Title:
The Sidestep Chronicle – Second Chronicle - iWitch (Part 186)
Author: Katharyn Rosser
Feedback: Constructive criticism is always welcome.
Katharynrosser1@hotmail.co.uk Flames just demonstrate you have a tiny mind.
Spoiler Warning: Pretty limited. The story occurs in an alternate universe as set up in “The Wish” though reference is made to events that occur in both realities. Nothing is referenced that occurs after S5 though. Guess why? Most “spoilers” would be for the first chronicle of this fic rather than the show and if you haven’t read that then much of this will make no sense but you can try and get round it by reading the preface to Part 104 which summarises most of what went before.
Distribution This story was written for Pens. Pens is its home. No archiving off Different Coloured Pens (This applies to all of the Sidestep Chronicle)
Summary: A nights hunting for Willow – but with a difference.
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the copyrights or anything else associated with BTVS. All rights lie with the production company, writers etc, etc. I am making zilch from this series of stories. You know the drill.
Rating: R – a general rating for occasional content. Individual parts might be less than this level.
Couples: Tara and Willow forever – others couples as necessary but nothing unconventional.
Notes: The song “A Little Respect” is property of Erasure and their publishers. It was written by Vince Clarke and Andy Bell. It’s included for being just what I needed and as a tip of the hat to the film D.E.B.S. in which it’s featured. No profit is being made by this fic or by use of those lyrics. It occurs to me on re-reading that this part has a little bit of a campy subtext but it’s not really there by intent – heck you all probably won’t notice!
Thanks To: My own special woman Louise who helps me so much with this on top of everything else. Those other friends and family who’ve also helped us overcome everything that was put in my way. Celia and Kerry who shaped this story and continue to do so when I think back to what they told me in the past. Xita for keeping the story hanging around and continuing to give us TKTWATBW.
The Sidestep Chronicle – Second Chronicle
iWitch
By
Katharyn Rosser
Tara stared at the screen and the words arrayed across it, trying to find the best way to come to some conclusion. Not just
any conclusion, she knew what she wanted to say. The trouble was the words just wouldn’t quite come to express it.
Those words were being elusive and possibly sneaky. She could say them, she could think them. She just couldn’t write them without it reading as overdone or, at the other end of the scale, letting down the entire point of the paper.
Tempted by the setback to slump in her chair she had to resist the urge. Avoiding bad posture was why Toni now had the PC from their dorm room and why the laptop was the one they used. Much to Toni’s chagrin – but the girl loved to slouch. Practicality had to come into it too though – Willow needed to take the Powerbook for class – she couldn’t do that if Toni had it.
And, right now, Tara herself needed to go to inspiration land with it. One last section, no more than a couple of hundred words, but it’d been eluding her for at least half an hour – no matter what she tried.
The problem was this wasn’t very inspiring stuff. All she was really doing was fulfilling her science requirements as best she could. All in all she wasn’t the science-girl. Over the courses she’d often thought how lucky she was to have a regular Miss Einstein to help her along.
But writing science papers? Willow couldn’t do much more than read the drafts through for her and the words just didn’t seem to flow as readily as they did in her other subjects. Science, she decided, had a language of it’s own. One she didn’t speak.
Tara didn’t need to hear Willow, to see her reflection in the screen or smell her freshly showered woman to know she was coming up behind her. No, she could feel it long before those arms went around her from behind and lips kissed the top of her head, kissed or rested there? Breathing against her hair for a few moments.
It did take some observation to realise Willow was had put a jacket on though. “Where are you going?” she asked.
“Er, hunting?” Willow replied.
“Hunting? But it’s…” Tara started to object, knowing what was coming.
So did Willow.
“Yes, it’s dark. Yes, it’s that time. Yes, someone needs to go. No, that someone isn’t you. And no, I don’t mind going on my own tonight,” Willow called the rest of the conversation off by rote, before taking to giving her a mini-massage that really was hitting the spot. Not inspirational – at least in science terms – but definitely soothing.
Tara couldn’t help giving a little contented sigh – it
was just what she needed. Both the massage and the time to get this paper done. Now with those two things, and some inspiration of the kind Willow wasn’t so talented at, this would all be done and dusted.
“Still keeping Toni from smuggling the Powerbook into her room?” Willow asked.
Once again, all Tara could do was sigh and nod. Toni wanted to lie on the bed and use it for chat. Mostly, even with the desktop in there, they let her. Except when there was work to be done. That wasn’t why she couldn’t do more than sigh though – Willow was the cause of that effect.
All she really wanted to do was purr, a sigh was her equivalent.
It was so much easier to be contented when Willow was around. Even during a science paper – hardly her favourite thing in the world.
No, her favourite thing in the world was rubbing her shoulders – rubbing the tension and frustration away.
At least what tension there’d been. She had to admit there was a educational comfort zone now, with so little to be done before the end of the course and with a good grade already pretty much in the bag she could afford for this paper to be… not as good as it could be. Couldn’t she?
Mentally she gave herself a pinch. That
wasn’t the way to get things done. ‘Getting by’ wasn’t good enough, was it? Not if she wanted to avoid regrets later on… and they both knew all about regrets.
It was just Willow being so seductively distracting, and probably knowing what she was doing too. The massage, without Willow’s hands moving from her shoulders, had somehow taken on a more sensual feeling. “Stop it,” Tara said quietly.
“Really?” Willow asked, keeping right on going.
“I have a paper to finish off, and you aren’t going to stick around anyway,” Tara pointed out.
Willow was going hunting and that was going to take her a couple of hours, at least. At least to do it right. High marks for hunting was sometimes about quantity just as much as it was about quality. One time it’d be the quantity of kills that counted and another time it’d be the quantity of places checked to ensure there
weren’t any vampires or other nasties around
to kill.
“I could stick around,” Willow offered.
Tara tipped her head back to look up into Willow’s seemingly upside down face. “Oh no,” she said. “You’re certainly not getting me all worked up and then leaving me lying there while you go out and hunt.”
“You know how sexy I find you being all scholarly just in a robe,” Willow said.
And oh, she did know… Willow had even bought her the silk robe. Sometimes fantasies could be easily indulged.
“And you know I wouldn’t just work you up,” Willow promised as the massage started to widen in both area and ambition. “I’d ease you right back down too. Don’t I always?”
“Sometimes I hit the ground with a crash,” Tara told her with a smile. “Sometimes. But that’s good too.”
“Yeah, but usually…”
“Usually I wouldn’t want you to leave me, no matter what.” That was it. She didn’t want to fall into bed with Willow and be left alone afterwards, as if the sex was all that mattered – not that it would be. But that was the point – it wasn’t the sex that’d matter. Sure, she could be as carried away with lust as Willow could but it was the love that mattered afterwards.
And she still had this paper to finish.
“Mmm. You think it’d be easy for me to get up and leave you there? All warm, probably wet and definitely snuggly?” Willow asked her.
“You know I do my best to be enticing,” Tara said. She knew she could entice Willow to stay right there with her all night – and it wouldn’t take a word. Probably not even a look. It’d just need her to let things carry on the way they were looking like going. “But not now.”
Willow’s face lowered itself to hers, and they kissed, noses pressing into each other’s chin. Strange… but alluring all the same. Usually when they were this way around they were focusing on parts further along each other’s bodies. Lower, higher. Everything was relative when it came to the classic soixante-neuf. Just the thought of it sent a rush of anticpation through her…
Oh… See! Willow’s presence, the kiss and the thoughts she’s conjured… all having their effect on her, distracting her from what they both needed to do.
“Go on,” Tara said with a sigh. “Go kill the bad guys and come back for your reward baby.”
“Reward?” Willow said, only taking her hands away when Tara slapped one of them playfully.
“You can do that again,” Tara promised. “And more.” She could do it properly. They had the oils… Oh, and there was that rush of anticipation again.
“I’ll hurry back then,” Willow offered. “Because you really are my enticing woman.”
Tara smiled. “No need to hurry, I want to get this done tonight, I’ve got lots of reading to do this week. You just be careful. I want you back in one piece.”
“Always baby.”
Tara turned back to the screen, knowing there’d be at least one more kiss right before Willow left. Best to show some determination though, just so Willow didn’t get the idea even her protests could be part of the game. Then she thought she heard something… something that distracted her even from thoughts like that. “What’s that noise?” It was like tinny, scratchy, music.
Willow, still stood behind her, must have decided to show her exactly what it was. She found herself with two little buds being pressed into her ears. It was music. It was… Respect? “Ah, I get it. Your walkman arrived?”
Willow, always a gadget hound when they could afford to be, had told her about placing the order months ago and she’d forgotten all about it. Her girlfriend’s response was lost in the music though.
“What?” she reached up and pulled the buds out.
“Semper Fidelis,” Willow said again so Tara understood. Oh no, not for Willow anything that wasn’t loyal to her favourite technology brand. She was someone’s idea of a dream customer. Which was okay, she was someone’s idea of a dream girl too. “And it’s not a Walkman. You know that.”
“Alright, alright,” Tara agreed. “ePod. Whatever.” She could imagine Willow rolling her eyes; she didn’t have to see it. Teasing her was part of the game. “I’d keep it away from the kids though.”
Something with long headphone cords like that promised to be chewed, pulled, tugged and destroyed – even if it wasn’t immediately dangerous for the same reason.
“At least I don’t have to worry about Toni taking it all the time,” Willow joked. “All the adverts show how you can jump around, run and that kind of active stuff. Not much chance of our girl wanting music while she trains.”
“Next to none,” Tara agreed.
‘Our girl’ Willow had said? Interesting – not totally new, but definitely interesting. Why not think of Toni like that? Tara would never have said it quite so casually herself, but why not? It could be the case for a long time yet.
Or it could be all over at the next review.
But the more they had to deal with, and the changes in Toni since she’d gotten involved with Mal was just one of them, the easier it was to think of their guest as, well, theirs through the good and the bad. She was definitely their responsibility.
“Wait a minute,” she said after Willow had given her that last kiss she’d expected.
“Hmm?”
“Are you going out with that on?” Tara checked.
“Erm… sure,” Willow confirmed.
“Will,” she said more sternly than she’d meant to sound. “That’s dangerous.” The hesitation before Willow had confirmed it seemed to suggest she might know that too.
“Okay, so one of my senses will be a little reduced - ” Willow started to say.
“Drastically reduced,” Tara countered without waiting for the rest.
“– but then how often is hunting about hearing things?”
“You might as well stick your fingers in your ears and go ‘la-la-la’” Tara said.
“But my fingers will be free and available this way,” Willow argued.
As arguments went it was a pretty feeble one.
“Come on,” Willow said, “tell me when we needed to hear something? Just hear it?”
Not that often Tara had to admit. It would be a rare vampire who could take them by surprise in their own town where they knew every alley and street. Even rarer for one to be so good at hunting them that they’d only hear it. But still… “What if you run up against an invisible demon and… and you miss the only clue you’d have had?” she asked.
“When was the last time either of us ran across an invisible demon?” Willow asked.
“The English-sounding guy,” Tara said. She’d felt his presence to some extent, but she’d definitely heard him too.
“Not proven to be a demon, and not seeming dangerous when he was invisible either,” Willow said firmly, only one headphone bud in her ear.
“Okay.” she had to give Willow that one, but she just couldn’t imagine a circumstance in which this was a
good idea no matter how un-bad it might be. “But why do you want to hunt to music anyway? We always talk when we go hunting.”
“But
we’re not going hunting. I am. And we’ll still be talking when we hunt together. Or if I hunt with anyone else,” Willow argued.
“It’s even worse when you’re alone!” Tara pointed out. “It’d be better to do it when you’re with someone.” You had to take hunting seriously. She knew Willow understood that. The night you stopped taking it seriously was the night you didn’t come home. Tara had seen too many people who did what they did fail to come back one night.
“I think it’ll help pass the time while I’m all alone out there, with no one but the occasional demon or vampire to talk to. And you know they don’t stick around to chat,” Willow’s little joke was an attempt to calm her, Tara knew it and didn’t mind the attempt.
But she was still certain she was right about this. Okay, a solo hunt was a little lonely. You always ended up talking to yourself – at least she did. Willow’s subject of the night – without music – would probably be obsessing about why the results of her applications for post-grad school were so late. With music? Less so perhaps. Tara knew she didn’t need to worry on that score anyway.
And yes, when they were out together they turned each night into a romantic stroll, a nature walk or sometimes a game. All three sometimes. So okay, it was true they didn’t always give the actual hunting part one hundred percent attention – but they never deliberately handicapped themselves either.
“Willow, it’s just dangerous,” that was really all she had to say about it. Pure and simple it was dangerous. If Willow chose to accept that danger, then that was her decision to make.
“I was just going to try it once, see what it was like. See if I could find rhythm,” Willow shrugged.
Tara knew her girlfriend would take it off if she flat out asked her to – but then this was Willow’s choice in what worked best for her. If this helped her keep motivated and pass the time in a long, boring hunt – that could be interrupted by two seconds of actual staking – then that
might be a good thing.
Or it could be those two seconds weren’t just about staking because Willow hadn’t heard them coming.
“I think it’d look pretty cool, killing vampires to music.”
Tara had to smile at that point. Willow, like something out of a movie, moving to the music and staking vampires left and right. “Then I hope you’d look cooler than Toni said you did doing the cleaning,” she said. “Otherwise I might be embarrassed to admit I know you.”
“Harsh, oh woman of mine. Very harsh.”
They both knew the decision had been made and the argument was over. “If you’re going to do it,” Tara said, “At least keep the volume pretty low and the rest of you focused on what you're doing?”
Asking was unnecessary. Willow was in no way silly enough to go out there with it blaring out, and she was scientific enough to want to test her theory thoroughly too. No other distractions would get in her way.
At least this time out.
“It might even draw vampires to me,” Willow suggested. “That could be a good thing.”
“You don’t have to have it in your ears for that to work,” Tara said. But Willow had a point. What vampires there were out there would have good enough hearing for the tinny music to be a clarion call. They’d hear it, never believe in a hunter who’d be listening to music instead and Willow would dust them.
Only stupid demons became stupid vampires – in the Sunnydale of tonight vampires probably knew to avoid young women with stakes in their hands. Or bags that could be suspiciously full of stakes. And if someone got incinerated they ran the other way.
But a hunter with music on? They might not get that.
Unless they recognised Willow – who was pretty distinctive – and avoided her entirely? Willow might not even get to know they’d been there.
Okay. She was willing to concede it could work with vampires – but what about the bigger bads? The demons of other kinds, even the elder vampires. Faster, more powerful. With them Willow would need every second she could get.
But Tara had to admit the odds were she wouldn’t face anything like that – at least not and have to fight it alone. Willow could always call for reinforcements if she spotted anything. Besides, everything was pretty quiet – just the usual low-level demon activity. The chances of something going wrong the very night Willow tested the music concept were pretty slim.
Slim to anorexic.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to worry though. She worried, just a little, every time Willow went out without her. Every time Rupert or Jenny went out. Any time she wasn’t there herself to keep everyone safe, she worried about them.
They didn’t
need her help but then again they were all volunteers in what she definitely considered to be
her task. They were helping her – and she was always afraid of something going wrong while she had something else that had to be done.
Like science curriculum papers.
When she was with them… she didn’t have to worry about all that.
Willow had joked once that it was a lack of Faith. Then she’d explained the capital letter. Perhaps it was true. The Slayer had been the only person she’d one hundred percent trusted not to get hurt while she wasn’t there.
Faith had been a force of nature in a different way to how she and Willow were.
Damn straight T.
With Willow it was 99.99% She believed in Willow’s power and abilities. The other hundredth of a percent came from the part that loved her so much. The part that had to worry because it was impossible to be unconcerned when the person you loved was out there risking her life without you.
“Go,” she said. “But be careful.”
“I’ll be back to give you a rub down,” Willow promised, slipping the buds into her ears.
Tara smiled.
“You better erm… tidy up?” Willow suggested loudly, gesturing at her.
She smiled again, adjusting and retying the robe that had been in disarray from Willow’s wandering – massaging – hands. Studying with it all hanging out
definitely wasn’t the message she wanted to send to Toni now the girl was looking to study with Mal.
And that was the music Willow wanted to kill vampires to?
‘Give a little respect, too-oo-oo-oo meeeeeee!’
Nice message.
But the rest of the song really wasn’t for your immortal enemies was it?
-----------------
Willow bounded along the path through the park. And it was a bound. Music was definitely putting a spring in her step. Solo patrols could be so dull. Worse if the weather was bad too. But this was shiny and new, fun. She already had a stake in her hand and all she needed was someone to use it on.
Some
thing.
Trouble was, up to now, there hadn’t been any things volunteering. But this was still better than just talking to herself.
Of course when she’d only taken the time to download the one song, from the first CD she’d picked up, she hadn’t been thinking of any more than ‘does this expensive mini hard drive with a headphone jack actually work?’
Now, after several run-throughs of that same song it was getting a little tired and it was harder to ‘bound’ so enthusiastically, but surely someone would attack her soon? The one time she was hoping for anything but a quiet hunt… She needed to be attacked! She needed to know whether hunting to music was something that attracted vampires, drove them off or they really didn’t care about?
And whether it would impact her part of the hunting process, the turning-the-vampires-to-dust part.
Oh, she wanted it to work – it’d be good if it did. But she wasn’t taking any chances. Not now, and not if she came out this way again. Tara had been right that it could be dangerous, but right now she was probably paying more attention to her other senses than she usually did to all six.
So far though – zip. Nada. Bupkiss. Sweet FA, as Rupert was sometimes known to muse. She wasn’t sure that his ‘FA’ was an American ‘FA’ though. He didn’t have it in him.
At least he didn’t for most of the time.
And here was the song, coming around again. It was all getting just a little boring; she was going to have to copy at least a few CD’s to this thing to make it at all worthwhile. And then she’d still had to find a vampire to test it all on – without making it look like she was testing anything. If they knew it was a test then it wouldn’t be a valid test and what she was testing it on wouldn’t behave like it usually would, but instead how it would for a test, making the whole test a waste of time.
Or something like that anyway.
And did it really need to be a double-blind test to be valid? That was something she’d have to think about.
When the song reached the chorus, or indeed any part about ‘respect’ it seemed to fit the hunting vibe. Kind of anyway. On the other hand what the lyrics were really all about – something she’d become much more familiar with after about 15 straight repeats – wasn’t actually all that relevant to her current activities.
It was a good job the vampires couldn’t hear what she was hearing…
On the other hand, if they had, they might at least have come running.
Okay… how to draw a vampire to her with that was to do with music? If they couldn’t hear it then maybe… Perhaps if she tried an interpretative dance solution? Hmm? They might think she was a little crazy, but definitely not hunting them.
On the negative side dancing had already proven be… a bad idea recently.
Interpretative hunting at least, in the manner of dance?
It wasn’t like anyone was around to see her – at least no one who wouldn’t be dusted before the night was done. She hoped.
I try to discover
Willow darted towards the nearest bush, not something she was unaccustomed to doing, peering around the side of it. Trying to discover the vampires there.
A little something to make me sweeter
Hmm. She popped a mint into her mouth. It was about all she had, and Tara would say the same. Tara would say she couldn’t get any sweeter.
Oh baby refrain from breaking my heart
What could that be? What was going to break her heart? She mimed smacking a vampires face against her knee – an imaginary vampire that’d been daring to try to attack Tara! She decided to be vicious with it and it hit it again. The non-existent vampire behind the bush was really going to get it.
An imaginary vampire required an imaginary Tara, and Willow had found she was good at using her imagination that way.
I’m so in love with you
Her imaginary Tara heard the words – of course. She was imagining singing them to her. Who else?
I’ll be forever blue
That you give me no reason
Why you’re making me work so hard
Oh where were all the vampires? They were making her work hard – they were making her dance. Interpretively! Another bush. Round the side of a tree. Under a park bench and behind the jungle gym, she darted too and fro with the music.
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
A stab at every line seemed appropriate there.
Soul, I hear you calling.
Except she really didn’t here them calling. Okay, they didn’t have a soul but where had all the vampires gone?
Kind of reminded her of that other song. ‘Where have all the vampires gone?’ You could make a song out of that. This was a private performance now – real vampires… well, she’d just have to kill them if they were out there. Just for seeing this.
That was the whole point.
Oh baby please give a little respect to me
-----------------
They sat up on the wall of the park, observing the red haired human a little way across the park. New in town it’d seemed best to make a quiet entrance and find out what was happening by night. There were rumours about Sunnydale. Good rumours and bad rumours.
Vampire heaven or vampire hell, it depended who you believed.
Playing the waiting game might’ve paid off. There
was something happening out there, in and around the bushes. They couldn’t see everything. But they could see enough to know what was going on.
“Isn’t that-?”
“Yup.”
“The witch?”
“Yup.”
“What’s she doing? Hunting?”
“Looks like.”
“There’s some poor dumb shit she’s down there after. The way she was moving to smack him in the face with her knee. Nasty – and she didn’t even get touched. Who’d you reckon she’s after? More than one of us perhaps?”
“I reckon so.”
“Dumbass for hiding in the bushes anyway.”
“Yup.”
“Think we should go down there and help em out?”
“What do you think?”
So they sat there and watched.
------------------
Willow moved on. There was another bush for her to slay. Why, oh why was the music so badly chosen for this? It was a song about lovers having trouble in their relationship – least it seemed to be. Not exactly what she was doing – taking every line out of context just to make it fit.
But she
was proving a point. She could hunt to music. Well, okay, as Tara would point out she could hunt imaginary things to music and they were probably a bit easier than real demons would be, but all the same…
She was still doing it.
And if I should falter
Oh no, she’d never falter. There was that dangerous tree and she wasn’t faltering in the slightest in taking it out.
Would you open your arms out to me?
She opened her own arms, and flung the around the tree trunk, pinning her imaginary victim there whilst her imaginary fellow hunter – her imaginary Tara – prepared an imaginary spell or imaginary stake.
We could make love not war she sung to the imaginary Tara, changing the intent of the song after another imaginary vampire had been turned to imaginary dust.
Of course they did like to make love after some hunts. Lots of reasons for that. It was night – so they were heading to bed afterwards, usually after a shared shower. They were very awake and it was a great way to ease down, and there was the adrenaline high… Not just adrenaline. Hunting really got her… going.
Tara had never really admitted it, but Willow had experienced the evidence many, many times… it was true what Faith, the Slayer, had reportedly said. Hunting did – or at least could – make you horny. And there was nothing wrong with that – it was a decent compensation for the time you put in.
At least when you had a beautiful girlfriend often as horny as you were.
And live with peace in our hearts
She sung the words to her stake, like a microphone.
Could they live with peace? Could they leave this behind? Music or not?
I’ll be forever blue
Like those guys off the blue man adverts huh?
Probably. She wasn’t much good at doing what they did. But she could try.
------------------
“Martial arts?” one asked.
“Some kind of kata, looks like anyway,” his partner replied.
“There’s that one from the islands. The one the slaves kept hidden from their masters by hiding it in a dance.”
“Read that in a book did you?”
“Yup.”
“You never read a book while you were alive, why’d you start now?”
“It ain’t now, it was twenty-some years ago.”
“So?” the other asked. “Why’d you read it twenty-some years ago?”
“It ain’t never too late to improve yourself.”
A moments reflection as they looked down on the park.
“If all these slaves knew these martial arts, why didn’t they kick some ass? I’d surely be kicking some almighty butt if some fool had done that to me.”
“I reckon that’d be the guns. The white folks had guns back then, you know that. Dancing ain’t much good against no gun.”
They thought about that for a moment, it seemed plausible and fitted with what they remembered of the time.
“So what’s it called?”
“Capo… Capo something.”
“That’s coffee.”
“No dumbass, not cappuccino. Capopera or something like that.” They paused, watching the twirling witch and her very sharp, very pointy stake.
“Dance huh? Does that look like dance to you?”
“Nope.”
“Nope… not to me neither. That’d by why it must be a martial art. No one dances like that.”
“I reckon.”
“Did you see that when she pinned em to the tree? Must be strong, to hold onto a vampire like that – arms around them till she could stake em.”
“The witch punches above her weight, that’s for damned sure.”
“Must be something special about that there stake too, it’s not gone up with those poor bastards she killed, and she’s talking to it too.”
“Looks more like singing.”
“That’s witches for you. Never know when to keep quiet. Always mumbling something, and dancing naked around fires. Shit like that.”
“Naked?”
“So they say.”
They paused, looking down at the woman in question.
“Do you reckon she’s gonna get naked?”
“Could be… could be…”
----------------
I’m so in love with you she imagined singing to her imaginary Tara, hand over a heart that was bursting with love.
-----------------
“I reckons one of them tagged her,” one sighed. He’d been hoping the witch would get naked. He enjoyed the feeling of blood on smooth skin. Anyone’s smooth skin. Or not so smooth.
Skin, all round, was good.
“How’d you figure?”
“She keeps clutching her chest.”
“Don’t look like there’s no blood though.”
“It’d be tough to tell in them duds. Who wears that stuff?”
“Witches, I guess.”
“I don’t think I’d like to see her wardrobe,” one said.
“What are you? Some kinda fashion critic now? Who cares about her wardrobe? You ain’t never gonna see it anyway.”
“You know, sometimes you can be just hurtful. I’m just interested.”
They looked at one another.
“I ain’t apologising to you so stop looking at me that way.”
The other vampire shrugged. “You think maybe she’d having one of them there heart attacks?”
“She’s young.”
“Heart disease isn’t just an old persons problem. I’ve scared plenty of people to death over the years.”
“That’s the truth, then you died and killed em regular like.”
They laughed and kept watching.
-----------------
Finally Willow had to conclude that:
1) She could hunt to music and find some rhythm.
2) She needed some better-suited music to hunt to.
3) She sucked at interpretative hunting through the medium of dance.
4) And the vice versa on the last point.
Two hours of listening to the same song, as near as anyway. Time for her to show a little respect to the idea of putting the ear buds away and letting silence rule for a while.
But in concept… A few more songs, a greater variety. Something upbeat – and perhaps with harsher lyrics too. There had to be a vampire killing song. “I kill vampires day and night,” she improvised experimentally to the tune of Camptown Races.
Except she didn’t kill them in the day that much. Sometimes, if they found a nest above ground it’d be good to go in during the day and lock the vampires within walls of sunlight they couldn’t escape. But…
When had they last found a nest? Ages ago. Vampires weren’t stupid enough to draw that kind of attention in Sunnydale anymore.
Okay… most vampires weren’t stupid enough to attract that kind of attention.
-----------------
“That’s it. Shows over.”
“Want to stick around? She might still light a fire and get naked. They say one of them witches does things with fire.” He felt like he was supposed to keep pushing this point. Vampires were supposed to have appetites – beyond the blood of course.
“Things?”
“I don’t know… things.”
“You want to stick around after what we just saw her do to some poor bastards?
“Not even for a snack? The orphanage is just over there – and it’s no one’s home. We can pretty much walk in and out as we like.”
His comrade thought about that. “True… but she’s freaking me out. Hunting us I get, but she sounds like she’s singing about it. That’s cold. Stone cold. And where’s the other one anyway?”
“I dunno. Ain’t they a team?”
“They’re supposed to be a couple of them lesbians but I don’t know what difference that’d make.”
“You sure you don’t wanna see if she gets naked?” It sounded like a challenge.
“She ain’t getting naked! And no, her girlfriend won’t be coming down her to get naked either. It’s one of them urban myths that lesbians can’t never keep their hands off each other in public.”
“It is?”
“Yup.”
“What would you know? You ain’t never even met no lesbian.”
“I reckon I might have. I’ve been face to face with pretty much everything under the moon at one time or another. They say one in ten women is one.”
“Really?”
“So they say.”
“What about men?”
“About the same, they reckon.”
They looked at each other again then changed the subject.
“Can we at least go down the hospital and score a pack of blood? I’m starving. We were supposed to be eating tonight.”
“Sure. A pack of B-neg laced with a little Jim Bean’d go down pretty well right about now. Then we’ll head over to Springfield – see what’s happening over there.”
“Can’t be weirder than this place.”
“You got that right.”
-----------------
At last! Vampires – right here in the street when she was on her way home. And after she’d wrapped up her ear buds too. No music for these kills. The test wasn’t going to get done tonight.
She sighed, a little disappointed. She didn’t suppose they’d wait for her to get them back out again would they? Even if they did, did she really want to hear that song again?
Not for a couple of months. She’d never really liked it that much anyway…
“Oh boys,” she called and was pleased to see the surprise and shock on their face when they spun around. Fear too. She’d inspired fear. Once upon a time she remembered
always inspiring fear. But it was better this way.
Fear of the forces of good.
Fear of the real – human – Willow Rosenberg.
Willow the Vampire Slayer.
Give a little respect to me. Fear was good too though, if they couldn’t find respect for her.
‘Don’t Fear the Reaper.’ Now there was a song with an appropriate name for hunting. She’d have to check the lyrics though.
‘Another one bites the dust.’ How perfect was that? She could call it Willow’s Hunting Mix or something.
It’d be pretty cool to have a hunting mix all of her own, maybe Tara could come up with something?
“Don’t you be trying that that weird martial arts shit on us missy,” one of them said to her. For some reason they had cowboy hats on, and long trench coats… no, those would be dusters.
Oh goddess be… another use of the word ‘duster’ for her to worry about. Now where’d that use of it come from? And
what were they talking about? “Excuse me, but what?” Martial arts? A little self-defence, but she wasn’t exactly Crouching Tiger.
She wasn’t even Hidden Dragon.
“That cappuccino stuff – we saw you.”
“Cappuccino isn’t a martial art,” she informed them, rapidly coming to the conclusion they were, in fact, redneck vampire assholes. Rednecks she didn’t mind at all, it was the assholes – particularly the
vampire assholes – she hated.
“Says you.”
“I told you,” the other said. “I told you dumbass. Cappuccino is a coffee. I told you that. And I told you its Capopera or some shit like that.”
“Excuse me interrupting your argument guys, but have you ever had any thoughts about what music you’d like to be staked to?” she asked, interested in their opinions. Perhaps they’d come up with something. It’d be a new perspective at least.
They looked at her, showing their fear again – and total lack of ideas. “No? Okay, thanks for taking the time though.” She staked them both with a flick of her mind. A flick of her mind and two pointy pieces of wood.
It’d have been more lyrical to music. But only to the right song.
You had to respect the right song.
And minor success, she hadn’t stressed about the missing replies to her post-grad school applications once.
Oh.
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