Dear readers, here is the second half to the last chapter as promised. It's a little shorter at around 4k words, but I hope this is satisfactory.
Guest star Alex O'Loughlin as Mick St. John
A little side note, I didn't realize how much I would be borrowing from the setting of Moonlight. It was a short lived series due to the writers' strike of '07, but a nice little series in a bow. If you ever have a chance to check it out, I would recommend it.
Rating: T Violence, Language
Chapter 9
Logan Griffen's Residence
Los Angeles, CA
"Logan?! Mister Benson?!" Mick called out from the shot open door. He reached to the small of his back and pulled out his Beretta 9mm then cautiously entered the residence. He was halfway in the living room when Trina and Freddie exited the basement and entered from the far side of the living room.
Freddie instinctively raised his shotgun at the sight of the gun while Trina paused at seeing the handsome vampire, his demeanor and looks reminding her of an older Beck.
Mick quickly shouted, "Wooh! Wooh! It's me!"
The pair quickly lowered their weapons, each giving the other an apologetic look.
Trina was about to compliment him until she remembered he was a vampire and her eyes flickered down and noticed the wedding band on his left hand ring finger.
The vampire was quick to business and asked, "So, where's Steven?"
Freddie was glad that there weren't going to be any problems with the near firing on each other and got down to business. "Still on his way out of the state. I got his GPS programmed into my phone and Logan's going to update his position while we chase him."
"Good. Let's go," Mick hastily suggested as he holstered his weapon.
The three headed out the door and while they exited, Freddie curiously asked, "I know you were interested in finding the person that killed Randy and Marshall, but why do you want to help?"
"We still need to find out who that was, but I'm helping because I like considering myself a decent guy and… I have a mortal wife. I don't want someone like that out there that is so ruthless to just bust into someone's home and attack them like that."
Trina questioned, clearly stunned by the revelation, "Mortal? You're not married to a vampire?"
"Yep, my Beth. It's a long story."
Freddie curiously asked, but in a cautious manner, "I hope I'm not being insensitive in asking this, but why haven't you turned her?"
"Beth's not eager to become a vampire—and I'm not going to rush her because this is… I can't really explain it to you since you're not vampires, but it's not life as it was when I was human. I'm still young enough to remember when I was human. I don't want to take that from her."
Freddie gave him a sympathetic smile and replied, "I hate to point out the obvious, but the time is ticking for her."
"I know, but as I said, I'm not going to rush her. My first wife didn't even tell me she was a vampire before we got married."
Freddie cautiously questioned, "How did she break the news to you?"
Mick forced a smiled and bitterly answered, "By turning me on our wedding night."
Trina whispered, "Daaammn…"
"One way to describe it."
As they headed for their respective vehicles, Freddie reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone and commented, "Let me just give Jade a call to update her…"
Ronald Reagan Medical Center
Los Angeles, CA
Dusty and Jade left the room and quickly found an out of the way corner. He took a step close so they could literally feel each other's breaths on each other's faces. He quietly asked, "Okay, who killed them?"
She glanced away then answered, knowing that she really couldn't get away with lying to him, "Freddie."
"Okay, why? I can understand Randy. He could be as dark as any demonic one, but why Marshall, especially since he's Mason's assistant?"
"Because Randy was dark and Marshall was feeding on children—as in little girls, but the real reason… to try to get Buffy to leave us alone."
"I don't understand."
"Buffy hasn't given up and she was eventually going to come after us, so… Freddie made a deal with her: he would take care of Mason and Quincy—as in stopping them from organizing the city—and in return, it would prove that Tori and I wouldn't be going all Faith level evil and she would leave us alone. He was just working his way up to get to them."
Dusty knotted his brow, taking a few seconds to process her words then spat, completely incensed, "Are you two insane?!"
Jade frowned and glared at him.
Dusty threw out a hand to his right and shouted, "You don't make a deal with the devil."
Jade crossed her arms under her chest. "It was the only choice at the time… no it wasn't… I should have just given up and walked away, but Freddie didn't want me to give up my dreams. He didn't want Tori to do that either, so… What other choice did we have?"
The brown haired teenager continued in a hushed, but outraged voice, "Simple: you tell her to go jank herself and if she didn't like it and wanted a rematch to what happened in your house months ago, you kill her then—"
"How is that going to solve the problem? Everyone else will just come after us."
"As I was saying before I was interrupted, you kill her and everyone else in their command structure: the witch, former one-eye, the Watcher, that soulless thing they call her sister and the hot brunette slayer. It is either you or them now if you have to go to this point in making deals with her for just living your life."
"That's easy for you to say. You're a janking god! What do you have to be afraid of?"
Dusty cocked his head to the side and flippantly remarked, "Actually I'm above a god."
"Making my point for me."
"No, I'm not. I am above a god and I'm on your side. I don't have a problem going all Sodom and Gomorrah on them."
She bowed her head then quietly answered, "I appreciate that—I truly do, but it's still an army and they have an Old One on their side. She's probably a match if not more for you."
"I'm quite well aware of Illyria and she does not frighten me. I have a few contingencies to deal with her. Besides, she's not Buffy's lap dog and wouldn't just necessarily follow the woman's orders."
The pale girl bowed her head, thankful for that little bit of good news. She looked back up and muttered, "There's still an army."
"Which is something I've been working on to neutralize that on several fronts."
Jade raised a corner of her mouth. "What? I thought you were with Heather."
"I was—am, but I've been taking care of some things during her trip."
Jade smirked. "What? You got tired of watching your girlfriend modeling?"
Dusty grinned and answered, "No, but there are things that I do need to take care of to ensure your guys' safety and hers."
"So, did you find those ways to deal with her army?
"Yes. I think there is a way to effectively reverse the spell on all the slayers and go back to just one—two because of Faith, but it's a catch-twenty-two as to get what we need, we would probably have to go through the army. However, I was more successful in gathering allies for you: disillusioned slayers who don't want to have anything to do with Buffy, some random hunters, shoring up some alliances with the Christian Orders who have their own beef with her and some allies from a very big surprise I found in Europe."
"What sort of surprise?"
He took a deep breath then awkwardly stated, "I… I found out why Ian's mother left and you're not going to like it."
Jade's eyes widened, her jaw slacked and she seemed to lose whatever color she had in her face. However, before she could ask, a ring tone sounded off in Jade's pocket and the slayer reached to answer it. She tapped her still blood stained screen phone then brought it up to her ear. "Freddie?"
"Hey, we've found Steven."
"You have? Where?"
"Logan was able to hack his NorthStar and get the GPS. He's on his way to Nevada. We're going after him. We're hoping we can catch up to him in a few hours."
Dusty asked, clearly hearing Freddie even if the phone was against Jade's ear. "You said GPS? Can you give me exact coordinates or pretty close to it?"
Freddie called out in surprise, "Dusty? Is Dusty there?"
"Yeah, let me put you on speaker."
She brought the phone between her and Dusty and tapped the speaker button.
Dusty joked, "Hey buddy? Hear it's been a rough week."
"Yeah… you could say that."
"I could say a few other things too about your plan in dealing with Buffy, but that's for another time." Dusty pulled out his PearPhone and brought up a map, ready to type in the coordinates. "What's that GPS coordinate?"
"Why?"
"Because I'm a lot faster than you."
Somewhere in California heading to Nevada
Steven was flooring the accelerator on his sports car as he and Jessica were getting out of California as quickly as possible. The others had been correct that as soon as news had broken that Tori had survived, Steven would try to get out of town. He had found out about it as he and Jessica were celebrating a half victory since she wasn't able to get her girl. He packed his essentials and threw them in the trunk with the intention of getting as far away from L.A. as possible.
Since the pair were in the same boat in failing to kill either of their targets—they figured that Mason and Quincy would assume that they had conspired together and Quincy wouldn't let her get by with a slap on the wrist, they decided the best thing to do was team up and hopefully start fresh in a new city out of reach of their respective covenant leaders. Also, neither vampire was bad on the eyes to the other.
They were feeling pretty relaxed now after the initial panic as they had a good hour or so ahead of anyone that could be chasing them and didn't know where they were heading.
However, that peace was shattered when the vampires heard a fluttering sound from the backseat. Steven looked in the rearview mirror and saw Dusty sitting in the backseat. "What the hell?!"
Dusty shrugged a shoulder and smiled at the pair. He sarcastically remarked, "More like Heaven."
Jessica attempted to reach for Steven's gun he put in the glove compartment, but Dusty placed a hand on Steven's right shoulder and Jessica's left shoulder then the three disappeared with a flutter of air.
The car continued for several dozen feet before the vehicle swerved off to the right then dipped when it hit the low dirt shoulder of the road. The front of the car hit the dirt and the vehicle's momentum kept it going with the back lifting up and sending it flipped several times in the desert before coming to a stop. The horn blared and pierced the natural sounds of the desert night.
One of Mason's Off the Book Properties
Los Angeles, CA
The sun was coming up, but Steven and Jessica couldn't see it in the as there was no visible natural light filtering into the large storage room bigger than one of their old high school classrooms in what the pair assumed was in some warehouse. They were on their knees with their hands chained behind their backs and ankles shackled.
It had been a long six hours or so for the pair.
Steven had blood running down the side of his face from an already healed cut above his eye, blood running down from his nose and blood over his lips and chin from where Trina had performed some creative dentistry with the removal of his canines with a set of pliers. Most of his fingers were broken and still healing along with his left kneecap after it was treated with a shotgun blast. They had been considerate and used non-silver ammunition as to not poison him and retard healing. Underneath his clothing, he had spots of bruises that were still healing from Beck going a little overboard in his punches.
Jessica on the other hand didn't have a mark on her and the worst she had done to her was disheveled hair. Instead of her canines removed, she had a leather strap over her mouth to prevent any biting.
The male teenage vampire hadn't been tortured; he had just resisted Beck, Freddie, André and Trina putting him in his restraints… well, not to Trina as she had removed his canines and didn't pretend it was simply for 'safety concerns'. She had to restrain herself from simply taking a baseball bat to his mouth to remove all of his front teeth.
The vampire pair looked around to see Tori's friends surrounding them like a horseshoe shape: Freddie carrying a sawed-off shotgun, his slayer girlfriend holding a wicked looking two sided serrated one foot long bowie knife, the songsmith holding a machete, Tori coldly staring at Steven and looking absolutely fine while she held a foot long tapered silver blade from Freddie's trunk, Beck with his extended fangs, Trina holding a wooden stake and Robbie's golem coldly staring at Steven.
Dusty stood resting against the wall behind the shackled vampires while Steven noticed to his far right Mason and Quincy standing with each a personal bodyguard holding a carbine.
Beck pointed out in a detached voice, gaining the other vampire's attention, "They're not going to help you."
Tori slowly walked to the kneeling vampire, idly turning the handle in her hand as she held it parallel to her right leg while Beck stood protectively close to her. The brunette coldly whispered, "Hello Steven."
Steven snorted out a breath and grinned, looking slightly ridiculous missing his teeth, "Hello Sweetcheeks. It looks like you'll be dancing after all."
The brunette beamed a smile, but lacked all the natural warmth that naturally shined from it, "Yes I will."
There was a pause between the former couple as they stared at one another.
The vampire lost his grin and mockingly questioned, "You think you have the power now Vega? You needed your whole gang to do the dirty work for you?"
Tori held the tip of the blade under his chin and she coldly whispered, "I always had the power. You had to shoot me to be an even match and then you had to take me from behind. Who was the weak one in that situation?"
Steven clenched his jaw tightly and growled, ignoring the minor pain from his gums as his teeth would take a while to grow back.
The brunette lazily continued with a chilling voice that was creepily juxtaposed to her usual sweet demeanor, "You're assuming I couldn't hunt you down? My friends… my family here in their consideration saved me the trouble and they had their own issues to settle with you, but it's not this that gives me power over you."
"I'm the one chained while you're standing and holding the knife. Not exactly fair."
She retorted in a flat voice, "Neither was you breaking into my home and shooting me in the leg when I was just getting some ice cream."
Steven cocked his head to the side and stated in disgust, "Are you just going to talk me to death? Why don't we just go ahead and get this over with?"
Tori raised her right eyebrow. "Trying to take power again?"
Steven gathered some blood in his mouth then spat it in her face.
Tori closed her eyes in time not to get any in her eyes as it splattered on her nose, left cheek and chin and calmly took a breath.
The light brown hair vampire defiantly stated, "Yeah, I think I do because you'll always remember me after I'm long dust."
Beck stepped between them and backhanded the kneeling vampire so hard that he was knocked off his knees and face crashed into the concrete floor.
Steven would have laughed at seeing that he had struck a nerve with at least one of them, but even with vampire durability, he apparently pissed off Beck enough that he could definitely feel the strike from the left and the crash on the right made him feel like his jaw was broken on either side.
Jessica swallowed down her fear, the fear of the unknown of what they would do to her as she watched them toy with him. She saw him digging his own grave deeper with his mouthing off.
Tori quietly asked while she swiped her face from a provided wipe from her sister, "Pick him up please."
Beck pulled Steven back on his knees then took his place next to Tori.
The teenager vampire defiantly stared at his ex-girlfriend then spat out a little more blood onto the floor… and a few molars.
The musical star quietly picked up, "I'll remember you as my annoying ex, but I have the power. I had the power while I was bleeding out on my kitchen floor. I had the power to save myself. I have the power to end your life… I have the power to spare your life… and that's what I'm doing and unlike me, you'll remember that you had no power to save your life… I was the one that had the power to save your life."
She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his forehead then stood up. She turned and walked to the trough of the horseshoe made by her friends and between them to head for the back of the room. She lazily remarked, "Let him go."
Steven blinked, not immediately believing he heard her correctly.
The others looked on just as dumbfounded.
Trina was the first to speak, "Tori—"
Tori stopped just at the door and stated with her back turned to all of them. "I'm letting you go and you are to never come back to Los Angeles. You're going to remember that I could have ended your life and there was nothing you could do about and it was me… me that spared it and no one else."
She didn't wait for a response as she opened the door and exited the room.
The others looked back and forth between Steven and the closing door, each one having to process the unexpected turn of events.
Beck didn't take long to absorb what happened and quickly disregard it. He turned and grabbed Steven by the throat then held his right hand out and back, extending his nails to claws. He was planning to literally tear the other vampire's face off.
Jade called out, "Beck?"
He glanced over his right shoulder to her ex and snapped, "What?"
She held her gaze on his and slowly answered, "She spared him. That's what she wants then we should let her have it."
"He'll try again or come after one of us."
Mason spoke up, "No he won't."
The group turned to the elder vampire as he walked to stand beside Beck and down coldly stated, "If you ever come back to Los Angeles or bother any of them again, I will torture you to death. Is that understood?"
Steven darted his eyes back and forth between the other vampires, seeing that Beck looked like he was going to disregard the given mercy to him at any moment. He quickly uttered, "Yes."
"Good."
Mason looked to Beck and questioned, "Will that satisfy you?"
Beck growled in disgust and slightly shoved Steven back as he let go of his throat.
Quincy questioned as he approached the kneeling pair, "What about her? What am I going to do with you?"
Jade walked to Jessica then yanked the leather muzzle off of her mouth and over her chin. The slayer held the bowie knife to the side of Jessica's throat and stated with an eerily sweet expression, "Tori's making me feel generous… I'll give you the same deal she did. Agreed?"
The record owner wanted to objected, but since the decision was clearly out of his hands and things looked like they were at the cusp of being settled, he remained silent.
The vampire returned the stare and slowly answered, "Yes. I'll leave and never come back. I won't bother you."
"Good… There's plenty of opportunities for you somewhere far, far away. If I get a whiff of you wanting revenge against me, I will invent a whole new level of pain for you before I kill you."
"Like you did with Randy?"
Beck spat out, "Your 'friend' was a monster."
Jessica looked to Beck and answered, "What do you expect? We're vampires; we're all monsters."
Beck unflinchingly replied, "I don't feed from children or take it from anyone."
Steven found a shred of his confidence and mocked, "You can only delude yourself for so long into thinking otherwise."
Mason grabbed Steven by the jaw and leaned slightly down to meet the younger vampire's eyes. "I was heard one of the ancient Immortals once say: 'I am a monster, but I'm man enough to live with it'… you're just not a man about it yet. Perhaps one day you'll learn that or maybe you'll get your head cut off because they don't like your mouth."
The record producer let him go and turned, disgusted even being in the creature's presence.
Dusty walked up behind the pair and placed a hand one each of their 'inner' shoulders to each other. "Where do you two want to go? Anywhere in the world."
Steven sarcastically remarked, "How do we know you just want drop us in the middle of the Sahara in the middle of the day?"
Jessica added, "Or a volcano?"
"Because Tori spared your lives and I'm going to respect that unless you two give me otherwise. I do suggest you take my offer before the others decide not to respect her wishes."
Steven dismissively remarked, "Fine. Anywhere but here."
"You got it." The trio vanished from sight the next moment, leaving the chains behind.
Rex mildly complained, "We should have at least ripped one of his legs off."
Trina added in a disgusted tone, "Or his balls."
Freddie looked to the vampire leaders and stated far more confidently than he felt, "Now that has been unexpectedly taken care of, we need to do something that the Mob would call a 'sit down'. It's about Randy and Marshall's deaths."
Mason and Quincy gave each other sideways glances before the English-vampire offered, his voice slightly raised in pitch indicating his curiosity, "Alright, I have an office upstairs where we can talk."
The English-vampire led the way with Freddie handing off his shotgun to André and falling in step with them.
Jade hung back for a moment and pulled Rex to the side. "Rex, I need to do me a favor."
Rex smirked and flirted, "Whatcha need?"
The singer looked out the partially left open door as the Freddie and the vampires turned out of sight to head to head up the stairs. Once she thought they were out of earshot even for vampires, she whispered to the former puppet, "If we're not out of there in ten minutes… we're probably dead, so… I need you to come into the room and kill everyone else in there then tell Ian I love him. Can you do that for me?"
Rex was taken aback from the request and lost all sense of his easy laid back nature. He put on a solemn expression and nodded his head.
Jade gave who she thought was just an irritating creation of Robbie's a genuine smile then turned and headed out to catch up with Freddie.
Trina and Beck clearly overheard what Jade had spoken with André getting a sinking feeling about what could possibly go down. The vampire looked to André and stated in a detached voice, "Hold on to the shotgun, but give me the machete."
The songsmith didn't argue with his friend in passing along his machete and knowing that Beck would have a far better shot at getting up close and personal to use it.
Beck led the way for the others, hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.
Author's Note: Tori surprised them all with her choice, but as you probably guest, they're about to let the cat out of the bag with Mason and Quincy and it should be the last chapter. Our intrepid cast is face with elder vampires and Buffy waiting in the wing. How are they going to get out of this? You'll just have to see.
