The Seventh Slayer

By Kantayra

Chapter Six

Isabelle returned to her Watcher’s apartment a full hour and a half earlier than usual. She realized that this would probably just draw suspicion to herself, but she couldn’t help it. She was tired of wandering and had way too much on her mind at the moment to be at all effective in her slaying.

And unfortunately most of those thoughts centered on beautiful blue eyes and a gorgeous vampire body. Isabelle decided that it had been way too long since she’d been with a guy, if the nearest vamp was starting to look good…even if he was – literally – to die for…

However, she was surprised when she entered the apartment. She had expected Mr. West to pounce on her the minute she opened the door, demanding to know how she’d spent every second of her evening. He wasn’t there, though. She guessed she’d taken him by surprise.

She quickly grabbed an apple from the kitchen table and walked down the hallway to his room to let him know she was back. In her mind, she was already running over the false slaying stories she’d concocted.

The voice that echoed through the slight opening of his door gave her pause, though.

“Are you confident she needs to be terminated?” an unfamiliar British voice said from the videoscreen.

“She is too independent,” West’s voice answered. “She’s had some contact with an unknown vampire – personal contact, not during slaying. And she went through my files the other night. She lied to our tech source and said it was for work.”

“Do you think she’s working for them?” the other voice demanded.

“She could be a spy,” West sighed. “I don’t know how long they’ve had her, though. This could have been going on for months. Who knows what sort of information she’s been collecting?”

“Months?!” the other man was outraged. “Haven’t you been watching her? That is in your job description, you know.”

“I know,” West defended himself, “but she’s always had this tendency to run off and do her own thing. Even when she was just a trainee. I tried to put an end to it…”

“She’s too much of a risk,” the voice at the other end agreed. “I thought you were going to end this the other day.”

“I tried,” West insisted. “She wasn’t supposed to make it out of that vamp nest alive. There were too many for her.”

“Then what went wrong?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she has more talent than I at first realized,” West replied.

“Then you’ll just have to send her on another suicide mission,” the other voice said with finality. “And this time, make sure she doesn’t survive.”

“Of course,” West agreed. “Another must be Called. I see that.”

“Good. I think this conversation is done then.”

“I’ll give you the report tomorrow night,” West assured him.

“And, West? Don’t fail us again.”

West shut off the viewscreen. And then his ears perked up. He would have sworn he’d just heard something…

He flung the door to his room open wide.

Nothing there.

He grabbed hold of the crossbow on his desk before venturing further out into the apartment. Everything was quiet, and it was over an hour before Isabelle was due to return. His eyes scanned the room, taking in every little detail.

And alighted on one spot.

His laptop containing all of his Watcher’s files was gone. And it had been there five minutes ago.

He raced over to the window just in time to see the auburn Slayer run out the door to the building, computer tucked neatly under her arm.

With no other choice, he fired one bolt of the crossbow at her, but some sixth sense warned her time, and she ducked to the side before rounding a corner and vanishing into the night.

Isabelle Navarro was gone…

* * *

“You Ajaya?” the young, black-haired man asked gruffly.

“Yes,” she agreed nervously, glancing around the training room.

“Good,” he cast a look in her direction, shook his head, and turned back to his clipboard. “You can start by running. Give me twenty laps.”

“Twenty?!” Ajaya exclaimed in disbelief.

“That too much for the new Slayer, is it?” he shook his head again. “You’re predecessor could do it without breaking a sweat.”

“This is my first day,” Ajaya pointed out.

“Look,” he gave an exasperated sigh, “you want on my team, you go through the same basic training as anyone else, got it?”

“O-Of course,” Ajaya stuttered, looking at her shoes.

“So, run!” he ordered. “Pace yourself with Monica if you need to,” he pointed to the passing were-jaguar.

Ajaya took off, catching the dark-haired woman’s side quickly.

“Hey,” Monica pulled off her headphones and turned to Ajaya. “What’s up?”

“I’m supposed to pace myself with you,” Ajaya explained.

“Cool,” Monica slowed a bit so that they could speak comfortably. “How many laps?”

“Twenty.”

“Twenty?!” Monica said in disbelief. “On your first day?”

“That’s what that man over there said,” Ajaya gestured with one hand and nearly tripped herself up.

“Take it easy,” Monica said. “Don’t mind Alex,” she told her companion. “We’ll show him what you can do…”

And with that, Monica returned to her previous pace. Ajaya stayed on her heels the best she could. She was panted heavily by the time they’d reached the ten-lap mark, but still she was astonished with herself. She’d never been much of an athlete before. In fact, it was pretty safe to say she sucked. She had always been the last one picked for sports teams and the first to get caught at tag. Yet now she was easily able to follow the slender woman in front of her, and her limbs moved with a grace that seemed utterly alien to her.

“Nineteen,” Monica called over the shoulder when they passed the black-haired man again.

Ajaya was grateful for the assistance. Despite her newfound powers, she was extremely weary, and by this time it was an effort just to put one foot in front of the other.

“We’re almost done,” Monica cheered her on. “You can do this.”

Ajaya heard the words in an almost dazed state. Yet still her body endured more than it had ever been able to before.

“And twenty!” Monica announced, and they slowed to a halt. “You all right?” she asked Ajaya.

Ajaya barely managed to nod weakly, and she bent over, resting her hands on her knees.

“Keep your hands above your head,” Monica advised. “You’ll catch your breath more quickly that way.”

Ajaya struggled to comply and quickly discovered that the were-jaguar hadn’t led her astray.

“Hey, Alex,” Monica took a quick sip out of her water bottle as the man approached.

“Not bad, for a start,” Alex looked at Ajaya skeptically. “You too beat to keep this up, Slayer?” he demanded.

“Jeez, Alex,” Monica cut in, handing Ajaya the water. “Small sips,” she informed her, before turning back to Alex. “Cut her a break, why don’t you?”

“Cut her a break?” he repeated angrily. “Why? So she’s unprepared and gets herself killed?”

“Overreact much?” Monica countered.

Alex turned for her narrowed cat’s eyes to where Ajaya’s face was still bright red from her exertions. “Yeah, you’re right,” he agreed. “There’s no point in bothering anyway, is there? I mean she’s the Slayer. She’ll get herself killed no matter what I do!” With that, he stomped off in a huff, slamming the gym door shut behind him.

“Meow!” Monica shook her head in annoyance. “And coming from someone who’s half cat, that means something.” She gave Ajaya a friendly smile. “Don’t mind him,” she reassured her. “He’s just…” she trailed off and looked back at the shut door sadly.

“A bastard?” Ajaya suggested before slapping her hand over her mouth.

Monica laughed. “I knew you had a sense of humor in you…” She sighed. “Alex’s had a rough time lately. Nina – the Slayer you replaced – she was Alex’s fiancée. They were supposed to get married in two weeks.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ajaya said softly, her mood instantly sobering.

“Yeah,” Monica agreed, “and he just lost his parents a few months back, too…”

“That married couple?” Ajaya remembered her trip to the wall two days earlier. “One of them had an X in their name, I think…”

“Xander and Anya Harris,” Monica agreed, sitting on the bench beside Ajaya. “It was actually kinda touching the way they went,” she smiled to herself. “Alex didn’t see it that way, though. All he saw was the bad.”

“What did happen?” Ajaya asked cautiously. “If you feel comfortable telling me, that is,” she hastily amended.

“No one’s told you?” Monica asked in surprise. Ajaya shook her head. “I guess I can see why not,” Monica said thoughtfully. “I suppose everyone thinks it’s someone else’s story to tell.”

“That’s pretty much the answer I’ve been getting,” Ajaya took another sip out of the water bottle and handed it back to Monica.

“Well, no more,” Monica crossed her legs beneath her into lotus position with a casual flexibility that made Ajaya horribly jealous. She took a second to gather her thoughts and began. “Anya – Anyanka – had been a vengeance demon for about a thousand years when she met Xander. He was that rarity of all rarities, a regular human that works as a demon hunter. Anyway, long story short: Anya had a brief spell of humanity, and they fell in love. Once Anya goes back to being a demon, they somehow manage to keep it together.

“They have one of those perfect marriages: hopelessly in love with each other, nice kids who actually like their parents, everything’s perfect.

“Except for the fact that Xander’s aging because he’s just a human, and Anya’s a vengeance demon and will stay young forever. They want to be able to grow old together. Anya artificially ages her appearance to go along with his for a while, but it’s fake and they know it. Sooner or later Xander’s going to die, and then Anya will be left alone.

“So, they get the local Wiccas to do a spell for them. They want to find a way to fix this problem. They want to be together forever.”

“Couldn’t Anya just die with him?” Ajaya asked. “If she really wanted to, couldn’t she just…” she trailed off nervously.

“Kill herself?” Monica finished for her. “They thought of that. But Xander didn’t want Anya to kill herself because of him. And even if she had, then Xander would end up in a soul dimension and Anya would end up in a demon dimension.”

“And that’s no good,” Ajaya nodded. “So what did they do?”

“Well, Willow and Aida were at it for a long time,” Monica continued, taking another sip out of her water bottle. “And eventually they came up with a sort of compromise.”

“Compromise?” Ajaya asked curiously.

Monica nodded. “The problem was that one was demon and the other human, so what our coven did was take a little bit of Anya’s demon spirit and put it in Xander, and took a little bit of Xander’s humanity and put it in Anya.”

“And that worked?” Ajaya’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“It linked them together,” Monica said. “So, when Xander finally died, the part of him that was in Anya died as well. We found her dead in her sleep less than a week after.”

“So they did die together then,” Ajaya said. “But don’t they still have the same problem?”

“That was the beauty of the plan,” Monica said with a soft smile. “Xander couldn’t enter a dimension of souls because he had a bit of demon in him, and Anya couldn’t enter a dimension of demons because she had a bit of soul in her.”

“So what happened to them, then? Where are they?”

“In a dimension like this one,” Monica gestured around her. “Somewhere where humans and demons can mingle. And because of the link between them, they will always be incarnated close to each other, and they will always be drawn back together.”

“Their love will be reincarnated over and over again…” Ajaya realized.

“The downside is that Xander will never be able to get into heaven,” Monica said, “but he didn’t want to go anyway. Not if Anya couldn’t be there with him.”

“So that means that they’re out there somewhere right now, starting all over again,” Ajaya sighed. “It’s a very romantic story.”

“Alex didn’t think so,” Monica said soberly. “He has always been very…set in his ways. And all he could see was the harm that was done to his parents. His father was banned from heaven, and his mother died for no reason.”

“Surely, they discussed it with him?” Ajaya said.

“Oh, they did,” Monica agreed, “but what worked for Alex in theory, didn’t quite work in practice. He got a bit moody after his parents’ deaths. Luckily, he had Nina here for him. It seemed like he was finally getting past his own loss and seeing his parents’ gain, and then…” She trailed off suddenly.

“Nina’s death?” Ajaya said softly.

“He hasn’t been the same since,” Monica sighed. “His fury at his parents’ deaths has returned full force, and he’s not too fond of Slayers anymore, either.”

“I’d noticed,” Ajaya grimaced.

“We’re all really worried about him,” Monica picked at a loose string on the bench nervously. “He’s buried himself in his work, he trains way too hard… I don’t know how much longer he can live like this.”

“I’m sorry,” Ajaya murmured. “I didn’t know…”

“It’s not your fault,” Monica visibly perked herself up. “And it’s not your problem. All you need to worry about is your training. Feel up for some more?”

“Well, I can breathe again now,” Ajaya smiled at her wryly.

“Good,” Monica returned the smile. “Now, let’s see how you do with some sparring…”

* * *

Isabelle clutched the blue raincoat around her tighter as the heavens seemed to pour down with just as much anguish as she herself felt. The downpour had begun less than half an hour after she’d fled West’s apartment.

She’d managed to stay in shops for a while – where she’d been fortunate enough to find a souvenir shop that sold raincoats – but they had all closed hours ago, and she’d quickly realized she had no place to spend the night…

It was funny that she’d needed that excuse to make the call.

Obviously, she had been planning to all along since she’d grabbed West’s computer and all. But still, something seemed wrong about turning her back on the Watcher’s Council.

Despite everything, they were still the ones that had raised her, that had made her what she was. She had been bitter about it most of the time, of course, but Mr. West had been her life for almost six years. And even the imminent peril she was in seemed unreal to her still.

She nervously glanced around once again just to make sure. She still couldn’t believe that West had shot at her. And the scariest part was that she had no idea what they were up to now. West had an organization of thousands behind him. For all she knew, they were out searching for her right now…

She turned away abruptly when the man waiting at the bus stop across the street stared at her just a bit too long. She tightened her hood around her head. Surely he hadn’t recognized her?

When she looked back again, he was gone. Where had he gone? The bus hadn’t come; she would have heard it. Had he worked for the Council? Was he letting them know of her whereabouts right now?

Her worst fears were realized when a black car abruptly screeched to a stop in front of her. Before the passenger door had even been flung open, she was tearing off down the street.

“Lioness, wait!” a voice called out behind her.

She came to an abrupt halt and watched as the car pulled up alongside her again.

“You coming,” Spike demanded from the driver’s seat, “or are you going to make me chase you up and down the street all night? Because I have got better things to do, you know…”

“Sorry,” Isabelle cast a furtive glance around the empty street before sliding into the car, “I-I thought you were…the Council,” she gulped slightly, wrapping her arms around herself tightly.

“No chance, ducks,” he said, pulling up from the curb and driving out into the night. “Why? Did something happen?”

“M-My Watcher,” Isabelle was stuttering now from a combination of panic and cold. “H-He…he tried… He was going to…”

“Hey, calm down there, luv,” Spike gave her a friendly smile. She hadn’t been aware up until that point that vampires had friendly smiles. “Just take a deep breath and tell me what your Watcher did.”

“I got home early,” she took his advice and took a deep breath. “He was on the phone.” Breath. “He was talking to the Watcher’s Council.” Breath, slight gulp. “Th-They said…”

“Calm,” he reminded her softly.

“They said I had to be t-t-t…” Isabelle couldn’t say the word.

“They were going to get rid of you?” Spike suggested. “Get another Slayer Called in your place?”

Isabelle nodded mutely.

“Wankers,” Spike muttered under his breath.

Isabelle wasn’t quite sure what the word meant, but she had a feeling it wasn’t favorable to the Watchers’ Council.

“He shot at me when I ran,” she finally managed to say.

“Did he hit you?” Instant concern. “Are you all right?”

“Fine,” Isabelle nodded numbly. “He missed.”

“Want me to rip his throat out?”

Isabelle turned to look at him in shock, and then smiled a bit when she saw the teasing grin on his face. “Uh…no, that would be bad,” she giggled slightly at his mock-forlorn expression.

“Now, that’s more what I like to hear,” he gave her a quick wink before pulling up outside of a motel.

He quickly ushered her inside, and before she knew it, she was in a deluxe suite.

“Let me get that for you, Lioness,” he took her raincoat for her and tsked slightly when he noticed she was drenched underneath. “I’ll get you a towel. You just have a seat and relax.”

Isabelle stiffly walked over to the couch and sat down, exhaustion finally beginning to overcome the adrenaline that had been pumping through her system all night.

“Here you go,” he wrapped a large, white towel around her shoulders and gave her another one for her hair.

She gratefully wiped herself as dry as possible while wearing damp clothes.

“You want to change?” he asked. “Take a shower or a bath or something?”

“I don’t have any clothes to change into,” she gestured to the laptop she carried, demonstrating that she had nothing else with her.

“I’m sure we can find something for you,” his eyebrow raised speculatively at the computer, but he didn’t ask. “I’ll go find something.”

She sighed in relief and curled back onto the sofa, kicking off her shoes and socks so her toes could felt the soft plush.

“And here we are,” he handed her an oversized T-shirt and a pair of baggy sweats. “Sorry, but I didn’t have any knickers for you.”

“This is good,” Isabelle nodded, taking them numbly from him.

When she didn’t do anything, he realized that she was probably still a bit too shocked. “Here,” he sighed. “I’ll give you a hand.”

Isabelle knew she should protest, but she was feeling too drained to do anything of the sort. However, his help turned out to be as inoffensive as was physically possible in such circumstances. He covered her well with towel before he slipped of her wet blouse and replaced it with the dry shirt, and likewise with her skirt and the sweats.

And he hadn’t tried to peek or given her a suggestive leer once. In fact, that charm he’d been exhibiting earlier that evening seemed to be completely shut off at the moment. It was a fact for which Isabelle was eternally grateful. She didn’t think she could handle a seductive vampire in her current condition.

“You look real tired, kitten,” he brushed a lock of auburn hair back from her cheek. “Why don’t you get some sleep?”

Isabelle was drifting off already and didn’t even have the energy to nod. She was dimly aware of being lifted up by strong arms and carried over to the bed. And in her sleep-addled mind, those arms reminded her so much of the father she hadn’t seen since she was a child…

With a contented smile, Isabelle fell into a deep, dark sleep…

Continue

Return to Round Winners

Return to Listing