A gang of vampires crowded around an impressive granite tombstone in the cemetery they occupied. If they could breathe, the air leaving their lungs would exit in a mist. It was a cool night for March and they had taken to horsing around with each other to relieve the tension their naturally violent nature imposed on them.
"Quiet!" The leader, a large male vampire wearing clothing that suggested he was severely stuck in the nineties, perked up from leaning against the tombstone. Every muscle was taught and alert, his malicious grin replaced by a terrifying sneer. "You hear that?"
The others looked around, shaking their heads and shrugging. The dominant vampire gave a suspicious look around the surrounding area and leaned back, his fangs bared once again in that dangerous smile. He loved watching these fights. He loved it even more if someone got too out of control and accidentally killed a member of their gang. Cleveland had been slow since the Slayer and her little gang showed up. The demons in Cleveland were getting restless and hungry.
The sound of dust blowing in the wind woke the vampire from his thoughts. Too much dust for one vampire alone to be dead. He shook his head in annoyance. His entire gang at this point had killed each other. Starting over again was hard. New born vampires were so agitated. Immature and young. He looked back up, grimacing, only to have his eyes widen in fear as the cloud cleared to reveal the face of a beautiful girl. Her chestnut hair, covered in dust, curled around her smirking face in a way that let the vampire know he was not safe.
"Mornin, Sunshine!" The movements the young girl made were calculated as she ducked down sweeping the vamps feet out from under him so she would have time to replace the stake she had used for his companions.
"Slayer!" The vampire rose to his feet quicker than anticipated and kicked the brunette in the face, sending her three feet on her back. "I was wondering when you'd show up!"
"Didn't keep you waitin long, did I? I've never been real punctual. Somethin I'm workin on, y'know?" The Slayer lunged herself at the vampire, pressing her forearm into his neck to pin him against a tree. "I'll update you on how that goes once I get to Hell."
The vampire looked puzzled as the stake went through his chest hard enough to stick her stake to the tree trunk behind him.
Faith shook out her hair and wiped her nose on her sleeve. A small amount of blood had leaked out from being kicked. Thankfully the vampire kicked like a girl and barely left a bruise on her otherwise pristine face. She inhaled deeply, feeling a small throb on her bridge. Maybe a tough girl.
"Way to go!" The voice coming from behind Faith was genuine, without being committed to any real congrats. It belonged to a blonde Slayer, called only four months prior, who was just three years younger than Faith. The raven haired Slayer let a smirk spread across her heavily rouged lips, sensing the other girl taking silent steps towards her. She turned her head slightly, her eyebrows pulling up, anticipating the sarcasm she had become accustomed to receiving from the new girl. Instead what Faith received was as wince from the girls grey-blue eyes. "Baby, look at your nose."
"I'm fine, Em," Faith reassured her. Emily stood up on her toes to get a better look at the bridge of Faiths nose. She looked into Faiths liquid brown eyes, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. Faith was caught in her bullshit.
*****
Emily always caught Faith on her bullshit. It was something that had attracted her to the younger girl immediately. From the moment Emily, a nurse at a Cleveland hospital, had walked into the home Faith had been using as a school for the potentials, she had Faiths attention. There was something wicked in her smile Faith couldn't quite put her finger on. Like she knew what Faith was thinking when she first laid eyes on her and she was thinking it right back. Though her eyes were assertive and sharply focused, they remained sad and lonely. She was wearing a pair of blue scrubs and her arm was in a sling that was turning a slight shade of pink from what was, undoubtedly, blood.
Faith had waltzed up to her like she already had the girl underneath her, licking her bottom lip slowly before catching it in her teeth. She leaned against the doorframe, two feet away from Emily.
"Hey, I'm Faith. Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Emily," she'd responded, cocking her head to the side, causing the bangs of her blonde ponytail to sweep over her eyes. Taking a step forwards and tucking the hair away, she locked her eyes onto Faiths. They felt like ice beams, coolly gazing over her lips and then back up to her eyes again. "Nice to meet you." Faith was shocked at the courage of this girl. Most people were too intimidated to stay put where they were when Faith came into a room, but Emily had stepped forward slightly, grinning.
"Ahem. Hello, Faith. I see you've met Emily, then? Very good. Help me with this, would you?" Giles entered through the doorway, carrying a duffle bag that looked to be about a hundred pounds. Emily had stepped back from Faith when Giles came in, slightly flustered, showing she was only human after all. Faith, on the other hand, kept her eyes locked on her face that smirk never faltering once.
"Yeah. We were just gettin' real acquainted, like. Giles, you want to stay for dinner?" Faith did not look at Giles once while asking the question.
"No, no I'm afraid not. As much as all I want to do is enjoy a meal and not be tucked into a seat belt for more than five minutes, I must get back. Buffy is expecting me, you know. I only brought Emily because the police were involved."
At Buffy's name, Faiths eyes flickered away for a moment. At the mention of police, Faiths eyes shot back, tilting her head at Emily. "Got us a new bad girl? Be nice to lose some of the rap around here."
"Not exactly, no. Not that I'm an angel," Emily took another step towards Faith, her grin returning. "Where's the bathroom?"
"Up the stairs, down the hall," Faith looked at the stairs, angling her eyebrows up them to the girl. As Emily went upstairs, Faith followed her with her gaze.
"Really, Faith, must you?" Giles cleaned his glasses after dumping the bag he would inevitably be left to carry up the stairs himself if he did not abandon it immediately.
"Must I what?!" Faith widened her eyes playfully. "So, you going back to the A Team in Scotland or whatever?"
"For now, yes. Buffy needs help over there, you know, training the other girls and what not. Uh...suspect I'll be back soon, though. Several more new slayers have been called in the area and we simply don't have room on our end," Giles cleaned his glasses as he spoke, looking pained about reliving the long trip. "Do take care, Faith."
"You too, Giles."
They moved to hug awkwardly, abandoning the notion after a few fleeting seconds. Giles tilted his head and muttered something unintelligible, smiling and backing down the steps to the home currently in his own name. Faith shot him a smile back before clicking the door shut. Seizing the duffle bag that had been unceremoniously dumped on the floor, she headed up the stairs to show the new arrival her room.
Hearing a whimper coming from the bathroom, Faith slowed her pace. Getting to the door, left ajar, she could see Emily sitting on the edge of the bathtub. Though her jaw was squared and tight, tears rimmed her eyes. She was tending to her arm, now unwrapped. A deep gash ran the entirety of her forearm, at least an inch wide. The blonde ran neatly trimmed fingernails up and down the edges of the cut, wincing. Faith now noticed for the first time a faint mixture of green and yellow below the girls eye. She looked scared. She took a step closer to the door, clearing her throat.
Emily jumped slightly, looking up. Flushing in the cheeks, she grabbed a roll of gauze off the counter and started rewrapping her arm clumsily. She offered Faith an embarrassed and small smile.
"You'll heal quickly. We all do," Faith offered her, taking the gauze from the girls left hand and helping her cover the wound. "One for the plus column with this gig."
Emily smiled tightly, forcing the corners of her mouth up into a smile, though her forehead remained creased in pain. She looked down as Faith tended to her wound, not saying anything for a few moments. When she did, it was in a small voice that held confidence and caution more than fear.
"So, um...if I needed some blanks filled in, would you be handling that? Because I have a lot of thoughts right now that don't make sense. I mean, I'm crossing the parking lot at work and these guys attack me with this...knife thing. I start running, call 911. I don't know where my speed came from, but before I knew it I was, well...far away. It's been happening lately, getting really...I don't know, powerful? Just when I feel scared or stressed or something. And then next thing I know Mr. Giles is picking me up at the cop shop telling me about vampires and Slayers and... What?" Emily looked up, annoyance and irritation playing at the features of her face as she noticed Faiths smirk.
"Nothin," Faith crossed her arms over her chest and stood up from the closed toilet, leaning on the vanity. "It's just, it's all true. All your worst nightmares. All the bumps in the night and whatnot, they're real. And you are a Slayer. No amount of talkin is gonna change or fix that, or even make you believe it. Just how it is." Faiths eyebrows knitted together with sympathy as she saw the words she spoke sink in. Well, as much as they could on the day you find out you're a Slayer. "Listen, you're safe now. Come on, we got a room ready for you."
Emily nodded, realizing what exactly Faith was saying to her. There had always been rumours about the strange things happening in Cleveland, but nothing confirmed. She exhaled with a bit of a laugh as she thought how dumb that sounded. How could you confirm vampires? They'd probably eat you before you could create any kind of evidence. She thought of some of the wounds she had seen in the E.R. Puncture marks in a neck, impossibly violent wounds in an abdomen that could never be created by a human. They weren't. Up until this very second, she didn't believe in vampires, let alone an army of women to stop them. She raised her chin in defiance of fear. She felt that hum she'd felt come and go over the past while engulf her, as though she'd had to accept it into her body. Looking at the back of Faiths head, she blinked away tears that were caused by a feeling she couldn't name and sniffed silently, hardening her features to match the strength she now felt inside.
Faith stopped at a room after climbing another flight of stairs to a floor with only two doors as opposed to the one below with what appeared to be three. She leaned on the door frame and pushed the door open, shrugging as if she knew it was nothing special but it was all she had to offer. Emily stepped past Faith, who clicked on the light, reaching around the door frame.
The room was plain, but not sterile. A small dresser, a desk and a double bed, all maple, were the only things occupying the room. The floor was a dark wood and the walls were beige.
"It ain't The Hilton, but it's your home for now." Emily jumped as Faith spoke, forgetting she was in the room while she took it all in.
"It's fine. Can vampires...can they get in here?" She crossed the room to the window, looking down onto the front lawn.
"Not unless you invite em in for tea and cookies. My rooms across the hall. You know where the bathroom is, there's another one on the main floor. Toilet and sink deal. Kitchens down there too. Same with the TV, but Rona's got a mean hate on for anyone who changes it during House, little heads up. We train in the basement—"
"Train?" Emily cut Faith off.
"Yeah. With the fighting. But you'll want to rest for a day or two, let that arm heal up." Faith nodded at the bandages, already discolouring.
"A day or two? This will take weeks. I was thinking I'd need stitches," Emily shook her head, feeling she knew better in this area.
"Trust me. Three tops and you'll be ship shape." Faith gave her best effort not to roll her eyes and give her that smirk that said she knew everything and dripped of impatience, feeling only half successful.
Emily swallowed hard, looking much less deflated than when she'd walked into the house just twenty five minutes ago. Fear was settling in, the surprise and shock leaving. Faith took a half step forward, never sure what to do in this situation. "Hey," She offered, taking back the step and then another one, "I got your back." Faith flashed her smile, all dimples, looking Emily up and down. "Night."
With that, Faith retreated to her bedroom, turning her back to the new girl and knowing the effect her smile had. Closing her door gently Emily crawled onto the bed, suddenly feeling exhausted, leaving the lights on out of fear. Despite everything that happened, a curious smile played across her lips as she stared at the door to the bedroom that would now, apparently, belong to her.