Just A Girl (10/11)
Title: Just A Girl (10/11?)
Author: Race122VE (Coll)
Pairing: Santana/Brittany
Rating: R (mostly language, then violence and some semi sexiness as the fic goes on)
Summary: "But…you're just a girl." Glee AU fic.
Word Count: Around 6500 ish.
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Priority number one: find Brittany.
Without Rachel to worry about, Santana's in full attack mode. She walks over to the teacher's desk, her hands pushing things aside until her fingers wrap around a ruler.
A wooden ruler.
She snaps it in half easily into two pieces, both with jagged, sharp tips. One half gets tucked into the back of her pants while the other is clutched tightly in her fist as she walks over to the door and listens.
Still silence, but there's also a small prickling, something telling her that there's a vampire, maybe more, close by and heading in her direction.
Or, more accurately, they're probably heading towards the supply closet where they stashed her with Rachel.
The feeling is getting stronger and she soon knows, without a doubt, that it's a single vampire. A female, to be exact. Her hand gripped the makeshift stake tightly as the vampire's footsteps grow louder, the sound echoing in the empty hallways of the school. They sound fast and full of purpose, but when they approach the door Santana was pressed up against they slowed.
Newer vampires can't always access their full potential right away, potential like being able to sense a Slayer just like she could sense vampires. It's why Matt kept his distance when watching her. From what she's learned, a Slayer is a vampire just alive and not blood thirsty. She's strong like them; she has heightened senses, agile, speed, and all that other junk.
The footsteps keep moving, but Santana can practically see the vampire eyeing up the door and debating whether what she was feeling was more important than whatever it was she had to do.
There are two options now.
Remain where she is, hidden in the classroom until the vampire's presence is just a small blip on her senses or fling the door open and attack.
The first option is the safer one, the smarter one, but Santana's been itching for some contact and, she rationalizes, she doesn't have to kill the vampire. She could just smack her around, maybe even try to find out where they're keeping Brittany and then get them both out of there, safe and in one piece.
With her mind made up, her free hand twists the door knob and gently pushes the door open, trying to avoid that deafening click sound a door makes when it's open in the midst of silence. She tests the door, confident that it won't creak and pushes it open wide enough for her to sneak out. She doesn't have to go very far because the vampire had turned around and was shoving Santana back into the classroom.
She sparingly wonders how the vampire got the drop on her, but that thought soon disappears as her back lands painfully flat on one of the desks and the full weight of Santana, and the vampire on top of her, send them both crashing to the ground.
Santana groans, but doesn't dwell because all she hears is a low growl and all she sees are sharp fangs and all she can feel is the heaviness of the vampire holding her down as she lowers her mouth down towards Santana's neck.
Her legs swing up and wrap themselves tightly around the vampire's waist and Santana pulls her body back, trying to build up as momentum as possible before flinging herself upwards and changing their positions.
Santana is now straddling the vampire and she just starts pummeling her fists down without thinking about it. They're not even aimed towards her face, blows are landing everywhere. She just keeps repeating the motion, over and over, until she feels the skin on her knuckles start to bruise and break open. She can feel the body under her go slack and after a couple minutes, when she's panting and a light film of sweat is covering her body, she stops.
She leans back on the vampire's legs as she looks over the damage. Her face is swollen and bloody and shifting back to normal. She knows the vampire is weak, is beaten down and can't put up much of a fight anymore, but she still can't trust her. Santana's hand reaches out and latches on to her neck as the other hand, still clutching the half of a ruler, brings the weapon over to press into the area over her heart.
One swift plunge and it's over.
But, she needs some information first.
"So…you're going to tell me what I need to know," Santana tells her. "Or, I'll kill you."
Even though she's clearly in pain and beaten to a pulp, the vampire chuckles back. "You're going to kill me anyway."
Santana shrugs. "True. I guess the important question now is how am I going to kill you…"
"Only one way."
"Right," Santana nods, holding the stake up in the air. "Well, it's not the only way-"
"It's night time so sunlight is out, and I don't see any holy water or silver crucifixes or anything you can use to cut my head off," the vampire reminds her with a smirk. "Unless you know another way to kill a vam-"
The sound of Santana's hand snapping one of the vampire's fingers back at an unnatural angle cuts her off and is followed by a howl of pain. The hand that's clutching the stake covers the vampire's mouth, muffling her cries. The body is thrashing under her, but Santana has control of the situation and smirks back at the vampire.
"Don't get me wrong, I plan on using the stake to kill you," Santana whispers, her hand twisting the limp finger back even further. "But I also plan on making it as painful as possible."
She snaps another finger, proving her point. "Where's Brittany?"
"I don't know-"
Snap.
The shouts are still stifled by her hand and Santana rushes on, "The blonde, the other one you took from McKinley. Where is she?"
"I don't know," Santana grasps the next finger and when the vampire starts talking Santana moves her hand. "Really. I..I don't know, I'm in charge of the small one."
"And who's in charge of you?"
Santana waits a moment, arching an eyebrow and trying to prompt the vampire to answer, but her lips are clamped shut and her wide eyes are staring at her hand. Santana lets go of the finger she had a hold on and the vampire seems to relax for a moment.
But only a moment, because Santana grasps her hand with her own and squeezes with everything she has.
The other hand is once again silencing the howls of pain that fill the classroom and Santana tosses aside the limp hand. "I don't really have all night here," Santana tells her. "So either answer my question or I'm going to just finish off your other hand and then think of something else I can break."
"You know?" the vampire chuckles, causing a sense of uneasiness to wash over Santana. "You're asking the wrong question."
"Did you lie to me about Brittany?"
The vampire laughs louder, harder, and the uneasiness grows stronger. "I told you I was in charge of the small girl," she says again. "You should be asking who's in charge of you."
A growl from the door grabs Santana's attention.
Her head snaps up to see a hulk of a vampire taking a step into the room. He's huge, bulky, and pissed. Gigantor is practically frothing at the mouth and Santana hastily dusts the chick under her before rolling away and onto her feet. Santana crouches low, bracing herself for whatever stack there might be.
Only he's not there anymore.
The heavy sounds of his shoes running in the hall bounce off the walls and she takes off after him. She stops at the door, looks right and sees he hasn't even made it to the end of the hall. She thinks that she should let him go, let him take her to whoever's running this, but, then again, she has no idea how many vampires there are here. The element of surprise is a very powerful weapon, and, right now, holding a half of a ruler in her hand while the other half is shoved in the back of her pants, she needs all the weapons she can get.
The giant has a good hundred pounds on her, so she catches up to him easy. Santana leaps forward and wraps her arms around his neck in a tackle.
Or, what was supposed to be a tackle.
Instead she just slows him down and is now getting a piggy back ride. His arms try to reach back to grab her, but she's to spry and is able to dodge his attempts. She tightens the grip she has around his neck and tries to pull her body backwards in an attempt to throw him off balance.
Stupid idea.
It works, but he falls backwards and she's still attached to his back.
The one thing vampires have up on her is that they don't have to breathe. Santana does. So when a two hundred plus pound guy falls on top of you it knocks the wind out of you. She's coughing on the ground and before she can even think of rolling over and pushing herself up and fighting a huge hand wraps around her neck and lifts her off the ground.
Santana's hands claw at his and her feet dangle uselessly in the air as she's brought face to face with the vampire, smiling wickedly at her. "You're going to be in a lot of trouble once I bring you to the auditorium and he finds out you rescued the little one," he laughs. "You should've run when you had the chance."
She needs to do something fast or she's going to pass out again from the lack of oxygen, and probably die too but she has a feeling whoever's in charge wants her alive for now so she's not too worried about it.
But her vision is fading and the laughter seems like it's coming from another room instead of inches from her own face. The stake she's clutching in her hand clatters to the floor and her head drops down and that's when she sees it.
Another thing this vampire has that she doesn't.
Santana pulls back her leg and swings it forward, connecting to the vampire's crotch.
He releases her and she hits the ground, hard, but not hard enough to be distracted from grabbing her fallen stake and pushing it forward into the vampire's chest.
After taking a moment to catch her breath, Santana straightens up and brushes the dust off her clothes.
She's not really better off than before, but at least Rachel's escaped, there's two vampires down, and she knows where the guy in charge is.
The auditorium.
Of course, she's in an unfamiliar school so, not ideal. Still, she moves through the halls, heading in the same direction that the mammoth guy she just dusted was heading. She doesn't come across any kind of weird twists or turns or crossroads along the way. She thinks she's too lucky when she actually finds a sign pointing her where she needs to go, but stops short after turning a corner when she sees two more vampires standing in front of the entrance.
Santana pulls back and flattens herself against the wall, taking in a deep breath. She's got to do this quick. No hesitating, just turn the corner and dust the vampires without hesitation. There's no time for a fight and if it's too loud who knows what will happen.
The plan is flawed and based on a lot of 'if,' so Santana isn't too surprised when she takes the corner and runs straight into the chest of one of the vampires.
When her eyes open next her cheek is pressed against a black wooden floor and a row of bright, colored lights are shining directly into her face. She squeezes her eyes shut and ignores the pounding in her head as she lifts it and turns it away before chancing another peek.
She sees a polished pair of boots inches from her face attached to a pair of legs clad in tight, black jeans that no doubt lead up to the mouth that drawls, "Hello, Santana."
Tilting her head back she still can't really get a good look at the guy because he's standing right under a spotlight. All she can see is curly hair surrounded by a halo of light. She knows she must be in the auditorium, most likely on the stage then.
"I'm sure you must be shocked now knowing who your enemy is."
Santana squints against the light. "I can't see you face, moron."
The head tilts to the side and suddenly she's being pulled to her feet to face…
Somebody she still doesn't know. She looks back at the vampire and she doesn't even bother struggling against the one that's holding her. There's at least four more along with this guy she's supposed to know so she looks him over. Maybe she has seen him before and forgot. Nothing really clicks, but she still takes in his appearance.
Who knows how long he's been alive, but he looks only a couple years older than her. His face is very chiseled and arrogant and all she can do is arch an eyebrow at her foe.
He sighs loudly, clearly annoyed.
"I'm Jesse St. James," he says, waiting for something to click in her brain and continuing when she keeps on staring blankly back. "Lead singer of Vocal Adrenaline. Your main competition for Regionals."
She continues to stare back at Jesse, her mins still not registering, and it's what she'd probably do even if she did know who he was because he's got this vein popping out of his forehead and it's kind of funny.
"I'm your nemesis, for Christ's sake!" Jesse screams dramatically.
Santana merely shrugs. "I know we were competing against Vocal Adrenaline, I didn't know that you were vampires."
"This is all going so wrong," he mutters to himself, running a hand through his wild hair. "It wasn't supposed to be you; it was supposed to be Rachel. It was supposed to be someone who appreciated the poetry of it all."
Groaning, Santana says, "You sound like Berry."
"That's because we're connected," Jesse snaps in response. "Our talent, our passion for performing and drama, and it was supposed to be vampire and Slayer but…
"You ruined it."
"It's not like I chose this."
"True," he agrees. "But you could be a little more enthusiastic about it. You could play your part."
"This isn't a fucking show," Santana goes to take a step forward but the vampire holding her tightens his grip and pulls her back. "I'm not playing my part. I'm here to do what I'm meant to do."
Jesse laughs at this. "Well…you're captured, outnumbered, and unarmed. You don't seem to be doing a very good job."
"I took out two of your lackeys and got Rachel out," Santana counters. "I'm not doing too bad."
The smirk on Jesse's face remains in place and doesn't falter. She was hoping for him to react at all but instead he just snaps his fingers and turns to his left. Santana follows his gaze and her entire body tenses when she sees Matt walking on to the stage, tugging a bound and gagged Brittany with him.
Everything seems to stop, including Santana's ability to breath. Brittany's dragging her feet so Matt is practically carrying her over to Jesse. She looks disheveled and Santana can see the tiny scrapes and bruises that will form overnight along her bare arms and on her face. Her ice blue eyes seek Santana's out and all she sees is fear and confusion.
It's then she realizes that Brittany is still in the dark. She probably suspects this isn't a normal thing, that these people that have taken her aren't just people, but she has no idea that Santana is wrapped up in all of this. That she's basically the reason Brittany is in trouble in the first place.
Santana really doesn't care what happens now, so long as she can somehow get Brittany safe.
"How do you feel you're doing now?"
Her eyes narrow on Jesse and she jerks forward again. "She has nothing to do with this," she spits out, struggling against the vampire holding her. "You've already got me, you don't need her."
Jesse nods. "You'd be correct…if this were just about Slayer versus vampire."
Santana can't help looking over at Brittany. She looks just as confused as ever looking back and forth between Santana and Jesse.
"What else is there?" she asks, forcing her focus back on the conversation.
"Have you not been paying attention?" Gathering from Jesse's reaction, she has not been paying enough attention. "New Directions is, at least, one person down. My understanding, though, is that Matt was just chorus, easy to replace. Rachel's another story. She's the star, if I still had her…"
Her eyebrows go straight up and her jaw drops down in disbelief. "Am I getting this right?" she asks. "This is about fucking Regionals?"
"Your Glee Club is good, inspiring even," Jesse responds. "You don't have the force of Vocal Adrenaline, but you have heart. That can sway judges from flash, even if there's talent behind the flash. I'm on my way to clenching my fiftieth National championship. I wasn't going to let a bunch of rag tag freaks get in the way of that."
"Fifty?" Santana echoes. "How the fuck old are you anyway?"
"I'm in my early hundreds, a respectable age for a vampire," he replies coolly. "I've been going from city to city, joining different show choirs when a reasonable amount of time has passed, and changing my name so no one gets suspicious. Pretty genius if I do say so myself."
Santana scoffs, "Sounds pathetic to me."
Jesse, who was pacing in front of her, stops dead in his tracks. He turns his head as his face shifts, revealing his true self. She can hear Brittany gasp around the gag, but doesn't break eye contact with Jesse who is slowly walking up to her. "What did you say to me?"
Setting her jaw Santana looks back into his burning yellow eyes without blinking. "I said," she starts, talking slowly and emphasizing each word. "It sounds pathetic. You're a vampire. Shouldn't you be trying to end the world?"
"Why would I want to end the world?" Jesse laughs. "The world has people; I eat people. I'm a part of the world. Also, I'm more talented than anybody that has ever existed. I deserve to win Nationals."
He's standing right in front of her, looking down with a grin that she hopes to smack away. She jerks her chin up and gets close to his face, speaking low.
"Pathetic."
The corners of his mouth twitch, but Jesse's smile never falters. "You should really watch what you say to me."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yes," he says back. "Because I'm the one with the power."
Ignoring Santana's eye roll, Jesse goes on, "As long as I have your friend, you'll do whatever I want."
Santana tries to stay calm, tries not to show how right he is. "She has nothing to do with this."
"That's not what Matt tells me," he fires back. "If I hang on to you and her, New Directions has to replace three of their members."
Santana sighs. "Look, you've got me, OK? You can let her go and, trust me…I doubt Glee's going to go to Regionals anyway."
"Doubt isn't good enough."
The frustration in her keeps growing and growing with every word that passes between them. She's losing focus and getting desperate and she has no room to make threats, but she does anyway. "Let her go, or else."
"Or else what?" he asks. "If you attack us, we'll kill her."
"You so much as touch her and I will end as many of you fuckers as I can," she growls. "I know there are more of you and I don't have a stake, but I will rip your fucking hearts out with my bare hands."
"Let's see how that works out."
Jesse's blocking her view, but she sees the slight nod of his head and then hears Brittany whimper.
She manages to yank her arm free and swing her fist into Jesse's jaw. He brings his hand to his face as he stumbles back a couple steps. The vampire holding her throws her to the ground and grabs her by the collar of her shirt, lifting her up off the stage before bringing his fist down on to her nose. He lets her go and she falls back on to the stage, stunned.
The lights are shining down on her once again as she tries to shake off the fuzzy feeling. She can feel the footsteps walking over to her and stopping by her head. Jesse leans over. "You were saying?"
There's some kind of witty comeback on the tip of her tongue, but Jesse's boot slams down on her face and the world goes fuzzy. She hears laughter and more approaching footsteps and then all she hears (or, more accurately, feels) is the sounds of fists and shoes connecting to her body.
It's a full on pummeling.
Every vampire on the stage, save for Jesse and Matt, is just whacking away at her. She hears a crack and hopes that she hasn't broken too many ribs. Her body is trying it's best to curl up and block the blows and heal itself but she is just drowning in a sea of punches and kicks.
One hit to the stomach sends her rolling a few inches from where she was lying on her back a second ago. It would be the perfect opportunity for some sort of comeback, but she can't even see straight.
In fact, right now she can see Jesse taking in the sight, his maniacal laughter drifting into her ears. Next to him, Matt watches with his hand firmly clasped around Brittany's bicep. Though it's hard to see, she can tell he's struggling to remain where he is. She must be bleeding a lot. She knows there is blood when she feels one of the creeps lick the side of her face, but even that isn't enough to kick her instincts into gear.
What sets her off, unsurprisingly, is Brittany.
Santana can't tell how many times she's been hit in the past couple of minutes, but it only takes one blow to Brittany to set her off.
Matt's grip slips as his normal looking face shifts to bumps and fangs and Brittany, who had been struggling since Santana had been turned over to see them (probably since she was thrown to the ground), took the chance to break free and step forward in a futile attempt to help.
Brittany barely makes it a step before Matt yanks her back and smacks her with the back of his hand.
A smack like that from a normal person would just leave you with a red cheek, but from a vampire? Brittany crumples to the ground.
It happens faster than the group beating. She doesn't even know how it starts. She kicks one of them, hard enough to knock him into another one and send them both to the ground before she's on her feet.
Very shakily, but still.
Now that she's upright and not being held, she can see she was right and that there are four of them altogether. The two that aren't tangled together rush towards her. She crouches down low and sends the first one flying into some backdrops pushed just off stage before the other one grabs her by the waist and pulls her off the ground and tight against his body. Her legs kick out and he just laughs as he spins her around.
What they both don't know is that one of the vampires managed to push himself off the stage and was running over to help. She kicked him in the face and managed to smirk as she watched his head snap back and his body drop to the ground.
Santana is still struggling as the vampire's grasp around her torso keeps getting tighter and tighter. She tries throwing her body forward, hoping that her feet can find the ground, but this guy is too tall and she's now finding it hard to breathe.
It's kind of accidental when she leans her head back and it slams into the vampire's face, but it's enough for him to drop her. She sweeps his legs out from under him and she's got them temporarily immobile, but she still needs a weapon.
There's movement to her left and she sees the vampire she threw backstage and notices several pieces of sharp, jagged splinters littering the stage. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Santana tumbles over, grabs one of the larger pieces on the way, and jams it into his heart when she gets to her feet next to him.
Two of them have regained their footing and are charging her. She takes the tackle if only for a good enough shot at one of their hearts. She gets one and she's choking on dust which is only half of her problem because the other piles through the cloud and slams her hard into the wall. She manages to hold on to her stake as she shoves the vampire back. He steps forward and she drives the wood into his heart.
Santana waits for the last one to attack, but on the opposite side of the stage is the sound of a door opening and closing.
Vampires like to band together and follow some lunatic with a crazy scheme, but, when push comes to shove, they're all about themselves. Fucking cowards, but it's one less thing she has to deal with.
She walks back from out of the rafters cautiously, clutching at her weapon and preparing herself for the heartbreaking image of Jesse and Matt standing over Brittany's lifeless body because she fought back.
It's what she walks out to, but she can see Brittany's chest rising up and down and knows she's just recovering from the hit she took. She breathes a sigh of relief, but it lasts only a second as Jesse steps forward.
Santana smirks. "I think that worked out pretty well, wouldn't you say?"
"So you picked off some of my minions?" Jesse comments casually. "It doesn't change the fact that I have your friend and you have to go through me to get her."
"Gladly."
Santana rushes forward and is on her back with her weapon sliding off the stage before she can even blink. She's still pretty weak and Jesse's a lot older than the other vampires she's fought, so she has to readjust. She rolls on to her back and jumps to her feet, ducking and blocking blows instantly. Her immediate plan is to wear him down, but doing that is wearing her down and Jesse knows the right spots to hit.
The gash on the side of her face that was healing bursts open again, the sore spot where she's certain her ribs broke is being pounded, and when he pushes her back she rolls on her ankle in a bad way and slams down on to her knees hard.
Jesse looks effortless, like he hasn't done a single thing.
"I hope you didn't think it was going to be so easy," he tells her. "I know you had a very inspiring comeback, but there's a reason why I'm surrounded by vampires that do what I say."
"Only see one now," she notes, nodding her head over at Matt who is still standing over Brittany with a stony face as he watches them.
"Considering you're on your knees and I'm standing triumphantly over you, it looks like I don't need them."
Jesse keeps talking. This is her first encounter with some big bad guy that had this vision (a weird, lame one, but still), this grand plan and actually executed it and now she's locked in this battle for not just her life but Brittany's as well. She knew there'd be a lot of banter, back and forth, but with Jesse it's just a lot of bullshit and she'd rather one of them die so she doesn't have to listen to it anymore.
Santana's pretty much tuned him out (seriously, he's still talking) when she brings her right foot up and notices a sharp, stabbing pain. She tries to keep her eyes from going wide when she realizes that the nail file she shoved in her boot is still there. Her eyes flicker to Matt, with a bored expression pasted on his face, who is watching Jesse pace back and forth as he continues to monologue.
It doesn't make sense. Matt brought her in unconscious; he would have searched her for weapons. Out of all the vampires she's come across recently, Matt seems to be the smartest.
Why would he make such a huge mistake like this?
Luck, though, seems to be the theme of the night so when Jesse turns and motions towards Brittany and musing on whether or not he should kill her first so Santana could watch her die or use her as dessert, Santana's hand slips into her boot and she takes the nail file out and slides it into her palm.
"In conclusion," Jesse says, walking over and grabbing a fistful of her hair and yanking her to her feet. "I don't need anyone to defeat you because you're nothing. I knew when I discovered there was an untapped Slayer in this town that it would come to a final fight between me and you.
"And, even back then, I knew I would be victorious."
Santana wasn't really waiting for a poetic moment or whatever, but that seemed like the cue to grip her nail file tight and then shove it into his eye.
Blood gets splattered on to her face and Jesse lets her go as he stumbles backwards and howls and flails. It's kind of sick to enjoy this as much as she is, but Jesse St. James is a douche. She's only known him for twenty minutes or so, but she's been waiting to kill him since then. She bends over and reaches into her left boot, remembering the pencil she shoved in there and retrieves it.
It's still a little confusing and disarming that she's had these hidden weapons all along, but she is going to continue to take advantage of Matt's carelessness.
Their roles now reversed, Santana walks over to Jesse, grabs him by his curly hair, and yanks him to his feet. As far as last words go towards your first nemesis she should have something better to say, but what comes out works just fine for her.
"Fuck you."
With one plunge of a pencil into his chest, the (supposed) great Jesse St. James is now a pile of dust.
For a moment, Santana feels like the weight of the world isn't on her shoulders anymore. She breathes a sigh of relief because she was able to defeat the bad guy and save everyone. Save Brittany.
Then reality smacks her in the face.
Slowly, she turns and sees Matt has lifted Brittany off the ground and is holding her against him. His left arm is wrapped firmly around her waist while his right hand rests on her forehead, tilting her head to the right giving his fangs perfect access to her long, pale neck. Brittany's wide, fearful eyes are locked on Santana, but she can't look back.
This is her last obstacle and she has to focus on Matt.
"Matt."
Santana doesn't really know what else to say right now.
Sure, Matt's been stalking her, he invaded her home, threatened her mother, kicked her in the face, kidnapped her, helped Jesse hold Brittany and Rachel hostage, but a part of her still wants to believe that Matt Rutherford is still in there.
He is though, but vampires don't have a soul. They are their human selves, but they no longer feel compassion or guilt or any other emotion that Santana is stupidly hoping Matt has because she is so close to securing Brittany's safety.
Matt just grins.
"We don't have to do this."
"Yes we do," he counters. "I've been waiting a long time for this, why wouldn't I go through with it?"
"Go through with what? I mean…why didn't you take away the nail file and the pencil I shoved in my shoes?" she asks, because it's the one thing she's holding on to right now. "You had the chance; you probably searched me for weapons-"
"I did," Matt nods. "And I found them and I left them there."
"Why?"
"Because you had to be the one to kill Jesse," he says. "I couldn't do it, I was outnumbered. Too many of the vampires in our group were just new and stupid and they didn't want to question Jesse's plan. I played my part knowing that it would come down to this. That you and Jesse would have this fight and I put all my money on you coming out on top."
Santana gestures wildly to the piles of dust around her. "Great. So..it's done now," she responds. "Let Brittany go."
"Can't," Matt sighs. "Brittany here is the only thing that will make you do what I want."
"And what do you want?"
"Your blood."
So much for hope.
"That doesn't have anything to do with Brittany," she points out. "Just…let her go."
She can't even mask the desperation, but she makes the mistake of glancing into Brittany's eyes and her resolve falls.
Santana has had a hell of a day. She's tried to go on the offense when she had no idea who she was fighting and she failed. The people she cares about the most in the world were directly put into danger because of her. She's been beaten to the point where pain is just like a sixth sense to her and Matt is her last hurdle she has to get over.
The worst part of it all is that Matt is one hundred percent aware of it, just like he knows Brittany is the key to get Santana to do whatever he wants.
"Can't just 'let her go' Santana," Matt says calmly. "You've got to fight for her."
"I've been fighting all fucking night," Santana fires back roughly. "Why are you even doing this? Jesse's gone and you can go."
"I could," he agrees. "A part of me wants to. Fact of the matter is...if I bag a Slayer then I become someone. Do you know how many vampires will talk about me if I kill you? How much respect I'll get? I'll go down in history. It's all about reputation, even when you're dead.
"I may be a vampire, but I'm still a teenager."
"This is about your fucking reputation?"
"Do you not get that I'm a vampire?" Matt scoffs. "That I'm evil? Come on, you're smarter than that."
Deflated, Santana just mutters, "I don't want to fight you."
Matt sighs in return. "I know. That's where Brittany comes in."
She thinks time would slow down; that something in her would shift and her body would jump into action, but the only thing that freezes when Matt sinks his fangs into Brittany's neck is Santana. She's actually mesmerized by the image in front of her.
The way Brittany's neck tenses as she screams silently, the gag muffling her cries, the way her eyes narrow but remain intensely blue and trained on Santana, and the fact that the blood looks so red as one single drop that doesn't make it into Matt's mouth trickles down her neck and flows along her collar bone and into the dip of Brittany's shirt.
It's weird; she's not overly concerned with just standing there while Matt drinks Brittany's blood. Santana knows he doesn't want to kill the blonde, not right away anyway. He mostly wants Santana, and he's going to fucking get her.
Matt shoves Brittany away as soon as Santana starts running forward, pencil clutched in her fist. She should have thought about this a little more instead of just staring at Matt and Brittany because her big plan to start this fight is to just tackle Matt, but he expects it and braces himself accordingly.
When she lunges forward he catches her by the waist and spins them both in a circle before tossing her back into a wall.
A solid wall that her back slams into, painfully.
She groans and falls face down onto the floor. She tries to recover quickly, pick herself up but Matt is there kicking her stomach and rolling her away a few feet. Her palms flatten against the floor, ready to push her body up, but her arms are shaky and she collapses.
Matt is making a 'tsk tsk' sound as he slowly walks over. "Come on, Santana," he scolds. "I need a good story to tell. You don't want to go down after a couple of blows, do you?"
"I don't know what you expect," she breathes out, trying, unsuccessfully, to get up again. "I just had the shit kicked out of me by three vampires, at the same fucking time."
Crouching down low Matt lifts her head up by her hair (she really wishes that vampires would stop grabbing her by her fucking hair) and says, "I expect you to fight for your girl." He brings his face close to hers as his voice drops down to a whisper. "Because after I'm done with you, I'm going to finish what I start-"
It's her second head butt of the night, but this one is face to face and now they're both on their backs side by side and twisting in pain.
This isn't a big moment; she doesn't have anything else to say to Matt, all Santana knows is that she's able to sit up before him, grip her pencil in her hand, and shove it deep into his chest.
And, just like that, it's really over.
Except that Brittany was shoved aside and has two puncture wounds in her neck.
Santana scrambles to her feet, rushing back out onto the stage just in time to see Brittany pushing herself into a sitting position. The blonde's struggling and Santana walks forward, tearing away a huge piece of her shirt and folding it up before kneeling down next to Brittany.
Without saying anything, Santana just presses the cloth against Brittany's neck, trying to ignore the way her heart twists at the sounds of Brittany's whimpers when she applies pressure. Brittany stares straight ahead while Santana stares at Brittany, neither knowing what to say.
After a moment, Brittany's body sags down and her hand comes up to rest on top of Santana's. Her own body is weak and trying to heal and she struggles to keep them both upright, but the weight of the blonde is nice and comforting and she leans her head on top of Brittany's and takes in a deep breath.
"Is it over?"
Brittany's voice is hoarse and barely audible, but Santana hears it clearly and exhales a sigh of relief before assuring her, "Yeah, it's over."
Chapter 11