Fic: Souls, Slayers... and a Scythe???

Author: mkcrl120

Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.

Summary: Set two weeks after the events in Explaining Africa 3

Authors Notes: I have no clue about Africa. Which is probably always a good place to start writing a story. So if details I've used for place names, and tribal names and whatever are wrong then just (correctly) assume I have no idea what I'm doing.

Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)

Chapter 8b:

Roger automatically turned at the sound of Amy's scream. Amy was been held by her throat by someone he didn't recognise. The attacker had her in a hold which exposed her neck. Not exactly where he'd have thought any attacker would have gone. He brought up the crossbow and hoped the person would find it scary enough to release her. "Let her go!" he commanded, trying to make his voice sound as forcible as he could.

The man turned to face Roger, at that same point becoming more visible in the light provided by the window behind him. That's when he saw it. The face of the man attacking her. It was deformed, deep brow ridges crossed over the forehead, giving the impression of a re-inforced skull. The eyes were yellow and looked very feline. But it was the teeth that shocked him most. It wasn't just the elongated canines that he'd been imagining, truthfully they'd been provided by all the cheesy vampire films he'd been exposed to over the years. The whole front set of teeth looked animal-like; all looked razor sharp; and all looked like they could quite easily tear lumps of flesh out of Amy's neck which currently resided a few inches from this monster's mouth.

That's what he was dealing with here, he realised. A monster, for some reason this was more frightening than the other demons he'd seen since his discovery of this world. The one's Shote had shown him were, in hindsight, reasonably friendly. The Converslacts had looked entirely human. He hadn't even seen the last one Xander had had trouble with.

But this... this was a monster in the guise of a man. And it was attacking his friend. Not the mugging or possible rape attempt that he'd assumed it was at first. This was a creature who's only thought was to eat his colleague. And she was being held between his crossbow and it. Unable to get a clear shot he simply stood there, facing the creature down, seemingly both wondering what was gonna happen next. It was a standoff he realised. 'The creature kills Amy and I pull the trigger ending it's life. I pull the trigger and it uses Amy as a human shield.' So he stood there unable to think of anyway out of this predicament. Wondering just how accurate with a crossbow he would be anyway.

Luckily Xander had reacted faster. Taking advantage of the fact that the vampire was focused entirely on Roger and the weapon, he quickly darted to the side. Praying that the vampire didn't notice him yet he'd made eye contact with Amy was trying to send re-assuring thoughts.

Roger noticed Amy's eyes flicker as she looked at Xander. Roger forced his own eyes to stay on either the vampire or the hostage. All of the vampire's attention was on him, he realised Xander's attempt at a rescue relied entirely on surprise.

Lifting the crossbow he tried to aim it at the demon's head. The demon seemed to smile, as if realising that wasn't a kill shot and that the man in front of him might not be fully aware of what he was dealing with.

Roger thought about it, if there was the slightest opportunity he was considering taking it. A head shot wouldn't be fatal, but if he could decapitate the head by breaking the neck then it would be. Shrugging the thought off he realised it was too dangerous, there wasn't much of the vampire's neck visible. That seemed to be behind Amy's torso. The vampire maintaining as much cover as possible. He figured a head shot would do, 'Even if it's non-fatal, it's still gonna fucking hurt. And that would give both Amy and Xander the chance to stake him.'

Smiling Roger attempted to take aim directly at the demon's eye.

The demon not realising the whole plan continued to smile.

Roger stepped away from the window he'd been standing near, walking two steps forward. He knew he had to make this shot count or something, and he'd also been told that vampires had reactions far faster than a human, which meant he'd have to get as close as he could. As he walked nearer, he slowly drew back his trigger finger, preparing to fire.

Suddenly there was a loud noise and the world around him seemed to be made completely of flying glass. As he hunched his shoulders, using the coat he'd earlier been criticising to protect himself. As he approached the hunched position, he managed to see both Amy and the vampire also react to the event. Seeing the barest of opportunities he pulled the trigger fully.

Same Time as previous part.

As soon as Amy's scream began, Xander was turning towards it's direction. He chastised himself for allowing her to get so far away, she was practically on the wall at the opposite side of the street, where it wasn't as well lit. 'Least it's not cave-level dark.' He figured. Luckily he found himself able to keep track of all of the people. Roger was a few feet to his right and was bringing the crossbow up, 'No!!! Don't fire it... ' His mind silently screamed, knowing that the demon would at that range be quite able to put Amy into the way.

Amy was being held slightly in front of and to the right of the demon. From their positions of facing them, that made her also between himself and the demon, though he didn't think the vampire had done that intentionally.

Moving as stealthily as he could he managed to get across the street while the demon's attention was solely on Roger and the crossbow.

'Please don't notice me. Please don't notice me.' He silently chanted with each step across the street. Now he was across the street with them.

He manouvered himself so that they were all in view again. This time the demon behind Amy, them both on his side of the road and Roger across the road to his right.

Utilising the fact that the demon's head was staying close to Amy's he was able to approach without being seen. However at this point he wasn't sure that Roger had noticed him either. And if Roger's eyes flicked in his direction then it might be all over. 'Or it might give us the chance to react as one.' he thought, trying to figure out if there was anyway to communicate without the demon noticing.

Checking the ground, he could only see one loose stake. 'Amy may still have one.' He figured. 'That could come in very useful.'

He returned his eye to Amy's and kept gesturing his own towards the stake on the ground. Recognition didn't seem apparent in her eyes. 'Dammit...' he realised, 'She can't see it from there.'

Reaching into his own pocket he obtained one of the stakes. This time he showed it to her, and gave her a questioning look. She nodded back.

'Yes.' He thought. Giving a quick look to the skies as a silent thank you. He continued to move forward, palming another stake in his other hand he approached them as quietly as he could.

He couldn't believe his luck, there was no way that the vampire couldn't be able to smell him from here. But if the vampire wasn't paying attention, hell if the vampire was a particularly young and cocky one, then maybe all his concentration is on the threat in front of him.

At this distance he could almost reach Amy and possibly drag her away. Well it would be possible if she reached out to him, but that might alert the vampire to his prescence.

'I need to time this perfectly' he thought. Trying to judge the best time to do this and the exact method to take. He figured the best plan would be to grab Amy and pull her away, and at that exact same time push a stake into where the demon's heart should be. If he pulled them out of Roger's line of fire, there would be two targets aiming for the demon's heart, hopefully it'd only be paying attention to one of them. He quickly placed the spare stake from his left hand back into his pocket.

He was building himself up to doing everything in one fluid motion. He had just begun to move when he heard a window smash. He was distracted from the source of the noise by the feeling of something colliding with him.

A few minutes earlier.

Amy had instinctively turned as she'd heard the growl, thrusting a stake towards the creature's heart all in the same movement.

The vampire had casually caught her wrist, and then proceeded to shake the stake out of her grasp. She was sure the other was still in her pocket. 'The inside pocket.' She realised, hating herself for such an amateur mistake. Looking up she got a good look at the creature's visage, her first look from anything resembling this kind of distance. She did what came naturally, she screamed.

The vampire smiled and started to move towards a feeding position, she was still screaming when she heard the ruffle of a coat and Roger's voice. "Let her go." He'd told the creature in front of her.

'Please.' Her mind silently screamed, as her voice finally stopped.

Suddenly the creature moved with inhuman speed. He'd somehow gotten behind her, using her as a shield to defend against Roger's crossbow. 'Please god don't shoot it.' She started repeating in her mind over and over again.

Then her mind picked something out, 'Where was Xander?' Her brain automatically clamped down on that thought. Deciding solving that mystery was better than thinking about her imminent death.

Her eyes flicked to the left, seeing nothing between Roger and the entrance to the pub. 'The pub,' she thought quickly. Praying that Faith should choose that moment to leave the pub looking for them. Unfortunately no matter how hard she stared at the doorway, Faith still didn't walk out.

Resigning herself to the fact they weren't going to get Slayer help, she began scanning to her right. Quickly spotting Xander from her position, and tracking him til he went out of sight, she realised he was trying to circle them. Her thoughts on that were soon distracted when some drops of saliva landed on the left side of her neck.

'I don't wanna die. I don't wanna die.' She kept thinking to herself, struggling slightly to get free. This had allowed her to move slightly before the demon had tightened it's grasp. Now she was just about able to see Xander without moving her head noticeably. He was staring directly at her waiting for her eyes to make contact with his solitary one. Once this contact was established, he started glancing towards the floor. 'The floor?' she thought confused. 'What about the floor? Does he want me to duck?'

She saw him dig into one of his pockets and bring out a stake. Gesturing towards it. He maintained eye contact and looked at her questioningly again. 'So he wants me to duck while he stakes the creature? I can do that.' She thought as she nodded back.

She saw Xander take another stake out of his pocket as he quietly approached. She quickly turned her attention back towards Roger and saw him beginning to take aim at the creature's head. 'I start this..?' She thought to herself. 'I start this... when I duck Xander goes for the staking and Roger shoots it's head...' Realising it was a good plan, she took a few deep breaths, well as deep as she could while in the creatures grasp anyway.

She'd been about to make her move when suddenly Xander had moved first. 'What the hell?' Had been her first reaction, but as soon as he'd moved she'd instinctively gone into her part. Moving her arms as fast as she could she attempted to knock the demons' grasp slightly looser. It seemed she'd been successful as it gave her enough freedom to slightly drop lower. As she'd dropped however a noise had attracted her attention and her line of vision had briefly glimpsed skyward towards it's source, what she'd seen in that fraction of a second she thought she'd remember forever.

Five minutes earlier.

Faith had entered the pub, it was a bit more lively than the others had been. There were even people dancing on the small section of dance floor.

She promised herself she'd make a mental note of this place for when they were up for a decent night out. Walking over to the crowded bar, she quickly walked parallel to it, behind all the waiting customers. 'Not a place to actually get any drinking done though,' she admitted to herself.

Satisfied that the vampire wasn't at the bar, she walked towards the dancefloor eyes scanning all the custs sitting watching as she took the most awkward route between the tables. Arriving at the dancefloor she strolled across it forcefully, catching a lot of men's eyes as she did so. Two guys had followed her from their sitting positions and were trying to persuade her to dance or something. Her eyes continued to scan for the prescence of a demon, ignoring the two talking to her.

She stared at them until they went away, calling her a bitch and other similar names. 'Not important right now Faith.' She told herself. 'You're on seek and destroy. Some lameass wannabe romeos ain't your problem.' She did smile however as her scanning caught a glimpse of Xander peering in at the window. 'Wonder if he saw that?' She wondered turning her attentions towards the toilets.

'Where the hell could the vampire be?' She thought debating whether to go inside or not. Checking past the bar however she noticed some other patrons walking down the stairs. 'Upstairs is open to the public?' She wondered, she knew the place was lively but it didn't seem that lively. Alternating between staring at the toilets and the stairs she decided to play the odds. 'Soon find out if it's a free-for-all or members only deal.' she figured striding towards the steps. No one stopped her so she guessed that it was there for public access.

Halfway up she turned to see Xander at the window. She waited patiently for him to spot her so she could indicate that she was going upstairs, but it never came. He never looked up. 'Dammit.' she thought as Roger joined Xander at the window, 'Never mind X. You'll just have to wait for me.'

She finished her journey up the rest of the stairs. It was a smaller room, there was another dancefloor here and a smaller bar. Fewer people were up here.

'So where's the fucking vamp?' she wondered. 'Bet I'm gonna have to check the shitters. I hate checking the men's, all the guys think you're a whore if you go in there... or that you're actually interesting in seeing their cocks.'

She was distracted from her thoughts when her Slayer hearing picked up a high pitched scream. 'That came from outside,' she realised.

Running over towards the upstairs window, she casually knocked aside the arms of two guys making a grab for her. "Not now." she told them.

Once she reached the window she realised that the person who'd screamed was Amy. Looking down she could see that Amy, was being held by a vampire. At that point she couldn't see either of the others. 'How the fuck did you get seperated Amy?' she thought preparing to run down the stairs, when suddenly Xander came into her line of vision to her left below her.

"Sneaking up him eh Xan. Good call." She muttered aloud, smiling even more as she saw a crossbow slowly enter her eyeline from beneath and to the right. 'Roger too, eh? Still I'd better head down to help them out.'

"What?" Came a voice from behind her.

Turning she saw one of the guys she'd pushed. "Sorry not interested. Not now and not ever." She expanded on her previous point, returning her attention to the scene below her.

That's when she saw it. The narrowest of alleyways, with a figure hiding in it. Concentrating her vision she could see that the face was definitely not human. "Two vamps eh?" She muttered pulling a stake out of her pocket, realising instantly that the alley was on Xander's blindside, and he may not have noticed it or the vampire.

"Whoa... I didn't mean nothing..." The guy behind her began, raising his hands to indicate he was no threat to her.

"Relax... it's not for you." She said as she walked backwards towards him, eyes never leaving the vampire in the alley. Deciding she couldn't risk the chance of Xander knowing it was there, she'd already made her decision to act. Only one decision left to make, and Xander definitely had the highest likelihood of holding his own against a vampire. Turning briefly she gave him a quick smile. "See ya."

Then she proceeded to dive headfirst through the window, the force of the jump taking her up and out into the street. Eyes quickly taking in the scene below her. The vampire charging out of it's hiding place, aiming directly at Xander. Amy's face looking up with a shocked expression. Roger pulling the trigger, not really focused on his target. Faith smiled as she clenched the stake tightly in her grasp; the leap beginning it's descent, aiming directly towards the vampire which had been holding Amy.

End chapter 8b