Chapter Ten

Trinity turned her head feeling the soft pillow resting below her and smelling the smell of a man's old aftershave, rubbed off after a night of tossing and turning. Opening her eyes, she recognised herself back in Giles's bedroom. At first she struggled to remember how she was back here but then the pieces started to drop back in place bit by bit until the picture became clearer if a little fuzzy in places. She ran her hand through her hair. 'I can't believe I bloody well had those damn cramps in front of them.' she thought angrily. She knew they hadn't bought her explanations but at the time she was too tired to care. Now she wasn't.

"Damn it." she muttered as she sat up.

Her body twinged in uncomfortable ways and told her it wasn't quite ready to be moved around just yet. 'Tough' she thought and slid her legs out of the bed. She walked to the mirror, gritting her teeth at her still painful knee, and checked herself over. The holes in her neck had completely healed, leaving just pinkish marks behind. Lifting up the t-shirt she saw her stomach wound had closed too. Turning she saw it had closed on her back as well. It was still a red scabby mess and the pulling on her insides let her know they defiantly could do with another few days, but otherwise it wasn't bad for just two days worth of healing. Dropping her t-shirt back down she turned towards the door, realising she could hear movement and the droning of a news reporter downstairs.

"Guess it's time to put in an appearance." Trinity said to herself and began the painful climb downstairs.

Giles looked up as he heard the familiar slow thuds of footfalls on the stairs.

"Maria? Are you quite alright?" he asked and got off the couch to once again help her to a seat.

Trinity waved him off and slowly walked to the couch herself. "I got to get this knee to stretch out otherwise it'll will give me jip for ages."

Giles nodded but still kept an eye on her as she made her way unsteadily to sit down. "Would you like something to eat?"

Trinity was starved but she shook her head. "No thanks I can't eat breakfast." She didn't think asking for a pint of O+ would be the wisest move right now considering she wasn't meant to know what demon she was. 'Cause I'm so going to tell a vampire Slayer what I am' she thought.

"Well it wouldn't be breakfast. It would be tea."

Trinity looked round at Giles. "What time is it?"

"Two hours before sundown. The others will be here soon."

"What's happening?"

Giles frowned and looked at Trinity. "We had a bit of a breakthrough." He stared carefully at her face as he said it watching for a reaction. 'Does she not remember our discussion?' he thought.

Trinity stared back. 'He doesn't trust me. Not like before with the whole demon stuff. No this different. Something's happened.' Her next thought was that Angelus had been here but she soon waved it away. She would be dead right now if he had.

"Is it anything I can help with?" she quickly said.

Giles let the frown slide from his face. "We are planning to go and destroy the Stone tonight. Buffy has found it's location."

Trinity face reflected the elation that had sprung up inside her. "That's brilliant! Can I help?"

Giles pondered what to do for a moment. He didn't want to take Maria with them and show her where it is but at the same time he didn't want to leave her behind and out of his sight. He couldn't work out if she genuinely wanted to help or if she truly was something to worry about as Angel seemed to think so. In the end he decided that there really was only one choice. She would have to come along. With Buffy and Angel there, if she did decide to show her true colours they could handle her.

He had paused for too long though. "What's wrong?" Trinity asked her face now deadly serious.

"I was concerned about your injuries. You see we are quite expecting the Beastealcian demons to turn up as well." It's not a exactly a full lie Giles thought afterwards.

Trinity sighed. "Oh. Your not sure you want me there because I'll lead them to it, that and you trust me as about as far as you can throw me." Seeing the look on his face she quickly carried on before he could interrupt. "I don't blame you. I've been pretty secretive and it can't exactly be easy for you to trust a demon. I'll understand if you don't want me around. I'll disappear its ok but just don't give me that crap you're worried about me. It doesn't matter where I am Tynam's going to find me. So I'm going to get killed either way but I guess at least if I'm not by the Althea Stone he doesn't get that too."

Giles echoed Trinity's sigh. "You're right I don't trust you but it's not because of your demon heritage."

Trinity frowned. "Then what?"

"Life to the living, death to the dead."

Trinity's heart leapt into her throat. 'Crap crap crap!' was all she could think. "The Althea Stone, what of it?" she said calmly hiding her rush of panic.

"You admit you know it then."

"What are you getting at?"

Giles walked round and stood directly in front of her. "You told us that in your sleep last night. Why didn't you tell us before? Why are you really here Maria?"

Maria ran her hands over her face. "This is why I wanted to speak to you the other night. I knew something like this would happen and it wouldn't matter what I say I'm just meat for the Slayer."

"You're not meat yet. I'm willing to listen but I tell you now the explanation better be a damn good one."

Maria slouched back into the chair. "I was going to tell you I knew as soon as Buffy found out about me. I was going to tell you everything but I passed out and then with the stuff last night I haven't had a chance. Look I don't know much but I read this book about a man named Kerifan. The Traybac rituals I think. In it he talks about a bloodstone called the Althea Stone. I don't really remember it all I wasn't that interested to be truthful. That phrase really stuck in my head though. It's got something to do with granting and taking away power. All I remember is Kerifan tried and failed to destroy it and that's it."

Anger quickly spread over Giles face. "You knew all that and you never thought once to tell us!" he shouted. "You have been with us for days watching us struggle and you didn't even try to reveal yourself, instead you just buried yourself in lies."

Trinity shot up, anger burning up inside her too. "Yeah your right I did lie. I lied a hell of a lot and you know what. I felt like crap every time I did. What was I supposed to do though Giles? March on up and say hi I'm Maria I'm a demon by the way, do you mind if I join the uber secret Slayer gang so I can keep tabs on a bunch of other demons while staying hidden. You happy? I admitted it. I used you. I used all of you. I needed to find a way out of my bargain with Tynam and I thought the Slayer could help me with it."

"You were going to swap places with Buffy so Tynam would drop your mark and mark her instead." Giles said quietly.

Trinity collapsed back on the couch. "No." she sighed running her hands through her hair. "I would never do that. I might be a half demon but I sure as hell don't take after that half. How can you think that? I could have let Buffy take my place the other night and stayed nicely hidden but I didn't. I couldn't. Damn it I actually kind of like you guys and I don't know what to do. I wanted to tell you every minute of the day what I knew about the Stone and especially about me but the longer it took the harder it got. I never had friends before, well not like you guys. Not ones that wouldn't kill their own mother for that extra boost of immortality. I've got Alana and I'd do anything for her but she's an innocent. She doesn't need someone like me, a magnet for trouble in her life."

"That's quite some sob story."

"Look you know what Giles I think I better go. You're right you shouldn't and you can't trust me. I know it, you know it. I guess I was right about not wanting to tell you though. Your reaction now has proved that. Can you honestly say that if I told you straight off I was a demon in trouble you would have helped me? Don't tell yourself a load of bull now. I wouldn't have been around long enough to even know you were looking for that damn stone let alone tell you about it."

Trinity grabbed her big black knee length combat boots that she had grabbed from some old army store years ago. She felt so much better having something familiar and her own touching her skin. "You know" she continued after she had pulled on the last boot and stood up painfully. "You humans are all the same. We could be your best friend until you know we're a demon. Then it's all about killing our kind. Well I sure as hell didn't ask for this life. Hated by both sides for being half of the enemy. Try living it sometime and see how far you get."

She hobbled over to her short black leather jacket and unhooked it from the coat hanger. "I work my ass off trying to be something I'm not and I'm sick of it. I got told once that I should embrace my demon side and let it influence me as much as my humanity does. Thing is the thought kind of scares me. You see I know exactly what type of demon I am. Yeah another lie I know. This one was kind of necessary though.

Pulling on her jacket she turned and faced Giles who was still stood silently by the couch. "Tell me. How the hell do you tell a Slayer you're a vampire? How can I tell her it's ok though because I'm a vampire with a soul? Who's going to believe that crap hey?"

"We would." answer Giles gently.

Trinity snorted and pulled open the door. "Sure you would."

She had just put a single foot out of the door when the cramps tore through her at unexpected speed. Crying out she crumpled to the floor clawing at her stomach and gasping in breaths.

"Maria!" Giles called out rushing over to help her.

"Get off me Watcher." Trinity growled as another cramp hit her.

"Let me help you Maria."

"I said get off me!" Trinity screamed out and stood up sharply throwing Giles away from her as she did and sending him crashing to the floor a few feet away.

Clawing at the wall for support, Trinity stumbled as quickly as she could away from Giles and out into the street.