Birthright
The Rescue
"What are you doing?" he asked, as if the answer wasn't painfully obvious.
"Rescuing my best friend!"
She charged straight into the group of waiting vampires, smirking victoriously as she heard his heavy feet chasing after her. Whatever else this man might be, he was about to become her reluctant ally in battle.
By breaking the branch, she'd thrown away any chance at surprising the foes, so she would have to rely on her own abilities and hope that the hooded man was at least half as good at fighting as he was at being an irritating jerk.
"Sofia, watch out!" he called from behind her.
She didn't need a warning to see the vampire, a young man who looked just enough like her brother to be disturbing, headed directly for her.
"I can't believe you fell for this", the fiend mocked her.
If there was a point when Sofia might have cared that her attack amused this monster, she was far past it now. Raising her makeshift stake, Sofia raced forward to attack, but the James impostor only used her momentum to flip her through the air, landing her roughly on her back behind him.
"That didn't hurt", she wheezed, rolling away as he tried to descend on her. "Not… one bit."
She struggled to her feet before he did, kicking him back down to the ground as much to let out her pent up frustration with this whole rotten night as to keep her slim advantage over the vampire.
"You can't win."
He wrapped his strong hands around her ankle before she could slip away but she swept her other leg up, striking her worn boot across his monstrous face. The act cost her what precious balance she had. She fell again, this time right beside him. Fortunately, she recovered faster than he did, lifting herself up just enough to drive the stake through his heart. He disappeared beneath her and she landed face first in the hard earth below. One down…
Something was off.
There were three vampires left, and by her estimation at least one of them should be upon her by now. Raising up on her hands, she glanced around to take in her surroundings. Her oddly peaceful surroundings.
A few metres away, Cedric sat propped against a headstone, his head lolled to the side, eyes still shut - if she didn't know any better she could imagine he was sleeping peacefully. From somewhere behind him, she could just barely make out the sounds of a battle, the robed man fighting against the very foes he'd warned her away from. It wasn't right to leave him to face the remaining vampires alone, not when she'd downright forced him into this, so she pushed herself up, ignoring the answering pain that shot through her spine, and hurried over to Cedric.
"Cedric… wake up!"
Shaking her friend did nothing aside from eliciting a small groan from him, so she changed course to digging through his robe pockets in search of her stake. This, too, proved fruitless. Likely he'd dropped it when he got himself captured, and the broken branch would have to continue to suffice for the time being.
"I'll be back for you", she whispered, gently stroking her fingertips across his cheek.
Content that he was safe, at least for now, she headed down the small slope beyond in time to find the hooded man too engaged with the vampire in front of him to notice the one sneaking up behind him. She broke into a run, but didn't make it more than a few steps before he spun around, waving a hand through the air as he moved. In an instant, vines began to crop up around them, ensnaring one of his opponents and lashing the other as he tried to flee. Her eyes grew wide at the impossible display. Vampires were supposed to be immune to magic, or at the very least resistant to it. Weren't they?
"Don't just stand there!" he commanded, whipping his head up to face her. "The last one went that way." He gestured towards town, and she was aware that the final vampire must be stopped before he made it out of the cemetery, but she couldn't just leave him to face these two alone… "Go!"
With that, her mind was made up, and she ran the path to Dunwiddie, attempting to clear her muddled thoughts and attune with those enhanced Slayer senses that had never yet led her astray.
The hooded man had been deceived, she learnt after a few minutes, when her intuition led her to make a sharp turn about halfway through the graveyard. The vampire wasn't on its way to town to feed on the late night revellers, it was doubling back to the mausoleum. To what end: to seek cover, or gather reinforcements, perhaps to warn the others… she wasn't sure, but she intended to stop the vampire before its purposes were revealed.
She skidded to a halt when the cloaked figure came into view again, darting past her without taking any notice of her whatsoever.
He knew. Probably before she did. He'd sent her on a wild goose chase so he could go after the last one on his own. But why?
The answers would have to come later, as a trail of blood snaked across the dirt behind him, alerting Sofia to the danger he was putting himself in by hunting down a vampire on his own while injured. Not that she was in the greatest shape herself, but at least she wasn't torn open anywhere. Her extremely mixed impressions of the man be damned, she was the Slayer, and that meant it was her duty to save him. Resolute in her decision, she chased after him.
"You're not who I was expecting."
Sofia paused, spying on the vampire from a short distance away as her companion encountered her.
"No. I'm better." If a voice could smirk, his did.
Sofia had to remind herself that she was not going to let the arrogant stranger become dinner, no matter how satisfying it might be to watch.
"Wanna know why?"
"Not particularly." The woman, no doubt a noble in her previous incarnation given the lavish garment she wore and the way she carried herself, glared scornfully at him as she advanced.
He dodged her attack effortlessly, and swept his leg to kick hers out from under her. "Too bad." With a mirthless laugh he settled into a spot next to her, reaching a hand out to conjure more thorny vines, which wrapped around the fiend and locked her firmly in place. "I'm better because she's too busy fretting over everyone else to focus on keeping herself alive. I tried to send her home, and what does she do? Picks a fight she can't possibly hope to win. The selfless fool."
He glanced over his shoulder, his gaze landing so directly on Sofia that there was no way it was coincidental. Embarrassment over being caught eavesdropping warred with righteous indignation, and she stood frozen in place by his unseen gaze, unsure whether to duck further out of sight or march right up to him and tell him a thing or two about loyalty.
"I know you're there, Sofia."
When she didn't answer, his fabric covered shoulders shrugged, and he did something even more alarming. He released the vampiress from her prison.
"I've known the entire time", he added, easily avoiding an attack.
Sofia witnessed the battle between the robed figure and the young woman in quiet amazement. The two bodies moved fluidly through the night, equally matched as much in grace as they were in speed and brute strength.
She was especially transfixed by the man, who fought with precision and cold calculation, possessing a keen insight of when and how to strike his opponent. This, she realised, was what it would take to survive her first year as a Slayer. This brutal mastery of her own abilities, and absolute knowledge of the enemy were required if she wanted to live to see her next birthday.
Replaying her previous encounters with the undead and comparing them to the one unfolding before her left her reeling with how woefully inadequate she was for this task that fate had hoisted upon her.
The woman hissed at him as she tried to escape, the animalistic sound calling Sofia's focus back to the present, but another carefree flick of his wrist caused a sharp branch to jut from the ground below, the pointed tip piercing her through the back and turning her to dust before she even registered that she'd been struck. Sofia gasped, in absolute awe of this man who seemed to command the very earth so effortlessly.
"Here, I found this." He trudged the few metres to her hiding spot and held out a stake for her to recover, but it wasn't the weapon that caught her attention.
His sleeve was torn, the source of his blood loss prominently displayed beneath.
"You're injured." Sofia reached a hand out to inspect the angry wound, but he jerked away from her, covering his arm with one gloved hand.
"It's nothing. Caught myself on my own vines."
Sofia rolled her eyes as he drew his robe further in around himself, unsurprised to find he possessed a stubborn streak. "Even so, you should let me-"
"I said it's nothing!" he snapped. "I'll put a little yarrow on it, and it'll be perfectly fine."
"For your information, having friends and a family doesn't make me weak", Sofia changed the subject, seeing no point in arguing with him further if he refused to let her help. "On the contrary, it gives me something to fight for."
"Yeah? Try losing them."
A hush fell on the cemetery as she fought for a response. Was he speaking from personal experience, or simply trying to get even further under her skin? There was no good way to tell for certain, short of asking him to elaborate, and she hardly knew him well enough to encroach on such a personal topic.
"I'll go see if there's any more around. Your Watcher's probably up by now. You should go check on him before he gets himself captured again."
"That wasn't his fault", she shot, crossing her arms and staring defiantly at the shadow beneath his hood, the old obligation to defend her mentor rearing as strongly as ever despite their earlier quarrel. "And he has a name, you know."
"Not interested!" he called over his shoulder, already marching away from her.
...
"Cedric!" Ignoring the fact that he was struggling to his feet, Sofia dove at her best friend, knocking him backwards onto the ground and covering his cheek with quick, light kisses despite a stream of stammered protests from him.
Cedric could have died before she found him, and those horrible things she'd said to him would have been the last, and the knowledge of that was beyond terrifying. If time was no longer a luxury she possessed, then she was determined not to spend it at odds with the people who meant most to her in the world. Try losing them, the remark repeated against her will, and she suppressed a small shiver at the very notion of such a tragedy.
"Honestly, Sofia," He caught her by the shoulders mid-attack and held her at arms length, but the lopsided grin told he wore told her he was just as relieved to see her as she was him. "This is a bit much, even for you."
"I'm just glad you're alright", she confessed, fighting his grip until she was resting against his chest. Cedric chuckled and wrapped his arms around her.
"Yes, I can see that", he mumbled into the top of her head.
"I mean it. I said the most awful things to you, and if that was the last time we ever spoke…" She trailed off, sucking in a deep breath to compose herself.
"Me too." He drew her back to him, running a hand through her dishevelled curls. "Whatever you want, I'll support you in it. If you want to quit, or-or wage war on the council, or even just have a good cry..."
The sound of leaves crunching beneath heavy boots, followed by a throat clearing behind her, reminded Sofia that they were not, in fact, the only two people in the world, so she shuffled off of Cedric's lap to stand, offering her hand once she was steady and tugging him to his feet.
"I scouted around, but I don't see any more vampires in the area. Even the mausoleum's been abandoned." He paused, his covered head turning back and forth between the two of them. "You should take your Watcher home. This is no place for him."
Sofia opened her mouth to retort, again, to his referring to Cedric in title only, but he was already retreating.
"I don't know whether to strangle him or thank him", Cedric admitted, returning his attention to Sofia.
She certainly understood the sentiment. The robed man had only been in her life a very short time, but he'd already been both foe and ally, not to mention all the trouble he'd stirred up with that book of his, and she wondered if they'd ever learn his true nature.
"Did he just say 'Watcher'?"
"I'll… explain that later", Sofia promised, though she didn't really have any idea how much the man knew about them, either. She supposed it was enough to cause further damage — were he so inclined — which meant Cedric needed to be aware of the situation.
"Let's go home, then", he replied, producing his wand to transport them back to the tower.
"I have a better idea." Sofia grinned, collecting Cedric's free hand and leading him back onto the worn path to town.
13.2.19: There was a bit of dialogue I removed before I originally posted this, and while cleaning up drafts, I happened upon it and realised I should have left it in, so it's back now. Comes right after Sofia hurries back to find Cedric awake.
Author's note: I KNOW this is super late. As soon as I post this, I'm gonna get started on the next chapter to make sure it comes out on schedule. It's just that fight scenes kill me and this was basically ALL fight scenes. If the muse plays nice, I'll try to sneak an extra update in somewhere so it comes out as the right amount of chapters for this season. Big thanks to D for helping me on this one. Turns out several sessions per week of D&D makes one more qualified than I am to write fighting, and he gave me some great insight on how to have actions speak to someone's character and be relevant. Not sure how well I put them to use, but I was happy for the help all the same.
