The Chase
By Faith Bowie
Details:
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faith@hellville.com
distribution: ask ;)
rated: Weak R
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Faith moved quickly through the dark foliage, weaving around trees and jumping rocks like they were hurdles. She looked back into the darkness as she ran. She didn't see him, but she knew she couldn't have lost him that easily. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears. Her eyes stung from darkness and sweat, and her lungs burned like fire when she inhaled. It hurt so much that she almost wished she could slow down to rest and catch her breath. She decided to do just that when she nearly collapsed. Maybe, if she was quiet, he would be thrown off her trail. No such luck. She found herself slowing down and the moment that she did she could hear the fast pace of the twigs snapping behind her.

Faith started to run again, this time out of the timber and onto the street next to the nature park. Her pace quickened as she bounded off the sidewalk and across the street to the cemetery.

Faith looked back to make sure that she had outrun her pursuer, and accidentally ran headlong into Buffy.

Buffy looked surprised to see her former friend. "Faith..."

For a few, silent moments Faith gave Buffy a strange, disquieted look. Buffy almost spoke again, but Faith turned and bolted into the darkness without looking back.

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Spike pushed his hacked his way through the trees, using a 2x4 as a make-shift machete, throughly frustrated with this whole forest idea. The woodland wasn't his forte, and this running and chopping was exhausting. He would have stopped trailing her if he didn't love the hunt so much. But, his prey was crafty. They were at an end of the nature park that ran parallel to a interstate on one side, and a suburb on the other. She could be anywhere by now, and all he had to track her with was a fast fading scent in the air.

Spike stopped for a few seconds to listen and sniffed in the air for any sign of her. Nothing at first, but then he caught her scent. She had stopped moving and he could faintly hear her heartbeat. She was close. Only a few feet from him. Ha! He had her at last. He set out in her direction, walking at first, but then he the rush of the hunt hit him and he darted out into the darkness.

He could hear her heartbeat more clearly now, and stepped up his pace a bit. The sound of motion must have signaled her, because she became distant, and difficult to track.

Spike stopped for a few seconds to listen. Nothing but crickets. Damn. He decided to go back the way he had come, but as he set off in the other direction he was stopped by the sound of sharp heels on pavement. It was North, maybe. Not too far from him. He bolted out of the wooded area and into the parking lot of a church.

He stood and looked around for a bit to get his bearings.

"Now, if I were a Slayer, God forbid, where would I go?" He looked down as he pondered, only then noticing that the bottom of his feet were sizzling from the wear in his shoes where his feet touched the consecrated ground "Oh, bloody hell!" He jumped a bit, setting his feet into dense, damp grass. "Oh, whut fun this is." He grumbled.

Just then, Spike noticed Faith disport into a cemetery. He watched for a few seconds with a small grin. "That's my girl." He whispered. "Easy to catch."

He started after her again, crossing the street and bounding quickly from one consecrated spot to another. He rounded a tall hedge that served as the old cemetery's fence and also sandbagged straight into Buffy.

Buffy sighed exaggeratedly and turned to face the sky for a moment. "What is this? Slide into Summer's night? Wait...that's not...that didn't...oh, you know what I mean!"

Spike shook his head to clear it and then moved around Buffy, but she stepped in his way. "So, your what Faith was so eager to outrun?"

"Yeh, whut's it to you?" The vampire snorted, still poking his head around the blond road pile-on standing between him and his prize.

"I'm not gonna let you do it, Spike. If you want her, you'll have to go through me." Buffy stood her ground, pulling a stake out of her jacket and readying herself for battle. But then it hit her, Spike was clipped, right? And if Spike was clipped, why was Faith so afraid of him? Buffy slowly lowered her stake. "So, what's she so scared of, Spike? Huh? Maybe nothing. Maybe your following her into a trap. She's got you right where she wants you." Buffy grinned. Teasing Spike was loads of fun. Why didn't she do this more often? Oh, yeah. Because Giles made her promise she wouldn't. He had told her that stripping anybody of their dignity was cruel, even if that anybody was asking for it. Well, this time it was okay because she forgot, so it wasn't technically breaking her promise.

"Right where she wants me, eh Betty?" Spike smirked as he purposely screwed up her name. "I'm counting on it." Buffy had let her guard down, so Spike used this opportunity to clothesline her and take off after Faith, who now had a ten minute lead on him.

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Buffy hit the ground hard, just as Spike disappeared into the darkness beyond the hedge where she had seen Faith go only a few minutes earlier. Faith may have been a handful, but she didn't deserve to die for it, well, at least not at the hands of that crazed vampire punk. If anybody was going to kill Faith, it should be her, she has the most right to revenge...no. Wait. She wasn't going to do that again. She had promised herself that she wasn't. Faith seemed to really want to change, and even though they had their share of ordeals, she couldn't abandon her now.

Buffy rolled high onto her back and flipped to her feet. She could still hear Faith's panting so she set out in that direction. If she could hear Faith's breathing, then Spike could.

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Spike moved slowly through the damp grass, weaving through headstones towards the silhouette leaning against a crypt. It was definately Faith, he'd know those curves anywhere. He crept, quietly along the broadside of the crypt and grabbed her from behind, his hand muffling her mouth to keep her from screaming or whatever it is Slayer's do when you catch them.

"Shhh...let's not wake all the nice ghosties, pet. Fact is, I caught you. Now...whut to do with you?" He chuckled to himself. He knew exactly what he was going to do with her."I'm gonna enjoy this..."

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Buffy made her way through the cemetery, following the sounds of rustling that were coming from behind a crypt. The sounds were followed by the gasps that usually accompanied a feeding. What if she was too late? She shook the thought. Nothing would happen to Faith...right? She moved around to the back of the crypt only to sheild her eyes and turn away from the sight of Spike holding Faith up against the crypt wall, in a heavily X-rated moment.

"Oh...God... ew!" Buffy shuddered. "You guys could at least warn me next time before you go and jump each other in public! Have I said 'ew' yet? Cuz, ew! What kind of sex game where you playing? No, wait, I don't really wanna know that..." She was still rambling as she walked out of the cemetery, trying to forget the scene that was now burned into her memory, and not in a good way.


FIN