Emma wasn't surprised to find the note from her father on the kitchen counter when she arrived home that afternoon. David had taken over as the town's sheriff, and he was putting in a horrendous amount of hours at the station to bring it up to his usual standards. But she didn't mind too much. Emma had gotten used to the demands of her father's job fairly soon after the divorce had been finalised.
Thankfully, her walk to The Rabbit Hole that evening was much less eventful than the one from the previous night. Zelena had given her exact directions on how to get to the club from the part of town Emma lived in, and she'd felt far more confident with the journey.
While nobody seemed to be lurking in the shadows, waiting to jump out and attack her, Emma couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched.
Getting into the club was relatively easy, given that it was an under-twenty-one's establishment. The bouncer on the door only seemed to be stopping those he deemed under the age of twelve, so he ushered her through quickly. And once inside, it didn't take her long to spot Zelena's flame-red hair at a small table near the bar.
"Hey, you made it," she greeted, as Emma slid onto a free stool beside her friend.
"I did. Has August not arrived yet?"
"Oh, he's here," Zelena replied, in a somewhat clipped tone. "He's trying his luck." She nodded her head to the left, and Emma followed her eyes to find the other part of their group talking to a girl she didn't recognise.
"Ahhh," she sighed. She hadn't realised until that moment that Zelena seemed to have feelings for her best friend. "Do you want a drink?" she asked, in an attempt to try and steer the conversation to much safer grounds.
"Please."
It was only as Emma was making her way over to the bar that she caught sight of him. The flash of electric-blue and black leather could only belong to one person. With a quick look over her shoulder to make sure Zelena was distracted, she quickly detoured over to the wide metal staircase that lead up to the balcony above the main dancefloor.
"So… you were following me," she called out, when she was finally in hearing range.
"I wasn't sure you noticed me," he replied, his eyes still glued to the view below him. "You need training. At one point you looked right at me, and didn't even see me."
"Maybe you're the one who needs training?" she suggested, as she moved to lean back against the railing he was busy looking out over. "Normal people just say hi."
Killian finally pulled his eyes away from the crowd to look over at Emma and offer her a quick, "Hi," before he turned back once more.
"Wow. You are so antisocial," she huffed.
"Do you know that girl?" he asked instead.
"Huh?" Killian's whole mystery-man routine was starting to give her a headache.
"The redhead," he replied, inclining his own ever-so-slightly in the direction of Zelena. She appeared to be laughing at some guy's joke, who had taken Emma's place at their table.
"Yeah. She's a friend," she replied slowly, wondering where he was going with his line of questioning.
"Then you're gonna need this." Killian kept his eyes on the scene below him as he pulled a familiar looking stake from his jacket pocket, and offered it to her.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Emma protested. "How the hell do you know that?"
"Does it really matter?" he snapped back, his eyes flicking over to her, and then back to the floor below. "You're wasting time and they're leaving. Unless you want your friend to end up in a body bag… or worse… then I'd suggest you run."
Emma looked down at Zelena, where she was being guided out of the building by her hand, and then over to Killian once more, before she took the stake he was offering. "Are you coming?"
"No. This one's all on you, Swan."
Emma's eyes widened in horror at the thought of having to save her friend all alone. But she knew she didn't have the time to protest. Zelena was already out of the building, and she needed to act fast.
"Fuck you," she spat at him, before running for the staircase.
Emma was almost at the exit when she felt a strong hand gripping her elbow. She reacted instinctually, twisting round to face her would-be-attacker, and bringing the stake up, ready to land a killer blow.
"Woah. Chill out," August chuckled, before his brow furrowed as he took in her choice of weapon. "Is that a wooden stake?"
Emma looked between her friend, the weapon in her hand, and then back again, before she dropped her arm and forced her face to relax. "Yeah. They're all the rage in Boston," she lied. "You guys don't have them here?"
"No," he declared, his eyes still screaming that he thought it was a little weird she did. "Where are you going?"
August's words were like a bucket of ice to Emma's subconscious, and she twisted back round to face the exit. "I um… Zelena left her wallet with me and I just wanted to get it back to her."
"Oh, cool. I'll come with you."
"Why don't you wait here and get some more drinks in?" Emma suggested. It was gonna be hard enough to get Zelena away from the vampire she was with, without August tagging along. She really didn't need an audience for this. Especially not one the vampire could use as collateral damage.
"Nah. I'm not really feeling it here tonight," he told her, rocking back on his heels as he slipped his hands into his back pockets. "I'll come with you."
Emma wanted to protest. She wanted to insist that he stay behind, where he would be safe. But she was growing ever more aware that the longer she tried to put him off, the closer Zelena's life came to ending. "Okay," she told him. "Just… Keep up."
When she pushed through the exit, Emma wasn't surprised to see no sign of Zelena's red hair anywhere in sight. The vampire had gotten a good head start on her, and August had definitely slowed things down.
"Hey," she called out to the bouncer, "Have you seen a girl with red hair come out this way? She dropped her wallet and I wanna get it back to her."
The bouncer looked down at her for a moment, almost as if to judge the sincerity of her statement, before finally nodding his head off to one side.
"Thanks," Emma yelled over her shoulder, already running in that direction.
"Emma wait. Slow down," August called after her.
She was surprised to note that without much effort, she was easily pulling away from him as her feet pounded along the sidewalk. She was in a part of town she didn't know, but she allowed her instincts to guide her, hoping that they were pulling her in the right direction.
Emma slowed as soon as she spotted the entrance to the cemetery in the distance.
"Of course," she sighed to herself.
Where else would a vampire take her friend?
"What the hell are we doing here?" August panted, when he finally caught up to her.
"You've never made out in a cemetery before?" she asked, trying to keep her tone as light and flirty as possible. August floundered for a reply, but Emma was already creeping through the gates before he could get it out. Instead, he followed close behind her.
Her head whipped back and forth, checking between each headstone and mausoleum as she made her way through the graveyard, following her gut instincts. Emma was starting to think they had guided her in the wrong direction, and that Zelena was already dead.
Until a blood-curdling scream rang out through the eerie silence, startling them both.
"What the hell was that?" August demanded.
But Emma was too busy to answer. Her feet were already beating the grass, carrying her off in the direction the scream had originated from, as she tightened her grip on Killian's stake.
It didn't take her long to find her friend. Zelena's flame-red hair made her instantly recognisable, even in the position she was in. Killian had been right. The guy she'd left with was definitely a vampire. He had Zelena pinned to the back of a mausoleum, with the tips of her toes just brushing against the dirty ground below her, and his head bent towards her neck.
Emma wasn't sure what came over her, but she knew that she needed to get the vamp away from her friend. So she called out, "What is it with you guys and cemeteries? It's a little clichéd, don't cha think?"
The vampire dropped Zelena at the sound of another voice, and she crumpled to the ground like a rag doll.
"Go and check she's okay," Emma told August, not even bothering to look at him. She knew that she'd see all of his questions there if she did, and if they wanted to survive that evening, she couldn't let herself be distracted.
She didn't have Killian around to save them if it all went wrong this time.
The vampire's yellow eyes flicked over to the stake still gripped tightly in her left hand, before making their way up to settle on her face. "Slayer," he snarled.
"So I've been told," Emma sassed back. She wasn't sure where the bravado was coming from, but it was covering her nerves, so she opted to keep it.
"I've always wanted to kill a slayer," he continued, stalking a little closer to her.
Emma swallowed back the worry that crept in at his words. If he'd always wanted to kill a slayer, that meant he'd been around a while. And if Killian was to be believed, the older the vampires was, the more skilled it would be.
"I've always wanted to meet Brad Pitt," she threw out instead. "But we can't always get what we want in life. Or, I guess in your case… in death."
The vampire paused for a moment to consider her words, and Emma used the time to plant her feet shoulder-width apart in anticipation of the attack she knew was coming. The moment he moved she called out, "Run," to her friends, and watched just long enough to see them send her a worrying glance, before August pulled Zelena along in the direction of the entrance of the cemetery.
Then she turned her full attention back to her vampire attacker.
Killian had told her the instincts she needed to fight were buried deep inside of her. Emma closed her eyes and drew in three deep breaths, trying to clear the panic that was clawing at the edges of her mind, at the thought of her rapidly-approaching death. When she opened them again the vampire was in touching distance, so she balled her right hand into a fist and punched out in the direction of his stomach.
He grunted in pain and his momentum ground to a halt when she made contact, but it wasn't long enough for her to make an exit. She sensed the air move around her before she felt his own fist connect with the side of her face.
Emma had never been hit before!
It didn't hurt quite as much as she thought it would. But it still left her reeling just long enough for him to sweep her legs out from under her.
She went down hard, her butt cushioning her fall on the hard ground. But before he could lower himself down over her, she tucked her knees into her chest and kicked out with both of her feet. The kick sent him soaring over the cemetery and crashing into the mausoleum he'd pinned Zelena to only a few minutes earlier.
Emma pushed herself back up to a standing position, making sure the stake was still gripped firmly in her hand, as she watched the vampire pull himself to his feet. He snarled in her direction, snapping his teeth menacingly, before he charged at her one more time.
The slayer closed her eyes again, hoping it would help to centre herself and push away the pain that was beginning to radiate around her body, from the blows she'd already taken. She could sense how close her attacker was, even without the use of her sight.
Something inside of her told her exactly when to move.
Emma's eyes snapped open as she took one step to her left, and then thrust out her right arm. The stake made contact with its intended target with a sickening thud, as the momentum of her movement drove it through the vampire's chest and into his heart. He didn't have time to say anything else before he disintegrated into a pile of dust on top of the grave of Jocelyn Brown.
Emma kept her composure for all of three seconds, before she let the stake slip from her grasp and dropped her hands down to her knees, to suck in a harsh breath. She felt like she was having a panic attack, and she didn't know what to do about it.
"It's okay," came a reassuringly familiar voice. "It's okay, Swan. You did good."
Emma flicked her eyes up to meet his as her legs gave out, and she collapsed down to the ground beneath her. "I thought this one was all on me?" she snapped back at him.
"I had to do something to make you realise your potential. If you knew I was out here, you wouldn't have put as much effort into preserving your own life."
"You're a fucking arsehole," Emma told him, as she watched him lower himself into a sitting position beside her, with his legs crossed perfectly.
"You're not the first person to tell me that," he chuckled bitterly.
I know a lot of you have questions about Killian. I'm not gonna answer them just yet, I'm afraid. But there are hints in the text.
Thanks for reading and reviewing.