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Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns and created all of the Buffy characters. I own the rights the original characters and this computer though.
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Hilton
Laguna Beach, California
June 15, 2007
4:35pm
Faith wakes up with a jerk. Forgetting her surroundings or what she did last night, she rolls over and advertly hits the hotel employee in the head with her forearm. Her 'late night guest' groans and rolls over. Faith sits up and looks around, very confused.
'All right, I'm in a, what looks like, a very expensive room. There is a very young looking man lying next to me…' she pauses her thought and looks under the sheet that is covering her nakedness, '…and I'm naked. What the hell did I do last night?'
She looks down at the young man and a sultry grin arises on her face, 'How many time did we do it?' Before she could ponder that thought, the adjoining room door opens to reveal a grinning Demitri standing at the doorway with his arms crossed.
"Good morning, slayer. I hope you didn't break the poor kid," Demitri said as he walked over to a table and picks up a chair.
Faith is looking at awe as Demitri walked passed her. He is still wearing the black wife-beater from last night and some black track pants. Most of is hair is tucked behind his ears except for a couple of strands draped over his eyes.
'Dear brain, remind me to thank Angel for sending me this perfect specimen.' Faith thought as she unconsciously licked her lips.
Demitri spins the chair around and straddles the chair, "Did you even get his name?" Demitri looks around and turns his attention to the door. The scene looked like a map of lust to the man's eyes. Next to the door was a ripped shirt and pants to boot. The only thing missing was the shoes until he looked down at the end of the bed to see the still on had them on.
"It looks and 'sounded' like the kid was raped." Demitri mentioned as he looked around.
"I didn't hear him complain and besides I was horny. I haven't had any since Sunnydale went up in smoke. You go to jail for almost four years and you tell me." Faith said visibly irritated.
Demitri just stares at her, 'I can't blame her plus I doubt any man could resist a woman literally throwing herself on them.'
Faith's irritation slowly seeped away as she looked at Demitri, who was in deep thought, 'I must be losing my edge. Every time look him…'
"Get up and get dressed, we have things to deal with before we leave the city."
Faith is knocked out of her train of thought and stands up, forgetting for a moment that she naked. Demitri, for the first time gets a good look at the naked slayer, 'Not bad.'
Faith, now not caring, walks past Demitri, lightly brushing her arm against his shoulder. He just sits there with a smirk on his face. She continues to the bathroom until she gets to the doorframe and turns around to face Demitri, "Could you tip the kid for me? I would but…" she rubs her thighs sensually, "I have no pockets."
"Faith… take your shower." Demitri said without looking at the slayer.
Faith looked hurt, 'He didn't even turn around.' She turns and walks into the bathroom with slam of the door.
Demitri turns and looks at the bathroom door and smiles, "Very nice."
Demitri gets off his chair and places it back next to the table. He then turns his attention to the hotel employee, who was still asleep. He walks over and shakes the kid awake.
"Mmm… use that tongue, girl." The kid moaned as he slowly woke up. The kid was startled when he found he was staring up at the well-toned man.
"Who are you?" The kid asked.
"Don't worry about it, kid. Last night was your lucky night." Demitri said with a smile.
"That was the best tip I have ever got."
Demitri looks down at the tattered clothes on the ground, "Well it seems your clothes are beyond repair. Hopefully you have spare clothing some where, kid"
The kid looks down at his clothes and back at Demitri, "Yes, sir. Down in my locker."
Demitri nods and looks around. He finds a robe hanging off the door and hands it the kid. He quickly puts it on and heads for the door.
"Hold it." Demitri exclaimed.
The young hotel employee stops in his tracks waiting for the worst.
"What's your name, kid?"
"Franklin, sir."
Demitri smiles and digs in his pocket. The kid closes his eyes and thinks of the worst until Demitri grabs his hand. The kid opens one of his eyes and looks down at the wad of cash in his hand.
"What's this for, sir?" The kid asked nervously.
"That's you're your actual tip, kid. I'm glad you were able to lose your virginity to that woman. She seems to have a reputation of breaking cherries."
"How did you know I was a virgin?"
Demitri gives him a 'are you shitting me' look, "Stop asking questions and get going."
Without another word, the kid opens the door and runs out the room.
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20 Minutes Later…
Faith finished her shower and got dressed in an empty room. Feeling loneliness creeping up on her she picked up the cell-phone that Demitri had gotten her the day before. She dials a number and presses send. She waits a few moments and then she rolls her eyes.
"Fuckin' voice mail," Faith sighs.
"Hey, you have just reached my voice mail. Please leave your name and number. I'll get to it as soon as possible. Peace."
"Wasup, Wood… It's good to hear your voice… This is Faith by the way. I just called to let you know that I was released from prison yesterday. So, you know, call me back when you get this message. Late."
And with the closing of the cell-phone, the call was ended. Faith feels a tear roll down her eye and wipes it away.
"Girl, you're getting soft. First, you go gah-gah over some guy like a cheerleader with a crush. Then you cry over some guy who may have gotten on with his life. Get a grip."
With those last words, she falls to the floor and lets the tears flow. She grabs her knees and begins to rock back and forth. From the adjacent door, stands Demitri looking down at the Slayer with pain in his eyes.
"The pain of one individual is felt by everyone, whether it be directly or indirectly." Demitri quoted under his breath.
Demitri quietly closed the door and let the Slayer let out four and a half years of pain.
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Hilton
Laguna Beach, California
June 15, 2007
10:00pm
Faith wakes up very slowly on the bed and begins to contemplate on how she got there until she looked at the balcony window. Demitri was standing on the balcony, smoking cigarette, and watching the evening lights.
Faith gets out of bed, walks over to the balcony window, and taps. Demitri opens the window without turning around, allowing the Slayer out. She leans on the balcony wall and lets out a sigh.
"What time is it?"
Demitri lifts up his arm and looks at his watch, "It's 10:04."
Faith turns to look down at the lights below, "How did I end up on the bed?"
"You cried your self to sleep. After about an hour, I came in and put you in your bed."
Faith turns to him with a genuine smile, "Thanks."
Demitri finally turns his attention to the misguided soul, "For a woman who has gone through hell, you put up a very good front."
A sad smile creeps on the face of Faith, "From everything I have gone through in my life, I have too."
Demitri looks at her with pain in his eyes then back at the lights below, "From my experience, if you allow the past to dictate your actions in the present, then your life will slowly spin out of control."
Faith snickers, "Sometimes, I wonder if I'm talking to you or G-Man."
"G-Man?"
Faith laughs, "That's Giles' nickname. Xander gave it to him."
"You mean the man who lost his eye to Caleb."
Faith looks at him with a look of shock, "How do you know about that?"
Demitri smiles a bit, "Your Watcher gave me files on everyone who is associated with Giles. Well, everyone alive."
'I've got to find away to look at those files.' Faith thought as she walked back into the room.
Demitri followed suit and went back in the room, "So, how are you feeling now?"
Faith flops down on the easy chair in front of the TV and exhales, "Five by five, D."
Demitri nods then walks over to the TV and turns it on, catching the last of the newscast.
"…So to remind people, the curfew has been set to 11:00pm. Anyone caught outside during the curfew, will spend night in jail. Again, the curfew… We've just got word that the mayor's 10 year old son has been kidnapped from their…"
Demitri turns off the TV before all of the information is given. Demitri looks at Faith, who is looking at Demitri with confusion.
"We have to go." Demitri said matter-of-factly as he walks to the adjacent door.
"What are you talking about? Go where?"
Demitri stopped at the door to his room, "Look, I'm only going to say this once more. We have to go… now!"
Faith winced at his tone, then followed him to his room, "Who in the fuck do you think you are talking too?"
Demitri turns and looks at Faith deadest eyes, "Look here, slayer. You want answers… then you grab your shit and head down to the car. And if you don't move your ass, I will move it for you."
Faith was about to retaliate until she saw his eyes. They were cold with no emotion, frightening her to the core.
Without another word, she goes back into her room and grabs her stuff, 'Somethin' goin' on around here and its get D on edge. Whatever it is, I wouldn't want to be in its shoes.'
Faith packs her things and heads down the hall to find many of the hotels patrons standing around, extremely nervous.
"Did you hear about the mayor's son? Taken from their own home. What the hell is going on?" A male patron rambled on.
"It doesn't make since, we haven't had anything like this happen for the last four years. The only thing that happens in this town now a days are people going klepto," a woman mentions.
Faith walks past the frightened people and into the elevator. She looks out the elevator window to see many car headlights in the hotel parking lot leaving.
'Something's got them spooked. But what?' Faith questions herself as the elevator doors open. She found herself in the middle of chaos. The hotel is crammed full of people coming and going. People were getting trampled including a seven-year-old girl who was crying for her mom. Faith rushes in and pushed some of the people out of the way.
"Move it, lard ass," Faith said to a very wide man as she pushed past him to get the little girl.
The heavy man didn't take Faith words lightly and pushed the slayer to the ground, "Who in the hell are you calling lard ass, toothpick?"
Faith is about to get up when she sees Demitri behind the man with the little girl on his arm. The fat man notices Faith's attention was diverted to a person behind him. The man turns around to find Demitri staring holes into him.
"What the fuck do you want?"
Demitri just grabs the man's shoulder and shoves him out of the way with out any effort, which Faith noticed. Demitri, with the little girl in hand, picks up Faith and head towards the door.
When they get outside, they find a woman and a man screaming for their daughter. Demitri leaves Faiths side and puts the girl back down on the ground. The little girl grabs on to Demitri's hand as he maneuvers through the crowd getting in and out of the hotel.
Demitri looks down at the little girl, "Is that your mother?"
The little girl looks through the crowd and sees the man and woman screaming for their daughter. The girl nods her head and they both walk up to the couple. When the mother saw her child, she ran up and picked her up off the ground.
"I was so worried you were kidnapped," the woman said through tears, "Where were you honey?"
The little girl pointed to inside the hotel and then she pointed to Demitri, "He helped me."
Demitri smiles at the little girl and then to her mother. Both the mother and father mouth thank you to Demitri and with a wink he begins to walk away.
Faith watches the interaction between him and the little girl and something clicks, 'He was wiggin' out when he heard about the mayor's son going missing. And with this little girl…' Faith is knocked out of her train of thought when Demitri grabs her arm.
"We have to go," Demitri said sternly. Faith picks up her bags and heads to the car. Demitri takes her bags and throws them into the trunk and opens Faith's door.
"Always the gentlemen, D?" Faith asks playfully.
Demitri gives the same dead look as when they were up in the room. Faith believing that if she said something else would anger the man in front of her she gets into the car.
Demitri gets in to the car and they tear off into the darkness.
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North Coast Highway
Laguna Beach, Ca
June 15, 2007
11:10pm
Faith and Demitri drive in silence until Faith notices they are going to the out skirts of Laguna Beach. Faith, getting very frustrated, turns to Demitri.
"Look here, you bipolar son of a bitch… You need to tell me what is going on around here or you can let me off now."
Demitri quickly pulls off the road and gets out of the car. Faith follows suit and steps out of the car prepared to start walking.
Demitri moves to the trunk of the car and opens it. Faith preparing to have her bags thrown at her is surprised when Demitri passes her a titanium stake.
Faith looks at the stake and then at Demitri with confusion, 'What is going on here?'
Demitri dips back down into the trunk and flips a switch to reveal a numeric touch pad. He presses the numbers 2055 and a latch opens up revealing an arsenal.
Demitri turns to an awe-struck slayer, "It seems for the last four days, people have been going missing, if you haven't noticed. As of 10:30 tonight, there is twenty-five people missing from their homes. I called Giles last night and let him know about this development. He had the individual that was tailing Jonathon and Andrew find out if the missing persons were that of a supernatural nature. He called and told me there was a vampire hive here in town."
Faith rolls her eyes, "I haven't been out of prison more than twenty-four hours and I have to deal with this."
Faith then begins to ponder something, "What a sec… The people in this town must've had somethin' like this before. A woman at the hotel said they haven't had any disappearances like this for about for years," and then it hits her like a Mack truck.
"Four years ago, Sunnydale's Hellmouth was destroyed."
"Not only that but a year later, the senior partners were reduced to one member. From what Giles sent me, the vampiric activity around the Hellmouth dwindled down to one incident happening every year, in which he sent a slayer to take it out. Something's made vampiric activity sky rocket."
Faith looks around at her surroundings, "So what's the plan then?"
"We find the hive and take it out. Find the child and any other survivors and get them to safety."
Demitri closes the trunk and heads to the car door when he stops. Faith looks at Demitri for a moment when realizes why Demitri stops. A drop of water falls on Faith's hand, which makes her look up. Clouds quickly cover the moon.
"And the land will be showered with the tear's of fallen angels," Demitri whispers to himself.
Faith looks up at the sky and sighs, "Things can't get any worse."
Red and blue lights flash at the pair.
"Fuck!"
Demitri looks at his watch to see that it was now 11:15pm, past the city's curfew. Faith looks at Demitri with fear, 'Threat or no threat, I'm not going back to jail.'
Demitri turns to Faith, "Don't say a word. I'll handle this."
Two male police officers get out of the vehicle and walk up two the potential troublemakers.
"Good evening," one officer said.
"Good evening, officer. Is there something I could do for you?" Demitri decided to play this straight. Last thing he needed was trouble. Faith notices how tense the officers are as they walk towards them.
"Can I ask where were you heading?" The other officer asked as he pulled out his baton. Demitri and Faith notice this and become defensive.
"We were heading into town but my engine stalled. I was about to check the engine when it started to rain."
The officer closest to Faith began to circle around her with a menacing look.
"The city is now under martial law. There have been many disappearances in the county. You wouldn't know anything about that would you?" The officer with the baton asked, as he got closer.
Demitri stands his ground and is about to answer when Faith pipes up, "It's like he told you. We were on our way into town, when the car died. Now if you don't mind, we're getting wet and we would like to get to someplace that is dry."
"Was I talkin' to you?" The officer yelled. He turns his attention back to Demitri, whose attention was on the other officer that was now behind the rogue slayer.
"So are you going to answer me, sir?"
Demitri looks back at the officer and then tilts his head to the side, "My sister and I are heading in town to see our mother. We had no clue about the missing persons thing, but I do have a question for you officer."
"And what would that be, sir?"
Demitri smirks a little bit, "What happened to the cops that you stole those uniforms from? Did you turn them or did you suck them dry"
The officer's smile went to amazement and then the facial features went demonic. The officer behind Faith was about to bit down on her neck when quickly was reduced to ash. Faith turns around see the vampire in cop clothing pounce onto Demitri. Demitri uses the vampire's momentum and launches him, landing with a thud behind Demitri, dropping his baton.
Demitri nips up and turns to the fallen vampire. Grabbing him by the neck, Demitri drags the vampire to hood of the cop car. Demitri holds the vampires neck and turns his attention to the awe-struck slayer.
"Faith… stake!"
Faith cautiously walks to Demitri and hands him the stake. Demitri quickly grabs the stake and slams it in the middle of the abdomen, pinning the helpless vampire to the car hood.
'That vamp was strugglin' under D. It's like the vamp was havin' trouble gettin' away. Who the hell is this guy?'
The vampire began to laugh at the mysterious man, "I don't know who you are but you have made a big mistake."
Demitri's eye go back to the lifeless void, "Where's the mayor's son?"
The vampire spit into Demitri's face and laughed again. Demitri wipes his face and bends down closer to the vampire, "Last chance, where is the mayor's son, demon?"
Again the vampire spits in Demitri face, "Go fuck yourself."
Demitri, wiping his face one more time, walks over to his trunk and opens the latch. He pulls out what Faith saw as a gun.
"That'll never work on him." Faith piped.
Demitri looks at Faith and for the first time, she was scared of the man in front of her. Even with all the things she has seen in her life, the look he gave her frightened her to the core. Even with his wet hair in his face, she couldn't help but shiver at the intensity his body language.
Demitri, without a word, turns back to the vampire pinned on the car.
"You know she's right. That shit doesn't work on me."
Demitri stands in front of the vampire and aims.
Bang… Bang… Bang… Bang…
Demitri stands motionless as the smoke from the gun exits the barrel. Faith stands their watching not knowing whether to run from the man in front of her or take him out. Her body would not function, it was like her body would not do what she commanded it do. She forgot that not only was she a vampire slayer but she was also human. She was scared stiff.
The vampire laughs at Demitri who is lowering his gun, "You can't kill me with bullets. I'm immortal, fucker."
Demitri slicks his hair back so the vampire can see the smile on his face, "You're only immortal, demon, until you are killed by either a stake to the heart, decapitation, sunlight…"
The vampire laughs until he feels something happening to his body. He looks down at his body and his eyes go wide. He watches as his body slowly turning to ash.
Looks back up at Demitri who looking down at him with the same smile, "Or if the weapon one is using is blessed."
The vampire looks at the gun and notices the hilt of the gun has a cross on the gun. The vampire looks back up at the man looking down at him one last as his head evaporates into dust. The rain slowly washes away the ashes of the hood of the car leaving the titanium stake. Demitri puts the gun back in the trunk and then grabs the stake.
Faith gains enough control over her body to finally speak, "Okay… Overkill."
Demitri doesn't respond and gets in the car. Faith quickly regains all control of her body and gets in the car. Wanting a response, she questions Demitri's tactics.
"What the fuck is your damage? What if you were wrong? What if these vamps were human? What if…"
"The vampire circling you had blood on his collar and it was fresh. And besides that has never stopped you before, Faith." Demitri said coldly as he turned to face her.
Faith's rage boils over and she grabs his shirt, "I've made my mistakes and paid for them. You, of all people, have no right to judge me. You think you're so righteous. You think that you can just kill anyone who stands in your way?"
Demitri grabs Faith's wrist and squeezes, making her let go of his shirt, "Whether they were they were human or vampire, I would have taken them out one way or another. Unlike Giles or your friends, human life means nothing to me. My job to hunt and kill whoever has a contract on them."
Faith feels the pressure of Demitri's hand wrapped around her wrist. Since she was Called, she had never felt this type of pain since her encounter with Kakistos. Then the words began to sink in and pulled away from his grip like his touch was acid, "You're a hitman?"
Demitri looks down for a moment and then puts his hand on the steering wheel.
"Are ya here to kill me?" Faith asks with a very child-like tone.
Demitri starts the car and then turns to the prone slayer, "If was going to kill you, I would have done it at the prison."
Demitri puts the car in gear and drives off.
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Faith just looks at the man next to her like fear. The man she thought was a lawyer is a cold-blooded killer. He is man who killed people without a second thought. She believed him when he said he wasn't there to kill her, but what was his motivation to help her.
'Why do I crush on the wrong type of men?' She asked herself as she turns to her window watching the scenery past quickly by her.
"I never kill women and children. That was one of my conditions," were the first words Demitri had said since leaving the cop car. Faith turns to him noticing that he still hasn't taken his eyes off the road.
"And ya think that justifies your killing of innocent men with families?" Faith asked with anger.
"Justification has nothing to do with my profession. We kill whoever we are paid to kill. Do you feel justified in killing vampires?"
"Yes!" Faith said with pride.
"Then you are just as guilty as I am. Have you ever realized that the men, women, or children you slay have families?"
"Don't you try and put me in the same place as you. Those vampires don't care who they kill, just as long as they are able to get to their next meal. Vampires are evil be nature. A person becomes evil by their environment and upbringing."
"And that say what about you, Ms. Lehane? You killed the deputy mayor and then tried to pin it on Ms. Summers. When Harris tried to reason with you, you nearly strangled him to death. You killed countless people while under the wing of Wilkins. And you even took a contract from Wolfram & Hart to kill Angel. So you tell me, slayer… was that environment or upbringing."
Faith sits there shocked. Demitri made her relive every horrible thing she had done brief time in her life. She felt a tear roll down her eye as she defended herself, "You have no idea what type of pressure I was under. Yes, I fucked up and I paid the price. But that doesn't okay the fact that you kill people for profit."
"I'm not asking for forgiveness from you or anyone else. You slay vampires because it is you destiny… I slay any man with a price on their head, human or not. We are not going to see eye to eye on this matter. You have your convictions… I have mine. But the question you need to ask yourself is do you trust me?"
Faith turns back to the window and says nothing. Demitri exhales and accelerates the car. Faith stares out the window, thinking about the argument. She was lost. She had no idea if to believe him or not. She knew from the way he talked to her, he was telling the truth. There was no hesitation in anything she said to her. Throughout her life, she had trouble trusting anybody until Angel fully came into her life. From that time on, she began to slowly chip away from the wall she had put so no one can disappoint her again. She knew that if she were going to trust him, she would have to talk to one person.