Night Falls

Notes: Sorry for the delay, but life has been getting in the way of writing. I just started a new job, so I've been rather exhausted. At any rate, here's the new chapter. Review!

Previously:

"Yes, you do," Amelia replied seriously. "We've located three potential Slayers living in Spain. Once you've recovered, the Coven wants you to locate these girls and transport them to Sunnydale, California, where you will join the Slayer in the battle against the First."

Chapter Four:

Maria had quieted considerably since the second potential began narrating nearly the entire history of the Slayer line. Hailey groaned and resisted the urge to bang her head against the window. Finding the second potential had not been difficult, but her nerves were frayed and she longed for a moment of silence. The girl had not stopped talking since she found her. "Hey, Colleen?" Hailey said, interrupting the flow of Spanish from the backseat.

"Yeah?" Colleen asked eagerly.

"I think Maria gets the point. Maybe you should explain to her why exactly I just kidnapped her," Hailey replied wearily.

"Oh," the younger girl responded. "Sure. I can do that." The stream of Spanish began again and Hailey grimaced. She had been fortunate that Colleen was not actually a native of Spain, but a native of Minneapolis. Her Watcher had found her and took her back to England for several years before the Council sent them both to Spain. Although Colleen did not speak fluent Spanish, she knew enough to carry on a conversation with Maria. After several minutes, she popped her head into the front seat of the car.

"She understands," she said, smiling widely, her long, brown hair hanging loose in her face.

"She does?" Hailey asked doubtfully.

"I told her that she was a potential Slayer, that the First Evil was trying to kill her, and that you only kidnapped her to save her life," Colleen replied.

"And she's cool with all that?" Hailey countered.

"Well," Colleen said, glancing back at the curiously silent girl in the back seat, "she hasn't tried to escape yet."

Hailey glanced into the rearview mirror, intently gazing at Maria's face. Her dark eyes were wide and Hailey could see a mixture of fear and understanding dawning in them. "Keep an eye on her, huh?" She said, glancing over at Colleen, who nodded and disappeared into the backseat again.

Finally, silence filled the car. She still had one potential to locate. The Watchers had a protocol that they made their potentials memorize, in case anything were to happen. Simply stated, the surviving girls were to leave their places of residence and check into the nearest hotel, where they were to wait for another Watcher to locate them. Colleen had followed those instructions to the letter, making Hailey's job much easier than she had anticipated. She only hoped that the third potential was as dutiful to her instructions. Hailey glanced up at the storm clouds gathering overhead.

"I don't think we're going to make it there tonight," she said.

"How much longer do we have?" Colleen asked.

"Three hours," Hailey replied. "But it's already getting dark and there's a storm coming."

"And an army marches on its stomach," Colleen pointed out.

"There's a town up ahead. We'll stay there tonight, get some food, and leave in the morning," Hailey planned.

The lights of the town twinkled amber in the coming darkness. The sun slowly began to sink below the horizon, a splash of deep red spreading out across the ground as it disappeared. It almost looked like blood. After checking into a hotel, the three girls walked to a nearby café. Hailey noticed Maria throwing her many sidelong glances that spoke of either fear or trust. She could not figure out which. According to Colleen, the girl understood what was going on, but Hailey doubted that she would understand anything until someone tried to kill her.

They sat down in the café and ordered. The smell of food nearly drove Hailey insane. They had not eaten all day. The third girl lived in northern Spain, whereas the other two had lived in the southern end, by the sea. They had been driving for nearly two days and had almost reached their destination. Despite some initial setbacks, they had made good time. Once Maria regained consciousness, Hailey had to stop several times to secure her in the backseat. She thought that she was being kidnapped and had tried everything in her power to escape. Fortunately, Hailey knew how to restrain people. It had been a part of her training. Once Colleen joined them, Maria calmed down considerably, perhaps realizing that something more was going on than she had previously believed.

Hailey glanced around the restaurant, happily noting that their entrance had not drawn the attention of the locals. Finally, her eyes rested on Maria. The young girl was staring at her, as if she was trying to unravel some great mystery. "What?" Hailey asked finally, when the girl's gaze became unnerving.

"Destino?" Maria asked softly.

Hailey flashed her a crooked grin. "Yeah," she answered. "Destiny."

"Vampiros?" Maria asked again, this time with a bemused twinkle in her eyes.

Hailey's smiled faded and she distinctly felt as though Maria was silently mocking her. "You explained all this to her, right?" She asked, looking over at Colleen.

"I explained everything to the best of my ability. I'm not really fluent though," the girl replied defensively. "I thought she understood."

"Oh, she understands," Hailey responded bitterly, "she just thinks we're full of shit."

"How do you know that?" Colleen asked.

"Her eyes are laughing at me," Hailey answered, staring deeply into Maria's dark brown eyes. "I think she needs to see for herself."

"Wait," Colleen said. "What do you mean by that?"

"There's a cemetery in this town," Hailey said to Colleen, though her eyes never shifted from Maria's face. "I think it's time you girls got out there and did a little hunting on your own."

"I don't know," Colleen replied hesitantly. "My Watcher didn't think that I was ready for that."

"Well, you're Watcher's dead," Hailey replied, her voice softening when she saw the pain in Colleen's eyes. "I'm sorry," she said. "I know it's harsh, but it's true. Whatever applied before doesn't now. Things are different."

"Why are they so different?" Colleen asked. Maria watched the interaction between the two women intently. She was starting to understand that something drew them altogether. Although she did not know either of them, she felt as though they were connected. They shared something deeper than the obvious, something primal. When Hailey, as Colleen had later told her was the British woman's name, had taken her hostage, it had awoken something in Maria. She felt her blood rush through her veins when the sun rose and set, as if the act held some significance that it had not before. There was a strength in her that she had never known. But she was eager to discover the full extent of it and she felt as though Hailey could help her. She pulled herself from her thoughts, focusing on the words that Hailey was speaking, though she did not understand them.

"This isn't a practice run, kid," Hailey replied, realizing that perhaps Colleen did not know the full extent of what was happening. "It's not just your Watcher that's dead. All of them are. The entire Council has been destroyed. As far as I know, it's just us. This is the end of the world and we have to get to Sunnydale before the big battle starts."

"The end of the world?" Colleen asked, audibly gulping.

"Yeah," Hailey replied. "How do you say that in Spanish?"

"El fin del mundo," Colleen said softly. Maria's eyes whipped up at the phrase.

"Hear that?" Hailey asked, capturing Maria's attention. "El fin del mundo. No joke."

"What's in Sunnydale?" Colleen asked suddenly.

Hailey smiled grimly. "The Slayer and the Hellmouth."

………………………..

"Okay, listen up," Hailey explained. They were standing in the middle of a cemetery just outside of town. A light rain blew down from the heavens, covering her skin with a sheen of moisture. Thunder rumbled in the distance. The two girls standing in front of her glanced around nervously, shifting from one foot to the other. "This is a stake," Hailey said, holding up the wooden weapon. Maria's eyes went wide for a moment. "I'm not going to kill you," Hailey said softly, though she knew that Maria could not understand a word she was saying. Slowly, she reached out and handed the weapon to the frightened girl.

"Explain to her what to do with that thing," Hailey said to Colleen. The girl nodded and spoke rapidly to Maria, explaining how to hunt and kill vampires. Maria glanced back and forth between them for several moments before she burst out laughing.

"I told you she was mocking us," Hailey said after the girl's laughter had subsided.

"She won't be for long," Colleen said, her eyes as wide as saucers.

"Why's that?" Hailey asked wearily, rubbing her temples. Pain shot through her brain in waves, slamming into her before receding in a slow burn. Her ribs had healed for the most part, but her fractured skull was healing much slower. It was giving her migraines. Her mind briefly wandered back to the bottle of painkillers sitting on the passenger's seat of the car, but she shook the thought away.

"Vampire," Colleen said, pointing to a figure moving through the cemetery several yards behind Hailey.

Hailey turned and watched the vampire approach. "Must think it's his lucky night," Hailey muttered. "Three helpless girls wandering around in the cemetery in the middle of the night."

"What do we do?" Colleen asked, panic evident in her voice.

"Relax," Hailey said. "I've killed a lot of vampires in my time."

"But you're not the Slayer and you're wounded," Colleen protested.

"No, I'm not the Slayer. But that doesn't mean that I don't know what I'm doing. You don't have to be the Slayer to kill vampires. You just have to know how to fight," Hailey explained. "A Slayer with all of the strength and speed in the world wouldn't be able to do shit without knowing how to use it. And I'm alright. I've had worse," Hailey replied, though she could not actually think of a time when she had sustained as many injuries as the explosion had inflicted upon her. However, if she thought about the black bruise covering her shoulder, or the lacerations on her side, or the blistering burns on her arms and back, she knew that she would not be able to fight.

Hailey took another stake out of the waistband of her black jeans. "Watch," she instructed. Moving forward, she sidestepped the vampire as he lunged towards her. Slamming her fist into his back, the vampire collapsed on the ground. Hailey suppressed a groan of pain as her shoulder protested her actions. "Didn't think this would be a challenge, huh?" Hailey asked angrily, straddling him and flipped him over. His eyes glowed yellow in the night and his fangs glinted white. "You think I'm afraid of you?" Hailey whispered, leaning closer. "Think again." Slamming the stake down into the vampire's heart, she looked up at the girls as if exploded into a pile of dust.

"Vampiro," Hailey said, rising to her feet. "Destino. Understand?"

Maria nodded and looked down at the stake in her hand. "Yes," she said hesitantly.

"Good," Hailey replied, genuinely smiling through the pain. "Let's go get some sleep then."

………………………….

The next day, they reached the town where the third potential lived just as the sun had reached its highest point in the sky. It was hot, but a light breeze blew through the streets. Hailey's body creaked and groaned like a machine that had not been oiled in decades. All of her muscles screamed at her angrily for fighting and for remaining seated in the car for long stretches of time. Though Hailey would have been more concerned for her health in normal times, she knew that if she hesitated or dallied, it could mean death for them all. She needed to get to Sunnydale. Once she was there, she could take the time she needed to heal. Until then, she would suffer through the pain, the sleepless nights, and the mental exhaustion.

Approaching the hotel room door, Hailey began to get a sinking feeling in her stomach. The lights were off in the room, though it was the middle of the day, and something did not seem right to her. She stopped walking just in front of the door, listening intently. "What is it?" Colleen asked, breaking her concentration.

"Something doesn't seem right," Hailey replied honestly. Reaching out, she gripped the doorknob and pushed. It slide open with little effort. Stepping into the room, she flipped on the lights. "Jesus," she muttered, averting her eyes. They had been too late. The third potential's body, or most of it, was lying on the bed. The rest was trailed into the bathroom. Blood was splattered over the walls, more blood than Hailey thought could even be held in a human body. Behind her, she heard Maria's footsteps as she ran over to some bushes and vomited. Hailey looked up again, taking in the room. The dead girl's face was twisted in pain, a silent scream locked forever on her lips. However, her body had started to decompose and Hailey knew that all of the speed in the world would not have gotten them there in time to save her. She had been dead for nearly a week. Turning, she glanced at Colleen, whose face was blank and pale.

"You okay?" Hailey asked, laying a hand on her shoulder. Colleen jumped at the contact, her eyes coming into focus again.

"That could have been me," she whispered.

"Yeah," Hailey agreed. "But it's not. And it won't be so long as you're with me."

"How do you know that?" Colleen asked.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you, either of you," she said, glancing over at Maria, who was wiping her mouth and walking back.

"Vamos?" Maria asked in a shaking voice. "Sunnydale?"

"Yeah, let's get out of here," Colleen agreed. Hailey closed the hotel room door and followed the two girls as they walked back to the car. There was an airport not an hour away. Hailey did not care to where they flew, so long as it was in United States. Once they reached familiar ground, they would go to Los Angeles. Hailey contemplated flying directly to Sunnydale, but she knew that it would not be safe. Besides, there was someone she needed to see in Los Angeles. Someone incredibly important.