Chapter Nine
I don't know when I'd been knocked out, but when I come to, I'm shackled to a wall and Faith is right next to me, still out cold. The room is damp and dark and I try to make out where we are and I know we're still inside the building. I can hear voices not too far away, voices that without a doubt belonged to Falken and the woman that was with him, Vivienne.
"Faith?" I say softly as I nudge her leg with mine. "Faith, wake up."
"Ugh god, my head," she groans softly after a moment, but doesn't open her eyes. "Jesus, how much did I drink last night?"
"You didn't drink last night," I state softly, trying to stay calm and patient. "Faith, open your eyes."
"The fuck?" Faith mutters as she opens her eyes and looks around the room before looking over at me. "Jesus, I thought I was dreaming again. Just as fucked up as those dreams I been having lately."
I try to gain some leverage to break free of the shackles around my wrists and feet, but the more I struggle, the more the rough metal digs into my skin. I look over at Faith, watching her as she tries to do the same and she lets out a frustrated growl as she gives up.
"The hell is going on, B?"
"I don't know, but I think it's a pretty safe guess to say we're being held captive by our newest big bad," I reply sarcastically. Faith sighs and I know she's delirious. How many times can a girl be knocked out before she slips into another coma? "You okay, Faith?"
"Fuckin' peachy considering, you know the whole situation of being shackled to a wall in a fuckin' underground Hell city!"
She's freaking out. I've never seen her freak out like this and something tells me I'm going to see a lot more of this side of her. I move a little closer to her, the chain attached to the shackles gave me just enough slack to move right next to her. She was shaking and gritting her teeth and she seemed a little more than surprised when she turned to look at me.
"What're you doing, B?"
I reach for her hands and tug on the shackles around her wrists, trying to break them. "Isn't it obvious? I'm trying to get us out of here."
"Already know we ain't getting outta these," she mutters softly as she licks over her lips and I'm suddenly very aware how close I am to her. "There's some kind of magic mojo on these things, B. Don't waste your effort on this shit."
"So, what are we supposed to do then, Faith?"
"Dunno, B. You seem like 'plan-girl' right now, you tell me," she snaps and I lean back against the wall and shake my head slowly. "Look, neither of us want to be here right now. Shoulda known we were gonna walk into nothing but trouble down here."
"How right you are," Falken says as he walks into the room holding a candle that he places on the floor a few feet away from us. "I heard you and your little band of Slayers came down here the other night. Oh, how I wished I could have met you all then, instead of just you two now. It could've been a party, huh girls?"
Neither of us says a word as Falken crouches in front of us, just out of reach. He looks so human it's uncanny and it's no wonder he's gone unnoticed for as long as he has. He looks nothing more than just a boy, barely a man, but his eyes tell another story. His eyes show depth, age, wisdom even. He stares over at us, almost as if he can't believe his eyes that he has not one, but two Slayers being held captive.
"I've heard about you two," he says slowly, not moving as a smile forms over his lips. "Buffy and Faith, am I right? Jesse Falken, pleasure to meet you," he laughs as he holds out a hand and quickly takes it back. "Oh that's right, got you two chained to the wall. Proper introductions really can't happen right now. I'm sure you two are wondering why I am holding you here now, right? Any guesses? Go on, don't be shy."
"Fuck you," Faith spats out as her rage begins to consume her. I knew it'd happen eventually. She always snaps after she panics.
"Feisty one, isn't she?" Falken laughs as he turns to look at me. "But of course you already know that, don't you, Buffy?"
"Why don't you go fuck yourself?" Faith says through gritted teeth as she begins to struggle against the shackles.
"Faith, don't," I hiss at her, not taking my eyes off of Falken. He doesn't seem to be bothered by Faith's actions and words, which is a bit of a relief because I don't know how I'd handle seeing him hurt her, kill her even.
"You know what really gets me?" Falken asks as he stands up and begins to pace in front of us. "Here I thought I could use you two to help me open a couple Hellmouths, but then, as fate would have it, I find out that the ritual has gone and changed on me."
"You ain't gonna get away with this, asshole," Faith says under her breath as she turns to look at me for a moment. I try not to look back at her, but I find it hard to resist looking into her eyes.
"I need the blood of a new, young Slayer. And since you two are neither new nor young, I'm afraid I have no purpose for you. Isn't that something else?" He laughs as he shakes his head and pulls out a pack of cigarettes, lighting one as he looks over at Faith. "Bet you could really use one right now too, huh?"
"Damn right I could."
"Smoking kills, you know?"
"Don't care. Plenty of other things that could kill me."
Falken laughs as he walks up to Faith and offers her the lit cigarette. She shakes her head no and he shrugs and backs up. He continues pacing, looking like he's having a completely separate conversation with himself in his head as he mutters incoherently under his breath.
"So, now here's the thing," Falken says as he looks down at us as he stops pacing. "If I let you go, you'll try to kill me, won't you?"
"Is that a stupid question or what, B?" Faith asks me quietly and I have to fight not to laugh.
"If I don't let you go, now," he laughs as he shakes his head, "wouldn't that be fun to see what'll happen if I keep you two down here? I never had any pet Slayers before. Man, I bet everyone would be so jealous. Then again, I'm sure everyone would try to kill me too so you see, this isn't a win/win situation at all."
He crouches down in front of Faith and holds out the cigarette. I shake my head no at her, but she takes it and smirks as she takes a long drag before he takes it back. I sigh out softly and lean my head back against the wall.
"I can be quite hospitable. I can't let my distinguished guests feel uncomfortable. You know, aside from the shackles which are keeping you two from killing me and leaving."
"You got some mommy issues or something, Falk?" Faith asks as she laughs in his face. "Yeah, you definitely have mommy issues."
"I never had a mother, fancy that," Falken says as he begins pacing again, Faith's words not fazing him at all. "I believe you have mommy issues too, Faith."
"Fuck that, you don't-"
"Oh I know all about you. Just as I know everything about you, Buffy," he says as he looks down at me, smirking when I don't even blink. "I've been watching you for a long time now. A very long time. You've impressed me countless of times, but for some very strange reason, you've disappointed me too."
"Don't talk to us like you know us. You don't know us," Faith nearly growls and I look over at her and see the intense fire of rage burning in her eyes as she tugs on the shackles almost violently.
Falken just laughs as he makes his way to the door and without a word-just a smile that makes my skin crawl-he leaves us there in the room, slamming the heavy wooden door shut behind him with a loud thud and a click as he locks us in.
"Fuck!" Faith screams out, tugging on her shackles again for a few minutes before giving up and slumping back up against the wall. "How long you think it'll be before the others come looking for us, B?"
"Not sure. When we don't come back in the morning, I'm sure they'll come looking for us. Giles knows that this mission was dangerous, they all know-"
"This is why it is so fucking careless that we came down here alone! We should've had backup, B."
"You didn't seem to have a problem coming down here just you and me," I point out, struggling to keep my own anger in check. It was bad enough I was fighting my fear from taking over right now. "We didn't know this was going to happen, Faith! Don't beat yourself up over it. We'll get out of this, okay?"
"Don't fuckin' coddle me like I'm a kid or let's say," she sneers as she licks over her lips slowly, "Satsu."
"Don't start, Faith."
"You gonna tell her we fucked and how fuckin' amazing it was, B? You gonna tell her how much better it is with me? How I can make you cream in seconds? Bet she can't do it in less than five minutes. Gotta give it to her, she's cute and all, but she ain't got nothing on me."
If I wasn't shackled to the wall, I'd slap her. Hard. How can she make me so damned angry and so...so turned on that it's almost unbearable? I stare into her eyes long and hard and I know she knows the affect she has on me and she knows what kind of power she has over me now. It shouldn't have gotten this far and I know it, but it has and it's too late to change everything back to the way it was before I made the stupid mistake of having sex with her.
I'm shaking, mostly from the anger and the internal struggle I'm having with myself and I tug on the shackles with all my strength and cry out as they break away from the wall. Faith raises both eyebrows in surprise as I grab onto the chains and pull hers out of the wall. I'm about to reach for the shackles on my ankles when she grabs me and pulls me in for a bruising kiss. I try to push her away, but it only makes her hold me closer, her fingers digging into the back of my head as she kisses me harder.
My head is swimming and I have no idea how it got to this or why she's the one who kissed me when the last thing we should be doing right now is this. We're halfway free of the shackles, and yet neither of us can seem to stop kissing each other. I pull back from her slowly, my eyes feeling heavy as I look over at her. She seems a little dazed, like she can't believe what she just did, but it passes quickly and she tries to get the shackles off from around her ankles. I let out a soft sigh as I lick over my tingling lips slowly and I'm starting to wonder if every time we kiss is going to feel just like this. It sends a spark through me, a spark of passion, of life, and of arousal that seems to switch on in an instant with just a look from her now.
The shackles snap with a lot more ease than the ones that had been on our wrists and I'm still sitting here feeling slightly dazed as she moves to break me free of mine. She stands up as soon as I'm free and reaches down for a hand and pulls me up to my feet.
"Let's haul ass," she whispers as she makes her way over to the door and listens for a minute. I look around the small, windowless room and lean against the far wall, sighing heavily as I try to figure out what the hell that kiss was about. A few decoy stones fall away from the wall behind me, revealing a small window. Faith turns and laughs as she walks over. "Great, B. Found us an escape. Don't know what I'd do without you."
"Let's just get out of here," I say as she breaks the window.
It's a good three storey's down to the ground, but it's nothing for us to jump down. I climb out first and jump down to the hard ground below, stumbling as I struggle to stay on my feet. Faith is right behind me and we don't even say a word, don't even look at one another as we try to get out of here without being seen. Or worse, caught by Falken again. She grabs onto my hand as we run through the streets, dodging small groups of vampires every couple of blocks.
I don't think we stopped running, not even after we got out of the cave and headed for the house. The sun was just rising over the horizon and Faith stopped about a block away from the house, holding her hand up as she gasped for breath. I breathed in deeply a few times and shook my head as Faith bent forward, hands on her knees, and tried to breathe without gagging.
"This is why you shouldn't smoke, Faith."
"Shut up, B," she rasps as she inhales deeply, coughing as she stands up straight. "Little winded. Not the end of the world here. At least we got the hell outta there. But damn, if I ain't starving right now. What about you? Hungry, B?"
"Starving, but now is not the time to be thinking about food," I reply as I slowly start walking towards the house. "We need to let Giles know what happened."
"Could wait a little while. Know of a great little diner a few blocks away that has the best breakfast sausages you'll ever put in your mouth."
"Don't tempt me," I laugh as she jogs a little to catch up to me, still gasping and panting for air.
"They have great coffee there too, I know you'll need your fix, might as well join me," Faith says, flashing me a smile when I turn to look at her that nearly melts my heart on the spot. "What do you say, B?"
"Is this like a...date?"
"No!" Faith chuckles as she puts her arm casually around my shoulders. "Don't do dates. Just breakfast between two friends who happen to have some amazing sexual chemistry together."
"After what we just went through, I really don't understand how you can act like nothing just happened," I sigh as I shrug her arm off me. "Rain check though?"
"Whatever," she shrugs and rolls her eyes as we walk the rest of the way to the house in silence.
I keep looking behind us as we walk home, half expecting to see Falken following us. But there's nobody there aside from the odd person out to take their dogs for a morning stroll. It makes me laugh softly at how naive everyone really is. They don't know of the danger that really lurks in the dark and I know if it weren't for us to keep it that way, they wouldn't even be alive right now. Sometimes I'd give nothing more to go back to being that naive about the world around me.
But what I can't understand is how Faith can take what just happened so lightly and then act as if nothing has happened. And I'm not just talking about what happened down in Hell city with Falken, I'm talking about what has been happening between us very recently. Then again, it is Faith we're talking about here and she's pulled up that mask she always has on, the one that gives her confidence to go on with life like normal. Or at least as normal as it gets when it comes to her and her life.
She stops when we reach the front door and she turns to look at me, her face showing a thousand questions I know she'll never ask me. I have a thousand questions for her right now too, one of which is why she'd kissed me down there seemingly out of the blue. Was I really sending her mixed signals without realizing it? Or was this just years of sexual tension, and otherwise, finally coming to an end and giving her permission to proceed to take what she wanted from me?
I have to stop thinking about this. I have to stop thinking about her. It's dangerous and it's irresponsible, especially when we have to deal with Falken right now. So why can't I stop? Why can't I stop wanting to kiss her again, to let her take me like she took me the other night? Granted, I took what I wanted from her too. I can't stop feeling so guilty about it either. The guilt is over cheating on Satsu, over feeling so damned good just being around Faith, over feeling that despite how wrong this all is that it feels so right.
"You think the others waited up for us?" Faith asks finally after what feels like hours of us just standing there. "B?" She laughs as she waves a hand in front of my face until I snap out of my daze.
"I don't know. Guess we'll find out in a minute, right?"
"You think we were lucky getting away like that or do you think Falken had this planned the whole time?"
"I don't know, Faith," I sigh as I shake my head and step forward towards the door only to be stopped by her. "I don't know anything anymore."
"You still talking about the sitch with Falken or something else?"
"Something else," I reply softly as her hands move to come to rest on my hips as she takes a step closer to me. "What are we doing, Faith?"
"Beats me, B. Doing what feels good, what feels right," she shrugs as she pulls me slowly into her, smiling a little when I let her without resisting. "Don't think I'm going and fallin' in love with you now."
"Love? Did I say anything about love?"
"I know the look," she whispers and she leans in to kiss me softly. "We're just fucking, B. It's all it's ever gonna be. Either you're down for it, or you ain't and if you ain't, you better tell me now."
I don't say no even though I know I should and I don't stop her from kissing me again. I bite down on her lower lip as she unbuttons my jeans and deftly slides her hand down the front, cupping my pussy as I try to back her up against the door. She moves us away from the door as she circles my clit with her fingers slowly. My head is spinning, my body is on fire, and even knowing I should put a stop to this now because it's gone way too far too fast, I don't. I can't. Things are about to get real bad, real fast. I know it.