Chapter Four: That's Kicking Your Ass!
Sure Parker, Ashley thought, Just go ahead and kiss me when I have to go out and kill a bunch of things that you'll never know exist. I HATE MY LIFE!
All Ashley could do while she walked down the sidewalk was think of that kiss. She thought of the exact WRONG timing of it and how good it was. She hated herself for liking it; she called herself everything she could muster for liking to have Parker's lips on hers, but the feeling never went away.
Why had she been so quick to reject the kiss? There was noting wrong with it, she wasn't seeing anyone and neither was Parker. So what was wrong?
I'll tell you what's wrong, Ashley thought, all you're going to do by going out with him is get him killed, or worse! I don't want a repeat of Sam; I can't take that again!
She continued with the internal arguments up until she crossed the Sunnydale City Park. She felt that honing sense she got when a vampire was close and knew she was being watched. She had the odd longing to fight a vamp on concrete-just to aid her in mauling it to death until it wished it had died of old age.
And so she walked all too casually out into the parking lot in front of the tennis courts next to the park. Then she dropped her stake to the ground, knowing that the vamp couldn't see what it was.
"Oh my," she said in the best helpless tone she could muster. She then leaned down slowly, like she was collecting more than just one single thing.
She could feel the vampire coming closer; it was her greatest gift as a Slayer. As the story went, every slayer had something-an advanced sense beyond the average Slayer. With Buffy Summers it was prophetic dreams, with Kendra it was a tap into the Oracles which gave her a commanding and fear-free personality and an attachment to Order, and with Faith it was an extremely advanced fighting style and super-slayer strength. In Ashley's case it was advanced demon awareness and an ability to sense a demons next move.
She could feel the vampire coming closer, and then-right before he attacked- she felt more vamps, at least 4 more.
"Shit!" she said as she swung her fist around, smashing the vampire across the jaw, which sent him flying back about five feet and crashing to the ground. She turned and roundhouse kicked the next attacking vampire and lunged at the one at its side, sticking a stake in its back as they tumbled to the ground.
She landed on the concrete and rolled over, letting her foot slam the face of another vamp. She then flipped up and saw the four remaining vamps all charging at her at once. She took her fighting stance and when they were mere feet away from her she flipped over them and grabbed one of the vamps by the head, taking it with her.
She threw the vampire as soon as she landed and staked it in the back when it landed. However, she had left herself unguarded when she went for the kill and right after she staked him two of the remaining vamps snatched her up and held her as the other vampire pounded her.
Then she heard tires screech behind them and could feel light behind her. The vampires cut her loose and turned, to see a Grand Prix GT speeding toward them. Ashley leaped out of the way as the car slammed the three vampires back, which stunned them long enough for Ashley to leap into the car through the passenger side window.
"What the hell was going on back there!?" Parker exclaimed as he shifted the car into park beside the road.
"Its nothing." She replied all too calmly.
"Nothing!" Parker eyed her, confusion slapped on every inch of his face; "You killed a man! Two of them and turned them to dust!"
Shit! Ashley thought, for she knew that he had seen her fighting but she did not know that he had saw her dust those vampires. How was she going to explain and worm herself out of this one.
"Dust?" she asked, "What dust? There was no dust. See me, not in any state of dustiness."
"You're a horrible liar." He said plainly, "Are you in some kind of trouble? A witch or something?"
"I think you've had a bad dream." Ashley spat out before thinking about it.
He eyed her.
"Okay, okay!" she exclaimed, "Enough of the third degree."
Five minutes later Parker's mouth hung open in pure disbelief. She had given him the overview of what she was, and why she was here to begin with.
"Parker," she said, her voice softer than it had been all night, "I'm fighting a war against demons-I'm doing my best to keep the world spinning and I can't do that and worry about what may happen to people I care about in battle. Buffy, an old slayer, had friends who knew and it ultimately ended up in most of their deaths and in the end she died also."
There was a long pause, finally Parker looked at her and said: "I want to help."
"Parker, NO!"
"Why not? I mean, I can handle myself. If Sunnydale is as demon infested as you say and I've been alive this long-I must be doing something right."
"You can't! I won't let you!"
"You can't stop me." He grinned.
"Goddamn it Sam!" Ashley did not realize what she had said.
There was a pause and finally Parker spoke up: "Parker."
"What?" Ashley asked quickly.
"My name is Parker, not Sam. Listen, is there something you're not telling me?"
Ashley looked halfway angry and halfway in despair, "I'm not saying anymore." She then opened up the car door and stepped out.
She stormed down the road and Parker was in hot pursuit. He caught up with her shortly after she started to storm off and he stopped her, turned her around to face him and said: "Ashley, what are you holding back?"
She looked at him then turned and started to storm off again. But Parker grabbed her arm to stop her and she instinctively turned and let her fist kiss his face. He jerked his head to the side from the blow of the hit, clutching the left side of his face.
When she realized what she had done she touched his arm, "Oh God, Parker, I'm so sorry!"
"Its okay, just let me readjust my jaw." He said.
He turned to face her, his hands at his side and she saw a wide and partially swollen blackish-purple mark right above and around his jaw joint. She in turn stepped closer and put her hand over the bruise.
"I am sorry," she said affectionately.
He slightly grinned.
There was a moment of assured silence between them. More than a moment, until finally Parker leaned down and kissed Ashley. This time she didn't pull away, she knew she should but she wouldn't she just put her arms around him.
She finally jerked away when she heard a scream down the road. She didn't take time to tell Parker to stay there, she simply ran and she came to a graveyard: Should've guessed. she thought.
She flipped over the fence and stepped carefully into the cemetery. If had not been for the full moon out tonight she wouldn't have been able to see a thing, even with the light from the moon she could feel an odd sort of tension in her heart, as if she was supposed to be afraid. Something very wrong was happening in the graveyard.
She walked deeper into the midst of the cemetery and then it hit her, the honing sense that told her there were three demons about fifty yards to her left. So she turned and crept her way over to where the vampires were. As she drew nearer to the vampires she could hear chanting in what she could only recognize as Archaic Latin.
She heard a footstep right behind and she turned and swung. Parker ducked just in time, "That hand is dangerous, luckily I've learned to duck and cover."
"Parker!" she exclaimed in a whisper, "Go away! This is dangerous."
"I know, that's why I came." He ginned.
"There are at least three vampires where that chanting is coming from!" she had a sharp whispered tone, "Now go, you could get hurt."
"That is the point, if I go wandering off by myself back to the car a vampire or some hellish demon may attack and kill me then ambush you and who would be there to run them over next time?" He grinned evilly.
"Alright." She eyed him, "But stay back and when I go in you hide."
"Alright, I get to watch you kicks ass-interesting."
She turned to face the direction where she was heading. The chanting had now turned to another language that she did not recognize, and when they got in sight of the ritual both hid themselves behind a large willow tree. There were three vamps, the three vamps that she had failed to stake and six people in brown robes. Two were standing over two bodies laying on makeshift tables-the two bodies were Carolyn and Chris!
Just when she was about to rush in she noticed they were breathing, they were alive. She took another minute to examine the scene. Three of the figures in brown were standing in a line between the two beds, the remaining figure was in the middle of the beds chanting. One vampire was standing out to the side watching the event and the other two were stepping forth, in front of two people on their knees, these people were Sherri and Eric.
She began planning her attack just when the three robed figures broke their line and stepped back about five yards from the action. The chanting figure also stepped back and rose his hands high into the air while the two vamps drug Sherri and Eric to where the chanting one had been standing.
The chanter turned to English and rose his hands as high as he could: "For the blood of the innocent is the sweetest, and from the blood of the innocent they shall rise again!"
Thunder cracked in the background and Sherri, Eric, Chris and Carolyn all woke up almost on cue. Sherri looked up and let out a scream as the two vampires held knifes in front if her and Eric, preparing to slash their throats.
"UNLEASH THE SOULS!" The man exclaimed and the vampires brought their knifes back. By now Sherri and Eric were pleading for their lives and Carolyn and Chris were watching, helplessly tied up.
Ashley flipped into the fray and staked the vampire in front of Sherri and before the other had any time to react she staked it in turn.
The look on Sherri and Eric's face were enough for her to know that they were both thankful and confused.
Ashley turned, the other vampire and three of the robed figures were rushing towards her. As she engaged in a fight to the death with the vampire, who had the help of three of the robed ones (who were all too obviously human), Ashley rushed in and untied Sherri, Eric, Carolyn and Chris.
Ashley put up a good fight, but soon all of the robed figures held her down and the vampire approached her. She kicked and jerked but the six of them were too much for her to escape. She clenched her teeth and jerked as far back as possible from the vampire.
She was amazed to see a stake stick through the vampires chest and to hear a ruckus behind her as several thudding sounds hit the air. When the vampire turned to dust she saw Sherri and Carolyn sanding behind it and when she turned she saw Chris, Eric and Parker fighting the men in brown robes. She grabbed one of them, incidentally the leader of the pack, and snatched him out of the fray.
She went to snatch the hood off of his head but he snatched out of her grasp.
He glared at her, "You have no idea what you're messing with, girl."
"Let me guess," she acted like she was thinking about the subject, "evil, death, destruction?" She stepped up and grabbed him by the throat and said: "Been there, done that-right now I'm kicking your ass!"
"El ilumnarro!" he exclaimed and she was thrown back from the man and a blinding flash of light lit up long enough for all of the brown robed figures to flee.
Ashley finally regained full sight about five minutes after the brown figures were long gone. The rest of the group was staggering, but soon they too could see once again.
Carolyn looked in a state of shock, amazement and terror all in one breath: "What the fuck are you?"
Carolyn, Chris, Sherri and Eric all looked expecting and she knew that she couldn't lie-it was all unmasked this very night and she had no choice but to tell them.
*******
She stood in front of Parker outside of his car. She thought of the events of the night in a nutshell moment. Sherri and Eric of course wanted to be a part of what was going on, and Ashley knew they couldn't but also knew they wouldn't give up until they were official Slayerettes. Carolyn and Chris were all too shocked to answer what they were going to do, but she made sure that all of them understood NOT to speak a word of what they saw.
Now here she was, a block away from her house standing in front of Parker while the minutes slipped away. They weren't really talking, just chatting brainlessly-thinking of things to say just so they could be around each other longer. Finally she mentioned that she better go and Parker's face changed from happy to an attempt to hide needy.
She looked up at him, rubbed her hand across the swollen mark where she had hit him.
"I'm so sorry," she said for the hundredth time, literally.
"Its alright, at least you touched me." He grinned, trying to hide the fact that his last line was all too corny for a strait face.
She took his hands and wrapped them around her waist and she put her arms around him, placing her head on his chest. She could hear his heartbeat, slow but lively and all she could do was think about how special he was to her.
She felt a tear running down her cheek, she was crying and she didn't even know. She was crying for Parker, the possibility that she may loose him was too much for her to bear. She didn't know how long she was there with him, crying, she just wanted him to hold her until time itself no longer mattered, until it was just him and her.
Sure Parker, Ashley thought, Just go ahead and kiss me when I have to go out and kill a bunch of things that you'll never know exist. I HATE MY LIFE!
All Ashley could do while she walked down the sidewalk was think of that kiss. She thought of the exact WRONG timing of it and how good it was. She hated herself for liking it; she called herself everything she could muster for liking to have Parker's lips on hers, but the feeling never went away.
Why had she been so quick to reject the kiss? There was noting wrong with it, she wasn't seeing anyone and neither was Parker. So what was wrong?
I'll tell you what's wrong, Ashley thought, all you're going to do by going out with him is get him killed, or worse! I don't want a repeat of Sam; I can't take that again!
She continued with the internal arguments up until she crossed the Sunnydale City Park. She felt that honing sense she got when a vampire was close and knew she was being watched. She had the odd longing to fight a vamp on concrete-just to aid her in mauling it to death until it wished it had died of old age.
And so she walked all too casually out into the parking lot in front of the tennis courts next to the park. Then she dropped her stake to the ground, knowing that the vamp couldn't see what it was.
"Oh my," she said in the best helpless tone she could muster. She then leaned down slowly, like she was collecting more than just one single thing.
She could feel the vampire coming closer; it was her greatest gift as a Slayer. As the story went, every slayer had something-an advanced sense beyond the average Slayer. With Buffy Summers it was prophetic dreams, with Kendra it was a tap into the Oracles which gave her a commanding and fear-free personality and an attachment to Order, and with Faith it was an extremely advanced fighting style and super-slayer strength. In Ashley's case it was advanced demon awareness and an ability to sense a demons next move.
She could feel the vampire coming closer, and then-right before he attacked- she felt more vamps, at least 4 more.
"Shit!" she said as she swung her fist around, smashing the vampire across the jaw, which sent him flying back about five feet and crashing to the ground. She turned and roundhouse kicked the next attacking vampire and lunged at the one at its side, sticking a stake in its back as they tumbled to the ground.
She landed on the concrete and rolled over, letting her foot slam the face of another vamp. She then flipped up and saw the four remaining vamps all charging at her at once. She took her fighting stance and when they were mere feet away from her she flipped over them and grabbed one of the vamps by the head, taking it with her.
She threw the vampire as soon as she landed and staked it in the back when it landed. However, she had left herself unguarded when she went for the kill and right after she staked him two of the remaining vamps snatched her up and held her as the other vampire pounded her.
Then she heard tires screech behind them and could feel light behind her. The vampires cut her loose and turned, to see a Grand Prix GT speeding toward them. Ashley leaped out of the way as the car slammed the three vampires back, which stunned them long enough for Ashley to leap into the car through the passenger side window.
"What the hell was going on back there!?" Parker exclaimed as he shifted the car into park beside the road.
"Its nothing." She replied all too calmly.
"Nothing!" Parker eyed her, confusion slapped on every inch of his face; "You killed a man! Two of them and turned them to dust!"
Shit! Ashley thought, for she knew that he had seen her fighting but she did not know that he had saw her dust those vampires. How was she going to explain and worm herself out of this one.
"Dust?" she asked, "What dust? There was no dust. See me, not in any state of dustiness."
"You're a horrible liar." He said plainly, "Are you in some kind of trouble? A witch or something?"
"I think you've had a bad dream." Ashley spat out before thinking about it.
He eyed her.
"Okay, okay!" she exclaimed, "Enough of the third degree."
Five minutes later Parker's mouth hung open in pure disbelief. She had given him the overview of what she was, and why she was here to begin with.
"Parker," she said, her voice softer than it had been all night, "I'm fighting a war against demons-I'm doing my best to keep the world spinning and I can't do that and worry about what may happen to people I care about in battle. Buffy, an old slayer, had friends who knew and it ultimately ended up in most of their deaths and in the end she died also."
There was a long pause, finally Parker looked at her and said: "I want to help."
"Parker, NO!"
"Why not? I mean, I can handle myself. If Sunnydale is as demon infested as you say and I've been alive this long-I must be doing something right."
"You can't! I won't let you!"
"You can't stop me." He grinned.
"Goddamn it Sam!" Ashley did not realize what she had said.
There was a pause and finally Parker spoke up: "Parker."
"What?" Ashley asked quickly.
"My name is Parker, not Sam. Listen, is there something you're not telling me?"
Ashley looked halfway angry and halfway in despair, "I'm not saying anymore." She then opened up the car door and stepped out.
She stormed down the road and Parker was in hot pursuit. He caught up with her shortly after she started to storm off and he stopped her, turned her around to face him and said: "Ashley, what are you holding back?"
She looked at him then turned and started to storm off again. But Parker grabbed her arm to stop her and she instinctively turned and let her fist kiss his face. He jerked his head to the side from the blow of the hit, clutching the left side of his face.
When she realized what she had done she touched his arm, "Oh God, Parker, I'm so sorry!"
"Its okay, just let me readjust my jaw." He said.
He turned to face her, his hands at his side and she saw a wide and partially swollen blackish-purple mark right above and around his jaw joint. She in turn stepped closer and put her hand over the bruise.
"I am sorry," she said affectionately.
He slightly grinned.
There was a moment of assured silence between them. More than a moment, until finally Parker leaned down and kissed Ashley. This time she didn't pull away, she knew she should but she wouldn't she just put her arms around him.
She finally jerked away when she heard a scream down the road. She didn't take time to tell Parker to stay there, she simply ran and she came to a graveyard: Should've guessed. she thought.
She flipped over the fence and stepped carefully into the cemetery. If had not been for the full moon out tonight she wouldn't have been able to see a thing, even with the light from the moon she could feel an odd sort of tension in her heart, as if she was supposed to be afraid. Something very wrong was happening in the graveyard.
She walked deeper into the midst of the cemetery and then it hit her, the honing sense that told her there were three demons about fifty yards to her left. So she turned and crept her way over to where the vampires were. As she drew nearer to the vampires she could hear chanting in what she could only recognize as Archaic Latin.
She heard a footstep right behind and she turned and swung. Parker ducked just in time, "That hand is dangerous, luckily I've learned to duck and cover."
"Parker!" she exclaimed in a whisper, "Go away! This is dangerous."
"I know, that's why I came." He ginned.
"There are at least three vampires where that chanting is coming from!" she had a sharp whispered tone, "Now go, you could get hurt."
"That is the point, if I go wandering off by myself back to the car a vampire or some hellish demon may attack and kill me then ambush you and who would be there to run them over next time?" He grinned evilly.
"Alright." She eyed him, "But stay back and when I go in you hide."
"Alright, I get to watch you kicks ass-interesting."
She turned to face the direction where she was heading. The chanting had now turned to another language that she did not recognize, and when they got in sight of the ritual both hid themselves behind a large willow tree. There were three vamps, the three vamps that she had failed to stake and six people in brown robes. Two were standing over two bodies laying on makeshift tables-the two bodies were Carolyn and Chris!
Just when she was about to rush in she noticed they were breathing, they were alive. She took another minute to examine the scene. Three of the figures in brown were standing in a line between the two beds, the remaining figure was in the middle of the beds chanting. One vampire was standing out to the side watching the event and the other two were stepping forth, in front of two people on their knees, these people were Sherri and Eric.
She began planning her attack just when the three robed figures broke their line and stepped back about five yards from the action. The chanting figure also stepped back and rose his hands high into the air while the two vamps drug Sherri and Eric to where the chanting one had been standing.
The chanter turned to English and rose his hands as high as he could: "For the blood of the innocent is the sweetest, and from the blood of the innocent they shall rise again!"
Thunder cracked in the background and Sherri, Eric, Chris and Carolyn all woke up almost on cue. Sherri looked up and let out a scream as the two vampires held knifes in front if her and Eric, preparing to slash their throats.
"UNLEASH THE SOULS!" The man exclaimed and the vampires brought their knifes back. By now Sherri and Eric were pleading for their lives and Carolyn and Chris were watching, helplessly tied up.
Ashley flipped into the fray and staked the vampire in front of Sherri and before the other had any time to react she staked it in turn.
The look on Sherri and Eric's face were enough for her to know that they were both thankful and confused.
Ashley turned, the other vampire and three of the robed figures were rushing towards her. As she engaged in a fight to the death with the vampire, who had the help of three of the robed ones (who were all too obviously human), Ashley rushed in and untied Sherri, Eric, Carolyn and Chris.
Ashley put up a good fight, but soon all of the robed figures held her down and the vampire approached her. She kicked and jerked but the six of them were too much for her to escape. She clenched her teeth and jerked as far back as possible from the vampire.
She was amazed to see a stake stick through the vampires chest and to hear a ruckus behind her as several thudding sounds hit the air. When the vampire turned to dust she saw Sherri and Carolyn sanding behind it and when she turned she saw Chris, Eric and Parker fighting the men in brown robes. She grabbed one of them, incidentally the leader of the pack, and snatched him out of the fray.
She went to snatch the hood off of his head but he snatched out of her grasp.
He glared at her, "You have no idea what you're messing with, girl."
"Let me guess," she acted like she was thinking about the subject, "evil, death, destruction?" She stepped up and grabbed him by the throat and said: "Been there, done that-right now I'm kicking your ass!"
"El ilumnarro!" he exclaimed and she was thrown back from the man and a blinding flash of light lit up long enough for all of the brown robed figures to flee.
Ashley finally regained full sight about five minutes after the brown figures were long gone. The rest of the group was staggering, but soon they too could see once again.
Carolyn looked in a state of shock, amazement and terror all in one breath: "What the fuck are you?"
Carolyn, Chris, Sherri and Eric all looked expecting and she knew that she couldn't lie-it was all unmasked this very night and she had no choice but to tell them.
*******
She stood in front of Parker outside of his car. She thought of the events of the night in a nutshell moment. Sherri and Eric of course wanted to be a part of what was going on, and Ashley knew they couldn't but also knew they wouldn't give up until they were official Slayerettes. Carolyn and Chris were all too shocked to answer what they were going to do, but she made sure that all of them understood NOT to speak a word of what they saw.
Now here she was, a block away from her house standing in front of Parker while the minutes slipped away. They weren't really talking, just chatting brainlessly-thinking of things to say just so they could be around each other longer. Finally she mentioned that she better go and Parker's face changed from happy to an attempt to hide needy.
She looked up at him, rubbed her hand across the swollen mark where she had hit him.
"I'm so sorry," she said for the hundredth time, literally.
"Its alright, at least you touched me." He grinned, trying to hide the fact that his last line was all too corny for a strait face.
She took his hands and wrapped them around her waist and she put her arms around him, placing her head on his chest. She could hear his heartbeat, slow but lively and all she could do was think about how special he was to her.
She felt a tear running down her cheek, she was crying and she didn't even know. She was crying for Parker, the possibility that she may loose him was too much for her to bear. She didn't know how long she was there with him, crying, she just wanted him to hold her until time itself no longer mattered, until it was just him and her.