Chapter 8

Faith got a call from Leicester Cube early the next morning.

"Hey Slayer," he said, his voice soft, as if he knew he'd just woken her.

"What up, Rubix?" Faith muttered.

"The sun, almost. And your vampire's staked out at the docks to see it. One of my people saw her as he was running for cover. Thought you might want to know."

"What? Roxy? Running for cover?"

"Cover from the sun. It's dawn."

"Did you say Roxy's been dusted?" asked Faith suddenly, jumping out of bed, her heart constricting almost painfully. "How could you tell the dust pile was Roxy and not some other vampire?"

"She isn't dust. Not yet. She's been staked, but not through the heart, and not with wood. Just held in place so the sun can kill her."

"What?"

"I'm not repeating myself, Slayer. I'd give her five minutes."

"But it's already dawn!"

"But only her head is exposed. Start running, Slayer."

Faith was already racing down the stairs to the ground floor, wishing she knew where exactly on the docks Roxelana had been trapped.

Moments later she was in the van, roaring down the street.

Please be in time, please be in time–

She saw the smoke before she got there. Roxelana's hair was on fire.

Faith was out of the van and at her side in a flash, ripping her own shirt off and flinging it over Roxelana's head, patting out the flames.

She could smell the burnt hair and the charred flesh and had to force herself not to panic.

"Faith?" Roxelana rasped.

"It's alright, Roxy. I'm getting you out of this. It's gonna be fine." Faith tried to sound soothing but she knew how bad the damage was and she was afraid she didn't sound convincing at all.

Faith tore away the plank of wood and wrenched the nails out of Roxelana's wrists, ignoring Roxelana's soft moans of pain and catching her as she slumped to the ground.

Roxelana's hands and neck started blistering in the sunlight even as Faith picked her up and ran for the back of the van.

Then she was setting her down in the shadowy interior of the van, assessing the extent of Roxelana's injuries. The full length of her hair would have to be cut off, there was no saving it. Her pretty face was red; a lot of the skin had burned away or was peeling off. Faith winced.

"It'll be OK," she said instead, cradling Roxelana against her, stroking her ruined hair out of her face, kissing her burnt forehead gently, trying not to hurt her any worse than she already was.

She heard Roxelana sigh softly, almost inaudibly, and felt her relax in her arms. Her eyes were closed, as though she didn't want to see what had happened to her. Or maybe because her burned eyelids hurt too much to open.

"Roxy, what happened?" Faith couldn't stop herself asking. Maybe she just wanted to hear Roxelana speak, maybe that would make everything seem less broken.

"She Jesus-afied me." Roxelana whispered. "Didn't think she had it in her."

"Who?"

Roxelana snorted. "You know who."

She cracked open an eye to look at Faith's blank face. Then Faith met her gaze and shook her head.

"She would never." She bit her lip. "We have to talk."

"We are talking."

"Not us. I mean, this can't happen again. I have to ring her. B. Buffy."

–:::–

Later that night, Faith dialled Buffy's number. Roxelana was sitting across from her, on the other couch. Her hair was short, almost spiky, now and her face was starting to heal: there was skin again, marred only by scars.

"Hey?" Buffy answered. With her vampire hearing, Roxelana could hear her from where she sat.

"Hey, B." Faith said. Her voice was a little strained. Maybe Buffy could tell, because this time her voice sounded concerned:

"Faith, are you OK?"

"Me? Five by five, B. Roxy, not so much. I'm taking care of her right now." Faith let the metaphorical penny drop.

"Fuck," said Buffy, and Roxy chuckled. "She really survived?"

"God, B, it was really you?" Buffy cursed. Roxelana laughed out loud. Faith almost heard Buffy freeze on the other end of the line.

"She's with you right now? You're letting her listen?" she asked, hurt.

"Why not, B? You just tried to kill her." Faith said tiredly.

"I was provoked." Buffy retorted.

"Whatever, B. The reason doesn't matter any more, it's done now. I just – God, I wish you'd both just get along. Just try."

That little hesitation in her voice, and Roxelana was at her side, taking her free hand.

"Don't let her upset you, baby." She murmured, "Let me talk to her now. C'mon."

Faith just wanted Roxelana to hold her, just wanted to talk to Roxelana and forget how easily Buffy got to her. But she gave Roxelana the phone, because she knew Buffy was listening, and because Roxelana would be talking, and she'd be able to just lie next to her and listen to that voice.

"Heya, Slayer," Roxelana said. Faith snuggled into her side, kissed her neck softly. She felt Roxelana's free hand stroking her hair.

"Vampire."

"Sorry for pissing you off last night. I didn't think it would be so easy."

There was silence as Buffy tried to think of something to say.

"This is the part where you apologise for trying to kill me," Roxelana said helpfully. She could hear Buffy gritting her teeth.

"Screw you." Buffy said, her voice low and deadly.

"Hmm, yeah, I could do that." said Roxelana cheerfully, "But, y'know, I'd rather let our favourite Slayer do the honours. You, on the other hand, have a hell of a lonely night ahead of you. Try not to think of me too much. I don't want you to get any screwy urges. What with all the stakes you got lying around–"

Buffy hung up. Roxelana giggled.

"That was a stupid thing to say," Faith muttered, pulling away from her. But Roxelana rolled with her, so that she was lying on top of Faith.

"I know, baby. But she just tried to kill me, so why shouldn't I have some fun with her? It's not like it hurts her," she pouted.

With Roxelana's scarred face directly in front of her, Faith couldn't disagree. And it was so easy to forget that Buffy was upset when she was with Roxelana. It was so hard not to be happy. Because Roxelana was so uncomplicated, and Buffy was so difficult.

Faith kissed those pouting lips and tried to forget.

–:::–

"Bite me."

"With pleasure. Not." Roxelana let Faith pull away so that Faith was straddling her stomach. "What?" she asked softly, playfully. "Come back down here."

"I'm being serious." Faith said. "Bite me."

"You're being ridiculous. I will not bite you. Can we please go back to foreplay?"

"I can make the cut for you–"

"Stop." Roxelana sighed and sat up so that Faith slid into her lap. "Faith. You don't have to do this. I haven't had human blood in months, do you want to get me high? Worse–"

"I want to rock your goddamn world."

"Baby, you do that already." Faith didn't reply. Roxelana leaned in and kissed her gently. Deeper.

Faith bit her bottom lip, hard.

And suddenly the grip on Faith's hair became something more than passionate. The kiss became less of a kiss as Roxelana's mouth fastened involuntarily, helplessly, around Faith's bottom lip.

Faith gave it a few seconds, then pulled Roxelana gently away. Roxelana shuddered, gasping like she'd forgotten she didn't breathe, like the first night she'd woken up dead. Her eyes were staring, burning through Faith, to the pulsing blood beneath.

"Oh … fuck …"

Faith's fingers tangled in her hair, grounding her, keeping the want at bay, if only just barely.

"Lie down," Faith commanded softly, and Roxelana found herself sinking back on the mattress.

She saw Faith bite through the skin of her thumb, and suddenly the red was too close.

"Faith – I don't want you to see my other face–"

"I trust you."

"Don't! I don't. What if I–"

"Then trust that I am strong enough to deal with it." Faith raised an eyebrow, cocky. "I can take you."

And there was something reassuring about that arrogance. Something that made the helplessness bearable.

Faith leaned down and kissed her lightly, tenderly. Roxelana closed her eyes, felt Faith's thumb dripping blood on her lips. Her tongue snaked out against her will, and then the thumb was between her teeth. The blood thrummed through her, all her body was buzzing and the world throbbed darkly, brightly. She felt too alive. Too dead.

She knew the sensation, called it falling. Falling into an undead insecurity that refused to be satisfied with the bloody trickle and begged her to take, to kill.

But there was Faith. Holding her to the mattress, holding her to the memory of her humanity, holding her so she wouldn't fall.

Faith, smiling a little as Roxelana's tongue curled around her thumb. Lowering herself, teasing Roxelana's skin with her lips. As if she knew Roxelana's every sense was screaming with heightened awareness.

Faith, moving down her body. Her mouth leaving hot wet circles. Roxelana felt every movement, every kiss more deeply.

Touch had never felt more exquisite.

–:::–

The morning after her first night with Roxelana, Faith nearly died.

Roxelana was lounging in the curtained sitting room, flicking through a magazine, when Faith got back.

"You're smoking." Roxelana noted. "Tough day?"

Wisps of smoke floated off Faith's hair and shredded clothes. Through the rents in her jacket, Roxelana could see third-degree burns.

"Wish I was. Smoking, that is. God, I'm craving a smoke. Hell of a headache." Faith muttered. "Light me up? I tried, but my hands keep shaking. My whole nervous system's shot."

Roxelana could tell Faith was in a bad mood, because she hadn't made the expected comment about being 'smokin' hot'.

"What happened?" Roxelana asked, getting to her feet and reaching for the lighter in Faith's jean pocket.

"Lightning. The witchy kind." Faith said bitterly. "Seven times. Then I called it a day."

"Why're you back so late?" She glanced at the clock: it was mid-afternoon. "Lightning strikes pretty fast, doesn't it?" Roxelana handed Faith a lit cigarette.

"I was unconscious, I don't know how long. And then even after I woke up I was still paralysed. Damn." Faith took a deep drag to steady herself. "I'm a goddamn joke. I couldn't even get past the gates."

"Were you trying to break into somewhere?" Roxelana started helping Faith out of her jacket. She wanted to take a look at those burns.

"Yeah. Emphasis on the trying." Faith scowled. "Demon with an unhealthy addiction to virgins lives there. Kind of a big-shot in the demon world apparently. Anyway, I was gonna take him out, but I didn't bet on the magics around the house being able to keep a Slayer out."

"Oh right, yeah, I know that guy. Marlon, right?"

"You–" Faith reined in her anger. "Sure you do. I guess you know all the demons in the neighbourhood, huh."

Roxelana regarded her in silence, considering whether to reply to this, and decided against. "Get out of your clothes, baby." She said, leaving the room. Moments later she was back, brandishing a damp cloth and antiseptic spray. Faith hadn't moved.

"Baby. I know I'm the enemy, etcetera, but would you please just take off your clothes? There's nothing I didn't see last night, and besides, your clothes are ruined. You can put some of mine on. I just want to clean away the dead skin tissue and make sure you don't get an infection. Maybe your Slayer healing can replace all the skin that got burnt off and take care of the scarring, but I'm guessing the more damage you prevent the better. OK?"

Faith started to undress. Roxelana knew she'd won a small victory, but she kept the knowledge of it from her face. Pushing her luck here would be fatal. So she returned to the subject at hand, and tried to keep her thoughts on the rapidly undressing body beside her purely medical.

"Like you said, Marlon's a big-shot; he has all kind of warlocks and bodyguards on his payroll. It's suicide to go after him. Why him in particular?"

"I have to start somewhere," Faith replied, as Roxelana started work on her back. "And anyway it wasn't exactly on my agenda, I was just gonna check out all the cemeteries. Do my rounds, y'know. Then I saw this old guy having a private burial. It was his son, all in pieces. The boy went to get his sister back from that Marlon guy, and Marlon sent him back to his dad in a Krispy Kreme doughnut box. What was I supposed to do."

Faith smoked in furious silence for a moment. Then, "This is pathetic. How'm I supposed to go around saving people if I can't even take out one demon. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I'm out of my depth."

"Then get help." Roxelana suggested, dropping charred pieces of dead skin into a small bin at her side.

"Get help? I don't know anyone who can put lightning-firing gates out of commission. Well, Red could, I guess, but I can't ask her. Ouch!"

"It's the antiseptic." Roxelana said, and then, "I know a guy. Who could help out, I mean." she offered. "Couple of blocks from here, regular at the club downstairs. Dark warlocks are good at the whole black magic deal."

"I'm not asking favours from a dark warlock. I fight the dark, I don't work with it." Faith grimaced as Roxelana dabbed at the wound on her shoulder.

"You're being naïve, baby." Roxelana admonished her gently. "You just said it yourself, you can't do it alone. Besides, working with demons isn't the same as being all buddy-buddy with them."

"I could never work with demons knowing that all they'd be doing in their free time would be killing innocent people."

Roxelana smiled. "I have one word for you: racketeering."

"What does that mean?"

"It means extortion. It means making an offer they can't refuse – their health and safety in exchange for the removal of humans from their diet or whatever activities they engage in that involve humans."

"Isn't that illegal?"

"Think of it as a contract. Besides, does the law apply to demons? If it did they'd all be in gaol. That's what Slayers are for, right? You are the law when it comes to demons."

"I guess." Faith didn't like how Roxelana was making so much sense. "But that's only half the problem. Maybe I can work it so they're freaked enough they stop beating on humans, but then get them to work for me as well? No. Demons won't just work for free, I'd need to pay them. And I'm broke. No way I can find a job that pays enough either."

Roxelana shrugged. "I can cover that. You'd be surprised at how well five hundred years of careful saving and investment pay off."

"Get out. I don't want your charity. That's the reason I left Giles – my old … work associate. I'm not much for being dependent."

"Yeah, I'm beginning to see you have issues." Roxelana sighed. "Still, not a problem. I can get you a job at the club downstairs."

Faith looked at her sceptically. "Just get me a job? Just like that? Yeah right. I started a fight with one of their bartenders, they'll never hire me. Anyway, it was a bar, not a club. There wasn't any music all last night."

"It's a club. A demon club, as I'm sure you noticed. The staff is all-demon too. Remember how you went overboard with the vampire staking? AKA the massacre of my family? Yeah. Well, the DJ was one of mine. Hence the lack of music. I couldn't get a replacement at such short notice – you could have timed it better you know, instead of staking him a half-hour before the club opened."

"What do you mean you couldn't get a replacement at such short notice?"

"I mean I'm the manager." Roxelana said. "Don't tell me you didn't realise that before now?"

"Don't screw with me. You are not the manager." Faith replied. "No way are you the manager."

"Baby, I knocked the bartender out cold. Clubs throw people out for starting fights – we didn't get thrown out. They even kept serving us." She paused. "Did you ever see me pay for any of the drinks I got us? That's because I wasn't paying. Do I need to get the paperwork out?"

"You own a club. Shit." Faith was dazed.

"And I'm offering you a job."

Faith collected herself. "And I repeat, I don't want your charity. I don't want you to make up jobs for me to do just so you can give me money."

"Do you not listen to me, baby?" Roxelana asked, exasperated. "It's almost wholly a family business. Or it was, before you massacred my family. I'm massively short on staff. You remember me mentioning the lack of DJ? There is also a lack of bouncers and bar staff. Take your pick, the job's yours." Roxelana saw Faith hesitate. "C'mon. If I don't get the staff, the business is going to suffer. Which would be directly your fault, by the way. You owe me. I'm in deep shit."

"I'm–" the apology was halfway out of her mouth when Faith caught herself. "I'm not sorry." She said. "I don't regret killing your family. And I won't regret it if I end up having to kill some of your customers. I don't know if you can live with that."

Roxelana looked amused. "I haven't been living for five hundred years, baby. And if I had a problem with you and what you do, one of us would already be dead by now."

Faith started on her second cigarette.

"Can I be a bartender?" she said finally. And then suddenly, half-panicking, "does this mean I have to move out of your flat? You being my boss and all."

"Baby, you even try it and you're fired." Roxelana replied. "We set foot in the club, then I'm boss. We go demon-hunting, you're in charge. In between – we're free agents."

"You wanna go demon-hunting?" Faith asked curiously. "That includes vampires you know."

"What I want is to make sure you don't get struck by a lightning marathon again," Roxelana replied. "The flat smells like someone lit a bonfire in it."

–:::–

"Heya?" Roxelana picked up the phone.

"Can I please talk to Faith."

"Oh, hey Buffy. Sure. She's still asleep though. You're ringing kinda early, huh. Vitally important Slayer stuff, I guess?"

"Are you feeling OK?" Buffy asked cautiously.

"Sure, I'm great. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. You? Got any plans for today? Looks to be real sunny."

"Why are you being not-mean to me?"

"Huh?" Roxelana smiled, invisible to Buffy. "Guess I'm still all blissed out."

"Define 'blissed out', please. Is this your way of saying you're high?"

"C'mon, Buffy. Do I look like a junkie?"

"Blood junkie maybe."

"Do you ever lighten up? I'm trying to spare you the sordid deets."

"So you did go on a blood spree."

"Hey, I just had a very good night-in. Courtesy of Faith."

"I don't want to know."

"You were the one Inquisition-ing me … not like I told you any of the good parts, anyway." The smile had become a full-fledged grin.

"Can we talk about something else please? Is Faith really still asleep?"

"It's 7am on a Saturday, who isn't asleep at this time?" Roxelana replied. "Why don't you tell me what's so urgent you had to ring so early?"

"Well, I was on patrol last night–"

"Yeah, that is breaking news. Thanks for letting us know. Good call."

"Could we please put your oh-so-hilarious comments on hold until I finish?" Buffy snapped. "I found a mausoleum full of corpses."

"Shocker."

"Alright, I deserved that one." Buffy admitted, "But anyway, the corpses were fresh. And not in coffins. They all had fang marks too. It looks like a vampire's just been dumping them there. The weird thing was they all had this symbol cut into their chests, it looked kinda like – this is gonna sound so bizarre – but it looked like a pig's head on a stick."

"No." Roxelana suddenly found herself in danger of leaving bliss-land.

"What do you mean 'no'? You can't just straight out 'no' me for no reason–"

"I mean that's impossible. That symbol you described is a vampire tag, OK? And said vampire signed a contract in his own blood, saying that he wouldn't feed off humans – how recent were the kills?"

"You know who the killer is? And what is this contract stuff? You don't make deals with vampires–"

"Answer the question, Slayer."

"The most recent body died approximately forty-eight hours ago."

"Shit. Then he's screwed us over. I don't know how the hell – Faith saw him sign it – he should be in hell–"

"Well, obviously something went wrong. Now give me the 411 on this vampire, I'm taking him out. Right now."

A minute later Buffy hung up. As if on cue, Faith emerged from their bedroom, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"Morning." Faith yawned, "Just me or were you talking to yourself?"

"Buffy rang," Roxelana admitted, and broke the news to Faith. Watching Faith's face, always carefully blank and dispassionate when it came to business. Watching as that composure broke. Watching, and feeling helpless.

"Fuck." Faith said finally. She turned away so Roxelana couldn't watch anymore. "She's going after him? Hell if I let her. I'm ringing her back, give me the phone. It's up to me to take care of this, damn. The bastard's mine." Faith hurled the phone violently away. "She ain't picking up. Fuck!"

"Chill, baby, she's out hunting him as we speak. It'll be fine." Roxelana soothed. "Have breakfast, shower. Just let her do her thing."

"This ain't her thing, Roxy, it's mine! This is my problem, my screw-up, mine to fix–"

"Baby–"

"Don't interrupt me!" the roaring in her ears was getting worse and suddenly the room was too small. Her thoughts weren't making sense, she couldn't even hear them over the overpowering necessity to hurt, to kill; over the feeling that she had to hurt something to make her own pain go away – and then she felt her fists being prised open, hands holding her hands, fingers between her fingers. If it had been anyone else she would have wrenched away, if it had been Buffy she would have pulverised her. Roxy. Faith felt the anger leak away a little. Enough so that Roxelana stopped looking like the enemy.

And then, with an inaudible pop, the room grew back to its usual size and Faith could breathe again, and her head was quiet, and all she could hear was her heart trying to break out of her chest. "I'm sorry. Jeez, I'm so screwed up. Psycho, just like that. Damn."

"She really makes you crazy, huh." Roxelana chuckled.

"It's just – man, I don't even know. It's like nothing's changed, yo. I always screw up, and she always ends up in the shit because of it."

"I don't think she sees it like that."

–:::–

"Pigs' blood," Roxelana muttered, holding the contract Leicester had signed. "I should've checked it when you brought it back."

"Pigs' blood." Faith repeated. "How – shit. We were in the kitchen when he signed it. He was getting drinks. Shit. I'm so–"

"We're so." Roxelana corrected her. "It's OK. He's probably already dead. The Slayer'll be ringing us any second n–"

The telephone rang.

For a second Faith just stared at Roxelana in disbelieving silence. Then she dived for the phone. Roxelana mimed getting a drink and left discreetly.

"Sup, B."

"Faith? Hey." Buffy's voice sounded tense.

"How did it go?" Faith was suddenly dreading the answer.

"Not so great." Buffy muttered. "This is more than a one Slayer job. I didn't get a good look, but it seemed like about a hundred or so demons altogether. I – I ran away, Faith."

"Talk to me, B." Because talking herself would have been impossible just then. Since when do you run from anything, B?

"It's Leicester. Turns out he's going for small-scale domination. Just Cleveland, for now anyway, but people will suffer."

"What?" Faith almost couldn't believe her ears. "He's ambitious, sure, but I never thought power-hungry–"

"Believe it," Buffy's voice cut her off, feeding Faith's anger for Leicester. "I found more bodies. With his mark. He's started–"

Buffy's voice died in her ear. "B? B, what's happening?" Faith took the phone from her ear, ready to run to Buffy's flat to check she hadn't just been attacked.

Then she saw her phone, crushed to a pulp in the place she had been holding it.

"Shit!"

Faith flung the phone down. So damn mad. Why is it always this way? Arh, don't let the inner crazy take over … She rushed out of her flat, on to the street and into the nearest pay-phone booth.

"B?"

"Faith, are you OK? What just happened?" Buffy gushed, full of alarm.

"Um. Yeah. I kinda broke my phone. It was getting old … y'know how it is." Faith shuffled from foot to foot in embarrassment. "Anyway, you were saying?"

She could almost hear Buffy scrambling to remember her thoughts, what she had been about to say.

"Leicester's in the process of, or has already completed, some ritual. That probably means we've got something big and demon-y to deal with."

Faith paused. "What do you mean 'we'?"

Now it was Buffy's turn to pause. "I mean there are hundreds of Slayers now, nearly five hundred of which work with me. So we – that's you, Chazza, Trudy and me – wait for back-up. Then we go in. I'm thinking dawn is a good time: vamps will be settling down for the day and reinforcements will have arrived by then–"

"Don't do this, B." Faith interrupted her softly.

"Don't do what? Help us win?"

"Stop taking charge, making this your battle."

"What are you talking about? This – fighting demons – is always my battle. And I can't help it if I have incredible leadership skills," she joked, but Faith wasn't laughing.

"B." she said seriously, "The rest of the world is yours. But this city is mine. You are not in charge."

She heard Buffy sucking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly before speaking: forcing herself not to start giving orders and treating Faith as though she were her soldier. Buffy couldn't afford to lose her temper and push Faith away at a time like this. So she gave in. Grudgingly. "I know that, Faith. You're the boss here. Sure." She hesitated, because it wasn't in her to give in to anyone. "I'm just saying – you don't have to do this alone. We have help now. Let me help you."

"B, I'm not alone."

And with that Buffy lost her composure. "Faith, this is not the time to trust vampires and demons!" All Buffy could see was Roxelana's face swimming on the backs of her eyes. Don't even get me started on the fact that you hid Leicester Cube from me, don't get me started on how stupid this working-with-demons concept is. Don't get me started on that goddamn vampire you trust!

But Faith was unshakeable. "I've been trusting them with my life ever since I got here, B. And I'm still here." Faith said calmly.

"I don't want to see you get stabbed in the back!"

"I made my choice when I started working with demons. You just need to have faith in me." Faith said simply, and then hammered the point bluntly home: "I don't want you or your Slayers anywhere near, OK?"

"Of course it isn't OK." Buffy gritted her teeth. "Why won't you let me help you? If this has anything to do with what happened before with Roxy then you know I'm sorr–"

"It has nothing to do with that." Faith didn't want apologies. "Listen, this is not a priority for you: the world is your priority. Small-scale shit, that's me. I can take care of it." Faith considered briefly not finishing what she wanted to say, but decided it had to be said. "I don't want your help, because I don't need it, B. This ain't an apocalypse."

Buffy tried not to be hurt, but it was hard. She wanted Faith to need her. But she had to let her go her own way. "OK. Just–" she sighed, "take a cell or something with you, alright? And call me." She rushed on to stop Faith from interrupting her. "Even if you don't need help, just call me when it's done, OK?"

Faith's laugh rumbled softly down the phone, letting Buffy know that everything was still alright between them. "OK," she said.

She didn't have to ask where the trouble was. There could be only one place.