face. He staggered back but quickly regained his
balance. She jumped up on a ledge and
did a spinning roundhouse kick that knocked him down to the musty dirt
floor. Before he could say anything
else, her stake found his chest.
By the time Spike arrived she was sitting on the same
ledge, waiting for him. “What took you
so long?”
“Well, don’t you just look all… giddy,” he snickered.
“Cemeteries are just more happening.” Faith jumped down and went to stand near
Spike. “Word travels fast. He knew my name.”
Spike looked concerned.
“And that didn’t bother you?”
Shrugging it off.
“Why should it? I’m a Slayer,
been here over a week. Word’s gonna get
out.” She turned to leave the. “If he
knew I’d like being on top, then I’d be worried,” she added, she couldn’t help
it.
“Damn! Is that the
case with all you Slayers?” Spike said, following her out.
XXXXX