The Slayer and the Blinder

by StoryQueen2

Maddie is 2020's current chosen one: The vampire slayer. Until she is pulled through time to 1924 and the world of the infamous Peaky Blinders. Years and dates are an estimation so don't judge me too harshly! Initial slow burn romance with some eventual regular smut so read at own risk.

21. Reluctant Alliances

Maddie tried her best to suppress a smirk as she watched Tommy's brow crease in confusion as he stared at her blankly. She knew that he'd react this way to her idea, but it was still difficult to not find his reaction amusing all the same. Eventually he just raised an eyebrow at her, a signal for her to elaborate further as it was clear that he was failing to see the genius of her plan.

She let out an amused sigh, 'If they think it was my idea then they'll think twice about trying anything again. They'll think I have no boundaries and hopefully keep their distance. It's a risky move, it could provoke another retaliation. But if they do, I'll be ready.' Tommy remained silent once Maddie had finished speaking and she looked up at him with an initially confident smile. His face remained stoic as he slowly blinked at her and her confident smile soon withered and she shifted her gaze awkwardly, giving him a look to encourage him to speak. When it became clear he wasn't going speak unless prompted, she huffed angrily and threw her hands up in a frustrated gesture. 'Care to weigh in here?' she asked impatiently.

Tommy took a breath before finally speaking, 'How do you know they will believe you?'

Maddie blinked once before opening her mouth to respond but faltered. There were obviously some details she hadn't thought through. It was hardly surprising considering Tommy had only dropped the bombshell of Mr Traver's death; or rather, murder, on her this morning. During her walk, it had taken most of her brainpower to talk herself out of burying Arthur alive. In her opinion, he was lucky to have gotten away with a punch to the nose. She had stormed her way through the streets of Birmingham for two hours, nearly knocking over several passers-by in the process, racking her brains to figure out how fix the mess whilst cursing the Peaky Blinders under her breath.

It initially looked like there was no way out of it, that she would have to wage war against the watchers when a thought came to her; what would Tommy do? Then the idea sprang into Maddie's head like a lit lightbulb, the story Giles had told her about Buffy standing up to the council popping into their head. She stopped dead in her tracks and smiled; maybe this fuck up could be worked to her advantage. The watchers don't want to make an enemy of her, and if she can make them just scared enough of her, she'll have them under her thumb. If they knew she had the power to get Mr Travers killed without her slayer powers, they probably wouldn't think about crossing her again. This plan had seemed so perfect as soon as it flourished in her brain, that she had failed to start thinking of any ways it could go wrong. Something which Tommy had obviously already done in the space of a few seconds.

'I'll make myself sound convincing,' responded Maddie finally, sounding ironically unconvincing.

Tommy looked more concerned now and cleared his throat, 'Why would they believe that you are ordering members of a dangerous gang to murder your enemies? It's not in a slayer's modus operandi.'

'Since when were you an expert on slayers?' she retorted. She could hear the defensive tone in her voice and saw a flash of impatience cross Tommy's eyes as he picked up on it too, making her wince internally and sigh.

'I may not be and expert on slayers, but I do know you, Maddie,' said Tommy, his voice softening slightly. 'You don't murder humans. They know it was an act of revenge on our part. They may even think that we told you to take responsibility for it.'

He was right, of course. Putting out a hit on someone was not in her nature, and the watchers knew that. But at the same time, Maddie had been weak, vulnerable and threatened and that can make even the best people turn to dark, underhanded tactics. It was still a risk, but if she played it right, she felt sure it would still work.

'It's risky I admit it, alright?' agreed Maddie. 'But you haven't exactly left me with many options Tommy. Plus, I was trying to think like you! Turn the situation around to our advantage and stuff…'

She trailed off as the corner of Tommy's lips pulled up and he began to nod slowly, 'If you're sure this is how you want to play it.'

'It is.'

'Alright,' he said, turning away towards his office. 'I've got a meeting in London myself in few days, we can go together then. Gives you time to work out the details, eh?'

Maddie tucked her stake back into her jacket pocket as she exited the third graveyard she had patrolled that night, and out onto the cobbled street. She checked to see if there was anyone about, finding the streets predictably empty for the early hours of the morning, and set off in the direction of her last destination of the night; the graveyard where she had found the cultists a few weeks ago. She hadn't been back there since her second visit to the site after the fight with the cultists, doubting that she'd bump into any of them there after that night. For the past three nights she had focused her energy on making some progress on finding the cultists and stopping whatever it was they were planning now that her powers were back. In making up for lost time, Maddie had stayed up patrolling until almost dawn every morning. As a result, she had opted to stay at home in bed during the day, which according to Tommy, meant that Lizzie had had to pick up her workload, making her mood fouler than ususal. Maddie didn't much care however, there was a lot of slayer stuff on her mind right now. When she wasn't patrolling, she was ironing out her plan to convince the watchers that she had planned Mr Traver's death, meaning that all of her time was being swallowed up. She and Tommy had barely even spoken to each other, only crossing each other's paths as one arrived home and the other was preparing to leave.

This fact was making Maddie gradually more impatient, starting to miss the private time she and Tommy had together, cursing her slayer duty for getting in the way, as it usually did when it came to relationships. And for her trouble, she had learnt precisely nothing new regarding the cultists. She had started by scouring the local demon haunts, beating up and interrogating anyone who might know something. All had denied knowledge of them, all while cowering before her as she punched them repeatedly. However, Maddie couldn't shake the feeling that something else had the demons and vamps around the area scared. Something other than her that was. She could see the terror in their eyes and was now certain that something was making them scared to the point that no amount of threatening on her part would make them talk.

Maybe it was time to try a new tactic, thought Maddie making her take a small detour from her route to the graveyard. She cut down the narrow, seemingly empty alleyway, not far from Snow Hill station and stopped in front of the short soot covered door. She had discovered this place not long after she had begun patrolling Birmingham properly a few months ago after following a couple of drunk vamps there one night. She opened the door and walked in, keeping her head up and shoulders back. It was a small, snug place, no bigger than Tommy's office. It was always risky going there as there was only one exit, but on the plus side the place was never busy so it wouldn't attract much attention.

As Maddie entered, she spotted only two demons sat at a table drinking pints of fluorescent liquid, and the man behind the bar, who called himself Boggs, who owned the place. As far as she knew he was human; an impressively large, bald man with and angry face. Despite being human, opening a place like this for the supernatural ilk had obviously gained him respect amongst the evil types of Birmingham. That or his appearance was enough to placate them. The two demons and Boggs all looked up to see who had entered and immediately recognised her. The two demons looked down and away quickly, avoiding her eyes as Boggs threw her an angry look as she approached the bar.

'What do you want slayer?' he asked in a low voice. 'I lost a lot of business the last time you paid a visit.'

Maddie recalled fondly the incident Boggs was referring to just a few days before where she had stormed in and dragged a poor unsuspecting vamp out by his hair back out into the alleyway to interrogate him. She found it hard to believe there was much business for Boggs to lose but she supposed that the place was even quieter than usual.

'I think you meant to say: 'Thank you for making the place more manageable,'' responded Maddie sarcastically. Boggs didn't find the humour in her joke and continued to look at her disdainfully. She sighed and rolled her eyes at him, 'Relax, I'm not planning on beating up any of your patrons.'

Maddie glanced over her shoulder at the demons as she said this, and they both seemed to relax a little and continue their quiet conversation.

'Then for what do we owe the pleasure?'

'I need information,' began Maddie followed by a pause. 'About-.'

'About the Hallan cultists,' cut in Boggs, looking unimpressed. 'Sorry, can't help you.'

Maddie creased her eyebrows at him, annoyed but now certain that something else was freighting the local demon populace judging by his hasty and rude interruption. It would be at this point that she would have threatened to burn his little business down, but the 'bad cop' tactic had already proved ineffective, so a new approach was going to be needed. Boggs noticed her angered expression and spoke up again before she could respond.

'Everyone around town knows that you've been beating up whoever you can find to get information on these guys, but there's nothing to tell, alright.'

Maddie scrutinised Boggs and saw that sweat was beginning to bead on his shiny forehead despite it being rather chilly in the room. She took a breath and looked him in the eye sternly but without threat.

'Look,' she began. 'I've been doing this job a long time. Long enough to know when something has the evil underbelly of this city scared.' Boggs looked back at Maddie silently, not giving anything away, but she heard the two demons behind her stop talking and shuffle in their chairs. 'I'll level with you,' she admitted. 'I got nothing on these cultists apart from the fact that this Hallan bloke can grant them some great power. I can tell you all know something I don't. I can see it in your eyes how scared you are. So maybe you need to decide which scary thing you'd rather have around. Me, or the cultists.'

Boggs looked over to the demons sat behind Maddie but none of them spoke for a few seconds until he eventually sighed, 'You don't know what you're getting yourself into.'

'I've dealt with enough big scaries to handle myself,' said Maddie. 'And I'm getting a sense that you dislike these guys as much as I do. I can help you, as unbelievable as that sounds.'

Maddie stared down Boggs intently, silently willing for him to give her what she needed to know. His face was stony but pale as he battled internally with the urge to tell her when the sound of chair legs scraping over the wooden floor broke the silence and they both turned to face the demon who had stood up from the table.

'You planning on getting rid of them for good?' asked the demon, a hopeful look on his scaley features.

'If I have my way. Which I usually do,' nodded Maddie. The demon paused for a moment in thought, his friend leaning forward to try and pull him back, shaking his head in protest but he batted him away.

'I don't know exactly where they're hiding out,' began the demon. 'But a couple of them were here last week mouthing about collecting something from underneath St Martin's church tonight.'

'Tonight?' repeated Maddie. 'You sure?'

'Yes, if you go there, they'll probably lead you back to their hideout.'

Maddie nodded, thankful to finally have a lead, and a good one at that. She turned to make for the exit but turned just before opening the door, 'If you've lied to me or if this is a set-up, you'll regret it.'

With that she turned and opened the door, leaving the nervous faces of the bar behind her.

Maddie ate the distance between her and St Martin's in less than two minutes, adopting a rapid sprint to reach the old stone building. She stopped on the corner of the street she approached from, scouting for any guards or signs of life. There was no-one outside the church, but she could make out a dim light of a candle from within the building, signifying that the demon's tip wasn't unfounded. Crouching and with soft quick steps, she crossed the road to the church gate, which had been left open, before slipping through and creeping over to crouch beneath the window next to the front door. Slowly, she lifted her head to look through one of the diamond shaped panes of glass into the church.

The demon wasn't wrong, the cultists were there, although he had failed to mention just how many there would be. The place was full of them, at least three times as many as there had been at the graveyard. A mixture of vamps and demons were among them, including another tall pale demon with blue eyes and teeth that had nearly bested Maddie last time. They were all stood around waiting it seemed, some holding weapons and some, mostly vampires, pacing around looking uncomfortable to be in a house of God.

Maddie ducked her head back down and hissed under her breath, 'Shit!'

There was no way she'd be able to take them all down, especially with another one of the pale demons among them. She'd have to stay out of sight on this one and hope to be able to follow one of them back to their hideout once they left. Maddie peered back through the window to continue her spying and noticed one of the cultists was becoming impatient.

'What's the bloody hold up?' grumbled one of the vamps who was doing his best to avoid the crosses dotted around the room.

'It's a delicate process,' responded one of the demons. 'If the tablet breaks, then all our efforts are for nothing.'

'But they've been down there for nearly an hour!' moaned the vamp again. 'What if the slayer turns up?'

The demon who he was speaking to quickly lost his temper and grabbed the scruff of the vamp's neck and growled at him, 'Will you shut the fuck up?! The slayer knows nothing, we've made sure of that. And even if she does there's no way she can take this many of us down.'

Maddie smirked to herself, feeling rather flattered that they felt the need to assemble a small army in order to feel safe that she wouldn't swoop in and ruin their plan. Her theory about the cultists scaring the rest of the demons in the area into keeping their mouths shut was also correct it seemed.

The vamp fell silent and shook himself free of the demon before sitting awkwardly on a pew. Luckily, it wasn't much longer before the door at the back of the building which must have led to the basement opened and another five cultists emerged, two of them carrying something large and heavy, about the size of a gravestone, wrapped in a dust rag between them.

'That it?' asked the demon. The cultists nodded in confirmation. 'Good, let's get out of here.'

'Finally!' groaned the vampire in relief who got up and was the first to the door, swinging it open.

Maddie backed away from the window and rounded the corner of the church, crouching in the shadows out of sight as she watched the army of cultists march out of the church toward the road. There were several parked cars on the road, including a large truck further along the road which she hadn't initially noticed. The cultists gathered just by the church gate as the demon, who seemed to in charge of this group, turned to them all.

'You all know the plan, most of us will be going back in the truck with the tablet, the rest will be heading back to headquarters in car or on foot. We all take different routes back, understood?'

The congregation all nodded and began moving off in different directions, the largest group which included the leader hurrying over to the truck and loading the large object, which must have been the tablet he was referring to, into it. Two of the cultists, a couple of vampires that included the nervous one in the church began walking down the street, following the church fence. They rounded the corner on Maddie's side and continued walking toward the back of the church. Locking onto her new tail, she started moving to follow them, remaining on the other side of the fence amongst the gravestones as the sound of the vehicles driving away echoed down the street. Once they reached the end of the pavement, the vamps crossed the road and started walking down the opposite street as she slipped out of a small gate at the back of the church to follow them.

The vamps walked at a brisk pace, but it wasn't challenging for Maddie to keep up yet remain hidden in the dark. The vamps were also talking loudly to one another about the victims they had recently killed, oblivious to the predator that was stalking them. Although she was sure she was going to have to let the two of them get back to their headquarters unharmed if she wanted to prevent the rest of the cultists becoming suspicious. Which was annoying considering she hadn't had a good brawl all evening.

Maddie followed the vamps through Birmingham, ironically, towards Small Heath. Have they been hiding under her nose the whole time? However, the two vamps turned off the road into Kingston Hill Park and she continued to follow, keeping lower now there were no buildings to maintain better cover. She followed them only a short distance into the park until they reached a trapdoor amongst some high grass surrounded by some trees. The vamps looked around them to check if anyone was following them, Maddie already having ducked behind a tree, remaining silent. Satisfied, the two vamps lifted the wooden doors and disappeared inside, the wooden doors creaking as they closed again.

Emerging from her hiding place, Maddie approached the trapdoor before looking around to memorise exactly where it was so she could find it again. She waited several minutes before opening the trapdoor, not wanting to alert the vamps to her presence. There was a rusty looking ladder descending into what looked like one of those old underground water and sewer tunnels. The type that had long since disappeared by the 21stcentury. She climbed down the ladder, unable to see the bottom but was relieved when her feet touched the stone floor about ten feet down. However, the tunnel was pitch black and she hadn't brought a torch with her.

'Damn it!' huffed Maddie under her breath. She was so close; she could feel it.

Finding the damp, moss covered wall with her hand, Maddie began to tiptoe down the tunnel, praying to herself that the place wasn't going to be a maze. The tunnel was straight for what felt like two hundred yards until it came to a T-junction. She gritted her teeth in frustration, convinced she'd lost her tail and would have to return in the daylight hours when she heard voices echoing up the tunnel from her right. She followed them, picking up her pace but remaining silent as the voices grew louder and eventually a dim light began to illuminate the distance and what looked like the end of the tunnel appeared.

Maddie inched toward the end of the tunnel cautiously until she could see into the room at the end of it. She was looking down into a large room which looked like it was once the central hub for the tunnel system, several other tunnel openings lining the walls at different levels. Inside were the cultists, all of them it seemed. Their numbers must have reached nearly fifty and she felt her saliva become bitter and sticky in her mouth. The stone tablet they had stolen from the church had already arrived, now uncovered on a large table. It was covered in writing of several different languages; most Maddie didn't recognise. The cultists were all talking amongst themselves, all looking particularly excited about something when one of them, whose face was covered by his hood, went and stood on a raised step in front of them, making them all fall immediately silent.

'Tonight, was a success,' announced the cultist, followed by murmurs of assent from the crowd. 'We now have the ancient tablet of Hallendoch. The last preparations will be complete in a handful of days and then we can conduct the final stage. Our sources say that the slayer is still no closer to finding us. Let's keep it that way, she will not stop us again.' The cultist finished his speech and his audience clapped and nodded their agreement.

'This doesn't sound good,' muttered Maddie. At least they were unaware that she now knew more about their plan. However, it sounded like she needed to stop whatever this final stage was, and within the next few days.

The crowd of cultists then began to disperse, and Maddie saw this as her cue to get out before one of them found her. She turned and hastily made her way back along the tunnel, making sure she didn't miss her turning back to the exit. She made her way down the last tunnel at a jog, reaching the trapdoor and climbing the ladder back out. Pausing for brief second, she checked the pocket watch she had brought with her and saw it was three in the morning. Since her powers had returned, Tommy had made her promise that for the time being during her hunt for the cultists, if she was out patrolling past three, she would call Arrow House to let him know she was alright. An arrangement she had begrudgingly agreed to for his sake. He had given her a key to the office so she could use the phone, but the office was a good twenty-minute walk away.

Huffing, Maddie took off at a jog again in the direction of Small Heath, hoping Tommy wouldn't be tearing his hair out with worry by the time she called him. She reached the office in about ten minutes at a fast jog, enough to make her out of breath after the long night she'd had. She hurried into the office and to the phone, asking to be put through to Arrow House. It only rang once before Tommy answered.

'Maddie?' came his deep voice down the phone, a tone of nervousness in his voice.

'Yeah, it's me,' confirmed Maddie and he sighed audibly on the other end of the line.

'You're late calling,' he stated somewhat tersely, making her wince before she realised that he should have been in bed when she called anyway.

'Well, there's a good reason for that.'

'Which is?'

'I found them, Tommy. I found the cultists.'

'I still think we should go with you,' said Tommy shaking his head. 'If one of those demons that nearly killed you last time was there, it sounds like too much for just the slayer on her own.'

'I agree,' added Arthur, putting his hand on Maddie's shoulder. 'We can round up all of us who know about the supernatural world. At least create a distraction for you to get to their leader.'

Maddie sighed and covered her face with her hands, now regretting telling the Shelby's about what she'd found out that night. She'd been hoping for some tactical advice but mostly support that she could now take them out for good. But they, in particular Tommy, had spoken nothing but words of concern for the last half an hour. She was certain that the place would be minimally guarded over the next few days before they get ready for the final stage. It was the opportune time to sneak back in and kill the leader as well as destroy the tablet of Hallendoch. Judging by the amount of care the cultists took to obtain it, it must be pretty pivotal to their plan. Maddie had explained all this to the them, but still, they did not look convinced. It was as if they were seeing something she wasn't.

'No!' blurted Maddie in frustration. 'A distraction is one thing, but it could also bring the entire army down on us. If I'm by myself, I can sneak in undetected.'

'Or the place is heavily guarded, which it likely will be if this big stone is as important as you think it is,' added John with a puff on his cigar. 'And they overpower you.'

Maddie sighed, she hated it when they had a point. But them all going in together guns blazing also wasn't a viable plan either. This was going to be harder than she thought.

'I think she can do it by herself,' chipped in Lizzie with a sneer in Maddie's direction.

'Shut up, Lizzie,' said Polly with a roll of her eyes before looking at Maddie. 'You need to get some more sleep and think it over more, Maddie. You look exhausted.'

Polly was right, if it hadn't already been obvious from the bags under her eyes. Maddie had stayed at the office once she had gotten there and slept on the sofa in Tommy's office, feeling too tired to drive back to Arrow House so late. The few hours she got before everyone arrived to open up shop evidently hadn't been enough. Not to mention she was still covered in grime from a full night's patrol. Maybe she wasn't thinking at her best, she admitted to herself.

'Alright,' nodded Maddie. 'I'll sleep on it some more.' The group around the table nodded and got up from their chairs around the small table in Tommy's office to begin their day as Tommy ushered Finn over.

'Drive Maddie home then come straight back. I need you to go with Arthur to the track today.'

Finn nodded and announced he'd be outside the front in the car in a few minutes before leaving. Maddie turned to Tommy and gave him a critical look.

'You don't think I can handle this,' she stated, feeling a little let down.

Tommy sighed, taking a moment to search Maddie's face before responding, 'You can handle a lot, Maddie, I've seen you do it. But this cult sounds dangerous, organised. You're the slayer but your still just one person.'

'This isn't the first organised group of demons I've fought and I'm sure it won't be the last,' she responded stubbornly, making him look down at his feet with an inpatient huff. 'I need you to trust my judgement.' Maddie watched patiently as Tommy breathed in and out slowly, evidently trying to control the words he really wanted to say before he looked back up at her with a slight edge of pain to the lines of his jaw.

'I've spent the last several weeks watching you wither away to almost nothing after being bested by normal men using fancy parlour tricks. Not to mention almost killed by a vampire which managed to get into our home,' began Tommy with a touch of anger in his voice. 'Before that you almost got strangled by one of these cultists in front of me and now, we've found out that there may be more than fifty of them hidden in some run-down tunnel under Birmingham with only a few ways in and out. Which you not only want to sneak into, but sneak into alone with no help and you expect me to just nod and agree with you?'

Maddie blinked and took an inhale of breath with Tommy's rant, not expecting the anger in his voice. She felt immediately guilty and foolish, now realising why all of the Shelby's had reacted the way they had. They had come so close to losing her a number of times now and they didn't want the sight of her going down into those tunnels to be the last time they saw her. She now realised how irrational her plan had been, her need to deal with the cultists as quickly as possible and her tiredness clouding her judgement.

'I'm sorry, I didn't…' began Maddie, faltering when she didn't realise what to say. 'I just want these cultists out of the way. They're bad news, I can feel it.'

Tommy sighed, stepping forward and wrapping his arms around her and she let herself bury her face into his chest, taking in the comforting smell of whiskey and cigarettes. 'I know,' he said as she felt his chin rest on her head. 'And we will. But it always pays off to take time planning, eh?'

Maddie nodded silently into his waistcoat, feeling too tired to use her words anymore. They stood there silently for a couple of minutes before the sound of Finn blowing the car horn outside broke them apart.

'I'll see you tonight,' said Tommy before cupping her face with his hands and leaning down to place his lips to hers gently. Maddie knew it was only intended to be a short goodbye kiss, but the softness of his lips drew her in, and she felt herself wrap her arms around his neck instinctively. She could feel a smile curling his lips up in response to a sigh escaping her. She should have known better than to kiss him when she was half-awake, it was always a time when she was in her most arousable state. Tommy's hands slid slowly down from her face to her sides and over her ass, pressing her firmly against him. She began to nip at his lower lip teasingly and soon felt his cock harden in his trousers against her stomach.

A set of three short but loud bursts from the car horn outside stopped them, making them both sigh, Finn evidently keen to get going. An annoyed shout from outside Tommy's office followed shortly after.

'If you make him blow that fucking horn again, I'll come in there and drag her out to the car myself!' yelled Lizzie angrily.

Maddie chuckled at Lizzie's frustration, although Tommy looked less impressed and walked over to the door to open it for her whilst casting a look to Lizzie as he did so, 'That won't be necessary, thank you Lizzie.' He nodded his head in the direction of the exit and addressed Maddie, 'Go, get some sleep.'

She smiled at him as she ducked out of his office, casting Lizzie the bitchy-est smile she could muster before heading out to the car.

Maddie's original plan had been to get some sleep in the car on the journey to Arrow House, however Finn's incessant talking made it impossible. He kept asking for her to tell different parts of the story from the night before as well as asking why she didn't want them to help. She loved the kid like a brother but like younger brothers do, he was beginning to irritate the shit out her.

'For fuck's sake Finn give it a rest will ya!' blurted Maddie after the hundredth question. 'I'm tired and my brain feels like it's going to dribble out of my ears before I even make it home.'

Finn blushed and looked a little taken aback, 'Sorry Mads,' he apologised. 'I just want to know what the deal with these cult blokes are.'

'Yeah, me too,' sighed Maddie. 'Don't worry about it, I'll handle it somehow.'

Finn smiled and nodded, showing the most amount of confidence in Maddie that anyone had shown her all morning. Once she got home, waving him off before he sped away as soon as she got out of the car, she made a bee line for the shower, bumping into Esther at the top of the stairs, almost knocking her over. Maddie had decided that she liked the new housekeeper Tommy had hired, having been a little dubious of her to begin with. She knew it was because of her lingering guilt around Frances' death, and nothing to do with Esther herself. She had proved to be much kinder than Frances yet came across just as experienced and authoritative.

'Oh, good morning, Maddie!' she exclaimed, her expression becoming mildly shocked as she took in her haggard appearance. 'Were you up early this morning?'

'More like I've just got home after yesterday,' informed Maddie with a huffed laugh.

Esther's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and Maddie could see the questions swimming around her face. But Esther's mouth remained shut and she set her features into a pleasant smile, obviously thinking it best not to ask. Tommy had said he hadn't told Esther anything about her being a slayer, not thinking it a wise thing to do straight away and Maddie had agreed. Even after the many months she had been around, Frances had never really been given many details about her, although she was sure the old woman knew more than she let on. Now it was evident that as nice as Esther was, she would have to get used to just how strange of a household she was working in.

'Would you like me to prepare a bath?' asked Esther.

'Ah no that's okay, I'll get a shower and get into bed. I'm kinda shattered.'

Esther gave Maddie and amused but puzzled look, 'You do talk strangely, Maddie. It's like you're from a whole other world.' Maddie couldn't help the short laugh that escaped her mouth and nodded.

'Maybe I am,' she replied jokingly. Perhaps Esther was more astute than she had given her credit for. 'See you later.'

Maddie smiled as she passed Esther and headed for the hot shower that was calling her name. She washed the sweat and dirt from her body and hair, humming happily under the soothing stream of water. When she got out of the shower, she caught her reflection in the mirror and noticed that all her bruises from her time as a normal girl had completely gone. She had also regained all the weight she had lost, making it hard to believe that she had looked so sickly just a week ago.

She closed the curtains in the bedroom and threw herself into bed naked, the sight of it making her eyelids too droopy to even bother putting on a nightie. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she felt her long night catch up with her, her muscles aching painfully as sleep enveloped her.

Maddie awoke bleary eyed but surprisingly refreshed in the mid-afternoon, getting up to peek out of the window to see that no cars were on the driveway and that the Shelby's were still at the office. She dressed in clean jodhpurs and blouse and went into the kitchen where Esther made her a large lunch, her stomach feeling like a bottomless pit when she had woken up. This gave her the energy to spend several hours training in the basement, the time flying by as she focussed on her form.

Tommy had been right when he'd said Maddie might be rusty after a long period of not slaying. She wasn't dangerously sloppy, but she had noticed a dip in her reaction times, execution and breathing control compared to before. She practiced several basic drills repeatedly until she was satisfied that she had perfected them again. This was a type of training she usually hated, but she had to admit it was the best way to do it.

During a drill that involved swinging her body weight around whilst changing feet, being on her hundredth or so repetition, the door to the training room opened and Tommy walked in. He didn't say anything as he entered and silently approached her, watching her as she continued her drill without pause. As he got closer, she cast him a small smile.

'I'm nearly done, just a couple more,' she breathed in time with her movement. She did her final two repetitions and finished by bringing her feet together and letting her breath out slowly through her nose.

'Feeling good?' asked Tommy as Maddie let herself relax. Her muscles were burning but in a good way, like she had fine-tuned them like you would violin strings.

'I'm feeling amazing, actually,' she smiled widely, causing his lips to return a small one of his own.

'Good,' he nodded. 'Come on, everyone's upstairs. Let's go and talk about your cultists, eh?'

Maddie had purposefully pushed all thoughts of the cultists and the watchers out of her head since she woke up. Wanting to re-assess her situation as if she was coming across it for the first time. They went upstairs and joined the Shelby's in the sitting room, half of them already on their second after-work glass of whiskey.

'So, have you had any other thoughts Mads?' asked John once they had all sat down. 'About how to deal with these freaks?'

Maddie shook her head, 'I've tried to keep my mind blank all afternoon. Get a fresh perspective on it.' There was a short silence in the room as everyone nodded and sipped on their drinks.

'And what do you see with your new perspective?' asked Tommy slowly.

Maddie looked at him in thought for a moment, remembering everything that he and the Shelby's had said that morning. The conclusion came to her easily now, she was going to need help. Going in alone would indeed be reckless and certainly fatal. However, she was now also certain that she would need more help than what her family could provide.

'I'm going to need your help,' sighed Maddie, making all the Shelby's smile somewhat with relief and a pinch of excitement. 'But we will need more than just us going in armed to the teeth. We need more manpower, but I doubt we'll get far if we don't have magic or something else backing us up.'

'You know how to do magic,' commented Arthur. 'Just whip up a charm to turn them all into frogs.'

Maddie laughed at Arthur's lack of knowledge, noticing Polly roll her eyes and shake her head on the other side of the room. 'I'm a slayer not a witch,' she replied. 'Even bog-standard charms like the one I made for Tommy took me days to perfect. Turning one living thing into another takes experience that I don't have.'

Arthur sighed and nodded, 'Alright, so, who does?'

The room went silent for a moment, everyone looking at each other as if someone would announce they had an on old friend who practiced magic when Polly looked up and caught Maddie's eye.

'I might be able to do some magic,' she said evenly, getting a cigarette out of her bag. 'Although I haven't ever performed any.'

Everyone turned and looked at her with a mixture of confusion and shock, a long awkward silence filling the room.

'Pol?'

Tommy's deep voice filled the room and shook everyone out of their dumbstruck state. His prompt was enough to break Polly's silence and she took a deep drag on her cigarette.

'I've always had an affinity for seeing the future, speaking with spirits, you all know that,' she began. 'But I've also always had the feeling that I have a greater power in me. Old gypsy magic that goes back generations in our family. My mother told me about the magic and that the old rites and incantations of the Boswell clan were lost but… I'm not sure that's actually true.'

Maddie stared back at Polly for several seconds, her mouth hanging open in anticipation to ask one of the many questions that were forming in her head when Tommy, as usual, regained his wits before everyone else.

'Do you know where to find the books on this old magic?' he asked.

'If anyone knows where they are it would be old Elizabeth Boswell,' said Pol. 'I wouldn't put it past her to have them herself.'

Maddie turned to look at Tommy who looked deep in thought and turned back to Polly, 'Who's Elizabeth Boswell?'

'She's a member of the Boswell clan, my family on my mother's side,' informed Polly. 'She's very wise but also very sly, even for a gypsie.'

'I'll call and tell Johnny to go and make contact with her,' said Tommy, getting up and heading out of the room to do just that.

'How long will it take to find out if she knows anything?' asked Maddie, suddenly remembering that the cultists were planning their final stage in just a few days.

'We gypsies have ways and means of finding each other, but it could take Johnny a couple of days to find her,' sighed Polly.

Damn, it would be tight. That's assuming that this Boswell woman knew anything about this old gypsie magic and even more of an assumption that Polly would be able to perform any of it, if indeed any of the spells would be useful. This was currently the only thing that could possibly help Maddie take down these cultists, but she had been in the game long enough to know that it was unwise to put all your eggs in one basket. It was becoming more evident that she would need the watchers help on this. However, the problem of their leader being dead by Arthur's hands still hadn't been dealt with.

'I need to get to London and speak to the watchers,' huffed Maddie. 'Sort out the shit with them and somehow get them to help, assuming they don't kill me first.'

'Are you still planning on telling them Mr Travers was your idea?' asked Michael, who had remained silent through all of the recent meetings regarding Maddie's various problems.

'I – I don't know,' she stammered, the last few days making her doubt even this decision. 'Maybe that isn't such a good idea either.'

Just then, there was a knock at the door and Esther entered, taking one small step into the room.

'I'm sorry to interrupt but there is a visitor here in the foyer. She said she's looking for Maddie,' said Esther nervously.

Maddie and the rest of the room looked at each other with tense expressions, all automatically thinking the same thing. They had all been so engrossed in the conversation they hadn't heard the doorbell ring. Maddie looked out of the window and saw that the sun was still up, even if it was close to setting over the tops of the distant trees, meaning that this woman at least wasn't another vampire trying their luck.

'Did she say who she was?' asked Maddie standing up and approaching Esther a little faster than she intended, making the woman blink and step back instinctively.

'No,' she replied, shaking her head. 'She was quite insistent that she speak with you alone as well.'

Maddie was now convinced that this visitor was no good and looked back at the Shelby's who had all gotten up, ready to go and meet this woman with her and ignore their request. However, she felt the urge to comply with the woman's request, thinking that the Shelby's would be safer out of the way for now. Tommy was still in his office and probably wasn't aware of the visitor yet but would probably be safe in his office for a while longer.

'Wait here,' commanded Maddie, taking a step towards the door.

'Mads!' called John. 'Are you mad? What if she attacks you?'

'If she does, I'll be ready,' she replied. 'This won't be a repeat of last time. You wait here too Esther.'

Esther blinked and looked back at her, now looking frightened. Maddie didn't have time to reassure them further though, and stepped toward the door and left the room, closing the door behind her. She headed the short distance down the corridor toward the foyer, wondering who the hell this person could be, and hoping that Tommy and the others would steer clear if it turned violent. As she entered the foyer, she didn't immediately spot anyone and had to look around before she eventually spotted her.

A young woman of about twenty with long, straight fiery ginger hair that reached her waist was stood on the far side of the room looking up at the large portrait of Tommy with a horse that hung on the wall. She was short, about Maddie's height and very slim and was wearing long sleeved, forest green dress that stopped at her shin. Her posture was graceful yet strong and one look at her made Maddie's muscles tense, as they often did when a significant threat was in the room. This woman emanated danger but also a familiarity that she couldn't pin-point.

'Can I help you?' said Maddie, in a tone that was purposefully polite yet aggressive.

The woman turned around slowly, not even slightly startled by Maddie's appearance, as if she had known she was there since she had walked in. The woman was strikingly beautiful; her features soft and elven like, matching her slim figure. Her skin was pale and littered with freckles. Even from a distance of a few meters, Maddie could see that her eyes were green like emeralds which stood out in contrast to the red lipstick she was wearing. The sense of familiarity Maddie had felt now felt stronger on seeing the woman's face, and she struggled to figure out why. The woman regarded her silently for a moment with an odd expression on her face, dragging her eyes up and down her body as Maddie did the same back.

'You are Madeline Chapman,oui?' asked the woman finally, a thick French accent finishing off her already exquisite persona. Maddie raised an eyebrow at the woman dubiously, wondering who the hell this woman was.

'Well, actually it's just Maddie but yes that's me,' she replied. 'Who the hell are you?'

As Maddie confirmed who she was, the woman's features became sterner, and she began walking towards her slowly, but Maddie stood her ground and maintained eye contact with her.

'My name is Marie,' she said as she came to a stop in front of Maddie.

'And what is it that you want from-?'

Maddie was unable to finish her question because it was then that Marie's fist flew seemingly out of nowhere and connected with her chin. Her feet left the floor, and she flew backwards a couple of feet, landing with a crash on her back. She quickly looked back up to find her attacker and saw that Marie was already on top of her, reaching down to grab her by her shirt and lifted her up. Maddie broke free of her grasp, batting her arms away, and returned the first punch to her chin, making her stumble a few steps.

'Okay,' huffed Maddie. 'Who the-?'

Again, Maddie was cut off as Marie recovered and launched for her, forcing her to dodge to the side and kick Marie in the back of her legs, making her fall to her knees. Maddie quickly advanced on her and wrapped her arm around Marie's neck who grasped at her arm with a strong grip. Maddie attempted to fall backwards so she could get her into a full body lock on the floor but she resisted and threw Maddie over her head where she landed harshly with a groan.

Just then, Maddie heard the door to Tommy's office open and she looked up with panic to see him take in the scene with his pistol drawn. He quickly spotted Marie stood over her, just a few feet in front of him and immediately began to raise his gun toward Marie. However, Marie was too fast and covered the distance between her and Tommy before his gun was fully raised.

'Tommy, run!' shouted Maddie as she scrambled to her feet again.

It was no good, Marie had reached him and caught his arm as he was raising it and twisted his wrist harshly, making him drop the gun on the floor. She then connected her other hand flat with the centre of his chest, pushing him backward hard into his office door which opened with a crash before he fell to the floor in the doorway. Maddie's heart jumped into her throat, and she closed back in on Marie, fury now boiling its way up her throat.

'Hey!' she yelled, reaching Marie and grabbing her by the arm before throwing her hard against the wall. Maddie held her there with one arm and began punching Marie repeatedly in the face. 'That. Was. My. Boyfriend!' she shouted in time with her punches. Then, the sound of several running footsteps sounded from behind her before Arthur's voice called out to her followed by the sound of several guns being cocked. 'Don't shoot! I don't know if guns will kill her!'

A laugh sounded from Marie with Maddie's words and she locked eyes with her angrily, pulling Marie toward her roughly before slamming her against the wall again, 'Who are you and what do you want with me?'

Marie chuckled again, 'Av' you not figured it out yet?'. Maddie looked back at her sternly, not impressed by Marie's annoying posturing. 'I am Marie, ze' vampire slayer'.

Maddie couldn't stop her eyes from widening as a flashback of one of her many dreams zoomed through her head, and she suddenly realised why Marie had seemed so familiar. She'd dreamed about Marie; seen her fighting her way through a hoard of vampires in Paris at some point in her life. Maybe it had already happened. In her moment of realisation, Maddie lost her concentration and let her grip on Marie's dress slacken. Before she knew it, Marie's forehead connected with her nose, making her release her grip completely and step backwards. Before she could regain her senses, Marie grabbed her by the back of her head by her hair and slammed her face into the wall. This time Maddie heard a crack as her nose hit the stone, followed by a blinding pain radiating across her face before she was thrown backwards again onto her back on the floor.

'And I will end you demon!' hissed Marie, glaring down at Maddie with hatred. Demon? Maddie's mind reeled for a moment before her mind connected all the pieces and her memory about Marie from the watcher's diaries began to return to her.

Shouting quickly broke out across the room and Maddie looked up to see Arthur get Marie in his sights. 'Don't!' she screamed, holding her hand up in his direction as she registered the taste of fresh blood in her mouth and the hot wetness on her chin. Arthur hesitated and looked down at Maddie and then to John confused.

'Watch out!' yelled Finn, pointing behind Maddie and she turned to see Marie descending on her again.

Maddie jumped back up to her feet and kicked Marie away from her, hitting her in the stomach in an attempt to wind her and slow her down. Out of the corner of her eye, Maddie saw Tommy getting back to his feet in the doorway, clutching at his chest with one hand and the back of his head with the other. He looked up at her and took a step towards her before she shouted to him, making him stop.

'No, wait!'

Maddie turned back to Marie just in time to catch her fist mid-jab before it connected with her face again, the attempt to wind her being unsuccessful. Maddie then blocked Marie's other fist and punched her hard in the gut.

'Wait,' she huffed, holding her hands up as Marie bent over slightly from the hit. 'You've got this wrong, I'm not a demon!'

'Ha! Do you really expect me to believe zat?' she replied, standing up straight again.

'Listen, I'm –!' began Maddie before Marie jumped at her again, tackling her to the ground and pinning her down with her legs and pressing one hand down on her neck.

Maddie grunted as she struggled to free herself, grasping the hand around her neck as Marie reached into the pocket of her dress and withdrew a short dagger which glinted in the light and lifted it above her head. Terrified shouts from the Shelby's echoed around the room before Marie began to bring the dagger downwards. Maddie's other hand flew up and caught Marie's wrist mid-air, stopping it dead. Marie tried to force her hand down, but she kept it still as she released Marie's other hand from around her neck enough to speak.

'I'm a slayer too!' rasped Maddie desperately.

Marie's brow furrowed before she let out a huffed laugh, 'What are you talking about?'

'I'm a vampire slayer, from the future,' said Maddie as they continued to try and overpower each other.

'Zat is ridiculous!' growled Marie, pushing the dagger a few inches further down towards her chest. Maddie was now panting with exhaustion having been pinned in a very vulnerable position. They were equally matched in strength, but Marie had gravity on her side and Maddie knew she was in trouble. She needed to convince her she was a slayer, and fast. Then an idea came to her.

'Your name is Marie Toussaint. Your watcher is Jean Laurent. You live with him in his flat in Paris,' blurted Maddie.

Marie's face dropped, her already pale skin going even paler before her grip on Maddie's neck tightened again. 'How do you know that?' she hissed; her teeth bared.

'I – I have the dreams… like you. About the previous slayers,' said Maddie, struggling to force the words out. 'I read Jean's watcher diaries.'

'Zat… zat can't be possible,' muttered Marie and Maddie could feel her knife arm begin to slacken.

'You have a little brother. He has red hair like you.' Marie's face now looked positively ashen, and her breathing quickly became shaky. 'He is the most precious thing in your life, and you'd die to protect him,' said Maddie, remembering feeling Marie's feelings in one of her many dreams.

Marie gasped and released the dagger, dropping it to the floor, lifting her other hand from Maddie's throat. Maddie coughed and spluttered, rubbing her neck as Marie slowly stood up, looking down at her dubiously but looking like she wasn't going to attack her again. Maddie didn't wait for her to change her mind and instead got to her feet and looked over at Tommy who was already approaching them. She hurried over to him and put her hands on his face as he did the same.

'Are you alright?' she asked, placing one of her hands on his chest making him wince.

'I'm fine,' he replied, trying his best to put on an unperturbed expression but winced again, bringing his hand up behind his head.

'What is it?' asked Maddie, and before Tommy could stop her, she turned his head to the side and looked at the back of his head to see a large, deep cut on the back of his head. It had started bleeding heavily and the blood had seeped into the collar of his shirt and jacket. She gritted her teeth angrily and pulled his handkerchief out of his jacket pocket before holding it against the cut, his hand quickly lifting up to hold it there.

'Your nose,' said Tommy, looking down at Maddie's face with concern and cupping it with his hand.

'What? Is it bad?' she asked, now only noticing the nasal tone in her voice like her nose was blocked. She hurried over to a nearby mirror on the wall to check her reflection and let out a shocked gasp. Her nose was now pointing sharply to the left, a splattering of blood decorating her chin and a deep purple bruise beginning to bloom across her nose and cheeks.

'Touch me and I shall rip out your insides.'

Marie's voice sounded like sharp velvet, soft yet pointed and Maddie whirled around to look at her. Arthur, John and Finn were stood around her, their guns pointed at her head. She was looking at Finn with a contemptuous expression and Maddie guessed that he had tried to grab her.

'You broke my nose bitch!' said Maddie as she marched over to them. It was then that she noticed that Marie looked infuriatingly unscathed, looking like she had regained her composure and smoothed out her hair after their fight. She was stood with a relaxed posture despite the three guns being pointed at her. In fact, she looked almost seductive, eyeing up the Shelby's one by one slowly as Maddie approached. John was trying his best to keep his face stern, but she didn't fail to notice the admiring look in his eye as he took a moment to eye Marie's figure.

Marie turned to look at Maddie again slowly and smirked. 'Zat's what you get when you fight like a little girl,' she said, sounding almost bored. The Shelby brothers cast shocked looks at each other but Maddie could see that Finn was trying his best not to smile. Maddie's eyes narrowed and she took a step forward, only just stopping herself before she threw Marie another punch. God, do I hate this woman.

'Why were you trying to kill me?' asked Maddie, trying her best to forget about Marie's insult as Tommy walked up beside her.

'Because I was ordered to,' replied Marie, casting a gaze over her shoulder to where Tommy was stood and addressed him directly. 'Sorry about you head. I wanted to avoid hurting any of you.'

Tommy didn't reply and Maddie could practically feel his icy glare piercing Marie and sure enough she looked away, finally showing signs of discomfort, if only slight.

'By the watchers?' asked Maddie and Marie nodded her confirmation. 'So, when their attempted kidnapping failed, they tell you that I'm a demon and send you to kill me,' she huffed. 'I can't believe they didn't tell you about me.'

'I am as troubled as you are,' said Marie, looking around again at the guns still pointed at her. 'Are you going to tell your pets to stop pointing zeir guns at me?'

Arthur gave Marie an angered look, whilst John just looked amused. 'They're not my pets,' replied Maddie, giving a nod to Arthur to drop their guns which they all did reluctantly.

'You came here just to kill Maddie, not the rest of us?' asked Tommy now, grabbing Marie's attention and she smiled coyly back at him. She fancies him! Maddie looked up at Tommy to see that he didn't seem impressed by her flirting, and she let herself relax a little. However, it was hardly a competition between her and Marie at the moment, considering Maddie's nose had probably swollen to three times its ususal size by now and Marie looked like she had just walked off a catwalk.

'Zey told me she was ze demon who killed Mr Travers and was using… er… how you say?Un gang de rezor?... to 'elp 'er. My job is to kill demons, not humans, even if zey are criminals,' said Marie before turning to Maddie again. 'Why would zey want me to kill you?'

'Well…' stuttered Maddie awkwardly. 'I haven't exactly been co-operating with them since I got here. And they tried to kidnap me by taking my powers away, but they failed.'

A look of recognition crossed Marie's face, 'Zey used ze injection?'

Maddie nodded, taking Marie's knowledge to mean that she was older than eighteen and had passed the cruciamentum. 'And I may have been involved in some gang related stuff too.'

Marie raised an eyebrow at Maddie, looking almost impressed. Just then, Tommy stepped forward again and put his hand on Maddie's shoulder.

'It seems like there's a lot to talk about,' he stated flatly. 'Let's all go and sit down and talk in the sitting room.'

'And have a stiff drink whilst we're at it,' agreed Polly, finally speaking after watching silently throughout the entire conversation.

Tommy led the way back toward the sitting room, still gripping the now bloodied handkerchief on the back of his head and the others began to follow him in awkward silence. Maddie and Marie both hesitated and cast bitter looks to each other before Marie began to follow, keeping her eyes on Maddie until she had passed her. Yep, there definitely is only supposed to be one slayer at a time, thought Maddie.

When they got back to the sitting room, they found Esther was still in there waiting, looking particularly shaken. When she got sight of Maddie's face, she covered her mouth in shock.

'You can finish for the night Esther, thank you,' instructed Tommy as he entered the room. Esther looked unsure and hesitated a moment. 'Go on,' prompted Tommy again.

'As you wish Mr Shelby,' she muttered before deciding to exit the room hastily. If Esther wasn't already weirded out by the oddness of this house, she sure was now.

Everyone took a few minutes to settle down in the living room, Tommy instructing Michael to pour everyone a drink. Maddie inspected his cut again and concluded he needed stitches which Polly opted to go and get. She then took a moment to inspect her nose again in the mirror and realised she needed to straighten it if she wanted it to heal normally. She placed her hands on either side of the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath before yanking the bone straight again with a crack. She let out a sharp hiss of pain and shut her eyes a moment as the pain subsided.

'Merci,' came Marie's voice from somewhere in the room.

Maddie turned to see that she had just been handed a glass of whiskey by Michael and was taking a small sip. Her face seemed to relax a little before nodding, looking surprisingly impressed. Great, thought Maddie, she's stunningly beautiful and can drink whiskey without making stupid faces, could she get more perfect? She huffed quietly under her breath, poignantly feeling her own envy and inadequacy. It was silly to compare herself to Marie, but it didn't help that Marie had won their little brawl by a considerable margin. In front of all the Shelby's no less, and she could feel her skin flushing with embarrassment.

'Maddie,' muttered Tommy quietly, as he came up to check on her. 'Are you alright?' He inspected Maddie's nose with his icy gaze, his features not giving anything away.

'I don't know,' she replied honestly. 'How does my nose look?'

'Fine,' replied Tommy after a slightly too long of a pause, giving away his lie for once. Maddie sighed and looked down at her feet before sloping away to sit on the sofa next to John, putting a decent amount of distance between her and Marie who was sat on her own on one of the armchairs. Maddie glance back at Tommy who was pinching the bridge of his nose but didn't say anything else to her and instead sat down on a chair as Polly returned and began preparing to patch up his head.

Maddie turned to Marie and glared at her silently for a few seconds. The bitch even had a way of sitting effortlessly. She gave off this ethereal presence that drew the eye to her, and as Maddie glanced at everyone around the room, she could see that everyone was staring at Marie, including Tommy. Now losing her patience, Maddie decided she wanted to get Marie out of the house as quickly as possible. But before she could speak, Marie beat her to it.

'So, you are from ze future Madeline?' she asked in a soft caressing voice that put Maddie's teeth on edge.

'It's Maddie,' she grated out bitterly making Marie raise her eyebrow in mild amusement. John was trying his best to stifle a giggle next to her, but she pretended not to hear it. 'Yes. I'm from the future. I was in 2020 when a time portal appeared and blasted me back here.'

Marie nodded, 'And you av' decided to make friends with gangsters rather zan find a way home?'

Maddie gritted her teeth and pursed her lips angrily; this was going to be a long evening. She gave a brief retelling of her life since she had travelled back in time to Marie, who thankfully didn't make any more passive aggressive comments as she spoke. The Shelby's pitched in here and there, including Arthur who admitted he had killed Mr Travers in anger after what had happened to Maddie. The story of the last few weeks seemed to soften Marie's demeanour slightly, and she looked at Maddie with a touch less contempt. Maddie conveniently left out her recent issue with the cultists, not yet sure whether she wanted Marie to know about it. Once they had finished speaking, Marie gave her first bamboozled look and nodded.

'I see,' she muttered. 'It seems I av been kept in ze dark ere.'

'You believe us?' asked Maddie, finding it hard to believe that she had believed such a wild story.

'Zere is no doubt that you are a slayer,' admitted Marie. 'And I don't see ze point of telling me about all zis you have been doing if it wasn't true.' Marie let her lips curve up in a smile before continuing. 'Owever, there is the problem zat ze council still wants you dead.'

Maddie nodded and then proceeded to explain her original plan to Marie, of how she planned to take responsibility for Mr Tarvers' death which made Marie actually laugh loudly in response, the sound like wind chimes in a breeze. Unfortunately, Maddie had always hated wind chimes.

'Do you av a death wish?' asked Maire sarcastically, making Maddie sit up defiantly.

'What like you could do any better?'

'Ha, I could think of a thousand better plans zan zis!' she chirped. 'Did your watcher not teach you anything?'

Maddie blinked and flicked her gaze over to Tommy, who looked back at her and gave her an almost imperceptible smile. She had purposefully not said anything about the future so of course Marie would assume that she had a watcher in the conventional sense. She'd had training of course, just not in the old-fashioned way which Marie had evidently had.

'My training was more than adequate, just so you know,' retorted Maddie, to which Marie snorted rudely in response and looked away.

'On ne m'a pas appris à tirer mes coups,' muttered Marie, an edge of venom in her French accent.

Maddie stiffened, sensing the insult even though she could not understand it. 'You want to say that again in English and not looking away like a coward?' snapped Maddie. The conversation was beginning to turn heated, to put it lightly, and she could sense the tension in the room putting everyone on edge.

'She said she wasn't taught to pull her punches,' interrupted Tommy causing Maddie too look at him with a raised eyebrow.

'You can speak French?' she asked in confusion.

'I learned when I was in France,' informed Tommy, and Maddie realised that it wasn't really that important and turned back to Marie, now thoroughly pissed off.

'Oh yeah?' said Maddie, getting up from her seat and stepping toward Marie aggressively. Marie responded by rising from hers and meeting her so they were stood face to face, eyes locked. Tommy, Arthur and John stood up from their seats as well and approached. 'Why don't we have another round huh? See if you'll be saying that as you spit all your teeth out!'

'Stop!' yelled Tommy, putting himself between the two of them and looking down at Maddie, trying to pull her gaze away from Marie, who looked ready to take Maddie up on her offer. He put his hand on her chin and lifted her gaze to his. 'You two should be working together, eh?'

Maddie sighed, he was right, she would prefer that her and Marie were on the same side. But she was hardly making it easy for Maddie to like her.

'She broke my nose,' muttered Maddie. 'But fine, I'll try and be nice.'

Tommy relaxed and stepped away, seemingly placated, opening the space between her and Marie again. Maddie let herself grin slyly before taking her opportunity and connecting her elbow to Marie's nose. Her movement was so sharp and rapid, that Marie didn't even react, and she heard the satisfying crack that signified she'd achieved what she'd wanted. John was quick to grab Maddie and pull her back a step as she laughed with satisfaction to Marie covering her nose and groaning in pain. Just before Marie was about to retaliate, a hellish look in her eye, Arthur grabbed her shoulders and held her back too.

'Petit morveux, je vais t'arracher les bras!'screeched Marie as Maddie smiled back at her, not even caring what insult she was cursing her with. Marie's nose was now quickly turning purple and looked like it had caved in on itself, with a splatter of blood decorating her chin. The satisfaction of sullying her perfect face was enough to make Maddie feel better.

'There. Now we're even,' said Maddie, shaking John off and holding her hands up to signify she didn't want to fight her. Marie huffed but relaxed, Arthur releasing her shoulders before she lifted her hand to prod her nose with a wince. Tommy cast Maddie an angry look, like what a father would give a child and she gave him a shrug in return. 'What?! She started it!'

'Sit down. Both of you!' ordered Tommy angrily, his tone enough to wipe Maddie's smile from her face and make Marie flinch. He snatched Arthur's handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Marie as they both did as they were told, sitting back in their original seats, before he turned to address Marie.

'Now that you know the council lied to you, will you help us?' asked Tommy forthrightly, locking his gaze with Marie who met it back but withered slightly under his gaze.

'I… suppose so,' she muttered reluctantly, as she wiped the blood from her nose and chin.

'Good,' replied Tommy impatiently. 'Then the two of you will go to London tomorrow and talk to the council together.'

Maddie and Marie locked eyes at the same time, both with reluctant expressions. There was a long pause as they stared each other down before they both gave each other a short nod in unison.

'Very well,' said Marie, getting up from her chair, but not with anger, and approached Maddie, holding her hand out to her. Maddie bit her lip but stood as well and put her hand in hers. 'Let zere be peace between us.'

As they shook hands, they both squeezed harder than was necessary and gave each other forced smiles as Maddie nodded, 'Yeah, I guess we can be friends.'

They released hands as an audible sigh of relief sounded across the room. Tommy picked his drink back up and downed it in one as John now took this truce as a signal to ask what had clearly been bugging him for the last hour.

'So, two slayers with super strength… which one of you is the stronger-?'

'I am!' blurted both Maddie and Marie in unison before they snapped their heads to look at each other again with narrowed eyes. Tommy should have known it wouldn't have been that easy to make them get along.

'Enough,' said Tommy. 'I think it's time everyone went home. Marie, you can stay the night here. I'll show you where you can stay.'

Marie gave Tommy a flirtatious smile as he indicated for her to leave the room first, batting her eyelashes at him so obviously that even Finn noticed and had to bite his lip to conceal his smirk. Maddie gritted her teeth again and folded her arms over her chest as Tommy followed Marie out of the room, everyone else making their way out behind them.

'Don't worry,' said Polly, walking up beside Maddie. 'He still only has eyes for you.'

'I don't know why,' grumbled Maddie. 'I'm hardly a catch with little-miss-perfect-slayer around batting her annoyingly long pretty eyelashes at him.'

Polly laughed knowingly and put her hand on Maddie's shoulder, 'She's trying too hard. Nobody is that perfect, she has her faults.'

Maddie smiled gratefully at Polly and gave her a hug, 'Thanks, Pol. Goodnight.'

Maddie left the room and headed for the bedroom. It wasn't even late but unsurprisingly she had grown thoroughly tired of the day. She sloped into the bedroom and began to undress, being careful not to catch her nose as she pulled her blouse over her head. After a couple of minutes, Tommy entered the room, not saying a word to her as he removed his clothes as well. Then, she caught a glimpse of her pink silk lingerie in the drawer and smirked to herself. She pulled it out and put it on before turning to face him with a seductive look on her face. However, her face quickly dropped as she saw he was stood in the middle of the room wincing as he rubbed the middle of his bare chest. A large hand shaped bruise painted his white skin where Marie had pushed him.

'Fucking hell…' hissed Maddie, approaching Tommy to inspect it. 'She could have broken your whole ribcage!'

'It's fine, it's just bruised,' he sighed, looking down and noticing what Maddie was wearing and pinching the fabric between his fingers. 'What's this all about, eh?'

'Oh,' sighed Maddie, now feeling stupid. 'It's nothing. Just thought you might…' She tried to walk away, a blush spreading over her cheeks, but he stopped her. He cupped her face in his hands and gently ran his thumbs over her cheeks near her nose before placing a kiss to her forehead.

'I love you Maddie,' he whispered. 'You don't need to compare yourself to her.'

Maddie smiled, 'Even when she gives you that 'fuck me now look' with those big green eyes and purses her perfect red lips at you?'

Tommy sighed and smiled reluctantly, signifying that he had noticed Marie's attempt at flirting with him. 'She doesn't compare to you,' he replied, a dangerously gravelly tone in his voice which made goosebumps rise on her skin. He moved his head down to her neck and began kissing it softly and she quickly began to feel a dampness between her legs. As if he could sense it, his hand which was on her waist began to slide it down over her hip bone and slip it under her lingerie, pressing his fingers against her clit. Maddie gasped and let her head fall back as he nipped at the soft skin of her neck.

'Let me help you forget about her, eh?' whispered Tommy, his breath hot against her skin.

'Forget who?' replied Maddie followed by a pleasured moan as he guided her over to the bed.

Maddie awoke the next morning with her head on Tommy's shoulder, the morning sun creeping through the curtains and warming the skin of her arm. He was stroking her hair softly, already awake, and she lifted her head up to smile and plant a kiss to his lips.

'Your nose looks better,' he whispered, reminding her of what had happened the night before. She sat up and looked across the room to the dressing table mirror and could see even from a distance that her nose wasn't swollen anymore, just the bruising remained.

'Thank god,' she sighed as Tommy got out of bed.

'Come on,' he said. 'You need to set off early today.'

Maddie pouted her lip in childish protest but dragged herself out of bed anyway. Her mood soon improved once she was in the shower with Tommy however, which probably didn't help the leaving early plan. As she got dressed, she thought about how she was going to get through a long car drive with Marie without either of them killing the other. She needed to break the ice; find a way for the two of them to get along. She knew this was the opportunity to be the bigger person and came up with the idea to take Marie some of her clothes to wear since she only had the clothes she had been wearing the night before.

'Good idea,' nodded Tommy when Maddie ran it past him. 'I gave her your old room.'

Maddie gave Tommy an insulted look, 'You gave her my old room?... But… that was my room.'

Tommy cast Maddie an unimpressed look, not seeing the significance of giving that room to Marie.

'You don't use it anymore,' he said. 'It's the main guestroom.'

Maddie huffed and nodded, she hadn't set foot in that room in weeks and had moved all her clothes into Tommy's room, so she guessed it wasn't a big deal. She gathered up a pair of her jodhpurs and a shirt from the wardrobe and smiled to Tommy before heading out and towards her old room. When she got there, she paused for a second in front of the door before knocking. There was no answer and no sound coming from within. She knocked again before pushing the door open slightly.

'Marie?'

The room was empty, but the bed was unmade, meaning that Marie had slept there and hadn't snuck out during the night. Maddie assumed she must have been downstairs and headed down toward the kitchen when she noticed the basement door was open. She let out an annoyed laugh and shook her head. She should have known Marie would have taken opportunity to snoop around her stuff. She marched down to the training room, her temper already becoming short before she had even said one word to Marie. When she got there, she found her stood next to her weapons cabinet, inspecting one of the stakes with an unimpressed expression. She looked up when Maddie walked in and put the stake back in the cabinet.

'Zis is all the weapons you av?' she asked perplexed.

'I have more back home but since I came here, I've had to make do,' replied Maddie, approaching Marie. 'Nice to see you've shown yourself around.'

Marie didn't respond and just looked back at Maddie with a blank face. Marie's nose also looked better, no longer caved in, but still bruised, the two of them matching each other in a weird way. Maddie gave her and awkward smile and decided she needed to try and bury the hatchet.

'I brought you some clean clothes,' said Maddie, holding out the clothes to Marie who raised her eyebrow in surprise. She was still wearing the green dress from the day before, although it wasn't obvious that she had worn it two days in a row. Marie took the clothes out of her arms and looked at them with a small smile. 'I know we got off on the wrong foot and I wanted us to start over and try and get along. At least a bit.'

'Merci,' said Marie. 'For ze clothes andoui, I would like us to start over. I am sorry I tried to kill you and for calling you a brat.'

'When did you-?' began Maddie before remembering. 'Oh, yeah, the French. It's… fine.'

They smiled awkwardly at each other, and a silence fell between them, neither sure of what to say. Marie glanced over to her right and spotted the mat on the floor where Maddie practiced her drills and pointed at it.

'Too bad we don't av time to do some sparring before we leave,' she said and Maddie grinned menacingly.

'Sure, we do,' she said. 'Tommy will probably come a' yellin' but it's not like he can stop us is it?'

The two of laughed together for the first time and Marie nodded excitedly, 'Alright, just give me a minute.'

Marie then started to unbutton her dress and pulled it over her head, stripping like Maddie wasn't even there. Maddie raised her eyebrows and turned away out of courtesy but still managed to catch a glimpse of a vamp bite scar on Marie's neck which had previously been covered by her collar. She opened her mouth to ask about it but decided against it, thinking the question was too personal considering they had only just started to get along. Once Marie had changed into Maddie's clothes, an outfit much more appropriate for sparring, they headed over to the mat and as if by habit and turned to bow to each other.

Marie, as could have been predicted, did not give any signal to start and instead immediately threw a back kick towards Maddie's head which she ducked narrowly. She tried a sweeping kick to Marie's legs, but she jumped over them. The two of them carried on like this for a few minutes, swinging punches and kicks at each other and dodging them all. Eventually they switched to practicing jujitsu style moves on each other, trying to get each other to the floor and almost tearing holes in their shirts. Maddie attempted an ouchi gari on Marie, but she rolled out of it, throwing Maddie over the top of her. Okay, so that wasn't bad I suppose, thought Maddie.

'Nice try,' breathed Marie as they stood back up again.

'That was a nice move I admit,' said Maddie 'Mind if I use that?'

'Be my guest,' smiled Marie.

As they continued to spar, Marie eventually decided to strike up conversation, and they told each other little bits of information about their lives. Marie informed Maddie that she was nineteen and her little brother was eight and that he had a dog called D'artagnan. Maddie gave some information about her life back home, although she avoided confusing Marie too much with mention of futuristic stuff. Eventually, Marie asked her how she liked living with gangsters.

'It's fun but scary,' admitted Maddie. 'But there's lots of laughs in this family, especially with John and Arthur.'

'Tommy is zere brother,oui?' asked Marie and Maddie nodded her confirmation. 'He is very serious but as you would say… easy on ze eyes?' Marie gave Maddie a sly smirk and Maddie clenched her jaw slightly before throwing a hard punch toward Marie's face which she blocked with a purse of her lips. 'Relax,' she said, giving her a friendly smile. 'I am only teasing. I saw ze way he looks at you.'

Maddie dropped her arms to her sides as Marie did the same. 'What look?'

'Like you are ze centre of his universe.'

Maddie snorted, thinking Marie was joking but she looked back at her with a kind yet serious look. 'I wish I 'ad someone who looked at me zat way. Life as a slayer doesn't allow for…amor.'

'But you're beautiful, they couldn't take their eyes off you last night,' said Maddie confused. She found it had to believe that someone who looked like Marie had trouble finding love, even with the slayer lifestyle.

'Zey look at me with selfish desire not selfless love,' muttered Marie, looking down at her feet. 'Zat is the curse of my beauty. Even if it does work to my advantage sometimes.'

'I'm sorry to hear that,' said Maddie. 'I'm sure someone will come along who loves you someday.'

'I hope so,' smiled Marie.

The two of them shared a look in that moment, a solemn understanding that only slayers understood. Maddie really did hope Marie would find love, but the life of a slayer was short and the fact that there was a good chance she wouldn't was a difficult truth to take. Despite reading the watcher diaries, Maddie didn't know when or how Marie would die. She never read to the end of each diary as she found the recount of her predecessors' death too much to bear, if they indeed had documented it at all. However, there were only a small handful of slayers in history who had lived past the age of twenty and to her knowledge, Marie wasn't one of them.

'Come on, let's keep going,' said Maddie encouragingly. 'I like to play this game where I find ways to annoy Tommy and being late always makes him mad, you'll see. You can see the muscles in his jaw pop out.'

Marie laughed and Maddie joined in, glad to have a new partner in crime. They continued sparring for a while longer before, as predicted, Maddie soon heard the sharp footsteps of Tommy approaching. The door to the room flew open as Maddie had Marie in an arm lock. She looked up at Tommy and he gave them an initially worried look which relaxed once she let Marie go. He sighed angrily and walked over to them.

'What are you doing?' he asked calmly.

'Sparring, obviously,' replied Maddie, pursing her lips so she wouldn't laugh.

Tommy looked back at the two of them stoically, 'But you're late.'

As Maddie had said, Tommy jaw muscles began to flex with frustration and she glanced to the side and caught Marie's eye who smirked back at her knowingly before they erupted into a fit of giggles.

'What's so funny?' asked Tommy impatiently.

'Nothing,' replied Maddie between giggles. He stared at the two of them, evidently unsure as to what to do with the situation in front of him.

'Nice to see you're getting along,' he eventually muttered with a definite edge of sarcasm before turning toward the door. 'Come on, Isiah's waiting in the car to drive you both to London.'

They followed Tommy out of the training room into the corridor, Tommy taking his cigarettes out of his pocket and lighting one before checking his watch. He marched them out into the foyer where Esther was waiting, still looking as nervous as she had the evening before. She was holding two packages wrapped in brown paper and held them out to Maddie and Marie. The smell of cooked bacon hit Maddie's nose and made her aware of how hungry she was.

'Thanks Esther!' she said, taking her sandwich and beginning to unwrap it before Tommy looked at her impatiently and she wrapped it back up again begrudgingly. Marie accepted her package with a polite smile before giving it a wary sniff as they followed him out of the front door.

'What is zis?' she asked Maddie in a whisper.

'It's a bacon sandwich,' chuckled Maddie. 'Don't you have bacon in France?'

'Of course,' replied Marie. 'But we do not place it between bread.'

Maddie spotted Isiah sat inside the car as they approached before Tommy glanced over his shoulder at her. 'I've spoken to Ada and told her you'll be staying the night Maddie,' informed Tommy with a clearing of his throat.

'Okay,' she replied excitedly, always happy to find out she'll be seeing Ada.

'I'll ring her with an update with what Johnny could find out later today,' he added as they came to a stop next to the car. Johnny! Maddie had completely forgotten about their plan to find the Boswells since Marie had appeared.

'What did he say last night?' asked Maddie.

'We're in luck. He had contact with the Boswells recently and knows where they're camped out. He should have what we need by today if Madame Boswell is willing to part with it.'

Maddie sighed with relief, that was a stroke of luck. Let's hope it lasts through my meeting with the watchers, she thought. Suddenly, she felt her first pang of nervousness in anticipation for the day ahead and felt her mouth start to become dry. She noticed Marie giving her a questioning look, obviously confused as to what they were talking about. Now that she and Marie had fostered a bit of trust between them, she felt it was probably a good idea to fill her in on her cultist problem.

'I'll fill you in on the way,' she said to Marie before turning back to Tommy. 'Wish us luck?'

'Good luck,' said Tommy, stepping forward and giving Maddie a fleeting kiss on the lips. He evidently had a lot on his plate for the day as he immediately turned on the spot and began walking toward his own car without looking back.

As Tommy turned away, the driver's door opened and Isiah stepped out, walking around the car to come and open the door for her and Marie. He gave Maddie and wide smile as he rounded the bonnet which she returned. 'Morning, Mads! Ready to set off?'

'Yep!' she chirped as Isiah's gaze then landed on Marie. A stunned expression crossed his face causing him to pause before a shy smile lifted his lips.

'Er… Hello?' he said, evidently not knowing who this woman was. Maddie swore she could see a blush begin to spread up Isiah's neck to his cheeks.

'Oh, this is Marie,' introduced Maddie. 'Marie, this is Isiah.'

Marie looked up from under her lashes at Isiah, but not with her ususal confidence and a blush was also spreading across her cheeks which unfortunately was more obvious with her pale skin. 'Bonjour,' she greeted with a shy smile. 'It is a pleasure.'

The two of them clasped hands, their gazes landing on each other as they held the handshake for a few seconds longer than expected as Maddie watched on awkwardly. After a pause Isiah eventually replied, 'The pleasure is mine.' They smiled more widely then, and Marie looked away from Isiah bashfully as Maddie smiled knowingly at them. Oh my god! Is this what I think it is?

Just then however the piercing sound of a car horn shattered the moment and they looked over to see Tommy looking at them impatiently from inside his car, waiting for them to move out of his way. Maddie stuck her tongue out at him childishly as Isiah hastily opened the door for her and Marie to get in. Once settled, Isiah quickly drove the car off down the driveway with Tommy close behind, turning right at the end and setting off at speed toward London.

The journey to London passed far quicker than any other time Maddie had made it. After eating their sandwiches, she and Marie talked for pretty much the whole journey, updating Isiah at the same time who had been told very little by Tommy on the phone that morning. She went through what had happened so far with the cultists, including every detail up to and including the search for some old gypsie magic that could help her defeat them. Marie had listened silently through her explanation, her perfect brows furrowing with each development.

'Why did you not tell me about zis earlier?' asked Marie, a touch of anger in her voice.

'Because I wasn't sure I trusted you yet,' replied Maddie. 'Less than eighteen hours ago you were trying to kill me!'

Marie made an annoyed noise through her nose and pursed her lips. 'Merde,' she muttered. 'I think you av a problem.'

'Oh, gee ya think?' sighed Maddie sarcastically.

'Once the council have taken you back, we must tell zem about zis.'

'What makes you so sure they will take me back?' asked Maddie before realising that she wasn't even sure that was what she wanted. 'I'm happy for us just to be reluctant allies.'

'You cannot go on without the council Maddie,' said Marie. 'You av no watcher.'

Maddie sighed, 'I don't want one.'

Marie gave Maddie a horrified look, like she had just blasphemed against the lord himself. Maddie hadn't mentioned the fact that the council didn't exist in her time, not thinking it wise to tell her as it would inevitably lead to the story of why that was and what happened after. However, it was evident that Marie was going to require some explanation.

'The council in my time… isn't the same as you know it. The whole 'watcher' thing doesn't really happen,' explained Maddie.

'But… who provided you with your training?'

'There are people… kinda like the council, who helped me in a way,' stammered Maddie before sighing as she realised how suspicious she sounded. 'Look, I don't really want to tell you too much about the future. You knowing could make things change for the worse.'

Marie scowled at Maddie, evidently not pleased, 'But you being here has already changed ze course of history beyond repair. Surely you know zat?'

Maddie blinked and stuttered as she absorbed Marie's words. She was right, Maddie was never supposed to be in 1924. Just her existence in this time would be enough to change the course of history in such a way that the 2020 she knew would not be the one that would now come to pass. However, from what Maddie had read about time and how it worked, which was very little, there were certain events that, no matter what, always happened. Even if someone tried to stop them using time travel. In other words, keeping certain things secret about the future in Maddie's mind was necessary.

One such inevitable event was likely approaching; the second world war. Maddie had debated several times to tell Tommy about it, to warn him and the Shelby's but had stopped herself. Telling them could mean they tried to stop it and fail, or even worse try to stop it and play a part in causing it and making it worse. And the fault for that would be hers. No, she couldn't risk that.

Maddie sighed and closed her eyes, shaking her head at Marie. 'I know. But if I tell you what's to come in the future, you will want to change it and in doing so could just make it happen anyway or even make it worse. It's bloody sod's law, isn't it?'

'Pardon?' asked Marie, not recognising the phrase.

'Never mind,' huffed Maddie. 'I'm not telling you anymore about the council, okay.'

Maddie changed the subject as quickly as she could and they fell into discussion about their lives, Maddie being a bit more generous with the more innocuous details of the future which Marie found fascinating, as the Shelby's once had. During their chit-chat, Maddie noticed that Marie kept stealing glances at Isiah, who occasionally joined in the conversation as he drove. She also spotted him taking frequent opportunities to look at Marie in the rear-view mirror, an odd smile on his face that she had never seen before. Now she was certain of it, they liked each other. Maybe it was even love at first sight!

When they breached the outskirts of London, Marie and Maddie started going over the plan once they got to the council, which admittedly wasn't complicated. Since Marie would be with her, it would be unlikely the watchers would attack them. Marie decided that it would be best if she did the talking to begin with and express her anger for being deceived before they then both threaten to leave the council if they didn't agree to end the vendetta against Maddie. The possibility of the council losing control of not one but two slayers should be enough to get them cooperating, or so they hoped.

As they turned onto Regent Street, Maddie soon spotted the familiar building where the hidden entrance to the Watcher's Council was and instructed Isiah to stop the car a few yards away. She sucked in a deep breath through her nose and turned to face Marie with a nervous smile.

'Well… I guess this is it,' she said.

'Oui,' muttered Marie. 'Let's go. Zere is no use sitting 'ere any longer.'

'I have to go as soon as you get out,' interjected Isiah. 'Good luck, though.' He gave Maddie an encouraging smile before giving Marie a longer and more seductive smile. 'I hope we get to meet again, Marie.'

'Zat would be nice,' agreed Marie and with that they got out of the car, closing the doors behind them and waving as Isiah pulled away and disappeared down the street. As soon as he was out of sight, Maddie turned to her and gave her a knowing look, her eyebrow raised.

'What?' snapped Marie, squinting at Maddie defiantly.

'You know what,' she replied, making Marie blush hotly. She laughed at Marie's embarrassment and shook her head before letting her expression become more serious. 'Come on, let's get this over with.'

They crossed the road and approached the same dull section of wall that Maddie remembered all those months ago and sure enough felt the same magical energy as she got close to it. With a deep breath they both stepped right up to the wall and the door appeared in front of them and she gave Marie a nervous look.

'Maybe you should knock,' she said. 'I doubt it's a good idea for me to be the first face they see.'

Marie nodded her agreement and stepped forward, raising her fist up before rapping it against the wood sharply three times. As could be expected, they didn't wait long before the door opened a crack and the familiar face of George appeared.

'Miss Toussaint?' he said as he recognised Marie almost immediately. 'What are you doing here? Your orders were to return to –.'

George fell silent with a short gasp as his eyes fell on Maddie, drawing himself back slightly as if she were going to lunge toward him like a cobra, looking positively dumbstruck.

'Not expecting to see me, I assume,' stated Maddie, trying her best not to look smug.

'I – I…,' stuttered George stupidly.

'I think we 'av a lot to discuss,' said Marie with a dangerous softness to her voice. 'I think it wise that you let us in.'

George stood frozen for a second, sweat beginning to form on his brow, before nodding once stiffly and opening the door to let them in. Marie entered first and Maddie followed close behind, keeping her eye on George who gave her a wide berth as she stepped over the threshold. He looked at the two of them with fear and perplexity as he noticed the state of their faces, his eyes inspecting their noses with confusion before he must have decided it best not to ask.

'I think it might be best if I take you both straight to Mr Wolton,' muttered George shakily.

'Oui, I think zat would be wise,' agreed Marie darkly and George nodded again before hastily leading the way down one of the many corridors.

Just setting foot back in the Watcher's Council again was making the hairs on Maddie's arms stand on end. It simultaneously felt like it had been a lifetime since she was here last and like she had been there only yesterday. She had been so certain that when she had left this building all that time ago that it would be the only and last time she would even set foot in it. Fuck, it was so annoying when she was wrong. She tried her best not to look nervous as George led them through the building, but that became very difficult as they started to pass various rooms with watchers in them, who as soon as they spotted the two slayers, started whispering energetically to each other. Maddie concentrated on the back of Marie's head in front of her, who didn't seem at all phased by the commotion they were causing. The mesmerising sight of her red hair shimmering in the dim hall lights was enough to distract Maddie until they reached their destination. George eventually halted the end of the corridor in front of a large grand oak door. He took a nervous breath before knocking firmly and waiting for a response.

'Enter.'

The voice came from within the room and was deep with a strong posh accent, reminding Maddie of the few times she'd heard a member of the royal family speak. George opened the door and stepped inside first, followed closely by Marie and then Maddie, before closing the door behind them.

The office they had stepped into was grand and very old fashioned, even for the 1920's, looking like it was last decorated in the 1700's. The curtains and draperies were made of thick velvet with gaudy gold fringe and several large portraits of different men hung on the wall set in intricate gold frames. They were all painted in the same style but were obviously from different periods in history. Maddie's eyes fell onto one of the portraits and she gulped, recognising the person it portrayed. It was Mr Travers, looking not too much younger than when she had first met him, and she figured that the portraits were of all the council leaders over the years.

Then Maddie's attention was drawn to the man who they had been brought to see, sat behind his enormous and immaculately varnished desk. He was a large man with a round face, bald head and a walrus moustache, however these features did nothing to make him appear jolly or friendly. His eyes were small and dark, yet you could easily tell who he was looking at from a distance. She knew this because his gaze was fixed squarely on her and his expression was far from pleased.

'Mr Wolton sir,' stuttered George. 'Marie is here with… ah…'

'I can see who it is George,' stated Mr Wolton. 'You can leave us.'

George didn't need to be told twice, and quickly turned to scramble back out of the door. Maddie kept her gaze locked on Mr Wolton who hadn't turned his eyes away from her since she had entered. After a second's silence, he rose from his chair and approached them. She stood her ground, her hands by her sides and her expression terse. He stopped a foot away from her.

'You have some real guts setting foot in here,' he murmured finally, sending a chill up her spine.

'And you had real guts thinking you could get one slayer to kill another, so I guess it's guts all around, isn't it?' responded Maddie calmly yet coolly.

'Oui,' supported Marie. 'I do not like being lied to and used to your own endsMissureWolton.'

Mr Wolton finally broke his gaze from Maddie to glare at Marie.

'We did not give you the truth for precisely this reason,' said Mr Wolton. 'You have disobeyed a direct order.'

'It is good zat I did,' responded Marie. 'I will not be responsible for killing another slayer.'

'She is the one responsible for Mr Travers's death!' yelled Mr Wolton, suddenly loosing his temper, his face turning puce.

'Well, that's what happens when you try to drug and kidnap me!' retorted Maddie, making Mr Wolton snap his head round to face her again.

'You were affiliating yourself with some of the worst men in the country,' said Mr Wolton. 'Not only that but you have been getting involved with their business and are engaged in… romantic relations with their leader! If one could be so generous to call it romance.'

Maddie could feel herself becoming dangerously hot, the urge to beat the senses out of Mr Wolton rising dangerously fast. The watchers seemed to be well versed in what she had been up to since that day she came to visit them, including in her personal life, and the sudden realisation of that was making her feel violated in more ways than one.

'What I do with my life is no business of yours,' replied Maddie. 'I still kill vampires. I still kill demons. The rest has got nothing to do with you. Anyway, what did you expect to happen when you attack a member of the Peaky Blinders, huh? Especially when you know that that person is in a 'romantic relationship' with their leader, one of the most feared gangsters in the country.'

Mr Wolton stared back at Maddie with pure fury but twitched a little as she finished her rant before eventually sighing. Maddie half expected steam to blow out of him as his breath left him and whistle like a kettle. The red colour of his face faded slightly, and he looked between her and Marie in thought before holding his arm out toward his desk.

'Take a seat,' he said.

Mr Wolton began to walk back to his chair and Marie and Maddie shared a quick look before going to sit on a couple of chairs that were in front of his desk. Once sat, Mr Wolton flicked his gaze between the two of them and Maddie folded her arms over her chest defensively.

'So why have you come back here?' asked Mr Wolton. 'A slayer's revolt, is it?'

His tone was irritatingly mocking, and Maddie had to grit her teeth to not swear at him.

'No,' she replied clearly. 'I want to us to negotiate a truce.' Mr Wolton stared back at her in silence for a few seconds before letting out a laugh of disbelief.

'You cannot be serious?! Thanks to your little friends, my predecessor is dead. You deserve to be locked away deep beneath this building for the rest of your life for such a crime!' raged Mr Wolton, the red colour returning to his face. 'And as for you!' he snapped at Marie, who straightened in her chair defiantly. 'You are lucky to not be facing the same fate!'

'And what good will that do?!' snapped Maddie.

'These slights cannot go unpunished!'

She huffed angrily. This man was proving to be the stuffiest and stupidest old fart she'd ever met. Locking away two slayers that could otherwise be used to fight evil as they're supposed to? He surely couldn't be that stupid. This is a power play, Maddie realised. He's trying to convince us that they have the control, when they don't. Me and Marie do, and I think Mr Wolton knows that.

Maddie suddenly rose from her seat and slammed her hands down on Mr Wolton's table and as she'd predicted, he flinched and drew back into his chair, betraying a look of freight.

'I know that all these threats are just hot air Mr Wolton,' said Maddie with a smug smile. 'You certainly can't punish Marie, she's your actual slayer in this time. You could continue to try and take me down but, as we've seen, the cycle of retaliation will keep going round and round to nobody's benefit until the most likely scenario happens where a certain pissed off group of gangsters lead by an even more pissed of slayer come marching in here and set fire to the place.'

Mr Wolton's face began to lose its red colour again and instead become pale although he kept his eyes locked with Maddie's.

'Or,' she continued. 'We decide, like adults, to end this stupid war between us now and call a truce before anyone else dies. We can be on the same side again, you'll get another slayer at your disposal for any big evils you can't handle with just Marie, and I get to be left alone by you all the rest of the time.'

'I concur,' added Marie from behind her. 'I will not take orders from ze council from now on if you do not agree to a truce.'

Maddie paused for a second longer, leaning over Mr Wolton's desk before stepping back and sitting back down to await his answer. So much for letting Marie do most of the talking, she thought. He scrutinised her with a troubled expression for what seemed like several minutes as she and Marie waited patiently. Eventually, he sat himself up straight and took in a deep breath to speak.

'I will agree to a truce,' he began, causing Maddie to smile widely to which Mr Wolton held up a warning finger to her. 'But I have some conditions of my own.'

Maddie could feel her stomach sink into her pelvis as he spoke, knowing automatically that she would not like these conditions. 'Which are?' she asked.

'You agree to take a watcher.'

Maddie's heart sank and she automatically began to shake her head, 'I said I want to be left alone by the council unless you need me.'

'If you are agreeing to fight for us when we need it then I must know that you are dedicating enough time to your training,' responded Mr Wolton sternly. 'Otherwise, you may prove more of a hinderance than a help.'

Maddie opened her mouth to protest again but felt Marie's hand on her arm, giving her pause as she turned to face her.

'I think zat zis is reasonable,' she said encouragingly although Maddie bristled as she spoke.

'Is that because you think I'm a bad fighter?'

Marie's face went from friendly to stern in a blink. 'Non,'she replied tersely before relaxing her features again and adopting a caring yet frank tone. 'You are a fierce fighter, Maddie. But it is obvious zat you have not had any guidance in your training for a long time.'

Maddie blinked and stammered for a moment. Was that true? Had she gradually been losing her finesse over the past few months without any proper guidance? She had felt so strong with rejuvenated confidence since she recovered from having her powers taken away that she had thought she had gotten lucky. Maybe her training alone all the time wasn't enough. Marie had bested her the previous night and she had only stopped her from killing her by talking her out of it. When it had come down to it, she hadn't come close to matching Marie when it mattered and that would be a problem in the future. It was now becoming clear that Maddie was going to have to compromise on this one if she wanted this truce. Not only the truce but also help from Mr Wolton and the watchers regarding her little problem with the cultists. She slowly turned back to Mr Wolton who was waiting expectantly for an answer.

'Okay,' she replied with a clenched jaw. 'I will let you assign me a watcher.'

'Good,' nodded Mr Wolton. 'The only other condition is that you must agree to prioritise you're training and slaying duties. Including above any other… responsibilities… you may have to your friends.'

Maddie sighed again. In other words, she thought, you want me to spend less time with the Shelby's, and with Tommy. These conditions, despite being seemingly few, were becoming classically manipulative. But she admitted that her options were few. She either accepted Mr Wolton's terms and be relatively safe in the knowledge that the watchers wouldn't try to kill her again. Or she disagrees and the same game of tit for tat carries on with more deadly results. She didn't really care if any more of the watchers died, but this war could result in one of the Shelby's getting killed, and they she did care greatly about and was willing to sacrifice what was necessary to protect them. Including her freedom.

'Fine,' snapped Maddie. 'So do we have a truce?'

Mr Wolton finally let himself smile and stood from his chair and held his hand out to Maddie. She stood and stepped toward the desk before reluctantly putting her hand in his and shaking it. 'We have a truce,' he nodded before releasing his grip on her hand.

'Dieu merci pour ça!'exclaimed Marie, making a dramatic gesture with her hands and standing up also. 'So now I zink we should move onto ze matter of ze cultists Maddie 'as found in Birmingham,non?'

'Well, I suppose your day could have gone a lot worse…' joked Ada with a sip of her tea. 'How are you feeling about having a watcher looking over your shoulder?'

'Urg… don't ask,' mumbled Maddie, slumping back into the sofa with a huff.

Maddie had finally managed to escape the Watcher's Council after spending a couple more hours there researching the cultists in their vast library with Marie. Mr Wolton had found her recollection of the Hallan cultists intriguing but also rather worrying. He had agreed to her using the library, under supervision of course, to research the cult and find out how to stop them. As could have been expected, there was a wealth of knowledge regarding the cult amongst the watcher's infinite resources and they soon had all the information they needed.

Hallan was some big wig demon from around the crusades and was pretty powerful by all accounts. He promised power to those who worshipped him and as a consequence managed to gather a decent army around him before some crusaders managed to banish him to another dimension. Ever since, cultists like the ones Maddie had been dealing with had continued to worship Hallan for centuries, performing rituals to earn his blessing. Only now they had found a way to summon Hallan back to this dimension via use of the tablet of Hallandoch, which seemed to act as some sort of channelling device to pull him across dimensions and into a host body. Annoyingly little was known about this tablet apart from the fact that it was lost around the same time Hallan was banished. Maddie didn't find this at all surprising, she had come across many supposedly dangerous 'lost' artifacts in her time, yet they always seemed to turn up frequently despite minimal records of them existing.

Once they had all the information in front of them, they began to form a plan. Mr Wolton agreed that the issue needed to be dealt with immediately and instructed Marie and Maddie to go into the cultist's hideout together, kill the leader and destroy the tablet. He reluctantly agreed to Maddie's suggestion that the Shelby's back them up, but only because they had few options available to them at such short notice. She refrained from telling him about the possibility of some gypsie magic that could come in useful. The council didn't seem to have access to such magics and if they found out about them, they would no doubt insist that she and the Shelby's hand the information over to them for 'safekeeping'.

'I expect you both to report back to me when the job is done,' instructed Mr Wolton as he was showing Maddie and Marie out. 'And Maddie, I will be sending your new watcher in due course. Considering all that has happened, it will take time for me to find a willing candidate.'

'That's alright,' responded Maddie sarcastically. 'There's really no rush.'

Mr Wolton gave her a disdainful look as they walked into the atrium and signalled for George to open the door before fixing his gaze on her again. 'I will be watching you very carefully, Miss Chapman,' he warned. 'If I hear that you have broken any of the terms of our truce, then we shall be forced to take drastic action yet again.'

Maddie resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him and instead nodded curtly, 'Yeah, I get it.'

With that Maddie turned on her heel and marched out of the building, glad to be putting Mr Wolton and the building behind her. Marie followed along close behind and they were instantly back onto the street and into the fresh air. They agreed then to meet again the following morning to head back to Birmingham. Maddie had initially offered Marie to ask if Ada would mind having another guest, knowing full well that Ada would very much want to meet her. However, she politely refused and said she knew of a boarding house where she could stay for the night, stating that she could do with the time alone and they parted ways on the pavement, heading in opposite directions.

Once Maddie had arrived at Ada's, the Shelby sister set about asking her a million questions after raving about how little information Tommy had given her when he had rung that morning. So, she spent the best part of two hours retelling what felt like her life story as Ada listened like a child listening to bedtime story, including everything about the cultists as well as the visit from the resident slayer. When Maddie had finally finished, her throat felt sore from the amount of talking she'd done, and her stomach gurgled in hungry protest to her not having any time for lunch.

'Do you think I've done the right thing, Ada?' asked Maddie as Ada bustled about bringing in sandwiches and biscuits. 'In making a truce with the watchers?'

Ada looked back at Maddie in calm thought as she considered this. 'It sounds like you picked one bad choice over another bad choice Mads,' she replied. 'But at least this way there's less of a chance of you or any of us getting killed. You'll adapt.'

'I hope you're right,' sighed Maddie doubtfully.

They sat, ate and drank tea in comfortable silence for a while, Maddie letting the tea and snacks make her feel considerably better. A lot had happened over the last twenty-four hours, and it was a small miracle that her brain hadn't exploded. She enjoyed the quiet with the warm cup in her hands, letting her eyes close and as she rested her eyes in a moment of peace. However, the peace was short lived as five minutes later the phone in the hallway began to ring shrilly and shook her out of her tranquil state.

'That'll be Tommy,' said Ada. 'You'd better answer it, he'll want to know how you got on.'

Maddie got up and went out into the hallway, taking a deep breath. She had a feeling that Tommy, although he would be happy to know that the watchers wouldn't be trying to kill her anymore, wouldn't be pleased to hear that someone from the council will be spending a lot of time in his home and with her and she was a little nervous about telling him. She picked up the receiver of the phone and held it to her ear whilst holding the mouthpiece close to her lips.

'Hello?'

'Maddie?' responded Tommy at the other end of the line. 'Did it go alright?'

'Kind of…' she began hesitantly making him go silent, probably waiting for her to lay out the details. Deciding not to beat around the bush, she described her visit to the council for the second time that day as he silently listened, the only noise he made being the occasional puff on a cigarette. Once she had finished, she heard him sigh slowly and knew that he was pinching the bridge of his nose in irritation as he often did when something became an inconvenience.

'They're a clever bunch of bastards,' he muttered finally, making Maddie laugh despairingly.

'Yep…' she agreed. 'They've managed to back me into a corner here. If I even put a toe out of line, they'll make my life a living hell.'

'Even the worst alliances can be used to your advantage Maddie,' said Tommy, giving her pause. 'It'll take time, but you'll be able to mould this alliance to suit your needs once they trust you.'

There was Tommy's mastermind brain working again. He had already seen past the short-term disadvantages of the truce and had begun planning ways to utilise it in the long-term. It was then that Maddie silently thanked her lucky stars that he was in her life, not knowing what she would do without his calm, strategic mind helping her.

'Yeah, I suppose I never thought about it that way,' she said with a smile before changing the subject. 'Did you hear from Johnny?'

'Yes, and he's got what we were looking for,' responded Tommy. 'Although, I've had to promise him a new prize stud since Madame Boswell wouldn't accept anything else as a trade for the magic.'

'It must really be valuable then,' commented Maddie. 'I wonder what's in it.'

'We'll find out when we get back tomorrow after my meeting,' he said in a tone that indicated he needed to end the conversation. 'Get some rest, you've earned it.'

'Okay, love you.'

'Love you too,' echoed Tommy before hanging up the phone with a click.

'So, this is it?'

Maddie, Tommy, Marie and Polly were all stood in front of Tommy's desk, a large leatherbound tome sat on the surface. It looked old, one of the oldest things Maddie had seen in recent memory. The leather was cracked and dry, half of the pages it contained frayed and poking out of the book haphazardly. If ever there was an ancient spell book that had been kept hidden for decades, this was it.

'And I thought this knowledge had been lost,' said Polly as she reached a hand forward and ran her hand over the leather. She opened the book to one of the first pages, gently lifting the cover open and flattening the creased page she had opened it on. The words on the page were clearly not English and Maddie assumed that it must have been Romani and looked from Polly to Tommy expectantly, assuming they must understand what it said. Their eyes flicked over the page with some recognition, but also with confusion.

'Can you read zis language?' asked Marie who was looking at the writing with bafflement.

'There are some Romani words I know in here,' said Polly. 'Some of the lines are written in Shelta too but a lot of it must be in an old dialect that is no longer used.'

'Can you make any sense of it?' asked Maddie nervously, worried they now had a pile of useless paper in front of them and that poor Johnny had been cheated out of his best horse.

'It says something about energy transference,' sighed Tommy, running his finger along one of the lines of text. 'This word here,' he said, his finger stopping on the page. 'Means 'soul''.

A spark of recognition rippled through Maddie, and she let out a small gasp as she realised what they were looking at.

'Soul restoration,' she muttered without thinking, causing the others to look at her with confusion.

'Of course…' muttered Polly. 'So that story was true.'

'What story?' asked Tommy, looking annoyed at not knowing something he should.

'Years ago, when you were just a boy, there was talk of our kin, the Kalderash clan, being attacked by… monsters in the night and the daughter of their elder was killed by one of the monsters,' began Polly, struggling to recall the story. Maddie could feel her heart beginning to race, Angel, she's talking about Angel. 'The rumour is that the clan elders cursed the monster with a soul so that it would suffer the guilt of what it had done. This might be the spell that they used.'

'Zat monster sounds like a vampire to me,' said Marie. 'Zey do not 'av souls.'

Maddie looked urgently over to Marie and gave her a small shake of the head to get her to stop talking which Marie thankfully saw and gave a shrug to indicate she didn't know any more about it. Maddie had stupidly failed to make the connection between the Shelby's, with their Romani heritage, and the incident with Angelus being cursed with his soul. Maddie had met Angel only once in passing when he had come to visit Giles and Maddie had happened to be there. She had remembered how sad he'd looked when he realised who she was and knew that it was because she was a reminder to him that Buffy was gone. She suddenly felt the panic within her. If Tommy and Polly found out that she knew about Angel, they'd more than likely not be best pleased, let alone if they found out that Angel would live for many decades and become a champion of good and technically her ally. Even if Angel was a good guy, he had still killed one of their kin, and she doubted they would be forgiving of the fact that she knew about it.

'How did you know about this spell, Maddie?' asked Tommy, turning to her and scrutinising her face.

'Oh! I… er read about it back home; that spells existed to restore souls and stuff but that's about it,' she lied, unable to keep her voice from breaking. Tommy pierced her with his eyes, searching her face with a stern expression and she knew that he had detected her poor attempt at a lie. She thought for a moment that he was going to out her there and then but instead turned back to the book.

'Well, I don't think that will help us in any case,' he said. 'Pol, you take the book and start going through it to see if you can find anything. Find Johnny and see if he recognises any of the words.'

Polly nodded and gathered up the spell book into her arms as Tommy turned to face Maddie again, an expectant look on his face. She could tell he was about to ask Maddie to stay behind so he could ask her why she had lied but before he could say anything however, she took a hold of Marie's arm making her look at herwith a raised eyebrow.

'Whilst you do that, me and Marie will go downstairs and go over the plan for tonight. Maybe get some training in,' babbled Maddie, catching Marie's eye in the hope she would play along.

'Er…oui, zat sounds like a good idea,' nodded Marie and with that Maddie hastily lead them both out of Tommy's office, feeling his gaze boring holes into the back of her head.

Once they had made it to the relative privacy of the training room, Marie turned to Maddie with a disgruntled expression, 'What was zat all about?'

Maddie sighed nervously, although she was glad to be out from under Tommy's knowing stare. She contemplated telling Marie another lie, however she felt that she trusted her enough to at least tell her the truth, even if she kept the information to a minimum.

'The vampire the Kalderash cursed with a soul,' said Maddie. 'Is Angelus.'

Marie's eyes widened in shock, signifying she knew the name well, and stepped closer to Maddie and spoke in a hushed tone.

'Angelus? How do you know zis?'

'I've been told the story and… I've kinda met him.'

Marie now gave Maddie an even more baffled look, 'You met him?'

'After he got a soul, Angelus became one of the good guys. He fights evil and helps the helpless, or something like that. I only met him once after I became the slayer'

'But he was a killer, ze worst vampire zat ever walked ze earth!' protested Marie in a loud whisper.

'Hewas,' repeated Maddie with emphasis. 'Ninety or so years from now he is going to play a big role in the battle against evil.'

Marie considered Maddie for a moment before looking back toward the door and pointing at it, 'And why are you keeping zis information from zem?'

'If they find out that I know who killed essentially one of their family members and that I'm also technically his ally… well I don't know how they'd react.'

'You think keeping zis a secret is a good idea?' asked Marie with disbelief. 'Zey have obviously grown to trust you, don't betray zat.'

Maddie considered what Marie said with a reluctant look. It was indeed foolish keeping this knowledge from the Shelby's, but would it really benefit them to know about Angel? No, thought Maddie, probably not. Worst case scenario it could spark enough anger in them to set them off in search of Angel to kill him, which would have catastrophic consequences. But at the same time, she knew it was unlikely she would be able to keep the truth from Tommy at the very least.

'You're probably right,' sighed Maddie before going over to the only table in the room. 'But we haven't got time to worry about that now, let's start going through the plan.'

Maddie closed her eyes in irritation as Finn raised his hand again for the fifth time to ask yet another question, time was running short, and they would need to leave soon if they were going to get to the cultist's hideout before sunset.

'What if you two don't come out? Shall we come and find you?'

This preparation meeting was beginning to drag, and Maddie was now tired of talking about the plan and ready to make it a reality. The plan was to go in bang on sunset, Maddie and Marie taking the lead whilst the Shelby's covered the various exits of the tunnel system from the outside. Tommy had managed to pull some favours and got hold of the maps and blueprints of the tunnel system, meaning they now knew where all the other exits were apart from the one Maddie had found. Once the sun sets, she and Marie would start the attack, predicting that a lot of the cultists inside would run for the exits where the Shelby's, armed with guns as well as stakes, would pick them off whilst Maddie and Marie take out the leaders and destroy the tablet of Hallandoch.

Polly's inspection of the gypsie magic had only brought up one potentially helpful spell, a spell of invisibility, which she was confident she could perform despite her lack of experience. This gave Marie the idea of making her and Maddie invisible inside the caves. However, the spell only lasted until the objects being made invisible made contact with another living thing, meaning they decided it would at least help them get in position for the first strike without being seen. The spell didn't seem to require the caster to be close to the subject, so Pol was to stay at Arrow House and cast the spell with the help of Esme, who she had also called for help in translating the book, in time for sunset.

'No!' snapped Maddie a little too impatiently, making Finn flinch. 'None of you go down there under any circumstances. If you get lost or cornered, then you're fucked.' The group all nodded in reluctant agreement with their commander. 'Right, you all know your posts, so let's get going.'

Everyone got up from their chairs and headed over to the weapons cabinet where Marie was waiting to hand out weapons. Maddie watched as John attempted to talk Marie into giving him the crossbow, but she snatched it away from him and instead handed him a sword and a stake. The others all took their weapons without question, tucking them into pockets before heading over to the table to choose a firearm from the selection Arthur had brought. Soon, everyone was kitted out and ready to go and Maddie and Marie choose their own weapons. Maddie an axe and Marie a small delicate dagger, both opting to not to select a gun.

'Good,' stated Maddie. 'Let's move out.'

Outside there were several cars waiting ready to take each small group to their posts. There were four groups in total: Finn and Arthur; John and Michael; Isiah and Johnny and Tommy, Maddie and Marie. Tommy was to drive her and Marie to the entrance in Kinston Hill Park and then cover that entrance alone, something which Maddie was reluctant to agree to. However, numbers dictated that one of the exits could only have one man covering it and Tommy was by far the best candidate for this job. According to the blueprints, that exit was actually the furthest away from the hub and so would be the quietest, making it unlikely that many demons would decide to escape that way.

When everyone was in their respective cars, they all started their engines and began the journey to Birmingham. Maddie sat next to Tommy in the front whilst Marie sat in the back, happy to sit alone quietly, looking like she was mentally preparing for the fight. Maddie had purposely avoided Tommy since they spoke in his office, and she soon felt his inquisitive gaze glancing over to her as he drove. When it was obvious that she wasn't going to make eye contact with him, he finally decided to break the silence.

'I know you're hiding something, Maddie,' he said stoically. 'About the soul spell.'

Maddie finally looked up at Tommy with a nervous look, debating what to do before deciding that she'd better come clean as Marie suggested.

'Yeah,' sighed Maddie. 'I do.'

Tommy gave her expecting look, 'Care to tell me?'

Maddie sighed before biting her lip nervously. Please don't be mad at me, she begged internally.

'I know the vampire who the Kalderash cursed,' said Maddie, watching Tommy's reaction closely which for the moment remained unmoving. 'Not just know as in I've heard of him, as in know because I've met him.'

'What?' asked Tommy, giving her a stern look.

'His name's Angel,' continued Maddie. 'Since getting his soul back he turns to the side of good and helps fight evil. Including saving the world more than once.'

Tommy took a deep breath but initially said nothing, just staring at the road in front of him. Maddie glanced behind her at Marie who gave her nod to signify she had done the right thing.

'You thought I'd be angry that you knew?' asked Tommy somewhat rhetorically.

'Are you?'

Tommy cast Maddie fleeting glance before clearing his throat. 'The Kalderash are our kin but only distantly, they prefer to keep to themselves and don't often mix with the other Romani clans, so I've never had any contact with them.' Maddie nodded her understanding but was still usure whether this meant he wasn't angry at her. 'The crime Angel has committed doesn't cut me deep, but we should keep this between ourselves. Pol and some of the others may want to act on gypsie tradition and enact revenge on him. It might also make them trust you less.'

Maddie's heart skipped a little at the thought and she quickly nodded in agreement, 'Yeah, maybe that's for the best.'

Well at least Tommy isn't mad at me, thought Maddie to herself. They drove the rest of the way in silence, the sun approaching the horizon and they arrived at Kinston Hill Park with little time to spare. Maddie guided Marie and Tommy to where the trapdoor was and turned to see the sun was just seconds away from setting. Well, this was the moment of truth. The moment where they find out whether Pol had the mojo or not. Maddie turned to Tommy and reached up to place her hand on his cheek before leaning in to kiss him forcefully.

'Be careful up here, okay?' she whispered urgently, aware that she and Tommy couldn't be touching once the spell kicked in.

'Of course,' he replied. 'You two don't do anything rash down there.'

Maddie smiled nervously before stepping back to stand next to Marie as the sun finally set over the horizon. A handful of seconds passed where nothing happened before suddenly there was a faint humming sound and Marie disappeared before Maddie's eyes.

'Marie?' called Maddie.

'Maddie?' responded Marie from the spot where she had been stood. 'I cannot see you.'

'I can't see you either,' confirmed Maddie.

'I can't see either of you,' said Tommy, who was squinting into the darkness in Maddie's general direction. 'The spell must have worked.'

'Yes!' exclaimed Maddie. 'This is so cool! I've always wanted to be invisible.'

'Now is not ze time to celebrate,' came Marie's voice. 'Let's get going.'

The trapdoor opened seemingly by itself, and Maddie heard Marie's footsteps descending the rungs of the ladder.

'See you later, Tommy,' Maddie whispered and saw him nod as she began descending the ladder behind Marie.

Despite not being able to see each other, Marie and Maddie managed not to bump into each other as they made their way down the tunnel, using their enhanced hearing to hear each other's footsteps. Which was good considering if they did, the invisibility spell would have been wasted. In no time at all they reached the opening to the main room and creeped out onto the open walkway that looked over the room.

A total of twenty vampires and demons were scattered around the room, less than half than what Maddie had seen the last time she snuck in. As she had thought, the place was less heavily guarded meaning they had arrived before the final ritual they were planning had started. However, a raised pedestal has been placed next to the tablet of Hallandoch which hadn't been there before, and the place stank of incense which signified that the ritual was happening tonight. That also meant they didn't have much time.

'What do you think?' whispered Maddie to Marie who she could sense stood next to her.

'Zat demon zere, with ze different colour cloak,' whispered Marie after a pause. Maddie searched for who she was referring to and spotted the demon with the pale skin and blue teeth and eyes stood near the tablet of Hallandoch, his cloak a dark blue rather than black.

'Uh huh,' muttered Maddie.

'I think he is ze leader,' she said. 'We should take him down first and ze rest will scatter.'

'I've fought one of those demons before,' informed Maddie. 'They're strong. We'll need both of us to take him down quickly.'

'Dacord,' whispered Marie followed by a pause. 'You circle round to ze west side of ze room and I'll go east, zat way we won't accidentally cross paths. Once we reach him, we attack on my signal.'

Maddie followed the path she would take with her eyes and nodded, 'Okay, let's go.'

Maddie heard Marie's footsteps head off down the steps to their right as she began going down the ones to their left. As she reached the bottom the stairs, she pulled her axe in close to her body, so it was flush to her chest and began to slowly walk into the crowd which were still oblivious to her. The ambient noise in the room was loud enough to cloak the sound of her disembodied footsteps and she weaved through the crowd like a phantom.

As she reached the east wall, a large green demon who was stood talking to a few other demons in a small group suddenly turned around and cut in front of her, almost bumping into her. She gasped slightly before covering her lips with her hand. The demon paused and looked around him confused.

'You say something Grim?' he asked one of the demons he was previously talking to.

'No…' replied Grim, furrowing his extremely furry eyebrows.

The green demon shook his head like he was going nuts and continued walking away and Maddie let out a slow silent breath. That was too close. She continued her path through the crowd, risking a faster pace after being delayed. Once she was within a couple of feet of their target, she took up a fighting stance, grasping her axe tightly in preparation. Not being able to see Marie in this case wasn't particularly helpful as she had no idea if she was stood nearby or not. Then she saw on the dust covered floor the shape of a circle seemingly appear out of nowhere and knew this was Marie signalling she was there. Maddie copied her and drew a circle in the dirt with her shoe and awaited the next signal.

'Now!' came a loud French yell and Maddie jumped forward with her axe raised toward the demon.

The demon whipped its head in the direction of Marie's voice and swung its arm out in a wide arc to deflect whatever invisible object was coming toward him as Maddie buried her axe into the demons back. His arm managed to do the job because Marie then materialised out of nowhere, flying backwards from being hit by the demon's arm and landing a few feet away. Maddie felt a weird sensation like trickling water running over her skin and knew that she too had lost her invisibility. The demon roared in pain as the axe buried into its back and she yanked it out causing him to whirl around to face her.

'Slayer!' he growled. 'How did you find us?'

Maddie looked behind the demon to see that Marie had gotten back to her feet. By now the entire room had turned its attention to the commotion and were either readying themselves to fight or backing away ready to run.

'Oh, I've known about this place a while,' taunted Maddie, keeping the demon's attention as Marie lunged again for the demon and jumped onto his back before plunging her dagger into his shoulder. The demon roared again and shook Marie off, knocking her into another demon who had approached to join the fight. In his distraction, Maddie swung her axe toward the demon, but he recovered and blocked it turning his head to see Marie beginning to fend of the other demon.

'Two slayers?' said the demon loudly. 'How is this possible?'

This statement was enough to begin what they had hoped would happen. More than half of the vamps and demons in the room upon hearing that there were two slayers took off towards the exits. Three of them, one vamp and two fairly large demons headed trough the exit Maddie and Marie had entered through. Shit! Maddie prayed that Tommy remembered to shoot the demons, bullets usually able to hurt most demons, and be able to take the vamp alone. The remaining cultists, six in all, began approaching to help their leader and she knew they needed to move quickly.

With a grunt Maddie yanked her axe out of the demon's grip before spinning on the spot to deliver a back kick to his chest, causing him to stagger backward a few steps. Then a vamp jumped up in front of her and took a swing at her which she deflected before cutting the axe through his neck, dusting him on the spot. The leader yanked the dagger out of his shoulder as he spotted Marie, who meanwhile, had managed to best her opponent, twisting its head with her hands and snapping its neck. He lifted his hand to throw the dagger at her and Maddie turned to scream at her.

'Marie!'

Marie turned just in time to spot the demon aiming for her and jerked to the side as he threw the blade. She let out a short yelp and grasped at her upper arm, the dagger obviously catching her skin. Maddie started to move forward to back Marie up when she felt strong arms wrap around her from behind, making her drop her axe. She kicked her legs to try and free herself from her new attacker as the leader advanced on Marie, pointing to another vamp who had just joined the fray in command.

'Begin the ritual, now!' he yelled. 'I'll take care of these two.'

The vamp nodded hastily and ran over to the pedestal next to the tablet and was quickly joined by another demon who began reading from the tablet in a form of chant. Maddie broke free of her restraint and turned on her attacker, the large green demon she had nearly bumped into earlier, flying punches at him left right and centre.

'Maddie!' yelled Marie from across the room. Maddie stole a glance toward her to see that she was engaged in combat with the leader but managed to point toward the two cultists. 'We need to stop zem!'

The demon was now chanting at a rapid rate in some unknown language, a faint hazy glow beginning to illuminate the two of them as he chanted. She was right, they needed to act quickly. The last remaining cultist ran up to help the green demon fight Maddie and she grabbed the green demon and threw him into his friend, knocking them both to the floor. She made to run toward them to finish them off when the earth began to tremble causing a part of the ceiling to crumble and collapse onto the two cultists, crushing them as she jumped out of the way just in time.

'He is coming!' yelled the leader after knocking Marie into the wall who looked over toward Maddie.

'Ze tablet!' she yelled. 'Destroy it!' The leader then threw a hard punch into Marie's face, flooring her.

Maddie whipped her head to see the tablet of Hallandoch was now glowing almost blindingly, the demon and vamp stood next to it chanting fanatically still. Acting fast she ran forward, snatching up her axe from the floor, reaching the vamp first and kicking him in the middle of the back, making him fall forward. The demon took a swing for her, but she ducked under his arm before burying her axe in his skull, leaving it there as his body fell to the floor. The earth was now shaking even more violently, and Maddie quickly turned toward the tablet, grasping it on either side, the stone feeling very hot on her skin. With a heave, she lifted the hunk of stone above her head, the vamp she had knocked down looking up at her angrily.

'NO!' yelled the leader who was still struggling against Marie who had gotten back to her feet.

With a mighty yell and with all her strength Maddie threw the tablet hard onto the floor, the stone crumbling into a cloud of dust accompanied by a mighty boom and a flash of light. Maddie felt herself being thrown backwards, falling onto her back and hitting her head on the stone floor. The trembling immediately stopped and with a groan, she lifted her head up to look around her as a hazy glowing dust settled around her. Then she felt a horrid bitter taste in her mouth as she breathed in and coughed violently, covering her mouth with disgust.

A growl came menacingly from Maddie's right hand side, and she turned to see the vamp she had kicked crouched and about to pounce on her. With lightning speed, she snatched her stake out of her pocket at raised it, point first towards the vamp as it leaped like a cat toward her with its fangs bared. The vamp's chest met the point of the stake and she sharply nudged it forward to drive it into his heart, his body disintegrating and covering her in a shower of dust. She immediately looked over to where Marie had been fighting the leader and saw that it had her by the neck, holding her up with her feet kicking in mid-air.

Maddie leapt to her feet and ran toward them at a sprint before throwing all her weight into the demon's side, knocking them both over and causing him to drop Marie. Maddie pinned the demon down beneath her and began furiously punching him in the head with both fists repeatedly, grunting with exertion as she put all her strength into every hit. However, the demon soon regained its bearings and blocked her fists, catching her wrists in his hands and squeezing tightly. She struggled against his grasp, trying to free herself as his hands clamped down harder until she felt a bone crack in left wrist, causing her to yelp in pain. The demon looked back at her with a victorious smile before he bagn to chuckle darkly at her, giving her a strange look that made Maddie's insides curdle, a look someone would have if they had already won.

'Maddie, move!' yelled Marie from behind her and she looked over shoulder to see her running toward her with a chunk of the broken tablet in her hands.

Maddie heaved all her weight back as she approached, clearing space for Marie to bring the lump of stone down onto the demon's head whilst simultaneously twisting her arms and grasping the demon's wrists to restrain him. A sharp pain shot up her arm from her wrist and she hissed in pain as Marie smashed his skull with the stone. However, it didn't seem to do anything, except for pissing the demon off and she quickly raised the stone above her head before throwing it down on his head again. Marie repeated this action several times as Maddie struggled to pin the demon down, sweat beginning to drip from both of their foreheads with the effort they were putting in. Eventually, the demon gradually began to release his own grip on Maddie, his muscles getting slacker as his skull began to cave inwards on itself, blue blood splattering all over them. A few good smashes later and the demon's body went completely slack, and Marie threw the stone to the side before falling back onto her heels, panting for breath. Maddie was also panting and clasped her wrist to her chest as she shuffled away from the demon's body.

'You alright?' Maddie asked Marie who turned and nodded at her with a wince.

'I've had worse,' she muttered before getting up and holding her hand out to Maddie.

'I think we did it,' said Maddie, looking around the room and seeing that the tablet of Hallandoch was completely ruined.

'Oui, I zink so,' she replied as Maddie went to retrieve her axe and Marie picked up her dagger before Maddie made her way back to the exit.

'Come on,' she called. 'We need to check on the others.'

They made their way back down the tunnel at a sprint, Maddie's heart racing at the possibility that Tommy may have been hurt, if not killed. As they neared the trapdoor that led outside, she couldn't hear any fighting or any sounds of any kind and began to panic. She reached the ladder first and saw that the trapdoor was open.

'Tommy?!' she called up into the dark sky. A moment's silence passed when she heard the rustling of grass above her.

'I'm alright!' came Tommy's voice and Maddie sighed with relief before throwing her axe up and out of the tunnel before beginning to ascend the ladder one handed.

When she emerged, she looked around hastily to find Tommy and saw him leant up against a nearby tree seemingly out of breath, his body tensed up in pain. She scrambled out of the hole and ran over to him, and he opened his arms to let her into a hug.

'Are you hurt?' she asked as she pulled back and started inspecting him in the moonlight. He had a cut on his forehead that didn't look too deep and one large bruise on his chin, both minor injuries. However, there was blood trickling down the back of his head and she looked to see that the stitches that had closed the cut on the back of his head had been pulled out, reopening the wound. He was also grasping at his chest with his arm and Maddie realised that the bruise that was there was likely now worse and accompanied by some new ones. She scanned the immediate area and spotted two dead demons riddled with bullet holes near the trapdoor and guessed that Tommy's injuries were from a scrape with the vampire who he must have managed to dust.

'I'll survive,' said Tommy, taking Maddie's chin in his hands and turning her head up to his. 'Are you alright? Both of you?'

'I'm fine,' nodded Maddie. 'Just a broken wrist for my trouble and we've both gained some cuts and bruises but nothing we're not used to.'

Tommy nodded, satisfied that they were all not seriously hurt, 'Did you finish it?'

'Yeah,' nodded Maddie. 'The tablet is rubble, and their leader is dead.'

As Maddie said this, knowing it to be true, she couldn't help but feel uneasy. The image of the demon's face giving her a look of pure victory lingering in her mind. Maybe she was just imagining it, she thought. Demons weren't exactly known for their sanity, especially not the cultist types that was for sure, so it probably didn't mean anything. Afterall, no bigger and scarier demon appeared and tried to kick their ass so they must have succeeded.

'It is over,' confirmed Marie. 'I don't zink you will need to worry about zese cultists anymore.'

'Good,' sighed Tommy, straightening himself up. 'Let's go and meet the others, eh?'

As they began to make their way back to the car, Maddie felt herself beginning to develop a headache at the back of her head, the pain throbbing lightly. She remembered how she had hit her head after the blast from the tablet had knocked her over and assumed that she was finally feeling the effects of that now the adrenaline had worn off. She suspected that she would find a nice painful bump there by the time they got home.

Once back to the car, Tommy drove them to the rendezvous point at the office in Small Heath and they were all relieved to see that everyone else was already there. Or at least all the cars were. Maddie jumped out of the car as soon as the car stopped and ran inside, praying that she would see all the faces that left Arrow House there. As she entered, there was a collective sigh of relief from the people inside as they saw her, and she quickly realised that everyone was there and in one piece, including Polly and Esme.

'Mads! Thank fuck!' yelled Arthur who came over and gave her a hug. 'We were beginning to worry.'

'It's all over,' informed Maddie. 'And we're all okay too.'

Maddie looked up at Arthur with a smile and saw that he had a dark bruise around his eye and seemed to be walking with a limp. She cast her eyes around the room at the smiling faces that were glad to see her but noticed that no one had gotten through the night unscathed, apart from Polly and Esme of course. Finn looked particularly rough; his trouser leg soaked with blood from a cut on his thigh. A sickly feeling turned her stomach as the guilt began to make itself known.

'I'm sorry that you're all in a bad way,' she said as Marie and Tommy finally entered the office. 'I shouldn't have let –.'

'Don't worry about it,' interrupted John who was nursing a cut to his arm. 'We all enjoy a good scrape and that was the best one I've had since you took us patrolling.'

He gave Maddie a cheeky smile and she relaxed a little. One thing was for sure, she was immensely proud of all of them and knew that she could rely on them in a fight.

'So can we celebrate now?' asked Finn hopefully.

'Yes,' replied Tommy. 'Let's drink to our success. Go and get the booze from the basement Finn.'

'What, here?' asked Maddie as Finn hobbled off excitedly to do as he was asked.

'I don't think anyone fancies driving all the way back to Arrow House now,' sighed Tommy as he walked over to a chair and slumped into it before taking out a cigarette and lighting it.

'I suppose so,' she laughed as she felt something tap her shoulder lightly and she turned to see Marie looking at her with a wide smile.

'I zink I should go,' she said. 'Zere is ze last train back to London soon and zen a ferry to France first thing in ze morning. I have been away from my brother too long already.'

'Are you sure?' asked Maddie, a wave of sadness dulling her mood. 'Not even one drink?'

'I am sorry,' said Marie with a shake of her head. 'But I must go.'

'Okay,' said Maddie before stepping forward and taking Marie into her arms. Marie stiffened slightly but relaxed after a second and squeezed her back as Maddie had an idea. 'Hang on a sec.'

She turned and searched the room for Isiah and called to him, waving him over to them.

'Isiah, can you drive Marie to the station please?' asked Maddie. 'She has an early ferry tomorrow.'

Isiah looked at Marie with a glum expression, 'Leaving so soon?'

'Ah…oui, I must.'

'Alright,' nodded Isiah, giving Marie a sweet smile which she returned. 'I'll be in the car when you're ready.'

With that he walked out of the office and Maddie gave Marie a wink which she rolled her eyes to but followed it with a thankful smile. Maddie then announced that Marie was leaving, and everyone came over to say their goodbyes before Maddie walked her to the door.

'Thanks,' she said. 'For everything. Come back again soon?'

'I will try,' Marie replied with a smile. 'You are welcome in Paris anytime.'

With one last parting smile, she stepped out of the door and was gone, Maddie shutting the door lightly behind her.

After everyone helped each other get patched up, Tommy making a cast for Maddie's wrist and she restitching the cut on his head before she phoned the council to inform them that they had succeeded, they all celebrated their success with an abundance of alcohol, card games and cocaine. Although she avoided the cocaine stoically despite the fact that the headache that had started earlier gradually got worse over the course of the evening. It spread over her entire head in the space on an hour and was bad enough that she had to stop drinking and sit quietly by herself in Tommy's office for a while, missing out on whatever hilarious antics she could hear in the other room. This was very unusual, she rarely got headaches, even when she had hit her head before and rubbed the back of her head to feel for a bruise but found none. After a while of her being sat by herself, Tommy came in wondering where she had gone.

'Everything alright?' he asked sounding concerned.

'Headache,' Maddie responded simply, rubbing her temples in an attempt to stop the throbbing.

'You should drink some water,' replied Tommy who left the room again and soon returned with a glass of water and handed it to her.

'Thanks,' she sighed, taking a small sip of the water as he stroked her head softly. 'Maybe I should get some sleep, I'm fucking shattered.'

'Okay,' nodded Tommy. 'Go upstairs, second door on the right. You can sleep in there and I'll join you later.' Maddie looked at Tommy in confusion and he gave her a small smile. 'It was my old room when I used to live here.'

'You used to live here?'

Tommy nodded but didn't offer and explanation and instead shooed Maddie out of the door. She wished everyone a goodnight as she walked through the betting shop, everyone groaning in disappointment, and headed to the stairs. She found the room he had guided her to and was met with an extremely modest bedroom with a single bed, only a few items of furniture and a fireplace decorating it. Having lived in Arrow House since she had travelled back in time, Maddie had gotten used to the relative luxury of the place that this room seemed very bare and old-fashioned in comparison. However, she suddenly felt too tired to dwell on this and instead stripped off her clothes and tucked herself into the bed, falling asleep quickly despite the pounding in her head.

She slept through the night, only rousing once when Tommy climbed into bed with her and wrapped his arm protectively around her, waking the next morning to the sound of car engines starting outside. Despite the sleep, her head now felt even worse, and she knew something wasn't right. She took a gulp of water from the glass she took to bed and sat up with a groan. It felt like her skull was burning from the inside, the feeling like nothing she had ever experienced. When Tommy awoke, he became immediately concerned and suggested that Maddie go to the hospital.

'No, I'll be fine,' she protested and began to get dressed, squeezing her eyes shut as the pain intensified even more. 'Let's just go home.'

'Okay,' nodded Tommy although he didn't look pleased with Maddie's decision. 'I have a couple of things to do in the office before we go. It won't take long.'

Once they were dressed, they went downstairs and were greeted by Pol in the kitchen who gave Maddie a worried look when she noticed the pained look on her face. Maddie brushed her off however and told her not to worry and followed Tommy to his office. She sat herself on the sofa in the room and pressed her face into her hands. The pain was beginning to get so unbearable that even the light was hurting her head. Maybe she did need to go to a hospital.

Maddie contemplated telling Tommy she had changed her mind when suddenly an excruciating pain like a bolt of lightning ripped through her head, making her cry out and press her hands to her head before her control of her body disappeared and she fell into unconsciousness.