Loss of Faith

Chapter 29: Awakening

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

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

Faith's POV –

We're sitting perched on the edge of a rooftop downtown. The night feels alive to me in a way it never did before. I mean, as a slayer, the nighttime was my element. As the sun would go down I could feel the slayer in me waking up, ready,.......no, anxious to be out there doing what I was made for. Now though, it's like I'm actually part of the night. Every breeze brings a million scents that I know by heart. Animals, plants, minerals,………prey.

The nerves under my skin have a constant tingle, causing a pleasure so intense it's bordering on pain. A big part of it is from B being here next to me. The rest is the thrill of what I'm gonna do. I woke up a coupla hours ago in a dark corner deep in the aqueducts. Buff had taken me there after leavin the warehouse to get me as far from the sun as possible. I guess she wasn't sure I'd be real happy about what she did. She was right.

When I first woke up, I wasn't sure of where I was or what happened to me. I slowly remembered most of what went down in the warehouse. Right up to where I was shot and bleedin out anyway. B looked over and saw my eyes open, she was right there next to me the whole time. She started runnin her hands all over me, checkin to see if there was any signs left of the wounds I had. She was kinda hysterical at first, like she couldn't believe I came back to her. Then as she saw my reaction to what she did to save me, she got a whole lot nervous. To say I was freaked was an understatement.

Yea, I had major issues at first. I mean, who was she too decided this for me? Who was she to keep me here after I made my peace with dying? No, I did not take the news of my new un-life well at all. In fact, we had a nice long throw down right there in the middle of the sewers. I jumped to my feet and shoved her away as hard as I could. I shoulda remembered that with the slayer turned vamp thing goin on, I had even more power. She flew clear across the chamber we were in to smack into the concrete wall. Big chunks of cement came rainin down all around her as she fell to the ground and for a minute I started to panic cause I thought I killed her. Then I remembered she was a vamp too and could pretty much survive anything I threw at her.

It wasn't all her fault, though. Part of me reacting like that was the hunger. I didn't know that right away, but as we fought, me trying to kick her ass and she trying to not hurt me too badly, I slowly realized that there was a huge cravin inside that I never felt before. Ya know, I can eat, in fact I love to eat. But I had never before in my life, even when I was a kid and starvin most of the time, ever felt anything like this.

As soon as B figured out what was goin on, she grabbed me around the shoulders and buried my face in her neck. Before I knew it, I had sunk my newly forms fangs deep into her neck and was pullin the sweetest of nectar's into my mouth. Swallowing one long pull after another, I could feel pure liquid energy shocking its way through my entire being. Man, talk about a head rush! As the energy filled me up I started to calm down. Is this what it felt like to B? Soon I felt her head shift so her mouth was over my neck and I could feel her teeth sink into me. God, it was like being in heaven! I let B drink from me on a couple of occasions, and with the exception of when I forced her to drink to cure the poison the mini-slayer had given her, it was one of the most erotic experiences I have ever had. This felt a gazillion times better.

I could actually see in my mind the way our bodies were one. One complete being. The blood flowing between us and through us. I draw it in, it runs through me becoming part of me, then out and into Buff, to run through her in turn. The blood leaving part of me inside her as it picks up part of her and then flows back into me, leavin part of her inside me. Forever. The sensations I feel pulsing through me from her feedin at my neck, as I feed from her, keep spiralin upwards. B has me pressed up against a wall by now and is starting to slowly grind into me. Her whole body is rubbin slowly up and down along the front of me causin a constant sweet friction, that's sendin wave after wave of those slayer tingles runnin through me to chase along after the blood we're sharing. Holy shit, I think I'm gonna cum from the unbelievable pleasure I feel building. It's a slow pressure that keeps growin, startin from low in my belly and spreadin outwards. Then it breaks over me and it musta hit B at the same time cause we both crumble to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs.

I look over at her and I gotta big ass smile on my face, she's laying there looking back kinda dreamy. I can't resist as I ask, "Was it good for you?" Then I bust out laughin.

She smiles over and is noddin her head as she says, "Oh hell yea!"

"Is it always like that?" I ask. I can feel the aftershocks still rocketin through my body. If this is what it's gonna be like for us, there's no way I can stay pissed about it. Ya know?

"Don't know," she says. "I never done that with anyone before."

I wiggle my eyebrows at her and say, "You mean I'm your first?"

"No, you're my only," she says and she's not smiling anymore. So much for wallowing in the afterglow. I guess we gotta get with the serious now. "Back at the warehouse, when you didn't wake up right away, I thought I was too late. I was going to sit there in the sun and join you in death," she says.

I look over at her sharply and start to rag her out a little, but she stops what I was gonna say by going on. "Before you ask, Xander stopped me." I gotta thank the Xan-man next time I see him. I wouldn't a cared about me dying, but if B had killed herself, I woulda tracked her ass down in the afterlife then kicked it good and proper for her.

I move closer and take her in my arms to tell her, "B, if I had woken up an you weren't there, I……I don't even wanna think about what I woulda done. I'm sorry I reacted badly a little while ago, just, it's a big change, yea? Ya know, a lot to take in all at once." Then I lean in and kiss her, long and deep to let her know that I really am okay with this. How could I not be? I was gonna let her turn me a few months ago, so it's not like I didn't think about it before.

As we break apart, not due to lack of oxygen, that's one thing that's not gonna be a problem anymore, but cause my stomach is grumbling loud enough to wake the dead, she gives a little laugh and says, "Looks like some things are never going to change, huh? Come on. Let me show you how to hunt." She's got this evil little gleam in her eyes that startin to turn me on again.

"Hunt?" I ask while raisin an eyebrow. "What happen to protectin the innocent and all that shit?"

She gets up and reaches down for my hand. Then liftin me to my feet she says, "That hasn't changed. We don't do innocents, but there's more than a few bad guys around that could use a few weeks building their blood supply back up. It'll put them out of action for a while and who knows? It might just scare them straight. There was one guy I did, back before you came home, that actually started going to church after I was done with him." She finishes with a laugh.

"Alright," I tell her while still holdin her hand. "Teach me."

Now we're up here watchin the alley as four guys are pullin a coupla kids that were headed to the Bronze back into the shadows. They're holdin the girl by the arms and smackin the guy around while laughin at him. I always thought being a vamp meant you didn't feel anything. I was wrong. You feel everythin more intensely. Where before I woulda been pissed at the way they were bullying the couple, now I feel rage.

I start to lean over to jump down and B puts a hand on my arm. When I look over at her she shakes her head slowly and whispers, "Not like that. If you go down there without calming down, you're going to drain them dry. Concentrate on what you're doing, not what they're doing. Remember, yea they're bad guys, but they're still human."

I stop a moment and close my eyes thinkin about all that Giles ever taught me about centerin myself. When I open them again B must see the change in me, cause she nods her head and smiles before letting herself fall over the side to land quietly behind these losers. I move down the roof a little and follow her down to land on the other side of them.

The leader of the gang has pulled a switchblade and is swinging his arm back to drive it into the guy's chest. The girl lets out a high pitched scream as his arm starts movin forward, "Noooo!"

I 'm movin before I even think about it and have the gangbangers arm twisted up behind his back. His buddies are lookin at me with wide eyes and are backin up. That's when I feel the change in my face. Shit! I vamped out when I started movin. I lean over the guy I'm holdin and say, "Why don'tcha play with me instead?" Then I sink my teeth into his neck.

The salty sweet taste starts runnin down my throat. It's good, I'm not gonna lie to ya, but nowhere near as sweet and satisfyin as B was. Then again, no one could ever compare to her, so why would blood be different? I feel the guys heart start to slow and figure it's time to let him loose. Besides, there's more of them waitin for attention. I look over to where the other three guys are still backin up and am just in time to see them back right into B.

"Goin somewhere guys?" she asks in a sugar sweet voice. "The party's just getting started." She grabs one guy by the scruff of the neck while kickin another one back towards me. The last guy tries to make a dash past me and I reach out and clothes line him with my forearm knockin him into some trash cans. We can save him for dessert.

The kids are standin there starin and I shout over to them, "Why don'tcha get on home?" They don't need to be told twice and race outta the alley.

I look back at B and she's lookin in my eyes as we both grin and sink our fangs into the guys we're holdin at the same time. We keep watching each other's eyes while we feed. Like the first guy, this one isn't vintage Buffy, but at least the grumbling in my stomach has stopped. One of the other things I notice is that the energy boost I get is nowhere near the one from B's blood. I wonder briefly if it's cause I love her or if it's the slayer blood thing all the vamps I fought kept ravin about.

As this guy's heart slows and I let him go, I see B drop hers to the ground also. Whaddya know, first synchronized slayin, now synchronized slurpin. We walk over to the last guy at the same time and he's startin to come around. He looks up at us with sheer terror in his eyes. Lookin back down at him and not taken my eyes offa him I ask, "Whaddya think B? Should we finish him off or throw him back till he's bigger?"

He starts cryin and sayin, "Please, please, let me go. You'll……..you'll never see me around here again. I won't tell no one, promise."

B is dead serious when she tells him, "Get out of here and you better be right. If we ever see you around here again it'll be the last time anyone sees you." Damn, my girl can be wicked scary when she wants. Kinda turnin me on. I turn away from them so the ex bad guy can't see my smile. I hear him get up and scamper away, then feel a set of arms wrap around me from behind.

"You okay baby?" she asks quietly.

"Yea, B, five by five, ya know," I answer her back while pullin her hands tighter around me. Just the feel of her this close is bringin all kinds of sensations to me. The air itself feels like it's getting thicker somehow. Like there's an electric charge building between us. A bigger charge than what's always there. It keeps growin, just waitin to be released like an explosion.

The electricity in the air is so bad now that it's startin to hurt. I turn around in her arms and see she feels it too. This is something different. It feels vaguely familiar, like I should know what it is, but I'm drawin nothing but blanks here. B's eyes are widenin with a look of recognition when the power breaks over us. I fall against her and she clings to me like I'm the last lifeboat in a storm at sea. Suddenly we're thrown apart by a flash of light that erupts between us. For one moment it feels like we trade places and I'm lookin at my own face as my body falls backwards to the ground. The next thing I know I'm tryin to sit up in a pile of trash and garbage, lookin over at B while she's struggling the same way.

As my head clears I notice I feel different. More calm, more in control. I can still feel the night like I did ever since I woke up from death, but it's not as insistent, not quite driving me as wild. There's something else that's different too.

I can feel Buffy. Yea, I know, I could always feel B, but now I can feel what she's feelin. I know exactly what's goin on in her head. And I know that she feels me the same way. We look at each other and B starts to smile. I can feel her love for me and know she can feel mine for her. This is gonna work out pretty good. Now she'll always know what I'm feelin and I won't hafta ever talk about my emotions with her. Sweet!

We get up at the same time and come together. B says, "I'd ask if you're okay, but I can feel you are. You alright with this?" She's waving her hand between us.

I laugh at her, "Ya know damn well I am."

"Good," she says. "We're still going to talk about your feelings though." Then she gives an evil laugh.

"What the hell was that?" I ask her.

"I think I know what part of it was, not sure about the rest," she tells me and starts leading me out of the alley. "Come on, let's go see Willow. I think she's got some splaining to do."

Red, huh? Yea I shoulda figured. If there's mojo bein thrown around, she's probably in the middle of it. The only downside is seein Red means seein the rest of them. How's Joyce gonna react to what's happened. Guess there's only one way to find out.