She was well rested, she had what she needed, now she just had to move before she lost her nerve. She stuffed her supplies into an old, ratty backpack and headed out. The late afternoon sun enveloped her like a warm blanket and she relished in it, it would be the last time she got to. She took the bus for a mile or so (there wasn't much point in saving money anymore.) before she had to get off and walk. The place wasn't hard to find, a deserted housing unit with blocked off windows. It wasn't even that far from one of her delivery points, she was surprised she hadn't noticed it sooner. The building practically screamed vampire den once you knew what to look for. Around back was another entrance, unlocked and clearly still in use. Vampires didn't have to worry about people breaking in after all, it would be like delivery service. She slipped through and checked her surroundings. No one seemed to be up yet which was exactly the way she wanted it. She could go through each room and dust any vampires she found one at a time, hopefully while they were still asleep.

She put her bag down in the hall and pulled out a broken plank, the best she do on short notice. The first room was empty but more the smell of mold. The second contained a couch, and on it, her target. Ezekiel was asleep on his back, one arm dangling off the side, the other over his face where Eli could still see traces of blood. But his chest was exposed and that's what mattered. Eli brought her stake down and drove it through his heart with one clean movement. His eyes snapped open, but he didn't even have time to scream before he crumbled away. She nodded to herself, one down.

"How disappointing, I always thought 'Zeke would put up more more of a fight."

Eli almost jumped out of her skin. She spun around in a heartbeat and found herself face to face with Jack.

He tilted his head, "Well isn't this a surprise! I thought I killed you." He narrowed his eyes, inspecting her. Then he smiled, "Guess we'll just have to try again." Just then he lunged at her, but this time Eli was ready. She shifted her weight back and used his momentum to throw him into the wall. She had hoped that would at least daze him, but he was getting back up almost immediately. He chuckled as he stood. "Quite the throw! I wouldn't have thought something that tiny had that kind of power."

Eli straightened a bit, guard still raised, and said "What? You mean the power of the Slayer?"

He just laughed. "The Slayer? Really? Isn't that cute. Well sweetheart, I hate to break it to you, but in just a few minutes my crew will be getting up. I hope you don't mind if it's five against one. You know for future reference, attacking a vampire den alone 'round evening was probably not the best move."

"I never said I was alone"

"I just need one thing from you- tell me where Jack is."

For a moment, Adrian lost his ability to speak. There was no convincing her, she was beyond reason. To him, she had become a blazing wall advancing down on him. He could either step out of the way or burn. "He's-" Adrian gulped, "His base is in a complex 'bout three miles south of here. O-or at least it used to be. Haven't been back in a while…" He trailed off. He couldn't look her in the eyes, it was too much. The fire was beating down on him once more and again, he couldn't stop it. All he could do was run, and run, and run, till there was nothing of him left. And only then it would consume him.

And Eli, Eli was supposed to be the same, he thought. She'd run, and run, and run, and so far she'd survived. But now she was leaving him, she was throwing herself to the wolves. And he'd be alone again. The idea shouldn't have bothered him so much, he'd spent more than ten years that way before he had even met her. He'd been in control: lead her around, told her what to do, a commanding officer. So why couldn't he breathe? Why couldn't he speak? She looked down on him and nodded, lips a tight line. She looked like there was more she wanted to say, but instead she turned away and busied herself with rummaging around the place for makeshift weapons. It clicked then. He wasn't in control, but she was. He might have had greater physical power over her at some point, but not control. Maybe he'd never been in control. He couldn't handle that kind of power. He didn't even have strength to control his own life, how could he have thought he was controlling hers? She'd managed this whole time and he'd barely lifted a finger.

"I'm a coward." Eli looked up. He'd said it outloud now, there was no going back. "I am a spineless, pathetic coward too scared of death to do anything but cover my own ass." He took a deep breath, "And I hate it. I hate me, I hate all of-" he gestured with his hands, trying desperately to find the words for his condition, "This. I'm a vampire. I'm supposed to kill, and feed, and be fearless- and I have! I knew something was wrong with me when I got back from Vietnam, but then I was turned and everythin' was great!" He couldn't stop, he felt like a train wreck the way he just kept rambling. "I was an immortal god, an' Jack an' me, we ran this city. Everything was exactly how it was supposed to be. Right up until it wasn't." The tremors had started in earnest now.

"We'd gotten our hands on a shitton of gas and we were gonna fence it and one minute we're good and- and- the next there's fire everywhere. An' that's when it all came crashing down. 'M not a god, not even close to immortal- barely better than human really!" He did look like a bit of a wreck. His eyes and nose were running and his skin looked clammy with sweat.

"And see the thing is, the thing is right now you'll need a hero if you're gonna pull this off. And I sure ain't no hero! Never been anything close." Eli nodded; she wasn't exactly feeling very heroic herself.

"But I have been a soldier." He looked up and their eyes met. "I can take orders and follow through on them." He held her gaze, despite the tremors that wracked his body.

"So boss, tell me, what're we gonna do now?"

The window behind Jack shattered. Fire exploded around him and he screamed, tearing at his jacket to try and put it out. Adrian pulled himself up through the window and into the room. "That do ok?" he asked, a faint grin tugging at his lips through the fear.

A thunder of footsteps echoed through the house, the rest of the pack would be on them in seconds. "I'll let you know after we make it out of here," she replied, putting her back to his and raising her guard.

"You- you fucking- !" The rest of Jack's words were lost in an incoherent scream of rage. His face distorted as he stomped out the last licks of fire.

"See how you like it." Adrian muttered and Jack charged at him. The pair spun simultaneously so that it was now Eli facing him instead. She blocked his punch and countered with a fist to his gut. She could practically hear the wind being knocked out of him; it sounded like pure satisfaction. Meanwhile, the rest of the vampires had come out of hiding and surrounded them. Adrian fought like a madman. Almost like how he used to, he thought, but this was different. Before that night he had fought for the joy of it, he had known no fear. Now, he was still terrified but the adrenaline and his captain's orders kept him going. He could tell he was going to be sick afterwards, and yet, it had been so long. He had forgotten what it was like to let it all out. To let the demon within take the wheel.

With Jack temporarily knocked back, Eli swung around Adrian's side to stake one of the monsters that had flanked him. Two down now, but still way too many left. As soon as it turned to dust, another was there in its place, raising a fist against her. Eli ducked and lashed out with sweeping kick, knocking it to the ground. Seizing the opportunity, she leapt on top of it and drove a stake through its heart. By then Jack had regained his footing. He lurked just outside of their range and as Eli tackled the vampire to the ground, he lunged at her. Eli could feel him coming before she even looked up. She was fast, but not that fast. His jaws would be embedded deep in her neck before she could counter him. But he wasn't the only one watching her. Adrian clasped his hands together into a fist and drove them into Jack's back, just before he reached her. Jack crashed into the ground with ineffectual scream. Adrian pulled a stake from his waist belt and thrust it down at his chest. Jack rolled and was back on his feet in an instant, Adrian's stake smashing uselessly into the floor. As Adrian reached for another stake, Jack's boot flew into his face knocking him to the ground as well. Before he knew it, Jack was on top of him and the stake Adrian had fumbled for was clutched tight in his fist. Adrian grabbed Jack's arm before he could bring it down into his chest.

"Thought you could double cross me, huh?" he hissed through clenched teeth. "I should have left you there to burn the first time." Still struggling with Jack to keep from being staked, Adrian glanced wildly for Eli. He couldn't see her, but heard screams and crashing wood coming from the other room. Jack grinned. "She can't save you. No one can save a whiny little shitstain like you."

Eli was in fact cornered in the kitchen by three of the vampires. Every time she tried to get some distance, another would come and block her off. She was crowded in, couldn't even get enough space to get her guard back up. Blows rained down from around her and her stake was knocked from her hand. A kick to the chest blew the wind out of her as she crashed into a cabinet. Yellow eyes and twisted faces loomed over her, taunting her. "When you get to hell, bitch, tell 'em we said hi."

The fury rose up through her again, straight from her gut and spilling into her whole body. Her aching lungs didn't matter. The tattered knuckles didn't matter. The pain didn't matter. One of the vampires pulled back to punch her again and she saw it as if it were in slow motion. She grabbed the knob behind her and twisted, pulling the cabinet door open and off it's hinges, It served a shield for the blow, even as it shattered from it. With the broken cabinet door in hand, she slashed at her attackers. Her first blow ripped through the vampire who had tried to hit her. His blood splattered her even as the shard of wood cut through his heart. Before he'd even turned to dust, Eli had lunged to her feet and thrown herself at the next one. Precision was no longer the objective and she stabbed again and again until she hit the heart. By the the third vampire lept on her back, trying to tackle her to the floor. But she whirled around throwing them to the ground instead.

She advanced, covered in corpse blood, her makeshift stake fused to her hand. "Already been to hell. You'll have to say hi for me for me instead." Gripping it with both hands, she brought the shard down as hard she could. Gripping it with both hands, Jack struggled to push the stake through Adrian's chest. Adrian was pinned and using all his strength to keep him from doing just that. He was too strong though, Adrian could feel his arms about to give out and he desperately searched for an out. His training meant shit when it came to supernatural strength and inhuman beasts. But what would a Slayer do? What would Eli do? "Just gotta get the aim right…" Her words slipped through his head and he gambled his life on them. He put the last strength his arms had to push up against Jack's, not to push Jack off, but to give Adrian the leverage to slide back a little farther. With a howl Jack broke from his grip and brought the stake down. So focused on fighting Adrian's grip, he barely noticed when it sunk into his abdomen instead of his chest. Jack had an entire second to meet Adrian's eyes and grin before Eli sunk her own stake into his back. He convulsed, the fanged smile distorted to shock and rage, but it didn't last. In a heartbeat there was nothing left of him or his gang and Eli and Adrian were alone.

Eli lowered the broken cabinet shard and peeled a bloody hand off of it. She must have had a thousand splinters, but she offered it to Adrian nonetheless. Taking her hand, he pulled himself up and they stood in silence, assessing the damage.

"You look like you just got out of a slasher movie."

"Yeah, well I think I just lived one."

He chuckled lightly at that.

"Hey man you gonna be okay?" She gestured to the stake still lodged in his stomach and the oozing blood spreading from around it.

"What? Oh this?" He said, pulling it out and looking at it. "Yeah I'll be fine. It'll heal up soon. I should get some food though."

"I feel ya, I could kill for a burger right now."

At that he outright laughed. They'd been through hell, but it was over.

"Freeze!" A man's voice cut through the room. The pair turned turned, two cops stood in the doorway, guns pointed at both of them. Eli instinctively putting her hands in the air, even with the stake still clutched in her hand. Adrian reluctantly followed suit. He could easily take both men out, but Eli seemed to have frozen in place and he couldn't act without her. The cops advanced, plying the wood from her hand and cuffing her wrists together behind her back. Adrian played along, letting them cuff him as well. Eli listened hollowly as they read them their Miranda rights, only really hearing bits of it. "..Under arrest for murder…. can and will.… court of law". Eli didn't resist as they guided them to the cruiser. She'd spent the last year conditioning herself to avoid cops. And even now that she'd gained all this power, what was she supposed to do with it? Was there some kind of protocol for Slayers dealing with the police? Was she supposed to hurt these two humans to save her own skin?

She was still mulling this over as they arrived at the precinct. The two were pulled out of the car and brought into the building. Eli was guided down one hallway while the other cop steered Adrian down another. Adrian tried to slip her one last panicked glance, but her eyes were locked straight ahead. They brought her to a sparse room, furnished only by a table, two chairs and a large mirror on one wall. The cop had kept one hand on her shoulder the whole time, but as he guided her to a chair facing the mirror he unlocked her handcuffs and relocked them to a knob on the table. Then he turned and left the room, locking the door behind him. Eli looked at the door, waiting for someone to come back in. When no one did, she tugged at the handcuff. She could feel that they metal was strong, but if she pulled hard enough, she could probably break it. There was a click and the door opened again. Eli froze, her eyes on the table. He walked around to the other side and sat down in the chair.

"You wanna start with your name?" Eli kept her gaze in front of her. "Well, my name is Detective Avery Malone. And my partner and I have been following some particularly unusual gang activity for the past few months now. We'd finally pinned down their base of operations and were staking it out when some kid shows up and trashes the place. Now, I don't know what you did with the bodies but there is more than enough blood on you for us to hold you here until we get some answers. Or do you want us to start with your friend?"

A chilling thought suddenly occurred to her. Her head snapped up and she asked "What time is it?" If wherever they were holding Adrian had access to sunlight, he wouldn't be able to get away when morning came.

"What?" Just then, there was a knock on the door. Eyes still on her, he got up to answer it. He stepped out for few seconds then returned with a manila folder in hand.

"You look pretty young, definitely younger than eighteen anyway. So we've been running a search on runaway minors in the area since you got here. But you're not quite from around here, are you? Eliana Jones?" He opened the folder and pulled out a photo of her from the Foster Care files. He casually flipped through the folder as he continued. "Says here you have a history of violence. Mother went to jail for murdering your father when you were ten. And you were rendered virtually unfosterable after only your first set of Foster parents. And understandably so; god forbid the next people who took you in come under suspicion of abuse because you didn't say anything horrible about them. Now why didn't you report them I wonder?" He squinted at her, dissecting her under his gaze. "An early sign of sociopathic tendencies?" Eli couldn't tell if she was breathing or not.

He turned back to her file. "Nonetheless, you eventually were taken in again, and by the Children of Grace group too. Says here you were even living with Grace herself! Until you deserted roughly six months ago. So what then: move to the big city and threw yourself in with the first gang you could find. What was tonight it then? Your final test to get into the big leagues? Seems like you had years of violent outbreaks to build upon. So glad it finally paid off for you." Despite his sarcastic tone, there was no joy in Detective Malone's voice, only scrutiny. He'd been trying to read her the entire time she'd been there and was pushing the gang violence angle to set her off her guard. It was entirely possible that she was a part of something larger, but he didn't think it was the one most people would think. Eli looked paralyzed with fear, but inside she was rioting. Her wrists strained against the cuffs, one sharp tug and she would break them.

"Unless," He set the folder aside and sat back down to face. "Unless there's a different side to this story." He leaned forward to lock eyes with her. "There's something in this city that doesn't tend to make itself very known. Something that likes to pretend it's just more of the same turf violence, but it's not. It bends and wavers, and can disappear for years." His voice came through as little more than a hiss. "There's an unnatural quality to it, and more people will die until I can get to the bottom of it. So we can either charge you for murder and get you sent to juvie -or maybe worse for you, back to the Children of Grace" Eli could feel her stomach drop out below her. "Or, you can testify as part of a larger case we've been mounting and bring to light the true nature of what we're up against."

Before Eli could fully grasp what he was saying there came a loud banging on the door. Detective Malone scowled but got up to open it. "You can't come in here," Eli heard him say, "This is a private interrogation."

"Not anymore." A cool, British voice said, "I've just paid this young lady's bail." On the other side of the door stood Evelyn, dressed in a dark green peacoat with a long black pencil skirt and boots. Eli had never seen her outside and she was the last person she would have expected to release her. Detective Malone made a fuss until his partner came over showed him the Bail sheets. Fuming, he walked back to Eli and uncuffed her from the table. He pointed a stern finger at her, "Don't leave town."

Dazed Eli stood and walked out of the room at Evelyn's side. She could feel her hand at her back and hear her whisper "Just keep walking, we're almost there now." Indeed they'd almost gotten to the entrance hall when Eli stopped in her tracks. Evelyn frowned and turned to look at her "Come on now, you're free to go."

"Not without Adrian." She replied. She wasn't sure why Evelyn had bailed her out, and whether it was good or bad, she needed her partner by her side.

"The vampire?" Evelyn leaned in to whisper, "Are you sure?"

Eli was exhausted, she had faced down her destruction several times in one day and fought off the hordes of hell, yet her voice was still as resolute as stone. "I'm not leaving without him."

Evelyn sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Alright fine, give me a few minutes." She turned on her heel and marched over to the clerk's desk. Eli could vaguely hear her fiercely debating with the attendant, but after a while Adrian was brought out as well. He looked confused, but greatly relieved to see her. He was just about to ask how she'd managed to get them out when Evelyn walked back over to them.

"There now, you're both free to go run off and get yourselves killed if you wish. However, I believe you owe me a debt." Eli glared at her, "Oh don't give me that look. All I ask is that you accompany me back to my place and hear me out. If you want to leave after that you're free to return to whatever hovel you crawled out of." Adrian glanced at Eli, he didn't know who this lady was but Eli seemed to. She returned his gaze and held it; if things with Evelyn went south they could handle it now that they were together.