Faith woke to a knock on her door. She groaned and tried to bury her face in her pillow. Her body felt relaxed and at ease, but her mind whirred from her dreams. The knock sounded again and she became suddenly aware she was naked under her quilt.

'One minute,' she called. She got up and quickly pulled on some clothes. 'Come in.'

She thought it was Angel and was surprised when Buffy walked in, her face looking sombre. Faith sighed and sat on the edge of her bed.

'I thought you would have skipped town already, you know after telling all my past to Sasha I didn't think there was anything left for you to do around here,' Faith commented.

'Look I'm sorry about that, but it was only fair he knew,' she said. Hurt her, punch her. Faith shook off the thought.

'It was none of your business,' she said.

'I wanted to tell you I made a move on him,' Buffy stated.

'You what!' Faith yelled. She felt heat burn across her skin as she thought of them together. Buffy's body wrapped around Sasha's. She felt like she was going to be sick.

'Calm down. He didn't accept it, and I wanted you to know that. He doesn't just want to be with you because of this mating thing. It's more than that.'

'Wait, so you expect me to believe that you tried to get into his pants for me? And this has nothing to do at all with our history and Angel snubbing you?' Faith stated. Hit her, kill her. Make her pay.

'Believe what you want. My motives aside, he chose you.' She turned and left. Faith just stood in the centre of her room. She felt something flutter in her stomach, he chose her, someone actually chose her. It made her feel giddy, like that moment when you've had too much to drink, just before the depressant kicks in. Almost like she was weightless. But he still didn't know all of her past. What would he do if he did? Would he run away and leave her? Probably. Rather be celibate than stuck with a psycho right?

Faith sat on the edge of her bed and tried to get her breathing back under control. She wasn't sure when it had gone astray. Her head hurt. She didn't want this. Not the giddy feeling and certainly not the dread that he wouldn't accept her. She wasn't sure when she had let this happen, she had been actively trying to avoid anything close to this.

She knew Sasha was downstairs, knew soon as she moved he would be on her, trying to talk to her about what he had heard yesterday. She felt like she was stuck in a box she couldn't get out of and the walls were starting to push in around her. She was going to be crushed if she couldn't get out. She wanted to scream but instead she got up and opened her window. She sucked in great amounts of air. She looked down at the ground. It was going to hurt, but she wasn't a slayer for nothing. Jumping out of the window she landed on the ground and winced at the shooting pain that flared around her ankles.

She started to run. Sasha would know she had left instantly with that stupid mating sense. It would still give her enough of a head start. Her breathing was becoming more ragged and she knew it wasn't to do with her running.

As she reached the French Quarter she noticed it was packed with tourists, nothing new there. She slithered her way around them and ducked into a bar. She had never been to this one before; there was nothing particularly special about it, other than it reeked. She hoped it would throw off her scent.

A man pushed up against, 'You 'right there.' He was bigger than her but that was not a hard thing to accomplish. He was a lot wider as well and smelled of stale beer. She wanted to gag.

'Five by five,' she said and pushed her way past him. Punch him, he touched you. As always she ignored the nagging voice and ordered herself a whiskey. She was going to town tonight. She stayed sitting at the bar and as the golden liquid appeared she knocked it straight back. It burned as it went down but it was smooth, like she was drinking fire made of silk. Her stomach warmed outward. She ordered another.

'You look lonely,' a guy said behind her.

'I wish I was,' she replied. She frowned. She'd always been lonely and she was used to that and comfortable with it. If she got used to being not lonely, what would happen when it came back again? Could she get used to Sasha just to have him leave her? Or worse, die on her?

'Maybe you need better company?' the man said. She turned to look at him, and he wasn't exactly a dog. And then she laughed to herself because she had been fucking a wolf. But Sasha had permanently screwed her vision of men, no one was going to be able to compare to him and didn't that just suck. Maybe she should go with this man. Sasha would hate her and leave then, and she wouldn't be in danger of falling any more in like with him. Perhaps the way to stop the walls closing in around her was to force them away. It's what she had always done. If anything or anyone attempts to corner you, you punch your way out.

'Maybe I do,' she said and downed the whiskey that arrived and nodded that she wanted another one. If she was going to do this, and she was, she needed to be drunk. But as the guy moved closer to her she felt repulsion shiver along her arms. It was if her skin was rebelling against his presence. He ran his hand along her cheek and she wanted to be sick. What had Sasha done to her? He'd poisoned her. She couldn't go through with this. Shoving the guy away from her she stormed out of the bar. She heard a vague 'Well fuck you bitch,' but it didn't register. She was going to go home and punch the wolf till he admitted just what he had done.

But she had barely taken two steps when she noticed a vamp taking a girl down an alley. For fuck's sake. When would girls learn? Alleys are not for those without weapons. Kill kill kill. Ok, there was no need to disagree with the voice this time.

It was an easy kill. The darkness that swelled inside of her was disappointed, it was going to be noisier than usual.

'Faith is it?' She turned to voice at the front of the alley. It was one of the jackals from before. 'It's been very hard to get you on your own.'

'I'm popular,' she said shrugging. What was one jackal to her?

'Behind you,' he said. And as if he had read her mind she found five men standing there. Well she guessed they weren't really men. She wondered if they were all jackals. Sasha was going to be so pissed at her if she survived this.

'Oh you will. Or at least for now. I want him to know what we do to you before we kill him. Slayers must be punished,' he said.

'God you sound like the council, you should totally meet together and have tea,' she said. She weighed up her options and they didn't look good. She could try to make a run for it but she knew how fast Sasha could move, she didn't doubt they'd catch her in no time. That left fighting and, okay, six vamps was a struggle but she could do it. Vamps were nothing compared to these guys though. Hurt them, Kill them. The thought raced around her head making her blood boil like it always did and she let it. The anger would help her.

'So if you are supposed to be so noble, ridding the world of evil slayers and all that, shouldn't you only be interested in killing him?'

'He'll be made an example of.'

'I thought slayers were made during puberty, when they couldn't control their powers? It's not a choice,' Faith said reciting the information Red had emailed her.

'That's what they want you to think. In the end they are just animals and they do what animals do best. Kill.'

She couldn't be bothered to correct him. Distracting him wasn't working and she still had no clue how to get out of this. She considered going quietly as she might not get hurt then. But who was she kidding? They were going to torture her no matter and she didn't go down without a fight. She felt hands around her neck; she shrugged up her shoulders and moved to hit him in the balls. She put a thumb lock on as she turned in for the strike. She twisted out of his grip and punched him in the nose. Arms were already reaching around her, she kicked the guy coming at her and head butted the one holding her. She dropped her weight and pulled him round in just in time for the one she kicked to come back and trip over him. Then something hard hit the side of head. She felt sick and darkness crept in at the edges of her vision.


Faith had been taken by the jackals. It was obvious; their scents were all over the place where hers had gone cold. He was furious. How could she have been so stupid to go off like that? Again? She had no concept of her own safety. Growling, he slammed the door open of her house and he was starting to feel that place was more his home than his own room at Sanctuary.

He turned into the main room and was shocked to find Astrid sitting there.

'They've taken her,' he said.

'I know,' she said. 'But if you go after her she will die.'

'If I don't go then she'll die,' he argued.

'I am being serious here, that is the future, if you go to her now she will die. But in that future you go alone. If Zarek and I come with you we have a better chance of getting you both out. Not many were-hunters can fight a god after all,' she said with a smile. He turned and saw Zarek standing in the kitchen; he looked as unamused as he always did.

'And me,' Angel said as he entered the room.

'And me,' Buffy said following him in, she said it begrudgingly, but he had feeling she would have gone by herself even if they had all said no. There was certainly something odd about their relationship.

'So what do you propose we do then?' he asked.