The night had fallen for a few hours. Through the window of their hostel room, Faith and Tara could see the dark sky where the full moon was shining among sparse stars.
The witch was curled up on the mattress with the bedspread thrown over her, and was again reading the Oregon travel guide Giles had given them. Faith, for her part, was sitting cross-legged on the floor and looked busy gathering, counting and cleaning her weapons.
"Are you sure we have to go patrolling?" Tara suddenly asked, turning briefly to the window. "It's just stopped snowing and I'm sure there's no one to save out there. It's way too cold outside for people to go for a walk by the moonlight."
"You never know," replied Faith without looking up from the stake she was currently sharpening. "We have to go, just in case. But we'll make it quick."
Focused as she was on the task at hand, Faith did not see Tara pouting. But she probably guessed the blonde did, because she looked up to her and chuckled.
"You don't have to come along if you don't want to," the Slayer said. "You're right, tonight will probably be pretty calm anyway."
Saying this, she grabbed a few weapons in front of her and got up. She picked up her jacket from a chair by the bed, slipped it on and hangs a short sword at her belt.
"I'll be back soon," she announced, heading for the door.
"No, wait," Tara interrupted. "I'm coming with you."
She threw the bedspread aside, shivered at the sudden coolness and got up. She reached for her shoes on the floor and slipped them on while Faith wavered by the door.
"You sure?" the brunette asked. "It's freezing out and it looks like you want to stay in bed, nice and warm"
"I'm good, " Tara answered, looking for her coat. "I'd rather come with you than be waiting alone for you to come back."
"As you want," Faith replied with a light grin. "You should take some weapons, just in case."
Tara nodded and grabbed a stake and the crossbow from the stock of weapons still lying on the floor.
"We should clean this mess," she commented hesitantly. "It could be dangerous to leave those on…"
"Oh c'mon Tar!" Faith exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "We're not kids, we won't hurt ourselves! We know they're here!"
"If you say so…"
Tara met Faith at the door and the girls left the room. They cautiously locked it and went down the stairs silently. The cold that welcomed them outside had Tara waver. For a brief moment, the blonde was tempted to change her mind and to come back inside. But as Faith noticed and a smile started to creep its way to the brunette's lips, Tara felt her resolution coming back.
"I'm coming," she stated before Faith had time to say something.
"I'm not saying a word," the brunette replied in a fake serious tone.
"Do you think there's a cemetery around here? It's really small." Tara remarked as they started to stroll away from the hostel.
"I saw a graveyard across the road to the lake," Faith replied. "We're gonna check it out."
"If we don't freeze to death before we ever get there," Tara mumbled.
"It's not that far; and you can stay here if you want," Faith said casually, as if the blonde had spoken for her to hear.
"I'm coming," Tara repeated.
"Good,"
They walked silently for fifteen minutes and met no one. When they finally reached the outside of the graveyard, they were indeed freezing and had to quicken their pace to try to get some warmth. Tara was almost panting as she tried to follow the Slayer.
"God, I hope we're gonna get some action," Faith said, rubbing her hands together. "I really need to fight some freaking monster or my blood is gonna freeze in my veins!"
"Looks like it's your lucky day then," Tara announced and pointed at a dark figure across them in the back of the cemetery.
Faith's gaze followed Tara's hand and a smirk appeared on her lips when she saw the unmistakable yellow eyes of a vampire.
"Looks like it's our lucky day," she confirmed.
In front of them, the vampire had stopped dead in his tracks. He was wearing a long fur coat and carried over his shoulder something the girls could not clearly see. He was staring at them, dumfounded, obviously not believing what his eyes were seeing.
"What are you doing here?" he asked after a silence, sounding way more surprised and unbelieving than threatening or mocking as vampires usually did.
"Out for an after dinner walk," Faith replied, her smirk growing bigger and bigger. "You?"
The creature looked at her questioningly, probably wondering if she was telling the truth or not. Faith took a resolute step toward him and gestured slightly at Tara to follow her. The blonde saw the Slayer bringing her hand under her jacket where a stake was hidden.
The vampire noticed as well because he took carefully a step back to keep a safe distance between himself and Faith, his eyes glued to Faith's right arm.
Faith somehow knew the vampire had already guessed who she was, but she could no longer resist revealing her identity and slowly removed the stake from her jacket. She could not hide the mocking smile on her face when she saw the vampire's face seem to get even paler than before.
"N-no, no…" he stammered, shaking his head in panic and denial. "Not a Slayer… Not here…"
"Surprise!" exclaimed Faith in a happy, loud tone, almost making Tara jump at the sudden outburst. "Slayers finally get here! There's nowhere in the world you can hide anymore!"
The vampire did not wait for Faith to make another move or to say another word. He threw his burden toward her and flew away as quickly as he could.
Tara let escape a small cry when she saw what the vampire had abandoned: it was the corpse of a dog. Deep marks on his neck told that the vampire had already begun his dinner.
"Oh my goddess…" Tara whispered, putting her hand in front of her mouth to hide her grimace of disgust.
"You should be happy it's not a kid," commented Faith casually. "C'mon, let's catch this one."
Already running after the escaping vampire, the Slayer totally missed the horrified expression on the blonde's face. With a last glance to the dead dog, Tara followed the brunette, running after her as fast as she could.
They crossed the whole graveyard, jumped over the small fence surrounding the cemetery before finally catching up with the runaway.
Whereas Faith easily hurdled the barrier, Tara had to stop dead in her tracks in front of it, realizing, as she was about to try to imitate the Slayer, that it was not a really good idea. She carefully cleared the obstacle before finally meeting Faith who was in a middle of a fight with the vampire and two other demons.
The blonde's eyes widened at the sight, wondering where the other two had come from. Tara hesitated, unsure if Faith needed her help.
"Oh! At last, Blondie!" She ironically welcomed the witch.
"I was just behind you," protested Tara. "But you're running so fast!"
"Well, look who's just joined the party!" the Slayer said, gesturing to the horned demons she was fighting.
They were both vaguely human-sized and shaped, with big head and two little golden horns. Their skin was dark grey with light, almost invisible clearer lines. They did not have hands, but claws like a scorpion instead.
"Neat, isn't it?" Faith went on, punching hard one of the demon and the vampire at the same time. "Looks like I'm gonna have some fun after all."
"It was supposed to be all peaceful and cool," Tara pouted, crossing her arms over her chest, now that she was sure the Slayer was in control with the situation. "We're supposed to be very far from the closest hellmouth."
"They could say the same," Faith remarked. "And guess what? It's far more annoying for them than for us!"
Saying this, she seized the vampire by the collar of his jacket, flipped him over quickly and threw him toward the remaining demon who was getting ready to attack her from behind. Both of them stumbled backward, entangled into each other and Faith turned back again at lightning speed to face the other demon.
She got her long and thin dagger out of her belt and almost cut the monster in two halves in a wide circular gesture. He fell on his back with an animal shriek and Tara could not help a gasp of horror.
Faith turned to her and addressed her with a fake grimace of apology.
"Don't be disgusted!" Faith told her with a grin. "I'm just doing my job!"
The vampire and the remaining demon took advantage of the Slayer's brief distraction to recover from the previous shock. They considered their now dead friend, looked at each other and without even nodding to each other, they got up and ran away.
Faith reacted immediately and tackled the demon to the ground. The vampire avoided his fallen companion and got away as fast as he could.
"Tar! Do something!" Faith yelled, already sitting up atop the demon and punching his face while glancing at the runaway vampire.
"What?" Tara grimaced, looking quizzically at the Slayer.
"The vampire!" Faith explained between two punches. "The crossbow! Shot him!"
Tara looked down at the crossbow in her hand then looked up blankly at the Slayer.
"I don't know how to u…" she began.
"Short version: load, aim, fire!" Faith shouted while violently elbowing the demon's face.
The Slayer's pressing tone put Tara into motion: she loaded the bolt as she had seen Faith doing so many times, raised the weapon at her shoulder and fired toward the escaping vampire. She missed her target by so much that he didn't even feel nor hear the bolt flying in the air behind him and finally sticking in a tree's trunk on its way.
Tara grimaced and looked shyly toward Faith. She just had time to see her finishing off the demon, as she broke her neck. Then the Slayer jumped to her feet and rushed to Tara's side.
"So"? She asked impatiently.
"Well, I missed him," Tara confessed carefully.
Faith rolled her eyes but she didn't get angry, as Tara was afraid she would. She took the crossbow from the blonde's hands and she just motioned to her to follow the vampire's track.
"My bad," the brunette said. "How wouldn't you miss him after all? C'mon, let's find our new friend."
Faith headed where the vampire had gone, Tara on her heels. She trotted casually, following the footprints the vampire had left in the snow, sure to get her prey in the end.
The track leaded them to an old shack into the woods. Everything was silent, the door and the shutters closed. But the footprints stopped just in front of the door. Faith looked carefully around and when she was sure no other fresh tracks could be found around the house, she nodded to Tara.
"He's here," she simply said. "Stay behind me."
She reached for the crossbow in Tara's hands, loaded the weapon and gestured to the blonde to take another weapon in her hand. Tara chose a stake and followed Faith when the brunette silently opened the front door. They stepped in carefully, Faith being prepared for any eventuality. It was useless though, the room they entered being empty. Faith looked closely around before abandoning her fighting stance and Tara consecutively relaxed as well.
The room was dark and perfectly silent. The floor and the walls were covered with dirt and only pieces of broken furniture were scattered here and there.
"You sure he came here?" whispered the blonde as low as she could for Faith to hear.
Faith shrugged and silenced Tara with a gesture of her hand. She focused on a corner of the room and listened attentively. Then she took a few steps in this direction and Tara mechanically followed her. In the corner of the room, the floor was covered by a small piece of a worn faded carpet. Faith pushed it aside, revealing a trapdoor.
"They're here." She breathed to Tara.
"They?" the blonde repeated, arching a questioning eyebrow.
"I can feel them," Faith answered as she began to carefully opening the trapdoor. "There are a lot of them in there."
"Do you think we really should go?" Tara asked shyly. "We don't know how many exactly…"
"I want to have a look," Faith cut her short. "I'll see what I do then."
"Like you're REALLY not knowing already what you're going to do," Tara pouted, rolling her eyes.
Faith smirked in understanding and gestured to Tara to keep silence now that the trapdoor was open. She gracefully slid through the opening and found herself on a dark landing, not larger than a foot and a half. Just a step from where she was standing, stairs were leading down to a cellar where the sound of several voices was coming from.
Tara followed Faith; taking great care to be perfectly silent as the Slayer was watching her with an arched eyebrow, ready to send her back upstairs at the slightest noise. But Tara succeeded in going down quietly and even earned a nod of approval from Faith. The brunette then looked away from the witch, crouched down and crawled to the corner of the stairs to get a view of the cellar downstairs. Tara did the same and the blonde's eyes widened when she took in the scene beneath: the small and dimly lit cellar was full of vampires and others monsters.
"Goddess," Tara could not help but whisper. "There're more demons than humans in this town!"
Faith stuck her hand on her mouth to make her quiet and gave her a dirty reproving look.
"Shhh," she hissed between her teeth, gesturing to some of the vampires who were now looking up toward them.
They remained perfectly still for a few seconds, waiting to know if the vampires had heard them. But their attention drifted away from the ceiling and both girls released their breath they had been holding without even noticing.
While the demons resumed their conversation downstairs, Faith studied attentively the scene, her eyes drifting from demon to demon to each detail of the room. After a moment during which Tara patiently waited, the Slayer turned to the blonde witch and gestured for her to go back upstairs. Tara frowned in protest but Faith grimaced back and the blonde understood there would be no argument over this. Then, she complied with the brunette's silent order and quietly slipped back through the trapdoor up to the house's ground floor. She was surprised to note the Slayer was following her.
"What are you doing?" Tara asked in a low voice when Faith had closed the trapdoor again behind them.
"What?" Faith said, arching an eyebrow toward Tara. "They're too many of them and this place is way too small. You'd be at risk if we attack now. We'll come back in the morning." She quickly explained.
"Do you have any kind of reason to think they will be less tomorrow? Or that the room will be any larger?" Tara asked ironically.
Faith chuckled and got to her feet before holding her hand to Tara to help her up. The blonde accepted the offered help and got up as well.
"So?" She pressed. "What do you have in mind?"
"We're gonna make some kind of bomb or something to force them out. I'll leave the vampires to you - and to the sun - and I'll take the other demons." The brunette told with a smirk. "What'd you think?"
"Machiavel!" Tara grinned.
"Uh?"
"Whatever," the blonde waved the unanswered question. "Good idea."
They exited the house and Faith silently closed the door behind them.
"So, what now?" whispered Tara.
Faith gestured for the blonde to follow and they got away quickly.
"It's enough for tonight I think," the Slayer said. "Let's go back to the hostel."
"I love that idea," Tara confirmed. "I'm dying for my bed and especially to get warm under the covers."
As Faith chuckled briefly, the blonde turned to her and arched a questioning eyebrow at her:
"What?" she asked.
"Nothin," Faith replied, half-scoffing.
"Oh, c'mon, " Tara insisted, elbowing clumsily the Slayer.
"I was just wondering how exactly you're planning to get warm under the covers!" Faith finally grinned ironically.
"Oh, very funny!" Tara grumbled and rolled her eyes.
"What? You're gay, I'm hot, what you've said was kind of disturbing, admit-it Tar!"
"Oh, yeah, you look very disturbed right now!"
"I am!" Faith said in a fake offended tone. "You're making some sexual innuendo, that's even completely shocking for me to hear!"
Tara stopped dead in her tracks and pointed a decided finger to Faith's nose.
"There was no sexual innuendo at all," she stated seriously. "And for the record, I'm just planning to take all the covers all to myself to get warm!"
With that, she resumed her walk, getting away from the Slayer, taking great strides. Faith just watched her for a brief moment, now laughing heartily, before finally running after her.
***
The morning after, the girls woke up just before dawn and Faith prepared a liquid bomb under Tara's dumbfounded stare.
"Where the hell did you learn to do that?" the blonde asked defiantly.
"Oh, y'know, somewhere between living on the streets and prison," the brunette smirked. "Plus, really useful as a Slayer."
"I guess so…"
"And really inflammable too," Faith added. "Which makes the usefulness for the Slayer part."
"You're sure it's going to work? It looks pretty small and…"
"Of course it's gonna work!" interrupted Faith in an offended tone. "I'm like an expert!"
She shook lightly the flask containing her bomb under Tara's stare and nodded her approval to her own creation.
"It's done," she said. "Let's go"
Twenty minutes later, the girls were back at the shack of the day before. But the place was hardly recognizable. The main door – or what was left of it – was wide-open, the right window was broken, and its shutters had been torn off.
They entered the silent house casually, Faith already knowing there was nothing left to find here. She was right. The trapdoor was wide open as well and the corpses of five or six demons were lying on the floor of the shack next to it.
Faith went to the wide-opening once hidden by the trapdoor and lightly jumped on the landing beneath. She caught a glance to the cellar but it was deserted and kind of a mess.
"It's clear" she told Tara. "You can come down"
Five seconds later, the blonde landed near the Slayer.
They both went down the stairs to the room where they had witnessed the demons and vampires the night before. A slight smell of smoke hit the girls' nostrils as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Looks like someone had the same idea" Faith commented, looking at the tracks on the ground. "Must have been a hell of a fight" she added, pointing to the various pieces of broken furniture, objects and some more dead demons.
"But who?" asked Tara while looking around her curiously. "Do you think Slayers did this?"
"It certainly looks like it" Faith replied. "But I don't remember the council having a base nearby. They could have sent a team here if they got the information there was unusual amount of demonic activity around here."
"Anyway, I don't think any vampire made it out alive of here," Tara said. "With all this dust…"
"Yeah," Faith confirmed. "And there are three demons bodies down here and at least five upstairs."
The brunette's attention drifted away from Tara again and she went on watching the scene, looking for any evidence of what had taken place there within the last hours. They finally went back up to the ground floor where Faith resumed her casual observation.
"Now I'm frustrated!" she eventually exclaimed.
She got the flask of explosive out of her pocket and glanced at it, irritated.
"Fuck!" she went on. "What are we gonna do now?"
"Hum…" Tara said, faking hesitation. "I don't know… Maybe going back to the hostel and sleeping some more? Or having a peaceful and resting walk around the lake?"
"No, no, no!" replied Faith, suddenly enthusiastic, and obviously not listening to the blonde's ideas. "I know what we're gonna do now we're up, out and all equipped!"
"I'm dying to know…" grumbled Tara but Faith did not even notice.
"I'm gonna teach you how to use a crossbow!" concluded Faith, smiling widely, obviously very happy with her idea.
It took Tara a second or two to process the brunette's words but even when it was done, she was not quite sure she had clearly understood them.
"What?" she said, looking dumbfounded at Faith.
"I'm gonna teach you how to use the crossbow," repeated Faith, in a calmer way this time. "You look like someone who can use some crossbow training."
"Are you kidding?" Tara asked seriously, though she already knew the answer to that question.
"Do I look like someone who's kidding?" Faith stated, and she definitely did not look like she was kidding. "C'mon, let's make this day useful"
With this, she left the shack, determined to put her idea into practice. Tara looked at her for a brief moment, hoping somehow she would change her mind.
But "C'mon Tar!" was all she got from Faith.
"Oh, goddess…" she whispered, before following the Slayer outside.
***
"I promise it's simple," said Faith, turning to her right toward Tara with a grin.
They were still in the forest surrounding the lake, now in a small clearing not too far from the lake itself. Between the saplings, Tara could see its frozen surface. When Faith allowed her to.
"Look at me," the Slayer interrupted Tara's reverie. "It's simple."
"Oh, I guess…" the witch grumbled.
Faith probably heard but she pretended she did not and went on with her demonstration.
"It's very simple," she repeated again while raising the crossbow at her shoulder. "Load…"
"Load, aim, fire…" Tara interrupted, repeated Faith's orders from the day before. "Very simple." She concluded with a little snort.
"Okay," admitted Faith with a sly grin. "Maybe not THAT simple. But simple nonetheless. You're going to have mad skills in no time. Look."
She missed Tara rolling her eyes as her attention came back to the crossbow. She aimed for a tree standing around twenty feet away right in front of her and fired. The bolt jabbed in the trunk with a thud.
"See?" the brunette said, loading the crossbow before handing it over to Tara. "Simple."
"Of course!" Tara exclaimed. "It's simple for YOU. Everything looks simple when it comes to you. I just…"
"At least try," Faith cut her short, interrupting the blonde's complaint.
Tara sighed but she nevertheless complied and seized the weapon from Faith's hands. She clumsily raised the crossbow at her shoulder in her turn, which elicited a chuckle from the Slayer.
"C'mon Tar, you can do better than that!" she exclaimed.
She came to Tara's right and placed Tara's arm with her own. She then pointed Tara's hand and weapon toward another tree, closer than the one she used for her demonstration. She finally released Tara's arm and nodded to her.
Tara flinched as she pressed the trigger and the bolt did not even fly all the distance it was supposed to and buried itself in the dirt. Faith turned to the blonde, bewildered.
"You don't even make an effort," she said, her tone a little irritated. "Press this damn trigger!"
"I told you I didn't feel like…"
"Let's try again." Interrupted Faith. "Don't you want to be able to help when we're patrolling?"
As Tara nodded, she resumed:
"This is a good way. With this, you could dust vampires without putting yourself at risk."
"Please, stop lecturing me," the witch grumbled. "It's okay. I'll do my best."
"Okay, then" concluded Faith and she handed a new bolt to the blonde. "Try the same tree."
Tara loaded the crossbow with Faith's help and explanation and got herself ready to fire once again. That shot went further than the previous but missed completely its target. As did the next dozen after it.
"You're doing better, " exclaimed Faith ironically as Tara just missed her target for the fifteenth time. "You only missed it by fifteen inches this time. We're about to get that tree, I'm sure!"
"Don't make fun of me!" replied the blonde. "I AM doing better."
"Never said otherwise," Faith chuckled. "Maybe in a few hours…"
She trailed off as Tara raised an eyebrow at her and resumed in serious tone:
"I can't believe this, you didn't even want to try back then and now you're like a kid with a new toy!"
"I want to succeed." Tara said. "I want to be useful."
"Well, I'm not sure anymore that shooting with a crossbow will make you of any use! You know I wanted to add more precise target later? A vampire's heart and a tree are totally different kind of target y'know"
"I know," Tara responded, loading the crossbow again. "I can do it."
"Well, y'know, you ain't a fighter or anything. I'm not sure you got the thing in you. Have you even ever killed a single vampire or something? I'm sure you haven't"
Tara couldn't help but grin as Faith was finishing her sentence and she denied the Slayer's assumption rather proudly:
"You're wrong! I have."
"Really?" Faith asked, arching a skeptical eyebrow. "Tell me about it."
Tara's smile vanished a little but she nevertheless resumed, her tone much less enthusiastic now:
"It was a demon," she told. "He was threatening Wi…Willow…" Her voice faltered somehow as she uttered her ex-lover's name.
"I killed him with an axe. I buried it in his back. Killed him with one shot." She resumed in a firmer, darker tone.
She fell silent and Faith remained silent as well, looking at her curiously. The Slayer tried to hide her surprise at first, but she finally gave it up.
"Impressive," she commented. "Never woulda thought."
Tara shrugged and didn't answer. The blonde looked thoughtful for a time and Faith didn't interrupt the quiet moment. She let Tara break it when the blonde eventually raised the crossbow and her eyes focused on Faith again.
"Let's try again?" she asked, any trace of reverie of any kind now gone.
"Let's try again," confirmed Faith. "Shoot."
Tara obeyed and loaded the weapon before aiming at the tree and firing.
That new shot was far better than the previous ones and the bolt stuck in a tree at least fifteen feet away from the girls on Tara's left.
Tara considered the bolt, then the crossbow in her hand then turned to Faith with a shy smile.
"So, what do you think?"
"Hum…" Faith began. "If you were aiming at this tree, I'd say it's surprisingly good. But if you were aiming at the one I told you, then I'd say you need a little more training!"
"Little more training it is, then," Tara gravely concluded.