4
(Cleveland: 3 days earlier)
Faith Lehane swore under her breath as her feet slipped out from under her on the wet fire escape causing a now chilly wet spot in the seat of her jeans. She hated this part of the job, but even she had to admit Giles was right. A P.I. license gave her the right to snoop without arousing too much suspicion, even if it meant she had to take more mundane jobs like this.
Three days ago an overweight and balding man whose cheap navy blue suit screamed middle management came into her small office stating that his wife was having an affair. She hated doing these kinds of jobs, but she liked not relying on the council for money and they added to her credibility as an independent investigator.
She pulled her leather jacket a little tighter around her to try and cut out a bit of the Ohio winter when the light of the window she was watching flicked on. With the lights on she could now see into the small sparsely furnished apartment. "Geez even I have better taste in living quarters," she muttered to herself as she got ready to earn her check.
It was only a moment until she saw them enter view. She had fiery red hair in a way that could only be natural, glasses, and ample assets while he was lean, toned and visually reeked of too much time at the gym. Faith started snapping pictures while they kissed feverishly and shed clothing on the way to his small bedroom.
As she continued snapping pictures she was keenly aware that it had been some time since she'd had a good roll in the sack. With a pained grunt she pushed the thought out of her head and took the last few pictures showing them in a position that honestly made her a bit jealous. "Time to go," she said as she willed her cramped knees to straighten and exit the fire escape.
Once she landed in the alley with a splash she took off toward her small dark red pickup truck.
Mornings were never fun for Faith, but 8 AM sharp she was opening her office and starting a pot of coffee. Once her go juice was bubbling she took the memory stick from her camera and slapped it into the laptop that she kept in her office. She hit the print command and went to pour herself a steaming cup while the computer did its thing.
Not long after a knock came from her door and when opened revealed her middle management client who was looking around with shifty eyes. "I'm…. I'm here for my appointment," he said uncomfortably. Faith looked him up and down before deciding that he was simply nervous. "Sure thing, Come on in."
She plopped into the large executive desk chair that Giles was of course pissed when he discovered that she had swiped it from council headquarters, but instead of yelling at her or calling the cops he had made her work a personal pro bono case to cover the cost of a replacement. Even when rich with the millions of the council's dollars he was still a penny pincher. She picked up the pile of photographs from her printer tray and dropped them onto her desk, "I believe this is what you were looking for Mr. Namith."
He took the pictures and flicked through them, "This isn't what I wanted," he said, "You were supposed to prove she wasn't cheating!" Faith rolled her eyes. This was she hated domestic cases, the person who hired her always got upset.
"Look I get it," she said with a practiced calm "You wanted to believe she was innocent, but unfortunately the facts in the case just don't support that." She watched as his chubby face actually became purple, "I won't pay for this," he said angrily.
Faith was getting bored. She was tired of this argument, "When you hired me you signed a contract for two hundred dollars a day with a two day minimum."
This had the effect of turning his head from purple to red, "I'm a bank manager, I eat contracts for breakfast." Faith took a challenging stance and smirked as his fist swung towards her. With a quick move she grabbed his wrist and pressed his face to the desk applying just enough pressure to make the bones arm creak.
"Now you listen to me lard ass," she said bitterly as she dropped new photographs next to his pinned face, "While following her I made a discovery, not just that she was cheating, but why. I gotta say those are some nice bruises you gave her."
"That's not enough to prove I did anything!" he spat. Faith leaned down close to his ear and whispered, "No it isn't," she said as she twisted his head, "I have you on camera throwing a punch at me. That coupled with these photos, and your refusal to honor a legally binding contract will pretty much sink you. So if I were you I would suck it up, pay me my six hundred dollars, and be on your way before I have to defend myself."
She let go if his arm and stepped back. He was breathing heavy and just for a moment she thought he might have a heart attack and keel over in her office. He took out his wallet and dropped six one-hundred dollar bills on her desk, "I'll get you for this bitch," he huffed and he stormed out the door. Flaith plastered on a goofy fake smile, "Have a nice day!" she yelled.
She picked up the bills, plopped back into her chair and kicked her feet up on the desk, "I should have been a bounty hunter," she mumbled as she added the payment to her books.
It wasn't long before her phone rang and she picked it up without a second thought, "Five by Five investigations, Faith speaking."
"Faith, we have a situation," came a posh yet familiar British voice.
Faith frowned, Giles only ever called her with a situation for two reasons, "Ok G-man, is the world ending or do you need dirty work done?"
"Neither actually. I have an investigation for you."
Faith's eyebrows perked up, "Is this a case that comes with a council paycheck?"
"Um, yes actually," Giles responded, "A couple was killed yesterday in town. The police are writing it off as a home invasion gone wrong, but I want you to verify that."
Faith felt her brow furrow, "No offense G, but why do we care?"
She heard him sigh on the other end of the line, "They were hunters Faith. We took care of the hellmouth and they took care of the rest of the area. The council actually kept them on pay roll."
Understanding dawned on Faith, "I see," she answered, "Send me the details along with directions to the house."
"And Faith, this is strictly reconnaissance, if you should run into anybody contact me before engaging unless it's an emergency. If we don't keep this under the radar we'll be crawling with hunters by the end of the week."
"Got it G," she answered, "I'll go check the place out this afternoon."
She hung up the phone still unsure of why Giles was so against hunters. She's hooked up with one a few times, and he wasn't so bad Dean…. What's his name? She shook the lingering memory our and decided to get a jump on her afternoon by getting everything ready.
It was just after three in the afternoon when Faith pulled up that the house in question. It didn't look any different than any other house. Painted white with gray shutters, flower boxes, hell even a picket fence. "Supernatural Cleavers?" she asked herself as she made her way up the small and slick path. She was thrilled to not have to deal with snow at the moment, but the cold and rain meant ice. Once she got to the glass screen door she noticed two small bullet holes right about stomach height for a male, and a little yellow powder on the porch.
Bending down she dabbed some of the powder with a tissue, and brought it to her nose before turning her head away from the rotten egg smell, "Sulfur?" she asked herself as she slipped the tissue into a pocket. She put on a pair of gloves to not leave prints and slowly opened the glass outer door. Surprisingly the inner door was unlocked and she slipped inside.
First thing she noticed was the broken demon trap at the base of the door as well and a large area of dried blood that went off toward another room. Slowly she followed the blood to a large chair with a bloody handprint reaching under it. Faith lifted the fabric of the chair skirt to reveal a glint of silver underneath the chair.
Quickly she reached under and pulled it out. It looked like some kind of short sword with 3 edges to make a triangular blade that came to what looked to be an incredible sharp point. She did notice some makings in what she could only describe as the cross-guard that she couldn't make out. Also she could feel power, like a stupid amount of power that seemed to be infused into the metal itself. "What the hell are you?" she asked the blade before spinning her head at a rustle from the back of the house.
She stashed the blade in one of the stake holsters that had been added to her jacket and quietly made her way to the back of the house where she say a large man with a blonde ponytail and beard, and wearing a very stylish suit was going through drawers. He wasn't finding what he was looking for but she almost failed to suppress a laugh when his hands came out of the drawer holding a little pink thong. She stepped out of sight as he looked up, sniffed the air, and went back to what he was doing.
She couldn't help but think that this was all very weird and began making her way to the front door and back outside. "Oh come on," she said as she saw a car parked across the driveway trying to block her in. "Oh hell no," she said as she quickly jogged in got into her truck.
Luckily for her they had left enough room that she could back up and turn into the front yard to escape, but as she got onto the street saw several people staring at her... with black eyes. Once she was down the street and away she let out a breath, "Yeah, that's not creepy at all."
She decided not to take any chances and drove straight over to the Watcher's Council U.S. Headquarters that was adapted from an old university campus that Giles had acquired. She parked right infront of the admin building and stormed in to the upper floor. "Um, excuse me Miss, do you have an appointment?" asked a small voice. Faith turned around and glared at the secretary who visibly flinched, "I'm sorry Miss Lehane. I wasn't aware we were expecting you today."
"You weren't," Faith said dismissively, "But I need to see the big man, it's important."
Within five minutes she was rushed into Giles' office and he sat staring at him imspect the sulfur and sword. "This is most unusual, " Giles said looking at the inscription on the blade. "The markings are Enochian."
Faith chuckled, "You read angle scrip?" she asked,
"And what about the sulfur? That's weird."
Giles began cleaning his glasses, "We may be dealing with something that we don't normally see. Demons… true demons from the biblical Hell. It's been said that they leave trace amounts of sulfur behind them." He then inspected the sulfur a little closer, "They tend to stay away from hell mouths as it's usually too noisy for their tastes, but I hear they're not uncommon elsewhere. They have no physical form, just that of black smoke so they have to take hosts."
Faith sat straight up, "How are we supposed to handle that? It's not like we can kill these black eyes sons of bitches without harming their meat suits can we?"
Giles shook his head as he scribbles down something on a piece of paper, "It's an exorcism, It will force the demon back to Hell. Although According to rumor, a great many demons are hard on their hosts. If you can verify the host is already dead I would not hesitate to kill."
Faith nodded with a grim understanding, "Next question is what do we have that will kill them?" Giles picked up the blade and inspected it, "I would assume that the scythe is capable, but as the current head slayer I doubt Kennedy is willing to part with it." He tossed the blade back to Faith, "If this really is the blade of an angel, it stands to reason that it is capable of slaying demons among a great many other things. Why don't you hang onto it," he said with a small smirk, "You'll most likely be on their radar now and you may just need it."
Faith put the blade back into the holster in her jacket, "Thanks G."
As she got up to leave Giles tossed her the key to her old room, "You were told your room would always be here for you. Might I recommend you use it tonight."
Faith nodded as she put the key in her pocket, "Sure I think I'll do that."
Later that night Faith tossed and turned in her sleep She dreamed of Sunnydale, and the first Slayer. That's when she heard it, a voice that could only have come from one person. "I'm the slayer, and you're just a ghost who's more animal than human!"
Faith sat up with a sharp pain in her chest. She looked around blindly and attempted to catch her breath, "Shit."
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please Read and review.
