Almost Human
By Rave Luki
Note: This is a SEQUEL. Yes, there was a story before this. GO READ IT! You don't have to, of course, I do a good job covering for it. But if you read the first few chapters and you think I'm so wonderful (Hey, it could happen) that you have to go and read everything else I've ever written then you'll be saddened by the fact that this ruins the surprise from "One More Time." (you don't have to read them all, they're not really that great.)
Second note: I love reviews! I'm very sad that I haven't been getting many. This may mean I suck big time, but I doubt it. Please let me know what you think!
Chapter 1
I didn't think anyone would blame me for ignoring him. After all, if a guy said, "Stay here," and then ran off, you'd do the same thing. Well, not the same thing. You would have chased after him. Me, I ran in the other direction.
Why? I don't know. It was one of those feelings I get. That thing that seems to grab me and jerk me towards it, like being roped by a cowboy. Unfortunately the other end of the rope never had a cowboy. No, it had someone in trouble of getting slaughtered by any number of nastys. There was a time when I could ignore this feeling, when it was subtle and less distinct. A time when all I could do was locate a vamp or two… or twenty. Now it was just a problem, a threat, which I could choose whether or not I went to, but couldn't choose to shut off the nagging tug that said it was there. And that tug just doesn't shut up.
So I was running, sort of in a slow jog. When I sprinted I tended to trip, so I had stopped doing that a little over two years ago. Now it was a steady jog, and that same jerk that told me who was in trouble told me how to move. I dodged cars, people, sticks and stands without twisting an ankle or falling on my face. The entire time I was growing closer to an unknown destination. It was too far away, I might not make it. My heart skipped a beat when I realized that, and against my better judgment I sped up. I took a sharp right turn and a horn blared. I jumped, landed on medal, pushed off and kept running. Someone shouted behind me as I turned another corner, disappearing from view.
I couldn't think about what I was doing. My mind wanted to, but it wasn't working. I almost tripped twice, moving a foot wrong and trying to correct myself. My body was moving too fast for the connection my brain had with my sense. It took a few minutes to zone out, to lose control over myself and just let everything go. I felt my body relax, my pace speed up, if someone wasn't almost dead I never would have tried the stunt.
Stopping was so sudden that I almost fell down doing it. There was no transition into walking, it just happened, and my body didn't work that fast. The problem with the powers was it knew what I needed to do to stay alive, and it told me to do it, but I couldn't always react so quickly. So here I needed to walk, but to get here in time I needed to be as fast as possible. Obviously I should run as far and fast as I could, then stop eminently. That shook up my knees, and threw me off balance. If there was someone waiting to attack that would be the time to slaughter me. My powers just didn't get that I was still human.
I tried to focus in on nearby undead. Sometimes if I thought about it they'd come into view for me. It used to be easy, but things had changed a bit since then.
Wind blew across my back, raising hairs. I got the feeling that this scene had to be spooky. I searched for signs of how it looked. Closing my eyes I continued to walk, enjoying the cool breeze on my back. The wind smelled green, like trees. Pine, I think. I loved the smell of pine. A twig crunched under my foot, leaves blew in the wind. There was rustling all around. A park, probably. With a verity of trees losing their leaves to autumn. The path was made of dirt; I could feel it through my sandals. The last sign I picked up was a slight coppery scent, like an after taste in the air. It sat on the back of my tongue like some scents do, causing me to swallow a few times in hope of getting it out of my mouth.
Still walking I focused in on the scent of blood. The wind came from behind me, so it was probably back there, but if the blood came from behind where was I going? My eyes narrowed and I tilted my head, hoping for something. There was no power guiding me anymore, no sign of vampires. Once again I was thinking too hard. Relaxing enough to let my instincts take over me wasn't easy, especially not when the boogie man was close.
Something snapped, and it wasn't me this time. I stopped, knowing damn well that it was probably a bad plan. A part of me wanted to run, it screamed danger: Bad guys approaching. But I couldn't go. The scent was stronger now, blood must have been everywhere. That blood belonged to someone now, a possibly dead someone. I may be too late.
There was another sound, from a different direction. It was a small thump, as if someone had dropped something or stepped too hard. Afterwards came the feeling that people were being too still, that they were cringing from their own dumb mistakes. Vampires should be silent, not making clumsy noises. With any luck they were recently dead. The stillness stopped, a sudden thing, and I just felt movement. People were silently communicating, conversing in ways I couldn't understand. Something was happening and the wind had stopped.
Or it hadn't. I just couldn't feel it anymore. The trees were still rustling, ever so gently, but there was no cool breeze on my back.
It was my turn to be still. I couldn't force myself to be calm, to stop thinking. My mind was still searching the area, demanding for vamps. It wouldn't work, though, I knew that. I couldn't just think them into focus. In fact it was the opposite. I had to think about something else.
It wasn't the cold that made me shiver. It was the feeling that someone was hovering near. Blindfold yourself and everything feels like it's about to fall on you. It's just a sea of darkness. I fumbled to my pocket, digging to the bottom to find my phone. Without taking it out I found the numbers and speed dialed Al. We have a tracking system so he would find me after he was done with his own work. Just in case.
Someone grabbed me from behind, throwing one arm around my chest and digging the other hand into my pocket, pulling out my hand, phone intact, squeezing it until the phone slid from my fingers.
He had thought it was a weapon. He wouldn't have moved if he had actually known what it was. Even at the moment he was cursing himself, in fear of what his boss might do. He actually thought the word "Boss." But he didn't understand why the girl suddenly got cold afterwards, why she shivered. He wasn't too worried, because he had caught the girl. His boss would be happy, he hadn't let them attack right away. He'd said she was dangerous. He looked up at his boss now, who was staring back silently. There was a quick image, a blur, of actual sight. It was a taller guy, looking to be in the young twenties, wearing all black including sunglasses which were similar to the girl's. He was strong, confident, powerful.
I had a note of recognition and a shiver ran down my spine. It hadn't been a clear view, I didn't really see anything. Maybe it wasn't him, maybe he hadn't found us. Maybe I shouldn't be afraid if he had. The uncertainty churned my stomach. But I didn't feel any power wash over me, didn't get any vibes sent my way.
"Slayer," he said it arrogantly, as if he had won and I was at his mercy.
And I sighed in relief. It wasn't him.
I had a clear view now in my mind. A trip inside my captor's head had cleared it all up, and I knew what to do. The fallen phone wasn't needed anymore.
The vampire who had spoke walked forwards. "Slayer, how do you want to die?" He taunted, his voice high with excitement. The flunkies on either side of us chuckled, fear slipping through. I was a slayer, that was scary, but their boss knew what he was doing, or so they thought.
In any case I had an answer. "Accidentally, right in front of the big bad's eyes, when he had nothing to do with it."
Obviously he wasn't amused. The vamp scowled at me. "Do you know who I am?" He yelled, "Do you know who you're talking to?"
I nodded, slowly. "Just another wanna be big shot who thinks he can get to the top before someone else beats him to it."
Growling came from behind me and the arm around my body squeezed. From what I had seen from this guy he thought his leader was all that. He truly believed the guy was the next big thing. I almost felt guilty for having to break the news. Almost.
The leader walked up to me, getting real close, so close he almost touched. I could feel his breath when he talked. "I'm the most powerful vampire in this city, and soon I'll show that to the world."
"You," I corrected, "Are the second most powerful vampire in this city."
He glared. "And who's the first?" his tone was mocking.
"My boyfriend," I said bluntly. And in the confusion that followed I grabbed the arm that held me, jerked it out to punch the vamp in front of me with, and then while he fell backwards swung the vampire I was holding onto into one of the smaller guys. It had only taken seconds for me to get free and on top of this fight.
Then the vampire I had at my back decided to jump on top of me, tackling me to the ground. I heard the others getting to their feet as I fought to get an advantage. The vampire on top of me had me straddled, his fingers were digging into my neck. He was probably trying to choke me. I forced myself to my knees, even with the vampire's weight above me. He tried to push me back down but I grabbed his head and yanked it side ways, trying to snap it. He gave the appropriate shreik and I was able to pull him off me.
Then once again I was on my feet. I stumbled forward, grabbing for something I knew was there. My hand hit a tree branch. It was wet and sticky, but still wood. I snapped it off and stood my ground, waiting for the next challenge.
All four of them were on their feet, surrounding me as they inched forward. I stared strait ahead, listening to their steps as they approached. They were more cautious than last time, not knowing what I would do next. I just kept waiting.
In fear the smallest one charged. He punched at me, and it hit. For being so small he sure was strong. I stumbled back, hitting the tree behind me and he came again. He tried to swing a second time but I grabbed his arm with my free hand. Someone else grabbed my shoulder. It was the big guy who had been holding me. Not wanting two vampires at once this close to me I took the one I was holding and twirled him around as if we were dancing. Then with my leg I quickly tripped him, and he fell onto something pointy and wooden. I wasn't sure what, I had just known it was there.
Three hisses came in union. The vamp holding me had his nails digging tighter into my skin. I was bleeding and he hadn't even really cut my shirt. I grabbed hand, trying to detach it from my shoulder. It was like pulling at my own skin. His fingers just wouldn't unclench. He took hold of the hand that was holding onto him, and slowly began pulling it away. I blinked as he pulled on me. I tried to struggle, but he didn't waiver.
Obliviously comparing who was stronger wasn't getting me anywhere so I let him have my arm, but before he could twist it to some odd angle I kicked him in the shin. He growled, squeezing my shoulder harder, digging fingers into my skin.
I cringed, my shoulder in instinct turned away from him. But he gripped tighter. I tried to jerk harder, but that was a very, very bad plan that resulted in me screaming. "Holy crap!" I cried as I tried again to unclamp his hand. "You couldn't just bite me like a normal dead guy," I yelled. The remaining small guy laughed to my right. He reached out and grabbed my ankle and I glared down at him. He didn't let go so I kicked him in the face. Of course this led to the big guy hurting me more.
I'd had enough of this. Quite frankly my shoulder hurt, but worse than that he was restricting movements. There were still two other vampires to keep track of. So I braced myself, clenched my teeth, and pulled very, very hard and down away from him. My shoulder was forced out of his grip, but his fingers had been under my skin, and left my shoulder shredded. I bit my lip to stop from screaming, and thankfully no one moved for a second.
It didn't take much more than that second for me to move, and I started by twisting my wrist out of the big guy's hand. Finally I was free, bleeding, but free.
Standing up strait, I took a moment to place the vampires. Two off to the left, the big guy and the leader, than the short one on the right. Waiting for them to move I tried to make a plan. The fight could happen so many different ways, but I didn't want it to take too long.
When the vamps came at me I was ready. I used my bad arm to block punches, choosing to dodge instead when I could. I kicked the big guy back while dodging a blow from the little one. I punched at him, got hit by their leader, fell down a few times, but always got back up, stake in tow. The big guy tried grabbing me again, but he wasn't being careful. I let him take hold before stabbing him in the heart. He turned to dust and things got better.
The little guy just ran away. He saw two of his pals get beat and had had enough. The remaining vampire yelled after him, but did not follow. He was going to keep fighting all by himself.
Growling in frustration he turned back to me. He just stared for a moment, sizing me up as if he'd never seen me before. I stood still, letting him look. "Who are you?" He asked. But before I could answer he attacked.
Punch, block, duck, jump… He hit me once or twice, but not hard enough that it did anything, and no harder than I had hit him. He swung and I blocked with my bad arm. It wasn't healing, and I was using it too much. Frowning I fought for time, just so it could patch itself together so that it wouldn't hurt. I stomped on the vamp's foot, hard.
He yanked back, surprised, putting distance between us.
"You're not new," he made it an accusation.
I shrugged. "No, I'm not." My skin was healing, but not quickly.
"How? There were only two slayers. They're in Europe," he said.
Sighing I stretched my shoulder as skin and blood began to noticeably move back in place. I wasn't so much healing as rebuilding, using a lot of the same supplies. The chunks of skin and blood that had been removed had to be regrown, but the rest of me was recyclable.
"Faith and Buffy are in Europe," I agreed. "But you're forgetting that the slayerettes have been around for two years now. Not that I'm one of them, but yeah, two years is long enough to learn to kick a few vamp's asses."
He looked uncertain. His eyes shifted from my face, to my almost normal shoulder, then back to my face. He was probably trying hard in that last fight, and getting nowhere. Then I go and do something even a slayer can't.
The vamp started to back up, probably planning to run. But he never got the chance. At that moment a stake slammed into his heart, he may have even walked into it. One way or another, his shocked face burst with the rest of him, showering the man behind him in dust.
Alucard stood waving away the dust. He was about six inches taller than me, placing him around six feet. His hair was black, grown out to be shaggy because I liked the feel of it. His eyes were blue, and wide, and captured everything. He saw every detail and examined it thoroughly before dismissing it. After two thousand years of being undead you learn that everything can count. Right now he was surveying the scene. He'd started with me, but I was still in tact and self efficient, something else wasn't as lucky.
"You never listen," Al muttered as he began to walk around.
Shrugging, I grinned at him. "You didn't think I would, did you?" I asked.
He smiled despite himself. "I had hoped when you didn't follow me. But I'm just not that lucky." He was circling the area, pausing here and there to touch or look at something. His tone turned serious. "Who were these guys?" He asked.
"Another group of weeds," I muttered.
Alucard grimaced. "Damn I hate those guys," he muttered as he knelt down next to something. "Was their leader here?" He question.
"You killed him," I stated.
Alucard nodded, getting to his feet. He finally walked over to me, taking time to examine my shoulder. He fingered the shredded cloth and perfect skin, seeing what had happened. Then he made sure I didn't have any other injuries. Any other scrapes and bruises had already healed, and when he was sure of it he relaxed, satisfied.
"What happened?" I asked finally.
I felt his frustration. I didn't have to be touching him to get his feelings. We were closer than that. It wasn't like the vampire who could only show me thoughts, Alucard could wrap me up inside himself, sharing thoughts, feelings and memories if he wanted. When I touched him, he could let me feel what he felt, hear what he heard, and most importantly, see what he saw. Right now he wasn't doing that, he was just touching me, nothing special. But it was hard not to share some thoughts when we were this close.
"I think it was another Slayer," said Alucard, slightly uneasy. I waited for him to explain. "It was a bloody massacre." I probed his mind, asking to see, but he just shook his head. "Bastards think they're the Boss. Think they can act like him. They don't even know what they're doing." He was getting angry, and I couldn't blame him.
The Boss was dead. I had killed him. I had stopped a rise of power so strong it could have controlled the world. He was the strongest, oldest vampire in the Americas, who had organized a circuit of underground power that gave him control of everything, everyone, who was even related to the supernatural. Not directly, of course, but the link was still there.
I hadn't known how strong he was, how much he meant, when I killed him. I knew that he wasn't supposed to die, that I was. I knew that by killing me he would gain a power so strong that no one would have been able to contend with him. It was a scary thought. But things happened, events changed. Thanks to a Lerian named Airaei, myself in a former life of sorts, I avoided death, then returned to the Boss's layer and almost died with him. It was a long, complex story, which ended with me hanging out with Alucard, the Boss's former right hand man, and Airaei's lover.
Funny how life works out. Not so funny are some of the side effects.
While all the slayerettes that came about from Willow's spell are now around to kick butt, there's no one to train them. The Slayer gang moved to Europe, but I missed that bus while stuck in another world recovering from being stabbed in the heart (by myself). However I could still help. There were Slayers in America, and here I was saving them from evil vamps and all the damn weeds trying to pull off the Boss's tricks.
You see, when the Boss died, the underworld didn't know what to do. Someone had to take control, but who? Parties sprung up like weeds (hence the name) and from all over America, not to mention Canada, Mexico, and some places further south, vampires, demons and other worldly monsters vowed to gain control. But most didn't have the power.
Now the Boss got his power in a number of ways. For one, he was hella old. I mean he had horns and blue skin and other freaky things that come with age. Then he had learned magic, caste spells, and created his own dimension where stabbing him in the heart with a stake didn't do much. Finally he had found this ritual that would up a vamp's power to no end. But there were rules, regulations, and timelines; else it wouldn't be very effective. You needed dates, times, constellations. Everything had to be in place. Then of course, you need a Slayer, and you needed to drain her, very quickly, with other sacrifices done at the same time. It was a huge ordeal. And it has to be done thirteen times. Then you're invincible. I was number thirteen, and it backfired for the Boss.
The weeds didn't know all the rules and regulations, but some had gotten wind of the ritual. They found some newly made Slayers and began trying it out. It wasn't a pretty picture. Last time Alucard had let me look.
"The word's getting out," I muttered grimly. "There's going to be a sea of Slayer blood before this is through." I paused a moment. "Where's Steph?"
Alucard lost his seriousness, but kept the gloom. "She's coming," he said. "The girl may be an airhead, but she knows how to fight vamps. I left her with my phone to find us while she took care of a few things." I was almost annoyed he'd left her alone with vampires, but he was right. She could handle it. The thought almost disappointed him. But even for as much as he despised our new trainee he wouldn't wish death upon a Slayer right now. We were losing numbers. Who knew how many girls became a Slayer because of that spell, or how many have died because of it.
Alucard wrapped an arm around me, sensing unhappy thoughts. I leaned my head against him and smelt blood. "You stink," I said without pulling away.
He shrugged. "Yeah, well you're covered with it and getting me all sticky, and I'm not complaining."
Groaning I rubbed my arms. Sure enough they were covered with blood and dirt. I just hadn't been paying attention.
There was crunching behind us, accompanied by deep breathing and the occasional yelp. Alucard and I sighed together, turning to face Stephanie as she crashed through the branches. Pulling tighter to Al I saw her face as she looked around. Not clearly, but clear enough. Wide eyes were assaulted by the grisly scene and her mouth hung open. She stood gapping, her nose twitching behind a hand.
"What happened?" She squealed.
"Bad guys," Alucard said as his only explanation. "Get used to it." He wasn't very nice to her. He wasn't very nice to most people.
Stephanie turned to face me for support. "They're dead," I said to console her a little. "They're dead and won't bother you," she was beginning to look relieved before I continued. "But they're not the worst you'll see," her face fell, "and we're heading out."
"Wha… what?" she whimpered. Alucard couldn't hide his smile. He made no secret that he didn't like the perky, ditzy girl. She may be good in a fight, but living with her wasn't fun.
I just sighed. "Tomorrow we've got to go. You aren't as helpless as you act, but others are. So we have to move on." That was true. Another Slayer's death was enough to kick us in gear. But I didn't really like her, either.
We both listened to her whine for awhile. The blood and guts lay forgotten as she wailed. Neither of us said much. Alucard just held me close, thanking me for the decision. He had no problem putting up with one last fit if it meant tomorrow we could be out of here. He would have chosen to leave sooner, but it was my decision to make. I thought it was a good one, and it would be, just so long as Stephanie didn't end up dead.
Ta da! I'm finished. Now you get to review.
Till next time,
Rave
