Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I'm just playing in Kevin Smith's sand box. I swear I'll return them, no worse for the wear.
Summary: Our band of heroes set out to rescue Bethany and Faith from Leilita's clutches.
Rated PG-13
A/N: I experimented with having Pamela Anderson as Azrael's new host . . . but alas, I deleted that part. HA. Um I haven't worked on this story since 2003, when my computer ate it. Needless to say, my writing style has changed immensely in the last two years, so if some of this seems kind of . . . choppy, bear with me please ;P Thanks for hanging around.

Chapter 12: Harm's Way

Loki sat in the back of the rented station wagon, squashed between Serendipity and Rufus, while Bartleby and Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber sat up in the front.

"What if we're too late?" Loki asked, quietly, as the muse nursed his wounds.

"Don't even think like that," Serendipity scolded, as she dabbed at his raw cuts with peroxide. "We'll find them, Loki."

"I feel like this is my fault," he sighed. "If I hadn't have gotten involved with Azrael in the first place, Bethany and her kid wouldn't have been put in harm's way."

"Look, it wasn't your fault," Bartleby said. "And you realized the error of your ways. We're going to find them. They'll be safe."

Loki sighed again and turned his head to gaze out the window. Snowflakes clung to the windowpanes and froze there, like icing. "I'm still afraid." When he exhaled, his breath crystallized into millions of tiny fragments of ice.

Bartleby pursed his lips but said nothing.

Loki just had to look into his friend's eyes to tell he was feeling the same way.

- - - - - - - -

Faith clung to her mother's waist, her small face buried into Bethany's sweater.

"You're never going to get her. You won't touch one hair on her head," Bethany snapped, shielding Faith's body with her own. "I won't let you."

"You've no choice, pitiful fool," Leilita hissed, her honey eyes sparking with a dangerous fire. The demon, hands on her hips, towered over Bethany and her daughter ominously, her dark shadow making her seem even larger than life. "Your brat will be mine. I will not fail."

Bethany got up out of her crouch. "I'll fight you to the death."

"Your death, undoubtedly." Leilita offered Bethany a little smirk. "I suppose you have a death wish, human?"

Bethany swallowed and lifted her chin proudly, steeling her gaze. "I'm not afraid of you, Leilita."

Leilita clucked her tongue and shook her head, laughing, her amber eyes sparkling like twin jewels. "You will be." Leilita reached up and stroked her chin, her lips curling into a smile. "You will be."

Faith slipped her hand into the pocket of her coat and removed the rosary, running one fingertip over the beads before curling her hand around it, protectively. "That's where you're wrong, Leilita. It is you who should be afraid - of us."

The demon laughed again, and Bethany winced, the laughter sounding much like the screams of people in the throes of death. "And what can you possibly do to me?" she asked, taking a step closer to Faith.

Faith threw the rosary around Leilita's neck, and the demon screamed, struggling to remove it from about her neck, clawing at it in a frenzied terror.

"Run, Mommy!" Faith slipped her hand into Bethany's and tugged hard, waving her hand a small point of light just beyond the tops of the trees. "To the light!"

Bethany scooped up her daughter in her arms and ran.

- - - - - - - -

Bartleby pulled up the station wagon next to the streetlight, raising a hand to his eyes, cursing when he realized he was unable to see over the foliage. "Damn it," he hissed, dropping his hand. "We'll have to go into the forest on foot." He sighed. "There's a valley just beyond."

"Leilita would really be so bold, as to kill the Last Scion and her mother in an open space?" Loki stepped up beside his friend, trying to peer beyond the tree tops.

Nodding, Bartleby said, "The valley was once the site of a Satanic meeting place. It was burned to the ground back in the 1890s by a group of marauders, who were later found dead in their beds. Leilita and her people think of it as a 'holy ground' of sorts. Where good cannot conquer evil. Where their power is the strongest."

Serendipity stepped out of the van, shrugging her hair out of her face, dusting off her outfit and cracking her knuckles. "Well, boys, I don't know about you, but I say we go in. They must be there. It's the only place where Leilita's power can't be destroyed."

"Well, if their power can't be destroyed, how the fuck are we gonna destroy them?" Rufus asked.

"We must lure them to the forest," Bartleby said. "That's the only way we can kill her host and send Leilita back to Hell. Her minions will follow her."

"We got any weapons?" Rufus asked.

"Number one stunna right here." Jay grabbed his crotch and flicked out his tongue, earning a slap on the back of the head from his silent companion. "Ow, what the shit was that for? I was bein' serious."

"Of course you were." Serendipity rolled her eyes and looked back at Bartleby for an answer. "Do we have anything at all?"

Bartleby went to the back of the van and opened it up, pulling out a cracked earthen jug. "This."

"What the fuck's a broke ass pitcher gonna do for us?" Jay asked. "What'cha gonna do, throw it at 'em and run away like a little bitch ass girl, or something?"

"You idiot," Rufus exclaimed, his eyes alight with recognition. "This is Holy water. From the Holy Land." He ran a hand over the cracked jug, reverent admiration dancing on his lips.

Bartleby passed the jug off to Loki and went back to the van. Pulling out a large wrought iron bow and quiver of arrows, he handed these to Serendipity, along with a packet of matches. "These were blessed by Pope Lando."

Jay began to laugh. "They named the pope after the black dude from Star Wars? That shit's fucked up, man."

Bartleby rolled his eyes. "No, you moron. Pope Lando ruled in the early 900s."

"I think they named the black dude from Star Wars after Pope Lando," Rufus quipped.

Bartleby pulled out a long, curved blade sheathed in black velvet, holding it out to Rufus. "This is the Sword of Truth." Bartleby pulled back the velvet covering to reveal the gleaming silver blade.

"Awright," Loki exclaimed, slashing the blade through the air, "I missed this!" He motioned to the others with his Sword. "Let's go kick some demon ass!"

--

TBC in another three years. Lol.