You rise, I fall, I leave with nothing... nothin' at all.
"Stupid luggage." I muttered, to myself, as I pulled the large Louis Vuitton trunk out from under the four poster bed I'd been sleeping on while staying with Kaci this summer. It wasn't the luggage's fault that my flight was already booked and I was finally leaving in a few days to go back to Shreveport. And that I didn't want to go. But inanimate
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"You can't leave. And not just because you're pretty my favorite person and I can't stand the thought of going back to school in a few days without you. But because you're a vampire slayer." What? Nobody said I had to break the news delicately to her. "No. Seriously, you are and so was my mother and so is my Aunt Kennedy and she can teach you all kinds of things about killing vampires which is like, totally your destiny or something. Which also means your destiny? Is to stay here."
Walking over to her I easily pulled her up to her feet from where she was sitting on her bed. "C'mon, call Mom and Dad. Tell them you're staying here."
I let go of her hand when she gave me a look like I had to be off of my rocker. Ugh. Why does everyone always assume I'm crazy or something? And this was so not my area of expertise. Maybe I should have called my Aunt. Or maybe Buffy or hell, even Molly or Lucy might have been less threatening and better at explaining the whole dumb slayer thing.
"Haven't you ever noticed you're not like other girls? You're faster, stronger, you heal quicker, need less sleep?" I asked her as she gave me a blank look. "Crazy ass dreams about chicks you've never even met or heard of who kill monsters with a little pointy stick?"
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Suddenly, she went all crazy on me. Stuff about being a vampire slayer like her mom and Kennedy, which was the girl who seemed to drive Lucy and Molly and pretty much every girl who went to Greece with us completely crazy at that school they all went to. Even if I believed what she was sayin', why would I want to go put up with that too?
On my feet, I put my hands on my hips and stared at her, tryin' to figure out if she was already drunk or something. Or if her pupils were dilated, like she was on some kind of drug. But she didn't seem drunk or high to me. Just really super crazy.
And how did she know about the dreams I'd been having for awhile now? At first it freaked me out, but then I realized, she probably just has them too or something. Maybe everyone did, like the dream where you go to school naked. Everyone has that dream.
"Look, Lexi, this is really sweet and all, and I appreciate the lengths you seem willing to go to just to keep me here. And believe me, I've thought about stayin'." I admitted. "But I can't just call my parents and told them that I wanted to, they wouldn't let me. Even if I believed you about all this vampire slayer stuff, it's not like I could tell them. If I did, they'd definitely bring me home. So they could put me in a mental hospital." Which is kinda where I think you should be right now. I love you to death, but it's true.
"Maybe I'm not like other girls. I don't know if I'm faster or stronger than everyone, but okay, some. Never really hurt myself where I really noticed my healing capabilities. And yeah, I've had a few bad dreams." Where I'm a monster-killer with a pointy stick. But it's still at least better than the naked dream! "It probably just means that all the TaeBo has paid off." I shrugged. "And that maybe I need to take some Zoloft or something."
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Not that anyone believes in vampires. Including Lacey which was kind of a problem because hello! Vampire Slayer! "And look, I can prove to you that you're a vampire slayer." Like how was I gonna do that? I could take her to a cemetery I guess and let her fight one, prove to her that they're real. I would be there in case she couldn't handle it. Not that I'm a vampire slayer but I can kill them easy. Maybe I would do that if I had to, maybe I should call Lucy. Jeez.
With a sigh I grabbed her arm and started pulling her out of her bedroom. She tried to struggle a little bit at first but realized really quickly how strong I was. Even if she's a vampire slayer I'm still the prophecy child. I'm like, way stronger. Besides, she didn't even know what she was yet. She wasn't ready to take me on.
When we got to the stairwell I stopped and looked down over the banister. It was a long drop to the first floor. With a shrug I easily gave her a hard push and watched as she toppled over the railing and started sailing over the edge. She was screaming and flailing like she couldn't believe I pushed her. But by the time she landed she was only quiet and surprised because she'd landed on her feet...kind of like a cat.
"See!" I exclaimed from above, clapping my hands together. "I'm special. You're special too. You have to stay." With that I vaulted over the railing and landed on my feet beside her.
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I struggled when she grabbed my arm and started trying to take me out in to the hallway. What was she doing? She was actin' kinda crazy right now, and I didn't trust it. And ow! How did she get so strong? I finally just gave up and let her drag me. What was the worst she could do?
Throw me over a freakin' balcony apparently!
"No, no, no-!" I screamed as I went backward over the banister. I desperately tried to reach for the railing, for anything I could grab on to but my hands just scooped at empty air. She has lost her mind! Anticipatin' the sickening sound of my own broken bones, I was shocked as some sort of instinct thing kicked in and I managed to flip myself over, landing on my feet with all the grace and ease of a gymnast or something. Which still did not make PUSHING ME OFF OF THE SECOND FLOOR okay.
"Special?" I demanded, shoving my hands on to my hips. "Only if by special you mean crazy." My eyes went wide as she propelled herself up and over, landing next to me as if she's just jumped down a single stair. God, California was weird. Magic balls, vampire Slayers, and inhuman strength.
"Let me guess," I said sarcastically. "You slay vampires too?" I rolled my eyes. "Lexi, I would love to stay. But this just isn't the way. So either bring out an actual 'vampire', or let it go."
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I shrugged. What? If it was a few years ago Lacey would be special. But really she could only be special if Buffy or my mom was dead. Now there were like a zillion slayers everywhere. There were only two prophecy children as far as I knew. And one of them had kidnapped my mom and disappeared to who the hell knows where.
That makes me one. I'm the only one. Special. Maybe this was how my mom used to feel. I dunno.
"We can go and find a vampire if you want. You can usually find nests of them in the warehouse district or we can go to a demon bar. Either way, we'll find a vampire and then it'll try to kick your ass. And then you'll have to stake it. You probably don't have a stake, do you? There's also beheading, holy water, fire....mmmmm I think that's it."
She still didn't believe me. "Let's go. We can get in my new car and go and find a vampire and then you'll believe me and then you'll have to stay cause you don't have a watcher which means my Aunt Kennedy and my Uncle Spike have to do it. Okay?"
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I bit my lower lip a little when she offered to take me to find a vampire. I wasn't so sure it was a good idea to go anywhere with her until she came to her senses. Or like, take a Xanax or something. I was worried about her! Beheading? Holy water? Fire? No thanks.
"Wait," I said, holding up an arm to stop her. "Let's say I choose to indulge you. We are not telling anyone. Especially not your Aunt Kennedy. No offense, but everyone bitched about her on the trip to Greece. They all talked about how hardcore she was. And this is my Senior Year. Wherever I spend it, I'm not spendin' it getting bossed around by some girl only a few years older than me on a power trip." I explained in no uncertain terms. "Besides, I have a boyfriend too. I'm not giving anything up to go to that stupid school." Hmph.
"No one can know. Or, I'll leave town and you'll never see me again!" With that, I turned on my heel, which surprisingly wasn't shattered or anything, and headed out to her car without waiting for her to agree. She really wanted to convince me about this stuff and there was no way around my condition.
"Don't forget the stake!" I called sweetly over my shoulder. I was tempted to send Jude a text for help.
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"Fine. I won't tell Kennedy but you need to talk to someone who's all slayery. I'd say my mom but...she can't right now. Maybe Buffy? Or Molly or Lucy? Yeah, they're slayers too." I said to her just as she turned around and flounced off. Leave it to a blonde. She was so dramatic with her leaving town and never seeing her again. Uh huh. I was the most exciting friend she'd ever had!
And I wasn't bringing a stupid stake. She was the slayer, she could like improvise or something. If she couldn't, I'd be there to help her because let's face it she's soooo not ready to actually face a monster just yet. I might not know a ton about slayers like Kennedy did but I'd seen enough trained and I knew enough of them to have the basics down.
Getting into my car I started it up and peeled out of Lacey's driveway and out into traffic. Reaching to the stereo I turned it on and grinned when Muse's Sing For Absolution started blasting from the speakers. We only got to listen to it for a little while before we I pulled up in front of the bar that I knew Spike liked to hang out at. It would be REALLY funny if he was here tonight but I didn't think he would be.
"Ready to meet your first vampire?" I asked her with a smirk before I jumped out of the car and lead the way inside the bar. Once the door shut behind us I could hear the bartender asking me for idea. "Shut up." I rolled my eyes at him before I pulled Lacey into the middle of the room. The vampires could already sense her, either that or they were all thinking we looked like dinner because everyone in the bar was already staring at her.
"This is my friend, Lacey." I said to the crowd. "She's totally a vampire slayer but she doesn't believe me. In fact, she thinks I'm crazy and that vampires don't even exist. So...who's gonna prove me right?"
I smirked when I saw at least a dozen pair of greedy demon eyes turn towards Lacey.
"Told ya."
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Besides, I didn't want to talk to a stranger about something like this. That's what I had Jude for. Lexi was my person, like they say on Grey's Anatomy. Not that I was worried about any of this anyway because look at what the Hell she's talking about. Vampires.
Lexi drove like a maniac, which is how Lexi always drives, and I just sat there with my perma frown, waitin' on the worst. Like I said, vampires. Though, I don't know, maybe this makes sense in some really weird way. Jude kept skatin' around the whole magic bubbles issue. But they were real. I saw them. Could vampires be that far removed?
I guess we were about to see.
Followin' her in to the bar, I froze when she just up and announced to the entire place that I was a vampire slayer and that she needed someone to prove me right. What?! Anyone who wasn't already starin' at me sure was now.
"Me," said some biker-lookin' guy who stood up. His face got all scrunchy and misshapen as he lunged for me, while a few others got to their feet. I didn't think it'd do me too much good, standin' with my back against the bar. So I moved. Kickin' him hard in the shin, I ducked under his grasp as I ran toward... the pool table. Grabbin' a cue, I took a running leap onto the green felt surface.
I held the long wooden stick with both my hands just a few inches apart in the center of it. I struck out, smashing one of them in the face with the thicker end of it, before spinnin' toward something I felt loomin' behind me. I shoved the thinner side into its neck before bringing my leg up and swinging my foot to the side of another one's disfigured face. I was feeling pretty confident. I even broke the pool stick in two, makin' a make shift stake out of it. It wouldn't up any tent, but hopefully it'd work.
So, vampire. Stab it in the... heart. It was worth a try, so I smashed the ragged end into the chest of the same one who'd been the first volunteer. He exploded in a cloud of dust-like stuff and I froze. I just stood there, on top of the pool table, with a splintered cue stick in my hand. Which was so stupid of me, 'cause the minute I stopped, even for just a minute, a pair of rough hands grabbed me from behind and pulled me off the table and into the madness.
"LEXI!" I screamed as I kicked at the monsters crowdin' in around me.
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"Not me, stupid. Her." I shook my head at him. Duh! Why were all vampires who weren't my dad or Sophia totally retarded? I liked Spike okay but he was wicked dumb too.
After Lacey was done with the first vampire she got a little too ahead of herself and suddenly the entire mob was trying to overtake her. I just watched for a second to see how she would handle herself but when she screamed my name I burst into action. I didn't really think about it too much. I kicked one of the vampires away and went after the next who had her pinned to the floor when an arm went around my waist and a hand clamping over my mouth. I bucked hard against the vampire trying to hold me and eventually managed to use so much force to knock us both to the floor.
Still crouched down I kicked out hard and managed to get rid of the vampire trying to eat me. Reaching out I grabbed Lacey's hand and pulled her up from the floor. Spinning around I kicked out hard again and looked at her. Was she scared? Did she wanna go home or did she seem exhilarated like most slayers did after a kill? We might as well kill them all and honestly I'd never felt closer to my mother than I did in that moment.
I tossed part of the broken pool cue to Lacey before taking the other end of it and slamming it hard into a chest and watching as the vampire went poof into a cloud of smoke.
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Brilliant plan, Alexia.
Thankfully she took me serious when I screamed for her and wasted no time throwin' herself into the fray. Which took some of the attention off of me, but not much. I was takin' punches just to land them, and I honestly didn't know how long I could keep up before they overtook me. But before I knew it, she was pulling me to my feet. This was a freakin' nightmare. Strangely, I wasn't scared. Just kinda overwhelmed.
But I also had the overpowering urge to kill every single last one of them, and all their brothers and sisters. They'd pissed me off, tryin' to kill me and whatnot. Now, they were gonna pay. All of them. And every single one I could find after that. Stupid vampires. Screw them for existin'.
I caught half of the broken cue with one hand and wasted no time slammin' it hard into the chest of the nearest vampire. Another one came at me and I presented him with a calf length boot-clad foot to his solar plexus, which sent him back at least a few feet. Raisin' my elbow, another one of them, a girl this time, caught it right to the face before I unceremoniously staked the Hell out of her. My boy who got the stomach kick was ready for round two and surprisingly, so was I. Runnin' full force at him, I jumped so that when I tackled him to the ground and we landed, my knees were pinning his thighs.
Holding the splintered cue with both hands, I raised it over my head before plunging it down into the stupid thing's heart, collapsing into the cloud of dust that followed. Quickly, I got back to my feet, noticin' that all the vampires that hadn't been killed by me or Lexi had ran for the hills. Okay, so maybe they weren't all stupid.
"You suck," I said to Lexi as I walked by her, handin' her the broken stick right before I walked out the door of the demon dive bar she'd dragged me to.
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Walking out of the bar I followed her outside but she wasn't even heading towards my car. "Wait, Lacey." I said to her, grabbing her by her elbow and turning her around to look at me. Maybe I sucked at this because I didn't understand what it was like to be normal and then all of a sudden not be. I've pretty much always been a freak. I'm a freak, I come from a family of freaks and the only people I really know are freaks. Even Jude and Caleb weren't normal. How could she not have noticed all of the weird things that happen around us?
"Don't get mad at me. I'm not the one who made you a vampire slayer. It's like a destiny thing. I thought you would want to know. I could tell what you are because you move like a slayer and I've grown up around them." I explained to her. This was good news! It meant that she was gonna have to stay in town cause duh slayer school was here. This was like the Slayer Mecca of the world.
Would she rather I didn't tell her and she could keep being normal? "Trust me. It's better to have superpowers in this world. Maybe you never noticed before but the world is crawling with vampires and demons and things that pretty much wanna kill you." Not to mention my ex-girlfriend who would love to get her fangs on you. "I just want you to be able to protect yourself."
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And I knew, I knew that it wasn't her fault that I was what I apparently am. Though destiny was a sad excuse too. I mean, what was destiny anyway? I'd always thought it was some stupid thing people got all hung up on or sounded good in song lyrics. You couldn't explain it any more than you could explain God or whatever.
"I'm not mad at you because I'm a Slayer, Lexi." I said, folding my arms across my chest. "I'm mad that you just threw me to the wolves back there. Vampires. Whatever."
I couldn't help but soften though, when she said she just wanted me to be able to protect myself. I was the complete opposite of comforted when she said there were all these creepy crawly things out there that wanted to kill me. But she was kinda right about the whole silver lining part of it. At least I had superpowers to fight these things.
"So... what now?" I asked. "I can't exactly tell my parents that I have to stay here because I need to learn how to slay vampires, so I still might not be able to stay here. And even if they somehow let me, no offense, but I still don't want anything to do with your Aunt Kennedy. I've heard all the horror stories about her." And honestly, I still didn't know if I wanted to be a Slayer just because I was one. Protectin' myself was one thing. But the rest of it? Something else entirely.
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Why couldn't she tell her parents she was a slayer? They should be proud that their daughter was chosen by like, destiny or whatever. I knew my mom would be. But Lacey's mom probably isn't a slayer so I guess it's different or whatever. "We could bring them here and show them that vampires are real?" I offered her but I didn't think that was gonna fly either. Oops?
"Kennedy isn't so bad." I said, feeling a little more than defensive of her. She was my mom's best friend and with my mom gone Kennedy was a little something to hold onto. Sometimes she reminded me of her, only like way more mad all the time. It also occured to me that Kennedy was a lot nicer to me and Tyler than she was to the other slayers. "She just trains the slayers hard so they don't die in battle. She'll make you a better fighter. You don't have to like her."
I held my hands up. "Or you can just not meet her. If you want I can introduce you to Buffy. She was like the first slayer or something. She's like Queen of the Slayers and not nearly as harsh as Kennedy is. But she's kind of a ditz."
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I just gave her a withering look when she suggested bringin' my parents out here and throwing them at some vampires too. Oh yeah, that'd go over really well. Until they dragged me back to Shreveport by my hair and put me in a mental institution somewhere. No thanks.
"Look, nothin' against her. Or any of the other veteran Slayers or whatever you wanna call them. I just don't want this. I'm glad to know that there's all these monsters out there, so I'm not walking around all unwittingly. And it's good to know I can kill them if I need to." I admitted.
"But none of that means I'm ready to just join the squad. Or that I would even want to. I don't need a mentor. I need this last little year I have left before my age catches up with my level of privilege and I have no choice but to be responsible. Until then? I don't want to be responsible for anything but my homework and having a good time." And that was pretty much it. I wasn't about to be convinced any other way. Screw this whole thing. It was terrifying and shocking and had pretty much ruined my life.
"Besides," I added. "I saw you back there. I think if there's anything I need to know, you can teach me."
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