Author's Note: Slowly but surely, this fic is plugging along. I promise I'll get better at updating more frequently! Celebrating #CastleFanficMonday.
Manhattan…
As a Boston native and a diehard Red Sox fan, Faith Lehane had an ingrained distaste for New York. Those damn Yankees were the bane of Bostonians' existence, Faith had been told at times, and it got to a point before her calling where the mere mention of the Big Apple made her shudder.
But now that Faith was older, hopefully wiser, and having experienced some of the worst the world had to offer, New York didn't seem so bad. Not that she planned on renting her own loft in SoHo and making this place her home, but fact was she didn't really mind being here.
For all her peculiarities, Kate Beckett was an intriguing person to be around. Faith, traditionally never one to try to figure people out, couldn't help but wonder what lay beneath the surface of the other Slayer. Then there was her shadow, the mystery writer who intrigued her in other ways. What was his story? What drew him to Detective Beckett, aside from the obvious?
And why couldn't he be about ten years younger?
Even with her assignment, Faith still made it a point to go on her nightly patrols – mostly for her own benefit, but also because New York was a large city and there was no telling how many Slayers there were. To say nothing of the possibility of there being Slayers in the city who didn't realize they were Slayers – another by-product of the spell turning every Potential into a Slayer, since there was no corresponding spell to create a Watcher for every new Slayer.
In that regard, Faith had been fortunate. She'd had someone guiding her, even when she was a Potential, and while it still hurt to think of what became of her first Watcher, at least Faith had one. Many of today's demon fighters weren't so lucky.
The sound of something crashing against the side of a dumpster caught Faith's attention, and she immediately grabbed for the dagger on her hip as she pressed her back against the brick wall. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw a black-clad figure hunched over another figure, lying on the ground. She heard the sickening sound of flesh being ripped open, then the telltale crack of bone.
Strangely enough, though, there was no scream. Maybe that meant whoever this was had already died. Faith tightened her grip on her blade before springing from her spot against the wall, charging the figure and tackling it to the ground. By the time they both landed on the cold, damp ground, Faith saw the bloody heart in the figure's hand, springing back to her feet.
Without another thought, Faith straddled the figure before it had a chance to get back to its feet and jammed her dagger into its chest. The resulting scream of pain gave her pause, and Faith released her grip on the weapon before grabbing the black mask and pulling it off. Once she saw the face of a man glaring back at her, she got back to her feet and covered her mouth, tears building in her eyes.
"Ow!" The man cringed and struggled back to his feet before grabbing the weapon and yanking it out. The resultant wound closed up almost immediately, and the man tossed the dagger back at Faith's feet. "Well, now that was rude."
Unable to tear her gaze from the man, Faith shook her head. "What are you?"
"Pissed off, is what I am," he said, approaching the Slayer. "You're interfering with the process!"
Once the man came within reach, Faith grabbed his right wrist and snapped it at a 90-degree angle, taking perverse satisfaction in the sound of it snapping. The man barely flinched otherwise as Faith spun out of his reach before approaching again, ramming her elbow into his nose before grabbing him by the shoulders and tossing him across the alley and into the dumpster.
The man got back to his feet far quicker than Faith expected, reaching for the heart he had dropped and holding it up for the Slayer to see. "You're strong," he said. "But I'm stronger, and before this is all over, no one will be able to stop me. Not you, not anyone."
Before Faith could approach again, the man leapt atop the dumpster before using it as a springboard to climb the side of the building. Being dressed all in black, it didn't take long for Faith to lose sight of the man, and she cursed under her breath as she wiped the blood off her dagger and returned it to it sheath.
Much to her disgust, there was blood on her hands. Not only had the blade of her dagger been soaked in it, but there was plenty on the handle as well, thanks to the figure's hands-on method in which he had killed that other person.
Even when she was the hero, Faith always had blood on her hands.
Approaching the body, Faith sighed when she saw the gaping chest wound and the severed sternum. Fishing out her phone, Faith frowned when something shiny caught her eye. Leaning in, Faith noticed that the dead body was wearing a police uniform, and the name tag read Hastings. She swallowed back the nausea tugging at her gut – because if there was any way for this to get any worse, the fact that the body belonged to a cop was it.
"Detective Beckett," she spoke into her phone. "We have a problem."
The Slayer began pacing, but stopped when she saw a poster hanging off the wall. The red, white, and blue poster urged people to consider supporting United States Senator William H. Bracken, but it was his smiling mugshot that stopped Faith in her tracks.
Because Senator Bracken looked just like the man she had just stabbed in the chest.
"Officer down in an alley off 53rd," she said, shaking her head and trying not to let her mind drift to the place it was automatically going. "It's a gruesome one, Detective B…and definitely not normal."
The Twelfth…
As soon as Kate Beckett walked into the interrogation room, she set her notepad onto the table, took her seat, and disconnected the microphone embedded into the center of the table. Faith hadn't told her everything about the crime scene, but once Kate saw it with her own eyes, she knew this was as much a Slayer case as it was a homicide investigation.
Faith glanced at the two-way mirror. "Where's Writer Boy?"
"Medics are looking him over," Kate said with a shrug. "Been heaving his guts out since he got to the crime scene."
Most of the time, that would be cause for a joke, for merciless teasing that drug out for days, if not weeks. But as gruesome as the scene was, neither Faith nor Kate could blame him, and the fact that the victim was one of the NYPD's own meant the usual crass humor that dotted the precinct was nowhere to be found.
"Any idea what did that to Officer Hastings?"
"Not what," Faith said with a shake of her head. "Who."
Kate frowned and dropped her pen. "You saw it happen?"
Faith shrugged. "More or less. By the time I got there, she was already dead. I tackled her attacker, we fought, I stabbed him in the chest, but…he just pulled the blade out and came at me again."
"Vampire?"
Faith shook her head. "My vampire sense wasn't tingling."
"So…demon of some sort."
"See, that's what was really weird," Faith said before cringing. "I mean, more weird than usual. The guy who killed that girl, who attacked me? It was Senator Bracken."
Kate's brows arched. "As in United States Senator William H. Bracken?"
"Look, I know how it sounds-"
"And a few years ago, I'd have sent you over for a psych hearing," Kate interrupted. "But I've seen enough to know not to immediately discount what you're saying. But Faith, this is a big accusation you're making. A sitting Senator with aspirations of becoming President-"
"I know," Faith said. "And maybe I'm just touchy cause I've seen this before."
"What do you mean?"
"Richard Wilkins," Faith explained. "Used to be mayor in Sunnydale. It's a long, sordid tale, but the upshot is…" The Slayer stopped herself with a shake of her head, reluctant to even entertain the notion. Experiencing an Ascension first-hand was a harrowing enough memory; the fact that Faith was more or less on Wilkins' side at the time, having given in to her darker urges, made it all the worse.
She had been largely blind to Wilkins' deadly ambition, largely because he doted on her and gave her the sort of attention she craved. When others had turned their backs on her, when it seemed like everything was crashing in around her, Mayor Wilkins had been her friend, her confidant – hell, a father figure, even.
Sure, he was a murderous fuckwit, but Mayor Wilkins had cared about Faith when no one else did. Even so, Faith might've been reformed, but the last thing she wanted was to face another Ascension.
"Faith." Kate leaned in. "The upshot."
"Ascension," Faith forced herself to say. "Think of it as…a graduation of sorts." A fitting description, given the circumstances surrounding Mayor Wilkins' attempt.
"Graduation from what?"
"From humanity." Faith leaned in, lowering her voice even though she knew this conversation wasn't being recorded. She didn't feel like testing the thickness of the drab walls surrounding them. "When Mayor Wilkins ascended, he became the very embodiment of an Old One."
Kate frowned. "Old One."
"The original demons." Faith shook her head. "Angel would know more than me, but basically, the demons we fight today? Those are hybrids, merged with humans over the centuries. The Old Ones, the pure demons? They're bad shit, B…not even we could take 'em."
Kate shook her head again, for the moment ignoring that god-awful nickname. "So…what? Bracken wants to be one of these Old Ones?"
"I don't know." Faith sprung from her chair and started pacing around the interrogation room, her hands slipping into the back pockets of her jeans. "But think about it, why would a Senator go around killing people with his bare hands and taking their hearts?"
"Well, suffice to say, I need to give Senator Bracken a look."
"Talk to Angel," Faith said. "I'll call Giles, get him to share everything he has from the last Ascension."
"And whatever we do," Kate added, opening the door and following Faith into the bullpen, "we don't leak one word of this to Castle. If you're right, and this is really as bad as it sounds, he doesn't need to be a part of it."
"Hey, no argument here," Faith said. "But how you gonna shake him?"
"Actually," a teasing grin spread across the detective's face, "I was hoping you'd help with that."