Loss of Faith

Chapter 11: A Hunting We Will Go

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognizable characters contained within.

That would be Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc….

Faith's POV –

What the fuck? One minute I'm standing in Joyce's livin room playin nice with the wannabe and the next, I'm flyin through the window with this rat terrier attached to the front of me. Xander is so gonna pay for this. I feel my back hit the porch decking and I roll with the fall. I grip the newbie even tighter than she's holdin me, cause she started this shit and she ain't getting away now. As I come outta the roll I push back up to my feet while pulling the mini-slayer with me, I twist and use my hip to flip her over the porch railin. I get a good look in her eyes as I release her and yea baby, she knows she fucked up. Her eyes are wide open with lots of white showin. Guess she just realized she's not so far up on the food chain after all. Heh, heh, heh, this is gonna be fun.

She lands flat on her back in the front yard and I can hear the air explode outta her lungs. Man, that had to hurt. I jump up on the railin and pause a minute before doin a forward flip to land with my feet straddling her waist. Yea, I know I'm showin off. I figure she's gotta learn right now that this might be the biggest fight of her life, but to me it's just another day. I reach down with my right hand and grab her blouse to yank her up. I pull hard and backhand her as her feet leave the ground. She travels about twelve feet and is stopped by a tree in the yard. What? I used my left hand. I told Xand I wouldn't do any permanent damage.

She kinda slouches down, away from the tree and I walk over to her. She looks a little dazed and I figure she's had enough so I try to talk some sense into her. Funny that, me tryin to be the reasonable one, go figure. "Listen Kid," I say to her in a low calm voice, "Let's think about this. I don't know what all ya been told about me, but ya got it wrong. I don't really wanna hurt ya, so let's just stop, okay?"

Her response isn't what I hoped for. She does some kinda fucked up gymnastic tumble and gets behind me. She grabs my arm up behind my back and pulls, hard. My right arm, the one that I always seem to get dislocated. She starts pushin me towards the tree like she's gonna ram my head into it, so I move with her. I step forward and when I'm close enough, I run right up the tree letting her support my weight. I flip my feet up and over my head so I land standin behind her with both my arms free. I gotta end this shit soon or I might hafta really hurt the squirt. In a blur I wrap one arm around the front of her neck, getting the crook of my elbow over her windpipe so I don't accidently crush it. The other arm I use as leverage across the back of her neck. Then I start to squeeze. Doin it this way, I'm just cutting off the blood flow to her brain, not crushing her throat like I woulda done to a demon. I figure two, three minutes and she'll be out like a light. I won't have to really hurt her, except maybe her pride, and I'll have kept my word to Xand.

I hear the others comin out the front door as Sunshine here is twistin and turnin, tryin to break my hold. I wasn't kiddin when I said she didn't have any close combat skills. Any experienced demon that gets close to her is gonna have a slayer snack. I'm gonna hafta tell Giles to fix that in a hurry. Speakin of Giles, there he goes right on cue, "Faith! Stop! Don't hurt her," he says.

"Don't worry G," I yell back over my shoulder. "Little girls need their rest and it's past her beddy time. She's only gonna go to sleep, alright?" I feel Sunshine's struggles getting weaker and ease her down onto the ground. Then I slip my arms from around her neck as her eyes drift closed. I'll let Giles worry about getting her back inside. Me? I'm gonna mount up and move on. I walk over to Joyce and say, "Thanks for havin me over but I think I'm gonna take off. I don't wanna be here when the slayerett wakes up."

She says to me, "Faith, I am so sorry. I had no idea this would have happened. She seems like such a nice girl usually. I don't know what to say."

Joyce has a hard time seeing the bad side of anyone so I tell her, "It's alright, really. Maybe when she wakes up you can talk to her, get her to cool her jets or somethin. Ask Xander to stick around, he might be able to help. Sometimes he actually knows what he's talkin about. Anyway, with Sunshine outta commission for tonight, I'm gonna do a patrol. Can't let the nasties have a free night, right?"

I start walkin towards my bike and when I get along side Xander I say, "Stay with them till she wakes up for me, 'kay? Joyce is gonna talk to her and maybe you could help."

He says, "Sure, I can do that. But you still owe me, Faith."

I look at him like he's crazy and ask, "What? I owe you? What the Christ for?"

He smirks at me and says, "You forgot the bikinis and oil." Then he starts laughin and I gotta join him. He's such a nut sometimes.

"Yea, you just keep dreamin there 'Handy Harris'," I tell him. "I'm gonna go. I'll give ya a call tomorrow."

He waves me off and goes over to help Giles cart the mini-slayer into the house. I kick my bike to life so I can head out to a cemetery and some action. That little tussle just gave me an appetite for destruction.

Good old Sunny D. Thirteen cemeteries, no waitin. At least no waitin to be buried. I been waitin all night, wanderin from one to another of these dead yards and still no one wants to come out and play. Either Sunshine is a lot better slayer than she showed me earlier or Xander's right, there's a little blond ex-slayer, vamp runnin around that's keepin the naughty demons under control. I'm pretty sure it's the second one. Thinkin of Buffy, I start wonderin where I would find her. The night I saved that chick, Marla? Darla? Carla? That was it, Carla, from the vamps, I know B was there. I could feel her, I will never forget the way that connection between us feels. I mean, I could sense the mini-slayer at the house earlier, but it was no way like the connection I got with B.

So I know B's around somewhere I just gotta figure out where. Since she didn't come out the other night, I'm just gonna hafta find her and get her to talk to me. Yea, easier said than done, right? I'm still feelin itchy from the almost non-fight earlier and I'm gonna need some kinda release before I can go home to get some rest. I jump up on top of a tombstone and sit down. I close my eyes and let the slayer sense drift out, tryin to feel if there are any vamps in this cemetery. I've done this once or twice before on slow nights. It actually feels more like hunting than anything else. You let your mind go blank and feel for the subtle vibrations on the wind. The slight tingles across your skin, then when there's a change, something that doesn't feel like it belongs, you slowly concentrate on it. Home in on it. Then run it down and kill it.

I'm startin to slip into the zone now, I can feel the whole cemetery. What's alive, what belongs and what doesn't. There we are. Over at the opposite edge of the cemetery I can feel it, before the woods start. Two, no three vamps. Why are they always in groups of three anymore? Doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm gonna get my slay on and just in time too. I was about to crawl outta my skin with boredom here.

Lettin out a long breath and openin my eyes, I slip from the tombstone. I'm runnin almost before I hit the ground, dashin between and over grave markers like they're not even there. All my attention is focused on the one point that the slayer in me is sayin has got to be destroyed. I'm movin through the cemetery in a blur, but make almost no sound at all. All these years of slayin and surviving, kinda builds up the skill set, ya know?

Lately I've been more careful when slaying. Checking out the sitch before jumpin in, but tonight I just wanna get to it. Be like I used to be. Barrel in, no holds barred and just wail away until it's only me left standin. I dunno why, but it just feels right. And you know me, if it feels good, do it.

I can see them as I race closer. They're lookin around like they know something's comin, but they don't know from where. I use a gravestone to leap up into the air and drop down right in the middle of them. Surprise, surprise, guy's, welcome to the party. It takes a moment for them to realize I'm there, cause a me droppin in all unannounced. When they do, all three of them try and grab me at once. They're almost stummblin over each other to get a piece. As I easily push their grabby hands away from me, I say, "Easy there boys, there's enough of me to go around."

"Not for long," one of them says.

"Yea, yea, yea, witty banter not your strong suit, huh?" I say. And then it's on.

I start off slow, just kinda playin with them. I haven't even pulled out a stake yet. I wanna make this last a little. Ya know, really scratch that itch. We're tradin blows back and forth and yea, their getting a few hits in. I mean, come on. It is three against one and I am holdin back a little. I'm busy fightin two of them after throwin the third one into a crypt wall. I figured he'd be out for a few minutes, so I wasn't payin as much attention as I shoulda. Next thing I know there's a tree branch bein broke over my head, makin me start to see stars. The blow drives me to my knees and it's the openin they've been waitin for. As my head clears, there's a vamp on each arm holdin me in a shoulder lock and I feel my right one startin to protest. That's all I need is for my shoulder to pop outta the socket. Ya know, I'm startin to rethink the whole 'play with em and make it last' strategy I had.

I look around tryin to find something that'll help me outta this mess. It's late and I can feel the sunrise comin, but I don't think it's gonna be in time. The vamp standin in front of me must feel it too cause he says, "Thanks for delivering a bedtime snack for us. We were wondering if there was enough time to go for takeout and here you are. Normal human would have been good, but a slayer? This is going to taste great."

One of the wise guys holdin me says, "Less filling," and the other two morons laugh.

The vamp in front of me starts movin in slowly and that's when I feel it. The tingle that's startin way down low in my stomach and racin up my spine. The little shocks of electricity runnin under my skin, makin my whole body start to vibrate. One of the vamps holdin me says, "Look at this, the big bad slayer is so scared she's shaking," and they all laugh some more. These dumbass vamps mistake it for fear instead of what it really is. Their doom.

I look to the left of the one standin in front of me and a full blown smile comes to my lips. There she is standin behind this clueless bastard. She's got her vamp face on but I gotta tell ya, I was never more glad to see anyone in my life.

"Hey Faith," she says to me while slowly walkin closer. "Catch you at a bad time?"

"Nah, we were just discussin the finer points of dining," I say back. I still can't stop smiling at her. "It's great to see ya, Buffy."

The vamp on my right looks at me, then over to B, then back at me and says, "Oh shit!" He let's go of me and starts runnin like his ass is on fire. He musta been the smart one of the group. B kicks the branch he used to hit me in the head with up offa the ground, grabbin it in mid air she turns and throws it at him like a spear. Before he can get more than ten feet away, the force of it hittin home lifts him offa his feet and he's just a dust cloud a moment later.

I use my free hand to pull a stake outta my boot and twist to the side, brining it up and into the vamp that's still holdin me. Poof, whoosh, and then there was one. B is facin off with him and he's starin at her like she's nuts. "What the hell did you do that for?" he screams at her. "She's the goddamn slayer and was going to be dinner!" Yea, he really wasn't the sharpest pencil in the drawer.

B gets right up in his face and says, "She's not dinner. She's Faith. Deliver the message to all your friends that she is strictly hands off. You got me?" Then she cocks her head to the side and says, "Never mind, I'll delivery it myself." Almost too fast to see she plunges her fist through his chest and yanks out his heart. His legs give out and he dusts away before he even hits the ground. I drag my eyes back from where he woulda landed to see the lump in B's hand turn to ash and drift through her fingers.

"Thanks for the help B, but I gotta tell ya, that's wicked gross," I say. I start walkin over to her and she turns quickly away.

She covers her face with her hands and practically yells at me, "Don't look at me!"

I stop where I am and try to figure out what's goin on. "B…..," I say, "Buffy, what's wrong. Look at me." She's still turned away and I can see the golden highlights in her hair. The slight curve of her ear as the rising sun pushes away the shadows. Fuck! The suns comin up and she's standin out in the open. I jump forward and grab her around the waist. Runnin over to the nearest crypt I kick the door so hard it explodes off the hinges and throw myself, still holdin Buffy, inside. All I'm seein in my mind is that day on the pier when the sun came up and she started to burn. I will NOT let that happen again. I roll us over so I'm layin on top of her and I'm searchin her all over for any sign that she's on fire.

She puts her hands on my chest and pushes me up. Lookin in my eyes she says, "What the hell was that all about? I save your life and you repay me by just about breaking my neck? Jesus, Faith. A little gratitude would have been nice."

I'm starin back at her and I don't believe it. The vamp face is gone and she's smiling up at me. There's not a mark on that beautiful face of hers. No sign of any damage at all to her long blonde hair or emerald green eyes. I look down to her left hand and there, sittin on her ring finger, is the gem of Amara. I look up into B's face, she's wearin a little pout and says with just a touch of a whine in her voice, "Well, I made sure you were safe first before I went back for it. What was I supposed to do? Just hang out underwater till the sun went down? Do you have any idea what kind of creatures are in the ocean around here?"

I'm so stunned I sit there with my jaw dropped open, then I start laughin my ass off. This is crazy. I move my hands up to her cheeks letting my body rest down on her fully. Cuppin her face, I lean in and give her the deepest kiss I can. She's hesitant at first, kinda holdin herself back. Then I feel her relax and she begins to kiss me back. For the first time I think comin back to Sunnydale was the best move I ever made.