Live The Life That Was Given To You.

By Latreia

July Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters are property of the very lucky fellow Joss Whedon. All other characters are from my little brain of wonder and so belong to me. If Mutant Enemy, Twentieth Century Fox and Joss Whedon would be so kind could you possibly not sue me. I am very poor and trying to sue me would only end in humiliating failure at trying to gain anything as I would only be handing my life savings of £10 over. Actually that might be quite funny but still please don't sue me! Think of this as homage to the many incredible years of pleasure I received with BTVS and Angel. It may be a poor one in your eyes but I still love you.

P.S. This is the first story I have ever posted so feedback of all varieties would be beyond incredible. Enjoy!

For R.

Prologue

Los Angeles

The piercing scream echoed throughout the alleyway. Trinity heard it and ran towards the shadows in the direction of the sound. Another scream tore from the woman's throat just as Trinity ran around the corner; this one was filled with pain and not pure fear like the last. Trinity could see how that was so. A colossal demon towered over the petite blonde, its body was a mass of horns and spines so tightly packed together you could barely see the crusted brown skin beneath them. Its features were grotesquely twisted out of shape making it hard to figure out exactly what its expression was. Its serrated teeth raked deep furrows into the blondes shoulder.

"Stop it now." Trinity said calmly.

The demon raised its head and stared at her with green slit eyes. "Stay out of this child, unless you want your fate to mirror hers." Its voice was cold and rasping.

Trinity glared at the monster. "It's kind of hard to ignore you when you're chewing on my friend."

The demon growled deep in its throat. "Fine." It lifted its arm and a thin spike emerged from its forearm. Before Trinity could make a move it quickly thrust the spike into the woman's side causing her to once again cry out.

"Alana!" Trinity called out.

The demon threw Alana into a pile of trash and turned its attention back to Trinity.

Trinity screwed her face up in anger and slid a short sword from a sheath that ran down her spine. Burning with rage she ran towards the demon her sword held above her ready to strike. The demons appearance was deceptive though and it moved out of her path as nimbly as a creature half its size.

"You're pretty spry for such a corpulent monster." said Trinity coming to a quick halt and turning to face the demon again.

"Corpulent?" the monster asked.

"It means your fat and just to be clear it was meant to be an insult." explained Trinity.

The creature peeled back its lips to once again show its teeth, every bit as deadly as the spines on its back. It began a deep growl in its throat only to find it being interrupted by a small pleading voice.

"Trinity, please leave. You don't understand what that thing is. What it can do." Alana said from the floor of the alley.

Trinity looked over at her. "Alana are you ok?"

"Don't change the subject Trin. You have to listen to me. You can not underestimate that thing. Leave before it kills you."

"Jeez you could have a little faith in me." Trinity said frowning.

"Don't joke!" shouted Alana. "That is a Beastealcian demon, the one we knew would come."

Trinity jerked round to face the demon again. "Please tell me you're joking. That's what you've been running from? That's Tynam?"

The Beastealcian pulled its face into its own equivalent of smile. "I see you've been discussing me Alana."

Trinity ignored Tynam and glanced down at Alana. "I sort of forgot to pick up a weapon forged in magic on the way home from the market so I guessed we're screwed." she said sarcastically.

"That's why you have got to go now. Please don't sacrifice yourself for a hopeless cause." begged Alana.

"No I will get you out of here." Trinity said firmly.

"Look as much as I just love listening to you two ladies chat about me all night, I am getting a tad tired of waiting. Can we finish this so I may continue my feast?" Tynam interrupted.

Trinity turned back to the Beastealcian. "As soon as there's a gap, run." she whispered to Alana.

"I'm sorry but she won't be leaving us tonight. I didn't stab her for sheer amusement. I injected her with a numbing agent so I could give you my full attention." Tynam told Trinity.

"Just the way I like it." Trinity said and broke into a run again.

The demon feinted to the left but Trinity anticipated its move and followed it bringing her sword round in an arch. Tynam raised is arm and hooked the blade between two spines before pushing back against Trinity causing her to stagger back a few paces. He left her no time to recover though and quickly charged her using another spine on its knuckle as a weapon intending to impale her on it. Trinity swung her sword round to block him but instead caught the blade on the brick wall of the narrow alley leaving her open to his attack. Tynam found though that Trinity had turned out of his direct path whilst trying to land a strike and so without time to stop his momentum he only just managed to graze her before stumbling past. Trinity sensing the opportunity quickly turned to face him and thrust the sword deep into his back. The Beastealcian bellowed with pain and immediately tried to pull the sword from its back.

"Come on we've got to go now." said Trinity grabbing Alana under the arms and hauling her to her feet.

The numbing agent hadn't even begun to wear off though and Alana was a dead weight in her arms. The weight wasn't a problem for Trinity though it was the balance. She could easily pick her up in her arms and carry her but that would leave her without a free hand to protect them and it looked as though they would need it. The demon was making quick work of pulling the sword free from his spines and he didn't look please about the fact it was there. Trinity dragged Alana as fast as she possibly could not daring to turn her back to Tynam more out of fear for Alana then anything else. The inevitable happened quicker then Trinity had hoped as the Beastealcian finally managed to free himself from the sword and turned its glaring attention onto her. She had barely managed to get halfway down the alley before the demon rushed them. Trinity turned dropping Alana as gently as she could to the side and took the full brunt of Tynam's blow. She slammed against the wall the air knocked from her and pain running through her chest. Trinity looked up expecting the blows to come raining down upon her but instead found the demon bent over grimacing.

"I guess that hole in your back hurts more then I thought." Trinity gasped.

Tynam whirled round throwing a punch towards Trinity catching her across the jaw and sending her sprawling to the floor. "I'm still strong enough to kill you though."

He kicked out at Trinity who quickly rolled out of the way just avoiding some serious damage. She found herself face to face with Alana. Her face was pale and glistening with sweat.

"Please leave me Trinity." she whispered.

"Alana, don't go to sleep. I'll get you home".

Trinity heard a scraping of gravel behind her and quickly lashed out with a kick catching the demon in its stomach sending it stumbling back a few paces away.

"Stop! Time out." gasped Trinity as she climbed to her feet.

The demon looked up at her growling deep in its throat.

"I have a proposal." said Trinity

The growling steadily silenced. "What sort of proposal?" asked Tynam.

"Ok from what I can gather from what Alana has told me you feed from energy rather then flesh right?"

Tynam slowly nodded.

"Ok so you guys mark your victims so you can track them hence the name Beastealcian meaning stalker."

"I know my feeding habits I do not need you to explain them to me." snarled the demon.

Trinity held her hands up trying to calm the creature. "I know I know but I need to make sure that I know them for this proposal to be beneficial to us both."

"Fine then I will tell you instead of enduring your pointless questions." Tynam shifted again as a flicker of pain went across his features before continuing. "We mark our victims not only to find them at a later date if necessary but also so we know when the victim's energy is at a high level. As it is you've already ruined most of my meal tonight." he said as his eyes flickered towards the still form of Alana. "It also acts as a mark of ownership so others of my kind know that they are out of bounds."

"There's a fault with the marking system though isn't there." interrupted Trinity.

Tynam twisted his face into a look of annoyance. "There is no fault with our ways but if you are referring to our ability of only being able to mark one victim at a time, there are many reasons why that is so, none of which I will be explaining to you."

"You can take the mark away though can't you?" asked Trinity.

"Yes but that is rare. There is no need to stop a mark when you can simply kill it instead"

Trinity smiled. "What if you found something better before you had the chance to kill your mark?"

Tynam stared hard at Trinity. "Explain your proposal now."

Trinity nodded once. "You're in pain and you can deny it as much as you want but you're in no state to fight. If you want to kill Alana though then you're going to have to because I'm not moving from this spot. I may not be able to kill you but I bet I can put you in a world of agony. As much as I would like to keep taking chunks out of you all night though, my friend is hurt badly and needs help. So how about we make a deal."

The demon narrowed his eyes. "What kind of deal?"

"The kind of deal where you let Alana go and swear to never hunt her again and I'll give you me. All I say is let me live tonight to help sort her out and then I am all yours to try for." offered Trinity.

"You are not human." Tynam stated.

Trinity nodded. "You're right. I'm not. I'm a vamp."

Tynam frowned. "No you're not like the vampires."

Trinity smiled. "Right again. I am different. Is it going to be a problem?"

The Beastealcian shook his head. "No problem at all."

"Good. So do we have a deal?" asked Trinity?

The demon was silent for a moment thinking through her offer. "Yes we do." he replied. "You have my word your friend is safe from me."

Before Trinity could say anything else, Tynam suddenly grabbed her slamming her hard against the alley wall and pinned her there.

Trinity struggled in his grasp feeling the spikes on his body dig into her flesh. Using one hand, Tynam pushed her head against the course brickwork scraping the skin from her cheek. With his other hand, he held his thumb up in front of her face forcing her to watch as his nail grew longer and sharper until it dripped with a muddy looking fluid. He tore off her spine sheath and used his nail to rip a hole in her top exposing her bare neck and back.

Tynam pushed his face right into Trinity's. "This is really going to hurt he whispered."

The demon wasn't lying and Trinity couldn't help but cry out as the nail pierced her skin and dug deep into her flesh. Her body bucked, desperately trying to free herself as he tore into her body. The mixture that flowed freely from his nail sank deep into the furrows in Trinity's back. It felt as if acid was being poured into her very core. She groaned as her body began to shake with the strain. Black spots began to appear in front of her eyes and she blinked rapidly trying not to pass out. That was the last thing she wanted while still in the grip of this monster. Tynam in his concentration had loosened his grip on Trinity and she managed to wriggle a hand free. She dug deep into his body clawing at the softer skin beneath the horns trying to force him to stop. He seem to find it nothing more then a little annoying though and so entangled his claws into her hair and pulled back on her head before slamming it back into the wall again with such speed and force that Trinity didn't even have time to cry out before she blacked out. Her mind and body found no rest there even in that dark world and the pain soon dragged her back to her agonising reality. With the last dregs of Trinity's strength gone, Tynam had no reason to pin her now and found himself just holding her up as he finished the last few lines of his work.

The demon took a step back and released her allowing Trinity's exhausted body to collapse to the ground, her back a mess of blood and the muddy mixture.

Laughing, Tynam lent down over Trinity. "I'll see you real soon."

"Not if I see you first." muttered Trinity, struggling to stay awake.

Tynam laughed again and raised his fist. With a single blow he sent Trinity back to her dark world.