Chapter Three - The Chosen
The wind stung her face; the cold numbed her hands as she dashed through the snow-covered woods. The light of the moon turned the night into day to her sensitive eyes. The scent was teasing her and Kass knew she couldn't really see the corrupt red tentacles as they led her through the Park. She knew that she should stop and let Vincent catch up to her, she knew it, yet she couldn't make herself do it. Now that she had given into the hunger there was no going back.
Her flimsy shoes were useless, her feet were nearly frozen, but none of it mattered.
She was free.
She was alive.
For the first time since coming to the Tunnels she could let herself go; running as fast as she could she flew over the fallen logs and across the frozen, snow covered lake.
Diana's moon was her only companion.
And it seemed right.
It was as if the night belonged to her, that this was what she born to do, this was her natural place in the world, she was a hunter. She would never again be able to wear the cloak of civilization that the Tunnel World demanded.
She let go of the all the rules, all the customs, nothing could stand in her way.
Nothing could stop her.
Until Jacob appeared, part of her assumed he came up through the 82nd street Threshold, but another part of her didn't care, not with the smell of her prey so tantalizingly close.
She didn't slow down, didn't waver, she just jumped over him, easily avoiding his reaching hands and then, he too, was behind her.
Kassandra paused just a beat when she felt a tiny wisp of familiarity--like a shimmering thread of light--against the red darkness of evil. It was from something or someone just over Summit Rock, someone who could answer all her questions. Answer all her longings. It was the slightest tug to a heart that had been more frozen than the ice covered ground since her mother had died.
She scrambled up the sharp, icy rocks, slipping and sliding, bruising her shins and scraping her hands; she had to reach the battle before the Evil won. Vincent was far behind her, Jacob further still, as she finally was able to see - Her.
The light of the moon shining off her golden hair made the woman look like an angel - an angry angel - as one of the monsters surrounding her came to close to her sword and lost his head for it.
Kassandra stood stunned as a spray of blood filled the air just before the body of the monster disappeared in a cloud of dust. Then a small feeling of pride rose up from the thing that prowled inside of Kass. And suddenly neither the fact that the monster disintegrated nor that he resembled a man with a deformed face mattered, because his kind was the cause of the overwhelming sense of evil. His kind was her rightful prey and what pulled her into the night.
There had to be fifteen or twenty of the beasts on the bike trail, and as Kass stood, stunned and staring, she knew that many more had been killed by the woman. The blood from the battle--both theirs and that of the woman they fought--had turned the snow of the bike trail red.
"Stay there, don't move!" The woman ordered, and instantly Kassandra stopped, she stood still in the frigid air. The rage inside Kassandra obeyed "Her." Without question, without thought, Kassandra stayed on tallest rock overlooking the vicious fighting below.
The woman did a spinning kick effectively taking the legs out from under a monster that had been attempting to hit her with a wicked looking club. The thing fell into the red slush at the woman's feet, she dropped to one knee, and then it, too, was gone. The woman bounced up just as another monster swung a length of chain at her legs. She threw the piece of wood she had in her hand and the chain fell into the snow. Two attackers rushed her at once, as another length of chain flew between them and wrapped around the woman's sword arm. She was yanked forward into the waiting arms of the monsters or so Kass thought until first one of them then the other disappeared in a cloud of dust. And now that Kassandra was looking for it she saw the sharpened piece of wood the woman's free hand. The attacker with the chain never stood a chance as the woman let him pull her to him and hit him like a linebacker hit a quarterback. The blade of her sword neatly removed his head; the blood sprayed the ground for only second before he dissolved into dust.
Then there was another monster, and another, a seemingly endless number. And as the fight progressed Kassandra watched as the woman slid gracefully through the vile creatures, she never slipped in the icy snow. Every action seemed choreographed as if the woman and the monsters were dancing.
A deadly ballet.
The blonde was dressed for the fight, in the same clothes that Kassandra's mother might have worn, jeans, a leather jacket, matching leather gloves, Doc Martins, and one long blonde braid swinging around as the woman moved.
Then cold air stuck in Kassandra's throat as she realized that the connection, the barest hint of a thread between the woman and Kass 'felt', as if the stranger below was her mother. Not like her true mom, the police officer who died protecting her from those creeps, but still, it 'felt' like the woman below was related to her.
Kass heard the blonde's harsh and ragged breathing. As she watched Kassandra noticed how the woman protected the left side of her body; the blonde had been injured at some point while she had been battling. The realization caused Kass' frozen hands to clench into fists and her body began to hum as the need to rip through the evil consumed her.
"I said stay!" The woman shouted, before Kass could move. The order stilled the thing inside her, the predator as Kass now thought of it. Her order had stilled it but not Kassandra's wish to join the fight.
As if by a prearranged signal the fight below her paused at the woman's words, and the monsters slowly backed away, forming a loose semi-circle around the pair. The creatures were in front of them and Summit Rock behind them trapping them in place.
Kassandra jumped down to stand next the woman and one part of Kass noticed the tears in her jacket and bloody rips in her jeans where it appeared she had been slashed. Kass' mind catalogued the damage the woman had sustained and she wondered whom the woman was, what she was, and how she could still be standing.
Then she wondered what the monsters were and how could the evil, vile things, even be allowed to set foot on the earth? Somehow she knew they were connected to the creeps who ran down and murdered her mother. She knew it, was sure of it, could taste the malevolence. Just like the woman beside her -'felt'- like her mother, like safety was connected to the warmth of her mother's love.
Kassandra took a step forward without realizing it and was yanked off her feet as the woman grabbed her shoulder. Kass landed on her back and then slid through the red slush to end up several feet behind the blonde. The force the tiny woman used left Kass staring up at her in open-mouthed astonishment.
"Get up," she ordered, and Kass jumped to her feet. She obeyed without question, as power from the tiny woman washed over her, enveloping her in familiar warmth. The thing within Kass seemed to settle, like a caged animal whose master had just reassured it.
"Listen to your mother," a cultured, accented voice said from the crowd of monsters. And the woman flowed forward into a balanced fighting stance her sword held in both hands in front of her. Kass immediately tried to copy her however her limbs felt awkward and slow in comparison.
"You want something or can we get back to the fighting?" The woman called to the monster.
Kassandra thought he sounded like Andy, the Russian Helper from Brighton Beach. Alexander Antyuhin owned a hot dog cart.
Only it wasn't Andy who stepped out from behind the monsters, for one thing Andy could never afford the tailored suit or the matching over coat that the creature wore. He was taller than the others around him, his face was human, though Kass could feel the evil radiating off of him. He had power. He had as much power, if a different kind, as the woman in front of her.
The monster asked, "Do you know who I am?" His black eyes bore into Kassandra's, engulfing her, smothering her. She was tired, she was just so tired of everyone in the Tunnels whispering about her, she was tired of trying to be normal, to be something she could never be, and she missed her mom. She missed their sun drenched walks in the park, their trips to the beach; she missed her mother's steady presence. What was the use in trying to fight? When all she wanted to do was to sleep for a year, the lancing pain from her frozen feet and hands was suddenly overwhelming, the wind cut through her light clothing. She was so cold it hurt and she knew if she could just sleep ... she sank to one knee. The half-melted snow didn't matter, she just wanted to sleep...
"Oh please!" The woman's exasperated voice echoed through the fog of exhaustion that surrounded Kass. Then everything snapped back into focus and Kassandra realized she was lying in the cold snow. She pushed up using her hands and then slowly stood, confused. Rasputin nodded to the woman as if he were acknowledging her as his equal.
"You back with us?" The woman asked, quickly glancing behind her. Kass nodded, still dazed and confused. What had happened? The Russian had a knife buried in his hand that he was slowly pulling out of his palm. It appeared like he'd tried to catch it or block it.
"So," he said, as he wrapped his injury with a silk handkerchief, "you are she?"
"Bored now," the woman answered. The blonde released one hand on her sword, reached down, and pulled a round shaft of wood from inside her boot, then flicked it back to Kassandra. "Pointy end out and aim for the heart."
Kassandra caught the wood easily and knew it belonged in her hands. The wood warmed her hands. The power inside her expanded, filling her, pushing out all the pain and it was like her body remembered how to hold it. The frozen tendons in her hand warmed and stretched as she instinctively held the stake up.
Stake?
Where did the word come from? How did she know what it was or how to hold it?
Then she began to remember...
She didn't know what she was seeing as the images of different girls fighting flashed before her minds eye. She only knew that fighting the creatures before her was her calling. Was what she was born to do.
This time when she tried to flow into a fighting stance her frozen arms and legs nearly obeyed her.
"I am Rasputin," the monster said, bowing slightly towards the woman. Only to be interrupted by a derisive, unlady like, snort
"And I'm supposed to care, why? You'll be dust soon enough," the woman mocked. Kass felt the black rage as it radiated off the monster. For the first time she was able to pull her eyes off him and notice the threat that the ten odd creatures that surrounded them posed.
"Let us have a civilized..." he began again, and Kass couldn't understand why the monsters weren't attacking or maybe she did know considering the slaughter she had just witnessed.
"Yeah, Yeah, you're Rasputin, you're bad, you're evil with a capital E. I dusted five of you, when I was in Russia last year," the woman sneered. She eased her stance slightly favoring one of her legs. Kass could see her shoulders tightening as the muscles on her side spasmed. The woman tried to cover her weakness by shifting the sword further in front of her however Kass could tell that Rasputin saw it. Kass could tell by his ugly smirk.
"I have paid a terrible Butcher's Bill this night," his voice was hard, his black eyes burning. "I have no wish to lose anymore of my followers, surrender now and I will allow the child to leave."
Kassandra expected the woman to answer him with a caustic remark, or at least a resounding no, but when silence met the creatures offer Kass felt dizzy.
"No," Kassandra tried to shout only her mouth was too dry. She swallowed, "No!" She repeated, shaking her head, she could fight, too!
"Quiet," the woman ordered sharply. The woman faced the creature more fully. "Yeah, like I can trust a vampire named Rasputin to keep his word. What part of Evil did you think I missed?"
Vampire? Did she say Vampire? Then Kassandra looked at the monsters surrounding them and the label clicked into place.
She accepted it because she had too. What did Father always say? Something about when the improbable had been eliminated all that was left was the impossible? No, that wasn't it, either. It didn't matter. What mattered was Kassandra was strong; she had been given the strength to never be a victim again! She didn't need protecting; she didn't need to be treated like child.
The woman shifted more fully onto her other leg and her sword lowered a fraction of an inch. Kassandra didn't want the brave woman to die.
Clouds raced across the moon covering it, casting the scene in darkness. A drop of blood dripped off the end of the woman's sword and landed in the puddle on the ground in front of her.
"Can we get back to the fighting?" The woman called to Rasputin. The rest of the monsters--Vampires--looked at their leader. The monsters tensed in anticipation of his order. Several had chains that they prepared to use. The woman eased some of her weight back onto her injured leg and her knee nearly folded. Kass heard the hiss of pain as the blonde forced her leg to support her.
The woman was hurt; she was desperately hurt, and now with the slight pause in the fight the pain was catching up to her.
Rasputin shifted into the appearance of calm certainty. His laser eyes watching the blonde's every move, waiting. He took his time answering her, first he brushed an imaginary speck of dust off his overcoat, then he adjusted the makeshift bandage on his wounded hand. The seconds ticked by, and Kass could see the woman growing weaker as blood from one of the deeper slashes on her leg seeped through her jeans.
"I am a businessman," Rasputin said. "If I were to lie to you then none of my associates would trust me again. I've made my offer, even though you are wounded, you are still Penthesilia, Queen of the Slayers. I don't know how many more it will take to kill you, but know this, you are going to die this night, and your head will decorate my office wall. The only choice you have it is whether the child dies with you. You have seen that I can control her."
Kassandra recognized the name Penthesilia and vaguely remembered some of the story. That couldn't possibly be her real name?
The woman's shoulders tensed and she held her head up higher in defiance for only a moment as her leg gave out completely and she nearly fell. Her shoulders dropped in defeat and her sword lowered. Kass knew she was giving up, knew that the blonde would rather die than let any harm come to her.
"No, I won't leave you Penthesilia," Kassandra begged, she stepped forward and grabbed the woman by the shoulder, only releasing her when she saw the agony it caused her to move.
"You have no choice and my name isn't Pen-the-tail-on, it's Buffy, I don't know who that is or what that is, but I'm just Buffy," the woman said tiredly.
"Penthesilia, became Queen of the Amazons when she accidentally killed her sister," Vincent's voice echoed from behind the monsters. All the vampires and the woman pivoted as one towards the sound.
"Vincent!" Kass cried, when the vampires shifted and she was able to see him, standing tall under a streetlight. The hood of his cloak covering his face and his hands clasped behind his back. Kassandra's vision clouded as tears filled her eyes and her knees nearly buckled in relief. The pure child's belief that Vincent was invincible made her giddy.
The woman's sharp glance back at her silenced her. Kassandra wanted to tell Buffy that they would be safe now, Vincent was there, he would make everything all right--she couldn't--Buffy wouldn't let her.
Buffy? Kass nearly laughed, what kind of name was Buffy? Kass shook her head and tried to concentrate.
Rasputin had turned to Vincent, answering him, "yes, but she was killed by Achilles in battle after he raped her. I have no such plans of violation." The Vampire nodded back at the woman, back at Buffy. "She deserves an honorable death."
"No, Achilles taunted Penthesilia and then discovered her beauty after he killed her," Vincent corrected the Vampire taking a step forward.
"Hey, right here!" Buffy called out. Then after a firm shake of her head she mumbled, "men! Even evil... on a tree..."
Rasputin took a full threatening step towards the protector of the Tunnels, "I said I have no plans of violation or allowing such to happen. She is mine. I will not allow another such as yourself to soil her or to take this victory from me."
"And I cannot--allow--her to be killed," Vincent said calmly, just a hint of fang flashing in the dim light. "Your kind is not--allowed--in the park, this is not your hunting grounds." Kassandra had never heard Vincent put so much disgust into one word as he had into allowed.
The vampires surrounding Rasputin shifted uneasily as quiet whispers erupted. Their voices too soft for even Kassandra's sensitive ears to pick-up all that was being said. What she heard made no sense, ' tears you apart'... 'leaves you for the sun'... 'frozen to the ground, ripped...dogs eat you until the sun... sun...sun... sun'
The sense of unease, the shifting of their feet as if to run instead of attack was very clear. They were afraid of Vincent, which was incredible considering how many of the monsters - no vampires - Kassandra saw the woman - Buffy - slaughter.
Rasputin turned back to her, his eyes suddenly wide with fear, "Vincent? The child said Vincent?" He questioned, his voice raising an octave. He pivoted and asked, "You are he? Are you Vincent of the Park?" Rasputin begged for Vincent to tell him it wasn't true. Then the Vampire shook his head in the negative, "You can't be, that's a myth from years ago!" His words might have been believable if his expression wasn't one of utter terror.
Vincent stood to his full height, reached up with his clawed hand and pulled his hood down, so that his face could be seen.
"You are wrong for a second time, this night" Jacob's rich baritone came from the bramble beside the bike path. He stepped out of the unkempt bushes with a baseball bat held at the ready; his long red-gold hair pulled back and tied in place. He was a few short steps from the Vampire leader and the threat was clear.
Kassandra felt the beginning of a smile; she should have known Jacob could always find her, no matter what.
Rasputin took a step back as if he'd been struck. "Why do you protect these... Humans?"
"Because they can't protect themselves," Jacob answered him. And even though Kassandra disagreed with him, not with all her newfound power, she kept quiet. She realized that in this fight, just for tonight, she did need to be protected; she did need to be treated like the sixteen year old she actually was, but only for tonight.
Buffy reached for Kass with one arm and pushed Kassandra more fully behind her. "Things are going to get very ugly really fast." Buffy warned, and handed Kass a beautiful dagger. "The blade is wood en-laid so it works like a stake, first chance you get, run."
Vincent took two more long strides towards the pack of Vampires and they shifted back a step. Rasputin's well ordered army, the same monsters who had had fought the woman with discipline and bravery was about to spook like a heard of skittish horses.
The clouds moved away from the moon and the scene was once again bathed in light. Of the vampires only Rasputin stood still, the rest were shifting from one foot to the other, glancing back and forth between Vincent, Jacob, and the woman. Kassandra realized that they thought they were trapped with death all around them. She realized the vampires were about to rush the woman, en-mass, not because they thought they would win or even survive, but in the hope that she offered a painless death.
Everyone tensed, on the edge of the cliff, balanced exactly between life and death...
"Stop!" Rasputin ordered, and Kass felt a wave of power from him wash over the hoard in front of her, stilling them. The Russian turned back to Vincent. "I am a businessman, surely you see that nothing good will come out of this situation."
Vincent, his clawed hands clenching and unclenching, at his sides, asked, "what do you propose?"
"We leave, we leave the Park," Kassandra watched as Vincent took another angry step forward. "And I will enforce it as off-limits, a human only hunting ground," Rasputin rushed to finish.
Vincent stopped and nodded once.
It was all the vampires needed as they dropped their weapons, and Rasputin led them single file between Vincent and Jacob. As soon as they were free of the entrapment their discipline disintegrated and they ran down the bike trail out of sight.
TBC