20

She was getting nowhere. It had been a couple hours since she had left the Police station with her nerves just barely intact. Since then, she had driven around town, to the three motels within and the one just outside the limits, looking for anyone who was a new visitor, because the first question on Jade's mind was where Bailey had been staying the last couple of days. From what she had seen of the teenager is that she was well-groomed, her hair had been freshly curled and her nails cut and painted with a French manicure, clothes not even so much as rumpled, so unless she was willing to hide out in a dumpster in an alleyway, she must have found somewhere to hole up. Somewhere where she hadn't been found yet, because the chatter on the lone Slayer hadn't eased. That was a relief, for the most part. It meant Jade still had time to find her herself. Before she had to get the hell out of town and leave Bailey to her own devices. Which wouldn't go well. Sheriff Hazim was already showing uncharacteristic mercy, with not only giving Jade time to find Bailey, but the fact that the girl didn't already have a death or prison sentence when she was found.

For a few more hours, anyway. It was nearly sunset, and that was when Bailey's activities outside of attacking the sleeping vampires' nests had increased, at least over the last couple of days. It made sense. Vampires were most active at night, and Demons would be out and about too, at clubs and gatherings, instead of spread out. Ironically enough, as Jade searched the town, she didn't see as much of the human population walking aimlessly around. It was due to the yanking of chains of the supernatural. If the vampires and demons could just be slaughtered, their restraint towards the humans was decidedly less necessary. If they were going to die anyway, why behave? Which was simply another reason to stop this before it was worse. Haven's mystical essence protected the town more from the outside world than it did within. The only protective force there was Hazim. And the walls the Prio Motu demon had built were going to shatter.

So where the hell was Bailey?

Jade pulled her bike over to the side of the road, shutting off the engine so she could have some silence and just think. She was on her way back into the town, after leaving the motel, another dead end. But she was running out of ideas, and she didn't have that many to begin with. Bailey would go out soon, and while it was true that Jade could probably find her at the place most concentrated with the supernatural, but the truth was that Jade wanted to find her before that. If she did lay in wait for Bailey to make her move, Jade could end up getting the both of them discovered, which would just prove that they were in league to the very pissed off demon locals. Or it would just sabotage Bailey's attempt and again, the pissed off locals would simply kill her. No, she had to talk her down first. But where?

She had to have been taken in by someone. Someone sympathetic to the killing of demons of vampires…

"Oh, son of a bitch." Jade muttered as the realisation hit her. She started her motorcycle, this time with a solid location in mind. Jade had led her right there, after all. Georgianna Harper's house. It made the most sense. After Jade had left it, Bailey must have doubled back. After all, that woman had a sizeable chunk taken out of her. Just because the vampire had only decided to catch her and throw her back with half her blood gone didn't mean that she was all that happen about it. Maybe Bailey had spun some story about saving her, or just the sympathy card. After all, she was a young girl who was pretty, flashing that charming good-girl smile. It was a possibility, at least. Better than empty motel rooms.

"Hello?" Jade knocked on the door for the second time, her thumb pressing into the doorbell button with such force that she cracked the button. She muttered a curse under her breath. "Ms. Harper?" There was a car in the driveway, but it had been the night Jade had brought Georgianna home, so perhaps she just liked walking, and wasn't home. Or she was, and was in hiding. Jade slammed her hand down, harder this time. There was a slight splintering. "We met a couple days ago." She called through the wood. "Where you were unconscious." She muttered under her breath. There was still silence. She sighed, her excitement from her realisation fading into doubt. It had been a hell of a guess. She glanced at her watch. It was after five o'clock, the end time for most jobs, but she wasn't home. But she could have any number of different schedules. Perhaps Georgianna wasn't home. But Jade didn't have the option of coming back later.

"Damnit." She sighed, exasperated. "Well, it's a nice house. She can afford a new door." She nodded her head without quite convincing herself, before raising her boot and bringing it solidly through the door. The wood splintered, breaking under her whim and clattering into the house. Jade pushed what was left of the door out of her way, stepping into the house. For a moment, she thought that maybe the house was actually abandoned, and she had a hell of a lot explaining to do if she tried to find Georgianna on the streets when she heard a quiet grating sound, like something being moved. Stepping over the boxes that were no more organized than they were two days ago, she moved into the living room. She didn't have super hearing—and just the thought of it made her think of Spike, but it was dead quiet in the house, and the feeling that she wasn't alone didn't leave her.

"I'm not going to hurt anyone—" She had taken another step towards the couch when there was a flurry of movement, a figure standing up and whirling towards her. It was Georgianna, not Bailey, which was probably why Jade hadn't gotten another boot to her stomach. However, her gaze was drawn to the small canister in Georgianna's hand, a black spray-can that she assumed was mace.

"Woah, woah. You don't need that." Jade raised her hands protectively, in front of her face as Georgianna held the can out in front of her, though Jade could see that her grip wavered. But still, the can was pointed mostly in her direction, and she didn't want that in her eyes. She also didn't want to hurt the woman, at all.

"You broke my door," Georgianna accused, eyes glancing to the hallway and back to Jade. Her expression was one of irritation, but it was a show to hide the fear that was there as well. "She said not to let anyone in—"

Before she could finish her sentence, Jade's foot was flying through the air, knocking it out of the woman's hand. In her mind, the sequence where it could have flown into her hand after would have been cool as hell, but instead it just missed Jade's fingertips and bounced onto the carpet. Jade caught the words hairspray as it rolled, which wasn't quite as painful, but still not something she wanted in her eyes. Though she hadn't quite bowed to the action first, do later routine, she found it quicker, and to be honest, refreshing. Georgianna gaped, taken aback by Jade's speed. Well, Georgianna did live in a town of weird happenings due to their supernatural crowd, but perhaps not so much from a human-looking face. And that's what Jade was. Human, with a side of Slayer juice.

"Which is fantastic advice. Except you didn't let me in. I came in. Which means I'm not a vampire." Jade explained, and the other woman nodded. "I'm looking for Bailey. Is she here?"

"No," Georgianna replied, before making a slight face. If she had wanted to go the clueless route, she messed that up a little bit. "No, she's not here."

"Where is she? And no, I'm not going to hurt her. Has she been with you the last couple of days?"

Georgianna looked hesitant, glancing down at her shoes, obviously uncomfortable with the idea of selling out the teenager.

"Georgianna—" Jade started with a long breath.

"Gia." The woman interrupted softly, more out of habit than anything else.

"Gia. I don't have a lot of time, and I really need to find her before she gets hurt."

"By you? She helped me. She saved me from a Vampire a couple days ago. I was walking home from a drink with my coworker and something hit me in the alley…" Her fingers crept up to her pale neck, which had no bandages, but the faint twin marks that were unmistakably fang wounds. "She saved me there. Helped me when I was awake. Our Sheriff is always talking about how the vampires won't kill us, that they'll just drink bottled blood, but it's not true. And she's been doing good. She's a sweet girl."

"She reminds you of someone, doesn't she?" Jade asked, quietly, refraining from the urge to state, yet again, that Marko had actually stopped, and despite being a vile, bloodthirsty vampire, who was yes, soulless, he had followed the rules and had died for it. That wasn't right, even if feeding off of harmless victims wasn't right either.

"Yes. My niece. She's doing a good thing."

"She's doing a dangerous thing." Jade corrected. "If I don't find her, the Sheriff will. Or the Vampires. Now I can help her, or you can read about it in the newspaper next to 'Slayer Menace taken care of; town rejoices'. Please." Jade added, at Gia's further hesitation. "I'm not going to hurt her."

Much. Dark was quickly approaching, the sun setting over the lake. It was near lakeside that Gia had sent her, which Jade was really hoping was not to be a wild goose chase, by either being a lie from Gia or one from Bailey. But Jade did know for a fact that there was one vampire's nest near there, which she tracked down. It was likely enough that Bailey would go there, though whether the vampires left the place or reinforced it were a possibility either way. These buildings were mostly deserted, even more dilapidated than the rest of the town, some of the original buildings from when Haven was constructed. She sat on top of one of the roofs, a few buildings away from the nest's, the highest vantage point she could have gotten. Still, she didn't see anything. And hell, if this was where Bailey was going, she would have gotten here a hell of a lot faster than Jade—unless she had been walking. Gia had admitted that Bailey had left only a couple minutes before Jade had arrived. So there was a chance that she'd catch Bailey before she entered the building. Or after she left it. If she did.

She heard her before she saw her, the scuffling Bailey wasn't trying to hide as she pulled herself up the building the same way that Jade did, making the roof with a final leap, steading herself before the incline of the roof. Bailey wore a black jacket this time, that was a little big for her, her buoyant, curly hair pulled into a bun, her all-business attire, with the ugg boots she still hadn't ditched. She gave Jade a wide smile as she brushed off the dirt on her legs. "Found me, did you? I guess it took you long enough. Did you decide you wanted to join the fun?"

"Yeah, something like that." Relief beat hard in Jade's chest. Bailey wasn't running, just looking at her calmly enough, self-assured and unruffled. Jade had a chance to talk her down. "Bailey, you need to stop. There is serious trouble brewing." It looked like Bailey had found some trouble herself. One of her lips were split, and a bruise colored her caramel skinned cheek even further. At least that's what Jade could see, but as it was, Bailey was lucky that she hadn't been hurt worse.

"Oh, not that again." Bailey rolled her eyes. "Are we going to have our epic showdown now, because I kicked your ass last time."

"You caught me off-guard," Jade corrected, not without a little hurt pride. "I didn't expect you to go all Rambo on me while I was trying to speak with you."

"Slayer mistake number one. Expect everything. You gotta have your guard up, you know. You know, from what Buffy said, I thought you were a tough rogue Slayer and all, could teach me stuff that the S-O didn't. But you're soft, you know?"

"For the last time—" Jade's voice grew louder with exasperation, before she lowered it. They weren't that far from the vampire nest, and the sun was nearly set. Their hearing was a lot better than hers, so shouting probably wasn't in her best interest. But for Christ sakes, the Slayer Organization or "S-O", whatever Bailey's chatspeak deemed it, needed another word for Slayers that didn't belong in their club other than rogue. Buffy must have been calling her that behind her back. In fact, she was probably laughing at her ingenious of the whole thing, sending Bailey over here to harass her, this perky, over-indulgent teenager that didn't get a glimpse of anything serious at all.

"I'm not a rogue slayer." Jade said, more calmly than she felt. But the last words Bailey spoke were getting her too. Soft. For all the training Jade had received, how hard it had been, she had left that behind for almost a full year. Except for her segue with Spike, she didn't fight. She just didn't. Didn't practice, didn't do any of it. She was naturally skinny, so it wasn't as if she was out of shape, but she didn't have the muscle she used to, hadn't tried as hard. And what if she just couldn't fight this girl and win on equal footing? She had fought against Buffy, hadn't she, with blood running from her torso. She'd done it then. But then damn Spike and his intrusively accurate conclusion that she didn't fight as hard when it was for herself wasn't wrong. Fighting was in her blood, she was a Slayer. But maybe she was avoiding it because her pride weighed more.

"Okay, whatever. Now are we going to do this, or can I do our job now, please?"

"Bailey, you need to—oh, screw it." Jade launched herself towards the teen, spinning a kick at her that Bailey narrowly avoided with a flip backwards of her own. She smiled up at Jade, an arrogant little grin.

"So you can fight," Bailey crowed. "I was getting worried." Bailey replied with a flying kick of her own, an impressive little mid-air somersault that was all style, but accurate enough that Jade had to dodge to the side, before meeting Bailey's fists with her own. Bailey's strikes were a bit more flourish and finesse, where Jade hit heavier, and they struck at each other for a few moments without really getting anywhere, landing a few punches and blocking the rest.

Jade landed a particularly hard one on Bailey's face, causing the teen to back up a few feet, touching her nose. "Ow." Bailey exclaimed. "You made my nose bleed."

"You could always—" Jade took Bailey's foot to her stomach, and fell backwards, scrambling back onto her feet to block another blow. "Call this off."

"I'm having fun though, aren't you? I mean, you got to get some fighting in, or you're just going to get bored in this town." Bailey said cheerfully.

"Fighting isn't everything."

"We're slayers. It is to us. Fighting the real bad guys. Doing something right. Not just standing idly by."

"That's how it is here," Jade gritted her teeth as another hard blow sent her to the roof, clattering among the shingles, and she kicked at Bailey's leg in recompense, who tripped, stumbling back out to the flatter edge of the roof, rather than the slanted middle.

"I think you just use that an excuse. You just don't want to fight because you're scared. I mean, unless you have a good reason. I'm dying to hear it."

"They don't deserve to die because of what they are."

"Are you kidding me? What is with your equal chance crap? They don't have a soul. They're beyond saving."

"Souls don't mean shit!" Jade shouted, her throat hoarse, tone breaking as she righted herself and flung herself at Bailey. "People. Do. Terrible. Things whether they have them. Or not." With every word she struck out, landing more and more blows on the teenager, who for once was looking at her with something akin to fear. Bailey's face was bleeding heavier now, bruises purpling her face, and she was clutching her arm. She was still defending herself from Jade's onslaught, but wasn't quite able to hold her own under the older Slayer's fury, falling back into a defensive stature instead of an aggressive one. Jade fell back into her familiar routines, no longer clumsy or slow, or even holding back. She threw her strength behind each hit, moving with the speed and agility she had once been proud of. Jade dodged the fist aimed at her head and caught Bailey by the wrist, twisting her around, back to Jade's front. They had stepped their way to the edge of the building, looking down now at the several stories below them. Such a fall wouldn't kill a Slayer, but it would hurt. Jade held her there.

"What happened to you?" Bailey asked so quietly Jade barely heard it, deciding to ignore it. Bailey tried to free herself, but Jade twisted tighter, and with a yelp, Bailey stopped struggling. For a moment, they both panted, trying to catch your breath.

"You need to leave town." Jade spoke, her tone dripping with acrimony, done playing nice. She had lost her composure, and it bothered her. Bailey had brought back memories Jade had a hell of a time pushing from her head, and she had beaten the crap out of the younger kid because of it. And now she was threatening her, leaning her over the edge. Bailey's body went rigid, fear pumping through her body. She was taller than Jade, just barely.

"You're not going to drop me," Bailey spoke, but that confidence from earlier had drained almost completely from her tone.

"Wrong." Jade pushed her off the edge.

With a surprised howl, the girl sank down through the air. In the last seconds, she just managed to right herself, into the dumpster wedged in the alleyway before buildings, landing there on the trash instead of the hard pavement. Luckily, the top of it had been open, instead of an equally hard metal top. Which Jade had definitely checked before she dropped the girl. Except she hadn't.

"Oh shit, oh shit." Jade ran her fingers through her scalp, pushing away all the loose brown curls that had fallen from her ponytail during the fight. "What the hell are you doing, Jade?" She whispered to herself. She was lucky as hell that Bailey had dropped herself in that dumpster. Bailey could have broken bones hitting the ground if she had twisted the wrong way, hit her head even. Quickly, she hung herself off the edge of the building, beginning to climb down. In the back of her head, she heard that little voice in her head, You stood up for yourself. You did what had to be done. It congratulated her, and she hated it. She climbed, jumping the last story and rushing to the dumpster. Bailey was slowly pulling herself out of it. Jade reached to help her, but Bailey pushed her hand away as she landed, rather unsteadily, on her feet.

"Are you crazy?" Bailey shrieked, leaning against the metal container, coffee grounds and yogurt tabs on her jeans. "You threw me off a building!" Bailey wiped the blood from her chin, another cut on her forehead. She didn't look like she had broken anything, but was sore. Small mercies, at least.

An apology was on her lips, but Jade forced that away. She had done the deed, there was no use not using it. If intimidation was the only thing that got Bailey out of this town, she was obligated to use it. For Bailey's sake. The Bailey she just threw off a building and into a dumpster. Well, there was that whole 'for her own good' speech she could utilize at some point, probably.

"And the vampires, when they find you, will do much worse. So just get out of here while you still can."

"I'm not going to go anywhere," Bailey protested. "I'll fight you off if I have to."

Jade's reply was cut off by a low chuckle, a figure stepping out of the dark, his features pulled into a smile, enough for her to see the sharp edges of his teeth.

"Well, well. What do we have here? Again with the Slayer vs Slayer bit, crumpet? You have a knack for getting along with the ladies."

Jade couldn't help but smile herself, elation replacing the anger that Bailey had provoked, glancing back at the man emerging from the shadows.

"Spike."