Vampsdread 3
Xander's hand blurred to his holster only to freeze as he recognised the seductively smoky voice. It had been five years but he still remembered her and the others. Thinking quickly, he turned the light on and forced a smile. "Sorry babe, name's Al Cook," he leered at her, "unless you're the hooker the agency sent, then my name's whatever you want it to be."
A smile played on the woman's pouty lips. God she was even more beautiful than he remembered. Her long, raven-dark hair was still as lustrous as it had been the last time he'd seen it, her liquid brown eyes were still alluring, inviting in their mystery, and her athletic body still looked as soft and curvy, a contradiction in a woman as strong and tough as her. "Nice try Xman, but I know my exes when I see them."
So his bluff hadn't worked, he'd have to try another tact. Raising an eyebrow he tried for a sneer. "Given your past you must have one hell of a memory then. Now get off my bed and get out Slayer, you look tempting and all, but I haven't had my shots so I'm not risking whatever STD you've got this week."
He saw hurt flicker in the brunette's doe-like eyes but to his surprise she didn't react by storming out or attacking him. Instead, she spoke again, her voice still soft. "My name not Slayer it's Faith, you remember my name don't you Xander?"
His hands began to shake. Not that name again. After a few seconds he'd recovered enough to speak, his voice cool and emotionless, giving no clue to his inner turmoil. "Xander Harris is dead. Harris was a loser, a joker, comic relief. Now there's only Vampsdread. Vampsdread wouldn't let some slut he'd had a meaningless one-night stand with half strangle him to death."
"Meaningless!" the Slayer started to rise before sitting down again, her face red with anger. "It wasn't meaningless to me! It taught me I deserved to be treated with respect, better than the drop 'em and bang 'em merchants I'd been with in the past! As for Xander Harris being a loser - me, B, Angel, and Wood didn't tear half of the U.S. apart searching for a loser! G didn't spend a fortune on PIs for a loser! Riley didn't call in favours to get a nationwide APB for a loser! B and Little D don't still cry themselves to sleep over a loser! Red doesn't wear a locket with the photo of a loser! And losers don't save the world twice on their own and help save it a bunch of times!"
The passion in the woman's words shook him but he refused to show it. "Well Harris is dead, there's nobody but Vampsdread here now!"
"Bullshit Harris you have friends who care for you!"
"Hope you don't include yourself in that, 'cause god knows you've never cared for anybody in your life," he interrupted.
The Slayer shook her head. "You're wrong Xand, I care about people, I care about you. People helped me to learn how, people like the first guy to treat me like a person and not just an object, you remember him - a real sweetheart of a boy." The woman sighed. "Take it from one who knows, you can't build up walls to keep people out. You've got to let them in; people are part of what makes you human."
"Wrong Slayer!" he roared. "It's part of what makes you weak! Makes you a scared little kid that allows his dad to beat you black and blue! Makes you the sort of boy that allows some slut to half-choke you to death! Or the sort of man whose friends ignore him as an inconvenience when the only woman you love dies," he tore his eye patch off revealing the terrible scarring beneath before throwing it to the ground. "Ignore you when you've lost your eye! Vampsdread's better, stronger than Xander ever dreamed of."
"No you're the one whose wrong!" the Slayer stood and began shouting back at him. "Xander was a good kid and a better man! Strong, brave, funny, and kind! The sort of man girls dream about and other guys want for their best friends. Vampsdread might be meaner, faster, and tougher than Xander but he's just an empty shell with a heart as dead as any vamp's! He's not a tenth of the man Xander Harris is!"
He looked away from the beautiful woman's face, unable to meet the fire in her eyes, fighting back the tears that threatened to overwhelm him. "Please go Slay-, Faith," he whispered, his voice trembling. "Just leave me in peace."
"Peace Xand?" He felt the brunette's strong but gentle hands grip his wrists. "I'm betting you're not feelin' very peaceful right now. This isn't peace it's a prison, I should know remember? You've got friends who miss you, want to see you, help you heal. Want to hear you laugh," Faith chuckled, "even Angel calls once a month to see if there's any news. Although that might be cause he's frightened you'll turn up asking for a job."
He suddenly realised he was crying, heard the brunette gasp, and felt her gently lead and sit him on the side of the bed. He felt her cradle his head in her arms as he sobbed tears not shed in five years as she murmured softly in his ear.
* * *
As she cradled the former Scooby's weeping head in her arms, Faith thought about what had just happened. When Xander had entered the dingy motel room she'd been shocked by how much he'd changed gone was the affable jester with the heart of gold who'd always tried to make her feel welcome and wanted. In his place there was a hard, bitter man who wore his deadliness as a mask, the only man she'd met who was more menacing was Angel. There was something edgy, exciting about the new Xander but she wanted the old one, her friend, back.
It had hurt like hell when he'd called her a slut, especially from someone that looking back she liked and respected. Five years ago and such words would have resulted in her either flying into a rage or storming out. Now though she had the love of her family and her work to give her enough self- worth to brush them aside. Besides, she'd done much worse to him.
Suddenly she realised the man's sobs were subsiding. "how ya feelin?" she whispered as she continued to gently stroke the man's hair.
After a few seconds he answered. "A little better," he replied hoarsely before pausing and lifting his head to look into her eyes. "F..Faith I'm sorry for what I said earlier-."
"It's five by five, Xand no big."
"No it isn't," he replied, startling her with her earnestness. "What I said before might have been true once, but it sure as hell isn't true now. You've cared enough to track down someone who you hadn't seen in five years. That's proof you've changed."
Faith smiled. That was more like the sweet guy she'd known back in the day. "Thanks Xand," she said huskily before gently wiping away the man's tears. "I couldn't give up on you, after all you're the one person who never gave up on me."
"What do you mean?"
"When I came out of my coma I looked at my sign-in sheet. I only had two visitors, the Mayor and you. Why Xand? After all the shit I put through?"
The demon hunter shrugged, his face reddening. "It didn't cost me anything to spend an hour a week in your hospital room talking to you. No biggie."
"No biggie?" she smiled. "Well it meant a lot to me, later when I realised that you need people."
"I tried to visit you in prison."
Her brow furrowed in puzzlement. "Tried to, what they wouldn't let you in?"
Xander glanced away, as if ashamed. "I got to the prison gates three times. But I didn't know what to say to you, or if you'd want to see me, or if," the man swallowed, "if you'd attack me. Sorry I let you down."
Faith shook her head in disbelief and chuckled before pulling her old friend around to face her and cupping his face in her hands. "Let me down? You're a damn fool Xand. I'd have loved to see you but after what I did to you I couldn't expect you to visit me," she took a breath, "I'm just glad we're friends now. We are aren't we?"
Xander nodded. "I guess we are."
She smiled. "Thanks Xand. So are you going to tell us why you left? And how the bad ass Vampsdread came into being?"
* * *
The demon hunter sat beside her sighed and nodded slowly. After a few seconds he began to talk, the words stumbling out. "When I lost my eye it hurt," his voice shook, "I made jolly with the pirate jokes, but god it hurt. But the pain was nothing compared to when my Anaya died." She squeezed Xander's thickly muscled shoulder; her gesture received a wan smile. "After the First was destroyed, there was nobody to talk to. Andrew tried, but when a guy tries to compare the death of someone you loved to something that happened in a Sci-Fi film or comic you tend to get pissed off."
"Oh yeah, I remember the black eye and bloody nose you gave him," Faith chuckled. Andrew was a nice enough guy but man he could talk.
Xander smiled again. "Yeah, Dawn tried but I wasn't about to burden a kid with how I felt. The others, well Will and G-Man were busy with Buff, and I didn't know anybody else well enough to talk to."
"Why didn't you ask me?" she asked softly.
"I guess I was judging you by old Faith. Figured you'd just laugh at me, tell me to get laid or something. Sorry I didn't give you a chance -."
Faith smiled sadly. It hurt to hear that, but then again it wasn't like she'd given him any reason to trust her. "Not your fault Xand, my bad. So why did you leave?"
"It was too painful being round Will, Buff, G-Man, and Dawn, every time I looked at them I was reminded of Anaya; I had to get out of make a new start. I knew you guys would try and stop me, so I stole a car and drove, didn't stop until I hit Reno."
"Why Reno?"
"The summer Buff died the second time, Spike and I went up there to scare some false I.D. for him. He knew a dealer in that sort of stuff, while there I got a blocker to Will's locator spells. After that I drifted."
"So how did Vampsdread come out to play?"
Xander grimaced. "Three months after leaving Cleveland I was in New Orleans when I heard the sound of a fight into an alley. I went to investigate and found this Oriental teen fighting two vamps. At first I thought she was a new Slayer, was about to leave her to it when I realised that although she was technically superb, she didn't have a Slayer's strength or speed. She didn't know what she was doing, what she was fighting, so I ran in and staked them for her." "Oh Sir Galahad, another damsel in distress saved," she said breathlessly.
"Funny, real funny Slayer," Xander glared at her for a second. "Anyway, I turned to leave the girl grabbed me, asked me what was going on. I didn't, don't, react well to being touched and a fight kind of broke out. For three seconds, then I was lying on the floor."
Faith blinked, Xander was pretty handy and tough too. She doubted that she could put him down that quickly. "So what happened next?"
"We calmed down; girl introduced herself as Michelle Cheng. Turned out she was a member of a family renowned for their martial arts skills. She dragged me home to meet them. They were sceptical about my story until the family grandfather told them some stories that his grandfather had told him about hunting vampires back in the Orient. Afterwards Michelle's father, Keiji, insisted that he teach me the martial arts as payment for saving his daughter's life." Xander chuckled. "In Cheng's family, one of two things would happen. A member could chose to specialise and compete in one or two disciplines, or spend their lifetime learning several styles for the sheer joy of learning. Keiji took the second approach, so eighteen months later I was an expert in Judo, Aikido, Eskrima, Shoalin Kung Fu, Shotokan Karate, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, and Tae Kwon Do."
Faith's eyes bulged, boytoy sounded like he could almost give a Slayer a match. "Hold on, eighteen months? That sounds awful quick Xand!"
Her friend smirked. "Keiji was a man who took his obligations seriously. Four hours a day, six days a week, with all the family joining in. Plus," Xander hesitated. "you heard about me being possessed by a soldier the Halloween before you came to Sunnydale?"
"Oh yeah," she nodded.
"Well that suit belonged to a very interesting man. Sgt. Bill Hardcastle was born in Detroit in 1949, was state high school in '66 & 67. Signed up straight after graduation and after basic Ranger training was assigned to Operation Phoenix."
"Operation Phoenix?"
Xander's eyes grew haunted, almost as if remembering events he never really experienced. "Operation Phoenix was a top secret unit made up of an assortment of various U.S. forces vets, native scouts, foreign mercs, and smugglers formed to fight the Vietcong on their own terms. It was a collection of the foulest pile of scum in S-E Asia and Hardcastle was just about the only rookie there. He served in the unit working behind enemy lines on assassination, snatch, and sabotage raids until the end of the war winning six medals for bravery."
Faith whistled. "Man sounds like a serious bad boy."
Xander continued as if she hadn't spoken. "After the war had ended he was already a master of several martial arts thanks to formal training and informal lessons from some of the natives in the unit. By then he had a serious interest in learning more so he spent the rest of the seventies touring the Orient learning from various masters and earning the name 'Tall Death', owing to his size and skill. In '80 he returned to North America and started worked as a demon hunter, even ran with two Slayers."
"Slayers? You gotta be shittin'me!" This was fuckin' awesome.
"Nope," the man shook his head. "Toronto '82 for six months and Kansas City '86 for four. Weren't very good, too robotic, couldn't think outside the box. Then in '92, he ran into Kakistos."
Faith ignored an involuntary shudder at the mention of her old nemesis. "turn or kill him?"
"Killed him," Xander's answer was tersely given, obviously he remembered that too. "When I started training with Master Cheng all the knowledge came back, and then it was just a case of picking up the new stuff."
"Okay so that explains how you got the moves, but how did you become Vampsdread?"
The Slayer was rocked by the anguish in her friend's eyes. "After I'd been training for a few months, I started patrolling. Nothing major, just slaying one or two vampires on their own. Unfortunately," the man's breath caught. "After I'd been there about eighteen months I killed the mate of New Orleans' boss demon, a three hundred year old female vamp called Shade. Shade found out where I was living and one night," her companion clenched his fists until the knuckles whitened, "she brought her minions and attacked the family and I on the way back from a meal. We fought hard, between the eight of us we killed more than a dozen vampires but eventually the Chengs were dead and I was unconscious. Shade took me prisoner."
"What happened next?"
Her companion wordlessly removed his black T-Shirt. Faith gasped. The former Scooby's muscular torso was criss-crossed with a variety of scars and burns. "She decided that it was only fitting that I take her dusted mate's place. But before that I had to learn the true meaning of respect. She tortured me for a fortnight. As bad as the whippings, beatings, cattle prods, knifings, and blow-torch were, it was the night she fed on a ten year old child in front of me that made me snap," Xander's voice trailed off.
Suddenly she didn't want to hear anymore. Standing she gently pulled the man's shirt back down. "Xand, you don't have to -."
"No it's ok-," Xander smiled sadly. "Or should I say five by five? Anyway, the girl's death snapped something inside me. I was chained to my cell wall, just handcuffs that would have held a Slayer for maybe a second. But me, well they held me just fine, until I saw the look on that kid's face, then something snapped inside me. Next thing I knew I was outside the nest, I'd killed Shade and her minions. The night Vampsdread was born. I guess the rest is in my Council file. So where you staying tonight?"
Still rocked by Xander's recounting she didn't answer for a few seconds. "Here."
Xander raised an eyebrow. "That's forward even for you."
She grinned back at her friend. "XMan that wasn't forward at all. It's taken me five years to find you I'm not letting you out of my sight. G told me to take as long -."
"Giles knows!" Xander's eyes widened in panic.
"It was him who figured out who Vampsdread was. Been tracking you for 2 months. Don't worry the others haven't got a clue. So where am I sleeping?"
Xander looked around the room. "You have the bed, I'll take the chair."
"We could share," she offered with a rare tentativeness.
The man chuckled and shook his head. "Last time we shared a bed I ended up being thrown out. I'll stick to the chair thanks."
Xander's hand blurred to his holster only to freeze as he recognised the seductively smoky voice. It had been five years but he still remembered her and the others. Thinking quickly, he turned the light on and forced a smile. "Sorry babe, name's Al Cook," he leered at her, "unless you're the hooker the agency sent, then my name's whatever you want it to be."
A smile played on the woman's pouty lips. God she was even more beautiful than he remembered. Her long, raven-dark hair was still as lustrous as it had been the last time he'd seen it, her liquid brown eyes were still alluring, inviting in their mystery, and her athletic body still looked as soft and curvy, a contradiction in a woman as strong and tough as her. "Nice try Xman, but I know my exes when I see them."
So his bluff hadn't worked, he'd have to try another tact. Raising an eyebrow he tried for a sneer. "Given your past you must have one hell of a memory then. Now get off my bed and get out Slayer, you look tempting and all, but I haven't had my shots so I'm not risking whatever STD you've got this week."
He saw hurt flicker in the brunette's doe-like eyes but to his surprise she didn't react by storming out or attacking him. Instead, she spoke again, her voice still soft. "My name not Slayer it's Faith, you remember my name don't you Xander?"
His hands began to shake. Not that name again. After a few seconds he'd recovered enough to speak, his voice cool and emotionless, giving no clue to his inner turmoil. "Xander Harris is dead. Harris was a loser, a joker, comic relief. Now there's only Vampsdread. Vampsdread wouldn't let some slut he'd had a meaningless one-night stand with half strangle him to death."
"Meaningless!" the Slayer started to rise before sitting down again, her face red with anger. "It wasn't meaningless to me! It taught me I deserved to be treated with respect, better than the drop 'em and bang 'em merchants I'd been with in the past! As for Xander Harris being a loser - me, B, Angel, and Wood didn't tear half of the U.S. apart searching for a loser! G didn't spend a fortune on PIs for a loser! Riley didn't call in favours to get a nationwide APB for a loser! B and Little D don't still cry themselves to sleep over a loser! Red doesn't wear a locket with the photo of a loser! And losers don't save the world twice on their own and help save it a bunch of times!"
The passion in the woman's words shook him but he refused to show it. "Well Harris is dead, there's nobody but Vampsdread here now!"
"Bullshit Harris you have friends who care for you!"
"Hope you don't include yourself in that, 'cause god knows you've never cared for anybody in your life," he interrupted.
The Slayer shook her head. "You're wrong Xand, I care about people, I care about you. People helped me to learn how, people like the first guy to treat me like a person and not just an object, you remember him - a real sweetheart of a boy." The woman sighed. "Take it from one who knows, you can't build up walls to keep people out. You've got to let them in; people are part of what makes you human."
"Wrong Slayer!" he roared. "It's part of what makes you weak! Makes you a scared little kid that allows his dad to beat you black and blue! Makes you the sort of boy that allows some slut to half-choke you to death! Or the sort of man whose friends ignore him as an inconvenience when the only woman you love dies," he tore his eye patch off revealing the terrible scarring beneath before throwing it to the ground. "Ignore you when you've lost your eye! Vampsdread's better, stronger than Xander ever dreamed of."
"No you're the one whose wrong!" the Slayer stood and began shouting back at him. "Xander was a good kid and a better man! Strong, brave, funny, and kind! The sort of man girls dream about and other guys want for their best friends. Vampsdread might be meaner, faster, and tougher than Xander but he's just an empty shell with a heart as dead as any vamp's! He's not a tenth of the man Xander Harris is!"
He looked away from the beautiful woman's face, unable to meet the fire in her eyes, fighting back the tears that threatened to overwhelm him. "Please go Slay-, Faith," he whispered, his voice trembling. "Just leave me in peace."
"Peace Xand?" He felt the brunette's strong but gentle hands grip his wrists. "I'm betting you're not feelin' very peaceful right now. This isn't peace it's a prison, I should know remember? You've got friends who miss you, want to see you, help you heal. Want to hear you laugh," Faith chuckled, "even Angel calls once a month to see if there's any news. Although that might be cause he's frightened you'll turn up asking for a job."
He suddenly realised he was crying, heard the brunette gasp, and felt her gently lead and sit him on the side of the bed. He felt her cradle his head in her arms as he sobbed tears not shed in five years as she murmured softly in his ear.
* * *
As she cradled the former Scooby's weeping head in her arms, Faith thought about what had just happened. When Xander had entered the dingy motel room she'd been shocked by how much he'd changed gone was the affable jester with the heart of gold who'd always tried to make her feel welcome and wanted. In his place there was a hard, bitter man who wore his deadliness as a mask, the only man she'd met who was more menacing was Angel. There was something edgy, exciting about the new Xander but she wanted the old one, her friend, back.
It had hurt like hell when he'd called her a slut, especially from someone that looking back she liked and respected. Five years ago and such words would have resulted in her either flying into a rage or storming out. Now though she had the love of her family and her work to give her enough self- worth to brush them aside. Besides, she'd done much worse to him.
Suddenly she realised the man's sobs were subsiding. "how ya feelin?" she whispered as she continued to gently stroke the man's hair.
After a few seconds he answered. "A little better," he replied hoarsely before pausing and lifting his head to look into her eyes. "F..Faith I'm sorry for what I said earlier-."
"It's five by five, Xand no big."
"No it isn't," he replied, startling her with her earnestness. "What I said before might have been true once, but it sure as hell isn't true now. You've cared enough to track down someone who you hadn't seen in five years. That's proof you've changed."
Faith smiled. That was more like the sweet guy she'd known back in the day. "Thanks Xand," she said huskily before gently wiping away the man's tears. "I couldn't give up on you, after all you're the one person who never gave up on me."
"What do you mean?"
"When I came out of my coma I looked at my sign-in sheet. I only had two visitors, the Mayor and you. Why Xand? After all the shit I put through?"
The demon hunter shrugged, his face reddening. "It didn't cost me anything to spend an hour a week in your hospital room talking to you. No biggie."
"No biggie?" she smiled. "Well it meant a lot to me, later when I realised that you need people."
"I tried to visit you in prison."
Her brow furrowed in puzzlement. "Tried to, what they wouldn't let you in?"
Xander glanced away, as if ashamed. "I got to the prison gates three times. But I didn't know what to say to you, or if you'd want to see me, or if," the man swallowed, "if you'd attack me. Sorry I let you down."
Faith shook her head in disbelief and chuckled before pulling her old friend around to face her and cupping his face in her hands. "Let me down? You're a damn fool Xand. I'd have loved to see you but after what I did to you I couldn't expect you to visit me," she took a breath, "I'm just glad we're friends now. We are aren't we?"
Xander nodded. "I guess we are."
She smiled. "Thanks Xand. So are you going to tell us why you left? And how the bad ass Vampsdread came into being?"
* * *
The demon hunter sat beside her sighed and nodded slowly. After a few seconds he began to talk, the words stumbling out. "When I lost my eye it hurt," his voice shook, "I made jolly with the pirate jokes, but god it hurt. But the pain was nothing compared to when my Anaya died." She squeezed Xander's thickly muscled shoulder; her gesture received a wan smile. "After the First was destroyed, there was nobody to talk to. Andrew tried, but when a guy tries to compare the death of someone you loved to something that happened in a Sci-Fi film or comic you tend to get pissed off."
"Oh yeah, I remember the black eye and bloody nose you gave him," Faith chuckled. Andrew was a nice enough guy but man he could talk.
Xander smiled again. "Yeah, Dawn tried but I wasn't about to burden a kid with how I felt. The others, well Will and G-Man were busy with Buff, and I didn't know anybody else well enough to talk to."
"Why didn't you ask me?" she asked softly.
"I guess I was judging you by old Faith. Figured you'd just laugh at me, tell me to get laid or something. Sorry I didn't give you a chance -."
Faith smiled sadly. It hurt to hear that, but then again it wasn't like she'd given him any reason to trust her. "Not your fault Xand, my bad. So why did you leave?"
"It was too painful being round Will, Buff, G-Man, and Dawn, every time I looked at them I was reminded of Anaya; I had to get out of make a new start. I knew you guys would try and stop me, so I stole a car and drove, didn't stop until I hit Reno."
"Why Reno?"
"The summer Buff died the second time, Spike and I went up there to scare some false I.D. for him. He knew a dealer in that sort of stuff, while there I got a blocker to Will's locator spells. After that I drifted."
"So how did Vampsdread come out to play?"
Xander grimaced. "Three months after leaving Cleveland I was in New Orleans when I heard the sound of a fight into an alley. I went to investigate and found this Oriental teen fighting two vamps. At first I thought she was a new Slayer, was about to leave her to it when I realised that although she was technically superb, she didn't have a Slayer's strength or speed. She didn't know what she was doing, what she was fighting, so I ran in and staked them for her." "Oh Sir Galahad, another damsel in distress saved," she said breathlessly.
"Funny, real funny Slayer," Xander glared at her for a second. "Anyway, I turned to leave the girl grabbed me, asked me what was going on. I didn't, don't, react well to being touched and a fight kind of broke out. For three seconds, then I was lying on the floor."
Faith blinked, Xander was pretty handy and tough too. She doubted that she could put him down that quickly. "So what happened next?"
"We calmed down; girl introduced herself as Michelle Cheng. Turned out she was a member of a family renowned for their martial arts skills. She dragged me home to meet them. They were sceptical about my story until the family grandfather told them some stories that his grandfather had told him about hunting vampires back in the Orient. Afterwards Michelle's father, Keiji, insisted that he teach me the martial arts as payment for saving his daughter's life." Xander chuckled. "In Cheng's family, one of two things would happen. A member could chose to specialise and compete in one or two disciplines, or spend their lifetime learning several styles for the sheer joy of learning. Keiji took the second approach, so eighteen months later I was an expert in Judo, Aikido, Eskrima, Shoalin Kung Fu, Shotokan Karate, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, and Tae Kwon Do."
Faith's eyes bulged, boytoy sounded like he could almost give a Slayer a match. "Hold on, eighteen months? That sounds awful quick Xand!"
Her friend smirked. "Keiji was a man who took his obligations seriously. Four hours a day, six days a week, with all the family joining in. Plus," Xander hesitated. "you heard about me being possessed by a soldier the Halloween before you came to Sunnydale?"
"Oh yeah," she nodded.
"Well that suit belonged to a very interesting man. Sgt. Bill Hardcastle was born in Detroit in 1949, was state high school in '66 & 67. Signed up straight after graduation and after basic Ranger training was assigned to Operation Phoenix."
"Operation Phoenix?"
Xander's eyes grew haunted, almost as if remembering events he never really experienced. "Operation Phoenix was a top secret unit made up of an assortment of various U.S. forces vets, native scouts, foreign mercs, and smugglers formed to fight the Vietcong on their own terms. It was a collection of the foulest pile of scum in S-E Asia and Hardcastle was just about the only rookie there. He served in the unit working behind enemy lines on assassination, snatch, and sabotage raids until the end of the war winning six medals for bravery."
Faith whistled. "Man sounds like a serious bad boy."
Xander continued as if she hadn't spoken. "After the war had ended he was already a master of several martial arts thanks to formal training and informal lessons from some of the natives in the unit. By then he had a serious interest in learning more so he spent the rest of the seventies touring the Orient learning from various masters and earning the name 'Tall Death', owing to his size and skill. In '80 he returned to North America and started worked as a demon hunter, even ran with two Slayers."
"Slayers? You gotta be shittin'me!" This was fuckin' awesome.
"Nope," the man shook his head. "Toronto '82 for six months and Kansas City '86 for four. Weren't very good, too robotic, couldn't think outside the box. Then in '92, he ran into Kakistos."
Faith ignored an involuntary shudder at the mention of her old nemesis. "turn or kill him?"
"Killed him," Xander's answer was tersely given, obviously he remembered that too. "When I started training with Master Cheng all the knowledge came back, and then it was just a case of picking up the new stuff."
"Okay so that explains how you got the moves, but how did you become Vampsdread?"
The Slayer was rocked by the anguish in her friend's eyes. "After I'd been training for a few months, I started patrolling. Nothing major, just slaying one or two vampires on their own. Unfortunately," the man's breath caught. "After I'd been there about eighteen months I killed the mate of New Orleans' boss demon, a three hundred year old female vamp called Shade. Shade found out where I was living and one night," her companion clenched his fists until the knuckles whitened, "she brought her minions and attacked the family and I on the way back from a meal. We fought hard, between the eight of us we killed more than a dozen vampires but eventually the Chengs were dead and I was unconscious. Shade took me prisoner."
"What happened next?"
Her companion wordlessly removed his black T-Shirt. Faith gasped. The former Scooby's muscular torso was criss-crossed with a variety of scars and burns. "She decided that it was only fitting that I take her dusted mate's place. But before that I had to learn the true meaning of respect. She tortured me for a fortnight. As bad as the whippings, beatings, cattle prods, knifings, and blow-torch were, it was the night she fed on a ten year old child in front of me that made me snap," Xander's voice trailed off.
Suddenly she didn't want to hear anymore. Standing she gently pulled the man's shirt back down. "Xand, you don't have to -."
"No it's ok-," Xander smiled sadly. "Or should I say five by five? Anyway, the girl's death snapped something inside me. I was chained to my cell wall, just handcuffs that would have held a Slayer for maybe a second. But me, well they held me just fine, until I saw the look on that kid's face, then something snapped inside me. Next thing I knew I was outside the nest, I'd killed Shade and her minions. The night Vampsdread was born. I guess the rest is in my Council file. So where you staying tonight?"
Still rocked by Xander's recounting she didn't answer for a few seconds. "Here."
Xander raised an eyebrow. "That's forward even for you."
She grinned back at her friend. "XMan that wasn't forward at all. It's taken me five years to find you I'm not letting you out of my sight. G told me to take as long -."
"Giles knows!" Xander's eyes widened in panic.
"It was him who figured out who Vampsdread was. Been tracking you for 2 months. Don't worry the others haven't got a clue. So where am I sleeping?"
Xander looked around the room. "You have the bed, I'll take the chair."
"We could share," she offered with a rare tentativeness.
The man chuckled and shook his head. "Last time we shared a bed I ended up being thrown out. I'll stick to the chair thanks."