Wren casually flipped the stake in her right hand up in the air before catching it again in her left. She had been repeating the pattern for the last fourty minutes as, so far, no demon life had had the decency to come out and be killed by Slayer who was once again in active duty. Despite the fact she had yet to kill anything, it still felt good to be out walking the streets again.
She had dressed for the occasion, khaki combats and a tight black vest top, although a little military, was exactly the sort of bad-ass attitude look she needed to compliment her mood. Her low heeled boots made small clicking noises as she walked down the alley, sounding to any would-be attacker just like any unsuspecting co-ed, wandering the dark streets of LA at night. In short, perfect snacking material.
Wren, on the other hand, had very different ideas, and was beginning to get impatient from the lack of a fight, of any kind, at this point she would even take a completely useless opponent.
'Ooh!' she thought to herself gleefully, 'I could even do that thing where they think they're winning and then kick their ass at the last minute! I love that.'
As she rounded a corner in to an even darker and narrower alley, Wren reaslised that she may get her wish after all, as she was being followed by several vampires. She had to give it to them, they were being very covert. Not enough to stop her from hearing them, but certainly more-so than the usual blood lust type vampies.
'Seems like someone know's I'm here. How very interesting,' Wren thought. 'Let's see what they're made of shall we?'
Choosing her fighting ground carefully, as she had had it drilled into her many times as a child, Wren walked out into a slightly better lit and wider street, offering more potential for different combat techniques should the need arise.
'Not that it will, but there's no harm in being thorough.'
Smiling to herself in a confident manner, Wren stopped dead in her tracks. As she did, she heard the group of 'stealth-vamps' form up a few meters behind her. Turning around slowly Wren made a quick assesment of the situation.
Ten vamps, 'Not bad, but not enough,' she thought, slightly disappointed. One out front, 'Their leader,' and the rest scattered in varying adaptations of the threatening, knuckle-cracking pose. After a few seconds, lead vamp spoke, playing the stereotypical vampire baddie perfectly.
"Well boys, look what we have here!" he drawled, "A poor defensless little girlie. But wait," he gasped in mock horror, "Do my eyes decieve or is that a Slayer I see before me! Oh no! Horrors! How ever will I get out of this one?" Leader-vamp turned around to his 'buddies', biting his knuckles and speaking with a sarcastic tone. "Hmm," he said, turning back to Wren, "Wait a minute. Ten of us," he said, counting on his fingers, "One of you. GUess that means it's not your lucky night, sweetheart. Or maybe-"
"Are you done?" Wren interupted his 'scarey' speach with a blunt, irritated tone, "'Cause really, if this is going to carry on I'll go get a chair...and some popcorn."
"Oh no! The Slayer's being sarcastic at me! Whatever will I do?" This time leader-vamps input was accompanied by a series of thuggish chuckles from his back-up. "Guess I'll just have to give in now, won't I?"
"Actually I'd rather you didn't, tonight was just looking like it was about to become interesting," Wren said with a forced smile.
"Really, well then I'd hate to disappoint. Although, I know this is supposed to be the part where I send my guys after you one by one and watch them get picked off, or even better, where I tell them to let me take you on myself. But I think it's a lot better all round if we all attacked you at once, right?"
"How refreshing," Wren said dryly, as the group moved threateningly towards her.
The ten vamps fanned out so that Wren couldn't keep all of them in her sight at the same time. 'At least they're finally learning, Wren thought glibly, turning round to see the group circle around her.
Then, without any apparent signal from the head vamp, the pack decended, all leaping straight in to Wren's position.
The first few moments would have been extrememly confusing to an onlooker, as Wren seemed to disappear beneath the pile of vampires which covered her. For a few seconds nothing could be seen except for the few vamps on the outside of the group, trying to get in to the middle, arms and legs flailing everywhere. Then, with a startling suddeness, the group suddenly exploded outwards, vampires flying in all directions. One particularly unlucky one fell directly onto a wooden crate and dusted immediately.
'One down, nine to go.'
The fastest of the remaining vamps picked themselves up off the floor and ran straight back to where Wren was standing, stake in hand, but now they were split up and much easier targets.
The first to reach her got a fast double kick to the stomach and head, while the second was the victim of a spinning kick upon Wren's landing. Both flew off in opposite directions, momentarily stunned. A third and fourth tried their luck, one lucky kick knocking the stake out of Wren's hand, while a powerful punch did little more than turn her head slightly. Jumping backwards onto the wall behind her, Wren delivered a powerful flying kick to the back of the neck of the third vamp, taking it's head clean off. No sooner were both her feet on the floor was she spinning round and scything number four vamps legs out from under him. Retrieving another stake from her combats, Wren quickly dusted him from her position crouched on the floor.
She looked up just in time to see vamps five, six and their buddy seven lumbering towards her. She smiled humourlessly and sprung forwards, catching the first vamp with an arm at his throat, cruching his windpipe. Although it didn't kill him it certainly slowed him down, and allowed Wren time to flip back over to her dropped bag of weapons. Within seconds she was back on her feat, a mean looking broad sword held firmly in both hands. As two more demons came at her, fangs bared, Wren flung the sword round, 'Very stylish, if I do say so myself,' and jumped between her two adversaries. Both continued running for a short time, before events caught up with them and both dusted symultaneously, their heads cut off.
Now their were only two vamps left. The one with the crushed throat was grabbing at his neck and wheezing, even though he didn't need to breathe. The other was leader-vamp, who had retained a safe disatance throught the whole fight.
Picking her discarded stake up off the floor, Wren put the struggling vampire out of it's misery, but appeared not to see leader-vamp looming out of the shadows towards her. As he got withing striking distance, Wren's arm shot out, throwing the sword at an amazing speed, and pinning the vampire through the chest to the wall, which had been a good 15 feet behind him.
Sighing and brushing vampire dust off her top, Wren walked over to the struggling vampire. As she approached, he tried to form a cocky smile around his grimace of pain. "This won't kill me you know."
"Yeah, but it sure will sting like hell. And good luck trying to pull that sword out of three foot of solid concrete."
The vampire tried for a few more moments in his pointless struggle to pull the sword out by it's hilt. He stopped when Wren pushed the stake pointedly, but not painfully, right above his heart. Looking directly into his eyes and leaning in slightly, Wren spoke in a soft tone.
"Now, I'm not one for torture. After all, I'm one of the 'good guys'," Wren said with a slightly bitter tone. "But the way I see it, you have two choices. One, I can leave you pinned here for someone, or something to take pity on you...or more likely start snacking on your insides," Leader-vamp barely supressed the urge to gulp in fear, "Or, you can tell me what I want to know and I can make sure you go quick. What do you say?"
The vampire considered his options for a moment, before conceeding defeat. "What do you want to know?"
"Who sent you?"
"What?"
The stake was removed slightly from his chest.
"You heard me. Who sent you?"
"I don't know, really, please I don't know! Just please don't leave me here."
Wren shook her head ruefully. "Sorry, if you're just going to be difficult about it." She tucked the stake back in her pocket and walked away. The vampire began his struggles to remove the sword again.
Depending on your perspective, what happened next was wither very very fortnate, or very very unfortunate for him.
A combination of shoddy work and poor maintainence meant that the brickwork to which the vamp was pinned had started to crumble away. Although the sword was burried very deeply, the brick around it was being worn away by the vampire's constant struggles. So much so that, with one final effort, he actually managed to pull himself free.
Wren was completely oblivious to this, and was currently a few feet away, putting things back into her weapons back.
Slowly and silently, the vamp moved towards Wren's crouched form, raising the newly released sword above his head. He stepped closer and closer to Wren, who didn't notice his approach, so sure was she of his inability to free himself.
Now the vamp, a viscios snarl of triumph and revenge on his face, was within feet of his goal, and still Wren did not turn to intercept him. The vampire grinned wide and raised the sword high above his head, preparing to bring it down on the unsuspecting girl's neck. Just as he was about to strike, he paused, a strange sensation forming in his chest.
He grunted in confusion, finally getting Wren's attention, and she turned, stake raised, to see the vamp looming a few inches behind her, a puzzled expression on his face.
Wren's eyes went wide when she realised how close she had let him get, but her attention quickly drew to the fact he wasn't moving.
Then, time came back to the world, and the vampire exploded in a shower of dust. Standing and waving a hand in front of her to clear the air, Wren raised the stake and tried to seek out whoever had helped her.
"Angel, if you've come to keep an eye on me I swear I'm gonna-" she started, but stopped abruptly when she realised her shining knight certainly wasn't Angel...or Spike...or anyone from the fang gang. Instead, as her eyes widened in shock, she saw the last person she had ever expected to see again.
Stepping out of the shadows at the far end of the alley, the stranger spoke.
"Deary me, looks like you're letting yourself slip, Princess."
'No,' Wren thought, 'not him, not now!'
Standing at the end of the alley, casual smirk on his face and confident swagger in his step, was Seth.
-+-
An age seemed to pass, and still Wren could not bring herself to speak. Once again, Seth spoke up, stepping a few feet closer to Wren.
"What's wrong Wren?" Seth asked, mock concern in his voice, "Did you miss me?"
As Seth stepped closer Wren found her voice, "That's close enough!" she shouted, her eyes wide and breathing coming short and fast.
"What? No hello kiss for an old friend? Honestly Wren I thought the old man taught you better than that?"
Finally coming to her senses, Wren covered her surprise and growing fear with her usually cocky attitude.
"Sorry, but I don't make a habit of getting cozy with undead bottom feeders like you. I might catch something."
"Wach your mouth, child," said Seth, smile suddenly disappearing, replaced by a glare of cold fury, "or do I have to teach you some respect for your elders?"
Wren shrugged off handedly, "Meh, never was a fast learner, let's just skip the lesson and get straight to the part where I kick your ass shall we?"
"Hmm, so confident," Seth said, distain dripping off every word, "but I think we both know you won't fight me."
"Oh yeah? Well pretend I'm not in on this little fantasy of yours. Enlighten me."
"You won't fight me,"Seth repeated witha confident smirk, "because you know what happened last time...and you're scared."
This comment broke through Wren's calm exterior, showing the anger and rising aggression within. "Hate to break it to you, Seth," Wren bit out, hate clear in her tone, "But I seem to remember you were the one who ran of last time...and the tme beofre that..and the-"
"Shut up!" Seth broke her litany with a ferocious growl.
"Or what Seth?" said Wren, closing a few more feet between them, "what the hell are you going to do if I don't."
Seth stepped up to meet her, both standing with shoulders set firmly and barely holding down the urge to simply let fly with their fists. The ferocity was almost tangible in the air between them.
"Don't tempt me little girl."
"Why not? Are ya scared?" wren teased in a whining voice.
Seth's eyes flashed yellow, matched by a growl from Wren. Both stared at each other for a few seconds more, now only a few inches dividing them, so Seth did the only thing he could possibly do. Growling loudly he lashed out towards Wren...
And kissed her.
A/N: Oh come on, like you didn't see that coming! Giggles! More soon...got to do stupid exams first! raa! L