e-mail: Slaya@rock.com
disclaimer: BtVS-Joss & co.
Gambit (the character of Lumiere is based on him)-Marvel comics…etc…
You get the picture.
NOTE: Enjoy the ride!
The things we leave behind
Chapter ten-Substitute for love
By Slaya
«The face of you
My substitute for love
My substitute for love
Should I wait for you
My substitute for love
My substitute for love
Famous faces
Far off places
……………..
No handsome stranger
Heady danger
Drug that I can try
No feres wheel
No heart to steal
No laughter in the dark
No one night stand
No far off land
No fire that I can spark
Madonna
«Let s just say, feeling something-is better than feeling nogthing.»
Justine
Ats
Spike went out on patrol.
So that Cassie can rest a little, relax. And not reveal her slayer nature to someone who could take advantage of it.
As it seems….this was a lie.
Instead of patroling he watched how the «begers», the people who called upon this horrid entity were doing a sacred ritual of giving their soul and faith in the hands of the man called Black.
Even as it may seem like it, Black was not the one in charge. It was someone far more greater than him.
Spike idn t know who that was. Didn t care.
Just wanted the whole thing over so that he can get the chip out, end the endless sharade with Red and be securer at the thought that he kept Cassie from being hurt.
This watcher stuff…an all.
It wasn t him.
Everybody were gone. Buffy was gone. The little nibblet Dawn was gone.
What da hell was he suppossed to do?
He wanted to be back on the old track. This time for good.
Caus he couldn t feel anything anymore. Like a dead shell. Just playing with the part they asined him to play.
As a real evil vamp without a chip in his scull….he could feel pain as it was pleasure. It was so empty.
But so forgeting.
And so real that it had to be fake.
Cassie put Red to bed, she has made sure that there re no problems what so ever.
Went back to the school for her bag. A couple of guys were untastefully hitin on her.
So she beat them up. Why?
A simple question. And it has a very simple answer.
Because she bloody well can!
Violence. A second nature to her, to all the slayers.
They have all felt the same way. Resolve your problems with the best weapon that you have. With your body.
«The best that you ll ever have.»
Austin said that couple of nights ago.
And guess what? She was right.
They all see the answers in violence and get off in kicking somebody s ass out of the field.
Not just the slayers. Witches too.
Willow among the others.
Protection spells, spells for the fun of it, venegance spells (she never told Cassie anything about it, but…).
We all have a dark side to ourselfes.
It s a dark alley. And a cold one. Just as Cassie loves them so much.
«Maybe I m kinda like Faith, more than any other slayer.»
She got used to loving it. The darkness, the hunt, the victory.
It s normal for her to get scared when things tend to turn around. Like now.
She hears steps behind her.
They re familiar. So she doesn t worry. Why should she? It s Faith.
And in front of her…there goes Buffy. It s a dream.
«It must be a dream.»
The two of them meet, not like friends. Faith has done a lot to her. It s not so easy to forgive her.
But then again Faith needed help desperatly. It wasn t fair from Buffy not helping her.
Then again…they both have their scars to heal.
Cassie was left as a by stander. This was gonna be interesting.
For the first time now, Buffy and Faith were completley ignoring her. They weren t here to help her or talk to her. They were here just so that they can turn her mind into their little battleing ground.
How cute.
They started talking quietly, Cassie could not understand a word.
Then it became faster and louder.
«Oh, like you don t dig it.»
«I don t.»
«You re a liar. I ve seen you. Tell me staking a vamp doesn t get you a little bit juiced. Come on, say it.»
«You got off on it. Killing those slayers.»-Buffy stared into the blank behind Faith as the image of Spike emerged.
Now Cassie could recognise the alley. It was the one behind the Bronze.
«Hm. Like you always were. Ignoring me every step of the way B. You bitch!», Faith didn t want to just wanish as usual.
«Like you don t? How many of us have you killed?»
«I have killed….many. what difference does it make?»
«Imagine how those bodies used to be human. Imagine how they became dead vamps. And imagine how you killed the bodies. And by doing so you killed the last shred of humanity left.
Face it. You re a killer luv.
And that s just the you I like the most.»
He became darker. More evil. Cassie had never seen him like this.
He was almost over-powering Buffy. Like she was in his control.
It was scary to look at.
«Oh, come on C. Don t tell me that you re down. Tell me the truth.»
Cassie knew what she wanted to hear.
«Just five by five.»
«There you go C! Doesn t that feel better now?
Now, there s just one more thing.»
«And what s that?»
«Wake up….»-her voice became whoosy and all melting-slow-motion kind, slow, like she wanted to rock her to sleep in a dream, like it was real-«…you re late.»
«Late to what?»-she said while falling out of her cold bed. Just the way she liked it.
It s three AM in the morning.
Spike s on patrol.
«Slay, slay, slay, slay, slay, slay, slay, slay, slay, slay, slay, slay, slay, slay, slay, slay….»
The little voice inside her head whispered.
She craved it, wanted it so badly. The kinda dark side of it. The idea that you can get away with murder.
Spike is checking the cementery, he said that he doesn t have enough time to check everything.
«If he s in the cementery, I ll be at the other side of town. Near «The Bronze». And the rest…
maybe I check the school. Never know what can hide in boring old history hags closets.»
It didn t took her much time to completley forget everything about what Willow said.
It was the high. She felt the high.
«Not even two-hundred wild horses straped on your back could stop you when you get the high. Use the sensation well. Don t let it use you.»
A whole bundle of slayers. A whole lot of advices and everything else.
The door didn t make a sound while they were closed. The broken window was all covered up. Everything seemed okay on the outside.
And (for the time being) everything was okay on the inside.
A couple of blocks later Cassie spotted two vamps. Mindlessly tossing their dead bodies across the street. There is no humanity in them. No way.
Even if it was there, just a tincy bit of it. No.
Cassie would be glad to kill it off, to stop it from suffering in the demons body and mind.
Here comes the time.
She takes her stake out. Runs up to them, not from behind, but from the front. Very strange for a slayer that s been slaying for four weeks barely.
She smacked the first one straight into the nose that started to bleed. The other one dig his foot into her stomach.
It caused a feeling of throwing up all that she s eaten the present day (that actually happened to her once).
«Not this time.»
She got to her feet and fought with the both of them at the same time.
Then she got an idea. She started to run. They thought they were too strong. So they followed.
She put the act long enough for them to buy it, after they got her cornored. She even droped her stake. Delibaretly.
It s not like she didn t have a spear one.
All the acting and lieing. Just so that she could strike again. And again.
To kill.
«To kill
Is to breathe
For you are the one
That s been left standing alive.»
Virginia composed this nifty little poem. A dear dangerous girl that she was.
She stakes the first vamp. The stronger one is still alive. And very pissed off.
Cassie tries to punch him, but he took her hand and broke her left wrist with a strong squieze.
The pain was barely felt.
It was the sound.
The sound of her bone being broken and left weaken and helpless.
She knew that it s not gonna make a difference. Now or a second later.
Gosebumps emerged all over her skin while she hasn t let out a single sound. The vamp was kinda suprised.
Then after letting her go, he punched her nose. She licked the blood that fell to her lip.
He lifted her up and thrown her violently to the ground.
The air was all soft and fun. The ground were all about no play.
It was something in the pain.
She felt it and knew that she was still alive.
She knew that she s gonna get out of this alive, that she s gonna get up the second that the vamp puts her down.
He thought that she s too weak. The same mistake, twice now.
A steak apears in her left arm, the third one. She always had at least four with her.
«A slayer must always reach for her weapon. Caus I already got mine.»
This time the pain was so strong that she had to scream when she staked him. With her left hand, her left broken wrist.
The dust came all over her clothes.
«Dead, dead,
Half dead…and still alive and well
O the pain you beare
Being the One
You must have a reason
To escape us so subtle
When it depends on you...»
Anna Kuei said.
«…When you dance.»
Cassie wanted to touch her.
But Anna turned into a mist before that could happend.
Somebody else was here.
«What is such a nice little cherie doing in an alley this cold and dark? Maybe Lomie can do something about that.»
She waited till the man put his hand on her shoulder.
Then she fliped him over her like there was nogthing to it. It toke him by suprise.
Cassie noticed his flaming red eyes. Red said something about flaming red eyes. Well now…..to late to hide the slayer identity.
He wasn t a vamp, but a stake isn t just a nifty weapon for killing vampires. It works it s magic on all alike. Humans, vampires, demons, werewolfs, strange red-eyed (completley cute) creatures and so on.
She sat up on him while holding his hands above his head with her right hand.
«Who are you?»
He didn t answer. Just put on the tough guy talk.
«Lumie is used to taking the first step, but if you re wiling….Lumie won t argue with that.»-he said in a french, cajun accent. Cassie couldn t help but notice that this asshool talks about himself in the third persons pov.
«I guess I didn t make myself clear.», she slaped him, «Who da hell are you?»
Lumie was suprised when she let his hands loose when she slaped him. It was a sighn of weakness that he won t forget for a long time.
He changes the cards. Uses the oportunity to roll over so that now she s under him.
Now he sees the wrist. It looked bad when it got broken, but by now it morphed into a body part that didn t look like it was human. All sorts of little bones sticking out.
He presed hard on it.
Cassie tried not to scream, but she had to.
«Hm. Now we re talking.
No fun when the pain hits you, a cherie?»
«Sod off.», she used Spikes curse. She didn t know why. To feel stronger, caus things weren t looking up on her right now.
«A girl in your position shouldn t say things like that.
Now let Lumie take a look at that hand.», he takes her hand and looks at it.
«This wasn t done by a vamp. Well…by some part. You did the rest petit.»
She froze when he said it. He knew that she was the slayer. Who knows for how long he s been standing there.
She fucked up things big now.
Red s word s were ecoing thru her head.
Act normal. They don t know.
Well…now they do.
He noticed it. The slight change of atitude. He made a funny grim as he done something to her. She wasn t sure what exactly, but then he got off of her, took her by her left hand. And it didn t hurt. The bones were all back in place.
Cassie was no fool. She let him pick her up just before she used all the strenght that she had left to flip him over her, again, and run like hell.
The old man named Black apeared before him.
«I said kill the slayer, not heal her. You re cooming to be a dissopointment to us.»
«Stop the crap for once! Lumiere is going to fix it.»
«Like you fixed her hand?»
«Like I fixed her hand.»
«Well you better. Cause there are other assasins out there looking to claim the prize on her head.»
Lumiere stoped listening to him. He had to find the slayer.
«Lumie be damned if he let a little girl trick him like that, make him lose his prize.»
Cassie ran till she couldn t run anymore. She sat in a dark corner.
An arrow came out of nowhere, missed her head by a centimeter or so. The next one punctured her right hand. Traped her to the wall.
She pulled it out, didn t care about the pain. The pain was irrelevant.
Her life was the most important thing now.
She can t go on slaying without it.
A yellow colored creature comes to her.
«O I shall claim my sweet revard faster than I thought.
And Black, that fool thought that you might be a problem.»
Black. Red said that. «So that s who I need to hunt down and kill.», she thought.
But the yellow demon punched her a few times. Just for the kick out of it.
She was completley sure that she s gonna die now.
But the man who named himself as Lumie came and killed off the demon with ease.
He took cards out of his coat and made them glow. They exploded after he has let them lose at the demon.
Now he looked at Cassie.
She realised that he s on the same mission, just like the yellow creature.
And she was prepared to die. It was bound to happen sooner or later. A slayer is a weapon that spends itself till the point she has nogthing else to do but lay down and die.
He saw it in her eyes.
The reward that he wanted for her death was his own humanity. He was sick and tired of the demon world. He wanted to be human again.
But how can he kill this little child and live with himself?
Especally once when he gets genuine human conhcense.
Cassie closed her eyes.
«I don t wanna see the look on his face.»
«I m gonna let you off the hook for now. But the next time we meet, remember my words cherie, there will be no second chances.
Go now.»
She opens her eyes.
«No.»
«What?»
«No. You should know that if you let me go….you won t get a second chance.»
«Let Lumie get this straight. You re wounded and weak. I could kick your petit ass to the ends of the world…..and you won t go. What is it?
Do you really want to die? Caus if you do, Lumie s gonna be happy to satisfy the need. And others if you have them.»
«You re sick.»
«Maybe. But I m kind enough to let you go. So go.»
He was stronger than her. Anybody could have seen that.
It s best that for now she bows her head down and goes. The next time she sees him, she can t allow that. Not the second time.
«You kill me, you become me and you aren t ready for that yet.»
Faith