Disclaimer: The Covenant and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are not of my own creation. They belong to Sony Pictures / J.S. Cardone & Joss Whedon.

Summary: His remains weren't found in ruins left by the burnt down barn. No one knew what happened to him or where he went, but he was back now and intent on draining the power of the one person he underestimated...

Buffy's Covenant
by PhoenixRae

IX. Messenger

FAITH KNEW SHE WAS BEGINNING to annoy the temperamental blond, and as twisted as it might be, she was getting a kick outta tormenting Reid Garwin. Besides, it was his damn fault why he was christened 'Mr. Cockypants' by Willow.

"Where the hell are we going?" demanded Reid when he finally managed to break away from Faith's headlock grip on his neck.

"Hunting. Patrolling. You name it, we're doing it," was Faith's nonchalant reply.

Reid cocked an eyebrow. Faith just gave him a loaded answer, and if he was a sick, perverted hormonally driven teenager (which he was sometimes), he'd take that as an invitation to get down and dirty with the feisty brunette. He let her walk ahead of him, his blue eyes moving slowly up and down the shapely woman's back. He was tempted to cup a feel of her bodacious behind hugged tightly by her favoured black leather pants. Her winter jacket fell just above her waist, leaving anyone and everyone to ogle at the sight of her backside.

Faith knew what the younger witch was doing. She could feel his eyes on her backside and she allowed herself a few seconds to enjoy being ogled before stopping and looking over her shoulder at him.

"Wipe that drool off your face, Cockypants. You can look but there's no way in hell you'll ever get to touch," she taunted.

"I wasn't drooling," Reid denied. "And you're not that hot regardless of what you think," he added.

Faith smirked and gave him a saucy once over. When their eyes locked once again, her smirk turned to a grin before she broke eye contact and resumed walking.

"You need to be taught a lesson, Cockypants. Your magic can't always save your ass," she paused for effect and glanced over her shoulder at him again. "Just take what happened to you today at the dojo."

"Do you have to keep on rubbing that in?" he snarled and picked up the pace until he was walking alongside the brunette. "I was blindsided, alright?"

Faith let out a mocking laugh and dug her hands deeper into the front pockets of her pants. "God, is it really that hard for you to admit that you've just been ousted by a girl?"

"Faith..." Reid snarled.

"Hey, I know guys have big egos and whatnot, but Jesus, man! For once, can't you just admit that a girl kicked your ass?"

"Willow just got lucky. And why must she call me names?"

"What? You mean christening you Mr. Cockypants?"

Reid made a face when she repeated that dreadful pet name.

Faith chuckled and gave her head a firm shake. "That's just Willow. Just be glad she didn't give you a really sappy pet name." Faith shivered at the thought of any possible cutesy name the redhead might crop up with.

"You mean I could've been saddled with something worse?" Reid blanched at the thought.

"How'd you react to Sugarplum Honeybuns?" Faith smirked.

Reid nearly tripped over his own foot at the ridiculously sugary-sappy name Faith thought up.

"Oh hell no!"

Faith threw her head back and laughed when she saw the look of horror on the overly confident blond witch. She was bent sideways from laughing too much. Reid wasn't amused at first, but soon he found himself joining the brunette and they were both laughing their heads off. They were leaning on each other for support and gasping for some air as they tried to calm themselves.

"Jeez, Cockypants, I think I have a new pet name for you," Faith teased once she has calmed herself.

"No, thank you, Faith. I'll stick with Cockypants for now," Reid insisted, cringing when he remembered the hideous pet name Faith came up with.

"Awww, isn't this sweet? Reid's finally got himself a girl," said a chillingly familiar voice.

Faith and Reid straightened up at the sound of the voice. They turned towards the direction of the voice and saw a figure step out from the shadows. He was tall, good looking and blond. His eyes were the same shade as the night sky.

"Chase," Reid growled beside Faith.

Faith felt the oddest sensation of powers crackling, and it was coming from both men with her.

Chase Collins smirked, but his eyes never wavered from watching Faith. "She's a pretty little doll, Reid. And the perfect puppet to use as a messenger to Caleb."

Faith didn't know what the other guy was talking about. Everything happened so fast and before she could do something, she felt herself lifted off the ground and flung away from Reid at break-neck speed. She crashed hard against a high steel fence about two blocks away from where she and Reid were. The force knocked the breath out of her and made every bone in her body ache.

"No!" she heard Reid yell and against her blurry vision she saw a flash of something white and sparkly from where she believed Reid stood, it was aimed at the menacing figure that just knocked the breath out of her.

There was a back and forth exchange of those blinding bright flashes. Faith took a couple of seconds to orient herself and reached over her head to grip one of the bars and helped hoist herself back to her feet. She winced when she tried moving her other arm; she dislocated her shoulder, great. Picking up her speed she tried to reach Reid and help him out. He'd run out of juice soon if he continued to battle this Chase dude with magic. Pausing by a large tree, Faith took a deep breath and fixed her dislocated shoulder herself by using the large, sturdy tree trunk to brace herself against.

It hurt like the dickens, but at least her shoulder felt better and it helped her pick up her pace. She crept up quietly behind the other blond, bidding her time before she did a running kick attack, her feet landing square on the guy's back. She thought she heard his spine crack due to the impact. She landed flat on her feet, her stance ready to fight. A quick glance at Reid told her he had some scratches on him, but nothing too fatal.

"Are you okay?" she called out to him.

"Yeah. You?" he wheezed.

"Five by five," she smirked.

"Not for long," snarled the downed man and with a flick of his finger, he sent Faith flying once again, this time he aimed her to hit a broken tree branch with its pointy end sticking out.

"Faith!" Reid yelled in alarm and used his Power to veer her off course. He didn't get to stop her from flying or hitting something; she ended up crashing against a tree and that knocked her out, but at least she wasn't speared like a boar up on a tree.

"How gallant," snarled Chase. He was still juiced up, but Faith's attack on him caused some damage and he was wheezing out his words. "Tell Caleb I'll be waiting," he taunted before he sent Reid flying against a picket fence.

Reid momentarily lost consciousness, but it wasn't before he saw Chase disappear right before his very eyes. "What the fuck?" he muttered before everything around him turned to black.

PhoenixRae's Notes: OK, I'm picking up the pace here now. Ya'll might be wondering why Chase attacked Reid and Faith instead of Caleb and Buffy since his beef was with Caleb. Don't worry, Chase has his reasons. We can't have Chase and Caleb face-off right away. He's evil. He's manipulative. And he's...well, I won't be giving too much away now. I'm just getting psyched here 'coz this story's starting to pick up pace! -LoL- And thanks to everyone who's reading and enjoying this fic so far. :)