Part 3

Night

Wesley glanced around the shadowy crypt glaring at the vampires surrounding them. He had counted them, several times. Five! Bloody hell, five vampires! he thought, scared.

He took in their positions. Three vampires were playing cards as they sat around an old table in the middle of the room. The two others were in the back, wound up in a heated argument who could drink from their victim, who laid on the ground with his hands bounded and gag in his mouth. Bloody Hell, Pryce. This is it. For real. Time to show that you're worth your name. He tried to strain himself from the overwhelming fear.

How could Xander do that? he wondered as he envied the boy's guts more than ever.

Suddenly he erupted into action, throwing a big bottle of blessed water above the card-players and shot it with his shotgun, shattering it into thousand pieces and splashing the blessed water down like a shower. Ignoring the vampires' screams he dropped the shotgun and replaced it with a crossbow, firing a pair of bolts, dusting two of the stunned vampires. His eyes raging the third launched himself at Wesley who quickly side-stepped and in one smooth move staked it. Moving on he ducked under the fourth

vampire's swing before kicking him to the back of his knee, making him collapse to the ground and readied himself to push his stake through the demon's back. Before he had chance to strike the last vampire grabbed him and flung him into the wall.

Groaning with pain and through tears in his eyes he saw their victim had grabbed one of the glass pieces and with bloodied hands was cutting through the ropes restraining him. Wesley knew that the air had turned into an intoxicating mixture of blood, adrenaline, sweat, and fear, driving the two vampires crazy. And when he saw how the boy had attracted their attention by his actions, he instantly understood in flash why Xander always made those stupid jokes: it makes them blind with fury.

He scanned the area quickly as he raised his voice while scowling at them. "Bloody American vampires, can only handle a helpless teenager instead a real hunter like me."

He gulped as the two vampires rushed towards him growling deeply. He kicked the fallen table into their path knocking his rivals off-balance. Grabbing a stake he leapt to his feet and stabbed one of the vampires. However the other vampire was too fast and swept his feet from beneath him, knocking him to the ground, but before the vampire

could complete his attack he exploded into dust. His eyes wide he watched as the dust cleared revealing the smiling youth.

"Hi," the boy helped him to his feet. "Pike, glad to meet you."

6.30 AM

Faith closed her eyes as she remembered the look of desperate pleading in his eyes, the look of betrayal on his face as she'd choked him. The first guy to reach out and she'd repaid his trust by trying to kill him.

"Are you okay, Faith?"

The girl with the fiery black eyes smiled at him. "Five by Five."

"Could you be so kind to get the newspaper?"

The young Slayer stared at the man for a moment. The person in front of her ripped her out of her worried thoughts. He was like her own father, decent and very sweet. She figured that he was somewhere in his late sixties. His hair was almost white and he had a cute matching beard. The man had lost his wife last year and was lonely since. She had nodded and walked to the frontdoor. They had met two weeks ago when she had saved him from a gang who threatened him for his money. Since then the old man had taken care for her by being a parent for her.

Suddenly she heard a familiar howl: Kakistos. The door was smashed open and he stood in front of her. Her body started to shiver from overwhelming fear. "Fucking bitch!" he crowled as he tried to get the girl. But she had stepped back quickly and ran to the living room. In a blur she tried to escape and to save the old man at the same time. But in the end panic had won and the old man was left alone at Kakistos' mercy.

Faith squirmed in her bed and woke up with a silent scream, her eyes wide open. Almost bulging on guilt she stepped out of bed. She glanced at Xander as she reached for her pants. Within minutes she silently closed the door and walked outside into the fresh air.

7.00 AM

Xander bolted upright, sweat pouring down his face. He shook his head as he tried to clear his mind of the residue of his nightmares. He looked beside him and saw the empty place where Faith should have been, noticing a little note.

Stud,

I woke up early. It's a Slayer thing. Needed some fresh air. I didn't want to wake ya up, ya were sleeping so peacefully. And ya REALLY need your beauty-sleep, ya know. Ya take it easy. I'll be back with breakfast. Then we can buy a nice car, I'll do the quest while you can relax and I'll see ya hopefully 'night for another rollin' after you gave the lads a show.

Yar chick,

F

Xander couldn't help himself to chuckle at the note, but felt a chill run along his spine at the same time. He searched the bed further, found some money under her pillow and slipped it in his pocket.

Hearing a noise outside the door he stood and walked towards it just as it slammed open. He was facing at least a dozen demons and vampires - it was still dark enough outside. He staggered back as he looked straight into the ugliest face he had ever seen. Xander watched the newcomer scan the room before turning his gaze to him. Bouncing against his bed he turned around and threw aside his pillow, grabbing several stakes and the gun hidden beneath. He emptied the gun's magazine at the demon, but the bullets slammed into a minor demon that the big boss flung in front of him.

The demon tossed the dead weight away like it was nothing before charging him, closing the distance at an amazing speed. He saw the demon pull a newpaper from under his jacket and hold it up. Xander could clearly see the headline.

Gas station blown up. No casulties found.

"No human casulties!' Jens snarled, his German accent thick, as he slammed the newspaper into Xander's chest. "You and your babe killed a good dozen of my gang last night. You'll pay!" Jens's fist spun forward but missed its target when the boy swayed away from it. But his boot kicked the teen hard in the gut knocking the youth against the wall. A snarl on his lips he advanced on the crumpled human.

"Boss. We need him alive," he heard one of his luitanten spoke from behind.

Instinctively Jens slammed his elbow into the inferior demon's chest, cracking a rib. "'Shut up! I know!"

"It's a good thing that you know," he heard a cold voice rippled through the room.

The demon spun around and faced the cloaked vampire. "You? We have done our job. Time to pay."

Jens's eyes widened as he saw the vampire walking in - slowly, but steadily - with a bunch of other mysterious warriors, wearing black ninja suits, behind him. "Who the fu . . . Aaargh."

The demon felt a strong clawed hand wrapped around his neck, pushing him up and ruthlessly bounching his head against the ceiling. With all his strength he tried to himself break free as he stared over his attacker's head and saw all his men cut down by the warriors' lightning blades.

"This is your payment," he heard before he felt a sharp pain penetrating his chest and growing in intensity.

A muffled groan was the demon's only reply when the vampire pressed his hand around Jens's throat and pushed him up stretching his arm as far as possible. He didn't pay any attention to the whimperings as he pressed his nail in his torso and slowly slid down, slicing him open. Without any emotion he watched thick blue blood pour out of the wound, splashing over the ground. He felt the demon struggle as his minion attempted to free himself from his grip, but easily restrained him with one hand. He felt the demon's body start to tremble and heard him gurgle and gasp.

When he was finished he stared in the demon's mortified eyes for a few moments, before he slamming him to the ground, freeing the demon's internals over the dirty carpet. "Ah, vivi-section is such a beautiful thing," he murmured with a mocking tone, "I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have."

"Search the whole room," he ordered the ninjas.

He stepped around the mess and grabbed the boy, leveling Xander's face to his. He carefully rubbed a nail over the boy's cheek as his eye moved slowly along his features. "Loyal to the heart and the soul . . . foul," he mumbled before checking out the human's pockets and removing his money. One of the ninjas handed him a small item. He stared at it for a while, intrigued, before he made sure it was safe in one of the boy's pockets.

"Take him to the Council," he ordered the ninja leader, who responded with a polite bow. He picked up Faith's little note and couldn't hide a small smile. "Boy, you don't know half of the torment that I have saved you from tonight," he whispered mockingly. He took Faith's pencil and scratched something on it. "Or . . . are about to face . . ."