Ezekiel
Disclaimer: Do not own Buffy.
Detective Daniel Cohen drove up to the mansion early the next morning. The Reiben mansion had held an all-night kegger the last night, and this morning, there were at least twenty-seven dead people. Coincidently, this particular kegger had the authority of the good Commissioner Wilks to help keep things going. No cops weren't allowed to be on sight if they were there to break it up. So, a few cops had been there to enjoy themselves. Made sense, didn't it?
"Detective," called the officer on duty, "We have a problem."
"What is it," asked Daniel with a sigh, though he already had a good idea.
"Our good friend, Wilks, has just put out a memo," said the officer with a scowl, "He says to 'investigate with the utmost haste, then clear out the area before any word can leak out to the press.'"
"So, he's trying to keep this one out of the limelight," said Daniel with a scowl.
"Yeah," said the officer, "You know why? It's because Wilks was bribed by some snot nosed kids so they could have the kegger. Now, he's trying to keep our mouths shut so he can keep his ass clean."
"Lousy fucker," whispered Daniel in frustration, "Alright, how do we go about this?"
"I don't know, Detective," said the officer, "That's your department. Oh, there is one thing you might want to know. One of the dead is a…wait a minute, let me see."
He reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a piece of paper.
"The name here is of one of the few police fatalities," said the officer, "It says here that a 'Detective Miguel O'Hare' was amongst the dead. Have you ever heard that name before, Detective?"
Ezekiel sat inside his apartment that Monday after the party. He had about an hour till school started, and he knew that he wouldn't be showing up to it. Adil and Edana were both coming over so that they could spend some time deciding what to do. Ever since he had met Edana, the trio had become a unified family. Though he and Edana would flirt around, they all knew that it was unlikely that they'd get together. It was possible and there was chemistry, but it was far outweighed by their baggage. Aside from that, after Edana's near-rape, Ezekiel didn't think she needed someone wanting to be with her so soon. It made an already bad situation awkward.
Ezekiel opened his paper and took a gander at the headlines. As expected, it mentioned nothing about the murders at the Reiben estate. That pisser of a Commissioner must be putting a chokehold over the press. From what Ezekiel had heard from the cops who walked around the area, Wilks may be a numb nuts, but he was a numb nuts with power in both the city and the press. Fucker needed to be taken down a few pegs. Oh, well. He'd deal with that later.
He looked up as he heard Adil knocking on the door. He sighed, then stood up and went to the door, which was rattling on its hinges.
"Hold on, Adil," called Ezekiel.
He unlocked the door and twisted the knob, then got knocked backward as a mass entered the room. Reacting on instinct, Ezekiel grabbed his cross-sword from the nearby wall and brought it up to destroy whoever had invaded his room, but stopped when he saw…
"Angus," he shouted in rage, "What in God's name are you doing in here?"
"We got a problem, Zeke," cried out Angus.
Ezekiel was about to turn this snitch into a smear on the pavement, but then he got a good look at the bastard's face. He was paler than anything Ezekiel had ever seen before, paler than any vampire had ever been. His eyes were wild and dilated, and he had black marks underneath his eyes as though he hadn't slept in years. He was breathing in short, pants.
"Are you Ok, Angus," asked Ezekiel, fear for the snitch evident in his eyes as he did so.
"I am NOT ok on an epic scale, my friend," said Angus, "See, I've just heard on the grapevine that that vampire that Luke was going to, the Bastard or something like that."
"The Master," corrected Ezekiel.
"Right, right. Anyway, I heard that the Master is sending in a group of vampires after something in the museum."
"And this would be…?"
"I don't know."
"You'd better know, or else it'll take the sanitation department a few months to clean out the stain from the pavement that you'll make."
"I swear man, I don't have a clue. When I heard who the Master's sending, I rushed over here as fast as I could."
"Who is he sending in?"
"Absalom, one of his vampire priests. He is deadly, my friend. He makes Luke look like a bunny. And I'm not joking there."
"OK, so how am I supposed to find out what he wants?"
"It's new."
Ezekiel glared at him, then an idea came into his mind. He grabbed the paper off the floor and opened it up. He scanned a few articles, then found the one he wanted to see. He grabbed Angus's head and shoved his face into the paper.
"Yeah," said Angus, "That's it."
The image on the paper was that of a sword brought in recently from Germany. It was a cross between a Heavy Metal and a regular sword from Medieval Britain. The blade itself was incrusted with diamonds and the hilt appeared to have runes on it, while the handguard spikes looked to be covered with black lines.
"How do you know," asked Ezekiel.
"Come on, man," said Angus, "What kind of badass vamp wouldn't want a sword like that?"
Ezekiel looked back at the sword and decided that, for once, the snitch had a good point.
"What is it," asked Angus.
"…Get out, Angus," said Ezekiel with a scowl, "Come back when you have something else. And stay low from now on. Don't broadcast your involvement with me and mine, go it?"
"Sure," said Angus with a weary grin.
With that, the snitch took off out the room. As he ran, he knocked over Adil as he and Edana were walking up to his room.
"I thought I smelled chicken," said Adil as he stood up and walked inside Ezekiel's room.
"Is it just me, or is Angus looking more terrified than usual," asked Edana.
Ezekiel said nothing, but just continued staring at the paper.
"Oh, no," said Adil with a frown, "I recognize that look. We have a problem, don't we?"
"Big time," said Ezekiel as he showed them the paper, "See that sword?"
"Yeah," said Adil in admiration, "I'd like to have that thing on my wall. What is it?"
"It's called the Blood Sword," said Ezekiel as he grabbed his leather jacket and started lining it with stakes and daggers, "It was used by the demon that created vampires."
"Whoa, time out," said Edana, "A demon created vampires?"
"Yeah," said Ezekiel, "The way I was taught it is that God did create the Earth, but He left it alone for a few eons. During that time, demons took over and turned the Earth into Hell. When God chose Earth to create Eden on, He sent His angels to fight the demons. The demons were all banished into Hell, but the last one to leave mixed his blood with a human's own and created vampires. My teachers never told me who the demon was, or who the human was, but I assume it was Cain or another of Adam's sons or daughters. The Blood Sword was that demon's weapon, and the tool he used to create vampires."
"What exactly does the 'Blood Sword' do," asked Adil.
"The Blood Sword gives any vampire who possesses it powers equal to that of the demon who created vampires," answered Ezekiel as he grabbed a few more stakes and daggers, then handed them to his friends, "We're on the clock right now. Adil, I want you to go to school with your stakes. Deliver our friend Josh a message from both myself and Edana."
"Sounds like fun," said Adil with a smile, "Then what? I meet you guys at the museum?"
"Exactly," said Ezekiel, "We stand guard there until it closes, and then we leave to get more weaponry. We invade the museum and steal it before the vamps get the chance."
"I've never robbed a museum before," said Edana, "How do we get past the security systems?"
"Leave that to me," said Ezekiel with a smile.
Joshua Reiben groaned as his backside felt the sharp corner of the wall. He looked up into the eyes of an angry Adil Ansar.
"Think you're funny, don't you, you fuck," growled Adil as he slammed his fist into Josh's face.
Josh fell to the ground, blood streaming from his nose. He gasped as he felt Adil slam his foot into his knee, then into his back. He felt himself get pulled up to his feet and then tossed into a locker.
"Listen up, you shit," said Adil, "If you think this is the worst I can do, let me personally guarantee that this is nothing. You'd just better be grateful to any force upstairs or downstairs watching over you that it was me and not Edana or Ezekiel who found you first. If it had been Ezekiel, you wouldn't be waking up anytime soon, and if it had been Edana, you wouldn't be able to do what you tried to do to her ever again."
Adil elbowed Josh in the throat, forcing him down to the ground once more, gasping for what air he could afford.
"If you or your sister ever try a stunt like this again, you'd better kill yourselves before any of us can get to you. If you don't, then I'd pray for any bit of mercy you can get from your god, because you won't get any from us."
With that, Adil grabbed his shirt and tossed Josh into the lockers, then grabbed him once more and threw him into the wall.
"See you around, Josh," said Adil as he walked away.
Detective Daniel Cohen raised his arm in a salute to his fallen comrade as Detective Miguel O'Hare's casket was lowered into the ground. He spared a quick glance at Miguel's few family members that had managed to come for the funeral: his sister and her husband, along with their child. When they had heard from Daniel that Miguel had died, they had taken the first plane up to be at the funeral. Miguel had already taken care of the funeral arrangements himself, knowing that few detectives managed to live more than two years in this town called Paradise.
As the funeral came to a close, he silently made his way over to the couple and their children.
"I'm deeply sorry for your loss," said Daniel.
"…I told him not to become a cop," said Miguel's sister, Michelle, "But, he didn't listen to me."
"He was a good detective," said Daniel, "I only knew him for a short time, but he was good at his work."
"Thank you, detective," said her husband, Bob, "We appreciate your help."
Daniel took the hint and left the family. He hated it when the family disapproved of the profession. It may be dangerous but, in the end, it was worth it, protecting people. Sighing, he walked up to his car. As he did so, the first thing he noticed was that a pole like Captain with auburn hair was leaning against his car.
"Captain Poe," said Daniel in greeting to his boss.
"Daniel," said Poe as he pushed himself off the car, "Why don't we take a ride?"
Daniel nodded to him, then went over to the driver's side and opened the door. He sat down, started the car, then drove down the street.
"Danny," sighed Poe, "I wish I could say that I knew what to do about all these things, but…Danny, we need some help and we all know it."
"I've been saying that for years, Allan," said Daniel, "But, what can we do? The Commissioner only does this shit with the supernatural stuff, and we can't sign any kind of petition or commence an investigation against him when it comes to that. It violates our duties to the public."
"I know that as well, if not better, than you do, Danny," said Poe, "However, there is something that we can do about it. Not directly, of course, but still something."
"What," asked Daniel, getting more curious by the minute.
"That vigilante that you and Miguel were working on," said Poe, "We all know that he's doing great things for the public, greater than we can. We all want to be out there, doing what he's doing, but Wilks won't fucking let us. Those few who've tried were out of the city in less than a month."
"So, what do you want me to do," asked Daniel, "Without the vigilante's name, we don't stand a chance at sending him a message about Wilks. Aside from that, all we know for sure about Wilks is that he's doing his job when it comes to demons and that he doesn't want guys like our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to try to do anything about it."
"Wrong there, Danny," said Poe, "I got myself a nice little tape between Wilks and some politician in Sunnydale. We give it to this guy, and he does the dirty work for us."
"What kind of tape?"
"It's got him talking about why the vampire and demon population are starting to migrate towards Sunnydale more than usual. And what Wilks should do about it."
"…How do we get it to this guy?"
"I've heard rumors that some badass vamp is going to try and steal something from the museum. We leave the tape where he'll find it, and all our problems go away."
Ezekiel sighed to himself as he typed his way through the museum's security systems that night. He, Edana, and Adil were dressed in black outfits with ski masks on, along with infrared goggles that Adil had scrounged up. Angus was watching Adil's uncle for him, as usual, in exchange for the protection the house offered.
"Damn, these geeks really know their encryptions," whispered Ezekiel.
"Where did you learn computer crap," asked Edana.
"Monks don't just work in dungeons anymore," said Ezekiel with a faint smile, happy to see his friend recovering from Saturday so quickly, "Alright, I'm in."
"How long is our window," asked Adil.
"We have an eighteen minute window through the security feed and laser grids," said Ezekiel, "It's a simple job, hopefully. We sneak in, knock out any guards we pass, grab the sword, then get out…fast."
"What are we going to do with it," asked Edana.
"We're going to hand it over to the Vatican," asked Adil.
"Hell no," whispered Ezekiel, "I may have been trained by them, but I'm not sending that powerful of a weapon into their hands. It's just asking for trouble."
"So, what are we going to do with it," asked Edana once more.
"I don't know," said Ezekiel, "Maybe toss it into the ocean. I'll figure that out later. Alright, Adil, you're going in first. Edana, you be right behind him. I'll be in after I put the laptop into my bag. That reminds me, thanks Adil."
"No prob," said Adil with a smile.
"Alright, the window is nearly ready," said Ezekiel, "Adil, get ready to run."
Adil nodded, then turned his attention to the nearby outside camera, which was blinking.
"Three…two…one…go!"
Ezekiel threw a punch into the guard's forehead, easily knocking him out.
"That's the last of them," whispered Edana as she backed away from the three guards.
Ezekiel nodded to her, then turned his attention to Adil.
"Cop got me good in the nose," he whispered, "Thank goodness I don't have priors, else they could trace it from my DNA."
"Right," whispered Ezekiel.
He turned his full attention onto the sword in front of him. The blade itself was probably four feet long, while including the hilt, it was probably around four and a half feet long. He took a close look at the hilt itself, which was covered in runes. He recognized them.
"Adil," he said, "Keep an eye out. I'm going to see if I can get it out."
Adil nodded. Ezekiel walked up to the glass case and pulled out his dagger. Ezekiel had spent seven months creating it out of a special material from a demonic dimension that the Fathers never told him of. It had been a test for him when he was fourteen. He wanted to find out what it was made of, but, for now, he was satisfied with just knowing what it was capable of.
He gently pressed the blade up against the glass, and it easily slid through it, all the way up to the hilt. Ezekiel sighed and gently brought it up, slicing through the glass as he did so. He dragged the blade around through the glass until he created a square opening within the glass. He used his other hand to bring the cut glass away from the case, then carefully placed the glass on the floor. He took a breath to steady his hand, then reached up through the glass and gripped the hilt. He twisted the heavy sword away from its place, then gently extricated it from the glass. As soon as it was free from the case, he backed away from the case and let out a breath.
"At least I didn't trigger an alarm," he whispered.
"What about the window," asked Edana, "Is it done yet?"
"Don't know," said Ezekiel, "I don't have a watch to time it with. That's why I had to be so careful."
"Great," said Adil, "Now that we have it, we can get the Hell out of here."
"Not quite," said a voice behind them.
The three quickly turned around and saw at least thirteen vampires standing within the room, blocking their exit. The one at the front was a tall, black vampire dressed in clothing from the eighteen hundreds.
"I suppose I should thank you for obtaining the Blood Sword for us," said Absalom with a laugh, "Although, I doubt you'll live long enough to appreciate that thanks."
"Absalom, I guess," said Ezekiel.
"Right," mocked the vampire, "The Master sent me to obtain that magnificent weapon for him. Now, if you hand it over quietly, we may let you live to see another day."
"…That's an interesting offer," said Ezekiel, "But, I've got a better one for you."
"And what's that," laughed the vampire.
"You die," said Ezekiel as tossed his cross-sword to Adil and Edana heated up.
Without another word, the vampires dispersed and began to close in around them. Ezekiel dived behind the glass case as Edana burned a few of them up and Adil slashed with the sword. Ordinarily, he would just charge in with the weapon, but this was no ordinary weapon. For all he knew, striking the blade against anything could trigger an explosion. He read the runes on the hilt.
"'With the blood of a demon this sword was wrought, and with the blood of another shall this sword be melded.'"
Ezekiel groaned aloud as the full force of these words hit his mind. The sword itself was useless unless someone bled onto the blade, and once that happened, the sword could not be used by any but the person whose blood was spilled onto it. He couldn't use it against the vampires, and if he did and their blood got on the blade, then they could use it to its full potential. Sighing, he knew what he had to do so that no evil could use the blade. He pulled his sleeve down, then gritted his teeth as he cut his arm with the blade.
Edana fired another burst of flame at the vampires, but they rolled away, save one unlucky bastard who shouted out in pain as his body was burned. So far, she wasn't having much luck hitting them with bursts from her fire. She would just light the whole room up, but she didn't want to risk doing that with a magic sword in the room. God only knew what would happen then.
She glanced over at Adil. He was using the cross to ward off the vampires that were trying to get past to the blade. She watched for one moment too long, for then she felt a fist make contact with her face. She fell to the ground, her mind going dark, even as she heard Adil shout 'Edana!'
Adil ran to Edana as she passed out, then stood in front of her, using his sword to keep the vamps away.
"Zeke," he shouted, "Get your ass in gear and help us!"
Zeke was too happy to oblige.
Ezekiel pulled his sleeve up as he heard Adil shout out for his help, then turned to see what had happened. Adil was standing over Edana's unconscious form, defending her with the cross. He berated himself for taking too long, then noticed something lying inside the case. It was a cassette tape. He grabbed it and put it in his pocket, then walked out from behind the case, gripping the Blood Sword tightly as he did so.
Absalom grinned at him.
"Give us the blade, boy," he whispered, "And we won't kill your friends…roughly."
Ezekiel glared at him. Without a word, he charged forward and slammed his sword into the nearest vampire's chest. It convulsed for a second, but soon, it disappeared in a mixture of flame and ash. Ezekiel smiled at their looks of awe, then went forward. He struck the next vampire in the stomach, and it too disappeared into ash. He ducked a punch from a nearby vampire, then drove the spiked hilt into its face, causing it to collapse in pain. Ezekiel quickly decapitated him, then turned his attention to the now retreating vampires. Absalom glared at him, then hurried out the museum.
"Zeke," shouted Adil.
Ezekiel turned his attention to his friends. Adil was helping Edana to her feet, her with a huge bruise on her face.
"Are you Ok," asked Ezekiel.
"Peachy," groaned Edana, "One day very soon, I'm going to have to have a weapon all my own. Adil's got his maces, which he conveniently forgot tonight, and now you've got a cross-sword and that Blood Sword. How did you do that anyway?"
"In order for anyone to use the sword, you have to bleed on it," said Ezekiel as he rolled up his sleeve and showed them his wound.
"So, it's yours now, huh," said Adil with a grin, "A demon hunter trained by the best warriors of the Vatican is the only person who can use the weapon of the demon who created vampires. I kinda like that."
"You can have the cross-sword if you want, Edana," said Ezekiel, "You can surround the blade with flames and use it against all sorts of things."
"I don't know about that," said Edana with a frown, "Using a burning cross against vampires? Seems sort of…I don't know, wrong."
"What about one of my maces," suggested Adil, "I can bring it over to your house and you can keep it."
"You sure about-" she stopped in mid-sentence as an alarm went through the room.
The three looked around for the source, then noticed a red line going through Ezekiel's leg.
"Shit," whispered Ezekiel, "Let's get out of here. We can deal with it when we get back to my apartment."
"Danny," called Captain Poe as he walked over to Detective Daniel Cohen, "What do we have?"
"Crime lab found some blood samples," said Daniel, "They're running it through the system right not to see if they can find any matches but…I doubt they will."
"I agree with your assumption," commented Poe, "Did they discover our message?"
"Yes," answered Daniel, "They're probably playing it right now."
"I hope so. The sooner Wilks is put down, the better off we'll all be. Hey, what did you have on the pool?"
"Three months. It'll be three months this Friday."
"Well, who knows? Maybe you'll get lucky."
"I don't care about that, but the sooner Wilks is iced, the happier we'll all be."
"Now, what about the cameras? What did they pick up?"
"Three individuals, one appears to be female. Aside from that, we got nothing from the video."
"Good. Less we have to cover up. Oh, by the way, I've got your new partner selected."
"Already? It hasn't even been a week."
"I know, but around here, detectives come and go. You're the only one who's managed to survive."
"So, who is it?"
"Oh, now, you don't want to know. It'll ruin the surprise."
"…I'm not going to enjoy this, am I?"
"That all depends on one fact, Danny."
"And that fact would be?"
"If you like it in the ass or not."
Ezekiel opened the door to his apartment, then made room for Adil and Edana to come inside. He placed his new sword against the wall near the door, then walked into the kitchen and grabbed two six-packs from the fridge. He put them on the table and both his friends grabbed a can, followed by himself.
"Well," said Adil, "That was fun."
"Yeah, fun," said Edana, "I got my face broke because of all the fun we had."
"Not to mention Absalom got away," growled Ezekiel.
"Eh, in this game, you take what you can get and don't gripe about what you didn't get," said Adil.
"…Words to live by, I guess," said Ezekiel.
"Adil, about you giving me one of your maces," said Edana, "I mean, if the offer's still good…"
"Sure it is, Edana," said Adil, "If you want it, it's yours."
"Thanks," said Edana as she sipped her beer.
"Adil, you can keep that sword," said Ezekiel, "It's of better use in your hands. And Edana, if you want, I can get that mace blessed."
"Sure," said Edana.
"What's that, Zeke," asked Adil as he pointed to the cassette in his hand.
"I found it in the case," said Ezekiel, "It looked like it was planted there."
"Wonder who left it," said Edana.
"Let's see if we can find out," suggested Adil.
Ezekiel nodded and stood up. He walked over to his bed and reached underneath it. He withdrew a small stereo and plugged it into the wall, popped the cassette in, and hit play. They heard someone dial a phone, then heard a ringing.
"Mayor Wilkins," answered the person on the other end of the phone.
"Mr. Mayor," said a snooty-sounding voice, "This is Commissioner Wilks from Paradise, Oregon."
"Commissioner," said the Mayor, "Why are you calling the Mayor of Sunnydale this late at night?"
"Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to inform you that the demonic population is starting to migrate your way."
"I am well aware of that fact, Commissioner. Why does it concern you?"
"Sir, you know the basic route demons take. They come to Paradise, then travel to Los Angeles, and then to Sunnydale. For every demon that leaves for Sunnydale, three more take its place and they're all heading to the Hellmouth. What do you want for me to do about it…sir."
"…Keep it as quiet as you can."
"What about certain…vigilantes?"
"Let them go about their work. It may end up saving your life."
"Sir, with all due respect, I will not allow miscreants to run about my city."
"Even if they're doing you a favor?"
"It jeopardizes things. Important things, sir."
"I am well aware of what you speak of, Commissioner, and let me assure you that I am on top of the situation. In two years time, all shall be well and you shall be a very powerful man. As to your vigilante friend, do whatever you will with him. Just tread lightly. If you cause me a problem, well…I won't be a happy camper."
"Yes, sir."
"Goodbye, Commissioner."
With that, the line went dead. The tape stopped playing a few seconds later. The trio stared at the stereo for a moment, then stared up at each other.
"Fuck," they said as one.
"We're going to have to have a talk with Commissioner Wilks," said Ezekiel after he downed his beer, "And after that, we may have to take a trip to Sunnydale to find out what this shit is with the Mayor."
"Whoever planted this must be high up on the chain in the cops," said Adil with a frown, "If they have access to this bastard's phone, then he or she must be pretty powerful or sneaky."
"How do we go about this," asked Edana, "I mean, do we kill this guy?"
"We don't kill anyone we don't have to," answered Ezekiel, "For now, we keep our eyes open. We keep on going like we are, then, if we find one more thing on this guy, we go and pay him a visit. As of right now, aside from his attitude, we have nothing definite to prove that the Commissioner is involved in anything wrong. We investigate, keep a look out, and once we find something, then we move in, not before. I don't feel like having the Vatican spring me loose from jail just because I made a move."