Disclaimers: The characters set forth in this story are owned by Prodigy Pictures, even though they would strongly implore the reader that no one owns them.
A/N: Thanks for all the thoughts and feedback, I've planted a few single line lazy course corrections.
Present Day
"Remind me to ask you later HOW exactly you learned to channel NASCAR into truck racing! I want top-shelf vodka, far FAR away from here!" The shouted words fell on deaf ears as the driver concentrated on maintaining an increased distance, the wind howling through the windows.
Tires worn to the bone skidded around on the washboard gravel road; the muffler hanging by a thread, sparking against the rocks. The engine heaved and roared; as Lauren shoved the gear back into third watching the RPMs hit the red line. Rifle shots rang out and flew by on the right as she slammed the wheel to the left, jostling Kenzi's shot, sending a slender cylinder tumbling out of the truck window.
"Fuck! Give me another one," the goth's voice choked out as the grit in the air bit her throat. Her gloved hands left the trucks' front window and reached backwards towards her driver, never taking her eyes of the black van in hot pursuit. Sweat and dirt coated the blonde's face as she shoved her aviator's up and looked down at the three remaining cylinders. With one hand on the wheel, she swerved the truck again right, barely avoiding a rivet in the road that would have flipped them.
High powered shots rang out again, this time smashing through the back window and flying into Kenzi's small shoulder. The impact pushed her backwards against the dash and spattered the windshield red. "Shit!" Lauren exclaimed, as she reached out her hand to steady the girl; Kenzi grunted in agony, a rush of Ukrainian explicative leaving her mouth as she leaned her head forward, her raven locks momentarily obscuring her face. Lauren gunned the engine and slammed it into fourth. Going this fast on these roads was suicide, but she had no choice.
Holding the wheel with her right hand, Lauren desperately lit the fuse on one of the canisters with her lighter, holding the flame close. When the small tendril caught, she grabbed it and blind backwards tossed it out the driver window. The truck lurched forward as the ensuing explosion rocked it a mere two seconds later. Gripping the wheel tight, she brought the car back under control, the smell of gunpowder and cordite strong and overpowering. The blonde looked in her side mirror to see the black van bursting through the explosive fumes and smoke. They were gaining. Her hands started to shake.
"Kenzi! Kenzi can you hear me!" she shouted. The brown eyes found the blue, full of pain. Blood was seeping through the girl's denim jacket and down her hand, dripping on the seat.
"It's sokay, doc. Just a little flesh wound," the girl hissed out. Kenzi leaned over to Lauren's seat to touch the blonde's face. "It'll probably heal up better than that one", she said tracing the flesh colored scar that puckered in places and ran down the doctor's cheekbone.
Lauren flinched minutely at the touch. A pained smile graced her face as she shook her head and shoved another cylinder into Kenzi's good hand. Never taking her eyes off the road, she spotted the tree line up ahead. Looked like one of the old forest roads, one that was once used for access to logging, barricaded with massive trunks and a sign that indicated closure.
"End of the line, Kenzi. Make this shot count, 'cause I am running out of road."
Snorting a laugh back, Kenzi pulled forward and flipped around again with her back to the dash. "Lefty throws suck," she explained as her eyes narrowed. Just as her breathing focused and slowed, her eyes turned a soft, glowing violet. The pupils that were once human and round, shrank slowly into catlike slits as her face elongated a bit into something infinitely more feral; something that screamed hunter.
Kenzi breathed on the fuse, lighting the explosive cocktail and the sound of a contented purr lined her throat as she smiled. Raising her good arm up and out she unerringly threw right at the van's windshield, roughly two car lengths behind.
The explosive concussion was much closer this time and tore through the back end of the truck, launching them forward. Lauren grunted hard as she slammed on the brakes and rocked with the wheel, trying to maintain control against the push of the uncontrolled fireball behind them. Her ears ringing and acutely in pain, Kenzi looked up through the spider cracks of the shattered rear window to watch a secondary explosion as the gas tank lit the rest of the van up , the back half tossed high into the air. Shards of fiery debris hit the roof truck with loud thwacking noises and Lauren ducked instinctively.
"Hasta la vista, you dark fae fucks," Kenzi shouted back towards the flame consumed van.
Shuddering breaths clawed at her chest, as her face reverted slowly back into human form, although her eyes remained a different shade of vivid purple. Clutching her wounded shoulder she glanced sideways at her companion, who had opened the truck door and was clambering out of the vehicle, tranq gun in hand.
"Dude, we just blew them up and you wanna make sure they are SLEEPING?" the dark haired girl questioned incredulously as she busted open her door and leapt light footed to the ground.
Lauren shook the dust from her black leather jacket and flipped the safety on the weapon, planting her hand on the truck bed's edge. Her mouth quirked upwards and then formed a hard thin line, the question unanswered. There were many things that had been forever altered in the course of three months. Three months of endurance that had changed her landscape irrevocably. But the one thing that would never, ever change was her dedication to life. If there was a chance at not killing, she would seek it out. Death was their way. Feeding and discarding. It would never be hers if she could help it. When she couldn't, well….then she paid.
She quickly strode over to Kenzi's side of the vehicle around the front, pulling the smaller woman with her. The doctor made a quick field assessment of the wound as she pulled the raven haired girl's hand away, peeling back the shirt. The girl hissed at the intrusion but gave no complaint. "Looks like it missed the artery. You are lucky," Lauren quietly stated as she bent to shred pieces of cloth from Kenzi's ensemble.
"I've always been an artful dodger," the goth girl's eyebrows wiggled in time with her words, even as her eye color flared a darker purple, before reverting back to stunning shades of ice blue. Hissing, she leaned back against the hood of the truck.
Balling up the material she stripped from the clothing, Lauren pressed it to Kenzi's shoulder. "Hold here and press firmly. I'll be right back. I'm going to make sure we don't have anyone else wanting to take potshots at us."
"No way! I'm coming with you," Kenzi vehemently stated. "I can help." Frowning at her, Lauren said nothing but nodded her assent.
From Lauren's view, the van was a massive burning wreck, flipped on its back like a dying beetle, lost in a sea of heat and smoke. If an ordinary human like her had been in there, they would have been very crispy, and VERY dead. But these were not ordinary people they were dealing with. They were fae. And some fae were stronger and more resilient than others.
Striding 20 yards from the burning mass, Lauren slowly circled the van, Kenzi took the opposite direction.
As if on cue, the back doors burst open from the flaming hulk, and a scream of fury ignited the air. There stood a humanoid figure, hell bent on running through the flames, arms outstretched, eyes mirroring the fire. Lauren fired off a tranq round straight into its chest but it didn't faze the fae as the momentum carried him straight into Lauren's body, knocking her flat, searing her jacket's sleeves.
Kenzi leaped an inhuman distance and dug her hands into his arms, ferociously clinging to his back. The fae let out a cry and tried his best to shake her off. Quickly reaching up, fingernails curving into sharp long claws, the feral girl crowed victory and dug in, pinning the arms back long enough for Lauren to get a second shot in. This time, the fae dropped to his knees, eyes dimming and rolling back in his head. As his body hit the ground, Kenzi withdrew, panting from her exertions, hands burning from the contact. She looked at the disheveled doctor, begging for the permission she knew she desperately needed. She couldn't ask.
She would never ask.
After checking over the rest of the van, confident they were dealing with no one else; Lauren knelt down near Kenzi's side, and lifted the fae's wrist. "Slowly, Kenzi. Too much will kill him. I'm here if you go too far. Are you ready?"
The girl nodded and Lauren took a small pocket knife from her boot and cut a line on the fae's arm, enough to release a small stream of crimson. Kenzi held it to her lips and lapped up the sickeningly sweet life blood. Pulling more from the fae, she clung to his arm, devouring every single drop. She could feel the wound in her shoulder start to close, the searing heat from her hands fading. But the deeper ache remained. Hollowed and worn, Kenzi couldn't tell the difference between feeding and the broken desire of something close but other…. she started to draw more and more. She could hear words being spoken, but lost in her hunger, she neither understood nor headed.
A slap to the face, Kenzi dropped her lifeline, teeth bared as Lauren pushed her away forcefully from the unconscious body. "Kenzi! Enough! Stop! It's too much." The doctor's hands were held out in a gesture of wary caution, eyes pleading. Lauren could see the effort it took to reign in the deep change that had brought her young friend low. Reluctantly, Kenzi looked up and met the doctor's gaze. With a shudder, she stood up, shaking with the effects of the feed. It felt like heroin, smooth as silk with a hint of euphoria. But it was a poor substitute for what she really craved, what she made her shake with need, what drew her to Lauren for safety time and again. What the druid took in his trade. Blocking out the drowning guilt, Kenzi pulled at her arm, marveling at its changed mobility.
Like a gift, she thought. A big girl gift. Her eyes swam a moment with unshed tears as she remembered chastising Bo to drop her baseball bat in favor of something better. Foolishly, she had regarded so many things then. She knew the cost of power now. Knew it from the depths of her hands, her lips, the taste of life and death on her tongue. Knew it from the blood of the woman that stood beside her.
She turned and grabbed Lauren's hands unexpectedly, pulling her tight in an embrace. "Thank you," she whispered fiercely. "For stopping me. For always stopping me." Lauren's face softened staring at the smoke billowing from behind them for many moments, silent, hands wrapped around the raven haired girl.
The blonde's amber colored eyes crinkled at a thought and her features grew into a smile. "Why Kenzi, does this mean I'm done paying for all the drinks?"
Aghast at the very notion, and grateful the emotional moment had broken in favor of levity, the goth pulled away horrified, her mouth dropping into an unutterable denial. Waving her finger at the instigator of madness, she turned her back, walking towards the beat up truck.
"Hotpants, you will NEVER, ever be free of your obligations to the liberator of wheels," she called over her shoulder, climbing into the passenger seat.
Shaking her head once again, at the unlikely truth and trust they had come to, Lauren followed. Clambering into the driver's seat once more, the truck groaned to life under the thief's hotwiring abilities. Cautiously looking over her shoulder, Lauren maneuvered the truck into reverse to head back down the dusty road.
"Lauren." A pause deeper than the ocean followed.
"Do you think we will find her?" The words wavered, fragile hope and loss entwined, circling one another, sending the pitch warbling through the air. The blonde looked at her with a confidence born of undeniable conviction.
"We will, Kenzi."
"We must."