New roots
Chapter One
An attractive young woman shifted restlessly in her sleep, a frown marring her brow as she turned into her pillow, unaware the raven haired beauty continued to dream, -------the carpet of her dorm room was rough, coarse beneath her bare feet as she padded quietly across the room, the lights from outside the window cast a dull yellow glow through the drawn curtains, just enough to enable her to see.
Reaching the door she grasped the handle, it was smooth, cool to the touch and turned easily under her grip, pulling the door open Rowan flinched and turned her head away from the brighter lights of the hallway, blinking to clear her vision of black spots, squinting against the glare as she stepped out of her room and shuffled towards the girls bathroom, yawning tiredly she shoved the door open and fumbled for the light switch as she went inside, only this wasn't the bathroom.
Frowning in confusion Rowan glanced around the sunlit book shop instantly recognising her surroundings, there was a three foot high double sided bookcase in front of her, behind that across the store was a sales register, sunlight streamed through the large window to her right glinting off the polished wooden floor, to her left was the first of the seven foot tall stacks that stretched into the rear of the shop, every shelf was crammed with book and various other object of interesting shape and design.
She was completely alone or seemingly so, moving deeper into the store Rowan browsed through the stacks which grew dimmer the further back she went, in the centre was a large round research desk, atop it cast half in shadows was an ancient appearing book, it's leather cover once a deep forest green now faded and cracked, the pages yellowed and swollen with age, the dull gold leaf inscription gleamed slightly caught by the sun light filtering through the skylight directly above the table.
Rowan didn't recognise the markings although she some how felt that she should, sliding the old tomb across the table towards her and carefully opened it, the words seemed to make sense to her now as she read the short passage on the first page.
'Three for the Elvin kings under the sky, seven for the dwarf lords in their halls of stone, nine for the mortal men doomed to die, one for the dark lord on his dark throne.'
A sudden unexpected boom of thunder caused Rowan to jump in alarm and spin round, her eyes widening in shock as she found herself standing in the middle of a battle field, all around her men and strange looking creatures were attacking each other paying no attention to her, which made sense considering she had already figured this was a dream, a shiver round down her spine as those closest to her started to back up, turning slowly she took a step back herself as she gaze travelled up the huge armoured figure that stood behind her "oh poo!"-----
She was rudely awoken by the horrid shrill beep of her alarm clock, without opening her eyes Rowan picked up the offensive machine and hurled it across the room a smile curling her lips as silence once again descended, 'just five minutes' she thought snuggling under the covers with a soft sigh.
What seemed like minutes later Rowans dark green eyes snapped open, out of habit she glanced at her clock that should have been on her bed side dresser only it wasn't there, remembering that she had thrown it she picked up her watch and checked the time, peering at it, it took her a few moments to realise what she was looking at "damn it!" she swore throwing back the covers and leapt out of bed, "I'm gonna be late!" she charged around the room hurriedly getting herself ready.
Washed and dressed Rowan grabbed her wallet, key's and bag, slamming the door shut behind her she sprinted down the corridor dodging people as she went, "excuse me, coming through" she called sliding down the banisters, running across the common room, shoving the door to the dormitory open, moving to fast to stop she avoided colliding with two girls sat on the stairs by leaping over them, "ever heard of a bench!" she yelled over her shoulder as she ran across the campus of UCLA towards the lecture halls just making it in time for the start of the lesson.
Professor Robson taught mythology, a balding man in his mid fifties, he was a bit of a tyrant and didn't seem to like her, but then Rowan did have a habit of questioning everything he said, it wasn't her fault that she knew a lot more about the mythical creatures he spoke of than he did, and that half of the legends these beings were shrouded in was complete rubbish, the majority was just demon hype.
Vampires were not the seductive children of the night portrayed in books and movies, still suffering the pain of their mortal lives, they were cold blooded killers, demons, creatures of evil, these were the myths she knew, the things she hunted and destroyed, Rowan was a Slayer, one girl in all the world born with the strength and skill to protect the innocent, or whatever passed for innocent in L.A and defend the weak, she herself was a being of myth and legend.
Her mental wanderings were interrupted by the professors condescending tone of voice as he said "well perhaps if Ms McAllister would like to find her seat we could begin," it was put in such away to embarrass her, the accompanying few sniggers should have added to her mortification accept that it didn't.
She merely raised an eyebrow in response before replying "Oh! Are you waiting for me? How…thoughtful," no one could have mistaken the sarcasm as she sat down "please continue" she vaguely waved a hand in his direction, hiding her smirk as he glared at her.
"Right…" he began
As his voice droned on and on about the myth surrounding the supposed existence of werewolves, yet another subject Rowan was familiar with the raven haired slayer tuned him out turning her attention to the dream she had, carefully examining it, looking at it from all sides, picking it apart, attempting to discern it's true meaning, trying to figure out whether it had been a simple, harmless, if not a little bizarre dream or something more sinister.
It would not be the first time she had been forewarned of a coming danger and it had certainly been strange enough and cryptic enough to have been prophetic, then again it was a little to weird even by her standards, shoving it to the back of her mind for now Rowan returned her attention back to the lesson, the glazed expressions of her class mates faces told her it was time to make things more interesting, "Professor" she interrupted raising her hand
"Here we go" he sighed "yes Rowan?"
"Why only one night?"
"Because it's the full moon"
"Yeah, obviously" she rolled her eyes "but what about the other two nights before and after, cuz encase you haven't noticed the moon is full then as well, so logically wouldn't that mean that any Lycanthropes would be wolf like for the three night rather than just one, after so many interpretations and centuries of folk lore not to mention the fear that any story of this type would inspire. Isn't it possible that the thought of it being the three nights was just to much for people to deal with and as a result it was altered to just the one?" she asked with a smile, the professor caved, the lesson turned into a debate and Rowan sat back in her chair 'my work here is done'.
As the bell rang an hour later Rowan packed up her books, shoving them into her bag she got to her feet, most students had gotten out of the lesson as soon as it had ended but one or two still lingered to talk to professor Robson, Rowan wasn't one of them, hiking the back pack higher on her shoulder she left the lecture room, slowly walking out of the building, stepping out onto the sunlit campus she dug her sunglasses out of her bag and slid them on, it was going to be another hot California summers day.
She loved the warm barmy weather all year round never having developed a particular fondness for the cold, wet climate back home in England, she didn't mind the rain so much but Rowan hated being cold, thankfully since living in America for the last four years, crapy, dismal grey weather wasn't something she had to put up with, no doubt her Watcher would be complaining that it was too hot, she smiled, Rowan had the sneaking suspicion Graham just enjoyed complaining, mind you it would help if he figured out how to use the air conditioning in his study properly, for someone so smart he could be really dumb at times.
Knowing that she needed to check in with him she glanced at her watch, it was still early, if she went to see him now he'd probably want help researching and she preferred to avoid that underserved punishment as long as possible, with that in mind the Slayer decided to make a detour on her way, normally she would have taken her motorbike as the friends she was going to stop by to see worked half way across town, but she would enjoy the walk.
For the first sixteen years of her life Rowan had been a regular kid, nothing extraordinary aside from an interest in sports and martial arts, she went to school, hung out with her friends, went shopping and discussed boys and their disgusting habits, caused her parents grief just like any other girl her age, then she was called, life had a nasty habit of changing, of throwing the unexpected at a person, almost as if trying to see how they reacted, how they coped, she was introduced to the darker aspects of life, vampires, demons, the evil in the world that she had been born to destroy.
Her first Watcher Jonathan had been sent to guide and train her although she hadn't needed much training, her parents had never and would never know the person she had become neither would he, shortly before her seventeenth birthday all three had been killed in a house fire while she was out on patrol, the official report stated the cause was arson and while the police had no suspects Rowan had, had plenty, no matter what anyone said she believed that she and possibly her watcher had been the intended targets, Rowan may have only been the Slayer for less than a year at that point but she had made her presence felt by the demon community.
As it was she could only speculate why her parents had gone to see Jonathan in the first place, but knowing her dad it had probably had something to do with why his little girl was spending most of her free time with a man three times her age, the Watchers Council had gotten her out of England pretty sharpish, they had sent her to work and train with the only other active Slayer and her Watcher in Sunnydale, a small southern California town that just happened to be the mouth of hell.
She and Buffy had butted heads at first, each had their own way of doing things so they didn't always see eye to eye, they still didn't but it had been worse before Giles, her sister Slayers Watcher had been fired for caring to much about his charges after he'd told her about the council's Crucimentum ritual, what a stupid idea, strip a Slayer of her power then lock her in with a demented vampire, as a knock on effect Rowan herself had also been informed and the prospect of them doing the same to her was scrapped and aside from vampires and demons she and Buffy had a new common enemy, their new Watcher.
Wesley Wyndum Price, they'd caused him nothing but headaches, neither of them had listened to him, neither did Buffy's friends, they were loyal to Giles, accept for Cordelia who for some reason the dark haired Slayer still didn't understand had found him attractive, Willow and Xander hadn't been very welcoming, Oz was just Oz and Angel hadn't cared for the stuffy young Watcher at all.
As time passed they discovered that the Mayor of Sunnydale was a wanna be demon and Wesley's career had begun to unravel, without his knowledge or the knowledge of Buffy's friends, Rowan, Buffy, Giles and Angel had come up with a plan of their own, it was so simple, lead the Mayor and everyone else into believing that she had gone dark, to work for the Mayor and feed information about his ascension back to Buffy while convincing him she was on his side.
It sounded easy enough, only it wasn't, while playing double agent Rowan had uncovered a truth the Watchers Council preferred to keep to under wraps, that the power of the Slayer came from the very evil they fought against and what was more disturbing was that there was a pleasure in that darkness, a life without rules, without conscious, no guilt, no remorse, it was seductive, pure, you didn't walk away from that clean and the only person she could talk to, who could understand was a souled vampire.
To cut a long story short things had come to a head over Buffy's graduation, the Mayor had wanted her sister Slayer distracted and as her weakness was Angel he had ordered Rowan to kill the vampire, he had even supplied her with a poison that was cause a slow and painful death, she had managed to swap it for one that while having the same symptom wouldn't actually kill him, it just hurt like a bitch, so with a vampire escort she had tracked Angel and Buffy down and shot him through the shoulder.
When Buffy had turned up at her apartment Rowan had been expecting her and knowing that the place was being watched they did what they had been wanting to do for a while, they'd fought, Slayer against Slayer, there was nothing more challenging than fighting an equal, even if her flat did get trashed in the process, having more experience and being a little pissed at her for the whole Angel thing Buffy had won, as the scar of Rowan's stomach attested too.
The raven haired Slayer still wasn't sure if the blond had meant to stab her with her own knife, but Buffy had appeared as surprised as she had, falling from a roof onto the back of a moving truck hadn't been one of Rowans smartest ideas but with witnesses what else could she do, they'd needed to keep up the pretence that they were mortal enemies, if Buffy had helped her everything they had been through would have been wasted.
Rowan had spent the next two months in hospital by which time Buffy had defeated the Mayor and quit the Council after they refused to do anything to help Angel, Wesley had been fired for not only losing one Slayer and having no control over the other but also for not figuring out what was really going on, Angel and Cordelia had left Sunnydale and while Willow, Xander and Oz had been told the truth they had started to forgive Rowan for her behaviour but it wasn't forgotten, she'd made them nervous.
The Council had assigned her a new Watcher, she was moved to L.A and accepted into UCLA, a few weeks later she'd run into Angel while she was out on patrol, met up with Cordelia and was introduced to Doyle, a half Bracken demon that received visions from the powers that be, she hadn't known him long and she had been saddened by his death but he had died a hero and Rowan could only hope that her own end would be worth something that it wouldn't be pointless, somehow he had transferred his abilities to Cordelia and she was now Angel's link to the powers.
An hour later the Slayer stood outside the Hyperion Hotel looking up at the shabby rundown façade of the once impressive building that now housed the offices of Angel Investigations, it hadn't been a running hotel since the late forties due to a paranoia demon having taken up residence there, it had now been vanquished and replaced by another demon, there was more to the story than that but she wasn't about to go into it
Rowan and Angel had become good friends over the last few years, they had a surprising amount in common aside from him being a demon and having spent a century and a half killing, maiming and terrorising most of Europe, but they understood each other and worked well as a team, but they also did there own thing only combining forces when it was necessary, although there had been occasions during the past few months when she'd wanted to beat some sense into him, but with Angel's attention diverted else where she'd just been to busy.
The souled vampires life was fascinating, embroiled in scandal, love, passion, pain, hate, life and death, to have seen the things he had just boggled the mind, but it came in handy for history assignments, Rowan snorted at the thought as she jogged up a flight of stairs and approached the double doors, pulling one open the slayer stepped inside pausing to remove her sunglasses, the grand lobby was as always cast heavily in shadows a good thing too considering vampires and sunlit were not good bed fellows.
Hooking her glasses into the waist band of her fatigues Rowan descended another set of stairs into the foyer, it had been restored to it's former glory, her thick soled boots made no noise as she crossed the marble floor, the entrance way was a creamed marble throughout, including the walls, pillars stretching up to cover the ceiling high above her head and the wide sweeping staircase, complimented by dark mahogany fixtures and deep toned furniture.
Reaching the reception desk Rowan leaned on the counter propping her chin on her fist as she observed the pretty, shapely brunette, her hair was cropped short and streaked with blond as she moved around the outer office, she wondered how long it would take Cordelia to notice that she was there, when they'd first met the Slayer hadn't been particularly fond of the other girl, she'd thought her shallow and self involved, it wasn't until they'd met up again in L.A that Rowan had gotten to know the real Cordelia Chase and discovered that she quite liked her after all.
"Augh!" Cordelia yelped pressing a hand to her chest as she caught sight of Rowan "geez Ro!" she exclaimed before rolling her brown eyes "one of these days that habit of yours is going to give someone a heart attack"
"What habit?" the Slayer frowned
"That stealth thing you do, sneaking up on people" the brunette explained "you're as bad as Angel" she continued putting a file away in the cabinet and slammed the draw shut, "I hate it when he does that"
Rowan's green eyes gleamed with amusement as the vampire appeared as if from no where "Hey Angel" she burst out laughing at the seers expression as she slowly turned to face the handsome brunette with a sickly sweet smile.
Angel just shook his head "what can I do for you Rowan?"
"Oh I don't know…how about two weeks in Barbados or Jamaica, I'd even settle for New Zealand" she replied "but failing that, how about a big stake and directions as to where I might find Darla or Drucilla?"
"I don't know where they are" he shrugged
"Pity" she drummed her fingers on the desk as she studied the vampire for a moment, she could certainly understand why Buffy had fallen for Angel, he was a definite ten on the hotty scale, tall, dark and mysterious, with an underlying danger, but souled or not he was a demon and in her books a Slayer did not get involved romantically with what was technically the enemy it was just asking for trouble, "So what's the news with your bad guy?" she asked changing the subject, more for Cordelia's benefit than his
"Got him last night, speaking of which I had to repair your crossbow" the vampire answered going in search of said weapon
"Good morning Rowan" Wesley greeted wandering out of his office and across the reception to fix himself a cup of coffee
"Wes" she nodded, over the years she slowly started to like Wesley since he had joined the Angel Investigation team, he was still very much the Watcher relying on his books for any given situation but at least he could stand up for himself now without peeing his pants.
"Coffee?" he asked
"Who made it?"
"Cordy" he replied
"I'll pass"
"Hey!" Cordelia protested
"So Wes, still running the show?"
"Erm yes"
"Sticking with the 'let's send Angel in first' deal huh?"
"Rowan!" Angel said warningly as he reappeared carrying a compact single handed crossbow "knock it off"
"What?" she responded innocently "I only asked"
"Don't you have an else where to be?" inquired the former Watcher
"Touché, geez you guys need to lighten up, you know, find the fun…where's Gunn?" she looked around, she'd admired the handsome young vampire hunter from the moment she'd met him, he was brave, loyal and had a wicked sense of humour, but he felt the weight of the world on his shoulders, he had a lot of people to look after, she understood responsibility, had plenty of her own.
"He's spending today with his crew" Cordelia told her
"I might swing by later, help with training"
"I don't think his crew could cope with another training session with you" the vampire stated "according to Gunn, the last time you help out, they were complaining about crippling bruises" he added holding out the weapon
"That was so not my fault" the Slayer grinned taking it from him and checking it over before folding down the arms and sliding into one of her leg pockets, tilting her head to one side she gave Cordelia a considering look "right, I'm gonna bounce, cuz you're about to get very busy" she indicated the brunette "call if you need me" with that she turned on her heel and walked away just as the seer clutched her head.
Chapter One
An attractive young woman shifted restlessly in her sleep, a frown marring her brow as she turned into her pillow, unaware the raven haired beauty continued to dream, -------the carpet of her dorm room was rough, coarse beneath her bare feet as she padded quietly across the room, the lights from outside the window cast a dull yellow glow through the drawn curtains, just enough to enable her to see.
Reaching the door she grasped the handle, it was smooth, cool to the touch and turned easily under her grip, pulling the door open Rowan flinched and turned her head away from the brighter lights of the hallway, blinking to clear her vision of black spots, squinting against the glare as she stepped out of her room and shuffled towards the girls bathroom, yawning tiredly she shoved the door open and fumbled for the light switch as she went inside, only this wasn't the bathroom.
Frowning in confusion Rowan glanced around the sunlit book shop instantly recognising her surroundings, there was a three foot high double sided bookcase in front of her, behind that across the store was a sales register, sunlight streamed through the large window to her right glinting off the polished wooden floor, to her left was the first of the seven foot tall stacks that stretched into the rear of the shop, every shelf was crammed with book and various other object of interesting shape and design.
She was completely alone or seemingly so, moving deeper into the store Rowan browsed through the stacks which grew dimmer the further back she went, in the centre was a large round research desk, atop it cast half in shadows was an ancient appearing book, it's leather cover once a deep forest green now faded and cracked, the pages yellowed and swollen with age, the dull gold leaf inscription gleamed slightly caught by the sun light filtering through the skylight directly above the table.
Rowan didn't recognise the markings although she some how felt that she should, sliding the old tomb across the table towards her and carefully opened it, the words seemed to make sense to her now as she read the short passage on the first page.
'Three for the Elvin kings under the sky, seven for the dwarf lords in their halls of stone, nine for the mortal men doomed to die, one for the dark lord on his dark throne.'
A sudden unexpected boom of thunder caused Rowan to jump in alarm and spin round, her eyes widening in shock as she found herself standing in the middle of a battle field, all around her men and strange looking creatures were attacking each other paying no attention to her, which made sense considering she had already figured this was a dream, a shiver round down her spine as those closest to her started to back up, turning slowly she took a step back herself as she gaze travelled up the huge armoured figure that stood behind her "oh poo!"-----
She was rudely awoken by the horrid shrill beep of her alarm clock, without opening her eyes Rowan picked up the offensive machine and hurled it across the room a smile curling her lips as silence once again descended, 'just five minutes' she thought snuggling under the covers with a soft sigh.
What seemed like minutes later Rowans dark green eyes snapped open, out of habit she glanced at her clock that should have been on her bed side dresser only it wasn't there, remembering that she had thrown it she picked up her watch and checked the time, peering at it, it took her a few moments to realise what she was looking at "damn it!" she swore throwing back the covers and leapt out of bed, "I'm gonna be late!" she charged around the room hurriedly getting herself ready.
Washed and dressed Rowan grabbed her wallet, key's and bag, slamming the door shut behind her she sprinted down the corridor dodging people as she went, "excuse me, coming through" she called sliding down the banisters, running across the common room, shoving the door to the dormitory open, moving to fast to stop she avoided colliding with two girls sat on the stairs by leaping over them, "ever heard of a bench!" she yelled over her shoulder as she ran across the campus of UCLA towards the lecture halls just making it in time for the start of the lesson.
Professor Robson taught mythology, a balding man in his mid fifties, he was a bit of a tyrant and didn't seem to like her, but then Rowan did have a habit of questioning everything he said, it wasn't her fault that she knew a lot more about the mythical creatures he spoke of than he did, and that half of the legends these beings were shrouded in was complete rubbish, the majority was just demon hype.
Vampires were not the seductive children of the night portrayed in books and movies, still suffering the pain of their mortal lives, they were cold blooded killers, demons, creatures of evil, these were the myths she knew, the things she hunted and destroyed, Rowan was a Slayer, one girl in all the world born with the strength and skill to protect the innocent, or whatever passed for innocent in L.A and defend the weak, she herself was a being of myth and legend.
Her mental wanderings were interrupted by the professors condescending tone of voice as he said "well perhaps if Ms McAllister would like to find her seat we could begin," it was put in such away to embarrass her, the accompanying few sniggers should have added to her mortification accept that it didn't.
She merely raised an eyebrow in response before replying "Oh! Are you waiting for me? How…thoughtful," no one could have mistaken the sarcasm as she sat down "please continue" she vaguely waved a hand in his direction, hiding her smirk as he glared at her.
"Right…" he began
As his voice droned on and on about the myth surrounding the supposed existence of werewolves, yet another subject Rowan was familiar with the raven haired slayer tuned him out turning her attention to the dream she had, carefully examining it, looking at it from all sides, picking it apart, attempting to discern it's true meaning, trying to figure out whether it had been a simple, harmless, if not a little bizarre dream or something more sinister.
It would not be the first time she had been forewarned of a coming danger and it had certainly been strange enough and cryptic enough to have been prophetic, then again it was a little to weird even by her standards, shoving it to the back of her mind for now Rowan returned her attention back to the lesson, the glazed expressions of her class mates faces told her it was time to make things more interesting, "Professor" she interrupted raising her hand
"Here we go" he sighed "yes Rowan?"
"Why only one night?"
"Because it's the full moon"
"Yeah, obviously" she rolled her eyes "but what about the other two nights before and after, cuz encase you haven't noticed the moon is full then as well, so logically wouldn't that mean that any Lycanthropes would be wolf like for the three night rather than just one, after so many interpretations and centuries of folk lore not to mention the fear that any story of this type would inspire. Isn't it possible that the thought of it being the three nights was just to much for people to deal with and as a result it was altered to just the one?" she asked with a smile, the professor caved, the lesson turned into a debate and Rowan sat back in her chair 'my work here is done'.
As the bell rang an hour later Rowan packed up her books, shoving them into her bag she got to her feet, most students had gotten out of the lesson as soon as it had ended but one or two still lingered to talk to professor Robson, Rowan wasn't one of them, hiking the back pack higher on her shoulder she left the lecture room, slowly walking out of the building, stepping out onto the sunlit campus she dug her sunglasses out of her bag and slid them on, it was going to be another hot California summers day.
She loved the warm barmy weather all year round never having developed a particular fondness for the cold, wet climate back home in England, she didn't mind the rain so much but Rowan hated being cold, thankfully since living in America for the last four years, crapy, dismal grey weather wasn't something she had to put up with, no doubt her Watcher would be complaining that it was too hot, she smiled, Rowan had the sneaking suspicion Graham just enjoyed complaining, mind you it would help if he figured out how to use the air conditioning in his study properly, for someone so smart he could be really dumb at times.
Knowing that she needed to check in with him she glanced at her watch, it was still early, if she went to see him now he'd probably want help researching and she preferred to avoid that underserved punishment as long as possible, with that in mind the Slayer decided to make a detour on her way, normally she would have taken her motorbike as the friends she was going to stop by to see worked half way across town, but she would enjoy the walk.
For the first sixteen years of her life Rowan had been a regular kid, nothing extraordinary aside from an interest in sports and martial arts, she went to school, hung out with her friends, went shopping and discussed boys and their disgusting habits, caused her parents grief just like any other girl her age, then she was called, life had a nasty habit of changing, of throwing the unexpected at a person, almost as if trying to see how they reacted, how they coped, she was introduced to the darker aspects of life, vampires, demons, the evil in the world that she had been born to destroy.
Her first Watcher Jonathan had been sent to guide and train her although she hadn't needed much training, her parents had never and would never know the person she had become neither would he, shortly before her seventeenth birthday all three had been killed in a house fire while she was out on patrol, the official report stated the cause was arson and while the police had no suspects Rowan had, had plenty, no matter what anyone said she believed that she and possibly her watcher had been the intended targets, Rowan may have only been the Slayer for less than a year at that point but she had made her presence felt by the demon community.
As it was she could only speculate why her parents had gone to see Jonathan in the first place, but knowing her dad it had probably had something to do with why his little girl was spending most of her free time with a man three times her age, the Watchers Council had gotten her out of England pretty sharpish, they had sent her to work and train with the only other active Slayer and her Watcher in Sunnydale, a small southern California town that just happened to be the mouth of hell.
She and Buffy had butted heads at first, each had their own way of doing things so they didn't always see eye to eye, they still didn't but it had been worse before Giles, her sister Slayers Watcher had been fired for caring to much about his charges after he'd told her about the council's Crucimentum ritual, what a stupid idea, strip a Slayer of her power then lock her in with a demented vampire, as a knock on effect Rowan herself had also been informed and the prospect of them doing the same to her was scrapped and aside from vampires and demons she and Buffy had a new common enemy, their new Watcher.
Wesley Wyndum Price, they'd caused him nothing but headaches, neither of them had listened to him, neither did Buffy's friends, they were loyal to Giles, accept for Cordelia who for some reason the dark haired Slayer still didn't understand had found him attractive, Willow and Xander hadn't been very welcoming, Oz was just Oz and Angel hadn't cared for the stuffy young Watcher at all.
As time passed they discovered that the Mayor of Sunnydale was a wanna be demon and Wesley's career had begun to unravel, without his knowledge or the knowledge of Buffy's friends, Rowan, Buffy, Giles and Angel had come up with a plan of their own, it was so simple, lead the Mayor and everyone else into believing that she had gone dark, to work for the Mayor and feed information about his ascension back to Buffy while convincing him she was on his side.
It sounded easy enough, only it wasn't, while playing double agent Rowan had uncovered a truth the Watchers Council preferred to keep to under wraps, that the power of the Slayer came from the very evil they fought against and what was more disturbing was that there was a pleasure in that darkness, a life without rules, without conscious, no guilt, no remorse, it was seductive, pure, you didn't walk away from that clean and the only person she could talk to, who could understand was a souled vampire.
To cut a long story short things had come to a head over Buffy's graduation, the Mayor had wanted her sister Slayer distracted and as her weakness was Angel he had ordered Rowan to kill the vampire, he had even supplied her with a poison that was cause a slow and painful death, she had managed to swap it for one that while having the same symptom wouldn't actually kill him, it just hurt like a bitch, so with a vampire escort she had tracked Angel and Buffy down and shot him through the shoulder.
When Buffy had turned up at her apartment Rowan had been expecting her and knowing that the place was being watched they did what they had been wanting to do for a while, they'd fought, Slayer against Slayer, there was nothing more challenging than fighting an equal, even if her flat did get trashed in the process, having more experience and being a little pissed at her for the whole Angel thing Buffy had won, as the scar of Rowan's stomach attested too.
The raven haired Slayer still wasn't sure if the blond had meant to stab her with her own knife, but Buffy had appeared as surprised as she had, falling from a roof onto the back of a moving truck hadn't been one of Rowans smartest ideas but with witnesses what else could she do, they'd needed to keep up the pretence that they were mortal enemies, if Buffy had helped her everything they had been through would have been wasted.
Rowan had spent the next two months in hospital by which time Buffy had defeated the Mayor and quit the Council after they refused to do anything to help Angel, Wesley had been fired for not only losing one Slayer and having no control over the other but also for not figuring out what was really going on, Angel and Cordelia had left Sunnydale and while Willow, Xander and Oz had been told the truth they had started to forgive Rowan for her behaviour but it wasn't forgotten, she'd made them nervous.
The Council had assigned her a new Watcher, she was moved to L.A and accepted into UCLA, a few weeks later she'd run into Angel while she was out on patrol, met up with Cordelia and was introduced to Doyle, a half Bracken demon that received visions from the powers that be, she hadn't known him long and she had been saddened by his death but he had died a hero and Rowan could only hope that her own end would be worth something that it wouldn't be pointless, somehow he had transferred his abilities to Cordelia and she was now Angel's link to the powers.
An hour later the Slayer stood outside the Hyperion Hotel looking up at the shabby rundown façade of the once impressive building that now housed the offices of Angel Investigations, it hadn't been a running hotel since the late forties due to a paranoia demon having taken up residence there, it had now been vanquished and replaced by another demon, there was more to the story than that but she wasn't about to go into it
Rowan and Angel had become good friends over the last few years, they had a surprising amount in common aside from him being a demon and having spent a century and a half killing, maiming and terrorising most of Europe, but they understood each other and worked well as a team, but they also did there own thing only combining forces when it was necessary, although there had been occasions during the past few months when she'd wanted to beat some sense into him, but with Angel's attention diverted else where she'd just been to busy.
The souled vampires life was fascinating, embroiled in scandal, love, passion, pain, hate, life and death, to have seen the things he had just boggled the mind, but it came in handy for history assignments, Rowan snorted at the thought as she jogged up a flight of stairs and approached the double doors, pulling one open the slayer stepped inside pausing to remove her sunglasses, the grand lobby was as always cast heavily in shadows a good thing too considering vampires and sunlit were not good bed fellows.
Hooking her glasses into the waist band of her fatigues Rowan descended another set of stairs into the foyer, it had been restored to it's former glory, her thick soled boots made no noise as she crossed the marble floor, the entrance way was a creamed marble throughout, including the walls, pillars stretching up to cover the ceiling high above her head and the wide sweeping staircase, complimented by dark mahogany fixtures and deep toned furniture.
Reaching the reception desk Rowan leaned on the counter propping her chin on her fist as she observed the pretty, shapely brunette, her hair was cropped short and streaked with blond as she moved around the outer office, she wondered how long it would take Cordelia to notice that she was there, when they'd first met the Slayer hadn't been particularly fond of the other girl, she'd thought her shallow and self involved, it wasn't until they'd met up again in L.A that Rowan had gotten to know the real Cordelia Chase and discovered that she quite liked her after all.
"Augh!" Cordelia yelped pressing a hand to her chest as she caught sight of Rowan "geez Ro!" she exclaimed before rolling her brown eyes "one of these days that habit of yours is going to give someone a heart attack"
"What habit?" the Slayer frowned
"That stealth thing you do, sneaking up on people" the brunette explained "you're as bad as Angel" she continued putting a file away in the cabinet and slammed the draw shut, "I hate it when he does that"
Rowan's green eyes gleamed with amusement as the vampire appeared as if from no where "Hey Angel" she burst out laughing at the seers expression as she slowly turned to face the handsome brunette with a sickly sweet smile.
Angel just shook his head "what can I do for you Rowan?"
"Oh I don't know…how about two weeks in Barbados or Jamaica, I'd even settle for New Zealand" she replied "but failing that, how about a big stake and directions as to where I might find Darla or Drucilla?"
"I don't know where they are" he shrugged
"Pity" she drummed her fingers on the desk as she studied the vampire for a moment, she could certainly understand why Buffy had fallen for Angel, he was a definite ten on the hotty scale, tall, dark and mysterious, with an underlying danger, but souled or not he was a demon and in her books a Slayer did not get involved romantically with what was technically the enemy it was just asking for trouble, "So what's the news with your bad guy?" she asked changing the subject, more for Cordelia's benefit than his
"Got him last night, speaking of which I had to repair your crossbow" the vampire answered going in search of said weapon
"Good morning Rowan" Wesley greeted wandering out of his office and across the reception to fix himself a cup of coffee
"Wes" she nodded, over the years she slowly started to like Wesley since he had joined the Angel Investigation team, he was still very much the Watcher relying on his books for any given situation but at least he could stand up for himself now without peeing his pants.
"Coffee?" he asked
"Who made it?"
"Cordy" he replied
"I'll pass"
"Hey!" Cordelia protested
"So Wes, still running the show?"
"Erm yes"
"Sticking with the 'let's send Angel in first' deal huh?"
"Rowan!" Angel said warningly as he reappeared carrying a compact single handed crossbow "knock it off"
"What?" she responded innocently "I only asked"
"Don't you have an else where to be?" inquired the former Watcher
"Touché, geez you guys need to lighten up, you know, find the fun…where's Gunn?" she looked around, she'd admired the handsome young vampire hunter from the moment she'd met him, he was brave, loyal and had a wicked sense of humour, but he felt the weight of the world on his shoulders, he had a lot of people to look after, she understood responsibility, had plenty of her own.
"He's spending today with his crew" Cordelia told her
"I might swing by later, help with training"
"I don't think his crew could cope with another training session with you" the vampire stated "according to Gunn, the last time you help out, they were complaining about crippling bruises" he added holding out the weapon
"That was so not my fault" the Slayer grinned taking it from him and checking it over before folding down the arms and sliding into one of her leg pockets, tilting her head to one side she gave Cordelia a considering look "right, I'm gonna bounce, cuz you're about to get very busy" she indicated the brunette "call if you need me" with that she turned on her heel and walked away just as the seer clutched her head.